Four hermits sat in X's base. Mostly for the acoustics, in all honesty. They were supposed to be practicing. It was, in reality, pure chaos.

"What I don't get is. Who the hell is Patrick."

"Some Irish person probably."

There was a loud piano noise.

"Wels, please stop playing Fur Elise."

"I need to warm up."

"WA-WA-WA-WA-WATERLOO"

"Anyways, tell Ren to shut up first."

"Ren, shut-"

"One. Two. Three. Four."

Cleo tapped lightly on the drum before her as she counted the group in, saltiness clear in her voice. The impromptu folk group had been Wels' idea, and all four of them had reached the point of either constant internal screaming, or mentally apologising to any telepaths in the area. This was, of course, much appreciated by Keralis.

X came in with the guitar chords, giving Wels an annoyed side glance when the knight picked up the melody on the piano. This made Wels fumble the tempo, confusing Cleo and messing up the drum. Ren lay his head on the piano, making faint noises threatening for his internal screaming to become external.

"Let's... just do Patrick's Reel." He muttered, face still pressed into the hard wood of Wels' instrument. "God, we're not gonna be ready for the concert, are we?"

So Wels began from his solo. And immediately fumbled it, laughing a self-deprecating laugh. His armor shook as his visor fell over his face. Cleo chose that moment to practice her solo, completely done with the world at this point. Ren quickly built a small wooden structure, declaring it the scream she'd, and stood inside, screaming. X just sat there with his guitar.

Eventually, the group collected themselves, and Cleo counted them in. This time, it went vaguely to plan, at least to begin with. Wels came in at the right time, and they got through the whole first loop of Drunken Sailor without sounding like total dumbasses. Which was, in fact, an achievement for the group. And then communication errors struck again. Wels and X stopped playing, as Ren burst into song.

"What shall we do with the- you're kidding me."

He stormed back into the scream she'd he'd built. X and Cleo went in to try and coax him out, while Wels grabbed Cleo's drum and started practicing doing it on his own. He sounded much better when not trying to coordinate with other people, it turned out.

So practice had been hell. But they had 6 hours until the concert anyway. It wasn't like they couldn't iron out the bumps in the time they had left. 

Skip skedaddle skip skip skedaddle, laugh out loud, make the dishes rattle.

They had sort of organised themselves onto the impromptu stage. The hermits had all arrived, and taken their seats. They waited for Joe to finish introducing their group, and then it would be showtime. They just hoped that things would go right.

And they actually did! Cleo counted them in, and Wels didn't interrupt X's chords. Ren and Wels managed to be in time with each other, much to the entire group's delight. The transition into Wels' solo was smooth, and while Wels fudged it, it was very confident fudging. The mood of the third loop of drunken sailor was infectious, and Cleo did her solo almost perfectly.

The four let out breaths that they hadn't realised they'd been holding as the hermits let out a round of soaring applause. Sure, they could have done with a bit more rehearsal, but as things were it was wonderful. As they bowed, X muttered that Ren was going to have to remove the scream shed from his base or else.

 Maybe they'd do this again sometime. Maybe some folk music other than the British stuff.

Impromptu folk groups (and music class in general) are hell in my experience. Never make me hear that goddamn sea shanty again or I WILL impale you. And that is a legitimate threat.

Autocorrect, signing off from the past!