"Finally!" Rylan exclaimed from where he was on the couch, lazily tuning his guitar. "I was starting to think you two were gonna ghost me!"
"You've been here for like ten minutes," Luca murmured dryly, setting Elaine's bags by the desk.
"Fifteen." Rylan huffed in mock offense before grinning, "That's, like, an eternity, man. I even wrote a song about abandonment while I waited."
"Oh." Elaine snickered, "That was fast."
"I work well under emotional duress." Rylan grinned, strumming a chord on his guitar.
Luca gave a slow nod, "That explains your discography."
"Hey now, that's art." Rylan turned his head quickly to Luca. "Suffering sells."
Elaine pulled her laptop from her bag, softly laughing. "You have a strange definition of marketing."
"It's called branding, thank you very much." Rylan scoffed in mock offense.
Luca shook his head, powering up the soundboard while Rylan veered off from the talk to strum a few chords, clearly improvising as he attempted to sing. "Late again… Two rebels and a latte stain…"
"That doesn't even make sense." Elaine laughed.
"It's music, it doesn't have to be." Rylan challenged, "It's got rhythm."
"No, it doesn't," Luca murmured flatly.
Rylan's grin only got wider at Luca's response. "You're just jealous because my lyrical genius is underrated."
"Or maybe," Elaine smiled, looking over her shoulder at Rylan, "It's because you're tone-deaf before noon."
Rylan's jaw dropped, lifting his hand to his chest, "Betrayed, by my own audience no less."
Luca had his hand covering his mouth, smirking faintly from where he was checking sound levels. "If you're done dramatizing, can we actually start the soundcheck?"
"Fine, fine." Rylan let out an exhale, slowly getting up with his guitar in hand. "But I expect emotional compensation for being abandoned."
"Man," Luca's deep tone drew out, "Get in the booth."
Rylan laughed, wandering into the vocal booth. He adjusted his headphones before tapping the mic, "So, we working on Mutiny again? Or are we jumping into Kingmaker?"
"Kingmaker?" Elaine questioned.
Luca adjusted a few things while Rylan spoke. "Lucian's baby. It's all about his ego, ya'know, typical frontman energy." He joked.
"Would you like me to tell Lucian you said that?" Luca questioned, and Rylan tensed. Rylan gave a tense smile, but his eyes were pleading for him not to do that. Luca snorted, adjusting a dial. "Kingmaker is about the band as a whole… Anyway, Rylan, the paper on your stand, look it over."
Rylan gave a mock salute and pulled it off the clip, looking it over. He put a finger to his lips before mouthing what was written, and he turned his head to Luca, "How's he wanting this sung? Am I rapping it?"
Luca slid Elaine a copy of what Rylan was holding, looking at his own. "The instructions I received from him were 'Make it sound good.'"
Rylan snorted, laughing faintly, "Yup. That's Lucian." He shook his head, "Lucian has a track of the whole thing, yeah? Play it."
Luca gave a thumbs up, scrolling through his files to pull up Lucian's recording and hit play. Elaine nodded along to it while Rylan had his hands over his headphones, stepping from foot to foot to get a feel for the track.
Rylan waved to have Luca cut it and lifted the page, "Explosive, right?"
"I do believe that's the plan," Luca confirmed.
Rylan looked the page over again, adjusting his mic, "Alright, cool. Let's mix it up." He grinned, causing Luca to shake his head with a thumbs down. "What? That was good!"
"No." Luca shook his head. "Alright, starting the track now. If you mess up, do it with confidence."
Rylan grinned, giving a thumbs up when Luca hit play. He tapped his foot before half-singing, half-rapping the verses. On the last line, Luca paused the track, looping back the recording while tapping his finger on the desk. "I liked the way that run went, but-"
"Casen." Rylan grinned, cutting him off.
Luca nodded, "Exactly. I think if he follows you with a shout, we can do something with the sound before Lucian picks it up."
Hm… It might sound good with something like this. Elaine tapped on her laptop, replaying what she had heard in her mind before pressing play on her program. A low, distorted reverberation filled the studio, followed by an explosive drop that was heard through the mics. Both Rylan and Luca turned their heads to her. "Oops, sorry-"
"Play that again." Luca cut her off.
Elaine blinked, then played it again. Luca looked through the glass at Rylan, who seemed to be on the same page, grinning. "That's it."
Luca nodded, handing Elaine a cord to plug into the main system from her laptop, "Transfer that to me. I want to layer it over the main drumline."
Elaine nodded, plugging in the cord to allow Luca access to her screen. He dragged the file onto his workspace, tweaking it while Rylan went over the verses in the vocal booth, "Oh!" He picked up his guitar and strummed a few chords.
Luca glanced between him and Elaine, then nodded, "Play those again, Ry."
Rylan strums the same chords. Luca moved the recording over, altering it to sync with the established rhythm. He played it, went back in, and tweaked it until he had them blended to near perfection.
Elaine leaned in listening, then pointed at his screen, "Maybe distort that tap layer by half? It'll echo cleaner under the vocals."
"Half? That's pretty tight." Luca's brows furrowed, distorting the layer anyway. When he played it, he slightly pulled his head back, "...Or, maybe not."
He replayed the sound, then leaned back. "That's brilliant."
"Goddess alert!" Rylan beamed from the booth, "Someone give this woman a crown!"
Elaine ducked her head, laughing, shaking her head.
Luca snorted, patting her head before going back to adjusting a few levels, "I think that's good until Lucian critiques it. Let's take a short break."
Rylan put his equipment back into its place before wandering into the control room to the couch. "Elaine, crash course in guitar basics, come sit."
"What?" Elaine turned her chair, staring at him with a look of bewilderment, "No… my coordination with string instruments is tragic."
"Even better," Rylan grinned, "Come on, you also earned a break."
Elaine shook her head with a small smile, eventually abandoning her laptop to sit beside him on the couch, where he handed her a spare acoustic. He strummed a few chords, and she attempted.
A dull, squeaky note. Elaine glanced at Rylan, "See? Tragic."
"Nope. You're just…" Rylan blinked, pursing his lips with his brows furrowed, "Uh… Oh. Artistically out of tune."
Luca chuckled from his chair, finally getting up to grab his guitar off the stand, then walked over to the two. He sat on the opposite side of Elaine, strumming the chords before leaning it against the couch.
"Move this here," he adjusted her hands before picking his guitar back up, "Like this," he turned to where she could see his hands, "Your wrist should be more relaxed."
Elaine studied his hand placement, then looked at Rylan, who showed his then readjusted her hands. The two strummed a few notes, and Elaine followed their lead. The sound came out cleaner, and her eyes lit up. "Oh. That actually sounded okay."
"Look at you, that," Rylan grinned, "The music prodigy and her patient mentor. Should I leave you two alone?"
"Please do." Luca's quick response, followed by a look of complete bewilderment, had Rylan burst out laughing.
"Oh, come on, man-" Rylan leaned over, laughing. "You set yourself up for that one. Didn't even give it a second to breathe before the charm kicked in."
Luca's eyes faintly narrowed, shooting him a flat look. "There was no charm. I was teaching."
"Uh-huh," Rylan smirked, leaning back against the armrest. "You always teach with that tone? Real smooth, Hunt." He snickered, "Bet half your fans think you're serenading them when you explain tuning."
Luca pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a sigh. "You've got a real gift for turning anything into utter nonsense."
Rylan's grin widened, and he lifted both hands under his chin, tilting his head, "That's what makes me lovable."
"That's one word for it."
Rylan let out a dramatic gasp, pressing a hand to his chest, "Wow." He whistled, "He flirts and insults in the same five minutes. You've leveled up, dude."
"I'm going to throw this pick at you."
Elaine snorted, covering her mouth with her hand. "You two sound like an old married couple."
"Don't say that," Luca muttered, his eyes flicking to her in a look of mock horror.
"Oh, I love that," Rylan grinned, "Can you imagine? He'd alphabetize our groceries."
"And you'd burn the kitchen down before I finished labeling the first shelf."
"True." Rylan hummed. "But you'd still cook for me because you secretly love chaos."
"I tolerate your chaos," Luca corrected dryly.
Rylan gasped, "He tolerates me, El!" He grinned, "That's basically affection!"
"Okay." Elaine raised a hand, swaying it. "Before one of you starts a domestic, can we-"
Luca's text tone cut her off from the table; he sighed, walking over to retrieve it. Glancing at the screen, his expression evened out to indifference.
"Who's messaging?" Rylan inquired.
"Lucian," Luca replied simply.
Rylan perked up, leaning forward. "What's the king of eyeliner want?"
Luca tapped back a response, then slipped his phone into his pocket. "Dance call. He's ensuring we don't forget about it."
"When have we-" Rylan paused when Luca shot him a look, "Okay, when have you ever forgotten about a dance call?"
He turned to Elaine, grinning before Luca could answer. "You should come with us."
Elaine blinked, her brows furrowing slightly. "Wait, like… come to a dance rehearsal?"
"Exactly!" Rylan beamed, "It's a full-body experience. Sweating, cursing, tripping over Lucian's ego… very educational."
"It's not a spectator sport, Rylan." Luca's jaw tensed slightly.
"Yeah, so? It'd be fun!" Rylan countered. "You could give us feedback. Or film Luca falling over."
"I don't fall over."
"Oh, right." Rylan gave a cheeky smirk. "You trip with purpose."
Elaine pursed her lips, glancing between the two. "Alright, okay. I'll come just… don't expect me to join in."
Rylan jumped to his feet triumphantly. "Hell yes!"
Luca let out a sharp exhale through his nose, muttering under his breath, "Great. What could possibly go wrong."