It was some kind of psychological effect, Alex knew it was, but she couldn't for the life of her remember the name of it, probably because she was still trying to stay afloat through the chaos of "The Execution Block." The effect was how everything Ed (Ted!) did seemed familiar now, but she hadn't recognized any of those little Ted-isms before: the quick step up before a solo and step back after the solo, the way he hung his guitar, higher than some metal players (the fellow from Korn came to mind—she'd have to remind Ed they existed sometime just to see the look on his face), but not as high as many people she remembered from Berklee, the fucking waistcoat. It was all so perfectly Ed, but she only noticed how Ed it was now that she knew this Ted Marubini was, in fact, the Ed she had dated for four years (give or take). How? No idea.

She silently cursed the soundman for somehow making her beloved Steinberger's crisp output a deflated-sounding mush. On the one hand, it DID mask her shitty intonation, but she had a wild guess that her intonation would be better if she could distinguish the notes, rather than a mash of BVVVVVVVVBLZZZZZZZZZZBRRRRRPPPP. It was garbage. Not to mention how exhausting every show was. So many angry people, so much sound, so much to remember to stay in time and in tune with everybody else. At first it was novel, even exciting. Now...she wasn't sure.

---------------

"Thank you San Francisco! We are Sturm, hope to see you again! Good night!" The cheers, admittedly a little underwhelming, proved Lionel's bluster right: it had been a good show, all things considered. Sure, the sound had sucked, which he was 90% sure had thrown off at least part of The Execution Block's closing duet, but the crowd didn't seem to give a shit and enjoyed them, which was good. Now if we can just get better than that shitty demo...

Cormac stared at Kodie in utter horror, as though he'd never experienced anything in his life quite so harrowing as her botched attempt at an Irish accent. "That... I-- what--" he sputtered uselessly. "That's... that's not right. That's not even wrong. That's so fundamentally off the mark it can't even..." He trailed off, as though his mind had been simply shattered by the horrors he'd just been privy to. Izzie glanced at him over the pages of her book, eyebrow raised, before shaking her head ruefully and turning her attention back to the novel before her.

At least he seemed to have handily recovered by the time Craig came swaggering over, the lady he'd been chatting up at the bar at his side. "So, what'd I miss?" he asked, all grins and smiles.

"Cho saved the whole damn planet," Kodie explained, quite self-evidently, Cormac thought, but Craig still had the audacity to look puzzled by it. Shaking his head as though he'd never seen such foolishness, Cormy castigated the poor guitarist, "For fuck sake, man, stick with the program. Saved the whole damn planet and you got the nerve to act like it ain't even shit."

"Seriously," Izzie chided without glancing up from her book.








"Now this is some bullshit."

With every note Izzie played for the initial soundcheck, her mood seemed only to grow fouler and fouler. Then again, with every note she played, the sound seemed to get shittier and shittier, to the point that she was about ready to throw down her guitar and march over to the sound booth to knock out whatever numbskull had been entrusted with her band's sound and take care of it herself. Couldn't make out a fucking thing-- and with a band that spent 50% of its time in full speed ahead blasting mode, clarity was kind of a big fucking deal.

"Whoever gave that person a job oughta be shot," she grunted to her bandmates, turning to face them with a scowl on her face. "Kodie, if that idiot's got your bass sounding like mud, don't be afraid to head down there and cause some brain damage. You might actually knock some sense int--"

That was when it happened-- the lights overhead aligned at just the right moment towards the back of the venue, just as Izzie had begun to turn away from the rest of the band and back towards the crowd. She stopped short, and blinked, but the light had already passed, and the crowd was reduced once again to a faceless mass. She blinked again, and scowled. "Great, now I'm going goddamn senile," she groused under her breath. "Seeing my own face in the crowd..." She shook her head and sighed. "Let's just get this show over with."







"What the hell happened?"

Alex's unusually brazen show of shock was rather at odds with the clear lack of concern on display in Lestari's grinning face as she returned to Legion's merch table. Fresh out of the mosh pits, a companionable arm slung over Chris's shoulders, she seemed quite pleased with Sturm's set, the steady current of sanguine streaming freely from her nose notwithstanding.

I fell, Lestari signed rather self-evidently as she approached. Alex raised an eyebrow, and shot back, Onto somebody's fist, it looks like. Here, sit down and pinch your nose for a bit. We can't have you up on stage bleeding all over your drum kit. Lestari let herself be ferried over to a seat behind the merch table, but she took a moment to snicker silently and sign, I dunno, that'd be pretty death metal, wouldn't it?

Lestari, your default expression is a grin and you skip instead of walk to places half the time. You're about as death metal as a baby guinea pig.

For a moment, Lestari looked rather put out, before she added, Am I as cute as one, at least? Alex smirked, and answered, Cuter. Now pinch your nose, will you?

Kodie couldn't help but laugh at Cormac McMurphy's mortified expression at her poor imitation of an Irish accent. Yeah, she knew it was bad but hey she had never sat down and spoken to someone actually from Ireland before so she wasn't a hundred percent sure what it was supposed to sound like. Cormy always seemed to lay things on a bit thick and his reaction this time was no different - truly amusing. Even Izzie seemed to disapprove of her attempt though, so she guessed it was probably even worse than she'd originally thought. "I'm sure it is." She said to his stammered out reply mere moments before Craig came swaggering over as though he were some sort of metal god.


It took Craig a moment to understand Kodie's seemingly random statement, which Cormy only backed up by telling him to get with the program. He cast a glance at Izzie who's nose was buried in a book - unhelpful. As he had learned to do with several instances with Izzie Martienz who had said such things he decided to just go with it, hell she was probably the original source of all of this anyway since it sounded more likely to come from her than Cormy even though the drummer had quite a few fascinating stories to tell. He nodded, "Right, my bad." He said with a grin and then glancing over at the blonde by his side who still seemed thoroughly puzzled by the whole situation. Craig gave out introductions.

Kodie seemed more amused than anything by the woman which largely probably had to do with the fact the woman was wearing a corset and spiked heels that were probably intended to look edgy but were more likely to give her a broken ankle than anything else in this crowd. Kodie, upon seeing her had managed to keep a completely neutral expression but she still had to cover her laugh with a cough that was most likely completely swallowed by the surrounding noise. She took a glance down at her own scuffed and well worn Docs that had served her well through countless gigs and pits and back at the more impractical foot attire Craig's lady friend was wearing. She had to doubt that they spent very much time in the crowd headbanging, in the pit or just hanging out in the dense crowd at all. "Nice to meet you." She had said while she thought, "Really, Craig?" With a faintly amused smile playing across her crimson lips. She wasn't going to say anything though, that wasn't her business and she instead cut a glance at Cormy - Izzie she didn't think would give a fuck but she didn't know what the drummer would think, if he thought anything at all.




Kodie tossed her hair over her shoulder and scowled down at her bass, unable to understand why the the sound was so bad. It sounded pathetic - as far as clarity went this was a fucking swamp. She took a deep breath, shaking her head ruefully and silently telling herself not to march over to the sound techs and strangle them. She looked up as Izzie Martinez passed her, saying that if she also found the sound to be to her dissatisfaction not to hesitate to cause a little brain damage since it might actually knock some sense into the sound techs. "Don't tempt me." She told the frontwoman, smiling faintly. Craig was being more good natured about it however he too was clearly unhappy as he muttered unintelligibly to himself a little ways off. He had said his farewells earlier to his lady friend and he was now seemingly focusing on getting ready for the show. For it being the last show of the tour Psychosis was quite subdued - Izzie's exact words being, "Let's just get this show over with." and Craig seemed to be suppressing his excitement until later and Cormy as usual was well, Cormy but Izzie's threat to murder them if they fucked up naturally seemed to encourage them to behave themselves until later.

"Alright, let's do this." Kodie agreed, nodding and making to head out with Craig.






Chris and Lestari made their way back to the merch table, their arms slung around each other's shoulders companionably. Liam raised a brow at the blood oozing from Lestari's nose, about to inquire as to what had happened but Alex beat him to it, looking unusually alarmed. Supposedly she fell and naturally, she was still smiling brightly. He turned back to Chris then who was brushing damp hair away from his face and grabbing a bottle of water off the table. "So, what really happened in there?" Liam asked, having only caught glimpses of the set and pit while he was at the table selling the occasional shirt and album. He had thought the pit looked pretty active however he wasn't sure quite how crazy it had gotten.

"The pit was pretty great." Chris said, grinning.

Liam used to get into the pit more than he did now, so it was pretty rare for him to head into one these days especially since a lot of the time he would hang back and tend to the merch stand. Sure, sometimes it was fun because there was definitely something to be said about the energy of it but he didn't really miss coming out with the occasional bloodied nose like Lestari had. "I'm glad you guys had a good time." He said and cast a glance back at Lestari who still seemed completely unconcerned by her injury, however Alex appeared to be anything but unconcerned.



Charlotte bounded forward and clapped a hand on Alex's shoulder at the end of the show. "Not bad!" She said, grinning ear to ear. "I'm not sure what the hell they did wrong with the sound but not bad." It was the last show on the tour and Charlotte frankly wished it had turned out better but hey, sometimes you just had to deal with what you were given. "Are you gonna wanna come hang out? We should totally celebrate, it's the end of the tour after all." She told them, hoping both Lionel and Ted would agree as well. "Hey, guys. Drinks?" She called over to Ted and Lionel. She felt like heading out for drinks as a group after a show like this was traditional.