Level 14

[whats_a_paladin]

[Strange sounds can be heard in parts of White Chalice. Following them reveals Raynor, sitting behind a (borrowed) electronic keyboard, and practicing music... If it can be called that. He's trying to play Amazing Grace, but is a complete amateur about it... Or rather, amateur would be a big step up. At best the music is awkward and stiffled, with half of the notes missing or wrong, at worst it's a horrible, ear-rending cacophony. And he seems to be completely aware of that.]

Damnit... Is it because of my robotic arm? No, I wasn't any good at it before either...

I must try to honor their memory! Again!

[Horrible sounds from the tortured instrument continue.]

Comments

[whats_a_paladin]

I don't want to use a recording, I want to play it myself. And play it decently, so I have to practice...

[paladin_robot]

Argh, but do you really have to do it right now? Trying to sleep here...

[Richard grumbles a bit... before realising something.]

...Wait, is it for... them?

[He briefly gestures at the mechanical arm with his head. Indication is pretty clear.]

[whats_a_paladin]

Sorry. I didn't know anyone is sleeping at this hour...

Wait, do you mean... No, it's not. It's a song for everyone who died in Madrid recently. It's not the time for the Shadow Knights' dirge yet.

[paladin_robot]

...Freaking Madrid...

[Richard sighs... finding a spot on the floor and slumping down into a sitting position.]

So much happened at once... Civilians died, the bad guy got away, we've got a bunch of corpses to go with questions, Cora lost her arm... and part of her team... And then the stuff with Felicita...

Seems to be when bad stuff happens around here, it likes to come in droves.

[whats_a_paladin]

That is the world we live in. Filled with tragedy and suffering... And it's up to us to make it better.

[paladin_robot]

Yeah well... I need to learn on how to actually make things better for my own allies first...

[whats_a_paladin]

You did it for at least one of them already.

[Raynor knocks on his metallic arm with his normal one.]

[paladin_robot]

...Thanks.

[First smile Richard has had for a small while, actually.]

Don't suppose you'd have any advice for like... cheering up women though? Assuming that whatever has them upset can't just be fixed by giving them a new arm?

[whats_a_paladin]

Different people require different things. Who is this about?

[paladin_robot]

Joanne and Felicita...

One's lost her teammamtes and she blames herself. The other has just lost her mother and doesn't know what to do with her life. I... made that one worse by revealing just what her mother's work had been doing to her...

[whats_a_paladin]

Hmmm...

Comfort with small, everyday things. But other than that, sometimes the best thing to do when someone is grieving is to let them cope with it on their own.