The Necromancer's Stone; The Party, part four

The worst part of party prep was the time it took away from her other projects.  Not all of the time, she still stayed up well into the night reading up on the effects of fluctuations in necromantic alchemy patterns, testing various elements' effects on golem abilities, and trying to summon a skeleton independent enough to stop brushing its teeth when she stopped directly commanding it to.  She was starting to wonder if skeletons simply were never going to pull it off no matter how hard she tried; she'd worn through nine toothbrushes and even the best of them didn't so much as slow down.  Golems were a bit better, most of them would replace the brush once it wore out.  Although without an inherent moral code that often ended up being rather problematic.
So she left them to their brushing and set out to the cacophonous garage valley.  It was easy to find and difficult to ignore, even with her strongest muffling spell.  It had been a stroke of genius on the part of local architects to move all the city's garages outside of town and then provide bus service, and it had really paid off when local students and aspiring bands from a half million worlds had all decided that they needed somewhere to practice.  The result was that local law enforcement had far fewer 'could you turn that racket off?' type calls, and it was never hard to find a local band.  After finals and before the summer the valley was the second most sound polluted region in the universe, after the sonic weapon testing facility on Nuroung, where it was said they'd invented types of sound that could lay dormant for years before going off.
She was here to visit, and secure the cooperation of, a popular local punk band named 'Cast-Off'.  There was a small crowd gathered around the entrance of their garage, and a little neon sign out front that said 'no vacancy'.  How they could hear the band over the sounds of all the other bands in the valley she had no idea, but she did have a sudden curiosity in the cost of buying a stake in the garage rental industry.
Thalia waited for them to stop playing, which she could only determine because they stopped moving their hands over the strings of the guitars and started fiddling with the cords and amps.  She stepped through the crowd and set a second muffling spell into effect over the garage, even though she could still feel the ground throbbing beneath her.
"Good morning, I'm here to invite you to play at the Hapsburg on Junsrew eve."
"Sorry ginger babe, we're booked.  Party at the Hilden place, their daughter came and made the offer herself."
"Yeah, she really made it a sweet gig; if you know what I mean."  The guitarist winked at her.
"Oh, is that what it takes to book you?"  She waved her hand over the garage door and it rolled down, blocking the audience's view.  "Because I assure you that I will make good use of that information in the future."  Thalia reached up and set a hand at the top of her shirt.  The men in front of her tensed up in anticipation.  "Pigs."  She pulled out her checkbook.  "I'll give you her offer plus five hundred, and if you refuse then I'll see to it you never work in this town or any other.  And if you doubt me, then I'll be more than happy to give a demonstration."
"Wait, are you threatening us?"
Well that was disappointing, usually people picked up on her threats a little better.  Maybe they were stupid, but she'd rather her threats were impossible to misconstrue then have to explain herself.  She flicked her hand up and the strings of their instrument detached themselves and wound about their owner's throats.
"Yes, it was a threat.  You have been invited to perform at my party, and be paid for it.  No one, not even my worst enemies, would dare refuse my invitation.  If you fail to perform, you will never perform again; If you fail to show, you will not be given the opportunity to repeat the mistake.  Do I Make Myself Clear?"  With each word of the last sentence she tightened the choke hold on them, drawing blood on the final word.  She'd positioned the strings in such a way as to avoid causing any permanent damage, but the point was now abundantly clear that this was not an invitation, it was a command performance.
"Y-yea, we'll be t-there lady."  Thalia dropped them and returned the strings to their places.  SHe raised the garage door and turned to leave.  As she neared the edge of the muffled zone she stopped and looked over her shoulder.
"Oh, and if I were you I'd get yourselves down to the clinic, Florence Hilden's reputation is," she paused and savored the moment, "less than pure."