☆RESCUER TEST DRIVE: DIGITAL LOVE

[interdimanagers]

☆WELCOME RESCUERS

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Welcome to Interstellar's first ever RESCUER TDM! A part of the Interstellar plot that has just opened up, this covers the entrance of those recruited by the lone space pilot Shep to join him on a mission to the planet Terra to rescue those held captive by Pride Records and Virgo Entertainment. Rescuers will not suffer any memory loss and will enter the game as they are, in contrast to the memory loss/force humanization of the musician half. Powers will be nerfed to a certain degree upon entering the game fully, but during recruitment they will remain at full power.

☆A DREAM ABOUT YOU

These prompts are designed to be game canon, for both rescuers and musicians both new and already in game. For those in game, they will start occurring around New Years in the form of dreams. The dreams will be very clear while happening, but after waking, they will swiftly fade away into something barely remembered. For rescuers, these dreams will occur very shortly before they are approached by Shep or other already recruited rebels to join the rescue squad and go save the people being held captive in Vista City. Rescuers will remember these dreams as clearly as something that actually happened in real life.

Both of these prompts take place in the dreamscape, ostensibly, and the surrounding will appear as whatever fits those taking part in a scene. It can shift and change as a thread goes along, as well, and may resemble things from a captive's home, the game setting, or anything else appropriate.



►A1) FOR THE CAPTURED: The kidnapped musicians of Vista City will dream of being themselves - in a way more true than they have been for months now. They'll dream of themselves as they're meant to be, in physical form and manner of dress, and their personality will align more easily with their true nature, even as the confusing influences of their programming nag at their mind. It could alarm them, or it could feel somehow natural. Either way, their memories will still be gone, except for what they've recovered - but they feel somehow much closer to reach, like they may break through if only given the chance to dig just about deeper. They may dream of home, they may dream of Vista, but either way...when the morning comes, their memories of this experience will be all but wiped away. Including the memories of the strangers that promised that they would find them and take them home.

►A2) FOR THE RESCUERS: The dream is the first sign of something being wrong. You'll find yourself somewhere else - either a scene from your home, or someone else's, or an alien world you've never seen. In this dream, you'll find a person. Perhaps it's someone you recognize, someone you love dearly, but that doesn't remember you. Maybe it's a stranger, lost, confused, and desperate for help. Either way, you find yourself reaching out to them - but outside of this dream, you are helpless to save them. The dream will fade but stay with you in your memory, and may be a key component in you choosing to believe and join the other rescuers when they come to your door. Something has been taken, and you will take it back.

☆MAKE THESE DREAMS COME TRUE

These prompts are design to be kept as game canon after acceptance, and can be used as the official story of how your character entered the game. Importantly, the technology used to enter your timeline causes massive time distortions, which means that the outcome of this scenario will stagger and replay itself multiple times before settling on an outcome. This means that after the fact, you character may remember being encountered multiple ways, or going in more than one direction, before the timeline settled on a final path.




►B1) JUST SAY YES: Soon after these dreams, rescuers will find themselves in a strange situation. Time will abruptly stop for every part of the world except for them, and fade into a ghostly vision of its former self - just in time for them to be approached by some mysterious strangers. Whether your rescuer chooses to run, fight, or talk, eventually they'll be told the truth - people of the multiverse have been captured and taken to a universe far away to be harvested for their souls...in the form of forcing them to becoming rock stars. You heard it here first, folks.

The people recruiting you will mostly be other player rescuers that have already been recruited (regardless of whether or not that's been threaded out - you can assume your guy got recruited by someone if you want to recruit OTHER people.) The pilot and owner of the space ship doing this appears to be a blue man named Shep. He's the guy that's apparently in charge of this whole thing, but he's so busy with the dimension hopping that he's kind of hard to find and talk to. He presumably recruited some of the first members personally, but things have been sort of getting more complicated since then.

►B2) INTERSTELLAR DISCO: After you've agreed to come for whatever reason - to save you lover, friend, some guy, whatever - you're be taken upon the guitar shaped spaceship to wait out the tide of the temporal distortions picking you up has caused. It's a long journey back to Vista City, and you've got plenty of new comrades to get to know. This mission could take a while, so you better get comfy. You're in for the long haul now.

NOTE: If you want to see the interior of the spaceship (or if you want to see Shep dance) watch the music video posted up top. It's going to be a fair bit bigger in Interstellar to accommodate the big crew, but the essence is there.

☆HELPFUL INFO

► Follow the mod plurk for updates: interstellar5555
► Check out the game NAVIGATION
► Check out the MUSICIAN TDM
► Reserves open on January 2nd at 12:01AM EDT
► Applications open on January 11th at 12:01AM EDT

Comments

[eba02]

[It sounds pretty empty for a big city, but that's not too worrying for J - it's easier to wave it off when he knows this is just a dream. What's not so easy to shake is the broken tune he's following. It leads him to a blond guy, talking to himself. At least he knows someone's listening, right? J approaches him with a smile.]

Need help lookin'?

[sponsorigami]

Do you know the statue? Ah, I mean, it's a really big bronze one of a masked man with a cape. It should be at a school...

[ Ivan looks upward. It'd be up there, right? He saw blue sky. ]

... I have to find him. I have to try.

[eba02]

[That sure is an uptick of hope in an otherwise unstable tune. He hates to break it, but lying ain't gonna help.]

Can't say I'm familiar, but I'm up for helpin' you find it. Think it's up top? [He nods up, in the direction he saw the guy looking.]

[sponsorigami]

[ It was worth a shot to ask about the statue. While this place... feels like home, Ivan doesn't know it. It's strange. ]

Yeah, when I met Edward there, I saw the sky, so it can't be down here, right?

[ If one looks up, one sees the underside of the layer supporting the roads and bridges. There are small gaps that open into air, but it's still not a clear view of the skyline. ]

[eba02]

Probably not. You got any idea how to get up there?

[sponsorigami]

Some of the buildings seem to stretch from one level... stage--I think they're called stages--to the other.

[ There are signs near the roads that mention passage to "Silver Stage" and "Gold Stage." That would make where they are... "Bronze Stage?" ]

Maybe we can find a way up there. An... elevator or something...

[eba02]

Sounds like a plan. I'm guessin' you know the place better'n me - mind leadin' the way?

[sponsorigami]

[ Does he know this place? Ivan looks around. He... does, doesn't he? But how? The knowledge feels just beyond his fingertips. ]

I... um... a-all right. But please stop me if you see anything that looks like that statue or a school.

[ And Ivan takes off in a brisk jog, feeling more surefooted than he ever did back in Vista City. He heads toward the nearest building that seems to stretch to the next. There's an elevator that runs along the outside of it. That's a long way up.... ]

[eba02]

[There's an odd balance in the guy's broken tune: something deep in there is sure and steady, but it's buried under a layer of uncertainty so thick that it's all but drowned out, bass notes so low they're nearly inaudible.]

[But they're still there, and the blond is still feeling them, and that's what counts.]

No problem. If the statue's as big as you say, it'll be tough to miss.

[J falls in step easily behind him, keeping pace as they head towards the building. He gestures towards the elevator.]

Think we can take that up?

[sponsorigami]

I hope so...

[ The door opens up when Ivan presses the button for up, the only one on the outside. He sticks his head in warily and seeing nothing immediately dangerous, walks inside. There are more buttons inside: Silver Stage and Gold Stage. It looks like this one won't stop at any of the building's inside floors. ]

There's... probably a more comfortable way of going up than this... I'm sorry.

[eba02]

[What the heck has the blond been traveling in that he thinks an elevator is uncomfortable? J follows him inside, casual as anything.]

Don't worry about it. I'd rather do this than climb eight thousand stairs.

[sponsorigami]

A-Ah... still. I think... I think there's better here. Somewhere.

[ Stern Bild has gigantic lift called the S. Looper (Stern Looper) that allows passengers to ride in comfort with seats, televisions, even allowing drinks and viewing platforms as they traveled gently on a diagonal rail. A small elevator where one has to stand does pale in comparison.

And normally, in Vista City, Ivan isn't nearly as hard on himself. Some of his brainwashing , giving him his hipster vibe. However, here in Stern Bild City... Ivan's negativity, especially towards himself, is stronger, more like normal. ]

Um, thanks for the help, Mr...

[ He blanks and fully takes in the man's appearance. Ivan tenses slightly. ]

Y-You're not with Virgo's security, are you?

[ Please don't be with Virgo. Please. ]

[eba02]

[J just shrugs and leans against the elevator wall. No big deal.]

[He can hear something creeping into the tune, something less than happy. Normally that's something he'd try to lift, a mood he'd try to improve, but there's nothing he can do with the tune as fractured as it is; plus, much as he doesn't like the negativity, it's truer to the tune than the breaks, and he can't touch that. Repairs first; everything else is secondary.]

[Of course, the panic setting in doesn't help either.]

Can't say I know who Virgo is, so no. Call me J.

[sponsorigami]

[ The confirmation is all he needs to let himself slump against the opposite wall. Virgo Entertainment. They're not safe. He doesn't want to bring Edward close to them. Keep them away. He wants to protect this friend he doesn't know. ]

Hello, Mr. Jay. I'm--

[ He pauses. There's another name that he wants to say, one he's more used to introducing himself as, but he doesn't know it. Something also tells him that he shouldn't be introducing himself with that name dressed as he is. But... it feels like that the other name is the one more commonly used for him.

Ivan bites his lip, and his brows knit together. ]

I'm Ivan Karelin, the shamisen player from Flowers Over Bones.

[eba02]

[He can hear that flood of relief and the desire to protect someone - it all rings true to the tune. The blond runs into trouble when he goes to introduce himself, tune struggling around some kind of block wedged in there. For a moment, J wishes he had a good enough grasp on the tune to ease him through it, but the blond backs down and the moment is over.]

[Until Ivan introduces himself, and his tune straight-up chokes. The name is right; the title is very, very wrong.]

Good to meet you, Ivan.

[J pauses for a moment, thinking. On one hand, Ivan's already falling apart to half time, and he doesn't need to make it worse; on the other hand, he doesn't know who or what Virgo is, aside from bad news, and he wants to know what's got Ivan rattled so badly - aside from the broken tune, that,is.]

So what's the deal with this Virgo person?

[sponsorigami]

[ The elevator continues to climb upwards, giving them a grand view of the city. It's technologically advanced, but it keeps an earlier era charm that prevents it from looking sterile and unlived in. Still, there are large screens advertising products and shows hanging on many buildings and even blimps and monorails. ]

Virgo Entertainment, actually. They're my music label, and they helped get me to where I am today.

[ There's something so scripted with how he says it, like something is pushing him to remember everything they have done for him. He met his band, his family, got to play and introduce the shamisen to many. He knows that they're up to something dangerous, and they've been lying to them about what's going on. ... But they're still... they're still his label... ]

[eba02]

[Ivan's tune skips and shudders as he delivers the line - because that's what it is, a line - and J forces himself to relax. He knows record labels have their problems, but if this Virgo Records is using the Music to break people, then problems isn't the half of it.]

An' where are you today, then?

[Think long and hard about that one, Ivan.]

[sponsorigami]

[ There's a lot of confusion as he thinks about what he's doing and why, where he's at. A lot of Ivan's reprogramming runs alongside business as usual in Hero TV. He may not feel completely right about what he says, but he's not wrong either. ]

Flowers Over Bones isn't like other bands. We create and play songs our own way, and we've been reaching audiences. I've been getting shamisen music out to people. They're starting to hear how beautiful the instrument sounds. At the music festival, we got to be part of the evening performances. Those are reserved for the more known bands. We're starting to climb the rankings. We'll reach the top.

[ Somehow... the idea of reaching the top rankings is pathetically laughable. Try as he might, there are others who are so much better than he is. They'll always be above him. His eyes haze over at it slightly. He believes his band can do great things. They can do. He's not sure he sees himself there, though, more like looking from below or behind. ]

I... I won't let them down.

[ He'll force himself for his band, his family. ]

[eba02]

[J listens, expression impassive, because right now his focus is on sorting out that tune. It's tough to parse; there's lies and skipped beats and broken notes built on something that's still true to tune - it's still ugly, but a lot more subtle than a lot of what J's heard in his other dreams. It's not quite more than he bargained for yet, but it's still not telling him everything he wants to hear.]

[Well, there's other ways to approach it; Ivan gave him one earlier.]

An' how's this Edward guy you're lookin' for figure into it?

[sponsorigami]

... I don't know...

[ And that's the complete truth. It's a long shot. This city is so huge, enough to make it hard to find a single person. Ivan only knows what he looks like and a name. They seem like friends, but then there's also that feeling of needing to protect him so strongly because Ivan had failed him somehow. Something bad enough that he was willing to die for Edward.

Ivan gives a frustrated sigh. He's chasing someone he doesn't even know! ]

All I have of him are two random visions of him... That's it really... If I knew what happened, maybe I can keep myself from making the same horrible mistake.