Out-and-about log for Avitus (perpetually OPEN!)

[poorlittleblueburdie]

Who: Avitus (OC) and OPEN TO ANYONE! (this means you! :))
Where: All over Hinoto-Ri (except not Taurus.)
When: Date: Whenever! Backdated in a hand-wavey way, plus open perpetually until further notice, because why not. THERE IS NO SUCH THING as being late here.
   Time: Just about any time of day or night! Just... not during the 13th hour; he's too chicken to go out then, and he's not a fighter.
Summary: Open log post for Avitus with various prompts. You can pick one, or write your own! Throw people at him?
Warnings: None at first. (TL;DR for so many scenarios?)
Style: Whatever flies!

★ Libra ★

★ He's in apartment 11-07 living in Aoi's mansion now. Though it's usually pretty quiet from in there, if your character is near enough his window, you might hear something curious. Those birds that've been singing/chirping/making sounds all morning/day/evening long? They've finally gotten on his nerves. And he's telling them off; something about letting her make up her own mind and shutting up about the stupid food, and how there's more down below. Will they shut up if he goes and gets them some bread or fruit or something? Because he will, he swears, now please shut up! he's trying to work (or sleep?) and they're making it impossible!

...yeah, he's telling off birds as though he understands what they're singing about. (Maybe he does?)

★ Library ★

★ He might be browsing through the books, carefully pulling one out and handling it gently, as though it were truly something precious, as he takes a peek through its pages. The book is likely one on art, on architecture, on photography, something like that, or from the fiction section's novels, or even the children's books. Or a book on history, perhaps. His interests range.

★ ...or perhaps he's found a book of sheet music, and is, like someone who reads aloud to themselves in a barely-audible whisper, singing -- whistling? humming? -- the notes to himself. Possibly on the wrong octave, or with the notes transposed up or down, the wrong tempo... whatever the issue, something isn't quite right about how he's reading the notation; he seems to be trying to figure out the melody without proper training in how to read what he's looking at. But the curious thing is, if one is close enough to listen, it sounds like he's doing two distinct notes at once for this, where the melody calls for it. How he's able to is anyone's guess; his lips aren't in the little "o" shape of someone whistling, so good luck figuring out how he's making that soft sound by observation alone.

★ He might also be found in one of the bigger, seat-like windowsills, curled up on his cloak-thing, having made a sort of makeshift nest of it. He's gotten comfy there, either reading the book he's got in his lap, or else drawing in a big thick old tome of a sketchbook.

★ Park ★

★ Perhaps a squirrel or other little member of the local wildlife has caught his attention, and he's watching it in fascination. Or maybe he's feeding some of the park's wildlife, especially the birds, holding up breadcrumbs and watching as they come to eat right out of his hands, if they're not getting the pieces he's tossed about on the ground. He's intent enough on whatever it is he's doing here that he seems to be cooing right back to the little birds in reply to their chirps....

★ Sitting on the back of a park bench, or under a tree, or somewhere, either reading a book from the library, or drawing in that old tome of a sketchbook of his again. He does that a lot. May have already done the above-mentioned feeding, to lure some little wildlife out so he can draw it.

★ Scorpio/shopping/etc ★

★ Grocery shopping: he went in to go to the meat department's counter for some amount of blood. Then he'd be browsing the other aisles too, looking in fascination at various labels, reading ingredients lists, and enjoying the smells in the bakery and produce sections. He's likely to be getting ice cream (nothing with solid bits in it, though) and probably looking at other items with high sugar contents.

★ Various stores: art supply stores, junk/thrift/secondhand stores, whatever strikes his interest as a potential place for materials to make things of. What he's looking for, he probably won't know until he sees it, but that's rather why he's looking! Paints and paintbrushes, paper, glass, leather, plastic, everything from colored wiring to metal chains to markers. He's more shopping for ideas than things, likely.

★ Anywhere/everywhere else (except Taurus): he'll be out window-shopping as he walks about, admiring the clothing fashions of people he sees and the clothing for sale in the stores, the smells coming from restaurants and diners and the like, the shiny electronics in the displays, and generally just looking like a kid with that expression of only somewhat hidden awe and fascination. Even if he's been here a month, this stuff is still all quite novel to him!

★ ★ ★

He's a blue person with very long, elflike ears and giant black feathered wings (about as tall as he is, from wrist to tip while folded) and he (this is a he, right?) looks more like a rather innocent, skinny teenager than anything; certainly doesn't appear to be a threatening demon, though obviously not human.

Just put the location/prompt in the subject so I know what scenario you want, and please feel free to interrupt/pester/gawk at/question/generally bother him, or just be doing something somewhere for him to notice? :)

Comments

[poorlittleblueburdie]

Joshua got a little smile for the joke; it wasn't lost on the bird-person.

"I suppose? I never really studied music before, to be honest, nor learned an instrument. It's just that I found these books, and I was curious, and... it was something of a puzzle, you see." Totally understandable, right?

"...Was I interpreting it incorrectly?" Tempo, key-- better question was likely what he'd gotten right. At least the answer would be shorter. The relationship between notes was at least a starting point for learning, wasn't it?

[componere]

A healthy sense of curiosity is something Joshua can always appreciate. Joshua shakes his head though, sticking a hand in his pocket. "The only thing I'll say is right is the melodic progression, if that - you do seem to recognize the traditional sccale, at least. I'm gonna need a better look at that if you want more information, though." He nods towards the book in the blue stranger's hand. May he?

[poorlittleblueburdie]

He passed the book over easily, keeping it open to the page he'd been looking at, until Joshua had it. "So I wasn't too far off, about which notes were which, compared to the others?"

Recognize the scale? Nope! Just puzzling that out too. It had pretty much all been guesswork on his part.

[componere]

Joshua scans the composition quickly, his mouth pursing slightly as he puts the entire piece together in his head. "The progression was correct, like I said. The relation between the notes themselves - the difference between a half-step and a whole step-" Joshua whistles, first the step from do to di in the key of C, then do to re, "and the jumps between the pitches as an extension... that was fine. However, the more complicated quirks of notation have been completely lost on you, meaning that you were in the wrong key. Therefore, you had transposed the entire song to the wrong octave. Also, I can tell you knew nothing about the time signature, although you were managing to stumble on the right beat every once in a while."

Joshua looks up from the composition and half-smiles at the winged fellow. "I could go on, but most of your problems stem from plain ignorance of the basics. Or would you like a full litany?"

[poorlittleblueburdie]

"I... ah... believe I get the picture." That blush was returning in force, and he opened his wings just enough to re-settle them tightly against his back. "Should I ask what it ought to sound like? ....or... what it's supposed to be played on? There aren't words; I would assume it's for an instrument, right?"

((Your pick? Maybe a duet or piano piece, for all I know? :) If he'd have been doing two different notes at once, I mean....))

[componere]

[[ let's go for both! :D ]]

"It's for two, actually." Joshua turns his hand and flicks his finger against the title. "A sonata is usually a solo piece, but this is a violin sonata, meaning a violin takes the melody and a piano takes the harmony, traditionally." Joshua smirks to himself. "My mouth isn't quite as talented as yours, but I could give you the parts one at a time. You'd have to figure out the chords by yourself with regards to the piano." Joshua's time is valuable, after all.

[poorlittleblueburdie]

((Works for me!))

He nodded a bit, blush deepening even further somehow at what he assumed was a compliment there. It wasn't actually his mouth involved in having made those notes a bit ago, but he wasn't about to correct him.

He did have another question, though.

"....What's a piano?"

[componere]

If the bird stranger didn't start looking a little more confident about this venture, Joshua might stop with all of the gentle compliments. What - a - pity....

"No such thing where you're from?" Joshua turns the page, his eyes running up and down the notes. "It's an instrument, obviously. The only traditional one that combines percussive with strings. I'm sure you'll come across one sometime; Earth seems to have a plethora of them no matter what iteration you come across."

oh wow. I thought this'd posted, sorry!

[poorlittleblueburdie]

He shook his head a little. No, no such thing as a piano, that he'd heard of. "I should look about the markets here, I think.... Though, perhaps if I could find some music intended for... ah... wind instruments...?"

He looked back to the shelf, thoughtful. "I somehow doubt that there would be much music here like what I'm used to listening to, which... was rather the original point of this." He gave a small shrug, biting the inside of his lip a bit as he gently ran his fingers over the books' spines. "I suppose I was getting homesick."

He pulled out another book, at random, and took a look at the notations inside before replacing it. That one was far too complicated, even at a glance. "But the first thing would be to learn how to read this, wouldn't it? Would that one be a good starting point?" He nodded to the book Joshua held, looking back up to him.

It's all good!

[componere]

This individual is his own flautist. It's a natural desire to want to try mixing all of these vague desires together, Joshua supposes; if he took pity on the idea, no one would blame him.

Joshua flips the book shut and hands it back to him. "Everything is permissible in the end, I'd say. Most wind instruments I'm familiar with aren't capable of what you can do, so branch out a little, I'd say. Pianos, harps, vocal pieces meant for more than one part..." He shrugs. "Look for a book on theory and carry on from there. Musical world's your oyster, isn't it?"

[poorlittleblueburdie]

What were oysters, again, and what did they have to do with-- ah, it was probably merely one of those phrases. He pushed aside the idea of asking, thinking it better to go investigate on his own later, when he figured out what a piano was, than to pester this person with such a question. It was surely a derailment anyhow.

"I suppose." He carefully replaced that book as well. "I wonder if I will find anything similar here. I mean... the humans didn't exactly create music in response to the likes of my brother's, where I'm from. And if they didn't there...." Then why hope for it here?

"But a book on theory, for how to read this? And... ah...." He gestured vaguely to the shelf, looking to Joshua again. "What music would you suggest? What sort do you prefer?"

[componere]

"Yup." Simple, second grade theory... ah. Joshua takes out a beginner's primer on theory, flipping through it briefly before extending it in the stranger's direction, his eyes scanning the bookshelves -- yep, books for further levels of mastery were there too. "This will work. You can read anything under the sun starting from here, or anywhere you want. Composing's another step farther, but if you really wanted to, you could duplicate music from your world, mmm?" Joshua shrugs a shoulder. "Not that there's much new under the sun, but if you think you've got something, I'm sure you'll find an audience."

He'll ignore the second part of the question. Joshua's not too into sharing ideas beyond what's more or less open season.

[poorlittleblueburdie]

He took the offered book, and flipped it to a random page, peeking inside. Well, it certainly looked far less complicated than the tomes of sheet music he'd been browsing!

His smile, though... self-consciousness again, was it?

"I don't know much of the humans' music, from where I'm from, honestly. I never really paid it much mind. It... it was actually birdsong that my brother drove everyone to distraction with. And there's just enough of it here that... well, I never really thought I'd miss his hours-long serenades, but I think I very much do." He peeked over at Joshua; the smile was more a wince after all. "When a song is a language I can only understand, rather than speak, I'm not certain how great a composer I'd be, with it. Or if there's even a way of transcribing such a thing in the first place. Human instruments may be one thing, but... would anyone even be interested, if I could manage?"