Closed [Syliran Theatre] Dancing Blind (Pahr)

[Sayana]

Spring 50, 515 AV – Syliran Theatre It was a bright morning and the Eypharian spun this way and that in the open courtyard of the theatre practicing her dance. Ching-a-ching-a-ching. Her high hands made various patterns using the finger cymbals she held as she tried to draw onlookers to her dance. Frankly, it wasn’t working that well. Even though she performed on a regular basis at the Rearing Stallion, at the tavern she had no competition and often she had the whole stage to herself. Of course, not everyone watched. Some folks only came for the good beer and ale that the tavern provided but there were still enough people who enjoyed the entertainment of her dancing. Here, it was a completely different story. Since it was such a fine day there were several entertainers and buskers about and each more daring and wild than the next. Sayana envied the attention they got but knew if she was going to get better at dancing she’d have to learn to outperform her fellow artists. And the bowl she had brought and placed in front of her only contained a measly two silver mizas, both of which she had put in herself. Fortunately she wasn’t in dire need of the coin, but it still hurt her pride that no one had placed a single coin in the dish. She started her hips going in a walking shimmy and played the finger cymbals in triads for each step. It certainly created more noise, but the increased amount of attention was questionable. Perhaps many of the people had already seen her perform at the tavern and weren’t all that impressed. Maybe her veil? She took out the large silken piece of fabric and held it out in her two mid hands so that the fabric nearly touched the ground. It was red, much like the rest of her attire, from her beaded red top to her skirt with a long slit down one side. It fit well with her rich brown skin and the bright red of her lips. Speaking of. She quickly reapplied some lip pomade to her lips. At the theatre it seemed like most people had brightly painted faces and she felt rather ill-equipped with only the redness of her lips to draw attention. Regardless, it was time to get back to her dance. Holding the veil aloft she took a few steps forwards and let the silk billow behind her. She swished it down with one arm and then back up making rippling waves. The dancer circled it around her once and then brought it in front to hold just below her hips so she could twist and accent them. Lifting the veil up quickly, she caught the center of it on her neck while the rest of the fabric trailed in two butterfly wings attached to her arms. She spun once, twice, and a third time taking care not to get too dizzy. Taking a pause in the dancing she considered the idea of a more interpretive style of dance. One which she was free to move as she pleased without a care for her audience. Besides, what could look more impressive than someone doing a full performance blind? She returned her finger cymbals to her pocket and made sure her tambourine and shakers were placed close to the bowl in front of her. Then taking the silken veil, the dancer tied it around her eyes. First she moved her arms up and down and in large gestures much like she would normally in her dance. Each pair moved a little differently than the next be it in terms of timing or the shape. She then started taking hesitant steps. She knew she had more space than usual, but she didn’t want to find herself running into another busker. And of course spins. She did a quick spin on the spot and to her dismay she found she got nearly twice as dizzy without being able to see the world around her. Stumbling awkwardly, Sayana accidentally knocked over her bowl of coins and practically ran into someone. OOC : My intros are sometimes long so don't feel intimidated to write as much as this (though posts are recommended to be at least 300 words). And feel free to be the person she bumps into if you like.

[Pahr]

'Do you feel it?' She said,
And then cut off his head.

The verse kept going round and round in Pahr's mind as he made his way through the theater. He could feel it, feel that this verse which had popped into his mind from nowhere would lead to a story, a story of love and betrayal, and probably filled with innuendos too. However, he was feeling uninspired as yet.

He focused on his magical ability to find his way. If someone were to look at him, they would see him draw close to someone or an obstacle, and then suddenly change course. To observers, he could be thought of as a very capable blind man; one that could find his way through the way the waves of sound traveled around him.

In reality, though, he had been training in auristics. It didn't let him see or do things as others would. However, it did give him an edge over other blind people, and it did also give him an edge against those that thought him to be weak.

As he navigated through the maze of people, he pondered this last statement. No matter how much of an edge it was, no matter how much it helped him, his family never took him seriously. He could deal with others doing that, but his family?

He gritted his teeth. Remembering them always made an uncomfortable lump in his throat, and a tight knot in his stomach. Today, he decided resolutely, he would not let the thought of his past trouble him.

Woe to the man, living in the past!
The past will hold him, hold him fast.

Yes, good start. All he needed to do now was to come up with lyrics of what he should do. Or to come up with a lyrics of people needing to actually make an effort to change, rather than spending that effort making songs for their sorry state.

Ching-a-ching-a-ching. He could hear the sound of symbols, and took it for someone dancing. His auristics didn't allow him to see people, only to feel their presence, and so he had to rely on other ways most of the time to figure out what people were doing. He could focus on them directly, but that would require too much effort. Wasted effort.

This dancer wasn't the only one. Pahr could hear other dancers, singers, and musicians, all competing for attention.

Was he, a blind man, which the people usually thought of as useless, going to be competing for the attention of onlookers, too? Suddenly, the harp slung over his back felt heavy, too heavy.

It was with these thoughts that he passed near someone. He could sense rapid movement, and then the person slammed into his right side. His harp swayed dangerously left and right on his back, and he prayed to Yahal that the old leather strap would hold.

He put out his right hand, holding the very first thing that his fingers could get a hold of. As his life consisted of a lot of people bumping into him, he spread his legs apart with a practiced ease to prevent himself from falling to the side. However, since most of the time he was the one responsible, it was an instinct to reach out and hold the person, both to help them stay on their feet and to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said sincerely, turning to face the person who had bumped into him.

The old harp that had clearly seen a lot of use through its life kept slowly swaying, ponderous like the movement of a pendulum.

[Sayana]

As Sayana crashed into the man, she first instinctively ripped off her blindfold and then stumbled to keep her balance as the bright light of the courtyard accosted her eyes. Fortunately the man had put his arm out and grabbed hold of her nearest shoulder, effectively steadying them both. For the most part her shoulder would have felt rather normal if he only gripped the top one, but should someone be very attentive they might have noticed something a little off. When he turned to face her, she was struck by his brilliant blue eyes. They contrasted sharply from his tanned skin. When he apologized she couldn’t help but watch as his eyes wandered this way and that, neither going to her face nor her prominent display of cleavage. “I was… uh, practicing my dancing,” Sayana said rather lamely and she flared out her right arms in a large movement as if to emphasize the face that she had indeed been working on her dance. At the same time, however, she watched to see if his wandering blue eyes would catch sight of the gesture since she did not make any sound with her arms nor were they touching him. It was only then did she realize that he was likely a Benshira with his darkened skin yet also with bright clear eyes. Or clear enough. Her own eyes were a rich brown like most of her features and she was suddenly mindful that the Benshira might take offence to her race. Despite her own positive dealings with the two-armed desert race, they rarely enjoyed the company of Eypharians. “Are you just passing through, or would you like to enjoy some dance and some music?” Sayana asked curiously. Part of her was cautious about the Benshira but a stronger part was up for the challenge of befriending him, or at least seeing if she could get a coin or two from busking. She took his right hand with one of her high hands and placed it on her hip. She also took out her two sets of finger cymbals in her high hands and began to play a steady beat as she popped her hips up and down, alternating the movement. If he was in fact blind, she hoped he wouldn’t notice the fact that she was and Eypharian, but if it was just some trick to his eyes then she’d probably end up facing some strong displeasure at the very least. During their exchange she hadn’t quite noticed the harp on his back since he mostly obscured it and she was rather focused on other things.

[Pahr]

Pahr had, seemingly at least, not understood that the woman he had bumped into—or had bumped into him—was an Eypharian. He had gripped her top left shoulder, and he apparently wasn't attentive enough to note the slight curve of the shoulder that comes with having more than one of them.

"I was… uh, practicing my dancing," she said, and Pahr could feel her body shifting, as if she had moved her legs or hands. Since her legs would probably make a sound on the stone floor, he guessed that she had moved his right arm, or hips.

Of course, none of these calculations happened consciously. Pahr's unconscious mind was calculating and re-calculating things from very small clues in the environment, an ability that was, in close quarters, much more useful than his skills in auristics.

"Are you just passing through, or would you like to enjoy some dance and some music?" The woman asked, and Pahr had his very first surprise of the day when she placed his right hand on her hip.

"Um, I, uh, let me put down my harp," he said, moving back and removing his hand from her hip. At this point, a rosy color might have been creeping up onto his cheeks, and that could probably mean that he hadn't been offered a dance before in his whole life. He turned to the side and focus on his auristics again, trying to find a nearby wall to lean his harp against.

When he used his auristics, he could perceive a presence like a thrumming sound. When he first began to learn, the thrumming that surrounded him would confuse him into paralysis. However, after a long time of trying to pick out what different kinds of thrumming meant, and which indicated living beings and which indicated furniture, walls, and so on, he had gotten a grasp on his skill to quickly survey his surroundings, and had started to use his abilities for navigation.

Of course, even if he didn't have such an ability, he could navigate around from the skills that come with living with no sight. However, they wouldn't be as efficient. Also, they would not be suitable for navigating in the city where everything kept changing. The blind would navigate in an environment they have been in once, but that would be only if things hadn't changed their place. Moving a piece of furniture, for example, would probably make the blind person bump into it, and Syliras was so full of people that a displaced chair would be the least thing happening.

Having reached the wall to his right, Pahr slid his harp gently off his left shoulder. It was an old thing, with the wood scratched in some places. However, if one would be well-versed in harps, they could easily see that its strings were in a very good condition, as if they had been changed recently. The harp made a gentle, quiet sound as Pahr gently leaned it against the wall, as if letting out a breath of contentment, or a quiet complaint for being separated from the person who knew its every curve. Pahr couldn't tell which.

"Sorry, I couldn't dance with that harp on," he said as he started on his way back, carefully threading his way through the people moving in the theater. To be honest, he couldn't dance with that harp off, either. He didn't know the very first thing about dancing. Whereas he could have at least known a few things if he had the ability to see it and mimic those movements, now he was pretty stumped, and he was in the process of getting up the courage to tell her, too.

He took a second to reorient himself, and then continued on his way to the woman. The thing with auristics was that people didn't have different thrumming signatures, or, at least, he couldn't detect any such thing. People were people, and that made it difficult for him to find a person through auristics alone. He had to do it without help of the auras.

He finally made it to the woman's side. It probably hadn't taken long, but he was so focused on not losing her in the crowd and finding his way back to where she was, that it felt like a long time.

"Sorry," he began, and it seemed like 'sorry' was a word he said a lot. "I, I don't know how to dance, you see," he said, and his head tilted slightly downward. Even his eyes seemed to gaze at the ground for a moment, before wandering again.

[Sayana]

Since the Benshira didn’t seem to turn or even glance at her large arm movement, Sayana decided that he probably was blind… or just an incredible actor. But his eyes… it didn’t seem like something an actor would do. She glanced at them several times during the exchange and she couldn’t help but look smugly at the blush forming upon his cheeks. When he mentioned his harp, Sayana looked about in surprise and saw the old harp hanging from a strap upon his back. He must be a musician of sorts, and not merely some passerby. As the Benshira went over to the wall she followed after him both curious and excited about his instrument. It wasn’t completely new or foreign, but even though she had met a lot of bards and musicians in her time, they each tended to use different instruments so she hadn’t seen a harp played in a long time. As soon as the Benshira put down the harp, Sayana was quick to pick it up, her curiosity overcoming her sense of manners to ask first. She turned it this way and that as she examined the instrument. It was pretty. Perhaps a little beat up, but in a good used way. She walked back to where her busking dish was set up, seeing that he also was headed back in that direction. “Sorry, I couldn't dance with that harp on.” Sayana froze for a moment with the harp still in her hands. Oops. A guilty look crossed her face. She hadn’t meant to ‘steal’ his harp, and now he thought it was back by the wall. If need be, she could always hold the harp high above her head and out of reach, unless he noticed her extra sets of limbs. But when he admitted that he didn’t know how to dance, she used it as an opportunity to get out of the little fix she was in. “Well then, how about we go back to your harp and play some music instead?” She suggested in a persuasive tone. Quickly she scooped up her instruments and busker dish she had set up and took him by the hand to lead him back to the wall. “Aha, here it is. It’s a lovely instrument.” The Eypharian continued without bothering to pick it up since she already held the harp in her mid hands. She had been anxiously waiting to pluck the strings, which she now did several times using her high hands. She smiled giddily at the delicate sound and was very much intrigued by the instrument. She tapped him lightly on the shoulder with a high hand and gently held out the harp to him. “Here. You’re probably better at it than me.” Instead, she got out her tambourine and finger cymbals and hoped that she might be able to accompany him somehow. And if not, at least get a chance to listen to his beautiful instrument. OOCDon't mind her, she can be easily distracted when it comes to interesting music related things. They can always do some dancing later.

[Pahr]

There was something wrong here. Very wrong.

For one thing, the woman seemed to have left her place. He couldn't tell with all the noise, but it seemed like she had moved. If this place wasn't so crowded, he could probably tell, but not now.

And the next thing was her quick and decisive mood change. One moment she was telling him to dance and putting his hand on her hip, and the next moment, she was gathering everything up to move back to his harp. Pahr followed her lead dumbly, his mind working furiously to bring some order to the chaos of sounds. Pahr was always very trusting, but there was something wrong with this woman. Why would she want to suddenly hear him play? Maybe she just liked music?

The last thing was when they got back. From up close, Pahr should have heard her pick up the instrument, the quiet scraping sound the wood would make as it moved either against the ground or the wall. But Pahr didn't hear that. Of course, it could be that she had picked up the harp very noiselessly; dextrous people did that, and a dancer was certainly very dextrous. But she didn't release his hand. What's more, she didn't even lean down.

And, how in the name of Yahal did she pluck the harp with both hands? That would mean she had to sit down and put the harp on her thighs first, or sling the harp over her neck. But she was standing, and he hadn't heard the creak of the leather strap that he was so accustomed to!

Pahr continued to stand there, wearing a confused smile. He turned to face Sayana, knowing that something was wrong, but not feeling a malicious intent behind it. Just to be sure, he took a quick peak.

Before he learned to read auras, he couldn't imagine that sounds could convey feelings. However, the sounds that he could hear from people's auras were so much different. Pahr suspected there was more to them than just sounds. However, since his teacher wasn't blind, Pahr had to experiment and find out most things on his own. He had tuned into people's auras a lot, trying to keep his curiosity in check so that he wouldn't damage himself in the process of learning. And now, he had most feelings grasped.

What he felt when he very briefly focused on the woman's feelings was an excited, giddy thrum. Either she was very good at hiding her feelings, or he was just sensing shadows. He had heard tales of master aurists hiding their auras or altering them... but could this woman, taken with the art of dancing, indeed be a master aurist?

Unlikely, but possible. Nothing was impossible, and Pahr regarded himself as a living proof of that statement.

Extending both hands, he accepted his harp back. “I'll play you the Syliras song,” he said with a grin. It was an upbeat sort of music, which meant the woman could dance to it and accompany his music with her tambourines and finger cymbals. “The two of us together can probably get more mizas than each of us alone,” he said excitedly, and then added, bashfully, “we can then halve the coins if you want.”

Pahr still wasn't sure what had happened there earlier. However, he knew enough to suspect something had happened in that brief space of time. Fortunately, he wasn't in a shortage of coins, and this would be a test for a potential friend. He wasn't sure if she could steal a bit of the coin. However, he would be ready to find out if she did.

“Oh,” he said, casting his senses around for a chair and unable to identify anything he could sit on nearby. “Is there somewhere I can sit near here? I can't play while standing.” With a flash of inspiration, he tilted his head and asked in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone, “but you did. How did you play without sitting down? If I learn such a technique, it would be wonderful! I wouldn't have to hunt a stool all the time!” He laughed earnestly at his own joke, trying to hide his unease and the anticipation of hearing what the woman would say.

[Sayana]

“Oooh, a Syliras song?” Sayana responded excitedly to his suggestion. She gave a little shake of her tambourine in anticipation and also as evidence to her eagerness. The Eypharian then bent down to set up the dish of coins in front of them. With a little jingle of the coins in the dish she added, “The two silvers in there are mine though.” As much as she liked the idea of playing with him, she wasn’t about to split her original two coins she had put in. When the musician started asking about a chair, Sayana looked about the open theatre space. Mostly it was like a large courtyard area except there were places to stand in the higher tiers to watch from above. A couple of musicians had brought their own chairs but most were performing while standing or moving about in the case of the actors and acrobats. She then spotted some free space on the steps entering the theatre space and also noticed a low wall that might be used as something to sit upon. The dancer was about to suggest both these options when the Benshira asked about how she managed to play the harp how she did. “Oh the harp? All I did was this.” She reached out to gently take the harp from him again using her mid hands. “I just held it in my hands and…” She proudly plucked several strings alternating between her high left and her high right hands. But then her smile faded when she realized she had fallen right into his ploy. In her excitement to show him, she hadn’t even thought about what she might have been revealing. Sayana was quiet for a moment and then plucked a few more strings going from the smallest strings down to the larger ones, slowly getting lower in pitch. “… and then I simply used my other hands to play the strings on the harp.” If he knew now, there was no point attempting to hide and dig herself in deeper. He’d have to make his own judgements. As if to emphasize her qualities, the Eypharian reached out with her low hands to gently grasp his, and then played a couple more random notes before returning the harp to the musician. “There are some steps to sit down upon if you’d still like to play with me. I also see a low wall that might be comfortable.” She spoke a little more tentatively since she was unsure of how he would react to her race. Benshira slaves had been rather common back in Ahnatep, and while she had made friends with some of them, she had never attempted to free any since they were just part of society in that particular role.

[Pahr]

Pahr grinned at the young woman's eagerness. The fact that she was so full of energy and ready to start gave him a good feeling, a feeling of being appreciated. For all she knew, he could be a terrible player.

Maybe he was. Pahr didn't know.

When the woman put in the coins, Pahr nodded slightly. He had thought he had heard coins jingle when she first picked up the dish, but it didn't make sense. Now though, it did. She had put in the coins to make it seem as though she already had some people who admired her performance. Suddenly, Pahr was starting to look at busking in a new light.

How many people had not received any coins and were just putting them in for show? How many had really gotten coins? It made him realize that when one person cheats, everyone is regarded as a cheat. And now, probably everyone—including this woman herself—was putting coins into her dish because everyone else was doing that, too. For a moment, Pahr wondered who could have started it all, but then dropped the useless train of thought. Whoever he was, he was long gone now, and had left his mark on busking forever.

He had gone through these thoughts while Sayana was checking out the area around them. It was at this time that he asked his question, and then passed his harp over to the woman. He could have never anticipated what came next.

“Oh the harp? All I did was this.” She said, and took the harp from him. “I just held it in my hands and…” Pahr leaned slightly forward at this moment, face bright with curiosity. His eyes widened as she played, and his suspicions were confirmed.

There was a short while in which Pahr and the woman regarded each other in an awkward silence. Soon after, the woman continued plucking at the harp and explaining how she used her other hands to play. Other hands? How many hands did she have?

He jumped as the woman's hands clasped his and she still kept playing. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but ended up saying nothing in the end. It was... it was incredible. Incredible to have an Eypharian who wasn't bent on making him a slave.

After the maelstrom of thoughts had quieted down, he wondered how she would dance. Wouldn't it be difficult to control so many limbs? Wouldn't it be beautiful once one could do that?

A broad grin slowly crept over Pahr's lips and he nodded, half to the now tentative woman, and half to himself. “Of course. I'd love to play with you. It'd be interesting to find out how you dance with so many hands.” He grinned. Honestly, he didn't know if the Eypharians were touchy about someone remarking on their hands, but he was grasping at anything to lighten the mood. “The low wall would be better I think,” he said, “we'd have to constantly move if we decide to choose the steps, what with all these people wanting to go up and down. I am such a simpleton; I should have brought a chair with myself, except I really didn't have any.” He was saying these things as he slung the harp over his neck and extended a hand to the woman. “Speaking of chairs, I'm Pahr. I just remembered I've forgotten my manners.”

It was evident Pahr was babbling, though whether it was from excitement or nervousness, it would be hard to tell.

[Sayana]

Sayana watched as the Benshira’s eyes widened with surprise and perhaps even a bit of awe at her ability to play the harp while holding it. And yet, he didn’t seem to cower or become suddenly aggressive with the information he was certain to know now. He jumped a little at the touch of her low hands, but it seemed mostly out of surprise than fear. When he finally smiled, Sayana let out a soft breath that she had been holding and she was relieved that he seemed alright with it all. She beamed back at him when he mentioned that he’d loved to play with her. His comment about her hands was received as flattery or at least attention drawn towards her most prominent features. Sylirans always seemed to marvel at her arms and her hands and she certainly wasn’t going to stop them. At his decision of going to the wall, she gathered up her things again and took his hand with one of her mids after he slung the harp over his shoulder. She felt she should at least guide him towards where the wall was. They seemed to be doing a lot of to and fro’ing to set up and get ready, but she guessed that it tended to happen when trying something new like busking especially in a new place. “Nice to meet you Pahr,” Sayana replied politely. “My name’s Sayana. I’ve been dancing at the Rearing Stallion for the last couple of seasons. Though you might not have seen me there.” The mention of ‘seeing’ her was spoken partly with its literal meaning in mind, but she hadn’t meant it in a hostile way. “Here we are,” she announced as she placed his hand upon the wall between two large pillars in the courtyard. She promptly set up the dish again making sure there would be room to dance and took out her finger cymbals and tambourine. As he set up, she watched him with a question gnawing at her gut. Anyone watching would notice her take a step forwards, and then a step back. Then another step forwards and then shifting her weight back. It was clear that she was uncertain about the question but curiosity won over. “Do you have a… You weren’t… Syna didn’t curse you, did she?” Sayana finally asked after several tentative attempts to say the question. Syna the sun, goddess of sight and joy and energy, was well-known in Ahnatep. Her hot rays beat down upon the golden sands and she was very present in the lives of Eypharians. Sayana herself was named after the brilliant goddess, although with a couple of letters added to her name. She had only heard vague rumors of Syna’s blessing, but there were also rumors of Syna’s curse. For a goddess of sight it only made sense that she would blind those she despised, and it was the sort of tale one would tell a child so that they would behave under the Syna’s warm embrace.

[Pahr]

Pahr smiled as the woman took his hand and began to walk with him. As someone who was blind, he had plenty of good excuses to be holding hands with almost everyone while walking. He remembered a man named Bilon making a bawdy joke about it over a drink, but Pahr didn't voice it. However, the corners of his mouth quivered as he tried to hold in the chuckle. All he needed now was to explain to this woman what he was laughing at.

“Nice to meet you Pahr,” the woman said, her voice polite and her words to the point. “My name’s Sayana. I’ve been dancing at the Rearing Stallion for the last couple of seasons. Though you might not have seen me there.”

Pahr nodded. “I used to go there a long time ago,” he said, raising a hand to wipe his forehead. The spring chill was leaving the air, and Pahr could feel the air shift as the temperature started to increase. “I used to go there to play. It didn't really work out well though. I... I honestly had set my harp aside for a while,” he confided. “Today I decided that it was not fair to let all the time I had spent learning to play the harp go to waste.” At the time, Pahr had tried to gain his family's approval by being good at music, but had failed later on. However, that was a story for a different day. Pahr didn't want to think of that now.

“Here we are,” the woman—Sayana—said, and placed Pahr's hand on the low wall. Pahr turned his wrist and gave Sayana's hand a quick squeeze of appreciation, then let go of her hand to reach for his harp.

As he began to remove his harp and shift it into his left hand, Pahr noticed Sayana's presence move back and forth a few times. Pahr was quite used to curiosity, and he figured it out for what it was without using his Auristics. He held the harp in his hand and turned his back to the wall, then sat down on it and placed his harp on his thighs. Faccing Sayana, he regarded her more with the direction of his face than his eyes.

“Do you have a… You weren’t… Syna didn’t curse you, did she?” Sayana asked, and Pahr didn't say anything for a while.

He laid his hands on his harp and let out an involuntary sigh. “I've been told not,” he said, putting on a smile. The question brought up a memory of the first time he had felt love in Syliras. She wasn't Eypharian, but she did worship Syna. Whether or not Syna was the reason, their relationship had ended. He wasn't sure if the woman had used her doubt of him being cursed as a cover for the real reason for leaving him. She probably thought that he was worthless and pitiful.

Maybe he was. Pahr didn't know.

“Fortunately, that is,” Pahr added with a grin, recovering from his self-doubt. The last few days he had been plagued more and more with questions of his worth popping up into his mind. It was, partly at least, due to the fact that only a handful of people regarded him as a sentient being.

“So, are you ready to dance?” He asked, putting in a false energy into his tone. He knew that he would feel better once they got going, as music tended to make him feel better. However, he was afraid of dropping into a pit of melancholy if his thoughts continued in this downhill direction.