☆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]

The interplay between his 'aura' and the crystal's slows and gradually stops, which seems to make it easier for him to think, though he's still plainly stressed. He sets it on the floor in front of his crossed legs, and presses his palms over his eye sockets, quelling the bluish gold flickering in his eye.

"Nah," he says, too plainly. "I'm not. How is anyone supposed to be?"

[determinate]

Frisk frowns slightly. "That's not what I meant." Nobody's okay-okay here. They aren't, really, at least not all the time. And Sans is even less okay than anybody, considering what just happened to him.

He's not okay at home either. But they don't mention that.

"I meant this," they elaborate, reaching out to pick up the crystal themself. They've handled it before. It was safe then, so they're not afraid the thing wil happen again. Maybe it only happens to someone with magic - that would explain why they and Connie couldn't work it out. They turn it over idly in their hands, looking for changes. "Was it making it worse?"

[exhumerus]

Sans watches Frisk turn it over in their hands, like someone watching someone they more or less trust handling a super expensive vase. He's not about to leap out and grab it from them, but there is a certain anxiety that comes with it being moved at all.

"'Worse' is probably the wrong word," he says, vaguely. "Just... reminding me of some things, and... I'm pretty sure I know what these crystals are, now. It's... not good, kid." He looks away.

"I think they're people."

[determinate]

Frisk's hands still at that. "Like souls?" The contained souls they've seen before didn't look like this. This is almost more what you'd expect: a magical-looking crystal thing. Somewhere in the back of their mind, they had always wondered if those tubes were made of something special, or just plain glass. But for all the times they reset in that corridor, they never got a close look, and asking Asgore was out of the question.

"I guess that makes sense." Souls are powerful. Even if the executives aren't monsters, there's probably more than one way to draw on that. Does it really always come back to soul power, in the end?

[exhumerus]

"Yeah," Sans confirms, his voice low and tired. "She... was in my band, for a while. She was a good kid."

He's apparently talking about the crystal. He honestly doesn't know if the past tense is appropriate. Can this even be reversed, or are they dead like those human children?

[determinate]

Frisk hums thoughtfully under their breath. After another moment of contemplation, they offer the crystal back. It probably won't hurt him, if that's true - no one is using it, and it wouldn't do that on its own. They don't know how much souls are aware of, but the other humans knew they didn't want to help Flowey, so there must be something. Maybe she'll feel better if a friend holds her.

"What's her name?" They're not sure anything can be done about it. Asriel put all the monsters back, but that might not be the same thing at all.

[exhumerus]

Sans stares at it for a moment, before very tentatively taking it. It's hard to say how cognizant a disembodied soul is of anything going on around it. The reasons Sans recognizes her at all is due to a strange kind of empathic feedback - but who knows how well a stone can process that kind of information, even if it picks it up.

He cradles it between his fingers contemplatively. He doesn't start aura mingling with it again, so at least that much seems to be voluntary now.

"Haru Miura," he says. "She played the drums. Did something against the grain a while back, and they messed with her head pretty bad because of it. Then, one day... just disappeared."

Kind of like he had. The idea makes him shiver.

[determinate]

Frisk curls up a little, resting their head on their knees and watching the crystal as Sans talks. Yellow. One of the dead kids from before was yellow too.

"They didn't just absorb the souls," they observe after a moment. It seems relevant. They're not sure there's any reason not to - the executives would probably be strong enough to keep them under control, more like Asriel than Flowey. And Asgore just kept them around because he didn't want them in the first place.

...well. No. He'd wanted Alphys to find another way too.

That's it. They're studying them to figure out how to do whatever it is they want. "We should try to get more back."

[exhumerus]

Sans casts Frisk a wary glance when they mention soul absorption. Sans had remembered that idea conceptually a while ago, along with a lot of other magical theoreticals. Some of the extra baggage hadn't become as apparent until during the actual affair when he had some of his more unpleasant memory wake up calls.

But he wasn't sure what context Frisk would think about all of this in. There's still a lot about them he doesn't know, he realizes, even if the parts he does remember sets him at ease. Mostly, anyway.

His fingers rattle a bit as they fidget around the crystal's edges.

"...Yeah." He's quiet for a few more moments, before tentatively adding. "I don't want 'em getting used for that they wanted 'em used for. Even if they're not coming back otherwise."

He avoid eye contact, his sockets dark.

"I know they must have had more of them somewhere. Way more than five people have been made gone."

[determinate]

Frisk nods. Toriel and Undyne are gone too.

If they reset, could they get here in time to stop that somehow?

It'd be hard. They can't control when they get to Vista; only Shep can bring them here, and by the time he did this time it was already too late. If they went all the way back to the Underground again, could they stop them getting taken to begin with? Asriel would understand that, right? It wouldn't have to mean abandoning the others either. Lots of rescuers came even though they didn't know any of the musicians.

Maybe, if nothing else works, they'll try that later. They just know they can't go home without all of the monsters. If they still had the other six souls...

Honestly there's a lot of things that could probably be fixed by Sans or Papyrus taking some of these. But that seems like it should be a last resort, and anyway Frisk would never be the one to suggest it.

"They probably still feel things," they propose, their tone half-questioning. They don't want to explain why they're so sure of that. "Like when your soul was taken." They wonder, belatedly, if he's mentioned that to Papyrus at all. Maybe they should decide what their cover story for that is going to be.