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Customer Service [Aria]
Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 2:36 pm
by Finn
53 Searing 121
Ale'Ephirium
On the one hand, it ought to be gratifying that Lyra trusted Finn to stand guard at the desk while she saw to something important in her laboratory. On the other hand, he was still supposed to keep his hands to himself except when it came to things that were clearly non-magical in nature: mundane papers, parchments, inks, and implements. Of course, safety was important to him, who knew little of magic beyond the use of his own Rune of Mesmer, which laid invisibly under his hair. But bringing her some scrap of information from the archives or running things around the city were more exciting than sitting there, his fertile imagination any number of things that could go wrong in her absence, even though she wasn't entirely absent.
He tidied up the desk a bit, but Lyra wasn't terribly cluttered or messy. But he did some nosing around and found some cleaning supplies and began to polish the desk for her so he would be leaving it in better condition than he found it, at least.
For all that her shop was an uncommon thing in Kalzasi, there wasn't a lot of custom going through to keep Finn occupied. It was just another jewel in the Plaza of Jeweled Arches.
"Place of Curved Gems," he said in Vallenor. He thought he was translating the neighborhood's name, though Lyra wasn't present to correct his mistakes. He would have to ask her later as learning the dead language had become a bit of a hobby for him. Language was a sort of music all its own and that was something he needed to understand better if he was going to become a bard of any note.
Finn was about to say another few phrases in the language to accustom his mouth to making the proper shapes, but the doorknob began to turn and he froze, wondering what dread wizard was about to walk through the door and prove Finn unsuited to the responsibilities Lyra had left him.
Re: Customer Service [Aria]
Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 3:00 pm
by Finn
Finn didn't know how good he was as a shop boy, but Lyra had never berated him. Her other employees seemed to accept his presence as a matter of course now, even if he wasn't there full-time as they were. They were cordial if not warm, and he supposed that was fine. Lyra was not often warm, but she treated him fairly and he enjoyed the work he did for her in the Archives. Not wanting to do nothing, he found the cleaning supplies and went about dusting everything that didn't seem particularly dangerous. The glass cases protecting some of the grimoires got the quickest, lightest cleaning he could manage, and he didn't feel as though he had been cursed, so he took that as a win.
After helping a few customers with mundane purchases, he considered doing some of his own work. There were those who seemed to come here as if on a dare, feeling the thrill of spending time in a magical shop that had at some points dealt in necromantic works. This amused Finn, mostly because his grandmother had been the village witch. He didn't know if she had any actual magic, runic, divine, or otherwise, but she had enjoyed the demonization that sometimes came her way. She had been an odd woman, but he had loved her dearly.
He found himself composing a bit of something for her. It was a dirge, but playful, as if the music enjoyed the sombreness of its lugubrious cadences. The scratch paper quickly filled up with sequences of musical notation, along with scribbles of notes for ideas that popped into his head. He would take it home, tuck it into his own grimoire, and bring it out sometime in the future and he would see whether there was something there. He tried not to judge his work at this point. Sometimes he just had to be a channel for what was inside him in order to bring it out into the world. There would be plenty of time to critique and edit, but the trick was not to bring that in too soon. Children created all the time, free and easy. It was only when adults stepped in and told them to be more serious that they began to doubt themselves.
His grandmother had never been like that. She answered any questions he asked, pitched for the best understanding for whatever context he had at the age. She wasn't afraid to say when she didn't know, either, which he found rare in adults even now. Perhaps that was the seed of wisdom: knowing one didn't really know anything in the scheme of things. It might keep the mind open to learn things when one didn't assume they already knew everything.
Smiling, he turned the paper over and wrote out a wailing high harmony. She would have enjoyed the discordance and the theatricality of it. Perhaps it would be a threnody rather than a dirge. It was strange that his path had taken him to the Academy, where he had learned the difference between a dirge, a threnody, and an elegy, and the various other sorts of funereal, mourning songs. And it was there he studied on Lyra's behalf as well, picking apart ancient languages and ancient mysteries.
He wondered what his grandmother would think if her grandson remade the Leh'anafel, blending magic and song. Perhaps she would be proud of him. No, she had always been proud of him, whether he had learned to tie his shoes or shoe a horse, play a song or weave a magical symphony. The last she hadn't lived to see, but it had been her bequest.
Perhaps the theme of the song would be gratitude rather than mourning.
Re: Customer Service [Aria]
Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 7:34 pm
by Finn
Time passed and he sketched out other melodies: a song for his grandmother; a strange dissonant phrase that was Lyra; the recurring Talon theme. That was a theme he needed to spend more time on. He had played the idea of it for the Shinsei months ago, but next season, he would likely have to present it in its fulness for his capstone project. Of course, he could always rework it, make it better, as he grew more facile with his art. Still and all, he wanted the first public performance to be grand, especially if there was any chance the man himself might be there.
And there was talk that he was no longer a man, but rather a demigod. Finn didn't know what to believe on that account, but if there was any truth to the stories about the deal struck with the Masked Queen, then the Synnekar Avialae were already a step closer to the Holy than the rest of them. He rewrote a bit of the theme, adding more gravitas and grandeur, even though every time he had met their prince, the man had asked to be treated as nothing special. He didn't know how to make that work in his head, either with his picture of the Shinsei or with the music he inspired.
Humming the new line didn't do it justice. This would be a piece for many instruments and, perhaps, many voices. Perhaps it would be better to focus on the many voices, leaving Talon Novalys himself the mystery they surrounded. After all, it seemed implausible that even a bard more talented than Finn could encompass divinity in music. Perhaps one of Syren's favorites... But if the voices of the piece all pointed to a different piece of Talon, a different perspective, then perhaps it could define the shape of him by how he took up space among mere mortals, his subjects, and his devotees.
Continuing to write things down as they came to him, new possibilities for the composition came into being. This wasn't the best venue; customers sometimes came in and distracted him. But he found that he had already had several good thoughts and only remembered to write them down now that he had something to write them in. This was going to be such a big song, a new sort of endeavor for him. He was going to have to conduct rather than play or sing, and that would be a departure for him, but of course he would know the music better than anyone and be best equipped to bring it into being.
He wondered if the music would summon Talon if he couldn't make it to the performance. That thought gave him pause. If he was a demigod now, did he hear prayers? Ought Finn to capitalize His pronouns now even in his internal monologue? The world was strange and these were interesting times; he hoped interesting times weren't a curse as some wise person had called them.
But the hours of Ale'Ephirium were ending for the day, and so he put his musical meanderings in his bag, tidied up the desk, and let himself out. He had been given a key to the door, which seemed like an awful lot of trust from Lyra, but he supposed she had magical spells set up to keep the shop safe in her absence. It was likely Finn-proof.
He laughed at that as he went his merry way.
Re: Customer Service [Aria]
Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 2:29 pm
by Hikami
Customer Service
Points awarded:
Lores:
- Music, Composition
- Themes on a Person
- Adding Gravitas
- Orchestration From Simpler Melodies
- Dirge, Threnody, and Elegy
- High Harmony
Linguistics
- Translating Place Names into Vallenor
Loot:
Injuries:
Notes:
- Sorry this didn't go like planned, but still a good read regardless!
If you feel I missed anything contact me and we will make adjustments!
enjoy your rewards!
