Lock quickly cleared his throat after the bite to try to prevent even more grayness darkening his face, before he picked up his guitar. He strummed a few notes to check his previous tuning. Barrel looked over to Carver.

"Not mine," he said with a shrug.

Shock shot the pumpkin girl a small glare.

"Shut it," she said, already in a foul mood.

Lock waited for everyone to get situated.

"All right," he said. "Warm-ups. On my mark. Three, two, one..."

As always, it was vocal exercises first, more for the girls, as they did most of the heavy-lifting in that regard, before a few quick tunes to do an instrument check and get the band in the groove. They wouldn't start the new song until later, partially so they could finish fine-tuning the last one, and partially to let Shock stew on the fact that she would be taking secondary vocals for once, while the vampires took the lead.

If anything, Lock knew Shock would need to vent, and would therefore give it her all when it came to shrieks, screams, and strange sounds.

More importantly, he watched and listened for the rest of the band. Barrel kept a good beat, but was inconsistent with his drum work, as usual. Lillith moved with fluid grace on her theremin. He was actually grateful she had a second one at home to practice with so they didn't have to lug it over all the time, and that practice showed. Carmilla was on her A-game as well; if anything, her rivalry with Shock meant both of them were always trying to out-do the other.

Until he noticed the synthesizer fall back in favor of her singing. As usual.

Only Carver could get anywhere close to Lillith in terms of perfection, but even then, he caught some sour notes.

That did it. Lock halted practice.

"No, no, no!" he said, making a gesture to stop.

"What was wrong with that?" Shock asked.

By her tone, she was still pissed at him. Lock waved her off.

"Not you. Carver, that's a b-flat, not a c-sharp. You did that last week too. And Carmilla, don't let the synthesizer fade off like that."

Lock glanced to his brother.

"And I'll get to you in a moment."

Barrel stuck out his tongue.