"Fang: To make sure the concert goes off without a hitch"
"Fang: First we need to learn right from the source"
"Anon: the source?"
"Fang: Theres an old museum of fine arts doing a special exhibit on music next week"
"Fang: Lots of stories of bands pulling through last minute right?"
"Fang: If we study from those old guys we’re guaranteed to do great!"
"Anon: is it really that simple?"
"Fang: Sure!"
"Fang: Were gonna learn how old bands did well, were gonna play our music at prom, everyones gonna love us, and its gonna be great."
"Anon: that’s a lot of ‘gonnas’"
"Fang: And youre gonna come with me"
"Anon: what about trish and reed?"
"Fang: Sending them to a bunch of old record shops to cover more ground"
"Fang: So itll just be the two of us"
"Anon: sounds like a plan."
"Fang: Meet me at the galleria at three alright?"
"Anon: i’ll be there."
"I put my phone down and look around my room."
"Do you need to dress special to go to museums…?"
"... Not sure if that would be good enough."
"It’s probably fine, I shouldn’t be getting so worked up."
"I get to spend the whole day with Fang, after all."
scene black with fade
stop music fadeout 1.0
"..."
scene museum
play music 'audio/effects/chatter loop.ogg' fadein 1.0
"The fine art museum turns out to be a relatively modern building right in the middle of the galleria."
"Exactly the last kind of place I would expect Fang to be seen at."
"I almost regret my decision not to wear my dirty dress clothes before seeing Fang already waiting for me by the entrance."
"Seeing me approach, she drops her cigarette and grinds the butt to ash under her heel."
F "Took you long enough."
show anon neutral at aleft
show fang happy flip at sright
with dissolve
"Here’s your one chance Anon don’t fuck it up."
A "Kept you waiting, huh?"
F "God, you’re such a dork. C’mon, the music exhibit is inside."
"Thankfully admission to the museum was free."
"She leads me by the hand through the front doors, and I immediately feel the temperature fall at least ten degrees."
"Are museums always this cold?"
scene museuminside
show anon neutral at aleft
show fang happy at sright
"The music exhibit is all the way in the back of the museum, past several rooms of abstract modern art."
F "What a bunch of junk."
A "What, you don’t want to buy a painting made with dino egg yolks and whites for ten million?"
F "What a steal!"
A "What about a sheet of paper with an url to a picture of a fridge for fifty grand?"
F "You’re messing with me."
A "It’s true, I’ll show you when we get out of here."
"We reach the exhibit hall with the big words ‘THE STYGY MOLDRIX EXPERIENCE’ hanging over the door."
"Despite it being a limited time event on the life and times of a famous musician, there’s only a few dozen people here."
F "Finally!"
F "Alright, Anon, get ready to take notes!"
A "Notes…?"
"Fang grabs me by the forearm and rushes the two of us into the exhibit."
"Once inside, she gives me her phone."
F "Take pictures of everything for me, okay?"
A "Dowhatnow? Uh, okay, sure…"
F "Let’s start with… Uhh…"
"She scans the room briefly before pointing giddily to a guitar hanging inside a case."
"Despite being several decades old, the guitar was clearly well looked after."
"The lacquer on the wood gleamed under the spotlights and the metal didn’t have a speck of rust on it."
F "OH! OH! That!"
A "What is it?"
"She sprints over to the case and I have to catch up making sure I don’t drop her phone."
F "It’s Stygy’s famous guitar!"
F "It’s actually a right handed piece, but Stygy was left-handed but couldn’t afford a lefty guitar, so he re-strung a regular one so he could play it."
F "This guitar was the one he used on his last show at an informal gig in some jazz club in London, a few days before he bit it while OD-ing on drugs."
A "Yeah, that’s pretty cool."
"I caught maybe half of that."
"Either way, I snap several pictures from various angles while Fang continues her sermon."
F "Alright, what’s next?"
"She drags me along to the next display case, a few vacuum-sealed pages with various scribblings on them."
F "And these are some letters he hand-wrote to his father! If my dad wasn’t such an asshole he could have pulled some strings and let us play in the precinct!"
"I try keeping up with her ramblings while taking pictures, but somewhere along the way I lose her in the twisting corridors."
A "Oops."
"I stand in place looking around a bit, but she’s nowhere in sight."
"She can’t have gone far, guess I’ll keep taking pictures of things."
"My eyes are drawn to a monitor on the wall playing documentary footage."
"It was a clip of Stygy playing the national anthem as a protest song or something."
"It sounded kinda cool, I’ll give him that much."
F "Ooh, that’s a good find, Anon!"
"Fang’s voice makes me jump as she reappears out of nowhere."
F "Maybe we could play something like that, show us as a champion of the common man!"
A "...Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Glad I could help."
F "I saw some good stuff in the next row over we can go check out. too."
"She drags me away from the screen to whatever it is she wants to take ‘inspiration’ from."
play music 'audio/OST/The Hunt for more (You)s.ogg' fadein 1.0
"I’m glad she’s having fun and all, but…"
"I wish this was more of a date than a research assignment."
"But I guess she’d feel the same way if I bombarded her with anime."
"She has her interests and I have mine."
"Maybe after this I can take her to a restaurant."
"We’re in a city, but there’s bound to be something relatively cheap nearby."
"It’d be nice, talking about the pictures and things we’ve been taking over some burgers."
"It’s only four-thirty now, it’ll be about dinner time by the time we get out, too."
"Pretty decent timing, sounds like a good plan."
"Fang drags me around a few more exhibits, cataloguing the various paraphernalia and stopping occasionally to obsess over some minor detail."
"Eventually we loop back around to the entrance."
"Fang looks back at the room we just came from."
A "You about ready to go?"
F "Maybe… Just trying to think if we missed anything…"
A "I’m pretty sure we got everything, you could probably reconstruct the entire exhibit using only these pictures I took."
F "I guess… Just can’t have this part of the plan go wrong, you know?"
A "About that, I’m still not sure what your plan is meant to-"
F "OH WAIT!"
"She dashes off back into the room we just came in, leaving my words dangling from my mouth."
"While I’m gone her phone buzzes."
play music 'audio/OST/Summertime Synth.ogg' fadein 1.0
"Trish: hey r u rdy to mt up lik u sad we wud?"
"What…?"
"It says these ebonics come from Trish, but I didn’t know they were meeting later…"
"This’ll throw a huge wrench into my plan earlier…"
F "Alright, sorry, I’m back."
A "What was that about?"
F "Sorry, had to hit up the gift shop."
A "Oh."
"That explains the fuck-ugly tie-dye monstrosity tide around her headcrest."
A "You uh, got a text from Trish, I think."
"I hand her back her phone."
F "Oh! That’s right, I told her and Reed that we’d meet up after we were done with everything."
A "...I see…"
F "Right, so I’ll tell her we should meet at-"
A "Actually, Fang, hold on a second…"
F "Hm?"
A "Before we all meet together, do you want to stop by a restaurant or something, just the two of us?"
"She thinks to herself for a moment and smiles."
F "Of course, I dragged you along this whole time after all."
A "Don’t worry about it."
A "I think I can get us something from that taco truck I saw on the way in."
F "Alright, I’ll tell Trish to wait a bit."
"Instead of Fang dragging me through the museum, we walked out casually hand in hand."
"I think I saw that truck a block east from here…"
A "By the way, do you take pollo or asada or what on your taco. Please don’t say leng-"
F "Wait!!"
"She stops dead in her tracks, head jerked to the side."
A "Huh?"
F "Look!"
"I peer at where she’s pointing."
"Some poster on the museum wall, it’s an advertisement for a documentary playing in the museum’s mini theater."
"And… It’s a documentary on Stygy Moldrix."
F "I didn’t see this on the way in, we have to see that too!"
A "But what abou-"
F "I know, I know, I’m sorry Anon…"
"Her eyes plead with me for mercy."
F "Just bear with me a while longer?"
"I…"
"Well, it’s not like the truck’s going anywhere, at least."
A "... Fine. Let’s go…"
F "Oh, thank you Anon!"
A "Yeah, I know this means a lot to you."
F "Come on, the next showing is in five minutes!"
"Already I’m being dragged back inside."
"I guess seeing a movie with Fang isn’t the worst thing in the world."
scene black with fade
stop music fadeout 1.0
"..."
scene theater with fade
"Well this sucks."
"I feel my stomach grumble for what feels like the fiftieth time, once again regretting not even buying an overpriced bag of popcorn."
"Stealthily as I could, I check the time on my phone before the light can distract anyone else."
"It’s been thirty-six minutes since the documentary started, only a few more to go before I can escape."
"I glance over at Fang, who has been so engrossed in the film that she hasn’t so much as looked at me this entire time."
"Resigning myself to my fate, my eyes return to the screen which is currently going on about Stygy’s fourth unfinished studio album."
"How exciting."
"I would have just slept through it if I knew Fang wouldn’t be upset with me."
"Not just because of how interested she is in Stygy Moldrix, but because I wouldn’t be taking notes."
"As the screen fades and the lights turn back on, I silently thank Raptor Jesus for ending my forty-minute torment."
F "That was really good! A lot of ideas for the band!"
A "Er… yeah, it was cool I guess."
"Just please get me out of here."
A "Now about that food truck…"
F "Oh! I told Trish and Reed that we could meet at the Galleria food court, we can get something to eat there."
"Really not looking forward to being anywhere near Trish but food is food."
"Part of me just wants to call the date here and go home."
"Not that it was ever much of a date to begin with."
A "Alright, let’s go then."
"At least I can talk to Reed about Rock Ring or something."
"Fang smiles and leads me back out of the museum and towards the food court."
"I still think this is a bad idea, I’m still not over what Trish did and I doubt her mind has changed much either."
F "Stop being grumpy, Anon, you’re just hungry."
"For fuck’s sake."
A "Fang, someone filled my locker with a shit-ton of hentai they printed out last week. It’s not okay."
F "That’s just some dumbass at school, we can get some food and it’ll be fine."
scene foodcourt
show fang neutral at aleft
show anon neutral at aleft
with fade
"We round the corner and I immediately lock on to a certain triceratops."
show reed sunglasses flip at rright:
show trish neutral:
xalign 0.8
with dissolve
"Trish and Reed were already eating at one of the tables."
"Fuck that."
A "I’m gonna go get something to eat first… You want anything?"
F "Nah, I’m good. Not that hungry."
"Extra order of fries it is."
"I split off from Fang to find a place to get food from."
scene foodcourt
show anon neutral flip at aleft
with fade
play music 'audio/OST/sadist.ogg' fadein 1.0
"I glance over my shoulder to see Fang saying something and hugging Trish, both of them turning to look over at me."
"Trish looking significantly less enthused than Fang. No surprise there."
"I stand in line for a Cretaceous Fried Chicken stand and order my food, savoring every moment I wait and don’t have to interact with Trish."
"The moment doesn’t last long and I walk over to the table, food in hand."
scene foodcourt
show fang neutral at aleft
show anon neutral at aleft
show reed sunglasses flip at rright:
show trish neutral flip:
xalign 1.1
with dissolve
"I take the seat between Fang and Reed, which puts me straight across the table from Trish."
"Of fucking course."
"I place the basket of fries in front of Fang and she immediately starts digging in. So much for not being hungry."
"Reed gives me a thumbs up, wearing his giant oversized sunglasses again."
"While Trish is making a face somewhere in between judgemental and open contempt."
show trish smug flip
T "So what took you so long? He wasn’t wasting your time again, was he, Fang?"
show trish neutral flip with dissolve
"Welp time to clock out of that conversation."
"I’m sure they can have a riveting discussion without me."
"It’s just one meal after all, I can ignore Trish for an hour and then Fang and I can leave."
"Digging into my basket of chicken tenders, I pull out my phone and head straight to the armenian graphic design forum."
show anonphone with moveinbottom
"There’s another Grugsnax thread I can shitpost in to pass the time."
"Every once in a while I look up from my phone and catch Trish giving me a death glare before turning to look back at the others."
"Before long my train of thought is broken by Fang saying… something."
F "...so Anon, what do you think?"
hide anonphone with moveoutbottom
A "Uh, yeah. That sounds good?"
F "Great! We can try Trish’s new song in the next rehearsal!"
show trish smug flip with dissolve
"Trish looks smug. What did I agree to?"
T "I’m surprised you agreed to that, I would have thought you wanted us to play some anime song instead."
"She’s just loving this, isn’t she."
Re "Hey man, that sounds kinda fun."
"Reed is qualed by Trish’s sneer."
"Know what. I don’t care anymore."
F "Maybe… But let’s talk about that later. I’m cravin’ a milkshake now."
hide fang with dissolve
"Fang gets up and turns to a nearby smoothie booth."
"Leaving me here."
"To deal with this. These."
T "So, Anon…"
"Her grin is just short of vicious."
T "So happy you agreed to my idea."
T "Guess you’re starting to get some good taste."
T "Better than any of that weeb-pop trash you’ve got on your phone."
"I pointedly ignore her. She’s trying to get a rise out of me."
T "Maybe I’ll make a somebody out of you too."
T "Maybe…"
"My fist clenches tightly beneath the table."
menu:
"It's not worth it.":
"I can see it now."
"I've had about enough of this.":
"Just before I get up I think through it one more time."
"Her stupid horn jammed right in her eye."
"I sigh."
"My fist unfurls."
A "Yeah, sure, whatever."
"God this was a waste of a day."
"Normally I would love just spending time with Fang, but she’s been so preoccupied with the band lately."
"I don’t even know why she needed me today when all she did was drag me around."
"And now being anywhere near Trish is the cherry on the shit sundae."
"Fang returns a few moments later with a milkshake in her hand."
show fang happy at sleft behind anon with dissolve
F "What’d I miss?"
T "Just talking to White Knight about his taste in music."
"Fuck this."
"I can’t deal with this anymore."
A "Shit, I just got a text from the post office. Says my dad’s prom suit came and I wanted to get there before it closed."
A "Sorry to do this Fang, I gotta go. See you at school tomorrow."
"I hate lying to Fang this way but I just can’t stand being around Trish any more."
show fang sad with dissolve
F "O-oh, it wasn’t anything I did, was it?"
A "Everything’s fine, I just want to be ready for prom and your show."
show fang neutral with dissolve
"That seemed to put her at ease."
F "Alright… we still have a bunch to talk about for the show. See you tomorrow, then."
show reed happy sunglasses flip with dissolve
Re "Peace, dude."
"I give Fang a reassuring hug and promptly head towards the bus stop, not missing Trish’s dumb smug face as I pass her."
