Passions – they lift us up, no matter how much we restrain them. They define who we are, see the world in a broader perspective, and make us alive. Or so we though. Little to control enables the feeble follower to become the fool to this game where no one plays. How fate gets intertwined to an aspiring musician with a good family and brighter future. Only to become the latest subject to a docile experiment of passions. Art or science, passions can take us away to an opulent realm. If not, let us expect to be transported to…The Twilight Zone.
Episode #2:
"To Serve Loud"
With enthusiasm at every vein of her body, the rocker aspirant Luna switches on the stereo system in the living room and hooks her amplifier cord to her electric guitar, preparing for another moment to jam. With just a strum to the string, she gets her rock on!
She jams along with a concert video she turns on from the flat screen television. Gladly, there is no one to hear the ear-piercing rocker shreds that Luna sends to blocks and blocks around the neighborhood. Or so she thinks.
Her roommate Luan suddenly wakes up from the noise that came. She puts on her woolen slippers and races down to check on the distracting commotion.
"Luna! Luna! Luna!" The 14-year-old aspiring comedienne tries to coax her sister. But the loud music is enough to overpower her voice.
This forces Luan to lift the left earphone off her and call her out of it. "Would you mind, Luna?!"
Finally noticing this, Luna pauses the video and tones down her amp. "Dude, sorry to bother ya."
"Well ya better keep it down! Someone is trying to sleep!"
"Sheesh, sorry about that. I just can't help fanning about it now!"
"What? What are you fanning about?"
"This." Luna then brings out a chart that is pasted with magazine cutouts and other paper-cut designs. "May I present Spacefleet. The coolest rock band since Smooch! The definition of indie! Rock! And electro!" She can help but squirm at the top of her lungs. "I just can't wait to see them in concert right here in Royal Woods! For two solid days!" At the top of her fandom, the 15-year-old cannot help but squirm in delight, much to Luan's expense.
"Well, that's great. Now, can you PLEASE lower it down so I can sleep?" she berates her.
"Will try my best, dude. But don't you worry, from I am about to shred all the way!" Just as Luna shreds her guitar, the vibration slams Luan to the wall. "Oh sorry about that."
But the poor comedienne feels the impact by the wooden wall. Not wanting for that happen again, she gives in to Luna's over-enthusiasm. "Look Luna, I get it. But can you please don't be loud for Pete's sake. I'll do anything, just so you can quiet down," she requests in a groaning tone.
"Do you want to come with me to the concert tomorrow? I have an extra ticket."
"Sure. Anything. Just please be quiet for just one night. Please?"
"Okay. Sure dude…"
"Good." With that promise, Luan walks back to her bed like a zombie. But she suddenly hears another guitar riff from her sister. "I said quiet!"
"Sorry. Adjusting the strings," Luna apologizes.
Begrudgingly, Luan marches back to her room.
On the night of the concert, Luna and Luan arrive at the venue via an Uber. The rocker is at her best getup, with her face painted and her outfit in the same vein as the otherworldly band. Yet, the comedienne is at her simplest, with no over-the-top fashion. She is almost mystified at the attendees of the concert who are dressed like dancers from musicals like Starlight Express and Xanadu. While for others, they are dressed casually.
Luan feels rather out-of-place with the outlandish costumes from such devotees.
Luna senses this from her eyes. "Yo dude. It's fine. You're gonna really love their songs."
"It's just that, you know, I am not into this music. Where's Sam and that other guy anyway?"
"Sam's on a trip. While the guys are performing at The Bay tonight. So alone again, naturally."
"Oh, so lucky me…"
Luna then wraps her arms around her shoulders to console her. "I get the feeling, dude. Sooner once you get into their music, you will surely love them. Cheer up now!"
"Well, that sure is sound. Hehe." But Luan keeps that joke as an afterthought to herself. She finds this as a coping mechanism from feeling out-of-place from a horde of rock-and-roll fans. "
The concert begins with opening acts from indie bands whose sound is akin to styles from MGMT to Devo. The concertgoers are mesmerized with the accompanied lights-and-sounds show from the background. Luna too is easily mesmerized.
Finally, the main attraction of the concert is coming up.
The main vocalist with the same presence that Freddie Mercury tends to do walks to the front of the stage as artificial smoke and green strobe lights overpower the structure.
"OHHOHHHHHHHHHHH!" he hoots.
The crowd responds, "OHHOHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"OHHAHH!"
"OHHAHH!"
"OHHOHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"OHHOHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"OHHAHH!"
"OHHAHH!"
Luan is rather mum as she witnesses all the concertgoers act all cultish with their unison chants and lifted arms.
Then in full bombast, Spacefleet performs their first number a la "We Will Rock You" entitled "We Will Serve You".
Once more, as the vocalist named H. G. Mars leads the people to the song, he belches, "We will serve you! We will serve!"
The crowd responds, "We will serve you! We will serve!"
Feeling unnerved, Luan nudges her older sister's shoulder. "Luna, I'm not sure about this." But she clarifies to her. "No, really. I'm feeling sick."
Just by that motion sickness, Luna is persuaded to take Luan to the food stalls at the back to let her rest. As she waits her sister finishing on throwing up, Luna notices Spacefleet merchandise that she learns that fans buy religiously.
The rocker then sneaks off for a while to check out the merch, which ranges from shirts to mugs, from posters to jackets and from plastic containers to duct tape. But the one that catches her attention is a hardbound autobiography of the band itself.
"How much is for the book, dude?" Luna asks the cashier.
"$59.99," he answers.
"Awww…"
"But dude, this book is worth it. It has all the concession you need to know about Spacefleet, including a glossy copy of their sheet music."
Those words are sweet music to her eyes. She cannot help but be speechless about it. "Sheeesheeesheeesheeesheee…"
"Right on. And not only that, you'll be the selected few to join a promo wherein you will join the band in their Otherworldly rock tour."
"NO WAY…"
"Just $50. And who knows? Maybe you might win."
Luna cannot help but squirm on the inside. Much like Mick Swagger, she always wanted to join a rock band on tour. Thus, this marks as her chance to do so. She checks her wallet to see she only has $24 dollars left, reserved for her and Luan's bus fare home. She then checks all of her pockets, to no avail. The 15-year-old is completely penniless.
Right on time, Luan walks to her, still dizzy, after hurling. "Okay! Maybe not into crowd music."
Luna immediately shares her sister about her find. "Luan, you got any dough with you?"
The younger sister answers woozily, "Why? Do you knead it? Hehehe. Get it?"
"I'm serious, dude! This is my chance to join Spacefleet on tour!"
Even as she somehow acts like a rider from rollercoaster, Luan retains her senses. "Look Luna, you took too far, just to show me how much you love Spacefleet. And now, you're gonna make me help you be with them?"
"Dude, you know me, right? I feel that rock-and-roll blood flowing in me. And it's burning and burning. And what else can I do?"
"Set it aside?"
"Come on, dude! Please!"
Luan just grumbles at her to make a stand.
Not wanting to back down, Luna doubles down on reaching out a deal to her dear sister. "Please sis! Okay, after this, I promise not to let you hear any loud music from me. Pinky swear!"
Luan does not want to ponder it. But she feels her bigger sister's eagerness to reach out to her. "Do you swear that?"
"I promise, sis! To the rest of family. To my class. To the rest of the world, I promise!" Luna solidifies that vow by raising her right hand.
This is enough to persuade a hard-hearted but reasonable Luan. "Just don't make any ear-piercing noise." Finally, she hands Luna a $100 bill.
"Thanks Luan!" Luna thanks her with a big embrace before buying merchandise that costs around that amount.
Later on, after taking a break from squeezing in the crowd, Luna hands her souvenirs to Luan and rushes to their spot from before.
Luan tries to catch up with Luna, but the Spacefleet book falls from her hand. She picks up to see it flipped to the section where Spacefleet placed their sheet music. There, she sees rather strange symbols imprinted from every note. Following through, Luan spots a Fibonacci sequence (though she is not knowledgeable what the term is) from the notes.
Because of that, she calls up Lisa, who immediately answers her, "I assume that you called, your eardrums have yet to attain auditory dispel from the deafening music."
"No, it's not that," Luan responds, "Luna made me buy this book about that rock band…for her. Can't you believe it?"
"If I were in your unfortunate position, I would readily decline her."
"But that's not the point. Do you still remember about doing that seminar about space language?"
"Where I got to share my indeterminate knowledge of space with aloof conspiracy theories? Yes."
"Good. The book has these weird symbols. Can you interpret them for me?"
"Let me see about it. Got any picture of it?"
"Sure." Luan then takes a snapshot showing the sheet music. "Just call me when you got anything."
It is then that Spacefleet performs their next performance that easily resembles the music video from "Radio Gaga" with the white space outfits that the band wears, the gigantic clock from the set design, the crowd chanting alongside the band and clips from Fritz Lang's Metropolis being flashed on the LED screens. Even the song is akin to "Radio Gaga" through its lyrics: "Don't you listen, radio channels! Video and YouTube! Radio channels!"
Luan returns to Luna, who greets her with open arms. She rather not see the not-so subtle subtext of the song but remains unnerved when she watches an almost submissive crowd, celebrating to an otherworldly band. But not wanting to shame anyone else, especially Luna, she simply lends an insincere smile and follows along minimally.
After ten more songs, H. G. Mars gives an important announcement: "My dear guests, thank you for all of this. You made all these possible. And your spirits lift us up. And we can lift you up too. As you know, we have an ongoing contest tonight. Whoever purchases our latest book gets to have a chance to join us for our Otherworldly Rock tour! Now, we shall announce our 15 lucky winners!"
The crowd goes wild as the winners announced and are asked to climb onstage. Once he revealed the other fourteen winners, Mars finally reveals the last winner. "And finally, our last winner to join us at tour! It is…LUNA LOUD!"
As soon as she hears her name being announced by H. G. freaking Mars, Luna cannot help but scream at the top of her lungs. Like the wild fan that she is, she rushes onstage, claims her winning certificate and embraces Mars as the crowd goes wild.
"Congrats to our winning fans here! You shall joins us for our tour now! Good night Royal Woods!"
Right behind, as the crowd cheers, Luan simply claps her hand, being proud to her sister. Luna spots her from the crowd, to which Luan just lends a crooked smile at her. However, the guards guide Luna to the backstage to prepare to join the band.
Suddenly, Lisa dials Luan at the moment.
Luan quickly answers the phone, prompting Lisa to reveal the horrifying truth to her. She is in utterly disbelief that such a shocking discovery would revolve around a passion that Luna defines herself in. Nevertheless, she quickly rushes to Luna.
After the concert, the fifteen winners are guided to Spacefleet's tour bus. Each is excited to meet and bond with band formally, including Luna.
But as the latter is about to board the bus, Luan catches up. But the guards in the area blocks her way. "Luna! Luna! Luna!"
"Luan?" Luna overhears her sister that she looks at her from behind. "Luan!"
"LUNA! Don't go! Please! Luna! We need you!" The bouncers hold her back, but that does not stop Luan from revealing the truth. "The book you bought…It's a cookbook! IT'S A COOKBOOK!"
"A cookbook? What?"
That significant keyword triggers for the guard to push Luna to the bus and for another guard in the bus to lock up Luna to a plastic chair with laser restraints on her hands and her legs, along with the other recipients of the award.
The rest of the band's guards enter the bus before the vehicle exits the premises and then accelerates in light speed. The bus soon transforms into a spacecraft that exits the Earth's atmosphere and moves toward a looming mothership.
As it turns out, Spacefleet is, indeed, literally a spacefleet housing otherworldly creatures.
But back to Luna's bus-turned-spacecraft, the band confronts but immediately morphs into bloodthirsty Xenomorph-like aliens. It is nearly a traumatizing feat to see someone's favorite rock band to actually transform into deadly alien creatures.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The passengers, with the exception of a traumatized Luna, scream at the top of their lungs, which causes the aliens to spew out gapers that puncture through the throats of the humans.
Luna writhes in horror to see people actually die in front of her.
But the head alien, who took on the form of H. G. Mars, speaks to Luna in his native dialect, "Fear not woman. Dead souls not them. Functions still working. But you, be captive and be prepared."
At that prospect, Luna is dragged out of the tiny fleet and is locked up in a cellar. The cellar, radiant in bright lights, only contains a medium-sized bed, a rhombus-shaped table and a door shaft where the food is delivered.
Just as she is shoved to her quarters, she looks at the aliens with disgust. "Can't believe you dragged me away to this. You tricked me!"
The main alien, now in its H. G. Mars disguise, delivers food to Luna. "Human, you must be hungry. Help yourself with some food."
"I ain't hungry after what you just did!"
"But you must. It would be a waste if you maintain your thin physique. Nourish yourself, if you will." Just like that, the aliens leave Luna to her white, secluded cell from miles away.
Right now, she can sense the comeuppance of her total submission to a cult following that turned out to be space invaders. It is as if "Otherworldly Rock" or "Spacefleet" has not got that away.
Hopefully with a shred of hope, she contemplates to the readers of this otherworldly tale, "If you are out there, if you can hear me, let you so not be too stubborn like me. Get back to the way we once belong."
Passions – they lift us up, or so our humanity. They take us away, sometimes for a better purpose in this universe. It is never certain where our passions will take us, other than deceive into an inescapable realm. But what better for the creature of humanity to know where to rightfully designate our passions. Or else, let his soul find ceaseless peace in, or fleeting solace, in The Twilight Zone.