Groovy Tunes, Saturday

[furnaceface]

There were some days that Jono wondered why he bothered. Those days were generally spent sulking in his room, playing his guitar, spending quality time with his cat and avoiding people until the 'why?' went away and a somewhat unenthusiastic, 'sure?' stepped up to take its place. This particular 'why?' day just happened to fall on the same day he was supposed to be on the island, preparing paycheques for his employees and going over a new shipment.

The pay, at least, was relatively quick and painless.

But the more boxes he opened just to see faces like Bieber and Annoying Orange staring up at him, the more he wanted to just take the whole shipment out to the Causeway and throw it in the ocean. He even went so far as to do the math to see how much of a loss the shop would be eating if he did.

Too much.

So, once the boxes were unpacked, Jono spent the rest of his shift at the front counter, playing his guitar and pointedly ignoring the row of CDs that were displayed backwards on the shelf.

[Open!]

Comments

[kenselvren]

Here came a very intense-looking person with an MP3-player radio. Did that improve your day any, Jono?

//This!// Jalian said, thrusting the player in Jono's direction. //Is there more like this?// She'd managed to save the one song, which she'd found almost as a fluke in passing, but hadn't managed to find much more.

[furnaceface]

Jono damn near dropped his guitar in surprise at Jalian's exclamation, setting it down far more carefully a moment later and taking the MP3-player from her to give it a listen-to.

//Let's see here,// he replied, blinking as he hit play. //This is- Reggae? You want more Reggae?//

Oh, he approved. The smile that settled in around the corners of his eyes said exactly that.

//Let me introduce you to the holy trinity of Bob Marley, Johnny Nash, and Jimmy Cliff, luv.//

[kenselvren]

//Holy trinity?//

Yeah, Catholicism wasn't much a thing in Jalian's time. But she still got that it was important, and was waiting eagerly for more.

[furnaceface]

//It's... a religious reference,// Jono admitted, scratching at the back of his neck awkwardly before offering her headphones back. //But in this particular case, I'm really just saying that they're three musicians who are exceptionally notable within the musical genre. Here...//

He stepped out from behind the counter, heading for the reggae section, and spreading his hands out to show how much of the shop it took up.

//Most of this is going to be what you're looking for. Your best chance of finding more music you like is to stick around here. A little farther down is ska, which is similar, but let's make certain we've got what reggae you like figured out first, hm?//

[kenselvren]

Jalian sent back agreement, torn between pleasure at how much there was and outrage on behalf of the genre that it was so small a part of the store. //Which are the three?//

[furnaceface]

In fairness, it was as big as Jono could possibly get it. He was a fan of the genre, himself. Ska, moreso, but reggae derived from it, and Jono's tastes bled right along with it.

//Marley,// he said, picking up the Legend album, //Nash,// he plucked I Can See Clearly Now from the shelf, //and Cliff.// Just to give it a little variety, he was grabbing Cliff's more recent Rebirth album. //Any preference for which to listen to first, luv?//

[kenselvren]

Jalian shook her head. //I don't know any of them.//

[furnaceface]

//Marley it is, then,// Jono announced, maybe a touch too enthusiastically. No. No, there was no such thing as too enthusiastic. Marley was Marley.

He already had the packaging off the CD by the time he made it to his stereo, and the disc was waiting in his hand before the system had started up. In the CD went, and then on it went, and Jono was hopping up to sit on the edge of the counter as Is This Love started to play.

Look, he just got excited over this sort of thing. Don't judge him.

[kenselvren]

Jalian sat next to him and listened, sending general approval and happiness his way. This was clearly one of those things that was marvelous and never should have been lost in armageddon. Like freeways!

[furnaceface]

Jono already missed roads he could drive on, damn it. He was still chewing on the idea of getting himself a Norton, but where the hell would he drive it? Or even fuel it, in Kaeleer?

//If you've got access to a computer or something else that'll play CDs, you can take these with you, if you like,// he offered. //It'd be a shame for you to have found the music you like, and then only have the one song to enjoy.//

[kenselvren]

//I use the library's.// She might have to consider getting one of her own, but she hadn't quite yet. They seemed to be rather expensive, and she'd had to spend money on things like clothing first. //Will they play these?//

Her chosen method of getting money didn't lend itself to fast accumulation of wealth; soldiers tended not to carry much in their wallets.

[furnaceface]

//They will. Better yet, you can use them to put the music onto your MP3 player so that you can play it any time, without carrying the discs around,// Jono explained, sending her an impression of how as he spoke. //It's one of the few things about computers that I have figured out.//

Because computers. Nope.

[kenselvren]

Jalian took a moment to run the procedure through her head until she was confident she could replicate it later, then nodded.

Then she looked at him curiously. She'd gotten the impression he was from this timeline. But he wasn't familiar with its technology? //Query// she sent him the wordless question.

[furnaceface]

//Computers as people use them now are still fairly recent technology,// Jono explained with a shrug. //The time that I'm from is just slightly before they were commonplace in most homes, and by the time they were really taking off, I had more important things to worry about than figuring my way around computer programming. War, mostly, in one form or another. I can figure most things out if I actually pay attention to what I'm doing, but it involves poking through memories I'd rather not.//

He would've been a fairly useless Weapon X agent without a working knowledge of computers, after all.

//I make do.//

[kenselvren]

Jalian nodded. War interrupted everything; that much she understood. //I have been learning. The background everything assumes is frustrating sometimes.// She was finding she lacked a ridiculous amount of cultural vocabulary.

[furnaceface]

Jono gave his own little nod of agreement.

//There's a lot that people assume is simply intuitive,// he replied. //And perhaps it is, if you've been working with computers since they were new, but around here most people haven't. The phrase 'use the mouse to double-click the icon to open the window, and don't forget to delete your browser's cookies' is still mostly just gibberish to a good portion of the island's residents.//

[kenselvren]

//I have learned most of that!// Jalian proclaimed a touch proudly. //Except for...cookies?//

[furnaceface]

Jono spread his hands a little, helplessly.

//As far as I can figure, that's the little bits and pieces of information that a computer stores while you're surfing the internet. And... that's the best I've got.//

[kenselvren]

Jalian frowned and nodded. //Clearing them...ah. Getting rid of them so nothing is stored after?//

[furnaceface]

//I think so,// Jono agreed. //A lot of websites will get you to try doing that if something isn't working properly on the internet. Took me a while to figure out what that meant, or how to go about it.//

He wasn't going to share how stupidly proud he had felt for figuring that out, no.

[kenselvren]

Jalian hadn't even known of its existence, so she wasn't about to think he was silly for being proud. //This timeline is strange.//

[furnaceface]

//I would say you'll get used to it, but I grew up in a very similar one, and even I haven't managed to do that, just yet.//

Thanks for that, modern era. Thanks loads.