loungelizard | Prisma ♦︎ Inbox

[Larry isn't the kind of video game character that has health points as a stat, but if he did, he would've already been at about 80%, and seconds away from being at 75%. He's here in the main office to nurse his wounds from running face-first into an ice rink wall at full speed and the subsequent fall into the ice below. As the proverbial doctor ordered, he has an ice pack pressed against half his face and a cup of the same hot chocolate in his other hand.

Apparently the performance merited an encore. He feels the same alien headache strike him in the core of his brain, and the outer edges of his vision darkening rapidly inwards -- immediately stopping him in his tracks.]

Nononodont--

[Aaand he goes down, spilling his hot chocolate over the floor and dropping the ice pack -- perhaps a small price to pay to experience what it's like to be a...

...teenage pop star?

Like a vivid dream, he doesn't get the privilege of logically questioning what he's witnessing and experiencing, helplessly surrendered to accepting that this is what's happening.

This is what it's like to be youthful.

This is what it's like to be cute.

This is what it's like to have an entire stadium crying out in joy for being just being in the same shared space.

This is what--

Just the moment where he's invested -- where he wants to see more, wants to know where it ends up going -- it gets torn from him like a life preserver in the middle of the ocean. Larry gasps like he's just surfaced, eyes wide with shock, face tingling from the burn of what turned out to be too-hot chocolate. He looks up to see that he's being crouched over by someone who is now familiar as of thirty seconds ago, and a giant snow-white woman, which was totally cool until he got a good look at Kanzeon's not-face.

Larry lets out a terrified little whimper and gets up just enough to scuttle away backwards.]

[She reads his hit points as being below full, but no lingering status effects. So she pulses a heal out of Kanzeon. She notices the poor man squirming away and dismisses her persona, a concerned frown on her face.

She crouches down and holds out her hand.]

It's okay, she's won't hurt you. Are you okay? You just.. collapsed.

[Even without the makeup and idol outfit, he will probably recognize her face from the mirror in the vision.]

Edited 2020-01-13 03:14 (UTC)

I--

[The sound comes out as a squeak. He takes a moment to recollect himself and takes her hand.]

I'm fine. I think. It's...

[He touches his temple and feels the sting of a too-hot drink having come in contact with his face. It's technically not an injury, just an irritation, but that doesn't make it smart any less. He studies her face with an expression of someone trying to put the puzzle pieces together.]

I guess I've been hallucinating...other people's pasts. Are you--uh, some kind of pop singer? By chance?

[Rise blinks owlishly, tilting her head a bit to the side.]

Mmn, sounds like maybe "hallucinating" isn't the right word, but... yeah, I'm an idol. You're seeing other people's memories?

[That would be the kind of weird thing that would happen here. She clicks her tongue, but smiles at Larry.]

What did you see?

[Aaand tries to help him stand. She's not exactly tall or buff, though, so don't have high hopes.]

"Idol"?

[Thankfully, Larry makes featherweights look like trucks, so he's not that hard to help up. Plus, he's not feeling particularly weak, just in a whole lot of pain, so he doesn't need a lot of help to get back up on his feet.]

A backstage, a full audience--

[He looks her up and down with a quirked eyebrow.]

A pretty skimpy outfit for someone so young.

[His tone is more confused than judgey. He bends down to pick up his ice pack and presses it into his new burn, letting out a soft sigh of relief.]

Was that your choice or someone else's?

[Oh boy, someone else who doesn't know what an idol is. And he even got to see it firsthand!

But Rise listens, nodding along with his description, until he cuts short with his concerned tone. Yeah, clearly he doesn't know anything about idols. Rise's cheeks puff a little.]

It's... nuanced. I don't design my concert outfits but I do have final veto power over them. I chose to be an idol in the first place, knowing what that involved.

[She sighs, calming herself down before she gets too defensive.]

I'm older than some of the other girls they have in stuff like that.

Uh...oookay.

[Every word she says sounds like it's supposed to assuage his concerns but they really just make it worse. "Knowing what that involved?" "Older than some of the other girls?" "Stuff like that?"

Larry looks around and goes back to the concession stand and grabs a handful of napkins, then returns to the site of the spill and dumps them onto the puddle of hot chocolate, and it becomes immediately apparent that this job is far too intense for a couple of tabletop napkins.

And honestly he feels too awful to do much else about it.

So after giving it a long, disheartened stare, he wobbles over to the couch, pulls off his hot cocoa-stained jacket, and flops down to wallow.]

I don't understand what an "idol" is supposed to be.

[He doesn't sound convinced and Rise finds herself sighing impatiently when Larry turns away to get some things to clean up the mess with.]

Is your face all right?

[He has a slight burn, she can tell. Is she deflecting a bit? Probably.]

Yeah you and a lot of other people.

[She sits herself a polite distance away on the couch and plays with her cup.]

Idols are performers. There's a whole industry for it. We're singers, dancers, and actors. Mostly we perform music, but a lot of idols also work in modeling and act in commercials or TV shows, stuff like that.

Eh, I'll be fine.

[He's suffered worse. Much, much worse.]

So a general purpose celebrity?

[There are, perhaps, better ways to word that, Larry. He watches as she takes a seat out of the corner of his eye, and closes his eyes as he slouches farther into his own.]

Y'know...I went steady with a musician for a time. She was busy enough as it was! [Technically that was all due to hustle and relatively less time spent performing/songwriting, but all the same--] Do you ever get a chance to eat after all that?

[Suffering in pain but still managing to crack jokes. That's Laffer for ya.]

[She frowns just a little bit.]

Yes, I suppose. We're personalities, but we are musicians first.

[At least his joke does get a small laugh out of her, bitter as it is. Hit a very interesting nerve there, Larry.]

I have gained weight since coming to Lunatia...

[She's still not completely sure how she feels about that.]

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