☆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

[panspermia]

"Mm," he agrees, keeping his eyes on the frets. "I'm really... really scared." He says it so easily. Maybe, if he's open and honest with everything, everything around them will start being that way too. What a nice world that would be. "All I wanted at the start of this was to play music, you know?"

[loveconservative]

"I only just got here. I didn't realize it was like this." Sorry, Greg. She's just gonna dump all the emotions on you oops.

[panspermia]

His strumming is wistful and soft, the music assuring this is a safe space for emotional dumping. "None of us did. I'd really hoped you guys wouldn't get the same... whatever this is, but..." They're all stuck in this nightmare together.

[loveconservative]

"I spoke with Mr. Blanche." Nia's a polite soul. "He said... he'll protect us so long as we're loyal. But I don't--" She holds back a sniffle. She's doing good. She's not as much of a mess as she was earlier. "I don't want to do this anymore."

[panspermia]

Greg's breath catches, for just a second. That man sure gets around. "He knows we're all scared, after that. He wants to make sure that fear doesn't get used to fight him." Not that Greg thinks they could. Blanche isn't scared of them, he knows. He just wants them under control. "He'll turn us against each other, if he needs to."

[loveconservative]

"If we don't listen, he... he would just get rid of us. He'd throw us away--"

Throw them away...? Nia's entire body freezes, her eyes going wide.

A dark room. Only light around her and the... beast... before her.
"The Spiral king dispatched me to eliminate you."
"Then what Adiane said was true?" She hears her own voice coming out of her mouth. She doesn't remember this, She's never met an Adiane, but the memory feels natural. The sadness hits her in the chest as if it had actually happened.
"Yes, I believe so. If only you had stayed sleeping in that valley, you would have died peacefully. The Spiral King's life is eternal. He has already lived more than a thousand years. He creates children just for entertainment. That's why, when he gets bored, he throws them out. Just like dolls. That's all there is to it."
"Dolls?"
"I heard you asked the King why you were born? That was a bad thing to do. He hates free thinking. And that should be so, because there's no need for a doll to have free will."
"I am... just like that doll..."

Tears spring up to Nia's eyes and she begins to shake again. She looks at Greg for another moment before she drops her face into her hands, sobbing.

[panspermia]

He wants to tell her that won't happen. If they stick together, they can protect each other, they'll figure it out. The memory of his bandmates stops him from the hollow reassurances: people can vanish in an instant, under the guise of being "fired."

Finally, his hands stop moving over the strings, and Greg reaches over to put an arm around her shoulder. There's no promises he can make for the future, but he can be here right now.

[loveconservative]

"Something is happening to me." Nia's voice is small and shaking. Can she even tell Greg this? Is that okay? She can't tell her band--she's sure half of them don't like her and the ones who do... she can't burden them with her any more, not when Tsuna has been struggling just like she has tonight.

"What happens when he finds out?"

If only you had stayed sleeping in that valley, you would have died peacefully. Died. Died? Is that what will happen?

[panspermia]

Boy, is that an understatement. Seems like everyone's affected--and there's no chance Blanche doesn't know. It's more a matter of keeping him from confirming it.

"Better not to find out."

He hugs her closer into his side. "What you need is to be smarter than him."

[loveconservative]

"I want Simon." The name is out of her mouth before she can stop herself. She doesn't even know who he is. But she knows she needs him. She knows she wants him here. He can keep her safe, can't he? "I'm not smart enough."

[panspermia]

"Sure you are." He doesn't know much of anything about Nia. She's in Virgo. She's young. She tried to kill several people today. She's scared, and lost. He has no idea how smart she is. But he's sure she can manage it, if she doesn't give up. "You know about what he can do now. You can be ready for him."

There's a pause, before Greg speaks again, not looking down at her. "Is Simon someone you remembered?"

[loveconservative]

Simon will come for me. She'd been so sure. But what if he didn't? What if he couldn't?

Who the hell was he and why was she so dead-set on this desire??

She's afraid to answer Greg. If she was smart, she wouldn't. But he's been so nice and he's kind and he's not scolding her for all the terrible things she did and he stopped her and he saved someone... That has to be the kind of person she could trust. And if he knows she's remembering things... then he has to remember things, too.

She nods, silently.

[panspermia]

In reality, Greg's been far more open with people on the subject of his memories than he should be. Were he smarter, he'd reel it back, only mentioning it to the closest and most clever of friends, if even that.

Yet, he can't stop himself. It helps him to share it, to confirm he's not the only one experiencing these memories, these questions. It makes him feel less lonely.

"See?" He squeezes her shoulder, trying his best to sound confident. "That's one thing you know about, and he doesn't. Your advantage."

[loveconservative]

"Knowing about him won't help me if he isn't here. And I have remembered other things, as well... I don't want to remember them."

[panspermia]

"Knowing about him is something only you have. That's something that belongs to you, so long as you keep it safe."

He sighs, looking up at the stars as he speaks. "It might not seem like much. It might not seem very helpful. But when he's got everything, all we can do for now is remember that we have something that he doesn't, no matter how small."

[loveconservative]

"But I remembered something terrible..." She holds her arms around herself, like it's what's keeping her together.

[panspermia]

"That's yours too." It's not the most reassuring thing to hear, he knows. The hand that's not around her runs its thumb over the guitar strings, strumming tunelessly.

"Good and awful things. That's the proof we're real."

[loveconservative]

Proof they're real? She just remembered that she was a doll... She just shakes her head.

[panspermia]

Greg can't possibly know what she remembered. Everyone has such strange things going through their heads; he's given up trying to imagine.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

[loveconservative]

She looks away from him, casting her eyes literally anywhere but at Greg. She shakes her head again. How do you tell someone you don't want to die out of the blue/

[panspermia]

"Okay." He squeezes her shoulder again. "It's okay. I'm really scared too." He can't offer her reassurances, and he won't invade where he's not wanted. But he can remind her she's not alone.

[loveconservative]

"If something happens to us... we won't forget each other, right?" If Blanche gets rid of her--she won't just be forgotten? Any of them? Her band? The kind people she's met?

That guy she didn't like that she pushed off a balcony?

[panspermia]

"Definitely." It's the most sure he's been of anything all night. "We've already lost people. We still miss them." He doesn't doubt that they could take memories of each other away, but it seems they can't be bothered.

[loveconservative]

Nia presses her face into his shoulder, then. Just for a few seconds. "We... we will try not to disappear, then."

[panspermia]

"Yep." He strums a low chord. "I'm trusting you on that."