lostcarnival | ⇨ THE FANTASIA FESTIVAL

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⇨ THE FANTASIA FESTIVAL

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.

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[backstage: sabotage, may be before or after the singing starts]

Somewhere beneath the stage, Rita is hunched over a control board, flipping switches and swapping cables, when she realizes someone is behind her. She stiffens, tenses... then suddenly whirls around, raising a hand and conjuring a fireball in it...

...but the intensity fades from her expression when she sees who's there, or at least recognizes that it's an ally, not a guard or staff member. The flame doesn't leave her hand, and instead is quickly extinguished, leaving only smoke in its place.

"Sorry," she says, not sounding very sorry. "Thought you were an enemy."

[wildcard!]

Feel free to encounter Rita during the operation! She'll mainly be found backstage, tampering with equipment, avoiding staff, or (after the hypno-song leaves her without cover) fending off any guards that discover her or others.

The problem with using puddles as your method of transportation is that occasionally, someone cleans up a puddle. Some member of the janitorial staff was on top of their game and mopped up the puddle that Strange had used to go back and ditch the concert hall. So, he decided to go back to one of the few mirrors he knew were backstage and knew couldn't be removed from the wall. He wanted to get the heck out of here before the singing started, after all.

It's at this time, as Strange is moving towards the dressing room location he knows, that Strange almost gets a fireball to the face. He puts up his own hands, starting to mutter a counterspell, but stops once Rita extinguishes her flame. She doesn't sound sorry, Strange doesn't sound happy. He can't help but frown slightly at Rita's excuse.

"And what, you'd charbroil them? That would certainly stop the concert."

There isn't even the slightest hint of shame in Rita's expression at that. She folds her arms, looking almost pleased at the thought.

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds like I'd be killing two birds with one stone."

Rita looks pleased, Strange can't help but raise an eyebrow slightly. It's obvious from his expression that he thinks Rita's response is a little bit bullshit.

"I might not have chimed in, but I was listening to that radio post the Star Guardian made." Because of course he was, this is Strange, he'll take advantage of any opportunity to be nosy. "She didn't sound too pleased at the idea of harming anyone in her way."

And setting someone on fire, at least in Strange's mind, obviously counts as harm.

"Hmph," Rita humphs. "If stopping this Void or whatever is as important as she says it is, then she doesn't have much room to complain about anybody's methods."

She lets that linger for a moment, then shrugs and adds to clarify, "If they're not a threat, then I don't throw the fireball." Rita's not heartless enough to actually kill an innocent, assuming some of the staff here aren't in on CY-Ren's plans. Hell, she even refrained from blasting Strange just now, and he probably would've deserved it for one reason or another.

"Considering she asked the carnival for help, she doesn't have much room to complain period." Based on Strange's small little frown, it's obvious he doesn't have much goodwill towards Noa in general. Oh she said all this stuff about 'void' and 'creation' but what all does that really mean? And why can't she take care of it herself?

"And if the Ringmaster's apprehensive about this, should you all be doing it anyway?" While Rita might be more ambivalent about her, Strange is 100% on Team Ringmaster. She sounded a bit guarded and reluctant during the broadcast, ergo Strange firmly believes that something might be up.

"I don't know," Rita answers honestly. "I guess I feel sorry for the people of this world, having to rely on that one ditz to protect them all the time." Is Noa really capable of handling this? Rita has some doubts.

But she can't afford to get too distracted, so she faces the control panel once again and studies the controls while talking to Strange. "Anyway, if you're so unsure, why'd you even show up here?"

Because he's a nosy fuck and wants to at least get a bit in on the action before turning tail when everything goes to shit.

That is something Strange does not say, however, as he responds to Rita's question with a little shrug. "Not everyone can sneak in with shadows the way Childermass does. There's plenty of reflections backstage, I was helping shuttle some people in."

Besides, if this was an obvious trap from the start, better he show up to help fight people off. The fact that they've been able to sneak in relatively easy is...well, Strange isn't entirely sure how he feels about that. It's noticeable, at least.

"So you plan to cut and run before any trouble starts," Rita summarizes, sounding unimpressed as she flips a few switches. Way to be a coward, Strange.

But with a wave of a hand, she acknowledges the silver lining: "Well, at least you won't get a chance to screw anything up." Because most of the time, even when there isn't trouble, he manages to create plenty of his own.

Strange can't help but glare at Rita, clenching his fists. It's the implication that he's a coward that makes Strange's blood boil a little. This is pragmatism, not cowardice. Besides, he was hardly a coward in the first place! He was in the peninsula, for crying out loud!

"The Matrix, the Celebration, Portland, the Prince's manor, all of those involved carnival members getting kidnapped or enthralled. The Ringmaster already said this was going to be dangerous. Forgive me that I don't want to risk my safety for someone I barely know!"

He's raising his voice slightly by the end of that, which Strange quickly realize is probably noticeable as hell. Lowering his tone, he continues to grumble. "Besides, someone needs to save your ass when things inevitably go wrong."

It's just that surprise, it's not going to be Strange.

Rita can't see that glare, but it sure sounds like she hit a nerve. She doesn't even know half of the events he's referring to, but whatever, she gets the point. There's a pause, as if taking a moment to consider whether it's worth arguing with him, but in the end, she decides her current task is more important, and she resumes flipping switches and tapping buttons.

That is, until he makes that additional comment, to which she gives a light snort. "Hah! As if I'd ever need rescuing from you."

Rita would've liked to leave it at as if I'd ever need rescuing, but their last disaster made it a little too clear that she has her weaknesses.

"You've jinxed yourself by saying that," Strange remarks. At least, he hopes Rita's jinxed herself by saying that. The idea of him swooping in to rescue her (ideally very dramatically and at the last minute) has lifted his mood somewhat, as that glare starts to fade.

And he knows he should leave. But nosiness wins out. So, he walks over to Rita, easily looking over her shoulder as she flips switches and hits buttons.

"What's that one do?" he asks, fingers getting dangerously close to pushing one of the buttons.

"Don't touch that," Rita snaps, reaching out and swatting his hand. "What are you, a child?"

She then takes a half-second to glance at what he was about to mess with, and actually offers an answer.

"That's the power for one of the microphones. Could try turning a bunch of them off at once, mess with their sound... but it'd draw attention to us here, and a tech could easily fix the problem." A grin tugs at the corner of the mouth as she explains, "I'm gonna mess this up so that no one can fix it."

He's worse than a child: he's a grown man who gets his kicks from messing with the actual child. Still, Strange backs off as Rita swats his hand, though he can't help but give her a little frown. Rude, Rita.

Still, he listens intently as she explains what it does. And alright, if it's something that could easily be fixable, he's not going to mess with it. Though, her conversation about messing it up so no one can fix it...

"Good Lord, don't tell me you're going to set this on fire." It's a valid assumption!

"I considered it, but no, that's not my first choice," Rita replies with a shrug. There's nothing wrong with starting a few fires, is there? It's a perfectly valid Plan B, as far as she's concerned.

But Plan A is a lot more clever, and she's happy to share it with him. "All the devices used for sound and lighting here run on electricity. Thing is, they can only handle so much power at a time. I plan on overloading them with an electrical surge, frying them from the inside."

Plan A is indeed a lot more clever and has less chance of the smoke detectors going off. Strange nods in a way that obviously implies 'yeah, that makes plenty of sense.'

"I suppose what you'll have to worry most about is that surge catching it on fire." Is that how electricity works? Maybe, Strange isn't entirely sure. Most of his knowledge about electricity is going off of half-baked Portland memories and barely understood concepts of digital worlds and computers.

“Electrical fires are a possibility, yes,” Rita casually admits. He says that like it’s a bad thing. Fire means a bigger distraction for the staff, an incentive for people to leave, and even more unfixable damage.

...Oh. Maybe it’s the people he’s suggesting she should worry about.

“I plan on destroying the equipment on and around the stage, leaving anything positioned farther away alone. The audience should have a clear path to evacuate. If the rear speakers are still a problem, 9S can cut the power and disable them.”

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kingsroads - 2018-02-09 03:43 (UTC) - Expand

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anti_nonsense - 2018-02-10 03:04 (UTC) - Expand

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kingsroads - 2018-02-10 03:25 (UTC) - Expand

[ooc: Adding my backstage sabotage information here.]

It's just really too bad 9S never got to see Rita set Strange on fire. But he does hold up his hands in defense when Rita whirls on him.

"Want me to try?" He holds out a hand, light encircling his wrist. "I need someone to keep watch while I'm hacking." Normally not an issue back home, where his hacks tend to be fast. But hacking anything that's infrastructure tends to take longer, and with the old technology here... "Noa did mention there might be a backup power source if the mains go out."

Rita looks to his hand while the wisps of smoke from her fireball drift away, then she nods and steps aside. She doesn't like letting others step in for her, at least not when it comes to technological things like this, but she can't deny that 9S can probably manipulate the systems a lot faster than she can.

"I suspected as much," she says. It's only common sense to use a backup for an event as big as this, and doubly so if it serves some sinister purpose as well. "I've been trying to reroute the power to overload some of the equipment. A backup won't help anything damaged from a power surge."

9S balks at that suggestion. "You want to damage the equipment?"

That's human made property they're talking about! It's bad form to wreck it!

But it does make sense... if the equipment is damaged, then it doesn't matter where the power is coming from.

"Isn't there another way?"

Rita raises an eyebrow. He's worried about a little property damage?

"Maybe, but do you really think we've got time to think of something else? If what that girl on the radio said was true, these people should be thanking us if a bit of broken equipment can spare them from whatever the Void has planned."

And with what's already started... after seeing what happened with Childermass, Rita knows they can't afford to wait and see how it can get worse.

"But, Rita!" he protests out of reflex more than anything.

If humans get hurt because of his inaction, then isn't that worse than damaging the very things androids are supposed to preserve? 9S lets out a growl of frustration.

"Damn it!" A well of irritation bubbles over and he thrusts out his arm, the ring of light around his wrist glowing and expanding. "If someone's coming, tell me. I'm hacking in."

And with that, he fires a ball of what looks like energy from his hand, the streak of light making it appear more like an energy beam.

In the background, CY-Ren's music blasts out from the speakers. The hacking space is strange, different from what he's used to. While there are no defenses to speak of, the space itself is more difficult for him to move through. He feels sluggish trying to parse through the information being presented to him, the paths before him winding and tangled as he tries to manoeuvre through them.

Damn it, this is taking too long! Even though Rita made a good argument for busting the equipment, he was still reluctant to. But with how hard it is to try doing anything with finesse in this muddied hacking space, 9S just opts to...

All the lights on stage blow up, one after another, fragments of glass falling from the shattered bulbs. Not long after, the speakers also explode, falling over from the force.

While 9S gets to work hacking the controls, Rita stands with her back to him, watching for staff while taking glances at the backstage video feed. CY-Ren can be seen, sweeping an arm out as she sings. There's some kind of disturbance in the audience near the stage, perhaps a struggle, but the camera, meant to help backstage workers monitor the performance, isn't angled the right way to clearly see what's happening.

What it does show is the glorious moment when those lights shatter. There's a heavy rumble in the ceiling above them as the speakers follow suit.

Rita turns back to face 9S with a triumphant smile, practically giddy from the sight of all that destruction. "It worked! Nice going, 9S!"

Take that, jerks. Backup power won't fix this.

...

"W... wait, what the hell!?" Realizing something's off, Rita's gaze shoots back to the monitor. The stage is still fully visible, and CY-Ren's voice continues to echo from above, clearly amplified by something.

9S backs out of the hacking space once he detonates the lights and sound equipment. Rita's exclaimation brings a broad grin to his face. Yeah, sure, he just blew up a bunch of human stuff, but her smile is worth it.

Does Rita do fist bumps? He'd totally fist bump her if he knew. If Pod 153 were here, he'd fist bump it right now.

Except, that euphoric feeling quickly drains when he realises the song is just as loud as ever.

"Wait... is she using magic?" That's cheating!

[ooc: Transition into the Show's Over log or stick to this thread?]

[ooc: Let's move over here!]

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⇨ THE FANTASIA FESTIVAL

Rita Mordio | OTA, will match formats

backstage, pretty early on before the concert

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backstage

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