Goodnight Moon ↣ P. Jackson + A. Chase

1.01

The cool metal under her fingers was a comfort as she shifted the weight of the flute and brought it to her lips letting it hover in place a moment before she fully began her song.

Fingers flit with precision, graceful as she moved into the music and Kassandra let the sound breathe life into her veins once more, let the power of song carry her from below the weight of the sun glaring down upon her shoulders and the back of her head.

Her school orchestra had elected to hold a concert during the summer, just after the end of school, in a park open to the public. And as she simply didn't want to risk losing her position as first chair flautist, she had elected to arrive at camp a few days later this year accepting whatever risk would befall her i the mortal world.

She followed the sheet music before her pointlessly, knowing the song and each song they would play by heart already. It was a gift, really, one that she would never openly thank her father for, not even in her own thoughts, but one that she was appreciative for nonetheless. 

Glancing over the gathered crowd, Kassandra spotted her parents at the front and took in their matching smiles with happiness, breathing the bits of her glowing soul into the sound as it carried sweet and clear, ringing within the harmonies of the symphony her peers created.

A pullback, she breathes a gasp, flashing a grin to her parents, before she dives forward once more, fingers flying over the instrument as the intricate solo the conductor added -- simply due to the extent of her skill -- played and rose and swirled with beauty through the park, casting the notes over the audience with a swirl. Her eyes flashed, cheeks feeling the burn.

The Royal New York Academy of Performing Arts was not in need of donations or the likes -- the tuition price was high, performance and other various events costing what ould be seen as the appropriate amount for a private school, brought in more than enough of revenue for the school. No, Kassandra thought, this was more of a publicity stunt to draw in the attention of potential candidates or possible donnors to the arts for future events in the form of raising money for one selected charity or another.

It was most likely music related as that was what each department focused on, but Kassandra didn't have much of a care for what cause she was playing for this time when she was too high on the act of a public performance.

Akin to the adrenaline of battle, Kassandra felt like an electric wire, like she housed the power of hundreds and hundreds of mini suns beneath smooth skin. It made her heart thrum and race, burn and pound with joy and excitement that she was itching to release with a burst of movement and flurry of words. She wanted to dance about, wanted to ramble words to her siblings that only they would truly understand for only they would see the truth of the strength of music on the body and soul.

Eyes dancing over the crowd once more, she silently thanks the ADHD that hardwired her body to act and move without a word as her thoughts stall at the familiar figure in a wheelchair at the back. He was smiling at her, a proud little twitch of his lips that was all too sad to mean anything other than bad news at the height of her joy and contentment.

And just like that, the world of gods and monsters crashed around her once more, the horror of it all brimming up around her like the silence and grace of a sunburn.

Her playing from then was performative at best, beautiful certainly, but performative without a doubt. It didn't bring her the same addicting high as it had before, didn't bring her the same hardened strength.

For Kassandra was a demigod and sometimes she simply had to do what she had to do even if it meant that she didn't like it because if Chiron was away from camp then he wasn't here for her performance. Something was wrong and she was to be off on a mission once more, perhaps a quest that her father had brought the centaur for her to perform knowing that she would never accept if it was from him directly -- though, why he would ever choose her when her disdain and anger and irredeemable hatred toward the man expressed itself with clarity in the disrespectful nature of her actions when her siblings were equally as capable was beyond her so that wasn't likely the case.