Suren was born yr 1955 in Canning Town, where he was raised by his single father - his mother being absent for reasons he never fully got a clear explanation on. The two of them had a tough but very good relationship because at the end of the day it really was just the two of them against the world. Mr. Bischer was a kind and well-meaning man but he didnât always understand his son, refusing to leave it at that, even in his exhaustion you could find him standing in his son's doorway unfastening his tie and prodding his son for more than one word answers and shrugs about his day.
Suren as a child wasâŚrestless to say the least. He had lots of energy buzzing under his skin that when left alone for too long would fester into his nerves. Noticing how antsy his child was growing when untasked with chores and mini jobs, Mr. Bischer tried to redirect that energy into his growing creativity. Around this time Surenâs Uncle, Lloyd, would drift in and out of their lives before eventually becoming semi permanent; he'd usually come home reeking of booze amongst other more concerning things, with his guitar over his shoulder and a crate under his arm. One night after a few of being gone heâd appeared with a duffel bag in hand and asking Mr. Bischer if it was very Christian of him to throw his little brother onto the street, and then he never left again.
Despite his fathers obvious disapproval, Suren adored his uncle, idolized him even. He loved how his uncle played and sang as bad as it was when he was smashed, and would stay up in awe of his late night stories. Lloyd ended up teaching Suren guitar in the least professional way possible but it was enough to light that spark of Madison in him. In theory, his uncle's influence wasâŚhorrible. The drinking, in his fathers words his atheist lifestyle, his fiscal irresponsibility and the fact that he seemed absolutely determined to stumble through adulthood like a stray dog. But seeing what his brother's music was doing for SurenâŚMr. Bischer allowed it to continue.
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By secondary school, Suren still found himself to be fairly shy and a bit awkward, but did his best to take his uncle's advice in faking it until he made it. He joined a small garage band with a few classmates, mostly because there was nothing else heâd want to do with his free timeâŚit was terrible! They were bad. Half of the boys involved treated it like a little something to do for shits and giggles before they had to grow up and get on with their lives, but there was one of them who seemed to be taking it rather seriously. Reginald (later referred to as Rexx Vexx) had the ambition that Surenâs other friends lacked. He was passionate and undeniably better than the rest of them - he was obsessed with music. Heâd sneak out and into clubs underage, slip through venues and come back with stories about performers and whatnot. Most of the others brushed him off but Suren always listened! He was curious, and the more he listened the more he started to long for the spaces he was being told about.
The more Suren listened to Reginald talk about nightlife the more he became aware of how trapped he felt in his ordinary life. School was suffocating him and the future heâd stoke about with his father was starting to feel unbearable if not impossible. Even the band started to feel like it was lacking and eventually it dissolved like most teenage projects do, with some of the boys losing interest and prioritizing work while others pursued university or apprenticeships for more stable futures. The sooner adulthood crept closer the more obvious it became that most of them hadnât really been taking any of this seriously and as their little group fermented off into a million little pieces, Suren and Rexx stayed behind together.Reginald would sneak Suren out and drag him club to club, introducing him to musicians that probably shouldnât have befriended someone so young, and snuck him into slimy crummy venues where theyâd watch performers squished together from wherever they could get a glimpse.
Suren gradually began to change the more he experienced these things, smudged makeup around his eyes, his hair growing out longer, wearing a lot more jewelry than just his usual cruddy bracelets. He liked confusing people! He enjoyed feeling beautiful in ways masculinity back home never really allowed him to explore openly, but his father noticed of course. They fought sometimes, mostly out of fear rather than hatred, Mr. Bischer was worried constantly that Suren was drifting towards a similar lifestyle to the one his younger brother had led⌠but even at their worst his father still loved him, this he promised one night would never change. When Reginald suggested they tag along with some of his older friends of his, join a real band, Suren didnât even try to hide how excited he was. But seventeen wasnât old enough to leave and Nova wasnât the kind of person who could just disappear in the middle of the night, leave his father wondering what heâd done wrong or if his son was even alive, he wasnât Reginald. He was leaving either way, but Mr. Bischer had to knowâŚhe just hoped heâd understand.
The night Suren finally told him heâd run circles around himself trying to justify the cause, the opportunity, the music, oh just everything! Mr. Bischer didnât approveâŚnot really, but he didnât stop him. He stood there listening with his arms crossed until eventually he got tired of Surenâs rambling and asked him if he really thought that âthisâ would make him happy. When Suren said yes, his father was easy to resign, and let him go. With rules, of course! Phone numbers. Conditions. And with the understanding that no matter what happened, as long as he was alive Suren would always have somewhere to come home to.
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By the time satans pestilential was formed Suren and Reginald had been thrown into the culture of underground music neck deep. The band never became truly mainstream, but within the right circles they had a reputation. Small clubs knew them, punk venues knew them. Hell, they really had something going! Suren might have stayed with them, and ridden it all the way until they made it big if he hadnât started to feel like he was disappearing inside itâŚSomewhere along the way, working with real musicians and spending long nights up with Reginald helped him get good, better than good! Heâd been pushing himself harder than ever before with real motivation and real inspiration and it showed.
He had a voice, but no one gave him an opening to use itâŚhe could play guitar more than filler and background, but thatâs where he kept getting placed, and he was too sheepish to push his case. He liked this group! He didnât want to make it a problem. But Reginald sure did, one night he pulled Suren aside and told him flat-out that he was wasting himself there. That they both were in different ways, which Suren originally found pretty cocky. The scene was getting bigger and louder and angrier, which was amazing, but harder to break through, and the two of them would never get their voices and opinions out there if they stayed here. So he pitched Suren something reckless⌠fuck England! Go to the states! New York City! They could reinvent themselves completely, Suren thought the idea was ridiculous. But he would follow Reginald to the ends of the earth at this point so theyâd gone anyway.
Everything was so much faster in New York, but not exactly in the way Reginald and Suren had imagined it to be, but in some ways it was a lot like home. It was louder, and crowded with people desperately trying to become somebody before getting swallowed by the beast that had become the state of the world, the city. Every club theyâd visit was packed with musicians either prettier or stranger than the last, more queers and people of color than Suren thinks heâd encountered in his entire London life, he loved it! The idiots, had arrived with a guitar, a bass, the clothes on their backs and just enough confidence to fuck them over.
Their first weeks were spent bouncing between the cheapest apartments he could find, and crash pads belonging to strangers who usually expected favors in return for letting them stay. Reginald handled most of the talking like he always did, Suren had always admired the way Reggi could snake and charm his way in and out of things with such ease, he himself had fallen victim to his sweet talking a few times over. Suren, meanwhile, was more easily swept away than he ever was at forcing doors open; a lot of the time he worried Reginald had overestimated the both of them completely. New York was overflowing with the talent heâd oh so fallen in love with.
The first time Suren had met Vera heâd been sitting alone at the bar of some downtown venue, waiting for Reginald to come back from where he was trying to charm one of the owners into slipping them into their lineup. Suren had been left to guard their jackets, guitars and whatever last scraps of dignity they had left when Vera slid into the stool beside him, immediately trying to poach a drink off of him only to clock him as catastrophically broke when he tried to claim Reginald had his wallet. He nearly died of embarrassment only for her to cut him off and offer to cover his tab if he was willing to entertain her. He took this as flirting which he had no problems with, she was a helluva lot taller than he was but I meanâŚthat wasnât an issue. But she wanted a performance!
He played for her right by the bar between performances, a bit of what heâd done for a Satan's Pestilential song but eventually heâd boasted his way into showing her some of his current compositions he was in the process of making for himself and Reginald. She didnât seem impressed at first which had made him really nervous. If he couldnât impress one girl, how was he going to impress others enough to get their word out? But then she gave him some good corrective advice, even going as far to call his progression cowardly. Later sheâd take his guitar and show him some alternatives that wereâŚin fact better. She didnât explain theory or technique much either, she just seemed to know what he was lacking, which heâd never understand..
Vera had swept him off his feet - basically - grabbing him by his wrist and leading him out of the bar with no regard for Reginald or separating the two. She was wonderful! And the most alive heâd felt since arriving in America, sheâd laugh and drag him from club to club, rarely sitting in one place for too long. New York at night appeared to bend itself around her, people knew her everywhere they went, venue owners, bartenders, addicts, artists, drifters⌠Some were easily entranced by her while others would stare in wide berths as if she were a phantom returning from hell to tear down the place. Wherever sheâd take him there was always music, and movement, and booze and drugs he hadnât even noticed.
Heâd only met her once for maybe a week, sheâd appear out of nowhere and show him illegal warehouse gigs, and bars hidden beneath laundromats. Sometimes she disappeared with strangers for an hour only to reappear with blood under her red chipped nails which he often pretended not to notice, assuming the complete opposite of what she had probably done. One thing he did notice however was how Vera moved through the world with terrifying certainty, she knew exactly who she was and never once apologized for taking up space. Compared to her, Suren felt painfully unfinished.
When she found out he and Reginald had nowhere to stay, Vera casually dropped them off at an abandoned flat she and âthe girlsâ had apparently squatted in previously. The place barely had power outside of an old generator rigged together in one room, but to Suren and Reginald it felt like a goddamn castle. Then Vera vanished completely for nearly a week without warning. Suren spent those days restless and irritated with himself for caring so much while Reginald seemed grateful for her but much less wounded, even getting upset with suren for keeping an eye out for her.
Come her week up, Vera came crashing back into Suren the same way she had the first time, seeming a bit more frazzled but she stayed longer. She stayed with the boys for a while, locking herself away in one of the rooms during the day and threatening bodily harm if either of them dared to wake her before sunset. Suren once made the mistake of knocking to ask if she wanted a bite and sheâd nearly bit his head off (metaphorically speaking). But when night came, so did Vera! Sheâd come from her room dressed for clubs and concerts and went right back to tugging them into impossible evenings. Her and Suren started staying up for horrifying stretches of time together, writing music while Reggi slept, Vera pushed him constantly. She ripped apart his lyrics, mocked his hesitation, and accused him of hiding behind irony instead of honesty which she clearly couldnât stand. She was cruel, in odd and concerning ways but he hadnât found a liar in her yet. On the occasion she praised something, Suren practically preened beneath it, it was addictive even the backhanded ones.
Reginald hated watching them together. At first his frustrations had come from a state of practicality, Vera was clearly unstable and often unreliable, sheâd drag Suren around into danger more often than not and never apologized for doing so. This resentment started growing the longer they stayed within each other's spaces because Reggi had noticed how she was influencing his mate. He was more confident outwardly, dressing louder, his writing had improved, he was more for taking risks than he ever had been before. Vera was challenging Suren in a way Reginald never could. Reggi had introduced Suren to the scene, had dragged him to New York believing in him before anybody else did, yet somehow Vera became the person Suren started creating for. Reggi saw the dependency forming long before Suren did. Meanwhile Suren convinced himself Reginald was simply jealous that Vera preferred him. She never showed much overt affection toward either of them, but she gravitated toward Suren in conversation naturally while treating Reggi more like a two for the price of one extra.
By then Reginald had started performing under the name Rexx Vexx, leaning harder into a larger than life persona both on and off stage. Suren followed suit, piecing together âSuâNova Bischâ (sunnova bitch) from bits of his first and middle names as a joke at some of the accents heâd picked up here and there. The two only used those names with each other unless they were fighting. Vera, however, refused to respect either alias. She continued calling them Reginald and Suren which always made them feel a bit silly.
Things began to change for them! Their names started circulating through smaller clubs, Somebody played one of their recordings on local radio late at night, and theyâd gained tiny crowds of regulars who showed up specifically for them. Then, right when it seemed Vera had truly settled into their lives, she vanished againâŚwhich absolutely crushed Nova. He and Rexx continued on as a duo for a while, but the absence she left behind lingered everywhere. Then a month or two later Vera returned, dragging another disaster behind her in the form of Yozzy Yule.
Nova couldnât tell if he loved Yozzy or was annoyed with him during any of their original interactions, which is how he imagined most people felt about him. Yoz was loud and flamboyantâŚvery bragadocious⌠absolutely convinced he was destined for stardom despite barely being able to pay rent. He often acted like he was already as famous as he strived for and would get offended when people (namely Nova) failed to recognize his supposed importance. Still, the bastard was talented. That was clear, and after hearing that Vera had thought of him and Rexx when she found herself needing to place that talent he would not let it go to waste.
Yozzy attached himself especially hard to Nova. The two shared a love for dramatic makeup, and emotional excess, gradually developing matching stage looks (makeup wise) where Yozzy encouraged Surenâs vanity instead of belittling him for it. Their friendship quickly turned affectionate as they partied together constantly, shared clothes and occasionally crossed physical boundaries without much thought to it. One drunken hookup happened almost by accident somewhere between a coke fueled argument and a three day binge, but afterward both simply shrugged it off and continued on mostly unchanged.
Rexx and Suren grew oddly closer again during this period too, partially because Yozzyâs presence forced them to function more like an actual unit rather than the two idiot teens theyâd left London as. Rexx became increasingly protective over Suren as the scene got rougher around them, the fights between them worsened, sometimes they screamed at each other over money, gigs, Vera, drugs or artistic direction only to sit side by side onstage hours later like nothing had happened.
The fourth time Vera resurfaced she brought Richard Rocco, which nova was less honored about this time around. Heâd had time to sit and fester with the feeling of Vera only coming around to drop off a stray and now sheâd done it again. He worked up the energy to confront her about it only to be shot down. She bluntly informed him that their progress existed because sheâd opened doors for them in the first place, and Suren walked away from the argument feeling humiliated and stupid for ever believing their relationship meant more to her the same way it had for him.
Unfortunately Richard arrived directly in the aftermath of that fight and mistook Suren's hurt for dislike. In reality heâd admired Ricky, heâd brought a professionalism the others lacked completely and his style was cringe captivating. Once Rexx pointed out that Richard believed himself unwanted, Suren made a genuine effort to fix things. Richard is now the keyboardist for their scrappy ass band and has grown the closest to Yozzy out of everyone.
The final major time Vera intervened directly in their career, she handed them something massive. A legendary touring act had abruptly lost their opener after some drug related implosion and Vera somehow - nobody ever figured out how - secured the slot for them. No management, no label pull, no explanation. Suddenly they were performing before crowds ten times larger than anything theyâd ever seen before and absolutely killing it. Labels started circling them, some magazine artists started obsessing over Nova's pirate-ish look as well as a bunch of producers attempting to sniff around.
Vera disappeared again the second the explosion truly started. After that she became more rumor than person, it seems Nova had just been her first of many little projects. She appeared right before careers skyrocketed or collapsed entirely which is how she became almost a myth amongst the music industry, some people swore she was cursed while others considered her a patron saint. Paparazzi photographs of her always came out strangely blurred or distorted no matter the camera and she was never where people expected her to be. Nova spent years trying unsuccessfully to track her down again while the band climbed higher and higher without her to no luck.
Then, years later, after chart success and touring and MTV deals, Nova found himself sitting in some miserable little diner in a nowhere town California after a screaming match with Yozzy over life on the road. He was desperate, and Vera appeared beside him like no time had passed at all. Despite everything heâd become, Suren still immediately felt Nineteen again⌠but Vera always either wants or leaves something when she comes and goes doesnât she?
(He probably didnât expect a 600+ year 6 year old and a one way ticket to the grave but oh well)
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