Drunken Sailor

[Reeves]

"No." He answered her with a smirk, taking the bottle from her and placing it back down on the table. "I'm keeping that, it's a memento now." It was oddly sentimental for him, even if he was quite drunk under the circumstances. Though there was probably a more practical reason, namely that he didn't want to get hit in the face by a solid glass bottle.

With that he got up and nodded at her, making his way for the stage. When the few people who knew him realized he was going up there, they seemed confused and unsure of how to react. The latter reaction was common for everyone else who was frustrated by the lack of music. It wasn't even clear why the singer walked off stage either, probably a tantrum of some kind. Climbing up the steps and approaching the microphone, the dissenting grumbles grew quiet, but the band members were reluctant. "Just roll with it." Morreti suggested to them, ensuring he wasn't openly broadcasting the fact he'd said that.

Without much of an option, the woman behind the drums shrugged and gestured for the rest of the band to just try and wing it. It's not like they were going to find another singer in the crowd anyway, so they couldn't afford to be picky. Besides, this one looked the part and seemed quite confident. All that was left for them to do was decide on a song, with mounting anticipation from the crowd, the pressure was on for this to be good. Having informed his impromptu bandmates of his choice, they started in practiced unison.

The tune was heavy and quite violent, a frenetic pace to it as if encompassing all the aspects of the movement and the person standing at the front of the formation on stage. The lights behind them were coded to ramp up the excitement and they were doing a good job of that. Clearly somebody backstage recognized him and had the lights be a gradient between ruby red and a golden yellow. And the fact the punch hit the crowd immediately and loudly certainly did wonders to alleviate the foul attitude they'd had so far.

The wide empty island in front of the stage meant for people to stand in went from empty to full in the span of the first verse. Bodies lined up to move in sync with the music, lights and his voice. Booze and sweat intermingling as people let themselves just enjoy the mood this was setting. Despite the small tide moving around in front of him, Morreti made sure to keep an eye on his drinking partner, just to be sure she wasn't getting into trouble or doing anything stupid.

When his voice hit a screaming peak after gradual progression, the band took over for a minute to pad out the length, that way the high the crowd was experiencing didn't just end. That would have left this feeling fairly premature, and the grumbling would have been even worse than it was before. But to say the group was pleasantly surprised with the stranger who had just walked up and given them this kind of reception from the crowd, would be an understatement of the worst kind.

The entire thing had been filmed too, this was probably going to end up on some of the shadier and more seditious neuralnet domains hours from now. But eventually, after giving people exactly what they wanted and not being hasty about it, the tune came to a swift end, about as violently as it had started. The silence giving way for the audience to react, while the band slowly made its way off stage and Morreti worked his way back to the table he came from.