Group RP Iris-shi High School Talent (Idol) Club! (IC)

@WavePearl

Cordelia gratefully smiled back. "Thanks! Glad you liked it." Now that she had a good look at the clubmates of the school talent/idol club, she chuckled. "Looks like everyone's prepared to play music today! Anyone up for a flash mob?"

Robin held his hand up. "We can save that energy when we get to my home. I live up the hill, so we may need to get a bus to get our equipment up there." He specifically looked at Kai's direction. Honestly, wouldn't it get tiring at some point to carry a keyboard around the whole day? (And indeed, Kai's guess was spot-on, because Robin did not have a keyboard at home).

"Alright, Robin-kun. Suppose we should save our energy, for sure. I think you'll be dancing, right?" Cordelia said, smiling. Then she finished putting away her equipment as well as having taken down her makeshift stage. While Cordelia was in the mood to play more, she figured it could wait until the actual performance that everyone was looking forward to. In addition, she was also there to back up Robyn in case if anyone would possibly catch onto anything suspicious on Robyn. After all, Cordelia knew Robyn's secrets (both the embarrassing one and the truth). Speaking of which, Robyn was as silent as she was nervous.

"I will be dancing, yup," Robin replied. Then he turned to his clubmates. "So, are we ready to go? I'll buy us shioyaki, if anyone is a fan of salmon."

If Cordelia didn't know better (and ironically she did know), she would have thought Robin mirroring exactly how Robyn would have behaved. She held back a chuckle at Robyn who was clutching at her own collar.

 

@ChocoChicken @SAF @WavePearl

Robin tried his best to hold back a giggle or a smile at Alexa's appearance. At least in his opinion, Robyn had gotten so used to having the club gathering together that she had forgotten that Alex hadn't shown up yet. Or maybe it was because of the nervous state that Robyn was in that had caused her to overlook Alexa in the first place.

"At least you've made it, Alexa-san, in one piece no less. You look dizzy. Are you okay?" Robin asked. "Um... If nothing else, we should start heading to my home. It's up the hill, so we'll need to take another bus to get there. But first, let me buy us some shioyaki..."

Robin later walked out of a walk-in kitchen at Goldenrod Square with two boxes of salmon shioyaki. One bigger box was to share between the clubmates, and one smaller box was for Morgan. The smell of salt-grilled salmon wafted faintly in the air from the boxes even though they were sealed. He could only imagine how it would taste later, assuming they hadn't gone cold by then.

Soon enough, Robin led the club to the bus stop outside Goldenrod Square. As they waited for the bus, Robin replied to Tamal, "Well... At best, you can call me Robin-kun. That seems informal enough."

"Or you can call him Currypan-kun," Robyn playfully added.

"Wha...? What about you, Melonpan-chan?" Robin shot back.

Robyn blushed.

7/24 Wednesday: Afternoon; Robin's Residence

It was a good thing the clubmates had taken the shuttle bus to go up the hill, given the amount of equipment they had with them. Personally, Robyn would have preferred to have walked, but there was not enough time. It was more efficient to take the bus, get off at the stop on Ylisse Street that neighboured Robin's home before actually walking to Robin's home.

Robin's home was a humble two-level home where he and Morgan lived together on the upper floor (which had a kitchen and a dinner table in the same room, a living room with a TV and a Mintendo Switch dock, a bathroom, and three bedrooms), whereas the lower floor was unoccupied, save for the entrance where it was possible to remove their shoes before they went up the staircase. But for practical reasons, the club would be gathering on the empty lower floor, where they could practise.

Robyn visibly looked very nervous as she had to pretend that she didn't live here. Yet, she couldn't help worrying that Morgan might have set an enormous stack of tomes waiting to greet whoever walked in first.

"Well, welcome to my home, everyone," Robin said. "Let's set up downstairs, and we can enjoy the shioyaki while we're at it."

"Careful..." Robyn warned, thinking about the tomes.

(Fun fact. I shared this roleplay with my artist friend who suggested designing an outfit for Robyn based on a melon pan)

 

@ChocoChicken @SAF @WavePearl

Robyn followed Robin into his home. "Th-thanks for letting us use your home, Robin," she said nervously, while also reeling from the prospect of Tamal calling her Melon (let alone Melonpan). What was he, the second Gaius?

The disheartening sight of the tower of books was enough to intimidate anyone, so it was a good thing that Maya and Alex heeded Robyn’s warning and to stay away. But not Nora, who was unfortunate enough to be the closest to the stack of tomes. Then the stack itself began to topple on its own in her direction…

“LOOK OUT!” Robyn cried, who then jumped ahead of Nora and took the full hit of tomes (cue the crash afterward). But that didn’t mean that Nora got partially crushed by the tomes, and they were buried in a pile of books right after that.

Robin gasped. "Are you okay?" he said, removing his shoes first before removing the books and stacking them Alexa-style in much smaller piles than the one stack that was here just now.

Cordelia blinked and tried not to chuckle but failed. "I guess Morgan-chan is still at it, eh?" Then she knelt down to help stack the books.

"Yeah... Am I right, Morgan?" Robin said, walking further into the adjacent room on the lower floor and seeing his little sister trying her best to hold in her laughter. "Have you not learned anything since we were in the park?"

"Onii-chan... It was a much smaller stack!" Morgan laughed with balled fists. "Did I get anyone?"

"Yeah, you got your onee-chan and Nora-chan." Robin replied. Then he turned to the clubmates. "Um... You can set up your things in this room here, and help yourselves to the shioyaki. That said, Morgan, I got you some shioyaki, but for this, you're not getting any!" Finally when the pile of books was cleared, he helped Robyn up first, who took the two boxes of shioyaki to the lower floor.

Morgan pouted. "B-b-but onii-chan...!"

Cordelia chuckled as she removed her shoes and walked further into the lower floor, which was sparsely decorated with a coffee table and some sofas arranged around a TV but otherwise empty. There was a great deal of space to set up equipment and also to dance on. As Cordelia went to set up her DJ equipment, Robin continued to stack the tomes in neat piles in an effort to free Nora and Robyn. Not quite as comically piled like the avalanche that was Alexa's books, but there were still a lot of books. Where did Morgan get all these books, anyway?

 

@WavePearl @ChocoChicken @SAF

Soon enough, Nora had been freed from the weight of the books thanks to the clubmates. With Maya and Robin putting away the books and Alex and Tamal helping Nora back on her feet.

Robyn shook her head. "Always there to cause trouble, aren't you, Morgan?" Even she wondered where Morgan got this sadistic side of her, and this wasn't the first time Robyn had asked herself that. Worse still, she wouldn't have thought that Morgan wanted to target pretty much everyone, as if the incident at Amatsu Park wasn't enough! Seemed Morgan just wanted more victims. But at least Morgan would make lemon puffs.

Soon enough, Robyn had placed the two boxes of salmon shioyaki on the coffee table and Cordelia continued to set up her equipment. Then Robyn turned to the rest of her clubmates. "Righto, let's get set up so we can practice and plan things out for the coming performance! I'll be right back. I'm just going to grab my guitar."

Robin had spent several minutes putting away the tomes (as he had done so countless times in the past). As he hauled the books upstairs to wherever Morgan found them, he passed by Robyn who had retrieved her guitar from her bedroom. Then Robyn carefully walked downstairs to meet the clubmates on the lower floor.

"Don't be shy, Maya-chan! Have some shioyaki," Robyn said, seeing that the girl appeared to have an appetite. Morgan decided to sit on the sofa and watch the clubmates set up, all while eyeing the shioyaki.

 

@WavePearl @ChocoChicken

As the clubmates continued to enjoy the shioyaki while setting up their instruments at the same time, Robyn started to set up her guitar too. She had not only brought her guitar but also her laptop with her club notes, as well as the guitar capo and tuner that Robin gifted her last Christmas. Just so that she could let Nora and Maya go ahead of her and use the keyboard, Robyn tuned her guitar with her tuner and also turned on her laptop.

Cordelia smiled slightly at the sight around her. This really was looking like a real studio right now! Her DJ setup was almost done, save for plugging in a few more cables and doing a soundcheck. She had her headphones on to minimise just so she could hear her own beats, and moreover to make sure her speakers weren't causing a racket. She was mindful of Robin's preferences to not be too loud that the house might shake.

Not long after, Robin entered the room with his own guitar and started setting up with Morgan right beside him. It appeared that Morgan was still holding in her giggles from her attempt at tome stackers, but was reprimanded by Robin earlier for doing so. Even then, it seemed Robin was too nice of a person that he decided to let Morgan have a piece of shioyaki - contrary to his earlier remarks. At least Morgan had enough sense not to play around with the music equipment and possibly damaging them.

So Morgan ended up sitting on the sofa and munched on a piece of shioyaki.

@SAF

"Well, I hope we have everything we need," Robyn announced, while rubbing her bruised arms a little from the tomes. "And I sure hope that none of the rentals had gotten damaged! We have time to practice tunes together, as well as dance in the space around. Why, we can even test playing those videos with the music too! And..." she trailed off, seeing the puzzled looks on the Hansens' faces. "Uh... Anything on your mind?"

But in Robyn's mind, she was screaming inside. Oh no. Were they onto her? Nah, she must be overthinking things.

(We won't have to go through every song since we'll be doing them on the performance day, but it's a time to smooth things out if needed)

 

Before Robyn could get any more information or details from Nora or Kai, Robin called the meeting to order. "You know, while Robyn and I were practicing Tiny Stars, I had a thought that we might as well involve a few others in this song. Kai-kun has plenty of opportunities to play piano, Maya-chan or Tamal-kun could play the single guitar notes if while Cordelia-chan plays the bass with her DJ stuff. Else, one or the other could do the bass too. How does that sound? If that happens, it may as well become a group song."

At that, Robin erased parts of the song order and scribbled in the replacement. Namely his performance would be near the beginning while Robyn's song would be closer to the end. "Um... Want to practice it? We do have the song here."

What Kamui edited

1. Han-san
2. Han-san
3. Reflet (Robin)
4. Rising Star Capella ft. Big Han-san
5. Phoenix
6. Azura
7. Reflet ft. Little Han-san & Ch1ptune Group (Reflet)
8. Rising Star Capella
9. Ch1ptune
10. Group (Reflet)
11. Group (Little Han-san)

But before Robin could even go further, he was interrupted by music playing for Cordelia's equipment, causing him to look at her direction. Wait, he knew that bassline! Plus, Cordelia looked like a real professional the way she was set up.

"Tiny Stars, right, Robin-kun? You know the bass in that song is catching with that drop in the first verse," Cordelia smiled.

 

@ChocoChicken @SAF @WavePearl

Robin balled his fists in excitement. "Great! And since I don't have a bass at the moment, I'll just pluck away at my guitar as a mock bass when we practice." He had yet to practice Cosmic I as a group, so this was the perfect opportunity now that everyone was here.

"That reminds me, Alexa-chan! Our friend Cordelia there can play around with the layers for your song too as we discussed before. If you need beats, she can make them, I think." Robyn said. "So we'll have Robin borrow a bass on the day of... But yeah, we better make sure everyone plays the right instruments in the following song - which is my other group song."

She looked at the schedule again. "Let's see... My group song (Alternate) will require roles for sure..." Then suddenly Robyn's eyes turned into panic. "OH! I didn't even plan out who would play or sing what in Alternate! I need two more of us to sing with me. And we have to practice after too, planning out instrument roles and so on."

"Um... onee-chan..." Morgan waved her hand. "You said the Azura would be there, right? Why don't you ask her?"

Cordelia giggled. Seemed the youngest in the room had come up with the simplest solution.

(Robyn's other group song, for the record)

 

After the song concluded, Robyn picked up her guitar. "Right! Uh... Let's get practicing, then!" she said, hoping Nora or Kai wouldn't press the issue (given their mild reactions). But before practice could begin, she helped Nora plug in for her electric violin to the amps that Robin hauled from upstairs to here. Unfortunately, there were only two amps they could use at most, which meant not everyone could plug in. But to be absolutely fair, Robyn and Robin used acoustic guitars. There would be time to use electric guitars later.

So the practice session began, first with the Hansen siblings getting in place on the wide open space the room, behind the sofas. As the session went on, Robyn tried coordinating the videos which Kai had sent her to the tunes they were playing. Kamui had already received said videos, so it was just a matter of working them in together. To further assist them, Cordelia made some complementing beats with her equipment which she played around while the music played.

On the other hand, Robin was playing Your Affection in his headphones while he practiced the choreography for the song. Once that was done, he went to practise bass notes for Cosmic I.

@SAF @ChocoChicken

After a little more practicing, Robyn went up to Kai and Tamal. "Say, you two have a song you're doing together, right? How's planning for that?"