☆TRACK II: DISCORD AND RHYME

[interdimanagers]

Who: Kidnapped Pride Members
What: Corporate hazing, in the style of themepark murder clowns.
When: October 18th-19th.
Where: A large, empty carnival, apparently.
Warnings: This is basically Saw games for babies.

“Burning the ground, I break from the crowd I'm on the hunt, I'm after you. I smell like I sound, I'm lost and I'm found And I'm hungry like the wolf.” ☆DISCORD AND RHYME It’s your first free night after a particularly feverish series of performances. It’s a comparatively lazy Sunday evening - one that all of you are obligated to spent in the HQ. Things are normal, at least as normal as they ever are, are you’re free to go to bed early and for once have the luxury in sleeping in tomorrow. At least theoretically. Whether you go to bed or not, you’ll find yourself drifting off - and then the sound eerie, peculiar music...like the sound of an old music box, with a soft feminine voice singing wordlessly along. You’ll fall asleep, hard, and when you wake up you are somewhere else. "【Sad and Scary Song】"Come Out And Play"Creepy Music Box】[HD]" (Watch on YouTube) ☆THE SACRIFICES At first, you wake up in what seems like some kind of boiler room. Some parts of the floor are slick with moisture, and your hands and feet are bound, with your wrists locked to the industrial piping behind you. Regaining consciousness is slow and difficult, as if it wasn't meant to come to you quite yet. You can hear water and steam flowing through some of the pipes, and the complex is obviously still active with...whatever it's supposed to be doing. But maybe you're just too busy freaking out at your evident kidnapping to think too hard about circumstantial evidence. You aren't the only one in here. Whether they are awake or unconscious, four other Pride members are bound nearby. Around the side of some of the machinery, you can see the glow of computers, though you can't quite see the screens - there are chairs, though, and a cup of Starbucks that is still steaming. Whoever brought you here is probably still around, and there's no telling how long you have before they return. (Click here for your top level!) ☆THE CHALLENGERS You wake up sitting in what appears to be a bumper car of all things - you know, one of those little vehicles you drive around at carnivals to crash into each other? You're sitting in one, and your hand are handcuffed around the bar behind you. Your neck is definitely sore, like you've been sitting like this for a while. It only takes a moment to realize two things: 1) you actually are in a theme park of some sort, and it's still night time, and 2) you're not alone. At least a dozen other Pride members are handcuffed to the bumper cars around you, all pointed in the direction of an empty stretch of wheel worn floor - like an audience, intended to view a speaker. Whoever brought you here doesn't give you much time to be confused. They stride into the center of the "stage" like they own the place. They are wearing a hooded coat of a decidedly gothic style, with a hood that shadows their face. When they speak, they sound feminine - almost like the voice you remember putting you to sleep earlier. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen," they say, "to your trial by fire." (Click here for your top level!) “Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme I'm on the hunt, I'm after you. Mouth is alive with juices like wine And I'm hungry like the wolf.”

Comments

[punchesyu]

"Who the hell do you think you are???!!!"

He shouts, enraged. His fists ball, and the knuckles start to turn white. He can't believe what had just happened, and now they were being treated like animals.

"You think you can just go around pulling this kinda crap?!"

[mildwildchild]

"Shut up, Yosuke." There's no real emotion in the comment, or at least not Jamie's usual snottiness. It's mostly because the adrenaline rush is wearing off and he's starting to succumb to utter exhaustion, but deep down he's relieved to see another of his bandmates in one piece. That's four accounted for, and surely the fifth is around here somewhere.

Someone else in the crowd beats him to the keys, so Jamie stands back until the door's been unlocked, and then he steps up and folds his arms on the edge of the cage floor, partly to keep himself upright and partly so he can peer up at Yosuke. "When you're done flipping out, get down here so we can find Sora and go home."

[punchesyu]

It's the tone in Jamie's voice that really catches him off guard. Enough to get him to stop spazzing out at the hooded figures, turning his head in a small amount of shock. His resolve hasn't left him, his head turning only briefly to look back at the figures with a look of cold steel, before exiting the cage.

"Fine. Let's go." He spits, anger directed at their assailants rather than Jamie. He doesn't want to talk with them around. If he's going to talk to Jamie, he wants to talk alone. He starts to walk off, fighting the urge to do something stupid, expecting Jamie to follow.

[mildwildchild]

Jamie trails after his bandmate, stuffing his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie. He eyes Yosuke up and down, trying to determine whether or not he's hurt while trying to think of what to say. He doesn't want to ask flat-out "are you okay," because that just seems more...caring, or something, than Jamie's willing to express right now, but he is concerned about the other guys' well-being, now that his own brush with apparent death has passed.

"Looks like you're in one piece," he says finally, lengthening his stride a little to draw up even with Yosuke.

[punchesyu]

He breathes out heavily. It was too much. He didn't know his bandmates were here too, he hadn't run into them beforehand. But he can only imagine the crap they went though.

"Yeah. They tried to make it like some murderer was after us, and tied Trucy up in a room full of bugs or something..."

The anger sits behind his words, and he glances over to Jamie. Something wasn't right.

"What kinda sick crap did they pull on you?"

[mildwildchild]

The response is automatic, a reflex that he can't rein in. He bristles and snaps "None of your business," the words out his mouth almost before he realizes he's reacted. Hurriedly he looks away, seething for a moment or two before he amends stiffly, "I don't want to talk about it."

[punchesyu]

"Dude, sorry, I was just asking..."

His voice is a little lighter, but that reaction enough is telling. Whatever it was, it must of been bad. He drops the subject quickly, knowing better than to push.

[mildwildchild]

Jamie paces alongside Yosuke for a minute or so in silence, feeling angry and kind of remorseful at the same time. He's not mad at Yosuke, really, it's just easier to take it out on him - probably because Yosuke will either take it quietly, like he is now, or he'll flip out and give Jamie a big, overblown reaction, which makes Jamie feel like he's in control of something.

He doesn't want to alienate the guy, though, not right now. He might not be able to fully articulate it, but Jamie wants the security of his bandmates right now, to know that they're all there to carry on functioning like they always have. He sighs heavily, staring at the ground, and then shoots Yosuke a brief glance.

"Nah, it's okay." His voice is still subdued, and there's no hint that he's going to divulge what happened tonight. He scuffs at the ground - he was fortunate enough to get snatched while he was wearing shoes, at least - and then adds, "Ask B sometime. He was there, he'll tell you what happened."

Finally - and it takes a longass time to muster up the nerve to say it, because apologizing and admitting he was wrong is like chewing glass - he says, "Sorry for biting your head off."

[punchesyu]

With as tense as Jamie is, he knows better than to tease- they'd been through a lot tonight, and anger ran high between himself and his other bandmate, that was for certain. If anything at all, Yosuke tries to be a little more cheery despite his rage, ready to turn their fury against the ones who'd kidnapped them from their own living quarters, rather than on each other.

"It's cool. We all sorta went through our own piece of hell tonight." He says with a renewed displeasure at it all. He scuffs his feet at the ground a bit, suddenly irritated all over again.

"We can't just let them get away with this crap. And not by going to Mr. Patil or something."

[mildwildchild]

"Yeah, well what do you suggest we do?" Jamie looks morosely up at Yosuke. "It's not like we can tie them up somewhere and fuck with their heads to get back at 'em. Nobody else at Pride is gonna give a shit about this. We're at the bottom of the food chain. As far as everyone else is concerned, they had every right to do this to us."

He sounds...crushed, really. Completely dispirited by the whole thing. This is probably the first time he's allowed himself to appear this way in front of any of his bandmates, which probably says a lot for his mental state right now.

[punchesyu]

He gives a solid, determined look back at Jamie. Confusion and despair is mixed in with it too, but Yosuke isn't the kind of guy who'll take this lying down. He won't. But that's broken when he actually tries to think about it, and he can already feel a headache coming on.

"I don't know! But...I'm not letting them get away with it! There's gotta be something. No one deserves to get treated like that!"

It doesn't bode well for Yosuke to see Jamie like this. He's never seen him like that before, and if anything, that makes him more angry at Predator. For doing this to his friends, and to everyone else.

"We can at least start by getting more information on them. Then we can figure out something from there."

[mildwildchild]

Jamie chuffs quietly at Yosuke's vow of revenge. Not like Jamie hadn't been doing the exact same thing, just with a lot more insane rage and profanity, but now that he's had some time to cool down getting back at Predator seems like an increasingly farfetched idea. Whether or not any of them deserved the hazing is irrelevant; Predator had the power to do it, and that was all that mattered.

"Yeah, well, you're the one who knows everything about everyone," Jamie says, in that same beaten-down tone. "What do you know about 'em already? And what else can we find out that would help us?"

He's actually not trying to be a downer, this time, even if he is too tired and upset and emotionally depleted to give things any serious thought. Maybe Yosuke's idea will work and maybe it won't - at this point Jamie's more or less asking questions just to get the guy to talk, because if Yosuke's talking then things can't be too bad.

[punchesyu]

Yosuke is silent for a moment as he thinks on Jamie's request. Keeping up with the gossip was a challenge at times, and you couldn't believe everything you read. But Predator, now that he began to think about it more in depth, was about as much as an enigma as sex was to the teenager. He taps his chin a few times, before finally speaking up again to answer.

"Now that I think on it, not much. I mean, sure, there's lots of fake news on them. The press love to make up stuff, but sometimes I think that's just a ruse to get them more sales. To be honest, I might know just as much as someone who's never even heard of them aside from their name. I don't even know where they live in the penthouse."

He pauses, and feels a little dread wash over him.

"That really doesn't help, does it."