interstellar5555 | ☆INTERLUDE: YOU WILL BELIEVE IN ME

Who: All the opt outs, and DAFT PUNK.
What: Gold and Silver waste everybody's time.
When: December 7th, 2054
Where: A warehouse in outer Vista City.
Warnings: NPCs being cryptic.

“I will cry for you,
I will cry for you.
I will wash away your 
pain with all my tears,
And drown your fear.”

☆YOU WILL BELIEVE IN ME

You were late, for some reason. It doesn't matter whether it was because of an important photo shoot, a performance that ran late, or just being generally slothful and slow: you're all getting shuffled onto the last shuttle out. Maybe you didn't want to go to he party and were trying to avoid it. There's a weird tension that been leading up to it, especially on Virgo's side, and as you stare out at the cityscape beneath you may find those same misgivings rising up again. No matter your feelings, attendance has been made mandatory. The punishment for not showing is likely not worth the relief of avoiding it, at least if its your fault.

So maybe it's a blessing when your shuttle driver suddenly seems to cease, and then takes your shuttle abruptly off course. It's less obvious at first, but it becomes more and more so as you fly - you're supposed to be heading to the coast, but your flight path is heading down to the south, out to a comparatively barren industrial sector of Vista that you've never actually seen. They are unresponsive to speaking and shouting, and the layer of glass that separates you make it impossible to actually disrupt them.

You're more or less the prisoner of this little detour until it finally begins to land, sailing gracefully through the doors of an otherwise unremarkable warehouse. There are two shuttles arriving within the same few minutes - one marked with Pride colours, and the other with Virgo.

The entry gate closes, and seals itself. A few minutes after that, your pilot moves for the first time in a while and opens the doors for you, leaving themselves sealed within the cab and apparently not being very fussed about it at all. You're released out into the warehouse, and you can see there are...bean bag chairs littered about? And some coolers filled with beer and vodka? What the hell?

One of the walls even has a projector connected to a computer, apparently set up to watch movies. Ultimately, it's not really what you expect out of a sudden hijacking. A few moments later, a pair of masked people who may or may not be familiar come riding out of one of the upper levels on a shared, flying motorcycle, landing and dismounting at a bit of a hectic pace. Gold helmet is at the wheel.

"You made it!" they declare, somewhat awkwardly. They sound a bit rushed. Silver pushes themselves off of the back, tucking some kind of device into their leather jacket.

"Look, guys, let's make this simple. So far as you're concerned, this is a stick up. You're ours for...the next five hours, let's say. Behave yourself and everyone goes home, no problem."

Gold looks over at Silver for a moment, and then addresses you in a bit more friendly manner:

"So...point is, you may as well have some fun and just deal with it! Nobody here wants to fight, right? Let's be chill." There's a pause. "We brought booze?"

☆YOU WILL BELIEVE IN ME

So, you're stuck here for the foreseeable future, it seems. Your captors don't seem to mean any harm - if you stay non-violent, they will too. There could even be an opportunity to gather some information, if you can keep your cool. The pair of them will be cycling in and out over the night, and despite an apparent tension in the air, they also seem...bored? Maybe just restless.

There is something going on that they're not telling you, and it's up to you whether you want answers or not. As it is, they seem happy enough to sit back and watch the movies they have set up on that computer and knock a few back.

No ones phones will be able to get signals, in the meantime. You can only wonder what this means for your friends stuck on the other side.

“See your face every place that I walk in;
Hear your voice every time I am talking.
You will believe in me,
And I will never be ignored.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If only. But kidnappers are rude as a rule. These [he waved over at Silver and Gold] weirdos are the exception. Probably. I don't have a lot of experience in getting kidnapped.

[his smile turned friendlier]

A pleasure Trucy. I'm Tooru Oikawa from Crown of Throns.

Well... I've only been kidnapped a couple of times. But this is much nicer than the last time.

[Her tone is oddly casual given the topic.]

You know, I kinda expected being a star would be tough, but I didn't think it would be so weird.

[And wait... now have a blank stare]

Wait, what? You've been kidnapped before?

Huh? Well, yeah. The whole torture carnival thing...

[Hang on...]

Oh! That's right, you guys weren't around then! Sorry.

No. But let me take a wild guess that Predator was involved?

[Well, Xanxus' backside was good for something]

[She nods.]

Good guess.

They kidnapped a whole bunch of us and played a bunch of creepy horror movie games with us. It was way worse than this.

[He makes a disgusted sound]

Unbelievable. And to think they're still able to do as they please.

[He looks over at Gold and Silver]

I suppose this could be worse. They only seem intent on being annoying.

[Of course, that could change at any moment]

[Trucy sighs a little huffily.]

I'm not sure Ms. Lesedi even cares what they did. They're pretty popular right now and I think you can away away with almost anything if you're making money for the label.

[She might be a little bit miffed by how profits are very clearly ahead of things like art and common decency. ~~Of course once this is all over she'll know that it's so much worse that just selfishness and greed.~~ ]

Any decent human being would care.

But Lesedi doesn't strike me as decent human being.

[He's suddenly rethinking about going to the police about Predator. Seriously, they're out of control. Probably need rehab something awful]

[A pause, because Trucy doesn't like to think badly of people. But then she nods.]

I'm starting to think she's not. But that only makes it more dangerous to try to take on Predator. She'd never let you get away with it unless you were more popular than them.

[She might be aiming for that herself, actually. Maybe not to go against Predator, but more because it provides a sort of protection.]

[Tooru watches her closely. He can pick up on that she wants to protect others. Noble goal. But how obtainable is it? Tooru was never one to concern himself with popularity, preferring what the critics said to what the fans said, but even he couldn't argue against the power of the dollar]

I agree.

[He sighs and leans back in his bean bag]

Guess we just gotta try to be more popular then.

That's what I'm gonna do. I'm going onward and upward until System Crash is at the top.

[Her voice is filled with more quiet conviction than people usually hear from the bubbly magician, but this is important to her.]

Then no one can touch us.

[It's the only thing she can think of that might protect her surrogate family. The only way they can gain anything like power or leverage.]

[Tooru respects this. He respects this a lot actually]

Good luck.

[He says this sincerely, it's not often he does that to people outside of his band]

You're going to need it.

[The serious express shifts back into a smile.]

I think we're all going to need a little luck. But even without that, my sense of showmanship won't lose to anyone!

[She sure is confident, at least.]

I don't know about that.

[He gives her a teasing smile.] It might lose to mine.

We'll see about that! We may be on the same label, but that doesn't mean I'll go easy on you~

[She's competitive. Crown of Thorns can be second place though, that's fine. And obviously all the Pride bands need to be ahead of all the Virgo ones.]

Nor I on you.

[Ah, a friendly rivalry. Those were fun to have.]

[She laughs. Yeah, those are super fun.]

Oh, it is on now! You should come to our next show. I'm gonna make it a performance no one will ever forget.

☆INTERLUDE: YOU WILL BELIEVE IN ME

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