Information

Sabriel.

The

Reborn Celinox
Owner:

Age: 2 years, 2 weeks, 4 days

Born: June 1st, 2011

Adopted: 2 years, 2 weeks, 4 days ago

Adopted: June 1st, 2011

This pet has been nominated for the Pet Spotlight!

Statistics

Level: 1
Strength: 10
Defense: 10
Speed: 10
Health: 10
HP: 0/10
Intelligence: 0
Books Read: 0
Food Eaten: 0
Job: Unemployed

One, two, three, four.

She tapped her pale, slender fingers against the bench upon which she sat. They made a soft knocking noise every time her fingertips made contact with the wood, her skin stiff and senseless from years of wear and tear. Her palms were warm and sweaty, nearly glued to her seat, stuck where they were out of fear that the slightest movement would distract her from the task at hand.

A loud bang startled her out of her hazy thoughts, and she resisted the urge to jump. A timpani. She passively wondered why anyone would choose to learn such a large and cumbersome instrument, even though she wasn't one to speak. She considered whether to pull her own instrument back to her shoulder, but quickly shrugged the idea off – after all, smart harpists only wore their harps if they were about to play.

The conductor swayed to and fro on top of his podium, never caring to look beyond the sea of violinists at the girl who sat alone. At times she felt as awkward as her instrument; other times, she questioned why she had chosen to play the harp at all. Nobody ever talked to her. Hardly anyone ever acknowledged that she was even there. With a frown, she quietly remembered the countless rehearsals at which she played only several minutes worth of music – hardly worth the time and effort. What compelled her to remain loyal to such a lonesome, introverted instrument?

She started counting over again.

She glanced over her music, delicately fingering the page corner she had bent from countless, hasty flips. There was the violin solo. She watched the cued notes rise and fall on the page. She gulped. Her eyes nervously flitted to the heavy, dark marks scattered across the opposite page – she would have to contribute soon.

Stretching, she reached out to place her feet near the base of her instrument for support. Carefully watching the conductor again, she silently damned herself for putting herself in such a strange and stressful situation.

Yet, as she slowly brought her harp backward, snugly fitting it against her right shoulder, she couldn't help but feel a familiar sense of pride. She rubbed over the small dents and scrapes she had contributed to its frame over the years. As silly as she thought it was, she couldn't help but acknowledge the strange, simple companionship she felt with it. For her, it was the only way she could express herself; through music, she communicated in ways unimaginable. It didn't matter how little she played, or how unnoticed she went – there was something about playing on such a unique instrument that made her feel like her intimate, modest feelings mattered.

As she lifted her hands upwards, she was reminded vaguely of the negative feelings she had harbored up until that point. It made her smile every time.

No, those feelings were never right.

Taking a deep breath, she let her fingertips dig into the strings. As she started to let her muscle memory take over, she could only grin wider as her instrument reverberated with the colors and sounds she had learned to love long ago.

With a nod she took off, and after a mere minute of intense focus and blinding movement, her whirlwind of chords and ascending scales was over. She let out a sigh as she lowered her instrument back to the floor. Brushing messy bangs from her forehead, she cast one last glance at her music, which was marked with a single, simple word:

Tacet.

The word for silence.

She nodded to herself knowingly, letting her hands rest once more in her lap. She was done.

And as she sat behind her harp, all she could do was continue to smile.

This was where she belonged.

Full Name: Sabriel Alandra Gates

Nickname: Sabi

Age: 26

Birthdate: November 12th, 1757 CY

Height: 5'8''

Origin: OC; from the Wings of Blue Flame storyline

Occupation: Professional harpist (orchestral and solo)

Theme Song: Danses Sacrée et Profane, Claude Debussy

Artwork: X by

Bio: Born into a family with an extensive history of music and money, Sabriel found no problems in asking her parents for lessons on the harp. Though the Gates family had always embraced new art forms, the harp was gigantic, rare, and crazily expensive - much more radical than the typical violin or flute. Yet, despite her parents' incredulous reactions, nothing seemed to shake young Sabriel's fascination with the instrument - and, after being questioned time and again, she was granted harp lessons after her eighth birthday.

Sabriel, whom had always been the quiet, awkward and introverted child, soon discovered that the instrument meant much more to her than just a side hobby; when she went to practice, an uncharacteristic smile spread across her face every time, and she began to speak to herself and to others in a shy, yet confident manner. It didn't change when she walked onstage, either; when she performed, there was a glint in her eyes that revealed her delight in being able to truly express herself for the first time. Though nobody, not even she, would admit to this new-found inner strength, there was something about the harp that had finally brought out the real Sabriel - something nobody else had ever accomplished before.

As she grew older, her aloofness remained, as well as her loyalty to her instrument. While some people raised their eyebrows at her fragmented, nervous talking patterns, and others snidely commented on her odd mannerisms, Sabriel always knew that she could seek refuge in her music study and practice the day away. The cruelties of high school only drove her further into seclusion, but she persevered, and often spent the remainder of her time playing until her fingers bled. She improved daily, and when she was feeling brave, she joined a youth orchestra as their principal harpist. With high school finished, the road to college only elevated her spirits even higher as she took on a music performance degree, and earned high honors both inside and outside of university.

Nowadays, her life is much the same as it was in adolescence. Sabriel technically lives alone, but she would correct you and point out that her instrument might as well be considered another person. She makes a modest living as a professional musician, contrary to what her parents truly wanted, but she is her own person. There's no reason to live without music, as Sabriel would say, and although she's far surpassed her peers, she still continues to practice - much like the young, awkward girl who simply fell in love with an equally awkward instrument.

Credits:

Profile design/coding, overlay edit, and written material by Soren.

All the information in the "harp" section was written without any external references. Soren is also a harpist and wanted to share some cool facts about the instrument!

Sheet music is from the Romanian Rhapsodies (1 and 2), composed by George Enescu. Both were found on IMSLP.org.

Scrap paper graphics found on Sxc.hu.

Pet name and information font is "Sulatko", found on Dafont.com.

Background pattern is "Humidor", found on Dinpatterns.com.

Harp images in the "harp" section are from Lyonhealy.com. Harp image in profile found through Google images.

Curious about the harp? Here's some interesting facts to help introduce you to the instrument!

1. The modern orchestral harp is known as a pedal harp. Designed in the 1800s after centuries of playing on simpler instruments, pedal harps allowed performers to keep up with the times as music became more chromatic. Like the name suggests, pedal harps have seven medium-sized pedals at the base, one for each tone of the musical scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B). Each pedal has three different notches in which they can be set - by sliding a pedal between the notches, a harpist can change all the strings of a single pitch from a "natural" position to a "sharp" or "flat" position immediately. Though this sophisticated system allows for a harpist to play in any key imaginable, it is also very difficult to master, as one must use their feet to move them (and one must wear special shoes, as most wear a certain kind of heeled shoe to prevent their ankles from hurting!). Another problem with pedals is that many orchestral composers simply do not understand how the system works - many pieces by unsuspecting composers are thus infuriating to harpists, as they often require illogical and near-impossible pedal changes to be made.

The next time you see a harpist perform, take a glance at their feet - they're probably moving pedals all the time!

2. Besides the pedal harp, there is a smaller kind of harp known as the folk, Celtic or lever harp. The name also gives away an important mechanism of this variant - instead of pedals at the base, these harps have levers on one side, which can be flipped to change the tone of a string. Unlike the pedal harp, each lever only moves one string at a time (so there are as many levers as strings!), and each can only be set in an up or down position - either the lever can be "natural" and "sharp" or "natural" and "flat". Because it's impossible to play in certain keys on lever harps, they are never used in orchestra, and are instead used for solo, mostly Celtic works.

3. On typical concert-sized pedal harps, there are a total of 47 strings. Some harps do vary, however - other, smaller pedal harps have 46 or 40, while lever harps can have 36, 34, or even 22 strings total. Strings are also color-coded for convenience: every C string is red, while every F string is black or blue. This is a big help, visually, so that harpists can have a better sense of where they're supposed to place their fingers when they play.

4. Harps are, indeed, quite an expensive instrument. While lever harps typically range between $2,000 and $6,000 (in US dollars), pedal harps can be anywhere from $12,000 to $65,000, depending on the maker. There's even one harp in particular that sells for almost $200,000!