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[left_behind]

As On the Tin

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It's just a mental, incidental, sentimental alibi

[totocaelo]

Heard you need help breaking down after your set.

[Probably an unlisted number to her - Eddie, Eddie of Eddie and the Dead Girls, and Tommy doesn't try to think about that too hard as he reaches out. The ask was blanket-texted from their manager's aide, who Tommy is pretty sure doesn't know how technology works. He's filling time because Joel is too busy arguing with his ex-wife in the next small greenroom over to give a crap about anything else, especially helping with stage teardowns after what's been a shitty festival turn-out. Tommy blames the rain but Joel's always had a way of making his little brother's optimism feel like it should be a dirty little secret.]

[polemical]

[ Once Eddie realizes what her manager's aide has done, she's going to be furious.

It's not like Eddie's some kind of diva, necessarily, but it's so stupid to just give out someone's phone number like that, even if it's just to a small group of people in the industry. There's all sorts of reasons why someone's phone could get intercepted, all sorts of ways for numbers to leak, and she's grown really used to this one and having to get used to a new number would suck.

But that's a concern for Future Eddie.

Present Eddie is currently trying to escape Stevie's attempts to tackle her and force her to wrap her hair up in a t-shirt instead of scrubbing it dry with one of the sweat towels she keeps lying around — something about how a t-shirt is better to combat frizz, Eddie tunes her out regularly when she gets on these personal-care rants of hers, and is just trying to avoid Miss Varsity over here from physically taking her down to the ground so she can force Eddie to listen to her before they go on stage — and using her phone pinging as a distraction. ]

if stevie manages to kill me for real this time we're going to need a lot more help than that.

[totocaelo]

[Stevie. Drummer, he thinks. What Tommy just knows, though, is that Eddie has no idea who she's talking to, some total random pendejo who'd cold-text a stranger in the name of helping someone out. Tommy sighs. Considers not replying at all even as he's typing back:]

Used to be in construction. Could probably whip up a coff [Feeling cute might delete or whatever his niece would say - except that a hard slap against the other side of the thin wall makes Tommy jump, causing him to both swallow the idiot smile hovering on his face and jamb his thumb down on the SEND button.

Goddamnit.]

[polemical]

[ He can relax, his response has Eddie grinning her signature split-your-face grin down at her phone, even as she dances out of Stevie's long reach. ]

no shit? that would be sick.

[totocaelo]

[So... definitely unexpected. The self-flagellation holds itself at bay and Tommy exhales, pushing dark curls back off his forehead. Next door, Jessie's voice has risen; Joel's really pissed in her cornflakes this time. Better to focus on his phone.]

Would rather help you break down than bury you, if I'm being honest.

[polemical]

sounds like the start of a song.

[ If she wasn't hamming it up to make Chrissy laugh at them and trying to come up with quippy insults that she knows are just convincing Stevie to tackle her for real, she might try to come up with a line or two, but she's a little busy right now. ]

also i'm pretty sure if you build me a coffin you're actually helping stevie and not

[ There's no end to that statement, because Stevie finally triumphed and knocked Eddie's phone out of her hand and then got her in a headlock. ]

[totocaelo]

[Well that was why he'd said it, wasn't it?]

You, yeah.

[But his mind is already sinking, filling in lyrics to fit with "help you break down". Any time it happened I'd get over it, with a little help from all my friends, anybody else could see what's wrong with me, but they walk away and just... pretend? Tommy shakes his head. Later, maybe.]

So just need extra hands after the set? Heard some hands got food poisoning though honestly I think they had it coming. Who eats ceviche at a music fest?

[polemical]

[ Her response is much more delayed this time than in times previous, but she does eventually respond. After Stevie manages to turban up her hair with a purloined merch shirt that obviously didn't sell because the stupid festival got mostly rained out.

Not that that stopped Eddie and her Dead Girls, though. They've dealt with worse. She's still trying to convince the festival coordinator that they can go on stage and it's fine, and by she she means Chrissy, who is good at talking to Real Adults and who people actually listen to.

Eddie's only good at talking to Real Adults when she wants to pick a fight with them. ]

yeah that'd be great. and we're just midwest hicks, man, you can't blame em for trying to live a little.

[totocaelo]

[While Tommy's waiting (yeah, he's waiting), he pulls on a fresh t-shirt even though he showered and changed after their set earlier; the rain's made everything muggy in a way that bothers the skin. He's never been to Indiana before - Miller Brothers only got called in last minute to fill a hole in the schedule because their sound matched the local vibe.]

Take it from a native, chica. If the food truck signs aren't in Spanish then it's not worth the chance. Those boys'll be living on the toilet tonight.

[He just sent that shit to Eddie Munson. Dios mío.]

[polemical]

[ "A native" could mean any number of things, but the fact that it's followed up with "chica" does narrow things down a little. Eddie's trying to figure out who the hell would have her number — that she doesn't already know — who's at this festival, who also speaks Spanish, and who used to work in construction.

Most of the people who'd have her number are guys on her crew, and while some of them took high school Spanish, she doubts they're comfortable enough with it to make sweeping judgements about the quality of food on offer.

They would absolutely make a joke about shitting your brains out, though, so that doesn't raise any eyebrows. ]

like i said. they're trying to live a little.

[ And then, because she, too, took high school Spanish, she tacks on: ]

papi.

[totocaelo]

[Tommy chokes on his swig of beer as his screen lights up with that last and if he wasn't blessed with the complexion he's got, his blush would be a lot more noticeable. You feel comfortable throwing that at strangers, girl? He doesn't type it.]

Tell em to drink some tequila.

[polemical]

[ It's like he doesn't know (about) her at all.

She adds his number under the contact card "Papi" and snickers to herself. ]

like hell i will. i'm keeping my tequila for people who will actually enjoy it. they can drink shitty beer like god intended.

[totocaelo]

[Poor Tommy; speaking of shitting your pants - that's what he'll be doing if he ever has reason to see his number until that contact name in her phone. From the hall, a door slamming. Wonders if it's Jessie or Joel. Or was that thunder?]

Not gonna help their stomachs but your call. They actually gonna let you play in this?

[polemical]

i fucking hope so. there's still fans out in the pit, we can't let them down.

[ Maybe it sounds trite, a cliche, but Eddie can't let her fans down. The nebulous idea of fans, of people who didn't know anything about her but grew to love her because of her music, because of the things she could do and hadn't yet heard the worst stories about her, was one of the main driving forces behind her getting out of her shitty hometown and making something of herself.

She's looked up to so many musicians in her life, has sat in awe as she listened to sounds she didn't know could be produced by human hands, and she wanted to be that person for someone else.

The trappings of fame — the money, the drugs, the sex — are all great too, she's not hypocritical enough to lie about that, but it's not like she's some kind of superstar. She's made enough in her career to make sure Wayne is comfortable and doesn't have to work another day in his life, and she makes enough to make sure her roadies all get paid. Even the ones who eat bad fish and wind up with diarrhea in the middle of this fuck-ass field. ]

i've played in worse.

[ She's half-expecting Chrissy to go on stage with a rain poncho thrown over her clothes. Eddie definitely won't, but that's mostly because she's never owned a raincoat in her life and she's not about to start now. Stevie is more of a toss-up; she's loosened up a lot in the years they've been touring, but there's enough of the pageant princess prom queen left in her that sometimes she gets really difficult about things Eddie thinks are no big deal. ]

i guess if management says no we can just hold an unplugged set out in the parking lot.

[totocaelo]

[Eddie and the Dead Girls at this bumfuck fest, unplugged in the parking lot in a storm. Fuckin' hysterical.

But turns out it was definitely Jessie; Tommy hears the door slam back open and his brother holler as he storms after her - she's a goddamn teenager, it ain't like she's out there sellin' hardcore drugs! - and sighs to himself. There isn't anything for fixin' something that broken.]

LOL, [he picks out and sends.]

[polemical]

[ It would be sick as hell and would make an incredible story. Eddie's tempted to convince Stevie to get with the program so that they can strong-arm Chrissy into playing along and doing it no matter if they get the OK from the higher-ups or not.

LOL. Capital letters and everything. Who is this guy? ]

you don't think it's a good idea?

[totocaelo]

[Oh hell, she was serious.]

Ah what? No, I didn't say that.
I dunno. You guys are big. You ain't worried that something's gonna get outta hand? They're not gonna let you do something like that.

[Tommy realizes that the little brother and second-fiddle (figuratively, they don't have a fiddle) in a band just gettin' its legs under itself probably shouldn't go around telling someone like her what she can and can't do.]

Sorry. Listen, my advice doesn't amount to a fart in a whirlwind.

[polemical]

we're not that big, we'd be fine.

[ Potentially.

Eddie has a lot of faith in E&tDG's fans, but they're also just people, and Papi's right. People, in large enough groups, tend to do stupid shit. Eddie knows that very well, and only partially because Does Stupid Shit is her middle name. She remembers full well how easy it was to whip up Hawkins into thinking she was some kind of satanic cult leader, a succubus luring their impressionable babies down the dark path of tabletop roleplaying games and too much soda pop.

It's possible if they play a set somewhere without any kind of barricades, someone will try something stupid.

She still kind of wants to do it. ]

nah. you sound practical. like someone i should probably listen to.

[totocaelo]

You might be the first to say so.

[Sure that Joel wouldn't agree; he'd just go and cite all the times he's had to pick Tommy up from the station when he gets into bar fights. It's been a while since that happened, but Tommy's still sure that Joel's not whispering to Sarah that her uncle's the paragon of good decisions.

...guess maybe it's saying something, then, how fast he put down Eddie's idea about an impromptu acoustic session in the parking lot.]

[polemical]

i did also say probably.

[ She gets distracted by Chrissy slamming back into their green room, steam all but coming out her ears beneath her perfect strawberry-blonde waves, the temper she keeps ruthlessly locked down when dealing with their manager or other executives finally unleashed as she unloads on Eddie and Stevie about just how condescending men in this industry can be.

Eddie, currently texting a Man In This Industry — at least, she's assuming he's a man, he hasn't said, but there were some hints — says nothing to incriminate herself. ]

no dice. chris has sweet talked them into letting us play an abridged set but only as long as there's no lightning.

[totocaelo]

[Chris? Tommy ain't gonna ask. Eddie's obviously got a right to whoever she wants; he himself is just some grunt who'll help haul speakers after her set while she goes and has fun.]

Well then we say a little prayer to Saint Medardus and you'll be just fine.

[He glances at his watch. The hall, the room next door, they're quiet. Maybe Tommy'll just get himself another beer and catch a show in the rain.]

[polemical]

ooh are they in charge of storms?

[ Eddie has always admired the vibes and the aesthetic of Catholicism, but growing up in the armpit of Indiana has kind of soured her on the idea of religion as a whole and Christianity in particular. Which has always been a real bummer. Mass sounds way cooler than whatever bullshit they were spewing from the pulpits of the churches she grew up around. ]

save your prayers for after, papi. i think whoever's in charge here is about to get murdered by a 5'2" ex-cheerleader.

[ Chrissy is still going, on a roll that Eddie finds legitimately impressive. ]

[totocaelo]

Yeah, they're in charge of storms.

[Catholicism in Tommy looks like a lifetime of ingrained habit and a good helping of general guilt, and he doesn't step into a church unless it's Ash Wednesday or he's holding his mama's elbow and she's leading the way, but to each their own.

This time when she throws papi at him he doesn't choke; it's something more like a rough, embarrassed laugh-snort.]

It's tipo. Or vato. Not papi.

[polemical]

sick.

[ She makes a mental note to look up what the hell tipo and vato mean, because obviously she's going to ask for clarification, but she knows better than to take a stranger's word for anything, especially when it comes to languages. ]

what do those mean? and it's too late, you're already papi in my phone.

[totocaelo]

Man, dude, guy, kinda interchangeable and don't do that. I take back chica. Señorita from now on, I swear it.

[He's appalled, embarrassed, and even worse, turned on. Shitting hell. Tommy doesn't quite manage a laugh as he pushes his phone screen to his forehead and closes his eyes. Eddie freaking Munson.

He's such an asshole.]