What is your favorite love song?

Mine is "Someone To Watch Over Me" as sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

I have been asked to play a party for Valentine's Day, I would like some ideas what should I put on my set list.

[video]

[ Machi's sitting on the couch, pointing the network device at himself. He's dressed in jeans and a Gavinners T-shirt and a pink and white track jacket with a fox logo over. The jacket's many times too big on him. ]

Well, the last of everything is packed and gone, all that is left to go to the Host Club is me and Lumi. I just wanted to spend a little more time... [looks around, hugging his knees]

And I want to say goodbye. Even if you can't see it. Even if you never do.

Klavier Gavin, this is your apartment. You bring me here in June when I just show up here. I was very scared but you let me sleep under you keyboard, but tuck me into the bed once I fall asleep. I remember.

Puppy. Wocky. [smile] You are not here very long, but when you are, you treating me like I am made of gold. Even when you find out I am not a girl, you still want to be my boyfriend. I am happy my first kiss was with someone nice as you. I hope you have the surgery you need for your heart now. I hope you are listening to lots of good hip-hop. I hope you find a nice honey to settle down with.

[takes a deep breath] Mr. Edgeworth, I spent the most time with you. You lend me the piano to play whenever I want. You play violin with me. You always have a small smile for me, and tea. I think sometimes I only get out of bed because I know we're to have tea today. I am really sorry I disappoint you with my drinking. I am stupid. I hope you understand I am trying my best here, and I don't do it anymore. I... I really love you, you know. I never think... [hides his face in his arm, muffled] I am going to be brave now. I am going to be very grown-up. I can do this on my own now.

[ He wipes his eyes and stands up, turning around to wave at the room as if there's anyone else there. ]

Okay, I have to say goodbye now. I have to say goodbye or I will be sad forever. Goodbye, everyone! I am leaving it like it was so you can come back whenever!

Please don't forget me.

[ Machi turns around and flicks off the network device. ]

So, you want to visit Borginia? It is a beautiful mountainous land in Northern Europe. Recently, the isolated republic has become more interested in participating in world economy, as helped along by the unexpected international stardom of Borginian singer Lamiroir and her musical partner, the piano genius Machi Tobaye. As these two approach the global spotlight, many more asking, what is this Republic of Borginia all about?

Borginia is a small but lush land, with many rolling hills, mountains, forests and lakes. Also goats. It is a place you can go outside and feel all alone and hear you thoughts, your lungs filling up with fresh air. Borginia is a rich and unique culture despite being so small, her people are very hardworking but love they music.

Great, yes? So if you want to visit, you may have questions.

1. What language is spoken in Borginia?

Borginian is spoken in Borginia! Most people do not know any English at all, or any other language due to Borginia's isolationist nature.

Borginian written and spoken are said to be completely without meaning or comprehension to those who do not grow up speaking or reading it! So, is difficult to explain, but if you visit, you may be reading signs and maps by instinct and intuition.

2. What kind of food is eaten in Borginia?

Simple, hearty soups of many variety make up a big part of Borginian cuisine. Some are eaten cold, others hot. Beware of the spice, though! Many Borginian foods are meant to kick the hangovers right off of a farmer and make you pay attention.

Also very popular is coffee, one of Borginia's largest imports, though vodka is considered the national beverage. <-- This is meant as a joke!!

3. What sort of wild life is native to Borginia?

Many kind of animals live in the thick forests of Borginia, from gray wolves to brown bears to lynxes and sika deers. In the trees and caves many bats live. But perhaps most unique and well-known to Borginia is the Borginian Butterfly - a bright, colorful, and very poisonous creature.

4. Is Borginia safe for outsiders to visit?

In small towns and the wilderness, you will find peace and kindness not known to other countries. However, in the capitol city, how to say this nicely... the police are not always nice. The laws are many and confusing. Many broken laws result in the death penalty. If you do not use discretion, it could become a challenging situation for you quickly, especially with a language barrier.

However, tell them you are a rock star, here to record a song, and they will hand you a world on the platter!

5. Any additional suggestions?

Don't tease policemen. Not even a little.

Absolutely do not take anything out of the country for any reason.

Mr. Edgeworth's apartment is empty awhile now. I fear...



I, I should maybe find a new place to stay?

Is too sad here. Everyone is always...

[ unintentional video]

[ Look who's a girl again! Machi's dancing around in her pajama pants and a Gavinners T-shirt, blasting a a cheerful but somewhat disturbing song on the stereo, utterly overjoyed. She notices the network device is on. ]

Lumi, did you do this? Bad kitty!

Hi City! [wavewavewave] I'm a pretty girl again! Who wants to go on a date with me?

[video]

[ There's Machi, looking considerably rumpled and unwashed, and very possibly somewhat unfed. ]

I DID IT! I FINISHED MY OPERETTA!


...is Christmas over already?

Dear Mr. Santa, for Christmas I would like:

-A handsome boy for me only
-A bottle of cologne - Allure by Chanel is good.
-A bottle of Belvedere vodka

I have been pretty good since coming to the City. Though I do some pretty bad thing this year, I try my best to behave well and have not told many lies since I come here.

Please consider me, since you never visit me before.

Thank you,
Machi Tobaye



[ooc: Strikes semi-hackable.]

[piano and voice post]

Fantasies Come True. From musical Avenue Q, first run on Broadway in 2003. Sort of a classic, hm?

[ Machi plays Fantasies Come True ]

I am... such a liar.

[sighs]

[unintentional video]

[Machi can be seen locking himself into one of the sound-proof recording rooms in his apartment, kitten in arms! He slams the door shut and locks it behind him.]

We'll be safe here, Lumi!

Is awhile since I needing to buck the press. So many cameras...



[ooc: Go hog wild!]

Actually, I remember the faces of my mother and father well. She is a dancer with a light smiling movement. He is a composer with a dark stormcloud face, but strong as it is it becomes cheerful for me. I have many good memory of them both. They were very in love and they say to me each day, "Machi, you are a light of our lives."

Many happy day pass with my father teaching piano. I do not have to wonder what they think of me, I know they proud to be pianist now. I never wonder.

The day they die, I am filling with the tears completely. No one can console me. After that day, I think I must really do this thing, be a pianist like my father. So I do. Lucky me, to have been taught so young, the talent comes naturally.

Yes, I think of my parents fondly. In the fantasy I make in my head of them.

Really, there were no such people. One nun teach me to play after she hear me fussing on keys, she find I good. She take me all over town, get donation so I can take lesson from real pro. I never take lesson. She continue to teach me, I get better, she take more money. Things never seem to get better, still the children are sickly and hungry. When we get more food they still steal it from me and punch me. I freak to them. Cannot punch back, cannot play rough, could hurt my hands. Always... fearing to hurt my hand.

I run away because it is my talent, damn it, it is mine, for me only. I take a job at a jazz club, just to wash dish and watch and learn. If I get in the way of owner, he kick me, just like I his own child, funny, huh?

So that's why you need to give me a little money tonight - oh no sir, I promise I not drinking. I get hungry, please, you can spare a coin or two. The owner of the bar, he such a bad guy, he crack me over the face and I see a star. I cannot go back there tonight, I just need a little for something to eat, please?

See how easily I can tell that kind of story and make it seem true?


I hate piano, actually. With all my heart. I hate that it is all I can be, do or think. Would you want that for you? If it mean you could write amazing music, if it mean you famous, would you want to always hear music in your head, hear it so much you hate it when people talk over it? Would you want to never climb a tree for fear to hurt your hand?

But this is me. This is what I do. If I play, then they are happy. Someone see me, if I play for a moment and it touches their face, then finally, someone is listening to me. I can't stop. No matter what, she is there for me. Play for that sense of calmness. You feel the admiration of others. They won't like it if you stop. You are nothing without me. And I'm not, so I won't stop ever. Because I love it too much. The music is in my head, my veins.

[voice]

[ Machi's voice is tired and hoarse. He sniffles repeatedly before speaking. ]

Class... is cancel indefinitely until the time in which the instructor can once again teach. Okay?

[ COUGH COUGH COUGH ]

...Th-there was blood...

[ COUGH COUGH COUGH ]

[ whimpersniff ]

Please take great care with yourselves, Network, I will see you soon.




[ooc: italics = borginian]

( Filtered to piano students, hackable )

City, I needing suggestions for concert venue. I will need a piano, and perhaps an assistant planner who more familiar with these things. I would like to review location and have decision made in a week or two.

[unintentional video post - does this kid ever make a public entry on purpose?]

[The Metwork device is sitting on the coffee table, nudged on when Machi sets down a volume of manga.

The blond young man is sitting on the couch in his apartment, blasting some rock power-ballad on the stereo in only the way a teenager in a soundproofed room can do. He's in his pajamas - blue cloud pants and a Gavinners T-shirt. There's several romance manga, a bottle of clear nail polish, some cuticle softener and emery boards on the table on the table. He's finishing up his cereal and drinks the milk out of the bowl, then trots to rinse out the dish and put it into the dishwasher. Okay, so it's nothing too terribly exciting.

But wait a second, as the second verse plays, he emerges with the kitten in his arms. He's singing to the cat along with the music.]

Can you still see the heart of me?
All of my agony fades away when you hold me in your embrace

[At this point, Lumi decides to get the hell out of Dodge and squirms away, bolting. Machi climbs up onto the couch, treating it as his own miniature stage as he sings at the top of his lungs, miming a mic with one hand and making diva gestures with the other.]

Don't tear me down for all I need
Make heart a better place, give me something I can believe
Don't tear it down, what's left of me
Make heart a better place

[And as the song hits the bridge, he sees the Network device is recording. And stops singing, a blush creeping over his face, all the way down his neck. For several moments he's utterly frozen in horror. Then he shakes his head fiercely and grabs the Network device, grinning and continuing his little act - singing that final refrain with as much bombast and motion as his young self can handle.]

Don't tear it down, what's left of me
Make my heart a better place, make my heart a better place

[And once the performance is over, he immediately switches off the video recording and can be heard flopping down on the couch.]

[/video]
[voice]

...Doesn't that thing ever run out of battery? I think I will find a hole to crawl into now.

[video post - unintentionally public]

[Machi's set up his Network device to record him playing in Klavier's apartment studio, and he's fussing around on a keyboard, singing softly. A little white cat can be seen scampering away - apparently responsible for the sudden public setting.]

I am a natural entertainer, aren't we all
Holding pieces of dying ember, I'm just trying to remember
Who can I call, who can I call...?

[he stops playing, glancing over his shoulder]

Lumi? Lumi-mew?

[picks up the Network device, humming a bit and going to harass the cat with it]

Lumiiiii.



I - I unable to reach you up there, Lumi. Ah...

[The kitten hops forward, onto Machi's head and out of the sight of the Network device. Machi stumbles and loses his balance]

!!!!

[He hits the ground and the Network device shuts off]

[/video]

Oh...!

I am no longer a girl, it seems. I am the Machi I was before!


...This dress still looks nice on me, though!

[piano and voice post]

[The song starts out with drums and simple lines of piano. A still-very-female Machi begins to sing The Tower, by Vienna Teng.]

The one who survives by making the lives of others worthwhile
She's coming apart right before my eyes
The one who depends on the services she renders to those who come knocking
She's seeing too clearly what she can't be, what understanding defies

She says I need not to need, or else a love with intuition
Someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go
I need not to need, I've always been the tower
But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow

She turns out the light anticipating night falling tenderly around her
And watches the dusk, the words won't come
She carries the act so convincingly the fact is sometimes she believes it
That she can be happy the way things are, be happy with the things she's done

And yet I need not to need, or else a love with intuition
Someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go
I need not to need, I've always been the tower
But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow

Reach out, but hold back
Where is safety?
Reach out, and hold back
Where is the one who can change me?
Where is the one, the one?

[Here, a friend of Machi's plays a lovely violin solo.]

Reach out, but hold back
Where is safety?
Reach out, and hold back
Where is the one who can change me?
Where is the one, the one?

I need not to need, or else a love with intuition
Someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go
I need not to need, I've always been the tower
But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow

The danger and the power, the friend and the foe...

[claps]

Good take! Good job, Mr. Edgeworth! I told you, your violin is very fine.

Oh look, the Network device is on too. Hello the Network! Is Monday, and I am still a girl. This seems a bit unusual for a curse, but I thought, now I can sing much nicer! So am making recording. That violin was my friend Mr. Edgeworth. Can you believe he is nervous to play with me! Silly him!

[unintentional video post - he thinks it's audio only]

I feel strange... I think it may be a curse.

[He examines himself in the bathroom mirror. Something's different. He's already very soft and sylphlike, but there's a certain curvy quality to his features that seems new. Suddenly, Machi gropes his chest. Squeezes extra flesh that wasn't there before.]

I'm a girl?

[Glancing around like he's afraid someone will see him, he adjusts himself to make sure.]

I'm a girl! Oh, very funny.


[grumble] No one is even going to see a difference.

[He turns around and admires his hips and other new features in the mirror. Really, he's not too upset. It's weird, but it could be weirder, right?]

What other boy is a pretty girl today? Maybe we can get a nice dress.

Enjoy the strange curse... [sigh]


[ooc: Machi drank some of Watari's funky tea, and now he's going to be a girl for a week! Action for apartment residents; voice for everything else]

Did you know... if you're being followed by a small raincloud, if you go into the sunshine, it makes a little rainbow?

Hello, the Network! I want you to welcome the latest member of my household!



He is a little kitty cat, a gift from my dear friend Mr. Edgeworth.

He does not have a name. Do you have suggestions?

I switch to audio now, okay?

[voice post]

I also want to say... happy birthday to my student Mr. Artemis!

[Plays a bluesy Happy Birthday]

You are a good student! You are another year older, so, I will hold you accountable! You must be even more responsible and mature.

[little laugh]

I am sure you won't have trouble with it.

[there's a crash and thrumming sounds as something musical's knocked to the ground]

Oh no! Bad kitten!

[/voice post]

[voice post]

[murmuring]

I thought I would be even more different. I thought I would change. I thought I would feel less empty. Maybe it's even lonelier when you grow up.

[more clearly, speaking to the Network device directly]

Hello the Network, it's Machi again. Tonight... I want to play a song for my friend Gren. Is called 'Hey Jupiter.' Tell me if you like, okay?

[Plays Hey Jupiter on Klavier's keyboard.]

Thank you for letting me take you to tea yesterday, Gren. Thank you for everything. I love you very much.

Thank you also for the beach, Marron. Sorry if I too forward in asking you, but perhaps both of us should be more lively in the future.



[ooc: italics = Borginian ; voice responses]