Nathalia's room was dark, dark and cold. Just the way she liked it.
As she stood around the room, pleased at the black decor and overall goth aesthetic, she could hear footsteps walking past her door and a familiar voice begging for alcohol, and she grinned. That conversation would have to wait though, when Salem sobered up; plus, she wanted to have a look around the room first.
First, she noticed a collection of medieval swords above her bed and along the walls. What if that falls down and cuts off my head? That'd be so fucking brutal, she thought with a grin. Next, she noticed a lot of bloody, gory paintings, including that of mythological creatures. She saw a Siren holding the head of an unfortunate soul who had obviously wandered too close to her domain. Underneath the painting, engraved into the golden frame, it said: "Nothing escapes the song of a man-eater."
"Damn right," Nathalia said out loud, before turning her attention to a table further in the corner, which had a placement to set her tobacco and weed products down on, causing her to smirk. On another wall, a giant flat-screen was built into it and a bunch of game systems sat neatly in a row.
Whoever had decorated in here, certainly did their homework. They probably could've found some better looking swords though... and she would prefer having her own drawings and paintings all over her wall. She wasn't that big on Sirens either, and if they wanted her to actually get any singing done, they shouldn't have given her any video games, so she didn't know what Abigail was thinking to possibly suggest such a thing.
Something was also missing from her black bed, too. Rummaging through some of her bags that she realized had been brought there earlier, she ended up pulling out some paints and a small knife out of one of the pockets. She was sure they wouldn't mind, since after all it was her room, as she dug the knife into the fresh blankets, creating a few rips and tears, then used her red paint to cover her hand and plant it all over the blanket.
"Edgy," Nathalia said approvingly to herself, lowkey wondering, if Nathan saw it, how cool he'd think of her, then she scoffed to herself. She didn't need his approval or anything weird like that. With time he would be impressed by what she did best- singing.
As for her room, Nathalia would have to make plans to fix the rest later.
As she stepped back to admire the bed some more, Nathalia's lips pursed at the thought of the earlier incident with Nathan. She was pretty sure she had social anxiety, which was ironic considering how popular she and her voice was. In a crowd, she could just ignore everyone and focus on herself and what she needed to do. Up close and personal was a different story. She was well-known for avoiding her fans or resorting to attacking, yelling, or generally freaking out, mostly accidentally, if she felt too anxious.
The fact that she had been trying to suppress her excitement the entire time, up until meeting Nathan himself, ended up making her anxiety come out a lot worse than normal. It all seemingly worked out in the end though because she wasn't asked to leave, and that's all that mattered to her.
Nathalia almost didn't expect to actually see Nathan, either. She kept telling herself that it was just a dream and that she would wake soon, since nothing this amazing would surely ever happen to her. Then again, that's what she thought about being in a famous band, and that 'dream' was still going strong for over a year.
She ran her fingers through her long, silky hair and couldn't help but smile. She was definitely proud of herself for supposedly making a decent impression, even if it was originally based on an accidental fuck-up.
There was a body sized, ancient looking mirror hung up on the outside of the bathroom door. As Nathalia looked into it to study herself, she tried to push back feelings of possible self-doubt and humility. Instead, she squinted to make out the engraving along the bronze plated frame, but realized it was in a different language.
"Cool, but I have no fucking clue what it means," Nathalia muttered with an eye-roll.
"What does what mean?"
Nathalia jumped at the voice and turned to see Charles standing there, having stepped in silently.
"The fuckin' writing," Nathalia explained as she pointed to the mirror, not at all caring that the man had popped in so suddenly and without warning. Truth be told, she was used to it because of Abigail anyway.
"Writing? I see no writing."
Nathalia turned her head in frustration, prepared to stick her finger directly on the inscripture, but realized there really wasn't any. Must've been a trick of the lights, or she drank too much on the plane as well (even though it wasn't nearly as much as Salem). "Huh," was all Nathalia could manage.
"I see you've taken the liberty of, ah... re-decorating a few things," Charles said as he motioned to the bed, and Nathalia couldn't help but grin.
"Yeah, it's just a little bit more brutal now."
"Hmm." Charles didn't look amused.
"I know what I'm doing." That was hardly the truth and she knew it.
"I'm sure."
Nathalia was beginning to feel irritated with the other man just showing up in her room, and unannounced as well (retracting her earlier disinterest about it). What if she had been getting dressed? Weirdo. "Is there something you want from me?" She was quiet, because of her anxiety, making it more difficult to establish the fact that she was not happy with his presence and trying to look tough. He seemed to get the picture, though.
"Apologies, you left your door open." Had she? She didn't remember. Seeing her look of disbelief, he smiled. "You can, ah, always see the clip back at my office. I have cameras all over the place, except in the actual rooms."
The cameras made sense, it was the exact same way back at home. And the fact that he had simply even offered to show her the clips, made him seem trustworthy enough. She really wanted to call his bluff at the same time, but she also wanted to go through her room and put up a few more things, and maybe wander through Mordhaus for a bit, so she decided to drop it. "Nah, we're cool."
"Good." Nathalia looked expectantly up at Charles and he cleared his throat. "Ah, yes, the reason I'm here is because I've forgotten to give you all your own keys to your rooms before you all left." He lifted his hand, a skull-looking key dangling from his finger, and she took it carefully. "I also forgot for the Klokateers to hand over the ones they used, so that was my fault."
Nathalia raised an eyebrow as she placed it in her pocket for the time being. "I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one?"
"It's difficult to concentrate when there's about ten people who won't listen to you," Charles commented.
"I guess."
Nathalia shifted uncomfortably on her feet before she realized Charles was walking away, and she blurted out, "Wait!"
Charles paused. "Yes?"
"Uh, uh, thanks, for, uh... Letting us do this shit. The collab shit or whatever." She shrugged, trying to act cool about it.
"My pleasure."
"And, uh, sorry for tackling ya boy."
Charles gave a light chuckle. "He was more shocked than anything, but I think if he was truly mad, you would've known." At least the manager didn't hate her guts for what she had done. "Anyway, I need to hand out the rest of these keys to your friends. For the next several months, this home is your home. Do what you will with and in it, because frankly I doubt you could do much worse than what my band has already done to their own home."
"Challenge accepted."
"Oh, no that wasn't a-" Charles sighed in defeat and Nathalia laughed. She originally stated it as a joke, but she had planned to do whatever she wanted to begin with (as long as Dethklok didn't catch her, because she was much too awkward around them to explain her behavior, and she didn't really want to regardless).
They said their goodbyes and as Charles left the room and turned the corner, Nathalia suddenly felt very overwhelmed. Not only was she literally in fucking Mordhaus itself, about to sing with the world's own Dethklok and create an album, but she also might have a chance at becoming friends with them if all went well.
On top of that, the idea of there being about 7,000 rooms in this place (she had googled it) overwhelmed her. She was sure that a lot of them were untouchable, but there was still enough to see, almost too much to see, which was why she was feeling overstimulated.
Nathalia finally decided that wandering was much more interesting than anything else, and decided to leave her room temporarily, after locking the door shut and placing the key in her pants. As she walked down the halls, she gave short, curt nods to the Klokateers that walked by her.
She eventually stopped when she heard voices. It sounded like... Nathan. Forget butterflies, she could feel a punch straight to her ovaries that made her lightheaded. While Salem gushed over Pickles, Nathalia was obsessed with the literal male version of herself, she just chose not to show it often.
Other footsteps and whispers told her that there were more people around than just Nathan, and she was almost disappointed until she heard them all speaking in urgently hushed voices, which of course made her very curious.
"Scho, like, Schalem, huh?"
Nathan grunted, he seemed to be distracted by something.
"What's abouts hers?"
"Hers? I t'ink dat's a man, Toki," Skwisgaar's voice scoffed lightly. "He's gots no tits!"
"There ams scars undineath, maybes she chops it offs?" Toki suggested.
"Well, d'ya think maybe, they're... transch?"
There was a silence that fell over them all, and Nathalia bit her lip. Salem's identity wasn't a secret per-say, but no one would ask about it to them themselves, choosing merely to speculate. Everyone was always on the internet, fighting on what Salem could be. It annoyed the singer, because for one she didn't think it should be such an issue, and for two, she didn't want her band to be known just for 'humoring a trans person', as people would say.
"Who cares? They're not like, from our band," Nathan said in a strangely tight, cold tone. Nathalia, unaware of what had just happened a few minutes ago with Pickles, raised her eyebrow at his strange behavior.
"No, I know, it'sch juscht..."
"You're not gonna go fuck them."
"No, I mean, come on what kcinda man do you think I am?"
"A man who uhh. Fucks trans people. And then ruins their life."
"Aww c'mon, I don't thinkh Picklesch isch transch, I mean we did fuchk, but I'm not gay, and-"
"Waits, Pickle amenst trans?"
"Pickle ams trans, Toki," Skwisgaar assured the other one in a tight voice. "Dumb fuck dildoes over heres don'ts knows what he ams talkinks abouts. Makinks hims feel betters for fuckings a guy probablicals."
"H-hey-"
"No!" Nathan all but yelled, causing everyone to jump back in fright, including Nathalia. Luckily they still hadn't noticed her presence as her backing up actually put them in her line of sight, and her in their sight if they just turned their attention an inch to the right.
Nathan's face was beat red, Toki looked frightened, Skwisgaar had an unreadable expression, and Murderface gave the bigger one a meek look.
Nathan took a deep breath to steady himself. "Just stop. Alright? I don't... don't care anymore. I don't care if Pickles is uh, a man or not. Or how he's a man. He's our friend and you're like, a fucking brutal ass vampire that's just sucking all the energy out- out of him. And us. You're a goddamn mosquito." He glared down at the bassist. "I don't even know how to joke, with him anymore. Because if you didn't do what you done, maybe he could like, actually TAKE a joke or two. I- God I just-" Suddenly, he swung his fist at the wall, the very solid, rock wall, actually creating a crack that went all the way to the ceiling and causing Nathalia's eyes to go wide.
"N- Nat'ens," Toki whimpered. He had been clinging to the singer, but now stepped back, nearly falling into Skwisgaar's arms who had grabbed him and pulled him further away from the brute man.
"Fuchk dude, I didn't realische you were in love with-" Murderface stopped, realizing just how deadly serious Nathan was, and he backed away slightly. "Schorry, I'll schtop, okay?"
"No more with your shit-talking and confusing 'I don't knows' and 'Are we sures', and if you touch Salem I'll personally cata- catastrite you."
Nathalia was pretty sure the man meant castrate.
"B- but Nat'ens, you makes hims feel like shits earliers..."
"I KNOW!" Nathan practically roared, causing them all to flinch instinctively. "I fuckin' know, because I don't know how, how to fuckin' talk to him anymore! Everything's confusing and Quasimodo over here doesn't fucking help shit!"
How the fuck could Nathan know 'Quasimodo' but not half of the normal English language? It would've been funny if not for the anger building up on Nathan's face.
Ah fuck, it was funny either way, and Nathalia had to stifle a snort, covering her mouth with her hand so as to not be heard and therefore spotted.
"Well that'sch a little harsch," Murderface said, sounding offended but Nathalia couldn't properly see his face from this angle to be able to tell. "I'm juscht asch ckonfusched-"
Nathan was about to say something else when another pair of footsteps walked their way quickly, and Nathalia ducked behind the wall again just in time to hear Charles ask, "What's going on here?"
Everyone began talking at once; Murderface sounding like he was fake crying, Nathan shouting that he was done with everyone's shit, Toki wailing about how his family was falling apart, and Skwisgaar actually trying to explain the situation but in very broken English, worse than usual, due to the anxiety he was probably dealing with.
"Stop." Charles raised his hand, causing them all to quiet down, and he looked at each of them individually before settling his eyes on Nathan. "Please explain the situation to me, calmly."
"It's just, I just... FUCK!" Nathan slammed his fist into the wall again, causing the crack to get even bigger. "I want everything to be normal again. I want the real Pickles back, the dude is just fuckin' wasting away in his, his room! Worse than normal! I want Murderface to stop going between being a little bitch to whining about how Pickles doesn't like him, I want the image of them fucking, out of my head!" Nathan grabbed at his face in irritation and Charles grabbed his arm, starting to pull him away from the rest of them.
"C'mon, my office." Charles's voice was oddly gentle, and at first Nathalia compared it to talking to a child or toddler, but when she peeked her head around the corner and saw the look of genuine worry in Charles's eyes as they made their way back to where the manager had come from, she frowned. It was more soft and intimate, and it made her slightly uncomfortable.
Nathalia didn't stick around to wait for what the others had to say, though she vaguely noticed Toki dropping to his knees and sobbing while Skwisgaar patted his back, as she turned the opposite way and began to jog toward Salem's room. This was something she probably shouldn't have overheard, and this could not wait for another time to tell someone else.
She quickly asked the nearest Klokateer where Salem's room was, redirected herself the right way, and found herself at her friend's door, knocking on it sharply. There was no noise and she groaned, remembering that Salem liked to pass out after drinking a lot.
After a few more harsh pounds on the door, she decided to try the knob and found that it was unlocked. Nathalia gently opened it, seeing that the room was much brighter than hers, and much more lively with plants everywhere. It almost looked just like Salem's own room back home. There were some untouched handheld game systems on their end table, probably something Abigail suggested to Charles even though she was sure that Salem brought their own.
Nathalia gently knocked the leaves away as she walked in, seeing the little bundle that was Salem wrapped underneath a giant, fuzzy blanket. She sat on the edge of the bed and started shaking the other awake.
"Mmmm..."
"Wake up."
"Ughhhmmm..."
Nathalia rolled her eyes. "Stop fucking Pickles in your dream, damnit!"
When she didn't get a response from that, she knew that Salem was really knocked out. So she proceeded to yank the blanket off of them and pushed them roughly, accidentally causing them to fall on the floor.
"...Oops."
Salem groaned, blinking their eyes open like a precious baby lamb, completely unaware of the act of violence against their resting body. As they lifted their body and stretched their limbs without a care in the world, Nathalia was tapping her foot impatiently, waiting to be noticed so she could spill the gossip.
Finally, the shorter person's eyes fell on Nathalia. "Oh, hey."
"Hey. Pickles is trans."
Salem blinked one eye at a time as they tried to remember how to exist in this shitty mortal realm once more. "Uhhh what's that? Who?"
Nathalia stared blankly at the other. "Trans. What you are. Pickles is trans."
"Hmm? Good for her I guess." Salem rolled back into a ball on the floor to resume their sleep.
"No no no-no-no, bitch, no." She grabbed Salem's shoulder to keep them conscious. "He's not trans female, he's a trans male. I think. Fuck, I shoulda paid more attention to that conversation."
"Oh... Okay."
"And Murderface fucked him."
"Wait, what?!" This time, she had Salem's attention.
"Oh, now you care?"
"Dude, Murderface is... Murderface. Why would..?"
"I know!" Nathalia grimaced. "Anyway, the reason I was telling you, was because I thought it was cool that you're not the only trans person here."
"You thought?"
"Yeah but like... They're weird about it. And apparently Nathan had a fight with Pickles over it, and now he's mad at Murderface, and like they're all falling apart over it and shit." Nathalia finally paused to take a breath.
Salem sucked on their lower lip. "That's not good."
"I'm pretty sure Murderface is like, really transphobic, but in the dumbass "I fucked a guy but I'm not gay, so are they really a guy?" way. Which is confusing everyone else in the band, and Nathan's getting sick of it because he doesn't understand shit."
Salem sighed and pulled themselves onto their bed, just sober enough to understand the seriousness of the situation. "Well, shit."
"Also, Nathan's worried that Murderface is gonna try and fuck you because you're trans or something."
Salem blinked. "Men and their 'flawless' logic."
Nathalia nodded as she exhaled slowly.
"So basically I can't tell these guys I'm not cis... Well, it's not the first time I've had to keep it a secret." Salem shrugged nonchalantly.
"At least until we figure out more of the situation, but I don't think I was supposed to hear about any of it, so it might be hard to gather info."
"You don't think spying on a conversation was meant for your ears, huh? Listen, let's just not worry about this, alright?" Salem's eyes suddenly narrowed as they gripped their friend's shoulder just tight enough for Nathalia to know that they were not fucking around. "We can't meddle in everyone else's affairs, yeah? Especially since it's the very first day of being here. We start sticking our nose in business where it shouldn't be, and we could get kicked out. Plus, what if Pickles wants this to be really private? Us getting more involved, even if it's to be helpful, just isn't the way, fam."
Nathalia sighed, deep down she knew that Salem was right. Nathalia was more of a 'do shit first, ask questions later' person who would later have to tough out the consequences, whereas Salem specialized in tiptoeing around delicate situations such as other people's secrets and lives (even though they were a mess with decision-making over just about anything else), because they were used to living their life that way; at least until they became famous, and even then, most of their personal life went unspoken and they never delved into another's unless they came to the drummer first.
So if they said this wasn't a 'go forth with weapons drawn' kinda issue, then of course Nathalia understood and would try to refrain from doing anything rash. She wouldn't say no to any info that came her way by accident, though.
Salem scratched the back of their head thoughtfully. "It sounds like this has happened recently, and Pickles has looked the way he has for... a while now, so I'm more curious how he managed to hide it for so long, from both them and the public. He's probably got doctors right? And people in general who would prolly sell him out for a decent paycheck. I know there was a controversy about him last year or so, but they seemed to quickly cover it up and nobody even knows what it was about anymore when I tried to google, so maybe..." Nathalia almost tuned out Salem's rambling until they questioned, "We get enough hate on our own, but do you think Pickles would get it worse since he looks so 'normal' and never said anything otherwise?"
"I guess." Nathalia placed a hand on her hip as she stood up. "Maybe you can like, get Pickles to open up to you."
"I doubt it's that easy."
"Probably not, but maybe if you mention that you're trans first." She waved her hand impatiently when Salem gave her a quizzical look. "Well even though I do agree that we shouldn't butt our noses too deep into it, I don't think it would hurt to discuss that kinda shit with Pickles, if he's trans, too. Maybe it would give him a boost of confidence, ya feel?"
"I'll think about it, I don't really wanna be in someone's personal life like that, but..." Salem said honestly as they turned away, biting their lip. Nathalia knew it was a difficult situation to be put in, so she didn't push it. Ultimately, Salem knew what they were placing on the scales a lot better than Nathalia.
Salem saw the troubled look on Nathalia's face and they smiled, nudging her with their foot. "Heyyyyy."
Nathalia gave them a suspicious look. "What?"
"Pickles tucked me in."
"Shut up."
"I'm for serious."
Nathalia couldn't help but laugh. "Why, though? Did you make him feel sorry for your drunk noodle ass?"
"Eat shit and die. No, I basically passed out on him, and he tucked me in like a lovely gentleman."
"Pfft, why, does he think you can't do it yourself while you're all fucked up?" Nathalia asked jokingly.
"Hey, I don't mind being babied once in a while so I'm not gonna complain."
"That's because you are a baby. You're small like one." She smiled at Salem's playful glare. "Little tiny baby." She patted the drummer's head, causing them to swat at her. "With little baby hands."
"I'm gonna fuckin' stab you."
"No fucking balls."
Salem tousled with their friend for a bit before flopping onto the bed with a sigh. "I'm still so tired."
"At least you're sober, though."
"Don't fucking remind me." Salem looked over at her friend, checked the time on the antique looking clock on the table beside their bed, and raised an eyebrow. "I was asleep for just a little under an hour. Why would you wake me up?"
"Why the fuck would you be sleeping when you can explore the literal Mord-fucking-haus with me?" Nathalia challenged, pulling Salem off of the bed. "C'mernnn, let's go find something cool."
The two friends walked out of the room, but not before Salem noticed a key beside the stand next to the door, and grabbed it, then closed and locked the door behind them.
Nathalia and Salem walked side by side, the latter struggling to keep up using their shorter legs, and managed to find the kitchen, dining room, living-room again, Toki's room which had been left open and deserted, and finally took a break when they realized they were getting close to Murderface's room (they could tell by the knife marks on the door that said 'stay the fuck out') and decided to head back into the living-room.
Salem leaned up against the wall, their muscles aching from the activity but eyes always looking around happily and excitedly. The two had tried to find Tobias' room to see if he would join them, but it was most likely back the way they had tried going, and neither were brave enough to venture into that area in case the gargoyle-man was lurking.
Eventually after the enthusiasm had ebbed a little bit, Nathalia's mind was back on the situation from earlier. Not just about Pickles being trans (because that in of itself was mind boggling to her) but of Nathan and how he had reacted to everything.
He seemed to have been really frustrated back there, but Nathalia figured if Murderface was consistently being a confusing asshole about everything, it did sort of make sense. It also sounded like Nathan was really concerned for Pickles, because he had mentioned that the red-head was "wasting away" in his room.
It seemed like a lot more than just the two fucking and then having a falling out, it seemed like there was a lot of pent up rage between everyone, while not knowing their own stance, let alone their friend's. Nathalia bit her lip. She also had never seen someone get that angry before. It was quite a turn-on.
Bad vagina, we're not supposed to be thinking about that right now, she scolded in her mind.
Salem had begun thinking too; Nathalia could tell, because they were staring in space with their eyebrows furrowed together and their lips puckered. While they sat alone with their own separate thoughts, she heard a pair of footsteps in the living-room and she looked up.
"Ah, Nathalia, could I talk to you for a moment?" Came Charles's voice, and at that exact moment, Nathalia remembered that cameras were a thing, and that she had most definitely been caught spying on Dethklok fighting amongst themselves.
"S- sure," she ended up muttering as she followed the man down a completely different hall, leaving Salem there with a raised brow.
As they walked, Charles looked back behind him to acknowledge her. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble. I just wanted to have a chat." Unsurprisingly, this did not make Nathalia feel any better.
Just before they reached his actual office, when no one else was around, Charles turned to fully face her. "Nathan wants to know if you'd like to meet with him tonight in the recording studio and discuss lyrics. He's actually been messing with some for, ah, a while now, but since it's a collab he would like your opinion."
Nathalia blinked; this isn't what she'd been expecting. "Yeah sure, that's fine. Why drag me all the way out here to tell me that, though?"
"Well that was only partially it." He turned to rummage some papers around on a desk that was directly beside his office door, finally pulling some mail out and handing it to her. "I forgot to grab these while I was looking for you."
"You've been forgetting a lotta shit today."
"It's been a long, long day," Charles sighed.
"Indeed," she said as she looked down at the mail. It was both hers and Tobias', having taken over on the mail for him if it involved a certain someone (Abigail had probably told Charles in advance about it). After checking for the name on the envelope she confirmed that it was a suspicious looking letter, and stuffed it carelessly under her arm. "Thanks. So, what time do I meet with Nathan?"
"About nine o'clock, which gives you about three or four hours," Charles replied.
"Alright." She was about to walk away, thinking she actually got away with her eavesdropping earlier, when he called back for her.
"Nathalia?"
"Hmm?"
"Everything you heard today from Nathan," he said slowly, eyes narrowed but not menacingly, "needs to stay between you, and I'm assuming Salem."
"O- okay."
"You're not in trouble, like I said. Nathan and I are ah, just discussing the issue right now. I assure you though, I will clear the air as soon as possible. Until then, try to refrain from ah, spying, if you can help it. Or telling anyone else."
Nathalia nodded, swallowing heavily, and Charles gave a nod back. "Good. Nathan will see you soon." With that, he dismissed her, watching her scamper away with her heart in her chest. No, she didn't get in trouble, but now she had to wait anxiously for hours before having a meeting with Nathan fucking Explosion, and she really hoped that he didn't know about her spying at least.