By MarqueeMoonGirl
part ONE : Limelight
---
I am a success
At least for a short while.
I make decisions,
Influence people.
I'm in the limelight!
---
"'ey, Noodle?"
"Yes, 2D-san?" said Noodle, not lifting her eyes from the latest issue of Q.
"Do you see that?" 2D whispered hoarsely, his eyes wide.
"See what, 2D-san?"
"The big purple furry spider on the ceiling."
Noodle sighed at the sheer weirdness of what the singer had just said, but put her magazine down anyway. It'd wouldn't be completely shocking if there were, in fact, furry purple spiders crawling all over the ceiling. This was Kong Studios, after all. The strange and bizarre occurred on a monthly, sometimes weekly, basis around here.
She looked up and wasn't surprised when she saw nothing but an alarming amount of yellowing acoustic tile on the ceiling. She would have to talk to Murdoc about not smoking in here.
"2D-san, there's nothing up there."
"Can't you see him? 'e's got a little red top hat and cane! Now e's tap dancing!" replied 2D, gradually growing more and more frantic.
"Calm down, 2D-san. There's nothing up there. You're seeing things." Noodle said as slowly and evenly as she could.
A very jittery 2D reached into the pockets of his jeans and pulled out a small bottle of painkillers. In one shaky movement, the cap was off and the bottle emptied into his mouth.
Noodle stared, unsure of what to do as 2D swallowed the pills. "2D-san? How many pills have you taken today?"
2D tilted his neck back to stare up at the ceiling. She could already tell that the pills were already beginning to take effect by the slurred response she received from the singer. "Can't remember. Five? Thirty-nine? I dunno, Noods. I think it was a lot."
And that was the end of their conversation. 2D was too zonked out on painkillers to give her a coherent reply after that. While he had taken far more pills then the recommended amount, he hadn't taken enough to put his life in danger. It was best to leave him alone and wait for them to wear off.
Noodle was used to this, and that realization scared her. As far back as she'd known 2D, he'd been addicted to prescription painkillers. But even with the terrible headaches he still got on occasion, how healthy was it to for 2D to be abusing prescription drugs?
She frowned.
After a quick check through 2D's room, Noodle found herself in one of the stalls of the bathroom, holding 2D's many bottles of pills in her arms. She unscrewed the cap of one bottle of medication and poured the red-and-white capsules into the toilet. She tossed the empty bottle aside and emptied another smaller bottle into the toilet bowel as well.
By the time she was done, most of 2D's painkillers were floating in the water. She flushed, watching the capsules and tablets be sucked away.
2D came to her room late that night, while she was playing a game on her Nintendo DS. She looked up at him as he knocked on the open door. He had a shiner around his left eye, no doubt the handiwork of Murdoc.
"'ey, Noodle-luv? Do you know where I left my pills? I can't seem to find 'em in my room."
"They're not there, 2D-san," replied Noodle.
"Oh, did I leave 'em in the kitchen again?"
Noodle looked up at 2D. "They're not there either."
"Where are they then?" said 2D, slightly befuddled.
"I'm sorry, but I threw all of them out," Noodle said.
The singer's lower lip trembled. "Why'd you do that?" he said, sounding like a hurt little boy.
Noodle's expression softened in sympathy. "Oh 2D-san. It's not good for you to be so dependent on those things for so long. Can't you just go a week or two with the Extra-Strength Tylenol instead?"
The suggestion did not seem to appease 2D. "Well, I-I guess I can try." His shoulders hunched over slightly, 2D walked down the hall. Noodle heard him begin to sob loudly as he neared the elevator.
'Did I do the right thing?' she wondered.
But by the next morning, 2D seemed his usual self, and she put it out of her mind. He seemed much more lively and energetic then he had been for a long time.
"Hey, Russel, wanna go outside and shoot some hoops after lunch?" 2D suggested, or tried to. In his energetic state, it ended up sounding more like, "Eyrusselwanngooutsidendshootsomhoopsafterlunch?"
Russel raised an eyebrow. "Man, now's not the time for that. We've got a concert tonight that we need to rehearse for, remember?"
2D's face fell. "Oh. Right."
Murdoc snickered, one hand holding a cup of coffee, the other holding a lit cigarette. "Christ, too bad. Watchin' the dullard trip over 'is own feet sounds like it'd be loads of fun to watch."
Russel rolled his eyes. "Like you would do any better, Muds. Hell, like I would any better. I suck at basketball."
"Butitslotsoffunndgoodferya!" 2D added hurriedly, the words blurring together into an unintelligible mishmash of vowel and consonant sounds.
Russel looked very puzzled. "…What?"
"I think he said, 'But he's got a gun and it's rude for you'," said Murdoc, a sly grin on his face.
"Oh c'mon Muds," said Russel.
"What? That's what 'e said!"
---
Except for Murdoc screaming himself hoarse at 2D to stay on beat, the afternoon's rehearsals went by without incident. After a few run-throughs of their set list for the night, they began to load up the Geep with their instruments for their trip to Camden.
While Russel and Murdoc were arguing on where to put Russel's floor tom, 2D and Noodle sat in the Geep. The singer smiled at Noodle.
"I just wanna thank you for throwing out those pills, darlin'," he said. "I feel great! Better then I have in a while! And it's all thanks to you. "
"I'm glad." Noodle smiled, but it was tainted with doubt. For some reason she kept waiting for the horrible surprise that she knew must be coming. It couldn't be this easy to get 2D off his decade-long addiction to painkillers, could it? She inwardly shrugged. Maybe he was lucky and it was this easy. Maybe she should've done this several years ago.
Noodle heard a loud noise behind her and looked back at her two bandmates. In a fit of rage, Murdoc had apparently kicked at the floor tom, breaking the membrane and lodging his Cuban-heeled boot firmly inside the drum. An embarrassed Murdoc was fishing around inside the drum for his boot while an angry Russel hovered over him, chewing the bass player out.
"At least now we don't have to worry about where to put the fuckin' thing!" Noodle could hear Murdoc yell back.
Once Murdoc's boot had been rescued, the group left for their performance at the Camden Brownhouse. "This is the first time we'll have been there since '99," Murdoc pointed out when they were stopped at a red light outside of Brentwood. "Guess now they're willin' to overlook that whole 'monster riot' thing."
Sitting in the passenger's seat, Russel smiled. "And that was also our first gig with Noodle as the guitarist, if I remember right."
Noodle giggled. "Hai. And that was where we named ourselves Gorillaz!"
2D's face looked vaguely wistful. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Sure has, face-ache."
The Geep pulled into the theater's carpark as the sky began to cloud over. With the help of several burly roadies, they had the instruments inside the theater and the Geep in a covered garage before the rain began to pour from the sky in sheets.
Inside, the Camden Brownhouse was almost just as they had last seen it in 1999, when they had been rushed out of the building by one of EMI's shotgun-carrying talent scouts after an audience riot during 'Punk' had ended the concert early.
"Jesus Christ, still a dump." Murdoc muttered as he and Noodle sat down to tune their guitars.
Noodle smiled. "But that's part of its charm, Murdoc-san!" She pointed at a large area of scorched wood on the stage. "Look, you can still see where someone threw that beer bottle with a lit napkin in the neck at us!"
2D shuddered. "Don't remind me,' he said in a warbling squeal.
"'ey, 2D, are you feeling OK? You don't look too great," said Russel with concern.
Noodle looked up at the singer. 2D's face, pale to begin with, was almost chalk-white, while his cheeks were flushed bright red and covered with a thin sheen of sweat.
"I feel…" 2D paused. "Really strange." He finished sluggishly.
Noodle's eyes widened in alarm. Oh no. This must be the 'horrible surprise' she'd been half-expecting for the last day.
"Do you think you can make it through the show, 'D?" Russel said.
"Yeah. Think I can." 2D said. He attempted to smile reassuringly, but Noodle could tell Murdoc and Russel weren't convinced.
Murdoc, Russel and Noodle began the sound check, letting 2D sit out for most of it to save his energy for the real performance in ten minutes. He sat cross-legged on the floor next to an amp, his head in his hands the entire time. Noodle caught Murdoc and Russel looking at each other with worried expressions, and awkwardly looked away from the bassist and the drummer.
Leaning heavily on his microphone stand, 2D shakily stood as the curtain opened to wild applause from the audience.
Noodle's breath caught in her throat for a moment as she looked out over the audience. She loved this feeling, she always had. Behind her, she heard the loud cymbal crashes for the start of 'Clint Eastwood'. Murdoc's bass lurched into the song, and Noodle's finger flew over the frets of her Les Paul after him.
2D opened his mouth to sing the opening lines, but suddenly pulled away from the microphone before he sang a word. His eyes darted around the stage wildly, before staring deep into the audience. The one hand he had placed on the microphone began to noticeably tremble.
"Dullard, sing!" Murdoc hissed, too quietly for the singer's microphone to pick up, but audible to everyone on stage. "Dammit, start singin'! This ain't the time for stage fright, you pisser!"
"I-I…ain't happy…", 2D spoke tunelessly into the microphone, then stopped. Murdoc, Noodle and Russel watched horrified as 2D swayed back and forth unsteadily for a moment before collapsing to the ground unconscious, taking the microphone stand down with him.
"2D-SAN!" Noodle shouted.
END: part ONE
MarqueeMoonGirl SEZ: Poor 2D… (and that's all I'm saying for now, bwa-ha-ha.)
Story title, chapter title and lyrics are all from the band XTC.