interstellar5555 | ☆TRACK XII: LOVE AND TRUST

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☆TRACK XII: LOVE AND TRUST

Who: Everyone!
What: The tour hits Europa, and Edward Blanche plans a trap.
When: May 25th - June 17th, 2055
Where: Any of the potential tour stops, but mostly MOSCOW.
Warnings: Probably violence.

“Oh, will you break my fall
When I climb too high?
I always lose my nerve,
It happens every time.”

☆LOVE AND TRUST

After the disaster that was the beginning of the World Tour, things from there have proceeded innocently enough in comparison. Virgo ended up being able to pull its act into some semblance of order before the festival finished, and so the magic on their side was not entirely lost. Things are tense, however, for anybody who has an idea of the stuff going on upstairs. Whatever is going on, Pride is in the lead by a landslide, and the desperation is present in the managers and the execs alike.

Lesedi, however, couldn’t be happier. In fact, she is getting cockier by the day. Her plans with Lapis went wonderfully, and wherever the gem is now is irrelevant. Barring any major disasters, she is increasingly certain of her defeat of Virgo, and is encouraging her elite members of take potshots at them any chance they get. (This includes her beginner music mages.)

The beginning of the month is spent with both labels visiting a lot of very familiar locations across Americana - most of which are places they will have visited in the past. The routes are very similar to the ones the first bands took during their opening tours last summer.

As for the rescuers, now is the time to regroup. It’s not practical to follow the musicians to ever stop they make, but Shep has apparently enabled his spaceship with a cloaking device, and will be taking all the rescuers and free musicians to the major tour centers of each continental tour - the headline festivals, each lasting for days, and each carrying an important role in the ongoing ritual.

That’s what Silver thinks, at least. As some of the rescuers may now know, Gold has apparently gone solo.

☆EUROPA TOUR

As the Americana portion of the tour comes to a close around the 25th of May, both labels will be finishing up in Britain and heading on into the conglomerate of Europa. All of these cities are basically what they are like IRL except about 50 years more future-like, and you have full creative liberty to make up some developments to the local culture and worldbuild because this is the last time these places will ever be mentioned meaningfully!

THE OFFICIAL STOPS: Paris (May 30th - 31st), Berlin (June 1st - 2nd), Madrid (June 3rd - 6th), Istanbul (June 7th - 8th), Rome (June 9th - 10th), Vienna (June 11th - 12th)
THE HEADLINER: Moscow (June 12th - 17th)

The festival in Moscow is much like the festival in Vista City - a musical blowout to end all blow outs. The two labels festival grounds are practically blending together at this point, almost as if fighting for physical territory along with fighting for the attention of the crowds. The thick energy of magic follows the tour like a comet’s tail.

► RESCUER PROMPT: Instead of cutting through all of the earlier stops, Shep loads all the rescuers up into the now-cloaked spaceship and will bring them to Moscow, the last step in the Europa tour path and the place they’ll be stopping the longest. Silver has been saying that the lot of them should start working on freeing captives at all costs, especially now that the labels are on the road and increasingly disorganized. Shep has gotten together a bunch of new material for disguises as well as more holo projectors - a lot of them have been spotted at this point, but if they can get close to the musicians and catch the labels off guard it could be their best hope of bunging up the rituals for both of them.

Meanwhile, Gold is obviously absent from the team, and some may have seen their former leader essentially announce their intent to leave during their fight with Lapis. Silver and Shep seem to have been avoiding talking about it, but occasionally it will be referenced in public places and the conversation will turn rapidly tense.

► MUSICIAN PROMPT: Everything is more or less business as normal, except for the pressure of the tour seems to be causing all the authority figures to lose their minds, especially in Virgo. Beyond that, though, it’s all deceptively the same. Both labels stop in the various cities and put on their best show, only stopping briefly to enjoy the local culture. Everyone is under very careful watch, however, no matter where they are. No one leaves the performance areas without an escort - it’s clear that both labels are desperate to hang on to musicians at this point. The gravity of the situation is increasingly obvious.

Both labels have been booked into the same hotel this time, which is essentially a castle in Moscow. It’s every bit as lavish as you would expect, and it’s easy to get distracted from the stress with the luxuries that are offered at every turn. The consistent sense of desperation that Virgo has running through it at the moment is totally absent in Pride - Lesedi seems like she’s in an absolutely fantastic mood.

► FESTIVAL PROMPT: The festivals crowds are bigger than anything you’ve ever seen. Rescuers will easily be lost in a crowd, and musicians will be followed by a detour of body guards that honestly feel needed for reasons besides imprisonment. The stages are colourful and elaborate in set up. The musical event goes on for three full days, and most of everyone’s time will be spent backstage or in their hotels. Rescuers will have to do their best to keep up.

☆BLANCHE MAKES A MOVE

In the wake of Virgo falling behind, Edward Blanche has come up with a magical scheme of his own. Using the soul crystal of pure love from Greg Universe and pure duty from Meril, he has been devising a ritual - and with any luck, it take out two birds with one stone.

Greg and Meril, having mostly lost their real personalities after having parts of their souls torn out and crystalized, will be set up in a central location in the hotel, after the performances on the last night in Moscow. They’ll be set up to play music, and while that music is playing it will be reaching out to all of the rescuers, whether they can hear it or not. This music is going to trigger the love and duty within their own souls, and direct it to a particular cause - a sudden and desperate need to save their friends, family, or other sympathetic souls from the labels. And the need to do it tonight. This will hit them particularly hard if they are naturally of a love or duty alignment, but it will have an effect regardless. How much it gets them exactly is up to you.

Virgo’s musicians will be protected very heavily during the ritual, as Blanche is expecting the attack. His hope is to lure rescuers in and kill or capture them, having the advantage of foresight. He’s also hoping that the rescuers will go after the less protected musicians of Pride and steal them away from Lesedi, who isn’t aware that this is happening. If things go well for Blanche, both the rescuers and Pride will take a major hit, all in one go. Why not let your enemies destroy each other?

Player participation in this can go two ways: one is that your character can simply go after any of the musicians you choose, and you can work out between the players and the mod how well it goes. Alternatively, you can have your character go to the heart of the matter and try to take on Greg and Meril. The tricky part? Blanche is going to be overseeing the ritual as well. However, without the focuses of Greg and Meril’s soul crystals, the ritual will fail. Also, there will absolutely be a few opportunistic ghosts looking for the opportunity to give everyone a hand.

Communication with the mod is key for this event! Please run by plans to have any musicians successfully escape by me before going through with it, and also do let me know if you’d like the ghosts to help out! This can absolutely be combined with other player plots, such as the Pride break out initiative that’s been floating around.

The night of the ritual is June 17th, so take some time to plan things out, and then get threading. Let me know if you need help setting any scenes!

“Oh will you bring me home
When I'm barely alive?
It's the state of love and trust,
And this is for you,
And this is for us.”

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Minako's reaction was fairly tame...for her standards.

Venus Crystal Power, Make Up!

Sailor Venus's hand hovered over her chain belt, taking in the scene coldly. There was no one else to protect her princess and her lover now: it was on her, and she couldn't fail them this time.

Meril -- Lenneth took a step back from the keyboard, not to avoid the flames but simply to give herself room to clear her sword from her sheath with a ring of Ether-coated metal.

"You who tread against the order of things." She practically spat the words as she raised her sword, then took it in a two-handed grip. "Here you shall meet your end, and may Hel receive you!"

She all but exploded from her stance, lunging forward towards Usagi with speed that belied her armor. Rei might have attacked first, but she remembered Sailor Moon from that night outside the tower, and her words then. Duty impelled her to attack.

But this was no reckless attack that paid no heed to the others; she expected action from all three. That was why the lunge abruptly became a slide, her momentum and strength carrying her punishingly forward towards Serena to knock her off balance and set her up for further attack -- while hopefully going beneath whatever hostilities had been launched to intercept her.

Sailor Moon was willing to accept the attack first, was glad the attention wasn't on Rei and Venus, honestly. But she was used to facing strong foes, even something as strong as a Valkyrie. She summoned her Tiare and wordlessly summoned up a barrier of light, flying up and out of the attack.

She was not new to battle.

But she also didn't want to hurt Lenneth, not when the actions were fueled pulled by others. That would make her no better than attacking the Amazon Quartet. Besides that, Lenneth was Rei's friend.

Rei was not Sailor Moon, though, and her powers didn’t really have any sort of moderation. It was mostly destructive force and…more…destructive force, though she had been practicing with them for quite some time now. Her finger darted out from behind cover, and a string of fireballs launched themselves at the Valkyrie. None of them were very large, since the goal was to dissuade and rattle Meril and not kill her. Some injury was unavoidable, with things like this…and she was willing to accept that.

Her aim wasn’t directly at her friend though, but rather at the ground around her feet. The floorboards rippled and creaked with the impacts, and several of the tables upended all around her, flipping in her general direction and sending up glasses and plates in a clattering spray. It was definitely meant to blunt the charge that the warrior woman was making towards Sailor Moon, but when Meril ducked into a slide and brought herself closer to the hits it very likely did more than anticipated. And there was even a possibility that the ballroom tables might have fallen on her.

Whoops?

The shower of fireballs abruptly ended when she realized where Meril had gone, and Rei’s hand retreated as she took a moment to reconsider the strategy, and let Venus do her thing.

Venus immediately whipped out the chain belt, intending to use it to trap Meril---it might have cracked against her backside, but she needed to shift. With Rei's flames in place, she darted to one side, aiming again at a spot in front of Usagi's barrier.

"This has to stop!"

With how thoroughly dedicated Meril was to her cause in this state, Venus fully expected the flames to hardly dent her relentless pace.

Lenneth's shields shifted, one snapping around to protect her side from the eruption of flame. The fire washed over it and over the Valkyrie in turn, but she paid no heed to pain.

Slamming one fist on the ground for power, she erupted upwards, tables and chairs smashing out of her way as she escaped both flames and chain. Two ice crystals flicked out of her free hand in rapid succession, shooting for Mars and Venus. Eliminating the distractions would allow her to focus on the real enemy...

"It shall be engraved upon your soul!" Lenneth snarled, as her own power bled out in waves around her. With a sweep of her sword, she unleashed it. Three swords of light erupted out of the air, shooting towards Sailor Moon in quick succession to impale her and paralyze her.

"VENUS! REI!" Usagi was never one to care about herself above her friends. Her friends were her life. So she quickly moved the barrier from herself to protect Venus and Rei, even if Rei could melt the ice, she didn't want to chance it. She used even more energy of her light to keep them safe, making the barrier as thick as possible while still keeping some for herself.

Which was why, now that her own barrier was weaker for it, while the swords of light were slowed, they still struck their mark and she was hit... hard. Her crystal was quick to start immediately healing the damage but she was slammed back into several tables, chairs, and eventually the wall itself, her weaker body taking nearly the full brunt of the damage.

Edited 2016-06-21 16:26 (UTC)

A lot of things happened at once, a lot of things Rei wasn’t quite ready for. First the noise, the racket of tables and chairs flying every which way, breaking apart into splinters that forced her to shield her face. She was tough, and they didn’t pierce her skin thankfully, but it was enough of a distraction that she missed the onrushing ice shards. The barrier that sprang to life stole her focus next, eyes widening as she realized what was happening. The light screen kept the worst of the magic at bay, yes, but it was a screen against the physical…not against the sudden shock of frigid air that took hold of her body. Her arms and legs began to ice over, locked into place, a crystalline prison forming quickly around the fiery ex-violinist.

And she barely noticed it.

The blades of light that smashed into Sailor Moon drew a short, strangled gasp as the ice encased her head, obscuring her view. She only had a moment to act, and she knew what she had to do. A knot of emotion welled up deep inside her, her eyes closing and her breath stilling with a reflexive exercise. She had to get out. She had to find a way out of this trick, and stop Meril. Her instincts, the psychic danger sense, howled at her to do something quickly before disaster struck…and she knew almost as intuitively that she was the only person who could stop Meril. And if she didn’t, her friend…the person she was supposed to protect, was going to die. Here on this god-forsaken rock, after having come all this way to rescue her, she was going to die.

Unless I can stop her.

Frantically, Rei cast about for ideas, but there wasn’t enough time to melt free and she couldn’t see enough to cast a spell on Meril. She could blow the whole building up, but that would probably take everyone with her, including the people she was trying to save. She needed more power. Some…guide, some…something…to light the way. And that’s when a thought struck her.

When things seem their darkest, just remember your heart. Think on it, Rei-chan, wish for it, and your heart will come back to you. It will guide you.

Words from Minako and Usagi, a reminder that she wasn’t alone in this prison. That there was someone else in here with her. Someone she used to be. Someone she could be again, and someone who could stop this. Drawing on that thought, willing herself forward, Rei Hino barreled through her mental landscape, battering down door after door, searching for something that was lost. Something that she had been seeking for months, and something that she knew was hidden. Intuition led her down one hallway after another, her mind a maze of blank spaces and burned out corridors, but at last she found it, the door she needed. Marked with an arrow, blazing with the heat of a star, and accompanied by a feeling of familiarity that she hadn’t had with anything on Terra, the door practically begged to be opened. And open it Rei did, throwing it wide and flinging herself into the void beyond.

That’s when it happened. The ice around Rei began to glow and crack, blazing light radiating outward from her heart as she finally tapped into her Sailor Crystal. Power exploded outward from her, the ice around both herself and Venus flash-melting and throwing up a billowing cloud of steam. The floor creaked, tendrils of fire licking up the pillars and greedily consuming the splintered remnants of the chairs and tables. Savage, unchecked heat raged all around Sailor Mars as she stood staring at Meril, boots planted firmly. A quick shake of her wrist conjured the Mars Arrow, an enormous yumi crafted entirely out of golden flame, and she aimed it at the valkyrie’s throat. She knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that she could cut down her friend. It would be a simple thing, the weapon’s enchantments designed to unravel magic and slice through flesh as neatly as it did the air. It would burn away the enemy and leave nothing behind but ashes and memory. That was what her instincts demanded, that she slay the enemy before the enemy could unleash further harm on her Princess. That would not happen again, not now, and not ever.

But there was something else that nagged at her, a feeling that made her hesitate. That face, the memories that’d been implanted, false though they might be…had made Meril mean something to her. She was a friend, someone who had been hurt deeply by this, just like Rei and the others. She was a pawn, and if she fired that bow she’d be no better than Blanche. So, she didn’t. Mars tamped down on the inferno blazing in her heart, and opened her mouth to speak. Goddess to Goddess, Friend to Friend…Victim to Victim. Her tone was low and steady, filled with the calm that only came to someone with true certainty. She knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that whatever Blanche had done could be undone and she laced her words with an impression of vulnerability, the very kind that had first seemed to catch the shorter woman’s interest. The kind that Meril had shown in the trailer, and at the festival…

“Meril. Please. Don’t do this. I don’t want to fight you. And I know you don’t want to fight me. This…remember what I told you before. This is him twisting your heart up, turning you on your friends. Remember the festival, how I helped you with your disguise, and how fun that was. This is just like when that woman got in your head at the party! This is not you!”

"Sailor Moon!" Venus cried out as the frozen air closed in. She was shielded from the brunt of the impact thanks to her sacrifice, but like Rei, she knew time was running out. She thrust out her hand, summoning a silver blade in a burst of light. With its power, she had to cut through, had to reach Usagi...

Pain shot through her as she started to freeze, but she paid it no mind. She started to charge a beam of light, desperate enough to aim for Meril directly, but fortunately for Meril, the wave of flames interrupted that attack. Venus knew that welcome presence too well: at long last, Mars was beside them once more.

But there was no time to celebrate---she had to take this moment to act. Mars seemed to have a plan with her friend, so that left her to her princess. She leapt to Sailor Moon's side, sword still pointed in Meril's direction.

The Valkyrie leaped backwards and upwards -- not out of fear of Rei, nor out of concern for her own safety. No... she only needed the space to draw out her weapon.

Lenneth's wings burst outwards, shining with a radiance that coalesced in her outstretched hand. A spear, wrought through with the power of the Battle-Maiden. A weapon that, once hurled, would put an end to the threat that Sailor Moon posed to...

...who did she threaten again, anyway?

No, it was her duty, her duty, to defend Blanche. Blanche and the other musicians she cared about and wished to protect, like...

Rei?

Her hand tightened around the spear, but she did not lift it, nor reverse it to throw. The goddess hung in midair motionlessly save for the raw divine energy still streaming off of her, and it was if time itself stood balanced on a knife's edge, waiting for her to move.

Mars noticed the hesitation, how could she not? It was just that obvious, and she knew then that she’d gotten at least part way through. So, she did something she thought Usagi would do, something she was sure a fully awakened Mars would do. She lowered the bow and banished the burning arrow. Two quick steps and she was leaping into the air, putting her own body between Meril and Usagi, her own power reaching out to intermingle with the valkyrie’s in a divine embrace. Positioning herself so that the spear would have to pass through her to reach her friends, Mars met the other’s eyes and smiled gently, throwing everything she had into this gamble.

“Meril,” she said, “This isn’t right. This is Blanche’s doing. Please, put a stop to this. We came here to get you out, so that we can all go home. To our real lives, our real duty. You know this isn’t right. Search your heart, remember who you really are. You’re kind and serious, you’re my friend, and you have no idea how much the time we’ve shared has meant to me. But if that meant nothing to you, then just get it over with. I’d rather not live in a world where my friends want to kill my other friends.”

And, silently, Mars hopes this worked. If not, then…that’s that. She’ll die, and take out the entire floor with her final breath. The ritual can’t go on. Closing her eyes, she waited with a peaceful smile, ready to accept whatever happened.

She saw Meril hesitate, which made her relieved, she felt Venus at her side which made her grateful, but when she saw Mars, her precious Mars in all her passionate, warring glory? She felt so proud. She was always in love with how strong her senshi were, how capable and beautiful they were in their own way and how it made others strong too, how it made her stronger because of their own strength.

Sailor Moon was, perhaps amongst all the senshi, able to take the strongest hits. Not because she was the stronger than Makoto or Haruka physically, not even close, but the ginzuishou was already healing her, all the scrapes and cuts slowly disappearing from her body when her senshi body could not provide what she needed. She took a deep breath and used Venus' help to stand, even shaking as she did.

"Meril," she called out, pleading as she watched Mars, arms spread wide in front of her between them. "Meril please, listen to her! Even now... even now we're asking not to fight... If Rei didn't love you... if we didn't want to see you all safely brought home, to your real home, we wouldn't be doing this, we wouldn't be here. But she loves you, Meril," she pleaded, her knees wobbling and she held onto Venus a bit tighter before using sheer willpower alone to stand upright.

"Please, we're not your enemy," she hoped, she prayed that even now Meril could see all their attacks had been to divert, to protect, to be effective with the least amount of damage to her.

She tried to flex her wings, wanting to be by Rei's side, but the pain shot up her spine and she panted, having to hold onto Venus more than before now. Alright, maybe... wait on that action again, at least until her crystal could take care of that area too.

Venus held tight to her princess, both out of support and to hold her back. Rei could handle this, that she knew. It was merely her job to lower the sword and reach out with all the love she had to give.

"Rei's always so passionate about her love...you're family to her, there's no way she's letting you go. We could never stand in the way of that."

She still felt a cold fear in the back of her mind, but it was her duty to set that aside.

Lenneth spun the spear in her hand as she brought her arm back, the snarling draconic energy wreathing its point glaring at Rei with cold hunger to strike. Those who defended her enemies needed to be struck down. Her duty was to strike down the enemies of Asgard --

The crystal hovering over the stage pulsed briefly, its sickly color shuddering. Asgard? No, her duty was to her fellow musicians, to protect them from enemies like these.

Another sick, shuddering pulse. Fellow musicians, like Rei... no. Her duty was to protect Blanche, to do his bidding. Even though.... even though he had hurt her. Hurt Greg. Hurt a number of people. Even though he was using her. Even though he had started this battle in the first place --!

The spear in her hand shattered into ethereal energy, a violent discharge that recoiled into her and sent her backwards and down. She hit the ground with her legs beneath her, though the force of it cracked the stage around her feet and left her, for the moment, unable to rise.

Mars waited, hovering before Meril, impassively accepting that she’d done what she could. Her only response to the swirling power before her was to send her own aura out to wrap up the silver haired woman in an embrace. But then it stops, the weapon shattering into flinders and a feeling of confusion washing over the Goddess of War as her friend fell hard. But it was no matter. She knew now that they’d broken through the worst of the enchantment, and she dove down beside the fallen Valkyrie.

Her eyes swept around the room, watching the struggle of her bandmates and the skeleton against Blanche and Greg with a kind of detached calm. She could probably intercede, but something lingered in her mind, a nagging feeling from her psychic senses told her that it wasn’t her place. It wasn’t her fight, and right now Meril needed to be taken care of. That was a battle for mortals, and the divine had to look after their own.

Reaching down, the re-awakened Mars scooped up her friend and leapt clear, carrying her offstage and towards her two companions.

“It’s the crystals. It’s got to be the crystals. I’ve got her, if one of you can get that gem. Then we should probably get out of here.”

Edited 2016-06-24 15:59 (UTC)

"I've got it!" Venus promised, grinding her heels into the carpet. She sucked in a breath---an object of such immense, terrifying power. Her mind raced through the number of ways this could go wrong. But no matter the risks, her team needed her. The captured needed her.

She whipped the chain off from around her waist once more, spun toward the crystal, and willed it to latch on. Fingers crossed.

Sailor Moon watched as Venus' chain wrapped around the crystal and she jumped with joy when she got it.

"You got it! Pull it back and I'll take care of the rest Venus!" she had seen how the other group had gotten it into Greg and was going to well- actually she was going to be far more gentle than that, she hoped. She closed her eyes and and focused as she extended her healing abilities to wrap around Meril's crystal and Meril. She would not let anything happen to either of them. She could do this, she could heal the valkyrie. She could feel the pulsing of her light in tandem with her heartbeat and took a deep breath as her own crystal began to heal her and Meril, what damage there was on her.

The crystal was now in her hands and she walked over to Meril, healing all the damage done to it by Blanche, easing away every ache and pain before she held it out to Meril's chest and let it return where it belonged.

"What are you..." The Valkyrie surged back to coherence in Mars' arms, luckily not quite yet ready to struggle. She was a damnably heavy weight for such a small girl, all solid muscle and armor. One hand reached out blindly, grabbing for the crystal in Usagi's hand and missing wide as it drifted back towards her.

It touched her, passed into her as if she was made of air and dust, and vanished.

Meril curled in on herself as if she'd been struck a vicious blow to her gut. Which she had been; not a physical one, but a very real one nonetheless as thought and memory and clear duty all returned to her, along with the awareness of what she had become, what she had done. A strangled cry forced its way out of her throat as she wrapped her arms around herself, the weight suddenly too much to bear.

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☆TRACK XII: LOVE AND TRUST

/idiot who can't tag in the right place, sorry for the holdup

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