Can you feel it calling in the air tonight [Closed]

[eba02]

Who: J, Ankh, and Ivan, at different points
What: The city's playing a different tune, and J is trying to figure out the details.
When: End of March, midafternoon
Where: A park in the city
Warnings: None yet?

It's a quiet day at the park, which is good - after the events of the past week, J can definitely use one of those. For now, he's got his hair pulled back and his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, just taking in the music.

[Feel free to start separate subthreads! :D]

Comments

[eba02]

This is the second time in less than a week that someone's figured out who J is. On one hand, the musicians are really on their game; on the other hand, evidently J is really off his, and that is not a good thing. He looks down at himself, then back to Ivan, offering him half a grin. "Do I look like a Space Lady?" Playing it off is his first instinct, and it's a hard one to break.

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And the fact that the other rescuers haven't been so secretive doesn't make J's job obviously any easier. Ivan knows that people from Rei's world have come to save her. He knows of Gold and Silver and the four alien ghosts. It's not too hard to guess there's more. Ivan's head hurts and starts to repeat how he's wrong whenever he starts making connections, and his tune fumbles a bit.

That only makes Ivan feel like he's onto something, something his has to fight and push though to say.

"So maybe not from her world, but... from another?"

[eba02]

Ivan is struggling, and J has to make a decision: keep his identity a secret (a lost cause at this point) or help Ivan (what he's here to do in the first place).

It's kind of a no-brainer at this point.

He grabs hold of Ivan's tune and soothes it, smoothing over static with full, real music. It won't take him long to fix it completely; still, he can't leave the conversation hanging either. "Yeah," he admits with that same half-smile, "something like that. I'm here to help."

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"I-I won't compromise you. I won't ask for details or anything that could be taken from me." Ivan straightens up a little and searches his pockets for some paper and a pen. "Although, if I leave something here, maybe you could take care of it for me?"

Ivan plans on writing down quick notes about what Flowers Over Bones have put together, about saving Stella from her containment in the Virgo Basement with Arpegius' help, about the holiday party, about the blue alien ghosts helping them remember and how they were murdered by the labels, and every strange thing he could think of since the music Gala. Ivan doesn't know what information that the rescuers have or is Alex (Haruka) passed along the info he left her, but he writes it all down.

[eba02]

J appreciates the consideration, but it doesn't really work that way. "You know my name, an' my face, an' where I work. For someone like Blanche, that'll be enough." He shrugs. Ivan knows his alias, at least, but that's still something to go on. "Just don't get caught."

He's not used to musicians asking him favors, though - that's interesting. "Sure." He waits while Ivan writes, silently working with Ivan's tune, smoothing out static and warping until it's intact again. He can't touch Blanche's deep bass woven through it, but that doesn't stop him from feeling around it, seeing if there's some way to loosen the connection-

Or finding something else - some foreign backbeat - running along the same lines of that bass, connected to Ivan's tune in the same way. He stiffens in surprise - what the hell is that?

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"I... have my own tricks to avoid that, but..." The label is so strong. Ivan wants to do something, but how can he do anything more but sneak out and leave pieces of paper to the rescuers he happens to meet? How can he do something that actually amounts to something?

Ivan crumples up the piece of paper and lets it fall to the ground. "The... um.. lyrics didn't turn out... Please don't sell that on an auction site."

He is such a bad actor when he's not depending on his brainwashing, but he at least attempts to be secretive.

[eba02]

It takes J a few seconds to ground himself back in reality. He continues to look into Ivan's tune, trying to figure out where that backbeat is coming from - or, more importantly, who it belongs to.

Right. There's still a conversation. "Hey, if it works, it works." He watches the paper fall to the ground and flashes Ivan a grin. "I'll treasure it forever."

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When Ivan realizes that J's zoned out, he shifts uncomfortably. He's seen other musicians get lost in thought. That usually meant they were reliving a memory or something similar. But why's this guy... (Jeremy?) doing that? Ivan worries his lip. The thought that the people trying to save them might have lost something too hadn't occurred to him.

He doesn't like that idea. Something inside of him, though weaker now, reminds him how futile it is to go against Virgo, against Blanche. Remember what they did to Luce. To those that were caught. They've done things to him as well, and he should remember. The rescuers are weak and frail because of them, and they'll accomplish nothing.

Ivan shakes his head. Think. Think. Don't let go of that previous thought and give in. Ask. "... H-Has the label taken something from you too?"

[eba02]

Nothing - nothing yet, at least - and now he's got Ivan worried. Not as planned.

"They took our friends an' families," he says. "People we care about." But that's not really what Ivan's asking, is it? "They haven't gotten to us the same way they did you, though. If they ever do, they're either gonna put us onstage with you guys, or...six feet under." That's not really an easy idea to live with, but at least it's still living.

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"So... they don't have a general way removing people's powers or memories in the city. It's more specific... maybe done when they brainwash us." Blame the fact that everyone in his band has regained a power that he thinks it's more common than the reality. Everyone in the band except Pao-Lin, but they suspect she may have something because she's from Ivan's world. They remember some of the same things.

He looks at his hands holding the shamisen and bachi. A memory steals his attention. He's a child. Other kids his age are taunting him, calling him a monster, a freak. Their parents demand the school give them list of all NEXTs and their powers enrolled, so they can remove their children from classes shared with those dangers. If only the registration bill could get passed. Couldn't they just use the technology in Abbas Prison everywhere? It'd be so much safer to control those powers.

The memory doesn't feel blurred or fuzzy in the same way like his memories in the past have been. Any fuzziness is from the age of the memory. Odd, but Ivan isn't going to focus on that change too much. He's more shocked at how easy the memory came so easily and triggered by something so tangential. Is this related to how he discovered he could fight with katana days earlier?