[i]Table of Contents of "For What It's Worth":[/i]
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[i]Previously:[/i]
[url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/257262868/0/0][/url]
[i]Life is a farce, but no less reality.
Escape is always next door,
should you find yourself there.
Had you been inside the helm,
well, it went something like this:[/i]
π π π π π π π π π
[i]"Don't start a band."[/i], I said,
Ikora tilted her head in query,
and drank from her mug over a saucer,
closing her eyes;
breathing in the aromas of autumn's eves
..then the pumpkins came out.
[i]"This is truely something,[/i]
[i]why did you pick today, of all days?"[/i],
she asked, indulging in her spiced coffee,
[i]"Let the speaker rest,
and pick up that guitar."[/i]
π π π π π π π π π
[i]"It's not mine,"[/i], I replied.
Wesley couldn't make it; show must go on.
[i]Nothin is ever easy.[/i]
My left plucked a baton off my chestplate, and pressed a button. It telescoped to a staff, driven in to the deck.
Grabbing ahold of [i]'Merciless'[/i],
I slip my right hand out of the glove,
& set it on my staff, up in ethereal blaze.
I slung the guitar around at the ready,
trombone shouldered for duty.
[i]"but I thought you'd never ask."[/i]
I snap, assuming a pick would appear in habit.
[i]"Heck,"[/i], I say
thinking back on memory, I shake the guitar.
It rattled, which was a welcome sign.
After shifting it overhead,
a pick fell like a petal to the concrete below.
Delighted, [i]"Bingo!"[/i], was all I had in my hands.
A bellowed laugh from Shaxx,
from o'er the way in front of his monitors.
He sabered right,
straight to my person.
[i]"A catch-22, that man's failsafe."[/i]
We all looked.
He threw his left out, and roared,
[i]"WHAT?"[/i],
[i]"I can do both!"[/i], he exclaimed,
knife-handing his battlestation.
During this time, I collect myself,
wondering where to start.
Sure, I could play guitar, just about everything, but when it came down to it, I had no words left.
Silence is for taps.
[i]and somebody's gotta blow this horn.[/i]
Holstering a grip around the pick..
I put it in my pocket, knowing full-well that it was purposely in the guitar, because it was more likely to be forgotten than lost.
[i]This trivial, yet pertinent information had been lost in the span of a few seconds. This is why I don't trust anything.. ..mostly myself.[/i]
Though the cat was out of the bag,
and 25 or 6 to 4 would have to wait until 9.
[i]When the skeletons get here.[/i]
Ikora, knowingly, indulged in her coffee.
There was no need to explain myself,
but this song wasn't just mine, either.
[i]"The rhetoric is squashed, but this tale is far from done, so let me tell you about this guitar."[/i]
[i]"OH, COME ON, THEN!"[/i]
The warlock was back, with a mouth full of food, still waiting to finish business.
I pulled a note 'a chest pocket, and forwarded.
[i]"I wrote this for Wesley to say,
but he's not here right now."[/i]
Truely, it needed to be said, so I continued.
[i]"Fortunately this is a genuine wooden acoustic, and Noland and I had an eternity to learn the guitar in the Forest. Noland got so lost, Vex were nowhere to be found, and niether was his pick."[/i]
Noland put his hand up to re-inact despair,
[i]"Mad, wondering where Saint-14 was, as well as a pertinent tool of information,
Noland commited to sharing this fate."[/i]
Determined, Noland looked at his hand,
[i][b]'cause we were gonna get out.[/b]"
[/i]
claws unleashed from his fingertips.
Breathing in, Noland tucked the note in a rosewood head, and stretched his hands over the guitar. A pick can't play like this.
[i]and neither can the devil[/i]
[i]"This melody that ripped machine atune..
.. and a golden dragon asked me what I wished through the mirror."[/i]
Noland took one lask look at the crowd,
straight through them all.
[i]"I looked 'em right in the eyes,
and said, 'Nothing.'.
[b]'cause I had it."[/i][/b]
A smile came over Noland,
never knowing how Saint XIV did it.
[i]"Saint XIV came another way."[/i]
Noland sighed, but carried on.
[i]"I can't remember that song, for the life of me, this is a tribute. Niether of them were meant to be played alone."[/i]
The time was ripe.
[i]"You better wake up, Wesley."[/i]
[i]..to be continued.[/i]
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