Live Concert [SIGN UP]

[Danny Clement]

It was a warm night and there was a fog rolling in from the ocean. The air was humid and smelled of fried food and salt water. Luckily there was a breeze to make the atmosphere less stifling.

There was a stage set up near the beach. Really, it was just a short platform made of wood – something that could be assembled and disassembled easily and often. It was sturdy enough, but Daniel would have to take care not to get too over-zealous with his movements. Someone with his kind of strength could really do some damage, even without intending to.

As Daniel switched on his microphone a bit of feedback squealed out of the speakers and he winced. He tapped the microphone a few times with his index fingers, hearing a thump thump. He leaned forward and spoke into the microphone.

“Check. One, two. Check. One, two.”

He listened to his own voice come back to him and walked over to the control panel for the sound system, which was positioned far to his right. He adjusted a few settings, then motioned for the back-up guitarist to check again.

“Uh… Check. Sound check. One, two, three.”

Daniel listened and adjusted a few more settings and motioned back to the guitarist.

“Still checking. Check, one, two, three.”

Satisfied, Daniel gave him a nod and returned to his place at the front of the stage, picking up his guitar from its stand to play a few cords, listening to make sure everything sounded just right.

[Mylène]

In Mylènes eyes there was only one thing that could equal the exitement and pleasure of a good hunt or skillful seduction: A nightly swim. It might be her romantic side coming out in her, but for her bathing in a moonlit sea, diving into the deep ocean and staying down there as long as she wanted – blessed be those who did not need to breathe! – was something she deeply loved and always took time for when she happened to come into a town near the sea.
She had only yesterday even arrived here in Santa Carla, and hadn’t even found another secure place to stay, but that was just like Mylène. Before the sun rose she would find some derelict building or a quiet corner without sunlight and she would be fine. Such things always worked out, no need to fret. This night was just too beautiful to pass it with looking for a hiding.

So for now she took pleasure in imagining to be a mermaid, piercing the subaqueous world with her sensitive and alert eyes, moving forward swift and agile like a fish, supported by strong arms and legs. Fairly sure that no one was keeping a close eye on her from the shore, she didn’t care to appear human, coming up every two minutes for air. She loved the underwater world too much to spoil herself the fun. Clearly, you could be well over two hundred years and still feel and act like a child once in a while. Where was the harm in that?
But Mylène was no loner, as much as she appreciated this kind of solitude every sometimes. The pier was slowly beginning to fill with people of all age, enjoying the slightly humid night just like she did and when she came up to lazily drift on the surface the faint noise of guitar chords reached her alert ears. Nice… it sounded like coming from speakers, so it was not just some romantic guy serenading for his love… a concert then?

Rolling around Mylène decided it was time to for a shore leave now, and so she made for the place she had left her shoes, a tranparent beach skirt and a towel for good measure. Even if she didn’t feel the cold of the night air, or at least didn’t have to care about it, she had to appear human after all.
Leaving her wet hair hanging loosely over her back and draping the towel over her shoulders more for decoration than for warmth, she sauntered over towards the makeshift stage, curious what the evening would bring. If the band was good, people might start to dance, to have fun. When people had fun they opened up, and when people opened up it was easy to reach them and maybe end up having a snack and some fun in one… but that remained to be seen.
For now, Mylène only lingered at the periphery of the area directly in front of the stage, observing what she thought would be the lead voice making the last soundcheck and smiling faintly to herself in anticipation of a possible great night.

---

Outfit: click!!

[Elisa Novak]

Elisa heard a voice echoing through the air as she swept a mound of what looked like reddish brown dirt out of her book store. She paused, wrinkling her brows to listen. The voice had stopped and she hadn’t quite heard the words, if there were any. Dismissing it, she continued sweeping until the dirt was scattered along the pavement outside. She picked up the large jar of similar-looking “dirt” sitting beside her and poured a thick line of it just inside the threshold of her shop. Anyone who was a regular at Boardwalk Books was used to seeing a line of dirt just inside the door, and knew to step over it. Anyone else might think Elisa had some sort of mental disorder.

Leaving the door open, Elisa replaced the cover on the jar and carried it across the store toward the back. Her dog, Rex, a large German Shepherd, watched her from where he was laying at the bottom of the stairs. She was about to take the jar down to the basement with the other witchcraft supplies when she heard a voice echo again. Rex’s ears perked up and Elisa set the jar down on her desk. Elisa looked up at the clock on the wall to check the time. Wasn’t there a concert or something tonight? A few of her customers had said something about a concert.

Elisa looked over at her dog, who looked entirely unenthused.

“You wanna go out, Rex?” she asked brightly.

He raised his head, but didn’t stand up. Usually if he had to relieve himself he’d dart for the door. Elisa unhooked her keys from a belt loop on her jeans and started walking up the stairs. Rex got up and followed behind her.

“Okay, Rexie, you mind the house while I go see what’s going on out there,” she said.

She unlocked the door that led to her large apartment and Rex ran inside. After setting out some fresh food and water for the dog, Elisa grabbed her purse and a sweater from the coat rack. She locked the door and headed downstairs, giving her store a once-over before heading out the main door and locking it.

Elisa could hear voices and guitar riffs as she walked down the Boardwalk. There were people everywhere and she could see a stage set up with a few guys scrambling around setting up. Screams, laughter and music from the surrounding amusement park cluttered the air. Elisa wasn’t sure how successful these guys were going to be standing out from all that noise. She stood with the crowd in front of the stage, pulling her button-up sweater around her.

[Danny Clement]

It took several minutes for the band to complete the sound check, which was a bit irritating, but Daniel was a bit of a perfectionist when it came to his music. Everything needed to sound just right. He had his back-up guitarist strum a few cords and then had his drummer tap out a beat. All the while he was messing with dials at the control panel. He could see the band getting antsy, but they didn’t question him.

They knew better.

After the sound was satisfactory, Daniel gave his band the nod and they took their places, preparing their instruments. Daniel returned to his own place at the front of the stage and smiled at the crowd, speaking into the microphone.

“Good evening, everybody. How’re we feeling tonight?”

A lack luster cheer rang through the crowd and Daniel shook his head.

“Wow. That was pitiful,” he said. “Let’s try that one again. How’re we feeling tonight? Are we ready to rock?”

A heartier cheer erupted and Daniel felt a little better.

“Alright, that’s more like it.”

He strummed his guitar and the cord echoed through the night.

“So, I’m Danny. I play lead guitar and sing. This is Casey on back-up guitar and vocals.”

He pointed to his right to where Casey stood. He was a tall, scrawny guy with a ring through his nose. Casey strummed his own guitar.

“And this is Joel on the drums.”

He turned to point behind him, where Joel did a little drum solo and saluted with a drum stick.

“We don’t have a name yet, so I guess we’re Danny, Casey and Joel,” Daniel said. “We’re going to play a cover for you to start out.”

He glanced around at the band, making sure they were ready.

“This was originally by The Doors. It’s called ‘Crystal Ship.’”

Daniel waited a beat before he started singing.

“Before you slip into unconsciousness
I’d like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss…”

The band chimed in on their cues as he sang and the concert had officially begun.

((OOC Note: Daniel will not be posting every round from now on. I’ll just post him once in a while to move the concert along. Mylene can post next, then I’ll post Elisa and we can just go back and forth until someone else jumps in.))

[Mylène]

A smile began to spread across Mylène’s face as she felt the air slowly beginning to fill with distinct emotions of excitement, anticipation and joy. They wove together into a beautiful pattern, like a carpet flying over the heads of the slowly accrueing crowd. In times like these Mylène liked to open herself up completely, allowing these emotions to take hold of her, they BECAME her own. She did not possess the power to direct emotions or control them, but she didn’t even wish for that. She wanted to participate, become one with the faceless throng and become one with their vibrating emotions. This perhaps was comparable to the image of stage-diving, being carried and swept away by a supporting crowd, but experiencing the adrenaline of the fall before that. Concerts were a perfect place for this kind of emotional stage-diving, because there the music would inflame the people. Only someone with a cold heart made of stone could not be moved by rhythm and sensation that was carried in music in the long run.

Having completed the soundcheck, the lead vocalist now stepped to the microphone and greeted the assembled crowd.

“Good evening, everybody. How’re we feeling tonight?”

He had a good voice, Mylène observed with detached interest. And he was not bad looking either. Also, what she could detect was an air of confidence radiating from him as he dismissed the weak first cheering attempts of his audience. Not discouraged, he apparently knew exactly how to play this game. But that was nothing unsual, he probably didn’t perform for the first time and knew that he was good enough to belong up there. After all, it did take a strong ego to walk up on a stage and take upon yourself the duty to entertain a picky crowd for some time.
She joined into the second, more erruptive cheer with all her enthusiam, and this time the singer, who now introduced himself as Danny, seemed content.

Anticipation made Mylène’s nerves jitter in sync with many other spectators in the crowd. What music would they be playing? The first chords ringed through the air and Mylène knew she had heard that song before… nowadays it was not as popular, but back in… the sixties was it? Oh yes, The Doors, now the man called Danny confirmed her hunch.
The beat of the song was slow, almost relaxed, and Mylène began to move her body to the rhythm almost as if in trance, letting the emotions carried through it take over her movements, swaying with half-closed eyes. She loved letting go like that.

“The days are bright and filled with pain
Enclose me in your gentle rain
The time you ran was too insane
We’ll meet again, we’ll meet again”

Danny’s voice rang clearly through the air, and he seemed to have captured every soul in close vicinity. Even though some of them might have maybe expected some more party music or heavy rock, you could see no one feeling out of place, they practically hung on his lips.
Mylène’s mind started to wander, encircling around the lyrics. The Days are bright and filled with pain… oh how ironic and amusing. Yes, to her days were too bright and filled with excruciating pain, she would never live through them, had to stay in the night. The time you ran was too insane… we’ll meet again… that sounded almost like a promise, a promise of compensation and it made memories come to the surface, linked to a certain face that seemed to say: “I had my reasons for leaving, it just had gone too intense… but maybe some day we’ll meet again… both older, both calmer and wiser…”

No, enough! She would not think about this, she would not let a stupid song tear open old wounds! She had to wake up from this dangerous trance! So Mylène forced herself to take interest in her surroundings again, freeing herself from the spell the music created. Talking was always a good option to reach that goal, and so she turned to a woman standing beside her. “They’re good, huh? Old song, but perfect interpretation.”

[Elisa Novak]

Elisa looked around at the growing crowd. It was quite a turn out. She guessed most people had already been on The Boardwalk before the concert started and wandered over out of curiosity like she had. Elisa joined in on both cheers. A band could always use a little encouragement before a performance. She guessed it was possible the band had fans who came out to support them, but she’d never heard of them before. When the lead singer said they didn’t have a name, she assumed they probably didn’t have much of a following either. At least, not yet.

Elisa bobbed her head in time with the slow rhythm of the music as she listened. The song was familiar. She had a few Doors albums on vinyl back at her shop. She sang along under her breath as the band played. Danny had an impressive voice once he got going.

“They’re good, huh? Old song, but perfect interpretation.”

Elisa turned to the young girl beside her who had spoken. She smiled.

“Hey. Yeah, they’re pretty good. Surprising since they seem new.”

She turned her attention toward the stage again. Maybe the rest of the band was newer than the singer. He seemed a lot more confident and take charge than the rest of them.

((OOC: Oooh, love your sig!))

[Mylène]

Mylène hadn’t really paid heed to whom she had started talking to, she had only tried to distract herself from those lurking thoughts and memories the music had revived. So far with success. The face had vanished into the far back of her mind, imprisoned in that kind of trunk she never intended to open until it was absolutely necessary. It hosted many memories of those roughly seventy years she now rather not thought about and if so, only with a few missing details.
Now free of those memories once more, she found time to examine the woman she had addresses a little closer. She seemed to be in her early thirties or late twenties, and was a pretty blonde with a cheery air around her. Mylène couldn’t help but like her instantly, or at least as much as you could like someone you hadn’t spoken more than a few words to.

Her alert ears had no difficulty picking up what the woman was saying over the noise of both music and busy Boardwalk in their back, but she leaned a little closer nevertheless, simply out of habit.
“Hey. Yeah, they’re pretty good. Surprising since they seem new.”
Mylène raises a brow in surprise. Oh really? Now she definitely wouldn’t have expected that, but she guesses her to be a local and therefore more informed than the vampiress could ever be concerning the circumstances.
“They are?! Woah, never would have thought that. That guy up there”, she pointed at Danny with her thumb, “looks like he’s spent his life on a stage and he’s got the singer’s voice to boot. If they carry on like that I’m sure they’re not gonna stay “Band with No Name” for long."

She flipped her hair back, raising her arms over her head a little to further move in the rhythm of the song, but this time careful not to get lost in it. And just in case, she would simply carry on with this conversation.
“By the way, I’m Mylène. Pretty new in town and totally clueless as of yet. But I seem to have come just to the right place at the right time”, she shouted against the howling guitars and rolling drums.

[OOC: Thanks!! Yours is simply beautiful!]

[Elisa Novak]

When Elisa mentioned that the band seemed new the other woman seemed surprised.

“They are?! Woah, never would have thought that. That guy up there looks like he’s spent his life on a stage and he’s got the singer’s voice to boot.”

She pointed to the lead singer as she spoke and Elisa studied him. He did seem more seasoned than the others. Maybe this was just a new band to him.

“If they carry on like that I’m sure they're not gonna say “Band with No Name” for long.”

Elisa smiled and nodded.

“Yeah. We’ll see how the rest of their set goes,” she said.

She watched the band for a moment, trying to decide how she felt about them. A lot of what made a band good had to do with performance, talent, and energy – that was true. But a band’s heart usually came through in their songwriting. She wondered if the band had any original songs.

“By the way, I’m Myléne,” the woman said. “Pretty new in town and totally clueless as of yet. But I seem to have come just to the right place at the right time.”

Elisa grinned and held out a hand for a handshake.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Elisa,” she said. “Yeah, this place is wild in the summer. Lots of people come for the beaches and the amusement park.”

Most of the locals hated tourists. They rolled in like the tide and flooded the whole town. For the whole summer the nights were filled with drunken college kids and screams echoing through the streets from the Boardwalk. Elisa didn’t mind. Then again, she hadn’t exactly grown up in Santa Carla. Maybe to the true locals she was considered a tourist, too. She turned to Myléne.

“So where are you from?” she asked.

[Mylène]

Mylène somehow always found it easier to converse with women in the beginning as there simply weren’t so many interpersonal ‘maybe’s’ and ‘what if’s’ involved that made the conversation slightly awkward from the beginning. When a woman approached a woman there never was this flickering of irritation, sending a clear “what does she want with me?” out to Mylène’s keen receptors, often followed by a spark of desire after they had sized her up. She liked that when her sole purpose was to find just such company and when the feeling was mutual, but not when she simply was out for a chat to divert her thoughts.

“Yeah. We’ll see how the rest of their set goes,”

Mylène nodded to that, sparing a quick thought on what kind of music this band would be playing next. Just from the way they were set up they could play almost anything, but maybe some preferences also could be told from the cover they chose? “Chrystal Ship” was a rock classic, so maybe they would stick to ‘oldies’? Or had this just be something to warm up and test the crowd?
“Yeah, I’m curious”, she confessed with a smile. “I came here to have a good time, and this song is cool, but maybe something faster and… heavier would be better next? Else I’ll suggest a name for them: Sleepwalker’s Trance” she joked.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Elisa,” she said. “Yeah, this place is wild in the summer. Lots of people come for the beaches and the amusement park.”

Mylène took the hand without hestitation and shook it firmly – though making sure she wouldn’t crush Elisa’s hand. Now that would surely arouse some awkward questions. It was not like Mylène wasn’t used to lie to get herself out of tight spots such as these, but it was always better to not take any chances to begin with.
“Nice to meet you too, Elisa. And I can imagine!” She let her gaze flicker quickly over the boardwalk, the high rollercoasters, carousels and other attractions, tuning out the music for a moment to listen to the excited screams and cheer of the crowd in the distance. “This place surely looks like somewhere you can have a great time. Are YOU from here?”

Elisa’s next question was one she needed to treat with some care again. Lies were quickly thought up, but they should at least bear such an amount of truth that one: they still seemed likely and two: if happenstance made two people she told different tales ever met up it wouldn’t cause any trouble. So she simply shrugged with a smile and made a wide gesture with her arm. “Oh, here and there. My parents came from France, hence my name, but I’m used to travel around a lot. I’m… what you could call a restless soul. My last dwelling place was LA, but it got too crowded there for me.”

[Elisa Novak]

Elisa chuckled at Myléne’s comment on the band’s choice of music. It was hard to tell from the first song how a band was going to be. She and Myléne exchanged introductions and shook hands. Myléne struck Elisa as the tourist type with the way she seemed so excited to be in Santa Carla. The locals didn’t really see the place that way. She asked Elisa if she was from there.

“I’ve lived her a while,” Elisa replied. “But I’m from New Jersey originally.”

When Elisa asked Myléne where she was from there was a bit of hesitation and the answer was vague.

“Oh, here and there.”

She elaborated, saying her parents were from France and she’d traveled a lot.

“My last dwelling place was LA, but it got too crowded there for me.”

Elisa smiled.

“Ahh, Los Angeles. The home of fame, fortune and starving, struggling musicians.”

She chuckled.

“I lived there for a while. I really liked it, actually.”

Elisa probably still would’ve been in L.A. if fate had allowed it. But, there was no use dwelling on what-if’s. Her path had led her to Santa Carla, and she believed everything happened for a reason. She just wasn’t quite sure what that reason was yet.

[Mylène]

Ah, so Elisa wasn’t from here, either. That was interesting and not even all that unfortunate, as being here for a while would surely make her know a few important things. For what Mylène needed most were information, about places to go and maybe even more important, places NOT to go, at least when you were human. Cause where humans didn’t venture normally was either a good place to hide or a good place to hunt or both. As soon as she was on a bit more friendlier terms with this woman, she would surely ask about such things.

“New Jersey? Niiiice”, Mylène dragged out the word teasingly, nodding to Elisa. “Small, but powerful I say! Did you like it there? When passing through New York I took a short visit there once, but that’s about it.”
Hmm… maybe she should tone it down with adding all the places she had been, or Elisa would soon get the reasonable suspicion that such many places couldn’t have possibly visited by a girl of her supposed tender age. But it was always like that with Mylène, in her hurry and eagerness to become acquainted, she sometimes took more risks than absolutely necessary.

But as she had already said she’d been to L.A there was no harm in sounding all knowledgable about it. After all it had been ten years – with certain intermittences and stays in other states of course – so she could claim she knew that big city well.
Laughing, she could only agree to Elisa’s characterisation. “You almost sound like one of those struggling and starving musicians”, she joked and pointed up the stage. “Admit it, you’re one of this lot and will storm the stage later to amaze us all with your strong voice!” Then she waves her own comment aside. “But really, tell me about this place if you can. What are the do’s and don’ts here? I’ve heard some strange things that a few years back this town must have been positively gaga, but no one said clear things. Anything true of that?”

[Elisa Novak]

Mylène asked if Elisa had liked New Jersey, saying she’d paid it a quick visit once. Elisa shrugged.

“I don’t know. I mean, there was nothing really special or exciting about it,” she said. “But, it’s home.”

She smiled and started to wonder if this girl had a particular place to call home. She seemed to have traveled a lot and when Elisa had asked where she was from she hadn’t had a clear answer.

Mylène commented that Elisa came off as a struggling, starving musician.

“Admit it, you’re one of this lot and will storm the stage later to amaze us all with your strong voice!”

Elisa laughed at that. Mylène wasn’t the first person to assume she was a musician. She did have a love of music and she tended to know a lot about it. She also had a tendency to fall for musicians.

“Not exactly,” she said. “Unless karaoke makes you a musician.”

She smiled and winked. There was a time when she’d thought she wanted to be a musician. She could sing and play a few simple songs on the guitar, but that was about it, and those days were far behind her now.

Mylène asked about the town. She wanted Elisa to tell her the in’s and out’s of the place and its past.

“I’ve heard some strange things that a few years back this town must have been positively gaga, but no one said clear things. Anything true of that?”

Elisa wrinkled her brows thoughtfully. There was a lot to talk about when it came to Santa Carla’s past. A lot of mysterious things were embedded in the town’s history. The question was: which things did Mylène want to know about?

“Well, it used to be a way bigger tourist attraction than it is now,” she said. “It still is because the Boardwalk’s, like, one of the oldest amusement parks in the country and one of the last few beachside amusement parks around. So, you get rides, games, and a beach all in one place.”

She glanced up at the stage and smiled at Mylène.

“And sometimes you get to watch bands with hot singers.”

Elisa’s eyes widened as the song ended just as she’d made that last comment, still yelling over the music that was no longer playing. A few of the people around her laughed, some of the other ladies gave shouts of agreement directed at the stage. Elisa laughed and shrugged, joining in on the applause and cheering that had erupted from the crowd. Whatever, bands were used to women yelling out that they were hot, right?

[Danny Clement]

As Daniel performed with the band he had to concentrate more than the average musician while he played and sang. If he wasn’t careful, with his sharp senses, he could’ve easily become overwhelmed by all the sounds around him. If he got too lost in the performance, it would also be possible for him to let his true nature slip out by moving too quickly or baring his fangs. With this much attention on him something like that would surely be suicide. So, as Daniel played, he wasn’t getting too caught up in the performance or letting the energy of the crowd carry him away. He was alert, vigilant, and quietly disciplined.

The crowd’s response to “Crystal Ship” was mixed. Some seemed to enjoy it, some seemed a little bored by its slow tempo. He let his ears catch a few comments here and there as they played. As they wrapped up the song he heard one woman’s comment loud and clear.

“…rides, games, and a beach all in one place. And sometimes you get to watch bands with hot singers.”

His gaze pinpointed the surprised expression of a blond woman in the crowd. The crowd around her did too. There was a young-looking woman beside her who seemed to be chatting with her in a friendly enough nature. Maybe they were friends. The crowd cheered, with a little extra energy from that section and Daniel smiled, speaking into the microphone.

“Thank you,” he said. “Especially you over there, ladies. It’s always nice to get a compliment.”

He made it sound like a general statement directed at whatever section the hot singer comment had come from, not wanting to seem suspicious by directly pointing out the woman who had said it… or embarrassing her further by drawing more attention to her. Daniel strummed a few cords on his guitar, thinking of which song to play next.

“That was a little bit of a warm-up for us,” he said. “I think we’re gonna kick it up a few notches. What do you think, guys?”

He began playing a random riff from a song he had in mind as he spoke, glancing around at the band to gage a reaction. The back-up guitarist nodded immediately. The drummer took a bit longer to catch onto the tune, so the back-up guitarist went over and whispered in his ear while Daniel continued speaking to the crowd.

“We’re gonna switch gears here. It might be a bit of a shock compared to what we just played, but I think you guys are a cool enough crowd to forgive us. Am I right?”

The crowd cheered in response.

“You guys seem like you’re a crowd that likes to rock. Am I right?”

The cheering grew louder as the back-up guitarist began playing the intro riff to My Chemical Romance’s “Helena.” He wasn’t sure how the crowd would respond to it, but he had to try a few things to get a feel for his audience before he knew for sure what to play.

“That’s what I like to hear!” he said. “We’re looking to give you a killer show tonight, so stick around, have fun, and show us what this town’s all about! This is ‘Helena’ by My Chemical Romance.”

After a few beats Daniel started singing the soft opening verse of the song.

“Long ago
Just like the hearse you die to get in again
We are so far from you…”

The guitar riff intensified and the drums kicked in and Daniel jumped in, belting out the next part of the verse.

“Burning on
Just like a match you strike to incinerate
The lives of everyone you know…”

[Mylène]

It struck a peculiar chord in Mylène to be reminded of something like ‘home’. People who actually could say they had a home were lucky and unlucky at the same time in her eyes. Having a home meant security, a fixal star you could always orientate yourself to and return to when in need, but it also meant being chained. Chained not only to a place, but to people dwelling in that place and their expectations as well. When you said where you thought yourself at home it created a firm image in people’s minds, one almost impossible to destroy once formed. Take herself with admitting she had French heritage. America might be a cultural melting pot but there still were those who intruded and those who had been there for centuries, thinking themselves ‘American’. The minute Mylène told anyone she had been born in France, she could practically hear the cash register jingling, labelling her the foreign chick for all eternity.

But did she really want to fit into America? No, if Mylène was completely honest with herself, she knew that wasn’t true. The States were a temporal home, suitable for a while but she could decide turning back to Europe any given day. Her real home? That had been the Paris of the late 18th century. As that was irrevocably gone, she could as well call herself homeless – and wouldn’t even mind as much.
”Everything that makes it home is special”, she commented with a shrug and a smile, dismissing the topic.

Elisa denied being a musician and Mylène discarded her wild guess joining into the laugh and giving her new friend a thumbs up. “In my world, karaoke counts very well! I mean, it’s sometimes easier to sing something on your own than singing AFTER some already existing tune or timing. Of course… it all depends on whether you can actually CARRIE that tune”, she finished, puckering up her face in rememberance of some truly gruesome karaoke evenings she had attended.

The answer the woman gave her about the town didn’t steer quite into the direction Mylène had aimed at. She wanted to know more about all those peculiarities, rumors about murders and the like. Though every time she had wanted to dig deeper, people suddenly became very interested in other things. Was that some sort of trauma repression? Then it really must have been some bad stuff going on… and it truly made her all the more curious. Mysteries were one of Mylène’s dearest weaknesses, she always wanted part of them, if she couldn’t solve them after all. Maybe because the feeling of excitement mixed with frisson was one of the sweetest she could think of?
”To be honest, yeah that’s what drew me near. All those flickering lights at night, a beach close by to swim, the excitement of the people”, she grinned, “it just smells like one big adventure to an infantile soul.”

When Elisa’s mishap came to pass, Mylène actually clasped a hand over her mouth and doubled over with silent laughter. She could feel the embarrassment and felt for the woman, but at the same time it was just so funny, even more so as it seemed to really turn the band’s attention towards them for a second. Elisa was probably glad she didn’t stick out as the culprit, but Mylène did not know such shame. At the lead singers comment she gave a cheery “Hear, hear!” and blew a kiss in his direction. He WAS a hottie and she would not let that go unappreciated. Then she delved into the fast beat of the new song, calling over to Elisa with gleaming eyes: “Great song choice, don’t ya think? Gotta love MCR!” Though she had to admit it was almost creepy in what way those songs the band chose seemed to relate to Mylène in some way or another.

[Elisa Novak]

Mylène was quick to drop the subject of who was from where when Elisa mentioned that New Jersey was her home. Elisa wasn’t sure if that was because the topic of home made this girl uncomfortable, or if there was something about New Jersey she didn’t like.

When Elisa said she did karaoke, Mylène insisted that did put her in the category of “musician.” That was, if she could carry a tune. Elisa laughed at the face the girl made. She’d heard some horrible karaoke performances and she guessed Mylène had too. Elisa had won enough karaoke competitions to know she could carry a tune, and she’d had a lot of fun and met some interesting people doing it. She wondered if there was a karaoke circuit in Santa Carla.

After Elisa mentioned all the tourist attractions, Mylène admitted that those things were what had drawn her to the town in the first place. Elisa couldn’t fault her for that. She herself had been drawn to the ocean and the laid back attitude of the town as a whole, even during tourist season. It was a place where she could get lost for a while.

When the song ended, Elisa joined in with the cheering, hoping it would drown out her comment. And then the singer thanked the ladies in her direction for the compliment. Well, at least he hadn’t singled her out. Mylène called out a ‘hear, hear’ and was bold enough to blow the man a kiss. Elisa laughed. She had a feeling this girl had a wild streak, which could be a lot of fun in the right situations.

The band started playing a My Chemical Romance song. Personally, Elisa had preferred The Doors, but at least these guys were versatile.

“Great song choice, don’t ya think?” Mylène asked.

Elisa smiled and made a thoughtful expression. She held her hand out flat and tilted it back and forth to signify a “so-so” kind of reaction. She didn’t want to start screaming over the music this early in the show or she’d have no voice by the middle.