Good Song, Bad Audience

"Good Song, Bad Audience" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
Penny: Penny, used to the shrillness her whistle was capable of, was nonetheless cringing in pain as her brother Heron blew out that ungodly screech. She took her instrument wordlessly from him when he passed in back, and tucked it into a pocket in a bit of a daze, before shaking herself out of it to follow him out of the tavern, stopping at the door to leer at the angry shadow. 
“We can take criticism just fine. You were being a straight jackass, and that more than warrants a retuning of your ears.”
@furibotgd @battleofthegroundeddungeon
Xui Nayro: The man gave her a flat stare from the shadow of his cloak. “I can’t hear you, I can barely hear myself, ma'am. And I’m no lip reader. So I’m going to assume you’re apologizing for blasting my ears to Hel and back, and I accept your apology gladly.” He sniffed, still rubbing the top of his head with a cloaked arm.
“Anyone thinks they can play an instrument these days…” He grumbled.
Penny: Penny’s eye twitched. She stuck her head out the door for a moment to shout “Heron! Wait up!” before stomping back into the tavern to get right up in this guy’s face so he has no excuse.
“Listen you, I’m not apologizing for anything. You should be the one apologizing for making fun of a completely free and enjoyable performance from me and my brother. Unless you’re paying us, I don’t want to hear any of your ‘criticism’ of our fine art, especially since you don’t exactly appear to be a musician.”
Nayro: The man groaned and shook his head after barely catching what he’d heard of her rant. “Sure ma'am. I enjoyed… most of it. Most of what I said was in jest. You’re not as bad as most people I’ve heard.” He bit back most of what he wanted to say in the interest of trying not to start anything serious. “ And how you can you tell if I’m a musician or not? You can’t even see me. For all you know, I’m a master on the guitar.”
He had his hands on his hips, still irritated but making an effort to stop it from getting potentially worse. He couldn’t afford to get in a fight.
Heron: “That means you’re no guitar player,” Heron pitched in. Despite himself, he was coming back to the cluster of people. He couldn’t resist proving something about which he was so passionate. Especially to that stranger that had belittled him a moment ago.
He pulled up his left hand and wiggled it. He pointed to the tips of the fingers, where there were a row of thick callouses. Then he pointed to his right hand. There were not callouses in those places. “String players have lopsided hands. Fingertips are all roughed up on one hand from placing them on the strings. Show us your hand, if you’re so confident.”
Nayro: The man huffed with frustration and sighed. “Jeez, fine. I’ll show you.” He pulled back his cloak arm with the other to show a scaled, clawed, dragon paw. He did the same with the other.
“Happy?” He grumbled, only slightly worried about their potential reaction. After all, he could still just leave.
Heron: Heron stared with nervousness and confusion at the dragon paw. A look of horror dawned in his eye when he realized what he’d gotten himself into.
“Um. I uh. I have no idea. How to see callouses. On scales. Uh. Uh. Penny. Penny, do you know?”
Penny: “Uh.”
Okay Penny, try to be smart about this. Shit, there’s nothing to be smart about.
“You uh. Those scales look… too…. pristine? And the uh, the claws, those’d get in the way. So ha, you’re definitely not a guitar player!”
Despite being nervous as hell right about now, Penny still manages to cross her arms and look proud and arrogant thanks to her statement. Like of course she’s a brilliant genius on draconic physiology when she damn well has no real experience with the creatures. Duh. Whatever. She takes the pennywhistle from her pocket and points it at the dragon’s hooded face meaningfully.
“Anyway. If you really enjoyed our performance, I’m sure you won’t mind if Heron and I continued playing as we want? Nooooooot a problem with me and my lovely whistle? Surely if there were a problem, you’d do something about it.”
She then puts the whistle to her lips, takes a needlessly deep breath, and screeches out one of her favorite personal squeak compositions.
Nayro: He stumbled back with a pained growl, throwing his hood off and putting his paws to his head, clearly in pain.
“Ma'am please, I beg you to stop!” He huffed, teeth bared. He pawed at his already suffering ears, the squeaks making his already miserable ears worse. “They were just starting to feel better!” The dragon half breed yelped.
Heron: Heron threw up his arm, gallantly stabbing his bow high into the air. “Never! Mess! With! Artists!” And with solidarity he began sawing again on the fiddle. Somehow, every time his string squeaked or snapped, it lined up with Penny’s squeaks.
Nayro: The dragon huffed in irritation and stomped his foot, rolling up his sleeves. Without a word, he casually cast… some sort of magic and made what resembled a string instrument. It didn’t look like it was entirely there, but he held it anyway and started playing.
It sounded pleasant. And Guitarish. He started with a few chords and quickly sped up, playing nicely still, and even playing along with their squeaks.
He gave them a slightly smug grin.
Penny: Penny huffed and interrupted their beautifully harmonic performance with a perfectly discordant screech to rival her brother’s from earlier. If her ears weren’t hurting before, they are now. Everyone’s are. She makes sure of it.
After a ringing silence, when their hearing has at least partially returned, she jabs a finger into the dragon’s chest with an indignant glare. “You magicked that up. That ain’t no skill! Wipe that stupid grin right off that scaly mug!”
Heron: “Righty,” said Heron. “I think we made our point. WE are the masters of music in this here town!”
He paused, noticed the entire tavern still had its attention on them, and used this opportunity to announce, “Don’t forget! Our next performance! Tomorrow, barn dance, our place, one copper coin entrance, bring your families and kids! Great time for everyone! Dancing, artistry, original poetic lyrics, and all real raw musical playing with no cheap tricks!”
He tried to leave the room in an artistic flourish. The wobble he did was about as artistic as rhyming “orange.”
Nayro: The dragon held the guitar out to Penny. “Be my guest then.” He mumbled, ears still ringing again. “You’ll find it functioning similarly to an actual guitar. It still responds to movement.” He told her, waiting for her to take it and prove him right.
It would indeed play right. “Ain’t skill indeed. I still learned to play it. There just isn’t a non magic guitar around.”
Penny: Welp, this is totally a trap. If she plays badly, it could be blamed on her being a terrible player. If she plays well, she has to admit that the instrument is valid. Fucking lose-lose, here.
She takes the instrument, goes to strum a string, and before any sound is made, makes a dramatic show of the thing “slipping” out of her hands. “Aight, see here you. If I’m gonna prove your point, you oughta at least make the thing holdable! Can’t just majick it away from me to make me look stupid!”
Penny really hopes her acting here is believable enough. If nothing else, Heron would believe it.
Nayro: He fixed her with an unimpressed look and bent down, picking it up off the floor. “Fine, if you don’t want to play it, you don’t have to.” He told her, knowing very well she would have been able to hold it. “No skin off my nose.”
He let the guitar disappear and held a hand out. “Give me one of yours then.” He told her, brow raised slightly. “I’ve learned a lot of instruments myself. Perhaps the man’s fiddle?”
Heron: Heron had nearly been through the door when he heard the suggestion. He wheeled around, gawking in horror. He seemed torn - torn between his nervousness of the situation and wanting to leave, versus his desire to defend Penny and his musical passion.
But both sides of him knew one important fact.
“NO ONE IS TOUCHING IT! NO! ABSOLUTELY! NOT! I SPENT TWO YEARS EARNING THE MONEY TO BUY THIS! NO ONE IS TOUCHING MY FIDDLE BUT ME!”
A pleading look came over his eyes. He danced nervously. “Penny, c’mon, please. We showed ’em what we got. We’ve made our grand statement. Let’s go.”
Penny: Of course. Of course he’d never let anyone but her even think about touching his pride and joy. And even she knows better than to do any more than playfully twang a string now and again to rankle his nerves.
Penny glanced between the two, first at the dragon, then at Heron, then back to the dragon and eventually settling on Heron. He really wants to go, but she can’t just leave it at this, can she? Their pride is on the line!
She walks over to Heron, places a hand on his shoulder with a sigh, and says “Go on. Get on home, or wait outside for this. I won’t be long.” She then walks back over to the dragon and shoves her whistle into his hands with a somber, determined look.
“Try this. There’s no way you’re getting his fiddle. Just… be careful with it.”
Nayro: The dragon nodded politely and put the whistle very gently to his mouth, and despite having a scaly, weirdly shaped dragon mouth, managed to play a few nice little tunes with it. He played one particularly fast little song, then gently handed it back to her.
“You should learn a bit more about someone before you assume what they can or can’t do.” He told her with a smile. “Appearances can be deceiving.” He stated, rubbing the side of his head again. His ears were still ringing slightly.
Penny: Penny frowned as she took the whistle back. “Yeah, well. You should learn to be less rude. Ever think there might be a reason we play the way we do? We don’t have any fancy magic or anything at all. Just ourselves. And we play how we want. It’s all we got.” She paused for a moment. “Oh, and uh. You’re welcome to come to that thing at the barn Heron mentioned. I guess. Maybe.”
Might as well try to make amends?
With that, she played an actually pleasant little jig on her whistle before heading out the door with her brother. “C’mon Heron, let’s go home. Unless you got anything else you wanna say to him?”
Heron: “No. No, don’t wanna say nothing more.” Heron shook his head fervently.
He did feel relief, though. Sometimes he got carried away in his passion for music, and of course he would stick by his sister, but he hated confrontation. The confrontation was over now. Motivational dissonance was resolved. He could breathe. 
As they started walking down the road, he loosened the hair on his fiddle bow. “Why is it that, every other night, I feel like you’re one punch short of starting a brawl?”
Nayro: The dragon half breed gave them a smile and followed them out with a smile. “I’ll come to your barn thing on one condition. No shrill attacks on my ears.” He told them, chuckling slightly.
“And if you need another player, I’m good with many instruments. Musical magic ran through my grandmother’s side of the family.” He grinned with a little bow.
Penny: Penny smiled and gently punched Heron’s arm. “Well, someone’s gotta defend your bony ass, since you sure as hell won’t.”
At the dragon’s voice following them though, she almost jumped. Thankfully she’s not as skittish and cat-like in nerve as her brother. “Well, no promises. I’ll have you know that my squeaks are entirely on purpose! But uh. Yeah, maybe we could use a third player. What do you think, Heron?”
Heron: Heron leaned over to peer carefully at the dragon half breed. “Ummmmmm. Um. Sure. Why not. Sure. Uh. Wanna jam tonight at our place?”
He winced at that last invitation. He wasn’t sure he’d be comfortable with that. However, the question had already left his lips. Damn him and trying to placate his sister. Now he just had to wait for the response.
Nayro: The dragon sniffed, nodding. “I’d be honored to play music with you. Perhaps I could learn a few things. There’s always a possibility.” He smiled, rubbing his paws together. “I could also use some food.” He grinned.
Penny: Penny scoffed. “What, we gotta teach you stuff and feed you? This is already sounding like a bad idea. Why’d I even ask?” Despite her words, she’s smiling and you can hear the joking tone in her voice.
“C’mon, the barn’s this way. Pretty sure we got somethin’ for ya. Maybe. What kinda stuff does your sort of dragon eat anyway?”
Nayro: “I prefer fruit and vegetables, thank you. I’ll eat meat if you have some, though. I’m not picky.” He told her with a happy huff, licking his lips. “Your kindness is much appreciated.”
He followed the two, clearly pleased.
Heron: “Um. So what do you play? And do you happen to have your instrument on you?” Heron figured he might as well try to make conversation, though he made sure to place Penny between him and their latest companion.
He pointed to himself and said, “I do fiddle, as you can see. I’m also quite a poet. Don’t got a knack for melodies, but I can wax poetic so much you could call me a poetry candle.” He smiled broadly, naively thinking his turn of the phrase had been clever. “I’ve also fiddled on other instruments outside the fiddle - pun intended. I mean, you know how it is, you’re sitting bored at home, there’s a buncha instruments lying around, you just sort of pluck up any of ’em.”
Nayro: “I travel a lot, so I usually don’t carry much with me.” The dragon informed Heron. “I don’t have any physical instruments, unless you count my voice. I just learn things as I go. Been on the road since I was a teen.” He curled one side of his mustache around a claw. “I know all sorts of things.” He chuckled.
Penny: “Do you know more than music? Have you met the King, or stolen any treasure, or found any hidden treasure or been in a big battle? I mean you got magic, surely you can fight with it too! Oooh wait wait, do you have a sword!? Wait, no, you have claws, why’d you need a sword? Dumb question.”
Penny’s eyes are positively glittering as she hammers the poor dragon man with questions. She starts talking rather fast and it’s immediately apparent that she has heard far too many tall tales of glory and adventure
Nayro: He chuckled at her questions, a smile on his face. He was always up to answer questions. “I know other magic too, yes. I haven’t met the King of the Wilderwest, no, but some day I hope to. I met the leader of my homeland once, though. I go on quests for treasure sometimes. I haven’t been in any large battles, fortunately, but I do use my magic in self defense. I’m not really a fighter. And as for the sword question…” He cast his magic again and an ornate sword very similar to the guitar appeared.
“It’s a little better than using my claws. But again, I’m a defensive more than offense, so I dont use it often. I hope that answers the first bunch of questions you have.” He chuckled.
Penny: Somehow, Penny’s eyes lit up even more at the sight of the sword. “Woah, that’s a cool sword. Oh! What was your leader like? Was he a dragon man like you? And what kind of treasure did you go looking for? Did you actually find any? There’s gotta be so much treasure out there, if you found even a little of it, you’d be absolutely rich! If I was rich, I’d buy Heron a hundred different instruments probably. Or just a hundred fiddles. Then he’d never have to baby them as much as he does the one he’s got.”
She just keeps talking, one long stream of consciousness, not even caring if Heron or the dragon man responds. Eventually, she pauses.
“Wait. I’ve forgotten the most important question of them all! You, Mr. Dragon Guy of Doom! What is your name? With all the uh. Whatever that was back there? We never did ask you, did we?”
Nayro: The dragon chuckled, clearly amused at how curious Penny was. “No, you didn’t ask, but that’s alright. Call me Nayro.” He stated with a small bow. “And I gather that your friend there is Heron. And you?” The dragon asked with a friendly smile.
Heron: “This over-talkative freak of nature is Penny.” Heron butted into the conversation, probably to prevent his sister from spawning thirty more questions for their conversant. “My sister. Though perhaps my life would have been better if we’d been friends and I didn’t have to grow up with her…… quirks….” 
Nayro: Nayro quirked a brow and glanced between the two, slightly surprised. He then shrugged and scratched his chin with a claw. “I see then. Yes.” He murmured with a chuckle. “I have two siblings myself. Glad I’m out here traveling.”
“Is it just the two of you? Do you have anyone else?” He asked the pair, curious.
Heron: “Hey now,” said Heron. “I’d consider Penny prime traveling companion material here. I don’t need no running from fam.” 
Just because he could complain about his sister didn’t mean someone else could suggest any sibling relationship was imperfect. And he really did stick by her constantly; he didn’t know how he would function otherwise. 
Nayro: "I didn't mean anything by it," Nayro began to explain. "I'm sure you two have a fine relationship. My family wasn't quite as tight knit as most. I got teased by my siblings a lot, and I prefer being on the road to that." He told them. "It's nice to see some family sticking together." He told them with a smile.
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act I
Category:Xui Nayro
Category:Penny
Category:Heron