songerein | [OPEN] Embark on Some Havoc

Entry tags:

[OPEN] Embark on Some Havoc

Who: Alastor and You!
Which: Depends on the prompt
Where: Depends on the prompt
What: An open log for October featuring Alastor at Reverein's new radio station teaching people how to use the equipment and properly present an audio-only broadcast. Also featuring him going dreamwalking and nightmare walking for anyone who wants him in your dreams without making a big open log yourself!
Warnings: It's Alastor, a demon from literal Hell. He's also a bit manic at the radio station and extra spooky with the dream/nightmare walking.

Reverein Radio

With the official opening of Reverein's new radio station, Alastor was doing his best to make sure that the radio wouldn't just be supplying static on every channel that wasn't his own frequency. Where was the fun in only one channel, after all? Besides, he and the native scientists had put an awful lot of work into making sure that the radio tower blended in with the local aesthetic rather than the ugly scaffolds of metal back where Alastor had come from.

Anyone looking for him would find him at the station, teaching anyone who made the mistake of asking about how to work the system. Alastor's passion was sound and radio, so his students might find themselves trapped for literal hours.

The interior of the station was a real puzzle to get through: twisting corridors and rooms specially-designed to keep all outside noise from getting picked up by hot mics. The idea was to keep noisy foot traffic from interfering with a broadcast, but at least there was always some native who'd decided to work permanently there to guide anyone around.

At the moment, Alastor was at one of the soundboards, watching one of his "students" going through a basic sound check while another worked the board. He himself held one of the speakers of a headset up to one of his ears as he watched and listened intently. Though at someone's approach, he'd leave the booth to practically skip over to them.

Dreamwalking/Nightmare Walking

Perhaps it was because it was October that even the pleasant dreams he wandered into had a misty, spooky bent to them. As a demon, Alastor blended in well with the overall atmosphere.

Humming to himself, he made his way through the mists as he searched for the bulk of the dream if not the dreamer themselves.

Wildcard
Throw a prompt my way!

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The woman at the microphone slammed her hands onto the table with her notes, snapping at the sound man, "I can't focus with you warping my voice every two seconds!"

"It's not my fault! It's hard to understand you when you're so sloppy when you talk!" the man shouted back.

"Sloppy?!"

Using one hand to hold down the intercom to the booth, Alastor raised his fingers to his lips and blew a loud whistle to interrupt the argument. "When I was alive, the station I worked at decided to divvy up the work between two people much like how recording studios worked rather than the broadcaster at the mic having to focus on speaking and keeping everything clear which gets even more complicated when they're interviewing someone. The idea is that each of you focus on your individual parts to improve the overall performance. At the time, it wasn't something you typically saw in the radio with each broadcast personality actually being a team of a broadcaster and a sound specialist who worked flawlessly together." He looked to the sound man. "You're changing her voice before you can truly pin down what needs to be adjusted. That's inconsistent and distracting. And don't you look so smug, young lady." The woman at the microphone jerked as he turned his focus to her. "He's not wrong about your speech patterns. Enunciate, my dear! It's even more important here than it is on the stage!"

His two pupils looked chagrined.

Alastor glanced towards Eustace before telling them, "Take some time to sound each other out. If necessary, try swapping places. In the meantime, I've somewhere I need to be."

"Yes, sir," the two of them mumbled.

Alastor walked out to Eustace, shutting the door to the sound equipment "closet" attached to the booth. He rubbed his temples for a moment. "Honestly, Boss always made running a studio look so easy." Then he perked up. "So, how can I help you, my good man?"

Eustace could only stare in and listen in wonder. While he might not have been close enough to Alastor, it was still an odd side of him to witness, much different from what he was used to. Once the demon notices him and leaves, he can only look at him a bit apologetically.

"...Did I interrupt? Perhaps I should have contacted first."

Alastor placed one hand behind his back as he carelessly waved with the other. "If I was too busy to stop, I would've asked you to come back later when I stepped outside. Honestly, I needed a break before I seriously started considering how I should prepare them. Those two have a lot of potential, but when you work in any sort of entertainment industry, massive egos are par for the course. After all, unlike many jobs, an entertainer has immediate recognition and feedback from their 'customers' in either adoration or jeers. When a career you do exceptionally well at has you being constantly showered with praise, humility tends to fall by the wayside."

He placed his other hand behind his back.

"How about we grab some coffee from the break room and then go talk in my office?" He chuckled. "Well, I say 'my office' but it's part-office, part-studio given I don't need all of the usual equipment." He tapped the side of his head. "It's all internal on my end...though it does come with a receiver that never shuts off."

Eustace could only listen with his brows slightly raised, again in a bit of wonder in seeing this side of Alastor. But it wasn't a bad side, so he smiled a little more warmly before he nods.

"Sounds good."

And he would let the demon lead the way.

Even more than his food or his murders, radio had been Alastor's life when he'd been alive. He'd been enamored with it since a young age back when he'd been a boy from the bayou that hated talking due to how ignorant his accent made him sound. When the man on the radio talked, everybody listened, and Alastor had craved that respect like a man needed air to breathe.

Alastor's office was slightly bigger than the two-person booth without the soundboard room attached to it. He'd already picked up quite a few knickknacks and oddities from his new "coworkers" who were grateful for his input on everything from why the interior needed to be a maze to teaching others his craft. Like the main booths and sound stages, the office was soundproofed to minimize the amount of outside noise getting picked up on a hot mic. However, Alastor's office was the closest to regular foot traffic since he could easily filter out any unwanted excess noise with his internal equipment and literal decades of practice doing so.

He gestured to one of two seats in front of his desk. He took the seat behind it, leaning forward to rest his arms on the desktop. His ambient static hummed with excited energy.

"So what brings you to the station? Looking to try that idea of performing yourself?"

After a curious glance around the office, Eustace took the offered seat before there was a small snort.

"Hardly."

He would make for a poor radio host, he knew that well.

"I think that would be best left for those who have more passion for it." And personality type. "I wanted to ask about what I mentioned briefly the other day—about installing a radio system at the café."

"Of course! Should be quite simple, really! A radio and a few speakers connected to it should do the trick. Also would allow her to keep control over what was being played given she could have the radio behind the counter with her."

Eustace nodded along as Alastor explained his ideas.

"Is it possible to hook the system up to other music players? Such as record players."

"Absolutely! Originally, records were played over the radio by setting up a microphone by a record player to play music on the radio but soon enough specialized players were built to integrate with the radio equipment. Why not with a speaker system?"

"Then so long as it's not too complicated, we could use something like that as well."

At the very least, it didn't seem it would be too much more for Alastor to do.

"How long would it take? As well as payment. I can also assist with whatever you need."

"Let me think...It should take...Carry the two..." He drew red numbers in the air as if working out some sort of arcane calculus. Then his grin widened. "Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen to adjust for the accoustics of Miss Tifa's establishment."

Eustace couldn't help but blink and then stare at him for a moment.

"Ten to fifteen minutes?" The disbelief was clear in his voice. "That quickly? Really?"

Alastor sat back in his chair and smugly crossed one leg over the other as he steepled his long clawed fingers. "Unless she's planning to broadcast herself, all she needs is a radio to receive transmissions, that record player, and a set of speakers. The biggest wrinkle would be how many speakers to set up based upon the accoustics of her establishment. You don't want to drown out all conversation by having it too loud or make people strain to hear by making it too soft."

The man knew his sound.

Eustace still wasn't sure he could believe Alastor would be able to set up a system so quickly, no matter how simple...but he did have it to the demon. As evident by everything here, he knew what he was doing. So there was just one little skeptical arch of the brow before he just accepted it.

"We also have two floors... What about outdoors? Would it be worth having some speakers out there?"

"That does add a few wrinkles to it." His connected forefingers tapped his lower lip in thought. "Largely with connection. I know that some of the brilliant people who helped replicate my namesake technology are working out a way to connect speakers to localized radio waves -- Wireless technology is quite popular in the modern age but it always amuses me how it still relies on radio! -- but for the moment the speakers are connected via cabling. Unless she wants to have a separate radio receiver upstairs, a hole could be drilled in the ceiling-slash-floor that's just big enough to thread a cable through to connect the upstairs speakers to the radio and record player downstairs. Depends on how much control over the music she wants her patrons to have.

"Outdoor speakers you'd need to ensure would be able to handle the changing weather. Not just your standard heat, rain, cold, snow, and so on if you remember those starfish storms from summer before last. Not to mention I'd recommend clearing the idea with any neighboring businesses before you set it up. The last thing you want to do is to add noise pollution via different businesses attempting to drown out one another's music with their own."

Eustace was at least familiar with the "wireless" concept—after all his communicator ran on similar technology and the airships used them as well. So he could follow Alastor fairly well, humming in thought at the end.

"Drilling a hole won't be an issue. As for the outside... Based on what you're saying, it may be better to not. We can start with the inside first."

"If I might make a suggestion, I'd suggest testing the waters with a sound system purely on the first floor to see how her patrons like it. Some might prefer to eat without any potential distractions. Once you drill that hole, you can't really undrill it. If the majority of patrons want music on the second floor as well, then you could drill that hole if the wireless speakers still aren't available."

Alastor lowered his hands so they rested in his lap, hands clasped.

"In the latter case, the upstairs could have wireless speakers while the downstairs ones are still using cables. There's a lot less signal noise that way. While it's useful, wireless technology can get garbled if multiple devices end up using the same exact frequency like two stations trying to broadcast on the same channel."

He mulled over Alastor's suggestion. Really, he wasn't that worried about the hole. Through dreamotion and other materials, he could patch it up no problem... But it would be better if he didn't have to do any extra work. So after a few moments of thought, he slowly nodded.

"Since you're the professional, I'll take your advice."

True, but the patch job would almost never perfectly match the rest of the area around it. Most wouldn't notice but you would which would slowly drive you mad.

"It'll take two trips to get just the first floor done. We'll take a radio with us but no speakers or cables. That way I can get an idea of the accoustics of the first floor and measure how long the cabling needs to be. It'll give me an idea of how many speakers would be optimal. I'd hate to bring only two but realize I needed three or anything similar."

Another nod.

"That sounds fine to me. I'll look at the schedule to see what day would be good for you." When there aren't any customers around.

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[OPEN] Embark on Some Havoc

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