interstellar90210 | To; Pride Employees

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To; Pride Employees

To; Trucy@priderecords.prc, jamieh@priderecords.prc, daturakeys@priderecords.prc, theicequeen@priderecords.prc, Y.Kisaragi@priderecords.prc, username@priderecords.prc, rmustang@priderecords.prc, GrandKingTooru@priderecords.prc, thornydouchebag@priderecords.prc, kbomi@priderecords.prc, s.squalo@priderecords.prc, variaboss@priderecords.prc, t.ward@priderecords.prc, pinkie@priderecords.prc, clawsofthedragon@priderecords.prc, genos@priderecords.prc, maxoliver@priderecords.prc, gg@priderecords.prc, tigeruniverse@priderecords.prc, bbrantley@priderecords.prc, lightbringer@priderecords.prc, theangelsariel@priderecords.prc, flashstepdemyx@priderecords.prc

From; theunkown@smail.com

Subject: Remember.

Remember?

From Junkyard Carnival
Alec Campion
Wakana Sonozaki
Fetch Walker
Poe Dameron

From Flashstep
Sora
Yosuke Hanamura

From Cosmic Indulgence
Koumei Ren
Richard St. Vier
Nariko Lunae

From System Crash
Sayaka Miki
Maki Nishikino

From Crown of Thorns
Wolfram von Bielefeld

From Manticore
Ryuko Matoi
Orion Pax

Where are they now? Are you safe?

Do not trust Lesedi Santiago. Stay vigilant, stay safe. Trust your real memories.

[The e-mail account was deleted soon after sending it this message. The IP address was tracked down to a public library. If asked the person who used the computer signed in as Wakatoshi Ushijima. The truth is that Oikawa had gone out, with his body guard, claiming to want some exercise stopped by the library, quickly copied and pasted the list from a flash drive, and thrown it away as soon as he was done. There was no copy on his personal computer. Once done he headed to his physical therapy appointment. ]

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[And checking in from her own computer, it's all Mai can do to make a foul face at her phone before she deletes the email altogether. Not because she doesn't want to remember any of them, particularly Wolfram, and not because she doesn't want to see the overall list but...]

I'm so sick of this shit.

[What the hell is she supposed to do. It's so damn frustrating feeling tethered and yet knowing fully well she would never left herself be like this voluntarily.]

[Pinkie, curled up alone in her penthouse, frowns down at the message on her phone. What, like she ever forgot? She can't forget her departed bandmates any more than she can what Lesedi did to Steven. Pride's a terrible, awful place.

They shouldn't know she thinks so. It takes some effort, but with weak fingers she deletes the e-mail.]

[Oh, she knows to not trust Lesedi Santiago. And she knows the names of the disappeared. (They are either dead or worse thanks to that awful bitch.) But she doesn't trust the memoires she's getting. Mostly because they are awful.

All she can do is sigh heavily before she deletes the email.]

[Sariel was checking his messages at his laptop, in between researching books to order off aBiblio, when he spotted this email. He'd felt a bit of a twinge at seeing Wolfram's name, since he'd signed onto the band shortly after the well-loved musician's departure. To say nothing of his recent recovery of his actual memories, things so terrible he's inclined to think they came from a former lifetime. And so he'd tried to send a message, reaching out to whoever had sent the email. Only to find the account already deactivated.]

Who sent this and why would they pull away so soon, if they're going to ask such personal questions?

[Well that was a depressing e-mail. And it only touched on those from Pride. Virgo has also had disappearances. Shortly after getting and deleting her own copy of the email, she knocks on Pinkie's door.]

Hey... are you there?

[ With everyone checking their cell phones by the hour it's easy to guess that the unhappy faces around HQ are markers of someone who just read that strange email. Roy is passing by just in time to hear Mai's reaction. He stops in his path and joins her, greeting her then speaking in a low voice to be safe. ]

I'd guess the author, whoever they are, intended to do good with this message but it's having the opposite effect. It was foolish to assume we'd forget our missing bandmates and friends. It's turned out more like poking at our wounds.

You're damn right it's foolish. Who's going to forget after all of the other crap?

[If she sounds harsh it's because... well, she is harsh but she's equally upset as well.]

Oh - yeah, come in!

[Pinkie's laying in bed and doesn't feel like having to walk over to the door right now, tbh. But she's dressed, obviously having been awake for some time.]

Nobody has.

[ He feels the same way, he's just cooled off more. ]

It's pointless to send this message to anyone who has lost someone. I'm very confident that the only musicians left who are unaware of how dangerous Santiago is are the ones just arriving. Lo and behold, all the emails this was addressed to belong to musicians who have been here for several months or longer.

That also suggests the sender is one from that group. Not a senior artist but not a new one. He or she is one of our peers. Consider who would be foolish and vain enough to attempt being a hero by sending this message and the list of suspects is shortened.

[ Well, isn't this ominous. ]

[ Is it the helmet guys? People from the outside? Hard to tell, but either way, it's annoying. They could have offered something more than vague warnings. Like getting them out or whatever. ]

Too bad. I fucking totally forgot.

[ Sneering, he moves a finger to delete the mail... then pauses. It doesn't exactly incriminate him, and who knows, it might turn out to be useful later. So it'll stay in his inbox. ]

[Trucy slips into the room, and moves to lean against the wall facing Pinkie. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she decides on the direct route.]

Did you get that e-mail too?

[Foolish and vain, huh. Mai could start naming names but that seems pretty stupid and foolish too, right? Instead she groans a little.]

Well whoever the idiot is, they better hope they don't get figured out. I mean I'm not that attached to much of anyone here but seriously.

Oh...yeah. I think like, everybody got it.

How come?

[Tooru walks into the living room of their suite at that moment]

Who's a what now?

[Sariel is the band member he interacts with the least, but he does respect him. Mostly. He thought the Dr. Sawbones thing was kinda weird]

[He'll shake his head before sitting back in his desk chair, looking up at Tooru.]

I wish I could say. Someone sent me an email with some... personal questions, and when I went to reply, the account was already deactivated. In just a matter of moments. It's a bit... disturbing and disappointing.

I wonder if I got one. I haven't checked my mail yet today.

[He pulls out his smartphone and indeed it's there. Of course, he's the one who sent it. He made sure to send it to himself to make sure he wasn't a suspect.]

Huh... I wonder what their goal was.

[To get people thinking, mostly. To upset them, make them angry. He had little doubt people actually forgot about their former band mates, but he had meant to bring it to the forefront.

Typing up that list had been painful]

[He won't look up as he replies, but his tone is deathly serious, even hushed as he speaks.]

Did they tell you to trust your real memories?

[He almost sounds as though he barely dares to ask, as if he's experienced this himself and doesn't know what to make of it.]

Yeah, they did.

[Suddenly, Tooru has the impression he just might have bitten off more then he can chew]

Sari-chan, are you okay?

[He shakes his head slowly, but almost with a hint of exhaustion or overwhelm.]

No.... No, I... had a vision recently, like seeing a past life laid out before me. At least, that's how my mind wants to see it, but my heart says otherwise, though... with the things that I saw, I would not wish this life on anyone.

[Ah... Tooru hadn't thought of that. Of course he hadn't. In what universe was this life; one where they lived by pure whim of alien being with a god complex, better then the one they came from?

He studies Sariel. Apparently this guy. Fuck.]

Sometimes lies feel better. But in the end they're still lies.

[He'll shake his head, almost weaving a bit, before looking up.]

But what does one do when the lie is more comforting than the reality? Is there some way to stand between the two, to live the better part of the lie?

[He looks to his hands, turning them up.]

These hands create things now. In that life... they chose when to create and when to destroy, and all too often... [He stops, unable to say more.]

[Fuck]

Well... you have a choice now, don't you?

The lie might have brought some good in your life; it gave you the means to make a new truth.

But it's still a lie.

What if I prefer the lie or some aspects of it over the reality? While the reality explains... the persona I tried out, I can't help but wonder if the public outcry against it wasn't some omen of things to come. As if... they were unwittingly some external conscience warning me not even to play at such a personality.

[A sigh, then looking Tooru in the face, his good eye perturbed, his glass eye impassive.]

Where do I go from here?

[Tooru meets that gaze. He's a bit unsettled by this. He hadn't... he hadn't thought about people being... like Sawbones.

He hadn't cared for the persona, and was glad to see Sariel let it go but if that was closer to the truth...

Well, there's always choices to be made.]

Recognize the lie, and go where your conscience tells you. If this is something good that happened to you, that's great.

[He's sincere about that]

That doesn't change the fact our boss is violent maniac who can break bones with her bare hands.

[An unsettled sound in his throat as he glances away, then back again.]

There is that: I want to be free of *their* control, but... I can't go back to what I was, or else I'll end up no better than she is. I don't want to be that person.

Can one not take the best aspects of both natures and create something good of it? There has to be a third option somehow. For pity's sake, my stage persona is a angel who took that third option, walking the earth rather than serving in heaven or reigning in hell...

Whoever sent it was pretty bold, don't you think? I don't know if I'd be that brave...

Oh, I totally wouldn't! Can't they, like, track that stuff?

I'd be more surprised if they couldn't. But... it does make you think.

[About pretty dangerous things sure. But maybe it's time they thought of dangerous things.]

People keep disappearing and we don't have any idea why...

Yeah...I mean, they're probably just keeping them someplace, right?

[It makes sense to her. Where else would they have gone?]

Look, I have no idea what your time was like on your planet. To be honest, if it's anything like Sawbones then I don't want to know.

But yes, take that third option. You don't want to go back to being a psycho killer or whatever? That's great, I support you one hundred percent.

[He pokes Sariel in the chest]

You won't find that third option here. Not with Santiago ruling your life. She's going to use you like a giant human battery and throw you in the garbage when she's used you up.

Right.

[They have to be somewhere. The alternative is a little too horrible to think about.]

But why are we still here? Instead of them, I mean. What did we do right that made Lesedi want to keep us?

[He shakes his head.] Sawbones was... a symbol of the kind of man I was. The world I came from was quite an ordinary one, extraordinary things existed on the edges of the ordinary life that most people knew, and I... I was partly one of them, keeping one foot in the normal world, as a physician and surgeon. I don't want to be that man again. If I could somehow go on being Kiernan MacLeod, a man who loves the shadows, but doesn't let them consume him, and let Kazutaka Muraki, the man who let the shadows within him consume him, I'd take every opportunity.

[He might smirk a bit at that poke in the chest, before replying.]

Funny that you should mention human batteries, since I was the sort of creature who more or less viewed humans just that way. I almost deserve whatever fate awaits me here, unless there's some safe way to... unleash that part of me safely and carefully, without it turning against you and everyone else, but only on those who deserve to have the tables turned on him.

[Pinkie considers this, then shrugs.]

I dunno. I haven't talked to her since that one party when we first came. I think it's more about what we didn't do, y'know? At least sometimes...

[She's not sure exactly what some of the people who left did. But she knows they take people when they act out, so...]

[... Fuck, holy fucking fuck. Aliens like Artolo is one thing.

Psycho killers who did magic? Not good, not a good at all.]

Then don't be that man.

[To Tooru Oikawa it's a simple as that]

Don't be Sawbones. Don't be Kazutaka Muraki. Be Sariel, be Kiernan. Be those things if they make you happy.

[He shurgs]

It's simple. You know better now, you're not consumed by it now, then you did before. You can fix what was wrong with you before.

[Its kind of scary, but Tooru can relate. The memories he has he still has a sense of dissonance. Like he's watching his past life. He still knows they're his, but there's distance.

And, well, the difference between Tooru Oikawa, Americana Cellist and Oikawa Tooru, Japanese volleyball player, were minimal, but he can tell that all his bad qualities were heightened when he came here.]

Edited 2016-05-21 12:10 (UTC)

[Trucy frowns, but then she nods with a small sigh.]

Yeah. We're selling albums and we never really acted out so there's no reason to get rid of us...

But I sort of wish she'd just tell us what she wants.

If there was some way to go on being Sariel, being Kiernan MacLeod, and put Pride Records behind me, I'd embrace that in a heartbeat. I almost wonder, though, if I shouldn't go back to the world I left, in order to face my fate there: for the things I did... there were even more powerful creatures, the Guardians of the Dead - in a few words, angels of death or kindly reapers - who were ready to end my existence and justifiably.

[A pause, then he tilts his head to the right.]

But I'd rather continue to create than to let myself be destroyed. I think it's a better atonement, to keep creating and balance out the destruction I left behind me.

[Pinkie shrugs.]

Well, it's not MONEY or anything like that. You don't have to do stuff like this for money. We could just be normal musicians and it'd be fine. But I'm reeeeeally really sure this isn't normal.

And who cares what she wants? It's not like we're just gonna give her whatever and get to leave.

Well, so long as you promise not to do that again I guess... I guess you could come to my world. There's nothing supernatural about it.

[To Oikawa's disappointment]

Believe me, I don't intend to do anything like that again: for all intents and purposes, Kazutaka Muraki lives only as the memories in the head of Kiernan MacLeod. He might as well be a former life of which I have perfect memories. [Then with a bow, he adds,] If you'll have in your world, I'd be honored to live there.

I care. If we could figure out what she wanted we'd know why she does all these awful things.

[Pinkie shrugs.]

She's still gonna do them anyway. Except worse, 'cause we tried to figure out what she wanted. I don't think she likes to be asked questions.

[She sighs.]

Probably...

But... I'm so sick of waiting around for the next awful thing. At least if I try to figure this out it feels like I'm doing something...

I guess so. We're gonna be pretty busy soon anyway, with all this touring and stuff. I really don't wanna go on that...

Yeah, it'll be tough with just the three of us....

At least we'll get to travel and see some new places?

[Trying desperately to find a bright side here.]

I guess that could be fun. We should all try to get out and do something! Like...maybe in disguise, so we can just do it and not sign autographs or anything.

[Pinkie's never been one to mind fans, but everything is just so much lately.]

[Trucy perks right up.]

Oh my gosh, yeah! I've always wanted to see Paris. Oh! And Rome!

[There's nothing wrong with trying to have a little fun sometimes.]

[Pinkie perks up. This is much more fun!]

Yeah! And - [Wow, what cities even are there in Europa? Her grip on geography has always been a little fuzzy, and it hasn't gotten better.] - uh, all the other places!

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To; Pride Employees

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