Vivi Voinea's Story

More small talk? Well, I ain't gonna complain, I suppose-- Gabriel figured there wasn't much wrong with getting to know the folks they'd be sharing a studio with. And anyway, Gabrielle liked meeting people! Unless those people were assholes. Actually, even then, she liked meetin' 'em, since that meant she got to put an asshole in their place, and that was always nice. Hell, Vivi, their newest addition to the revolving door of various faces and names that was Gabrielle's band, was here 'cause Gabrielle had dragged the previous bassist out of their rehearsal space by the ear for, you guessed it, bein' an asshole. Puttin' assholes in their places was easily in her top five hobbies. She wasn't sure what the other four were, but that was definitely up there.

Then again, she wasn't sure how that was relevant to this at all. Nobody here was an asshole. Except K. K was totally an asshole. But the tolerable type, y'know? Not too bad. Way too uptight for his own good, but that wasn't no business of Gabrielle's. Dude could play and didn't start shit, that was enough for her.

Wait, this still wasn't relevant to anything, was it? Dammit, every fucking time she was stuck trading little bits of small talk with somebody, her brain went to every conceivable place. Like the other day, she'd been in the middle of chatting a bit with the lady bagging her groceries, and right then and there, Gabrielle had totally solved the issue of the unified field theory. No no, seriously, bear with her on this one. So you know that whole thing about putting the cat in the box and then the cat's both dead and alive or whatever? Which is actually morbid as hell for a 'thought experiment', if you really think about it, physicists are some pretty fucked up folks--

... goddammit.

Reluctantly but firmly, Gabrielle forced herself to stick with what was going on around her, which was always difficult when she wasn't actually moving or doing anything. She listened as Oliver, the guitarist, talked about their band name, mentioned something about a video game (Gabrielle didn't know much about those except that playing them turned you into some sort of psychopath), and then asked her how long her band had been together. She proudly puffed her chest out, grinning, and answered, "Band's been a thing for nearly two years now." Then, deflating somewhat, she paused, and then added, "Though, this lineup..." She rubbed at her chin thoughtfully, and then finished, "One or two months, I reckon."







Farah hadn't been lying when she'd said she knew when to hang back and let things play out; with Vivi having headed into his band's little nook of the studio (and the other guitarist having followed suite-- kinda amused her that two so reticent folks had ended up in a band with two so... totally not reticent folks), she was left to herself. She watched the others exchange animated words-- the tall burly dude was chatting with the short burly lady, and the drummer of the other band was doing much the same with the other two members of Azmodan (Azmodanians? Azmodanese? Azmodanites?).

Actually, the drummer didn't look all that enthused with the conversation. I mean, Farah'd gathered by now that he wasn't much more of a social dynamo than that bassist, Vivi, but she sure got the notion that he preferred to be doing something else, and she could guess what that was.

She stepped up to where he stood beside the vocalist, a little detached from the conversation the other man was having with the other band's drummer. "Want to head back in?" she suggested, nodding her head vaguely towards their room of the studio. "Maybe get a head start on some of these basslines I've got for your drum parts."





Vivi gave a start as she heard somebody step into the studio after her-- she really didn't need to look, it was hardly up in the air who had decided to detach themselves from the conversations in the hallway to come here, but still, she glanced over to find Kai walking in. He didn't waste much time before setting to taking stock of the studio, so Vivi turned away again, setting her bass down against one corner of the room before moving towards where her set-up had been... well, set up. There was a chair, a stool really, in front of where her stuff was, so she plopped down on it and dug around in her pocket for her phone.

Call her spoiled, but hey, she sure did love being able to scour the whole of the internet from the palm of her hand. Mostly she used it to check up on her blogs, see if there were any new comments, any new arguments to be had, though she probably shoulda known better; she was way too easily drawn into the dreaded 'internet argument', and it tended to ruin her mood for hours at a time. Not exactly something she needed to deal with now, in the studio, but fortunately, there was nobody looking for a fight this time. She flicked through some new comments, replied to a couple, and then shoved her phone back into her pocket to wait for Gabrielle and Evie to get finished with chatting.

She frowned. I'm gonna be waiting a while.

"No, there aren't very many of us." Evelyn started, then seemed to think about it. There probably were a lot of female drummers, she just hadn't seen very many in popular bands. "I haven't met them, at least." She added. As she beheld the man in front of her she noticed that he looked toward the members of her own band. Two of them had left and it wouldn't strike her as surprising if Vivi came off as awkward and shy. Which he was. Contemplating on commenting on it, Evie stood and watched the rest of the gathering talk to each other. Quietly she decided not to say anything about Vivi. She figured that Gavriel might want a chance to get his own impression from each member, instead of hearing her talk about them. "Anyway," Evie put a hand on Gavriel's shoulder and flashed Daisuke and Farah a grin as they turned and walked into the room they'd come from. "I'm sure we'll get to talk later, I better report for duty." She finished with a wink and a wave of her hand, turning around and heading for the room Vivi and Kai were in. Only the Gods would know when Gabrielle would join them.

Kai and Vivi were both in there, and it was a stark contrast to what had just been going on. Silent as the grave. Vivi had just put her phone back in her pocket as Evie came in and Kai was fiddling about with something and looked around the room. For a moment she just stood there and looked at the two of them, hating how awkward this silence was. "We're not forbidden to talk to one another, you guys know that right?" She attempted in a typically Evie sort of manner. "Even though it can be hard to get a word in when Gabby starts." And just as the words had left her mouth, she froze and went pale. "Don't ever tell her I called her Gabby."

---

He had done his very best. His very, absolute best. Still, he found it difficult to keep up with this phenomenon that was Gabrielle. This force of nature. When she finally landed and answered his question, he nodded and smiled. "I see." Oliver smiled. "Which is the newest member then? It seems like you and... Evie, was it? It seems like you have known each other for a little while longer than the rest." Given that they had only been a band for a few months, it might be hard to pick out the newest member. Azmodan wasn't the original lineup either, so he could kind of relate to how it was. Now he was just as excited to hear them play as he was to get working on his own stuff.

He wasn't at all sure how he was supposed to react to the statement about their previous guitarist. Oliver didn't know Gabrielle well enough to know if she was joking or not. He may never get to know her that well. Perhaps no one ever would. As he was given room to think he made a mental note to always prepare himself for a conversation with Gabrielle. One had to do that in order to keep up. Even thinking about that had cost him valuable time in which he should have listened, but the woman in front of him had trailed off for a brief moment. Oliver raised an eyebrow, surprised. Partially by the fact that she had paused, but also by the fact that he too had not really noticed people leaving them. This prompted Oliver to look at his watch just to keep track of time. He wanted to know if he was now suddenly busy. It wasn't so bad. Thankfully, they had been reasonable and gathered at the studio early.

Oliver blinked and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think we've been abandoned." He said and shrugged. Seemingly, the rest of the respective groups were ready to start working and that only inspired him to get going as well. Farah seemed very nice and he looked forward to working with her. Before rushing off, Gabrielle slapped him on the back. "Likewise!" Was what Oliver managed to get out. The slap had moved him. Physically. Gabrielle had fucking slapped him on the back and he'd moved from it. He wasn't used to that. Especially not from women, so he stood there for a few moments looking confused before snapping out of it. Oliver then turned around, shaking his head but still wondering about this thing that was Gabrielle. He stepped into their part of the studio and began taking out a guitar of its case. "Did someone say 'jam'?" He asked with a smile.

---

I'm going to figure this man out sometime. She thought to herself and sighed almost inaudibly. Kai wasn't easy to get close to and that was the first thing Evie wanted to get. She wanted the best for everyone else than herself. Still, he was the only one who got to say anything to her before Gabrielle slammed the door open. Evie's eyes had just fixed themselves on Vivi's and it had seemed that the bassist was about to say something. Evie visibly flinched where she stood. "Fuck's sake, Gabrielle." Her British accent filled the room. "You're going to be the death of me someday, do you know that?" She had been so busy getting her heart rate under control that she'd forgotten to laugh at the frontwoman's joke. "I could do with something fast, if you're game." Evelyn took her seat behind the drums and twirled on the chair a few times, shaking her hands to warm them up and straightening her back.

She looked at her bandmates and smiled, waiting for everyone to get ready. She figured that jamming a track or two would be good, just go get the juices flowing. When everyone had found their instrument, she nodded and counted them in.

How it felt to be back in the studio, jamming again, was indescribable. It only confirmed Oliver in his belief that playing music was what he was born to do. And it was so exciting having someone new in the band, playing with them. He was impressed. Farah was good. She fit in well. That was his first impression. He was sure that their time in the studio could produce something good. But that was Oliver for you. Optimistic and willing to work. When they stopped playing he set his guitar down and set his amplifier on standby to let the tubes cool. "Well..." His voice filled the room as the cymbals died. There was a smile plastered on his face. "That wasn't half bad." Oliver's face revealed that that was an understatement. Sense of time was lost, but that didn't bother him. It had been spent in a good way. He looked around at Dai, Farah and Gavriel. "What do you think?" It was an open question and he genuinely wanted to know what everyone thought. If they were all up for it, drinks didn't sound so bad. He was sure at least Gavriel would want to go.

---

"Fuck. Yes. Gabrielle!" The excitement still pulsed through her veins, and the suggestion her singer had put forth was perfect. Evelyn had made sure to say her full name though, and not use one of her many nicknames for the woman. For the briefest of moments, a sad expression appeared on her face at the thought of Gabrielle never getting to hear all those wonderful nicknames. She snapped out of it quickly and re-entered the conversation. "Aw, you're not coming Vivi?" Being Evelyn King, she wanted them all to go out and have fun. "The borgs won't go anywhere." She added, glancing at Gabrielle, suppressing a laugh. She put her drumsticks on the snare drum and disabled the snare. "What about you, Kai?" Whether he wanted to go or not, she wasn't sure. At all. Actually, she leaned towards him not wanting to go. It would be an eventful evening with Gabrielle, as it always was.