☆TRACK XI: THIS FIXATION

[interdimanagers]

Who: Everyone! Especially Lapis and all musicians.
What: The Final Festival finally begins.
When: May 5th, 2055, at 5:55PM.
Where: Concert stages for both Pride and Virgo, as well as throughout the city.
Warnings: Lapis related violence.

“I think I'm drowning. Asphyxiated. I wanna break this spell That you've created. You're something beautiful; A contradiction. I wanna play the game. I want the friction.” ☆THIS FIXATION The start times of the festivals are very explicit. The first notes are to be played at 5:55 PM – no sooner, and no later. This has been enforced by every recital leading up to this point, and today the word is law. The audience view it as a peculiarity. How could both labels independently decide to do something so particular? Those on the stage will feel it in their hearts. There’s more to it than just another concert. Something is happening, bigger than all of you, and something deep down tells you that you are powerless to stop it now. There’s a momentum that’s been building for centuries, and only now will the show truly begin. the 55th minute | the 5th hour | the 5th day | the 5th month | the 2055th year Those with magical, spiritual, or musical sense will feel it strongly. The magic of it is thick in the air, enveloping the entirely of Vista within its breadth. The music begins, and a terrible tension in the air finally breaks. In that precise moment, something has been released – and there is no going back from here. ☆THE SHORT AND DIRTY The ritual has finally begun. So let's break this down. ► The same moment the festivals begin, and occult magical ritual has been set in motion. That special time window that the labels were waiting for? This is it. Why the number 5 is so important we may never know, but the key thing to note is that the force of musical power behind the labels are now multiplying, and will only be getting stronger the longer the ritual goes on. Those with Fame Power abilities will feel more and more potent as time goes on as well. Magical juice will come easier and they will get bigger magical effects for their effort. ► The festival will begin with the labels biggest acts, so only a few of the player characters will be on stage at that point. Veteran musicians will start things off on a high note, and the rest will be lined up and ready for a seemingly unending roll of music all through the night and into the entirety of Friday and Saturday. Friday has been deemed a city wide public holiday because that’s how seriously Vista takes its music. Fledgling bands with characters of Fame Power 4+ or Fame Fortune 4+ will have the honour of being part of the first wave of performances, all starting at 5:55PM. This is a seriously big deal. So don’t fuck up. ► Very shortly after the beginning of the festival, Lesedi Santiago is going to fuck everything up for you. ☆LESEDI FUCKS THINGS UP And this is how Lesedi will fuck things up: she's getting Lapis Lazuli to do it for her. Lapis was recently captured by Pride Records while trying to sneak out information to the rescuers. She has been powerfully enchanted by Lesedi to attack and kill Virgo musicians and Rescuers alike, and her water powers will be temporarily enhanced by feeding off of Lesedi's magic. Lapis is being sent to attack Virgo musicians first - ideally disrupting as many Virgo performances as possible and FUBARing Blanche's ritual right from the get go. Juno will quickly regroup and start sending Virgo's magical adepts to try to stop her, while keeping as many of them on stage as possible. Meanwhile, this is all occurring in broad fucking daylight. So what do the civilians think? Well, they'll be scared and try to save themselves from any attacks they get caught in the middle of, but otherwise...it's like they've been reduced to zombies. None of them seem capable of acknowledging that anything weird is happening - the only thing they can focus on is the music, and as long as it continues their minds are ensnared. Rescuers who have been heavily effected by the brainwashing of the musical singles may also feel entranced by the music at the concert as well, and may have a similar lack of survival instinct. They'll be drawn to the music regardless of all else, up to and including the risk of death. Lapis's player has been planning out a variety of fight threads in advance, but since Lapis as the ability to create a lot of collateral damage, people can also be free to assume that they are trying to save civilians from surprise water hazards as this goes on, or simply trying to survive themselves. We will be assuming there are no deaths caused by Lapis unless it is cleared with her player first. This includes random audience members. This will go on for a while, until eventually Lapis is chased away from the festival and goes to attack the rescuer warehouse with the chip removal equipment instead. Silver will sent out an urgent message warning the rescuers of this, urging them to get over there as quickly as possible and help to remove the equipment and take it to a safe place. Silver themselves will not arrive immediately, and Gold is still nowhere to be seen - at least, not until the very end, when they will make a surprise return appearance to help attend to the Lapis Lazuli problem. “Now that you know I'm trapped- Sense of elation. You'd never dream of Breaking this fixation. You will squeeze the life out of me.”

Comments

Garnet/Cosmic Indulgence, Pride Stage Area: OPEN

[twoscompany]

[Garnet is front and center at the festival. She knows the drill. At 5:55pm, and no later, her set starts, designed to make a mark on the whole concert. She's supposed to do a long keytar solo, with backup from the band. Its meant to be recorded for a new live album. The name of it is 'Out in Space'.

She was expecting sounds from the other side, in Virgo. Probably trying to out concert Pride by turning up the volume in the woofers. The woofers could shake the ground like no one's business. That she knew.

She isn't expecting a giant water spout to explode out of Virgo's concert area just as she starts to sing. Her first sung words pretty much say it all.]

Out into space,
the human race
is what wh-OH MY GOD!?

[Parts of the crowd starts turning to see what's happening. Oh, nice effect! Its so big its causing an effect through the entire are, showering people in Pride's venue.]

Keep going! Garnet, damnit, start singing again, we'll edit it in post!

[Garnet looks over at her agent like he's mad. What the heck? Did he really just say that? Then again, people were looking ready to panic. And if they panic, especially with water starting to come into their area and turning the ground into mud.

Garnet thinks.]

...Out in space
the human race
is hidden in the rushes...

[She looks over at Terry, and Sabo. They need to figure out how to get people away from...whatever's happening...while making it look like its all part of the concert. Panic will do nothing. Judging by her expression, she'll take all the help she can get to salvage this mess.

Its got to be Lesedi. Who else could make water do that?

...

Wait a minute...

In the fracas, too, it's all too easy to jump up on the stage to get involved in the performance if you're not a physician. The robots agents and guards, this time, will allow it. Anything to give the show being put on power. They can handle this and any potential problems. Virgo can handle theirs.]

[traumatizing]

[Ah-- oh shit. Terry gives Garnet a bit of a panicked look and glances over at Sabo, wondering what to do.]

[Okay. Fuck. Time to make this a duet. Terry grabs the mic in front of him and starts singing with Garnet, trying to quell the panic in the crowd a little. It's surprisingly easy really, getting the crowd to move to safety, but he still frowns. It's probably not enough.]

[twoscompany]

[She has no clue if its going to work. But they have to try, Something about trying felt right. She's not a heartless monster who cared for nothing but the music. At least, she's not quite that far gone yet. Greg.

Once the chance to change the music comes up, Garnet tries a different song.]

"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
I was brain-dead, locked out, numb, not up to speed...

[traumatizing]

I thought I'd pegged you an idiot's dream
Tunnel vision from the outsider's screen

[Terry's fingers dance on the keys of his synths as he sings with Garnet and he focuses hard. Calming the crowd is one thing, but it's not enough. He tries to think of something they can do to protect these people and all he gets for his effort is a rolling fog.]

[Brilliant.]

[twoscompany]

I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh

[The heck? Terry, is this your doing? They clearly need to talk more often. Though, yeah, fog just means more water for whatever's going on, doesn't it?]

[mildwildchild]

[Jamie's not quite in time to join Garnet in her opening number, what with Flashstep also being one of the opening acts for the festival, but there's plenty of chaos to last the evening, so that's all right.

He is, admittedly, a little leery of just jumping up onto the stage and insinuating himself into her performance. Garnet's manager is scary. Garnet herself is sort of scary. Her fans are really scary. But whatever mojo Garnet's using isn't enough to keep the stupid, eerily sheep-like audience members out of harm's way, so...

So here he goes, as one song ends and the crowd is applauding while they're drenched in water and - jesus, yeah, that's sewage. Oh god. A murmur ripples through the attendees as Jamie grabs a mic, rolls his shoulders and belts out the opening lines to what may or may not be one of Cosmic Indulgence's older songs.]

I do not understand
What it is I've done wrong
Full of holes, check for pulse
Blink your eyes
One for yes, two for no

[Jamie's focus shifts from the audience to the water still raining down on them; with a little effort he wills the torrent to dwindle to a light sprinkle and then to a heavy mist. It's not much, but it's a start, and honestly it's more than he'd expected to be able to do.]

[twoscompany]

[...That's not Terry or Sabo. For a moment, Garnet feels indignant; her band had the stage! The thought is pushed aside, though, when she spots who's singing, when she remembers what's happening.

This is more important. Protecting these people...just like...

Just like back home.

She brings her hands down on the keytar.]

I have no idea what I am talking about
I am trapped in this body and can't get out
Ooooohhhh

[If only she knew how true those words were when she first wrote them. If only. But she can think about it later.]

[mildwildchild]

[Jamie can apologize to Garnet and Terry and Sabo later for crashing their gig - for right now, there's the audience to think about, who seem faintly puzzled by Jamie's unexpected appearance but are starting to get into it as Garnet takes up the refrain.]

You killed sound, removed backbone
A pale imitation with the edges sawn off

[Jamie sings along with her, feeding on the crowd's attention and energy, feeling it welling up inside him just as he had during Flashstep's performance. The effect he'd had on the water spreads, till there's nothing of it left over the audience but a faint mist. One that makes pretty prismatic rainbows as the light hits it and coaxes a few oohs out of the crowd.

Now there's all the churned-up slop they're standing in - it would be easier, and safer, to get them out of here if their footing was a little more solid. Something like concrete? Concrete. It starts spreading in little patches under the audience members' feet, all but unnoticed as their focus remains squarely on Garnet.]

[twoscompany]

[Interesting. She hadn't been aware of Jamie's powers, but lo and behold, the moment he turned up on stage, the landscape practically changed. The garbage became concrete, the water a fine mist. Now, it was up to her to get them out of the place.

She began to walk down the stairs of the concert platform, singing, as if this was totally the intent the whole time.]

I have no idea what you are talking about
Your mouth moves everywhere...

[mildwildchild]

[The audience is totally enraptured, all their attention focused on Garnet as she descends the steps, singing to them. They're completely pliable at this point, ready to be commanded or manipulated however their goddess sees fit.]

Has the light gone out for you?
Because the light's gone for me
It is the 21st century
It is the 21st century
You can fight it like a dog
And they brought me to my knees

[Even if their attention isn't fully on Jamie as he continues singing backup, he's got enough power stored up from his own band's earlier performance to continue affecting changes to the venue. The patches of concrete beneath the audience's feet start meeting and fusing together, then erupting in a sudden burst from some central point, spreading across the ground in a vast ripple.

A sparkly ripple with little sunbursts and shit. Jamie's all hyped up and getting sort of carried away here, okay.]

[twoscompany]

[What the--Garnet looks over at Jame and carefully covers her mic.]

Jamie?

[Tone it down, she doesn't want them to combust from direct contact with the sun either.]

[mildwildchild]

They got scared and they put m - huh? Oh...

[Jamie glances from Garnet to the bright sunshiny clusterfuck he's wreaking and, looking chagrined, tries to rein things in a little. When he continues singing, the fireworks subside and the pavement continues its spread in a more orderly fashion.]

They got scared and they put me in
They got scared and they put me in...

[The crowd, being creepy zombies at this point, barely seem to notice - if anything they seem a little peeved that something has interrupted Garnet's performance, if only briefly, but they're still firmly under her sway.]

[twoscompany]

[Nodding, Garnet continued to play. This time she's just doing a long keytar jam - which Jamie is absolutely invited to join in on. These people...they barely realize anyone else is there.

Its a little scary, actually, realizing something about her is causing them to basically do whatever she wants them to.]

Hey Jamie, you got a spare guitar?

/slides in late

[mildwildchild]

[He doesn't, but there happens to be one just offstage. He grabs it, caught up in the spirit of things.]

I'm a little rusty. Guitar was never my strongest suit.

[...he warns, but as he starts playing he's perfectly competent. More than competent, in fact - he's pretty darn good, and the audience is reacting quite positively as his fretwork complements Garnet's keytar jamming.]

[Funny how that's working out, huh?]

Re: /slides in late

[twoscompany]

Its ok! Keep going!

[She keeps licking at her keytar.]

You got any place in mind to get everyone!?