For Kate

[a_capella_boy]

Ever since Jesse had spent the small amount of money he had earned coming up with a commercial jingle on DJ equipment for Beca, he browsed pawn shops regularly looking at guitars. That's what he had been intending to buy when he got Beca's equipment (something he had no intention of letting Beca know) and while he didn't regret his decision, he really missed having a guitar.

He really needed some sort of job, because otherwise it was going to take forever to save up for something like a guitar, even one from a pawn shop.

"I'm going to go a little Wayne's World right now," Jesse announced, glancing around the mostly empty pawn shop. "Is that okay? I mean... okay, yeah, I think it's okay."

Turning back to the guitar, Jesse uttered those immortal words.

"It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine. Wow, okay, that felt a little bit dramatic there. Did that feel a bit dramatic to you?" he asked, turning to face the random person walking by.

Comments

[everyonetakes]

"Or, you know, you could get even weirder and come up with fictional musicians," she said, because she'd spent long enough dating Harry Potter to know it was more than possible. "I don't actually know any fictional musicians, but I bet there's a bunch of fictional Beatles that could show up and play with the real ones."

[a_capella_boy]

"Spinal Tap could come here," Jesse said, freezing in his tracks for a moment as he considered that. That would be amazing. For at least a week, then it would probably get mundane and ridiculous, but for a while it would be amazing.

"Any fictional band ever could show up here."

[everyonetakes]

"And you know what'll happen?" Kate asked, turning so she could look at Jesse. "Not one single person you want to be here will actually show up. That's just how these places work."

Not that she was bitter or anything. She just missed Marshall and her parents so much. She missed Effy and Hermione. She missed Harry.

[a_capella_boy]

"I hope not, because that means my girlfriend didn't actually want me to show up here," Jesse said. That was a weird thing though, because was it a good thing or bad thing to want someone you care about be here.

"Although to be honest, if my best friend from home shows up I'll probably be both ecstatic and guilty."

[everyonetakes]

"Why?" she asked, knowing if Effy showed up, she'd be thrilled. Before the island, she'd never really had a best friend and although one of the people she would have considered a best friend was here, he didn't even know her, so that didn't count anymore.

[a_capella_boy]

"Because he'll be separated from all of his friends and family," Jesse said. As much as he'd like Benji to be here, he didn't want his friend to be sad and, you know, trapped in another dimension.

"Although if anyone from Star Wars is here, he'd ditch his family in a second to be here."

[everyonetakes]

"Everyone here is separated from all their friends and family," she pointed out. "It's not like you're responsible for that." Being away from her family sucked, but she'd hate if anyone actually felt guilty over it, especially about being happy to see her. If Marshall showed up here, she wouldn't feel guilty for a second.

[a_capella_boy]

"I don't know, it would feel a little about taking pleasure in their misfortune. Or maybe that's just me thinking about it way too hard," Jesse admitted. While he wasn't necessarily the deepest guy around, sometimes he could latch on to an idea and not let it go.

"I should probably just be happy to see someone I know."

[everyonetakes]

"That's just you thinking about it way too hard," Kate agreed. "If someone was happy to see you, would you immediately think they were taking pleasure in your misfortune? No. At least, I really hope not, because you seem like a cool guy and that would just kinda kill all that."

[a_capella_boy]

"Of course not. Because like everyone, I assume I'm a far more horrible person than the average person out there," Jesse said. When she put it like that though, he had to concede the point.

"But you've got me. If Benji shows up, it's just straight up jubilation."

[everyonetakes]

"Yeah, it'd be pretty great if my brother showed up," she said, thinking of Marshall. "I mean, I'm not counting on it or anything, because as soon as you want something like that to happen, that only means it never ever will, but it'd still be pretty awesome to see him again."

She and Marshall had been close for so long that it was still weird to think about how long they'd been apart now. It felt like forever.

[a_capella_boy]

"How old is your brother?" Jesse asked. He assumed he would have to be older, Jesse couldn't imagine someone hoping a little kid would show up here, away from their parents. Maybe a twin?

"I'm an only child so a college roommate is the closest thing I've had to a brother."

[everyonetakes]

"Well, who knows, given how this weird time shit works," she answered. Because Marshall could show up here and still be fourteen. Or he could come from the middle of his island time and be sixteen. Or he could show up from her future and she didn't even want to think about that.

"I mean, normally he's a year younger than me, so he'd be eighteen now," she said.

[a_capella_boy]

"Do you think he'd like it here?" Jesse asked. He was surprised by how many people trapped here had made a decent life of things. Some of them were actually really happy. If pressed, Jesse would probably say he didn't mind it here.

"Sometimes I think Benji would actually choose to come here if he could."

[everyonetakes]

"Marshall? I don't know," she said, thinking about it. "I mean, it's a hell of a lot better than living in Overland Park, Kansas with a crazy family, but it's not exactly New York, right? He liked making movies and stuff and I don't think there's much of a film scene here."

She paused, then said, "But there seems to be a lot of gay dudes, so he'd like that."

[a_capella_boy]

"Well, he likes movies that make everyone sad, so he could probably make his own here," Jesse pointed out. German expressionist movies were really, really awful.

"I want to score and soundtrack movies, personally and you're right, there's not really a lot of opportunity for that sort of thing unless you bug film students. Who have no money."

[everyonetakes]

"And you should probably wait until they're at least a couple years into their whole education thing," she added. "Because I've seen some first year film students films and... eesh."

Of course, then there were people like Gene who made... whatever the hell it was he was making for her. Spoken word poetry videos or something along those lines.

[a_capella_boy]

"They are truly awful," Jesse agreed. Beginning artists could often be incredibly delusional. Arrogance or naivete or both could make for some truly horrible films that the makers thought were genius.

"Of course, there are some truly awful big production movies out there too."

[everyonetakes]

"There's some truly awful everything," she agreed, thinking of Lynda's art. There wasn't really anything wrong with it, but she just didn't like on principle. Mostly because she was sure Lynda was probably still using the pictures with her face painted into them and she didn't like that much.

[a_capella_boy]

"The things that are so awful they're incredible are amazing though," Jesse said, thinking of some truly terrible movies and songs that he'd heard that were just gold.

[everyonetakes]

"Oh, yeah, there's tons of that, too," Kate agreed, then held up her flamingo. "This, for example. This thing is terrible, but it's so terrible that it's the best thing I've ever seen in my life." But she absolutely loved it and she was pretty sure it was her new favourite thing.

[a_capella_boy]

"Exactly!" Jesse said, grinning broadly. Some people might find something like that tacky, or actually artistic. The truth was it was horrible and awesome all at once and that was the only way to really appreciate it.

"Turning a frown upside down. Or something."