[Stone Garden] An Unexpected Song [Devlin]

[Hadrian]

11th Spring, 511 A.V. Hadrian was not a natural musician. He understood the mathematics behind it, but it was much the same as he understood the mathematics behind magic, at least so far as it went. But he had managed to overcome his lack of innate talent where magic was concerned, and he was attempting to do the same where music was concerned. He had bought the ashwood flute back in Zeltiva, thinking that the tones would help him lay new magical frameworks in his magecrafting work much as the tones he induced with the special hammers. But it was slow going. He knew where to place his fingers. He understood the idea of how to blow across the mouthpiece. Still, moving from notes and music theory to actual music was going to take a while. As such, he had come to the Stone Garden and, finding it empty, he was pleased to take up a seat on a bench, take out his flute, and play notes. His was pitched to middle C, and so he played a C-major scale one note at a time, and the tone was hardly admirable, even if the pitch was correct. He tried not to wrinkle his nose or beat himself up; neither disgust nor self-recrimination would truly help him advance his skills. Patiently, almost as if meditating, he started again, from the lowest note to the highest, and then scales. It was not exactly pretty, but his fingers would have to get used to the delicate holes, and then he might earn such dexterity as might help him with his magic in other ways as well.

[Devlin Parker]

His peaceful slumber was suddenly interrupted by what at first sounded like a loud moan. His head jerked up and he looked around, confused, still remembering pieces of the dream he was just having. It took him a few seconds to realize he had accidentally fallen asleep on a bench a little outside the Stone Gardens, and hastily checked around him to see that none of his belongings were missing. thankfully, he could still see his cane propped up against the bench where he had left it, and his mandoline resting peacefully on top of him. He picked up the instrument and shifted himself to a sitting position, then proceeded to look around for the noise which had awakened him. Now that he was more awake, he could distinguish the sound as one coming from a flute. It was probably far, since he could not see its source, but the user didn't sound like he had any control over the loudness.

Curious to find out who also had a penchant for playing music in the stone gardens, Devlin grabbed his cane in his right hand and the mandoline in his left, and heaved himself up from the bench. He carefully made his way closer to the sound, which luckily for him was not getting any quieter. He finally caught glimpse of the figure of a man, who was obviously no expert at playing the instrument. He seemed very concentrated, and Devlin wondered if he should interrupt as he stood a few meters away from him.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian continued to plot carefully through the chord progression, showing that if he didn't know how to play the ashwood flute with any sort of skill, he at least knew the theory behind it rather well. But this was one of those things that required ten thousand hours of practice to master, and he had only a handful of hours to his name at this point. On the other hand, he was normally a quiet young man, so making a bit of noise was liberating too. One other thing he had going for him was breath control, which was a nice side effect of all the meditation he did to calm his mind and help control the flows of djed within him, keeping his magic in balance so it was less likely to do him any damage. All the same, he paused to rest for a moment. Perhaps there was some shift in the Inarta's weight or some echo of his aura tickled his latent Auristic sense, but Hadrian quickly turned to look at him and was suddenly standing and stammering, red with embarrassment. "I'm s-sorry, I was just trying to get the hang of this... this thing... I'll... shyke, I'll shut up now."

[Devlin Parker]

Devlin couldn't help but smile at the man's reaction when he noticed him. "Everyone's gotta start somewhere," he said with a light shrug, taking a few steps closer. "I myself have never tried to play the flute, but I hear it's hard to get any sound out of it at all, so that's already an improvement." Listening to himself speak, he noticed his Inarta accent, although still easily apparent, was no longer hindering him as often in terms of pronunciation.

The young man seemed to be rather flustered by Devlin's appearance, who thought of ways to help him out in his musical endeavors, or at least strike up good conversation in order to break the ice. Holding up the mandoline a little higher in his hand, he suggested, "Maybe if I played the same chord as the note you are trying to play,it can serve as a guide of sorts to get the tone right. But if you'd like to practice alone, by all means."

[Hadrian]

"It certainly requires a very specific placement of the lips," he said. Smiling wryly, he noted the hair and the accent and decided the shorter man must be Inarta. Luckily, Hadrian was sitting down so his stork-like height wouldn't put him off. "I'm Hadrian," he said. "Pleased to meet you. I think I'm getting the pitch right, but it will just take a good deal of practice to get the tone... pretty. But maybe you could play chords and I can try to match them, work on my ear for pitch. I'm not really much of a musician as I'm sure you heard. But I do appreciate any help." Hesitantly, he pulled the flute up into a beginner's approximation of proper position.

[Devlin Parker]

Relieved that Hadrian had not reacted badly to his offer, Devlin came up to him and sat on the opposite side of the bench, making sure to give enough space so the guitar wouldn't get in the way. "My name is Devlin, pleased to meet you," he said, smiling politely as he propped his cane next to the bench once he no longer needed it for support. Placing the instrument on his lap, he tried to recall the basic forms that would be compatible with the flute.

"I don't know the names of all the chords, but this," he said, placing his fingers on all the proper frets, "this is a C." He ran his fingers through the strings, making a clean middle tone that resonated throughout the gardens. He looked up from the mandoline to Hadrian, patiently waiting for him to use his instrument and turn, and hoping that it would sound at least moderately better than what woke him up.

[Hadrian]

"Devlin," he said with a vague smile. It helped him to remember names if he repeated them back to a person upon meeting them, a mnemonic device he had long ago incorporated into his arsenal. "C-major," he agreed, and listened to Devlin's chord before he played his own version. Middle C, then the major third, E, then the perfect fifth, G, and then to the octave, C above middle-C. He got the notes right, at least, and the tone and timbre were a bit better than before, but there was concentration and then there was the concentration when one knew there was an audience. He repeated this series of notes a few times, gradually increasing the tempo and improving upon his work with each successive iteration. "So that's C-major," he said, smiling wryly. "Perhaps we should play an actual song? I know a couple of little things. I suppose you could accompany... try to drown me out."

[Devlin Parker]

Somewhat impressed by how well Hadrian caught on after the first note, Devlin watched as he got better every time he repeated the exercise, wondering whether the flute had an easier learning curve than he thought or if the man simply had a knack for playing it.

"Fast learner?" Devlin asked as Hadrian suggested that they play a song together. He had never played guitar with any accompaniment besides from his own voice, and was little nervous at the idea of trying to synchronize the two instruments. Naturally, the mandoline should provide the base, but how well would Hadrian be able to follow? Well, one can only try in order to find out, Devlin thought, as he started up a basic strumming pattern with the C major, and after a few beats down to an A minor, then made a small jump to the D minor. He moved back up to the A minor, then back to the start at C major. Keeping the pattern as consistent as he could, Devlin waited for Hadrian to join in. He himself didn't know exactly when he had learned to improvise (granted, he still made mistakes while practicing), but remembered it to simply have come naturally, even now not completely understanding how he figured one chord could sound good with the next one.

[Hadrian]

"Oh, I don't know... I've done a lot of reading and research about the mechanics, the history, the music theory. I suppose it helps me pick it up more easily... Perhaps you're just a lucky charm?" His smile was vaguely pained, but also whimsical. Tentatively at first, Hadrian found the tonic of each chord. C, A, D. The minor chords sounded a bit more plaintive, more longing than the stronger major chord, so he just recalled the repetitions of lists to remember which notes made up the chords. There were a few false notes, some quickly elided into the correct one once he identified the problem. When Devlin continued to strum and show magnanimous support, Hadrian began to let the notes wander, trying to keep the pitches apropos of the chords Devlin was playing. His meandering tune mostly fit the background, but it wasn't particularly interesting. He couldn't smile while holding his lips in the right position, but his cheek did twitch slightly. Big blue eyes peered curiously at the red-head, trying to gauge if he was ready to quit this child's play or if he wanted to keep going. Hadrian was certainly learning, but he didn't see how Devlin could be. He tried to ask the question: did he want to continue? with his eyes. But just as soon as he tried that, his hands and the flute dropped to his lap. "Thanks for that," he said. "It helps to have a context to put the notes into. How long have you been playing?" It was, perhaps, a trite question, but seemed like the obvious way to further break the ice.

[Devlin Parker]

Theory, mechanics, research... All these words Devlin had never thought of associating with the subject of music, and thinking of it in those terms felt unnatural, but he didn't question the method, since it was quite clearly helping this stranger get the hang of it.

As Hadrian joined in, Devlin first listened closely to how he was doing in case he should slow down, but the tempo seemed to be working fine for the both of them. Although it was hard to keep track on his own notes when his partner trailed off, he couldn't help but smile uncontrollably whenever the two instruments fell into harmony. His constant strumming became more relaxed and he quickened the pace of it whilst keeping the same tempo, and just as Hadrian started to experiment with his melodies, Devlin would make slight variations in the chords, making a few mistakes along the way that he made sure not to repeat as he went along.

Feeling his gaze upon him, Devlin looked up from the bar just as Hadrian put down his flute and stopped playing. In turn, he also slowed his playing to a softer tone and faded out, never having the heart to stop abruptly. Feeling a little giddy at what he considered a semi-successful attempt at playing in harmony with another person, Devlin tried to keep his smile from stretching into a full-blown grin. Looking up at Hadrian, he mulled the question over in his head for a second before answering.

"I think I was around twelve or thirteen when my.. my father gave me a mandoline," he said, hesitating for a second whether to call his caretaker his 'father' before realizing he was the closest to father he was ever going to get. "I didn't know a thing about how to play it, so I had to figure it out on my own, wasted a lot of time getting rid of bad habits," he continued, chuckling a little after remembering how every few months, he would have to take a few steps back in his progress when he learned what he had been doing wrong before. "And why did you start? You don't seem like the musical type, to be honest."