Maximus felt like they were getting better already. They hadn't memorized the notes yet, but they were getting there! If they hummed a note they could pick out which part of the piano it was located, at least. Not the most reliable method, but they wanted to be as confident in the piano as they were with their own voice.

They could use both hands to pluck out notes (slowly and with plenty of mistakes), their long fingers allowing them to play octaves easily, though their 'knife hands' weren't very good if they wanted accuracy. It was something they had to work on, definitely.

Currently they were practicing various scales, trying their best to memorize what they could. Starting from the scale that used only white keys and going up from there. The black keys were 'off notes', as they called them, the white keys quickly earning the name 'on notes'. The black keys played sounds that were flat or sharp depending on whether or not they were going up and down, though when played with specific sets of notes they called 'ladders', they sounded perfect.

It was slow going but they had plenty of patience. There weren't any thoughts of... well, anything aside the piano in their head, completely distracted and soothed as they plucked out a tentative tune. Nothing special, just a couple notes that sounded nice.

But nice was all they wanted, and they knew there was only one way to go in terms of expertise... up.

As the minutes passed into hours, they lost themselves into the flow of music and melody. Not even the occasional fat-fingering of the keys could snap them out of their trance as they played along to their music box as best they could.

Once their fingers started to hurt again, they stopped, just listening to the music box play. They crossed their legs and set the fallboard down over the keys, leaning on it with their arms and head to just listen. It was peaceful, so peaceful, in fact, that they found themselves drifting off.

When the music ended they came to, lifting their body up and rubbing their eyes with the back of their hand. Yes... yes it was a good day. They were getting somewhere.

With that they stood, rubbing their eyes and yawning gently before heading out of the ballroom, a satisfied smile on their face.

Exit