CYUT Errand Group 4 PV Closed

Open to interactions

Exactly at 5 pm the young girl entered the classroom, excited for the errand. She greeted the professor with a big smile, and quickly sat down at the round table in the middle of the room. Once the young girl had placed her bag, which contained her dices and dice stacking cub, on the ground she took a good look around the classroom.

She read the welcoming message, which was written down on the chalkboard, and scanned the names from the students. Most of them were unknown to her, except for Avery. She had already had the pleasure to listen to him playing violin at the talent show, but now she could hear it again and this time she could pay even more attention to him.

Samantha was really happy when she realized that she was the only one who had the talent dice stacking. She could show off her talent and she would be unique with it. Other people's talents included slam poetry, falconry, the violin and Chinese martial arts.

Her eyes scanned the room even further and stopped at the tray of cinnamon buns. The young girl gasped, how could she have missed those when she walked in? Next to the freshly baked treats there were teacups and the teacup, but the brunette didn't have any attention for those. She got up and walked to the little table with her eyes full of love for the food.

Sam grabbed one of the amazing smelling cinnamon buns, and was about to leave when she saw the tea. She didn't want to seem rude and only focused on the food (even though she was), so she also filled a cup with tea. She went back to the chair she had claimed and sat down again. She was in a great mood, she had food, she had an unique talent and she would learn so much about different talents today. This was going to be fun!

Word count: 325/800

OOC NOTICE

Players do not need to wait for another person's character to finish their talent before performing their own. For example, if someone else's character is playing the violin and no conclusion to the performance was mentioned, you may still post that your own character performed a dance. IC, if it doesn't make sense that two talents would be done at the same time, then you might write out your character reacting to another's talent, then showing their own once that talent is finished. There simply isn't enough time before the deadline for everyone's talents to [OOC] be performed at separate times.

This also serves as a reminder that the errand deadline is December 14th, barely over a week after the time of this notice. Please be certain to meet the word count requirement and detail your character performing their talent before that time. You may continue to role play in this thread following that date, but if the requirements are not met by then, you will receive no rewards for the errand.

Open to interactions
(Feel free to ask if Samantha could explain how to dice stack, if you want)

Before Samantha took a bite off her food, she opened her bag and placed her dices and cups on the table. In total she had 4 cups and 5 pairs of 4 dices all in a different color. Her favorite dices were the blue ones, as blue was her favorite color, and the green dices were her second favorite. She hoped that the other students knew how to share, because she didn't have enough cups and dices for everybody.

The brunette looked up from her dice stacking materials as she heard somebody new come in. It was a older girl, who she had never seen before, and Samantha wondered which of the names on the chalkboard belonged to the other student. The girl gave her a nod and Samantha smiled at the other girl.

The next who entered the classroom was Avery, who Samantha did know. As Avery sat down next to her Samantha greeted him, "Hi Avery," she said with a smile. It was weird to think that when they first had met Avery had run away and now he sat next to her willingly.

The boy was chewing on something and Samantha assumed it was one of those cinnamon buns. Her assumption was correct, and the girl soon realized she hadn't touched her own bun. She quickly took a bit out off hers. It was amazing! After she had swallowed her bite, she nodded her head and agreed with Avery.

She let out a little giggle, "No, I am not going to learn you to gamble, that would be very irresponsible. I am going to teach you something better," she said proudly. "I am going to show you how to dice stack. Have you ever heard of that?" If Avery would have just taken a look at the board, he would have been able to figure it out on his own.

"If you want to try it too, after I showed it, I would recommend that you will take these dices," Samantha pointed to the 4 green dices, "and this cup, they are my second favorite and they work great!" She wanted her friend to have the best chance at succeeding. The other cups and dices were also great, but still, the blue and green ones are superior.

When everybody would have arrived Samantha would wait for her turn and then stand up. "Hello everybody, I am Samantha and I will be dice stacking today." She gave everybody a smile and then placed her dices in a little row in front off her with a little bit of space between each of them. "Could you please move a bit to the side, Avery?" She needed a little more space and didn't want to accidently hit Avery.

"So dice stacking is stacking dice, which isn't that big of a surprise, because it is literally called that. But you don't stack the dice with your hands, you need to use this cup," she showed the cup she was holding. "I am just going to show you now and after that you can try if you want too." Samantha focused on the dices and the cup she was holding. She didn't want to fail it, because that would be way to embarrassing.

She held her cup with hole of the cup facing toward the table, her thumb on the left side off the cup, her index finger on top and the other three remaining finger on the other side of the cup. She tilted the cup towards the right, moved her cup over the first dice and quickly changed direction. When she moved her cup over the first dice, it disappeared into the cup and made a sound as it hit the sides of the cup.

She did the same with the other dices in one smooth motion and finished the movement by sliding the cup to the right over the table. The cup was now standing still and all of the dices were inside. Samantha tilted up the cup and revealed a little tower of 4 blue dices. She was really happy that she had succeeded with her first tower, but she wasn't done yet.

She collected the four green dices and placed them in a row from left to right in front of her on the table. Between the dices was now a smaller space, because she was going to use a different technique to stack these dices. She grabbed the cup again and held it in the same way as before, but instead of collecting the dices one by one, like she had done before, she collected them al in one motion. What also was different then the first time, was that she didn't finish her movement by sliding the cup over to the right. This time she moved the cup of the table, while still moving the cup from left to right, using gravity to keep the dice inside the cup. With every move she made you could hear the dices hit the sides of the cup.

Samantha focused completely on her task as she moved the cup closer to the blue tower of dices. She wanted to place the green ones on top of the already stacked dices and it was a hard thing to do. She had practiced it a lot, but still failed sometimes. Once she had the cup almost on top off the blue tower she quickly placed the cup on top of it. She slowly removed the cup to show the other students that the four green dices were now standing on top of the blue ones.

The small girl had a big smile on her face, which showed how proud she was. "And that is dice stacking, I used two different techniques and also point stacked these," she pointed at the green dices, "on top of the blue ones, which is really hard."

"If you guys want you can try too, just make sure whenever a dice falls off the table you don't lose it." She had lost many of her dices when she was still learning how to dice stack. Her grandma had even found a dice a couple of weeks ago, still from the time that Samantha had visited her in the summer break.

Word count: 325 + 1045 /800

Reducio

Interacting with @Avery Chen and @Aurelia Notrésvace

In this YouTube video is explained how to do dice stacking and this is explained about the same way as Samantha would do:

Dice stacking cups and dices

Why in the world had she signed up for this? When word of the errand to Celebrate Your Unique Talent had been aired, Evelynn had teetered on the fence about committing to participation. While it wasn't as though she hadn't ever performed before her peers (she had, after all, made a performance at the Blossom Ball as part of the challenges), she certainly hadn't made a habit of it. What was more, practice wasn't something she was able to dedicate as much as she might have liked; and from the number of times she had patrolled the Rehearsal room, she was only all too aware of how out-matched she was.

Then again, she had reminded herself, this wasn't a competition. Further, there had been very few errand events of late. So, when they did spring up, she felt an even greater obligation than usual to attend and align herself into the role-modeling position of a prefect as one might expect of her. Thus, eventually duty had over-ruled reticence and she had added her name. Even still, when the day came to actually make good on the silently written promise, she had felt more than a few butterflies fluttering and hollering to be freed. Perhaps a touch more pale than usual, she had done her best to ignore them. It wouldn't do to allow any sense of hesitation or regret to show upon her features. With one last pause at the door at the appointed time, shoulders rose and fell with a steadying breath as Evelynn set her jaw, lofted her chin, and made her way inside with steady, gliding strides.

To the navy-clad professor, she offered a reverent bow of her head and demure smile. "Good evening, professor." Gaze sweeping across the room, she took quick stock of the names and talents posted on the board, the floral tea sets with herbal variety, and the various stations that had been set up. It seemed there had been a number of violins--so she wasn't the only one?--brought in. Fingers closed more snuggly around the handle of her own case; she wouldn't be needing them, herself. "And good evening to the rest of you as well," she added, offering a respectful nod to Notresvace and a polite smile to the others as she made her way to settle her instrument upon a clear surface.

It seemed a girl by the name of Samantha would be the first to perform her skill. And what a skill it turned out to be. Initially perplexed by the speed and seemingly gravity-defying trick of the dice stacking, Evelynn was drawn in rather keenly in an attempt to puzzle out how it worked. A creative use of physics, she could only assume, after watching her perform the trick a number of times. It was something she had never seen done before, which, given the number of sets that had made themselves home without her mother's house, was more than a little bit of a surprise.

"Is there a purpose to it?" Evelynn found herself inquiring, fixing the younger girl with an inquisitive loft of the brow. "By that, I mean," came a reasonable addition, realizing that her initial inquiry could have sounded rude or dismissive, "is the skill used for something in particular in which dice need to be stacked? Or is it more of a flavourful flourish as dealers might do with cards?" Eyes dropping to the dice again, she reached for one, plucking it up between thumb and forefinger to inspect its design and weight. "And how did you come to practice such a skill?" she wondered, marveling at just how niche a talent it was. "This is the first I've heard of dice stacking."

As curious as she was about it, however, Evelynn had no real interest in attempting her own hand in that moment. More likely than not, she would send the dice scattering into the far corners of the room, perhaps never to be seen again, and succeeding only in soiling her carefully manicured image of collected precision. No, she returned the die from whence it was plucked, engaging only in dialogue and observation for the time being.

When the group would finally scatter, curiosities sated at the girl's stacking table, Evelynn would offer to take the next performance. Noting what looked suspiciously like a violin case in the hands of the boy she knew from Hui's event to be Chen, she had no desire to be a follow up to his performance and flop entirely should he prove the more skilled. No...she would rather set the bar. Her violin was nothing spectacular to behold. In fact, to some, it might look rather shabby, the polish of the ashen coloured tiger maple dull and barely reflective of the light. The edges of the instrument were worn, varnish almost lifted in some placed, and there were definitely spots where the wood had been dinged or scratched.

And yet, it wasn't at all dusty. Nor did it all entirely match. Those who knew what to look for would recognize that several components--including the tailpiece, strings, tuning pegs, neck, and bridge--seemed to contrast the body. Newer, perhaps. What was more, attached were both a neck and chin rest, each finding their position to Evelynn's right shoulder. A left-handed violin. She had recently acquired her grandmother's old violin. In relatively poor shape already, she'd had it all but gutted in order to have it rebuilt for her specifications, but had attempted to uphold its antique characteristic.

Preparation and tuning had already been performed prior to the event, but once she had pulled the instrument from its velvet bed, the bow held gently in her left hand, she ran it through a brief arpeggio to confirm. What was immediately apparent was that its sound matched its aged appearance: austere, deep, warm. Bow dropping to her side in a smooth motion, the notes faded gently as she regarded the rest.

"Quite clearly, the talent I will be demonstrating today is the violin," she started. A simple introduction. "I began playing when I was five and had reached grade six through the Royal Conservatory of Music by the time I had begun my education here. I have not maintained the same level of study, and so have stagnated somewhat during my years here; however I will be attempting to write my seventh grade examination next summer. Today, I will be playing George Perlman's "Nocturne" from the Israeli Concertino."

And then, with the accompaniment of a disembodied piano through the gramophone, Evelynn would play the haunting piece. Having been one of the selections for her last examination, it was one with which she was very familiar. Fingers moved along the strings of the neck with ease, positions anticipating movements to come and transitioning with ease. There were, of course, a few mistakes here and there--a wrong note, an imperfect connection with the bow, or an accidental doubling of the strings--but they were few and far between, and Evelynn played through them without missing a beat, correcting as necessary.

When the last note rang to reverberate powerfully through the room, she allowed her arm to loft frozen in the air for a moment before finally pulling her attention from her absorption in the spell of the music to the small group that served as audience. Tucking her violin beneath the crook of her arm and allowing her bow hand to drop to her side, she squared herself and bowed her head. "Thank you."

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D E A D L I N E

The word and errand requirements were met by the following students:
@Evelynn Decipio | @Avery Chen | @Samantha Salwis

Rewards should be handed out before the end of the day. If you have any questions please feel free to owl me. I encourage all of you to continue roleplaying in this thread as I will not be locking it. Have fun, everyone!

@Evelynn Decipio, @Avery Chen

She smiled at Evelynn before she answered the questions. Samantha loved talking and explaining things, so she was extremely pleased with the prefect's questions. "Of course, dice stacking could be used by dealers, but that's not all it is used for. Just like many other sports, there are also competitions for dice stacking. I am not even close to the level necessary to compete, I just do it for fun." She didn't know what else dice stacking could be used for, but she wouldn't admit that. She hated being confronted with her lack of knowledge, and she was way too proud to admit she didn't know something.

The young girl loved all the questions Evelynn asked. Not many people had heard of dice stacking and to be honest Samantha was one of them until last summer. "One of my sister's friends, I am not quite sure who, maybe it was Dave. Anyway, one of them had told my sister about it and she googled it and watched a youtube video about it. Then she showed me and then we decided we should try it. But my sister is very impatient and she stopped practicing, but I didn't. So now I do know how to do it and she doesn't." Samantha was very satisfied with the act that she was able to do something and her sister wasn't. After her little story, she said down again, very happy with herself.

Samantha watched as Avery tried his best to keep the dice in his cup. She giggled when the dice flew out of the cup the first time and the boy ran after it, like a puppy. She watched as the boy didn't give up, but didn't interfere. He was doing a great job for his first time and he didn't need any corrections. Besides, it was way too much fun to watch him fail.

When Avery managed to stack two dices on top of each other she clapped for him. "That's great!" She was proud of her friend. He had done a good job for so little practicing. He was not close to her skill level, but that was okay. She liked being the best at everything anyway.

Now it was the turn of the prefect. Samantha listened to the story of the girl without really knowing what the other was talking about. The Royal Conservatory of Music sounded important, but she had no idea if it really was. When Evelynn began to play Samantha listen with her full attention. It was great and that was all she could say, due to her lack of knowledge about the violin.

Then it was Avery's turn to perform, and as Sam had expected he also played the violin. Even though the same instrument was played before him, he didn't bore Samantha. The first time she had heard him play she had been too focused on getting to the stage that she didn't really listen to the music. Now she did listen to it with her full attention and after the last note, she clapped enthusiastically for her friend.

When everybody had performed their talent she waved at the group and left the classroom. It had been a lot of fun. She had been able to show her talent and get to know other people their talent. On top of that, she had eaten a very delicious cinnamon bun, which had made her day.

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