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Fairly quickly after Lyfrassir's discussion to join the crew, Jonny strode into the piloting bay and commanded Brian to land the ship at the nearest inhabited planet.
Brian merely looked at him from the corner of his eye. “You're not the captain, you can't tell me what to do.”
“Yes, I can, even if I was only first mate! Do none of you know how nautical hierarchy works? Fuck!”
“It's really fine,” Lyfrassir insisted. “I can just wait until you land on your own time.”
“No, Lyfrassir, that could take a long time and if we want to add you to the crew you're going to need an instrument.” They're not an idiot, so they can tell Jonny’s statement was directed more towards Brian than it was to them.
“I mean if it’s for Lyfrassir then sure.”
Jonny closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I'm not going to kill you right now because I need you to pilot the ship.”
“Good to know.”
“That wasn't for you, that was for me.” He grabbed Lyfrassir's wrist. “Come on, we need to gather the rest of the crew.”
Lyfrassir felt awkward standing in front of the Mechanisms next to Jonny, like they were a new pet he was showing off to the class. They shifted their weight on their feet, unsure if they should be making eye contact or avoiding it.
“I’m sure you’re all wondering why we’re making a pitstop,” Jonny said with a rather dramatic flourish.
“You have a tea party scheduled!” The Toy Soldier guessed.
“No-”
Raphaella raised her hand. “You left a set of keys on it a couple hundred years ago.”
“No, that’s-”
“You need to get your rocks off and you’re dragging us all along for the ride because that’s the shit you’re into,” Tim called from the back of the room.
“No, god dammit!” Jonny pinched the bridge of his nose and weakly gestured towards Lyfrassir. “We have to stop and get Lyfrassir a cello.”
“Did they not bring it with them?” Marius asked.
“I was a little bit too busy fleeing from my home to make a quick stop and grab a three foot tall instrument made of solid wood, Von Raum,” Lyfrassir said.
“Right, of course, highly unreasonable to ask that of you.” Jonny said this as if it wasn’t highly unreasonable. “We don’t want you getting distracted or lost so of course, our resident string musicians will be accompanying you to select an instrument." Raphaella lit up at his words. "No, Raph, you are a percussion instrument."
"Hitting strings is what makes the tone!"
"You don't even use an acoustic piano!"
"It's the underlying technology!"
"You're not going! Tim, Marius and Ashes are going and that’s final!” He stormed off, muttering something about lack of respect and how he needed to blow off steam, which probably meant doing things that would make Lyfrassir’s new job as bosun harder.
A hand clapped against their shoulder, nearly sending them tumbling to the ground in surprise. “Well, Inspector, it seems that we get to have some fun today!” Marius grinned. Fuck.
“Lay off them a little, Marius,” Ashes said. “You’ve been bugging them the entire time they’ve been on the ship.”
Tim didn’t say anything yet, just stared at Lyfrassir.
Today was just going to be a whole thing, wasn’t it?
The second Lyfrassir’s feet touched solid ground they were overcome with a feeling of intense disorientation. It had been… gods know how long since they had stood on something that wasn’t a hunk of metal hurtling through space with artificial gravity to keep their feet on the floor. Ashes and Tim caught their arms from either side as they careened forward.
“Careful there,” Tim said. “It’ll be real inconvenient if you pass out before we even get to the store.”
“Right,” Lyfrassir said, not really registering the implications of “inconvenient” through the lightheadedness.
In a surprising act of kindness, Marius slung one of their arms around his shoulder as support. “Let’s find a music store so we can get off this planet. It seems boring here.”
The four of them walked (or in Lyfrassir’s case, stumbled) down the street, scanning the stores for one that had what they needed. The Mechs chattered on as they went.
“Do you think Jonny’s gonna try and find us a gig before we leave?” Marius mused.
Ashes shook their head. “Too short notice. We don’t have a set list and one of our band has never even played any of the songs.”
“Ah, shit, yea, we gotta write cello music now huh?” He nudged Lyfrassir. “Things are going to get a lot more exciting for you.”
“I have absolutely no idea how things can get more exciting for me than they already are,” They deadpanned.
“You’re part of a crew of musical space pirates now, Inspector! How could things not get at least a bit more exciting? I mean, you never even committed a crime before you met us."
"I've committed several crimes back on New Midgard."
They got a headrush as Marius nearly dropped them onto the street. "You WHAT?"
"There was an arson incident in school, and of course a bit of underage drinking, though that’s rather tame…” They shrugged. “I'm far from being a perfect, law abiding citizen. Also, it's not a crime but I did get kicked out of a movie theatre for making out with my boyfriend."
"Shit, Yggdrasil was one of the places with movies?" Tim sighed. "I don't get why most planets don't have movies. Ashes ruined our last one."
"That movie was boring and I'm glad I saved our brain cells by burning the place to the ground," Ashes said, fixing Tim with a hard stare.
Marius threw his hands up. "Okay, I get it, you've all done unspeakable things during movies!"
"Unspeakable seems kind of harsh for getting down and dirty with my boyfriend."
"Lyfrassir you are no longer allowed to speak until we get to the store."
“As bosun Lyfrassir is technically a higher ranking officer than you,” Ashes said. “Only captains, first mates and quartermasters outrank them.”
“That is not fair.”
By the time they had found a music store, Lyfrassir was well enough to stand on their own two feet again. They pushed through the door after a bit of squabbling from Marius and Tim about who was going to go first. As Lyfrassir looked over the contents of the shop, their breath caught in their chest.
The walls were lined with various string instruments held above cases containing flutes and other woodwinds. They briefly had the thought it looked so much like the one they used to go to on New Midgard, but that was stupid. Any given music store probably looked like any others, it’s not like there was all much that you could do for the layout.
They wandered through the store until they came to the cello section. Nearby, Marius was messing around with a set of orchestra bells much to the annoyance of Tim (“Stop hitting random notes, the least you could do is something simple. You’re a musician for gods’ sake”). Ashes watched Lyfrassir as they reached for one of the cellos with a shaking hand.
They wrapped their hand around the neck, gently brushing their fingers against the strings. They hadn't held an instrument in so long. Once they graduated, it always seemed too busy to play. There was always another case to take care of. Plus they had wanted to spend more time with… well… that was behind them now.
The slight groove of the strings tugged against their skin as they dragged their fingers down the fingerboard. Something about holding it was…
“Do you want it?” Ashes suddenly asked.
They snapped out of their trance. "What?"
"Do you want to play that one?"
Lyfrassir glanced down at the price tag, sucking in a sharp breath. "I-it's too expensive, I can't make you get this for me."
"Oh, Lyfrassir…" they put their hand on Lyfrassir's shoulder. "We're gonna steal the damn thing."
They spun on their heels, already giving out commands. "Tim, go find where they keep the instrument cases. Marius you distract the guy at the front desk. You're good at being annoying. Are there any essentials you need for taking care of that?"
It took Lyfrassir a second to realize they were talking to them. "Uh, cotton cloths for cleaning, extra pegs and strings, rosin… a rock stop?"
Ashes nodded. "Alright, gang, we're looting this place and then doing what we do best. Or at least what I do best. If you see anything you want before we go you better grab it."
Marius pumped a fist into the air. "Hell yea! Heist time!"
"Lyfrassir, you should go with Marius to cover up anything he fucks up." They held out a hand towards them as though asking for something. Right. The cello.
They gave it to them, slowly, carefully, as though it would crumble to dust if they moved too fast. Ashes took it very gently, handling it with the same amount of care as them. With that, Marius linked his arm with Lyfrassir’s and marched off to the front counter.
“Hello!” He drawled. “Me and my dear, dear friend and I are here to enquire about your wares. Do you do birthday parties?”
The man behind the counter already looked exhausted. Marius had a real talent for this. “Sir, we don’t perform, we sell instruments and supplies.”
“I don’t understand. The sign on the door advirtises you as a music store. Do you not sell music?”
“We do have some tracks and records stored in the back if you want to buy music.”
“Ah, so you can perform!”
“No, sir, they’re not our-”
“I have to say, this is rather confusing for me as well,” Lyfrassir cut in. “Why would you have so many instruments if you don’t use them?”
Lyfrassir noticed his hands ball into fists on the counter. “Like I said before, we sell them to other people. So they can perform.”
“Oh, good, then you can get them here to perform.”
“We don’t hire them, they’re just customers.”
Marius wrapped an arm around Lyfrassir’s shoulders and pulled them closer. “You are ruining our son’s tea party.” His voice broke with a restrained sob, and when they glanced over they noticed there was a watery shine over his eyes. Damn, Marius was surprisingly good at acting.
“... I thought this was for a birthday.”
“It is, as well as a tea party, housewarming party, office party, craft party and pool party.”
As the man was visibly trying to imagine what such a gathering would look like, Lyfrassir caught just a slight scent of smoke. That must be their cue. They grabbed Marius’ hand. “Come on, we’ll go somewhere better.”
Marius buried his face in his hands as Lyfrassir turned him around, letting out an ugly sob. “So sad!”
They hurried out of the door. By the time Ashes and Tim met them outside, they could see an orange glow beginning to come from inside the building.
“Keep walking, keep walking,” Ashes said quickly. The group half walked, half jogged down the street, eventually dipping into a side alley once they decided they were a decent distance away.
Ashes turned to the rest of them. “What's our haul?”
Tim held up two large bags. “Well, I have a new guitar case filled with picks, a couple of those expensive repair kits, some capos, a ukulele just for the hell of it, all that stuff Lyfrassir mentioned and…” He lifted one of the bags up higher. “So many cables and mics.”
“Do you know how to play the ukulele?” Marius asked.
“No, but I guess now I’m gonna learn because I have one.”
Ashes started pulling packets of strings from their pockets and tossing them onto the ground. There seemed to be a much larger amount than should be able to fit into their pockets. “I got all these. I dunno how much of each there are, I just grabbed them and shoved them into my jacket, but there should be at least one of each for all of our instruments.”
“This is… so much.” Lyfrassir knelt down to examine the packets. Most were guitar, which was to be expected. “Is this what you always do?”
“Kind of?” Marius shrugged. “We normally don’t get this much stuff. The cello is also new”
“We probably won’t have to do it again for a while either,” Tim said.
"Hell yea, stramily!"
"Marius, what the fuck does stramily mean?"
"It's a portmanteau of string and family. You know, stramily."
Ashes rolled their eyes even as they were smiling. "Is this the band we're forming to break off?"
"Fuck yea!" Tim grinned. "Who needs Brian and his dumbass drums anyways?"
"We can add Raphaella to spite Jonny. The stramily doesn't discriminate."
Lyfrassir snorted. "Can you all stop saying stramily?"
"Of course," Tim assured. "But only to talk about our first album title."
The walk back to the Aurora was warmer than the trip to the store, though maybe because Lyfrassir didn’t have to lean onto someone for support. Lyfrassir was laughing, for the first time in forever they were laughing for real. It felt good, to be happy. They had kind of forgotten what that was like.