unholyterror | Unsolicited Introductions

Continued from here

Of course, Jake had not warned Davy, or Jerry, or any of City Charms or anyone else that he was bringing people backstage. He could apologize later if there were problems with it. He did get caught up with Niko though and then had to rush to get ready and down to the venue. He pulls up on his chopped out motorcycle right behind the black car. He can see that security is talking to them and pulls the bike around the car.

"They're with me." Jake calls over the sound of both the car and the rumble of the motorcycle. He's obvious, even in the dimly lit parking lot. Not many people look like Jake. Tall, white streaks in his hair, fangs, and all the leather. The motorcycle was iconic too for the red and silver bats painted on the tank.

Security does give pause and then waves the black car to park in the lot. They could park relatively close to the door in the back, clear by the light and exit sign above it. Jake was throwing around his family ties right now which was fine. That was a big part of any entertainment career. It was all about who you knew and were associated with at the end of the day.

He pulled up on the other side of the car and got off the bike. Walking over to greet Dee, and he assumed his partner, while trying to push his unruly hair into some sort of controlled mess.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Jerry's Bar and Club
Current Music: "Mean Man" - W.A.S.P.

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Jay finished the rest of his beer, glancing over at the lighthearted wrestling match every so often.

Dee took a few more fries, and in return, left a few cubes containing his recording balls on the coffee table. Not knowing if they'd get backstage again after the show, he might not have another chance. If anyone wanted one, they were welcome to one.

When Syn decided to head out, Jay helped Dee to his feet. He took a couple of unsteady steps before his legs refused to cooperate and Jay caught him.

"Easy there."

"I'm fine..." Dee nodded weakly. He looked over at Syn, who was already waiting by the door. "Can you... bring the chair over, please?"

Sam and Mikkel were already up and ready to go, Mikkel carrying the rest of the plate fo fries along.

Syn nodded and brought the chair over. All of them had helped with Davy's mom. She was basically all of their mom's now too.

Jake smiled at the 'I'm fine.'. "You remind me of Jan." And it was said with affection but he had seen her do this kind of thing more than once.

There was a time that Dee would have forced himself to his feet, if only to prove that he could. Jay had been with him through all of that, and feeling his partner relax in his arms, to trust him that completely, was its own special kind of love.

“Jan?” Dee asked as Jay helped him get situated.

The others had started to file out to head ti the bar but Jake and Syn hung back with Dee and Jay.

"My aunt. She's a stubborn woman when shes not feeling well." Jake was just as bad though Davy was the one that was even more like Jan than he was.

“I know someone named Jan who fits that description too.” Dee chuckled. “I’d consider myself luck to be compared to her.”

He rubbed his legs gently. What was left of his muscles ached. It had been a long day, and he’d been out and about for most of it, definitely pushing himself too hard. But he wasn’t about to call it a night. He had a good feeling that this was going to be one of those nights that could change the course of his life forever - and finally get The Prophet off the ground.

"I don't know if to congratulate you or pity you." Jake mentioned wirh amusement but it got a swat on the shoulder from Syn as he walked by out the door.

"Jan is a nice woman you piranha." Syn scolded him while waiting for Jay and Dee to make their way out into the hall. Since Jake was similar age to all of City Charms they acted more like siblings than friends.

"I'll ask you about that next time you come from classes." Jake shot back with a boyishly roguish grin.

“Oh, don’t you dare pity.” Dee crossed his arms. “My Jan is my vocal coach. I sought her out specifically because she has MS… I don’t have the same thing… but I needed someone to help me to keep my volume, pitch… all of that, for as long as possible.”

Dee had his priorities.

The only muscle that really mattered, he often joked, was the diaphragm. The heart was right up there, too, but he trusted Jay to keep that fluttering.

Jake started to giggle to the point he snorted a little. "Sutton? Jan Sutton?" Jake was so sure that was exactly who he was talking about. "Tell my aunt I'm sorry for being too busy to make it up to Bernadino this month to see her."

Syn was trying not to giggle while his grin got bigger and bigger.

“Yes.” Dee nodded energetically, though it might not have looked that energetic. “I found her through CalArts. They helped me set up private lessons… That’s your aunt?”

Suddenly, the realization struck. The last member of the City Charms, the one named Davy.

“Your guitarist… is the same Davy Sutton? Her son?”

He’d met him once or twice, he swore. But it had been years ago, back when he was still a student and could still generally walk everywhere under his own power. And, obviously, before Davy had joined City Charms.

"Yes, she's my dad's sister." Jake clarified as they started walking toward the bar.

Syn nodded. "Lead guitar and back up singer." On some songs Davy took the singing lead, especially when Syn was playing sax. "I've been taking lessons with her the past two years."

“I’ve been one of her students since before she used her home studio.” Dee smiled. “I’ve been to multiple City Charms shows. I’ve seen Davy on stage… probably a dozen times. I don’t know why I didn’t put two and two together.”

He had to laugh about that.

Granted, he’d seen him in old pictures more often than live. He’d probably seen a few old pictures of Jake in there too.

Jay laughed. “I swear, I’ve told you, at least, that they had the same last name.”

“Was I listening?” He laughed in reply. “Hang on… the Rekker you mentioned… He wouldn’t be the same Rekker that did all the charity work with Jan, would he?”

Dee hadn’t seen him since he left CalArts. He wondered if he was still making guitars.

If he had seen pictures of the family, then Dee probably knew what Lex, Jake's older brother, looked like as well. They spent time together like brothers, even now.

"Sutton is a common last name." Syn encouraged after hearing the oversight.

"That one." Jake asked while pointing as they stepped from the hall into the main bar. Rekker was there and there weren't too many 6 foot tall men with red hair to their waist. He's there with Davy looking over Davy's treasured black '78 Les Paul. There's a much shorter man with them in all leather with spiked white hair.

The others are out there drinking by the stage while talking to Jerry who is up on the stage with the people setting up.

Jay shook his head in a light-hearted way that roughly translated to, ‘I love you, but sometimes you really are oblivious.’

Granted, once Jay got a look at that guitar, just about anything somebody said would be going in one ear and out the other. Because it was stunning.

Dee, however, was far more focused on Rekker. (Which was nowhere near as common of a name as Sutton…) This was definitely the man he remembered.

As they approached, he called him out by name. “I haven’t seen you in years… the CalArts fundraisers? With Jan Sutton?”

Maybe he remembered him. Maybe he didn’t, but he’d probably remember the event.

Rekker was deep in conversation with Davy about how to refurbish his favorite guitar. Like Jay, guitars made Rekker oblivious to his surroundings, especially when working on them. Davy looks up first when he hears his mom's name. His eyes narrowing as he tries to figure out who these people are but he figures one of them is a student given how the one is staring at his guitar.

Rekker slowly comes around when he sees Davy staring at someone. Rekker's eyes narrow too but it's more a look of attempting to remember. "I have donated to a few."

Rekker didn't always remember faces that he didn't see repeatedly. Students at a university he visited maybe once or twice a year wasn't going to be someone he remembered without more information. "I'm doing one with Jan at the end of next month."

Which explained why Rekker knew Davy, even if the ginger knew Lex more than either of the other boys.

Vars was the one who stepped in for etiquette. He might be hard to understand for anyone not used to Scandinavian accents since his is thicker than most.

"Vars Hagan." He offered his hand and was keenly watching the exchange enough that he knew these people were aligned with some part of the music industry. "Bassist of the Hammers."

It probably didn’t help that the last few times Rekker would have seen him, Dee wasn’t in a chair. He wasn’t nearly as thin back then either.

“I walked away with one about two and a half years ago. Still one of the best made guitars I’ve ever played.” Jay smiled, continuing with the introductions. “Jeremy Andrews. Pleased to meet you.”

“Dee Ferguson… the Prophet.” He reached out to shake Vars’ hand. The accent was extremely thick, but he was able to make out most of his name. He added, for Rekker, “I’m one of Jan’s students… studied music composition at Cal Arts.”

He gave Davy a nod as well.

"Which one?" Rekker was curious now. He liked knowing where his guitars ended up and he was glad to hear it went to someone who played.

The ginger realized he should introduce himself too even if these people seemed to know something about him already. Rekker also offered his hand after handing the guitar back to Davy. "Rekker Sterling."

Davy nodded but he's glad that they didn't try to shake his hand. The American didn't like touching strangers, especially after the incident last year. He stared at the two closely and nodded. "You're the Tuesday student, or were?"

Davy didn't so much remember names of his mother's students but he did remember the pattern of seeing them around. That was all the fault of his father and his stalking.

With how specific Jay was in describing the guitar, Rekker could probably date the exact auction he made it for, even if it was nearly three years ago. Dee was still at Cal Arts back then, and Jay was still in the ‘try to impress your boyfriend’ phase in the relationship. Not that he had any regrets. About the relationship or the guitar.

“Mmhm. Still am.” Dee nodded again to Davy. “Though, if she’s having a bad day, sometimes it’s Wednesday or Thursday now.“

He understood what that entailed.

His music projects were the closest thing he had to a job these days. So he could afford to be flexible. (How much of his monthly disability check went to voice lessons would probably make a critic’s eyes roll. But Dee swore by her. And Jay made more than enough to make ends meet as a nurse.)

Once Rekker heard about the guitar he could definitely identify the exact guitar and how he built it. If Jay is interested in guitar building Rekker will talk about it in depth.

"She hasn't had a bad day in awhile." Davy mentioned, but bad day was relative at this point. He tried not to worry about it too much but Davy did. "She won't be here tonight because she has other plans."

And that was another worry of Davy's, his mother dating again. People could tell him that the person was good until they were blue in the face and he still couldn't believe it but that wasn't something for a stranger to know.

Like Dee, having known Rekker primarily through charity work, it was still a little hard for Jay to reconcile the man in the news with the one now talking at length about how that guitar was made. It was incredibly interesting, though. And he was immediately drawn into the conversation.

“I’m glad for that.” Dee nodded - about her having mostly good days, not about her having other plans. “Doing something fun, I hope.”

Dee would never say that Jan was like a mother to him. Their relationship, even when discussing medical issues, was strictly professional. Though, he would go as far as to call her a hero.

Unfortunately, the media rarely gave any information about why he acted. They favored painting him as out of control and crazy, which weren't exactly wrong but weren't exactly true either. the Brit usually didn't try to correct them either.

Davy was starting to get a sour expression over the topic but Jake came up laughing. "Don't mind him. He's getting princessy because mom is dating again." Jake was prodding at his cousin but knew that Davy had his reasons. Anyone who knew about his father could easily imagine the guitarist's worry.

Dee honestly didn’t know much about his teacher’s personal life. He had assumed from the various photographs he’d seen in her home studio, none of which contained a significant other, that she was likely divorced. But he never asked, and never pried. He didn’t even know if his own parents were still together, or if one of them left after he did…

“well, good. She is doing something fun, then.” He smiled.

(And yes, he said someTHING, not someONE. This wasn’t the person he wanted to make THAT kind of joke about.)

He couldn’t help but glance up at his fiancé after saying that. The contented smile went entirely unnoticed, though. Jay was completely focused on guitar talk, and asking if Rekker had ever built any other instruments.

Jake noticed Davy's expression and rolled his eyes. "Stop being so sassy. We all know you miss your gym rat."

Jake would have went on teasing but the look Davy had that mixed sadness and I'm going to slap you shut his mouth. "Come on, we all know he'll be here before the show starts with roses or some shit for you."

Jake glanced over at Jay and Rekker and knew that conversation wasn't going to end anytime soon when he started hearing them talk about building instruments. He had no idea about instrument building but he did have a brother who built vehicles and knew how these went.

"Don't we have to get your guitar up on stage and tuned?" Jake immediately switched gears and subjects without a hitch. Davy could be prickly in the best of moods.

Davy finally nodded and then glanced at Dee. "Are you a vocalist?"

He thought he might as well make the best of this and be polite, especially since these seemed to be Jake's friends.

Oh, the conversation had progressed all the way into the rabbit hole in which Jay was describing some downright mystical-looking dream violins. There wasn't going to be any surfacing from that for a while.

Now it was Dee's turn to shake his head at obliviousness.

He turned to Davy and nodded. "Vocalist and composer. I perform as The Prophet. We are still looking for the right people to complete the ensemble, but..."

He reached into his bag and pulled out a demo ball, holding it out for Davy. The artwork on the cube had that name, as well as photos of him and Jay decked out in warpaint and post-apocalyptic clothes against a fantasy landscape.

"...We have a demo... that I am currently shopping around."

If asked to show what he could do, he would in a heartbeat. (Jay would too, if anyone could get his attention.)

They may never resurface. Rekker had never made a violin before and that alone would spur him into wanting to see if he could. A challenging project like this would help his mental state too.

"Classical?" Davy asked since composing could mean anything in his mind. After all, the sound stage things that Jake did to make horror sounds was also considered composing. Jake would fall in to push Dee's chair once they started toward the stage. He realized that Jay was gone.

Davy continued. "I started singing early." He was singing with him mom as soon as he could talk so he was destined for this in a way.

Davy took the demo and had the same response as Jake. "Have you given one to Jerry?"

Davy pointed out Jerry on the stage working with Sam to get the drum kit up. Jerry was obvious with a lion mane of platinum hair and a muscular 6 and a half foot tall. He was imposing to a lot of people but in general a good man. Unless you got out of hand in his bar.

And Jay had already mentioned more than once that he'd be willing to pay for it. This was quickly leaving the realm of hypothetical.

Dee had no qualms about Jake taking over the chair.

"I like blending classical with rock. It's a more... melodic metal, I suppose you could say." It wasn't quite the popular glam rock or punk scene of the moment, but it fit well with both of those. "I've performed in choirs alongside the LA Phil a few times. But would rather create something more exciting."

His final recital at CalArts showed a glimpse of what The Prophet would become. But his primary compositions were largely written for piano (which he performed) and violin (which Jay performed). Though there were some brilliantly written vocal pieces as well, with poignant lyrics. Dee was good at this.

As they approached the stage, he added, "Not yet. I've been told to look out for someone named Missy. As well as someone named Tom."