☆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

[nibelungvalesti]

"Suppression is merely one tool of power. Shaping is another. I can speak to this."

She glanced down at her own outfit -- shorts that weren't really appropriate for the weather, and a shirt that didn't quite make it to the waistband thereof. She had no more modest casual clothing, because she had given up on trying to keep it when things of this nature were constantly pressed on her. That was power, and its use.

[giglio_madonna]

Luce's own gaze follows Meril's, and she just barely manages to hold back a tsk. She's luck she's with the band that she's with, with an image that holds her more to the matron than necessarily sex appeal. It's not that she has anything against it. It's just that dressing in practically swimsuit attire isn't something she thinks she'd find enjoyable.

"And someone that high up the ladder would waste that power on us?"

[nibelungvalesti]

Remember the stupid wings? Meril dealt with nonsense like that routinely.

"Metal is most readily shaped when it is fresh from the fire," she said, with the faintest smile at her joke, "not when it has cooled and taken form. Better to make us heel now, rather than wait till we have the strength of fame and success to strengthen us."

[giglio_madonna]

"I suppose..." Luce glances down at their music sheets to refresh her memory so she doesn't get too off track.

"Going along with that idea, do you think that every band before us has had to deal with this kind of thing then?"

[nibelungvalesti]

"I am certain there are always power dynamics in play." It was human nature, unavoidable and inevitable. "But a performance like this... I would be surprised. How often are there enough new up-and-coming bands to assemble this way?"

[giglio_madonna]

"That's true..." Both Virgo and Pride seem to have released a lot of new stars lately, it seems. She wonders if it's something to do with the rivalry between both labels.

"And all this to set us up for failure?"

[nibelungvalesti]

"A controlled one, which affects nothing anyone outside would see, but still gives them leverage over us." It made seamless sense to Meril, and fit well with her experiences.

[giglio_madonna]

"Well, even if we do fail in this, it doesn't mean we've lost." Despite the conversation, Luce's expression is calm and self assured. "Them having a little bit of leverage doesn't mean the end either. What's that saying..."

There's another smile. Luce's optimism really can't be budged. "Winning the battle, but not winning the war?"

[nibelungvalesti]

"I would prefer to give them no more victories." Come down to it, Meril will take any blow for her band. The others had either been through too much, like Weasel or Krieg -- or didn't deserve to go through anything unnecessarily, like Gaige or Greg. Whatever the case, she would always absorb whatever she could to protect them.

That didn't mean she wanted to absorb any more than she had to.

[giglio_madonna]

"Wouldn't we all..." Luce's gaze draws towards Juno. What a mysterious and, frankly, unhelpful woman. A shame, considering she's so pretty.

"Unfortunately, we have to take some hits in this business before we can be on top where we won't be touched."

[nibelungvalesti]

"It is not myself I am concerned with, it is my band. Some of them have already broken once. Some of them need to be kept from ever breaking." Without her conscious involvement, her hand had curled into such a tight fist that her knuckles were bright white spots even on her pale skin.

[giglio_madonna]

Her gaze softens, leading Luce to stop plucking at her strings. She offers one hand, palm up. Remembering the Gala, she won't touch Meril, but the offer is there if she wants a hand.

"Is it alright if I ask who...?" She has her guesses, just from what she's heard, but it never hurts to clear up assumptions.

[nibelungvalesti]

"All of them, of course." Luce earned herself a strange look, as if any other answer were out of the question. Well, were Meril being totally honest, she really felt she didn't have to worry about Lora -- but she did anyway, very privately, which would have been even harder to admit.

[giglio_madonna]

It seems impossible for for Luce to smile any wider. "Do you think they're unaware of that? That they've all been hit that hard before?"

[nibelungvalesti]

"Oh -- I misunderstood. Not all of them have been dealt the worst yet. Gaige has not. Lora... is something of an enigma. And Greg..."

She had to protect Greg more than any of them, because Greg was the most innocent and worthy of respect of all of them.

[giglio_madonna]

"He's the kind of sweet person you can't help but want to protect, right?" Luce nods, chuckling a little bit. It's sweet, and she understands perfectly. Maybe if they were in a band as well, "Well, you know you're not alone in that, right?"

[nibelungvalesti]

"That describes him well." Meril's eyes flickered away, just for one brief second. Luce could have missed it if she'd blinked.

[giglio_madonna]

Oh ho. Oh ho.

With no particular bit of subtlety, she leans a little closer. "It's funny how such a funny, caring, and generally amazing guy like him is still single, isn't it?"

[nibelungvalesti]

Meril's eyebrows quirked up. "Not particularly. He is devoted to his music above all. Any number of fangirls would gladly be his, but he is respectful of them -- as many would not be in his position."

[giglio_madonna]

"And is there anyone who isn't a fangirl...?"

Prompt.

Prompt prompt.

Luce's hands are busy with her bass, but the idea of nudging Meril is certainly there.

[nibelungvalesti]

"I am hardly in the position to interrogate everyone who knows Greg about their thoughts towards him," Meril said, and if she didn't actually roll her eyes her tone conveyed the gesture perfectly well anyway. "And to the best of my knowledge he has no inclination towards anyone else."

[giglio_madonna]

Alright, tip-toeing around the issue isn't working. Luce switches abruptly to blunt honesty.

"Are you interested in going on a date with him, Meril?"

[nibelungvalesti]

Maybe that was the wrong question, because the thought had never once occurred to her. She blinked slowly, trying to process that question. "I do not date, nor do I have any interest in doing so."

[giglio_madonna]

Ah well. There are people like that, so Luce just gives a nod. She won't press, even if she thinks it would make for a precious sight.

"I see... You were talking about Greg so fondly, you see. The possibility just popped into my head."

[nibelungvalesti]

"I am fond of him. And we will make some girl very lucky someday." Maybe the faintest note of irritation had crept into her voice. But maybe Luce just wanted to hear it? On the other hand, Meril might have been the first to say she had no friends, and no interest in having friends, before people started befriending her without her even having a chance to object...