Broadway Rhythm (G) One-Shot

Neko · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:37 pm Post subject: Broadway Rhythm (G) One-Shot

HA! Oh my god I have a fic idea and... wow, I am so excited I finally got an idea for this series after so long. Anyways, ever wonder what would happen if Netto and Rockman discovered an old movie for which they had no context for? Yeah, well this came from me watching 'Singin' in the Rain' and thinking 'wow, my kids or at most my grandkids will probably have no idea what a record is' and it snowballed from there. So enjoy :3

~~~

Netto slowly skated home taking great care to ignore the rapidly darkening sky despite Rockman’s best attempts to warn him otherwise. “Netto-kun, please,” he said in an almost but not quite pleading tone.

“You worry too much,” Netto sighed as he picked up his speed a little in order to pacify his overprotective navi.

“No I don’t,” Rockman retorted and Netto was sure he was crossing his arms. “Netto-kun it’s not healthy to get caught in the rain. Besides, what if there’s lightning?”

Netto laughed and Rockman managed to crack a smile as he realized how worried he sounded. “Come on Rockman,” Netto chided his brother, sensing the smile. “Even you think you’re worrying a little too much.”

Rockman sighed and shook his head. “Maybe but you’re still going to complain when you get wet.”

Netto didn’t think about that. “Okay, point,” Netto said and picked up his speed a little bit. Rockman nodded in his PET and watched as Netto hightailed it home. Unfortunetly, Netto didn’t quite manage to beat out the incoming rain and he soon found himself skating on slick concrete, getting soaked to the bone. “Finally,” he sighed as his house came into view.

“Netto-kun…” Rockman said slowly but Netto quickly cut him off.

“I don’t need to hear it,” Netto said a little grumpily. “You’re already thinking ‘I told you so,’” he told his navi pointedly as he skidded into the house.

Rockman smiled but remained quiet as he watched Netto pull his now soaking bandana out of his hair. He shook as much water out of his hair as he could before taking off his skates and stepping into the living room. He looked around and saw a note on the table. “Netto, I went to take dinner to your father. I’ll see you when I get home, but if you’re hungry now there’s pasta in the fridge. Love, Mama,” Netto read out loud.

“Looks like we have the house to ourselves tonight,” Rockman said while activating the heater in the house discreetly so Netto wouldn’t chide him about being worried.

Netto nodded and set the note down. “I’m going to take a shower and get changed into different clothes,” he told Rockman as he headed upstairs. Then he blinked and felt the warm air come out of the vent above him. He rolled his eyes and made his way into his room where Rockman showed up on his computer monitor. “And Rockman, look up ‘skating in the rain’,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t think ‘deadly sickness’ is going to come up in your search.”

Rockman shrugged but laughed in spite of himself. “Sorry,” he said managing to sound completely unapologetic. “I just need some peace of mind.”

Netto sighed exasperatedly but Rockman could tell he was touched by Rockman’s attention. He knew he was a worry wart sometimes but sometimes Netto would get sick or injured or whatever. Whether he liked it or not, for some reason they were a magnet for trouble and it never hurt to be a little more cautious. Luck favors the prepared, or so he’d heard. Regardless, just to humor Netto he did look up ‘skating in the rain’ hoping to find some random article about how skating in the rain was hazardous, just so he could tease Netto for that much longer. He found things that gave tips to skate in the rain and videos but nothing against it. He sighed and he could hear Netto giggling in the shower. Sometimes their link was a little more trouble than it was worth.

Rockman searched a bit more and he started to get to partial matches. He paused at one for a second, reading the odd title. “Singing in the Rain?” he asked, reading the words slowly. “That can’t be healthy,” he murmured as he clicked on the link.

Netto walked into his room, fiercely toweling off his hair and walking over to his computer. He snorted at the odd title and sat down at his desk. “Well, at least I didn’t do that,” he pointed out to Rockman.

“True,” Rockman said with a firm nod. Then he began to scan the article. “Wait, this isn’t about how to sing in the rain, it’s a movie,” he said.

That caught Netto’s interest. “Really?” he asked. “Cool, is it good?”

“I don’t know,” Rockman answered slowly, reading the article. “Well, apparently it was a song first, then a movie. An old movie,” he said with a small whistle.

Netto leaned over to look. “How old?” he asked.

“1952,” Rockman replied. “And apparently it was set in the 1920’s. It’s a musical, with an American named Gene Kelly in it.”

“That means…” Netto said slowly, trying to get how that related to him.

“Come on, Netto-kun. Don’t you think that’s interesting? It’s about when movies didn’t have talking, and they were black and white. It’s about how movies got talking, actually.”

Netto’s eyes widened, he couldn’t believe what he just heard. “Movies didn’t have talking?” he asked incredulously. “Wait, then how did you know what was going on?”

Rockman shrugged. “I… really don’t know, Netto-kun,” he admitted. “Do you maybe want to watch the movie? It might explain it,” he said. “Besides, I think learning about the past is interesting.”

Netto looked dubious. “I dunno,” he said slowly. “I mean, I don’t like old movies a lot. They’re kinda boring.”

Rockman crossed his arms. “You were interested a few moments ago about the no talking thing,” he pointed out.

“Okay, that’s true,” Netto admitted slowly. “Yeah, okay, but if it’s boring then we turn it off.”

“Fine,” Rockman agreed and looked up the information of the movie. “Well we can download it, it seems.”

“Huh,” Netto said as he looked at the download bar inch to the right. “Don’t old movies usually have to be rented from the store and stuff?”

Rockman nodded, “yeah but this one is on the internet for free. Something in the article talked about it being one of the most important and iconic movies ever made.”

Netto had to roll his eyes at that one. “Yeah right. It’s just an old movie.”

Rockman shrugged. “Maybe, but you never know until you try.”

“I just want popcorn,” Netto said with a grin and ran out of his room.

“Dinner first!” Rockman called after him but he knew he was being ignored.

After the two had gotten themselves situated and the download had finished they went to the living room. Netto jumped onto the couch with a bowl of popcorn in his lap and Rockman came into his PET with a small sigh. “Mama’s going to get mad you know,” he told his brother pointedly.

Netto shrugged carelessly and Rockman simply turned on the movie. Netto couldn’t say he didn’t warn him. They watched the beginning and Netto wrinkled his nose at how incredibly… old it looked. Rockman laughed at Netto’s reaction. “Come on, Netto-kun, sometimes it’s good to try new things. Even if they are… old.”

Netto shrugged and they continued to watch the movie. They saw the people enter the screen and Netto started laugh loudly. “Oh wow, what are they wearing?” he gasped as a woman sauntered down the red carpet in all her 1920’s glory.

“That was the style then,” Rockman said but he had to admit that it looked kind of weird. The dresses were so sparkly and had so many things hanging off of them and the hats looked like they were glued to the women’s heads. Although he had to admit the trench coat the lead of the movie was wearing at the beginning looked kind of cool and he could tell Netto agreed.

They watched as the main character ‘Don Lockwood’ began to tell his life story with the mantra ‘dignity, always dignity.’ Rockman cracked up and couldn’t resist a little jab. “Well, at the very least you can try and take that advice from the movie, but I don’t know if you could actually live by it,” he teased.

“Ha, ha,” Netto said dryly and shoved more popcorn into his mouth.

Later they began to show the old fashioned movies on the screen. Netto and Rockman both watched wide eyed as they saw the two actors on the screen move about in exaggerated ways and the scary thing was, there really was no talking. Every once in a while a black screen with writing on it would appear to tell you what they were saying but as for the ‘movie’ its self there was nothing. Plus, it was in black and white and they looked like idiots moving around, making faces like that.

“Wow, I’m glad movies aren’t like that anymore,” Netto said quietly, his full attention on the TV screen.

Rockman nodded. “Yeah,” he admitted.

As the movie progressed they laughed at the ‘vaudeville’ antics of Cosmo. They had to pause the movie to look up what ‘vaudeville’ meant but it didn’t matter. Most of what they were saying was kind of hard to understand but watching a full grown man fall over himself and run into walls was highly amusing.

Even Netto had to admit that even their tap dancing was kind of cool. He knew about it because Meiru used to take classes for it but he had no idea it could be done like how it was done on screen. He couldn’t even see their feet move they were so fast. Plus the one lady had a funny sounding voice, even more weird then Airman’s and that was saying something.

When they got to the next part of the movie they were told how the talking movie worked. “Talk into the microphone, it will travel through this wire and onto a record,” the desperate director was telling to the funny sounding woman.

Netto blinked for a moment and then turned to Rockman. “What’s a record?” he asked slowly.

Rockman quickly looked it up. “It is a vinyl disc that had music recorded on it and was played with a needle. Apparently there were different sizes but the ones the movie is talking about were supposed to be pretty big. Bigger then a dinner plate, at least,” Rockman explained.

“Weird,” Netto said. “So many things have changed, huh?” he asked.

Rockman nodded, “Yeah they have. It’s kinda weird, once you think about it.”

Netto and Rockman were both incredibly bored during the love songs and ended up skipping them. Not that they didn’t appreciate the fact that the two were in love, it’s just that they kind of didn’t care.

When they finally got to the ‘singin’ in the rain’ scene, Rockman and Netto both watched the grown man literally dance and sing through the puddles and even jump in them and splash around like a five year old. Netto smirked at Rockman and Rockman sighed, knowing what was coming. “At least I didn’t do that,” he said.

“I know, I know,” Rockman said dismissively but he really didn’t mind. For once, Netto was interested in history.

Netto even sat through the ballad section called ‘Broadway Rhythm,’ which Rockman personally thought was very cool but Netto had no idea what it had to do with the movie, and he told Rockman so. Rockman shrugged and they simply finished the movie together.

After it was over Netto stretched and set the empty bowl of popcorn at his feet. “Okay, it was kinda cool,” he admitted. “I mean, it was funny and for an old movie it wasn’t that bad.”

“I can see why it’s called iconic,” Rockman said. “If it can actually keep your attention then it’s nothing short of a miracle.”

“Funny,” Netto told his navi before heading upstairs.

Rockman laughed. “I thought so,” he admitted and met Netto in his room, via the computer monitor. “Well, at least now you know about what movies were like.”

“Yeah, weird,” Netto told Rockman. “I mean seriously, that was weird. They looked crazy doing all that overacting and stuff.”

“Well, it was the time. People are probably going to think that some things we do now are odd in the future,” Rockman pointed out.

“Yeah, probably,” Netto agreed. “But I don’t care. And some of those clothes were really weird too. And even though it was funny, who randomly starts to sing and dance?”

Rockman rolled his eyes. “Who cares?” he asked. “Even you admitted it was amusing. It was a way to tell a story? I mean that’s coming from someone who sits through a movie where people start to fight each other for no apparent reason.”

“Because it’s cool,” Netto stressed. Sometimes Rockman just didn’t get it.

Rockman laughed and simply shrugged. “Times change, Netto-kun. At least you know what was interesting back then too. Now, you need to do your homework.”

Netto groaned and tried to scoot away from the monitor. Rockman started to chide them and neither one heard Haruka come in.

She heard them bickering upstairs and smiled. She sighed at the bowl filled with popcorn seeds and checked to see what they were watching. Her lips curled up in a smile when she saw the movie and put it on save. She couldn’t remember the last time she had sat down to watch a 1950’s musical. She would turn it on after the boys went to bed, but first…

“Netto, why is there an empty bowl of popcorn down here while dinner’s still in the fridge?” she called upstairs.

“Oh crap,” she heard Netto hiss and fall out of his chair in some sort of effort to try and escape. Oh well, kids will be kids, she guessed as he headed to his room.
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Midnight · Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:56 am Post subject:

Excellent job.

I must admit I have not seen the movie that Netto and Rockman were watching, and yet I knew enough to follow along with the plot. I believe you put in just the right amount of the movie's plot to give the audience a good feel of the themes of the story, and to highlight the most iconic parts of the classic.

Also, Netto's responses to the icons of the past felt rather genuine for someone at least a century displaced from the times. I've seen this question asked many times, and yet every time it is asked I cannot help but wonder what sort of icons of the turn of the millennium will be gleaned by our descendants to judge our current way of life.

For a slice-of-life fic (which you seem to have a great mastery over), this is quite good--very much believable as something that could happen on any given day for the protagonists.

You need to have flashes of inspiration more often. Anyway, another great work, and a nice glimpse back into the golden ages (of both this forum and film.)
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Unknown Neo · Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:19 pm Post subject:

Interesting. The whole time and how it passes thing is an interesting idea for a fic isn't it. Great work Neko.

**Sol** · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:26 pm Post subject:

Excellent work, Neko. I thought it was rather cute on how both of them were pretty dumbstruck with movies from the past. Really makes you think on how the future might be, honestly.

(Also, just a reminder, because this section has been pretty inactive as of late. Please remember to make slightly more substantial reviews, because one-liners (or slightly longer than one-line reviews) aren't tolerated. Thanks.)
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