Xaviers!

Posted: **Wed May 10, 2017 5:56 pm**

The door to the music room is open and from inside someone is loudly blaring music. Every once in a while a bunch of dissonant notes from varying instruments cut through the song. From the loud slamming of too many piano-keys or screech of an electric guitar being mangled.

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Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 3:57 pm**

Tereza's on her way into the music area with her guitar when she hears the cacophony. She cringes and goes to stick her head into the room to see what's happening.

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 4:01 pm**

Shari, currently holding a saxophone. Perhaps thankfully she's failing to produce any real sound with it. Possibly because she's sporting an insect head without real lips but also because she simply has no idea what she's doing. When she sees Tereza she reaches over to turn down the music some.

"Oh hey. I found a room full of music tools. I think this one's broken though." she says, holding up the saxophone.

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 4:31 pm**

"Probably not broken, but you sort of need lips to make it work," she say, stepping into the room.

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 4:38 pm**

Shari seems to concentrate for a moment (or at least Tereza guesses she does, the bug face only allowing for vague human expressions) and tries again, the mouthpiece disappearing between her mandibles. She manages a slight whistle of air but not much more. Even with lips coaxing sound from a saxophone is hard.

"Nope! Still broken." she concludes.

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 4:55 pm**

"That's one of the harder instruments in the room," Tereza says, "I don't think it's broken. What are you trying to do?"

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 5:01 pm**

"Make music. That's what they're for, right?" she asks. From other people this might have sounded sarcastic, but the question seems to actually be genuine.

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 5:10 pm**

"Well, yes," she says, setting her guitar case on the ground. "They all do it differently and usually people take lessons to learn how." She seems to be considering, "You're Shari, right?"

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 5:21 pm**

"Sure am. And that explains why they all just make noise when I try to use them. Your music's way more... harmonic? I think that's the word. Skrull music is garbage in comparison."

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 5:35 pm**

"Some music's harmonic, some music trades on it's... dissonance. I tend to prefer the harmonic stuff myself." She moves her guitar case and pops it open, taking the guitar out. "Here, let me show you." She sits down and plays through a few chords.

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 5:47 pm**

Shari sits down on the floor with crossed legs and watches Tereza's fingers. "Is it just particular ones that work in combination?"

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 6:03 pm**

"When it comes to the guitar, there's certain agreed upon combinations that sound good." She plays a few more chords. "There's correspondences on other instruments, but I'm not as familiar with how they're played."

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 6:29 pm**

"Hmm..." Shari says before picking up the saxophone again. She puts her fingers on a random combination of buttons and puts the mouthpiece between the lips hidden behind her mandibles again. She blows and not much happens but this time she shifts around the inside of her mouth as if she was feeling out a new shape, except she's looking for the right configuration to make the instrument produce a proper note. "Aha!"

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 6:39 pm**

"Something like that, yeah," Tereza says. "Why the interest in music?"

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 6:45 pm**

"I dunno. It sounds awesome and I was wondering how it's made. It's got, like, emotion to it."

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 6:53 pm**

"Your music doesn't?" She seems surprised.

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 7:40 pm**

"We don't spend much time thinking about the kinda things your songs are about. Skrull music's all over the place and really not about much other than being 'diverse' which is really just chaotic noise. I've heard it once was about embracing change and unifying differences but that kinda talk gets you, well, exiled."

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 7:50 pm**

"Some of our music's about that. Other's about expressing different emotions." As she talks, she start picking her way through a song.

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 8:18 pm**

"Oh yeah. I think it's where all your variation went. Well that and mutants." she nods as she raptly listens to the guitar. "There's... complicated stuff. I like it. It's a whole new way of trying to express yourself."

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 8:40 pm**

"My girlfriend wants to put a band together. I feel like I'll need to practice a lot more to do that," she says, "And figure out writing music at some point. I know how to read it, but writing's a whole different process."

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 8:46 pm**

"So you don't just jam around on these till something good comes out, huh?"

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 8:50 pm**

"There's some styles of music where you do that for short periods, but for most of it, there's written music. Although I imagine a lot of writing music is messing around until you find something that sounds good."

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 8:53 pm**

"How the hell do you even write down music? Isn't that what recordings are for?"

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 8:59 pm**

Tereza goes over to a cabinet and fishes around in it for a moment, returning with some sheet music. "Like this," she says, showing the notes to Shari.

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 9:02 pm**

"Mhmm. Mhmm." she nods as if she understands. Then she looks up at Tereza and says "I don't get it. Is each dot a sound?"

Posted: **Thu May 11, 2017 9:11 pm**

"Each dot tells you how long to make the sound and where the dot falls on the lines tells you what sound you should make." She moves over to the piano, looking at the piano for a moment. "The dots are called notes and this note right here corresponds to this key." She pushes the key for middle C.

Posted: **Fri May 12, 2017 12:20 am**

"Oh, okay. Then what about the black ones?" she asks, pushing one of them at random.

Posted: **Fri May 12, 2017 12:28 am**

"That's what the hash tag signs and these other symbols are for. When you see the hash tag signs, it means up a half step, usually onto one of the black keys. When you see the other symbol, that means down a half step, usually also onto the black key." She plays through a few of the notes. It's nowhere near as good as her guitar, more akin to hunting and pecking on a keyboard, but it hopefully gets the point across.

Posted: **Fri May 12, 2017 3:33 am**

"That's simple enough. But how's that work on the brass-snake? It's got weird levers all over."

Posted: **Fri May 12, 2017 2:35 pm**

"I think..." She looks at it. "For starters, it's called a saxophone. You're blowing air in here and the different levers are valves that changes the notes. I don't know much more than the simple theory though."

Posted: **Fri May 12, 2017 11:36 pm**

"Hmm, okay. Maybe I can find a code book on the internet. Man, this is complicated! Secret valve combinations to follow a dot-cipher to make music..."

Posted: **Sat May 13, 2017 12:23 am**

"Try some online videos, watch how it's done and see if it interests you. It may not be your instrument."

Posted: **Sat May 13, 2017 12:36 am**

"Guess I'll find out! It's so weird, I gotta at least try."

Posted: **Sun May 14, 2017 12:15 am**

Tereza smiles, "Doesn't get any less weird when it's played properly."

Posted: **Sun May 14, 2017 9:58 pm**

"Perfect. Hey, thanks for the help with the music code and all."

Posted: **Sun May 14, 2017 10:21 pm**

"No problem. Hey, I have a question. You don't have to answer if you don't want and it's totally okay if the answer is 'nothing', but you don't happen to know a Natalya or how the other aliens might have been involved with her, do you?"

Posted: **Mon May 15, 2017 12:25 am**

"Not really... I tried not to have anything to do with what they were doing. I don't think I know anything that you don't, but a lot of the older, uhm, test subjects were already there when they took over the project." she says, awkwardly avoiding looking at Tereza. Which is tough with her compound eyes. But she obviously doesn't feel great about this subject.

Posted: **Mon May 15, 2017 9:52 pm**

Tereza does her best not to look disappointed, "No problem. Sorry, but I had to ask."

Posted: **Tue May 16, 2017 5:53 pm**

"No, I get it... Wish I could tell you anything else. I know they mentioned a cryokinetic who cut some kinda deal with the program before they got involved that they weren't gonna walk back on, cause they didn't want to piss them off. They changed the focus from... ehm... quality to quantity."

Posted: **Tue May 16, 2017 6:11 pm**

That draws a frown from Tereza, even though the information isn't entirely unexpected. "Well, we're working on doing something about that. I just need to find Natalya first."

Xaviers!

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