The Nathan Experiment (A KPTS SubRP) - *British Joe & Mako*

[The Anonymour]

The grounds of KPTS were quite astonishing, really. Joe didn’t know how many acres they were, and nor, for that matter, what the hell an acre even was, but it was safe to assume he was as close to Hogwarts as he could get right now.

It was Monday afternoon, after their first day of classes, and Joe had left his brother Josh with the pair of eggs they’d been given as a breeding assignment, and decided to take a long walk around the lake. That’s what he did in new places, usually; walk. Take everything in, become used to it, so that his anxiety at not being home would abandon him.

The sun was low in the sky, glinting across the water, so on his way back around Joe had to squint against it. Be brought a hand up, flicking several locks of dark hair out of his eyes, and saw someone sitting on the edge of the lake ahead of him. As he walked closer, slightly hesitant, the sound of strings met his ears, and Joe, rallied on by the thought of meeting a fellow musician, advanced.

 

[Hector]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

The source of the sound meeting Joe's ears was the acoustic guitar playing and the vocals from one Nathan Asher. The blond haired, emerald green eyed teenager was doing probably his favorite thing on the planet, that being creating music from scratch. The melodies he was weaving together were like poetry and the lyrics clearly reached out as someone who had suffered so much loss in so few years and yet, they were also just a little bit sweet.

As was his usual, Nathan was completely focused on his music and as such wouldn't notice if anyone were to approach him to listen. And he was never concerned about it either. As a true artist, it made him happy when people enjoyed his work, even if sometimes people tended to want to take advantage of him for his skills with a guitar.

 

[The Anonymour]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

Joe walked closer as he listened, his mouth open slightly. The music was beautiful, but he didn’t recognise it, and the songs didn’t have the practiced-feel of being pre-played or rehearsed, so Joe assumed it was improvised.

Which was amazing. Joe stopped a few feet away as he listened to the boy sing, watched as he played, transfixed at the unending flow of music that seemed to come from nowhere. Joe couldn’t improvise for the life of him. Once or twice he’d get off a good rhyme, but mostly he relied on sitting down and writing lyrics out. This boy, whoever he was, had mastered it.

Silently, Joe sank to his knees, his heart thumping slightly harder in his chest. Music always did that to him. Well, good music always did that to him. Music with emotions and truth.

After listening for a while, he eventually noticed a repeated chorus line. The third time it came around, he hummed out a higher harmony to it, a soft crescendo that broke into falsetto on the last several notes. Then he snapped his mouth closed, momentarily realising that he was not, in fact, in a jam session.

 

[Hector]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

Nathan would have never noticed Joe's appearance if he hadn't opened his mouth and sang along. At this, Nathan opened his eyes and turned to face his admirer. However instead of being annoyed about the interruption, he simply smiled and spoke for the first time. "You have a wonderful voice, why stop so suddenly?" He asked, honestly not sure why the other boy had done so. A spark of recognition reached him, he could tell that he had seen him before, perhaps earlier in the day. But currently it was eluding him.

"I seem to recall seeing you earlier but I can't say I remember your name..." He admitted sheepishly.

 

[The Anonymour]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

Joe smiled at the compliment, ducking his head to stare at his hands, resting on his folded knees. “Thanks,” he said, smile still in place, and looked up at Nathan slightly through his bangs. “I’m Joe. WaterBlue. We had some classes together today, I think.”

 

[Hector]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

Nathan nodded, realizing that his hair was also getting in his eyes. Without thinking about it, he casually flipped his hair away from his face. "Ah yeah, that makes sense... now I'm seeming to recall." He said, more to himself than anything else. "Nathan Asher. LeafGreen. Glad to meet a kindred soul here... someone who's into the arts and well, you know, gets it."

 

[The Anonymour]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

Joe let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Oh, totally,” he agreed, giving a single, enthusiastic nod. “I used to talk about music back home a lot, but my friend there don’t even care, so I stopped. They just don’t see (or, well hear) it the same way I do.” He paused for a moment, feeling cautiously like he’d shared too much. He swallowed minutely, and tried to change the subject. “What did you think of classes so far?”

 

[Hector]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

Nathan nodded in agreement, thinking exactly the opposite. He was intrigued that Joe seemed to view the world in a very similar way to himself. But then, sadly he changed the subject to school, something he couldn't find less exciting. "Fine I guess, I mean it was only the first day so I can't say much about it yet." He punctuated this with a non-committal shrug.

 

[The Anonymour]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

“The professors seem to know what they’re doing,” said Joe, noticing Nathan’s sudden lack of interest. He leaned back on his feet and looked towards the sun, getting ever closer and closer to the shoreline. “It’ll probably get better once all the newbie bullshit is out of the way. And I hear there’s gonna be a music club.”

 

[Hector]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

At this, Nathan couldn't help himself from raising an inquisitive eyebrow. "A music club you say?" He tried his best to hide his interest in such a thing, but the tone of his voice didn't do that job very well. "I suppose that sounds alright... although don't know how often those things take a guitar player but we'll have to see."

 

[The Anonymour]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

At piquing Nathan’s interest, the corner of Joe’s mouth lit up in a half-smile. “It sounds like it’ll be more bands than anything classical.” He told Nathan. “We weren’t supposed to hear, really- we, my brother and me- but we were walking around after the last class, and heard Professor Meadows and some guy talking about it in a room full of instruments!” Joe’s eyes glazed over as he remembered the room, the wall lined with drum kits, the single, grand piano surrounded by guitar cases and amps.

 

[Hector]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

"A little naughty are we then?" Nathan asked rhetorically, not really knowing why he did so. He looked down at the guitar in his hand and pondered this for a moment. "I'm already in a band though... well we're sort of on hiatus so I guess they can't really be mad at me for trying new things." He thought out loud.

 

[The Anonymour]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

“Oh, you have no idea.” Joe found himself replying with a grin. He couldn’t quite place the tone of Nathan’s voice, whether he was being ironic or provocative, so he said, with a completely straight face, “That’s good, that you’re open to trying new things. Experimentation is the key to creativity, after all.” A short gust of wind hit him in the face then, whipping his hair back, and he bit his lip in frustration, bringing a hand up to ruffle it back into place.

 

[Hector]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

Seeing Joe's difficulty with his hair and the wind, Nathan couldn't stifle a chuckle. However realizing that he might have sounded a bit like a dick for laughing, he explained. "I'm not laughing at you... with you... I have the same issue all the damn time. Whenever I think about cutting my hair though, my stepmom talks me out of it." He explained rather quickly. "Says I wouldn't look right with short hair. My half-sister usually agrees with her too... just makes it worse, you know."

 

[The Anonymour]

Re: The Nathan Experiment - *British Joe & Mako*

“I could never deal with short hair.” Joe agreed. “There’s no personality in it. But then again,” he added, ducking down so that Nathan’s profile would block the brunt of the next gust of wind from hitting him, “It does sound appealing sometimes. Note to self; wear a fucking hat outside. Looks like Summer’s officially over.”

 

[Hector]

Nathan chuckled at Joe's actions at using him as a shield from the wind. "Oh thanks, now I'm the one who has to deal with the wind mucking up my hair." He teased Joe gently as now Nathan's hair was the one flipping around in the breeze. "And hats... that's another thing I could never get behind. Makes my hair all gross at the end of the day... and speaking of which." Nathan realized the chill from the wind. "I'm a Lilycove boy... not looking forward to winter here."

 

[The Anonymour]

“I’m from Snowpoint, so this is like a heat wave compared to what I’m used to,” Joe said, untying the jacket from around his waist and putting it on. “Though I can imagine why it’d be a big change for a beach boy.” He said the last two words in mock-condescension, highlighting them with a half grin so Nathan would know he was joking.

 

[Hector]

Nathan chuckled at this, and what he said next was something he had no idea what the context of would sound like. "Well in that case when winter comes you're going to have to teach me how to keep warm. Because we sure as hell don't have winter where I come from."

 

[The Anonymour]

Joe let out a shocked little laugh at this, and shook his head slightly. He honestly couldn’t lay his finger on it, whether Nathan knew what the things he said sounded like, or whether he was just endearingly naïve. “I can do that,” Joe told him, scooting a bit closer and extending his arms slightly. “May I?”

 

[Hector]

Nathan was confused as to what exactly Joe was asking him for. He considered it for a moment, but finally realized that he was asking to borrow his guitar. "Yeah sure I thought you wanted..." He cut himself off, not wanting to sound like a complete idiot, but then realized that he was kind of drawing attention to his confusion anyways. Without saying anything else, he simply gently handed Joe his guitar. "She's one of my babies, treat her well." Nathan mused softly, acting like any musician with one of their trusted instruments.