(Thanks to @Elizipeazie for the collaboration.)
Stage 2 Camp
Not much happened during the afternoon for GECA - Interstellar, having spent a sizable portion of their time setting up their bikes, some of which - cough Hugh and Björn cough - having difficulties, thus vastly extending this process.
Add to that lunch, later dinner, a bit of socializing for those willing or able and a more “official” meeting regarding the upcoming stages effectively killed enough time until the evening.
With the sun still comfortably above the horizon, Valentin hauled his equipment over to a semi-prepared “stage”.
Reference to what the "stage" looks like.
Once amplifier, guitar, microphone and minor ancillaries were dropped off, he headed back to fetch the battery to power it all.
Jake, Cody, and Trevor found themselves almost drawn to the stage as they witnessed the musical equipment being set up. Likewise, Jayde and Malavera wandered over there, ready to enjoy the live music.
Nearby-ish, but at a fair distance, Kivenaal, Kasiya, Inaelus, and Mani start practicing with their own instruments, though quite obviously keeping things quiet to not disturb the stage practice.
Shortly thereafter, Valentin returns, a battery about the size of the amplifier already on stage in hand.
“Looks like some people already showed up to see us play…” Valentin speaks to himself out loud while hoisting the battery onto one end of the flatcar, stepping up onto it afterwards.
Largely ignoring them for the time being, the equipment is neatly aligned centrally on the ‘stage’, followed by Val casually hooking things up to each other.
Jake laughs. “Yeah, it’s somewhat hard to beat “free concert” when the radios don’t work in the car.”
Trevor smirks. “He’s just cranky because none of us thought to make a mix tape.”
“For us,” Malavera adds, “it’s just something different than the music that the Four-Armed-Four over there have been practicing with.”
“I still have that bet against Lars,” Valentin comments, looking to the locomotives coupled to either end of the stage,
“Just one moment…”
He heads off towards the GECA train a third time, returning with three staff members, in turn boarding either locomotive while Valentin returns to his guitar on stage.
“Warning to you lot, might be loud,” he notifies, looking at those already present.
Once again, a quick glance is thrown to either side, followed by a singular, aggressive headbang, sending his hairdo flying around wildly, accompanied by a quick whistle blip from both engines.
“Works, good,” Valentin notes with a ‘thumbs up’ gesture to the engine on his left, followed by the same for the one to his right.
Cody laughs. “Oh, that’s mean - He’s even got steam whistles as instruments.”
“I explicitly told Lars that any supplementary things he might want or need to use are perfectly fine,” Valentin remarks while slinging the guitar over his shoulder.
At the flick of a switch, the guitar springs to life with a noticeable hum, followed by Valentin beginning the process of tuning it.
As the first notes drift across the campsite, Kaylie, Kayden, Lauren, and Sariya wander over at first, and Takaraya a few seconds later. Following them was most of GECA - Interstellar, including Lars, who seems very tensed up while approaching the stage and the others.
In the middle of Valentin turning around to fiddle with the amplifier and it’s settings, Lars seizes the opportunity:
“Val… I have news…” he said somewhat sheepishly, but still very much loud enough for everyone present to hear.
Valentin turns back around: “Sorry?”
“I have things to tell you…” Lars repeats, nervously twiddling thumbs in the process.
“I’m all ears,” Valentin replies, ever so slightly annoyed at having been interrupted, though not yet showing any of it.
“I take it you remember April 27th, 2022?” Lars inquired, mustering what little serious courage he had hidden behind his unfiltered self.
The inside of Jayde’s ears go ever-so-slightly pale as he recognizes the date. A quick, semi-discreet check on Mal shows that the fuse on the 520 pound bomb hasn’t been lit, but Jayde’s aware that it’s just a matter of time. With a few careful steps, Jayde tries to position himself in between Malavera and Lars, aware that with a few words, there were good odds that the angry werewolf would go on the attack.
“Ow! Fuck, Jayde, you just stepped on my foot!” Cody grumbles.
“Sorry. Had to move because my leg was bothering me,” Jayde replies, sliding a half-truth into his apology.
Trevor casually cracks open another beer and takes a long swig. “This fuckin’ six pack didn’t last that long,” Trevor mutters, his speech slurred a bit from the alcohol.
Valentin, likewise, distinctly remembers that date: “How could I not?”
And so did Norse, who did not dare to say anything yet, but also expected the worst, given the peculiar timing of this.
a long bit of silence fills the area
Mani looks over at Val and Lars, giving a light smirk as he sees a possible future play out. He nudges Kiva, Inaelus, and Kasiya and says quietly, “Oh, this is going to be a good fight.”
“Shouldn’t we stop it?” Kasiya inquires, just as quietly.
“No. Best possible future is if we don’t intervene,” Mani replies, checking through possible futures as fast as he can. “If any of us get involved, Val gets injured.”
By this time, Valentin was about to set the guitar aside when Lars finally spoke up again:
“You remember because someone in a Pb8 van ran into you and a good 15 others in one go. I remember, too…” Lars spoke, before releasing the bomb from it’s locks, “… I remember, because I was driving that van.”
What initially was miles of fuse that formed Valentin’s patience was lost in an instant, going from “calm” to “blood-boiling rage” in less than half a second.
Malavera’s eyes narrow in an instant, and with a swipe across the screen on his left wrist, he looks toward Lars with a deep, resonating growl.
“I am going to fold you in fucking half! Break everything. I WILL CRUSH YOUR SKULL AND DRINK YOUR BLOOD FROM A BOOT!” Malavera roars, trying to charge toward Lars, only to be blocked by Jayde.
Jayde growls with effort as he tries to hold back 520 pounds of nanite-amplified Khalan, knowing he couldn’t Wyld shift to get the advantage here. He quickly invokes a spell of Amplified Strength, trying his best to hold Malavera back. It works for a few precious moments…
Precious moments which Valentin also uses for a war-cry directed at Lars:
“YOU SHALL FEEL WHAT BEING INCHES AWAY FROM DEATH IS LIKE!!!”, Valentin shouts out of full lungs, starting a complex set of actions as he tries to weaponize his guitar as well as get a run-up at Lars from atop the flatcar, neither of which wholly successful.
The other GECA members present either run off entirely to seek refuge elsewhere or clear out a significant area to watch from afar, not wanting to “meddle” with “personal matters”.
The guitar, still plugged into the amp, yanks the cable out of it’s port on the guitar end. A minor loss in balance due to this has Val shoulder the microphone boom away from himself, dropping it and the microphone into a small puddle on the flatcar with a deafening screech of feedback before going silent to moisture damage.
Still, Valentin manages to land an airborne overhead swing with the guitar against Lars’ right shoulder, losing grip of the former and downing the latter.
Malavera snarls as Jayde continues to fight with him, though he exploits a weakness as he twists his right hand out of Jayde’s left handed grip, then promptly strikes Jayde’s old bite scar. As Jayde yowls in pain, Malavera uses that moment to pick Jayde up and hurl him across the flatcar “stage.”
Jayde lands hard on the tracks behind the stage with a sharp, snapping crunch and a pained groan. Scattered around him are an amplifier, a battery pack, and now one very mangled microphone boom. He glances over to his right arm, seeing that his forearm is definitely broken.
“May you have an interesting day for this, Mal.” Jayde grumbles.
Malavera growls softly as he looks toward Valentin and Lars.
Trevor, never one to lose a perfect opportunity to get involved in an ass-kicking, runs up and tries to kick Lars, misses, and ends up throwing dirt over his clothes. He then promptly falls on his ass and starts laughing.
Lars, now on the ground and in ample pain, is pretty much defenseless, a fact that Valentin eagerly makes use of:
“THIS… IS… FOR… WHAT… YOU… DID… TO… UUUSSSSSSSSSSS!!!” Valentin continues, still with a full force shout while aggressively kicking into the side of Lars.
Norse, meanwhile, is unable to put a stop to it, given that he never even experienced Val like this before, and that is not even considering the obvious weight and strength disadvantage…
Malavera shakes both of his heads, slowly coming out of his blood-wild rage and focusing on the fight properly. He sees Valentin kicking the ever-living shit out of Lars’ side and tries to close the distance, planning to push Val out of the way.
Unfortunately, having forgotten his strength when nanite boosted, what was intended to be a light push turns into a full-blown American-football tackle into Val’s back, knocking Valentin off of his feet. Luckily for Valentin, the 500 pound werewolf isn’t landing on him. Unluckily for Lars, the now-off-balance Malavera comes crashing down on top of him with a weighty thud.
With Malavera at his back and all his focus being on Lars, Valentin had no way of even remotely anticipating the tackle, which very effectively allows Malavera to send him to the ground.
While Valentin failed to cushion the blow, he was lucky enough to not break his nose on impact, instead taking a good hit and slide on the ground nearby.
Lars, likewise, still is in pain and pretty much unable to act in any coherent form, courtesy of Malavera now adding to the pain by virtue of his full weight being atop Lars.
Malavera groans and starts the slow process of getting up off of the ground and Lars. This, however, is not a graceful effort, leading to a hand supporting most of his upper body weight ending up on Lars’ shoulder, a knee in Lars’ kicked-to-hell side, his other knee putting pressure on Lars’ thigh, all in the many seconds it takes for Malavera to stand back up.
Cody smirks. “Surprised when you fell on him that you didn’t squash him flat as a pancake.”
“Nah. They don’t call stupid people “dense” for nothing,” Jake quips. “You could probably drop Kasiya on him and just get an “ow” out of him. Those sorts of people rarely get hurt.”
Not much happens for Valentin, now on the ground and fairly decently scratched and banged up. His glasses have seemingly sailed to the moon, having landed quite a ways off from him, breaking on impact.
Lars, however, cannot stop himself from belting out the mother of all pain-induced screams as Malavera “gracefully” gets off of Lars, obliterating the already FUBARd shoulder even further while adding more damage to his side and thigh.
“What the FUCK did I just witness!?” Norse finally mutters, having seen this mess unfold from the very first row.
Malavera quietly steps away from Lars, heading over to check on Valentin. As he does so, he returns his nanites to normal mode, grimacing and wincing as he feels every bruise he’s picked up from the skirmish.
“Sorry, Val. I didn’t mean to tackle you. Was trying to push you away from the fight once I came to my senses,” Malavera admits.
With a subtle grunt, Valentin rolls around to his back before propping himself up to a seated position with his arms, revealing a lightly scratched up face full of dirt missing a pair of glasses.
“GO TO FUCKING HELL YOU INCURABLE PIECE OF SHIT-STAINED UNDERWEAR!!!”, Valentin blares at Lars and past Malavera, leaning over a bit to get a better view at the ‘victim’, now surrounded by a couple of vaguely supportive GECA members.
Trevor grabs onto Malavera to pull himself up, swaying like a drunk snake despite holding onto the equivalent of a fur-covered tree. As he finally gets up onto his feet, he’s immediately doubled over as he vomits, splattering Lars with puke.
“Fuck. What a waste of good beer,” Trevor mutters.
Lars at this rate has gotten it all, a guitar to the shoulder, a major ass-kicking, being used by a 230-odd Kilo Khalan as a support and now a sink by a drunk Trevor.
Still, the amount of pain he is in prevents him from doing pretty much anything.
Those around him try to help to the best of their non-existent abilities.
The only ones able to help refuse to do so, agreeing with Valentin’s notion of him having deserved every bit of it.
Valentin himself remains furious, verbally bombarding Lars with an unexpectedly large array of Swedish profanities, insults and general trashtalk.
With Valentin at least confirmed to be okay enough to still hurl angry insults at Lars, Malavera heads over to check on Jayde, managing to trip over the tracks and make a similarly-heavy face-plant to Valentin on the far side of them. In the fall, one set of his glasses falls off and ends up broken on a rock.
“Fucking hell… And of course I didn’t bring spares,” Malavera mutters.
Kayden, on the other hand, heads over to Jayde without much of an issue, quickly working to stabilize Jayde’s broken arm.
“Sorry, I know this hurts, but we have to set that arm so you can heal. Ideally, we’d get one of the camp’s medics to take a good look at it, or maybe get a mystic to heal it… Right now, the main concern is getting it set and then getting a cast on it,” Kayden admits.
“This really fucking hurts,” Jayde grumbles.
At this point, Valentin has bled enough steam to cool off a little, to the point where he is no longer shouting profanities across the area. Realizing the lack of glasses, he looks around in search for them.
The initial look-around turns into an actual search as nothing was immediately visible, revealing a pair of bent-to-oblivion glasses nearby.
“Crap…” he mutters as they break in two during the attempt at bending them back to shape.
Lars, meanwhile, managed to utter the words “I wanna go home…”, which prompted a good 5 people or so practically running off to fetch whatever he brought along to the event, placing it near him so that he is directly touching it all in some capacity.
Afterwards, a small discussion ensues as to who gets the honor of turning his ring to send him home, eventually granting Astrid the privilege of doing so.
A couple of turns at the ring and a few seconds of waiting have Lars magically vanish, complete with everything he brought along.
Kayden sighs as he works with Jayde. “Hey, Norse, I could use your help here. I need you to go into our bus and look for a bright red plastic case. It’ll have some markings on it that you probably won’t be able to read, and a white star on either side of it. Weighs about 10 kilos.”
Norse, somewhat snapped out of his shock-induced trance, blurts out a quick “Sure…” before heading off towards their bus.
Shortly after, he returns, but without the case:
“How do I get into the bus?”, he inquires, seeing Jayde and Valentin’s equipment scattered around behind the flatcar, “I am not going to ask how this came to be…”
Valentin, at this rate, also spotted his guitar in the distance, heading over there to check on it.
Initially, it appears surprisingly unharmed, barring some scratches from it impacting the dirt.
Failing to spot the amp on stage, he starts looking around the area for the remainder of his equipment…
Kayden looks to Norse, then gives an apologetic look. “Under the front bumper, near the door, there should be a button. Push that, the door should open,” Kayden explains. “Sorry, forgot we locked up after we parked.”
Jayde groans in pain as Kayden continues to hold his arm together. “Fucking hell, that hurts!”
“Sorry, Jayde. I’ll give you something for the pain once I have my med-kit,” Kayden admits. “Something for the pain, get that arm set, in a cast, and possibly in a sling. I’d give you something to speed up healing, but-”
“Just fucking do it, Kayden. It’s bad enough I’ll be spending the next six weeks in a cast,” Jayde grumbles.
“Guess we’re getting another one in the nanite club, then,” Kayden admits.
“Right…” Norse comments, already hurrying back to the bus and quickly retrieving the box Kayden asked for. Soon after, he returns plonking down the box wherever practical.
Immediately after, Valentin also joins the scene.
“May I ask what the FUCK happened here!?”, he inquires, spotting Jayde with a broken arm, Kayden providing first aid, Norse still fumbling with a nondescript-to-Val box and his remaining equipment strewn across the area.
Jayde gives a weak smile. “The short answer? I prevented things from being worse than they already are. The long answer? When Lard-for-brains Lars decided to mention he was the one who wiped you out last year, you weren’t the only one who lost it. I tried to restrain Malavera so no one would die today… And he tossed me aside like a bug. I took a tumble across the stage, then landed on my right arm… And that microphone stand.”
Kayden, upon seeing the box arriving thanks to Norse, quickly opens the med-kit and looks through his supplies. “Okay, this’ll cut the pain a bit, Jayde,” Kayden says. He quickly administers the medication, ignoring Jayde’s wince, then waits for it to start taking an effect. Once that was confirmed working, he grabs a roll of what seemed like a basic pressure bandage and carefully starts wrapping Jayde’s right arm in it. After he’d wrapped it up, Kayden soaks the bandage in water, then applies the other, light-red colored bandage layer, adding more water as he works.
“Instant cast,” Kayden explains. “Apply layers, add water. I’ve found it works a bit better if you soak the inner layer first. Solidifies in a minute. Now, Jayde, I want you to be completely honest with me, nanites or no nanites? I know you’re a quick healer, but this is a significant injury.”
“I have no issues eating a bit more to have quicker healing. Besides, it’ll probably be helpful at some point,” Jayde admits.
“Deserved all of it…” Valentin grumbles, haphazardly sliding the guitar back onto the flatcar, the momentum carrying it quite a ways ‘inland’.
Leaning against the side of that flatcar, he continues: “Plays bowling with a crew of cyclists and then has the nerve to join that same group and HIDING it for A WHOLE YEAR!”
“I would try and be the voice of reason now, but… he really fucking deserved it…” Norse admitted.
Jayde smiles weakly. “Only reason I got involved is because death-by-Malavera would have been too quick of a punishment for him. Especially given that he’s been stirring the shit-pot by mocking you for the injuries he caused.”
He takes a deep breath, then sighs. “May someone one day do to him what he did to you, Val.”
Kayden picks up a small, metal cylinder that Valentin might find familiar, then grabs Jayde’s left arm and quickly, though carefully administers the nanites. “Okay… It’ll take a bit for those to take hold, but it should help once they’re up and running. For now…”
Kayden opens a pocket in the med-kit, pulling out a slightly-bulky, rectangular-screened smart-watch, securing it around Jayde’s left wrist. “That should at least give you an idea about how they’re doing. Right now, because you have a major injury, they’ll be in “repair mode” until that arm is healed.”
“He has been stirring the shit-pot ever since he joined…” Valentin admitted, crossing his arms.
“Mocked your ass for the injuries, mocked your ass for the modelling thing you did on the side while looking infinitely better than Lars ever could, mocked your ass for playing guitar, mocked your ass for a slew of things I cannot remember now…” Norse recounted with his fingers, “Yes. He still wholly deserved the ‘gay ass payback’ via guitar…”
The mention of a guitar has Valentin turn around once more, reaching for his own one on the flatcar and dragging it back to himself.
Just like before, it looks to be largely intact, apart from some additional scratching on the body and headstock courtesy of it sliding across the rough wooden paneling that makes up the flatcar floor.
Kayden keeps an eye on Jayde, assisted in this by Nova, displaying Jayde’s vital signs on her screen. “Well, looks like Version 2 is… Already starting to do some work. Also, if you need some more pain relief, just ask,” Kayden says.
Jayde gives a half-hearted shrug. “I’ve honestly felt worse.”
Valentin checks the strap of it, delightfully discovering it being mostly intact as well.
Therefore, he shoulders it again and plucks away at it for a moment, realizing that tossing it around threw the tuning of it waaay off, but at least the strings seem to be in good-enough shape.
Heading over to the remaining equipment nearby, his luck ends as he finds the amplifier severely busted-up and very-obviously inoperable, possibly not even fixable. The battery pack, however, seemed to have survived largely unscathed:
“Yeah I am not playing anytime soon here. No amp, likely no mic and a guitar in at-best questionable state…” Valentin notes, chucking his equipment back onto the flatcar as per the ‘nothing but tire tracks’ rule, “maybe the cables are salvageable, but that is about it, I think…”
“Even more shit to blame Lars with, at least.” Norse comments half-jokingly.
“Please shut up, I don’t want anything to do with that bunker-buster of a retard anymore…” Valentin counters, still plucking away at the guitar a bit, partly to see how well the strings are holding tension, but mostly as a means of distraction from this mess.
Kayden looks over to Valentin. “I know you hate favors, but… You could ask Mani if you can borrow his guitar and amplifier for a bit. I know he brought his synthesizer, so it’s not like he can’t play if you’re playing. I think they vaguely had plans to do a set as a group after your guitar battle, but…”
Jayde smirks. “I don’t think anyone anticipated you’d take “guitar battle” literally.”
“Nah… I think I will just drag all of this mess back up front and make an attempt at sleeping it off…” Valentin mutters, throwing a quick glance over at Norse who immediately got the memo of helping with haulage.
Having collected the scrap metal and plastic, the two once again look at Jayde and Kayden:
“Hope you get well soon… Maybe I’ll ask Mani sometime later, but not now…” Valentin speaks quietly.
“If you need anything else, I can help once I’m done with this stuff here,” Norse adds before they both head off towards the GECA train to store the equipment in.
Kayden smiles. “We’ll be okay, Norse. Hardest part is going to be getting Jayde somewhere comfortable with him having a… much shorter walking distance now.”
Jayde gives a light shrug. “I’ve felt worse, but not being able to use my cane or walking stick is going to suck.”
Kayden slowly helps Jayde up to his feet, leading him over to the bus to rest. He then does the same for Malavera, checking for any injuries as a result of tripping over the train tracks. With all injured parties cared for, he closes up his med-kit and puts it back on the bus.
“Hopefully, that’s the worst this year will throw at us,” Jayde says.
