Panic in The Pandemic

A New Challenger Approaches!

   "Is that the best you can do?" the stranger scoffs, rising to his feet. He presses the fake glasses he's wearing up the bridge of his nose, and they flash in the nonexistent light.

   "Why are your glasses flashing like that smart guy in an anime?" Steph asks.

   "Hush, peasant." The strange fake-glasses man walks up to them and whips off the spectacles. It was... Synkite.

   "Oh, you're that famous violist!" Steph exclaims.

   "Violist?! How dare you associate me with that filthy instrument. No, I play the violin." Synkite walks closer, his hands in his pockets, and looks Steph up and down with a scrutinizing glare. "You, on the other hand...that is a violist. Ever considered switching? That was the worst intonation I've ever heard. She is miles ahead of you." Synkite points to Kasie, who was standing in the corner practicing her concerto. "What do you play, Flight of the Bumblebee?" 

   Steph crumpled his Flight of the Bumblebee score behind his back and stammered, "O-Of course not!"

   "Then act like it. From now on, I am your sensei! Call me Sensei Synkite!" Synkite whips a violin bow out of nowhere and points it at Steph's forehead. "You and her—" Synkite nodded to Kasie, who was still practicing like the big sweat she is. "I will tutor the two of you plebs until you become violin masters like me! Together we will sail the seven skies and fly the seven seas!" 

   "That's not how it works," Steph says, going cross-eyed from looking at the bow.

   "Oh my god, it's Synkite!" Kasie says suddenly, noticing Synkite standing with his rented $20 suit. "Please give me your autograph! You're my idol!"

   "What about me? Why do I hear boss music?" Steph cried as Kasie and Synkite started talking about sweaty violinist stuff that he didn't understand. All of a sudden, he realized... He had a competitor.