interstellar5555 | THEY'RE BAAAAAACK

For listening to the band. Getting drunk. Discussing Poe's chiseled features. Whatever.

Yuffie is kind of a danger in these situations, mostly because she seems to be completely oblivious to nearly murdering people with her guitar case. It's strapped on her back, a little awkward around her battle gear. But hey, last time they'd come ready to kick someone's ass if they had to.

And Yuffie is once again, prepared.

She's got her obnoxiously colored drink on the table, and her phone in her hand.

"Tumblr loves this guy. He's got a fanbase for his guitar." She happily shows any Carnie who will pay attention her findings as she goes.

"It's a cute guitar, I don't blame them," Luci says, leaning over and looking at Yuffie's screen. They probably stand out in the back, but Luci's trying to intentionally keep her back to the crowd and listen. This guy was a bit of a niche favorite, it seems. Not nearly enough good videos for them to judge, but Luci liked his style. And the more she listened to his guitar-with-a-fan-following, the more she likes it.

"I vote yes. Who's with me?"

Fetch leaned over Yuffie's shoulder to look at the phone and snickered at the guitar's fan page.

"I've known this guy for a couple of years," he was good friends with her brother. Not that she'd let anyone know that because that was her own damn business still. "He's pretty cool."

With Luci's decision Fetch downs a shot of something gold colored and coughs before throwing her fists in the air, not giving a shit on who could hear her.

"Let's keep him!"

Xanxus looms behind them all. Though it's sort of nice to be the only dude in the band, the guy's playing is worth giving up some of his fanbase.

He crosses his arms and rolls his shoulders. "I'm in. So how we doing this? Grab and go?"

"All in." Yuffie says and she throws an infectious grin back over her shoulder at at Xanxus and Fetch, before she turns to look at Lucifer again.

"I've seen the sound guy before, once or twice. He's already scared of me. If I toss him a twenty and smile he'll do whatever I want." She says this like it's a totally normal thing to bribe sound people and scare them in turn.

"Do your thing, Yuffie," Luci grins and pats her on the back. "Meet the rest of us backstage. We did a smash and grab last time, gotta keep things fresh. Fetch, you think you can take that guy off his set?" she asks, jerking her head back at the drummer onstage.

And Xanxus-- "You'll cover me if someone decides to get stupid, right?"

"What's that saying? 'Bigger they are' or something?"

She's tempted to just straight up knock him out and get some blood on her knuckles but... in the interest of Poe actually not hating her after this is over, she'll be nicer and just...encourage him to leave his seat.

"I'm on it."

Fetch scurries backstage, hopping on her toes like she's about to get into the ring with someone much bigger than her.

Xanxus just gives Luci a feral grin. "I got your back. You know I do." Not just her. If things go south, he's going to make sure all the Carnies get out, even if that means another wonderful tabloid about his most recent arrest.

He pops his knuckles a little and adjusts his bass. "Lead the way, Luci. Let's give them hell."

Yuffie salutes.

"You got it, Boss!" She turns the opposite direction from Fetch and manages not to kill either Luci or Xan with her Guitar though sheer practice of them being right behind her. She does, however, nearly take out a patron trying to walk to the bathroom.

She heads right on over to the sound station, and pops up on her toes to smile and cajole. It's pretty obvious even from far away that she's terrifying the poor kid, and also probably flirting like crazy, judging by the way he's gone impressively red in no time flat.

She turns back over her shoulder to signal to the other two that it's a go before going back to explaining things to the sound board op.

"I know you do, I promise," Luci says over her shoulder to Xanxus as they follow after Fetch. "But these guys aren't like Hate Kitten. They're going to be pissed. I want to focus on Poe-- if the videos are to be believed, he's going to be drunk off his ass up there. It's going to take some doing to cut through all that."

And by that she means she's going to be focusing on singing right at him. Hard to sing while trying to punch out an angry musician.

What it says on the tin! Also ruining this band's life.

Poe is trying to be responsible. Which means that before he takes one of the jell-o shots a waitress brought up at the start of the song -- while his other hand taps out the beats of the drum solo going on -- he also makes sure to grab a drink from his water bottle. Not that he's sober, God no. But he's keeping himself from being completely drunk.

A glance at the bassist, three nods to get themselves totally in sync, and both members start playing, joining in with the drums, which fades back to become a synthetic heartbeat.

All blissfully unaware of who is out in the crowd and why they're here.

Edited 2016-01-17 20:20 (UTC)

The Carnival is at least considerate-- they don't let the song get too far in before the sound system cuts out and the lights go out. Fans are plunged into darkness, waves of confused sounds pulse through the crowd until the lights come up slowly to a completely different beat.

"It's your lucky day, Event Horizon," a mid-tone, female voice comes over the music. A couple people in the audience immediately recognize it and start to lose their goddamn minds. "You're bearing witness to the greatest heist performed in front of a live audience."

Finally the lights come up enough to see what's happening-- Luci is leading the charge across the stage from the wings, mic in hand. The rest of the Carnies are, of course, right behind her. They're upstaging this band and taking over their gig. The reason becomes abundantly clear once Luci spins their vocalist out of orbit by his tie and starts singing.

"Kicking down the back door, no one said a word,
Come to take you now Poe Dameron
Found another victim
The Carnival is calling Poe Dameron (Dameron)--"

At first? It's pure confusion. He knows the voice. Not instantly, no, but he knows he knows it. The sight of Luci, though, and things click into place. At least as far as an identity goes. Now why Junkyard Carnvial is here...

Hey. Maybe his band organized something without telling him.

And he's drunk enough to just laugh at hearing his name. This is obviously... some kind of joke or something. Publicity stunt? Sounds about right. He catches the eye of his bassist again and flashes a grin. One, two, three nods.

She must not be in on it either, but she follows his lead.

The beat's easy enough to pick up, so, there goes a guitar and a bass to support the song. As far as Poe knows... Well. He doesn't know what's going on. But it's fun, whatever it is. Yeah, someone wasn't listening or didn't believe the 'hiest' part.

Yuffie, well known problem child to all sound techs, launches from her place up behind Luci and climbs the sound system. She herself bribed the sound guy...and might've flirted a little, to get him to keep an eye out for her signals.

She pulls a cord out of the system and rehooks it to her guitar, playing an E to make sure she's hooked in. There she is. She salutes the sound board, before tossing the bassists to Xanxus, so he can also hook into the system. By this point, Poe's still on, but the poor Bassist for New Republic looks horribly confused as it cuts out.

"Outta my way." She steps down off the speakers, and hip checks the bassist to get her out of the way of the mic. She winks ant the bassist and blows her a kiss before she starts playing.

There are some ohs coming up, and she may not be a great singer but she's their backup. She figures Xanxus will come and join her at the microphone, too.

Yuffie makes way for him and he wants to high five her for it. Instead, he plugs himself in and his bass comes to life, that thrumming undertone as he muscles his way past the other bassist with a smirk and a full of himself murmur of "this is how it's done, bitch." But he doesn't stop where the bassist had been. He makes his way to Yuffie and her mic.

Sure he has to lean down but whatever. He's okay with lending his full booming baritone to the background vocals. He keeps his eyes on the guitarist though. How the guy deals with this sudden upset is pretty telling. The Carnies don't need any pussy that wusses out when they do crazy shit like this.

When his 'partner' (of sorts) gets moved right out of the way and has her cord pulled, that's when Poe really looks around. Because even drunk, he knows something isn't right. He can't make any kind of verbal questioning because... well. Music's still going, and there are still a lot of people watching, but he looks toward his vocalist.

Who seems about ready to lunge at the first Carnie he gets close enough to. Despite how bad of an idea that probably would be.

And -- Hell. He can't even process. So, he gives up on the music for a moment to snatch up another shot and down it. Nothing to do but go with it, even though he's confused as all hell right about now.

In some odd sense of sneakiness Fetch waits until the front liners are all replaced before she snatches the drummer by the back of his shirt and pulls backwards. His balance is mostly on the balls of his feet instead of the stool he's sitting on so he goes flying.

"Don't get up," Fetch's grin is manic as hell and she pulls two drumsticks she had hidden in the back strap of her bra out to start pounding out a rhythmic beat to work against the baseline. It sounds good for something they're doing severely unrehearsed. So she thinks.

If Poe looks her way she'll make a kissy face at him, hoping to unnerve him because she lives for that kind of crap.

This is, unfortunately, what Luci lives for. Even though it's about getting this guy to come into the fold, the Carnies are at the center of the ensuing chaos. The bassist is horrified, the drummer is on his back, Luci is circling Poe as Xanxus and Yuffie take the backup vocals. The takeover is more or less complete.

Luci had expected some trouble with security, but apparently there's more of their beloved Freaks in the audience than Luci originally thought there would be. Security is having too much trouble keeping a few off the stage to be concerned with who's on it.

"Your fingers fly across your fret, your crowd they scream out
Your chords are sinful and so you have caught our eye now
Just pack your suitcase,
Come with us and make 'em bow down
Giving you the time of your life (You have caught our eye now)

You cut a pretty figure pacing 'cross the stage dear
Though if we only needed that, we wouldn't be here
Four is great, five will take us to the stratosphere
Jump on, we'll take you for a ride (party in the stratosphere)"

While she sings, she tries to herd Poe towards the center of the stage where he can stay surrounded by the Carnies-- but she can't shut off the flirtatious energy she gives off when she's performing, so it probably looks like Luci is either trying to seduce the guitarist or eat him alive. Depending on which tabloid one believed in, it could be either one.

She lets Xanxus and Yuffie take more of the backup vocalizations and comes in on her cue.

"Where will you be waking up tomorrow morning?"

And that was definitely a wink, accompanied by shrill screams and maybe a fan just fainting off her feet.

"Room for one more, jump on, now the Carnival's in town
The Carnival's in town
The Carnival's in town
Room for one more, jump on, now the Carnival's in town"

The vocalist from Poe's band is getting no backup from his bandmates, for whatever reason, so he decides to take matters into his own hands. Luci seems to be running this show, so it makes the most sense to grab her by the back of her jacket and pull her backwards. He's not giving Poe up that easily--if he can even make it to her before someone intervenes.

When Xan meets her at the mic that gives her the ability to back off for a moment to check over her shoulder and make sure that Fetch doesn't have any problems coming up. The NR drummer looks like the little birdies in his head are going to be keeping him busy for a moment at least so that's taken care of. She grins at their drummer, and then at NR's bassist, because this is just too good.

She turns back around to harmonize away with Xanxus as the come up on the chorus. Between the two of them they make a very good team in a lot of ways. And unlike the Vocalist for the New Republic, Lucifer absolutely has backup from her band. Yuffie can see the moment where the Vocalist is attempting to grab Luci, and Yuffie loops her guitar cord around her wrist and pulls, creating a tripline between him and their girl.

"Xan!" She backs off the mic to call his name and get his attention on the asshole trying to grab Luci, at the same time she gestures with her head to make sure he sees what she does, even if she's positive they're on the same page. They usually are.

He doesn't have to be told twice. He knows that Luci can take care of herself. He knows the woman can fight, but this is his band, his family and he is their bass player. Their floor. He is their muscle.

The mic probably picks up the growl. It's something more at home in Death Metal than punk and he's doing a guitar flourish to swing his bass around to his back to protect it. "On it."

Making it part of the show, he starts a little dancing move towards Luci, like he's going to join her in singing the chorus. He's been doing that more and more. Adding his Operatic training to her powerful vocals.

No one gonna stop us,
No one gonna get in our way
We take what we want,
try it and you'll pay.

You're ours now, Poe Dameron
We've come for you, Poe Dameron
Cause there's room for one more,
and the Carnival's in town.

That vocalist isn't going to get any closer to Luci because Xanxus is suddenly there between them, looming at his full height, all scars and burning red eyes and an elbow to the face hidden as a fancy little flourish to get his bass back into place.

Fetch is watching everything proceed like a kid in a candy shop and cackles just under the noise of their song watching Xan bash the other other guy in the nose. She thinks she sees blood when he goes down and man that's fucking metal and her scene.

It's awesome.

Poe's drummer scrambles to his feet behind Fetch, and looks like he's about to make a move on one of them - but who?

Luci looks over her shoulder at Xanxus when he joins in the chorus with her. She does love it when she can pull him into vocals, their voices work well together with his baritone and her alto.

But she also sees exactly what he's doing-- getting between her and the super-pissed vocalist. Luci grins and blows him a kiss from his spot on the floor while she refocuses on getting in Poe's personal space. This isn't a joke, she's trying to seduce Poe right on the stage.

'Poe Dameron, Poe Dameron, Poe Dameron
Are you coming?
Poe Dameron, Poe Dameron, Poe Dameron
Are you coming?
Poe Dameron, Poe Dameron, Poe Dameron
Are you coming?
The carnival's in town.'

If that drummer is up to something, perhaps it's Yuffie's turn to take down the next troublemaker.

Quick get the van!

"What the fuck just happened?"

Poe can't help but laugh. Because he may or may not be still drunk. Very drunk.

All he knows is that now? He's with the Junkyard Carnival group and... very confused otherwise. But another drink? Won't go amiss.

"You guys are insane." Not a criticism in the slightest.

Fetch hands him another crappy beer - hoping that he's too drunk to notice how shitty it tastes.

"We stole you!"

She announces it boldly and smacks her hand on the surface of the table as she hoots. Generally making a lot of noise and disturbing the otherwise relative quiet of the slowly emptying club.

Poe knocks the beer back easily and gives no complaint about the taste. Which is also when he grins wide at Fetch.

"Mighta known you'd bring trouble. Always was your middle name."

Fetch and Poe go way back, since before her Hate Kitten days when she still had Brent.

He was there for the good days. And it was part of the reason she suggested everyone nab him. Now she knew how it felt. It was sort of amazing.

"Hey, they stole me too!"

She shouldn't be okay with that.

Brent had tried very, very hard to get Poe to dye his hair back in the day. Blue, pink, and orange. That was, oddly, one of the most specific memories he had.

But it was a pleasant blur right now as he raised his bottle and drank the rest of it.

"So, tradition, huh? Well. Can't say you guys don't make an entrance."

"Right?"

Fetch is incredibly helpful and hands Poe another beer - Drink up buddy! But not before she throws back some of it.

She's not nearly drunk enough for this swill right now and she pulls a face that says 'Jesus why'.

"Ugh. That's fucking horrible."

"Absolute shit," Poe agrees before he takes a drink. "But that's why you do shots first."

Lots of shots. That had all been free. So, he really couldn't complain.

Man, she missed you. Of course, her taste buds are being too assaulted for sentimentality right now. Fetch comes close to licking her own sweaty hand to get rid of the taste cause - man. It's rank.

"Can you even taste this?"

She's never been that drunk but you're pretty plastered man.

Poe can't help but laugh again. "Unfortunately? Yeah. I can. But I don't give a shit right now. That's the trick with the shots."

He took another drink of the beer. Then, something seemed to occur to him.

"Oh. By the way. I'm holding you--" personal or general, he didn't specify -- responsible for helping hook me up. Since T sure as hell ain' gonna return my calls now."

"About that--" Luci strides up to the table, her lip split. But she doesn't seem too bothered by it. "Time to go, the Uber's here and I just broke your bassist's nose."

They can talk more at the suite-- fewer police probably, fewer irate band members definitely.

"Y' what?!"

Even drunk, Poe could process that. He looked at the woman speaking.

"Why would you do that? Len's harmless!"

"She busted my lip, duh," Luci indicates her mouth. This might have happened when Luci promised Len could visit Poe at the Carnie suite anytime she liked, and sleep over in Luci's bed.

Well. She can only be what she is.

"They're really pissed we stole you."

Fetch just rolls her eyes at this point - this is her life and she has chosen to accept it because 'why not'.

"C'mon, you can write a "I'm Sorry" card later."

It isn't clear which of them she's talking to. Only that she's tugging on both Poe and Luci's sleeves as she does.

Yuffie is right behind Lucifer, typing away on her phone, and nearly taking out a bartender trying to move to clean up some mess somewhere with the guitar case on her back.

"We might want to replace the bass too." Yuffie says, distracted, and on reddit. "The neck's fucked."

She might've stepped on it while said bassist was hitting Luci. And by stepped on it, she means curb-stomped it using the edge of the stage.

"We'll give them one along with the dentures for that vocalist I made swallow teeth." Such a causal assessment of violence. "But let me have one for the road, okay?"

Because Xanxus is totally going to snag a bottle of Jack or something from the bar on the way out to the Uber. And hey, at least he's not having to pick up Poe and throw him over one shoulder...yet.

"What the Hell?"

Poe can't help but be a little rattled. After all, this much violence... He couldn't imagine T or any of the others looking for a fight like that. Take it to Twiter and Tumblr, yeah.

But... internet fight. Not fist fight.

He's on his feet at least. Just... a bit unsteady. After all, he's kind of had more than his share of free drinks.

"Leave now, mad later?"

It sounds like a question, but Fetch tugs at Poe's jacket like it's an order and she may or may not be taking advantage of his wobbliness.

Don't make her pick you up Poe.

"Leave now, yeah. Before the BB-8 Brigade shows up to defend Poe's honor. Xanxus--" Luci whisks herself under Poe's arm to steady him. "You got the door?"

THEY'RE BAAAAAACK

PRE KIDNAPPING

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