<== Rock the world, (Don’t) Rock the world baby [!]

Garlemald, 1552.

Garlemald Performance Center.

Attendance: Sold Out

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The open air of the steel stadium was rich, thick and oh so heavy with an electrified and amplified air. Not an ounce of breath was quiet in any seat, every voice clamoring over one another in excitement, in anticipation for what would be a show unlike any other. 

Traditionally, the stadium was used for theater troupes rather than an actual band, let alone one that this was. A young Belladonna, freshly primed and no doubt shook at the thunderous rancor that was the crowd beyond the stage stood with her band-mates as they bounced on their toes. A murmur from one of the stagehands as they rushed to and fro behind the eight musicians; “It’s almost time, you all! The Emperor asked you to perform, don’t you dare let his radiance down!”

Yes, it was true. The Emperor himself did ask, of course.. only after Belladonna’s own mother, 

Tribunus Laticlavius Desticia Slater brought it up during a personal meeting and gathering of the higher ups. The singular ruler of Garlemald, excited and rather enamored with the thought of a new performance in these iron halls caused him to pull strings aplenty to take Bella and her crew to the capital for one night only. With various praises from Thavnair and Grisana proper, there was little doubt that this show would disappoint, As an exotic show, that they were..

There was Irony here, the opening song that they had would be about bringing back the light to an hurting city, a bleeding city.. it was about their own city. Fighting the demons, lighting the dark night that was their finest hour. But again, the Emperor approved of the show’s song list.. So all that was left now was to simply… perform it all. 

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As a group they were given the green light, brave step after brave step they would take their places on the stage. The roar of an excited crowd began to fill their eardrums, the thunder of heartbeats taking over their senses as the scent of cold steel and warm sweat filled their lungs. It was intoxicating, the warmth was drawn out of them and pushed into  the air as the pressure of standing on stage began to hit all of them, one by one. 

With every member in place, they all shared a look to one another, nervous smiles, and shaking laughs from them before their drummer threw their sticks together.

1… 2… 3… 4! 

[Song link!] 

The snare drum began to strike, beat by beat as if it were a heart’s rhythm, all the while two bass guitars were strumming in a pace to fill the quiet between the strikes. One could’ve mistaken the thoom and hum as an engine revving up.

Belladonna stepped up to the microphone, gripping the cold and polished stand. Her heeled boot planting itself on the base, to keep it held as she leaned forward pressing her body against it as she opened her lips, despite their nervous quiver her voice came out as a low rumble, matching the tone of the music current.

“♪This city’s sleeping like a soldier trapped inside of an iron lung.
Machines can keep you breathing, but what happens when you find a new war’s begun?
Flip a switch and turn it off, you won’t be able to breathe.
So either way you’re a casualty.♪”

The hyur starting to bounce her shoulders as her heel bound up and down matching the bass guitars, she was nervous, by the gods she was but her mind was starting to shift from the small cowering fawn to a courageous wolf. The glint in her amethyst eyes seemed to lower and darken as she spawned a cunning smile that split from corner to corner. 

The drums behind her began to beat more and more, raising and lowering in their crescendo of the amplified air around 

“♪I’ve got this burning like my veins are filled with nothing but ceruleum.
And with a spark, it’s gonna be the biggest fire they’ve ever seen.
Cut me down or let me run, either way it’s all gonna burn…
The only way that they’ll ever learn♪”

“♪We’ve got to turn it off, flip a switch.♪”

Bella kept her body pressed against the stand before throwing her head back as she raised her voice some few decibels higher above the music, calling for the a bounce of what would be her solo chorus. She opened both eyes, purple hues seemingly burning with determination and glory as she cast an arm forward, fingers out-stretched to grasp at the stadium air before her. 

“Light up the night!
There is a city that this darkness can’t hide.
There are the embers of a fire that’s gone out,
But I can still feel the heat on my skin
This mess we’re in, well you and I,
Maybe you and I,
We can still make it right.
Maybe we can bring back the light.”  

As she poised her lyrical doubts, the hyur tucked her head to the side. Her boot lifting off the stand so she could yank the steel to the opposite side. Her breathing was shallow as her heart pounded with the boiling adrenaline that was no doubt starting to surge through her beat after beat, note after note. 

By now, the back-up vocals picked up the first few words of the second verse, their voices acting like a bounce to what the smaller hyur would sing half-seconds later. Her body was swaying to the beat, her eyes caught the crowd doing the same.. A glimmering hope that they enjoyed it.. When in fact they truly did, their hands in the air clapping to the beat, bringing smiles to the band’s face as the hyur in front brought the microphone back up, her heel stomping down onto the base as if on time with the ramping beat. 

“♪At the heart of the city there is a building that looks down over all there is.
And the man in the tower controls it all without raising a single fist.
It’s like they gathered up the city, they sold it to the devils, and now
It’s gone to the hells and they wonder how.♪”

All the while Bella sang through the lyrics, her voice was rumbling as she leaned forward, anchoring herself on the base of the stand and on part the stage as she pulled the polished metal with her, carrying it as if she leading a loving dance partner into a dip over the edge of the stage. Her eyes forward as she loomed over the crowd slightly before pulling back, her other hand stretched outward surfing the air of the bouncing crowd from left to right.

“♪Well, a friend once told me: men, they would follow any man who would turn the wheels.
Now the wheels are spinning out of control; what would they do if we held them still?
If you destroy the working parts, what you’ll get is a broken machine.
A beacon of light from a burning screen.♪

“Light it up” 

The bounding hyur left the stand as she freed the microphone from its ‘cage’, carrying it with her as she stepped to the center of the stage. Taking advantage of this brief quiet, she shot her free hand into the air as her boots planted themselves to either stand, herself becoming the center piece as the lights shined across the stage in an array of color. The band around her did all the same, the crowd roaring aloud in a cheer as they too raised their hands to the air, to the lights that illuminated the night’s warm and thunderous atmosphere. 

“♪Light up the night.
There is a city that this darkness can’t hide.
There are the embers of a fire that’s gone out,
But I can still feel the heat on my skin.
This mess we’re in, well you and I,
Maybe you and I,
We can light up the night.♪”  

Bella raised her voice as they reached the chorus again, her heart thumping along with the bass drum and the blood rushing through her veins as the guitars wailed, both strums daring to out do each other as their solos came into play, higher and higher and higher did the notes soar. The back-up singers sang simple tunes as they raised the hands of everyone in attendance. 

The entire stadium seemed to shudder as the band raised their volume over and over and over as the song raced towards the end, the chorus seemingly placed on repeat as the entire band danced in their places. Belladonna leaped forward, rushing back to the mic stand, ever so elegantly did she slip the microphone back into its holder as she raised her voice, the low rumble slipping high as she held tight onto the polished steel. 

As the hyur moved across the stage, so too did the lights. Their hues changing to different compositions, shades of red and blues, oranges and purples mixing into one another as a singular light followed her across the stage. The Stadium’s lights seemed to darken around the stage, letting all focus be lead to the  stage as Bella stomped her heeled boot onto the base of the stand. Her arms were at open wide as she sang from deep within, her voice bubbling with the beat as it flowed out of her, silvery with such an alluring purr that came with the confidence of a million hearts. 

“♪We can light up the night.
There is a city that this darkness can’t hide.
There are the embers of a fire that’s gone out,
But I can still feel the heat on my skin.
This mess we’re in, well you and I,
Maybe you and I,
We can light up the night.♪”

The lights were flashing along with the beat, striding across the stage as band reached their last chorus. Side to side they swayed, the guitarists losing themselves in their rhythms as they replaced center stage, letting Bell take the front. All the while she put on a show of her own as she danced with the shinning metal stand she had, striding bounding around as if it were a practiced partner in their tango for two. 

Her eyes were shut tight as she let the beat take her heart for the ride to light up the night. To light up the stadium, and prove that there was something for them here. Bella led the crowd through the final chorus as it repeated twice more, the voices of the darkened yet packed stadium reaching her ears, keeping a smile on her face that made even the moon above’s heart shudder and blush in the shimmering lights.

“♪There is a city that this darkness can’t hide
There is a fire that will burn through the streets of the city
And we will stand in the light.
We will stand in the light, you and I.
Maybe you and I.
We can bring back the light.♪”

“♪There is a city that this darkness can’t hide
There is a fire that will burn through the streets of the city
And we will stand in the light.
We will stand in the light, you and I.
You and I.
We can bring back the light.♪”

As the they proclaimed that they could bring back the light to the city in their song, she slid to her knees, a hand keeping herself latched the the metal stand at her side as she tucked her head back, letting it hang and soak in the stage lights over head. The beat of the drum fading and the guitars carrying the entire stadium to the outro as the vocals from the others lowered and faded, signalling the end of their song. 

The entire stadium seemed to skip several beats of the heart as silence swept the darkness, no one could say a word. Not for the dislike but for the performance that took their breath away, the effort put into the show, the rhythm and the music entirely. Silence seemed to remain as the band kept still, their bodies shuddering as sweat dripped down every brow. 

Seconds more pass before the crowd together erupted in a cacophony of cheering and hollars for what else was to come. The roar of a stadium at capacity filled Bella’s ears, causing the woman to let out a laugh and sigh of relief as she shakily rose to her feet, the band beside her rejoicing in their first successful song of the night. 

Amethyst hues stared into the darkened crowds that rose higher and higher into the back, daring to possibly spot the glimmer of a smile on their host… Good thing too.. The night may have been lit, but the fires had yet to fully burn. And so…

The night was still young.