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

[willoftheblackbird]

Oh, the story of how Jay and Dee met was quite the doozy. Even though they didn't start dating until about six months later. They really did hit it off fairly quickly, their passions for music aligning in such beautiful harmony.

"We're still... looking for the right venue..." Dee admitted.

"Which is likely going to have to be out of the country. You know how it is here." Jay added, and speaking of spoiling someone rotten, couldn't help but add, "He's worth it, though."

[thrashdevil]

Dee nodded. She'd heard the same thing from both Rekker and Mick about having to go somewhere else.

"Rekker might have ideas." She mentioned sympathetically. "I know the Scandinavian countries allow marriage." And there were plenty of Scandinavians here.

[willoftheblackbird]

“Scandinavian countries, you say?” Jay hummed. That could definitely be an option. “Europe has such a rich history in classical music. I haven’t been since I was a kid.”

He’d fallen in love with the violin on an early trip to Austria, but unfortunately, had never gone back. He’d applied to a few conservatories, but wasn’t quite good enough for admission. It was part of what led him to focusing on medicine and music at the same time.

“I’ve never even been on a plane before…” Dee laughed. He’d driven from Ohio to LA fueled more on rage than actual fuel, but that was about the extent of his travel history.

“Would you like to?”

“I’d go anywhere with you. Fuck, I’d go to Mars if the martians would let us get married.”

[thrashdevil]

Dee nodded and then smiled. "Have you met Rik yet?"

The idea of a rock band in love with classical music brought the young man to mind. She'd seen him play an electric harp on the stage and it had been wild.

"You will." Dee encouraged. "World tours put you on planes so much you'll be tired of them and want a car back."

[willoftheblackbird]

They both shook their heads.

“But everyone speaks very highly of him. A master of at least nine instruments, if I remember what everyone has said.”

“… at least.” Dee nodded.

No doubt about it, they would definitely become fast friends with Rik.

“World tour?” Dee couldn’t believe he was thinking about the possibility of that AND a wedding. He definitely had stars in his eyes when he added, “No… I don’t think I could ever get tired of that…”

A tour bus, maybe. Living out of his car for seven months wasn’t exactly a vacation. But busses were probably infinitely more comfortable than an old compact Chevy.

[thrashdevil]

"He's here." Dee smiled. "I don't think he's one to introduce himself."

She knew Rik was shy and often kept to himself, especially on nights when things would get crazy. That was, unless he was with someone pulling pranks.

She giggled. "I'll check back in 15 years. I used to think the same when I was younger." They had all gotten to a point where constant traveling and touring was making them crazy. Maybe they wouldn't but most did eventually.

[willoftheblackbird]

That Dee had no idea how long 15 years sounded to this Dee. It was an unfathomable number.

Jay noticed the stunned silence and leaned in, whispering, “that’s possible, you know.”

“…I still have trouble believing it.”

“You have time.” He stressed, lovingly.

The encouragement probably sounded cryptic to anyone who didn’t know his story. If she asked, he would explain, though. She seemed a good person. Hell, a lot of the people they’d met in the last few weeks did.

“You do that.” He challenged, actually grinning. “Check back in 15 years.”

[thrashdevil]

Dee didn't know about the health concerns but she knew the tone. It was one they all had used around Rekker when thinking about the future when his hopelessness took hold.

"If Rekker can make it twenty five, you can do 15." She encouraged too. There was an understanding just existing around someone who thought they had limited time and might actually have limited time. "I'm holding you to having experienced at least a small international tour."

Dee had a motherly quality even if she was rougher and on the punk side.

[willoftheblackbird]

“Maybe… maybe now…” he smiled, squeezing Jay gently.

He didn’t have that option before. He wouldn’t, and couldn’t, take it. When he left home at 18, he knew he only had about seven years to live his entire life. A tight timeframe to learn everything he needed to know about how to write music, how to perform, to actually start a band, record an album, tour the world, make all his dreams come true… It was hard to stop counting down.

“Oh, I don’t want to settle for a small one…” he smiled.

[thrashdevil]

"You remind me of Rekker." Dee mentioned to Dee with all the affection she held for her long time, if tumultuous, partner in crime and fellow ginger.

"Do you want to meet Rik?" Dee asked but maybe they had people here they knew and wanted to catch up with.

[willoftheblackbird]

“Oh, we’d love to.” Jay answered immediately, prompting a chuckle from his partner.

“…We’d like to meet everybody… eventually.”

Though, with the number of people that kept showing up from every direction, he might not have brought enough recording balls.

[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.