interstellar5555 | ☆TRACK V: I WILL TWIST THE KNIFE PT. 1

Who: Everyone that isn't an opt out!
What: Naomi Rivers throws a terrible holiday party.
When: December 7th, 2054
Where: Naomi's ocean side mansion.
Warnings: Violence, poisoning, various murder attempts, mind control, general uncomfortable lack of consent. Also, probably drug use. Maybe sex? Who knows what you'll get up to.

“I will burn for you;
Feel pain for you.
I will twist the knife 
and bleed my aching heart,
And tear it apart.”

☆I WILL TWIST THE KNIFE

The first two hours of the solstice party are surprisingly normal. Members of both labels arrive by private sky shuttle, and are invited into the ballroom for food and drink. It’s even more surprising when both Lesedi Santiago and Edward Blanche arrive as well, and spent most of that first period speaking quietly in a nearby lounge area. Lesedi’s body guards and Juno watch the space around them, keeping anyone of lesser important from interrupting what looks to be quite the serious discussion.

After food, the ballroom stage is taken over by a number of increasingly impressive entertainment pieces. It seems to be obligatory for everyone to stay and watch (not that it’s a struggle – the talent involved is unmistakeable), but not long into it Lesedi and Edward can be seen disappearing outside together, and show no immediate signs of returning.

And that’s when Naomi Rivers takes the stage.

To the Virgo that have heard it before, the song is more viscerally familiar than anything you’ve only heard once should be, and it awakens the ideas that were implanted there the night before. You have a job to do here, tonight. One that is only fair – almost righteous. Lesedi Santiago and her ilk will suffer for her transgressions.

The performances end, and everyone is released out to the rest of the grounds, to mingle and celebrate at their leisure. While things may seem civil on the surface, beneath that something dark is brewing. You gradually begin to notice that almost none of the more veteran members of either label are present.

► BALLROOM: The central nexus of the party, the ballroom is the location of the buffet table, the stage, and the dance floor. There will be music available all night, even after the official “performances” have ended. There are tables set up around the edges of the room for eating and relaxing.

► LOUNGE: Where Lesedi and Edward were having their meeting earlier, the lounge is filled with comfortable chairs, classic art, and a large, ornate fireplace. If you figure out who to ask, there are a number of chemical vices available to all guests.

► BALCONIES: There is a generous series of balconies that line the exterior of the upper floor. The ocean can be seen from one side and the gardens can be seen from the other.

► GUEST ROOMS: Down the halls from the ballroom there are a few generous guest bedrooms that have been left open for use.

► GARDENS: Out towards the back there are a wide variety of plants, and a well kept stone path and manmade waterfall. The plant life is on the sedate side due to the winter, but it’s still green.

► OUTDOOR POOL: There’s a pool out front with a shallow and a deep end. The water is clear and artificially warmed.

☆OOC CONSIDERATIONS

Please remember that any attempted assassinations are meant to remain covert, and if your character is incapable of being stealthy then you must assume that any attempts you make are happening towards the end of the evening – let’s say around 11PM. The spell compelling people to do this does not want a riot or a bloodbath – what it wants is for people to die before the rest of the group can realize that anything is even going on. Of course, this isn’t exactly going to work out, but if you are finding yourself getting into the realm of intense physical violence you might want to stop and slow down a little.

Virgo members that didn’t hear the song the night before are free from any compulsions, and so are all members of Pride. If non-mind controlled characters start clueing in to what’s going on and start trying to evacuate in large numbers, that is where you’ll want to wrap up threads and wait for Part 2 of the log, which will contain the end results and will be triggered by any large amount of chaos.

If any characters attempt to escape earlier in the evening, they’ll find that the shuttles have all been grounded, and wandering in the woodland nearby just seems to result in them getting lost and ending up back at the mansion. It’s a real pickle.

If you’ve got any question about what’s going on please leave them on the original plot post and they’ll get answered! The opt out event will be posted ASAP.

“I will lie for you;
Beg and steal for you.
I will crawl on hands 
and knees until you see:
You're just like me.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Stressful is one word for it, and Rei's definitely taking a sip of her own drink, and this one is definitely alcoholic. A bubbly wine, just to soothe her nerves a little before she goes on. The headaches have been getting worse, and there was Ivan's mysterious "possession" and Luce's collapse, not to mention Ivan's touch sensitivity and Doctor's...well...being himself.

"It's a coincidence I don't like," Rei answers with a deeper frown. Resting her drink on the balcony ledge, she looks out with Jamie, eyes hazing over as she loses herself in this train of thoughts. It would be easy to just get lost there, with how badly her head is swimming.

"Because I'm not sure it is. Sora's the only one missing from your band, isn't he? Or are Bee and Maxxie gone too? I've seen Yosuke, of course." She had to, she'd gone swimming with him and all. "Was Sora running late tonight? Pao-Pao and Ivan were."

"All the rest of the guys are here with me tonight." Jamie doesn't even really notice the phrasing he's used, the implication that as long as Jamie knows his bandmates are nearby they're somehow safe and protected. "Sora was late, though, yeah. He texted me a couple times from the shuttle he was taking with some of the other people from HQ. Seemed okay." Jamie sounds a little dubious now, but the fact that Sora was responding to texts was a marked improvement over the last time he'd been separated from the band.

He leans his elbows on the railing, chewing his lip worriedly. He's not sure how much it's safe to reveal here, but maybe he should ask anyway. "Were your bandmates acting...weird, before tonight?" He continues in an undertone, "Like doing anything that'd make your boss wanna have 'em hauled off for a talking-to?"

He really, really doesn't want to think that's what's happened again, he feels a little sick just contemplating the possibility that Sora's been taken back to wherever he was during the last days of lockdown, but the conversation is making him a little paranoid, and he worries about Sora more than he'd like to admit.

Rei's eyes flick up to Jamie now, focusing intently. That's...a bit of an oddly specific question. It sounds like he's experienced this a bit, and she has some idea of what he's talking about.

"How...do you mean weird?" Fretting her lip, Rei goes on, clarifying just so he's not thinking she's confused. "I mean, they have been acting odd, but...yours have been too, haven't they?"

Jamie sighs through his nose, trying to think of a better way of clarifying what he means. "Yeah, everyone's been acting weird, but I mean..." He makes an aimless little gesture with the lowball glass in his hand. "Look, the only reason I can think of for specific people from both our labels being absent tonight is because more of that shit's going down that happened during lockdown."

He lowers his voice and leans in, his head next to Rei's. To anyone glancing their way from the house, it probably looks downright intimate. "Some people from Pride got hauled into Santiago's office. I think most of 'em came back right afterward, but Sora was gone for days." He leans back, looking morbid. "I dunno if that's what's going on now. I fucking hope not. It could just be a big coincidence that all these people just happened to be running late for this party and haven't showed up yet, but the way things are going, man..."

Jamie trails off, taking another swig from his glass. "Who the fuck knows."

Then it's a good thing they're alone with their backs to the house and more people are worried about getting murderated than finding two teenagers kissing, hmm? Rei leans in herself, listening along and nodding. "It's...kind of the same at Virgo. Ivan was picked up and sent to Mr. Blanche's assistant's office. He was gone for a long, long time. Other people were too, but they told us Ivan was sick. Only he wasn't."

Her voice takes on an undercurrent of worry, brows furrowing deeply at the implications. She hadn't thought of it like that, but Sora was gone, and so was Ivan...and that was a really weird coincidence.

"The way things are going, there could be a correlation. The way things are going...it could be a lot of things. I'm...something about all this really stinks, Jamie. There's some definite bullcrap going on. And I think we're right to be worried. And I also I think we have to stick together. Since it's obvious that there's something going on with Santiago and Blanche."

Jamie mulls this all over, eyes focused somewhere between the ground below and his half-empty glass of liquor. The evidence presented is concerning; this all seems a little much to be a coincidence, but there's no proof that it's anything more, either. Jamie is naturally high-strung and prone to fretting with little provocation, and his first inclination is to agree with Rei that something terrible is happening, or about to happen, and that they'll all need to support each other to get through it.

But on the other hand...

On the other hand, he's just so tired of this. He got into the music business for the fun and glamor (didn't he? hadn't he?) and he just wants one uninterrupted week to relax and enjoy his life, a break from the near-constant deluge of hallucinations and abductions and things they can't explain and people freaking out over weird bullshit. Is that so much to ask?

"Look," he says finally, turning to Rei with a sigh. "I agree there's something fucked-up going on. Probably. And it wouldn't hurt to stay in touch and trade information. But we're all kind of on our last nerve tonight. It's been a crazy month and everyone's trying to recover. And..." He pauses, gives his head a shake.

"I don't think it'll do any good to look for the worst in everything. If we do that, we really will go crazy. It's no way to live, y'know?"

Rei listens, she lets him finish, and throws back the cup of wine she'd been drinking in a single swallow. And then she eyes Jamie himself, finally. There's an uncomfortable silence while she thinks over what he's saying. Something in her doesn't want to just let this go. She won't. She can't. But something he's saying is right, on a fundamental level. If that was what they focused on, instead of the fun things too? Then maybe they would go crazy.

She lets out a breath and reaches over to Jamie now, rubbing his back in what she figures is a sisterly fashion. Hopefully it's taken that way, anyway.

"If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it," Rei finally answers with a gentle tone. "Herodotus. But the same also said 'The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.'"

She holds that thought for a moment, letting it sink in. "We can't ignore this and bury our heads in the sand. But maybe we can just let it go tonight. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

Jamie looks up at the back-rub, a little surprised, but doesn't protest it, and once again lets a contemplative silence settle between them. He's kind of glad she's agreeing with him, though at the same time he feels a little guilty, and knows that she's right about not being able to ignore it.

But one night of fun won't kill them, right?

He swirls the remaining liquid in his glass and glances up at her, mouth quirked up in a half-smile. "You didn't make me uncomfortable. I know we need to figure stuff out. And I'm sure we'll have time to discuss it all later. Me and Yosk have been talking about it, some of the other guys at Pride too. With all of us working on it, we'll figure out what's going on eventually."

He's sure of it. No matter how freaky or supernatural it is.

"Maybe in a week or so. You, me, Yosuke, and a couple of others can meet up. Ivan, Sora, maybe a couple of others too," Rei suggests, letting his back go and gripping her drink just a little more tightly.

"So, are you a fan of Miss Woods music?"

☆TRACK V: I WILL TWIST THE KNIFE PT. 1

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject