SUGGESTED AUDIO PAIRING FOR THIS CHAPTER: Awaken, by (Dethklok)
Rock n' Roll Creation:
(And They Sinned a Great Sin...)
"THANK YOU RAUSTEN!" Cordelia smashed her guitar live onstage, bringing the show to a close amidst an explosion of screaming fans.
"We ROCKED out there!" Maribelle was ready for the after-party. (word on the street was that no less than 3 princesses were on the VIP list).
"Now we're going to have to do something REALLY extreme for the show in Renais right Miriel?" Stahl was also ready for the after-party (word on the street was that a certain princess had the hots for the bass player).
"…"
"Miriel?"
"…I thought we agreed you weren't going to smash the guitar tonight…" Miriel glared at Cordelia.
"You said it; I never said I wouldn't." Cordelia was having none of that.
"You know that's an extra chore for me."
"Oh no; you have to cast another duplication charm…so much work…" Cordelia knew full well Miriel could turn one guitar into two guitars in twenty seconds flat. "I thought we agreed we weren't going to do psychedelic rock and power metal in the same show."
"It's a PROGRESSION! It shows where we've been and how we've grown as a band!"
"IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! THE SOUNDS DON'T GO TOGETHER!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT GOES TOGETHER; I MADE THE MUSIC! I MADE THE BAND!"
"I AM THE BAND! I AM A GENUIS! ALL YOU DO IS SHOUT INTO A MICROPHONE AND JUMP AROUND; A MONKEY COULD DO YOUR JOB!"
"THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO CALL YOU GENUIS ARE THE ONES WHO NEVER MET ME!"
"FUCK YOU!"
"FUCK YOU!"
"BITCH; I WILL BURY YOU!" Cordelia and Miriel came to blows, and Stahl had to pry them apart.
"Ladies; LADIES!" Stahl shouted. "That does NOT Rock!"
"SHE STARTED IT!" Cordelia scrapped.
"Smoke this Caineghis and chill-the-fuck-out…" Stahl was now aware that wasn't what the herb was called. But it was customary, as he understood it, to give exotic names to particularly fine strains of the powerful stuff. The name had stuck.
"…she did start it…" Cordelia puff-puff-passed, and at least stopped shouting.
"This alpha female drama needs to stop," Maribelle also puff-puff-passed. The thing about geniuses was that geniuses had egos. And egos clashed. "You're BOTH geniuses. That's what makes the band work."
"I will not have my abilities questioned by this insufferable prima donna!" Miriel had never been so insulted in all her life. "SHE can sing the songs herself if she thinks anyone can do it!"
"Come on Miriel…don't be like that…" Ricken tried to calm her down.
"Think of the example we're setting for every rocker to follow," Stahl appealed to her sense of history. "Imagine a world where the band that gave the people "Welcome to the Jungle!" broke up in its prime, because their singer and lead-guitar couldn't stop fighting."
"T'would would be a dark and terrible world," Maribelle mock-fainted at the horror.
"That WOULD be a dark and terrible world," Miriel agreed.
"Look…I…I said some things. I was way out of line. And I did a TON of coke," Cordelia apologized and opened up for a hug. "Band-Mates?"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Band-Mates." Miriel accepted the gesture, and they hugged it out.
"Cordelia…you're bleeding!" Stahl noticed for the first time that she had cuts all over her hand and blood running down her knuckles. "What happened; is that from the fight!?"
"Oh…that? No. I punched through a window earlier."
"THERE'S GLASS IN THERE!" Maribelle took a closer look at the cuts. "YOU PLAYED LIKE THAT THROUGH THE ENTIRE CONCERT!?"
"Didn't even notice until you just mentioned it," Cordelia pulled glass out of her hand.
"…How…" Ricken blinked.
"Did I mention I just did a TON of coke?"
"…So this is an after-party…" Maribelle didn't quite remember the last one."What do we do?"
"Whatever we want to do," Stahl answered. "You see that royal babe over there? I'm going to have sex with her."
"The Frelian princess or the Renaisian one?"
"Both," Stahl decided. He took a shot of liquid courage and made his approach. "Hellooooooo Ladies!"
"No fair; I want one!" Ricken followed. (for naught; Stahl was making moves and he was in no mood to share)
"What about that one?" Cordelia pointed out Amelia when Ricken returned deflated.
"Eww. She looks twelve."
"So do you. Get on that." Cordelia spurred him on with a slap on the back. "Hey Miriel; what do you say we share a man to bury the hatchet?"
"…I doubt we have the same tastes…" Miriel offered as her sole objection, and Cordelia noted that that wasn't a No.
"Prince Ephraim?" Cordelia picked her prime cut.
"He's practically Chrom," Miriel refused.
"Ross?" Cordelia remembered that Miriel liked them young.
"I don't do meatheads."
"Who then?"
"…Artur…"
"Yeahhhhhh; we really DON'T have the same tastes."
"...Ewan..."
"What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"…or Prince Lyon…"
"…Acceptable…" Cordelia offered to reel him in if Miriel didn't feel comfortable making the catch. Miriel laughed, removed her top, and straddled him.
"Despicable!" the other princess in the room was judging them (much to Maribelle's amusement). "These deviants have NO class. A woman of finer breeding would be ASHAMED!" L'Arachel had never seen such shocking, shameless hedonism.
"Oh My God; you're what I use to be!" Maribelle laughed and sparked some Caineghis. "Dirty little secret about class and breeding...It's all bullshit..."
"How can you say that!" L'Arachel rebuked. "You of all people should know better. A proper lady must—mphhhhh!"
Maribelle open-mouth kissed L'Arachel and blew a full cloud of smoke into her without so much as breaking lip-lock. The mellow of the herb billowed into the prissy princess, and all at once a change came over her.
"…oh wow…" L'Arachel exhaled smoothly and stirred with a heightened sensation of touch. "THAT'S what I've been missing?"
Maribelle kissed her again, this time for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with getting drugs in her and in ways that did not end in just a kiss on the lips (not those lips anyway).
Later in the sex room, ideas were shared that answered the question How do we put on a better show in Renais?
"It would be SO hot if you took one of our folk songs and made it rock," the idea came to Lyon between rack of Miriel and a rough tug-job from Cordy-D.
"We don't know any of your folk songs," Miriel pushed Cordelia aside and claimed her prize.
"…I know one you can use…" Lyon gave them the worst idea ever.
"THANK YOU RENAIS! We've got one more song to play for you tonight!" Miriel elated the screaming throng begging for an encore. "This is a new song for a new sound. We call it DEATH METAL! We took the lyrics from your Forbidden Book of Necromantic Spells!"
"OOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!"The crowd cried out in sudden alarm.
"Mustakrakesh. Mustakrakesh. AWAKEN: FOMORTiiiiS!
Thunder Harp went hardcore and shredded like nobody's business. But the crowds ran from them in terror instead of fangasming over their sound. Then Stahl turned and saw the reason why; a big fucking demon demolishing the walls of Castle Renais and impaling villagers from its spires and bidding the dead to rise.
"…Oh shit…did we do that…"
That. Just. Happened.
Death to all but Metal.
