Chapter 3
Cato gets to join in on a practice sesh of Bardic Inspiration! It goes great!
Virtue sips at their coffee as the TV broadcast plays. “Notorious villain The Disparaged Baron has finally been apprehended by A-Class hero Brass Dagger. While their fight left many without a place to sleep, many more will no longer have to fear for their lives. The Hero Agency of America has offered to help rebuild those who had their homes destroyed. My name is Daven Blockett, and this is the morning news.”
The TV then shows a short video of the end of the fight. Disparaged Baron, dressed as a Musketeer, runs at Bronze Dagger with a thin sword. Bronze Dagger sidesteps the charge, and throws Baron up 20 feet into the air. There’s a glimmer as Dagger throws something, and the footage cuts to the main news desk.
“I can’t imagine doing that.” Airael walks into the living room and sits next to Virtue on the couch.
“Doing what, Hero work?” Virtue asks as they take another sip.
“I guess. I mostly mean getting involved with Powered fights.” He clarifies. “I know my Power would technically be classified as Consumption, but it still gives me an exponential boost to my physical limits. Which means that if I got involved with a fight, no matter which side I was on, both villain and Hero would try and get me out of the picture first.”
Virtue nods along as he explains. “I couldn’t even imagine what they’d do to Gemini if she got into a Power fight, or Absinthe if they-” Virtue cuts themselves off, not wanting to finish the sentiment. Airael understands, though, and sighs.
“This shit sucks.”
“More than I could imagine.”
Gemini wanders in with a piece of toast, and she raises an eyebrow at the now glum mood of the living room. “Did the kid get into a car accident? What’s with the mood?”
“Powers.” Airael says. Gemini takes a big bite of her toast, and takes her time chewing it as she thinks over the implications of that word.
Gemini swallows, and stomps over in front of the TV. She faces the pair on the couch with a sharp glare. “We can get back to the doom and gloom of our life later. Absinthe has everything set up, so all we need is Kid Strings to get his ass over here. So get your asses in there right now.”
Virtue stands up and drains the rest of their coffee. “You’re bad at pep talks.” They note, and Gemini whacks them.
“Yeah, but I got you going so I win.”
Airael gets to his feet, and wraps Gemini up in his arms. “You’re right, we gotta go make some kick ass music.”
Virtue turns off the TV and moves to the emptied out master bedroom that has become the practice space of Bardic Inspiration. Absinthe is taking out her old beat up electric guitar and leaning it up on the wall. Everything else has been set up, there’s sheets of music that Michael left behind on the one and only table in the room.
Absinthe turns around and lights up. “Oh! Hey V, didn’t see you there.”
“Most people don’t.” Virtue shrugs as they make their way to the chair put up just for them. “It’s a gift.”
“Man, what I’d do for that.” Absinthe groans.
“For being unnoticed?”
“For having a gift.”
The familiar heavy click of the front door opening cuts through the conversation before Virtue can make a response, and they hear Gemini welcome whoevers at the door with a saccharine voice. Airael mutters something, and the voice of Cato responds monotonously.
Three sets of footsteps start to make way to the practice room, and Absinthe starts to move around.
“V, he’s here, oh my god he’s here, we get to play together, I can’t believe it, can you believe it? I’m so excited, you have no-” She cuts herself off as Gemini, Airael, and Cato show up in the doorframe. “Hi!”
Gemini slides into the room as Absinthe rushes forwards to greet Cato. She shakes his hand and drags him inside, making a wide gesture to the humble setup. “Welcome to where the magic happens!”
“Uh, cool.” Cato mutters as he steps out of Absinthe’s grip. His eyes flick around, first to Virtue, then to the drum set, then to the electric guitar harmlessly sitting against the wall. “You guys, uh, already have a guitar.”
“Told ya.” Gemini elbows Cato’s ribs, making him flinch. “We didn’t know if you only had an acoustic or not. There’s also some music for the songs we’re gonna practice today on the table, if you wanna look through them.” She gestures to the handwritten sheet music, and walks behind her drum set and drops down in the seat. She grabs her drumsticks and starts to idly rap them on the rim of the snare.
Airael makes his entrance quietly, and struts to the purple and gold bass on the stand next to the drums. As he slides it on, he glances at Cato. “Last chance to jump ship, kid.”
Cato’s hand twitches, and he storms to the guitar and slings it over his shoulder. “I’m not a kid. You guys aren’t that much older than me.”
Virtue raises an eyebrow. Airael turns around and shrugs, looking bored. “We’re all out of college, and by the looks of it you’d barely’ve started if you went. Kid.”
The pair lock into a staredown, with Airael betraying no emotion in his eyes, while Cato’s are laser focused in to catch anything. Gemini stifles a snicker, and her green eyes light up with amusement as she catches Absinthe’s eye.
Her eyes dart between Cato and Airael, and wiggles her eyebrows with a large grin. Absinthe almost chokes as the laugh tries to escape her mouth, but she holds it back. Gemini and Absinthe try to hold it in, but it’s too much, and they burst into a fit of giggles and laughter, causing Airael and Cato to stop whatever they were doing.
“What’s so funny?” Cato asks, hands gripping the neck of the guitar.
Airael whips his head around to Virtue. “What did she do?” He asks with wide eyes. “What the fuck did she do?”
Virtue looks at Gemini, who tilts her head forwards and does an overexaggerated wink, causing Absinthe to break down with laughter. Virtue sighs, and pats Cato’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. They’re like this sometimes.”
They look back to see Airael now leaning over the drums and talking to Gemini, who’s grin has gotten larger as she shakes her head. Absinthe is leaning on a wall, trying to catch her breath, but sometimes still releasing a few giggles. They sigh again, bring their thumb and pointer finger to their mouth, and whistle. The band jump at the sudden noise. Airael clutches his bass, Gemini holds her drumsticks in an ‘X’ in front of her, and Absinthe takes an absurd looking fighting stance. Cato takes a step back.
“Get to practicing. We don’t have all day.” Virtue says, and they make direct eye contact with each band member. “And we certainly don’t have our guest here all day either.”
With that, Absinthe jumps into action. She double checks that Airael and Gemini are all good to go, and makes sure that the guitar Cato’s borrowing is in tune and works fine. Once everyone is set to go, she connects the microphone and takes out the piece of paper that has the practice “schedule” on it.
“Uh, it says we’re practicing ‘Truth or Dare’, ‘No Regrets’, and ‘Sandcastles’ today. Why does it say ‘Sandcastles’ in there, that’s a piano solo.” She looks back at Airael. “Rae, you wrote the list.”
Airael shrugs. “I thought that having your best song for our guitarist would be a good idea.”
Cato mutters something about not being a guitarist while Absinthe looks at the scribbles with narrowed eyes. Then she crumples up the paper and throws it at the table. “Okay, we can do that. But let’s start with a quick runthrough of ‘No Regrets’. We didn’t play that at the last venue, so I want to see what needs some work.”
Cato flips through the stack of papers, and his eyes flick over each page with the same sort of focus he gave Airael. Then he runs forwards, drops them on the table, and runs back into place.
Gemini raps the beat with her drumsticks, and then she and Airael jump into a hard and fast rhythm. She leans forwards into the microphone set up over her drums, and screams.
“OH MY GOD THIS REALLY FUCKING SUCKS! I STILL LOVE YOUR STUPID FUCKING MUG! GOT HIT BY A FUCKING TRUCK! AND YOU’RE HERE STILL GIVING FUCKING FUCKS!” Her voice is guttural and animalistic as her hands move wildly across the drumset. She holds the last vowel as the bass and drums stop and the sound drops away.
She closes the word harshly, and restarts her playing; albeit, more restrained. Airael joins in at the same time, playing the low and slow baseline as Cato takes a deep breath, and starts playing with everyone for the first time.
He plays incredibly well, and although the melody he plays on the guitar is different from what Michael played, it still fits well with everything else. But Virtue already knew that Cato was good, they knew that he would fit in with the band sonically. They’re waiting for Absinthe to sing.
Absinthe looks at Virtue, and nods. She rolls her shoulders back, stands tall, and opens her mouth.
“I cried alone again today.” Her voice is the winter sun cutting through the abyssal surrounding darkness. “It’s hard to heal this heartbreak. I’d rather have loved you here, but you decided to disappear.”
The weight of grieving a love and friendship suddenly lost shoves its way into Virtue’s chest as the words lilt off Absinthe’s tongue. Cato jolts, but doesn’t stop playing as he moves his eyes to look at the singer.
“Hey, it’s me, it’s about us. You said we’re still in love. And I cry curled in my bed, about the last text you sent. Who could have guessed that this is how our story ends?” Even through the waves of heartbreak and sadness, Absinthe smiles as she lowers the microphone. Gemini and Airael play their parts with the anger they’ve always infused them with, and Cato moves his fingers across the frets. He plays a dissonant melody, counteracting the smooth major that Absinthe had been singing. Absinthe’s grin gets larger.
As they continue through the song, it’s a constant fight of three emotions. Anger, from Gemini and Airael, grief, from Absinthe, and desperate confusion from Cato. The sound gets louder and louder, everyone fighting more and more, until Cato suddenly strikes a power chord, and the drums and bass stop. Airael and Gemini are looking at Cato with curiosity as Absinthe brings the mic to her lips one last time.
“I hold no regrets.” She sings lightly. “You were my best friend. But this is the end.”
There’s a still, anticipating moment. The air holds its breath as the last of the grief fades into acceptance, and fades into nothing. Absinthe breaks the silence with a ragged gasp, and she rubs at her eyes for a moment before looking at Cato.
“Are you sure you don’t want to be our guitarist?” Her voice is no longer crystalline, but instead thick and heavy. Her fingers pick at the edge of her skirt and the jeans beneath it.
Cato takes a moment. He looks at Gemini, then Airael, then to his own hands holding a guitar that isn’t his own. “I- uh.” He stammers, and clutches the guitar tightly. “I, I think so.”
A shuddering weight is released from Absinthe. She grins, nods, and turns to the rest of her bandmates. “Cool! So I think we did really good at the first few verses, but at the second chorus we accidentally got a little lost in the middle of everything and it took some time to get back, so let’s start around there.”
Virtue huffs a laugh and shakes their head. They knew, of course, that Cato would say yes. Absinthe is the golden apple just out of reach, the clear water you’ll never drink, but just knowing it exists is enough to sate an appetite.
