Potion Maker And Minstrel
IC date: Winter 16
OOC date: 1/4
PCs: Nocturne Sodium-Fizzz
NPCs: None
GM: None

Sodium-Fizz frowned at the note tucked between her primaries for several moments before turning back to the door. Sure seemed the right place. As Soda raised a hoof and knocked her other wing arched upwards, brushing the hood of her cloak off her head. "Well then… lets see 'bout this…"

Inside the house, Nocturne lie on his bed, which resided in the basement. A note lie on his muzzle, and he blows on it, lets it fall down, and repeat. He is startled by the knock, and shouts as he runs up the stairs. "Coming!" Finally reaching the door, he opens it. "Oh, Fizz- uh, hi!" He easily gathered that she was here for music lessons, since she was one of the only ponies to know his address, but he was completely unprepared in light of some unexpected events to be dealt with in the future.

"Come on in," he says, gesturing her inside. The house is really more of an apartment, being composed of only one large room on the first floor, complete with kitchen appliances in one corner, and a few doors, presumably leading to closets and such. It's lightly furnished, but much of it is a mess. Papers lie all around the floor and on tables, all unorganized. "Everything's downstairs, that way we won't make such a ruckus."

Sodium-Fizz nodded, putting on a smile. "Hello Nocturne, and thanks." Following the stallion downstair the alchemist unhitched her cloak and deposited it on the first best location as she took a look around. She'd seen better places, and worse. Actualy, she'd seen a lot worse - her own inn rooms after a Mad Science episode for example. "So…" she said from where she stood at the bottom of the stairs.

Nocturne guides the pegasus through the room and down the stairs. The basement is an even worse mess, aside from one corner of the room, where four instruments sit neatly on top of their cases: A three-quarter scale classical guitar, a flute, a mandolin, and - well, it goes without saying that the piano doesn't have a case. Aside from that, the room is composed of a couch and a few cozy chairs, along with a modestly-sized bed, which clearly hasn't been made in some time, and a bookshelf full of various books. In front of the couch is a table which, surprisingly, has some organized sheet music. The unicorn gestures at the instrument. "Take your pick!"

Sodium-Fizz trotted forward buiously for a moment and eyed the instruments. The full range of piano keys only ever got a very breif glance before being discarded. The guitar got some awkward fuzzings about and a few strumms before being replaced in it's case. The mandolin likewise, though also wound up returned - while the guitar seemed to have been to large for comfort for the lithe mare the mandolin had seemed a tad bit to small for her prefrerence. In the end the mare, sounding a tad bit embarased, pointed at the flute. "I think… I've done so."

Nocturne sits and watches as Fizz plays with the instruments for a while, and smiles as she points to the flute. "Alright, then!" He pulls one of the chairs to sit at the side of the couch, and gesters Fizz to sit on the couch. "It's gonna be a bit of a rough start, but you'll get used to it. It's like blowing on a bottle!" He levitates the flute to himself, pops the mouthpiece off, and holds it to his lips, parallel to the ground. As he blows into it, it produces a high-pitched whistle. The unicorn places then it back onto the couch. "Go ahead, try!"

Sodium-Fizz frowns as the flute is returned to her, apperently not having thought about this aspect of it. Not-to-subtly she wipes the mouthpiece off against her coat before putting it in her own mouth, forced to hold it with her hooves unlike Nocturne with his magic, and does the same. The tone she produces is quieter, and somehow manages to sound off even without her doing anything.

"Not a bad start," Nocturne says. "Took me about an hour to get a sound out of it when I was first starting out." He puts the rest of the flute back into the mouthpiece as Fizz holds it. "Try it again. This time, press the first key to your left. That'll produce a C." He grins and sits expectingly. "Take your time!"

"Strong lungs, comes from the running and screaming," said Sodium-Fizz before putting the flute back in her mouth and first -then- peering down at the keys. After a moment of thinking through the logistics of it a wing arched forward, a primary depressing it neatly and with accuracy. Then she blew, hard.

Whatever the sound that came out the other end was, it certainly wasn't a C.

Nocturne winces somewhat at the sound. Sure, she wasn't playing it well, but as far as he knows, it's her first venture into music. Still, the awkward silence was getting to him, and he couldn't play a record. "Well, it's uh- You've got good lungs, that'll pay off!" He stands up and gallops up the stairs, shouting "I'll be right back!" A bit of rustling is heard, followed by hurried footsteps back towards the stairs.

As he comes back to Fizz, he presents to her a straw. "Just hold this in your mouth as tightly as possible without crushing it. Once you're used to that, try blowing into it again."
Sodium-Fizz rolled her eyes as Nocturne darted up the stairs before slumping back in the couch. And then giving him a rather curious look as he proofed the straw. Still, doing as instructed - after wiping the straw off - her eyes crossed as she peered at the straw in her mouth as she tried to get it right. "Wha's this for?"

"It's called your embouchure," Nocturne responds. "It's basically the, uh, shape of your mouth when you play. The flute requires a really tight embouchure since you're not blowing directly into it, but over it." As he catches the curious look on the mare's face, he gives a crooked grin. "Don't worry, flute's a little tricky to start up at first, but, I mean, it's what I started on, and I don't regret it. Just stick with it." He trots to his guitar and levitates it along with him as he goes back to his seat. The unicorn plucks a single note, and repeats it as he talks. "This is the note you're going for. Try again!"

Sodium-Fizz cocked her head to the side for a moment, her ears perking as she listened. With a slight shrug she plucked the straw from her mouth, replacing it with the flute before giving blowing the note another go. And wincing at the result.

Nocturne winces as well, and stands up to sit next to her on the couch, which makes him visibly uncomfortable as he avoids eye contact - not because she's a mare, as he knows she has a marefriend, but simply because he's not used to sitting so close to people. "Just watch," He takes the flute back into his possession, and holds it in his hooves to make Fizz more comfortable. This time, he points to his lips before playing the note, and levitates it back.

Sodium-Fizz certainly seems nervous on her own part, thought it's definatly becaus he's a stallion, and she scoots away just enough while trying to pay attention. Accepting the flute, and wiping it down once more, she gave it another go. It sounds marginaly better, but it's a bit like saying that a train-crash wasn't so bad 'cause a pair of wheels were still on the tracks by the end of it.

Nocturne winces rather visibily this time, as he is right next to the mare, but frowns. "Tell you what, let's work on fingerings first." He goes back to his seat and brings up his guitar, plucking a slightly lower note. "So that first note was C. This time, go for the first key and the fourth key to the left, and this time, breathe a lot lighter. It'll just whisper the note, which'll be a B flat."

"Fingerings… Got to wounder why they're called that," muttered Sodium-Fizz with a slight, irrate frown, but did as instructed, her wings reaching forward and twisting ever so slightly, depressing the keys. Apperently she got plenty of control with her feathers, then again she manages to handle hazardus concoctions without magic so it makes a certain kind of sence. Thus prepared Fizz procedes to savagely mangle yet another tone.

"Beats me, it's probably foreign," Nocturne answers. Despite the awkward tension, he watched in awe as she pressed the keys down with her wings. His expression is quickly broken as the next note comes out. He has no idea how to word what he wants to propose without hurting the mare's feelings. "Um, if you want, we can try something else."

Sodium-Fizz shock her head. "No, I'm fine," she said around the flute with a scowl at the instrument. Then gave it another go, and another. And another - one somehow accompanied by the desperate yowling of a cat from up above somewhere.

Although he was expecting the worst, Nocturne grinned at the mare's answer. "That's good, keep trying." After a few notes, he winces at the sound of the cat. "Just keep changing up your embouchure until you find something that works." He plays the lower note again on his guitar. "Try it with C, just the first key."

Sodium-Fizz furrowed her brows in annoyed concentration, as she kept trying - her wing shifting back and forth every so often and alternating between the two suposed-to-be tones without fail. Accuracy indeed. Of course, it still leaves rather a lot to be desired for how it actualy sounds, and apperently Fizz seems to know it herself as her brows knitt together further and further.

"This is gonna sound silly," Nocturne chimes in as he sees Fizz's frustration, "But I find that motivation helps a lot. What kinda music do you want to play? Or, if you want, I could show you a few records." There is a clearly uncomfortable expression on his face, but he tries to force a grin.

Sodium-Fizz shifted in her seat as she laid the flute down across her forelegs, giving Nocturne a slightly irrate look. Though it soon becomes somewhat thoughtful. "I don't know really… Something… melancholy, I guess?" She sighed. "Why don't you show those records, maybe?"

Nocturne perks his ears up and grins as Fizz proposes some records. "Alright. Lemme go see real quick…" He approaches a chest that wasn't visible from the stairs' side of the room, and opens it up to reveal a large collection of records. He runs a hoof across them to flip through them, and stops at one. "Here, this has a pretty cool flute part." He quickly levitates the record into the record player and starts it. The sound could certainly be described as melancholic, containing a melody plays on violin, and supported by guitar. A raspy voice sings, but in a talking intonation, in an unfamiliar language. After the first verse, though, a flute begins two play, and is eventually harmonized by another.

Sodium-Fizz's ears perked up at the sound of the music, her posture losening up almost instantly as she listened intently.

The pattern repeats again for a second verse, not changing much of its structure, other than the lyrics. Eventually, the song finishes, and eventually goes into a more ambient track, at which point Nocturne removes the needle from the record, puts it in his sleeve. "How did you like it. Want to listen to anything else?"

The mare nodded, a small smile on her muzzle. "I did, then again I do like a rather wide range of music, though not that pop stuff. I mean, it's all bloody lovey-dovey horse-droppings…" Sodium-Fizz shuddered.

"I'm with you there," Nocturne replies with a laugh. "If I wanted that kidn of junk I'd get myself a marefriend." He frowns for a moment, remembering the note he was reading before the lesson. "Anyway, we can do another record if you want, but if not, just keep working on that note!"

Sodium-Fizz glanced between the record player and back at the flute. After a moment she seemd to slump slightly. "I supose I should really practice…"

Nocturne nods. "Take that home with you! I haven't played it in years." He walks Fizz upstairs and to the door. "Well, it was fun." The unicorn waves with a grin.

Sodium-Fizz blinked slightly, but nodded. "I'll do that. And I'll be back too, not like I have very much to do really… and we both know I'm just horrid." She shook her head and waved at Nocturne before taking to the sky and flying off in the direction off the Fizzy Flask.