Riverside 21: Older than Arkh

[Shadowcaller]

[Flat Tire]

"Thank you so much, Jim. I'll see you Friday then." For their second date!
She sounds pretty excited for that, even as a goat.

Once that call ended she turns towards the... satyrs? She wasn't sure but as she wasn't bound anymore she felt confident enough to interact with them. It was in fact the reason she had approached them in the first place, to get out of her old habits.
"Ah, make no efforts for me. I'm just a goat after all." A beat, should she...? "But may I ask what you're doing out here in Riverside? This city might not be the ideal place to be for you." Meanwhile, the rats are all climbing up on her back again as the phone has mysteriously disappeared.

[Ironsmith]

[Flat Tire]

Malady smiles and gestures up at the side of the bus, stepping to the side so the goat can read without her in the way.

DEATHKISS

"We're here for a concert." Malady croons with a proud smile. "A lot of our fans live here in Eastside, so we've chosen a venue not far from here as part of our thank-you tour. Fortunately, we've packed in a lot of padding-"

"Not the first time you've done that!" Taunts one of the other succubi from the window.

"...we've packed in a lot of extra time, so at least we're not in danger of being late and disappointing anyone." Malady smiles. "And so here we are. Not more than half an hour from the stage, with a blown-out tire. Life's just full of little surprises, isn't it?"

"Title of your s-"

Malady shoots the succubus currently occupying the window a glare.

"...Oh, hey, I think I left my guitar on byee-" And off she goes.

[Shadowcaller]

[Flat Tire]

It takes the goat to hear the word "concert" for her to realize what they were and once she does her goat-y eyes... well, not widen as they're incapable to there certainly is a thrill in them that wasn't there earlier.

"You're musicians? I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was talking to fellow, ah, craftsmen. How exciting!" The goat bows her head and goes down into a position which is the closest thing it can manage to a bow. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Jaahlyn Hesporos. Traveling bard."

[Ironsmith]

[Flat Tire]

"I guess you could say we are, too." Malady smiles. "I'm Mel- Malady. I do the vocals for our group." She gives a little shrug, blowing right past her momentary difficulty sticking to her stage name. "A thought occurs. As soon as we get this tire situation sorted, why don't you take a ride with us? It'd be the least we could do." She might as well have offered a backstage pass, really.

[Shadowcaller]

[Flat Tire]

As soon as this exchange of names occurs the goat starts to, with a lack of a better word, unfold. It's almost like watching a transformer with it's fur fold outwards, revealing tanned skin and eventually a humanoid face underneath. The black eyes stay the same though.
The rats are unfazed by this change and are now simply located on this woman's shoulders.

"I'd love to miss Malady if you would have me. I admit I have all sort of questions since it's the first time I meet another musician around here."

[Ironsmith]

[Flat Tire]

Malady blinks in surprise at Jaahlyn's transformation, but adjusts quickly enough. She could do her fair share of folding, too... after all, she wasn't showing off her wings or tail yet, and her horns were buried as nondescript streaks in her hair. She smiles and goes off with Jaahlyn to fetch that tire.



About an hour later, they'll be back, with Malady pushing open the door to the bus. "So I said to him, 'no, that's an octopus!'." She giggles. "Anyway, that's why we aren't allowed at Odie's anymore."

The conversation is interrupted by a mane of blonde hair flopping down into Jaahlyn's face, which quickly parts to show the succubus identified prior as Mania. "Hello!" She grins, pressing more closely, (uncomfortably so, most likely) and giving her a couple of quick sniffs. "Hm. You smell like a goat, but you look really cute!"

"...Mania, didn't I tell you to put on clothes?"

"What? I'm wearing a collar!"

"That..." Malady pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. "...That is not what I meant."

[Shadowcaller]

[Flat Tire]

Jaahlyn doesn't protest when her personal space gets invaded, instead choosing to address Mania's inqury. "That's since I am a goat, miss. At least partly."

Then as Malay mentions her lack of clothes the satyr realizes that she probably should object to it. She just had been unable for so long that the concept hadn't entered her mind until just now. "But, ah, thank you."
She gently places her hand on Mania's shoulder and gently puts some more distance between them. "May I ask what instrument you play? I 'do' vocals and the violin, but I've tried out plenty of other instruments too."

[Ironsmith]

[Flat Tire]

Mania grins. "Isn't it obvious? I'm the crazy one! Could I possibly play anything but the drums?" She giggles.

"All right, Manny, give the poor girl some space."

The succubus smiles and jumps out of the way, landing on all fours a few feet away.

The bus is surprisingly spacious, even putting aside that it was clearly meant to be a somewhat luxurious way to travel. The central space, directly inside the door, is made up primarily of a quartet of couch-like seats, divided into pairs and facing opposed to each other, perpendicular to the corridor connecting the front and back of the bus. There are pillows and blankets thrown haphazardly over them, implying that the girls sleep here when it's safe to do so.

On the couch farthest from the door, with a keyboard resting on a cross-brace in front of it, sits a bored-looking, raven-haired, dusky-skinned woman in a sideless, slitted crimson dress. She gives Jaahlyn a little nod in greeting, blowing up a large bubble of long-overchewed gum to punctuate it.

Next to her, sprawled out on her couch, with a magazine flicked open and her nose buried in it, is a straight-haired, pale brunette girl who either takes the goth look way too seriously or not seriously enough. She's dressed in all black, from her tanktop to her kneeless jeans, with a pair of silver ear studs that probably weren't actually silver, given her allergy to the stuff. She flashes Jaahlyn a pair of peace signs when she sees her, setting her magazine aside to properly greet the newcomer.

Mania bounds over to her couch, opposite the keyboard lady, and pads it down by circling on all fours, before she takes a seat in a cat-like pose, staring at Jaahlyn with a big, friendly smile on her face. She has a mess of long, blonde, poorly-kept hair that trails halfway down her front, which is fortunate because she is, as previously mentioned, wearing a spike choker around her neck and absolutely nothing else. She's also the only person in the room who is doing nothing to hide the fact that she's a succubus; her batlike wings, long, spade-tipped tail, and short, goatlike horns are all displayed as proudly as the rest of her.

Malady sighs and closes the bus door behind her, giving Jaahlyn an amiable but weary smile. "So, yeah, here we are. That's Euphoria over there on the keyboard, and Ecstacy here is our guitarist slash bassist, depending on what we need for the song."

The goth girl identified as Ecstacy grins. "Heya! Welcome to our humble abode on wheels! This is where all the magic happens, you know."

Euphoria rolls her eyes. "No, she isn't talking about songwriting. These two haven't been able to sit still since we embarked on this tour. They make it rather difficult to focus."

[Shadowcaller]

[Flat Tire]

These were all... pretty contrasting styles. Jaahlyn had assumed that there would be more uniformity to their looks considering that they were in the same band but it looked like each one of them were cultivating their own look. There was a lot of black involved though so at least there were some connecting theme between them all.

That and that they all seemed to be satyrs, or whatever they were called here. While she hadn't reacted to them she hadn't missed the rain of innuendos they were all throwing around and that certainly fit the profile. It made her a bit nervous but as they were all women and still acted with some amount of consideration they were probably not like the satyrs that she knew. Still...

"Well, it's certainly nice to be here even if I don't know anything about you all, honestly." She let's out a nervous chuckle. "I suppose I should introduce myself to you all again though. I'm Jaahlyn Hesperos, a satyr bard, whatever that means to you. Satyr's are usually male where I'm from so I'm always afraid that it will confuse people." Hopefully that would make them clarify some things about their own natures.

[Ironsmith]

[Flat Tire/DEATHKISS Tour Bus] (I mean, they are fixing the flat...)

"Well, of course there are female satyrs." Euphoria drones. "Otherwise they'd have a bit of a population problem."

Ecstacy giggles. "And those parties they're so well-known for wouldn't be anywhere near as fun. Unless, you know, you're, like, into that sort of thing."

"Stace. We stress-tested the axles on this thing just last night." Malady sighs. "Let the guys have their fun, all right?"

Mania yawns and stretches, flicking out her wings and tail. "Besides, a wild party is a wild party!" She smiles dreamily. "Ooh, I'd love to get to attend one sometime... Oh! What do you call a female satyr, though?"

Malady sighs. "...Just a 'female satyr'?"

"No, no, she's got a point." Euphoria strokes her chin. "I mean, my hypothetical boyfriend would be an 'incubus', not a 'male succubus', would he not?"

"Hypothetical?" Ecstacy smirks.

"Oh shut up."

[Shadowcaller]

[Flat Tire/DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

"I heard that some 'female satyrs' call themselves fauns but that's not really what I am." Though hopefully that would be somewhat helpful. "See, satyrs where I'm from, ah, don't need to reproduce. It's just the same amount of them all the time. Hence, we don't really need different sexes." And besides, she couldn't produce children so both sex and gender were really irrelevant. Not that it was anyone's business but hers.

"They, uh, we do have some crazy parties though like you said... Ecstasy." They sure had some peculiar names. "I'm mostly working though so there's little time for that." But she wasn't working as much any more, was she? But such thoughts were usually a bad idea. She had fallen into that that trap before. Besides, her date with Jim was just a couple of days away. She couldn't go down that path now.

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

"Hey, as long as you enjoy what you're doing, right?" Ecstacy gives her a genuinely warm smile. "I mean, life's too short to waste just working."

"Amen to that."

"Too true."

"Yup yup yup!" Mania giggles. "I mean, why do you think we started a band? Doing nothing but tempting mortals day in, day out... wears a gal out after the first century or so, you know?"

"Sooner, if you don't have a knack for it." Malady helpfully adds.

"Aw. Come on, don't talk like that." Ecstacy gives her a little side hug. "That's all in the past now anyway. People love you these days."

"Can't argue with record sales!" Mania quips.

[Shadowcaller]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

When Ecstasy says 'life too short to waste', Jaahlyn chuckles nervously. Funny how that exact idiom (or at least a roughly translated version of it) was the reason she was even standing here today.
"'Tempting mortals'?" That sounded awfully familiar... oh!
"Are you all sinccubi by any chance?" Or at least a close approximation of them. These women were all different enough that she hadn't made the connection until now.

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

"Well, they are. I'm just too hot for heaven." Ecstacy jokes, earning a collective groan from her teammates (which from Malady in particular sounded more than a little suggestive).

"In all seriousness, yes." Euphoria drones. "It's all part of the brand."

"We're the first and biggest name in the realm of Erotic Metal." Mania grins. "DEATHKISS!"

When she mentions their name, Malady, Euphoria, and Ecstacy all moan again, much more in the way one might expect to hear from a chorus of succubi. A little more impressively, they manage to do it in a perfect G major chord.

Mania gives them a little applause. "Whoo! Knew we'd nail that eventually!"

"Title of her tape." Ecstacy mumbles in an aside to Jaahlyn.

[Shadowcaller]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

Jaahlyn's eyebrow shoots up as she hears the moan-chorus. That was a way to sing alright and she suspected that her satyr 'friends' would have loved it.
Had to give them points for creativity though, that would certainly draw a crowd.

"I see." She wasn't really sure what to do with this information though.

She smiles sheepishly at the band. "I can say for sure that I've never encountered music like yours. Can I get to hear the rest of a song perhaps? It's a unique tone for sure. I see why you're all so popular."

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

Malady takes a moment to consider it. "Well... I suppose we could use the pr-"

CRASH!

CLATTER!

BADADADADA DUMST!

Mania returns from the back of the bus, a disassembled drum set draped over her precariously. "Yeah! Let's do this thing!"

"She did help with the tire problem." Ecstacy points out, picking up her guitar and quickly tuning it.

"And there is no such thing as too much practice." Euphoria concludes, cracking her knuckles.

"...Well... all right, then." Malady clears her throat and lets her wings and horns unfurl.

Mania beams and holds her drumsticks aloft. "A-one, a-two, a-one two three f-"

[CENSORED]

Ecstacy and Euphora let out one last, sustained chord as Mania finishes the song with a brief drumroll. "Whoo!"

[Shadowcaller]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

Jaahlyn had meant listening to a record as she didn't think they all would set up in a matter of minutes.

One minute most of them were half-naked and the next... they were still half-naked but had set up an entire drum-set and and had brought in the rest of the instruments from gods know where.
But they had been so enthusiastic about it that Jaahlyn hadn't wanted to correct them. She would just have to listen to this live now no matter how much her poor ears would suffer in the process.

A Censored Song Later...

Jaahlyn felt like all her hair, including the fur on her legs, were standing up like thorns as Mania finishes with a drum-roll. One thing was for sure, the acoustic's in here were far better than she had thought. She couldn't help but to wonder how soundproof the bus was though or the drivers passing by would have gotten free samples as well. But as they so far hadn't caused a single car-crash she suspected the music was at least somewhat contained by these walls.

She waits a few moments before she starts to clap as since her ears were still ringing she wanted to make sure the song was actually really over. "Wow... that was amazing." Sadly, the rats standing on her shoulders had made a break for it the moment the band had started playing so now she was completely rat-less. "Guess that's what you mean by erotic metal, eh? I can't say I've been as... inspired as you by that sort of thing."

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

"That's the idea!" Mania grins, removing the cymbal she'd used as a hat halfway through the song. "Nobody has anything like it, which means for the moment, we have the market all to ourselves!"

Euphoria folds her hands in her lap and smiles. "I can't say as much about the monetary benefits of our work... but yes, it certainly is gratifying to birth a new genre."

"Not that we really did anything all that spectacular." Malady smiles. "All we did was take something we liked and something most of us were good at and threw them in the metaphorical blender."

"Oh, come on, Mal." Ecstacy adjusts her guitar. "Everyone involved with this project of ours has been awesome. You've been an awesome singer. I've been an awesome player. Eu's been an awesome songwriter and pianist."

"More or less."

"Manny's been an awesome drummer and promoter."

"You know it!"

"And our fans have shown us some awesome support." She gives Jaahlyn an encouraging smile. "Including our newest fans. I'd say that's worth celebrating, wouldn't you?"

[Shadowcaller]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

"...sure, yeah." Whatever that meant for the band. Mania had insisted that she was the 'crazy one' but without her to contrast the others the entire band might seem a tad crazy to outsiders. "You had anything in mind?"

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

"Mostly what we've been doing." Ecstacy stands. "Which reminds me. Mal, you want to come out and give me a hand with that tire?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I... I guess we need to actually attach it at some point." Malady chuckles nervously and rubs the back of her neck as the two of them step out to take care of the tire problem.

They're not gone for two seconds before Malady appears at the window. "Grab the soap buckets, girls. It happened again."

Euphoria sighs. "What was it this time? Organ or slurs?"

"Both."

"Ooh, ambitious." Mania giggles, her wings folding up into a black lace negligee. "I hope they at least sprung for the good paint this time. The cheap stuff really messes with our paint job."

"I think that's why they keep using it."

"Good point."

[Shadowcaller]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

Jaahlyn let's out a small sigh as she hears these news. "I had been meaning to warn you but it looks like you've already found out yourself. There was an invasion of the city a few years back, demons they called them, and as a result people are rather suspicious of anything with horns and hooves. That's why I was walking around as a goat. Everyone just seem to assume the worst when they see me around here and you seem to have the same problem."

The satyr then walks out to see the damage that had been done. Had it been done during the mini-concert? She certainly wouldn't have heard it in all that noise.

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

As Malady had said, the side of the bus was now adorned with a certain organ which all those present were conspicuously lacking, crudely painted over the band name. Underneath it, there's some text in Infernal that the Nexus translates for Jaahlyn as "DEMON SLUTS GO HOME", which the band members seem to find horrendously offensive.

"Ugh. They learn just enough of the language to put on the words, but..." Mania groans.

"The syntax is atrocious, yes." Euphoria confirms.

"'The demons' happy time, they go the house'? It's like they don't speak the language at all." Ecstacy sighs.

Malady just shakes her head and starts taking pictures. "Well, at least there was a 'reason' this time." She grumbles to Jaahlyn, before turning back to her bandmates. "Think Intersection will help us out this time?"

[Shadowcaller]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

Jaahlyn had seen worse, at least it wasn't written in blood. But it wasn't exactly comforting. She was surprised that the band hadn't hired some security if this was the second time this had happened.
"Erm, miss Malady? Intersection doesn't have jurisdiction in Eastside. They have their own police force here but I don't think they'd be able to help either way. You should really consider hire some private security I think." Which would mean... MERC? They band seemed to have earned a lot of money at least.

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

Ecstacy waves dismissively. "It's not that serious. Just some idiots with too much time and spray paint on their hands."

Mania giggles. "Yeah. If it weren't such a pain in the butt to clean, it'd even be pretty funny. 'Ooh, look, a bus full of succubi, I'll go draw a phallus on it, what's irony?'"

Euphoria doesn't seem so convinced. "...Maybe we should hire some security. Sure, all these ruffians did was paint a crude picture. Ha, ha. But the fact remains that they came up to us when we weren't prepared and proceeded to do us harm, small though it may be, and we had no way of stopping them. That's normal in a regular town; what can we expect here, where the anti-demon sentiment is abnormally high?"

"Eggs and toilet paper?" Ecstacy helpfully contributes.

"...What I'm saying is, what if they had brought a gun?"

A hush falls over the other two succubi. Suddenly, this security oversight wasn't so funny.

"...Do you know anyone?" Malady finally asks, addressing Jaahlyn.

[Shadowcaller]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

"The most obvious answer would be MERC in Westside, they're a mercenary company." A beat. "Disclaimer though, I am associated with them. Technically not a member but I occasionally do jobs for them. Since, uh, I'm not only a bard. I do more violent things too occasionally."

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

"Well, if you represent them, they sound like the kind of people we could trust." Malady smiles. "Soon as we've cleaned up here, we'll go have a word with them."

Suddenly, Mania breaks out into giggle fits.

"...Okay, what did that twisted brain of yours come up with this time?" Ecstacy asks, eyes preliminarily rolled up.

"Between us and Jaahlyn, we've got sex and violence."

This is followed by three simultaneous facepalms; self-applied for Malady and Ecstacy, and courtesy of Euphoria for Mania.

[Shadowcaller]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

Jaahlyn might be missing the exact joke here but she still facepalmed out of a sense of sympathy with the others. Sometimes you just had to go with the flow.

"That has to be what you're going to name your new album, right?" She joked. "I could try to set up some kind of protection on the bus though." She had not idea what she was talking about really. She was sure she could protect them against spirits but people was a completely different matter.

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

"Actually, that was our first." Malady smiles. "We, ah, wanted to make good and sure people respected the 18+ sticker. Plus, it seemed like a good summary of who we are and what we do."

Euphoria ducks into the bus and returns with four buckets of soapy water, which she passes out to the other members of the band. "So, what did you have in mind for protection?" She asks, lathering up the mural.

"Probably the world's biggest-"

Malady puts a hand over Ecstacy's mouth, cutting off what was undoubtedly yet another bawdy joke. "Yes, please. If it's something you can do right away that will make the rest of the tour safer, I'm all for it."

Mania, meanwhile, is going absolutely ballistic on the graffiti, scrubbing furiously with a scouring pad, such that she was peeling the paint down to the metal. Despite her attire and general attitude, she seems more intent on getting this done quickly than indulging any succubus-based car-washing fantasies driversby might have.

[Shadowcaller]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

Well, now she had to live up to her own claims somehow...
She couldn't look bad in front of the sinccubi!

Jaahlyn could just ask a few of her friends to keep an eye out for trouble makers but that wasn't especially reliable as if the only DEATHKISS song she had heard was any indication no rat would want to be anywhere close to that bus. However...
"...you didn't have any trouble with my rat-friends, right?" They had been on her shoulders until they had started playing...
"So how would you feel about undead rats?" She raises her palms as to indicate she wasn't done. "They wouldn't be inside the bus of course. Just... around, out of sight. Unless whoever is vandalizing your bus get any more ideas of course."

[Ironsmith]

[DEATHKISS Tour Bus]

Malady makes a face at the thought of having zombie rats hanging around near the bus. "Isn't that a little... unsanitary?"

"Can't be much worse than our Friday nights." Ecstacy jokes.

"Yeah, but we bleach everything then."

"So we just do that more frequently." Euphoria concludes. "It would still be preferable to the presence of potentially armed intruders. As an alarm system if nothing else."

Malady nods. "I suppose that makes sense. We can try it out at least."

Mania still doesn't respond, being too busy with that growing chrome patch where "GO HOME" used to be.