Work Text:
I've always been the type of person that talks to themself or makes constant noise in general. I'm not a quiet person. I know this about myself. Still when you live with it for thirty-odd years you grow used to tuning out your own noise. It's why I'm surprised by Rocky's sudden questioning.
"What Grace doing, question?" Rocky asks, punctuated by two stomps against his xenonite ball.
"Hm?" I respond, looking up from the Taumoeba sample I'd been inspecting and raising my eyebrows.
This is not an acceptable answer to Rocky.
"Grace," he says again, still attempting to get my attention.
"Yeah, Rock?"
"Your sound."
"Sorry, didn't realize I was making noise."
"How not realize, question."
I shrug. "It's just a habit."
"What were you saying?"
I try to think back, I'm sure I hadn't been saying words but I suppose to someone who's never heard English any noise can sound like a word…I had been humming!
"I wasn't saying anything. It was a song," I explain.
"It like Eridian— but bad and wrong."
Of course he thought I was talking. The Eridian language is practically music in itself. Singing is likely the closest I can get to speaking his language. It would be jarring if Rocky had started nearly speaking Human words while we were working so I suppose I can't fault him for his distress.
"Gee, thanks Rocky. That means a lot," I counter, keeping my tone light enough that he won't think I'm actually mad.
Rocky ignores my sarcasm completely. "What is song, question?"
"You know— like music."
"Music, question?"
"Songs? I don't know how to— you really don't have music?"
It could easily be a translation error. They were quite common, usually one of us could explain well enough to find the word he needed and add it to his translator's vocabulary. I don't know how to explain the concept of music to someone who has never heard of it— to someone who's entire language is made up of what I would consider to be music.
"Don't know— Grace has not explained."
"Maybe it's just a Human thing," I say. "I can show you."
"Yes. Yes. Yes. Show Rocky on Human Thinking Machine." He bounces on his feet a little with excitement at learning something new.
I can't help but laugh a little— his giddiness to learn sparking mine for teaching.
I try to think of the song I was humming. It's as good a start as any— I can remember the tune… I hum it again, attempting to use the sound to draw out the memory.
Hm hmmm hm hmhmm hm hm hmm hm hmmmhmmmm…
The hills are alive with the sound of music…
The Sound of Music…well that's a little on the nose.
"Grace doing it again," Rocky informs
I give a small laugh, "Yeah, I know. I was trying to remember the song."
I can tell Rocky is gearing up for more questions before he makes a sound.
"I'll explain, I just have to put this away," I say before he can.
Rocky waits impatiently as I place transfer the sample from the slide back into storage. I grab my laptop, minimizing Rocky's translator and opening the files. Whoever set up the laptop took great care in organizing the media they uploaded. There's an entire folder labeled 'music' with more albums than I could ever listen to in every language I can imagine all organized even further by genre. I click into the 'Musicals' folder, then into 'English', before search for The Sound of Music. It pops up instantly.
"Some Humans study how to use their voice in different ways to produce sound that other humans find enjoyable," I begin as I make my way to the corner of the lab, sitting down against the wall. "We use instruments too, kind of like your navigation system on your your ship I guess. But we don't have any use for it outside of evoking emotion."
Rocky rolls his ball to my side and leans into me as he listens.
"I was humming, it's kind of like singing— just the notes instead of the words." I click into the album and boot up the first song Prelude/The Sound of Music - Medley. I talk as the track beings, "This is what I was humming— it's from a movie, there are a lot of songs in this movie actually."
Note to self explain musicals.
It starts with just the sounds of birds singing so I'm not actually distracting from anything as I give my explanation but soon after I finish Julie Andrew's angelic voice takes over the ships speakers.
I watch Rocky as he listens. His head is titled to the side— confusion clear in his body language. I cannot for the life of me telling if he's hating it or if he's just baffled. We listen to entire song, the album rolling into the instrumental overture when it ends.
I turn the volume down before I speak. "What'd you think?"
"Sounds weird," Rocky replies, dragging out the second word for emphasis.
"Bad weird?"
"Need more time…play another."
I nod, clicking the button to go back into the database. I scroll through the musicals section some more and stumble across a familiar cover. It's Cats. I don't remember much about the show— I'm unsure if this is due to the gaps that still exist in my memory or the passage of time— but I still have my shirt that displays the same design as the album cover. I click into the album and look for a song that stands out. Memory immediately catches my attention— ironically calling up memories of seeing the show front row. Of being entranced by the dancing and the actress' voice.
I skip past the introductory bits that would only make sense with the context of the show's nonsensical plot and we listen once more.
The song is as insanely impressive as I remember it. It still manages to bring a tear to my eyes with no context. Rocky listens intently to this as well.
"This does not sound bad," he says as the climax hits.
I laugh. "Yeah, well— I've never claimed to be a singer. And I wasn't really singing anyway."
"Is still weird. They say Human words but in almost Eridian voice."
"I didn't think about what it would be like for you until just now, yeah. I can show you more than just musicals too. There are endless genres."
Rocky gives a happy chirp. "Yes. Yes. Yes."