Thursday, August 7, 2014

Meet Brock Bauer and his band, Fungal Bloom!

Brock moved to Apache Springs a year ago with his mother. His father left the home when Brock was five years old. Brock doesn't acknowledge it, but he has some serious abandonement issues over this. This abandonement also may or may not influence his excessive flirting.

Brock's motto is "anything with a pulse." He will shamelessly flirt with any girl, whether they're in a committed relationship or not, whether he's in a committed relationship or not. Brock will flirt with girls he has no romantic interest in, merely because that's the only way he knows how to relate to women. Brock is most-drawn to girls who hate him, hence his infatuation with Joce. Brock also parties hard and drifts in and out of every social circle in the school. He is a wide receiver for the school's football team. Brock's a gifted athlete, but his lack of discipline will doom him from ever making anything out of it.

Beneath the shallow exterior, Brock does have a strong moral code. He will not use his illusion powers to make copies of people he knows. Brock is honest and fiercely loyal to his friends and his mother. Personality-wise, Brock is extremely laid back and go-with-the-flow. Brock's main hobby (aside from chasing girls) is watching TV. He's a movie fanatic and has a guilty pleasure for game shows and reality TV.

Brock's other big hobby is his band, Fungal Bloom, though his interest in the band is more about gathering groupies than making music. Not including Brock himself (who's lead guitar, singer, and considered the leader of the band), here are the core members of Fungal Bloom:

-Chad "DJ Brometheus" Lee, keyboard/DJ (also the only band member with actual musical talent)
-Todd "the Bodd" Hendricks, bass guitar
-Stewie"STFU" Fairfax, drums

Other classmates frequently rotate in and out of the group in various roles. Virtually all of Brock's ex-girlfriends have been backup singers at one time or another. One of Brock's long-term goals is to convince three of his most-talented ex-girlfriends together to all sing backup vocals at once. Unfortunately, they all hate him.

DJ Brometheus took a vow of silence freshman year and has not spoken since (he's a junior now). He does break the vow to occasionally speak to his closest friends and his parents, but he makes them promise not to tell anyone else he's spoken. Although everyone in the group knows how to play their instruments, only Brometheus has actual talent, and a potential future in music (along with the passion to back it up; the other bandmates are more in this for fame and girls). What little success Fungal Bloom has is chiefly because of him, a fact Brock acknowledges but the rest of the group denies. Brock and Brometheus are good friends.

Todd "the Bodd" is ironically named. He's a scrawny runt of a kid who looks like he can barely pick up the huge bass guitar he uses. His diminuitive size is a sore spot for him, as he's constantly teased/harrassed about it. Stu loves to push his buttons. Though they don't actively hate each other, Stu and Todd rarely get along, and have fought each other in the past.

Stewie "STFU (pronounced "Sta Foo")" Fairfax is a hardcore geek. He plays drums in marching band and gets straight A's in class. He's a big sci-fi nerd and plays Pokemon and Magic the Gathering, a LOT (he actually prefers Pokemon, but reluctantly plays more Magic because "it's cooler"). The entire band was his idea (the name coming from a Magic the Gathering card), originating as nothing more than a ploy to become popular in school. STFU is deeply insecure and ashamed of his own nerdiness. He's jealous of Brock's charisma (and also that he's considered "leader" of the band) and Brometheus' talent. He thinks he's cooler than Todd the Bodd, and so picks on him often. His nickname, short for "Shut The Fuck Up!" is a phrase commonly yelled at him in response to his whining and complaining.

Fungal Bloom's music is all over the place. It is mostly an amateurish mishmash of rock, punk, metal, and electronica. One of their songs, "Audie Oodie," went viral. The song, a techno beat that cleverly samples the yoddeling mountain climber music used in the Price is Right gameshow, went well into the hundreds of thousands of shares and likes across social media, before the band received a cease-and-desist letter from The Price is Right. STFU refuses to let the song be played ever again (partly out of fear of a lawsuit, partly out of jealousy, as Brometheus did the song almost entirely by himself. Todd even suspects Stu might have tipped off the network about the song, following how in some circles, the song was being referred to as "Audie Oodie, by DJ Brometheus and Fungal Bloom").

Fungal Bloom's logo is two green, mossy circular growths smushed together, with the band name in green across the top. Depending on who you ask, the logo looks suspiciously like either a pair of women's breasts, or men's balls. The band denies any resemblance.






 

1 comment:

  1. I thought Alan was in the band as part of the connections?

    ReplyDelete

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