Chapter Text
Aijan Vume, green eyes curious in his blue-skinned face, leaned into the doorway of his bandmate's obsessively tidy cabin on the Wachamio! touring yacht.
"Hey, Le'tzig, what you workin' on?" The Twi'lek asked.
Danyal sighed, running a dark brown-fuzzed hand through his long tan hair in annoyance. The stage name his band mates had chosen for him years ago did lend a certain romantic mystique to his image (as if being a member of a near-mythical species wasn't enough); but he still wished they'd call him by his real name when they weren't on stage.
His stage name, "Le'tzigane" was what Twi'leks colloquially called the Ryn species (or beings that followed a similar nomadic lifestyle), and it was often used pejoratively. It was kind of like Danyal calling Wachamio!'s lead singer "The 'Lek" instead of Aijan. But, no matter how much he had explained it years ago, Danyal's bandmates never quite understood the problem with their name for him. He'd long since given up.
Danyal finished a few more notations before looking up from his mini computer's terminal.
"A new song for the band," he answered finally.
"Excellent," Aijan said enthusiastically. "Let's hear it."
"I don't have any lyrics yet, or a quetarra or bass quetarra line," Danyal explained as he queued up the music composition app's playback. "But here's the tune."
A syncopated beat on drums with an occasional accent of synthesized horns sounded from the speaker. After a few measures of intro, the vocal melody began, represented by some basic synth notes.
Aijan nodded to the rhythm. "I'm likin' that, a mambo, isn't it?"
"With a little jazz and swing in it, yeah." Danyal confirmed.
"That's what, the fifth mambo you've written for us?"
"Yeah, I think so."
Aijan started swaying, then improvising a few dance steps, front, back, side to side. He was the group's choreographer in addition to the lead vocalist.
The ship's intercom beeped. Aaced Vume's excited voice echoed through the yacht:
"Alriiiight, Wachamios . The Party Barge is fully docked planetside on Ixtlar. We got 36 standard hours until call time for the concert, time to get out and find some fun while our tech crew starts setting up. I think I saw a place to get some drinks 'round the corner as we were landing. Let's ride!"
Aijan laughed at his brother's announcement.
"You heard my little bro, let's go." He extended a hand and helped pull Danyal out of his chair at the terminal. "Which girl you want to hang with tonight?"
"Dunno." Danyal absently smoothed his short-trimmed tan mustache and goatee as he thought. The band had a mixed-race group of a half dozen or so female dancers and backup singers that toured with them. He didn't have a particular favorite. He'd 'hung out' with most of them at some point, like most of the band members had.
"Let's just bring 'em all," Danyal shrugged. “It's been a long trip, we all need some time to unwind before call time."
"Little bit of all of them tonight, yeah?" Aijan winked. "I like the way you think."
Danyal grabbed a flashy, yet stylish jacket from the many in his closet. This one had the band's logo across the back, red against the jacket's black leather. He followed his bandmate out the door.
The band's aircar had extended seating. It could carry all the band's five musicians, and more. Aijan Vume was the Twi'lek lead vocalist and choreographer. His brother Aaced was the keyboardist, synth effects and secondary vocalist. Danyal played quetarra, base, and other strings. Bardirel Chirran, a Klatooinian male, was on percussion. And Sasta, a male Iridonian Zabrak, played multiple types of brass and wind instruments. All their dancers piled in as well. The roof of the aircar was retractable, and today they rode with the top down. They took in the sights of Ixtlar's capital city; scoping out the next bar, club, or spice den, whatever struck their interest. No one in the group was more than about twenty-five standard years old. They were young, wild, and free (as long as they kept their gigs). They had built quite a fan base among young adults of all species all along the Corellian Run in their almost five years together.
--
"Hey, hey, so, check this out," Bardirel said as he sat down at a table in the private party room the band reserved at a restaurant. They'd decided to stop there for dinner after a couple exhausting hours of club hopping. A few extra cute fans they'd run into along the way were tagging along, adding to their original group.
One of those fangirls had recognized "Le'tzigane" immediately. After a short chat and a couple drinks, the green-skinned Mirialan hadn't left his side since. Not that Danyal was complaining, she was kind of shy, but damn cute. The fangirls usually went after the Twi'leks, or occasionally, the Zabrak. It was kinda nice to have someone interested in him specifically.
"This guy I just talked to says there's a Fortune Teller nearby who burns these 'special herbs' for you and then reads the future in the smoke," Bardirel continued excitedly. "Any one question you want, and the futures are absolutely true!"
Danyal rolled his eyes and scoffed, the snort coming out as a multi-note whistle from the holes in his fluted nose.
The fangirl leaning against his shoulder jumped in surprise. "What was that?"
Danyal covered his face in embarrassment. He'd worked really hard for five years now to change his natural breathing habits and mannerisms to not whistle like that. But right now he was half drunk and more than a little high, it was hard to focus on things.
"It came from his nose!" Sasta laughed (a little too loudly) at Danyal's embarrassment. "Le'tziganes can play them like some kind of musical instrument. I saw a group of them do it at a carnival once, it was so weird."
The Mirialan pulled Danyal's hand away from his face. She draped his arm over her shoulders and leaned against him again.
"It's not weird, just different," she smiled up at the Ryn. "It startled me is all."
Danyal gave her shoulders a little squeeze, he was liking this babe even more. Jess, he thought she'd said her name was.
"Come on, Le'tzig," Bardirel said, shifting the focus back to his exciting find. "You don't believe in it? Your people have Fortune Tellers, I saw them at that same carnival with Sasta."
"Yeah, fakers, taking your money and impressing you with cards and telling you vague stories that could apply to any situation," Danyal explained. He tapped a menu screen on the table with his free hand, ordering some appetizers.
"I think we should do it! All of us!" Bardirel announced. "Hey, at the very least it's got an interesting herb involved, might be something we've not tried yet."
Danyal rolled his eyes again. "Alright, whatever, can we at least have dinner first?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure."
--
"Hey, are you ok?" Danyal said, turning to Jess. She'd been quieter than usual the past few minutes as the group ate dinner.
Jess looked sick, in fact, like she was about to throw up.
"Whoah, not in here, come on, let's go." Danyal grabbed her by the arm and helped her to the nearest door out of the building. It led into a back alley behind the restaurant. He found and dragged over a garbage bin just in time.
Her stomach emptied, Jess looked a bit better.
"You really aren't used to drinking, are you?" Danyal asked as the young lady stood up. Her bare legs were a bit shaky under her short skirt. She leaned against the wall, wrapping her arms around her midsection.
"No, I'm not. I've, uh, never actually drunk alcohol before tonight," she admitted quietly. Her accented Basic sounded somewhat slurred and more than a little embarrassed. "Was trying to fit in, so you'd let me hang around."
"Babe, just showing interest in wanting to talk to me was enough, I bought you the drinks because I was trying to keep you around a little longer." Danyal chuckled, leaning his shoulder against the wall beside her, hands in his jacket pockets. "I'm not usually the one the ladies go for."
"Why not? I think you're fascinating and amazingly talented." Jess turned slightly to smile at the Ryn musician as she spoke.
He shrugged, "Most of our fans tend to be more on the fully human or Twi'lek side of 'humanoid', Bardirel and I are little too far on the ‘alien’ side."
"Well, I hitched a ride here from the next system over just to get a chance to see you in concert," Jess admitted.
She shivered slightly. The girl should have probably paid better attention to local weather conditions before deciding to wear that sleeveless top and skirt. Not that Danyal minded the view, but it looked a little cold.
"I never dreamed I'd meet you in person," the fangirl continued.
"But still, why me?" Danyal asked. He took off his jacket and offered it to her, leaving him in a stylish red vest. Jess accepted the jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
"I've always liked the quetarra," Jess explained, leaning back against the wall. She looked up at the fading daylight in the sky between the buildings stretching above her. "I've been learning to play for a couple of years now. Mostly classical though. But a friend at university showed me a few of Wachamio!'s vids, and I was impressed by your skill. Then I learned that every one of the best Wachamio! songs were ones you'd written."
Danyal smiled to himself a little as he leaned back against the wall again, folding his arms across his chest. He'd always thought his songs were better than Aijan or Aaced's, but figured it was just conceit.
"That told me that you were not just an excellent quetarra player, but a gifted musician all-around. All the various instrumental parts of those songs work so well together, you must know how to play all of them," Jess concluded.
"To one degree or another, yeah... I do." Danyal admitted self-consciously. "Ryn are pretty versatile musicians, but I seem to be even better at it than most of my people."
"See, you've got to be one of the best musicians in the Galaxy!" Jess exclaimed.
Danyal scooted closer to the Mirialan. He whispered into her ear: "Hey, if you've been trying to flatter me into keeping you around, it's working."
"No, really, I'm serious." Jess began. She turned to look at him, saw his smirk, and realized he was teasing her.
She stared at him silently for a moment, and started to extend one hand from under the jacket, but stopped and switched to rubbing her chevron-tattooed chin in thought. It looked like there was something she was wanting to say, or do, but wasn't sure if she should.
"What is it?" Danyal asked. "Go ahead, it's ok."
"Can I, um, touch your fur?" Jess asked, embarrassment turning her face a deeper green. "I've... I've always wondered what it feels like..."
Danyal laughed, "Well, that's a request I don't hear every day. Sure, go ahead." He uncrossed his arms and held his left one out in front of her.
Jess reached out tentatively, laying her hand gently on his shoulder and running it down his upper arm. He shivered, and not from the slight chill in the air. His eyes followed her hand with its black inked diamond pattern on each finger.
"So soft, like velvet," she remarked in surprise.
"Yeah, until you get to there, going that direction," Danyal grabbed her hand as she reached his elbow, he lifted and repositioned it at his wrist and guided her to move upwards towards his elbow again. "You'll run into some pokey bits if you keep going that other direction."
"'Pokey bits'? Is that the technical term?" Jess laughed as she stroked the somewhat longer and much thicker hairs on his forearm.
"Nah, that's--." He mumbled a word in Ryn. "Um, 'quills'? I guess is the best translation in Basic. I try to keep the bigger ones trimmed, they could inflict damage on someone if I'm not careful."
"Self-defense mechanism?" the Mirialan asked, carefully inspecting the hairs.
"Yeah, mostly autonomic, but somewhat controllable." Danyal squeezed his hand into a fist and shook his arm, numerous additional smaller barb-tipped quills stood out from the surrounding softer hairs.
"That's pretty wicked, actually." She smiled.
"So, you feeling ok to go back in?" Danyal asked, smoothing the hairs back down on his forearm a bit self-consciously.
"Yeah, a lot better. I might even try another drink after dinner," Jess joked.
---
"Rel, this is ridiculous," Danyal grumbled an hour later as they arrived at the Fortune Teller's shop in a dark, seedy part of the city. "I doubt there's even room for all of us in there."
"Then just the five of us will go in. Come on, trust me, it'll be fun." The Klatooinian begged.
"Hey, I don't know if I'm just drunk, or Rel's convinced me," Aaced announced. He climbed out of the aircar. "I wanna do this."
"Alright ladies, go do some lady stuff for an hour or two, get a manicure or something. We'll comm you to pick us up, ok?" Aijan said as he got out of the aircar's pilot seat.
"Alright baby, see you then." Rita, an orange-skinned female Twi'lek, replied. She slid into the pilot's seat and waved in a shoo-ing motion for Aijan to get going.
Danyal somewhat reluctantly pried himself out from between the once-again drunk Jess (it had only taken her one drink, he'd cut her off after that), and one of the band's dancers, a dark-skinned human named San'dra. The Ryn grabbed the open edge of the car and was about to launch himself over when a sharp tug on the end of his prehensile tail brought him tumbling backwards across the two girls' laps.
"What the--?" He started, but was silenced by a somewhat sloppy kiss from the Mirialan.
"You have fun, come back'me soon, 'k...?" Jess grinned, slurring slightly as she spoke. She held the end of his tail in her hand.
"Damn, I am definitely coming back," Danyal promised. He watched the girl run her fingers across the tuft of thick tan hair at the end of his tail. It tickled. He liked it.
"Come on, Le'tzig, you can play with the ladies later," Sasta chided. He reached into the car to pull Danyal up. "You can do it all night if you want, but right now, you're coming with us."
"All right, all right, I'm coming." Danyal sighed, reluctantly removing himself from the girls' laps.
The shop interior was cleaner, but no less mysteriously dark and shadowed than the alley outside. The bandmates were ushered into a room draped with once-colorful wall hangings. Their money was collected and they were seated cross-legged on floor cushions around a small brazier of glowing coals. The heat was stifling, Danyal was glad he'd left his jacket on Jess.
Suddenly there was a flash of light and a loud bang. When their vision and the smoke cleared, an old male Iktotchi sat across from them, sitting serenely as if meditating.
"Welcome, gentlemen," the Iktotchi spoke. "Questions you have, answers I can give, if you will complete with me the ancient rites."
Danyal rested his elbow on one knee and his chin in his hand. This was going to be GREAT, he thought sarcastically.
"Which of you wants to begin?" the sage inquired.
"Oh, oh, I do!" Bardirel yelped.
"Come forward young man. Kneel before the brazier and take one of the leaves from the basket beside it."
Bardirel nearly upset the coals in his excitement to comply.
"Now, think of your question about your future, ponder it carefully as you hold the leaf," the Iktotchi instructed. "Then ask your question clearly as you lay the leaf upon the fire. I will read your answer in the smoke."
The Klatooinian took a leaf, and closed his eyes.
"You are ready?"
"Yes."
"Then ask."
"Will I still be rich and famous when I die?" Bardirel asked, laying the dry leaf from the unknown plant on the coals.
The smoke rose, thin and twisting in the rising heat. The old Iktotchi watched the patterns, then breathed in the smoke. After a moment, he spoke.
"You will be as rich and famous as you are today."
Bardirel raised a fist in triumph and sat back down.
"I'll go next." Aijan went forward and asked his question.
"If I ask Rita to marry me, will she love me for the rest of my life?"
Aaced nudged Danyal and whispered, "See, like I told ya last week, totally saw that coming."
"Indeed, she will, but do not delay to ask her." The Iktotchi replied.
Sasta went next: "Will I ever find my sister, will she ever know I escaped?"
The rest of the bandmates glanced at each other with raised eyebrows. Sasta was a really tight-lipped guy about his past, none of them knew what he was talking about.
"She will know your story, but you will not be the one to tell it," came the answer after a few moments.
Sasta sat back down with a somewhat confused look on his face.
"Your turn," Aaced said, nudging Danyal again.
"Nah, I don't even know what to ask." Danyal answered. "You go first."
"All right, but you be ready." Aaced grabbed a leaf. "Will my music live on after I am gone?"
"Yes, your music will be passed on for many, many years after your death," the Iktotchi prophesied.
"Nice, THAT'S a legacy, man, my music passed on after I die." Aaced smiled as he reached back and dragged Danyal over to the brazier.
"Ask away, Le'tzig." The Twi'lek said as he sat back on a cushion.
Danyal knelt in front of the brazier. This is so stupid, he thought. The smoke in the air was making him a little dizzy, he just wanted to get it over with and get out.
"Ask him about finding a girl." Aijan suggested.
"There was a pretty nice one sitting in the aircar you guys made me leave." Danyal replied with a laugh.
"Nah, he's not talking about for tonight." Aaced snorted. "We know you, you wanna settle down someday, make some babies, pass on your genes, all that stuff. You can't do that with that Mirialan babe."
"Do it, ask him about the girl you're destined to marry." Bardirel urged.
Danyal sighed and grabbed the last leaf from the basket. He closed his eyes and focused.
How will I know who I am meant to be with forever, if there is even such a thing? Where will I find her? Will I have to go crawling back to my clan, abandoning my music career? Will I resent leaving this crazy life? Will she even want me?
Danyal opened his eyes and asked: "Who am I meant to marry? How will I know her?"
He threw the leaf on the fire and watched the smoke rise. He looked up, the Iktotchi was staring through the smoke at him. The old one breathed, and spoke.
"She is already known to you, but was lost, and will be found again..."
So, someone from my clan, Danyal thought, Damn, I'll have to face Gandan again someday, it figures. Who was still missing from the clan when I left? Not many.
"...she is the color of the sunset upon a field of ripe grain."
Huh, a light reddish orangey brown...? No, no way...
Danyal began to laugh.
"What?" Aijan asked. "Do you know who he's talking about?"
Danyal did not answer, he was laughing too hard.
"Thanks for the laugh, old man," Danyal said finally, standing up. "I don't know how you know about her, or if it's a random guess, but thanks. Good night."
Danyal left the shop as quickly as he could, he needed to get out into the fresh air. His band mates came out behind him, confused and more than a little concerned.
"What's wrong with you, man?" Bardirel asked. Danyal was still giggling, and it was starting to take on an edge of hysteria.
"Yes, I know her, Aijan," Danyal gasped for breath. "I'm not going to be making babies with her either."
"Why not?"
"She's a kriffing Jedi." Danyal said, bitterly, his laughter abruptly changing to anger, of all things.
The band fell silent at the venom in the usually easy-going musician's voice. Aijan coughed awkwardly and pulled out his comlink, signaling the ladies to come pick them up.
---
"How'd it go?" Rita asked as she scooted over to let Aijan take the pilot's seat again.
"Oh, standard fortune-teller stuff, mostly." Aijan replied, leaning over to kiss the orange Twi'lek on the cheek.
"And then he told Le'tzig he was going to marry a Jedi!" Bardirel laughed as he took his seat.
Everyone laughed, except Danyal.
"Wait, seriously?" San'dra asked as she moved over to let Danyal take his place again.
"Seriously," he muttered.
---
"So, what's your problem with Jedi?" Sasta asked. Somewhere near dawn, the party had made their way to a mostly empty cafe. It was attached to the venue they'd be performing at later that night.
Danyal was sitting in the back corner of a booth, still acting withdrawn and thoughtful. Jess was snuggled up next to him, still wearing his jacket. She sipped an iced caf, trying to clear her head a bit after their all-night partying. The Iridonian Zabrak sat across from them with a cup of hot caf, waiting expectantly for Danyal to answer his question.
Jess looked up at Danyal with interest, she was curious herself.
"Let me tell you a story," Danyal said. He took a deep breath, letting it out with a brief whistle escaping his nose. He didn't even notice or care.
"There was once a clan of Ryn, the Itannos. They lived a typical Ryn life, despite being on the run from a slaver who their clanleader had upset years before by resisting when the slaver tried to kidnap half the clan. The Itannos found a pretty good hiding place on a backwater planet, with jobs working fields and fixing harvester droids."
Danyal snatched Jess's drink and stole a sip. His throat was dry, and this was going to be a bit of difficult talking.
"One day, these two Jedi wander into the clan's hidden camp. In the middle of a wedding feast. They say the Force brought them there, and one of them is carrying a little Ryn girl... 'the color of a sunset on a field of ripe grain'... It's a pretty rare coloration, by the way, only she, her dead mother, and her aunt (who was the clanleader's wife) had that reddish-orange coloration in their clan. The rest are all the clan's more usual shades of grey, brown, or black.
"The Jedi saw the little girl using the Force to heal another little Ryn who got his elbow scraped while playing on some rocks. While the Jedi were talking with the clanleader, the slavers attacked the camp, stun-blasting and scooping up helpless women and children and killing as many men as they can. The Jedi had led the slavers right to the hidden camp (probably by accident, but who knows). The Jedi, champions of justice, protectors of the innocent, do NOTHING. They take their prize, the little girl who can use the Force, and run. Leaving the Ryn clan's camp to be destroyed, and most of its members enslaved."
"Damn." Sasta muttered under his breath, his forgotten cup of caf cooling on the table.
"The little boy, and a few members of his clan, survive the next eight years in a mining and slave breeding operation. They are eventually rescued by the clanleader. The clan starts to regroup and search out the rest of the missing clan members. The little boy, though, is much more grown up now. He has spent the years watching clan members, including his mother and sister, die in the compound. He wonders if it was partially his fault they were there, if he hadn't let his special little friend heal him..."
Danyal's voice became agitated. He pounded a clenched fist on the table in long bottled up anger.
"If I had just sucked it up, dealt with it, the Jedi wouldn't have seen her heal me. They wouldn't have had their prize. They maybe, just maybe, wouldn't have left with her, leaving the slavers kidnap us all. Or maybe they would have left earlier, without the slavers ever finding us."
"No, it wasn't your fault." Jess covered Danyal's dark brown fist in her light green hand, giving him a comforting squeeze. Danyal relaxed a bit.
"Anyway, eventually, the clan leader started a partnership with another Ryn clan, the Kull. They're asteroid miners. Soon, the Itannos are doing the same kind of backbreaking work some of us had been doing for the last eight years as slaves. For fair pay this time, sure, but still much of the same work. The idea is that we will work for them pay back their help, and to earn some ships so we can go find the rest of our clan. Then, we'll make some kind of pilgrimage to Coruscant, to meet up with the girl the Jedi took away.
I thought he was crazy. Even if we did manage to all make it to Coruscant, the Jedi aren't going to let us see her. She's not even going to recognize us. She's been living with the Jedi since she was barely more than a toddler. She probably doesn't even know our language anymore."
Danyal sighed, resting his head back against the wall. "I couldn't do it. I left, making my own way, playing my guitar. Ran into Aijan and Aaced eventually."
"I'm sorry, man. That's rough." Sasta said, downing his cup of now lukewarm caf. "But what I don't get was how that fortune teller knew--"
Their commlinks beeped. The tech crew wanted to do a sound test before they all crashed for a few hours of sleep.
"I don't know, Sas, I really don't." Danyal replied. "Let's go."
--
"Hey, Le'tzig, I made copies of your new song for everyone.” Aaced announced as Danyal and Sasta climbed up onto the stage. “Let's try it out."
Danyal swore. "It isn't even done, Ced, it doesn't even have a bass line, or lyrics."
"It has lyrics now!" Aijan and Aaced announced in unison.
Danyal groaned. If they'd come up with lyrics that quickly, they were going to probably be dumb. Their first drafts usually were.
"Alright, let's get this over with, I need to get back to my cabin." Danyal muttered.
Aijan stepped up to the microphone, "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Mambo Number Five!"
Bardirel began the syncopated beat on the drums, Aaced added the synthesizer line, and Sasta's horn joined in, on a repeater to make it sound like a whole group of horns.
It didn't sound too bad... until Aijan started singing. The lyrics were basically reciting everything they'd been doing most of the night before. Then a chorus that wasn't much more than the names of their dancers and the couple other ladies that had tagged along with them. The second verse was Aijan choreographing out loud. The last half-verse or so though, sounded pretty good. When he got to that part, Aijan grabbed Rita's hand and started dancing with her, singing the words to her:
I do all
To fall in love with a girl like you
You can't run and you can't hide
You and me gonna touch the sky
He launched into the chorus one more time. He ended with Rita in his arms, looking into her eyes.
"A little bit of you makes me your man, Rita. Will you let me be your man, forever and always? Will you marry me?"
Rita looked stunned for a moment. She laughed, then tackled Aijan in a massive hug and kisses.
"Nice, congrats you two," came a voice over the band's headsets as everyone was cheering. It was the band's chief technician. "But we need Le'tzig to play something, there weren't any of his mic pickups used in that song."
Jess tapped on the Ryn's leg from where she sat on the edge of the stage. "Play something you learned from your people."
Danyal looked down at the Mirialan girl with one eyebrow quirked.
“That's where you told me you learned to play the quet-- guitar,” she replied, using the Ryn word he had used for his instrument. “Play something you learned growing up.”
"I, ah, I haven't played that kind of music for a long time." Danyal replied, looking around self-consciously at everyone. They were all watching him with variations of curiosity and interest. "And I, um, don't have my guitar. It doesn't sound right on the electric quetarra."
"Excuses!" Aaced yelled across the stage. "It's over there with the other equipment, it's even been tuned up. We've got songs in the set list you play it on."
"I haven't heard you play that kind of music since you auditioned for Aaced and I years ago." Aijan commented from where he sat in the middle of the stage, Rita wrapped around him still. "Why not?"
"Because it's not Electro-pop-funk-swing or whatever people call our music." The band members laughed at that, it was a constant debate among the music critics. "It's not Wachamio! music." Danyal paused, thinking. It hurts to play it. It represents the clan and family I abandoned. "It's part of the life I left behind me when I joined the band." He said aloud.
"None of us can completely escape the experiences that shaped us," Sasta said, walking over carrying the old, but well cared for guitar. "Nor should we."
"Ok, ok. I'll do it." Danyal gave in. "But I mean it, it's a totally different kind of music."
"Different can be good sometimes." Jess said, many of the band members nodded in agreement.
Danyal took his place on the stage, adjusting the microphone pickups. He strummed the guitar, it was technically in tune, but not quite right for what he was going to be singing.
He turned away from the mic pickup slightly and started re-tuning the guitar, Itanno style. He whistled a note through his fluted nose, and plucked a string, tweaking the tuning to match. He did the same with each string, tuning it to match the corresponding note whistled through his own natural instrument.
He was painfully, embarrassingly aware of the band members, and tech crew, and dancers and followers, and Jess, watching and listening to him re-tuning the guitar in his odd way, but he made himself ignore it. He had said he would do this, he was going to do it right, dammit. It wasn't a 'technically perfect' sort of tuning, it was a personal one, it would make the guitar resonate with the overtones of his own voice.
Danyal turned to face the mics again. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes to shut out the world around him and began to sing**.
It was a mournful song, of lost love, regret, and torment. It wasn't in his original Ryn language, but a trade language from a region of space that his clan had spent centuries living in. It was as native as Ryn to Danyal, and more native than Galactic Basic most of the time, its sounds often accented his speech. The song started slow, but picked up speed, and his guitar set the pace as his voice soared high and dipped low. As his voice faded away at the end of the last verse, he played a last complex flourish on the strings. The world around him returned with a crash. It was dead silent, and everyone was staring at him.
"So, um, yeah. I told you it was different..." Danyal began awkwardly, lowering his eyes and fiddling with the guitar absently.
"It was beautiful." Jess said, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of his jacket, which she still wore. "So sad, and... beautiful."
"Wow, Le'tzig--" Aaced began.
"Danyal," the Ryn interrupted quietly. "My name is Danyal."
—
The light hurt. Danyal squeezed his eyes shut against its glare. This was one nasty hangover, he didn't even remember making it back to his bed on the Party Barge.
Assuming that was where he was. He wasn't sure, everything ached, but was numb at the same time. Jess, the Mirialan babe, had she come back with him? That had certainly been his plan. His left arm felt like there was something lying on it, a bit numb and tingly. Maybe she was asleep on top of it.
Damn, how long is it until call time? Danyal wondered. We have a concert to perform.
He tried to sit up, groaning in pain. Something pressed down against his chest. He tried to reach up to brush it away and found his right arm was restrained.
"What the hell? What's going on? Where am I?" he asked in a bleary panic, not even sure if he was speaking clearly, or in Basic. Danyal tried opening his eyes again, but only one was working. The other was covered by something, holding it shut.
"Please remain calm," came a synthesized voice. "You are in a medical facility, you are injured. A doctor has been alerted, they will be here to speak with you soon."