⇨ THE FANTASIA FESTIVAL

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone who decides to come!
When: Day 12
Where: Wismuth's Fantasia Festival
What: CY-Ren's performance in Wismuth's biggest music festival finally arrives, and those willing to help Noa the Star Guardian show up to intervene.
Warnings: It doesn't go super well.

SONG OF THE CY-REN↴ CY-Ren's arena is the biggest stage in the festival by far, but it isn't the only one. Several big acts have assembled in the surrounding area, all with a lovely view of the ocean and with Wismuth's skyline in the background. Though she isn't explicitly the main attraction at the festival, everyone knows she's the real reason so many people have showed up. The amount of star power she has is overwhelming, and there are plenty of fans that would get violent on her behalf. ► GROUP UP: Noa will ask everyone to meet her in a park area near the festival stage, so that you can discuss plans briefly before putting them into action. The key is to try to stop the concert before CY-Ren's plans can come to fruition - whatever they may specifically be. How you go about this is up to you, but with how many people are present, it's bound to be a challenge. ► INFILTRATE: After speaking with Noa and determining what everyone will be doing, it will be time for everyone to break into the performance arena. No one has tickets for this, unless they've forged them, as they sold out a while ago. Any means of getting inside is fine, whether that be teleporting, passing through walls, or jumping in by wing. Once you've gotten into the crowd, it's up to you to get close enough to the stage to disrupt the proceedings. ► UNDER HER SPELL: It only takes her first song for things to start going wrong. The impact of the music will strike each individual differently - for most it will only feel strange, but for some it will be completely transfixing, like something that reaches deep into their soul. Those people, the ones slated to become Harbingers, will react to the the song strongly - upon hearing it, they will gradually completely lose their sense of agency, sluggishly moving towards the stage by whatever means available to them. If someone tries to stop them, they will go as far as physically, or even violently, resisting. "Blindsided by the beat Clapping your hands, stomping your feet You didn't know that you fell Now you've fallen under my spell" Obviously, if you want to participate in the Harbinger plot, you'll have to arrange it so that they manage to follow through with their hypnotized objectives. They will feel somehow empty during this time, as like they need to follow the music in order to achieve any chance at fulfillment. If you are not becoming a Harbinger, you can still have your character be affected by this to a lesser degree and then stopped by another carnival member, or as a feat of self control. ► BATTLE: By the time she switches to the next song, things will have started to get real. Any blatant, long distance attacks made early on will be mysteriously blocked by some kind of magical force field surrounding the stage, which will take some time to penetrate - at least until Noa gets involved. Body guards will storm anyone who tries to get onto the stage, and ostensibly said guards are not at all human. Instead, they appear to be horrible looking shadow amalgamation in suits, and while their attacks are mostly just physical, they can move with unnatural quickness, can't be pinned, and strike very hard. They can be NPC'd by anyone, and only have vaguely humanoid thought processes. "Me and you, you and me Why don't we see who is better? We don't have to be one and the same thing Oh, what's so wrong with a little competition? Are you afraid of failing the audition?" By the end of the second song, the hypnotized carnival members will have been snatched up by CY-Ren's void agents and disappeared. This can manifest as them being grabbed and escorted off, or possibly disappearing into shadows alongside one of the bodyguards. The guards will be trying to work stealthily, ideally sneaking away anyone being affected by the song without anyone around them noticing, but they won't let secrecy get in the way of their objectives, either. The audience will be able to realistically notice if things start exploding in their faces, but the song will distract them from anything less obvious.

Comments

OTA

[sworntothesword]

Connie is ready to punch some evil in the face! With her sword.

She's wearing her tron armor minus the helmet, covered with a a red trenchcoat. She's also got a matching rimmed hat for extra incognito.

Her Seraph Blade is still in her bag of holding, since she doesn't have a good way to inconspicuously carry a sword around.

Despite being ready for combat, Connie is gonna be on the lookout for any kind of fire alarm they can pull, which would trigger an evacuation.

[ That's not gonna happen before she hears that song, though... ]

[hurtcomfort]

Oh! Connie's helping too? Well, that's good, he likes Connie and all the better to help out when you've got someone you like on your side. Because Cole still doesn't really grasp the importance of creation and void and all that jazz. All he knows is that Noa wants help, ergo he is going to help.

He doesn't look as fit for battle as she does. Cole's wearing an oversized sweatshirt that he's wearing inside-out, his ridiculous hat, and a pair of jeans that are absolutely covered in stains. Two feather blades sit holstered to Cole's side. He has also never seen the tron armor on somebody so is downright impressed and interested at what Connie's wearing.

"It glows!" he can't help but murmur, suddenly appearing right behind Connie without giving any indication that he's there to begin with. He's got his head craned at an awkward angle so that he can look at the tron armor underneath the trenchcoat. "I didn't know armor could do that."

[sworntothesword]

Connie is just a hair surprised by surprise!Cole. She tries not to jump too hard, and also to try to address him while he's doing weird Cole things.

"Yeah, it's like- actually, I'm not sure if it's actually made of lights or not, it actually does seem like whatever neon-like material its made of just inherently glows..."

She's actually a little concerned he spotted it so easily, she was supposed to be undercover!

[hurtcomfort]

The only reason he spotted it so easily was that Cole was doing his creepy 'watch people while they aren't looking and can't see you' sort of thing. Still, a little part of Cole knows that people don't like it when you tell them that you've been watching them for the past five minutes to see if something did happen so he's keeping that detail to himself. Sorry Connie.

"Is it hot? Can I touch it?"

He's still craning his head at the awkward angle, trying to get a better look at any parts that aren't hidden (or aren't as hidden) by the trenchcoat. Cole looks like he's going to fall over in the process but doesn't really seem to care.

[sworntothesword]

"No, it's not! That's another reason like I feel its not a conventional light. Even LEDs tend to have a noticeable heat generation, especially when they're this size, but I can't detect any difference in temperature..."

Cole are you okay? "You have a... really good sense of balance..."

[hurtcomfort]

Cole has no goddamn clue what a LED is so he just listens to what Connie's saying. He gets the gist though: it's a light but it isn't a light, like how he's not a person but he sort of is.

At her question though, Cole responds, picking up on Connie's unstated concerns. "It's a lovely red. Shimmering, scarlet, a coat the color of bright blood. But it hides the armor."

He doesn't say a question, but it's obvious from Cole's tone that he's a bit confused. Why would she do something like that? Why would she hide her armor in the first place?

[stompadour]

Jasper is ready to punch some evil in the face with her fists, and she doesn't know what a fire alarm looks like.

That said, she looks a lot more normal than Connie does right now, thanks to the glamour that prevents the locals from being too alarmed by the sight of an eight foot tall woman with bright orange skin. No worries, though – despite the magic that makes her look a couple of feet shorter and a respectably human if heavily freckled shade of light brown, she's as colossal and ready to throw down as ever.

She looks down at Connie and squints a little. She does not even slightly recognise her in the outfit she's wearing, but she does at least recognise, after a moment's inspection, that this isn't the kind of thing most of the people here are wearing.

"... You with the Carnival?"

[sworntothesword]

"Uh, yeah-" Wait, still? Jasper is so bad at this, Connie almost feels sorry for her.

Or wait, is Jasper just teasing her? Or... is she really just that forgettable?

"Yeah, I'm with the Carnival. My name is Connie?"

She told you you were good at animals, as a way of trying to coach humanity into you, as opposed to any known statement of facts.

[stompadour]

She is not teasing her. She can pretty much only tell most humans at the Carnival from one another when they have visible unusual changes.

"Connie," she repeats. It absolutely does not ring any bells -- probably because the last time they talked Jasper only asked for what her job was, and not her name.

She squints a little harder. "Oh," she says, straightening up a little as she jabs an almost accusatory finger at Connie. "You're the small human in Patrol. Are you here to fight?"

[sworntothesword]

Oh hey! She remembered! Hooray, her momentary anxiety was short lived.

"Yeah! Well, if it comes down to that! I'm hoping we can find a resolution that doesn't involve conflict."

[stompadour]

"Hmh," says Jasper skeptically, peering out at the stage. If there doesn't turn out to be any conflict, she'll have come here for nothing...

Well, whatever. She's spent plenty of time standing guard places where nothing ever happened. She looks back down at Connie. "How good are you, anyway? This CY-ren's supposed to be pretty powerful."

[sworntothesword]

Connie wants to be friendly and to show Jasper the value of friendship, but she's also grating from this dismissive treatment, and she's also anxious to brag, so she blurts out, "Well, we beat you," before she can stop herself.

[stompadour]

Jasper stares at her blankly, perplexed but also definitely offended despite the fact that she has no idea what Connie is talking about.

"What?"

[periphrasing]

With her bat form, getting into the concert is easy for Peridot. She just flies right over the top and rendezvous with the rest of the group on the other side.

That said... She seems a little bit uncomfortable about being here.

"Do you at least have an exit plan for what happens after you trigger this evacuation?" Peridot groans, trailing after her. She's glamoured up to hide her distinctly non-human appearance, showing up to the untrained eye as a tiny 20-something-ish woman with brown skin, short blonde hair, and big old glasses not unlike the ones Connie used to wear.

[sworntothesword]

"Well, ideally-" Connie stumbled briefly, falling off the bleacher she was climbing down. Getting in for Connie had involved a lot more complications than just flying over the fall, and she was glad Peridot had been there to distract the occasional guard.

"Ideally, we can just exit with the crowd. But we'll be ready to fight if it comes down to it!"

[starseedling]

Steven has more or less pulled the same stunt - he just kind of jumped up the side of the arena and onto the top of the bleachers? Somehow, it doesn't seem like any of the people standing around are in a place to notice this. Maybe it helps that his glamour just has him looking like a little kid, and most people wouldn't assume some ten year old is just going to fly up into the stands.

Being surrounded by so many people with such intense levels of excitement is making him a bit dizzy, so after he arrives alongside Connie and Peridot, he just spends a few moments staring into space, looking stunned.

"I don't know if these guys would even hear a fire alarm..." he says, trailing off uncertainly.

[periphrasing]

Under the glamour, Peridot is swishing her tail anxiously. She keeps glancing over her shoulder, ears cocked high and listening sharp for any approaching security.

"Normally I'm not one to play the voice of skepticism, since that's really more Pearl's area of expertise, but I feel it necessary to reiterate how bad of an idea I still think this all is," she complains. "Based off the carnival's track record of interfering in these kinds of matters, there's a very high probability of this going very, very badly."

[sworntothesword]

"Then the fire system was not very well designed..." Connie murmurs, not appreciating her plan possibly not working and also disappointed in this stadium's fire preparedness.

"Well, this time the carnival isn't interfering, right? It's just a lot of free-minded individuals, banding together towards a common goal of justice and goodwill!"

[starseedling]

Steven smiles fondly at Connie's words, and tries to convince himself to go along with that line of thinking. He's worried about how all of this will go, too, but that doesn't mean they can just dwell on that, right?

"R-Right!" he agrees, forcing a bit of enthusiasm. "Even if things go wrong, we can still try! Because we want to, not because the carnival says so..."

That's gotta be worth something, right? He's energized himself a bit by focusing on the positive, so he takes Connie's hand and starts moving towards the stairs.

"Come on, we gotta hurry and get closer before anything starts happening!"

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

Yuzu... is actually ready to do the same thing. She has no idea what to do, but she's going to do it and do it fighting.

Like Connie, she has her own TRON armor hidden over some mismatched clothing, her "light saber" tucked away. She's ready for anything, but she certainly doesn't look it.

"I feel like we're walking into a trap here..." Yuzu uttered.

[sworntothesword]

"Why do you say that? Cy-Ren can't possibly know we're coming! This is right out of a Magical Girl Anime where the villain is collecting energy from the ignorant populace in order to further the in-specific evil goals of world dominance!"

Connie stopped for a moment. "I mean, most of those tended to also be paired with luring the magical heroes into a trap to stop them from foiling their plans..."

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

"Exactly! We can't just sit here and expect everything to be given to us on a silver platter!" Yuzu said. "I mean, it would be great for once, but I don't think things'll be easy like that."

[sworntothesword]

"Well, I mean people always say 'prepare for the unexpected' but by definition you can't expect the unexpected. It's more of a relative term to be more creative in your planning, but there really are limits to that...."

Connie loves plans but she's also learned that overthinking things can be just as bad.

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

Yeah, especially since Connie's explanations is... kinda making Yuzu stammer a bit in confusion. "Y-Yeah... ugh, I think we just need to be ready for anything that could happen. I guess?"

[sworntothesword]

"But we don't have a good metric for what could happen! This is a totally different world with all sorts of crazy things! Like what if a whale appeared out of thin air! How do you prepare for magic whales?"