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dr. lance sweets

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Who: Lance and Kyna
What: Piano lessons!
Where: Rosen's apartment, because he made the mistake of giving Lance a key
When: Early Jan, like the 2nd or 3rd
Warnings: Should be nothing, but will edit in anything as it comes up!

Lance is... Not necessarily confident that he's going to be a good teacher.

It isn't that he's regretting agreeing to teach Kyna--not at all--but more that he's thinking he probably should've prepared a bit more. It's been a long time since he took any piano lessons so he barely remembers what the teacher he worked with taught him, especially just starting out; what if he sucks at this and it's just frustrating for Kyna, instead of helpful? What if it's frustrating for both of them? What if he's just totally useless at this entire thing?

...Apparently it's going to be one of those days, and so Lance just tries to remind himself that there's pretty much no consequence to being a bad piano teacher, for either of them. However, due to nervous energy, he ends up making it to the designated meeting spot a little early, and regrets everything about that; it's still way too hot, and so he finds a shady spot to sulk in until Kyna arrives.

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Kyna is having similar doubts, for different reasons. She's pretty sure she's going to suck at this, but it doesn't really matter. This is just meant to be a distraction, right? She's not trying to be the next Beethoven.

She finds Lance sulking, and doesn't even bother to hide her smile. His hair is a curly mess and he looks miserable in the heat. "Hey. Don't melt before you teach me anything."

"Too late." He responds sullenly, but still offers a smile in return and leads the way into the spire.

But, of course Rosen's apartment is at the top of the building, so-- "I hope you like stairs."

She shoots him a dirty look. Of course she doesn't like stairs. "You know, I used to be able to teleport," she replies, and it's mostly a joke, which might be surprising. She's trying not to dwell on how much losing her magic sucks, with mixed results.

No one likes stairs.

He notes the mostly-joke, trying to respond just as lightly. "At least having to climb stairs is an easy way to get exercise. It's not like any of the fun ways are really practical with this weather."

"There are fun ways to exercise?" This is news to her. "Like what? Swimming?"

"I'm one of those horrible people that like running, but swimming's generally considered fun exercise, yeah." He's not as big on swimming for his own reasons, but he can see why people like it.

"Ew." She wrinkles her nose very maturely, voice teasing. "How are we friends again?"

"That's one of the great mysteries." And okay, already feeling the stairs. Maybe they don't actually need this kind of exercise after all, considering the heat and the food shortage.

Yeah, this sucks, but at least they've only got a flight or two to go. "Do you think they did this on purpose? Like, we were all complaining about being in a cave, so they stuck us somewhere we'd roast?"

"I would think so if it weren't for that they seem to legitimately not care about us enough to even bother spiting us." Which is... Both good and bad, Lance supposes, even if it's also really irritating.

"Ugh. Assholes." They'll just be bitter about this forever. Meanwhile, they've reached the correct floor, and Kyna lets out a dramatic sigh of relief. "God. Finally."

Finally indeed. Lance is very relieved to be able to unlock the door and lead the way in, waiting for Kyna to enter before locking the door behind them. He doesn't really expect anyone to show up unannounced at Rosen's apartment who would be a problem, but still.

"Tada." He says it utterly flatly, but there's a small amused expression on his face as he gestures toward the piano in the living room.

"Ohhh, nice," she responds sarcastically, then gives him a gentle nudge towards the piano, grinning. "I'm ready to be impressed."

Um, rude. "I don't think showing off is going to be conducive to teaching. I have twenty years of practice, so it'll create unrealistic expectations."

Admittedly, her expectations are already pretty rock bottom. She's mostly doing this because it sounds fun, not out of any hope of being great at it. "Come on, I don't even get to see you play once?"

But what if it just makes the whole thing frustrating if she's not instantly good at it? WHAT IF???

"I'll play afterward." He can promise that much, anyway, going over to the piano and lifting the cover off the keys.

"Okay, deal." If this were anything even remotely related to magic, his worries would be perfectly justified, but this is so outside of her wheelhouse that it's fine. "Ready when you are."

"Okay, sit down." Lance gestures to the bench, moving to stand a little off to the side of the piano so he can reach in to press keys but not crowd her. "I'll show you how to rest your hands, but you're just going to learn to use the right one for now. Adding the left comes a little later."

She sits, looking up at him when he talks, then holds up her right hand. "Okay. What do I do?"

"Okay, set it on the keys; your thumb goes here--" He indicates the correct key, then does the same for the left. "Do you touch-type? If you think of it the same way it might help; this is kind of your home position, and you move around from here but then return to these keys as default."

That makes sense. She sets her fingers where he tells her to, head tilting. "Okay. It'd be nice if they put little bumps on the keys so you know where your fingers are." It's a joke. Mostly.

"That would be nice, yeah. You can sort of use the black keys for that, but it's not quite the same."

But he knows she'll get used to it, and considers for a moment how to actually begin teaching her a song. "You should move your hand around, press some keys, and get kind of a sense for how it sounds and how far you have to move your hands or how hard you have to press the keys. Then I'll play a few notes, and you can try to replicate them."

So she does, testing a couple of notes. It's not like she's never messed around on a piano before, but this time she's actually making an attempt to pay attention. "So I'm an expert now, right?"

"You're like, 0.5% an expert." But he appreciates that she's clearly actually working on doing what he said, so he won't make her do so for very long. "Feeling confident enough to try hitting specific notes at specific times?"

She grins up at him. Any amount of expertise is good to her. "Yep. Who taught you how to play anyway?"

"My mom hired a teacher after I broke my foot playing soccer. I think she was trying to keep me busy so I'd be a little less annoying." He says it jokingly, even if he's pretty sure that was indeed the reason; it's not like he blamed his mother for that, considering he knows he was... A challenge, putting it mildly.

But he doesn't stay on that topic long, reaching out to the keys near him; they're higher than the ones Kyna will be playing, but it's much easier to do it this way. "Okay, just a few notes to start with." And he plays a simple repeating pattern of two keys together, a switch to a different two, another note to transition, and then back.

Kyna laughs a little, partially at the story and partially at what he's showing her. "Yeah, just a few," she replies a little sarcastically, but she gives it a shot anyway. Unsurprisingly, it's clumsy and a bit fumbling, but after a little trial and error she mostly manages the rhythm.

Lance gives her a small, amused grin at the sarcasm, but he's confident she can get it and she soon does. "See? Not so bad."

He starts playing to match hers, so it'll be easier for her to get the timing. "Okay, so, after this part that's another transition and then a repeat, before you get into the part meant to mimic lyrics. That's a little more complicated."

It's definitely easier to mimic him when he's playing alongside her, and she watches his hand as he does, trying to figure out exactly what he's doing. "A little complicated, says the super genius."

"I am not a super genius." Just putting in that correction there, again. "It really isn't that bad, it's just more than what we're doing; if you feel okay with this part, I'll show you."

"I know. I'm just kidding." She can't tell if that sort of teasing bugs him, but hopefully not. "Let me see."

It doesn't actually bother him, exactly, it's just more that he tries to avoid any intelligence-related labels. His experiences with being of higher than average intelligence, combined with everything he's learned as a psychologist, makes for him having a complicated mix of opinion on the subject.

But he nods at her last comment, playing through the part they'd just gone over including the new transition, before adding the first five notes of the lyric-based melody. "The new part--those five notes--repeat again, but just try to get them with the right timing once for now."

Again, Kyna watches carefully, as though trying to memorize his movements. "You want me to play just the last part, or that whole thing? And wait, didn't you say this felt like casting a spell to you?" She's still curious about that.

"Just the last part, unless you want to do the whole thing; it helps to do it all together every time you learn a new part, but if it's something brand new it's usually best to practice just that part. I can play it along with you, if that helps."

As for her other question, he gives a small shrug. "It does when I'm really into it; right now it's more like just pressing buttons." Because he's thinking about the logic of it, plus only playing a few notes at a time and doing so while standing off to the side.

"Can you play with me again?" It helped last time, and she thinks she might need him to do it for a bit longer before she starts to get it. "And, uh... Do you want me to move over so you can sit down or something?"

"Sure." He starts on the five note pattern with a small pause in between, so she can join in any time. "No, it's okay; it's easier to learn when you're able to sit in the center of the bench and face the piano correctly and that sort of thing."

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