Shout At The Devil! [Halloween Party] Band members and friends invited

[bangingthe_hellouttayou]

Zack had decided that he wanted to do something for Halloween now that he'd gotten his new costume and being a Spider-Man fan he'd gone for a Spider-Punk costume straight from his comics. He'd gotten it at a local comic store down on the Strip and couldn't wait to show Damien because he knew the Dog didn't have comics or anything fun back in Hunger City. Zack now pleased that he'd arranged a Halloween Party for the band members, their friends and family to attend inside the communal area of the apartments. It was the biggest space and there was a bar all stocked up with spooky drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike.

It would be a blast!

There were even spooky snacks with crisps and chips shaped like bats, ghosts and pumpkins. There were even actual pumpkins on a table for those who wished to carve a pumpkin alone or with friends. Zack had tried to make it accessible for all, those who wished to party and get drunk and those who wanted to do non-boozy activities too.

As for costumes---they were optional but preferred.

"Ok, I think that's it. Everyone should be arriving soon."

Zack looking around the room and hoping everyone would like what he had set-up with help from some of the others of course.

Comments

[riff_razor]

"I haven't even had time to sit down and talk to everyone yet." Dee knew everyone in passing but sitting down and getting to know them, she hadn't done that with everyone yet.

Dee led them across the room and into the side room where there was an office of sorts. Rik was sitting there with a guitar in his lap and a flute on the table. He's writing music because unlike the others he's still in school and rarely drinks. Still, he didn't want to lock himself in his apartment away from everyone either.

"Rik?" Dee knows to speak quietly so not to startle the Dane. It was easy enough to do. Rik looked up and pulled off his headphones.

[willoftheblackbird]

They followed, albeit at a bit slower pace. Fortunately, the small room wasn’t very far, and Dee had yet to tire himself out.

They both waited politely in the doorway while she got Rik’s attention. Dee knew the setup well. Headphones on, notebook out, instruments close by. Rik was obviously hard at work. Dee was trained first on piano, and typically had a keyboard beside him when he was working a composition, but it was largely the same.

[riff_razor]

Dee stayed at their pace.

"You can come in." Rik replied, in his heavy Danish accent, as he took off his headphones and set them on the table. "I should take a break."

Rik had been working long enough that he needed to rub his eyes. Once they entered the room they will notice Rik's signature 18-string Razor guitar in a stand beside him.

[willoftheblackbird]

Dee took the opportunity to sit down. He held out a thin hand. “We’re very pleased to meet you. We’ve heard a lot about you…”

Dee introduced himself, stage name and all, as well as his fiancé - who had obviously noticed said 18-string guitar and had suddenly lost the words to do it himself.

“Wow…” Jay couldn’t take his eyes off the instrument.

Dee laughed. “I hope we’re not… disturbing something.”

[riff_razor]

Rik is a bit high strung, which may come through in the handhsake, but he has a natural innocent, kindness in his presence too. The Dane isn't used to introduction with fukk stage names but follows suit.

"Razor Rik Soeren of the Hammers." His eyes moved from Dee to Jay and then his guitar. While he might share some, this was not one. He let go of Dee's hand to address Jay's reaction.

"Her name is Idunn." A name the guitar got from the apple red color and the fact that Rik followed Bragi, Indunn's husband.

Rik shook his head. "I'm writing for my spring recital." Rik still had two semesters of schooling before he was free and two more recitals. This one was harp, flute and drums. Though Rik isn't writing anything very classical. If one classified it then it was probably somewhere between traditional Nordic music and folk metal but the school had told him to be creative so that was what he was doing.

[willoftheblackbird]

“…she’s beautiful.” Jay said dreamily. Of course, he respected the instrument and its owner enough to keep his hands to himself.

Dee couldn’t help but chuckle, and he quipped, “It’s not cheating if it’s a musical instrument.”

Jay was a sucker for anything with strings.

“Oh, you’re studying music composition?” Dee perked up. He remembered from the City Charms show that Mikkel said Rik was local. At least, that’s how he interpreted it. “…CalArts?”

[riff_razor]

"She is named for the goddess of youth and beauty." Rik knew that often Americans, and the Brits, didn't know the meanings of their deities. Unfortunately, Rik was superstitious and there were many of his instruments that he didn't let others play.

"Rhythmic composition and music theory." Rik clarified. "Classical composition was my first year."

He knew that Danish schools were different than American and British schools. Something he didn't know until he met so many people from other countries. "Danish National Academy of Music, fifth year."

[willoftheblackbird]

Unfortunately, Dee and Jay were no different. They weren’t familiar with the deities of many other religions. Jay grew up as, and still was, a loosely-practicing Catholic. Dee was raised Christian, but lost whatever faith he had in God by the time he left Ohio, for obvious reasons.

They weren’t familiar with that particular school. Though, Jay once applied to both the University of Performing Arts in Vienna and the Royal Academy of Music in the UK, but was not accepted to either. Still, he had an idea of how some of those programs worked, at least back then. He remembered a lot of the schools he looked at having three year programs.

“Last year of your Masters level, then?” Jay asked, and wouldn’t be surprised at all with how everyone spoke of Rik.

“Are you preparing for your final recital?”

[riff_razor]

They will quickly find that many of the people here were religious, or at least spiritual, though not Christian. Rik doesn't expect many to understand his beliefs, even in Denmark not many do.

"Yes, but this isn't my final recital." Rik sighed because it was stressful to do his studies from the other side of the world while maintaining a career in a relatively well known rock band. "That will be in the fall. This is my final instrument recital."

In his school they had to learn instruments throughout their schooling and perform each of them.

[willoftheblackbird]

Jay was fairly loose with his interpretation of religious doctrine. Whatever people wanted to believe was fine with him. As far as Dee was concerned, God had already thrown him into Hell once. All the people that 'prayed for him' were the same ones that wanted to keep him there. The resentment had simmered quite a bit over the years, but it could still be a testy subject in just the right (or wrong) context.

"Guitar and flute?" Dee asked, given the instruments he was working with. Though he suspected there might be others.

[riff_razor]

The Danes understood that not everyone had the same ideas as they did and religion rarely came up in major ways. Mostly it was asides or something that was just part of their life, such as names for people and things.

Rik nodded. "And electric harp." Rik often used his recitals as an excuse to work on music for his own band. "They're what I play on stage, mostly." Hunter was always asking for instruments out of the blue and he, or Vars, would usually be the ones to pick them up.

[willoftheblackbird]

“Oh… electric harp.” Jay hummed, continuously impressed.

Dee nodded, also impressed.

“Most of my recitals, aside from my final one, were just voice… and some piano.” Which made sense. He was, first and foremost, a singer and songwriter. “My final compositions included parts for violin, but I wasn’t the one playing it. Jay was accompanying me.”

“Are your recitals open to the public? Or at least to guests?” Jay asked. Dee’s were, but things might be different in a Danish school.

[riff_razor]

Rik set aside the guitar that was in his lap and went to pull out the large flat case that was tucked behind the recliner. Laying it down, he opened it to pull out the pretty blue and purple, metallic two tone electric harp. His harp he wasn't quite as picky about, at least not this one.

"In my school, you can't progress unless you prove proficiency in the instruments or techniques you are learning that year." Which was part of the reason Rik knew so many instruments. "I will be adding saxophone eventually."

He hadn't written that part yet. He started with the harp or guitar parts always because they were easier. He came back over with the harp and sat with the bottom propped on the chair between his legs. "They are ticketed. How many can come for each student depends on how many are in the graduating class."

Rik couldn't guarantee anything because first spaces went to his partner and family. "Do you want to hear what it sounds like?"

Rik had turned the harp into almost another guitar by sound and surely, if these people were composers they'd love to hear it.

[willoftheblackbird]

“For mine, it was a lot more… specialized.” He noted. While he’d certainly learned to compose for a wide variety of instruments, what he demonstrated didn’t have nearly the same kind of breadth as Rik’s recital would.

“I understand. If there are some available, though, we would love the opportunity to purchase a couple and attend.” Jay smiled. He wouldn’t dare down a sneak preview now, though. “Oh, please!”

“I would love to hear what you have so far.” Dee agreed wholeheartedly.

[riff_razor]

"Specialized?" Rik asked curiously. "Did you start in music before college?"

Rik didn't often meet others who had formal schooling and wanted to know how different it was in this country. "I should know in January."

Rik stood up and started adjusting the back strap for the harp. "I'm writing for a standard harp but I started a new song for the Hammers for the electric."

He took some time to make sure it was tuned still and then played a few riffs on the harp. Riffs was the most apt words since the Dane made it sound more like an electric guitar through tuning and plucking style than most would.

[Some references to how Rik plays the electric harp.]

[willoftheblackbird]

“Every instrument, or group of instruments in some cases, has its own four year program.” He explained. Major instruments like piano and guitar, and if memory served him right, even harps, had their own separate degrees. But there were programs for brass instruments, for string instruments, etc., as well. And of course, there was an entirely separate program for voice. He couldn’t help but wonder, now, how different it was overseas.

“I actually went through a program that offered music composition and performance together… I wanted to write my own music. And be the one actually out there on stage too.” He had a feeling Rik could relate to that. “I had piano lessons for years growing up. And sang in a couple choirs, like at school or at church. But… no… right before college, I… um… couldn’t do much of anything.”

A few riffs on that harp were a very welcome interruption. As were Jay’s protective hands on the back of his shoulders.

[riff_razor]

"Ours is structured differently." Rik could see the benefits to both though he thrived under the conditions in his Danish program. "Our degrees are based on a concept; music theory, composition, electronic music... and then every year or two, depending on the program, master an instrument that we continue to use as we progress."

Rik understood that the program he chose was intense but he wouldn't have it any other way. "I knew piano, flute and guitar before I started my degree in classical composition." He wasn't going to start talking about why he was so proficient at a young age. He had a love hate relationship with that part of his life.

"I started with performance when I was still in my secondary. When I went to the Academy of Music, my first was classical music, then Electronic music and sound arts, now I am finishing Rhythmic composition and music theory." Rik was interested in the comparison between programs. Rik wasn't much for talking about his earlier life either for different reasons. However, Rik was a prodigy of sorts with music, mostly due to some mental divergence and probably undiagnosed synesthesia.

"Ansgar showed me the music you gave him." Rik thought a change of topics was in order for both of them.

[willoftheblackbird]

Their programs were surprisingly different in how they were structured. Jay, who merely minored in music while working toward a nursing degree, had a different experience altogether.

When Rik mentioned Ansgar, both of them cocked their heads.

“…He did?” Dee asked warily.

Jay let out a sigh. He was afraid that might happen. In addition to not wanting their new projects spreading around, they were looking for Ansgar’s take on it, not anyone else’s. And certainly not a musical prodigy’s.

[riff_razor]

"What I could see of it while he was waving the paper in my face waiting for Aarne to pull his back up kit out of storage." Rik didn't think there was anything wrong. From his perspective. Ansgar's behavior was a positive. Anything that wasn't drinking until he couldn't think was a good thing. Rik would take the hyperactive madness over the drunken stupor any time.

"He's been.. better since he played for you." Rik mentioned and there's an unspoken thank you in the tone of the Dane's voice. It had been years since he saw Ansgar sober for more than a few hours. The past few days made Rik feel more hopeful about his cousins, and himself, healing from their past.

[willoftheblackbird]

As Rik continued, both Dee and Jay’s expressions shifted immediately. It wasn’t what they first thought.

Dee smiled. Jay laughed, ruffling his fiancé's hair. “Sounds like something you’d do, honestly.”

Jay liked Ansgar a lot. He saw enough similarities between personalities that they’d likely work well together, and be able to build off each other. That could work in the negative direction too, as they discovered the night of the City Charms show. But Jay could pull Dee out of those spirals easily now. He wasn’t worried about their potential new drummer.

“We’d asked him… not to collaborate on it with anyone else before the audition.” Dee explained their initial misunderstanding. “I’m glad he’s excited. We’re excited to hear what he does with it… how he sounds with us. I sincerely hope he will be the drummer we’ve been looking for.”

[riff_razor]

"Mikkel told me." Rik confirmed. "The only thing I did was told him what one of the notations meant. Ansgar was trained in theater and pyrotechnics, not music."

Rik didn't think that crossed any lines. Ansgar had to understand what he was playing off of if he was going to build on it. Rik hadn't even listened to him drumming to avoid any interference with the natural process, though he could hear him playing through the walls of the apartment and liked what he heard.

"I hope so too." Rik agreed. "Mikkel has been going on and on about how good of a drummer his brother is, to everyone." Rik chuckled because he was the quiet one. Though subdued when he was drunk, Ansgar and Mikkel had the same sort of high energy and mischief. It was good to see it coming back to the older Dane.

[willoftheblackbird]

Neither Jay nor Dee saw that as crossing any kind of line. It was about as innocuous as looking up a word in a dictionary while you were reading.

“I’m quite interested in tapping into his theatrical knowledge too…” Dee added. Ansgar really would be a valuable asset to their band. “I want to create an experience… not just an album. There’s sound and vision. Together.”

“Our costumes tonight are actually for our stage personas.” Jay added.

“I have so many ideas for a live show… but no idea how to put that kind of spectacle together.”

[riff_razor]

Rik was glad to brag about his cousin's work. "If you see one of the Hell's Angels shows, Ansgar worked with Viktor on their stage and pyrotechnics."

It would be a way to see what he did when he ran with ideas. Including Joe setting himself on fire on stage which was an Ansgar and Ollie talking to Joe while they all had too much to drink before a show idea. Rik made a mental note, now that he was thinking about it, to introduce Ansgar to Jake. They'd probably have a time together.

"I like them. What is their meanings?" Rik wasn't one for stage costumes but he's always curios in people's creative visions.. "We don't have them for stage but I know Svarte Ravner has a stage costume and set."

[willoftheblackbird]

They would definitely have to catch one of those shows now, for multiple reasons.

“Kuro… are a band of rebels in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, fighting against oppression and standing up for those with the same spark of magic within them… through music, of course.” Dee smiled confidently. “As the Prophet, I lead and inspire our fellow rebels with my words.“

“I’m the Mystic. I use the magic of music to soothe and heal.” Jay added of his own character.

Their costumes reflected those personas well. Dee was striking in tight leather and war paint. Jay looked more wizard-like in his robes, complete with potion bottles hanging from a belt.

“All band members will have their own character… along the same naming convention.” Dee explained. “And I hope… it’s something we can bring to our fans too… to create a Kuro name that they can use with each other. It would be wonderful to create a community for our fans where they know they feel safe… and uplifted.”

Dee was definitely getting ahead of himself there. But that was his motivation, laid bare.

[riff_razor]

Rik listened to the band description and his brows slowly rose up. The description sounded far too familiar but he was far too polite, and shy, to ask if they were from Damien's world. The description sounded way too similar to things he heard in passing about Jack.

The Dane reminded himself that this was a story for the stage. No different than his own band singing about mythology. There was something in this though that applied to the tour and musicians here.

"Ziggy brought us all together to break social conventions and change how the world is going right now." Rik had his own motivations, they all did, but the end point was the same. Change, for the better.