authorized borrowing

[namesthesky]

Aya is little used to having the opportunity to set her own priorities, but she likes it. She's not hurting for any material resources, and the organization of the attic would produce those more than anything else; and she has this entire bookshelf closer to hand. So the attic, which may or may not contain ghosts, languishes; and she steadily works through the book collection. Right now she is on the third in a series of myths from the old religion; this volume is about Aelare, the trickster.

Comments

[pythbox]

Another sigh-like huff, and then one whistle.

[namesthesky]

Aya pastes letters to keys, gently and carefully. She leaves gaps between them in the hopes of being able to eventually have a guess at what letter she's hearing without peering intently at the instrument. "There you go." She has more paper, ready to transcribe anything the instrument tells them.

[pythbox]

The pipes say:

H O W F A S T C A N I G O,

pretty quickly.

[namesthesky]

"If I'm staring right at you, that fast is fine. If I'm distracted I won't catch it. I don't know about him. If you want to pick out some words you're likely to use a lot, we can use blank keys for those."

[anotherbreeze]

"I caught it all," he says.

[pythbox]

F I R S T C O N V E R S A T I O N I N A H U N D R E D Y E A R S Y O U W O U L D B E E X C I T E D T O O

(The sound is distinctly unmusical, but the notes are clear.)

[namesthesky]

Aya giggles. "How come you never sang to him, then?" she asks.

[pythbox]

H A V E Y O U H E A R D W H A T H E D O E S T O H I S F U R N I T U R E

[anotherbreeze]

(He laughs.)

[namesthesky]

Aya finds this hilarious.

"So do you have a name? For that matter, do you have a gender?"

[pythbox]

G I R L

(pause)

P I P E R

[namesthesky]

"...Is that just a coincidence, or do you prefer Piper to whatever you were called before?"

[pythbox]

I T W A S A L O N G T I M E A G O A N D N O T I N E S E V I (pause) P I P E R I S E A S I E R (pause) A N D I T H I N K I T I S C U T E

[namesthesky]

"It is definitely cute."

[pythbox]

She plays a giggly ripple on some keys that aren't taken by letters, and adds a definitely non-giggle-sounding T E E H E E, perhaps to clarify.

[namesthesky]

"I could designate a key for signaling a toggle between communicating letters and making music for other reasons, if you like."

[pythbox]

T H A T S O U N D S C O N V E N I E N T

And as a suggestion, she hits the highest note on her external keys, fairly easily distinguished from the alphabet range.

[namesthesky]

Aya nods, writes a music note symbol separated by a slash from the first and last letters of the alphabet, and pastes this slip of paper to the chosen key.

[pythbox]

Toggle note - giggle - toggle note.

[anotherbreeze]

"You're really cute."

[pythbox]

T H A N K S Y O U T O O

[namesthesky]

Aya laughs. "Would you rather," she asks, "stay up here, or do you want us to try to haul you down the stairs?"

[pythbox]

I W O U L D L I K E M O R E C O M P A N Y (pause) B U T I R E M E M B E R B E I N G C A R R I E D U P H E R E (pause) A N D I T W A S N O T T H E M O S T F U N I H A V E H A D I N M Y L I F E

[namesthesky]

"You do look pretty heavy, and I can't even reliably get myself up and down stairs without mishap, but it'd be easier to talk to you if you were down closer to us."

[pythbox]

I F Y O U L E A V E D O O R S O P E N (pause) A N D W A I T A L O N G W H I L E (pause) I C A N G E T D O W N T H E R E B Y M Y S E L F