[Open] Musical convergence

"Sure, no problem," he answered. "Just working out the kinks. Been a while since I've been able to practice much."

Chiharu lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding while gently closing her eyes before speaking softly, "Thanks. I appreciate your restraint."

Without a word, I find myself drawn to the drum set.

The musical feeling in the air can really do that to you.

I unzip my bag and pull out my stick bag. From there, I unzip it and pull out a pair of drum sticks.

The bag plops on the floor and I subconsciously start twirling both of the sticks between my middle and index fingers half-way, and then twirling them between my index fingers and thumbs the rest of the way before returning them to the middle and index fingers.

It is a unique style of twirling I made myself, combining the twirling of a baton and a drum stick.

I prefer it because it looks different and you can keep it up as long as you like without your fingers tiring and without the stick shifting lower.

Now, I have done it so much that I get the urge to do it whenever I get a stick in my hand and I am not playing.

"Drummer. All right," Toshi said, an excited grin on his face. "What kinda stuff you play?"

Uh-oh. Here it comes.

Ask a question that has to do with my more dynamic interests and you wont ever see the light of day again.

I begin to twirl my sticks again. This time though, I do not stop.

It is like a wave. Left stick twirls and right stick twirls right before left stick stops and it continues that way.

I just sit there, while I talk, twirling them in my personal way faster and faster as I get deeper into the endless pit that is my mind.

"I like a lot of different styles. My music taste is all over the place and I tend to follow my ears when it comes to that. I mostly form my style around the post-hardcore and blues styles-preferring the southern, traditional American styles of it to others-but generally preferring the post-hardcore style for my drumming since I really like to keep a high speed pace. Speaking of the devil, I need to get the double bass pedal."

I stand and start moving to the percussion cabinet but neglect to stop spinning my sticks or talking.

"I've also done covers of various other things, from older songs, to rap, to glitch, and even marching band music."

I stop spinning with my left hand, and start continuously spinning the right one instead of doing it once and pausing.

The door to the cabinet opens up and I look high to low and find the second pedal and the contraption used to transfer the action to the beater.

I begin to talk again as I grab it and start to return.

"The school had a marching snare so I put it in place of the set's snare and did a drumline-style cover of the song 'Crazy Train' and it was awesome. I tell you, you can't say you don't like marching band music until you hear the music."

I sit down and start setting up the second petal by the hi-hat's petal.

"But yeah, I've even tried doing acoustic drumming with a drum set, instead of a cajon, and it actually sounds really awesome if you either put a wall-thing of plastic in front of it or turn its recording down on the computer. Usually, a cajon has a much better chill-style most look for in acoustics but the set can actually be quite nice sounding when done right."

The petal is finally rigged up and to test it, I play a little beat.

After four measures of the drum part, and the down beat of the third, I stop and wave-twirl my sticks one time around again.

*English* "Sh'-a~ll righ'."

The English phrase is said like a native, while my accent seems to be a bit different from an American's.

It's the bastard child-concoction of German, American, and Japanese accents put into one.

[Feel free to interrupt Satoshi at any time during his rant in the post, if that's what your character would do. I'm prepared to alter his movements.]

Chiharu jumps slightly when satoshi begins to play, which she tries to hide by standing up and making her way to the door. When the room grows silent again she speaks up, this time even quieter than before.
"I should probably go, leave you guys to do your thing. It was nice playing with you for a bit."
Having spoken her piece, she turns around and begins down the hall.

Toshiaki listened patiently to Satoshi's response.
He was about to reply himself, but stopped when Chiharu got up to leave.
"Taking off already?"

Chiharu didn't bother to return to give her short response, but rather she just turned around long enough to allow her voice to travel through the door without much reflection.
"Yep."
She then continued down the hall.

. . .

"O~~h ye~a~~h...yeah, it's only logical that she wouldn't like a drum set..."


"Oops."

"I don't follow," he said, puzzled.

I stare at the door way while I speak.

"The headphones."

"She doesn't use them to put noise in. Rather, to keep noise out. It's a strange condition-I mean, I've never heard of it-but she can't stand loud, or sharp, noises."

I look down at the set.

"That's why 'oops.'"

"Auditory hyperesthesia?" Toshi asked, recalling having read about it a few times in medical journals.

That would make sense then.

Is that why she's here at Yamaku? No doubt it's unpleasant, but would it really interfere with schooling that much?

Then again, the same could be said for me. I suppose it would.

"I don't know what it's called."

I shrug.

"Doctors always have a way of coming up with unpleasant, backwards-Latin names."

"Want to come up with medicinal names and not favor one culture over the next?"

"Lets make it with a dead language. Yeah, that way everyone gets screwed over equally."

I twirl each stick once and then start to slowly hit eighth notes on the snare drum. (85 BPM)

The way I hold the stick with my right hand changes from various different positions as I go along and then back to normal grip.

"I think it's more because doctors have been using those names since Latin was the most widely used language in the world.
You know, the Roman Empire ran all the way from Britain well into central Asia."

Toshi checked his watch, noting that a fair amount of time had passed.
He replaced his guitar in its case and headed for the door.
"I'd better get going too. Nice meeting you, Veach."

"That would make sense."

When Endō goes to make his leave, I grin at him like I do everyone else.

"Alright, later man."

With nothing better to do, I just continue my little session with a part like the set to Wake Up.