2021-03-10 - There's A Storm Coming (And We Need To Play a Duet)

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : UGH you went to karaoke and I missed it????

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Technically I missed it too. I mean, I was there, but I didn't get on the stage. Not for lack of August and a few others trying to MAKE ME.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : I'm so mad. SO MAD. I slept through it

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : it was even showtunes! MAN

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You know I only went because of freakin' Baba Yaga, right?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I hate crowds. I'm amazed I was able to hold on to a whiskey glass, that's how bad my hands were shaking.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : awww I know, tati

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : still though. wish I was there

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : woulda sung Luck Be A Lady

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : August looked... weird.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : weird? weird how? what do you mean weird

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I mean, dressed up for it. I have this mental picture of August as this... very patriarch type of guy.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : It was kind of awesome.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : oh jesus don't scare me like that

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : I was about to text him going WHAT IS THIS ABOUT YOU LOOKING WEIRD

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Hah, oh, no, sorry, nothing wrong. Just surprised me.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Christ, don't text Den Mother Gray Harbor to tell him the Danish guy said he looked kind of hot in that jacket.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : he's just a party queer who got old, yannow

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : welp now I'm texting him

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Obviously!

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I will -hurt- you.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Speaking of weird, though -- Vyv was there too, with Grant.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Not someone I'd expect to see slumming it in the Poorhouse either. I like it.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You comin' by HOPE one of these days, watch the big nothing that it still is? We got the lease at last. Now I just need to clean the place. Am contemplating explosives.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : ::a thirty second clip of Itzhak singing: A lady doesn't leave her escort - It isn't fair, it isn't nice - A lady doesn't wander all over the room - And blow on some other guy's dice! with evocative hand motions included::

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : :gif of laughing cartoon cat:

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : ugh i woulda killed it. Yes I'm coming by, make a list of things and I'll fix them

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : List: EVERYTHING.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : But hey, I had Perdita washing the door yesterday, don't tell me the eighties montage isn't working. Give me a month, I'll have everybody doing something or other. Flashdance t-shirts optional.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : okay so I'll be coming by a lot. Vyv was at the Pourhouse huh? nice. Grant's good for that boy

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Sure was, raising the place up a couple of levels style-wise just by breathing. And then Grant got on stage and did a custom piece about Tentacle Monsters in Gray Harbor. 😆

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : ::more video of Itzhak singing, this from Flashdance. All alone I have cried - Silent tears full of pride - In a world made of steel - Maaade of stoooone...WHAT A FEELING!::

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Aaaaand that's exactly what I had in mind. Sort of. Maybe we're more Footloose.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : amazing. that kid's going places. Oh now you want Footloose? Tough crowd

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I will eighties teenage movie the Veil into submission, you know it.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : ::FURTHER video of Itzhak singing, this time from Footloose. Tonight I gotta cut loose! Footloose! Kick off the Sunday shoes! Please, Louise, pull me off of my knees - Jack, get back, come on before we crack - Lose your blues, everybody cut footloose! This one has dancing too, Itzhak mimicking Kevin Bacon's moves from the end of the movie, in the middle of his living room. He's pretty good at it. Ruiz is sitting on the couch with a laptop, just eyeing him.::

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : is that enough for you?? Jesus you're demanding

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : :gif of cat with popcorn bowl:

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I mean, I am taking notes here. You are giving a showtunes concert at this place when we've got it up on and running. You have been formally notified.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : you're coming with me

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : shit, why don't we do a duo?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : ... Because I don't perform?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : Do it for the kids, Ravn

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Goddamn you.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : eh? ehhh???

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : It's bad enough that Devlin bought into my evasions and now I have him nudge me that we can do some simple campfire tunes sometime, nothing too complicated for me, and I feel like a complete ass

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Tell your man that he needs to feed you less sugar.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : You only have yourself to blame. So what're we gonna do?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Look, I... honestly don't know if I can do it.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I want to.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I am not trying to be a diva. I'm just terrified.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : honey, everybody's terrified when they get on stage. you think I'm not?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : There's stage fright and there's literally breaking down in shakes.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Maybe ... a smaller audience? Baby steps?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I AM trying. Every sign in moon and skies the last couple of months have been screaming at me to stop running. It's just... not something you can do in a matter of weeks when you've spent all your life trying to be anyone but who you really are.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : hey, sure. how about we just play in front of, like, Roen?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I mean, we can try?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : At least I'm pretty sure Røn wouldn't make a big fuss if it turns out I can't.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : right, you know he won't. and we could put something together and practice, and if the day comes and you can't do it, eh, I'll just fill in.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : What, we're not starting with Paganini?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : first off, fuck Paganini, he's an asshole

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Naw, he's a pretty decent guy.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : nobody who's a decent guy writes harmonics like that

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : ... Sorry, couldn't resist. Guy's got a great-grand-something. Same name, fronted a hair metal band in the 80s. Met him once, made all the bad jokes.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : if I ever meet him I'm gonna slug him and tell him it's for his grandpa

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Best known, ironically, for a cover of CCR's "Up Around the Bend".

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You know what? Make it happen. Might as well get used to it. I'm digging my hole deeper and deeper and I don't know how to claw my way out. This is the problem with staying still somewhere. People have time to find out you're full of it.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeah? ya mean it?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I'll probably change my mind eighty times and be fickler than a teenage girl trying to pick out a new dress.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : But I do mean it. I see people have so much bloody fun and I'm just sitting there in the shadows, hoping to not get noticed, and asking myself, why is it so important that no one notices me.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeah, why IS it so important?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I'm not sure? I just feel that all kinds of bad things are going to happen if I start to draw attention to myself. Last night at karaoke? The opposite thing happened, I nearly freaked out. Me trying to NOT get seen almost ended with everyone focusing on me, thinking I just wanted to get begged enough to get up there.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I mean, at this point, getting on the bloody stage is probably more effective when it comes to not drawing attention.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : you're probably not wrong. look...I never known how to be invisible, like you. Always been a loudmouth and a show off, and I turned out FINE.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I can be a loudmouth and a show-off. You just wouldn't like me very much if I do.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You haven't seen white money privilege until you've gone golfing with old world aristocracy, trust me.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeah, because that ain't you.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : It's certainly not who I want to be, no.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Let's do this. What should we play? Do we need to duct tape August to a chair or will he be a willing audience? After last night I'd believe you if you told me he'd get up and sing for us if we pick the right tune.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : so be yourself and be scared and maybe just, learn that nothin bad's gonna happen.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yep.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : Ahhh he'll love it. Maybe we should pick some CCR and he'll definitely sing.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : ... Don't mind if I jump into his lap and ask him to adopt me. Loves CCR? My kind of guy.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : actually I dunno but doesn't everybody love CCR?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Never met anyone who could not tap their foot when somebody starts humming about the big wheels keep on rollin', that's for sure.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Hey, whatever happened to that band of yours? Any chance that we might make a charity concert a real thing? I mean, nothing to engage the community like the actual community?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : eh, same thing as happens to most bands, they were a bunch of kids and got busy doing stuff

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I suppose so. I sometimes get this feeling I missed out on a life opportunity not simply setting up as your manager. Haven't forgotten what you did to an audience at Sitka.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : forming a band sounds awesome when you're twenty two and then you realize you had no idea how much work it is and you just start not doing it.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : hah, what did I do

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I've never been in one, obviously, but I imagine that just like actually playing, it's a lot more sweating over your instruments than over the hot chicks?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Well, whatever you did, half the room wanted to murder me out of jealousy when you decided to spend the break at my table. I've told you before, you're a performer. That's the difference between you and me.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : oh don't fucking exaggerate that ain't true. .....is it?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : It looked that way to me.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : And I mean, I sell fantasies of my own. Or did. That's what confidence art is -- you sell somebody a brief fantasy of meeting a handsome stranger on the boardwalk, a five minute flirt, the one dashing rogue who noticed you.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You sell a dream of what if he'd looked down, if he'd come to my table, if we'd hit it off.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : okay, you're making me blush

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : That doesn't make it not true. 😃

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Now ask me if I want to wield that kind of narrative power against the Veil? Hell yes, beybeh.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : (I also want to see you do the Footloose dance).

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : am I gonna sound like an idiot if I said I thought they were coming to hear me play because I'm a badass fiddler?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I feel like I was standing at a crossroads and now I've started walking down one of the roads, and it feels like... it's terrifying but it's also exhilarating.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Nope. Because you are a badass fiddler. But so am I, and there are a number of people who'd come listen to either of us play because we're damn good at what we do. Most, though? They come for the full experience.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : And it's -- a little sad because we know what they're missing on, but it's also great because we may get to show them the first baby steps into a much bigger world?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : by full experience you mean like a full girlfriend experience

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : How so?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : you never heard that before? something working girls use to let a guy know he can take them out on a date, they'll look super hot, they'll listen to every word he says like he's a genius, they go home and fuck, and then he pays her eight hundred bucks and she leaves.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Oh! Well, yes, I'm familiar with the idea, it's called escort services or sugar dating where I'm from.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : And yes, I suppose you could put it like that. I meant it in a less exploitative fashion, though. There's nothing wrong with a fantasy about that hot violinist and what could have happened if only... And there's certainly nothing wrong with going home and thinking, so, he was playing a bit of that, I should go find a few tunes on Youtube, see what else that composer has done.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : omfg you just explained to me why it gets me laid so much

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Ha!

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I mean, don't tell me you're complaining about -that-.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : hah, nah. also I kinda think the reality might not live up to the fantasy about the hot violinist once they discover he's a cranky jerk.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yes, well, that's the thing about fantasies and why it's sometimes better to let them stay fantasies.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Mrs Jones, 48, mother of three, doesn't want to find out that the grey-eyed guy in black on the boardwalk actually is a nervous wreck with all kinds of women issues, either.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : never thought about it that way before. sure, I'm a banging fiddler and sure I'm hot as hell, but the whole, fantasy thing, never thought about that.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Hey, just means the rest of the world agrees that you're hot as hell. That's not a bad thing, is it, Mr Bang My Mechanic Like A Door In A Hurricane?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : hah, never said it was! Wouldn't have landed the sexiest man in this town if I wasn't. gotta play to my strengths

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : 😆 Aaaaaand that's my anxiety going oh shit oh shit oh shit right there.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : But I suppose that since you already landed the sexiest man in town and all that, I'll be pretty safe. 😃

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : what, what'd I say

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Just reminded me that if we go on stage sometime together, some of your sexeh shine might reflect off me too, Tom Waits. But unlike you, I'll be screaming and fleeing up a tree if some girl starts making eyes at me.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : aww buddy, I'll just get her to look at me instead. deal?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Damn good deal.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Speaking of.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : There's a new girl with the shine in town. Perdita something, I know you've met her -- fashionable little thing.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yep, met her, got mad at her for flirting with de la Vega

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Oh, she did? She flirts with me as well. And that's actually kind of what made me think of her just now. You know I told you I used to be a grifter. A few things she's said, the way she carries herself -- she's in that business too. Running from something or somebody. Secrets.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Don't think you need to worry about the flirting. She casts a pretty wide net, think she's basically trawling the waters to look if somebody will step up and give her a place.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : she don't seem bad, just maybe a little too used to that pretty face of hers gettin' her through life. And her legs. And her ass. And...you get the picture

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : I ain't worried, just jealous, there's a difference. so she's in your line of work, huh?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yes, I do, and she reminds me of me. I use different bait but it's the same technique. Selling fantasies. Casting a wide net, seeing who bites. Decide how to proceed when you know who's flailing on the hook.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I think she has been, at least. I mean, I'm not in my line of work either anymore.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : She's said a few things though -- you know me, I pay pretty damn close attention to what people actually say, more so when they don't realise they're saying it. She's known hard times. Lots of resentment in there, for the kind of guys she trawls for -- sugar daddy types, rich people. She's got edge. I don't know her well enough yet to have much of an opinion on her as a person, but she's got the shine and the claws. Seems like somebody we need to get on Team Humanity if she's staying around.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : In part because she's too dangerous to let the other side have her.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : well ya sold me

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : It's the claws, isn't it.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Lots of new people coming into town lately. Same time as Baba Yaga comes into town. There's a storm coming.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : I like a girl with natural weaponry, what can I say?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : ...yeah. Yeah, I know. I can almost hear it, middle of the night, out here in the forest.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Buddy, if you could play the violin with claws like that you'd have them. Just admit it.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Even I can hear it, Itz, and you know how most of this shine stuff goes right over my head.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : hey I only drag queen on special occasions... now I wonder if de la Vega would like it though

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : One way to find out, acrylics are a thing. 😆

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I want to hunt down these new people one by one and get them attached to the community. Because that storm is coming and when it does, anyone who's not with us is potentially against us. Even the library guys -- I bumped into one of those later on and he seemed pretty decent on a second take.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : let's do it. we'll hold a welcome party or something.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : ... Deal.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Call you about it tomorrow, come over for a beer maybe? Or you can come scrub floors with me, whatever works.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : I can't talk to you anymore, you make me do stuff when I talk to you. I'll come scrub ya damn floors

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Ha!