Chapter 22

As usual Joe and Connie woke up early to head to the basement and Freja and Lindy ended up waking up and joining them. Freja turned out to be a capable swimmer, and with no extra lanes were available, Connie let Freja swim with Joe first in the same lane, using an exercise machine in the meanwhile, and took Freja’s place later. It seemed Joe could swim for miles. It meant he’d forgo the exercise machines, which was fine with him. Lindy trotted around the course that surrounded the pool before joining Freja in the exercise room. The two chose equipment where they could look out at the pool, getting a kick out of Joe emerging with an overly expanded front to his Speedo. In fact a few ladies and a couple gentlemen had been audience to that spectacle by then. Joe couldn’t decide whether to be embarrassed or proud and chose somewhere in between, not quite hurrying to his towel. Since they’d shower upstairs, he covered the lump with faded athletic shorts, slipping on a double X sized Conspiracy shirt.

Joe and Freja showered together in the apartment and ended up bringing their sexy horseplay onto the bed as soon as they dried, Joe diving between Freja’s thighs, teasing her to a strong orgasm, before rolling on a condom and fucking her. She wanted it hard and fast, and he did too, so he didn’t last all that long, but long enough for her to get her second orgasm, though having to stroke into her while he came for her to get there.

Meanwhile Lindy and Connie showered and played, Lindy ending up kneeling behind Connie while Connie leaned against the wall, one hand holding her there while the other plucked at her nipples, Lindy’s lips and tongue and two fingers fucking her brought her over. Connie had shut off the water so as not to drown her lover. Finding their two lovers in the throes of orgasm, they waited for separation before Connie sucked Joe hard again and Lindy rode his mouth before she took position on hands and knees for Joe to fuck her from behind. When she came, Joe moved behind Connie who had been watching and masturbating beside them before taking position. He ended up cumming nearly a minute after she did.

Freja had not been a voyeur for these two fucks, instead moving beneath the women, sucking their nipples and rubbing their clits, quickening the orgasms. For her able and selfless assistance, her three lovers went on attack, sucking and rubbing her everywhere, bringing her to a formidable climax.

Connie showered first. She needed to meet Henry and his principal assistants at the studio for a final meeting before shooting started on Monday. The length of the meeting depended on how far things were along and how much still needed to be done. Not just the sets, the apartments and the hallway for the first shoot, other things, like set dressing and props had to be examined, and the costumes and make up for the several actors involved, Joe, Lindy and Johanna, but also thugs and policemen making appearances.

Among aspects which would recommend Henry as a director going forward, his efficiency had to be among the highest. Not leaving things undone while he and George traipsed east, instead he had the actors come in to try on costumes and make up, George consulting with the lighting director to shine the proper lights on the actors. It would be the cast’s second trip to the costumers, the first, when Connie contacted them about getting the part, she had them come in and be measured the following day. For the fitting, Henry had a cameraman film the results and also take a still picture for better resolution than the Zoom he received. Stella’s make up could be adjusted on the fly, while major costume adjustments would mean another visit for the actor. Fortunately only four actors needed that. The Zoom came in later in the day for Henry, so the hunt for locations happened early and the two would return later in the evening to recheck and film the sites they liked.

Joe got up with Connie, putting on a light robe, preparing coffee and toasting bagels for breakfast. He noticed a DVD copy of the concert and debated watching it, deciding to wait to share it with the others. Perhaps waking when Connie went into the bedroom to dress, Lindy and Freja followed her out, joining Joe at the table. Both ladies used Joe’s shirts for covers, Lindy with the taller torso wearing a dress shirt with tails while Freja wore one of Joe’s t shirts, the cover of an older local Twin Cities acts, Trip Shakespeare, on it. Joe served Connie her bagel and poured coffee into mugs for everyone, placing a couple more sliced bagels into the toaster oven before joining them with his own bagel and coffee.

“Thanks for the DVD,” he said to Connie. “I wanted to wait to watch for these two to finally wake up.”

“How long do we have?” Lindy asked.

Joe glanced at the clock on the microwave. “Stuart should be at the loft in an hour or so. Dave and Greta will join us about then.”

“Maybe we should just play it there.”

“I imagine Stuart will be too anxious to get started,” Joe chuckled.

‘“Fuck him. He can listen to it out of Stella’s big speakers while we watch it on Stella’s big screen. If Stella’s there, she’ll want to watch it too.”

“Stella will be at the meeting with Henry,” Connie said,

“Oh right.”

“Henry said he’d be making more copies for us,” Connie informed them.

“I’m good with Joe having one.”

“I want one,” Freja insisted.

“You’ll get one,” Connie chuckled. “Oh, before I forget,” she stood and reached into her large purse, extracting a plastic zip bag just large enough to contain six DVDs. “Conspiracy’s rehearsing tonight?”

“Just for a couple hours before going out,” Joe said. “I’ll hand them out.”

“The sixth one’s for their sound guy even though Henry kind of sidelined him for the concert.”

“I’m sure he’ll get it. Speaking of which...”

“Who knows how long before these bookers check it out,” Connie said, “but if you want to follow up, I’ll email you the list. It’s on my smartphone.”

“Okay. How long do you think the meeting will last?”

“I can’t say, but Henry might need me to pursue some things, money or logistics. If I get out early, I’ll swing by the loft and maybe we could go club hopping together after you drop off the DVDs.”

“Maybe Jo and Brit could join us,” Joe grinned.

“I should go,” Connie said before finishing up her bagel. The toaster oven chimed letting them know the bagels were ready. After a last swallow of coffee, Connie kissed each of them, lingering with Joe.

“I was wondering about borrowing some of the actors for the animated version,” Joe asked last minute.

“Mitch?”

“Harry actually. I can do Mitch’s character, but I’d love to have Harry in it. And the bar girls.” Harry was the actor who stumbled when cold reading.

“I’ll send you the cast list. You have the money to hire cast.”

“I know. Thanks.”

She smiled and rushed out.

Joe had planned for the animation to be labeled the original version, sticking to the graphic novel as much as possible, including having Ariel killed off, but the drawing of the club made him want to include it, and even use it like the filmed version as a major plot point, and adding Johanna as well, although as a much more minor character specifically involved with the club scene, but he hoped to have both the voices of her and Brit in it. He’d keep the original version label but add, “with additions.”

A surprising amount of the animation had been done already, aided by keeping the concept of having the panels shot with Joe and Lindy doing voices starting the movie and continuing for about a fifth of it before becoming fully animated when Ariel first arrived, probably the most animated character in the film making things animated, along with the additional voice added. The animation suite, probably with Stuart’s genius programming skills, also quickened things, able to morph Joe’s original characters, the quality of Joe’s drawing helping make the imagery more effective, and a specific program enabled the mouths of the characters to realistically shape the way a mouth would in reality when speaking, so that the script Joe had written had been recorded, some of the voices remaining, that is the ones Joe and Lindy would do, while others, like Brit’s, Johanna’s, Harry’s, and the bar girls’ would be dubbed over.

Aiming for the animation network to premiere with Joe’s animation promoted as the first in-house production, itself promoting their first live action movie, in mid-November had sounded ambitious, but the way things were going it looked as if it could very well be done much before then. Joe figured Stuart would insist on getting back on the gaming track, and why not? And if the others of his animated versions of his graphic novels, or short stories as Lindy called them, could be done as quick or even quicker, maybe it would be back and forth, film and game, for the production partnership of Pancreas LLC.

When Stuart arrived at the loft not long after Joe and the ladies had, he ended up having no qualms about watching the Conspiracy video. In fact his reasoning fell in line with Joe, who had been ready to insist: it could be used for the bar scene, the music directly and the band’s movement inspiring the animation. Joe wanted to wait for Dave and Greta to arrive, and for the forty-five minutes they waited Joe and Stuart worked on the film, Lindy and especially Freja ably assisting.

Joe set up the large speakers and wide screen television to view the concert video, and started it soon after Dave and Greta arrived. It began with a camera focused on the background banner with the logo, the band busy doing sound check. The next shot showed Tom playing keyboards. He turned to the camera.

“I’m Tom. I play keyboards, write many of the songs and lead the band.”

Next shot, the soundcheck continuing, Gary introduced himself saying just, “Gary. Lead guitar.”

Kate grinned at the camera, giving her name and her part as lead singer and rhythm guitar.

“Drums obviously,” Soledad smirked after giving her name.

Johnny gave a tough rock and roll gaze, showing off her funky bass playing and growled, “Johnny. Funky bass, backing vocals, lead vocals, songwriter. Now fuck off so we can get this shit together.”

The audience watching laughed. The camera panned back, the operator apparently walking backwards to the edge and down the steps and out in front, the lens opening to see the auditorium with a few people walking around and once the image held the entirely of the auditorium, it faded into black.

The next image had the stage lit and the concert began.

One could be impatient waiting for Johnny’s second set, but for at least Joe, Tom’s songs held interest, and visually, with the beautiful and sexy blonde Kate shouting the words and Johnny near her playing fiercely and growling back up, there were two charismatic ladies sharing focus, even with their attractiveness and their charisma being completely different.

Dave brought his chair to sit next to Joe during the concert, Joe and Lindy chose the red velvet antique loveseat they’d purchased recently at an estate sale, another mismatched item for the loft. “What do you think of this song?” Dave asked.

It was a slow song with a cool vibe, sort of lounge lizard jazz but looser and spacier, Kate’s shout becoming a sweet unsteady croon, Johnny’s quiet growl behind it, her bass walking and yet retaining her funk causing Joe to nod his head at the slow pace, but the lyrics brought Dave’s notice, and Dave brought Joe to it. The song could have been written with Joe’s graphic novel in mind, specifically the origin story of the heroine, a rape in a back alley revenged later in another back alley. It never got explicit, the chorus about how blood on concrete goes from red to brown when it dries and how the brown fades but faintly remains much like memory. The verses were hardly more explicit, focusing on mouths or hands or thighs, at least the clothing that hid the thighs, and like the chorus, the transformation of these things, from good to bad, from happiness to victimhood to revenge.

“For the opening credits,” Joe replied to Dave’s query. “Credits written on new panels, close-ups I think so the identities are never clear until ending with the cover of the comic.”

“I was thinking for the band in the bar scene,” Dave chuckled, “but that would definitely be cool.”

“You mean in the live action movie?” Joe asked.

“Yeah, sort of self-referential.”

“Maybe I could have it repeated in the background,” Joe nodded. “Tom will definitely be pleased.”

“Yeah.”

The beginning of the second set with Johnny in spotlight and the rest of the stage dark also inspired Joe.

“Could we use the video to create the animation?” Joe asked Stuart.

“Like rotoscoping?”

“That would change the quality of the animation.”

“Probably.”

“Then I’ll just use it as inspiration with my drawn Johnny. I want the bar scene to start with her, close-up and spot-lit, then pull back when the rest of the band gets lit and into the bar until the table with Mel becomes the focus.”

“You’re the director,” Stuart grinned, obviously pleased with the choice.

Once the impressive video ended, Joe bounced around from drawing from a stilled moment with Johnny in spotlight to giving Stuart directions for the film and Dave working background music to the parts already mostly completed. The biggest change came when Dave had Joe listen to a recording of Greta singing wordless above Dave’s synthetic music.

“Definitely for the scenes with Joey and Mel getting to know each other,” Joe agreed. “I don’t think for the tense parts, but maybe at the end, a sort of wistful sound?”

“That would be cool. I think it might even be funny for the scenes with Mel and Joey what with Mel not giving into her attraction, but the music already suggesting it.”

“I think it is the funny part, along with Ariel’s presence.”

“Got it boss.”

And so it continued, Joe finishing the drawing of Johnny and working on the other band while continuing to bounce around to Stuart and Dave, Greta moving to help out a thankful Stuart once she and Dave worked out a possible haunting end theme, Freja helping Stuart throughout, and Lindy mostly on her own, sometimes adding her advice, but mostly working on memorizing her lines from the live action film.

Connie arrived towards the end, in fact the pizza she brought became the point in which everyone decided to end things. She, Joe and Lindy would be heading over to Brit’s as soon as they finished.

“I’d like to make a proposal,” Stuart announced while they ate. “I haven’t discussed this with Greta or Freja, but I wanted everyone in on my thoughts, including you, Connie. I have found the help from these two lovely Swedish ladies to be invaluable, to the point that it would be a great loss to the work if they leave as planned. I propose we hire them, we have the money, right Connie?”

“We do,” Connie smiled. “Since Joe and I planned for funding quite a few more staff than seems to be required, I’d even say there’s a surplus.”

“And work visas and maybe student visas?”

“I’ve dealt with work visas several times, student visas not so much but I can learn.”

“We have tickets back,” said Greta.

“Non refundable I imagine,” said Joe. “But it’s not your burden, is it? I’d love for you to stay, and I imagine Dave even more.”

“I would,” Dave smiled. “And you and Beth seem to get along.”

“Seems so,” Greta blushed. “What about the songs?”

“Duel could go there together when we’re ready, and maybe you could teach me Swedish. Before that perhaps Joe could get us gigs here since we have Joe’s lovely translations.”

“Freja?” Joe asked.

“I would love to stay,” Freja replied, clearly happily surprised. “Is it okay with you Connie?”

“Yes sweetheart. I have found my loner life irrevocably changed and don’t seem to mind a bit.”

“She can always share our bed here,” Lindy offered, “for your alone time.”

“Perhaps,” Connie smiled.

“Thank you, Stuart,” Greta hugged him, which, though embarrassed and unsure about the pleasantness of that moment, Stuart very much enjoyed, and when Freja followed Greta, he might have even enjoyed it more.

“You know what that means,” Joe said to Lindy.

“I wish I could promise,” Lindy replied a little sadly.

Joe nodded with similar sadness.

He became proud of her though when they went from club to club later, bringing Brit and Johanna along, in order to meet with bookers, Johanna even signing the concert DVDs, and Lindy remained sober despite the constant temptations. Joe offered keeping sober. “Have a beer for me,” she smiled and kissed him.

“I’ll be her designated teatotaler,” Johanna offered, hugging her.

“Me too,” said Brit.

Though both underage, Brit and Johanna carried convincing fake IDs, and even despite Brit’s youthful looks, often they weren’t even carded.

The trip began early, the band meeting mostly a post mortem and sharing the news of the rave review. Joe handed out the DVDs, Tom promising to get the sound guy his. After sharing a couple joints they took off in Connie’s posh Lincoln.

First stop at the Whiskey a Go Go they met with a booker familiar with Conspiracy since they’d opened for a couple bands there. A somewhat grizzled man approaching middle age with on obvious history of drug use written on his face, but seemingly somewhat sober, reluctantly told them, “I don’t book headliners who don’t have a label.”