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It was on very rare occasions that Cerissé would, without a lot of previous planning, allow someone to take away from the time she spent practicing her violin. Which was to say that 80% of her waking day as Cerissé was spent with the instrument in hand - if not playing, than maintaining. An instrument of the grade that she kept didn't simply last that long for no reason. That's why it was only sensible it was in her care. Nobody else would have given it the attention it deserved. But if it was to speak about music, Cerissé with a somewhat bothered, but practiced, ease rearranged her plans. She'd simply checked on her strings, made sure everything was in tune, and everything was perfectly in place. No playing until after this little...meeting.

Some people were simply too worried about their time. Cerissé Belcourt wasn't one of them. She showed up precisely when she needed to. No earlier, no later. She probably could have been labelled as a wizard for such a thing, but she didn't really concern herself with such high fantasy. In fact the reference would have gone right past her.

She took one last check in her reflection before walking into the bookstore, dressed finely as only a finely raised young woman would do. She represented herself and her fine craft and would only represent both to the 9's.

Now, she just needed to find where this person she was supposed to meet would be found. She still had precisely two minutes to do so, however.

Cerissé was exactly the same on the inside.

She managed to mostly contain her sigh as Alodie, whom seemed to be full of vim and vigor, offered a hand in introduction. Cerissé, though rolling her eyes internally, took it. While she first and foremost represented herself, she also represented the orchestra now and as such, would not do well to make them seem elitist. Elite and refined, yes, but not the kind to turn away all who would appreciate it.

"Cerissé Belcourt. A pleasure," she went so far as to somewhat force a smile, though even if it hadn't been forced, a smile would still have seemed out of place on her face. She had the features of a lovely woman who always looked too serious. No real softness. "Now, I was not told the exact details of your paper. Perhaps while we sit you could be so kind as to tell me what it is I will be assisting with." She didn't speak rudely, but she articulated herself precisely as though all of her niceties had been practiced relentlessly to cover up a default state of being.

Oh boy. Ancient was always a vague term for a time period. Wordlessly, Cerissé took the notebook and began to read over its contents, her face remaining neutral as she did so. It took a few minutes for her to skim over everything and she couldn’t help but agree: Aliens did not need to be brought into the paper. Of course, not to say aliens (depending on your take on the term) weren’t somehow related to music, but…..that was her own little secret.

“Some intriguing ideas,” Cerissé noted, though if it was praise or not was up to interpretation. “Something to consider, as a lot of this music was ceremonial or ritualistic, is the potential symbolism in certain instruments.” Carefully, Cerissé slid the notebook back to Alodie so if she wanted to, she could take a few notes. “For example: There is evidence as early as the Predynastic period that there were reeded instruments used such as the double-clarinet. In Eygptian mythology, they believe the paradise that fair judgement from Anubis and Ammut would lead them to is a field of reeds. Connected to the use of reeds in their instruments? That would be a place to start some conjecture.”

Oh boy.

Cerissé's brows remained in the same position as she retained her inner monologue about the 'aliens shaped music' thing. Because frankly, she wasn't allowed to tell everybody and then some just how plausible that actually was.

Mostly because she was somewhat annoyed about the fact that she'd given lovely feedback on how this paper could have been redirected. She'd come to talk music, not aliens. "Taking the source out of the picture," Cerissé gently ran the side of her hand across the table in a subtractive gesture, "you're left with people and the tools they've been left with to make music. I feel like your teacher wants to hear about how, even when enabled by outside forces, people made decisions about the direction their instruments and compositions took."

"Aliens may have only influenced it as far as a parent influences a child by offering them a toy to see what happens."

Cerissé really hated that frankly, she wasn't in a position to deny that aliens were a thing because she knew otherwise, sigh.