fandomtownies | Groovy Tunes, Tuesday

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Groovy Tunes, Tuesday

Raven was totally going to look up some of the classic early hip hop and 90s R&B that Hardison had told her about, she was. But just now she'd gotten completely stuck on one particular song the stereo had picked to play at her at the top of her shift. Specifically, she as stuck on attempting to learn the woman's verse. The irony of a shapeshifting zombie killer rapping "first thing's first I'll eat your brains" was just too entertaining to her right now to pass up.

But holy crap rap was hard. She was beginning to think that the people she saw and heard trashing on it since she got to the future were just jealous because they couldn't get their lips to move that precisely and fast. It was like trying to do a really long, constantly shifting, dirty tongue twister.

Someone should possibly put an explicit lyrics warning on Groovy Tunes, today.

[open!]

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"--in that Tonka, color of Willy Wonka." Kathy knew this verse! "You could be the King, but watch the Queen conquer!"

Raven looked up and cheered. "Okay! First thing's first, I'll eat your brai --"

Then she went pale blue and lunged for the stereo to try to turn the song off. Because clearly that would keep Kathy from hearing the zombie reference that . . . had already happened. . . .

Was she the worst friend ever?

Whereas Kathy was turning a slight green. "Then I'mma start rockin' gold teeth and fangs?" she said, trying to play it casual. "I'm fine, Raven. Really."

She was just holding this wall to make sure it stayed upright. Really.

"Great," Raven said, still poking at the stereo, which was refusing to actually turn the song off. "Then you can keep being fine without the song about being a monster."

No one would miss the stereo if Kathy suddenly smashed it with a hammer, right?

...If it hadn't been Jono's store, Kathy might have actually done it.

"This was the song that really ignited Nicki's career," Kathy said, as if narrating trivia could help ignore the song entirely. "It's pretty good. More people remember her verse than Kanye's."

"Nicki Minaj?" Raven asked. "Hardison mentioned her. We should listen to all her other stuff." That last bit was directed at the stereo. When it didn't seem to listen she gave it a whack.

The stereo finally gave in and switched to another song.

"You think you're funny," Raven said. "See how funny you are when I come in here with a jukebox and put you out of business. . . ."

Yeah, Kathy was definitely green now.

"Can't say this island doesn't have a sense of humor," she said trying for humor. "This is another song I know."

Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself and offered Raven a weak smile. "It's okay. It's just a word. I'm not scared of words."

Ignore the slight tremble in her hands, Raven. Those were from...low blood-pressure, sure.

"Of course you do," Raven grumbled. "You know all the songs." She started wrestling with the stereo's volume nob. It briefly decided to turn itself all the way up instead of down, but after a final blasted wail of "ZO-OMBIE-AH-IE-AH-IE-AH!" she finally managed to get it down to low-key background music. "I don't like you having to hear it," she said finally, dusting off her hands as though she'd just been through a battle. "So there."

"Hey now," Kathy protested. "I barely know any of 2016's Top Forty at all."

Eh? Eh? See? She could joke about it!

"...But thanks."

"Hey, I've only been here two weeks and I already know the top 40 from last year are all obnoxious. Seriously, there's this one where it's just some middle class white guy fussing about wishing he was still a little kid because modern life is so hard. . . . Or possibly there's four of them like that. They all sound pretty much the same."

Cry her a river, Twenty-One Pilots.

"Ugh, the worst of all genres, the whiny guy songs," Kathy groaned, glad for the conversational shift into easier waters. "There are a bunch of love songs like that, where the guy whines that his girl left him. And I'm just like, 'She probably left because you act like you're four.'"

"Or because he thinks he should get praise just for meeting the bare minimum requirements for being a decent person," Raven agreed.

The stereo behind her switched to a new song unnoticed, though the volume slowly turned itself back up in time to the driving beat of the track.

The stereo was pure evil. And it was playing a song Kathy didn't know, so she had no reason to pay much attention to the games it was playing.

"Like, congratulations for hopping over that low bar," Kathy agreed. "Sorry not sorry I'm not dropping my pants because of it, though."

"I don't even wear pants and I'm not going to drop them for that," Raven agreed.

We are awakened with the axe, the stereo crooned. Night of the living dead at last. They have begun to shake the dirt, wiping their shoulders from the earth. . . .

"Oh, hey, I didn't even think to ask," Kathy asked, turning to glance at the stereo. What were those lyrics...? "How's Jalian? Are you two still...?"

She wasn't sure what they'd been before, never mind what they were now.

". . . No?" Raven said, not sounding certain at all. "I mean, we've only really talked once since I got back. And . . . I didn't really think about her much while I was gone. Or . . . at all."

She was pretty sure you were supposed to miss people more than that.

"I feel a little bad about it, though. I mean, apparently she was working on her own portal to come get me. Hardison just kind of got it done first."

"You were trying to survive," Kathy said. "Anyone who expects you to have spent time moping over how much you missed someone is delusional." She nudged Raven's shoulder companionably with hers. "I'm sorry," she added. "That you kind of lost that, too."

Speaking their names, they shake the flag, sang the stereo. Waking the earth, it lifts and lags. We see a thousand rooms to rest, helping us taste the bite of death.

"I dunno if it's so much lost," Raven admitted. "Maybe just . . . outgrown? I feel like I'm a totally different person now."

I know, I know my time has passed. I'm not so young, I'm not so fast. I tremble with the nervous thought of having been, at last, forgot!

"Okay what the hell is this song?!"

"I dunno," Kathy admitted. "See? Told you I didn't know all the songs!"

Which was much nicer than thinking about how different she felt, too. The girl she'd been in March of 2016 is not the one she was in January of 2017. ~~And isn't that true for all of us.<>~~

Trauma and hardship did tend to grow a person up pretty damn fast. ~~even when they're already in their thirties or more~~

"The stereo thinks it's funny," Raven noted, narrowing her eyes at it. "Jono warned me about this. I think it's trying to low key troll us."

Which was when the stereo gave up being low key at all and a new song.

"How many songs about zombies are there?!"

"Hey is it your lunchbreak yet?" Kathy asked, a little desperately. Look, she wanted out of here before the stereo decided to go for broke and start playing Living Dead Girl or something.

"Yes," Raven decided without even looking at the clock. "It totally is."

Jono would forgive her, if she explained the circumstances. He had warned her about the stereo.

"Let's go to the diner," Kathy said. "Because Eliot won't mind that I can't really pay for lunch yet."

Or much of anything right now. She really needed to get on with replacing stuff, like her IDs and debit cards and phone and the like.

"Sounds like a plan." Raven had some money and wouldn't mind covering Kathy, but arguing would mean spending longer with this stereo. "And if he's not there, we'll dine and dash!"

Adventure!

"You know that only works when the waitstaff doesn't know who you are, right?" Kathy asked with a small laugh. Because, obviously, Raven couldn't be serious! "I'm pretty sure we're both a little bit recognizable."

Raven raised an eyebrow, then shifted.

"So I'll just have to be recognizable as someone else."

Eliot's face worked really well for scheming.

That had Kathy's hands coming up over her mouth as she gasped and giggled at the same time. "Oh my god," she said. "I can't even--How many times have you done that?"

"To get free food? This'll be the first time." Raven grinned. "To help Hardison get incriminating pictures. . . ?"

"I need to see these," Kathy decided immediately. "It's unfair that I haven't. My own best friend, holding out on me?"

"Hey, I'd totally show them off if I had them. We'll have to steal Hardison's phone."

Or, you know, ask him. One of those.

"You should ask him to share," Kathy said with a nod. "You're his TA. He likes you better."

She and Hardison didn't chat much, oddly enough.

Almost like how Raven and Eliot barely spoke to each other.

Of course, when they did, it was mostly snark.

"I'll get right on that," Raven promised. "In the meantime, wanna see if I can make the Luke's staff pee their pants?"

So weird!

"...You know, it's terrible? But I kind of do," Kathy said. "Let's go cause trouble."

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Groovy Tunes, Tuesday

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