Rock Band Party, Tuesday Evening, First Floor Rec Room

[glacial_queen]

Karla and Warren had celebrated their return to their proper forms in the way that many teenagers would find appropriate: they'd headed back to the modern mainland, found a toy store, and bought a gaming system (or three). Along with the games they bought to go along with said system, they also picked up a few guitars, a keyboard, a drum set, and two microphones.

Once back in the rec room, the rest of the afternoon had been spent setting up the systems and buying every single song available for the game. Waiting for them to finish downloading actually took longer than the initial setting up, even taking in Karla's attempts to 'help'.

But now the system was set up, the songs were ready, and the instruments prepared.

Fandom High? Get ready to rock.

[Open for anyone who wants to play. not_a_parakeet modded to an ungodly degree with permission! Just a warning about SP and Karla's threads--I will be AFK all day, but if you're willing to wait until Thursday that's fine by me.]

Comments

[wwiii]

"Attentive as compared to what, exactly?"

So, yes. Yes he was.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"...I dunno. Stuff."

And she was a conversationalist, too.

"Like, can you pay attention to stuff?"

[wwiii]

"... Occasionally?"

Fairly constantly, actually. But he was kind of boggling at the little dips and wriggles that this conversation was making at the moment.

"I get decent marks in class, at least."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Conversations with Miley were never linear. It was a thing.

"Okay, see? So if you can pay attention in class, you can totally pay attention to a beat!" There. That was the connection. Sometimes it was hard to spot. "Try it! It's easy!"

[wwiii]

"You have way too much faith in me."

That said, there was a certain sort of rhythm to flying, so maybe there would be some sort of carryover?

"Any requests?"

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

It was nothing personal. She was just an eternal optimist!

"You good with country-pop?"

Be grateful she was even asking, Warren.

[wwiii]

"I'm not sure I even know country-pop," Warren pointed out. "I don't really have much experience with music in the first place."

At all. Seriously.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Then why did Karla want him to sing? GOD. What a disaster waiting to happen that was.

And this wasn't like bad cupcakes, where a little Pepto could solve the problem. No, no. A bad song could stick with you for life.

"Oh, here, I can play you some!" she offered. "Get the drums ready, okay?"

[wwiii]

A little Pepto? No, no, Warren had been drinking it like soda pop while he worked through the cupcakes that night, after Karla had gone to sleep.

There had been orders for delivery on the stuff.

"Right. Drums." Well, whatever was going to happen, at least all Warren had to worry about was hitting things with sticks.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Beaming, Miley put on one of her favorites (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szxdGgFQ_ds). With the mic in one hand and her other hand tapping out the beat on her hip, she launched into the song.

Perfectly, of course, though that was wasted on Warren.

"Life is just a party so come as you are! Dress it up or dress it down, don't forget your guitar..."

[wwiii]

It was certainly perky. Warren managed to relax and find the rhythm with the drums after a few missed beats. It wasn't so bad if he just thought of it like... flapping, maybe.

... Okay, maybe not flapping. But he was actually kind of enjoying this, even if he was sticking out his tongue slightly in concentration. Drum beat, drum beat, like that. Easy. Ish.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Perky was totally a step up from spunky, that was for sure. Warren had awesome taste.

"See? You're getting it!" Miley cheered him on in between verses. "Told you it wasn't that hard!"

Actually, she had said that stupid people could do it, and then that it took concentration. But sure.

[wwiii]

Close enough!

"It's really not too bad at all," Warren allowed, mostly because all he had to do was tap sticks to a toy drum. "I mean, at least I'm not singing."

The world should always be so lucky.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Miley's eyes glinted. Well, Karla had said that she wanted Warren to try singing...

"Singing's kind of fun, though!" she tried to encourage him. Subtly. As she did. "I know a duet that's, like, way easy if you wanna give it a shot."

[wwiii]

"... How easy?"

Really, really easy? Like maybe all Warren had to do was hum a few bars? He could handle that!

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Really easy! I promise." Miley flashed one of her biggest smiles at him, then batted her eyelashes for good measure. "Pretty please?"

Poor Warren (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXleINOD2S4).

[wwiii]

... OH GOD WHY.

For what it was worth, at least Warren still got points if he was tripping over the lyrics, more or less to the beat.

But this one, at least, was a little more in his voice range than, say, Elvis or something.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

HEY. MILEY WAS JUST DOING A FRIEND A FAVOR. YOU'RE WELCOME, KARLA.

"You have a really nice voice!" she told him. Which was... kind of true? She tended to pay more attention to herself than anyone else when she was singing, anyway.

Warren was just lucky it wasn't the duet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x37q4r-tQiY) she was in the process of scheduling a time to record.

[wwiii]

... Warren would have cried if it was that one. There was no way in the world he could get his voice as high and girly as Justin's.

"Thank you," Warren replied, fidgeting a bit. His voice wasn't bad, but it was certainly untrained, and that showed. The fact that he was so self-conscious about it didn't help matters any. "I mean, I don't use it for this kind of thing much."

He didn't generally use it much for talking, either.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Well, I mean, I've had years of lessons," Miley said, shrugging. Which was only half-true -- all the lessons had come after she'd first hit it big, so. "For someone without any practice, you're pretty good. I mean, come on. have you seen America's Top Talent? There are people on there who sound like birds."

Then her eyes went wide. "No offense!"

Oh, god, Miley.

[wwiii]

"Hey, none taken. It's not like I'm a bird," Warren replied, making a point to sound extra dismissive.

It was way more awkward when people caught things like that and then flailed about them than it was just pressing on through the conversation. It wasn't like he was a dove or something. Sometimes he felt as though maybe he should make some kind of monkey comment and then start profusely apologizing right on back.

But this was Warren.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Uh.

Miley flicked her eyes to the wings, then back to his face. Her instinct was to ask if he was absolutely sure about that, but then decided against it. Wings aside, he was pretty person-shaped.

Plus, no sense offending someone at a Rock Band party, right? That would just be silly.

"Yeah, totally," she laughed. "I mean, hello, a bird could not hit those high notes, am I right?" She stuck her hands out, gesturing like a talk show host expecting a response from the audience.

[wwiii]

Crickets. Oh yes.

"... I'm pretty sure they probably could," Warren offered, after a moment. "Most songbirds pretty much have me beat when it comes to vocal range."

That was said with a somewhat teasing edge to it, at least!

[Bedtime for me! SP?]

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Oh. Right. Was that why she was called America's songbird?

Miley waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, but I'm talking pigeons or something here," she decided. Belatedly. Because Warren was right, damnit.

[[Toootally!]]

[wwiii]

"Hey, don't sound pigeons short," Warren replied, teasingly. "They're related to doves, you know."

And both sounded very much like pigeons.