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Gwen busies herself in the basement, setting up the Murphy bed against one wall. She looks at it and smiles, then checks her watch.
She had called MJ to show her a couple of things. But she also wanted to introduce her to a very special young woman.
Cindy was somewhere in the house. She could feel the pull of her. She remembered how she learned about gravity, how sometimes two stars would actually orbit each other. Gwen was one star, Cindy Moon was another, and the closer she got, the greater the gravity.
"She moved to the stairs leading up, then opened the door at the top of the stairs. "Make sure you are dressed for company. Mary Jane should be here any minute!"
"Are you telling me I dress inappropriately?" comes the distinctly Asian voice as she comes down the stairs, Cindy dressed in a sharp blouse and skirt combonation. "Is this proper?" she asks curiously, her hands folded in front of her thoughtfully as she prepares to play the good hostess.
Which is when MJ knocks on the door. She might normally just stroll in, but from the way Gwen sounded, she figured it'd be best to be polite. The redhead is wearing a green blouse with short sleeves and black slacks, with a letterman jacket over that since, well, it's October and getting pretty cool outside.
Gwen moves almost fluidly up from the basement to the door in three long steps, then takes a breath and composes herself. Jeans, t-shirt, socks. No boots, not in her father's house.
She takes a deep breath and opens the door, smiling widely. "MJ!" she blurts out, then steps aside. "Come on in…I want you to meet someone!" She looks to Cindy, beckoning her forward. "Mary Jane…I want you to meet Cindy Moon. Cindy, this is my friend, lead singer and treble guitar player of the new band known as THE MARY JANES."
Coming up behind Gwen, Cindy moves with the same grace as a gymanist, that is to say that her strides are measured, and she seems to be having a bit of a time with the heels, to the point where she stops to remove them and walk on her stocking feet. She peeks from behind Gwen, slightly taller than the blonde and gives a smile in greetings. "Gwen has told me a lot about you, Mary Jane. Hello." she greets, offering her hand to the redhead.
Mary Jane blinks, "She did? Well, believe all the nice things." She grins and accepts the offered hand in a handshake, "Mary Jane Watson, but yeah, everyone calls me MJ. Heard a lot of good things about you, too." She then gets a bit of a sly look, "So… do you play bass guitar? And would you want to learn?"
Gwen colors. "Uhm…yeah, Cindy…I meant to tell you. Sorry, MJ." She looks a little woebegone. "Uhm…our band needs a bass guitar player. We had one, but she couldn't do it for some very good reasons. So…I was going to ask you about it, but after I introduced you to MJ for the first time."
There's a blink of utter and complete confusion on Cindy's face at the question. "Bass? As in the guitar? When I was in school in the DPPK, I was trained in the use of several musical instruments, including the guitar." she says finally, offering up a brief smile before she touches Gwen's shoulder. "It's alright." she offers quietly, before brightening up a bit. "I could try?"
MJ grins, "Well, we could bring you up to speed with it, if you wanted to do it Cindy." She shrugs a bit and looks over at Gwen, "I figured you already had asked her! But yeah, all we'd be asking is a try, nothing more than that. If you don't like it, well hey, you don't have to do it." Though her curiosity does look peaked by the mention of the DPRK and musical training there.
Gwen nods, then heads towards the door to the basement. "Okay. No time like the present. Let's head down, I've got the guitar downstairs and you can give it a shot, Cindy." She looks nervous and excited, unsure if Cindy would say yes but eager to hear her take her shot. And if she needed tutoring, she she knew a guy from the music store…
Cindy Moon blinks. "Right now?" the girls pales even further for a moment before as blush touches her cheeks and she nods her agreement to Gwen and MJ. "Sure. No time like the present, right?" There's a flash of a smile before she's turning to head towards the basement with the other two. "Gwen said you got to college at NYU as well?" she asks curiously. "I just started there in the journalism program."
Mary Jane nods, "Yeah, currently a bit undecided right now… flipping back and forth between applied physics and theater." She gets a bit of a wry look, "Yeah, I know, quite the contortionist am I." With that, she goes with the other two to the basement.
Gwen flips the trio of lights and the lights go up on the stage. It is a bit of a psych trick—anyone who comes down, turns the lights on, the first thing they see is the lights going up on the stage, like the moment before the band comes out.
Gwen turns the moxing board on, then keys the amplifier commected to the bass guitar, sitting on its stand like a soldier at its post. Cindy said she'd played before, so she wasn't about to patronize her.
She set up the tall stool and smiled to Cindy. "Okay. I have some sheet music I want you to play. Can you read sheet music?"
|ROLL| Cindy Moon +rolls 1d20 for: 18
This is so weird. And for a moment, Cindy freezes up. Then when Gwen coaxes her a little, she nods and smiles to Mary Jane. "You do gymnastics as well? I love working out." she comments as she eyes the bass and nods. "I can. It's just been a while." Eidetic memory, don't fail her now. She takes up the guitar, feeling it over before she slips the strap over her shoulder to settle it into place. Closing her eyes, she takes a deep breath and starts to play from muscle memory alone. It's not the current rock and roll music, but it's obvious she's had training as she plays along and then opens her eyes, shifting almost seemlessly into the sheet music.
MJ grins, "I mean, academic contortionist, er… yeah, it's enough work for me to do my waitress job while going to school." She picks up her own guitar, tuning it a bit as she hmms, then starts playing along with Cindy, improvising a bit around the melody she's playing.
Gwen practically beams with pride as Cindy shows her chops, then steps over to the drum kit, and them the tempo of the music kicks in, the beat strong and sure, and then they are playing the opening for the one she wrote, "Stranglehold." She looks to Cindy every so often, unable to keep the smile from her face.
Cindy Moon has her head bowed in quiet concentration. So much so that she almost didn't realize the other two women joining in. Glancing up, her honey-gold eyes open to take in the pair and when Gwen smiles at her, she blushes and ducks her head to continue playing along with the sheet music.
Mary Jane smiles over at Cindy and Gwen, her own fingers dancing around the frets and strings, and then she starts singing the words. Her voice is clear soprano, almost classically trained, and she pours a lot of heart and soul into the music, letting all those little angers in the day that build up loose all at once into the song.
It's one thing to write the words, to make them fit. But when MJ opens her mouth and that crystal voice, clean as a scalpel, gleaming like a diamond, gives voice to the words…it is unreal.
Speak up! Speak out Don't let them shut you down!
Stand firm! Stand tall! Don't let them bring you down!
Don't swallow what they feed you, don't believe all that you're told!
Get out! Get out of the stranglehold! Get out of the stranglehold!
Cindy continues to play with the music - but she can feel the anger that's within Mary Jane, and it builds up in her like a little knot. Biting down on her lip, she presses harder into the strings, her fingers rough against the metal bands as she puts a little more omph into her playing and tries not to concentrate on the whole swirl of emotions that's messing with her senses at the moment. That unmistakable pull towards Gwen, but at the same time, Mary Jane is drawing her concern.
MJ channels that anger into her music. And there's all the little hurts of the day, all the injustice in the world that you just keep bottled up. No more. Now it's time to cut loose, so MJ does. She doesn't look out of control, riding the wave of the emotion as she leads the way through the song, since well… it's an angry, hurting song, so that's what Mary Jane puts into it, more than anything else.
Gwen is all the way in it. She is looking from the stage, out into where the audience would be. God, MJ is so pure in her voice, so focused in her rage…
And then she blinks.
She can SEE the audience, a writhing mass of bodies, upraised fists, righteous anger that could be sent out into the night, ears ringing, eyes bright with justified anger…
And then HE was in the audience.
Smiling at her.
Gwen suddenly brings down both drumsticks on the rim of the drum in front of her, and both snap like matchsticks, the business ends pinwheeling up and back, and Gwen suddenly comes back to herself.
The audience is gone. Ray is gone.
And her sticks are hors de performance.
She smiles sheepishly, aware that the cracks of the sticks has cut the song short. "Jeez…uhm, sorry…again…"
When Gwen suddenly goes completely off-key and Cindy feels that writhing wave of emotion wash over her, the young woman's breath catches in a panic as she comes to a screeching halt. The guitar hangs from around her neck uselessly for the moment as Cindy's staring, gawping, really, at Gwen, at that unshared moment of fear as she has to bring her fullest control not to jump on the blonde and comfort her.
Mary Jane blinks at the snap, and comes back to herself, looking over at Gwen, "Yikes, Gwen, you okay." She then sees Cindy and blinks again at the Korean girl's reaction, "Hey, are you alright?" Because she looks worried about the new girl. But that anger? It just gets buried down again, for when she needs it again.
Gwen smiles a little shakily. "Sorry. I wrote that…after Dad was killed."
Not "died." Not "passed away."
"It was a pretty dark time. Hearing you sing it for the first time…JESUS, MJ. I've forgotten how well you could sing." She takes a deep breath. "Hey…let's try something a little more lively. How about 'Face It, Tiger?'"
After a few heartbeats, Cindy shakes her head. "I.. I am well. Thank you." he manages rather mechanically as she snaps out of her reverie and looks between the other two. "Are you alright?" she repeats the question, her lips pulled into a thin line of concern.
MJ smiles, "I'm fine… actually, it feels nice to let loose into the music, right? Just let all that stuff you normally keep bottled up released?" So yeah, she's got a lot of anger in her, but it just stays unfocused most of the time. Until she starts playing anyway.
Gwen nods, getting up to grab the sheet music for "Face It, Tiger." She'd heard MJ say it and the line stuck in her head.
"We are playing some very emotional stuff here, Cindy. We have a voice, and we have something to say, and music is the only way we can say what we feel." She starts passing out the sheet music.
There's a nod from Cindy before her hand touches Gwen's for a moment, giving it a squeeze before she takes the music. "I will try to honor your hard work, then." she offers quietly, demuring to the blonde as she returns to her station to prepare on Gwen's go.
Mary Jane nods, "Well, from what I heard, you'd do a great job of that, Cindy." She grins warmly, "IF you want to do it, anyway. That's something that's entirely up to you." If she notices the hand touching, she doesn't comment on it, though maybe she grins just a bit wider.
Gwen squeezes the hand in return, smiling to Cindy. Yep. Definitely more there than meets the eye. She looks back to MJ, then reaches down and grabs a new set of sticks from a half-empty box of them. "Start us off, MJ. Cindy follows in on the next section, and then I come in." She smiles. "This one's your song, MJ."
Cindy gives a nod when she hears the instructions and the pale Asian blushes at the compliment from MJ. "Thank you. Your music is very nice, so is your voice. It stirs the soul." she offers polietly, before glancing to Gwen. "Try not to break anymore sticks. They do not grow on trees." she chides teasingly.
MJ blushes, "Why, thanks, I…" She pauses, then giggles at Cindy, "I can't believe you just said that." Apparently she got the pun, at least, the redhead's eyes rolling a bit. Then, still blushing a bit, she taps the mic twice, then looks over at Gwen, "You're the drummer Gwen. It might be my name on the drums, but it's your idea. Take us home."
Gwen chuckles, raising the new sticks, waiting for MJ to start with the low growl of the intro, then the pulse of the bass before she starts, listening to MJ grind that axe of hers for all its worth. Gwen could make the drum pound like your hearbeat, Cindy playing the depths of the bassline, but could MJ make that guitar strut.
"There's no use cryin' over pinpricks
Don't fight the name if the name fits
You're doin' good, think that you could do better
Wanna crack your skull, get to the heart of the matterrrr…!
You better face it tiger, face it tigerrr…
It's all you got!
You better face it tiger, face it tiger…
You got a shot!
You better face it tiger, face it tiger…
YOU HIT THE JACKPOT!
Cindy feels the beat of the drum, the rise of Mary Jane's guitar and gives herself to the music as she follows along. She's still stiff there, that will need to be worked on, as she doesn't really move much from her spot as she tries to decipher the words to the music that MJ's belting out.
Mary Jane Watson sings the words out with fury and joy in her voice. This song is far more fun than Strangehold, more pop and happy, but still, there's a hard edge to it that people aren't really used to yet… boy, are they going to be in for a shock.
Gwen loves this song. All three of them can feel it. Invitation and challenge, come-hither and double-dog-dare-you. Mary Jane Watson is like some kind of fire elemental, flame-crimson hair tossing, fingers dancing over the strings or pressing against the them.
This…is rock-and-roll. A slap in the face of convention, hard, riotous life.
The song ends and Gwen feels husked out, but alert and aware, the amp ringing slightly in her ears. She put the sticks down and smiled to Cindy. "How did that one feel/"
There's a lot of words that Cindy could use to explain how she feels about the song when it gets to the end. She considers them all for a moment before she finally finds one that seems to fit the situation best.
"Tingly."
MJ grins, "Awesome. That's a perfect way to start." She plays a few random notes on her guitar, then looks over at Gwen, "What'd you think? I think we're pretty good… if we can get Jessica down here for that final touch."
Gwen nods. "We still need to practice. These, and the other songs." She smiles encouragingly. "But we did good for a first start." She sighs with satisfaction. "Also put the soundstage through its paces. Anyone detect any distortion?"
"There was supposed to be distortion?" comes the question from Cindy. "I was not.. paying attention." comes the apologetic comment as she glances over to Mary Jane to see if she heard anything out of the ordinary.
Mary Jane Watson shakes her head, "You weren't supposed to Cindy, it's okay." She hrms, "I didn't hear anything myself… was the tape running? We could try a playback and listen."
Gwen shakes her head. "No. I didn't want to put any pressure on Cindy." She looks to Cindy. "I just wanted you to just let it out, without any pressure. To see if you enjoyed playing." She smiled wryly. "Did you enjoy yourself, Cindy? Be honest, please."
"I did!" Cindy promises, trying to assauge any fears the girl may be putting off as she chews on half of her lower lip, before speaking. "I would like to hear how we sounded." she says in agreement with Mary Jane as she moves to slip the guitar off, since practice seems to be over as she soothes her hands over her blouse.
MJ smiles over at Cindy, "Well, great! And next time we'll have to do some recording so we can get a feel for how we sound together. But I liked how it came out." She eyes Gwen, "Just need to get you some steel drumsticks or something." With that, she winks, obviously teasing.
Gwen shrugs. "Drumsticks break. That's why I got a box of them." She looks to Cindy. "Now, you can come down and practice at any time, no matter the time of day or night."
"I will. When I'm not studying. Or finding a job so I can help with the bills since you were nice enough to let me stay with you. Unless I should find someplace else now that I have my green card?" Cindy asks, a hint of concern touching her voice as she realizes she overstayed her welcome.
Mary Jane nods, "Well, I'll be by when I can to practice, plus I got my guitar in my dorm room." She smiles to Cindy, "And this is great, really. Personally, I hope you stick around a while."