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Cosmic voices are naturally layered.
That’s one of the reasons why they all have antennas, even if said antennae aren’t always immediately obvious. Helps with communication, you see. Not just over long distances, or while traveling through space or whatever; they act as a sort of universal translator, making it easier to understand all the myriad dialects that can be found throughout the Great Cosmos. One might claim that makes their own language universal, if they feel like spinning self-serving lies; personally, Foomin sees no need for that. Better to embrace all their eccentricities; after all, isn’t that what makes them all so unique? So distinctly themselves?
(Even if it does throw a wrench into her mimicry. Foomin’s got a real knack for voices, but her imitations can only go so far. She can’t quite mimic all the layers at once; most she can manage is copying a single layer while trying to keep her own natural undercurrents at bay. Maybe she’ll get better with time; maybe she won’t. No sense in stressing about it, if you ask her.)
But yes, each and every cosmic voice has layers to it. And long before they learn how to speak, before they start figuring out how words work, those layers are already developing, already making themselves known. While they naturally gain more control over this as they grow, babies aren’t exactly good at modulation, so…
Well, her mom likes laughing ‘bout all the headaches she gave her. See, in her case, the non-speaking layers of her voice… they’re kinda like tuning forks…? Which basically means she’s very, very good at making long, drawn-out, resonant tones. Only the plural’s important there; tuning forks, not fork. And, like… one endlessly reverberating pitch is bad enough, when you pair it with a baby’s warbling wails. Throw in a few more of those at slightly different levels, all going at once, and… yeeeaaahhh. Can you say ‘cacophonic’…?
S’not so bad now, though. Her innate accompaniment’s more or less stabilized over time, gradually falling into and forming its own natural rhythms to complement the rest of her voice. Keeps to undercurrents, mostly, undulating and humming just beneath the surface. Not exactly as obtrusive or obnoxious as it might sound written out, though she supposes she’s a bit biased, there.
Course, it helps that she knows just how annoying she can make it. Vocal control is very important, after all. Humans have to know how to manage their tones too, don’t they? ‘Inside voice’ and all that. And for cosmic beings, well… again, that takes on whole other layers.
After all, they can drown themselves out, if they aren’t careful. Or deliberately, if they feel like it. She can crank up the volume of her ‘backing chords’ until that’s all anyone can hear, which works wonders whenever she feels like belting out instrumentals rather than whatever nonsensical lyrics happen to be running through her head at any given moment. Or when she feels like trolling one of her cousins. Or getting back at some stupid dog that kept knocking her katamari around.
Their voices tend to find their own balance naturally, but that doesn’t mean they can’t switch things up. Or lose control, for that matter. Take Shikao, for instance – there’s these soft static undercurrents to his voice that typically aren’t that noticeable at all. Very, very soft, more pink than white… maybe violet, even? Point is that it’s there, but doesn’t really command attention. Blending ever so naturally into the background.
Until something scares him. Then the static spikes up, distorting the sound of his screams – and trust her, given the amount of times he’s latched onto her arm during movie nights, she’s got plenty of experience discerning the differences. (Not that he’s the sort to fake terror. Quite the opposite, in fact. He just, well, sucks at lying. Especially when his fingers are still embedded in her arm.)
So yeah, her voice isn’t that annoying! Not unless she wants it to be. Which isn’t often. She’s very considerate, after all! Usually.
~~♪♫♬♫♪~~
Velvet, she’s noticed, tends towards being soft-spoken. Likes maintaining a nice, calm, even tone, composed in a way that seems effortless. Gentle, smooth and, well, velvety – though maybe not as naturally deep as she might like. Far from high-pitched, and not exactly what she’d call sugary, either…… mellifluous! That’s a very ‘Velvet’ word! The kinda word Vel would probably use. ‘Mellifluous’, with subtle notes of honey that doesn’t tread too far into saccharine levels.
There’s a tinkling that accompanies her words, the subtle sound of bells – the jingly kind, mostly. The smaller sort, rather than the ones that share her overall shape… though notes of those can certainly creep in, especially when she’s agitated. Cracking Vel’s composure can certainly be fun in its own right, if only for how those undertones tend to betray her even more than any smoldering glare.
(Also, Foomin’s pretty danged sure Vel’s got a fouler mouth than she likes letting on, given the amount of times she’s heard a low, irritated jangling from her general direction. Just short snippets of distinctly pissed-off chiming, harsher than you’d think jingly bells could get.)
The bells seem to surface more when she’s singing, ‘specially when she’s got an audience… or, well. Certain types of audiences, anyway. Mainly her mom, who’s ever so proud to parade her lovely daughter’s talents around in front of others. There’s no trace of bells in Satiné’s voice; there’s an even subtler quality to it, more like the whisper of silk against silk. Or some kind of fabric, anyway.
And she always beams when Velvet sings for her, when the bells blossom and swell forth, a crystalline cascade that ebbs and flows and adds an extra angelic quality to her daughter’s voice. (Or so Satiné always says, anyway. S’kinda funny, honestly. How adults say all kinds’a weird things, but then turn around and act like only kids do that.)
Thing is, Foomin’s noticed how that doesn’t always happen. Like if Vel’s just singing to herself, the bells typically don’t surface as much, even if she really seems t’ be getting into it otherwise. Maybe she’s holding herself back, though Foomin doesn’t really get why. Sure, maybe the chimes wouldn’t mix in that well with some of those songs, but hey! How can you figure that out if you don’t try?
(She also doesn’t get why Satiné’s never had Odeko join in, for that matter. Sure, his voice naturally trends deeper, and the chimes that naturally accompany his words are more tubular in nature, but the two of ‘em could probably still harmonize really well, ‘specially if they practiced! You’d think that’d be just the kinda thing she’d go for, what with how much she hypes up the way Vel’s bells ‘elevate her performances’ or whatever, but… eh. Maybe he’s just not into singing. Though he sure does hum a lot, so…)
~~♪♫♬♫♪~~
Daisy likes to moo.
And by that she means, like, voluntarily. ‘Cause yeah, that’s just what her voice sounds like sometimes, same as her mom – and that lowing has a natural tendency to surface and add more oomph. Especially whenever Daisy’s mom busts it out. She doesn’t really do it that often, not that Foomin’s seen, but whenever she does… danged if it doesn’t get attention. Really lets you know she’s serious.
But Daisy likes saying moo, or lowing more than she does talking. Which doesn’t really translate all that well when it comes to their auto-translators, but hey. No big deal, right? S’not like those things have ever been perfect; there’s a lot that gets lost in translation. All kinds of little nuances and whatnot that the more, like, culturally and linguistically-minded of her cousins like to complain about.
Doesn’t really bother Foomin, personally. To each their own, right?
Besides, Daisy’s also got these growly undertones that crop up now and then, and it’s frankly amazing how often others apparently just… forget about that. Foomin’s pretty sure a lot of that’s due to how much Daisy moos all the time – and some of ‘em get surprised whenever she busts out a really DEEP low, so hearing her snarl instead… just makes it all th’ more hilarious, really. The looks she’s gotten—! Even KURO’s jolted a few times—!
So yeah, who cares if Daisy doesn’t ‘use her words’ quite as much as others? Some folks just aren’t big talkers. Just look at Shy, or Jungle, or Kyun, or Kinoko… or Mu. (Ha—! Irony—!) She could list off plenty of names, ‘cuz let’s face it: not everyone’s a chatterbox. And hey, shouldn’t the ones who really like talkin’ appreciate that more? She knows she does~
~~♪♫♬♫♪~~
Honestly, she’s not quite sure what’s supposed t’ be going on with Opeo’s voice. Which ain’t his fault at all; it’s just… it’s more like…
…Well, he’s sick a lot, y’know? Like, a whole lot. Seems like there’s always some kinda crud workin’ its way through his system, and while he’s incredibly good at not letting that get him down mood-wise, that still… still takes its toll, in all kinds of other ways. Some little, some not so little.
An’ more often than not, his voice just sounds… strained.
Not always in th’ same way, either. Sometimes it’s like he’s always out of breath, like he just can’t get enough air into his lungs. Can’t quite catch it well enough to put more oomph into his voice, or even, like, a regular amount of oomph. (And yeah, that does seem t’ line up a lot with those times where that big honkin’ hole is back in his chest… but not always.)
Then there’s the times its gets all scratchy an’ raspy, which can delve into deeper tones without really sounding stronger for it. Best that ever seems t’ reach is croaky, and she can’t claim that’s really an improvement… just different.
The coughing spates… do those even count, really? S’not like he’s got any control over those… or any of it, really, but still. All of it just kind of… happens, but he can’t really talk while he’s coughing. Even if he tries to anyway.
(An’ related to that, there’s all the little smacks and such that tend to accompany his speech while he’s got a cough drop in his mouth. That little layer of dampness caused by how saliva naturally tends to form around the lozenge, how it shifts around, ever so slightly altering the way his words shape around it… an’ it’s not like he’s suddenly spitting everywhere; she just noticed the effect one day and now can’t… stop noticing it. Doesn’t really bother her; all it means is that he’s sucking on something that’s meant to help, is all.)
But what she really hates is those times where it lapses into outright exhaustion, when Opeo sounds more tired than anything else. Not even sleepy-tired so much as resigned. That’s the worst variant by far; much as she wants t’ figure out what his voice is meant to sound like, she’d be satisfied with just… figuring out some way to keep that one out of th’ rotation.
~~♪♫♬♫♪~~
Personally, Foomin’s pretty proud of just how much command she’s got over how she sounds.
Oh, she hasn’t mastered its full range by any means. Take ventriloquism, for instance – that’s something she’d love to figure out! Mostly distant ventriloquism, really… though who knows? Maybe it’d help if she practiced more with her little buddy? Or any of the others’ plushies, really… just as, like, a stepping stone or something.
Because hey, doesn’t that sound like something really cool an’ useful? Bein’ able to cast her voice out real, real far and trick others into thinking it’s coming from somewhere else? Pretty much perfect for throwing bad guys (or bad dogs) off her tail! An’ yeah, sure, maybe she could just, like, find a rock an’ throw it, or send out a little gust of wind… but that’s more about luck and timing at that point, isn’t it? Unless she started carrying good throwin’ rocks around with her all the time, and let’s face it, there’s way better things to keep in her pockets. An’ magic gets tricky too, ‘specially when she’s aiming for stealth – she’s not good at taking control of wind currents from a distance – not yet, anyway – an’ shaping the air right next t’ her and sending it out runs the risk of it hitting things it shouldn’t and giving itself away.
So yeah, she hasn’t quite gotten the knack of throwing her voice out yet. And while she’s pretty good at mimicry, copying vocals only gets her so far. Like… she could make herself sound just like King-Uncle, but none of the backdrop would be there. If there’s any way of transforming her naturally resonating tones to match the way his voice scratches and distorts, she sure hasn’t figured it out yet…
And while she knows how to resonate herself – how to take a tone and broadcast it out through both towers at once, in endlessly reverberating waves of pure, unfiltered sound… so far, that’s always come at a heavy cost. Her migraines afterwards are killer. Can leave her laid out for days, if she’s super unlucky – an’ when it’s really bad, she can’t even pass the time getting caught up on shows or tackling her backlog or anything! Not without keeping everything muted, and where’s the fun in that?! Sure, there’s subtitles, but it’s like their antennas; a lot gets lost in translation, ‘specially when the subs don’t even include, like, tone indicators or stuff like that most of the time. (An’ don’t even get her started on the ones that cheap out and just say [speaking Spanish] or whatever without even trying to transcribe or translate. Uggggh—!)
Still, that’s another ace up her sleeve, another trick she can bust out in a pinch. And just shouting packs some power, too – not as much as in th’ comics, but she likes to think she’s getting there, bit by bit. Not like she’s looking to shatter skulls, anyway; just stunning is fine by her. Besides, shouldn’t she be considered stunning already~? This is just, y’know, wordplay. Or somethin’ like that, anyway.
Obviously there’s so much left to learn… and really, who could blame her for wanting t’ make it all entertaining? What better way to keep herself motivated…?
~~♪♫♬♫♪~~
Humans don’t seem to fully grasp how cosmic voices work. Understandable, really; most humans don’t have antennas, do they? So they can’t really tune in or attune like they can. Makes matters much trickier. Sure, they can still talk to humans themselves, but it’s only natural that things get lost in translation. That they might find the layers more distracting or disorienting.
They seem somewhat aware, given how they’ve rendered their King-Uncle’s voice in most of their games. Though they don’t really get the full effect across. More like it’s one or the other; most of his dialogue gets a decent rendition of the scratchy sounds, along with the occasional voice line that’s danged near dead on; why, they’ve even given him a song here and there! Him or somebody who nailed their impression so well she sincerely can’t tell if they got the King himself to record it. (Main thing that makes her suspect otherwise is simply the lack of bragging on their King-Uncle’s end. Feels like the sort of thing he’d bring up. A lot.)
When it comes to the rest of them, though… weeeellllllll… That’s a bit of a sticking point amongst many of her cousins and friends. A matter of debate, of personal preference.
Personally, Foomin feels like she gets it. There’s a lot of them to keep track of, after all. A lot of names to try and remember, too. Having most of their in-game counterparts play with that, turning the syllables into chants and chattering… it’s cute, honestly. Cute, quirky, and memorable.
Some have a better sense of humor about it than others. Lalala loves the way their name sounds coming from their counterpart, how it lilts and bobs and weaves. And it’s layered, too, if not quite the same way, sounding more like a miniature chorus, like two voices of varying pitches speaking in tantum. June doesn’t seem bothered by hers, either, not the same way Dipp squalled about his in-game rep “chattering like a chipmunk!”
Vel clearly doesn’t approve, though she keeps her complaints locked behind firmly sealed lips, reluctant to openly express how much she dislikes the way her digital representation raises her voice. Shikao seems to flip back and forth on whether or not he likes the way his sounds; sometimes he remarks on how it almost captures the static in a way that sounds admiring. Other times, he says much the same thing, only more exasperated or frustrated… or just. Quiet and kind of sad.
And then there’s her counterpart. How she’s one of the few who doesn’t play with parts of her name. No, apparently somebody must have heard her singing nonsense to herself during one of her many visits to Earth, and incorporated that into the series… that, or they had a similarly dirty mind. Not like it matters. She still howled with laughter once she realized what her avatar was saying, and fully approves.
Because again, why shouldn’t they embrace all their eccentricities? Strange and silly as they might seem, that still makes them just who they are. And she wouldn’t have it any other way~