Yet another short nothing! I'm still stuck on C&C, (although I have gotten some great idea suggestions) and I was inspired by Dragonwings114's story "Shades" to go ahead and write this. Please review, and I will apologize in advance for the less-than-optimal ending; I just couldn't figure out any other way to finish! Bad excuse, but true. Read please.
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Stork skulked to his room, his ears ringing.
"It's my turn!"
"Is not! And your music stinks!"
"You take that back! This is a classic!"
"A classic what; torture device?!"
He sighed and slid the door shut behind him. They were always arguing about this. Usually he sided with Piper; her music at least had good rhythm; but the fact that he actually liked some of Finn's songs meant that no one ever asked his opinion on the musical selection. Stork considered this highly unfair as he spent more time in the bridge than of any of them.
It was a good thing his room's walls were pretty much naturally soundproof, otherwise he might have dumped both of their record collections off the Condor a long time ago. Stork glared at the closed door. They must have been really yelling now, he could still hear their muffled voices. He sat down at his desk and did some quick figures.
It would take them about fifteen minutes to finish hollering insults at each other, then another ten or so for Aerrow to get them to make up. After that it would be a couple minutes more until anyone realized that he was gone. So he had roughly half an hour to indulge. Stork smiled to himself. Longer than usual.
He dragged out the flat black case from under his bed and undid the vacuum-sealed clasps. His baby was waiting for him. He lifted the lid and let a rare grin fall across his face. Looking down on her sleek form he marveled again at her beauty. Green finish with blue and brown flames dancing up her sides. Pretty as a waterfall, strings and all. Huh, sounds like something Greison would say.
Stork picked up his five-stringed wonder and held it close, lightly strumming a random chord. Even without tuning it sounded better than most of the garbage Finn played. He carefully turned the knobs, plucking at the strings, his large ears picking up the slightest of sour notes. When he was satisfied that her song matched her looks her began picking out some of the songs he knew.
Anyone passing outside his door would have thought he was tinkering with something. They would have to stop and really listen to pick out the rhythm and the deep growl of his baby's voice.
Not many people could recognize a song from its bass line alone. But he could. Mostly because he had heard it played alongside the rest so many times.
Collective Soul, Five for Fighting, Phish, Incubus; all the bands that Piper and Finn never bothered to listen too. Those were the songs he played now. He could pick out the thrum of his baby's brothers and sisters on some of their music, but there was a greater chance they would recognize those.
He chuckled; even if they did hear him playing they would never expect it to be Stork, inventor and worst singer in the world. After the display on Terra Vapos they would never guess that he could play anything with any regard to a tune. And in a way they would be right; he was hopeless on guitar. Grei tried to teach him once and they both ended up with headaches.
When Finn had made him a minstrel he actually made an effort for the first, maybe three, chords. Then he had given in to the terrible and warbled out some stuff about doom and gloom and his current lack of anything even resembling dignity.
He had several reasons for doing this. The words because they were expected of him (and happened to be true); the bad singing because it matched his attempt at music; and the sour guitar because that was really all he could get out of that contraption at that point. And to wrap it all up with a neat little bow, Finn had forced him into this ridiculous costume complete with bells and stupid jester's hat; so Stork figured he deserved to have his ears grated on.
The others? Unpreventable collateral damage.
Besides, Junko seemed to somehow enjoy his humiliation.
Yet here he was, playing to the songs running through his head, and not doing such a bad job of it either. He glanced up at the clock on his wall. According to his standard timetable he had maybe four more minutes before they came looking for him. Just enough time for one last song. This one was risky; he didn't know whether or not any of them had heard it before. But it was a song he had always finished off with whenever he was practicing or fooling around with Greison and Torch. It just wouldn't seem right to end out any other way.
He started out soft, just the rhythm section, then, because he didn't hear anyone coming, he began going further into the melody, and found himself humming along. Meh, what the heck…
So he started over…
"With my head above the water,
I can breathe to stay alive.
But I'll try a little harder,
If you want me to survive.
-
Won't somebody tell me?
How I got to this stage?
When consequence is inconsequential,
And staring in the spotlight,
Is better than real life;
It's been surreal, how do you feel?
When the seas part before your eyes.
It's just so real, how does it feel?
When the stars that follow die.
-
With my head above the water,
I could drift along, beyond the tides.
But I can try a little harder,
If you help me to reach the other side.
-
Won't somebody tell me?
How I got to this stage?
When consequence is inconsequential,
And staring in the spotlight,
Is better than real life;
It's been surreal, how do you feel?
When the seas part before your eyes.
It's just so real, how does it feel?
When the stars that follow die.
-
It's been surreal, how do you feel?
When the colors have left you blind.
It's just so real, how does it feel?
To have left yourself behind."
Stork finished the song and pricked his ears. Nope, still no sound. No muffled yelling either, so it must be safe to go back. He carefully placed his baby back in her case and lovingly secured the clasps. He would play her again another day; for now, he needed to go back to pilot mode. Sliding her under his bed, he turned and walked out of his room, back into the verbal battlegrounds of the bridge.
The room was quiet when he walked in, Piper and Finn sitting in opposite corners and steaming silently. Oh well, at least they weren't still screaming at each other. Aerrow looked up when Stork passed him to get to the controls.
"Hey Stork, where'd ya go? They said they needed you to cast the deciding vote on whose music is better."
Stork looked at him, then at his two glaring teammates. He rolled his eyes and shrugged in response. There was no way he was turning either of them against him by voting for the other. Better to have them both mad at him together.
"I expected as much." said Aerrow. Somehow Junko had managed to stay out of all this. Lucky him. "Where were you anyway?"
"In my room." Stork looked at Finn and Piper giving each other death stares from across the bridge. He would freak them out of their respective bad moods now, and maybe get them to leave him alone for the rest of the day. Or until they needed something from him. "I didn't want to stay and have to clean brains off the walls of the Condor. I thought your heads would explode from all you're yelling."
They looked up from their glaring match and stared at him in a mixture of shock and openmouthed horror. If he had sounded like he was joking they would have just been mad at him. The fact that he said it in one of his most serious voices made them stop everything. And then they all burst out laughing.
"Hahahahaha! Good one Stork!"
"Yeah, I guess we were getting pretty loud!"
"You guess?! I thought you guys were going to shatter the windows!"
Junko peeked around the corner of the door leading to the engine room. "Is it safe to come out yet?" That just made them laugh harder.
Stork shook has head at Junko's confused face and started up the Condor's engine. She rumbled to life and he carefully lifted her off the ground and into the cloud line. He smiled to himself, the others oblivious to everything but their laughter. His bass was his baby and he was in love with a carrier ship. Yet somehow that didn't seem nearly as insane as fighting over something as surprisingly simple as music.
Maybe he would let these crazy teenagers hear him play sometime. Maybe. When pigs fly.
He was so busy steering that Stork didn't see the flock of swine awkwardly flapping after them. But really, who could blame them for flopping all over the place like that? They had only just grown their wings that morning.
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I already apologized, but once again I'm sorry for the crap-ola ending. In case you didn't guess, I do not own the Storm Hawks of any of the aforementioned bands, they just all have really good bass lines. Neither do I own Sister Hazel or their awesome song 'Surreal', which I had Stork singing. (Their bassist rocks too.) That is all, thank you for reading and please review.