smash_logs | [Open Log] Ch-Ch-Cherry Blossoms

[Open Log] Ch-Ch-Cherry Blossoms

Who: You!
What: Cherry Blossom Festival
When: April 10th - 18th
Where: All over town & campus. Wherever you find a cherry tree. Probably even up there on that mystery island for whatever reason, if you're so inclined.
Rating: Flower power.

Pink is everywhere. No matter where you look, you're sure to see the signs of soft pink and white blossoms. There's a fresh spark of life filling the air and just beckoning for everyone to come outside and enjoy the sweet scents of spring. Well, except for you, people with springtime allergies. They just want to make you miserable. But perhaps for everyone else, it was a wonderful amazing time to be had.

There are wonderful spots for picnicking! Frolic inducing atmosphere and the space to do it! Every so often you will see vendors selling treats for the event! Cosplayers taking advantage of their natural environments for photo ops! Hot date spots! Blossoms! Sparkles! Everywhere! Even when it rains.

This log is completely open! You can do whatever you'd like with whomever you'd like whenever you'd like. Just start up a thread and go!

Have fun! Don't forget to add your character to the entry tags! ♥

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Mona's ears certainly hadn't deceived her. It was the tuning of a string instrument under a cherry tree. There was a convenient stone there and the man sat on it, strumming and twisting and strumming again, testing a tune, twisting a little more until it was perfect.

He was facing a little away from her and so didn't hear her approach as he started to strum and sing for real.

It was a song he knew well now - He played it pretty well, and his voice was smooth and sweet despite his size. He liked this as an opening number when he practiced because the chords were easy, the picking was limited and it tended to limber up his wrist well. It put him in the zone to play trickier ditties.

Plus, he just loved the song. It spoke to him on some level.

Eventually, he caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye and stopped, looking just a little embarrassed. He tended to sing with a little extra Ooomph when he thought he was alone. He cleared his throat and smiled sheepishly.

"S-sorry! I hope I wasn't disturbing you?"

Who knew? Maybe Mona wanted somewhere quiet to practice.

"No need! I should be the one to apologize for the disturbance Sonny" she said with general honestly. Mona lifted her arms and shook her head in a show that said she was the one responsible. She had not meant to disturb him, all she wanted to do was listen in quietly and then sneak away, or wait until he finished his solo performance and approached.

"I happened to be walking by and heard the sound of your ukelele. I was curious to know who the mystery musician behind the instrument was. You're really good you know!" Mona clapped her hands together. She wasn't lying on her compliment either. As a former rock star Mona knew how to listen in on a musical number and pick out the strong and weak points. She knew her musical stuff from the bottom of her heart, with her compliments sincere. The Snorlax was good by her standards, perhaps even on the same musical level as she was. He certainly knew his craft with the ukelele well. And his singing voice? She wondered what his voice would sound like in a duet.

Mona certainly didn't have to keep that answer a mystery. Given this was may be the only time to practice with another musician and break out the rust on her own musical skills, she dared to pose her question.

"Would you, um, mind if maybe I joined you?" she motioned to the bass guitar slung over her back. Worth a shot anyway. The worst Sonny could say was no.

"Oh! Thanks!" he said, smiling broadly. "I appreciate hearing that! The song I was playing is one of my favorites - I've practiced it a lot."

He saw she was carrying a guitar, and at the question, he fidgeted just a little.

"I wouldn't mind! But, I do only know a few songs? Hopefully that's OK?"

He'd teamed up with his friend Kiyotaka to play music a few times. Kiyotaka had a recorder and they'd had to learn some songs that each of them knew. It had been a little tricky because there were not many songs written for both ukulele and recorder, but they'd made the best of it. The guitar and ukulele might be a better match, actually.

"What would you like to play?"

"Doesn't matter if you know one song or fifty thousand of 'em. If you know how to play a song, I'm totally fine and dandy." Mona was ecstatic he'd said yes to the proposition. Being a bit rusty, she didn't care what manner of song they played, or how many songs they knew between them. There would be plenty of time to teach Sonny a few new ditties to add to his repertoire. And in return, she could break off the dust and return back to her former, rocking glory.

On that cue, Mona found a clear spot on the ground and joined the Snorlax. "Why don't we try the song you were just playing as a warmup? It's lively enough to get me in a good mood to play. Unless of course you have another idea in mind?" she smiled and adjusted her bass guitar's bottom in a comfortable position on her lap. Mona plucked the strings with her fingers to get use to the feeling once again. The guitar felt almost foreign in her hands, but it felt so familiar at the same time.

"Ukelele's tend to play for the cheerful notes, am I correct? We could even duet something with a bit of an upbeat to it, like..." without a further comment, Mona's fingers flicked over her guitar's chords to play a catchy little ditty.

"Yeah! That's why I love the instrument so much... I don't think it knows how to play anything sad." Sonny replied, patting his Uke affectionately. "That's my favorite thing about it, because you could always play something happy no matter what, so long as you know the notes!"

He listened to her for a little bit before nodding. "I think I could play that by ear... let me see?"

He started to work his fingers over the strings, listening carefully and not keeping up with her at first, but it was a simple enough tune for him to get the picking right - or at least close to right.

"How's this?"

Mona stared at Sonny with wide eyes in complete awe. The Snorlax had not only played the tune back by ear, but he'd played it nearly perfectly back. While Mona could play a song from memory after she'd learned it either from reading sheet music or created from scratch out of her head, for the life of her she could not play a tune back exactly as she'd heard it the first time. Unreal. Why hadn't an agent picked Sonny up yet? He'd make a great music star with his rare skill of learning by ear.

"I just...I have no where to start" flabbergasted, Mona groped for words to form her compliment. "Sonny, I can't believe you were able to play like that. With hardly any mistakes no less. It was perfect!" her fingers struck the strings to her guitar to produce a happy sounding chord to play off the beaming smile on her face.

She wanted to further judge his talents at music. But to do that she'd have to get him to play a complicated piece in a duet, and to see how well his singing voice could mesh with hers. "Since I heard you sing, what kind of lyrics do you like looking for in a song? I'd like to be able to jam along on my guitar with your ukelele as well as sing. You wouldn't mind if we do, would you?"

He reddened a little at the praise. "Aw, well, it was just a simple tune. That's all! Just picking and not too fast. But thank you! I'm really, really glad you liked it!"

A lot of times, he'd try to play by ear, listening to songs on the internet and trying to figure out the chords. That was, when he wasn't practicing stuff his teacher gave him to play.

"Lyrics I like? Anything about rainbows, taking naps, sunny skies, vacations, fun love songs. Just happy things, I guess! Do you knoooooow...? Ummm...? OH! Do you know Rainbow Connection? It's my favorite song!"

As of about two years ago, anyway. Before that, it had been anything put out by the Bidoof Sensation sweeping the nation, Justin Beiver.

Mona smiled warmly at the Snorlax and how pretty chilled his whole attitude seemed. While her choice in songs varied from Sonny's a bit, there was nothing wrong in his list that she didn't like. In fact she loved to write love songs, driving down open roads with the wind in your face, and on the occasion about pizza too. For her rock and roll was her favorite jam to, well, rock out to. Add those catchy pop songs to the mix and it pretty much summed Mona's personality as a whole.

"How can you not know the Rainbow Connection? That's like, an all time classic piece!" The song was way before her time and age group, yet to this day it remained a strong contender to the music currently playing on air. Time and tastes had changed, though a song sometimes never aged a day in it's life.

"I, um, I must admit I've never played it before now, but I can't why that should stop us" In all Mona was up for the challenge of playing anything happy on a bass guitar. Mostly they provided the beef, the backing and substance for a piece to bring out it's glory. Bass guitars could also be nitty gritty when they needed to be, except for Mona, she tended to stay away from the pure sounds of metal bands. Rock is what her bass longed for.

"I tell you what? Let's break the song down into a duet. I can provide the backup with my guitar here, and your ukelele can play out the happy melody. And we can sing together as well! I-I mean, if you want to sing, we don't have to. What do you say?"

"I love to sing Rainbow Connection!" Sonny replied. "I've never done it as a duet before, though! This is going to be so, so fun!"

He turned to face her, uke already tuned and ready to go.

"Three... two... One!"

And he started to play. The ukulele didn't have the same twang to it as the banjo, of course, so it was a mildly different song. But recognizeable all the same, and it was clear he loved the song a lot by the way he sang it.

She closed her eyes and focused on the sounds emanating from Sonny's ukelele. Strange how playing a different instrument could greatly change the feelings of a song, however the same beats and remnants remained. In a way, his ukelele brought about a happier tune to the song, as it should be played.

With a nod of her head, Mona's fingers plucked the strings to her guitar and joined in with the action of the ukelele. Odd, her bass guitar didn't sounds half bad against the more pluckier stringed instrument. Likely if she'd had a way to plug herself into an amp, the song would have been far lost in translation.

Mona didn't let her voice mingle in with his on the first verse, rather she let him sing to get a full scope of his tenor and pitch. Satisfied that she could match him in harmony she joined in.

Sonny grinned widely as she pitched in - it seemed like the two instruments worked really well together! Those deep-set tones were a good accompaniment to the bouncy strums of his ukulele. And their voices seemed to mesh well, too. His voice was hardly deep, but it was deep enough to offset her higher one and work out to be a pleasing duet.

"..laaa-dee-dah-dee-dah-dah-doooo~~~~~~" he finished.

The guitar reverberated on the last notes to coincide with Sonny's closing lyric. Mona kept her eye closed and let the echos of the duet slowly slip away into the breeze whooshing through the trees. Butterflies in her stomach began to flutter from the nostalgia her guitar evoked in her hands. Playing again with a fellow so enthusiastic about his music threw Mona back to the days when she stood on stage playing for the roaring crowds of the Hawt House. Alongside her band members Art and Deco of course who provided the muscles to her songs, of course.

Those memories alone of the good days being the sudden up and coming rock star elicited a sort of regret in Mona. Giving up that profession was the hardest choice she had to make, but life as always remained to be a fickle mistress.

Opening her eyes to where Sonny sat in front of her, Mona opened her mouth to compliment his playing but was interrupted when the silence of the passing song was broken by clapping. But...who? Startled at the sound, Mona glanced over her shoulder at the congregation of people standing in their midst, all clapping seemingly at their improvisational concert. A flush of embarrassment perked on Mona as she turned back to Sonny, a spy smile appearing on her lips.

"Goodness, would you look at that! Seems we've attracted an small, adoring audience" she chuckled, pulling on the brim of her hat. How long had these people been standing and listening in? They seemed to have popped out of nowhere between the time she opened and closed her times. Judging by the smiles on each individual and the amount of clapping, they must have enjoyed the show to the fullest Mona noted.

"Oh wow!"

Sonny turned to look at them too, genuinely surprised - he had thought they were pretty much alone out here, so, he hadn't really been expecting anyone to walk over. (Then again, Mona had proved him wrong on that score already so how surprised could he really be?) He smiled and gave a small wave to the onlookers.

"Thank you!" he said before doing a little bow.

"Say, Sonny?" Mona gently nudged her fellow musician with her elbow to catch his attention away from the crowd. A question in her had to ask, mostly out respect for the sudden appearance of their onlookers.

"You've very talented and I've been wondering, do you play for crowds like this all the time or on occasion?" she motioned her hand to their attracted onlookers and in return followed up with a small wave to them.

"Oh, um, never?" Sonny replied honestly. "Usually? I only just practice by myself or play for one or two people. One time I played on a beach and I guess more people could hear me, but mostly I was playing so a friend had something to dance to."

"You know, this is just my opinion mind you, so feel totally free to ignore it. I think you have the potential to turn your talent into something bigger, something huge" Mona picked her words carefully for Sonny's sake. She didn't want to feel as if she was putting on pressure to leave his comfort zone.

"Have you considered broadening your horizons by expanding on more than simply a few people? What I'm trying to say is, has the thought of playing for a smaller crowd crossed your mind before?"

"Oh! I mean, of course?" Sonny replied, his face flushing bright pink. "But I thought maybe I should probably wait until I'm really, really good first? And know a lot of songs so no-one gets bored?"

He was a little self conscious - hence heading out here where he thought he was alone to practice.

"Do you think I'm actually good enough to play to that many people?"

"I do. I really do think you have what it takes to bring in a little bang for your buck as far as music is concerned." Mona's brows knitted in concentration, a finger poking her temples as her nose scrunched up. "Or...is that a buck for your bang? Ah, whatever! However that saying goes, I'm positive you could make it a definite goal if you're looking to drum up some extra cash."

Chuckling as she plucked her guitar strings again in a small, melodic ditty of her pizzeria's business jingle, she then added to her train of thought. "Though, yeah. Learning a variety of songs instead of playing two or three over and over again would lead to a very boring concert for sure. You can easily expand your horizons on that front, no sweat! You've proved you can pick a song rather quickly by ear, so learning new playlist shouldn't be the end all, be all."

"Oh, I don't know about playing for money." Sonny replied. "I do already have a job? And I can learn simple songs by ear, but harder ones take me a while - you wouldn't believe how long it took me to get Rainbow Connection right!"

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[Open Log] Ch-Ch-Cherry Blossoms

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