☆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]

It's a glowing ball.

[He doesn't look impressed. At all.]

You said this had something to do with the music and now you're saying it's part of me? Why don't you cut the crap and just say what you mean?

[giglio_madonna]

Yes, it's that too.

[Stupid rational country boy. Luce keeps herself from sighing, somehow.]

You noticed they only showed up after we played that music, don't you? Just touch it. A glowing ball can't hurt you, right?

[goateeocracy]

What's gonna happen when I touch that thing?

[Why is it so damn hard to just be straightforward and tell him what he wants to know? If she'd just say what she meant, he'd have touched the stupid thing as soon as they got here, but she just has to keep pulling this cryptic bullshit like she has to trick him into doing it for some reason and it's really starting to piss him off.]

[giglio_madonna]

Remember the "part of you" thing I mentioned?

Touching the light brings it back into you.

[It sounds like weird magic or supernatural silliness, but that's the truth for you.]

[goateeocracy]

[He doesn't even break eye contact. He just keeps glaring at her and waves his hand through the stupid light.

And then almost stumbles backwards as the memory washes over him. Reliving it again, that intense feeling of love and of failure, is just as powerful as it was the first time. And he doesn't understand it any more the second time.

With it, though, comes a second scene. A room full of people with their eyes on him. He can feel it, if not see it. A suffocating smell of incense and, beneath it, death. A woman, small, beautiful and dressed in the same antique Chinese style as the boy in the other memory rests her head on his chest and her hand slides just under the neck of his shirt and his stomach twists in revulsion. Revulsion and fear. But he can't let it show on his face. He can't let anything show, because he must be the rock for his brothers and his country and that means swallowing his fear of this witch and striving to support...to support...

There's a name that should be there, but it's gone as she looks up at him and it's the same face...

And that's all there is. The memory fades and he's left standing in the same goddamn basement. It takes a moment for him to come back to himself, but when he does, he almost recoils upon seeing Luce. Finally, his brain registers just who she is and where he is and what's going on and he curses under his breath.]

What the fuck...

[giglio_madonna]

Sit down.

[She reaches out for his shoulder, only to seem to remember something at the last second and gestures him downwards instead.]

Catch your breath. It's... a bit of a barrel to the chest.

[goateeocracy]

[He doesn't even protest that one and slowly lowers himself to the ground. He buries his head in his hands, eyes closed as he tries to replay everything he's just seen in his head. He has to make sense of this. He has to.]

Did you see any of that?

[She knew it was his, after all. How did she manage that?]

[giglio_madonna]

[She settles down besides him, sweeping her dress beneath her knees. She doesn't lie to him.]

Yes. At least... There was a man, with a sword. And the strangest feelings...

[Her hand presses against her chest, over her heart.]

It doesn't make much sense, but some of those feelings just seemed like you.

[goateeocracy]

That's how I felt the first time I saw it back at the party.

[He can't explain how any of this is happening and he hates it. Those feelings...with the addition of the second memory, it's like puzzle pieces fitting together, but not so many that the picture is actually clear. The failure in the first memory, the regret...it was all tied to that woman. The boy was, too. They even had practically the same face. The same face as the man Koumei had seen, too. What the hell did any of it mean?]

You only saw the first one? Not both of them?

[giglio_madonna]

Both...?

[That should answer that.]

[However, Luce's eyes seem to light up. This matches up with something else.]

I only saw that image with the man and the sword. However... So you remembered something like that, and then something else came to mind? That's what happened for me... When I touched, well, I suppose the light that was "mine".

[goateeocracy]

So the second thing didn't come from the light.

[That was a disturbing thought. If it came from somewhere within him somehow like everyone keeps suggesting, he has no easy explanation for it. He doesn't like that. He doesn't like any of this.]

What's your theory on what this shit is?

[Might as well get that out there. No one has given him an answer he likes yet.]

[giglio_madonna]

I went in thinking "reality show", went for "drugs" after our performance, but now...

[Luce sighs as she clasps her fingers together on her lap, lips drawn thin.]

Well, anything I can think of just sounds utterly unbelievably when I say it out loud. "Magic" for example.

[goateeocracy]

There's no such thing as magic or ghosts or any of that shit.

[He just can't bring himself to believe in that. It makes no sense. There has to be some sort of perfectly normal scientific explanation for all this, but science isn't his area of expertise in the slightest.]

I don't know why they would be drugging us, either, and I've been careful about what I eat since that party. I still think it may be some sort of hidden camera stunt. I didn't know my contract allowed them to do that without my consent.

[Some people are beginning to question reality and here's Yan trying to think about which lawyer he should call.]

[giglio_madonna]

That's why I even said it was 'unbelievable', you know.

[It's not any sort of argument worth pursuing. Luce shakes her head, leaving it behind as she focuses on the present.]

If it's a hidden camera, well, I imagine the point of it is to catch us by surprise. Maybe only our managers need to sign off on something like that. I'd really have to look at my band's contract again...

[goateeocracy]

I'm reading mine as soon as we get out of here and calling Mark to see if he knew about this shit.

[The Old Dirt Road's manager is far more laid back than anyone on the band's current roster, which just makes Yan feel even more like he's the one who's actually in charge of things.]

I let it go after the party, but if they're going to keep doing this, they can't expect us to just sit quietly and take it.

[giglio_madonna]

It's really ridiculous, I agree. And...

[Another pause before Luce seems to steel herself as she gets to her feet.]

...If you're going to look at contracts, there's something else I think you should see.

[goateeocracy]

What?

[Yan takes a few more seconds to collect himself before getting up off the floor. As much as this is frustrating him, he's not going to pass up the opportunity to find out more about it. He needs to know as much as he can if he's going to figure out what the hell is going on.]

[giglio_madonna]

See these screens?

[These ones, all lined up nicely in a row.]

Tap one, and tell me your thoughts on what comes up.

[goateeocracy]

[He taps one of the screens and watches with interest as it boots up and scans him. When his face comes up, however, he looks just as confused as he does in the mugshot. He doesn't remember this picture being taken, but it's undoubtedly him. He takes note of the number, repeating it so himself so he can try to memorize it. He's going to have to write it down as soon as he has the chance.]

It looks like a mugshot, but I've never been arrested for anything. Did you have one of these?

[giglio_madonna]

Yes. Rei did as well. She doesn't remember whenever she got hers taken either.

[Luce raps her knuckles against one of the screens, bringing up her own picture after a boot up.]

It's a mystery. I'd like to get Doctor's take on it all, too, but I thought you should know as well.

[goateeocracy]

[Yan makes a face.]

Good luck getting anything out of him that makes sense. Does he have to put on a tinfoil hat before he answers questions?

[While he can respect Doctor's skills as a musician, that's literally all he can find to respect about him. They're more or less like oil and water, the two of them.]

[giglio_madonna]

Now now. He's brilliant you know. He's just...

[A clear pause as she searches for the polite term.]

Eccentric.

[goateeocracy]

He's a weirdo who acts like a giant five year old. Do your fans think that's cute or something?

[Market anything the right way and it can stick, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. He has a low threshold for dealing with that guy's shenanigans, that's for sure, and he's already met it tonight.]

[giglio_madonna]

They do, actually. It's charming to them.

[He's not Luce's type, but she imagines she can see the appeal.]

Anyway, I think we have more important things to think about than the fan appeal of Doctor, at least for right now.

[goateeocracy]

Hmph.

[He had a rant building, though.]

It's not like we can do any more about this shit right now than we can about that moron. None of it makes any sense.