Qheria would still be expected to rest for the remainder of the day, so everything otherwise continued with regular routines of work and rest. The plan that day was to take everything easy, and that's exactly how it all panned out.
By next day, the four of them had reason to be excited. The smith was finally putting finishing touches on the three instruments. Mhyl had shown up early, to put some artistic finesse on the results. It mostly involved decorative paints, putting some of the same color patterns for each instrument as she had for each outfit originally. Qheria wasn't sure about this idea, at this point she had full wardrobe of clothes in a color that was basically picked for her. It was a great choice of color, but the lack of variation was getting tiring. If not for it being clean and maintained every day, Qheria could have swore she'd been wearing the same outfit each day since the day they had left.
Qheria had been slow to get up this morning, having returned to her wardrobe to replace a top that had gotten wood varnish on it. She had replaced it with.. one that looked exactly like it. Lwyn meanwhile had arrived with cleaned laundry for all of them, and had replaced the top she had taken for herself with another exactly like it, then had taken the dirty top Qheria had dismissed and gone to clean it as well. The whole situation left Qheria feeling a little awkward.
By lunch, the instruments were mostly ready, just needing time to dry. Over lunch, Rhyde had approached Qheria while she was still enjoying her salad. "Feeling better hopefully. Oh, is that all you'll be having today?" "Of course I'll have more, Mhyl wouldn't let me hear the end of it if I didn't do enough to recover my energy. But I've been enjoying my soup cold, so I'll just have some later." Rhyde looked at his own soup, the soft thick brown broth still bubbling. Qheria just picked up another yellow piece of lettuce and nibbled on it. The colors of their food was starting to get boring too.
"But yes, I am feeling much better now. I heard you had gotten personally involved in everything, even though everything was practically the specialty of the Seekers and the Wardens." Qheria wasn't sure that anyone was particularly skilled with gas explosions around here, but that wasn't the point. "Hey, I would have you know that my leadership had been vital to ensure that everyone coordinated in a vital and precise manner." Rhyde was already arguing, they had only sat down. Qheria however instead just giggled.
"Yeah, leadership really is a very difficult and underappreciated task, isn't it. Somehow, I've got three very capable woman looking up to me, and I'm not even sure when I had signed up for this. We're a team, we all seem to suffer at the loss of any of us. I just hadn't accounted myself as one of those who could cause such same suffering. Though, in such a hard moment, I really don't regret my decision in the end. Saving Lwyn was still the right move. I hear we even had safety really well accounted for, there weren't really any mistakes. There was that whole gift business that happened, but.. it's hard to blame anyone for it." Qheria went to her bowl for more salad, having found she had at that point finished it.
Rhyde had came to help console Qheria through any of her hardships, but.. had instead found Qheria really was doing very well. It was highly unexpected, and left him at a total loss for words. He was still feeling a bit out of place for her having dashed so fervently into danger as she had, learning and improving in ways he himself hasn't yet. He ate some of the soup, which instantly scalded his tongue. Maybe Qheria had the right of it after all.
"Oh, but one of the biggest parts of things like this, always moving forward. Thanrie keeps bringing that up now, it's almost a mantra for her. We're going to try and play some music sometime this afternoon, once our instruments are ready. We still need to find some other way to spend the afternoon before then, though." "Ah, so more of that sparring you and Thanrie keep doing? I could still offer you another rematch, if you feel you are up to it." Qheria paused in thought, Rhyde's words provoking a memory for Qheria.
"That's brilliant! A perfect way to get back together after that last disaster. Another bout of football!" "Qwuht-? What was that again?" Qheria's English had left Rhyde's tongue reeling, unable to pronounce the word at all and stopping half way in. Qheria was almost instinctive on following the discussion between Mhyl and Lwyn, naming it soccer instead, but that might not be much easier. So instead she tried to literally translate it, the word for 'foot', plus the word for 'ball'. It was more 'sphere' than 'ball', but calling it 'Footsphere' wasn't that inaccurate after all.
Rhyde then listened as Qheria described the premise for the sport, and he even brought Yuxzn in to hear all about it. It sounded brilliant, a safe tactical environment to practice strategies following a given set of rules. At one point, the discussion started to draw upon a crowd. Lwyn was translating for Mhyl, who was providing technical clarifications of the rules. Yuxzn had started writing down all of the rules. Xyithy and Ihzyhur started disputing which of them would be better in this competition neither of them had ever experienced before. Aelyiq and Ehryinae had left the lunch room quickly, not liking where things were going, with Zyuixqs and Chyurea having stepped into the discussion instead.
At one point during the whole meeting, Thanrie had shown up, carrying the ball Mhyl had made before. It had needed some repairs, but only minor ones, stuff Thanrie had just personally looked into. "Reports and meetings are fun and all, but if anyone actually wants to experience this thing for themselves, I'll be outside with the ball." Thanrie quickly captured everyone's attention. Lwyn was mildly concerned that they wouldn't be indoors, especially without handy nearby walls, but she couldn't get a word in.
It wasn't until they were outside that Qheria realized she had missed her chance to have any soup. There would still be more for dinner, she could have more then. She was still full of energy, so it was going to be alright. Everything started at first with a demonstration of the rules, with the four girls demonstrating the principles of the sport. Then, there was a quick opportunity for everyone except the four girls to get some mock actions in, to get a feeling for how it is to play. Once practice had concluded, they had divided up into two teams for a real match.
Qheria and Mhyl this time were on the same team, with Thanrie and Lwyn on the other team. Thanrie realized this still implied she would be against Mhyl, and cursed her luck. Rhyde offered however to be the counter-goalie against Qheria, putting Lwyn out in the field. Yuxzn took to the field with Lwyn and Rhyde, putting Chyurae on Mhyl's team with Zyuixqs. Ihzyhur and Xyithy took the teams of their respective family member. An assortment of staff or followers of the four groups were dedicated audience, not willing to get into the match with some of these important people. Ehryinae had folded into this audience, feeling that keeping watch was a better idea, not just of the event, but in case anything else unexpected occurred. She was also nominated as a kind of starter, to declare when a match had begun. Aelyiq fell in with the rest of her idea, but was more compelled to be on hand in case anything went violent and otherwise had no direct interest in the event.
On Qheria's side, she looked ahead at her team. Mhyl was way up to offense, ready to deal with the ball as required. Considering she usually took a more defensive role, it was quiet unexpected of her. Their defense included both Chyurae and Zyuixqs, her mother driven to a more aggressive position against her opponent, as was her usual in times of conflict. On the other side, Rhyde had Yuxzn and Lwyn for the back lines, leaving Thanrie and her brother to take to the front.
The match begun with the ball having no owner, someone would have to dash in and steal the ball. At Ehryinae's signal, both Ihzyhur and Xyithy dashed blind for the ball. Ihzyhur connected first, pushing the ball forwards towards the waiting Mhyl. Thanrie's face melted into a moment of dread, except for the four girls, no one else knew what this combo would result in. Thanrie tried to intercept Mhyl, but she drifted past instead. Lwyn stumbled, trying to keep up with Mhyl's longer legs. Ihzyhur and Yuxzn didn't even have enough time to react. Rhyde blinked as the ball wailed passed him.
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"Uh, sorry, did I miss something. I could have swore it was Mhyl who had the ball for a moment, and then.." "Oh, yeah, that's Mhyl's fancy footwork. I think the only one whose stopped her so far has been Qheria, and that was only that one time." Rhyde realized he had underestimated the prowess of his enemy, a horrible move for a leader. He would have to be more diligent, if he had any hopes in competing with Qheria. Of course, he had other goals too, somewhere.
Rhyde had always said that experience gave an exceptional advantage in combat, and clearly that was still true now. The four most influential fighters in this battle were the four who had known of the sport before today. Everyone else was simply.. backup, himself included. It was not unlike the struggle he had seen Qheria's crew undergo, having walked into an unfamiliar competition in itself. He would have to achieve more then, just as she had.
Thanrie was given the ball for the start of the next round. Desperate to get passed Mhyl, he shot a kick over her head, just as he had before. At the goal, Qheria intercepted this shot with no difficulty, being much taller than Lwyn. Thanrie cursed her misfortune, of course that trick wouldn't work this time. Lwyn was on her side now, who was also looking displeased at how that had panned out. Qheria passed the ball up to Zyuixqs, who brought the ball forwards carefully to met up with Ihzyhur. Ihzyhur was blessing his fortune in being set against two of the people he most wanted to compete with, and rushed the ball. He missed, but Zyuixqs also lost control over the ball. Xyithy took up the ball from there, but lost it to Lwyn's mobility, who then passed it up to Thanrie again.
Thanrie was determined to not mess up twice, and fortunately Mhyl was caught off position. Thanrie dashed forwards with the ball, approaching Chyurae. She stepped back and away, kicking the ball for a shot before Chyurae could arrive. She then noticed her foot connected with nothing. Somewhere along the way, she had lost track of where Chyurae was, or something, and now he had the ball. She hadn't even blinked. He passed the ball directly to Mhyl again. Mhyl confronted both Lwyn and Yuxzn in a double team moment, slipped past both of them, and went for a shot. Rhyde barely blocked it. Rhyde then passed it up to Lwyn, but the ball got stolen by Mhyl on the way, who then made a sudden second shot and goal.
Thanrie found herself with the ball, yet again. She was thinking that Mhyl and Qheria would never again be allowed on the same team, it was more fair putting the elves on the same team, even if this sport heavily depended on stamina. However, in that light, Mhyl taking main stage through all this was starting to cost her, Thanrie could see she was getting a bit tired. Playing outside made the field much larger and longer. Thanrie pressed forwards and actually managed to slip passed Mhyl, almost by luck. Next, she was facing Chyurae again, who she also managed to avoid. Thanrie took her shot on net, a very low shot.
Qheria saw the ball approaching, in a passing moment of dread. She had been using her hands so far, but this time she couldn't. The last time she had kicked the ball, she had failed. Instead of letting those thoughts bring her dread, she resolved to stand her grounds, not letting the past haunt her. Qheria's foot slammed hard and solid into the ball, sending it forwards to her mother. Xyithy stepped forwards with it, seeing Ihzyhur blocking her path, and instead passed to Mhyl. Mhyl slipped past easily, reached the net, and got blocked by Rhyde.
For the rest of the match, neither side was able to score a goal. Eventually, it was just called, so that they could take a mid-afternoon break. Qheria went to sit down and relax for her break, only to find a bowl of soup in front of her. "I hear missing this could have gotten you in trouble with your crew. Couldn't let that happen, you know." Rhyde sat down in another nearby seat, his own hands now empty. "Thank you." Qheria ate the soup appreciatively, finding it fairly cool at this point.
Thanrie was going over the results of that match in her head. Her side had really suffered through that, unable to stand up to the might of their opponent. While it had ended in deadlock, it had begun very one-sided. To her, once again, things had only improved because of the stamina of elves being less than her own. Much like sparring with Mhyl, this didn't sit well with her. However, unlike sparring, Thanrie hadn't even achieved a late goal, because Qheria had held on. It would have stung for her quite a lot, but instead she was just driven to improve. She would practice and find her own success.
While pondering this, Thanrie found a very happy Mhyl had just shown up. "Thanrie, it's time! The instruments are done!" For not having an instrument of her own, Mhyl was really quite excited. Thanrie suspected that most of the excitement was because now Mhyl herself could try to be musical with her friends. Thanrie went to get the others, so that they would be included too. When everything was ready, the four found they had still an audience, ready to see what would happen next.
The smith himself stopped all projects to attend this, realizing that his own goals were going to reach a huge success if things went well enough. People were already getting interested in these more minor creations, it would yield a huge investment in future interest, leading to even more opportunities and support. Rhyde was also giving a lot of room and opportunity for this whole thing to happen, and most of their overall populace was allocated to the audience.
Knowing that the four were not as experienced with this as they were with 'Footsphere', the four girls were given enough room for general practice. To start things off, the three instrumentalists started doing setup while Mhyl did some vocal practice, singing to her audience. She started with another made-up song of broken lyrics, at least singing in a Terran language they suspected might be either French or.. Latin? Then she shifted into a song of a language none of them could figure out, Thanrie suspecting it might be a south-east Asian language, one of them. None of them even knew this second song of Mhyl's wasn't even made up, they just didn't know it. The audience absolutely loved her singing throughout the whole process.
Qheria was up second, her bass ready to go. Mhyl stepped aside, to look over the others, subtly marvelling at how it almost seemed like Qheria and Thanrie had switched roles with each other. At least, that's how she felt. Qheria settled in with her instrument, keeping to a soft ambience that resounded around them. With a slow tempo keeping mostly to a low pitch, Qheria set out a melody that had everyone entranced. They didn't exactly know what to think of it, but it was definitely a thing. Qheria wrapped up her own little melody, to be followed by Thanrie up next. Thanrie surprised them all with a sudden explosion of music and tempo, her own playing supplying tremendous energy and beat. She neglected the cymbals completely through most of her performance. She had everyone's attention, but like Qheria, no one knew what to make of the whole thing.
Mhyl had figured out why those two had settled upon their choices by the time Lwyn was up to go. None of them knew what to think. Thanrie watched Lwyn pick up the bow for her violin, having a moment of regret in giving her yet another bow. Lwyn placed the instrument carefully, and set her bow upon it. Then she set to playing. She herself had a steady tempo and some resounding notes, her song almost echoing upon itself. The song itself felt ambitious and sad itself somehow, as it built and climbed upon it's own melody, making a full range of notes in a rising tempo. Lwyn was really good, it was something incredible to look upon and listen to. Everyone present was stunned at just what degree of quality they were witnessing. It was like the music was speaking to them, telling them a story of grief and desperation. Mhyl noticed somehow she had started crying, for no reason whatsoever.
When Lwyn was done, the applause was resounding, far more than any of them had gotten before, except maybe Mhyl. Their two humans felt dramatically under-qualified. However, neither of them was going to let that just stop them. Earlier they had disputed and found a song that fit well into the situation, something they had all known, mostly because Mhyl had been singing it before. It was actually a Celesi song, sung in both languages. Still none of them had actually practiced with these instruments together before, so this was their big opportunity to get a feeling for the theory behind it.
Mhyl started off with the vocals, sticking to the Elaethyx version she had much more confidence in. It sounded familiar to everyone at first, until Thanrie stepped in with a sudden chord of drums. Qheria also stepped in at this point, keeping to the melody while Mhyl sung. As everything rose in tone, Lwyn finally stepped in to carry things off. Qheria and Thanrie was worried that Lwyn's quality would carry over them, but were shocked to find that Lwyn was actually struggling to stay on key in a group performance. Lwyn was behind the tempo, and was having conflicting choices of notes. This, in addition to her otherwise strong performance style, brought their quality way down. Lwyn trying to compensate only made it worse, by using a lighter, more background of a style or going for deeper or softer notes. She just sounded.. random.
The song ended, and no one knew what to do. Lwyn however was the first to act, she set her instrument down and left, leaving everyone in an awkward silence.