(this is the thread to generate the idea of a student wireless station In Character. Those interested are welcome to join and eventually pitch that they should do something come Club Day))

Insofar Mace had settled into Hogwarts pretty well. The classes weren't all that different from his American lessons, all the schools were still up on toes around each other, and the Salem dorm in the middle of the castle had become one of the rowdiest living quarters by far. But come Sunday, after Saturday had been nothing to talk about, the whole castle seemed...dull. Boring. Snoozeville. Not even a supposed winged pony teaching a class was exciting.

Maybe because Hogwarts was just one castle. At Salem's the dorms and classrooms were spread out in different buildings. Sure, Hogwarts had its own extensive grounds but there wasn't the sense that you could go anywhere. It wasn't like visiting a buddy in Ptolemy Hall, so you swung through the Quad and and threw rocks at the Meteorological Tower to watch them get rebuffed because that was fun on the go. The poor Hogwarts saps at Hogwarts had nowhere to go and nothing to do, seemingly lucky to go to Hogsmeade more than once a month.

Mace, after some thought, had a remedy to the situation.

It took a broom trip to collect spare gear from the dragodirigible and an hour of secret work setting up in an empty classroom on the ground floor, he figured being central in the castle would be the best chance for this to fly. He had several victrolas and music boxes of various sizes, the smaller ones for CDs. American wizards went more with the flow on the changing music, yet still stayed to magically aided analog methods as opposed to digital. Copying internet music had been trickier but most of Mace's favorite playlists where on a small, hard plated music box that he could zap and the cylinder inside would change into whatever song he wanted.

Set up was persnickety, but once Mace had set to the task he was determined to see it through. Mace Steinbeck, man of lots of effort put into lackadaisical efforts. Anything he didn't have or forgot on the dragodirigible he adapted with transfigurations, tweaking spells, occasionally knocking one of his many pygmy puffs away that sat on the instruments.

Then, with one last Sonorous, he was finished. Time to see if this would work. He got up and opened the door so he could hear from the hall. Then he returned to his makeshift station to sort through the boxes of records and CDs he had found. Finally he selected a burned disc, loaded it on a small victrola, and let the magic set into motion.

At once, all throughout Hogwarts the wireless radios, magical headphones, victrolas, any sound producing devices (Mace had even accounted for alarm clocks) bleated out the chipper opening bars of a keyboard...

Mace grinned, satisfied when he heard the echo of the song magnified and distorted from the rest of the school out the door. Even as the lyrics kicked in Mace was sorting through music again, wondering what to play next.

"We cut the legs off of our pants/ Threw our shoes into the ocean!"

Evelyn had been out in the corridor, heading towards the Owlery, when she heard the music. At first it was fuzzy and hard to make out, but the sound quickly became loud and clear, making her glance here and there in wonder. Who or what on Earth was doing this? She tried to follow the sound of the music, and was lead to an empty classroom, where a young man around the same age as her standing by a bunch of boxes, waving his wand.
"Are you doing this?" she called over the music, gesturing to the air.

Boy, a response had come far quicker than Mace had inticipated. He'd been expecting a teacher to tell him off, maybe The Head LeBeau to pop up in his mysterious ways, or one of the European hard-noses ticked off for his choice of music. Instead, it was a Hogwarts girl he had seen about in a few classes and she was more curious than accusatory. Good sign.

"Pretty much. The trick is getting the magic to channel the music where you want it to go." Around him the puffs were humming harmoniously to some rather high chords in the song.

"Got a request?" Mace pointed to the box of music discs. "Might be able to find something you like. We keep a lot of music for flights in the dragodirigible."

((OOC: Any music referenced can only be before the IC date, which is Sept 2009))

"It's impressive," Evelyn said, hesitantly entering the classroom. "Where did you learn to do it?" she asked, still rather awed by all the equipment set up. She wouldn't have the first idea of where to begin with all of it. She bit her lip for a moment, sitting on one of the desks.
"Do you have anything by the Beatles?" she asked after a moment, trying to think of music that Mace would have heard of. Most of her taste in music ran to musicals or classical, but she knew the Beatles, and she didn't want to seem too weird to the American.

Kirby strolled down the corridor eagerly. She was in an excellent mood. The fact she had been chosen as president of the orchestra and choir still had not sunk in. She surely was honoured to have the opportunity to use her knowledge, experience and talent to help so many others. She wasn't just a pretty face she happened to be not only studying at hogwarts but also at the famous muggle school The Royal Academy of Music and Opera. She had studied there for three years and still had two to go. She turned the corner to notice a familiar face her friend Evelyn. "Hey Evie" she called greeting her kindly.

"It's just one of those skills you pick up. I've helped out with flying the dragodirigible whenever we go for sporting events with the other schools in the Americas." He tilted his chair back on two legs, slouching away from her. "There's always in-flight music, I've just taken some of that and expanded it to your castle here. Rather simple."

He would say that, just before he nearly collapsed from his chair, pitched off balance, his elbow slamming into the tiny victrola with the CD. The disruption caused a scratch and then the song continued but now the lyrics were being sung in a bizarre made up language. Obviously some kind of glitch.

"Whoops." Mace deadpanned. "Err..." Several attempts with his wand didn't make any changes. "Best let that run its course."

"Ah, the pond-skippers," he said in reference to the Beatles. "Might be something. I like 'Band on the Run' but then that's not really by all of them, is it?"

"The two of are welcome to see what you find," he encouraged with a wave to the boxes of music media, noting another girl had come into the room. "And we'll get that as the next song on here."

"Oh, and I'm Mace," he added as an afterthought.

Evelyn glanced over to the door as Kirby entered, seeming to be nonplussed by the music pouring from the room. "Hi Kirby," she replied, wavely slightly. She looked back at the American as he explained how he knew how to work the music. "I'd love to fly in the dragodirigible someday." Evelyn said, with a dreamy tone to her voice. Theastrals and trains got boring after a while. Her expression changed to one of shock when he fell off the chair, slamming into the victrola.

"Are you ok?" she gasped immediately, wincing as the cd scratched. She laughed gently at Mace's expression; he clearly wanted to look smooth, which did not entail falling off of chairs.

"Really? You don't mind?" Evelyn asked hesitantly, glancing at the box of music. She was afraid she'd damage something. "I'm Evelyn," she replied.

Kirby gradually entered the room where her friend was located. She noticed a tall good looking brunette boy filling with his wand as it produced music. She was glad that she was not just a pretty face and had a great deal of knowledge about music of all things. She flipped her golden locks being her releasing a sweet smell of vanilla into the room as she did so. She smiled at the boy. "I hope to be a professional quidditch player some day. Maybe we could fly together sometime" she added looking at the boxes of music. He was obviously foreign which did not surprise her at all. "Erm... Do you have any End ever after?" she asked looking inroads the box. "I am Kirby by the way. Kirby Gracean" she introduced herself extending her hand politely.

"Naw, I'm fine. Had worse spills off a broom after Quod explosions." He leaned forward in his seat.

Sheesh. His kid triplet sisters would have jumped at the chance to look through music, pawing through and arguing which pop star was the best/had the nuttiest costumes.

"What am I going to mind? You could find something you like or not." It seemed he would have to be gentlemanly and sort through for them. He brought a box of records closer.

"Endeverafter, huh," he said to Kirby. "Won't find that in here but I've got a few on a playlist, 'Poison' at least." He tapped his tiny, steel music box. "You want to launch that on the other foreigners? I think it would melt the Beauxbatons-ies. But first things first, Evelyn had the first pick 'cuz she showed up first so fairs fair. Here, this one's short."

When the previous song was done Mace removed the CD. On the standard size victrola he added a record, one that started a new broadcast from the first word of 'Help!'

Kirby smiled happily as she sat at the end of an empty table and listened to the music with her eyes closed tightly. Nothing was new when things came to music as she would always find it so relaxing and insuring to listen to. That's why she loved the wizarding world partly because the technology was behind the modern world of the muggles. And she could not deny that she was greatful to have music remain the same for a short while longer in the modern world she had never been interested in the squealing people classed as music. She perched quietly as the classic beetles song finished.

Evelyn grinned knowingly at Mace's casual tone, although she was sure as a Quidd-er, Quadpot player, that Mace was telling the truth about worse spills. "If you say so. I prefer to keep both of my feet firmly on the ground."

"Oh, it's just...well, I don't want to mess them up." Evelyn replied weakly. She seemed to always break or damage things, and she did not want to offend this visitor by messing up his music. She watched Kirby in amazement as the blond Gryffindor turned all her bubbly charm on Mace. Merlin, her friend didn't waste any time, did she? "I'm sure they can handle it. Besides, the castle's been so quiet lately...maybe we all need a little jolt."

"If you don't want to mess anything up, then don't touch these," Mace laughed, indicating the magical apparatuses that where broadcasting the music. "But you can rip into the music however you want, it's not even organized except by medium. A non-alphabetized genre mix."

The Beatles tune was short, so Mace moved onto the next request. This was a song he had stored on his own personal music box. He shifted the steel cube to the center of his array, waved his wand, and from the brief silence between songs came the haunting ringing before the guitars and drums kicked in.

"So your castle spot here is typically quiet? That kinda stinks. Don't you have anything fun to do when you aren't in classes?" Leaning back, he felt his elbow poke into something fuzzy and non-hazardous to the music playing. He picked it up. "Nearly forgot, interest any of you ladies in a pygmy puff?"

Kirby looked up at her friend Evelyn it was clear to see she was getting close to the foreign boy. Not that it mattered to her. She had never been the type of person to express feelings no matter what they would be. Yes she could not deny she was certainly attracted to the boy but he would never be attracted to a freak like her. The ruins of her past clouded her judgement like most things. She was eager to listen but before the main beat kicked in the school bell chimed. Time for class she supposed. She had so many things to think about her NEWT classes and exams, running one of hogwarts most long running clubs, studying and not forgetting returning to her study at the R.A.O.M.O in the holidays. "I would love to but unfortunately i have to go. I have Defense and don't want to be late again." she sighed as she said goodbye nicely and headed out the door.