New chapter! This is where all the real drama begins.
Alec had been in an especially foul mood all week. His playing had slowly gotten worse until Vorn had pointed it out during practice, and the bassist had thrown his instrument to the floor, swore a few times angrily and stormed out, slamming his surprised brother out of the way. The younger elf had been holding a drink for Tai that Kitchzy had brewed up to keep his vocals clean-sounding which had spilled onto the floor and left a dark stain that no amount of cleaning had managed to remove. The stain had started to smell after the first day and made practice harder for the boys and made Alec refuse to go back to the practice room. He'd spent days sitting in his room, fixing his hair and going through his wardrobe whilst ignoring everyone's calls for him, which in turn had irritated plucky to no end. Antherin's lack of understanding the situation or ability to help out with Alec had irritated Vorn, who was slowly ruining his drums from constant distractions, and getting more and more snappy at Tai, who'd simply tried to keep a cool head in the midst of all the chaos. Eventually, Kitchzy had sent them all to go out and relax while she sorted out all the problems.
They sat in their regular tavern with tankards of beer in front of them. Alec was quietly fingering his latest purchase- a pair of long, black leather boots –idly, his hair pulled back into its normal plat and dressed in his casual men's clothing for the first time in a while. He seemed somewhat calmer than he had been over the past few days and had settled comfortably into familiar environment without hordes of fans bothering him. Tai and Vorn were having a small quarrel about where the gig after next would be and if the next song should have a drum solo, vocal solo, or both. Plucky was surveying the tavern quietly, the cigarette hanging lazily between his teeth. His eyes locked on a group and the corner and he sat up straight, alerting the rest of the boys to his movements. They followed the direction he was looking.
The small group consisted of three girls, who were sitting by the stage. Alec noted with distaste that they were all Alliance. A young Draenei with dusty blue skin stood in the middle, her horns twirling backwards and brown hair pulled back into two ponytails, she had full, dark lips and wore a long black robe. To her left stood a young human woman with reddish-pink hair that hung around her pale, freckled face in thick waves, her eyes hidden by a low-tilted leopard-printed hat and dressed in a robe with dark brown and white patterns with a bare back. On the other side was an ageless-faced Kal'dorei woman with pale lilac skin and purple jagged lines down her face like blades, her green hair cut short with a sweeping fringe, wearing a low-cut green tunic with elbow-long sleeves and grey trousers tucked into gargantuan black boots. They were eyeing the four boys with dark smirks on their faces.
"Fuck. Trouble" Alec murmured.
"Head down" Vorn advised, staring fixedly into his own drink.
"Why are we-" Tai began.
"Quiet!" Vorn cut in.
The girls strode over meaningfully and stopped directly behind Alec, who was trying with all his might to tell Tai not to say anything. He could almost smell danger radiating off these girls and knew it would be a wise move to listen to Vorn when he spoke. Plucky was, for once, looking in the exact opposite direction of the women. Vorn silently preyed to whatever God or Goddess there may be that the women would leave them be- they practically radiated danger.
A thin, blue hand slammed down on the table between Tai and Vorn "Bur gol daer" came a thickly accented, smug voice.
"Lars dana" Alec muttered, receiving glares from the girls.
The young Draenei straightened up and glared around at the boys, then looked at Alec "Ash noth U rothas?"
Alec nodded one, glaring back.
"Y gloin hir melka re goth 'Kalar Spiritus-Deo' lon endirvis noth O se 'Authentic Dragon' agol far a'l 'Thanagor Mundi' bur waldir."
Alec nodded again, a bitter expression on his face.
The Draenei grinned smugly and left, waving lazily "Barad."
The other two followed with smug expressions on their faces. The young human brushed against Vorn's back, marking him drown darkly. They scowled at their retreating backs. Tai watched them leave with mild interest. He'd never heard so much common spoken in his life.
"Elf, where'd you learn to speak Alliance?" Vorn growled suspiciously.
"Cassie taught me a few words, same as I taught her fucking Orcish. Those fucking bitches were way to fucking smug."
"What'd they want?"
"Band Battle between us and their fucking band 'Kalar Spiritus-Deo' in some kind of fucking 'World King' tournament thing."
"Dude... Karla Spritings Dyoo?"
"Kalar Spiritus-Deo... translates to some fucking weird thing like Killer Spirit God or some fuck."
"Kalar means killer?"
"Yeah, why the fuck does it matter?"
"That human bitch said it to me."
Plucky leaned back on his chair and put a foot against the table, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Dude, like... are we gunna like... totally accept the challenge and stuff?"
There was a long pause where everyone thought about it.
"I think we, like, totally should."
"Start a fucking war why don't you."
"It's about sides now, not music."
Tai stood up purposefully "Then we'll, like, totally make it about the music!"
Alec stood, knocking his chair back and spilling his drink.
The tavern went silent.
"You just don't fucking get it do you, you fucking optimist. This is a fucking war they're asking for; this isn't about bands wanting to fucking see whose best, it's about Alliance versus the Horde. It's the last fucking thing we need, there's too much fucking stress anyway- our gig in Gadgetzan got cancelled last week because of that fucking dragon we named ourselves after!" He kicked the chair out of the way and stormed out, dodging past Plucky's outstretched hand.
Tai slumped down in his chair and sighed heavily. He rested his face in his hands and rubbed his brow slowly. Vorn watched him quietly, ignoring Plucky as he got up and followed Alec out. After a few moments Tai raised his head and looked at Vorn wearily.
"Do something about him" Vorn said.
"No, due, it's okay... he's like, got a point and stuff."
Vorn shook his head "You're soft."
"Doesn't matter, dude, I can totally handle it."
Vorn folded his arms and frowned.
"Trust me, it'll, like, totally work out and stuff" he smiled tiredly.
"You need sleep."
"And you need to, like, calm down. You're just, like, totally annoyed at what that human chick said to you."
Vorn stood and gave Tai one last look, then turned and left. Tai sighed and finished his drink tiredly. He knew Kitchzy would have a fit at Alec and then go hectic over planning, he knew the goblin would love the idea of a 'Band Battle'. Perhaps she would make some new business deals or increase their popularity or hire some guards for Alec, or whatever else it was she was looking for. He'd seen her eyeing a Mechano Hog the other day and didn't doubt that she'd be after it.
It wasn't until hours later, surrounded by empty flagons, did he pass out on the table.
Right, the translation to what the young Draenei said to the boys is "Suck stupid people", this isn't real Common translation because WoW doesn't have a real dictionary to translate by. 'Daer' however does mean 'People'. Alec replies "Ugly bitch" neither of the words are real translations. Most of the common was thrown together words from the game- using the wiki page on the language. Kalar= Killer, Spiritus = Spirit, Deo = God, Thanagor = King, Mundi = World... those are the only real translations.
Poor Tai, he gets pushed so hard for someone so nice and relaxed.
Since the reviews lef so far are by people without accounts I'll respond here:
BACON: Weird spacings? i checked over and didn't see any. Also, you said there was a 'redundant bit' without specifying what bit, so I can't fix it, nor the parts you said could be re-phrased...
Glad you like Plucky, he's quite fun to write about... all cool and mysterious and awesome. Don't confuse him with Plucky Duck though, anyway I recently went back and edited it so Plucky's hair is black so I could fit it in better. So sadly their hair/feather colour does not match XD!
And yes, Kitchzy IS made of win, she's just one badass manager-ess.
Laurea: Thanks for saying it has potential and nice characters, but the plot can't really be falling apart when it's actually picking up from here. I would do a review&rewrite but you haven't specified what about the storyline is a problem...
Also, I do have some issues writing dialogue because I have to pull apart all the random jumbled-up bits of thought in my head so I may go back and check over the conversations. Also, the point is that Alec DOES swear like an angsty teenager who's compensating for lack of vocabulary with swearing. It's what he does, it does get explained away, have no fear.
Please Review, people, and when you do SPECIFY anything you think needs working on because I'm not a mind-reader, guys ^^;.