Hey there and thank you for reading my contribution to the Soul Eater fandom's first ever Reverse Resonance Bang, aka Reverb! Shoutout to my wonderful artist Ash (rebornfromash on tumblr), and to my lovely betas Wynnie (xwynn) and K (earth-shrines)! Enjoy~
There was some older lady opening for them the night Harvar began to lose his sanity. Tall and sort of pretty, if he remembered right, but she had a certain glint in her eyes that made his skin crawl, no matter how smooth and sensuous her voice may have been. With Ox chattering in his ear while he tried to check the tuning of his guitar, he barely took notice as the bar's crowd gave a small, polite applause as the woman's performance ended.
She came backstage with an annoyed sneer curling at her thin lips, the look only enforcing Harvar's initial comparison of her likeliness to that of a snake. "Good luck; another bunch of no-good drunkards to vomit to your tune." Harvar didn't have time to open his mouth before Kim very nearly shoulder checked the woman into the wall, her bright green guitar dangling over her torso.
"Oops, sorry! I didn't notice the 'Beware of the Bitch' sign, my bad!" She called as she jogged backwards, a bright smile turning up her pierced lips. As she came into view of the crowd, raccoon beanie precariously perched on her head as if held by magic, the audience roared to life. Whoops and cheers raised into a cacophony of sound. Medusa, he thought the woman's stage name was, simmered in annoyance. Kim cupped her hand around her ear and waved the other up, signaling for the crowd to get louder. As the crowd cheered, Kim shot a wicked grin at Medusa, relishing in the crowd's approval. The woman stomped away with a low hiss.
Harvar distantly heard the noise swell again as Kilik joined Kim on stage, whooping and hollering at the crowd. He closed his eyes, fingers skimming over the strings and frets of his own guitar, going through the motions of their songs as he cleared his head. The stage was for their music, for the beat of the drums and the thrum of the bass, not the rumbling in his stomach and his hankering for Taco Bell.
"You gonna join us here on earth, spaceman?" A voice cut through his calm, bringing the rumbling of the crowd crashing back down to his ears. Harvar opened his eyes to find Jackie, her bass strapped to her chest and half of her hair styled up in a bun.
"Never left, unfortunately," he muttered, rolling his shoulders as they started towards the edge of the stage, making sure to stay in the shadows and out of the audience's sight. He squinted out at the crowd, impatiently blowing a stray strand of hair from his eyes. "Are these kids even old enough to be here? They look like they're twelve."
Jackie peeked around him, dark eyes flashing in the stage lights. "Yeah, maybe if you'd pay more attention to Ox, you'd know that they locked up the booze so the youngsters could attend." She cut him a look from the corner of her eye, a knowing smile twitching into place. "Or do his tales of romantic woe not interest you?"
"As much as I adore hearing about how his new love is 'as eternal as the raven's feather'-"
"Whatever that means," Jackie muttered, fully aware of Ox's knack for strange euphemisms.
"Exactly, so excuse me if I tune him out after he tells me anything important." Harvar adjusted his guitar's strap, eyes once again focusing on the crowd. "You should get out there. They're starting to get antsy."
She shook her head, flipping a piece of her hair over her shoulder as she moved past him. "Make sure to put on a good show," the bassist said over her shoulder. "Gotta show these kids what we're about, yeah?" Without waiting for an answer, she jogged out on stage, hands up with a megawatt smile on her face. Again, the crowd and its accompanying noise surged in excitement. All they needed now was him.
Harvar jumped up and down in place, shaking his limbs loose and preparing to feel the constant thrum in his bones. He reached up, cracked his neck, rolled his shoulders once more, and took to the stage.
They exited the stage almost an hour later, blood still singing with adrenaline and their joints holding the faint echo of the musical vibrations. Kilik hooted, punching a fist in the air as Jackie tossed a water bottle to Harvar's awaiting hands. The drummer grinned widely as he threw his hands out to his sides, as if his excitement was physically impossible for him to contain as he said, "That was awesome, guys! Did you see how packed this place is?"
Kim plucked Jackie's water from her hand as she slung her arm around her shoulders, taking a swig with a small smile on her face. "Hell yeah this place is packed! Have you heard us?" The guitarist said with no small amount of pride, her face shimmering dimly with sweat and her eyes bright.
Jackie snatched her drink back, hastily chugging the rest of the bottle before adding, "Ox probably had an aneurysm though, you all know that, right?"
Kim waved her off, leaning more of her weight onto her girlfriend's shoulders. "When doesn't he freak out over something he didn't plan?" She said, winking conspiratorially at Harvar. Before he could reply though, a very pissed manager was fuming at his side.
"Awl, shit." Kilik muttered, lowering himself down beside a stack of instrument cases, resigned to their collective fate.
"What in the hell was that?!" Ox yelled, face red clear up to his hairline. "Do you two realize what could've happened up there? Without practice, no less?"
"Cmon, Ox, lay off-" Kilik started from his spot on the floor, willingly throwing himself under fire for the sake of his bandmates. How noble, and incredibly stupid.
"Lay off!?" He hissed, vein throbbing from it's place in his neck. "They could've gotten hurt, or- or God knows what else, and you want me to 'lay off'?!"
A thick silence settled itself over the crew, Ox's face slowly returning to it's normal coloring. It took about .5 seconds for Kim to snap out of their collective trance and pounce, wrapping their manager up in a hug that lifted him of his feet.
"Aw! See, guys!? He does care!" She crooned as she shmooshed their faces together, Ox's becoming increasingly redder by the second.
Ox wriggled in her grasp, angrily trying to get away but to no avail. "Shut up and put me down! I have to care! You're my only clients, and I can't have half of you end up in the hospital or in a grave because you decided to do a fucking unsupervised flip off the amps."
"You gotta admit, though-" Harvar started, a small smile curling at his lips.
"It was pretty freakin' cool." Jackie finished as she sidled up alongside him, arms crossed and dark eyes glinting with amusement. Ox finally managed to get out of Kim's hold and dropped unceremoniously to the floor, landing flat on his ass.
Slowly, as if that would help save face, Ox got to his feet and dusted himself off. "Ahem, anyway, I spoke with Hiro."
"And-?" Kilik prompted, gathering himself up off the floor.
The manager looked between the four of them, a small smile slowly creeping to his face. "We're completely sold out."
The room was silent for a beat, for two. Then, they erupted into shouts of disbelief, Kilik and Harvar high-fiving with large smiles on their faces as Kim planted a kiss on Jackie's cheek and slung an arm over Ox's shoulders to pull him into a hug.
"You're kidding, right?!" Kilik asked in his excitement, dark eyes shining behind his glasses.
Ox shook his head with a grin, "Nope. Those kids completely cleaned us out- shirts, demos, bracelets, the whole shebang."
"And there goes the moment," Kim said sullenly, eyes rolling though her lips still held a small smile.
"What?"
"Please, for the love of the band, never say 'shebang' again."
"C'mon, Mizu." Kilik whined at the bar, tattooed arms draped over it as he rested his face against the cool finish. "Just one shot."
The bartender, Mizune, smiled and shook her head, reaching down into a hidden cooler to produce a cold beer for another patron, all of the underage kids had gone home, and all of their usual customers having taken their place. "Sorry Kilik. You have kids to go home to."
"No, actually, I don't. They're staying with my sister for the weekend, so...can I have a shot?" He flashed her a wide grin, and she reached for a glass with a roll of her eyes.
"Fine, one shot, but only because you guys were amazing tonight."
"Excuse you, we are amazing every night." Kilik said with a boyish grin, gratefully taking the shot in a quick swig before slamming the glass back down with a grimace as the liquor burned its way across his tongue and down his throat. He shrugged into his jacket. "Alright, I gotta go find the others and head out. See you tomorrow, sweetness." He said, leaning his upper body over the bar and planting a quick kiss on Mizune's cheek.
She smiled as he turned to leave and raised her hand in goodbye, calling after him, "You kids be careful!"
Kim dabbed at her makeup in the dirty mirror, carefully cleaning smudged mascara from under her eyes without disturbing her eyeliner. "So, we're headed over to Harvar's, right?" she asked Jackie's reflection, her girlfriend having perched herself on a discarded amp while she waited, the glow of her phone lighting up her face.
"Huh?" The bassist looked up and made eye contact in the mirror, brown eyes darkened by the shadows of the room. "Oh, yeah. He said Charlie wanted to talk to us about something."
Kim fluffed her cotton candy hair one last time before replacing her ragged raccoon beanie and swiveling around in her chair, the vinyl broken and vomiting up ugly yellow stuffing, all held together with duct tape. "Do you know what it's about? There's nothing wrong, right?" She asked, true concern coloring her tone.
Jacqueline slid off the amplifier, stuffing her phone into her back pocket and shrugging. "I dunno. I don't think there's anything majorly wrong, but.." She shrugged again. "I dunno."
"Hm," The guitarist hummed. Slipping on a worn leather jacket, she stuffed her hands in her pockets and started for the door leading to the main floor. Jackie followed close behind, once again pulling out her phone and tapping away at the glass screen. Kim glanced over her shoulder and furrowed her brows, slowing down so she could see the screen. "What're you looking at?"
A wide smile broke across Jackie's face as she tilted her phone to allow her girlfriend to see. "We're trending! On Facebook and on Twitter!"
"You're kidding!"
"Nope, look!" The brunette said as she shoved her phone into Kim's hand. "It's only locally, but it's something! Ox has to see this! Ooo, and our tag is blowing up on Instagram and Tumblr, too!"
Kim scrolled through the various tweets, all of them exclaiming how amazing their band was and how they were a 'must see'. Pictures of people with their copies of the band's EP scattered through the feed, taking up every other post. "This...this is amazing." Kim murmured, albeit a little breathlessly.
Jackie plucked her phone back and excitedly flipped through a few apps, "We gotta go find the others!" She looked up and gave Kim such a dazzling smile, the guitarist almost melted. She snatched up Kim's hand in her own and tugged her out through the door and into the main bar, "Hey Mizu!" Jackie said with a wave, standing on her tiptoes to see over a group of chittering girls her age clustered around the bar. "Have you seen the guys?"
Mizune pointed straight toward the door, and waved her hand in a vague gesture. Jackie raised a thumbs up that turned into a wave as she began pushing her way through the crowd.
Harvar stopped briefly by the bar to grab his jacket, and to talk to Mizune. As he slid into an empty stool, he murmured a low, "Hey, sweets."
The bartender gave him a sugary smile and produced a hard lemonade from beneath the counter. He raised a brow at her, and she impatiently blew a stray strand of periwinkle hair from her face. "Figured you needed something to loosen you up."
"And for that you chose Mike's Hard Lemonade?"
She shrugged, absentmindedly cleaning a shot glass with a damp rag. "Well, we don't need you too loose." Mizune winked at him conspiratorially and he groaned, running a calloused hand over his face.
"I've tried to forget that."
"Yeah, well I haven't." She laughed, as she put down the shot glass in favor of a cold beer, which she handed to a random man who leaned in beside him. "You're fun when you're drunk- a little cryptic and very lovey, but fun nonetheless."
"Mizu, please."
She grinned wickedly and leaned against the bar, "Oh, c'mon Harvey, don't you remember the time you ran na-"
"Mizune!"
"Oh, and don't forget what happened with the streetlight-"
"I'm leaving." And he did, rolling his eyes as the mousy woman laughed and drank his untouched lemonade. He had the weirdest fucking friends.
Making his way for the door, Harvar glanced someone short and blonde from the corner of his eye. One of the kids from earlier must've snuck back in. He sighed, turned on his heel, and trailed after them; despite how she harassed him, he still owed Mizune a lot, and taking care of one rebel child was the least he could do.
Just as he almost caught up to the kid, belatedly realizing that she's a girl, someone else beat him to it. His stomach rolled and he grit his teeth. Giriko. That bastard has no qualms about messing with a fifteen year old, and he knew it. Slowly, Harvar edged his way closer, trying to figure out how to smoothly enter the conversation and help the girl out.
"What's a little thing like you doing here?" Asked Giriko, bloodshot eyes roving over her small frame as he gave her a sharp toothed smile.
The girl didn't flinch or back down, if anything the look she gave him was...bored. Harvar was silently impressed. "I'm looking for someone. Now, if you'd get out of my way-" As if on cue, Giriko moved in closer, definitely invading her personal space if he wasn't before.
"Maybe I could help you out." In any other tone of voice, it might've seemed helpful, but it made his skin crawl, let alone what she must have been feeling. Judging by the look she gave him though, any sane person would've backed down, and Harvar could see her foot begin to expected it wouldn't be too long before that foot made direct contact with something soft, sensitive, and very unguarded.
The girl opened her mouth to speak and Harvar saw his chance. Quick and sly as a fox, he slid in next to her and draped his arm over her shoulder, and he felt her automatically tense. "Ah, there you are. I was wondering where you went," he said with a soft smile, pretending to just notice Giriko as he looked up. "Oh, hello?"
From the corner of his eye, Harvar noticed the girl's jaw clenching and unclenching. He silently prayed that she'd have mercy when this was all over. Giriko looked between the two of them and narrowed his eyes. "Who the hell are you?"
"You don't need to know who I am, Giriko. Leave the girl alone, and go fuck off somewhere else," Harvar said pleasantly, as if making a comment on the weather. Any sort of humor drained from Giriko's face, and his lips turned up in a snarl.
"You wanna run that by me again?"
The girl under his arm leaned into him, large green eyes shining under the dim light as she looked up at him. "Don't."
Harvar gave the girl a small smile, but didn't look away from Giriko. "Go. Fuck off. Somewhere. Else."
Then Giriko was very, very close- all sharp teeth and rancid, liquor laced breath. Harvar's nose wrinkled. "Who the hell do you think you are?" The man said lowly, eyes burning with a surprising amount of hatred.
"I'm the guy that's gonna kick your ass if you don't leave my girlfriend alone, you insufferable cumstain."
The girl on his arm laughed loudly and slapped a hand over her mouth, her face turning red in embarrassment.
Giriko's face flushed in anger, and Harvar inconspicuously pushed the girl behind him, hoping to at least keep her out of the way. The man before him sneered as his eyes flicked over him, Harvar expected a punch to come.
Giriko spit in his face.
Without thinking, Harvar's fist snapped out and he felt the satisfying crunch of the asshole's nose under his knuckles.
Blood spurted from Giriko's nostrils, and he hurriedly clamped his hand over his face. Harvar shook his arm out from his jacket, and tore off the short sleeve to wipe the disgusting saliva from his face, choking back the rising bile in his throat as he tried to think of literally anything else. Giriko's buddies dragged him away, one of them snatching up a small stack of napkins from an empty table on the way.
Harvar turned back to the girl, only to find the rest of his band stranding in a semicircle behind her, watching him with smug smiles. The girl finally piped up, arms crossed over her modest modest chest and hip jutted out to one side. "I didn't need your help, y'know."
"Well, that's no way to thank your boyfriend," He said, feigning a wounded tone as he grimaced at the slick glob now on the fabric of his sleeve. He folded it and stuck it in his pocket, making a mental note to violently scrub his face. With bleach.
She rolled her eyes, but a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips anyway. "Thank you." She said. "Are you happy?"
"No, I'm Harvar." He said as he stuck out his hand, "Nice to meet you."
"Maka." She said, her small hand giving his a firm shake. Harvar then took a moment then to introduce Maka to the rest of his band, all of them giving him wide grins for how he'd handled Giriko.
"So," he started as his bandmates drifted away, saying over their shoulders that they'll meet him in the van. "You said you were looking for someone?"
A relieved look flitted over her features as she nodded, "Yeah, I'm looking for Ox Ford and Eruka Ribb?"
Harvar raised a pierced brow questioningly, "Ox and Eruka? I can take you to them, no problem." He shrugged as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, and turning to leave, he said over his shoulder, "C'mon." With that he started meandering through the crowd, glancing behind him every so often to make sure that Maka was still there. As he neared the bar, he ducked through a large group of girls, and slammed his hands on the bar. "Hey, Mizu!" He called over the gaggle of giggling girls. "Have you seen Ox or Eruka?" She nodded and jerked a thumb towards the back.
Once he found Maka again, after having to almost fight for his life to escape the group of girls (who had apparently seen his show), he steered her by her elbow to the back and through the twisting halls. He found Eruka's office easily enough, and rapped his knuckles against the wood. A muffled 'come in' sounded behind the door, and he pushed his way through the threshold. "Eruka?"
A young woman sat behind a small desk, laptop open and a stack of papers scattered off to the side. She looked up at him over the orange rims of a pair of reading glasses perched on her nose, her silver dyed hair tied up in a messy knot. Her fingers stilled over the keys of her computer. "Oh, hey Harvar." She looked back at the screen and resumed typing, the glow of the monitor reflecting in her glasses. "Something you need?"
"Uh, yeah. I have someone who wanted to see you." He pushed the door open all the way and waved Maka in,"Eruka, this is Maka. Maka, Eruka."
The woman looked up, gently slipping the laptop closed, and rested her chin on steepled fingers. She gave Maka a small smile, black piercings dimpling her cheeks as the gesture reached her eyes. "How can I help you?"
"I wanted to ask you about-" Maka cut herself off, bit her lip, and gave a pointed look between Harvar and Eruka.
Luckily, the bar owner took the hint. "Harv, can you give us some privacy?"
The frontman nodded, turned for the door, and offered a backwards wave as he left. "See 'ya tomorrow."
