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 Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2017 9:46 pm
It was one of those days. Certainly, Cerissé Belcourt was perfectly able to compose her own music thank you very much, it wasn't often she did so in anywhere resembling public. It was a quaint and quiet tea and coffee shop with nothing resembling a drive through that played the nice gentle music that made it easy to think. She wasn't often found out in public, but she'd stopped at the little hole-in-the-wall place enough times to get her order nearly memorized and her little punch-cards stamped for her free drink-to-be. A lemon-pomegranate tea was set gently on a coaster because she wasn't a savage, thank you very much, one hand idly playing with the straw as she jotted down a few more notes on the sheet, then went back a line to start humming along with it. All she could tell was that it was missing... something. Ghouliboo And the musical inclination required my attention.
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 2:28 am
It had been another long night of staying up far later than he should have been up and Akio Yoshida was feeling the effects of his nighttime adventures. Mouth opened wide as he yawned, one arm pushing open the door to the local tea shop by his apartment complex. He'd managed to wake up early enough to make it to class, but staying awake through it had been another issue altogether. Earbuds continued to make his head bob, which was an assistance he needed on the bus ride back to keep himself awake. When he'd spotted the tea shop, thoughts of a nice, hot chai gave him the inspiration to continue trucking forward. Maybe the caffeine would provide the jolt he needed to finish up his paper with? Popping one bud out to show a little bit of respect to the barista, he ordered his drink and dug into his pocket for the crumpled five dollar bill that would pay his way towards Caffeine Heaven. A soft sound was interrupting the Lady Gaga currently blaring in his other ear, but it was alluring enough for him to glance behind and investigate. A woman with pale, almost pinkish hair was humming along to whatever unknown song she was attempting to sing. An eyebrow quirked up curiously at the papers she was tinkering with, so once the chai tea managed to make it into his possession, he decidedly slid into the adjacent table beside the stranger's. Watching her for a few minutes, he eventually plucked the other earpiece out and tilted his head to the side, trying to get a better view of what she was penciling in. "Do you go to Sovereign Heights, by any chance?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 6:03 am
When the bell above the door had chimed to indicate someone else had come in, Cerissé had ignored it. In fact, Akio had gotten exactly zero-percent of her attention the entire time he went through the paces of ordering and receiving his drink. In fact, it wasn't until he had approached the table and she could tell that someone was watching what she was doing that she looked up. At the very least, she looked him over appraisingly before any expression beyond the typical 'oh lord, why are you looking at this' came over her face. Not that Cerissé was in any which way embarrassed by her masterpieces-in-the-making. "The prep-school? Goodness, no." she answered, at least not sounding offended by the suggestion. Though she was aware many of her peers from Crystal Academy had made their way over, none of them had spent the same amount of time she had actually stepping out into their chosen career path. "This is solely for my own enjoyment," she explained, "and I guess for work."
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 2:18 pm
An amused expression came over his face as he tipped his cup up to take another sip. He'd give her credit - her handwriting was as close to perfection as he'd seen (especially compared to his own scribbles) and from the looks of the note sequences beside the treble clef, she was a clever cookie to boot. "Your own enjoyment, hm?" He'd assumed she was part of the preppy crowd, basing it off the fact that she was, one, rather high maintenance looking like most of the girls from that school tended to be and two, working on sheet music. Known for their excellence in the Arts, he still found his line of questioning to be reasonable - but then again, Akio always found justification for his actions, or else he wouldn't be doing them from the start! Twisting his chair around, he made no attempts at hiding his growing interest in her work. The way the melody moved... well, from the sound of the notes in his head, it appeared like it would sound rather enchanting, save for one small section, that just seemed... off. Barely, but it was there. "Work never feels like work, though, if you're actually enjoying yourself." The cup twisted in his hands idly as he began to hum the tune for which she'd written. He paused, eyes glancing to meet hers. "With the Symphony, then?" It never hurt to keep guessing, after all. demon_pachabel I am wheezing, I can't even right now, I started crying at 1:41
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 6:12 pm
Akio's interest would be rewarded with a rare smile from Cerissé as she put her pencil (also meticulously sharpened) down for a small break to sip from her own cup. Certainly not as exciting as the chai was, but it seemed to fit the entire thing she had going about how she was presented. "Of course. A few small..." she tilted her head at the sheet, the smile straightening out to a neutral face that easily implied displeasure, "hiccups, but certainly they can be fixed." the smile returned, though not as obvious as it had been before. Akio's second guess was received with much more delight than his first. She quietly offered him a hand, "Cerissé Belcourt, second chair violinist." she confirmed. "I can safely add 'and composer' to that list on occasion, though I haven't done anything for the symphony on paper." The composition was for the contract she had through Renegade Media for her own things. "I can see you have an eye for music. I take it you perform as well?" Ghouliboo Beauty in it's truest form.
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Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:56 pm
"I have an eye for many things, but yes - music is one of my passions." Bringing the cup up to his lips, he took a brief sip as the question of whether or not he performed brought up an interesting dilemma. Without music, life would be a mistake. Nietzsche's quote had rung true for him. His life had revolved around music from the day he was born. He and his sister both had been raised to sing and perform, regardless of whether they enjoyed it or not. It had been a hard lesson but one that had molded him into the man he was today. It also hadn't hurt his karaoke skills. "I used to. Work tends to get in the way of it, these days." Lounging back casually in his seat, he noted her secondary job, an eyebrow rising. Composing music wasn't an easy job by any means and required only the most talented of ears. "Published, then? Impressive." A single finger on the cup tipped out in acknowledgement. "Anything I might have heard?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 6:23 am
Cerissé would make a pointed note of the fact the young man had not given his own name in turn when she'd introduced herself, filing that fact away quietly, however, instead of calling him out on it. "It's one of the few worth having," she agreed. If one was to say she had a passion for anything, it was music. "That sounds like a true shame," she sighed almost wistfully, "I can't say I'd handle that all too well myself, but..." Cerissé considered her words carefully, "I'm sure it was nice to hear when you could more often." The constantly musical life was a hard one to stay in. She'd spent four years cementing that particular way of being and it still was a struggle to be where she wanted to be. That first chair should have been hers. "I have two published as sheet music, which are also part of..." she turned to the bag she had sitting in the seat next to her - a simple and neat looking one that perhaps was kept more for it's utility than it's fashionable qualities (though it was definitely not shabby), opening a front pocket and turning back with a CD she'd pulled out of it, holding it out. "If you'd like. It's in any store worth it's salt, but..." she smiled, "this is the newest from my tours."
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Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 1:38 pm
Plucking the CD from her hand, he flipped it over and gazed at the back, then turned it back towards its cover. Talk of tours and recordings made him elicit a wistful sigh. As much as he'd come to love his new home, nothing could replace the thrill and excitement of performing in front of an audience, of hearing them scream for his name and beg for kisses and... Well, it just couldn't be replaced. He smiled and placed the CD on the table, not wanting to risk harming it by stuffing it within the confines of his back pocket. "I appreciate it, Miss Belcourt. I doubt you'd have heard of any of my tracks, but that's mostly because they were back during my..." Dare he say it? "... J-Pop days." His laughter at his own self was light, the tone deep. Hands rose up automatically in defense. "I promise I'm more cultured, my mother saw to that. Akio Yoshida, by the way." Hand newly freed, it reached over in offering towards her. "I'd love to listen to your music in-person, sometime, if you're performing anytime soon." demon_pachabel Akio's not the inappropriate buttmunch, I'm the one who forgot to give him an introduction, MY B
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Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 1:58 pm
His interaction with the CD was carefully watched, the young woman silently seeking some sort of approval - not that it mattered. It did but it didn't. It was a complicated feeling. She was self sufficient in her emotional needs, but there was still something nice about knowing someone else appreciated what she already knew. The slight hesitance in Akio's voice as he admitted to his own fun romp with a musical career caused her brows to lift ever so slightly. Perhaps he had found the one person in all of Destiny City who wasn't secretly an otaku because: "I can't say I know what that is." Was it a music term? It didn't sound like a classical music term - which is what Cerissé specialized in. She imagined he was embarrassed by it since he defended that his mother made sure he was 'cultured' however. Still, when he extended his hand to offer it in a shake, she offered her back delicately. "Of course. I'm with the Symphony at any given performance, but I can see if I can arrange, perhaps, for something a bit more solo and local." It usually meant 'slightly stuffy party' unfortunately, but she was good at speaking the language of 'stuffy party'.
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Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 3:32 pm
"It's probably for the best then." His heart sank the tiniest of fractions, if only because Akio pined for the days of being recognized from a crowd of individuals. Alas, those days had long since passed and he was now stuck trying to keep himself masked among the crowd, especially when posing under his... other position in life. His head almost tilted to kiss the back of her hand out of habit, but he reigned in the tendencies of his elvish counterpart. Instead, he exchanged smiles at her comment about having a local performance. "I will certainly have to look into coming then, Cerissé." He gestured towards the tea with the slightly creased straw from idle playtime. "May I order you a second drink, if only to convince you to tell me a little more about yourself?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 3:42 pm
The partial gesture was noted, but not fully. After all, the incline of the head could have meant anything and as it wasn't followed through on...well, she wouldn't pretend to know what any of it had been. She just offered a slight smile instead. "Perhaps? I can't say I'm wholly uninterested, though the past has a way of needing to stay in the past sometimes." Would she be able to hold onto that as she moved forward in time? It would remain to be seen in the future. Her drink, in all shame, was only half finished by this point. Green eyes turned down towards it before Cerissé looked to Akio again. "I wouldn't say no to that proposition, though I'll admit I'm only slightly less interesting than what I do all day." Such as the song she was composing. If she really wanted to show it off, she would have let him see the other 12 parts that had been written for other instruments up until that point. It was so easy to piece together in her head, would it look that way on paper to anybody else?
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 8:12 am
"Then it's settled." He casually rose from his seat and offered her a wink before passing over towards the cash register. Pulling his wallet out from his back pocket, he slid several dollars out to the young woman waiting for his order as his free hand gestured back towards the violinist sitting alone at her table. The cashier seemed a bit in a panic when requested to duplicate an order she'd already partially forgotten, but after a quick search through the prior orders on her screen, relief fell across her face and she got to work, taking the brunette's money without a second thought. Minutes later, he was returning with a cup for her in one hand, a bag in the other. After setting down the drink next to her original, half consumed one, he plucked up the CD and instead of replanting himself in his initial seat, the young man boldly took the second seat at her table, smiling. One hand dropped in the bag and pulled out one of the bakery's cookies, sliding the warm chocolate chip into his mouth and breaking off a piece. The bag was offered in her direction as he leaned back in his chair, swallowing his bite. "Alright then, Miss Belcourt. Allow me to be the judge of what's interesting and uninteresting. First up - were you born here? Or was it the Symphony that called you to this wonderful city of ours?"
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 8:51 am
She watched Akio with a half interest as he stood at the register, the wink not really registered as much else besides a simple wink. Not because Cerissé was daft, but she did her best to not take flirtatious gestures at face value. The last one had thrown acid at her after the fact, after all. As he waited for the order, she took a sip of the lingering third of her drink she already had and idly wrote down a few more notes on her paper. Thank the lord for the program on her laptop at home that would piece this all together before she had it printed and sent out to those orchestras that were already eager to have her next piece. It was a satisfying feeling. When Akio took up his new seat, Cerissé didn't even bat an eye. Was it a little bold? Perhaps, but it also was the most logical place for him to be sitting when they were talking to one another. When he offered the bag of cookies, she held up one hand in polite decline. "Overly sweet things and I don't typically get along," she explained. She was probably one of those girls who had been raised by parents that were obsessive about the 'health' of the food they put in their kids and now the tots couldn't even eat ice cream anymore. "Either I was born here or my parents moved here when I was too young to be able to tell otherwise. I've been in Destiny City my entire life."
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 9:29 am
"That's almost tragic to hear." His gaze shifted down to the music at her fingertips, the bag drawing back towards his section of the table. Dropping it off next to the CD she'd given him, his fingers took to working on breaking apart his own cookie as he savored it between his rounds of questioning. "I don't think I could stay in the same place forever, you know? There are too many adventures to be had, too many sights to be seen..." Smiling, he added, "Too many tours to be toured." If he was put off by her rejection of his offering, he didn't show it. In truth, it simply meant more sweets for him to enjoy later and her loss altogether. Shifting in his chair, he continued,"So you're from around here. No plans to go anywhere? So tell me, then, of this terribly uninteresting life you claim to have going on - surely there's more to you than finding quaint coffee shops to write music in, hm?"
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 9:46 am
"I've traveled. My violin and I don't exist solely for the Symphony, after all." Cerissé herself had done some peforming in various countries - solely because she was not in a dangerous position to do so. Strange how easy it was to travel when you were part of a very large parent group that facilitated such things. "I have no plans to move if that's what you mean. Simply, no where has called to me quite right yet. Moving is a rather big gesture and not one I'm going to submit myself too without the proper planning or reason." She'd probably choose somewhere that she could walk everywhere. Not with packed streets of cars. No sir. Those cars were killing machines and she'd stay away from them as much as possible. "I record, I play the violin - a lovely instrument for all the love put into it, I fence..." she made a slight face at that revelation. "I'm not very good at it, but I am only just beginning to learn."
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