Rule courtesy of Falkeno!
Rule 9339. No breaking the Music system just to get the band, now officially known as 'The Harland & Wolffers' to perform.
As any admiral knew, bored shipgirls meant trouble, and in the case of Scapa Flow, where long periods of downtime between convoy runs was a frequent occurrence, boredom was a significant issue, however in an effort to fix this issue before it became a problem, Admiral Collingwood had allowed for music to be played across the base during the day, which had so far meant that bored fueled shenanigans were a rarity. Unfortunately for the Admiral, one day the system refused to play any music properly, with any attempts leading to garbled and warped noises coming from the speakers, the issue itself was quickly identified as the computer that was responsible for storing, automating, randomizing and playing the music was broken beyond repair, this however presented another issue as replacing the computer, and all of its specialized programmings and vast music collection would take about a month simply due to all of the reinstalling needed, and with most of Scapa's girls on downtime due to a massive arctic storm closing the Arctic convoy route, things were going to get out of hand quickly, fortunately the White star liners had offered they're services, as whilst the system was totalled, it had used the old PA system to broadcast the music, and that still could be used to play live music, problem solved then, or so everyone thought.
"Ok that's it, will someone tell them to play something from this fucking century! otherwise, I'm going to lose it!" Jamaica angrily shouted to be heard above the sounds of Violin's, a piano and a double bass, followed by choruses of agreement, the problem with having pre-ww1 and interwar vintage liners providing music, was that their taste and variety of instruments they could play was rather dated, and after nearly two days of this racket, almost all of Scapa Flows shipgirls had had enough, the sole exception to this was ironically Belfast, who was, barring mentions of her mining incident, actually the hardest person to annoy, nobody knew this however as every shipgirl who knew about her past, either tended to walk on eggshells around her for fear of setting her off or tried to limit their interactions with her; this however, meant she the only one who wasn't blinded by anger, and so she could see exactly where this was heading, fortunately, she also knew a way to prevent the impending riot, unfortunately, it would mean revealing something about herself in the process.
"Hey I gonna dive out for a bit, I'll see you all later" Belfast announced as she stood up to leave, receiving a few grunts in reply; quickly she made her way to her room, she had to pick something up before she went over to speak with the liners.
"Ok guys whats next?" Britannic asked flexing his fingers "Maybe Alexander's Ragtime Band?" as the other three liners in their impromptu band checked reached for bottles of water, they had decided to take a break after the hours of constant playing.
"Mmh, We only played it a few days ago, but it is a really good song" Olympic replied as he checked the strings on his double bass, "What do you two think?" he added to the Titanic's, both male and female who were both playing the violins.
"I agree that we only played it recently, but they love anything we play so they won't notice" Female Titanic answered as her male counterpart nodded in agreement.
"If by 'love' you mean planning to beat the crap out of with rusty pipes, then you have a strange view in that department!" Belfast announced as she entered, causing the group to jump in surprise, "Guys the music you've been playing, whilst it is being played well, nobody can stand it anymore; luckily for you though, I can help you guys out" she explained as she revealed the bag she was carrying.
"Well unless you have 'proper' band in there I don't see how you can help us!" Male Titanic replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice, no doubt due to being told what everyone else thought of their music, only for the liners to be confused when Belfast removed a guitar from the bag, "erm, sorry Bel, but none of us can play that" He pointed out, clearly Belfast didn't know what instruments the liners could play, Belfast however simply smirked as she placed the strap around her neck.
"Yeah, well I can, I'm sort of self-taught actually" Belfast explained, not sounding exactly confident, as she began to tune the instrument, getting some concerned glances from the liners, to them being self-taught wasn't a good thing, to them the ability to play an instrument well was something which had to be taught by a professional.
"Erm, maybe you shouldn't, I mean you don't want to embarrass your-" Olympic began, only to be interrupted by Belfast.
"Look Oly! I don't want to do this either, but its a choice between this or a riot, now just plug this in, ok?" Belfast broke in, handing the liner a cable and gesturing at a plug socket, sighing Olympic did as he was asked, silently wondering just how badly this was going to backfire.
Admiral Collingwood wasn't a happy man, with the music system broken and the liners blaring out classical music, which whilst good had pissed everyone off, and as he heard the system crackle to life, he instinctively grabbed a bottle of scotch and poured himself a glass to prepare himself for the barrage of swearing, only to stop just as the glass touched his lips as he heard the strum of guitar strings, he'd heard that composition somewhere before, and then just as the tone changed, he realised it that it was the guitar only cover Metalica's enter the Sandman, at first he thought that one of the liners had either gotten ambitious, or had realised that the entire base wanted their heads, and was trying to work out exactly it was playing, as by some miracle they were playing the song perfectly, and then the singing started, causing him to almost choke on the liquid that had entered his mouth, of all the voices he'd expected to hear, he hadn't expected it to be Belfast's distinctive voice, singing perfectly in-tune with the music; and finally when the song ended he found himself applauding, and by the sound of cheering, he wasn't the only one who was impressed.
The white star liners were in shock, none of them had expected Belfast to play that well, they had expected mistakes and off-key notes, not the performance she'd just put on, finally though the click of the microphones deactivating, prompting Brittanic from his stupor.
"What the fuck! I thought you were self-taught!" Brittanic shouted, causing Belfast to jump, in her focus she'd forgot that the liners were there with her.
"I am, just I have a few decades worth of practice" Belfast explained, turning to face the liners, finding both Titanics standing open-mouthed, Olympic on his phone, searching for nearest instrument shop, Britannic glancing at his electric keyboard, the only one he'd been able to get on short notice.
"Ok, one other thing, do you know any songs with any of these in them?" Brittanic asked gesturing at their instruments, prompting Belfast to quickly think about some songs, a sly grin as a certain band came to mind.
"Actually I do, have any of you heard of a band called ELO?" Belfast answered as she pulled out her phone to play some of her favourite tracks by ELO, or the Electric Light Orchestra, to give them their full name.
