Nobody expected Dethklok to make a collaboration with another band. They were already the most popular, and thought they were above everyone else; they were even the twelfth largest economy, they really didn't need to do any stunts for more publicity. They also really didn't need to, or probably want to, stroke the egos of 'lesser-known' bands.
So when they, or rather Charles, announced that they would do a new album with the second most popular band as part of it, everyone was shocked but also hyped. But no one was more excited than the band that got to collab with Dethklok- The Excommunicated (a name created by the leader of the band)- and among the band members, Salem was the most pumped.
"Salem," Nathalia, the leader and singer of the band tried to reason with her close friend, though she couldn't help but to be amused as the shorter person practically bounced off of the walls, grabbing everything they could think of to pack, even debating on sticking a few LIVE plants in their already too-full bag. "They're probably gonna kick us out within like, the first two fucking seconds."
"Shut up!" Salem laughed as they gleefully tossed the rest of their clothes in their bag and zipped it shut. "Why aren't you more excited? We get to meet Dethklok! Sleep at the Mordhaus! Sing with them!"
"I am, you crackhead," Nathalia said as she rolled her eyes, "but we also have a job to do, and you can't be acting like this the whole time."
"Bite me." Salem pouted as they began to yank their bags toward the door. Nathalia was definitely more of the type of person to only stop her excitement long enough to chastise others for feeling the same way, but Salem knew better. They could tell she was using all her willpower to keep herself contained, so she could look cool and aloof about the whole thing. Well, whatever made her feel better, but if she contained too much of this energy for too long something was going to eventually give, probably at the wrong time.
They stopped once to check their reflection to see how they looked. They wore a buttoned plaid shirt with half of the buttons undone to show off part of their pale chest and partially their stomach (because they just liked being an oddball but also because they usually got hot in the shirt), and had on a pair of ripped jeans with black leggings underneath them. Their hair was short and spiky, dark makeup around their eyes, and piercings going down their nose. They also had a medusa and labret piercing, and various other piercings on their ears, eyebrows, and cheek.
Tattoos also lined their neck, chest, arms, and any other body part they could find. Tattoos of skulls, zombie wolves, their zodiac sign (Libra), a rose, and even one of their own band logo on the back of their hand. The only one that seemed to stand out a lot was a colorful, scribbled signature that no one could really make out, across the left side of their chest, which they were very protective over and refused explaining the meaning of to anybody.
As Salem studied themselves in the mirror, Nathalia smirked. "Don't worry, you look hot enough for them."
Salem scoffed and turned around to face Nathalia. "What're you talking about?"
"Oh c'mon, I know you're trying to impress them," Nathalia shrugged as she walked up to put an arm around her friend in a patronizing manner. Nathalia was a bit taller (though everyone was taller than Salem), with long, black hair and light brown roots poking through, and dark brown eyes. She wore a crop top and short shorts, both black, despite the hot weather. She absolutely refused to wear a bra at all times purely for the pleasure of seeing her own nipple piercings, which she 'did herself' (though one had to be redone professionally after the original closed and healed, because she somehow managed to put it in vertically whereas the other was horizontal, and it just "looked weird" to her). There were a few tattoos on her as well, including a few satanic symbols, some thorns, a dragon on her shoulder, and the word 'Bitch' across her arm- and also had some other piercings aside from the nipples, but the most noticeable feature to everyone else was the large scar-type discoloration on her back. Her sharp, black nails tapped Salem's shoulder in thought. "Hmm..."
"What?" Salem's blue eyes looked up at the singer in suspicion, but had an inkling of what she was going to say.
"Nothin' just wondering if maybe you're not doing this for all of the band, but for Pi-"
"Don't you fuckin' dare!" Salem's face flushed heavily and they turned around to glare at her, but not actually angrily. "Don't mention him."
"Who, Pickles?" Salem groaned as another band member and their other close friend, Tobias, walked up to them with his own bag slung over his shoulder, with his face forever in a sleepy or sad-looking droop. Tobias had short-medium brown hair falling over his face, and sideburns to match in color. His long double labret piercings had gotten caught in his pointed beard so he proceeded to walk to the mirror to fix them, otherwise not worrying too much about his complexion. Not that he didn't care about looking presentable. It was just, unlike the others but especially unlike Salem, he preferred casual wear, sporting a normal t-shirt and black shorts. It was beginning to seem like Salem had gotten ready much too soon and was quite dramatic about their appearance, which did not look good for their case.
Salem huffed and chose to ignore the other two (though Tobias meant no ill will and had probably just mentioned it to be helpful since he was generally out of the loop with the actual context), teasing their hair instead. Nathalia continued anyway, eyes twinkling with mischief. "Wait until he finds out you have a tattoo of his face."
This time she received a scowl from her friend. "Fuck off and die, I was drunk," Salem spat, which was only half-true.
"Especially on your-"
Salem tossed a random object her way but they weren't good with aiming and it smacked harmlessly into the wall near her instead. Nathalia merely chuckled. Tobias checked the time while they bickered and announced, "Uhh, we gotta go, in like, five minutes."
"I thought we had an hour?!" Salem practically shouted as panic once again began to set in. They could NOT be late for this!
"Yeah, I read the thing wrong. Five minutes if we wanna make it," Nathalia admitted as she also checked the time in wonder, realizing quickly that she had royally screwed up.
So the three friends quickly got ready, Nathalia changing her shorts into ripped jeans and Tobias putting on his own pants because their manager wanted them to look 'decent', before shrugging on his jacket, then made their way to their private jet where they would meet up with their other two bandmates. That was their friendship in a nutshell- Nathalia was all talk or action and no think, Tobias was the brains who actually preferred to contemplate or figure things out before doing things, and Salem was stuck somewhere in the middle. Technically the kind of person who thought really hard about things, and then somehow chose the most brainless decision anyway, as Nathalia would put it.
Nathalia and Tobias had known each other since mid teens; from what Salem knew it was because of a potential fostering situation which led to them being neighbors, and had met Salem in their late teens to early adulthood after the fact. Then had met their other two bandmembers, Ivy and Raven, separately, sometime in their early twenties. Salem, being the oldest one, was now 27, Tobias 26, Nathalia and Ivy 25 and Raven being 21 almost 22.
The original three had lived together for years, and Tobias would always make jokes about creating a band until one day Salem had come home, having spent all their hard-earned money from working two shitty factory jobs on some used instruments in a wild attempt at becoming famous (with really no expectation to actually succeed), and after some lessons and a lot of studying other bands, including Dethklok, the rest was history.
At first it was just them, Tobias on guitar and Salem on drums because despite them being able to sing, Nathalia's voice had the widest range between sharp and deep, (despite being a woman, because fuck gender stereotypes according to her), which worked for what they were trying to do. Eventually, after gaining some traction during their band practice in random people's garages, Raven had come up to them, eager to join as the bassist. Despite being young, she was very experienced and even more, always willing to learn and get better. Then a year or two later, Ivy had joined them as a rhythm guitarist, having dropped out of a previous band that couldn't seem to get their shit together long enough to actually properly take off... and supposedly, she really respected the direction their band had taken and how fast they were building a following.
None of them were expecting to become so famous and so quickly after the band had been completed, much less ending up as the second best band in the world, ironically in the same genre as the best band of all time when it was never their intention to even compete with them, and they definitely never went into this expecting to just ride the genre in the hopes they would be even a quarter as good as Dethklok; they just really liked the genre themselves.
They had their own manager named Abigail, their own bodyguards, giant mansions, or really towers, (two to be exact, because the first three still lived together while Ivy and Raven had their own place), their own economy, pretty much everything Dethklok had but they were always a few steps behind. Not that that was a problem for them, but still, they were regularly compared to Dethklok as always trailing behind their shadow and it got tiring after a while to hear.
Of course it also wasn't without a ton of controversy either, since the main singer was a woman and people were still convinced that women weren't metal; though their minds seemed to change after one concert. On top of that, Ivy was black and definitely a lesbian, and no one really knew what Salem was but a lot didn't like their 'gay' aesthetic (they couldn't help that they liked being fashionable).
Still, ever since they had begun to rise in the ranks, the amount of bigotry toward minorities had dropped quite a bit. There was a small anti group that seemed Hell bent on trying to gather as many morons to go against this 'terrifying' wave of sudden tolerance, but the band paid them no mind. They had a collaboration to start.
They all climbed into their private jet, greeting their other two friends before finding their seats and watching the ground underneath them slowly fade away.
"I wonder what it'll be like," Raven commented as she stared out the window with wonder in her hazel eyes. "Meeting them, I mean."
"Five men who don't smile because it's 'gay', yeah I wonder," Ivy replied with a slight eye-roll. She was the least excited out of all of them, but still pretty excited because no matter how hard she tried to hide it, it was pretty cool to meet with the biggest band in the entire world. She just wasn't fond of a lot of the traits she'd seen from them on T.V.
Salem couldn't stop themselves from bouncing their leg up and down anxiously, heart pounding, but couldn't stop grinning as well. A part of them was slightly afraid of how their favorite band would react to seeing any of them; they knew Dethklok had previously had issues with certain things like sexism or other topics like that (though truth be told they just seemed more stupid than being that way out of maliciousness). And Salem felt that if they were really that type of cruel, their manager wouldn't have sent out a paper inviting them to make a collaboration album. Right?
As Ivy and Raven talked quietly amongst themselves a few seats away, Salem, Tobias, and Nathalia all chose to sit further in the back together to joke and drink. Salem was already quite tipsy, which probably wasn't a good idea because now their anxiety was acting up even worse than before. After downing another shot of whiskey and following it with some gay fruity cocktail, Salem stood up abruptly and decided to start pacing up and down the hall.
"Getting nervous?" Tobias guessed, having chosen to take a sip of peach schnapps before settling on a regular can of coke since he wasn't much of a drinker, at least not around his very unhinged friends when somebody needed to be the voice of reason.
Salem said nothing, the hand gripping another shot as their heart raced in their chest. What if Dethklok didn't like their sound enough to continue the collab? What if they felt too threatened? The Excommunicated never considered throwing Dethklok off of their throne; shit, Dethklok was most of their inspiration (Salem was very suspicious of the fact that Nathalia had named herself out of inspiration to Nathan, her idol, since she had admitted to not being attached to her childhood name once, but it wasn't as if Salem didn't do odd, out of place things for their idol either so it didn't bother them). What if that didn't matter to Dethklok, though?
Salem squeezed the thin glass so hard it broke in their hand, causing them to jerk out of their thoughts when they felt the warm gush of blood between their fingers. Tobias sighed, having expected this at some point, and got up to ask one of their bodyguards for a wet washcloth. Meanwhile, Salem was panicking.
"Fuck!"
"Dude, chill out," Nathalia slurred, still slightly concerned but lacking a little in processing the situation. At least she was only tipsy and nowhere near as drunk as Salem, because that would be an even worse mess.
"What if I can't play the drums now for a few days?!" Salem all but shouted, bile rising in their throat, though that wasn't actually what their brain was hyper-focused on at the moment.
"You and I both know you've done way worse to your hands and still played," Tobias commented as he wrapped the towel around Salem's hand and led them to the medic's quarters in the large jet to get the glass out.
Salem was still antsy but stayed still as the medic patiently pulled out the shards, having dealt with this before and especially with Salem. The hand was then bandaged up and they were sent back to their seat, but not before Tobias quietly whispered to the workers to not give Salem anymore booze, hoping that they would sober up by the time they arrived.
Unfortunately that wasn't how it worked, considering Salem had their ways around any situation with a no-alcohol zone, and eventually when they landed, Nathalia had to drag the limp body of Salem out of the jet.
"C'm- c'mon, you goddamn noodle," Nathalia grunted as she pulled her friend along, trying to get them to stand on their own two feet. "How'd you even find that bottle of vodka? Never mind, I don't wanna know." Salem giggled in response and tried dragging Nathalia on top of them for a hug. They stumbled and both fell down the stairs of the jet, landing in a heap with a groan, the ground scraping their skin. Ivy and Raven jumped over their bodies without breaking their ongoing conversation, having been used to this previously many many times before a big concert, and Tobias stood on the second to last step, looking around anxiously to see if anyone else had seen.
Eventually the two managed to untangle their bodies from each other, and finally with Tobias' help, they got Salem on their feet. Still, it was very noticeable that Salem was drunk as they stumbled past the two, mindlessly wandering until they were directed to the Klokateer that was supposed to be picking them up from where the jet was to land, recognizing them by their popular attire.
They followed the Klokateer into a fancy limousine for all five to be crammed into, a few bouncing with anticipation, Nathalia's steely gaze looking out the window, and Salem trying to regulate their breathing.
It was no secret that Salem had a bit of a fascination with Pickles; as much as Nathalia was fascinated by Nathan. He was the motivation that led them to play the drums so well, wanting to be as good as their idol. In general though, they loved the band, and they wanted to make a good first impression. Now they were drunk and their right hand was a bit fucked, so it definitely didn't help settle their nerves. They secretly pulled another shot out of their shirt pocket and downed it quickly.
Eventually they could see the Mordhaus looming in the distance, growing bigger and bigger until they were directly in front of it. Their eyes were wide with shock at just how beautifully aesthetic the fortress was. As the doors on both sides of the vehicle were opened to allow them out, Salem's drunken stare fell on seven people that were standing awkwardly at the entrance of Mordhaus, one of them being their own manager who had left much earlier than the band had, on her own jet. They had fleetingly wondered where she was before this but now had no reason to be concerned. Of course she would get there first, probably to help with the preparations of welcoming a trainwreck of a band.
Salem took a deep breath. This was it. They stepped out and immediately, their face met the dirt as they fell over, their legs completely useless like jelly at this point. They groaned in pain while their bandmates groaned in embarrassment. Tobias helped his drunk mate back upright and they all took cautious, unsure steps toward the other band, Dethklok.
Nathan Explosion stood in his normal gray shirt and blue jeans in the center of them all, black hair whipping around his face. Toki Wartooth was on his left with his hands in his pockets and as calm of an expression as he could pull, Murderface on the left of Toki with his arms crossed over his thick chest and his face with a permanently settled scowl. On the right of Nathan was Skwisgaar, chin out as he had his head lifted in a proud stance, and finally on the right of Skwisgaar was Pickles, who... looked as equally drunk as Salem was, his body rocking back and forth with one eye drooped down and his mouth hung open slightly, some drool dripping from his chin.
Nathalia led her friends to the other group, also standing in the middle of them all, Ivy and Raven on the left and Tobias and Salem on the right. They kept coming forward until they were just a foot or two away from Dethklok, then they just stopped, Nathalia faltering in her steps. Their manager, Abigail, gave them a small, encouraging smile, before walking toward them and then turning around to direct her words to the other band.
"So, this is The Excommunicated," Abigail introduced them with a wave of her hand. Nathalia knew it was her time to then step forward and shake Nathan's hand, but she seemed rooted to the ground. A sharp jab from Abigail made her walk forward, at the same time Charles had lightly pushed Nathan. The two met in the middle, staring at each other with unreadable expressions.
Eventually Nathan stiffly lifted his hand to shake her's. She looked down at it, back up at him, her eyes growing big; time seemed to freeze for a moment until she leapt forward and tackled him to the ground; though it was the surprise that knocked him down more than the force. Before anyone had time to even react to it, she had grabbed his knees which were bent, leaned over, and screamed, "I FUCKING LOVE YOUR MUSIC!"
Salem hadn't even noticed what happened, their eyes preoccupied with something else the entire time.
---
Eventually, after being led into the living room of Mordhaus (with the other band oohing and ahhing over the decor) and waiting for Nathan to dab away the dirt from his 'favorite shirt', they all ended up introducing themselves to each other.
"So, you've already met Nathalia," Abigail spoke once seeing the disgruntled man emerge from the hallway, presumably leaving a bathroom.
"Hey! Hey. Lemme do it." Nathalia pushed past her manager, finally composing herself enough to stick out her hand. "I'm Nathalia. Sorry for... freaking out."
Nathan grunted in response, taking the hand for half a second, probably purely out of courtesy, because he otherwise looked very disgruntled with the introduction. It was to be expected almost, he didn't seem to like physical contact from strangers (especially when it involved getting tackled) and he acted like a grumpy man to begin with.
However it wasn't something Nathalia really noticed, and she practically beamed. She ended up shaking the hands of everyone else including Charles's rather quickly and briefly. Raven was next, bouncing with excitement as she stuck her hand out, cute little buns wobbling in her hair. "I'm Raven!"
"Who the fuchk namesh their kid Raven?" Murderface said snarkily as he took her hand eventually to shake it.
"Who the fuck names their kid William?" Raven challenged as she gripped it painfully tight and stared him in the eye.
"Ooh I like the schassh," Murderface commented with a grin.
"Ivy," the rhythm guitarist introduced herself next as she also shook their hands.
"Oh come ons, whys you am names all so extra odds?" Skwisgaar complained lightly as he was next to shake her hand. "Withs yours plants name, toos."
"Heh, it's actually a nickname, Skwisgaar," Ivy explained as she continued down the line before lastly taking Charles's hand.
"Oh ja? What's you's real names dens?"
"Pointsettia." She paused, realizing that didn't help her case. "My parents were hippies... If any one of you thinks about using it, I'll rip your guts out through your mouth."
Skwisgaar snickered.
"I'm Tobias, pleasure to meet you." Tobias spoke as he went down the line.
"Hellos!" Toki said cheerfully in response, all traces of 'serious mode' gone, causing Tobias to smile a little. Toki was his favorite in the Dethklok band, because of how upbeat he was.
Now it was Salem's turn, and it was taking all of their strength just to keep standing. After a moment of awkward silence, Salem felt a nudge from Nathalia and they stumbled forward, sloppily grabbing each one's hands. "'M name's... Tobias," Salem slurred. "Wait, no." They looked back at Nathalia. "Who'm I again?"
"Salem," Nathalia told them.
"Salem. Are you sure?" Salem nearly paused in panic when it was time to shake Pickles's hand, but the alcohol pushed all thoughts away after realizing they also got to touch Pickles as long as they didn't fuck this up.
Meanwhile, Pickles was having a hard time shaking everyone's hands too and mumbling his name, but now it was two drunks battling to control themselves. Salem stuck their hand too low while Pickles went too high.
"Oh, wait-"
"Shit, uh-"
"H- hold on, dere-"
"If you just-"
"Could yew-"
"Damnit-"
"How do I-"
"It's like watching a car crash, ya can't look away," Nathalia commented with a raised eyebrow, earning a few chuckles and a scolding look from both Tobias and Abigail.
Somehow, Salem and Pickles managed to interlock their arms around each other's, and they couldn't figure out how to get unstuck, even though it required only one not-so-difficult step to unravel which would be to stop flexing their arms. They grunted and struggled back and forth, even resorting to violence and shoving each other with light hostility before Nathalia walked up to them and grasped both of their arms, pulling them apart and forcing their hands together.
"There ya go, good job. Now shake hands." They obeyed, both of their faces bright red as they panted softly from the struggle.
"Yay! Proud of you." Nathalia smirked, like she hadn't just tackled the lead singer of Dethklok, and stepped back as the two finally let go, both blushing softly but grinning a little.
"Nice ta meet ya. 'M Pickles," Pickles said slowly as he swayed on the spot. "Yer... Yer drunk."
"Nuh uh, you're drukn," Salem accused before burping loudly. It tasted like cinnamon, mixed with a bit of everything else.
"Ladies, ladies, you're both drunk," Ivy said with an eye-roll.
"Eat shit 'n' die bitch," Salem replied a little aggressively, but all it did was make Ivy laugh, knowing Salem wasn't really that hostile.
"Wha' happened ta yer... yer hand?" Pickles questioned as he noticed the bandages around Salem's hand that he had just shook.
"I... I dunno," Salem admitted as they stared in bewilderment at the gauze. "Maybe your... grip be too strong."
Salem had one hundred percent said that with all seriousness, but it made Pickles give out a sharp, high-pitched laugh, and they felt proud of themselves for causing such a reaction.
"Well, now that, ah, we've all been introduced, let me explain a few things and then the guests can be shown to their bedrooms," Charles said with a clear of his throat, as he walked into the middle of his audience and looked around at all of them.
"I'll keep this simple, because some may have short attention spans," he paused to look at Nathan, Ivy, and Raven, the last two whispering to each other flirtatiously, and Nathan already interested in swatting at a speck of dust instead of paying attention. "Or are bored in general," again stopping to look around at Murderface who had taken the liberty of stabbing 'Planet Piss' into the wall, Toki who was rubbing his chin and staring at Tobias's beard thoughtfully, and Nathalia who was staring at Nathan's attempts with attacking the literal air. "And I'm sure some of you are tired, too." He looked at the rest of the group, Tobias' eyes drooping after having to babysit Salem, Salem and Pickles hardly able to keep themselves standing up, and Skwisgaar was already about to take a nap against the wall.
"We have a contract that you all have taken the liberty of signing, which means you guys have to produce this album and it has to come out at least by the end of the year." Eyebrows were raised from a couple bandmembers since that was a very huge project to deal with and finish in just a year. He looked over at Abigail and nodded to her. "While you are here, this home will be your home. Decorate your rooms however you please, help yourself to any of the entertainment centers, talk to whomever you want, just make sure you actually get work done. Right, Nathan?"
"Uuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," Nathan said slowly as he paused in his air swatting to stare blankly at Charles.
"Make sure you get... get the work done. Okay?"
"Sure, whatever."
"Good." Charles turned to the rest. "In order for this to work, the writers on both sides will have to come together and share ideas with each other. Make sure everything is in order. Since there's two sets of every instrument, you can decide how to execute a plan that gives everyone a chance to be heard without muddling the songs with too much instrumental background. Dethklok's producer, Dick Knubbler, will be there to help you as much as he can." A few people from both bands nodded quietly, encouraging him to continue.
"I'd also like everyone to be on their best behaviors. If someone has a problem with someone else, no matter the context, you will not let it affect your work, or we might have to resort to cutting someone out of the final project, or cancelling it altogether which would... would not be good." Some nodded, others raised their eyebrows like they were taking it as a challenge (Murderface amongst them), and Charles generally took it as a sign to stop talking about the album before people began dropping like flies in boredom. If there was anything else needed to be said, it would have to wait another day.
"Klokateers will show you all to your rooms. If you don't like where we've placed you, feel free to ask for a change. Don't worry about getting lost, Klokateers will be wandering more often while you're here and will help you get to where you need." With that, he dismissed them, watching as a Klokateer assigned themselves to one person each. Salem was the only one giving theirs a really hard time, mostly because they didn't really feel like walking anymore, and decided to flop their butt on the floor with a yawn.
The Klokateer attempted to pick Salem up and carry them, as they'd been conditioned to do the same with a drunk Pickles, but Salem wasn't used to the physical contact.
"Hey hey hey what- no, go away," Salem shooed them away and fully laid down on the ground, rolling over so their ass was in the air, as if that made the situation any better for either side. The Klokateer was obviously unsure of what to do, until Nathalia, who had been following her own Klokateer, paused to yell back at the other.
"Just drag them by the legs. But do not touch the face, they bite!"
"Does not," Salem mumbled into the floor. They didn't notice Pickles's eyebrow raise, though he didn't comment on why.
"With all due respect, Salem's room is fairly far away-"
"Hold en, I got dis," Pickles said suddenly with a grin, his accent slurring horribly from the alcohol. "I speak durnk." He pulled a bottle of vodka from under one of the couch cushions and cracked it open, causing Salem to snap their head up in sudden interest. "C'men, follow me 'n' you cen have dis," Pickles said, shaking the bottle in their face.
"'Re youuu bribin' me? Fuck yous, I have standerds!" Salem paused to think for a second. "Help me urp."
Pickles bent down to take Salem's hands, struggling to pull them up and also stay on his own two feet. They flinched slightly at the pull on their bad hand but otherwise didn't notice much of the pain because everything seemed so far away. Then he carried the bottle in front of Salem's face as he followed the Klokateer, with Salem following the bottle, hands outstretched in want.
"Gimme," Salem whined, waddling down the hallway like a toddler.
"Not yet," Pickles laughed as he walked backwards to keep teasing the other drunk, only tripping a few times.
After a few minutes went by, the Klokateer paused and motioned to the door in front of them. "There you go."
"Dank yew," Pickles slurred, opening the door for Salem and walking inside himself afterwards. Salem was momentarily caught off guard by the room. It was painted a bright green with black edges, a personal favorite aesthetic that Salem didn't realize anybody would have noticed, let alone from whoever had painted the room. Plants surrounded the place as well, fresh, bright, lush.
Pickles was surprised as well by the oddly specific decorations, then caught Salem's twinkling eyes as they began to wander the room, touching every plant and leaf that they could immediately reach. It was almost like they were no longer drunk, eyes wide and footsteps precise and exact as they gently stroked the leaves and petals of the greenery surrounding them.
Salem felt entranced by the room, staring up and down at the vines that climbed the walls. They were most definitely a plant lover, or more precisely a nature lover. Was it actually noticeable to everyone outside of the band though, or had Abigail given them suggestions? Also, why did they care so much to make the room feel so... homey?
As Salem stroked a philodendron in the corner, Pickles cleared his throat awkwardly, gathering the other's attention again. "Sooo, uh... ye want dat bottle o'vodka?"
Salem blinked and turned to Pickles, furrowed eyebrows relaxing when they remembered their little deal. Without a word they made grabby hands again, causing the drummer of Dethklok to laugh and hand it over. "Good ta know I wesn't de only one who came drunk."
"Yeaaaah, well." Salem didn't finish their sentence, they weren't even sure where they were going with it. They knew they had a bit of a drinking problem sometimes, but that wasn't something to confide in another alcoholic after just meeting them.
Everyone knew of Pickles's addiction to drugs and alcohol, but Salem's drinking habits were more or less hidden from the world. Except for of course their friends, who would on multiple occasions find them on the floor surrounded by liquor bottles.
It was surprising to Nathalia and Tobias that Salem could keep all of their plants happy and healthy when they couldn't even take care of themselves, but as Salem had mentioned plenty of times, they didn't fuck around with the lives of their plants. They had always been drawn to them, and viewed them as having their own souls that needed to be respected. Nathalia personally didn't really get it, but she let Salem do what they wanted, not questioning or judging Salem's ideals aside from the usual, "Ha, gay!" remark.
Salem popped off the lid and started chugging straight from the bottle, only pausing after a few seconds to think. "Shit, did you wa- wan' some, too?"
Pickles didn't answer, he looked amazed.
"What?"
"I've never seen... anyerne finish half a bottle almost's fast as me."
Salem snorted. "What ya mean 'almost'?"
Pickles smirked. "Well oooobveously no one can beat me. But yer pretty close compared ta most oders, I'll give ye dat."
Salem narrowed their eyes. "Is that a chall'nge?"
Pickles folded his arms across his chest. "Maybe. Whut ya gonna doo aboot it?"
This time it was Salem's turn to look smug, which made Pickles's ego waver a moment. "What else but accept it? Let's have a drinkin' contest."
Pickles grinned. "Maybe one o'dese days, but right now yew should probably settle in." He motioned to the bags that had been carried in while they were all having the conversation in the living room. "Unpack 'n' settle down fer a bit, bef're I totally destroy yew in drinkin' 'n' make yew wanna repack!"
Salem huffed as they handed back the half-empty bottle of vodka and flopped onto the giant bed that had black and green plaid sheets. "My version of settlin' down is to sleep and not deal with my shit."
"Fair," Pickles said, scratching his chin. "I guess I'll see ya later den. Maybe when we're recordin' 'r when we dew dat drinkin' contest." He looked up and was surprised to see that Salem was already pretty much knocked out, face buried in the black pillow with their arms around themselves, curled into a ball. Thinking perhaps they were just cold, Pickles hesitantly walked closer and grabbed one of the spare blankets underneath the bed, tossing it haphazardly on their body, before stumbling out of the room and closing the door behind him softly, Pickles didn't realize that Salem was still halfway conscious and had felt the kind gesture.
Salem smiled and reminded themselves to squeal about it later, when they were awake and sober, then they drifted off to sleep peacefully, knowing their hangover was going to hurt like a bitch later.
What Salem didn't know, was that just before walking into the room, the Klokateers had been rushing around to figure out how to revive dead plants; they had been in there for two weeks since Abigail mentioned to Charles what her band members liked that would make them feel more at home, and unfortunately the Klokateer that was supposed to be taking care of said plants had forgotten to (causing him to be fired... from a cannon, because Charles was merciless with any Klokateer who dared not to do their job properly).
This was also a shock to the Klokateers who had been bringing in replacements and yet when they opened the door, careful to not wake Salem, they saw that the plants were thriving. Figuring that perhaps someone else had come in and replaced them, the Klokateers shrugged and closed the door, leaving the plants to sway to an invisible breeze and lean toward the direction of Salem's body.