Battle of the Bands 3: The Deep Contemplative Chapter

// Part 3. This time with edge, and anxiety. Featuring Gray Rivers Alton-Yuri, Silver Bullet, and Carmine Gumshoe with permission. All spritework was originally made by Paul Robertson. I only made edits for Asuka, Nar, Juno, Roy, Gray, Silver, and Carmine. I don't do requests/commissions since I am not the original artist. Human sprites because 1. I love Paul Robertson's work, and 2. I can't do anthro to save my life. [STORY START] The music blasting from inside the large townhouse could be heard from out in the streets. A preview of what was to come for all the poor creatures standing outside in the Vanhoover winter waiting to be let in. Among those waiting outside are the members of Attack on Mango, alongside their new fans. If you could even call them that. While the group stood just 10 spaces away from being let in to the party Gray shivered dramatically. "W-why couldn't th-they have l-let us in w-when we ar-rr-rrived? I-it's f-f-freezing out here!" While the rest of the group just remains silent as they stare forwards Asuka speaks. "You've been complaining ever since we got here Gray. I told you to bring a thick coat!" She really REALLY wanted to slap him upside the head, but she wasn't sure if Gray could take the slaps like her bandmates could. Luckily, Silver did it for him. There's a muffled 'SMACK' as Silver's hoof connects with the back of Gray's thin coat. Gray's response is a muffled yelp. "Hey! C-cut that out!" Silver responds by mimicking Gray in a voice similar to a child's. This exchange continues for the remainder of the group's time in line. When the group finally enters the party Gray immediately places his coat on a coat rack, and turns to the rest of the group. "Welp! I'm off to schmooze! You all have fun!" Gray then slips in between 2 groups of partygoers, and disappears, never to be seen again. Carmine wordlessly disappears without anyone knowing where he's gone. Silver ends up in a group of pegasai, but Asuka can't tell what they're talking about. Nar and Juno end up finding an old friend, and wander off somewhere, and Roy ends up heading to the upstairs portion of the party reserved for VIPs. Huh. Asuka never knew anyone considered Roy to be important. More importantly she was now alone at a party where the only people she knew were the people she came with. She heaves a sigh. This was going to be just like Gray's new year party. Oh well. Might as well force the guys to carry her home. As Asuka makes her way over to the drink table she manages to notice quite a few other partygoers staring at her every so often. Maybe they've seen her in uniform before, and are wondering what she's doing here. Maybe they're Attack on Mango fans, or more than likely they're just checking her out. Once she arrives at the drink table Asuka finds herself some rum, and ends up just taking the whole, unopened bottle as she goes to sit somewhere. The rum was cheap, and hadn't been touched despite the party having been going on for an hour now. She figured nobody would mind. Unfortunately Asuka can't seem to find any sort of seating inside. It seemed like all of the indoor seating was currently taken. So instead of standing in a corner Asuka opts to head out onto the empty balcony. Where she ends up plopping herself down in a cheap plastic chair. As soon as her flank hits the chair she pops the cap off the bottle of rum, and takes a large swig. It's quite cold outside, but Asuka doesn't exactly care. She was used to the cold after living in Vanhoover for so long. She's not exactly sure how long she's in silence before something finally breaks it. "Drinking by yourself are we? Aren't you the one who said we shouldn't do that?" Asuka decides not to turn to face the voice, or even dignify it with a response. Regardless, the voice continues. "How long will it be until you realize how much of a hypocrite you are? You tell everyone all these things they shouldn't be doing, then turn right around and do them yourself." The question is met with more silence. "Why are YOU always the one who gets to choose? Why am I stuck watching you try to throw our life away?" Asuka clenches one of her hooves while using the other to polish off her rum. Asuka can hear the sound of the sliding glass door behind her open. She whips around, raising her bottle as if she were about to throw it. "Would you fuck off?!" However, the face she's met with isn't her reflection. It's her cousin, now mighty confused. "Woah! Take it east Sock." Her cousin steps forwards. Now he can see just how flush her face is. Alongside the now empty bottle of rum. Yeah, he was going to have to babysit tomorrow. "What have you been doing out here? We've been looking all over for you." Asuka can hardly form an answer to the question as her cousin comes to stand next to her. She can see the others from her group watching from inside. Eventually words are able to tumble out of Asuka's mouth. "I needed some air." She could just barely hear Gray make some sort of comment from inside. "Why are you out here anyway?" Asuka's words crash into each other with her mouth barely moving for every letter. "We were trying to find you so we could go get some pizza. The party's kind of lame anyway." A typical Nar response. Always about food. Before Asuka is able to form a coherent thought she's jolted up in her seat. Something just exploded on the other side of the townhouse. Instead of doing the logical thing, and checking to see how everyone else was reacting Asuka's brain decides to do something different. The others watch in confusion as Asuka stands up with an unexpected urgency. She quickly hurries over towards the building's fire escape, and quickly begins to ascend. While the others watch, dumbfounded Nar hurries after her, shouting for her to wait. Carmine follows shortly after. When Asuka finally arrives at the rooftop of the townhouse she finds a large portion of Vanhoover on fire. She needs to get back downstairs and warn everyone. However, as she turns to head back downstairs her cousin appears. "Asuka? What are you doing?! You were climbing like someone was trying to kill you!" He didn't seem all that concerned about the blaze raging behind her. "Yes Asuka. What ARE you doing?" Another voice calls out. Asuka looks to the other side of the rooftop to find a sight that makes her heart skip a beat. There, not 20 feet away stood both Maddy, and the Shadow from Lunae. Her staring, and stammering grab Nar's attention, and he eventually looks where she is. His face darkens. Though it would seem his focus was on the Shadow. Asuka begins to shake. She's seen Maddy outside of reflections before, but this felt different. Before she would just berate her, or try to show her some sort of traumatic event. No. This was different. She was in real danger. Maddy was going to hurt her. She backs away as her breathing rapidly increases. Maddy takes a step forwards. Another step back, and another step forwards. Any farther and she'll fall off of the roof. She couldn't run. She needed to steel herself, and fight. With a deep, shaky breath Asuka attempts to calm her nerves, and prepares for the fight of her life.