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]

"Had that coming, asshole," says Arthur quietly. Then in a louder voice that probably carries, "OK, he's out for now, I'm getting the duct tape."

Lesse, there should be some in the hall closet? One frantic search later: yes, there was. It's tiger-striped, black and hot pink. Why? Who knows. Anyway, bring it back to Erica.

"K, here's the tape. Oh, and I'm not going to say your name in front of them, just in case. They probably have mine already, but we might want to avoid it."

[sing_for_the_tears]

She accepts the tape from him, raises an eyebrow at the pattern but doesn't bother to say anything, and gets to taping. After a moment's thought, she decides to stuff something in the guy's mouth first- she winds up grabbing what looks like a dish towel someone had thrown over a nearby chair. Mouth, meet towel and duct tape, have some bonding time.

"Yeah, point. Thanks." She thinks about the name problem. Well, now's a good time to get used to a new first name if ever there was one. Her fake ID has a fake last name, of course, but she didn't think she could adjust fast enough to a fake first name. But now that she's being hunted by people more motivated, less deterred by large cities, better equipped, and noticeably less friendly than her parents, she'll just- get over it. Somehow. Fake first name it is.

(She's encountered people less friendly than her parents, now there's a horrifying thought all by itself.)

"How about Morgan?" she suggests, rather facetiously. "You'll need some name for me. And you should pick one, too, you probably don't want to introduce yourself to people as-" just in case, just in case, don't say his name, don't say what they're doing or where they're going, "-the same name they know you by, after this."

[against_all_trouble]

"Sure, that's a name. Suits you well enough. And let's go with... Zach, for me. Sure." It's like a stage name, right? He can do that.

He checks that this guy is safely gagged, then continues "K, let me do the same to the other guy before he comes to. With the rag, that's a good extra. Thoughts on what we do with them afterward? I doubt they'd stay put in a prison for long."

Then he goes and gags the other guy, and lugs him back to the same room.

[sing_for_the_tears]

"Zack it is. And for them... nothing useful comes to mind," Erica admits rather sourly. She heads towards the other room, tape in tow. There is not another convenient dish towel visible, so she grabs a washcloth from the bathroom instead.

She continues with frustration, "Of course we have no idea what they can do. But I don't have ideas on fixing that that don't involve a lot of pain-" she ignores the panicked gagged-spluttering from behind them from the man she left tied up in the main room, "and that would move us firmly from people deeply confused by their stalkers to actively bad guys." She glares at the unconscious body in Suzy's room. "I don't know who the hell they are, but I want them to go away, and torturing them isn't likely to get them to ignore us."

She starts in on taping up the unconscious guy. Better sooner than later. "So... long story short? Not a clue. We could leave them here with a note that says We Mean No Harm? Possibly blindfold them and drive them somewhere else, first, I don't necessarily want to leave them in your place, though on the other hand it might be a lost cause already. Or you could hand them to the police and we can hope that at least slows them down." That 'you' there? Erica will not be talking to any policemen. Zip, zero, not a one. "Also a factor: I'm crap at this. I do not tie people up for a living, and neither do you unless you have a way creepy hobby you failed to mention; we have limited time here before they could plausibly get out by themselves."

[against_all_trouble]

"No secret people-tying skills, no. Excessively duct taping their arms to their sides will slow them down a lot, though." He sets about doing this as he continues. Might as well, right?

"Even then, I think someone will check on them if they're not out in an hour. Two, if we're lucky. And yeah, I can't think of any lasting solution that isn't blatantly immoral. Which I'd rather avoid for now."

After a few moment's silence, he continues, "So I think we go back to the previous plan. Stick the two of them under the beds or something so they don't see anything, grab whatever we can, bug out. Though if you can think of a song that goes well with mind-reading, that's probably worth a shot before we go."

[sing_for_the_tears]

"Yeah, okay, taping it is. I- no. Let's go with no. I tried a couple things, none of them worked, and if these guys have any sort of special protection against me singing at them I do not want to find that out right now. Step one: get the hell out of this apartment."

She heads back out of the room, rolls the guy in the living room as best she can; when this fails to be as efficient as she would like, she settles for 'under the table' and just throws a bunch of blankets over the table to block his view. Close enough. She throws whatever else she can find into containers and goes back for Art. "So. Zaaaack. Time to go, right? Go, go, go?"

She's jittering back and forth on her feet. She may be slightly nervous.

[against_all_trouble]

Arthur sticks the other guy under the bed nearby, then grabs a few more things; luckily, they got the most important stuff before the knuckleheads arrived. He moves quickly but methodically, staying outwardly calm.

"Alright, sure, we're done here. Let's hit the road."

[sing_for_the_tears]

Once they're outside, Erica calms noticeably. She wasn't as much stressed by the men themselves, as by the possibility the police might get involved. She is, altogether, not terribly impressed with the men. Relying on surprise is no way to plan things, and she should know.

(She decides not to mention this to Art until they've figured out how to retrieve Suzy. It's likely to annoy him, and to no purpose.)

"So- first stop, motel. Rest for the night, see what we can do about Suzy. Then either way, keep moving. And we should come up with back stories for ourselves," she adds thoughtfully. "In case someone is chatting with us, y'know? Hesitating to come up with a lie is stupidly obvious."

[against_all_trouble]

"Yeah, that sounds alright," Art replies. With the crisis over, the confident calm is almost totally gone.

A few moments later, he continues "Not sure what I'd do for backstory. I'll try to remember something from a foster-care friend."

Car. Driving. Away from the city center, there should be motels around the outskirts.

[sing_for_the_tears]

Erica has never been terribly social; she considers it a side effect of the combination of school, work and babysitting she's been bullied into all her life. She doesn't have a lot of friends to draw stories from. But her parents are horrible gossips, and her mom at least has a couple of siblings. There's pieces to steal.

"I'll- hmm." She mixes together a girl she used to sit with at lunch, her youngest aunt and her mother's latest Scandal Story fairly liberally. "I'm from Florida, mom's a TSA agent, dad left when I was a baby. Older sister moved to Nashville for school and I'm going to see her cause... she just had a baby. Hypothetical baby daddy to have no details but lots of judgmental disapproving faces made about him. That work?"

She reviews it in her head. "Let's make that sister in Chicago, actually. I'd rather not have anyone know where we're going until we make it there, y'know?"

"So, now we just figure out how you got roped into this road trip with- oh, wait, there!" she points at a Lodging sign on the highway. There's three options listed; they can pick the cheapest, as far as Erica is concerned. If it were just her, she would suggest sleeping in the car. But Art looks like he's starting to fall apart, and she'd rather not be trapped in a car with him overnight until he's calmer.

[against_all_trouble]

Arthur isn't quite falling apart, but the stress is showing on his face and in his posture.

"Sure, let's get a room. Single bed ones are cheaper."

As they pull in, he spins a short life story "OK, I'm from Tallahassee originally and we worked at the same diner. I just got fired and was busking, but that works in any city anyway, so I offered you a ride."

[sing_for_the_tears]

"Sounds good, Zach."

She hops out of the car and retrieves her backpack and the bag of Most Important Items from Arthur's house, the latter of which she hands to him. She makes sure what of their stash is visible through the car windows looks as worthless as possible; no reason to tempt a break in.

Leaving Arthur to fetch whatever he needs, she heads inside to size up the desk clerk. Tall, on the skinny side, a few years older than her and rather scruffy. She decides he is cute enough to flirt with but not worth more.

Ten minutes of smiles and friendly chitchat later, 'Morgan' has a room key, a discount, and a rather foggy-minded desk clerk who's forgotten she didn't provide ID. She heads back for Arthur and holds up the key triumphantly. "Hey, Zach, we're in 204. Got everything?"

[against_all_trouble]

"Everything I'll need until tomorrow. Just let me get my guitar and I'll be right up."

And then he is, as promised, right up.

"Anything to do before morning?"

[sing_for_the_tears]

"We trying to grab your friend? With, y'know, a backup plan in case they can react to it somehow."

[against_all_trouble]

"It's late, and I'm all out of adrenaline. I don't think I'm capable of executing a backup plan before morning."

[sing_for_the_tears]

"In the morning, then. Jesus, passing out sounds good right now."

The room is small, containing only a bed that could pass as a full if you were feeling generous, a couple of rickety nightstands and a metal rack clearly intended for use as a closet. There's no bathroom; the shared restrooms are down the hall. Erica dumps her stuff in a corner and leaves to wash up.

When she comes back, she looks at the room for a moment, rolls her eyes, and grabs a sleep shirt out of her bag. "I don't care enough to walk back to the bathroom," she tells Arthur over her shoulder. "Don't look or don't care." Once she's changed, she sets her alarm and crawls into one side of the bed. "That half's y'rs, try not t'kick," she yawns. "G'night."

[against_all_trouble]

He nods in agreement to the first bit. "Same."

He trades his shirt for a t-shirt and strips down to boxers, then flops down into the other half.

He yawns back, "Night, Morgan," then nods off rapidly.

Something like nine hours later, he wakes up.

[sing_for_the_tears]

Erica makes it about seven hours. She's not bothered by Arthur's presence; Tommy often climbed into her bed at home, and this is still a far sight better than any of the shelters in Atlanta. But she feels too close to Atlanta still, twitchy to move on; she wakes up and her brain takes off, worrying about stalkers and trying to plan escape routes and generally not cooperating with the goal of getting rest. She decides seven hours is good enough, and sets about getting herself organized.

By the time Arthur's awake- she should probably try to start thinking of him as Zach, so she doesn't slip up- she's showered, dressed, and hovering over a piece of paper clearly stolen from the drawer of her nightstand. It has a list of song names written on it; she's been brainstorming lyrics. Songs to try to retrieve Suzy have a "|||" next to them, to imitate prison bars; songs to try to get money or food have "$" next to them, and songs she'd try to use if they run into trouble have a large "X".

When she notices Arthur- Zach- stirring, she waves at him briefly. "Mornin'."

[against_all_trouble]

Arthur wakes up uncharacteristically bleary-eyed this.. morning? early afternoon? "Morn'. Urgh." He shakes his head a bit, peers over, and tries again. "Morning, Morgan. Busy already?"

[sing_for_the_tears]

"Mmhmm. Had trouble sleeping, after- y'know." She waves the paper at him. "Brainstormin' songs we could use. We can give some of 'em a shot when you're not brain dead, yeah?"

[against_all_trouble]

"Yeah, I know. If I wasn't so exhausted I'd never have slept through the nightmares." He runs his hands through his hair and rubs his eyes.

"Let's see what you've got so far. I had one or two thoughts myself, but songs we both know might be better."

[sing_for_the_tears]

Erica offers him the pad of paper. It's almost entirely country music, with some famous old classic rock songs scattered in here and there. She clearly has a musical type. "Both's better, sure, but 'less you like country music that might narrow it down some."

[against_all_trouble]

"I like a lot of bluegrass, and Skynyrd's pretty good, but most country isn't really my style. I do know a couple of these, though."

He looks it over for a bit before adding, "I don't think any of this is going to beat the song I'd thought of for pulling Suzy back. Do you know any Pink Floyd? Wish You Were Here is exactly the perfect sentiment."

[sing_for_the_tears]

Erica snorts. "I don't listen to him much but it's hard t'miss that one." She hums a few bars. "Seems like it'd have a fair shot. Wanna pack up first? If this works, I wanna bail fast."

[against_all_trouble]

Arthur grins and snorts. "Pink Floyd isn't a person, it's a group. But yeah, that's the song. Let me get it playing in the background while we pack, refresh our memories."