hyralt
🌟 Site Supporter
- RP Date
- YE 45.1
- RP Location
- The Furious Sound, Kyoto, Yamatai
Down an alleyway that ran between a pair of towers that stretched into the cottony clouds that billowed low over Kyoto, a snow-crusted Kodian in a dark leather cap and matching vest used his immense strength to seal closed a massive metal doorway for the final time in YE 44. A collective uproar signalled the dismay of the gathered patrons who, for one reason or another, were now stuck outside until the new year. Within an hour, each of them would be glad that they'd been stuck outside, but none of them knew it yet.
Just inside of the metal doorway, a handful of people stood in the dim light of a pressure chamber as a vent filled the tiny room with air from inside. Smoking was strictly prohibited and swiftly enforced, so the air was clean of any personal pollutants, though it still reeked from the combination of aerosolized sweat from hundreds of alien bodies and thousands of spilled drinks.
Among the occupants were young Ginji, far too young to order drinks, and Daizō, who wanted to give his little brother a fun story before going back home to Jiyuu. Both of them had black hair and dark brown eyes like their father, though only Daizō inherited his father's tanned complexion. Ginji took after their mother and had much paler skin, even after long summers working in the tea fields.
Both boys were wearing spiked leather jackets, but Ginji's was visibly ill-fitting. Daizō knew that Ginji only had the clothes his parents had picked out, which were not cool, and his Kikyō Scouts uniform, which was even less cool, he had taken it upon himself to ask around at the academy where he was studying to see if he could borrow something to help them fit in. It was a girl's jacket, belonging to Daizō's friend Ikumi, but it was close enough to Ginji's size and more than cool enough that they wouldn't stick out. As they waited for the pressure inside the chamber to equalize with the pressure deeper inside, Ginji looked up with the biggest grin at Daizō, who only replied with a dumb smirk and a slight nod. Like he's not also excited, Ginji thought to himself.
The momentary sound of grinding metal portended the chamber's inner door swinging open, suddenly bombarding the occupants with the raucous sound of hundreds of voices trying to scream louder than a few punks with amplified instruments could make noise. Blazing polychromatic lights sparkled between thrashing bodies through the narrow but widening gap between the huge inner door and the chamber's wall.
When the gap was sufficiently wide, first Ginji and then Daizō squeezed into the club and then pushed their way between the people ahead of them until they reached the railing where they discovered that they were standing on a promenade overlooking a dancefloor and stage. The former of which was somehow both more and less densely packed than above, with undulating waves of crowd density around an amorphous open circle across which the most energetic people were throwing themselves against each other.
On the stage, there was a trio of skeletal-looking insectoids who had sloppily painted themselves either red, blue, or green. They were in the process of attempts to either play or eat their instruments, which were mostly unsuccessful and increasingly successful, respectively. They were arranged around a 5 meter-tall volumetric projection of an ant girl dressed in torn clothes simultaneously playing guitar, bass, and singing. Whatever projection hardware they were using was rapidly deteriorating, as evidenced by the image being a dim monochromatic purple and constantly glitching into distorted shapes. But the ant girl's sound was clearly being broadcast from a proper studio as the sound was filling the space and bridging the gap left in the noise of her bandmates, turning their screeches into music.
Ginji and Daizō, the latter of whom had now entirely lost his cool, rushed to join the moshers below as the ant girl's song changed, shifting into a tone that mixed mourning for what had been along with hope for what was to be. Then, on cue, she cut the music and spoke.
"I thank you all for attending the Furious Sound tonight! Playing with me tonight, give it up for The Rixxikors," she yelled, prompting cheers from the crowd as the skeletal insectoids gave everyone rude hand gestures. "I am Kwabba-an and we are just about to usher in the new year in 5...4...3...1..."
The boys covered their ears as the crowd thundered louder than ever, screaming, stomping their feet, crashing into the walls and each other. For a moment, it felt like the cheer had reached its crescendo before suddenly it seemed to grow louder. That was, until the broken projector cut out and the lights flickered and a deep fissure tore the stage in half, throwing the insectoids into the air to be caught by the crowds.
The lights cut out completely for half a second and Ginji felt himself pulled away from his brother into the crowd that was fleeing up the stairs to the exit. Dim amber emergency lights flicked on, only to dramatically highlight the features of the unfamiliar faces in the crowd around Ginji as he called out "Daizō!"
Unfortunately for them both, the same random fluctuations of the crowd had pushed the bigger Daizō even closer to the now gaping chasm where the stage had been. A particularly heavy shove sent him falling in before he reached out just in time to grab the edge of the floor. As he swung there, dazed from everything that had just happened, he looked down into the void below him. And for a second he thought he saw something, just before he scrambled up and out. And the something in question also saw him.
Just inside of the metal doorway, a handful of people stood in the dim light of a pressure chamber as a vent filled the tiny room with air from inside. Smoking was strictly prohibited and swiftly enforced, so the air was clean of any personal pollutants, though it still reeked from the combination of aerosolized sweat from hundreds of alien bodies and thousands of spilled drinks.
Among the occupants were young Ginji, far too young to order drinks, and Daizō, who wanted to give his little brother a fun story before going back home to Jiyuu. Both of them had black hair and dark brown eyes like their father, though only Daizō inherited his father's tanned complexion. Ginji took after their mother and had much paler skin, even after long summers working in the tea fields.
Both boys were wearing spiked leather jackets, but Ginji's was visibly ill-fitting. Daizō knew that Ginji only had the clothes his parents had picked out, which were not cool, and his Kikyō Scouts uniform, which was even less cool, he had taken it upon himself to ask around at the academy where he was studying to see if he could borrow something to help them fit in. It was a girl's jacket, belonging to Daizō's friend Ikumi, but it was close enough to Ginji's size and more than cool enough that they wouldn't stick out. As they waited for the pressure inside the chamber to equalize with the pressure deeper inside, Ginji looked up with the biggest grin at Daizō, who only replied with a dumb smirk and a slight nod. Like he's not also excited, Ginji thought to himself.
The momentary sound of grinding metal portended the chamber's inner door swinging open, suddenly bombarding the occupants with the raucous sound of hundreds of voices trying to scream louder than a few punks with amplified instruments could make noise. Blazing polychromatic lights sparkled between thrashing bodies through the narrow but widening gap between the huge inner door and the chamber's wall.
When the gap was sufficiently wide, first Ginji and then Daizō squeezed into the club and then pushed their way between the people ahead of them until they reached the railing where they discovered that they were standing on a promenade overlooking a dancefloor and stage. The former of which was somehow both more and less densely packed than above, with undulating waves of crowd density around an amorphous open circle across which the most energetic people were throwing themselves against each other.
On the stage, there was a trio of skeletal-looking insectoids who had sloppily painted themselves either red, blue, or green. They were in the process of attempts to either play or eat their instruments, which were mostly unsuccessful and increasingly successful, respectively. They were arranged around a 5 meter-tall volumetric projection of an ant girl dressed in torn clothes simultaneously playing guitar, bass, and singing. Whatever projection hardware they were using was rapidly deteriorating, as evidenced by the image being a dim monochromatic purple and constantly glitching into distorted shapes. But the ant girl's sound was clearly being broadcast from a proper studio as the sound was filling the space and bridging the gap left in the noise of her bandmates, turning their screeches into music.
Ginji and Daizō, the latter of whom had now entirely lost his cool, rushed to join the moshers below as the ant girl's song changed, shifting into a tone that mixed mourning for what had been along with hope for what was to be. Then, on cue, she cut the music and spoke.
"I thank you all for attending the Furious Sound tonight! Playing with me tonight, give it up for The Rixxikors," she yelled, prompting cheers from the crowd as the skeletal insectoids gave everyone rude hand gestures. "I am Kwabba-an and we are just about to usher in the new year in 5...4...3...1..."
The boys covered their ears as the crowd thundered louder than ever, screaming, stomping their feet, crashing into the walls and each other. For a moment, it felt like the cheer had reached its crescendo before suddenly it seemed to grow louder. That was, until the broken projector cut out and the lights flickered and a deep fissure tore the stage in half, throwing the insectoids into the air to be caught by the crowds.
The lights cut out completely for half a second and Ginji felt himself pulled away from his brother into the crowd that was fleeing up the stairs to the exit. Dim amber emergency lights flicked on, only to dramatically highlight the features of the unfamiliar faces in the crowd around Ginji as he called out "Daizō!"
Unfortunately for them both, the same random fluctuations of the crowd had pushed the bigger Daizō even closer to the now gaping chasm where the stage had been. A particularly heavy shove sent him falling in before he reached out just in time to grab the edge of the floor. As he swung there, dazed from everything that had just happened, he looked down into the void below him. And for a second he thought he saw something, just before he scrambled up and out. And the something in question also saw him.
