Sing for Absolution

Matt jumped at the sound of Alyne's voice. He hadn't expected anyone to be there at all but he sighed in relief when he saw who it was.

"Oh it's just you," he said, his shoulders relaxing visibly. "What are you doing over here?"

Matt ran a hand through his hair, shaking as much of the icy water out as he could, causing it to stand on end. "'s cold in there, by the way. Dunno if you knew.... I don't wecommend a dip in there late at night," he said with a slight smile, his lips curling around the words so that his speech impediment was not only audible but almost physically visable.

He glanced toward where the path ought to be. Well hey. It'd been an adventurous night already. What was a little mud?

"Well I'm fine...I don't need any help. But feel free to come hang out if you want to. It's a bit late but I'm not planning on sleeping anytime soon."

[sorry for the sort of shit quality post. I'm on my phone and it's kinda crazy at work tonight and will be tomorrow. My replies are gonna be a bit slow until Saturday night I'm afraid. Sorry :(]
 
"I was just running away from my problems and searching the stars for the answers. It's easier to think down here, away from everybody that knows me," Alyne replied honestly, barely thinking twice about giving this stranger insight into her life. He was nice. Did that matter?


She couldn't help but smile as he pointed out the temperature of the water. His faint error in speech was actually an attractive quality rather than something that would make her turn away. Faults made a person seem more.. real.


"Come hang out?" she repeated, having never been issued such an invitation before. Spend time with him? Outside the village? In.. the resort? Was this what being social truly was? Maybe she'd even make a friend.


"I'd love to," she said after a moment, giving him a smile and slinging her bodhran case over her shoulder.


[Don't worry, mine have been sucking D:]
 
So she was running away from her problems. Matt hummed and watched her for a few moments but didn't reply, though his mind whirred. He'd come back to that.

She liked stargazing, though. Maybe they could do that sometime. Nothing made him feel more alive and open up his dreams more than stargazing did. His goals were truly boundless and not even the sky was the limit for him.

He tilted his head toward the resort. "Come on then. And just to warn you... The guys can be a bit crude."

He started his way toward his cabin. "I hope you don't mind waiting outside first" he called over his shoulder and gestured toward his soaking wet clothes. "Ive got to change quick." Besides, his cabin was a complete mess.

He'd really hoped he and Dom could share a cabin. There were many advantages to this. Dom could cook, for one. And he was also much tidier. And Matt missed all the late night best friend adventures and talks and the like. But Dom had requested his own cabin and so Matt was left on his own.

There was one advantage to having his own cabin though. He could stay up all his weird hours, the strange hours when he would get some sort of musical epiphany and be up all night writing and playing. Matt had never thought Dom had minded that though.

Maybe he was wrong.

Matt hopped up the stairs into his cabin and changed quickly, throwing his clothes haphazardly around the room. He reemerged in a plain black long sleeved tee and track pants. A pretty standard outfit for him.

"I think the guys are out back around the fire," he said to Alyne. "Wanna join?"

[your posts are fine shush. In fact they're wonderful and detailed and juicy and well paced and overall just aksdfakhdg.]
 
[XD You're a liar!]


They can't be any worse than Perry, she thought to herself silently as she nodded slightly toward him. Crude was something she could easily handle. She waved him away as he spoke of changing after they reached the resort, taking the opporunity to look around. As amazing as it was to be way down here, she didn't feel as though she had really left. She turned and looked back up toward the village, but she couldn't see it anymore. How strange, to be out of sight.


Andrick would worry. Good.


Not that that was the reason she had come, because it wasn't. It was just an added bonus to being social and possibly making friends. She knew that she had faults, but at least she had gotten this far. The thought made her relax and by the time Matt came out, she was sitting at the bottom of the stairs and just looking up at the stars as she waited.


"Sure," she said with a smile, standing back up and brushing off the back of her dress absently. "How many people do you travel with? Are they your family?" she asked curiously.
 
"This is a small crowd compared to usual. There's people coming and going but a few of them are pretty solid figures. The band, Chis and Dom obviously. Tom's usually around, but not tonight, he's in L.A. The other Dom. Morgan. We do most of our producing ourselves and there's a few techies. They don't hang out with us so much. Kelly comes out to see Chris sometimes-" Matt babbled on, not thinking and not bothering to explain Kelly's relationship to Chris. He tended to forget people weren't on the same wavelength as him. "None of them are my family but a lot of them are like family," he said as they turned the corner and approached the laughter of the people around the fire. "Er. Meet the crew, I suppose."
 
Alyne listened in silence, putting clues together rapidly. Chris and the first Dom traveled with Matt always - that would explain why he said it was obvious. Next she realized he was in a band. Well, not her fault that she didn't know earlier. He hadn't said anything and she hadn't seen or heard him ever before. Perhaps he was famous in other towns? It was possible. She knew that he traveled often, given how carelessly he mentioned L.A. and how he spoke of the others coming and going like nothing.


"It's good to have friends that are like family," she commented absently after he stopped babbling and answered her other question. She looked up as they came into view of the people she had now heard so much about. It was almost easy to pick out who was who, but not quite. Meet the crew. Uh oh..


"Hi," she said with a smile when they reached the others.
 
"Oi oi!" Matt shouted, making his presence known and everyone responded with greeting. He straddled a log near Dom and patted the spot next to him for Alyne.

"Who's the lady?" someone shouted.

"Everyone, this is Alyne, Alyne, everyone," Matt introduced. He began jabbing his finger around the circle. "Dom," he said, pointing to the doe eyed blond in the leather jacket next to him. Dom smiled a wide dimpled smile, flashing perfectly straight white teeth.

"Hey," Dom said simply, giving a small wave.

"She plays a drum thing," Matt said, then explained, "Dom's our drummer. He bangs harder,"

"Never heard that one before-"

Matt continued, ignoring Dom, "Chris," Matt continued, pointing to a quiet, tall, muscular man, who only nodded his greeting, "is the bassist, he does it deeper."
"Shut it," Chris replied.

"He's got six kids," Dom volunteered.

"Proof enough," Matt said, then continued down the line, "Dom A, tour manager, he's only here tonight, then he'll be off tomorrow. Morgan, gap filler-"

"One man band."

"Right right, Rich, does the mixing. That chair there is Tom's. No one dares sit in it. He knows…"

"It's the dogs. They tell him things."

"Anyway, that's everyone. The important ones," Matt said, turning to her.
 
Alyne sat next to Matt on the log and nodded to the others as Matt introduced her. Dom was actually who she had expected, oddly enough, but he was more attractive than she had anticipated. She smiled at him, giggling a bit as Matt described her instrument and gave her a rather.. hilarious description of Dom.


"It's a bodhran," she provided, tapping the case that was in her lap to be helpful. She looked to Chris next, trying unsuccessfully to hold in her giggle as they taunted each other.


"Six?! Wow," she said, startled by the number but moving on rapidly to look at the other Dom and Morgan, who was nicely self confident, apparently. Rich was next, then an empty chair belonging solely to Tom. Communicating with dogs, huh? Well this was going to be an interesting night, for sure.


"It's not all of the important ones if you didn't include yourself," she teased Matt, then smiled at everybody else. "It's really nice to meet you all. How long are you staying in the area, just for the night?"
 
[Lesson learned: Always write responses in word. Or you risk losing the whole thing by an accidental hitting of the back button. *keysmash*]

Dom threw his head back on a laugh and whacked Matt in the back of the head, "A night? You'll have to forgive Matt, here, he's not good with details or much of anything except music."

"Oi!"

"We're recording here," Dom continued. "He must have forgotten to mention that." He looked in interest at her drum. "I'd love if you could show me a thing or two about that. I've actually never played one before."

Dom had been drinking, so he was a lot more relaxed than he'd been earlier in the day. Matt watched him carefully and met eyes with Chris across the fire. Chris' face was more or less expressionless and Matt blinked and shrugged, rocking slightly on the log in his typical fidgety manner.
 
[I write mine in Notepad!!]


"It's okay to only be good with music," Alyne pointed out, giving Matt a smile. She knew the feeling, really, if that was all that he was truly good at.


"Recording? Oh, that must be really exciting for all of you! I forgot there was supposed to be a recording studio down in the city," she replied, recalling now hearing one of the older boys talking about it a year or so ago. She opened her bodhran case and pulled out the instrument and tapper, holding it up to show Dom.


"It's really pretty straight forward. A lot less complicated than a full drum set," she explained, glancing at Matt. He was quiet, but perhaps that was because Dom talked enough to make up for it. Was this how it usually was? She missed him talking, even if they hadn't gotten into any sort of deep conversation.
 
"I wesent that," Matt protested, prodding Alyne in the side. "I'm good at a lot of things. Don't believe them. They're just mean," he said with a pout, poking his lower lip out good naturedly.

"We actually came out here because it's so quiet. Less distractions. Recording can be a bit mundane," Chris interjected.

"It's not mundane!"

"It is working with you, prick," Dom teased Matt good naturedly, then explained to Alyne, "We're channeling Matt's muse."

"Yeah I do all the work."

"He does a whole hell of a lot of it."

"Just waiting for Dom to chip in a bit," Matt said, a slight biting truth behind his teasing that didn't go unnoticed by Dom or Chris. Dom typically challenged some of Matt's ideas, giving his own and often stretching the boundaries of their new music in ways that usually pleased Matt. He hadn't been doing a lot of that this time around on the album and it frustrated Matt. He found himself trying to force the ideas out of Dom instead of letting them come naturally. It was one of the reasons they'd been short with each other in the studio.

Dom immediately tried to steer the conversation away from it's current direction by pulling the Bodhran toward himself. He began tapping out a catchy beat and the others nodded their heads along.

[ergh sorry for how slow my posts are going. I have a hard time channeling Dom and Chris, particularly.]
 
Alyne giggled a little at Matt's prodding and immediately prodded him back, wondering absently if he was ticklish. She pouted back at him teasingly, then looked up as Dom and Matt bantered. Matt's last comment obviously struck a nerve since everything went silent for a moment afterward and the conversation changed tack. She was curious but said nothing, laughing a bit as Dom toyed with the bodhran.


"You can't use it like your normal drums, Dom. Here, let me show you," she said, taking it back away from him and balancing it from behind with one hand between her legs while her other held the tipper in the same way one would hold a pencil.


"Watch," she said, looking down at the instrument with a smile as she began to tap out a slow and easy beat at first. It soon picked up to a more rapid flicking that toyed mostly around the rim, playing across the middle fabric more and more as it went on. Her hand danced across the back, changing the tone and echo easily as she gave no thought to what she played.



[Like thiiiiis! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ChbigufBC8 ]
 
[Dude, that guy kicks ass.]

Dom whistled and tossed his hands in the air, "Well, I'm out, don't need me anymore," and he laughed and leaned toward her, interested. "So how'd you end up in the company of a bloke like Matt?" he asked raising an eyebrow as Matt slowly backed off the log he was straddling and began wandering toward the makeshift studio absently.

"Er, don't worry about him, he'll probably be back. He's a little stranger than most people. His mind goes off in all these directions and inspiration hits at strange times. I don't think he's trying to be rude… he's probably just had an idea."

"It's just the way he is," Chris added, "You get used to that after awhile."
 
"Oh, I'm still practicing," Alyne said, a faint pink tinge to her cheeks from the unexpected comment. She was all too happy with the change of subject and smiled over at Matt before responding.


"He was a customer at the bar I was performing in earlier, up in the village on top of the mountain. We don't exactly get many visitors so he was easy to spot, so I said hi," she explained, leaving out the fact that the conversation had been rather short and they had only run in to each other again accidentally. Now that she was thinking about it, she wondered what Matt even thought about everything that happened with Perry and her leaving because of his fit.


She turned to look back at Matt but he was gone. Blinking, she looked to the side and saw him walking away. With a frown, she listened to Dom and Chris explaining. Inspiration? Now she was curious to see what he had thought of.


"I'll be back!" she said, leaving the bodhran with Dom to let him play around with it as she sneakily chased after Matt.


[I know!]
 
Dom jumped up from his spot and chased her down, grabbing her arm and stopping her. "Don't." He tried to pull her back to the fire. "I know it's awkward he just ditched you with a bunch of strangers like that but trust me, don't follow him when he's like that. Just... come on back over here. Tell us about yourself. He'll be back."

[Sorry for the shorter posts. Let me know if it bothers you. I'm really used to conversational posts being really short to provide more interaction between the characters.]
 
Alyne stopped as Dom suddenly grabbed her, startling her into turning half toward him with a bewildered expression. She resisted his pulls at first, glancing back toward where Matt had disappeared off to, then back at Dom. Awkward, definitely, but she was also a little worried about him even if this was considered the norm for him. It just didn't make sense. He invited her along here, but why?


"Okay.. but there's no point in telling you about myself since there's nothing to tell," she said, finally letting him guide her back over to her place on the log. She sat and glanced again back at where Matt had vanished, then looked up at Dom with a slight smile.


"Really. I bet you guys are a lot more interesting."

[It's fine! ^^]
 
"Believe it or not," said Chris, "We're pretty normal people. Like, we get stuck in traffic jams and throw things at the telly when the footy match isn't going the way we want it too."

"That's just you," quipped Dom.

"Hey, I get stuck in traffic all the time," said Morgan.

"Matt would say he's above getting stuck in traffic but that's because he doesn't have a car and rides his bike most places," Dom added for Alyne's benefit.

"Tom's probably stuck in traffic right now."

Dom leaned closer to her. "I like getting to know locals," he said. "It helps me feel more like a normal person. I'm sure you're plenty interesting."
 
"I've actually never been stuck in traffic in my life. I've only read about it," Alyne admitted with a bit of a laugh. "The village I live in is very small. A few people have cars, of course, but most of us just walk and then take the bus when we need to go to the city," she explained, shrugging a bit as she looked up at Dom.


"A normal person? Hm.. Well, I've got an older brother who works at the bar that Matt came into. I don't have a job other than occasionally getting paid to play a set. Is that normal enough for you?" she asked with a smile.
 
Dom flashed a smile at her. "Perfectly normal." Dom gestured at himself and Chris. "We grew up in a little town in Devon. And Matt and Tom too. I've been up to the village a few times. I think I've been to the bar up there. The guy that runs it seems like he's got a bit of a stick up his arse?"

Chris laughed, stood up and stretched. "I think I'm gonna call it a night. Sorry for being a responsible adult but somebody's gotta do it."

Dom shook his head as he watched Chris amble to his cabin. "The things being married with kids does to a person."
 
Alyne returned Dom's smile and nodded with interest as he described that the boys were from small towns too. She wondered if Morgan and the other Dom were too, but they weren't speaking up so she figured they were in their own conversation. Most of them seemed distracted anyway. Oh well.


"His name is Perry, and it's not so much a bit of a stick as it is an entire tree. He seems to think that he and I are getting married someday," she admitted, shaking her head with a grimace.


She waved goodbye to Chris after bidding him goodnight, then laughed a bit at Dom.


"Horrid things. Going to bed before dawn - who does that?"
 
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