Liv Savage sat quietly atop a big blue dumpster in the alley behind Club Zozo. Her lightweight frame put a dent in the thick plastic lid, offering a cozy little spot to sit and contemplate life's great mysteries. That really wasn't what Liv was doing, but it sounded romantic enough, didn't it? Her laptop rested against her thighs, casting a radiant blue glow that gave the contours of her face a sharp and drastic contrast. Thin, dexterous fingers rapped furiously at the keys, momentarily stopped to bring up another screen, her digital audio workstation to make some adjustments before she returned to the word document she had open. Large gray eyes stared blankly at the screen, occasionally twitching and shifting as she zoomed from screen to screen, tab to tab, always moving, always typing, adding words, splicing, rearranging, seamlessly moving from one to the other. The look on her face was as blank as her eyes, more or less a zonked out look of someone in another world. There was no intense glare, a furrowed brow, a twitch of the lip or utterance under the breath, nothing. The only way someone could tell she was even alive was the puff of smoke that spilled past her lips with every breath she took, or the occasional slow blink of those large and mysterious eyes.
By all accounts Liv was attractive, though her general unkempt appearance and typical lack of hygiene considerably brought down her rating. Depending on how drunk they were she ranged from a five to six, not bad for not combing your hair or taking a shower for a couple days straight. She didn't seem to care her clothes were ruffled, her short black hair wild and untamed, falling out over her brow, tickling at her nose and temples with the slightest of moments. Her bulky headphones only exaggerated the already wild hair while cutting her off from the world around her. She couldn't hear the music behind her, though she certainly could feel the throb of it as it pulsed through brick and mortar, with a life of it's own that no one could truly control. Liv had no control over what drove her, not tonight, not ever. The words came to her out of no where, she had to get them down fast lest she forget them entirely. The same went for her music, everything came in vivid, intense bursts of inspiration that dominated Liv's life.
Even now Liv couldn't help herself, even if she were hear as an artist, mere moments away from taking the stage she couldn't pull herself away from the work. Everyone performed for different reasons, some for the fame, the money, the prestige, or simply for the love of creating and music in general. Liv was solidly in the latter category, though to her it wasn't about sharing her work but simply getting it out of her system, releasing that pent up energy, the emotion and for the moment feeling like she was really alive.
Otherwise, Liv was quiet, reserved and unassuming. Some people thought her mentally retarded or just stupid, her social skills were considerably lacking. There were few that truly understood her, or at least could remain around her for any length of time without screaming out in frustration. Liv was in her own little world pretty much twenty-four seven, only gracing the world with her attention for sparingly small amounts of time in between.
It was five till eleven and Liv was running late, not that she knew or seemingly even cared. While she sat peacefully in the biting cold, others were running around like proverbial chickens with their heads cut off. One of those unfortunate stressed out souls was Renee Erikson. She was the frontwoman, lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the relatively new band SLivER, Liv being the other as well as the brains and inspiration behind the music. Liv created, Renee sang and together they made pulses race and heads explode. Liv had some true talent in playing several instruments and composing the music but she lacked any kind of singing voice. While Renee was far from lacking in creative talent, the moment she had witnessed Liv's work she wanted to do nothing else but give it a voice. Right now all Renee wanted was to find Liv, since they were five minutes away from the start of their gig and she hadn’t seen a trace of the space case for hours. She checked all the typical spots, green room, the bar, even the bathroom and the parking lot. Of course she wasn’t answering her phone, but it was a minor act of God for her to ever do that.
Renee threw her arms up in defeat and resisted the urge to scream. Sometimes Liv could really piss her off, especially at times like this when she couldn’t even be bothered to show up for her own show. Just as she was about to completely lose faith and throw in the towel her gaze fell upon the fire exit at the very end of the skinny hallway that ran along the east side of the building, connecting all the different back rooms together and everything just clicked. The backdoor violently lurched outwards, its hinges screaming in agony from the sudden movement. The cold air hit her dead in the face and Renee felt her eyes watering slightly from it even as steam poured from her flared nostrils. She snapped her head left and right, searching for her band mate only to find her perched high up on the club’s dumpster of all things.
“Liv!” Renee called out, stalking towards the dumpster with an angry look drawn across her face. Liv didn’t notice, her headphones completely blocking out any noise. From Renee’s perspective she couldn’t rightly see them from under Liv’s hood, so she spent the better part of a minute bitching at the girl before she realized that Liv hadn’t heard one word of it.
“Dammit, Liv!” Renee grunted, kicking the side of the dumpster with the* heel of her boot. The resounding thud reverberated up the side of the dumpster and shook Liv slightly, more of a tingle in her butt that caught her attention. Instead of looking up or even responding she held up one hand with her index finger extend, the universal sign for ‘wait a minute’. Renee felt the cold flash of anger at that, they only had a few minutes now.
“Fuckin-A, Liv!” She kicked at the dumpster again, though Liv still didn’t look up. For an agonizing minute Liv continued to fiddle with her laptop, though it felt far longer than one single minute to Renee. Liv finally looked up, both hands sliding up under her hood to draw her headphones off, the loud gnarl of some Thrash metal booming out of them. She turned her gray eyes to Renee, meeting that angry glower with the typical blank look she wore on a daily basis.
“Oh. Hey,” Liv said lightly, her voice throaty and soft, like it was just too much effort for her to speak louder. “What’s up?”
“We’re on is what’s up. Like…ten minutes ago!” Renee exclaimed, exaggerating just a bit but it didn’t seem to matter, the finer points rarely mattered with Liv.
“Oh,” Liv responded, her tone slightly rising as the realization dawned upon her. She didn’t express it beyond that, her facial features didn’t even twitch. Liv had one damn good pokerface, it was just luck that she preferred Hearthstone to any other card game. Slowly she closed her laptop and stuffed it back into her satchel, which she then slung over her slender shoulders.
“Why didn’t you come get me sooner?” Liv asked, wiggling up to the edge of the dumpster lid and cautiously lowering herself down until her butt was hanging off the very edge. She let go and tumbled to the ground, landing with the slap of her shoes and a slight huff from the effort. She leaned up and stood before Renee, the stark contrast between the girl’s styles never more evident than when they were in close proximity to one another. Renee was only a few inches taller than Liv, though she was also thicker. That’s not to say that Renee was thick, but more so Liv was just incredibly svelte. Where Renee had a kaleidoscope of colors in her hair, Liv’s was a natural undyed black, short and wild in an unkempt manner instead of styled that way. Liv’s eyes were wide and blank, a cool gray of storm clouds just before it rains, where Renee’s were a rich brown, shining with such intensity that some found intimidating. Renee was covered in ink and had several piercings as well while Liv didn’t have so much as a birthmark or mole upon her deathly pale skin.
“I’ve been looking for you for close to an hour,” Renee shot back, those intense brow eyes narrowing upon Liv.
“I was right there. You shoulda called me” Liv asked, oblivious to the exasperated look that crossed Renee’s face.
“What do you think I’ve been doing? You never answer your phone, Liv!” Renee’s hand went for her pocket, to her phone as if whipping it out could justify it all. Liv started to pat herself down, her slender brows giving a slight twitch before they furrowed.
“I lost my phone,” Liv said, shifting the strap of her satchel over her shoulder, only to let her arm dangle there. The statement wasn't surprising, if there was one thing that Liv did on a regular basis was lose her phone.
“Again?” Renee sighed, knowing full well she had left it somewhere inside the club in a rather conspicuous place. One of Liv's sisters had the bright idea to actually slap a sticker on the back of her phone case that read 'property of Liv Savage, if found please return'. More often than not someone else found it, someone who knew Liv and was well aware of her tendencies. It had worked so far, which was pretty amazing considering.
“I'll go find it,” Liv said as they re-entered the club, though Renee was quick to take Liv by the arm to keep her from making an escape.
“We'll find it later. Right now we got a show to put on. So c'mon!” Renee didn't stop, despite the frustration of the situation her excitement for getting out on the stage and playing couldn't be quashed so easily.
---------
From behind her gear, laptop and keyboards Liv fulfilled many additional roles as needed. She often did backup vocals and traded between rhythm and lead guitar when needed. The band had drums and bass covered by two floaters, as they liked to call them, a rotating roster of randoms that could fit in as needed. Few could stand working with Liv for longer than a few shows, hence the rotating part. Once Liv got out on stage and started playing she was a different person. That pretty face devoid of emotion started to come alive, hints of smiles, frowns, grimaces and the occasional sultry lip bite flashed across her face as she performed. The two girl's often made eye contact and grin as they played off one another, igniting the crowd into a frenzy with Renee's wall shaking screams and Liv's well placed riffs.
By the time they were done all four of them were drenched in sweat, but it wasn't just the perspiration that made them shimmer. For an encore they threw the crowd for a loop and played a cover of 'Computer Blue' by Prince. Liv did her best with the simple line 'Yes Lisa' with her own low and sultry tone, while Renee impressed the already revved up crowd with one damn fine tribute to Prince, her screech of “Yeah, Yea-aah!” at the end no doubt heard from whatever little slice of Beyond he was sharing with David Bowie and the rest.
As they filed their way off stage and down the cramped hallway towards the green room Renee walked side by side with Liv, arm around her slender shoulders and grinning like a fool. Liv wore her own form of a grin, her normally gray eyes now more of a light sky blue. She laughed and smiled, almost looked like a completely normal person for those few moments as they bathed in the afterglow. The green room was smoky and crammed, just like every other bit of space in the club. People were shoving, wedging, sometimes crawling over each other to move about, trying to find a place to relax or get ready for their own time under the spotlight.
Liv ran a finger over the collar of her baggy black T-shirt, the words 'Kung Fury' printed in red on the front. She tugged at her collar, offering her glistening pale skin a waft of air to cool herself off. She looked about the room, all too quickly remembering that she had misplaced her phone before the set.
“Has anyone seen my phone?” Liv asked out loud, though that low voice was all but lost in the raucous voices of several conversations going at once. She didn't seem to take notice if anyone actually heard her or not, since she began to stalk the room, picking up things that didn't belong to her, giving them a through examination before setting them back down in a completely different place. The cushions of the frayed sofas were next, even with people sitting on them. Liv dove her hands in between a few cushions, much to the surprise of the current occupants of said cushions.
“I lost my phone,” She told the young man with a cheesy mustache as she leaned over his lap and rummaged around in the space between two cushions. He seemed at a loss for words with the sudden appearance of Liv's face mere inches from his own, while his band mates just laughed and enjoyed the awkward moment.
“It's black. Says Liv on it. That's me. If you see it come find me.” Liv told him, as if it were now his sole responsibility to find it. She didn't wait for any acknowledgement though, Liv was already up and moving on, her bottom lip bitten down upon as she looked around for the next spot to check.
By all accounts Liv was attractive, though her general unkempt appearance and typical lack of hygiene considerably brought down her rating. Depending on how drunk they were she ranged from a five to six, not bad for not combing your hair or taking a shower for a couple days straight. She didn't seem to care her clothes were ruffled, her short black hair wild and untamed, falling out over her brow, tickling at her nose and temples with the slightest of moments. Her bulky headphones only exaggerated the already wild hair while cutting her off from the world around her. She couldn't hear the music behind her, though she certainly could feel the throb of it as it pulsed through brick and mortar, with a life of it's own that no one could truly control. Liv had no control over what drove her, not tonight, not ever. The words came to her out of no where, she had to get them down fast lest she forget them entirely. The same went for her music, everything came in vivid, intense bursts of inspiration that dominated Liv's life.
Even now Liv couldn't help herself, even if she were hear as an artist, mere moments away from taking the stage she couldn't pull herself away from the work. Everyone performed for different reasons, some for the fame, the money, the prestige, or simply for the love of creating and music in general. Liv was solidly in the latter category, though to her it wasn't about sharing her work but simply getting it out of her system, releasing that pent up energy, the emotion and for the moment feeling like she was really alive.
Otherwise, Liv was quiet, reserved and unassuming. Some people thought her mentally retarded or just stupid, her social skills were considerably lacking. There were few that truly understood her, or at least could remain around her for any length of time without screaming out in frustration. Liv was in her own little world pretty much twenty-four seven, only gracing the world with her attention for sparingly small amounts of time in between.
It was five till eleven and Liv was running late, not that she knew or seemingly even cared. While she sat peacefully in the biting cold, others were running around like proverbial chickens with their heads cut off. One of those unfortunate stressed out souls was Renee Erikson. She was the frontwoman, lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the relatively new band SLivER, Liv being the other as well as the brains and inspiration behind the music. Liv created, Renee sang and together they made pulses race and heads explode. Liv had some true talent in playing several instruments and composing the music but she lacked any kind of singing voice. While Renee was far from lacking in creative talent, the moment she had witnessed Liv's work she wanted to do nothing else but give it a voice. Right now all Renee wanted was to find Liv, since they were five minutes away from the start of their gig and she hadn’t seen a trace of the space case for hours. She checked all the typical spots, green room, the bar, even the bathroom and the parking lot. Of course she wasn’t answering her phone, but it was a minor act of God for her to ever do that.
Renee threw her arms up in defeat and resisted the urge to scream. Sometimes Liv could really piss her off, especially at times like this when she couldn’t even be bothered to show up for her own show. Just as she was about to completely lose faith and throw in the towel her gaze fell upon the fire exit at the very end of the skinny hallway that ran along the east side of the building, connecting all the different back rooms together and everything just clicked. The backdoor violently lurched outwards, its hinges screaming in agony from the sudden movement. The cold air hit her dead in the face and Renee felt her eyes watering slightly from it even as steam poured from her flared nostrils. She snapped her head left and right, searching for her band mate only to find her perched high up on the club’s dumpster of all things.
“Liv!” Renee called out, stalking towards the dumpster with an angry look drawn across her face. Liv didn’t notice, her headphones completely blocking out any noise. From Renee’s perspective she couldn’t rightly see them from under Liv’s hood, so she spent the better part of a minute bitching at the girl before she realized that Liv hadn’t heard one word of it.
“Dammit, Liv!” Renee grunted, kicking the side of the dumpster with the* heel of her boot. The resounding thud reverberated up the side of the dumpster and shook Liv slightly, more of a tingle in her butt that caught her attention. Instead of looking up or even responding she held up one hand with her index finger extend, the universal sign for ‘wait a minute’. Renee felt the cold flash of anger at that, they only had a few minutes now.
“Fuckin-A, Liv!” She kicked at the dumpster again, though Liv still didn’t look up. For an agonizing minute Liv continued to fiddle with her laptop, though it felt far longer than one single minute to Renee. Liv finally looked up, both hands sliding up under her hood to draw her headphones off, the loud gnarl of some Thrash metal booming out of them. She turned her gray eyes to Renee, meeting that angry glower with the typical blank look she wore on a daily basis.
“Oh. Hey,” Liv said lightly, her voice throaty and soft, like it was just too much effort for her to speak louder. “What’s up?”
“We’re on is what’s up. Like…ten minutes ago!” Renee exclaimed, exaggerating just a bit but it didn’t seem to matter, the finer points rarely mattered with Liv.
“Oh,” Liv responded, her tone slightly rising as the realization dawned upon her. She didn’t express it beyond that, her facial features didn’t even twitch. Liv had one damn good pokerface, it was just luck that she preferred Hearthstone to any other card game. Slowly she closed her laptop and stuffed it back into her satchel, which she then slung over her slender shoulders.
“Why didn’t you come get me sooner?” Liv asked, wiggling up to the edge of the dumpster lid and cautiously lowering herself down until her butt was hanging off the very edge. She let go and tumbled to the ground, landing with the slap of her shoes and a slight huff from the effort. She leaned up and stood before Renee, the stark contrast between the girl’s styles never more evident than when they were in close proximity to one another. Renee was only a few inches taller than Liv, though she was also thicker. That’s not to say that Renee was thick, but more so Liv was just incredibly svelte. Where Renee had a kaleidoscope of colors in her hair, Liv’s was a natural undyed black, short and wild in an unkempt manner instead of styled that way. Liv’s eyes were wide and blank, a cool gray of storm clouds just before it rains, where Renee’s were a rich brown, shining with such intensity that some found intimidating. Renee was covered in ink and had several piercings as well while Liv didn’t have so much as a birthmark or mole upon her deathly pale skin.
“I’ve been looking for you for close to an hour,” Renee shot back, those intense brow eyes narrowing upon Liv.
“I was right there. You shoulda called me” Liv asked, oblivious to the exasperated look that crossed Renee’s face.
“What do you think I’ve been doing? You never answer your phone, Liv!” Renee’s hand went for her pocket, to her phone as if whipping it out could justify it all. Liv started to pat herself down, her slender brows giving a slight twitch before they furrowed.
“I lost my phone,” Liv said, shifting the strap of her satchel over her shoulder, only to let her arm dangle there. The statement wasn't surprising, if there was one thing that Liv did on a regular basis was lose her phone.
“Again?” Renee sighed, knowing full well she had left it somewhere inside the club in a rather conspicuous place. One of Liv's sisters had the bright idea to actually slap a sticker on the back of her phone case that read 'property of Liv Savage, if found please return'. More often than not someone else found it, someone who knew Liv and was well aware of her tendencies. It had worked so far, which was pretty amazing considering.
“I'll go find it,” Liv said as they re-entered the club, though Renee was quick to take Liv by the arm to keep her from making an escape.
“We'll find it later. Right now we got a show to put on. So c'mon!” Renee didn't stop, despite the frustration of the situation her excitement for getting out on the stage and playing couldn't be quashed so easily.
---------
From behind her gear, laptop and keyboards Liv fulfilled many additional roles as needed. She often did backup vocals and traded between rhythm and lead guitar when needed. The band had drums and bass covered by two floaters, as they liked to call them, a rotating roster of randoms that could fit in as needed. Few could stand working with Liv for longer than a few shows, hence the rotating part. Once Liv got out on stage and started playing she was a different person. That pretty face devoid of emotion started to come alive, hints of smiles, frowns, grimaces and the occasional sultry lip bite flashed across her face as she performed. The two girl's often made eye contact and grin as they played off one another, igniting the crowd into a frenzy with Renee's wall shaking screams and Liv's well placed riffs.
By the time they were done all four of them were drenched in sweat, but it wasn't just the perspiration that made them shimmer. For an encore they threw the crowd for a loop and played a cover of 'Computer Blue' by Prince. Liv did her best with the simple line 'Yes Lisa' with her own low and sultry tone, while Renee impressed the already revved up crowd with one damn fine tribute to Prince, her screech of “Yeah, Yea-aah!” at the end no doubt heard from whatever little slice of Beyond he was sharing with David Bowie and the rest.
As they filed their way off stage and down the cramped hallway towards the green room Renee walked side by side with Liv, arm around her slender shoulders and grinning like a fool. Liv wore her own form of a grin, her normally gray eyes now more of a light sky blue. She laughed and smiled, almost looked like a completely normal person for those few moments as they bathed in the afterglow. The green room was smoky and crammed, just like every other bit of space in the club. People were shoving, wedging, sometimes crawling over each other to move about, trying to find a place to relax or get ready for their own time under the spotlight.
Liv ran a finger over the collar of her baggy black T-shirt, the words 'Kung Fury' printed in red on the front. She tugged at her collar, offering her glistening pale skin a waft of air to cool herself off. She looked about the room, all too quickly remembering that she had misplaced her phone before the set.
“Has anyone seen my phone?” Liv asked out loud, though that low voice was all but lost in the raucous voices of several conversations going at once. She didn't seem to take notice if anyone actually heard her or not, since she began to stalk the room, picking up things that didn't belong to her, giving them a through examination before setting them back down in a completely different place. The cushions of the frayed sofas were next, even with people sitting on them. Liv dove her hands in between a few cushions, much to the surprise of the current occupants of said cushions.
“I lost my phone,” She told the young man with a cheesy mustache as she leaned over his lap and rummaged around in the space between two cushions. He seemed at a loss for words with the sudden appearance of Liv's face mere inches from his own, while his band mates just laughed and enjoyed the awkward moment.
“It's black. Says Liv on it. That's me. If you see it come find me.” Liv told him, as if it were now his sole responsibility to find it. She didn't wait for any acknowledgement though, Liv was already up and moving on, her bottom lip bitten down upon as she looked around for the next spot to check.
