please don't post if you aren't one of us, but feel free to read along<3

♱ Valerie Grant ♱

Name

Valerie Rose Grant

Stage Name

Sylvia Haze

Aesthetic

Southern gothic, religion, macabre and dark, various other subtle themes. Known for her references to old americana, which ties into the persona she has created on stage.

Persona

Her albums tell a tale of Sylvia Haze, a young girl born in a small, religious southern town. Sylvia is basically her, but the story of her life is instead turned very macabre and vile rather than how Valerie's life actually turned out.

Music genre

All over the place. Her own unique style, consisting of indie, dream pop, country, soft rock, ethereal, and so much more. Her instrumentals consist of a lot of piano, guitar, harmonica, and keyboard. Her vocals are soft yet bold, and she likes to play with her voice by testing her vocal range. Valerie has an extended vocal range, and she can sing with a soft-jazz swinging tone or with a more solid pop accent. Her low notes are carefully crafted and carry genuine emotion. In the end it is hard to resist the charm, you are just too happy to keep listening. She can hit the highest notes, as well as the lowest, with her vocal range being a good few octaves. She sings a lot about heartbreak, addiction, and some very gruesome themes.

Nickname(s)

Sylvy, hazy, mother haze(all fan given)

Status

World famous singer/songwriter and poet. Writes all of her own songs and lyrics, and does the majority of her instrumentals

Age

27

Gender

Female

Sexuality

Bisexual

Aroma

Smells oddly of peaches, cinnamon and cherries. Very sweet smell, mixed with earthy tones

Birthdate

March 17th

Zodiac

Pisces

Appearance

Valerie is no doubt a very beautiful woman. Despite what the media says, her beauty is all natural, although she occasionally uses makeup to enhance it. Her skin is gently tanned, although pale in some spots. She has various little freckles and moles all over her, heavy in her shoulders, neck, and arms. She has a faded mole on her left cheek, more near the side of her face than actually on her cheek. She stands at 5'6- 5'7, and has a very feminine build. She has a slim, hourglass figure with wide hips, curved sides, and a small waist. As she aged, her figure became more prominent. She has a large bust and particularly bony collarbones, oddly enough.

Her body is slim and fit, and this is particularly noticeable in her legs and arms. Her legs are long and smooth, and muscular. It's clear that her legs are powerful, and that she's a very active woman. Her arms are slim and slightly muscular, and her shoulders are small and narrow rather than broad. Her ribcage is small, and she has a very faint outline of abs on her stomach. Her body is particularly bony in some spots.

Valerie is very attractive, facial and body wise. Her features are mostly soft. Her face is oval shaped, and her cheekbones are wider and the most prominent feature of her face. Her forehead and jawline are slightly smaller than her cheekbones, and her jawline is slightly curved around the edges. Her nose is slender and pointed at the end, upturned slightly. It's often a hot topic about if she had nose surgery or not due to the pointed and upturned feature, yet it's natural. A very unique feature about her is her teeth. She has a double set of canines, with two very sharp canine teeth on the top row, and two very sharp canines on the bottom as well. They've always been there, and are both praised and hated on.

Valerie has full lips, and can be described as having a well-defined pout. They are a soft pink in color, though she likes to wear red or dark red lipstick. Her eyes are very expressive and cat-like in shape, which is a feature she enhances with eyeliner. What's very unique about her eyes, and considered her best feature, is her eyelashes. She has distichiasis, which is a double set of eyelashes. They are long and full, giving her an innocent look on top of her pretty eye shape. Her eyes are hazel, a blend of pale green, golden, blue, and some brown. Depending on lighting, her surroundings and whatnot, her eyes may appear to be different colors, but mostly are seen as a beautiful pale green. But due to her condition, her eyesight isn't very great and her eyes are often irritated.

Her hair is another popular feature of hers. She has wavy hair that falls below her shoulderblades, and is a sort of ginger, russet, and various shades of browns. The hair framing her face is more ginger in tone, while the back of her hair is darker. It's truly beautiful, although there's not just one color to describe it. It's shiny, and soft and silky from how well she takes care of it.

Valerie has an array of tattoos, particularly on her hands. Every single finger is tattooed on both hands. On her left wrist, there's barbed wire. Just below it, is the words 'take your hands off him'. Most, if not all of her tattoos have something to do with her stage persona, or religion. On her left hand, below her knuckles, is the words 'i'd save you but the world is bent' in shaky, small but largely noticeable letters. There's barbed wire that wraps around her index finger at the first knuckle, and a caged bird at the top. On her knuckles on both hands is the words 'god sent', with 'god' being on her left hand, and 'sent' on her right.

There's a shotgun on her pointer finger, starting at her first knuckle and ending on the last. A bird cage on her middle finger above the first knuckle, and writing in a different language on her pinky. All the writing used in her tattoos is the same font. On her right wrist is the outline of thorny branches, wrapping around her wrist and over itself. On her hand, a large sigil can be seen, a large cross that ends in a circle with thick lines coming out of it. She has a sword on her pointer finger, a pair of scissors and a cross on her middle, two curved horns and a small circle and an upside down crescent moon on her index.

She has various other tattoos on her feet, arms, legs and thighs, spine, ribs, stomach, and really everywhere. They're all scattered and not heavy anywhere else but her hands. On her throat, is the word 'please' tattooed in the same shaky, small font. In the divot of her neck is a small cross. On her stomach, just above the waistline, is a deer skull with antlers. The ends of the antlers touch her hips, making it a relatively large tattoo.

Personality

Valerie is best described as a humble, down to earth celebrity. She loves her fans, she loves to connect with them and treat them as though they are long term friends of hers. She's very.. unhinged and random when it comes to certain things, and will sometimes say whatever she wants without thinking. During her shows, she is very up close and personal with fans, and can often be seen singing to them, and holding their hands, or flirting with them. On the occasion, she may flirt with one particular fan the whole show and give them a little kiss during her more flirtatious songs. Valerie is a highly romantic and flirtatious woman. She loves to tease people, to get them hot and bothered. Especially at her shows. She's incredibly thoughtful and caring and will always keep the things fans give her, and can be seen wearing articles of clothing given to her by fans as well.

Shes sweet and goofy, and a little airheaded. Valerie, on top of being a romantic, is highly obsessive and possessive. She's the jealous type, so what's hers is hers and there's no changing her mind. She can be clingy in relationships, so she tends to avoid them and instead have occasional hookups and whatnot rather than having a relationship. While she does really want one, it's better she strays away for now until she works on her issues. Valerie heavily struggles with religion and sometimes self identity. It's a huge part of her life, and while she has an abundance of religious trauma, her belief of God will never leave her. She doesn't consider herself religious and doesn't have a religion, but she prays to God sometimes just by speaking aloud and speaking her thoughts.

Valerie is a very sentimental and gentle person. She's introverted, soft spoken and shy until someone really gets to know her. Then she's extroverted, loud, comfortable and wiling. She has a sort of gentle demeanor that never seems to leave. She's naturally curious at heart, and loves to ask questions and have extremely deep conversations with people. That being said, she's not judgmental(unless you have some sort of fucked up beliefs). Her ability to start and hold these deep conversations allows her to connect with people on a highly personal level, and bonds her to them to create long term friendships. When with said close people, Valerie is unhinged and chaotic. She's not afraid to be herself, she's not afraid to be loud and weird. She'll say some of the most unhinged and out of pocket things, and talk without even thinking. She's also incredibly flirtatious with her friends, but none of them can ever tell if she means it as a joke or not.

Valerie values her friends and close people like nobody's business. She loves company, she loves having people to rant to. She is also incredibly affectionate and touchy, she always seems to be touching someone. Cuddling is absolutely the key to her heart. Valerie especially loves to listen to peoples heartbeats, because to her, it's a reminder of how precious life is.

Valerie, in short, is like a black cat. Sort of standoffish to strangers, quiet, and may seem unapproachable. If she wasn't famous, she could guarantee nobody would want anything to do with her. Despite this intimidating and sort of reserved aspect, Valerie is very cuddly and affectionate behind closed doors. Or in public. Or with her fans, as mentioned before.

Likes

- Cats

- Classic literature

- Dark, grotesque and macabre things

- Storms

- Iced coffee

- Nature

- Singing and playing with her voice

- Tea(specifically raspberry leaf)

- Dawn/early mornings and evenings

- Cinnamon

- Cigarettes(specifically marlboros or camels)

- Sports cars and vintage cars

- Anything vintage

- Autumn

- Fruit

- Caramel

- Her fans

- Abandoned things and nature

Dislikes

- Grossly hot weather

- Rude people

- Rumor starters

- Cocky men

- Being treated like an object

- Lemon flavored things

- Vapes(will use if she doesn't have cigarettes)

- Modern day houses

- Coors light beer

- Doodle type dogs

- People who hate on her aesthetic

- Fish and seafood

- The smell of eucalyptus

- People who hate cats

- People who try to copy her

- Backhanded compliments

Hobbies/interests

- Collecting sports cars and vintage cars(favorite is her white 1966 mustang convertible)

- Collecting vintage clothing

- Horseback riding(competes at a national level)

- Drawing and painting

- Exploring nature and abandoned buildings or places

- Gardening

- Drying flowers and making things from them

- Collecting animal bones, fur, and other parts(morbid but she finds them fascinating)

- Taxidermy(she lowkey sucks at it but thinks it's fun)

Backstory

Born and raised in Florida, in a small, tight-knit highly religious town. Valerie was the preachers daughter. Valerie has always believed in God and had been highly religious as a teen and child. Around the age of 10, she began to struggle with her identity and her beliefs. She was discovering herself and her sexuality, and prayed and asked God why she was made this way. She endured a lot throughout her childhood, and often ran away from home. At age 14, Valerie was sent to a boarding school by her father, in hopes of her never returning. It only got worse from there. She doesn't often speak about what she went through being in and out of institutions, unless you're someone close to her.

The small town Valerie lived in was.. almost like one giant cult. She felt as though she was in a religious cult, which turned out to be true in its own way. What she went though and the discovery of this left her with extreme religious trauma. At a young age, in her teens, Valerie was able to start modeling, by some miracle. She has always been into music and began making music around this time, too. She was a hit in the modeling world, but she ended that career when her music started to gain some traction.

Relationship Status

Single

Crush

None

Exes

A few other famous people, specifically male actors and one singer

Kin

Doesnt talk to her father. Has two younger siblings, Cassie and Marie.

Theme song(s)

Get Free- Lana Del Rey

Pretty When You Cry- Lana Del Rey

Fuck It I Love You- Lana Del Rey

✧ Edith Grey ✧

Name:

Edith Elisabeth Grey

Stage Name:

Edith Grey

Aesthetic:

Visually, Edee can somethimes appear very dark acedamia looking gal. There's also hints of country or cottagecore, and even some vintage influence. She also adores anything with horror/post-apocolyptic vibes to it. She isn't very good at keeping to a clear aesthetic on a day to day basis though - her likings and hobbies are far too dissimilar for her to adhere to a clear cut thing. Plus she is entirely too unorganized.

Music genre

Her personal music genres are a mix of folk-pop, indie and country - but she likes to mix in other genres occasionally. She can play the drums, violin and sing well, as well as being decent at keyboard. Never ask her to attempt to play guitar though - she's rubbish. Her vocal tone is quite emotionally driven, soft for the most part but leading into full belts when the lyrics and emotion call for it. She loves a bit of musical theatre-esque stylisation, but doesn't lean into that too much these days.

The Band:

An extraordinarily messy friendship group of six who make pretty decent music in the alt rock style. Mostly alt rock anyway - they dabble in other genres too. They all switch around roles often, but their general setup is the lead singer, primary backup singer/percussionist, drummer, two guitarists and a bassist. This varies a ton, and no one really has a set role. Plus being lead singer gets chucked between the lot of them a ton, and often there are multiple backup singers for each song set.

Comprised of Edee, Luke, Adelaide "Addie" , Meghan "Meg", Killion and Sammy. Edith's main role is to play drums or provide backup vocals, although she doesn't shy away from bringing in violin from time to time.

Nickname(s)

Edee/Edie, E.G.G/Eggie (Based off her initials; from her siblings)

Status:

Upcoming artist in her band - acts as a drummer, occasional violinist and secondary singer. Wannabe solo artist and author. Currently working at a small Cat Café called House Hattie (after one of the the first residents, a tabby named Hattie.)

Age:

25

Gender:

Female

Sexuality:

Pansexual

Aroma:

Freshly lit fireplace in the middle of winter; slight scent of ginger and sugar cookies.

Birthdate:

October 13th

Zodiac

Libra

Appearance:

[To do: body structure, face - quite sharp jaw ( freckles) athletesism + height 5'9, makeup style kinda minimalistic, or none at all]

On first glance, Edith might not be the most obvious eye catchers, but she could certainly be so if she wished. Underneath her usual oversized hoodie lies a toned athletic body filled with razor sharp features and an effortless attractiveness. Her smile streaches so easily, and so eagerly in greeting, so that once one is caught in her eyes they struggle to get back out - locked in her attention, it can be hard to escape her attentive and observant gaze.

With her bold brown eyes taking the forefront of the attention, a casual onlookers' eyes may next fall onto her slightly grecian nose, then past her perfectly carved cupid's bow to her lips. These are coloured a pale pink hue, rosy against the tan of her skintone and moderately thin. They are also somewhat uneven, the lower one much heavier than the top one, and the inside of the bottom one slightly scarred from her braces when she was young. She has a habit of chewing the bottom one when she is particularly anxious too, so also tries to pop on lip balm whenever she remembers, or apply some kind of makeup to get herself to stop. Sparkly lipglosses with only the vaguest scent of cocoa butter are her current thing, when she isn't wearning dark sepia lipstick for performances.

Edith's hair is as dark brown as can be without being confused with black. You'd be forgiven for assuming it is dyed black, but her few greying strands of hair are a dead giveaway that it is in fact, not. They are mostly suble however and mix in well with the slightly lighter brown streaks naturally in her hair. The usual style is a half up half down - a ponytail at the top and the rest of her hair straight to halfway down her neck. It is cut shorter than she likes, but she also hates having her own hair long as it is also quite thick and heavy. The style is slightly bobbed, but wavy so that it can be ruffled and stick out everywhere. She tames it decently enough though. The soft, fluffy, jaw-length bangs part across the middle, concealing small sections of her cheeks and jaw from certain angles. Occasionally she may also allow it to slicken somewhat, to achieve a darker aesthetic for a particular show.

Her subtly mesmerising eyes are a complete other deal. Lightly cinnamon brown, they contain golden-hue splatterings - like the shape of daisy petals - caught between the pupil and corners of the iris. The full eyes are almond in shape, round and expressive and pleasant - at least when her expression matches it. Her lashes are somewhat long and frame her eyes well - definitely black rather than a brown, and bold against her tanned skin. Her eyebrows too are ebony-dark, also featuring a very narrow slit on the right one, due to a long regretted and failed eyebrow peircing.

She has plenty of healed peircings across her ears through. Edith has a usual collection of studs and hoops and chains that she scatters across her peircings. On the left, decorated in both bejeweled silvers and golds, is seven peircings. A stacked helix - hoops and rings with some containing faux diamonds - marks the soft curvature of her ears. Further down lies an orbital chain in gold, then three lobe peircings in a row - tiny hoops connected by another golden chain. She has a small star shaped tragus stud, and a tiny cat on a moon hanging from her rook peircing.

On the right is a similar collection, alternating again between silver and gold. Instead of a rook, tragus or helix peircing, Edith has an industrial chain going across the front of her right ear. She also has a daith hoop and three flat peircings above the industrial - one each of a moon, star and cat. It is quite ironic that she doesn't have any tattoos, considering how many designs she has created for ones she'd like, and her abundance of peircings. Pain tolerance clearly isn't the issue (she's just lowkey a whimp and too scared <3)

Her usual makeup style is not quite as extravegant as her peircings. She doesn't tend to wear much of anything outside of performing, though she'll bring out her makeup kit if a certain occasion calls for it.

Personality:

Edith is a distinctly awkward, yet easily likable woman with a wide eager smile and a brilliant knack for making others smile along with her puppy-like antics. A highly energetic individual, she spends a lot of her time restlessly doing anything charitable or active or enjoyable; unable to let herself rest for long periods of time, she bounces from task to task endlessly.

One of her biggest flaws has certainly got to be her clumsiness, or perhaps her ability to be so forthright. The first is no real fault of her own, that is just the way she is - a complete clutz. She hasn't dropped any drinks on clients yet, but unfortnately the same cannot be said for herself or her coworkers. Whoops. That phyical lack of coordination is made up by her fantastic musical ability as well as her emotionally driven mindset. She is very considerate of her words, even when they sound a little jumbled or flustered, filled up with overly literate termanology. Edith tries to remain as kind and polite as she can, never wishing any negativity on another despite her slight inclination for brutal honesty.

To her closest friends though, she is far more easy going and inpeccably loyal. She is the kind of person to come to for serious advice that does consider emotional aspects of the situation - but she is also a really fun person to just gossip and hang out with. There's not guarantee she'll know what one is talking about, but she will do her best to carry the conversation as long as she can without it being awkwardly drawn out.

Likes:

- Horror games

- Dystopian fiction media

-Post apocolyptic media

-History, specifically Greco-roman/Classical

-Her bandmates

- Musical theatre

- Christmas/winter season

- Trying out new stuff

- Dogs and cats (and horses and all the animals!)

- Coffeehouse style jazz

Dislikes:

- Horror films

- The smell of hot Coffee

- Rude customers

- Struggling to find the right words

- Excessive responcibilty

- Not appealing to people

- Non-animal people

- Being so cold that she starts to shiver

- Loosing her damn phone

Hobbies/interests:

- Karate (she is a blue belt - did it in her childhood but started again recently)

- Cycling (with her brother, when he's in town)

- Playing video games, particulary in the horror genre

- Doodling and drawing

- Working out at the gym

- Embroidery (not very good)

- Crocheting (even worse than embroidery)

- Making latte art

- Performing in musicals

- Playing the drums + violin

- Baking anything sugary sweet

Backstory:

Edith was born and grew up in England, travelling up to Scotland every summer, winter and spring to see her Grandparents. There she became super attached to them and deeply interested in the local folklore her Grandmother had collected. While cultivating a love of history, mythology and literature, Edith also grew up surrounded by nature and the day to day tune of her Grandpa's farm.

She moved to the US a few years her father passed, when she was 15 years old. Edith promptly got into Greco-roman history and surrounded herself with literature. After getting through university with a degree she moved back from Scotland to the US with some uni friends and ultimately started making music with some of her old friends and some new ones.

Relationship Status:

Single

Crush:

None as of now ;)

Exes:

A few guys back in the UK long before she came out. One really cute guy from Scotland she regrets letting go of. Dated two members of her band - Luke, who she is now friendemies with, and Adelaide who was her first girlfriend (but definitely not her first girl crush.)

Kin:

Her mother and step-father. Her older brother Daniel (29) and her younger half-sister Esther (10). Her beloved Grandpa and Grandmother in Scotland.

Other:

Her phone password is 1310. yeah...

San Francisco, a humid and sticky, yet somewhat beautiful place. Although not blazing hot, the humidity sure makes up for that and tortures residents and visitors alike. The 'Gone Home' music festival, one of the largest festivals in the state, is a three day weekend festival with some of the most notorious artists in the country. One particular artist is one who's been making a comeback to the stage, one who's headlining the whole thing. A cool breeze cut through the humid air, providing some sort of relief from the sweaty mess. A pretty young woman and a man who looked as though he was her boyfriend drove along the road, both gazing out the car windows in admiration as the Golden Gate Bridge came into view.

It wasn't.. nearly as magnificent as one would think. The only time you could really consider it pretty was during sunset and sunrise, and neither of which was happening. The time on the dashboard of the car read 4:30 PM, not long before the first day of the Gone Home festival. People would already have been there for hours, though, and some for days just to secure a front row place. The thin, wispy clouds of August were threaded across the bright blue sky, which was dimming in color. Fall was creeping in, and it was noticeable in the trees the most. They were losing the green pigment of their leaves and slowly shifting to various colors.

California doesn't really experience much of a fall or winter, though. Just cooler temperatures. "Valerie?" The voice of the man rung out, breaking the woman from her trance of staring out the window. "Hmmm?" Valerie hummed in a soft tone, turning her head to look over at him. He didn't look back, only glanced over so he could keep his eyes on the road. "How are you feeling?" He responded back, a smile growing on his face. The radio was playing some sort of jazz song, and he took one hand from the wheel to turn it up slightly. The windows were rolled down, the wind in both of their hair, blowing it around.

The car wasn't anything fancy, at least not in Valerie's terms. "Nervous. Sick. Excited. I think I'm going to vomit before we get there." Valerie giggled, shuffling in the leather seat of the car. It was true. She hadn't been to a show this big in years, especially since she took a long hiatus from preforming. Since she made her return to the stage, she played at a few popular festivals, but mostly not very popular ones. The jazz music playing in the car, combined with the smell of the strawberry shortcake air freshener, didn't do much to calm her nerves. "Everyone loves you, Val. You're literally like, the most popular female artist alive." Valerie rolled her eyes at his words.

"Nuh-uh." He glanced over at her, a playful smile tugging at his lips. "Yes-huh." "Nuh-uh." "Yes-huh." It continued for a few more seconds before Valerie loudly groaned, leaning her head back against the headrest. "Fineee..." And with that dragged out word, the man in the driver's seat pumped his fist into the air and gave a whoop of victory. Soon they pulled into the festival, the backside where the artists would be safe to enter without being bombarded by fans. Not that Valerie would mind, though, because her fans meant the world to her. It took close to 30 minutes to get through security and whatnot, but she eventually made it to the backstage area.

Valerie plopped herself down on one of the couches, and was immediately joined by some of the other artists there. Valerie wore a pretty, thigh length black dress, bedazzled with emeralds in the chest area. Tight around the chest and waist, but flowy in the leg area. She paired it with black, platform ankle strap heels with an emerald green strap. And, of course, any jewelry she wore was emeralds. Her pretty, gingery colored hair was pulled up in the back to have a bump, resembling the iconic hair bump that was present in the 1900s. The rest of it fell down her back and shoulders in waves, and there were wavy pieces of hair that framed her face. Her makeup was rather simple- black cat liner with some mascara and lipgloss. Her eyes lashes resembled false lashes, but they were all natural.

Valerie always chose something unique and pretty to preform in, and this dress was just relaxed. She didn't feel like dressing up like she always had before, but the dress was still elegant and beautiful on her. On top of that, she did wear a pretty black corduroy with her stage name on the front and back.

Simple, yet pretty. Although she really isn't one for simple whenever it comes to stage outfits, she really wasn't sure what to wear at all. She didn't normally wear dresses, rather clothing that attributed to her whole musical aesthetic. Which led to her wearing a lot of flannels and such, so it was very rare to see her preform in a dress. Valerie was torn from her thoughts by the other artists around her, and particularly the one who sat down next to her. "Oh my God, Sylvia?! I've been a huge fan for soooo long! Oh, this is a dream come true!" The artist next to her was fangirling and gushing about her, and she couldn't help but chuckle. "Thank you, darling. It means a lot to me." Valerie grinned and spoke in an adoring tone, listening to the other artist continue to gush and talk about her music.

"Oh, and Sylvia? You look so beautiful tonight. I know dresses don't.. fit your whole aesthetic completely.. but you are ETHEREAL." The artist next to her flirtatiously giggled, resting a warm, sweaty hand on her tattooed knee. Valerie returned the gesture by placing a tattooed hand on the artist's arm, leaning in close to her. "And you aren't? You look like you just came from the Met Gala." Valerie chuckled, returning the same flirtatious look. The shape of her cat-like eyeliner only seemed to accentuate the look, and she could tell by the sudden flash in the other artist's eyes. "Eliza Stone, pleased to meet you." Eliza suddenly stood from the couch, but not before placing a gentle kiss to Valerie's cheek. "I'm first up on stage.. but i'll definitely see you around." She threw a wink, and with that, left the couch to leave Valerie alone.

Valerie watched her leave, noting the exaggerated sway of her hips. She chuckled softly and leaned back against the small couch, crossing her legs. The backstage area was large and open, separated from the stage by massive curtain and a wall. Anyone in the audience could look to either side of the stage and look into the backstage, but only have a glimpse of it. From where she was sitting, she couldn't see the stage, only the curtain blocking it. Generally on stage, it was usually just her and maybe some other people playing the instruments while she sang, or it was a recording of her instrumental while she sang over it. This time, she had someone for every instrument so she could focus on singing. Valerie watched as multiple artists continued to arrive and chill out backstage, some of them greeting her and whatnot. But despite that, she sat alone, mostly because she purposefully took up almost the whole couch. It sort of deterred some people from approaching her, although they admired from afar.

Edith’s fingers tapped restlessly on the back of the rough leather seat, drumming out a repetitive tune that quickened in pace to the voices chattering around her. She couldn’t really hear any of her individual bandmates or their conversations over the clamour of all them combined, (except their driver - still in his usual silence) goofing about in the car, but there was a bit of a melody to the whole chaos nevertheless. Her shoulder pressed against the passenger door, with her body leaning across the seat to let her easily gaze out the partially open window to the sights of the city, as they made their way through it. The breeze on her face was warm but not unpleasantly so, and her lips twitched into a nervous but excited grin. Meanwhile, her hair barely maintained the half-up top knot that she had hurriedly tied it into, while the bottom half of her head swept madly across her face.

She leant back again, brushing back the loose hairs with a hand and looking at each of her bandmembers in turn for the eighth time this car ride. In the driver’s seat sat Killion, trying to ignore Luke and Addie’s wrestling match just behind him as he drove them carefully through traffic. Next to him, Sammy, snacking ruthlessly through bag after bag of various candy. Occasionally they’d swing an m&m or skittles filled fist behind them and Edith would take half a handful, struggling to thank them through a mouth full of the candy but giving them her biggest grin if all else failed. Then, beside her in the back came the raised voices that followed Luke’s surrender to Addie, then his (totally cheating) sneak attack. The two squabbled relentlessly until more sweets were offered and there was a brief amnesty, a civil division of the remaining candy, then the play-fighting began again.

Their final band-member, Meghan, had chosen to come in her own car, taking the majority of their gear with her. Probably the smartest decision, all things considered. A more timid and anxious individual, Edee thought her red-headed friend would’ve struggled to cope with being stuck in the same car as Luke and Addie for a solid half hour, then a few performances after. Plus it helped to have someone there ahead of time to organise some stuff before they all arrived. She’d also messaged ahead to say that she’d been able to get some stage crew to help her drag all their stuff in earlier. So, Meghan had said, you had better bring some coffee to make up for not helping me or something. Coffee was always a talking spot with the group – firmly divided between iced and hot. That was why they were frantically headed back down to the festival venue – drinkless yet filled to the brim with last-minute, randomly-grabbed sweets and snacks. Attempting to find coffee when one really needed it was apparently harder than one might think.

Though of course Killion had remembered his own coffee flask, still warm from when he had made it at his own house - plus a pack of recyclable water bottles filled to the top for the rest of them. At the gas station, Sammy and Addie had only had the idea to grab some confectionery, rather than anything they might actually need. And rather a lot of confections at that – one of the reasons they were running late. But it wouldn’t matter once they got to the festival grounds anyway – no doubt they would have refill stations to keep everyone well hydrated against the humidity of San Francisco heat, and Sammy & Addie could happily manage all the sweets to themselves if they felt like it.

She chuckled to herself and leant against the window. The festival was looking to be pretty entertaining, not least from her own band’s usual state. If they kept this energy up then they’d have quite the busy weekend, even aside from the whole music aspects of things. They had a few songs to perform throughout the event, and Edith was looking forward to that as well. Not even to mention the fact that she’d be heading down from time to time to that fundraising stall thing that she just managed to organise, all raised money going straight to the cat rescue that her café sponsored. To be honest, that’s what she was focused on right this second. That and managing the usual performance nerves. This was a pretty big festival after all.

Edee would usually find herself looking to all the other artist’s social media pages when she felt like this – insta, personalised websites or whatever. She liked to get an idea of them as a person - their stage persona – before meeting them in person. It was always a fun experience, seeing all the differences in them a real living person, verses the persona-like image they created of themselves to sing and create music with. Some took it even further too. But she hasn’t done that this time round, being too busy fixing up the information brochures for the cat rescue, to go internet sleuthing.

Edee didn’t mind too much. As the car rumbled through traffic, she liked to weave her mind in and out of her friends conversations, like her own personal radio – tuning in and out again. By the time they reached their destination, she was almost half asleep, grinning easily at the dramatic tale Addie was telling Sammy and Like, waving her arms for an even more dramatic effect.

Dammit, but even with Killion driving they were almost late.

Having parked up, grabbed all their stuff, battled their way through security and other artist’s music crews, the group finally made it into the backstage area. Just about while managing all their filled pockets, bags and sanity. Edee managed a short sigh of relief, panting at the edge of the room before she got over to greeting Meg and helping the group unpack all their gear – personal guitars, assorted knickknacks like Meg’s lucky bracelet, final outfit touchups and whatnot. Their ginger friend had claimed just the one couch for them and Addie glared at her with feigned disappointment. “Damn, we should’ve sent Luke out solo instead of you.”

Edith joined the obvious mockery with a wiry grin. “Yeah he’d scare ‘em off with his horrific flirting and we could’ve snatched another one.”

“Or his monstrous elbows. Look at them.” Luke lifted up his guitar and lightly bonked the curly-haired girl with the bottom of it. Addie grinned playfully and stuck her tongue out, throwing herself onto the couch next to Meg with an exaggerated yawn.

“Poor Meg-Meg, you’re too sweet sometimes.” Edee grinned across to her and Meg rolled her eyes, letting her slip and secure her bracelet onto her wrist with a jokingly annoyed “Mhm.”

There was a moment of muffled whispering between Meg and Addie, as the girls discreetly pointed in the direction of a pair of artists. Edith paid them no attention at first, squishing herself into corner of the couch as she tugged out a mirror from a bag. Her makeup wasn’t bad – but definitely not as pretty as she would like it. Rubbing some of the smudged eyeliner with her fingers, she reapplied, adding some more gold sparkles overtop of the black eyeshadow. That would do. No one really saw much of her when she was on the drums anyway. She tended to move a ton, too blurry under the stage lighting for anyone to see her properly.

She popped that down, adjusting her skirt in its colours of dulled red plaid. Then, tucking her black shirt to be sure it still fit snugly to her body, she threw on a ribbed turtleneck plus some gold and silver jewelry to match her earrings. She liked the little silver one especially since it had a sitting cat charm – her own little signal for goodwill. Then she tugged up her sleeves, rolling them messily, and grabbed her drumsticks. She make some movements in the air a few times with them and then, satisfied, put them down and looked around at the rest of backstage.

Edith could see the first act, Elise Stone or something or other was getting up – probably heading to get ready, with her hips swinging. She was regular around San Franciso, Edee thought. Definitely so if she still recognised the name. She grinned, raising an interested eyebrow and looked past her to see the artist she had been talking with on the couch. Before she got a proper look, she overheard Meg swearing lightly and turned again to help her with her shoe caught on a chair hook. Helping her with an expert manoeuvre, Edith soon looked up ; the autumn coloured hair woman immediately caught her eye again and she smile warmly in her direction.

She felt as if she recognised that face from somewhere. Definitely not from San Francisco, though.

With her head leaned back on the couch, Valerie closed her eyes and rested her hands in her lap. She remained this way until a presence in front of her made her open her eyes and lean her head forwards again, and she gazed at the woman who stood before you. "Sylvia? Oh my god, you don't understand how much of an honor it is to be seeing you right now. Holy shit!" The woman giggled excitedly, taking a seat on the couch. Valerie smiled and turned slightly so that her body was facing the woman. "Yeah? Well it's an honor for me to be in the presence of someone so beautiful." Valerie grinned, giving the woman an up and down look. She was absolutely stunning. Raven black hair, sharp features and the softest, most beautiful honey brown eyes. The woman suddenly leaned forwards, her brows gently furrowed.

"Is that new?" She asked, pointing a finger to the small cross tattooed in the divot of her neck. Valerie shook her head, smiling softly as the woman traced her fingers along the 'please' tattooed on her throat. "Your skin is so soft. I'm Fern Red, by the way, you might've heard of me?" Valerie shook her head in response, gazing down at the fingers still tracing her throat. "Giselle Ridge, maybe?" And then it clicked in Valerie's head. "Oh! Giselle, I thought you looked familiar!" Valerie giggled and leaned in, pulling Giselle into a tight hug. "Maybe I should have addressed you by Valerie? I don't know which name you prefer to go by." Giselle smiled, rubbing her hands gently across Valerie's back.

The two of them modeled together before Valerie got out of that path to focus on her music. "I.. don't really mind. I respond more to Sylvia, though. Even my own family calls me Sylvia." Valerie pulled away from the hug, her fingers still lingering on Giselle's shoulder. It was almost crystal clear that Valerie had a thing for Giselle. From the way she looked at her, from the way her hands never left Giselle. "Gotcha. It's.. so good to see you. I know you were struggling a lot with.. well, you know." Giselle moved slightly closer, to the point where their bodies were touching. She then leaned in close, so close that Valerie could feel her warm, sweet breath on her face.

"Could I meet you in your dressing room after your set?" Giselle whispered softly, and Valerie couldn't miss the way that her Giselle's eyes flickered down to her lips. "It's A7." Valerie smiled softly, leaning in even closer. The tips of their noses touched, and their lips gently brushed against each other. Valerie glanced around for a moment before she closed the small gap between their lips, closing her eyes as she brought a hand up to the back of Giselle's head. Her fingers tangled in her soft black hair as they kissed, breaking away only after a few seconds.

"I've been wanting to do that since the day I met you." Giselle admitted, and Valerie let out a breathy laugh. "Yeah.. me too." Valerie licked her lips as she gazed at Giselle, the taste of strawberry gracing her tongue. Her gaze went behind Giselle and to the curtain separating the stage and the backstage as she heard music begin to play, as well as a voice. Eliza had begun her set. Giselle slowly leaned in and pressed another soft kiss to Valerie's lips before she stood from the couch, dusting herself off. "See you after your set, Val." She winked, and Valerie could feel her heart skip a beat. She watched Giselle walk away with a dreamy look in her eyes. No matter her fame or status, Valerie would always have a little crush on Giselle. Who wouldn't?

Valerie licked her lips again, savoring the taste of the strawberry chapstick Giselle wore. She leaned herself back against the couch again and pulled something from a hidden spot under her dress, glancing around. Everyone else was smoking something, so she figured it wasn't against the rules to do so. She pulled the pack of cigarettes out from the waistband of her underwear and set them on her lap, making sure nobody saw where she pulled them from. With a dress with no pockets, where else was she supposed to put them? Plus, they were digging into her stomach and getting uncomfortable.

Her hands pulled the lighter from the plastic around the cigarette pack carelessly, and she smacked it against her hand for a few seconds before she pulled a cigarette from the pack. She brought it to her lips and lit it up, taking a long drag. Valerie set the pack and lighter back down in her lap as she exhaled the smoke, watching it mix into the sticky, humid air. Gross. There was nothing worse than the stickiness of humid air, and with the smell of smoke all around, it almost made her sick. It's not like she could say anything about the smoke, though, because she was just contributing to it.

Her gaze landed on a rather pretty looking woman on the other side of the backstage area. Short dark hair, and from what she could make out, pretty features. Valerie raised a brow and then glanced away, crossing her legs again as she took another drag from her cigarette. Her lip curled slightly in disgust as the taste of the tobacco seemed oddly sweet and sticky on her tongue, probably from the humidity of the air. She used her free hand to adjust the top of her dress, making sure the emeralds were perfectly straight and aligned.

Another drag, another exhale. She watched as the exhaled smoke faded off into the sticky air, though the smell lingered. Valerie pulled her dress further done, though much to her dismay, it immediately went back to where it just was. Maybe the dress wasn't the best idea to preform in. I mean, a short dress, no shorts underneath, and a thong? Definitely not a good call on her part. Oh well, it was all a part of her little character anyways.

One hand rested in her lap, the other held her cigarette, which was nearing its end. The ashes were flicked down onto the floor, although some landed on her thighs and burned slightly. Valerie brushed them off and flicked the cigarette butt into a nearby trash can. Maybe she should've come here later, rather than sooner. Her act wasn't until a bit later, so she was just here without needing to be.

Maybe she could go meet some fans? Valerie knew that fans lingered around all of the exits and entrances, waiting for the artists to arrive. She was just lucky enough to get through one of those entrances without any fans. While she loved her fans more than anything, they could be a bit much at times. Her gaze rested on the exit of the backstage, and she heavily considered going to go find some fans. It's what she normally did.

She would find them, or they'd find her. Either way, she wouldn't leave until they were all happy and satisfied. Valerie leaned her head back against the couch again and closed her eyes, inhaling the sticky air softly. She rested one arm on the arm rest and leaned all of her weight onto it, her lip curling slightly in disgust at the feeling of the humid air. It was hot, it made her sweaty, and it made the air smell sickly sweet. On top of the sickly sweet smell, she could smell flavored vape smoke in the air. That was the worst of it all.

She did like vapes. She also didn't. It's a love hate relationship, because while she does enjoy them, they burn her throat more than cigarettes do, oddly enough. Anytime she does use a vape, it's like she can feel her lungs deteriorating right then and there. Not that they aren't already deteriorating, but it just hurt. Valerie knows she needs to quit the addiction so she doesn't lose her pretty singing voice, but she just cannot help it. Nor find the motivation to quit.

So for now, she'll just continue to smoke until it kills her voice. Valerie gazed down at her tattooed knees and thighs, bringing a hand to gently run a hand along the inked skin. She then gazed at her heavily tattooed hands, a small playful smile tugging at her lips. Valerie traced a hand over one of the tattoos on her hand, this particular one being words. 'i'd save you but the world's bent' as she read it, she smiled even more as she recalled the events that led to her getting it. She then brought a hand to her stomach. Although covered, she ran her acrylic nails along where the tattoo was, pressing against the thin fabric of her dress.

Valerie didn't really have a favorite tattoo. But she did have ones that she liked more than others. She brought a hand up to her throat, tracing her nails along the word 'please' tattooed in the shaky font of all the others. It was one she really liked, although for awhile she regretted the placement of it.

Edith was fully in her own little bubble now, her butterfly blue-cased phone tugged out of her bag and balancing dangerously in the palm of one hand while a round brush in the other tugged uselessly at the other side of her head. Her black-brown hair was slightly static, some clumps pricking up in several directions like a porcupine’s quills and getting worse every brush-stroke until she finally gave up; she dropped her phone in her lap and grabbed a water bottle from a small side-table – a muffled exasperated sigh coming from her pouting lips. Splashing a little onto her hands, she then dragged that gently through her hair, taming most of the frizz for now. Something about the pre-performance, backstage buzz always set her hair into untameable mode. Or she perceived it that way, in all her excitement and nerves. Or, maybe, it was all just because of the steadily rising heat.

She was feeling a giddy mix of excitement and nerves though. Especially tonight, day one of three. Bigger performances – particularly those with larger sets, or of the more popular festivals – seemed to be far more intimidating than those Edee had found herself used to over the last few years. And on top of that, even though her band was only playing for the first two evenings, there would be plenty of people watching them – their expectations higher than ever before. Fans she might’ve reached the point of recognition with, though certainly not with the dedication of some of the people gathered in the crowd for the headliners. But it wasn’t as if those things were what worried her necessarily. Plus, they had played in a couple slightly smaller, yet modestly big, festivals the summer before – most of them going down entirely without a hitch. The theatre kid in her very gently knocked on the wooden table at that thought, light-heartedly praying that nothing would go drastically wrong this time like that one performance a few years ago – way back towards the beginning of the band’s career.

Edith inwardly chuckled at the hazy memory and her own superstitious behaviour, grabbing her phone again to try and find a picture of that catastrophic event – maybe she could tease out a grin from even Killion if she showed the group it. An event like that had bonded them well and, as embarrassing and anxiety-inducing as it had all been in that moment, nowadays they all couldn’t help but laugh hysterically at it all when the incident was brought up. It had been a wild night, certainly.

Before she’d even clicked onto her photo gallery however, a message flittered onto to the top of her phone. From an organiser who had helped her set up the cat rescue’s booth, it read :All good here, Edith! Come down when you get a chance x That had been another small anxiety of hers recently: making sure her little endorsed booth would safely make it through the weekend and help raise some more money for the rescue. She knew their centre had been getting busier and busier these days, their care thinly stretched across all the cats coming increasingly into their care. And, no matter how many cats they’d move into the café and soon into forever homes of their own, more would soon take their places to be yet again rehabilitated, cared for, fostered and adopted. She’d been spending more and more times volunteering these days, struggling to manage her own free time and music practice with helping them out.

Still, with the mini mission sounding as if it were going well, the worse of her worries were settled - at least for now. But a slightly sickened feeling still resting at the depth of her stomach, Edith wasn’t sure exactly what wasn’t right. If it wasn’t pre-performance nerves, fundraising anxiety or hair issues then she couldn’t guess what it would be. She replied to the organiser’s message with a hurried reply and an enthusiastic thumbs up, before navigating to the ‘Gone Home’ Musical Festival’s social media. What was this unconscious restlessness, had she left the stove on in her apartment or something?

Her mind was far too distracted to lay much attention to all the faces and names as she scrolled through the line-up. Eliza Stone was the first to properly catch her eye - the woman set to go on first, one who had talking to the auburn-haired lady. Ah, and there she was – the beautiful mystery woman. Ooh, the headliner too. Edith could only giggle at herself – of course she’d not recognised the headliner of the whole event. That was something only she would manage to do, letting herself get completely distracted so as to completely forgo one of her personal favourite details of an event. She liked to keep her eye on the biggest stars of things, watching some artists she had grown up listening to develop into world-famous musicians and singers.

She furrowed her eyebrows slightly, crossing her legs as she looked at the image. Again, she felt that odd feeling of recognition with the woman’s face – this Sylvia Haze. But now she was even less sure of that feeling, the name didn’t feel familiar at all. Well, she would interested in hearing her music nevertheless. Headliners were chosen for their incredible talents after all, and Edith was thankful for basically having a front row to their full sets, as well as all the other artists. It still felt a bit surreal to count herself as one of those artists, in the same rank of so many of whom she had spent her teenage years near-worshipping. She debated actually wandering over to some of the solo singers she could see lounging about, to ask if they had any tips about the whole solo thing, but decided against it. Uncomfortably swinging her legs up against her - being careful to keep her boots off the sofa – Edith again glanced around.

In honesty, the current reason for all her agitation was probably just the smell of a couple fruit-scented vapes and smoky cigarettes dotted around her. Luke and Addie had a pack of the latter open, chattering away as they lazed over the couch and lit them. With a small grin and a lightly wrinkled nose, Edith turned away to rest her chin on her hand, her elbow on the squishy couch’s arm.

She recalled that her Grandpa had smoked, and for much of her childhood had relentlessly warned her and her brother against picking up the same habit. Of course she had still tried it for a while in the later years of uni - a futile attempt to de-stress; a method that worked no better than going for a quick ‘mind-cleansing’ run, a well-meaning recommendation from her mum. That is to say both were completely ineffective, for her at least. But the smoking habit had never really appealed her personally, anyways. She just couldn’t get into it, and that was probably for the best. Also, she was still trying to figure out how to manage getting her own cat recently, and wouldn’t want an all-indoor cat to have to cope with cigarette smoke.

With the mingling smells getting a little too strong for her liking, Edee abruptly got to her feet to look for an exit that didn’t involve wandering through security all over again. She muttered something to Meg along the lines of “fresh air” and wandered out the backstage area, out the opposite side from where she had come in. Hopefully there she would have a moment of chilly quiet air to clear her mind. Well, chilly air would be off the table, but maybe a moment of quiet could linger before those with backstage passes decided that it was time to use them. She’d grabbed her hoodie anyway, despite the temperature - throwing the sleeves over her shoulders and the hood loosely over head, looking like she wanted a moment of privacy.

She began to hum something as she leant against a secluded rail, following the rhythm easily in her mind although it felt slightly foreign in her tone. It definitely wasn’t anything she nor her bandmates had come up with, but it sounded like something familiar nevertheless. Something long forgotten among the literature essays and musical theatre readings of her younger days, perhaps. It was definitely something she’d listened to back in university – she had guessed that accurately enough. What the lyrics were to this particular piece, nor who had been the composer or lyricist were anyone’s guess. Edith herself had no clue, but gently hummed it anyway, quietly enough that one would have to stand next to her, or recognise it well, to hear it.

Valerie gently rubbed her fingers over her knees, feeling the ever so slightly raised skin on her tattoos. As a few artists passed by, they stopped to talk to her, but she never held the conversation with them. With a soft sigh, she rose to her feet, brushing her dress off as she pulled it down. It didn't go down very far, though, and barely covered her thighs. It didn't cover her thighs, actually. She needed to get away from the sickly sweet air, it was making her feel nauseous. She walked carefully to some different area of the backstage, heading down the stairs to a grassy area. There, she encountered a couple fans who had all-access passes. Her face lit up as they approached her, giddy smiles on their faces. "Oh, wow. You're so beautiful." Valerie gasped softly as she reached out to gently rub the arm of one of them, smiling at her.

Almost immediately, she was pulled into a hug by the girl she complimented. Valerie gently hugged her back, placing a soft kiss to her cheek. "Sign my arm, Sylvia?" The fan asked nervously, and Valerie couldn't help but smile. She took the sharpie the fan held and signed her signature onto her forearm, pressing her hand into the fresh writing to absorb some of the ink so it didn't smudge. They talked for awhile, and after a few pictures and shared words of affection, Valerie broke away from the fans and went somewhere a little more private.

As she walked, her eyes landed on a small table and cooler. Presumably one of the little stations where the artists could grab a snack and a drink, she guessed. Whilst the artists did get to put in requests for whatever they wanted in their dressing room, they still had these little things. Valerie always requested some sort of fruits, vegetables, juices, teas, matcha, and lattes. Perhaps maybe pasta at times. She lengthened her stride and approached the cooler, bending down slightly to open it.

There weren't too many options, or the drinks were just picked through. She always got one of the same things anyways- a cherry or diet coke. Valerie reached in and dig in the ice for a moment, then closed her fingers around a diet coke and pulled it out. It was cold, and it made her hand sting slightly. With her other hand, she closed the cooler shut and continued on her way to somewhere private. She found herself in a small shaded area by a railing, shaded by a tree. It was comfortable in the shade, if you could ignore the stickiness of the air.

Why were festivals always on the hottest, most humid days? It was annoying. Especially since she had to be moving around on stage and singing her heart out, it was just too much. Valerie could count on hand how many times she had passed out while performing, but it was still too many times. She glanced down at the diet coke in her hands, and suddenly realized she wasn't quite able to open it. With her dark red coffin shaped acrylics, everything was a little difficult. Especially opening cans.

Valerie took a quick glance around, she noticed a figure in the distant. Someone wearing a hoodie, despite the intense heat. She just shrugged to herself and brought the can up to her lips, and used her oddly sharp teeth to crack it open. It was a bit of a struggle, considering her extra, unusual amount of canine teeth. She pulled out her phone from her waistband and swiped to the camera, bringing it up to her lips. Her lipgloss was smudged now. She sighed, completely irritated now. The heat was getting to her. Valerie used her finger to clean up her lipgloss, so that it was perfectly lined to accentuate her cupid's bow and didn't look a complete mess. She'd have to fully fix it before she went on stage.

Her acrylics tapped on the aluminum can as she took a long sip of the diet coke, feeling it fizzle all the way down her throat. She could feel small beads of sweat drip down her back, causing her to shudder. Gross. Maybe she should've waited until 30 minutes before her set to arrive at the festival? At least then she wouldn't be gross and sweaty. Valerie took another long sip of her coke, trying her hardest not to smudge her glossy lipgloss again. It almost resembled lipstick, with the way she outlined her lips. Maybe she should just put on lipstick instead, she had some pretty red lipstick that might look decent with the outfit.

Valerie slipped her phone back into her waistband, breathing in deeply. She leaned forwards over the railing, mindful not to catch her dress, and reached a hand out to grab one of the flowers from the tree. She brought it up to her nose, smiling, although it faded as soon as she realized that the flower had no smell. But then, suddenly, she had an idea. Valerie grabbed a few more of the flowers and fished out her phone again, propping it up on the top of the fence. She used the camera as a mirror, and lined the flowers in her hair, on the side strands by her ears. The flowers, a pretty soft white color, added a touch of brightness to her outfit other than the emeralds.

Valerie secured them in by weaving the flower stems into her strands of hair, wrapping them around and using the rest of her hair to cover where they were woven in. If only there were some daisies around instead of blossoms, it would've been a lot better. Valerie normally did have daisies in her hair for her outfits, but she'd have to settle for a small change. After a few more adjustments, she grinned back at her phone, then slowly shut it off and tucked it back into her waistband. It probably would've been a lot more practical to find a dress with pockets, but oh well. Or to just not wear a dress at all. But, what's done is done.

Her hands brushed against her bare arms, which were sticky with humidity. Even the inked skin where her tattoos were at was sticky. She glanced down at her arms and hands, smiling softly as she gazed at the tattoos. A lot of people had so much to say about them, but she didn't quite care. Especially the 'please' on her throat. They'd said, 'why did she ruin her beauty like that?' but it didn't bother her much. Valerie thought she looked more beautiful with the tattoos. Her body is her canvas, and she can decorate it however she chooses. So she does. Her gaze lingered on the person in the hoodie not too far away. She could hear the singing and the loud music playing from the current preformer on stage, which she suspected was still Eliza Stone.

A pretty girl with an even prettier voice, that Eliza. She was sweet enough, although very forward with her flirting. Valerie found herself softly humming along to the lyrics of the song, even if she wasn't too familiar with it. It was just too catchy to not sing along to. She used a hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, which she could feel beading up. She couldn't help but let her gaze linger on the person in the hoodie. Who was that? A fan or another artist? She was so intrigued by them, oddly enough. But she wasn't about to just walk up to them and start a conversation. It seemed as though they wanted to be left alone, anyways, because why else would they be wearing a hoodie in this heat?

Valerie blinked softly a few times, fighting the urge to rub her eyes. Her eyes were often irritated due to her double set of eyelashes. Although very beautiful, they were very irritating. It already gets annoying enough having one full row of eyelashes, but two? Double the amount of lashes that get in her eyes. Ontop of that, they were just straight up uncomfortable and irritated her eyes somtimes, making her eyes red. They were responsible for quite a few drug rumors, which led to a very popular 'scandal' years back.

It didn't get brought up often anymore, unless by her haters that wanted to make her look like a bad person. But come on, it was obvious she was an alcoholic and a drug user at one point in her life, she sang about it for gods sake. Yet they still tried to use it against her, but oh well.

No matter what, there's always people who will dislike her. Valerie sighed softly and brushed some of her hair behind her ear, careful not to mess up the flowers she was weaved in. Her curious gaze was still focused on the person in the hoodie, trying to figure them out.

Damn, the hoodie really had been far too much; especially considering that she was already roasting under her formerly ‘autumn designated’ clothing – her cheeks blushing an indelicate ruby. The outfit she was wearing was supposed to be for later in the year, but she hadn’t got herself well enough organised to get out her summer clothing from the depths of her cupboard to use instead... even though it was already basically the end of the season. Annoyed at herself – as with every situation organising personal organisation - she knocked the top of her hood off her head, opening her mouth slightly to release an uneasy breath and extending her hand to fan herself. Her black-painted blunted nails blurred as the produced breeze wafted across her face, reducing the red slightly to a rosier - and prettier - pink. With her left hand, Edith ruffled out the top of her hair once again, praying it wasn’t going to slicken with sweat if she got any hotter. She wanted it to stay as fluffy as she could keep it tonight, if the humidity would ever allow it.

By now she must have lived in San Fransico far too long to keep pulling stunts like this – even as small one as to bothering to bring an overgarment to a concert on such a warm and humid night. This wasn’t nearly as bad as the time she had only brought a cardigan to put over her summer dress in an outdoor concert though – ending up soaked after an unexpected change in weather. That was not her finest moment; she'd been soaked entirely and had trailed water around her apartment for a good hour until she finally managed to clean everything up again. Grinning in amusement at herself, she removed the hoodie from her shoulders and tied it loosely to her waist, pausing to stretch and rest her elbows on the railing again. The metal felt slightly cool against her bare skin but to her distaste it became warm before she really had the chance to appreciate the metallic frigidness, so she instead swung herself around and looked across the small area.

Her eyes instantly met a pair of ethereal green-brown ones framed with thick eyelashes - trained in her direction. Blinking once, then twice to see if the other woman’s curious gaze would flick away to something else, Edith could only wander if the mysterious lady was indeed looking her way. Certainly there was no one else in her corner to gaze so curiously at, nor anything particularly exciting besides a small tree barely shading her face.

It didn’t appear to be that either, though – or maybe the pair of them glanced away at the exact same moment, or blinked just out of sync - because by the time she'd composed her curious eyesight, the woman had looked away. Edith did gather the swiftest of looks, breifly admiring the artist's various tattoos like constilations across her arms. She wanted tattoos like that, but damn was she too much scared to get them. There was a time a while ago when she'd got so close to finally doing it, but each time she got closer to getting one, the worse her panicked reaction would be. Last time, even with her best friend of 11 years, she had quite literally passed out on the chair and ultimately gave up on the whole idea. That would be one of the only examples where her stubborness would not be an overall victor.

Rather ironic that she couldn't cope with it though, considering her ears were almost as fully peirced as she could imagine them getting. And the two processes weren't altogether that much different.

She hung her hoodie on the side of a railing, hopping off the edge of it and tentatively approaching the solitary water cooler. Her eyes followed her own footsteps as she avoided eye contact, her mission only to get some more water in her system before she either got a rediculously painful headache accentuated by the thumping of the music or just... threw up. Neither would be pleasant, to her or any unfortunates in the front row who could get caught up in the latter; god, Edee really had underestimated the fierce weather. Although, picking up an icey plastic water bottle from the depths of the cooler, she was sure she could still combat it yet.

Swirling clumps of ice in the water bottle she wondered if perhaps she could go over and ask the pretty-eye, tattoo-starred singer for some advice on going solo. First of all, she did recognise the woman - as the headliner in fact. Bringing up the concert's website, she glanced two and from the image and the musician herself to confirm - it was, in Edith's opinion, a very different thing to see someone in person and on video. For example in none of the singers pictures could you actually clearly see the woman's perfectly manicured nails, or the vividness of her eyes for instance. Those really very gorgeous eyes-

Secondly, going solo. Sure that idea still felt like insanity at first- it had popped into her mind on a random tuesday for goodness sake. Not even while she was singing, playing an instrument, or listening to music or anything. If fact she'd been reading through some Ancient Greek acedemic texts, stories particularly involving Alexander the Great's military campaign. Whatever connected those two thoughts could be anyone's guess - Edith herself certainly had no clue. She had gone as far as to dismiss the idea for a while, finding it laughable for a while until the idea kept popping up in her mind and eventually she gave in. It would be a new adventure to explore, or at least to attempt - what would be the worst that could happen?

But before she could approach the singer she stopped only to realise something: one thing about Edith Grey was that she could never maintain ‘Cool-ness’ when in the sight of a pretty woman. Or anyone attractive on that note. Or in the presence of a particularly adorable cat. With only a hoodie to hide her embarrassment and the heat making her face flush right on schedule, she couldn't help but think 'eh screw it.' At least the heat could be blamed for her face slowly turning scarlett instead of her own awkwardness.

Approaching the woman, tucking a stray tuft of hair behind her ear. “Hey, uh, sorry to impede on your space- I mean I don't want to intrude...” She couldn’t help herself, god: whenever Edie gets flustered she would find herself resorting to unneccesary flamboyancy; “Sorry - you’re uh, the headliner right? Sylvia Haze. Do you prefer your stage name?” Her tone was light-hearted and showing signs of interest, but not in the fan-girl sense (though perhaps she contained a bit of that). Aside from her own professional interest in the girl's career and a potential discovery of what it might take to get to an enormous solo act, it would be unfair to say she wasn't angling for something a little more friendly. With the same curiousity in her eyes as she could have sworn Ms Haze held for her a few minutes ago, she studied the woman’s face for a moment.

Then she remembered who this woman actually was. The artists real name was still on the edge of her mind - evading her memory - but she knew that the russet-haired lady was the one who had sung the song she had been humming only a few moments prior. An artist who’s journey she had followed almost from the start - what was her name.

Allowing her face to drop the nervousness she had been clinging to, Edith offered a friendly smile and an extended hand. "Sorry. I'm deleriously awkward sometimes. My name's Edith, it's so great to meet you - I hope you don't mind me coming over?"

Curious gazes flickered over to her as she remained in her spot, but she paid no mind to them. Her full, undivided attention was on this particular woman. What was so alluring about her? Valerie furrowed her brows slightly as the woman looked her way, and she quickly averted her gaze as to not look like a total creep. Given that she was a shy woman by nature, approaching this stranger wasn't even on her mind. Her nails tapped restlessly against the cold aluminum of the can in her hand as she brought it to her lips, taking another sip. The loud, thumping music from the stage was oddly comforting in the moment. Soon enough it'd be her on that stage.

Making her return to stage was a difficult thing. It hadn't been a long break, only about a few years or so, but it was still hard. On one hand, she absolutely loved the thrill of it, singing and hearing her fans scream her own lyrics to her. On the other, she had horrible stage fright. How ironic, such a famous woman being so scared of preforming even after her hundreds of performances, and numerous tours. It was something she never quite got over and never would.

Before every show, she would absolutely freak out in her dressing room. No matter how big or small the crowd was, it didn't matter. Valerie's curious gaze trailed back over to the woman, her breathing catching in her throat. There she was, walking towards her. And then past her. Her eyes followed every little movement inconspicuously, watching her from the corner of her eye. Watching as she reached down to grab a water from the cooler, Valerie looked away again. The loud music caused vibrations in her chest, spreading throughout her entire body with unwanted tingles. It practically rattled her ribcage.

Her hand went to her chest, right over her heart, feeling the soft beating amongst the thumping vibrations that coursed through her. She hadn't even noticed the woman approach, too caught up in the sensation. The soft words startled her a little, but the sheer nervousness in the tone immediately settled her down. Valerie offered a gentle, friendly smile to the woman. She was another artist, not a fan. Not that it mattered much to her, but she felt as though she should recognize her from somewhere. "Oh, no, don't worry about it sweetheart." Her words were soft and gentle, matching the expression on her face. The next sentence caught her slightly off guard, as she hadn't been asked the question all that often. It was always just 'Sylvia.' She gave a soft nod in response to being asked if she was the headliner.

"Hm," she began with a soft hum of contemplation, her brows furrowing in slight thought, "I don't mind. Whichever comes to mind first." Valerie gently turned and set the Coke can down on the railing next to her, holding her hands up for a moment in preparation to catch it if it fell. But it didn't, so she quickly turned back to the woman and smiled again. She was nervous. Oddly nervous. She always was when meeting new people, but this felt weird. Perhaps it was the nervousness of both meeting someone and of preforming? Valerie's eyes searched the woman's face, memorizing every little detail.

Pretty brown eyes that caught in the sun, looking like pools of honey. Short, black hair. Wait, was it black? She leaned in a little closer, giving the slightest nod to herself as she confirmed that it was in fact not black. The woman was absolutely breathtaking, and Valerie found herself growing even more nervous, a small pit forming in her stomach. "Edith," she paused, taking a second to study Edith once more, "very fitting for you. I don't mind you coming over, in fact, I'm a little glad you did." Her hand extended to gently take the one Edith put out.

Her touch was gentle as she took her hand, shaking it softly. She released it after a moment, letting her own sweaty hand fall to her side. It seemed as though it got infinitely hotter outside, the sun becoming relentless. She'd sweat her makeup off at this rate. Valerie turned slightly to the side and used one hand to gently tug the bottom of her dress down, and the other to grab her can of diet Coke. She took a sip for a second, feeling the cold, wet aluminum in her hand.

It was a small form of comfort amongst the blazing heat. Valerie gently set it back down on the rail, turning her full attention to Edith again. "I don't think I've really seen you before." She commented softly, her tone curious as she studied her, as if trying to remember if they've ever met. Her gaze went behind Edith to another group of fans backstage, and she silently prayed they didn't come over. She did love to meet them, however, talking to too many people at once was overwhelming. Valeria preferred one on one conversations.

There were loud screams and a thunderous applause for a moment, signaling the end of someone's set. The applause and screams died down, and she glanced to the backstage to see instruments and equipment carried backstage to prepare for the next artist. She would be on soon. Too soon. Valeria focused her gaze back on Edith, the smallest apologetic smile on her face. She didn't mean to keep looking behind her like that, but there was so much going on there and she was too curious of a person.

Valerie shifted her gaze back to Edith, focusing fully on her now. Now without the loud music playing, she didn't have to raise her voice to the point where it almost sounded like she was trying to yell. She could speak in her normal soft tone of voice. Her hands rested at the bottom of her dress, gently smoothing out the wrinkles. Her hands moved up to her hips and waist, smoothing and pulling down the bunched up fabric. Perhaps it was to look more presentable, perhaps it was something to give her anxious hands to do.