"Don't be nervous."
She looked over her shoulder to Erd who smiled to her, touching her shoulder lightly. He could obviously tell she was uncomfortable wearing what she was and even more uncomfortable doing so whilst packed into this crowded room. She sighed; at least they were with her. The room reeked of drugs, sweat and booze and the "show" hadn't even begun. It was a large room, with high ceilings and a concrete floor. The lights in the ceiling were those large, domed, iridescent ones, the kind that hurt to stare at for too long. She shifted in place, her shoes were terribly uncomfortable. All of this was terribly uncomfortable; the lack of space, her outfit, the people, the stench. The list of unpleasantries assaulting her went on and on. They had gotten her into the royal blue, cold-shoulder tube top from the Entertainment store and she stood there, awkwardly bearing the Wings of Freedom over her left breast at her heart. Erd and Auruo had made various suggestions as to her outfit; along with her newly purchased top, she sported a series of silver, layered chain necklaces, a taught black mini-skirt with three vertical pleats, a slim, white belt shifted diagonally over her hips, black, baggy, ruffled knee-high boots, royal blue tights and a series of bracelets and bangles in the band colors. She applied slightly heavier make-up for the occasion; a warmer lip tone and thicker mascara and eye liner, but nothing too daunting. Her outfit exposed her midriff and most of her thighs; this was the most exposed she had ever been in public, whilst not at a beach or that sort of function.
She had been both flattered and frustrated with them as they made suggestions to her, and Auruo was quite pleased with the end result. Even through all of the glares and complaints received, the outcome had left him with no regrets. Both he and Erd had nodded with eyes closed and arms crossed approvingly back to back, tooting their own horns about how good she had come out. How no one would be able to tell with their transformation that she had once been so straight-laced. She had been slightly embarrassed at this, arguing how she would never adorn such an outfit. Though, she somehow... ended up doing so. She had convinced herself that this was her wild night. Usually so straight-laced and proper, conventional and practical; she decided tonight would be her one night to break that. She was young and would let her hair down, so to speak.'For her youth', Erd had argued. Well, also for them; for Auruo and Erd. They loved this band and she would give in this once. Plus, then they couldn't argue that she didn't let loose. She... let loose. She didn't have to be straight-laced. Well, at least not tonight. She reassured herself that what she was doing would end up fine; she'd have time to make up what she lost tonight if it meant making her friends happy and... 'living a little'. She wasn't certain how much she really liked 'living'.
She looked ahead to the stage, and people started cheering when the ceiling lights dimmed in the room, although, she had no idea why. Some people came on to the stage across the sea of people in front of her and started testing equipment. Some lights flashed from the mix of electronic contraptions suspended on metal bars above the stage and some notes were played, the volume was lowered or raised accordingly. A tall, well-built guy with toned eyes and chestnut brown hair that was pushed back and came to a point at the back of his head, started shouting orders about the position of the lights and the avoidance of sound interference between speakers-whatever that was. Move this, turn that, plug this in, turn that off, tape that down, etc. After some ten minutes of tests and such, it seemed they were finally ready. He left the stage, and people cheered again. She didn't think that was very nice and truly didn't understand why they would cheer at his absence. The room grew very dark, and someone in front of her to the right lit up some sort of a cigarette, which choked her a bit; making it difficult to breathe. It smelled so heavily of sweat and sex and the lack of light only made it worse; the darkness only increased her olfactory senses. Lights were flipped on, and the stage was lit up palely from behind. Someone came out on to the stage with... either a guitar or a bass, she couldn't tell- a fairly tall and seemingly well-built guy, but it was impossible to make out his features in this mix of smoke and lack of light. People cheered wildly at his entrance and the volume only grew as two other men entered the stage, heading to either side of the guy in the middle. One of them also wore a guitar.. or... a bass guitar, she wasn't certain, but the other headed over to a keyboard that had been set up by the guy with the nut-shaped head. The one with the guitar was fairly short, maybe only slightly taller than her, and people seemed to be particularly excited for him. The keyboardist was fairly tall and of good-build, but she couldn't tell much more than this. There was a drum set at the back of the stage. However, she didn't know if anyone was sitting at it. A strong, determined voice came from the stage in near monotone, but she wasn't certain as to who spoke.
"Nothing can be changed-"
Nothing can be changed? It didn't make any sense to her. She squinted her eyes to see through the fog of stench of smoke.
"Without sacrifice!"
The crowd roared out in unison, fist pumping in to the air, startling her, and just then, the lights for the front and center stage flicked on and the music started. She was blinded by this change and slightly dis-equilibriated from the sudden shift in noise level and fiddled in place, trying to see over the sea of people in front of her. The sound went booming in her ears and she could nearly feel it in her pulse; resounding in her skull. It wasso loud and the noise from the people surrounding her cheering didn't help. She could now see the stage, and lights began blasting in tune with the music over the crowd in a rainbow of different colors, pulsing with the beat.
The well-built guy in the front was blond, had his hair smoothed back to the sides, with the lower half of it shaved, allowing his top hair to cover a portion of the lower half of his scalp. He had a strong brow, with thick eyebrows and sharp, blue eyes and an equally powerful voice that only added to the vitality of his words. He shifted a lot as he sang in to the mic, going from playing drawn-out, high-contrasting guitar riffs, to singing, to doing both simultaneously. His performance was passionate and sporadic. He had a double helix piercing on the upper rim of his right ear amongst other smaller piercings leading to the lobe, and wore a clean, dark blue button-up shirt, un-tucked from his pants and an open, half-length, long-sleeved, tan jacket. Over this, he sported a navy blue bolo tie with a white X on it that swung as he shifted with the music between the hems of his jacket. She could tell that he was well-built, even through his trim Oxford. His collar bone and jaw line were well sculpted and she couldn't help feeling somewhat attracted to him. He had a big personality.
The guy to his left kind of stood still, slightly in the shadows, as though he was trying to avoid drawing much attention. Though, he obviously had it; the crowd at his feet was going crazy, some people grabbing near him. He seemed to keep a slight distance from the edge of the stage for this reason. His hair was in a similar style to that of the vocalist's; the lower half shaved, but his hair was stark black and wasn't smoothed over, allowing his bangs to play at his face as he swung softly with the back beat. He had his eyes closed most of the time to play, as though in concentration, and although he seemingly called less attention in mannerisms, he got it anyway. He appeared to take his role seriously. He would lean forward, singing in to the mic at random intervals as back-up. His eyes were slightly small, maybe a tad cold in nature, a deep grey and he had a stern face with a well-defined chin. He wore a white, dark-blue vertically striped, loosely buttoned-up Oxford with rolled up sleeves and a dark-blue, sleeveless, one-pocketed vest, open, over it. He wore over this an undone tie, one end bearing their logo in stark white surrounded with a white splatter design. His guitar... or bass... was dark blue as well, with a pattern of their Wings of Freedom in ivory in the lower corner surrounding where it connected to his amp, fading out in color over his instrument. She noted that he had fairly trim legs, only more exaggerated by his tight-cut, dark wash, skinny jeans.
The keyboardist to the vocalists' right seemed very kind and played as though he truly enjoyed what he was doing. He couldn't move about as much on stage with use of the keyboard but still swayed in place to go along with the music, seemingly getting very in to certain keyboard rifts. He was blond, with his hair parted in the center, his bangs flipping out alongside his strong blue eyes. He was the only one with facial hair, well-trimmed along his chin and in a fine line above his upper lip. He had a well-defined, fairly large nose and the lower half of his hair shaved like his prior band-mates, wearing a dark grey v-neck shirt with dark blue horizontal stripes, with one of their song quotes in stark white against the background of his shirt. He wore over this a rugged-edged, square scarf that played in great contrast against the tone of his shirt.
In the far back, was the drummer. A strong-armed woman, her chestnut hair tied back in a shaggy ponytail, with antiquey, leather-banded goggles mounted on her forehead. She was crazy energetic, beating around her set in perfect rhythm, really setting up the back-beat. She wore a yellow, ribbed, midriff tank top, with a fringed bandana scarf tied about her strong neck in a deeper yellow and slim legged cargo pants, combat boots and... finger-less gloves... strangely enough. She was insanely in to the music, her eyes shut tight nearly the whole time, as she beat and snapped around her kit, at a very impressive speed.
As time went on, the room only began to grow in a mix of stenches and the lights over the band cast an energetic pattern of shadows as they flashed and dimmed with the beat. The song well underway, she could tell that the vocalist and drummer in particular were beginning to pant and drip in sweat. She watched as sweat rolled off their foreheads along the contours of the faces under the hot lights until arriving at their chins, dripping in to splatter on the floor. The vocalist's brow was so drenched; he came to remove his shirt and jacket; either for fan service or from the heat... or both. With this, he swung them around his head, the crowd cheering all the while, and threw them in to the sea of people who cheered, jumped and fought for it. The contours of his muscles refracted the hot lights from above, and she could see just how well-toned he was, noting the mesh of tattoos about his shoulders, neck, collar bone and chest as well as the tattoo of the Wings of Freedom along the groove of his inner hip line near his crotch, which… served to lead her eyes there. She suddenly felt slightly foolish, and shifted where she stood again before feeling warm, firm fingers brush against her behind through the tight confines of her skirt. Someone... was groping her. She glanced behind her, but it was nearly impossible to tell who had done it. She didn't suspect Auruo or Erd, and everyone was too high on either excitement or drugs bouncing about for her to deduce anything. Not like she could have done anything about it even if she had known who it was; she couldn't fight the energy of this room. As each song went on, she enjoyed herself a little more and even felt a bit embarrassed with herself for jumping along at certain points. She loved when the vocalist made remarks to the crowd before starting each song; actually saying something intelligent and politically relevant. She looked over to Auruo, realizing that he had been looking at her as well. He smirked, and she realised that he was dressed strangely similar to the cold-eyed, guitar guy on stage. Leaning over her, he shouted, as that was the only way to communicate in this room.
"Pretty good, eh?"
She looked away, furrowing her brow a bit and blushing. There was no sense in lying; this wasn't her scene, but she really did enjoy it anyway. She glanced back to him, and to conserve her voice, simply nodded happily, energetically. At seeing her do this, he actually faltered a bit, blushing and then corrected his smirk at her. Score. The room was getting crazy sweaty; with all the intentional and non-intentional groping, making-out and rubbing, the smoke of the plethora of drugs lit up amongst the crowd and the heat of the lights on the stage. Erd picked her up, placing her over his shoulders, the flip of his blond ponytail tickling her bare stomach a bit. Screaming and cheering, she enjoyed herself like everyone else. There was no sense fighting the energy of this room. Erd shouted up to her, full of excitement.
"The guy in the front is Erwin! The vocalist! He also plays the guitar!"
Er-u-win? Had she heard that right? She looked down to him, meeting his gaze.
"The bassist is Levi! The keyboardist is Mike and the drummer is Hange! She's the crazy one!"
She smiled down at him. This information did nothing for her. She was so high on the feel of the room that she wouldn't likely process it or remember much of it anyway, but was glad to at least know which instruments the guys were playing. She sat on Erd's shoulders, her thighs alongside his face. Auruo didn't look pleased when Erd had picked her up but was happy to see that she was at least enjoying herself enough to let loose like this. She sat there, cheering from atop his shoulders, fist-pumping with the crowd, losing her voice with the rest of the room, even though she didn't know the words to a single song. When they came to play the last, the lights flashed on over the crowd; people screaming and cheering, a sea of sweat spread in front of the stage. Erwin was panting, salty cascades dripping from his forehead, and he paused a few seconds to catch his breath as Levi spoke out over the crowd, and the people went wild. He and Erwin took turns, saying something about an after party at a nearby bar that was scheduled specifically for the occasion, plugging in a few things about their future performances both in town and nearby. The drummer suddenly spoke from the back, shouting out at such a level that she probably didn't need a mic though she was using one. It startled Petra a bit, especially the sound of her voice, sort of guttural and nasally at the same time. She sort of couldn't believe it was... real. She said something about their next show taking place on the South side of downtown next Saturday at Rose Music Hall. They were selling the last few tickets now for next week.
Erwin spoke again, asking for volunteers for the stage, who all would end up being women... probably intentionally. People started shouting and jumping, he was going to be giving some of the last tickets for next week's show now to those "brave enough", as he put it, to come to the stage. Everyone was brave enough. Everyone wanted tickets. Well, except for her. The stage lights on the metal bars above the band turned out, searching over the crowd, and he pointed to various scantily-clad girls near the stage, reaching down with a strong arm to pull each up to him. He gave them each tickets or merchandise, asked silly questions and sent them back to the floor. She couldn't be bothered to remember what each girl was saying. Each seemed intoxicated in one way or another. Erwin searched out over the crowd, the stage lights spreading over the people and pointed... to... Petra. She felt slightly blinded by the lights coming at her from the platform, as the ones of the high ceilings remained off, leaving the room in darkness if not for the electronic devices above the stage. She kind of looked away, nervous, as though that would absolve the situation. She was glad she had come to the concert, but didn't want to go on stage. She had already had a crazy enough night. What if they asked her to sing along or something? She didn't know any of the lyrics.
"Hey! Honey-coloured girl! Get up here!"
Now, she knew... he meant her. He must have noticed her because she was high on Erd's shoulders a short distance from centre-stage; it was a bit impossible to miss her with her head three feet higher than anyone else's. Erwin probably chose her thinking she would be excited; she was dressed in their memorabilia and was partying enough to be mounted higher to see the show, but... she really didn't want to. Erd looked up to her and smiled, enjoying this wholeheartedly and nodded determinedly to her before fighting his way forward through the crowd toward the stage. He was bumped this way and that as he fought his way through and Petra got increasingly nervous as they approached Erwin, with his powerful hand stretched out to grab her from Erd's shoulders. He was so well-toned and she found herself looking at his inner hip tattoo again, the one that led her eyes to his crotch, wondering if its placement had anything to do with their name. As though... being with him was like getting wings of freedom? She blushed at her foolishness, and as they reached the stage, she felt Erwin's strong, firm hands grab her frame at her waist from Erd's shoulders, placing her on the stage next to him though it felt like she wasn't standing on anything at all. He had already gathered some 5-6 girls before her, but held her closer to him than he had the others, arm around her small of her form as he spoke in to the mic.
"So, Honey..."
Honey? Was this a nickname he had made for her?...Did he get that from her hair and eyes? She looked away from him and blushed, either from his demeanour, attractiveness, her nervousness, the heat of the lights... ooooor all four, but she couldn't avoid him for long. His eyes were powerful and stern and the contours of his face under the hot lights only made her all the more anxious. His gaze was one you couldn't avoid.
"Who brought you here tonight?"
"Eeeeee..."
He chuckled a bit, smiling at her. He was so flirtatious and stern, but also so genuine. He waited, allowing her to finish her utterance. He either thought she was drunk or high or possibly nervous, the first two wouldn't be strange to think though the third was actually the case. She was neither of the first, unless high on energy counted as high in a sense.
"My friends. Auruo and Erd."
"What are you doing next Saturday?"
"Working."
He and Mike both laughed. Levi raised a thin brow at her; she was a tad strange but, he couldn't avert his gaze from her form. Erwin's firm hand was still clutched about her waist, and with his mic hand, he grabbed her chin, turning her face further towards his own, his brow insanely close to her own as he spoke in to the mic.
"Well, call in sick, Honey. You've got three tickets to Wings of Freedom this Saturday!"
The crowd laughed and cheered for her and... she didn't know what to say. She was so nervous and he moved his hand from her waist to her hips, slipping three tickets under the hem of the top of her skirt, which only flushed her further. She noticed he wore a bracelet of a blue leather bar surrounded by two black woven ropes, the blue bar bearing a bead in the shape of the coat of arms of their band, the Wings engraved upon it, with two beads on either side of the namesake. She focused on his bracelet for a while, dazing out a bit; she was anxious and lost and didn't really know what to say; red in the face, and fiddling with the hem of her skirt with delicate fingertips, trying to find something more to look at to still avoid his gaze. He smirked at her, reconnecting their eyes and she stammered nervously.
"M-Mm!"
"Hope to see you there. Let's hand you back to your chauffeur. Give Honey a cheer for being so sweet!"
People shouted and cheered, though her circumstances didn't benefit them; she attributed it to the energy of the night. Erwin helped Petra back to Erd's shoulders from the stage, without the slightest struggle. His hands were so firm on her body, his arms strong and unwavering. The contours of his chest and abdomen quite impressed her as he half-smiled, half-smirked as he led her back to Erd. Erwin startled her a tad, only adding to her nervousness as he tossed a t-shirt on to her shoulder from the stage, but she couldn't tell in this lighting what was on it, nor did she have enough control of the situation to care. When they got back to Auruo; he was both pleased about the situation because he now figured they were going again next week... aaaaand, displeased. He didn't like how Erwin had held her, though he found her demeanour insanely attractive whilst on stage. She laughed a bit nervously when they reunited with their blood-sprinkling friend- from all the stress and excitement of what had just happened to her, and he smirked, flirting with her, speaking boastfully as he ever did. He was pleased with how she had recognized what a good idea he'd had, nodding to himself.
The last song was played, and the crowd dispersed in excitement; most people were heading to the designated bar down the road; "Wall Maria". It was a fairly nice little club in all actuality; Petra had heard of it before. She stood, smiling for a second, the adrenaline from the night still coursing through her -from her skull to her toes- as others filed out around her, leaving the once crowded hall in silence.