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Location: Blood Market Row | Underground Concert • Time: Prior day evening | Saturday night
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Saturday.
"These guys fucking suck." Alicia said bluntly, leaning in to yell to William as loudly as was (questionably) polite. If anyone there was gonna be a critic, it had to be her after all.
"It's the same pop-punk metalcore shit everyone else has done for years - like, 2013 called, y'know?" She laid on, not particularly caring if William understood a single thing she was talking about.
"Like, man, your voice doesn't have the grit for those vocals, you're trying too hard. Give us some highs, dude!" She prattled on.
"Actually, screw 2013, that was when all these fuckers hopped on the djent bandwagon and they don't even respect us enough to drop some 0s?"She knocked back the rest of her beer and chucked it into the bin beside William with a clatter. She was in a foul mood after last night, to be sure.
"Like c'mon, you guys don't fuck with any breakdowns? No guitar solos? Not even gonna let that bass breathe a bit? The song just comes and goes, just a fuckin' mess of grimy vocals about darkness - no subtlety in the songwriting, no imagination, no metaphor, nothing!" She opened her mouth to talk about the grimy songs about darkness she'd sung, but in a much more respectable way she promises, til she hesitated as the still-sober parts of her mind lit up. She eased up, straightening her back, and shoved her hands in her pockets.
She hadn't dressed up for the show. She was seeing Vein Theory for the first time - cool name, she reckoned, but she wasn't pulling out the full goth ensemble for anything less than... Ugh, why was she blanking on their names? Didn't matter, way cooler bands out there. She massaged her temples. Any regular concertgoer knows to bring earplugs if they don't want to deal with tinnitus - she needed the active noise cancelling on her earbuds dialed up fully, and it wasn't just because the band sucked.
She was visibly still frustrated after last night.
Friday.
Blood Market Row was a fucking bust. Not like she had the first idea where to start - they started off meandering around the block, Alicia's ears pricked up for any sign of hushed conversation - but the trail there was cold. Or someone had been two steps ahead of them. She danced around William's question, but the quiet was growing far too awkward, even for her.
"Nah." She finally chipped in.
"I uh... I've only been here a couple years. Y'know, there's scattered packs and communes and stuff outside Halcyon. I'm natural-born and shit, but I did a lot of uh... Touring the country." She said, wincing internally at her choice of words.
"But the Fangs've been cool to me, so y'know, not exactly feeling alone out here. Stable, usually pretty easy 'n risk free work. Usually Dom's just sending me out to listen in on some dickhead techbros at Urban Grind or at Ashwell's. Hell, one time he actually gave me a wad of cash to sit next to a couple old rich ladies at Silverstrand, y'know, uptown. Best haircut I've got in my life." She said with a chuckle.
"Overpriced as hell still, though."She gave him a small half-smile, glancing out of the corner of her eye.
"Your kind have the hard jobs. We just usually kick back. Good gig - least until it turns into..." She flailed her arms weakly at the sidewalk before them.
"This. Wait... Hold that thought." She said, not caring that he hadn't actually said anything yet, as she squinted into the night.
"Yeah, word's that a few of the Fangs' dogs will be there." A male murmured into his phone.
"Hold on... Hey, you fucks keep walking! Fuck're you looking at?!"
Alicia's lips spread. She couldn't resist. She mentally flashed back to her favorite late-90s shounen, All-Seeing Detective Kuro-san, confronting a suspect dramatically, arms crossed, as he called out an interesting line she'd overheard. She always wanted to do this. Alicia struck the same pose, stance wide, crossing her arms.
"Fangs're gonna be where, exa- HEY, WAIT, SHITFUCK HE'S RUNNING-" Alicia shouted, starting in a run, turning her ankle, stumbling against a brick wall, and finally taking off after the retreating man. William and Allie gave chase, the Lycan man being much faster than Alicia, let alone the human they were chasing as they rounded a corner. Allie watched William shoulder check him into an alley wall as he fell against the dumpster. "Fuck fuck fuckfuckfuck easy man, I'm just a proxy, dude!"
"Pr- guh, fuck... Proxy?" Alicia echoed as she rounded the corner, already out of breath. Girlrotting in your apartment for months'll do that to 'ya.
"Funny you say that, a proxy service's exactly what we've been looking for."She squatted in front of the terrified, and slightly concussed human. He was younger than she thought.
"Christ, Will. This guy's like 16." She observed, punching the kid in the shoulder.
"Look, kid, this is NOT the part time gig you want. My buddy here, he could've seriously hurt you. He still might. Look, he's practically foaming at the mouth." She said, thumbing to a completely stoic William.
"He's fuckin' unhinged, he's on a hair trigger and I dunno if I can hold him back. Down boy, down!"The youth wasn't really buying it. Alicia rolled her eyes, before flicking her hand out and snatching his phone, turning on the face unlock, and flipping the camera to his shocked face.
"Just fuckin' tell me who you were talking to and where you've been saying we're going and I won't text your mom you're trying to buy weed off us.""Aw c'mon. Asshole. Look, like I said, I'm just like, a relay or some shit they told me. I don't know any names or nothing, but they said to let the other guy know you guys're going to see some band called Vein Theory or some shit."
"Cool name."The kid shrugged. "Can I have my phone back now?"
William and Alicia stood back, watching the kid run into the night.
"You think that was supposed to be like, a warden in training or something? Should we uh-" Alicia scrunched her face, then clicked her tongue as she skipped her heel across the cement, turning 180 degrees to make her way back home.
"We got a lead, I guess. You trying to see a band tomorrow?"
Saturday.
"I paid a scalper 80 bucks for this?! That was half a preorder for my new Inumimi Maki-chan figure, dude! Fuck these guys, I haven't heard a single time signature switch up, no harmonies on the vocals - hell, this guy's stuck between cleans and harshes anyway, I'm sure the fuckin' guitarist can do SOME backup vocals with his 4 or 5 chords a track!" She ranted, before holding up a finger.
"Also forget that first thing. Hey. Is that Vex?"She locked onto the sound of her voice immediately as her eyes shot to the bar. Allie clicked her tongue. She definitely looked drunk - not that it mattered to her. She didn't know her well enough. She did, however, elbow William as she tried to subtly point her out.
"I guess that little shit was right. We're not the only ones-" She trailed off for a second.
"Here."Her crimson eyes fell on Dominic as he strode purposefully towards the bar, nearly missing Vex laying someone out with a right hook. Nobody
really gave that any mind - way more punches being thrown in the mosh pit near center stage. She did, however, watch Dom stride up to that asshole, and practically drive him just out of sight. Alicia swallowed hard, and looked to William helplessly.
"H-Hey, that's... Should we like, do something?" She asked hesitantly, as she began to try and push her way through the dense, bouncing crowd.
A few tense moments passed, then she paused mid-shove as she caught sight of the young man hurrying timidly towards the exit as Dom emerged, seemingly fuming but none the worse for wear. He joined Vex at the bar, and Alicia eased back. Something told her interrupting them wouldn't be a good call. And for that matter, Dominic prooobably knew they were there anyway. She backpedaled a few inches - as much as she could manage, into William's chest with a soft thump and gazed up at him, shrugging.
"Probably better we just... Keep a little radius. Stay on task."She and William edged towards the back of the crowd uncomfortably, shoving and being shoved through a tidal wave of dancing, moshing, and jumping bodies. They stumbled against the railing fencing off some speaker equipment, and Alicia growled.
"Dude, how in the fuck are people this hyped for some 4/4 baby's-first-hardcore-band slop like this? Seriously, the vocals are like me at thirteen TRYING to growl and just fucking up my throat. Dude, you bring it from your chest! Come on!" She ranted again, glancing at William momentarily.
"N-Not that I would know- But more importantly!" She punched him on the shoulder.
"How the fuck do you think we're supposed to sniff out anything sus in here? Like, it's obvious we're expected here somehow, but who the fuck have we got to keep tabs on, and when, and for what? There's like, a dozen youngbloods in here even aside from the proverbial fuckin' execs!"
Kaithe Dame
Tribs
Shadowheart
Neziul
Guimauve
ERode
JJ Doe
Tsunmene
