thespherelogs | You're Never Too Old To Learn Something New

Entry tags:

oc: angel

You're Never Too Old To Learn Something New

Who: Rhys & Angel
What: First lessons
When: Mid-April
Where: Rhys's shop

After all the business with the mind-controlling moss, it's nice to get back to something so normal. And talking with Angel always seems to put Rhys in a light mood. He's happy they finally worked out a schedule for lessons. He's even managed to find a few video tutorials for showing her the basics on computer use.

He's also got an acoustic guitar, a stand for sheet music, and a couple of chairs set up for the guitar lessons. All he needs is his friend to arrive.

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Her own string instrument was a lyre. It looked like a small harp but had the same number of strings as a guitar. She should probably teach him with a guitar but she wanted to use an instrument that she could tune and control the sound of to use as a base. She hoped it helped since this was the first time she'd been able to teach another person.

"Rhys?" Her head popped in first and then her body followed. "Hello. I hope I am not late."

"Hey, you're right on time! C'mon in, make yourself comfortable." He gives her a genuine smile, happy to have her here. "Where would you like to start?"

She stepped inside and found a seat where she could rest the small string instrument comfortably on her lap. "We should start with the cords. All music is written in a mathematical scale. Once you learn the notes, you can practice playing anything."

Her fingers lightly rest on the strings of her Lyre. "I can play the scale for you." His guitar might need tuning but she won't know until she hears him play it.

Rhys sits across from her and grabs his guitar, letting his organic fingers rest on the frets. The robotic ones will probably work best as a pick. "Starting with a scale would help, sure. Though, I don't think I'll know the right position for it."

"Okay."

She reached forward a lightly plucked the first string. "This is called a fret. The strings themselves are known as E B G D A E or 1 through 6. I brought you a book from the store for you to use to practice and it calls them fret numbers." She also read this book before coming to teach him since she didn't know any of the proper names for the cords. "But what I'm going to teach you first is the C scale. It's the most simple."

She plucked the note on her lyre and let the sound resonate. "This is what a C sounds like. To make the same note, you need to play your fingers here, here and here." She reached forward and carefully moved his fingers to the correct spots.

Rhys nods along, glancing at the book when she mentions it, then back to his own hand when she starts moving his fingers. He lets her guide him without much fuss, then strums once his fingers are in place. It...isn't the worst sound he's heard, but the guitar might need tuning.

"Maybe we should start with tuning, huh?" he says with a weak smile. "The guy I bought this off of said it was in great shape, but didn't mention much else."

"Oh. Let me?"

She gently takes the guitar and sets it on her lap next to the lyre. She doesn't need a meter or anything other than her own ears to hear the tension of the strings and adjust it accordingly. "I apologize. I thought it was tuned. Most interments don't need to be tuned often." She continues to strum and then pause and adjust and repeat.

"There should we try the note again?"

"Hey, it happens," he says, shrugging as he takes the guitar back and tries to play the chord again. This time, it comes out properly, so he smiles and strums it a little.

"Teach me another?"

"Okay." She rearranges his fingers again and nods for him to play the cord. "We'll learn these six basic chords first." She re-positioned his fingers again. "Then I will say a letter. Like A. And I want you to play it."

She continued to show him the six chords, making sure that he had them all before continuing on.

As she shows him, Rhys snaps pictures of his finger placements with his EchoEye. It'll come in handy later when he's practicing.

Once he's got them all down, he tries switching up chords, though it sounds a bit disjointed at first. "Y'know, most of the music in my world is digital."

"Is it?" She met his gaze and frowned. "How can that be?"

She knew that some music was recorded. It gave them records and it allowed her to listen to songs on the radio but the way he phrased it... it sounds like it's made with computers instead of being played. Music can't be built like a machine, it's something that's felt, vibrating from the tips of your hair to the ends of your toes.

"They use computers and pre-recorded sounds. Here," he says, setting the guitar down and holding open his palm. The digital display pulls up a video, which automatically begins to play. "This guy was a bandit lord named Bossanova down on Pandora. He was pretty popular."

Once he's sure she's gotten a feel for the music, Rhys shuts it off and picks his guitar back up.

(ooc: there's nothing super nsfw in the song, but maybe listen with headphones if you open it at work. They did actually use this song for Bossanova's little appearance in the game. :3)

She leaned forward and watched as the music flowed from his palm. It was really strange and unlike anything she's ever heard. Her nose scrunched up and she shook her head. "I'm so sorry." This was odd. "But I really don't like that."

She's never thought she'd not like anything before and it feels... strange.

"I'm sorry." Strange and bad. She feels very bad for not liking his music.

"Hey, it's okay. There's a reason there are a lot of different types of music. Not everybody likes the same kind." He smiles warmly. "I'm not a huge fan of Bossanova, either~"

Her shoulders relaxed and she smiled. "I've never... I'm not used to not liking things... this place is strange." And she was still getting used to everything. Seregil had told her that it was okay to want but she didn't know if it was okay to dislike things.

That sounded bad.

"What kind of music do you like?"

Okay, so that's a little weird. How is this the first time she's disliked something? Where, exactly, was she from?

"I like happier music. More upbeat stuff, y'know? Most of it's still digital, but it's nowhere near as dark as that song."

She was from a very different world. They didn't have crime, hate or violence. There was no need for laws or many of the things that were created to define and label. She wasn't human and she didn't think like one.

"I'll find more upbeat songs for us to play together." Though he was going to have to try and remember the notes first. "But you should really practice every day. It'll train your fingers to remember the cords.

"I'll make sure to do that." He stumbles through the chord progressions a little more, his fingers getting used to the movements.

"Anything you wanna start with on the computer? Or on the network?"

"Oh." She pauses and lightly toys with the golden implant that's curled just around her ear. It's still... odd.

"I'm not sure where to start. I don't do anything very well." Her light blue-gray eyes met his in a quizzical stare. "Maybe we should start with the basics?"

He nods and sets the guitar aside, then holds his cybernetic palm open again. This time, the hologram projection shows something recognizable as a menu screen. The network doesn't have one, of course, but Rhys had set one up quickly to be able to show Angel how to navigate it.

"So, this menu represents your options on the network. You can post a text, audio, or video feed publicly to the network, and everyone linked to it can see or hear what you post. Or you could contact a person or group of people privately." He points to the options as he mentions them, trying not to rush through it so he doesn't lose her.

She scoots closer to him and stares at the hologram screen with interest. She's never seen anything like it and curiosity inspires her to lightly touch the screen before retracting her arm.

"Okay. But." Her fingers brush against her lips. "Is this what it should look like when I try and use the link?" She was trying to picture it but was difficult. She didn't have a lot of experience with technology and she'd only been using the communications by thinking of it like some sort of magic where her thoughts willed what she wanted through the network.

It wasn't something she actually understood.

"No, it's a neutral network. This just makes it easier to understand," he answers, laughing good-naturedly. "This is how I like to picture it. It's similar to the interface in my systems, actually. A bit simplified, but my systems have more functions."

"But I still think it and it happens but this is how I can think about it?" She asked, clarifying. "I suppose that makes sense." It would take time for her to fully understand but she was beginning too.

"So this is a... menu?" She looked up at him with a hopeful smile.

Rhys nods. "This is a menu. Generally, it's populated with all the options a system allows you, and can have sub-menus, which will have more options branching from the bigger ones. So, let's say you choose to make a post." Here, the word "post" is highlighted briefly, before the hologram flickers to another menu. "You now have to choose to make a text post, audio post, or video post." The words "video post" are highlighted, then the hologram flickers again. "And once you've decided on a type of post, you can select whether it will be public or private, or who will be allowed to receive it."

He stops there, waiting to see if she needs further explanation.

"A... 'post' goes to everyone?" The word sounded awkward when she said it out loud. She wasn't used to using this kind of terminology and it'd take some time for the words to stick and settle in her thoughts. "What if I want to make it to only one person and private to others."

Her lips tug into a frown. "I've struggled with it and only really responded to people who message me first."

"Oh, that's easy! You'd just have to make a 'message' instead of a 'post'." Once again, the hologram flickers back to the main menu. Rhys highlights "Message", and it flickers to a page similar to the one where a post could be made. The difference is that there is an option to choose a recipient.

"You just pick someone and then make the message." He chooses Angel's name from the list, which is populated with all the Sphere's inhabitants.

"Oh."

She watched with growing interest, trying her best to remember and absorb the knowledge. It was like magic but something more structured and strict. Angular. "I think I get it." Her head canted to the side as she regarded the image seriously. "If I think of sending it to one person than it would." She was trying to reason with herself but Rhys might notice that she was having some difficulty with it.

"Could I write this down?" It would take some practice for her to be able to send private messages reliably and she didn't want to bother Rhys by asking him to show her the same image over and over again.

Rhys does notice she's having trouble, and he smiles good-naturedly at her question. "Of course. Here, I'll go back to the beginning, and you can copy it down." The screen flickers back to the home menu, and he looks over expectantly.

"I could also just make a video of it, if you'd like. That way, you could play it back and pause whenever you want."

Her expression perked up at the idea. "A video? yes. That would be helpful. I'd hate to keep asking you the same thing over and other again." She wanted to learn and realized that they were trading but she also didn't want to bother him...

It felt like he was helping her more than she was helping him.

"Hey, I offered. It's what the shop is for." He starts recording and slowly goes through the whole menu, essentially making an easy-to-follow map. Once it's finished, he attaches it to a private message and sends it to Angel.

"Now you've got the file and can pull it up any time just by thinking about it."

She tested it a few times and almost giggled when she saw the video playing in her minds eye. "That's amazing." She was probably a little to excited about it. "Thank you so much Rhys!"

It was really cool.

"For music we should meet again but you need to practice every day to get very good. I can see about finding more music for you to learn also."

"It's no problem, Angel. I'm happy to help," he says, standing and offering his hand for a handshake.

"I'll be sure to practice. If this is okay, we can just meet here, and if you need more help on the Network, just ask."

She bobbed her head in a nod and then took his hand. "Yes. Thank you."

"I think, with this video, we're done for today. Do you have any questions about playing before I go?"

"No, I think I'm good. We can call it a day. If you need anything else before our next music lesson, feel free to pop in and let me know." He lets go of her hand and gives her a little wave. "Or try messaging me."

She inclined her head in an enthusiastic nod. "I will. Thank you so much Rhys." She lifted her hand in a short wave and then disappeared through the door.

Even if this was their only lesson, she feels like she understands the technology a lot more than she had before.

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You're Never Too Old To Learn Something New

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