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Name: Elliot Craig
Date: 5/10
Format: voice

[In the background, there's the sound of a record playing cheerful music. ]

Hi everyone! I'm Elliot, it's nice to meet you all even if this isn't where you wanna be right now. Sorry about that. I teach music and I'm a healer with Coven infirmary training. So if you need either of those things, just lemme know!

Anyway, um, I had a question. What's music like where you're from? Or what kind of music do you like? There's so many people from different places, I feel like I'm always finding out something new and I'd like to learn as much as I can.

Oh- I'll start. I'm from Erebonia and we have a lot of classical music - stuff with lutes, violins, piano, etc. Operas are pretty popular too, though in the last few years Northern rock - or I guess just rock, has been spreading! Oh, and radio's really big. I still miss listening to my favorite radio show honestly...

S-Sorry, didn't mean to ramble. What about you guys?

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Yeah, I must have run them by Yuki a hundred times...I was so nervous that first time, but it was a little bit easier the second. I managed to write them in full before I ran them by him, at least.

[Not necessarily out of less nervousness, but because it had taken him some time to work up to telling Yuki what he needed to tell him alongside the lyrics.]

He's so amazing at it, though...we're on our way to six years working together, and I feel like he's still surprising me all the time. Like he keeps evolving.

[And this is minus the five additional years before that Momo was a fan of his rather than his partner.]

Hehe, your partner sounds pretty incredible indeed. I can really tell how much you care about him!

[Honestly it's endearing. He's glad this guy has someone like this in his life, even if Yuki isn't here usually in Aefenglom]

I'd love to hear a song written by you sometime though! Once you're ready, of course.

[Momo laughs at that, a sweet and cheerful kind of thing.] What can I say, my darling is a real talent! It's hard to stop talking about him once I've started.

[Though his tone shifts a little when he comes back around to talking about himself, almost apologetic.] I've got the first one I wrote, at least, but the second one we hadn't quite released before I got pulled here. So I'd feel bad giving it out to anyone, since it was for a certain event back home.

[They'd pretty much finished the actual creating process by the time he ended up here, it's just coming before that actual first performance that's stopping him offering it out.]

I'll have the video I mentioned ready in a second, though, so you can look forward to that in the meantime! Yuki really had to speed-write that one and it still came out amazing...

It sure seems that way!

[He's tempted to ask if they're dating but you know, that might be an awkward question so he bites back on it. This guy seems fully devoted to Yuki either way, so]

Oh that's understandable, I wouldn't want to make you release a song before you're read to share it. But I'd love to hear the first one!

[But oh new video excellent] Hehe, great!

I'll do that next, then! It's a pretty fun song, since we wrote it as a theme for a big international university sports tournament.

[It's also basically one long and complicated science pun, but he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it. For now, there's a video being sent over.]

Anyway, here. This one's more electronic than our latest stuff, but it's still only a couple of months old. It was the theme for a movie Yuki was starring in, so you get a little acting and dancing!

[The video in question opens rather dramatically, a setting shot over Tokyo, and a cut to a rooftop where a suited man with long silver hair raises a gun to the head of a man dressed all in black, the white tips of his hair and hot pink eyes breaking up the muted colour. From there, it intercuts between two points of view - Momo and Yuki dancing in two different costumes that shift between certain shots and scenes, one more militaristic and one with feathered "wings" pouring over one shoulder, and the two characters they're performing in the setting that first shot originally established. Even without context, it's likely identifiable that Yuki is playing a law enforcement officer of some kind, and Momo in turn is a criminal with a penchant for blowing things up. They chase and clash in various ways throughout the short drama, the song lyrics implying the officer would rather find a way to save the criminal than kill him, but the music video ends where it began, with Yuki's character on a rooftop aiming a gun at Momo's head. The last sound in the music video is a gunshot over eerie wind that sinks into a fading, colourless version of the first setting shot.

Also, on that "maybe dating" topic, in scenes with the more military-looking dancing outfit, it's possible to catch that Momo and Yuki are both wearing identical black rings shaped like a musical repeat symbol on their left hands.]

[Elliot will turn on the video, you can hear him watching it through the voice chat. He gasps once and awhile, sounds REALLY surprised and amazed throughout it. Video production was...nowhere near this level back home, considering they just invented video cameras two years ago.

So when it's finished? Elliot is pretty overwhelmed, and can only be summed up-]

....W-Whoa.

[Momo's tapping around on his end again as Elliot watches, though he's definitely still listening out for the reactions. When he comes to the end and just has that to say, Momo gives a cheeky little laugh.]

Yeah, we've gotten a bit further with video technology in my world than this one has. Recording seems fine here, but editing not so much, and that's a huge deal in my time.

[Momo knows the video basically off by heart, so he's assuming from the timing of the reactions that it was the video and not the music that prompted them.]

[Elliot sounds completely awed]

It's incredible! I've never seen anything like it! Was it technology that produced all those effects? Or was it a type of illusion magic?

I wonder if it could be recreated here...

Technology! We don't have magic in my world. [Which Momo knows by now makes him a bizarre kind of rarity among the arrivals here, because even most of the people he's met who seemed to be from worlds like that at the outset turned out not to be.]

I've definitely been using illusion to do stuff like change costumes since I arrived here, but the more complicated stuff would probably take longer to replicate. It'd need a lot of detail to compare.

Wow! That's even more impressive then!

[Before coming here, he had already thought his world was pretty advanced, but looks like they were just at the beginning. Which was exhilarating.]

Hmm...last year there was a concert during the summer that was run by illusionists. They were really skilled at conjuring images that went along with people's music.

I wonder if its going to happen again this year...

Oh, that would be really fun! I wouldn't want to perform without Yuki, but I could definitely do stage illusions, since that's been so much of what I've been using to practice my illusions since I got here.

[Momo sounds excited at the prospect, but he's also got one more thing to show off, and after a moment, his tapping away in the background stops, since he had a few more minutes to get things happening on his end with the video playing.]

Anyway, here's that first song I was lyricist for...I don't think I told you the names, did I? The first one was Re-raise, the second was NO DOUBT, and this one is called Eternity Theory.

[~~Which is a considerably less unwieldy translation than the more literal "Theory of the Nature of Eternity".~~ The song is akin to the more upbeat, jazzy tone that Re-raise had (if a bit calmer), since it's almost as recent, but rather than the flirtatious lyrics of that song, the words here are reassuring and supportive, encouraging people to come back from uncertainty and sadness and find their own direction. Considering the positive attitude Momo's had for most of the conversation, it's probably not hard to tell it came from him even without having been told.]

Hehe, great! I'll be performing for sure, so maybe I'll ask for your help!

[ Since there's no way Elliot could pass up an opportunity to play for people.

He listens to the song, paying attention to the lyrics more]

That's a really nice song! It's so nice and encouraging! Your own positive attitude really shines through on it.

Definitely let me know if you decide to perform! I'd love to be part of something like that.

[Even when he can't directly participate in events like that, he tends to support them in any way he can, even back home. But for now, since it's just a theoretical, he flips over to send out some other messages to his radio coworkers while Elliot listens to the song.

The compliment gets a bit of a self-conscious laugh.] That's what I was trying to aim for because of the soccer tournament we wrote it for...I used to play soccer for most of my childhood, so I was trying to channel that same kind of fun, do-your-best feeling that I always had into it. I'm glad it comes through even out of context!

Will do!

[He does wonder how long this guy is going to insist on not performing without Yuki, since he's sure his partner wouldn't mind that much. But he'll bring that up another day.]

I'd say it does! It sounds like something you'd have at a sports game. [...Elliot has no idea what soccer is, but honestly that might be less because of his world and more because he's bad at sports]

I don't think we had many songs like that at the tournaments when I was in high school, but I kind of wish we did. I might've gotten into music sooner!

[He laughs as if he's giving himself a bit of flak with that. He was kind of hyperfocused on sport before his accident forced him to branch out.]

Hopefully I'll be able to write a wider variety of stuff going forward, but I was glad I could come out with a good enough first try.

["Good enough" doesn't sound like much of a compliment, but by Momo's standards he might as well be shooting off a confetti cannon for himself to admit that it was adequate.]

Yeah, I know the feeling. I might actually have more interest in sports if there was more music at it.

[There are two types of people, clearly]

Hehe, just keep at it!

Sounds like something Yuki would say...I can barely drag him out of the house some days, let alone getting him to do sports.

[Is this a composer thing??? Clearly he needs to ask Sougo or Minami if they ever show up here.]

I'm planning to! I thought it would just be a one-off initially, but I talked to Yuki about doing it more often just before I came here, so hopefully it'll work out.

Hehe, yeah. I can relate to that for sure.

[Elliot is the guy that occasionally complains if you walk a lot]

I'm sure it will! A good musician always works to improve themselves and reach new heights!

Right, I want to keep on evolving! Momo-chan isn't the type to be left behind!

[Even if he doesn't often have faith in his abilities, he's determined and generally pushes on through anyway.]

Anyway, did you have any other questions about our music? Since I don't want to leave you hanging with anything.

That's the spirit! I look forward to seeing what new heights you soar too!

[And he'll be doing the same!]

Haha, oh I have about hundred and even more once I fully analyze it - but I'll let you go for today. Thank you so much for sharing! I learned so much!

Don't mention it! It's always fun to be able to share things from home, so I'm glad it could help you out!

[Honestly, he sometimes feels like he doesn't have much to share compared to the kinds of places people are coming from.]

I'll see you around sometime, then! Or if they hold that concert again!

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