You laugh until you cry; you cry until you laugh

[sailorgenerous]

Who: Virgo musicians - Ghost Quest people and their friends
What: When eight musicians go missing, what happens to those left behind? What happens when those eight come back far worse for the wear?
When: Feb 1st-3rd and after
Where: Virgo HQ
Warnings: Talk of torture, violence, brainwashing, etc. It's ugly in here, folks.

The past three days have not been kind. The hauntings were odd, yes, but when your friends went missing without warning or a trace - well.

How have you been coping? Have you been coping?

And then they came back just as suddenly, and...it looks like your worries were not unfounded.

This isn't good, is it.

Comments

[faithfulflame]

Of course.

[Rei steps inside and waits, rocking on her heels anxiously as she does. It's not easy but she understands. She'd of course told Ivan, Pao-Lin, and the Doctor what she was doing, not wanting to worry them. She gets it, and she's ready to go when Rarity is.]

Yes, absolutely.

[Reaching for the hand again, she tugs Rarity towards the elevators in silence, taking her out the side doors and onto Virgo's private beach. It's a warm day, for winter, sunny and bright...with a grey sea stretching out to a stormy horizon. Winter storms were the worst, but this was miles and miles off.

And it gave them time to talk alone.

Leading her to a seat on one of the tables permanently set up, she finally say something.]

Rarity. It's just you and Greg now, isn't it? Since night before last?

[sailorgenerous]

[Rarity pulls her sweater a little closer around her before sitting down. As Rei speaks, she starts and stares.]

Yes- how did you know?

[This does not bode well.]

What happened?

[faithfulflame]

[Rei tries to look reassuring, she probably fails at it, but she keeps it together and just mentally prepares to lay it all out on the table. Almost all of it, anyway. Luce's gone, but Ivan wasn't caught. So he's not on the table.]

Luce's missing too.

[She puts her hands down on her knees, squeezing a bit, knuckles going white.]

Before I answer that, I have to know. Has anything weird happened to you lately? Like, dreams of places you think can't be real. Or people? And, I guess the last couple of days, has it seemed like ghosts or something were around? Pots moving when you weren't looking, or things falling down, stuff like that?

[sailorgenerous]

[That...is not a good look. Rarity braces for impact as best she can, but she's still not prepared to handle the news that Rei is going through the same thing that she and Greg are.]

Oh, Rei, I'm sorry.

[She'd take Rei's hand if Rei hadn't moved them under the table. Rarity falls silent at the line of questioning - it was the same thing she'd spoken about with Greg before everyone went missing...]

[She looks over her shoulder, as though Kimiko could pop up out of the sand - but there's nobody within sight. It's only slightly reassuring, but it does help.]

Yes - all of it, actually. I spoke with Greg about it, and he said it's been going on for months, and that...the managers don't like it.

[faithfulflame]

It's not the first time. It's alright. I'll live. So will she.

[That's what bothers her. It's not the first time. For anyone.]

Rarity. Did you hear anything about the party on the solstice, at Naomi Woods home?

[This is important too. This is really, really important. Naomi had been an important singer, prolific, even. Extremely famous.]

[sailorgenerous]

['Stunned silence' is not a good look on Rarity, and yet she finds herself wearing it more and more often these days. It's not the first time- This has happened here - to Rei - before-]

[The question jars her out of her shock, and she tries to remember.]

I- no. I did hear about her, ah...

[Her suicide. It had been in the papers as a holiday tragedy, but now Rarity was starting to think that may not have been the case...]

[faithfulflame]

[Rei shakes her head, smiling sadly. Suicide would've been easier. A tragedy, but so often people died young in this industry. Now she does reach out to Rarity, setting a hand on the other girl's shoulder and squeezing it lightly, trying to shoe some sense of solidarity.]

She was murdered by Lesedi Santiago.

[Rei's voice is matter of fact, but not entirely devoid of emotion. There's anger there The woman had done something to her family, tried to have someone hurt her boy and her friend, but nobody deserved to be...killed...like that.]

Blanche stopped her from killing everyone in the room. With some...power...I can't even begin to describe. Like magic. He was using magic.

[There's a bombshell...the first one.]

[sailorgenerous]

[For a moment - for a few very long moments - Rarity simply does not have words. Greg had talked to her about magic, about the odd things occurring, but...but murder, and from the label execs, and-]

[Her hands cover her mouth in shock, and for a bit it's all she can do to breathe.]

[But she has to know-]

And then what?

[faithfulflame]

[Rei exhales sharply, eyes fixed down the the table.]

She teleported away. Actually teleported, in a flash of light with the members of Pride at that party. I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes.

Rarity, I swear, I'm not going crazy. This happened, and I'm sure Greg can tell you the same. There's something going on with the CEOs. They are wizards...or something. And they're the people keeping Luce and Meril and Marty.

[sailorgenerous]

[It takes her a moment to find words, and a few more when the first few sets of words simply won't come out.]

He already has - a little bit, at least. Nothing...like this.

[But if the CEOs are killing people, and they're holding their friends...]

Meril, and Marty, and Luce. How do we get them back?

[She has to think, has to keep looking forwards, because she can not dwell on what she's just heard. Not while her friends are in danger.]

[faithfulflame]

[Good. Rarity is catching on. Rei's voice sets, lips pursing into a thin line]

That's just it. We can't just barge in and fight them. But they're too valuable to them to really hurt. For now all we can do is be strong, and wait. The people who were taken before came back, they will again too. I can feel that.

[A weak smile.]

When they get back? Shower them with love. What they were doing, apparently, was for the good of everyone.

[sailorgenerous]

[That isn't- that doesn't- her brain skips around the information, somehow, still trying to process it.]

How do you know?

[Her voice is quiet, unsure - it's the missing piece she needs to try to connect all of this.]

That this has happened before - that it's for everyone's good - how do you know?

[faithfulflame]

Because...I saw it happen before.

[Rei isn't going to let Rarity know Ivan had escaped. She didn't want that information leaving the band.]

Ivan was taken a few months ago. He came back. And I just...I know what they were doing was trying to help sort some of this out. A lot of bad things are going on, and I know it's confusing, and I know I'm not helping make this any easier. But I know that we have to pick and choose our battles. They picked theirs, and rushing in after them is just going to make things worse.

I also know because I trust Luce. She wouldn't put herself at risk unless it was something she was positive was going to help.