Where the Entertainment Began

Blaine gripped his instruments tightly as he entered Tryssee's Place, the first place that ever accepted him to perform for coin. His eyes widened as he saw just how packed, more than it ever had been in the past. He could barely squeeze through to get to the stage with how many people were housed. The thick smell of alcohol permeated the bar much more strongly than Blaine remembered it last. Loud chatter filled Blaine's ears.
"Well, look who showed up!" Amber came by with several mugs of beer to bring to a table. "Go ahead and hop on stage. The guards'll know to let you up." She rushed off into the crowd before he could get a word in.
Blaine reluctantly shuffled through the tight space, careful to not hit anyone with his lute or his lyre. He sat on the lone stool on the closed stage, looking down at the bustling crowd of guests with food and drink. It felt abnormal seeing the heads of guardsmen blocking the stage, preventing the crowd from seeping to the remaining space in the bar. He stared at their quarterstaffs rising up, creating a fence that kept people out and kept Blaine trapped onstage. The atmosphere had been choking him, and it hadn't felt the same as it had a couple months ago when he simply played the lyre while Ginka danced with his routine.
All of my playing at Charlemaine... did it change me? Blaine gulped. His inner monologue ate at him, frightened him. Shouldn't I be fine playing in a sizeable crowd? What's wrong with me?
As the deafening chatter began to subside a bit, the opportunity to start playing had arrived. Blaine began to reluctantly play and see if his lute could pierce through the wall of suffocating sound. Eventually, the noise died down enough for Blaine's voice, lute, and lyre to all be able to play in the tavern.
As he played and sang, Blaine could still feel his heart thump. The situation didn't change: the atmosphere was just as crushing. Blaine didn't feel like he belonged anymore. The songs he played didn't have the heart that they usually did, but the crowd didn't really notice. They clapped and shouted for an encore regardless, and Blaine never heard of a musician who denied an encore request. He put on the best smile he could, and played over and over until the requests stopped. Once they did, he made his way through the dense crowd and back to his dressing room, shutting himself from the rest of the world.
Blaine looked back and began to hyperventilate. He remembered his last performance at Tryssee's, over a month ago, before he decided to take to a new instrument. His heart wasn't in it, and he felt uninspired. Today felt much worse. He curled up on his seat in dismay, and sat there for the next hour.
-----
"...Are you planning on staying in there all night?" Blaine heard a voice and a knock at the door and looked up. The door opened to reveal Gabrielle Tryssee, the person who booked Blaine for performances from the start.
"All wrapped up with yourself again? You haven't changed a bit!" Ginka walked in behind her with just as much jewelry on her as before.
"It's... been a while, hasn't it?" Blaine asked. He uncurled his body and gave both of them a hug.
"Almost a month and a half, not that I've been keeping track," Gabrielle jabbed. "Guard uprisings and goblin invasions are both bad for business, and you've been gone since."
"It's been awful trying to find people who want me to dance! When the goblins got into town, one of'em almost shot me in the leg! Thank heavens Beau Kew was able to put an end to that..."
"I'm sorry you guys haven't been doing as well... I really should've at least checked in once in a while."
The door behind them opened as Nero Tryssee poked his head in.
"You can come out now, by the way. They're gone."
"They?" Blaine tilted his head as he walked out with Ginka and Gabrielle, noticing a distinct lack of noise that barraged the bar's walls earlier. When the stage came back into view, Blaine only saw familiar faces: regulars who were there for him since the start. "Wait, you kicked everyone else out?!"
"Mhm, I had an hour to do it. Go up there and play for real this time, so we can make sure you didn't get a bigger head, lest you want me to find that wannabe-dwarf Nicklehide and have him recall his songs about your cock and... other unpleasantries." Nero waved his hand by his behind with a smirk on his face.
"We'll finish catching up later. Go and play for all of us again!" Ginka smiled.
"I- I don't have a big head! And, he... my... oh, for the love of..." Blaine laughed. "Fine, I'll head back up!"
The remaining crowd cheered Blaine on as he walked back to the stage with his heart back in balance. The guards swapped their duties from guarding the stage to guarding the entrance. Blaine sat on the stool on the open stage. Ginka, Gabrielle, and Nero all took seats and watched in encouragement.
"It feels nice to be back... for real, this time. I'm sorry to you all that I've been gone for so long, and I want to thank you all for being here from the beginning for me, before I started... getting noticed a bit more," Blaine spoke.
"You got too famous with the upper-class, Lohk cock!" Amber shouted. The crowd erupted in laughter, and even Blaine couldn't help but laugh with them.
"Yeah, I suppose I did. I... promise I'll be back here more often now. Now, I think it's time I started playing."
The crowd cheered once more before Blaine began to strum his lyre. He took a deep breath and began to sing. The smile on his face didn't leave for the rest of the night.