"No, thank you." He shook his head and turned around to walk. His alarm clock had woken him up quite early today, though he didn't have to show up at the studio very early. Oliver just wanted to be sure he was there on time and that he wasn't stressed. Not today. Not when they had work to do. The man did what he could to maintain his mellow state of mind. When he got outside he fished out his keys from his pocket and unlocked his car, smirking. The girl who'd taken his order had apparently recognised him. She handled it well. Oliver thought. Some people over reacted and that could be awkward to deal with. Only a few days ago had they been given their keys to the studio. They could come and go as they pleased. Of course, it would be much easier to have their own studio. As in, a studio they would pay for and buy all the equipment they needed, as well as hiring the people they needed to record their albums. It was wildly expensive though, so they had to produce albums by renting studios and selling said albums afterwards. That way they might eventually get the money to build their own sometime.

"Mmh! It's SO DELICIOUS!" Oliver turned the wheel left up the road and took another sip of his coffee. The man had half shouted, even causing a pedestrian to look in his direction. That made him chuckle. He was an odd person and he knew it. Then again, I don't know anyone who isn't odd. Sitting there, commenting on funny people on the street (while completely alone, mind you), Oliver made his way to the studio. He was excited to work on this album. He had a bunch of ideas, looked forward to hearing everyone else's ideas. Then there was the sad part about some band members leaving, but that also meant that they got to work with new people. He'd half expected himself to be nervous about that, but no. Not in the slightest. Just excited. On the first day in the studio, the actual work they got done was always limited. In his experience, it was almost always spent on talking about things and maybe throwing a few riffs around and jamming out ideas. Some time would probably also be spent on getting to know the new bass player. It was a she. A she bass player.
Oliver was curious to see how Gavriel was going to behave around her. He was always charming. And how was the she bass player going to tackle that.

Gavriel was a founding member. Oliver had known him for quite some time and considered him one of his very, very best friends. From day one, they'd hit it off. Oliver himself was easy going, but hard working and full of ideas and energy. Gavriel was a good singer, equally hard working and charming. He was so likeable. When they had first started playing together, Oliver had put his arm around Gavriel's shoulders and claimed that the two of them would start a band that would really take them somewhere. Now they were well on their way.

The black Audi Q7 turned up the dirt road and drove the short distance to the studio building. It didn't look like a studio building, which was good since people who might consider breaking in were disinterested. It didn't look like anyone else was there yet. He couldn't see any other cars. Oliver parked nearest the entrance and opened the door, getting out and breathing the crisp morning air. He took another sip of his coffee and bobbed his head from side to side "Oh, Lord this is good coffee." He stated, closing his eyes for a moment. He then proceeded to rest the cup on the roof of his car while getting out a pack of cigarettes. Meanwhile he had an internal debate about which of his bandmates would be there first. "Daisuke." He mumbled as he lit the cigarette.

The place was nice. There wasn't a lot of noise. It was kind of remote - as remote as remote is in Los Angeles - so they weren't bothered all the time. They could actually go outside and have a cigarette without people walking up to them, taking pictures and start conversations and all that. Of course, interacting with people who enjoyed your music and found you interesting was good, but they would never get any work done if that happened each time one of them went outside to smoke.

Oliver's train of thought was interrupted when his phone began to buzz. He reached into his pocket and saw that it was his sister calling him. "Siggi!" He said when he pressed the green button on the screen and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello, brother." Siggi's voice came through the speaker and he smiled. She was in Los Angeles as well and had requested permission to come see him in the studio and perhaps get a sneak peek. "I'm just calling to ask when's a good time to stop by?"

He knew that she was going to visit him in the studio, but hadn't really given it more thought. Maybe today wouldn't be a good day, since it was the first day. "Well.. I think we've got our plates full today, but maybe tomorrow or in a few days when we've really started?" The half American, half Danish hulk kicked a few rocks away and took another drag of his cigarette.

"Oh, okay. Well, just when it suits you best, Oli!" His sister said happily. Both of them looked forward to seeing one another. Their schedules hadn't allowed for much family time lately. "And of course, if your bandmates don't mind."

It was still strange to hear her call them bandmates. She knew Gavriel very well and had for a long time. She had also grown to be completely comfortable around Daisuke by now. "I'm sure they don't mind. I think they'll have a few people over as well. It's not like we're planning something super secret here that the public can't know about." Oliver chuckled. "But-" He interrupted himself by taking a sip of coffee. "Mmh... Maybe you can come by this evening? We can go out and get something to eat." He suggested, thinking that might suit everyone.

He could already hear on the way she drew her breath that she was looking forward to that. "That sounds great. Text me when to come over, okay? I know where it is." Siggi said and smiled brightly.

They said farewell and Oliver returned to smoking and drinking coffee. In the cool morning air he stood and relaxed, beginning to tidy up his head. With the time he had until his band arrived, that'd be a good way to spend it.

Daisuke was up early, before his alarm had even gone off. He supposed that was a good thing as he'd had plenty of time to get ready and had even had the chance to talk to Akira over the phone before he'd had to leave. They'd talked for quite some time while he had some coffee and she finished up a piece she had to have done tomorrow. He had the feeling she was equally as excited, if not perhaps more excited than he was that he was going to be entering the studio today. He'd answered all her questions about it with a slight smile. She was eager to see how things were going to go and how the album was going to turn out. He for one didn't completely know what to expect in the studio - he felt like he had a fairly good idea of what the band was like, save for the bassist who was going to be coming in to play for them but he had never recorded with the band before, only ever played gigs.

Eventually he had headed out to the car, still talking with his sister as she griped about almost getting paint on her floors. He headed out to the studio, grateful it was somewhat out of the way so they wouldn't have quite so many people lurking about. He still found it immensely odd to think they had fans who would wait around for them like that and wasn't entirely sure how he felt about it.

He'd luckily still managed to make it to the studio early, even though he'd hit some traffic as was inevitable in Los Angeles. He was relieved to see the unpaved road and find the quiet little section in which they'd be recording. It didn't scream studio and he thought that was a good thing. As he pulled up, he saw Oliver had still gotten there before him, which didn't surprise him too much. "Alright, I have to go since I just got here." He told Akira as he shut off the engine.

"Alright, good luck! And do me a favor and tell Oliver I said hi?" Came her cheerful reply before they said their farewells and he slipped his phone back in his pocket and shut the door to the old, red BMW and headed over toward Oliver. Akira was really quite fond of the band, which he guessed wasn't too surprising as it had been his sister who had introduced him to Oliver in the first place and gotten him the chance to audition after doing some album artwork and photography for them. "Morning." He said, nodding as he reached the hulking form of the guitarist who looked to be having a cigarette before entering the studio. Dai himself didn't stop to have one though, having quit a few years ago. "Kira said to tell you hi earlier." He told him, quietly. Oliver looked to be enjoying having his quiet smoke and he wasn't going to bother him any more than necessary, knowing better than anyone that sometimes one just needed time to themselves and took to leaning against his own car and sipping his coffee as he awaited the rest of the band to join them.






Gavriel groaned and rolled over to hit the alarm on his phone which rested on his nightstand, missing in his first attempt and instead almost knocking over his lamp before his hand finally found it's purchase and hit the snooze button. Five more minutes. He thought, the ancient proverb of exhausted college students worldwide. However, homework wasn't the reason he was tired - although a desk might have been involved at some point in the night. He rolled back over to see the redhead lying on the opposite side of the bed, mumbling bitterly about alarms and curling back up against him.

In truth, five minutes came much too soon for him and he then found himself in a rush to get dressed, pulling on a black t-shirt and jeans hastily. The redhead left when the second alarm went off and he flipped on the lights and began rifling through his closet and finger combing his tousled hair. He had apologized for the early wake up call, but it didn't sound too heartfelt considering he was still muttering curses at himself nearly the entire time for waiting so long to head out. He should have just gotten up with the first alarm. Actually, he just shouldn't have gone out last night and he probably wouldn't have found himself in this situation...



The coffee scalded his hand as he hurried out the door of his apartment and outside, silently praying he wouldn't be late. Naturally, as he stepped out into the cool morning air the city was already awake and abuzz. Which meant traffic. Fantastic. He jumped in the black Honda and zipped down the road, taking quick sips of the bitter, black coffee as he went and silently wishing he had at least thought to put some sugar in it. Too late now.

Thankfully he didn't live so far from the studio and the traffic wasn't too horrible so he was actually somewhat on time as he whipped off the road and into the parking lot like a bat out of hell.

Farah was late.

She didn't like to be delayed if she could help it; a session musician's reputation hinged on punctuality, after all, and Farah made a point of being on time to her engagements, as much for the convenience of the other musicians as for her own reputation. There had been delays in her flight into Los Angeles, though, and now, the cab she'd called after sparing just a moment to drop off her scant few personal belongings at the allotted hotel room was taking its sweet time, too. She stood out by the curb in front of the hotel, her bass heavy in the soft case slung over her shoulder and her back leaned against the wall, and allowed herself little more than a rueful hint of a smile.

If I'm late, I'm late-- nothing to be done of it.

Happily enough, it was only another five minutes before the familiar egg-yolk yellow of the Los Angeles taxi service appeared down the street. Farah stepped away from the wall, toting her bass along with her as the cab pulled up beside the curb. The driver rolled the passenger seat window down and then leaned over; Farah had to bend down quite a ways to meet the driver's eyes as she clumsily queried, "Farah... uh, al-Suyuti?"

"That's me," Farah affirmed. "Well done, by the way, most people butcher it to high hell the first time around." She pulled the door open and stooped down to try and stuff herself into the passenger's seat, and although she had to slouch down in her seat to avoid the top of her skull popping through the roof of the car (clocking in at 6'8 had its downsides), she managed to nestle herself in fairly comfortably. With the bass in its soft case resting between her legs and held in place, she repeated the address of the studio to the driver, prompting a wordless nod from the other woman before the cab lurched back into the ebb and flow of Los Angeles traffic.

It was something like a fifteen or twenty minute drive from the hotel to the studio-- off the beaten path if ever I've seen such a thing, Farah mused as the cab pulled off the busy city streets and onto a little dirt road that cut through some sort of woodland. Not bad: a little peace and quiet was nice to have during downtime, although Farah preferred to get her work done with as little time frittered away on idle dallying as possible.

"So..." The two had kept their silence throughout the drive, and Farah blinked as the cab driver spoke up, glancing over at her. The driver's eyes flickered between Farah and the road as she navigated the cab along the winding path, and she added, "You some kind of rock star or something?"

The bassist admitted a modest grin, baring gleaming white teeth. "Flattering, but I'm afraid not. I'm just the lady they call whenever somebody needs to borrow a bassist for a day or two."

"Oh, I see." A wry smirk crossed the driver's lips before she added, "So, you get hired by any big bands? Metallica or Iron Maiden or whatever those big-time rock bands are?"

"Oh, heavens no," Farah drawled amicably. "Hell, I hate to admit it, but between you and me, I don't even remember the name of the band I'm about to be working with." The driver gave a chortle, and shook her head. "Well, at least you're doin' what you love, right?" she offered, as if in consolation. "Believe me, drivin' taxis ain't exactly my life's passion, but sometimes you gotta take what you can get to pay the bills."

"I certainly won't complain. I get paid handsomely to play music-- can't ask much more of life. And..." Her voice trailed off. And I could use the distraction right now more than ever. The driver shot a quizzical glance her way, but asked nothing more. It was only a minute or two later that the cab pulled up out front of the studio anyway; Farah unbuckled her seatbelt and then rifled around a bit in the pockets of her hoodie, eventually tugging out a wallet and digging out some cash for the fare, plus a respectable tip, of course. "Thanks," she added as she forked over the cash, and the driver nodded gratefully. She glanced up as Farah opened the door and hoisted herself out, and added, "By the way, how long you think you'll be in the city?"

The question was unexpected, but hardly difficult. Farah shrugged her shoulders as she stooped down to speak through the open window again, and answered, "About a week, I'd say." The driver gave another nod, and said, "Well, enjoy recording with the nameless wonders, eh?" She inclined her head towards where three men-- the regular members of the band, of course-- stood collected around the studio, and Farah flashed one last smile. "Don't doubt I will." She straightened up, and turned to make for the studio as the cab peeled back out onto the dirt road, and drove off.

"Sorry I'm late," she intoned as she stepped up towards the band with a friendly smile. "I forgot how nightmarish LA traffic can be. I'm Farah al-Suyuti, the person your record label's paying to lay down some bass tracks and then hit the touring circuits with a vengeance."

This was pretty out of her zone-- her name was mostly found in the credits of jazz fusion and extreme metal records-- but Farah'd always liked to take herself to new places.

He'd noticed the car rolling up, had even heard it when it turned onto the short dirt road to the studio. They were indeed lucky to find a place like this in Los Angeles. Oliver still stood and enjoyed his coffee and his cigarette, relaxing. He was happy that someone was already coming to the studio, as he had been looking forward to seeing the rest of the band. To him they were family in all but blood. Except the bassist whom he had only spoken to once over the phone, very shortly.

"Hey, Dai." Oliver looked over the rim of is coffee cup and took a sip. He offered his friend a smile and looked him over. Guessing he's been up for a while. He thought. When he first met Daisuke, Oliver had the distinct impression that he was a little introverted. That quickly went away as the two of them got to know each other more, and now Oliver just classified it as quiet. He was easy to be around. When Dai told him that his sister had sent her greetings, he smiled and nodded. "Thanks, how is she doing?" It had been a long time since he had seen Akira. She had done amazing work for them and Oliver liked her very much.

When they had first met Akira and started talking about working with her, it had just been easy. The band had some ideas for the album cover and designs which, when brought to Akira, fused with her ideas and became something even greater. That was how Oliver remembered it, anyway. Silently, he hoped that she was going to visit them at some point so he could see her again.
Snapping out his own thoughts, he discovered also that his gaze had drifted from Daisuke. He'd been staring straight into... Nothing.
As he was about to ask if he was fresh and ready for the day, excited to meet the new bassist and all that, Oliver was interrupted. There was a familiar sound. Another car was speeding up the road to the studio. Oliver looked slowly over at Dai.
"That can't be a taxi." He simply stated and chuckled. "That's Gavriel..."

Sure enough, the black Honda soon came into view. A moment later it was parked. Oliver took yet another sip of coffee and a drag from his cigarette and looked at his old friend. "In a hurry, Gav?" The guitarist said with a smirk and watched him approach. If he hadn't hurried, he might have been there late, but Oliver didn't mind. Today it wasn't incredibly important. He wasn't expecting them to get to playing all that much, perhaps throwing some riffs around and discussing ideas and getting comfortable. Oliver liked it when people were on time, but respected that it could slip from time to time. "It's good to see you." When he spoke he made sure to look at both Dai and Gavriel.


It was remarkable how they all showed up at roughly the same time. It was a band after all, and bands were not always easy to coordinate. Thankfully the people in the band were serious and not so famous yet that they had a shitload of meetings and other things to take up their time. "What are the fucking odds..." Oliver said, astonished as a taxi came up the road now. That could only be their new bass player. "Fuck's sake she's taller than me..." He mumbled low enough that she wouldn't hear. He returned the smile she offered them and nodded in her general direction. He still stood leaned up against the car and only at the last moment remembered to lean away, place his coffee on the roof of his car, switch his cigarette to his left hand and straighten up.

"Don't worry at all." Oliver said when she apologised. "LA traffic can die in a fat fire." He listened to her as she spoke and nodded, still smiling. He was excited about meeting this new person and playing with her. She was definitely not what he had expected, but that definitely didn't have to be a bad thing. "Hello Farah, I'm Oliver." He said and extended his hand in greeting. "Very nice to meet you."

Dai glanced up at the lightening sky, the paleness of the morning giving way to the smog clouded blue of Los Angeles and was grateful for the slight coolness of the air. It was quieter here, a little bit out of the ways of most of the commotion of the city. He sometimes found that he missed Washington and the crispness of the air scented with evergreens, rain and the salt of the ocean when they would go out to their cabin for the weekend and while the rain could at times seem almost incessant he had to admit there was a sort of beauty to the way it hammered against the cold, iron colored surface of the ocean as the waves roared and clashed against the rocks and the cliffs. Perhaps it was simply nostalgia that made him feel this way. He enjoyed the silence for a few moments and then turned to look back to Oliver and nodded once. "She's doing well. Keeping busy, which she likes." When he has spoken to her, she had been finishing up a piece for a client before she started on something she had been wanting to do for an upcoming art show. "She's eager to see how the album turns out." He told Oliver, knowing the guitarist knew how fond she was of the music. When she had been working with them she hadn't had anything bad to say about them - on the contrary, she had been telling him how much she had liked working with them and putting her own as well as everyone else's creativity to good use - it had been a pleasant experience all the way through. And by the end of it she had sounded genuinely fond of Oliver and Gavriel, although she hadn't been able to help but sound a little amused whenever she had first spoken of Gavriel. Admittedly, Dai thought that the vocalist had toned it down a little since he had joined the band and was significantly less flirtatious with her.

As he had started to settle back into silence and his own thoughts, he was pulled back to reality by the sound of a car racing down the road - a black car, he saw as he turned toward the road. He silently wondered if the old saying, "Speak of the Devil and he shall appear." also worked by simply thinking of a person as the car pulled into the driveway and then into a nearby parking space. It only took a moment then for Gavriel Michaelis to step out, looking somewhat tousled but smiling as he grabbed his case with his guitar.

The vocalist shot Oliver a bright smile then. "Perhaps. I got a little a sidetracked last night and lost track of time." He said with a slight shrug and then looked to Dai and then back to Oliver. "Good to see you guys too." He looked to be in good mood despite obviously having been in a rush.

Dai nodded once and looked back out to the road, spying a car starting to approach as Gavriel asked if they had been waiting long. As he had suspected from a distance, it was a taxi and when it came to a halt out stepped the tallest woman that Dai thought he had ever seen. She was carrying a bass case which meant he was pretty sure she was the bassist they had been waiting for. He glanced over at Gavriel whose blue eyes lit with surprise at the realization that she must have at least eight inches on him which then transformed to subtle appreciation - so subtle in fact that if he hadn't been looking for it he probably wouldn't have noticed at all and that quickly faded to his typical friendly expression.

He looked back to Farah, as she introduced herself was and nodded to her as Oliver offered her his hand. "Pleasure to meet you, I'm Daisuke." He told her, quietly.

Gavriel stepped forward and offered her a smile. "Gavriel. It's nice to meet you." He said, simply.

"Hello Farah, I'm Oliver. Very nice to meet you."

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Daisuke."

"Gavriel. It's nice to meet you."

Names were exchanged and hands were shaken, and that was that; Farah only narrowly restrained the urge to ask just what their band's name was again, if only because, lateness aside, that definitely wouldn't have painted a flattering picture of her as a session musician. I'm sure I'll manage to pick up on it at some point, the bassist assured herself kindly. I mean, probably not, but charitably speaking, maybe.

Odd bunch of dudes though. All men, which was something that'd taken a little getting used to after Farah had begun working with more high profile heavy metal bands, but varied either way, and all fairly young by the looks of them. An up and coming heavy metal band, popular enough to sell out arena-style venues and be recognised by name by your random media-savvy street walker-- yeah, definitely beyond the scope of experience for somebody whose work in the metal genre was primarily in the realm of snobby jazz-fusion-extreme metal hybrids and obscenely technical death metal bands. Underground? That shit was damn near resting at the core of the earth.

But here she was, with a band whose name was known to pretty much everybody but her. With greetings and introductions nicely dispensed with, Farah hoisted the bass up her shoulder by the strap of the case, and said, "I got time aplenty on the flight to listen to those rough demo tracks the label sent me. Haven't had a chance to sit down with my bass just yet, but I had an idea or two I think would mesh nicely enough. Shall we?" She nodded her head over to the door into the studio.

She greeted them politely enough, which Oliver approved of. First impressions told him a lot, though you could only really get to know people by studying them. She was tall. Holy fuck was she tall. His bandmates followed his example and each stepped forward to introduce themselves. Oliver remained standing where he was and looked at Farah for a moment, in silence before he stepped back. Then he seized his coffee cup again and took another drag from his cigarette. Obviously not in a hurry.
This is all very exciting. He thought to himself. A thought followed by a flood of impressions and thoughts regarding Farah, their new freakishly tall bass player. Oliver very rarely met women taller than him.
He took another sip of his still warm coffee and looked at Gavriel and Dai, smirking. "Our roles you'll figure out soon enough, I suppose." If she didn't already know, or couldn't figure it out by looking at them, she'd learn who played what soon enough.

There was only a brief pause before Farah spoke up again. Oliver waved his hand in a gesture that assured her that it was quite alright. They could definitely work with that. Plus, from what he'd heard, she wouldn't have trouble listening to their stuff and then work from there. "Don't worry at all." Oliver said and shifted on his feet. Apparently, that meant now. Something that they weren't used to. Or, he wasn't at least. It was nice to see that she was eager to get started, but Oliver wasn't. "Well... Uh, I'll just finish my coffee here and then we'll be ready to talk some stuff over." He suggested. Discretely, he looked at his two other bandmates, asking for help.

They were a little bit different in the way they work, but neither of them wanted to come off as unprofessional. Last they'd been in the studio they had started off by sitting down and discussing things, playing some tracks before actually getting started with playing. "We usually start by playing some tapes and talk over some things before we start actually laying down tracks."

Dai listened silently during the exchange between Farah and Oliver. He thought it was good that she was so eager to get to work and start busting out songs and was likely used to doing just that as a session musician, however Oliver's approach was a little different and while Dai didn't necessarily think one style was better than the other he was familiar with their way of running things now and thought that it was kind of nice to spend some time talking things over and easing one's way into studio work. Not that he had ever actually recorded an entire album with Oliver and Gavriel but he thought it would probably be similar to working with them in general and what they had done before. That's what he hoped anyway, he knew some people could be rather different in the studio as opposed to in rehearsals and gigs from past work he had done but he didn't think that would be a problem with them.

Oliver hadn't bothered to mention their roles in the band to Farah and Dai half wondered if perhaps they should have mentioned it although he supposed it wasn't as though it was really going to remain a mystery if they didn't bring it up and she wasn't already informed. When they got into the studio, he would head to his kit, Gavriel would bring his guitar in and he and Oliver would tune their guitars and start warming up which would answer that question rather quickly.


Gavriel as usual was quick to chime in.



Gavriel nodded as Oliver finished telling the new bassist how they usually started off which was pretty low key while sending both of them silent looks for help explaining matters. He probably wanted to stall for time to finish his coffee. Gavriel leaned his guitar case up against the side of his car and then turned to Farah. "That's usually how we start out, we're pretty laid back about things in general I think. And like he said, we take our time getting started to get an idea of what we really want for the album." He told her with a smile. Well, at least that's how he had always interpreted their way of doing things. Either way he was looking forward to seeing what she brought to the table as he'd heard she did jazz fusion and tech death. An interesting woman and beautiful as well though her height was a surprise. He didn't think he'd ever actually seen a woman taller than Oliver, which he thought made her really quite striking. Not that he was going to dwell on any of that though, he knew how to be professional and he also knew that she was simply here to work with them. "And since not all of us have to be as mysterious as Oliver, I'm the vocalist and Dai over there is the drummer." He added, nodding toward Dai to his left and then glancing back over at Oliver. By narrowing it down, that really only left the lead guitarist role open to him as otherwise they would have been hiring a lead guitarist instead of a bassist. He figured he might as well have mentioned what Dai did since he probably wasn't going to bring it up himself since he didn't talk unnecessarily all that often. As he had suspected, all the drummer did was nod in confirmation to what he'd said. He was usually the quiet type although every now and then he'd loosen up and get talking and it was times like that which Gavriel found he got along with him best. Not to say that he didn't like him simply as he was though, Dai was certainly easy enough to get along with.

The burlier fellow seemed less than enthused with the prospect of heading into the studio just yet, which indicated to Farah pretty immediately that they were the kinda band to take their time with these things. No big deal for Farah, of course: she'd worked with all different kinds of collective personalities when it came to bands, groups of close-knit friends who liked to take their time and figure it out as they went along, and bands that were just barely more acquainted with each other than with Farah herself who preferred to go in with everything hammered out, get it done, and head home. There were all kinds in between, but Farah figured this band (seriously, she'd remember the name one of these days) placed more towards the former.

Nevertheless, he explained, "We usually start by playing some tapes and talk over some things before we start actually laying down tracks." He glanced over to his bandmates, and one of them-- the frighteningly pale guy-- added, "We're pretty laid back about things in general, I think. And like he said, we take our time getting started to get an idea of what we really want for the album."

Farah nodded. "Sure, whatever pace you guys normally go with," she said mildly; she had no real preference, and hell, she'd already been paid anyway-- didn't really matter what happened so long as at some point she delivered her end of the bargain, which was laying down the bass tracks. Eventually, they'd get there, and in the meantime, she'd just roll with whatever other three usually did before heading into a studio.

Which, evidently, was listing off what each person in the band played. Presumably Farah would have eventually come to learn just that in the studio, but she went with it. "Weird, I would have figured him for the singer," she drawled, nodded her head towards the burlier guy. "Or maybe you," she added, looking now to the quieter one. "For the bassist, except I know better, for what I suspect are obvious reasons."

From her readiness and the way she asked if they should head into the studio, Oliver had quickly perceived that as something your typical workaholic would say. Then it shifted. Maybe she wasn't. Now he'd have time to drink his coffee, finish his cigarette and relax just a few minutes more. For a brief moment, he thought about what an impression she made. That was quite something and it was all by the way she walked, looked at you and then her height, for Farah hadn't said much yet. For some reason, it made Oliver smile.

When he finally snapped out of his own thoughts and focused on the conversation at hand, he looked at Farah and listened. Apparently, she had thought he was the singer. What he should make of that, he wasn't quite sure. "Oh, backup vocals is the most you'll hear from me." Oliver said and chuckled. "As much as there is a reason that he is the singer," he added and pointed at Gavriel, "There's a reason that I'm not." It wasn't exactly horrible when he sang and he did fine singing backup, but there was a clear difference between him and Gavriel.

He took another sip of his coffee and a drag of his cigarette, ran a hand through his hair and exhaled deeply. The fact that they were going to record and album excited him immensely. In his experience, a band grew and got better when they had to sit down and focus so intensely as you had to when recording an album. You also had to talk about how you wanted certain things about the songs and threw around ideas. It was usually quite a personal thing to do. Or maybe it's because I think it has to be personal... He thought to himself and shrugged.

"Do you smoke?" Oliver remembered his manners as he looked at Farah. "Or would you like a cup of coffee?" Inside the studio there'd be coffee for her, if she'd like. When he looked at her, he figured that she could be the sort of person that didn't drink coffee at all and didn't smoke, or if she did drink coffee it had to be organic. Then again, she could also be the opposite and smoke a lot, drink too much coffee and didn't give two shits if it was organic or not. Oliver really didn't know any of that, but was excited to get to know her.

Dai tilted his head slightly as Farah spoke. Apparently she had figured Oliver more for being the singer, which he supposed he could somewhat understand how she could come to think that. He had always thought of Oliver sort of as the frontman and it wasn't terribly uncommon for the frontmen of groups to be the vocalist as well. However, he couldn't picture himself as a bassist. He had once tried learning a bit of guitar but could honestly say he didn't think he did terribly well with such instruments. He much preferred the drums and the piano, although the experience had been an enjoyable and fun one. Perhaps he would have felt differently with more practice. That had been a couple of years ago though and he hadn't picked up a guitar again since. He merely nodded at what she said and then smiled slightly. "It's probably for the best that I stick to drums. I only had one adventure into string instruments and it wasn't very successful." He told her.




Gavriel had merely shrugged when the bassist said she had more figured Oliver for the vocalist and retrieved the rest of his coffee from his car. He was guessing Oliver was eager to get to know Farah, as he usually was when someone new joined them even briefly. They had only recently lost their bassist and before that their drummer. Gavriel wasn't unused to having members switch out and working with new people as he was used to moving around quite a bit and for a while he had never struck with a single group for a particularly long time. He usually liked to just go in and get his work done, as much as he liked talking about and working on songs and goofing off on occasion. For the band though, this particular band, well...this was the longest he had ever stayed in one group and had grown to like the way they did things and didn't feel the immense urge to go anywhere anytime soon. Daisuke had been their most recent addition and that was about a year ago now and he thought he had settled in well. Usually Gavriel was careful to maintain somewhat of a distance with people - he was friendly to be sure, but he had never before tried to make lasting friendships or relationships before. Now he was. He considered both Dai and Oliver to be good friends and was looking forward to working on this new album with everyone - including Farah, however long she may stick with them.

He sipped his coffee in silence, attempting to finish the process of becoming sufficiently awake while Oliver inquired as to if the bassist wanted to smoke or have some coffee.

"Oh, no, thank you," Farah answered with a polite smile. And it... uh, just kinda went silent from there. Not that Farah minded; she was being paid to lay down the bass lines, after all, not to be the life of the party. She simply strode over to the doorway of the studio, and took herself a seat down on the steps leading up to the door, leaning back and idly fiddling with the rings on her long fingers as she waited.

She wasn't much one for idle contemplation. Never had been. Still, though, she was looking forward to this-- not just to the studio work, to playing the music and exploring new horizons in music, but to the touring as well. She'd quickly discovered that the gigging life was a very different story when you were a metal musician; jazz gigs were fairly tame affairs in airy little clubs, where the general energy was laidback, chilled out, that sorta thing. Metal shows... yeah, there was nothing chilled out about playing those: it was all flashing lights and raucous shouting and sweat and heat and stress, not normally a combination of things Farah liked to have going on on her life.

But she could use the distraction now. Hell, that was mostly why she'd taken this job in the first place: jazz gigs weren't gonna cut it right now. She needed heat and sweat and yelling and noise. She needed something to get her mind off... off that. Something to ensure her facade of utter composure and coolness didn't start cracking under the pressure, 'cause god knew she was startin' to feel it.

Don't let the conversation die... He shouted in his mind. Oliver despised awkward silences. Granted, maybe everyone else didn't think it was awkward, but he did and that was enough. But Farah had politely declined his offer and so he ran out of things to ask. He felt that they hadn't known each other long enough for him to ask more personal questions, while those he could ask might make her feel bombarded with questions. I think about these things too much. The big man said with a deep breath and a drag of the cigarette. Needless to say, he wanted to please everyone. "A healthy attitude." Oliver commented, throwing a smile in Farah's direction briefly.


A few minutes passed in silence as they finished their coffee and he finished his cigarette. Oliver put it out, stepped on it and then walked to the back of his car and fished his guitars out. Stepping back around it he looked at his band and nodded. "Let's go." Silently he prayed that everyone came with thoughts of their own and perhaps some ideas. It'd give them a place to start but also make it less dull. The whole creative process was the thing that interested him. That and the wild touring life.
He headed towards the door, fished his key for the studio out of the pocket and unlocked it - stepping around Farah - and opening the door. A long hall stretched out before him. "Second door on the right." He said out loud, mostly for Farah to hear. Oliver himself went down the hall and opened the first door on the left, entering the kitchen. Man's gotta eat, right? The guitars leaned against the door, he went the familiar way over to the coffee machine and did the usual thing. Fuel for the fire. Out of habit he checked the fridge and tilted his head, finding nothing of interest within. Slightly disappointed he returned to pick up the guitars and go to the studio itself.

"All these fucking keys." He muttered under his breath but eventually found the right one. When he stepped inside the scent was the first thing that struck him. It smelled like hot tube amps, old strings, beer and... People. Not sweat, just that scent in the air when there's been more people in one room than the fire marshall would allow. That kind of thing. Oliver proceeded to go straight for the window and open it. "And this will be home for a while." He said, smiling as he turned and looked around. They stood in the control room itself where the techs would sit and the talking would probably be done. The recording room itself was beyond the soundproofing double paned window (with space between for isolation), with the drums, amps, microphones and all the necessities of a quality studio.

"Coffee is brewing, don't worry. There's tea as well." The last part was again offered to Farah. Did she even like coffee? Or did she like tea? What did she like. Fuck. Well, she'll probably let him know at some point, in some way. Oliver sat down on a leather couch and leaned back, waiting for everyone to settle.

Oliver was finishing his cigarette and Gavriel was seemingly surrendered himself to the sweet remnants of his coffee. He didn't know how late Gavriel had been out - or more likely, how long he had been awake and he chose not to think about it as he had the feeling he knew how the vocalist had spent his evening as he made no secret of how he liked to spend his free time. Regardless, he looked like he could use the caffeine he supposed.

He didn't mind the quiet, although it seemed to be making Oliver uncomfortable. Gavriel on the other hand, didn't look to care either way as he leaned back against his car and finished off his coffee, seemingly in his own thoughts. Dai let himself think back on his past work, it hadn't been so very long since he had last recorded although what he had done then had been little like what he was about to do now - it had been very laid back and just a couple of tracks. That had just been helping write and put down some piano tracks for an old friend of his for their symphonic black metal band about a year ago. Before that it had mostly just been a couple of small, underground metal groups he had been a part of over the years, nothing of this magnitude certainly. He hoped he would rise to the occasion. He already had a couple of ideas flitting around his head which he had carefully sorted through last night, considering what he thought worth mentioning and what wasn't. He went through them one more time as Oliver finished his cigarette and headed up the stairs, around Farah and began heading into the studio. Dai followed like a sleepwalker, still lost in the labyrinth of his mind.




Gavriel followed suit, slinging his guitar case across his back. He had just picked up a new ESP the other day - an LTD MH-1000 after thinking he might like to try something new outside of his Jackson and Ibanez which he usually played. He glanced over at Dai, hoping the drummer had a second key but he seemed to be out of luck there since he simply stood there with his hands in his pockets, but then again he seemed pretty lost in his own thoughts at the moment. Oliver was poking around the kitchen. He hoped there was food in there already, all he'd had this morning was coffee and not nearly enough of it so far. Maybe he ought to head in there to look. He was about to go in after them when they came back out, declaring that there was coffee brewing. "Thank god." He murmured, grateful for Oliver's preparation. "Do me a favor and tell me there was food in there as well?" He asked hopefully as he settled himself into a seat near the couch and propped the guitar case up in front of him while Dai hovered beside him for the time being. Gavriel had messed around with the new guitar a bit before he'd headed out last night but he was eager to get his hands on it again to see it's full potential. He glanced around at his bandmates, thinking this would probably be about the time they'd start settling in and talking about what they wanted for the album.

At last, it was time to get things moving-- Farah preferred not to waste too much time brooding, regardless of just how much reason the universe loved to give her to brood. She hoisted herself up to her feet as the guitarist led the way into the studio and managed to slam her head on the threshold on the way up, because of course she did. She gave a pained chuckle at her own clumsiness and rubbed at the impact site a bit with her free hand, the other toting her bass along as she stepped into the studio, keeping her head calculatedly ducked beneath the threshold of the door.

"Second door on the right," the guitarist called back as he headed down the hall, presumably for Farah's benefit, and she answered with a quick thanks before she made for that door. Unfortunately, when she gave it a pull, it was locked anyway, so she had to wait around a minute for him to come back and unlock it before she could step into the studio itself-- the control room, anyway, the place where folks who knew what they were doing fiddled with knobs and switches and such. She was the last one in, and she was already closing the door behind her as she began to say, "So, this is where you lot generally discuss your-- ?"

She didn't have time to finish the question before a sound that was either a gunshot or a door being slammed open really, really fucking hard cut right through her words.







Man, Gabrielle was fuckin' ready for this shit.

About fuckin' time, too. Two years of slummin' it-- she'd forgotten how much of a pain in the ass it was to get a band off the ground. Hell, it was enough of a goddamn tribulation just gettin' a band on the ground in the first fuckin' place. And it was two years with her nose to the metaphorical grindstone, scraping up every cent she earned, seizing damn near every opportunity for a show within reach, doing everything short of buying fuckin' billboards to advertise the band's demos and EPs-- had it been this much of a goddamn slog the first time around? She remembered it bein' a hell of a lot less of an uphill battle, but then, that could probably be attributed to the rose-tinted glasses known as 'a metric fuckton of drugs'.

Didn't matter. It'd been a pain in the ass, and over the course of those years she'd hired and fired and hired and fired more people than she had fingers and toes and other digits to count, but the line-up she'd assembled now was strong, and the band was ready. It was time to record their album. Gabrielle'd spent the last two years assembling a thrash metal dream-team of songs, trimmed the fact, perfected every last riff until she had ten go-for-the-throat thrash-fests ready to be put to tape, so to speak. It'd just been a matter of getting the right line-up to record them.

And a matter of finding the right studio, 'cause this recording shit don't come cheap if you wanna do it proper. She'd found this one, grilled the owner something fierce before concluding it was the one, and the only sour spot of the whole affair was that evidently it had been double booked. Who the fuck does that, anyway? she wondered as she paced along past the cars parked in front of the place and thrust the door into the studio open with the force of a UFC heavyweight champion delivering the knockout blow. Double-booking a goddamn studio, the fuckin' notion...

Oh well. Whoever else was here, they were clearly here now, and that meant Gabrielle had to greet 'em, 'cause it woulda been rude not to, eh? "Howdy!" she boomed as though the ears she was trying to reach were several miles away and not several meters away, if that.

Shaking his head, Oliver looked at his friend apologetically. He had not expected that Gavriel had been up really early, made sure he got his breakfast and perhaps a cup of coffee. He had a pretty good idea of how he might have spent the night. Regardless, the man was hungry and Oliver was forced to disappoint him. "Not much. But we can always order something, or drive downtown to get something." He offered, shrugging. They all found their way into the studio one by one, Farah seemingly almost relieved to be moving again. Perhaps she'd thought it awkward before, or perhaps she was just excited to get started. Perhaps both. Oliver looked up at her as she talked, already forming an answer in his head. But she was not allowed to finish her sentence.

"Did someone hit the door with a battering ram?" Oliver asked. He'd almost flinched from the sound. The guitarist looked around at everyone else with a puzzled expression. There was a moment of silence before they heard another sound. Whoever the person was, that the voice belonged to, must be hard of hearing. It sounded female, but he was not sure. The word boomed through the hall of the studio and reached their ears, the volume of it stating her presence in an as equally violent manner as her entrance. Oliver slowly stood from his seat and passed Farah on his way to the door. "Let's go see."

It must have been amusing to watch a man as large as Oliver, peep out of the studio like he did. His face was all you saw and it seemed like he was prepared for a tank to drive right through the hall. When he deemed it safe, the rest of him stepped out. "Hello." He greeted in a clear, calm yet slightly confused tone. The woman that walked towards him was... Well, she was a musician of course. An artist in some way, at least. In this business, you couldn't find a regular person. It was fucking impossible. When it came to personalities, it was always from one extreme to the other. Or people always had an attitude or a statement and so on. Sometimes it was downright tiring. Yet, the woman before him had a more neutral attire which made it more interesting to talk to her. That was the way he was going to figure out what kind of person she was. From what he gathered so far, the direct opposite of himself.

"What did the door do to you?" His face remained serious for a brief moment before the corners of his mouth tugged upwards in a smile. Perhaps she was here to talk to one of the other's. She didn't look like staff. At all. And he hadn't heard of any other bands. using the studio, so it must be an aquaintance of someone else in the band.

Gavriel nodded once at what Oliver said. He hadn't really expected it as it didn't look like anybody else had really been around to leave anything behind. He had just began to get his new ESP out when a sound like an earthquake struck - it rattled the fucking walls too, it seemed. He glanced at everyone else as if they understood the mystery of the slamming door before he turned and squinted down the hall, wondering what the hell had actually just happened when a voice came down the hall in greeting. He glanced back at Dai and Farah since Oliver had gone to go inspect the source of the noise - and naturally would be the first to go if the studio was haunted by a poltergeist - wondering if either of them knew why they were there. He hadn't heard about anyone else coming? Gavriel sighed. "We'll be lucky if the bloody door isn't broken." He said with one more glance toward the hall he leaned back against the couch and began to pull out his new guitar, examining it as he did so before running his fingers over the neck and playing a few basic, experimental chords. "Let's hope he comes back..." He said, thinking back to his earlier thoughts on the situation. Granted, the booming voice did not sound like it belonged to a creature of the otherworld...but hey, you never know. It could always be a lost soul filled with anger and regret for having never finished their own album...who used traditional western greetings during their attempts to frighten away those who might succeed in recording an album in this accursed studio, their prison where they had to remain in eternal limbo listening to all the music they would never be able to write or play again - a mad musician. The chords gradually faded into something significantly more sinister sounding. Gavriel smiled faintly to himself.



Daisuke leaned against the wall and cast a glance at the door, wondering who Oliver had run into. He couldn't recall hearing that anyone else was going to be using the studio however he supposed he simply may have just not heard or perhaps even forgotten. It didn't look like anybody else knew anything about it either so it probably wasn't someone visiting them either, neither Farah nor Gavriel seemed to know what was up - although it had occurred to him that it could have been an angry ex lover of Gavriel's. He spared a glance at the vocalist who was now playing a few chords on his guitar and smiling like he found something rather amusing but as a whole he looked rather unconcerned. Probably not that then. He shrugged to himself, an almost imperceptible gesture, and silently waited for Oliver to return.





Kai had arrived a only few moments after Gabrielle Santamaria had entered the building and he almost thought the windows still rattled as he squinted up at the building, sliding the strap of his guitar case over his shoulder and then proceeding into the building. He had seen several other cars in the parking lot and he found himself wondering who else was occupying the studio at the moment as he closed the door quietly behind him only to find Gabrielle Santamaria standing in the hall with a tall, sturdy looking man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with deeply tanned skin and a head full of dark hair. Kai stopped just on the other side of the door, silently watching the exchange and hoping it wouldn't escalate into anything unpleasant as he studied the two of them with an expression somewhat akin to skepticism. He had only picked up this job as an experiment after all - sure he had played a couple of thrash songs for fun, just to see how it felt to play but as a whole he usually found the genre rather monotonous. This was just for a bit of fun really, to try something new for a while since he had some free time at the moment and he was already beginning to wonder if he'd made a mistake.

It didn't seem anybody but the burly guitarist was of a mind to go see what in the living hell had just assaulted the studio, but for her own part, Farah would have been lying if she had claimed she didn't harbour just a glimmer of curiosity. "Take care of my bass if I never come back," she said with a passing smile to the other two still in the room. She'd only just stepped into the room by the time whatever entity of hatred and malevolence was out there had announced its presence, so she simply turned and walked right back out into the hall, stepping almost gingerly after the guitarist as though mildly concerned she'd find his decapitated corpse lying on the floor with some grisly message spelled out across the floor in his blood.

Instead, she looked down... and down... and down further still, until her eyes fell upon--

"Jeez, and I thought Big Bird here was one tall motherfucker." Farah blinked, finding herself face to face with... well, her face was at least a foot and a half above the stranger's face, but as the idiom goes, she found herself face to face with something of an oddity. The woman spoke with a voice so rough Farah might have believed she'd spent every morning since childhood gargling broken glass, but the jocular grin pasted across her face was as at odds with her gruff voice as it was with her physique, which Farah might have described as 'Herculean' were she not fairly certain Hercules would have had at least five feet of height on this woman. In one hand, she was toting along what was very clearly a guitar case, but she was pretty obviously not a member of this band, so... ?

Beside her, Farah heard the guitarist ask, "What did that door do to you?", and the women puffed her chest out as if in indignance. "Got in my way," she fired off. "Ain't got no time for doors, man. I got shit to do. People to meet. People to do! Nah, not that last one, actually." Farah opened her mouth to say something-- then again, what exactly could she have said, anyway?-- but the other woman had already moved on, staring back up at Farah and grunting, "Jesus, they sure watered you when you were sproutin', didn't they? Almost wanna grab an axe and chop you down."

"We may finally find out the answer to the ancient question," Farah managed to put in, finally catching up to the shorter woman's (clearly five thousand miles a minute) thought process. "If a metal bassist falls in the woods and nobody hears it, does the bass still get buried in the mix?"

"Ha!" The other woman gave a sharp bark of laughter, her grin broadening, her entire face lighting up with the expression. "Not if it's in my woods it don't. Nobody mixin' nothin' of mine is gettin' away with skimpin' on the bass. That's the law!" She was still chuckling pleasantly as she heard steps approaching behind her and turned to find none other than one Kai Devon standing there with his guitar lookin' like he had no clue what in the good lord's name was going on. Gabrielle wasted no time calling out, "You gonna get your ass in here or keep standin' out there like a puppy that got left out in the rain?" She turned back to the two beanpoles (er, one beanpole and one Goliath-lookin' motherfucker) and said, "That's Kay-- oh, and I'm Gabrielle. And we..." She trailed off-- it was the first time Farah had seen her slow down-- as she looked from one person to the next.

The other woman, the bassist, looked friendly enough but a little confused; the big dude looked fairly bemused, and even Kay didn't seem to really understand what was going on. Her smile slowly abated as Gabrielle realised just what was up, and groaned, "Oh, for fuck sake, I'm the only person who's got half a fuckin' clue what the gig is here, aren't I?"

"Think so," the beanpole bassist put in helpfully (Gabrielle liked that one, she'd decided).

"The studio's double-booked," Gabrielle explained. "I wanted the soonest available time-slot they had that was convenient and they said it was this one, but that there was some other band-- I 100% forgot what the balls you guys are called, sorry-- that was also doing some recording and we'd have to coexist somehow. I figure, whatever, right? Studio's these days got the shit to handle two bands recording their shitty music at once, and the timing's perfect. Guess they forgot to mention that to you, though."

"Seems they did," Farah mused, scratching the back of her head-- this had surely not been mentioned anywhere when she'd accepted this work. But she was, she decided, not annoyed: like this woman, Gabrielle, had said, two separate soundproof rooms was all they needed.

Gabrielle, for her own part, had already moved on from this little roadbump, turning to Kay and grunting, "Say, you heard anything from those two other assholes? They better have their shit here on time or I'm firin' their lazy asses and recording the bass and drum tracks myself."

Farah's reaction to the newcomer's words was quite amusing. Well, it was one hell of a first impression. He had been surprised himself. So much noise coming from someone so short. And when she did speak it was with a voice so harsh and gravelly and it only added to the strange thing that was this person before them. Oliver smirked and scratched his beard, looking at her. She had no time for doors. Obviously. And she even said as much herself but the guitarist chose not to comment on it. It was difficult to keep up with this woman. You could almost hear her mind going on overdrive and one thought crashing into the other like small explosions. That was how Oliver perceived it, at least. She was friendly enough, though. Even joking with his newest bandmate.

As the shorter woman declared how no one would get away with skimpin' on the bass, another person entered the studio. "Well, this is turning out to be quite the merry gathering!" Oliver chuckled and clasped his hands together, obviously enjoying himself. The still nameless woman called to what he assumed was her guitarist, asking him to come in before turning back to them and finally beginning with introductions. They never really got to state their own names as Gabrielle slowed down. A sound akin to the tape stop effect. She looked the all over as if to see if anyone of them had come to the same realisation as her. Farah, ever so helpful, politely let her know that she was indeed the only one to see what was going on. Why didn't I see that before? Oliver thought to himself and sighed. Of course! They all came with their instruments in tow and none of them looked like roadies.

"Well!" He began and smiled at them all. "This should be interesting." Obviously he meant it, but you didn't get the feeling he was being sarcastic. Oliver actually meant it. Gabrielle, at least, seemed like an interesting figure. A noticeable presence to say the least, so he hoped they could all get along. It would be horrible to have two bands in the same studio if they were at each other's throats. "I'm Oliver." He offered, looking at Gabrielle and then at her bandmate. "Hey! Get out here and say hi, guys." He popped his head in the room the room where Dai and Gavriel sat, wanting them to come out and meet these people. Then Oliver turned and offered his hand to both of them.

---

"....the rain will kill us all
If we throw ourselves against the wall
But no one else can see
The preservation of the martyr in me!"

In her silver Mazda 6 she sat and sang along, drumming along with her fingers on the wheel. She was running a little late, but she was nearly there. This particular morning she was convinced that the alarm clock's sole purpose was to annoy her and not wake her up. When she finally did and realised that she was in a hurry, she had thrown herself out of bed in a flurry of covers and messy hair. And promptly landed flat on her face on the floor. Great start. That didn't stop Evie though. A quick shower, make-up and she was good to go.

People couldn't doubt what she was listening to as she rolled up and parked the car. Corey Taylor's vocals were cut off though as she killed the engine and stepped out. The others were already there, she was sure of it and it was with quick steps towards the entrance she moved, for today would not be the day Gabrielle would finally consume her soul.
"Oh you couldn't fire me!" Evie's voice carried throughout the hall where they all stood. She had slid in the door right as Gabrielle had threatened to fire them. Today the drummer sported a pair of tight black jeans and a white t-shirt with a grey and black skull painted on it. She strode towards the gathering and gave Kai a hug without asking (they would have to deal with that), but was undeniably more cautious when she came to Gabrielle. She stood and looked as if she considered it for a moment, with a smile playing on her face and then finally wrapped the woman in a brief hug. "Did you make friends already?" Evie asked both her bandmates and smiled brightly, indicating the two she didn't know.

Kai silently assessed the exchange and edged a little bit closer when he was fairly certain no one was going to get assaulted even though Gabrielle had barged in like she was entering an old west saloon and about to call out her rival so they could schedule a duel for dawn. He really had no interest in potentially getting into a brawl of any kind but the conversation seemed fairly calm - about as calm as any conversation with Gabrielle Santamaria could be anyways. They were joined shortly by another member of the other band recording here - this one a woman who towered above even the quite tall man already present. Apparently a bassist. He felt somewhat inclined to tell Gabrielle to be politer about the other woman's height but he had the feeling she wouldn't really care about his opinion and the bassist didn't seem to mind overly much - in fact she even made a joke of her own. As he briefly surveyed the other two - distantly he could hear someone playing an eerie tune on a guitar, so there was at least one other person present - he didn't think he recognized either of them from anywhere but that didn't surprise him terribly much.


Apparently where he was standing in the hall was still too far away according to Gabrielle. He moved a bit closer but still kept a comfortable distance, resting his guitar case on the ground for a moment as Gabrielle began making introductions - and getting his name wrong. He probably should have corrected her but he doubted she would bother to remember it again if he told her. He let it go. When she began asking if she was the only one who understood was going on here he didn't bother to chime in either, even though he did in fact know that the studio was double booked.

It was only when asked a direct question that he shook his head. He hadn't heard anything from either the bassist or the drummer and didn't especially know why he would have either. He somewhat awkwardly shook hands with the man apparently named Oliver when offered to do so, "Kai." He replied, quietly. He turned toward the door as it opened and the drummer suddenly stepped through and wrapped him in a hug. He tried not to flinch at the sudden, unexpected contact without too much success. He didn't return the embrace and as she headed on toward Gabrielle he edged away a couple of steps - barely perceptible but enough to distance himself a little from the rest of the group. He would never understand why some people felt the need to touch so much or why they presumed others wanted to be touched. When asked if he was making friends he gestured toward Gabrielle. "I think she's the one making all the friends." He mumbled.




Dai emerged first from the room, having overheard the short, dark haired woman say that the studio was double booked. He wasn't surprised then to see there were two more newcomers standing there now - one a tall-ish man with a guitar case who looked like he had just crawled out of bed and thrown on the first clothes he laid eyes on. The other one was a noticeably more polished looking woman. He wondered how it was that they hadn't known about this sooner - or if perhaps it had slipped Oliver's mind. Having known that information sooner might have been nice but at least it didn't seem this was destined to be too awkward of an arrangement. He couldn't help but wonder who this other group were and what they were going to be playing but he supposed he would probably find out soon enough since it looked like Oliver had already made an introduction of sorts. Gavriel appeared beside him a mere moment later and leaned casually against the door frame, smiling as he beheld the new arrivals.

Late again.

This wasn't like Vivi. She was usually on time. Hell, she was usually early, mostly out of anxiety that she would arrive late. Gabrielle had commented on it last time the bassist had shown up late to a band practise, wryly commenting that she was used to getting there only to find Vivi standing out by the door to their rehearsal space, waiting for Gabrielle to arrive and unlock it. And now here she was again, scrambling to get to the address Gabrielle had given her-- she'd even planned to leave earlier than usual, in case she got lost trying to figure out where the hell she was going, but just like last time, it'd completely slipped her mind til the last minute.

At the very least, she managed not to get lost on the way to the studio, though the directions certainly weren't much help; the place was nothing if not down the road less traveled, that was for sure. This wasn't a part of town she'd ever visited, hadn't ever heard of the studio in question either, but Gabrielle had said it was the best (or at least, the most convenient) available. And anyway, it wasn't like Gabrielle was going to take Vivi's quibbles into consideration. When had the thoughts or feelings of others ever really swayed the strange woman's actions?

Vivi turned one last corner along the winding dirt road, and there at last was the studio. Sure enough, a small fleet of vehicles was parked out in front of it; she recognised Evelyn's flashy Mazda, parked just beside Gabrielle's beat up old Pontiac, but the others must have belonged to the band they were going to be sharing the studio with. The door into the studio had been left open, and through the open window of her car, she could hear voices emanating from within as she parked and killed the ignition. Voices familiar and unfamiliar, mingling as she stepped out, toting her bass along with her, and steeled herself for the arduous ordeal that was meeting new people.

It was clear as she stepped up into the hallway and quietly shut the door behind her that Evelyn had only just arrived herself; the vivacious young drummer had wrapped her arms around Gabrielle in a hug as she gushed, "Did you make friends already?" A little like she was talking to a first grader, Vivi rather thought, but Gabrielle clearly didn't mind. Vivi winced as the shorter woman pulled Evelyn into a bone-crushing hug-- she might have assumed it was some sort of Mortal Kombat finishing move if Gabrielle hadn't been grinning broadly as she did so.

"You know me, a regular social fuckin' dynamo," Gabrielle answered as she mercifully released Evelyn. "Check it out, these fuckin' giants are the people we're sharin' this studio with." She saw Vivi over Evelyn's shoulder, and the bassist froze like a deer in headlights, dreading what she knew was coming even as Gabrielle called out, "Hey, the hell you skulkin' around for? C'mere, I gotta introduce you." Vivi blinked, but Gabrielle had already reached over and grabbed her by the arm, and the scrawny bassist was pretty much powerless to resist as she was yanked up right into the center of conversation. "This is Vi."

"Uh," Vivi said. "Hi?"

"Dude thinks he's Clint Eastwood or some shit, all laconic and shit," Gabrielle interjected, and though Vivi frowned, irked at being referred to by all the wrong pronouns but hardly able to fault Gabrielle for her ignorance, the guitarist had already moved on. She was moving much too fast for Vivi to keep up, so she simply let herself sort of tune her surroundings out-- at least, until an immense shadow fell over her, like a mouse suddenly caught by a cat.

Except the cat was, in this case, an incredibly tall, dark-skinned woman who glanced down at Vivi with a hint of an affable smile to her lips. "I take it you're the local bassist?" the tall woman ventured, and when Vivi gave a trepidatious nod, she added, "Figured as much. Those two--" She nodded her head to Gabrielle and Evelyn, both as animated as ever. "-- a singer and a drummer if ever I saw 'em. Us bassists, we know when to hang back." She extended her hand to Vivi, and said, "I'm Farah, by the way."

Without thinking-- or perhaps, amidst thinking way too much-- Vivi seized her hand, squeezed as though she were trying to shatter every bone in it, and squeaked, "Nice to meet you, Farah. I'm the bassist." She felt her cheeks go about as red as Aldebaran, but Farah merely smiled. "So we have established. Vi, right?"

"Vivi."

"Short for something?"

"My name," Vivi shot back, again without thinking, and kicked herself in the metaphorical shin-- Farah, she thought, must have found her quite an ass by now, but the other bassist again seemed unfased. "My name, uh, my name's Vi--"

"If Vivi's what you prefer, then that's just fine," Farah interrupted, not unkindly, prompting Vivi to blink before a flicker of a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. Obviously, this woman couldn't possibly have a clue why, but she seemed at least to recognise that Vivi would have preferred that the name 'Vincent' wasn't out in the air, and that was more than could be said for some. "Vivi works," she finally said, smiling.

Oliver liked how this was going. They were friendly and each person was introduced in time, giving them all a chance to remember names. He knew a few that wouldn't remember all the names, but mentioned no names. He watched as the third person of the other band stepped through the door and proceeded to go straight to Kai (whom he'd just been introduced to) and hug him. The expression and the body language that caused was sad and amusing at the same time. Kai was uncomfortable, that much was clear but the woman didn't care about that at all. Oliver stifled a chuckle and looked at his feet, just as the remaining two of his band appeared in the door behind him. This was becoming quite the gathering

He trusted that Dai and Gavriel could introduce themselves, so he said nothing but instead watched as Gabrielle almost crushed her bandmate. Oliver almost intervened, but didn't. They were both smiling so it couldn't be all bad. Potentially fatal, perhaps. But under controlled conditions, it'd be fine. "Woah, don't go breaking her, there." Oliver said and chuckled. Even he, when it came to Gabrielle, would probably hesitate with hugging.

---

"Oh, forget the chiropractor." Evie said and laughed as her bandmate let her go and let her live. When Gabrielle introduced all these new people, she marvelled at how tall they were. She was short, sure, but still. That woman was. Fuck. Snapping out of it, she stepped forward and shook hands with Oliver, stating her own name as she did. She repeated this with every new person and flashed them all her brightest smile. When she came to Gavriel, the guitarist and slowed down. "Evie." She drew out and was about to make small talk but was interrupted.

---

In came another....person. Oliver wasn't sure. That caused him to stare at the person for a while, trying to figure out what gender it was. He was not good at this sort of thing. It might be awkward. Silently, he reminded himself to pay extra attention when the other band spoke and introduced this person. The way that happened was apparently much too fast and violent for the newcomer. "Vi." Oliver repeated. "A pleasure to meet you." He chose not to comment on the Clint Eastwood remark, instead deciding to attempt at small talk. Lo and behold, he didn't have to. Farah pleasantly took over that part.

---

She silently watched the last member of the band introduce herself - or - be introduced by Gabrielle. If you had to spend a day with that woman, you'd have to get in high gear and get out of bed early. You had to be ready. Vi wasn't ready. Is he ever, for Gabrielle?
Evie thought, smirking to herself. "So, you guys didn't know about sharing the studio?" She offered to Dai and Gavriel, two names she had only just learned.

Dai almost winced when he watched Gabrielle hug (or was she trying to crush their lungs, he couldn't really tell) the newcomer and to his side he saw a similar expression on Gavriel's face. Oliver even ended up remarking on it, sounding somewhat amused. Dai wasn't entirely sure how she survived the encounter as he and Gavriel finished introducing themselves. When he glanced over at the guitarist he saw him flash Evie one of his brightest grins and saw her visibly slow down when she reached him. Well, some things never changed now did they? Daisuke was used to Gavriel's antics by now. He recalled when his sister had been hired to do album artwork for the band before he'd joined on and while Akira had never said Gavriel was overly flirtatious with her he had the feeling that he had been based on the way she had talked about him and that vaguely amused way her lips would tilt up at the corners whenever she mentioned the vocalist. Not that he noticed much of that on the occasions that she met up with Gavriel now though.

To his surprise yet another person walked in, probably the other group's missing bassist. The seemingly ever eager Gabrielle grabbed them by the arm and proudly introduced the bewildered looking person as 'Vi' and while they looked like a man he couldn't help but think that they didn't seem especially masculine in terms of behavior and he couldn't completely tell if it was because of Gabrielle's overwhelming personality or what that seemed to make them rather uncomfortable. When Gabrielle made the Clint Eastwood remark he noticed that Vi really didn't seem to appreciate that at all. He wouldn't make any assumptions about that though because he could always be wrong and besides, what did he really have to go off of other than mannerisms? When Farah surprised him by striking up a conversation with them he overheard them say they preferred to be called Vivi. Ah. He still refused to jump to conclusions but he felt now it was probably a somewhat safe bet that they probably didn't identify as a man. He offered them a wave and his name as did Gavriel before the vocalist turned his attention back to Evie.


When Evie asked the two of them a question, Gavriel happily answered. "Actually no. I had no idea. When they came charging into the studio I half wondered if the place was haunted and we were all going to meet unfortunate ends at the hands of a poltergeist. Oliver was going to be the first to go." He told her with a grave shake of his head shortly followed by an amused smile.

"I didn't know about it either." Dai chimed in, shrugging slightly.

"So, you're the drummer?" Gavriel asked, temporarily forgetting about his hunger and his earlier contemplation of the odds of being able to convince Daisuke's sister to bring him food if she wasn't busy. It wasn't so often that one saw a female drummer so he always found it interesting to meet one - plus there was the fact that she was really quite beautiful to hold his attention.


Dai listened to the exchange for a moment and then looked toward the figure hovering on the very outskirts of the group - Kai he was pretty sure his name was, he had only heard it quietly when the guitarist had spoken to Oliver. He looked like he mostly wanted to be left alone as he leaned against a wall, still holding his guitar case and watching them all from a distance. Dai felt inclined to let him be, especially considering the fact he himself kind of wanted to go back to the room and start working on some ideas rather than try to make small talk although he supposed this might be a good thing since they were probably going to be running into each other quite a bit.

((Sorta a filler post, sorry. Ain't got much to do.))

Now this was getting just a little too crowded for Vivi's liking. She glanced around, blinking a little anxiously at the people collected around her-- she didn't have any issue being in a crowd, or playing and attending shows would've been pretty damn hard on her, but she was hardly at risk of being drawn into conversation in the middle of a heavy metal concert. Here, that danger was very much present.

Farah seemed to notice the smaller woman's brewing discomfort, and when she tapped on Vivi's shoulder, Vivi gave a start, glancing up at her. "Seem a bit uncomfortable lugging that thing around," she said, nodding down at the bass Vivi was still toting around. Vivi looked down as if she didn't already know what she was carrying in her hand, and then scratched the back of her head and nodded. "Yeah, uh, I better... put this down somewhere." She turned reluctantly to face Gabrielle, who had at that point only just released her grasp on Evie and was enjoying the general pandemonium of the conversation-- fortunately, she managed to catch the guitarist's eye, and she stepped closer. "Hey, uh," she said in a low murmur. "Which room should I set my bass down in?"

"What, already scurrying away from the fun?" Gabrielle snorted, although the words were more a light-hearted rib than an admonishment. She nodded down the hall, and answered, "Third door on the left. All our shit should be there already."

Vivi nodded thanks to her, and then made a similar motion to Farah, who'd provided her with an excuse to extricate herself from the conversation. The towering bassist reciprocated the gesture mildly, watching as Vivi toted her bass along to the room Gabrielle had mentioned, and vanished into it without another word. Gabrielle paid no further attention to her as she tuned back into the course of the conversation, grinning broadly as the burly dude commented, "Don't go breaking her there."

"Fat chance!" she fired back with a chortle. "Girl's skinnier than my forearm, a strong breeze'd break her. Dunno how she can drum like that, frankly, but I'm no expert on drums. Last time I sat down behind a drum kit, everything became a blur and I woke up three days later in Aruba with a new tattoo and a copy of Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program, so I don't try drumming anymore. What's your band called again, by the way? Totally forgot. 'tween you 'n me, I can't even remember what my own band's called half the time."

She gave him a brief smile and shrugged. "Gabrielle is..." The smile returned and widened as Evie looked up at the man. "Quite the presence. I had expected that something was broken when I came here, but apparently not." And if that was a low bar to set, then their shared time in the studio should be interesting. The one she had pegged as the drummer seemed a little quieter than Gavriel, but he chimed in anyway. Evie looked over her shoulder for a moment and observed the people in animated conversation behind her, glad that they got a long already. Vi was a little awkward, but she was sure that would fade with time. They all had to become familiar with this place and these new people.

When Gavriel decided to speak to her again, she turned her head and tilted it slightly, observing him. "Yes, sir." She said and nodded. Then Evie bit her lip in thought and stared at Gavriel and Dai. "Guitarist?" She drew out, doubt plain in her voice. "And drummer, right?" Evie pointed to Dai lastly and smiled brightly, hoping that she got it right. It could really be great to sit and talk with these guys and have some fun on our downtime. Evie thought to herself. Wouldn't hurt if they could make a good record and some good friends at the same time.

---

Oliver definitely found the woman amusing. He grinned at what she said about Evie and her stature. There was quite the difference between her and the drummer, so he could sort of understand why she thought that. What he found amusing quickly became confusing instead. Things just seemed to escalate when Gabrielle opened her mouth. Oliver actually had to concentrate to keep up with what she said, but he refrained from asking about an explanation to the story. He wasn't sure she knew herself, and if she did he wasn't sure he could handle it. That was an amusing thought as well. "Sounds like we have to go get some drinks sometime then!" Oliver said, looking forward to that already. "We're called Azmodan. Named before the Diablo 3 video game, so it's not from that." He added. Recently more and more people had asked them if they had taken their name from that. Oliver didn't play it, but now it had become reflex to tell people that it wasn't from Diablo 3. "How long have you been a band then?" He offered, figuring that a little more small talk wouldn't hurt anyone.