Bet you didn't know that Denver has more live music venues than fucking LA. Well, so it does, and on a certain Thursday night in late March - spring spring spring, how can you feel anything right now except spring - a four-piece band without a goddamned name is playing a pop-up show at Whiskey River, which does not actually feature whiskey any more than any ordinary hipster-oriented bar might, and does not contain a river.
It does have a bar and a bit of an outdoor spill-over patio area where smokers and Smokers can retreat mid-show to indulge in their chosen vice and a lanky sort of architecture and a close, warm feel. And it is more or less constructed in the space left behind by an old movie theater turned porn theater in the 1970s turned strip club in the early 90s, turned legit dive bar circa 1999, turned "We have 23 microbrews on tap" style dive circa 2005.
The bar is cramped, yeah, but there's a marquee out front all lighted up in neon and the stage is pretty goddamned awesome, a good 2.5 or even three feet off the ground, higher than it is in most of the tertiary sort of places unknowns get to play. Sera sent out a mass text - of course she did, of course she would - without much warning, spur of the moment, as these things always seem to be with her. And here she is, and here they are, and the bar is maybe three-quarters full - it's Thursday right? not the weekend, but far enough along that some of us want to start our weekend, and the stage is bathed in the sort of sweeping lights that make you look like a goddamned rock star even if you don't already look like a goddamned rock star and Sera,
well, she looks like a goddamned rock star. Feels like one too. Three other people on stage and some of them are good and some of them are really fucking great but when she's up there, how can you take your eyes off her?
Gallowglass[Awaare?]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )
Kalen Holliday[Nightmares]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
GallowglassMr. Gallowglass is not very good at being social. That is a lie: of course it is. Gallowglass can be social. There are indeed cities and chantries where Gallowglass is thought to be quiet and a good listener (trust in me [confidant]), if, of course, arrogant - unrelentingly. But everybody knows his Tradition so they forgive him that (or they don't forgive him that - he doesn't know and he doesn't care because he is arrogant and this is a cycle). He is good at knowing people and intuiting what they feel or think or want to do. He often understands them even if he doesn't like them or is the sort of bookish sleep-deprived young man with vampire-pale skin and shadow-haunted eyes, a gawk with a too-long neck, thin shoulders, a hunch, then that thatch of uncombed Sandman-wild dark hair, you know, which could be in style but probably isn't. He's just got stubble tonight like maybe he shaved the other day and the beard is taking a day to get back to its former brisk villainous glory. Scruff. That's what he is and what he's got: scruff, scruffyness, dishevelledment. Fortunately people at bars do not care. Fortunately also Gallowglass does not care.
Most people don't really keep him in their minds when they look at him. Most people don't look at him all that much. Going to a bar to pick up a date: Probably not Adam's scene. Probably not something he's even good at.
He doesn't look awkward, just: okay. He is here. He is here with Kalen Holliday, for whom he opens the door like the nice guy he isn't, asking what he hadn't asked on the drive over (the chilling, perilous, holy fucking shit Adam do not kill us drive over: guess who has road rage? Guess who has bad road rage when it comes to parking downtown? Somebody's car came this close to being keyed), "Have you heard Serafíne's band before?"
Where is what's-her-name?
There is Serafíne. He could've just looked at the stage, probably: could've just had his gaze drawn there naturally, but even before he opened the bar's door, he was feeling that gut-instinct place-between be enrapt be enthralled lick that is associated with the Ecstatic.
Kalen Holliday[How distracted are you by Resonance tonight, Kalen?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )
Kalen HollidayHe's breathing in Serafine's Resonance before they're inside. Before there is that wash of music when the door opens and the sound feels like something he could fall into and float in. Heavy and rich and washed in something that begs yo to keep falling closer, deeper. There the soft fluting sounds. Here the rhythmic base of the sound like the spine of it, anchoring it and holding it and-
And Kit has the door open and is probably already impatient and how long was he there? A few heartbeats? Eternity? There are mathmatical reasons to accept that some infinities are larger than others and each of these people he's passing carry their own and each place they intersect the others near them have...and...and...and....
Serafine. Whose presence is spilling off of her and over everything. A whole bar full of possibility and all of it enthralled together in one shimmering moment with her. It is a kind of communion, even if they don't understand it. A blessing.
He can taste tequila, and it is memory from things that have happened and will happen and he doesn't even try to untangle any of those moments. That is for some other time. Instead he orders two shots of ridiculously expensive tequila and slides one of them toward Adam.
Gallowglass[I sip this right? We're gonna stamina tequila. I don't even know the drinking rules but it's gonna happen.]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (8, 10) ( success x 2 )
Gallowglass[Adam: o/]
Serafíne(Performancing? + charisma)
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 9, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Serafínealso how good is Dan?
Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (4, 5, 6, 6, 8, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 7 ) Re-rolls: 1
Serafíne(Okay: Dan gives a masterclass in guitar. Sera may be too wasted to keep up.)
SerafíneThe show unwinds. Did you know that Sera plays the guitar? Sera plays the guitar, she plays the guitar sometimes, and sometimes the guitar is slung over her back, the strap bisecting her breasts, the fretboard tangled in the sweatdamp mass of her hair. A bottle of something either in hand or maybe, sometimes, when she bothers to play, when she deigns to play, when she remembers that there's a fucking guitar on her back, against her spine, on the floor beside the mikestand.
But only for a minute or three or seven or who even remembers to count them when she's in the middle of the stage, right? Urging and breathless and sweaty and urgent. They mix covers and originals and sometimes its hard to tell the difference because the covers are obscure and the originals you might've actually heard someone else play once, somewhere, even if when she does them it feels like no one else ever really could. They segue from the Beatles to the Breeders and back again, play Springsteen (I'm on Fire) and Johnny Cash and the Raincoats and Cool as Kim Deal and PJ Harvey and if you're a critic, if you can shake off the tangled impression of her presence, the lick of her resonance, the spectacle of her digressions and recursions, all of it, somewhere beneath it all is the persistent sense that Jesus Christ these guys are awesome. Because Jesus Christ that guy is.
And Sera's wearing a short pink dress and her usual fishnets and half-way through decides she's so goddamned sweaty that she stops singing mid-song and just... you know. Starts to strip off her dress. Sera manages it just half-way and just sort of hums her way through the rest of the Violent Femmes song they're doing. Which is fine: the crowd hums and sings too. That's what Violent Femmes songs are meant to do.
Near the end everything quiets down and girl (pale skinned, dark-haired, all rockabilly) on bass steps back, stops playing, and it's just the guitar and the feedback loop, the shoegazy noise that Dan creates, crouching down and fiddling with his Macbook before he straightens and they launch into a mesmerizing, breathless cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain's psychocandy.
The drone at the end goes on and on and on.
Kalen and Kit can drink and drink and drink. Oh drink Kit, drink.
By the time the set's over, she'll have sensed them both, surely. And while the rest of the band start cleaning up their kit, well. Sera's excused from all that work. So, she jumps down from the stage and starts pushing her way through the crowd. Beeline. Guess where the fuck she's headed.
GallowglassLook at Kalen. All dreamy, all willing to be enthralled. Gallowglass is not very demonstrative, but the corners of his mouth tense with the possibility of a smile. He scratches the underside of his chin, does not quite eddy in Kit's dreamy wake even though he is not the kind of young man who often goes to bars. He heads straight for the bar, and perhaps he gets there before Kalen or perhaps not. Do you know how hard it is for Adam to get a bartender's attention? Not that hard: he could just drop the cowel, drop the Mystery, and even Mysterious somebody'll notice him and just forget. He could take somebody's drink and they'd be annoyed and angry but if their attention was distracted for a minunte --
But Adam wouldn't take somebody else's drink unless he was going to poison it. He is not a poisoner. So he's happy enough for Kalen to order whatever the fuck he orders. Tequila? Adam would not know expensive tequila from cheap tequila (or thinks he would not [delicate WASP stomach]). He doesn't down it right away.
Because he's listening to the band. Adam claps and 'woos' after Johnny fucking Cash, but looks sober his eyes hooded during any Beatles songs, seems content during PJ Harvey covers, and it's when Dan's guitar work is particularly amazing, amazing enough that Adam is watching the consor's fingers, attentive, sharp, that he throws back the shot, nudges Kalen, a gleam that touches on mischief in his eyes but might be poised toward conspiracy instead, "Cheers, Kal," and
and
and
holy shit. He's totally fine. The burn is good; his head does not swim; his eyes barely water at all, so he grins - pleased. Pleased enough that he's not even paying attention when the band starts packing up and Serafine beelines in their direction because he is ordering another two shots of the same thank you very much one for him and one for his buddy. Yes.
Kalen HollidayKalen, who tolerates only a handful of people using diminutives on him, grins back in response to Adam's look, raises his shot glass, and downs the tequila. There are schools of thought that you should savor such a thing. Linger. Hoard.
But Kalen has touched the face of eternity. He knows that life is forever twisting back into new forms but forms are fleeting and moments are fleeting and there is only this. Right now. This moment. This instant. Only this.
Sometimes he forgets and gives in to nightmares and shadows but tonight he remembers and the world is so dizzyingly beautiful that he can taste transcendence. It is a little like blackberries and sweet champagne and the scent of lotus blossoms and blood and earth threading through underneath it.
And this why he called Gallowglass. Relentless and sure and unyielding. Solid.
He accepts another shot, but he rests his head on Gallowglass' shoulder while they wait for it. His skin is warm but the echoes of armor in Kalen's mind are cold. Both things are equally real. He closes his eyes and breathes out softly.
Perfect.
SerafíneKalen?
Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )
SerafíneAdam?
Dice: 4 d10 TN5 (2, 3, 4, 9, 10) ( success x 2 ) Re-rolls: 1
Gallowglass[Okay brah. Is shit up with you? PERC AWARE + SPESHULTEE. Watch this botch. *suspicion*]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (5, 5, 7, 7, 9, 9, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 7 ) Re-rolls: 1
Serafíne"Hi." Sera can beeline through the crowd with the best of them. She was made to beeline through crowds, in heels, half-dressed, sweat gleaming on her skin. She was made for crowds and here she is, see, slicing through one that is starting to both come-down and break up, or at least, break itself back into the factions from which it was manufactured when they took the stage. No longer a crowd but a noisey animal, un-segmented, opened up, conversations picking up and lingering and changed all around, opening, opening.
And Sera, "Hiiiiii." with an arm around Adam's waist and another around Kalen's, this little squeeze that somehow encompasses them both as a couple, right? Then lets them go and swings 'round them pair of them like a whip. Bottle in hand and she sets it on the bar.
Only half-empty but that is a fifth of Stranahan's, so.
Slow down, Sera.
She's still half-humming beneath her breath, skimming on fumes and the energy of the crowd.
GallowglassHe doesn't push Kalen away and say anything like: c'mon man. Doesn't flush or blush or get all what the fuck. Maybe a little what the fuck for a moment. What the fuck isn't the right word to use. The Flambeau called him to come see Serafíne play at a bar and Adam didn't think anything of it except perhaps brooding thoughts on Serafíne and his desk and Ruse and that scene at the bookstore. He does give the other Hermetic something of a keen look: what are you doing; his expression is occulted, considering. He says, "Man, you are going to chase the girls away. Oh, here's one."
His accent is stronger than usual: hear it? That muddle of time spent abroad.
"Hi Serafíne. Dan is very good." This is Adam's greeting: sea-eyed, exhausted, weary-as-fuck. A beat later, he's regretting the missed opportunity to say: hey, girl, with a grin. Because Adam is a jerk. He is arrogant and he is mean and he doesn't actually think Serafíne minds.
And a beat later, he's regretting it again, blinking once and then twice, drawing himself up just a little, because Kalen's head on his shoulder and Serafíne's arm around his waist: it's way too much for Adam, who is rather aloof, composed, self-contained. "Erm, you were all right too."
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )
Kalen HollidayKalen is stressed. Not about the bar. He's perfectly, blissfully at peace with the bar and the tequila and his head resting on Adam's shoulder (and if he were paying attention to it, with the assumption Sera just made). But there is stress, and it's evident in the way Kalen leans into Adam but doesn't really relax, the nightmares and the way he always seems to have a lingering sense of foreboding. The only person Sera has really seen him relax around, like tension easing, really coming off some part of him being on guard, is Pan. And her, the nights he's let her sing him to sleep, though that kind of surrender hasn't come outside of magic for her. Trust, yes. Calm yes. But not needing to keep tabs on the world on some level...no. He's not actively upset, he's just on a stress level that's set at a ridiculously high point as a baseline right now.
Kalen Holliday"Serafine?" Kalen murmurs, without opening his eyes, as if to confirm that Gallowglass is referring to Serafine and her larger than life presence as if she could ever be wholly encompassed by a word like girl. "I doubt she'd be scared off. Try not to break her poor heart like you break Kharisma's with your ridiculous standards and rules and customs and limitations and whatever else." He makes a soft sighing sound that might have been a laugh under other circumstances. "But if you really like her...."
He opens his eyes and they are pale and luminous and mischievous and suddenly he is grinning, even if he doesn't pick up his head.. "Hey, Sera. You want to learn all about how people spoke with flowers in Victorian England? And by with I mean using them in a complicated secret language of signals between lovers, not actually communing with the flowers themselves."
Serafíne"I know." Sera hums around the thought of Dan's brilliance; god, she's still feeling that in her bones, between her teeth, beneath her pulse, in the way her heart pounds, and the I know is for Dan being very good and if she were the sort to take offense at damning with faint praise well, she might do so right after that but no. Her hand slides across Adam's waist and she lets him go. She's smiling, inhaling, the way one does when the world has gone star-mad and cross-eyed, amazed by the way her body moves as she sliiiides up to the bar and loops an arm around her bottle and rests her cheek on her fist and her elbow on the wood. "He's a fucking genius, isn't he?"
The sort of genius even someone like Adam might appreciate. Serious on stage, a virtuouso, really, intent and aware of the rest of the players. Especially aware of Sera, in all her sloppy glory, particularly when she starts to fall apart, to lose the thread of the line, ready to come in where needed, to keep the band going so that she can fall to pieces without anyone else coming to harm. While the rhythm section keeps the beat and the -
Sera blinks, lazily, from Kalen to Adam. Blinks back again. Considers asking Adam where Ruse is and does not really understand that she hasn't asked the question aloud because her dark blue eyes have snagged on Kalen and linger there. Linger, linger -
then Kalen's moving, mischievous, asking her if she wants to learn the secret language of secret lovers and of fucking course she does, says everything about her, but -
"Hold that thought." She tells Kalen, unfurling, unsteady, aware. "I gotta pee."
And so she ducks away, leaving behind her bottle like a flag claiming new territory, sliding expertly through the crowd. Girl's gotta pee.
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