Aria Academy

(I moved this thread into its own group, and gave the continuity info and rules their own pages instead of having it all mega dumped here)

Some basic setting descriptions, and afterward, in a lounge

((OKAY LETS GO. This character is here for a semi-private lesson with two other characters that I originally started this thread for, and there may or may not be opportunities for your characters to jump in on the lesson. If you want to start a scene elsewhere on the grounds, please do! You may bump into some other people, or perhaps another one of my characters. ))

When she woke that morning, the little half-drow girl was informed that she was going to be seeing a new music tutor. After Aria had been fed and dressed, she dutifully scoooped up her violin case before climbing into the carriage that was to take her to the academy.

The academy was composed of several large stone buildings, set in a ring around a magnificent garden - maintained in the interests of impressing visiting nobles and potential commissioners, there were pockets of opulence far beyond the basic workstations provided in some of the less toured structures.

The main building was by far the largest and most impressive, though still half-finished. The core of the building was open and functioning, housing the library, several lounges for the students and staff and others for the nobility, and some of the largest production workshops. But there remained whole wings that were still just skeletons, and work was constantly being done to expand the structure. In recent years beautification efforts had begun on the finished portions, and magnificently carved spires, lattice-work, and carvings of people and horses were begining to froth from the stone as the sculptors sought to outdo one another and catch the attention of wealthy patrons.

Aria hid her face against her nurse as she was carried past the twin lion statues guarding the door, feeling particularly shy today. Would the new tutor be strict? Would the lessons be hard? She clutched the violin case tighter as she was whisked up to one of the nicer lounges to meet her teacher.

In the same lounge.

There was a piano in the lounge, and though he had been waiting for his new young student he found his eyes drifting back to it. A violin and a flute lay in their cases by the chair he had been sitting in, but Lysander remained there no longer. Now he sat at the piano, fingers drifting across the keys. He smiled as he played, lost in the creation of the music as his fingers spun out new melodies into the air. The piano was beautifully in tune, and Lysander found himself intensely enjoying the chance to play an instrument that was so well cared for.

The young man was tall and slim, dressed in a clean shirt and vest that greatly contrasted most of his fellow wandering musicians - while other troubadours and jongleurs tended to dress like dandies, Lysander dressed quietly and unobtrusively. He preferred not to be noticed as much as the others, but his talent usually got him the notice all the same, if his unusual looks didn't. He was pale and thin, with dark rings under his eyes from a sleep deficiency he had been building up since he was old enough to stay up all night playing music and not be sent to bed. His eyes were a vivid red, though he was no demon, and his ears had been pointed from birth despite a lack of elven blood.

When he heard footsteps enter the room, he stopped playing and turned around - a sweet-looking dark-skinned elven girl had been brought in by her nurse. This must be his little student - she was carrying a violin case. Lysander swung his legs around the piano bench, so he was facing the doorway, and smiled warmly at her. "Hello there. You're Aria, aren't you?"

((I only have one difference between Amaya's page and this RP... Bio is coming soon under the bios tab and the main part of it is that Amaya is rich but not snotty))

Amaya walked the garden on the grounds of her new school, she had been transferred there after her father had thought that *a change of scenery would be good*. Amaya disagreed, She missed her old friends but the past was past. Over the sound of birds she heard a violin. It sounded beautiful and Amaya hoped to know the player so she followed the sound to a window.

Aria stretched her dangling legs, indicating to the nurse that she wished to be put down. Once on her feet, the violin case still clutched tight, she shuffled forward, a show of braveness for a shy child.

Stopping a few feet away from him, she dropped a slightly awkward little curtsy, mumbling as she did so,""Howdoyoudo?" as if the phrase was an integral part of the gesture itself. Forgetting to wait for a response, she forged ahead, nodding. "Yes sir. Was that you playing?"

For the moment, she didn't appear to notice the face at the window, completely focused on her new tutor.

He chuckled at her bobbed curtsey, and replied with a slight bow of his own. "Yes, it was. I rarely get the chance to play on a piano that's kept in such fine repair." He slid down the bench so there was room for her next to him and patted the surface. "Why don't you come and sit beside me? We can talk for a while before we focus on music - it's so much easier to share melodies with someone you know at least a little about. How old are you?"

((updated Bio))
Amaya watched the half-drow and teacher with envy. She knew no one and had lost her old comfort of playing on the piano. Amaya sighed but continued to watch. The half-drow interested her. Her father disliked their races dark skinned cousins. But they interested Amaya. She was fascinated by their culture but knew only that which her father told her, that they were blood-thirsty savages. Of course Amaya disbelieved that. But she had no evidence of the lie, not knowing a drow or even a half-drow. So Amaya continued to watch.

The lounge

Aria captured her lower lip between her teeth, dipping her chin so that she had to look up through shy lashes at Lysander. A single hand was held up, showing him four tiny fingers. After a heart beat's pause, she added in murmur, "But.. and a half." The violin case was placed on the bench first, freeing both hands to help her climb up, wiggling up on her belly before throwing a tiny leg over the bench and hauling herself the rest of the way up. In the flouncy skirts her mother kept her dressed in, it took a bit of situating to turn around and smooth everything out enough to sit. It was then that she saw a face through the window, and she leaned close to Lysander, whispering. "Who's that?"

Of course Aria was surface-born, and raised amongst the human nobility. She was not the most authentic representative of drow culture available.

"Four and a half." Lysander smiled. "You're four and a half and you're already learning to play the violin! That's an accomplishment." He watched, vaguely entertained, as she clambered up onto the bench and sorted out her skirts. He had never seen such a small child dressed quite so... froofily was the only thing Lysander could think of to describe the child's clothing, and he was pretty sure he had made it up. Then again, in his travels he had told stories and sang for adults of all classes, young men and women but no noble children. Common children from the towns he passed through gathered around him and demanded stories, but the young nobles were kept inside.

Lysander followed the child's gaze to the window. "Well, we'll see, won't we?" He got to his feet, moving surprisingly quickly over to the window and pulling it open and meeting the eyes of the woman at the window. "Hello. And you would be...?"

Little Aria remained where she was when Lysander went to go investigate their spy, gently swinging her legs. She'd just gone through the whole rigmarole of getting onto the bench, after all! But more than that, nervous shyness continued to suppress any exuberance she might've had, her posture just a wee bit hunched, curling in on herself protectively, and head dipped demurely even as bright, perceptive eyes continued to track Lysander's movements.

Lysander blinked when the person at the window ducked out and disappeared. "Hm. Odd. She must be shy." The idea caught at his imagination and he stared out the window with an expression that might have been longing for a short time. Lysander loved stories.

He turned, all smiles again as he faced his little student. "Well, that was an interesting start to our morning." He came and sat next to her again. "Don't you wonder who she is? To spy at a window and then duck down out of sight..." he chuckled. "Well, we may never find out, hmm?"

He swung his legs back around the bench so he faced the piano. "Aria, tell me - what is your favourite song in the whole world? It doesn't need to be on the violin."

"She must be very shy," replied Aria solemnly, and then added almost hopefully, "Or a fairy."

The question took her quite off guard, and required a moment's thought followed by several more moments of stammering, apparently unable to recall the name of the song, though she hummed several out of order stanzas and attempted to describe how the orchestra sounded with a good deal more animation than she'd showed since her subdued entrance.

"But it's so hard," she lamented. "I can't play it. Only a little little bit."

((Something like this!))

"Indeed." Lysander chuckled. "What do you think she was after?"

Lysander listened patiently as she attempted to recreate the song for him. He began to recognise some of the stanzas she hummed - he was sure he had heard the song, though he heard more soloists than orchestras. He smiled when she finished. "Oh, my. That sounds tricky. I think I've heard it before. Does it sound a little bit like this?" He recalled the song in his mind and played several themes from the orchestra on the piano. "That's a lovely one. I imagine you can't play it yet, but I've heard stories of children barely older than you who learned it little bit by little bit and could play such a piece. But perhaps we might like to start with something a little more simple, hmm?" He gestured to the case. "May I see your violin?"