⇨ 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

[spaghettimonster]

"Oh," Papyrus says, a little confused. It's a strange reassurance, coming from a part of Sans, he thinks.

The crowds keep moving, keep pushing up so he has to duck and weave to get through, he hardly manages to notice the urgency of her voice. It's hard to understand what she's so urgent about. Hard even to guess, to think long enough to draw conclusions about anything. Something about not being alone.

But... there was... a question? And the offer, and those were good. Especially when there's a staircase ahead, so close to having a straight shot down, but so congested he'll need to push and push to get through.

"Help... help would help. Yes. Thank you," he finally acknowledges, politely. "What did you ask?"

[osteothropy]

This isn't working, and Sans needs more time. Helvetica considers the situation for a moment, then buzzes downward to place herself right in Papyrus's face, intending to stop him from moving forward.

Being touched by him would be unpleasant. Would he go that far, if she stays in his way?

"Papyrus, wait. Something isn't right."

[spaghettimonster]

Her sudden imposition is enough for him to hesitate, at least. He pauses midstep, wavering on one foot, pulling his head back enough to look at her again.

That's not a question or help. Why is his sibling always lying and getting in the way?

"What? This isn't help." He scowls at her, tensing up. "If you won't help, get out of my way."

He closes his eyes, waits a beat, and steps forward. Terrible raw contact or no. He needs to keep going.

[osteothropy]

It was an experiment and one that was not a success.

Helvetica weaves in the air, making sure to stay in front of him, hoping that with his own understanding of how a daemon feels he'd know that this is crossing a line. Hoping that whatever's got a hold on him could be shaken if he had a chance to realize what he was doing. It doesn't work.

Instead, Papyrus thwacks right into her, something that would hurt on a physical level if it wasn't instantly outweighed by the spiritual upheaval it causes between her and Sans. Further back in the crowd Sans stumbles, grabbing at his sternum in utter shock and crumpling to the ground. Helvetica's wings flutter clumsily, pushing her out of the way, confused and hurt.

"Papyrus!" she says. "What is happening to you?"

But she doesn't necessarily expect and answer. She tries to get in his way again, but then looses her nerve, anticipating the same torment to happen again. She flutters up into the air, the face of a beetle expressionless despite her total dismay. This won't work. Sans needs her.

"Please, listen..."

[spaghettimonster]

He shudders at their collision, the jarring wrongness of souls too painfully exposed, too close. Shudders, slouches, but keeps pushing forward through the crowd.

Somehow, painful and nauseating as that was, it wasn't as bad as he'd feared. Everything feels so wrong, it almost doesn't stand out. Stopping, talking, thinking, caring... All of it, everything everything except moving toward the stage. Everything except the music, getting to the source of the music. He needs to soak in it like it's the only warm thing in a frozen world.

"I... have to," he says, almost an apology. "Down, to the stage. That's... the only..."

Midway through the sentence he trails off. Not quite forgetting why he's trying to answer, but why answering would matter. The answer doesn't matter. That awful collision, or their hurts, or her fears, don't matter.

[osteothropy]

"You don't have to do anything," Helvetica insists, though she relents soon after. No, that's not what she seems to be observing at all, is it? It's a mind effect again, some enchantment spell... probably caused by the music itself. That would fit together easily with what they'd been told, but why is it working on Papyrus and not Sans...?

"Something is affecting your mind," she says, matter-of-factly. "I'm going to get Sans."

In the past, physical force has been the only way to stop this. If Sans can get to Papyrus in time, then he can hopefully teleport them both away from here. Wings leaving a trail of light, she flutters back into the crowd.

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus doesn't really acknowledge her words and worries, saying nothing in reply, barely glancing after her as she flies away. He just pushes ahead, stoic and determined, frustrated that there must be a faster way to do this and struggling to think of what.

Her words itch in his skull a little while after. Sans. Sans would... get in the way, wouldn't he? Even worse than Helvetica, so curious and so ineffectually small. Might jump to conclusions, force a fight. But Papyrus doesn't want to hurt anybody, not like Sans described wanting back at the Manor, so, so, this isn't anything like that. This is just... he needs to fix things, he needs to... needs to...