☆RESCUER TEST DRIVE: SOMETHING ABOUT US

[interdimanagers]

☆WELCOME RESCUERS

"Daft Punk - Digital Love" (Watch on YouTube)

Welcome to Interstellar's second RESCUER TDM! A part of the Interstellar plot that first opened a couple months ago, this TDM cover the second round of recruitment for those approached 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. Rescuers that are already in game can also end up in this dreamscape, and can run into both new musicians and new rescue team recruits.



►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
► Ask the mods some QUESTIONS
► Reserves open on February 27th at 12:01AM EDT
► Applications open on March 4th at 12:01AM EDT

Comments

[missknight]

Yeah, the death metal definitely isn't helping.

But that's partially because, from across the beach, Connie has been trying to yell Greg's name for, like, five minutes.

Since her voice clearly can't beat the screams of metal heads, she goes around to the other side of the van. Clambering up into the driver's seat and with one hand pressed against an ear like that will help, she fumbles with the volume until she can hit off.

"Mister Universe!"

[panspermia]

Between the noise and his exhaustion, Greg failed to notice her approach at all. He jerks with surprise when the music cuts out, blinking at the child in the van. How long has she been there? For all the attention he's been paying, she could have been sat inside from the start.

"Oh. Um. Hey there. Sorry, I--you want an autograph?"

Clearly.

[missknight]

"Wha-" A bewildered blink as her mind tries to process that, honestly, completely out of nowhere response. Even if that wasn't a completely weird thing to say, the fact that he's asking it in the middle of the old Homeworld spaceship wreck is... weird.

Almost as weird as the fact that wasn't this supposed to have been cleaned up AGES ago?

"No, I don't want an autograph." Her brow crumples together as she scoots from one seat to the other to get a better look at him. "Are you alright? Did you bump your head or something?" With how everything is, she wouldn't rule out cranial trauma, after all.

[panspermia]

The response had come out automatically, almost entirely reflexive. When unfamiliar voices called that name, it generally was for such a purpose, anyway.

He sighs with a weary grin, rubbing at his head. "Boy, wouldn't that make this easier." At this point, brain damage would be a lot easier to understand than all the complete weirdness he's gone through these last few months. "Uh, but really, no, I'm... all right."

Only then does it occur to him the way she's talking. She sounds.... expectant? Greg looks the child over again, really paying attention this time. He can't pick out how, but she's definitely familiar. "Uh... we... have we met before?"

[missknight]

A tentative smile starts to cross her face when he says he hasn't hurt himself. That's good, then. She remembers how worried Steven had been about his dad getting his leg broken. He'd be heartbroken if something worse had happened.

Of course, and then Greg asks that, and the smile slips off of her face. "It's me, Connie..." Her eyes widen in shock. "Maybe you really did get amnesia from a traumatic head injury and just forgot! Or, what other things cause amnesia..." She starts to count out everything on her fingers. "There's three, and there's head injuries... Traumatic events..."

A horrified gasp. "Your hippocampus could be atrophying!"

[panspermia]

Wow, this girl seems even quicker to panic than him. He raises his hands. "Woah, woah, woah. Slow down, it's not anything like that! Probably." It's a little hard to rule any possible option out.

Greg gives her as reassuring a smile as he can manage, but the gears in his head are turning. She's talking like she knows him. This him. He has to figure out where he's seen her before. "It's sort of hard to explain, but I'm not..."

He trails off as a couple pieces come together. "You--you're friends with Steven!" He presses a palm into his forehead. "That was you on the lion. I know you!"

[missknight]

"Yes, Steven!" At least he still remembers him. That's reassuring. With that bright spot found, Connie lets herself fall down from the burst of panic that had overtaken her.

Alright, so, he still remembers Steven, and he's starting to remember her again. Connie hums and presses her knuckles against her chin. Well, there's an obvious cause here that she actually overlooked...

"Is this... a Gem thing?" she asks, tentative. If that's the case, well, her original thought had been to take him to her mom, but Pearl or Garnet would be better off if it's a Gem thing.

[panspermia]

"A what?" His face screws up. He should definitely know what a Gem thing would be. Like the thing in Steven's stomach, or the stones he sees from the women in his memories. That's what she's talking about, isn't it?

"Sort...of? That's a magic thing, right?" He rubs at his forehead. "It's complicated. But there's a lot of magic involved, I'm pretty sure."

[missknight]

"Uh... Ye...s...?" The words leave Connie's mouth weighed down by more than a little uncertainty and confusion. He can remember Steven- which is good! great!- but he can't remember, well.... Everything about the Gems? Exiting the car, Connie goes to sit down besides him.

"Well, why don't you tell me what you do remember, and we can go from there? Step by step, until it's not so complicated anymore."

[panspermia]

Greg watches her for a moment, before sighing, leaning on his knees. "Sorry. I know this has gotta be pretty weird." He really can't remember her very well, but she's clearly worried and confused. He doesn't know how she expects him to act, but he's letting her down.

"I'm Mr. Universe. Up and coming rock star, part of Virgo Entertainment. That's what I remember--no family, or magic, just stardom." He shrugs down at her, apologetic. "Don't, uh. Don't worry too much, though. I'm starting to get my old memories back. It's kinda slow going, but I remember Steven, and those magic ladies who were taking care of him, and... his mother."

[missknight]

On the downside: that is the complete opposite of reality. So opposite, that Connie couldn't hide her concern if she tried.

The bright side: he's remembering things again, and she has a name to go off of. Virgo Entertainment isn't any sort of business she's ever heard of, but Connie is more than willing to believe that she's just not heard of it, right? At any rate, it helps keep her from flipping her lid.

They'll start small. "Yeah, the magic ladies- those are the Crystla Gems. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. Rose Quartz, too, Steven's mom. They're not really magic- I mean, kind of? They're aliens."

So 'space ladies' would be the more accurate term here.

[panspermia]

Aliens? Aliens. Oh man. He feels like he ought to remember aliens. His brow knits together. He had an alien girlfriend wife. That's awesome. And weird, but awesome.

"Rose Quartz..." That's her name. It fits. "She's not... not around any more, is she?"

[missknight]

Deflating at that, Connie nods hesitantly. It's sort of weird. By the time she had come onto the scene, Rose Quartz had already been dead for... over a decade, now. Everyone had already known. It doesn't feel right for her to be the one to re-deliver the news all over again.

"No... Her and Steven couldn't exist together, I guess. But he has her gem- the one on his stomach."

[panspermia]

Greg just looks over the sea, red in the predawn light. "That's what I thought." The memories had hinted in that direction. And he'd never seen Steven and her (Rose, he has to hold on to her name, it's Rose) together. One hand of his rests over his stomach.

"How'd you meet him? He doesn't go to school, does he?"

[missknight]

"Oh! No, he doesn't- which I thought was weird, at first, but makes sense, I guess?" Do the Gems know much about school? Connie is pretty sure they don't. Still, now on a brighter topic, Connie forges ahead with a smile.

"We sort of first met during a parade- you had him riding on top of your van, for the car wash! But we didn't really get to know each other until... I guess a year later? He saved me from rocks falling! And... then we kind of got stuck in his bubble, and then at the bottom of the ocean, and had to run from a monster..." She trails off a bit, remembering how different things had seemed then.

"But it all worked out in the end, and now we hang out all the time with each other! When I'm not at school, anyway."