An Obnoxiously French Restaurant Near Broadway, New York, Saturday Brunch Time

[suitably_heroic]

This was without a shadow of the doubt the most pretentious, expensive-looking, suits-laden restaurant Atton had ever laid eyes on, let alone entered. He had briefly considered going for some of his Earthside nice-button-ups anyway, but no. There was only one way to approach a place like this: ironically.

So that morning he'd grabbed the rattiest of his old Fandom-era band shirts, an incredibly over the top Megadeth thing, and a pair of jeans. He had now walked into the building wearing said ensemble, ignored all the looks, and informed the guy at the front that yes, actually, he had a reservation.

(Points to guy-at-the-front's sense of professionalism, honestly. If Atton hadn't been Force sensitive he wouldn't have known the man was affronted.)

And now he was there at a table by the windows (the obnoxiously be-curtained windows), slumped in his chair, sipping orange juice from a fancy mimosa glass.

Perfect atmosphere. A+.

[[ for the one in pink. ]]

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

False. There were actually two ways to approach a place like this. Ironically was one of them, sure, but there was also the option of leaning into it so hard. Which was obviously the route Summer decided to take as she swept in all decked out in sunglasses and her supes professional suit, chatting on her phone about how she didn't see what the problem is, Tricia, the fee is non-negotiable, and if they think otherwise, they can just kiss her a--

"Oh, hiiiii," she gushed out to the host, mid-sentence, as she approached and flashed a brilliant smile. "Yes, I'm here to meet with a client, he should--oh, never mind, there he is. I see him. Just blends right into a crowd, that one." Into her phone, she stated, "I'll call you back, Tricia," before slipping the phone away, giving the guy a laugh and a fresh twenty and a thank you before clacking by with confident strides toward the table.

"Glad I decided to skip the tie," she noted, as she slipped into the chair across from Atton and set her purse on the table as she did. "I'd hate to have felt overdressed."

She settled into her chair with a prim little shake of her shoulders and a posture and grin that suggested she was currently feeling way too proud of herself.

"Cute shirt," she added. "What, is that a band or something?"

[suitably_heroic]

Atton saw her come in, watched that whole routine, and found himself having to use every last bit of that famed Sith-born 'very good at playing a role in public' skillset just to keep himself from bursting out laughing in the middle of the restaurant.

Nice work, Summer. Just... A+ leaning. Leaning so far you just shot it into the stratosphere.

"Or something," he agreed, leaning back further so the chair dipped more. "They don't teach you much at business school, huh?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Out into the stratosphere was one of her favorite places to be, after all.

But the reaction pulled a little more out of that pleased, preening smirk, and she took a moment to wave her newly French manicured nails sweetly at a waitress so that she could get herself a mimosa before her attention shifted over toward Atton again. "I only took, like, one semester at a community college back home," she pointed out, "so no, actually. All of my business acumen," those nails were now spread against her chest, "I got through experience."

A little bit of the haughty attitude dropped enough to put a genuine warmth in her smile and the tilt of her head. "Also, hi. It's good to see you."

[suitably_heroic]

"You know, I was prepared for a lot, and you still outshot my expectations." Look at her nails! Disgusting.

But deeply funny in context.

"But hi," he added. "Thanks for taking my casual 'hey, we should talk about that' and just leapfrogging over the portal divide, it's great for my self-esteem."

Translation: awww, Summer.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Oh, please," said Summer, with the verbal equivalent of an eyeroll, "like I ever need prodding to go portal hopping. And, besides, I'm sure your self-esteem could use all the help it can get."

She knew hers sure did!

"But you're welcome." She went all prim and proper again while fiddling with a menu. "Any other exciting life updates before we go plunging into brass tacks?"

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shrugged one shoulder. "Depends on how you define 'exciting'," he said, taking a sip of his juice.

He had... slightly less of a desperate grip on all personal details about his NYC life with Summer than he did with Lana, if simply because he'd actively pestered Summer about them before (because, it once again had to be noted, Summer was one of the few women in his life he didn't find too intimidatingly perfect to talk to about that kind of thing). But this whole openness thing was still kind of difficult and new, okay? Okay.

"We're taking things slow and it hasn't blown up in my face yet," he added, almost grudgingly, "Which, by my standards, is gold-star exceptional. But that's about it."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Real slow, yeah, if nothing's," and yes there was salacious emphasis on that, with her mimosa arriving just in time for her to quickly thank tge server and lift it to better emphasize the wiggle of her brows before taking a sip, "blown up in your face yet. But that's good. Slow and steady, blah blah race, right?

"And how's everything on the bans side?"

Which worked nicely as a way to get quick tabs on everyone else while also opening it up well for a potential segue into the pretense for why they were here.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton rolled his eyes, which was probably the best answer he could give here that didn't get into thorny subject matter. (He had had to get into thorny subject matter with someone over this already. That was enough for one lifetime.)

"Really good," he said. "I mean, we've been focusing on finishing the songs and not, like, getting in a lot of live time. Been spending some time with Jill. She wants to get even weirder with the drums, and I'm honestly here for it? Trent is... Trent. I think he's back with his girlfriend or something, because he's like, five percent less weird right now. And we've been having the big 'okay so we should probably pick something better than a half-assed cover band name' conversations..."

He shrugged.

"But how's things on your end, before we get up into that stuff?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer's brows lifted a little. "Where are you guys leaning on with a name right now?" she asked, because that was actually really important to pretty much everything else and she'd realized it felt like a bit of an oversight on her part that she wasn't even entirely sure what the band she was going to be marketing was even called.

"And I'm fine," she said, in the sort of tone that suggested that band names actually were the more interesting topic there and, oof, that was a little depressing, huh? Maybe she needed to go find a planet with some creepy evil overlord that needed to be blown up somewhere soon. "I might be going to Ireland for my birthday?" She shrugged. "We'll see if Stark actually manages to stop waffling about it and follows through. He's making progress, but, like, the clock is ticking now. Which also leaves me wondering if, like, I should do something for it? But I"m kind of over the whole , ohmygoooood, it's my birthday, I have to have a party thing, especially if I"m planning it myself. Like, who's got the time? But if anyone else wanted to throw something my way, I will happily ride on the coattails of their efforts."

[suitably_heroic]

The band had a name. It was just-- one of those 'well, it's not like we're playing anything but covers ANYWAY' names that hadn't bothered anyone until they'd started getting serious, and well, serious names... "The others kinda want to lean into the 'our lead singer is from space' of it all," Atton muttered. "Maybe something halfway ironic like 'Knights of the Republic', or something, if nobody out here takes it as a dog whistle."

You know, Summer was right. Band names were a much more interesting topic than Stark. Especially like if, after the last time you'd raised anything about him, you'd gotten the sense that maybe it wasn't a topic your honest thoughts were the best thing to raise on, and maybe you were trying to be good and not bring it up again, and...

"I mean, you're also welcome here if you want and he falls through," he settled on. "I'll find you a karaoke bar that's full-tilt girl power, you know, the kind of place that does pink drinks, have some extremely weird mac and cheese in this wacky basement place I know, and drop you off at some insanely expensive spa in the morning."

[somethingwithturquoise]

The fact that the look on Summer's face instantly scrunched up at that name drop was a good indication that Atton's thoughts at the end there were right on target.

"Yeah, no," she said, "do not do KotR, that sounds super fach-y, and I love you and support everything you're doing, baby, but I am not wading through that firestorm if I can avoid it. Besides..."

Her head tilted as she looked across the table at Atton more frankly.

"Isn't the whole point of all this to help you put all of that life behind you? Seems a little cointutlitive to go dredge it up in the band name..."

Then her brows furrowed a little more thoughtfully as she sipped her drink.

"And also that sounds way cooler than Ireland..."

But also she could do stuff like that on any weekend? But, like, not for her birthday. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to see how many boxes she could conceivably stack into a weekend, and then shook her head.

"Whatever, " she said dismissively. "I have time to figure something out."

[suitably_heroic]

"It's still a part of me," Atton pointed out. "I mean, at first I tried to talk them out of that for, you know, that reason, but I've been talking to Lana a lot, and..." He shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe I shouldn't dump the baby out with the bathwater, you know? A space name might be a nice nod. And a way to set us apart a little, even if every one-word thing from 'Astro' to 'Cosmonauts' is already taken."

He set down his glass and eyed the fancy menu for all of a second.

"Anyway, when's your birthday exactly?" he said. "I'll put a big 'do cool New York things for Summer's birthday' on the calendar in pencil."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Lana," said Summer, a bit pointedly and on the edge of a sigh she wasn't quite jumping off of yet, "who is, no shade to her, of course, still an inherent part of that toxic system..."

And, look. She knew a good amount of you Force fuckers and had yet to encounter any of you that didn't seem to be at least a little brain damaged because of it.

"Besides," she added, pulling herself importantly to shove her own personal opinions there aside for a more professional outlook, "if you're not careful, it can just come off gimmicky and then you're shoehorned into being just 'that space band.' Subtle and clever enough, and it might work, but also, like, literally a whole whooping one of you has a connection to space. There's three whole ass other people in the band, and it would probably land better if the name was something connected to all four of you, you know?"

She sipped.

"From a marketing perspective. And it's June 19th. Which is a Wednesday, so I'm already thinking I could squeeze in cool New York thing on Thursday and leave plenty more room for an Irish weekend."

[suitably_heroic]

"Thursday it is," said Atton, and not any of the other stuff he was thinking about how a weekend in Ireland with that guy sounded like torture so he was going to try and do his best to make the Thursday worthwhile, at least, and then waved the menu at one of the servers.

"Strictly speaking all four of us," he continued, "mostly just have in common that we're a bunch of weirdos who live in New York who started doing this for fun and then accidentally tripped over our own asses into wanting to take it seriously." Beat. "And we like metal."

Another moment, and: "And Lana's kind of got her own thing going on, actually."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Cool," said Summer, "good for her. Fucking slay, queen. Still not immune to Force brain rot, though."

Good luck getting her to budge on that one when she's literally just got fucking pancakes branded into her skin.

"And you should lean into that, then," she said. "It's much more relatable. Or I don't know, find a way to work all of your weird quirks into it. A name that resonates for the whole band, not just the spaceman."

[suitably_heroic]

"Don't worry, I'm not going to feel a weird Force rot tingle in my brain and head back out there," Atton sighed. "It's too nice right where I am. And look, I'll get back to you on a name by next week, all right? We'll just deadline this one."

She was giving him ideas, damn it, but he didn't want to jump the gun and blurt one out when he hadn't gotten to talk to the rest yet...

[somethingwithturquoise]

"It being nice right where you are is part of the reason I'm worried about you keeping too much space stuff around like a security blanket against complacency," Summer pointed out, with a look, because she knew the type, okay?

"But yeah, no, take your time. No need to rush into a name, it's pretty important. I mean, sure, you can always just change it, but that means lost effort on my part. Though a well-timed rebrand could also be an effective jumping off point too."

[suitably_heroic]

"I don't have chronic hero syndrome like some of those people, okay?" Atton sighed. "I have chronic-- loyalty and guilt issues. Totally different situation. I've got people here to stay alive for."

The server came over. He ordered something stupid expensive without barely a second glance at the menu.

"Speaking of whom," he said, "When this thing is done we can't just dump it on the internet and hope for the best, which is why I wanted to, you know. Get some advice, at the very least."

And possibly a way to circumvent Trent's TikTok aversion...

[somethingwithturquoise]

Which was funny,because her strategy absolutely involved a solid TikTok element. Sorry 'bout it, Trent!

Summer was sending a faintly smirking look over the table to let Atton know just how saved by the server he was to keep her further commentary on the matter in check while he ordered. Her own order was,of course, an incredibly specific and complicated and referential sort of monster, with plenty of questions asked and answered with a sort of "oh, yes, thank you, that's perfect" or a "oh, no, that's totally fine, can we do this instead then?" vibe depending on the answer, ending with a very sweet "thank you, you're the best!"

And then her attention honed back in on the matter at hand with a, "Well, yeah. You've got to curate that shit. Do you know when everything will be ready? Will you have some files to send me so I can get a good idea of what we're working with?"

[suitably_heroic]

And here Atton wanted to voice some surprise she was being so take-charge and deep into the weeds about it right off the bat, but before he did so he realized he'd be lying, because he'd met Summer. "We'll finish recording sometime in the next couple of days, just because the studio isn't cheap," he said. "Then we're taking it all home to mix, so... maybe at the end of next week?"

He took his orange juice back into a slump with him.

"I think it's good stuff, so far," he said. "Obviously if it was just me and Jill doing it it'd be straight up glorious trash, prog noise that I wouldn't dream of sending your way, but..."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"....but it's not just you and Jill," Summer finished with a grin,"so it's actually somewhat fit for normal consumption. End of next week sounds great. And actually? If I send a little extra money your way for the studio space, can you and Jill actually record exactly that glorious prog rock trash my way anyway?"

[suitably_heroic]

Atton laughed. "Maybe in a couple months," he said. "I got us a permanent practice space with some of the money I saved up from Fandom, me and her have been hashing a few fun things out."

Feeling inspired was so weird.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Phone recording's fine for now, too!" Summer said. "I was thinking potential good bonus/leaked track material further down the line, but more immediately? One of the new guys has decided that the front of my store is the perfect place for his weird little EDM mid-day dance raves, and I just kind of wanted to see what would happen if I just blasted him with something like that one of these days."

[suitably_heroic]

"Sounds like an asshole," Atton said, tilting his head. "... Deal. We'll rustle something up."

He thought about it. Technically speaking he didn't play any kind of string instrument to record that with, so unless they roped Dane into it...

"If all else fails, I can also just send you some Meshuggah. If there's anything that can scramble some rave kid's brains..."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I look forward to seeing where this may take us then," said Summer, snorting a laugh, "either way. So thanks for that. You guys been doing any shows? Or just focusing on the recording at the moment?"

[suitably_heroic]

"We've got a couple of cover shows planned over the next few weeks," Atton said. "Just to keep our muscle memory in place."

He glanced over towards the kitchen, where someone seemed to be having a hell of a time working on what appeared to be Summer's order.

"Kind of looking forward to having the original stuff in the can so we have an excuse to perform that."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Well, it's not just good for muscle memory, either," Summer pointed out, following Atton's gaze a little and having the decency to look a little sheepish, but, in her defense, it was part of the whole vibe, and it was a pretty simple order when you stripped it down, it was just cloaked in multiple layers of pretentious buzzwords.

(Omg metaphore!)

"Feet on the ground means word of mouth. What kind of places you playing at?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Mostly just a couple of our regular bars and clubs, here and in Jersey," Atton admitted. "But we did get one gig up at some small festival just out of town. Thought it'd be fun to do something new for a change."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Yeeeeessss," Summer said, eyes brightening before the word festival had even finished leaving his mouth. "Festivals are a great route, especially if you're slotted mid-day before all the big acts and people are just willing to listen to anything while they're biding time. When's that one? I might want to check that out myself."

[suitably_heroic]

"Sometime in early July, I think?" Atton said, tilting his head. "You know. Height of summer season, bring a bucket of sunscreen?"

He shrugged. "Didn't realize there were that many places a new-ish band can just kind of... slot in to fill some time in those things. We've done band nights, obviously, but this feels like slightly-- more?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Perfect opportunity to price gouge on bottles of water," Summer mused, with a starry sort 'praise capitalism' look of wonderment that her current get-up practically required as an accessory, then she smirked. "But, yeah, no, great way to catch some unsuspecting ears. Some of those festivals pull in major numbers. I'll try to keep my schede open for it. It's been a while since I hit one, anyway."

[suitably_heroic]

"You just like having the excuse to hit up a less depressing city than Baltimore," Atton joked.

Because it was genuinely nice Summer was investing that much time and interest in his dumb little band project, but saying so aloud would be, like, weird.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Please," said Summer, without missing a beat and with a pat-ten-ted roll of her eyes, "like I even need an excuse. But..." Here, she gave a lopsided grin. "It's still nice to have one, anyway."