11 June 2012
So, it was late that night when Tyler sat down in a chair, on the Vocaloids main tour bus, with all the Type-2 Vocaloids present, and a few of their variations. Neru Akita, Miku’s tsundre fan-made program, along with Meiko, Kaito, and a man called Kamui Gakupo. And Tyler sat down in this chair with a sigh, feeling tired from the gig.
He closed his eyes, and put on his earphones. With a breath of relief, he allowed the non-lyrical music to flow into his eardrums, and slowly his right foot began to rock with the beat. Akita was staring at him with a look of confusion, before she shrugged her shoulders and yanked the earphones off his ears, and pressed one against her own. She listened for a few moments, before tossing them back to a grumbling Tyler.
“What a load of crap,” Akita said defiantly. “There’s no lyrics!”
“I’ve been listening to everyone singing today, Aki’,” Tyler growled. “I just want ‘sound’.”
“I’ll give you sound; right up your fricking ass!”
Tyler told her blatantly to shut the hell up, despite her being a year older (apparently) than him and Miku. Akita huffed, before she clipped Tyler across the head, and sat down on a different chair. Tyler sighed as he put his headphones back on. Akita was always like this: being abusive of Tyler, and her language being coarse.
His eyes drifted off to the side, where he saw Kamui sitting at a booth, talking with Mikuo Hatsune, Miku’s older brother. The two were good friends, and Tyler had known Mikuo for as long as he knew Miku. However, there was only one thought going through his head.
‘You think Miku needs a haircut, Missus Hatsune? Look at this guy.’
Kamui had seriously long purple hair. Not just normal long… This guy had it going to his KNEES! Tyler shook his head. ‘Don’t get me wrong, but that’s a little too weird, to be honest.’
He’d only just closed his eyes when something hard hit his lap. He opened his eyes, and looked at the object that Mikuo had just tossed to him. It was a small box. Tyler rattled it a little to see if he could guess what was inside, with little luck. “What the? What’s this?”
“Open it up man,” Mikuo answered with a smirk. That smirk put Tyler on alert. ‘What the heck’s in here?’ Cautiously, Tyler opened the box, in case there was a punching glove loaded by a spring under the lid. Thankfully, it wasn’t, but the object that fell out was perhaps as odd.
“OK, sunglasses?” Tyler picked them up with one hand, and went to pull the ear rests away from each other. He saw that the sides had been widened at the eyes, which prevented anyone from seeing his eyes from a profile angle. “Where am I going? A freaking spy convention?”
“Put them on,” Mikuo said simply. With cautious movements, not at all trusting the smile Mikuo was wearing, Tyler slowly placed the sunglasses over his eyes. Almost as soon as the sunglasses were fully on that the lenses lit up with light. A few words rushed across the screen, but slowed for a few moments for Tyler to read it.
‘WELCOME TO THE ULTRAGLASSES 4500. PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME.’
Tyler didn’t know what to do, so he simply said his first name aloud. ‘NAME REGISTERED AS “Tyler”. THANK YOU FOR USING THE ULTRAGLASSES 4500.’ The lights dimmed to reveal a tinted view of his surroundings. He saw Mikuo in front of him, smirking.
“OK Mikuo…” Tyler said, confused. “What the hell was that?”
“They’re like your PDA, but on your glasses. It’s dead easy. Controls are in the box.”
“Yeah, but why?”
“Early birthday present, man.”
Tyler was surprised. “You… You… got me a present?”
A few days from now, it was to be Tyler’s seventeenth birthday. Last year, the birthday had been quiet. It had only been him, Miku, and Mrs. Hatsune to celebrate the party. So, for Mikuo to remember… It was certainly worth something.
“Yeah man,” Mikuo answered with a meek smile. “I forgot it last year, and it really got under my skin. So I thought I better give it to you early so I don’t forget this year.”
Inside his heart, Tyler sank. It wasn’t the fact Mikuo was being nice. It was so he didn’t forget. But then he laughed. It was normal for Mikuo.
“Heh… Thanks man.” Mikuo fist-bumped Tyler, before he carried on playing cards with Kamui.
He then scanned the interior of the tour bus, and frowned. “Hang on… Where’s Zat?!”
Miku Zatsune, or Zat to her friends, was a friend of Haku’s who could sing really well. The public truth is that, but the real truth was that she was a girl who had Miku’s vocal programming implanted into her, with the pitch altered lower to give a sound more suited to calm rock. Not at all like Miru who was able to give some people nightmares, literal ‘nightmares’, just from her singing.
“I dunno,” said Akita, with her arms folded. “Knowing her, she’s probably with Haku.” Tyler picked up his phone, and called the roadie head of the Type-H, Gareth.
Gareth was Tyler’s equivalent as to what Tyler was to the Type-2 Vocaloids: he looked after the Type-H. He was in his late teens, around nineteen. Tyler knew for a fact that both Rin Kagamine and Rin Magane both had a crush on Gareth, as he was in fact a rather handsome guy. He remembered one time when Miku had seen him, and she had been blushing when he looked back at her. Gareth was a good mate of Tyler, but at the back of Tyler’s mind, he seemed to think of Gareth with a hint of annoyance.
‘Somebody’s jeeaaloooussss……’
“Hello, G speaking,” said Gareth. His voice was raised, shouting over the music.
“Yo Gareth, its Ty’!” Tyler yelled back, knowing that he’d have to raise his voice from the loud music that the Type-H was so famous for.
“Tyler, my good man! What’s up?!”
“Is Zat over there with you?” From the corner of his eye, Tyler could see Akita glaring at him for his loud voice.
“Yeah man, she’s right here. You need to talk with her? Getting it on, eh? Hehaha!”
“Not for the reasons you’re thinking. Put her on!”
“Got it dude.” Tyler heard the transfer of hands, before he heard Zat’s voice over the phone.
“Uh, hey… Tyler…” said her timid voice.
Zat, despite being a singer of rock, was actually a quiet girl. Not that she shared it with ‘anyone’, but the truth was that she had a small crush on Tyler. So typically, for Tyler to speak to her, it made Zat feel a little bit bashful, to say the least.
“Hey Zat. How come you ain’t over here then?”
“Oh… It’s because Haku asked me to come on…”
“OK, no problem. I was just worried, ’cause you’re usually on this bus, aren’t you?”
“Yeah…”
A somewhat awkward silence fell between the two. “Well… As long as you’re OK.”
“Yeah – yeah, I’m good.”
“Cool.” Tyler hung up, and oddly felt that he left the conversation hanging. It seemed to be a little…strange, to Tyler’s mind.
And with that thought on his mind, Tyler fell asleep on the chair. ------------ Tyler’s eyes flickered open, but for a few moments, he thought his eyelids hadn’t opened. But then the boy realised that he had woken up during the middle of the night. He let out a small sigh, before getting up and crept towards the cockpit of the bus, where a middle-aged man by the name of Paul Kyoto.
Kyoto was the Type-2 bus driver, and had been ever since they started touring. He’d also gone with the Type-1, when they were around.
“Yo Tyler,” said Kyoto, patting the seat next to him. Tyler eased himself down onto the comfy chair, and set himself back. “Can’t sleep, eh?”
Tyler nodded as he stretched his legs out in front of him. “Man, I need a stretch,” he laughed, rubbing his eyes. “Sleeping in a chair will do that.”
Kyoto chuckled. “Well buckle yourself in, kiddo. We got another few hours before we hit the German borders.”
“Ah, Germany. Time for my sound-blocking headphones.”
Germany was the place where everything was done loud and fast. The Type-2 and the Type-H pair up with their equivalents during this two-hour festival, to give a both dark and light side to their songs. Miku and Miru were to sing their signature duet song ‘Sweet So Sweet’, a melody comprised of a sitting between the two who’d both got slightly tipsy, and composed a truly odd but also amazing screamo and light vocal song that got mega popular with the fans.
Still, with seven metal and rock pairings… It was going to get a heck of a lot louder.
A Vocal Roadie - On The Road 1 • Opuss № I