They tell me I could be set free. [OPEN]

[darer]

Who: Thorin and anyone!
Where: Around Union/the library/his workshop etc
When: Early May
What: open catchall log for downtime. training? also music.
Warnings: None so far!

1. Just outside the city.

[ just outside the walls of union, far enough away not to be in plain sight but easy enough to stumble upon, thorin is training. this, here, means that he's brought a sword of his own and is sparring with adlan the doublade across a small clearing. neither of them are holding back much, yet somehow there hasn't been blood so far. how long he can keep this up is another question...

a shuppet hovers nearby, observing the two. possibly also standing (?) guard?
this isn't the kind of sparring that versus tends to condone, after all. ]


2. At the library.

[ on a quieter day, a better day, really, thorin can often be found at the roar of time library. he's most commonly buried in history books, accumulating as much knowledge as he can. of course there is only so much to be learned, with all the things that have been lost.

it might be rude to interrupt? you could always wait until he's looking for something else. ]


3. Home.

[ it's not every night that thorin brings out his harp. but tonight is one such, and he's brought the leather case downstairs to the living room. there's little of its initially golden coat of paint left, but it's well-cared for, and the instrument takes little time to tune.

he plays for himself, or for his pokémon that quickly settle next to him, and certainly won't mind more human company either. ]


4. Elsewhere?

[ find him at his workshop? run into him on the street? anything else you'd like to do? go for it! ]

Comments

3

[expertonshutters]

[Well, it sure isn't a sound he's used to hearing, so when he picks it up, he's peering around the house looking for its source.]

[He finds himself at the living room eventually. He's a little shocked, honestly. The harp wasn't something he pegged Thorin a fan of so he watches for a few moments without saying anything. He's really good, wow.]

[darer]

[The harp isn't exactly a common instrument in Caldera to begin with. And yet here he is. This song, in all its flowing motion, is definitely on the melancholy side. Thorin doesn't look up until he's done, but once he is, he looks to Hayato immediately.

Join the crowd, Hayato. We've already got a shuppet, a growlithe, and a sandile, the last of which is peering at the newcomer intently.]

[expertonshutters]

[He starts, sort of forgetting that he was just standing there staring. He manages to look a teeny bit embarrassed.]

Ah- sorry! I uh, I was just heading downstairs and wanted to see where the music was coming from.

[betterthanwu]

[The depths of the mines had been very difficult. Plenty of the pokemon Kuvira had found down there had been stronger than her, at least when she'd started. After three days she'd left the mountains visibly taller, stronger, different. You could not have three types. She was not Ground-type. Maybe she never had been. But she could still feel and manipulate earth as before. And she'd never known her particular Ability. This called for research.

She'd also seen a bipedal pokemon a little like her Breloom, with a much heavier head, though there had only been a few and they'd kept their distance. They were worth looking up.

Her Spearow, Kunti, is the cleverest and least absurd of her team, and she helps or 'helps', fetching books and ferrying them across the library in her talons. Being pretty much a runt her wings whir loudly and she dips rather low while carrying some volumes, which are not always relevant. At all.]

[darer]

[A Spearow's impact is nothing to scoff at - if it's intentional, and downward, and with a little more momentum than that of this small bird carrying an overly heavy book. So when Kunti bumps into Thorin's shoulder, it isn't something that will leave a mark.

With a questioning glance, he picks up the dropped book, examining it for talon marks before ever looking at the title.]

... Geology?

[Looks at the Spearow.]

Where to with this?

[He can help her deliver it at least. She looks a little winded, carrying such a heavy volume.]

[betterthanwu]

[After whapping into him Kunti lands on the table, pants to get some breath back, and produces a series of chirps and keks and wiggling her wings like a begging fledgling by way of protesting that she had not meant to do that and is completely harmless. She's very convincing; persuasion is how an undersized bird without a flock has survived for all her life.

The effort may have been wasted here. Oh well, Kunti's not going to reject help freely offered. She tilts her plumed head and makes a sweet liquid noise, then starts leading him across the library, perching on chair backs and shelves to wait. It's not that far.

Kuvira's claimed a bench with an end table besides it, where she sits with the unease of someone who hasn't finished renegotiating her relationship with furniture. She is not used to sitting and having her knees slant up rather than down. And she's had to replace her wardrobe in a hurry with something cheap and not well fitting, lumpy here and there with the metal underneath. Her hair is the same, and in the same long braid, but seems shorter than it was. As Kunti lands on her shoulder with a triumphant flourish, she blinks and closes the current volume on her finger.]

It's not another- ah. Hello, Major. [Of course she stands up, not having lost the reflex to come to attention. Up, and up. She blinks again, but doesn't change her expression.]

[youngestone]

[The sound of his uncle's harp being tuned makes Kili smile and he heads out from his room to go sit and listen. He wishes he had his fiddle to play along, but it was damaged in his trip down and he hasn't found a good place to repair it yet if it can even be repaired.

But he can go listen to Thorin and he does, his team joining him because they've never heard it before.]

[darer]

[Thorin smiles as he notices that the approaching steps were Kili's. At his feet, his growlithe stirs and yawns before trotting over to the other team.

Once the song is done, he let's the last notes ring in the comfortable, lived-in silence.]

You're not joining me?

[They haven't had much opportunity to play together lately, but he can't deny he misses it.]

[youngestone]

My fiddle's damaged. Not sure anyone 'round here knows how to fix it, either.

2;

[leadingspirit]

[Taki wasn't much of a reader himself, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made if you were trying to learn. Seeing Thorin here is a bit of a surprise, but he makes a point of sitting with his paperwork and small number of books nearby so that when he's done he might have a chat. Just what was he reading so intently, anyway?]

[darer]

[Taki isn't exactly easy to overlook. As soon as Thorin notices him, or a few more pages later, he puts his book down and strides over, coming to a stop in front of his fellow Calderan just to have a look at what brought him here.]

[leadingspirit]

[The trials and tribulations of being enormous. As Thorin strides over Taki looks up from his own read and smiles, nodding in greeting. His own books seem to primarily be in regard of Gigas or other cities nearby, which is probably why there are so few of them.]

Great day for research, mm?

2

[heartofspace]

[As much as Quatre didn't want to be reminded of his home, old habits die hard. As he spent the day in the library, he could hear Ralts being bored out of his mind. As his poor pokemon kept complaining about how he would much rather spend the day outside, Quatre kept saying one more minute.

Although, just as soon as he was about to place said book back? Hi, Thorin, hope you don't mind someone accidentally bumping into you! ...And maybe his pokemon just staring in return]

[darer]

Pardon me.

[He's not unused to being stared at... or being the wall of a person people bumped into, all things considered. Thorin takes a step presumably out of the way.]

[heartofspace]

I-It’s okay, sir!

[Quatre mumbled a little before taking the book that fell on the floor before looking right back up at the older man] But are you okay though? It seemed like you were really busy...

1

[rainsrespite]

[Yuuna's drawn to the sound of swords almost as much as she is to travel. So, Thorin's got an observer. A friend, at least, leaning casually against a tree with her arms folded. Beside her, bouncing happily? Is one of those ever so wonderful Hoppypigs, jumping up and down gleefully on the shoulders of a heavily scarred Hariyama.

The trainer is silent, watching and waiting for a break in the spar...because she's not rude.]

[darer]

[The shuppet, it turns out, isn't hovering guard terribly well. He keeps getting distracted by the fight himself.

As soon as he notices Yuuna though, he sounds the alarm, or rather, he calls to Thorin and Adlan, flitting over to where they're now interrupting their match. The Enlightened takes a moment to catch his breath as he turns, acknowledging their presence with only a nod while he's gathering his thoughts enough for words. ]

[rainsrespite]

[Well, that or Yuuna's just really sneaky. The Spoink not so much. But she nods and steps forward. Hariyama does too, suddenly, and makes the bouncing menace miss, forcing it to hit the ground and spring back up. Heh...]

Not bad, Thorin. I can see the military training you had.

3

[sparkofgenius]

[Lucca'd come by for a visit, basically to check on things and drop off a bit of food that she'd made for the other Calderans around. She was testing a new food processing device, and her own immunity to poison not helping see if it was really bad, she'd stuck around to see how things panned out. No upset stomachs yet, so she guessed that worked out.

But the sounds of the harp drew her ear, and she wandered into the living room, listening quietly, not speaking unless spoken to, or there was a lull.]

[darer]

[Thorin gave no sign that he'd noticed the addition to his audience, and simply kept playing a while. Some songs were melancholy, but others sounded plainly of home, more cheerful, more determined than the rest. Eventually, he lowered his hands from the strings, looking over at Lucca.]

[sparkofgenius]

[She's silent through the whole thing, but when he looks over at her, she gives him a soft, brief smile.]

Didn't know you had an ear for music.

2 because where else would we be

[roadsprings]

[ if you'd told Bilbo a few months ago that Thorin would become almost a fixture in the library, he probably would have raised an eyebrow at you and politely asked you if you'd spent too long out in the sun that day.

if you'd then told him he wouldn't find that objectionable, he might have been forced to flat-out disagree.

and yet, here we are; Thorin steadily devouring the history section, Bilbo's bemusement giving way to being accustomed to seeing him there when he goes to restock the shelves in that particular section. such as he's doing now, for instance.

he gives the Calderan a friendly nod as he nears the desk, not wanting to throw him off his place in the middle of a sentence, and then sets to busying himself with rolling one of the library ladders along the bookshelf to the spot he needs, as quietly as he can. ]

[darer]

[ thorin would likewise have considered the idea preposterous that he might begin to grow fond of a stodgy unionite librarian. and yet, he glances up and nods right back as bilbo passes him by. it's not until a few minutes later that he actually speaks to him, while he's placing the book he was reading back precisely where he got it. he speaks as quietly as the library calls for. ]

I see the earthquake didn't do too much harm here, at least.

1

[radeonthecity]

[Seeing as how Thorin's a little preoccupied here, it's probably Shuppet who notices Domri and his entourage (today a Rhyhorn, a Zigzagoon, a Skiddo, a Scyther, and a Deerling) stop to watch as they're passing by. The Scyther in particular is watching very intently, blades twitching slightly.]

I took an age and I apologize

[darer]

[ The Shuppet does indeed notice the entourage - though a Rhyhorn isn't exactly the quietest at moving in any given area - but he doesn't bother alarming Thorin and Adlan. He greets Domri and his pokémon friends cheerfully instead. After another minute or so, the sparring pair break apart and decide to interrupt their match for the time being.

Thorin sheathes his sword as he turns to face Domri, giving his assembly a once-over while he's catching his breath. It seems like his Doublade is already looking at the Scyther. ]

Domri. You seem to be doing well.