This song is for the people who live this dream.

[against_all_trouble]

Arthur Black was sitting on the couch trying to tune his guitar, but his perpetually-indecisive roommate has decided that this week she is a singer again.

"Come on, Art, I'm a good singer!" Suzy pleads with big eyes and a bigger wave.

"Suze. That is not the thing that worries me, Suze," Arthur says as he sets down his guitar to the side, "The thing that worries me is that this week you want to sing and the next you'll be back to sculpture. Or painting. Or found-object collages. Or interpretive-freaking-dance!"

"Interpretive dance is silly, Art, why would I do that? And anyway, you know you want to try some of the vocals you wrote ♫ for ♫ high ♫ voices! ♫"

That's two things Arthur is not good at refusing: chances to show off and requests from Susanna Blue. The look he gives back, though, is definitely a scowl. Not a smirk at all. "One of these days, you're going to wear out your welcome... with everyone but me. OK, show up to tonight's practice a little after we start, I'll bring the guys around."

"Yay! You're still the best, Art." She really is happy, that hug was only about a third tackle.

---

Practice comes and goes, and the rest of No Rainbows goes along with Suzy's request. Arthur isn't explicitly in charge, but he's a big personality and the group started out of bluegrass jam sessions he organized, so they're used to following his lead. And her voice is pretty good.

A couple nights later, they are all setting up in the back of an Atlanta restaurant. Suzy's helping Arthur set up the amps while there's still space to move things around near the stage while the other three tune up.

Comments

[against_all_trouble]

The rest of the show goes OK. The bunch of bland people clogging the audience dampens some of the atmosphere, but they get some good jams in, a couple standards, a couple more new songs.

Arthur gets slightly more nervous with every song. These guys aren't moving with the music, just staring at the stage. Normally he's got his Large Ham mask on for shows, but it's slipping tonight. He doesn't sing much.

[ladysunday]

Suzy doesn't get nearly as rattled. She's singing and it's great and so what if there's some obnoxious people being dull, this is The Best.

After a few hours of The Best, the room is starting to empty out and the restaurant's getting toward closing time. As the last bars finish, Suzy moves to the front of the stage with a big smile.

"I'm Suzy Blue and this was No Rainbows, check out our website for updates on future performances, love you all, good night!" she rattles out, going straight into a big bow.

Now, where was Erica?

[sing_for_the_tears]

Erica does not come in search of the band quite instantly. She gets her food and her money from the manager first. She packs the food up carefully in a bag, holds it so it won't spill (she only has so many clean outfits) and goes in search of Suzy.

Most of the people in the restaurant have left by now; it's closing time, no one's sticking around. There's one server left at the bar cleaning up for the night, but he's not paying any attention to the far side of the restaurant. The rest of the staff's in the kitchen in back, getting their free meals.

That leaves Suzy, Erica, the band (what's left of it, at least, a couple of the guys seem to be moving audio equipment into a van out back), and- the weird guys from earlier.

They beat Erica to the band. She slows to let them, in fact, and starts edging away from them as she approaches. As she's nearing the band, they reach Suzy, form a semi-circle around her, and with a couple wordless notes-





-fade into nothing.






Erica wants desperately to scream, but they were singing when they did that, she can't draw attention to herself-

She backs right into someone without even realizing she'd been backing up. "Oh god oh god oh god what the hell-"

[against_all_trouble]

Arthur walks back in from the van, just in time to see the semi-circle, Suzy starting to look scared, and... they're gone?

His mind races in circles, Suze! What the hell? They just...vanished? Am I nuts? Suze!. This might have gone on for a while, but he's then he's jostled by a girl walking backwards.

He blinks, then turns a bit toward her. "You see what I just saw?", he says, in a shocked, slightly hollow voice.

[sing_for_the_tears]

"They sang her away," Erica babbles brokenly. "What did they- how did they- Oh god, oh god, if they're looking for singers-" her eyes open wide, panicked. "I have to go, what if they find me-"

[against_all_trouble]

Arthur blinks away the confusion. That sounds like a yes? Also, a ton of questions. Which should definitely happen at not-now. Right now, he has a focus. Take care of this kid, deal with the immediate crisis.

"Hey, it's alright. I have a car, I'll give you a ride." Though... maybe not our place?. "You're Erica, right? I'm Suze's roommate, Arthur."

[sing_for_the_tears]

She nods, rather frantically at first but slowly calmer. She is supposed to be better than this, she is supposed to stay calm and figure things out.

First step- get out.

"Yeah, I'm Erica. A ride- that sounds great. Thanks." She looks towards- where Suze was- shudders, pushes it down and looks back at Arthur. "Are you all set? Need help with your stuff?"

Generally anything she can do to help get them out of here as fast as possible?

[against_all_trouble]

"All my stuff's in the van or my car. If you're good to go, we'll be off quick."

With a bit of guiding, they get to the car and pull away. "So I'm not really sure we should to my place immediately. You sounded like you understood a little more than me, mind if we get some coffee and talk? There's a diner on my way home from here."

[sing_for_the_tears]

She snorts. "Understood is a strong word for it, but I'm always good for food." She eyes him warily. "So you never- saw anything, anything weird, happen? When Suze was singing?"

[against_all_trouble]

"Nothing obvious? A little when I've sung, though. Lights flickering, or getting more red or blue or something, at times that were suspiciously appropriate and I knew we didn't have anyone doing booth stuff. A hush in the crowd really suddenly. That kind of thing. Not... vanishing."

[sing_for_the_tears]

"And don't we all wish we knew how they pulled that trick," Erica sighs. "It's probably related somehow, though, yeah."

A thought strikes her. "If you're right, though- about when you're singing, I mean- were they looking for you, then? If they just heard the effects and grabbed for the singer..."

[against_all_trouble]

"Suze just joined the band this week. Unless they started looking since Tuesday, they were looking for me," he sighs, "And they found her instead."

The diner appears up ahead, and Art goes quiet. He waves to the waitress on his way in and asks for "Two lost-puppy specials." He takes the back booth, though the place is almost deserted. Soon there will be coffee and pie.

[sing_for_the_tears]

Comforting things to say to the nice boy buying her food. Comforting things to say. Hm. She's not very good at this, usually. "Well, if they were looking for you, they'll probably just let her go?" she tries.

This does not bode as well for him, but- being comforting. Right. She will leave that part out.

She occasionally glances over to see where the waitress is. She's curious about this "lost puppy" meal, contents thus far unspecified.

[against_all_trouble]

"You saw those guys, they were practically Men in Black in sweatervests. Somehow I don't think they'll just let her walk away."

There's a pause. Coffee and pie arrives, and he thanks the waitress. (Her name is Darla, apparently.) The pie makes him perk up a bit; for once he's the one who felt like a lost puppy.

"What do you know about the singing thing? Have you heard about these guys before?"

[sing_for_the_tears]

Erica shrugs. "I don't actually know anything about Men in Black," she tells him. "My parents went for TV, not movies." TV being a convenient way to ignore a small child until it could Make Itself Useful, whereas movies required work or money to obtain.

She collects her coffee and pie. The coffee she sips slowly; the pie she scarfs down. You never know when the next free pie will be, after all.

"And I don't know anything about them. Scary dudes vanishing people who can 'sing'? I'd've been out the door the instant I saw them, if I knew."

She weighs pros and cons of being straightforward about the singing. She settles on "probably worth it". He already knows about it, he already knows about her, and he can do it too if he's to be believed. It's too complicated a setup to catch her, if that's the goal, the suits could've just snatched her outright. So- she'll be up front, for now. She could use someone to compare notes with. Imagine if she could do it on purpose.

"I can't do much. I just- destroyed a towel, once. Hard to miss. I just," she growls in frustration, "it's not reliable. All I know is I have to be singing, and it helps if I'm upset."

[against_all_trouble]

"Maybe the X-Files? Secret agency that deals with very secret things and cares Very Strongly about the secrets and much less about people's health and happiness. They gave me the creeps, and that's what it feels like, now."

"When I've noticed things has usually been songs that were really important to me, you know? The kind of thing that brings back memories. Some of it was good feelings; when everything went hushed, I was singing a love song to a girlfriend in the audience."

[sing_for_the_tears]

"I'll take your word for it on the love songs," she tells him with a grin.

She's... not going to mention blanking people, yet, she decides. If worst comes to worst, if this is some kind of trap- she needs to be able to do it to him, or at least not have him know she knows it.

She finishes her bite of pie and continues. "But, yeah. Creeps. Hell yes. But what do you do about creeps?"

[against_all_trouble]

"That's the question, isn't it? We don't know anything about them. Hell, maybe they're just creepy, and actually decent guys doing something important," he replies, looking mystified.

Then his expression hardens. "But. I need to find Suzy. We've had each other's backs for too long, I can't - won't - abandon her now. She might be okay, but I have to know."

He pauses a moment, then continues with an small, ironic smirk, "This might be easier if we dated. Just try 'hope my girlfriend comes back' songs for hours until something works, there's enough of them."

[sing_for_the_tears]

"We could look online," Erica suggests thoughtfully. "See if there's anything about this, about them, about any of it." Her brain whirls. "We should do it at a library though, or something like that. Not your own computer, nothing we have to sign into, or we could give a fake name if we needed to. Maybe phrase it like we're looking for X-Files? And just click on relevant-looking things as well as the show links."

Erica is very, very used to hiding her secrets from her parents. She sees no reason not to be cautious about this too. Best case they're harder to find, worst case it's a trap and he already knows where she is, there's nothing to lose.

[against_all_trouble]

"That's a good idea! Maybe a little extra paranoid, though. If they were really clever, they wouldn't have come looking for me and only taken her. But I'm not going to be performing soon after this, so I have time to spare on paranoia."

This worries him, though just a bit. Where'd she get good at spy things? She isn't, like, drawing him out to talk about other singers or anything. But still.

"That's all something to do in the morning. I think I want to wait a few more minutes before going to my house, so... I'll tell you my story if you tell me yours?"

[sing_for_the_tears]

She has a summarized version she doesn't mind sharing. (Much.) He's not getting enough detail to find out how to send her home, though. Nothing to find her parents, or connect her to a police report, if her parents filed one- nope. She's not going home. She's turning eighteen and getting Tommy, and never seeing her parents again.

However, first things first- she does not like the plan as proposed. "Exceeept. If anything's wrong, if they've figured out it was you and not Suze- they'll be at your house, by now," she points out.

[against_all_trouble]

"That's why I wanted to wait. Unless they tracked the car-" he glances out the window "-and if they did, they haven't parked nearby, then if they do know where I live, they've gotten there and found no sign of me. Maybe even left, by now. So we can go in quietly, check whether things have been disturbed, and have the car still running in case of trouble. It's not exactly James Bond, but short of never going home until we steal a car or something, I'm not sure how we could do better. And I don't think I'm scared enough to go on without planning first."

[sing_for_the_tears]

This seems flawed, to Erica- most notably, there's no good way to tell how long it would take them to determine a) Suze is the wrong person and b) Art is- but she leaves it for now. They're not looking for her yet, as far as she knows, it's not her risk to take. And whatever happens, she will learn things about the scary men; how they operate, how fast they operate, maybe even what they're looking for.

She's aware that this is probably manipulative and selfish of her, compared to Art who has been nothing but nice and helpful to her. She decides not to care. She'd rather be paranoid than sorry.

"If they tracked your car, they probably wouldn't have had to grab her at a concert," she theorizes instead. "I mean, if they already knew where you were, no reason to find you in public." She shrugs. "What kind of planning were you thinking?"

[against_all_trouble]

"Oh, I don't know. Gathering cash and valuables, spare guitars to either play or sell, sending messages to old friends - old band members who moved away, people like you I helped in the past, I keep in touch - that I'm traveling and might pop up on their doorstep, selling this car and getting a station wagon or a cheap camper-van... I'd have to think about it, is the point. Did you leave home blind?"

Is he going to get back to his story? Meh, it can wait for later, this is important.

[sing_for_the_tears]

"Sort of yes, sort of no? I mean, I didn't just up and leave, or anything. I planned for months to get out. But I was planning to get out, y'know? I didn't really have a plan past 'get to Atlanta.' I've been improvising." She nods at her backpack, lying next to them on the floor. "S'why my bag comes with me everywhere."