"Tom and I aren't related." Rekker points out while still drinking coffee between sentences. "My brother and I are opposite."
Rekker's behavior was quite opposite to Robert's eternal calm and cool collectiveness. Though, as Joe had learned, if you pushed Robert far enough he had a temper as bad as the redhead. Robert's calm was part of what lead to Tom and Rekker no longer fighting so often.
He has to think about the question Isamu posed. "It might be religious for Tom but my brother takes it as a secular... military duty." Rekker changed his mind on the words because it was a precise and defensive mindset Robert had about Ziggy.
“Neither are most of the band members, but there is a kind of familial bond between them nonetheless. The comparison is based more on behavior than on blood.” Isamu noted.
He’d long seen his friend Tom as the cool and collected one, exasperated at worst, but not anywhere near as hot-headed or volatile as the younger musicians. It was somewhat amusing to think of how he might have been when he was younger, or how some of the crazier band members might be when they are older.
“A more protective role...” He found himself nodding.
Rekker nodded to his misunderstanding of what Isamu meant. "I'm the crazy uncle."
He'd heard it more than once from the younger musicians and thought it was fun and applicable. Isamu has just been spared seeing older Tom lose his temper. It was rare but Rekker had heard about the flowers and Tom breaking up Viktor and Rik fighting almost a year ago.
"My brother took a bullet for Ziggy." He wasn't sure if that was widely known but Rekker respected his brother's bravery.
Indeed, Isamu saw Tom as the calculated scientist and savvy business manager. (Minoru, on the other hand, had caught a few glimpses of Tom’s temper, but that usually involved being bailed out of jail. Or something else that just went too damn far.)
“Took a bullet for Ziggy?” Isamu repeated, recalling Ziggy’s own admission that this world was not a safe place, even without his alien heritage being suspected. His eyes fell. His voice quieted as he added, “That is an story I have not yet heard.”
Rekker nodded and thought it wouldn't hurt to tell him. Much of it had been in this world's newspapers so it wasn't hidden.
"After Ziggy's first band busted up his hands Tom asked Robert to come out of retirement to be security and the driver." He thought maybe Isamu would know that part but mentioned it just in case. "A few months later they were were heading back to the limo and a person came out of the crowd and started shooting. Ziggy was hit twice and my brother once while trying to cover Ziggy and Tom."
Rekker didn't know how to feel about it happening but he knew that was his brother after all the military training. "Most of us have had encounters with someone trying to harm us. I didn't much before but I probably will too once people realize who I'm dating."
Isamu knew of the crushed hands. He had heard references made to various shootings, and even a couple of attempts, but not with that much detail. Not enough to know who else was with Ziggy at the time, or that anyone else had been shot at the same time.
“I see…” he nodded thoughtfully, respectfully. “For that to be the case, who are you dating?”
He's glad the conversation about the old injury to his brother. He worried about him sometimes when he was working.
"Bjorn." He's wondering if it will be surprising to Isamu as much as it has some others. "He says it's better in his country but in L.A. it's already causing problems."
He did not know many of the band members as well as his brother did. But he recognized the name as one of them… the singer of one of the other acts on the tour. But the point of the matter was probably less about that and more about Bjorn being male.
“I keep needing to remind myself how different our worlds are in regards to the acceptance of same sex couples. It is baffling, honestly, how such a thing could be seen as unnatural or even the least bit offensive.”
"It's more than that." Though, definitely being seen as a straight male who dated beautiful women all of his career made it hard for people to accept he had a pretty man now.
"He's almost twenty years younger which brings up old rumors and shit I thought I was done with." Rekker's expression was more exasperated than angry at this point. "In L.A. our music genres are at each other's throats. They turn on us, we beat them up. It's been that way for years and now I've crossed that line too."
Rekker thought the music scene rift being turned on its head was amusing more than anything else. He could laugh about the ridiculousness of it all though he had personal dislikes of the glam scene in L.A. that he wasn't going to mention to anyone.
"That is a fairly significant age difference. It likely poses its own set of challenges- with or without rumors that I have never heard." he noted. "Though, I must admit I do not understand the musical rivalry."
"I retired to a private music teacher for the deaf and hearing impaired, by chance most of my students are young women." Rekker had intentionally learned to teach music to the deaf but the young women had simply happened. "The questions about my appropriateness with young people is out again because some people think Bjorn is 16 or 18 or whatever."
Which annoyed Rekker to no end. He was a lot of things and many of them he wouldn't even argue with but this one got under his skin in a bad way. It showed in the nervous tick that started with his fingers drumming on the table.
"Glam is soft, feminine and Speed is aggressive and masculine." The reasons were deeper but this was a quick and dirty explanation. "I have some long standing issues with a few bands in the local glam scene after putting them in the hospital."
They deserved it and that past had caused strife between him and Bjorn at first that almost turned to a physical fight rather than a verbal one. The two getting together hadn't been smooth or calm. They still had moments of flaring up at each other over behavior but it was subdued rather than the initial aggression.
“I do not know how old Bjorn is specifically. However, I was under the impression that most of the musicians are around our age.” He gestured to himself, making it clearer that he meant he and Minoru’s age, not he and the older Rekker. “At least in their early to mid twenties, even if they appear younger.”
In other words, the rumors were surely wrong. Though, getting people to believe that was another story.
“Were music genres monarchies, some would think a union such as yours would mark the end of an era of conflict, not the beginning of an even greater one.” He shook his head. “However, feudal-era diplomacy is admittedly not my forte.”
"Twenty five." Though admittedly he looked younger. "A couple are 19 or 20, I think."
Rekker didn't keep track of thier ages but he knew from the teasing among band members that a few were on the younger end of things.
Isamu's description of the conflict got a full laugh from the Brit. Not only was it funny but something he and Bjorn had talked about. "I'm the King of Speed out here and make a lot of the custom guitars. Not everyone is happy I've kidnapped a princess from our enemies."
While this is humorous and sarcastic the sentiment might not be fr off from the way he and Bjorn were stirring up thier respective music communities.
Isamu nodded, pleased that his perception was indeed accurate. Bjorn was exactly the same age as he and his brother. Rumors may still persist, but they could be easily refuted with basic facts.
“Then perhaps the princess should remind his subjects that petty grievances do not matter to a queen.” He suggested metaphorically, for whatever good it might do taken literally. Isamu knew nothing about the music industry, and very little about music in general.
"More the princess reminding his subjects that his king won't put any more of them in the hospital if they stop being assholes."
There was bad blood and history, enough that it showed in Rekker's expression. A flicker if anger and sadness before he got it under control. "I put a whole band in the hospital right after I joined Hexed. The rift was there but why I turned on them made it huge."
Likely, his prominence early on as a guitarist to watch gave him more sway than any 19 year old with a bad temper should ever be given. "It was before I had any therapy or medication, fucking bad, but the band I attacked... I'll never treat them well."
Rekker might adore a glam singer, might hang out with musicians here and there but the culture of the scene put him off at a visceral level.
Isamu stared for a moment, unsure of what to say to that. They’d just been talking about Robert taking a bullet for Ziggy, and the Anthean having his hands crushed by his former band. And here was Rekker stating that he’d put an entire glam act in the hospital for reasons unknown - unless being assholes was, in fact, a legitimate reason.
He finally ventured, “That… was then. And things are, or at least should be, different now?”
Was the music industry really this cutthroat and violent? Had everyone gone through this kind of traumatic experience? Did he really want to know the answers to those mental questions?
Not everywhere was violent but the mix in L.A. got volatile from so many bands and, at the time, so many young band members. Packs of 18 to 22 year old drunks with little supervision wasn't going to be a stable environment.
"The culture backstage is still the same in most of the clubs." With Bjorn going into these clubs Rekker was back to his usual brawling when necessary. "There are people in my life I'll never forgive and most of them are in that scene."
Rekker would probably carry this grudge to the grave.
Isamu blinked, taking this in and trying to rectify the new information with what he knew thus far. “Minoru has never described such an environment backstage. Nor has Tom. I certainly did not observe such threats during my select days of observation earlier in the tour, but I realize this was a smaller sample size than the current lineup…”
Was this really as widespread as Rekker was making it sound. Was there actually real trouble mounting on the Ziggy Stardust tour? (Or festival, really, given how large it had grown!)
“Oh, that is most definitely a relief.” Isamu was wholly ignorant of the club scene, clearly. “May I ask what you saw that, in your mind and Tom’s, would justify multiple people requiring prompt medical assistance?”
The question had a wary, inquisitive tone. It was not meant as a challenge. While there was slight concern of what might happen to someone who crossed Rekker the wrong way, it was mostly just a need for more context. What did that other band even do?
Rekker gets visibly uncomfortable, immediately, when he hears that question but it wasn't an unexpected one either. His anger had to draw curiosity from someone he figured had a scientific interest in his mental health.
It takes a moment, more coffee being brought and Rekker briefly wondering if he should even go there. The sound of his grinding teeth comes before he speaks. "I was, 19.. or just turned twenty. The woman I'd been dating for over a year was in the scene too. One night it got to be after one in the morning and she didn't come home so I went out to find her."
Rekker probably shouldn't be drinking more coffee while talking about something that would drive his anxiety through the roof but he needed something to do with himself too. "Asking around, she has a very unique look, I found out she was hanging with a band after a show. I didn't think anything was wrong until I walked into the dressing room. They'd drugged her and made a joke of her being the encore."
The teeth grinding was back between sentences while Rekker struggles. "I remember throwing one of them through the door but nothing after it. I didn't even know what I did between grabbing the guitarist and carrying her out to my car in my coat until they talked about the injuries during the court case."
Rekker felt the anger inside boiling up and it came through in the double handed death grip on his coffee mug. "I was put away in a hospital for months and it was hellish."
"Yeah." Rekker isn't surprised by the look on Isamu's face. Though he feels sorry for the kid, he did ask. "I'm not sorry for anything that I did."
Which kept him in the hospital longer and almost sent him to jail, his lack of regret or apology. Rekker put the cup down finally and then smiled, forced as it was. "Bjorn says that the scene in the rest of the world is better."
Which Rekker didn't believe but was trying to because there were, or well all the bands on the tour were Glam in some way. It was time to change the subject to anything else. He grasped for something funny or at least more lighthearted.
"I'm as surprised as everyone else that I'm dating a guy." He went back to Bjorn, to something current to yank himself out of his memories. "My inner asshole loves correcting the people that keep asking about my new girlfriend."
Bjorn was incredibly feminine and he could see the way casual observers would be mistaken. Rekker took great pleasure in watching the shock after correcting someone.
Isamu did ask. But at least he could squeeze a tiny bit of comfort out of the fact that you had to do some pretty horrendous and unspeakable things before Rekker would turn this remorseless rage upon you.
“Anything beyond what we have conditioned ourself or others to expect is surprising, yes.” Isamu nodded, thankful for the change of topic as well. “Informing our parents that Minoru was in a relationship, period, produced a similar sort of satisfaction. Though, I may have intentionally chosen a few words solely for their shock value… Papa did a literal spit-take with his tea.”
Isamu bringing home a date, usually a girl but sometimes an effeminate guy, was no surprise to anyone.
"I went from fist fights with Bjorn and only interested in women to dating him in a week? It was fast." Rekker didn't regret it at all but he was still shocked by his own behavior.
"I'm not talking to my family." Rekker took a drink and shrugged. "It would piss them off that I'm living instead of offing myself."
Then he starts to laugh. "Robert and Devon's reaction to coming over to find Bjorn half dressed on my couch was priceless."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
carisma_sensei
no subject
Date: 2022-02-13 06:33 pm (UTC)Rekker's behavior was quite opposite to Robert's eternal calm and cool collectiveness. Though, as Joe had learned, if you pushed Robert far enough he had a temper as bad as the redhead. Robert's calm was part of what lead to Tom and Rekker no longer fighting so often.
He has to think about the question Isamu posed. "It might be religious for Tom but my brother takes it as a secular... military duty." Rekker changed his mind on the words because it was a precise and defensive mindset Robert had about Ziggy.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-13 08:14 pm (UTC)He’d long seen his friend Tom as the cool and collected one, exasperated at worst, but not anywhere near as hot-headed or volatile as the younger musicians. It was somewhat amusing to think of how he might have been when he was younger, or how some of the crazier band members might be when they are older.
“A more protective role...” He found himself nodding.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-13 08:35 pm (UTC)He'd heard it more than once from the younger musicians and thought it was fun and applicable. Isamu has just been spared seeing older Tom lose his temper. It was rare but Rekker had heard about the flowers and Tom breaking up Viktor and Rik fighting almost a year ago.
"My brother took a bullet for Ziggy." He wasn't sure if that was widely known but Rekker respected his brother's bravery.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-13 09:03 pm (UTC)“Took a bullet for Ziggy?” Isamu repeated, recalling Ziggy’s own admission that this world was not a safe place, even without his alien heritage being suspected. His eyes fell. His voice quieted as he added, “That is an story I have not yet heard.”
no subject
Date: 2022-02-13 09:44 pm (UTC)"After Ziggy's first band busted up his hands Tom asked Robert to come out of retirement to be security and the driver." He thought maybe Isamu would know that part but mentioned it just in case. "A few months later they were were heading back to the limo and a person came out of the crowd and started shooting. Ziggy was hit twice and my brother once while trying to cover Ziggy and Tom."
Rekker didn't know how to feel about it happening but he knew that was his brother after all the military training. "Most of us have had encounters with someone trying to harm us. I didn't much before but I probably will too once people realize who I'm dating."
no subject
Date: 2022-02-13 10:18 pm (UTC)“I see…” he nodded thoughtfully, respectfully. “For that to be the case, who are you dating?”
no subject
Date: 2022-02-13 11:01 pm (UTC)"Bjorn." He's wondering if it will be surprising to Isamu as much as it has some others. "He says it's better in his country but in L.A. it's already causing problems."
no subject
Date: 2022-02-13 11:27 pm (UTC)“I keep needing to remind myself how different our worlds are in regards to the acceptance of same sex couples. It is baffling, honestly, how such a thing could be seen as unnatural or even the least bit offensive.”
no subject
Date: 2022-02-13 11:34 pm (UTC)"He's almost twenty years younger which brings up old rumors and shit I thought I was done with." Rekker's expression was more exasperated than angry at this point. "In L.A. our music genres are at each other's throats. They turn on us, we beat them up. It's been that way for years and now I've crossed that line too."
Rekker thought the music scene rift being turned on its head was amusing more than anything else. He could laugh about the ridiculousness of it all though he had personal dislikes of the glam scene in L.A. that he wasn't going to mention to anyone.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 02:39 am (UTC)Which annoyed Rekker to no end. He was a lot of things and many of them he wouldn't even argue with but this one got under his skin in a bad way. It showed in the nervous tick that started with his fingers drumming on the table.
"Glam is soft, feminine and Speed is aggressive and masculine." The reasons were deeper but this was a quick and dirty explanation. "I have some long standing issues with a few bands in the local glam scene after putting them in the hospital."
They deserved it and that past had caused strife between him and Bjorn at first that almost turned to a physical fight rather than a verbal one. The two getting together hadn't been smooth or calm. They still had moments of flaring up at each other over behavior but it was subdued rather than the initial aggression.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 03:16 am (UTC)In other words, the rumors were surely wrong. Though, getting people to believe that was another story.
“Were music genres monarchies, some would think a union such as yours would mark the end of an era of conflict, not the beginning of an even greater one.” He shook his head. “However, feudal-era diplomacy is admittedly not my forte.”
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 03:31 am (UTC)Rekker didn't keep track of thier ages but he knew from the teasing among band members that a few were on the younger end of things.
Isamu's description of the conflict got a full laugh from the Brit. Not only was it funny but something he and Bjorn had talked about. "I'm the King of Speed out here and make a lot of the custom guitars. Not everyone is happy I've kidnapped a princess from our enemies."
While this is humorous and sarcastic the sentiment might not be fr off from the way he and Bjorn were stirring up thier respective music communities.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 12:36 pm (UTC)“Then perhaps the princess should remind his subjects that petty grievances do not matter to a queen.” He suggested metaphorically, for whatever good it might do taken literally. Isamu knew nothing about the music industry, and very little about music in general.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 12:55 pm (UTC)There was bad blood and history, enough that it showed in Rekker's expression. A flicker if anger and sadness before he got it under control. "I put a whole band in the hospital right after I joined Hexed. The rift was there but why I turned on them made it huge."
Likely, his prominence early on as a guitarist to watch gave him more sway than any 19 year old with a bad temper should ever be given. "It was before I had any therapy or medication, fucking bad, but the band I attacked... I'll never treat them well."
Rekker might adore a glam singer, might hang out with musicians here and there but the culture of the scene put him off at a visceral level.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 01:29 pm (UTC)He finally ventured, “That… was then. And things are, or at least should be, different now?”
Was the music industry really this cutthroat and violent? Had everyone gone through this kind of traumatic experience? Did he really want to know the answers to those mental questions?
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 02:01 pm (UTC)"The culture backstage is still the same in most of the clubs." With Bjorn going into these clubs Rekker was back to his usual brawling when necessary. "There are people in my life I'll never forgive and most of them are in that scene."
Rekker would probably carry this grudge to the grave.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 05:27 pm (UTC)Was this really as widespread as Rekker was making it sound. Was there actually real trouble mounting on the Ziggy Stardust tour? (Or festival, really, given how large it had grown!)
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 06:53 pm (UTC)Rekker didn't see the problematic behavior in any of the glam bands in the tour. "Bjorn says that the glam scene outside the US is different."
Then he snorts a laugh. "If Tom saw what I did he would have done the same."
Rekker and Tom were very different but there were. Few topics they agreed on, how and when to respect others was one of them.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 01:00 pm (UTC)The question had a wary, inquisitive tone. It was not meant as a challenge. While there was slight concern of what might happen to someone who crossed Rekker the wrong way, it was mostly just a need for more context. What did that other band even do?
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 01:17 pm (UTC)It takes a moment, more coffee being brought and Rekker briefly wondering if he should even go there. The sound of his grinding teeth comes before he speaks. "I was, 19.. or just turned twenty. The woman I'd been dating for over a year was in the scene too. One night it got to be after one in the morning and she didn't come home so I went out to find her."
Rekker probably shouldn't be drinking more coffee while talking about something that would drive his anxiety through the roof but he needed something to do with himself too. "Asking around, she has a very unique look, I found out she was hanging with a band after a show. I didn't think anything was wrong until I walked into the dressing room. They'd drugged her and made a joke of her being the encore."
The teeth grinding was back between sentences while Rekker struggles. "I remember throwing one of them through the door but nothing after it. I didn't even know what I did between grabbing the guitarist and carrying her out to my car in my coat until they talked about the injuries during the court case."
Rekker felt the anger inside boiling up and it came through in the double handed death grip on his coffee mug. "I was put away in a hospital for months and it was hellish."
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 01:26 pm (UTC)Isamu could fill in the vulgar details between the lines quite well. And that explanation needed no further elaboration.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 01:38 pm (UTC)Which kept him in the hospital longer and almost sent him to jail, his lack of regret or apology. Rekker put the cup down finally and then smiled, forced as it was. "Bjorn says that the scene in the rest of the world is better."
Which Rekker didn't believe but was trying to because there were, or well all the bands on the tour were Glam in some way. It was time to change the subject to anything else. He grasped for something funny or at least more lighthearted.
"I'm as surprised as everyone else that I'm dating a guy." He went back to Bjorn, to something current to yank himself out of his memories. "My inner asshole loves correcting the people that keep asking about my new girlfriend."
Bjorn was incredibly feminine and he could see the way casual observers would be mistaken. Rekker took great pleasure in watching the shock after correcting someone.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 06:20 pm (UTC)“Anything beyond what we have conditioned ourself or others to expect is surprising, yes.” Isamu nodded, thankful for the change of topic as well. “Informing our parents that Minoru was in a relationship, period, produced a similar sort of satisfaction. Though, I may have intentionally chosen a few words solely for their shock value… Papa did a literal spit-take with his tea.”
Isamu bringing home a date, usually a girl but sometimes an effeminate guy, was no surprise to anyone.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 07:02 pm (UTC)"I'm not talking to my family." Rekker took a drink and shrugged. "It would piss them off that I'm living instead of offing myself."
Then he starts to laugh. "Robert and Devon's reaction to coming over to find Bjorn half dressed on my couch was priceless."
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From: