⇨ 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

[whattaprick]

"You couldn't lead anyone out of your own trailer," Lambert points out, but he'll grab the magician's hand anyway. The shit-giving is more or less to reassure both of them that everything's more or less business as usual. Then they're through the reflection, stepping out of a mirror (Lambert barks his hip sharply against a table, sending pots of makeup flying) and they're being confronted by a man whose mouth is already half-open to yell.

"Sleep," Lambert commands rapidly, fingers moving as quickly as possible to push the spell at the man. It happens easily as all magic here seems to, and the man goes from startled to on the floor with a thud. Lambert doesn't bother picking him up. He strides to the dressing room door and pulls it shut, muffling the sound of chatter and the festival beginning to start up in earnest coming from beyond it.

[kingsroads]

Strange has already turned his hand to smoke, planning to straight up gas the dude, before Lambert gets in with the spell. Just a second or so later, his hand turns back to normal. Alright, he can work with this. What he also needs to work with is the fact that there's inevitably going to be someone looking for this guy or coming to pick up what he didn't bring back. That makes these sets of mirrors off limits.

"Can you guard the door for a moment?" Strange asks, as he turns back towards the mirror. Strange places one hand on the mirror and stays put, staring at the glass for a moment while the magic surges around him: he needs to find another exit and one close by. Normally, he'd have to concentrate on this spell, but as magic's flowing so easily, he can shittalk Lambert at the same time as he casts the magic.

"And anyway, if you're somehow able to be a competent leader, that shows there's not much skill involved! I should do just fine."

[whattaprick]

There's a brief twinge of pleasure at being called a "competent leader" but it's instantly extinguished by what follows, and Lambert straightens up where he's taken up a guard position at the door, indignant.

Luckily, he has some ammunition. "Is that before or after you turn all the nightrunners into chickens?" Lambert asks, snottily. "Because I can see you leading a group of those just fine."

[kingsroads]

"I wouldn't turn all the nightrunners into chickens." Backing away from the mirror, Strange turns around to give Lambert a smirk of a smile. "I'd make you match your soul."

Tiny little polecat Lambert, hissing and fussing and making a racket. The mental image is enough to make Strange just grin even wider. Would he have a tiny scar as well? That'd be kind of cute.

"There's a dressing room down the hall to the left, by the way. I can use that to leave." However, though Strange is talking about leaving, he's not really making any attempt to actually leave the room. He knows that he's got to leave here at some point. Nobody knows what'll happen when Cy-Ren starts up her concert but if she's anything like her namesake, Strange knows that he's a sitting duck. But a part of him doesn't want to leave everyone behind to go through this on their own.

[whattaprick]

"Do that and the first thing I'd do would be to run up your trousers and bite your balls," Lambert answers promptly. Even as a weasel, he'd be a menace -- what else would Strange expect? He's not cute like Celandine is. "Try explaining that to Mrs. Strange."

But enough shittalking. They've got work to do. Lambert indelicately toes the unconscious stage assistant off to the side. There's a buzzing, crackling sound coming from the headset the man's wearing, something that sounds like the radio, and Lambert picks it up curiously off his head but will continue speaking to Strange for now.

"We'd better get you to that dressing room. Faster you're out of here, faster I can ..." What is he even doing, really? Lambert grimaces. "Get out there and clean up whatever mess they make."

[kingsroads]

Strange can't help but laugh slightly at Lambert's grimace. It's a gentle laugh though, nothing mocking or overly cruel. Because yeah. Strange has no idea what anyone's doing either. He also has no idea what that headset is and lets Lambert fiddle with it on his own.

"You'd think that Star Guardian could have planned this better—or planned this at all," he remarks, walking over towards Lambert and the door. Is Strange being a little petty and hating way too much on Noa? Probably. But he's also so pleased that for once in his life, someone else is the one with a complete lack of a plan, flying by the seat of their pants. Having been in that position far too often, it's nice to watch from the sidelines.

Lambert's the one closest to the door so Strange waits, giving Lambert space to open it and check in the hallway.

[whattaprick]

The soft chatter on the radio isn't something Lambert understands -- a constant stream of directions on where to move and whatever minor crisis needs to be resolved by some poor, overlooked technician -- but it seems useful enough, so he tugs it off the man's head and hooks it around his neck. It won't fit over his ears, but he can hear it clearly enough like this.

"Hold on." He raises his hands, muttering something under his breath as he gestures. To Strange's eyes, the golden, shimmering color that is Lambert's fae magic spirals out from his hands, streaming out to form a thin, glimmering shield around them, though it's not too big. There doesn't seem to be any obvious effect that can be detected besides the fact that magic was cast, and Lambert nods decisively.

"Stay close, " he says, reaching out to open the door and glancing left and right. Yeah, it's still loud, but it looks like the coast is clear... for now.

[kingsroads]

Unsurprisingly, Strange's attention shifts entirely to the magic as Lambert casts a spell. It's his handiwork and it's remarkably fae. Possibly a new addition from the Ringmaster? He can't tell what it does right now, though part of Strange desperately wants to stop everything so he can analyze the spell and find out.

He does stay close, however. But that doesn't mean he can't give Lambert shit. "Magic's just a tool, I don't use it like you do," Strange whispers under his breath, in a terrible imitation of Lambert. "That's the biggest lie since you saying witchers don't have emotions."

And, despite the situation and despite the fact that they probably should be quiet, Strange gives Lambert an enormous shit-eating grin.

[whattaprick]

"Shut it, you," Lambert says automatically, giving Strange a dirty look. Although technically, he doesn't need to shut it, because... "This makes silence, not invisibility. I was expecting to use this working with someone who was actually capable of stealth. Come on."

He advances out past the door, and once it's shut behind them, he advances carefully but quickly. He'd drop himself into shadows with the gem the Ringmster gave him, but then he seriously doubts Strange will be able to follow along. At least a purple smoke cloud has some chance of being mistaken for special effects...

"Which door?"

[kingsroads]

It's already a well-proven fact that Strange isn't good at stealth. So, Lambert's comments are like water off a duck's back: that dirty look doesn't do anything to wipe off the shithead smirk on Strange's face. Still, he's following close by and keeping up with Lambert's pace.

He points towards the end of the hallway. "Take the left and it's the first one on the right," he whispers, despite the fact that he knows the spell's a silence spell. Strange doesn't really know how well the spell works, best not to chance it.

[whattaprick]

Lambert rolls his eyes, but he'll keep going. The murmur of voices continues from the headset in hand, but he's only half-listening to it. Once it's at least clear that they aren't in immediate danger of discovery, he heads to the door Strange indicates and pulls it open.

Hopefully, it isn't occupied. If it is, hopefully his and Strange's reflexes are fast enough to respond.

[kingsroads]

They've lucked out this time. The dressing room is empty, though there are signs that it's regularly used by the back-up dancers. Bottles of water, duffel bags, and various hair supplies and makeup are scattered throughout the room. There's also an open bag of trail mix on the counter next to them.

Surprising no one, Strange scoops out a small handful which he instantly shoves in his mouth. He is 100% stealing this poor dancer's food.

"Grab one of those water bottles," Strange says, through a mouth full of trail mix. "It might come in handy." Or, at least, it would come in handy for Strange.