Fiasco: Touring Rock Band, The Birds, c7s2 tilt, act two and aftermath

Tilt

Lynn's and Mario's players get to choose tilt elements. Dice are rolled and we end up with:

• Innocence: The wrong guy gets busted
• Failure: You thought it was taken care of but it wasn't

We discussed a little where everything was heading and it's obvious that the solo career is important for Lynn which is in total opposition to Mario's strong wish to keep the band together at all costs. Mario's player even thinks it's better if Lynn dies on stage rather than leaving the band and presumably bringing some of the fans with her and if she dies on stage she never left the band and the band will just be more legendary.

Lynn's player says that it would be fun if the record label had offered her a solo album if she helps to bring about the changes in The Birds. Then Lynn's motivated to make the new album with the new sound happen and also go about her own solo career.

If Lynn were about to die because a mistake that would make all royalty money for the lyrics go to The Crow alone and he wouldn't need to share with Lynn. That could put him in the spotlight of the investigation of what happened when Lynn died.

Also there has been some borderline pyrotechnics so that's also a possibility for "You thought it was taken care of but it wasn't".


Act two

Scene one

(Lynn's player establishes, the rest decides for a good ending)

It's time for the first gig with Mario on scene, new clothes and the new sound with violin. The band opens up with an older popular song that is rearranged for the new sound and Mario's violin. The audience is somewhat confused in the beginning since there's been any announcement of the new sound or any special gig. Halfway through the song many in the audience get warm anyway and seem to like to hear a new version. The usual I-push-myself-forward-in-front-of-the-fans-although-I-arrived-late-just-to-film-with-my-smartphone people that attend any show is quite unpleased though when they don't get what they expected on their recording. Pushed back by the fans they return back or even leave. Good riddance anyway. The rest of the audience show mixed feelings. One of the new songs that's written for the new sound from the beginning is received better. Maybe they accept a new sound better for a new song rather than an old. When the band leaves the stage the audience never reached the usual heights and the band was only called in for encore once instead of twice. Still the audience is with them although somewhat confused or curious.

The press afterwards write a lot about the new sound "Is this how The Birds sing these days"?

Scene two

(The Crow's player establishes, the rest decides for a good ending)

The Birds (and The Dogs) has participated in a band competition and ended up at one of the higher places and caught the eyes of press and record labels but the main thing overshadowing that, at least for The Crow and Dingo (singer and front persona of The Dogs) is that the police has concluded that it was one of them that was selling drugs at the event and now are squeezing them for confessions. The Crow, according to them, is the most suspicious one of the two. Two cops has cornered The Crow in the hotel room when Mario arrives in the middle of it.

The push The Crow hard and doesn't take a no for an answer. They mix insults of rock stars with pushes for The Crow to admit he sold the drugs. The Crow suggests that maybe it was the police officers themselves that had been using drugs and now need a scapegoat for their dealers. He's very close to getting arrested not only on suspicions of selling drugs but also for slandering police officers. Hadn't Mario arrived and used his extensive knowledge of legal procedures and regular officers' jurisdictions (a necessity for a latino american being in U. S. A. barely legally). He shows them to the door and tell them to come back with a search warrant. The officers try to say that they're just having a conversation with The Crow. The Crow tells them that the conversation is over and ask them to leave. Bitterly the officers leave telling them that they know, they're gonna get The Crow.

Scene three

(Jeff's player establishes, the rest decides for a bad ending)

On the route from the competition and back to the regular tour Mario stops at a roadhouse to check the engine which has been sounding funny for a while. Mario dives into the engine space at the back of the bus while The Crow and Lynn take the opportunity to check the lashing of the equipment - it did make some suspicious sliding noises as they turned and left the highway. Jeff feels the urge for something, he doesn't really know what; food, coffee, whiskey, something and walks into the roadhouse. What none of they notice is that another bus rolls into the parking space and stops. Most of The Birds stay by the bus fixing things but the singer Dingo walks into the roadhouse shortly after Jeff almost at the same time as the same two cops from earlier parks their car outside the roadhouse (obviously they have been following The Dogs' tour bus). Both cops follows Dingo into the roadhouse.

Jeff halts as he and Dingo stare down each other. Dingo two steps inside the door and Jeff ready to leave with a coffee and a whiskey. The two cops enters and almost step into Dingo. The cops go right at it and accuses Jeff and Dingo for having a meet-up for a narcotics and money exchange. An argument breaks out and the cops order Jeff and Dingo to put their hands on the bar counter while they search them and soon find a small plastic bottle with pills on Jeff. They don't believe him when he says that it's painkillers for migraine although slightly stronger than the ones one usually finds at the drugstore. It might be a slight prescription rule offence but it's nothing illegal. The cops don't care, handcuffed Jeff is brought out to the police car. The car leaves as Dingo hops onto the tour bus who leaves.

After a while Lynn miss her coffee Jeff was supposed to get for her and walks over to the roadhouse expecting to find him downing whiskey but instead is told from a somewhat excited bartender that the cops was her and took one of the band members for drug possession.

Scene four

(Mario's player establishes, the rest decides for a bad ending)

The rest of the band takes the bus to the police station to talk Jeff out of the arrest or in worst case break him out. The show must go on.

The Crow stays in the bus as they hold him as a suspect for drug dealing. They do hold a grudge against Mario as well but his knowledge about legal procedures is needed. Lynn and Mario walks into the police station to get Jeff out of the arrest. A sturdy officer no longer fit for street patrolling looks up from a desk and ask what he can help them with. "We're here to get Jeff" Lynn says happily. Mario clarifies by adding Jeff's full name Johan Larson (descending from Swedish ancestors). The officer sighs and starts to slowly browse a book with lists of arrestee. Lynn and Mario almost breaks into pieces from frustration, especially when Jeff calls for them from the cell. Finally the officer finds Jeff in the list. "There's a 5 000 dollar bail to get him out" he says. Mario and Lynn looks at each other and starts to explain that they need Jeff, that they has a gig to go to, that he's innocent. The officer doesn't raise an eyebrow though and just refers to the judge (opens up tomorrow). Finally they manage to scrape together 5 000 dollar in smaller bills. The officer starts to write out a document in painstakingly slow pace, sometimes using both index fingers to type. After a long while they get a document to sign and get Jeff out of the arrest (without his pills though). Broke and without the pills they leave. The trial is set to the day after tomorrow. "Ah, who cares?" Jeff says "By then we're in the next state". "But our money!" the rest shouts in unison. "Asch" Jeff says "We'll earn new money soon". "We had to sell your whisky" Mario says to silent Jeff.

Scene five

(Lynn's player establishes, the rest decides for a good ending)

On the way to the next gig they pass by where their manager lives to get a few tips on the current situation and also the the bus needs to be fixed, Jeff needs to be fixed and maybe he shouldn't be left alone so Lynn goes to talk to the manager. After getting a promise from the manager that he will take care of the legalities Lynn steers the conversation over to her solo career. Quite easily she get a promise that if they finalise the tour and the promised album with the new sound she will get her solo album. He still suggests that she should ask The Crow if he could help her with the lyrics. Lynn isn't too keen on that, it's a solo record after all. The manager caves in and accepts that she doesn't take help from The Crow as long as she before the recording starts can produce a lyric that's convincingly good. Happy but a little bitter Lynn leaves the manager *mumble* *mumble* "Take help from The Crow. The only one liking his song writing is the jury in that specific court *mumble*

Scene six

(The rest establishes, The Crow's player decides for a bad ending, only black dice left)

It's almost time to go on stage. The band strike a chord the last time just to check it one last time. It's less than ten minutes left. They're standing just around the corner of the the small stairs up to the stage, waiting. Mario asks The Crow if he has the remote for the pyrotechnics. "Should I have that? The Crow asks back. "Don't you usually have that when it's fixed and done?" Lynn asks. When The Crow doesn't answer Jeff gets nervous and sneak around the corner and looks up to the stage. There's no pyrotechnics. Not one piece. "You said you was taking care of it." Lynn says to The Crow. "Yes, I know but I asked Diego to fix that." Crow says. "So where's the remote?" Lynn asks. "I don't know" Crow answers "I didn't get it from Diego." "Damn" Crow whispers. Jeff returns, "There's not a fucking piece on stage" he says, almost shouts. "Diego doesn't answer on phone" Lynn says silently. "Eh, eh, no panic" Crow tries. "How do you mean - 'No panic'?" Jeff asks aggressively. "We'll fix it some way" The Crow says "We do a stripped down show. We simply trust the new sound". In panic they rearrange the order of the songs and exchange a few of them. "You made this" Jeff says and sends The Crow on stage to fire up the audience. It doesn't become their best remembered show although it probably will be talked about.

Scene seven

(Jeff's player establishes, the rest decides for a bad ending, only black dice left)

It's the last gig for the tour when they find a set of pyrotechnics furthest into the bag compartment under the bus. Somehow Diego misunderstood The Crow and thought that they were doing a stripped down show to save the pyrotechnics to be able to go out in a blaze of fire on the last show (the budget has no room for buying extra stuff). When they stand waiting the last few minutes just before the show they look towards the scene and realise that Diego has gotten all of the pyrotechnics up on stage. The ones bought for this show and the ones left over from last show. For a moment they're almost scared of entering the stage, afraid they and the whole stage will blow up and kill the hardcore fans in the process. Mario notices that the rack holding some of the thing close to Jeff's background position is leaning to the side. "Shall I stand there" Jeff says slightly scared. "Yes" the rest of the band says "but we don't have to fire it all" Lynn says and turns to The Crow for the remote. "The remote" Crow says "I have given it to guy at the mixer table". He's more fitted to handle that than we are. We should focus on the songs. It's time to enter the stage. Jeff quickly writes a note for the mixer guy and sends Diego to give it to the mixer guy. They run up on stage (Jeff sneaks into his hidden position). Jeff nervously plays almost all notes correctly when suddenly all the pyrotechnics go off in the middle of a ballad. The hardcore fans notice that some of the rhythm guitar sound disappears as Jeff desperately throws himself off the stage and personell throws a fire blanket over him.

As the rest of the band leaves the stage they find Jeff without his fine long hard rocker hair looking more like - Jon Bon Jovi after the haircut and with burns over much of his right arm. He's in no real danger the medic assures them but he will have troubles doing his job on the recording that starts after the tour. On top of that he broke the guitar in the fall and after paying the bail for Jeff there's not much room for new guitars anyway.

Scene eight

Mario's player establishes, the rest decides for a good ending, wild die left

Mario was sure his green card was all in order. The band is back in the last state to handle Jeff's trial which turns out to go not too bad, annoyingly for the two cops. Therefore they decide to scrutinise Mario's green card documents and find that he hasn't signed one document that would have proven that he had received it. The cops show up to corner Mario about this. Mario thinks he and Jeff's lawyer is there to answer questions about Jeff when they suddenly press Mario about the unsigned document. Luckily for Mario Jeff's lawyer after a short argument decides to take on Mario's case although Mario don't have much money at the moment. They're on a roll. They will all have pils of cash soon. He sees it as an investment. The cops press Mario to just confess. If he only confesses everything is gonna be alright. It's fixable. If he lies on the other hand then there's no way for them to help him. Jeff's lawyer tells Mario to stop answering questions and starts to handle the officers and quite soon has turned the whole thing around to be about not Mario not having a valid green card but rather a clerk not having handled the registering of the green card properly. The cops lean back and discuss quietly and intensely between each other. After a shorter discussion they have decided to let them go until they have something new on them. Mario makes it quite clear for Jeff that he has to show up on all of the court hearing because if they don't get the bail money back they don't have any money because lawyer bills.

Aftermath

The Crow

White 2: Merciless. You might not be dead on the outside but sure as Hell on the inside. ... The future is a brick wall.

• The Bird's new album is a flop.
• The cops find a stash of drugs that The Crow insists on is planted there by someone. The Crow goes to the arrest for a big bail and then jail for a while.
• When The Crow gets out of jail he tries to start a new band as lead singer but his voice is not what it was after the time in jail. The band never takes off and only do small food-and-drinks-gigs in small towns.
• As money gets low The Crow make a desperate move. He starts dealing drugs. If he's been jailed for it it might as well be true. To make it worse he pay protection money to the two not so honest cops that hunted the band earlier.

Jeff

Black 3: Harsh. ... A big black cloud of hurt is gonna rain on you. The things needing to happen to you are not going to. Simple as that.

• Jeff makes a mistake and doesn't show up at one of the court hearings as supposed to and doesn't get back the bail money the band put out for him. He has to pay from what last money he has on his own.
• Jeff also goes to jail for a while for drug possession. He miss the recording, even if it's a flop it would at least have put his name out there. He will get out poor and without a job. He has the worst time of his life because jail sucks.
• Jeff's a self-assured person. That doesn't work well in prison. He gets into a fight which is actually an statue-an-example-event. He gets generally beaten up but most of all they break his right arm and the the nerve damage stops him from any guitar playing career. Not even guitar teacher for beginners is any longer within reach when he gets out.

Mario

White 2: Merciless. You might not be dead on the outside but sure as Hell on the inside. ... The future is a brick wall.

• Mario's newly found career as a musician is over and he returns to being a roadie.
• Mario tries to claim royalty for some of the lyrics Lynn has published but fail miserably in court although he actually contributed. Lynn's not giving him a penny.
• Mario manages to get a studio gig or two, just enough to bring some money and emphasise that he could have been a famous musician in a famous band touring the U. S. A. or even the world. Some of the studio recordings are for mariachi bands.
• Mario can't get ends to meet and has to take a nine to five job as hardware tester at a small factory.

Lynn

White 16: Fan-fucking-tastic. Safe and secure. That thing that would make your life better? You got it and more - and then some more.

• Solo album contract that goes well.
• Piles of cash. Her cash, not court ordered consent as before.
• The stripped down show without pyrotechnics but with some other spontaneous desperate measures to catch the attention of the audience (like ragged revealing clothes) did catch the attention of the audience who now follow Lynn, not only for her music but also because sex appeal.
• Tour as support for Rammstein and Lynn catch the attention of even more people.
• On the cover The Rolling Stone. She gets her picture on the cover of The Rolling Stone.