Scene #3496: IFOS: Tell Your World

Owner	Pose
Ren Tanaka	Welcome back to Amarillo-8! A short time after the fracas at the Big Texan, it's time to investigate the reason for this all happening in the first place. As winter closes in, the weather around the city has been strange: although it started out unseasonably warm, a cold snap has ... not so much rolled in as it's shoved in, and the warmth is shoving back- as such, the temperature is all over the place, with some days hot and some cold. Bushland is a small community on the outskirts of the city, with very little to its name- small scattered houses, two schools and sundry businesses exist there, but there are large areas of arid land between the scattered buildings. Ren has come here with Gakupo, with only the name of the town to point them in the correct direction, but as he stands in the middle of the road with this-and-that to either side of him, he's at a loss for what to do. The people always turn away from him, the houses never answer when he knocks... "I suppose they don't like out of towners."
Gakupo Kamui	Gakupo has indeed accompanied Ren to this place, just in case an attack happens, or those people from the Big Texan come back. Shooting in the streets outside a steakhouse. Seriously! Why would someone even do that? However, he's noticed the problems. And he responds to Ren's observation with a nod. "Given everything that's happening-- and if 'they' are here-- I don't blame them. They'd want to keep themselves safe from outsiders." He looks around, thinks a moment. "...Would you mind if I tried something? It might be faster than just rooting through every single building in this place for a lead."
Ren Tanaka	'Why would someone do that,' indeed? Thankfully, we have people from the Union who are endeavouring to investigate that question- every part of it, multifaceted as it is- but this is our mystery to handle. And hopefully before the threads intersect- if those violent expatriates found out that literal space aliens were in Amarillo, who knows how they'd react? Given they're already angry with the human residents? Ren considers Gakupo's idea closely. "Except if they seem to be insular, they probably would have driven 'them' out as well, wouldn't they? Must be hiding..." He leans up against a telephone pole. "What do you have in mind?"
Gakupo Kamui	"Well... I'm a Vocaloid," Gakupo replies. "All I really know is music. But do you remember how I helped calm down those guys that were shooting?" If reminders are needed, he sang a lullaby and made them sleepy enough to want to not kill everybody there. Gakupo tilts his head. "If I can do that here... let them know that we're safe to be around..." He pauses. "We want to know why they're here, and what's going on, right? We want to /know/. And I know how to communicate that."
Ren Tanaka	Ren Tanaka's eyes light up. "Ah-ha-ha, yes..." he replies, with that smug, hand-on-your-chin expression of someone who's just become involved in something very clever. "Very close encounters of the third kind. Music /is/ the universal language, after all." He looks around briefly, bounces off of the pole, and runs over quickly to a nearby bus shelter with no other things around it- then brazenly grabs someone's garbage can, puts it next to it as a platform, and waves him over. "The acoustics are good, even if it's short notice, but I found you a stage!"
Gakupo Kamui	"Acoustics?" Gakupo gives a mischievous look. "Who needs acoustics? I have amplification hardware." He taps on his headset. "But that's a good place for it! It's not like anyone could miss me over there." He grins brightly and hurries over where Ren pointed out. The bus shelter will aim the song into the direction he needs it to go anyway. The one good thing about being a Vocaloid-- your 'stage' can be anywhere you want it to be. In this case, Gakupo needs to use his hologram generators to turn this patch of ground he's standing on into... a dark planetarium? Or at least, something that looks like it anyway. No seats or anything, just one of those light-projectors. "I don't want to forget these feelings I can't explain. So I'm breaking the norm, deleting the provided layout. I'll sing my own song. And send the words locked in my heart into the sky--" Yes, he is blatantly stealing Miku's performance visuals. But with the emotions he's trying to convey, the song fits. Besides, they're incredible visuals, and they do say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. He's going all out, too. The holograms produced by his light generator are slightly translucent, but they're definitely visible. Sure, he's imitating Miku. But here and now, it's his voice, and he's the one conveying his emotions. He wants to know more about the aliens. And they did say this way the place, right? And how better to convince them of his sincerity than the only medium he knows how to deliver his emotions through? Though it's true, Gakupo can't get away from the digital, synthesized sound to his voice. But he's not trying. This is HIS song right now. This is a song of a machine with a soul, a heart, who wants to connect to unknown beings here who might need help.
Ren Tanaka	And this is when things get /really/ interesting, for not just one but a variety of reasons. Ren steps back (out of the road, to boot, since it's just bad form even if you can see vehicles coming for a mile in either direction) to watch the performance, which comes with holographic effects and amplification as well as the singing. That means both of them will notice... Also, hey, it doesn't matter if this is a cover performance. It's new to Ren, and it's new to... well. I would say 'new to the people moving around outside', but none of them react. In fact, their /lack/ of reaction is so complete that it's unnatural, which is handily explained when... As the holographically created 'night' falls on Bushland, it casts a ... weird effect. The buildings don't reflect the change properly, and for a moment something- first a wall, then a person- flickers weirdly. In one of the windows of the school, something small and green pokes its head up from behind glass. And then, through a door, someone purple... "Keep going," Ren says, although it's mostly to himself. "...keep that message coming."
Gakupo Kamui	Not to worry, Ren! Gakupo can still hear you! He also notices the lack of reaction... and then the green and purple things poking out of hiding places. They're hearing him, that's good! His headset lights up as he sings, as he sends that message out, sends those emotions out. It's also notable that he's using the holograms to change his outfit too. From the not-quite Elvis suit that the disguise field gives him, to a hologram of his normal outfit (the techno-samurai outfit) appears, staying for a while and then changing to a Victorian suit in purple, then later a sleeveless kimono, and finally a military uniform with long, voluminous sleeves. He is, after all, a showman. And this needs to be one of his best performances! "As I dance through these unchanging days, I began to think that they are a gift given to us. And that moment I believed, my world began to shake-- Tell me! I wanna know about your world! These things you want to tell, The things you want to deliver, May they join into a line So they may reach you, so far away The words you want to tell, And the sound you want to deliver, Many lines will become a circle, Connecting us all to each other No matter how far away we may be... ah, ahh..." At the end of the song, he appears to gather up many motes of light that represent the points of light that connect the world, and his outfit changes to his techno-samurai outfit. As he releases the motes into the air, the holograms being to fade, beginning from him, and then moving out until everything his generator made fades away completely.
Ren Tanaka	It starts off small, with those odd 'glitches'. The environment seemed a little off for a moment, or perhaps that guy didn't have eyes when he turned around, or the lid on that trashcan disappeared when you blinked. Then, further down the road, something with a metal grey head creaks a front door open, and then a small red creature looks out of a trashcan... And then, slowly at first, then falling like a series of dominos, parts of the houses and the blank mesa estate that make up Bushland begin to first flicker, then fade, then switch off entirely, disappearing completely. Likewise do the people, who were as much illusions made by holograms as anything else... And as the four space invaders make themselves obvious, scuttling and floating quickly over to Gakupo's performance, the truth of the matter becomes clear. On either side of the main road, seemingly torn in pieces- well, no, perhaps not- more 'seperated' in pieces, the sections seemingly cleanly disconnected, like a giant lego model- is a totally enormous saucer spaceship. Broken, yes, grounded, yes- but awesome nonetheless. And despite its massive size, seemingly its only four pilots are here watching Gakupo perform, awestruck.
Gakupo Kamui	Gakupo is lucky he's as skilled at performing as he is. Otherwise he'd have stopped at the sight of the giant saucer. But it's close enough to the end of the song that he holds on until the end, until his own holograms fade. Though when his show holograms fade, Gakupo looks at the broken ship. "...Wow," he notes quietly, marveling at the ship. And to Ren he notes, "I... think it worked?" Faced now with the four aliens from before, the Vocaloid smiles brightly. "Hello!" he greets happily. "I didn't think I'd be able to get you to come talk to us any other way. We're not here to hurt you." Gakupo's voice is audibly not human. That synthesized quality is enough to note that. But if anyone's looking for other minutiae that would set him apart from human, there's plenty there for the observant. When he moves, there's always a very, very slight 'wobble', like an animatronic. There's also the whirr of servomotors when he moves. And he smells like ozone, carbon-fibers, plastics, resin, and fiberglass.
Ren Tanaka	"And... well, we've met before, personally," Ren offers, walking over and sitting down on the ground next to the four of them. "Nice place you've got here. Little bit exposed to the elements though." The aliens express their surprise and contentment with the song, and all four of them agree that they really enjoyed it. They're happy that Gakupo came here to speak to them, and they're glad that the trouble seems to have passed for now. "Hmm... but problems may be on the horizon. Especially if people find this so close to the city... I'm going to assume that this is by no means a planned landing," Ren remarks. He looks at Gakupo, curious as to whether the vocaloid can volunteer the same questions he's thinking of.
Gakupo Kamui	Gakupo nods. And as Ren sits down, so too does the Vocaloid; he lowers himself to the ground to sit tailor-style near the four aliens. "That explains the anti-weirdness field, right?" he inquires. "The last time we were here, nobody seemed to notice my voice until that weird buzzing. Right before you were revealed." And then the question about the ship comes up. Gakupo nods. "It looks like a crash. I'm assuming you're trying to get it fixed so you can go to wherever you were headed before you crashed. What happened to the ship?" he asks.
Ren Tanaka	Between the four of them, the aliens explain that the holographic field is... well, just one of the ways that they have been trying to 'blend in', so to speak. It's not exactly like they landed on any houses when their ship crashed, but in order to make it less obvious that a whole new neighborhood popped up they have had to use a few low-grade tricks, some of the psychic variety (but all ultimately harmless) to make people believe that this has always been a part of the Bushland community and that nobody bothers the simulated people or looks too closely. As for what happened to the ship... well. What it's hard for them to come to terms with and a little hard to explain is that between them, they don't really have much of a good explanation of what has happened to them. The best thing they can surmise is that there was some sort of inter-cosmic crash they were involved in- perhaps in space, perhaps in the multiverse's warp tracks, they're not sure- which resulted in them ending up here. Some sort of violence, that's sure. That's why their ship is in pieces- and not all of the pieces are here, either.
Gakupo Kamui	"That makes sense," Gakupo replies, to the mention of how Bushland came to be. He smiles brightly. "And it sure helps people not worry so much about how weird my voice is, and just listen to the music, too! So that I have to thank you for-- you gave me a little while where no one thought I was 'fake'." Though the not-really-that-good explanation gets a tilt of his head. "Was it an attack?" Gakupo inquires. "Or an accident?" Maybe it's a translation error or something. Might not be likely with the Multiverse's translation effect, though. "If your ship's computer is still functioning, I might be able to itnerface with it and see what happened. Maybe even see what it needs to work again." He seems to want to help, at least.
Ren Tanaka	The aliens, for their part, have no issues with the way Gakupo sounds. It should come as no surprise, after all- the fact that this third person narrative has been the only way their dialogue's been put across should go some way towards implying that the way /they/ talk is also kind of unusual. Likewise Ren- "People are people, no matter what." If it was an attack, so the aliens explain, it was not a deliberate attack- from what they can gather, there was some weapons fire from their ship before it went down, but whatever they were firing /at/, despite being the reason for their crash, did not manage to fight back appreciably. The damage and loss of life came from turbulence and the crash. Gakupo might be able to find this out if he interfaces with the computer- which might take a bit of a walk down the road and some climbing, but nonetheless. What he can ALSO find out is that it's not impossible that whatever caused this crash wasn't hostile, and whatever parts are missing from the ship, they're a) important b) preventing it from taking off again... And c) wherever they've gone missing TO, there are apparently self-defence measures in place. The aliens are very sorry.
Gakupo Kamui	The Vocaloid nods to Ren's statement. "Very true," he agrees. "It's easy for me to forget that sometimes. I'm always hoping my music can bridge the gap between people, but sometimes my voice itself causes another gap. If it's not the culture gap, it's the 'synthesized' gap." To the aliens, though, Gakupo offers happily, "I'm glad. It might seem like a small thing, but that means a lot to me." As for the computer? Sure, Gakupo will go there. Though unless there's some backwards compatibility, actually interfacing with the cable in his headset might be an issue. There could be another way, though-- maybe it accepts wi-fi signals? Either way, once he learns A, B, and C, Gakupo will return to where the aliens and Ren are (if they haven't accompanied him to the ship and its computer). And he will tell Ren just that. "Seems the pieces they need are probably under guard somewhere." That they're important and preventing the ship from taking off can probably be inferred. And he will ask the aliens, "Do you know where the pieces are? Or is there some way to track them?"
Ren Tanaka	Interfacing might be a little difficult, but the aliens are more than willing to help mess with their systems until they can make something work, and with Ren providing a little intuitive support they manage to get things working. No worries! This, so the aliens explain, is one of the problems of having a heavily automated ship, a fact that all of them are regretting by now- it meant that when there were casualties, there is always an almost dangerously small number of actual living beings left to rely on one another. And it also means that when the automated systems decide that threats are present, they may just decide that if part of the ship isn't giving them feedback for whatever reason, they may need to fall back on a much smaller, stupider form of decision-making. All this and more can be available to Gakupo depending on the amount of time he takes to work with the computer and discover the intricacies of the fallen ship's technology. The aliens explain that they cannot track what's lost. There's nothing the ship really has that would do such a thing, much like how a car does not come standard-equipped with something that would let it find a door if it was torn off. However, they can identify and reassemble broken pieces if they are found... Sufficed to say, however, there is alien technology loose in Amarillo, and no clear explanation of the threat that brought down the ship and put it in its current position. Questions only beget more questions... just how much of the chaos in Amarillo is inadvertedly due to all of this? How much is /not/? And if it's not because of this, then what is the cause...?