Reimi Sugimoto (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
doreimi) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
prismatica2019-10-10 10:14 pm
doreimi) wrote in prismatica2019-10-10 10:14 pm
text, un: bellabelle
[Pre-Post Narration | For Context Only]
[Josuke had wanted to hear her play the violin. That's how it all started, really. That's what brought her to one of the rehearsal rooms in the Lunatian Academy's music wing, armed with the violin she's had since her arrival in Prismatica yet whose case she hasn't even opened yet. For all she knows there isn't even a violin inside it, except that it's weighted as though there is, and why would anyone give her a violin case that doesn't have a violin in it, anyway?
She takes her time remembering how to begin. She tightens and rosins the bow. She reminds herself of how her fingers fit onto the strings, how the balance of the bow fits in her hand. It's been fifteen years since she last did this, but the muscle memory is still faintly there to help her along.
Her first attempt is predictably poor. She's back to the basics, starting from scratch, running through simple scales until the warmup starts to soak in, and little by little things start coming back to her. It's slow going; she makes more than her fair share of mistakes, sometimes simply fumbling the time signature, other times having to stop altogether to try to remember what comes next.
But eventually, she works her way up to a little tune — just a simple melody, rudimentary at best. It's funny; if she closes her eyes, she can almost imagine she's back at Budo-ga Oka, warming up with the rest of the club. Yumiko-senpai, settling into her first chair. Shuffling feet. Strings tuning up. It's so stupid that we're not supposed to wear nail polish, isn't it, Reimi-chan? It's not like it makes a difference!
Yumiko-senpai to her right, and then on her left was...
In the third-place position, it was...
Preoccupied as she is with her thoughts, she's actually playing more competently now than she'd been before, less focused on the particulars and more just letting muscle memory take over while she spirals deeper and deeper into thoughts of her school club. Whispers and giggling cut short when the conductor took his podium and rapped his baton, drawing everyone rapidly into sudden solemnity.
Kaidou-kun, you're not even in this club! What're you doing hanging around the door like that?
Kaidou-kun was so cute, he was the dreamiest guy in the whole school, not at all like...
The person playing third chair violin was...
Sugimoto, if you ever expect to earn a solo, you know you'll have to wipe off that nail polish. That sort of flashy extravagance has no place on my stage.
Reimi-chan, that pale pink makes your hands look so cute!
The person to her left was...
Oi, Kira, you weirdo, don't you know it's not polite to stare at girls? You have to treat a lady right! Watch, I'll show you how it's done — hey, Sugimoto, c'mon, are you going home? I'll walk you to the bus stop.
He was there.
He was there staring at her hands.
She doesn't drop the violin. She's stopped playing long since; the bow is trembling in her hand, and her fingertips are on the verge of being cut from how hard they're pressing into the strings, but she sets the violin back in its case and sits very still, feeling cold and scooped-out and vibrating with pins and needles all at once.
She gets up from her chair, feeling clumsy but restless, pacing the little room a few times before eventually stumbling to the nearest wall and sliding down it, pressing her back hard against the smooth, solid surface like she needs the reassurance that there's something protecting it, something that wouldn't let a knife get through.
He was always staring at her hands.
She stays there, huddled in the corner, for a long and silent time.]
[/Pre-Post Narration]
my friend josuke said i should try playing the violin again. i used to play a while ago! i was pretty good at it too back then but it turns out i'm not anymore. i thought about making a recording of myself playing so i could send it to people but it's no good. i don't even remember how to play a single note, ha ha.
but that's okay. i'm trying a lot of other things that aren't violin now. did you know that ballet is really hard? i guess that sounds kind of stupid but it turns out they say you're not even supposed to go en pointe until you've had two whole years of practice. i don't know why i thought it would go faster than that but it looks like i've got a really long way to go. i've missed out on so much.
it's pretty neat to walk around the city in the middle of all this geistnacht stuff too. i think there's been a party or a festival pretty much every night, hasn't there? i'm not sure if i believe all that stuff about the boundary between the living world and the afterlife getting thin but the costumes are pretty fun and the candy is too. some of the other "treats" people are giving out seem pretty indecent though but maybe that's just me.
i don't have a costume yet! i should get one. are lots of people dressing up this month? what are you dressing up as?
[Josuke had wanted to hear her play the violin. That's how it all started, really. That's what brought her to one of the rehearsal rooms in the Lunatian Academy's music wing, armed with the violin she's had since her arrival in Prismatica yet whose case she hasn't even opened yet. For all she knows there isn't even a violin inside it, except that it's weighted as though there is, and why would anyone give her a violin case that doesn't have a violin in it, anyway?
She takes her time remembering how to begin. She tightens and rosins the bow. She reminds herself of how her fingers fit onto the strings, how the balance of the bow fits in her hand. It's been fifteen years since she last did this, but the muscle memory is still faintly there to help her along.
Her first attempt is predictably poor. She's back to the basics, starting from scratch, running through simple scales until the warmup starts to soak in, and little by little things start coming back to her. It's slow going; she makes more than her fair share of mistakes, sometimes simply fumbling the time signature, other times having to stop altogether to try to remember what comes next.
But eventually, she works her way up to a little tune — just a simple melody, rudimentary at best. It's funny; if she closes her eyes, she can almost imagine she's back at Budo-ga Oka, warming up with the rest of the club. Yumiko-senpai, settling into her first chair. Shuffling feet. Strings tuning up. It's so stupid that we're not supposed to wear nail polish, isn't it, Reimi-chan? It's not like it makes a difference!
Yumiko-senpai to her right, and then on her left was...
In the third-place position, it was...
Preoccupied as she is with her thoughts, she's actually playing more competently now than she'd been before, less focused on the particulars and more just letting muscle memory take over while she spirals deeper and deeper into thoughts of her school club. Whispers and giggling cut short when the conductor took his podium and rapped his baton, drawing everyone rapidly into sudden solemnity.
Kaidou-kun, you're not even in this club! What're you doing hanging around the door like that?
Kaidou-kun was so cute, he was the dreamiest guy in the whole school, not at all like...
The person playing third chair violin was...
Sugimoto, if you ever expect to earn a solo, you know you'll have to wipe off that nail polish. That sort of flashy extravagance has no place on my stage.
Reimi-chan, that pale pink makes your hands look so cute!
The person to her left was...
Oi, Kira, you weirdo, don't you know it's not polite to stare at girls? You have to treat a lady right! Watch, I'll show you how it's done — hey, Sugimoto, c'mon, are you going home? I'll walk you to the bus stop.
He was there.
He was there staring at her hands.
She doesn't drop the violin. She's stopped playing long since; the bow is trembling in her hand, and her fingertips are on the verge of being cut from how hard they're pressing into the strings, but she sets the violin back in its case and sits very still, feeling cold and scooped-out and vibrating with pins and needles all at once.
She gets up from her chair, feeling clumsy but restless, pacing the little room a few times before eventually stumbling to the nearest wall and sliding down it, pressing her back hard against the smooth, solid surface like she needs the reassurance that there's something protecting it, something that wouldn't let a knife get through.
He was always staring at her hands.
She stays there, huddled in the corner, for a long and silent time.]
[/Pre-Post Narration]
my friend josuke said i should try playing the violin again. i used to play a while ago! i was pretty good at it too back then but it turns out i'm not anymore. i thought about making a recording of myself playing so i could send it to people but it's no good. i don't even remember how to play a single note, ha ha.
but that's okay. i'm trying a lot of other things that aren't violin now. did you know that ballet is really hard? i guess that sounds kind of stupid but it turns out they say you're not even supposed to go en pointe until you've had two whole years of practice. i don't know why i thought it would go faster than that but it looks like i've got a really long way to go. i've missed out on so much.
it's pretty neat to walk around the city in the middle of all this geistnacht stuff too. i think there's been a party or a festival pretty much every night, hasn't there? i'm not sure if i believe all that stuff about the boundary between the living world and the afterlife getting thin but the costumes are pretty fun and the candy is too. some of the other "treats" people are giving out seem pretty indecent though but maybe that's just me.
i don't have a costume yet! i should get one. are lots of people dressing up this month? what are you dressing up as?
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