interstellar5555 | ☆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.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He flexes his hands slightly, balling it into a fist and stretches his fingers out, exhaling while he tries to get his head straightened out. He doesn't usually dump on people he's close to like this, let alone someone he just thinks is cool.

It's more than cabin fever, but Terry doesn't want to get into all that, lest he have another miniature breakdown at Luci. He sighs and brushes a hand through his hair, frowning. "Sorry, I... I'm not trying to pull you into all my shit."

Luci snorts, needing a moment of comic release. "Kid, it's hard to pull anybody into shit when they're waist-deep themselves." It takes a lot of mental doing, but she finally grows a pair and says what she's thinking about everything:

"And the fact that it's everybody makes it really hard to think nothing funny is going on."

"Yeah." Terry scratches his head and looks around, almost like he's worried about being overheard, "it's more than the lockdown. Something's wrong. Maybe we're all sick, or..."

He trails off, unsure what else it could be, but Luci's right. It's hard not to think something's up that they're not being told about. And after the other day in Lesedi's office, he can't help but wonder what the label's keeping from them. Are they all in danger here?

"Hell of a virus if we're all sick and can't tell," Luci muses. Yeah, that sounds just a little too crazy to be accurate. She shrugs and sighs so hard her head drops down to the bar.

"I just can't stop thinking that this would all go away if we could play."

"It feels deeper than that."

Wait-- Deeper than performing? That's not right. Music is everything to him, to all of them. Terry almost laughs and shakes his head, "what am I saying?"

Luci does cast a contemplative sideways glance at him when he says that-- not because it's weird that he doesn't agree with her, but because it's a different perspective. She hasn't heard somebody say that it's a lack of work that's driving them crazy.

"I don't know," Luci leans forward. "What do you think would fix it for you?"

"I'm not sure, but it's..." He exhales, heavy. He doesn't feel quite as out of sorts as he had earlier but it's still there. "I'd feel better if I could perform, I could ignore it, but--"

Terry stops suddenly and looks over his shoulder at the hallway behind them, almost like he's afraid of being heard, "sometimes I get this feeling like I've forgotten something-- like part of who I am isn't there. And then today, feeling like I've lost something I need to find. Something I have to save. I don't think that's just being stuck here."

Luci knows, fuck does she know. She feels the exact same way and is putting all her energy into not feeling this way. But when someone opens up to her about feeling strange, Luci can't help it-- she has to admit it.

She steps around to face him, hand on his shoulder. "I've felt the same way this week, but look, you start acting on that shit and Santiago takes notice."

There's a brief look of panic-- of genuine fear on his face at Santiago's name, and it looks completely out of place on him. It's not blind, it's recognition of the severity there.

"Yeah," Terry frowns. He can't get hauled back to her office. If he goes there again he wonders if he'll even come back. "I need to keep it together."

"Hey, we got you. I've got you," Luci says, putting her hand behind Terry's neck in a motion of solidarity. "I'm not going to let anything happen to any of the Carnies, but that extends to Cosmic Indulgence. You had my back at the meeting, I've got yours."

☆TRACK IV: COME TOO FAR

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject