Groovy Tunes, Saturday

[furnaceface]

You know what was a great way to spend a Saturday when you had a job? Spending that Saturday working at a job that you actually enjoyed. Or, at least, that was what Jono was telling himself as the stereo did its own thing while he was trying to price and put away a new shipment of intstruments, intent on playing... whatever the hell it wanted. Which, in this case, appeared to be a second helping of the aggrotech music that Dante had been playing yesterday.

And Jono didn't mind, really. It was interesting music to listen to, at the very least. Except that the stereo seemed hell-bent on trying to startle him with it, playing a few songs before falling completely silent for some time, and then turning itself on again on full blast entirely out of nowhere.

It was a wonder Jono hadn't set the bloody thing on fire. Especially after one such scare made him come dangerously close to dropping a Taylor guitar that he'd been handling with kid gloves only a moment before. Instead, the stereo found itself being put into time-out. Which, yes, did mean that he was unplugging the bloody thing and stuffing it into a corner to think about what it had done. It was just that kind of day.

[OOC: Open! OCD-free! And Dante and I broke the post, oops. Lucille's thread with Jono is here!]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"So I wasn't bored," Dante called.

Other people said 'hello' when they came in. Not him.

[furnaceface]

Jono had been inspecting that Taylor to within an inch of its life when Dante's voice called into the shop, and he froze dead-still for a moment out of a knee-jerk worry that it was the stereo again before looking toward the doorway.

Oh. Well. Good.

//You didn't run screaming for freedom halfway through the day, then? I'll take that as a good sign.//

[rebelseekspizza]

"I kinda got lost in the Industrial section," Dante admitted. "No telling about next week."

[furnaceface]

//... That would explain the stereo this morning,// Jono noted, turning a glance in the bloody thing's direction. //Fortunately, we do have more sections than industrial, and I'm sure at least a few of them would be to your taste as well.//

So he might get a few more weeks of employment out of Dante yet!

[rebelseekspizza]

Probably more than a few weeks. Dante was a music geek just waiting to happen.

"Fine," he said, wandering further into the store. "Gonna paper-mache that whole Grunge section until it's gone, though. Wiped out like the 90s."

[furnaceface]

//Hey now,// Jono replied, reaching to ever-so-carefully put the guitar down in its stand. //Grunge never did anything to you, did it? And the island still has at least one or two people who listen to it. Not everyone is still in high school, after all.//

Some people were old, like Jono.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Lot of music stood the test of time," Dante said.

He wandered over, plucking a Pearl Jam CD out of the stands. "This? Not so much."

[furnaceface]

No, Dante! Not the Pearl Jam!

//I suppose it might be easy to see it that way if you weren't even born yet when they had recorded it,// he noted, giving Dante a side-eye that said that if he hurt the Pearl Jam, there would be words.

Probably sad ones.

//Why? Have you got something better?//

[rebelseekspizza]

"Than Pearl Jam? Do you need a list?"

Because Dante could make a list. In fact... "Because I could spend all of my next shift writing that one."

[furnaceface]

//... If you just start at 'a' in the industrial section and make your way through to 'z,' Dante...//

A beat.

//Put some actual time into it, and I might be persuaded to run through it, though.//

Because you would pry his Pearl Jam out from his cold, dead fingers. But that didn't mean he wasn't interested in giving new things a try.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You are such a teacher," Dante told him.

He dumped the Pearl Jam back where he found it, then pottered over to Industrial to go rooting around for some Combichrist. Might as well get Starsmore the really good stuff.

[furnaceface]

//I'm going to choose to think of that as a good thing,// Jono decided, watching Dante go rummaging. //Teaching at two different schools would be a lousy career path otherwise.//

[rebelseekspizza]

"It's not a good thing. You gotta make everything into a teachable moment," Dante said, rolling his eyes.

He tracked down his favorite album and sauntered towards the sound system. He was pretty sure he could get it to make some sense. "The hell did you get into that, anyway?"

Not that he, y'know. Cared.

[furnaceface]

//Well, in this case, the one who has something to learn is me,// Jono pointed out, shrugging. //And I'm going to assume you're asking how I got into teaching, and not into, say, Pearl Jam.//

Call it a hunch.

//Back home it was mostly that it was the one career path left open to me that didn't involve throwing on stupid costumes and going out to fight crime. Stuck around the school after I graduated, and there were positions open, mostly for junior teaching staff. It sort of snowballed from there.//

[rebelseekspizza]

"Huh."

In went the CD as Dante chewed on that.

"Coulda still been a janitor," he settled on.

[furnaceface]

Well, this was definitely... industrial. And screamy. Neither of which were dealbreakers, really, so Jono just tilted his head to listen.

//You know how many cleaning solutions are flammable?//

Not that his fire was technically fire, but it seemed worth mentioning all the same.

[rebelseekspizza]

"If you were that flammable, you'd have set this place on fire already," Dante said. He peered towards the door. "Wouldn't have been a waste," he decided. "Who the fuck calls a music shop 'Groovy Tunes'? That shit's even older than you are."

[furnaceface]

Jono would've snorted if he had lungs to help him along with that.

//Th'place came with the name,// he admitted. //Had it before I was a student here on the island. It's really not what I would've jumped to for a name myself, but it's what's on the paperwork, and I haven't come up with anything better.//

Unless he came up with some sort of riff on 'Decibel,' but that was a road that led only to madness.

[crimson_sister]

Lucille had postponed visiting Mr Starsmore's shop. She wasn't sure how she felt about the kind of generosity he had offered her when they talked about modern instruments. Generosity was still something she had to get used to.

Today she stopped by on the afternoon, however. On entering the shop, Lucille hoped Mr Starsmore wouldn't ask her what she thought about the music playing.

[SP?]

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, probably better off a teacher than anything creative," Dante said. Not that he had any better ideas off the top of his head, but whatever.

He wandered away from the stereo.

[furnaceface]

It was okay, Lucille. He would have beaten it into submission if only he was able, himself. Which wasn't to say that he didn't like it. It was just... not his first choice, either.

He glanced up from a selection of music books he'd been unpacking as she made her way into the shop, and gave her a little nod in greeting.

//Afternoon, Lucille. How're you today, luv?//

[SP is love!]

[furnaceface]

//Actually, I had wanted to be a musician,// Jono replied, a sort of tired wryness in his voice at that. //Apparently, those who can't do...//

For whatever reason, including but not limited to blowing off one's own face.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Right, you're the guitar guy," Dante said.

He kinda wanted to ask how Jono'd learned, or fuck, if he was planning to teach about it in the future. But then again, what'd be the point?

"You ever even try laying down a track?" he asked instead.

[furnaceface]

Jono shrugged at that.

//Had a room in the Boards renovated into a recording studio, actually. Was planning on putting it to use and then things went a little...// He waved a hand expressively. The gesture mostly just involved waving at his face. //Been thinking about going back, just haven't really gotten the nerve for it yet, I suppose.//

It had been messy. And complicated. And he'd been quite happy to let Drac keep doing whatever it was he'd been doing with the zombies. The urge was starting to chew at him again, though.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged back at him, picking idly at the corner of one CD or another. "Maybe you should," he said. "Just making it doesn't mean you've got to have anyone listen to it."