Calista Kosko (_possessed) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-11-27 17:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | #group scene, 2009-08-03, brodie, quentin, zeke |
We'll pray for what we have in honor of the fortune
Who: Brodie, Calista, Quentin, and Zeke
Where: Ozzy’s
When: Evening
Note: Incomplete
Calista knew that there was something important going on when she received a text message from one of her band members saying there was a battle of the bands gig going on at Ozzy’s. But of course! How could she forget that, especially when Brodie was running the show there. She didn’t even care if they won - and how hilarious would it be if they did? - but just as long as they got to be center stage in front of a massive crowd, then it was all good. And it was an excellent turn out, too. Calista had their keyboardist right on her arm in sharpie to congratulate Brodie after so she wouldn’t forget. Knowing her, she’d forget what the little scribble meant right after the performance.
Being up on stage and singing again? Priceless. Calista was able to belt out those notes like no other rock goddess could and she had her band to thank to back up those killer beats and hard melodies. The crowd seemed to be loving it, too. They were all working them up and it was hard for Calista to part from the stage, smiling a bit more than usual when they were done with their act. Looked like they had created quite a following with all the media attention. And as they all took their bows, Calista waved to the crowd, bracelets jingling as she did so, and walked on off stage with the rest of the band. “Great job, guys,” she smiled at all of them, still clapping along with the crowd as they went backstage. “I think this calls for a little celebration. Drinks?” Not to mention she was anxious to pop on out front and try and find her boyfriend in the sea of people. Quentin did promise he’d show up to her next performance and Calista promised she’d be a good girl and not slap him in the face.
Brodie had missed this, which was the exact reason why he had organized another Battle of the Bands in the first place. He didn’t even care if they won, though some might say they would win by default considering the owner of Ozzy’s was the drummer; but Brodie had thought ahead and made the votes be casted in the form of applause once everyone was done playing. He really just wanted to play live again, and he had missed it as though they hadn’t played in months - which was so not the case. Nonetheless, this gave him a decent buzz of excitement that he didn’t normally have, and made for a very bouncy Brodie as the band made their way backstage. “Drinks! Yes.” He believed that was his cue to get them, which he did. They were in the back after all, the fridges weren’t far away at all. He came back with beers and handed one to each of his fellow band members, keeping the last one. “Cheers, guys.” He said, uncapping the bottle and taking a sip.
Zeke needed this. After the weekend he’d had, and everything he was currently trying not to think about - namely a certain redhead and the conflicted feelings he wasn’t capable of ignoring for much longer - being able to get back on stage and rock his little heart out was a godsend. It didn’t matter so much to him if they won or not, though it would be nice if they did; the fact that so many people came out was a good thing regardless. Pushing his hair out of his eyes, guitar still in hand, he followed Calista and Brodie backstage. Everyone else’s energy was getting to him and there was a hint of a smile on Zeke’s face as he took the beer Brodie offered him. “Hell yes,” he said, raising his beer. “To an awesome show.” Like they’d do anything less.
Meanwhile, Quentin was waiting at the bar, sipping a Sam Adams of his own. He’d promised Calista he’d be here and he’d been true to his word, even if it took him a while to find where Ozzy’s was. It was a nice place, though, and definitely the kind of place he’d come back to now that he knew how to get there. He was right there cheering away when their set ended, trying to catch Calista’s eye as the band made their way backstage, without much luck. Since the bartender already had a tab going for him, Quentin grabbed his drink and followed them. “Hey, band only,” the guy by the stage said.
Quentin just grinned. “I know, my girlfriend’s part of the band.” Girlfriend. Quentin was still getting used to that word, in the best of ways. “Calista Kosko? Just tell her Quentin’s here.”
Wow, Calista didn’t even realize that there was a fridge backstage. Then again, she probably would have mistaken it for one of the amplifiers, knowing her. As Brodie passed around the beers, Calista took hers in hand and nodded to him with gratitude, struggled for a moment, then made their bassist pop hers open, and then lifted her bottle up three seconds late for cheers and took a sip anyways. Classic Calista. At least that would never get old. “This makes up for our concert getting rained on by vampires,” she remarked plainly while licking her lips dry. “Not that vampires rain... or... anything.” She actually paused to think about that and while she did, noticed the writing on her arm and made a face. “OH!” Fluttering her eyes, she pointed to Brodie as she calmed back down. “Great work with the battle of the bands. This is such a huge turn out! You should really do this more often and-” There was suddenly a tap on her shoulder, completely derailing the poor space cadet as she turned around to see one of the big techies looming over her. “Some guy named ‘Quentin’ is here for you?”
And her eyes just lit up. He came after all! It was hard to tell with the spotlight on her, but she was sure some of those whistles were probably from him. With a big smile - big for Calista - she nodded to the guy. “Yeah, let him in. He’s with us... well, me. I’m not sharing him.” Then as the techie nodded and walked off to go grab Quentin, Calista looked back to the band with a completely shameless, giddy smile on her face. Yup, someone was twitterpatted.
Smiling at Zeke, Brodie took another swig at the beer, and then looked at Calista, cheering seconds after everyone else had. He snorted. “They might rain. You never know, so much weird shit going on lately, raining vampires would just be one of them.” He said, shrugging. Then, when Calista suddenly remembered something - he already knew when she did, it was so obvious - Brodie almost jumped at her “OH!”. And then he smiled. “Aw, thanks.” He was going to say more but they got interrupted by one of the tech guys. Ah, Quentin was joining them. The more the merrier. Brodie snorted again at what Calista told the techie, shaking his head. “Well, he’s not my type anyway.” Not that Brodie even knew what his type was, but in any case, other people’s boyfriends weren’t his. He was happy that Calista looked so happy. After the way she’d been the other day, she really deserved some giddiness.
Wait, vampires rained? Zeke just blinked, his air elemental side getting the best of him without him even realizing it. After a second, he just shook his head, remembering that Calista was being Calista, and he was being himself, and he didn’t need to think so much about that. “Maybe someday they will,” he said. Air elementals were supposed to be able to make it rain, right? He wasn’t that far yet, but someday he would be, though he was pretty sure he couldn’t make it rain cats and dogs, much less people. Or vampires. Whatever. He sipped at his beer though before setting it down so he could put his guitar back in its case, almost reverently, looking up to see the techie let the dark-haired, tattooed guy in. Zeke might have met him at the Mudhouse, for the last Battle of the Bands, as he looked kind of familiar, but he couldn’t really remember anymore. “Not mine either,” he said, grabbing his beer and nodding towards the newcomer.
“Thanks man,” Quentin said to the techie, and then went straight for Calista. He remembered seeing her other bandmates the last time he’d seen them play, but he hadn’t been introduced to them formally. So, he gave them a wave, and then wrapped Calista up in a hug. What? She was his girlfriend, and he was just as twitterpatted as she was. He was allowed. “You were amazing up there,” he said, in Calista’s ear, before pulling back a little so he could actually see everyone else who was with them. Leaving an arm around Calista’s waist, he said, for everyone to hear, “Nice show, guys. I’ve heard a lot about you, but I don’t think we’ve actually been introduced - I’m Quentin James.”
Calista was glad that the guys could at least put up with her spacey sense of humor... or whatever it was. And before she knew it, she had Quentin sneak up behind her and wrap her up in his embrace. She smiled, perfectly content in his arms while nuzzling into him. “Thank you,” she whispered back to him, a tint of blush brushing across her cheeks. Having her boyfriend be such a massive support was such a boost for Calista and it showed. Looking on over to the other band members, Calista tucked her hair behind her ear and decided to introduce them. “That’s Brodie, he’s our drummer and he helped put on the event tonight. And that’s Zeke, our lead guitarist and back up vocals. We’ve all been friends since high school, just about.” How long ago that was was beyond Calista. Math was hard.
It was adorable to see Calista blush. Even more so than to see her and Quentin all loved up, which briefly reminded Brodie that he hadn’t felt that way in a very long while, and kind of missed it. Feelings best left for later, obviously, since he wasn’t even the type to complain about his love life to the best of friends. Much less when they seemed so damn happy. Once Calista introduced him, Brodie held out his hand in Quentin’s direction with a smile. “Thanks. I’m Brodie, like she said. Good to meet you.” To be fair, Brodie didn’t know how long High School had been either, at least not right now. He was just about to offer Quentin a beer when he noticed Quentin had his own. Nodding, Brodie looked over to Calista and gave her a significant smile. He was happy to see her so happy, especially after their last conversation and what had happened to her.
Zeke was happy for Calista, he really was. It was good to see her happy after what she’d gone through in the last few weeks. He’d tried to help, but Zeke wasn’t good at dealing with his own emotions, much less someone else’s. He could offer distractions all he wanted, but sometimes what you needed was the person you loved to be there with you. Like how Holly should be here now. Now that he wasn’t on stage, that thought twisted and turned inside him, and Zeke tried to push it away. He wasn’t giving into that, not now. Not when they’d just had an awesome show and everyone was having a good time. “And I’m Zeke,” he said, offering his hand after Brodie’s. Just the thing to do, you know.
Quentin couldn’t help it, he was grinning as she nuzzled into him. “Of course,” he whispered back to her. “A promise is a promise, right? Like I’d be anywhere else.” He might be a dick at times, but when he gave his word, he meant it. And he’d been looking forward to seeing the band perform again for a while, seeing as the last concert of theirs he’d been to ended rather badly. Reaching over, Quentin shook Brodie’s hand, then Zeke’s. Hell, Quentin didn’t even talk to most of the people he’d known since high school, and that was probably a good thing. To them, he’d always be a James, the fucked up one at that, and it was better that he now had a chance to leave all of that behind him. “The crowd up there seems like they’re having a good time, with a decent turn out. The battle of the bands thing was a great idea.”
“Really?” Calista was happy to hear the crowd was enjoying the whole thing. The girl was hard on herself at times and she knew Quentin meant well and hearing him say that made Calista feel even better. Taking another sip of her beer, she looked on back to her band members. If anything, she was happy to be playing again and that there were no vampires getting in the way. “It’s a shame we never got to play at the berry thing,” she pouted. “I don’t think they ever called us back.” Like she could remember. Her eyes went to Brodie, because she knew better than to ask Zeke if he ever remembered anything. Those two were like two pea brains in a pod when it came to memory. Either way, she shrugged her shoulders. Ozzy’s was better than Berry Days any day of the week.
Nodding, Brodie smiled faintly at Quentin. He always liked to know the crowd was having a good time, even if he had checked out the turn-out himself before going on stage. “Thanks, mate. Yeah I thought we could all use a good night of rock and a do-over since that thing with the Berry Days didn’t work out so well.” He explained, turning to Calista as she spoke. He shook his head. “No they never called, I don’t think.” Brodie shrugged. They didn’t even know what they were missing. “There’s always next year, I suppose.” If vampires or other supernatural hungry beings didn’t ruin it for them again. In any case, the applause for them had been massive and Brodie had enjoyed it. It was a feeling at the pit of his stomach that was unlike anything he would ever feel elsewhere. He would go as far as to deem it better than sex, but considering how long ago he’d had sex last, he wouldn’t even know what he was talking about. He turned to Zeke, elbowing him. “Toast? We deserve it.”
No surprise, it took Zeke a moment to catch on to what they were actually talking about, his thoughts still hung up on Holly. Not that it was anything new, all things considered, but today was worse than normal. Probably because he’d actually talked to her boyfriend, however briefly, thought he was a decent guy, and had to tell Holly about that conversation afterward like it didn’t bother him. Truth was, it did. A lot. “No, the Berry Days people didn’t call back,” he said, having to think about it for a second. “At this rate I’m thinking the rescheduling is not going to happen, which sucks for us. That just means we’ll have to book more gigs here, if Brodie can score us the hookup again.” He rubbed at his side when Brodie elbowed him, “Oh, yeah, toast!” He raised his beer. “To friends and good music.”
“Which sucks,” Quentin said, “because I didn’t get to go to Berry Days when it was still open. Next year, though, I’m all over it.” It had been in part because he wasn’t going to go by himself, and in part because he’d been waiting to see the band. He was planning on being in Michigan by next year, so he’d just catch up on what he’d missed then. His family hadn’t talked about him coming home for anything longer than a visit, and he was hoping to put that off until Christmas, at the earliest. He raised his beer after Zeke did, his other arm around Calista’s waist. “I can toast to that.”
Calista knitted her eyebrows slightly as she watched Zeke, noticing he wasn’t as upbeat as usual. Air elementals were spacey, yes - hell, she understood that better than anyone - but this wasn’t normal for him. Part of her wanted to say something, but then the whole toasting thing got in the way and the thought was lost. Fluttering her eyes, Calista raised her beer up and clinked it with the other guys’. “I like toast... even if we don’t have toast right now. We have beer.” And whoosh, over her head it went. She remained clueless and adorable while sipping on her beer, then smiled at the others. “Do you guys want to check out the rest of the acts? See what we’re up against?” Calista wiggled her eyebrows playfully. In the end, it didn’t matter if Revolution 9 won or not. Just as long as they had a blast that night, that was all that mattered.
With a snort, Brodie shrugged. “Well I do kind of own the place, don’t I? As long as I do, we’ll always have a place to play.” He turned to Quentin. “I didn’t go either, but then again I wasn’t going anyway except to play, so...” Brodie didn’t explain further, but truth be told that festival was full of wonderful things to eat and drink that he was probably allergic too, even if only a little. It would have been torture, not fun, to even set foot in there. Eyeing Calista, Brodie simply made a blank looking face as she mentioned the toast that wasn’t the toast he had meant. That had actually been hilarious, even if he wasn’t laughing. He raised his beer, nodding in agreement with Zeke’s toast. “Yeah sure, there’s some good acts out there tonight, judging from the demos.” Yes, because Brodie had demanded to listen to demos, however badly recorded, before he booked crap that drove all his customers away. It was a battle, sure, but that did not mean the loving customers had to wade through the crap.
“Beer’s better than toast,” Zeke said, not missing a beat, “but that’s just me.” It didn’t occur to him until after he’d spoken that, hur hur, Calista had missed what was going on and therefore, so had he, but he shrugged it off. It didn’t make his statement any less true, anyway. He drew little patterns in the condensation on the side of his glass before looking up at the rest of them, blinking. “Yeah, let’s check them out,” he said. “I mean, we might as well get to see a concert too, right?” He didn’t care if they won or not, just getting to play was good enough to clear his head. The fact that they’d stopped playing and he was still thinking about everything that was troubling him... he’d deal with that later.
“Huh,” Quentin said, “I didn’t know you needed a demo tape to play in a Battle of the Bands. Learn something new every day.” Of course, Quentin probably would have booked the crappy acts anyway to give them a chance to play, while he sat at the bar eating peanuts and remarking on how much they sucked. Sometimes, he was a bastard, but at least he was well aware of that. He also had no idea Brodie owned the place, which garnered a new level of respect for the guy. “Come on, I’m sure my spot at the bar is long gone by now, but we should still be able to find a place to sit and listen for a bit.”
At the whole conversation about toast going on, Brodie simply sighed. “Yes. Beer is better than toast.” At least that they could agree on. Toast was good and all, but not for right now, at a club, with a battle of the bands going on. He turned to Quentin, nodding. “Kind of. I mean it’s not an audition or anything, but I like to know what is going to be playing at my place, you know? So I ask for a little something at sign up, even if it’s just a badly recorded youtube video. It’s not mandatory or anything, but only a few bands didn’t bother with it.” He took a swig on his beer. “So, yeah, there are some good acts out there.” He signaled the others to follow him as he made his way out to the actual club space. “Too bad I’m not the type to reserve an ‘owner’s table’ or something like that, we’d be all set.” As it was, they would have a hard time getting a good place, but Brodie was sure they could manage it eventually.
Once everyone agreed to head on out to check out the rest of the bands, Calista smiled gently and started head on out, leading the way. And sadly it did look like a lot of the spots at the bar were tak- “Ooo, there are three seats over there,” Calista perked up with an overly excited face before she settled down. Yes, three seats and there were four of them. Didn’t matter. The second Quentin sat down, Calista was there to sit in his lap like it was nothing and continued to sip on her beer. She tapped a hand against her thigh in rhythm with the band that was on stage and looked over to her other band members. “The guys aren’t bad, though I think we did better.” She didn’t want to brag, but that’s what she thought. Girls as the front of the band had an extra edge to them, anyways.
What did Brodie expect? Zeke was an air elemental, and it was really easy for him to lose his train of thought sometimes. The idea of getting to see other bands for a while would help him take his mind off things, he hoped. He followed everyone out to the bar, snagging a seat and leaving one of his legs hanging over the edge, swinging a little to the rhythm of the music playing. “Maybe you’ll look into getting an owner’s table for the next show,” he said to Brodie, sipping at his beer with a shrug. In truth, the bar was a little crowded for Zeke, but being with friends meant any claustrophobia he felt was currently at a minimum. “And you’re right, these guys aren’t bad.” Until that one wrong note, and Zeke winced.
Having Calista decide his lap was her seat? Adorable, in Quentin’s opinion. He leaned in to kiss her shoulder idly as he flagged down the bartender, realizing that his beer was getting close to empty. He wasn’t looking to get drunk, but he didn’t want to go without anything, either. “Anyone else need a refill?” he asked, glancing over at the band. “Good to know what a band’s like before they play,” Quentin said. “Because if someone really sucks, then I can’t imagine they’d bring in a big crowd, no matter what day of the week it is.” Unless it was to heckle them, which might have been fun for everyone but the band. Ozzy’s didn’t strike him as that sort of place.