Thorn smiled as she put the finishing touches on the sketch of the design for her new performance outfit. It had taken a bit of work to choose a finalized design out of the few designs she'd done rough sketches of over the past few days, but she was happy with the one she'd chosen.
The design she'd chosen was of her wearing a black bodysuit with a mesh top and sleeves, a black choker, black elbow length fingerless gloves, red high heeled knee high boots and a red sash not unlike the one her original performance outfit had. She'd also drawn her hair longer than it had been before, reflecting how she'd decided to grow it down to her waist recently.
The sketch was a bit overly artistic and not that technical, but that wouldn't matter much. It was the job of whoever Gus hired to make the outfits to figure out the technical stuff, not her.
Though it did seem to be missing something…
Thorn then smiled before she quickly drew a simple red bat shape in the middle of the mesh top. Now the design was perfect.
With that done she looked up from her sketchpad and surveyed her room.
The walls of her room were all painted dark red, as was the ceiling, which sharply contrasted the faded brown carpet which covered the room's floor. Against the wall opposite the door was her single sized bed with a dark wooden side table to its left. Above the bed on the wall was a large poster of the cover art of the Siouxsie and the Banshees album A Kiss in the Dreamhouse. On the right side of the bed was a wooden cabinet divided into two sections, the top half had four shelves visible behind two glass doors whilst the bottom had four drawers. The cabinet was decorated with ornate carvings of trees and leaves along its wooden panels, as designed by Thorn when she'd commissioned Oakhaven's resident woodworker Willard to make it. The cabinet's contained various ornaments and curiosities, some objects like the boomerang she got in Australia she picked up on tours whilst others were things she'd come across shopping either in person or online. The drawers merely contained clothes.
On the door side wall on its right side hung a large full body photograph of her mother June wearing a simple knee length black dress, the photograph positioned in such a way her mother would watch over her as she slept. Her mother looked pretty similar to how she looked as an adult, same green eyes, same black hair and same kind of face and physical build. Main differences were whilst Thorn's skin was as white as snow her mother's was lightly tanned, owing to how she'd often spend hours at a time out gardening. Thorn was also taller than her mother, her height was one of the few physical traits she'd got from her father. The last difference was though her mother had often worn darker colours like black she wasn't a goth, thus having far simpler makeup. Thorn missed her mother dearly; she was the one who'd taught her about Wicca and appreciating nature along with encouraging her interest in music from an early age. Despite it being over 15 years since her death Thorn still wasn't over it, even though she had alone ago accepted it.
Thorn tore her eyes away from the photograph of her mother, now wasn't the time to be mourning her again, and looked over to the left of the door instead. Against the wall there was her vanity table. It was made of a dark wood that in dim lighting would look almost black and had a swirling pattern made of gold leaf imprinted across its surfaces and around the mirror. The handles of the two drawers it had were made of brass as was the surface which held the table's mirror. Thorn had found it in an old furniture shop in Germany when they'd been on their first European tour and instantly fallen in love with it. It had cost a bit to buy and cost even more to transport it to the USA but it was worth it. Scattered across its surface was a mess of containers and tubs of makeup along with the various tools used to apply it. Placed around the vanity table's mirror were several pictures of rockstars, close to half of which were of Siouxsie Sioux, some of which were from magazines whilst others had been printed off the internet. In the past, especially when she was a teen, Thorn had used the pictures as inspiration for how to do her makeup, often outright attempting to copy the makeup of one of the rockstars pictured. Now though now that she had mastered doing makeup and settled on her own style the pictures were just decoration. In front of the vanity table was a simple wooden chair painted black she'd got from IKEA ages ago, and needed to replace at some point since its simplicity clashed with the vanity table too much for her liking. Sat on the floor in front of the vanity table was Dusk happily doodling the design of her new performance outfit, though from how her sister was angled Thorn couldn't see the design itself.
Against the left side, when viewed from the door, was her desk. It was made of oak and had an overall sturdy appearance, though unlike her cabinet and vanity table it had no decoration in its design. Built into the thick legs of the desk were four drawers, two in either leg, which were filled with filled sketchbooks and loose paper she'd written songs on. There were a few small boxes on the right side of the desk which were filled with pencils and pens, used for both her song writing and drawing. On the left hand side of the desk was a lamp and two books, one placed on top of the other. The books were Dark Secrets of the Forgotten Gods and Tobin's Spirit Guide, the only books Thorn had found so far which actually had factual true information about magic and the supernatural. Hence their convenient placement on her desk for frequent reading and studying. Noticeably unlike in her fellow Hex Girls rooms there was no computer on the desk. As whilst she had gradually began to use the internet more since Luna had showed how to a few years ago she found it to be too easy to be distracted by. When she sat down at her desk to draw or write songs that's what she wanted to do, not get distracted and spend hours browsing the internet. A generic black swivel chair was in front of the desk, in which Luna was currently sat in as she drew her new performance outfit. From what little Thorn could see of Luna's drawing it looked a lot more technical than her own drawing did.
Above the desk was a window through which Thorn could see the back garden and the shed she mixed her herbal vapours and remedies in. Several framed photographs were placed on the window sill, all depicting either herself with her family or her fellow Hex Girls. To the right of the desk was a large bookcase overflowing with books, quite literally as there were a few piles of the books on the floor in front of it. The majority of the books on the shelves were horror novels, though there were a lot of fantasy books on the shelves as well. Along with a couple books on various music related subjects, mythology and various pagan religions. On top of the bookshelf were a few more framed photographs, this time they were all of Thorn and her fellow Hex Girls. Two noticeably were of the three of them standing alongside Mystery Inc., one taken after their concert after the Witch's Ghost incident and the other taken after due to a technicality Mystery Inc. had won the Vampire Rock Concert.
The wall opposite the window was covered by band posters, mainly rock and post punk bands though there were a few metal bands posters among them. There were also four Hex Girls posters included amongst the other band posters, which Thorn knew on one hand was a bit narcissistic of her but she didn't care. Up against the wall was a simple black wooden cabinet which was about a metre high, which had four compartments with glass doors. Inside the cabinet was her records, cassettes and CDs collection, all neatly ordered and sorted. On top of the cabinet was a simple cheap record player she'd bought second hand and a grey CD player. On the floor next to the cabinet was a dark red cat bed, which her fat black cat Biggles was currently lazing around in.
"And I'm done!" declared Dusk excitedly, snapping Thorn out of her thoughts.
"Wicked." replied Thorn as she looked over at her the drummer. "I just finished my design too like a minute ago."
"Cool." replied Dusk with a grin, before she looked up at Luna where she sat at Thorn's desk. "You done yet Luna?"
"No." answered Luna curtly. "I'm still adding the measurements."
"Why do you need those?" asked Dusk curiously "Gus will give them to whoever he has make these outfits."
"Because I want certain parts of the outfit to be specific lengths." replied Luna, her tone sounding slightly irritated. "And if I'm doing that I may as well add the other measurements too, saves Gus doing it."
"Sounds like extra work for no reason." said Dusk as she laid back against a wall. "Right Thorn?"
"Well it is extra work…though it is also helpful to add measurements." said Thorn carefully, trying to not sound like she favoured either of her sisters opinions. Before she smiled sheepishly and added. "Though uh I didn't add any myself."
Dusk then seemed to lose interest in this topic as she started trying to get her cat's attention instead, reaching out to him and clicking her fingers. Biggles just looked up at her, yawned and then went back to laying around doing nothing.
"Lazy cat." commented Dusk with a frown. "He used to come over if you did that."
"Biggles is old now Dusk, he's not as active anymore." replied Thorn as she reached over and stroke the cat in question, since she was sat closer to the cat bed than Dusk. Biggles began purring, though didn't move to acknowledge the action otherwise.
"And because he's become a fat fuck." added Dusk.
"Don't be rude to Biggles Dusk." said Thorn as she frowned at Dusk.
"But he is!" replied Dusk as she pointed at the cat. "Biggles used to be small and like cat sized. Now he's huge!"
Thorn just rolled her eyes and looked down as she felt Biggles move as she stroked him. He'd turned to be looking at Dusk now, having heard her outburst. Not that he could understand any of it obviously, being a cat.
Dusk was right really, Biggles was pretty fat now compared to how he used to be before they'd begun their careers as rockstars. Since she wasn't at home as often now it was down to her father to feed Biggles and clearly he overfed her cat. However at the end of the day whilst Biggles was not necessarily in good size he was at happy and in good health, which was what mattered at the end of the day.
Especially since Biggles wasn't originally her cat. His previously owner was Mrs. Anderson, an elderly Wiccan who'd been close to her and her mother. When Mrs. Anderson had died she'd ended up being the one to care for Biggles from then on, since the cat was already acquainted with her and…
"There, I'm done too." said Luna, interrupting Thorn's train of thought.
"Great! Let's show our designs now." said Dusk as she got up and walked over to Thorn's desk. Thorn got up and followed suit as Luna stood up from the swivel chair.
Each Hex Girl then put their sketches down on Thorn's desk, before they spent a few seconds looking over each other's designs for their new performance outfits.
Luna's design was of her wearing a purple coat sleeveless coat which had a dark purple high collar, puffy shoulders and a long loincloth-esc skirt. The coat's zip ran across it diagonally and there was a pendant not unlike the jewel in the necklace Luna usually wore attach just below the coat's collar. Below that she was wearing dark purple leggings. She was also wearing purple high heeled knee high boots and two dark purple bracelets. The design drawing was more technical than artistic as it had precise measurements for every piece of the outfit, even the bracelets.
Thorn loved the outfit design. It was different but still clearly identifiable as Luna, unlike the performance outfit Gus had designed that she'd been wearing till after the Phantom incident. Admittedly it wasn't that goth a look, but it looked like it'd suit Luna.
Dusk's design was of her wearing a green dress that well didn't look too different at all from her original performance outfit. Though there were some slight differences in colouration, as the upper part of the dress was dark green whilst the lower part was a relatively light green and the sleeves were the same shade of green as her original performance outfit's dress. Another difference was the design had black fingerless gloves and green platform boots with black heels. Though the spiked choker and X necklace were just like the ones from Dusk's original performance outfit.
Or at least it appeared to be from what Thorn could make out, as the design sketch wasn't exactly…too legible to put it politely. The drawing was very rough and at first Thorn had thought it had been drawn in crayon, which upon further examination it had been drawn with colour pencils just without actually drawing lines out to colour in first. All in all it looked like a kids drawing, especially compared to her own sketch and Luna's sketch.
However one detailed was very clear, the platform boots. As Dusk had expressively written those two words down and drawn a line to the boots to make sure this element of the design was noted by Gus. Thorn had to express a snicker upon noticing that element of the sketch.
"I love the bodysuit." said Luna as she pointed to Thorn's sketch. "It's such a different outfit from your previous performance outfits, yet it is still very recognizable as being in your style."
"Yeah it looks wicked." said Dusk before adding "And whatever Luna just said."
"That was the idea. I was originally going to just design a different looking dress, but decided to change it up entirely and go with a bodysuit." explained Thorn with a smile, satisfied both her bandmates liked the design. "Besides it gives me a more suitable performance outfit to wear in cold weather, unlike my dresses." She added, thinking over all the times before and after concerts she felt a chill in the more revealing dresses she'd worn in the past. Those days of walking to and from the stage for the Autumn Fest in her original performance outfit's dress really hadn't been a sensible decision in retrospect.
"I factored that into my design too." explained Luna. "I want it to be a bit more functional than either my original performance outfit or the one Gus designed."
"Well I love it." said Thorn in reply. "Your design doesn't look that goth, but it still looks like something you'd wear. Especially the coat, that looks killer."
"Thanks. I know its not that goth, but I do like to wear clothes sometimes which aren't gothy." replied Luna with a smile. "Besides unlike you two I haven't been goth since birth."
"We haven't been goth since birth!" exclaimed Dusk. "We're only been goth since like 8th grade…I think?"
"Anyway I would hope our fans will like this design for a performance outfit for me anyway, even if its not too goth looking." continued Luna as Dusk pondered her prior declaration. "Though me liking the outfit was a bigger focus this time, after having to wear that awful performance outfit Gus designed for me these past few months."
"They'll like it, since as I said it looks well Luna-like." said Thorn with smile. "After all our fans did like that light purple dress I wore a few years back and that didn't look too goth."
"Oh yeah, back when you stole my colour." accused Luna playfully as she smirked.
"Well good artists copy, great artists steal." replied Thorn with a grin as she put her hands on her hips.
"What about my design?" asked Dusk, somewhat impatiently.
"It looks good Dusk." answered Thorn. "But it uh…well…" She then trailed off, not wanting to be the one to point out how her design barely looked like a new one.
"It just looks like your original performance outfit Dusk." explained Luna bluntly.
"Nuh uh it is different from that outfit." replied Dusk. "The dress isn't all the same shade of green, there are fingerless gloves and there are platform boots. It's totally different."
"Oh yeah, totally different." said Thorn sarcastically.
"Well I'll give you that the platform boots are a slight difference, but the rest of the things you listed are pretty minor differences Dusk." said Luna.
"It's different enough." defended Dusk as she crossed her arms. "I don't need your approval."
"Well I suppose the platform boots will make you taller, so that's a bit more of a difference." replied Luna.
"Which means people won't have to crane their necks to look down at you." teased Thorn with a grin.
"And you won't have to crane your neck as much to look up at us." added Luna, joining in with the teasing.
Dusk just glared at them and turned away, muttering something under her breath. Which Thorn assumed was a string of swear words.
"What was that Dusk?" asked Thorn with a grin. "It's hard to hear you up here."
Dusk then clenched her fists and muttered something else under her breath. This time Thorn had no doubt was a string of swear words. Clearly now was time to stop before Dusk blew a fuse.
"Oh come on Dusk, we're just messing with you." said Luna as she moved to hug Dusk from behind and lean her head on the blonde drummer's shoulder. "We don't mean it."
"Yeah we don't mean it." said Thorn as she moved round to stand in front of Dusk, giving her a sweet smile. "Just playing around."
Dusk look at the floor for a moment and sighed before she looked back up at Thorn.
"You two are lucky it's you who teased me." said Dusk with a grin. "If anyone else said that stuff I'd have hit them."
"Oh we know Dusk." replied Thorn with a grin of her own.
"We wouldn't have done it if we didn't know we could get away with it." added Luna as she stopped hugging Dusk.
"Yeah well I'm going to get back for that sometime." said Dusk as she put her hands on her hips. "So watch out!
Thorn and Luna then laughed in response, Dusk shortly joining in a moment later.
"Well now that's out of the way, I'll collect these up to send to Gus later." said Luna as she moved back over to Thorn's desk, before she put their three design sketches into a clear plastic folder which had been laying on the desk. "Since we are all happy with our designs right?"
"Yeah." answered Thorn.
"Yep." answered Dusk.
"But uh why mail the design to Gus when we're meeting him on Thursday?" asked Thorn in confusion. "That's only four days away. He'd get them quicker if we just gave them to him in person."
"I'm not going to mail them to him." answered Luna as she rolled her eyes. "I'm going to take the sketches home and scan them, then email the scans to Gus."
"Oh." replied Thorn sheepishly, feeling herself blush in embarrassment.
"You're such a luddite." teased Dusk.
"I'm not a luddite." said Thorn with a pout. "I just uh…don't need to use a scanner much, so it didn't cross my mind that's what Luna meant."
"Sure." replied Dusk with a giggle.
"Well now that's all done lets go watch a movie." suggested Luna, before smirking at Thorn. "That is if you know how to use a DVD player."
"I at least know that." replied Thorn, before giggling.
Gus laid back in a swivel chair as he waited for his laptop to load up and log in. He sipped a freshly brewed cup of tea as he enjoyed his last few moments of relaxation before he had to get some work done.
First off he needed to finalize his proposed schedule for the Hex Girls' next tour, so he had it ready for them to look over when he met the next Thursday. Second he needed to send off a few emails to schedule a few interviews to promote the tour and the band in general. Third he needed to reschedule a meeting with some executives at Decade Records about…
Gus' attention was brought back to the laptop once he noticed it had finished logging in. He put down his now nearly empty cup of tea down on his desk and sat up straight in his chair. Now was time to do some work.
He clicked to load up the Microsoft Word document he'd typed up the tour schedule in, then once that was done he loaded up his browser to do a quick check of his emails before finalized the schedule.
His eyes scanned his emails list; quickly coming across an email from Luna titled "New Performance Outfit Designs". Immediately Gus smiled and opened the email.
Here's our final designs for our new performance outfits.
- Luna
Attached to the email were three pictures, which Gus quickly set to download.
The email was rather to the point but that was fine with Gus as he was ecstatic to finally have their new performance outfit designs in hand, or on screen as it'd be till he printed them. Aside from being curious to see the designs the Hex Girls had come up with, the meeting he was set to reschedule with some executives at Decade Records was about the girls' performance outfits. It'd be a lot easier to make for argument for changing their performance outfits to new ones, designed by them, if he actually had the designs in question to show the executives.
Gus then clicked to his downloads folder, then open up the picture of Thorn's design first.
Thorn's design whilst more artistic than technical, being very well drawn, was very easy to interpret as to what she'd want the outfit to be like. Though he'd need to add her measurements to it. He loved the design, it was similar enough to her original performance outfit in the colour scheme that she'd be instantly recognizable yet it was still a different design overall. It was still sexy despite how it'd show off her skins less, being more practical for performing in the colder months of the year or just the occasional concert venue which seemed to lack proper heating. A surprise indeed given in his prior experience with her Thorn rarely seemed to take practically into account with how she dressed, usually only taking how she looked into account rather than other factors.
All in all he loved Thorn's design, as far as he was concerned it was perfect. Then he opened up the picture of Dusk's design next.
Dusk's design was rather disappointing by comparison. At first glance he saw no differences from her original performance outfit; only upon further examination he noticed the few differences. He quite like the asymmetrical gloves, very Dusk, and he thought the platform boots would suit her. He couldn't help but smile in amusement at the note of them being platform boots, which was underlined twice, to really get across what sort of boots they were. However it was needed, as the drawing was frankly terrible. It was so messy he'd initially assumed it had been drawn in crayon, when upon further examination the full thing had just been poorly drawn with coloured pencils and roughly coloured. He'd have to redraw it before he sent it off to have an outfit made based off it, aside from the lack of readability it would be too embarrassing to send off as it was. Not that he would tell Dusk he would do that of course.
In the end it wasn't the best design, but he had said he'd let the girls design their own new performance outfits and this was technically a new one. Just about. Besides he supposed it would add an element of familiarity for the girls' fans in the midst of change, so he'd allow it. Then he opened up the picture of Luna's design.
Luna's design was incredibly technical when compared to the prior two designs, including precise measurements and notes on what materials should be used for each part of the outfit. There was nothing he needed to add to the drawing, unlike how Thorn's design needed measurements added and Dusk's needed a complete redraw. That aside the design of the outfit looked excellent, especially the coat. It looked very rock and roll. Would have probably look better with long sleeves but Luna had clearly decided otherwise, so that was how it would be. Admittedly the outfit design didn't look that goth, but it did however fit in with Luna's prior aesthetic. Along with being functional for preforming in colder concert settings much like Thorn's new outfit would be.
Luna's design was simply perfect, both in terms of its look and the amount of technical detail she'd helpfully provided alongside it.
He'd hold off on sending off the designs to a tailor to have them made until he had his meeting with the Hex Girls on Thursday, just so he could do a check with them that they wanted to go ahead and have these designs made just in case any of them had any second thoughts since Luna had sent the email.
Then with that thought put aside Gus tabbed back over to the Microsoft Word document he'd typed up the Hex Girls' next tour schedule in and began the process of looking over and finalizing it.
Thorn frowned as she entered the dressing room, not too impressed with what she saw. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls and only one of the two lights in the room worked. She sighed as she shut the room's door.
"Whatever, it'll do. At least the rest of the place isn't like this." Thorn said to herself as she walked over and dumped her duffle bag on the table, before unzipping it and taking out the various pieces of clothing that made up her new performance outfit along with her makeup bag.
Then as she began to remove her clothes her mind drifted to the coming concert. It'd be the first time she publically showed off her new performance outfit, alongside Dusk and Luna showing off their new ones. Their fans knew that the three of them were going to have new performance outfits for this next tour, as they'd mentioned it on an interview a few months back where'd they discussed it as part of explaining why they'd given up the outfits Gus had designed and moved back to their original performance outfits for the time being.
Not that this would be her first time wearing the new outfit mind you, thought Thorn as she began to put on the black bodysuit. It was a bit of a squeeze, but she managed it. She'd previously tried it on at Decade Records and done a test run of playing a song with Dusk and Luna in their new performance outfits, just to make sure nothing about the outfits would interfere with performing.
Thorn then swished her hair out of the way so she could reach the zip on the back of the black bodysuit, before proceeding to zip it up. She then put the choker around her neck and fastened it shut. She then pulled on the black elbow length fingerless gloves, making sure to smooth them out so that there were no creases. She tied a red sash around her waist in such a way that the ends fell down her left leg, done quickly owing to years of doing the same with her original performance outfit's sash. Lastly she pulled on the red knee high boots, before proceeding to zip them up tight.
Thorn then turned to look at herself in the dressing room's mirror, loving the sight she saw.
The performance outfit was different from her original one, yet it perfectly suited her. She looked like Thorn, none of her fans would surely think otherwise.
Besides she loved how the bodysuit felt. It was very snug around her body, perfectly highlighting her form whilst not showing any skin, yet surprisingly it was still pretty comfortable. She looked sexy, yet cool as well. The material had good stretch to it and wouldn't interfere with playing her guitar or moving around the stage. Only real downside was it made her sweat a ton during a performance as the bodysuit wasn't very breathable, with the exception of the mesh top part of it. However that was a downside she was willing to deal with in exchange for getting to wear a piece of clothing which made her look this great.
Thorn then put her clothes into the duffle bag, zipped it up and then turned and walked out of the dressing room. After a quick glance around the backstage area she found Dusk standing nearby looking bored and walked over to her. Dusk grinned when she noticed her.
"Woah you look cool in that outfit!" complimented Dusk, surprising Thorn given the drummer had already seen her wear this outfit before at Decade Records.
"Thanks." replied Thorn, smiling at the unexpected compliment. "Though you did already see me wear it at Decade Records."
"Yeah well I only saw you wear it once before, forgot how form fitting it is. Didn't remember quite how you looked in it." explains Dusk sheepish smile. Thorn smirked, sensing an opportunity to mess with Dusk a bit.
"Sounds like you want to have some fun Dusk." said Thorn teasingly as she put her hands on her hips and fluttered her eyelashes at Dusk. She then ran her hands up her body as she continued "Maybe if you're good, we could have some fun together later after the concert."
"Sure. I'd be up for that." replied Dusk with a grin as she leant forward and got up in Thorn's face, an action only enabled due to her new outfit's platform boots. "You look so good in that bodysuit. It's so tight and form fitting around your sexy body." She said as she put her hands on Thorn's waist and fluttered her own eyelashes back at Thorn. "I can certainly think of some ways we could have some fun."
"Uh ummm." replied Thorn as she got flustered by how Dusk responded, her face heating up as she blushed as she felt Dusk's hands on her waist. She had expected Dusk to just laugh or get annoyed in response, not respond positively to her offer. It had been purely an attempt to mess with the drummer. She peered into Dusk's blue eyes, trying to figure out if she was being serious or not.
"C'mon, it'll be fun." said Dusk with a giggle as she grinned at Thorn.
Thorn felt herself blush more as she tried to think up a response to get out of this situation she had caused. Maybe Dusk was being serious? Maybe she was just messing around? She wasn't really sure anymore, yet she didn't want to hurt Dusk's feelings if she was actually being serious here.
"Dusk do are you…I just meant…uh…" stuttered out Thorn, completely unprepared for dealing with this situation.
"She's just messing with you." said Luna suddenly, startling Thorn as she hadn't heard her approach.
Before Thorn could even process a reply Dusk stuck out her tongue out her whilst she was up in her face.
"Gotcha!" exclaimed Dusk before grinning and letting go of Thorn's waist. "You should've seen your face!" She added before giggling to herself.
Thorn put her hands on her hips and glared at the giggling drummer as she tried to hide her embarrassment. Before she turned away and let out an annoyed huff. As she did this her long black hair swished round and hit Dusk in the face, completely unintentionally but she didn't care that it happened.
"Hey!" responded Dusk irritably.
"If you two are done with your antics I had an idea for something we could do different this concert." said Luna as she stepped between her fellow Hex Girls.
"What?" asked Thorn irritably due to her prior interaction with Dusk, before she realized how came across and then softened her tone and added. "I mean umm what's your idea Luna?"
"Well I think we should begin this concert with Earth, Wind, Fire and Air instead of Hex Girl like we usually do." explained Luna as she put her hands on her hips. "Since this is the first time we're publically showing off our new performance outfits and that song has the lyric we may look bad, but we don't care. It just fits you know."
"Yeah we should do that!" replied Dusk excitedly, her prior irritation towards Thorn forgotten.
"That'd fit with how I was planning to address the audience directly about our new performance outfits after we finished playing Hex Girl." replied Thorn before she smiled at Luna. "Sure let's go for it and mix it up a little."
"Great." said Luna. "We'll just need to tell Tiny first so he does the right lighting and smoke effects then."
"You and Dusk go do that." ordered Thorn. "Whilst I'll go tell Gus we're changing the song order slightly. Otherwise knowing him he'll panic or freak out when we play the wrong song first."
"Good thinking, Gus would probably freak a little if we did just change the song order without running it through with him first." replied Luna whilst Dusk giggled at the thought of their manager doing that.
Luna then turned to leave and Dusk followed after her, whilst Thorn spun on her heel and went to look for Gus to tell him about the last minute change to the song order for this concert.
Thorn picked up her bat shaped guitar off its stand and proceeded to do a quick double check that it was in tune by strumming a few notes. Upon seeing that it was she threw the guitar's strap over her head and walked over to where Dusk and Luna stood at the edge of the stage, the former fiddling with her drumsticks whilst the later examined her nails.
"Ready sisters?" asked Thorn as she looked out at the stage. The front half of which was shrouded in smoke produced by fog machines, both to shroud their entrance onto the stage and give it a bit of a mysterious atmosphere.
"Yep." answered Dusk as she looked up from her drumsticks and grinned at her.
"Yeah." answered Luna as she put her right hand on her hip. "Ready when you are Thorn."
"Well then no point keeping our fans waiting any longer." replied Thorn with a smile.
She turned around and gave a thumbs up to Tiny. The roadie acknowledged this with a nod from where stood over a panel which controlled the special effects on stage. Thorn then walked out onto the stage, Dusk and Luna following behind her.
She waited for Dusk to get seated at her drum kit and Luna to be ready by her keyboards. Then when they each gave her a thumbs up, and a grin in Dusk's case, Thorn began walking out towards the front of the stage.
As she did so she kept reminding herself that it was Earth, Wind, Fire and Air they were starting with, not Hex Girl. Since she'd started so many concerts by preforming Hex Girl that by this point doing so was practically instinctual, so she'd have to focus to make sure she didn't play the notes for the wrong song first by mistake.
Thorn then turned around and put her back to the front of the stage, then waited for the smoke to begin to clear. She knew it was beginning too when she began to hear the audience cheering, indicating she'd emerged out of the smoke.
She then raised her hands into the air, giving off the image of some kind of vamparic cult leader, as the smoke faded away more and revealed Dusk and Luna.
"Hit it sisters!" ordered Thorn before she spun around suddenly to face the audience, flashing her fangs at them. Which resulted in even louder cheering, before it gradually stopped as began to play her guitar.
"Earth, Wind, Fire and Air!" sang Thorn as shaked her hips back and forth before lunging at the crowd. She took note of some of the confused expression on the people in the audience closest to the stage, presumably thrown off due to her not starting with playing Hex Girl.
"We may look bad but we don't care." sang Thorn alongside Dusk and Luna. As she sang the last line Thorn spun around as she did so, serving as both an action for the performance and as a way of checking things were going well on her bandmates ends. Which they were judging by the nods she got in return from Dusk and Luna.
"We ride the wind." sang Thorn as she spun back around to face the audience. "We feel the fire!" She raised her arm into the air after strumming the cord after she sang the fire part, before she brought it down to strum her guitar once again as she sang "To love the Earth is our one desire!"
As Dusk and Luna then sang the previous lyric themselves after she did, Thorn reached out and pointed at the audience whilst she panned her gaze over them and took note of their reactions.
The audience seemed hyped up and enjoying themselves, plenty of smiles to be seen. A few had slightly confused expressions still, which she put them to them being fans who'd been to multiple concerts before and were just thrown off still by them not starting with Hex Girl. That or it was their new outfits that were causing it.
Then as Thorn walked across the stage as she sang "Love the Earth, it's on fair. It's one big Earth and we must share." to ensure more of the audience got a good view of her. Then as Dusk and Luna sang the next two lines her thoughts drifted to the fan reaction to their outfits again. Hopefully their fans liked their new performance outfits, since she loved her new outfit.
Thorn then stopped walking and faced the audience as she sang "It's in our souls, our one desire." before she smiled at them. Then she lunged at the audience as she sang "Earth, Wind" before pulling back suddenly as she sang "Fire" and spinning around and putting her backside to the audience as she "Air."
Thorn then spun back around and lent down to have her face closer to the audience as she sang "We may look bad, but we don't care." and she shaked her head as she sang the last part, as if she was directly telling the audience that about their performance outfits.
"We ride the wind, we feel the fire." sang Thorn as she stood up straight to her full height, before she looked down at the audience again before singing. "To love the is our one desire." Then as Dusk and Luna sang that line previous lyric themselves Thorn bared her fangs at the audience.
Thorn then slowly turned herself and panned her gaze across the whole audience as she sang "Nature is a precious gift, it will make your spirits lift." She then smiled at the crowd before walking over to the centre of the stage as Dusk and Luna sang "Love the Earth, with all our fire."
"It's in your soul, your one desire." sang Thorn as she pointed at the audience. Then during the brief moment afterwards when it was only Dusk playing her drums Thorn walked right up to the edge of the stage.
"Earth" sang Thorn as she leant down and stared right at the audience. "Wind" she sang as she stood up straight to her full height. "Fire" she sang as she reached up in the air as if she was grabbing something, leaning up on her tiptoes as she did so. "and Air." she sang as she brought her hand down in a grasping motion, as if she had grabbed the element itself.
Thorn then took a few steps back from the edge of the stage as she sang "We may look bad, but we don't care." Shaking her head as she sang but we don't care.
"We ride the wind, we feel the fire." sang Thorn as she panned her gaze across the audience again. The people in the crowd were enthusiastic and excited, with plenty of smiles to be seen. After seeing the audience that way Thorn could help but grin as she sang "To love the Earth is our one desire."
"To love the Earth" sang Thorn as reached her hand up into the air dramatically, holding it there as she dragged out singing Earth. Before she suddenly brought her hand down to strum out the final notes of the song as she sang alongside Dusk and Luna "Is our one desire!" as she looked directly in the eyes of audience in the centre of the concert hall.
As they stopped playing the echo of their music throughout concert hall was quickly replaced with the sound of clapping, cheering and a bit of whistling from the audience. Thorn grinned and waved the crowd as they cheered for her, basking in their adoration.
After letting it go on for a few seconds more Thorn then raised her hands in the air not unlike she had done at the beginning of the performance, as a way to motion for Dusk and Luna to come stand beside her near the front of the stage. In response Dusk hopped down from her drum kit and ran over excitedly whilst Luna walked over from her keyboards a bit more gracefully.
"So you may be wondering why we started this concert off with Earth, Wind, Fire and Air instead of Hex Girl like we usually do." began Thorn as she addressed the crowd. "Well it just seemed more appropriate given the lyrics, since as you can see we're wearing new performance outfits."
"So what do you think?" asked Thorn as motioned to Dusk and Luna with her hands, so the focus wouldn't just be on her. "Like them?"
She couldn't help but grin again as the audience broke out into cheering once again, along with a fair bit of whistling mixed in there too.
"So I take it you won't mind if we keep wearing these performance outfits then?" asked Thorn, eliciting more cheers and whistling from the crowd.
Thorn smiled and raised her hand up in the air, holding her bat shaped guitar aloft, Dusk raised her hands and did the sign of horns as she said something whilst Luna raised her arms and bent her head back as if she was howling at the moon. Or maybe Luna had actually howled as they struck these poses, Thorn couldn't tell that or tell what Dusk had said over the noise of the cheering crowd and she didn't really care either. She was just content their fans actually approved of these performance outfits, that was good enough for her.
As the cheering and whistling died down each Hex Girl ceased their poses, Dusk and Luna returning to their instruments whilst Thorn put her guitar's strap back round her neck before she addressed the crowd once more.
"I'll take that as a yes then." joked Thorn, eliciting a bit of laughter from the audience which she paused for. Then she continued with a grin. "However as much as I enjoy your adoration, I'm pretty sure you all actually came here to see us rock right?"
The crowd erupted into yet more cheering during which Thorn raised her arms and motioned to Dusk and Luna once again.
"Then hit it sisters!" ordered Thorn before she brought her hands down and began playing the opening cords of Hex Girl, as the crowd's cheering only intensified.
Not the best ending ever, but it is an ending at least and I'm finally free of this damn fanfic. That aside thanks for reading it and I hope you got some enjoyment from it!
Again thanks to The Wandering Piney for his help with this, both inspiration, looking over scenes and just discussing various ideas for it. Along with thanks to WildwindVampire for looking over some scenes as well.