[SIZE] Psychoacoustics - Chapter 2 (WiP - 12/11/13 0100)

WiP Chapter.  Last update: 12/11/2013 at 0100 CST.  New Content Starts at Line 4

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        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.