Manuel and Alison - Mutant Radio!

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

Manuel's back in the Mansion, and he meets up with Alison to receive his belated Xmas gift. Backdate this to Thursday, Jan 13th, 2005



Manuel was back in the Mansion for the first time since the presence of Selene was removed from his head, and everything old was new again. Again. He distinctly remembered hearing something about a holiday gifting waiting for him from Alison, so he decided to try to track her down to investigate. His first stop, her room, got him nothing but a small green boy who earnestly told him that Alison was in the Music Room. So that made the Music Room his second stop.

Scales greeted his arrival, Alison hearing the sound of the door opening but not paying attention to it yet, instead concentrating on the very basic guitar work she was putting herself though. Nearly two months of not playing the guitar meant a lot of catch-up practice, the simplest of errors driving her to frustration. Hence, a very determined return to the basics. She hadn't reached the point where her hands were getting sore just yet, knowing to stop shy of that unless she hurt herself and set back the musical training even further, and the scales flowed smoothly at this point. A small smile showed through, the only reaction Alison allowed herself as she started the scale she'd just done again, the notes crisp and steady.

Manuel knew better than to interrupt someone who was practicing, so he spent the time examining the room. His fingers itched when he saw the electronica section, but he decided that Behaving was a good idea and kept the itch down. He had the turntables in his room, yes, but they had some very nice speaker stacks, a great mixing board, a drum machine with all the toys, and three _full racks_ of synths. And that was just what he could see from where he was standing.

Whoever had walked in, the walk a touch different from the ones she was used to hearing, seemed content to wait, so Alison indulged. The scales practice was nearly done and she went through the end of it meticulously, not allowing herself any diverging or flourishes until it was over. Then, satisfied with her work and making a mental note to run through them again in the evening, Alison set the guitar carefully back down on the stand before looking across the room. "Manuel." A hint of surprise perhaps, at the sight of him. "Hey. Can I help you with anything?" Seeing him look at the turntables that way made her smile, just a touch.

Manuel grinned. "Well, I distinctly remember something about a holiday gift being held in escrow for me?" he said with a laugh. "And I wanted to see the instruments again, maybe see if my grey matter wanted to give me some of the stuff I used to love." he said with only a slight hint of sadness. "I've still got a good ear, and there should be a radio in here somewhere..."

"Do you remember that or is it from someone telling you, that you know?" The changes between Manuel-that-was and Manuel-of-now were blindingly obvious on several levels, but it was the body language that was most present for Alison. The subtle stiffness of someone guarding themselves at all times was nearly entirely gone, replaced by something far more... natural. "Well then. Why don't we combine both?" She gestured at the turntables, before rising to her feet and heading for her desk and the computer there. Even if the actual DVD of stuff she'd had burned down for him was in her room, she could still access the network here and simply work from there. The computer she kept in the music room was souped up to just the right degree for the music mixing software she had on it, too.

"No, I'm pretty sure that it's all me and not just somebody telling me that that's the way I used to be." he said neutrally. He then walked over to the turntables with a grin, and by instinct and muscle memory got them all plugged in in the usual way. "You want me to spin you some tracks, or just mash together what's on here now with whatever you're downloading?"

Alison smiled a bit, at the first. For some reason, newly innocent and naïve Manuel had... unnerved her somewhat. The concept of someone losing all sense of who they were was wrong in far too many ways to think about - never mind that it was one of their students, someone she knew, and the list went on beyond all of that. If he'd remember entirely, she'd be far more content with that than anything else. "Download's nearly done, but why don't you just go ahead and see what you come up with? Then you can have a look at this, when you're done." Making someone wait to indulge in music was just Wrong.

Manuel grinned. "Fine, then." he said, and started spinning the first record. It was a nicely up tempo number, heavy on the beats and the bass. The other record was lighter, chirpier. Almost airy.

He always did love a challenge.

He set to with a vengeance, using the second record's lighter lilt to counteract the heaviness of the first one, weaving both melodic storylines around and through each other. Manuel closed his eyes, shutting out everything but the music, to focus on what he had to work with.

Alison had been wrong - it wasn't the body language that was the most telling. It was the music. The download finished soundlessly, the computer's volume already set to off so as to not interrupt Manuel, and Alison leaned back in her chair, content with simply listening until Manuel felt ready to wind down, however long that took. A low hum of accompaniment escaped her now and then, but she caught herself each time, lips quirking in amusement at her behavior.

Manuel let the last notes die away, and then opened his eyes again. "I think I got carried away." he said with an embarrassed grin. "So - you have something queued up for me? Do I get a listen first, or do I have to improv cold again?" he asked with a predatory grin.

"He tells the music teacher he got carried away." Alison rolled her eyes then flicked the sound back on for the computer, prepping the files she had in queue. Charles had said this should be a safe thing to do... "And here you go." With that, the program started to run through the selected sound file, Alison leaning back in the chair again to watch Manuel.

Manuel listened to the track from beginning to end. "That sounds familiar" he said, "but I can't seem to put my finger on it. This is going to drive me nuts - what _is_ this?" he demanded. "Got a
half-decent beat to it. A little ragged, but not too shabby."

She turned the screen around, letting him see the title he'd given the song file himself. "It's something you did, about four months ago. I keep backups of the student work that gets saved to this computer's hard drive and when I went through them to clean them out, I found…" She glanced at the DVD and grinned. "Well, more than a few files."

"Dude." he said, in an unconscious parody of Jamie. "I did this? And I'm allowed to keep this?" he said with a grin. "That's awesome. Thank you very much." he said with real feeling and then impulsively got out from behind the turntables to give Alison a hug and a kiss on each cheek. "Out of all the things I have been given, I think this one is the best of them all."

Laughter edged with surprise greeted the unexpected gesture, though Alison did not ward him off. Instead she handed him the DVD with a flourish once he stepped back, nodding firmly. "All yours." Music that he had created himself, a part of his self that wasn't so intangible anymore. She was relieved it hadn't triggered any unpleasantness for him. "There's both finished and unfinished works on this, but I basically grabbed all I could find for you."

"No, that's fine. Now that I have a new perspective on things, maybe I'll give this stuff another try. Are the originals on this disc as well?" he asked with excitement. Finally, something he could _DO_! "Are you teaching Music next term?" he asked.

"I always teach music." The reply was amiable, but there was a definite undertone that anyone wanting to teach music in her place would have to do so over her dead body.  And that even that might not be enough to stop her from placing an objection to the fact. "You were in my classes before." A faint smile. "You were in the advanced class though. Would you like to take that again, or would you rather do an independent study?"

"Can I jump to the Independent Study if the Advanced class is more of the same for me?" he asked. "My memory's still not great in some areas, so I can't really guarantee anything." he admitted. "But I have to admit, I like the sound of the independent study. I even kind of just got an idea for it."

"I was hoping you'd prefer that myself." Alison nodded, reaching forward to open his student file on the computer and note it down right away. "There. Should show on your schedule and all. Now. What's that idea?"

Manuel grinned at Alison, and leaned in close to share his new idea with her. It consisted of only two words: "Mutant Radio".