Auditory Experiments

[gamuzadeclares]

Who: Nelliel and Ulquiorra
When: Afternoon
Where: The mall
Summary: Two Espada visit a music store in their attempts to learn more about human culture. They are assisted by someone who says "Dude" a lot.
Warning: Probably no more than PG-13 (depending on what music lyrics they encounter)

Comments

[cero_oscuras]

To say he was uncomfortable was an understatement. The ensemble that Nelliel had pieced together for him to wear had far too many layers. One would think that a single shirt and coat would have sufficed for proper attire, apparently, two shirts made the man or espada in this case. He did not vocalize his issues with the clothing. They had been acquired for him at a very small cost and he could not deny that they accomplished their intended purpose. Hardly anyone seemed to take notice of him as they walked the streets. Only a small handful of humans even noticed his pale complexion, bone helm, and the sword that was attached at his hip.

When they arrived at the music store, Ulquiorra held the door for Nelliel and followed her in. His initial opinion of the store was typical. Trash. It not only smelt of a horrible combination of patchouli and something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but the staff on duty appeared as if they hadn't had lost a fight with a box of markers and a metal fence.

Ulquiorra turned away immediately and started to walk away towards another area of the store. He spoke only a few words as he went. "We are just looking."

[gamuzadeclares]

River the music store worker blinked a little at Ulquiorra's response. "...huh," he remarked. "I know I put on deoderant today..." He turned his attention back to Nelliel. "Was there anything you two were looking for?"

"We are Newcomers and have very little experience with the music from this world," she explained. "I was told you have listening stations>"

River's expression brightened. "Yeah, and they're awesome. Great sound quality, a whole mp3 library instead of having to use CDs...go browse and look at stuff and I'll get a couple of music mixes set up. If you like something, I'll let you guys listen to more music of the same type."

He trotted off to a corner of the store where there were several seats, sets of headphones, as well as pencils and scrap paper and began working enthusiastically. It was, perhaps, the only time he had managed to look awake all day.

As River worked, Nelliel approached Ulquiorra to see what he was looking at.

"We should be able to try the listening stations soon," she told him.

She thought Ulquiorra's outfit looked good on him and that a little variety was good for him. Still, Nelliel kept that thought to herself. Just getting him to agree to wearing something other than his usual attire took a little nudging.

[cero_oscuras]

It was really not River's fault. Ulquiorra was a hard sell when it came to these sort of situations and places. There was always something for him to nit pick and complain about. However, despite his new position at the other end of the store, he did continue to listen as Nelliel and the human spoke with one another.

By the time she approached, Ulquiorra had lifted a pair of cellophane wrapped CDs up in front of his face. They were, like River, colorful. The title of the band was written in a bubble styled font and the songs titles were full of words like: I'll Love you Forever, Don't Say Goodbye, and I'll be your only Baby. Ulquiorra immediately put them away as the other Espada spoke and he nodded as he turned away.

"That would be appreciated, though I am unsure if the music selection in this place will be appropriate." Trust in him to think that the two CDs he just picked up and looked over, spoke for the entire collection present.

[gamuzadeclares]

"Well, the best way to find out is to listen to it," said Nelliel. "Right now, there is no evidence one way or the other."

So many humans invested time and energy into music that Nelliel thought there had to be at least one or two songs in this entire store that might appeal to Ulquiorra. But rather than voice that opinion, she used logic. Logic held more weight with Ulquiorra when one was trying to persuade him to keep an open mind, she had found.

"And if there is not anything you like here, there is a boy with white hair at the Purgatory who plays the piano very well. We could go and listen to him there."

While it was a place that would be filled with people, it wouldn't require Ulquiorra to mingle with anyone else but her and their waitress if he didn't want to. Perhaps she could request to be sat in Raven's section if they went that route. Nelliel thought that of the friends she had made in Siren's Port, Ulquiorra might get along passably well with Raven. Raven was very well-read and calm, after all.

After another minute, River waved to get their attention and spoke up. "All right, the stations are all ready for you two. I set up a playlist with a few of the more popular songs from each kind of music. If you come over here, I'll show you how to use the stations."

[cero_oscuras]

"Perhaps if our schedules allow it." He agreed but in the most noncommittal way possible. It was not a down right refusal, which meant there was a possibility. If he agreed to do anything with anyone, Nelliel often was one of few people he did not mind agreeing to go out with.

When River announced that the stations were ready, Ulquiorra motioned for Nelliel to lead the way and he followed a few steps behind. Considering the machine in front of him was a new device he offered River this chance to explain how they worked. It appeared the man at least knew what he was talking about and that was an improvement from his previous thoughts.

He lifted the headphones into his hands and gave them a bit of a look over. He wasn't exactly sure that they would fit over his helm, so he folded them slightly in one hand and set one part over his right ear. That way he might still listen if Nelliel desired to speak with him.

[gamuzadeclares]

River pointed out the different buttons on one of the machines.

"This one lets you pause the song and this one makes it play again. This one lets you go back, and this one lets you skip ahead...but you should probably listen to a song for at least a minute or two before you decide to skip the rest. The volume control is here."

Pointing to the screen, he added, "The name of the song playing is displayed here. That's why the scrap paper and pencils are here. So you can write down the song and the music artist if you like it. Then I can find more stuff like that to try out. Put up your hand when you've got a few written down."

Nelliel listened to the explanation and stretched out the headphones so they would fit fully over her mask. Fortunately, the headphones seemed to have been built with a wide range of head sizes in mind. She had to admit that River seemed more competent when he was talking about his area of experience.

"Thank you," she said as River began to head toward some merchandise in a box. She pressed the 'play' button, and quickly had to adjust the volume. Perhaps the person who had been at her seat before her had been hard of hearing, or perhaps the person was just fond of loud noise.

Once she had the volume at a more comfortable level, she noticed that the sound quality in the headphones was quite good.

[cero_oscuras]

He says nothing as River heads off and leaves them to the stations. Ulquiorra kept the single headphone over his ear as he begun to shift through the selections that had been chosen for him. Despite River's instructions he did the exact opposite. Listening to a few seconds of each song before he skipped to the next. It wasn't long before he had gone through the entire selection, but with the initial listen out of the way he returned to the beginning to give the less loud and initially annoying songs a second and longer listen. Now and again his eyes shifted towards Nelliel and her face so he could gauge her reactions of the music.

[gamuzadeclares]

Nelliel tried to follow River's suggestion. A couple of songs didn't make it to a full minute, but she listened to each one for at least thirty seconds. The majority of songs, she listened to for at least two minutes, and some she listened to all the way through, taking the time to write the names of those songs out.

Periodically, she looked over at Ulquiorra, noticing when he stopped skipping songs after a few seconds each. It seemed that something had caught his attention and met his standards for being worth listening to.

[cero_oscuras]

When Ulquiorra did finally find a song that did cause him to have the sudden urge to break the device he was listening to, he very attentively listened to the song in its entirety. He only wrote down a few things. Two in fact. Most of the tracks he was listening were not to his liking and there were a few that he was on the fence about. There was a chance if he listened to them a few more times that he could have come to appreciate their melodies. The two he did pick out, were instrumental tracks, not loud or grating on the ears and made up of mostly string instruments.

Finished he eased the headphone down and into his lap before he turned towards Nelliel. He watches her quietly as she takes her time with the preselected tracks that River had provided for them.

[gamuzadeclares]

Nelliel drummed her fingers contentedly to the rhythm of an upbeat song that appealed to her. She highly doubted it was a song Ulquiorra would like, but she was enjoying it herself. She had a grand total of six songs written down by the time she had finished with the music selection.

Finally, she set her headphones down. "Did you find something you liked? I think we were supposed to raise our hands to let River know when we were finished with this music mix..."

[cero_oscuras]

"I believe so," he admitted as his eyes fell to his piece of paper once more. He took a moment and reached for the pencil a second time and jotted down something else before he looked up once more and then over his shoulder to where he had last seen River out of the corner of his eye. The man seemed to be waiting for them to get done and Ulquiorra wasn't quite sure he liked the look he got in his eyes as he approached them. Ulquiorra was sure River had more in store for them to experience.

[gamuzadeclares]

Ulquiorra's guess was absolutely right. However, this time would be less of a mixture of all types of music and mixes made based on their choices. He came over and took a look at the lists, starting on Ulquiorra's short selection first. This next set of tracks was all instrumental. Some classical, some jazz, some flamenco, some celtic, and some of the orchestrated pieces from movie soundtracks.

Nelliel's mixture included a few instrumental tracks, some cheerful pop music, rock, jazz with lyrics and dance music.

"Just like before, write down the ones you like," he instructed. "Only next time I come over, I'll show you where to find the CDs. Or we also make mix CDs for 99 cents per song, or we can transfer the songs for 99 cents each onto an mp3 player if you have one."

That arrangement seemed fair to Nelliel. She was glad that Ulquiorra had found at least a couple of songs that he liked enough to make note of. If nothing else, it would give him music to drown out Luppi when his patience was shot.

[cero_oscuras]

He would ultimately be forced to agree that River seemed to know what he was doing. The human appeared to be some sort of music savant, because the majority of tracks that Ulquiorra listened to were enjoyable. He was actually still listening to the last few tracks by the time Nel was done. His eyes had long since closed as he cradled the headphones against his left ear. The paper he had in front of him had nothing written down, but that was mostly because it would have been an easier task for him to list what tracks he disliked.

[gamuzadeclares]

Nelliel had looked over to see how Ulquiorra was doing when her music selection was finished with, and she couldn't help but smile. His expression looked quite serene and content. That was good. A positive experience would make him more willing to try new things, and less likely to assume that there was nothing he could possibly enjoy about whatever it was that they were about to experience.

She was about to ask him what it was that he was listening to and decided not to interrupt him. Instead, she got up and looked at the screen before sitting back down at her own seat. Nelliel made a mental note to buy him a CD with that song on it even if he didn't choose to buy it himself. She might have to be sneaky if he didn't want to buy it, but she thought he'd appreciate having it at home to listen to.

[cero_oscuras]

When the last song came to an end, Ulquiorra's eyes opened slowly as he removed the headphone from his ear and replaced it on the listening station. He offered Nelliel the same thin lipped expression he wore for every occasion, it was always impossible to tell if he was having a good time. He eventually turns his head away and takes a pencil in hand one more. His list is small, three or four songs in total, and then he moves to stand.

"I will to need to purchase something to listen to these CDs on in the future." He did not have much money to spend on such a device just yet, but the CDs could easily be set aside later and made use of.

[gamuzadeclares]

The expression might be the same as usual, but Nelliel had witnessed that peaceful expression minutes ago. The fact that he wanted to own the CDs was the most telling of all. If he only found them tolerable, he would never have wanted to own them.

"I think the DVD player in the living room can also play CDs," said Nelliel. "But if you want to listen to them in your room, you will need to buy something."

River approached again as they spoke. "Dude, I can recommend a few great sound systems for different price ranges. There's a couple of pretty good stores for that here in the mall...and one really overpriced crappy one where the only thing the salespeople are good at is ripping people off and selling extended warranties."

He ranted briefly while leading them around the store, grabbing each CD with a methodical efficiency one wouldn't have thought him capable of. Nelliel blinked a few times. River was an odd person.

"Uh...yeah, sorry. Didn't mean to give off negative vibes or anything. Music's kind of my thing and I hate when people ruin other people's experience with it."

"There is nothing wrong with being dedicated to your line of work," Nelliel said reassuringly as she took the CDs from his hands. She handed Ulquiorra's over to him and made sure to steer the conversation back to their original purpose for being there. "I think these will do nicely. Thank you for your help."