2024-04-30: Obelisk (Music Video)

• Cutscene: Obelisk (Music Video)
• Cast: Sheryl Nome, Rikka Takarada
• Where: Tsutsujidai
• Date: April 30, UC 0099
• Summary: The amateur music video for Obelisk as produced by Rikka Takarada, Alouette Pommier, and pseudonym I, Tabby, edited by Sheryl Nome's team. Originally featured in full on Jan. 21, UC '97; featured again in part on Apr. 26, UC '99. Released on Sheryl's 4th EP, Daybreak -Obelisque-.

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        Crystalline notes play in stirring sequence as the dark horizon brightens a lighter and lighter blue. "Oooh, woahhh..." a voice sings--and then, a guitar riff resounds as the morning sun illuminates a city that looks startlingly like a Fujiyokidai in ruins. As a frenetic melody builds in energy, the sun illuminates the mobile stage like a molten spotlight, and it frames a shadowy silhouette of a young woman with long wavy curls...
        
        The Galactic Fairy: Sheryl Nome.
        
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C0-2VwGYJg (Obelisk)
        
        In the intense backlight, she remains shrouded in darkness, but enough can be seen to make out her corset and frilled skirt, her uneven stockings and her strappy high heels. As she stands proud, hologram sunrise competing against the gloom of the city, her shadowed form regards a teenage girl with blue-black hair, standing opposite her across the mobile stage in her school uniform. Those who know her will recognize the girl as Rikka Takarada. Their eyes meet... and then Sheryl turns and runs into the burnished light, leaving only hints of her form behind.
        
        Rikka reaches out, but spires and platforms and stairways of all shapes, levels, and sizes erupt around her, blocking her path. Images of Sheryl swirl down around Rikka like autumn leaves: Sheryl on stage, Sheryl on talk shows, Sheryl on magazine covers, and finally, Sheryl in a Variable Fighter. As Rikka whirls around to try to find the true path, waving her arms around her as if she might be able to snatch the true Sheryl out from among the storm, Sheryl's voice sings:
        "Like a little bird discovering the light of dawn
        "I vow I'll notice
        "The heart racing over a faint omen
        "For the rest of the world is still sleeping on it!"
        
        On the edge of a platform above, Sheryl appears, gazing down at Rikka with a slight half-smile. She flips her golden hair as she sings into her iconic golden microphone, then reaches out a single gloved hand. She crooks a finger, as if inviting Rikka to give chase, then turns and dashes off anew. Rikka's eyes narrow in determination, and she dashes for a stairwell that arcs around to where Sheryl was.
        "Because I felt love, I knew despair
        "I still hold power in my hands
        "But even if I lose it, even if I lose it--"
        
        Though Sheryl continues to moves further and higher away, Rikka never gives up, vaulting up broken segments in the stairways, leaping over the gaps in platforms. When it seems like she might finally have Sheryl cornered, the Galactic Fairy turns to her--then grabs hold of a spire suddenly bursting up behind her and reaching up as if to pierce the heavens and bring her to the golden sun, now high above. Sheryl's curls billow as she sings, hanging dangerously down as she uses herself as a fulcrum, leaving Rikka to stare up at her and clench her hands in open frustration.
        "Swear to me by your tears that a miracle will cling to you
        "And you'll leap over the wreckage in a rising curve
        "Seek out the pulse in my heart until I return to life
        "Will you make it in time? I pray you'll make it in time!
        "(The reason for your doubt...) Oooh... (The reason for your now...) Ahhh, ohhh..."

        Around Rikka, television screens that had been blackened and lifeless come alive with more images of Sheryl: Sheryl dancing in a red kimono, Sheryl reaching out to the heavens in a billowing blue gown, Sheryl giving chase to herself as the Black and White Bunnies. As one, though each performs different dances with different expressions, they sing to her as she stares up at the Sheryl rising on the spire to the unforgiving sun.
        "Why am I getting farther away from who I want to be?
        "I keep defiling the aircraft skies
        "If it will numb them to true loneliness,
        "How cruel people will become!"
        
        Though Sheryl still smiles that cryptic little half-smile, the waves of her hair in her wind hide her eyes, leaving the true nature of her expression unknown. Around her, though she rises higher into the light, the angle of the spire means she remains locked in shadow. Dark, clawed hands grab her wrists and yank her back, and she's helpless to resist, chin rising and eyes shut as her arms arch backwards.
        "The darkness has been protecting me
        "So with puffy eyelids, I offer it a prayer
        "No matter what I lose, no matter what I lose..."
        
        Rikka watches this with widened eyes. However, rather than sit by and do nothing, her expression sets with determination, and she backs up several steps... to break into a running start and LEAP into empty air. A spire of her own pierces upwards, and she grabs hold, swinging herself around as she keeps her eyes upwards, chasing after the Galactic Fairy in a race against whatever it is that's binding her.
        "In order to live one second longer, encourage your spirit
        "And hitch yourself to a flickering destiny
        "Seek out the pulse in my heart and haul in uncertainty
        "Will you make it in time? I pray you'll make it in time...!"
        
        The black hands, banded on the edges with cyan with a red ring finger, emerge in countless numbers from behind Sheryl to rake towards Rikka and her spire, trying to tear her down and away. As they shoot down, they tear at Sheryl, stripping away pieces of her outfit to reveal a lavender bodice dress of a kind a certain would-be villainess wore. Rikka hunches up, weathering their attacks, but never letting go or keeping her eyes off the Galactic Fairy. When those hands manage to smash through her spire and leave her dangerously airborne, she kicks off the rubble and wheels her legs into a leap--and catches hold of Sheryl's spire, which freezes in place. Its tip snaps downwards, leaving Sheryl sprawled upon it.
        "(Swear to me by your tears that a miracle will cling to you)
        "And you'll leap over the wreckage in a rising curve
        "(Seek out the pulse in my heart until I return to life) Oooh..."
        
        Rikka pants for a few seconds, forehead bowed. Then she grits her teeth and looks up, crawling with determination up to the platform above as, around them, the sun sets and the sky enters a ruddy twilight. When she climbs up onto it, Sheryl has pulled herself upright and now stands at the edge. Her hair has gone from strawberry blonde to silvery lavender, and the rips in her outfit show that other dress. She holds her golden microphone to her lips as they form around her song. Rikka, battered and exhausted but still undeterred, staggers towards her, step by step. When she's only an arm's length or two away, Sheryl turns around to face her... and smiles warmly. Her eyes are now a vivid shade of madder. Rikka's blue eyes widen, and then she smiles back, wind blowing through her hair as shining tears streak her cheeks like falling stars.
        "Swear to me by your tears that a miracle will cling to you
        "And you'll leap over the wreckage in a rising curve
        "Seek out the pulse in my heart until I return to life
        "Will you make it in time? I pray you'll make it in tiiiime!"
        
        Sheryl's voice resounds, carrying that final note throughout the battlefield--perhaps throughout the city. As the music concludes in triumph and strength, Rikka reaches out to her, and Sheryl reaches back in return. One step, two, and then their hands clasp... and then Sheryl bows her head and embraces Rikka. Rikka remains, but Sheryl bursts apart into motes of light that cling to her, from her hair to her neck to her body to her legs and feet, her uniform lost in their sparkling light. While the setting sun dips under the horizon, leaving behind a deepening night, Rikka stares as if aghast at the space where her friend was... and then she looks down at her hands.
        
        At a silver microphone wrapped in dark blue ribbon.
        
        Sheryl's wordless vocals echo as the melody resumes, impassionate and wistful. Rikka bows her head... then clutches the microphone between both hands and lifts her chin to lock her eyes to the last of that sunset red. As her hair billows in the wind, the camera pans out slowly from behind, and the music and the scene both fade to black.