Work Text:
Cardi's Difficult Day in Peoria
A light snow falls outside the Peoria Civic Center, as fans dressed in robes, rosaries, and face paint line up by the doors. It’s about time for them to be let inside, while the Clergy works hard on the final preparations for the ritual. Everyone has a clear set of directions for what they’re supposed to do… except for one.
“Work, work, work, everyone! It is almost showtime!”
Frater Imperator, who would prefer to be known as Cardi, is “overseeing” the crew backstage. Following his promotion, not being part of the band leaves no real purpose for Cardi to follow the tour around. He’s insisted, however, that he comes along to monitor the crew’s performance. So far on the tour, that’s consisted of asking the crew to hook his ancient computer up for him to post on Reddit with, and occasionally wandering around and telling everyone to work.
“Keep it up, everyone! Just 90 minutes until the show starts! Everything must be perfect for the ghouls, ghoulettes, and… right! The ghouls and ghoulettes!”
He hasn’t acknowledged V by name once on the tour, nor does he have any plan to.
“Yes, the stage, the mixing, it all must be perfect for them, so they can entertain all these fine folks in Peoria. That’s where we are, right? Peoria? What on earth is ‘Peoria’? Is this a real city?”
A long-time crew member looks up from his notes.
“Boss, you’ve performed in Peoria before. Twice. You don’t remember?”
“W-Well, I’m a busy man! Look how busy I’m being! Now, back to your work!”
Cardi sounds more confused than angry, as he twiddles his thumbs and wanders away from his desk.
“Did I really forget I’ve played in ‘Peoria’ before? No, no, it must have been called something else in the past, I… ugh. I should go clear my mind a bit… maybe revisiting some old companions could help! Yes! I will go do that!”
Cardi hurries out of the room, telling everyone to keep up the good work as he leaves, and looks for the ghouls and ghoulettes’ break room they relax in and do whatever it is ghouls do before a show. Sure enough, after having to hurry past the door to V’s dressing room and thanking Satan it didn’t open, he finds the break room and knocks.
“Hmm, don’t hear anything… well, I am their boss, no harm checking in on what they’re up to!”
Feeling giddy thinking about his many performances with the ghouls, Cardi opens the door.
“Hello, hello, everyone! Long time, no see! I-”
Before Cardi can say more, he’s distracted by the sight of Rain, Dewdrop, and Phantom sharing an intimate cuddle on the couch. The rest of the ghouls and ghoulettes turn their heads towards Cardi, then the love triangle, and then Cardi again; given Cardi’s not very secret disdain of his brother, they hadn’t thought he’d want to risk being around the rest of the band.
“Ah. I, um, seem to be interrupting something important.”
Rain, with a ghoul in each arm, is the first to be snapped out of his cuddle-filled lull, looking from the couch towards his boss and former bandmate.
“...Hey. Glad to see the promotion’s gone well. We’d be happy to catch up, but… yeah. Gotta be later, we’re busy.”
Phantom pipes in. “Yeah. Busy.”
Dewdrop does the same. “As busy as can be.”
Cardi understands the three wanting privacy, but would also like to catch up and get the ghouls motivated before the show.
“...Just a few minutes? I’m sure we could-”
“V’s coming soon.”
“Okay, goodbye!”
Cardi shuts the door and hurries back to the production area, not needing any further encouragement. He hopes they weren’t lying to him, but he does remember giving the ghouls a pep talk about an hour before each show when he was Papa.
“V’s stealing my traditions, too? What a thief…”
Not taking the time to consider how motivating the ghouls would be a smart thing for any Papa to do, Cardi goes back to Reddit posting about V, doing his best without the V button he’d ripped out of his keyboard last year. Eventually, the show begins, and given the muffled cheers from across the walls, it sounds like the crowd’s having a good time. The thought of catching up with the ghouls after the show helps cheer Cardi up some.
It’s not until now that Cardi thinks to look at the setlist. All these greatly important things he’d attended to today, and he hadn’t even thought to look at what the band’s playing tonight?
“What a busy, busy man I am! Alright, let’s see here…”
Noticing a copy of the setlist on the wall, Cardi skims it over.
“Hmmm… not as many of my songs as I would like to see, but I have a good deal of predecessors that need to be honored, too-”
His eyes stop near the bottom of the list.
“...What.”
It’s a Sin is included – the cover Cardi had recorded years ago that was just released a couple weeks ago. The whole point of releasing it was to have the band put something out that didn’t have to do with V, and now…
He reads the set again to be sure he isn’t hallucinating, then notices the song before It’s a Sin just finished. Needing to see for himself what was about to happen, he marches past the curtains to the side stage, despite the crew asking him to stop. Standing from afar, he watches V gleefully talking to the audience.
“Did everyone listen to the cover we put out not long ago? It was recorded by my dear brother!”
It’s followed by a loud cheer; Cardi doesn’t know if he should be glad he’s acknowledged, or enraged he isn’t the one that gets to talk about it. V continues.
“Sounds like many of you did! I’m very proud of him, hope I can meet him someday to tell him that! Anyhoo, why don’t we perform that song for you right now?! And with a fantastic new video, too! Hit it!”
The ghouls jump right into the song, and to make matters worse, the video that plays isn’t even the one Cardi made himself; it’s flashier and has a brand new dance sequence. Cardi had worked so hard on his Windows 95 computer to make his video, and the Clergy won’t even use it on stage? He stands rigid, trying and failing to think of what he could do to get revenge that wouldn’t sabotage the show in the process.
“Fucking V…”