Concerto of the Dead - Marianne

[Ac1ds0ld13r]

You were on tonight. It was one of those old little theaters tucked into Brooklyn. The guy opening for you was a violinist, and he was good, but he was mortal. You would be better, you always were. It was too bad your mother couldn't be here to see. She had loved to hear you play. Had never missed a concert. There was a smell to this place. It was like walking into an attic or something. Not as stifling and hot, but that smell. Dust. You peeked out from stage left, and seen your Kindred sibling, Sphinx. She was standing, and uncomfortable. She was older than you by several decades, and you didn't get the impression she liked you...At all. Philip had her babysit you whenever he disappeared for a few days. He never said where he went and when you asked he acted like you didn't say anything. Not lied, or pretended to not hear you. He just ignored the question. If Sphinx knew where he went she never bothered tell you either. You looked into the crowd. There was a lot of people here, for such a small venue. About two hundred. It looked like capacity.

Everyone started clapping. That meant the the violinist had finished, and it was your turn...

[PennyDreadful]

I had a quick peek at the crowd before going out. I spotted Sphinx right away. I couldn't even go grocery shopping without the bitch following me, making sure I was old enough to buy that wine and those smokes. Then I remembered that I don't go grocery shopping anymore. I still smoke though. It doesn't do anything for me anymore, but I keep the habit anyway. It reminds me of before, and it gives me something to do with my hands. Trying to pretend that Sphinx was a hatstand, I looked over the faces in the crowd. I hadn't really expected this many people in a joint like this. Sure, two hundred people wasn't a whole lot, I'd played for way more before, but it was good to know you could pull a steady crowd in a place like New York, where every kid that could play a kazoo was competing with you for gigs.

When the violinist went off I let the backing band walk on first, following the last guy onto the stage. It felt really strange, sharing the stage with so many people, even though it was only three others besides myself. I was used to playing alone, and even though I knew that these people were here to see me, not my drummer, I felt like I was competing with them. My ego was always too big for my own good, at least where music was concerned.

While the band tuned up I checked the set list again. By now most of them were my own songs, but I still threw in a few favourites of mine from time to time. Tonight I'd decided on the Radetzky March by Strauss Sr., and, because I felt like being weird, a Smashing Pumpkins song I really liked. 'Tonight Tonight' was actually very playable on the piano. Except that it wasn't a piano I was playing, which added to the weirdness of it all. I was used to a grand piano, but here I was playing a Kurzweil keyboard. It was a really nice keyboard, and it had weighted keys so it felt like a piano, but it was still weird. The other weird thing was the microphone that I now adjusted in front of me so that I could look over the stand at the crowd. I'd never done vocals in the old days, but I discovered that I actually had a pretty good voice and figured I might as well use it.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen" I said, and, taking a deep breath that was more habit than anything else, I started.

Spoiler:

I'm gonna try a first person style with this character, just for kicks. If it sucks I'll go back to third person.

Do you want me to roll dice for this?

Edit: Fixed Typo

[Ac1ds0ld13r]

Spoiler:

Intelligence + Performance dif 6 since you've rehearsed all of the material. Roll once for each song on your set list.

[PennyDreadful]

Spoiler:

I had no idea how to do this with that new dice roller, so I'm copying and pasting the results here. Tbh I liked the old one better, much more convenient. Also, I wasn't sure if you reroll 10's in owod. I looked in the book but I couldn't find anything on it, so I turned them off just in case.

Marianne rolled 6d10s for Song 1, with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 5 2 10 10 2 2
2 successes

Marianne rolled 6d10s for , with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 9 3 7 5 5 8
3 successes

Marianne rolled 6d10s for , with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 10 9 9 3 1 10
3 successes

Marianne rolled 6d10s for , with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 7 2 8 5 7 9
4 successes

Marianne rolled 6d10s for , with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 7 10 9 1 8 4
3 successes

Marianne rolled 6d10s for , with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 1 9 2 5 4 5
0 successes

Marianne rolled 6d10s for , with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 4 10 4 8 6 8
4 successes

Marianne rolled 6d10s for , with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 7 7 8 8 4 2
4 successes

Marianne rolled 6d10s for , with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 1 4 6 6 1 6
1 success

Marianne rolled 6d10s for , with a target of 6, rerolls on nothing, and botches activated.
Dice Results: 4 5 2 10 4 10
2 successes

[Ac1ds0ld13r]

Spoiler:

Yes, you reroll 10s in OWoD. Looks like a mediocre set when you look at the big picture. You had three stand out performances and a few good ones, the rest were either awful or just average. IC post away

[PennyDreadful]

Spoiler:

I'll reroll the 10's first then. It won't fix the failure but the others might improve. Each line is rerolling the 10's in a particular roll, in the order they appear.

Character? rolled 2d10s for Reason?, with a target of 6, rerolls on 10, and botches deactivated.
Dice Results: 2 9
1 success

Roll 2, nothing to reroll

Marianne rolled 2d10s for rerolling 10's , with a target of 6, rerolls on 10, and botches deactivated.
Dice Results: 10 (9) 9
3 successes

Roll 4, nothing to reroll

Marianne rolled 1d10 for rerolling 10's , with a target of 6, rerolls on 10, and botches deactivated.
Dice Results: 9
1 success

Roll 6, nothing to reroll

Marianne rolled 1d10 for rerolling 10's , with a target of 6, rerolls on 10, and botches deactivated.
Dice Results: 8
1 success

Roll 8, nothing to reroll

Roll 9, nothing to reroll

Marianne rolled 2d10s for rerolling 10's , with a target of 6, rerolls on 10, and botches deactivated.
Dice Results: 6 2
1 success

--------
To summarise:

Song 1: 3 successes
Song 2: 3 successes
Song 3: 6 successes
Song 4: 4 successes
Song 5: 4 successes
Song 6: 0 successes
Song 7: 5 successes
Song 8: 4 successes
Song 9: 1 succcess
Song 10: 3 successes

-- That should bump the set up to slightly above average. Any idea on crowd reaction?

[Ac1ds0ld13r]

Spoiler:

Use your results and post accordingly

[PennyDreadful]

I thought it went pretty well, all things considered, and I let myself bask in the applause from the crowd for a few minutes before walking off. I fucked up the improv number, but that was my own damn fault for letting some guy talk me into doing improv 'cause I'd never been any good at it. But I was real happy with how two of my own songs had turned out and thought that I might have two lead tracks for an album here, if I could ever decide on a stage name. I hadn't been able to think of a decent one that wouldn't be totally obvious to anyone who'd known me before.

I fished in my pack for a smoke and my Zippo. I guess most people expected me to use a Bic lighter and smoke Virginia Slims but that was just way too gay for me, and I like boys. Anyway, it was Marlboro reds and a Zippo for me. I flinched at the flame in that instinctive way I hadn't learned to control yet and took a deep drag, pocketing the lighter. The humans told me I'd ruin my voice smoking and the vamps told me I'd burn myself to a crisp with that lighter, but I ignored them. My voice was in no danger, and from what I'd learned so far I thought I should be able to shrug off a Zippo flame if I got real unlucky and caught myself on fire with it.

I thought about going around to the front and hanging out a little, maybe pick up a little snack while I waited for the place to be empty enough to bring my car around and pack up my gear.

[Ac1ds0ld13r]

Sphinx was waiting for you outside after you had dealt with the bookers, they were eager to have you come back and perform again, though the pointed out some areas about your show they thought needed work. You already knew. The crowd had been your gauge and they were always honest.

"Sheesh, did you have to take so long?" She stood there, her over sized boots and a long coat and her hands buried in her pockets. "I don't know why Phil doesn't come babysit you himself. You did OK in there, aside from that one song. Woooowww did you fuck that one up." Her voice was low, you had noticed that. Sphinx seldom liked to be in the limelight and her tone reflected it. It was definitely mocking and half sing-song, but if you hadn't been close to her you probably wouldn't have heard her at all. She had a small voice. You knew awhile ago Sphinx didn't really care for you, but you two came from completely different backgrounds, and likely she resented the upbringing you had. It sure wasn't Philip's attention. He was hardly ever around. "So did you have to blow some dude for your check or what? Buncha stuffy old bitches if you ask me."

[PennyDreadful]

"I didn't know you were a critic" I said grumpily. The idea of being criticised by someone who probably couldn't play 'Old McDonald' if her life depended on it was galling. "But at least babysitting me you can get out some. Beats being stuck at home all day, but if you don't feel like following me around everywhere you don't have to. I promise I won't snitch on you, and we'd both probably be a lot happier."

I didn't wait for an answer, because I knew what it would be. "The people that run places like this piss me off too. They like to pretend they're trendsetters, that The Next Big Thing is gonna be discovered in their shithole of a club, and that they, unlike the unwashed masses around them, know art. It's pretty much the next best thing to actually having talent and being able to produce something that isn't comlete shit." I took a deep drag from my cigarette and flicked the butt into the gutter. My pack-per-day ratio had gone up sharply ever since I died, and I made a mental note to buy more on the way back.

I started walking towards the car-park where we'd left my car coming here. "Anywhere else we need to be tonight?"