bakerstreet | big rock stars

[publicist at Mahoraga Records, part of Zen'in Entertainment, one of the big three media conglomerates in the country.]

[okay it's not an au for toki, but y'know. it's thematically appropriate.]

[Could just as easily be a glitzy trash-pop star or a riot grrrl.]

(( A potential rising star looking for bandmates/groupies? ))

[Not an AU but it called to him]

[ Do you need a manager? Congrats, here's one who can help you make a good old fashioned rock & roll deal with Satan! ]

[Indie darling with bluegrass roots]

[So I don't actually have an idea of what to do with these two. But he absolutely would like to do something with the person who should have been his mentor.]

[The studio was done up in warm, bright colors. Rugs served as sound proofing, the overstuffed chairs mismatching. The electronics were easily overlooked, in favor of the eclectic set dressing. Lucy Gray always liked to think this was a magical space, hidden away in a caravan, traveling across the globe.

Today, she was sharing the space. Haymitch Abernathy was looking for a comeback album, and she'd always been a fan of the troubled musician. Lucky for her, they shared a label, so reaching out was easy to do.

Guitar within arms reach as well as a multitude of notepads and pens, Lucy Gray does what she does best. She smiles and says with absolute sincerity:] So Mr. Abernathy, you don't need me telling you I've been a big fan since I was a little girl. I reckon that'd make you feel awful old. So how about I just ask you what you had in mind for our collaboration?

[He doesn't need her to make him feel old. Most days all it takes is waking up.

It does sound strange to hear someone mention being a fan, although of course he knows that there are plenty of people who there who are. Every so often he ends up in the news, with the highlights of his career being rehashed over and over again. Now he'd rather give them all something different to talk about.]

I thought something from when I was younger. A sort of folk song that's popular in the region. [Which he knows is right up her alley.]

Think it's something I know?

[She gestures at one of the guitars for him to pick up, if he's so inclined. So it's a new old song, alright, she can go for that. She's always liked the old Appalachian folk music, through to murder ballads. There's something magical there she's always been drawn to. Something fantastical.]

I've got a good ear, too, maybe I can follow along if it's something I don't.

[He picks up a guitar, but doesn't play it yet. He just rests it in his lap, as a bit of comfort.]

Do you know the one about the hanging tree?

[Just a bit of unpleasant history from the region's history.]

[Her lips break into a smile.]

Do I know the one about the hanging tree?

[She says it in a tone that indicates that she certainly knows that song and a thousand more.]

There's a family rumor, y'know, that a long time ago, a great-great-grandmother of mine was the one that wrote it. It's a folk tune, no one knows who really wrote it, but I'm partial to the rumors. I always thought it sounded like a love song.

[She picks up her own guitar, strums the opening chord like it's water.]

Are you, are you, coming to the tree They're searching, hoping.

I've heard that rumor too. I wonder who it might have been meant for.

[Not that they'll ever truly know the answer. It's just fun to speculate.]

I thought perhaps there would be a way to change that song, make it distinctive. If you know what I mean.

I do too. Someone she was willing to risk death to be with. Or someone sentenced to die at that tree that she loved. We can only guess, unfortunately.

[She wishes she knew. That there had been more family history, but her band of roaming musicians hadn't kept many records. Or they'd been lost in the hundreds of years since.]

I'm hoping you don't mean a techno remix. [Oh god, she could just hear the bass dropping.] Maybe divide up the verses, make it a conversation between those two people. We just have to come up with our version about who they are.

[It's been many years since he could have written a song about that subject, and in those years, he's been keeping himself apart from the world on purpose. It's just easier for everyone that way. Until Lucy Gray had broken through those defenses and gotten him to agree to a partnership.

He grimaces at her suggestion. They're in agreement about that one.]

No, nothing that would be likely to play in a nightclub in the Capital. [It's not exactly his favorite place.] There should be a story to it. Maybe an explanation of why the meeting never happens.

One of those songs you hear when you're a kid, but don't realize just how dark it is until you're grown and look at the lyrics. [Which, could very much be a Capitol-favored pop song, but they were going for something far more haunting than that.]

Oh, that's good! [Carefully, Lucy Gray with her guitar takes a seat across from the legend, pulls her chair a bit closer.]

Do you think he was with another person, so he didn't come? Or did he just lose his nerve? [She's very confident it's the man's fault the lovers in the song never met.]

Something like that.

[He's noticed her assumptions, but chooses not to comment on them.] Why does it have to be something like that? Why couldn't it be that he wanted to come but was unavoidably detained and was unable to make it?

Could be.

What do you think would make for the best song, though? Something we gotta consider.

That depends. Are there more people who will feel a connection with being let down by someone or a connection with wanting something but missing out on it?

[She has to think about that one, chewing it over as she looks across the studio. She thinks about her love life, complicated as it could be. She's been let down. And she's missed out.] We try it both ways, see which one we like better?

[That earns an 'aha!' face and a finger waved through the air, a bit like a mentor emphasizing a point.] I think you've hit on something there.

Alright! [She cracks her knuckles.] Play through it once, just to hear it, then one way, then the other?

[He picks up a guitar of his own and settles it across his lap.] Ready when you are.

[She strums the guitar in her own lap.] Ready.

[Lucy Gray's voice creeps throughout the studio as she starts the haunting melody.]

[Classic cellist. Known for her covers.]

[Same universe as Pentakill, K/DA, and True Damage]

big rock stars

ROCK STAR AU meme

toji | jujutsu kaisen

Toki Wartooth | Metalocalypse | ota

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Dorian Storm | Critical Role | OTA

Ziggy Stardust |The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust | OTA

Sister Imperator | Ghost

Lucy Gray Baird | BoSAS/THG | ota

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timeline fuckery whateverrrrrr idgaf

whatever it's our AU we can do what we want

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Wednesday Addams | Wednesday | ota

Kayn | LoL - Heartsteel Verse