2012-10-02 Quiddity Remix

The economic collapse has left many buildings abandoned, including a former private school. The large gym makes for a perfect setting for any illicit party, especially now that police presence in the near-vacant area has dropped to nothing, due to cutbacks. Electricity, however, still remains for the clever to tap into, and with that recently accomplished - it's time to tear the place up.

The back doors of the school are open, the halls still dark save for luminous spray-painted arrows marking the way to the gym. The floors are littered with trash from past invasions, the lockers plastered with paper fliers. Nearly all the fliers are plain black on white... mostly black. Very little white space is left. The rest is filled with rambling non sequiturs in handwriting so cramped that it shifts in front of the eyes. Layers of paint and marker and other substances obscure many of the fliers - dozens, even hundreds, of people have been through here and left their marks.

http://youtu.be/ReAORTgi_1s Groove Is In The Heart - Deee-Lite (Dubstep Remix)

It looks as though this party is just getting to the highlight of the night right now. Considering that DJ Paragon has taken to kicking up some massive dubstep beats. Whatever crowd that has gathered (and may still be trickling in) is rocking out to the tunes that he's spinning right at this moment. He's a level higher than the rest of the people in the gym, as he's got himself a portable stage that he sets up whenever he's pulling off 'On The Fly' parties like this. He's got his headphones on halfway and his hands are all over the turntables and tech machines that are surrounding him. His eyes are narrowed and focused whilst he makes sure this party is going the way he needs it to go. And that's awesomely. Because he'll be damned if he doesn't make a reputation for himself in this city as well as the many others that he's already an underground monster in.

It's all about the crowd right now. And the making sure he pops his head up from his mixing every once and a while to wink at random hotties that are up close and personal with eye-dancing with the DJ. Oh yeah. Beats ain't the only thing getting laid tonight.

This here is not Sam's scene. However, some internet sleuthing and asking around on Twitter - he has followers, thanks, Spider-Girl - has clued him in to the weird fliers appearing in this neighborhood. When he spots the school and the light leaking out around the boarded windows, his concern deepens. Any gathering like that could be dangerous - to someone.

Sam pulls the truck over and heads in, slipping into the crowd. He doesn't quite fit in, but black leather motorcycle gear is less conspicuous here than his usual farm kid clothes.

The crowd is having a great time, but someone comes in right on Sam's heels and her presence makes the mood shift. No one notices her, because no one ever does. She's a skinny little emo kid in a dirty hoodie. The only thing that makes her interesting, even a little, is her purple hair and lavender eyes. But she's nothing special, even when she's being irritating by hanging out more fliers from the messenger bag she carries.

Its nearly impossible to tell what she's on about because the words on the page are so cramped. Still, feature words stand out in block letters. "Enemy." "Danger." "Outsider." "Liar." "Evil." She leaves a stack of the papers near DJ and fades away into the crowd.

DJ is more focused on the fact that there are some pretty fine (and pretty stacked) girls dancing around in front of his booth than he is any fliers that appear next to him. He's way too into both the music and the dancing girls to really be paying attention to anyone that's got on a hood or something. Granted, maybe if he had seen the purple hair he'd be willing to give her a second glance but... dancing girls.

He backspins one of the records in front of him, shifting the tone from that crazy dubstepping to something a bit more techno, letting his playlist take over for a moment with some pre-mixed awesomeness. He's got to get himself something to drink before this party gets any crunker.

And while his system is doing its music thing, DJ is pulling his headphone jack out of system and jabbing it right into his side player. He refuses to traverse this crowd without his own music to stride to.

And down into the crowd he goes. More or less in the general direction of dancing girls. What? Nothing wrong with getting grinded on for a bit...

Sam has a flier in his hand - he only glances at it quickly before throwing it away. It's enough to make him queasy and anxious, and he's usually a calm guy. He starts plucking fliers out of people's hands but when he looks through the flashing lights he sees that the place is papered in them. This is really not good.

The dancing girls seem pretty happy to see DJ but the rest of the crowd is starting to get that edge to it... you know, the one where stepping on someone's foot gets a shove, where someone dumps a drink on someone else... a scattering of small irritations and aggressions. People aren't grooving together the same way. They're starting to pull into the clusters of their friends, eyeing those they don't know with suspicion.

DJ's music is awesome but some people have stopped to look at the fliers in their hands, or the ones they've whisked off DJ's table. Out of nowhere, someone tucks one into DJ's hand.

DJ is probably paying too much attention to the fact that he's between a pair of dancing girls right now to notice that he's got himself a flier in his hand. He's really not worried about it and the moment he feels it in his hand, he brings it up to his face to check out what it says. And when it doesn't say anything about DJ Paragon he's tossing it over his shoulder. Not that he's a full on self-centered asshole or anything but he's just trying to stay focused on the girls at the moment.

But then he's starting to notice that people are not having the best time that they were having. He actually stops himself from dancing with the girls and is more looking around at the crowd and trying to figure out what's going on. "Alright. Definite Disturbance in the Force." He's more or less wanting to see what exactly is going down with his music and thus he's turned back to stare at his DJ Booth. "The hell?"

Sam knows this feeling. He's already powering up and taking off in the back of the gym. From the rafters, he can oversee the whole gym, to try and do some crowd control.

Weirdly enough, no one is paying attention to DJ. There's a space forming in the center of the dance floor and in the middle is a scared-looking skinny guy wearing a strangely bulky parka. There's a nagging sense of paranoia creeping up on DJ and everyone in the room. |"We know."| Someone behind DJ said that. |"You're next."|

"Peel him." "Open him." "Show us." The crowd is murmuring now. "He lies." "He hides." "Uncover him."

So. This is how things are going to be at this moment in time. There's no reason for DJ to really understand what's going on because he doesn't. Instead, he's realizing that there are many different things happening at this moment and they all seem to be stemming from the fact that there's some kind of something going on. Something creepy. Something paranoidly.

"I'm not even gonna' make a Wizard of Oz reference right now. Too easy." comes from DJ's lips as he reaches up to pull his headphones up and cover both of his ears. He's not trying to hear these crazy statements or whatever that're coming from the crowd. It's just too much for him right now. Instead, it is time to just flip on the S-Pod.

"Yo! Yo, chill! Everybody chill! This ain't that kinda' party!" DJ has no idea what he's talking about but he knows crowds. And this crowd doesn't look happy anymore.

One good thing about the situation - the guy with the mic doesn't seem to be freaking out. But he can't see the floor the way Sam can. When the first can of soda flies out of the crowd and hits the kid in the head, Sam drops a shield over him. It's got a golden shimmer to it, it stands out in the dark. The kid looks really terrified now but Sam's on his way down, passes into his shield, and puts an arm around the kid's shoulders. Under the parka, it feels like tentacles are moving.

That doesn't make Sam popular with the crowd but nothing they can do is going to touch him through the shield. DJ isn't any more popular, himself. With the kid out of reach, the crowd's attention - and that of the girl far off in the shadows - has turned to DJ. |"You fraud."| |"You're a liar."| |"Cheat."| The thoughts hammer at DJ's mind, the paranoia is so thick now that the air tastes bad.

DJ can feel that his party is getting out of control and this is not exactly something he's going to be able to handle. But there's a goldilocks shimmering dude that's trying to help and that's a good sign. Which has DJ smirking... even though it looks like his crowd is turning on him now. Which is not good. "Damn. Tough crowd."

DJ's hands move so quick, though, because he's snatching his S-Pod off his hip and slamming it into the dock on his DJ booth and cranking up the music. There's some feedback and DJ is hoping that'll put a little pain in the heads of the crowd while he flips some records onto the turntable. "Let's see if we can't change y'all tune." He flicks up some R&B to start bumping through since that should help fuel some empathic control over these people. Like calming them.

"I'm taking you out of here and then I want you to get somewhere safe," Sam tells the kid. "I have to come back." He knows DJ can't hear him but he'll be fast. Really fast. He takes off right through a boarded up window and he's only just out of sight when he breaks the sound barrier. The wake of his passage leaves people in the gym sprawling. He wasn't kidding about being right back. He comes in another window board not thirty seconds later.

Thirty seconds is an eternity with an angry crowd backed by an angry Quiddity. She's focused her rage on DJ now. Tired of being thwarted, she's not running this time. |"I will expose you. You will harm no one again."|

"Liar!" "Devil!" "Take him out!" The crowd surges toward DJ.

"Right. So... uh... any requests?"

DJ has no idea how to deal with an entire crowd of people. He's more or less just trying to stall until the speedy flier dude comes back and does whatever it is heroes like him do. Or whatever. Is he even a hero? DJ has no clue and doesn't really seem to be too worried about it. All he knows is that dude is the only one not trying to get him and take him out. So that's a plus.

So here's the thing. While that empathic control is kind of still flowing from him... that calming nature is no longer the bulk of what he's trying to pass out there. Instead, it's more of a fear. Because he's kind of getting scared himself. And his emotion is a bit stronger than the one the's trying to impart onto the crowd. He stands his ground, though, attempting to stick close to the music and keep it flowing. Music is his only weapon. Here's to hoping that this doesn't effect the Fly Hero too.

Sam comes slamming back in and that breaks Quiddity's concentration, and her nerve. She's run into him before and - unlike a lot of other mutants - he's not the kind of target she wants. He's also ruined her plans and she really doesn't like him for that. DJ's fear leaching into the crowd gives her that extra push she needs to cause mayhem as she slithers between people, actually crawls between legs, and makes for the door. It's nothing focused, she's just that furious and terrified herself.

The crowd breaks and takes a full-on run at DJ only to smash up against Sam's shields. The empathic backlash keeps on going, though, like feedback straight into DJ's mind. All that fury and panic and paranoia run him down like a bad trip.

Sam has chaos on his hands. He straight-up blows out the wall of the gym to force an escape route, then focuses on trying to push the crazed partiers out into the fresh air where they might clear their heads.

Backlash. Backlash is not exactly the best thing for DJ. In fact, he's not even really understanding what's going down to at the moment. All he knows is that his mind is feeling more pain than he knows what to do with and he goes down. His body collides with the turntable and his hand immediately reaches out for his S-Pod, grabbing it and falling from there to the floor with a thud.

His eyes are rolling back in his head and those eyelids of his flutter as he goes through the mental pain and anguish. He's not going to last much longer, but he sure as hell isn't going to let go of his S-Pod. Not while he's passing out.

It bears mentioning that the moment his S-Pod comes off the dock, the music in the gym is gone. So that may assist with the herding of people out. Or at least gets rid of the fear in their heads.

That does make it easier. The moment the music stops and Quiddity is gone, the crowd's hypnotic trance breaks. They're confused and the wall of the gym is gone, and some rocket man is herding them out with glowing magical evilness and... not all the paranoia is gone. At least it works for Sam and DJ this time. The crowd stampedes out into the night. By the time they hit the next street corner, they are -totally- confused about what's going on and what they're doing here.

Sam walls up the gym with a shield and turns to DJ... out like a light. Damn. "I hope you didn't need to be anywhere." He gets DJ over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and heads for the broken wall. Time to get out of this place.