[video]

[breatheinthefog]

Before the end of the school year, Prospero Middle School is holding something called "grad" for everybody in my year. It's supposedly something to commemorate the fact that we're moving up into the high school after summer vacation. I'd normally consider this pointless, but it sounds interesting, so I'm doing it.

They have open auditions for musical performances and accompaniment at the ceremony.

*Kaoru pauses.*

Of the two people I would have asked about this before the mass vanishment, both are gone, and I only liked one anyway. As for my classmates, judging from the songs and chants they enjoy performing in the hallway for their own amusement, I'll get nothing useful from them. I have no interest in learning why there would be joy to the world if the school burned down, who this Barney individual is whom everybody wants to kill, or who declared beans to be the magical fruit.

Captives of Prospero. Tell me how to play an instrument.

Comments

[truthsnomiracle]

Very well. I know how to play both the piano and the flute, though I'm out of practice with the former.

[breatheinthefog]

The piano is common, isn't it?

[truthsnomiracle]

Indeed. Its sound is well-liked, it has a very wide range -- the full extent of which requires no particular skill to access -- and it can play several notes at once with only the player's handspan and reach as restrictions, making it an outstanding solo instrument. On the other hand, pianos are expensive even for musical instruments, lack in portability, and the best of them require a great deal of space.

[breatheinthefog]

John played it. Albedo also played it.

*Kaoru actually using people's names? Wow.*

[truthsnomiracle]

(Albedo?! I suppose that further proves that even criminals are human in the end.)

Indeed. I personally am more skilled with the flute, however. I wouldn't rank myself as an expert, but I do practice for a few minutes each day.

[breatheinthefog]

Is there any reason?

[truthsnomiracle]

Music involves a different mode of thought than most other activities. It's particularly useful for staving off mental strain as a result.

[And that's why Manfred von Karma let him keep at it.]

[breatheinthefog]

So it makes you work more effectively?

[truthsnomiracle]

Indeed, though it's also enjoyable in its own right. Most people primarily pursue it for that purpose.

[breatheinthefog]

Like a lot of things here.

[truthsnomiracle]

Perhaps too many things here. I wonder at times whether it commonly slips the minds of our fellow kidnappees that we're all the victims of a crime that we scarcely understand.

[breatheinthefog]

That's a different way to put it.

[truthsnomiracle]

Different from what, precisely?

[breatheinthefog]

*shrug* I don't know. Some people like it here.

[truthsnomiracle]

There are those here who claim to have come from rather traumatic circumstances or even from the clutches of death itself. To them, I suppose this is like a vacation by comparison.

[breatheinthefog]

I think I like it here, too. It reminds me of the Land of Greenery.

[truthsnomiracle]

I presume that's a place from your own universe?

[breatheinthefog]

It's our version of what you call Earth. Since this place is also Earth, it's easier just to call the version I was in before by the name we used for it.

[truthsnomiracle]

I see; a sensible policy. ...Have you seen any of this world beyond Prospero?

[breatheinthefog]

I haven't.

[truthsnomiracle]

Then if this world intrigues you, I recommend seeing more of it when you're able.