☆MUSICIAN TEST DRIVE: OHHH YEAH

[interdimanagers]

☆WELCOME MUSICIANS

And welcome to our fourth TDM! We've got two types of prompts to use this time around: the first takes place while your character is in the process of being captured, and the second is during their first brainwashed rockstar networking gig. The former is designed to be considered 100% game canon if you make it in officially, while the later is more speculative and will only work if you get lucky during label and band selection.

☆THE TALENT SEARCH

These prompts are design to be kept as game canon after acceptance, and can be used as the official story of how your character was captured. Importantly, the kidnappers entering 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 captured multiple ways, or going in more than one direction, before the timeline settled on a final path. Or at least, they'll remember this until their memories are wiped shortly afterwards, but that's okay! That's what memory regains are for. Read this page for more specifics on this situation. Any powers the characters have will be weakened and prone to malfunction to the point of uselessness.



►A1) THE SEARCH: It always starts out this way, doesn't it? At some point in your life, you were just doing your thing, wherever you call home. Then, all at once, it's like you've been torn from your dimension by the roots. Time and space displace, and it's like you've been shifted one layer of reality to the left - like some kind of subspace where you can see your reality through it, like a rainbow surrealist image of your home. Even if you can see this ghost image of where you were, you can't interact with it meaningfully. Any friends or family are somewhere else. As you begin to wander, without any other options, you'll find that the scenery gradually shifts to ghost images of other places, other worlds. If you wander long enough, you'll even find other people, lost just like you are. But you probably won't have much time - you've been brought here for a reason, after all.

►A2) THE HUNT: It could happen almost immediately, or it could happen hours later - but, at some point, your dimensional kidnappers start to do their sweep. Space Men in black body suits and gas masks pursue you on foot and in small spaceships, trying to sweep you and the other displaced up like fish in a net. Their guns contain a weird pink gas that will knock out most with only a single breath - and for those more enduring, they have the heavy artillery, like electrical nets and guns. The fallen will be sealed up into stasis pods for transport and loaded onto the ships, which seem like the only way to get out of this place by choice. This is where it ends, but are you going to put up a fight?

NOTE: Characters already in game can't really tag into these sections, so try to tag around to other first time character tests if you can!

☆WELCOME HOME

By default, these prompts aren't considered canon, but if after you are accepted and sorted they can be tweaked into working for you, it'll be totally okay to keep them as a part of your rockstar's personal history. This occurrence is something that will be happening in early March game time, but of course, what remains canon and what doesn't will be subject to who is accepted and where they are placed. This takes place after being kidnapped and brainwashed, as your character is first joining their new label. As usual, this is celebrated with a party.



►B1) PLAY IT STRAIGHT: The season of Spring Break has begun, and like most things in Vista City, it's carried out to total excess. This is only one of the first, preliminary shindigs of what is assured to be many - much like the Solstice, celebrations for Spring Break also go on forever. This time, it takes place around a pool, and it's not just with industry people - it's also with a smattering of particularly rich or attractive fans. It's a chance to mingle with all your exciting new business connections - something typical to the high music society of Vista City - but maybe it's not yet typical to you.

For a number of the freshly signed on newbies, this is their first real taste of what their new label has to offer - either Virgo or Pride - and the sheer glamour of it may be intoxicating. Industry big wigs scatter the area, as do performers of all the tops labels and bands, and their VIP fans and investors. Maybe you feel intimidated. Maybe you want to make your mark. Or maybe you're not quite as new as some, and are just trying to get through the evening. Either way, they is plenty of booze available if you need some liquid courage. Yet...is it just you, or do most of the other fledging musicians look awfully grim lately?

►B2) TOTALLY NORMAL: The signs of it are small, at first. Glasses you set down seeming out of place, stuff that almost looks like words written in the condensation on your glass. These little hauntings only get more and more persistent as the night continues, almost like some otherworldly presence is following you. You can feel them lurking nearby at times, like an unusual spot of cold or warmth in the air. None of the higher ups seem to notice but...to some of your new peers, this feels like old news. Eventually the signs become bolder, and at some point in the evening you'll hear it whispered in your ear or written on the bathroom mirror: "Remember."

►B3) REMEMBER: And you do. It strikes you suddenly, a feeling like a foreign presence straying through your mind. You remember something of your past, pertaining to the emotional affinity Love, Duty, Passion, or Hope - whichever feeling describes the person you used to be best. Except you know nothing of that life now, nothing except this single, strange thought in a room full strangers.

NOTE: Current characters definitely go to this party in earlier March, but it isn't required play. Besides the usual hauntings and meeting new characters, it is considered business as usual. Pride Records and Virgo Entertainment's employees are uneasily coexisting, pretty much because they have to in order to keep up appearances. Body guards are out in full force. It's sort of tense.

☆HELPFUL INFO

► Follow the mod plurk for updates: interstellar5555
► Check out the game NAVIGATION
► Check out the RESCUER 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

[secondpresident]

She's not human?

God damn, this is out of his pay grade. He wishes Heero was here--the real one or Black Alpha, he doesn't care which, either one of them would be far better equipped to handle this bullshit than he is.

He tries to replay her speech in his head but only succeeds in getting tangled. He seizes on the last thing he understood. "Junk yard. Sure. Any idea where to find one?"

I approve of the PB. Doesn't look like I'd think Duo would look, but captures the character

[iwantmythief]

She looks around, "None at all. I don't know if this universe has junk yards." She puts a hand to her stomach and flinches, "Oh, already? No matter. We'll work with what time we have. Oh, if only I was in my own body. But I don't want to get rid of the Cloister room. I really like that sound. It's a good sound. Was a good sound. Wait." She puts a finger to his lips, even if he didn't look like he was going to say something. "Nonono no no. That's bad. Will be bad. Really bad. Have you been at parties like this often?" She shakes her head, "No, not yet. Why am I saying that."

I needed someone middle-aged and going soft. Lucky he got a haircut in canon or I'd be SOL.

[secondpresident]

He had not been about to say anything valuable, though that never stopped him from running his mouth. President Maxwell stares at the girl's finger, going slightly cross-eyed in the process.

"You gonna be okay?" he asks, not sure what else to say. "Does something hurt?"

He wonders if maybe the corset is not the most practical gear for the situation. Can she breathe okay? Is she gonna start hyperventilating? He's never seen anyone wear a corset in his life, he doesn't know shit about them.

XD yeah, that'd be impossible, probably.

[iwantmythief]

"No, and yes. In that order. Wait no. No, yes. That way. Tenses. We should go. Now." She takes his hand and starts walking away rapidly. At least she isn't hyperventilating. "I am a TARDIS. What are the words. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. Well, I'm the conciousness of one, the soul. The machine can't run without me. But I can't leave without the machine. I shouldn't be in this body. I don't... fit. But I have never felt so... oh, I don't know the word. It is something. A feeling. A good one. It's rather exciting, but I've never felt quite like this before. I could get used to it. Words are new though. I've heard plenty," She starts saying something in an unrecognisable language, "But there's so much, and this mind can't handle everything I know."

[secondpresident]

He follows obediently. He's good at following women obediently. It's gotten him in a lot of trouble over the years.

"A good feeling? But I thought you said it hurts?" He's only barely following, and what he's cobbled together is that this girl is something along the lines of the cat in the very first ZERO system. Consciousness inside a machine. He can deal, sort of. It's a little creepy if he thinks about it too hard, so he just... won't.

Except for the part where he totally, totally will. That's the kind of shit that keeps a man up at night.

"So what you're saying is that you're... too big for your body, sort of? Or at least too big for the brain."

[iwantmythief]

She seems to have calmed down a bit, taking a deeper breath. "Yes. Well, no." She looks around, "It is a bit like... Are you familiar with circuitry?"

She seems to be trying to find a direction, like some sort of extra sense is leading her, but it is hard to follow. Still, she seems like she has some sort of direction.

[secondpresident]

"I've done my fair share of wiring in my day," he says. A pang of longing wells up and he shoves it back down, clapping a lid on the emotion. Man, what wouldn't he give for it to be just him and Deathscythe again sometimes. A lot of the rotten shit he's pulled in the last... oh, thirty years or so... was because he was looking for something to fill the void that self-detonating his partner had left.

He lets the girl lead him, trusting that she's got a better sense of what's happening here than he does.

[iwantmythief]

"Well, you know what happens when you put too much voltage through too small a wire." She keeps moving. "Oh. It might be less than that. A few hours. This is bad."

[secondpresident]

He knows, all right. It's a mistake he's made in his younger days. And he winces a little, considering what that could be like on a human body.

"You mean, a few hours left in that body before it shorts?"

He's looking around for anything that might be helpful to them, but the scenery is composed mainly of ominous shadows, technicolor splashes, like a fairytale hellscape. He has never seen anything like it, aside from that one night with the mezcal. Rough night, that.

[iwantmythief]

"Less, maybe. How long do these usually last?" She actually looks concerned as she looks to Maxwell. She gets distracted though, going off at an angle. She found a junkyard, alright. Too bad it isn't in this dimension. She holds a hand to her torso again, making a sound of pain.

[secondpresident]

"What, bodies?!" he yelps, chasing after her. "Usually a pretty long time! I've had this one my whole life!"

... Yes, so has everyone. This is one of the least helpful things to ever come out of President James Clerk Maxwell's mouth, and that's saying something.

And then he sees the junkyard. And, thankfully, words fail him. That's Hilde's junkyard, the one on the L2 colony cluster. She'd sold it before she moved to Mars. He swallows hard and turns away from it, tentatively touching the girl's shoulder.

"Gonna be okay? Do you need to puke? I can hold your hair," he offers.

[iwantmythief]

"No, I'm not. But worrying about that isn't going to help us at all. We need to keep looking for a way out." She straightens and walks into the junkyard, trying to find a way to interact with it before heading off again. "How long have you been... oh, what's the word? Big word, sad word."

[secondpresident]

"Been what?" There's a lot of words that could fill that gap. Big and sad? He racks his brain, throwing out suggestions. "Married? Sober? A father? A politician?"

Selfish? Irresponsible? Careless with other people's feelings? He could keep going. He's pretty self-aware about his problems! He's just... not all that great at actually doing something about them. Running and hiding from his flaws is much easier and safer than actually trying to work on them.

[iwantmythief]

"No!" she complains, "Something that all humans are. Until they're not, at least. Ooooh." She shakes her head, "We need to keep looking!"

[secondpresident]

Oh. Oh, shit, he's definitely revealed too much about himself all in one go when all she meant was...

"Alive," he says. "It's called being alive."

[iwantmythief]

She is thrilled to hear that word. She spins to face him, a huge smile on her face, "Yes! Alive! That's the word! Do you always feel so alive?" She looks a little troubled, "But is is such a sad word too, isn't it?"

[secondpresident]

"You know, I gotta say I try not to think about it too hard." He gestures vaguely. "Bodies sorta run themselves, as long as you feed them and get enough sleep and try not to fuck 'em up too bad."

As for sad... he'd like to think it's not all that grim, that humans aren't inherently vicious or short-sighted. But the Mars Civil War is still a little too fresh in his mind for him to leave it at that. He lets that question go without an answer.

He's always been good at playing dumb.

[iwantmythief]

She's referring to death, with the sadness. But she doesn't go on to explain it, instead pressing on with a darkened expression, "I must get back to my Thief."