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

They are set up in a ballroom in the very center of the hotel's structure - reserved to Virgo personnel only, of course. It seems strange, having such globe-spanning stars playing to an empty room. A waste of good music, perhaps.

Of course, Blanche has always been one to ensure that everything has a purpose.

Music magic lacks a lot of the visual trappings of other forms of the occult. There are no chalk lines on the floor, no circles of salt. Almost everything that happens here is in the realm of the spiritual, the realm of waves and sound. It is a careful feng shui of resonance and acoustics, at least in how Virgo does it. Defying Atmosphere's leads have been carefully placed on a stage in the center of the room, and two glowing crystals, in teal and in gold, hang in the air high above them, surrounded in a sparkling miasma of Blanche's spacial hold.

The crystals are a part of their souls, even as they are separate, and they resonate to their music more purely than anything Blanche could demand of them. Soul crystals formed in this manner are without distraction and without pollution - they are nothing but pure focus on the spiritual elements they've been segregated to contain.

Blanche himself sits leisurely towards the back of the room for the moment, waiting for the moment that things will get complicated. After all, he's making a pointed effort to summon his enemies, perhaps from multiple sides. It's a calculated risk, but it's one he expects will pay off.

It has to. If he doesn't want Lesedi Santiago to end up consuming his essence in the end, at least.

The golden gem hovering above thrums against his senses as if it were the beating of his heart. It may well be, with how much life it seems to be channeling through their invisible bond. The gem otself could be the one playing the guitar, Mr. Universe only here to provide the fingers to pluck at the strings.

Stress is normal. Exhaustion is standard. This is normal. He's fine. This is how it's meant to be. The life he wants, the life he's going to lead from here on out. As a musician, as a performer, as a wizard. This is only the beginning, it's going to get bigger and more intense from here. He has to be working and striving for more at every second. Being tired is normal. It means he's not letting up. It means he's done everything to ensure their success.

So drained and worked, there's little extra energy to spend on anything but the ritual at hand. There's no space left to question motives or worry. All that matters is the music, the magic, and their oncoming victory.

They start their concert, private and secluded, without an audience. For now.

Soon, everyone will hear them.

Meril often described her playing as meditative, being in tune with the universe while focused on nothing in particular. In her proper day and age, she would be attuned to the worthy about to die and the enemies who needed to, adrift in the spiritual flow.

Here, now, especially with her duty externalized, Meril practically did not exist. Certainly only the faintest shred of conscious thought lingered behind her glassy eyes and lifeless playing. The music itself, though, sang far more brilliantly than anything she had done before. Playing it was her duty, after all.

Sans can't see his urge to pursue this as anything but a bad idea. He's already been wrestling with feelings like this for a while now, even if this one if distinct from the near constant sense of obligation to return to Virgo and turn himself in. It's more specific, at least - now he just really, really wants to get Greg out of there, and for good.

But he already tried that, he reminds himself, and about everything that lead to. It's stupid, thinking that it will be any different now. Even Greg himself doesn't want to be saved by him, and he can't risk bringing Greg back to the rescuers if he's just going to attack all of them.

Yet, the feeling persists, and his sense of need strengthens. It isn't a polluted feeling of guilt and self loathing like the other magical programming had been. It feels somehow more real and more worthwhile, and the longer he is left the think about it the less he can explain it away with fear and rationality.

Just like he'd always feared, all it takes is one snap decision. He doesn't ask anyone to come with him. This is going to happen by stealth and surprise if it's going to happen at all. He'll knock Greg senseless himself if he has to.

The path seems strangely intuitive, despite the fact that he has no specific idea where Greg is at the moment. All he's doing is just teleporting around and hoping that something sticks - until he hears that music more closely and ends up shortcutting right into the center of it.

He's quick to bolt back behind one of the pillars in alarm, but he's already seen it. Holy shit. Greg and Meril are there, alright... but so is Blanche.

And though he was only in plain sight for a moment, he can't help but feel like he's already sunk.

Usagi adjusted her scarf, having tried to get all of her hair under the item just in case the hologram from Silver failed. It was Rei's idea to get Meril, and Usagi was in support of it. Something was clearly wrong with the valkyrie since last they spoke an Rei had confirmed that something was wrong. She didn't know, however, how to fix it.

Fighting the draw of the music made her stomach feel heavy. She glanced around them and wished more than ever she had the disguise pen. She keeps along the walls trying to make herself as unnoticeable as possible.

But it's an empty room. She looks around for the other senshi and keeps moving towards the stage, towards Meril. Her eyes linger on the crystals, knowing, personally, how important crystals could be but not knowing what those crystals were.

She was acting like hotel staff, just putting chairs at the table and adjusting them, getting ever closer while "adjusting things to be just right."

The whole air vibrated, but it made her feel sick to her stomach.

Rei could not let this stand. It wasn't just the music and the lure of chances to undo what was done. This was voluntary, as far as she was concerned. Meril needed help, she needed to be reminded of who and what she was. It wasn't something she was going to ignore, even if it was a trap. If things went badly, then things would go badly, but that was hardly an issue. She wasn't about to allow herself to be taken, not alive at any rate, if things went truly bad. She'd regained enough of herself to know that when push came to shove, she could shake the pillars of heaven, and the least she could do was stop whatever it was Blanche was up to.

It wasn't any different when she slipped through the hotel, though the tension in the air was thick enough to be cut with a knife. Her disguise seemed to hold well enough, few people giving her so much as a second glance. Walking confidently, dressed as staff and with her hair done up in a neat bun she looked the part, and that was what really mattered.

She paused when she saw Usagi, giving the other a silent nod and a psychic push to meet her near the entrance to the main chamber before ghosting out of sight. There's presences in the room, most prominently for her the twisted up Meril, and she wants to go forward, rush the room and the stage, but she has to wait for the right moment. The plan had been to coordinate things with the others and going in alone was sure as hell a bad idea. Plus, there were probably guards, and they'd have to get rid of them as a group, right?

Edited 2016-06-14 02:41 (UTC)

Reimu was terrified but was trying hard to hide it under a mask on concentration. She was there to play, not worry. But running and hiding felt like the better option at the feeling. The feel and the look of her band-mates..those she viewed as family made her stomach flip.

She's playing along, eyes hiding behind her bangs. Why was this happening and what now. Could this even turn out well?

If anyone needs a telepathic message passed around Doctor can take care of that much. It's the inevitable fighting during this confrontation that has him concerned. He still isn't on the music wizardry level that Greg is on (obviously not on Blanche's level either).

It was easy, actually too easy, to get into the hotel. Where were the regular bodyguard robots waiting to fight them? And that music Meril and Greg were playing was filling the entire building with a thick musical power. He's a good enough music wizard now to know that much.

This is very likely a trap. Blanche might sense my presence already. We won't get much out of hiding. If anyone left their minds open to it and are in range, they might hear his warning in their heads.

No turning back now even if this is playing into Blanche's hands.

No guards show up to keep them out - but once the group of them have arrived, they do seem set on keeping them in. There's no ghosting in quietly enough to keep Blanche unaware of their presence, teleporters included.

It's a bit of a delight, actually, feeling some of these particular people get lured in. One of his lost mages, for instance - and that useless skeleton. Blanche stands from his place in the back of the room, leisurely putting down the reading material he'd been entertaining himself with.

"Don't stop playing," he comments to the band, and then looks out over the room in the direction he'd sensed the new arrivals come.

"There's no use hiding yourselves," he says. "You've all gotten yourselves in far over your heads. There's no turning back, now."

Naturally, Mr. Universe's senses aren't as attuned to the invaders' presence, but he can certainly pick up on one in particular. As the magical power fills the room, it buzzes against one little spiritual spot, already with its own magic around it. Doctor is here.

A low, dark smile spreads over Mr. Universe's face. Finally, he can stop holding back. (Because that's what he's been doing. Holding back.) The air around him ripples with his magic, as though from heat.

"Hello, my treacherous friends
And thank you for joining me here tonight
I brought you all here to discuss,
As I must,
How grateful I am for your insights."

He'd finally done it. He'd finally gone and fucked himself just like he'd known he would this whole time. Blanche is right there, and he's been in this situation before. There's no getting out. There isn't.

The panic is thick, and for a moment it's so bad that he almost just wants to give up without trying. It'd be so much less painful than struggling to the last moment, like he had before. But something about the lure's effect on him causes him to endure. The part that speaks to what's left of his love and his duty, and allows him to be angry at what's been done instead of bowing to the fear.

While Greg focuses on the Doctor, Sans appears off to the other side with blasters in tow. He starts off on a high note, by torching Blanche (or where he was standing a moment before, anyway) and the table he was sitting at.

Then, in that moment of distraction, he tries to bend the gravity around Greg and smack him down hard enough to interrupt his playing.

In contrast to Sans, there's nothing but calm humming through Luce. A strange sort of confidence that Doctor can feel, both with his connection to her mind and the way she reassuringly squeezes his arm from where she is besides him.

Maybe it's the hum of Duty hitting her that reminds her of things. Memories that say, somehow, things about the future. She's not going to end here.

Sans! She uses Doctor's connection even as she hurries out from the brief place she'd ducked into as a very poor hiding spot. Get me that guitar, please!

☆THE RITUAL

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VS GREG

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VS MERIL

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THE FINALE

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