Logfile from Brass&Steel. There is music flowing out through the keyhole of number 789 this afternoon. Intensely intricate, melodic and heartfelt guitar music to be precise. It's a mixture of styles; french, spanish, gypsy, blues, jazz, classical... All effortlessly blending and winding their way through the world. AutoJudge: Zach rolls: 2 + 6 = 8 . Check die: 3 Zach says, "Good enough. :)" Harriet is a woman in her early twenties. She's below average in height, and thin and pale, as if she doesn't get out much. She has short-cropped, unruly, dark brown hair, and green eyes. Her round, open face seems as if it's used to doing a lot of smiling. A pair of gold-rimmed glasses perch--slightly askew--on her nose. Harriet is wearing a theoretically white sweatshirt, which has been splattered with so many old paint stains that the original color is almost obliterated, and blue jeans which have been carefully painted with a multitude of colorful butterflies. She's got smears and patches of plaster dust coating clothes, hair, and the bright yellow sneakers on her feet. Harriet is also wearing a large, thick denim jacket, which has been patched, whether it needed it or not, with numerous squares of rainbow and tye-dyed cloth. Hachilah is a small teenaged girl. She stands at ~5'3". Wide blue eyes peer out from pale skin, contrasted by a tiny strawberry mouth. Hachilah's hair is arranged in an explosion of medium-length bleached dreads. She has a kind of sleepy romantic look, maybe because of the way her eyes turn down at the outer edges. She smells like Irish Spring soap and, in general, looks very clean. She seems young. Hachilah is wearing a faded pink t-shirt. It has a friendly-looking bear logo on the front. Her shirt is untucked and hangs over a pair of comfortable jeans that are cut-off and frayed at the bottom. Her feet sport a pair of blue sneakers with bright orange and yellow threaded laces. http://is2.dal.ca/~kmacgill/hachilah.jpg Harriet climbs up the stairs to knock on the door to Zach's apartment. She's got a small, wicker basket under one arm, and is wearing bright green mittens. As she hears the music, she smiles to herself. This time the music doesn't stop. The Zach is in musical overdrive, so he just calls out, "Enter!" Harriet chuckles, and pushes the door open. She glances around the apartment, and hefts the basket. "Hey, Zach. I come bearing gifts, you know? Well, one gift. Cookies." She closes the door behind her as she talks. Zach looks up with blazing eyes. It's the kind of look that Harriet probably knows the feeling of, being an artist herself. He looks perfectly, gloriously happy and nods a greeting to her. The music takes on a lighter, more bouncy character as if responding to Harriet's presence. Hachilah , meanwhile, starts to meander up the stairs, her body catching the rhythm of the music on the way. Harriet nods back, and sets the basket quietly on the table before going to sit on the floor near Zach. She closes her eyes and sways to the music, a delighted grin on her face. Zach's fingers gently encourages a sweet theme to meander and bounce its way out into the surroundings. It's a sweet, gentle and at he same time exuberant melody that nonetheless slips into the odd minor chord here and there. He smiles down to Harriet and winks. "This is your song, Harriet.." Hachilah picks up a bit of bounce, following the music, as she approaches the door. She turns the knob, and enters, smiling brightly. Harriet's eyes open at Zach's comment, and she tilts her head, listening to the melody at little more closely. Her smile is appreciative, and perhaps a little surprised. As the door opens, she turns, and waves at Hachilah. Zach's smile widens as he percieves Hachilah entering, and again the melody changes. It becomes...younger, more innocent and even more bouncily happy and fresh. "Harriet and Hachilah in da house!!" he exclaims delightedly. "Two of my favourite babes!" Hachilah happily continues into the room, and plops down next to Harriet, smiling. Zach's remark catches her off, though, as one eyebrow goes up slightly, amidts the grinning. "We are not so young." Harriet chuckles and also raises an eyebrow. "I think I should be offended about being called a 'babe', but I'm in too good a move to worry about it, you know?" She grins at Hachilah, and winks at Zach. Zach laughs and starts to strum and pluck himself out of his creative overdrive mood. "Are you two ganging up on me or something?" Hachilah grins at Harriet, then turns her head, tilting it slightly, to regard Zach with a cheerfully perplexed look. The music has her in a good mood also perhaps, because she says, "If you are lucky, we will both assault you at once with open arms. But for the beautiful sound you are creating, I'd be in your lap presently." Harriet nods in agreement with Hachilah. "I like the way you think," she says gleefully to the other woman. "Personally, I'm forced to wonder if he's ticklish, you know?" Zach chuckles and beams at Hachilah and Harriet, but blanches slightly at the mention of ticklishness. That's really none of their business! Really! For now it seems safest to just continue playing. On sofa next to him, the song book he got for Christmas is lying open. In the place of honour, between the happy, green plants in the window there is a certain statuette; a sculpture of a phoenix, half wreathed in flames, it's head tilted back in a wild song. It's glazed in all the colors of fire, and the lower half of the bird is almost obscured in flame. Hachilah grins at Harriet, then looks at Zach with a raised eyebrow. "I believe I know the Truth of the matter... or at least, it could easily be divined... but later." Her eyes go to the music book, brightening momentarily at the implication, then return to Zach, regarding him happily. Harriet eyes Zach as he blanches, and giggles. "I think he /is/ ticklish. Hmm...I'll have to consider this very carefully, you know?" she says in a suspiciously innocent voice. She waggles her eyebrows at Hachilah, grinning. Zach puts the guitar away briefly to gather up the two ladies for a monumental hug. It can wait no longer, impending tickly doom be damned! "I'm so happy to see you both! Have you two been properly and truthfully introduced yet?" he wonders. Hachilah hugs enthusiastically, nodding. "We have." She grins at Harriet. There's very few things better than a group hug. Harriet joyfully cuddles them both, but at the question, she raises her head, and blinks at Hachilah. "Have we? Are we sure, you know?" Hachilah's eyebrows go up. "Indeed, we have. Outside a shoe shop. You... were shopping in preparation for a showing of your art." Zach awaits for the confusion to sort itself out. Harriet hees, and chuckles. "Well, yes, I remember that," she says, nodding. She glances at Zach, and back. "I just don't think it was quite as...complete an introduction as Zach might have meant, youknow?" Zach chuckles and nods. "Sister, Harriet here is a recruit. She knows who and what I really am but hasn't been sworn into Heaven's service yet. Why don't you introduce yourself properly to her?" Hachilah's eyebrows go up, surprised. "Ah." She beams, regarding Harriet warmly, affectionately, with an exuberance of extreme youth and purity of heart. She tilts her head to the side, causing her dreads to flop around a bit. "In that case, let me introduce myself. I am Hachilah, Seraph of Creation, servitor of Novalis, the Archangel of Flowers." She squeezes Harriet gently, assuming they are still in a hugpile. "It is a pleasure to present myself to you, and to share with you the Truth of my nature." Harriet beams at Hachilah and Zach, and bounces up and down a few times, taking anyone in hugpile who isn't resisting with her. "Wonderful!" she breathes, happily. "It's a pleasure to meet you, you know?" She squeezes everyone and bounces again. It's fun. Zach laughs and enjoys all the love and warmth happening. His Boss was quite successful with this particular blend of cherub and malakite forces, it seems. As they untangle and arrange themselves on the coach, book and guitar now being moved to the table to avoid being inconvenienced, he smiles to Hachilah. "Actually, I need you to help me out here sweetie. Are you able to check if Harriet has enough soul to be initiated right away, or if she needs to meet the Boss first?" Zach says, "Big soul = A clumsy attempt from player to avoid saying Forces. Not sure if it works... <:)" Hachilah says, "That's wicked. :)" Hachilah's eyes flick to Zach, then return to Harriet, regarding the girl intently. "I certainly can try." Harriet smiles, and raises both her eyebrows. "As far as I know, I've always had the full compliment of soul, you know?" You paged Hachilah with 'Touch her and get a +2 to CD :)'. From afar, Hachilah knows. :) Hachilah's hand rests gently on Harriet's back, her eyes intensely blue, and focused intently on Harriet for the moment. AutoJudge: Hachilah rolls: 3 + 1 = 4 . Check die: 6 Hachilah says, "Heh :)" Zach smiles warmly to Harriet and kisses her gently. "You sure have, but what I need to know is whether your soul is ready to be attuned more closely to Heaven and the Symphony. Not all souls are..." he searches for words, "...strong or...uh...big enough to do that." Harriet blinks, then nods and accepts it. That she doesn't quite understand it is clear, but she accepts it. She returns Hachilah's regard with obvious curiousity. Hachilah's eyes relax. She tilts her head to regard Zach, and shakes her head quietly. She looks back at Harriet. "She will require assistance." Zach strokes Harriet's hair and lets his thumb caress her cheekbone briefly. "In fact, such souls are rare among humans. I'm reasonably sure that your soul is such a one, bearing in mind all you've been through and the signs I've had from Upstairs. However it's always wise to check properly first, as getting attuned to God's Music is a really big deal." He pauses and nods to Hachilah, then looks back at Harriet. "Seems we need to call in our Archangel to do the tweaking..." He grins happliy at that prospect. Harriet sighs, and accepts it with a philosophical shrug. "Alas. I am, as always, a work in progress, you know?" She smiles at them both. "It's good to know for certain, though." Zach beams! "Best kind of work there is!" Hachilah beams at Zach, then looks to Harriet, still beaming. "What serendipity! I've not seen Eli for... nearly a year now." Harriet chuckles. "It sounds like it might be an occassion for a party, then," she says happily. "I've never met an Archangel at all, you know?" Zach grins and nods. "I haven't met him since...oh.. 1937 I think. That's when he handed my ass over to Janus. Saw him on Harriet's showing on Halloween, but he was out the door before I realized it was him." A happy laugh bubbles out from Zach. "And yeah! We seriously need to plan a party. Eli LOVES parties! I'm thinking we should call on him to come to your studio, when the time is right. What do you think Harriet?" Harriet blinks, then laughs. "Sure. Sounds like fun, you know?" She laughs again, a slightly incredulous sound. "You'll have to let me know about any special arrangements that I'll need to make, you know?" Zach grins and indulges his urge to hug both of them again. "Nah, he'll love your place! We just have to get some decent munchies and drinks and stuff. He'll change 'em into whatever he feels like having anyway. And I have the perfect idea of how to get his attention, wherever he is. I've a sheet of music here composed by Bach after he went blind. We can perform that when we call for him!" Hachilah smiles happily all around and snuggles ever so much more tightly. "And if he doesn't manifest, we can still have a party!" Harriet grins, and waggles her finger at Zach. "You and Hachilah can perform it, you know? Putting me anywhere near a musical instrument is a good way to scare him off permanently," she says ruefully. "But I can handle munchies and drinks, I'm sure." Zach chuckles and ruffles Harriet's hair affectionately. "Hachi and I need to practice and prepare a bit, so let's try doing this in a week or so, eh?" Hachilah snuggles and grins. "I shall bring a few of my street-performer friends, perhaps. I'm sure they could manage a suitably creative approach to Beethoven." Zach leans back on the coach and relaxes, eyeing Harriet's basket of cookies. "Just don't bring the wildest ones, Hachi. We'll be in Harriet's combined apartment and studio, and there's several pieces there both finished and in progress. Wouldn't want to break any of her babies, metaphore." Zach has quite a lot of experience in speaking with seraphim! :) Harriet grins. "Oh, wow...this'll be really fun, then." She wiggles a bit in her seat. "I've never really been a part of the musical scenes, you know? It should be a blast." To Zach, she does nod gratefully. "There is that. I can get most everything into storage except for the big one I'm working on right now, I think..." Hachilah raises an eyebrow, still smiling in her clueless little way, but she nods, nonetheless. "As you wish. I shall use discretion." Her eyebrows go up at Harriet's statement. "Oh, don't put them in storage!" Zach grins. "I'm with Hachilah on this one, don't hide your art away. Just secure the pieces. I can lend a hand with that." The current time in Kansas City is 8:21 PM, Wed Jan 08, 2003. "It's not exactly hiding," Harriet starts, then looks at them. "But, hey. I can do that, you know?" She smiles. "It'll all be good, I'm sure." Hachilah grins and hugs, but, reluctantly, pulls away and stands up. "It was great to see you, Arethas. I should be going now... I have a meeting with some friends shortly." Zach looks at the time and sighs. "Yeah, and I have a night shift with the tow truck. If you can come by here tomorrow Hachi, I'd appreciate it. You're of course welcome to stay for as long as you like, Harriet. You have a key so just lock up after you leave. Unless I can give you a ride somewhere? Any of you?" Hachilah nods and grins, twirling around as she makes her way toward the door. "See you tomorrow! Bye Harriet!" Harriet blinks at the new, unexpected name, but takes it stride. Besides, Hachilah's wor:nods, and rises. "Thank you Zach, but I need to be moving on, too." She grins and waves at Hachilah. "Be safe, Hachilah! And you too, Zach." She gives him a quick hug, and also makes her way towards the door. Harriet waves and departs! Zach hugs them both and gallantly follows ladies to the door.