[ABO BL Anthology] Time Cross Academy

Panotti of the Opera (11)

Klick was still recovering and Bruce was taking care of him so there was nobody around to disturb Syris and Floopy in the greenhouse. Nobody bothered them for cutting class either so they were able to make some progress for the musical that Amanda refused to cancel despite the poor response.

They went through the songs that Floopy prepared and invited a few friends from the forest to help.

“Alright, this part is the chorus. It’s going to be singing instead of rapping. The melody will sound something like this. In three, four!”

Syris listened to the birds singing each note according to Floopy’s gesture and found it very interesting. He often listened to other people sing, usually his siblings. However, none of them was able to bring out such a harmonious blend of noises. IN fact, it was usually awful if more than one person sang at a time.

Likewise, Syris noted that the voices of the crickets and birds normally clashed badly with each other as if fighting for a spot on the stage. However, under Floopy’s command, they were able to soothe ears and hearts.

“This is how I thought it would sound,” Floopy admitted after the chorus ended. The melody was written fairly simply but there could be many variations to play with on the live performance. He was nervous and wanted to ask Syris for his opinion seeing that the merman was going to be singing it.

The prince didn’t look very alert. That faraway look was a sure sign of daydreaming and instantly, Floopy became depressed. He knew that his song was far from good. He had failed his prince and felt thoroughly ashamed for even trying to play the tune for Syris.

“I’m sorry, I will go back to revise it immediately!”

Syris who was still basking in the afterglow of good music was shocked back into reality when Floopy started packing up with teary eyes.

“Wait! Why are you leaving?”

Floopy didn’t stop packing until Syris held his hands and kneeled down so that he could look at the panotti.

“I’m sorry,” Syris apologised. He felt that it might have been something that he did, causing Floopy to suddenly drop from heaven to hell. Although he was still unsure about the trigger, he didn’t want the misunderstanding to deepen further.

Dejected, Floopy started to blame himself and ramble on about how it wasn’t a good song, much to Syris’ confusion.

“I knew that creating something so unconventional would be a bad idea. I should have properly considered your position and how the other students will view it. I shouldn’t have made the decision on my own about inserting such a difficult build-up before the chorus, it’s all my fault!”

Patting the boy awkwardly as Floopy burst into tears and spiralled down the hole of self-hatred with abnormally harsh criticism of his song, Syris had to step in to let Floopy know what he thought.

“I actually think it was good. The idea of entering with a rap in a taking tone was brilliant, I’ve never heard of such a thing but when you were demonstrating it earlier, I couldn’t help but pay attention to the words more than the tune. Also, the melody for the chorus was simple enough to remember. I was actually amazed by how good it sounded together when you gave the birds, crickets and frogs instruction to arrange it. I’ve actually never thought that it was possible for many people to come together to sing the same song in a harmonious way that makes the ears feel good.”

Floopy blinked. “No, that was still lacking. The actual score includes the backing vocals, bass and rhythm beats that couldn’t be completely replicated with the vocal cords of the birds or the sounds produced by the insects. I was merely substituting the vocal range and variety in the previous demonstration because unlike us, animals don’t have very developed vocal ranges.”

Cringing at the technical details that he couldn’t understand, Syria nodded. “I think the birds and insects still sing better than me. I could never achieve something like that”

After hearing how Syris was putting himself down, Floopy forgot about his earlier meltdown and became angry. He stood up and glared at Syris cutely.

“You’re not allowed to say such a thing!” he declared and pulled Syris up to his feet before storming around and talking to a bird who still hasn’t flown away.

Syris watched the composer talk to the bird through whistles and tried to imitate the sound without much success. Making sounds come out of his mouth by blowing air was a lot harder than singing. Perhaps this was because he was part fish and not an actual creature that breathes air very often.

“Mr Bird has agreed to help us out with pitching,” Floopy announced with a grin. “I’m going to prove to you that you can actually sing so that you have no reasons to continue demeaning yourself. Are you ready to be amazed by your talents?”

Unable to refuse, Syris found himself dragged into a vocal pitch placement activity. Basically, he spent a good hour listening to Mr Bird chirp in different tunes and trying to imitate the sound. Floopy would correct him in places that were either too high or too low. The pitching test was awful but Floopy didn’t give up. In fact, the panotti gave Syris one praise that greatly improved his confidence.

“You have a good sense of rhythm. This is actually the most important part of music. You can never perform music alone. It’s an activity that requires the cooperation and support of many people. Just to play one simple melody, I had insects, frogs and birds to sing it. The thing that keeps everyone on the same note when singing is rhythm. When you say that your siblings can sing beautifully alone but never together, this is one of the reasons. The lack of cooperation is the first downfall to making good music. As I thought, you’re a really great guy! Not many people are able to make friends with animals easily because they are weak and easily scared. Mr Bird has already taken a liking to you!”

Although Syris didn’t manage to get every tune right, he was able to see the difference from before and after. Floopy was not only a talented musician and composer. He was also a great teacher. Of the many vocal teachers and singers that were engaged to teach Syris how to sing, nobody ever taught him the way Floopy taught.

The panotti taught the merman all about breathing and singing from different parts of his body. At one point, Floopy shyly asked for permission to show him where the secret power of singing comes from. Curious, Syris agreed.

They blushed when Floopy touched around Syris’ stomach area, trying to locate where his diaphragm might be if he even had one. The panotti was afraid that merfolks weren’t able to sing the normal way because of their constitution. When Syris demonstrated how sirens sounded underwater, Floopy was instantly terrified that Syris might want to perform in a glass tank. Sonar sounds were beautiful but they weren’t able to transmit well.

After fumbling around with a few blushes and awkward moments, Floopy was finally able to confirm that while Syris didn’t have all the human-like parts, his land parts worked fine.

“Breathe in from your mouth into your lungs, don’t use your gills! You need to store air there and not create air.”

Syris tried again and messed up the timing bad enough that he ended up coughing for a long time. Breathing through his mouth wasn’t something he was used to. The air that rushed into his lungs was quick but it dried out his throat quickly. Sometimes, he would have to supplement the air by breathing through his gills but the tricky part came in when he had to switch. If he wasn’t fast enough, the water from his gills will flow into his throat, causing him to choke and cough.

Floopy cringed. There were bigger problems than teaching Syris how to carry tune at this rate. The siren doesn’t know the basics of how a sound is formed properly, he wouldn’t be able to sing at this rate until he fully grasped the basics.

With only a month left till the date of the performance, Floopy felt slightly concerned. Would they be able to make it on time?