2025-02-28: Live at Macross City ~ Grace of the Angel
- Log: 2025-02-28: Live at Macross City ~ Grace of the Angel
- Cast: Lilium Valerie, Aurora Dusk, Sheryl Nome, Leon Sakaki, Flay Allster
- Where: Macross City, South Ataria Island
- OOC - IC Date: February 28th, Universal Century 0100 (2025)
- Summary: Lilium Valerie makes her debut, at a charity concert for Macross City post-phantom pain attack. TERRESTRIAL GIRL♡CELESTIAL WORLD written by Juneau, Other song translations primarily derived from the animelyrics writeups but heavily edited by Juneau
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Macross City. A shining beacon of human progress and peaceful cooperation. Ever since the end of the Zetradi war, those fortunate enough to live in the shadow of the SDF-1 Macross have lived generally happy, peaceful lives. Or at least they did, until large swathes of the city were destroyed by a terrorist attack a few weeks prior. Still, the vast majority of them survived... so now, the New United Nations Earth government has prepared a charity concert to raise funds for disaster relief.
The concert hall floating out in the lake at the citys center is absolutely packed: locals hoping for something to take their mind off of current events and more well-off attendees who travelled here to donate to the relief fund (or simply felt particularly curious about the concert). Their tickets are, curiously, largely unmarked, consisting of a simple black design with 'MACROSS CITY CHARITY CONCERT 0100' printed on them in plain white text. A very carefully-proportioned minimalist design, but minimalist all the same.
Plenty of famous idols have played this venue's predecessors before--Lynn Minmay herself played her farewell live before boarding the ill-fated Megaroad-1 mission, in fact. Sharon Apple's final performance took place here... and more recently, Galactic Fairy Sheryl Nome's Earth Sphere tour began on this spot almost four years ago. Camera crews are set up in several places around the arena, lenses trained on the stage suspended over the water in its centre for the benefit of the pay-per-viewers at home. Whatever it is that's going to happen today, theyve been given strict instructions to make sure nobody misses a moment of it.
Beneath the stage, the underwater maintenance tunnels that are serving as the concerts staging grounds are abuzz with activity. Technicians run from place to place, exchanging notes and recalibrating equipment. Final checks are being performed. And in her dressing room, the star of today's show is staring into her mirror. Slightly past the reflection of her face.
"...I dont know if I can do this..."
Lilium is curled into a ball on her chair, holographic performance outfit projection equipment already fastened onto her. She cants her head to one side in the silence.
"Ehhh... You really think so?"
More silence. A smile comes onto the Boosted Songstress' face. "Thank you! I... I need to get going, or I'll be late for my debut..!"
Lilium swings her chair around, slips off of it, and strides out of her empty dressing room towards the lift to the stage.
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
Aurora doesn't often attend concerts in-person. She can handle noise, but standing in large crowds having her senses overloaded isn't her idea of a good time. So she isn't in the crowds. She's waiting outside Lilium's room, as a "plainclothes officer".
She says "good luck" as Lilium walks past her. For her part, Emily rests a hand on Lilium's shoulder and tells her
to "knock 'em dead". Hopefully metaphorically? Then, they head into the maintenance tunnels to watch from the view screens there, settling in somewhere close to Frankford to watch the show.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
It's been a long while since Sheryl performed in Macross City, even if it's been more recent than some other performers. She almost didn't hear about this concert at all, having been busy being "missing" aboard the Carriax. However, returning to the Frontier meant catching up on certain events, like the charity concert whose main songstress has not yet actually been announced.
It's certainly not Ranka. So when Sheryl hears that the show will be going on, it's curiosity that prompts her to get a pay-per-view ticket to see who'll be singing at Macross City.
Her "venue" isn't anything special: just a small room aboard the Battle Frontier, her screen a holographic projection from her taiyaki phone. She hasn't gone back to her apartment in Frontier proper yet. Brera is gone now, which means the only one there now is Grace.
She'll pass, thanks.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
Standing among the crowd of attendees is a young Meltrandi woman with shocking hot pink hair, a low-cut red vest and red hot pants, tapping her foot idly as she looks at her bio-phone, a small portable animal device in the shape of a tabby cat.
Tapping on the keyboard, she messages someone from very, very far away - remote accessing the Gefion to contact Leon on the Frontier isn't an easy task, but Aisha's not a genius for nothing.
BeautifulGenius44: <<u watchin the live?>>
CrashExpert: <<hang on stream's loading>>
CrashExpert: <<ok yeah its going. just an empty stage tho?>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<be patient stupid>>
CrashExpert: <<u suck so much>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<keep that up and i'm not fixing your baby>>
CrashExpert: <<u wouldn't.>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<i so would. now shush its starting>>
Aisha turns her head up towards the stage, curious. The other big performers of the era are all elsewhere - so who's going to be here tonight?
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
Flay had heard there was a terrorist attack in Macross City in the time since she'd left the Gaia Sabers, but only because not long after, the NUNE government, or what's left of it anyway, had announced some kind of charity concert to raise money for the city. It'd struck her as strange... considering she was right there when the Gaia Sabers announced their initiative to enter the competitive idol industry.
Strange enough that she decided on getting herself a pay-per-view ticket to see what it's all about. It'd probably be worth investigating even if she wasn't worried about who she was about to see come on stage. If the circumstances were better, Flay would probably go a fancier setup... but it mostly amounts to her sitting on her bed in a t-shirt while she has the concert open on her phone.
Seeing the empty stage on the screen, Flay absently taps her phone, clicking off all the livestream comments speculating and gossiping about who the mystery singer would be, or whether the Vajra would show up and ruin the day again. As the lights begin to shine, Flay can only wonder, could it be...
"Lilium?"
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium flashes a quick smile to Aurora, nodding her head as she passes her. She also turns to face Emily for a moment, giving another smile. "Oh, thank you! And... I'll try my best."
Turning back towards the contraption in the center of the backstage area, the Idol takes her spot atop the platform, screwing her eyes shut as the activity around the chamber reaches a crescendo...
"Outfit display... loaded! Program ready!"
"Backing up muscle memory--all relevant choreographies are installed! Synchronising routine L.M.-Alpha with Flight Control System ahead of time!"
Dr. Frankford sighs, taking a drag on a cigarette as she surveys the program's rudimentary control center. It's nothing compared to the base the project was based out of... but at least she was allowed to smoke here.
The moment arrives for the concert to begin, and as the lights in the domed ceiling go out a hush slowly falls across the spectators.
It's silent for a moment.
And then, as softly-tinted spotlights focus on hole in the centre of the stage, a somber melody plays...
"If I had been born with wings..."
"Could we have met some other way..?"
Rising from the depths in a translucent capsule that swiftly opens, retracting into the stage, Lilium appears. She's holding a microphone in one hand, her eyes closed. Her outfit is simple, consisting of a short skirt, thigh-high boots, a cropped shirt (connected to the skirt exclusively down her back) and a long pair of gloves. Her hair is tied behind her in her characteristic ponytail, and her usual hairpin--the silver bird inlaid with a five-pointed star--twinkles in the light shining down upon her.
A single note hangs for a while, and then suddenly the music kicks into higher gear and Lilium herself's eyes bolt open, springing into an energetic dance.
"Soaring through the skies over my head--I couldn't keep up even if I tried"
"A million miles a moment, my heart's on fire"
"Racing alongside yours in that place I was never meant to go"
"Which of us is the real 'human'?" (Who is it?)
Lilium bounds about the stage, each movement calculated, perfect, professional. Her voice almost feels like it's piercing directly into the hearts of the audience.
Projections of a sky-blue horizon filled with clouds surround her, but the stage itself appears in the form of a tall cliff with a grass-covered top. She raises one hand towards the ceiling, staring upwards...
"I still remember it, on that day" (that day)
"The day your sky fell to Earth"
"CRYSTAL TEARS flowing from our SHATTERED HEARTS"
"What did you see in the SHINING MIRROR of my soul?"
Burning meteors streak through the 'sky' all around the concert hall. Lilium's ponytail is blown behind her by wind that comes from nowhere. Her energetic dance shifts to a determined forwards stride, and her outfit flashes into a highly inaccurate depiction of a tattered one year war-era federation military uniform.
""Aaaah... I want to fall in love..." is it..?" (Lost!)
"Could the two of us ever really be together?" (Alone!)
"Or was our FATE to cross paths just that once?" (DESTINY!)
The 'skies' clear, and Lilium's outfit 'repairs' itself. It's grown significantly more ornate, and now has more in common with her original outfit than it does the damaged one she was just wearing. She pumps her fist in the air as colourful lights flash, and the music picks up its pace yet again:
"I don't know, cause--"
"I am nothing but a TERRESTRIAL★GIRL" (Ooh!)
"Caught up in the FLOW of your CELESTIAL☆WORLD" (Yeah!)
"BABY, I'll do whatever you need of me"
"Just please don't leave me behind"
Lilium returns to her energetic dance, a wide smile on her face as she sings. She pumps her free hand in the air, swinging herself from side to side as she winks to the crowd--the screens all around the concert hall, almost everywhere in Macross City, and in homes around the Earth Sphere filled with her face.
As the cameras zoom back out, her eyes close once again, and for a moment the music regains its somber tone.
"Your voice, calling out from above,"
""If I know nothing of the Earth, then you know nothing of the sky""
"I still hear it, even now" (Echo...)
The music picks back up as Lilium strides way up a staircase that's forming from panels elevated from the stage floor, her pace gradually increasing.
"Just how different can we really be?" (Can't stand this SEPARATION)
The idol breaks into a flat-out sprint up the stairs, the dome over the arena splitting open above her to reveal the sunset-stained sky--
And leaps from the top step, projected wings of light erupting from her back.
"You swept me off my feet, held me among the stars" (Ooh-hoo...)
"I watched their light twinkle in your eyes" (PASSIONATE REFLECTION)
"I want to pull you down to earth" (ENDLESS EMBRACE)
"And let you see the skies the way I used to"
"Let you watch the sea in the mirror of my gaze"
Lilium soars through clouds that fill the space between the stands as the stadium's spectator area splits into four, drifting apart and away from the stage to let more of the sunset-lit lake into view. As she climbs into the air, the sun finally sinks below the horizon and the sky fills with far more stars than should be visible. She turns about in the air, and then dives down towards a sea far deeper-looking than it actually is.
The cameras around the stadium track her eyes once again, a reflection of the shining blue water projected directly into them. The Angel comes to a halt, and touches down on the water with a single heeled boot. Ripples of light flow out all around her across the surface as her song continues;
"Not even God knows how things will go"
"When someone like me feels the TOUCH of someone like you"
"FORBIDDEN ROMANCE at the terminator line"
Lilium blinks, and for just a fraction of a second--to the cameras zoomed in close enough to see them--something looks... different about her eyes.
"Don't you wish we could all be one?"
She blinks again, and whatever it was is gone as the stage rises back out from under the water below her and she launches back into her dance.
"I am nothing but a TERRESTRIAL★GIRL" (Ooh!)
"Swept away by the STORM of your CELESTIAL☆WORLD" (Yeah!)
"BABY, I'll be whoever you want me to be"
"Just as long as I'm never alone again"
Lilium's wings dissipate as the music fades away, and she gives a short curtsey to the crowd as the lights die down... for now.
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
Aurora nods, her mouth... twitches back, and her eyes shimmer with a gaze as enigmatic as usual, but Lilium can definitely tell she's returning the sentiment. Emily gives her a thumbs up, and Aurora watches Lilium's retreating back as she advances on the stage.
----------
Aurora watches the technicians buzz. She usually doesn't get pre-flight nerves that much... but this is uncharted territory for her. Will Lilium's first concert really be alright? Off to the side, Ashcroft watches Frankford light up and fumbles around with her own lighter.
In terms of ways to watch the concert, the technician setup would probably be the best if not for the distraction of hustling technicians... but Lilium is good at holding attention, fortunately.
The tunnels briefly fall silent as Lilium makes her entrance. She sings. Everyone watches.
The Colonel raises an eyebrow. "Going with the hairpin in public, huh?" Aurora is mostly paying attention to the rest of the outfit. Somehow, it feels... like an embarassing thing to wear. Weird, considering Aurora doesn't mind being naked in a changing room.
"'The real human'..." Aurora's eyes are glued to the screen, and she's wondering who wrote that lyric.
'Sky fell to earth'. Emily huffs at that, puffing smoke out of her lungs. Who wrote THAT lyric? "I've seen military idols before, but not like THIS. And that uniform... I think mine got ripped up almost as bad once, back in the day." There was a certain someone who loved that look, even if she got an earful for it... but those are memories she only dwells on when she's brooding.
Dusk and Ashcroft can both sympathise with 'not wanting to be left behind', for different reasons. The fear of abandonment is a common one for people with Aurora's disposition, and Emily can definitely say she's been left behind. Left behind like she was in the Rapture.
"...eyes..." Never mind. Whatever it was is gone now...
Silence. Then... "Holy shit." Ashcroft suppresses the urge to clap. "I think we really DO have a good one." Aurora stares at the screen, usual quiet gaze having turned intense. "...Play Fire Bomber next." She fiddles with her hair, mumbles. "...or info high..."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Sheryl doesn't know Lilium, but even a moment of watching her performance makes it clear to her that this is a young woman who's worked extremely hard to perfect her song and dance, from that somber opening to the energetic rush it surges into. Game recognizes game.
The crew supporting her is impressive, too. They've put a lot of work into the holograms that play as Lilium performs, from the sky to the cliff to the meteors to the...
Hm. To the military uniform. Sheryl was herself a military propagandist when it was against the Vajra, and her eyes narrow. She'd thought she'd been doing that for herself--she had been doing that for herself--but it had been part of Grace's plot all along. Whose strings are pulling this girl through her performance?
...No, she's probably just projecting. She presses fingertips on her forehead, momentarily fatigued. Not everything has to be some kind of conspiracy, Sheryl.
Even so, the lyrics now make her uneasy. Baby, I'll do whatever you need of me; just please don't leave me behind... Are those just lyrics? Or is this woman baring her true heart in the form of her song--like Sheryl herself has done so many times?
She can only keep watching and see for herself.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
Aisha stands stunned as Lilium's song ends. She's not a believer in any particular philosophies regarding "Zentradi blood", but a good song like that still manages to make every hair on her body stand on edge. Her nerves feel like crackling livewires as the song ends, and she looks back down at her phone.
BeautifulGenius44: <<dammmnnn>>
CrashExpert: <<holy shit.>>
CrashExpert: <<i know her.>>
% CrashExpert: <<she was at Ranka's concert on the Frontier.>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<really??>>
CrashExpert: <<yeah she was with that Wolfhound girl. in the NPlus>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<huh.>>
Aisha looks up at Lilium on stage, studying the girl's face, reflecting on her specific style of dress, the One Year War aesthetic- who is this girl? Some sort of soldier-idol? If so, why a soldier? Why here, after such a devastating attack? Aisha isn't quite sure. Her songs are nice, though. The kind of songs you can really lose yourself in.
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
The reveal of Lilium as the performer isn't much of a surprise, but really, Flay still has no idea what to expect. Many people may be paying attention to the stage effects and holograms - the budget put towards this project were massive after all, and there are a lot of hands to make sure this runs smoothly as possible. But Flay's focus is firmly on Lilium. The last time she saw the girl was in a hospital bed... so it's like a switch has been flipped to see her so energetic, even through the somber melody of her first song.
When she heard about the plan to push the idea of militarized idols, Flay couldn't stop herself from laughing. Maybe selfishly, in a way, Flay wanted Lilium to fail in her new role deep down, even if she didn't think badly of her. Whatever her wishes, it's more than clear, that even under so much pressure, Lilium's made that stage her own. It is a good song, she thinks, as she turns up the volume a little louder. Part of her wonders if even the lyrics were a part of the image given to Lilium, or if they really do reflect her true feelings.
'Just please don't leave me behind...' It makes her uneasy for a different reason than it does for Sheryl.
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Lilium waves with her free hand, smiling to the crowd. "Thank you, everyone..!"
"I'm... Lilium Valerie! It's nice to meet you all!"
Back below, Dr. Frankford flashes a proud smirk. "I think she wrote this one herself, actually... obviously it had to be passed through the censors first, and... well, a lot of it changed, but I'd say that part was from her original draft. It's why we're playing it first... Oh, that bad? In actual--" She stifles a faint giggle, shaking her head. "...typical. Still, though... you're right. We've got a damn good asset on our hands."
She cants her head to the side slightly, turning to Aurora. "...We can't do that first one. Legal reasons. And as for the second... I think it'd be in poor taste, even if we do technically have the rights... still, that's not her entire discography..." She sweeps a hand outwards towards some technicians. "Load Routine S.A.-Iota to the end of her performance!"
Lilium herself, meanwhile, continues her little speech. "What happened here was... horrible... and not just here, everywhere... Frontier... Britannia... Ireland..."
She shakes her head, screwing her eyes shut. "If I... I can make any of that... even a little less painful... Then please, let me sing for you!"
The lights flash back on, and she launches into the next part of her routine
As Lilium sings her heart out and dances without stopping to rest (Songs performed include 'Cross Thunder Love Hurricane' (leaning more into semi-rock, Lilium is dressed in an outfit loosely based on her motorcycle leathers. Loosely.), 'Clear Blue Date' (A happily-toned song about going to a date with a nebulously-defined individual, in which Lilium is outfitted in mostly normal casual clothes), '3000% Yours' (Sort of techno based, Lilium is dressed in translucent clothes and has markings and panel lines projected onto her body in several places.), and 'Angel on Call' (Lilium is dressed as an angel, complete with the return of the projected wings, but the song itself is a nakedly obvious allegory for the life of a combat pilot to anyone aware of her prior career)); the control room beneath the concert hall is, still, a hub of frantic activity.
"B-Song system, still active! Audience Quantum brainwave processing is at 83% efficiency, still rising!"
"Next performance is loading--prepare Seven-Seven-Seven for launch!"
"Audience emotional state has been adjusted by the expected amount! Maintain control in Subtle Mode!"
Back on stage, Lilium's outfit shifts to a snugly-fit leotard designed after a 0050s EFSF officer's uniform, with matching elbow-length gloves and thigh-length stockings. A pilot's jacket falls over her shoulders, worn more like a cape than a coat; and she points up to the sky as a capsule is launched from beneath the water between the stage and the Macross, soaring high into the air... and the opening notes of Lynn Minmay's debut single start to resound through the arena.
"Kyuun kyuun~... Kyuun Kyuun~..."
"My boyfriend is a~... Pilo-t~!"
High above the idol's performance, the projectile splits open and reveals its cargo: A variable fighter, painted shining white and decorated with artwork of Lilium wearing her current outfit striking a dynamic pose! A pose that Lilium herself is, in fact, striking right now! She's winking with her left eye, while holding a single peace sign up by the right hand side of her head (pointed upwards, incidentally), standing on her right leg with her left kicked up behind her, and her left hand rested on her hip. She holds the stance for a few seconds after the end of the first verse, before returning to dancing for the second.
"Glittering brightly as he plunges into a dive,"
"then his engines roar, pulling into a steep climb,"
"leaving a long trail of vapour clouds..."
As Lilium sings, the Seraph acts--Diving down directly towards the stage, then swooping back up into the air. The noise of its engines is loud, but... not overly so, at least by mobile weapon standards. For her own part, the idol's dance routine includes hand gestures that directly mimic the movements of the Valkyrie.
She tosses her handheld microphone aside and leaps into the air, her wings returning, swooping up into the sky towards the Seraph. Her voice is still being projected just fine--and if you look closely enough, you can see she's now (or more likely has always been) wearing an ear-mounted microphone instead.
"Behind him, overlapping together, two hearts form"
"Against the backdrop of the vast blue sky, it's a LOVE SIGN"
As the Seraph leaves a trail of brilliantly bright pink and then more reserved amber smoke behind it, pulling incredibly tight turns to form two overlapped hearts (one of each colour), Lilium makes a heart sign with both hands and soars high, higher than the spectator stands, even... and the wires she's flying by become visible.
And then they can be seen to fall away.
Entering freefall, she maintains her composure, singing,
"I LOVE YOU, YOU LOVE ME?"
The Seraph dives down after her, shifting form to GERWALK. Coming alongside her, it reaches out its hands and she reaches back...
"But, oh... he's so head over heels..."
Lilium grabs on; and the Seraph rapidly decelerates, coming to a stop hovering above the water right in front of the row of seats where Aisha is. Particularly observant spectators might at this point notice that the cockpit is vacant.
"For his plane instead of me!"
The Valkyrie lands, shifting its hand so that Lilium can stand on it. She answers this by crossing her arms and giving and exaggerated pout turned away from it, before it changes to battroid form and moves the hand with her close so she can smile and embrace its cockpit block.
The Seraph's hand raises to a salute, head turned up towards the sky, and as it does so something else happens. The Macross moves. More specifically, it raises the ARMD-02 Invincible that's been docked to its right arm since its refit decades ago to mimic the salute, water cascading down off of it. Being an officially sanctioned NUNE idol does have some perks, seemingly.
"Kyuun kyuun~... Kyuun Kyuun~..."
"My boyfriend is a~... Pilo-t~!"
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
"I wanna see the original version..." Aurora's mouth hangs open. Original version? Probably even BETTER. "The song Lilium wrote herself..." She didn't know Lilium could do that, actually. Impressive.
Emily turns her head back to Rebecca. "This'll work, I think. I had my doubts about turning a soldier into an idol, but she's on fire out there."
Aurora watches the screen thoughtfully. She briefly wonders if she can acquire the rights to have Lilium cover Fire Bomber's discography by fighting Basara in a duel. "...maybe a CANON duel could..."
As for the other song... Aurora takes a wild guess what SA-Iota goes with. Ah, that song.
The lights flash back on, and Lilium continues! CTLH gets a good reception from the Newtype Corps cohort, but again, Emily makes a comment about the leathers. Aurora is slightly less judgy about the butcherings of various outfits. Clear Blue Date... "Feh. The abstract man again. It's never a woman." Something about that makes Aurora sad, but she has a job so she doesn't really care right now. Angel on Call definitely feels relatable, and Emi's subtly icy eyes soften a little. "...nostalgic."
The technicians bustle past Aurora, but she's busy watching the screen and waving her hands in a cheer. Emily takes one look at the pilot cape and adjusts her white jacket to match. "Idols sure have changed since I was a kid." Ordinarily, she wouldn't complain about the outfits, but Lilium is a tad too young for the Colonel. (Not really, but she thought she was a teenager when she first met her, and that kind of impression wears off hard.)
"I love you, you love me..." Aurora is singing along. Some of the techs are singing along. Even Emi is mumbling along to it.
"Head over heels for his plane..."Another shimmer in Emi's eye. A moment lost in time?
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Lilium Valerie... Sheryl still hasn't heard of her before. She was in a very different part of Ranka's concert a couple of weeks ago. But it's a name she'll remember, particularly as the concert progresses. (The nondescript boyfriend doesn't bother Sheryl. She knows a thing or two about pandering to fans.) If this is her debut, she's already doing very well for herself, with a robust discography for someone just bursting onto the scene.
It reminds Sheryl of herself, who released two singles back-to-back for her debut. She was being managed very well, and that only continues to make her uneasy.
But Lilium herself has what it takes, no doubt, regardless of what might be hiding in her shadow. Sheryl listens, bobbing her head along to the melodies and sometimes humming along. And then...
Kyuun kyuun, kyuun kyuun... "My boyfriend is a pilo~t..." Sheryl sings along, just above a whisper. It's a song everyone knows; Ranka made it part of her own debut too. Ranka's debut didn't have quite so flashy a choreography, though--especially that salute from the Macross at the end. Sheryl's eyes widen. Is that also a hologram, or is that for real? Watching a stream, she can't know for sure in the moment, but she's sure she'll hear about it later.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
Aisha feels that pleasant hum in her nerves intensify as Lilium continues her performance, swept up in the electric current of the Idol's song. The energy of it sweeps through the crowd as Lilium goes through her various songs - Aisha remembers them less as individual experiences and more as an unbroken chain of emotion, colors fading in and out.
As Lilium begins My Boyfriend is a Pilot, though, something other than the familiar song catches her eye - it's the Variable Fighter Lilium is riding on. She's fully shaken out of her stupor by it blasting right by her, and she gets a good look at it as Lilium climbs on.
"That's- There's no way," she stammers.
Aisha recognizes that fighter - any engineer worth their salt would. That's a YF-23. Or, a fighter based on a YF-23, anyway. The project was a competitor to the YF-24 that most modern VFs stem from, but it ended up being a dead end when the EFF collapsed in addition to losing to the 24. What is that airframe doing at an idol concert? Aisha has more questions than she knows what to do with now, and she frantically begins typing away.
BeautifulGenius44: <<leon ur not gonna believe this>>
CrashExpert: <<whuh?>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<thats a yf-23>>
CrashExpert: <<is that supposed to mean something special?>>
BeautifulGenius: <<i swear leon if you were just staring at her chest the entire time->>
BeautifulGenius: <<thats a scrapped EFF fighter concept.>>
CrashExpert: <<huh. no shit.>>
More and more mysteries are piling up with this Lilium girl. This is definitely something to look into afterwards. Aisha's phone pings one more time.
CrashExpert <<i wasnt, btw.>>
CrashExpert <<staring, i mean. i wasnt staring at her>>
Aisha just rolls her eyes at that.
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
Flay doesn't think there's anything wrong with Lilium's reasons for performing here - it did seem like the terrorist attack was pretty bad, even if there wasn't much information released on it. But knowing what she does about the Boosted Songstress Project, the timing seems a little too perfect...
Either way, there's no arguing that Lilium has what it takes to be an idol, whether those talents were forced upon her, or whether she was born with them naturally. "She really looks like she's having fun..." Flay mutters as Lilium dances along with a vague outline of a boyfriend in 'Clear Blue Date'. It is pretty impressive that she already has an array of songs to perform in her very first live... and Flay doesn't know how to feel about the fact that the music is genuinely pretty good.
The only question that remains is whether Lilium can keep ahold of that momentum. There's few songs as timeless as Lynn Minmay's 'My Boyfriend is a Pilot'. While Flay has some extremely mixed feelings about the ever-so-romantic depiction of dating a pilot in the lyrics, Lilium does such excellent job putting her own spin on the classic song, it's easy to get past that. The Seraph on the other hand... she knows enough to know it's both extremely expensive and extremely dangerous. Is that really the real thing?
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
There's another brief lull in the music; and the Seraph holds Lilium up to get a better look at the crowd. The sounds of the cheers, the waving glowsticks, the feeling of being the total centre of attention... Maybe this was worth it for more than just Duty.
They love you.
The control room, once again. Dr. Frankford is leaning back in her chair, hands folded behind her head. "...I've got to hand it to Arcfeldt. Pulling extra shifts to produce a decent chunk of songs, and delaying her debut until we had a full concert set... I wasn't sure, but you can really feel it working on the crowd. Still, though, a couple covers won't hurt..."
"Damn right it's working. We haven't even turned up the B-Song system to full output... frankly, we might not even need it at all for something like this. Not that we're going to turn it off when we can still gather data..."
She shakes her head. "Speaking of--Recover the Seraph and prepare her for the next song! Is routine S.A.-Iota uploaded yet? It better be, we're running it!"
Lilium's composure is disrupted slightly--perhaps from a message in her ear, although she doesn't seem to be wearing an earpiece. Wonder how that got sent to her.
"Oh... this next song might be a little different, but... It's still a classic, I think!"
The Seraph sets Lilium down on the stage, and the lights go out while it's lowered back below the surface. The stands are of course still filled with glowsticks, but the stage itself remains in darkness for a while, with Lilium herself's position being obscured as the stands move back into position next to each other, and the dome closes above once again.
Once everything is secured, though, a new source of light can be seen in the venue: Lilium. Her outfit projection equipment is being manipulated to give her a faint glow, as if she herself was a hologram.
Her outfit now consists of a long cyan dress, with a torso area of a deep indigo and a tall, softly pink-coloured belt fastened tightly around her waist. It stops entirely just below her arms (excepting a narrow extension that goes directly up the centre of her back), but still extends sleeves in the same cyan colour as the dress down to Lilium's wrists. The top of the shirt area has a thin black trim, and a design in the same shade resembling an abstract, horned snake appears on the right hand side of the chest area.
"A little bit of blue"
"For the black matter,"
"A little bit of blue."
She seems to have shifted to singing in French. Lilium smiles contentedly, swinging back and forth on a simple seat suspended from the roof of the dome. She winks at one of the cameras as she passes it--the one sending footage to Frontier, specifically.
"You think that you're a cat,"
"It's just a day in the life."
Lilium remains on her swing, a pair of also purposefully obvious holographic white birds flying about her as she kicks her legs back and forth over the spectator stands. Eventually, she leaps off of it over the stage, leaning against a wall that wasn't there a moment ago as another appears behind her (this scene duplicates itself three times, so that one faces each section of the stands. Which is 'real' isn't immediately obvious)
"A wax doll left in the sun"
"Too much! No one can console"
"Shade, storm, oh, oh..."
"It's love, love... Oh no."
The idol holds a landline telephone to her ear, singing into its receiver and winding the cable around one finger. Around her float various translucent depictions of various phones, ranging from ancient AD Era designs to the kinds of novelty-shaped smartphones you can find in the Macross fleets in the modern day. Eventually, Lilium 'hears' something over the phone that makes her screw her eyes tightly shut, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. She lets go of the phone; and moves away from the wall, both of which quickly vanish along with the walls 'behind' her. Entering into a slower dance, her actions are mirrored by a few much larger projections of herself which quickly shift into their own alternate pre-planned routines.For a brief moment, her eyes... change again, but quickly revert. Although they do occasionally shift back again.
"Whose, whose"
"Whose lips did you take?"
"No, nobody special..."
"Passing, passing time"
"Just like in the past"
"No, no, my sweet it's nothing..."
Lilium is on a stool now, leaning against a writing desk holding a long pencil (particularly observant concertgoers might notice that the paper on the desk is inscribed with an early, incomplete draft of the lyrics to TERRESTRIAL GIRL♡CELESTIAL WORLD, the first song she performed at the concert). Her outfit has shifted slightly--it's no longer strapless, the long dress has been entirely removed in favour of slightly lengthening the torso area to serve as a miniskirt, and the sleeves are now detached. She's looking away from the papers on her desk (almost directly towards Aisha and the camera recording the footage Flay is receiving, incidentally) and toying with her pen, seemingly procrastinating her work as she continues to sing.
"Whose, whose"
"Whose lips did you take?"
"No, nobody special..."
"Passing, passing time"
"Just like in the past"
"No, no, just a small desire..."
After the song repeats a few time; the music fades out, and the lights and projections vanish once again.
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
Aurora stares, transfixed, at both the Seraph's routine and the Macross. "That performance from the VF777 is amazing..."
"That, and the venue choice. There's nothing like a charity concert to get people going..." If Emily feels bad for Macross City, she doesn't show it. She is practiced at not showing that kind of thing.
The next routine is... special. Once Lilium starts glowing like a hologram, Aurora starts to realise what's happening, and her feet begin vibrating in anticipation. The song begins, and-
-it's exactly what she thought.
The lyrics on the page catch her attention, and she glues herself to the screen. Not that she wasn't already glued.
When the song ends, Aurora is still humming. She and Emi clap.
"Hang on," Emily starts. "I recognise this. This is a Sharon routine, isn't it?" Aurora nods. "Yeah." Of course Aurora would recognise it, she's a big Sharon fan.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Sheryl knows the allure of the stage intimately well, of course. At first she sang to live: now she sings to live. She's said that a time or two. If Lilium ends up that way too, it's only natural, in Sheryl's opinion. Maybe that's something they'll come to discuss in the future.
Right now, there's the next number. 'A little different, but a classic,' she calls it. Sheryl almost laughs when she begins the actual song. She knows French, and so understands the lyrics, but even if she didn't, she'd be intimidately familiar with this number. After all, she's a huge Sharon Apple fan--Sharon Apple was a major influence on her hologram-heavy performances. She smiles to watch, especially as Lilium shoots a wink at the feed that's sent to her phone.
"Now this is a cover," she murmurs in approval. But her uneasiness is allayed only for a short while. She does catch those incomplete lyrics that Lilium writes during her performance, and it reminds her of what Sharon Apple's ultimate fate was (as far as she knows, anyway)--of how her songs got cracked down afterwards. She respects Lilium's brass for performing this song--but if there is someone managing her like Grace did, what's their angle here?
...It probably doesn't matter. Whatever the end game is, Sheryl probably won't be there to see it.
Her long lashes flutter to half-mast.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Sakaki has posed.
A mixture of concern and awe stir in Aisha's gut as Lilium performs Idol Talk. It's a bold - and risky - choice to perform a Sharon Apple song, especially when the last Sharon Apple performance in this city ended so infamously. Still, if it's happening with NUNE's blessing, she probably won't get in trouble.
CrashExpert: <<okay i know why this is concerning at least>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<yeah.>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<im gonna look into this lilium girl later>>
CrashExpert: <<yeah thats a good idea>>
CrashExpert: <<things are kind of not great over here so you're gonna have to do that solo tho sry>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<don't worry you wouldn't be much help anyway>>
CrashExpert: <<i take offense to that>>
BeautifulGenius44: <<yeah thats the intended reaction>>
Aisha snaps her catphone off and puts her hand to her chin. There's a bigger picture to everything she's seen tonight, but what?
<Pose Tracker> Flay Allster has posed.
ilium seems like she's acclimating herself pretty well, even as she starts to switch to covers. As the next song begins, Flay thinks she understands what she meant by 'a little different' - the atmosphere around this one is a little strange, with the glowy hologram-like look and the slow opening.
"Oh that's - is that French?" She thinks aloud as Lilium begins singing, not fluent enough to catch the trick. "Ohhh, that must be Sharon Apple's," she realizes, "That's kind of spicy, but I guess it's not too weird..." Even Sheryl was a fan of Sharon and took inspiration from her.
Besides that, Sharon's unfortunate reputation gives the song a sort of allure as a forbidden fruit, something they shouldn't be hearing, and its catchy, repetitive nature certainly doesn't lift that vibe. As Flay's eyes track across her phone screen, she sees the incomplete lyrics - and even though she knows it'd be a camera she's looking it, it almost seems like Lilium is staring straight at her.
...As she thinks about it more, Lilium performing a Sharon Apple song does seem a whole lot weirder when she factors in the whole Boosted Songstress thing - and Flay finds she can't just take this at innocent face value. There's more than a few similarities and knowing what happened to Sharon, what message could NUNE possibly be trying to send about Lilium?
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Dr Frankford nods her head with pride as the Macross returns to its resting position. "...It took weeks of negotiation to get them to agree to do that. It took a long time to get the timings on that routine with the Seraph programmed right, too... we had to physically test it with a crash mat, even. Several times."
She turns her gaze down slightly, falling silent for a moment. "...I don't think that was a pleasant experience for her, but it was better than the alternative..." She nods gravely to Emily. "...It's a shame about the city, that's true. Still, that was a remarkably clean operation by the usual standards..."
She raises a hand as Emily starts to question things. "-oh, it is. Our program... or rather, the Federation, and thus NUNE, inherited some things from the old Macross Consortium, when it went under after Sharon... well, after what happened. The legal rights to Sharon Apple's discography were among them. And considering they were written with similar practical uses in mind to what we're doing here... they're good for data gathering, at least. Can't lean on them too heavily, though."
The lights return, with Lilium standing on the center of the stage. The B-Song system has relaxed its grip on her body somewhat... she's properly free to move now, since she doesn't have to stay in place for the next routine. She'll need her muscle memory restored from a backup after that many in a row, though...
Whatever internal struggles she might have, all the audience sees is another unnaturally photogenic smile, and several bows in succession. "Thank you! Thank you for everything..!"
"I'll... be performing a lot more from now on, so please take care of me!"
The capsule in the center of the stage closes back over her, and its platform lowers back down through the water and into the backstage area.
Moments after Lilium disappears from view, merchandise (posters, prints, models of the Seraph, even a few /figurines/) comes into stock in several locations, both online and at the concert hall itself. These ones are labelled as 'Concert Relief editions', with a sizable chunk of proceeds going to the same charity as the concert itself. Three singles also seem to have dropped: TERRESTRIAL GIRL♡CELESTIAL WORLD (C/W: Angel on Call), Clear Blue Date (C/W: 3000% Yours), and Cross Thunder Love Hurricane (C/W: My Boyfriend is a Pilot - Ver. ONE HUNDRED UC). Her cover of Idol Talk is conspicuously absent from these listings.
The viewers at home are of course informed of this directly, but the audience in person will have to filter out through the stores to find out about it.
Lilium's eyes flutter half-closed as she's lowered into the backstage, technicians rushing about once again.
"Fatigue Suppressor disengaged--we don't have her scheduled for anything for a few hours, it's as good a time to let her sleep as any!"
"No signs of mechanical wear! B-Song system disengaged successfully!"
"Deactivating performance projection gear--don't bother getting her out of it for now, we'll let her rest first."
Lilium stumbles back to her dressing room, collapsing on a somewhat-comfortable bed in its corner after shutting the door behind her. She can still feel the quantum brainwaves... no, the hearts of her audience... it's a nice feeling. Like the gentle pair of arms wrapped around her, as lies there alone.
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
"Well, she pulled it off with flying colours. Cyber-Newtype gymnastic routines..." Emily blows a puff of smoke. "What will they come up with next."
"True. It was a remarkably clean operation, even considering the 81st's... tendencies." Emily waves the hand holding the cigarette dismissively. "If that crime becomes a stepping stone to a lasting, real peace, it'll be worth it." Every sin can be redeemed, at least partially, through results... though there's something ironic about burning the next generation to create a better world for them. Aurora, at least, was already dealt that card... No, Emily reminds herself, Lilium also chose to give herself to the military. This is simply one more duty, one more way of serving that overarching goal. She idly fingers an old scar as she ponders.
"Ah, so it's a case of reusing old homework..."
Aurora stands in the blinking lights of the tunnels, looking at her own hands. They're tingling with... something. Emotional intensity. There's something in the hair... maybe it's because Lilium is artificial, and she's artificial? Does everybody feel like this? "...It feels... warm."
"You did great," Aurora offers. "Good work out there," Emily says. They watch Lilium stumble off into her room. Yeah, it probably IS best to let her rest.
The Colonel raises a gloved hand at a scurrying attendant. "Get that girl some cold water. She's worked hard today."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
The concert comes to a close, and thus so too does Sheryl's feed. She clicks it off, and the holo-projector marble sinks back into her taiyaki phone's 'mouth.' Her long curls splay around her as she turns and collapses onto her temporary bed.
She's supposed to have a meeting with a few certain someones tomorrow. Watching this concert took her mind off it for a while, but now it's weighing on her harder than ever.
I'll... be performing a lot more from now on, so please take care of me!
Why did that sound to Sheryl's sharp ears like a cry for help...?
She huffs out a sigh and drapes an arm over her eyes. "I really am getting paranoid," she mumbles.