Xaviers!

Shane played some freestyle riffs on his electric guitar to warm up as he waited for his first audition to show. He eventually settled on a tune and started humming in place of actual lyrics.

"Hi." Shari says as she pokes her head into the music room. "Is this where we enlist for the musical war?"

"Indeed it is oh fellow green one," he answered, switching to an unintrusive background melody.

"Great! I've been practicing making interesting noises on the... the... thing. The swoopy one." the says, pointing at the saxophone hanging in it's stand.

" I wasn't exactly looking for a sax player but show me what you've got anyway."

He fully expected his ears to bleed.

"Sure thing!" she says and goes to fetch the saxophone to launch into an absolutely awful solo. She does do it with a lot of gusto, at least.

Shane stayed silent for a long moment.

"Jesus. That was bloody..." he said, her eagerness softening his reaction, "... something alright. But, ah... how about you give the drums a whirl? If you can keep a beat you're golden."

"No, I want to play the ridiculous metal horn. What, you didn't like my song?"

"You couldn't have picked a worse thing to sax. By the standards of this planet, anyway. Seriously, I can't even say if you played it well."

"Then I played it exceptionally well! What kind of music do you use to do battle then?"

"Rock, not bad Jazz."

"Wait... actually, I can think of some songs using a sax," he said, looking through songs on his phone that was sitting in a speaker dock. Choosing one, he hit play. "It's largely in the background, but it's there."

Shari squints her eyes at the music as if that would somehow help her make out the sax.

"Are you sure? It sounds like it's mostly not there..."

"Alright then, how about this? Might be above a beginner but it is a better example," he said, playing another.

"Ooh, I like it. It sounds like an absolute mess."

"I have a feeling that was the idea, judging by the lyrics."

"Well, anyway, I just want to help your fight by tooting the saphomoxone. If you don't want my help then good day and good luck."

"No no no. I can't say it's what I was looking for but I'll figure out how to use you. Well, perhaps one more test first."

Positioning his hands on his guitar, he said, "A jam session. So I can get a feel for your musical instincts. Just play along however you feel like. Jazz-like."

With that, he began to play.

Shari just stands there and stares at Shane. She has no musical instincts, only a vague notion of what 'Jazz' means and is confused about how any of this is going to involve preserved fruit spread in any capacity. What she does have is another innate talent and her staring turns from confused to an almost uncomfortably intense gaze as she tilts her head to and fro, sizing Shane up as he plays. If he makes any indication he's about to stop playing she twirls her finger at him to indicate to keep going while she starts slowly circling around him. This goes on for much longer than is comfortable and a close observer might notice Shari's body-language gradually changing and getting closer to an approximation of Shane's, even if she doesn't outright shapeshift.

Finally she does lift the saxophone to her lips and starts playing along. It's far from perfect but much more passable than her previous demonstration and she somehow manages to go without any interruptions to take a breath.

When they wound down, he said, "Not bad. I need to give you a crash course on the genre niche I'm going for, but you're in."

"Now we need a drummer at the very least. And perhaps I can recruit Will for something."