Camp Baron hi-fi

Adam flicked through his vinyl collection, waiting for his friend to arrive. Yes, he had the newest addition he'd love to share with him, but he also had a couple of other records he thought Tikanni could enjoy.

Maybe he'd even let him borrow some.

A relaxing evening sounded nice. He deserved one after a couple of recent events...

So yes... David Bowie, some early work by Yes and Marillion... He even found a record from a Polish band, Breakout. It sounded like a perfect relax time.

Outfit

---

Tikanni had been looking forward to this with tons of enthusiasm ever since they’d set it up. The new moon couldn’t have come sooner and right after, he’d get to hang out with a cool new friend.

So, once that night arrived, he was off, buzzing with energy. He hadn’t been to Camp Baron in a while just because, but the main roads were familiar enough. In no time, he was turning down a residential street and pulling up into a parking space.

Heading on out and up, soon enough, he was knocking on the front door with a bit of a tune, rocking on his heels in anticipation and trying to push down the idea that this was the wrong house. It was so big!!!

the house

---

Adam heard the rather melodic knock even downstairs in the basement. He smiled and made his way upstairs then happily greeted Tikanni. Ah, the other vampire's enthusiasm was indeed infectious!

"Hey!" he said with a soft grin. "So good to see you!"

The door had rustling noises on the other end and thennn there was Adam! He beamed at his friend.

”You too,” he said enthusiastically. ”I was worried I was at the wrong house for a minute. This is the bee’s knees.” Tikanni craned his head up, hand motioning to the outside of it all.

"Well, if you ever need to throw a party, I could provide space." Adam said half-jokingly and motioned him inside. "Come on in! Are you hungry?"

He asked. Managed to get some bloodbags recently from a couple of generous donors! His little ad turned out to be more popular than he thought and... well, he'd tell Tika the happier news once they're more comfy.

Wow, that earned him bright wide eyes. ”Cool.”

Coming in, his head swiveled all around, taking it all in with maximum curiosity. It’d been a while since he’d been to another vampire’s and it was always interesting to see what they ended up with.

”Uh, sure.” Hopefully, it was bagged, even if that tasted funny, because something about feeding on a person in someone else’s house felt odd.

Adam grinned, leading him to a nicely lit kitchen. It wasn't as immaculate as one would expect from a vampire. Truth to be told, Adam was... experimenting.

"Would you like me to warm it up for you?" he asked, reaching to the fridge. "You know, I've been experimenting with cooking for a bit. Got some recipes from my..."

Girlfriend?

"...girlfriend!"

Following, he took in the kitchen where it actually looked like someone lived here instead of sterile with dust. That was a nice change to see, but also different considering Adam was a vampire.

The question reminded him why he didn’t exactly do bloodbags, but Tikanni could live and it was still nice. ”That would be tubularly spiffy… wait, what?” He cocked his head in question at the cooking part. Also! Adam had a girlfriend, that was news to him, but it wasn’t like they’d delved into each other’s lives much yet. ”You guys have been cooking with blood?”

"Oh yeah, she was saddened by the fact I live on a liquid diet and searched for ways to cook blood." Adam chuckled, shaking his head. Head over heels with this girl."And she made me blood jello. It was actually pretty good! Reminded me a bit of my grandma's cooking..."

He poured blood from the bag into a bowl and warmed it up in the microwave, stirring from time to time so it wouldn't coagulate. As if he has done it a thousand times before... which wouldn't be far from the truth, giving his feeding habits.

All of what Adam had just dumped kind of fell into understanding as Tikanni watched the blood be poured out into a bowl like spaghetti-o’s before being popped into the microwave.

”I wonder how that tastes.” The jello. Tikanni couldn’t remember if he’d even had that before.

But then, wait.

”Wait! She’s not a vampire,” he asked, sincerely just looking for clarification here as that fact fell into place.

Adam smiled bashfully and chuckled softly. Oh, yeah. That was probably weird, right... He didn't mind, though.

"She's human... psychic." he said quietly. "Careful not to drop the bowl."

Not only was she a human, but also a psychic! What? What.what.what.

He nodded in agreement to the words, bowl still in the microwave, but Tikanni was prepared.

”She just cooks blood for you?” Why were they cooking blood?

There was a beep and Adam swiftly retrieved the bowl in his mitts.

"Yeah, because other things would make me sick, right? She's wonderful..." Adam sighed dreamily and carefully handed the bowl over to Tika. "So thoughtful and kind."

Dude was suuuuper smitten, uh huh. Tikanni watched on with some amusement as Adam sighed about while giving him his bowl of nuked blood. Taking it, he slid it closer, looking at the red steaming liquid with some trepidation. It would be fine, right? Beauregard could heal whatever happened if it was bad, so yep!

”She sounds great, I’m happy for you.” Big grins!

Adam gave him a happy grin and a spoon. They could treat it like a soup...!

"My studio's downstairs, in the basement..." He said, motioning down. "We could get comfy there and I'm gonna pop the vinyl on..."

A spoon was offered out and Tikanni was very sure this was going to be one of the weirder moments of drinking blood for him. There’d been plenty of them, but this would now be taped right up alongside the rest. It didn’t matter though! His friend was super nice, trying to make him feel comfortable and wow! They were going to see his studio.

”Sounds perfect,” he grinned before testing the bowl with the arc between forefinger and thumb of his hands. Safe? Safe. Placing the spoon carefully in the bowl, he lifted the two and nodded. ”Lead the way.”

With a smile, Adam lead the way downstairs, to the cozy little studio. It took almost the entire basement and there was also Adam's newest... thing.

The colorful painting of a lemming he bought a while ago.

"Make yourself comfortable." He said with a smile and then looked at the painting for a brief second. His smile widened a bit.

Following dutifully as the spoon made a slow rotation against the bowl as he walked, Tikanni was soon welcomed to the slickest basement ever. Guitars, stereos, even the sound mixing thing you saw at studios on tv.

Pace perking up, he loudly put the bowl down in venture of touching things, hands absolutely buzzing with the need to fiddle. The rough grooved caps of a slider was the one he landed on first, dragging it down as it had just enough resistance that was satisfying in a certain way. ”Is this all for you,” he breathed, looking around from his place by the sound-thing.

Adam stopped admiring the lemming to look at Tikanni and just gave him a gentle, bashful smile.

"Yeah. My main income is from scoring movies, you know... I gotta have a lot of instruments." he said simply. "Though I've recently hired another musician to help me with my new album..."

He walked over to one of the amps, head tilted to the side.

"Wanna try this guitar out?"

He didn’t know that! ”No way!” Tikanni’s eyes sort of boggled at the explanation, trying to figure out how it all came together with Adam driving all the instruments, with some help even. What movies had he seen with his stuff? What was his favorite? What was he working on now? How did you start? So many questions!

An offer out for the guitar and he walked over. ”Gee whiz, yeah!” If offered out, he’d gingerly take it with care, looking down at the instrument and its strings with ultimate fascination. ”I’ve never really used one before.”

"Alright, hang on."

Adam plugged the guitar into the amp and took it from Tikanni for a moment. Just made sure it's tuned properly.

"You can actually play the beginning of Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters' without even touching the slider." He said, grinning. If he never played, it was good to start with something simple. "I can show you."

Tikanni watched his friend plug in a cord hanging off the guitar which made it feel all official like.

As for the song referenced, he blinked disbelievingly at the instrument in question. ”Really,” he asked, not sure in the slightest how it’d work.

Adam allowed himself to smile happily and decided to break out another amp and another guitar.

"Yeah, let me show you." he said and first made sure the guitar was tuned properly. Then without touching the neck of the guitar, he gently plucked on the strings. "I could never decide if it's lazy or brilliant on Metallica's part, but... if you want to learn a real song without knowing much, there you go!"

All attention on Adam, he waited with baited breath, studious in trying to remember every movement as if that might be the winning ticket even though they hadn’t even started. Tikanni was determined to learn.

”It makes it a good starting point for newbs at least,” he grinned.

"Alright, follow me then." Adam said with a wide grin. Then played the first note, not touching the neck. "First this, then..."

Played another and another, very slowly at first, until he got the entire first sequence of the intro.

He nodded, ready to go.

The first note sounded and Tikanni watched where fingers were pressing, beginning to follow, albeit in a clunky not exactly to the beat way. The important part was he was following positions though, right?

Ending several beats after Adam on a definitely wrong note out of many, he looked up with a sheepish expression on his face. ”Umm, can we go again?”

"Okay, let's try again, one note at the time." Adam said, still smiling. He was a patient teacher, just passionate about sharing music. He played the first note and waited for Tikanni to repeat.

He nodded, smiling happily back, glad that Adam was okay with doing so again.

Mimicking what his hands were doing, he listened to the first note and double checked his fingers before strumming the same, the thick cord uncomfortable, but this sounded right.

Tikanni looked up, ready for the next.

"You don't need to remember it by ear. Just remember which string is it for now... it's also a good excercise to make you remember which string makes which note." Adam was smiling, he actually never taught anyone how to play anything. But it made him oddly happy!

He played the next note, just... giddy...

Oh. That made sense! ”Gotcha,” Tikanni agreed, looking down at the strings and where fingers were, comparing to Adam’s.

Shifting the guitar, he looked from the next note and duplicated it, the sound clear.

"And two, on this string..."

Adam played the next note, keeping that warm smile on his face. Perhaps he could teach Tikanni how to play properly if he wanted. They both had an eternity to learn things...!

"You know, I never taught anyone to play anything, but it feels nice..."

Following along, he strummed the next note, the tone filling the room.

”Yeah? I never would’ve thought.” All that music experience, and no doubt his own teachers, probably helped Adam in knowing how to instruct if that was the case.

"Well, if you'd like me to teach you play properly, I'm your guy..." Adam smiled, playing another note. He'd be happy to do so and free of charge. "Sharing this knowledge does feel quite nice..."

That was so swanky dory, nice! Tikanni’s face lit up a million miles and he inhale into a, ”Really,” in a way that pushed his posture straight up.

”That’d be rad, thanks!”

Adam grinned, also lighting up quite a lot. Exciting! He felt like a sage sharing some secret knowledge now! Wow!

"I'll get you from plunking on single strings to..." He switched an effect and played opening riff to Ozzy Osbourne's 'Crazy Train'. "... in no time!"

Anything past what he could do was impressive, but to have a riff pull out of strings like that was insane.

”Awesome! I leave my teaching to you.”

Looking to the guitar in his grasp, he’d move it some. ”What’s next, Mr. Weiss,” Tikanni laughed, but eager to get this show on the road.

"What's next, well... we could start by learning simple chords." Adam said with a bright smile on his face. In his element, clearly. "Do you know how to read notes? If not, I could teach you for more advanced techniques...!"

Almost buzzing now.

Simple chords sounded like a great foundation to switch to.

Tikanni considered and while he knew how to pick up a rhythm and maybe knew how some notes sounded or looked, reading music had never really been a skill picked up. ”Nope, I’mma fresh slate.”

Adam grinned and scooted over a little closer, just happy to show everything better. Happily explained how to play four basic chords, fingers sliding on the neck of the guitar with ease. He's done it for so many years...

"I have to admit, guitar is not my primary weapon of choice..." he eventually chuckled.

With that, Adam got closer so Tikanni could see and mimic what his fingers were doing, trying to get down the basic positioning that seemed so easy for his friend. With a whole lot of practice, maybe he’d get there sometime too.

”Yeah? Then what is?”

"Piano and synths... I've played the piano since I was a little kid." Adam sighed softly with a soft smile. Being a vampire had it's advantages and it allowed him to pick up other intruments. "I have a whole-ass eternity to learn whatever I want, though."

The answer wasn’t expected, but then again, Tikanni wasn’t sure what he expected. The world had a ton of instruments that he knew of and probably didn’t. Adam basically summed up those thoughts well enough too and he laughed for it, nodding.

”True! I can’t wait to start picking them up too.”

And with Adam starting to give him lessons, Tikanni was well on his way to do just that.