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Post by Xavier Guillory on Mar 1, 2013 9:06:48 GMT
(OOC: Piece he's playing is The Heart Asks Pleasure First from The Piano. He's playing the melody line, using his ipod to provide a backing track)
Xaviers fingers were tapping in time with the beat of the piece he was listening to, over-ear customized headphones were firmly fixated to his head, his eyes closed. Currently he was lost in the feel of the music, his body moving a bit as his fingers shifted to holding an invisible flute, opening his eyes as he hunted through the sheet music stash he’d dragged with him along with his flute to the common room area. There it was.
Quickly, almost feverishly, he searched through the book – it was only thin – until he found the piece he was looking for. The top corners of the pages were dog eared, bent over from how he set up so he could turn a page without a fumble. His close cropped brown hair – left slightly longer on the sides – was a tousled mess and his brown eyes were focused as he pushed the headphones off his ears, turning the volume to full so he could hear the music clearly, for he’d already worked out this piece needed a piano accompaniment. Something he was lacking.
The iPod in question – a black rather well battered model – was pulled out of a pocket in his jeans and he was quick to set his flute up, leaving it on the table as he found a music stand adjusting it to his height and placing the iPod on it, the headphones temporarily hung over the top of the stand as he moved to retrieve flute and sheet music. As he settled the music on the stand, the flute rested carefully on the piano’s closed lid, he also picked the headphones up, slipping them round his neck and flicking the tracks back to the one he wanted picking the flute up and bringing it to the playing position, the body resting into the grove under his lower lip, adjusting until he was comfortable with how it was positioned.
Once that was done he hit play on the iPod using his right hand, as that was one that wasn’t always needed allowing him to make self adjustments to how he practised if need be. It was clear the point when he was truly lost in the music again his body swaying as the notes soared high into the still air of the common room, or swooped down low, the mood changing from rapid like a babbling brook racing over stones to calm like the sea gently caressing the beach, or a gentle whisper of wind over open plains. His whole body moved with the music, his eyes closing. The sheet music was never truly needed – it had been a piece he played often.
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Post by Alexandria Fell on Mar 2, 2013 0:37:38 GMT
Alex stretched out on the bar running down the room. She looked up into the mirror. You need to practise. She thought. It was true. She really did need to practise. She had been slacking so much recently. It wasn't exactly slacking. No she'd been helping her to be step-mother choose a dress. Oh how excited she was for the wedding. Alex plied down, stretching out the back of her legs. She moved fluently into practising her arm positions and the positioning of her feet, before she lifted one leg, her hand gripping the bar, into the retiré duvant. She sighed and closed her eyes, before placing her leg back on the floor, and then starting her routine.
She moved effortlessly, hands gliding and her feet barely touched the floor for more than two seconds. Then she tripped. Stumbling to the floor, she yelped. Landing on her ankle could have been dangerous for a dancer, but Alex wasn't screaming in pain, so she assumed it was merely bruised. She could deal with bruised. Alex pulled herself from the floor. Her leg protesting as she put weight on it and she clung to the bar, till she could reach her bag. She knelt down to pull her kitten heels back on, and made her way to the stairs. She was really glad that she'd not gone down to the lake, and had decided to stay in the building. For now she only had one flight to limp up before she hit the common room.
Alex made her way slowly up the stairs, taking each step with care. There was a buzz from her bag, and she stopped. Pulling the phone from her pocket she saw 'Dad' light up on the screen. A smile broke out on her face and she quickly answered; “Hi Dad!” Her father's gruff response made her laugh and she chattered away the rest of the steps and down the corridor. She pushed the door to the Common Room ajar, and then heard the music, so she told her Dad she had to go and quickly hung up.
She quietly slipped in, and was going to just go and sit and listen when the door slammed behind her. She winced. “Shit. I'm sorry” she quickly apologized. She didn't want to have startled him. While there was a slight flare of jealousy at the ability to play, she was far more impressed by his playing to act on it. “You are really good!” she exclaimed before she could stop herself. "At playing I mean" she added, to clarify an already rather obvious statement.
“You, you're in the grade below me right?” she asked, she was sure she'd seen him around, but she may have been wrong. She tugged at an sleek strand of hair, slightly greasy and damp from her practise. She almost wanted to run to the showers and wash her hair, but she'd probably go and practise a little more later, so she could wait.
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Post by Xavier Guillory on Mar 2, 2013 7:03:59 GMT
Xavier’s eyes had flared open as the spell was broken by the door slamming. It had caused a jump, one that only a slight jolt of his shoulders had betrayed. Slowly he lowered his flute from his lips as he turned to look over at the person who had spoken to him. “Thank you,” he stated quietly as he looked her over, trying to read for any visual cues about who she was or wasn’t.
A slight smile had shown at the compliments even as he tried to ascertain just who she was. “Yes, I’m in the year below,” he responded his mind finally supplying him with why she was familiar. He’d often seen her in here when neither of them had no classes to attend. “I’m Xavier by the way.... hope you don’t mind me taking up the common room with practice. I don’t mind returning to my room to practise there instead,” he offered.
He knew a lot of students tended to use this room for quiet study or piano recitals more than practising flute. “I’d use an empty music room but....” here he nodded a bit at the rather large stack of music books, the majority of them written for piano, but it didn’t stop him using them to play from. While in some books where the treble clef line was briefly cut into by the lower bass clef line, and the notes had been written in, once he had a tune in his head he could often just keep playing it.
“Lummocking idiot! Where are my manners!” he suddenly exclaimed more to himself than anything. Carefully he used a foot to get a stand for his flute from under the table where he’d accidentally kicked it, putting his flute on that. “I’m Xavier Guillm—Guillory, what’s your name?” he asked, partly out of politeness and partly out of his own curiousity. (OOC: tag: Alexandria Fell Notes: Sorry it's a bit short) |
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Post by Alexandria Fell on Mar 2, 2013 14:26:59 GMT
Alex smiled at him brightly, and moved towards one of the chair’s, instead of sitting down normally, Alex decided to perch herself on the back of the chair. Leaning against the material it was far from comfortable, but the weight was taken off her ankle, and it helped to numb the pain a little, but as the moments passed the pain was fading away anyway, so Alex had nothing to worry about. Though, she did wonder whether she should go and grab some ice and press it the the bruise or something. Her dad would have asked her to, but her dad wasn't there.
She certainly wouldn’t have to rest valuable time away because of it. She often worried about injuring herself, not because it would hurt – and it would – but because she would have to rest and heal and then she wouldn’t be able to practise. Alex was pleased that she’d been right about him being in the year below, and the slightly smug smile portrayed that.
Alex grinned and shook her head “I don’t mind at all, it’s quite nice to listen to live music” she waved her hand in the air and leant forwards to rest her elbows on her knees. “Sounds like a piece that would be good as a ballet track” she mused, mostly to herself. “If you’d continued playing I might have broken out into dance” she laughed quietly.
Alex blinked a few times. ‘Lummocking idiot’? She smiled rather amused by the choice of words but didn’t comment on it. Everyone liked to choose different words and phrases. Alex's favourite one was possibly 'Merlins Beard', but mostly she just stuck with 'Bloody Hell'. “I’m Alexandria Fell, but it’s literally just Alex.” She told him with a bright smile.
Alex really hated being called Alexandria, there was something about the name that just made her frown. So whenever she introduced herself, she either just introduced herself as Alex or tried to make it extremely clear what she wanted to be called. “Nice to properly meet you Xavier – Xavier that’s a nice name, pretty unique” Alex commented, Xavier wasn't a name she'd heard around often. She wondered whether she would prefer to have an unique name like that, being called Alex sometimes caused confusion.
( tag: Xavier Guillory ) |
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Post by Xavier Guillory on Mar 2, 2013 16:41:06 GMT
Xavier relaxed almost visibly once he realised he wasn't going to be in trouble this time for playing his flute. He slowly sat down in the chair he had been sat in while sorting through his music, a leg absent-mindedly tucked beneath his weight. "It's a piece from The Piano called The Heart Asks Pleasure First, sounds difficult but once you work out what 'part' is what it's actually pretty simple a piece to play. Big My Secret is another piece that follows the same rules, however I haven't quite mastered that. It starts slow - or at least it seems that way - but the amount of notes to play makes it difficult," he looked at her. "I'm sure I'll get it though eventually," he shrugged with a sigh. "So, what's your favourite subject here? Everyone seems to have one," he tilted his head trying to wait patiently for an answer. "Oh and it's nice to meet you Alex," he added on realising he kept forgetting his manners, so bad of him.
As he waited he found himself unconsciously sorting through music books, debating with himself which one to play next. For some reason he was drawn to music from Cats, it was one of those easy but difficult musicals, the key signature tended to make it awkward but there was nothing really new about that. He was indeed rather used to the key signature ranging from 6 sharps to 6 flats, and it was almost a relief if he found a piece in those books that only used two sharps or flats. Though Six did make it almost easier at the same time, it wasn't so much remembering which notes were sharpened as which notes weren't.
He did guess that was one good thing to be said about so many sharps and flats. A hand reached up to tousle his hair slightly more - not that it needed it really giving a sigh. Part of him felt it needed a cut but that wasn't going to happen for a while. He frowned a bit at the page of notes in front of him before he shifted his position to be more slouched in his seat, shifting to get comfortable. He honestly didn't mind breaking from his music playing, at least for a short while. (OOC: Tag Alexandria Fell Notes: Sorry short again, enjoy though! I love your charrie!) |
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Post by Alexandria Fell on Mar 2, 2013 23:32:41 GMT
Alex crossed her legs out in front of her, her right ankle resting atop of her left one. Her hands gripped the chair behind her, she didn’t really want to fall for the second time. Alex nodded as he spoke, and gave him a soft smile “It all takes practise” she told him, though she was pretty sure he already knew that.
Alex’s smile grew. “Hands down it’s Dance – Ballet specifically” she tapped her fingers on the chair as she spoke. Alex loved dance and she was lucky she had the body for it, a little on the short side perhaps. Alex liked to think that she moved with grace and elegance, but she would have to ask for another’s opinion on that. “The piece you were playing, it would be a good piece to dance a ballet recital to” she nodded agreeing to her own thought.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she was already planning the choreography. She chuckled softy “Though if you’d seen that film – Step Up, you’d think you could do ballet to any old song” she shook her head amused at the thought. While it was possible to dance a ballet routine to a song from any genre, it was somewhat harder.
She glanced over at the pile of music books he was sorting through and noticed. “Cats?” she suddenly asked. Alex adored the musical, “I think the lyrics were from a set of poems or something weren’t they?” she asked frowning in thought. What was the poets name. She should remember she’d read the poem only a week ago. She’d read it to Charlotte, her little tabby cat, thinking that her cat might enjoy a poem specifically about ‘Jellicle Cats’. “T.S. Elliot!” she exclaimed, she looked at Xavier a little sheepishly. “He’s the guy who wrote the poems I think”
Even when her hair was up, it still reached halfway down her chest. She hadn’t the heard to have it cut, she unclasped one hand from the chair, and ran it through the ponytail. “Do ya play often?” she asked, tilting her head to one side as she did. Alex flipped the long ponytail behind her shoulder, allowing it to tickle her back. Alex had chosen the crisscross leotard and it allowed her hair to gently touch the skin of her back in places. Her hand which wasn’t gripping the chair, rested on the dark material of her skirt. Alex never really bothered to pull on a top after a practise, just a skirt and her ballet shoes, until she had a shower anyway.
“I do apologize if I smell. I did come up here from practise” she told him rubbing the back of her neck, her hand brushing the baby hairs there. ( tag: Xavier Guillory; outfit: here; thank you <3 I love Xavier  ) |
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