Drunkard's Walk Forums

Paprika is an excellent movie. I highly recommend it, in large part because it manages to be quite disturbing while also being hugely entertaining. In this the song "Parade" is a microcosm of the film as a whole. These are the translated lyrics:

Quote:Energy in my heart is of chemical foam
A street of taxies, worn tires, blood and flesh
Behold all that is liberty is a parody of utopia
A shining boulevard of buyers and giga-movies
Mino Depression is nonsense, La Vie en Rose is on sale
They say you should know you are happier than you realize

Dying literacy is systematically auto-killed
The formaldehyde street of buyers and hanging wires
Moisturize that dry synergy with artificial sweetener
Raining money into the high-rise mega-temples

You can not write the word 'ignorance'. The future is on sale
Push aside and laugh at the karmic tale saying it’s superstition

Now it is coming to you, giving off a stench and devouring your shadow
The parade of terror is coming, and it is in your name

The roaring MC becomes a lethal dose for the public
On the street of cripples, selling diamonds and battered Tao
Behold all that is liberty is a parody of utopia
Rely on SSRI and say "hi-ho" in the coffee shop

Minor theory is flimflam, hedonism is on sale
It is non-repayable, it has reached the point of no return

Now it is coming to you giving off a stench, devouring your shadow
The parade of terror is coming, and it is in your name
Now your shadow procreates as if the ground is being smothered
The parade of lunacy is coming, and it is in your name

As a power song, I'd guess that it inflicts bizarre, disturbing, and surreal hallucinations on the target, while also messing with their head such that they can't tell what's real and what's a hallucination, only that something is violently wrong. Very definitely a weapon of terror, and thus probably not among Doug's first-resort options.

Mm. "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" has much the same effect, but I suspect that where it gives a "good trip", or at least a neutral one, this song would definitely be "bad trip" territory.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

This would always give the target the bad trip of someone with PTSD. "Lucy" could very well be song-form LSD, capable of giving bad trips, but "Parade" always gives the worst of the worst.
EDIT: I only just now (2nd of February) realized how pushy this sounds. It's your story and everything, of course this is just my impression and I have no expectation that you comply with it.

Meh. That's the whole point of this forum, to speculate and debate and have fun arguing over stuff that may or may never show up in a story. Until I actually decide to write it into something, everything here is up for grabs and as long as you're not outright flaming, there's no harm in defending your ideas vigorously.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.