"We have the...?" the aide, Marvis, glanced towards Verity, who was busy setting up the instruments while Rosanna messed around with her harpsichord.
"Gramophone. An interesting name I came up with," Evelyn shamelessly declared.
"Why? I don't know. It just sounds nice."
Aid: —_—
Evelyn: ¬×¬
Rosanna giggled. Ever since Verity's sudden change, she had come to realise how much more lively she was.
She was sarcastic, dramatic, and incredibly fun to be with. Though sometimes she did come off as a grown-up, especially when talking to the aide. It seemed more like she was talking to her age mate.
While with her, she spoke as if to a junior sister. Rosanna pouted, then struck a high note on her instrument.
Why!
She wasn't even that much older and she, Rosanna, knew her better!
Why did she relate to him more!? Hmph!
The aide suddenly felt a chill on his neck. Why was the young miss glaring at him? Really, why was the young miss glaring!? Did she want him dead? QAQ
There was yet to be a gramophone in this world, yet they had already moved to a more advanced player, the "orb player", which, unlike the gramophone's grainy quality, could give very clear music like a modern-day speaker.
Though for her endeavours, she needed something like the gramophone.
But it wasn't just any ordinary gramophone. She had tried her best to describe what she wanted, and Marvis, bless his intelligence, managed to capture that vinyl-like quality she desired onto the gramophone.
Hence, although it was designed like a gramophone, it merely held a similarity and was different in many ways.
The place where the disc was to be placed— a crystal was to be placed instead.
The stylus of the gramophone became more of a conducting material for the runes across the gramophone, allowing it to channel the various functions, such as echo, reverb, distortions, etc., onto the recording crystal while being played.
The functions could be assessed by manipulating the rotary knobs on the box-like part of the gramophone, and the knobs were so flexible that each slight rotation had its own minor variation.
The major reason they had started to make phonk this late was to give Marvis enough time, and he did not disappoint.
"Alright," Evelyn sighed. "I've set it all up. Are we ready?"
"Yes," Rosanna quipped excitedly.
"Good enough," Marvis nodded calmly.
Evelyn gulped. During the five months Marvis took to make the gramophone, she had taken her time, along with Rosanna, to develop the music sheets for a couple of phonks she could recall.
The words in some of them were, eh... But neither Marvis nor Rosanna knew what they meant, so Evelyn wasn't all that bothered.
However, she felt it was too much having Rosanna, a child, say such words, hence she had those parts assigned to herself.
Marvis was quite suspicious, since some of those parts would benefit more from Rosanna's deeper voice compared to Evelyn's, until she offered him the part, and he immediately backed away.
The poor genius had a phobia of singing. It was just not made for him, and after Evelyn assured him she knew a method of deepening her squeaky voice, he naturally let the matter go.
"Ready, gang?" Evelyn asked one last time.
"Gang? Odd name. And yes, I am," Marvis replied.
"You've asked before," he added in complaint.
"Me too!" Rosanna said eagerly.
"Okay," Evelyn took a deep breath.
"Let's go."
***
The first attempt was... a disaster. It ended up sounding like some conservative version of phonk and lost all the phonkness of its beats, making it positively redundant.
Despite messing with the gramophone for hours, the stark truth remained: the initial stage of recording with voice and instruments had been totally botched.
The second attempt was no better, but they at least came to understand their mistakes much better than the last time. So they adjusted and tried again.
It was never easy, and Evelyn was glad they had been given a rather reclusive room within the Castellan manor. Or knowing that their mess of a performance could be on full display— even more so than it already was with all the "hidden spying" by the Duke—would be too much shame for even Evelyn.
And this was despite her believing that she had shed all shame and ascended to the height of shamelessness these recent days, with how many things she had to credit to herself or her dreams.
Even Marvis had recognised her as a "fellow genius". Evelyn could only laugh inside while gladly accepting the compliment with a very thick face.
By the 16th attempt, Evelyn had finally mastered the gramophone, which also needed a lot of attempting with Marvis and Rosanna until they eventually got the hang of it.
"I think you should lower the grittiness a bit more..."
"No, no, no, no," Evelyn cut Marvis off resolutely. "You don't get it! One of its charms is that grittiness!"
"Oh, if you say so."
Turns out Marvis had actually been right, and that particular sequence came out as a completely distorted mess.
Marvis: (≖_≖)
Evelyn:.... (＞﹏＜)
After two whole months, they finally made the first sheet, and Evelyn was highly elated with how neat it turned out.
As a minor break and a celebration of their major success, Evelyn finally showed Rosanna and Marvis the true beauty of her strange dance moves, which once combined with phonk music, bloomed into excellence.
Though Marvis found it intriguing, he thought it too costly for his image, and Evelyn refused to allow Rosanna to perform such strenuous moves, so she instead taught her softer ones.
And thus, with their most recent purchase being a magic projector and a video recording crystal, Evelyn and Rosanna danced to the newly made phonk while Marvis recorded.
It truly was a beautiful moment, and one that forever changed Evelyn.