interstellar5555 | ☆TRACK IIX: BETTER TO PRETEND PT. 1

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☆TRACK IIX: BETTER TO PRETEND PT. 1

Who: Famous musicians, hopeful auditioners, and random onlookers.
What: Hit gameshow series “Fairy Trial” is celebrating one of its anniversaries, and it’s invited you onboard. For more deets, check out the OOC post!
When: March 11th.
Where: Sevetop Entertainment’s studio.
Warnings: Mingle log mystery bag.

“It's so much better to pretend
There's something waiting for you here.
Every letter that you wrote
Has found its way to me, my dear.”

☆BETTER TO PRETEND

For musicians in either Pride or Virgo, the job offer is delivered by their managers- a suggestion to accept an invitation from Sevetop to participate in a successful gameshow. (A message that is delivered perhaps a bit more pressingly to some, with the unsaid words of “This is a chance to make it up to us”.) For others, strangers just trying to make a living and wait for their chance to save their loved ones, the message is delivered over their communicators by Gold, with promises that infiltrating this event will aid you in liberating the captives from their label's control. Either way, all roads lead to Sevetop Entertainment.

Sevetop might not have the weight that musical giants Pride Labels and Virgo Entertainment do, but that’s because it’s not into the musical industry. Sevetop is all about television and the big screen. For these purposes, it has its own little area of the city, a bustling kind of Hollywood filled with the more office-like buildings, auditoriums for additions, and even various sets. Whether you’re driven in style via limo, or brought to a regular line of buses, this is where you end up at.

Musicians, of course, end up at the more posh meeting room. A spread of delicate little lunch sandwiches, veggie platters, cupcakes, and assorted beverages are on a table for anyone to snatch up, and regularly refilled. Every celebrity is handed a small folder with papers inside going over both the boring legal things and explaining the purpose of the show. “Royals” are the ones to be “saved”, but they don’t have to make the journey easier on their “Heroes” and are given tools at their disposal to help or hinder. Heroes have one goal to accomplish, ‘rescuing’ their Royal, but it changes depending on the challenge.

Much to your surprise, some of those aspiring Heroes might just look familiar. Don't tell!

☆THE HEROES

In another building, next door, various people picked off the street (some coincidentally, others not so much, thanks to Gold's glamour witchcraft) are being given very much the same kind of presentation… In a room much more cramped, with not nearly enough chairs, on a slideshow. The only refreshments available are small bags of chips (try not to take more than one) and coolers full of bottled water.

After the separate presentations are done with, everyone is allowed to check out the sets for past seasons, which includes what look like giant mushroom tops that are made of very bouncy rubber, climbing walls made of fake vines, pumpkin shaped carriages (horses not included), and other such things.

Of course, it’s not all play. While you’re messing about, you’ve all been given numbers. Once you’ve been called, you’re to stand in front of Fairy Trial’s hosts and commentators: siblings Bella and Maurice Hooks. Both of them are equally friendly, although her more outgoing to his easygoing, but they have plenty of questions for this little audition. Tell them about yourself: hobbies, job, your favorite fairy tale, what you think your best skill is - and then, the most important, you get to display a choice "talent" in front of the audience. It can be whatever you like, as long as it's crowd appropriate.

Be careful, though, because the rock stars you're hoping to work with are watching, too. At the very least, don't make an ass out of yourself. Gold's enchantments are good, but there are some things that even magic can't charm its way through.

After all this, you’ll get a chance to just rest and mingle while your rides come back to take you back to the mall or HQ you were picked up at. Obviously for certain famous names, they’ll probably be the first ones out, but who knows… Maybe there was a traffic delay, and now you have some time to spare waiting around here as well. Just take note that you’re not allowed to wander too far from the Fairy Trial sets. Security is keeping an eye on folks to make sure they don’t steal or wreck anything.

And don’t worry, you’ll be told about the results within a week! They promise.

“You can make believe that what you say
Is what I want to hear.
I'll keep dancing through this
Beautiful delusional career.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No kidding. It's more fun trying to help people out, right?

[ Greg leans over the chair next to her, posture completely casual and not at all hunched or tense. He's just here to watch his friends participate, after all. Here to have a great time. Look at that super casual smile. ]

Hey, Luce.

[ He's been keeping to his room for a couple days. ]

[Trust her, even with the busy schedule imposed on her, Luce has managed to notice.]

I suppose we'll have to wait and see what the challenges end up like. [Closing the folder and resting her hand there, she takes a breath and looks to Greg.] I've been wanting to talk with you, you know.

[ In turn, Greg isn't quite looking at her, still very interested in somehow reading the closed folder from over her shoulder. ]

Yeah. I figured you might. It's been a little bit, huh?

[ He doesn't look great. All the good cheer and public persona won't hide the heavy bags under his eyes, faint bruises on his body. The makeup does a better job of it, at least. ]

A little bit where a lot of things have happened, it seems.

[Sighing, she looks over her shoulder and reaches back to put a light touch on his arm.]

Can we talk after this little presentation is over? Just the two of us?

[ He looks down at her hand, chewing on his lip. He then looks away again. ]

Yeah. That's fine. I've wanted to catch up, anyway.

Same here.

[Letting her hand drop away, Luce sits patiently throughout the rest of the meeting. When things are finally over, and they're allowed to leave for the auditions and everything else, she goes to stand outside the door by the side. Her arms are wrapped around her torso loosely as she waits to spot Greg.]

[ She doesn't have long to wait. Greg meets her at the door, thumbs tucked in his pockets, and nods down the hall. With the bustle of preparation for the show, they should have a chance to speak between themselves. Properly, that is. ]

A lot has happened.

I guessed as much.

[Once it feels like they're far away enough, Luce heaves out a sigh. Just from the glimpses and guesses she can make, things don't look good.]

I saw Tiger. At your penthouse.

[He nods. ]

You saw how sick he was?

Yes. But I know that neither Blanche or our managers are bleeding hearts who would care about a sick child, even one in Tiger's condition.

Frankly, Greg... [Luce shakes her head.] I'm not sure which part of the situation worries me more.

[ He runs a hand over his face. ]

Well, ha, don't worry anymore. He ran back to Pride as soon as I healed him. [ ps greg can apparently heal now?? fyi ] Their grip on him's too strong. [ Is he missing the point on purpose or genuinely that out of it? ]

[There's a lot in just those few sentences that has Luce stiffen up, and she has to strangle the first words that threaten to come out of her mouth.]

[Slow down. Don't be hasty. He's already in a state, and confrontation isn't going to do anyone any favors.]

Greg, he... said his gem was cracked. How on earth do you heal something like that?

[ His flinch is faint, yet all too obvious. The silence goes on far too long before his answer, a limp little laugh with his eyes on the floor. ]

How else, huh? [ He waves a hand. What point is there in beating around the bush anymore? ] Magic.

Blanche knows.

[It's not even a question she needs to ask. The puzzle pieces are practically in neon.]

That's how Steven was there, isn't it?

[The how doesn't really matter. The end result is the issue.]

He knew I couldn't turn Steven down.

[ Really, it's a wonder more people haven't figured it out--or at least said as much to him. Or maybe everyone else knew to keep away from him after that. Greg doesn't know. He hardly can bring himself to care. Steven and Sans have already done their best to get out of his life. ]

I'd do it again, too.

[On one hand... Luce isn't sure how much she can judge. On the other hand, while she loathes to admit it, this makes Greg... no longer trustworthy. That hurts, honestly. For a moment, Luce can only stand there, staring into nothing, before she sighs.]

Does that mean Steven is... coming back?

[She's not really sure how much choice the boy had in this or how exactly things went down, but that Greg would do it again, well...]

[ The distrust is apparent, and it hurts him just as badly. Yet, he knew perfectly well that it was coming, and in all truth, he deserves it. Much as he wishes things weren't this way, it won't change how they are. He takes a deep breath. ]

He left by himself. I'm not going to force him to do anything he doesn't want.

[ Too many people have done that to him already. Greg clenches a fist, for just a moment. ]

But I'm not going to sit back if Santiago thinks she can hurt him again.

[Maybe for the better, Luce thinks. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't, and maybe it'll look better for him- but that's for another time. For now, however, she just nods.]

Fair enough. But Greg...

[This isn't going to lead to a pleasant conversation.]

Why did you think he'd be safer under Blanche's thumb than Santiago's?

[ That question hangs in the air a moment. Why did he...? At some point he'd said Blanche was just as bad. At what point did his mind change...?

His head throbs before he can think too deeply on it. He's not going to argue for Santiago being any better, is the point. ]

Blanche didn't crack his gem. And Blanche let me take care of him. [ Yeah... yeah, that's enough, right? Right... ] He's not a good man, but that's more than she's ever done.

The only reason he did that was to have something over your head.

[It should be an obvious fact, yet Luce is worried. She knows what Blanche and Juno can do. How they can twist minds around.]

How do you know he wouldn't have done that to him eventually?

[ Oh, Greg knows that plenty well. ]

He knows I'd never do anything for him if he hurt him.

Did he say that to you? Do you have it in writing?

[ He rubs at his face, and remembers what Steven said. He doesn't know what to believe. ]

It doesn't matter at this point. Steven ran back to the people that hurt him. Blanche can't be bothered to get at him again.

[The way her lips thin is a show of anything of how frustrated Luce is, but she doesn't yell or even raise her voice. Everything, after all, is tempered by concern and worry.]

It does matter. Greg... It feels like you trust too easily, sometimes. And we can't trust someone like Blanche.

He was holding Tiger's presence there over your head for a reason, and do you think just because Tiger's back at Pride that you're in the clear?

[ He doesn't trust Blanche, not really. But the man is his boss. Greg's job simply includes more duties now. ]

Luce, what do you think happens to the people who've gotten fired?

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