fandomhigh | Music Appreciation, Tuesday, Period 2

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Music Appreciation, Tuesday, Period 2

Students filing into the music room today would be greeted to the sight of two very different looking teachers, one clad in a superbly tailored and tasteful blue plaid three-piece and the other wearing more leather than was probably strictly necessary, even for a man who was on fire under all of those wrappings.

They would also be met with what was presumably pizza, though Jonothon seemed to be giving it a side-eye as he started to speak.

//Right. Er. Hello students, and welcome to Music Appreciation, which is more or less what it says on the tin. Dr. Lecter and myself - I'm Jono, though I suppose I'll answer to Professor Starsmore if you insist - will be spending this summer term giving you all a crash-course in different genres of music from different eras. Mostly what this means is that we sit around for half the summer listening to and talking about different songs, composers, and bands, what might have influenced them, what about each piece grabs your interest or turns you off… that sort of thing.//

Clearly Jono had put a lot of thought into this spiel.

"As you might have guessed," Hannibal picked up, "the two of us have very different tastes in music." And a lot of other things. "My experience has for the most part been in traditional forms of music - orchestral, opera, and some gagaku, which is Japanese music for those of you who may not be familiar with it." Which would be most of them, Hannibal, thanks. "I'm not terribly familiar with most of the popular music of today."

//Which, of course, is where I come in,// Jono supplied. //I personally prefer modern alternative and grunge, but I'm familiar with practically anything that comes through my shop - I run the Groovy Tunes in town - so I'll be the one introducing you lot to everything from Pearl Jam to Patsy Cline. Modern folk, rock, rap...// He gave Hannibal a wry glance. //It's certainly not for everybody, but hopefully some of you will appreciate it all the same.//

"I also have some knowledge of modern experimental music," Hannibal added. He chuckled. "Which is also not for everybody, but perhaps we will try it." If anyone decided they really loved theremin.

"For today, I believe introductions are traditional. Let's go around the room, and if everybody would please tell us your name, why you're taking this class, and something about your favorite type of music. Also, if you play an instrument, I'm curious to know. Beginning myself, I am Doctor Hannibal Lecter, I am teaching this class because I have enjoyed sharing music with Mr. Starsmore, and I prefer western orchestral music. I play the harpsichord and piano and the theremin."

//And I'm Jono Starsmore, teaching this class because I want an excuse to make Dr. Lecter here listen to Nirvana,// Jono added, though there was a light, teasing note in his voice as he said so. //As I said before, I've got a preference toward alternative and grunge, but a soft spot for Pearl Jam especially. And I mostly just stick to guitar. Electric, usually.//

Hannibal was smirking a bit at Jono's proclamation, mostly because he hadn't yet actually heard Nirvana. Spoiler: he probably wouldn't like them much. He nodded to the first student. "Now you."

[Open!]

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"It may not be the best fight song, but it's not that bad!" Cecil protested. "Definitely better than Desert Bluffs'."

//I had been talking about the radio interference, but now that you've mentioned the song itself...//

It was a pretty ridiculous song, Cecil. Just accept it.

"Well, what was yours?" Cecil asked stubbornly.

It was high school! It was supposed to be faintly ridiculous, to prepare you for the indignities of grown-up life!

//We... didn't actually have one.//

Go Gremlins?

//The school still doesn't, if I remember correctly. Or have you heard one here that nobody's let me know about?//

"Oh, you only went here?" Cecil shrugged. Yes, Cecil, most people only had one childhood. "I haven't heard one, no. But we should make one!"

//Here, and then a school that couldn't be bothered back in Massachusetts,// Jono replied with a shrug. //Are you stuck on the topic of the song because you don't want to keep listening, Cecil?//

He could sympathize.

He was getting a slightly blank look at that, because...no? It just wasn't like Cecil rambled any less when he was nervous.

"We can keep listening." The whole brother thing and whatnot wasn't even that worrying or creepy out of context. It was the end that made him panic.

//Right, good. Just tell me when you need us to stop, then.//

Not that Jono thought for an instant that Cecil would keep an urgent thought to himself if suddenly it crossed his mind, granted.

//So... seeing things.//

Cecil shrugged. "I don't see things like that now, and I'm on the radio all the time."

//Odd. You figure whatever it was went away, then?//

Or was he just seeing things differently? Jono had seen through Cecil's crazy radon eyes once before, too.

"I...did? When I first heard it. I mean, these things happen, right?" In Night Vale, anyway.

//Er... do they?// Jono didn't look hugely convinced, no. //You don't remember this thing, aside from the recording, either?//

"I don't remember the recording, either," Cecil reminded him. "Oh, unless you mean hearing it before? I remember that; I'm not forgetting it each time or anything." That would be sort of nice, actually!

"Do you think there's a way to do that?" he asked hopefully.

//To just... forget a large amount of your life, like this?//

Jono gave Cecil a bit of a concerned look, reaching to pause the tape. Something about an upside-down table and a faceless woman. It didn't seem to be terribly upsetting to either the Cecil in the recording, or the one sitting in front of him.

//Sure, people can forget a lot all at once. Trauma will do it, generally.//

Cecil blanched a bit at the talk of trauma. "Um, no. I meant to make me forget the tape."

//The tape... and a brother, though?// Jono was trying to sound apologetic. He really was. But now he was curious. He wasn't going to poke the poor boy more. //Could be something else, anyway. Something in the water. Or somebody very good at voice acting? You can do a lot with audio editing programs these days, right?//

"I asked ♥Carlos♥ to check, and there's nothing in the water or air except the usual municipally mandated chemicals." Cecil shrugged. "And I'd think I would know if it wasn't me."

Not that he was too certain of that anymore.

Funny, given that nobody quite sounded exactly right to their own ears in the first place. But then, Jono had spent more of his lifetime without a mouth than with one, if you factored in every different lifetime that had been programmed into his brain, so maybe he had no idea what he was talking about.

//Right. Then, one more question before we get going again... faceless old woman?//

"Oh, she just secretly lives in people's houses." Cecil thought about it. "Or maybe there are different ones? It's hard to be sure, because she doesn't have a face, and you never really see her anyway."

Most people might think they sounded weird on tape, but Cecil did radio for a living.

//Ah...//

Well, that was rightly terrifying.

//And she's not what we're worried about, here?//

Sometimes, Jono had to check.

"Not unless you want to run for mayor. She's a pretty serious candidate."

//... Huh. Well, it's a good thing I've got no love for politics, then,// Jono decided. //Shall I turn it on again?//

Cecil nodded. "So far her only competition is Hiram McDaniels," he added absently before the tape started up again.

This time, it was talk about how Cecil was accepted as an intern. How excited he was to get started.

His brother howling and staring at him across the breakfast table and his mother hiding from him and covering the mirrors and...

Jono looked up at Cecil, trying to puzzle out what out of these things he was supposed to be concerned about, because the answer was currently 'all of it.'

Cecil wasn't sure what that look was for, so he shrugged. "My mother used to say, 'Someone’s going to kill you one day, Cecil, and it will involve a mirror.'" That...wasn't so abstract as it used to be. "I guess then-me didn't think of that as why. But I always cover them now."

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