002 - Dethbusking

[skwisklok]

Who: Skwisgaar Skwigelf and YOU
Where: The Plaza
When: All day, just about all week.
Style: Action, prose, whatever.
Status: Wide, wide open.

Skwisgaar was pissed. Vatheon is dildos in just about every possible way. He found a shop that sold musical instruments, but they didn't even carry a basic practice amp. Nothing but grandpas guitars. After spending a hour trying to get a local to understand his problem, he was pointed in the direction of the Nostalgia Nook. He found a place there that had exactly what he needed: Krankenstein 4x4 amp cabinets. Krank heads. Even a "Dimebag Darrel" signature model Dunlop crybaby pedal... and it all cost 'starfish tokens'. The merchant refused to give him any of it without pay, even after he patiently explained his endorsement deal. Normally, any time he wore out his Digitech Whammy pedal or any other piece of his rig, the companies would send him a free replacement. For years Skwisgaar was rich enough that he didn't have to buy things.

Here though, he was not so well to do. He had started with a handful of tokens, but after buying a metronome he didn't even have enough to buy a patch cable, let alone any of the electronics he normally uses. At least he arrived with his guitar, but how would he get the rest of his equipment? Certainly not working like some regular jackoff... He might only have an unplugged electric guitar, but busking seems like his only option until he can get enough tokens to purchase an amplifier.

Thus Skwisgaar Skwigelf, fastest guitarist alive, lead guitar for the most popular band and largest cultural force on the planet could be found playing his unplugged guitar in the plaza with an old tin can front of him, begging for some spare change.

Put some money in the f♬king cup, douchebag.

Comments

[onebecametwo]

What a booooring day. Like seriously, absofuckinglutely nothing at all to do. But oh hey, some guy playing a guitar. Damn he as pretty awesome too. So Devit stuck around to listen for a little while. Nothing better to do after all. When he finished the song Devit grinned and gave him a short round of applause.

"Shit man you got some skill," he complimented, and then turned to start walking off. What? You thought he as actually going to give you MONEY? Hahahahahahaha.

[skwisklok]

At first it seems like he's just going to ignore the kid. After all, he's heard that sort of thing all the time before. He has some skill? Try all the skill. This is the fastest guitarist in the world we're talking about. No, you know what? f♬k this kid, man.

"Ohch, Ja, thanks a lot, douchebag. It not likes I has the cups set for no's reasons or nothing. Just trying to makes a living here and I don't think the Noshalgia shops take complements." Skwisgaar yells after the weird kid. Fun fact? This guy is probably more rude than Devit is. Just think about that.

[stayb100ponyboy]

Equius stops to listen, but he's less interested in the music and more interested in the mechanics of how that guitar just isn't very loud. "This would be better if you had an amplifier."

[skwisklok]

"Uh, Duh? Dat's what I'm doings here. They dumped me in this sh♪thole wit my guitars, but they didn't gives me an amp. They gots the what I needs in the Noschalga shop, but I don't has the tokens starfish," he replies, shrugging.
"Dildos." He adds, continuing to play. Despite the incredibly intricate patterns he's picking out, he still can hold a conversation.

[stayb100ponyboy]

"There's no need for vulgarity." Tsk tsk, watch your language! Equius studies the guitar for a moment. "I think I have something back in my hive that might work for an amp."

He did help make an electric violin at one point, after all.

[skwisklok]

There is every need for such vulgarity! That is exactly the right way to affirm the fact that the situation is dildos. But... he's noted Equius's discomfort. it remains to be seen if he'll hold back for his sake or not. At the very least, this weird dude's offer is tempting. "Like whats, do you have dat you think would work? Guitar amplifiers are specialized equipment, you can't just uses any amp circuits, Ja, you just gets a sloppy tone."

[stayb100ponyboy]

Talking about dildos is just going to make Equius sweat, and then Skwisgaar's guitar is going to short out.

"I don't know anything about tone personally, but the person I made it with played violin, and he fussed a great deal about things like that." Equius goes on to explain the kind of amp he and Wataru made, along with how it worked with the electric violin that accompanied it. "You can't have the violin, but I have no need for the amp, if you're interested."

[skwisklok]

"I don know...." he starts. He's quite picky about his gear, but it's not like he has any other options, yeah?

"I normally don't use those transit-ors based amps. Sounds dildos, sounds like robots. But, ah... it should be good enough? I means, that ways I'd have something to works with. Then maybes people could hear enough to actually starts giving me something and thens I could get my personal kit from the nook place."

[stayb100ponyboy]

"What's wrong with sounding like robots?" Admittedly, Equius is biased when it comes to robots. "It's a transistor amp, but yes, it should do fine for your needs now. I'd rather have it getting some use than just cluttering up my workshop." He gestures over his shoulder. "Want me to go get it?"

[skwisklok]

"Eh, sure. It'd be betters than nothink. Just one questions though. Can it ams bes overdriven?" He's referring to an electronic trick that would probably make no sense to Equius at all. The idea is that you amplify the sound so much that it gets distorted, losing quality of the original signal. Then you lower it's volume, and amplify it again to a reasonable level. An Engineer who never worked with rock musicians would probably be horrified at the idea that distortion would somehow be a good thing, but that's what makes an electric guitar have that Rock sound.

[stayb100ponyboy]

"Sure." Equius turns and leaves before this weirdo can ask him more questions he doesn't know the answer to. Maybe the amp can do that, maybe it can't, he has no idea.

He returns about twenty minutes later, the amp under one arm. "Here you go."

[skwisklok]

"Well okays den. Let's just see what's we can do here," he says, setting aside his guitar for a moment. He'll hook his instrument in, and start fiddling with the controls. Every time he makes an adjustment he strums a string, and it's evident that he 's very picky about the sound he's getting out of the device, finely adjusting it's settings... wait what is he doing to the gain? He's turned the amp up quite a bit. Not only is it obviously distorting the sound, but it might be a bit much for the poor speaker to handle.

"Alright that should be okay for now. This one is called Murmaid-er. Is song about murmaids murder."

And so he begins to play. It's not quite the same without his singer and drummer... and maybe those other guys too... but it's far better than plinking on strings with almost no sound at all.

[stayb100ponyboy]

Equius watches with frank fascination as Skwisgaar fiddles with his guitar and the amp; he wonders if this is what it looks like to other people who watch he and Darkleer work on their robots.

Once he starts playing though, Equius' eyes widen, his jaw drops, and... yes. Oh yes, this music is magnificent. He can practically see the noble, wild hoofbeasts galloping across the plains in time to this music.

[skwisklok]

Skwisgaar isn't surprised to see that Equius liked the song. After all, he's in the most popular band in the world. But that other troll guy didn't seem to know anything about metal. Maybe this one's just cooler than the other one.

"So, youse liked that, little troll dude?"

[stayb100ponyboy]

"Yes." Did he ever. "Can you play more?"

slightly NSFW link, but really, are you surprised?

[skwisklok]

Huh. He doesn't really seem like a metal fan. More like someone who's never experienced it before. Skiwsgaar's seen that sort of brain exploded ravenous enjoyment before.

"Sure, ja. Dis one is called, uh, I Ejactulates Fire." He launches into it with no delay.

these links are making me realize that I really don't enjoy metal all that much

[stayb100ponyboy]

That is exactly correct. Metal never really made it into Equius' sphere on Alternia, and then there haven't really been many metal fans in Vatheon either. He's definitely doing the wide eyed wonder look as Skwisgaar plays.

Aww. It's not my favorite, but the show got me to develop an appreciation for deathmetal.

[skwisklok]

Well, the song draws to a close quickly. Without the other instruments adding the polyrhythmic effects and the lyrics giving the song more texture, Dethklok music quickly dissolves into a long series of repeated riffs. So to keep things interesting, he's cutting parts short, playing individual riffs one or two times instead of repeating them for the full four to eight bars that their songs usually require.

"So, uh... ja. Dat's what a part of our songs usually sounds like. Once I get more set up I can get a better tone from my usual gear. Dat and I hopes to get da masters froms my band, so I can play the songs with the full effect."