Xaviers!

With the e-mails coming back in the negative, it looked like it was just going to be Will and Sam headed out to the Braintree and the Kavern to catch some rock and/or roll.

And so Will sat at the edge of the drive on the hood of an old hatchback, wearing a leather jacket with a faded band tee underneath. as he waited for all aboard who was coming aboard.

Of course, being a shifter, there was a bit of artifice to all this -- the faded tee, the used car, so on and so forth. But this wasn't rolling up to a swanky nightclub and showing off one's feathers, like Sam and Miriam's trip to the Raven's Crest or something, and if there was anything Will knew how to do, it was to play the right notes.

"Looks like it's just me and you. And you," Sam says with a nod to the car as she approaches. Much of her rocker attire had come from the mirror, so she's just dressed casually this time.

"You mean I got the lint roller out for nothing?" Will said, with a grin. "Ah well. There's always another time.

And you don't need to count the car. I didn't buy it a ticket," he joked.

"Aye well, we wouldn't be able to get anything at the merch table but bumper stickers."

"Maybe they'll make a band shirt in an XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL," Will joked, sliding off the hood of the car. "If they have merch at all, that is. No one there is very big -- not yet, at any rate."

He kicked the wheel of the car as he walked around, and the passenger's door popped open. "Well, if it's just the two of us, there's no time like the present, aye?"

"Not like it's all that expensive to get shirts made now," she chuckles as she gets in.

"Let's go."

"Really? I find it costs me an arm and a leg," Will joked, climbing in and starting the car up, pulling it down the drive and onto the road, flipping through the car's radio station a few times to put on some music as they drove.

"Surprised Tereza and Viv didn't feel like coming. I know the band didn't quite work out, but it seemed like their kinda scene."

"Schedule conflicts, aye? Couldn't be helped. She's kind of out of flexibility, with what's happened."

"Yeah. There'll be other shows, I'm sure, and other nights for them to let their hair down.

Or maybe she just wanted to take another nap in the quad," Will smiled.

"Caught her, did you?"

"Wasn't the only one, too. Some imp or brownie or something was watching her. Tereza didn't want to talk about it, so I didn't push."

"Probably would've asked Viv about it, if anyone."

"Wouldn't want your life to get too boring, would we?" Will chuckled. "When's the last time you did something as normal as going to a rock concert?"

"I was in one, then some lunatic started shooting people with a gene-scrambler ray."

"You were also in a pagan-themed band full of werewolves, fay, and war goddesses," Will pointed out. "You stood out, is what I'm saying."

"I'm always going to," she chuckles as they ride along.

"Fair," Will laughed. "But even death goddesses need to take a break every now and again.

Sounds like something out of Gaiman or Pizzuta. Or even an old-fashioned Christie: Death Takes a Holliday. Though I can't imagine Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot at a rock show," he chuckled, merging onto the highway and stepping on it.

The next 20 minutes or so are filled with actual mundane conversation -- a rarity for both of them, being mythical war goddess and nigh-immortal clay man. It's not that the underlying tint of awkwardness went away or anything, mind you -- there was still some of the kind of gentle poking and prodding that happens with massive status quo changes in the dorm room -- everything from Will living there in the mirror to Miriam coming back to life and sleeping with Sam, and everything in between. And the two hadn't actually spent any time alone in...ever? Possibly ever! But, underlying everything, the two were still friends, and a dose of quasi-normality, even performative quasi-normality, was far from the worst thing in the world.

Braintree was not a big city; dwarfed by even Chelmsford. Hardly the center of a rock-and-roll revolution, unless you think of obvious stoner kids doing (bad) skateboarding tricks to be a viable form of teenage rebellion. Nor was the Kavern a particularly prestigious venue -- the building itself was just an old pub, with the venue being in the refurbished basement. Yet Will seemed fairly pleased with himself as he navigated the car through Braintree's windy streets, onto a dirt lot which served as temporary parking.

"This is definitely... cozy," Sam remarks as they get out.

"It's no Wembley," Will admitted. "But the beer is cheap and cold, and the owner's got a good eye for up-and-coming talent."

"If there's a pinball machine in here, we'll know the real reason you wanted to go," she chuckles.

"Oh, if you want, we can do the whole mods on a moped thing back to campus after the show," Will laughed. "Or maybe they've got a fruit machine down there; that's vaguely british, inn't?"

He looked at the small crowd filing in. "But no, I kind of hinted why I wanted to go here when I asked if you wanted to come, didn't I?"

"Alright alright, I'll relax. And/or whip myself into a frenzy, as appropriate."

"And I'll be sure to give the appropriate amount of deference and/or jaw-dropping awe, as needed," Will teased.

"But I'm actually very excited for this. It's going to be like seeing the Beatles in Hamburg, only way less significant or important."

"And after, we might win something at pub trivia," she smirks.

"You think Erika would host something like that?" Will laughed, wrapping an arm around Sam without thinking about it as they headed for the pub. "I doubt it. Shows a lack of real culture."

"I think she'd break out into hives, but so would Miriam in fairness."

"Miriam needs regular maintenance to make sure the stick up her ass doesn't get permanently lodged there," Will joked. "She might well enjoy something like this, but heaven forbid anyone find out about it."

"Aye well, if you stick around enough you see... glimpses."

"I've seen a thing or two. No one ever covers up the mirror," Will smiled. "But you have to drill down through multiple levels of self-protective snark to find the gooey center inside."

"I prefer to think she's warm and fuzzy rather than gooey, but that might just be my bias showing."

"You're thinking of your other girlfriends. The furry ones," Will joked. "Though I suppose now that she has her own blood flowing through her veins again, she may get that...internal warmth back, rather than relying on outside help."

"I'm sure you'll find out firsthand when she needs another outfit."

"Or the next time the two of you come home drunk and decide to experiment," Will laughed. "Which I suppose is a real possibility now that she has rejoined the land of the living."

"Wasn't that much of an obstacle even before."

"Well, she didn't really get drunk before. She just tapped into our...your brain and fed off the high," Will said, catching his slip-up a second too late. "Moderation is not really a word in her vocabulary, which is why it's always a little risky to take her places."

"I think... how she was kind of took off the brakes for awhile. She's a bit different now."

"It's wanting to be in control, more than anything else, I think. It's this innate feeling that she's somehow not good enough, and so she preemptively kind of grabs things and rides them."

"Aye well, having something you want to live for involves living in the first place."

"And I suppose I can't argue with a death goddess about that," Will joked.