⇨ THE MATRIX: Plot Finale

[ringleaders]

Who: EVERYONE! Especially Tamaki, Carly, and Childermass.
When: S1:D40 - the first day of the second performance week.
Where: The carnival, while the gateway to the Matrix is open.
What: Agents find the carnival. They don't like it. Neither does the Ringmaster.
Warnings: Body horror for some people, gun violence for others. Also, a pissed off Ringmaster.

MATRIX: RESOLUTIONS↴ The days following the kidnappings and attacks are tense. The performances go smoothly enough, but are delayed by those that have been bedridden or captured - only for the vanished workers to return a few days after the initial attacks. Bad things have been done to them, clearly, but the specifics are unclear, as is why they seem to have been released without a fight. Maybe the machines just had no further use for them, as unlikely as it seems. Regular humans from the Matrix come and go. They experience the carnival, balk at the possible unreality of their lives, and then go home. What it accomplishes is ambiguous and perhaps unsatisfactory to some. All the while, the threat of something more ominous lurks. The sensible thing to do in this situation would be to pack up and leave, but even if it is broached to the Ringmaster, she will be resistant. She spends much of the Off Week mulling over the idea, only casually recommending that people might want to stay out of the Matrix for the time being, but not enforcing it. When the next week rolls around, she makes the somewhat unpopular decision to declare that the carnival is opening its gates to the Matrix again. Workers are directed to prepare for another week of performances. This turns out to be an irresponsible choice. ► AGENTS ATTACK: Mere hours after the carnival gates open, theoretical threats assertively make themselves a reality. It may not be entirely clear what happened to all observers, but the generalities appear something like this: the gates open and performances start, humans enslaved within the Matrix start to come in, just as before, and then... chaos breaks out. Suddenly Agents are there, something the Ringmaster had assured wouldn't happen. The numbers of Agents present seem to multiple within a short time period, but with some luck you may spot the original source - it's the three captures carnival workers, Tamaki, Carly, and Childermass. ► THE BUGGED: For Tamaki, Carly, and Childermass, this is sure to be an unpleasant experience. How much they experience or remember of this will vary, but what will essentially happen to them is that three Agents are going to use their implanted bodies in an attempt to import themselves into the carnival's reality - that is to say, they are going to try to upload themselves into their bodies through the implanted bugs, and overwrite them as they do with the Matrix natives. (For an example of how this usually, watch the helicopter be overwritten by an Agent about ten seconds into this clip.) This won't really work like how they intended, given that the carnival's reality is a mixture of code, magic, and matter at the moment. How exactly this pans out with your character is up to you - you can have them completely turn into an middle aged white man with a gun (or a different middle aged white man if they already are one) but have the Agent's control falter after a short while, or they can only partially change and partially take over. Or, they can just try to possess your characters body for a while, with no physical changes. Motivation wise, the Agents are pretty simple. They discovered the anomaly of the carnival and wanted to know what the fuck was going on, but what happens after arriving isn't really what they were expecting. They will be attacking primarily out of reflex and out of a lack of better ideas. They are machines, programmed for a purpose, and will do their best to accomplish that - right now, that is eliminating a threat. The bugged characters can be saved by being taken down/knocked out/restrained enough that the Agents will make the jump into another nearby Matrix native. From there, they will multiply, for a short time. ► KICKBANNED: After the Agents enter through the three bugged characters, more Agents will appear by overwritting some of the nearby Matrix natives. Overall we are talking about 6 Agents spread out around the carnival at any given moment, but if you kill or injure their host they will be able to jump to a new human and take them over. The attack will be short, but unpleasant. After about 15 minutes the Ringmaster will realize what is happening, and put a swift end to it. If any of the possessed characters haven't been knocked out/saved by then she will literally and figuratively rip the Agents out of them, returning them to normal. After that she will tear apart the coding/consciousnesses of the remaining Agents and kick all of the remaining visitors out, slamming the gates behind them. She will be very pissed, and it will be scary to watch. Then, she will declare that they are packing their figurative bags and moving the fuck on, thank you very much. OOC GUIDELINES: The carnage here should not get excessive, though people are welcome to get hurt if they want to. The fight will be short, and ultimately the Agents will be too confused to be super effective - however, it's more than enough to provoke the Ringmaster into being done with this shit. Any Agents killed will revert to the dead body of whatever human they were possessing. These bodies will also disappear when the Ringmaster kicks everyone out. If they jump from a live host, the host will be left with whatever injuries they sustained. The bugged characters will have to get their implants removed by the Doctor. Overall, this isn't meant to be a total bloodbath, and the carnival workers will have a good shot at handling the Agents on their own turf. It's mostly the fact that they keep coming back that is the problem. Character's abilities function as normal inside the carnival, and they may possess a small portion of their One powers for the duration of the fight, too. OOC questions can be directed to the original plot post. If you are one of the three possessed people and really don't want to do this plot, we can figure a way to minimalize it for you, but I'm hoping this is something the plot volunteers find exciting.

Comments

⇨ FUCK THIS SHIT WE'RE OUT

[lordofthering]

It's not the first time some veterans will have seen her furious, but it's always memorable. It seems both a very long and a very short time after the Agents arrive that she is there, appearing in bursts of flame and ripping the Agent's very essence out of their humans shells. Her eyes glow ember red, now, showing their inhumanity more clearly than usual - her hands seems clawed, and her teeth particularly sharp.

She snorts smoke in disgust as she tears them apart, and then heads to the gate with an irritated roar.

"GET OUT!" she commands, and all of the remaining residents of the Matrix seem to be sucked back out the way they came, leaving only some shed blood and collateral damage in their places. She doesn't give a shit about the injured humans of that world. All she cares about is that this whole planet has turned out to be a huge waste of time and absolutely no fun at all.

Once the dust has settled, she stands at the head of carnival, staring at the space where the gate just was, her claws clenches at her sides.

"What the hell is wrong with people?!" she yells at no one in particular. "Am I cursed or something??"

[pipers_son]

Well. It's been some time since this has been seen, hasn't it?

After taking care of Tamaki- and by that he means possibly tying the poor boy up with a whole lot of rope- Joker had been making a fly straight to try and find the Ringmaster because this? This is just cause to bother her. No one, not him or the other veterans or her, surely, want a repeat of the vampires. He's just about to fumble for his radio, wanting to yell maybe a little bit at her, when-

The Ringmaster angry is always a show all its own. From above, winder under his wings, Joker watches it all happen, and gives a low whistle as the gate disappears.

If this never happened in the first place- if she'd listened when he'd brought up that maybe they should just leave with such antagonistic forces in the Matrix, a thought he mulls over with no small amount of bitterness- then he'd be a lot happier. Still. At least this has been taken care of quickly, before anything too disastrous had a chance to happen.

From a little ways behind her, there's the sound of wings as Joker comes in for a landing. He's a little battered, bleeding in a few places, but not apparently shot at, which is the most he can ask for. A short second passes as he looks over her, trying to figure out what exactly to say.

I told you. No. Funny, most people just sit in the cookhouse complaining when they don't like the games. No.

"Bad luck, I'd say," he ventures with instead, using practiced care, "since we didn't have much trouble with Morpheus' and his lot. Care for a drink ta wash away the bad taste of this whole bleedin' mess, ma'm?"

⇨ CHILDERMASS WITH A GUN (aka an Agent)

[atouts]

It's at the Big Top where this entire ordeal begins (or more like continues) for Childermass. He's still on light duty thanks to his less fortunate adventures in the Matrix, but it's been days since then and he's at least shown up to help out backstage even if he won't be performing. He's in the middle of setting something aside, for some other act or another, when a complete and utter feeling of wrongness hits him. It's like he's been punched in the gut all over again and whatever he'd been holding before clatters to the floor as he instead doubles over and throws out a hand for the nearest thing to grab onto, to try and keep his balance. He ends up sinking to one knee, anyway.

The struggle will go on for about a minute before the Agent overrides the magician's control over himself, though suddenly faced with a physical body outside the Matrix, in a place run by magic, it doesn't quite go as planned. Childermass doesn't physically change, but who's driving sure does.

When he — the Agent — gets back to his feet, it's an unsteady attempt, but he gets there. There's no real time to get used to suddenly being stuck in a actual physical body, but the Agent will deal, and immediately checks for his gun. That, at least, manifested correctly. The rest of this, however, is not what he'd expected.

One quick, jerky, and uncharacteristically confused glance around the Big Top later, the Agent will be heading for the nearest exit, to get out into the carnival proper, provided he can make it there at all.

pew pew it's getting shot time

[kingsroads]

Around three or so minutes after the chaos erupts, Jonathan Strange appears. He doesn't know what's going on, just that he's heard gunshots. He had been helping people escape the chaos, trying to keep people calm while attempting to find where the gunshots came from in the first place: no luck. Apparently 'whoever shot their gun' was too vague a term to use the already imprecise magic of searching for someone, something Strange really should have known but hey, hope springs eternal.

It's only after those moments that Strange decides to find Childermass. Childermass has been here for a while. Childermass might know what's going on. And, at least, he wanted to make certain the other man was safe. Not that he was worried or anything. At least, not that he'd admit he was worried. Childermass had already been shot once, he simply wanted to make certain it didn't happen again. So, as he spots Childermass, Strange runs right up to him, bundle of energy and seemingly unaware of how odd Childermass might be acting.

"There you are! There's something odd going on and I'm—why do you have a gun?" Because why does Childermass have a gun. Strange looks confused as he looks between Childermass and the gun. What use could that be? Could he be the one that set off those gunshots? And if so, why?

closed-ish to Mitsuki and Joker

[puddingemote]

[[OOC: Those two will be taking Tamaki down, but if anyone wants to do something before he gets caught (where he gets away) or afterwards just let me know!]]

Tamaki had taken the off week to rest and do some training after previously getting kidnapped, so he was ready to do the shows he'd originally been scheduled for. He's on his way to one of the side tents for a side acrobatics show when suddenly he finds himself rooted in his tracks.

It feels like his whole body is suddenly being yanked and stretched, then pulled in on itself. He's shrinking, back down toward his original height, and it isn't pleasant, like all his growing pains but in reverse and much more intense. His hair starts to turn black, the color coming from the roots and pushing down each strand, and he can feel his face shifting, like his bone structures are changing.

"N-no... no...!"

He's not sure when a gun appeared in his hand, but it's there - glitching in and out, but it's there and solid, nonetheless. His feet start to take a few steps, and Tamaki fights against them, causing himself to stumble. His body continues to shift, back and forth between Tamaki's own features and the features of someone else.

"No... leave me alone!"

[pipers_son]

Frankly, Joker is uneasy.

It come with the territory of being a veteran, he thinks. When you've weathered enough bad performances, gone through rocky worlds, and dealt with angry guests, you start to pick up on how the wind is turning, so to speak. Like a seasoned sailor who can taste how the weather will change on his tongue.

And what Joker has been tasting lately on his is ill omens something bitter and worrying. Still, he's brought up the idea of just leaving to the Ringmaster, and if she doesn't want to leave just yet, well- what can he do?

The show must go on. Whether he wants it to or not.

While he can't change the Ringmaster's mind, what he can do is look after his own. Wardrobe with its skeleton crew is waiting in the wings for any costume mishaps, so what he does is look after his performers. A few are slated to start right around now, he thinks, so Joker takes to the air, looking out for the small figures he's quickly come to recognize by heart now. Tamaki he spots easily, thanks to the boy's growth spurts, and he hovers in the air a while just watching him.

Honestly, he's still a little worried about the kid, but if he says he can perform then, well, he can perform. Maybe he'll swoop by the kitchens, grab something good for him that he can pass off once his show is done. That sounds like a good-

Something is wrong.

Even from far up in the air, Joker can see it, and he reacts without hesitation as he dives down for earth. He flares his wings out and comes to a landing right around the time a gun appears in Tamaki's hand, and he sucks in a deep breath. Damn. He recognizes those glitchy effects.

"Stay calm and don't let 'em in, Tamaki," he starts, unsure of what else he can say as he holds one hand up with the fingers spread. "Don't lose yer head." This is really shit advice, but it's not like they give advice for what to do with this sort of thing in the supervisor's handbook. Or that there's even a handbook.

[fragileandsoft]

While most maintenance and repairs are best done during off-hours, Greg tries to stay available while visitors are around in case of emergency. This, however... is not the kind of emergency he had in mind.

Pandemonium's already started breaking out before Greg's figured out the source--until a visitor tenses in the middle of her darts game. She gives a brief gasp, that's all, before she warps, changing into another person before Greg's very eyes. The pit falls out of his stomach, not just from the terrifying shift, but from the appearance man who now stands in the former woman's place. He heard the descriptions from when they nearly killed his son. Agents are in the carnival.

"Steven..."

He has to find him. Greg's feet are moving before his brain's caught up, which is great since there's no time to waste, but less great because it instantly draws the Agent's attention. His head snaps over to Greg too quick, too sharp, and reaches for his gun.

Except Greg's not quite there. Just a large, vaguely human-shaped boulder. Sitting, being unassuming, like boulders are wont. The Agent's pretty disoriented from this reality shift, he must have seen something wrong from the corner of his vision.

Greg has to give Ring Master some credit, this stoneskin spell has definitely made life more interesting. Now if he could just figure out the right medium between "not that protective" and "capable of moving..."

[osteothropy]

Sans has only been aware of the situation for perhaps half a minute longer than Greg at this point, but being able to teleport gives him a lot of mileage. He'd spotted Greg in the crowd and immediately went to close the distance - only to notice that a boulder man has taken his place in the intervening period.

He also notices that the Agent seems confused, which allows him to take an opportunity. Appearing a few feet back from Greg's stationary position, he leapfrogs over said boulder and immediately dishes out a spray of bone shards at the Agent the second he appears.

The Agent blurs as they try to dodge the attack, but the coverage of the spray makes it difficult to avoid it without making a dash away from it. Sans takes the moment to point a pair of finger guns at Greg and winking.

"Nice spell. Keep it up, bud," he says, and then turns to start chasing the Agent.

[mirrortide]

Don't worry, Greg. Remember how scary Lapis was when she stole the ocean? That's about how scary she is right now, a giant water hand forming to grab the agent she sees. Steven told her about them, how they hurt them, and Lapis, naturally, has to get revenge. She doesn't actually see Greg, or rather, she doesn't realize that the strange human shaped boulder is him.

She has better things to be doing with her time. Like attempting to drown and or crush the life out of some agents. Brutally.

[fourthscribe]

Tanyuu had seen the transformation at the same time, just starting to round a corner around one of the stalls. It's fortunate she's able to haul her front half back fast enough, her tail coiling up upon itself as she shrinks down to hide and pray she isn't seen.

Something else takes the agent's attention, one of the more combat-capable members of the carnival, and Tanyuu slowly uncurl enough to peek out and check if the coast is clear. The sudden boulder in the middle of the pathway is...odd, but she's seen enough magic to guess what must have happened. Checking the fight with the agent again to be sure they won't notice, she picks up one of the smaller stuffed toys with her levitation spell and tosses it to the boulder to catch the attention of whoever is inside it.

"We need to move! Quickly!"

CARLY | OTA

[fortuneglass]

[The Good, the Bad, the Buggy-]

GKHH- [When something starts to happen, she feels it-from deep inside, almost like when she was in her duel. It's different from that however. So very different, coming from within and twisting at her body rather than her soul. She recognizes just one thing about it however, and as she holds her head and starts to fumble from where she was on her way to the cafeteria, people start to stop. And stare, stare as Carly's body tenses and jerks, stiffening and perhaps even flickering through the pixel aura she gives off behind her now.

There's only one thing she can think of to throw it off, one thing-in a flurry of pixelated feathers she changes form, a tiny screech accompanying the shape of the humming bird.

It doesn't work so well however-half the bird is twisted into metal, her eyes wide as the barrel of a gun juts out and starts clicking.]

TWWWT-EET!

BANG

[It's about then that she realizes she's only half steering as well, which just makes it even worse as half the patrons start to duck while the other half look around for something like a metal bucket to cover and catch the bird in.]

[THIS CIRCUS AIN'T BIG ENOUGH FOR THE LOT OF US]

[It's a short attack-considering the time-but needless to say once she's freed of agent control and back in her own body?

Carly's not too pleased herself. Violet flames sprout along her wings and arms, her eyes brimming with angry hot tears as she reels on the nearest 'agent' she can.] YOU....

...GET OUT OF THEM, AND GET OUT OF HERE..!

[It may be best not to touch the fire-or maybe remind her that burning up the Agent is doing more harm to the host than anything (though it IS certainly distracting the agent...)]

[wild_magic]

[Susan, of course, didn't know that anything was happening at all, and was just chatting Lauren's ear off about something or the other when he caught sight of Carly. He wasn't exactly sure what was happening, still, but, despite still not knowing what it was exactly, he does recognize a gun as something bad when he sees it sticking out from her... bird chest. Which is weird, but what's more important is the gun and the people around who could get hurt by it.

Not being much of one to think before acting, it only takes a moment for Susan to rush forward, thinking for only a second before launching a Fire Bolt spell in Carly's direction. The bolt of course isn't very powerful, but he's hoping it will at least get her attention or something so the other people can get away safely.]

Jonathan Strange | ota!

[kingsroads]

#1: magic is once again useless
Once he heard the gunshots, Strange instantly recognized what they were. Though that opened up a whole host of questions. One, who was shooting? Two, why where they shooting? Three, how on Earth did someone have a gun in the Carnival in the first place? Didn't this place run mostly on magic?

Thankfully, Strange had his silver basin that he straight up stole had borrowed from the kitchen a while back. It's propped up on a picnic table, filled with water, as Strange splits his time between directing people to the exit as well as looking into the basin of water, occasionally drawing lines on it and peering into the basin as if that somehow helps.

As he spots someone he knows from the Carnival (or at least someone who looks like they'd be from the Carnival), he calls out, "Do you have any idea who's firing those guns in the first place? I need a name, I can't find anybody if I don't have a damn name!"

#2: guns suck. :( warning for blood
Jonathan Strange gets to join the ever growing ranks of People Whom The Matrix Straight Up Fucked Over. He is not happy about that.

Hey there person who's hanging out in the remote area of the Doctor's tent. Surprise, there is now a magician who appeared almost out of nowhere, lying in a puddle at your feet. Having been shot in the shoulder twice by Childermass, Strange looks absolutely horrible. He's bleeding, obviously in pain, hand over the bullet wounds which are still seeping blood, his own claws digging into his flesh because of the pain which makes even more blood...all in all he doesn't look good.

He attempts to stagger to his feet, but it's very slow-going. "Help," he stammers, through gritted teeth. "I need-" but then a fresh spasm of pain shoots though Strange, as he cuts off his own words with a yelp of pain. "I've been shot!" His tone is almost incredulous, as if he can't believe this happened to begin with.

Once he's been dragged to the Doctor's office and is recuperating, Strange'll attempt to wave over anybody who looks like they know what they're doing. He looks awful and drifts in and out of consciousness, but he's got to tell the supervisors something. He honestly has no idea if the chaos is still going on, but he's got to tell them this before something terrible happens.

guns fuckin suck

[osteothropy]

Sans has been running around delivering smackdowns since the gunfire first started, but he feels like the security team's efforts are making very little progress. Any time you put one of these guys down, another seems to pop up in their place - a losing battle, ultimately, especially when each takedown seems to result in a random, dead human. He's changing his tactics accordingly.

Rather than focusing on the kill, defense and preservation of life seems to be far more important. Which means that he's going to take the time to deal with the bleeding human that's just stumbled out at him, because holy shit.

"Yikes," he breathes through his grinning fangs, a little taken back. "No shot." A commentary that is apparently just for him, he leaves that hanging in order to make the approach. Lucky for you, Strange, there's going to be not much dragging involved.

He puts a clawed, skeleton hand on Strange's arm, to steady him and to get ready to do magic.

"C'mon, I got ya."

Chaos in the cookhouse

[sunflowerfields]

The lunch rush is just beginning, and Hinawa is on her way to a table with a tray of piping hot soup bowls. She doesn't even realize something is wrong until she's staring one of those stone-faced men directly in the eye (hadn't that been an older gentleman just a moment before?). She hadn't had the displeasure of seeing one of these agents in May Tricks, but she had learned enough from the others to know they were dangerous. They're strong, their magic is powerful, and their weapons are deadly.

And now one of them was standing right before her. She does the first thing she can think of: She upends the tray of hot soup on him, then turns and flees back to the kitchen as fast as she can, screams and confusion in her wake. Once there, she grabs for one of the talking bricks.

"H-hello? I think- I think one of those men, agents? I think he's here in the cookhouse! Could someone please come and help?" Her request is polite, but the fear in her voice is obvious.

[pipers_son]

Well, hell.

From where he's finishing up Tamaki- best keep the boy a little, ah, tied up until they can figure out how to ensure that nothing strange will come through him again- Joker pauses and tries not to swear too loudly where his two performers can so easily hear him. Instead, he leave the rest to Mitsuki and takes off running with his hand going to his radio.

"Ain't security, but I'm on my way, miss, don't worry," he says with a lot more energy than he's honestly in possession of. "Did ya block the door inta the kitchens or somethin' like that?"

TURTLING IN THE BIG TOP

[starseedling]

Steven had just been warming up for the day's performances when chaos breaks out. He's backstage at the time, doing some stretches and trying to get ready to move on from his injury physically, but then something from the other side of the curtains draws his attention. It isn't any sound or movement that he can pinpoint at first, but instead a pervasive sense if ill ease, like a radiant anxiety that feeds into his own emotions.

Just as he's taken a couple, uncertain steps beyond the curtains to see what's happening, a gun fires. His focus flashes to its source, and he sees them standing there - an Agent, straightening up from within the ordinary humans that had arrived to the Big Top early to get good seats. The Agent doesn't seem interested in any of those people - their shaded gaze spins on Steven immediately, like they can sense the enemy in their midst.

He feels a smothering, paralyzing surge of fear run through him as their gun tracks him with its barrel. He can't move. He can't breathe.

The next thing he's conscious of is being surrounded in soft pink light as his bubble has formed, multiple bullets ricocheting off of its surface and sending him rolling back behind the curtain. Screams break out, and his thought and feelings have become too loud for him to comprehend or tolerate - he curls into himself, pulling the barrier in close, covering his ears with his hands and closing his eyes like it will make the feelings stop, but they don't.

He only manages to suck in a breathe every few staggered heartbeats, and his literal understanding of the world around him vanishes, being replaced with abstract feeling.

He stays frozen there as bullets are fired all around the grounds, unable to free himself.

[mossbuds]

Lars's shift had ended a while ago, and he'd heard so much about the performances in passing that he thought he might go ahead and check it out today. It would be a way to kill some time, and also disdainfully judge something with the unnecessary, overblown and biting criticism that only a teenager could be capable of. Lars had just been chilling, leaning against a wall (so as to not seem overly invested or interested in what was to happen), when all hell had messily broken loose.

He's used to strange, paranormal violence, but gunshots are actually something Lars has never experienced—the immediate terror is totally different. He jumps, instantly tense, eyes wide and just as insantly cold as his heart hammers in his chest. When he hears the next round of gunshots, Lars screams, immediately dropping. His wide, frightened eyes turn over his shoulder as he crouches, seeing dust from the wall shake out from gunshots.

The agents are clustered more in the crowd and towards the exit, and while the logical part of Lars tells him to bolt from the tent immediately, the scared shitless part of him wins out in wanting to hide. So he scrambles pretty ungracefully (and not totally unlike a lizard) towards the stage, stumbling behind the curtain. Which he learns, pretty effectively, is kind of useless; the curtains jolt with gunshots, and Lars screams again, toppling backwards onto his ass.

"Augh!!"

And—he sees a pink bubble at the corner of his eyes, which even peripherally he recognizes immediately.

"Steven!"

Lars sees more than a few bullets ricochet off his bubble. Lars has physically interacted with it before (in fact, he's. pretty much made out with it, to be honest, but anyway), so he isn't surprised to see its sturdy deflections. He wonders if he can get behind it, and moves hurriedly, still keeping low, to do just that.

He places his hands against the surface of the bubble from the back of it, peering inside the bubble. The way Steven is curled sort of worries him.

"Steven!! Are you hurt?! Hey!"

Re: TURTLING IN THE BIG TOP

[dorkypantsuit]

Psi doesn't know if the pink force surrounding Steven is good or bad as he lunges towards it, but he knows that here things never work like they seem. So it's with zero hesitation that he tackles Steven's bubble, hiding it beneath his own body as he looks around for the source of the enemies fire. With an angry growl he spots the agent and throws him across the room.

"Are you alright?!"

IN THE AFTERMATH

[periphrasing]

When everything is said and done, Peridot has to point out: She's seen the carnival in worse shape than this.

The attack was pretty rattling to everyone involved, and the engineer finds herself no exception to that. Unsurprisingly, she's taking what anxiety she feels in the aftermath and is directing that energy towards her work, scouring the grounds and making a mental note of all damages that will need to be dealt with. It's just what makes sense to her, plus she knows she has little reason to fret now that she's gotten word that no one was killed.

She does keep an eye out for Steven as she works, though. She hasn't had the chance to talk to him really, not since the incident...

Sora | ota

[destiny_key]

I. How are there this many people here
Sora's trying his best, he really is. It's his job to keep the peace, it's his job to protect the carnival patrons and his coworkers, but there's so much chaos it's difficult to keep his head in check. These are people, not heartless or monsters or nobodies, and he can't just go into battle mode and whack anything he can see with the keyblade.

His key is out, but there's no room to fight with this many people around, innocent people, and he couldn't possibly swing, knowing he might accidentally hit someone.

The crowd is thick with people running and screaming, and it's difficult to get his bearings, and it doesn't help that he's too short to see over them. He could jump up and try to see, but that might just make him more of a target.

Sora's forced, instead, to search from ground level for the source of the disturbances, but a little help would certainly be appreciated. Specifically, from someone taller than him.

II. That sure is a gun

He's found one, one of the agents, and boy do they not look happy. The space around them is clear, giving Sora an area to fight without worry, but the other guy is fighting with guns, and that's just not fair.

He rushes towards the intruder with the intention to hit, dodging as best he can, but even he can't avoid every single bullet, and a few graze his arms and legs as he runs. He ignores them, and manages to crack the agent on the back of the head with the keyblade, sending the guy toppling to the ground.

Sora takes a moment to catch his breath, watching the fallen agent apprehensively, and then there's another shot from behind him, this one grazing his side and ripping his shirt. Sora hisses at the sting and spins around, and... is that? The same agent? Again?

He does a double take, then falls back into battle stance.

"Are you SERIOUS?"

Holmes Vs. the World | OTA

[thevictoriandetective]

Honestly, after the week he'd had, he was itching for a good fight. Even if he wasn't on the patrol he would have gleefully joined in just to crack some skulls. Everyone always thought Sherlock Holmes was this guy who just sat down all day on his chair solving mysteries. No, that was his brother. Sherlock enjoyed the 'legwork', and he was good in a fight.

POW! An Agent gets his glasses broken. Whoever the poor person was behind that now had a fractured face. Sherlock kicked his gun away and tried to dislocate his arm with a tremendous CRACK! Another punch to the stomach. And then he slams his foot as hard as he can on his shin and it snaps as he hits it in just the right spot with the right amount of pressure.

The host was now useless and the Agent jumped to a nearby man with a moustache. The host had been a portly middle-aged man who was now sobbing in pain.

Ah.

Sherlock felt the tiniest bit guilty. He silently offered a hand to help him up when--

Gunshot crack.

The pain didn't register at first. Then his left arm suddenly erupted with pain and numbness and searing heat.

What the--

[sunflowerfields]

After her run in with the agent at the kitchen, Hinawa wants nothing more but to retreat somewhere safe- the trailers, maybe. Surely they wouldn't be there. But when she heard the crack, it felt like the whole world froze. It was a sound she'd never heard before, and the closest she could compare it to was thunder.

When she turns in the direction of the noise, she sees people in pain. A man on the ground and another reaching to help him, but now he was... bleeding? Was this what those agents could do to people with their weapons? It was horrible. But as frightened as she was, Hinawa couldn't just leave them there, injured and in danger.

"Can you walk?" She asks Sherlock as she approaches. "We have to get out of here, quickly!"

Terra | open

[undeterrable]

evacuations

"This way!"

The chaos marks not the first time in his life that Terra wished he had Aqua's shielding capabilities, but his body makes up for most of it. His tail is bodily picking Agents up and away from patrons rather than focusing on using his keyblade or magic for it, the long sweep of it knocking them off their feet when they get too close, and tossing them into who knows where with a sharp twist of shadows and a dark corridor. Keep the threat separate from the customers. Clear the area. Prevent as many casualties as possible.

Not like last time.

Once the grounds are clear, Terra flicks his wrist and summons his keyblade, turning his attention to the first Agent that gets closer. He rolls his shoulders, cricks his neck and smirks. "Let's go."


protecting

"Watch out!"

You were doing something, weren't you? Not paying attention to what was happening around you, that's for sure. And then all of a sudden there's this big guy bodily shielding you, a bullet ricocheting off the stone that decorates his skin. Terra lowers his arm, looks over his shoulder at the Agent and then turns his attention back to you, golden eyes gleaming apologetically. "You okay?"

protecting!

[destiny_key]

It's his own fault, really, that he wasn't paying attention. He was so focused on one agent, that he hadn't noticed the other behind him, and didn't notice it until he heard the shout. Sora spins around only to find his trailer-mate in front of him, protecting him. Certainly not what he'd expected, but boy was he glad to see you!

"Terra!" Sora shouts excitedly, keyblade held out in front of him. "I'm good. You?"

Sora's slightly worse for wear from fighting, shirt ripped and a bit of dirt streaked on his cheek, blocking his shining freckles from view, and there's even a some dried blood down his arm, though the injury itself seems to have been healed.

You should be running.

[empty_vessel]

And things had been going so well. He'd started settling in at the cafeteria, he had a trailer to himself for now, and it was all looking up.

Jimmy'd been doing his usual sweep of the tables and bins for dishes and caught sight of what looked like a guest having a seizure, maybe? Something was definitely wrong. The guy bends over and his clothes shift into a grey suit, which starts the alarm bells ringing. When someone else stands up in that too-smooth, unnatural way and turns towards Jimmy, the alarms start screaming.

The tub drops from his hands, forgotten as Jimmy turns and starts to run. In between panicked flashes to Run! and Hide! some detached part is trying to figure out what they are. Angels? Leviathans? Who knows. Who cares. The big thing is that he needs to be somewhere else. Right now.

[cuckooed]

"Jimmy!"

The first sensation Jimmy might feel is wind. The wind of something almost flying by him. A kitchen knife? Wait, that figure looks like--

The second sensation is the shout - the whimper? - of the strange man falling forwards onto a table, arms flailed out. He hadn't been expecting that. No one had.

Koel certainly hadn't, as she appears as the man falls, their visage turning back into that of a unwitting carnival guest, whimpering about the back of his head. Ow! What just happened!?...

The older woman, meanwhile, looked up at the greenhorn, still brandishing her knife carefully, blood on the tip. Where did that blood even come from? The man here isn't bleeding.

"Are you all right?"