interstellar404 | ☆TRACK IV: COME TOO FAR

☆COME TOO FAR

► ALSO, DO YOUR AC!

The first part of Come Too Far is less of an event and more of a series of happenings. Starting late Halloween night, member of both labels will start being ordered back to HQ. If you've already planned your character as doing something Halloween night, that's fine - just know, they'll be getting called back/dragged back by their managers before the night is over, because something is afoot.

☆WHAT WE ARE
Of course, whatever is afoot, no one is giving you answers. Neither Blanche nor Santiago are available for comment, and your managers don't have answer for you easy. From the mutterings of the guards and other staff though, you may get the sense that both CEO left abruptly for something very urgent. Even they don't appear to know what, though.

Members of both labels will not be allowed to leave the HQ until the 5th is over. All press events and performances are cancelled - and there were quite a number of them. Fans are confused and upset, and you honestly don't have answers for them...though you may get some cryptic answers of your own.

Starting Halloween night, memory regains are becoming more common. The exact number you regain are up to you, but over the course of November you will be allowed to regain a minimum of 2 memories up to a maximum of 8. They should be a mix of small thing and big things, and the content can be of your choice - just remember, this is still only month two, so your character shouldn't get back their whole identity all at once. Have fun, though, and work the times they come back into your personal narrative.

Characters are going to start getting the sense that something is wrong, but they'll need to make a choice: to pursue these memories to their logical conclusions, or to try to avoid them in favor of making the best of their career. It will become harder and harder to do both.

The ability to purchase a physical or power regain will come shortly after the fifth, for both Contraband and Fame.

☆WHAT WE NEED
Though the regain of memories are something you are free to handle on your own, there are a couple things we need from you as of this event:

► AN EMOTIONAL AFFINITY: Much like what was used in the Streets Are Empty, only now you get to pick! You don't have to tell us in this post, just head to that link and put your character's name in the right column for the affinity you want. Pick for whatever concept is the most symbolically relevant to your character's true self. The first memory their regain from this should be related to that affinity, but after that the memories can be anything you want. This can be the same as the affinity you already had or different.

► BE A TATTLETALE: Has your character been acting up, recently? Have they been trying to break the rules or disobeying a lot of orders from their managers? Have they been talking publicly about weird memories they shouldn't have? If your character has been doing anything that implies they are having memory regains or that they dislike their label, let us know here on this post. (This doesn't count behaviour that they've been programmed to have, like fighting cops or being rude.) Also let us know how and where they are showing these signs - there are eyes watching frequently, but not always. Also let us know if they are going to act out in the next few days.

As always, if there are any questions, ask them here!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yan has been as nosy as his programming will allow about all the weird goings on. He hassled Ankh about it for a while at the party, so that might have been noticed. He's also been doing a lot of research online to try to figure out where/when/who his memories were of and sharing anything of importance with Koumei (who he's not supposed to be in contact with anyway. He's also been griping about how his band keeps losing members and making noises about having to consider how to handle his career from now on.

YOU ARE BEING INVESTIGATED.

A few days into the lockdown you will be approached by Juno in your penthouse. You’ll be told that you’ve been recommended for a psyche evaluation, and you won’t be given the opportunity to reschedule. She’ll take you down to one of the lower floors (the one just above the basement floor where the wisp nonsense took place) where you’ll be sat down in an office with a woman you haven’t seen before.

She won’t actually introduce herself, but she will proceed with you as if you are going in for a psychiatrist visit. She will ask a lot of typical personal questions, as if getting an idea of your personality, before delving into a more intense probing about the nature of your weird memories and unusual emotional reactions as of late.

Juno has demanded your cooperation with this as an official order, meaning you feel compelled to obey. However, that compulsion is weaker than it has been before (you feel slightly more liberated since Halloween, you’re not sure why) so while it’s fairly difficult, it will be possible to lie and to mislead.

In your case, she is specifically questioning you about:

1) The weird goings on that he has been observing, as if she is a total outsider with no context for it.

2) Any strange thoughts, memories, or phantasms he has been experiencing.

3) If he is unhappy with Virgo's performance, and if so, why?

Please give us an idea of your character’s response to this. Do they fight? Do they refuse to answer? Do they cooperate but lie subtly? Details are a plus. The most important thing is to let us know whether or not they are fessing up to having weird thoughts/memories and if they are actively showing insubordination. The psychiatrist woman seems gentle and patient, but who knows what’s going on in her head. She will make this sound like it is in the interest of you health, which sounds weirdly believable when she says it.

He kind of has perpetual resting bitchface, so his actual mood is going to be kind of hard to gauge because he more or less looks angry all the time, even if he isn't. He can keep his cool for the most part, though, and will answer in the most straightforward, blunt, businesslike manner he can.

1,2) He'll explain what he's seen both memories and otherwise, but he won't go into any of the emotions/sensations attached. He'll raise the concern is that this is some sort of hidden camera reality show/experiment that they're being subjected to without their knowledge or consent and that it makes him angry that their contracts are being used this way. He will not, even if pressed, bring the emotional aspect into it at all, and will avoid mentioning his communications with Koumei. He is, however, willing to talk at extreme length about his research into Chinese history of the Three Kingdoms era and its depiction in popular culture, so...good luck with that...

3) He's frustrated about the lack of transparency and communication in the past month or so, but he will say that he at least understands why it's sometimes necessary. However, he feels that his band in particular has been placed in a difficult position because of how the label decided to compose the group. If Virgo wants to control their roster, they need to find more reliable people to fill the other two spots. Otherwise, they need to reconsider marketing the band as a trio with each member of equal standing instead of a five piece ensemble with a frontman. Basically, as much as he likes the other guys, he has ambitions of his own that he feels are being hampered by the band constantly being in flux. He'll also talk marketing strategy extensively if necessary to deflect attention from something he doesn't want to answer.

She is going to insist that there is no reality show scenario taking place, and that his insistence that there is seems like it make be symptomatic of his personal paranoia and delusions - delusions that perhaps need to be treated.

She will write down his opinion on the "three man band" idea to forward to marketing. She is being totally honest whens he says that she is doing so.

She will put a solid effort into keeping him on topic, and and insist that he go into detail on the emotional aspects of what he is feeling. If he doesn't comply, she will suggest that he may have to remove himself from his career work temporarily to go on psychiatric leave. For his own good, of course.

When she wants him to go into detail about his emotions, he'll discuss his frustration about being kept in the dark about the situation, but he still won't touch the emotional aspects of the memories themselves. He treats them solely as if they were projections of some sort that he saw and approaches the whole situation as if it were something grounded in concrete reality. He doesn't look at all pleased at being told it's not a reality show and at the suggestion that he might be delusional. He has no mental health issues, doesn't drink to excess, doesn't do drugs and doesn't appreciate the implication that any of those things might have been the cause for what he saw.

She will try, perhaps in vain, to talk some reason into him about the reality show thing. If he refuses to let up, eventually she will appear to relent - only to get up and ask him to remain seated for a moment while she goes to check on something.

She will leave him alone in her office for about five minutes. There are some paper on her test, and a computer with a locked screen.

Does he do anything? Or does he wait?

He'll "stretch his legs" and go lean on the wall by the door to see if he can hear what's going on outside the office. If he sees something written on the papers on the way there, that's great, but he won't go looking through them because he's still not entirely convinced he's not being watched or recorded. He'll probably give her two or three minutes before he sits back down in the chair.

All he'll see while walking around is the name "Greg Universe" written on a folder on the desk. He obviously knows who that is by now.

A few minutes later, the psychiatrist will return with Juno. Juno will look him over and instruct him to come along with her - it's an order, and it will feel enforced by his programming. Any acting up will take some great force of will.

He'll go without a fuss. By now he's realized he's managed to get himself in trouble somehow and it's pissing him off because he can't figure out why, but he'll keep that to himself.

An examination. That's what they tell you this is. You're taken down to the basement floors of the residential Virgo building, those same floors that you almost lost a part of your soul. You're taken past a hall full of screens, where you and your escorts are scanned and given access to the room beyond. As you walk past that threshold, your recollection of events fades into a haze of cloud and light.

You remember existing in a white void filled with sound - sound that seems to erode your thoughts and memories. It's a cold and barren emptiness, your mind and spirit under siege as your body is restrained and measured. You are given commands like a machine, and they are obeyed, flashes of pain punishing refusal. You are taken apart and then put back together.

The soft, singing voice of a woman lingers in the silence that follows.

And then...

You remember waking, in your room, these images becoming dull and soft. It's over now, something tells you, and you will not speak of this again. It's unnecessary, isn't it? You've been reborn.

Use the gift wisely.

☆TRACK IV: COME TOO FAR

Tattletale

YOU ARE A SUSPECT

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