got your picture; coming with you

[wickedlyable]

Who: Nuclear Parliament
What: Recording shit, welcoming Shinichi to the band, chilling. You know how it is.
When: Throughout March!
Where: NP Penthouse
Warnings: Probably nothing.

Johanna's been moody for the past couple months - fine, she admits it. That party back in December had been quite the damper, to say the least, and the way the band had fallen apart for a few weeks didn't help. Stella had told her not to be so worried, and Jo had scoffed - at the time.

But now the penthouse is starting to get loud again. It's starting to get fun again. With the band back to full strength, five members present and accounted for, their apartment actually feels lived in. And now that Johanna isn't locking herself away as much anymore, that means the place is back to being the home of the best pop punk band in town.

Of course, that means that the penthouse is kind of a mess, between the parties being had and the music being made. But hey - that's the price of genius. Or something like that.

[ mingle-style log; throw up whatever threads you want! ]

Comments

Making annoying noises, OTA

[off_the_edge]

Cloud's contribution to playing on the band's songs had rarely come abive the level of sitting up to dink whatever keys he was expected to and spending the rest of the song scowling. Apparently, he's more interested in his solo stuff, which is becoming dangerously self-indulgent, if the droning tape loops and his unseasonably large keytar are any indication. And, hanging on the wall and drawn in red pen, is an occultist symbol - a sort of grid of circles - with annotations and chord symbols.

Someone should probably stop him.

"Oh, the ronin's guard is open,
Thinks that since his heart is broken
He can make the world dance on his strings
Electrical wings
The ronin's taste in opium,
The power that's in your television
He'll ke-ep on calling
Until Detective Joe comes knocking -"

At this point he stops, walks over to the diagram, and writes on one of the spheres 'DETECTIVE JOE - SATAN?'

[bass_instincts]

Shin leans against the doorframe, looking the strange array over. "I'm not one to judge, but what on earth is that?" he asks, nodding to the drawn diagram. Man this guy was weird.

[off_the_edge]

"It's called the sephir..." Cloud starts, and then starts chewing on his pen. Then he pauses again and grows pale.

"I can't remember what it's called. It's nonsense. It's nothing."

He looks at it, holding the sides away from the wall in both his hands, staring at it as if he's just seen it for the very first time. His shoulders shake, a little like he's trying not to laugh.

"Look, it's just not anything," he says, slowly. "I'm sorry. I got away from myself a little." He swallows, and looks over his shoulder, casual again - "do you need the room for practice?"

[bass_instincts]

"No," Shin says looking worried, "I was just passing by." He steps in, moving towards Cloud, "I know I've been giving you a hard time, but... we're in this together. If there's something wrong, we can talk."

[off_the_edge]

Cloud looks over to him, grateful to be worried about, but glum. He has no idea if Shin knows the truth yet, and right now he's doing all he can to avoid the truth anyway. The feeling he remembered of his real life of being a puppet, absolutely nothing, with no will on his own, was more awful than any other feeling he'd ever had. Occasionally it would pop back into his mind when he wasn't thinking about it and he'd have to force himself to forget about it again. Better to stick with the life he could remember, of bedroom production and band arguments. (Though he can't remember the faces of any of the other members of his band, or the way they moved and talked. He can't even remember their names.)

"It really isn't..." he starts, then trails off, letting the poster go. "No, it's just that I'm trying to understand something I'm doing because it feels right, no higher reason." He shakes his head. "But I still don't get it. Do you know anything about the Tree of Life?"

He'll call it by that name - it doesn't make knives twist in his gut like when he thinks of the name S********h.

[bass_instincts]

Shin is still blissfully ignorant. It was easier to make him think he wanted this place and this life since he had been a rock star in the making back home. But here he's so much emptier than he was when he had his friends that cared about him. When he had a woman he loved. He was already broken, and they took away what had been holding him together.

Shin thinks about it but it doesn't ring any bells. "No. What is it?" He could understand wanting to figure out what you're doing. He felt so lost he didn't even dare approach that subject.

[off_the_edge]

"It's supposed to be an occult map of creation," Cloud explains, "something to do with the way we attain spiritual enlightenment. Each of the stations represents a different sphere of human experience, and each one is connected to the others by a system of rails. And each is assigned a number. If it doesn't have a number, it doesn't exist."

He's assigned each of the spheres a group of chords and various archetypical characters from the narrative of his concept album - Detective Joe (Em6), Alice (B), Ronin (A5)...

"I don't actually understand any of it, by the way," he adds, with self-deprecating lightness, "I just thought... well, I had this word caught on my head, so I looked it up to see what it meant. I thought I'd just invented it."

Why is it that when he starts trying to explain things, he always ends up sounding like he's been badly translated from some other language?

"Maybe we should consider going occult as part of our image for our next album?" Cloud suggests, scratching his head. "It'd give the conspiracy theorists something to think about."

[bass_instincts]

Shin laughs at the idea, but not in scorn. He kind of likes it, "Freak some people out? I'd be up for that." He takes a closer look at the symbol, "So you've been studying this stuff? It's pretty weird that a word you just made up turns out to be some creepy ghost thing. Maybe you heard it somewhere, like the TV?"

[off_the_edge]

"No, the papers," Cloud mumbles, without really knowing why he's saying it out loud.

--the most incredible man I've ever seen! Like no-one else on the Planet - strange and fascinating. I'm strange and boring, and I want people to look at me like how I'm looking at him. I cut out all of the articles about him and the photographs and keep them under my bed, even though I can't work up the nerve to look at them again with Mom around, or she'll think I'm weird.

"Have you ever seen a ghost?" he asks. There's a slowness that suggests this is an important question.

[bass_instincts]

"I'm not sure. I lived next to a graveyard, and sometimes...." Why did he just say that? Did he live next to a graveyard. Of course he did. He just hadn't thought about it in a while. It's not like it was something that came up often, right? He can't quite remember anything about it though, like the name of the place is at the tip of his tongue, like he should know it.

And this is the first time he's actually felt that strange sense that something was off. He's not about to say anything, but there's an uneasiness on his face that could just as easily be from admitting he may have seen a ghost.

*combats annoying noises with--

[inversekeyblade]

If contribution towards the band was a factor as to their member's worth, well,... Roxas would be, at best, dead. Thank God that isn't the case here. But.. he could do better, definitely. And though Cloud is very obviously vying for another purpose, it's still better than not doing a damn thing.

Shit. Roxas should take a chapter out of this book and do a thing on his own, or with someone, or something. Anything to avoid confrontation with the manager. She is, without doubt, a super hot girl but... ouch. Do not want to have that again.

So, hearing Cloud just might be starting something on his own, and by that hearing it himself by following Cloud, Roxas can't help but sneak out of self-interest, or maybe consideration for what may happen to Cloud for what this kind of defiance leads down the road. Living at the same area makes it easy, so, with that in mind..

"Yo.. so, I heard you earlier.. and that stuff is pretty solid. I'd like to work off that, but..." And here he's careful, sitting at whatever-surface is closest enough, not at all trying to appear threatening or domineering, "..I wouldn't be surprised if the label, you know, would have a say against it. But.."

Shifting uncomfortably, and suddenly his voice becoming quieter, for some reason, "I'd like to corroborate with whatever you're doing. I know there's.. something.. happening. Just.. I can help."

Hopefully, Cloud will know what's what. If not, well, eh, at least he tried.

[off_the_edge]

Cloud isn't appearing to listen, and wanders about the room, adjusting his tape loops. Then he switches one off, and looks at Roxas hard through unpleasantly blue eyes. Was Roxas... intimidated by him?

Good.

"Well," he says, "I don't know. Defying the label'd be bad. For a lot of reasons." He traces his fingers back from his hairline - wanting to grab his head, but also not wanting to appear weak in front of Roxas. "But, that said, I like playing with you, and doing what I'm told just doesn't fit my image."

He folds his arms, and looks at Roxas with his head slightly cocked - "You're on board. We can either bring in the rest of the band, or do it quietly and leak it on the Internet. Your call."

[wickedlyable]

Johanna doesn't have a stellar sense of patience on good days. Recently, with how irritated she's generally been at the world, it doesn't take long before she bursts into the room that Cloud is in, scowling at him. "Can you shut the fuck up for more than two seconds, or--?"

She abruptly breaks off as she takes in the scene, her eyes looking over the wall hanging covered in... in whatever that is. She raises her eyebrows, then says definitively, "if you're turning into a Satanist, I will kill you."

[off_the_edge]

"Yeah, no," Cloud says, whipping around in a flash of hair. "Satanists are terrible. Can you leave me alone? I'm trying to get in touch with my own personal imagery."

[wickedlyable]

"No, I can't just leave you alone, because your personal imagery is giving me a migraine from hell," she sneers at him, crossing her arms over her chest. "If this isn't Satanism, then what the hell is it supposed to be?"

[off_the_edge]

Cloud gives an extended shrug.

"It's not my fault you can't understand art," he says, crossing over to a particularly obnoxious grinding tape loop and turning it up. He shouts over it, "Open your eyes. We're Flashstep in bondage pants."

[wickedlyable]

What the everloving fuck. Johanna stalks over, turning the tape down pointedly as she glares at Cloud. "Look, teenage angst might be your thing, but try not to be so fucking annoying about it, okay? And as edgy as you're trying to be, you're forgetting that we're much hotter than Flashstep, so your analogy doesn't even make sense."

[off_the_edge]

Even though he's desperately trying to look like he doesn't care, Cloud can't help jolting as she touches his machine - "Watch out, that's vintage!"

Then he composes himself, satisfied she hasn't broken it.

"You know what I mean," he says. "There's a reason why Roxas got hooked up with this group at the same time I did. They've got universes and universes of musicians -" Literally. "So why me otherwise?"