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Holodeck 2 - A Musical Introduction

Posted June 2, 2023, 12:16 p.m. by Civilian Sair Songz (Counselor) (Lindsay B)

Posted by Fleet Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Holodeck 2 - A Musical Introduction

Posted by Civilian Sair Songz (Counselor) in Holodeck 2 - A Musical Introduction

Posted by Fleet Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Holodeck 2 - A Musical Introduction
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Cochrane gave her a small, sympathetic smile. “Just because life is normally heavy doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to be tired of the weight.” he said softly as he entered another piece.

( https://youtu.be/yMRDC_nFFaQ )

Cochrane, CO

Fingers hovering over the prizar, she closed her eyes and plucked with the plectra one string at a time. Despite the relative higher pitch of the instrument compared to his, she was playing the root note of the chords his music was revolving around, but a half beat or so after, like an echo, soft and yet present. “And yet it does no good to fight it. It is what it is. Acceptance is the only path.” And yet those words felt hollow, like they were but a oft-rehearsed maxim.

~Sair Songz, CNS

Cochrane looked at her and said softly in rhythm with the music “If acceptance were… the only path… then we… never would have… reached the stars.” He continued playing for a long time in silence adjusting his speed to match the echo of the prizar, and soon they were sending notes across the lake in a delicate dance of music.

Cochrane, CO

Sair added a tremolo to her little echo with her left hand as she pressed the string down. “It’s not the only path in life, not at all. But for this situation? Yes. I’m a living example of what happens when you choose something else. But I cannot change the path forward for her, for our family. Te best I can hope to do is make it as smooth and painless as possible. To preserve her dignity and honour her as the remarkable woman she is.

~Sair Songz, CNS

“Then the path is changed.” Cochrane said. He closed his eyes as he played. “It could be harder. Rougher. But you are making it better. Even if the destination remains the same, the journey is where we learn and grow.” He opened his eyes and looked at her. “Do you like poetry? Does your mother?” he asked.

Cochrane, CO

While his eyes were closed, Sair had watched him, studying the tiny shifts in his face. She had learned to watch for these by watching her father play over the years. all musicians had their subtle tells, the way their own body reflected the music they were playing. So when he opened his eyes and set them on her, Sair didn’t worry about being caught gazing. She was, after all, a student of behaviour. “I am gaining an appreciation for it. I’m not sure about my mother, though. I don’t recall her ever reading it herself, but there are many things she enjoys that she just never really had time to delve into because work was so intense.”

~Sair Songz, CNS

He nodded and said “I can certainly understand that.” He played for a few moments more, and then said:
“Na’ ek’ t’ etwel trials,
ek’ t’ etwel kusut,
etek talal solace
svi’ wuh deepest nartaya t’ ashaya,
ik t’ skan.”
in perfect Vulcan. He looked at Sair and said “My mother is a poet. That is something she wrote. It means:
‘For all of our trials,
All of our pain,
We find solace
In the deepest embrace of love,
That of family.’ “

Cochrane, CO

A warm smile touched her face. “It’s lovely. Simple words that have the deepest of meaning. Music is like that too. They are just individual sounds but strung together in different ways they can make you laugh, or cry, feel joy and pain.” She gave him something of a smirk (a rare thing for her these days) and plucked a string with a sharp motion. Then a sequence of four strings that were slightly discordant. Sair went into a sequence that alternated between slow tremolos and sharp quick plucked notes. Back and forth it wove together like the background music one might hear while watching a comedic play. This was enhanced by Sair’s expression which shifted into something dramatic and serious in a sharp contrast to the lightness of the music.

~Sair Songz, CNS

Cochrane watched for a moment and then began lightly bowing his cello as he got into the rhythm and feel of the music. Contrasting her music with low, heavy notes; they were soon creating an improvisatio al piece of no small complexity and charm.

Cochrane, CO

Sair rarely played for others outside of her family and, aside from her father, never with others. But there was something poignant and captivating about how he so easily found a through line in her music and found something that complimented the story she was building. She continued the quick plucked notes, but backed off the tremolos, the staccato sounds sounding a lot like rain drops into a pool of water, but she did so with a cheeriness as if that rain was the most refreshing moment ever. It made her smile and as she played, she stole glances at him, watching how he moved and interacted with the cello.

~Sair Songz

Cochrane’s gaze was on her instrument as she plucked the strings and coaxed each note. The playing style reminded him of the Terran banjo or Vulcan harp, and he was starting to understand how the instrument worked in theory. As her music became the raindrops, he contrasted and supported it with low, drawn out chords… distant thunder to her rain.

Cochrane, CO

Something was happening as she played and Sair wasn’t sure she could even explain it. The prizar seemed to be asking for her to give something of herself that she couldn’t recall ever doing. She had also thought of herself as a technically adequate player but she didn’t have the depth of feeling for her music the way her father did. His music could move you to tears! But as Alex responded so naturally to her changes, something shifted in her. Was it him and his beautiful playing? Was it something within her? Sair couldn’t say for sure, but she did know that she felt close to him in this moment as he brought the thunder to bear upon their imagined little scene.

~Sair Songz, CNS


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