John Mitchell (being_mitchell) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-25 15:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, john mitchell, valerie frizzle |
Who: Mitchell and Valerie Frizzle
When: Backdated: Sometime in July 2013. Afternoon
Where: Valerie's Apartment
What: A jam session and noise complaint
Rating: Family Friendly
Status: Complete
Now that the aliens and zombies, or whatever they were, were gone, Mitchell and Valerie had finally been able to make plans to get together. He’d told her to set her drums up and he’d bring his guitar and they’d play together. Mitchell enjoyed playing with other artists, which was one reason he and Draco were collaborating. He wondered if he could get Valerie to play drums on a track for his comeback album. He knew that she was working on getting her teaching degree, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t take a few hours to play the drums. He also wondered if he should tell her about the fact that almost everyone who joined Valarnet eventually started having dreams of a past life or or whatever it was. He knew it would sound insane, but it might be a good idea if she knew in advance.
Reaching her apartment, Mitchell parked his car, grabbed his guitar and headed up the front door, located Valerie’s apartment number and pressed the buzzer.
Valerie had her drumset hanging out in the corner of her living room just in case she ever felt the urge to start playing, which seemed to be when she was trying not to really think about anything. It was also a way for her to be distracted from doing school work and such. So, it was nice to see that Mitchell was on the network as well and they could actually get together to make music. It was kind of nice to do it for fun instead of for profit. So, when he wanted to get together and do this she couldn’t say no. She made up some cookies and set out some chips because she usually got hungry after a jam session. When the buzzer went off she quickly walked over to the intercom and buzzed him into her apartment.
Hearing the buzzer, Mitchell pushed the door open and headed up to Valerie’s apartment and knocked at the door. They hadn’t seen each other in awhile; not to mention the last year or so was rather hazy, thanks to Herrick, so Mitchell was looking forward to, not only playing with Valerie, but catching up. “Are you gonna let me in or do I have to stay out in the hall and play through the door?” He asked, smirking as he knocked on the door again.
“I would love to hear you play outside the door,” she called as she made her way over and unlocked the door. She opened it up with a bright smile on her face as she regarded her long lost friend, “You need to learn some patience. I had to cross the room and apparently you walk like a cheetah or something. But come on in, Mitchell.” She stepped back and gestured with her arm for him to cross the threshold and come into the apartment.
Mitchell smiled in return as Valerie finally opened the door and he moved past her into the apartment, “Oh how awful for you. My house is even bigger than this and I get the door quicker than you just did.” He couldn’t help but tease her, still smiling, his accent a bit thicker as he teased her, “I think you’ve just gotten slow.”
“Shut up, all those years of sitting have made it hard for me to really run to the door. Nor did I care to get the door quickly for you,” she stuck her tongue out at him playfully as she closed the door and ran her hands through her hair, “You’re just rude and impatient. I put together a bit of food if you’re hungry while we jam out. What were you planning for this session? Just whatever we want or did you have any songs you needed some help with?” She wasn’t completely sure if he was going to go back into music soon or not, but she had written a couple songs that were tucked away.
“Keep saying things like that and I’ll start to think you don’t want me here.” Mitchell smirked and set down his guitar case and removed his leather jacket, but left his green fingerless gloves on as he usually did, “Random. At least to start.” Mitchell had his notebook with various songs he’d written recently with him, but for now he wanted to just jam. It’d help to get his creative juices flowing.
“I invited you here? Thought you just invited yourself,” she teased him back with a smile as she went towards the kitchen to grab the cookies and bring them out into the living room along with a couple bottles of water. Once they were set down she grabbed her drumsticks and twirled one around her fingers as she wandered over towards her drumset, “Alright, sounds good to me. Hopefully no one gets upset at us being loud.”
“Either way, I’m starting to get the feeling that you don’t want me here,” Mitchell smirked and draped the strap of his guitar over his shoulder and began tuning it as Valerie went into the kitchen to get the cookies. When she came back, he plucked a few strings and leaned against the arm of the couch, closest to where she’d set up the drum set, “What’s the worst they could do? Your downstairs neighbor going to bang on the ceiling with a broom?”
“We would probably not even hear them banging, haha. I pay enough in rent that they should hopefully leave me alone. Maybe I’ll have to buy a soundproof apartment next time or something,” she mused aloud with a devious smirk as she took a seat and practiced hitting the drums a couple times to warm herself up, “Alright, you start with your guitar and I’ll join in with something that should hopefully mesh well.”
“Is that a challenge, Friz?” Mitchell grinned as she sat down at her drums. If someone did call the cops on them, it wouldn’t be the first time Mitchell would have had the cops called on him for excessive noise. He’d been kicked out of a few hotels near the end of his run with Herrick, “Sounds like a plan.” He thought for a moment, put his fingers to the strings then started playing.
“Suuuure, as long as I don’t kicked out of the apartment building,” she countered with a laugh. The last thing she needed was to find a new place to live since she really liked this one. But she could probably throw a bit of money around and not have to worry, but that wasn’t her style. But for now she would concentrate on the music and she listened to Mitchell play for a little while before she slowly started drumming out a back beat and trying to get into the groove.
This was one of the things Mitchell enjoyed most about being a musician. While playing concerts and shows was a thrill, getting to mess around with a friend like this was the best part. It was why he liked hanging out with Draco and had asked him to collaborate on a song. It had been a long time since he’d heard or seen Valerie play and the first time they’d actually played together, but it appeared to work out quite well. He didn’t know how much time passed as they played, often becoming oblivious to the time when he started playing the guitar.
Losing herself in the music was something that Valerie was quite skilled at and she was slowly realizing how much she missed playing the drums during this jam session with Mitchell. He was a great musician and she was pleased that the two of them could actually fit together musically because it meant that she didn’t have to just stare at her drums all the time and not actually play them. Time wasn’t something she was paying attention to, so she was surprised when she finally heard some loud banging coming from her front door and she fumbled her downstroke. “Oh crap, someone is banging at the door.”
Mitchell hadn’t even heard the knocking, completely lost in the music from his guitar and Valerie’s drums, until she stopped. Pressing his hand to the strings along the body of his guitar, he silenced it then glanced over at her, “That doesn’t sound like friendly knocking.” He teased, smirking as he reached for a cookie from the coffee table and took a bite. “You’d better get that.”
“You’re such a help,” she retorted as she stuck her tongue out at him and tossed a napkin at his face. Of course he wouldn’t help, but he could at least look a little more guilty. It actually was quite funny and Valerie’s face split into a grin as she walked over to the door and opened to find an angry neighbor on the other side. As the man yelled at her about noise she tried to calm him down and it was a few minutes before the man had full reprimanded her and he finally went away. She closed the door and leaned her back against it and sighed loudly, “Oh good lord.”
“Hey, it’s your apartment and your cranky neighbors.” Mitchell smirked as he removed the guitar strap from around his neck and placed the guitar beside the couch before sitting down and reaching for another cookie while Valerie dealt with her neighbor. When she was finished and was leaning against the door, Mitchell smirked over at her once again, “Sounds like we should use my place from now on.” His house was big enough that no matter what time of day he was playing or how loud, no one ever seemed to hear it from the outside. Either that or they just didn’t feel like complaining.
“I think we may have to. Apparently I am a horrible person for playing music at this time of night. God help me if I do it again, he may attack me with his cane,” she joked as she walked over there and twirled her drumstick around her fingers, “If you don’t get complaints at your place than we are so doing it there.” She reached down and stole a cookie off the tray and smiled at him. It would definitely help to do this in a place that they wouldn’t get in trouble with.
Mitchell quirked a brow at her then turned his head to glance towards the window, “This time of night? Does he have cataracts? The sun is still out.” Of course if her neighbor was old then he was probably coming back from an early bird special or something. “But yeah, next time at my place. My housemate won’t complain. She likes listening to me play.” He couldn’t help but smirk a little as he talked about Annie.
“He probably goes to bed right now. Maybe they don’t have windows in their apartment?” She couldn’t help but laugh, “He has no idea what time of day it is anymore. I’m just glad I didn’t get hit with a cane. It would have been slightly painful. I wonder if we could just start playing again if I left him a gift of ear plugs at his door? And perfect! At least your neighbors won’t complain.” Valerie registered the smirk and smiled to herself. She really wanted to call him out on it, but she would be good for now.
“Bloody old people,” Mitchell smirked and took a bite out of another cookie then remembered what we was going to ask Valerie, “So, I know you’re going to be working on your degree and all that, but what would you say to playing on a track on my album? Or more than one. Live drumming is better than fake drumming after all.”
“Awww, that is so sweet of you to ask me. I want to say yes, but I want to make sure the recording doesn’t interfere with my schooling at all. I have no issue at all playing on a track with you otherwise. Hell, we could come up with the song together and I’ll try not to be a complete bitch about the royalties,” she couldn’t help but tease a little bit. She didn’t really worry that much about money as of right now, but she did want to make sure she would be able to complete her schooling before she had to record anything with him.
Mitchell grinned, glad that Valerie seemed interested, “We can figure everything out. Next time you come over and we’ll have another jam session. Then we can talk about a song. For now, you can mull it around for awhile.” He needed to talk to Draco again soon and figure out if their song was ready to be recorded, “You should come about when I start recording either way.”
“Appreciate it. And yeah, I’d like to come stop in and watch/listen while you’re recording. Alright, do you wanna just relax and watch a movie or something? I feel like I should wait a while before attempting to play the drums again while the old man is asleep. We can wait until later tonight.”
“A movie sounds like a good idea.” Part of Mitchell wanted to resume their jam session, if for no other reason than to annoy the crap out of the guy, but he refrained, because the last thing he wanted was to cause trouble with Valerie’s neighbors or to have the cops called on them. Next time he would have Valerie come to his place and the only person who might complain would be Annie, but she liked listening to Mitchell play, so he doubted she would complain.