Inhale, Strum, Exhale [Open]

If there was one thing that could make the shy and reclusive guitarist come out of his shell, it was being up here, out of view and earshot of anyone else. Settled on the ledge carefully, a small bag plopped down near his legs, the raven stroked his thumb over the strings on his old, beaten-up acoustic guitar he'd brought with him. It felt so good to just do this, to be open without any questions. Gently, his fingers settled correctly on the frets, and strumming to the beat of the classical music he knew so well, he let the guitar mimic the sound of what it would be on a piano. He could feel the tension easing out from him, and here, under the open sky, he felt safe and comfortable for the first time since he'd come here.

It didn't take long for the music to switch to something more known, away from the Ludwig Van, and toward the sweet teasings of more contemporary names. It was painfully easy to make a medley, going between so many different classic rocks songs, from House Of The Rising Sun, Hotel California, to Sweet Child O' Mine and Every Rose Has Its Thorns. Where he excelled was music; he could pretty much play anything, given a few hours to tinker and a few weeks to perfect it. And as he let the music roll over his senses, he slid to other songs, Crazy Train and Freak On A Leash following and molding into one long play. His fingers were easy on his guitar, careful not to break the old thing more than it was.

At least, for once, he felt comfortable; the only thing River Haggard was confident about was his music, and right now, he didn't care if his only audience was the birds above; looking toward the ocean he could just make out and the guitar pressing down on his blown out muddied jeans, he played for the animals that wanted to hear him, and he played for the ease of his own soul. His shoe scuffed the roof continuously as it moved to the beat, his chest pressing at the old wood of the Fender acoustic, the soft press of his AC/DC T-shirt keeping them separated. Free Falling came next on his medley, and it was just so calming to murmur the lyrics under his breath as he closed his eyes and let the worries and stress just...fade. Let the world have its anger and hate, violence and rage; all he wanted was music, peace, and a little bit of attention that wasn't meant to be harmful.

Who cared who was playing the music, after all? It was probably a release for anyone down below who could hear him, too. That was what his music was all about, after all; to soothe the beast inside anyone it possibly could, to prove to someone that they were worth so very much more. A message he wished he'd been told years ago.

The roof tended to be rather void of people, Miller knew this fairly well. Since he still feared the possibility of somebody skulking about in his room he’d chosen to stake out atop the roof until he deemed it an appropriate and safe time to return to his room. Even then, he wasn’t sure what sort of traps or other dangerous designs someone would lay in his room while he was gone. There was also a strong possibility that no one had invaded his room and he was just overreacting to that knock at his door some time ago, but even low possibilities meant that there was still a chance. Luck was not something that Miller had in spades.

So for a good majority of the day, the colossal man hid in the shadows of the roof access door; a place that would keep him relatively unseen by anyone who would decide to venture around the roof. He shifted positions throughout the day depending on the position of the sun since his pure black eyes didn’t appreciate the light, but the most trouble aroused when another student came to rest on the roof and play his instrument. Miller had nervously snuck out of sight of the younger looking boy and continued to remain undetected. As long as he kept quiet and didn’t expose himself he should be safe. Even then he doubted the boy had any bad intentions, it was just that he preferred to be unseen by anyone until his dorm was safe to return to. Overtime though, the melodies of the man began to soothe the twitchy and unnerved blade wielder. Making Miller calm down was quite a feat in it of itself.

After the failure that was their attempt at taking down a giant ice golem, Lon was fairly disappointed in himself. The plan was so perfect and he would’ve gotten the recognition of being a hero, but it seems that just wasn’t in the cards. Two of his clones were wandering up the steps to the roof access, their heads somewhat sunken below their shoulders. One was equipped with a backpack, with each step he took up the stairs a clank of two stone objects rung throughout the hall. It was time to ditch the artifacts they found and they felt tossing them off the top of the school was the most sensible idea.

As the imposter duo creaked open the door they noticed that they weren’t going to be alone up here, which would make their actions hard to go unnoticed. “Dang, I thought you said this place was usually abandoned” one of the young boys whispered to the other. “Hey, I know exactly as much as you do” the other answered “maybe we can sneak past him?” The two looked each other in the eye and nodded. With that, they silently opened the door a bit wider and began to tiptoe around the structure of the roof access in hopes that their movements were quieter than the music that the man was playing.

Eventually the trio found one another, which caused a stare down between the two sides. Miller might have been sitting down, but he was still at the same eye level as the two Lons. The monstrous man quivered at the sight of the twins, but this was still his first encounter with their group, however, Lon was quite familiar with Miller. He never actually met the real Miller, but his past imposter had left a fairly bad impression. Lon was fairly quick to jump to conclusions about this situation. With Miller hiding and the other student seeming to be unaware of his location, it looked to Lon that he was scoping out a target and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Given his gigantic bladed arm it would seem he was up to no good. “It’s monster guy!” the two of them shouted.

Miller repelled from the two of them, growing a more confused expression the longer he had the chance to think. “Who?” he questioned nervously as his head began to jitter uncontrollably.

One of the two Lons looked over to the guitar playing student and called to him. “Don’t worry guy, we’ll hold him down!” With that the two tiny child rushed at Miller and tried to grasp at his limbs, Miller in turn began to crawl backwards as fast as a one handed man could and tried to avoid making contact with his blade as much as possible. “Stay away from me” the beastly man commanded meekly.

River's gaze slid up as heard the door open. Two people? What did they want? Brushing it off, he eased his hand, but didn't pause the song. What were they doing? He had moved to put his pick away in his jeans pocket when he heard a third voice. "... What do you think you're doing?" he asked softly, standing and setting his guitar against the spot he'd been settled at. Seeing the scuffle unfolding, he bit his lip before he padded toward them. "Oi, knock that off. He hasn't been-a causin' a bit of trouble!" Not that he'd know anyone was here with him in the first place. Still. He didn't sound foreboding at all, no; but maybe his ability would help?

No, no. That wouldn't solve anything. Frowning, he approached the scene, moving to place himself in front of the boy bring bullied. Clearing his throat, he eyed the two other males, glaring slightly from behind his mane of dark hair. "If ya got a problem, mate, don't approach it with violence. It just pisses off the wrong people." So maybe his mixed accent of British and German wasn't intimidating, hut he could try.

Taking a step back, he tried to put distance between them. They'd have to actually strike before he would attempt using his barrier. But he had to be careful. Fire was still fire, after all, and in his palm, it was starting to spark in warning


(If I don't reply too quickly, it's because the internet was shut off. I can use my phone's 3G,, but it can be a bit touchy on proboards.)

The swift movements of the musically mused male halted any sort of scuffle between the two groups of students. The Lon clones had pulled back as their target was obscured and the two starred up at the older student. The one with the backpack swung the accessory off and let the tough blocks within it impact against the floor rather recklessly. One of the youngsters glared at the man as he spoke down to them like they didn’t know any better. Whether or not that was the actual case wasn’t the point of his rebellious attitude. The second Lon on the other hand had a somewhat concerned look to his countenance. “Dude, we’re doing this to protect you. That guy is up to no good!” one of the Lon’s explained as though the older guy was the one out of line. “Even if he’s not causing trouble now, doesn’t mean he won’t. Just look at that blade.”

Miller was somewhat thankful for the man having to step in. He had no clue what caused the two boys to react like that to him, but apparently they had already encountered him or were familiar with what he had done. If that was the case they knew too much already. It wasn’t safe for him to be here since the boys knew of his past sins. Even if the guitar player was on his side for the time being that didn’t mean that he couldn’t be convinced otherwise. A simple exchange of the bloodshed he had caused at that farm would be enough to turn the rest of the residences of the roof against him and he didn’t enjoy those odds. “I mean nobody any harm” Miller spoke rather frailly as he began to regain his footing. At full height, he easily towered over the entire group, there really was no contest there.

“Yeah? Then what’s with the blade arm?” one of them immediately picked up on as Miller stated his peace. “What kind of use would you have for a sword arm if not to hurt other people?” the other had chimed in. The two of them looked above the student in front of them in order to get a good gaze at the colossus behind him. One reverted his eyes to the boy blocking their attack attempts. “We’ve seen that guy sneaking around the alleyways at the port and in the forest, he’s always up to no good.”

Miller’s eyes widened as the boys mentioned his left arm. He cringed as he tried to think up a reasonable counter argument to their point, but came up with nothing. As much as his arm was a nuisance and a danger to everyone around him, he couldn’t get rid of it. Without it he’d be too weak to deal with whatever came his way, besides he didn’t trust doctors enough to allow them to operate and remove it from his arm. Neither were an excuse to why he had it to begin with, they were just reasons to why he hadn’t gotten rid of it yet. He said nothing and rather began to hide his blade behind his back and lower his head.

“See? He doesn’t even try to explain himself”


(No worries, I’m fairly patient)

OOC; Thread Retired, almost a year old and no response. Message Seren or I to have it reopened.