Act III
Crescendo
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Chapter Fifteen
The Washouts
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It always started with acoustic guitars. That was something a lot of people probably would be surprised by. But even with the electric energy of punk rock, the basics were still the tried and true method of songwriting.
Unfortunately, this song wasn’t quite coming together. Rainbow set aside her guitar. “I have, like, fifty different ideas we could just start from.”
Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. “Same. But Shy wants us to write something together…”
“I bet we could get away with it. Just… not tell her we used an old idea.” The idea was to give them both a writing credit, but fuck it.
Lightning smirked. “You’re really gonna lie to Fluttershy?”
Rainbow frowned. Lightning had her there. “Yeah, fine. We’ll get back to it.”
Lightning put down her guitar and stretched. “In a bit. It’s so fucking hot, how are we supposed to think like this?”
It was pretty hot. Summer had started, and Lightning Dust didn’t have air conditioning. They could’ve been somewhere else – Rainbow had a perfectly serviceable house they could use – but every Washouts song had been written in this house, and they wanted to keep the tradition alive.
“So, think The Washouts will be tour ready?” Rainbow asked, lying back on Lightning Dust’s bed. They were in her room back in Everton, in a house she had rented with her money from Bitchette after she left the band. It was sparsely decorated, although there was a Bitchette poster on the wall.
“Hell yeah, I do!” Lightning grinned. “Trust me, my band will blow yours away.” It had been exactly what Lightning Dust had said she’d do when she left Bitchette – start a new band.
“Think we’ve got a pretty big headstart on you with Bitchette,” Rainbow said.
“Which will just make it more impressive when we wipe the floor with you guys!” Lightning punched Rainbow on the shoulder. “By the end of the tour, we’re gonna have to switch places and you can open for us.”
“Fat chance.” Rainbow sat up and swatted Lightning Dust’s hand away. “We’re still miles ahead of you guys.”
“Don’t forget who got you there though.” Lightning winked.
Rainbow grinned. “Same person who got you bitches on the tour. But Fluttershy is our manager.”
“We’ll make do.”
“You better.” Rainbow only meant to give Lightning a small shove, but she wound up pushing her off the bed. She didn’t regret it.
Bitchette was in between tours at the moment, having finished their winter-spring tour and not yet started on their summer one. For that tour, The Washouts were the opening act, so it was sure to be a blast.
If she and Lightning didn’t kill each other, of course. Lightning pounced onto the bed and held Rainbow down while she went for a noogie. Rainbow struggled to throw her off, not quite hitting the mark but managing to grab a pillow. She shoved it into Lightning’s face and pushed, so that she looked like a couple of arms flailing out of a pillow.
The bedroom door opened, and Flash’s voice greeted them. “You guys need… er, is this a bad time?”
“No, what’s up?” Lightning Dust asked as Rainbow finally managed to push her off. She smiled at Flash as if nothing had happened.
Rainbow punched her on the shoulder, but didn’t say anything.
Flash rubbed his hand against the back of his hair. “I was just coming to see if you wanted some help. You’ve been at it for a while.”
“Nah, we’re good,” Lightning said.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m drenched in sweat and we don’t have shit to show for it. Yeah, we could use some help.”
Flash nodded and walked in, taking the guitar that Rainbow offered him. He strummed it once to check the tuning, then smiled at them. “So what do you have so far?”
Rainbow and Lightning looked at each other. Since she had offered up her own guitar, it fell to Lightning to show off their work. “Not a whole hell of a lot. We were thinking something like…” She strummed the chord progression they’d been playing around with for the verses. “And maybe like…” She shifted to a different but equally underwhelming riff for the chorus.
Flash took a seat and flayed the two riffs back to back first, needing nothing but to see Lightning play them once to pick up on them. “So maybe we could do something like this?” He played the verse riff, then a completely different one that he seemed to make up on the spot, and finished with a modified version of the chorus riff. “You know, like a pre-chorus thing.”
“Ooh, I like that,” Lightning played it as well, then handed her guitar to Rainbow. “I’m grabbing my bass.”
“Go on, play it again,” Rainbow said. Flash started with the verse riff, and Rainbow started working on a lead part. She stopped after a moment. “Hold on, you’re the lead guitarist in The Washouts, come up with your own shit. I’ll play rhythm.”
They switched places, with Rainbow playing with the verse part and Flash noodling over it. It took a few minutes, then something workable started to sound like it was coming out.
By then, there was a bass underscore to their playing. It sounded completely disconnected from the guitar parts, but Lightning found a nice groove and they worked with it, reshaping what they had to work along with what she was doing.
“Hold on, show me the pre-chorus again,” Rainbow said, and Flash obliged. Rainbow attempted it herself, picking it up pretty easily.
That matched the tone of the rest of the session. Flash had a gift for honing in on what the others were doing and playing along, and Rainbow got the impression they should have had Lightning on the bass all along for how well it worked to set the tone that the guitars played to.
It didn’t take long for them to have the song nearly finished. The only thing left was a bridge that could either be filled with lyrics or a guitar solo, and either of those would be written later.
They made a rough recording on Rainbow’s phone, then mercifully, they got to go downstairs. The upstairs bedroom was the hottest in the house, and they were met with a chorus of fans blowing in cooler air from outside.
Since Lightning Dust didn’t have a basement, the drums and everything else was set up in the living room. The rest of the band was down there sitting around and waiting for them to finish up.
As was Fluttershy. She had her laptop out and was busy with something. She worked so much these days, and Rainbow had no earthly idea what she could possibly be doing. She knew if she asked it would just be ‘making sure things are set up for the summer tour’, so she didn’t bother to ask.
Instead, she grinned and announced, “We think we have something to work with!”
She, Flash, and Lightning played the song for the others, Rainbow explaining what she was doing to Rolling Thunder, rhythm guitarist for The Washouts.
“Did you record it?” Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow held up her phone. “Of course we did.”
“Email it to me.” Fluttershy pulled a pair of headphones out of her laptop bag. “I think I should work on lyrics while you all get the music sorted for electric. I have a melody in mind already.
Rolling Thunder stood up. She was a tall and slender woman with grape-colored skin, curly white hair, and a scar around her left eye. She crossed the room to the counter Fluttershy was sitting at. Her voice was direct, but not unkind. “No can do, mate. I’ve written all of The Washouts lyrics, I should write these ones too.”
Fluttershy smiled and would have no doubt had a perfectly polite but insistent reply, but Lightning beat her to it. “Remember the whole point of the song is a collab between us and Bitchette. Why don’t you two write them together?”
“I’ve never written lyrics with anyone other than Dash,” Fluttershy said, then smiled again. “It’ll be fun.”
“Reasonable enough.” Rolling Thunder jerked her head away. “But might be best to get somewhere quieter before Short Fuse starts pounding them drums.”
The two of them left for the upstairs room as everyone else went to get their instruments. Since Rolling Thunder left to work on lyrics, Rainbow filled in for her on guitar.
“I guess let’s start with seeing how it sounds electric, then we can tweak it and add drums.”
They ran through the song together on electric guitars, and Short Fuse joined in on drums after a moment, finding a drumbeat that fit the song easy enough.
The four of them worked on the song together for a little while, getting it to sound pretty good all things considered. Rainbow recorded another version of the song once they had it and sent that to Fluttershy’s email in the hopes that it would help with lyrics.
After that, they took a break. “So is this how you all normally do things?” Rainbow asked.
“Usually me or Dust will have a song idea in mind and bring it to the others,” Flash explained. “We don’t usually try to force a song like this.”
“Sometimes we start with lyrics,” Lightning Dust said. “Thunder’s really good at them, so sometimes we turn her lyrics into songs.”
“Huh.” Rainbow had never started a song with lyrics before. Maybe she’d try it some time.
“Thanks for coming out and doing this song with us, by the way,” Lightning said. “I think it’ll really help.
Rainbow smirked. “Yeah, well, you’re gonna need all the help you can get.”
Short Fuse chuckled, but he muttered, “We don’t need any help.” He was Rolling Thunder’s opposite, short and squat. His skin was reddish-orange, and he had light blonde hair that he kept slicked back.
Rainbow had been warned that he didn’t take to jokes well and had a bit of a temper. She decided to try and patch things up before they turned negative by changing the topic. “You really rock on those drums. You been in any bands before?”
“No, I never really planned on being a musician, but…”
“But?”
“But nothing.” Short Fuse frowned.
Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. “Before his therapist suggested he learn the drums.”
“Oh, just like Zest,” Rainbow said. “She learned the drums because of her ADHD.”
“I don’t have ADHD!” Short Fuse said, going from mild irritation to actual anger in the span of one offhand comment.
“Uh, okay.” Rainbow blinked, unsure how to reply.
“Anger management issues,” Short Fuse muttered.
“He’s doing pretty good these days though,” Flash said. “The drums give him an outlet which keeps him calmer.”
“That’s our thing,” Lightning Dust explained. “We all didn’t really fit in somewhere, that’s why we’re The Washouts.”
“I kept getting fired for fighting at work,” Short Fuse explained. “Now no one wants to hire me because my work history is such rubbish. But here… I can make all that anger work for me.”
“And you know my story,” Lightning Dust said. “I’d rather be in a smaller punk band that stays true to the punk roots rather than take fame by playing something I don’t like.”
“What about you?” Rainbow asked Flash.
He smiled sheepishly. “I’m not that complicated. Dust asked me to join, and I thought sure, why not? I took a semester off from school to see how it goes.”
“Sounds like your whole theme is a little shaky,” Rainbow said with a smirk. “Rolling Thunder seemed pretty normal too.”
Lightning Dust laughed. “You have no idea. Thunder is an anarchist. Like, an actual anarchist. She was pretty extreme back in the day, did some time for throwing a brick through the window of a coffee shop chain.”
Rainbow’s mouth fell open. “Holy shit. She didn’t hurt anyone, did she?”
“Nah, just property damage. Anyway, now she writes lyrics about politics and stuff, so we give her a platform to reach more people.”
Rainbow couldn’t help but grin. “You must love that. What’s more punk than anarchy?”
“It’s pretty cool. She’s been turning me on to more political stuff too. There’s a lot of things we never really cared about that we should’ve.”
Rainbow never went in for politics. She knew Gilda cared about all that, and the rest of the band did a little too, but Rainbow herself had always been content to stay out of it.
“Think she’ll try to turn this song political too?” Rainbow asked.
Lightning Dust shrugged. “Probably, but she’s writing with Shy, so who knows?”
Curious, Rainbow pulled out her phone and sent Fluttershy a text message. ‘How are the lyrics coming along?’
It didn’t take long for a reply to come in. ‘Great! I think we should use our platform to talk about important things more often.’
Rainbow couldn’t help but grin. “What’s up?” Lightning Dust asked.
“Nothing.” Rainbow put her phone away. “I just think Shy might want to do more than sad love songs on our next album.”
“And get this, our dumbass producer didn’t even have us doing guide tracks!”
The band had just finished recording the collaborative song, which was the only track on The Washouts’ album that Fluttershy was producing. Listening to Lightning Dust talk about the other guy they had, it sounded like they were lucky he wasn’t involved in this song.
“Do you think it made your songs come out worse?” Fluttershy asked. They were all sitting around the recording studio, unsure of what to do with all the extra time they had left.
Lightning Dust laughed. “Of course it did. So I started insisting we do them. You know, record properly.”
Fluttershy smiled. “Exactly. Being a traditional punk band doesn’t mean being unprofessional.”
“Yeah, we pretty much were on our own for the rest of the record,” Rolling Thunder said. “We should’ve had you produce it.”
Fluttershy and Rainbow exchanged looks. Neither of them seemed to know how to answer, so they were silent until Short Fuse said, “She’s probably busy with Bitchette stuff, Thunder.”
Lightning Dust sighed. “And… I kinda told her I wanted to work with other producers.”
“So we had to work with that jerkoff for no good reason?” Short Fuse asked irritably.
“There was a good reason,” Fluttershy said. “I was the reason Lightning left the band, after all…”
“No you weren’t,” Lightning Dust said sharply. “I left because everyone else wanted to go in a different direction, not just you.”
“But it was my idea…”
“Shy, it wasn’t your fault,” Rainbow said. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”
“Besides, things are working well with Gilda, right?” Lightning asked. “And if I hadn’t left, I wouldn’t be working with these knuckleheads.”
Everyone murmured agreements, except for Short Fuse, who grumbled about being called a knucklehead.
Lightning Dust grinned. “But I gotta say, you did a lot better at producing for us than I thought you would. Maybe I was wrong for not inviting you.”
“I just had to keep telling myself it wasn’t a Bitchette song. It was a good reminder to me that my job is to help you achieve your vision instead of my own.”
Lightning Dust nodded. “I don’t know if we’d want a whole album like this, but for a lead single, it turned out pretty perfectly.”
The song had come out with a very raw sound, but it was something they could see getting some radio play. A true collaboration, it fit nicely between the heavier punk sound of The Washouts and the increasingly alternative style that Bitchette was approaching.
“It’s the best thing we’ve recorded and you know it,” Rolling Thunder said.
Fluttershy giggled. “No, Dust is right. I don’t think I could get you the sound you wanted. Uhm, even if it doesn’t sound like your other producer was much help either…”
“At least the album is wrapped up,” Flash said. “We’ll find someone new for the next album.”
Fluttershy nodded. “Maybe I could still help. I’ll keep an eye out and ask around, try to find you all a more reliable producer.”
“That’d be killer,” Rolling Thunder said with a grin.
“But uh…” Flash looked at the empty recording booth. “What do we do now? We had the whole weekend to record that song.”
He had a point; it was only Saturday, and they still had a little time left before their session was up. Lightning didn’t seem to mind, as she just grinned. “Yeah, we tore through it. We’ve never been that focused. I don’t think Bitchette is ever even that focused in the studio.”
“Guess it was just a special song,” Rainbow said. She hadn’t needed to do as much warming up on her voice for her part, which Fluttershy had wanted to sound rough to match Lightning’s vocal style a little better. “One song is easier to focus on than a whole album.”
“I guess,” Lightning said.
“I’m not complaining,” Short Fuse said. “A whole day off sounds nice!”
“Have you recorded any B-sides?” Fluttershy asked.
The band looked around at one another, and eventually Rolling Thunder answered. “They didn’t ask us to.”
Fluttershy sighed. “Of course they didn’t… Okay, what do you say we try to knock one out with the rest of the day? Maybe we can get some extra sales of the single if it has an exclusive song on it.”
“Great, there goes my day off…” Short Fuse grumbled.
“Sorry, Fuse, but I’m with Fluttershy,” Flash said. He pumped his fist. “Let’s do it!”
Fluttershy nodded. “We don’t have time to write another song, so is there something you have written that you didn’t record?”
Lightning Dust shrugged. “We have a few things kicking around, but they’re not as good.”
“It’s a B-side, they don’t have to be as good,” Rainbow said. “Besides, me and Shy can try to shape them up, if you want.”
The Washouts discussed songs and picked one they thought might be a good choice, then they played it for Fluttershy and Rainbow to hear.
When it was done, Fluttershy put her finger to her mouth contemplatively. “Hmm, how many songs do you have?”
Lightning frowned. “A few. Don’t like that one?”
“Hmm? Oh no, it was good.” Fluttershy smiled. “I was just thinking, if we can work on them today, then maybe we can knock them out live in the studio tomorrow. The quality should still be more than suitable for B-sides, and that way you’ll have a few songs to put on singles and stuff.”
Rainbow clapped Fluttershy on the back. “Good thinking, Shy.”
So rather than record anything, the band played through a few more songs. Fluttershy took notes on them as they played, writing things like ‘bridge needs work’ or ‘possible backing vocals in chorus’.
For her part, Rainbow focused more on the guitar work to see if she had any input. She found she rarely did; Flash and Rolling Thunder made a good duo.
They wrapped up the last of their recording time right around when they finished the last song. Unfortunately, the studio wasn’t open at night or they might have just worked a double – they were just going back to Lightning Dust’s to work on the songs, and that meant they had to lug all the instruments around.
But there was nothing to be done about that, so they all pitched in to load everything into the van Lightning Dust had bought for the tour. Rolling Thunder volunteered to ride in the back to make sure the drum kit didn’t roll around due to Lightning Dust’s hazardous driving, and Short Fuse rode in the front with her.
That left Fluttershy and Rainbow to ride with Flash. Without bothering to ask, Fluttershy took the back so Rainbow could sit in the front.
“Thanks for doing this for us,” Flash said as they climbed into his car.
Rainbow shrugged. “We needed to do something with all that free time.”
Flash pulled into the road and followed Lightning Dust’s van. “Not just tomorrow, but today and yesterday too. And just… everything, you know?”
It was all Fluttershy’s idea, and part of how she sold the label on signing The Washouts. The idea was to get as many of Bitchette’s fans on board with the band as possible right from the get-go. There was obviously a connection with Lightning Dust forming the band, but they made it more than that.
They started by releasing Your Impatience, the song Lightning Dust had sung lead on, as a single. Fluttershy fought for it, figuring it could get their fans used to hearing her voice and hyped for her new band. From there, Fluttershy used Bitchette’s social media presence to advertise The Washouts and their upcoming album before announcing they’d join Bitchette on tour.
The duet was the icing on the cake. A song co-written by both Rainbow and Lightning Dust that they both sang lead on, with Fluttershy producing the recording session. That was going to be the lead single on The Washouts’ debut album, and they’d play it live with Rainbow making a guest performance every night. Then, during Bitchette’s set, Lightning Dust would come out to sing Your Impatience with the band.
In the end, the two bands would be completely linked in the minds of the fans. The label got a new act that started with a fanbase, and The Washouts got a leg up.
And since Fluttershy wouldn’t, Rainbow had to live up all the praise. “Yeah, we pretty much saved your band.”
“We just helped give you a headstart,” Fluttershy said. “The Washouts are a great band, you would have been fine without us.”
“Says the person who made it all happen,” Flash said with a smirk.
Rainbow turned around to look at Fluttershy and jerked her head towards Flash. “Probably convinced Flash to join the band too. He was pretty dead set on school until a sure thing came his way.”
“I won’t say it wasn’t a factor,” Flash admitted. “It was a lot easier to join up with a band that already had a good shot at getting signed.”
“I’m sure it was,” Fluttershy said.
Flash frowned about something, then shook his head. Rainbow quirked her head, but he just drove silently. “Something wrong?”
“Hmm? Oh, it’s nothing.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Flash, we’re going to be living together on this tour. No secrets.”
Flash grimaced, then sighed. “Alright… The truth is I didn’t take a semester off, I dropped out.”
“Really? That’s dedication.” Rainbow didn’t want to say it, but she was glad to hear that. She wanted to know everyone in The Washouts was committed to the band.
“Yeah, well, not a lot of choice.” Flash frowned again. “I’ve been failing my classes for years.”
“Oh shit.” Rainbow frowned as well. “I always thought you were doing super good. You were always working so hard at school.”
Flash shrugged. “Didn’t show for a lot. I learn better when I’m doing something. To tell the truth, I learned more about music when I helped you all record your first demo than I did in the three years of studying that came after.”
“Ouch.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Fluttershy said.
“Yeah. Guess no matter what it looks like, I’m a real Washout through and through.”
“Guess so.” Rainbow grinned. “But hey, if you learn by doing, then you’ll have plenty of chances to learn in a band!”
Flash nodded. “Yeah, that’s the idea. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing shows in The Washouts too, but I really want to learn as much as I can about the studio side of things. That’s what I’m passionate about.”
“You could learn to produce the music yourself,” Fluttershy said. “I could teach you how all the equipment works and give you some pointers.”
“Yeah, we could do another collab recording on our next album,” Rainbow suggested. They were slated to go back into the studio once the summer tour was over. “That’d be a good time for you to come in have Shy show you the ropes.”
Flash chuckled. “I thought music was supposed to be a hard career. You two make this easy.”
Rainbow laughed. “Yeah, we put in the hard work back when Bitchette first started. But I gotta be honest, touring isn’t a breeze. It’s… well, you’ll see.”
“We wouldn’t trade it for the world, though,” Fluttershy said brightly.
Rainbow looked back at Fluttershy and saw her smiling. “Hell yeah!”
Flash nodded. “I’m looking forward to the tour.”
Lightning Dust pulled into the driveway of her house, Flash pulling in behind her. As they got out, Fluttershy lagged behind a little, and she yawned once she finally moved.
Rainbow winced, and she asked a question she knew she didn’t want the answer to. “How much sleep did you get last night.”
“I’m fine,” was Fluttershy’s answer.
Rainbow quirked an eyebrow. “How much?”
Fluttershy frowned. “I didn’t. I was up all night trying things for the song so I would know how to make it work when we got into the studio.”
Rainbow deflated. “Shy…”
“I’m fine!”
Even Flash was concerned, and he didn’t know half of what had been going on with her for the past two months. “That’s not good, Fluttershy.”
Rainbow held out her hand. “Gimme your notes.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I’m gonna work with the band on those songs while you take a nap.”
“Rainbow –”
“Shy, come on. For me?”
Fluttershy sighed and pushed right past Rainbow, walking up to the house ahead of the other two. “I’m fine,” she spat behind her without turning around.
Rainbow folded her arms and leaned against Flash’s car, a grimace firmly on her face.
“Geez. I’ve never seen Fluttershy like that.”
“Heh, get used to it.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “You’ll see a lot more of it on the tour.”
“What happened to her?”
Rainbow couldn’t help but smirk. “You know, people ask me that a lot. It’s a long story.”
“No secrets on tour, right?”
Rainbow shook her head. There was no telling how Flash would react to Sonata and the other Dazzlings showing up again, and that wasn’t even the half of Fluttershy’s problems. “Not now. We have work to do and… it’s a long story.”
“Fair enough, I guess. But you know, I’m always here if either of you needs to talk.”
“I’m not the one who gives up sleep and snaps at my friends about it.”
Flash put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. “Yeah, but you’re the one who’s always there for Fluttershy. It’s not always easy to be the support for someone like that. Trust me, I know.”
“You mean Sunset?”
“Yeah. Something tells me she had something to do with how Shy is now, huh?”
“Yeah.” Rainbow shook her head. “Come on, they’ll wonder about us if we don’t head inside.”
“Alright. Just remember what I said.”
“Thanks, Flash.”
Rainbow did appreciate it, even if she wasn’t sure she’d ever take Flash up on that offer. For starters, he was close to Sunset. And besides, she had her whole band in the same boat with her when it came to Fluttershy stuff.
All of that could wait though. For now, she led the way inside, where she’d see if she could convince Fluttershy to take at least a small nap. Whether she succeeded or not, she’d work on some songs with some friends, and try to feel like life was as simple as it should be again.