Wildest

Battle of the Bands

"Ugh, no way!" Jenny groans after the effort she made to claw herself through the crowd of colorful pincushion musicians who were trying to get a glimpse of the fresh setlist. "We're in sixth again!" she calls back to Rox, who was twirling her drumsticks on a bench lit up by fairy lights.

"Yeah, but who's logo is on the drums again...?" she smirks smugly.

"Why's your band called Death by Dolls, anyway?" Pete sat down next to her, stretching out his fingers.

"Why, you don't like it, pixieboy?" Pete tilts his lips. "Your wife came up with it."

"She did?"

"You're married to Scar?" Pete and Jenny ask simultaneously.

"No. It's a metaphor for how society forces even the most deliberately macabre to dress up, pre-deciding whether or not they'll be a threat when they actually are."

"Really?" Jenny raised her eyebrow in suspicion.

"I mean, not really. I just thought it sounded cool."

"Hey guys, what'd I miss?" Scar pushes her side hawk over her shoulder, seizing the scene as she typically does. The loudness of her hair color alarmed Jenny of how unusually pale she had turned. The outside of her eyes were puffy, but her pupils were not red.

"Scarly!" Pete gets up, reaching under the bench to retrieve the wooden bass guitar from the teeth of its zippered case. He places the strap around her neck like a sash at a beauty pageant, admiring his work after. She smiled with her eyes. "Is Theme out there already?"

"She better be..." Rox mutters, "and she better be alone...without any of those pesky ravers."

"Rox, Theme is a raver, you know that right?"

"Theme is also a punk." she retorts.

"Is she more punk than raver, though? I don't think so."

"Theme's a muse." Jenny breaks the two up, "she's got the right to be both."

"I'm not pairing up with them again." Rox muttered.

"You sure? The results weren't bad in the end...it's the ends, not the means that counts, right?" Scar insists.

"That reminds me!" Jenny blurted, "how'd the thing go with Jones? It looked like heavy stuff. Was it helpful to our case?" Scar swallowed hard.

"I don't think I'm able to talk about it now...unfortunately, it was helpful."

"Not able?" Pete took her hand.

"Unfortunately?" Rox tilts her head.

"Helpful!" Jenny grins, "at last. He'll stop pestering me about it. Was my lead right?" if she were a puppy, her tail would be propelling her to the ceiling.

"Yes." Scar scowls at the floor. Jenny's face lit up even more. "I mean no." her heart sank a little. "I don't know. It's still unknown. Have these...events been happening? Yes. Are they similar? Yes. Do they correlate, though? Or is it pure coincidence..." she keeps track with her fingers.

"Events? What's going on?" Rox furrowed her eyebrows.

"Don't worry about it..." She waves Rox and Pete off, "Just a bunch of encounters with being possessed by g--"

"...Give it up for Death Maggots! Don't let the drumsticks hit you on your way out!" Theme singsongs to the audience. She could have said anything and made them go just as wild. The stage and the whole atmosphere was wrapped around her finger, as well as the microphone's chord. So much for considering she was at all like Hamlet. "Next up we've got a bit of a surprise." She winks twice, glancing behind her to the backstage. "I know this stage has truly missed their presence and music...Releasing their new album, Allergic Frustration, in the Spring, give it up for Death by Dolls!" there was a certain art to being a radio host; your voice is the only thing you sell yourself with, and if you accentuate the wrong things, then you don't sell. For some it takes painstaking practice in front of mirrors to get a hold of the reins of the tingle-hairs in the ears of the masses, for Theme it took being exploded in a microwave. She couldn't remember whether or not the death was painful, since it was instantaneous. The acidic build up inside her head was the last drop thereof, though. The fact that her new powers were impossible to use for the worser good helped ease the regret that she built along her death in the first place; she wouldn't go back to undo her death. It acted as a wake up call to those around her too, despite the incarceratory consequences.