_Essex_

Leeni's little expression furrowed at Kreigg's body language. Looking over to Cafea and Acid, she wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah, I'll probably change that bass line because it gives it more of a classical feel and Kreigg seems like that kinda guy to me. Besides, it'll give the timpani a good entrance point three measures from there and a precedence for the harmonics I'm going to introduce farther on. Thanks!"

With a happy flicker of her wings, she stood, hopping like a little bird over to Kreigg, and plopping down next to where he was faceplanted in the table.

"So, K-man..." she chirped, raising her goggles to look at him with her large brown eyes. "Puttin' the Twitch up here, buyin' the Twitch drinks...You're all right, ya know? What can I do for ya? Asides from finishing this jam."

Her tiny hand patted him on the head.

So one thing I love to do is to listen to music and assign it as a theme song for a person or event. As many of you have probably noticed, every single one of my main characters is musical in some way. (Essex has her synthesizers, Rosalind sings, Leeni is a composer, etc.) That's because, as a card-carrying drama 'ho, there is something about music that I cannot ignore. Something about having the imagery of the character and the emotion or situation that you're trying to put across accurately defined in a medium that you can really lose yourself in.

And so, now, I'm curious. I want to know if others do the same thing as I do.

What are your theme songs? What songs have reminded you of situations your characters have been in? Inquiring minds want to know! (And I'm always on the lookout for good, new music.) I'll give you some of mine as an example.

Solace by Plumb - Rosalind's theme
Shackled by Vertical Horizon - Peng Wei-li's theme
Funk Soul Brother by Fatboy Slim - Always makes me think of Khell's Toy Dispenser and his bots going on a rampage. XD
Apocalypse Please by Muse - I swear to toast, if Final Fight were a movie, this would be the theme song.

Post your theme songs here! It would also be fun if you post songs here that remind you of the others. :3

Essex giggled good-naturedly, despite herself.

How Expiriment had managed to transmit something directly into her comm channel was beyond her, but she guessed it probably had something to do with his PDA. When his voice suddenly had made itself apparent, it had startled her so much that she jumped with a little yelp of surprise.

This startled Dr. West, who she had been assisting at the time, so much that he had jumped as well. As she listened to the message, her creator was simultaneously trying to stabilize the tech he had just knocked over...

...And two explosions seemed to happen simultaneously. One over the comm and one in Dr. West's face.

Trying to hold back her laughter, she helped clean the grime of the explosion off his glum face, none the worse for wear.

Maybe that's why I like Sir Expiriment so much... she thought. He reminds me so much of Dr. West.

She would be there at the appointed time, come toast or high water.

I like posts that elicit strong emotions and reactions.

*dramaaaa!*

Leeni looked surprised for a minute. "Listen, uh...I just been goin' over the same 20 or so measures for a bit here, gotta see what they sound like before I trust 'em to actual instruments." Holding up the scanner, she turned the volume dial on it down.

"See, this thing reads the music I write - identifies it from the standard five-bar pattern I'm usin' - and synthesizes the notes as it goes across 'em. If I sweep it across faster it picks up tempo and slower makes it tone it down a bit, but it can only simulate the melodic instruments. The percussion one goes in my other hand but I can't write and use it at the same time so I'm usin' the melody first."

Pulling another little hand-scanner out of her gunny sack, Leeni put her writing instrument in her mouth after taking a quick drink of whatever wonderful concoction Frosch had made.

The second scanner provided the percussion as the first scanner emitted the melody as she carefully scanned them next to each other over the sheet music she'd been writing.

"Usually I 'ave to work some kinks out of it before I give it to Ush to test out an' I usually submit it with some preliminary lyrics but he usually writes his own." she said, beaming. "He's better at it than I am anyway!"

((*dies* Kreigg = WIN. XD XD))

Leeni blinked at Acid and Cafea.

"Wait...You mean music is a language? I mean it's like an interstellar language, I mean for sure, I'm a composer so it's like totally obvious in that regard. But I mean one with like words and stuff? Because I like knowing how to introduce myself in all kinds of languages! It comes from visiting so many planets with the Ush and picking up all kinds of stuff along with the cargo and if it's really a language like that I'd like to learn it if I could!!"

When Acid piped up, she blushed a little.

"Do you really like it? Thanks a bunch, man! I mean, music is what I do so I always try to compose somethin' that people like so I have a lot of practice with a varied audience an' all. But there are still things I have to work on in measure 41 because this extended fifth isn't harmonizing correctly with the alto line and it's important to have a strong alto line because it's like the mayo on the sandwich 'cause it holds it all together."

She ran the scanner over the measure again, erased something else, and scribbled in a few more notes.

"My man Kreigg here gave me a really glii idea for a new song so I'm writin' it ya see. It ain't really done yet but the percussion section's kinda the most important part so I have to pull out my dual synth in order to get that to sim out."

A soft melody came from Kreigg and Leeni's table, and then stopped. It played a little ways through again, a bit changed.

Leeni sat there, a tiny hand-scanner in her left hand and a contemplative look on her face. The music she had just written was in her lap, and as she scanned the device over the handwritten notes soft music came out of a top-mounted speaker.

The little rodent looked deep in thought until her face soured at one note. She clicked it off, erased, scribbled, and then ran it over that measure once more.

"Better...this is way better." she muttered. "The Twitch ain't never been good at writing extended fifths, no reason to get started on it today. Fsheesh."

[ QUOTE ]
Rulaag again went for his slugthrower, but held, signalling for some more swampwater.

[/ QUOTE ]

((*LOL* Acid shows up and you instinctively go for Veronica...))

Leeni admired Kreigg's fists for a moment before nodding appreciatively.

"Ya know you could really mess some stuff up with those." she quipped. "Bet you'd make a glii drummer, too, man."

Pulling out a little pad of paper, she began scribbling something. Notes and arpeggios, broken up by percussion marks, flowed from her pen and onto the paper as she diligently worked with a quick, precise hand.

"...Sorry." she mumbled distractedly as she scribbled away. "You just gave me an idea."

((It makes me so giggly. XD;; ))

Leeni waved her paw dismissively. "I ain't surprised. We aren't really from this end of the nebula if you catch my drift. An' you know, different tastes for different folks - I jus' write the tune and Ush fills in the words."

Pouting, she tipped her glass up to toast Kreigg, and then took a big drink, holding it in both hands and tipping it up to her lips.

"...The only one he let me write the words to was Delludian Rhapsody, and it's an instrumental."

The clinking of wine glasses. The soft background music and the hum of polite conversation. This gala was highly publicised, and the richest men and women of Steel Canyon had done their best to make it the most popular event of the year.

The Innovation Ball. Where up-and-coming inventors showcased their newest inventions to the top minds at Crey, Portal Corp, and who knows what other companies. One thing was for certain though. Every person in the room who wasn't an inventor was an influential person.

A singularity existed among them, though. Those who knew her would never have recognized her. Vanessa Eirene tossed her hair as she laughed politely, deep in conversation with a pair of Crey engineers. Her straggly brown hair pulled back into a wave of curls and her eyes hidden behind stylish sunglasses, earrings that were stylish spirals of steel dangled down to her bare shoulders. Vanessa's dress was strapless, a bright red sheath gown that complimented her thin frame, and she wore gloves that reached to her mid-upper arms. A black purse on her shoulder and a cigarette holder in her left hand, her right had a caviar hors d'ouvre that she was nursing.

Not long now. she thought, glancing down at the gold watch in the shape of a star that jingled on her wrist.

As she continued her conversation, the Crey gentlemen seemed to really respond to her. After all, her ettiquete was flawless and she was really quite nice. She had an unnervingly predatory grin, but beyond that...

An explosion rocked the building. Screams came from the ladies' room.

Right on time.

"Nobody move." Vanessa shouted, a laser pistol suddenly out of her purse and in her smartly-gloved hands. "I'll nae tolerate yer lip."

A sharp pounding heralded the arrival of Gasket, towering over his mistress threateningly. "You're right, ma." he said. "That gunpowder gelatin really did the trick."

"Course I'm right." Nessie muttered back. "Now where are the lads with the --"

"Got 'em, Mom!" came Rotor and Torque's voices from the other room. The inventions were all neatly secured, the inventors bound and gagged in the coat closet. It was crowded, but it worked.

"Stop right there, Ultraviolet Nessie!" a hero suddenly cried out, sweeping through the window heroically. "The Azure Flash is here to --"

Laser fire abruptly ended the hero's speech, and the next sound was that of the mediport patch zapping him out of further harm. Vanessa cackled madly, until she heard the rustle of clothing from multiple sides.

A handful of businessmen were disrobing, showing the tights underneath. Secret identities, eh?

"Amber Claw!" "The Anomaly!" "Freezeazy!" "Chicken Butter!"

After an awkward silence, Nessie shook her head.

"Now's when we make our escape, lads!!"

Running gracefully in the sheath dress, her red pumps neatly clicking on the floor, she leered over her sunglasses, revealing the ultraviolet glow of her left eye as she fired backwards with precision. Force fields erupted around her as her protector bots did their job, and the contigent of bots stormed through the building, breaking artifacts, shooting diplomats and causing havoc as the four heroes chased them.

Finally on the bottom floor, Nessie lured the heroes out into the lobby.

"Say goodnight, lads and lassies!" she roared, firing three well-placed laser blasts at the remote fuses of stockpiles of dynamite Spindle had painstakingly disguised as lobby plants.

Munching her caviar, Nessie twirled her laser pistol back into her purse as she walked back towards her labs, the building exploding in on itself behind her....

----------------------------

"Mom..."

"Ungh."

"Moo-ooomm..."

"Aye, aye..."

"MOM!"

Vanessa Eirene sat bolt upright, fumbling for her glasses.

"Bloody HELLFIRE, child, what'd I tell ye about wakin' me up in the mi'il o' the night!?" she snarled down at the offending robot.

"I want a cup of antifreeze." Prickle said sadly, gazing up at his creator with the petulant longing of a child.

Nessie sighed. "Fine, fine, lad, I'll get it for ye." she mumbled, wearily rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. "Jus' have Gasket get it for ye next time, all right? Mommy needs 'er beauty rest."

"You were having the dream again?"

"Aye." Nessie responded glumly, opening up her supply closet.

Walking back, her slippered foot crunched on a small note that had been slid under the door. Squinting at it, she picked it up, holding it close to read the print.

".......Innovation Gala...." she whispered in disbelief.

"Oh, mah bad, mah bad." Leeni said with a grin, plopping down in a seated position.

"The name's Leeni. Leeni Sunniol. Ushlax nicknamed me Twitch 'cause I'm...well, I'm twitchy you understand. Me an' my trigger fingers are both a li'l quicker than we need to be."

Thinking for a moment, she grinned. "And yeah, I've written a few. Dunno how famous the Ush is on this end of the galaxy though. Lessee, lessee....'Four Arms Isn't Enough To Hold You', 'Baby Absorbed My Felriddg', 'Get Away From My Pimp-[censored] Ship', and 'Delludian Rhapsody' to name a few."

Essex sighed.

Genki just never learned.

"Ooooowwwwww!!!" the red and blue android complained as his 'sister' took a welding torch to his left leg. "Ess, come on! Hurry it up!"

"You're not going anywhere." Essex murmured, peering through the blast shield on her helmet to make sure she was repairing Genki properly. Usually her nanites were sufficient for most repairs, but Genki always seemed to push the limits. "Maybe this will teach you to challenge Babbage one on one."

Genki groaned. "You're such a drag." he complained.

"That I may be..." Essex said, straightening and shutting off the tool with a click. "But I know what I'm doing. Now get off and do ...whatever it is you do at night."

"Awlright!" Genki chirped, bounding off the table. "Pocket D, here I come baby!"

Essex shook her head, putting her tools away for the night...when she was suddenly startled by the presence of some unexpected green smoke. With a girlish shriek, she barred an arm over her nose, angrily turning towards the hallway.

"SEAWING, if you don't stop chlorinating my laboratory I'll-- Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" she said curiously as she examined it closer. "Hal-chan! You nearly scared the toast out of me!"

"No, Essex. Just an illusion." the false Hal asserted. "But Hallucinogen has requested that I ask for your aid."

"Oh...does he need my help?" Essex asked, her expression turning to one of concern. "Of course! What must I do?"

"Go to the MAGI offices in Atlas, 11:30 tomorrow." the illusion instructed.

"Duly noted." Essex said with a smile. "And do give Hal-chan my regards!"

The illusion only gave her an uneasy smile before vanishing once again...

Leeni squealed happily when Kreigg offered to buy her a drink and plopped down on the table. At her size it was ridiculous to consider her sitting in a chair, so it worked for now.

"I'll have what you're havin', Kreigg!" she cheerily said. At Rulaag's inquiry, she turned, overlarge ears tilted.

"I'm a Gugerde. Though less flattering reports have labelled us Space Rats." Folding her tiny arms, she pouted, sticking her slightly pointed nose in the air. "After seeing one here, though, I think personally I'm more of a 'Space Bunny' except with different ears and better hands."

"Huh?" Leeni blinked at their concern. "Oh, hey, I don't really care at this point, most of us bailed anyway and I've spent most o' my life as a bum anyway. But then..."

Clasping her little hands together, Leeni's eyes glittered as she looked off into the distance.

"But then like I was stowing away on this ship see and they found me but this guy saved me and he was green and had four arms and cool sunglasses and was so nice! An' then we were bestest friends and he could sing and I could write songs and we got a band and now Ushlax is a huge star!"

Calming down, she alighted on the table, twiddling her toe a little.

"I'm sure he just lost track of me or something, it's been known to happen. But whatevs, nothin' keeps the Twitch down for long!"

Turning back to Kreigg, she smirked. "A freelancer, huh? That's pretty sweet. Been known to dabble in such things myself when record sales are down."

When Kreigg offered to pick up her tab, Leeni's ears perked straight up and she grinned like she won the lottery. Gathering up her dropped monetary detritus, she literally bounded over to the other extraterrestrial.

"You doin' right by the Twitch!" she exclaimed gleefully, her little orange wings flittering. "What d'you call yourself, anyhow?"

The argument with Cafea seemed to go right over the little creature's head and she just stared at the verbal combatants with a blank look and a rare bout of silence.

The silence was short lived.

"DUDE you're like one of those pacifists that the Ush is always talkin' about like from those planets that always get blown up by other people because they don't have weapons! Man, that sucks! My planet got blown up too a while ago so I feel ya man, it's why I hang with Ushlax and my boys, that is when they don't ditch me on some backend rock...no offense to any natives."

Leeni twitched her nose slightly with a grin.

"Daaamn straight!" Leeni said, turning back towards the conversation. "Besides, I gotta stand up for the Ush. 'S what I'm here for ya know. All the peeps are all like kablamblam! And I'm like, 'Oh hell no you di'int! Twitch gonna mess you up now!' Blamblamblam! An' then it's all--"

She paused, emptying her pockets of various and sundry coins from multiple galaxies.

"I'anno how much this is, but you can have it. The Twitch is loaded, baby!" she said to the innkeeper, seemingly forgetting she had been in the middle of another conversation.

"Eh?"

Leeni spun around at being addressed, and leaped up onto the reception desk.

"The proper name's Leeni, but everyone calls me Twitch anyway so whatever works for you. Yeah, if it ain't too much to ask, how much are the rooms goin' for? I gotta li'l cash from the last gig."

When the owner seemed to reprimand the other female alien, Leeni waved her small paw dismissively. "Ain't no thing, ain't no thing, the Twitch knows some people roll against the flow, man, the Twitch ain't gotta problem. Plasmagal is coo' with me, totally coo'."

Leeni let out a piercing screech.

"WHAT THE HELL you gotta freakin' pull apart my heat for!? If you wanted the power core you coulda asked or something because I've got extras in these belts ya know! Gawd like it's not hard enough finding a decent mechanic on this podunk planet without having someone pullin' [censored] apart like a Denubrian slime lobster."

Leeni's deft hands gathered up the pieces of her plasma pistol and began reassembling busily. Pulling another power supply out of one of her bandoliers, she slapped it into the newly reassembled firearm and notching it back on her belt.

Leeni hopped over to Cafea, lowering her goggles and peering at the other alien, ears twitching.

"Ya know, you shouldn't assume that just 'cause I'm packin' means I'm lookin' for trouble, unless you're lookin' for trouble in which case I ain't gonna back down. No. No. Hell no. The Twitch don't play that, man. The Twitch likes t'play nice but she won't back down. That's how I roll."

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a little flyer and handed it to Cafea.

"This' my boss, Ushlax. He's the hottest R&B sound this side of the star system, man. An' I'm his right hand - Ushie ain't goin' nowhere without the Twitch! ...Err..."

Leeni glanced to the side a little guiltily, twiddling her fingers.

"...That is, he usually doesn't."

"Hey man!" Leeni whirled around, pointing to Cafea. "I ain't out to like bust up the universe or nothin', me and my boys are just --"

Just then, she noticed the hungry-looking alien hovering over her.

"Uh...Somethin' I can do for ya?" Leeni mumbled unsurely, taking a brief hop backwards.

The creature hopped forward into the bar portion of the inn, looking around in surprise. Lifting a small, precise hand, she shoved the large goggles up onto her forehead to look around.

"Hey, this ain't bad!" she chirped cheerily. "Don't let me interrupt nothin'."

Bounding up to the one who seemed to be in charge, she unslung a gunny sack from around her shoulder with a nod.

"Name's Leeni Sunniol. Whatcha gotta do to get a room round here, eh?" she asked cheerily.

Her pistols clacked against the rifle behind her loosely.

"USH! Ushlaaaaax!!!" the tiny creature screamed as she bounded through the streets, waving her fist after a rapidly vanishing star. "You forgot me!! How could you forget the Twitch!?"

The creature wore a bandanna, pulling back her mousy brown hair...or headfur as the case seemed to be. She was about the size of a large pumpkin, and covered in light tan fur. The little creature had a body like a large, round kangaroo rat, strong legs built for leaping. She didn't have the long muzzle of a rodent, though, a short nose closer to a guinea pig's on her surprisingly humanlike face. Large brown eyes looked sulkily at the sky from behind brightly colored green-lensed red goggles.

"Awh, [censored]!" the creature growled, lifting itself off the ground with the tiny orange batlike wings that were apparent on its back. "Now what am I gonna do?"

Hopping down the street, she looked, upset, at the people of Paragon City as they went about their daily lives. Most of them had their noses buried in newspapers or video iPods or whatnot, so she was lucky they didn't notice her. Especially since the little creature was utterly bristling with weapons. Her two chosen plasma pistols along with a laser rifle strapped to her back. Bandoliers of extra power supplies and cartridges were strapped around her shoulders and chest, and her overlarge catlike ears bobbed where they protruded from her headkerchief.

Then, a door caught her attention...

"Woah, they speak Bal'Vitzu here!!" she squealed at the sight of the multilingual welcome sign. "This looks like a great place to crash."

Flittering her wings hard to reach the doorknob, she swung around to turn it, entering the Inn.

"Yello?" the creature called out in her squeaky voice. "Anybody home?"

Awh, dang it.

Normally I don't buckle to this kind of peer pressure, but...this is a tribute.