Chapter Text
Chatter roars through the Josiane Redmund Center for Music. Talk of the new school year, the freshman welcome week parties, and the pains of moving in float between conversations. Mixed somewhere in the cacophony of all the voices is a consistent clicking of plastic in the grooves of tile. The tap of leather shoes walking a path through the music center like second nature.
The creaky swing of an old door, and the acoustic rumbling of its swing in the large theater.
The sound of clicking is replaced by the scratchy sound of plastic rolling across carpet, and the chatter dies down until it's far behind in the halls. The theater is old, an unfortunate must lingering in the air that many had hoped would be handled over the summer.
Suddenly the plastic tip bumps into the edge of the stage. With just a touch of blind confidence that the professor knows their way around this building, he climbs the short stairs onto the stage. He sits at the lone piano. Slender fingers run a delicate path across the keys before the professor begins to play a piece. One he composed himself a few years ago.
Students start to trickle in, curious about the music being played. About who was playing the music. And one very excited voice cuts through the delicate sound of piano,
“AYO PROFESSOR LESTER!!”
Professor Arthur Lester laughs, continuing to play his song as he listens to the sounds of students dropping their bags and sitting in seats older than them. Though he can't see them, he can feel the way his new group of students study him. Drinking in what he's sure is one of the more unique ways these young adults have seen a class begin.
“Good morning, Shaun! Run along, you're not in-in Intro anymore.”
Arthur looks towards the sound of Shaun's whining, stopping his song to simply ask, “Would you let your students behave like that?”
There's an embarrassed stutter, a few quiet giggles, and carpet fibers ground underfoot as the graduate student scurries off. Arthur calls out a quick- “See you soon, Shaun!” - before closing out the final notes of Faroe's Lullaby.
Arthur is careful to close the lid as gently as possible before standing. He slips himself around to the front of the piano, looking out to the theater. He can barely make out a pinpoint of the center of the room. Perhaps one or two faceless shapes sitting in the corners of his vision. What little of it he has.
“And good morning to you all. Hopefully you are all scheduled for the Monday, Wednesday, Friday Intro to Music Comp class with Professor Lester. If you are not, the exit is somewhere over there, lovely to meet you but you're burning tuition money sitting in here.”
Another few laughs pipe up from the crowd, and Arthur grins. Making a little shooing motion with his hands before turning on his heel.
“Sage! Are you here?” Arthur calls out, busy with rummaging in his messenger bag for his laptop and a mouse.
“Never leave you hangin’ professor.”
The familiar voice of his TA is much closer than Arthur was expecting. He startles, but shakes it off rather quickly. He stands, turns back in the direction of the seats.
“Execellent. Folks if you haven't a-acquainted- Sage could you set up the introductory slides for me, please? Thank you- If you don’t know our lovely Sage Barberis yet, this is your TA. They also double as my eyes as I am almost completely blind.”
For added effect, Arthur waves a hand in front of his own face.
“You may have seen me walking the halls this morning with my cane. I do not always have my cane but I promise you I do have enough vision that I can navigate these halls on my own. Provided they're empty enough of course.”
Arthur feels the clicker for his presentation pressed into his hand, and he gives a quick thank you before hearing Sage step off the stage.
“I-I tell you all of this because I am SURE you're all lovely, but I do not want you grabbing me and trying to guide me. I have end-ended up on the roof more than once letting students do so.”
Arthur turns to face his projector, he's worked hard to make these slides not only legible to him, but to students as well. Which is rarely an easy task.
“As I said, this is Intro to Music Comp. I am Professor Lester. Welcome to the Josiane Redmund Center for Music, blah blah blah- ah! Here we are.”
Arthur stops clicking on a slide with bright yellow borders, facing the crowd to a low groan and a few hissed complaints. Bags and papers rustle as students get out note taking supplies.
“Im awful, I know. But we s-simply have to hit the ground running on our sections if we plan on getting into the fun part of composing music. Starting with-”
The Introduction
a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece, preceding the theme or lyrics.
Arthur holds a very firm belief that most of life can be presented in much the same way music is. The Introduction being the easiest to connect. It can be the day you are born, or the day you take on a new identity. It can easily be about the day you started rehab, or how you found a family all on your own. Everybody's life starts at the beginning, whether it be grand or mundane. We all start somewhere, and Arthur has had many introductory periods of his life.
His favorite, however, began just four years ago. A rather nice day in May, where the air was warm with the perfect breeze. His daughter all but drags him up to a stranger at the park.