New Year's @ the Dive!

[birthright_npc]

The Dive, which was prone to a gritty atmosphere, had been transformed for New Year's festivities. A rotating disco ball hung above the crowd, as well as a web of streamers. Colorful lights lit the stage for its five-band line-up, which began with a local cover band and then transitioned to new wave, punk, synthpop, and glam rock acts, all staples of the year in music.

By 11:15 p.m., the crowd was slap-happy and drunk, thanks to happy hour prices on drinks and $1 Jell-o shots. The patio smelled like barbecuing meat and nacho cheese. Merchandise for the Dive and the bands moved quickly.

The world was halfway through the decade and antsy for the second half to begin.

The Fraying Nerves were wrapping up a five-song set and about to clear the stage for the Death Spirals, a band whose hairstyles were a fire hazard.

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[brian_campo]

On stage left, a pink lace bra hung from Madeleine’s mic stand. On stage right, a plastic cup lay cracked next to Brian’s doc marten; the floor was sticky and his pant leg was saturated with Budweiser. As he picked out the melody of their last song on a keyboard, Brian had to wonder why he took up the piano and not the bass guitar. He was definitely getting the raw end of the deal.

The venue was packed. He wasn’t drunk yet, but he had a decent buzz, enough to make the stage lights fuzzy around the edges and his stomach feel warm. Somebody had ordered a bunch of tequila shots and sent them backstage before the band went on.

From up here, he didn’t recognize any faces, so he lowered his head. That was the thing about a synthesizer; since you were basically chained to your instrument, it didn’t go amiss if you zoned out instead of jumped around, or got lost in your own world. At the bridge, he shut his eyes, which is why he didn’t notice when Seth grabbed his legs; a guitarist from the Spirals grabbed his arms, and suddenly he was airborne and swinging like a sack of potatoes.

“Hey! What the fu—?”

[maddy_ricks]

Maddy was loud on the mic. She lifted a hand in the air and coaxed the audience into counting down, “One… two… three!”

It was worth it to see Brian go flying into the crowd, his arms and legs akimbo, a look on his face like he might puke at any second. He’d had a rough week, so arranging a stage dive was the least she could do to knock him out of that dazed look on his face. Hopefully nobody stole his shoes.

She slung the random bra back into the crowd and kept playing.

Crowd diving in the Dive

[melodymagic]

It had taken a lot of talking and pleading and no small number of promises, but Melody had finally received her father and mother's permission to go and meet Maddy at the club she was playing at on New Year's eve. It was also the fact that they had had a chance to meet Maddy, through the waitressing gigs, that had helped, though the stabbing of the woman at the Christmas Ball had almost put a hitch in the greater scheme of things.

So for the first time Melody stood in The Dive, a messy mash of bodies all around, the noise and smoke almost overwhelming her. She pressed her back against a wall and watched as Maddy started counting and her bandmate, Brian, was lifted up and spun around. She had heard stories from Maddy about this sort of thing, but her eyes still widened with surprise when she saw him thrown out into the crowd. Her face split into a huge smile and she clapped with delight when she saw the crowd catch him, and he started being passed around, over a forest of arms.

Re: Crowd diving in the Dive

[tiny_dancer81]

"Theresa! I think we're out of shirts!"

Teddy's voice carried over the music and the noise of the crowd, and Theresa took her eyes off of Brian's journey above the audience's heads to say, "Are you sure? There might be some more in the box backstage."

Teddy was the bartender with the long braid of hair, and tonight his tattoos were as visible as ever because of the sleeveless shirt he was wearing. One ink-emblazoned shoulder went up and down. "I looked. We're sold out."

"That's awesome. It's close to midnight anyway. I can have some more made up after the show tonight and put out at Tracks."

The vampire was pleased with the way tonight was going. This was her final exam, as it were, as to whether or not she got to keep the job. She'd spoken with someone with the campus newspaper over at UNLV, and they'd sent someone to write a review of the show. The guy from the entertainment rag was still somewhere among the revelers.

Her short little ass had done some good work. She hoped Mike was pleased with her efforts.

Re: Crowd diving in the Dive

[brian_campo]

He bobbed up and down on the hands. The twirling stage lights and twists of crepe paper streaked color before his eyes, and yeah, okay, he was a little drunk; he just hadn’t known it while he stood still. There seemed to be indecision over whether to pass him backwards or up front again, and no amount of pointing and shouting got it across. At least once, a hand squeezed his balls on purpose.

Brian landed near the back of the crowd. Amidst people giving him friendly slaps on the head and neck, he shoved his way out of the melee. The good news? His wallet hadn’t disappeared. The bad news? He wouldn’t make it back on stage. They went into the last chorus without him.

He pushed sweaty hair off his forehead and cut to the side of the room. The plan was to hug the wall until he made it backstage. He made himself acknowledge Theresa with a nod as he passed the merch area. It was screwed up, finding out she sucked blood, and he hadn’t told her he knew it yet. At the last minute, he realized he was being a dick. He turned and shouted, “Hey… thanks for the—”

He stepped on an Asian girl’s shoe and elbowed her in the nose.

Re: Crowd diving in the Dive

[maddy_ricks]

As the last chord faded, Maddy lifted the bass strap over her head. She’d love to do a sweet swan dive into the crowd, but she’d worn a jean jacket and a pink tutu over garters and a giant pair of boots, so there was no way in hell she’d jump into that writhing pit of testosterone. Clearing the stage for the last band would take a few minutes, so she started to rapidly disassemble and put equipment in cases. Canned music pumped through the speakers.

Re: Crowd diving in the Dive

[melodymagic]

Nothing to do with the fact she'd been throwing sideways glances at where Brian was during his excursion to the back of the crowd, and more likely something to do with the fact she had been nursing a pre-mix vodka drink since she'd arrived, Melody managed to avoid having her nose broken, but her toes were a different story. She squeaked, loudly, as Brian trod on her toes, but managed to turn her head enough to take most of the elbow on her cheek. Her hands flew up to her face as her feet tried to free themselves from beneath his.

Re: Crowd diving in the Dive

[tiny_dancer81]

"Whoa. Hang on."

Theresa was about to acknowledge the beginning of Brian's sentence as he passed the tables she'd set up before the show started, and if she'd noticed his discomfort around her before, she hadn't mentioned it. She saw him trying to get past the girl with the drink in her hand, and her sharp ears picked up the squeak when he stepped on her foot. The vampire darted around the table before the mortal could stumble and potentially get pulled into the crowd. Get enough drunk people together, and anything could happen. Teddy could look after sales for a few minutes, since they had buttons and bumper stickers left now that the shirts were sold out.

"Are you all right?" she asked the Asian girl. Then she reached out to grasp Brian's arm to steady him.

Re: Crowd diving in the Dive

[brian_campo]

“Shit!”

Brian managed to smash her other foot, too, before he recovered his balance. It was useful having Theresa’s freakishly strong arm to clutch onto.

“Hey, are you okay?” he shouted into the girl’s covered face, right in time for the band to stop playing and his voice to carry. “Take your hand away.” Visions of broken noses and black eyes danced in his head.

Re: Crowd diving in the Dive

[melodymagic]

Melody lowered her hands, rapidly blinking back the tears that had welled up in her eyes and nodded slowly. Her preference for boots over sandals had proven to be a sort of saviour of her toes, the crushing effect being offset, but nonetheless still painful. And with having been able to turn her head she had more pain from the bump on the back of it, where she'd hit the wall with some force, than from the front. She rubbed at the back of her head as her hair, in two pigtails up high on each side of her head, jiggled and danced, the red intensified by the lighting in the club.

"Yes, I'm fine!" she managed to squeak, equally as loudly just before the next track of the canned music started automatically. She resisted the temptation to wipe the tears away, figuring that would be too obvious and she didn't want to look like a silly little girl in front of Maddy's bandmate, or the other woman.

Re: Crowd diving in the Dive

[tiny_dancer81]

There was no blood, which was good. The braids made the Asian girl look younger than her probable real age, but as an eternal teenager Theresa knew how that felt. She let go of Brian's arm when the musician seemed to have regained his balance.

"Did you spill your drink?" the vampire asked, then hooked her thumb over her shoulder at the bar. "I can get you one on the house if you did."

Re: Crowd diving in the Dive

[brian_campo]

Now that the crisis was over, the embarrassment of clobbering a girl in pigtails set in, and Brian rubbed his hands over his face, the effect comical because it tugged on his skin. “Jesus, I’ll buy her one if you can’t.” Only someone as chronically distracted as him would think that walking backwards in a crowded room was a good idea.

Should he offer to get her a bag of ice or just let it go?

Music blasted through the speakers and he raised his voice to be heard. “You’re Mel, right? You’re Maddy’s friend? It took me a second to recognize you without the elf hat.” Brian thumbed at the other brunette. “This is Theresa.”

[maddy_ricks]

Maddy chose that moment to pop up like a whackamole between the two of them. Later she’d be in trouble for skirting her onstage duties, but the curiosity over where Brian landed and whether he’d gotten manhandled was killing her. She didn’t say anything to interrupt the conversation, but she did stare at Theresa across the group and pantomime a phone receiver held up to her ear. She shook her head and worked up an exaggerated sad clown frown.

[melodymagic]

It was only when Theresa mentioned her drink that Melody realised she had in fact emptied hers down her shoulder, the empty bottle now in her hand. The sticky contents were dripping from the hem of the coat she was wearing, bright red, with a tucked waist and flared skirt that sat out, creating a few different routes for the streams of drips that were falling to the already sticky floor. She held the bottle out to Theresa and smiled, as Brian recognised her, and introduced them. She was really pleased she managed to keep herself from blushing, wishing that Maddy was there.

When Maddy appeared, popping up between the other two, Melody reached out and grabbed her friend's hand. She could feel the blood returning to her toes, but she wasn't really sure what to say to Brian. Instead she looked at Theresa and nodded. "Yes please, thank you!" she said, looking from her to Brian.

[tiny_dancer81]

Privately Theresa thought that Brian should buy the girl a drink, since he was the one who'd spilled it in the first place, but it was good PR for the club if they took care of little expenses in the course of regular business. It added to the place's rep if they didn't fuss about paying for the occasional drink.

When Maddy popped into view, the vampire arranged her expression into something neutral. She still hadn't explained her lack of a phone call. They were going to have to talk about that. But not now.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," she said to the Asian girl, holding out a small hand. "Hope you're enjoying the show despite the collision."

[brian_campo]

Since Theresa had made no move for the bar, it gave Brian an opportunity to take control of the situation. He pried the empty bottle from Mel’s hand and went to lean over the bar, where he flagged down Teddy and got it replaced with an identical drink. He gestured at Mel over his shoulder. The bartender followed his finger and nodded, coming up with a bunch of cocktail napkins from under the counter, too.

Brian came back and held both out to Mel. “Uh…” He wanted to help, but since he didn’t want to grope a stranger, he wasn’t sure where to go with the moment.

“Here.” Maddy took them and started patting the coat to absorb it. “Don’t rub, you’ll just get little bits of napkin all stuck to her. Like your face when you bother shaving.”

Exasperated, Brian gave up.

“What’d you think of the band?” he asked Mel. “If we were terrible, blame the bassist.”

[maddy_ricks]

“Everyone does,” Maddy chimed. “There.” She squeezed moisture from the hem of the coat and dropped the wad of ruined napkins in a trash can. She straightened up and looked at Melody, wondering if she’d go freakishly silent on her again just because a penis was in hand’s reach.

One thing wasn’t lost on her: Theresa hadn’t responded to her attempt to acknowledge the elephant in the room in a lighthearted way. This gave Maddy the personal resolve to go nuclear.

“Oh, Theresa, I think you’ve got something in your teeth.” She bared hers at the brunette and pointed.

[melodymagic]

Melody put her hand loosely into Theresa's briefly and thanked her. She took the drink Brian had brought, and glanced down at where Maddy was cleaning her coat, glad her friend knew how to look after it properly.

"It was great!" she managed to say at last, her voice carrying clearly over the sound of the canned music thumping out of the speakers, and then saw Maddy was pointing to her teeth when looking at Theresa. She looked from one to the other, wondering whether this was some sort of 'secret club signal' that she was oblivious to, never having been to a club before.

[tiny_dancer81]

Teeth. Teeth? What the...

Theresa almost checked her forehead for ridges, because Maddy did have that effect on her and it would suck to galactic proportions to give herself away in this crowd. She managed to turn the gesture into something that smoothed her hair into place, then ducked her head in a slightly abashed fashion.

"Yeah, I, uh, I kinda never called you," she said, scuffing the toe of her shoe across the club's floor. She had to raise her voice so the humans could hear her over the music coming through the speakers. "Sorry. I was having a...a personality crisis."

She wondered if any of the people present believed that. Guys usually bought excuses, but girls were different. The vampire looked at Melody's braided hair, touched her own streaked locks. Tonight, the streaks were purple.

"It's nice to meet you, Melody," she said once she'd taken her hand back. "Is this your first visit to the Dive?"

[melodymagic]

"Yes, it is," Melody replied, excitement shining in her eyes. She saw Theresa touching her own hair. "I like your streaks," she added, her nodding causing her own red curls to jiggle and bounce from their perches up on her head. She looked at Brian and Maddy. "Are you playing again tonight? Or is that it for your band?"

[brian_campo]

Brian stuck his hands in his pockets. "We're done."

Maddy took a pack of menthols out of her jacket. “Yeeee…up.” She lit up.

Brian took the lighter before it could be tucked away. There was an illustration of a Vargas girl in a polka dot bikini. “The last band’s about to go on. It's glam rock, which is great if you're into men skintight pants.”

"And I am." Maddy blew smoke rings at the ceiling.

[tiny_dancer81]

"Thanks, I just got it done," Theresa told Melody. "It costs, like, thirty bucks, but I wanted a different color after the blue faded."

She was mildly disappointed to hear about Maddy's interest in guys, but only mildly. Maybe if they could just hang out and stuff, she'd stop thinking about biting her. If Daniel could do it, anybody could do it.

"Who's actually made a resolution this year? And plans to keep it?"

[melodymagic]

"Not me," Melody answered, shaking her head. "My family celebrates Chinese new year." She stood on tip toe to see the band coming onstage, trying to see the band coming on next. Maddy had told her about them, but Melody had never seen any bands, until tonight. "Will we stay for the countdown?" she asked the other three, not sure if Theresa was supposed to be working or partying.

[maddy_ricks]

Brian fiddled with his t-shirt sleeve and shrugged. “I dunno. I might head out.”

Maddy tipped her head. Her mouth slipped into a power pout. “Aww… I know why you don’t wanna stay.” She wrapped an arm around Brian’s shoulder and squeezed him. “Don’t worry. I’ll kiss you.”

He snorted. “Try it and die.”

“Oh, it won’t be romantic,” Maddy assured him. “I’ll eat a bunch of nachos first and burp in your face.”

Brian grew uncomfortable with the line of conversation.

[melodymagic]

"Ewwwww, Maddy, gross!" Melody let out the exclamation and giggle at the grossness before she had the sense to stop it, her hand flying to her mouth when she was so loud it could be clearly heard by the three standing with her.

She died a little inside, again, and not for the first time felt weirdly uncomfortable, and completely aware of her inability to actually have conversations that conveyed any sort of intelligence at all. She curled her toes inside her boots, an act that reminded her how squashed they had been just a few minutes ago and brought her back to earth with speed. "I haven't been allowed to come to new years eve things before, I've usually had to work," she said, using the discomfort in her toes to help try and appear something more than a giggly twit. Which is sort of how she felt.

[tiny_dancer81]

Theresa laughed because she couldn't help it, both at Brian's discomfort and at Melody's sudden mirth. She didn't have any resolutions either, not really. Unlife meant things blurred together, and even though she'd been a vampire for less than a decade it was already happening. Maybe there was a pill for that.

"Well, I'm glad you're having a good time, despite the spillage," she told Melody. She should probably get back to the merchandise. Teddy was a nice guy, but he was drunker than Brian, and if any money went missing tonight she'd probably have to answer to Mike about it.

The vampire put one hand on each musician's shoulder, having to reach up a bit to touch Brian's shirt. "You guys killed tonight," she said sincerely. "I gotta dash, but if I don't see you after the countdown, happy new year."

[brian_campo]

"Yeah, you too. Later." Brian waved.

He looked at Melody and wondered how a girl as innocent as her got to be friends with Madeleine, whose mind was like a sewage pipe. It sounded like she still lived at home with her parents. Between that and working for them, she must be going nuts.

It was probably a good thing she was out with Maddy. Otherwise, repression like that tended to explode; One day, they'd find her with track marks in her arms, dangling from a pole on the seedy side of town in a schoolgirl costume.

The Vegas Special.

Jesus, he was glad he was telekinetic and not telepathic.

"In that case, you can't go home before the ball drops," he said over the music.

[maddy_ricks]

Maddy watched Theresa leave.

Yes, she had made the comment about the spandex-wearing metal heads on purpose. It was just that twice recently, a person of interest had asked for her phone number. Both Devin and Theresa had called. Maddy returned those calls, and then nothing, nada, dial tone for days. She wasn't a robot. She had feelings.

She shrugged off the departure and grabbed each of them by the arm. "C'mon."

They'd dive into the crowd, jump around and dance until the count down. Then she'd con Brian into smooching them both so everyone went home a winner.