Whoever Made Those Rules [Morgan]

[Amber Joy]

February 14th

Music was in the air that afternoon in New Pallet. As couples strolled through town hand-in-hand, guitar notes floated around them, adding to the romantic atmosphere. Mingling with the notes was a woman's voice, singing out lyrics that tended to range from poignant to downright cheesy, but the potential for eye-rolling from those who chose to pay attention to the words didn't seem to deter her any.

That was possibly because the woman in question was Amber Joy, who wasn't generally deterred by much of anything when in the pursuit of helping others have a good time. The pink-haired cowgirl was sitting in a spot near one of the more frequently-traveled paths in town, but not blocking it, and had her eyes shut as she sang her heart out and her hands manipulated the guitar's strings. She had a look of being lost in her own world, though occasionally she'd return to reality when someone walked by, opening her eyes and tipping her hat at those who paused to glance at her.

One of her songs drew to a close--she'd long stopped keeping track, just letting herself flow from one to the next--and Amber strummed a few times as she contemplated which to follow it with. It didn't take her long to decide, and soon a smile was on her lips as she began to sing.

"Good things come to those who wait,
And only fools rush in.
I've let those words guide my fate,
Time and time again..."

Amber had spent every Valentine's Day of her life single. Every last one. Not because she didn't want a date, but simply due to poor luck in that department. While moderately frustrated by her complete lack of a love life, when it came to this single day, every year, her thoughts were less on her perpetual singleness and more on that fact that there was a holiday going on and she didn't have a way to contribute to it.

"But nothing's etched in stone,
And I guess I should have known..."

Eventually, though, years ago, she'd hit upon the idea to grab up her Pa's old guitar and dig up every love song she'd ever heard in her life--much of them she knew due to her family sharing old songs from their lives that they'd managed to remember--from the back of her mind. Sure, the old thing had seen better days, and the difficulty in getting a hold of suitable strings meant she had to be careful with it, but the music still seemed to brighten the days of those around her, and that's what made it worthwhile.

"That whoever made those rules,
Never looked into your eyes,
On a moonlit night.
Who could have thought,
That I could have found,
A love this strong,
That can't be wrong?"

Of course, this practice wasn't complete and utter selflessness in action. Amber did like to be a bit of a show off, remind the town that she could be a darn good musician when she wanted to, or at least not a terrible one. And maybe she still entertained some small hope that, one of these years, some pretty little thing was going to be impressed and charmed by her singing and she'd have someone specific to serenade.

"Less is more,
Made sense before,
But now I can't get enough..."

For right now, though, Amber wasn't consciously thinking about any of that. She was just enjoying the afternoon and losing herself in the music.

"Baby, you made a fool,
Out of whoever made those rules..."

[Morgan Lysandre-Fay]

MORGAN

[[so it turns out 'some time this weekend' is actually 'WAIT NO I'M TOTALLY UP FOR POSTING RIGHT NOW' because ???.]]

Morgan closed the phone application on her X-Gear. "Nique ta mere..." she muttered under her breath. She hadn't done much for a while, it was true, but who was her father to say ill about that? He hadn't been stung by, by a... whatever that was.

Meanwhile, Malcontent, her Shuppet, floated around her head happily, enjoying the frustration, guilt, and shame emanating from her trainer. It was always so tasty when that man called her trainer!

The erratic pattern in which Mal was floating added irritation to the little ghost's plate, though that irritation also caused Morgan to gather her things and stomp out of her room in the inn. Sure, today was Singles' Awareness Day, as her father had not neglected to remind her, but at least she didn't know anyone in New Pallet aside from the good doctor to drill that in even further.

...Ooor so she thought, anyway. The fresh air of the outside hadn't done a whole lot for her mood, but Morgan had always been a fan of music and found herself drawn to the source when she found she recognized the artist from the, ah, book club or whatever it was called these days. Or at least--she thought that was Amber?

At any rate, the music sounded nice, even if the lyrics were a little, ah... what was the word... terrible. There weren't any chairs around, nor... were there any other static audience members... but Morgan decided to dust off a place to sit a little ways from her and just listen.

Mal floated down next to her trainer with a slight frown. What was this 'contentment' crap? I mean, sure, that was fine, but not very edible.

---

Party:

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[Background image by Izzie Grace Blog Backgrounds]

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[Amber Joy]

"Some say love will lose its shine,
Once the new wears off.
The heat of passion fades with time,
But they couldn't be more wrong..."

Amber caught sight of movement, and as she sang she looked over to see who had sat down near her. Surprise flickered across her face, and she very nearly missed a note, but then she gave a bright smile as she kept up her singing.

"I knew with just one look,
That we would rewrite the book."

Morgan was not among the people she would have expected to see out here. Amber only ever got to see the other woman during those times when she followed cousin Jasper--he was 'Dr. Stone' to most people these days, but the Joy-clan physician, who, admittedly, could be her fourth cousin twice removed for all she knew, would forever be 'cousin Jasper' to Amber--down to Port City for his book club...thingy. Amber hadn't even been there for that reason the first time he'd brought her around to it, but being able to talk literature with her peers? She hadn't been able to resist.

The presence of nice eye-candy within the club had been a factor, too. But not the only one. She kept coming back for the books. Really. Honest.

"'Cause whoever made those rules,
Never looked into your eyes,
On a moonlit night.
Who could have thought,
That I could have found,
A love this strong,
That can't be wrong?"

Amber did wonder why a Port City girl like Morgan was out here in New Pallet, though the form of a shuppet floating around near her--another surprise, though she had known that Morgan loved pokemon, so it wasn't too much of one, she supposed--seemed to be at least part of an answer. It was a lot easier to move between settlements with pokemon of your own, after all.

However, she could ask questions about that once she was finished. The show must go on, after all. Even if she really had only one person who had actually stopped to listen to her right now, everyone else just wandering past and only giving her the occasional glance.

"Less is more,
Made sense before,
But now I can't get enough.
Baby, you made a fool,
Out of whoever made those rules."

Her voice faded to make way for the instrumental ending, and as the song drew to a close, Amber finally pulled her fingers away from the old guitar's strings and gave her book club buddy a bright, cheerful grin, not a shred of negative emotion in her whole body. "Howdy, Morgan! Wasn't expectin' you to be 'round these parts. It's good t'see ya," she greeted, her accent as thick as ever, with a tip of her hat. She offered another hat tip in the shuppet's direction as well as she added, "And howdy there to you too, sugar. I take it yer a friend o' Morgan's?"

That was what pokemon were, after all. Friends. And this shuppet was a cute little fellow, at that, from Amber's point of view. She knew intellectually that he wouldn't be as enjoyable to cuddle as he looked, being a ghost and all, but the little guy, with those big, blue eyes, looked terribly squeezable all the same.