Liberty and Domination: Fledgling Coercion

Metal Wind

"I almost forgot that I had brought this along." Jacque chuckles as he looks in his office and discovers an instrument case. He unzips it to reveal a flute that's in mint condition, and it only takes a few seconds for him to assemble it for playing.

"Hey Jacque, what are you up- wait is that your flute?" Andre asks. "Man when was the last time I saw you with that?"

"Well life in the battlefield doesn't really give you that kind of time, but now I have it as a commander." Jacque replies as he decides to head into the common room with Andre.

"So are you just gonna play some random notes or something?" Andre asks.

"What makes you think I would do that? I have a couple tunes in mind." Jacque chuckles before he starts playing. The notes form a sort of melancholy melody as Jacque plays, and Andre recognizes what Jacque is playing almost instantly.

"That tune..." Andre says. "You've played that so many times when you were younger, you even told me how it came to but I've long forgotten what it was."

"It's a symbol of my past." Jacque replies, stopping for a brief moment to explain. "I had it rough back then, I guess this song just captures it." And with that he continues playing, closing his eyes and not caring if he attracts attention as his fingers gracefully dance along the holes. Eventually he does attract some attention as the tune draws Richelieu and Jean Bart into the room, and they look at each other for a few seconds to acknowledge one another before turning to Jacque.

"It's sounds so beautiful..." Richelieu says.

"But at the same time it sounds so... Sad." Jean Bart adds, images flashing through her head as she listens. Eventually Jacque opens his eyes and stops playing to smile at the both of them.

"Like what you hear?" Jacque chuckles. "I barely ever get time to play this old thing, but now that I'm here, I guess that time couldn't have come better." And with that he decides to play a short tune. This one carries a mystical tone to it and Richelieu looks around the room, expecting something to be summoned by the time he finishes, and Jacque chuckles.

"So how long have you been playing?" Jean Bart asks.

"Eh, longer than I can remember." Jacque replies. "Emile would love for me to play for her, I know that."

"She would definitely enjoy it." Richelieu chuckles. "What kind of tunes do you play?"

"Well many of these tunes were learned when I was in dark times, so they have a little bit of a dark tone to them as you could tell from earlier." Jacque replies. "That second one I played though, that one was just something I made up on the fly." He chuckles as he plays the mystical tune again, but as soon as he finishes Dunkerque walks into the room, surprising the two battleships.

"Oh my, it actually did summon someone!" Richelieu says, and then everyone save for the battlecruiser bursts out into laughter.

"Is there something I missed out on?" Dunkerque asks, wondering why Jean Bart and Richelieu are leaning on one another while laughing.

"It'll take me a little bit to explain forgive me." Jacque replies as he recollects himself long enough to explain the whole deal with the flute and the tunes. Meanwhile Andre notices the fact that the two sisters have been leaning on one another, helping the other recompose after that coincidental comment, and he smiles.

"Perhaps those two have more in common than they think." Andre chuckles. "Keep up the good work Jacque."