Winning Lives Aren't What They Used to Be by MARch of Time
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MARch Of Time
Probably thinking about writing (procrastinating)
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Here, an omake for the meantime.
Is this an effortborne shitpost? Neigh.
There were so many puns I had to refrain from using, way too many for an Omake where Symboli Rudolf doesn't appear. Maybe next time. Just one or two were allowed
"I don't know what that means."
"Look, you already stand out a bit, and if you wanna catch enough attention to get into the Triple Tiara circuit, you've got to stand out magnificently."
----------------------------------------------------
Once again, Shirogane found herself in Tracen Academy's library, reviewing the many race records and archives for old Winning Lives.
Seeking the Pearl's advice lingered in the back of her mind all the while, as various options for her own potential performances brewed in her imagination. The Yushun Himba Winning Lives had records quite a far ways back, and as time steadily passed, it seemed the culture and atmosphere of the performances could diverge quite widely in tone, energy, and presentation.
Seeking the Pearl's own strategy for over-the-top, flamboyant flaunting of her foreign looks and, sigh, 'dazzling' personality, had certainly helped her stand out, but with the amount of foreign students in Shirogane's own year, it seemed like something similar for herself would not be enough.
She'd thought before that using Polish ambiance or music records for her performances could be a useful way to indirectly or tactfully bring up her family's restaurant, but… well, that too could be a long shot.
The ideas kept mulling around in the back of her mind as Shirogane leaned back into an armchair of the library's archival footage room, but everything refused to coalesce into a proper plan just yet.
She pondered the lists of races which accommodated special performances, and in particular the ones with more lax restrictions on content or theme, above all scouting them for one she'd even be likely to win.
It wouldn't do to bring up any sort of plan to her Trainer without at least having done this much preparation and groundwork. Any proposal would be much more likely to be accepted if she ironed out most of the details and options with their costs and benefits ahead of time.
The allure of a stage was… not particularly enticing, Shirogane would admit, but it was a strong opportunity to build recognition, or brand awareness, and possibly support her family's business. Those alone were reason enough to make the effort, but the prize pool was perhaps the most tempting.
With a muted sigh and resolve to get back to work, Shirogane stretched out her arms above her head and leaned back to select another Winning Live record from the collection she'd prepared for research.
The label on the box read 22 May 1983: Yushun Himba, Dyna Carle.
Someone had sketched little stars in now-faded black marker around the title, and underlined it with the phrase 'One to remember' followed by a winking face with the autographed initials 'N.D.'
It had caught Shirogane's attention among the rows and stacks of more recent recordings, as it was quite a bit older but looked relatively well used. In her mind, that likely meant that despite its age, the record held potentially useful insights, despite being the better part of a decade and a half out of fashion compared to the Winning Lives of 1997.
Without further ado, the copy and colorized VHS tape version of a separate, original tape reel was slotted into Tracen's state-of-the-art VCR, and Shirogane placed her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in one hand, settling in to scrutinize the successes and triumphs of her predecessors.
If she could apply the lessons already learned in the past, probably now long forgotten by Shirogane's generation, who could say what advantages she might be able to leverage over her contemporaries?
How did those older performances capture an audience's fascination? What were areas that they substituted their weaknesses for strengths instead? What made them stand out above their competitors, to the extent that legends and epithets formed around them for the rest of their lives and long after retiring? In short, what were their Branding tactics.
Seeking the Pearl would call her phrasing there 'uncute', but that was simply how Shirogane saw it.
As the first few minutes of the recording rolled by, chiefly stage setup and stagehands tuning equipment, along with inserted slides detailing the rudimentary statistics of the various participants from the 1983 Classic Year at the time, Shirogane considered Winning Lives as a concept once more.
From this recording alone compared to the newer ones she'd watched, it was already apparent how the concerts had grown more polished and refined, more professional, over the years. All the same, it could be said that there was a certain appealing authenticity to these more... earnest and in-the-moment performances, rather than something more brutally commercialized.
Shirogane knew she wasn't the most expressive, and her dance and singing instructors had long vacillated about her smile, her eyes, her intonation. Authenticity for her, they'd said, was not going to appeal well to a modern audience. But was there a way to use that? To work around it? If something else more instinctive to her or conducive to her talents would work, perhaps she could adjust the typical Winning Live paradigm a little.
Something more… instinctive?
Shirogane stroked her chin slowly and hummed to herself.
She recalled the raw instinct to bash someone's face in when Seeking the Pearl pointed her 'finger-guns' at Shirogane, and how 'authentic' and 'from the heart' the impulse had been. Her instructors had constantly espoused such platitudes in one form or another throughout their many unsuccessful attempts to give her a 'passing grade' for her performances training. Could there… be something there?
Obviously, Shirogane was well used to suppressing and dismissing any such relics of her body's heritage and instincts, but did her reaction show on her face? Surely, she could at least manage an 'intense' expression over a 'creepy' one, no?
Shirogane shook it from her mind as the recording finally brightened with stage lights, illuminating the… group of fillies(?) with live instruments standing center-stage, with the typical racing contestants as dancers flanking both sides? The band consisted of three guitarists of one sort or another, the footage being somewhat too grainy to tell at this zoom level, and a full drum set placed behind one uma holding a microphone stand.
Her focus returned in full, and Shirogane leaned in intently. A Winning Live that so thoroughly bucked the usual trend was worth closely analyzing.
Why was that thought so amusing..? Well, it was beside the point.
An announcer full of enthusiasm cried out, "Please welcome our special guests, here from around the world to support their young cousin and winner of 1983 Yunshun Himba, Dynaaaa~ Carle!! Here they are: Northern Dancer and the rocking 'Def Lyphard~!!"
Five slightly older Uma, all with deep shades of brown hair and wild white strands in their bangs, as well as… notably prodigious figures, raised a fist in unison to the absolute roaring of the crowd. Each wore reflective black clothing in various ensembles with red, white, and blue accents, but all wore long black patterned skirts with their band's name decal'd diagonally across and a slit running down one side. One even had a scarlet beret?
It was very… true-to-the-times attire. It would be rude to call it 'dated', but that's what came to mind the moment Shirogane saw it.
Front and center, blasted into sharp relief with spotlights, stood the winner herself, one Dyna Carle it would seem, also holding a microphone and striking a pose with one arm reaching toward the light above.
Her own hair was lustrous and long, practically glimmering in the light, but she had the most pronounced white streak running all the way, straight down the middle of her whole length. In the glowing stage lamps, it flashed like lightning when the light caught it right, and reflected in the black leather of her jacket, worn loose atop a sleeveless shirt depicting the Union Jack flag.
Why the flag of the United Kingdom, Shirogane had little clue, as by all accounts Dyna Carle was Japanese if she won the Yunshun Himba in 1983, but it wasn't as if her own classmates were any different. An American wearing a Japanese schoolgirl's uniform could hardly be called better...
Regardless, the outfit emphasized her figure and defiant pose quite flatteringly, especially when the other vocalist, Northern Dancer if Shirogane understood the introduction correctly, strutted forward wearing a similar black leather getup and a frayed white scarf, then leaned back-to-back with Dyna Carle while the two made matching 'peace' signs with their free hands.
Shirogane felt her already alert ears straighten even more stiffly as the metallic echo of an electric guitar plugged into an amplifier wafted across the stage, followed by a hanging silence that crashed into motion with a synchronized growling guitar hook and a slamming thud of a kickdrum and snare.
This was not the typical idol anthem.
"I'm out of luck, out of love~! Got a photograph~ picture of~"
The dancers to each side moved with the rhythm, emoting the feel of the lyrics with their body language in the way that Shirogane's instructors clearly intended for her, before they broke down into all but tearfully begging her to.
The second and third place runners danced closest to the band on either side flanking Northern Dancer and Dyna Carle. The runner up had light pink hair and an enthused smile, while the bronze placer with deep black hair was practically flushed with excitement. Both were clearly eyeing the band and Dyna Carle in the corners of their vision while the two lead vocalists leaned into each other and bellowed out the lyrics in a duet.
Their voices sounded so similar it was almost unreal, making the hairs on Shirogane's neck stand and brought the sensation of prickling across her skin there, but together they resonated with strong harmony.
In a sharp movement, Dyna Carle turned to sing directly at the bronze placer and winked, pointing with her free hand.
"Passion Killer, you're too much~! You're the only one~ I wanna touch~"
The crowd swelled in volume with the act, reflected in how... clearly delighted the target of the lyrics seemed. Hmm.
Passion Killer? Was that the other racer's name? Wait, was this song about another Uma… how did they even get permission for any of this, was it a custom song? Was Dyna Carle such a shoo-in for winning that they had prepared all of this ahead of time?
In a moment Shirogane gained a sudden calm, realizing that it had happened in 1983. This being the 80s, suddenly everything was believable.
The rest of the racers dancing in support rose their voices as one for a chorus, each swinging an arm in a slow pan to point toward the center-stage while their other hands rested on their cocked hips.
""I see your face every time I dream~ On every page, every magazine~ So wild so free, so far from me~""
All while Northern Dancer and Dyna Carle matched their gazes with the camera directly in front and sung to it.
"You're all I want, my fantasy~!"
Shirogane was only beginning to process what she was seeing. This was so far outside of what anyone had done recently that it was either useless for her purposes… or exactly the flavor of inspiration she needed.
The song went on and it became increasingly clear that there was… something going on between the three placers of this race. Were they close friends, perhaps even… roommates at their school? Well it was all over a decade ago now, maybe she'd have to track down those names and see what they had gotten up to after retiring.
"Photograph~ All I've~ got is your photograph~ You've gone straight to my heaaaaaaaad~!"
Shirogane was shaken out of her stupor-like state of stunned musing when another verse transitioned into a chorus, ending with Northern Dancer taking Dyna Carle's microphone with a smile while another band member tossed a guitar toward the first place winner, who caught it as the long last syllable faded.
The silver and bronze placers swept up close to each other, arms clasped and spinning around their locked elbows, momentarily obscuring the center view, some fancy footwork sending them spinning away from each other just as Dyna Carle slid forward on her knees between them both, just… absolutely going to town for a shredding guitar solo.
The crowded roared so loud that the recording started to scratch.
That, Shirogane had to admit, would be exceedingly hard to forget. And it stood out from anything she had ever seen for a Winning Live. Just what were they up to in the 80s in this world? She'd been too young a child to have much memory of anything before 1988, let alone popular media from a few years before she was even born.
As the last notes of the solo squealed out, Northern Dancer underhanded the second microphone stand high up into the air, slowly spinning end over end while the whole ensemble sung out the chorus one more time, the deep scoring voice of Northern Dancer edging into a gravelly, plaintive serenade.
"I don't want your~ Photograph~! I don't need your~ Photograph~! All I've got is a photograph~!"
With the final word, the guitars fell silent with a great crash of the drums.
Dyna Carle had raised her own guitar over her head and smashed it into the stage with the final drum beat, punctuating the beat with a metallic shriek and wooden shattering, all while leaning back from where she rested still on her knees, and extending her other hand up to catch the second microphone stand, upside down, microphone toward her mouth just before it could hit her in the head.
As soon as she caught it, stopping it dead, she bust out a single line while staring at her two fellow placers. All three clearly exhilarated, flushed, breathing heavily, and words clearly from the heart-
"I wanna touch you!"
A single instant of silence lingered while the uma centered on the stage shared radiant smiles.
Shirogane felt her eyebrows had long since risen all the way to their maximum, but she had to admit, the theatrics and energy of it had gotten her blood pumping a few pulses faster. Athleticism, acrobatics, musical skills, choreography, tension between the main actors, a stunning instrumental solo, shocking destruction, powerful voice. It was a performance, truly the essence of the word.
The drums kicked back in for one final ramp up along with short bursts from the (remaining) guitars, ascending in volume and melody, while Dyna Carle, still leaning back with her face to the sky, slowly stood up with her back fully arched, inhaling a breath so large her chest visibly swelled out to the max.
She roared out with her whole body, full of ferocious triumph, every limb shivering with the tension and energy held within.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH~~ AAHHAAAAAHHAAAA~~~ OOOHHHHHH~ "
The crowd jumped and bounced with the sound of a winner's roar so loud it shook the stage, arms to the air and cheering the victor in her full-bodied elation, who had thrust her free hand to the sky, forefinger raised alone as if to say… she was first, number one.
The concert faded out with a few more drifting chorus outros from the backup vocalists, Northern Dancer tossing her microphone aside to hug Dyna Carle to her chest, while the two other placers hugged either side.
The recording ended shortly after with the familiar clacking halt of the tape reaching its end.
Shirogane just leaned back into her armchair and tilted her own gaze toward the ceiling, trying to process her impressions. She had never felt even close to the passion that Dyna Carle clearly displayed for racing, or at least in that moment with her fellow placers.
She sat there for a time, simply thinking over how memorable the performance was compared to the usual fare. There was little chance Shirogane would be able to put on a similarly powerful performance, not least because of regulations, but simply because she didn't feel she had that kind of energy for what was, to her, a moderately pleasant high school occupation.
But….
But, there were still lessons to take from something like that.
Her idle attempts to concentrate and refocus led her to reading the little pamphlet inside of the recording's box, once again autographed 'N.D.' - Northern Dancer, Shirogane now surmised, lead vocalist for the multinational band 'Def Lyphard'. It came as somewhat of a surprise that every member of the band listed on the pamphlet was described as a former professional racer, and all from the same lineage. Half siblings and cousins all, each had been a famous name when Shirogane was a child, though of course she had paid little if any attention to now-distant or fading racing legends.
Lyphard, apparent namesake of the band, Northern Dancer of course, Northern Taste - a six-time winner in France who had apparently emigrated to Japan, and the similarly accomplished Sadler's Wells and Nice Dancer.
All names to look up later, out of idle curiosity if nothing else. Their performance had been quite intense and memorable, after all. To think, they'd all retired to form a band? Or formed it while still running professional races?
Shirogane shook her head and got back to work.
She spent a few more hours internalizing her observations, notating the core features and eccentricities of the performance that would undeniably make any contestant stand out head and shoulders above the others. Something that, Shirogane wryly acknowledged, her current stature made difficult in most any other case.
Shirogane was quite dexterous, and would even claim some measure of talent at the mechanics of singing and dancing at once. Instruments could clearly similarly contribute to how well a performance was received or an audience's impression of her. It shouldn't be too difficult to pick up an 'expressive' tool like that to help complement her fundamentals.
A guitar..?
She thought of the aggressive growling notes, the irritating rumbling of thunder, recalled glimpses of shattered fragments on a stage long gone, and something primal in her blood brought her lips curving up.
She caught herself a second later.
Now there was a thought...
------------------------------------------
(Later…)
"You cannot be serious…"
Hana Toujou pulled her glasses off, setting them gently on her desk, before pinching her nose with her palms.
"I would not have brought this up as a joke."
…
"You're telling me that our studio musicians and performance support staff gave you the go ahead? When did you even pick up learning an instrument?" Hana felt compelled to ask, out of an almost morbid curiosity, even if she suspected the answer would only bring her another headache.
"I'd never held a guitar until last week, but I seem to have the knack for it."
Hana was right, she could hardly believe it, but all the same, it just made sense with everything else Shirogane had done. That, perhaps, hurt the worst about it.
This was not what she meant when she prayed for a talent with the skills and drive to improve while staying healthy. This what not what she meant by 'a trainee who respects their limits!!'
Notes: technically speaking, if Symboli Rudolf, 1984 Legend and Triple Crown, is at Tracen in such close proximity to the 90s greats, then Dyna Carle'd be in around the same class as Rudolf
Umaland time is weird and skewed, so i just had all the Canadian uma be a generation back and all the famous sires as close relatives like how its handled when sires and their foals both attend Tracen at once.
Also the famous prolific sires of the time get to be 80s rockstars, because lol they've all got it going on.
Also if Montjeu gets to be there as a hidden boss, then her extended family gets to exist too!
Is this an effortborne shitpost? Neigh.
There were so many puns I had to refrain from using, way too many for an Omake where Symboli Rudolf doesn't appear. Maybe next time. Just one or two were allowed
OMAKE:
Winning Lives Aren't What They Used to Be
Shirogane Orzel learns from the archives of her predecessors
Winning Lives Aren't What They Used to Be
Shirogane Orzel learns from the archives of her predecessors
(Some time after Seeking the Pearl's visit with Shirogane in the Tracen Library, Ch 17, Setting The Pace, recap) :
Seeking the Pearl hopped up to her feet again, doing another spin for no adequately expressed reason, pulling her sunglasses down to cover her eyes. "See, I've been to a bunch of different places, so you could say I'm Miss Worldwide, capiche?" She pointed at Shirogane with both index fingers, hands curled to resemble guns, which made Shirogane twitch before she tamped down the urge to bash someone's face in.
"I don't know what that means."
"Look, you already stand out a bit, and if you wanna catch enough attention to get into the Triple Tiara circuit, you've got to stand out magnificently."
----------------------------------------------------
Once again, Shirogane found herself in Tracen Academy's library, reviewing the many race records and archives for old Winning Lives.
Seeking the Pearl's advice lingered in the back of her mind all the while, as various options for her own potential performances brewed in her imagination. The Yushun Himba Winning Lives had records quite a far ways back, and as time steadily passed, it seemed the culture and atmosphere of the performances could diverge quite widely in tone, energy, and presentation.
Seeking the Pearl's own strategy for over-the-top, flamboyant flaunting of her foreign looks and, sigh, 'dazzling' personality, had certainly helped her stand out, but with the amount of foreign students in Shirogane's own year, it seemed like something similar for herself would not be enough.
She'd thought before that using Polish ambiance or music records for her performances could be a useful way to indirectly or tactfully bring up her family's restaurant, but… well, that too could be a long shot.
The ideas kept mulling around in the back of her mind as Shirogane leaned back into an armchair of the library's archival footage room, but everything refused to coalesce into a proper plan just yet.
She pondered the lists of races which accommodated special performances, and in particular the ones with more lax restrictions on content or theme, above all scouting them for one she'd even be likely to win.
It wouldn't do to bring up any sort of plan to her Trainer without at least having done this much preparation and groundwork. Any proposal would be much more likely to be accepted if she ironed out most of the details and options with their costs and benefits ahead of time.
The allure of a stage was… not particularly enticing, Shirogane would admit, but it was a strong opportunity to build recognition, or brand awareness, and possibly support her family's business. Those alone were reason enough to make the effort, but the prize pool was perhaps the most tempting.
With a muted sigh and resolve to get back to work, Shirogane stretched out her arms above her head and leaned back to select another Winning Live record from the collection she'd prepared for research.
The label on the box read 22 May 1983: Yushun Himba, Dyna Carle.
Someone had sketched little stars in now-faded black marker around the title, and underlined it with the phrase 'One to remember' followed by a winking face with the autographed initials 'N.D.'
It had caught Shirogane's attention among the rows and stacks of more recent recordings, as it was quite a bit older but looked relatively well used. In her mind, that likely meant that despite its age, the record held potentially useful insights, despite being the better part of a decade and a half out of fashion compared to the Winning Lives of 1997.
Without further ado, the copy and colorized VHS tape version of a separate, original tape reel was slotted into Tracen's state-of-the-art VCR, and Shirogane placed her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in one hand, settling in to scrutinize the successes and triumphs of her predecessors.
If she could apply the lessons already learned in the past, probably now long forgotten by Shirogane's generation, who could say what advantages she might be able to leverage over her contemporaries?
How did those older performances capture an audience's fascination? What were areas that they substituted their weaknesses for strengths instead? What made them stand out above their competitors, to the extent that legends and epithets formed around them for the rest of their lives and long after retiring? In short, what were their Branding tactics.
Seeking the Pearl would call her phrasing there 'uncute', but that was simply how Shirogane saw it.
As the first few minutes of the recording rolled by, chiefly stage setup and stagehands tuning equipment, along with inserted slides detailing the rudimentary statistics of the various participants from the 1983 Classic Year at the time, Shirogane considered Winning Lives as a concept once more.
From this recording alone compared to the newer ones she'd watched, it was already apparent how the concerts had grown more polished and refined, more professional, over the years. All the same, it could be said that there was a certain appealing authenticity to these more... earnest and in-the-moment performances, rather than something more brutally commercialized.
Shirogane knew she wasn't the most expressive, and her dance and singing instructors had long vacillated about her smile, her eyes, her intonation. Authenticity for her, they'd said, was not going to appeal well to a modern audience. But was there a way to use that? To work around it? If something else more instinctive to her or conducive to her talents would work, perhaps she could adjust the typical Winning Live paradigm a little.
Something more… instinctive?
Shirogane stroked her chin slowly and hummed to herself.
She recalled the raw instinct to bash someone's face in when Seeking the Pearl pointed her 'finger-guns' at Shirogane, and how 'authentic' and 'from the heart' the impulse had been. Her instructors had constantly espoused such platitudes in one form or another throughout their many unsuccessful attempts to give her a 'passing grade' for her performances training. Could there… be something there?
Obviously, Shirogane was well used to suppressing and dismissing any such relics of her body's heritage and instincts, but did her reaction show on her face? Surely, she could at least manage an 'intense' expression over a 'creepy' one, no?
Shirogane shook it from her mind as the recording finally brightened with stage lights, illuminating the… group of fillies(?) with live instruments standing center-stage, with the typical racing contestants as dancers flanking both sides? The band consisted of three guitarists of one sort or another, the footage being somewhat too grainy to tell at this zoom level, and a full drum set placed behind one uma holding a microphone stand.
Her focus returned in full, and Shirogane leaned in intently. A Winning Live that so thoroughly bucked the usual trend was worth closely analyzing.
Why was that thought so amusing..? Well, it was beside the point.
An announcer full of enthusiasm cried out, "Please welcome our special guests, here from around the world to support their young cousin and winner of 1983 Yunshun Himba, Dynaaaa~ Carle!! Here they are: Northern Dancer and the rocking 'Def Lyphard~!!"
Five slightly older Uma, all with deep shades of brown hair and wild white strands in their bangs, as well as… notably prodigious figures, raised a fist in unison to the absolute roaring of the crowd. Each wore reflective black clothing in various ensembles with red, white, and blue accents, but all wore long black patterned skirts with their band's name decal'd diagonally across and a slit running down one side. One even had a scarlet beret?
It was very… true-to-the-times attire. It would be rude to call it 'dated', but that's what came to mind the moment Shirogane saw it.
Front and center, blasted into sharp relief with spotlights, stood the winner herself, one Dyna Carle it would seem, also holding a microphone and striking a pose with one arm reaching toward the light above.
Her own hair was lustrous and long, practically glimmering in the light, but she had the most pronounced white streak running all the way, straight down the middle of her whole length. In the glowing stage lamps, it flashed like lightning when the light caught it right, and reflected in the black leather of her jacket, worn loose atop a sleeveless shirt depicting the Union Jack flag.
Why the flag of the United Kingdom, Shirogane had little clue, as by all accounts Dyna Carle was Japanese if she won the Yunshun Himba in 1983, but it wasn't as if her own classmates were any different. An American wearing a Japanese schoolgirl's uniform could hardly be called better...
Regardless, the outfit emphasized her figure and defiant pose quite flatteringly, especially when the other vocalist, Northern Dancer if Shirogane understood the introduction correctly, strutted forward wearing a similar black leather getup and a frayed white scarf, then leaned back-to-back with Dyna Carle while the two made matching 'peace' signs with their free hands.
Shirogane felt her already alert ears straighten even more stiffly as the metallic echo of an electric guitar plugged into an amplifier wafted across the stage, followed by a hanging silence that crashed into motion with a synchronized growling guitar hook and a slamming thud of a kickdrum and snare.
This was not the typical idol anthem.
"I'm out of luck, out of love~! Got a photograph~ picture of~"
The dancers to each side moved with the rhythm, emoting the feel of the lyrics with their body language in the way that Shirogane's instructors clearly intended for her, before they broke down into all but tearfully begging her to.
The second and third place runners danced closest to the band on either side flanking Northern Dancer and Dyna Carle. The runner up had light pink hair and an enthused smile, while the bronze placer with deep black hair was practically flushed with excitement. Both were clearly eyeing the band and Dyna Carle in the corners of their vision while the two lead vocalists leaned into each other and bellowed out the lyrics in a duet.
Their voices sounded so similar it was almost unreal, making the hairs on Shirogane's neck stand and brought the sensation of prickling across her skin there, but together they resonated with strong harmony.
In a sharp movement, Dyna Carle turned to sing directly at the bronze placer and winked, pointing with her free hand.
"Passion Killer, you're too much~! You're the only one~ I wanna touch~"
The crowd swelled in volume with the act, reflected in how... clearly delighted the target of the lyrics seemed. Hmm.
Passion Killer? Was that the other racer's name? Wait, was this song about another Uma… how did they even get permission for any of this, was it a custom song? Was Dyna Carle such a shoo-in for winning that they had prepared all of this ahead of time?
In a moment Shirogane gained a sudden calm, realizing that it had happened in 1983. This being the 80s, suddenly everything was believable.
The rest of the racers dancing in support rose their voices as one for a chorus, each swinging an arm in a slow pan to point toward the center-stage while their other hands rested on their cocked hips.
""I see your face every time I dream~ On every page, every magazine~ So wild so free, so far from me~""
All while Northern Dancer and Dyna Carle matched their gazes with the camera directly in front and sung to it.
"You're all I want, my fantasy~!"
Shirogane was only beginning to process what she was seeing. This was so far outside of what anyone had done recently that it was either useless for her purposes… or exactly the flavor of inspiration she needed.
The song went on and it became increasingly clear that there was… something going on between the three placers of this race. Were they close friends, perhaps even… roommates at their school? Well it was all over a decade ago now, maybe she'd have to track down those names and see what they had gotten up to after retiring.
"Photograph~ All I've~ got is your photograph~ You've gone straight to my heaaaaaaaad~!"
Shirogane was shaken out of her stupor-like state of stunned musing when another verse transitioned into a chorus, ending with Northern Dancer taking Dyna Carle's microphone with a smile while another band member tossed a guitar toward the first place winner, who caught it as the long last syllable faded.
The silver and bronze placers swept up close to each other, arms clasped and spinning around their locked elbows, momentarily obscuring the center view, some fancy footwork sending them spinning away from each other just as Dyna Carle slid forward on her knees between them both, just… absolutely going to town for a shredding guitar solo.
The crowded roared so loud that the recording started to scratch.
That, Shirogane had to admit, would be exceedingly hard to forget. And it stood out from anything she had ever seen for a Winning Live. Just what were they up to in the 80s in this world? She'd been too young a child to have much memory of anything before 1988, let alone popular media from a few years before she was even born.
As the last notes of the solo squealed out, Northern Dancer underhanded the second microphone stand high up into the air, slowly spinning end over end while the whole ensemble sung out the chorus one more time, the deep scoring voice of Northern Dancer edging into a gravelly, plaintive serenade.
"I don't want your~ Photograph~! I don't need your~ Photograph~! All I've got is a photograph~!"
With the final word, the guitars fell silent with a great crash of the drums.
Dyna Carle had raised her own guitar over her head and smashed it into the stage with the final drum beat, punctuating the beat with a metallic shriek and wooden shattering, all while leaning back from where she rested still on her knees, and extending her other hand up to catch the second microphone stand, upside down, microphone toward her mouth just before it could hit her in the head.
As soon as she caught it, stopping it dead, she bust out a single line while staring at her two fellow placers. All three clearly exhilarated, flushed, breathing heavily, and words clearly from the heart-
"I wanna touch you!"
A single instant of silence lingered while the uma centered on the stage shared radiant smiles.
Shirogane felt her eyebrows had long since risen all the way to their maximum, but she had to admit, the theatrics and energy of it had gotten her blood pumping a few pulses faster. Athleticism, acrobatics, musical skills, choreography, tension between the main actors, a stunning instrumental solo, shocking destruction, powerful voice. It was a performance, truly the essence of the word.
The drums kicked back in for one final ramp up along with short bursts from the (remaining) guitars, ascending in volume and melody, while Dyna Carle, still leaning back with her face to the sky, slowly stood up with her back fully arched, inhaling a breath so large her chest visibly swelled out to the max.
She roared out with her whole body, full of ferocious triumph, every limb shivering with the tension and energy held within.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH~~ AAHHAAAAAHHAAAA~~~ OOOHHHHHH~ "
The crowd jumped and bounced with the sound of a winner's roar so loud it shook the stage, arms to the air and cheering the victor in her full-bodied elation, who had thrust her free hand to the sky, forefinger raised alone as if to say… she was first, number one.
The concert faded out with a few more drifting chorus outros from the backup vocalists, Northern Dancer tossing her microphone aside to hug Dyna Carle to her chest, while the two other placers hugged either side.
The recording ended shortly after with the familiar clacking halt of the tape reaching its end.
Shirogane just leaned back into her armchair and tilted her own gaze toward the ceiling, trying to process her impressions. She had never felt even close to the passion that Dyna Carle clearly displayed for racing, or at least in that moment with her fellow placers.
She sat there for a time, simply thinking over how memorable the performance was compared to the usual fare. There was little chance Shirogane would be able to put on a similarly powerful performance, not least because of regulations, but simply because she didn't feel she had that kind of energy for what was, to her, a moderately pleasant high school occupation.
But….
But, there were still lessons to take from something like that.
Her idle attempts to concentrate and refocus led her to reading the little pamphlet inside of the recording's box, once again autographed 'N.D.' - Northern Dancer, Shirogane now surmised, lead vocalist for the multinational band 'Def Lyphard'. It came as somewhat of a surprise that every member of the band listed on the pamphlet was described as a former professional racer, and all from the same lineage. Half siblings and cousins all, each had been a famous name when Shirogane was a child, though of course she had paid little if any attention to now-distant or fading racing legends.
Lyphard, apparent namesake of the band, Northern Dancer of course, Northern Taste - a six-time winner in France who had apparently emigrated to Japan, and the similarly accomplished Sadler's Wells and Nice Dancer.
All names to look up later, out of idle curiosity if nothing else. Their performance had been quite intense and memorable, after all. To think, they'd all retired to form a band? Or formed it while still running professional races?
Shirogane shook her head and got back to work.
She spent a few more hours internalizing her observations, notating the core features and eccentricities of the performance that would undeniably make any contestant stand out head and shoulders above the others. Something that, Shirogane wryly acknowledged, her current stature made difficult in most any other case.
Shirogane was quite dexterous, and would even claim some measure of talent at the mechanics of singing and dancing at once. Instruments could clearly similarly contribute to how well a performance was received or an audience's impression of her. It shouldn't be too difficult to pick up an 'expressive' tool like that to help complement her fundamentals.
A guitar..?
She thought of the aggressive growling notes, the irritating rumbling of thunder, recalled glimpses of shattered fragments on a stage long gone, and something primal in her blood brought her lips curving up.
She caught herself a second later.
Now there was a thought...
------------------------------------------
(Later…)
"You cannot be serious…"
Hana Toujou pulled her glasses off, setting them gently on her desk, before pinching her nose with her palms.
"I would not have brought this up as a joke."
…
"You're telling me that our studio musicians and performance support staff gave you the go ahead? When did you even pick up learning an instrument?" Hana felt compelled to ask, out of an almost morbid curiosity, even if she suspected the answer would only bring her another headache.
"I'd never held a guitar until last week, but I seem to have the knack for it."
Hana was right, she could hardly believe it, but all the same, it just made sense with everything else Shirogane had done. That, perhaps, hurt the worst about it.
This was not what she meant when she prayed for a talent with the skills and drive to improve while staying healthy. This what not what she meant by 'a trainee who respects their limits!!'
Notes: technically speaking, if Symboli Rudolf, 1984 Legend and Triple Crown, is at Tracen in such close proximity to the 90s greats, then Dyna Carle'd be in around the same class as Rudolf
Umaland time is weird and skewed, so i just had all the Canadian uma be a generation back and all the famous sires as close relatives like how its handled when sires and their foals both attend Tracen at once.
Also the famous prolific sires of the time get to be 80s rockstars, because lol they've all got it going on.
Also if Montjeu gets to be there as a hidden boss, then her extended family gets to exist too!
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