Library, Monday

[intotheout]

After her conversation with Breq at the party on Friday, Tip was looking up different Earth music styles during her shift today. She was pleased to learn that rock and roll was actually founded by a black woman, but got stuck for awhile looking up her boss's favorite music style, punk.

"Buncha white boys," she noted, flipping through and looking at pictures of unkempt musicians. She called up a couple songs on her phone for reference. "What did they even have to rebel against? Music theory?"

She found herself bopping along a little as the playlist went on. Alright. It was a little catchy.

She liked the songs from screamy girl bands especially.

[open!]

Comments

[justice_undone]

Breq found her way to the library after class. Of course she did. Tip had told her she worked there on Mondays, and Breq looked forward to continuing their conversation and learning more about Earth's music.

She looked around the library as she entered.

[SP from me, but Breq really wants to talk to Tip.]

[intotheout]

"Breq!" Tip greeted. "Hey, I've been looking up music for you."

[justice_undone]

"Oh?" Breq smiled, and even if it was a conscious decision to do so, it was sincerely meant. "What have you found?"

[intotheout]

Oh hey! A smile! Tip was already certain those were rare for Breq. "Well, how much do you enjoy listening to vaguely musical screaming? Not, like, in fear."

[justice_undone]

Breq needed to practice smiling more.

"I... think I could handle that," she said. "I have heard styles of music before that would be considered an acquired taste."

[intotheout]

Tip nodded. "The librarian said to make sure you got exposed to punk music," she explained. "I'd never really listened to it before today, but once you get past the whole 'sounds like a crate of instruments getting dropped on the floor' thing, it's not bad."

[justice_undone]

"Yes, I heard her mentioning punk," Breq said. She had quickly figured out that despite the gossip, listening to the radio was useful.

[intotheout]

"I think he's a him," Tip pointed out gently. "But yeah, it's one of those music genres people tend to be kind of passionate about I guess." She flipped through the book she'd found again, looking for an image of the Sex Pistols. "This book says the whole point was to take the elitism out of music, so I can kind of get it."

[justice_undone]

"Oh. Him. Is that sort of thing important here, then?" It would be good to know if it was.

Breq leaned closer to have a look. "They made a point of not playing well? And choosing a different fashion style?"

She had heard of the former, the latter happened in every generation.

[intotheout]

"It's a pretty quick way to offend people," Tip said. "You're allowed to ask people if you're not sure, though. If they get offended by that, it's their own problem.

"And yeah, that's the gist, as far as I can tell. A lot of people don't have money for fancy lessons, so they have to make up how to play on their own."

[justice_undone]

"I see. Thank you for telling me." After a moment of consideration, she added: "You are female, right?"

Returning to music, she said: "A lot of good music have been created by people whom others didn't think could play."

[intotheout]

"I am. Most people around here are male or female, but some people are nonbinary or some other mix. I take it where you're from it's not much of a thing, but it might help if you have a preferred set of pronouns picked out for while you're here." Tip nodded to the picture. "These four are all male. I found some punk from about 20 years later that's by women, which I like a lot better than their stuff."

[justice_undone]

"I suppose I'll go with female pronouns then, if that will confuse people less," Breq said. "And you're right, it's not important at all to Radchaai, but many people whom we come into contact with do. Thank you for correcting me. It would be stupid to inadvertently insult people."

"Do you have their music here?"

[intotheout]

"No problem. My best friend is from a species that has seven genders, so it's not like this is the first time I've had this conversation." She smiled. "I can play it on my phone, if you want. That's what I was doing earlier."

[justice_undone]

"Seven? That must have required some explanation."

She leaned closer to have a look at the phone, because music was more interesting than seven-gendered aliens.

"I thought those were for communication."

[intotheout]

"What, music isn't a form of communication?" Tip said, smiling. "It's multi-purpose," she explained. "Mine has a calculator and a flashlight and a compass in it, too. It's basically a tiny computer, so you can load it up and make it do most anything, as long as you've got the memory for it."

[justice_undone]

"Where can I get one?" Breq asked.

She needed one. She really did. Hopefully she could afford one on her salary.

[intotheout]

"I'm not sure on the island. Maybe Turtle and Canary? I brought mine from home, but I'm sure you can find t hem somewhere."

[justice_undone]

"I will see if I can find one," Breq said. "Will you play me the song?"

[intotheout]

"Of course," Tip said, and started the song. "I like the lyrics from these guys a lot more, too. And they only get really screamy during the bridge."

[justice_undone]

"The music carry across the message well," Breq said. In many places singing something like that would get the singer into trouble.

[intotheout]

"Yeah, they've got a whole ambiance going," Tip agreed. "Pop doesn't tend to be as . . . scrappy, I guess. It has to be all polished and respectable."

[justice_undone]

"Has to be?" Breq asked.

[intotheout]

"To fit the genre," Tip said. "Or, well, the supergenre? I'm not really sure how that classification system works. But to count as 'pop', it's going to be cleaned up and easily accessible."

[justice_undone]

"I might need a book on this," Breq said. "If you have one."

[intotheout]

"I bet we do," Tip said, turning to the computer to look it up. "It'll probably only really cover western music, that's what I know about. Not, like, country-western, but music from the western hemisphere. There's some crossover with, like, k-pop and stuff, but the rules probably aren't totally the same."