☆TRACK X: PLAY ALONG

[interdimanagers]

Who: Everyone!
What: Vista City amps up for Pride and Virgo's WORLD TOUR with HYPE WEEK.
When: May 1st - May 5th 2055
Where: Various places in Vista City
Warnings: Could be anything.

“Try to make it look like it's all somehow getting better, 'Cause I know how to play it pretty good against the measure. Everyone started out a little insane, But we learn pretty quick how to fake it for the game.” ☆PLAY ALONG Hype Week is less an official label event, and more something that the media has created in response to a particularly odd situation. Pride and Virgo appear to be functioning in unison - launching separate world tours on practically the same date, launching vast quantities of new material and media events, and making a point of never mentioning or acknowledging the actions of the other. Could this be some kind of collaborative event? A viral marketing campaign? No one is really sure, but the local economy is happy to capitalize on it in order to make it as big of a city-wide ordeal as possible. For musicians, this means all kinds of event that they have to attend and cooperate with - everything from photo shoots, to signing, to music video premiers. For rescuers, this means one last opportunity to track down those still trapped before they are whisked away on a world spanning journey. Events that will be happening: ► NEW SINGLES: Hot new singles are getting released by bands all over the place. While actual concerts and performances are not actually happening much during the hype period, each band is probably releasing at least one new single and hyping it all to hell with one song performances here and there on TV and the like. You can have fun defining that single for your band, or leave it ambiguous! Up to you. ► PANELS AND INTERVIEWS: Musicians will get carted all over to various talk shows and public question panel events - a lot of questions will be asked about the World Tour and its specifics, of which the musicians themselves seem to know very little. This goes for the veterans as much as it does the fledglings. ► MUSIC VIDEO PREMIERS: In which a bunch of fancy music people go to fancy theaters and watch all the new music videos for the new singles, and then write articles about this. This is also something you are welcome to create specifics for. ► SIGNINGS AND PUBLIC APPEARANCES: While many of the veterans and doing things like autobiographical books signings and what not, the newer musicians are more likely to just be signing millions of World Tour specific posters and CD releases. Its quite likely that they are going to be totally run down after all these appearances and preparations - try to stay awake at the table! ► WORLD TOUR PREMIER: This will be covered in a second log a few days from now. For now, the musicians are just being prepped for a music festival to end all music festivals, that will start May 5th and cover the entire weekend. They've been practicing rigorously all month - they'll have to hope they have the stamina to make it to the actual performance. All the while, Gold and Silver have been mysteriously absent. Silver has been here and there, handing out supplies and necessary tech, but guidance for rescuers has been minimal. Gold hasn't been seen at all. Part way into the week, at least, Shep will return with a new batch of rescuers, just in time for the premier! New musicians and band combinations will slowly be announced over this week as well, with some of them being saved for the premier festival itself. That is, any OOC changes made to bands and last minute new members are going to get announced like they are big exciting unveilings, because spin doctoring is what the labels do! ☆SINGULARITY Everyone hearing the new singles will be able to tell that they seem especially ear wormy - extra hip, extra catchy, like the best examples of each bands radio popularity. Rescuers in particular, though, will notice something sort of strange about them. It's more than just song being catchy. People who are not musicians themselves will find themselves being unnaturally charmed by them, as if each time they hear these singles they are being slowly brainwashed into becoming more and more fixated on the artists performing. Of course, this can be stopped by just not listening to them for a few days, but it's hard to avoid when pretty much every public location has been playing these singles non stop. Along with this effect, there are some particulars: ► PREDATOR DREAMS: The Pride band Predator is the same as the others, in that it has a particularly intrusive single that's just been introduced. There is one difference. It may take a while to notice, but it can be noted that one starts to feel somewhat tired and dazed after listening to it repeatedly, like they are somehow drained. The single is called The Spaces In Between and it is somewhat unusual that Cass, the member who usually primarily focuses on instrumentals and back up singing, is now performing lead. If your character hears this song several times, they may suffer some weird DREAMS - especially if they received a dose of Gold's magic powder in the Better To Pretend event. If you'd like to receive a dream, please write "DREAM PLEASE" in your subject line, along with a written section describing an instance of your character having regular dreams that I can manipulate. Anywhere else and I might miss it. ► ESCAPED MUSICIANS: Musicians that have escaped and are now in hiding will find themselves particularly mentally manipulated by the singles released by their home label. They will find their minds unusually filled with thoughts of returning to their labels, as well as increased paranoia about being caught. Any remaining programming will be particularly triggered and brought to the surface. They'll be able to push it down with self control and assistance from other characters, but the thoughts will become more invasive the more they listen to it. “'Cause everybody's so scared, We don't wanna go there. We don't wanna make a move, We got all our lives to lose. Screaming in the dark while we just play our part out. I play along, Like I don't know what's going on.”

Comments

[exhumerus]

Sans stands up abruptly, like he is going to go somewhere else very quickly, but then he doesn't. Instead he just freezes there, looking angry and confused, the crystal still clutched tightly in one of his hands. He keeps it with him defensively, as if he's afraid that someone is going to take it.

"Do you even know what monsters can do?" he demands, raising the crystal in way of example. "Why humans like you were afraid of us?"

He hasn't been this worked up since Stella got to him in the warehouse. Right now all of that feels pointless. He's going to lose his mind.

Of course J doesn't know that. Why would he know? Sans isn't even sure where these memories come from at this point.

[eba02]

This situation is getting out of hand quickly, and J's not entirely sure he can rein it in. Where's Papyrus when you need him?

The one silver lining to all this is that the rising agitation in Sans' tune has made it easier to hear, and J latches on to it, tapping his fingers to repeat the one intact snippet of music he can find and using it to repair the damage. It'll be slower going than he's used to, given how delicate the situation is, but it's better than nothing.

"Can't say I do," he replies, quiet and calm as he can manage.

[exhumerus]

Sans freezes, and then holds the crystal in front of him again, his grip on it shaking. It's hard for him to explain it - it's hard for him to speak. Thinking about it at all is like a hole deep enough that you can almost lose track of the way you got in.

"We can eat human souls. We can...make them into something stronger than the sum of the parts."

He loses track of what he's staying again, staring at the crystal and into space, an ache lingering deep in his bones.

[eba02]

That snaps a few pieces of the puzzle into place; it helps, even if the picture they make is anything but pretty. If that's what they were trying to do...well, there are a few ways to find out, but only one open to him at the moment. "Is that what they were tryin' to do?" It's a loaded question, but J's voice is still quiet and calm. Repairing Sans' tune is taking time, but at least it's working. Small favors.

[exhumerus]

Maybe it's what's letting Sans get this out at all - what's keeping him from becoming even more agitated. His reaction to that question is a less wild kind of despair, and he suddenly teleports the crystal down onto the ground between them, like its touch has burned him.

"They wanted me to take her soul," he says, his voice strained. "And...I listened to them. I tried to."

[eba02]

It's a step forward. J tosses the towel forwards over the crystal with a flick of his wrist, never breaking his rhythm. Sans' tune is still coming together, sounding better than it has in a while; he can't stop now.

"It doesn't sound like you had much of a choice." Being tied to a table tends to remove most of your options; J can't even begin to imagine what was going on in there beyond that. "From what Papyrus told me, they had you tangled up pretty good."

[exhumerus]

Part of him wants to say that that's the problem - that he was so completely powerless. It wasn't even like he made the conscious decision to betray his moral compass. It had just been pulled out of him by force, just like they'd tried to shove that soul in. If it had actually worked...

His wrist is rattling from the way he can't keep his arm still, and he clasps one fist around the other to try to make it stop.

"Anyway, it didn't work," he says, as if the last thing he said hadn't just been extremely depressing. "Dunno why. They might have tried more than once, with...different ones. I don't remember after the first time."

"They'd already almost dusted me doing that, so I guess they gave up."

[eba02]

Different ones. There's more of them - of course there's more of them - but that doesn't mean it's something J wants to consider. He steadies himself again, never missing a beat. Sans is doing better - at least a little - and he can't stop in the middle of this.

He doesn't have to ask what dusted means. It's not a pretty picture either way.

"Just in time for the cavalry to arrive." He gives that a moment to sink in. "You know this isn't your fault, right?"

[exhumerus]

He shrugs his shoulders, trying to invoke a sense of nonchalance where there isn't any. His anger and regret is plainly visible in his tune.

"Doesn't matter whose fault it is. It still happened. Is happening. Will continue happening." He makes a dismissive gesture. "Nothin' new."

[eba02]

He's doing his best to fix things, so why does it feel like he's digging a hole instead? He keeps working at Sans' tune - it won't fix the situation, but it should help get him a little more stable.

"Y'know, last time I heard somethin' that wrong, it was Rookie tryin' to convince me the greatest guitarist of all time is Hendrix, when it's obviously Clapton." A beat. Alternate dimensions. Right. "An' I realize that means nothin' to you, but congrats anyway - you just beat the record." He shifts a little bit and continues on, leaving the bit of failed levity behind. "You're wrong about all that - it matters who's behind this, and it matters that we're doin' something about it- that you're doin' something about it. From what I've heard, those two have been doin' this for eons. What's new is that you took a stand. You got half a dozen people free, an' they put you through hell for it, an' you survived. Whether you wanna believe it or not, you changed the game."

[exhumerus]

He could have done it better, part of him says immediately. He could have avoided getting caught, if he'd been less stupid. Maybe he could have gotten more people. He doesn't even know anymore.

He just feels like, he thinks while staring down at the towel covering the crystal, this couldn't possibly be what a victory feels like. Like a victory would have had to have been better to even be worth the energy.

"Kind of a loose definition of surviving," he says, and his voice almost has a laugh in it, but it's tight and near hysterical. He fidgets with his hands, like he's fighting the temptation to go for the crystal again. J should have seen how quickly he stopped taking a stand once Blanche had his hands on him.

[eba02]

He can't push against the criticism in the tune, or the worthlessness, or the hysteria - it's not the highest priority, and it's not his place. All J can do is keep putting it back together, piece by piece, and hope that helps.

"You're still here, aren't you? Roughed up pretty badly, but still. Regardless of how bad things got, you freed six people who'd still be at the labels' mercy if it weren't for you. That's somethin' to hold on to, at least."