Chapter Text
Prologue - The First Note
When you were a young child, you discovered a special gift that seemed engraved into your very being. If you were to concentrate on a specific person, you found yourself able to hear a song that seemingly flowed out of their very being. The song always seemed to define the entirety of the person you were focusing on. Every single person had their own distinct song and no two were the exact same. As people grew up and went through major events in their lives, their songs would seemingly alter themselves slightly as if they were growing with the person.
As time went on, you began to realize several things about the abilities you were gifted with. For one, you sometimes had to concentrate to find the song you were searching for. In some way, it was as if certain songs were on different frequencies compared to those of others. Another thing was that the more interactions that you had with a person, the quicker you were able to tune into that person’s song. If you were around a person often enough, you ultimately began to tune into their song as if it was second nature.
You were mystified by the music that surrounded you and soon enough, you built your life around playing these songs for all to hear. As you grew up and got older, you learned many instruments and began to write the tunes you heard. Sometimes, you would also try writing lyrics to the songs if you were especially close to the person whose song you were listening to. Depending on the song you were listening to, the style of music tended to change to suit them. Due to this, you learned many different styles of music from well known genres to rather obscure ones. Soon enough, you found yourself able to tune into the songs of people much easier and were seemingly able play along with them. If you heard a song once, you were able to replicate it quite easily due to your skills with music.
Once you entered college, you pursued a career in music in hopes of bringing these songs you heard to everyone. Due to your skills in music, you were able to get your master's degree in music production and bachelor's degree in music theory in four years. While it was a long four years filled with restless nights and no free time, it had all been worth it to you. With your degrees in hand, you began your career as a music artist.
At first, your career simply started off as small performances on street corners and little gigs in coffee shops. Once in awhile, you would appear in a fair as part of the live music. While it took some time, you were able to catch your lucky break and make it big in the music world. Since you were able to cater to such a wide range of people, it wasn’t hard for you to find jobs once you became known. Many people took interest in the fact that you seemed to have a song that suited everyone. Though you never told anyone about your ability, it was nice to feel appreciated in the music world.
Then the monsters came out from under Mount Ebott.
When they appeared on the surface, things seemed a bit tense at first. For the first year, human-monster relations were barely holding on by a thread. At times, there were rumors that another war would break out between the two species. However, after the second year began, it seemed as if the shock of it all had finally died down. While it had taken a lot of time and fighting, monsters had been given the same rights as humans.
Of course, not everyone was pleased that monsters were being allowed to join humans. There were still monster hate groups and protests against monsters, yet the human governments were trying their best to crack down on all the crimes against monsters. It was taking time but it was easy to see that humanity was trying to help monsters in their own way. While monsters certainly didn’t feel completely safe on the surface, the fact that many humans were trying to be inviting was enough for the monsters to try.
In February of the second year that monsters were on the surface, the King of Monsters had stepped forward with the Royal Scientist at his side. Together, the two had explained the existence of souls to the human race. While the Royal Scientist didn’t have the answers to everything, she gave away quite a bit of information before explaining that she would be continuing in her examination of souls in hopes of discovering more. After a simple number to call in case any humans wished to volunteer to help their cause, the announcement had seemingly ended.
From the broadcast, you had learned several important things. Every single living being - animal, human, or monster - had a soul of their own that was unique in its own way. However, while monster souls were all white, human souls were colored. Depending on the main trait that these souls had, the color of the soul would be different. There were seven main traits, meaning that there were seven different colors. Some dominant soul traits were rarer than others, such as a red soul filled with determination being harder to find than a green soul full of kindness. Finally, you were told that souls were seen as a very private thing. They were usually kept to one’s self and not shared with others.
After hearing about the existence of souls, something deep within you seemed to resonate and tell you that the songs you heard came from the souls of others. For years, you had been taking the private souls of others and playing their songs for all to hear. With this knowledge, you found yourself contemplating if you should stop creating music completely and move on with life. However, with the encouragement of so many people who had heard your songs before, you decided to continue forward with your music career.
From then onwards, you were careful about playing music around monsters. While you had nothing against them, you were worried that you would perhaps offend them in some way if you ended up playing the song of a monster soul. However, one day in late March you ultimately slipped up and played the first note of a song which belonged to a monster by the name of Shyren. Once you had begun, you found yourself unable to stop and played her entire song.
At first, you had been absolutely terrified of what repercussions might arise from this action. However, instead of being insulted, the shy monster seemed flattered before asking you to play it again. When you began the tune once more, the young fish monster began to sing along to your music. By the time it was over, Shyren seemed rather happy and gave a silent thank you before going off.
With the experience of a monster soul song under your belt, you were able to spot a difference between human and monster soul songs. It seemed as if monster soul songs already seemed to have some semblance of lyrics already embedded into them. While you couldn’t hear the words while simply hearing the soul song, that changed when you would being to play the song. Once you began playing a monster’s soul song, the lyrics would seemingly push themselves to the forefront of your mind. Although it was hard to ignore the lyrics and not sing them, it was not entirely impossible.
Since then, you hadn’t been too scared of playing the soul songs of monsters. However, you were still rather cautious about the whole thing and tried to avoid it whenever possible. If you ever found a particularly beautiful soul song from a monster, you would always ask if you could play them a tune. Of course, you never explained that you were playing the song of their soul but it felt nice to at least get some sort of approval before playing a monster’s song.
When the middle of April rolled around, you found yourself receiving a call from an unknown number. Picking it up, you were a bit surprised to hear a monster on the other end. Going by the name Grillby, the monster owned a bar on Main Street and was hoping to have you come in at the beginning of May for a gig. Apparently, he had heard about you through Shyren and thought that it would be a good idea to try having live music in his establishment. After all, what good was a piano in the place is there was no one to play it?
At first, you had been a bit nervous before finally giving into your curiosity and accepting the proposal. After the date and payment was all set up, you ended the call before saving Grillby’s number into your phone in case he called back. Before long, May 5th seemingly came out of nowhere. With your nerves on end, you had gathered everything you needed before getting ready for the night. Donning a simple dark blue princess-style dress with white swirls crawling up from the hem like frost, you tossed on a plain pair of white flats before heading out the door. Lucky for you, you were only a five minute walk from Main Street. Taking a deep breath, you took a minute to gather your thoughts as you stood outside of Grillby’s. At the lovely age of 26, you were finally going to perform your first gig in a monster establishment.
You just hoped that you didn’t play some monster’s soul song and get a face full of magic. You really didn’t feel like insulting an entire species with your music. Refusing to stall any longer, you stepped into Grillby’s with all the confidence you could muster. As you walked over to the bar to inform Grillby of your arrival, you were able to scan out the crowd you would be playing for. While most of them were definitely monsters, there were a few humans scattered within the group. Relaxing a bit, you felt as if you would be fine that night.
You never could have known that your life would forever change the moment you played the first note of a certain soul song later that night.