Would You Be Impressed?

Amy didn’t make it past the first shot, slamming the cup down in reaction to the burning in her throat. Ignis let out a growl in her mind in response to the distress of her mistress, but Amy mentally calmed her companion down.

Unlike John and Jenny, Grace hadn’t had a warmup round. The others had finished by the time she was on her third shot. She finished her last three with wounded pride.

Jenny kept up with John for the first two shots, but he suddenly sped up. She tried to match his pace, but simply wasn’t fast enough.

John activated Reflex Mode when he saw how fast Abigail was going. By the time he finished his third shot, she was on her fifth. In this state he was faster than her, but not three times as fast. He just barely finished after her.

Abigail had watched John and Jenny try to outdrink each other, and was working up the nerve to join them when Grace called her and Amy over. The taste of the first drink slowed her as it went down her throat, but she was soon back on pace. She’d never had a drink before, but a competition was a competition, and that was simple enough for her to understand.

The rest looked at her in amazement as they finished their drinks (save for Amy). “What the hell was that?” Jenny demanded as Abigail raised her chin and looked down upon her foes with an arrogant grin.

“I won, right?” Abigail’s self-satisfaction faltered at Jenny’s overblown reaction. Grace wasn’t angry, but looked upon her friend with admiration.

“See, Abigail here is a champ. You put her up against someone, she wins. It’s that simple Jenny,” Grace explained, giving her victorious friend a side-hug.

Damn, what a waste of Reflex Mode, John thought, looking at the bickering girls. “You know you came in last, right, Grace?”

“What about Amy! She didn’t even finish her second!” Grace said, pointing to the timid beast tamer in question.

“Amy, was it your first time drinking?” John asked her, already knowing the answer. She gave a **** nod. “It’s impressive she even got her first shot down! She was disqualified, which means you got last.”

“How do you explain Abigail then?” Grace retorted, not willing to admit to him or herself that he was right.

“I guess I’m just too good.” Abigail shrugged, but turned the motion into a flex. Her showmanship was interrupted by the bartender.

“First time drinking? Just how old are all of you?” the aging man asked, peering at them over the bar.

“Now you see I actually think that’s our cue.” To get the hell out of here! They ran from the bar as one, giggling to themselves as the **** set in. The employee lifted the bar flap to give chase, but by the time he was outside, they were already in a nearby alley and entering the barrier for the Abyssal side of town.

They were all laughing amongst themselves, but Grace was doubled over nearly on the ground. “You lot don’t know… the drinking age in Quebec is eighteen! You were totally legal!”

“It’s not like we had any way to prove that.” He suddenly felt silly for running, what was that man going to do to them anyway. “I don’t think any of us brought our passports. I bet Abigail doesn’t even have one!”

“I do so!” the previous hermit argued, but gave her british friend a sidelong look and whispered, “What’s a passport?”

“Something mundanes need if they want to travel from country to country,” Grace replied, smacking John with her hat. “The Abyssal side of town has everything the mundane side has. We won’t need them.”

“Except that restaurant,” Amy stammered, causing everyone in the group to look at her in surprise. “Well, it’s true.”

They were about to resume their squabble, but the sweet sound of music wafted through the air and broke their words apart. “I want to feel the light again/Shining on me, piercing through the wind.”

“Follow that music!” Grace ran toward the music, though its source wasn’t difficult to identify. In the middle of what was an intersection in the mundane world, a white-haired girl swayed as she sang. Dozens of people, perhaps hundreds, had formed a crowd around her.

“Show me the light tonight. Show me your light, tonight.” They cheered for her as her song abruptly ended. Grace pushed through the crowd, and they reluctantly followed. She tackled the performer to the ground in a hug, and the crowd looked shocked and angered. The circle tightened, ready to pounce on this intruder.

“Sable! You didn’t tell me you were going to be in Montreal today!” Grace hugged the singer, apparently named Sable. The woman, who had looked dead serious as her performance ended, broke into a small smile upon looking at her attacker.

“You know I play in Montreal on Fridays, little sis.” Sable rose back to her feet with her sister, tussling the shorter girl's hair with a hand adorned by five rings. “It’s alright, everyone! This is my sister, Grace!”

The crowd, which had looked ready to kill her a moment ago, broke out into cheers and compliments. Grace, who typically had no problem being the center of attention, edged closer to her sister. “Quite the crowd you’ve got.”

“These guys? Yeah, they’re great.” Sable waved to the crowd around them, and began projecting her voice, “If you liked what you heard, I’ll be performing here again at eight, and make sure to come to the Inferno during weekends! Bring your friends!”

As the crowd dispersed, she switched out of performance mode and put her guitar back in its case. “Speaking of friends, aren’t you going to introduce me to yours?”

“Oh! Uh, right. Abigail, John, and Amy are the people I live with on base, they’re my flatmates,” Grace explained, the aforementioned three lining up in order.

“Hiya!”

“Good to meet you.”

“H-hello.”

“I don’t live with Jenny, but she’s a friend too. And John’s girlfriend. Good not to forget that.” That was the redhead’s cue to introduce herself, but instead she was sizing up this musician.

“Jenny Hudson. I also perform at the Inferno. I’ve heard your name before, but it’s nice to see you in person.” Jenny turned on her charm but not her Charm when she introduced herself, yet all she got in response was a blank stare.

“Never heard of you,” Sable replied, zipping up her guitar case and swinging it over her shoulder.

“I’m the third stage’s main act, Monday to Friday?” Jenny responded, incredulous. This response did get an answer.

“Oh. You’re the cover girl.” Sable looked from Jenny to her sister before cracking her neck. “Well, it’s been nice meeting you all. I’m going to go practice before my next show.” The guitarist gave her sister a hug and waved to the quartet of friends before walking off.

“She was nice.” Abigail hadn’t sensed the tension in the air, but was happy to meet another potential friend.

“She was dismissive! Calling me a cover girl as if that’s all I am! And that bullshit about not knowing my name! She’d definitely heard of me.” Jenny clutched the strap to her bass case in a **** grip, and John walked up to her and put a comforting arm around her shoulder.

“Isn’t she kind of right though? Covers are all you perform,” Grace argued, pointing an accusatory finger at the rockstar.

“Grace, not cool.” John stepped between the Brit and his girlfriend, mind racing on how to diffuse the situation. “Jenny, I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it. She was pretty curt with all of us. It seemed like she just wanted to leave and practice.”

Grace stuck out her tongue at the redhead, but John was quick to get to her, “And Grace, what you said was uncalled for. You know that whether or not what she said was true, it was passive-aggressive at best and a dig at worst.”

“Don’t worry, I know exactly how I’m going to get back at her.” Jenny pulled out her phone with a mischievous grin. “Abigail, Amy, Grace, you three hype me up in town while I post about it. I’m going to perform too. Johnny, I need you to follow me.”

“I’m not going to sabotage my sister’s performance!” Grace exclaimed, surprised Jenny would even suggest such a thing.

“What’s a little friendly competition?” Abigail asked, stopping this new feud before it could start. “If Jenny performs, won’t it just draw a bigger crowd? It’s not like everybody can only like one of them.”

Grace, instead of considering the wisdom in these words, stormed off. Shrugging, Abigail pulled Amy along to go after her.

“So what’re we going to do?” John asked, looking at his girlfriend. She had finished what she was doing, and put her phone away.

“You are going to practice. I am going to teach you,” Jenny explained, opening her bass case. She pulled a cherry red electric guitar out; its color scheme complimented her bass’ perfectly. “I was going to wait until the end of the week to give this to you, but now we have new plans. We’ve got eight hours to get you up to speed. Make a small barrier for us?”

By the time they had finished, John’s Guitar Playing skill had risen from twenty-five to forty. He had memorized five songs put in front of him, and to his surprise they were all originals. She had an entire songbook, with each song having parts for drums, guitar, and bass.

“If you’ve had these all along, why haven’t you been performing them?” John asked as she dragged him out of his barrier. He was surprised to see that the intersection, previously abandoned eight hours before, had an entire sound stage assembled while they were in the barrier. He was glad he had made his barrier inside an alley, because there were hundreds of people, probably over a thousand, crowding the intersection and calling Jenny’s name.

A drum set sat in the back of the stage, curtains a few feet behind it. In front of it stood two microphones, and the proper rigging to connect his guitar and her bass to amps. She pushed through the crowd of people hand in hand with him, going faster when people recognized her. “I’ve always played covers. It reminded me of my family. My mom and dad. I didn’t realize it was becoming my identity, but I’ll make sure it doesn’t stay that way.”

With a silent nod to two guards, she led him up a set of stairs and backstage, where he was surprised to see Keith. “Jenny? What’s all this about?” It had been a while since he had seen the alchemist, and he looked like he was doing well for himself. The black tank top he wore showed off the muscles he had maintained.

“Keith, I’m finally doing it.” She took out her small, leather bound songbook from the back pocket of her jeans. “You remember the first five, right?”

His eyes widened, and he smiled with pride. He cracked his knuckles as he looked at the tiny book of endless potential. “Aye, of course. Got my sticks?”

“Hey! Let me through!” John heard a familiar voice, and left the two to have their moment. He descended the stairs he had just come from to see Abigail and Amy at the bottom of the stairs.

He tapped one of the shoulders of the built men and said, “it’s okay, you can let them through.” The man stepped to the side, and the two raced up the stairs.

“This is crazy! I’ve never seen so many people at once!” Abigail exclaimed, looking out over the crowd with reverence. “They’re all here to hear her perform?”

“It’s rare to see so many Abyssal people not fighting,” Amy agreed, looking out at the crowd with similar awe. “When does the show start?”

“About now! Get over here, Johnny!” He was pulled back to see Jenny had changed. She now wore a leather jacket over a ripped black t-shirt with a pair of deep blue jeans. “Equip this!”

He did as she asked, now wearing a fancy suit jacket set with a red tie. “Your guitar is hanging from your mic. I know we didn’t practice singing, I didn’t ask for a second mic, just ignore it.”

As one, John, Jenny, and Keith walked past the curtains and onto the stage. The crowd went wild when they saw her, all of them trying to press forward. John took his place, looking nervously at his two sudden bandmates.

“Are you ready, Montreal!?” The response to her question was nearly as loud as the question itself as her fans screamed the affirmative. Keith kicked into gear, and the drum beat prompted John and Jenny to start playing. Her voice soon joined them, “I want to get lost/I don’t care about the cost.”

“I know it gets your wires crossed/When you think about how much I want to get lost.” Jenny finished the first verse nearly breathless, staring at all of these people who were here for her. When she played at a mundane nightclub or in the Inferno, she felt like she was background for the scene, but all of these people were here specifically for her.

“I want to be free/I want to ride through the sea like debris,” she sang to her adoring fans, scanning the crowd and realizing there were quite a few people in it that were frequenters of the Inferno. Perhaps they weren’t only there for the booze. “And I know that everyone will see me/When they know that I’m free.”

“It doesn’t cost any fare to float on by through the open air/You send out a **** prayer for your own repair/You want to find me.” She blazed through the chorus, doing the best she could to keep herself together. This was everything she wanted, and every moment she felt like crying because she had it.

The people in the back could hardly hear the first verse let alone the second as her adoring fans cheered her on, the other act meant to play here forgotten.

They were nearing the chorus again, and John’s playing was disrupted as he felt someone brush up against him, but there was no downtime as Sable immediately picked up where he left off. His part was simple and cyclical due to the nature of his inexperience, and she was now taking advantage of that fact, having listened intently during the first half of his performance. Her voice joined Jenny’s as the chorus picked back up.

“It doesn’t cost any fare to float on by through the open air/You send out a **** prayer for your own repair/You want to find me,” Sable joined the redhead, looking for her reaction. Jenny felt a brief pang of anger for the person who had prompted all of this, but that melted away under the crowd’s cheers. She gave her fellow rocker a dazzling smile before finishing the chorus. “You really think you need me.”

At the end of the song, they took a small break in which Jenny got Sable up to speed on the guitar parts for the next four songs and the choruses. What would have taken John an hour took the master guitarist a couple of minutes. The rest of the show went off without a hitch, and due to popular request the band played three encores. After the first song John decided to merely watch from the sidelines, never more in love with Jenny than watching her fulfill her dreams.