The Veteran’s Day Concert
The gates to the Marquis of Nishan’s Mansion stood broadly open as a crowd of more than a thousand military personnel, Veterans and their families gathered about a large circular stage nestled just inside the protective boughs that lined the Mansion’s entryway.
The band had spent several hours setting up the stage and arranging the various musical instruments in a functional circle that allowed for onlookers from the Mansion’s side of the stage to enjoy the upcoming performance as well.
Flyers, not a few, had been delivered to the nearby Guard Station, as well as the Mansion’s staff as well as the remainder of the Marche. Despite the Lord’s absence, the gentleman managing the Marquis affairs - one Professor Ync Ubu - had approved the previously scheduled concert to benefit the Knights of Nishan to continue as originally planned.
It was under these auspices that the Guest of Honor - Baron Larcos Sobo'Avill - stepped onto the stage with the other musicians and offered a broad smile in tandem with a wave of greeting. The man was known for his showmanship and brazen performances. But, this afternoon’s concert began in a much more reserved and refined mien; in homage to the absent Lord’s own manner.
With a quiet, intimate tenor, Lord Sobo'Avill’s rich tenor began in with a whisper that announced both the song, and the emotion he so easily crafted with the first few notes that fell from his plush lips. “I can be your Hero.”
As with the first song he’d delivered, the Baron of Cryon concluded with a heartfelt note before moving away from the microphone and offering the audience a warm welcome. “How are is everyone feeling here in Nishan? Good!? Are we feeling good!?!” The response was a resounding roar of approval from the audience.
“Good! Good!” Larcos called out to the exuberant crowd; his voice still conversationally low, rather than shouting back. the nobleman adopted a casual demeanor, still speaking to the crowd as if they were a small group of friends seated around a coffee table. “Have you ever wished you could– could take back a moment? A hello? A farewell? A kiss?” he chuckles, and several in the crowd offer good natured laughs and piercing whistles.
“We’ve all been there, right? Sometimes, though. It isn’t the kiss hello we regret. Maybe–Maybe it’s the kiss… goodbye.” He says as he returns to the center of the stage and the music rises again. “If I had one single wish…” he sings the first line, carrying the audience away yet again.
The audience seemed quietly captivated by the song, erupting in applause as the song came to an end. A faint smirk curls the right corner of Larcos’s mouth as he speaks in a more playful tone. “You got the feelings deep inside yeah? Yeah!?” he calls out to the crowd.
The crowd was full of various responses, and more than a few sniffles.
Larcos moves around the stage, kneeling in front of a rotund girl with flushed cheeks and red-rimmed eyes. Reaching out, he beckons her closer. “Hey, lovely. Come. Come to me.”
The crowed grows into a roar of enthusiastic cheers. “I know. I know it hurts. That last kiss, it can haunt us for a long time. Tell me something. If you could – if they were here right now, and you could say anything at all to them - what would you say?”
The woman’s voice is nervous. The man in front of her attractive beyond her imaginings. The gentle way he brushes his fingertips along her skin raising bumps across not only her hand, but throughout her body. It takes a few moments for her to process the question, but eventually, she manages to stammer out “I-I just wanna be with you.” before erupting in a chorus of nervous sniffles and giggles.
Helping her up onto the stage, the Nishanian Lord delivers her to a seat at the center of the dais, kneeling in front of her. He turns his head to the audience. “Did you hear her? She said, if she could say anything, she would say to her departed lover, ’I just want to be with you!’
A flicker of confusion crosses the woman’s face as she looks out to the crowd, her dull green eyes searching for a face she will not find until Larcos leans forward and kisses her gently on the cheek. ”You say this, but I don’t think it’s what you should say.“ he explains to the woman as he glances at the audience and back again.
”I think, it’s what your lover should say to you.“ As the words leave the Baron’s lips, the music comes back up as another song takes center stage. Larcos clasps the woman’s hands between the digits of his left hand, serenading the lonely woman with all the warmth and sincerity of a recalcitrant love yearning to return.
As the song subsides, Larcos leans forward, lowering the microphone and wrapping his arms in a tight hug around the woman as he whispers a private message to her. She erupts with tearful gratitude as he pulls her up from her seat and - an arm still around her waist - he escorts her back to her original place in the crowd and helps her down from the stage.
Once she’s safely ensconced with her family and friends, the Baron jovially makes his way back up the steps to center stage with a wry smile and a teasing tone. ”I think she likes me!“ he calls out, gesturing back to the woman and winking playfully. She immediately blushes and buries her face in her hands. turning back to the audience at large, he quips. ”She likes me.“ with a chuckle and a nod.
Center stage once again, the Nishanian Lord pans his attentions from one side of the crowd to the other with a salacious grin plastered across his attractive features. ”It’s been such a heartfelt evening, no?“ he asks with a laugh, and the audience’s voices rise to a roar of applause and cheers.
”But we all know–“ The elegantly clad gentleman replies as he struts back and forth along the stage. ”– that I am a man of great passion, yes?“
The crowd erupts into boundless cheers. ”I’m not the sort of man who begs a wayward lover to return, am I?“
Again, the audience responds with resounding applause and a chorus of drawn out ”No!“’s. The Baron waggles his index finger at them. ”No! No. I am not that man! I am this other man. Do you know? Do you know who this other man I am is?“
As the din of voices grows, Larcos offers a heady laugh into the microphone. ”I am not the man who asks you to come back. I am the man who tells you–“ He emphasizes the last two words, and the deep voiced responses of the men in the audience makes clear that they are in accord with the Baron’s male authority. He waits for the cheers to wane before he continues. ”–I am the man, who tells you, Tonight! Tonight, I’m fucking you!“
The audience returned uproarious applause, cheering full-throatedly and singing along as the Baron gyrated and danced to the rhythm of the music surrounding him with all of the enthusiasm of a wanton lover unfettered by the conventions of nobility.
As this last song ebbs away, The Baron of Cryon returns to the center of the stage, slipping down to his knees breathlessly and spreading his arms out triumphantly as the crowd once more offers up it’s approval.
As the cheers slowly die down, Larcos returns to the intimate conversational tone he’d had when he began the performance. “Light and Shadows, I love you all. Some of you more often than others.” he laughs, and the audience laughs with him as he teases his lascivious reputation to the gathered crowd. “Some of you–” he chuckles into the microphone. “– not yet as often as I will in the future.” A loud, feminine chorus rises up from those in attendance as he pans his dark gaze across the crowd, pointing out several attractive women throughout.
He returns to his feet, gathering up his coat and bowing to everyone in surrounding the stage. “For now, however, it’s time to end the show. We all know what that means!”
The air around the entire audience becomes electrified with arcane and elemental energies. The concert area is suddenly enveloped with shadows interrupted by the crackle of tiny bolts of fiery and icy bolts of energy which dance along those in attendance; no where more obviously than at the center of the stage; crackling across the Baron’s body before he simply – vanishes.
@marquis-garren-nishan @allebeithloch (For Dun’Yazad) @karrista (for Evangeline) @professor-ync-ubu, et al anyone else who ICly attended tonight’s Veteran’s Day Concert in the Nishan Marche! Thanks for coming to the par-tay!
