Rora blinked, looking up from the block of mahogany he held. Nothing about the spaceport had changed, from what he could tell. Granted, he hadn't been there very long; he'd made his way straight to the departure gate so as to minimize any chance of missing his flight. If the sign would change, he'd be able to see…yeah okay, he'd been there two minutes. So why had he thought he heard the Maple Leaf Rag? The only sounds he could hear now were those which filled busy places, those multitudinous noises of people wending their way to somewhere other than here - a dull roar punctuated with scuffing shoes and snatches of words from half-heard conversations. And yet, something nagged at him that yes, he'd most definitely heard ragtime piano, and quite recently. He frowned. Had one of the shops on the way here been playing some sort of bygone-classics station? Or had there been an actual piano being played in the middle of the hall? He sighed quietly to himself; he'd only had eyes for his destination.
He resumed studying the mahogany, waiting for the shape contained within to make itself known. He let his mind wander…and found his fingers tapping a familiar cadence against the wood block. This time he smiled, remembering a day long past. What had he been, seven? Eight? Somewhere around there…
~~~
Annihilator-of-Malignant-Royalty set down her utensil. "…Is there something you'd like to ask, Aura? certainty of sunrise"
"Can I please be excused, Anni? light at tunnel's end" Rora glanced at his empty plate, as the luminous feathers he projected onto himself shimmered a hopeful yellow-green.
"May you be excused, gently straightening a crooked painting" corrected Marauder-who-Obliterates-the-Vainglorious-and-Arrogant.
A sigh, followed by, "May I please? stumbling over nothing"
"No." Marauder-who-Obliterates-the-Vainglorious-and-Arrogant took a sip of her drink. "Tonight is Mist Dinner. We would very much prefer to spend this time with you, together, as a family. well-worn soapbox"
"But I'm not hungry, and you both take forever to eat! flailing in quicksand"
"Oh, hon." Anni gave him a sympathetic look. "I know that's how it must seem - and it is true that we have more intensive dietary requirements - but patience is a virtue. Besides, we're not that slow." Her feathers fluttered ever so slightly, glowing a bemused pink, "Well, I'm not. I won't presume to speak on Maud's behalf."
Maud ruffled, for her part signalling a flat orange. "I eat at a perfectly healthy, average speed, thank you very much."
Rora giggled, sharing a conspiratorial glance with Anni before returning to staring past his glass of water. Then, carefully making patterns out of the leftover ketchup from his meal. Fiddling with the cloth napkin…
Silent minutes passed.
"…At this rate, he might as well be doing something."
Maud paused, chewing her mouthful of noodles once, twice, before swallowing. "How was your day today, Rora? pen and paper at the ready"
"Fine," he said as he worked on transforming the ketchup giraffe into a rose.
"What did you do? cleaning a persistent glasses smudge"
"I dunno."
"Well, did you learn anything? speaking with an iceberg"
"I guess." He frowned in concentration, having reached a particularly twisty part of the stem.
Maud propped her head up with one upper arm, the other stirring the contents of her bowl as her lower arms crossed in front of her. She looked at Rora, then Anni, shimmering helpless lavender.
Anni cleared her throat. "Aura, why don't you get started on your practicing? whetstone for the soul"
"Really? sudden snowfall" Rora perked up.
"Really! There's a new piece waiting for you. chocolates hidden beneath one's pillow"
Maud made as if to protest…but relented, shooing him off with a sigh. "Do your scales too, at some point. properly braced sapling"
He was already gone, his Mothers' voices falling away even as they started on their own earnest conversation. Before long, he was in the music room, seated before their upright piano. It was, perhaps, a modest luxury, old as it was and oft used as it had been - but it was a luxury Rora had earned. And now, he sought to prove himself again, with…"Maple Leaf Rag." Huh, okay. He took a few moments to read over the song, mostly looking for rhythms and any overall structural patterns it might have. Then, with a nod, he began.
Then stopped. Then started, stopped, started again. He hadn't played anything quite so…bouncy before, and the syncopation between hands was throwing him for a loop. But slowly, eventually, he was able to feel the left hand's place as a sort of anchor, while the right hand did most of the fancy work. He nodded in time as he practiced the first section of the song, relentlessly going over the bars until he could make it through without a dropping a single note. He gave it another go, this time focusing less on what he was doing and more on how: experimenting with dynamics, accentuation, adding little trills here and there. Finding a voice.
"How's it going in there, Aura? gentle tide greeting the beach"
"Fine, Mom. buzz buzz"
"Okay, my busy little bee. and sweet as honey"
The second section turned out to be mostly similar to the first, just starting higher and coming back down, and with a couple slight variations, before repeating the first section again. Still, he played through everything a few times, solidifying his mastery over the finger positions of each section and, just as importantly, transitioning between sections. The last two sections though -
A noise at the door (Talking? Knocking?), "Fine, Mom, buzz buzz"
- those threw him for a loop. It took him a few solid minutes to reconcile how the new chords were supposed to sound in contrast to what he had been repeatedly hammering home. It didn't help that the rhythm changed slightly too, catching him offguard despite his cursory review at the start. But once he was able to pinpoint where he'd been struggling, everything else started falling into place. Finally, he could play through the whole thing!
He crowed out in triumph, then immediately started playing through again, from beginning to end. And then a third time-
"Rora!"
Startled, he turned to see both Anni and Maud in the now-open doorway, staring at him. "I did it!" he beamed a joyous green, "I figured out the song!"
Rora only caught a flash of crimson as Maud vanished down the hall; Anni rushed forward, locking him with a four-armed embrace. "Aura hon, are you alright?? What happened?!" Her feathers were a tumultuous cascade of vivid blues and purples.
"What? Yeah, I'm fine, Mom! thunderstorms in full sunlight"
Maud returned, touching Anni lightly on her shoulder, releasing Rora from her grasp. "Keep this held fast," she said, pressing a fluffy white washcloth into his face before rushing out again.
"Wha-gk?" He obliged Maud, fixing Anni with a puzzled look. "Addi, whad's goig od? 404: issue not found" There was something on her shoulder feathers, he noticed, where she had held him close. Something…red? He turned to the piano, ignoring the gentle pressure of Anni's hands discouraging him from doing so.
The center keys were no longer a yellowed ivory, but a vivid vermillion; red dripped from them down to the floor, forming a smallish pool that nonetheless reached beneath the pedals. The bench was mostly unscathed, with only a few spatters on the very front and center. Many of the other keys had various smudges of red on them as well, all up and down the keyboard. Rora lifted his free hand, inspecting it palm-side: every fingertip was marked with rusty reds in various congealing states. "M-Mom?" Fearful purple now began working its way into his feathery radiance as well.
"Did something happen? Did you tamper with your nose? Did you breathe in some dust? you are held blameless"
"I…wh…doe, I wad juzd…juzd blayig duh biado…" Deepening purple.
Anni nodded, hugging Rora once more. "Likely just a nosebleed, then; nothing to worry about. an unexpected rainstorm, but not a hurricane"
"A dosebleed…?"
"That's right — it's just something that happens to people sometimes."
"Oh, ogkay." The purple vanished, green returning in full force. "Well lizzen dto dis!"
Before Anni could react, a melody began plinking out of the piano. It was a bit slower than before, and less confident, but it was unmistakably the Maple Leaf Rag. She stared at Rora. "Aura…" And then, a matching green glow, "…Hon, I thought you were practicing piano, not absolute territory manipulation."
"Budt, I waz…" He blinked, looking down at his hand; he was holding it like he had when sitting at the piano. He looked back at the keys, still crimson with his blood. He pushed at the air with one finger.
*Note*
Three fingers.
*Chord*
"…Oh." He stared at his hand again, almost as though checking to see that it was, in fact, there in front of him. "Well, dadtz dew."
~~~
Rora stretched, chuckling - it was a miracle that washcloth hadn't been utterly ruined. And getting the piano properly cleaned…boy, had he done a number on it. If he'd just paid a little more attention…
His smile faded. Well. Such mistakes only ever became more of a luxury to avoid, over time. Just as long as he didn't make them when it really mattered - that was the important thing.
"Flight 259A to Sisu, group 5 now boarding. All passengers headed to Sisu on flight 259A may now board up to group 5."
Rora stood, slinging his carryon over his shoulder as he pocketed the still-pristine block of mahogany. He wasn't exactly looking forward to whittling a single-nostril faucet with eighth note droplets raining forth from it…but that's what this one was. At least the process for it ought to prove interesting.
