☆TRACK V: I WILL TWIST THE KNIFE PT. 2

[interdimanagers]

Who: Everyone in the last part of the log.
What: Everyone has a terrible night.
When: December 7th, 2054
Where: Naomi's ocean side mansion, followed by a secret Pride laboratory.
Warnings: Violence, blood, and at least one murder. Vague gore. NPCs being unhinged in a threatening way, though it's possible to have your character avoid ended up in the ballroom if you don't want to see this mess.

☆I WILL TWIST THE KNIFE The bubble has burst. The chaos of the night’s violence has finally boiled over into something uncontrollable – blood has been spilt, screams have been heard. No matter where you are in the mansion, you know by now that something is acutely wrong. Multiple members of Pride have been hurt – possibly killed – and you may still have no idea why. Some will try to escape. Some will try to fight back. Yet, as any rebellion starts to descend, a piercing note - a melodic cry - will summon you towards the ballroom. It can be resisted, in part - but only as far as you find yourself frozen in place instead of moving forward, at least while this spell holds. It's drawing you to the source...if you follow it, maybe you can stop it. The compulsion is strong for members of both labels. The cry seems to echo long past its termination point, to be heard wherever you are. If followed, it will bring you to Naomi Rivers in the center of the ballroom, her expression creased with strain. Though you may desperately want to strike her, something intangible is holding you back. "No!" she shouts at any Virgo nearby. "It isn't done! You need to...you need to finish this!" She'll point desperately at the nearby Pride, rendered unable to flee. "Get them now!" You don't want to. "Do it!" The compulsion weighs heavily on you - for Virgo, to act, and for Pride to surrender themselves. All subtly has disappeared. This last effort is unconcealed and nearly hysterical. You feel yourself slipping beneath the soundwaves. Power rolls off of her, the energy thick in the air, like something you can taste and smell. You can't do this. "I command-" The fabric of space-time cracks like a peal of thunder. All at once, the spell shatters.

Comments

[interstellarnpcs]

There are many thing you don't understand, aren't there?

You'll find out, with time. I have confidence in your ability to learn, Luce.

[giglio_madonna]

[There's so much she doesn't understand. It's infuriating, especially since what she does know now has come at the life of someone.]

[Taking in a deep shaking breath, Luce curls her hand into a fist against her stomach.]

That's one of us, then. I suspect I'd learn quicker if you didn't play the hermit and actually answered your emails.

[Maybe, somehow, she would have seen this coming. It's an irrational thought... But it's quickly becoming clear that Edward Blanche is where answers lie.]

...Are we going to be expected to do that at some point? Whatever it was that Naomi did?

[interstellarnpcs]

[Any traces of that smile disappear from his face. He narrows his eyes, staring into space.]

What Naomi did was something of great skill and ability. Not everyone is capable of it.

[giglio_madonna]

[Well. That's... reassuring, in it's own strange way, even as Luce glances down another sad glance to the woman's body.]

She's dead now. Doesn't that even worry you at all...?

[interstellarnpcs]

It wasn't unexpected.

[Which comes with a certain hollowness, but not enough of it for what has actually happened.]

[giglio_madonna]

If it wasn't unexpected, couldn't you have stopped it?

[Or, really, any of this, but Luce is starting to realize a few things.]

[interstellarnpcs]

[There is no real urgency to explain or justify himself to her. He really doesn't have to.]

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst, they say.

[giglio_madonna]

At this rate, "the worst" might be all the musicians who just watched you do nothing while one of your own was brutally murdered deciding to leave this label.

[Is there anything Blanche worries about?]

[interstellarnpcs]

Having witnessed what you just saw...do you honestly believe that's an option anymore?

[He turns to look at her, the cold becoming hard and threatening like sharp spears of ice.]

That you can really just decide to leave?

[giglio_madonna]

[The cold chill has now built a house in her vertebrae. It's looking to start a family.]

So you'd just messily kill people like she did? That you could kill everyone here, and no one would really notice a bunch of celebrities missing?

[interstellarnpcs]

And who do you think controls the lens that the media sees you all through? How many people outside of these walls know who you truly are?

I am being entirely honest when I assure you...you have nowhere to go.

[giglio_madonna]

["Know who they truly are"... Why does that strike a chord from somewhere within her?]

So there's nowhere else to go but to stay in a place where we might get struck down by a woman you've just made extremely angry to the point of swearing vengeance?

Mister Blanche, you're dreadful at making a persuasive argument.

[interstellarnpcs]

You aren't understanding. This is the only place you'll not be struck down. Without my protection, you are as good as dead...if not worse.

[Dead serious.]

[giglio_madonna]

And what's "worse"?

[She may as well get the full knowledge before she picks her poison.]