( 003 » ENSEMBLE ) party time.

[reveriemod]

» WHO? Everyone
» WHEN? July 1 to July 8
» WHERE? Entire Station
» WHAT? 168 hours of being forced to listen to cheesy music on repeat…
» WARNINGS? the mundane and slightly ridiculous becoming terrible, cheesy pop music, forced sleep deprivation, anger, loss of control, emotions, potential for stabbing, hallucinations, mania, memory loss, confusion, seizures, depression.

0 0 1 » LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED

It starts in the mess hall and it starts slowly. At first, it can barely be heard over the conversations that are happening but as the volume increases, it becomes apparent that music is playing. Not just any music: characters from Earth will recognise these pop hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s. They’re the kind of hits one might find on a Spotify playlist titled “Top 100 Cheesy Hits” or “Songs To Sing To In The Shower”. Power ballads. Boy bands. Girl bands. Woodstock.

Soon, the music can be heard all across the station, blasting from every speaker, audible in every room. Characters who were asleep in their quarters will be woken by the music’s volume, characters under the shower might want to start singing along (but remember, the walls might just be thin enough for the neighbours to hear) and if characters clear some chairs, there’s enough space in the bar for an impromptu dance floor.

Some characters have been working on improving the replicators, too, so while the alcohol supplies at the bar are dwindling and all but gone, the replicators are now capable of making something that’s palatable, even if it’s not quite up to scratch.

What’s the harm in having some fun? It’s just a little music, right?

( ♪ )

0 0 2 » I WANT OFF THIS RIDE

It’s just a little music, right? And it is — but it just won’t seem to stop. The first few hours may have been entertaining, at least for those who did not get woken up by the sound of decades (centuries, even) in the past, but the music keeps going long past the point of entertainment.

After two hours, the songs start repeating. After six hours, they’re still playing. After twelve? Still playing. Twenty-four? Still playing.

Sleep becomes all but impossible as the music keeps playing loudly in every room and every corridor of the station. Attempts to shut it down prove unsuccessful.

Forty-eight hours later, the music is still playing.

Characters will begin to suffer the effects of sleep deprivation, in addition to the general irritation that might come from hearing the same two hours worth of cheesy pop songs on a loop: headaches, exhaustion, tremors, irritability and confusion to begin with, followed by lapses in memory, muscle aches, malaise, violent behaviour, hallucinations or mania as cognitive effects set in, possibly also seizures and depression.

And still, the music keeps playing.

( ♪ )

0 0 3 » THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE WATER

The music and the sleep deprivation it causes are the reason for many of the symptoms people are feeling, but something is happening that goes even beyond the music, beyond the lack of sleep: something has changed about the food replicators.

The food is slowly getting better, for one, thanks to a group of individuals who’ve been working on improving them. Beyond that, however, imperceptible, the composition of the food comes with something extra -- namely heightened emotions. Whatever causes it, it’s in the water, too.

Those who are already angry feel angrier and have a harder time controlling that anger. Those who are already sad feel sadder and have a harder time not bursting into tears. Those who are already apathetic feel more apathetic and have a harder time prompting themselves to so much as move. The effect holds for all emotions, heightening them, making them harder to control or counteract. Impulses become action far more quickly than usual. Irritation at the music may become anger at the person singing along under their breath and that, in turn, may lead to someone getting stabbed with a plastic fork.

It’s nearly impossible to keep a cool head, though some people seem more affected than others.

OOC: This part of the plot is completely opt-in. Whatever characters are feeling will be heightened and strengthened and their impulse control lowered. Make sure to get ooc permission for any stabby action of comparable deeds, and keep in mind that non-con is prohibited in game.

( ♪ )

0 0 4 » AFTERMATH

After 168 hours, the music stops. Whatever was in the water and the food is gone again, meaning characters may never know it was there in the first place. After all, some of the effects of it could have been down to the sleep deprivation as well…

Still, there’s something off about the whole thing. It might seem like someone is watching them. Toying with them. But surely that’s just paranoia, right?

In the aftermath of sleep deprivation and poor impulse control, characters might want to get some sleep or try to mend those relationships that were damaged by careless words or people getting creative with the cutlery.

( ♪ )

Please remember to put warnings in subject lines if so required.

Comments

[intrusivethot]

Dragged myself into it.

[ The bags under his eyes are no less heavy than anyone else's but trust him, he knows what the hell he's talking about when it comes to having the nice post-cry sleep denied: he's done enough crying in the last day and a half to water the fucking hydroponics garden. Ren's so tired of crying. And being awake. And, if he's really really honest, of existing.

In spite of everything that's happened so far (because of it?), he likes Akira. He likes Akira a whole lot because, well. He reminds him of Ryuji. He doesn't suppose Akira isn't interested in him either- ]

Yeah.

[ Wipe, sniff, breathe, repeat. It would be nice to just get to konk out for a few hours and forget every embarrassing thing he's ever done up to and including crying in front of an almost complete goddamn stranger but hey, this is Ren's life now. Being too pathetic for someone to love. ]

I'll be happy if I never hear a damn song again after this is all over.

[dvmn]

[Akira gives a single laugh, though there isn't much mirth to the sound - it sounds more like a sound caught between understanding and mutual aggrievement. Misery does enjoy company.]

Guess so.

[He's found good company in Akira, then: the guy is a quintessential crybaby, and gaining the body of a demon hadn't slowed down or altered that in any way. But he requires prompting by someone else, or the concept of something else, or just from the extreme of exhaustion; he very rarely if ever cried for himself, because he feels others don't express enough for their own pain. He takes that on for them. It's almost a relief that Ren doesn't bottle that up. It engenders a unique sort of easiness between them, despite the veins of sleep deprivation and emotional volatility.

But don't worry. Akira's cried in front of more strangers than you can possibly imagine. He doesn't think it's weird at all.]

This place seems to want to ruin every good thing for us before we get outta here. [He swipes his sleeve across his face again.] Food's only started to taste edible, and now the thought of listenin' to more music makes me wanna rip a hole in the wall.

[He's silent for a long moment, considering, standing on the edge of a conversational precipice and wondering if he should just leave it alone. But Akira is of the mind that ignoring an emotional problem will only make it worse. Exacerbating it can hurt, sure, but it can also lead to something better. Maybe.]

'S not the only reason you're crying, though.

[He just knows these kinds of things. He knew what exhaustion looked like in people, seeing it for days straight. Ren's got that, sure, but it's only a small piece of something much larger.]

[intrusivethot]

[ Oh he tried bottling it up, man. Ren Amamiya, a savant at getting people to open up about their troubled lives by simply existing as a nonjudgmental sounding board, found himself incapable of sitting in the other chair in the therapist's office (so to speak). It was a problem before the music started, and when under siege a kingdom doesn't simply let the drawbridge down and let all comers in. Nope. You reinforce the walls, fight battles when driven into a corner and dodge confrontation otherwise. The Ren that comes into Akira's presence here is the crumbling foundation. It was less a choice to open up as to decide whether he'd let the remains be picked over.

And if that helped gain an ally in the process then good, he guess. Welcome in, scavenger. Find what shelter you can. ]

And before that it makes you want it. Ruining a good thing's gotta be at least seventh or eighth circle of hell, right?

[ He was just thinking that he missed music before the event started. How young he was.

Just, there's a few moments after Akira asks that pained silence befalls Ren, frowning tensely at his arms crossed tightly atop his knees, like if he didn't stop to swallow a large lump that suddenly rose in his throat he may dissolve back into an ungainly puddle and remain there.

He glances at Akira, conflicted. What would it matter if he knew? they're mutual acquaintances, and if one thing's for sure Ryuji's never been able to keep his mouth shut about most things in his life.

But Ren also finds... that maybe he doesn't care if Akira knows? Asuka? He wouldn't give a shit. Akira might still think he's a heartless bastard who maybe deserved this, and Ren wouldn't say no to hearing it so he doesn't have to self-flagellate. And if Akira is sympathetic, there's all the chance that Ren wants to feel sorry for himself too for all the other times he's simply had to swallow his problems and move on. Tough shit. ]

Ah, you know. Just casually getting my heart broken, y'know how it goes.

[dvmn]

[That's how it was, often enough. People enjoyed doing what they could to help others with their problems because that was a hell of a lot easier to see and pass partial judgment on than turning that kind of scrutiny inwards towards themselves and their own issues. Even without his particularly acute sense of empathy Akira might have been wary of Ren, thinking that often enough it's people in his sort of position that end up the most saddled with mental and emotional burdens that managed to fly seemingly unseen beneath the radar.

Therapists often had to go and see their own therapists, after all.

He laughs.] Ain't there mythological stories like that? Sorta feels that way sometimes. Like this is all some kinda elaborate torture some asshole god would'a put someone through a long time ago, just to make a point.

[Like pushing a boulder up a hill over and over, or having your liver pecked out every day, or never being able to reach food or water even though they were seemingly within reach.

The music had even been fun, for a while. And then it had just kept going, incessant, loud, impossible to block. Akira's so tired he can't figure out whether or not he's aggravated or delirious to the point of just finding the whole thing ridiculous. Probably both, tangled up to where it's hard to pull them apart.

He knows he and Ren aren't particularly - close. He gets on well with Ryuji, so that's something, but Ren had never seen eye-to-eye with Ryo, which meant there would always be a bit of a division there. But sometimes someone who wasn't particularly close to you could offer insight those that had more context (and bias) could. Plus, he wasn't really the judgmental type. So he just waits, patient, leaning forward to rest his chin on his forearms, crossed over his knees.

He blinks slowly, recognition and understanding setting in slow and evident on his expression.] Dude. That sucks. [Sometimes that's just something you need to hear when shit's bad. Akira laughs again, though this one is a bit sharper.] Aw, man. The music must be insult to injury, then. Shit.

[It's bad enough on its own.]

So, s'that it? Or does it get a bit more complicated than casual heartbreak. [He pauses a moment, his lips pressing a bit into a frown.] The more I know, more I can try 'n help. If you want.

[intrusivethot]

Mean Sisyphus? Yeah. I dunno what the point he's tryin' to show us is though. Maybe to prove that if you hear it a million times even "Africa" starts to suck?

[ Well good goddamn time to die I guess. he doesn't want to live in a world where that's true, so maybe the station will resurrect Ren without his memory of this dumb, bad, double plus ungood week and that'll be that.

It was mainly for Ryuji's sake (at first) that Ren wanted to work harder at making good with their neighbors down the hall. Having failed to prove himself a bigger threat to justify Ren's initial distrust, the instinct hasn't dissipated, but laid down its hackles for a considered wariness further in the vein of waiting and seeing. Akira on the other hand had always been an almost endearing presence that was inexplicably tied to Asuka, and his kinship with Ryuji laden with the same sort of mischief Ren shared with him too.

Ren's gaze skitters away. Akira isn't a bad guy. Does that mean he wants to spill his guys again? Not particularly. ]

S'pretty bad when cheesy love songs can poke a sore spot, heh.

[ In spite of himself another tear, two roll down his cheeks and prompt Ren to dither, but never forget. ]

You don't have to - why d'you want to help me?