☆TRACK III: THE STREETS ARE EMPTY

[interdimanagers]

Who: Drafted Virgo Members
What: Juno makes everyone do a seance.
When: October 21st-22nd.
Where: The basement of the Virgo residential tower.
Warnings: Ghosts, apparently.

“You can't shake the feeling. Be quiet not one sound. But the wind seems to speak, Something's here in the room with me.” ☆THE STREETS ARE EMPTY Juno arrives without notice. In fact, you can’t even really remember seeing her approach. One moment you’re doing your business, and the next she is telling you that you have to come down to the basement with her, in order to complete a “task” you’ve been assigned. This sort of thing would seem preposterous to a normal person, but even if you don’t realize it, you aren’t one. As Mr Blanche’s personal assistant and sometimes second in command, her word seems to carry almost as much weight as his does. You don’t really have any choice but to agree. “Bring whatever instrument you know best,” she says. “You’ll need it.” She snaps up every one of you that she sees in her initial sweep, and soon she has a whole pack of Virgo newbies following her down to the lowest floors of the residential tower. It feels weird, but it’s like you can’t quite articulate why. No one else seems to be able to either. Most of the lights are turned off on those lower floors, but it’s easy to tell it’s a place you’ve never been before. It’s strangely...hospital like, down there, in both aesthetic and a sense of sterility. Maybe some kind of laboratory setting? Which seems like a super weird thing to be in the basement of an apartment building, but this is yet another thing you can’t quite bring yourself to ask about. Juno leave most of the lights off, except for a few central features. The ambience is dim and cold. She tells you not to stray, and you don’t. The thought of going against her becomes somehow repulsive, like you don’t even want to think about it too long. You try not to think about your surrounding too hard, either. She lines you all up, and then after some strangely intense eyeballing, she starts breaking you up into some incredibly lopsided groups that seem to have nothing to do with your actual bands. In the end, she looks disappointed with resulting teams, but carries on regardless. Each “group” is given some complexly timed sheet music and a funny looking mobile speaker. She says that you have a half hour to compose a group piece to play alongside the sheet music , and that it needs to be good. Then, she wanders off to start pacing the basement in a strangely arcane series of movements, and leaves you all to it. Only among your peers do you start feeling like you can voice any of your previously stowed concerns, but make sure Juno doesn’t overhear you – occasionally she’ll come by to bluntly critique anyone who is performing inadequately. You feel lucky that she doesn’t have a whip with her, because you’re almost certain that she’d use it without much remorse. ☆THE SEANCE The performance is about as awkward as you’d expect, given the set up. The four groups are set up so that they’re facing each other, as if standing at the corner of a square. Each speaker is set up in the center of its group, and the precisely timed electronic beat that plays from them is what you’re supposed to perform along to. Odds are that you do your level best, but, outside of your control...something goes wrong. “Have you ever felt... Something evil, Lurking around? The moon is full, The streets are empty. Shadows cover the town.”

Comments

[interstellarnpcs]

Juno's frown deepens, like she's not entirely surprised but also like that doesn't bode well for her at all. She straightens her back and then looks...almost ashamed, for a private moment.

"You might be surprised," she says. She contemplates things for another moment before speaking again. "I do believe you...Ivan. Could you...explain to me what this presence felt like?"

[sponsorigami]

The fact that Juno believes him does surprise him, but he doesn't focus on it a lot. "It was angry, strong. I knew it wasn't me, but I couldn't do anything while it was happening." The events happened so fast; Ivan's not sure if he could have stopped them in time if he had the ability to. He wanted to and wishes he could. He doesn't know what's going on, what that presence was talking about, but Ivan knows one thing that he would have stopped regardless of the presence's reasons.

"I'd never use my shamisen to club something... and I wouldn't yell 'man' even if I was angry." Although, putting a katana in a shamisen like one might see in a fictional story is something more tempting. That kind of speaking style, not so much. Ivan likes to think he's more cultured than that. "There's not much I can do about that now."

[interstellarnpcs]

Juno nods solemnly. Being forced to yell "man" is no joking matter. Even less so for her when she is pretty sure she knows what that was about.

"I see..." she says. "You won't be held accountable for another's actions, though I may need to examine you further later on. For now, don't concern yourself with the matter."

[sponsorigami]

Examine? Ivan doesn't like the sound of that, but what else can he do? Refuse?

He gives a slow nod. "What should I do now? I can't really continue playing with my shamisen beat up, or I guess I could and play badly."

[interstellarnpcs]

She looks him over, cautiously. Then she makes a gesture like she's implying he should go back outside.

"Stay down here, for now. Don't worry about the music. It looks like you have some...things to sort out. We'll talk later."

And with that, she guides him out of the room, closes the door behind them, and heads for the upper floors.

[sponsorigami]

Sort out? Ivan nearly asks what she means by that, but he's ushered out too quickly. Plus, he doesn't feel like interrupting her when she mentions talking later.

"... What is everyone doing?" he asks mostly to himself once he steps back into the main area to see everyone scattered and acting strangely. What day this is turning out to be.