Rock On

“Well, I’ve got a few minutes before I go on, give me the short of it,” Jenny said as she shucked her current outfit of jeans and a t-shirt and pulled flashy one-piece that couldn’t quite be called a dress out of her bag. It was almost exactly what she had worn the last time she performed John noted as she put on fresh underwear.

“Earth to John, you gonna ogle me all day or are you going to tell me what happened?” She said, breaking him out of his trance. “Not that I mind,” she finished as she leaned in and struck a pose for him.

“Right, right sorry,” John apologized, and Jenny smirked. “I had a critical success when I created a barrier, and it kinda made a concert hall with a band that was a lot like ours. Female vocalists on bass and guitar, male drummer, and the drummer looked exactly like Keith!” John explained as she pulled on the outfit.

“First of all, slow down. Second of all, that sounds super cool! Where is it?” Jenny asked as she checked herself out in a vanity mirror.

“That’s the thing. It had this crazy debuff from their music and they were way too much for me to handle. They could deflect my bullets! When I left, the barrier sped off. I didn’t even know barrier’s could move,” John ranted as he appreciated Jenny’s form while she leaned into the mirror.

“You keep getting weirder and weirder,” Jenny commented as she looked in the mirror and adjusted her hair. John noticed that it seemed much shinier and straighter, with her bangs just slightly trimmed.

“Your hair looks really nice,” John said as she turned to him, and she smiled at him.
“It barely looks different, but thank you. That’s why I keep you around,” she joked as she checked her phone, and turned back to him, stage-ready. “Now get out there! Enjoy the show!”

Apparently, Keith was just arriving as with a nod and a quick wave he retreated into a room to the left of Jenny’s. John followed the hallway back out into the club, toward the conversations and laughter of the clubgoers. He once again took a seat at the bar, again not ordering anything. He noticed that somehow during their conversation Jenny had put another paper green bracelet around his wrists that meant he had unlimited access to any liquor, but decided against it. Being drunk in a club alone didn’t sound like fun, even if he would be drunk with a super hot girl afterwards.

Jenny and Joan strut on stage swinging their hips as they had his first night here, smoke rolling in to accompany them. Unnoticed by the crowd which was transfixed on the two young women, Keith took his seat at the drums. John used Spy on the man, hoping to see a better relationship score, or more information.

Keith Rutherford
HP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
Youthful Alchemist, Level 35
Drummer for enjoyment, alchemist by trade. Rakes in millions each month through mass-producing and selling potions over the Abyss Auction. After spending a little time with you, he sees you as a great potential source of annoyance, and a great potential friend.
RS: +58

He’s grown a level since the last time I used Spy on him. That was a few nights ago, but is it possible that it’s because of our fight? John thought as he turned to Spy on Joan. The band started with Twilight by the Electric Light Orchestra, and John was surprised by how good the song sounded despite the lack of a fourth person and most of the instruments used in the song. “The visions dancing in my mind, the early dawn, the shades of time, twilight crawling through my windowpane…”

Joan Wilson
HP: 50/50
MP: 10/10
Dramatic Guitarist, Level 5
Jenny won’t shut up about you, and that annoys her. She’s also a little jealous, but that’s not your fault.
RS: +33

Well, that’s… good I guess. I didn’t get the feeling they spoke much, but Keith was awful protective of her, John thought as he used Spy on Jenny.

Jenny Hudson
HP: 80/85
MP: 150/150
Not So Lonely Musician, Level 18
Expert bassist. Only known American, human user of bass magic. You’re an idiot if you don’t see what’s happening with you two. She sure as hell doesn’t. Don’t mess it up. Or do and go with the other girl. Both would be pretty interesting.
RS: +72

Jenny winked at him when she noticed him looking at her, staring really, in that moment the club could’ve been empty, in that moment it was just the two of them. In that eternal moment, John knew he had totally fallen for her.

Then it passed. The concert resumed, and he listened on cloud nine. He noticed that though he was already in a good mood, the music seemed to be further lifting his spirits. Not just in how well they were playing, but in some… supernatural way.

You’ve been inflicted with Stone Cold Crazy! This induces a feeling of mild euphoria and lower inhibitions. Stop listening to the source to end the effect.

Not another music status effect, John thought as he tapped on it.

Stone Cold Crazy, Status Effect
Entities inflicted with this status effect receive a state of mild euphoria and lower inhibitions similar to a scaled down version of the **** ecstasy. Despite this similarity, no negative side effects are inherent in the effect, and those affected will return to normal completely less than an hour after listening to the enchanted music.

Well, that’s mildly sinister. I wonder how many Abyssal people are in town. I mean, they’re not really doing anything wrong. They’re not really controlling anyone, or hurting anyone. John thought as they finished with Twilight and started on the next one.

“You got me runnin' goin' out of my mind, you got me thinkin' that I'm wastin' my time.” John reasoned to himself as they switched to a similar sounding song, presumably by Electric Light Orchestra, that he wasn’t familiar with. Still, I wonder how they haven’t gotten busted for it. I wonder if this is a popular thing…

David seemed to be mesmerized by this performance despite the cursed band’s not affecting him. He started, incorporeal, from John’s shoulder. John snapped his fingers in front of the little guy once, and David shook his head cutely as if breaking from a trance before rubbing against John’s finger, despite being intangible.

Mid-way through the performance, they switched back to Queen songs, starting with Flick of the Wrist and ending on The Prophet’s Song, which was the only song so far John had heard Keith sing in. All in all, their performance was more varied and more enjoyable than the first he had seen, and not because their music was practically drugging him. They played three encores before they started looking tired, and decided to wrap it up.

He watched it off as Joan and Jenny retreated off stage with the same hip movements that brought them on, while Keith just casually walked backwards, throwing his drumsticks into the crowd. John watched people dive for it as the status effect slowly wore off from him. He got up and headed toward the backroom, walking by Sal without a thought.

Stone Cold Crazy has worn off, your emotions will adjust back to normal in a few minutes.

John walked into the room swiping the popup away, and even though the two members of the Abyss in the room knew what he was doing, Joan did not. Neither did the boy draped across her, who seemed to be roughly John’s age despite being downright tiny, smaller than Joan. A quick Spy revealed his name to be Chester. “There was a, uh, bug,” John explained to the room that fell silent at his awkward entrance, coming off of the mellow high of the music. He immediately joined the silence with an awkward half-grin.

Jenny was trying to hold in a giggle, and Keith gave her a dirty look as he looked over at Joan. “I think he’s had a little too much to drink, why don’t ya take him home Jenny?” Keith asked, just wanting to skip the whole risk of John revealing anything about the Abyss to Joan.

“Sounds like a great idea,” Jenny said, obviously holding back laughter. She pat John on the chest and dragged him out the backdoor as Keith tried not to look at Joan and Chester noisily making out.

“Nice chat!” John called back as the door shut behind them, and Jenny finally let out her laughter in the alleyway.

“Oh man,” Jenny managed to get out between gales of laughter, “watching you be awkward is the best. Please don’t raise your Charisma stat. It never fails to make me laugh.”

She finally managed to get her laughter under control, wiping a tear from her eye when John asked, “so there was a barrier around the nightclub? What’s that about?”

“Oh yeah right you haven’t been there yet! That’s the Abyssal part of the nightclub. They’ve got pit-fights, **** deals, the works. I’ll take you there when you’re a little stronger and less dorky.” She explained, and pouted, “maybe you will have to raise your Charisma. Let’s walk and talk.” Jenny took his hands and pulled him into the fast travel barrier in the alleyway.

“You know your music has this weird status effect?” John asked as they walked down the barrier’s version of the alley.

“Keith mentioned it to me once, a side effect of the music magic we do is if we play without trying to do any specific spell, the echoes of our emotions reverberate through the magic in our music. Any music we play is a spell unless we suppress it. He told me not to, so I didn’t.” Jenny told him as they reached the end of the barrier, “What was the status effect called anyway? What’d it do?”

“Well, it was called ‘Stone Cold Crazy,’ and it made people happy and lowered their inhibitions. Whoever writes my messages likened it to a way scaled down version of ecstasy, and apparently it doesn’t have negative side effects.” John explained as they entered another barrier, this being the one that let out near John’s house.

“Heh, nice. That’s a good song. ” Jenny said as she yawned and stretched, “sidenote, I wanna sleep when we get home. I prepared all day, played, now it’s time for S&S.”

“Don’t you mean R&R?” John asked as they exited the barrier and walked into his neighborhood.

“No dummy, R&R means rest and relaxation, S&S means...