☆TRACK IV: COME TOO FAR

[interdimanagers]

Who: Everyone!
What: Something explodes in the distance. In a figurative sense.
When: November 6th.
Where: Anywhere you are.
Warnings: ???

“Like the legend of the Phoenix, All ends with beginnings, What keeps the planets spinning, The force from the beginning.” ☆COME TOO FAR On November 6th, the sudden lockdown of Pride Records and Virgo Entertainment finally ends. But not before some unseen actions have their consequences. Due to the nature of the conflict, none of you can be there to see it, but that doesn't mean it can't be felt. In the morning of the 6th, something cries out to you spiritually - like the voice of a guardian angel, or a haunting ghost. Something, somewhere, is calling on you for aid. Pleading for you to lend it your power. Whether or not you consciously agree, you'll feel a connection stronger than anything you've felt up till this point, like whatever this creature is is somehow in the room with you, or maybe like you're with it. What happens next depends on your alignment. ► LOVE & HOPE: All at once, characters with these alignments will feel as if they have taken a deep, spiritual blow - much like having someone clasp their hand around your "soul" and attempt to snuff it out. The attack itself will be brutal but brief. It's the after effects that linger, which may be any of the following: 1) Lingering spiritual pain that triggers symptoms akin to a fever in the body. It may also trigger effects such as nosebleeds and other signs of intense stress. 2) Forgetting everything except the memories you've regained. 3) A feeling of being desperately alone. How your character reacts to this feeling can vary, but the most common response will be seeking comfort from anyone nearby, even if you are not usually the sort of person to do that. These effects will last from anywhere as short at 15 minutes to as long as 5 hours. You can pick more than one of these effects for a character, but try to balance the potency of each if you take more than one, so you aren't completely kicking the shit out of them. Vestiges of these effects can linger throughout the rest of the day, but in a significantly reduced capacity. ► DUTY & PASSION: All at once, characters with these alignments will feel an intense sense of fear and grief, as if they have lost something extremely precious to them. Generally speaking, this will manifest as a sort of panic or desperation to save whatever that thing is - but not being entirely clear on where they have to go or what they have to do to accomplish it. This can very well trigger some brash and irrational actions as they sort out this abrupt feeling of urgency. 1) Soon after the feeling begins, affected characters will feel empathically drawn to the characters suffering from the effects listed for Hope & Love, even if they are not normally the sort to be so concerned for others. This can go as far as having them be aggressively protective to the point that they will conflict with each other over it. 2) Along with that feeling of being drawn to protect them, all characters will feel an intensified kinship with all the other player characters - from both labels. This feeling of kinship won't cause them to know anything more about each other than they did before, but it will cause them to feel like much closer friends than they actually are. These effects will last from anywhere as short at 15 minutes to as long as 5 hours. After that period has ended, all these empathetic effects will fade off on their own. Any network posts made in the chaos will be deleted by the execs after the 5 hours period has closed, if not sooner. By the end of the day, Lesedi Santiago and Edward Blanche will announce their return, and bans from leaving HQ will be lifted. They will not acknowledge the events of the morning unless someone goes to ask them about it. “We've come too far to give up who we are. So, let's raise the bar and our cups to the stars.”

Comments

Luci || Passion || Pride HQ & Phone Shenanigans

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[1] - Chez Carnie

When it hits, she knows for a fact that she's never been so terrified in her life. And there's nothing to be upset over, unless having to get out of bed on Day 5 of the Pride Lockdown was something for her to feel inordinate terror over.

Someone, or something, is coming to kill her. She's going to die, soon, and if she doesn't do something she's going to die irrelevant, before she can inspire people. The buzzing in her head comes to a whine, and she can see herself falling. Dozens of faces of an old woman intoning something: 'You will be loved, you will be hated, you will be brilliant, and in two years you will be dead.'

She covers her ears and screams. "NO I WILL NOT!!"

[2] - Stalking the Halls

She just has to get out of the suite. Just run around for a little, shake this crazy episode off and do what she does best. Talking. Inspiring people. Rebelling. That's what she can do, she can tell her strange feelings to fuck right off that's what she'll do.

Anytime she sees someone in the hall, she'll approach them. "Hey, haven't seen you in a while-- mind if I tag along for a bit?"

[3] - Love and Hope Needed

Are you a loving or hopeful Pride individual? Luci is knocking on your door, just to see if you're home and if you're doing okay. Lockdown sure makes people crazy, right?!

[4] - Text Her, She's Up and Wired

3

[mildwildchild]

Jamie is just getting ready to step out and leave behind the seething cauldron of emotions that is the Flashstep penthouse when Luci comes knocking. He blinks up at her in surprise.

"...hey," he manages awkwardly. This is the second time in the past week Lucifer has been to his home and it's a little freaky.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Hey Jamie," Luci's all smiles. She knows she's only seen Jamie a handful of times, talked to him once, but for some reason seeing him is great. "Oh, you heading out? I was just going to get some proof of life in the Flashstep suite-- this lockdown is bound to drive somebody to start a battle royale, right?

"You hungry? I could use a sandwich."

[mildwildchild]

Jamie looks perplexed for a moment or two but tries to hide it, slipping out into the hall and answering her with a shrug. "Sure, food sounds good, I guess." Which to some would be warning enough that he isn't running at 100%, since food never merely sounds "good" to Jamie - he's young and has a ridiculously high metabolism and, consequently, is usually ready to eat anything that isn't still moving. Luci might be forgiven for not cottoning on to this, however.

He leads off down the hall, waiting for her to fall into step alongside before commenting further. "Actually, everything kinda settled down with us this morning. Everyone's just really - " emotional and snuggly and I spent the last two hours wanting someone to hold me and tell me everything would be all right " - mellow. Y'know, chill."

And really, it's mostly true. Technically.

"What about you guys? Break up any fistfights yet today?"

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Xanxus got into a fistfight with the giant window in our suite. Still really can't tell who won, broken glass everywhere but he didn't get far. No idea where Alec or Wakana have gotten to, Yuffie's somewhere..." She goes ahead and slings a friendly arm around Jamie's shoulders. "Mellow sounds real nice, not going to lie."

Congratulations Jamie, Luci definitely wants to tell someone it's going to be okay-- because she sure as hell can't tell herself that right now.

"But this is probably everything coming to a head, yeah? Five days on lockdown, we're all bound to have crazy feelings that need an outlet."

2

[traumatizing]

Terry's aimless by this point. Amped up with no way to let it out, no way to ignore the aching chasm in him except to keep looking for ways to ignore it. Block out the way the emptiness seems to echo through his mind.

Being so focused on that, he doesn't notice Luci at first and looks a bit startled by anyone speaking to him, but that settles quickly and he... Smiles? Sort of? "Yeah, uh. Sure."

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Fab," she intones, putting her hands into her pockets and falling into step alongside Terry. "We're not going to the bar again, right? I'm pretty sure we've established many times in the past five days that it hasn't done anything we'd consider 'progress'."

[traumatizing]

He laughs, but there's no humour in it, looking around with an urgency in his expression. "No, I need to find..." What does he need to find? Terry frowns in confusion at the absence of an end to that statement. He still hasn't figured it out, but he knows it's important.

"... Something."

Saved it.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"...something?" Luci raises her eyebrow, clearly not buying the awkward end of his sentence. Most people know what they're looking for when they walk out to look for it.

...but they're all feeling off from this lockdown. Luci knows what it's like to not know what you need, but know you need something.

"Need a run? Need ice cream? Have a main squeeze somewhere around here?"

2

[notahobby]

Maxxie's on his way to the cafe when Luci approaches him, hoping in vain that another coffee and chocolate-filled pastry will pull him out of this flat depression. He's so wrapped up in his funk that he jumps a little when she speaks.

"Oh, yeah... that's fine. I was just heading downstairs."

They haven't spoken much, but she seems nice enough if not a little more... spirited than he thinks he can handle right now.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Fancy that, I was just thinking of finding something to coax Yuffie out of her room with. You heading to food, or standard Drinking to Forget?"

That seems to be something that's going around right now. She hadn't really talked much to Maxxie either, but he seems like a sweet kid. Someone Luci should at least walk downstairs with to make sure he got there okay.

...because stairs were clearly lethal to boy bands.

[notahobby]

"Just food," he says, "bit early for the bar." As if he hasn't every started drinking before noon before. It's just a habit to make him sound less of a mess than he really is.

He waits for her to fall into step with him, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Is Yuffie alright? She locked up in her room?"

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"I think so," Luci doesn't just fall into step with him, she rests her elbow on his shoulder as they walk. Feels better to have some kind of connection. "I haven't seen her since she was parading around in Xanxus' shirt. Thought some ice cream would help."

And tumblr. And wrecking careers.

1

[twoscompany]

Well, she isn't the only one having problems, at least. She's walking across the hall, her nose finally not bleeding, but her head aching, alongside her chest. It hurt. Why? Where were the people who were at that birthday? That not-birthday? She had no birthday?...

Then came the scream, and she winced.

"...What?" She looked at Luci, confused. "What won't you...do?"

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Nothing!" Luci barks, and instantly regrets it when she sees who's looking into their suite. "...Garnet. Sorry. Nothing, I'm just..." Hearing things? Freaking out about premature death?

"Don't worry about it. You, on the other hand--" she walks through the door to Garnet, giving her a once over. "You look beat. Tea?"

[twoscompany]

"Tea sounds...perfect."

Garnet walks into the room, almost a zombie as she does so. Don't feel bad, Luci - she just found out she can bleed. Or...something. She doesn't know anymore.

"Any in particular, that you've got?"

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Please, I may be punk rock, but I've still got my roots," she smirks and shuts the door behind Garnet, then leads her to the kitchen. "Probably too late for English Breakfast, but I have a black tea with orange, a mint jasmine-- that might be best if you feel a little off-- or a green with mango that... I think is actually Yuffie's I could be wrong."

4

[trustme]

[A short text from Doctor pops up.]

Odd things happening at Virgo. People are sick. How is Pride?

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Xanxus broke one of our glass walls that leads to a however-many-story drop to the pavement and I have no idea where Wakana, Yuffie, or Alec are. Flashstep looks like Zombiestep, and I'm hugging everyone I see.

Yeah. Odd is a word for it.

[trustme]

All of this happening at once. Unnatural. I don't think it's mere cabin fever.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

You delete this right after you fucking read it.

I don't think so either.

2

[magic_to_do]

At this point, Trucy would be thrilled to talk to anyone. The suffocating loneliness is just awful. So her response is probably a liiittle too eager.

"Yeah! I mean, no! Um, that is, I don't mind."

Well, that was awkward. She chuckles a little nervously, trying to just play it off.

"Sorry. It's been... sort of a weird morning..."

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Seems that's the theme of today-- where am I escorting you?" Luci offers Trucy her arm jauntily.

[magic_to_do]

Trucy takes the offered arm with a smile.

"Do you wanna go get a coffee or something?"

She didn't really have anything in mind and that was the first thing she thought of.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Sure do, I'm a fan of that place on the third floor by the gym. You ever been?"

At the very least, she starts steering them towards the elevators. That's step one no matter where they're going.