crowz

one

"We're Atramentaria, thank you for having us tonight!" I yell to the crowd, who cheers like crazy. "And an even bigger thank you to Slipknot for having us fill in tonight!" The crowd gets even louder, and I roll my eyes. Lake throws some picks to the fans, and we walk off.

"Hella good show tonight guys," Emma pants.

"Shower now, talk later," I say, speeding up towards the dressing rooms. "Y'all are sweaty as hell."

Around twenty minutes later, the four of us are out of the showers, and up in the bar. A local band is playing, and then the main event: Slipknot. It's the first time they'd ever come to this town, and there sure was a lot of talk. We had gotten a call from the booking manager yesterday asking if we could fill in for Slipknot's support band, who had pulled out of the tour for some reason. The venue was... small, to say in the least. Nothing like what Slipknot has been performing in before. But that was part of the excitement. I always preferred small venues anyway. The closeness and the reverb and the enclosed-ness of it all was just different. Intimate, if you will.

After the local band finished, the lights went down, and there was about a fifteen minute period before the guys ran out on stage. Then, for the next hour and a half, all hell was loose. It was insane. I had seen Slipknot a few times before, but now that they had two albums out, people finally realized that they weren't shitting around. Slipknot was a force to be reckoned with. After the concert ended, Lake, Emma, Liz and I went up to the bar area to get a few more drinks and watch people leave.

"I'm tellin ya, they are some crazy motherfuckers," Liz says.

"That's what i've been saying for years!" I laugh. "Okay, maybe not that many years, but a long time."

"How tall do you think their drummer is?" Emma asks. "His kit looked... smaller than mine."

"Why dont you go search the venue and find out?" I laugh. "Nah. What i'm wondering is how tall their guitarists are."

"Well i'll be damned, why don't you ask em yourself? Here they come," Liz says, peering over the railing.

"Oh shit," I laugh, quickly fixing myself in the bar mirror. Sure enough, before I knew it, there were nine other men filing into the bar area with us.

"Hello ladies," one of them says, waving as he walked by. We smiled and waved in return.

"Shawn Crahan. I'm the one with the clown mask. Can I sit here?" another asks, gesturing to a chair next to mine.

"Seat's yours now," I say.

"So. We watched your guys's performance earlier, and to say we were impressed would be an understatement," he starts. My jaw almost drops.

"Yeah, you guys were fucking amazing," a voice says from behind me.

"Thanks," i smile.

"Anyway. As you know, Sear pulled out of the tour." I nod. "We were hoping that you would take their place, and join us for the rest of the tour."

"Holy shit," Lake mutters.

"Gimme a second," i say, then turning to my band. "We're all in agreement here, yeah?" The three of them nod. I turn back to Shawn. "Abso-fuckin-lutely!"

A relieved look comes over his face. "Thank god. Thank you," he says, shaking my hand.

"Ah, wait big guy," one of them says. "How is transportation supposed to work? Surely we're not all on one bus?"

I look at Shawn. "I'll... ask around tomorrow. We're in a hotel tonight, leaving tomorrow at eight. Hopefully that gives you enough time to get packed. You know where the Hilton hotel is around here?"

"Yeah."

"Meet us there about 7:30. Until then i guess, mingle amongst yourselves, get to know each other. It's gonna be a long few months," he says, and I nod.

"Will do."

"Hey, which one of you is the main drummer?" Emma pipes up.

A small guy with black and red hair waves. "That's me. I'm Joey."

"I'm Emma, drummer for Atramentaria. How tall are you?"

All the guys laugh, as if this was an expected thing. "I'm 5'4," Joey says defensively.

"Don't let him fool ya; he's 5'3," one of them says. Joey mumbles something and turns back to the bar. "I'm Chris. I'm the other beer keg banger."

"Just call him dickface," another guy says. I nod slowly, seeing his mask in my mind. "The name's Paul. Bassist. That one over there is Craig. Pinhead. He doesn't talk." He points to a different guy.

"Hey, which two of you are the guitarists?" I ask.

"I'm Mick, lead guitar," probably the second tallest member says.

"How tall are you?"

"Oh shit, I don't know... 6'2? 6'3?" he answers.

I nod, turning to the tallest member. "That means you're rhythm guitar, yeah?"

He nods. "Jim. 6'6, if that's what you were gonna ask next."

I smile and take a drink. "You already know me so well. And that leaves... you." I point to the one with fire red hair.

"Sid Wilson, number zero," he says from on top of a barstool. "Play the turntables."

God that kid can not sit still. I nod, turning to look for the last member. Suddenly, there's a pair of hands on my shoulders, and I jump. "I assume you're the infamous Corey Taylor then?"

His voice is close to my ear, breath hot. "The one and only. Now that we're all done introducing ourselves, tell us your names."

"Stop being a dick," Shawn says from the chair next to me. Corey lifts his hands and hops onto the table, sitting between Liz and I.

"I was just making sure she didn't forget about me," he smirks.

"Remind me to drink enough to forget about you while we're on tour together," I laugh.

"Trust me, that takes a lot of alcohol," Jim's voice sounds.

"Shut up. You know you love me. And trust me, you will too," he says, smirking down to me. "Now, introduce yourselves."

"Liz, bassist." Paul nods approvingly in her direction.

"Lake, i'm the main guitarist."

"I already introduced myself, but i'm Emma, and I play the drums."

"I go by Ryss or Ryssa," I say. "I sing and play the guitar sometimes. And I sure as hell don't put up with bullshit of any kind, so don't even try."

"That's directed at you, Taylor!" Jim yells, and I laugh.

"Directed at everyone. But yes, I know how lead singers can be," I say, winking up to Corey.

"Oh shit," Emma laughs under her breath.

"Oh shit is right," Joey says. "This tour is gonna be one hell of a ride."

A/n: i'm backkkkk and inspiredddd and isolatedddddd! hope quarantine treats y'all well. tell me what you think of the story so far, and where you'd like to see it go! any and every comment is appreciated☺️
ily, see you next chapter!