Scoping out the scene (Rave/Devon)

[Devon Eckes]

Even though it was just before seven thirty at night the open mic floor was already in full swing and the two of them couldn't get a seat close to the stage. Instead they sat off to the side, near the entrance where a pretty brown haired waitress swung by with a tray full of food and dropped off two paper menu's with the nights specials on it before swinging away again.

The food on the menu seemed pretty healthy with things like 'with spouts' and 'side of cous cous' being common next to the traditional burger and fries options.

Local artists works were on the walls and a duo of long haired guys were playing and singing in the corner. There was a small dance floor, but some other band was already set up there and working on wiring so the open mic had been pushed to the side.

Over all the place was noisy, happy, and cheerful.

"Not bad," Devon mused as he looked over the crowd and then the menu. "I think I'll go for the French Dip and French Onion soup combo." He snapped his fingers. "Almost forgot, I got something for you. Chuck made this for you." He wiggled his eyebrows and pulled out a piece of laminated plastic out of his wallet and handed it over.

Aaron Hamilton, age 22 said the fake Oregon ID.

"I had him change the first name, because of your dad. But that'll get you in and out good enough." He smirked his deep dimples cutting into his face.

[Aiden "Rave" Hamilton]

Rave muttered something about people hogging the seats by the stage. On the other hand, if he got his chance to get up there, he'd love them being up close like that. At the same time... Devon had never seen him on stage either so that would be kind of a kick.

He grabbed the menu given to him by the waiter but not without checking her out somewhat just because he could. He had slumped down on the chair and was leaning his left foot on the chair next to him, his right still somewhat under the table while half sitting on the edge of it and reading the menu in his left hand. The right hand was lazily swung over the back of the chair hanging down towards the floor.

"mmh.. I think I'll 'ave... fries and a cheese burger"

He said and tossed the menu on the table again before looking at the waiter to get her attention and wave her over. He wanted food now! Once he did, he turned back to Devon and took what was offered to him.

"Aaron? Yoah couldn't come up with a bettah one?"

He smirked and gave a slight look at his friend, telling he was kind of joking about it even though he probably somewhat meant it. Rave checked it over and nodded in agreement on it.

"Cool, I can live with tha'."

He said and put it in his back pocket just as the food arrived. He took the basket his food was in and instantly grabbed three fries and put them in his mouth with a sigh of pleasure.

He looked up at Devon with his storm blue eyes glimmering. This was going to be some good times here and he was with a good friend too, what else could he ask for? He was free to do what the hell he wanted! Rave grabbed his burger and unwrapped it and dug in much like a starving wolf but after a few bites of it, he calmed down and started to eat calmly and actually tasting the food.

"So... it's free to ge' up there on stage?"

He asked between bites, looking at the stage while doing so.

[Devon Eckes]

Devon rolled his eyes at Rave's question as he dipped the crusty roll and roast beef in to the aus ju. Really, really good. Just salty enough to give it bite.

"If you don't like it, I can take it back." He suggested, holding out a hand for the card. Instead Rave slipped it into his pocket. "If you get busted with it, just let them keep it and walk away. It's easy to get a new one. It's part of growing up around here. They don't call the cops or anything unless you cause a scene."

Which, knowing Rave and his temperament could happen, so Devon tried to warn him now. "If they call the cops, that means report. Report means your father can track you, and you could get deported."

Hopefully that would sink through that dyed thick skull of his. Rave had a tendency to take good advice and stick it up his ass rather than apply it to everyday life where it would do him some good.

"Cool, I can live with tha'." Rave nodded. "So... it's free to ge' up there on stage?"

"Oh yeah, but, there's usually a list." Devon sat up a straighter and craned his neck to look around the room. "People who want to get on the list usually come by early to get a spot...but...I think it's that chick over there with the dreads."

The girl in question looked about twenty five with dreadlocks that went down her back in long thick brown ribbons nearly to her butt. Combed out her hair would have probably reached her feet and was sitting on a stool at the end of the bar area.

He picked up the placard on the table from where it was nestled in the sugar cozy.

"Says...Mondays...art opening, Tuesdays...ladies night...Wednesday...open mic night...Thursdays...jam night...Friday...blues and jazz...Saturday and Sunday...band of the weekend." His dark eyebrows rose. "Sounds like a active place, always something happening."

He took another bite and looked again around the room at the busy waiters and the crowd. "I wonder if they are hiring." He mused.

[Aiden "Rave" Hamilton]

"pft... so yoah could oogle ovah my pretteh face when I'm no' around eh? Dunn think so buddeh"

He smirked with a teasing grin and took another bite on his food. He was about to roll his eyes at the comment of not caring if they took the card from him and he was about to protest as soon as he had swallowed his food and inhaled air to breathe.

He was however stopped with one comment that changed everything... his father could find him if he was reported. That thought made him drop his eyes to the table and actually think about it for a moment while licking some mayonnaise from his left thumb and ring on it.

"mh... well, tha' would be a bit of a 'assle if tha' 'appened..."

He said quietly before he turned to look where Devon pointed when he spoke of the girl you could sign up for. He rose his right eyebrow.

"Nice"

Was the only word he said, then if it was for the girl herself or for the sign up thing solved was kind of unclear though. Rave kept his eyes on her while wiping his hands and taking a drink of coke before he got off his chair and walked straight up to her without even looking back at Devon once, he even left while he was reading the night events somewhere midway.

Rave came up to the girl and leaned over the bar with his back towards Devon while talking to her. She looked up at him, he said a few words and she shook her head and seemed to explain a few things. He shook his head and kept his right underarm on the counter while his left placed itself on the back of the chair, somewhat and almost seeming to give her a hug from the side.

The girl looked up at him and eventually ended up smiling while he seemed to talk to her. She tilted her head to the side and slumped her shoulders with an 'I give up' smile then nodded and flipped a paper up and started scribbling on it.

Rave leaned in and whispered something in her ear while being cheek to opposite cheek with her, him looking over her shoulder and she looking over the counter. She seemed to laugh a little before he placed a hand on her shoulder and patted it gently before he turned back to the table with a slight but pleased grin on his face.

He slumped down in the chair again and picked the last piece of his burger up which wasn't more than two bites but before he returned to eating, he looked back over his shoulder at the girl, meeting his eyes and rose an eyebrow at her with a light grin again before he turned back and took a bite on his burger again. Not until then did he look up and meet Devon's look.

"Whaa' ?... I'm on tha list."

He remarked and took the last piece of his burger into his mouth as well as the last two strips and after a while, some coke too.

[Devon Eckes]

"I didn't say anything," Devon said, his eyebrows crept up. "But I am thinking something. I'm thinking 'it's time for practicing safe sex' because I have the feeling you're going to be dipping your quill in a lot of inkwells now that your out."

Devon nodding with a knowing look on his face. The two of them didn't really talk about their conquests with each other but at Hadley they were tested on a regular basis for everything because of all the drugs they tested out there. Devon, even so, always used a condom because one of his best friends there had been a girl who was pregnant and seeing what she was going through had made him extra concienous...

"If you were just added might as well finish eating, you'll be on last. Which is good, in a way." He drank some of his coffee. "Gives you time to relax and soak up the atmosphere. You can even run home and get your axe."

[Aiden "Rave" Hamilton]

"...safe...whe'ah tha 'ell did tha' come from?"

He asked and quirked a brow while looking at Devon as if he had gone completely mad one way or another. He grabbed a strip and bit it off half way and shook his head.

"since when ahr yoah my motha' eh?"

Rave grabbed his coke and took another drink before scanning the crowd which were slowly filling the joint. He mused in how many people had gathered so far and from what it seemed he surely would get a full crowd to sing for and that just made his eyes light up even more.

"oh... I dunn 'ave ta worreh abo't tha' ... Louise ovah there's lendin' me 'ers."

He said, nodding towards the girl with the dread locks. He didn't really say anything more about it but he leaned his back on the wall behind him and placed his foot up on the chair to his left again just as he had been sitting before but this time resting his left underarm on the chair's back and the right hand on the table while sporadically grabbing one of the strips and moving it to his mouth.

"took some convinsin' bu' she caved."

He smirked and glanced at her again while talking to her, then returning to look at the stage and the crappy performance of a thin little man trying out one of those annoying arm puppets while pretending he wasn't doing the voice of it.

"Oy... if this is wha' my rivalry is..."

He let the rest be unsaid even though what he didn't say was clear as day.

"Man... I hafta wait like 80 minutes ta ge' up the'ah"

He sighed and grabbed another of the strips. The anxiety and wish to get up on stage was making his entire body itch and it was hard to sit still even though he did a good attempt.

[Devon Eckes]

"...safe...whe'ah tha 'ell did tha' come from?"

Devon didn't answer the question since they were in public, but if the kiss in the kitchen was anything to go by...How would he explain to Amy if he caught something from the Bi Brit Tart?

"Whatever, dude." He waved it off instead, "I might bail before then anyway, I've got a lot to do at the house." That invoked a scowl. He waved the waitress over. "Hey, can I have the check and an application if you're hiring?" He requested.

"Oh yeah, we are. Stacy just had a baby, hold on." The waitress looked happy that someone asked, she hadn't paused the entire time they'd been here, weaving around the tables in fast foreword since they got here. In short order she was back and Devon push away his plate and began to fill it out.

"Nice thing about working places like this is you get tips and food." He said as he worked on the application.

Rave kicked back and moaned "Oy... if this is wha' my rivalry is...".

Devon glanced up. "It's not a competition, dumb-ass. It's open mic, which means anyone can perform anything and it's just good manners to show appreciation if not for their talent, then their bravery to get up there when they must know they aren't the best."

As if to prove his point he clapped loudly for the puppeteer.

[Aiden "Rave" Hamilton]

It was true, both Devon and Rave had gotten around during their Hadly time but to be honest, Rave had always been careful, just not with Devon for some strange reason. On the other hand, he didn't need to know what kind of habits he had with other people... unless he asked of course, which he... well, kind of did now.

"If yoah hafta kno' ... I do use protection, fucker. I might be stupid sometimes.. bu' I aint tha' stupid."

He smirked at him and glanced at the paper and the girl coming with it to let Devon fill the form to apply for a job. This was actually the first time Rave actually saw how it was done and it didn't seem that hard.

"Hey.. can I look at tha' paper?"

He asked, he wanted to skim the questions of one before he decided if he even wanted to try or not. He leaned forward over the table then looked up at Devon with a slight peer.

"oh yoah bettah stay an' watch me... come on... yoah nevah seen me on stage fo' real.. tha' fuckin' 'adley was nothin... couldn't do shit the'ah.."

He muttered and remembered the harsh treatment. It had been more of a jail than anything else there to be honest and it was nothing he wanted to live through again. Thankfully he was old enough to leave it now, as was Devon so that was just good.

"mm... free food an' tips?"

He arched a brow half interested but tilted to being interested even more after he had pulled the paper to him and flipped it around to read the questions.

"mh.. doesn't seem too 'ard ta fill out."

He said before he flicked his eyes up at Devon again, this time with a light grin on his lips.

"anythin' up on tha stage I'm gonna perform at.. is rivalry.. no mattah if it is a contest ohr no'."

He stated.

[Devon Eckes]

"Well, I'm not going to try to put limits on how stupid you can get now that we are outside...chicks, dicks, drugs and booze..." Devon toasted and took another sip of his coffee.

He pushed the form over. "That's pretty much standard...your info, where you worked before, you're schools. The second bits harder, you go in for a interview and if hired then you have to fill out tax stuff and show ID and what not. The ID I gave you would work for some of that, but they'd want a copy of your green card too...I dunno, some people you can put off on that. Tell them you'll bring it next week or something...try to fudge around it if you can."

Devon sighed and tried to think away around it for his friend without alerting anyone. In many ways, even though Rave had a green card he was an illegal alien hiding out from his abusive father. Devon had seen the scars left from a lifetime of abuse, and held the other boy after the nightmares. Getting him through those times had been a part of their agreement...Life would be simpler if the fucker was simply dead, but since he wasn't...

"Don't worry about it right now, Rave, the job thing. Rent's paid and you have enough to keep you in chips and beer for five years. Me, on the other hand, I need to worry about next years tuition, so..." He took the paperwork back.

"Hmmph." Was Devon's response to the the pleas for him to stay. "I guess I can...if it's not too late. I need to hit the store before I go home, and if I do it now you'll be next. It's Murphy's law."

[Aiden "Rave" Hamilton]

"I 'ave limits now?"

Rave smirked and kept playing a complete ass and perhaps a bit more than he usually was, on the other hand he was actually in a rather good mood right now. He was free of his father as well as with a very good friend of his.

A guy like Rave often made a lot of aquaintances, but also a lot of enemies due to the way he behaved. On one side, he didn't care but on the other he really did. Someone like him could never really make up his mind if it was a good or a bad thing. The friends he did make however, were very dear to him and the kind of friends he wouldn't let go of unless they tried to kill him or something along those lines.

"mh... I dunn do interviews tha' well..."

He confessed even though that probably was more than clear from the start. He made a face when he heard about his green card. That would be a hassle since he didn't really have the right to be here anymore. The deal was to go back home as soon as the school had ended. But who the hell wanted to come back home to an abusive father that left marks on your body every day just to please his own perversions?

"True... bu' still.. hey, how much is tha' tuition anyway?"

He asked and met Devon's eyes in honesty of his own. He never really asked that question, did he? Now it was Rave's turn to hmm at Devon's remark of Murphy's law. He finished the last piece of strips he had left, dried his hands on the napkin and finished his coke.

"I bettah solve tha prob' then.. won' I?"

Rave rose from the chair and turned around and localized the girl Louise again and walked up to her once again and spoke to her while talking and seemingly to explain things while pointing over his shoulder with his right thumb and a slight nod backward with his head before he pointed towards the stage somewhat.

The girl with the dread locks glanced over his shoulder in Devon's way while listening to Rave talk. He then tilted his head somewhat and did something with his hands by his chest and yet again, she slumped her shoulders, looked down at her paper and shook her head before she seemed to change something on it while talking to him.

Yet again, he patted her shoulder before he came back to the table with a grin on his face. She left the bar and walked behind the counter

"Mu'phy's law can stick it... I'm up in two numbahs... ten minutes. Apparently we ge' five minutes each."

He said and mused somewhat, yet again glancing up towards the stage where a middle aged man sang some country while playing his guitar. Not too shabby but still something Rave saw as a rival.

"... I'm gonna ge' in 'ere on weekends...Every weekend."

He said wile watching the stage, focusing on himself standing up there. Watching the crowd and taking them in. He had mostly spoken to himself but he meant what he said. He really wanted that job. The job of a performer. and, after all... he was an artist and a music prodigy at that and he was using his skill even now just by watching the crowd and what made them tick just as he had been watching them ever since he got in here.

During every passing minute Rave seemed to shine from inside more and more, his presence growing even without him doing anything but focusing on the stage as well as himself being up there.

Target was in sight. -- Future in sight.

[Devon Eckes]

"mh... I dunn do interviews tha' well..."

"Have you ever had one?" Devon asked. "Or did you always work for the Hamilton company? I mean, I've had a couple of jobs, so I've got some savings, and everyone hates interviews. It's just a given." Devon didn't clap for the country guy, he simply didn't like country unless it was done really well, and this guy...wasn't bad...but wasn't hitting it either.

"True... bu' still.. hey, how much is tha' tuition anyway?" Rave asked, picking at his food with an interested look on his face.

"It depends on how many credits you take, how much books and lab fees are. I'm taking 12 credits each term, so that's 1,868 per term, plus the books and fees. My parents paid for the first three flat rate, but not the books. Though Mother gave me a gift card for them." He pointed a fry at Rave. "You know, if you take some classes, they'll extend your student visa. Just give them the PO box you were using for an address, nothing around here."

He went back to filling out the form and glanced up only when Rave got up from the table to go back to dread-lock girl. When he came back he looked smug.

"Mu'phy's law can stick it... I'm up in two numbahs... ten minutes. Apparently we ge' five minutes each."

That got Devon's attention. "We? What we? You should ask before you 'we'."

"I'm gonna ge' in 'ere on weekends...Every weekend" Rave said musingly, ignoring Devon's question entirely.

[Aiden "Rave" Hamilton]

"once.. didn't go too well...interviewer was a fucker.."

He stated then shrugged somewhat and glanced back at the stage while taking the crowd in once the next performer came up on stage and started to do their thing.

Once again Rave scanned the area, taking in the ages of people and what seemed to make them tick. This girl wasn't too bad up there either. Seeemed they liked a bit of softer music, didn't they? He ran his songs through his head trying to pick one out.

"...so... why don't I pay tha' fo' yoah as thanks fo' fixin' the apah'tment.."

He said, still focusing on the crowd and the stage but being dead serious in what he said. Him, studying more? He quirked a brow and looked at Dev.

"that'd mean I'd 'ave ta go under a false name if I'm listed 'ere. Ohr my fatha' finds me... mh... I'll think abo't et.. gotta find some fun classes ta take too"


Once the girl had finished her song and the old man playing an ukelele came on stage and did his show while the older men that were at least 60+ in age cheered him on, Rave slowly rose from the chair and removed his black leather coat and hung it over the chair.

".. I meant 'we' as perfo'mahs... not yoah and I.. unless yoah wanna tag along as my side kick."

He said and smirked, looking back at Devo while he corrected his black shirt with sculls on the lower right side as well as his necklaces and bracelets.

"mm... change o' plan on wha' ta sing."

He said and grabbed one of Devon's fries and stuck it in his mouth while walking towards the stage to the man on the side who he had ben told to walk to before it was his turn.

Rave looked quite out of place where he was but he didn't seem to care. His black jeans snug to his form neatly and showed off his weltrained body as well as the black tee doing the same even though it wasn't too tight to be vulgar. His studded belt showed just below the edge of his shirt. The black boots with studded chains weighed quite heavy against the floor even though they didn't seem to be heavy due to the way he walked.

Sowtime

[Devon Eckes]

"No, you can't pay my fees. If you want to help out though you can cover the utilities and the food bill, chip in for gas. That sort of thing." He moved the plate out of Rave's reach.

"If you enroll under a false name, you can't use your credits and you can't extend your green card. I don't know, I'll try to think of something. Can't get you deported, now can we?"


Devon was confused by Rave's response about performing. Where they to go up together, separately? He shrugged. Knowing the other boy he'd hog up the whole set if he was allowed. Which was fine, he wasn't prepared.

If they made him go up solo, he'd just play his mouth-harp and be done with it. It was something he enjoyed and was good at without having to worry about what to sing or do with his hands.

He clapped for Rave when he cut through the crowd. "Yeah! Do it!" He called out over the rest of the crowd, watching how they reacted to the dyed hair, heavy jewelry and dark clothes. Well, they didn't have a lot of room to cast stones. They'd just listened to a guy play a ukulele for god's sake.

[Aiden "Rave" Hamilton]

Rave got to the guy beside the stage then spoke to him and pointed towards the girl at the bar. The man he spoke with nodded and went and got an electric guitar which Rave instantly tried out without plugging it in all while the ukelele guy on stage rounded his number up. Ukelele... truly a hideous instrument but, given that if Rave had been interested in actually learning how to play it... he probably could.

The guy asked him something, he replied and the man that had given him the guitar went up on stage and presented him as "The Englisman that has come to blow our minds away". That only made rave Roll his eyes at the cheesy comment and somewhat shook his head, how lame was that?

He walked the three steps up on stage as the man passed him by. Rave got up to the mic while the other guy plugged the guitar in right after Rave had hung it around his shoulders.

"a'ight... I bettah do mah best ta 'blow woah minds out' then eh?... wouldn't want ta disappoint now would I?"

He smirked as a few laughs broke out in the audience. Rave practically glowed on stage and he hadn't even begun singing yet. He held a little show of talking before he decided it was time to start rolling since he only had five minutes to play on. So far it seemed he had done a hit already and that was just by talking. On the other hand, from what he'd heard people apparently saw british-english as 'exotic' which was completely out of his mind.

"Shall we ge' this song rollin' then eh? Hope yoah all like indie-rock me friends!... wrote this peace a week ago, it's called 'Basked Case' "

He said and took the first chords on the electric guitar and making a little solo before he started the song.

Do you have the time
To listen to me whine
About nothing and everything
All at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Or I'm just stoned

I went to a shrink
To analyze my dreams
She says it's lack of sex
That's bringing me down
I went to a whore
He said my life's a bore
So quit my whining cause
It's bringing her down

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Uh, yuh, yuh, ya

Grasping to control
So I better hold on

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Or I'm just stoned

He let lose with the music and just followed the flow and moved accordingly. If he had something along with his perfect play by ear, it was rhythm. He ended with a few more cords before he let the guitar die down by itself. He was still holding back however since he wasn't really feeling all energetic and full of life (and himself) as much as he usually did but, at least it was enough to make the audience stand up and applaud him.

Rave glanced over to the girl at the bar that held the lists of who'd be next and smirked along with wiggling his eyebrows at her just before he bowed to the audience again.

"dunn miss me too much luves! I'll be back next Wednesday.. tha's a promise!"

He said and saluted them all before he went off stage with a wide smile and truly glimmering eyes where the light came from within once he walked back to the table all while the applauds still rang in his ears along with a few whistles. The pub was far away from full but he had still enjoyed his time on stage even though he'd loved to have the entire night to himself up there.

[Devon Eckes]

Devon gave Rave the low and to the side five, fingers dragging at the last bit as they passed to go to the stage.

"Hey," He said to the audience, pulling his mouth harp out of his pocket. "I wasn't planning to come up here tonight, but my roommate signed up both up. Anyway, I'm Devon." He waved to the crowd of faces. "And I guess I'll be playing my harmonica for you tonight..." He held it up.

"The nice thing about a harmonica, well, there's really three benefits...One, you have music where ever you go. Two, it makes you a really good kisser," A lot of the crowd laughed. "And three, if you run out of money for the bus, you can sit down and play a little something for pocket change. Something like this..." Devon brought the harp up to his mouth and played a little snappy riff.

"But if you want the good money, you have to play something folks reconize..." He raised the instrument again and began to play the the intro to Supertramp's "Long Way Home." The long wails and slide going out as he stood back from the mic so not to overwhelm it.

"Anyway, I'm Devon, and thank you for your time." In a habitual gesture that didn't make since with his now short hair he ran his hand over his head, grinned at everyone, and stepped off the stage to go to the counter to turn in his application, chatting a few moments to the older woman behind the counter before returning to the table.