Low on self esteem, so you run on gasoline.

[burning_highway]

Who: Genos and Priss
What: The hardsuit melts, and Genos gets his first guitar lesson.
Where: Priss' hotel room.
When: The day after this.
Warnings: Nah.

- - - - -

Priss stumbled into her hotel room under the burden of several guitar cases, and shut the door. She stayed standing there a while, staring at the change that had happened in her absence. And she was still at the door with guitar cases slung all about her when Genos knocked.

The Knight let him in without even looking away from what had caught her attention. The hardsuit was... a puddle. A big puddle of silvery-white goop that, judging by the smell, had already eaten through the carpet beneath it.

"Well," she said at length, "that's new."

Comments

[burning_highway]

"You're something else, you know that?" Priss shook her head, "you can be more than one thing, you know. I am. I may not be as strong as your sensei, but I hold my own. And I can play every instrument in my band, and sing, and write music, and outrun any cop alive from the back of a motorcycle."

She shifted her grip on the guitar. "Here's the first chord, see where I'm holding down the strings on the neck? Just these in specific. Then it's from the bottom up," she gave it a strum with her other hand, down at the body. "Where we hold down the strings on the neck changes the sound. That's how a guitar can have more than, you know, six whole notes."

[toaster_puppy]

Genos didn't look like he believed her. What did it matter if she was good at all those things, they didn't matter to him.

"None of that will help me get revenge," he replied simply before fixating on her lesson. He mimicked her movements again, wondering how long this would take him to learn. How long before he got to a point that would make Saitama happy?

[burning_highway]

"True," Priss agreed, repeating the chord, "but you gotta learn to live in the meantime, too. That rogue cyborg failed to kill you; don't do its job for it."

She switched to another chord, demonstrating it too, then back to the first. Slowly building up a pattern.

[toaster_puppy]

Genos stared at her, momentarily stunned. Few honestly tried to dissuade him when it came to hunting his target. Even then, everyone gave up after he proved to be so stubborn. He hurriedly tried to come up with an counterpoint to her statement.

"It's too late for me to consider being human," he said after a long, bemused pause. "I became what I am with one purpose and there's no reason for me to deviate from that goal."

[burning_highway]

Priss aimed a kick at his shin! Her boots were steel-toed, so at least she wouldn't hurt herself. "Being human and being a person are two different things, you stubborn shit. And being a person doesn't mean giving up your goals."

[toaster_puppy]

Thunk. He stared at her for another long moment, thrown again. What she was saying sounded like it was related to their conversation but he couldn't see how that applied to him.

"I'm not giving up any goal, I have a goal and I'm set on completing it, no matter what." Hadn't he already made that clear? "I'm stubborn in that sense, I don't know what you mean otherwise."

[burning_highway]

"So that goal is the only thing you can work toward?" Priss asked, fingers stilling on her guitar. "Literally, if it doesn't further that one major goal, it's useless? If that's true, then you've stopped living, and your enemy's won. You might kill that fucker one day, but it got you first."

She knew a thing or four about revenge, and seeking it both long-term and short-term!

"Look, I've been there, I've avenged people. Lost my whole family, my whole neighborhood, my whole way of life when the Quake hit -- and it turned out that was man-made. I spent twelve years fighting the people responsible for that. I get revenge. I've lost two loves, and I fought for both of them, years apart. But I do not, will not, let the enemy win by letting revenge eat me alive. Then all those people I lost will have lost me, too. And they wouldn't want that."

[toaster_puppy]

"By your definition I'm already dead." Genos was very blunt about it. He didn't lack sympathy for her but he still couldn't see why she cared so much about what he was doing. "As long as I kill him before I actually die, that's acceptable to me. The faster I'm strong enough to face him the faster it's no longer a concern. I don't bother with other plans because there's no guarantee I'll survive to fight him or survive against him. I won't stop seeking revenge, I can worry about other plans if I live. If I have none after that point, I can continue doing what I did before, fighting vicious creatures and criminals."

[burning_highway]

"Ugh," Priss scoffed, "no, by my definition you're an idiot. You're a person whether you want to be one or not, Genos, just like I am. And people can do more than one thing at a time."

Honestly, the problem was he reminded her of her, not that many years ago. The things she'd said to him were things she'd had to learn the hard way, herself. Maybe it was the same for him, and he'd have to learn them the hard way, too.

"Whatever, we barely know each other, so I should mind my own business." Priss could withdraw, too. "Let's stick to chords. You got the first two down?"

[toaster_puppy]

Genos was more than willing to let the subject drop, he didn't see a point in arguing about it. She wasn't going to change his mind and he had no interest in learning anything that wasn't somehow relevant to becoming stronger. That or whatever Saitama said was a good idea, regardless of how loosely related the two might be.

"Yes, what next?"

[burning_highway]

Priss showed him a few more chords, telling him their names as they went. Then she had him string them together in a pattern, over and over.

"There, see? You're already playing part of a song. This is very a basic part, but you'll advance pretty quickly, I think. Try speeding up a little."

[toaster_puppy]

The first string to be lost went out with a loud pop as he tried to do as she said. Even his basic combat arms were good for fine movements but guitar was not one of the things in mind when they were made.

"Mmm." Saitama's point about not breaking things was becoming clearer to him. "I will have to be more careful about that."

[burning_highway]

"Yeah, here, I'll show you how to replace it," Priss set her guitar aside and fetched a pack of strings. "They go by thickness, see? That one's... this one."

She pulled the correct string free and proceeded to swap it out for the snapped one, making sure he could see what she was doing while she did so.

[toaster_puppy]

Genos wasn't missing any element of this lesson, if his overly interested staring was any hint. He was making far more mental notes than necessary, down to every minute movement she made to replace the string. Dubious or not, he was going to do his best.

"Most of my difficulty while learning to play will be not catching the strings on the joints of my hands." And his perfectionism.

[burning_highway]

"Yeah, I can see that," Priss tipped her head to one side a bit, studying his hands. "At least you don't need to build calluses on your fingers and deal with them bleeding when you practice, like I did. Just one problem exchanged for another, I guess."

Priss picked up her guitar again and sat back down on her chair. "Ready for something more advanced?"

[toaster_puppy]

"Yes!" For him, that was a lot of enthusiasm. Now he was in the middle of a lesson, he had to learn more. "I imagine you will want me to practice this outside lessons as well."

[burning_highway]

"Yeah, you can keep that guitar," Priss confirmed, smiling slightly at the enthusiasm. "I'll get you an electric one and an amp for it at some point, too. Acoustic's just less likely to piss off the neighbors. I'll send you off with the spare strings I got for it, too." Hopefully he wouldn't run through all of them between lessons.

"Okay, I'll do something, and then I'll pause while you imitate it, sound like a plan?"

[toaster_puppy]

"I'll be careful with it." As much as he could be. "I might try to come up with some kind of sound dampening for my and sensei's apartment. I haven't had to consider that before, I'm used to living in an abandoned part of town."

Considering how many monsters crawled around there, noise had never been a problem. "I am ready to learn more, yes."

[burning_highway]

"Well, there's the case, too, so it'll be safe when you're not practicing," Priss nodded to it, and then strummed several chords in a row. They were the ones they'd just been practicing, only she followed them up with a more complex series of plucked, individual notes.

[toaster_puppy]

Genos copied her promptly... with some errors. He was confused, unused to making mistakes on things that weren't dangerous combat situations. Compared to fighting giant monsters, everything else should be easy right? He frowned down at the guitar.

"I will do better." He was not going to let himself fail at something so relatively minor.

[burning_highway]

"It's fine, everyone messes up at first. Here, I'll do it again," and Priss did, going a bit slower this time when she got to the individual notes. "Plucking single notes is always harder. Especially with any speed."

[toaster_puppy]

Genos tried again with more success. Maybe he should have been pleased he made only one mistake that time but the lack of perfection bothered him still.

"I didn't expect to run into any difficulties with this."

[burning_highway]

"It just gets more complicated from here," Priss told him, slightly amused, "it'll teach you patience, at least."

And there was no denying, though Priss didn't know it, that Genos could use some of that in his fighting style!

[toaster_puppy]

"Maybe that's what sensei wanted me to learn..." That had to be it. Genos would confirm with Saitama later. "I will continue my research as well as practicing."

[burning_highway]

"Good," Priss seemed content with the lesson as it stood. "You can practice other chords, too, I know they're out there in research-land. And then I can focus on showing you the more complicated stuff."