002 ✿ Dream [Interactive]

[hypnoun]

Warning: None? This is a dream, so I doubt any hypnotism she might do will actually carry over into reality. :|a If headcanon counts as a warning, then, yeah.
Effects: Interactive!

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[insorrow]

Never volunteer for anything. This is good advice. Advice, in fact, that a guy can live by.

The problem is Ken is already standing up.

Not because he got out of his seat, mind - never that. The problem is, he doesn't think he had a seat in the first place. Ken is standing at the back of what appears to be a TV studio, surrounded by an audience he can only half-believe in. They're faceless, almost shapeless humanoid blobs in a uniform dull gray and something about them is creeping him right out. He doesn't know how he got here - not at all. He's never even been in a TV studio, not like this: still less has actually sat down and watched anything being taped. Why would he suddenly have fetched up in one now, not even knowing how he was supposed to have got there?

He wants to just turn around and leave, but he can't see where the doors are (are there any?) and it's bad enough to be standing up when the girl on the stage calls for volunteers in a suspiciously chipper TV-hostess's voice. No need to compound it by acting like he really

[hypnoun]

Rei doesn't really expect anybody to stand up, not when everybody in the audience is a gray, faceless mass she can't really make out (nor does she really care to do so) and especially not the fact that she is, supposedly, a fake is very well known. This may explain why, of course, she's surprised to see a person she can make out standing between the gray mass that was meant to be her audience. She had no idea of who this man was, or even when, exactly, he appeared, but she smiles politely regardless.

"Ah, yes... How about that that young gentleman standing over there?" She motions towards where he stood and, predictably, the spotlight was soon all over him. There was no escaping the inevitable now, regardless of how confused or eager to leave he appeared to be. "Please, come on down and take a seat! I promise this will only take a minute of your time."

Time to see how, exactly, this would all work out.

[insorrow]

Oh, damn.

Ken blinks as the spotlight is shone on him, his eyes going wide and his body tensing - perfect rabbit-in-headlights frozen panic. Oh, great, this would mean I'm on television--Kritiker were going to kill him, if the embarrassment didn't get to him first. Hi, mom, Ken thought inanely: too bad she wasn't going to be watching and of course she damn well wasn't! Right, now he'd got that out of the way any minute now something large and heavy was going to broadside him and he was not going to like it.

Which meant the only polite thing to do would be to excuse himself as quickly as possible. Say he had a medical condition or something and needed to go-- go do something medical. In the men's room. So, not here.

(Yeah, Hidaka, you really need to get better at coming up with stories on the fly.)

"Um," he managed. "Okay?"

... which was of course the precise opposite of what he'd been trying to do. God but he was brilliant. Ken would have cursed, but... live TV, or something, and probably no transmission delay for something as

[hypnoun]

The urge to laugh once she notices the look on his face is so strong, she barely manages to suppress it. She watches as he makes his way out of the "audience" and towards the stage, the spotlight following his every step as Rei kept the same, polite smile plastered on her face. It was painfully obvious that he desperately wanted to get the hell out of here, to the point that if Rei had been anybody else, she would have felt pity for him.

Obviously, she did not.

Instead, she continues smiling at him, as if she were oblivious to his discomfort despite the obvious look on his face. He seemed to be a rather ordinary person, there was no outward sign of him being one of those who she could easily manipulate with her hypnotism, which meant she had to rely on either pure luck, or a little bit of cooperation here.

"Unfortunately, I can't reveal that just yet. It would spoil the surprise for the audience, after all." And then she gestures to the gray mass that was meant to pass off as her audience. She didn't really care spoiling it

[carpo_vita]

[Another dream. By now, he's stepped into enough to know what happened - but again, the girl on stage - the person to whom this entire world belonged to - is one that he's yet to speak to in Somarium.

He took note of the faceless crew and cameraman, and already, began to dimly wonder if such an ominous and gloomy set is a dark reflection of the psyche of the cheerful young girl who led it all.

A hypnotist, huh? Well... Why? Why not? He found himself standing up, more or less aware of what's going on, as he stepped up with a nod - his earphones hanging by his shoulders, and his hands in his pockets, as per usual.]

Sure, if I may. ...That's a lot of chairs, though.

[hypnoun]

[ She's gotten used to seeing everyone around her as a faceless, gray mass by now, so it's a little bit of a surprise to see somebody who she can recognize as an actual person.

The spotlight almost automatically moves to single him out when he speaks, and Rei smiles politely at her "volunteer", as is expected of her TV persona. ]

Well... You never know how many will volunteer, so it's a good thing to be prepared, right?

[ She then motions towards one of the four seats in the middle of the stage. ]

Now, if you could please take a seat right here, sir...!

[carpo_vita]

It is. The audience looks bleak, though, and you don't seem to be enjoying this very much, either. [...Mainly because the audiences were faceless. This is a dream... Would it be that difficult to imagine a smiling, excited, and clapping crowd instead, or she simply doesn't care about how the public sees her? ...Then again. She was good-looking and bore a nice smile - and he can't help but think for a moment that someone like Tanaka may have taken interest in her too. Then there's Rise - she's an idol and did stage work too, and he briefly recalls how she smiles, and what he knows of her from both herself and Souji during his time here. She was popular, but she definitely had a few issues to sort out

[hypnoun]

...An audience is an audience. [And perhaps there was a little tinge of sadness or regret in her tone, but it's gone just as quickly as it comes. Instead of clarifying or replying to that other comment, however, she merely settles on watching him as he makes his way onto the stage and towards the chair, polite smile still plastered on her face. His posture was horrible and he was a little bit too mellow for her tastes, but he would have to do for now. There was no way of being positive on whether or not her hypnotism would work on him, so she would simply have to wait and see. In the worst case scenario, she would simply have to give him a push in the right direction.

Once he's seated, her smile immediately shifts from polite to overly enthusiastic, as is expected of a TV hostess such as herself.]

So, what would be the name of my volunteer for the night?