4936/School of Rock

School of Rock
Date of Scene:	16 July 2018
Location:	Xavier's School - Music Room
Synopsis:	A collection of Xavier students learn to play like a rock band from two real live music stars.
Cast of Characters:	Mason Steele, Twitch, Souvenir, Rage, Erddrache

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Mason Steele has posed:
    Class may be in session, but it's summer! One can't really expect Mason to have signed up for much. Since the Music Room wasn't in use, he does what he usually is doing. The sound coming from the room doesn't sound like a Mason Steele song. It's dark, it's hard, it's very much a rock song, distorted guitar.
    Inside, Mason holds an electric guitar, and indeed is the culprit. He stops suddenly, writing something down on a page of a musical notebook, and goes to the keyboard to adjust the automatic accompaniment, then takes the guitar in his hands again, and continues. He is definitely in his own world right now, writing a new song it would appear.

Twitch has posed:
There's plenty of time between summer classes to allow Tyler time to study. Or to wander around looking for something to do. Today he's on his way back from one of his classes, headed for the backyard, when he hears the sound of his favorite kind of music coming from the music room.

With a look of wonder and surprise on his face, Tyler sticks his head in the room and sees Mason rocking out. His eyes widen and the corners of his mouth curl up into a smile as he looks on. Taking a glance around Tyler makes sure that nobody else is coming in this direction and slips into the music room, moving quietly, just standing by and admiring what his buddy's playing.

Mason Steele has posed:
    Either Mason hasn't settled on lyrics, or they aren't the focus at the moment. He strums hard on the chords, and it looks like he has the whole song worked out, abusing the poor guitar as he forces the song from the strongs. He moves with energy, and slams down with his head lowered, then abruptly stops again. When he looks up, he jumps slightly. "Oh crap!" he laughs, "Didn't see you there bruh, whatchya doin'?" He leans over the notebook again, scribbling some more notes onto the page before he forgets, then he drops the pencil again.

Twitch has posed:
"Hey man," Tyler chuckles, leaning against the wall. "I was just killing time when I heard you playing. Figured you wouldn't mind if I stopped to watch for a minute." His chin lifts at the guitar, "I didn't know you played rock. That's pretty wicked. I love that kind of stuff." A big grin appears on his face, "So how have you been? I haven't seen you since you officially signed up here."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Eh, they don't pay me for it," he laughs. "I play whatever I feel like, got a whole album if I can get the manager to get my label to put out there. Politics and all. Thought I'd work on a single to see what people think. If I can get enough traction on it then maybe I can release the rest." He shrugs. "Not really the same target audience though, be like starting from scratch." He's holding the guitar left-handed, Jimmi Hendrix style, and the white and black instrument dangles carelessly. "Been just kinda doin' this mostly the last few days. Signed up for a class on powers. Guess that's the whole point of bein' here, but haven't been to it yet."

Twitch has posed:
"That's too bad. That song is dope," Tyler nods, still smiling. "Hopefully you can get your rock out there, though." He looks the instrument over for a second, admiring the look of it. "You should definitely go to class. It'll be good to start learning as soon as you can so you can see what kind of practical stuff you can do with your powers. I'm taking a math course this summer so I don't need to take one my senior year and it's kicking my ass. The teacher's a good guy, though, and I study for it as much as I can so I'm pulling down an 'A' still."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Ugh," Mason says, "Yeah, I'm not help there," he says. "See, Andrea and I? We both got one B last year, difference is I was proud of mine." He laughs, "Actually, that's a lie, I don't think either of us got a B. She'd be probably better for that stuff." He pulls the guitar strap over his neck, and puts the guitar on the stand. "I know I gotta go to that class, just...it's weird to think about using my powers in front of people, y'know?" He considers, "I guess maybe not. Yours are kinda sneaky."

Twitch has posed:
"It's cool. I'm usually happy with a B, but my advisor's up my ass about getting a 4.0 while I'm here," Tyler explains, chuckling lightly at Mason's joke.

When the topic grows a little bit more serious Tyler pulls himself away from the wall and approaches his friend, "I don't know exactly where you're coming from, but think of it less about using your powers and more about showing them off. I love to show off what I can do in a safe environment like Xavier's. I don't need to worry about holding myself back so I look like a regular dude, or come up with excuses as to why I'm so nimble. I can just start doing backflips and making full court shots during a game." He grins, "Soon you'll find yourself doing stuff with rocks like it's nothing."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason smirks, "I dunno about that," he says. "I just want to make sure I don't hurt anybody again," he comments. "Anyway...you wanna give it a go?" he asks, giving a side nod to the guitar. "I bet with your dexterity you'd shred it like nobody else."

Twitch has posed:
"I bet you'll find that you like your powers someday. I always thought the showier powers were cooler than mine. Though I have been thinking about trying to hustle people playing street ball," says Tyler with a shrug.

Then he looks at the guitar and cracks a smile, glancing back to Mason, "You sure it's cool? I don't know the first thing about music." Tyler slowly approaches the instrument, his smile increasing in size.

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Not mine, if you screw it up you just gotta tell the teachers," Mason teases. He goes back to the instrument room, and grabs a second guitar case. He pulls out the second instrument, and strums it, then adjusts the machine heads to put it in tune. "Okay, so we're gonna teach you right-handed, right? It's way easier to learn." He demonstrates, "Just hold it like this, right? Stick your finger here, and push on that string like you mean it." He demonstrates simple G.

Twitch has posed:
"Okay!" Tyler says. He watches what Mason does, then picks up the guitar and puts the strap around himself so he won't drop it. Holding the instrument just like his buddy he puts his fingers where he's shown, looking at them to make sure the position is correct, and strums the way Mason did, maybe a little softer, trying his best to emulate what he's seeing. "Alright! That almost sounded the same."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Good deal," Mason says, "But you are like a fighter, right? Guitars are like girls, you gotta get'm to sing by doing what they like," he says. "But they like it rough, when you strum, you gotta do it like you mean it. Don't be too soft or it won't make much sound." He strums particularly hard, "See, won't hurt it."

Twitch has posed:
Chuckling softly at Mason's analogy, Tyler nods his head a few times, "Alright. I won't take it easy on the instrument." His fingers haven't left their position but he looks at their placement again nonetheless. This time when he strums he's anything but gentle. He's not trying to hurt the strings, but he pushes down with more force than he did previously.

Mason Steele has posed:
    "That's it," Mason encourages. "So that's Simple G. To start, just strum all the strings, helps you learn the chords. All the magic is up here on the neck." He adjusts to a new position, his fingers a little more complex in their positioning this time. "Okay, right here. Try this." He strums again, a new chord sounding from the muted strings.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir pokes her head in listening and looks around. She opens her mouth then closes it with a small blush at that last comment, then just shakes her head and slips into the room without fanfare, trying not to slam anything.

She has her usual outfit on - open button up shirt, band T-shirt (Today's band is In This Moment), black tight jeans, converse shoes, tan leather gloves. Dark hair, low bangs. She listens a bit. "Can you play wearing gloves?"

Twitch has posed:
"Simple G," says Tyler with a little nod. He watches Mason closely, seeing how he positions his fingers and moving his own so that they match, looking back and forth a few times before it looks right to him. "Okay." The young man takes a deep breath before he tries strumming himself, going as hard as he just did a moment ago.

When Erika comes in and speaks up Tyler's head twitches so that he's looking at her. Apparently he was so caught up in what he was doing he allowed himself to be surprised. He shakes his head a bit, then says, "Hey."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason smiles as he sees Erika. "Hey there," he says, his usual grin crossing is face. "Yeah, you can play if you got guitar gloves. Some people have medical conditions and have to. Best just to get your callouses built up, though. You get used to it." He holds out the guitar, "You wanna try, too?" he asks. "I can grab one from my room real quick and we can really jam out. Be a real hard core rock band."

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir uhs, taking the guitar and looking it over uncertainly. "Sure, but what are the gloves like? If I take these off, all I am getting is achy hands."

She frowns some. "I've never actually, you know. Played a guitar. And my hands were kind of beat up the one time I did."

Twitch has posed:
Tyler relaxes, watching Mason and Erika talk. He looks at his fingers and makes sure they're positioned correctly again, giving the strings another strum. "There's a lot of finger and grip strength involved in this, it seems. I'm glad I do a lot of that stuff already. This'll toughen your fingertips a lot, too."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Yeah," Mason agrees. The guitar is a school guitar, nothing fancy. He pulls the strap up to drape it over Erika's shoulder. "You get really good with your fingers when you play guitar," he agrees. Innuendo? Maybe.
    "Guitar gloves? Kinda depends. Some are kinda like latex. You can use fingertip protectors, too," he says. He glances at her gloves, and reaches without permission to take her hand, presumably to check the texture on the gloves she currently wears.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir blinks and startles a bit, jerking away a little, then relinquishes her hand. "If I touch the guitar, I won't learn how to play it myself. It'll be somebody else playing."

She's wearing thin, soft, tight leather gloves. The sort of thing she wears EVERYWHERE. She opens her mouth to make a comment, then closes it and smirks. "..Uh huh. What am I supposed to do with that?"

Twitch has posed:
As Mason inspects Erika's gloves, or whatever, Tyler practices moving his finger positions between the two chords he's been shown so far, looking closely at his hand to make sure he's getting things right. Tyler looks away from what he's doing towards Erika and cracks a smile.

Mason Steele has posed:
    After a quick rub of the fingertips, Mason gives a quick arch of his brow. "I'll leave that to you," he says with a wink before returning to the conversation at hand. "You can probably make things work with those," he says, "But... You might be better off getting another pair, they are like ten bucks. The strings will probably tear up the leather on those before long. They look like nice gloves, you probably don't want to tear them up. Or," he shrugs, "you can just get a new guitar if you decide you like it." He glances back at Tyler, "Okay so move your index finger up one string, and you got another chord," he says, indicating with an invisible guitar neck in his hand.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir hmms and tries to remember how to hold the guitar. She frowns a bit, watching, and tries to copy the position, trying to strum the guitar with limited success. So frustrating. Ugh! She moves her fingers around artlessly to try to put them in a reasonable position, biting her lip.

Twitch has posed:
Tyler does as Mason instructs, rolling his forefinger up a string. Then he strums again, making the new chord sound out. "Nice!" he exclaims, pleased with himself. As Erika doesn't seem to be having his sort of luck, though, he frowns a little bit to watch what she does, "You'll get the hang of it. It's one of those things you've got to practice." Especially if you don't possess supernatural dexterity.

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Take your time," Mason says, a lopsided grin on his face. "Here," he moves her fingers to the same simple G chord. "Now press down hard, and strum," he says. He nods back at Tyler. "Maybe I should be teaching music here," he laughs. "School of Rock."

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir sighs loudly. "Yeah. You don't know how much it sucks to barely be able to get the thing to make a sound when you remember ripping out Metallica solos a few days ago, okay?" She fumes a little and makes a slightly tortured not-quite-chord.

She lets her fingers get put in place, and plays a G. She sighs a lot, making a few of those and trying to remember how to do it.

Twitch has posed:
"Hell yeah, man. I bet your class would fill up fast," Tyler says to his buddy as he watches what he does with Erika's hand, not wanting to miss anything. "That's got to make it tough, but it's still cool to be getting to learn how to do things for yourself. At least to me it seems pretty awesome, but I have trouble concentrating on stuff if it's not engaging me in a physical way. Anything where I'm actually doing stuff is better for me."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "You'd have to call me Mr. Steele," he answers. "You're getting it, when you first start playin', there's lots of wrong notes," he says. Of course, he only scarcely remembers such things, he's been playing for a long time. "See, there, easy. Just remember that's simple G, easiest chord. Now," he reaches out and moves her fingers to the next. "Try this," he says. It's not the same chord that Tyler got. "And Tyler you strum on your second chord at the same time." He nods to himself as he moves over to the drumset, and starts a simple beat with the base drum, slow and steady.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir closes her eyes and strums. Her gloves catch a little on the strings, adding insult to injury, but strumming isn't all that hard to do somewhat effectively. Still frustrating to be laid so low.

She sighs. "I tried to give some wristbands to Mr. D. He said I should learn how to do everything. Basically I can't do ANYTHING." She frowns.

Twitch has posed:
"Got it!" Tyler replies as he looks at his fingers to make sure they're placed where he had them at before. Once he's feeling good about his positioning he looks between Mason and Erika, then waits for the drum beat to play in time with his friends, cracking a smile when he hears the music.

"You're learning stuff all the time already. I don't see why you shouldn't try to get yourself an advantage by using other people's skills, too," he tells the young woman. "Speaking of which, I got permission for us to train at my gym after it closes on nights when I clean up. That'll let us have access to heavy bags and weights and all the martial arts training gear you could ask for."

Rage has posed:
Heading into the music room is Andrea, who is carrying a backpack over her shoulder. She's wearing a pair of snug skinny jeans with some rips along the sides and a simple Xavier's t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. Spying the trio, she gives a quick smile and lifts a hand. "Hey guys." She calls over amicably.

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Hey Andy," Mason says, pumping the beat. "I'm turning these two into a new rock band," he says. "Wanna join us? He rolls the snare and strikes a cymbal. He gets back up, and grabs a cord and takes it to Erika. "Now we are gonna plug you in," he says, sticking the cable into the bottom of the guitar. "And Tyler, tap that pedal over there twice, gonna give you some different distortion."

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir oooohs. "Awesomeness. Laura might want somebody to practice with too. She does different stuff than you, and she's been trying to be more, you know. Social and stuff. She had to be super focused on stuff, and going all the way to slacking seems like way, way too big a shock. And.. yeah, it wasn't like I was asking for Math and English, I was looking for like, emergency skills."

She waves at Andrea with a gloved hand, then tries to remember the chord she was making. She puts her fingers back in the right position, but the wrong place, strums, and frowns a lot in frustration. "Ugh. Wait, what are we doing now?" She looks at the cord in some confusion.

Twitch has posed:
"Hey Andrea!" Tyler says to his friend as she greets them, looking up from the guitar to look her over. "How's it going?"

Mason gets a nod before Tyler does as instructed, stepping on the pedal two times. He looks up when he's done, then gives a practice strum to see what happens. "Oh, that's neat as hell." Tyler is impressed.

"I'd like to train with Laura. Don't see her around a whole lot, though," he says with a little bit of a frown. "If you run into her before I do make sure she knows that we'd like her to join us."

Rage has posed:
"Not much. Just heard noises and figured I would investigate. Leave it to Mason to start a mutant rock band his first week of school here." Andrea says with a grin on her face, then heads to the wall to pick up a guitar as well, sliding it over her neck and shoulder. Her fingers give a play along the strings as she starts to tune it to her liking. "So what song are we gonna do? Something original or something easy to get Tyler and Erika up to speed? I used to practice to Nirvana songs. They all had the same rhythm for the most part."

Erddrache has posed:
Cymbols vibrate lightly, and wind chimes sound their tunes as a light shaking rocks the room, hardly noticble save for the instruments seeming to shake of their own accord. And soon enough Boris pokes his head in. "How boot somethin originaly of vee easy?" he proposes. His whiskers twitches as he glances around "Whit be goink on in herez anyways?" he wonders

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason holds the cymbals. "Yeah, we can to Smells like Teen Spirit, that's pretty easy," he suggests. "Holy crap, what is all that?" he asks, as the instruments vibrate. He gives a bizarre look at Boris as he enters the room, and glances back and forth. "What?" he asks, uncertain of the dwarvish new presence. He glances back at the others, hoping for a little help.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir ehs. "If you wanted a rock band, I would take the gloves off. Hey you." She kind of ignores the tremors, having met the guy.

She stops and hums the baseline, counting notes on her fingers and coming up with five. "Eek, I need more notes."

Twitch has posed:
"I'm up for trying anything," Tyler says with a smile as he looks down at the guitar in his hands again for a moment. "I can play three cords. I feel confident that I can do something with that." Then the bearded guy enters and Tyler grins at his seismic buddy, "Hey Boris! Mason was showing us how to play a little bit." He lets the guitar hang on it's strap for a second and shakes out his hands and fingers.

Rage has posed:
"Hi Boris!" Andrea calls over to her fellow teammate with a smile on her face. "How's it hanging?" Once she gets the final tweak, she begins to play the ryhythm of Teen Spirit easily as she bobs back and forth with the instrument against her hip. "Man, I love this freaking song. The 90's were so cool. I'm glad my mom introduced me to this when I was a kid." She stomps her foot along with the beat. "Okay, who is on the drums? Boris?"

Erddrache has posed:
Boris turns a bit reddish in embrassment, the ground shakes a bit more "sorry, thar be meh." he glances about and hope nothing here will easily break. The ground shaking softens. "Ah be Boris Breithbarth, nice ta meet yer strangar" he says to mason
    He offers Erika, Tyler and Andrea a wave as well. "Ah be fine Andrea, just signing up fer summer classes ta git back und track. And learnin how ta play must be nioce" he muses. He makes no mention of not knowing who 'teen spirit' was.
    "Ah be moar fer singing, bit ah kin do some drummink" he says as he walks over to the drums, mindful that his tail doesn't knock anything over.

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason steps off the drummer stool. "Cool," he says, uncertain what else to say regarding the small bearded youth. "Take it away bruh," he says, moving over to the keys. "Okay, Andy you help Tyler and Erika with their fingerings, I'll hit the Keys, Boris, right? I'm Mason, you just give us a steady beat," he starts slapping the side of the keyboard to indicate the correct tempo.

Twitch has posed:
"I listen to classic rock sometimes. Nirvana's pretty alright," Tyler confirms to Andrea, smiling slightly when he looks at her. He takes the guitar back in his hands and takes a second to put his fingers on simple G, giving the instrument a strum. "You sign up for anything fun, Boris? I've got stuff like math I'm doing this summer so I won't have to take it during the main school year." He looks over at Mason, then at Andrea to see what she might be able to tell him to do.

Rage has posed:
"Okay, so we're gonna do Come As You Are instead of Teen Spirit. At least for the first song. Just because the rhythm and the bass are very easy. It's the first song that I learned." Andrea heads over to Tyler and Erika, showing her the finger placement of the guitar, then begins to strum. "See the fingers of my left hand. Up. Down. Up. Down. Just those two chords. Two fingers, three fingers, two fingers, three fingers. In and out, in and out." As she plays, she bobs her head along with the timing. "Come on, you two match me." She says as she takes it slow. "Boris, on the drums. Ba ba ba bum bum, ba ba ba bum bum. The two small drums in front of you and the foot pedal."

Erddrache has posed:
Save for the cymbols keeping on that gentle vibration, Boris manages to pick up the beat fairly fast....but he was -quiet-. Even as he used the pedel, he seemed to put such little force and gently tapped the sticks to two small drums, the sounds were less Ba ba ba bum bum and more a very quiet ta ta ta tap tap.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir stays on beat, and doesn't horribly torture the notes. Her gloves catch on the strings here and there, though, and her volume is all over the place, not consistent at all. Concentrate concentrate.

Twitch has posed:
As Andrea gives instructions Tyler nods at her, watching closely to see how she does everything. His fingers quickly move up to the neck of the guitar to match where hers are. When she starts to play Tyler join in at speed, his own instrument making more noise than it's supposed to, probably, but he's damn close to on tune.

Mason Steele has posed:
    And so, the motley conglomeration of two professionals and three untrained musicians commences. It probably won't be remembered as a particularly good performance, but it's fun. So it was just what it should be.