A holostream recording of the event
Club Inferno’s stage remains dark with the exception for the holographic Anodyne-A logo, glowing vividly above a waiting electronic drum kit and synthesizers. Every few seconds, the hologram appears to briefly glitch out. At first the errors seem random, but a pattern gradually emerges: probe telemetry, handshake requests, and short bursts of unfamiliar code interrupt the image before the logo forcibly restores itself. Finally, the logo fails to return. In its place, the first beat of the song rolls through the club.
Red light rises across the stage, revealing the band at their instruments and Anna standing before them, microphone already at her lips.
Every time Anna insists on the singer’s humanity, a new diagnostic warning appears behind her. She dismisses each one with a small movement of her fingers without interrupting the song. The lights fracture into packet-like bursts. Anna’s image appears several times across the stage, each copy moving a fraction of a second behind the last.
Anna opens her mouth to finish the final line. No voice emerges. Behind her, every projection collapses into a single blinking cursor.
The remaining instrumental signal fades into silence.
Once the room has settled, Anna continues. “At the beginning of every year, sensible people promise to improve themselves. I, uh, wrote a song about what happened next.”
Bright countdown numerals rise behind the band, punctuated by holographic confetti which falls across the stage as handwritten resolutions stack up around Anna; discipline, better judgement, no avoidable losses, only to be suddenly erased by an explosion behind the band as the song hits the gate camp. As the song reaches the final chorus, the stage reconstructs itself, somewhat less confidently than before.
This time, the holographic logo that returns is not the Anodyne-A logo, nor the Club Inferno one, but a large triglavian sigil, hovering ominously over the stage. Anticipating the audience, Anna nods, taking a few steps back. “Yeah, this is kybernaut.”
Triangular corridors like those of a precursor ship unfold behind the band as stylised Drifter structures form over the stage, little red wasps swarming around them, intermittently launching sustained red beams. As the song reaches the bridge and the backing vocalist, overlayed by an encounter suit hologram, steps forward, Anna steps aside, fingers twitching as if operating a computer system with her implants. Error messages in the cryptic triglavian script begin appearing across the backing hologram, each one of which Anna quickly dismisses with a flicking motion. As the bridge ends, the full band returns beneath a surge of red light as the drifter structure starts collapsing in on itself, and the red stars launch away into warp. The final beat lands as the Drifter structure finally disappears in a bright burst.
“Alright, this next one is about responsible asset management”, Anna says with a grin, as the holographic stage becomes a display of capsuleer luxury. Implant diagrams, clone silhouettes, and vast ISK figures moving in time with the trap beat. Several holographic Annas appear around the real one, each performing the same choreography.
The duplicate Annas disappear one by one as the song, finally leaving only the real Anna for the closing line.
The club lighting calms as the band prepares for the next song, leaving them beneath a softer cold-blue glow. "I was the Gallente girl for a while. Then I was just Anna. This one is for the people who made that possible.
The holographics abandon their spectacle for something more ordinary; evening traffic, illuminated windows, hole-in-the-walls, and crowds moving through a city that feels thoroughly lived-in. The backing band stays restrained while Anna carries the song forward, performing not to the cameras but directly to the audience. The remembered city remains behind Anna through the final note, its lights gradually fading window by window as the song ends.
“Thank you.”
The last point of Arcurio’s light disappears. In its place, a vivid navigation route ignites, racing outward into the dark.
“Alright, one more. Tomorrow can have the obligations, tonight belongs to the Inferno!”
Neon route lines stretch behind the band, leaving Jita’s sterile station interiors and disappearing toward the rougher lights of Curse. The Club Inferno lighting joins the programmed rhythm. As holographic executive lounges and unanswered mails dissolve around Anna, a rough station course crowded with moving silhouettes takes their place. The backing musicians emerge fully from the shadows, the drummer’s kit throwing light with every strike while Anna moves across the entire front of the stage. The final beat lands as the Club Inferno logo reforms above the stage, leaving Anna and the band framed beneath it.
“Thank you, Inferno!”
Anna spreads one hand toward the band as they step forward into the light, the group bowing together. “Anodyne-A. Good night!”
As the backing musicians power down their equipment, Anna moves toward the wings, holding a brief conversation with a caldari man holding a tablet, before they both disappear backstage.
