Virtuosity | Dreamnoblade

Chapter 3

Taking the delicate violin out of its case, Techno put the instrument to his neck, wondering if he remembered the correct posture and position. Getting comfortable, he plucked the strings, checking to see whether they were still in tune. He didn't expect them to be entirely in tune, but he wasn't ready for the cacophony that befell him.

Bing! Pong! Tang! Ding!

Techno grimaced at the four seemingly random notes, as he put the violin down to get out his trusty tuner app on his phone. 'Has it really been that long?' he thought to himself while scrolling through his home screen. He couldn't seem to find the app. Still determined, he swiped up to look through all the apps, looking for GuitarTuna, a funny name for a violin tuning app. Truthfully, the app could tune a multitude of instruments with presets for all manner of tuning systems and instruments. 'Damn guitarists, thinking they rule the world,' he thought to himself. Not finding the app, he decided he must have uninstalled it, and so went to the app store to reinstall it.

Having tuned the violin, he took the bow out from the case, tightening the bow to the recommended amount. With one graceful movement, he placed the bow on the strings and played a note. The immense grace and beauty with which he tried to play the instrument didn't seem to match the demonic screeching that came out instead. Not wanting to give up again, he continued to play, changing his position and pressure on the strings, trying to get that beautiful sound he so very dearly missed. It was at this point that Techno was glad he lived in a house, rather than an apartment.

Techno played for hours, slowly getting the hang of the instrument again. Playing through his repertoire, day turned to night as he played for hours on end, truly happy.

Meanwhile, Dream was hitting his piano with his fists. He was frustrated, unable to finish a passage he thought he should have been able to do easily. He felt weird, it seemed like something was on his mind all the time. That feeling was what lead him to begin learning a new piece. He needed something to distract himself. He seemed to recall that the feeling had started when he won Minecraft Championships, and Techno was shouting "THANK YOU DREAM," but he chalked it up to coincidence. Still, the thought of Techno ecstatic because of him made that feeling in his head ever so slightly stronger.

Tired of trying to learn this new piece, he thought back to his repertoire and what he had previously learnt and chose something to play. One piece jumped out at him, one of the first pieces he had ever properly learnt. It wasn't truly classical, like much of his repertoire, but he liked it. He tried to recall the name, but it slipped his tongue. Moving his hands, he began to play the piece. Rolling arpeggios with a strong bass octave, with the left hand crossing over to support the main melody, the result of which came to embody nostalgia. Playing the piece, he closed his eyes. He thought back to happier times; simpler times. It wasn't often that he zoned out like this, but the past two weeks had been weird. Playing the final chord, he held it for as long as he could, not wanting to lose the security it gave him. But before long, the chord had faded to silence. Sitting on the stool for a couple minutes, he pondered. Before long, he was walking to his door. Before he closed the heavy slab of wood, he called out to his cat, "I'll be back Patches! I'm just going to the store!"

-

Techno was sitting on his couch. He had put his violin back in its case long ago, but he found that there was nothing else he wanted to do. His eyes flicked around his house, eventually landing on his fridge, where a grocery list was placed with a magnet.

"Shit, I still haven't done my shopping. Was I really playing for that long?" He grumbled to himself. Now he needed to go out to get his groceries at 10pm, lest he wanted to do it at 7am the next morning. Putting on his shoes, he grabbed his keys and made his way to his car, cursing himself for getting so preoccupied with his violin.