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 Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2016 8:44 pm
The notes of the piano drifted up the stairs from the home-made studio in the basement, tripping in liquid runs and ringing chords. Below, the rainbow DJ sat in a rolling chair with one slim leg tucked up under her and her old keyboard set up on the table. Her thin fingers flitted across the key and broke rhythm every so often to pause and make a notation on a piece of paper set next to it. Sometimes the eraser was applied in a furious scribble before the pencil was stuck behind an ear and Sidney James frowned down at her work, trying to piece out a melody that fit the lyrics she had written. Months ago, a bet between her and her room mate had ended with an agreement that Sidney would write Rob a song he could play. It had taken time for her to get around to it, partly because of stubborn procrastination, but she'd never really forgotten her promise. Working off and on had produced a sizable chunk of music and it was starting to take shape, but there were still parts of it that didn't suit the mood she was looking for. It required playing it over and over again, wondering if she were too saturated in the melody to decide how good or bad it was, but Sid persisted, too stubborn once she'd started to give up today. Setting up techno songs on her computer was a far cry different than writing out something that someone could play on a guitar and sing the words to. It took a lot more focus than she was used to, and a lot more trial and error. It was going to be a while before she felt ready to show it to Rob... but at least he couldn't poke her about not working on it any more. Once it was done, she looked forward to listening to him sing it in that voice of his, toughed with a gravel that came from all the screaming he did in his other music. He hadn't set any limits on what the song had to be and Sid was taking full advantage of it to write something that was, perhaps, not Rob's usual fare.
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 12:27 pm
This was going to drive him nuts. Rob paced around the kitchen, periodically looking over at the closed door leading down to the basement with a glowering expression. He knew Sid was down there working on something -- the piano notes that drifted up into the house were evidence of that. But it sounded vastly different than the stuff she usually worked on. It didn't sound bad, it was quite good in fact. Just… different. And he was dying of curiosity to know what it was. He had completely forgotten about the wager they'd made months ago, that if he won the bet she would write him a song that he could play. After a certain amount of stubborn poking at the wall of procrastination the rainbow-haired DJ could exhibit if she was of a mind to, he had put the promised song on a back burner in his mind, and after awhile it had gotten shoved under other things. The music stopped for a few minutes, then started up again. She was clearly working on a song. He knew that process very well, though he used his guitar to compose rather than a keyboard. He could picture his friend in his mind, hands moving along the keys of the piano with a skill he didn't possess, pausing to make a notation, then starting to play again. Rob himself couldn't write musical notation, though he could sort of read it; his mother the music professor had tried to teach him but he didn't have the patience to learn it. Sid could write notation, though, learning at the same time she learned piano. Despite the fact that he could play anything you put in his hands, he had to admit she was the more well-rounded musician. As Sid's music continued to drift up into the kitchen, Rob absently opened the fridge and stared inside at the collection of beer and leftover takeaway containers. He didn't really want anything, and once he admitted that to himself he closed the appliance door with a slam. "Oi! Sid!" He finally gave in and bellowed at the door during a pause in the music. "You want sommat to drink? Like a cider?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 6:15 pm
A voice from upstairs broke through the haze of concentration, pulling Sid out of the headspace she was in. Rocking back in her chair, she felt the ache in her joints that said she'd been at this for a while now and she sighed. A long stretch, arms up over her head, pulled soft pops from her spine. A few moments later, she was stumping up the stairs in her over-large t-shirt and leggings, big goofy slippers on her feet to ward away the chill of the basement. Sid grinned as she caught sight of her room mate in the door way, pulling herself up the last few steps by a hand on the railing. "Hey! Yeah, I could use something." She said as she poked him in the soft muscle of his side on her way past. "You know how it is, like... I get so caught up in s**t I forget everything." The DJ ghosted through the kitchen in her slippers, yanking the door to the fridge open to rummage inside. She emerged with the pizza box and one of the ciders, pushing it shut with a boney hip before the box went down on the counter. She leaned into it as she popped the top on her bottle, rummaging around in the box with one hand as she drank with the other. "You working on the house today?" She said as she bit into the cold pizza, turning her attention back to her friend now that she had her hands occupied.
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Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 10:41 am
"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah." Rob's mind was still on the song that Sid had been working on, so it had taken him a moment to parse her question. To hide his confusion, he opened the fridge and grabbed a cider for himself, then poked at the pizza box, suddenly hungry. "Finishing up the drywall in the office. I should be ready to paint tomorrow, after I sand the joint compound. It won't be long now 'til I have me a proper office." Taking a swig from the cider, he nodded and gestured at her with the bottle. "You can use it too, you know. I can set up an area for you to track your gigs and organize your pay sheets and crap like that, if you think you'd use it." The dreadlocked punk musician had no idea what sort of personal bookkeeping his DJ friend did, if any, but he thought he'd make the offer. He extracted a slice of pizza from the box and bit into it. "What about you? I, uh, heard you working on something," he mentioned casually around the mouthful of pizza, not wanting to come off as nosy. He ran the melody he'd heard her playing through his head again; the more he thought about it, the more he liked it. "It doesn't sound like your usual stuff."
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 10:47 pm
Sid smiled and shoved the box towards her room mate when he poked at it, content to leave it to him after her one small piece. "An office, huh?" She chuckled, her eyes crinkling a little at the corners as she grinned devilishly. "I've never done paperwork in an office before... but I guess first time for everything. Let me know when you put the desk in." Sid teased him with a wink before she popped the last bite into her mouth and chewed it contentedly, her meager hunger satisfied. She was happy to leave the rest of the food to the young man with a young man's bottomless stomach and instead, lean against the counter with her elbows on it as she sipped her cider. His gentle prying made her grin and she reached up to curl her hair around her finger. "It's not my usual stuff, but its not for me." Shifting over, she put her back to the counter and gave Rob another poke in his side. "There was a certain bet we had, if you remember, where I was to write you a song. I've been a bit busy, but I've finally gotten to it and I've got a good working melody going." "In fact, you should come down and let me play it for you, so I can get an idea what you think of it, since you'll be the one singing it."
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Posted: Sun May 01, 2016 11:58 am
Nodding, Rob shoved more pizza into his mouth. He'd have to find just the right desk for Sid -- a challenge considering he wasn't sure of her taste in furniture. All the stuff in her room had been put there by him, and it was all second-hand vintage, scavenged from big-trash days, Freecycle or other curb finds. Would she like something like that? Or would she prefer something more modern, newer? Plus a chair. Despite his fondness for free s**t, he did take some care in decorating the house he'd put so much work into. He took a drink of his cider to wash down the pizza (finished in two bites -- he was hungrier than he thought). Rummaging through the box, he retrieved another slice. Sid poked him in the side just then, before he could take a bite, and he twisted his body away in surprise. She somehow instinctively knew where he was ticklish. "Wait, what bet?" With a scowl he thought hard, then from the back of his mind he recalled the foot race they'd engaged in a number of months ago, and the bet they'd made at the time. He was still glad he won; he would have ended up her slave otherwise, and he KNEW she'd have collected on that immediately. "Oh right! That." Straightening, Rob grinned at her, taking a bite out of the new slice. "About ******** time," he teased around the mouthful. He took time this time to actually chew and swallow before continuing. "No, I really like what I've heard so far. Just little bits and bobs, mind, but still." Finishing the pizza, he washed it down with cider, then wiped his hands on his shirt. "Yeah, I'd love to hear what you've got." He gestured toward the basement door. "Lead the way, madam."
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 12:51 am
Rob flinched at the poke and Sidney grinned devilishly, pleased at being able to pull a response from him. Poor Rob, so very sensitive... but there were other times when sensitive was good. She remembered a few times when she'd taken advantage of that sensitivity... He seemed confused, his face scrunching up as he tried to remember. It was kind of cute, really, that he had to try so hard. Then he grinned and she knew he'd gotten it. She wasn't entirely pleased to have to remind them both that she had lost, but at the same time, it had meant she was going to get to make him sing for her; something she had written and made, just for him. Well, for them, really. Sidney grinned back at him as she lounged against the counter, her head tilted as he stuffed more pizza into his mouth. She gave him enough time to finished before she bounced back onto her feet, reaching out to hook her fingers in his waistband and drag him along behind her. "C'mon then." She laughed as she led him through the kitchen and down the stairs to the little home-made recording studio, releasing him only when it was time to take her seat before her old and much-loved keyboard. "Grab your guitar, eh? I can show you the chords."
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Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 10:22 am
With a grin, Rob allowed himself to be dragged down to the basement by his waistband. He liked it when Sid was laughing and bouncy and doing what she loved, whether it was making music or tormenting him in some manner or other. It made him happy to see his dear friend happy. "Yes ma'am." He went to his side of the little studio and retrieved his beloved John Lennon acoustic from its wall hook. The guitar was probably the most expensive thing he owned, apart from the house itself; he had saved meticulously in order to purchase the instrument, and used it only to record and write music in his studio. He never took it out for busking -- he had another guitar for that purpose. The John Lennon was reserved for special occasions only. Sitting down on a stool, Rob placed the guitar in his lap and strummed a few chords, then fiddled with one of the keys to get it perfectly in tune. "Right," he nodded once he was satisfied with the sound, finishing with a quick little riff. "Show me what you got then, love."
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Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 12:40 pm
Rob came back with his guitar to sit beside her, the special one he kept just for the studio. It made Sidney smile and she fanned out the hand written pages for him to see. "Alright... A minor, C. B minor, D minor..." She pointed out the chords as she went, then reached to settle her hands on her keys. She started slow, going through each of the chords again before she picked up tempo and gave him a taste of how she envisioned the music. Just the guitar chords themselves had something of a sad air to them, something wistful and nostalgic. Sid liked to think of it like a rainy day, the city dark with clouds but the street lights reflecting off the wet cement. Colors running together like a watercolor painting. Her fingers picked out the melody as she let Rob play along and she began to sing for him. Sidney was not, by any means, the worst singer out there, but it wasn't often that she did so. Mostly, she didn't find her voice fit well with the kind of music she liked to make... it had a rough textured quality that might fit well in rock or soul, but she much preferred sharper, clearer voices in her own music. Ethereal, versus the earthy quality her own had.
"The lights of the city are cold and dim
Your voice it haunts the alleys and bars
I’m wandering wandering
A heart full of scars
You never told me
This city is ours
Every day comes like a train on time
But I’m lost in a fog of grief and regret
Take my hand, take my hand
Before I forget
Because you never told me
This city is ours
The amber sun rises and still I'm here
Bathing in fire of first morning light
The man at the door said
you skipped town last night
But you never told him
This city is ours
This city is ours
This city is ours
You never told him
This city is ours."
The melody trickled on for a few measures after the words ended and Sidney let the notes fade out. It was kinda weird... singing it all together, despite having written both them and the melody itself, left her feeling a little longing, her eyes gazing at nothing. She shook it off after a moment and turned to grin at her room mate, her smile bright. "So, what do you think?"
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Posted: Fri May 13, 2016 12:01 pm
As Rob strummed along with the piano and followed the song on the pages of handwritten sheet music, he paid attention to the melody that Sid was singing, engraining it into his memory. It was wistful and plaintive, but not mushy; he could work with it. He was already mentally arranging it in his mind to fit his style yet keep the original feel that Sidney had written into it. He also listened with a musician's ear to his friend's voice as she sang. She had a good voice, he decided, a surprisingly good voice. He didn't know why he thought she wouldn't be able to sing -- probably because he'd never heard her before apart from random humming. This was proper singing, and he found he rather liked it. The rough quality in her voice added a rawness to the lyrics and melody that he felt really did the song justice better than a silkier voice. Someone else might have interpreted it with a smoother, lighter voice, but it would have taken the edge off. This song deserved to be sung with an edge. Not an angry edge, though. Sid's voice was perfect for it. She had missed her calling as a singer. He wondered if he could pull it off without ruining it. The song trailed off to its end and Rob looked up from his guitar, a big grin on his face. "That is amazing," he nodded. "Beautiful. I really love it." Standing briefly, he leaned in to give her a quick hug, then sat back down on the stool again. "I like the lyrics -- they work, y'know? They're you, but they're me too. And setting it in a minor key was genius," he added, playing the basic chord progression for emphasis. "Let me give it a go." Following along with the sheet music to make sure he got everything right, he strummed the opening chords at tempo, then repeated them, adding single-note flourishes to them, taking the song and making it his own. Then with a glance up at her, he began to sing, softly at first, then with more volume as he grew more confident, the natural rasp and jagged tones in his voice eventually making their way into his singing. He let the strings of the guitar ring in the air as he finished, then he looked up at Sidney again with a smile. "So what do you think? Did I get it right? Anything you'd like to see me do with it?"
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Posted: Thu May 19, 2016 11:59 am
There was a small smile on Sid's face at Rob's reaction and she was pleased that he seemed to really get it. It would have been easy for anyone to appreciate the song just as it was, but it was a mark of how close they were, in her opinion, that he grasped the truth in the song and could relate to it. She laughed as he hugged her and reached up to pat his cheek. "I'm glad you like it. You're the one who's going to be singing it, so you better, you know?" He sat back down to begin strumming and Sid swiveled her chair to the side to watch, her elbow on the table with her head in her hand and her legs crossed. He took the song and adjusted it to fit himself, adding things she hadn't thought to add. Rob's voice had a rasp to it like hers did, and in his lower register, it took on new depth and meaning. Sid's eyes drifted half shut as she let herself sink into the song and memories welled up. It had been so long since she'd left Ice... but there were some things in your life that didn't just mark you, they shaped your whole self. They were things you could never forget and never really move away from, because they made up you and you'd have to become someone else entirely to be rid of it... She drew a shakey breath when he finished, pulling up a smile for him when he looked to her for approval. "No Rob, its perfect... It was definitely made for you." Rocking up out of her chair, the small woman left her spot by the keyboard and came around behind her friend instead. Her hands smoothed across his shoulders and then down the front of his chest with her fingers spread, her chin coming down to rest in the crook of his neck. "Play it again... Please?" Sid murmured as she closed her eyes, lightly hanging on his shoulders.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 1:02 pm
Rob gave a soft sigh as Sid slipped behind him and slid her arms over his shoulders and down his chest. The song was perfect, yes, but so was the moment and the company and just everything. It'd been a long time since he felt so… content. It was a good feeling, one he didn't want to lose. He knew at some point something would happen and it would go away -- he'd have to power up and go back out on patrol and there would surely be some annoyance there, or something would happen here at home that would piss him off. His natural state, it seemed, was angry young punk. But for now, he was going to enjoy his life. "Sure thing, love," he replied, still smiling. He didn't think he'd ever stop smiling, not the way he was feeling right now. He played the opening chords to the song, adding the flourishes he'd played before and strumming in a more rhythmic manner, changing the tempo of the song ever so slightly. Then he began to sing, his gravelly voice adding a wounded quality to the lyrics, a sense of hurt and longing. He could feel the goosebumps rise on his arms as he played and sang. It was such a perfect song for him -- for them, really, and their situation. He'd never experienced what Sid had with Ice, so he had no point of reference for that sort of feeling. But for the whole senshi thing… yeah, perfect. She had outdone herself. He let the final chords ring through the soundproofed studio, then allowed himself to ease back against her and leaned his head on hers. "Thank you, Sid," he said at last, softly, letting the stillness of the room settle in again.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 1:42 pm
Sid liked it when he called her 'love'. It gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling in her chest. Ice had called her by pet names, and 'Sid' was a nickname in itself, but it was different, just as the two men were different. The feel of the two of them were different too.. loving Ice had always had a sense of dependence and almost desperation to it, laced with drugs. Loving Rob, and Sid knew she did, was different... no strings, no dependence, even if she did depend on him in a way. He was just there, waiting for her when she came back from fluttering away to chase something new and sparkly. He changed it a little more when he sang it again, adjusting it to his own taste. More emotion in it than before and it made her ache, her arms tightening around his chest. His neck vibrated against her cheek with his voice and there was a deeper note to it, being close enough to hear the sound in his chest. By the time he was done, her eyes were just a bit misty and Sid turned her face into his neck as he leaned back against her, closing her eyes as she nuzzled her lips against his skin. "Welcome." She mumbled, the sound muffled. Maybe it had been a mistake, writing something so personal and feelsy for Rob, but she was torn between regret and enjoyment. That song would probably always draw out those kinds of feelings in her, and it really was too late now to go second guessing it. She just had to resign herself to that stab of emotion every time she heard him sing it. But there was an easy remedy to hard emotions, and Sid was ever one to take the easy way when it was available. Her lips moved with purpose now, feathering kisses up the side of his neck till she could take his earlobe between them. Her hands moved too, smoothing over the cotton of his shirt to feel the shape of him underneath. After a moment, she straightened up to come around him, fingers trailing up the back of his neck. She reached to take the guitar from him, intent on settling it on top of her beloved keyboard as she threaded her fingers into his dreadlocks.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2016 1:38 pm
As soon as he felt the feather-light touch of Sid's lips working their way up his neck, Rob knew what he was in for. It was ever thus with his friend -- if she wasn't expressing herself through music, she was expressing herself with her body. Not that he was complaining. He was the recipient of rather a fair share of her ministrations, and it made him happy that he somehow seemed to make her happy enough to keep coming back to him. Besides, he realized, he really did care about Sid, a lot, and as more than just his childhood friend or his roommate. It was similar to how he felt about Aitana, yet as different as the two women were -- and he still wasn't sure what it was he felt about the tall Brazilian, only that it was a deep abiding fondness that he couldn't explain but liked a lot. And here that feeling was again, with a woman he'd known since they were both children. Was this love? He'd asked himself this about Aitana, and now he was asking it about Sidney. Rob knew he wasn't "in love" with her, at least he didn't think he was -- though truth be told he wouldn't know that feeling if it bit him on the butt. He just knew something was there, even if he didn't have a name for it. Rob inhaled deeply to push such thoughts aside as Sid's hands slid over his shoulders and chest, his breath catching slightly as her lips caught his earlobe and his eyes fluttering closed. Feeling her move to better face him, he opened his eyes and watched her relieve him of the guitar in his lap. She treated it with the same reverence she treated her keyboard, gently placing the John Lennon atop the other instrument. His hands, now free, moved to her hips as he felt her fingers tangling in his dreads with a little tug that . His lips curled in a smile, he pulled her close, head tilting up to capture her mouth with his own. He would play his own song with her now, Sid's body his guitar and his her keyboard. They would make their own music.
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