Closed Hums and Discussions

[Eugene Nestor]

Despite it being exam season, Eugene was happily humming to himself. He couldn't stop himself from it really, he'd started singing when he'd gotten up and really hadn't stopped. The sun was shining and he was just in a good mood. He was ignore the work he was going to have to do soon enough, the time he was going to have to spend studying, but today would be a good day, he could feel it in his bones. The hufflepuff sat down at the hufflepuff house table, smiling and greeting the tired and stressed faces around him. He grabbed some juice and some food, loading his plate up and then beginning to eat his breakfast, still humming away as he did so. ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Despite everything else that was going on, the Arts Club was a major point of focus in his mind. He'd gone over the meeting in his mind a hundred times, and he knew what he wanted to do. He was looking over the Hufflepuff table that morning, smiling brightly as he spotted who he was looking for. He sat across from Eugene, picking up a muffin from nearby. "Have a song stuck in your head?" He asked, taking a bite from his muffin. Ooh, apple crumble.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene glanced up and stopped his humming before laughing lightly. "Always my dude," he said, "It's like a broke jukebox up there," he joked lightly, but his head was always filled with music, he couldn't often get away from whatever song was on his mind, whether his or not his. "The music room is really cool, it's a good revamp," he told him, since he'd been using it and appreciating it he was sure the boy who'd done it would appreciate being told. ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Casper smiled, feeling more certain of his decision then. "Well, that's good. And I'm glad you like it." Cas picked up his drink and took a sip. He set it down and folded his hands on the table in front of him. "There was actually something I wanted to talk to you about." He gave Eugene his best smile, hoping he appeared friendly and approachable.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene smiled at him, since he was very pleased for all the work that he'd done on the room, and appreciated being a part of the club. It was the best club he was in aside from Accio. "Oh sure thing!" he was a little confused as to why Casper wanted to talk to him of all people. "What can I do for you?" ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Cas let out a nervous sigh. "Alright, listen," Cas scooted closer, folding his arms on the table and leaning in a bit, looking serious. "I'm opening a new position in the club. I want you to take over as the music leader," He explained. "Music isn't taken seriously enough in the club. I'm tired of just trying to throw crafts at it and pretend its good for musicians. It's basically like being co-leader of the club," He told Eugene.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded eager, and then abruptly stopped. Him...the musical leader....of a club. He was mostly just staring at the older boy trying to figure out why he had picked him of all people, and not someone else. Sure he took music seriously, but he...him..."Wow," he had never lead anything at his last school and now he might be part of leading two. "Um..before I say yes, I'm interested, but how much work would be involved?" He needed to figure out if it would interfere with Accio. ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Cas smiled brightly, pleased that Eugene was interested. "Oh, that's up to you." He told the boy. "You could get more involved, organizing things, but I have a lot of spare time, it could be a purely leader-based position. You could tell me what you wanted to do and I'd make sure it was done, and you'd just stand with me and then help execute it during the actual club meeting. Maybe come early while I'm setting up to make sure it's the way you wanted," He explained.

He knew Eugene was part of another club as well, so he had tried to think of ways to make it easier. "Of course, that means that when I graduate, you would take over the club. Of course, I could appoint someone else to take over the arts side if you'd like," He offered. Ideally, he thought the club would run well with two leaders, one to focus on the musicians and one to focus on the artists. Cas just wanted music to be taken more seriously at the school.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene listened along to what he said, nodding along to what role he would play within the club, it would be fun and he could agree with the desire for a leader of the music part, it was a club with a wide scope that would benefit from shared ideas. He had mere moments from agreeing when Casper continued..he'd be the leader too....oh. He could be the leader too. "Oh....I'd be interested in leading the musical section, but I dunno about leading the whole club....I'm due to take over Accio next year too, it would be a lot....," he said. "If I say yes now, to the music part, could we revisit the leadership stuff closer to the time?" he asked. Eugene didn't want to take too much on, but he did want to take on at least the music part, and if there was an option of him keep that part and someone else becoming leader, he wouldn't mind that at all, but he was pretty sure there was a little time before that, so it wouldn't have to be a decision made immediately. ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Cas nodded easily, relieved that he'd gotten at least a little bit of Eugene's interest. "Well, ideally, I'd like to have two people running the club. I haven't chosen someone else yet, but I would want to talk to you about anyone I was considering, since they'd be working with you after I left. If the time comes and you don't feel like you want more responsibility, we'll just pick someone who can handle running things like I do now. What I'm looking for is a team." He tried to explain. "Currently, I'm still running the club, but I'm not going to have power over your decisions about the music section. Am I making sense?" Cas asked, hoping he was explaining it right.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded along as Casper spoke, he understood what he meant, and though Eugene was sure that even between two leaders, perhaps one would need to do more than another, but he nodded. "Yeah, I get it, I mean I'm interested, at least in the music section for now," he wanted to try it out and see how it worked, knowing it would help make his decision at the end of the following year. He gave a little eager smile. "When do I start?" he asked. ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Casper smiled widely. "Well, we can start whenever you want," Cas pulled out his notebook and scribbled down a few things. "Do you have any ideas you want to discuss?" Cas asked. He wasn't sure if Eugene was the type who'd already have a million thoughts running through his mind or if he would need more time.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded, "Okay then!" he agreed. He then shook his head a little. "I mean, not particularly, I've never run a club, and in my mind music is just a jam session, where everyone sits and plays," he said. "I'll give it some thought though Casper!" he assured him. Since Eugene had never led a club and had a limit knowledge about running a club, he knew he'd have to watch. "Do you have any ideas for the club that I could build the music into it?" ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Cas considered what the boy said, tapping his pencil against the page and considering. "Well... I was honestly kind of considering making the next meeting about baking sweets for valentines day, or decorating cookies, but that seems less artsy and more food-y, you know?" He sighed. "I don't want to just do valentines cards, I know there are people that are more jaded about the holiday..." He drummed his fingers on the table. "I want to do something more valentines themed," He mused aloud.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded as Casper told him what he'd been thinking about for the next arts event, and he gave a little think on it. "I mean, we in the music section could do break up and make up songs?" he suggested, "Giving people the space to work maybe with some music people to write lyrics and work on a song or two," he wasn't sure how well it would work, or how many people would want to do that, but in Eugene's mind, if in doubt write a song. ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Caspers eyes lit up. "Oooh, yes, what if like... we make it more of a therapeutic thing?" Cas started scribbling quickly. "You can have the music room writing make up and break up songs," Cas looked up to Eugene with a wry grin and a gleam in his eye. "And I'm going to hang up a giant wall of paper and we're going to sling paint at it," He was practically bouncing in his seat. "What better way to get out some emotion than to throw paint and bop to some music?"

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded in agreement, "Give people some space to feel how they want to," Eugene thought it would be good to give people the space to be able to express themselves. He knew Charlie had had a bit of a reaction to it that first time, but it had gone away. It had been okay in the end. "You know muggles have these rooms you can pay to go destroy things, so we could let people create and destroy in equal measure," Eugene agreed that they were certainly on the right track for an event.​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Casper nodded. "Ohhh, that's a great idea! What if we have everyone make some kinetic sand as well? It's like this, formable sand, you use corn starch and sand and colored water and you can mold it into things and squish it and remold it, it's really easy to make and loads of fun!" Cas chattered, thinking it could be a great to to create and destroy.

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene had never heard of Kinetic sand but it certainly seemed like it too would work and perhaps would be less messay than just straight up destroying something. Eugene nodded. "This is gonna be really fun, if we have that too!" he told Casper. He could see why folks were club leaders, it could be so much fun to come up with new ideas and things to do. ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Cas nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Exactly," He smiled brightly. "I was thinking too, what if like, we get some of the older students and start a volunteer program? And like we can offer a sign up sheet where older students can offer music lessons to the younger ones, and they can meet up outside of the club to improve their music?" He offered. "I was thinking of offering painting lessons myself, but I wasn't sure if it was a good idea."

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene considered it. "I would maybe say that it wouldn't need to be older kids doing the teaching, and maybe we just encourage it?" He said, "Maybe we can suggest it, have the sign up sheet for kids who want to teach and then let everyone else know which instruments are available to learn," he said. Knowing that it was better to figure out what instruments they had and at what level before they did anything else. And he knew given his age, he could teach someone guitar but they wouldn't necessarily be younger than him. "but maybe that's something for next year?"​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Casper considered what Eugene was saying, and scribbled down a few notes. "That's a good idea, yeah, I'll do some more research on it and we can revisit it again next year." Cas bit his pencil, thinking a moment before another idea hit him. "Oh! What if like, we taught some music history as well?" He asked. "I don't mean like full out lessons, but more like, I can gather a bunch of textbooks and we have like a little library, and we can offer assignments? Like we can ask everyone what got them into music, who inspires them, just help them explore their musical identities or something?"

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene nodded in agreement, there was time before the next semester to do something with it. Then Casper kept speaking, and he was a little nervous by it. He had never done music history, he knew some basics around it because of wanting to play old songs...but nothing that extensive. He just gave a little frown. "I'm not sure Casper...it's a club, that seems a bit more like homework? We could do music discussions, but I think the space should be about creating, learning to play and improving skills and then...just having fun," he said nervously. the idea wasn't bad, just in his mind not good. ​

 

[Casper Kinnek]

Cas considered what Eugene was saying, tapping his pencil quickly on his paper. "That's fair, yeah, I see your point. I just think its sad we don't have any kind of music program," He wondered idly why that was. Maybe he should go talk to the head librarian guy? There should be a music section in the library. "I just- want kids to feel like music is really a serious pursuit, there's this rich culture behind all of it and our schooling never even mentions it. If we can learn about plants and animals and the stars and muggle stuff, why can't we learn about the arts? Like there is no art history course or any sort of music programs or theater club or anything, it's ridiculous."

 

[Eugene Nestor]

Eugene consider his point and then nodded. "I get what you're saying Casper," he started, "Why don't we just get books about art and music history and have them there, and sign post it to people joining?" the boy suggested, "People can seek them out for themselves, learn about it if they want to, and make sure that everyone knows the space is one for anyone to come and learn?" Eugene suggested, perhaps they could without making it too formal, help address some of what Casper was saying. ​