Star Trek: Starbase 777 - lt-jg-grayson﹢lt-jg-horowitz-old

[PADD Message] From: Michael Lesko, Louisville Courier To: lt JG Snakebyte Hello my name is Michael Lesko and I'm with a paper called the Louisville Courier. I'm doing a little piece on linguistics and saw you had an interesting nickname in your file. I reckon it'd be nice to have an interview with you if you'd allow my the time. I've got an office on the commercial promenade Best regards, Michael

From: Michael Lesko, Louisville Courier To: Lt JG Snakebyte Excellent come to my office at your best convenience

Snakebyte made his way inside after the door opened. He took one of his chairs out from the table before sitting in it, placing his hands on his temples. Surely he had made more of a fool of himself before - no. This was the worst of the worst. He lost to a Klingon when he thought his beast mode made him unstoppable. Then again, he didn't really want to unleash the beast... ever. Regardless, it was still grossly embarrassing. He took a moment to comprehend everything that just happened, before he stepped into his bed, hoping a good nap would help. It took what seemed like an eternity for him to fall asleep. His mind raced with all this. Thankfully only Ten had seen it happen - but to him it was still an arena full of eyes. Humiliation was not his best friend.

After waking up, Snakebyte rolled out of bed to sit up at the end of the bed. He rubbed his temples again - a good nap was what he needed to recuperate from that humiliation. Standing up, Snakebyte headed over to where his guitar is, before grabbing an instrument cable and plugging it into the nearby Marshall amplifier. Of course, with the volume turned down and the noise dampener in the room turned on. Snakebyte played a few chords to dial in the sound, and even turned the volume down a little bit lower, but it was still loud enough to be fairly audible. He was actually pretty good! The melodical sweeps he played, the fast power chords, all sung together in perfect musical unity.

Lost in her thoughts, Lihne had managed to find she had ridden a lift with some of the Senior Staff to their crew Quarter level. By the time she had realized it, she was halfway through the ring. Sighing and shaking her head in amazement, she had begun her trek back to getting down to her section. As she did, she caught some music that reached her ears and stopped her. Curious, she wanted to find who was playing so well, and made her way toward a closed room. "Grayson and Horowitz," She read as she wondered if she would be breaking protocol ringing the chime just out of curiosity toward music being played.

Before hearing the chime, Snakebyte was practically tearing it up on that fretboard! Thrash metal was his jam, and he was certainly better than most of his fellow musicians - at that specific genre of music, anyway... The power chords almost reverberated throughout his chest as he played, travelling to the floor beneath from the amplifier, and keeping him in a state of emotional relief he hadn't felt in a while. When the door chimed, Snakebyte immediately stopped playing. He was worried that he had disturbed someone in the area. "Come on in! Sorry about the noise level, I'll try and keep it down."

Lihne jumped for a second and looked meekly up and down the corridor. She hadn't thought she had rung the chime, and yet it did seem she had. The door slid open and the head of the green skinned Half-Orion peeked in meekly with a wave of her hand. "Uh hi, I didn't mean to ring the chime. I got off on the wrong floor. Hope I'm not intruding, I just head the music and thought I would follow it."

Snakebyte noticed the ensign entering into his room and honestly didn't even react negatively at all. He was in a funk and this was a perfect opportunity to feel better while meeting a new face on the starbase! "No, no, you're not intruding!" Snakebyte smiled. "In fact, come on in, ensign! Make yourself comfortable, I don't get too many visitors. The name's Lieutenant Junior Grade Alan Grayson. I'm also known as Snakebyte, but only a few on this starbase know me by that nickname, so I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't know. No fault of yours though!"

Wow....sure! Ok." She stepped in and tucked some of her hair back behind her ear and looked at the decor, feeling her side of her quarters underdone. "I'm Lihne. Lihne Carter. I'm in with the Xenoanthropology trained. Yeah I wasn't sure how down it was looked on for an Ensign to be strolling the higher ranked levels. Where did you learn to play like that?" She nodded to the guitar and held her head to the side slightly, a smile and sparkle in her eyes. "Was kind of making me want to move to it. Mom always still likes to dance whenever she can.

Snakebyte raised an eyebrow. "Privilege to meet you, Lihne! I mean, as long as you aren't causing a disturbance or doing something against protocol, I don't see why not. Rank isn't everything, it's character. It's integrity and honor. And from what you've already said about wanting to respect the higher ranking levels, you certainly have both honor and integrity." When Lihne mentioned she was thinking of playing the guitar, Snakebyte perked up. "You want to learn? I can give you a few beginner tips. I honestly learned from watching 20th and 21st century musicians the most, although lessons certainly helped."

Me? Oh dear, I don't know if I have the fingers for that. Dance and singing, I didn't do too bad with. Maybe some keyboard, but oh I don't know how good I'd be with strings." She saw his excitement and looked the instrument over in his hands. "I mean, I'm not against trying but....it looks like it's excellent shape and condition. If something happened to it while I was holding it, I'd want to eject myself out an airlock.

Snakebyte's eyes practically popped out of his head. "You dance and sing too? Okay, I didn't know we had yet another musician on the starbase! This is awesome!" Snakebyte took the guitar off his lap and handed it over to Lihne. "Oh no, trust me, this thing is practically indestructible. The damage you'd do to it would be minimal. Besides, it's the least I can do helping you start out with strings."

"Well, I'm part Orion, so my mother shared with me her dancing knowledge she had to learn when she was a child. My dad told me stories of his adventures in Starfleet, which got me interested in mysteries, the stars and adventures. Seeing you excited about my skills, got me thinking you might want to get a performance troop together." Carefully, she walked over and sat down next to Snakebyte and studied the guitar even closer.

Snakebyte got even more excited at the mention of Lihne saying he got excited! Exciting, really, Snakebyte's excitement about getting excited about Lihne pointing out his excitement. "Performance troope??" Yep - the excitement was even more excited than excited before. "How are you actually able to read my mind about that stuff?" Snakebyte said. "I've been wanting that for such a long time since being commissioned here. That would be incredible!" Snakebyte set the guitar into Lihne's hands. "This is a precision instrument. But with great musical power comes the responsibility of learning it well."

I wish I could read minds. Sadly only got the Orion Pheromones in addition to my skin and range of motion from my mixed heritage. Suppressor Injections on a regular basis take the excitement out of it juuussttt a little bit." She held the guitar carefully, feeling overwhelmed by its size in her arms. "A few of my classmates were in a band in school and the Academy, just never expected to be feeling small just holding one. But I'm willing to give it a try."

Snakebyte was excited as he had never had anyone else play that guitar before. "Hey, no pressure! It's your first time." Snakebyte watched as Lihne took the instrument into her hands. "Now this is a little heavier than what you might expect, this is a solid-body guitar. Acoustic guitars are hollow and lighter. This? It's meant for big sound." Snakebyte pointed to each of the strings. "So the notes of each string are E, A, D, G, B, E. When you play those open strings it won't really sound like anything. But try putting your middle and 4th finger on the A and D strings and strum - it's what's called an E major chord."

"Ok....middle and fourth fingers...here and....here," Lihne bit her lower lip as she did her best to attempt the proper placing as Snakebyte had indicated for her. She looked down around the guitar a few times to make sure she was in proper placement. When she finally felt she was, she looked back up at Snake and nodded a silent critque.

Snakebyte examined her fretting fingers quickly. "Looks like they're in the right place! Give it a few strums and see what it sounds like. Should be a nice and full E major chord." Snakebyte never taught any sort of class, so having Lihne technically be his first student was quite exciting - and Lihne was learning quickly too!

Nodding nervously, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and gave the chords and play. The sound and vibrations travled up her arm and into her core and ears. She slowly opened her eyes and looked over at Snakebyte with a hopeful nervous look on her face.

The vibrations from the strings sounded in a beautiful symphony of music! Even just from one chord! "Heyyyy! You did it! Nice job!" Snakebyte smiled at Lihne - this could be easier than he expected! "Now, why not try another chord shape? This one is a little different, and a little more difficult," he began. "We call this the D major chord. Try your index finger on the second fret of the G string, 4th finger on the third fret of the B string, and middle finger on the second fret of the high E string. Sort of like this." He showed her with his own hand what the chord should be shaped like when fretted on the guitar.

"Amazing....I actually did it. Wow....wait till I send my next vid-message home. That felt so much like a rush. Does it always vibrate through you like that?" Her questions and statements sounded like they were coming a lightyear a second as she tried to copy his placement on the strings again. This was fun, she thought to herself.

"Oh yeah," Snakebyte nodded. "The music vibrating through you is definitely one of the most fulfilling experiences when learning and then playing an instrument, but especially guitar. You're picking it up super fast! Let's go to something a little more difficult." Snakebyte pointed to the frets that he would be referring to now. "Try strumming the D and G strings open, meaning no fretting, then strumming them again with your index finger on the 3rd fret, and then once more on the 5th fret. Then you'll be playing a good amount of the riff from Deep Purple's 'Smoke On The Water.'"

"Smoke on the Water.....why does that title sound familiar?" She followed the instructions, her fingers stumbling a few times as the steps progressed and she worked with her normal speed to make sure she was memorizing the information to her best. "Perhaps its something my dad used to listen to. I remember him reading me and telling me bedtime stories more though. He could so easily write some PADD novels about the worlds he saw if he wanted to. But he always wanted to spend his non-shipbound time either with us or teaching." she giggled at the thought "From Starfleet Officer to Professor."

Snakebyte watched as Lihne quickly made progress on the riff, picking it up in no time. "Heyyy!! There you go! You got it! That's one of the most famous songs out there." Snakebyte then listened to what Lihne said about her father. "Bedtime stories... man, we used to believe them like they were the absolute truth, like they actually happened how they were written. Novels and professor time, eh? I'd be interested to read some of his work! It sounds really good!"

Beaming brightly at the praise and complements, she beamed at Snake and bounched in her seat briefly. "I cant believe I'm actually doing it. Serving, meeting new people and learning a new skill. Couldnt be better if I hadn't joined Starfleet." "Oh I tracked down copies of some of his favorite stories from old Earth times. Can't afford physical copies obviously, but I loaded them into my personal PADD. Wouldn't mind seeing them adapted to Holoprograms."

Snake absolutely marveled at Lihne and how well she was able to pick up the instrument before getting the basics very quickly - and for just overall being a good fellow officer. "Yes you are," Snake said. "And you're killing it! While I haven't witnessed all of your other accomplishments I do know something about you already. And it's that you love what you do and love to try new things and you aren't afraid to take risks. I really admire that about you, Lihne. The station -- no, the universe itself -- needs more people like you in it."

She blushed then as she carefully handed the guitar back over to him. She rubbed the back of her head with a humble shrug of her shoulders. "Not much more to me really. Other than my work in Xenoanthropology and the little bit of dancing my mom taught me after she got citizenship on Earth, not too much that I can say is special of me." As she said that, she reached up and rubbed her shoulder where her suppressor shots were given to her.

Snakebyte smiled. "Someone who dances, or better yet, someone who turns what they do into art, is special enough. You're no exception - and that already makes you special." Taking back the guitar, Snake turned down the gain so that the guitar was at a clean, warm tone, almost like an acoustic guitar, before playing the opening notes to "Cirice" by Ghost. It wasn't a particularly fast song, but regardless of its slow speed, the notes were enough to make anyone stop to listen.

She continued to listen, the notes reaching her on an artistic level as her head softly swayed with them. After a moment, she smiled and politely clapped her hands. "Well that applies to you as well I would say. I'm just happy I was welcomed in and not told to get back to my deck. But then again, I'm still new in service so....guess I'm still getting used to life actually out in the stars."

Snakebyte nodded. "Well thanks!" He began. "That means a lot. I'm just a guy wanting to make art and be proud of it - and I am a guy just wanting to be open to whoever wants to visit too! You're not the only one still getting used to it. Even I'm still not fully adjusted and I'm a freakin' junior grade lieutenant. I just want people to be nice to each other and appreciate each others' individual talents. And they especially deserve to have some rewards to their work, like music. This sort of thing should definitely be celebrated more across the board, not just in Starfleet."

Lc-"I agree. Think that's another part of why I joined Starfleet. To help everyone realize we are better together than apart. Maybe it's naive of me, but can't turn that part of me off any more than I can stop breathing. Thanks for the lessons, Snake."

Snakebyte nodded. "Of course, Lihne! And feel free to stop by any time you'd like. I have an open door policy and am never opposed to any visitors!" Snakebyte looked at his clock, noticing that it was time for him to start his duty shift. "Well - except for right now, as duty calls." Snake set down the guitar and turned off the amplifier before addressing Lihne. "If you ever want more lessons, don't be a stranger! I'm here to help everyone I can." Before he promptly exited his quarters to start his shift.