Re: [ ρɾεlυḋε ] ✖✖✖ { a 1x1 between Atlas and Fool }

Atlas Fri Jun 05, 2015 6:14 am

Mason had forgiven him for now, or so it seemed. He gave a weak smile in response to Ryder's apology, and after that, nothing was mentioned of their small disagreement. At times, Ryder forgot about his friend's anxiety problems and his hatred of conflict. Fights would have to be avoided in the future, even small arguments like the one just displayed. And Ryder would be the one to keep it that way, by God. He started the fight today, but this would be the last time. They couldn't afford to unravel, and Mason definitely didn't need to shut down in a panic mode. Ryder had acted shitty, but hopefully, in the future he wouldn't do it again. To his luck, Mason was being pretty chill about it and let it go. Unbeknownst to Ryder, there would be some embarrassing stories and pranks to come later on for him.

Ryder never really had sleeping problems before; he could sleep blissfully forever and ever. However, getting whatever Mason was talking about might help. With a crazy schedule, from playing for a crowd of 1,000 people and then going to utter silence... It was enough to wind anyone up, and after all of the excitement (combined with the pice of shit on wheels), he didn't sleep at all. If Mason, who had some real sleeping issues, somehow got by on his weird supplements, maybe Ryder would give them a go. "I've heard of them, but never needed to try them out. Who knows, maybe I will. After I buy earplugs, that is," he added with a small snort. The bus tended to get loud, so some extra noise blockers would do him good. And maybe if he got some, it would help the ringing in his ears go away. It hadn't stopped since the previous night...

Ryder frowned and rubbed at his ears, listening to the high-pitched ring. It was like a bell, going off in his ears. This had happened to him after a couple concerts, but it was almost always gone the next day, but it hadn't yet. He just shrugged and turned back to the conversation; it would probably go away in a day or two. It was nothing to worry about. Now, Mason was threatening to prank him while he was asleep. "Well, isn't that cute. Are you making threat, Mr. Wells?" he countered back, sticking his tongue out a bit. Now, Jayden wanted to butt in, the dark-haired, pierced, bad-looking boy swerving around. When Ryder and Mason weren't raising all hell, Jayden liked to be Ryder's replacement. In fact, it was more of a trio of kindergarden boys, with Savannah rolling her eyes, patly with amusement and partly with exhaustion at their antics.

"Hell yeah," Jayden agreed, raising his glass of orange juice to bump Mason's glass in agreement. "Sleep with both eyes open, cowboy," Jayden added with a little grin. Cowboy had been a favorite nickname of his for Ryder. Upon meeting him back in the fourth grade, Jayden had decided that Ryder's name was ridiculous. "Ryder? Like a horseback rider? What kind of name is that? You mean a cowboy?" The memory brought another smirk to Ryder's face, but it was lost as the bus hit another pothole, causing Ryder to fly into Mason's other side. It was right in time for Mason's witty little remark, too. "You read my mind; cuddling is my favorite thing in the world. Give me a braid, while you're at it." As he slowly stood up, taking care to hold on in the event of any more potholes, he added to Savannah,"Better watch out. There's a new lover in town." It was a good thing that all of them knew this was all a joke; if anyone perceived them to be gay (which none to his knowledge were) it could severely ruin their popularity.

Now that the lanky boy was standing on his feet again, he could respond to Mason with some sort of dignity. It seemed as if the lead singer had a different idea in mind for the day, or at least for now -- nothing. It sounded nice enough, but the perfectionist in Ryder wanted to do something. Even if that something was playing video games, he wanted to get his mind off of the next show. It had to be perfect, better than perfect. As it was their first tour, they needed to attract all the attention they could get, as well as pleasing their record company. At the drop of the hat, they could be dropped, if the company was not pleased. So, the better the shows, the better the interactions with fans, the better they looked... All of the above needed to be checked. "Hmm, if you say so," he grunted, rubbing the back of his still-sore head. "It's gotta be good like last night though... But yeah, chilling is nice." With that, Ryder took a seta and noticed as Hale poked his head around the corner, looking like a demon surfacing form the deepest pit of hell. "Christ, get the crucifix," Ryder snorted, referencing the very angry-looking Hale that had given Mason the dirtiest of looks.

Jayden smirked as Mason continued to mock flirt, and he nearly came over and sat in his lap for ironic purposes, until Savannah lashed out and elbowed Mason in the side. He was pretty ticklish there, and even Ryder could admit to pinning the kid down once or twice and torturing him. "Jesus H Christ, I'm not getting in the middle of that!" Jayden chuckled, throwing his hands up in the air. "You got him all to yourself, don't worry 'Vannah," Jayden chucked as he turned around to grab some more poptarts from the box. It was a marvel that they all weren't obese, considering the number of poptarts and similarly sugared treats they ingested. Chewing on the deliciously, evil-filled poptarts, Ryder was nearly transfixed. Damn, Mason was right... He acted so much different when he was hungry.

With a better attitude and listening capabilities, Ryder quietly listened and considered the pros and cons of meeting the fans. It would be good press for them, plus it would be nice to meet the people that so zealously listened to them. They gave Mock Soldier their job, and it was the least they could do to hang out with them. Savannah had a pretty wicked comeback for Mason, so Ryder joined in, "While I agree with Savannah, it sounds like a good idea. They won't be there for you, though. I'll get all the ladies. If we had a competition, I bet you I'd get all of them." It was a nice fantasy, being surrounded by hot girls... But then Ryder sobered up a second and nodded, agreeing,"Yeah, in all seriousness, it sounds like a good idea. Just make sure the body guard is around, or we could end up trapped in someones basement." A iCarly episode happened that way, and while Ryder would never admit to watching that show, he did not want to end up in the psycho girl's basement with a chicken.

Hale had enough, apparently, finally poking his head out and expressing his wrath. It was pretty harsh and quick to want to smooth the situation down in some humor, Ryder picked a piece of cereal out of Mason's bowl and tossed it at the pyrotechnician. "Here, you look hungry," he chortled, the pice of food airborne, flying and hitting Hale on his shirt. "Calm down, though. We're not being loud. Get that stick out of your ass and come join us; Mason would be happy to have you," Ryder joked, patting Mason's lap, where Savannah wasn't planted. Glancing up at the clock, the face read eight. With a sigh, Ryder realized that there would be a lot of spare time before the show, now in another ten hours. How were they going to keep themselves entertained? While throwing cereal at Hale was fun, it could only go on for so long until the pyrotechnician blew into flames like the ones he made.

Fool on the Hill Wed Jun 24, 2015 8:50 am

Mason seemed pretty resigned to all of the teasing and he responded by raising his hands up in the air in surrender. "Yeah, yeah. Gang up on me now, why don't you?" He stifled a yawn and looped his arm back around Savannah's side, leaving room on his other side just in case either Jayden or Ryder decided to take him up on that offer of a good, long cuddle. Mason wasn't one of those straight white boys that blanched at the mere thought of even coming in contact with another guy, lest he be dubbed as gay. In fact, if anyone actually bothered to ask what the lead singer's sexuality was, he'd inform them that he was bisexual, although he did lean toward women a bit more.

"Anyway," Mason drawled out, allowing his eyes to droop a little. "I think I'm going to nap for a little while before I do anything. I'm still tired as hell. No waking me up." He then closed his eyes, hunkered down a little, and tilted his head so it rested against Savannah's. She merely rolled her eyes and did the same. "And no posting this to Twitter or Instagram." The words he spoke were already a touch slurred. Sleep would be quick to claim Mason this time around.

Mason should have remembered the rules that the band had set up in regards to pranks. Anyone that fell asleep in the front or back lounge was permitted to be pranked. The bunk area was off-limits. He'd made the mistake of falling asleep in the lounge and Savannah had taken the chance to prank him. When he woke up, all seemed quite normal. He didn't notice anything for quite a while actually, although one or two crew members raised an eyebrow at him or snickered. He figured maybe he just had some crazy bedhead going on. He was wrong.

It wasn't until he had to use the bathroom - the pitiful excuse for a bathroom, really - that he noticed something was different. While washing his hands, legs braced shoulder-length apart to help with his balance as the bus swayed, Mason happened to glance up at his reflection in the mirror. His dark brown hair, still rumpled a bit with sleep, wasn't just dark brown anymore. What would be considered his bangs, the bit of hair that he usually styled up into a sort of faux hawk, had been dyed red. He raked his hands through his hair a little, as if in doubt that it was his actual hair. It was.

When he came out of the bathroom, Savannah was waiting with her phone in hand. She snapped a picture immediately and let out a loud, triumphant laugh before waving her phone in Mason's face. His expression in the picture was, admittedly, priceless: he looked horrified, confused, and as if he were trying to hide the fact that he was both annoyed and amused. He made to swipe her phone from her, but she ducked and dropped to the floor, tucking her arms beneath her and sheltering her phone. Mason prodded her in the sides a few times, earning a few shrill shrieks before she managed to reach up and punch him in the leg. He backed off then, vowing that he'd get her back.

Immediately after that, Mason sought out Ryder. "Dude, does this look bad? 'Vannah got me." He grimaced slightly as he pointed toward the red tips in his hair, as if Ryder might somehow miss that, otherwise. It was now close to eleven in the morning, which meant that Mason had succeeded in getting quite a bit more sleep. Hopefully Ryder had, too. He'd been pretty grumpy earlier that morning and the thought of him being like that for the whole day - or even worse, the whole tour - was unbearable. Mason would personally take it upon himself to ensure that Ryder somehow slept, even if he had to research, like, the Vulcan Nerve Pinch or something.

Hale looked up from his laptop at this point, dark eyes narrowing. With his thick eyebrows, he looked a tad menacing. "You. You're the one that got into my Poptarts, aren't you?" He'd found his package of Cinnamon Poptarts already half-gone, evidence of someone else eating them. Mason held up his hands, trying to put on the show of innocence. Yes, he'd eaten one of the packages of Poptarts, but Ryder had poked into them, too. Still, he wasn't going to tell the pyrotechnician that. He could arrange for one of the pyrotechnics to go off at the wrong time and Mason could end up seriously singed. "Whoa, man. Take it easy. I'm not the only one on the bus. I had cereal this morning, dude. Cinnamon Toast Crunch."

Atlas Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:13 am

Like Mason, Ryder had resigned himself to sleep. It wasn't exactly voluntary, though. Ryder was always up for fun and ruckus, but after the third game of Call of Duty with Jayden, the poor dude fell asleep with the controller in his hand. Like Mason, he'd made the mistake of falling asleep in the lounge. And Jayden, not pleased with his now comatose partner, took the opportunity to exact his revenge. When Jayden and 'Vannah teamed up, their pranks could be absolute gold. And this was no less than excellent. The Game of Pranks was on.

Jayden had gained inspiration from Savannah's prank, as she had taken the liberty to style Mason's hair in a special way. Locating extra hair dye form the hairstylists, Jayden was after the snoring drummer. The dark-haired boy was able to stealthily apply the temporary hair dye-- bright green-- to Ryder without waking the boy up. It wasn't hard though, as Ryder was long gone, snoring continuously and muttering stupid, incoherent things in his sleep. And, as a special touch, Jayden applied something else to Ryder's face, a very special surprise for when the drummer awoke from his beauty sleep.

A nightmare of misplacing his drumsticks sent the boy jolting awake in alarm. Heart pounding, Ryder had to make his way to the back and rummage his way through the supplies and instruments to ensure they were there. Call it an obsession, but the usually relaxed drummer could not be chill until he found his sticks. Sighing relief they were there, along with his other drum supplies. Anxiety satisfied, Ryder stumbled out of the dark closet and back into the lounge of the bus. Like Mason, he received some wide looks, even muffled laughs. "Ehh, what's your problem? Never seen a bedhead before?" However, they were laughing at much more than a bedhead. Lurking in the corner, Jayden gave Ryder a little smile and a grin. Why the hell was everyone acting so weird? And then, it dawned on him - he had slept in the lounge. Anything went there and he was the second victim of a prank.

"Shit!" he gasped, and dashed as quickly as he could to the bathroom, stumbling over his feet. As soon as he could get a firm grip on the walls, he saw the extent of the damage. His hair had been dyed bright green, a captivating, neon, green. "I look like a damn Christmas elf," he muttered, but that wasn't all. It seemed Jayden was in the mood for a makeover. Big puffs of color were on Ryder's cheek, blue and pink, granny-looking blush. He had sparkly pink eye shadow winged eye-liner, and the cherry topping. Worst of all was the lipstick, which was applied extremely thickly and dark red, Miranda Sings (]link! so funny!) style. All in all, it was absolutely horrifying.

He could wash it off, but there was no point. No, he'd just have to walk in the shame, the first one pranked of the tour. Walking out of the bathroom. Jayden was there to rub it in. "Wow, I love the makeup Jay. Ya really outdid yourself! Is this lipstick shade called Grandma? Or Red Rose Passion?" Now, a snicker was on Ryder's face. Jayden had done a good job, fair n' square. Now, they could have a pretend little fight, teasing and whatnot.

"Don't know man, but I'd call it prankers delight. You got Jay'ed!" Jayden roared victoriously, and took a quick snap off of his phone to post on the band pages to gloat in glory. No doubt he'd say something about it at the concert tonight. Ryder attempted to grab the phone, but the guitarist was far too quick for him.

"Hey, get back here!" Ryder countered, his wide grin showing off the ridiculous and copious amounts of lipstick. However, Jayden was too quick for him, and scurried off to join Savannah and chuckle in their glory. "I'll get you!" he challenge,d but Jayden was long gone. However, the other victim showed up. Mason, who had his hair dyed and styled into a faux hawk. At least he still looked attractive, with decent hair. He wasn't sporting a head of green hair and Miranda Sings-esque makeup. "No dude, you got the mild serving!" he chuffed, extending his arm to pat Mason's hair. "Nice touch, I like it," he scoffed, but he was no one to talk. "Shit, Jayden got me good. You see that lipstick? It'll take years to wash off!" he complained, the same mixture of annoyance and amusement. If he was the pranker, he'd be rolling around on the floor and laughing. "We need to get them back. This is a prank war!"

It was a food war too, apparently. The demon spawn from hell spoke up, his thick eyebrows glaring the boys down. "Poptarts? What Poptarts? Why would to good boys like us dare to eat anything so sugary? We left the diabetes to you, Hale!" he teased. Mason lied as well, and Ryder bounced off of his friend's white lie. "Yeah, we had Cinnamon Toast Crunch, with a healthy mixture of fruits. No way we would ever dream of eating your precious Poptarts!" Ryder glanced over to his now red-haired friend and threw his hands up in the air as well. If they were going to eat more of Hale's Poptarts, they'd defiantly have to be smarter about it.

Fool on the Hill Sun Jul 12, 2015 8:29 pm

Mason outright cackled when he actually realized Ryder's true plight. He'd been so wrapped up in the horrors of his own bright red hair tips that he somehow had missed Ryder's glowing green hair. He doubled over, gasping for air in between laughs, eyes crinkled at the corners and tearing up. The laughter began to subside, but as soon as Mason straightened back up, still giggling slightly, he burst into fresh peals of laughter. This time, he hit the floor hard, outright crying with laughter. A fresh wave hit him every time he tried to look back up, and he made failed attempts at speech. His face was extremely red, almost matching his hair at this point. Finally, he managed to squeak out a sentence, words breathy and broken with laughter still. "Holy- SHIT- Jaaaaydeeen!"

It was another few minutes before the laughter would fully subside and Mason could look over at Ryder without laughing. He still smiled dopily, but he was under far better control. He totally ignored Hale's further protesting and rants about food with peoples' names on it - how he missed that, he had no idea - and instead paraded off to grab his earbuds. It only took thirty seconds before he was relaxing, stretched out and tapping long fingers against his knees to a beat. His lips moved rapidly as he mouthed the words to a band that was quickly becoming his favorite. He didn't even make it halfway through his song before he perked up, jerking an earbud out and pausing his music. "Hey, hey! We should change the setlist a little. Add a cover song in or something!" He shot his best puppy-dog eyes in the direction of his bandmates, pleading with them to agree.

Savannah was the first to cave, interest piqued. She lowered her book, resting it on her knee as she gave Mason her full attention. Mason was briefly distracted and shot her a look. "You'll mess the binding up if you keep doing that." She stuck her tongue out, but flipped the book over, using her finger to keep her page. "But, I mean, I really, really think we could do a few covers. The fans would love it. And it gives me an excuse to learn and sing others' music more often." He beamed, quite proud of himself at the idea, before glancing over to Jayden and Ryder as he waited for them to give their own thoughts.

He could already picture them performing these songs on stage and even learning songs as requested by fans. Even if they didn't perform the full song, it'd be wicked awesome. He figured that something could be worked out, but doubted there'd be any sort of pyrotechnics. It'd just be a little extra work for the light technicians and maybe the sound techs. He felt that it'd help him improve his skills. He knew how to play by ear, but that skill could always be improved upon. He strove to always be better, in every way that he could.

Jack, the band manager, shuffled out of the sleeping quarters at this moment, a grin on his face. His spirits never seemed dampened by anything. "You four have an interview tomorrow. On camera, for some radio station." He consulted his phone real quick before looking back up. "It's 9.47 Radio QNR, some alternative-pop-rock station. They're just starting up, but said that an interview with a rising band would help their station out greatly. In return, they'll play us often, which means more royalties." There was no room for argument, but Mason didn't mind that anyway. He started to agree that it'd be pretty cool, but Jack continued. "You will play an acoustic version of 'Incomplete' since that is your biggest hit, and another of your choosing."

[Sorry this is short. I'm running low on muse at this point. What should we do now?]

Atlas Wed Aug 05, 2015 5:50 am

Mason was sure getting a kick out of it, and while Ryder stood annoyed at first, his wall eventually broke down. He began to howl and cackle just as loudly as Mason, holding onto his best friend's shoulder for support. "God... Dammit shut up asshole!" he sputtered between his laughter, tears rolling down his cheeks. This felt good -- this felt good to have a nice laugh. If he didn't die from lack of air, that is, because he was gasping like an idiot between his loud laughs. "It's not my fault that I look like a fucking Christmas elf!" They kept laughing until Mason stopped for a slight moment, and then started the process again as he fell to the floor. "Oh my God dude, get up!" Ryder roared, a giant grin plastered upon his face. He wasn't even sure what they were laughing at anymore. Whatever was, it was funnier since Mason was around.

Ryder's chest burned and screamed form all the laughing, but it took a few more minutes until both of the boys could form a coherent sentence. Jayden had come in to see the havoc, the satisfied, cocky smirk upon that damn face. Ryder gave him hell over it, that was for sure; the Prank War was on. However, after the rambunctious teenagers had calmed down a bit, Mason actually had a good suggestion, and it wasn't dying Jayden's hair pink in revenge. Ryder pursed his lips and thought, and after a few brief moments, nodded his head in agreement. He had no idea what cover Mason had pulled up his sleeve, but learning a new song last minute was always fun. "Yeah, that'd be kind of cool," he began slowly, becoming even more excited with the idea as he kept talking. All of his favorite bands had done covers of even better bands. It would be paying tribute, in a musical way. While he wasn't sure what a last minute cover would sound like thrown together so haphazardly, it was worth a shot. And then Jack let them know (last minute seemed to be the trend) that they had a radio interview the next morning. But it was cool; they'd figure it out, right after they figured out their last minute cover

Timeskip

They'd practiced, arranged, and got semi serious. As the show ticked closer, each band member was desperately trying to learn their part. It looked easy to just pick up any song at will, but it was much harder than that. Jayden was stumped by the guitar line, taking him several attempts to get it right. Mason got down the vocals pretty fast, but it took the others a bit longer. But now, Ryder felt pretty confident in his drumming skills after all of the puzzling and repeats of the song. It was hard, but it felt good dissecting a song. The roadies (Hale most notably) were pretty annoyed, but they went along with the flow. It was an hour before the show, and oddly enough everything seemed to be coming together. The crew was bustling furiously, carrying various amps, cords, and the like. Ryder felt helpless as what to do. He'd set up his kit, practiced a little, slept... There would probably be a soundcheck soon, but so far there was nothing to do. What better was there than to talk with Mason?

Ryder made his way over to his friend, his hands in his pockets. Taking a glance around at the hectic setting, he sighed and commented,"It still feels pretty surreal, doesn't it? That we're doing tis? Sort of famous?" The thought had struck him the other night, when their fans had been joyously singing along with them, but no it seemed even more surreal. People in dark, matching shirts blurred by, putting their heart and soul into electrical wires and instruments because it was their job; it was their job to work for Mock Soldier, and it was Mock Soldier's job to work for almost a thousand people. A thousand strangers. A thousand stranger's who's lives had been impacted by their music. It was a pretty crazy thought, Ryder slicking his hair back and his mouth agape slightly."I think we're ready for the cover. It was sort of a bombshell, but I'm pretty glad we did it." Running out of things to say, Ryder went on to observe Mason's red hair. "It doesn't look so bad," Ryder added with a grin. "It suits you. We're like Christmas elves or something." Most of Ryder's dye had come out, but he still had a slightly green tinge to it. "Red is a much better color than green, you're lucky." Clearing his throat, Ryder bounced a bit on his toes, unsure of what to do with himself. "So, uh, do we just stand here? Like, can we just, goof around?" And it was at this precise moment that Ryder began to lean on some tall boxes full of equipment. And of course, the awkward, tall boy leaned a bit too hard into those boxes and they tumbled like a giant Jenga set. The clattering pierced the air, and Ryder stood in horror over what he did. He had no idea what was in those boxes, but it wasn't just packing peanuts. "Oh shit," Ryder murmured, completely dumbfounded and helpless. "Hale. Is. Going. To. Kill. Me." He spoke these words slowly and softly,as he took his eyes off of the crime to Mason. The fear of death was clearly in his eyes; as soon as Hale found him, he'd be dead."Dude, you have to help me clean this up," Ryder bent over, trying to collect the spilled equipment pieces. He needed a partner in crime, which was cleaning up the crime scene.

Sponsored content