interstellar5555 | ☆TRACK XI: THIS FIXATION

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☆TRACK XI: THIS FIXATION

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.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Altogether too many things become too pressing in too little time for one too busy mind. Mr. Universe's head spins from the overwhelming conflict coming from so many directions. He has to keep performing, everything is depending on this moment. He has to destroy this threat--Lapis, that blue little nuisance, he never should have indulged her. He has to keep his stage, his pedestal, his source of power up and running.

His breathing becomes tight and uneven from the conflict, but his hands on the bass don't falter for a single beat.

"Giant asteroid
Coming in from outer space
While the people look the other way..."

Marty's already abandoned the stage to help, but... the crowd still has their eyes on Mr. Universe, waiting for his decision. He can feel their power surging through him, the weight of their eyes charging up his power. That's right, the rest of the band... they can handle the small stuff. What matters is that he keeps playing, he keeps gathering what energy he can.

"What were they looking at?
Killing each other over faith!
What a bunch of stupid idiots."

He lets out a long breath. The lights overhead flicker, the supports groan, but the sound is muted, less worrying. Mr. Universe's hair begins to stand on end, debris and wires lifting off the floor. It's so easy. He can generate all he needs right here, and negating the damage done to the stage will cost him nothing at all so long as the crowd cheers. That Gem can throw whatever she likes his way, but he's at the source of his strength.

"Giant asteroid's not angry,
Giant asteroid's gigantic!"

Keep thinking that, Mr. Universe.

A gigantic fresnel light, still searing hot, snaps free from the rigging, hurling down towards the stage next to him.

Meanwhile, in order to get closer to the stage, Lapis is making her way forward, water making long tentacles of her arms that sweep into the cheering audience members with the force of a wave, knocking them sideways and away. His audience may be far more vulnerable than he is.

Edited 2016-05-10 17:27 (UTC)

With the weakened gravity field, it takes little effort to stop the light's downward descent. Mr. Universe snarls in a smile, looking out to line up a shot. She just handed him a mass of broken, sparking, electrical wires. He can fling this right at...

Right... at... the crowd. The soaking wet crowd, who... who isn't moving out of the way. Lapis knocks them aside, and they scream and stagger and choke on the water. Then they get up and start cheering for him again, cries weakened by exhaustion and pain. No one's running for safety, or fighting back. All eyes are on him. He's all that they can think about.

"Better hurry up
Time is nearly running out
Universe is being endangered"

They came here for him, and it's up to him to get them out of there without getting them killed. Just because they're power sources doesn't make them disposable.

"There's so much more out there
What a really giant place
We're like children, this is serious"

He puts his will into the next chord, sending the music out at Lapis in a blast of pure, energized sound. She has a problem with him, she can take it up with him. Leave his people out of it.

Come save your people, Mr. Universe, if they mean that much to you.

For Lapis, the noise only seems to agitate -- like a noise she can't get free of. Again she sweeps through the audience, sending members of it screaming into the ditches and holes that she's made with the erupted pipes.

And then the sound wave hits. Her arms come up over her head as though to fend off the attack, but she's still blown back several feet, her bared feet sliding through the muck that remains of the grass. Head snapping up, she seeks out the source . . .

And her eyes come to rest on him.

A number of things flicker through her face, almost too quick to see in full: Consternation. Anxiety. The very real flickerings of fear. For a bare moment she looks very much as though she would like to curl inward on herself -- curl up and block everything. For a moment her breath is fast, shallow, and weight settles on her shoulders, sagging them as though she anticipates the work before her and knows well that it may end in defeat.

Then her slim frame quivers once, and her focus is back on him, her mouth setting. Pushing off the ground, she launches into the air, coming to rest not far in front of the stage where her clones have cleared out the audience. Her features are dark, resolute.

"Don't think you'll win just because you got free."

"I'll make sure you don't stay."

That little coward--she dares to keep going after his people, lashing out against people who offer her no challenge or threat. Mr. Universe would never call himself anything so sappy as honorable, but no one worth their power would spend it on the villagers instead of the soldier. She's a pillager.

"Giant asteroid's not angry
Giant asteroid's gigantic!"

A burning rage kindles behind his eyes, bright and hot as a newborn star. The alien is talking nonsense, but he figures she must have lost her mind as soon as she started a war on his territory. It's only logical she'd babble accordingly.

He steps forward, pacing downstage to the edge with feet barely touching the ground. It's a very different audience waiting there than a minute before, but he'll give them just as good a show.

"No use in running 'round baby
There's no place to hide!
You should have tried to stop... "

By now static electricity has combined with the lowered gravity, his hair standing fully on end in a burst of unkempt mane. There's a small favor in her moving his fans out of the way: he doesn't have to worry about them getting caught in the crossfire. This time, he spikes the energy blast from his guitar with electricity as it lances out at her.

"...What's about to collide! "

Edited 2016-05-12 03:48 (UTC)

She can feel the electricity surging in the air, building like a coming storm, raising the fine hairs on her arms. He's taken just a bit too long in the buildup; she's expecting the blast, launching off the ground in a cloud of water droplets. The lightning sears into the ground where she just was, blasting outward as it takes out a T-shirt stand in an explosion of wood and metal.

The blast shudders through her gut, and she twists in the air to avoid flying debris. No time to question. No time to think. Not with her enemy who it is.

She snaps a hand inward, almost like a beckon. All around the stage, from every direction they can manage, water lashes into fine chains, shooting towards her opponent. If they glance, they'll cut like metal -- and if they land, grab him by arms and legs until he's strung out, stretched between them like a marionette.

Edited 2016-05-13 02:14 (UTC)

He missed, but she's clearly shaken. He can do this. He'll hold his ground, hold his territory, and keep her on the run.

"Poor space alien...
You're all damned, 'cause you're not saved!"

It's almost too late for him to recognize the motion of her attack. The energy he was building for another bolt of lighting splinters into a dozen cracks of energy blades, frenzied whipcracks of thunder trying to keep the beat as they fend off her assault.

"A hundred million to the power ten
That's an awful lot of them
Inferno filled up to the brim"

Cut chains of water sizzle and evaporate where they're hit, but he's playing catchup against the attack. He needs to find a break in the chains if he's going to switch tactics to something more effective--

An icy manacle locks onto his ankle, and the shock of cold breaks his rhythm for one terrifying, tuneless second. No, nonono. He has to keep his hands free and playing, if he loses the music he's a goner.

Edited 2016-05-13 03:33 (UTC)

One manacle lands -- this she can work with. In a moment, the opposite end has appeared in hands, and plunging to a landing for better leverage, she hauls on it suddenly for all that she's worth, aiming to yank him off his balance and off the stage.

The assault of the water chains hasn't stopped; even as one part fizzles, snapping backwards like a rubberband from the broken end, the next part writhes in the air like a sea snake, regaining momentum and diving back for another round.

He'd moved himself too close to the stage's edge to brace himself properly. The song ends with a squeal of desperate guitar as he tries a sonic defense again, hoping to disrupt as many of the chains as possible, before he hits the mud.

There's a surge through his body: a familiar feeling, one he'd thought he'd abandoned. Fear. Helplessness. Mr. Universe had cast that aside, because he's strong now, capable, able to look after himself. Blanche had stripped all that weakness away. He's supposed to be better than this.

He's supposed to be strong.

Instead, he panics. The mud around him sucks itself dry, water surging into the grass around him. The blades shoot up in one last attempt at a shield.

Giving up already? If Lapis were the type to sneer in victory, she would -- but that's the job of the one on the other end of her chain. Instead she hauls at the chain, planting her feet and dragging him towards her with all the force she can exert, her eyes narrowed and her jaw set with absolute will. His sonic defense works/ the other chains glance off of it and dissolve, but that doesn't erase the fact that he's still connected by one and slowly being pulled forward into whatever fate those blank eyes hold.

The grass shoots up, but by itself, just as grass, it's not not much of a shield. She's pulling him through it. He's running out of time.

Protection, he needs to get himself someplace actually properly safe. He did that bubble thing once, that would work, but he can't remember how. It should be easy! He wants it to happen, it's his magic, so it should.... but it's not. Shoulds and ifs won't help him now.

The chain yanks, and Mr. Universe loses ground inch by inch. He needs to think fast. This barrier, flimsy though it is, prevents her from seeing anything he's up to; he has the opportunity for one good sucker punch.

He plants his feet, more grass winding around his legs to brace himself as much as possible. A low, steady beat in his bass builds up the energy, and his fingers raise sparks as they strum. His legs ache from icy numbness and straining effort, but he has to wait to the last possible second to gather as much energy into it as he can. The snapping electricity through his hands sears up his arms and threatens to burn him from the inside out.

His toes hit the inner edge of his shield, and Mr. Universe drops his guitar, hands latching onto the chain. Every ounce of power surging in an electrical current to the Gem on the other end.

Nothing she was expecting, and nothing she could avoid.

Like a striking thunderbolt, the electrical surge tears upward through the water chain, blasting it to steam in its wake. It's to Lapis before she even realizes it's coming, and even if she could, there's no chance to let go. It rips through her body in an explosion of light, stripping a shriek, raw, from her throat as she's sent arching backward, slamming into a lamppost.

The impact cuts off the sound, and she tumbles into a heap, trembling, shivering as she fights to regain control against the shock. She attempts to push upward; her elbows snap out of their lock en route, sending her crashing back to the earth.

Edited 2016-05-15 01:12 (UTC)

Any other time, that move would leave him completely drained. With the concert's spell saturating the air around him, Mr. Universe can pull in more magical energy just by breathing... but not very quickly. Even now, he feels sluggish and exhausted from the effort, not to mention the burned blisters left on his ankle and hands from the electricity.

The grassy shield parts once the chain evaporates, so he can see his handiwork. She's down, but not out. He can't let up now.

Gulping down as much air and magic as he can, Mr. Universe eases closer to her, congealing his will into a gravity spell to keep her on the ground. He's too tired to make it work from a distance, but he has to get far closer to her than he's comfortable with.

She can't move.

She can't move.

This fact, more than anything, frightens her, churns through her thoughts. She can't get up, certainly can't take off, and she's coming, coming, one foot in front of the other with a sound that drums through her ears.

She wants to scream, shriek again, if only to try to burn off that fear, but even that seems trapped within her, lodged within her throat. Her body quivers, shudders, and she can't seem to pull herself back into control. She's coming, coming, and this time it's Lapis who will pay.

She wrests. She can't move.

This time the shriek tears free -- tears free and can't seem to stop. It cuts through music, rents through crowd noise in one wild, unwavering note.

The water clones react. They dissolve mid-fight and speed in from all directions, converging on Greg . . . glomming and coalescing around him until he's at the center of a giant, watery bubble, cut off from sound and air.

Edited 2016-05-16 02:29 (UTC)

He'd forgotten.

The water clones had been distractions, he'd thought, mindless weapons not worth fighting when the real threat, the real danger, was the gem behind them. Easy to disrupt and destroy with sound, if they got in the way.

His guitar lies on the ground several feet away. Without thinking, he blurts out a yell. Water rushes in his mouth and mutes the sound, muffling the attempt at magic. He's trapped in here.

Trapped. The magic around Lapis vanishes as his focus splinters into panic. He can't breathe. He can't hear. He's going to die on mute, but that's not right, that's not how it's meant to be, he doesn't want to die in silence.

He knew this was going to happen. They'd practically taunted him with it when it happened, telling him that they knew what Luna had truly been, how she was captured, and how it was connected to him. He hadn't known what to do. Crying and pleading proved pointless, as always. He promised them so many things, just so they'd stop. So they'd let her go. He'd been so scared, for himself and for her, that he'd completely shut down. A preemptive flinch from a blow that lasted the few days remaining until the tour began.

It shook him so hard he almost forgot why everything in his head had gone numb with shock in the first place. It's not until the concert that he's capable of waking up. He sees it happening from the place they had System Crash waiting - they weren't a high enough priority to go on first, but that doesn't mean they aren't expected to stay in place and wait their turn.

He wasn't going to do it. He was going to be good, he was going to stay, he was going to do what they said. But then he saw her, and he realized what this would mean. Jin almost managed to stop him, but not quite. Not when he surprised her with a strike of his shield, and then disappeared into the crowd.

By the time he gets over there he's scared it will be too late. The place is a mess, the stage is destroyed, but the crowd is still cheering, even now that the music has been dragged to a halt. This is the Defying Gravity stage. Something inside of him starts to scream. He shoves his way through the remains of the crowd, and makes it to the front just in time to see Greg drowning in a bubble of Lapis's water.

"DAD, NO!" he screams, and charges the fight, his shield forming in a glowing disk above his arm. He strikes the bubble with a powerful smash of his shield, its surface seeming to vibrate with a power that destabilizes the water holding him, rolling off into the area around them in waves.

The spell is gone; she can move again . . . and yet she's still shaking. Shuddering. She's wrapped her arms around herself, clutching her shoulders, holding herself as tightly as she can, and she still can't stop shaking. She doesn't seem to notice as Steven's shield strikes her bubble or as a wave of cold water washes across her lap.

For a moment she's turned inward; she sees and hears nothing -- only the gasp of her breath.

Wrong. Something's wrong. Her mind is swimming, undulating, as though the impact off the shield has done more than destabilize the water bubble.

"Why . . ." The words are soft, but they're strangled; it's not even certain if she's directing the words to Steven or talking to herself. "Why . . . would you set her free?"

Sharper, louder, and all of her muscles are suddenly tense, her eyes squeezed shut: "Why would you let her go?"

Abruptly her fists slam downward into the water still pooled on the earth, not yet soaked in. It grows, it rises, it writhes, collecting as it goes . . . until it's a massive pillar, a wave ten feet, twelve feet, fifteen feet high, looming, its crest shivering.

Edited 2016-05-16 15:01 (UTC)

There's little he can do but collapse to the ground and remember how to breathe; it's an uphill battle, more coughing up water than taking in air at first, but he's pretty determined to get this right.

Her voice rings out, and Mr. Universe flinches. There's so much rage, so much betrayal... she can do it to him again. It'd be easy. He's not safe.

But then, he's out. He didn't escape, and she sure didn't let him free. It's because of... bleary eyes fall on the terrified little boy. "Kid...?" When did he get here? Why's he doing this, he's not supposed to be... she'll drown them both, now. "I told you to stay away..." It's not an admonishment, or even angry. Merely a weak, croaking comment of confusion.

Well... he doesn't really know what a shield is supposed to do against that, but okay? He staggers back up to his feet, having collapsed down to his knees with a sob immediately after breaking the bubble of water. He's soaking wet and shaken, but he lifts his shield against the threat regardless. He can't seem to stop crying.

"Lapis, no," he says, his voice strained with his distress. "I don't want to fight you..."

And it feels so familiar, like he's been here before. In some ways, almost exactly. Except, at this moment, he doesn't feel like he can really recognize anything. Not his dad, not Lapis, and not himself.

"Please," he begs. "Let him go?"

She stares back at him. Every muscle is tensed and ready to move, ready to release the torrent that she's holding. It's as though she can't quite decide what she's seeing -- as though her vision clouds, doubles, splinters, and she can't quite focus, can't quite see. Wavering, she sways lightly, icy fingers wrapping around her spine.

"What . . . are you--"

A larger shudder, harder.

Louder, sudden, frantic, breaking: "Get away!"

"I can't--"

A convulsion moves through her as though from her very depths; it swells through her until she shrieks again. The pillar of water wavers dangerously, as though any moment it will spill over. It tilts, starts to spill . . . releases a pattering of warning droplets.

She shrills again, and the sound splinters, shattering through her chest in a gasp of air as though it's being strangled off.

Edited 2016-05-18 02:52 (UTC)

The moment her will to act breaks, Steven is already lowering his shield. This isn't just about whether or not she attacks them - she's so obviously hurting, and badly, that he can't hold himself from running forward to try to offer some kind of comfort. Her screams shake him down to his core.

"Lapis! It's - It's okay, I'm... It's not your fault! I'm going to help you, okay?"

By doing what, he doesn't know. He can't do anything. This is a battle in her head, and he doesn't even know if he can get close enough to touch her. Yet, still, he finds himself edging forward, lifting a hand out to her. Even if she can't take it, even if she doesn't even notice it in her pain... it's there for her.

"I'm... I'm here."

"Steven . . ." The word quivers, whispered; it crackles with weariness and strain. But it's not quite as if she knows he's there. It's as though she's asleep, trapped in a bad dream, some other version of him in front of her mind's eye even as his hand reaches out to her in life. Her shoulders hunch; she pulls inward as though willing her body to come to a still. "I have t--"

Another convulsion, hard and jolting as electricity, and her spine snaps upward as she releases one last screech, hard and long.

The water pillar comes free of its hold, collapses inward on itself . . . and sweeps towards both him and Mr. Universe full-force.

It's impossible for Mr. Universe to say whether he remains frozen out of fear, confusion, or exhaustion more. All he can do is absorb the scene, but it's only confusing him more. Sure, he'd thought Lapis was unhinged, but it's plain she's completely disconnected from reality.

There's neither the time nor brainpower on Mr. Universe's side to figure out what to do. The gem shrieks and the water starts to fall. The kid went ahead and put himself in the middle of a fight that was none of his business, and he's going to get hurt because of his weak father.

There's a wordless yell of fear and strain as Mr. Universe reaches out and grabs Steven close. A swirl of greenish magic covers them, leaving a bubble shield blocking them from the oncoming torrent.

He doesn't know what to do when Lapis lets the water fall. He doesn't know if his shield will be enough to protect both him and his dad. He doesn't know if it's big enough to protect even himself. He could probably do the bubble thing, but he can't remember how to maybe it happen when put on the spot like this.

Except, it ends up not mattering, because the next moment Greg has him in his arms and his own version of a bubble shield is swirling around them. Steven stares at it in wonder, his shield dissipating in a shimmer of light, before looking up at the man holding him as the water rushes around them.

"Dad?" he asks softly, and with the first rays of hope in his voice

Lapis sways in the wake of her wave, gazing across the space at them both. Her shoulders slump inward, and standing there, she's suddenly too small, almost delicate, the marks of her collarbone and the wilting curve of her neck too stark.

Her breath shudders through her chest as though she can't quite get enough air. As though she's drowning and can't get another breath.

Her wings shoot out in a shower of raindroplets, and she pushes off, surging into the air.

☆TRACK XI: THIS FIXATION

CLOSED

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