☆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

[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...

[giglio_madonna]

"Oh, I don't doubt it. Someone will gladly take on the new last name of 'Universe' one day." Luce chuckles. It's hard to say if her ship has crashed or not. Further observation will obviously be needed.

But if they're just friends, that's fine too. She won't press. Really.

"Will whoever the lucky person is have to impress the entire band, too?"

[nibelungvalesti]

"...Are you interested?" Meril had, perhaps, drawn the wrong conclusions from Luce's questioning. After all, why would she be wondering if she had no inclinations in that direction?

[giglio_madonna]

A laugh bursts out of Luce at that, and she immediately covers her mouth as Juno glowers over at them. Playing a bit more on her bass seems to satisfy her, but Luce waits until the other woman's gaze is definitely away from them before she shakes her head with a fond smile.

"Greg is sweet, but I find it easier to fuss over him like he's one of the kids." This doesn't seem like the place to mention she's already dating.

[nibelungvalesti]

"Ah, you prefer maturity." Nothing wrong with that; Meril certainly wouldn't criticize her for it. The idea that Luce had someone already never occurred to Meril, since she assumed from her own misplaced lack of self-understanding that most people were single.

[giglio_madonna]

"Hmmm... I suppose that's the word for it." Luce giggles as she plucks at her strings. "He has so much energy. Is it silly of me to think that I don't think I could keep up with it on that kind of level?"

[nibelungvalesti]

"No, not at all. I understand what you mean." The faintest smile crept across Meril's face. "But he cares about people, and so that helps a great deal to mitigate what might be annoying in another."

[giglio_madonna]

"And if he can still do all that while in this business, with Virgo of all places..." Yeah, it hasn't escaped Luce that there's a hierarchy full of petty bullshit in place. "Then I'm sure he'll be able to do just fine. Especially with a band like yours behind him."

[nibelungvalesti]

"The support is what matters. If he is stressed now, he might break. He needs to be tempered, and until then..."

Meril realized abruptly that she had a fist balled so tightly her fingers and knuckles were chalk-white. She forced herself to relax, uncurling her fingers so that the muscles of her forearm no longer stood out in such sharp relief.

"We will not let anything happen to him."

[giglio_madonna]

"I know you won't." Luce smiles to her. "But to do that, at least trying our best for this little experiment of Juno's seems like our best bet right now."

[nibelungvalesti]

"Yes. And that is why I am here." The fact that she had voiced discontent at all spoke to how absurd she thought the whole venture was -- absurd or deliberately rigged -- but that hadn't stopped her from complying.