Psychoacoustics

by Nether

Chapter 3

Tossing and turning all night is no way to sleep. It tends to indicate a significant lack thereof, actually. Still, Vinyl rose from her disheveled bed, scratching her ear with a hind hoof as she sat up. One day down, three weeks to go... Sighing, she looked over to where the little demon was sleeping. Rather, where he was supposed to be sleeping. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized the door had opened and that Anonymous was no longer in his little bed.

Jumping out of bed, Vinyl’s legs lazily informed her that she wasn't quite that awake yet. Standing up properly, she shook her head, clearing the dust that had no doubt stuck to her face after that frontal impact. She walk/tripped over to the open bedroom door, worrying with every step that she would somehow squish the little alien. He was bigger than that, certainly, but that didn't stop her mind from wandering to the dangerous realms of what-if.

Having finally gotten her legs to cooperate with her mind, she made her way down the steps and into the kitchen. Having arrived there, she briefly paused to wonder just why she'd thought to look on the bottom floor first... Her stomach, or some kind of intuition? Going with the latter for posterity's sake, she looked around, eyes scanning franticly for Anonymous.

Appliance after appliance, the realization that a small alien would not hide in a toaster dawned on the mare. Mentally, she cursed her muteness. Had she been able to call out, surely she would've found him by now. The near luminescent light bulb that populated itself over her head almost gave off enough light to blind the unicorn. Without really thinking much more about it, she started to hum. When mere sparks flew from her horn, she realized it wasn't that easy. Nothing ever was when it needed to be...

"Vinyl?"

The sound of her name caused another heart skip as she turned on a dime, finding the human at the bottom of the stairs. As he wiped sleep from his eyes, he continued his previous thought.

"What are you doing?"

Stricken with relief over fears she'd created all her own, the white unicorn plopped to the floor. Letting a wayward sigh escape her lips, she cast the human a glare that was somewhere between annoyed and grateful. It was all her own stupid imagination, but she was still worried about him. She watched his little feet carry him over to her, still in the same clothing he'd worn the previous day. His head of hair indicated that he'd had the same issue she did sleeping. When he arrived at her front, he reached up and placed a hand on her foreleg.

"Everything okay?"

She turned her head to the side, sighing as she thought it over. Yeah... she was fine... The warmth of the human's hand slowly brought her back to reality. The feeling she had now was one of many she didn't know the name for. Idly, her horn lit up, and a warm, soft electronic sound began to play. As she hummed, she rolled her eyes at her own silliness. Blowing a lock of her mane from her face, she stood up. Still humming that same, soft tune, it started to fluctuate.

The quick little beat suited the morning well. Anonymous was obviously affected by it, his tiredness quickly departing his body. The unicorn wandered around, gathering some bowls and some cereal for breakfast. She had acted rather silly, the tune from her horn was silly, and... well, this whole morning was plain silly. Fair to say though, however silly it might be, Vinyl's mood was definitely better than it had been in quite some time.

The morning chase now tucked away, Vinyl went about making something to eat. Normally a fairly easy task for the unicorn; she would simply sleep right through breakfast time and skip to an early lunch. Being up early enough to eat breakfast was throwing her off. How do ponies figure this stuff out? What's good for breakfast? Toast, right? Yeah, toast sounds good. The magic humming was cut in volume, but not enough that it couldn't be heard by those paying attention.

While Vinyl was going about her business making something to eat, Anonymous tasked himself with a much more daunting feat: sitting down at the table. Well, not really daunting anymore. After living with Octavia for a while, the human's upper arm strength and overall athletic ability had improved quite a bit. Reaching up to the seat of the chair, he jumped the last little distance to get a good grip and hoist himself upwards. Being now chest high with the table, he repeated the process and got himself onto the cool surface.

As he went about cleaning up the table-what little there was to be cleaned-he pondered a question that he'd caught himself dwelling more and more recently. What would become of him? It was a question that plagued the human from time to time, especially on nights where Octavia had come home late and he was left to his own devices. Simple tasks like feeding yourself aren't so easy when you're the relative size of a smaller house cat. Having to rely on these ponies for the rest of his days was a rather... unsettling thought.

Not to say that he doubted their abilities; rather he doubted fate and happenstance. He now knew, or at least thought he knew, what it might be like to be disabled. He didn't consider himself disabled, but he could not deny that he was at the mercy of these ponies, for better or for worse. Shrugging the rather grim thought to the back of his mind, he shifted to focusing on the more positive morning that had sprung up. Tavi had been right, despite his initial hesitations and begging to go with her.

Vinyl was turning out to be not that bad after all. The only thing Octavia had said about the unicorn was that she was sure the two would 'get along quite well.' As if to confirm the thought, Anonymous was stirred by the plates of toast being set down. He quickly glanced from his two slices to Vinyl's four, to the unicorn herself. She was still humming, but the tune had slowed and decreased in pitch ever so slightly. She nodded her head towards the human's plate, encouraging him to dig in as she took her seat.

Reaching for the first slice, the human tugged it off of its companion, pulling the slice to the edge of the plate. Easier access now acquired, he prepared to begin his argument with the butter knife. Vinyl watched the entire spectacle, entranced by how well the human had taken to utensils and food that were far out proportioned for him. She had to give Tavi credit, the little guy could probably rough it on his own if he really needed to. Even still, house cats...

As the human spread some butter unto his toast, he was directed to something he'd yet to deal with: a squeezable condiment container. Toast wasn't complete without jelly, but this jelly wasn't in a jar like Octavia kept it. Still, he worked the hefty beast into submission, eventually maneuvering the head to the edge of the plate. As he started squeezing the bottle, Vinyl decided to pitch in and help, giving it a gentle squeeze of encouragement with her magic. Had Anonymous been expecting it, he probably wouldn't have landed on his buttered toast.

Thoroughly coated in the greasy substance, Anonymous sighed as he slid down the slice of bread. Picking his head up, he began crawling off of the toast and onto the plate. Vinyl watched, halfway between stifling laughter and choking on her own breakfast toast. If she'd been less careful, something would've probably come out of her nose. She had been idly humming away, enjoying the free feeling she got when doing so around Anonymous.

She wasn't paying the utmost attention to her humming, it had almost faded into a background bodily function, not unlike breathing. The tune became airy and bubbly, the tone shifting to something akin to bells. As the sound grew more intense, the more Vinyl's body started to enact the laughing. As Anonymous stood up, wiping the butter from his body, he picked up on the new tune. Unsure how to feel, he turned around, now getting a full view of Vinyl making all the physical signs of laughter, only for the sound he expected to be replaced by the bubbly tune.

Seeing Anonymous’ face threw Vinyl into a harder fit of mute laughter. After swallowing her mouthful of toast, the tempo of the giggle-tune increased, pausing only when Vinyl snorted. Hearing her body make a sound like that gave cause for Vinyl to pause in her laughter, slowly realizing what she'd done. Though she may be mute, that didn't mean she didn't have air pipes. Or that she was immune from the fit of laughter that followed someone snorting during laughter.

Her hooves now on her belly, she leaned back, tears in her eyes. The giggle fest, although not traditional, was still just as infectious. Soon Anonymous found himself unable to avoid chuckling, despite his butter coated state. This entire morning, if not existence, was absurd. But here, right now, gave light to the revelation that not everything has to be figured out now. Not everything has a deadline, and not everything need be so serious. He felt a warmness he'd only felt a few times before, most of which had been when cuddling with Tavi.

Eventually, the two did manage to stop laughing. Vinyl had made it to the floor in a fit of laughter; Anonymous was sitting down on the table, breathing heavily in an attempt to calm his diaphragm. As the laughter faded, Vinyl briefly wondered why she was 'laughing' so hard. Replaying the scenario in her head, she decided it was best not to dwell on that thought too much, lest the giggling return.

Making it back up to her chair, she looked around the table for the butter covered human. She was still smiling so hard it hurt, but she'd calmed down enough to focus. Anonymous had still made a mess of himself, and the poor human hadn't gotten a chance to actually eat breakfast. She found him right where she left him, sitting in a pool of butter on the table. Most of it had melted, likely soaking through to his bones, but he was otherwise fine. Inhaling, she focused on continuing to calm down, eventually exhaling to blow a lock of her mane out of her face.

After finally calming down, the human made it to his feet, slinging off decent sized globs of melted butter. Vinyl wasn't too sure what to do now, and the more she thought about the human covered in butter, the more her mind dared her to re-think the situation that led to this. She resisted though, as difficult as it was to fight off the giggles. Instead she focused on a new problem: the human was now soaked in butter, and that certainly had to feel not so great to wake up to. Being soaked in butter was only really useful for a couple of things, both of which she was sure Tavi would have her head on a platter for if she attempted on the human. Though...

"Well, so much for breakfast," the human said, peeling his shirt off.

Vinyl shrugged, having not really spend too much time on breakfast before anyways. Such is the life of DJ that works on their own schedule. More or less. Concentrating, she wrote out a proposal to the human: 'bath?'

"If you put me in a pot of water and call it a bath, I swear I'll sabotage your bedroom with Legos."

Not a hundred percent sure what Legos were, Vinyl still snickered. She shook her head though, re-assuring the human that she would do no such thing. He made a good point though, there wasn't any really good way for him to bathe. Not on his own. What had Tavi done to resolve this dilemma? For some reason, thinking of asking the human this question made her feel all sorts of awkward, so she held off in doing so. Maybe she should just bathe with him? It was that or the sink, which was really making her feel weird. Maybe if she let him pick, it'd make her feel a little... less skiddish.

She gripped his shirt with her magic, holding it in place as she offered her back to the human. Taking the offer, he climbed aboard and held on to her mane. As she carried him up the stairs to the bathroom, a funny thought struck her mind. While he was distracted with not falling off, she gave his buttered shirt a quick lick. The flavor was... different. Something she hadn't tasted before. The fact that she wanted to taste it again almost made her trip over her own hooves. Pushing the thought away for further investigation later, she opened the door to the bathroom and moved to the counter for Anonymous to hop off of her.

With the human now on the counter, she closed the door and set his shirt on the other corner of the counter. She wrote the two choices for the human above their respective appliances: 'sink' and 'shower' both held in the air for as long as she could muster. They fizzled out after a few seconds, her ragged breathing evident that that was all the time the human was going to get to examine his options.

"The sink is a bit small, and I'm too small to work the shower. Not sure where you were going with this," he said, giving Vinyl a quizzical look.

The unicorn sighed, trying to think of a way to better describe his options. She moved to the shower herself, turning to face him from within the still open shower door. Once more, she wrote his options in the air. This time, her heart beat increased as the human appeared to process what she was offering.

Anonymous gulped. On one hand, he didn't want to offend his host. On the other, he didn't want to offend Tavi, should she find out. Which, she would, because he couldn't live with himself if he did what he thought Vinyl was suggesting and didn't tell Tavi. She was going to bathe him? Tavi hadn't even done that before. Ponies were naked all the time, but he was hardly naked around them, and the thought of showering with Vinyl was... exciting. And terrifying. Maybe he was over thinking this? Maybe it was just an innocent shower? Right. Shower, with Vinyl 'cleaning' him. Innocent. Maybe it would be innocent to her, but certainly not to him.

"I don't mean to sound rude," he said, careful around his words. "But maybe I should take the sink."

Vinyl was understandably confused, given his recent expressed distaste towards the sink previously. Yet, at the same time, she was disappointed. A part of her really wanted to share an intimate moment with the little guy; but she wasn't too sure why that was. Was she crushing on him? That would be just fan-freaking-tastic. Still, she managed to prevent herself from showing too much disappointment, or so she hoped. She nodded her acceptance to the human's suggestion, walking over and turning on the faucet for him. She focused on getting the temperature to something that she thought would be comfortable, filling the sink for Anonymous.

Anonymous simply stood in place as Vinyl drew his sink bath. He wasn't sure if he was feeling shame for wanting to shower with Vinyl, or if he was feeling guilty for trying to keep his distance from her. Whatever it was though, he didn't like it. So much for a light hearted morning... Maybe after this bath he could think without the hormonal influence of a teenager.

Of course, bath wasn't exactly the appropriate term for what the human was doing in the sink. Was it the most accurate? Sure. The most appropriate though? Sure as hell didn't feel like it. Using hand (hoof?) soap, the human went through the motions of bathing just as he did with Octavia. While she took a more personal role in cleaning him, it was that very interest and involvement that prevented him from getting into the shower with Vinyl. As much as he wanted to, it rubbed him all sorts of wrong ways.

To think, this week wasn't even half over, and it was the first of three...

As the human went about cleaning himself, he began to question what exactly he and Octavia really had. Was he in a relationship? Kind of? The more he thought about these questions, the more upsetting they became. Vinyl, who had since started her own shower, was plagued with her own version of similar questions. She stood on her hind legs, one hoof on the wall of the shower so that she could wash her face. It was a comfortable pose, more or less, but it led her mind to thoughts regarding the human.

Did she really have a crush on him? How was that even possible? She was a pony, he wasn't, it was as simple as that. Hell, she wasn't even sure Octavia felt that way about him. She'd always thought Tavi had talked about Anonymous more as a close pet than a companion. Did she though? Was this pet sitting to her? It didn't feel like any pet sitting she'd done before... and the human didn't strike her as something to be kept as a pet. Why would she have a crush on something so small? Something so alien?

Her own mood shifted and grated over this thought, more so what she was going to do about it. She had been tasked with the human for three weeks, and this first one wasn't even close to being over. Should she even be in the same room with him right now? What did Octavia do to clean him? Did she do anything, or did she leave him to his own devices? Was she being over bearing? Was she being to forward or open? Why was this so hard?

She tried to not think about it so much, instead focusing on cleaning herself. This made the time go by just a little bit faster for her, bringing her back to reality when she shut the water off. She had to face the human again. Calm. Just focus. There's nothing complicated about this. Sliding the shower door aside, she stepped out and pulled a towel from the counter adjacent to the shower. As she dried herself off, she approached the sink where she'd left the human. Wiping her face one last time, she draped the towel over her body and gave her attention to the human.

Something Anonymous wasn't exactly expecting nor wanting, especially in his current thought process. Seeing Vinyl's head next to the counter startled him, causing him to swim to the closest side of the sink in an attempt to hide his unmentionables. Vinyl hadn't really been paying enough attention to see anything, but he didn't know that. She did notice his strange behavior though, and cocked her head to the side with a rather inquisitive look on her features.

"I uh... I'm still naked," the human said, still trying his hardest to make himself as decent as one could while bathing.

Vinyl continued her gaze, raising an eyebrow at his explanation. So what? Ponies were naked all the time.

"Can," he said, shuffling along the sink. "Can you look away? For a minute?" he asked, desperate for her to indulge in his request.

She did just that, though she was still confused about the whole situation. Having figured the clothing was more of a formality for the first night or something, she thought he would be naked like a pony was more often. Apparently not. This would be a topic for 'discussion' later, one she would certainly have to bring up.

That thought struck her. She'd never looked forward or even really thought about conversing with someone before. Sure they'd never stayed at her house either, but even still. Casual conversation had become alien to her after she'd lost her voice, the closest she'd gotten since then being Octavia or screaming fans during a concert. While she was lost in thought, the human found a washcloth and wrapped himself in it.

"Okay, I'm decent now," he said, more relieved than he expected to be.

Vinyl turned back to face the human, her face contorted in thought about this that and the other, all having been brought up by the human. Maybe not directly, but he'd played a major role in bringing them up. She moved so that her side was to the sink, waiting for Anonymous to climb aboard. Once he was secure, she carried him back to her bedroom, shutting the door as she moved to the dresser where his bed was.

The human said nothing, getting dressed as fast as possible. He didn't want to think about Octavia's reaction to knowing that he'd been naked in the same room as Vinyl. Last time he was naked with another pony, he was almost used as a toy. Violently. Pushing Lyra's assault out of his mind, he continued to dress himself. Once he was decent, he turned to face Vinyl once more; a bit more relaxed about the whole situation now that he had a layer of cloth between his skin and the air.

The sight he was greeted with shouldn't have affected him, but it did. Something about her inquiring gaze and wet mane made Anonymous feel like he shouldn't be looking at her. Like she was naked. This was true of course; if she was like most other ponies, she was naked ninety percent of the time. The wet mane and towel draped across her back though...

"Should I uh," he said, his hand approaching the back of his head. "Do you need me to look away?"

Vinyl stared at him blankly, completely oblivious to why she would need him to look away. Apparently humans were awkward about nudity. Had she been making him uncomfortable all day? That thought further deteriorated her mind's state. Focusing, she wrote a question in the air for the human.

'Should I wear something?' hung in the air, a question that Vinyl wasn't sure how to feel about. While she was unsure of it, the human was having an even tougher time. Should she? Does she really need to? No! Of course not! Why was he getting aroused at the question!

"N-no!" he said, sitting down in an attempt to hid his body's reaction to the question.

Sighing relief, mostly at the thought of having to dig something up from her limited wardrobe, Vinyl shrugged off the towel, letting it fall to the floor. Her coat was dry enough, but her mane was still weighed down by water, retaining the wet mane look effectively. She had no intention of drying out her mane though; it seemed to have a mind of its own when she tried to fight with it.

'So,' she wrote in the air, realizing just how much daylight they had left to spend together. 'Now what?'

This question wasn't quite what Anonymous had been expecting.

"What? Well, what do you normally do during the week?"

Vinyl’s solemn response was a shrug. Typically she was still asleep right now, so she was lost as to what to do.

"Tavi is usually gone for the entirety of the day; I don't see her very much until the weekends or if she comes home early."

'What do you do?' she wrote, sitting down in the middle of the floor while she awaited a response.

"Whatever Tavi needs me to do. I'm too small for any decent paying job, so I try to help out around the house." Vinyl's gaze picked away at the human's defenses. Eventually he broke down and added "and she doesn't feel comfortable with me going out on my own."

That sounded more like Tavi. If she was as protective of this human as she was her cello, she knew where he was and what he was doing more often than not. Which, ignited a thought. A deviously fun sort of thought.

'Wanna see the city?' she wrote.

Comments

[Dead Account 20]

Hoho, I love this idea. I'm really hoping you ship these two, as I like the idea of a larger pony. Them both cuddling in bed, she's like a big mattress for him and whatnot. I find the idea really adorable. I can't wait for the next chapter!

[Raistlin]

[ Last time he was naked with another pony, he was almost used as a toy. Violently. Pushing Lyra's assault out of his mind, he continued to dress himself./i]

Not... sure if it is is too much information, or too little.

[MadMaxtheBlack]

Yes! It's still chugging along!

Just a quick question: Is this Party Vinyl, or Reserved Vinyl?

[getmeouttahere]

There's an odd charm to this story that keeps me wanting more. Glad to see you're continuing with it.

[Nether]

4518853
4657864
Thanks, and I'm glad you're enjoying it!
This size for ponies is one I'll be exploring a bit more, I'd like to think.
You have good taste in pone.

4658119
It's a kind of jab at another story I wrote. They're not 100% related, but it's close enough I guess.
http://pastebin.com/ARNZYQJb Spoilered because nsfw.

4658162
Still alive!
And this is a mixture of both.
I hope to expand on that a bit more in the next chapter. She's more reserved, but I intend to show her more outgoing and party-ish nature in the future. I think.

4658458
I'm definitely continuing with it. I'm aiming for five or so chapters, but we'll see what happens.
Depends on if my burn to write returns to the intensity it had when I started writing DE or not. It feels like it is, but I've fooled myself before.

[Dead Account 20]

4658906 just entered in the pastebin you replied to someone else. Do you have or know of any more stories like that, preferably with best pone? I'm highly interested in this amazonian thing you have going; It's not macro, but the slightly bigger size makes me feel like they would be really cuddly (as well as other benefits which are implied in that Lyra story (huehue)).

[Nether]

4658952
So, this isn't the most up to date paste, but it's a good starting point.
http://pastebin.com/GSDzCC5U

That's a link to the my massive pony threads archive/info paste. Amazonian ponies are certainly of interest, and that's where I got the idea to write this story, but I can't think of too many others off the top of my head.