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

YOU ARE BEING INTERROGATED.

A couple days after lock down, two beefy men will come to collect you from your penthouse, with little explanation. If either you or one of your band mates try to get in the way, they will concisely explain that one of the execs have requested their presence and that they are body guards. Any resistance short of a full out brawl will result in you being taken along with them, and your programming pushes very heavily on the idea that you should obey, even if not as strongly as it may have a few days ago.

You are taken up to the highest floors of the Pride Records HQ, and are brought into an office filled with lush red velvets and...what appears a to be a lion skin on the wall. What the fuck. The longer you look, the less it seems like the office, and the more it seems like a hunter’s reading room.

Perhaps more alarming, though, is the person sitting at the desk. It’s Lesedi Stantiago, dressed in a sharply red cocktail dress, and her stare is cutting. The two “body guards” push you towards the chair facing her, and then stand on either side of the door.

Lesedi will say very clearly that she requires your cooperation, because if you can’t cooperate, then you can’t do business. The compulsion to obey is strong, and you are pre-emptively afraid of what the cost of disobedience might be.

She will ask you two things:

1) Why you think the rules of Pride no longer apply to you.

2) If you have experienced any strange thoughts or feelings.

She will tell you that the entirely of Pride Records is at risk of corruption by outside forces, and that she needs your perfect honesty.

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. Lesedi has a reputation for being extremely no nonsense when it comes to getting her way, so tread lightly. The amount of sass that will be tolerated without consequence is very minimal.

Prior to this encounter (if that's all right), Kido will have experienced three memories: the knowledge of the title Mekakushi Danchou, no. 1, Tsubomi Kido; the thought, over and over again "I want to disappear"; and, eventually, the intimate knowledge that if they're ("they"? who the fuck is "they"?) found, their lives are in danger (from what? she has no fucking clue).

Yeah Kido's life is not an easy one.

But! While the first memory infuriates her because what is this shit going on, and the second comes with a wave of anxiety, the third has grounded her somewhat.

So she won't put up a fight when anyone comes to get her. And though her insides feel like they're twisting when she's led to Lesedi, she at least speaks calmly, even if her words are not so... polite.

To the first question, she responds that she didn't realize there were rules after one of their bands harassed and could've killed her bandmates. If there isn't a rule against drowning a kid, then she didn't realize talking shit was somehow worse.

To the second she goes silent. And then she clenches her fists and says she's been having nightmares since the carnival incident. That's it.

I'm very sorry about her.

Lesedi does not respond well to that sass, and will firmly counter with:

A) She has dealt with the Predator situation as she sees fit, and Kido is in no place to make decisions about the rules on her behalf.

B) She should learn not to push her weight before earning herself any traction.

She's so annoyed with the first part that it almost seems like she's forgotten the part about the nightmares. Almost.

She'll cross her arms and be grouchy and generally just... not answer that. Because she knows talking back again will get her in more trouble and what's the point fighting a war she can't win?

Given the opportunity, she pulls the conversation back around to the dreams. The pause is suspect, even if she claims its only nightmares. Most people don't call nightmares "strange" when there is a clear cause.

She'll press hard on the subject matter of the nightmares. The compulsion to obey is strong.

She says she's been dreaming about people burning. This is not a lie. At all. She'll start to seize into panic at that, grabbing onto the seat of the chair because it's really, really been getting to her.

(And she thinks, again, "I want to disappear.")

Lesedi gives her a searching look, and then asks what the words "Mekakushi-danchou" mean to her.

Oh boy, that's a "caught" if she ever saw one.

She says it's gibberish. And then she cracks. She has no idea, but she can't stop thinking about it and she knows she's going crazy and she gets it now can you dish out the punishment and get it over with?

Lesedi will ask if she believes that the dreams about the fire and that word are related.

She's actually pretty desperate when she answers that she doesn't know. She feels like she doesn't know anything anymore.

Something that you said or did seems to have sealed the deal. Lesedi won't bother to give you much explanation - she'll just say that you need to go with the guards now, and that they'll take you somewhere that your problems can be resolved. It's a favour, of course - she's doing you a service. If she has her way, she'll make those painful memories go away for good.

You can't seem to say no.

You're lead down hallways, and to an unfamiliar elevator, that takes you some place strange. You only ever see the start of it - something that looks like an air lock in a spaceship, almost, with glowing indicators and 3D light screens. The guards tell you that you are going to enter processing, and it seems to trigger something in your mind that makes everything shut down. What you can remember from after comes in flashes of imagery you hardly understand, like a movie you watched as a child.

You remember moments of being held inside whirling and shifting machines, metal clasped tight around your head, your body naked and exposed. You think you remember pain. A pressure inside your head, your heart, that wouldn't subside - one that strained you until you felt like you would break. You remember feeling like someone else, somewhere else, in fragments and pieces.

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 unecessary, isn't it? You've been reborn.

Use the gift wisely.

☆TRACK IV: COME TOO FAR

YOU ARE A SUSPECT

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