afflatus

SARVIA: Teddy Price agreed to help Daisy make an album. The problem? Daisy's songs weren't where they needed to be and her writing process took a while.

Hearing commotion from Daisy's room, Simone and Sarvia, who were together in the living room, hurried to Daisy's room.

"Ugh!" Daisy faceplanted onto her bed.

"Oh, my God, what are you doing?" Simone questioned.

"Writing," Daisy answered.

Sarvia shrugged. "It's her process."

"Okay," Simone replied, slightly uncertain, then the phone rang. "You gonna get that?"

"Ugh!" Daisy complained as she got up to answer the phone. "Hello? Yeah. Uh..."

"Me?" Simone wondered.

"Somebody named Lee Parlin."

"You sure?"

"She's not here."

"Shh..." Simone ran over.

"She's... Here she is," Daisy chuckled as she handed over the phone.

"This is Simone." There was a clatter on the other end, then Simone smiled big. "I can be there in an hour. See 'ya there."

"Ooh, where are going?" Sarvia asked as Simone hung up.

"Ladies, we're going to party!" Simone informed the other two.

It was a mad dash to get ready and out the door, but the three women somehow did it. As soon as they arrived, they all got drinks, fresh cigarettes, and for Sarvia and Daisy, a couple of pills.

"And then I was supposed to do just the chorus, but it was going so well, he said, 'Well, would you do the whole song?' He said I had a one-of-a-kind sound," Simone told them.

"Well, he's right," Daisy agreed.

Sarvia nodded and took a sip of her drink. "Simone, your voice is unmatched."

"And that we should do big, big, big things together. That's-that's what he said," Simone continued.

"Of course he did. Because you're a star. Teddy said this was gonna happen, he said it's only a matter of time..." Daisy paused, noticing Simone was looking at someone.

"Sorry," Simone apologized. "What were you saying?"

"Go talk to her," Daisy encouraged.

"She's been giving you the eyes for like ten minutes," Sarvia added, then grabbed Daisy's hand. "Daisy and I are gonna go dance. You talk to that girl."

Sarvia and Daisy strolled away, hand-in-hand, leaving Simone no other option than to talk to Bernice, the woman she couldn't stop looking at. While the two were dancing, their eyes kept going over to Simone and Bernice, who looked like they were having a good conversation.

SIMONE: It's a powerful thing when someone comes along and just...sees right through you.

SARVIA: Simone and Bernice were made for each other. Bernice brought Simone out of her comfort zone.

Suddenly, Daisy stopped dancing, her attention caught by a man across the room. Without warning, Daisy charged over to him, Sarvia following, confused.

"Damn, girl, look at you," Wyatt noticed Daisy. "How long has it been?"

"Daisy Jones," Daisy introduced herself to the girl with Wyatt.

"You know, back when I met you, your name was... your name was Margaret."

"And you'd never had a number one record."

"Yeah."

"You know, you could at least say thank you."

"Thank you? Thank you for what?"

"Thank you for the song you stole from her?" Sarvia supplied as the two women started walking away.

Although, Daisy wasn't finished. She turned back around and shoved Wyatt into the pool. Then, she started singing the very song he stole from her.

♪ She's all around your head ♪

♪ And she's dancing in the corners of your mind ♪

♪ Stumbled on sublime till you can't speak ♪

"Fuck you dickhead," Sarvia insulted the man in the pool one last time before pulling Daisy away, the two dying of laughter.

DAISY: I mean, sure, a normal person probably would have let that go.

SARVIA: The ass had it coming. You don't steal someone's song without repercussions. 

* * *

SARVIA: When Simone got home that night, I knew something was off with her. Daisy did, too.

Daisy had ended up asking Sarvia to help with her songwriting. The two hadn't done it in a while, but they decided it could only do good. They sat on the living room floor, Daisy strumming her guitar and the two singing lightly.

Simone came with a strange look on her face. "Sounds nice."

Daisy paused. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Simone assured. "Yeah."

"Okay," Daisy accepted, then went back to playing.

As Simone left, Sarvia was still unsettled. "She didn't look okay. Did something happen at the studio? Like..."

Sarvia had an idea of what happened. While Teddy was a great producer and Sound City was great, there were still some shitty guys working there.

SARVIA: It had happened to me before. I was sixteen the first time and smacked the guy across the face. Everyone knew not to pull that shit with me. The second time I was twenty and it was the new guy. Nobody had told him and he went home with a black eye and no job.

* * *

DAISY: I was lost. Sarvia helped me write, but I couldn't make ten songs in a week. Then, Teddy made me an offer. He wanted me to join a band, and rework some of their lyrics.

SARVIA: I knew very little of The Six. The only stuff I knew about the band was that the lead singer had cheated on his pregnant wife on their first tour. I heard that from this girl I was seeing at the time. She was one of their groupies.

KAREN SIRKO (keyboardist, The Six): Next thing you know, we're booked in the studio.

WARREN ROJAS (drummer, The Six): Teddy thought a female vocalist might give us an edge.

KAREN: Someone new that he was working with.

EDDIE ROUNDTREE (bassist, The Six): We'd never heard of her then. I mean, no one had.

GRAHAM DUNNE (lead guitar, The Six): Billy... wasn't thrilled.

As expected, Sarvia accompanied Daisy to meet The Six in the studio. She had assisted Daisy in changing up the lyrics to The Six's original song, which, no offense, wasn't great.

"Hi," Daisy greeted the room, Sarvia following after her.

"Daisy Jones, Billy Dunne," Teddy introduced them. "And Sarvia Noor, who will not be joining your band."

KAREN: I couldn't believe Sarvia Noor had just walked in.

EDDIE: We'd seen her a lot around the strip. She was like royalty.

Sarvia smiled. "I have to be here for Daisy's first day. What kind of friend would I be if I missed this?"

"I like your song," Daisy complimented Billy, who looked like he really didn't want her there.

"Daisy, you are gonna go right here, and Tobias will set you up," Teddy instructed.

"Great. Could I have a glass of milk and a whiskey?" Daisy requested. "Or just a whiskey, if you don't have milk. Or just a milk if you don't have whiskey."

"Make that two," Sarvia agreed, taking a seat.

"So happy to see you, Daisy," Karen told her. 

"Yeah. Thank you for having me," Daisy appreciated.

"You're welcome," Graham replied.

"Hey, is it true your band, like, almost broke up because your lead singer cheated on his wife when you guys were on tour?" Sarvia wondered, casually taking a drag of her cigarette.

The band exchanged panicked glances, but they were finally saved when Billy walked back into the room. "Okay, let's do this." The rest of the group left the room while Daisy and Billy got ready. "Did you want to talk through the song first?"

"Oh, I'm fine, unless you have something that you want to..." Daisy denied.

"No, I'm fine."

"Okay."

Tobias, one of the guys at Sound City, went into the room and put down Daisy's drinks. "There. Prost."

Daisy smiled. "Thank you."

"And, um, yes, your volume will be right there."

"Okay. This one?"

"Yes. Correct."

"And Billy's on channel two."

"One. Okay, hello. Oh, wow. Okay. Hello? Hello? That's a little bit loud."

"What, has she never recorded before?" Graham realized.

"Never once in her life," Sarvia confirmed.

Warren sighed. "She's about to."

"Hello? Hello? Hello?" Daisy tested her mic. "Could we turn these off, or lower them a little? They're..."

"Yeah, where are her pants?" Eddie noticed the fact that Daisy had decided to skip pants that day.

"Who cares?" Warren replied.

"Let me remind you Daisy's my dearest friend and you guys could get dropped from this label faster than a dead fly," Sarvia threatened them, her tone light.

Teddy pressed a button. "Okay, Billy, can we give us a level, please?"

Billy sang one line.

♪ I don't know who I am ♪

"Okay, that's good. And Daisy?"

Now, Daisy.

♪ Baby, baby, baby ♪

"Okay, let's get this started. This is 'Honeycomb,' take one."

Daisy, who had never recorded a song in her life, was clearly a bit nervous, while Billy, who had done this before, was perfectly fine.

♪ I don't know who I am ♪

Daisy took off her headphones and tapped Billy on the arm. "What? What?"

"Do we need the... Do we need the audience?" Daisy gestured to the group watching them.

"You mean the band?" Billy clarified.

Eddie frowned. "Is she talking about us?"

"It's our song," Warren pointed out.

"Right," Eddie agreed.

"They're just kind of looking right at me," Daisy explained to Billy.

"Let's just, um, give her some space, don't you think?" Karen suggested. "Do you want to go and talk to Deb?"

"Debbie's working today?" Warren perked up. "Oh, shit."

The guys quickly left, leaving Karen and Sarvia. Karen, the genius she is, closed and locked the door before the guys could get back in.

Sarvia nudged Karen. "That was smart. I like you..."

"Karen," Karen supplied.

"You're cool, Karen," Sarvia complimented her.

"Okay. 'Honeycomb,' take two," Teddy started the music.

♪ I don't know who I am ♪

♪ Baby, baby, baby ♪

♪ Do you know who you are? ♪

♪ Is it out of our hands? ♪

♪ Tell me, tell me, tell me ♪

♪ How we made it this far ♪

♪ Did we unravel a long time ago? ♪

♪ Is there too much we don't wanna know? ♪

♪ I wish it was easy, but it isn't so ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ I know we can get it all back ♪

♪ Make a good thing bad ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ I know we can get it all ♪

♪ We can make a good thing ♪

♪ Back ♪

♪ Bad ♪

Billy stopped singing and took his headphones off. "Can we stop? Those aren't the lyrics that you're, uh, singing. Uh, d-do you need me to write 'em down? Can you... can I grab a pen?"

"I mean, I know what the lyrics are," Daisy informed him.

"Well, then, why aren't you singing them?"

"I am singing them." Daisy gave Billy her songbook, then looked at Teddy. "You didn't see this? He didn't get this?"

"What the fuck is this, Teddy?" Billy questioned, appalled that his lyrics were being changed.

'Billy, why don't we give her version a go and just see how it sings?" Teddy tried to remedy the situation.

"Her version's like a completely different song, Teddy," Billy mentioned.

"Can I ask you a question?" Daisy interjected. "What do you think the song's about?"

"What do I think the song is about? What, the song that I wrote?"

"Yeah, what is the song about?"

"What do I think the song that I wrote is about? It's about starting a new life, Daisy. It's about redemption."

"Redemption from... from what?"

"From letting people down."

"So, guilt," Daisy summarized. "It's about guilt."

"No, it's not about guilt," Billy denied.

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to pry or anything. I'm just trying to, you know, get us on the same page and understand the story better so that I can help, which is... I think that's why I'm here. I'm assuming it's about you? Okay. So you let somebody down. Right? And now you're-you're saying, you know, everything's fine. Look at us now, everything's in the past..."

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Billy interrupted.

"I don't believe it. And it doesn't sound... honest. And it sounds simple. And I don't know you very well. But you don't seem simple to me."

"Well, thank you."

"Also, why did you call it 'Honeycomb'? You know that that-that's a Ricky Nelson song, right?"

"Is she always like this?" Karen wondered.

"Yup," Sarvia confirmed. "I'm the same way. I mean, who do you think helped her change the lyrics to 'Honeycomb?'"

"If you don't like this song, why are you here?" Billy challenged.

"Oh, I love this song," Daisy assured. "I love it. I think it's a beautiful song. It's just that you, you-you wrote a speech, Billy, when, at the very least, I think it can be a conversation."

Frustrated, Billy stormed out of the studio.

Sarvia sighed. "This seems like a good time to go get a drink."

Here's the thing, Sarvia intended to get a drink and come back. What she didn't expect was Allan Bunker, another singer, to be in the kitchen. The two got carried away in conversation and, over an hour later, Sarvia left with a cup full of straight vodka, Allan Bunker's phone number, and a date planned for next week.

SARVIA: Allan Bunker is good in bed. I don't have any regrets.

When she finally returned, it seemed that Daisy and Billy had finally worked their shit out.

♪ Oh ♪

♪ How did we get here? ♪

♪ How do we get out? ♪

♪ We used to be something to see ♪

♪ Oh, baby, look at us now ♪

♪ Baby, look at us now ♪

♪ This thing we've been doing ain't working out ♪

♪ Why can't you just admit it to me? ♪

♪ Oh, baby, look at us now ♪

♪ Baby, look at us now ♪

♪ This thing we've been doing ♪

♪ Ain't working out ♪

♪ Why can't you just admit it to me? ♪

♪ Oh, baby, look at us now ♪

♪ Baby, look at us now ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ We could make a good thing bad ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ We could make a good thing bad ♪

♪ Now where do we stand? ♪

♪ Baby, baby, baby... ♪

♪ And if this was your plan ♪

♪ Tell me, tell me why ♪

♪ You've been crying in the dark ♪

BILLY DUNNE (lead singer, The Six): Come to think of it, we never did do my version.