☆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

[goateeocracy]

Didn't I say that?

[Yan looms over him, attempting to use every last inch of his superior height to his advantage. He doesn't usually start fights, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get into them. Honestly, he'd probably get into fewer if he started them. Then people might realize how much of a temper he actually has.]

[defenceservice]

How about now?

[He takes a step forward, into Yan's space, totally unintimidated by him]

[goateeocracy]

[Yan shoves at his shoulders.]

I don't have time for your shit. Get outta the way or I'm gonna move you.

[defenceservice]

[He'll get shoved right back, and Kenneth has some muscle to put into it]

[goateeocracy]

[Yan stumbles backwards and as he does, he backs straight into one of the strange glowing wisps that have been floating around the room. He doesn't even know what hit him, only that he's overcome with another one of those strange emotional flashbacks, the image in his mind just as vivid as it had been last time. For a moment, he believes it's an extension of the same storyline he'd discussed with Koumei, but then he has the overwhelming feeling that this isn't "his" at all.

Did that mean the other one was?

More importantly, though, WHAT THE HELL JUST CAUSED THIS?]

WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO?!

[He sounds more confused than angry, but he's still plenty angry.]

[defenceservice]

[He's all geared up to fight but Yan's reaction is so out of step with what just happened that it cuts through his haze of anger, stopping him in his tracks.]

Now what are you going on about?

[The irritation's still there, but now he's a little uncertain about where to direct it]

[goateeocracy]

[Yan whips around to look behind where he'd been standing to see if there's anything there and sees the little glowing wisp. He looks back over his shoulder and points at it accusingly.]

THAT THING.

[That has to be what's screwing with his head.]

[defenceservice]

I got no idea what that thing is!

[But he does step forward to look at it for a few seconds before he reaches out to try and catch it in his hand, freezing in place with his hand still out as the memory inside it hits him]

[goateeocracy]

It got in my goddamn head. How is that even possible?!

[He's more shaken by it than he'd really like to be in front of other people. That was a memory and not only that, it was someone else's memory. A very specific someone else he already bitched at earlier. He doesn't believe in ghosts or magic or psychic phenomena or any of that bullshit, but he's pretty sure there's no science that can explain little glowing memory balls.]

[defenceservice]

[He shakes his head like he's trying to clear it, reminding himself where and when he is]

It's not possible. Think about it, it's gotta be some kind of trick.

[goateeocracy]

Yeah, but what kind of trick?

[Hell if he knows.]

You touch it and see what happens.

[That's the only way they're going to get any more data on this bullshit. He'd touch it again himself, but it wouldn't be as helpful.]

[defenceservice]

Already did.

[And then after a second, slightly reluctantly]

And I know what you mean. But it's just someone trying to screw with us. It's like what happened at -

[He cuts himself off suddenly, remembering that he doesn't actually want to talk about what happened at the awards night]

[goateeocracy]

At the party.

[Weird shit went down. Weird shit he, for some reason, is having trouble remembering in its entirety, but even if he can't remember what happened to him he can remember the argument he got into with Ankh about the whole thing.]

More of this shit.