//------------------------------// // Half Life (Guest Chapter) // Story: The Sound And Fury From Seaddle // by Nic-Fit //------------------------------// Chapter 16 : Half Life In which a band comes to Seaddle. Things get loud... ~ "He asked her if her music was New Wave, and she sneeringly responded, 'More like No Wave'..." (Robin Crutchfield on an interview where Lydia Lunch was asked about “Teenage Jesus…”) ~ “Are you sure about this, Vinyl?” Lyra said in a worried tone. “This club looks kinda… rough compared to the others…” “I’m starting to have second thoughts too,” Octavia muttered and glanced at the gathering crowd. There was nothing directly off-putting about them, at least as far as their appearance went. Most of them wore bland clothing, excluding the occasional leather jacket, studded belt or strap, and strange manecut thrown in. A closer look, however, made the two realize just how odd everypony behaved. Every motion and every voice, though quite harmless in its content, seemed to carry an unnameable presence, as though some ethereal creature had taken up residence in everypony’s body and was trying to speak through them. “Aw, don’t sweat it, you two,” Vinyl replied with a laugh. She wrapped a reassuring hoof around both their necks and pulled them into a tight hug, making them both gasp. Giggling, she ignored any further protests and dragged them toward the entrance. “The Black Hole is a place everypony has to visit at least once in their lifetime. Besides, they’re saying the band for tonight is something really special.” “If you say so, Vinyl…” Octavia muttered. She cast a worried glance to their left, where a young colt was busy very violently emptying his stomach. The mare gulped and quickly averted her gaze. “Good evening, ladies!” the large bouncer at the door said. His polite smile grew even wider once he recognized the new arrivals. “Oh, hey there, Vinyl! New victims?” “Just a couple of friends,” Vinyl replied with a wink. “They need to have a good time.” “As always, I am at your service. The usual?” “Hmm…” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Nah, I think I’ll take the green one this time. Had enough R&R last week.” The bouncer nodded, dug through his pockets, and retrieved a small green pill, which he quickly slipped into Vinyl’s hoof. “And these two?” He gestured at the mare’s friends. “Vinyl, what the hay is he talking about?” Lyra said. “This is getting weird.” She bit her lip and huddled together with Octavia. The latter said nothing, merely shuffled her hooves nervously. Vinyl glanced back at them and shrugged. “Well, it’s their first time, so I think they should go in clean…” She gave a devilish grin. “For now…” “All right.” The large stallion returned her grin and stepped aside. As the mares entered, the DJ quickly popped the pill into her mouth and used a bit of beer to wash it down, which she borrowed from a generous colt who lay passed out near the entrance. Muffled murmuring and faint music seeped through the double doors as they approached it. Vinyl pushed the handle to open, upon which the murmurs grew into a steady and loud drone, while a wave of warm air washed over them, filled with the stench of booze, sweat, and dirt. The interior of the club was no less unnerving for Vinyl’s friends. It was barely lit, not to mention the walls themselves were either painted black, or pockmarked with unnameable shapes and colors to form odd constellations. Even the exposed pipes and wires that ran along the walls were dressed up to fit in with the mysterious vibe, and with no decent lighting, everypony else inside formed a dark silhouette at best. “Geez…” Lyra muttered. Her eyes traveled between all the macabre decorations on the walls. “It’s like walking into one of those dark caves with monsters in them…” “It’s worse,” Octavia said. She gasped and stepped out of the way as somepony stomped their way through between them. “At least if we could see the monsters…” Most of the crowd was gathered near the stage to their left, which was all geared up at this point, though no band was present yet. The bar lined the wall to their right, burdened by several long queues as everypony wanted at least one drink to accompany them to the show. Without hesitating, Vinyl dragged them there to get herself a fix as well. Since that part of the club seemed to have the most light, her friends did not object. “All right!” she said eagerly. “What will you have?” “Uhh…” Lyra scratched at her head awkwardly. “I’m good, thanks.” “I’ll just have a Kamilla Cola,” Octavia said. “Okay!” Vinyl gave a wide grin, turned back to the bar once they were next in line, and slammed her hoof onto the counter. “THREE PINTS, RIGHT FROM THE TAP!” The bartender merely sighed in response to her outburst and began pouring their drinks. The DJ’s friends both stared at her in horror, which just made her chuckle. “Is that…?” Lyra began. “That thing the bouncer gave you… Did it…?” “Huh?” Vinyl said. “What, the pill?” She laughed again and waved it off. “Nah. It’s not working yet. I’m just excited. Aren’t you excited?” Without waiting for them to respond, she grabbed the pints and shoved them into the hooves of her friends before taking a big swig from her own. “Ahhh… That hit the spot…” she said. Taking another swig, she followed up with a loud burp and giggled like a foal at her own antics. Lyra and Octavia recoiled, nearly dropping their mugs in the process. They looked at each other and shook their heads. “Oh, come on, girls!” Vinyl said and held out her mug. “This is not the night to be uptight.” She smirked. “Lighten up! Let’s have some fun!” They shrugged and half-heartedly clinked their beers with hers, and the three drank in unison this time. “Oh Celestia save me…” Octavia said. The odd taste of the overpriced and watered-down beer made her shudder. “So what is our entertainment for tonight anyway?” “Huh?” Vinyl was already halfway done with her mug. “Oh, I don’t really know. The poster mentioned a band called ‘Angels’.” “‘Angels’?” Lyra said. “Sounds pretty harmless.” She winced as one of the drunken stallions collapsed right next to her. “Well… compared to a place like this anyway…” “If ya ask me, it sounds like a hoot!” Vinyl said with a laugh. “Whatever you say…” Octavia muttered. The three mares chatted away for a few minutes, after which Lyra excused herself to go find the fillies’ room, while Octavia said she wanted to find a place where they could sit down, just in case. That left Vinyl on her own, leaning against the bar and calmly sipping beer from time to time. Huh… Maybe this stuff doesn’t work tonight? I better tell Alpini that his pills are defective… As if on cue, there was a loud cry as a pair of colts between the stage and the bar got into a brawl over some misunderstanding. Moments later, the bouncer roared at them from the doorway and galloped inside, shoving one of the troublemakers against the wall before grabbing the other and tossing him across the chamber. Vinyl’s jaw dropped as she watched the colt sail through the air, his body seeming to move in slow-motion. She could see every feature of his face twist in pure terror. His limbs flailed helplessly, and a wet patch formed on his pants over his crotch. He screamed, but his voice came out all wrong and distorted, like a record being played at the wrong speed. A pair of new arrivals just barely managed to get out of the way as the kid flew right through the doorway and landed in a heap outside. “And stay the fuck out!” Alpini bellowed after him. “And you!” He turned to the other colt and gestured toward the exit. “You too. Banned for life. Fuck off!” Vinyl stared, mouth agape, as the bouncer worked on restoring order. The crowd around him seemed unnaturally calm and cooperative, considering how his limbs have somehow grown to monstrous proportions, and his voice was like an industrial engine had figured out how to speak. His eyes emitted a dull red glow, and black smoke billowed from his nostrils every time he exhaled. With everypony eventually going back to how they were before the incident, Alpini calmly retreated to his post at the door, leaving behind a thoroughly shocked Vinyl, who could now breathe a sigh of relief. She took another sip from her beer and gave a wide smile. Phew… Hard part’s over...  A sharp crack and a piercing whine rang out from the stage, cutting off her thoughts. It was followed by a near-deafening roar from a distorted guitar, combined with the booming and crackling of somepony mercilessly pounding the drums. A low-tuned bass smashed into every downbeat, the depth and volume rattling her bones, howling in her chest, and kicking around in her bowels. Everypony fell silent, many of them visibly recoiling from the sudden onslaught. Vinyl, however, was rooted in place as she stared unblinking at the far end of the chamber, where a hoofful of ponies had assembled on stage and now worked on releasing the monstrosity that mauled the audience’s eardrums. “PERMISSION IS BLOODLESS!” The air itself seemed to punch the audience in the face. Every downbeat sent huge chunks of noise their way, topped by the shouting of the stallion up front. Vinyl had to take a step back and brace herself, the intensity of it all threatening to sweep her off her feet, or at least so she felt. Her heart pounded in her head as she tried to take it in. The band itself was a crystal clear image, akin to a picture within a frame. Beyond the stage, however, colors bled and blurred together, as though she were looking at the surface of the water rippling from rocks hitting it. The bass player slammed his fist against the strings, and another wave burst forth to hit the crowd. It hurt to look at. It made her head ache and her ears beg for mercy. A roar entered her veins: not one of excitement, but pure terror. Fear of total annihilation. Her insides boiled as the sound threatened to rip her to shreds. She loved it. She wanted more. After downing the rest of her beer, she held up her mug and threw it as hard as she could onto the floor. It was only when she looked down after it did she notice the remains of three other mugs next to the one she just destroyed. Shrugging, she wiped her lips and made her way toward the stage, her legs barely able to keep up with her. “G-g-gangwaaaayyy…” she moaned through the deafening roar. “Comin’ through… s’cuse meeee…. I just gotta see these guys, that’s all… HEY! HOOVES OFF, BUDDY!” She expected a moshpit to come up anytime soon. But it never came. She did eventually bump into a thicker wall of ponies, all of which stood motionless and stared like stunned cattle at the stage. She pushed her way through them, only to almost fall over from the sudden lack of resistance. As it turned out, the other side was completely empty, save for the occasional puddle of bile, and she soon found out why as her eardrums began a hasty and painful retreat into her skull. Within just fifteen feet of the stage, existence itself seemed impossible. The downbeats came at her like slabs of concrete that crushed her bones, while the whine of the guitar drilled right into her brain and turned it into mush. Above all that, the aggressive voice broke through to grab her by the throat and choke her mercilessly. And she didn’t just hear and feel all of this; she could actually see the whole scene play out in a swirling mess of red and black muck. Within moments, Vinyl decided that backing up might be a good idea after all. She stumbled backward and leaned against the wall of ponies behind her, who she now realized had formed up this way for the very same reason. A few unlucky ones who couldn’t make it out in time now had to lean out and throw up onto the empty space before them, while some had to pass out and hope the others would keep them propped up. Vinyl didn’t get why they reacted this way, but with the noise just below a bearable threshold here, she could finally turn her gaze to focus on the band onstage. With the exception of the stallion on bass, who seemed the most animated among the backing band, none of the players moved about very much, their expressions little more than emotionless stares. The stallion up front, however, was nothing like them. His face twisted into pure cathartic release, combined with an unnameable desperation, as though he were trying to vomit the whole world up from his guts, he roared into the microphone while his body rocked back and forth violently, keeping up with the hammering beat. It was like a trance, one where he was both awake and under at the same time. Vinyl was completely blown away by the scene before her. Never before could she have even dreamed up such a level of release, and now she was smack dab in the middle of it. For some reason beyond her understanding, she could even understand the lyrics through the cavalcade of brutal noise. It was as though someone took a videotape of various commercials, dipped it in sulphuric acid, and played it in slow motion. Although the experience was ecstatic, to say the least, it didn’t take long before her ears needed a quick break. Besides, she didn’t have a beer in her hooves either, and that was just no good. Pushing her way through the crowd again, she stumbled back toward the bar. Along the way, she took a detour and made a quick “pit stop” in the bathroom, where she told the guys inside to stop staring and explained that a urinal is a perfectly good place for her to do her business. They seemed to agree, although it was hard to tell since all of their faces were melting for some reason. Valuing beer over answers, Vinyl threw a hoofful of bits at the bartender and demanded another mug. The creature responded by spewing obscenities from its four mouths spread all over its chest and not giving her any booze. Frustrated, the mare decided it was about time she tried to hook up with a cute guy in the club, hoping they had well-loaded pockets that could sate her thirst. Her eyes scanned the various malformed beings as they oozed slime around the bar, and eventually she noticed the very first candidate: a shy-looking colt that sat all alone, a glass of coke cradled in his hooves. With a grin a mile wide, Vinyl walked right up to him and patted him on the back. “Heeey theeeere, handsome!” she slurred. Her snout poked right into the kid’s face. “Wanna go see how I wub the dub in the tub?” Where the punch came from, she never found out. All she knew was that her skull had split open, her brain had left the building, and despite its hardness, the floor was suddenly the most comfortable place on the planet, and it was nap time. Her final thoughts echoed the loud noise still erupting from the stage. “DON’T MAKE A WROOONG MOOOOOVE!” Vinyl smiled as darkness swallowed her vision. ~ “Who the hay were those guys?” Vinyl rocked back and forth in her chair eagerly. Moments later, she hissed as an ice-cold fluid poured onto her head, which somehow still managed to burn her scalp. “Some weird band called ‘Angels’,” Lyra said. Sighing, she put down the spirit the bartender had offered her and prepared a roll of bandages. “I think they had to leave early. Something about a kid whistling at the mare member, and the singer climbing off to beat him senseless.” Vinyl giggled. “Wow, can’t believe I missed that…” “You’re lucky that’s all you missed,” Octavia said. “What the hay were you thinking, Vinyl?” “What?” Vinyl shrugged with a grin. Half a messy turban now covered the wound on her head. “I was having fun.” “You kept shouting into this guy’s face and asking if he wanted to dance. His girlfriend came back and smashed a bottle on your head. You almost started a riot!” “Oh…” the unicorn blinked. “Well, that explains the bump. And the pain.” She rubbed at the wrappings on her head and winced again. “Ouch…” “All done!” Lyra declared and leaned back. “I must say, aside from your little… adventure, this evening was… pretty exciting.” “Indeed,” Octavia said with a tiny smile of her own. “It’s good to know we’re far from the only insane noise-making bunch out there.” Vinyl laughed and put her shades back on. “Glad I could be of service,” she said and leaned back against the counter. “So, how about another beer?” Her friends stared at her, wide-eyed. Moments later, they both slapped their hooves against their faces at the same time. ~