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Club ATomic isn't exactly hopping at this time of day- really, they only just opened their door and started an 'open mike' afternoon. It just so happens that Dead Girl is there for just that event, grinning wide as she stands on the stage.. the only performer so far. She's got an electric guitar, and amp, and a bright smile.
"I'm Dead Girl!" She announces, before strumming her guitar, "And I'm looking to start a band. Here's my audition!"
"You don't need to audition for your own band!" The bartender says, with a bit of a grin- maybe used to Dead Girl's antics.
She leans up, lips on the microphone. "I don't know if I'd want to join any band that would have me as a member."
And then she starts to play- an upbeat, but crunchy sort of surf rock.
Wither has been gone a long time. LONG… time. For those that knew him he looked thinner than before, and like he couldn't decide if he wanted to come in or stay out.
Or come in…
…or stay out…
…okay in it was. The Georgia boy pulled the hood back on his hoodie. It was hot and it wasn't the most comfortable to wear but one works with what they got. He was looking for Doug though, or maybe Jay. Some days no such luck. He was looking around and the oerformer on stage caught his attention because talking into a mic will do that. It was something else though, and those blue eyes honed in on that vast curiosity that stood out far more than other things in the passage of time.
Dead Girl is a static figure. Decay and Death are her bread and butter- and neither seem particularly interested in bother her. Sure, she looks like a corpse in that her skin is blue, bloodless… but it's like she only just died and then death and decay decided to take a vacation. She is what she seems like.
Her red eyes glow as she plays a quick few minutes on her guitar, grinning wide and generally in a great mood- dancing along to the song she's playing solo, just a surfer's riff.
"Goin' down the whirlpool!" She sings, "Swirlin' down the whirlpool! Surf 'till your dead!" Her voice isn't bad, either! And then she's into playing again, the largely instrumental surfer's rock.
But the song comes to an end and she puts her guitar to the side as she steps off the stage with a beaming smile! "I'll be here until someone else takes the open mike!"
Wither stood there just inside the door like an idiot watching with a hanging smile. Smiling hasn't happened in so long that it actually kinda hurt his face, but in a good way. It wasn't until someone bumped into him that he had a momentary flash of panic and anger.
Southern manners held his tongue in check. Moving out of the way he walked into Atomic asking the bartender, "Howdy, Doug isn't in I'm guessin?" He shook his head and looked more optimistic, "Water? Um, please." He looked back over to Dead Girl and observed, "You're really good at that. Why you auditionin' for your own band?"
"Oh, that's just part of the act!" Dead Girl offers to Wither with a beaming smile as she comes to the bar. "The guitar stuff is just for fun, you know? Anyways, how you gunna make new friends if you're not willing to put yourself out there and make them smile, you know?" she says as she begins to roll herself a cigarette- her tobacco was already sitting at the bar.
Wither thought about that as she had a really good point. He almost said something about how smoking's bad for the- what's the point? She was dead and it really was moot on that point and maybe not his business anyways. "Well, Ah' can't say you're wrong. I guess New York's still full of a bunch of surprises like that." He tried not to stare as that sort of thing didn't go over well in Mutant Town, but observed, "Yoooou are the real deal aren't ya?"
"Yeah, baby! One hundred percent Dead Girl!" Dead Girl offers with a grin as she lights up with a handy match from a paper matchbook. She inhales and just smokes- something to do with her hands, maybe.
"What about you? What's your story?" Dead Girl wonders next, as she puffs a bit. "You know what I miss? Weed. Maaaaan do I miss weed."
Wither sat on the stool, vinyl and metal. Thank Doug for having very modern tastes. The comment of her being entirely dead actually warmed a smile on his face. He shrugged and said, "Ummm dunno I never tried it. Dunno it'd do too much." He looked absolutely perfectly ordinary. A little on the pasty side, but for all purposes entirely ordinary and altogether unspectacular. His story? Oooh how to explain that. A napkin was laying on the linoleum counter-top with a wet glass ring still embossed in it. Kevin bit his lip and hesitated. His hand came out of his pocket and hovered over it for a moment as if deciding. Finally he took one finger and poked it. The effect was terrible and instantinous. Spreading from his finger like a virus the napkin; firt the paper went from what to black and then it just disintegrated into dust just as fast. Carefully he picked his index finger back up and curled his fingers into a ball and stuffed his hand back into his pocket waiting for his drink to come about. Hesitantly he offered to her, "They call me Wither. My friend Justin came up with it for me."
"Wow!" Dead Girl says, as she watches the decay spread. She can hear it. She can sense it- see it in ways few others could. "It's hungry, isn't it?!" she says, "Very hungry, yes." she says with a nod. "It must be hard to keep it quiet."
How she'd know that sort of thing would be difficult to say- but she is a girl who can communicate with the forces of decay. It's probably obvious to her, "That must make dates hard, huh?" she wonders then, "Oh! And hugs!" she gasps, "That's terrible!" The hippie dressed girl then attempts to give him a sudden, and unexpected hug! Sneak attack!
Wither forrowed his brow waiting for the waves of elation and novelty but… but they didn't come. Just some words of truth about things he generally didn't talk about or admit. The Dead GIrl saw it though. He watched the pile of dust lay inert and admitted, "Ravenous, an, some days kinda always screamin against m'insides like a bird in a box."
At guessing dates were difficult his jaw offset at an angel and reluctantly also admitted, "Yeah-up. It's pretty much not fun alla way- ACK! Careful Ah' can't control it!" Little was more distressing than seeing someone meaning well get hurt in the process and having it be his fault, but, there was also no oen right now getting… hurt? He tried very hard not to move in case. Just in case!
Dead Girl isn't worried. Not one bit- And, indeed, she does touch him- her cheek pressed to his a short moment.
And nothing. Nothing happens- she's just.. inert. "There we go!" she says, beaming bright as if she'd done something great. "You should still get hugs, my man! Hugs are great." she says, with a sage nod.
"Anyways, I'm not that worried. I don't think I can get any more dead than I am already." Dead Girl says, as she leans back to once again puff at her cigarette.
|ROLL| Wither +rolls 1d20 for: 14
Wither stood still, petrified, almost to the point of tears waiting for the screaming and the last year of his life playing out again.
It didn't though and while he felt like he might have to swallow his heart to make it go back into his chest she was… fine. The math finally clicked about the woman frozen in time. THAT…was most curious.
Deep breaths, Kev, she's okay. You're not a villain. Theeeeere we go. He looked back to her just, well relieved and amazed truly. "You're," He tried to remember the word for it, "Doc McCoy called it something. Immune t'entropy I think he was saying? Cause it ain't about being dead." He looked from the pile of dust back to Dead Girl. He was worried about entirely disintegrating her. "You're fine!"
"Well, I don't know about that. I'm a pretty big fan of trees." Dead Girl may or may not know what entropy is. She takes another hit from her cigarette, just wholly unbothered. "You okay, bud?" she asks of her new friend, "You look like you've seen a ghost! But, you know, there aren't any ghosts in here. At least not right *now*." she clarifies.
"But, yeah, I'm fine! I don't do that decay stuff- that's nasty."
This was new. All of this was very, very new and really amazing. IT was taking him a long moment to recalibrate but he snapped out of it at the question, the tops of his ears turning a bit red, "Wha? Who me? Yeah I'm," He thought about it and laughed, "Great in fact. Sorry the, um, the last person who did that had a hole in their face after it was,"He flinched with no pride in it, "It was awful, and, as ya say, nasty."
Hey there was a smile under all all that worry and he hesitated and pulled his hand out very tentitively to poke her hand, "Never seen anyone be able to do this before. You're frozen." He regreted the insinuations abound after quickly adding, "in time. SOrry. ormally I can see everything fallin apart. Well everythin here but you."
"Hey, what can I say? I mean, it *wants* to do something to me- but, I sort of just.. don't let it." Dead Girl explains, "I can see and hear and communicate with the stuff of death and decay. Bacteria, bugs, whatever. I see ghosts, can talk to them. Touch them." Dead Girl continues. "I'm sort of a conduit between life and death, I guess. I mean, that makes sense, I suppose."
Yup! Nothing happening with the poke. Just the cool skin of a girl who's body is perpetually room temperature. "So, I just look like me, huh? That must be nice. I mean, it certainly gives me a bit of a leg up on all the other girls, doesn't it?!" She teases, with a friendly smile.
Wither poked. Nothing happened and everything was just negligibly fine. He took her hand as an experiment and squished it. Yup. Solid. Not even ashy! "Well that makes a lot more sense." The amazing arount of pride Dead Girl took in that advnatage was something and the smile relaxed into a grin, "Honestly? Really, really does. So can I ask how long you've been," he didn't quite know how to ask without sounding like an idiot and finally just said, "playing guitar? I mean I can tell ya enjoy it, but I know a lot of folks can't get more than three chords out."
"Guitar? Oh, since I was a little kid." Dead Girl says with a smile, "I can sing and dance, too." she offers, "When I first came out here, I wanted to be on Broadway. I mean, I got murdered, but I guess that was for the best in the end. Now I'm something totally unique, right? Before, I was just a girl from California trying to make it in New York City." she shrugs, just letting Wither explore. He clearly hadn't had any human contact for a while. She was fine with it!
"I can teach you, if you want." Dead Girl offers, "It's not too hard- I mean, with some practice." she says with a smile, "You can be in my band!"
Wither frowned hearing abotu the murder. She was still having a life, or an after-life, but still, rude! One eyebrow went up agreeing, "Well you won' blend in with the chorus gals that's for certain. "That actually sounds like a lot of fun. I play drums. I ain't great but metal and I get along just fine and all. Kinda started by accident but I'd love to learn somethin new. So California huh? It everythin like Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys says it is?"
"Well, I mean, sometimes." Dead Girl says. "I can teach you how to surf, too. It's a whole heck of a lot of fun." she says with a grin, "We'll have to get you one of those new fiberglass boards!" she suggests, "Then you can do it. Going to have to find a guitar you can use, too, if you're turning most things into dust." she doesn't seem particularly bothered by the fact he'd need special help- if anything, she seems excited to try. "I love surfing. Man, it's so great! The waves aren't as nice out here, but they'll work!"
Wither grinned and eventually let go of her hand, reluctantly. That entropic hunger was still there but while it tried to bite down it grabbed nothing much to Kevin's gratitude. "Woah they have fab boards? Yeah well even if the wood is sealed in acrylic I find that seens to work pretty well. A lot of the supplies I workwwith for some of my pieces-" He paused and hesitantly added, "I'm an artist. Sculptor…well… sorta. I'm worki on it…or was until… things got complicated." He didnt' define complicated exactly.
Indeed- and undoubtedly Dead Girl's ability to communicate with the stuff of death- of decay- made it all very confusing. At least, from one power to another. "Complicated, huh? Bummer." Dead Girl doesn't offer more on that- she figures Wither will tell her if he wants.
"And yeah! They're really popular out west. I mean, some diehards stick with the wood ones, and mine is an old wood board my dad gave me, but we can get you one like that!" She says, still beaming brightly. "I'll show you, it'll be fun!" she assures him.
"The guitar might be a little harder, though." Dead Girl says as she leans back, thinking. "The fingerboard is usually made out of wood." she explains, "Maybe we can get something custom, though. I know a guy who's always willing to try something new."
Wither smiled turning read in teh ears and admitted, "Been nine months since I was kinda allowed to have any fun. That sounds great actually really… relaly great." Looking around his brow furrowed a bit, "I was hopin Doug was here. Wanted to apologize to em." He bit his lip and looked back to her going back to the beginning. "He calls me Kevin or, well, Kev, K-Man, K-tor sometimes when froggy but you can call me whatever ya want. How do I… How do I find you?"
"Oh, I'm around all the time. Someone can help you find me." Dead Girl says with a grin, "I gotta get going, though- I've got an appointment with this ghost. I promised her I'd help her find a grandson." she says, as she hops up. "Gotta schedule these things, you know, otherwise every ghost in Manhattan is all up in your business." She leans in, gives KEvin a hug and a kiss to the cheek and out the door she goes! "Just ask for Dead Girl!"
Wither returned the hug and just turned bright red, mystified but with a stpid grin on his face. "Yeah I'll totally do that. It was really, really nice meeting you Dead Girl."
And that was how Kevin's year somehow got better after the giant shitshow that was the previous nine months.
Wow!