#[ ooc ] // also apparently just oops all background dump XD

[hymns-across-the-stars]

Serenade ! for gabe and mirage !

Most machines love music; it's a part of their design that Mirage never really understood the reasons for, why hearing even a few stray notes can usually catch the full attention of one passing by. Considering what most of them are—or had been, rather—it just... seems like a flaw, something that can be used and exploited.

All that said, it's not really an issue with the current state of things. And, for what it's worth, she's no different from the masses. Predisposition to enjoyment aside, music is comforting—something that had occasionally broken through the dread when those thoughts became too loud in her head or things were... lonely.

Those times are less frequent than they used to be, by a large margin. It really does help that she and Gabriel actually enjoy each other's company—or at least, she's fairly sure it's mutual. Nonetheless, she still has those hours upon hours of songs saved to memory. She doesn't even need a recording anymore.

And sometimes, she sings them instead.

It seems like an unusual thing among her peers. For all their love of music, she's rarely heard few admit to singing. Some literally don't have the voice; others will absently hum along but do no more. It could be private, still. It's not like she'd sing in front of others. It's more a thing to fill the silence, when she's alone on a task and trying to break some of the monotony.

Today, it's handling that last bits of cleaning the classroom. It's not the same as hearing a human voice, of course, sounding just a little too unnatural to even her own processors. But it still feels good and right and...

"Kiss me, out of the bearded barley... Nightly, beside the green, green grass..."

Well, love songs just hit different.

Somewhere around the second verse, though, she realizes she's, uh... no longer alone in the room—and suddenly it hits her that it might just be shyness that stops the others from singing. With a noise that can only really be described as a startled beep, Mirage sets down the cleaning supplies she's holding.

"Gabriel, please tell me you just came in."