Octavia walked slowly toward her home, trudging along as the evening slowly approached She was dreadfully tired from her days labors. Waiting to take care of all of her errands on the weekend hadn't been a wise decision. To make matters worse her groceries were starting to get heavy in her saddlebags. Perhaps it would have been better to bring a cart, but to have to drag that thing across town...
Didn't matter now, her door was in sight. She'd put her groceries away, take a bath, lock herself in her studio room and relax with a little smooth music. That is of course, if she could convince her roommate to keep it down. She didn't have a gig tonight so she'd no doubt be playing with her dreadfully loud machines of instrumental murder. Such an unsettling noise. Octavia was sure if she asked her to she'd put a head set on. That way she could play with her own, new little toy in peace.
Octavia entered her home which was of course blaring with that sound garbage and sighed, putting her groceries on the counter. As if on cue Vinyl rounded the corner and entered the kitchen, a remote hovering just before her shrouded in her aura. She tried to say something but Octavia just stared at her.
“Oh, right.” Vinyl paused the music and smiled at the earth pony. “Hey Tavi, what's up? You just getting home?”
“Yes Vinyl, I'm just getting home.” Octavia sighed.
“You alright?”
“I'm fine Vinyl... Just a little tired.” Octavia started putting her groceries away.
Vinyl joined her. “Let me help you with that.” It was much faster for Vinyl to levitate most of the groceries away at once, opening and closing all of the cabinet doors at once. She'd lived with Octavia long enough to know where she put everything. Except the small white box with a picture of what looked like a speaker on it. It was labeled, ASMR White Noise Machine. “What's this?”
Octavia took it from Vinyl's aura and put it back on the table. “Something to help me relax Vinyl.”
“Okay... What does it do? How does a speaker help you relax? If you needed one I coulda let you borrow one of mine.” Vinyl cocked her head to the side.
“It's not a normal speaker. It doesn't play music.” Octavia sighed. Vinyl wasn't going to let this go.
“A speaker that doesn't play music!? That doesn't make any sense.” Vinyl shook her head. “So what does it play?”
“You read the label didn't you? White noise. Wind, rain, and a variety of other soothing sounds. I rather the real thing but on quiet nights this does the job.”
“A speaker that plays rain...” Vinyl wasn't amused. “Okay... That doesn't explain that asmr part.”
Octavia sighed again. “Asmr stands for autonomous sensory meridian response.”
Vinyl stared back at her dumbly. “Autonomo what?”
Octavia put a hoof to her face and growled quietly. “Autonomous sensory meridian response Vinyl. It's just a fancy term for the tingling in a pony's body when exposed to certain visual or auditory stimulus.”
“So... This speaker is supposed to make you feel all tingly, which is... supposed to help you relax?” Vinyl asked.
“Yes, but only when it's quiet. Which brings me to what I wanted to ask you.” Octavia looked up at Vinyl. “I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd keep it down for the night. I won't be able to relax with all of that ga- noise blaring. Just for tonight... please.
Vinyl shrugged. “Sure Tavi. No problem.” Octavia was pretty good about leaving her alone when she was listening to her music. Wouldn't hurt to keep it down for a night.
“Thank you Vinyl. Now... I'm going to take a bath, and then I'll be in my room. Please do not bother me unless it is an emergency.” Octavia trotted past Vinyl, taking her asmr machine with her. She dropped it off in her room before headed toward the bathroom. As promised she didn't hear any of Vinyl's music.
The water felt great, nice and warm. Combined with her gentle bubble wash and her bath salts it was just what she needed to unwind. She could feel her muscles loosen and relax and breathed her first sigh of relief of the day. Vinyl's rubber duck was sitting on the edge of the bath, she picked it up and tossed it in with her. “You need to relax too don't you?” She patted it atop the head and gave it a squeeze.
“Oh? You do? Well you can share my bath, don't worry... I won't tell Vinyl.” Octavia squeezed the ducky again for it's answer and let it drift off to the other end of the tub. She took a deep breath and let herself sink down to her muzzle.
After an undetermined amount of time she got out of her bath feeling like new. She dried her fur and didn't bother with her mane. She wasn't going out anywhere so she allowed it to lay flat atop her head. When she opened the door to the bathroom however, Vinyl was sitting outside of it with a grin on her face. Octavia let her head hang. figures “Yes Vinyl?”
“Oh hey Octavia.” Vinyl stood up. “I know you didn't want me to bother you but... I have a question.”
“What is it?” Octavia groaned.
“Well... Since you don't want me being loud. I was wondering if you could show me that weird speaker of yours. I'm kinda curious.” Vinyl smiled sheepishly, sure she was about to get yelled at. It was worth a try however.
Octavia was about to deny her request when she thought about it. Who knows, if Vinyl ended up liking it then maybe she could have more quiet nights around the house. “You know... that doesn't sound like a bad idea.”
Vinyl perked up a bit surprised. “Really? Great!”
Octavia winced and shook her head. “On one condition.”
“Sure.”
“Please try and keep your voice down Vinyl. It won't work if you're being loud yourself.”
“Oh... sorry.” Vinyl recoiled a bit, lowering her voice. “So uh... going to your room now?”
“Yes.” Octavia trotted past her, toward her room. She second guessed her decision as Vinyl followed. Had she just ruined her quiet night?
Once in the room Vinyl trotted in and immediately turned on the light. Octavia switched it back off and looked at her with exasperation. “What?”
“No bright lights Vinyl.”
“Um... So how are we supposed to see then?” Vinyl retorted.
“Leave the door open for now until I get the candles lit. I'm also going to open the window and let in some moonlight.” Octavia took the asmr white noise machine and opened it up. Luckily it came with batteries and could be plugged into the wall. It didn't really need directions. Just plug it in and pick a sound. There were hundreds of them, a few Octavia didn't understand herself like a fan or washing machine but there were others such as nature, heavy rain, light rain, thunderstorms, wind, jungle, one called night valley and a whole list of others she thought would work splendidly.
Octavia plugged it in, put it on the floor and started going through the list, leaving Vinyl to observe bemusedly. Octavia settled with some rain, and random increments of thunder, turning it up ever so slightly. Then she went over to each candle, lighting the first with a match and using it to light the others. Once she was satisfied with the lighting she looked over to Vinyl. “Vinyl, if you could,” she motioned toward the door which Vinyl shut.
Vinyl squinted to get used to the darkness. She could still see, just not well and was tempted to light her horn but didn't want to annoy Octavia. She did see Octavia dragging something big across the room and found it to be a bean bag chair.
Once in the middle of the room she left it for another, dragging the second next to the first. Finally Octavia retrieved one of her smaller instrument cases and sat in one of the bean bag chairs, opening her case and retrieving her violin. Octavia waved Vinyl over with a hoof and pointed to the chair next to her.
Vinyl shrugged and trotted over, plopping into the seat and looking to Octavia expectantly. “So, how does this work?”
“Just... shhhhh.” Octavia had little hope Vinyl would understand, but she was going to try anyway. “Listen, close your eyes and relax Vinyl. I know you're not accustomed to it but it really is quite the nice feeling.”
“I relax all the time Tavi,” Vinyl replied.
“Sitting in front of a TV with a bag of chips or blaring music is not relaxing Vinyl. Now, do you want to stay or not?”
“Okay okay, I'll listen... jeez.” Vinyl pouted and fell back into her seat with her forelegs crossed.
Octavia gave a curt nod and put the bow lightly upon the strings, pulling it across slowly so that it was just louder than her makeshift rain. She heard Vinyl audibly sigh and rolled her eyes. “Just relax Vinyl.” After a few test pulls she began to play a soft slow melody, rocking back and forth with the music and allowing her eyes to close as she played. She composed this herself and called it, Octavia's Lullaby. Each note played perfectly, as she'd practiced this a hundred times before. She was actually quite happy to have an audience, especially Vinyl as she played this. Maybe she could see if her song worked. However as she became more and more focused on the music she forgot Vinyl was in the room at all.
Vinyl was reluctant at first. She didn't so much hate classical music, it just bored her. However after a few minutes of sitting in the chair, focusing on the dancing shadows from the candle light and listening to the rain with Octavia's violin she closed her own eyes without even realizing it. Her breathing slowed and her mind cleared all of it's distracting thoughts. She didn't wonder what she was going to eat for breakfast, what her next beat would be... she didn't worry about her next gig or the deadline for her next remix. She was just simply, there.
In a comfortable candle lit room, filled with the harmony of rain and Octavia's music. She hadn't really listened to it before. Even when she went to one of her concerts she was more worried about just being there rather than listening to the music. Now it was all she could listen to. The chair was really comfortable, and she seemed to sink into it the longer she sat there. Eventually she began to drift off. She knew she was falling asleep but she didn't try and stop herself. It was a good feeling.
Octavia finished her solo, took a slow, deep breath and opened her eyes. “Well? How are you feeling Vinyl?” She didn't get an answer. Had she left? Octavia looked over to where the unicorn lay. That's when she noticed the Vinyl's eyes were close. If she didn't see her chest rising and falling from breath she'd think she were dead. Octavia giggled to herself and smiled. This was wonderful. She'd half expected Vinyl to leave the room but instead she'd actually fallen asleep.
Octavia wasn't going wake her. As long as she was quiet she could sleep there through the night. Octavia herself was feeling much better than she had been before. The bed looked rather inviting. She could leave the white noise machine on throughout the night, but needed to snuff the candles. One by one she put them out, then trotted over to the bed. She peeled the covers back, jumped up atop it and pulled them back over her, nestling into place. That's when it occurred to her that Vinyl hadn't a blanket. She frowned at this and got back out of bed.
She took one of her own, of which she had three and dragged it over to where Vinyl lay on the bean bag chair. As gently as she could she pulled it over her, tucking the edges under her. One of Vinyl's forelegs was sticking out so she picked it up slowly, lifted a part of the cover and placed it under. Octavia released a breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding, glad she hadn't waken her.
Satisfied Octavia got back into bed, drifting off to the sound of rain, and the sweet dreams she was sure to have.
