The World Will Stain Us

Golden Gods

CONTENT WARNING: Mentions of epilepsy.

~~~~~~~~~

Of all the things Jinxx had thought he'd ever see or do, being nominated at a big awards show hosted by Revolver magazine was not one of them.

He wasn't even sure how it had happened. While it was true that they'd done a few small tours behind We Stitch, he didn't think it had been nearly enough to garner the attention of magazines, much less enough attention to be nominated for an awards show. But then Alternative Press had contacted them, and they'd gotten onto the cover―and now here they were a month later, fresh off the AP Tour and with a nomination for "Best New Band" at the Revolver Golden Gods show.

Jinxx couldn't believe how far they'd come in such a short time. They still hadn't even released the single―mostly, at this point, because everyone had gotten so busy there simply wasn't time to film the accompanying video―but somehow their fanbase had grown exponentially, and Jinxx couldn't fathom how that had happened.

None of the others could, either. Jinxx had walked in on Andy incredulously talking to himself about it more than once since the nomination had come; Jake kept pulling the letter they'd gotten out of his pocket and rereading it, as if expecting to see that the words had changed; CC muttered "holy shit" at random moments when he remembered the nomination. It was new and exciting for all of them.

The album had been almost entirely recorded; now they were just waiting on time to finish the last track, and then for the engineers to mix it all and make it sound like the music they knew it was. This would have led to a lot of downtime had they not gone on the AP Tour and been busy planning a touring cycle for the new album. Though it was only April, they'd received an invitation to join Warped Tour that year―something that Andy in particular had been excited about, since he'd been going since they began. After that they were planning on going abroad―or rather, abroad again, because they'd enthusiastically agreed to play that year's Download Festival in the UK, about a month before Warped.

All the new possibilities opening up to them now that they had a major label, a devoted fanbase, and a second album on the way made Jinxx's head spin. It was more than he'd ever dared dream―music as a career had never entirely seemed possible to him, until now.

They recieved the news that they'd won the category only a few nights before the awards show was supposed to take place, and the look on Andy's face as he read the letter was one of mingled shock and amazement.

"We won!" he announced once he'd finished reading. "We won 'Best New Band'!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing in shock. Jinxx set down his book. Jake put down the blood packet he'd just gotten from the fridge. CC actually dropped his drumsticks, as he'd been tapping out the rhythm of "Love Isn't Always Fair" on the coffee table. They all stared at Andy, letting his words sink in. We won. It didn't seem possible. We won. Had their fanbase really been stronger than any of the other nominees? We won. We won.

"Holy shit," CC said, which in Jinxx's opinion accurately described what those two small words meant. Then, again, louder: "Holy SHIT!"

It was as if a dam had broken; all of them started yelling at once in incredulous amazement.

"We won!" Jake sounded like he couldn't quite believe it, but the grin on his face clearly showed how excited he was.

"Holy fuck―is the Army really that big already?" Jinxx couldn't believe it either, knowing he was wearing a grin just as wide as Jake's, stunned by the reality of the news. They won. They won. 

Andy nodded enthusiastically, his endless blue eyes alight with joy. "We're going places, guys. We fucking won! The only rock-and-metal awards show in the country and we fucking won!"