HetaCon

Disclaimer as usual that I am not formally educated in the areas of study/practice that I’m talking about here (though I have of course tried to make sure I’m providing correct if simplified information) but as I’ve mentioned before, I always try to look for a day that relates in some way to something about the character and I knew that for Dento, it had to be something involving metalsmithing!

With that in mind, I started to look at metallurgy/metalsmithing terminology and researching various parts of the process, steps, techniques, etc. and one of the things I looked into was the different types of heat treatments used on metals. One of these is precipitation hardening, which is used to increase the yield strength of a metal (AKA the point at which deformations to the material go from being temporary (elastic deformation) to permanent (plastic deformation)), which makes it so that you’re able to apply more stress to it before it reaches that point. And get this, one of the steps in precipitation hardening is aging, precipitation hardening is even sometimes called age hardening due to this!!

That in and of itself is obviously super cool and would serve as a neat little reference but where does the number for his birthday itself come in? Well, precipitation hardening is specifically used with alloys and superalloys, so that's where I started branching out from to try and find something. Superalloys are alloys that are able to perform well even at very high temperatures, and among other things are also really resistant to thermal creep deformation, corrosion, and oxidation, which would absolutely be of particular interest to a predominantly water-dwelling species. So I looked into different superalloys and the one I want to focus on is Inconel, a nickel-based superalloy. There are actually different types of Inconel that each have slightly different properties from the others, such as better weldability or improved resistance to high temperature corrosion, based on the percentages of each element within the alloy's mixture. There are quite a number of them but as you might've guessed by this point, one of these variations is none other than Inconel 625

Interestingly, one of two methods is usually used for hardening the alloys depending on the specific type of Inconel being worked with. Inconel 625 actually isn't one of the variations that uses precipitation hardening and instead is strengthened using solid solution hardening whereas Inconel 718 does use precipitation hardening. That was another potential number I could've chosen since both of them are two of the most commonly used ones, but I went with Inconel 625 because of what in particular it's commonly used for. Both Inconel 718 and Inconel 625 are commonly used in the aerospace, chemical processing, and power generation industries just to name a few, as are a lot of the other alloys. Inconel 625, however, is noted in particular as being especially suited for aggressive aqueous environments such as both non-oxidizing and oxidizing acids, and seawater. It's often used in the marine industry you guys, it can withstand extreme conditions both in and out of the water!! When I read that, I knew I absolutely had to make Dento's birthday 6/25!!

We don’t actually know what kind of metal is used for all of the Zora’s jewelry and architecture aside from it being silver in color, but I’d have to imagine that it’s something other than actual silver given that silver has the highest thermal conductivity of any metal, so it could probably be an actual burn risk to touch if it's been out in the sun all day absorbing a ton of heat. I can't imagine wearing so much hot metal would be safe, let alone enjoyable. Most metals have a thermal conductivity of at least 50 W/m·K, with a decent portion of those being at least 100 and silver being 429. Words are starting to blur at this point as I'm writing and fact-checking this so I haven't found a solid number but it seems Inconel in general is actually quite a bit closer to the least thermally conductive pure metal, manganese (7.81 W/m·K), which would make sense given it can withstand such extreme temperatures to begin with. And anyways, just coming from a longevity standpoint, pure silver is really soft, and while it is corrosion-resistant, it would pretty quickly oxidize given all the water it would be exposed to, even if it wasn't directly submerged in it. I'm sure the humidity of the domain alone would be enough to speed up that process and I feel it would just overall be a pain to maintain and keep looking nice. Inconel 625 would definitely be much better suited on a number of different fronts compared to silver but I'm obviously not saying that that's actually what the zoras use because there's basically nothing that outright supports or refutes that idea in the game itself

This ended up being one of those pieces where there’s a bunch of tiny little things that didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted unfortunately, but I’m for the most part just relieved that I managed to get it done in time given just how unfocused I was by the end of this month, it was a struggle for sure. All in all though I am still decently pleased with how it turned out and I hope you guys like it too! This is another one where the design may or may not change slightly, but this is at least close to what it’ll look like in the end!

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The moon continues to climb to its peak in the night sky, Varius meandering aimlessly around the domain’s courtyard as she waits for Marot Mart’s business hours to be over for the day.

Cleff had sent her out about an hour before the Coral Reef’s closing time. She’d been inside for most of the day on the off-chance she’d be able to even remotely help out in the store and despite the fact that she actually was given a task to do earlier in the afternoon, she had been getting pretty antsy by that point. The shopkeep had noticed this of course, because why wouldn’t he have, and so insisted that she go take a walk until the store closed for the day. When she would be allowed to come back in, Cleff had expressed wanting to check over her injuries and change out her bandages, so all she could do was wait until then, the time seeming to drag on longer and longer, even more so than the rest of the day had felt.

Eventually Varius sees from across the courtyard as Marot heads into the store to talk to Cleff so she waits a bit longer, and around 15 minutes passes before Marot comes back out again and starts walking towards the stairs. As she does so, the bubbly zora woman takes notice of Varius looking at her and she doesn’t say anything but she grins kindly, giving her a friendly wave. Despite it catching her slightly off guard and making her duck her head a little, Varius manages to give her a small wave back, and Marot grins even more when she does so before heading up.

After that little exchange, Varius walks over to the store again and sees as Cleff is almost done with putting things away, stopping just inside the entryway so as to not get in the way as he does so.

“Ready for me to look you over?” Cleff asks when he looks up and sees her, and she nods wordlessly. At that answer, he smiles and tells her, “Ok, go ahead and sit down then, I’ll get the first aid kit,” before he slips into the back room with the last armful of swift violets.

Doing as instructed, Varius goes over to the chair by the counter, pulling it out a bit from where it’s tucked into the corner so that she won’t be squished into such a small space and there’s room for Cleff to actually work. She sits down on the chair then and waits for a little bit before Cleff comes back and walks over to her, first aid kit in hand which he places down and takes some things out from it.

Once everything is set up, Cleff sits down in front of her and starts on removing the old dressings, asking her, “How have they been feeling? Any notable pain or discomfort?”

“No, they’ve been fine. Pain’s not any worse than what was there to begin with,” she tells him and he nods.

“And how about in general? Have you felt off at all?”

“No, I feel normal.”

“Ok, good,” he says as he carefully looks over each of the injured areas. “Given that and the fact that they look alright, I’d say nothing’s gotten infected and they’re healing like they’re supposed to.”

“That’s something at least..” Varius mutters, possibly to Cleff or possibly to herself. All Cleff does is hum in acknowledgment.

The two of them sit in silence for a few minutes as Cleff first takes care of the smaller nicks and cuts on her torso, making sure to clean each one once again before covering up the areas that still need it, which unfortunately is most of them.

After those are taken care of, Cleff then works to unwind the bandages on her arms to reveal the worst of the injuries she’d sustained and definitely the ones that will require the most attention. Luckily cleaning them doesn’t sting as badly as it had the first time around, but it’s still not comfortable and she holds in slight hisses of pain. It’s thankfully over soon enough though and she watches as he starts covering them up with new bandages, even more carefully than the others.

“Cleff?”

“Yes Varius?”

“Can I get back to doing runs tomorrow?”

He doesn’t look up as he tells her, “It’s too soon for me to send you out on a run, Varius, you only got hurt a couple days ago.”

“But I’m fine, it’s only a few scales,” Varius insists.

“Your scrapes haven’t healed yet, you need to give them time to do so before trying to go out again,” Cleff explains. “Otherwise, you could end up hurting yourself even worse than before and need even longer to recover.”

“But we won’t have anything for the store if I don’t go out!”

“We’ll be fine on inventory for a bit while we wait for your scales to start growing back in, there’s no rush,” he assures calmly as he keeps wrapping her arms.

“I can go on another run though, really! I’ll make sure I’m super careful and everything too, I promise!” Varius tries to argue, giving Cleff a pleading look. “I’ll only get the easy stuff, I’ll go slower, I’ll stay as close to the domain as I can, I’ll even get everything checked on by the healers afterwards, just please send me on another run, I can do it-!”

“Varius,” Cleff cuts in calmly as his hands still from their task and she promptly stops talking, avoiding his eyes. “What’s this about?”

“What’s what about?” she mumbles in an effort to dodge the way this conversation is starting to go, her tone not snippy or anything, but pointed enough that she’s hoping Cleff will deem her stubbornness in giving him straightforward answers to be too exasperating to be worth the effort.

To his credit however, Cleff doesn’t heave a sigh or grumble at her response at all, instead remaining just as soft and kind as he takes hold of her hands and gives them a small squeeze. “The insistence that you need to be doing something. As if you aren’t allowed to take a break. Where’s this coming from?” he asks gently, looking up at her from where he’s sitting on the ground in front of her chair.

“I..” Varius starts before trailing off, Cleff waiting patiently all the while. Taking a deep breath as she closes her eyes for a moment, she then lets it back out and finally looks back at him. “The whole reason you hired me was for me to get stuff for the store, and on the first run by myself that you send me out on, I already managed to put myself out of commission. It doesn’t feel right to still be getting paid when I can’t actually do the job I was given in the first place and I’ve barely even done anything for you at this point, I can’t just sit around and do nothing to help!”

“While you may not be able to right now because of your injuries, you still plan to do your job once you’ve healed. I’m willing to pay you even if you currently can’t go out because I know that you’ll work hard once you finally can,” Cleff says.

“But how can you know that? You’ve only known me for two weeks, for all you know I could’ve taken this job just as an excuse to stay in the domain and I’d work hard for a few months before starting to slack off and not do my job!” she posits.

“Trust me, your impatience for me to send you out on another run is proof enough that you’re taking this seriously,” Cleff says with a chuckle and Varius feels her cheeks get a little warm at him being able to call her out so blatantly. “I’m genuinely not worried about whether or not you’re actually going to do your job, because I trust you and I can already tell that you will. All I need you to be focusing on right now is resting so that your scales can grow back in, because the sooner you let yourself heal, the sooner you’ll be able to work on learning the currents around here, and the sooner you learn the currents, the sooner you can go on more runs.”

“But we can’t just wait forever for me to get back in shape for more runs, we’ll run out of stock eventually,” Varius says, frowning slightly.

“The store isn’t going to suddenly go out of business just because you’re unable to go on runs for a couple of weeks, Varius, you don’t need to put that kind of pressure on yourself. Running this store is a team effort, and being a team means that we look out for each other and make sure we’re taking care of ourselves,” he tells her. “We—Marot, Mei, and I—are here to pick up the slack if you aren’t able to help out like you usually can, you’re allowed to take whatever time you need to get back into things.”

“If I’m not able to help you for so long though, how can I..? Why do you still want to..?” she trails off, unable to string together anything coherent from the scattered thoughts in her head, at an utter loss for how to express what she wants to say.

Luckily Cleff takes pity on her and cuts in, adding, “If you’re really that bothered by the idea that I’m paying you for doing nothing, then you can consider it compensation for picking up that first shipment for me. You really helped me out of a bind, it’s the least I can do to thank you.”

“I thought giving me a job was your way of thanking me,” she says, giving him a slightly confused look.

“Ah, well, I suppose it could be seen as one,” he concedes with a tilt of his head. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d consider it that way with that essentially being like me telling you ‘Hello new zora that’s only just arrived at the domain, I know you just did a favor for me when you were under absolutely no obligations to do so but would you be interested in doing even more work for me?’” he jokes slightly, saying the latter half in a silly voice, before he grins up at her.

Varius giggles softly at that. “Well I would’ve had to start the nerve-wracking process of looking for a job when I’m already nervous about talking to new people anyways as you’ve probably picked up on by now, so you unintentionally saved me from needing to do that in the first place. So I consider it a thanks.”

Cleff nods. “Fair enough.”

“But you’re really ok with me not being able to help out much…?” Varius asks hesitantly, looking at him with a slight frown.

“Yes, I’m genuinely ok with that,” Cleff responds, meeting her gaze with steady assurance, and she studies his face for a moment for any possible sign of him changing his mind.

It doesn’t happen however and taking a deep breath in, Varius closes her eyes before letting it back out and hanging her head with a small nod. “Ok, ok yeah.. Sorry for you having to calm me down like that, me freaking out isn’t your problem to deal with,” she murmurs out in apology, opening her eyes again.

Cleff just gives her hands another soft squeeze before he resumes with tending to her injuries, saying, “You don’t need to apologize for that, I understand where your worry is coming from. It’s true that I’ve only known you for two weeks but by that same token, you’ve only known me for two weeks and you don’t yet know who I am either. You don’t know what to expect from me or how I’ll react in these types of situations, it’s only natural that you’re nervous about the fact that you’re not able to work right now.” He then pauses once more to look up at her as he states, “So this is me outright telling you that I don’t mind that you’re going to need some time to heal and then to practice swimming around here. However long it takes is however long it takes, and I’m more than willing to wait if it means it’ll allow you to put in your best effort like I know you already want to.”

“You’re already very trusting of me,” Varius comments a little amusedly.

Cleff hums lightly as he finishes with the last bandage, securing it into place before lowering their arms down to rest against her knees. “Well, you make it easy to trust,” he tells her in response, looking back up at her once more with a smile.

Varius’ face immediately flushes and she sees from her peripherals as the scales on her arms and legs turn pink, no doubt a sign that the rest of her body is the same color, but Cleff doesn’t make fun of her for it at all.

Unsure of how to even approach that, Varius takes a breath before casting her gaze down to their arms, Cleff’s hands still gently holding on to hers, as she says, “Thank you, for taking care of my injuries..” admitting, “They probably wouldn’t’ve been treated as carefully if it was up to me.”

“Yes, I’m very much aware of that,” he states bluntly but the tone in his voice clearly indicates that he’s amused. “But you’re welcome,” he then tells her softly, giving her hands one last squeeze before he starts putting away the remaining first aid supplies, Varius unthinkingly picking at the edges of the bandages that were wrapped around her arms a mere minute ago before she realizes that maybe she shouldn’t be messing with the work Cleff’s just done to help her, and she instead tucks her hands into her lap as she waits for him to finish up.

It’s once again quiet, the sounds of the waterfalls the only thing that can be heard by this point in the evening. Cleff does one more check around the store after putting everything away, peeking into the back room to make sure, before he walks over to her again and she looks up at him.

“Alright, I think it’s about time that we head up to the sleeping pools and get you some rest, yes?” Cleff says with a warm smile, holding out his hands for her own in an offer to help her stand.

“Mhm,” Varius quietly hums out in response as she meets his eyes, placing her hands gingerly into his and he pulls her up gently, taking care to not just yank her to her feet.

Cleff doesn’t let go of her hand after she’s up, instead holding on to it and leading her out of the store and up the stairs to the second terrace where the pools are, most of the other zoras already asleep by this point.

Walking over to one of the pools, Cleff quietly asks her, “This is the one you sleep in, correct?” and she nods, letting him help as she sits down on the edge and lowers herself slowly and carefully into the water to avoid waking the others.

She turns around to face him once she’s in, propping her arms up on the edge of the pool as she looks up at him.

“Settled in?” Cleff whispers, kneeling down in front of her.

“Yeah,” she whispers back.

“Ok good. Sleep well then, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“I will, and mhm, see you in the morning.”

“Good night, Varius,” Cleff tells her, smiling at her once more.

“Good night, Cleff,” Varius tells him back, giving him a small smile in return.

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In case anyone is new here, Varius would appear in Tears of the Kingdom as she had moved to the domain in between the events of BOTW and TOTK, so that’s the game these side quests would appear in by extension. I originally had an idea for a few different possible side quests involving Varius but I realized I could actually combine them into a small series of side quests where Link would help her out! Also I just wanted to mention that though I have my own personal headcanons and interpretations of the games and their stories, these quests adhere to the canon events in Tears of the Kingdom. This is simply a hypothetical of what I think it could look like if Varius was a character in the actual game rather than being a rewrite. And even though I’m sticking to canon in regard to story, these play a little bit fast and loose with the actual map layout, such as the locations of certain materials and monsters surrounding the domain

Given her job as the Coral Reef’s supplier, that’s actually where her side quests would come in, because of the fact that she doesn’t stay confined to the domain itself but instead often explores the wider area. Things were a lot easier when she first moved and started working but after the Upheaval, there are more monsters and things have become a little dangerous outside the domain, making her main job harder, which isn’t great because she’s the one who’s responsible for acquiring everything sold in the store that isn’t fish!

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So there would actually be a pseudo-quest even before the little series of side quests where she’s on the outskirts of the domain, having been tasked by Yona to get more splash fruit to clean up the domain from the sludge. She specifically mentions that Lady Yona appointed her with the task, seeing as it’s one of the usual things she’s supposed to get for the store but Yona requested that she make that her main priority

The reason Varius is at the edge of the domain and hasn’t set out yet despite it being top priority is because she’s trying to figure out where there would be any splash fruit left since they’ve been using up so much of it. If you say that you’re here to get some as well, she’ll actually give you what she’s acquired already to take back to the domain while she goes further out to get more. It wouldn’t necessarily be a quest per se but rather something to aid you with a quest you already were given and would be another way to get the items necessary to complete it!

And I’m thinking you actually can still get splash fruit from her even if you’ve already gotten rid of the sludge, and she’ll say that even with it cleared up, it’s probably a good idea to have some on hand and since she’s going out to get more anyways, she gives you what she had!

Her actual series of side quests would only become available after you’ve taken care of the sludge

❗The first quest would be where you’re properly introduced to her now that the sludge is no longer endangering the domain and you would find her once again at the edge of the domain towards one of the areas where you can collect a lot of materials, with her looking in that direction warily while muttering to herself. When you interact with her, she jumps a little in surprise (with a brief flash of neon blue scales of course) because she was so lost in thought. If you ask her what’s wrong, she’ll explain that she’s the supplier for the Coral Reef and needs to get more for the store’s inventory but lately a monster camp has been set up in one of her usual spots and so it’s become risky for her to try to get to it. She asks if you would be able to clear out the monster camp for her so she can get what she needs but says that she’ll try to figure something else out if you can’t. If you accept her request and do so, you can then meet her back at the domain and she gives you some of what she was able to collect thanks to your help

❗The second quest is unique because it would actually be possible to start it one of two different ways. The first way to start it would probably be the most common way players would discover this quest, which would be by talking to Cleff. He will be looking a bit concerned next time you see him and you would be able to go about general business with him buying and selling stuff as usual, but you can also bring up that he’s acting differently. If you do, he’ll explain that the zora who restocks the store’s inventory went out to go on another collection run a while ago but she hasn’t come back yet. He says that usually she’s very quick and her trips don’t usually take her that long (except for when she occasionally gets distracted while out) so it’s strange for her to not be back by now, and since there have been more monsters around due to the Upheaval, he thinks something might’ve happened that’s stopping her from being able to get back. He tells you the general spot she had been heading to this time and asks you to try and see if she’s there if you wind up in the area. He also gives you the information/clue that due to her color-changing abilities, she might be a little hard to spot if she had to hide somewhere

The other way to start the quest is just by spotting Varius in that area and talking to her. If you talked to Cleff first and tell her that he sent you to look for her, she’ll say something along the lines of “Oh gosh, Cleff’s worried about where I am?” but if you talk to her first without seeing Cleff and simply ask what she’s doing all the way out here, she’ll say something like “Cleff’s probably wondering where I am by now…” Either way, she’ll then explain to you that she was gathering more items for the store since they’re running low on some things but one of the big monsters (I’m leaning towards hinox) showed up and is cutting off the way she came with there being no other way she can escape. She asks if you would be willing to defeat the monster and come tell her when you’ve taken care of it and when you do so, she’ll then be able to head back to the domain and the quest log will tell you to go talk to Cleff again. Once you get back to the domain yourself and go into the store, you’ll find her and Cleff talking to each other and when you go to interact, you’ll hear a little snippet of their conversation before Cleff notices you and thanks you profusely for finding her, saying that she told him all about how you took down the monster and helped her be able to make it back safely. He then rewards you (maybe with rupees) and the quest is complete. If you talk to Varius directly after that, she’ll also have some dialogue where she thanks you

With this quest, I’m imagining she’s hiding by a tree near some sort of foliage and her scales having turned green to match her surroundings! This is why I bet more players would know of the quest through talking to Cleff first, rather than just chancing upon her. And a fun mechanic I’ve come up with is that you can actually locate her a little bit easier by using the nature of her color-changing to your advantage. The example I thought of is that if you set off something like a bomb flower in the general area, the explosion will cause her to jump and turn neon blue in surprise, and if you spot that brief flash of color, it helps you find her faster than just trying to meticulously look for her or get close enough to see the side quest indicator!

❗The third and final quest would be started just outside the store’s entrance, where Varius is standing and will say that due to the recent increase in monster activity and Cleff’s concern about her safety, she thinks she probably needs to change the spots she goes to get the things the store needs. She says that she knows you’ve helped her a lot already but she has one more request to ask of you that should be much safer than the previous times you’ve helped her out. If you ask what it is, she’ll say that she would like for you to go find some safe areas relatively close by with the items she needs and take pictures of them to show her. If you accept the quest, she’ll then tell you what items she’s looking for and once you do as asked, she’ll reward you with something like a diamond for all of your help throughout this series of quests!

After you’ve completed all of Varius’ side quests, I’m imagining there’d be some sort of change in the domain that’s a result of your help. Like maybe you could then find Varius wandering around the areas surrounding the domain, where she’d act as a traveling merchant selling a few of the same items that the Coral Reef sells, obviously because she’s on one of her runs getting them for the store. And potentially she could also be selling some bright-eyed crabs, something which the store doesn’t sell… And I don’t know if this would be a reasonable mechanic in the game or not but I also thought it could be kind of cool if before you do these quests, the Coral Reef restocks like usual but if you help them out, the store would stock twice as many of each item as the other stores! I’m not sure if it would be a little overkill having both of those things, but I think having at least one of them would be interesting!

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So there are all of Varius’ side quests!! As I did with her character in general, I really tried to design her side quests so that it feels like she’s a natural part of the world and could be an actual NPC in the game. I wanted to make the quests so it’s not something that’s necessary to progress through the game but if you choose to do it, you get to know a bit about her as a character and get to see a tiny bit of story involving the store and two of the zoras that work there. Also since Cleff really only directly appears in Varius’ second side quest, I don’t think it interferes with his own canon side quest too much so his could still be included!

As is the case with basically every character detail I come up with, my choice for each of the MM Gang's birthdays was very deliberate and had a lot of thought put into it, and I wanted to explain the reason for Tona's just to give you guys an idea of what I mean by that!

So whenever I'm trying to figure out a specific day for something such as a character's birthday, one of the methods I use is to look for some kind of notable 2, 3, or 4-digit number associated with another detail about them that can correspond to a date on the calendar if you were to write it out numerically (and just so no one gets confused, I use the month/day format for this not just because that's the way I grew up using but because if I were to do it day/month, it rules out every number with the first two digits higher than 31)

As you guys may or may not know, Tona is a member of the zora band I created, the Luminous Tones, in which she plays the flute. A simple option I could've gone with is April 21st (4/21), as 421 is the classification number for any edge-blown aerophones or flutes (which Tona's flute falls under) in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system. I felt I could find something better though, and so I kept looking. There's a type of flute in the Western concert flute family called a flûte d'amour (sometimes called a mezzo-soprano flute), which sits between the common C concert flute and the alto flute in terms of size. "Flûte d'amour" translates to "love flute" which I thought was quite fitting due to Tona being a member of the Prince Sidon fan club and would be a cute nod to her being a bit of a romantic

The flûte d'amour is pitched in either A♭, A, or B♭, and has a range from G3 to E7. Within that range is the A above middle C or A4, which is a noteworthy (hehe) note because it's most commonly used as a reference for tuning by adjusting it to have a frequency of 440 hertz. Unfortunately this number doesn't correspond to a real day but right under A4 is A♭4, and remember how I said that the flûte d'amour is sometimes pitched in A♭? If you pull up a chart of the frequencies of all the different music notes, A♭4 has a frequency of 415.3047 hertz, which has a whole number that does correspond to an actual day!!

You may be wondering why I chose to make her birthday April 16th rather than April 15th since if we use the most common rounding method (called "rounding half up") to the nearest integer, 415.3047 would round down to 415. I however decided I was going to round up (also known as taking the ceiling or rounding toward positive infinity) because April 16th is World Voice Day! Given that Tona's name is a music pun based off the word "tone" and the voice is a very common way of making music, her birthday being April 16th is a neat little reference to that. And though she doesn't play an instrument that allows her to sing at the same time, her instrument is one that requires her voice to a degree!