19 Aug 2023, 04:37
Shake the Rust Off
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It had been a long time since Illowy had set foot in this room, much less with her violin in hand. So many things had fallen through the cracks over the years. Things that once had been so important to her had been sorted away as trivial and no longer important. However, in doing that, she could feel pieces of herself chipping away as the hole in her grew, threatening to swallow her whole being until there was nothing left.
Maybe this was a weak attempt at trying to salvage whatever part of herself she could feel slipping away as she slipped into the Rehearsal Room, finding it empty as her heels clicked against the well waxed floors. She could remember that first time still that she found the room, her dance bag in hand as she tugged on pink pointe shoes that were half dead. What innocence at the time, simply wanting to maintain that ideal that her mother had been trying to mold her into.
Now she was a proper young woman, no longer wandering about the room in her sweet little pink tights and skirts, trying to imagine herself into the Muggle idol she barely knew anything about. Granted, she still didn't know much about the violinist beyond that she'd sparked in her the realization that she could combine what had been two of her greatest passions at the time. These days, both passions had nearly been snuffed out in favor of more "important" things.
A tongue peaks out a moment between red lips as she tested the floor with her shoes, noting how much slip they might have with a short turn and a couple steps. Not ideal shoes, but she wasn't trying pointe today. The snake rolled her shoulders before perching her violin to it's place, picking and tuning the neglected instrument a moment before finally drawing her bow across the singing strings for the first time in who knew how long. Perhaps muscle memory would pull in her favor as the first notes vibrated out into the room.
Her ghostly pale eyes feel closed as she let the music flow. As the paces of the music picked up, she let her feel move at will, not giving to much thought about what moves she might do, but simply letting the music guide her. Which it did beautifully in an array of steps and spins through the span of the room. Illowy, for a moment, allowed everything around her fall away and the music consume her so that for that moment she could believe she was nothing more that a bit of dust being swept around by the vibrations of her little wooden companion. The heels of her shoes hardly even having the opportunity to make contact with the floor as she moved, lest it interrupt the proper flow.
The speed and intensity of her movements ebbed and flowed with that of the music, and it seemed that despite her neglect in practicing as frequently as she had when she was younger, years of prior dedication could still be accessed in her muscle memory until the dance finally came to an end with the last billowing notes from her violin.
Her eyes slowly opened again as she tried to catch her breath, lowering her instrument from its perch as she slowly came back to reality; unaware of an accidently acquired an observer.
I was told I was dangerous. When I asked why, they said, "Because you don't need anyone." That's when I smiled.
19 Aug 2023, 23:34
Shake the Rust Off
@Illowy Magnard
With her pointe shoes in one hand and a loosely knit jumper thrown casually over her leotard and skirt [x], Ayla had skipped cheerfully through the halls for most of the walk down to the rehearsal room from her common room. She was looking forward to a few hours of ballet practice, but as she approached the heavy wooden doors, she could hear music coming from inside, evidence of another student's presence.
With a shrug of the shoulders, the young Ravenclaw decided to come back later and turned to leave, but she was overcome by curiosity with the beautiful, melancholy notes of the violin and instead poked her head around the door to listen. Ayla's blue eyes widened with wonder at the sight of an older girl dancing while playing the violin, lost in the music and spinning around on her heeled shoes expertedly.
She was so graceful.
Quietly taking a seat right by the doors, Ayla watched the girl play, careful not to move or breathe too much in case the girl noticed her and stopped. There was a nagging voice in the back of her mind that told her that this was kind of a breach of privacy, but she was too captivated by the music and the dancing to get up and leave. Ayla had never been a violinist, but she knew a lot about music, and this was absolutely brilliant. She felt like she could listen to this girl play all day and never get tired of it.
When the music finished, Ayla got up and burst into shy applause, her own half-forgotten pointe shoes clattering awkwardly against the ground. "That was amazing. You're amazing!" she gushed, clearly starstruck. "Where do you even learn to play like that?"
Last edited by Ayla Flores on 5 Oct 2023, 08:52, edited 1 time in total.
the world is cruel, therefore i won't be.
20 Aug 2023, 02:24
Shake the Rust Off
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"That was amazing. You're amazing! Where do you even learn to play like that?"
In most situations, Illowy Magnard was not a person most people cared to approach, he young ones especially. The older witch wasn't exactly the picture of friendliness, and most found her to be enigmatic at best, unnerving at worst. Her pale features were start against her dark hair and deep red lipstick; her ghostly pale eyes alone had garnered their own reputation over the years, with it having been said before that her eyes had a way of never quite looking at a person, but through them. The kindest whispers in the halls rumored about her haughty and distant nature in class and her brutality on the dueling piste; the worst warned she was a hair's length away from being a loose cannon, that she was cold and cruel and strange. The number of people who could actually say they knew anything intimate about the Sixth Year were few and far between.
With that being said, it wasn't difficult to imagine how thrown off the teenager was having a child squealing about her like that. Her face flushed slightly, trying to gather her thoughts on how to even respond. In the years before, Illowy would have probably growled and raised her wand at the child to try to frighten her off for disturbing her peace; but Illowy was bent on approaching this year with a little less bitterness then she had before. After all, this child wasn't hurting her. Quite the opposite actually. There was no sense in behaving rudely.
"Really, I'm a bit rusty." she admitted, despite having been lost in the music, it didn't mean she was blind to the mistakes she'd made throughout the piece, "M'mum put me in lessons for as long as I can remember."
I was told I was dangerous. When I asked why, they said, "Because you don't need anyone." That's when I smiled.
17 Sep 2023, 07:23
Shake the Rust Off
@Illowy Magnard | so sorry for the wait!
Although Ayla knew that she'd likely caught the older girl off guard, there was no doubt in her mind that her enthusiasm and friendliness would be responded to similarly. She was someone who always assumed that people would like her, not because she was arrogant but because most people generally did, and right now, she was smiling brightly at the girl while she waited patiently for her answer. Being very new to Hogwarts, Ayla had not heard any rumours or whispers about this particular sixth year, and even if she had, she probably wouldn't have taken them seriously. Unlike her cousin Twyla, she tried not to partake in gossip.
She didn't particularly know what to say when the girl said she was rusty - everything had sounded very beautiful to her (but then again, she didn't know much about the violin) - but when music lessons were brought up, Ayla perked up. "My mum put me in them too!" she said, looking very excited. She was glad that she had something in common with this girl, who, to Ayla, seemed so mysterious and otherworldly. "Not violin," she went on hurriedly, and glanced at the instrument with part envy and part awe, "just voice, and piano. Some of my older sisters play, but my mum said she had enough of squeaky beginners for a lifetime by the time it got to me." She laughed a little at the memory.
Suddenly remembering her pointe shoes, she turned around and picked them up off the ground before speaking again, still smiling. "And you dance really well," Ayla said. "Did you take lessons for that too?"
the world is cruel, therefore i won't be.
4 Oct 2023, 04:19
Shake the Rust Off
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Illowy nodded along softly as the girl rattled on with all the enthusiasm of a bumblebee hopped up on too many flowers. She had to admit, she wasn't use to so much energy being directed at herself. It was kind of endearing to have someone so young be so impressed with what she would have otherwise considered to be mediocre work. If not mediocre, at least rough. And it had been a terribly long time since she'd had praise from someone who wasn't somehow morally obligated to be encouraging towards her.
For a moment, the girl rekindled a vague memory of a Hufflepuff she'd known in her first year with a similar amount of enthusiasm. Her first actual friend when she'd come to Hogwarts, though the friendship was short lived after a, to put it lightly, disastrous Blossom Ball. For a moment, her thoughts wandered off to wonder about whatever had happened to that girl. Illowy couldn't recall seeing her much after that. She imagined after everything that had happened, the girl chose to keep her distance. A lot of the people who had been involved in that night wound up keeping their distance from each other.
"I don't sing." she shrugged, though 'don't' and 'can't' are two very different things, "My mother felt that violin lessons would be good for me. Teaches discipline and to value accomplishment. I think I would've liked the piano though, if I'd had a choice in what instrument to take up." she explained, offering the smallest shadow of a smile. Of course, there were deeper reasons as to why her mother had packed her schedule with so many lessons and practices, but that was hardly something to get into with a child. Especially one who seemed so shiny and innocent to the idea that things like music and dance could ever be for anything less then for the sake of fun and enjoyment. For once, she couldn't bring herself to toss a wet blanket over such a spark of purity.
Her pale eyes followed the girl's movements sharply as she picked up the little pair of pointe shoes, "Thank you. And I did. For a very long time. Pointe and ballroom mostly." she confirmed softly, "Its been a while though since I've actually done pointe though." the snake added, tapping her high heel a bit awkwardly against the fine wood floors. When was the last time she'd actually tried on her pointe shoes? Long enough she couldn't recall exactly. A year? Two? She'd been so caught up in everything else that most of her hobbies and outlets had been abandoned for the sake of honing her focus on more "important" things.
I was told I was dangerous. When I asked why, they said, "Because you don't need anyone." That's when I smiled.