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Ziggy Played Guitar [Dylan]
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Jan 22, 2021 11:24:57 GMT
It was the last class of Wednesday during a winter class in Shibuya High. As per the usual routine, it was a double period of Geography, and the senior year Colin James had finished completing the daily worksheet with his best friends Luke and Bellamy – who appeared as two boys around his age with red and purple hair. It was the last few minutes of the class and they were in the process of a class discussion and revision over the answers.
Their teacher, a blonde British woman named Lise Hamelin, seemed to be satisfied of the lesson as she was speaking in a smile as they went over what they learned today. Senior classes might be tough, Colin learned, but by now they were being treated as trusted adults and that was helpful to his state of mind of late.
After all, school wasn't his only obligation. As a chosen, partnered to two very strong digimon, his other responsibilities were as a co-leader of the digimon security group known as AEGIS, which was led by his elder sister Sophie. Colin would have loved to join her full-time, but he had been made to promise that his schooling would take priority over it.
The teacher was by now aware of the time and closed off the discussion as the final bell for the day rang.
“Also if you log in to your assignment accounts, you'll find that I have marked your essays on National Anthems.” Lise continued to the class. “For the most part, I am satisfied. Nice work from Luke who analysed the Greek national anthem, although I would have been satisfied by the third verse, you didn't have to do all 158 stanzas. As for your brother, who I am glad learned from last time that the Greek national anthem was not in fact “Grease Lightning” and even went to the effort of the lesser known country of Barbados, you seem to have made the key mistake that the Barbadian anthem is in fact In Plenty And In Time of Need, not the lyrics of Barbara-Ann by the Beach Boys with 'Barbados' substituting each instance of the title.”
There were a few snickers from the class as Bellamy gave an emphatic groan of disappointment. Luke meanwhile blushed at the amount of wasted work he had done, but was still grateful he had received top marks for his essay as he quickly logged in on his phone to check.
As Lise left the room, Bellamy checked his phone to see to his surprise that he had still passed, with a note from Lise saying that despite the messing around, he clearly demonstrated he did enough in the essay to not fail.
“You almost look disappointed, Bells.” Colin remarked, smiling.
“Eh, not like it makes any difference in the end.” Bellamy shrugged.
“I think it does, it shows you can be pretty smart when you want to be.” Luke said. “How did you even know about that song anyway?”
“Colin's mom likes it. She told me that it was one of the songs her parents danced to when they first met.” Bellamy answered. “Gotta say, you hu- I mean- guys are really good at music.” he was about to say 'humans', but as he was currently disguised as a human with his holosuit, it'd be kind of awkward to overhear. Hopefully by rephrasing it like that he could explain it simply as that by 'guys', he meant 'Americans', of which Colin had originated from.
“Ah, that reminds me.” Luke said, quickly turning to Colin. “You were gonna ask someone in this class to help you learn guitar, right?”
“Oh! Right!” Colin said, startled, hoping that the person he had in mind hadn't left yet. In his last year, Colin wanted to take advantage of the school's social clubs to at least learn an instrument before he finished up. Since he wasn't really satisfied with learning the keyboard, and that his parents refused to allow him to learn loud instruments like drums or brass in their apartment complex, that mainly left learning guitar.
This was something of a challenge for him, since even though his partner Luke enjoyed playing it, there was the fact that Luke had to improvise his own technique using his three claws on each paw, while Colin in fact had five fingers on each hand and couldn't learn a thing from his Elecmon partner. That left the only choice to asking a classmate who might be knowledgeable in how to play guitar to teach him.
And he had one in mind. There was a fellow American in his class that had recently arrived from the states. Colin could tell instantly because he spoke limited Japanese with a heavy accent, like how Colin did when he first arrived in Japan. Luke also had heard him play guitar in the school's music wing sometimes and he was very good.
With a nudge from Bellamy, Colin gathered the courage to approach him before he left, then assumed a polite smile. “Hi there. Dylan-san, right? I mean... Dylan, if you prefer.” he spoke in English, hoping that he might feel more comfortable conversing in this language at first meeting. He remembered his name from roll-call, noticing it was one of the few non-Japanese names of the class. “I'm Colin. I was wondering if you had a little free time? I mean to ask you something.” he began, trying to keep it simple for now. Of course he wouldn't ask to intrude on Dylan's time if he had somewhere to be now.
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Post by Dylan Loon and Shoutmon on Jan 23, 2021 3:04:11 GMT
Oh, sure. That's fair. That was what Dylan was thinking as soon as he was sat down in class a few rows behind the rearmost twin. My hair can't go past my shoulders, but theirs can signal a plane on a desert island. A different teacher had politely put a pony tail holder in his hand earlier and left it at that. At this sight, Dylan promptly yanked it right out and let the locks flow freely, then ran his fingers between it and his glasses to get some stray ones out from behind the thin frames. The wavy brown hair fell some length down his uniform, which was itself reasonably proper, at least. Better.
The mood improved from there, especially as the essay marks came back. Dylan wasn't too scared for once. Some of the national anthems were genuinely interesting to dive into, and the one he'd chosen to analyze itself featured some very interesting symbolism not just in the lyrics but also in some note sequences all by themselves. Hamelin-sensei seemed to agree that paragraphs devoted to text painting weren't too much of a deviation from the geography points he had to make as well. It was a solid pass, but the parts that seemed to hurt him most were spelling and grammar mistakes. They don't go easy on JSL students, do they? It made sense, of course, even if it was inconvenient.
The person she clearly did go easy on was the quickly-established class clown, that purple-haired boy Bellamy. Those western names were usually easier for Dylan to latch onto and remember, if only because they were unusual and therefore noticeable. Dylan did snicker because that was hilarious, but it was also absurd outside of being humorous. And, as usual, the smartest kid in class nails it. The boy paused his thoughts as the memory crept back into the conscious level yet again: between the first time Dylan saw a digimon and the second, enough time had passed that he was almost convinced it was just the world's coolest dream. Then he saw them again, and he learned that digimon could occasionally be body snatchers in human skin. He already knew about two. ...Nah. Digimon would want to keep a low profile. Top marks, class clown, and rainbow hair don't make for good covers. It was at this point that Leith scanned his classmates and in an arbitrary, playful sort of manner assigned them as being either humans or digimon. That girl who couldn't find Sri Lanka on a map could fit the bill... but also, I got that question wrong, too. That Colin kid's just a little too normal to fit in, and being so perfectly bilingual on top of that is sus as heck. Akira's late to class an awful lot, like he has to come from a whole other world just to get here. None of that was supposed to be sincere, but this playful profiling made light of those crazy events, and that put a small smile on his face as he rose to head out.
Colin had a very good chance of not catching up with Dylan. Without any friends he'd chat with for long or extracurricular activities, this was normally when he'd make a beeline straight for the front door and then the bus home. What waylaid him was a new poster in the hall he hadn't noticed before, particularly the big, bold phrase he thought he recognized. Just to make sure, he took a photo of it and used a translator app to confirm. "Talent show? Yes, please," the boy muttered aloud. He'd definitely save that photo for later.
And so before Dylan could escape the building, Colin did catch up. The Nebraskan had the right approach; Dylan probably would have understood basic phrases like that, but that didn't mean he'd have been able to quickly answer. Besides, why make the effort to speak a language which was neither of their firsts? Dylan at first acted a bit surprised when the classmate he'd just 'profiled' approached him, and that fact accidentally made him knowingly smirk again before he answered. "'-San' works, too. It's Tokyo, right?"
Dylan went turned to face Colin straight on then, obscuring the logo of the gig bag over his shoulders. Lugging around that and his normal school supplies in a messenger bag was quite a load, yes, but at this point the case was as much a method of expression, like an article of clothing, as it was a useful tool. "I think I got a bit before my bus comes. What's up?" Digimon or not, it was a bit weird. Not bad, just weird. The boy was visibly curious with one brow raised. Dylan couldn't remember any meaningful chats with Colin before. What could it be about?
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Feb 6, 2021 8:32:27 GMT
Colin chuckled at Dylan's humour, glad to be able to talk in English to someone without them getting awkward about it. “I'll stick with Dylan then. To be honest, the honorifics have been something I've never really got used to, even though I've been here for 6 years.”
Dylan then asked what was up. Realizing that they haven't in fact met yet and had to go through the hurdles of acquaintance, Colin reeled himself back a bit and returned to a formal state of mind, knowing that he wanted to ask a favour from him. Especially when there was a time limit mentioned, he didn't want to make Dylan miss his bus. “Okay, I'll cut to the chase. I've heard from classmates that you're really good at playing guitar, and I'm interested in learning how to play myself... so I was wondering if you'd be able to give me lessons? If you have the time of course.”
Colin took from Dylan's expression that he found it odd that they were talking like this, particularly on their first real conversation, so he thought it would be best if he explained some more. “It's just... I tried learning it from a teacher before, but I just couldn't adapt to their style, so, I heard about how good you are at it and thought it'd be better to just ask, you know?”
Colin hoped that his explanation was good enough for now. Meanwhile, Luke and Bellamy lingered a casual distance behind them, curious as to how this would go down. Even though Bellamy often socialized with the more outgoing classmates, and Luke never turned down helping with homework for those who needed it, somehow neither of them had spoken with Dylan either. Probably because of how intense their final year had been so far, and how Dylan didn't really make himself available to talk to after class that much.
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Post by Dylan Loon and Shoutmon on Feb 7, 2021 2:38:40 GMT
Dylan acknowledged Colin's disregard of the honorifics with a dispassionately agreeing nod of the head. Six years, huh? Again, Dylan couldn't help letting a sly grin creep over his face. It was dumb, and he knew it, just a personal game he was playing in his head that accidentally came into the real world. Good excuse. Can anyone verify that? The boy needed a little shake of the head and a facial reset from there, which probably didn't make him look less odd but was still better than wearing a creepy, unexplained grin.
It helped that Colin's request was way far from what Dylan was expecting, bringing him back down to Earth. He'd been thinking something like Colin having missed what the last homework assignment was, or maybe the other boy needed any subject to answer a survey for some psychology class. The complete category error caused Dylan to momentarily mentally stumble. "Yeah, that's, uh, that's cool. It's a really fun instrument, y'know? Good for pretty much whatever you wanna play." Dylan knew somewhere that there was no need for him to sell it as an instrument; he was just a bit awkward and trying to fill dead air.
'Heard from classmates?' That was a phrase Dylan spent a little time on, hoping to think of someone in particular who might have noticed him, but he didn't waste too much on it. In some of his free periods he could oft be found looking for a nice spot - the grounds outside, maybe, or the music wing if it was free - to unpack a little and hook up to a little bluetooth speaker. It could have been anyone. If someone's friend of a friend had said something nice, well, that thought brought Dylan another smile, though this one was more warm and genuine than the last. Finally grounded in the moment, Dylan answered, "It's tough, I get it. Self-teaching is a thing with guitar, but I think having a real teacher helped me figure out where to start and kept me wanting to learn."
But Colin's real question? Well, Dylan wasn't looking for a way out of it, that was for sure. He was thinking of a way to make it happen. It sounded like a great way to make a new friend - maybe even one of those normal, human (allegedly) friends he had heard so much about. He knew it would be a heck of a commitment for an otherwise stranger, not to mention a new experience for him on the other side of the teacher-learner relationship, but for things like this Dylan remembered the advice of his father: that he never knew where, when, and who would be a good acquaintance to make. Might as well seize them when they fall in your lap. Dylan crossed his arms thoughtfully. "I bet we could figure something out. I live in an apartment with designated noisy hours, which narrows the window if we did something like that at my place." Dylan checked his watch just then, and the time apparently didn't concern him yet because he went on, "If your last teacher's style didn't work for you, I got concerns about that teacher. I love my heavy rock, but they're supposed to keep it interesting for you. Might not have been a great teacher just from that, if I'm honest. What are you looking to play?" Dylan was half-aware that Bellamy and Luke were standing behind Colin and was yet totally ignorant that Colin's 'not great' teacher was, too.
"Hey, tell you what: we'll make it happen for sure if I can ask one question." Dylan at first made eye contact with Colin, but he recognized those other boys who stuck out like sore thumbs and always stuck to Colin like glue. The prospective teacher shifted his gaze to Bellamy and raised his voice a little to make his one question heard. "Seriously, dude? The Beach Boys?" The memory alone was enough to make Dylan chuckle a bit, obviously amused.
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Mar 4, 2021 11:34:10 GMT
Colin took Dylan's smile as an acceptance to converse in English, without having to worry about the sometimes alien-feeling verbal etiquette that Japanese language often required.
He quietly let out a sigh of relief that Dylan took his request pretty well. For this he was glad that while Bellamy wasn't exactly the most academic in the class, he at least kept up with the gossip, giving and taking useful social information. One such informative morsel was that a few classmates had listened to Dylan's guitar playing, but given the fact that they were all senior students and had to spend most of their time studying for their finals meant that they unfortunately didn't have the time to socialize with him, and so stuck to their own social circles. While unfair, that was the reality for most of the class.
And that was something that Bellamy exploited for his social standing. While he didn't really care about his own grades, over the past few years, classmates had caught on to the fact that socializing with him often led to study sessions with his twin brother Luke, and those boosted their grades quite well. Yes, some would call it corruption, but, eh, nobody suffered under this arrangement, so how could it be unethical?
Anyway, this was the fruit of such information gathering, and Colin nodded when Dylan made the point that it was better with a teacher. “Yeah, that's right... it really sucks plucking at it for half an hour and all you hear is either the baby basics or garble.”
Colin beamed as Dylan seemed to agree to it. They could even meet up at his apartment, given that he had designated noisy hours. As Dylan remarked about the quality of Colin's “teacher”, which had in fact been Luke, the red-haired boy did his best not to react, even though internally he felt a bit hurt that he had failed Colin in this regard.
Then Dylan brought up Bellamy's latest clownish antics. The purple-haired boy gave a toothy grin in response. “Heh, the joke was mainly aimed at the teacher. Plus I got the idea from Colin's mom.” he explained, then realized that it was probably kind of unusual that he'd talk about his best friend's mother in public like this. “Ah... right, you don't know do you?”
“Know what?” Luke asked, looking up.
“How Colin's family took us in as adoptions.” Bellamy clarified. Luke realized what this was about right away and nodded.
“Yeah... they've been a godsend to us.” he said. “It's a long story.”
“In fact, it's their idea that I learn some kind of musical instrument while I can in school.” Colin continued. “Bells is good at vocals and Luke does drums, just... if I learn guitar, we'd have a good core for a band.”
Hopefully this would be a good pitch for Dylan to take in Colin to tutor him with a guitar, while at the same time explaining why he was close with Luke and Bellamy and hoped that they'd be accepted to accompany him too.
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Post by Dylan Loon and Shoutmon on Mar 5, 2021 1:42:49 GMT
"Hey, hang on. You're all brothers?" Dylan blinked a couple of times in response to this news. It wasn't that it was so strange to think a family would adopt two boys; that happened every day (or, at least, it should have). No, the part that the boy couldn't quite understand was, "I see you guys together, like, all the time. I got a little sister, and we got a mutual understanding to stay out of each other's space." Dylan shrugged aloofly, apparently not too perturbed by this fact. "Maybe that's the age difference. Or the gender difference. Or just us, I dunno."
Dylan checked his watch again. His chance at catching the bus was still fine, but it was time to mind the clock more closely. That showed on his demeanor. "So you guys are tryin' to be the literal kind of 'band of brothers,' huh? That's really cool, actually." There was no hint of jest in that. "I used to play in this group in the states. I'm not even gonna pretend we were good, but I'm also not gonna pretend it wasn't fun. If you ever need advice about that kinda thing, I bet I could help, too. And you know what?" It was at this moment that the boy snapped his fingers and made a finger-gun gesture with the same hand pointing upward as if he'd just gotten an idea. "I got a setup for vocals and drums, too. Crude stuff, I mean. The PA's this high-" Dylan bent down so he could put his hand low to indicate it was small. "-and the drums are electronic, but I bet we could just jam out for the heck of it sometime, too."
As the seconds counter crept upward, Dylan's eyes started to drift down at his watch more often until he finally had to call it. "Hey, look, I really gotta go, but we can text about details, right?" He seemed sincere. Obviously Dylan didn't see this like some kind of burden, that was for sure. To him it was more like an opportunity, and if anything could convince him that something were worth trying, it would be talking tunes. The long-haired boy fumbled for a notepad on which to write his phone number as well as through his phone to actually find the number. Apparently he still hadn't memorized it. Why are Japanese area codes so weird again? He asked himself as he read it out loud.
The reason Dylan walked so briskly away after that wasn't because he was trying to escape the situation but rather the opposite; he had pushed it a little and now knew he had to push it a little to make his ride. Right. First thing when I get home: see if I can find some of my old booklets. As he sat on the bench he suddenly palmed himself in the face, just realizing he'd neglected something. I hope Hamelin-sensei didn't assign anything. I already forgot. Dylan chuffed then, somewhat amused at his own mental state. Oh, well.
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Mar 28, 2021 0:53:03 GMT
Dylan seemed confused at the fact that even as brothers they kept so close, even in school. Colin thought it would rather be a little odd, he would’ve kept as far away from Sophie as possible in the few years when they were in the same school. But then again, he, Bellamy and Luke were in the same grade so that changed things.
Luke was the one to reply here. “Heh, I guess we kinda cover for each other in class, and that works out, so we roll with it.” he shrugged.
“Yep, we’re like the brothers you find in folklore, like the Brothers of Bremen.” Bellamy chimed in.
“Bellamy, that’s the musicians of Bremen, and there were four of them… and they were farm animals too.” Luke corrected him.
“Okay okay, yeesh, don’t get up all in my grill about not rememberin’ Dutch fairy tales.”
“Bremen is in Germany, Bells.”
Colin cleared his throat here as a signal for them to stop, which thankfully they did. Dylan revealed he had experience with being in a band back in the states. “Huh, really? Sweet.” the young man said with a smile, understanding that it would be very useful to learn more about being in a band from someone like that. If all worked out, Dylan could be more help than any of them could have guessed.
“Sure, we could give it a shot.” Bellamy agreed with the offer to have a go at jamming together. They soon exchanged phone numbers and went on their way for the time being.
The trio’s house was within walking distance from Shibuya High, so they made their way home that way along the streets to their apartment. They were rather looking forward to heading over to Dylan’s later on this week to start the music lessons.
“Hmm… you know guys, I don’t think I’ve made much actual human friends in school here.” Colin mused along the way.
“Well, never too late to start.” Luke replied with a smile, glad that particular moment had worked out well so far.
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Post by Dylan Loon and Shoutmon on Mar 28, 2021 23:40:53 GMT
It took some doing and some back-and-forth, but the boys managed to work out a good time for a regular session, the place having already been set. But for Dylan, the work didn't stop there. The fact was... he wasn't a teacher. But he knew how he learned himself, the things his teacher did that worked and the ones that didn't. By the same token, he knew some of the things he needed besides the instruments if this was going to go right: notebooks, exercise and concept booklets, tab paper... a lot of it was paper in different forms, the boy knew. The only problem for him was that while Dylan's 'student' was expected any second now, he was still searching for his tool pouch. Dylan knew full well that if a string broke or a cable died or a pickup fizzled out (and these things were inevitable, eventually), it would disrupt the whole thing. Fixing it could be a teachable moment, but for that he needed his tools. Yet they were neither in the drawer where they were normally kept nor under his bed, in the pocket of a gig bag, or anywhere else in the whole two-bedroom apartment he had seen so far.
Without any family home at the moment, Dylan didn't think there was anyone to help him look. It was only when he thought he heard some clattering noise from the music room he was just walking past that he thought he knew exactly what was going on. It didn't panic him that there was a noise in an apartment that was supposed to be empty just now. It was a phenomenon too familiar. "Here we go again."
Dylan turned toward the music room and had groaned, "Shoutmon, this actually isn't a good time," before the door was even open wide enough for him to know that a digimon was in the room. In his defense, he turned out to be correct. There was Shoutmon, taking up one of two folding chairs with one of Leith's guitar's opened up and a screwdriver driven inside it. "I'm having company over."
"OK, OK, but dude, you gotta try this." It wasn't a surprise that Shoutmon had managed to correctly plug the instrument through a pedal board and a preamp into a two-and-a-half-foot tall speaker. What was surprising was when Shoutmon flipped the instrument and played a little power chord, the tone was completely different from what Dylan was used to. "You can't tell me that doesn't sound sweet."
"Oh, my God. What did you do?" It was after Dylan asked that when he caught the completely different pickups in his Hellraiser. They weren't the ones he had kept, and the boy knew they weren't any of his spares either. The ones that should have been in there lay on the ground, discarded at Shoutmon's feet.
"Try these for a day, man. I promise you, you'll never wanna go back."
"Yeah, sure, OK. Whatever. Uh, never mess with my guitars again without my permission by the way. Kinda thought that was a given."
"Y'know, I really thought the main problem would be I'm in your apartment."
"They're not exclusive." While Dylan scooped up the old pickups and stored them in a junk drawer, he got back on topic. "You sneak in to see me but you don't even say, 'hi?'"
"Yeah, so, I got this pal from Rosewood. Got a human of her own like two weeks ago. Nice girl, I bet you know her. She's from Tokyo, too.. Anyway, she kinda made it sound like it's just the way the partner thing works. Digimon can just come and go as long as they don't get caught. Lots of them even live in full time. I mean, that's like the rule, isn't it?"
"I'm sorry, why are you asking me like I know?"
"What, you don't? You haven't made, like, a ton of human friends with digimon in how long?"
"No! No, I have not." It was true that Dylan had met one or two, but that was because of an emergency and its aftermath. His relationship with those classmates and that one flower shop lady hardly rose to the level of friendship. Dylan always meant to follow up with some of those classmates after the incident, but it never seemed like the right time. "So, uh... yeah."
This was when a pause in the conversation dropped, and Shoutmon's contribution to it was not very productive. "Well... this is awkward."
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Apr 28, 2021 11:33:47 GMT
Well, today was the agreed day. Colin made sure to double check with his elder sister Sophie that he and his partners would be covered in their duties in AEGIS, and he was assured that they would be. In fact Sophie seemed pleased that he’d finally arranged something like this with a human friend. Colin was a little taken aback at first, but, he supposed that she would take this view, given that the only real friends he had made since moving to Japan were digimon, and he didn’t expect that she would overlook this.
So then, he, Luke and Bellamy made their way to Dylan’s residence, then rang the doorbell. Then came the awkward waiting.
“Welp, no turning back now I guess…” Colin remarked to himself out of nervousness.
“Colin, it’s okay. Dylan seems like a nice guy.” Bellamy said, patting his back. “You have similar interests, similar backgrounds in fact. He’s probably as nervous as you, maybe even more so, because there’s the three of us and just one of him.”
“Yeah, that’s right, this is his home, so we need to act properly as guests.” Luke added. Bellamy took this with umbrage.
“And what do ya mean by that?” he asked.
“Don’t raid the fridge without permission for starters.” Luke replied. Bellamy made an angry snort, yeah, he had done so before, once, and apparently that spoiled the evening. “And just remember, we’re only here as Colin’s chaperones. He’s the main guest here, we’re just accomplices.”
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Bellamy grumbled, supposing his brother had a point there. But then he flipped to a more positive topic. “Man, I really hope this guy is the real deal and can help us out with music.”
“I do too.” Colin concurred, then awaited being welcomed into Dylan’s home.
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Post by Dylan Loon and Shoutmon on May 8, 2021 23:03:26 GMT
The earlier pause did not stop just because a doorbell rang. If anything that made it go longer, as each party thought they had just worked out how to continue the conversation and opened their mouths when it sounded. They each shut their mouths in unison and watched each other a little longer before Dylan pled, "So, uh... see you later?"
"Yeah, sure. Seeya tomorrow. I can show myself the door." Dylan's relief didn't last long. He knew Shoutmon was saying something under the surface with that deadpan tone and extended eye contact, and the boy almost instantly picked it up: Colin was at the only door in or out. From five floors off the ground there wasn't another easy, discreet way out of the building. Dylan didn't have to verbally acquiesce; it showed on his uneasy expression. "I'll chill in your room a bit." While Shoutmon hopped to his feet, Dylan power walked to the door, thinking that kid Colin didn't need to wait in that drab corridor any longer than this short exchange on his account. As he swung it open, he cleared his head with a good shake and put on a welcoming grin. "Well, if you're looking to be a band, good start. Musicians are on time to everything." He'd usher them in by stepping out of their way and casually flicking his head inward. "Normally I'd introduce you to the owners of this fine establishment, but they cleared out soon as I mentioned there would be loud music." The 'establishment' wasn't exactly 'fine,' but nor was it lacking either. There were scattered pieces of decor that suggested a clean upper-middle class home, such as a vase of flowers on a table by the door and a full bookshelf in plain view in the living room, but there were other signs that the occupants weren't so pretentious such as the number of cracked open doors and a kitchen counter that was home to assorted bits of junk.
"Those are for you guys, by the way." Dylan pointed to that counter where lay a tray of a dozen chocolate chip cookies (clearly home made). "If you don't like 'em crunchy, you can just nuke 'em for like fifteen seconds. Be greedy, by the way. I don't think Mom really expected there to be any left when she got back." It was only at this point that the boy noticed someone had already taken the initiative. There were not, in fact, a dozen cookies available. There were seven. The boy covered up quickly by assuming the responsibility himself. "I, uh... kinda took my own advice."
Would that fool the James? Maybe. Dylan came up with that particular fib without too much effort, and he at least thought he had the talent at lying to sell it. But Dylan in his ignorance couldn't account for the hint of a nearby digital signature that another digital life form might have detected. "Anyway, music room's that way. Plug in wherever, make yourselves comfy."
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on May 20, 2021 11:14:30 GMT
The door opened, and Dylan complimented them on their punctuality. Colin smiled in response. “Thanks. All those years walking around Shibuya paid off.” he answered. Dylan ushered them in, and said that the normal owners of the establishment had already cleared off because of the loud music involved.
Colin and his partners looked around, and thought it was a rather nice setting. A little untidy, but they weren’t here to judge, just learn music.
Dylan then offered them some cookies. There were seven available, and Dylan admitted to having already eaten some.
“Ah that’s fine, a few cookies are always nice.” Colin said, cheerfully.
Luke meanwhile couldn’t help but notice a familiar feeling in the air. He had been in the human world for nearly 5 years now, and as a digimon in AEGIS, he knew the signs that there was another digimon around. Still though, for the sake of politeness, and for Colin’s goals for this evening, he remained silent. After all, he couldn’t identify anything that would be hostile to them. It was just a sign and nothing more, but he’d keep alert.
Dylan guided them to the music room, where they saw an impressive setup. Plenty of power outlets and speakers. Colin had of course remembered to bring the electric guitar he had hired from school. He had dithered for a bit in whether to learn on an acoustic guitar or an electric one, before settling on the electric. That was more important to a band after all.
“Okay, so… to a complete beginner, how should I start out?” Colin asked Dylan, as Luke and Bellamy got comfortable, Luke familiarizing himself with the drum setup while Bellamy was content to just sit and watch for the moment.
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Post by Dylan Loon and Shoutmon on May 30, 2021 22:03:54 GMT
Right. No more breadcrumbs, I hope. Dylan shut the door behind everyone and jammed a tube of insulating foam under the crack, kicking with a foot to make sure it was in there good and tight. The room behind that door was all function and little style. The carpet was shaggy, and unsightly bass traps were sporadically spread along the walls. Cables weren't much of a trip hazard, but there were enough of them taking up floor space that Dylan put a little thought into stepping to not step right on them. A desk without a chair took up one corner because its office chair was in the middle of the room now. As for Dylan and Luke, the both of them had drum stools to set down on while that left one metal folding chair.
"Alright. Total beginner." Dylan had meant to start by quizzing what Colin already knew, but if that was how he wanted to be treated then so it would be. "If you're amp's on and settings dialed in, we gotta tune the thing." That was when Dylan would show Colin where each string of his guitar should be in pitch, at least in standard tuning, and how to use a tuner. "In a quiet room, this phone app I use will do the job. Thing is, I've never been a room full of musicians that respected the tuning process before, so you're gonna want one of these." That was when Dylan would let Colin try his tuner that clipped onto the head of the instrument. "Instead of sound, these things read the vibrations from the actual guitar to get your pitch. This is how you get it done in a noisy room."
That would lead into some rookie level exercises and warmups, which Dylan promised, "...will be extremely boring. But it really does make a world of a difference, no joke." When he started to do them alongside Colin, Dylan's guitar tone was very harsh and in-your-face, but the boy quickly flipped one knob to bring that down for a cleaner sound. Besides being easier to hear each individual note that way, Colin didn't need to have to deal with the boy's ear crunching metal tone this whole time anyway. During that exercise Dylan addressed Luke and Bellamy, "I'm sure you guys don't wanna just sit around and watch someone learn guitar, so here's what I'm thinking: we get Colin warmed up, then we jump straight into learning a song. Any song, your pick."
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Jun 18, 2021 9:17:46 GMT
As they entered the music room, Colin, Luke and Bellamy took care to watch their step over the cables. Even if they were taped down, it would be rather dumb to casually walk around this room without seeing where their feet would tread.
As Luke and Bellamy settled down, Colin laid down his experience with music with Dylan and hoped it wouldn’t be too bad that he would turn them away at once for not being at the right level. But to his relief, Dylan seemed pretty cool about it, even providing tools that would provide good quality results for the vital task of tuning.
“Wow… this is pretty awesome.” Colin remarked, as he tested out the tuning once the devices were ready. As far as he could tell, they were working well.
Then Dylan began his tutoring with the basics. Colin didn’t mind, he wanted to learn from the ground up after all. After Colin got to learn the basics and get comfortable with the arrangement, Dylan then offered to warm Colin up with a song they could play together.
“Uh… are you sure?” Colin asked, a little nervously. He didn’t want to go through all this and play one of his favourite songs only to mess it up in a humiliating way.
“Hmm, yeah, I think I got a song in mind we can play.” Luke replied, giving a smile to both Colin and Bellamy, then turned to Dylan. “Are you familiar with the song ”Rivers in the Desert” from Persona 5?”
Colin’s pale face turned white from this. “Luke… really… that one?” he asked, sounding nervous.
“Well, we got the evening to learn it, with a competent teacher, and you love that song, so, how ‘bout we learn to play it?” Bellamy chimed in. Colin knew he was trapped here, yeah, he loved that song, and would love to learn how to play it properly. All he could do if he was being honest with himself was to consent.
“Okay, well then, let’s do it.” Colin said, a little eager to see how it would go. Of course, he wasn’t kidding himself that it would be an easy task, he’d have to learn the keys, the timing, everything about it, but, the motivation behind it was there, and he hoped that would be enough to make a fine song tonight.
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Post by Dylan Loon and Shoutmon on Oct 6, 2021 1:23:29 GMT
"'Rivers In The Desert?' Hey, Siri, play 'Rivers In The Desert' from Persona 5." As it came on, it didn't take the boy very long to form opinion. "OK, first off, sweet tone... yeah. Yeah, OK, this is totally realistic. You'll at least be playing the verse and chorus before you leave this room," Dylan asserted confidently. "So, for guitar, this chord shape is really simple. It's a power chord, rock guitar's bread and butter. It looks like..." While letting the song play out loud on repeat (to help himself learn it), Dylan quickly picked up exactly the notes those needed to be. The rest of this section of the lesson was spent teaching Colin not only the parts to play and how, but some actual broadly applicable lessons as well - the notes, the shortcuts to remember what they were, some technical corrections.
Dylan had been a bit concerned he wouldn't have the patience for this. He was wrong. He thought he exercised great patience, something he found easy because he was actually having a good time here. It helped the song at hand certainly had a catchy rock beat to it. With it on in the background and the topic being a subject Dylan appreciated, along with Luke and Bellamy's presence, it felt to him a lot less like some stuffy formal guitar lesson and more like a couple friends just hanging around.
"Hey, you're the drummer, right?" the boy asked Luke at some point, "Can you play that chorus beat for this part?" At the point when Dylan had Luke and Colin practicing that chorus part together, his own playing and singing were partly a tool to help keep the tempo and partly, well, an excuse to show off. "A river in a dry land/The last ace in a lost hand!" He felt pretty comfortable reaching for those notes, having picked up some of the words from looping the song so much.
Everything seemed like it was going swimmingly until a completely different singing voice made Dylan freeze, shut up, and eye the door warily. "When the hope of new beginnings burned our feet/Now we need it/A heartbeat for a tin man!" Though muffled some through the walls and having to compete with the music in that room, this male singing voice was equally confident as Dylan had been five seconds ago, if a bit raspier. Apparently, Dylan wasn't the only one who'd picked up the lyrics quickly.
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Oct 9, 2021 11:24:48 GMT
Seeing the reactions from Luke, Bellamy and Dylan about it, Colin felt his confidence grow in that moment. He let Dylan guide his fingers to play the right notes at the right time, and as the minutes passed by, he played an increasing amount of notes correctly, and that stacked over time so he felt satisfied enough to play the tune needed.
After a while, Dylan asked Luke to lay down the drum beat. Luke accepted the request with a nod and played his part. Of course there was a first few minutes of getting used to it, but once Luke felt the rhythm, that was all there was to it. Bellamy took place at the keyboard, aiming to play the right notes along with them.
Then once Shoutmon joined in with the lyrics, Luke was wary at first once he heard it, even though he was holosuited up, it didn’t redact the hearing ability of his long ears. He stopped playing the drums for a moment so he could make certain he was hearing for sure, and when he felt confident enough to determine that what he was hearing was true, he turned to Dylan. “Is there another musician in the house?” he asked. “He sounds pretty good, how about we practice with him too?”
“Huh? What?” Bellamy asked, somewhat oblivious. But Colin was more in sync with Luke right now.
“Yeah, sounds like a good idea, Luke. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.” Colin said to Dylan. He hoped to bring off an impression that he wouldn’t really be bothered either way. After all, he was here on Dylan’s invitation and they were his guests, whatever happened at his house was not for them to judge. At least that was what Colin was taught about going home with friends.
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