Archive of Our Own ^beta

“I think you should learn to play the piano.”

Lukas turned his head to see that Vanessa had walked into the music room. “Why?” he asked, lowering his bow and violin.

“Because I can play the piano and I want you to play with me. Plus, piano music goes better with my singing voice. So, I want you to learn to play the piano instead of that.” She pointed to his violin as if it had offended her somehow.

Lukas frowned down at it himself. His playing didn’t sound that bad, did it? He’d only been practicing for a few weeks now but is instructor said he was doing well. And he’d known how to play cello for years now so he didn’t have to go through the hurdle of learning the basics of playing a stringed instrument. So his playing, though definitely not the best was nowhere near being as offensively awful as Vanessa’s tone suggested it was.

He didn’t want to learn to play the piano. Not that he had anything against pianos or the way they sounded but… he preferred string instruments played with a bow. He liked the way they looked and sounded and he felt fancy when he played them. And piano was the most commonly played instrument in this part of the world, he liked playing something different. Besides…

“You already know how to play the piano,” he said, looking back up at Vanessa. “So why do I need to learn it?”

“Because I want you to. We can sit next to each other and play together. We’ll be super cute and everyone will be jealous. So put that silly thing away or heck go ahead and get rid of it. I’ll teach you how to play piano instead, okay?”

Lukas looked back down at his violin. He didn’t want to get rid of it, he wanted to keep at it until he was good at it. He didn’t have any dreams or really the talent or dedication to become a professional musician but it was a nice way to relax sometimes. Vanessa wanted him to play the piano though so… piano it was. Perhaps learning to play an instrument that was so different from the instrument he’d already mastered would be good for him. He could pick up the violin again later.

[Many, many years later]

Snatcher frowned down at the violin in his hand, stolen from an unfortunate contractor who’d thought taking a shortcut through Subcon Forest was a good idea. Or maybe it was a viola or a fiddle. It had been a long time since Snatcher had held one and his large size made it seem rather small no matter what.

He never had gotten back to learning the violin. Vanessa hadn’t let him. In fact, she hadn’t even let him play his cello anymore once she’d finally gotten him on the piano. She’d complained anytime he’d tried to play it until eventually he’d given up and only played the piano with her just like she’d wanted him to. … He hated the piano now.

He was free of her now though and anything she didn’t want him to do he had to do just to spite her. So he teleported to his giant reading hollow and shrunk down to be closer to the size of a normal person. But… he didn’t have a chin anymore so how was he supposed to hold it? And would his less than normal arms make a difference in how he held it too? What about fingers? … Ah, whatever, he’d figure it out eventually by just messing around with it.

[Less than an hour later]

“That sounds like a dying cat.”

Snatcher almost flinched as he looked up to see Hat Kid in his hollow. He frowned at her, annoyed that he’d been too focused to see or even notice her approach. “What do you want kid?” he said, lowering the violin.

“I want to ask why you’re playing the guitar so bad.”

“It’s not a guitar, it’s a violin. What kind of idiot doesn’t know the difference?”

Hat Kid frowned and shrugged. “Mu has a stringed instrument that she calls a guitar, specifically an electric guitar implying there might be non-electric guitars somewhere. I thought that that might be one. I’ve never seen one before though or one of those so how was I supposed to know what it was? I’m an alien, remember? We don’t have those things where I’m from.”

Well, that did make sense. “What kind of instruments do your people play?”

“I don’t know. I’ve spent my whole life learning how to fly and repair a spaceship. I barely had time to listen to music on the radio, let alone anything else. But anyway, is the violin supposed to sound like that or are you just bad?”

Snatcher scowled. “It’s been a long time since I last played, okay? Like since before I died. I just need a bit of time to get a feel for it again. Also, I would like to add that it’s a right-handed violin, I like to play with my left hand.” He was ambidextrous these days but back then he’d been a lefty, meaning he was inclined to hold it wrong on top of the already awkward position not having a chin forced him to hold it in. “And how about you try playing a stringed instrument when your hands don’t like to form proper fingers and see how well you do.” Making round fingers was much harder when his hands wanted to make claws which would’ve probably cut the strings so he had to fight against that. “And to top it all off I’m pretty sure it’s out of tune.” And he didn’t remember how exactly each string was supposed to sound while in tune so he’d just been fiddling with the knobs every now and then, hoping the information would come back to him eventually and/or he’d somehow get it right on accident. “So, shut up.”

Hat Kid smiled up at him. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. I didn’t know you played instruments though. But I guess that explains that giant violin that’s frozen or whatever in the ruins part of the forest.”

“That’s not a violin, it’s a cello.” And Snatcher should probably get back into playing that too. It’d probably be easier because of how long he’d played the cello before Vanessa had taken it away from him.

“But… it looks a lot like the violin just bigger. Why not just call it a big violin?”

“Because it’s a cello. It’s an entirely different instrument kid, it sounds different and you hold it differently, meaning you play it differently too.” Though as large as Snatcher could make himself, he could possibly get away with playing a cello like a violin. … He’d have to try it one day for sure because it sounded like fun.

“Hmmm… fine I guess, whatever. But are those the only two instruments you can play?”

“No, I can play the piano too. And since I can sort of sometimes play the violin, I should be able to play the viola too because they’re very similar. I also played the trumpet as a kid but that was a very long time ago so I doubt I still can.”

“You’re like a musical genius.”

Snatcher opened his mouth to contradict her because he wasn’t anywhere even close to being a musical genius but stopped himself. “Yep, I sure am kiddo,” he said instead because admitting to his flaws wasn’t his thing.

Hat Kid thought for a few moments before her expression brightened as if she’d just thought of something which he probably wasn’t going to like. “Oh, I know. Let’s start a band.”

Yep, Snatcher didn’t like it. “Why?”

“Because you can play a bunch of instruments, Mu can play the guitar and Bow is learning how to play what’s called a keyboard from one of the moon penguins, I think she’s pretty good. And I recently also learned that the Conductor can play drums and of course DJ Grooves has a nice singing voice. That’s enough for a band. Though we could maybe use one or two more people, we’ll have to ask around.”

“Uh… what will you do?”

“I’ll be the person who leads with the wand thingy. I did it with the marching band in one of Grooves’ movies, he showed me how. It was a lot of fun. So how ‘bout it? Want to do it?”

Snatcher had much better things to do than start a band. Especially one led by Hat Kid of all people. She didn’t even know the names of most instruments or what a music conductor and baton were. But…

“Pretty please with lots of cherries on top,” she said, her expression far too cute for its own good. “It’ll be fun. And since you’ll be the first official member, you’ll get to help me make decisions and stuff. And with Grooves’ and the Conductor’s help we can get on the big screen and then we’ll be famous. And I can tell you from experience that being famous is pretty fun. And it’ll be…

“Fine,” Snatcher cut in. “I’ll join your stupid band mostly just to get you to shut up about it.”

“Yes!” She literally jumped for joy. “Thank you!”

“Yeah, whatever.” Snatcher would let her have her happiness for now because there was no way it could last. The others she’s mentioned probably wouldn’t want to join, except for Bow and maybe Mu. So really, he wasn’t agreeing to anything too bad which was why it was okay for him to do so. When her dumb bad idea inevitably failed, he’d have a good laugh at her. If it succeeded then he might be stuck. It wouldn’t succeed though… probably.