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patchworkgargoyle · 4 months ago

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oc fic: find the beat

Belatedly posted (but not belatedly given) in celebration of my good friend Simon's (@sentient-trash) birthday!! Featuring so many of The Scromie's oc's, but with a focus on his adorable delicate boy Eric <3

The Cast Eric: transmasc OMC, @sentient-trash Dominik: transmasc OMC, mine Tig, Charlie, Vinny: OMC, @steves-strapcollection Set within the early days of Gerry's peace of mind verse, and of the band Rake Rating: T || Words: 2,123 || CW: brief allusion to an abusive romantic relationship Very very vaguely inspired by this scene from the new Scott Pilgrim show, but it's still cute and y'all should watch it anyway.

Dom was bored. He sat on his speaker cab and silently re-tuned his bass while Tig and Vinny tried to hash out what exactly was making this song fall so flat. It was interesting to watch at first; Dom had written a few songs with Tig before they brought on Vinny, Charlie, and Eric, so it was refreshing to get new eyes on their shit. And he was still half paying attention, but now they were just going around in circles. Dom had nothing more to contribute, Charlie was distracted by his phone, and Eric was subtly bouncing behind his drum kit. They only had so much time left in the jam space. At this rate, they wouldn’t fucking get anywhere.

Tig had told him to be patient—with that irritating grin of his that Dom could never actually get mad at—because they needed to find their stride as a band, first. They’d only practised together three times—four, if Dom counted today. And sure, Tig was right. Dom knew it’d take some time before they meshed.

But he was fucking bored, and renting the space was expensive, and he was tempted to leave early so he could go home and curl up on the couch with Kez and some take-out while they bitched about some stupid reality show. Sighing, Dom checked his tuning for the millionth time, cracked his neck, and sat there getting more and more impatient as Tig and Vinny went round and round again.

“Uh…”

Dom’s eyes flicked over to Eric. He was the newest addition, though barely newer than Charlie or Vinny. They all knew each other through their sex work technically, but Eric rarely collabed and didn’t interact as much, so he had less rapport to ease the way than the rest of them did. He’d mostly been quiet, just following the basic percussion notation that Tig had thrown together for this song with a few nervous nods and not much to offer. It didn’t match his neon green hair and bright clothes. Dom was convinced Eric was going to ghost them or they’d have to kick him out for being too passive.

Eric tried to speak up again, another meek um that neither Vinny nor Tig heard. Dom rolled his eyes.

“Hey, shut the fuck up,” he said, much louder, at the two guitarists. Vinny scowled flatly, and Tig cocked his head, but they both, finally, shut up. Then Dom looked back at Eric expectantly.

“Oh. Uh. Y’know what, it’s not really important…” Eric mumbled.

Tig smiled encouragingly. “Hey, if you’ve got a suggestion, I’m willing to hear it. Getting real fuckin’ tired of being stuck on this song, so anything might help at this rate.”

Eric’s hands clenched and twisted around his drumsticks in his lap as he looked at the others. Charlie had put his phone away and nodded kindly, Vinny shrugged, and Dom leaned further into his hands propping him up on the speaker, his foot tapping restlessly. If Eric backed down again, Dom was going to suggest they search for another drummer after this.

He didn’t back down, though.

“Okay. Well, uh, I had this idea? For the drum line. I mean, yeah, of course,” he laughed nervously and waved his sticks in the air. “But at the second pre chorus, I thought I could maybe come in with a–” He launched into a wild drum fill, but acapella, miming it over the drums, that ran into a steady, faster tempo that would drive the song into something more energetic. Something fun.

Even though he wasn’t playing, just miming and mimicking the sounds, Dom could hear exactly what he was getting at, and how it’d fit the song. And exactly how he could add to it.

“Oh shit.” Eric immediately went silent at Dom's cursing, drawing his lips into his mouth and staring at Dom, wide-eyed. “What if after that fill I did something like–?” he said, and instead of playing it, he followed Eric’s suit instinctually, saying his part in key by onomatopoeia.

It was like the sun came out from behind the clouds when Eric perked up. “Yes! That’s great! So like–”

They did that for a good two minutes: Eric starting with the drum fill, then the two of them heading into that relentless beat, pantomiming all of it. They didn’t stop until Dom had the presence of mind to look away, doing a double-take when he saw Charlie, Tig, and Vinny watching them with amusement and he realised they’d been dah-dah-tsk!-dumdumdadum-ing and buh-nuh-nuh-boodleoo-ing at each other like fucking maniacs.

Tig turned to Vinny and asked, “You get any of that?”

“Kind of,” he responded. Dom still couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

“Must be the secret language of the rhythm section.” Tig winked at Dom and he immediately felt warmer, ignoring Vinny’s protest—“I play bass too, Faulkner,”—to fight back a smile, roll his eyes, and check his tuning again.

“I didn’t get any bit of it, but it was pretty fun to watch,” Charlie said with a grin, mostly aiming it at Eric, who smiled back briefly.

“Why don’t you try playing it?” Tig said, “See how it sounds?”

Dom shrugged and tilted his head at Eric. “From the top, or from the fill?” he asked.

“From the fill.” He sounded more excited, and confident, than he had all day.

Dom clicked off his tuning pedal, strummed his E string, and smirked when the speaker vibrated from the deep sound under him. At his nod, Eric counted down.

“Three two one–!”

A crash, and he was off. The drum fill was so loud, so full of energy, Dom was on his feet before he even realised. Eric's hands were a blur of perfectly timed flourishes and Dom felt a rush of excitement carry him through it and right into his cue, running in to join the beat with a flourish of his own. They were so immediately in sync that Dom bounced on his feet and shook his head, feeling the music through his whole body and letting it move him.

Glancing up at Eric, Dom blew his hair out of his face and grinned, wide and unable to be anything but genuine. Eric smiled back and twirled his sticks with ease, one after the other, not missing a beat. That confidence suited him so much better than the nervous smiles from earlier.

Two thoughts hit Dom at the same time when he and Eric started headbanging together:

Fuck, this was fun;

This was going to work out.

Holy shit.

They played through to the end, cutting off with a final, perfectly timed note, still smiling almost painfully wide, breathing a little harder. When Dom finally looked at the others, he caught Tig smiling at him too, with such a proud, relieved warmth that Dom felt that rush come back and he had to look away before he did something really fucking stupid. Instead, he concerned himself with the way Charlie was gazing at Eric like he’d hung the moon. Dom kind of felt the same in that moment, so he couldn’t really blame Charlie at all.

“You’re—that was fantastic,” Charlie said, a bit breathless.

“That was fucking awesome,” Tig beamed, “way better than before! Do you think you guys have it down, mostly? I really wanna try it with all of us.”

When Dom and Eric nodded, Tig, Charlie, and Vinny got set up again, and at Eric’s count, they all started the song from the top.

It was seamless. There were mistakes and kinks to work out still, but the song sounded great, better, with Charlie’s voice, Tig’s riffs, and Vinny joining Dom and Eric to keep the rhythm steady, rounding out their sound.

Dom was hit, once again, with the feeling that this was going to work. There were few things he was ever sure about, confident in, but this was suddenly one of them. They sounded fucking great. There was no way they couldn’t get somewhere with this band. He didn’t care where it went, just that they saw it through to the end and had a fucking blast with it until then.

The rest of their practice went so smoothly that they didn’t realise their time was up until the next group opened the door, their knocking lost under the music. Tig did all the apologising while the rest started to pack up their things. When Dom heard the other group talking about how good they’d sounded, he smirked.

With his bass and cables packed up, Dom nodded Charlie over and asked Eric, “Want a hand?”

Eric glanced between Dom, Charlie, and his drums, stalling in the middle of putting one of his toms in its case. “Oh, yeah, sure!” He and Charlie exchanged shy smiles when Eric handed him the other tom, and Dom laughed through his nose as he dismantled one of the hi-hats.

“So, me and the guys were going to grab dinner after this,” Charlie began hopefully after a few seconds of busy silence. “Did you want to come with?”

The question made Eric freeze again, blinking at Charlie like he was shocked by the question, a small smile starting to tug at the corners of his lips. “Me? Y-yeah, that sounds–” He was cut off by a ringtone that made him flinch a bit before he dug his phone out of his colourful pin-covered bag nearby. The way he swore when he saw whoever was calling, like he’d been caught doing something awful, made Dom’s eyes narrow.

“Hey baby! I’m so, so sorry–” Eric said, the words a panicked rush. Dom couldn’t see his face, but there was an immediate tension in Eric’s shoulders, rising to his ears and making him look too small. All of the confidence and joy from the jam session had been sapped right out of him. The rest of the conversation was spent with Eric wincing and apologising profusely to a voice that sounded much too stern. Frowning, Dom caught Charlie’s eye, grateful to see a similar kind of suspicion reflected back, but they kept packing up Eric’s drums for him. If the unease and low simmering anger in his gut were right, Dom guessed Eric was about to make a swift exit.

“I know. Yeah, I kno—sorry. It’s my fault, I didn’t see– ...sorry, baby. I’m coming home right now, I’ll be home soon. …Uh, t-ten minutes? I think? No, yeah, ten minutes. I know. Okay. Bye, love you.” Hanging up, Eric visibly swallowed before facing Charlie and Dom again. Dom wasn’t certain, but he thought that Eric wasn’t able to look at Charlie now. “Sorry, guys, I gotta go. My boyfriend’s worried about how late I am,” he said.

Dom was starting to really fucking hate the word “sorry” coming out of his mouth.

“It’s okay, Eric. We can get you packed up and out of here,” Charlie offered, and Eric thanked him while looking at the floor.

“We’ll all go for dinner next jam night,” Dom said like it was already planned, and though a part of him did not want to, he added, “bring this boyfriend along if he’s that worried about you staying out late.”

Pursing his lips, Eric hesitated, then gave a jerky nod. “Okay, I’ll ask him.” Too many alarm bells were going off in Dom’s mind for him to miss the implications behind that.

The three of them got Eric packed up quickly, and as they carried his kit to the door, Tig asked, “Heading out already? We were gonna get a bite to eat if you wanted–”

“Sorry, I have to go! But thank you!” Eric apologised again. ��And thanks so much for the jam night, I really had a lot of fun.” He flashed them all a slightly less harried, more sincere smile, once they’d gotten all of his kit in his car, and with a final wave from the window, Eric drove off.

Vinny joined Charlie, Tig and Dom at the doorway. “That was fucking weird,” he said, slinging his guitar case over his shoulder.

“His boyfriend called, but the way Eric was talking to him sounded like he was being fucking reamed out by a shitty parent,” Dom sneered. Charlie, who was still watching the spot where Eric’s car had disappeared, hummed in a flat, displeased tone.

Tig’s mouth twitched downwards as he crossed his arms. “Maybe we’re overreacting,” he suggested, but even he didn’t sound convinced of it. Then, tilting his head, he said, “We should meet him though. Just to be sure.”

“Already told Eric to bring him to dinner next time,” Dom said, and Tig laughed, but there was something sharp about it.

“Good.”

Divider by @/saradika

#happy birthday again simon!!#ocs aweigh #delicate boy eric #goth babygirl dom #our boyfriend tig #charlie and vinny don't have tags oh no :C #still need a new writing tag #niko's notes

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