How Green Becomes Wood

"As long as I am not required to play or sing along with you, that would be fine. Would you like for me to help you set up? Though I know nothing about keyboards," she admitted. "I could catch the attention of the waitress and request her aid."
 
"No, I wouldn't force you to do anything like that," Daizi promised, "Asking the waitress would probably be for the best, I'm not sure if there's a sign up sheet or if it's a situation where if you just walk up."
 
Ciara caught the waitress's attention again, and they discussed the matter. The keyboard was open for use, and the open mic was a loose sign up. If it was a slow night, whoever wanted to could just get up and take a turn. If it was a busy night, there was a list. This was a medium night, so there was a list, but it was short. Daizi would only need to wait for two more acts, and then she could take a turn. The waitress did not really know how to set up the keyboard, but she knew someone who did and promised they'd be availible to help out when it was Daizi's turn.
 
During the two songs where Daizi had to wait, she continued her conversation with Ciara while she thought about what song she wanted to sing. By the time it was her turn, she took her cane and made her way up to the stage, and the visual of it hushed the chatting crowd slightly, while a staff member helped set up the keyboard and move a microphone to her. Folding up her cane, she set it next to her on the bench, and then played a bit on the keys to familiarize herself a bit with that particular instrument.

"Normally, when I play this song," She said into the mic as she did so, only flinching slightly in surprise at the echo of her voice, which she did every time she spoke into a microphone, "I play it on my harp, or I sing it while running wildly through my house when I'm alone, and I haven't warmed up at all, you you have to give me some slack." Some few people near the front chuckled politely at her comments, and despite speaking to an entire room of strangers, Daizi nonetheless seemed relaxed and affable with them.

The song she played began with a few bars of only the piano, which she performed delicately and skillfully. Anybody who knew the song would recognize both what she was about to play from the intro, but also wouldn't recognized she added a bit of complexity. It demonstrated her skill but really she only added it to compensate for the lack of other instrumentation.

Then, she began to sing:
Memory fails me, names and faces blur
There is only after or before
Am I so different, have I changed?
I do not recognize my face
The scar fades but pulls inside
Tugging at me all the time
Chewing on a feeling and spitting it out
Crouched in a ball gown
Anxious and ashamed
The vague humiliations of fame

Her voice began delicately, sounding wistful and ephemeral. It was as though she was not only sending the music outwards but also breathed it in, moving with it, as though there were no audience, no shifting of seats, no children at home. There was only this. Finishing the first verse, she began singing the chorus, and her voice only grew in power and passion.

I do not find worthiness in virtue
I no longer try to be good
It didn't keep me safe
Like you told me that it would
So come on, tear me wide open
A terrible gift
Let the chorus console me
Sympathy magic
The emotion was clear not only in her voice but in her face, and the way her shoulders and arms moved as she hit the keys. It was a song which, when she first heard it in 2025, she felt had been written for her especially. Now, performing it in this random place, she continued playing the higher notes with her right hand, but slowly lifted her left, her fingers spreading wide, her voice yet again softening as she sang:

And light coming in the window just so
And the wind through my fingers
The only God that I know.

Then, lifting her right hand in much the same way, she began singing, now fully acapella:

And it does not want me on my knees to believe
Head high, arms wide
Aching-aching-aching

With both arms stretched up and out, using the full haunting power of her voice she sang:

And alive
And alive
So I don't have to be worthy
I no longer try to be good
It didn't keep me safe
Like you told me that it would
So come on, tear me wide open
'Til I'm losing my mind
'Til I cannot contain it
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
She put her hands back on the keys to finish the song out, only breaking the emotion with the softest delighted chuckle as a person or two in the audience who knew the song began to clap to the beat, which got some of the other audience members to join along as best they could.

So come on, come on, I can take it
Give me everything you got
What else, what else, what else, what else
So come on, come on, I can take it
Give me everything you got
What else, what else, what else, what else

Like Florence Welch did in the concert, she finished the song by slowing down the instrumentals and just singing, Come on, come on, come on and Sympathy Magic until it felt natural for the song to simply end with one last, So come on, come on, I can take it. Give me everything you got. What else, what else, what else, what else."
 
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