Everybody, everybody!

[therepoman]

Characters: Everyone!
Rating: We'll say R to be safe. SRY NO NC-17 FOR YOU.
Summary: GeneCo's famous Italian Renaissance festival preceding the night's Genetic Opera
Location: Sanitarium Square, outside the GeneCo building
Date/Time: October 31st, evening
Status: OPEN

Comments

[sadisticsong]

From the apex of the Square, hidden from sight, opera star Adel Todd watched the events unfold. Like so many termites or cockroaches, those imperfect creatures scurried and bustled, grasping for immortality and eternal youth at the hands of warped minds with attached scalpels. A touch here, a tweak there, and they would leave feeling new and vigorous.

There were co-workers and even his own employees scattered throughout the mass of life, touching up and tweaking themselves, perhaps striving for his own level of perfection. Somehow, it was disgusting. He had the dignity to hide his scars and surgeries, to hide his past regrets and adjustments with layer upon layer of unblemished artistry.

Tonight, he would add another jewel to that perfect crown. Tonight, Mag's final curtain would fall. Her last Gene Co performance would be Adel's first as the new voice of Gene Co--this he was certain of--and an entirely new era of entertainment would begin. Under his hands, his diamond-touched fist, a new sort of artistry would emerge

[shinigamijuliet]

Grell wandered the festival. Perfectly disguised as his neo-Victorian self, people tended to ignore the "young lady" as she gazed at it all.

Sickening, how those still high off Zydrate would boast over their new cuts, the standard of perfection blasted at you from every corner. Largo's work, he knew.

And he still felt a bizarre satisfaction over ridding the place of Rudgutter. Twenty six days since then, he had been unconsciously counting. Was this how it was going to go? Would he know exactly how long ago it would be always? He didn't mind this third, but it sat in his head.

Shaking it away, he looked around-and almost lost his breath. Was it really...Adel Todd? Being an opera fanatic, it was a glorious moment to see Adel. Such a perfect singer, a beautiful person, so mysterious...Grell was hit with shyness. He wanted to go say hello at least, but he felt nervous. Would he be brushed off? Would he even be allowed to?

The redhead lingered a small ways away, trying to get over himself.

[sadisticsong]

Death stepped forward into the square, his clothing loose and quite theme-apropos beneath a fitted black jacket. He knew from instinct that he had been spotted, and what good would it do an elusive idol to hide forever?

Wasn't it good PR to make an appearance before his own debut? Yes, giving the audience a taste of what they craved was the most certain way to reel them in, to seal the deal and solidify his place atop the musical throne. Oh, the drama he imposed on his own life to stave off the boredom.

It just so happened that Death had a minor thing for young, pretty girls. No, not that sort of thing... a magnetic desire to completely freak them out, perhaps, but nothing untoward. There was nothing really wrong with ruining a single fan's image of him, was there? Especially someone so youthful and likely flighty. No one would believe her

[shinigamijuliet]

Back this up. Adel Todd, talking to him?

The best but least elegant way of summing this up was, simply,holy shit.
His idol. A lesser woman would have fainted, screamed, or run away. Grell did none, composing himself to present the same polite and charming manner as he usually did, ignoring the prying eyes from the side.

"What a coincidence," he replied, his voice soft and feminine, a light smile on his lips. "I very nearly left myself."

Without consciously realizing it, he was transfixed, like a bird in the eyes of a snake. Grell could be such an easy victim. Unfortunately, he never saw that.

[brilliantdesign]

Dist enjoyed these sorts of events. They were a welcome break from his everyday routine, and one of the few occasions in which the general style was similar to his own.

And, naturally, there were the surgery tents.

Typically surgical procedures were much cheaper during festivals such as this, mostly because you were trading sterility for convenience. In a situation such as this it was wise to book your operations several months in advance, which was of course what Dist had done. They were modifications he'd been meaning to undergo for a while, and this seemed like a decent time to take care of them.

Granted, participating in the festivities immediately after having work done was a bit unpleasant. Dist had simply gone in to have some extra color put into his irises, as well as evening out the skin tone on his face some, but exiting the tent he winced a little bit at the bright lights. He knew the sensation would fade after an hour-ish, so for now he resolved to simply put up with it until then as he started to move curiously

[albhedscavenger]

Rikku was moving through the crowd, occasionally helping herself to open pockets but mostly just getting a good look at everything. This was a foreign world to her, having grown up in the Al Bhed communities in the slums. GeneCo events were never attended--in fact, they were actively avoided. However, working for Dist meant that she had previously unheard of access to information from outside the Al Bhed networks, and she overheard a couple discussing the Italian Renaissance festival the other day. Curiosity had gotten the better of her, and on the day of the festival she found herself among those in attendance

[brilliantdesign]

It took Dist a moment to pinpoint the source of Rikku's voice; for one, she was good at blending in when she wanted to, and for another his pupils were horribly dilated. They'd been restricted for the procedure and he'd been given a dilator afterward to reverse the effects, but unfortunately this had the side-effect of making him very photosensitive while his eyes adjusted.

"Rikku? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; this seems like something you would be into." She was certainly perky enough. "I was just getting a slight touch-up on my eyes; I felt that the color could use a bit of enhancement."

[albhedscavenger]

"It does?" Rikku was honestly surprised by Dist's observation. GeneCo events were actually the opposite of what the girl was into. This kind of decadence was beyond her experience, and really she was only present to gawk and (if she had to be completely honest with herself) eat. The actual festivities would go ignored.

More pressing, however, was Dist's recent procedure. "Just now? Why? Your eyes are already really, really vivid." Rikku stood on her toes and stared up into Dist's face, eyes ridiculously wide as she tried to see if she could tell the difference in his eye color. The fact that Dist might recognize her swirled pupils as Al Bhed didn't really faze her; she had a feeling that Dist didn't know the difference, and wouldn't really care much if he did.

[hunted_you]

Artemis Fowl could barely contain his joy at returning from a business venture in Germany in time for GeneCo's Renaissance festival. And under normal circumstances, he would have stayed home and felt vindicated that GeneCo was not getting any money out of him

[lifeformed]

"You look positively enthralled."

Hojo didn't usually attend functions such as these. They took time away from his research, and they didn't offer anything particularly interesting to do; unlike most of the city, the modifications he was interested in were applied solely to other people. But he was a public figure, sort of, and he had to make an appearance occasionally. Might as well spend it bothering the younger generation, though this specimen in particular looked as though he'd rather be getting a tooth drilled. Perhaps investigation into the matter would prove to be amusing, at the very least.

[hunted_you]

Artemis' frown broke for a moment when he heard someone address him. Who else could they be addressing, after all? Everyone else at this macabre festival was either high from the excitement, high from the Zydrate, or just generally not paying attention to anyone but themselves. And who would come to a small corner just to talk to a disgruntled-looking young man

[lifeformed]

The jab was somewhat off-mark, but still noted and filed away. "It really is disgusting," Hojo said casually. "Sterile conditions are unheard of in this environment, and the surgeons are rushed and stressed to boot. I do wish your sister the best of luck in her recovery; she may very well need it."

Whether or not the boy actually had a sister was another matter entirely. He certainly didn't look like he was waiting for someone; on the contrary, he looked to be avoiding as many people as possible. Hm.

[searchmylight]

Noboru stared, bemused, at the blood on his lab coat--his precious lab coat!--and scalpel. Really, had they never heard of sanitation out here? It was revolting, and stomach-churning, and he was completely sure his face was an awful shade of green, even under the festive colored lights.

The honest-to-goodness truth was that Noboru had no idea how he had been conned into this. ...Well, okay, he remembered the really cute Gentern (she looked a little Asian, but her hair was blonde) and her really short skirt, and the awkward conversation he'd managed to actually carry... But then he blacked out and woke up in the tent with a scalpel and a line.

Damn those Genterns. Seriously. And there was a reason the girls in black underwear who surrounded the table were called scalpel sluts. Did they really NEED to stick their asses up quite like that? It was really distra--

At any rate, he found himself stuck as a surgical consultant in a tent at the Festival, tweaking some breast augmentations. That'd make any man want to be celibate.

((Save

[brilliantdesign]

Apparently it was Noboru! But he looked less than thrilled to be where he was, not that Dist could blame him. The festival seemed to be a less-than-ideal working environment. He edged into the tent; the thought that distracting him might not be a good idea didn't occur to him. "Noboru? You look miserable."

[searchmylight]

Yes, for once in his young life Noboru was not happy to be around mostly-naked women. It was a really painful piece of cognitive dissonance, but the entire situation was absurd enough to shut down his sex drive entirely. It shut down most of his brain, save the science and medicine parts, so it took him a moment to realize that the voice he heard was familiar.

He stepped back from the table and turned toward the voice slowly, and the look of relief that washed over him was truly a Kodak moment. Scalpel still clenched in his hand, he approached Dist.

"Help. Me. I didn't sign up for this."

[brilliantdesign]

"Clearly." Dist glanced over his shoulder briefly, then slid further into the tent and around behind Noboru. Once he was out of sight of the people in the tent, Dist put his hands on the doctor's back and pushed him(gently!) out into the square. Oh, it was still messy and noisy and smelled of disinfectant, blood, and fattening food, but at least Noboru wasn't expected to perform surgery out there.