fandomtownies | Groovy Tunes, Wednesday

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Groovy Tunes, Wednesday

Was it strange to listen to a remix album before you'd heard the original? Eleanor's random scouring had turned up an interesting album that seemed to be an entirely different album, but mixed differently. She would have to check out the original after she'd finished enjoying the remixed tracks. She wondered idly which album she'd prefer.

Groovy Tunes was open.

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She doesn't know much about music but she can probably help you find things. Probably.

Joker waved at her as he walked in. "Well, hello there, Beautiful! I thought I'd brave the plunge into..." He stopped and cocked his head with a thoughtful expression. "Hmm. Okay, so maybe not all of this century's music sucks. That's a pleasant surprise!"

"I love this," Eleanor said, hopping around the counter to greet him with a hug. "I get to explore the shop whenever I work, and I find all these amazing hidden treasures. Why don't you like this century's music?"

Joker gave her a quick kiss, and shrugged. "I dunno, it's just all..." He waved a hand around vaguely, as he struggled to put his hatred in understandable terms. "Correction: It's just mostly all blehhh." It was a good thing he took that time to think, wasn't it?

"If you didn't like this, I'd have to stop kissing you," she laughed easily. "Well, not this, but there's a great deal of music I'm catching up on that I wouldn't part with. I do agree there's rather a lot of bad stuff, as well."

Like the song about not wanting men with short penises. That was one.

Joker gave an overexaggerated sigh of relief, and pretended to mop his brow. "Whew! It's a good thing I like this one, then! It's not even that I think the music's bad -- although, I mean, a lot of it really is -- but... It's just... Okay, look. You know how you listen to, say, Mozart or Beethoven and think 'yes this is very good music but I'd never in a million years choose to listen to it of my own accord'? ...Please tell me you know what I mean?"

"I think so," she said, nodding. "It seems a touch pretentious. It's not ... what people listen to, naturally. You'd have to go out of your way."

She was frowning at the ceiling, and wondering ...

"If I wanted to play something for you," she said, hesitantly.

"Well, that depends," Joker told her, only half-joking. "If this is a pop quiz where you break up with me if I get it wrong, I'd rather take my chances with the lingering resentment from telling you 'no'."

"Oh," Eleanor nodded, quickly, turning away to fuss with the nearest rack. "You're right. It's probably a bad idea."

It hadn't been intended as a pop quiz, but she might have taken it badly had he scoffed at it, so ... he was only being pragmatic.

That shouldn't hurt, and yet, somehow, it did.

"Awww, crap." Joker winced and reached a hand for her shoulder. "No, no, no, don't make that face. I can't stand that. Okay, I have changed my mind! Play it for me, babe."

"It's silly," she repeated, insistently. "It doesn't matter if you hear it or not. I only ..."

She bit her lip, glancing back at him. "Did I ever tell you that Aunt Gracie was a singer?" she asked.

She couldn't remember that it had come up.

"Well..." Joker frowned in thought. "Uhhhhh... you mentioned she sang to you, I think? So.... I'm pretty sure that's a no. But if she was a singer? Now I have to hear that!"

"I don't ..." Eleanor stopped, looking over at him. "If you end up not liking it," she said. "It's not a pop quiz but I ..."

That would be hard, if he listened to Aunt Gracie sing the blues and shrugged it off.

"It's not that I think the music -- it's not even about the music," she added, hurriedly. "It's ... she would sing to me, and I listen to it and I remember."

Joker nodded. "And it's important. I would LOVE to hear it, I promise."

With a build-up like that, he would pretend to like it even if it were horrible crap. He had a feeling it wasn't going to be, though. He gave her an encouraging smile, and nodded at the music player. "Go on."

"All right," she said. She didn't know why she felt this nervous, but she was. It was like exposing a little bit of her soul. The only happy bit of her childhood, offered out to him on a plate.

She found the disc easily enough and popped it into the player. Like always, the first note of Aunt Gracie's voice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxQncVvsuyg) hit her with all the weight of the years between them. She was a girl again, lingering on Gracie's lap while the woman's fingers deftly braided her long, long hair.

She knew the words by heart. She had never sang along; she preferred instead to wriggle in close and absorb the music through her pores.

Joker shuffled up and put an arm around her. It wasn't the sort of thing he normally liked, but there was something powerful about her voice, and he just stood there and listened.

"...Wow," he managed. "That's... and you got to hear her every night."

"She sang to me every night," Eleanor said softly. "It was when Mother was in jail. For a few months, it was -- it was just me and Aunt Gracie. She'd brush my hair and sing and ..."

Her voice trailed off. She couldn't explain it properly. But Aunt Gracie had been more of a mother to her, in that short time, than her actual mother ever had been.

Joker nodded. "And she actually cared for you. That must have been pretty special."

"It was," Eleanor said. She didn't know why her eyes were misty, or her throat felt thick. Silly to be tearing up over such a simple thing.

She leaned over to rest her forehead against him.

"So ... this is Aunt Gracie," she said. "I listen to her sometimes just to feel that again."

Joker held her tightly. "Well, at least you got to have that, at least for a little while. Even in the deepest darkness, there's sometimes a light."

Seek out your own tunes.

So riiiiise ... and shiiiine ...
Now's the time to be alive, stay awake with me a while

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Groovy Tunes, Wednesday

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