Forums » General Roleplay » A Meeting Of The Musically Gifted (1x1 Novalyyn)

It was a nice, sunny afternoon.Pure, white, fluffy clouds were scattered across the sky here and there, and the sun shone down on the green grass, and through the green trees.It was a lovely day to go outside, and so most people did.Parents took their children to the parks or playgrounds, as others just stayed home and played baseball in the backyard.Though one man was an oddball, though he did go to the park, he didn't play games or anything.
The young man made his way through the parks iron gates and headed off deeper into the park, and went and sat on a bench under a shady tree.He had brought a black case, supposedly a guitar case, and pulled his guitar out and a few sheets of music.Nobody seemed to be to close to him, so he figured he wouldn't be disturbing anybody, so he took a pick out, and slowly begun to practice his guitar playing, without a care as to who heard the notes whispering with the wind.

Past a certain age, face paint among girls tended to give way to proper makeup. Short hair was usually for guys, old ladies, and those stereotyped as lesbians. It was generally only acceptable to play with little kids on a jungle gym if one was either also a little kid or related to one or more of those little kids. And hadn't tie-dye gone out of style years ago?

Clearly, Billie didn't care. She wore the blue and purple stars painted onto her face with pride; enjoyed the breeze across her neck, unblocked by the deep purple hair that hung a mere two inches from her scalp; was quite happy with the tie-dye t-shirt that sat with a knot around her waist, and similarly so with her torn-off jean shorts; and she seemed to have just as much fun with the children on the jungle gym as any of them did, even though they usually made her play the terrible monster.

"Okay! Okay," she said eventually, out of breath but still managing to laugh. "Monster's really dead this time."

Having just been "slain" by the brave knights - and lady-knights - of Shamalamadingdong, Billie had to climb back to her feet. "I gotta go. You guys really took it outta me!"

There were some pouting objections from the kids, and one clung to her leg, but she managed to escape over the next several minutes. Soon, she was wandering along through the park. She stood up straight, hands clasped behind her head as she tried to catch as much of the warm sun as she could. She didn't really even pay attention to where her feet took her, despite her happy awareness of her surroundings.

Somehow, she hadn't quite noticed the music until after she'd been humming along with it - not really matching it, but instinctively adding to it. Billie kept it up for a few minutes before it finally sunk in that that music was actually coming from somewhere. Finally, she looked around, curious of the source, and spotted someone on a bench not too far away. She couldn't tell much, with the bench turned away and the back of it blocking most of her view, but he did appear to have a guitar. Curious, she headed over, keeping quiet so as not to disturb the player, and leaned silently on the back of of the bench.

Playing with children if your over the age of 13 on a playground was never really the brightest move. You had the somewhat intelligent adults that would allow you to play with their children without a worry in the world, and then you had those idiotic adults that would panic if a leaf fell from a tree and landed on their child's face, and probably have a heart attack if they saw their child playing with a teenager. Though this young man had not to worry about that seeing he never came to play with the children, the closest he ever got to that was watching them play from a distance. He'd get the occasional look from a mother that said 'you better not lay a finger on my child you stalker', but the glares never seemed to bother him. It was typical for a boy with somewhat long hair and dark clothes to be called emo, or gothic, but he didn't believe he was either. His black hair was shaggy, yes, but it only came down to about his throat, or somewhere around that area. He didn't dress darkly neither, seeing today he was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, and a semi baggy purple shirt that had some black lines and an odd cross on the front and back. Without any awareness to the girl that had approached him from behind, he continue to run his guitar pick along the guitar strings, and moved the fingers of his other hand from string to string to, making the outcome of a song. If you listened close enough you could hear him lightly humming the words to the song as he played.

At first, Billie listened in silence, simply enjoying the music. The guy definitely had talent, and while his voice was barely audible, the notes he hit simply sounded right.

Then, she had to consider what to do next. Obviously, she wasn't going to just walk away. Saying anything at that point was likely to spook him, and he'd no doubt stop playing. She supposed she could resume humming, as she had before - though she'd really seem like a creeper then, even though it seemed like the most appealing option to her.

Oh well.

"You've got some good fingers," she stated plainly, skipping right past any greeting. "Whatcha playing?"

The boy was blissfully unaware of the girls presence.Not that he'd mind having an audience, even if it was only a audience of one who come to see the show.Slowly, Ever so slowly his ears picked up on the sound of somebody humming,A girl humming.It sounded close like it was right behind him.Curious to see, he stopped playing and looked over his shoulder at the girl.He tilted his head slightly, "thanks?" He said.That was the first anybody refer said that exact comment/compliment to him.He looked away, and looked down at his guitar, "a song I wrote" he said.He reached out and took the music sheets, that had both the words and the music notes, and held it out for the girl.

"Sounds good," she said as she took the sheets, though she only really paid attention to the lyrics, running them through her mind against the melody he'd been playing. Billie nodded and handed the papers back. "Cool. You been playing long?"

She climbed over the back of the bench and sat down next to him, careful not to bump or knock anything over. One leg draped over the edge of the bench properly, but she pulled the other up, resting her foot on the seat and wrapping her arms loosely around the leg.

The lyrics weren't that of anything special, probably a song he'd rushed with


(Song I used was Start Again by RED)

And I remember everything,
Everything I loved,
I gave it away like it wasn't enough
All the words I said and all you forgive
How could I hurt you again?

What if I let you in?
What if I make it right it?
What if I give it up?
What if I want to try?
What if you take a chance?
What if I learn to love?
What if, what if we start again?


All this time
I can make it right
With one more try
Can we start again?
In my eyes,
You can see it now,
Can we start again, can we start again?

Emptiness inside me, wonder if you see
It's my mistake and it's hurting me
I known where we've been
How did we get so far?
What if, what if we start again?



I'm lost inside the pain I feel without you,
I can't stop holding on, I need you with me
I'm trapped inside the pain
Can we ever start again?
I'm lost without you

One more try,
Can we start again?
In my eyes, can you forgive me now?
(Can we start again?)
Can we start again (one more try?)
Can we start again?
Can we start again (can you forgive me?)
Can we start again?

Once she had read the sheet, or at least most of the sheet, he took it back from her."Since I was in 7th grade" he answered her question.He started writing songs and practicing guitar back then.He looked down st the sheet of paper that had the song on it, "this was one of my first songs" he said.

Again she nodded. For a moment, she considered asking if something in particular had inspired it, but she opted not to. Instead, she said, "Cool, cool. I tried playing guitar back in my junior year, but I don't quite have the fingers for it. But! My fingers are good enough for bass."

She smiled and held out a hand. "Name's Billie. And yes, I know it's usually a boys name, so now you don't have to worry about asking."

So I can play something she can't, sweet he thought.It was nice to know they're was a variety of people out there who could play instruments, and of different kinds."That's cool," he said."I can play the piano, electric guitar, and acoustic guitar."

He looked over at her hand, before he laid the sheets of music beside him, and reached his hand over and shook her hand, "Hello Billie, call me Saturn" he said.

Billie grinned as they shook. "Sweet! I'm talking to a planet!"

She leaned in a wagged her eyebrows at him as she added, "A married planet, if I remember right."

Saturn wasent surprised by her first reaction, it was a typical reaction from people.Everyone was always surprised by his nickname.His true name was Andrew, but he always used his nickname.

He looked at her, "first I've heard that before" he said.

"Well, it is the ringed planet, right?"

She gave another short laugh, the stood and stretched. "Well, I should actually be headed home. But hey, I heard someone's tryin' to get a band set up sometime soon. Maybe you should check it out. Sounds like you could try for multiple positions."

Saturn nodded.It was the planet that was surrounded by rings.

"Ah yes, I've heard about that.Its quite the commotion in town." He said thoughtfully."Maybe you should tryout to.." he said looking at her, "after all, you did say you can play base.."

"Yeah, I'm thinkin' about it. Maybe I'll see ya there." She smiled and saluted Saturn. "See ya later, Planet-boy!"

Billie waved and jogged off. He'd seemed like a quiet guy, but not really shy. Just sort of... flat. Then again, she had sneaked up on him, and then only stayed for a few minutes, so maybe she'd just thrown him off balance a bit. It certainly wouldn't have been the first time.

The oy waved slightly from where he sat on the bench."Bye, " he said.He put his hand down, and looked down at his guitar once she was gone.What an odd girl he thought.She had her hair cut like a boy, and even had a boys name, not that he minded.Everyone had their own style of things after all, like how he had the nickname Saturn, why not Pluto, or Mars, Jupiter or Uranus, Neptune or Venus.He thought about that a moment before looking up at the sky,I may see her tomorrow he thought.

Billie arrived a bit early to the auditions and sat in a corner, out of everyone's way. Much as she'd looked like a short-haired hippie the day before, she could easily have been unrecognizable now. Her short hair was gelled into messy spikes; the tie-dye shirt was replaced by a black Apocalyptica tee; and she now wore a pair of faded grey jeans. She even had more age-appropriate make-up on, though the heavy green eyeliner was still pretty showy.

She had in a pair of earbud sets - one set was plugged into her phone, playing music into one ear, and the other ear was occupied by an earbud that attached to a little earphone amp before connecting to the bass guitar in her lap. Billie's eyes remained closed as she plucked at the strings, fitting what she heard in one ear to what she heard in the other, though she often didn't bother to match the existing bass in a piece. To her, it was magic. To anyone who happened to see her, it was some chick wearing two separate headphones sets and making faces to barely-audible string plinks.

The next day when auditions soon came to town for that band, Saturn was right on it. He wore a black hoodie with some odd symbol on the front, and a simple pair of blue jeans, and dark grey converses.Nothing special. After all, it wasent like he was going to see the queen of England or anything.His bangs were having one of there days where they wanted to just hang out in his eyes so matter how many times he brushed them aside, so he just age up, and let them fall in his face, not that he owned hair pins or anything similar.

He have his guitar strapped to his back in its case, and once he arrived at the place of the auditions, he walked through the doors, and went and took a random seat, after taking his guitar off his back of course.But one thing he did notice not to far away, was a girl wearing headphones, making plucking sounds on a base.He chuckeled quietly.Somebody was somewhat practicing.

She stayed like that for awhile, not even noticing as people drifted in. A few gave her funny looks - but the weren't really music-focused enough to make it into the band, anyway. Even if she'd noticed them, she'd have been more amused by the attention than anything.

It wasn't even until a voice called over the din of chatter and irritably unfocused practice, "Billie Madison?"

Billie opened her eyes and pulled out one of the earbuds, unsure at first that she'd heard her name. When it was mentioned again, her arm popped up and she smiled excitedly. "Right here!"

She pulled the other earbud free and shoved the lot of it in her pocket before standing with her bass and quick-stepping up to follow the speaker.

Saturn had looked away from the girl..or boy..from the distance he couldn't tell.It wasent until the announcer announced a name, a familiar named that he looked up.Billie Madison huh. so she did come. He looked at the girl who raised her and and called out, so that was her. He diet even recognize her at first.He watched her through his black bangs as she went up. Good luck, Billie he thought,

It wasn't until she was standing in front of those who'd be judging her that the realization finally hit: I'm really here. I'm really trying out for a band. She faltered, but forced a smile.

"Hi. I'm Billie and, uh... I play bass," she said with a small wave. "Um... I like pretty much any music. Love it. And, uh... Y'know, can we just get to that part?"

There was a chuckle, but she was obliged. "We'll just be testing you against a track today. Playing alongside others will come later on as we whittle down the numbers. Sound good?"

"Yeah," Billie said.

"Awesome. So, what would you like to play to?"

"Uh, anything works."

She felt the statement was a poor one as she was given odd looks. Billie tried to think of one she was comfortable with - and that fit what they were aiming for - but all ideas had abandoned her. She wasn't used to actually having expectations to meet, but for once she did want to meet them. As the silence continued, one of her judges shrugged and selected a track for her.

And of course it had to be something unfamiliar. Screw it, you can do this. Go with it. Billie closed her eyes and listened, humming ever so slightly to herself as she get a feel for the song, and the started playing. She could just pick out the bassline, but not enough to be able to match it right - and so she didn't try. She simply played, nothing too showy, but it still fit with the song and increased the overall depth. As she played, a peaceful smile crept across her face.

Before she knew it, a different song started up. There was a slight fumble at the unexpected change, but she quickly melded her simple, rhythmic plucking into it as well. And then suddenly, there was no music.

She opened her eyes. One of the judges had a smile; another looked distinctly unimpressed. Billie bowed.

"Nice job. Someone'll contact you if we decide to bring you in for the second round."

"Thanks," she breathed, and scooted perhaps a bit awkwardly back into the lobby.