Trench Dogs - a band looking for a lead guitar

The band: Trench dogs

Rhythm guitar/vocalist: Cain Castillo Cain is a difficult guy to like. He’s extremely talented, has perfect pitch and the voice of an angel (or a seductive demon, if the song demands). However, with his talent and confidence comes a hefty dose of arrogance and a brash temperament. Cain hates losing and is very competitive, which can cause him to push his bandmates extra hard when they’re practicing for a competition. He is extremely loyal and protective of people he accepted as friends, but it’s extremely hard for him to accept new people. He’s got abandonment issues and it takes him a long time to warm up to new faces, only allowing himself to even start once he’s absolutely sure they won’t up and leave as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Sometimes he’ll even ‘test’ people by intentionally being extra brash and standoffish with them, just to see if they’ll stick around no matter what. It’s very hard to get close to him for that reason. But, once someone wins his trust and friendship, they’ve got a steadfast friend for life and Cain takes on almost a sort of ‘grumpy mother hen’ attitude with people he truly likes. For now, that list of people is very short, including only people from the mechanic shop he works at during the day, and his bandmates, whom he’s known from childhood. Cain is tall and muscular and extremely proud of his physique. His dress style is gritty underground, torn jeans and pants, lots of leather belts, ear piercings, tattoo sleeve on his right arm, usually finds some reason to be shirtless. It amuses him to watch people squirm and steal glances. Cain’s rapport with the others: Denni: Cain is understandably extremely protective of her, like an overbearing big brother. He will never say a mean word to her, and if he accidentally made her sad he’d probably strangle himself with guitar wires before Angie made it over to murder him. Angie: Angie is the one who got Cain into weightlifting, thinking that would help him express some of his aggression in a constructive way. It sort of worked, it sort of didn’t. Either way, the two are gym buddies now and Cain trusts Angie’s judgement implicitly. She is the one person who can punch straight through his arrogance and if she tells him he’s doing something wrong, Cain will actually listen and take steps to improve (begrudgingly). Penny: There was potential there - stolen glances and admiration from afar at both ends. But Cain had never allowed himself to be truly comfortable enough with Penny to make a move, almost as though he’d always known she’d eventually go to a place all of them can’t follow. They had a tender friendship, until the point it turned bitter and vicious. Matt: Shockingly, Matt is Cain’s best friend. Unironically. They have a similar taste in movies, and Matt’s cockroach-like persistence in hanging with the group since they were kids is like a soothing lullaby to Cain’s abandonment issues. Cain’s attitude towards Matt’s shenanigans is surprisingly mellow.

Drummer: Denni Syllivan. Deni is the baby of the band and not the kind of person you’d expect to see as the drummer of a gritty underground band. She’s small and frail-looking, always dressed meticulously in white-lace lolita-style outfits, her bleached hair perfectly braided in intricate styles. Despite her eye-catching dress style, she’s introverted and shy, always afraid she’s imposing on people if she speaks to them first or needs to ask for a favor. This has been a long-running struggle with her bandmates trying to make her feel welcome and at home in their company. She loves the band fiercely and would do anything for them, and she never complains about the gruelling practices that Cain puts them through before competitions. Surprisingly, she’s also incredibly competitive, loves winning and can be shockingly vicious during competitions, sometimes even throwing Cain for a loop. Despite her frail appearance, she’s surprisingly robust when she needs to lug around her drummer gear. When they’re not practicing, Denni is always trying to create a cozy atmosphere for her bandmates, making cocoa and snacks for everyone and decorating the hovel they’re renting for practice to make it feel more like home. Denni’s rapport with the others: Cain: She’s very fond of Cain but not as willing to play the role of baby sister as he is to play his role of big brother. She actually prefers taking care of other people, not the other way around, so with them it’s always this circular gridlock of trying to take care of each other, while being frustrated that the other is trying to do the same. In some ways, they’re like oil and water - a pleasant contrast but not really mixing. Angie: Denni would never admit it, but for a long time she’s had a massive crush on Angie. Denni admires her confidence, her calm composure and her strength. She also likes that Angie, as strong and competent as she is, still has no problem allowing her friends to take care of her and openly asks them for favors or their company. Penny: Denni and Penny are still best friends even after Penny left the band, although Denni understandably doesn’t mention it to the others, especially not to Cain. It’s not a secret, the others know, it’s just this big unspoken thing between them. Denni understands why Penni left the band, doesn’t hold it against her and thinks everyone should get over it and still be friends again. Matt: Denni cares about Matt, but Matt is always raising her blood pressure by not taking care of himself properly. She’s often in tears trying to convince him to eat healthier food instead of spending so much on suits, shoes and chains, to which Matt just gives her finger-guns and a grind, telling her not to worry about it. Which frustrates Denni to no end.

Bass guitar: Angie Parker. Goth mom friend of the group. Angie is a no-nonsense woman with an extremely low tolerance for bullshit and is one of the rare people that frighten Cain when she gets scary. She has a masc-goth style, short hair with a neat undercut and is gym-buddies with Cain as she also likes to build muscle and maintain her physique. She’s normally quiet and introspective, sometimes appearing like she’s not even listening or paying attention to the world around her, but if anyone steps out of line too much, Angie’s eyes will snap over to them like a blade and they will instantly know they’re fucked. Despite her friendship with Cain, she butts heads with him most often, especially when he gets mean with the others during contest preparations. Outside of that, she’s actually a very caring person, always keeping an eye on her bandmates and noticing when something is wrong before anyone else. She’s also shockingly funny, but only once in a blue moon when she’d catch everyone off guard with a completely unexpected one-liner that leaves everyone scream-laughing until they can’t even breathe. She has done this four times total for as long as everyone’s known her. Angie’s rapport with the others: Cain: Angie sees Cain pretty much as an annoying little brother who’s thick-headed but has a good heart underneath all the issues. She has a soft spot for him, but also doesn’t cut him slack when he’s mean or hurtful towards other people. Angie has tried in many ways to redirect Cain’s energy into something constructive over the years: she got him into the gym life and even set him up with his apprenticeship at the mechanic shop, thinking that working with his hands would mellow out his attitude. Denni: While internally Angie’s goth heart has a conniption every time the pastel, lacey cloud that is Denni comes into view, Angie is extremely fond and protective of her. She will absolutely not tolerate anyone saying a mean word to Deni over her style or anything else, even if privately it makes Angie herself gag sometimes. She loves seeing Denni get lost in the competition and can’t figure out why Denni’s vicious side that comes out during those times makes her heart race so much. Penny: Angie doesn’t harbor any ill feelings towards Penny. She understands a talented musician like her could not spend the rest of her life playing in a scrappy little underground band, if they aren’t willing to follow her to the heights she was intended for. Privately, Angie had thought to herself ‘Get out of here and fly, kid’ many times when watching Penny play, but has never said it out loud to anyone, because it felt like it would open a can of worms. The can burst open on its own eventually, though, and Angie isn’t sure if it was better that way or not. Matt: Angie went from actively disliking Matt for his loud and flamboyant style to genuinely respecting his gumption. For all his bluster, Matt has been effectively solving their problems and setting them up with good gigs for years now, and Angie is well aware that sometimes he is literally the one thing keeping them afloat, supplying them with gear from his ‘contacts’ and repairing every little thing that breaks down in their ramshackle practice hovel. This is why she’s also extremely protective of him and makes sure to give him an encouraging word or two when the others forget.

Former lead guitar: Penny Foster Penny caused a massive rift leaving the band. A classically trained “Suzuki kid” since the age of 4, she was the one who infected their friend group with her love of music when they were all young. In one way or another, everyone in the band picked up their instruments thanks to her enthusiasm, and Penny had patiently taught them notes and helped them select the ideal instrument for themselves. She was also the one to translate Cain’s hummed compositions into proper sheet music for them to perform and would often transfix the crowds with her stunning guitar solos which she played fingerstyle with delicate fingercaps designed specifically for her hand, drawing sounds out of her instrument that few other bands could match. The rift happened as they all got older and Penny was reaching higher and higher in her classical music career, having less and less time to spend on the band, and even becoming self-conscious about playing with them as a Conservatory trained musician. Cain reacted aggressively to her pulling away, accusing her of abandoning and betraying them, until it escalated in a massive fight causing Penny to leave. Now, the band is left with a need of not only a lead guitar, but one that could pick up their specific songs which incorporated extremely demanding solos that were Penny’s trademark.

Manager/Cable guy/Janitor/Repair guy/Plumber/HR/Occasional keyboardist: Matt Riley When everyone was a kid, Matt was always the kid who was ‘there for some reason’. He’s also not an easy guy to like, as his flair for drama and flamboyant personality could be seen as too much, but over the years the group eventually accepted him as an inevitable fact of life. Matt likes to dress in flashy outfits, wear lots of gold chains and rings and considers himself a playboy womanizer despite never once having flirted successfully with another human being. He has expensive tastes and despite his style being objectively hideous to look at, all of it is - somehow - brandname designer clothing. He lives in absolute squalor to afford it. Despite being insufferable sometimes, Matt has stepped into the role of...everything that needs doing that isn’t music for the band. He’s a surprisingly efficient manager and he’s the one who arranges all their gigs and signs them up for competitions, as well as the one who fixes everything that needs fixing (usually through trial and error and many electrical zaps preceding success). He is technically competent on the keyboards, but generally he’s not allowed on the stage because then...people would witness him.