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.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ship: Transporter of another kind

"Scarlet Romanoff" is now a scarf wearing Pride fangirl who traveled to see the headline show. "Isami Hijikata" is still a random black haired boy in a hoodie that he can ditch if the identity is compromised when doing more risky ventures. "Velia Nicomedo" is a Pride backstage hand who is helping prepare the stage for the headline show.

And Ivan? Ivan spends his evenings mostly in the ship, pouring over a map of Moscow he purchased using some of his saved funds from his bookstore job. (Luckily, he saved some each paycheck because job security is nil now.) He refuses to stay idle until he passes out from exhaustion in some corner of the ship.

They need to get the musicians out already. They need to act. He's going to be very familiar with the city by the time the musicians arrive. Ivan traces various routes on his map with a finger and tries to guess which roads might be blocked off when the festival arrives.

Moscow: Pride Side

"Velia Nicomedo" is the Pride employee whose identity Ivan has assumed. He appears as a middle aged woman, with hair pulled tight into a bun. It's currently his job to post signs and banners advertising the headliner event throughout the venue and surrounding areas. He even helps to hang the huge decorative banners in the back of the stage. He's kept busy, and he can't set up traps or the like. But he's learning the venue and "bumping" into people whose forms might come in handy later.

It's best to catch him when he's hanging posters outside of the stage areas.

Something else?

[[ Anything else you want to thread. Since he's a rescuer, ship or Moscow related prompts are the only ones he can do. He's not in the other locations. ]]

There's a saying about curiosity and cats, but J doesn't really hold to that; after all, if you're not curious, how are you going to ever learn anything? To that end, he can hear Ivan focused on something, and he's interested to see what it is.

He saunters in and raises an eyebrow. Learning the lay of the land is probably the best thing to do here in terms of mission prep. "You know, that ain't a bad idea. Find anything interesting in there so far?"

Ivan looks up, recognizing J more from his time as a musician than his time as a rescuer. He moves over a little where he sits, so J can get a better view of the map.

"The city isn't as big as Vista City. It doesn't have nearly the number of layers." He bends an edge over to show that the other side of the map is printed on as well. "Any vertical consideration is going to come more from skyscrapers and multi-story than another city layer completely. That can work in our favor... but it can also give us trouble too."

If the brain chips can't track elevation, then more layers would give the rescuers an edge when spiriting away a musician. There are more places for the label to look. On the other side, fewer layers also mean a more straightforward confrontation. There are only so many directions an attack could come from if above and below are limited.

He sits down and takes a look at the map. It's not nearly as complicated as Vista, which is going to make memorizing streets easier and getting by unseen more difficult. It's a double edged sword. "It means we're gonna need to plan our exit routes in advance an' be smart about 'em. I figure that's where people's powers will come into play. I mean, for starters, we got a guy who can teleport - that's gonna open up some possibilities." Whether or not Sans will be up for any of this is a whole other matter; they'll need to get his input when they start making concrete plans.

"I can't ask Sans to endanger himself like that again..." Ivan says quietly as he stares at the map. Sans teleported his band out of the label but didn't get himself out. "And he can only teleport one other at a time... and the labels would be looking out for that tactic, won't they? It happened before."

And Ivan doesn't doubt that the labels have ways of blocking that. He feels like he knows that such powers or technology exists.

And in the middle of his studious work, a small plate with a sandwich and plain rice on the side slides into his line of view.

"Being prepared is all well and good, but it's not going to do anyone any good if you forget the basic needs of life." Settling her hands back onto her lap, Luce smiles at Ivan. "Don't wear yourself out, alright, Ivan?"

As if on cue, Ivan's stomach grumbles at the plate of food. He can't remember the last time he ate. Did he have something when he was working backstage earlier today? ... Yesterday? Ivan's not sure of the time either, though he knows he's not late for his "work." That he won't miss.

Still, he doesn't reach for the sandwich to satisfy his traitorous stomach.

"I haven't really being doing anyone good though. That's the problem." How long has it been since he was rescued? Too long to have done next to nothing.

"You've avoided getting caught," Luce counters simply. "It's not a lot, but keeping anyone from Blanche that we can helps. And now we're on our way to help stop Santiago and Blanche from doing anything else. I can assure you that if you don't have enough food or energy by the time we land, then you definitely won't be doing anyone good."

"... I guess..." He says glumly and picks a bit of crust off his sandwich with fingers. He still doesn't eat it. "Though, sometimes I wonder if I just need to go out and try saving people on my own rather than wait for the group to come up with a plan."

Ivan has been driving himself crazy these two months since his escape. He has a Pride ID thanks to Lapis, and he wants to do something with it if he can't do anything for Virgo as an insider. He's been talking to a few people, like Trucy, so they should be aware that he's around... And he's let the rescuers know what he can do and willing to do.

"I'm not sure I can wait around much longer like this."

Without missing a beat, Luce reaches over to rap her knuckles right in the middle of his forehead.

“And if you get caught on your own because you didn’t have anyone with you? Because you didn’t have any backup, or anyone who knew where you were going and when you were supposed to be back?” Her voice lowers. “You saw what happened to that one young woman with the blue skin. If you act rashly, then you could get yourself and a whole lot of other people hurt. If you want to act, I won’t blame you, but you can’t do it on your own, Ivan. There’s a reason Family exists.”

"... Trucy's still in all of that mess..." Ivan admits. A lot of his determination that isn't tied to his identity of being a hero is tied to her. "I... I think she's from my world, like Pao-Lin. I remember being taken by masked men, and she was there beside me."

His voice lowers more, and his body seems to sag from an unseen weight. "... I failed her then. I couldn't protect her. I can't fail her again."

He doesn't know that Trucy is from a different world, and he doesn't know that there is--was another person from his world, Keith Goodman. But even if he knew the truth about Trucy's origin, it wouldn't change his motivation to save her.

“And there’s nothing to say you’ll fail this time.” Luce strokes her hand along Ivan’s hair. “We’ve gotten out, haven’t we? So we know it can be done. We have a way to get the things they put in our heads out. With the constant moving of the tour, that means it’ll be easy to throw things into disarray. We can rescue her, Ivan. You don’t have to be alone in doing this.”

"I guess..." he repeats again. Ivan still doesn't have full confidence in the rescuers, some less than others. He picks more at his food, willing himself to take some bites. "It's hard to think like that... but... if I were to trust anyone's ability to help, it would be the band. I can still call you my family... right?"

There was a worry buried deep inside. He doesn't think his brainwashed backstory had complete falsities. He really had been disowned by his biological family. He didn't want to lose another.

“Of course.” There’s not the slightest hesitation. “You don’t need blood bonds to be Family. It’s something you make and find. Besides, while the memories from before the summer are false, the feelings we’ve experienced together since then aren’t. I care for you, Ivan, and I know the others do too. If you ever need us or our help, all you have to do is ask.”

"I... thank you..." Ivan says quietly. "I'm not sure I'd survive losing my family for a third time..."

He wonders if the heroes he can't fully remember are missing him. Do they notice he's gone? Are they trying to find him like some of the other rescuers are doing for their kidnapped? Or are they unable?

But either way, Ivan knows he would die for his band family... which is probably something Luce would frown upon, but it's still a comforting feeling. In a way. That the feeling is real and when he argued that they were an actual family to Silver, it wasn't something brainwashed.

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In all honesty, the high security and everything are starting to stress B out almost worse than any thoughts of what they might be meant to protect him from could. Besides, if something did go wrong, he could handle it, right? Probably?

So he finds himself looking for something to do, and wandering around the venue (still within sight of the guards, because of course.) is better than nothing. Besides, maybe he'll find something he'll be allowed to help with here.

He shoves his hands into his pockets, making sure his sunglasses are on correctly and his weird robot eyes are properly covered as he approaches. "Uh... hey! You want help with anything here?"

Ivan is stretching after moving a large box. He's not sure what's in it, but luckily the woman he's shapeshifted into has some muscle on her. When B calls out, he looks over his shoulder. "Huh?" Have the musicians finally arrived? Ivan recognizes B as being in the same band as Sora... As Sora was...

Then Ivan coughs, remembering that he has a role to play. "I mean, I've got it. It's my job after all. I don't want you to get hurt before your big show. The bosses would be so mad."

Unfortunately, B is bored and not all that easily dissuaded.

"Ah, I'll be fine! I think I can handle a few boxes without spraining anything." He glances over his shoulder at the security personnel still hanging around nearby. "'Sides, I think if I try to do too much, these guys would stop me anyway."

"Okay... If you insist..." Ivan cocks his head to where a few other boxes lie on a pallet. There are about half a dozen of them. "Those are filled with large banners to hang up. They want them on the stage. I doubt they'd let you help me actually hang them, but... moving them should be all right... right?"

The boxes may be heavier than first expected because the banners are made of thick, weatherproof (or at least resistant) material that can support its own weight and be pulled taut. Only the best for the headliner show, after all.

"Got it!" He figures that's fair. At least he can do something.

He grabs a box to lift up to the stage, grunting slightly at the weight. For a brief moment, part of him is hit by the thought that this should not be so hard to lift. He fights back a frown and glances toward Ivan again. "Anywhere in particular on the stage?"

Ivan points to a spot on the stage near a cherry picker. There are large fiberglass rods standing upright and extending high above the stage. It looks like there are some rope mechanism that'll help them hang the banners, but someone else will have to do that. Ivan isn't qualified enough for it.

"Be careful of the wires everywhere. The sound techs are still working on it." Ivan doesn't want B to trip over anything.

B nods and hauls the first box over with a grin. "Yeah, I'll watch out! Wouldn't say much about me as a dancer if I couldn't avoid a few wires, huh."

"I guess it wouldn't." Ivan takes a box of his own over and starts opening the boxes with a key. A knife or box cutter could cut the banners inside.

"... How has the band been holding up since Sora got fired?" Then his face shows a flash of regret. Ivan mentally berates himself. Just because he's worried about the band in general doesn't mean he can sound so friendly when he's supposed to be a stranger and an underling. "S-Sorry. Lesedi, I mean, Miss Lesedi probably doesn't want you to talk about things she doesn't okay talking about. Or... maybe she wouldn't care given Virgo's state of affairs."

It comes as a surprise, just for a moment. But B glances over his shoulder at the guards waiting nearby, then gives a shake of his head. "It's no problem. Not like it's some huge secret, right?"

And, if Santiago thinks it should be, maybe - just maybe - B doesn't care at this point. A few months ago he wouldn't think of spilling potentially sensitive information, but a lot has changed lately.

He gives a slight shrug as he sets about moving another box. "We've been doing alright. As much as can be expected, anyway... Sora was a pretty major part of the group, y'know? And that's, uh-- not just part of the whole boy band all-best-friends brand thing." He snorts quietly. "So, yeah. It really sucks. But we're managing."

Ivan exhales when B doesn't sound too offended and doesn't seem like he's siding with Pride. Or is at least wary of Pride and the bodyguards. That's encouraging. In a sad sort of way when he thinks about it. Okay, maybe he can risk it.

"... I miss him... He wrote that song about traveling the world with friends, and he was so close to doing so. Even if the circumstances aren't that good for the musicians involved, and we both left. In different ways."

Drawing closer, acting like he's helping to adjusting a box and then says low to B's ears only, "... Do you... understand what I'm saying?"

His voice is decidedly male and Ivan's then. It doesn't belong to the middle aged woman he appears as at all. There's more than meets the eye.

Ivan Karelin | Rescuer | Shep's Ship & Moscow

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Moscow

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/couldn't resist that phrasing