irisnetwork | Lessons, but not the kind in a class

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Lessons, but not the kind in a class

Hola, everyone. I'm Héctor. Any of you with night classes are likely already familiar with me. I'd been debating on this for a while and slowly taking on a few people who've asked, so I think it's about time I came forward and simply offered it myself.

I'm opening up guitar lessons, available to all skill levels. Solo lessons and group lessons depending on how many people are interested in the latter. You're free to pay what you like but it's not necessary. Just bring your own instrument and let me know you're coming along. I'll be meeting in the evenings, Fridays, by the cross of life on the school grounds. Thought it might be a nice place to play with the warmer weather coming.

Please just keep in mind I have poor health and some cancellations may be short notice. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. ¡Buenas Noches!

[This announcement may come suspiciously close on the heels of a quiet rule change on a certain floor in Lumiere, but surely that is just a coincidence. What rule change? Guess it's a mystery...]

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Hola, Héctor!
Nope, I'm a light sleeper!!!!
There's a song I want to hear but I can't quite get it right,
so I'm enlisting your help!
Is now a good time??
Should I come over?????
I have no idea where you live.

I can head over to Lumiere. I'm already up and out.

[He hasn't forgotten your little fire threat, kid.]

Is your common room good? Or do you need something more private than that? It's late enough I don't think anyone will be hanging around by that old fountain.

[ The fountain would be smart, considering his little fire threat, but that's a bit too open for what Kano has in mind. ]

Mmmmm~
How about my room?
I made my bed this morning and everything, so you have somewhere to sit!!!

Pretty generous of you. Alright, I'll see you there. Imelda's got all those convenient little plaques, I'm sure I'll be able to find yours.

[And true to his word, it doesn't take long before there's a knock on Kano's door. He waits with a guitar slung on his back.]

[ It takes Kano around ten seconds to get to the door, complete with the sound of scraping wood and metal. When he flings the door open— immediately taking a large step back the moment he does— it's to a very barren room, nothing on the walls or the floor or the desk, two beds pushed together to make one large one (sheets neatly made, as promised, although there is a bearded dragon sitting on the pillow that looks up at Héctor and blinks slowly at him), and the closet door shut tight. The curtains are drawn over the windows and there is a bathtowel in Kano's hands. ]

Hola! Come in, come in, make yourself comfortable~

[ The moment Héctor enters the room and shuts the door behind him, that bathtowel is getting shoved into that gap underneath the door. ]

[He can't really judge too much on the barren room. His is about just as empty. He guesses Kano doesn't have a roommate and in that case, he can't deny the appeal of having the bigger bed if he did in fact sleep.

It's the bath towel that makes things a little weird.]

Uuh, okay.

[He steps inside, eyeing the way Kano seals up that little gap with a lifted brow. This really is something private isn't it? He sits, tentatively, upon the edge of the bed.]

So... what did you have in mind?

[ He does not, in fact, sleep- at least in this room. The queen bed is for his lizard. It's a loft, so Héctor will have to climb up there if he does take Kano's offer to make himself comfortable, but Kano himself straightens up after making sure the door is sealed up tight, and goes over to sit on top of his desk, feet propped up on top of the desk chair. ]

Hm... well...

[ HMMMMM. The smile drops from his face for a moment, and he looks contemplative. ]

There's this song I want to hear, but I dunno what it's called, and like I said, I can't get it right! So I was hoping I could hum it for you and you could play it how it's supposed to be played?

Edited (words) 2019-05-23 16:09 (UTC)

[Alright, so there's no bed sitting, despite the kind offer of it being made. In this case, he'll just settle on the floor. Easier on his leg in any case. At least he doesn't seem uncomfortable?

He pulls the guitar around to his lap.]

Alright. I used to write songs so I might be able to work out what notes you're trying to go for but stop me if I hit a wrong note. It won't be the same sounds as a violin, which you mentioned, but I'll do my best.

[ Kano rolls the chair slightly with his foot, fidgeting and then stopping so he can hop down onto the floor to sit with Héctor, knees drawn up to his chest. ]

Mm, yep! I don't mind that, and I dunno if it sounds better as a guitar or a violin anyways, so whatever I can get! Are you ready? The first part of it sounds like this!!

[ He leans in close and starts humming. It's... a tuneless sound. There is no melody. Kano might possibly be tone deaf. ]

[Oh mierda. He's had some bad requests before but this might take the cake. He's got no idea. Not a clue.

But okay. Okay, okay, okay. He just needs to listen. Imagine what the notes would be.

He waits until Kano's done, hums it back quieter to himself, then moves his fingers over the strings to what he thinks it might be, before finally, attempting to play it.]

It's not going to be fancy. I'm going to try to figure out what I can and then we can polish it up after. Have I got it or do you want to re-do it?

[ With only Kano's questionably accurate notes to go off of, it'll be a trial. There's hints to whether the scale is meant to go up or down, but since he can't hit the proper notes, all Héctor gets is that vague direction or up or down, without knowing to what note. The pacing is there, slow and steady, with a very simple tempo, but as Kano squeezes his eyes shut and listens to Héctor play, a little frown works its away onto his face. ]

Hmmmm... We're going to need a lot of polishing up, I think!! Can you make your guitar sound a little sadder??

[ Play whatever that was in a D minor or G minor key, maybe, for melancholic overtones. Maybe that would help. Not that Kano has any musical knowledge to contribute anything more than "make it sadder." ]

[On the bright side, he's been given enough requests over the years to know that when someone says to make it sadder, they usually mean minor key. Maybe even rubato.

He smiles and adjusts, trying again with the same finger patterns on different notes, strummed a little softer and slower.]

Any closer?

[ Softer, slower... it's a little closer, but the sentiment just isn't the same. The notes— they can figure out the notes later, they're not the most important part of this song. Perhaps the problem is- rather than a guitar or a violin-- ]

If we go to the music building, can you play the cello there?

[ The violin. The cello. The viola. Instruments in this family, the closest there is to the human voice. ]

[He sighs, smiling apologetically.]

I'm sorry. We could go there but... I'm not a cello player. Anything I'd attempt on that wouldn't be quite right. We could give it a shot but you might have more luck with an actual cello player.

Ehh, aren't they the same thing? They've all got strings, and you can pluck them or ...bow them! [ Whatever the proper terminology is for playing a violin with a bow.

He huffs a little sigh, leaning back. ]

Well, since you're here already, we can keep trying with what we've got. Do you really not recognize the song at all? Or can give me any hints on how to Google it??

[Kano's getting a wry look for that. No, kid, not the same thing.

The wry look isn't going any time soon.]

I'm not hip with the technology, kid. Stuck in the Outlands before, remember? This is all new to me.

But, hm, perhaps you could tell me more about it? Like where you heard it, if it's got any lyrics... things like that.

[ The technology doesn't matter as much as the fact that Héctor is old— older than Kano, anyways, and that's the important part. ]

Hm... I don't remember the lyrics, if there were any!! It was a long, long time ago, after all, and it was something my mother always hummed, not sang.

Oh... [Well if that doesn't get him right in the heart. ] I see.

[He frowns, thinking.]

So, perhaps a lullaby. Like for a child. Can you hum it again? The whole thing this time? Maybe I can recognize it then.

[ He has to wonder about that, whether she'd hummed it for his sake or for her own, when his sense of music was always pretty bad and for him, he'd only taken comfort in the soft sounds that stand in contrast with the screaming that would be otherwise.

He sits back and starts humming again. There is very little improvement, Kano trying to build off of the parts of Héctor's interpretation that sounded somewhat familiar, but it's still. Pretty terribly off-key. ]

[He closes his eyes and listens carefully. He really tries to think what it could be. But it's not coming. Whatever song it was, it's not one he ever sang to Coco.

It's a song from a distant memory and butchered at that. His brow furrows until the song is done and at last he sighs.]

I'm sorry. I still don't know. Let me try and play it again. And If I don't get it, I'll keep trying to work something out myself and bring it to you. And then if not me, I'm sure someone can help.

[ Kano makes to get up— but decides against it and settles back down again, shaking his head. ]

No, no, no, you're the musician, so I thought I'd ask you! It's not that big a deal, so— It's a secret, remember?!

[ Nobody else is going to help, he's not telling anybody else about it. It isn't worth it, bringing somebody else into it, the song... it isn't that important.

He lets his hands drop to his lap. ]

It's not that important. Just trying this much, I appreciate it, you know? So you don't have to bother, after tonight!

Kano. [He says the name gently, but firm.] I want to.

[He smiles.]

You said it was something your mother hummed, si? Which makes it an important memory to you, especially if you don't have a lot to remember. That's a bit of a big deal. At least I'd think so.

I'll keep it secret like I promised, but I'd like to keep trying. Is there a way you can record and send it to me to listen to? That way I can keep referring back to it. Who knows, maybe I'll find what song it actually is in the process.

Edited 2019-05-27 09:32 (UTC)

[ Kano chews at his bottom lip, because it's not- he doesn't want it to be a big deal, just something he was always curious about but has lived without all these years and it wouldn't kill him to never know. He should know it. It's there in his head, little wisps and snippets of it that he's unable to string together into anything comprehensible.

There's a part of him which thinks that once he hears the song in its entirety, he'll go "okay" and never think about it again, and he doesn't know whether that's a good thing or a bad one. ]

Hm~ Okay, okay, but only because you insist! It's a secret, so if I find that the word's gotten out, I'm going to dunk you into the fountain, Héctor, I'm warning you now~! Here, I'm going to leave you a voicemail, so don't pick up your phone--

[ That way, the only copy of the song/Kano's poor attempt at song will be accessible only via Héctor's phone, the most security he can think of at the moment. ]

[He snorts over the threat, grinning wider. Being dunked in the fountain would be deserved in that case, and it's not as if it would kill him.

Which does get him thinking, as ignores the ringing of the phone in his pocket, only pulling it out so it doesn't ring inside his vest. He waits for it to stop, then waits longer still to listen to Kano's song again. He tucks the phone back away once it's finished.]

On the topic of secrets, I wanted to ask you... how much do you remember from the little you?

Mm... Bits and pieces. More of the feelings of stuff rather than anything concrete, sort of how in a dream you see something with clarity for a bit, and then it's a blur until it shifts to the next scene? Something like that!

[ He remembers more than he'd like, and he's glad that not very many people have brought up the little him from before. How he was before... Weak and helpless and shameful. He really was a stupid child. ]

That "secret" you told him, he was going to ask you something about it, but there wasn't time. It wouldn't have worked out, though, so it's a good thing he didn't!!

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