Snippet #2518935

And so they took to combing the aisles.

Cormac supposed it was simply a fact of life that if you were gonna shop for metal in an actual record store-- I'm talkin' real underground, extreme metal here, not fuckin' A Day To Remember-- you had better be damn well prepared to be disappointed. Cormy'd never stepped a toe outside the United States (except for one time back in 2006 when he might have crossed the Canadian border-- that night was still pretty hazy), but he was under the impression that as hotspots for metal went, few places rivaled the States: Brazil, Scandinavia, apparently Chile of all goddamn places, all could boast comparable metal scenes, but it was an exclusive number. And yet still, even here-- in New York no less, the state that had spawned such titans of metal as Suffocation and Immolation-- you were hard-pressed to find anything much more underground than, say, Jungle Rot.

Speaking of Jungle Rot...

"Ooh!" Cormac all but squealed in delight, lunging for the 'J' section of the metal aisle and emerging with a jewel case clutched in his hand. "Dudes, check this shit out, they've totally got the new Jungl--" He spun about in search of his two bandmates, and found them standing further down the aisle, approached by... Cormac's brow furrowed. He didn't recognise the dude (though goddamn if that wasn't one hell of a good-lookin' dude, lemme tell ya), but it looked like he'd recognised Craig or Kodie, and once Cormac scurried on over to where the three of them were standing, it became apparent that it was Kodie he'd recognised-- and it didn't take a whole lotta that good ol' empathetic instinct to figure out that Kodie wasn't particularly pleased that he had.

Daisuke, she'd said his name was-- said it in a voice so damn icy that somewhere out there Abbath himself musta felt a chill. It was... Huh. Wow. Kodie actually seemed real tense about the whole affair. I mean, she did a damn good job of presenting herself as no less blase about it all than she normally was, but Cormac had always been good with pickin' up on what people weren't sayin', and there was a lot she wasn't sayin' right now. She must really not wanna see this dude right now, he observed, glancing from her to the dude in question; although he knew it was none of his business (and the mere thought of how Kodie woulda reacted to any attempt to make it otherwise was enough to make the drummer wince), he couldn't deny a twinge of simple human curiosity. They clearly had some bad blood between 'em, so... Former bandmates? Rivals of some sort? Nah, couldn't be that-- this Daisuke seemed eager for Kodie's company, almost apologetic in some sense.

So... former lovers? It frankly stretched Cormac's suspension of disbelief to imagine Kodie in a romantic relationship (when you find it easier to picture Izzie Martinez in love with somebody than you do another person, that's seriously sayin' some shit about that other person). Then again, he supposed he really had no right to be surprised. Kodie was, as she'd made clear to him and to Craig, merely the fill-in bassist: for all he knew all he'd ever seen of her was her professional disposition, and she had no obligation whatsoever to show anything more or less than that. He'd only know her for maybe another month or so, which was a pity, 'cause he couldn't really say he didn't like her or didn't enjoy her company-- hell, she seemed interesting, the sorta person he woulda liked to just talk to if he thought she'd ever actually be interested in just talking.

But it wouldn't last. She'd be gone soon, and in her place... well, part of him earnestly hoped Edei would be able to come back and things would be the same as they'd always been since she'd joined up, but another, wiser part of him urged himself not to count on it, lest he be disappointed when Izzie hired some person she'd played with for two weeks in 1989 to replace her.

By the time he'd shaken himself from those musings, however, the brief little confrontation had long since concluded-- Kodie and Craig had back further down the aisle, and Cormac hastily scampered along to catch up with them. It was very clear that Kodie had no interest in delving into the details of that particular encounter, but... Well, Cormac had always prided himself on being good at understanding other peoples' emotions: he wasn't quite so good at keeping his mouth shut when that ability of his made it clear he shoulda.

"Didn't seem too much like you wanted to catch up with that dude--" The words just came stumbling out of his mouth-- it was like the verbal equivalent of walking into a pole, in that it just happened, and nobody could really be surprised, 'cause y'know. Cormy.







There was a moment of silence so thick you could cut it with a knife as the four bandmates glanced at one another-- and of course, it was Liam who took it upon himself to shatter it. Alex gave a noncommittal nod of the head in responce, but Chris interjected before she coulda gotten out a verbal responce even if she'd had it in her to offer one.

"So, you two aren't going to team up to mock me this morning?" He glanced back and forth between the two musicians, and Lestari scratched the back of her head, fingernails raking through tangled masses of sable black hair before she brought her notepad to bear. Your face looks... Uh. She trailed off briefly, and then finished lamely, Dumb.

"Yeah," Alex was quick to concur. "Uh. Really, really dumb."

The two of them exchanged sceptical glances, and then Lestari scribbled something about 'BATHROOM', flashed it at everybody around her, and vaulted out of her seat. She'd made it to the elevator (it's a well known law of physics that awkwardness increases velocity exponentially) by the time Alex caught up-- and catch up she did, her long legs bearing her in loping strides until she had a hand on Lestari's shoulder.

"Dumb?" Lestari winced, but at least Alex sounded more... more amused than angry, for whatever reason she might have been angry at all. "Your razor wit never fails to impress, Lestari."

The drummer shrugged her broad shoulders uneasily, but she managed to write with a steady hand. Look, I was under pressure, okay? And you weren't much help, Miss 'Really, Really Dumb'! The elevator had arrived by then, and out of sheer habit Alex stepped into it along with Lestari, who punched in the number of their floor and felt the mechanical construct lurch as it began to bear them upwards.

"Seriously though..." The guitarist's voice took on a rare twinge of uncertainty as she turned to face Lestari. She hesitated for a moment-- but then again, this was Lestari, who had always been incredibly physical about things. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to reciprocate for a change. She reached a hand out to the younger musician's face, her gaze resolutely and stubbornly pointed toward the door, cupped her jaw, and turned her eyes toward herself. Lestari felt something like an electrical spark run through her veins as Alex's cold skin met with hers, but she managed to maintain her composure as she returned Alex's discerning gaze. "You haven't told anybody about this, have you? Not Liam?"

Shame immediately seized Lestari-- bitter, biting, but not quite severe enough for her to tell Alex the truth for fear that the guitarist would trample their relationship (or whatever this thing they had with each other was) before it could go anywhere at all. She shook her head vehemently, and didn't bother breaking out the notepad before she signed with her own two hands, Of course not. That Alex so unquestioningly swallowed the answer-- nodded her head gratefully, even murmured "I figured you wouldn't've"-- only made the shame all the worse, but... Well, she wouldn't ever have to know, would she?

The ding that signaled the elevator's arrival mercifully drew Lestari from those thoughts, and as the doors slid open, Alex's lips pulled taut into the vaguest hint of a wry smirk. "Well, I guess I better head back down," she mused, and reached a hand out to press the lobby button. It was intercepted, however, as Lestari's fingers curled around her wrist, and before she knew it, the smaller woman had leaned up and pressed her lips against Alex's. By the time she broke their kiss, she was already tugging Alex out of the elevator and down the hall toward her room-- she positioned herself behind the guitarist, pushing her along and planting swift, impish pecks along her neck, pulling up her dreadlocks with her other hand to expose the throat.

"Now hold on a sec--" Alex sputtered weakly, hardly putting up any resistance as Lestari steadily guided her along toward her hotel room. "I-- I thought we agreed we weren't doing this!" She expected no answer, but she couldn't deny a chill-- a hardly unpleasant chill-- that washed over her as she felt Lestari's finger tracing gently into the very skin of the back of her neck the shapes of the signs. She clumsily wafted through her rudimentary knowledge of sign language, what little Lestari had taught her-- We're not doing anything. She could all but feel the devilish tone of the words in Lestari's skin as the drummer stopped her in front of her door and reluctantly pulled away from her to unlock the door.

"... you wicked little scamp, you were planning this all along, weren't you?" Alex couldn't help but remark dryly. Lestari paused just long enough to shoot her a positively fiendish smirk, before finally unlocked the door and reaching out to tug Alex in. The guitarist had already given up whatever semblance of remonstration she'd managed to offer before, and willingly let herself be pulled in. She had just enough time to begin "Look, let's just keep things--" before the door clicked shut.





"Wow. So that was... uh. Wow."

Lestari merely tossed another mischievous smile toward her nigh-speechless lover (after the things they'd just done, there was no way that wasn't the right term, right?) as she pulled her shirt on over her head. She reached down and collected some of Alex's things, tossing them over to where she lay just about catatonic on the bed. Silent she herself may have been, but if there was one thing Lestari Kiaidemak liked to pride her hands on other than beating the fuck out of drum kits, it was extricating the sweetest, most unsubtle noises from other people. Neither she nor Alex had exactly had the presence of mind to keep from going further this time-- and Lestari felt confident in assuming that Alex didn't quite regret that at the moment.

At some point, the guitarist regained some level of command of her muscles, and she dragged herself up from the sheets. "Can I... uh..." She glanced toward the door leading into the bathroom, and Lestari smiled and nodded. Alex murmured some word of thanks and then vanished through it; a moment later, the sound of water streaming in the shower emanated into the room. She waited until she was sure Alex wouldn't come back out for one reason or another, and then leapt up onto the bed like a little kid the morning after Christmas, hopping up and down vivaciously and forcing herself to restrain the energetic display only when she heard the water shut off. Alex emerged a moment later, still looking just a little shell-shocked as she went about tugging on her clothes one at a time.

They were silent-- blissfully so-- on the way back down to the lobby: Alex had forced her features into their usual expressionless mould, and Lestari found herself only barely reining in the jubilant grin that constantly threatened to overwhelm her lips. Hopefully she was maintaining some pretense of composure by the time they returned to the dining area and found Chris and Liam still sitting there.

"I, uh." Alex began, glancing from Lestari and then back to Liam and Chris. "I had to borrow something from Lestari." She scratched the back of her head, added awkwardly, "Y'know. Cramps." And then fell lamely silent again.