...But I just can't place it

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

[Meilin Zhou continued from life observes itself]

Meilin looked over the floor around where her clarinet case was sitting. Huh, that's weird. She could have sworn she put her reed right there a moment ago. She glanced at her as-of-yet attached mouthpiece and sighed. Little things, always falling to the ground at the most inconvenient of times and rolling off to Narnia, never to be show up again. Except when they do, on the floor of the girl's bathroom or something equally nonsensical.

"Reeds, always falling around everywhere..." she muttered to herself, as she lifted up her case and looked under it. Then, she opened the thing up and looked inside. Nope, not there either. Darnit.

There was only one other location she could think of where that tiny easily-lost object might be.

She stood up, and walked to the corner, where a counter with a sink stood. Maybe she'd left it there while getting that... what was it called again? The string with the sheet-like sponge thing at the end that you pull through the clarinet to clean it? She'll think about that later.

[MethodicalSlacker]

"Looking for something?"

[Violet Schmidt continued from Prowler.]

Violet had soundlessly ghosted into the room with the full intention of making sound eventually but not quite right now. It would come from her instrument, not from her feet or her mouth or anywhere that wasn't a string, though technically if it came from her mouth it was produced by vocal cords, but Violet was grossed out by thoughts of anatomy. Yucky! She had just eaten, too. It looked like she had a clarinetist for company, too, which was pretty neat. She hadn't had much of a chance to play with Clarinets, really. It was a little odd, tuning to two different notes, when playing one on one. For what it was worth, she favored tuning to a B Flat, but it just wasn't proper for a string instrument, okay? Just not the right thing to do.

Last night, she had seen a dead squirrel on the sidewalk while walking home, and she was still a little bummed out about it.

Her hands went up to her ears and took earbuds with them when they came back down. Music was what she needed to alleviate her mood, but Beat Happening wasn't doing it for her. It was easy to say that she didn't "get" the band, but it was a little more apt to say that she didn't feel like there was anything to get. It would probably help to make some music rather than listen to a crappy attempt at it.

Plus, Meilin was a sweetheart. A really, really nice girl. Her name was pretty nice sounding, too. Just a couple of letters from Merlin, she observed. Violet wished she had more chances to get to know her over the years that she was here—transfer students a constant interest for her—and now was looking like it would turn out to be one of those precious times. If Meilin needed help searching for something, Violet was more than happy to help as best as she could.

Making music with Meilin: just alliterative enough to work!

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Meilin turned to face the speaker beside her.

"Oh!" she remarked, with a smile.

What was her name again? Oh right, Violet! Wasn't that her mother's name? Oh well, life is weird like that sometimes. Anyway, she didn't get the chance to talk to Violet much, but she liked what she did see from her. Especially now- I mean, a reed was hardly worth calling a search party over, but the sentiment was nice in any case.

"Yeah, actually I am! I misplaced my reed somewhere, I was thinking I might have put it by the sink. You know, might have left it there while cleaning."

She paused for a second. Violet played violin, right? Still, being around the music room, around band kids, was hard to do without finding out what a reed was. Violin was still pretty neat though, once she- wait, we're getting off topic here!

"Say, do you think you've seen it around somewhere?"

[MethodicalSlacker]

Violet nodded seriously as Meilin described the nature of her problem, a dutiful expression on her face. A missing reed would be hard to find, since the ones that went with Clarinets were pretty small compared to those of, say, a Saxophone.

"Can't say I've seen it yet," Violet said, "But if you can't find it, I'm sure Mr. Faust probably has one in his desk."

There wasn't really an analogue to a reed for a Violin. Nothing to possibly misplace except the instrument and the bow, and both of those things were pretty hard to miss, most of the time. She'd misplaced her tuner a few times before she decided to take some white-out and paint the initials V.S. on the side, but that was still a little less integral to the whole music making experience than the reed to an instrument.

"Do you have spares?" she asked, looking around the room, "Also, what thickness are you using? Just in case I need to fish out a replacement for you."

Was that the term they used to describe different reeds? Violet couldn't be sure, but it felt like the right thing to ask. Either Meilin would pick up on it, or she wouldn't. All was well, as long as they could find her a reed.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

"Ah," Meilin noted, as she nodded in understanding. "Hopefully I won't need a replacement, but I use thickness 2 from Rico most of the time." she added, hoping the information would be useful. Wait, didn't she just say she didn't want Violet to have to replace it? So, that technically made the goal of this to make that information useless! Woah.

"Well, I'll just keep looking for now," she said, as she turned back to the counter.

That was the really annoying thing about small bits and parts, more annoying than getting lost all the time. She'd misplaced bigger things like books, when she thought they were in her bag but they were actually in her locker. A long novel sticks out like a sore thumb anywhere that isn't a library, though. A reed on the other hand, that could slip into any number of cracks, under chairs, in people's purses...

"Wait, that gives me an idea..." Meilin muttered to herself, not really knowing where her train of thought stopped being just in her head.

She reached into her purse, and shuffled around a bit.

[MethodicalSlacker]

Violet didn't know whether Thickness 2 was good or not, but it sounded like a term that Clarinetists actually used so it was fine in her book. As long as she could be useful in some way in finding a reed, she was happy. She had started towards Mr. Faust's desk when Meilin started digging around in her purse.

"Ah, I lose stuff in my purse all the time," Violet said, clutching her own, "I spent a good hour or two locked out of my house once because I couldn't find my key, and when my sister got home to unlock the door for me she reached riiiight in there, pulled out my key, and used it."

Okay, that was a bit of an embellishment—Dana had been inside, it had only taken her twenty minutes to come outside, and she had forgotten about the key they kept under the welcome mat—but it was an embellishment that would probably make Meilin feel good, if she was the kind to get self-conscious about dumb things like forgetting stuff.

There was no shame in being a little bit absent-minded.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Meilin nodded and continued to search her purse as Violet recounted her story. Man, that must have been embarrassing! And really uncomfortable, depending on what time of the year she got locked out of. I mean, two hours standing outside the house isn't much fun anyway. If Meilin was in that situation, she'd go straight to sitting down in front of the door waiting for someone to come unlock the door, or fish the key out of her purse, or whatever.

"That sucks! Hopefully it wasn't too cold outside!"

After a bit more digging, she pulled the small reed, still in its case, out of the depths of her purse. It had been buried under bus tickets, loose change, and dried-up sticky notes, but she got to it eventually.

"Ah! Here we go!" she exclaimed with a triumphant smile.

[MethodicalSlacker]

Violet clasped her hands together, let out a "Yay!" and smiled when Meilin pulled the reed out of her purse. Silently, she felt relieved that she didn't have to go futzing around in Mr. Faust's cabinet, but the more vocal feeling in her brain was that of happiness for Meilin. Also, now they got to play together! That's what Violet came to the band room for, after all; to play, not necessarily to socialize.

She put her backpack on the ground and hanged her purse on her chair, placing her violin case on the ground as well. The instrument was her own, one she received as a gift for her eighteenth birthday so that she could continue to play in college and beyond. Naturally, she had already decorated the case with as many stickers as she could find, leaving very little empty space on the face of her case. Her violin was un-stickered because she was not stupid and/or dumb, but she had painted a tiny smiley face in purple on the underside. Two dots, and a slightly curved line. Dana never noticed that a few drops of her paints were missing, because why would she?

After taking a good second or two to look at her instrument and confirm that, yes, it did still exist, she opened a little pouch next to where the lower bout of the instrument lay and pulled out her tuner, a Korg AW3V Dolcetto that she had bought on the second day of Orchestra because her middle school instructor had done her wrong. Clipping it onto the neck right next to the pegbox, she the removed her instrument and bow from the case, put her chin on the designated rest, and played her A-String, listening to the sound it made.

The sound it made, as it so happened, was incredibly, horribly flat. She winced at the noise it made, and her hand automatically went to twist the peg and tighten it.

"Sorry about that," she said, "Haven't played in a couple of days."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Meilin smiled, in between finding her reed and Violet's enthusiasm. It really was a delight to hear! She walked back over to her chair, where her not-yet-fully-assembled clarinet was still waiting. After taking the reed out of its case and holding it between her lips, (we didn't want a repeat incident after all) she picked up the pieces and started fitting them together.

While she was working on that, she stole glances at Violet's violin. It really was a pretty thing. Most instruments were pretty things, though! They sounded even prettier, too! Most of the time, if they were properly tuned.

Unfortunately, the violin needed a bit of help in that regard. She hestitated to call the sound that just happened, almost making her jump, a note at all.

Still, she nodded in understanding when Violet apologized. She finished putting together her clarinet and took the reed from her lips.

"It's alright! That makes sense." she assured her as she fixed the reed to the mouthpiece.

[MethodicalSlacker]

Violet pulled the bow across the string again, post-tuning, but closed her eyes instead of looking at the tuner. Faust had been telling her to practice training her ear a little more in regards to intonation, since she always tuned with her little device, so she figured she could give it a try. The sound she made was definitely better the second time around; crisp and warm, but a little sharp. She twisted the peg with one hand as she continued playing with the other, adjusting as she went, until she reached a sound she thought sounded in tune.

Her eyes opened, and she saw that she was correct. Only about five cents sharp.

"Nice."

She played the other three strings and adjusted in kind. None of them were quite as bad as the A-String, but they all needed to settle in tune at the very least, which, on its own, was kind of enjoyable. It was like the way each string bent under her bow was akin to the way the music unloosed the knots in her brain, the tension in her shoulders, the stress from a long, long day at school, all sitting within her frail frame. She wasn't afraid to say that the sound of herself, playing her own instrument, was soothing to her ears. So what if it was a little narcissistic? She liked the sound every instrument made. There was no reason for her own sound to be excluded from that.

In fact, because she liked her own instrument so much, she'd play a bit. Nothing from any of the pieces they were working on in class, but something from a song she liked. She'd figure it out as she went. Sounded like a nice time, at least as a warm-up. What was that little song from the end of the Broken Social Scene album she liked, the one that was just the same as the changes from a song earlier on the album? A reprise, sort of deal?

She decided that she'd play that song for a bit, even if she probably didn't sound as good as the strings from that recording.

"Ooo, nice sound, Violet," went Mr. Faust's voice in her head. She smiled and closed her eyes again, listening and balancing as she went.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Meilin kept watching as Violet tuned. She got it pretty fast, she had to say. Violins always seemed like hell to tune. Then again, you could say that about any instrument you're not used to- even clarinets! Speaking of which, she took a breath in and was about to play a few notes on her own clarinet to warm up, when Violet began to play a little ditty. And what a good little ditty it was!

Did she make it up on the spot just now? Or did she just never hear this one song before? Either way, it felt rude to interrupt her with random, ill-fitting notes from a pre-tuning clarinet.

She tucked her instrument under her arm, and clapped, with a smile.

"That's really nice! Is it from a song? Or did you make it yourself?" she asked, as she took the clarinet back in her hands. If it was from a song, she'd get a new song to listen to in her free time, maybe even a new artist she'd like a lot! If Violet made that up herself, good for her! She's gonna be a good composer, that's for sure. If she made that up just now... well, holy frick, that would be impressive.

[MethodicalSlacker]

Meilin's applause was good to hear, even if she didn't feel like she deserved it all that much. Felt a bit more than was deserving of a warm up, but, hey, what did Violet know, anyways? She did a little bow, uttered some thanks, and heard Meilin ask if she had made it up herself.

"Pfffffft!"

She couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing.

"Sorry, but, oh god, I wish!"

Violet just flat out sucked at making things up on the spot. She'd done it once or twice with some of the jazzier musicians during lunch, and got laughed out of the room, by herself, in her head, silently. She'd tried her hand at sitting down and writing things out a couple of times, and those turned out passably fine, if a little uninspired, but improvisational technique was entirely out of her grasp. Transcribing by ear? Sure. Figuring something out from memory? Bring it on. Being original? Try some other violinist.

"It's from this band called Broken Social Scene," she said, recovering from her giggle fit, "but I can't remember what the song's called. I think it's from the album 'You Forgot it In People', though."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Violet did a cute little bow, when she burst out laughing. Oh, so she didn't make it up- she didn't even get the name of the pretty song. But! She did get the artist! She giggled along with her, as she pulled out her little pocket notebook out of her purse, putting her clarinet down, laying it across her chair.

"Broken... Social... Scene." she muttered as she scribbled it down. "Thanks! I'll listen to it when I get home."

She put her notebook away again, and took out her phone, bringing up the tuner thing she'd had since last year, and balanced it on the stand. It saved her a lot of getting yelled at for sharps at flats gone wrong, that's for sure. Picking up her clarinet. She took a breath in, and played a few random notes to warm up. She wasn't even sure what those notes were at first call, she just knew the fingerings and that they were somewhere on the B flat concert scale, probably. Alright, time to get serious now!

She played a single B flat, a lower one, glancing at her phone as she did. It was just a bit flat. She took the mouthpiece and twisted it out a bit, before playing again, still checking the tuning on the screen. Great, now it's too sharp! Don't you hate when that happens? No matter though, it was just a minor inconvenience. She sighed, and pushed it back in ever so slightly.

"Don't you hate when you're tuning and first you're too flat and then you're too sharp, or the other way around?" she asked Violet, as she fiddled with the mouthpiece,

[MethodicalSlacker]

"All the time, Meilin," Violet says, nodding, "At least once you have your instrument set, you can forget it for the duration of your playing, roughly, whereas I have to keep checking, over, and over, and, well, over again, aheh."

It was a bit odd to be talking around something roughly equal to a profession. Sort of forced. Jilted, if you will. Was this how it felt to be grown-up? She wondered if her mother went through the same feeling when she talked to other people about her job, or through her job, or others with the same job or what-have-you. Maybe, but, maybe not. Maybe once you got to be that age, you got used to conversations feeling like they dance around the point. That could just be part of life, for all Violet knew. Then again, talking about accounting was kind of boring as a default. Her father probably had more interesting conversations.

How were musicians supposed to talk to each other? Trying to describe sounds in words without making weird mouth noises was like trying to convey architecture through figure skating, or something. The only way to talk about art was to talk through art. Whatever that meant. It sounded vaguely convincing, anyways.

Meilin was playing scales, so Violet decided to play some scales too. They weren't the same scales, of course, but they were still scales. She didn't need to read out of the method book anymore to remember the concert scale series, so she left it in her bag. Maybe Meilin would be up for a chorale later? Were they reading out of the same book? Maybe strings and winds had different books to read out of.

She continued to play scales until her arm got a little tired, and then she sat down.

"Hey, Meilin?" Violet asked, letting her violin rest for a little while.

"If you had to pick another instrument to play instead of Clarinet, what would you pick?"

Whatever answer Meilin gave, Violet would be sure to put an unreasonable amount of stock into it. When Violet was a freshman, she'd ask her section-mates this question all the time, just to get to know them in a cheekily class content friendly way. Violet's own answer was a bit of a secret, but if Meilin asked, she'd be happy to answer. It was just a little obscure, like most things Violet liked.

But nothing too obscure. Violet knew that she couldn't have too much hipster in her, or she'd disappear into the void, becoming as obscure as something that didn't actually exist. Either the void, or up her own bum-hole. Whichever came first.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Meilin nodded thoughtfully as Violet told her about the plight of tuning a violin. Tuning on its own was kinda dull and annoying, she just wanted to get to playing her instrument and making pretty melodies! (Or harmonies, nothing wrong with those, they're actually super important!) Having to tune in between ever few of those lovely melodies/harmonies because That's How It Works? Oh, the torment! Well, it probably wasn't too bad... after all, if it was, nobody would play the violin, which would be sad.

She got back to her clarinet, and played the B flat on the next octave up as Violet did her own scales. She looked up to check the tuner, and tapped the screen of her phone before it could go to sleep. Shoot, she missed the reading! She played the note again. Hm, it seemed just little bit flat. She pulled out the mouthpiece for as small a distance as she could get it, and played again. Okay, that was a better reading-

Before she could play the last octave, Violet asked her a question. A question that made her bring her clarinet away from her mouth and gaze in Violet's vague direction, as she was lost in contemplation.

Back in middle school, way back, the only reason she picked the clarinet was because it was the instrument she could get a sound easiest out of. Though, another instrument that seemed easy to play at the time were the drums. But they seemed so dull! All you had to do was hit them. However, as the years went by, she grew to respect them a little more. More than a few times, she silently thanked the drums during a performance for cuing her in. It was a very important job the drummer had! Well, now she had her answer.

"I would be on the drum kit!" she replied, then reflecting the question back at Violet. "What about you?"

She was curious to see her answer- maybe she would have told her anyway, she did ask it first after all. Still, Meilin figured she'd ask anyway.