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Groovy Tunes, Saturday

So... wedding attempt number Jono-actually-lost-count was on Monday. And that had been his idea. Not because of the wedding (which he wouldn't be holding his breath over even if he could), but entirely because of the Halloween party that was thinly disguised as a reception to follow.

At this rate, he figured if they were going to crash and burn, there had better be a party waiting in the aftermath. Preferably with booze, even if he wasn't going to be drinking it. And music. He and Hannibal had even made concessions with one another. Hannibal was allowed to do the cooking for this one (since their caterer had understandably said enough was enough) just so long as Jono was allowed to be the DJ at the party (since their DJ had basically gone the way of the caterer).

So, that was Jono's day. Going through the CDs for inspiration, throwing together a Halloween playlist, because, let's face it, by this point he'd more or less given up on the idea of an actual, successful wedding.

He was also contemplating what sort of stupid, reckless trouble he could get himself into tomorrow night, because to hell with it, he was going to need yet another bachelor party that was directly equivalent to just how much bullshit they'd been through already.

Totally a productive Saturday.

[OOC: Work week ended with threats from the boss, weekend started with literal trash fire in my building. OCD can go suck rocks.]

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Dante was just bored. That was what he was gonna keep telling himself. It wasn't like he'd been trying to work out the guitar consistently over the past few shifts, and--

He nudged open the door. "Hey, if it isn't Four Weddings and a Funeral."

For god's sake, Dante.

//We're rather hoping it'll be Four Weddings and a Halloween Party,// Jono replied, glancing up from his handful of CDs to nod over at Dante. //Hell, I'd settle for the Halloween party. We all know how successful this wedding attempt is going to be.//

Jono's fatalistic lease on life was starting to shine. He probably deserved a smack for that, but at this point he figured nobody was going to blame him.

Well, Dante went for 'aggressive party boy' as his exterior image rather than 'brooding grunge enthusiast', but his fatalistic lease on life was pretty much the same. So he just shrugged and nodded. "Halloween party's something you can make work," he said merrily. "Maybe the island's even going to sic some sick shit on us to spice things up."

//You know, I think I could live with that,// Jono mused. //Glitter is all well and good, but I need something to throw down with that isn't going to leave me twinkling for weeks.//

Jono. Jono, planning weddings with a dare was never a solid way to go about these things.

"A good fight does make a party more fun," Dante said. "To a point."

He still remembered your first wedding, Starsmore.

//To a point,// Jono conceded, mostly because he still remembered both his first and last wedding. //A brawl, I can appreciate. I suppose I ought to be more specific.//

Jono had also made very clear that neither of them were to invite anybody who might actively try to kill them, this time around. It seemed like a good ground rule.

You had to wonder why it had to be said, but sure, that was a good rule.

Dante shrugged again, crossing the rest of the space until he was standing somewhere near Starsmore. "So what're you doing?"

//Right now? Throwing together a playlist. Our DJ decided he'd had enough after the last time. I can't say I blame him, really,// he mused, holding up a few CDs. //Beginning to think I'd have an easier time just looking something up on YouTube. Do people besides myself and Hannibal like Opeth?//

These days? It was hard to tell.

Christ, he was old.

"Opeth?" Dante said, squinting. "That's like... the progressive metal group, right?"

Shhh. He'd been making use of his music store privileges to figure this shit out.

//Right,// Jono agreed, giving an approving little nod. //The ones from Stockholm. Though I suppose so far as metal group goes, saying they're Swedish doesn't actually narrow it down much.//

If Dante had been poking around, he certainly wasn't going to draw attention to it. He didn't want the lad to stop exploring music just to be contrary, after all.

And that was a very real risk.

"Isn't Sweden like wall-to-wall metal bands anyway?" Dante said. "I think only Finland's worse."

//Basically,// Jono agreed, brightly. //I think they have a Finnish metal export quota that they check up on on an annual basis. But don't quote me on that one, the regulations might've changed since I last looked into it.//

Which was never.

Edited 2016-10-29 16:05 (UTC)

Dante's mouth curved up into a slight smirk. "So," he said, "Opeth, huh? How complicated are those tracks on guitar?"

//Depends on the track,// Jono replied, and a raised eyebrow and a little tilt of his head was going to have to make up for his own ability to smirk right back. //Some of their music is a challenge even for,// well, not Jono, but he'd been playing some pretty crazy stuff for years and years now, //particularly experienced people. There are a few that ought to be mostly simpler for, say, somebody still toying with the idea of learning.//

"Cool," Dante said, with a brief raise of his shoulders as he processed that. "So... you got some time today, or is making a mixtape gonna take all of your old man day?"

//I'll have you know that making an actual mixtape was an art form,// Jono replied, though it was hopefully clear as he put his nose into the air and crossed his arms in front of himself that he was teasing. //Far more of a process than just pulling the songs off of a CD - not that most computers even have somewhere to put a CD, these days - or downloading them from iTunes.//

Way to both date yourself and admit that you actually knew a thing or two about how technology worked, Starsmore.

//But... I think I can find some time in between all of my agonizing over playlists in order to shuffle my sore bones over to the guitars and go over a few things with you.//

Yeah, Dante found himself snickering during that first bit - and turning around to walk to the guitars, himself. "Just bored today," he said, not that he actually needed to defend his choices here, but whatever. "Figured I'd come brighten yours."

He snagged the red-and-black guitar up off the stand.

//Fair enough,// Jono replied, stepping out from behind the counter and heading over to select a guitar for himself, as well. //Half the reason I have this place is boredom, anyway.//

Jono. Jono. Jonothon. Jon. You were one of the X-Men. How do you even have time to get bored between big, universe-changing events?

There was always time. And sometimes that was the worst part.

"What, you independently rich or something?" Dante asked, slinging the strap over his head.

Jono shrugged his shoulders a little, reaching for a black guitar that he'd been rationalizing to himself he didn't need to buy on the grounds that he could play it any time he liked at work right up until somebody bought it.

//I own two businesses on the island and I teach,// he noted. //Both here and in my own reality. Add to that the severance packages for a few odd jobs I've had before and the fact that I don't exactly have the same basic living expenses as most people, and I wouldn't say I'm uncomfortable.//

He didn't like to think of himself as somebody who had a lot of money. He especially didn't like to think of himself as somebody who had a lot of money invested in things because he had friends who insisted that he didn't just sit on his New Warriors severance pay, or the money he'd made serving in Karla's Court, like some kind of financially inept dragon hell-bent on living in poverty.

Having money was weird.

//Groovy Tunes is for sanity. And once all of this bloody wedding nonsense is over with and I can get on with my life, that'll be the Boards, too.//

"Right, so you pretty much are rich."

The pay Dante was getting just from his once-a-week shift at Groovy Tunes was more money than he'd ever had before in his life. Of course, he tended to throw it around about as fast as he got it, because who knew if he'd get another paycheck?

He pulled an amp closer with his foot, then squatted down on the ground to get the cable.

//Ugh,// Jono muttered, slinging the strap to his guitar over his head. //Yes. Yes, I suppose I am.//

And saying it sounded a little bit like it was being dragged out of him. Jono did denial well.

... Even though it was probably obvious by the fact that weddings weren't exactly cheap to throw.

//You've been playing some lately, have you?//

There. Much easier topic than discussing his weirdly uncomfortable state of financial security.

"Just messin' around," Dante said. His feelings about expressing any kind of commitment to learning were about on par with Starsmore's about financial security, really. He straightened. "Trying some shit I found on the internet. Eight hours is a long shift."

No, it was a regular one. But torture if you had trouble sitting still.

//It can be, if you aren't used to sitting around for a while,// Jono agreed, nodding a little. //Especially on the slow days. Find anything good, at least?//

Dante shrugged. "Tested out some old Iggy Pop crap," he said. "It looked easy."

So help him, Jono allowed himself a moment to look faintly amused at the statement, 'Iggy Pop crap.'

//And was it?//

He crouched down to pick up the cable for his own guitar. It gave him an opportunity to look insufferably pleased that Dante had been playing lately without actually facing the boy and giving that fact away.

"I got one or two things down, sure," Dante said. "Though 'The Passenger', you just get distracted by that fucking bassline, right?"

//It's difficult not to,// Jono agreed as he straightened up again. //Hell, playing that one, it's like my bloody fingers get jealous that the baseline has something to do. It's the most fun part of that song, if you ask me.//

This didn't mean he was leaping to switch to a bass guitar, though. Even if he did own one of those, too.

"Right?" Dante said, grinning at him. "Wound up trying to do it on guitar and it wasn't working. But 'I Wanna Be Your Dog's pretty easy, turns out."

And this time, he hadn't even picked the song just so he could troll an adult by saying it in front of them! (Not that that strategy had ever worked well on Starsmore anyway.)

//Helps that the bassline actually plays nicely with it,// Jono agreed, and then after a pause, he played a little bit of the song, himself. //Easy and still fun. Not a terrible combination.//

You'd have to get pretty creative to actually successfully troll Jono when it came to music, all things considered.

Edited 2016-10-30 12:22 (UTC)

And Dante had definitely seen days he'd felt more inclined to try. Stupid Starsmore.

"But yeah, it's just random dicking around," he said vaguely. "Dunno if you've got better ideas."

Without just outright suggesting that Dante take actual lessons? Jono needed to consider that for a moment.

//Have you found any songs that you thought were going to be easy, but that gave you some difficulty once you actually got going?//

That seemed like a good place to start.

"I guess," Dante said, tilting his head. "I mean, I know power chord stuff is supposed to be simple, but..."

//Simple isn't necessarily the same thing as intuitive,// Jono replied easily, giving his shoulders a shrug. //Some things you can't just pick up by ear and trial-and-error. I can go through those with you, give you something to work with, at least.//

You know. A guitar lesson. Not that he was going to say it.

And Dante was thankful for it. If he knew. Or really let himself think about it.

"I figured I was gonna be spending my time messing around with Green Day tracks anyway," he said, "No high-level Opeth shit."

He almost ended that sentence on a 'yet', but swallowed it.

Jono gave his shoulders a shrug.

//No shame in Green Day, either,// he decided, because sometimes you just needed to play music that sort of just... smashed about a bit. //But if you're going to be sitting around here bored anyway, you might as well. Means you'll run out of music to pass the time with a little less quickly.//

"I dunno, you carry a lot of old shit," Dante said. He'd even started digging into it lately. "And those jazz fuckers like to go long and weird."

He slid his fingers idly into position for one of the simpler chords.

Jono nodded, shrugged his shoulders, and idly looked over to check to see how Dante was holding his hands. So far, so good, anyway. It looked to Jono as though he'd been practicing.

It was nice to see.

//And some people enjoy long and weird, too,// he said. //Keeps things interesting, too.//

Pete saw the place was open and decided to drop by. He hadn't really been doing a lot of just fun things, but he did like music.

"Oh." He waved an only slightly awkward hello at Jono. "Hi. You work here?"

Oh, awkward Peter. Jono gave a little nod in return to that wave, his expression faintly amused.

//I own here. I suppose that means I'll actually do work here when the mood strikes, yes. At least on occasion, anyway.//

"On purpose?" Peter asked with a bit of a grin.

He came further in, looking around.

//Are you asking if I own the place on purpose, or if that's how I actually do work? Because I assure you, I didn't intend to inherit this business, and all work that I end up doing is incidental to the fact that I tend to come here on a weekly basis to play with music.//

It was the best job ever, basically.

"The former, mostly," Peter said. "Does anybody actually come here and intend to own a business?"

//I... I'm sure some people do,// Jono replied, squinting one eye a little. //I can't think of any offhand. I mean, besides people who were here already who for whatever reason wanted to stay. Hannibal opened his office here well after he first arrived on the island.//

"That's...a really weird way to run businesses," Peter said. "Chamber of Commerce must be a lot of fun."

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Groovy Tunes, Saturday

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