interstellar5555 | ☆TRACK II: DISCORD AND RHYME

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☆TRACK II: DISCORD AND RHYME

Who: Kidnapped Pride Members
What: Corporate hazing, in the style of themepark murder clowns.
When: October 18th-19th.
Where: A large, empty carnival, apparently.
Warnings: This is basically Saw games for babies.

“Burning the ground, I break from the crowd
I'm on the hunt, I'm after you.
I smell like I sound, I'm lost and I'm found
And I'm hungry like the wolf.”

☆DISCORD AND RHYME

It’s your first free night after a particularly feverish series of performances. It’s a comparatively lazy Sunday evening - one that all of you are obligated to spent in the HQ. Things are normal, at least as normal as they ever are, are you’re free to go to bed early and for once have the luxury in sleeping in tomorrow. At least theoretically.

Whether you go to bed or not, you’ll find yourself drifting off - and then the sound eerie, peculiar music...like the sound of an old music box, with a soft feminine voice singing wordlessly along. You’ll fall asleep, hard, and when you wake up you are somewhere else.

"【Sad and Scary Song】"Come Out And Play"Creepy Music Box】[HD]" (Watch on YouTube)

☆THE SACRIFICES

At first, you wake up in what seems like some kind of boiler room. Some parts of the floor are slick with moisture, and your hands and feet are bound, with your wrists locked to the industrial piping behind you. Regaining consciousness is slow and difficult, as if it wasn't meant to come to you quite yet.

You can hear water and steam flowing through some of the pipes, and the complex is obviously still active with...whatever it's supposed to be doing. But maybe you're just too busy freaking out at your evident kidnapping to think too hard about circumstantial evidence.

You aren't the only one in here. Whether they are awake or unconscious, four other Pride members are bound nearby. Around the side of some of the machinery, you can see the glow of computers, though you can't quite see the screens - there are chairs, though, and a cup of Starbucks that is still steaming. Whoever brought you here is probably still around, and there's no telling how long you have before they return.

(Click here for your top level!)

☆THE CHALLENGERS

You wake up sitting in what appears to be a bumper car of all things - you know, one of those little vehicles you drive around at carnivals to crash into each other? You're sitting in one, and your hand are handcuffed around the bar behind you. Your neck is definitely sore, like you've been sitting like this for a while.

It only takes a moment to realize two things: 1) you actually are in a theme park of some sort, and it's still night time, and 2) you're not alone. At least a dozen other Pride members are handcuffed to the bumper cars around you, all pointed in the direction of an empty stretch of wheel worn floor - like an audience, intended to view a speaker. Whoever brought you here doesn't give you much time to be confused.

They stride into the center of the "stage" like they own the place. They are wearing a hooded coat of a decidedly gothic style, with a hood that shadows their face. When they speak, they sound feminine - almost like the voice you remember putting you to sleep earlier.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen," they say, "to your trial by fire."

(Click here for your top level!)

“Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt, I'm after you.
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I'm hungry like the wolf.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Your captors will return 15-20 minutes later, and once again you'll find yourself losing consciousness. The next time you awaken, you'll be set up as bait in one of the five trials, and your life will appear to be in some extremely imminent danger.

Until then, enjoy your one and only chance to ground yourself.

Edited 2015-10-17 23:43 (UTC)

It's taking a while for his brain to kick into gear enough to process any external stimuli, but eventually Jamie recognizes the smell of coffee. He spends what seems like an eternity trying to get his mouth to function enough to communicate his thoughts, a slurred jumble of syllables that sounds more or less like "Heeeeyyyyy somebodygetmesummathat."

It takes longer still for him to realize that a)no coffee is forthcoming and b)this isn't the penthouse. Slumped over where he's tied, he pries his eyes open and stares blankly at his lap and the hard concrete floor beyond it for a good minute or so before he can formulate another sentence, and this time it is:

"Wha'thehhhhell?"

[It's the sound of his voice that finally wakes Trucy. She blinks in blurry confusion for a moment before she realizes she can't move. And she's not alone. Which doesn't help because they can't move either.

That's when fear finally sets in. Her first attempt at words comes out as more of a squeak. But she takes a shuddering breath and tries again.]

Wha- what is this?!? What's going on?

With monumental effort Jamie swings his head toward the sound of her voice. Everything sort of lags as he does so, like his eyes can't quite keep up with the movement of his body, and Trucy's form is blurry and indistinct for a good few moments. Jamie squints at her, shifting in his bonds.

"Where'dyoucomefrom?" He's starting to come around a little more, but speaking clearly still seems to take more coordination than Jamie has at his disposal right now.

[She tugs at her bonds, testing their strength. No luck. Whoever tied them up did a good job. Struggling to remain calm, she takes a few more deep breaths to clear her head. There has to be an explanation for all this. Whoever did this, they had to have a reason. She's trying her best to organize her thoughts, but her head still feels... blurry. Like it's packed with cotton.

The adrenaline is helping, but not fast enough. She tries to answer her fellow captive.]

We... I don't-

[Okay, no. Try again.]

Kidnapped. I think... we've been kidnapped. Th-the coffee! They'll be back soon!

[Closer. She's trying to communicate the idea that whoever left that coffee there will likely return before it gets cold. And is they can't escape before then, things could get bad. But she's scared and confused so it's not coming out the way she wants.]

Jamie just kind of squints at her with his head tilted to one side, trying to process everything that's going on. Kidnapped. Yes. Okay. That is probably bad. They should do something about th - oh coffee. He smelled coffee earlier. He could really use some coffee, himself. Maybe they can find the source of the coffee smell and all partake of some together. That would be nice.

Yeah, Jamie is having a lot of trouble focusing right now.

Eventually the concepts of kidnapping and coffee merge together into some kind of vaguely coherent whole. "No - wait," he says slowly, in response to Trucy's comment. "If they left their coffee behind that means - they'll be coming back for it!" Jamie, you are a genius.

"I think we're just tied with - with rope," he manages, peering at his bound ankles. "Is there anything near you that you can use to, like...saw through it or anything?" There always is in the movies. Except the horrifyingly gory ones that end up with a bunch of dead, dismembered teenagers.

[Trucy cranes her neck, trying to see as much of her surroundings as possible. Then shakes her head.]

Nothing here! Do you have anything?

[She knows one thing, after this is over, she's moving her magical studies into escape artistry. She tests the bod again.]

Are the chairs tied down? Maybe we can... hop closer together and try to untie each others wrists?

[Okay, wow. That sounds very silly when she says it out loud.]

It's okay, Trucy, Jamie's still so fogged up that it sounds perfectly plausible to him.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay, let's give it a try, lemme just - " He rocks the chair to which he's tied and finds that, irritatingly enough, the bottom half wobbles a little but the upper half stays put. He cranes his neck around, trying to see behind him, which just makes his vision go all streaky again.

"I'm tied to the pipes," he informs her, sort of incredulously. Through the haze of whatever the hell he's doped up on, this doesn't alarm him quite as much as it probably should. Then he proclaims, with no trace of irony whatsoever, "I think I can break the rope. Hold on."

There's a brief pause and then he grits his teeth, straining at his bonds, complete with unflattering "HNNNNNGGHHH" noise. To the surprise of absolutely no one, his efforts fail.

He tries a couple more times. Same results.

He is wrecked.

"I can't do it," he says faintly. He looks like his world has come crashing down around his shoulders. "I can't do it, man!" he repeats, looking at Trucy frantically. "What're we gonna do? What are we gonna DO?!"

D-don't panic!!

[Trucy also tries to move her chair, with similar results. Okaaay. It may be time to panic.]

Look, just... just calm down.

[Is she trying to convince him or herself? Who even knows.]

There... there has to be a way out! Or a way to reason with them. Th- they must want something!

[If they didn't, there was no reason to keep them alive.]

"What if what they want is to kill us?!" Jamie spazzes at her. "Like live murdercam on the internet? I've heard about snuff films, dude, they're totally real! Think about all the hits they'd get killing a bunch of celebs!"

He goes (dramatically, if unintentionally) limp in his chair, head flopped back and chest heaving for a moment or so, moaning "I told Yosk this kinda shit would happen, I told him" more or less to himself. Finally he sniffs and sits upright again, looking at Trucy. His voice is a little hoarse, like he's on the verge of bursting into tears but struggling to keep himself together.

"So what do you think they want? How should we try and reason with 'em?"

[Despite how hard she's tried to keep calm, Trucy can feel the tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. She draws a slow breath and is pleased when it only hitches once.]

If... if they wanted to k-kill us, we'd be dead. And if they wanted a show, it'd be more interesting if we weren't tied to chairs.

[She refuses to entertain his snuff film theory. It's too horrible to think about. But it would make sense for them to be watching.....

She suddenly fixes her gaze at some point on the ceiling and raises her voice.]

Hey! Can you hear me? Why are doing this?!?

"Or maybe they wanted us to be awake before they murder us so they can listen to us scream." Jamie, you're not helping.

He follows her lead, though, scanning the ceiling for any hint of a recording device. His voice shakes a little as he addresses their as of yet unseen captors.

"We're from Pride Records, man! Don't fuck with us unless you wanna get fucked right back!"

[She's been struggling to stay as calm and optimistic as possible, but that was the last straw. She shakes her head in denial.]

Stop saying stuff like that!!

[She turns her now desperate attention back to the ceiling.]

Please just let us go!! Or- or even just talk to us!

Re: ☆SACRIFICE INTRO & MINGLE

mildwildchild - 2015-10-24 16:27 (UTC) - Expand

Re: ☆SACRIFICE INTRO & MINGLE

magic_to_do - 2015-10-25 01:20 (UTC) - Expand

Yuffie is groggy when she wakes up and the first thing she does is try to yawn, arms stretching wide.

That, obviously, does not work. Mostly because her arms are trapped.

Yuffie's eyes snap open and she pulls at her wrists, and tries to pull her ankles apart. This also doesn't work. Yuffie then does what you would expect of a carnie in a situation like this. That is when Yuffie just starts yelling.

"Hey!" She starts, the long vowel ringing off the walls as she screeches. "What the hell's going on!"

"Xan? Alec? If you fuckers did this I'm gonna-" Yuffie cuts off with a long shriek, kicking at the floor and not paying a bit of attention of anyone else or how she's probably annoying or scaring anyone.

Tiger, who is only half awake at this point and still not entirely cognitive of his situation, groans and flinches away from the noise she's making. The fact that his attempt to kick at her fails miserably (what with his feet being stuck together) is his first major hint of something being off.

"Nngh, shut up already...!" he growls tiredly.

When she hears the sound beside her, Yuffie finally turns to acknowledge that there is someone else tied up with her. And much to her surprise it's the kid.

"What the F-....fffff." Yuffie stops mostly because her first instinct is to stop cursing when there are children, but after a moment longer she rationalizes that it's Tiger and so he's heard worse. Heck he's heard worse from her already. There's no point in trying to spare anyone anything when they're buddies in horrible random captivity. "Tiger? Hey. Hey kid."

Yuffie tries to pull at her arms again because now that she's realized it's not just her, she's a little more keen on getting out. If she can get out, she can untie everyone else. This would be a good plan, if she could untie herself in the first place.

Tiger has to catch up a bit before he's at that level of situational awareness. He tugs on his hands, but they're stuck up above him - his knees curl to his chest, his now bare feet latched together at the ankles. He opens his eyes with a startled gasp.

"I - What?! You-" His first impulse is to blame Yuffie, because the first thing he can think of is that the Junkyard Carnies have decided to harass him for some reason, and that this is some kind of prank. But then...no. She's ties up too. His struggle suddenly spasms into something frantic.

"I - Oh no no no. What? What?! What are you-" He looks around the room wild eyed. "Let me go!"

Yuffie is all kinds of ready for him to freak out, and when it looks like it's directed at her she is very ready to get offended until he goes into a panic.

Okay. Great.

"Hey! Woah- Tiger!" Yuffie tries to turn better so she can see him, though she basically has no range of motion whatsoever. She's also probably going to have one hell of a rope burn later, which she will find a way to make someone pay for. Brutally. "Tiger! You gotta calm down!

This is, of course, hilarious considering her first response, but Yuffie has never been one to acknowledge her own hypocrisy. After a moment more Yuffie tries again. She's trying to be helpful, even though her tone is more sarcastic than she means for it to be.

"If you hyperventilate I can't exactly do anything, here!"

He pulls on his wrists more violently, even as his knees go more tightly to his chest, like they're the only thing he can really shield him with. Is Tiger Universe...already crying? He's totally already crying.

"What the heck is this?" he asks her, his voice cracking shrilly.

"I don't know I just woke up too, okay?" Yuffie talks slowly like he's a bomb about to go off instead of a terrified child. She's not totally sure what to do to make this any better, and so she continues fighting with her ropes as she talks.

'It's...." She starts to say it's going to be okay, but really, she doesn't know. So, she tries to put a smile on to at least somewhat help.

"Look, just try not to pull on your hands too hard? When I get out, I'll untie you." Yuffie says this with absolute certainty, like she knows she'll be able to get out. Yuffie, of course, doesn't know how she's going to get out at the moment but she is going to fucking try come hell or high water.

Tiger, at least, probably isn't going to get his hands out on his own, due to having chubby baby wrists. He stops pulling and closes his eyes, squeezing out a few beaded tears. Then he tries to look around with more focus, managing his breathing as best he can.

He sees the other people, and the computer, and the coffee. The coffees meaning doesn't register with him.

"Someone...someone took us."

"Got it in one, Tiger." Yuffie nods, and continues to tug and pull at her wrists. It hurts like heck, and after a minute she stops and starts fighting with the ropes around her ankles to give her wrists a break.

"I don't know why bu.....uuut. I am pretty sure they'll be back soon." Yuffie says as she notices the steam rising from the cups and the still active monitors. Shit. Shiiiiit. Okay. There has to be a way out of this. While Yuffie fights with the ropes, continuing to get nowhere, she tries to keep the kid talking and distracted, hoping that he wont panic again.

"So. kiddo. What's the last-" Yuffie pauses as she catches one of the loops on her ankle and manages to turn one of her feet awkwardly so she may...eventually, manage to get a foot out. A lot of good a foot will do, but it's something, right? "What's the last thing you remember?"

On Tiger's part, he's pretty much stopped trying. Instead, he is still just looking around the boiler room, trying to make the slightest bit of sense of this, his stomach turning and his chest tight with anxiety. Are they being held hostage? Is there going to be a ransom? Is someone going to kill them?

He suddenly feels very, very alone. And for a moment it completely knocks the sass right out of him.

"I was...I was just in my room..." He looks downward, figuratively melting with distress. "I thought I just fell asleep, but..."

"Then that makes two of us." Yuffie pauses, because that sounds so many kinds of not good because someone got into Pride. And that takes effort or someone who knows what they're doing. And either answer sounds bad.

And it's not like they were someone being too worried about being seen, they went and got coffee for fuck sake, which means they had to pass by security cameras and things because welcome to the tech age. The entire thing makes Yuffie feel a bit like she's ready to scream because it feels like there's something on the tip of her tongue, or something she'd supposed to know or do, and can't.

But that may just be the whole captive thing. Or the fact that the pipes are making the ropes gross and she's sure the fact that they're kind of damp is making the rope tugging hurt worse.

"If they got into Pride then you bet your ass they are going to be in so much trouble." Yuffie starts fighting with her feet ropes again, yanking until one foot is sort of trapped sideways instead of where it was before. It's uncomfortable but it's closer to being free. "And that means cameras saw them, right? And it's not like our bosses are going to let-" She pauses to yank again. It more hurts than anything else but it's the thought that counts. "- anything happen to us, right?"

While the idea that they somehow got into the Pride HQ is extremely intimidating, the fact that Pride Records isn't known to take shit is perhaps the sole inspiration for a small burst of vindictive hope. That's true. Whoever this is will pay...they have to, right? Their bosses are big and powerful, and on this label they are serious business. Pride will know how to deal with it.

Right? Right. The thought bolsters Tiger's spirits a little.

"Right," he says, easing into the idea. A defensive wave of cockiness rises up in his chest. "These guys are basically screwed! As soon as they figure out where we are..."

At the very least they'll probably pay a ransom.

☆TRACK II: DISCORD AND RHYME

☆SACRIFICE INTRO & MINGLE

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☆SACRIFICE INTRO & MINGLE

☆SACRIFICE INTRO & MINGLE

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