interstellar5555 | ☆TRACK IV: COME TOO FAR

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☆TRACK IV: COME TOO FAR

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.”

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It's like a pull. Like something has looped around her still beating heart and is tugging her onwards. Luce doesn't understand it entirely, but there's a deep feeling she doesn't need to.

Like the song.

Like the memory of those people she doesn't know.

It's just important, so she goes with it. When she sees Greg stumbling, she rushes over without a second thought. "Greg! Are you alright?" Protectiveness swells up in her like a flame. Immediately, she thinks of her mother again, of the guns she wore.

For a brief, almost terrifying moment, Luce realizes she'd use one of those herself without a moment's hesitation to protect the man in front of her if it came to that.

He goes tense at her call, and yet another unfamiliar woman is descending on him, with the intensity of a... a lioness, or something.

Greg holds up a hand as she draws in, desperately hoping he can get out of another one of these encounters. So far, no one's been truly unkind, but no one wants to listen, either. He can't keep playing around like this.

"I'm fine." He says it with the croaking desperation of someone who's anything but. "Really. I'm sorry, I just... I need to go. Please, let me out of here."

At least she seems to be taking consideration of his wishes- Luce pauses when his hand goes up, brow furrowing.

"Go? Go where? I'm sorry, Greg, there's the lockdown or else I would be out as well..." She needs to worry about everyone else she knows, even if they're all the way in the city. "What do you need to do?"

"Lockdown...? They said-- if we're supposed to work here, why are we being kept captive?!" He was right after all, there really was something shady with these "overlords." Why wasn't anyone doing anything? "What's going on outside? Are people in danger?"

"Ssshh, everything is alright." Luce breaks out her most comforting and soft tone for this, gentle gestures with her hands as if she's trying to tone back Greg's panic. "Everyone outside seems fine, but, well..."

It probably wouldn't help to say that no one has any idea what Edward Blanche is doing, so Luce tries to move on.

"I can still use my cellphone. Tell me what you're worried about, and I can call people if that would help at all."

For a few moments, Greg says nothing, watching her warily. She's another person who "knows" him. What's he supposed to say? Should he tell her she's mistaken--or that he is? People keep freaking out when they figure out how much he's missing. Which is fair, since he's freaking out too. He can't keep getting dragged back for rest, though.

"My family," he finally replies. He's tired of people saying he doesn't have a son. "Something happened to them. I couldn't find anyone on my phone."

"Well, fortunately, I know a lot of people." Luce takes out her phone, just in case she really will have to use it right that moment. "What does your son look like? What's his name?"

Greg's suspicious look melts at her words. She knew--she knew he had a--so he wasn't completely...but... his surprise then sags into something on the verge of despair. When people denied it, he could focus on what he knew, that his son was real, and out there somewhere. But she... "I don't know." His voice cracks. "I don't... I can't remember. I can't remember my son's face. What's wrong with me?"

"Ssshhh." Another soft hum as she comes closer, patting his shoulder. "I think... I think people are getting sick or something, dear. Everyone is just... strange, lately."

How else can she explain what she's seen taking over those she knows around here?

"Don't panic. Do you want to sit with me? I can make you food, if you like, upstairs. You look a mess... Maybe if you catch your breath, eat something, your memory will come back to you?"

He swallows around the lump in his throat, doing his best to keep his breatihng even. Strange. Sure, that's a word for it. Everything is definitely strange.

"Everyone keeps trying to get me to sit down, and, and relax or whatever. I can't. Not until I know what's happened to..."

The writhing mass staggers through the room, endless yowling of cats only faintly muffled by glass. It swells and undulates as jets of water and huge brushes push and pull at its fur, constantly changing color.

He presses against the window, fear and desperate hope fighting against one another, trying to see any sign of what's underneath the feline tumors. All he can be sure is that those little legs, shaking and unsteady under the weight of transformation and soap, are still moving forward.

Greg heaves and hunches over his knees. "Oh--oh god. I think I'm gonna hurl."

Edited 2015-11-22 19:42 (UTC)

WELL.

"No no no- come on, Greg, over here-" There's no time for gentleness now. Luce hooks her arm under one of his and tries to pull him over for a potted plant. "Into the pot if you really need to!"

Surely mother nature will understand.

The image, alien and monstrous, is burned into his mind, and more than that the absolute dread still roils in his gut like a living thing. He retches a couple times into the pot, but nothing comes out. Greg spends a minute making sure he's truly staying dry, knuckles white and clutching the ceramic.

Eventually, he sags, still holding tight to the pot as he sinks down on the floor, as if it's all he can hold on to. That vision, that monster, had told him two things, deeply and clearly: his son is in absolute danger, afraid and lost in a bigger way than he could have guessed, and also that Greg is helpless to do anything about it.

He doesn't look up at Luce. "You're not going to let me go after that, are you."

"Dear, I think even if there wasn't a lockdown, I'd be worried about you being able to just walk down the street without incident."

She sinks down besides him, rubbing at his back like that will help anything. Is this why the lockdown is happening? Some sort of sickness, a fever? Is she going to catch it? Well, she can't say she cares. She'd rather be in danger of catching it while helping her friends instead of just hiding and doing nothing.

"Do you want to stay here? By the plant? Or I could bring you up to my place, where there's a toilet, water, food... Things to help you get back on your feet. It might help you calm down and let you get your head together."

Greg doesn't answer immediately. It really doesn't matter, he thinks. He doesn't particularly want to stay here, nor to go back. Every time he starts moving forward, someone pulls him back. Maybe it's for a good reason.

That's some awfully dour thoughts to be mulling over, though. He's already made a real spectacle of himself, moping sure isn't going to make him look any less pathetic.

"Well." When he finally speaks, his voice is hoarse. "For once, I think food might not be the best idea." It's a joke. Sort of.

Luce tries to smile back herself. "So... Let's just stay here. Breathe in and out, let me know if you're going to throw up again."

That's worrying her here.

"Would water help, do you think?"

He leans back, sitting against the wall by the plant, and nods. Keeping hydrated and all that. Pretty important.

"Thanks. I..." He finds himself unable to look at her. "I'm sorry. I don't remember your name."

She's just starting to get up when he speaks up, and she pauses. Understanding is in every bit of her smile.

"It's alright. A lot of people seem to be a bit strange today. I'm Luce.

As much as he'd like to smile back, he can't force one out.

"I'm not the only one, huh?"

"Definitely not." Unable to help herself with how aggressively protective she feels for Greg in that moment, she reaches down to smooth her hand over his hair.

"I'm sure it'll pass, and you'll remember more about your son. Positive. We just have to calm down and be patient, even as much as it's scary."

He sends Luce a sidelong glance at the touch, vaguely bemused. It's been an awfully long time since someone made such an affectionate gesture.

"All right. If you say so." He sighs, too tired to keep doubting. It's not like he knows anything about any of this. "I trust you."

"And thank you for that. I know it must be awful, waiting in a situation like this." Pulling back, Luce nods.

"I'll bring back water as fast as I can."

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☆TRACK IV: COME TOO FAR

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