Strokes of Song (Cleo)

[Cade Maddox]

It wasn't uncommon to find Cade in the auditorium playing the piano, in fact, he was reasonably sure people who also used it knew when he played just well enough not to disturb him most of the time. Which was just fine by him. He had some measure of confidence in his piano playing, but not much in his singing, which he was doing today.

He had spent the past week converting "Cry Just A Little" by Avantasia to piano, as it had fit his mood recently. "A heart out of affection, a night at the masquerade..." His fingers lifted and crossed the keys as he transitioned between parts of the sound, recreating as much of the song's instrumental as he could. It wasn't perfect, but it sounded like a more ethereal version of the song, with only the piano.

"You won some and you're lonesome, as the spotlight fades..." One of his characters was with him today because it was a duet. Cinderella was happy to sing with him, which he had appreciated, as he felt the piano version he had made was better suited to a mixture of male and female tone. "Going forth pretending destination is at hand, When she's crying just a little...Just for me..."

Cinderella's character was in a simple blue and white work dress, looking as radiant and beautiful as ever, at least to Cade, a mixture of a real-life cartoon and the live-action versions of her. She smiled to him as the 'me' had left Cade's lips. "I've seen them set off to the promised land...Escaping from the hurtings...They don't understand..."

Cade himself was just in a simple white t-shirt and black pants. Hearing some sounds from the auditorium, he knew he was no longer the only living person in there, but he had grown passed his anxiety enough to not stop playing. Maybe they'd appreciate the performance. "A sense of satisfaction, On account of pristine tears...She's crying just a little more, Just like you..."

On cue, Cade took a breath and focused, trying to keep to the notes while summoning a second character, who materialized to his right to counter Cinderella to his left. His favorite character, The Phantom [of the Opera], it was easy to have him and Cinderella together even with what he was doing, as they were two of his main ones. Together, the Phantom and Cinderella sang the chorus while Cade focused on playing it and keeping up with them.

"Why don't you cry, Cry a little over me?...Why don't you lie?...Can't you tell me that I am hard to deny?...Can't she see what I am going through?...Cry just a little for me..."

They paused and looked to Cade as he sung the final line of the chorus, "Oh girl, a little for me..."
Cade hadn't finished the rest of the song, so he hit a few more notes before slowly lifting off of the keys. The Phantom and Cinderella bowed and curtsied respectively to anyone that was in the audience. Nervously, Cade just fumbled with the sheet music he had hastily written for this, refusing to look around him.

[Cleo Warren]

Cleo swore she spent more time in the art department than in her own bedroom. Her painting class was taking up a lot of her time this semester, and so was her drawing class. And her teacher was tough. She was constantly spending long hours in the art studio when she wasn’t in her other classes or doing homework. Her cousin - who was an art major in college - told her to get used to it. It was only going to get more hectic once she graduated.

Great.

But she’d finally finished her final project for Painting - which had taken her a lot longer than she originally expected. It was a good thing she didn’t put it off like she did with everything else. She normally worked better under pressure, but trying to finish that on top of all her other end-of-the-year schoolwork would have been a nightmare. Now all she had to focus on was Drawing, along with a few other smaller projects for Painting. And, you know, her actual schoolwork.

But right now she was just planning on going back to her room and relaxing. Class was over for the day and she didn’t have any homework that was due tomorrow.

Usually when Cleo was going back and forth between her dorm and the art studio, she almost always cut through the auditorium. It wasn’t uncommon for people to be in their practicing. Usually it was the band or the drama club practicing whatever they were putting on for the school at the time. Sometimes it was the dance team.

But today the notes of the piano overpowered the Coldplay song that played through her headphones. As she pulled out one earphone to hear the song better, it sounded like there was only one person there. No wait…two? Definitely two. Usually on her way through she just peered through the door and caught a glimpse of what was going on as she walked by, but today she stopped. She didn’t recognize the song, but she recognized the singer. Both of them, well sort of. She’d seen Cade around campus before, but the other girl literally looked like she’d just raided the drama department. Last time she checked, she didn’t think the drama club was putting on Cinderella.

She leaned against the threshold of the door, not wanting to disturb the duet. Her eyes widened as the duet magically transformed into a trio, the third character straight out of Phantom. Now that was something she’d never seen before. After attending this school for the last three years, you’d think she’d get used to seeing weird stuff, but she’d never met anyone who could conjure up Broadway characters.

She found herself moving closer as the song finished out, narrowing her eyes as she scrutinized the characters. When the music stopped the characters took their respective bows, but the actual pianist seemed flustered…embarrassed? “I didn’t know this was what you could do.” She spoke up against the silence. The two of them didn’t really know each other, so it wasn’t a surprise, but she didn’t even really know he was into music like this either. He always seemed like more of a jock than a musician…

[Cade Maddox]

Well, it was a voice he recognized, so at least that helped, if ever so slightly. He looked to his two characters for a moment before saying, "Take five, guys." The Phantom seemed to shrug ever so slightly, and disappeared. Cinderella waved in the direction that...Cleo?, was that the name?...that her voice had come from before fading out too. Cade stood with a bit of a start and said, "Yeah, well, I don't really broadcast it anymore. Too many people 'wanted to see what I could do' when I was younger."

Turning around on the piano seat, he looked over to her. The name Cleo came to his mind strongly, that was definitely her name, he was certain. "But...yeah...I try to do music. Some people have told me I'm good, some say I suck. I just try to do it alone." Most people who hadn't interacted with Cade while he was practicing didn't know about his music side. Most people saw him working out or doing dancing stretches and assumed he was just an anti-social fitness nut. And they'd be right, it just wasn't the whole story.

Trying to not be awkward sitting there (though he was kind of there first), he offered, "So...what brings you to my symphony?" He joked even more awkwardly, though he had some success with creating other musicians that generated sound before. It just was hard to play himself when he did.

[Cleo Warren]

Cleo watched curiously as the two figures disappeared, fading away in nothing, like they were never there to begin with. How strange… Then again, she supposed she had seen stranger things happen at this school. Honestly, nothing should really be a surprise at this point, even from the people she didn’t know well.

She let out a light chuckle at his response. It was a good excuse, since constantly pestering people about their abilities could get pretty annoying. “I know what you mean.” She admitted, “I can’t tell you how many times people’ve asked me to tell them their future. Like I’m a fucking fortune teller or something.” She supposed that could be a reasonable alternative if college didn’t work out in the future. The circus seemed like they were always hiring, and it was always good to have a backup plan.

“Well you don’t suck.” She said, shaking her head as she pulled her other headphone out of her ear. Sure, it wasn’t the best song she’d ever heard (maybe it would have helped if she actually knew the song he was playing), but it definitely wasn’t bad. Cleo was pretty picky with the music that she listened to, and she’d seen a lot of Broadway shows so she knew what was good and what wasn’t. Still, while she liked to watch those types of things, she’d never really actively been involved herself, so she didn’t really give her opinion that much, not unless she was asked.

“Oh, I was just cutting through from the art studio.” She said, motioning to the door at the front of the auditorium. “I heard you when I was walking by, and I was a little confused to see the Phantom of the Opera and Cinderella doing a duet together.” She chuckled.