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iPixie Bunni Vice Captain
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 Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 12:37 am
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 9:39 am
▐█████████ ██ █▐♬██ ████████↴
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx✄ - - - The Academy - - - ♬
Aurelie ((♬)) Nissley
♬((Current team: Corsairs ))♬((Current Company: Maintenance Guy.))♬
♬((Location: Lobby))♬((Thoughts: Music... makes the people come together ))♬((Plans: None))♬ Xavier's Institute (( ♬)) for the Gifted ↴ Once my heart beat to the rhythm of the falling snow
↴
Blackened below, the river now flows
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A stream of molten virgin snow ↴
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The music flows because it longs for the heart I once had - Nightwish ↴ ▐█████████ ██ █▐♬██ ████████↴  The lobby was quiet – a stark comparison to what was normally bustling with activity, what with students hanging out at the couches, or mutants coming in and out, sliding down the rail to the staircase. It was quiet, and the piano in the far corner of the bottom floor hadn't any occupants, hadn't had anyone sitting at the bench since someone had called it in for a tuning. And as the man finished tightening the strings, Aurelie's eyes fell off the page of her book, grazing over it to let her sapphire eyes fall on the instrument. A part of her still hurt to look at it, to not let her hands slide across the white keys the way she used to. Another part of her which had been dormant for so long, bade her to move from her seat and across the room, just to test the tone. One note wouldn't kill her.
Aurelie drew in a breath as her index finger pushed down on the middle “c,” the note singing in the air with perfection. The sound brought the hints of a smile to the telekinetic's face, and she didn't bother to stop it as she enjoyed the remnants of the note.
“You play?” The man asked, shoving his hands in his back pockets as he looked upon the woman's delight.
The blond shook her head in the negative direction once, sadness taking precedence over the joy she'd just experienced. “I used to.” She answered simply, doing her best not to allow her voice to crack. Getting emotional over what happened wouldn't change anything – it'd just give her a headache.
“What happened?” He pressed, obviously not taking the hints she was dropping about how sensitive the subject was to her. “Obviously, if one little key brought such happiness to you, you shouldn't let anything usurp that from you. I can only imagine what playing would do to your mood.”
It'd likely make her cry. “Someone accused me of cheating.” Which was an outlandish accusation at best, but Julliard had seen fit to expel her because of it. Simply because she was a mutant, and that had somehow made her unfit to be a dancer, a pianist. What did being able to move things with her mind have to do with dancing anyways? It wasn't as though she'd used it during performances to give her an edge.
“Is that someone here? To say that you're a fraud?” The question he asked hung in the air like a dense fog.
Sighing, Aurelie mumbled a “no” just loud enough for him to hear, as though she didn't want to think about the situation logically. Admittedly, she didn't.
He wasn't going to let her off the hook so easily, not when all of that happiness she'd initially felt had been ripped away from her. “Then why can't you play?”
Part of her wanted to just walk away from the aggravating guy, another part of her wanted to scream at him to leave her alone. “It's complicated.”
“I don't think it is.” He said, shifting his weight from foot to foot, brown eyes expressive. “Either you can play, or you can't. No invisible force is stopping you, and it's obvious that you'd like to listen to the music again, so just go ahead.”
But that statement didn't do much to help her confidence, or even her want to play. Either she could, or she couldn't? What did he know? Obviously, she couldn't... or she wouldn't have been in Xavier's Institute at all. No, she'd likely be rehearsing for her next performance right now instead of interrupting her Kafka novel to argue with the maintenance man. “You make it sound so simple, but sometimes... sometimes life just isn't cut and dry.”
“It can be, if you let it. What's going to happen if you play? Is someone going to die?” Yeah, a bit of her heart, she was sure. The argument continued for another ten minutes or so, and Aurelie was ready to rip her hair out by the root when he continued to press the matter. Who had put him up to bothering her like this? Callie? Oh that so wasn't even funny.
Just as she turned to escape, he grabbed her wrist, pulling at her so that she wouldn't leave. He was going to win this argument, whether Aurelie wanted him to or not. “Fine. You want me to play; I'll play. One song.” She finally spat out, glowering at the man all the while, knowing he'd not let up. She twisted her wrist free, resisting the urge to kick him in the shin for being so stubborn.
But as she took a seat at the bench, and lay her fingers across the spread of white keys... All of the anger dissipated into something more serene. “I need a song.” She said, staring up at him with starless eyes. He provided her a iPod, ironically enough with piano songs already on it. “For the Heart I Once Had” was first on his playlist, and she listened to it three times before she let her fingers press down on the keys. The song itself suited her, and she found herself singing the lyrics as she followed the notes in the headphones.
The song ended, and she pulled the earbuds from her ears, but her hands fast found the piano again, and she played from memory those songs that she'd loved when she'd been attending Julliard. “A Thousand Miles,” “How to Save a Life,” “Love Song,” to the classics – Beethoven and Mozart. It was an hour before silence filled the lobby again, an hour before she stopped, only to look up, and see the maintenance man entranced by the music.
“Don't ever let someone take that away from you, Aurelie.” He said, shaking the hair out of his eyes.
“Wait, how did you know my name?” But he was already gone... and she hadn't a clue if he had really even been there to start with.
“Gah, this place is making me crazy.”
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iPixie Bunni Vice Captain
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iPixie Bunni Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 11:49 pm
▐█████████ ██ █▐♬██ ████████↴
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx✄ - - - The Academy - - - ♬
Aurelie ((♬)) Nissley
♬((Current team: Corsairs ))♬((Current Company: Callie Betto.))♬
♬((Location: Old Dorm Room))♬((Thoughts: Why, exactly? ))♬((Plans: To the Alphas))♬ Xavier's Institute (( ♬)) for the Gifted ↴ Above the fear of your mind, go for it.
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It's hit or miss, too late for you to quit.
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You gotta show 'em how bad you really want this, so... ↴
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Live Your Dreams - Athena Cage ↴ ▐█████████ ██ █▐♬██ ████████↴ The feeling of a cold sweat, the familiar sensation of apprehension set in as Aurelie's feet betrayed her, in taking the woman to one of the headmasters' office despite her thorough distaste in doing so. “You beckoned, Scott?” She asked in a meek tone as she rounded the corner and stepped through the threshold. The room was bright, blinds open to open up a view to the courtyard, and the man that she'd come to see had been staring through it when she'd broken the silence permeating the air.
“Yes, I did page for you to see me.” Scott said, swiveling round to face her now.
She hated his shades; it made his countenance indiscernible, gave away nothing... and he seemed to be full of dramatic pauses already. Great “Am I in trouble or something because I - “ Before she could even formulate a defense on her own behalf, Scott raised a hand to halt her. “You aren't in trouble.” Why would she be?
“But I had heard about your playing the piano again.” Did he seriously just call her in here, to ask if she'd been playing? For a conversation? Weren't there better, less intimidating ways to do this? “Yeah... I just felt like trying a few of the keys for pitch.” And the feeling as she let her fingers cause music to trill into the air, had felt like going home. “But Scott, forgive me of being bold here... you had a reason to bring me here, right? Last I checked, a lot of students here play the piano so it's really not big deal.” Or at least, it shouldn't have been. For her, it meant a lot more than just simply pressing the keys to listen to the hum of the note. And she'd play it off as though it were commonplace for her to muster out a song or two.
Really, Scott shouldn't know the difference, even if he was the instructor of their small team. To notice that small thing, the longing she often felt when passing a stage or a piano... meant he was entirely too perceptive. Which, she doubted completely. Rather, Emma had likely mind-screwed her again, and read the fact that, while she couldn't bring herself to play, Aurelie deeply missed the arts that she had once delved into so easily.
Scott didn't look convinced at how nonchalant she was trying to be. Damnit.
“You haven't touched the keys since you arrived here.” Somehow, he was able to convey that “don't be coy with me” look through the shades. How well he was at expressing things without the help of his eyes when he wanted. Too bad he isn't always so easy to read. She thought miserably.
“I've just not been inspired.” Aurelie lied; really she just hadn't had the heart to allow herself to sit down, and play as though her world hadn't crumbled around her like a stale cookie. It had hurt to think of it for a very long time.
“You've walked around the campus like a zombie.”
”Have not.” But even the defiant lilt in her voice indicated otherwise. She'd merely been existing for so long, going through the motions of living without actually being around to experience it.
“I think it's time for a change for you... the Corsairs are a small time team, and you're not likely to learn anything else from being with them.”
What. Was. He. Saying?
“You've got a lot to offer to the world Aurelie, and I think putting you in a more challenging setting might bring you back to the realm of the living.”
“But I am living.” She mumbled, no conviction behind her words.
“You will be, soon enough.”
* * * * * *
“I don't really know either, Callie.” Aurelie stated with a shrug, trying to appear nonchalant about her conversation with Scott. “He just said that a team transfer was in order..” And it was precisely why the pink skinned, pointed ear girl was helping the blond empty her closet; new team, new assignments... new room, and consequently... a new roommate. Despite the fact that Aurelie had been content to live in a room that always carried the sweetened aroma of flowers.
Living with a chlorokinetic had that advantage – there'd never once been a shortage of fauna in their room. Callie's side of the room had been as green as her skin was rouge. The girl's features matched her despondence and Aurelie sighed. “It's not like we won't see each other any more... we just won't be doing the team stuff together any more.”
“Yeah.. but the Alphas are a lot busier than our small little squadron, Cabriole. You'll probably be so focused on your new assignment that..” You'll forget me. The words hung in the air like a noxious smog.
The telekinetic's eyes glimmered with her own disbelief before they rolled in exasperation to the ceiling. “I'll find time, I assure you. It's not like I'm just going to dump the Corsairs, because Cyclops decided I wasn't fit for his exclusive little club anymore.” Honestly, she wasn't sure why a switch was needed. Or why she'd been chosen to go to the Alphas. Callie was right; that team did remain occupied the majority of the time. And the team was a lot bigger than her first team within the institute. “You're absurd to think someone could replace you, Cal.”
The younger girl's smile twitched up just a little, a small attempt to humor what was now her former roommate. “But, let's get this stuff... to the new room so we can go have dinner with the team one more time with me still on it.” Why was she the only one leaving?
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