interstellar5555 | ☆MINGLE LOG: SOUTH VISTA MUSIC FEST

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☆MINGLE LOG: SOUTH VISTA MUSIC FEST

Who: Everyone!
What: An open mingle log for everyone from everywhere.
When: November 18th-24th, 2054
Where: South Vista
Warnings: Could be anything!

☆THE FESTIVAL

Welcome to the South Vista Music Fest! An enormous, weeklong festival with hundreds of bands performing nearly 24/7, the Music Fest is a quarter annual event that celebrates all manners of local talent, both big time and small time. Every band from Pride Records and Virgo Entertainment will have performances to do, including the freshly recruited – you better have your act together, because now is your time to shine!

Player bands will be performing roughly once a day, with bands from the first app round predominantly with evening slots and the newest bands with predominantly afternoon slots. There is definitely a hierarchy to the scheduling - Pride and Virgo claim almost all of the prime performance times, while other labels are forced to deal with the leftovers. You've definitely been chosen by the winners of the music industry in these parts, that's for sure.

Shuttles will be available to take people back to their relative HQs in their downtime, but they're also allowed to hang out and enjoy the festivities if that's what they prefer. Stuff is happening all day and night, so it's really just a question of how much you can party while still being conscious for your own show. Your managers will tell you that the company CEOs pay extra close attention to this event, so that you need to be on your best behaviour.

The festival takes up a massive amount of floor area with multiple stages of various sizes and a large amount of glowy display screens. It's set up on the ground floor of the cityscape, meaning that the suspension roads and walkways above have been programmed to add to the ambient lighting all day and night.

► TRAILER PARK KIDS: For those that just want to chill, there is a massive VIP area reserved for labels to park various trailers for their musicians to hang out in during downtime - one for each band. They aren't quite as big as the tour buses, but they are comfortable and well stocked. Each is equipped with two beds and a bathroom/shower. Pretty much every local band you know of is here, including the notorious Predator. Nose around their trailer at your own risk.

► IN THE SPOTLIGHT: With at least six performances in a span of six days, there is plenty of time for shenanigans to go down both back and center stage. Time to show your mettle, and to hope that some asshole doesn't take all the best food items from the backstage catering tables before you can get to them.

► ATMOSPHERIC NOISE: If you dare brave the storm, there is a massive quantity of merch, vendor, and food booths available for your perusal. Many fans endeavor to spend as much time at Music Fest as possible, and so the space is very lived in, with large groups of people hanging out in well populated lounge areas. Depending on how popular you are, it may be difficult to get around without getting swarmed by your fans.

► DON'T FORGET TO REMEMBER: And all the while, the strange memories continue. The label's newest members will have started to feel strange as of November 6th, and by the time of the Fest almost all of them will be discovering their first memories regains. The first one should be based on the alignment you chose, but the rest can be whatever you want. New character may regain up to 4 memories between their arrival and the end of November.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He'd be happier about the permitted touch if it didn't come with such misery. Greg's never sure if anything he's saying is actually helpful, or the inane advice of someone on the outside looking in.

"All right. Try something out for me, okay? I want you to think really hard on this, and take your time."

He stands up straight, and looks out over the festival, before looking back to Tiger. "Try to think, if they weren't around. Just... imagine, it's you here, on your own, at this shindig, right now. What... what do you think you'd want to do?"

It does take a lot to get his thoughts moving on the subject. Would he even be here, on his own? He doesn't think so. But he can try to imagine - he'd had some fun with Kido, earlier, in a way that had almost seemed normal. Yet there was always this lingering feeling that something was missing - he finds himself casting his case up to the towering buildings, and the stars barely visible behind the night glow.

He crosses his arms around himself, holding himself close. He can't even really think of this question of terms of what he would want to do here. If the others weren't here...if he could do what he wanted...

I want to go home, he thinks very clearly, and suddenly he remembers the crisp sound of the ocean, and the glimmering of waves at twilight. He remembers a girl across from him, and a feeling of indescribable fondness in his heart as his MP3 player plays a soft tune from the place in the sand. A tune that is so familiar, even from here.

"I'd just want to make music and stuff," he mumbles. "Except...just because I wanted to...and I could dance and stuff without anyone looking at me."

Greg smiles, gently. "Yeah. That sounds like fun. Everybody loves a good jam session."

There's a big difference between making music because it's expected as your job, and something private, simple, and for your own enjoyment. Greg makes a habit of keeping the two separate, but it can't be as easy for someone who feels as trapped as Tiger.

"Let's do it."

That catches him by suprise. He gives Greg an almost startled look, but not exactly upset.

"Do what?" he asks, not sure he's understanding.

"Have a jam session. There's no reason we can't, right?"

What are they going to do, punish him for dancing, or playing music?

Maybe?! Tiger isn't even sure he knows anymore. He's just flinching away from punishment, but unable to put a pattern to the things that cause it. He lifts his hands uncertainly.

"I don't have my stuff," he says.

"Then let's find other stuff. You can make music out of whatever you want, y'know. It doesn't matter, if no one but us is going to hear it."

No instruments from Pride. No recording equipment from Virgo. No reviews or judgments from Americana. Just them, making noise however they saw fit.

Tiger looks around uncertainly. Sorry, Greg, he's being a little bit slow on the uptake. He's been so wound up about other stuff that being spontaneous is proving to be a challenge. He's too embarrassed to do anything bold, for fear that Greg will mock him.

"...Okay, so...what you going to play, then?" he asks, watching Greg carefully.

"Uhh." Give him a sec, he didn't actually plan it out this far--or at all, really. He digs into his bag of souvenirs, vaguely wondering why a music festival doesn't sell more musical things.

"Here!" He brandishes a cheap metal lunchbox triumphantly. "Perfect for drumming!"

Tiger stares at Greg for a moment after that, almost incredulous - until, finally, he actually laughs, his cheeks blushing with warmth. Something about Greg's musical choice seems to loosen up Tiger's own ability to act, and after a few moments of though, he reaches into his pocket to get out his phone.

"That's so dumb," he says, but it's with a strange fondness. He swipes across his screen a few times. "But...But okay, I have this stupid phone mixer thing, I can maybe...do a thing on it, or something."

Oh man, look at that. He totally called it: Tiger looks fantastic when he smiles. Greg beams at the sound of that laugh. Even if this whole thing gets him in big trouble, it'll be worth it just for that laugh.

"We're in business!" He fishes out his marker, usually for autographs, and begind raps out a tinny rhythm. "I'll keep the beat, you bring the harmony!"

Tiger looks a little bit uncertain, but...well, Greg is just hitting a lunchbox with a marker. It's not like he'll be able to make fun of him for anything he does, right? Anything he does on this phone thing is going to be better than that, so there's no way he can make fun of him for this, right?

He thinks so.

Tiger listens to the rhythm for a few bars, and then starts trying to tap out a slow pattern on the tiny phone keyboard. After he solos something he likes, he saves that loop and sets it to repeat, and then starts trying something a little bit more melodic over the top.

Edited 2015-11-30 01:45 (UTC)

It's as good as anyone can expect of two people inprovising a melody from what they have on hand. Music from the actual performances nearby drown out any chance of passersby overhearing their efforts.

Greg taps his foot along with his own beat, and once Tiger's got something solid going, puts a little bounce into his hips. It's not exactly a dance beat, but it's something he can move to.

Part of Tiger wants to sing, but he doesn't have any lyrics - and there's absolutely no way he's improv'ing that in front of Greg, even if the idea seems weirdly familiar. Even getting himself to dance is kind of difficult, when he hasn't exactly been in the mood recently, and he can't shake his fears of being judged.

He kind of wishes he was playing on his full keyboard, but...

It takes a long time, but Tiger gradually manages to get himself amped up. He's distracted enough by focusing on the music, that his conscious thought stops being such a bother. The tune he's worked out on his phone, and the way Greg is tapping out a rhythm, seems like a song he's heard before. Maybe lyrics he'd worked out at an earlier point for something else? Well...if he's already got them planned, then why not sing them? It would probably really impress Greg if he could put something together this quickly, wouldn't it?

"This life in the stars is all I've ever known..." he sings, softly and tentatively, not completely sure where the memory of these lyrics is coming from, "Stars and and stardust and infinite space is my only home..."

Sure enough, Greg is impressed by the song, though not for the reason Tiger might have hoped for. The music strikes him as intensely familiar in a way he can't describe, as though he's heard it before. A song he had thought of writing, long ago, or scrapped in an old practice session.

"But the moment that I hit the stage, I hear the universe calling my name..."

In the dimmest reaches of his mind, something intones that it's no good, clearly he abandoned this song for a reason, this sounds awful. It doesn't make it even to a full thought; his smile is growing too wide. He wants to hear the rest of this.

"And I know in my heart, that I have nothing to fear..."

And Tiger is...confused, because at that moment he is fairly certain that he is making up the lyrics as he goes along. And yet, then Greg cuts in and sings along with him perfectly, somehow knowing exactly what he's going to say at the same time he does? Did he not make this up? Or did he hear it somewhere else?

"And as the solar wind blows through my hair, knowing I have so much more left to share..."

It isn't completely improbable, and so somehow Tiger's confusion doesn't break his focus. Instead, he steps a bit closer to Greg, like he's doing a pose on stage, even though he's mostly just tapping a fake keyboard on his phone instead of playing a guitar or something equally dramatic.

"A wandering spirit tearing its way through the cold atmosphere..."

It really doesn't add up at all. This is a song he knows, somehow, one he knows well. It fills him with a warm, fond nostalgia to sing it again--but this is the first time, isn't it? He'd remember clearly, if he'd sung it before. Then again, Tiger knows it too?

It's something they can talk about later. No matter how weird all this is, they're playing in earnest, and that's not something worth interrupting no matter how silly their instruments are.

"I fly like a comet... soar like a comet..."

He takes his cue to step up by Tiger, tossing his hair and striking a dramatic pose, back-to-back with the teen as though in the most epic of music videos.

"Crash like a comet..."

Despite all odds, Tiger actually leans into the pose as opposed to flinching away from how dorky it is to be doing this behind some concert scaffolding, smiling broadly despite his total confusion at the proceedings. And, somehow, as they sing the last of the song together, something starts to change.

"I'm just a comet..." Tiger sings, his voice growing softer and somehow more contemplative as he does. There is a glimmering flash of pink light and a feeling of totally encompassing warmth. And then, the feeling of having way more hair than he's accustomed to dealing with, and of his hand being way too big for his phone.

Distantly, Tiger's phone loop keeps playing, even as everything else has been stunned to momentary silence.

Edited 2015-11-30 05:43 (UTC)

There's that feeling, at the end of a good concert, like you're made of the sun, that your heart has made contact with hundreds of people. This is similar, but so much more intimate, more real. It's warm, and simple, and safe. Bizarrely so. He's never felt anything quite like it before.

There's a long pause, soaking in that feeling, before slowly coming out of his held pose. It's more than the song. It's the way his clothes fit, the way he holds his body, the way he feels a phone in one hand and a lunchbox in another.

Blinking, as though waking up, he looks down at himself, and sees a body that's not his own.

"What... the..." The voice, too, isn't quite right, a hair too deep, a bit too scratchy. "This is..." He's wearing a galaxy-print jacket over a shirt emblazoned in a star. One big hand reaches up, and digs into his wavy hair, disbelieving.

"...Tiger?"

Edited 2015-11-30 06:00 (UTC)

He looks to the side where Tiger was just standing. He's not there, of course, because he is also...here. And also, not. Hm.

"...Nooo, not Tiger."

He presses his thumb to the phone and stops the loop. His thumb is massive, like, there is no way he could type properly on this thing right now. It cannot contain him. It is simply not powerful enough. At yet, as glorious as he feels, there is an annoying nagging sensation in the culmination of their minds. It's a problem, but perhaps not one that's a surprise. After all, they've always known, haven't they? That something is wrong with them? That some part of them was out of control, far out of their grasp. Especially Tiger.

There is some panic, right then. The feeling that they are doing something terrible wrong just by existing. His hand clenches in his hair, his eyes widening. But then...the feeling wanes.

"No," he says, and then, a moment later: "...No! I'm not going to apologize for this!"

It bubbles up out of him, bit by bit, from deep inside. As it rises, the nagging dread sinks away, lost under its sheer mass. The smile cannot be stopped, as it breaks across his face.

"Why should I?" His clenched hand loosens, to run down the length of his hair, and a small, deep laugh escapes his throat. "Look... look at this! Look at me!" The laugh comes back again, fuller, deeper, louder. "I'm incredible!"

He spins, as though showing off for onlookers, but it's just him, full and real and positively glowing. Every movement he makes confirms his power and steadiness, with grace unreasonable for his size.

Suddenly, he claps a hand over his mouth, leaning against the scaffolding. "Oh, oh man. This is so weird. Wow. Hah! Ahah." Even as the confusion sets in, it still mingles with the glee into an unending stream of giggling. "I... I knew we'd make a great team, but... hah! Oh wow."

After that stream of giggles, though, they come to a pause in a moment of awe and momentary confusion. The hand presses back against his mouth, his brow furrowing as he realizes certain realities about his existence and the beings that make him.

"Well...we would, wouldn't we!" he says, and it just makes all the sense in the world, for the moment. It's actually kind of funny - that, on their own, the two of them could be be so silly! That they'd spent all this time wondering about each other and yet they'd never humoured the idea for longer than a few moments. "...The memories! You have them too?!"

He asks the question like he's expecting someone else to answer, but of course they don't. There's a beat. "Well duh! Except..."

He smacks his fist into his palm, somehow victorious.

"Couldn't keep that from me, could you? No way your games are working now!" He turns and looks at the coloured skylights of the festival with an expression of determination. "...I have to figure this out. For them."

As soon as he says it, they come crawling back up: doubt, fear, shame, regret. His breath catches, for just a second. Static tries to crowd out his thoughts, urging desperately that this is wrong, this is dangerous, this is impossible.

For a moment, he lets the thoughts buzz at him, like mosquitoes circling around as he watches with intrigue and irritation. Then, he takes a deep breath, and the dark tendrils of doubt can find no purchase.

Now, suddenly, he can see how far back it's gone--how this darkness always tore the two of them down whenever they drew too near to something. From the outside, he marvels how they never saw it before.

"You're not enough to stop me, together." It's a warning, an affirmation, a promise.

And it's true - as long as they are together. But even now, the threat of that doubt taking over is making Tiger begin to lose his nerve. Because while their fusion is more than willing to fight for both of his parts, the younger half is acutely aware of what the cost of failure could be.

He remembers that meeting with Lesedi Santiago, and being taken away by her guards and taken down to that strange, isolated place that he can only barely picture in his mind. He remembers something dig through the very essence of his being until he felt like he was going to come apart, his body pinned down by metal. It's disturbing, the way that remembering that is both a fresh shock and an old wound.

It makes him angry. It makes him want to protect them even more desperately, and he's sure that he can - if the two of them can hold on long enough - but Tiger's fear is already starting to overwhelm the balance. He, as a fusion, really want to stay like this for as long he's able. But Tiger, as an individual, is becoming increasingly desperate to pull away for fear of being hurt by this.

Edited 2015-11-30 08:02 (UTC)

It's always been clear that Tiger is the worse off of the two, but now he can see just how entangled the kid is, the traps Pride has set for him, imprisoned him with. It's too thick to navigate on his own, but here, the one way he can have some wiggle room, he's still giving in.

The fear and anger push up against their bond, but Greg holds on--as he has since they first met. He made a promise. Isn't this what they'd been talking about? Some miraculous way that Pride and Virgo didn't own them? He's so happy to be here, why can't they be free, just for a little bit longer?

He breathes, shaky, wanting so badly to enjoy this as himself, for their sakes. He doesn't have to go fighting against the label to matter. Being here, being himself, being themselves is enough.

"If I could... begin to be... half of what you think of me..."

☆MINGLE LOG: SOUTH VISTA MUSIC FEST

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