Chapter 6

Steampunk?

A thud sounded from outside the room. Instantly jerking awake, Beck rolled to the side, afraid that it was a pouncing Trina. He was barely rested, having slept with one eye open. After he and Trina had entered the room, she had been very friendly. Too friendly. She had violated his personal space repeatedly, touching his arm, his hair, nearly climbing into his lap when he had slumped down on the couch. Trina had been wired after the flight, and Beck had been quite exhausted. His attempts to fend her off had worked, eventually. But she had been far too touchy-feely for him. Finally, he had pried himself free and locked himself in the bathroom, where he showered, shaved, and generally wasted time until Trina had begged him to get out so she could pee.

He had cursed Sikowitz when he had paired him with Trina. But there had been a plus to the room. Both beds were in separate rooms. While Trina had been in the bathroom, he had gone into his sleeping room, which thankfully had a lock. He studiously ignored her knock on his door, and shortly after he had lain down, he had fallen asleep.

Bad dreams had plagued him. He kept seeing Trina outside his door, lock pick in hand. Every time he woke up, he found no proof that she had been at the door. But still, bad dreams meant bad sleep. The loud thump came again. From the main door, he assumed. He fumbled up the clock, and saw that it was morning. He pulled on a pair of jeans, and carefully opened his door. The main living room was empty to his probing eye. He crossed toward the main entrance, running his hand through his hair, which through long training, instantly fell into perfect place. He opened the door and saw Sam.

Beck's breath caught in his throat. Sam was gorgeous. Her smoky, bluish, greenish, greyish eyes sparkled with a bright enthusiasm. Her hair fell around her face in a golden nimbus, billowing slightly in the breeze. She wore a light green t-shirt, cut off to display her perfect abs. Her jeans were tight, but not overly so. She had a pair of dark, tooled leather boots, which gave her a few inches, which was nice, as he towered almost a foot over her.

She gave him a look, having noticed his slight intake of breath, and said, "Hey. Wake up call. We're heading out in thirty. Wake the beast and head to the continental breakfast room, or we're leaving you two behind." She turned and sauntered away, and Beck could swear she was putting a little extra hip wiggle in her walk, which distracted him mightily.

He finally turned away from watching her to go back into the suite. He quickly ducked into the bathroom, touched up his hair, brushed his teeth, and went into his room. He pulled out a very tight shirt, which he knew would show off his body. Then he could not put off the part that he was dreading. He padded over to Trina's door, and knocked. "Trina?" he called when there was no answer.

"Beck!" came the sleepy response. "Come in, please."

"I'd rather not," he replied. "But it's time to get up. We got to get moving. Apparently, we got about a half hour till we head to set." There was a flurry of noises, and the door popped open. Trina was dressed, and she smiled at him winningly.

"Just let me brush my hair and we'll go," she said, sliding past him. He turned and headed for the door. Trina left the bathroom, and together they exited the suite. Trina grabbed onto his arm, and leaned into him as they walked. Beck looked at her like she was insane, and tried to pull away. She tightened her grip, and with a resigned sigh, Beck just let her hold his arm. Besides, he thought, maybe this will make Sam jealous. He grinned.

The group got together around a large round table. Cheerios and bagels and bananas were eaten, and everyone was in good spirits. Tori and Jade walked in about twenty minutes late. Beck, still deathgripped by Trina, shared a knowing look with Robbie and Andre. They grinned back as Cat sprang from her chair, and hugged both dark haired girls.

"Wow, did you see that view?" Cat squealed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Jade glared, and Cat flinched back, still smiling. Cat led Jade to the table while Tori got two bowls of cereal and snagged a few oranges. She sat down next to Jade and they joined the conversation about the pretty setting they found themselves.

Finally, the shuttle bus driver, Ian walked into the breakfast room. "Morning, everyone! How'd ya all sleep? Everybody ready to go to the shoot?"

"Heck yeah!" said Robbie. He bounded to his feet, scooped up his script, which he had been reading off and on, and hurried toward the door. Everyone else got up as well, excited but not sprinting to the door like Robbie had.

Minutes later, they had all settled into the shuttle van. "Alright," Ian said, throwing the vehicle into drive, "we'll be heading to the set, should take us about half a tick to get there."

"Half a tick?" asked Tori, confused.

"Thirty minutes," Ian replied. "Sorry. Forgot you don't speak Kiwi."

"Kiwi?" was the next question, this time from Andre.

"Oi! You guys just didn't do any cultural homework did you? Kiwi is what we New Zealanders call ourselves." Ian laughed and merged through traffic.

"Well, learning new things every day is a good thing," said Robbie. "So to learn something else, I've been flipping through this script, and there's several references to 'steampunk.' What is that?" He glanced around the interior, trying to meet everyone's eyes, but was unable to.

Beck snapped his head up from the back of the seat, looking at the boy in front of him with total disbelief. "You don't know what steampunk is? Why are you even in this movie if you don't know what it is?"

Robbie turned to the gang behind him, giving them a weak smile. "I just wanted to be in a movie, and I got the part, so it can't be that hard. Can it?" He sank back into his seat.

Trina let out a heavy sigh and moved from her seat next to Beck, pushing her way into the seat next to Robbie. "Look, dork, the simplest way to explain it, is that it is science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century. Some of the technology that is used in some stories or movies are like the fictional machines found in the works of H. G. Wells. However, what you are going to see on set, is the subculture of Steampunk. This is a whole other animal and will take you seeing it first hand to understand, and enjoy. The steampunk subculture thrives on velvet, brass, top hats, goggles, Victorian clothing, and clockwork machinery. All those 'Like a Sir' and 'Indeed' with a monocle memes that you see on splashpage all draw from the steampunk lifestyle." Trina turned back to the others to see that every eye was on her besides Tori's.

Andre leaned over the back seat, trying to get closer. "So is steampunk anything like Jade? Goth…Punk?" All heads turned back to the girl sitting in the front seat.

Trina shook her head. "Yes and no. There is a lot of punk to it, but there is the side of Victorian era. The music is a lot alike, however, steampunk has a lot of older…oh hell, here." She pulls out her pearphone. Shuffling through the music, she hands the phone to Sikowitz to put on the dock. "This song is from Poison Garden, the name of the song is Days of Steam." Everyone sat quietly listening to the music as it played. Jade had fallen in love with the song right away. Tori played on her phone, she had heard it millions of times. She was not impressed with Trina's love of steampunk and didn't like to keep her secret obsession over it, along with all the other secrets she kept for her sister. So at least this one she could let go.

"You know, Evanescence could be classified in this category of music. However, when I think of steampunk, I think of Nightwish," the shuttle driver said. The song played on as they pulled into the set. Everyone looked out to see people walking in small groups to the soundstage. The friends piled out of the van and Ian gave a jolly wave before driving Sikowitz to the production office with the paperwork.

"Well, come on," gulped Robbie. "Let's go meet the director and see what we're doing today."

"Trying to take over the world!" cried Cat, throwing her hands in the air while she did so.

"Oh, come on," griped Sam. "Brain always said what they were going to do tomorrow night, not later today, Pinky," she said, sarcasm sharply evident on the mocking nickname she gave Cat.

Cat gave Sam a hurt look. "I know that, but on the flight over here, we crossed the international date line. So this morning is last night back home."

"Ok, ok, jeez," Sam said, dropping an arm over her shoulder as they headed toward the dark interior of the soundstage.
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A/N- Sorry I have taken so long with getting an update. I have been working on my other story. The song Days of Steam is one of my favorite gongs from Poison Garden. I will in later chapters mention art work, books, and film with Steampunk themes. If you would like to know more about Steampunk subculture PM me and I'll hook you up.