#brass players amiright fellas? 😏

[zz-chikorita]

Headcannons for characters from your Jolly Rogers... IN A COLLEGE AU SETTING?!?!

...please?

Oooh! Fun!

Ok, so, hear me out, here's what I'm thinking...

Leon:

Leon is a new student studying abroad at this particular university. He's in a stem field (probably mathematics or physics) and was pushed into it by his family and old teachers. He's the first generation of his family to go to college and they're super proud of him and have high expectations for him. He, of course, is under a lot of pressure to not disappoint them so he went with a field he would be able to excel at and that would set him up for success. His family would be ecstatic if he someday applied for medical school or law school.

Thing is, he's miserable. He's good at this stuff but that doesn't mean he actually likes it. This isn't what he wants to do for the rest of his life. But he does want to be a good son and brother. He wants to be able to get a good paying job so he can send money back home, since the only reason he's able to go to college at all is because he got a ton of scholarships. He had phenomenal test scores and was valedictorian and all that so it wasn't hard for him.

What he really wants to be is a musician. Being on stage in the spotlight, making people clap and cheer... that's what he wants.

But we can't always get what we want

(Guzma hcs and more under cut)

Guzma:

Guzma happens to be a third year music student. His main instrument is trombone and he plays a lot of freelance gigs with a small group of his friends to make some extra cash and just cuz it's something to do. He also like going to bars and parties, basically being your typical college dumbass, drinking and doing dumb shit. People describe him as arrogant and cocky. He does not take criticism well, which gets him into trouble.

Despite his reputation as a short-tempered brute, he's actually very intelligent. He's happy in his field, however he would've liked to go to school for one of the biological sciences. He only managed to get scholarships for music school specifically (his stem grades weren't bad or anything, they were just a little too average), and since he's completely paying his own way through college, that's what he went with. The scholarships weren't enough though and he still had to take out a loan or two, hence the always trying to find opportunities to make a quick buck.

He's one of those music majors who practice in the dead middle of the night because no one else is around. Like, 2-4 am.

There's one point he notices this same guy coming in and out of the music building on a weekly basis. He goes into a practice room around 2am, slams out some, like, ridiculously awesome jazz improv on the keyboard for a half hour or so, and then leaves. Occasionally he'll mix it up with other genres, but for the most part it's something high energy. All of it is played with a tangible amount of passion.

What's weird is that Guzma's never seen him in the building during the daytime. He's not in the jazz band....or any of the other ensembles as far as he can tell. He's asked around if anybody has class with a piano player with darker skin and long, purple hair... but no luck.

Kukui thinks he might've seen a guy by that description in his calculus lecture...

Guzma's Band:

Kukui is getting a duel major in Music Performance and Anthropology (there's actually a reason I chose anthropology specifically but I haven't brought it up in JR yet so I will just leave it at that).

His main instrument is trumpet and he plays gigs with Guzma. He and Guzma are "friends" ...in the loosest sense of the word... They went to the same high school and actually dated for a while but then broke up. They meet to practice and perform together, but they don't hang out like they used to... Kukui's current girlfriend, who is studying biological psychology, keeps telling him they should really sit down and talk about it but they are both very stubborn.

Molayne is in school for mechanical engineering. He plans to go to grad school and eventually get a job in NASA. He plays vibraphone with them because it's fun and he's bored. He has an eidetic memory, so he doesn't have to worry about studying and all that, so he has a lot of free time. He's frequently the band's designated driver.

Kalani is a music education major and his focus is percussion. He plays drum set for them and, yes, is still a giant Guzma simp in this universe.

Misc.:

Plumeria doesn't really play gigs with the band but plays trombone like Guzma. She is also frequently the one stopping Guzma from starting bar fights.

Raihan is Leon's old boyfriend from back home. Since they chose different colleges and Leon wasn't even going to be in the country anymore, they decided to break up. They're still friends though and stay in touch.

Nanu is a very tired and very disgruntled, tenured professor.

Hala is one of the music professors.

I imagine the first time Guz and Lee met, it wasn't quite a real meeting. Guzma saw Leon go into a practice room, like usual, so Guzma goes into the room directly adjacent to it. The walls aren't thin but they're not soundproof either, so he can hear him slamming away on the keys.

So, Guzma gets his bone out and starts playing (really loudly to make sure the sound goes through the wall) with him. He can hear Leon falter a little and kinda press a bunch of wrong keys when he realizes it but he ends up continuing anyway. They even end up doing a little question/answer, back and forth improv thing that makes both of their hearts soar.

When they come to a natural ending, they're both laughing and in such high spirits. Leon goes quiet first and then Guzma hears the frantic shuffling of a backpack. He sets his instrument down and quickly runs out into the hall but... Leon's already gone.

He doesn't come back to the music building for a few weeks. When he does finally come back, he goes in and just plays the most depressingly melancholy piece Guzma's ever heard. It also didn't have his heart in it, like it normally does.

Guzma waits for him to finish and then confronts him when Leon tries to leave.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Ah-Ah-Ah..."

"You deaf? Who are you and what the hell ya think you're doin'?"

"Ah'm sairy! Ah thought it wid be awricht as long as Ah came late since Ah'm a non-major. B-but, Ah'll leave nou-"

"That ain't what I meant, idiot. I meant what was that shit you just played, huh? That ain't you! Why ain't you jammin' like ya normally do?"

"Ah... Ah'm... just no feeling it today. Ah'm sairy..."

They're both quiet because Guzma doesn't know how to respond and he's busy being extremely distracted because he never expected that accent to come out of that face (which happens to be an extremely attractive one, he realizes). He is also realizing how exhausted and tired the poor guy looks.

"Ah shouldnae o' come here. Ah cannae hae distractions... Ah need tae focus on ma studies... Ah need... Ah need-"

"A drink."

"Ah... whit-?"

"'A drink'. You need a drink"

"B-but-"

"You over twenty one?"

"Aye, b-but-"

"Then we gon' get you a drink."

"Ah-"

"And ya still ain't answered my question."

"Huh?"

"Who are you?"

"...Ah'm...Leon."