#Which I guess makes this my first pilot program polycule post

[chillinglikeashilling]

Pilot Program Band AU

Some background: I'm still thinking about Meet Me @ The Altar and which of their songs best fit each member of the pilot program, and I just remembered this absolutely fucking stellar reincarnation AU Yu Yu Hakusho fic (Find Me Through Your Reprise by SZFiction) where Kuwabara and Yusuke get together due to Kuwabara making Yusuke mixtapes and introducing him to his favorite music and then ends up being reincarnated as rock star.

So Sam and K stay in touch more thab they did in canon before getting to Gowpenny.

They have their pink pals thing but when K starts leaning away from this they both decide to lean pop punk instead of emo. I'm especially picturing Sam with Edith's (mm@ta) fantastic hair do's from various shows.

They get really into pop punk music and they start writing and playing together online as a way to maintain that closeness. K plays base and Sam does the majority of vocals.

K writes alot of the songs but doesn't like singing because everytime they go to sing they can't stop themselves from leaning into this Disney princess vibe and the entire reason they stopped the pink pals thing was the discomfort that was caused as their magic began to start manifesting. Not enough to be obvious but enough to make K uncomfortable for reasons they're not sure of.

Sam and K are doing covers and posting them to a YT channel K made them. Sam's magic is also starting to manifest at this point, she's magnetic, they're magnetic. Their fanbase doesn't jump to the thousands over night but the fans who find them, who their music resonates with, are locked in.

They both start taking this more seriously and they realize they need a drummer.

Jammer is still doing basketball but he also fucking loves drumming. The feeling of nailing a cover is almost as good as the feeling of winning a game. And sometimes when it feels like he's being pulled in too many directions, he can just put in his earplugs, focus on keeping the beat and let the rest of the world fade away.

One of his teammates shows him a video from K and Sam's YT and it's like a switch flips. There's an instant connection to the two of them, he listens to all their covers and the original stuff they've put out and e-mails them to ask about being their drummer.

Sam and K get this email and watch a video of Jammer playing, and he's really good. Also he seems very chill and I think maybe both of them are a little weary of a guy coming into this thing they created to remain close and not fitting or trying to throw his weight around but even with just the email and the video - there's just something about Jammer that's reassuring. Plus he mentions he has older sisters so the three of them agree to try it out online at first.

Things go pretty well. It's hard making covers from three different cities/states but they manage with the magic of the internet. And things go so well they decide to arrange a meetup so they can record some covers and the new song K just wrote in person.

Another switch flips. Jammer has always been great but there's something about being together, being able to see each other or learning to be comfortable in each other's spaces, and suddenly the synergy is off the charts.

The stuff they filmed/recorded during that one trip is enough to really start to put them on a map and they start booking small shows here and there. Nothing too much because Jammer still has basketball but they can book stuff in the cities he does away games in and that helps.

Evan Kelmp is largely the same lonely, angry, cursed teenager that he is in canon. He still has the shadow, and the fights in gas station parking lots, and the wish that he could just be normal.

And he almost feels normal when he's listening to the music from this band one of the older teens at his last group home introduced him to. They were kind enough to give him their old Zune with a bunch of stuff loaded onto it. Obviously none of the members have his specific brand of issues but their lyrics speak to his lonelines, his self loathing and confusion. The stuff that's still there even when the demons are quiet for once.

Evan gets a text from that same teenager telling him that the band he loves is going to be playing at a show in some local guy's basement and he's almost too afraid to push his luck. Surely actually going to that show will break the illusion that he can have this one thing, but then he goes anyway because how can he not. And it's so good and he gets to actually talk to them after the set and say how much their music means to him and they're so kind and warm (and the last switch flips).

Anyway a week later all four of them get a letter and a pellet from a weird ass bird, wild.