this shall be for music ● aloin

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true] Hailey could vaguely remember a day in which Irisia was nothing more than a small town like the one she was setting foot in that very moment, the landmark titled the exact same thing as the very place she was at. In those days, the sprawling underwater city had been nothing more than a tiny, quaint little town with that very title tagged onto the end of its name. Irisia Town. People had flocked there, however, and, in just five years, it had grown at a frightening rate and the quiet town it had once been was cast to the dust. When it grew even larger and technology decided to let it's people live below the water they so very much enjoyed, all that was left what the dead skin of what it had been from the beginning. When knew residence took this husk as a home, the cycle began again, the new Irisia Town barely a mile or so from the underwater marvel. While the city beneath the waves would have had more things for her to do and see, something she was all about, the thought of all that water collapsing and drowning her wasn't too appealing. So, instead, she settled with the old styled, second best place not far from there. The best she could get here, sadly, was a little sunshine and maybe a snow globe as a souvenir in terms of excitement and things the place had to offer. In other words, the gijinka was terribly bored and the heavy layers of makeup she used to conceal her gray-toned skin was really starting to seem like a bad idea. It was always rubbing off when she needed to cover up the most and seemed the make the sun beating down on her all the more warm. Not that the hood pulled half way over her face in order to also hide her horns was not helping much. Oh, the curse an insecure person who could not sit still had to bear. By this point in time, the woman had propped herself up against a tree near one of the generally empty roads and was humming softly to herself, hopping the calm environment and the soft melody could ease her doubts and troubles of the day away from her. Of course, a little quiet and a song couldn't lighten her mood all on their lonesome. "I'm a member of the Midnight Crew..." she outright sang. When she and her sister were little, they would always sing in two part harmonies, the melodies produced from their mouths being one of the biggest parts of their lives. After they'd been torn apart, however, Hailey found that she did not sing quite as often, much less in from of people. But the streets were empty enough and she was bored enough to reduced herself to such nonsense and, sure enough, the notes and words being produced from her vocal cords was going up in a steady crescendo. "... Although I didn't have a knife, a black jack, or a gun. I proved myself a hero of a very high degree..." Arg. This was going to be a long day.

Aloin was content. A new town, a new world to explore, new faces looking behind every door. Faces that couldn't possibly want to kill him already. How could they, when they didn't know him? Although he did have suspicions of the baker he'd passed earlier, for the most part, he felt at home in these unfamiliar streets. The feeling wouldn't last, but Aloin enjoyed it while he could. This was his life now, constantly hunting the elusive safeties that came with anonymity, an anonymity that could never last. But for now, he was content.
He didn't venture into the city under the water, not quite yet. First he wanted to get acquainted with the small town sitting on the shore, poised as if the houses were ready to jump into the sea and join their fellow buildings under the water's shores.
Aloin turned onto an empty road, his guitar bumping against his back. The air was humid; the wind doing nothing to disperse the heat. Aloin didn’t care. He lingered on the sidewalk, smelling the salt in the air.
"I'm a member of the Midnight Crew..." Aloin knew this song, he couldn't remember from where. But that was better; songs could get so dirty with memories. This song was still fresh, still new. He wondered if he could remember the chorus. Aloin moved around the tree to see a girl with grey eyes and a hood far too warm for such weather. It made him nervous. Aloin hesitated.
"Although I didn't have a knife, a black jack, or a gun," the girl sang in a crescendo. Aloin pushed aside his worries for a moment. The song practically begged for an accompaniment. He joined her, slipping into the harmony as a small smile slipped across his face, "I proved myself a hero of a very high degree..."

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true] The place was practically a ghost town when compared to any other city she had ever been to over her last few months of travel - er, well, when not counting the long and winding routes that connected each heavily and not-so-heavily populated areas - so it was practically a given that not a soul would hear the melodies and words that were flowing from the cavern known as her mouth. Or, at least, this would have been the assumed case. And, to her, the prefered case. She hadn't even started from the beginning, the chorus being the first thing to leave her mouth and the verse she knew best, ironically the last being the verse to follow it. She's only started said final verse when a new, unfamiliar face poked its head into her life and caused her to start resulting in a sort of crack she had long since outgrown ruining her song for all of one second. In other words, she'd had all of one chorus and the time before that of solitude before some moron came intruding on her property. Well, that was, the area around her that she had temporarily dubbed as her own. She was tempted to flat out stop when her mind completely processed the presence of another being when he, himself, began singing the old tune along, slipping into a harmony with her, no less. "I proved myself a hero of a very high degree..." Sadly, she only offered him to the end of said verse, finishing with a, "I ran for home and six of them were running after me~!" before cutting off abruptly and narrowing her eyes in suspicion. Hailey realized that this was probably rude on her part. The guy had only been walking and only proved to make her singing better, after all, and all she was doing was calling him a "moron" in her head and eyeing him wearily for no apparent reason. Okay, sure, her mood was a little ruined by knowing that she had been caught singing - something she rarely ever did anymore, much less in front of a crowd of one or more - after being given the impression she was alone, but he really hadn't done anything wrong. She made sure to mentally kick herself and drop her angry facade for the most part. Instead of trying to seem like she was picking a fight, the raven-haired woman instead turned to teasing, saying, "Well, well, well, what brings a handsome young man like yourself out here? That's some voice you got there, I must say. If I weren't as good, I would be jealous." [Sorry for the wait and low quality post. I kept forgetting I had to do this and, when I ended up actually getting around to it, to say I was less than pleased with what was going on would be an underestimatement. But... here you go. C:]

She stopped all too soon. Aloin didn’t want to stop; he wanted to follow the melodies and lose himself in the song. But he didn’t, seeing the way she narrowed her eyes at him. The girl’s expression changed; she made a conscious effort to appear friendly which instantly set Aloin on edge.
“Well, well, well,” the girl said, “what brings a handsome young man like yourself out here? That's some voice you got there, I must say. If I weren't as good, I would be jealous.” Aloin took a step back, adjusting the angle of his sunglasses to make sure they covered the scar. He always did this when he was nervous.
“Why do you want to know what I’m doing here? What are you doing here?” His eyes darted up and down the street. Was she in cohorts with the baker? What did she want? Should he run? No. He had to calm down. Maybe it’d do him good to get to know someone. Not to trust, just to know. He hadn’t had a friend in so long.
“I- I mean,” he said, “thank you. Hi. I’m Aloin. May I sit?” He smiled at the girl, feeling like a fool and not caring. The day was turning out to be better than expected. Even if she turned out to be a murderer or mugged him or something, at least he’d been able to sing with her. The rare delight of two voices entangled in song was something not to be overlooked, certainly not by Aloin.