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]

"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."

[toaster_puppy]

Genos nodded stiffly, a very determined air to his usual frown.

"I will improve as fast as possible, I wouldn't want to be a poor student for this." He was a combat cyborg damnit, he would not be beaten by a musical instrument.

[burning_highway]

"Excellent," Priss offered with a gesture to take the guitar from him, holding her hands out. "The sooner you're ready to perform, the sooner you might start to enjoy yourself."

Whether he liked it or not!

[toaster_puppy]

Genos handed the guitar over, feeling skeptical about that. "I will perform the best I'm able. I can't say if I'll enjoy it greatly."

[burning_highway]

"If you don't enjoy it after your first performance with me on stage, live for an audience, then you're off the hook," Priss de-tuned the guitar, taking the tension out of the strings, and knelt down to bundle it back up in its case. The packs of spare strings went with it, tucked where they wouldn't fall into the guitar's body. "If you don't like it after that, you probably never will, and I'll need to keep looking for a lead guitar."

Her bandmates liking what they do was apparently very important!

[toaster_puppy]

Genos shifted in his seat and made to talk but the chair could only take so much movement. One of the flimsy wooden legs splintered and he went backwards with a comical expression of 'oh shit'. He landed with an impressive thud and a surprised grunt. His hair was even more of a mess as he righted himself. Well then.

[burning_highway]

Priss rocked back on her heels, surprised when he went down. Then she was covering her mouth, a stifled laugh making its way free. She couldn't help it, that expression!

[toaster_puppy]

"Mmph." Genos got to his feet promptly. He didn't get embarrassed easily, rarely at all really, but that hadn't be his most graceful moment.

"I should get going," he said stiffly.

[burning_highway]

"Hey, come on, that was funny just because I got to see a different expression on your face," Priss stood up, too, with the now-closed guitar case in hand. She held it out to him. "I'll get stronger chairs for next time, I promise."

[toaster_puppy]

"Metal would be best," Genos said as he took the case. He ignored the comment about his expression, his face was just like that. "Thank you for the lesson."

[burning_highway]

"Of course," Priss nodded, "I'll be in touch."