//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Psychoacoustics // by Nether //------------------------------// The human didn’t say much of anything, instead walking out to the middle of the kitchen floor. From there, he had a front row seat to Vinyl’s ‘humming.’ She continued to pitch in her own melody along with the orchestral music, cleaning dishes as she did so. Something so incredibly simple, she was probably doing it without much thought at all. Why though? Why would a magical humming be so easy, when something like air writing was so difficult? Magic was something the human didn’t fully understand. Having been living with Octavia for most of his time in Equestria, he’d actually had very little exposure to it. The earth pony had been extremely protective of the human, especially once she’d gotten to know him a bit more. After his experience with Lyra, Anonymous had very little desire to study magic at all. As she continued humming and cleaning the last of the dishes, it dawned on Anonymous as to why this type of magic would be so much easier for her than something like air writing: her cutie mark. Octavia had tried to explain cutie marks to the human once before, but his understanding was something along the lines of they were to represent a specialty for ponies. Seeing Vinyl hum helped the human figure them out a bit more though. Vinyl could ‘hum’ easily, possibly without a second thought, like he would writing back home. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense: humming like that was musical, and her cutie mark was that of music. Something related to music anyways. Both Vinyl and Octavia had very… non-specific musical cutie marks. Octavia’s had been a cleft, while Vinyl’s was a pair of connected eighth notes. Both were related to music, not a single instrument or style, just music. Octavia could play several instruments, she simply preferred the Cello. What could Vinyl play if she put her mind to it? What did her cutie mark tell about her? She was good at music, but how? Composing, perhaps, but what else? All questions ground to a halt once the human realized the music had stopped. Vinyl was red in the cheeks, her horn no longer lit. The human continued to simply stare at the embarrassed unicorn, not sure of how to proceed. They’d both been ‘caught,’ so to speak. Had he offended her by leaving her room? By listening to her humming without announcing himself? Was she actually offended? Was she angry with him? New questions began to swirl around the human’s mind, garnering a mild headache. Neither of them moved for several moments; lost in trying to figure out what to do. Finally, the human spoke up. “S-sorry,” he said, awkwardly fumbling over the word. It almost felt foreign to say. Vinyl of course said nothing, still blushing profusely. She could make no decision as to what she should do or how to act. Her isolationist lifestyle meant that she had very few, if any, house guests. When she went on tours or concerts, she only barely communicated with her staff. No pony had ever heard her hum before, she was certain of it. Not even Octavia. The unicorn was utterly baffled as to what to do. What did the human think of her now? So crippled that she needed magic to hum… She was so confused, so lost in this position that she momentarily forgot she was mute, attempting to speak to the human. As she mouthed the first bit of ‘it’s okay,’ the silent air flowing out of her mouth caused her to cease that course of action almost immediately. Now the human was just confused even further. Vinyl had tried to say something, despite being mute. No words came, only a quiet breath. When she’d realized what she’d done, she looked away from Anonymous. Looking carefully, he was certain he could spot the tell-tale signs of tears starting to form. Cautiously, he approached her. Another disadvantage to being this size relative to the natives, was that it wasn’t easy to comfort them-especially ones you don’t know. But, he made the best of the situation that he could, eventually winding up staring her right in the chest. Well, the curve of her chest. Looking up one more time to see if he’d been noticed, he did the next thing that came to his mind. Leaning forward, he hugged her as best his form would allow. His right arm tugging on her lower shoulder, his left gripping at her soft chest. Vinyl was, once more, stunned at the human’s actions. Looking down, she found him in some kind of awkward hug on her left leg and chest. What did she do now? Should she hug him back? Should she reject hi-no. The more she thought about that, the more upset she became. Deciding to go with what came naturally to her, she returned the hug with her right hoof, gently pinning the human to her. When she returned his gesture, Anonymous sighed in relief. At least she wasn’t pissed. Well, so far. “I’m sorry,” he repeated into her chest. Backing out of the embrace, he pushed back against her hoof which easily gave way. Looking up, he continued his apology. “I didn’t mean to stare at you like that. I heard some music that I hadn’t heard before, so I followed it down here.” Vinyl did nothing, the faintest hints of tears still in her eyes. The human stood awkwardly, feeling more like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar or something. He shuffled on his feet before finally speaking up to break the silence. "For what it's worth, you uh... hum? I don't know what else to call it, but you hum pretty good for a mute unicorn," he said, half-chuckling. Vinyl smiled ever so slightly, warming up to the compliment; something that made the human a bit more at ease. "So, I don't mean to be a spoil sport or anything, but why don't you just 'talk' like that?" When Vinyl furrowed her brow in confusion, the human elaborated. "If you can make sounds like that with your magic, why don't you just talk with your magic?" As Vinyl processed what the human had said, he thought about what he'd seen so far of this unicorn. Music was her specialty, not so much sounds. Going on a hunch, he figured that the reasoning for her humming so easily was because it was related to music, unlike speech. Then again... While the thought of living in a musical didn't exactly appeal to him, it was something to consider. Vinyl had taken a look of determination, shutting her eyes as her horn lit up once more. Some strange sounding low resonance sounds emanated from... somewhere, but they were cut short by some pops and sizzling noises. After her first attempt failed, she opened her eyes, panting. "Well, it was worth a shot," the human said, pondering his ideas further. "Maybe you could sing?" Vinyl's blush was reaction enough to figure out her stance on that idea. She shut her eyes, hastily spelling out 'no singing' in the air. For whatever reason, she was not a fan of the idea of singing. Anonymous was only slightly relieved to know that he wouldn't be living in a sing song musical, but his mind twisted and churned away at this new found insight to Vinyl's magic. If it was music related somehow, she had an easier time with her magic. Ergo, writing something in the air was extremely difficult, but possible; while humming was almost second nature at this point. "Well, at least now I have a project," Anonymous mumbled to himself, hand on chin as he contemplated possible methods of communication. He had this sinking feeling that air writing would only go so far for so long. Vinyl yawned, signaling that it was indeed getting late, despite the human's discovery. She walked forward, turning out the light in the kitchen as she levitated the human to her back. A brief moment of panic later and the human was secured in her mane once more. The short walk up the stairs, with the human lost in thought, gave Vinyl some time to her own thoughts. She had been against this idea of watching Tavi's little human. At first, anyways. She figured if Tavi liked him, then he was probably just as stuck up and boring as she was. He could wind up to be just as boring, but so far he'd managed to get her heart pounding at least once the first day since they'd met. For such a stupid reason too! It's not like humming was taboo or something! Vinyl snorted at the thought; humming being taboo... It's just plain silly! Still... If it was so silly a thought, why was she so embarrassed to have a human catch her doing it? The little devil had been talkative up till now. Most ponies were sorta awkward around Vinyl if they were alone with her; not being able to verbally communicate left a somewhat awkward silence more often than not. Vinyl wasn't completely friendless though. More than a few ponies knew her when she could speak, and most of them held onto that friendship after she became mute. As she snuggled down into the bed though, she became more and more aware of what her new friend was also realizing. She may be mute, but she could still communicate effectively. It had barely been an entire day with Anonymous, and already she was getting ideas in her head about this and that. If the two weren't careful, they were going to wind up being friends. --- Despite rumors from other ponies with disabilities, Vinyl’s hearing hadn't really improved after becoming mute. Be it one reason or another, she was the same pony, save for the lack of speech. At nearly three in the morning though, she was still wide awake. Though her hearing hadn't improved, she knew that the smaller human had fallen asleep. She should be too, but the reason she wanted to sleep was the reason she couldn't. Someone had to rely on her. She hadn't really been put in a position quite like this since she'd become mute. Sure she'd had deadlines before or run errands for someone else, but this? This was different. The human currently on her nightstand was going to have to rely on her for food, shelter, protection, and who knows what else! She turned over in her bed, looking into the darkness where the human's pillow was. Octavia had said that the little guy was more than capable of looking after himself, but the way she said it made Vinyl think that Octavia didn't really mean it. He wasn't super tiny, but if a good sized cat wanted a fight, Vinyl wasn't so sure who would win... The level of responsibility loomed over her head, staving off the need to sleep. Sighing, she rolled over again, twisting the comforter as she put her back to the nightstand. What a mess she'd gotten herself into this time...