Series: Pokemon Games
Ship: Darkmistshipping (Hugh X Cheren)
Rating: N/A
Story Summary: Hugh introduces Cheren to his favorite musical genre, dubstep.
It always seemed that Hugh had a limitless amount of pent-up rage that was in constant need of releasing. On this particular morning, he decided to resort to an outlet as soon as he woke up so that the rest of his day would be mostly rage-free. He slipped a pair of those ridiculously over-priced, studio-quality headphones over his ears and plugged them into his mp3 player. Within seconds, the music took hold of him.
"This shit is so sick," he muttered under his breath as a taunting, electric melody danced over a bassline that was similar to a heartbeat. He cranked up the volume on his music supplier to the point where he was sure everything could be heard beyond his headphones. That didn't bother him in the slightest, though. He could practically feel every sound and effect. Soon, all of his rage would figuratively stream out of his body once the song hit it's climax.
Reverberant beats took hold of Hugh and carried him into a far-off land that existed within his wild imagination. They started off slow and, within seconds, gradually increased in pace until the young man felt as though he were flying through a galaxy of high-quality production. The anticipated moment was about to arrive; Hugh could sense it. He knew exactly what was about to happen due to his almost spiritual connection to the music pouring into his soul. Also, this was about the fiftieth time he had heard such a song, so he had it pretty-much memorized by now.
The 16-year-old sealed his eyes shut, holding his breath still when the music hit a brief pause. It resembled the calm before a storm and, without warning, the music's elegant rise became a heavy fall. The bass crashed down from the galaxy it had taken Hugh to. It collapsed, unfurled, and let go of it's sanity all at once. Hugh felt as though he was able to expel his rage through the elaborate partitioning and, by that, he was amazed. Dubstep was so rad.
"I think it's time," Hugh decided out of nowhere. "It's time to show Cheren my collection of songs... after I grab a bite to eat." With headphones still on, he paused his mp3 player, dug his Xtransceiver out of his sock-drawer, and headed to the kitchen. He couldn't believe he had been putting it off for so long; Hugh needed to introduce his boyfriend to this amazing genre of music.
Via Xtransceiver, Hugh called Cheren and practically exploded with enthusiasm once the young man's pretty face showed up on the device. "CHEREN! COME OVER HERE RIGHT NOW. I HAVE TO SHOW YOU DUBSTEP."
Just as he always did with the modern-day terms Hugh used, Cheren became instantly lost. It was probably one of those Internet things the messy-haired teenager liked. "What's a drumstep? Sorry; I'm a little busy planning a lecture for the students I'll be instructing tomorrow." For an intelligent person, Cheren didn't know a lot about contemporary fads. He blamed society for that.
"It's music and it's called dubstep, not drumstep," Hugh pointed out, feeling like the intelligent one this time. "Find a good stopping point and come over to my place. You need to hear this."
"Just describe it to me," said Cheren, his eyes focused intently on whatever he was writing. "I'm not sure if I can come over as soon as you'd like. I have a class to teach early in the morning and this is not even close to completion."
Hugh groaned. "It's hard to describe. Like, imagine two laptops transforming into 60-foot-tall robots and duking it out in the middle of a city, shooting lasers out of their eyes until they completely annihilate one other. That's what it sounds like, except with more lasers and a series of colossal, bone-crushing orgasms."
"That sounds terrifying," said Cheren, finally looking up from his work. "Are you sure you're talking about music?"
"I am and trust me- it's amazing." Hugh was set on his current goal and he was going to make it happen one way or another. "Just come over when you can. I'll be waiting in my room."
"Alright," Cheren agreed, feeling a little awkward. He loved visiting Hugh, but he kind of dreaded listening to whatever disaster his boyfriend was referring to. Robots? Lasers? Bone-crushing orgasms? It all sounded way too outlandish for his taste, but, deep down, he couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit intrigued. "I'll see you later."
Hugh gave Cheren a dorky, lopsided grin that took up nearly his entire face. "YOU'RE THE BEST. I'll see you later, too!"
It was past 4:00 PM when Cheren finally wrapped up his business and showed up on the doorstep of Hugh's house. Well, it was actually Hugh's parents' house, but the young man presently lived there, so it was technically his house, too, for the time being.
Before the teacher and Gym Leader had the chance to knock, the door flew open, revealing Hugh, who was wearing a T-shirt that read 'DROP THE BASS' in all capital letters. It was probably another internet thing, Cheren automatically assumed as he was practically dragged into the abode.
"Perfect timing!" Hugh exclaimed as he led Cheren up the stairs and to the second floor where his room was located. "I was just about to listen to my favorite group of dubstep producers. They call themselves 'Dark Mist.' Pretty cool, right?"
Not exactly. That name was laughably stupid, Cheren thought, but he had to support his boyfriend's interests, so he kept that little slice of opinion to himself. "Yeah, I guess."
Hugh plopped down on his bed and booted up his laptop because the mp3 player he earlier overused was in dire need of charging. As soon as it was ready, he jumped straight to his playlist, where he kept his most prized dubstep songs. The one at the very top was his favorite and, naturally, he planned to select that one first. "Get ready for Dark Mist's greatest creation yet. The title is 'Positive Influence' and it seriously changed my life." Hugh was over-exaggerating when he said that.
Attempting to ready himself for what was about to unfold, Cheren cleared his mind, sat next to Hugh, and silently told himself that he would survive this.
The song started playing.
For a few seconds, what Cheren heard seemed like an ordinary electronica piece, which wasn't too bad. However, it didn't stay like that for long. It changed drastically when the music got louder and, really, he didn't know what to think. Things were really blown out of proportion when Cheren swore it sounded like the computer imploded. This couldn't possibly be good for the human mind.
The room went quiet after several minutes of calamity and Hugh looked at Cheren with bright eyes. "So? Wasn't it great?" He had high hopes and he couldn't wait to hear his boyfriend's response.
Cheren had a blank look on his face. For once, he didn't have a proper answer to give. "What did I just experience?"
"Only the best song ever," replied Hugh. Such a fact should have been obvious. "Wanna hear more?"
"Uhh, not right now," Cheren said, trying not to hurt Hugh's feelings the best he could. He had to think of a way he could avoid sitting through more of... whatever that was. He didn't think he could handle another second of it.
"Oh. Alright. We'll do something else." Hugh put his laptop on stand-by and closed it, setting it aside. "Did you at least like what I showed you?" The expression on his boyfriend's face was a tad discouraging, but he knew that, according to the internet, a lot of dubstep fans were skeptical when being introduced to the genre. There was still hope.
Cheren didn't want to lie, but he didn't want to be brutally honest, either. He was stuck, not knowing exactly how to respond. "Uhh..." It all boiled down to him giving Hugh a vague, neutral reply. "It was unique." Cheren wasn't religious, but he prayed to Arceus that his answer would suffice. He changed the subject before Hugh had a chance to say more, blurting out literally the first thing that popped into his cluttered mind. "We should copulate." Wonderful; now, he sounded awkward and horny. Perhaps saying that would at least distract Hugh from his music...
The messy-haired young man's eyes widened. "Woah. That was unusually bold of you," he said, a little taken aback. "I don't mind, though," he said, his lips twisting into a little smirk. "My sister's in the other room, so we'll have to be quiet like that one time."
Mission accomplished. Cheren didn't have to endure any more robots with lasers. "That's no issue," he said, feeling himself be pulled closer to Hugh. He inhaled his boyfriend's scent of french-fries and cheap deodorant, feeling accomplished and instantaneously aroused. He had no reason to regret his impulse suggestion, now.
Their lips met, their tongues danced, and everything was a blur after that. By the time they wrapped up their lovemaking, incredibly dorky pillow-talk, and post-sex video-game round that resulted in Cheren displaying his lack of coordination, it was night.
Hugh gave Cheren a farewell butt-slap before the young man decided to head out. He also managed to hand him a CD.
"What's this?" Cheren questioned, studying the object as he stood in the open doorway. It was a basic, burn-it-yourself CD with the words 'really insane junk' printed on it in Hugh's sloppy penmanship.
"It's a CD," Hugh clarified poorly.
Cheren reworded his question. "I mean, what kind of CD is this?"
A devious grin found it's way onto Hugh's face as he rested his hands on his hips. Woah; sassy. "It's a copy of Dark Mist's debut album. I want you to listen to it before you go to sleep." Cheren couldn't fool him; Hugh knew his boyfriend was meaning to distract him earlier, but that was perfectly fine because he planned to give away the CD ahead of time. He was going to get Cheren hooked one way or another, even if it took more than a concise, afternoon listening session.
"Oh." What was Hugh trying to do? Give Cheren nightmares? No way- he wasn't going to accept that atrocious gift. Cheren had to draw the line. "Thanks," he said plainly, figuring he could just accept the CD without actually 'accepting' it. That was his way of drawing the line, apparently. Go figure.
"You may not care for it at first," Hugh said, "but dubstep grows on people. It'll help you think abstractly and cause you to produce good ideas, too. Just give it a listen for me."
"Okay... I guess I will," lied Cheren. So long, good karma.
It was past midnight and Cheren sat awake in his apartment in front of a desk full of neatly-stacked lesson-plans. He wanted to get a head-start on the rest of the week's lectures and teachings, but he had to admit he was a little stumped. He hated being at a standstill when it came to doing job-related activities. Sighing, he glanced around his room for a book to stick his nose in until something else caught his attention.
There it was- the CD.
"No," Cheren said to himself, trying to pull his blue eyes away from that... creation. "There's no way I'm going to listen to it." He might have been less stubborn than he used to be, but he was still stubborn and he wasn't going to budge for anything.
What about Hugh, though? Cheren technically promised he'd give it a chance. If he remained stubborn, he would be lying to the young man. Functional relationships weren't based on lies! Now, he felt guilty.
Groaning, Cheren, picked up the CD and slipped it into his old-school CD-player that had to be roughly seven years old. He wasn't as high-tech as his boyfriend, but he could care less at the moment. He just wanted to get this over with.
Once the outdated contraption read Cheren's 'gift,' the song from earlier began playing. Cheren was not enthused. Much to his surprise, though, it wasn't as bad as earlier. How was that even possible?
Keeping Hugh in mind, he tried to relax in his seat as he surveyed the many different sounds coming from the music. Sure, it was extremely odd... and erratic, but it had to take some sort of talent to put it together, right? It a way, it was like an abnormal artistic expression... almost.
Cheren lost track of time and, before he could feel ashamed, he replayed the song a fourth time. It wasn't as if he liked it or anything. He was just fascinated- that's all. Besides, he wanted to hear that weird sound again. Was that a piano or the keyboard of a computer? What caused the bass to sound like that? Questions spontaneously flooded his mind and he kind of wanted to know more about how dubstep was produced. The possibilities were endless, really. Perhaps he would look into researching it, being the natural-born scholar that he was.
As he went on to listen to the song another five times for learning purposes, Cheren eventually caught himself humming along to it. It was getting stuck in his head and, in an odd way, he felt like he could suddenly write ten more informative essays to read in the classroom. He even developed a few mental diagrams that would look great recreated on his chalk-board. Was this music really helping him open up his mind? He remembered what Hugh said about that happening. Now he knew why the song's title was 'Positive Influence.'
Cheren was a believer, at last. He had been converted.
Upon realizing Hugh was right, the young man picked up his Xtransceiver, giving his boyfriend a call. An image of Hugh eating crunchy peanut-butter straight out of the jar with a spoon appeared and Cheren spoke up, dubstep playing in the background. "I'm going to listen to this song until I become one with it."