"Punched a lot of people that don't matter, and missed the chance on the ones I should have." Nico replied, but it was hard to be phased by these thoughts right now with good company around a table. Exceptions being due whenever said company did something dumb, such as the korean man did right now-
"I dunno how I'm supposed to feel about that special mention..." This answer earned him a smug smirk out of Nico, who didn't want to say a thing about it, yet he managed to leverage her words towards violence once his next sentence got her to squint her eyes at him, only to look over to Val, who shared the sentiment she did as opposed to the barista's.
"Yes, thank you, it's VERY cute and unique." She pressed her palms together and pointed it over to the blonde in a short praying gesture then turned over to Ari. "You speak like you got nothing going in your life 24/7 in and out of the game and yet I ain't announcing it to the world. You can't argue me on this one." Nico shrugged it off, and she could have gone harder on the insult factor, but today's christmas so he can consider it a second gift if anything.
Specially since the focus here wasn't their bickering, even if it kept coming up to the stage with Ari pointing out how little they agreed, bumping her shoulder against his as if to shut him up to let Val shine already with her play.
"Let's go!" She pumped her fist up to the ceiling, pushing down her left arm on Ari as if to try and reach the skies with a little boost, only gravity followed afterwards and she landed like a split of a second after. To her, it was a mile up, to everyone else, the pinkette just barely lifted herself from the floor.
Once Luthien excused herself, Nico gave a glance back to her gift, then to Ari. "For my birthday I'm expecting a giant golden boot, couse I'm gonna kick your ass real hard one of these days." Arms folding against her chest, going for a bit of back and forth between them once again if only to fill in the void that came from waiting for their violin player to show up once again, and finally the pajama star came from the kitchen.
Yet despite her restrictions, Nico kept quiet and didn't argue, if only because it's her first time as part of a private concert in the audience's side, a pleasure she never thought she could get, but one song should be enough.
Her face turned severe once Valeria begun to play. In reality, that's just how she could focus on the instrument and the notes at play. While not being attuned to the instrument, it's not the first time she listens to one let alone to this particular piece which sounded familiar by all means.
Perhaps it's just favouritism that blinds her right now, bias for the way the elf played, but it certainly sounded the same. Perhaps even better, as the flaws inherent from not being in a perfect fantasy world highlighted passion and skill as opposed to the mechanical perfection that came with having Harmonics Magic as the backbone of a bard's play. There was a clear difference between an actual musician and a mere player with harmonics, and it was plenty noticeable now for Nico, like a heaven-sent symphony.
She was the first to clap for her friend, loud and hard enough that she hoped the walls were made of thin paper for their neightbors to hear both play and clapping alike once it ended.
"Hell, I wasn't expecting a dance even!" Nico added in a higher-pitch that expressed her awe in a moment's notice, a warm smile tugging from the corner of her lips. "That sounded even better than in-game I gotta say. Just shows how flawed harmonic magic is compared to actual skill." She nodded.
@Yugam | @Luthien
