mallowhallow | Rehearsal 3 (5/22): [Video, from Astralfield]

Current Mood: pissed off
Current Location: His room in Astralfield

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Rehearsal 3 (5/22): [Video, from Astralfield]

[The audio feed gets turned on before the video, meaning that anyone on the network will be subjected to a few moments of black accompanied by grunts and grumbles before the view switches to what looks like a vast expanse of white. A moment later, Victor pulls his head back, looking absolutely furious. As he continues to move back, it's easy to see why -- and to see why he apparently had such trouble turning his communicator on.

He's wrapped up in what is clearly a straitjacket.

Not only that, what is visible of his Astralfield hotel room has a distinctly white and padded look. Victor glares up at the ceiling, then at the chalkboard.]

THIS ISN'T FUNNY, ASTRALFIELD!!

[A beat, then some of the anger leaves his face, replaced by a sort of bone-deep weariness and sadness.]

Could -- c-could someone please come here and free me? The room number is 6988.

I was doing so well too. . .

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[If she had more memories or more context, Terra might be more nervous. Instead, as a largely blank slate, she'll settle for wonder.]

It's incredible. Do people live in those buildings? Some of them look like they could house a whole kingdom!

[Victor wishes it was so easy for him. It really does look amazing, it's just -- he'll need a moment or two to adjust.]

Don't they? I mean, I swear they go straight into the clouds. . .

[His gaze travels back down to earth and --]

Oh!

[He pulls back from a -- something that zips by so fast he doesn't get a proper look.]

Oh my. . . This is going to be an experience.

Don't worry. I'm right here. We'll get this place figured out together.

[Victor gives her a weak, slightly embarrassed smile.]

I know. Better two than one, definitely.

[He takes a deep breath and steps over the official border.]

Hopefully it won't take too long to find what we're looking for.

[Terra took her own step over the border, nodding slightly when she had done so.]

Hopefully not. I...

[She craned her neck upward as they continued into the city proper.]

Wow. Just... wow.

[The skyscrapers are amazing, but Victor's attention is caught things a little closer to street level. He can't help a moment's staring as some people pass by in shirts, pants, and what appears to be a type of skintight leotard all marked with glowing blue lines. Another vehicle roars by -- now he can see that's its a sort of motorized bike, also painted with those glowing lines. The shop windows tout things like "microchips" and "touchscreens" and "motion controls," and everything seems to be made of silver and chrome, polished to a bright sheen. He shakes his head, stunned by it all.]

Curiouser and curiouser. . .

Amazing...

[The words are for most of the signs are meaningless to Terra; she lacks the context to even begin to understand them. The clothing seems less outlandish to her, at least, if just because of the variety where she's from. Her own red leotard, Gau's animal skins, Cyan and Edgar's armor... it's just one more different here.]

The only technology we even have that comes close to this in my world all runs on magic...

[Victor can't say he understands most of the words either. Oh, he knows what some of them mean, but strung together like they are? They're puzzles, and baffling ones. And the clothing for one used to suits and long dresses is -- odd. Yes, he knows people dress differently here, but still. . .glowing leotards are something else.]

We've nothing like this in my world. At least, nothing that I know of.

[His gaze turns up again, watching the clouds drift past the impossibly-tall buildings. The polished surface of one reflects it all like a mirror, making it almost invisible and unreal. Like something out of Astralfield, he realizes with a little snigger.]

I can't imagine my home world ever having anything quite like this.

Nor can I.

[She cranes her neck to look at the building.]

How tall is that?

I don't know, but it's definitely taller than anything my home could maker. Shinier too.

[He looks at his reflection for a moment in the glass.]

I wonder why you'd even want a building like this. People would constantly be distracted looking at themselves, or anything else reflected. . .I don't even see a door.

[It took a moment, but Terra's eyes fell on what she thought might be it.]

I think... [she points] that's it over there.

But people will always try to do outdo each other, building bigger and better and more terrible things. Someone always wants to have more than someone else.

[Victor peers -- yes, that does seem to be a seam in the metal. As he watches, it suddenly slides open, and someone else in those curious clothes comes out.]

I think you're right.

[He nods, sighing.]

Yes. . .my mother was one of those people, honestly. She was insistent we have the biggest house and the best furniture and the most expensive of everything. . .considered it her "destiny." I think she was just ashamed she came from working-class stock and my father was a tradesman.

[Terra shakes her head.]

Nothing to be ashamed of in any of that. My friends back home are kings and commoners and knights and wild boys. And I don't think any differently of any of them.

[Victor chuckles humorlessly.]

Maybe you don't, but my mother certainly did. Status is a very big deal back home, and Mother thought that we should be at the top of the heap. But because my father actually worked for a living, we could never get farther than upper-middle-class. Very RICH upper-middle-class, mind, but a lot of people saw us as social climbers and interlopers. Which, honestly, Mother at least was. A bit. She was always something of a snob.

I admit... I don't always understand a lot about people, but that... that makes no sense at all. There's no shame in working for a living. Most people do.

I think it was the fact that most people do that galled my mother. She was supposed to be "special." "Elite."

[He shakes his head with a sigh.]

It doesn't make much sense to me either. I never had any interest in playing social politics with the nobility. I just wanted to be left alone to live my life.

[This gets a sympathetic smile. Terra knows too well about being a pawn in someone else's game for their own advancement. Even when she was working with the Returners, to some extent, it was about what she could do for them, how she could advance their cause.]

I hear that.

[Victor nods, looking over at her with sad eyes.]

Yes, I suppose you do. I'm still so -- t-terribly sorry about what happened to you. I thought being someone's p-puppet for a week was horrible, and you. . .

[He frowns, concerned.]

How are you doing, by the by? After the -- incident?

[A small, mostly sure, nod.]

I'm... I'm doing all right, really. My magic seems to be working again, and I haven't had any pain like that since.

I tried to get whatever that was to happen on its own... but no luck with that.

Well, I'm certainly glad you haven't had another episode like that. I'd still like to know what caused the first one.

[He frowns.]

Maybe it only happens in times of great stress. . .

So would I.

[She shrugged.]

That makes as much sense as anything else, I suppose.

[Victor nods and shrugs back.]

I guess we'll see for sure if you ever get upset enough to possibly trigger another transformation.

[To be honest, he's not sure if he wants that to happen or not. On the one hand, he wants answers almost as much as she certainly does. . .on the other, that transformation looked PAINFUL.]

[Terra nodded slightly.]

Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Yes. . .

[Victor suddenly spots something across the street -- a shop going by the name "Electrobeats." The weird name done up in flashing green neon, with the 'b' styled like a flat key signature would be enough to catch anyone's attention, but what's got Victor's is what's in the window.

What looks like a keyboard without a piano.]

Oh! Terra, look!

[Terra's eyes focused on it and went slightly wide. She'd never seen anything like this before, never anything so ostentatious, and she finally locates what Victor had pointed out.]

How does that even work? How would it make noise without wires?

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