☆TRACK XI: THIS FIXATION

[interdimanagers]

Who: Everyone! Especially Lapis and all musicians.
What: The Final Festival finally begins.
When: May 5th, 2055, at 5:55PM.
Where: Concert stages for both Pride and Virgo, as well as throughout the city.
Warnings: Lapis related violence.

“I think I'm drowning. Asphyxiated. I wanna break this spell That you've created. You're something beautiful; A contradiction. I wanna play the game. I want the friction.” ☆THIS FIXATION The start times of the festivals are very explicit. The first notes are to be played at 5:55 PM – no sooner, and no later. This has been enforced by every recital leading up to this point, and today the word is law. The audience view it as a peculiarity. How could both labels independently decide to do something so particular? Those on the stage will feel it in their hearts. There’s more to it than just another concert. Something is happening, bigger than all of you, and something deep down tells you that you are powerless to stop it now. There’s a momentum that’s been building for centuries, and only now will the show truly begin. the 55th minute | the 5th hour | the 5th day | the 5th month | the 2055th year Those with magical, spiritual, or musical sense will feel it strongly. The magic of it is thick in the air, enveloping the entirely of Vista within its breadth. The music begins, and a terrible tension in the air finally breaks. In that precise moment, something has been released – and there is no going back from here. ☆THE SHORT AND DIRTY The ritual has finally begun. So let's break this down. ► The same moment the festivals begin, and occult magical ritual has been set in motion. That special time window that the labels were waiting for? This is it. Why the number 5 is so important we may never know, but the key thing to note is that the force of musical power behind the labels are now multiplying, and will only be getting stronger the longer the ritual goes on. Those with Fame Power abilities will feel more and more potent as time goes on as well. Magical juice will come easier and they will get bigger magical effects for their effort. ► The festival will begin with the labels biggest acts, so only a few of the player characters will be on stage at that point. Veteran musicians will start things off on a high note, and the rest will be lined up and ready for a seemingly unending roll of music all through the night and into the entirety of Friday and Saturday. Friday has been deemed a city wide public holiday because that’s how seriously Vista takes its music. Fledgling bands with characters of Fame Power 4+ or Fame Fortune 4+ will have the honour of being part of the first wave of performances, all starting at 5:55PM. This is a seriously big deal. So don’t fuck up. ► Very shortly after the beginning of the festival, Lesedi Santiago is going to fuck everything up for you. ☆LESEDI FUCKS THINGS UP And this is how Lesedi will fuck things up: she's getting Lapis Lazuli to do it for her. Lapis was recently captured by Pride Records while trying to sneak out information to the rescuers. She has been powerfully enchanted by Lesedi to attack and kill Virgo musicians and Rescuers alike, and her water powers will be temporarily enhanced by feeding off of Lesedi's magic. Lapis is being sent to attack Virgo musicians first - ideally disrupting as many Virgo performances as possible and FUBARing Blanche's ritual right from the get go. Juno will quickly regroup and start sending Virgo's magical adepts to try to stop her, while keeping as many of them on stage as possible. Meanwhile, this is all occurring in broad fucking daylight. So what do the civilians think? Well, they'll be scared and try to save themselves from any attacks they get caught in the middle of, but otherwise...it's like they've been reduced to zombies. None of them seem capable of acknowledging that anything weird is happening - the only thing they can focus on is the music, and as long as it continues their minds are ensnared. Rescuers who have been heavily effected by the brainwashing of the musical singles may also feel entranced by the music at the concert as well, and may have a similar lack of survival instinct. They'll be drawn to the music regardless of all else, up to and including the risk of death. Lapis's player has been planning out a variety of fight threads in advance, but since Lapis as the ability to create a lot of collateral damage, people can also be free to assume that they are trying to save civilians from surprise water hazards as this goes on, or simply trying to survive themselves. We will be assuming there are no deaths caused by Lapis unless it is cleared with her player first. This includes random audience members. This will go on for a while, until eventually Lapis is chased away from the festival and goes to attack the rescuer warehouse with the chip removal equipment instead. Silver will sent out an urgent message warning the rescuers of this, urging them to get over there as quickly as possible and help to remove the equipment and take it to a safe place. Silver themselves will not arrive immediately, and Gold is still nowhere to be seen - at least, not until the very end, when they will make a surprise return appearance to help attend to the Lapis Lazuli problem. “Now that you know I'm trapped- Sense of elation. You'd never dream of Breaking this fixation. You will squeeze the life out of me.”

Comments

[exhumerus]

It's weird that it's boxed up already - almost like someone got it ready for them already? But if Silver got here already, then why did they just leave the things sitting around? There is a bit of an edge in Sans's tone when he speaks.

"Time to see how much dead weight I can drag with me, huh?" he agrees, just in time for a street shaking crack to resonate through the whole building as Lapis tears the street up outside. The water can be heard gushing from where their are.

"...Well, shit," is all Sans can manage at first. "That sounds unfriendly."

She's here.

[sailorgenerous]

"Language," Rarity says weakly, because that did not sound good.

She snaps out of it fairly quickly - she does not want them to be here any longer than necessary, and standing around worrying won't help them. "Grab something and go," she tells him. "I'll organize boxes to make things easier for you." She's already magicking boxes into neat but manageable stacks. Get going, Sans.

[exhumerus]

"You got it," he says after a moment of hesitation, laying his hands on one of the boxes before vanishing and taking the box with him. He ends up dragging them back to their apartment, for lack of better ideas. Hopefully Silver won't mind.

It only takes him a few moments to let it go and then he's back, but in that time the shaking and gushing of water from outside has only gotten worse. And then something starts exploding from within the walls.

He stares at Rarity for a moment, stunned and uncertain, before going to the next pile and teleporting it away. What the fuck, man.

[sailorgenerous]

Silver can come claim them later, as far as Rarity is concerned. They didn't specify a destination, so they're just going to have to deal with it later, once the crisis is over.

That's the goal: to have something to deal with, and to be around to deal with it. Rarity ignores the shaking of the walls as much as she can; she and Sans have a job to do, and panicking now will not help. She'll panic later, once everything is done.

Provided the roof doesn't come down on her head in the process.

She does not need to think about that right now.

She continues organizing boxes into piles; the edges aren't perfectly aligned, no, but right now speed is more important than form. When Sans returns and hesitates, she pauses and gestures. "Go on! Go!"

[exhumerus]

Okay, okay, geez. When you can travel across town in a matter of seconds, a pile of boxes isn't much of a barrier. He takes another load, and then comes back and takes another, and on that return trip he decides to teleport outside first for a moment instead.

...He returns inside very quickly.

"I think those masked guys are fighting now," he comments as he takes the next to last pile that's been left in obvious sight. He vanishes before she can scold him.

[sailorgenerous]

"What?" It's all she manages before Sans disappears again. That's quite the bomb to drop, especially with such a quick exit. That is not how you gossip.

She huffs and goes back to stacking boxes - more quickly, as Sans has nearly outpaced her at this point - and waits for him to pop back in. "What do you mean by that?"

[exhumerus]

Well she told him to hurry. Obviously he's just dutifully following her instructions. He pauses for a moment more when he reappears and she is eagerly waiting for clarification.

"Uh, you know, the helmet guys? I went outside at they were yelling at each other while Lazuli tore up the street."

Aaaand he's gone again, though he'll soon return.

[sailorgenerous]

"What?" This she has to see.

The last of the boxes are stacked by the time Sans returns again, and she makes a grab for his arm. "Show me."

[exhumerus]

He could take the boxes back to the apartment, or he could take her onto the roof. He decides to do the latter, because honestly, it seems like the kind of thing they might want to know.

"Well, if you insist," he says, and lets her grab hold. A moment later they've skipped up onto the roof, just in time to see the real fireworks. Lapis Lazuli is sure not in a good place.

[sailorgenerous]

Well of course they need to stay well-informed! It's crucial to their mission. The fact that Rarity is an incorrigible gossip has nothing to do with it.

They arrive on the roof just in time to hear Silver and Gold yelling and see a bolt of electricity arc towards Lapis. She spends the next minute or two in utter silence. This isn't necessarily fun to watch, but it seems like it's something they ought to know.

It's only when Silver leaves that she speaks up. "We should finish."

[exhumerus]

Sans watches as Lapis gets smacked down, and things continue to escalate. The roofing beneath them shakes as the building across the street begins to give way. He reflexively sticks out a hand without looks, feeling for Rarity's wrist.

He doesn't know much about Gold - he only ever interacted with Silver, who seemed tough but fair. His perspective from within the labels is probably limited.

"Looks like," he replies, and pulls them down off the roof before things can get any more shaken up. Once they've got the boxes out, he figures they can leave it to the pros.