damned_institute | Day 53: Music Room

Well, if it wasn't his favorite time of the week. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. Of course in this case, distance makes Klavier feel like an abused, neglected animal who was only now being allowed a taste of actual food. These people were such savages. It was still absolutely absurd that they were allowed access to this room so rarely. But the tactic was also brilliant on their part, sad to say. Klavier was always at his quietest and most obedient on Music Room days. The perfect model patient. He would give them no excuse to deprive him of this precious time.

Today was going to be a little different, however. Not only was he given access to music today, but a bout of entertainment as well. Apparently that band that had been setting up tryouts for the last week was ready to get the show on the road and start their auditions. Normally, this was the sort of project he wouldn't hesitate to take part in. But aside from the injury to his left hand and shoulder, there were three critical factors keeping him from doing so:

1. The band was named "Sex Bob-Omb." Klavier may have missed the band scene, but he had no intention of attaching his name to some Tom Jones cover band.
2. There weren't many actual instruments in the Music Room; certainly not enough variety to form the type of band they want. The one who made the poster said something about improvising instruments through whatever means necessary. A noble goal, but again, Klavier was not so desperate yet as to reduce himself to playing with a box of tissues strung up with rubber bands. That was too pathetic an image to ever place himself into.
3. The person who had posted placed up a sample music sheet of one of their songs. Klavier had no idea how many people here could actually read music enough to know what it was they were looking at there, but he had been able to decipher it perfectly. Their music... it was kind of god-awful.

In short, this was basically a disaster waiting to happen. The hints were enough to tell him this was likely going to be something akin to nails on a chalkboard... amplified by five. So honestly, he should be as far away from this room as humanly possible.

But he was not going to let these people ruin his rare access time to the Music Room. No, instead he took one of their old CD players and a carefully selected CD of choice (for the sake of his sanity) and took a seat at one of the tables, turning the chair so as to get an optimal view of the show. Why not? No harm in indulging in a little "entertainment," yes?

[free to anyone who wants to watch this train wreck with him :D ]

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Niikura smirked as she brushed his hand aside, completely unsurprised that she hadn't taken his gesture kindly. "C'mon, ya don't know until ya try. Now's the time, anyway. No one's gonna laugh since we're all crazy here."

Yes, he was teasing her, but he did really think it would be a good thing if she just tried. Being so grumpy was probably bad for her complexion or something like that. Didn't it take less muscles to smile?

"And unfortunately, I'm not that crazy. Well--" Niikura took another look at the band. "--more like I'm not that stupid." He gave Mele a hurt look. "Us artists, we gotta have some kinda standards."

"Not interested." And anyway, what did it have to do with being crazy? Did music drive people crazy? All the more reason not to do it! Knowing Landel, he probably had some scheme to take it away, anyway. She was surprised she still had her knife. But then, a knife didn't mean much. If music was the same or similar, maybe she could try it. Learning something new, as potentially frustrating, was a pretty good distraction, when it worked. But what kind of distraction? There was a difference between doing something and doing something that was a waste of time.

Days were a waste of time, anyway, though. Wouldn't hurt to watch, would it? "You say that," she responded, "but you just called it stupid." She folded her arms, wondering what Niikura had detected. "Are they bad? You can tell from here?"

"Fine, fine..." He wasn't going to push her, at least not when she could get violent. Didn't want the nurses getting unnecessarily involved so early into their musical fun - and then, there was always the risk of getting sedated himself, and even though he'd had plenty of experience with needles and funny drugs doing funnier things to his brain, Niikura wasn't in the mood to spend the rest of the day in a haze.

Granted, that was the extreme case. For the most part, he just didn't want to make her mad enough that she'd run off. (He seemed to have that dilemma often here.)

"Stupid 'cause you'd have to be to play in a band named 'Sex Bob-Omb." Niikura smiled grimly. "I mean, I'm a real geek 'bout some stuff, but namin' a band after one of yer hobbies is just askin' for somethin'.

"But then, maybe I'm just biased. Shouldn't be judgin' a book by its cover, stuff like that." Yeah, maybe the music played better than it looked...

"That is pretty tacky," Mele conceded. "Maybe it's misleading?" What would be the point of creating a misleading band name, though? Eh, not like it mattered.

"Though you must have very discerning taste, having been around for so long and all that," Mele continued. "Mastering several instruments and everything. So," she looked up at him, "what do you play?"

Not that she wasn't curious about the thing they'd been discussing last time, but she could get back to it later. If he started talking about it, she might make weird connections again (they were nothing alike!), and that would just be annoying. Not like it helped anything, either.

"I hope so. For both our sakes." Bands these days liked making funny names up for themselves, and some of them were alright; after all, one of the most popular noise rock bands in Japan was called Melt-Banana.

And well, it was really Jinguuji's form that had existed since the 40's (As he'd told Katsuragi, he definitely had none of that degenerate's memories!), but why spoil what he'd started? Either way, he still had too many lifetimes for his own good crammed into him.

"Mmm...guitar, bass, drums...a little bit a' singin' on the side..." Niikura ticked the instruments off on his fingers as he named them. "Typical stuff fer yer average garage band. I'm a metal fan."

"Yeah. Nurse is probably waiting outside to jump me if I try to leave," Mele grumbled, glancing suspiciously at the door. Speaking of, "Aren't you going to sit somewhere? Not tired today?" He'd been trying to sleep until a cat jumped into his lap the last time, if Mele remembered correctly.

"And what's that? Garage bands, metal?" That was a pretty strange way to refer to music. Maybe she'd have to re-evaluate that crazy thing, after all. Not that she was thinking of doing it to begin with, but if craziness by proximity was catching....

Him? Tired? Perhaps that one time she'd caught him, but who ever had a problem with cat-naps? (Alright. That one time. But only because it had been crushing his rib cage, the fat ca--alright, he was done with the puns.) Besides, the Sun Room was so comfortable; it kind of begged to be slept in. It just wasn't the same in here.

"Eh? Oh! Should've told me ya wanted to sit down," Niikura said with a smile, taking a hasty seat on one of the couches and patting the spot next to him. "Sorry, guess I'm just in a standin' mood today, too much energy, stuff like that. Tell me sooner next time!"

He crossed his legs and waited for her to sit down. "An' what century are you from, if ya don't know what garage bands and metal are? Or have ya just been livin' under a rock for the past couple a' years?" Come on. Even the guys who spent their lives with their noses in a book knew what a garage band was, at least!

"I didn't—" It wasn't like she'd been standing on ceremony or anything— Oh, whatever. "Fine." She sat. "You get in 'standing moods' often? Where did that energy come from that you have too much of it?"

Possibly he'd just eaten a lot or something—Taura had pretty much confirmed that the nurses didn't put a cap on the food the patients were taking (and she couldn't imagine taking any more than Taura had), but eating was normal. Wasn't it more likely to give someone a stomachache? Something else, then. Or maybe he was giddy for the band. Ha!

"Is it that common knowledge?" Mele grumbled. Clearly not, since she hadn't heard of it, but what could be so important everyone knew about it? Not that many people even knew about Rin Juken way back when! Although Mele had to admit that Rin Juken was a slightly different case. "I'm from a different period." What was the exact figure? A couple of hundred years from 2007? "Anyway, it doesn't matter. Just tell me."

"I don't know, it's just the way I am." Niikura had eaten a lot at lunch, but he ate about the same amount with every meal, barring dinner. "Ya caught me at an energy low the other day." It seemed normal to him: if you had a lot of energy, eventually it would run out. Perpetual motion had yet to be perfected.

"...uh, yeah. Although, if yer from a different period, I understand." How come she just didn't flat out say that to begin with? Girls and their pride..."A garage band's like an amateur band. Way back when, they were like bands that met in people's garages to practice. And metal's a type of music that's really heavy on the distortion." Wait. She might not know what that meant. "Like, uh...loud and powerful and - well, some people say it makes their ears bleed, which it doesn't, and I don't exactly like that way of explainin' it, but I can't think of another way. Oh--and the lyrics are usually pretty edgy."

Day 53: Music Room

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