"Holy. Crap. That is a lot of deathfish," Astral comments.
Kelda Hallur-Day, employee at The Grind, spares a bored glance at the fishtank. "Yeah. This club is hardcore like that, or whatever."
The club is completely empty, aside from its two employees, so Kelda allows Astral to DJ to an empty floor for a little while.
Sadly, The Grind doesn't stay empty for long, and Astral is forced to stop. She joins Erik Beaker and Dag Oss on the dance floor, while Kelda resumes... whatever it is she was doing.
Erik wants to dance with Astral. Cool, cool.
They are in silent agreement that Sanna Warbler has a very creepy smile.
Astral notices Mariposa, her little brother's girlfriend, sitting at a table all alone.
Astral approaches, offering friendly encouragement to get out on the dance floor, and also some gentle critique on Mariposa's wardrobe.
This was a mistake. Mariposa's response is vehemently angry and all over the place, barely even coherent. She calls Astral ugly, claims Astral is jealous of her, accuses Astral's father of various conspiracies... and then she insults Gateway Glam.
Insulting Astral's band is the last straw!
Astral would totally kick Mariposa's ass right now, if she didn't have to obey curfew laws.
"Run home then, loser," Mariposa taunts. "You think you're so bad, but you're just a poser."
"There's something wrong with you," Astral hisses, before she storms off.
Once home, Astral tries to warn her little brother not to date "crazy !@#$%es"... but as far as Lynx is concerned, Astral is herself a "crazy !@#$%", and he really does not care about this drama.
Lynx isn't that much easier to get along with than Mariposa is, honestly. The hot-headed trait causes him to get angry and shout at people over any perceived slight or minor inconvenience.
Here he is screaming at recently-graduated Subira Pierce.
Pierce is having none of it, it seems.
At least he's getting along with Epiphany these days.
"Can you believe Astral asked me to dump my girlfriend?"
Epiphany shrugs as she chows down on her bagel, or whatever that is.
"Exactly, Pippy! It's none of her business."
"I didn't say anything."
Rock hits 95
"And he wouldn't listen to me, but Mariposa is like, clearly insane..." Astral is still stewing over the events at The Grind, even though several days have passed. She can't concentrate on her group-project homework.
"Mari probably forgot the whole thing already," Brooke tries to soothe. Brooke is the more intellectual of the two, and doesn't seem to mind doing more than her fair share of the work, especially since a poor contribution from Astral would mean a lower grade for both of them.
"She called me a-"
"I know, but that's just how she is. With everyone, basically. Why do you think she has no friends?"
"I don't know what Lynx sees in her. She's clearly the type of psycho who will leave dead animals on your doorstep or something."
"Why let it be your problem?"
"Well she's always at my house!" Astral exaggerates the frequency of how much Lynx invites this girl over.
"Yeah... at your house spending time with your brother. Not you."
"Whatever. He should have asked you out. Not her."
Brooke chortles. "Lynx is cool, but he's... he's got problems."
"Like...?" Astral leans forward, deeply interested in this gossip.
"Like spending most of his free time glued to gaming? Don't get me wrong, everyone needs a hobby, but he drops off the face of the Earth for days at a time. Not very conducive to romance. Oh, and, you might have noticed this one, but he's a tactless jackass."
"True. All true," Astral hums.
"His spirit animal is a flaming bag of catshit," Brooke continues.
"Wow."
"Lynx is just a friend. I'm enjoying my relationship with my actual boyfriend, thanks."
"Whaaat?"
"Chen Ahere! My boyfriend. Black hair, face obscuring bangs, muscles?"
Astral blushes, obviously unaware of Brooke's relationship status. "Oh, shit. Sorry. I'm being a meddling sister, huh?"
"Yeah, it's weird."
"Sorry."
"Forgiven. I know it's just part of this... nemesis thing you have going on with Mari."
Astral scrunches up her nose in confusion. "Nemesis?"
"Mari is calling you her nemesis," Brooke explains.
"I thought you said she probably forgot the whole thing already!"
Brooke shrugs. "I lied. I lie to make people feel better sometimes."
Brooke stays late to watch Gateway Glam practice.
Weirdly, Astral decides to go to bed in the middle of said practice, and sleeps soundly. Somehow.
Hours pass and the house quiets down. Brooke is the last to leave.
"I was hoping to chat with Lynx," she confesses to Epiphany, "but he just couldn't tear himself away from that stupid game."
"Well, it's one of his raid days. He's on a team, he's committed to however many other people that he'll be there at certain hours, helping them fight the boss."
"He has to be on more than one team to be this absorbed."
"Yeah," Epiphany confirms.
Filler picture of Fairuza, since she didn't make it into this chapter much.
I should really move that training dummy thingamajig inside for her.
The day arrives for Astral to age up. She blows off school so she can hang out with Mani Vinter in the break room of the town's tattoo parlor.
Outside of her band, Astral has no game plan for what to do after graduation. She feels like adulthood has crept up and punched her from behind.
"Your parents are well off, aren't they? Your dad's a politician," Mani points out. "They'll set you up. You probably don't have to worry about anything."
After school hours, Astral chooses to spend her last evening as a teen at the skate rink with her mom.
Then it's back home for a party.
There are a lot of people here! Older sister Ivy and her husband Mikkel left baby Lily with a sitter. All three members of Gateway Glam are lurking about. Erik Beaker crashed the party, but no one minds. Epiphany's friend Embla Wong-Beaker (Erik's cousin, who changed her name when her parents got married) is here too, and so is Mariposa...
...though she restricts her aggression to Lynx's face.
Astral aged up with this hairstyle, and I just couldn't make myself take it away from her.
It's hard to tell her parents that their home is cramping her style, but Astral somehow summons the courage to do so.
Rock and Fairuza send their second daughter out into the world with enough cash for a small home of her own. The one in this picture, to be exact.
Astral is excited to start her adult life. She intends to dedicate that life to music, and it won't be long before bandmates Carrie and Mina move in with her.
___________________________
Etc.: Astral is not the generation 2 heir, and that's probably fine with her because she'd hate the roll I got. I have placed her file up for download if anyone is interested.
