Her attempt at asserting how she knew the way home only made him pinch the bridge of his nose, since all she was going to end up doing was passing out in the bathroom at this rate. And since she was insisting, he decided to compromise with her, raising an index finger to stress this point. "One song, then we're leaving. Stay here at the table." If she agreed to his terms, then for the sake of humoring her, he'd go up on stage and try his luck. Under normal circumstances he'd be more than a little unsure of himself, but the alcohol actually proved to be beneficial in this regard. That and the fact people like him weren't capable of feeling shame in its true sense.
Posts: 837
Threads: 68
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
Virginia shook her head, or at least something to that effect, "Okay... one song, but it has to be long... and cheerful." She picked up her empty bottle and shook it in the air, "And when you finish singing... we'll throw flowers at you like they do in fancypants' places...", she paused mid-sentence and looked at the bottle, "Wait... this isn't a flower though... so you're going to pretend it's a flower, right?". She questioned him, raising an eyebrow.
"No." He answered her with a smirk, taking the bottle from her and placing it back down on the table. "I'm keeping that, it's a memento now." It was oddly sentimental for him, even if he was quite drunk under the circumstances. Though there was probably a more practical reason, namely that he didn't want to get hit in the face by a solid glass bottle.
With that he got up and nodded at her, making his way for the stage. When the few people who knew him realized he was going up there, they seemed confused and unsure of how to react. The latter reaction was common for everyone else who was frustrated by the lack of music. It wasn't even clear why the singer walked off stage either, probably a tantrum of some kind. Climbing up the steps and approaching the microphone, the dissenting grumbles grew quiet, but the band members were reluctant. "Just roll with it." Morreti suggested to them, ensuring he wasn't openly broadcasting the fact he'd said that.
Without much of an option, the woman behind the drums shrugged and gestured for the rest of the band to just try and wing it. It's not like they were going to find another singer in the crowd anyway, so they couldn't afford to be picky. Besides, this one looked the part and seemed quite confident. All that was left for them to do was decide on a song, with mounting anticipation from the crowd, the pressure was on for this to be good. Having informed his impromptu bandmates of his choice, they started in practiced unison.
The tune was heavy and quite violent, a frenetic pace to it as if encompassing all the aspects of the movement and the person standing at the front of the formation on stage. The lights behind them were coded to ramp up the excitement and they were doing a good job of that. Clearly somebody backstage recognized him and had the lights be a gradient between ruby red and a golden yellow. And the fact the punch hit the crowd immediately and loudly certainly did wonders to alleviate the foul attitude they'd had so far.
The wide empty island in front of the stage meant for people to stand in went from empty to full in the span of the first verse. Bodies lined up to move in sync with the music, lights and his voice. Booze and sweat intermingling as people let themselves just enjoy the mood this was setting. Despite the small tide moving around in front of him, Morreti made sure to keep an eye on his drinking partner, just to be sure she wasn't getting into trouble or doing anything stupid.
When his voice hit a screaming peak after gradual progression, the band took over for a minute to pad out the length, that way the high the crowd was experiencing didn't just end. That would have left this feeling fairly premature, and the grumbling would have been even worse than it was before. But to say the group was pleasantly surprised with the stranger who had just walked up and given them this kind of reception from the crowd, would be an understatement of the worst kind.
The entire thing had been filmed too, this was probably going to end up on some of the shadier and more seditious neuralnet domains hours from now. But eventually, after giving people exactly what they wanted and not being hasty about it, the tune came to a swift end, about as violently as it had started. The silence giving way for the audience to react, while the band slowly made its way off stage and Morreti worked his way back to the table he came from.
Posts: 837
Threads: 68
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
Virginia chuckled weakly and took the bottle, not that she could do anything about it, "Okay, take it.". She nodded and watched with sleepy and drunken eyes as Morreti strode up to the stage, grabbed the microphone, and then began to sing along with the band. Virginia seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit as well, tapping her foot to the rhythm, just a shame that the alcohol in her blood made her so half out of rhythm.
As the rhythm gets more and more in her blood, she also starts tapping her fingernails on the table top, waving her shoulders and nodding her head. It was perfectly natural for as music took control over her body - that is, except for the aforementioned alcohol in her blood, which caused her to be unable to keep the rhythm accurately. You could even say it woke her up slightly and she did not look like she was going to fall asleep in a minute here in a pub somewhere.
Once the song was over, she cheered and clapped along with the rest of the audience for the impromptu lineup on stage and grinned at the incoming Morreti, "So it doesn't look like a riot today... fires... and overturned garbage cans." There was perhaps a hint of disappointment in her voice, and the drunken flames in her eyes betrayed that she would not shy away from smashing or setting ablaze someone's property.
Before he spoke he took a breath, clearly somewhat exhausted after all of that. He'd not sung on stage before, or with that kind of enthusiasm either, it was more strenuous than he expected it to be, but despite that it was utterly satisfying. "You can burn stuff another time, we had a deal. One song and we leave." Remaining on his feet, he turned briefly to make sure he hadn't left anything behind. Since there was nothing on the table he placed the credit chips necessary for Darcy to collect eventually, paying for their drink and not asking Belle to share half the cost since she didn't seem to possess the other half of her brains right now.
"Come on, let's go." He asked for her to leave with him, and it really was for the best. If she had anything more to drink then she was clearly going to pass out, and he really didn't want for her to be sleeping outside and in the muck. He just had to hope she'd actually cooperate and not be impulsive about things, since they'd be walking their way back to the station and then taking the transit shuttle back to the Alliance building.
Once they were back, he intended to walk her to her room and then leave for the night.
Posts: 837
Threads: 68
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
Virginia pursed her lips, but shook her head - a deal was a deal, and even drunk Virginia Belle honored deals. She rose carefully to her feet and strode towards the public toilets before Morreti carefully directed her towards the exit. She caught a glimpse of one of the troublemakers standing outside, and they might have gotten into a verbal or physical altercation, but Morreti's presence acted as a natural deterrent to trouble. On her way to the station she hummed the tunes of the songs she had heard in the bar that evening, mixing and matching them as they came to her mind.
As soon as they got into the shuttle's car, Virginia slumped wearily on the seat and watched Morreti. When the shuttle pulled away from the stop, however, her face paled and she felt briefly nauseous. Fortunately, she had not been mixing drinks that evening, and so as suddenly as her nausea had come, it had gone again, making the trip home without vomiting on the car, her hair, or Morreti's shoes.
On the way up in the elevator, however, she was getting tired and almost fell asleep leaning against the wall of the elevator car. If the elevator had been going any slower, it's possible that even the tone indicating the stop on the floor would not have woken her. Outside the door she reached into her pocket for her keys, trying in vain to hit the lock for several minutes before Morreti carefully took the keys from her hand and finally opened it. At the door she turned to him sleepily and yawned, "Well... thanks for the evening... and the music... And that I did not have to smash your face in.", she chuckled and leaned her back against the hallway wall. "Good night... night, early morning... I don't even know what time it is", she mumbled and said her goodbye to him. Closing the front door, she walked to the living room and fell asleep on the couch with the promise of a more than decent hangover the next afternoon, or rather early evening.
A nod and a smile was his response to her thanks. He really wanted to do nothing other than sleep as well, this had been exhausting even if it was enjoyable. Not to mention the fact that the world was starting to spin as the booze seemed to take an increasingly harsher toll on him. "I'm glad you had a good time, give me a call if you want to do this again."
He backed away to leave, but when she mumbled her goodbyes, he paused for a moment. "Good night, Belle." It was no longer night, but rather quite early in the morning, but he'd still chosen to say that for simplicity's sake. "See you around." He added once his back was turned, reentering the elevator and leaving her to the singular errand of passing out.