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Octavo wakes up on Link’s floor, kicked off the bed, and his back hurts. Hell, Cadence and Zelda managed to share the couch, and Link can’t share his bed? Link’s still snoring, completely out cold on his bed.
It takes him a moment to realize he’s surrounded by papers, and there’s notes on them. What were they doing last night?
Was he writing notes for himself? It’s definitely his handwriting.
Cadence sits up, which startles him slightly, and he flinches back.
“Good morning to you too, tavo.” Cadence laughs. She stands up, and she’s in an oversized shirt and…Octavo isn’t sure if she’s wearing shorts. Or underwear for that matter.
“Agh, what the fuck!”
“What? Fuckin’ hell, tav, it’s just me.”
“You can’t just-”
“I’m wearing underwear, jeez…”
“Put some clothes on!”
“Oh, heaven forbid not everyone sleeps like they have a concert in thirty minutes.” Cadence rolls her eyes. “I’ve literally seen you butt ass naked, wiped out on the shore near the frozen grotto. I think you will survive seeing my legs.”
Octavo blushes, and looks down. “I
was
surfing before you showed up.”
“Right.”
“I was!” He shouts, and Link stirs slightly. He quickly quiets down, and Cadence sits down next to him.
“You were telling me about some piece last night.”
“I was writing music last night? Really?”
“Yeah, something about a piece hyrule’s never seen before.”
“And what did I plan to do, play in front of the king as an apology?”
Cadence pauses, and her eyebrows furrow.
“Cadence.”
“I’m just fucking with you, we didn’t let you do anything stupid-”
“What the fuck did I do last night?”
“You’re not performing in front of the king, I know that much. We did try, to Zelda’s dismay.”
Octavo looks outside. He can’t even see the sun through Link’s window. It’s at
least
noon.
“How long were we up, Cadence?”
“Fuck if I know.”
Octavo looks at his sheets of music. He was writing a whole piece, in the middle of the night, for some reason?
Oh. Oh how he remembers it now.
Everyone else was practicing some song, and they were singing, and Octavo was hunched over Link’s stupidly small table, writing music for his oboe, and he had riffs for his bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, what was he doing? Composing music for a whole band?
“You know, I think we’d make one hell of a quartet.”
“Hah! You think so? I might take you up on that.”
“Yeah? You’re gonna write a little composition for us, music man?”
And compose he did. He was on a roll, and it was just a joke, of course, but composing was worth a shot. He was certain he was a musical genius, but waking up the next morning…
..he’s completely lost the idea. He’s trying to put the pieces together, and he’s just not sure how this would sound.
“...Can you do me a favour, caddy?”
“No. And don’t call me that.”
“Cad?”
“No.”
“...big C?”
“Especially not that one. Don’t say that.”
“Okay, okay, fine, will you help me, though?”
“What do you want?”
“You can play guitar pretty well, right?”
“Of course.”
“Great. Can you play this?” He hands her a handful of sheets.
“You’re so weird.”
“What did I do?”
Cadence stares at him, and his piles of sheet music.
Octavo nods. “Touché.” he pauses. “So, can you play it, though?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll figure it out.”
“Awesome.” He smiles.
Zelda sits up, squints at the two of them, and gets up. “What time is it?”
“At least noon,” Octavo mumbles.
Zelda scoffs, and stretches. “Fuck.”
Link still hasn’t gotten up, and Octavo goes to wake him. “Hey, you. It’s noon.”
Link groans, and rolls over. “Come get me in like, 15 minutes.”
“No, no, get up. Did you hear me the first time? It’s NOON.” Octavo repeats, and Link couldn’t be less bothered.
“Yea, heard ya, and I told you come back with a warrant.”
Octavo tilts his head, and just sighs. “Alright, man.”
Zelda starts looking at Octavo’s sheet music, and organizes it slightly. “You’re one weird little man, aren’t you?”
“I’m not weird!” Octavo stammers. “Both of you have called me weird within ten minutes!”
Cadence looks at Zelda, then back to Octavo, back to Zelda, and back to Octavo.
“Yeah, have you considered why this happens?”
“Shut up.”
“This is for acoustic guitar, right? I could play this.”
“Since when could you play guitar?”
“I picked it up as a kid,” Zelda shrugs.
“Alright, that’s great, though!” He smiles. He looks at his sheet music. “And I’ll be on bass…”
Link finally sits up. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Link!” Octavo snaps his fingers. “You can play oboe, right?”
Link blinks a few times, and yawns. “I mean, yeah, I know a bit.”
Octavo hands him sheet music, and Link takes a moment to stare at it.
“It’s too fucking early for this.”
Octavo’s already setting up his amps, and he hooks up his guitar. He strums it, and it shakes Link’s whole house. Everyone covers their ears, and Cadence runs to turn his amp down.
Cadence is shouting at him, but his ears are ringing, and he just kind of stares at her for a moment.
“What the fuck was that!?”
“What?”
“Ugh! You never turn your amps down, ever!”
Octavo blinks a few times. “Sorry, could you repeat-”
Cadence stares at him for a moment, and he stares back. She waits.
He clears his throat when his ears stop ringing. “Okay, sorry, I can hear now-”
“You fucking IDIOT!” She grabs him by the ear, and pulls on it. “I told you to turn your amp down. I do this every time,” She sighs. “And yet, you never do.”
“I forgot?” He gives her his best innocent smile, and she tries to force herself to scowl.
“You’re an idiot, Octavo.”
“Whatever you say, Caddy.”
Link starts playing the oboe, and Zelda is tuning her guitar.
Octavo looks over his music, and tunes his guitar. Cadence does the same, and eventually, it goes quiet.
“So…you guys ready?” Octavo asks.
“What’s the tempo again?”
“Uh…” Octavo pauses, and taps his foot. “Let’s try it in allegretto?”
Link groans. “We’re sight reading, Tavvy, give us a break.”
“Moderato?”
“Ugh, sure.”
Octavo counts out loud for a moment, and taps his foot. “So, it’s gonna go one, two, three, four.”
Everyone starts counting, and Octavo nods.
“We got that?”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re good.”
Octavo counts everyone in. Cadence comes in too early, Link too late, and he’s only on time with Zelda.
“No, okay, we’re retrying that.” Octavo holds up a hand.
Everyone groans, but this time, they do come in on time, and they sound good.
Octavo keeps his eyes on his music, and his fingers on the guitar.
It’s almost automatic, was he practicing last night?
Cadence shoots him a look, and he raises an eyebrow.
He’s on rest. So is Zelda. So is Link. Link’s on enough rest that he feels confident enough to set his oboe down.
Cadence glares at him one more time, and it’s quiet for a moment.
One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.
Cadence starts playing again, and her hands move fast, and she only gets faster, and louder.
Oh, I gave her a solo, didn’t I?
And by the fates, he gave her a solo! He gave her a solo, and she nails it.
There’s still a few rests before he’s back on, and he just stares at her, and starts clapping.
“Impressive,” is all he utters before he starts playing again. He looks back at his sheet, and now Cadence has an opportunity to laugh. He’s got the same notes, quieter, and a little slower, deeper, but he’s coming back in.
Everyone comes in on time, and Octavo focuses on not messing up his music. Link seems to know his part by now, he’s got the melody, it just seems to repeat right now. Zelda plays her guitar with ease. Cadence has the beat, now.
One and two and three and four and, one and two and three and four and-
Octavo keeps track of the beat with his foot, and when he finishes his part, he takes a moment to breathe.
Cadence doesn’t look up at him, and just mutters.
“Impressive.” She says it a little sarcastically, and Octavo just rolls his eyes.
Not long after, the song finishes with one loud note. He seemed to really put emphasis on it.
It rings throughout the house for a moment, but not in a deafening way this time.
“Oh, that was awesome!” Cadence smiles.
“Did I really write in a fortississimo?”
“Ah, who the fuck says fortississimo?” Cadence laughs. “That’s a fucking triple forte with the boom.”
“Excuse me?” Octavo pauses. “That is NOT the right term, like at all-”
“People do say triple forte. Easier than fortississimo.” Link shrugs.
“But triple forte with the boom? Who says that?”
“You get my point, it’s a triple forte with the boom.”
Octavo shakes his head. “No, no it’s not…”
“Felt like a triple forte with the boom more than a fortississimo.” Zelda snickers. “I like triple forte with the boom.”
“Fine, fine, give me your sheets.” He laughs, and grabs his pencil, replacing the
fff
with
tfwtb.
“That make it easier to remember? Crescendo into triple forte with the boom.”
Cadence smiles, and places her sheets back down. “That’s so much easier. Thank you so much.”
Octavo rolls his eyes at her sarcasm, and Link places his oboe on the table.
“So, who wants to get food?”
“Agh, it’s so much cheaper to cook-” Octavo starts, but Cadence has already grabbed him by his jacket. “We’re going.”
“You don’t have pants!” Octavo shouts.
She picks up a pair off the floor. “Link, can I borrow these?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Octavo pinches the bridge of his nose, and puts his shoes on.
Everyone else dresses so much more casually compared to him, he almost feels a little out of place.
“Should I lose the jacket?” He turns to Cadence.
“What do you think?” She says it so casually it takes him a second to realize she’s being sarcastic.
“So that’s a yes?” He tilts his head slightly.
“I think you look fine as is,” Link adds. Cadence rolls her eyes.
“Well, way to rule out anyone else’s opinion entirely, Link.”
Link just laughs. “What, he wears the jacket all the time, he looks fine.”
Link opens his front door, and is met by a crowd of people.
“Was that you guys playing?” It’s someone from…Kakariko, Octavo is almost certain, but he did not bother to learn anyone’s names.
“Uh, yeah, yeah, were we too loud?” Link laughs. “Sorry, I…”
“What, no! You guys sounded awesome! What piece was that?”
Octavo hides behind Cadence, and gulps slightly. He didn’t name that piece at all, and now he’s got a crowd.
“Oh, well, Octavo composed it-”
Everyone pauses for a moment.
And now the crowd leaves, Octavo thinks. They should clear out right about…now.
And yet they don’t.
And yet.
And yet it doesn’t seem they will.
Octavo steps out from behind Cadence, and gives an awkward, forced wave.
“Uh…yeah. I did.”
It’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Fates above, please spare me from this and strike me down.
“Huh! It’s really good!”
There’s voices chatting about how he’s changed, and even though he can hear that some people have their doubts, it is undoubtedly positive.
He freezes in the doorway, and fidgets with his shirt collar. People like his music. They want to know the composer, they want to hear his music!
He laughs, almost in disbelief.
“So, what’s the name of the piece?”
Octavo pauses, and snaps his fingers. “Ha, so…I didn’t really-”
“-Ballad of a Drunkard,” Cadence says before Octavo can finish his thought.
“Ah, what, I didn’t-”
What, approve it? It’s not like I’d have a piece to play without her. Fuck it, Ballad of a Drunkard it is.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s the name.”
The group nods. “You guys should play at the village sometime?”
“You’d let me?” Octavo says before thinking.
Another pause, but everyone nods. “I mean, yeah. Yeah!”
“Then yes, of course, we’ll play!” Octavo can’t help but smile. “Yeah, yeah, we can play, I’ve got more pieces, you guys want to hear more? Can anyone play the glockenspiel?” he shouts.
He walks outside, and lets himself be absorbed into the crowd. His friends follow suit, and Cadence is carrying their guitars, and Link’s got his oboe, and Zelda has the amps.
And they make it to Kakariko, and Octavo has a crowd. A crowd. For his music. Someone wants to hear him play. Many people want to hear him play.
Despite what he did, people want to hear him. They’re nice to him, and they cheer for him, for his friends, for his band. He plays guitar, and his lute, and his oboe, and even his glockenspiel. And people like it. People like him.
So he gets up on stage, and he plays.
And Cadence looks at him, and she always glares at him before her solo, and he knows she wants to call him a string of words, it’s a hard solo, but she can’t, and that alone makes him smile.
This is her element.
Link plays the melody with ease, and taps his foot to keep the beat.
This is his element.
Zelda strums her guitar, and he realizes he really wants to know where she learned that. It’s impressive, but she seems to come from a family of string players. Didn’t her father play the lute? Either way, the acoustic is amazing.
This is her element, too.
Maybe Octavo really does know how to compose.
Octavo starts playing again, and he copies Cadence’s rhythm, and he notices she’s playing a little differently. A little more quietly, which makes Link stand out a little bit more.
He should’ve brought a pencil, he has to write that in!
As they slowly start to get louder, Octavo can feel himself smiling again.
And they hit that ‘triple forte with the boom’, and it echoes throughout the village. He listens to it ring out, and people start cheering.
This is his element. This is 100% his element.
Octavo just laughs. He laughs, and he grabs Link by the shoulders.
“That was amazing!”
“You’re telling me! You wrote it.” Link laughs.
Octavo feels a sense of pride at that. He did. He wrote it and it was good.
He looks to the crowd again. He’s making people smile, for once.
He smiles back, and it’s awkward, and kind of crooked, but it’s him. This is his crowd, his song!
Well,
their
song. He looks back to his band.
Ballad of a Drunkard it is.