interstellar5555 | ☆TRACK III: THE STREETS ARE EMPTY

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☆TRACK III: THE STREETS ARE EMPTY

Who: Drafted Virgo Members
What: Juno makes everyone do a seance.
When: October 21st-22nd.
Where: The basement of the Virgo residential tower.
Warnings: Ghosts, apparently.

“You can't shake the feeling.
Be quiet not one sound.
But the wind seems to speak,
Something's here in the room with me.”

☆THE STREETS ARE EMPTY

Juno arrives without notice. In fact, you can’t even really remember seeing her approach. One moment you’re doing your business, and the next she is telling you that you have to come down to the basement with her, in order to complete a “task” you’ve been assigned. This sort of thing would seem preposterous to a normal person, but even if you don’t realize it, you aren’t one. As Mr Blanche’s personal assistant and sometimes second in command, her word seems to carry almost as much weight as his does.

You don’t really have any choice but to agree.

“Bring whatever instrument you know best,” she says. “You’ll need it.”

She snaps up every one of you that she sees in her initial sweep, and soon she has a whole pack of Virgo newbies following her down to the lowest floors of the residential tower. It feels weird, but it’s like you can’t quite articulate why. No one else seems to be able to either.

Most of the lights are turned off on those lower floors, but it’s easy to tell it’s a place you’ve never been before. It’s strangely...hospital like, down there, in both aesthetic and a sense of sterility. Maybe some kind of laboratory setting? Which seems like a super weird thing to be in the basement of an apartment building, but this is yet another thing you can’t quite bring yourself to ask about. Juno leave most of the lights off, except for a few central features. The ambience is dim and cold.

She tells you not to stray, and you don’t. The thought of going against her becomes somehow repulsive, like you don’t even want to think about it too long. You try not to think about your surrounding too hard, either.

She lines you all up, and then after some strangely intense eyeballing, she starts breaking you up into some incredibly lopsided groups that seem to have nothing to do with your actual bands. In the end, she looks disappointed with resulting teams, but carries on regardless. Each “group” is given some complexly timed sheet music and a funny looking mobile speaker.

She says that you have a half hour to compose a group piece to play alongside the sheet music , and that it needs to be good. Then, she wanders off to start pacing the basement in a strangely arcane series of movements, and leaves you all to it. Only among your peers do you start feeling like you can voice any of your previously stowed concerns, but make sure Juno doesn’t overhear you – occasionally she’ll come by to bluntly critique anyone who is performing inadequately.

You feel lucky that she doesn’t have a whip with her, because you’re almost certain that she’d use it without much remorse.

☆THE SEANCE

The performance is about as awkward as you’d expect, given the set up. The four groups are set up so that they’re facing each other, as if standing at the corner of a square. Each speaker is set up in the center of its group, and the precisely timed electronic beat that plays from them is what you’re supposed to perform along to.

Odds are that you do your level best, but, outside of your control...something goes wrong.

“Have you ever felt...
Something evil,
Lurking around?
The moon is full,
The streets are empty.
Shadows cover the town.”

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When one of those strange lights drifts towards Rei, she's in no state to really move. Her whole thought process is so out of whack, so...off guard...that it hits her like a physical blow. She stumbles backwards, bumbling awkwardly into the wall and rebounding, right into the memory's owner.

"G-God!"

It's a light that seems to push right deep into Rei's very core, imparting something as deep as the knowledge of breathing or seeing things. It's a song that feels impossible to forget, no matter the language. It might be hard to realize that Luce's hands are coming up to steady Rei as she bumps back into her.

"Oh! Are you alright?" A lack of duty doesn't mean a lack of love.

Rei shakes in Luce's hands, eyes going wide with absolute shock. That song, it just strikes something deep inside and she slumps forward into Luce's arms.

"I...am not sure." She's just so rocked right now, so unsteady. "I don't...what is this song?"

"Song?" Luce can only tilt her head to the side. The only music she can think of is the pathetic display of earlier... Oh. She looks around, trying to find where Pao Lin is playing.

"Do you mean that?" She can't think of any other song that would be relevant.

"No. I mean...not like that."

Rei hums a few bars from the tune, looking at Luce curiously.

"Does any of that sound...familiar?"

Luce can only smile apologetically.

"I'm afraid not, dear." If she only just heard it... Luce starts looking around at the strange floating wisps. "Maybe one of these is to blame?"

"One of them did touch me...that's when I heard it."

And one of those wisps starts floating in Luce's general direction. It's not menacing, but definitely coming her way.

"I would be careful..."

"Maybe if it's giving you a song, it's a very lazy way for Virgo to inspire us." It's an annoying thought, and it shows in her tone. Them, being used as guinea pigs for this pathetic company? Hmph.

There's no concern as she steps away from Rei to finally touch a wisp directly- and she freezes with a far off look in her eyes.

"Maybe..." Rei comments dryly, though that bravado fades into surprise when Luce reaches to touch the wisp.

"Be careful!"

It could be a what? what could it be? A trap? Something dangerous? No, that's just silly. However, Luce will be treated to a vision of things long gone and things yet to come, and when she finally does move again, Rei's hand is on her shoulder, giving her a shake.

"Mother? Mother are you okay?!"

Her whole body jolts as Rei shakes her, and Luce jerks back just slightly with her eyes wide. The image is still crystal clear in her minds eye. She has a pure gut feeling, one that has her reach back to grab Rei.

"You have to grab that!"

"W-What?!"

Rei's hand is grabbed and she fumbles for a moment, surprise and near panic on her face. What was going on? What was...

As she starts to ask that mental question, her hand brushes against the wisp, and something comes back to her. A flood of emotion, of raw joy, an overwhelming sense of loss, of pain, but also of honor, of purpose...and of duty.

The feeling drives her to her knees, hand pressed against her heart as she realizes something else. There's more, there's more coming...new thoughts, new memories...something different that makes her cry out. Her head shakes, thoughts coming back, striking her over and over...and a realization too.

"Nnngggh! You...you need to touch the other one! That one...that feels like you!"

A gasp tears out of her throat as she watches Rei crumple to the ground. Luce follows her down, hands hovering by her back and shoulders in concern. Is she sick?

Then she's giving that order. 'The one that feels like her'. It doesn't make much sense, but Luce tries to look up anyway. The problem: there are so many wisps around, she's already lost.

"Oh dear..."

Rei looks up, eyes wide, panicked by the sound of Luce's voice...but...her attention focuses on one that's bumping against the wall where she'd stood.

"That one! Get it!"

Luce turns at the sound of Rei's voice, going to where her attention is. The clumsy one, is that it? She picks up her dress a bit so it's not so much in the way as she hurries over. Energy is spurring her on, a determination to hear the song Rei has apparently heard, and she reaches out to grasp the wisp with both hands.

Good thing it's right near a wall. Makes it easy for Luce to wobble in surprise as the wisp seems to flow back into her, and she leans against it so she doesn't fall herself. One hand goes up to her chest, over her heart.

That sense of calm- like back at the gala- is settling into her again and she closes her eyes.

"This song... That's right. How could I forget?"

"W-What is this?" Rei asks from her seat on the floor, hands rubbing at her temples to fight back a burgeoning migraine. She can't rise yet, but her words turn pensive, thoughtful as she closes her eyes too, clinging to the memories of that palace and that strange song.

"These...things are what? Memories? How?"

There's no immediate answer. Luce still has her eyes closed, that hand pressed to her heart.

There's the song.

There's something else, too.

With her eyes closed, the image come so vividly to her eyes. It's a round dining table in a grand, old fashioned dining room. It's not new, no, but it's expensive and well established. It reminds her, a little, of the classic homes of Europa. She's standing at the table, the seventh figure of a group. She knows them, she knows them so well, even at the same time that she does not know them at all.

They don't know her, either, this group of six who are so wary of one another: a stern woman with hair the color of deep ocean, dressed in a uniform. A young man, purple hair wild, and a piercing from his lip, leather covering his lean frame. The man besides him wears the coat of a scientist, and his messy green hair and stubble give away the passion he takes to his work even if he wasn't absorbed in study. There's a hooded person besides him, neither man or woman, flicking through a stack of money in preoccupation- their passion and they don't care how selfish it is. It's the opposite of the martial artist who sits nearby, dressed in brilliant crimson robes and his reserved nature seems to hide something.

There is a man in a suit. The eyes that peer out from his fedora are so dark, they could drag someone in, and the sideburns along his face accent his jaw.

They don't know her yet.

They don't know how much she loves every single one of them, even then.

Slowly, Luce opens her eyes, still a little off despite how she catches the tail end of what Rei is saying. Memories...? But she's never met those people in her life, has she? Despite that fact, there's a feeling in her chest that refutes it. Love like this, still burning so strong in her heart, isn't fake.

Something suddenly hits her, a much more recent occurrence, and Luce straightens suddenly even as her vision swims. "Rei! I just remembered- I need you to come with me. I need to show you something."

The sudden motion surprises Rei almost as much as Luce's silence. She was never, ever quiet. And never, ever the sort of person to just stand there lost.

Which made the younger woman nod, suddenly much more alert and ready.

"Okay. Right, lead the way then?"

"This way."

With her sense of duty back where it belongs, Luce picks up her dress again and starts to stride off quickly. It takes her a few minutes to get her bearings again, but soon enough she's walking with more confidence. She leads Rei to a wall lined up with strange screens.

"Tap one."

"Tap? Um. Okay?"

Now back to herself as well, Rei dutifully obeys her 'mother' and reaches up to a screen, tapping it with one finger.

Immediately, the screen starts to boot up. Hopefully Rei won't jerk back, because it starts to scan both her eye and her head in general. When it's all done...

Yeah.

Luce stays nearby, worrying at one of her nails and waiting to see the younger woman's reaction.

Rei doesn't jerk back, she just stands there confused, blinking at the machine.

"What is this? When...was this taken?"

It's hard to tell if Rei's confusion is reassuring or dreadful. Luce just reaches up to do the same thing to another screen. There's her, looking just as dazed and lost.

"I have no idea, but it's the same thing for me. I can't remember this picture at all."

"This is...kind of creepy. Have you shown any of the others? I'm sure Doctor would have an idea about what to make of it..."

She leans back against Luce, swaying just a bit awkwardly.

"This is all just too weird."

"Not yet." Luce's arms come up to steady Rei, and she starts to guide her away. There should still be chairs in the area they were brought to, shouldn't there? Maybe they all need a moment.

"I couldn't really dedicate myself to anything for long. It's only now that I thought to show someone... For right now, let's sit down. We need to get ourselves together."

Rei relaxes into Luce's touch, and she allows herself to be led, trying hard not to let the wobble in her knees get to her. She definitely needs a moment, probably more than one.

"We really do. Like...I've felt so hazy all night. Just not myself. Like I couldn't focus. You too?"

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