Octave

"Who was it that said music was the universal language?"

"Henry Longfellow. Why?"

"Oh. Never mind. Didn't think I'd get an answer."

So dropped the needle and thread she was Soing with, and glanced at La. Her note companion had been a bit flat in recent times, but every so often went sharp, just like this. The entire experience was one of syncopation, or a rondo that decided to go ABAZ instead of usual form.

"La?" she asked. "What's bothering you?"

"Nothing."

"La?"

"I said nothing!"

And now La had entered binary form. At this rate they'd be entering sonata form in a few hours.

"Come on," So said, moving into the treble clef and talking to her friend. "You can talk to me."

"Go back down to bass."

"Make me. No-one sings in bass clef nowadays. It's as if women started to get roles in films."

La nodded. "My point exactly."

La turned away from the window looking out to the alto clef, currently playing a game of cards with tenor and baritone. "Sound of Music," La said.

"What?"

"Sound of Music," La repeated. "Everyone got a role except me."

"The heck are you on about?"

"Gah!" La reached into a nearby stave, drawing something out of a crotchet, turning it into a minim in the process. "Look at this," La said. "It was a little list I made."

So obliged, even as the minim wailed and started being dividing itself into a quartet of quavers. It was a list of every note of the octave:

Do: A female deer

Re: Drop of golden sun (as opposed to red sun, concluded to not be a ray taken at sunset)

Mi: A name I call myself (cross-reference, Rainer, Maria)

Fa: A long way to run (is it still long when walking? Check distance of intended destination)

So: Needle and thread

La: A note to follow so

Ti: A drink with jam and bread (not butter?)

So lowered the list. "I don't see a problem here."

"Oh yeah?!" La sneered. "Look at it again."

So obliged And saw nothing.

"This!" La exclaimed, pointing a semi-quaver down on her name. "I'm the only one without an association."

So blinked. "Wait…you're saying-"

"Exactly!" La exclaimed. "All the other girls-"

"Funny how we're all female in this story…"

"-get something to associate themselves with!" La exclaimed. "But me? I'm just a note to follow you!"

"Don't you mean So?"

"Yes. Ergo, you."

"Oh, right." So shook her head. "Man, imagine that…if You was in the octave alongside Mi."

La nodded, no doubt remembering the Great Recapitulation War, only brought to an end by the efforts of a Coda. "Well, we won't miss that git. But my point is…"

"Your point?" So asked. "Your point is that you're being oversensitive."

"What?!"

"It's just a song," So said. "One song out of many I might add. Music schools across the world incorporate you into their classes, and you're getting all flat about a single song."

"No I'm not! It's…it's put me into natural minor! It's…it's made my scale pentatonic rather than harmonic! It's…it's…"

So sighed. Someday, the elements of the musical world would have to find a way to communicate in non-musical ways. Maybe rap. Everyone knew that wasn't real music.

"Think of it this way," So said. "Think of it making you, er…unique."

"What?"

"Well, yeah. Unique. You're so unique that nothing could be used to describe you. No hot beverages, no female deer, no drops of golden sun that defy the laws of physics considering that light is energy, rather than matter."

"Actually, transfer between energy and matter is quite possible if-"

"Whatever," So said, going back to her needle and thread. "Point is, don't get all quavery about it. Stand up tall like a crotchet and remember that you're part of the octave. No less important than any of us."

"Yeah…" La said, a smile coming to her face. "Yeah, that…that works!"

So smiled.

"In fact, one might say…I'm even more important!"

And the smile faded.

This was turning into cyclic-form very quickly.

It didn't help when the semi-quavers turned into demi-semi quavers either.