a million days couldn't be enough

so i can't stay, but all i wanna do is stay

Date: June 24, 2018 12:23am
Location: Liverpool Music Festival
@contessa | outfit

Was there anything better than three consecutive days of non-stop rocking? Helllll no! If it was up to Van every day would be this awesome. This had been the biggest thing the band had ever done and the waiting for it to come had taken ages. Literal. Ages. He was one hundred years old in the time he had fucking waited for this damn festival. Ever since Tib had told him about it he had been counting down the days. It had been a long time coming and now that it was finally here? Well....where the hell did it go? Seriously. Tomorrow was their last day and it felt like they had just gotten there. Some of that had to do with the fact that they were on stage, doing what the loved, for literal hours every day. Another part maybe had to do with the fact that he was drunk. Wasted, more like. He, and the band, weren't exactly known for their wonderful decision making abilities and that showed tonight.

Given the fact that Van had started drinking at noon made everything else that happened feel much more understandable, but he couldn't blame his actions wholly on the alcohol. He didn't pull Cat on stage tonight simply because he was drunk. No, there had been a bit of premeditation on his part. She had been the whole reason they even sang that damn song, Tennessee Whisky; she was the whole reason he had turned it into something the band would even play. Had he exactly planned that she'd look so damn hot? No. Had it been scheduled that he would be well passed the point of inebriation by the time they were scheduled to go on? Again, no. Had he really considered the fact that if he pulled her up that he'd end up kissing her. Well, actually, that one was a yes. 

That had sort of been the whole point in the first place. His dumb, drunk ass wanted a kiss from his favorite lass and he had all but forgotten that their relationship was...well, it wasn't exactly something they should have been in to begin with. But they were. They were and it was fucking amazing. At this point he didn't care who knew or didn't know. He just wanted to be with her. She was supposed to be with him not fucking Michael. Not his brother. Some people would disagree. Sheryl, for instance. She was a disagreer. After the band had left the stage she had started on him about the whole fiasco but he was drunk and, in true Van fashion, he didn't care. She promised to drill it into him in the morning when he was more coherent. Lot of good that'd do.

In the mean time he only cared about two things: Cat and getting more beer. They had run out, something they had been promised was impossible. Ha, challenge accepted. Challenge won. So Van had made his stumbley way out into the sea of fans in search of beer and he had found some. With arms full of cans and bottles he was beginning to make his way back to the stage, or at least behind it. He felt a can slip from the bundle in his arms and land on the ground, just as he turned to see where it had gone someone had approached him. Hopefully to pick it up, his thoughts slurred. With arms full like this he didn't know if he could. That damned can would likely have to stay a casualty of rock n' roll. "Do y'mind? Be a dear, grab up that can for me," he instructed to the stranger.

Tess's Outfit

Tag: Van

Festivus for the rest-of-us

Music festivals seemed like a very American thing to do, and Tess knew that they had them all over the world, but it was something that she just seemed to associate with home. Coachella, and Stagecoach, and even Bonnaroo. They were the things that came from Woodstock, and Tess thought that it was something that was just American enough to make her feel like she could find something 'homey' here. And that was ridiculous, seeing as she had been in the UK for years now, but there was something about bubbles, and balloons. Beer and beach balls, that just said festival. Something about kids running around, and hippies on bicycles, and everything else that went with this was just exciting. There was an energy in the air here that she could enjoy, something that made her feel like the full moon wasn't in four days. That she wasn't going to be miserable come Wednesday, and that Thursday and Friday were going to be hell. It wasn't like that. Not tonight, not with the crowd, and the lights, and everything else that went along with being here. They had seen the shows, they had listened to the bands. She was happy here.  And she had dragged Em with her, because she hadn't wanted to come alone, and music festivals were something that you were supposed to experience once, or twice, or five or six times, in your life. Tess thought that there was a good chance that her half sister was among the throngs of people somewhere. She was almost certain that she would have been here, but she wasn't going to look for her. She and Rachel were very different people, and she knew that her younger sister was wild in a way that, even as a wolf, Tess couldn't quite understand. There was something dangerous in her wild, that wasn't monsterish. It was the type of dangerous that made you think that it was all sweet and smooth, until it poisoned you from underneath. That was Rachel, and she thought that it was just as well that they weren't here together now. If she were being honest, she wasn't sure that she would even recognize her if she walked right past her, and that wasn't the worst thing in the world either. A little ambiguity never hurt anyone.  Leaving Em standing where she was Tess turned around to try and see if she could make her way back to get another drink when someone dropped something right in front of her. Bending down to pick it up she turned the beer over in her hand once before she looked up to face the owner. Consumer, more like, you didn't own a beer long enough to be more than a consumer where that was concerned. There were a million people here, and a million faces lost in the sea of bodies all around her, but it wasn't too hard to find the person that had lost such a thing. He was looking right at her as she had bent and picked it up. Chuckling a little bit, she held on to it for a moment as she took in the fact that he was carrying, honestly more than it looked like it was possible for him to carry without magic. "Already did." She lifted it a little more as she smiled, "I"m not really sure where to stick it though."  As she took in the stranger, she realized that she recognized him, vaguely. He was in one of the bands. Guitarist? Maybe? Singer? She didn't know. She had seen so many bands on stage today she wasn't sure that she could have said who was whom. Keeping up with the ins and outs of British rock bands wasn't something that she did all that often. Instead she spent her time on more productive things, but a music festival was a music festival and running into performers on the way to get more beer was probably just about normal in this case. If anything could really be considered normal at a festival. That was, after all, the reason that it was a festival.

A MILLION DAYS COULDN'T BE ENOUGH

SO I CAN'T STAY, BUT ALL I WANNA DO IS STAY

Would Van call himself a heavy drinker? No, not really. More like a medium weight....drinker? Technically he could drink in the heavyweight division, but that was neither here nor there. The point was, no matter what class he was drinking from, he was winning. Especially considering he had beaten some unofficial bet that he and the rest of the band wouldn't run out of alcohol. It. Had. Been. PROMISED. Yet here he was. On a beer run. Maybe it was the whole festival vibe or the fact that his internal organs were currently swimming in Jim Beam but he was having an awesome fucking time. He just wanted to get this enormous armful of alcohol back to his mate's, listen to the bands and sloppily make out with Cat until Sheryl finally told them to get a damn room. 

Sheryl, pfffft, what a freaking downer. Tib's mother was a nice lady and a smart business woman, which made her an obvious choice as band manager, but she forgot one teeny tiny detail. She wasn't managing Van's life. Nuh-uh nahhhh girl. When she had bitched him out off stage, he and Cat both, he had wanted to toss her in a dumpster somewhere and leave her there. He had known that it was a bad decision to bring her up on stage and it had only taken about....hmmmm, five minutes after he kissed her to remember that, oh yeah, they weren't a public fucking thing yet. Woops. Van's bad, everyone. Van's bad. He hadn't been thinking but then again was he ever really thinking? Add in the booze and his brain was essentially just an empty void when it came to thinking things through. Impulsivity was an issue of his anyways but add in Cat's beautiful eyes and a bottle of Wild Turkey and we're talking about a serious shit storm.

That was exactly what it would end up being in the morning. A huge, giant, swirling, hot, steamy shit storm. Sheryl was going to start screaming, the tabloids would likely go mad with photos, and Merlin have mercy if his damn brother found out. It wasn't like Michael and Caterina were in love. Far from it, really. They were betrothed and that was about as far as that really went, at least that was what Van believed. Still, it would probably be quite upsetting to find out that your brother, your disowned, disinherited brother, was shagging your fiance. Just a titch upset, possibly. Hopefully he'd never know. Hopefully no one in either of their damn families would find out, but so what if they did? As far as he was concerned they were a good match. Sure, he was disinherited but he was still a fucking Parkinson. The name was the important thing to that Shafiq family, wasn't it? Who cared if there was a Van in front of it?

...Was he considering marriage? Bloody hell. What had that damn woman done to him? His drunken mind would have had an absolute field day with that realization if it hadn't been for the distraction of dropping that damned can. Luckily for him there was a woman that came attached to the distraction as well, one who had actually retrieved the can. As she held it higher Van, in his drunken dramatic state, peered over the pile in his arms at the can. His face was almost in disbelief. Had she picked that up? He hadn't even seen her do it. Blinking rapidly a few times he tried to summon an ounce of sobriety to further speak to the lass. "Ummmm," he shifted around looking for a place. "Well I'll be fucked, I don't think I've got a place. You know what, keep it. Free beer, on me," Van smiled, stumbling back a few paces. 

"I'm drunk--" he laughed as he tried to keep hold of all his loot. They should have borrowed him a damn wagon! "This has been crazy, hasn't it? Have you been having a good time?"

Same Outfit

Tag: Still Van

festivus for the rest of us

Tess thought that this was something that she could do, that wasn't going to change anything about her life. Coming to a music festival, and just trying to relax a little bit before the full moon this week would do her some good. It was that, or she was going to spend the entire night worrying about what was going to happen this week, and if everyone was going to be okay, and what all was going to go wrong. There were a million things that were going to go wrong, and and she knew that she wanted to be there to make sure that they didn't. Of course, Tess thought that every month, and every month things were just fine, and they didn't have any problems, but she liked to be prepared. She thought that they were better off safe than sorry, and that was really all that mattered in the long run. That they were taken care of. How they got there wasn't important. What everyone thought wasn't important. She could just make sure that they were all okay the next morning, and that was all that they needed to worry about.  Salves, and ointments, and all of the medicine things that she was forever learning from her grandmother would make it easier to sort of come to take care of them all. They were learning. They were doing the things that they needed to do, and she thought that that was important. They were going to all be okay, and she could take care of them all. Tonight though was not about that. It wasn't about taking care of anyone other than herself. And she knew that Em was here somewhere. They had come together, but they had gotten separated in the crowd, and wherever she had gone off too, Tess had lost track of her. It wasn't like the other wolf was very big, and she could have easily slipped away to somewhere else. She wasn't going to go looking for her until it was time to leave, and she didn't think that they were anywhere close to that point yet. There was far too much to see and do, and she thought that the man in front of her now was actually quite amusing. He was famous, she knew that, but she also thought he was a little drunk.  And drunk people tended to be the most entertaining sort. They were honest. More honest than most adults were anyway, and Tess didn't think that there was anything wrong with that. She hadn't drank enough to be drunk, she didn't know what all she had had, but more than a few, though not enough to do more than give her a light buzz. She liked harder liquor, she always had. Beer was a bland drink in Tess's opinion, but she wasn't going to turn one down either. Especially not if she thought that he was just going to give it to her because his arms were full. "Thank you..." She wasn't going to say no, and even if she didn't drink it herself, she was sure that someone else would. Em probably would, whenever she found her. But that wasn't the point. He was giving her something, and she couldn't help but think that he was probably going to drop a few more before he got to wherever he was going. She almost wondered why he wasn't using magic, no one was going to notice, and they were all magical anyway... At least, she was pretty sure that they were. Chuckling a little bit when he said that he was drunk all Tess could do was nod in agreement. "A little bit it looks like." She didn't know where he was going, but she had to think that there were people waiting for him to get back to him with all of the things that he was carrying. "I am. I love festivals..." Trying to gage whether or not she was over stepping but she thought that he looked like he could use some help, and so she thought that it was worth at least offering. He could decline, and she wouldn't take offense, but there was no reason that she couldn't offer to at least help him carry all of that. No matter who he was, he still didn't look like he was sober enough to juggle all of that and make it back through the crowds of people that were still everywhere. "Can I help you carry the rest of those? We can't have you giving them all away for free dropping them..." She didn't actually know if he would give them all away or not, but she still thought whomever was waiting for them probably wanted them, and not for him to come back with one in each hand because the rest had gone out to various strangers along his path.

A MILLION DAYS COULDN'T BE ENOUGH

SO I CAN'T STAY,
BUT ALL I WANNA DO IS STAY

There was no other woman in the world like Cat as far as Van was concerned. He had met a lot of women. A lot, lot. Been betrothed to a few, broke those off rather quickly, but none of them had been like her. If they had he'd likely have given into his father's demands while he was still living, while Van was still in line to be Lord. It was too late to get that back. Get his father back, his lordship, any of that shit but it wasn't too late to get Cat. Not yet. She was engaged to be married to his brother in a year and that meant he had a year to figure out exactly what he wanted to do. Well, he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to be with her. What he didn't know was how serious he was really feeling. Serious enough to have their wedding called off? Was he really so sure that he was willing to do something that permanent for something that could be so arbitrary?  They had only really known each other two months! Was he prepared to do all of that for her?

The answer was simple. Fuck yes! Maybe it was the alcohol that had made him so overconfident in that decision but he really agreed with it. She was so different, so unique and so like him... He wanted, neigh, he needed to see where this was going to go. If that meant breaking up his brother's wedding, then so be it! He'd break up their wedding. He'd piss off Sheryl, piss off his mum, his sister, brother, whoever. He didn't care. It wasn't as though this was something he did all the time. They would see that, right? If his family saw the almost definite article about his antics tonight, they'd understand that this must be something...extraordinary, right? Van wasn't this guy. He wasn't the bloke who broke up betrothals, definitely wasn't one to fall head first into a serious relationship, but this was different.

She was different. Things were different this time around. It wasn't like he had planned any of this, it wasn't as though he had wanted it or willed it to happen. It wasn't as though he got into it hoping something would come from it. Sex. That was all it had been, just hot...steamy, amazing casual sex. Who falls in love from that shit? Not him! Not ever! But something somewhere had changed and things were different.  The problem was that he was still the same. He was still obnoxious, unruly, trouble making Van and that was exactly why Sheryl had yelled at him and would continue to in the morning. Things could be as different as they wanted to but as long as he was still him he would continue being misunderstood and in the wrong. Not that it was anything new. Hell, he had been in that category his whole life how should this whole damn thing be any different?

The way he was dealing with it was the same, too. Getting drunk, having fun, and doing whatever the fuck he wanted. And what better place to do that than Razzmatazz! He was right there with this girl, "Hell yes! Festivals are just--" he hiccuped, rolling his eyes lazily with a laugh, "--they're great! We need more damn festivals!" Van could hear a couple of distant fans cheering with his proclamation and he let out an excited, "WOOH!" Another eruption of cheering came and he just laughed trying to keep his bounty from falling out as he did.

"I'm drunk," he repeated. What a typical waste-oid, they always tell you how drunk they are don't they? He was bad for that. Hell, he'd even said it on stage a few times in his life instead of singing his lines. Still, the fans seemed to cheer either way. When she offered her help he let out a happy little groan. "Yes, please fucking help me! I am....I am too drunk to be responsible for this many things." Van hiccuped again thankful she was going to help him bare the load. "The bastards took my wand before the show." He said rolling his eyes and grouching in a terrible mimic of Sheryl, "Not responsible enough. Well guess who-- guess what I'm responsible enough to do? Hm? Get the beer, that's right." Van paused then let out a laugh realizing what a contradiction he really was. So proud of himself for being responsible enough to get the beer but not responsible enough to carry it all. "You're very nice, the band's gonna love you. Have you met any of musicians yet? Well, aside from me, right now. Hello!"

@contessa | OUTFIT

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