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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The thing about concerts is this: Lambert has absolutely no experience with concerts, and the largest musical performance he'd ever attended was a roomful of drunks in an inn. He has a dim memory of Portland's Lambert swearing off live music events after he got kicked in the head after wandering into a mosh pit at a heavy metal concert, so he doesn't even have any useful memories there.

At any rate, he meant to end up at the stage, but one altercation with transformed Void monsters had sent him off in the wrong direction for what felt like ages, only to wind up as far away from his destination as imaginable, led there by the warren of hallways he'd hurtled down. As soon as he emerges into actual air the first thing he catches is CY-Ren's song, and people moving in mesmerized synchronization with it. The second thing he realizes is just how far from the fucking stage he is, and he swears, loudly.

But he isn't alone. Glamour or not, Gongenzaka's figure is unmistakable, and he's the only one Lambert recognizes. He shoves and pushes his way towards the other carnival worker, not seeing the figure he's engaged with at first.

"I could get into this for you," she says, increasingly disdainful, "but I think you'll want to focus on helping out your friends down there, hm? You haven't got that magician with you, have you? Or the rose child?"

She is looking at him for a reaction more than she's looking for an answer. She'd really rather focus her attention elsewhere, but shifting forms here will just draw more attention to herself.

"I have to say, this must be above the carnival's paygrade..."

Magician? Rose child? Gongenzaka may be good at keeping his emotions to himself, but when it comes to the people he knows, he might as well be transparent. The man stiffens, eyes widening as a growl grows from his throat. His fingers crack as he prepares to potentially make use of his fists, and finally-

"Do not make me ask again," he snarls, but truthfully in his mind he's rather fearful. Part of him says 'restrain them, bring them back, bring them to be questioned', the other part says how. How can he possibly expect to do that, if...if...

"WHO ARE YOU, that you would know any of these matters!?"

Lambert doesn't understand what the fuck is going on, he's pissed, and he's worried about everyone else he knows is somewhere out there, stuck in that crowd, where he can't get to them. By the time he pushes his way over to Gon, he doesn't need to understand what he's shouting about to know something's wrong, and this isn't someone friendly.

He doesn't know if the woman's connected to what's going on stage, and frankly? Lambert doesn't care. While Gon is still yelling, he thrusts a hand forward in the air, fingers already shaped to unleash a blast of pure kinetic force at her. For all he knows, she's some random civilian, but he's livid and frankly he wanted to do this all of five minutes ago.

"Quit fucking around!" he shouts -- his ire directed at Gon. "We have to get down there!"

As he extends his hand to shoot the blast of kinetic force, Nightshade will raise her hand in turn - only for vines to shoot out of her sleeve and wrap around Lambert's forearm. In one, fluid gesture, she sidesteps the blast and moves to flip Lambert straight onto his back. She'll happily step on his neck if she gets the chance, too. The vines stay attached to Lambert's arm.

"Well, that's about enough of this," she says, more weary than angry. "Murder it is, then."

"NGMH-! Lambert..!" Gongenzaka is about to shout at Lambert about how he's fairly certain this is related to the exact thing that the entire security team was warned about, when Nightshade has...Moved.

And moved fast. Much faster than he could properly follow.

Which means he needs to move faster and not with his fists. As the blood drains from his face, he shouts-panic and worry in his tone. "Wait-!" Shit. Well, if they were looking for strange plants...

"....Please," he begins, swallowing. "...This...need not devolve to death," the beast insists, hands up, and open. If there were perhaps...an opening for him to use, something, maybe they could turn this around and bolt (he has a sneaking, sinking feeling that this is not a fight they could win after all), but...

"I, the man Gongenzaka, wished only to make certain you were not the fae we have been warned to watch for, and guard against; if you are not..." ...Which. She probably isn't, but. "...If you are not, then it is as you said. ...We have other matters that must be attended to now."

The trouble is, of course, that Lambert just doesn't know to quit. Even with the way he's slammed into the ground and vines wrap around his arm, he isn't at all interested in lying down and taking it. Nor, it seems, does he entirely care about the implied threat to his person. There's no rational weighing of his chances of survival, right now; she's in his way and she's pissing him off.

When she moves to step on his neck -- he can see where that motion is headed, clear as day -- there's a flash of wild, animal fury in his expression that seems out of all proportion to the motion. He jack-knifes violently under her, trying to wrench his arm away from the vines even as his tail whips around to try to knock her other foot out from under her or at least throw her off balance. Sorry, Gon, this really probably isn't helping your attempt at diplomacy, though Lambert would argue that ship's already sailed.

To be fair, he's probably right. Or, at least, it really seems like that's the case, with her mostly just focusing on Lambert squirming around on the ground, like an idiot. (Or, at least, that's her perception of what it looks like.) His tail will smack into her leg, but it doesn't actually accomplish much. Instead, she just lifts the foot she was trying to stick on his neck and proceeds to start stomping her boot in the general direction of his face.

Meanwhile, the vines break through the outer layer of his skin, like roots digging into soil. It feels about as bad as that sounds.

"Can never make up your minds, can you?" she says, punctuating each stop with am emphasized word. "First you make demands, and then, of course, you get all 'oh please, Nightshade, don't kill us!' the moment you realize how outclassed you are!"

"........Nightshade?" .......................Well.

On the one hand, he has a name. On the other- "MNHH-! Sans was poisoned with 'Nightshade' berries..." He coughs, and hurriedly tries to straighten himself. Let's NOT bring the focus on that...

"Do not misunderstand-demands are what I, the man Gongenzaka made-but a fight was not my goal!" Unless, well. The obvious problem existed.

Which shit it does, but he also can't get everyone here fast enough and aaaaaagh- "...Please," Gongenzaka asks once more, bowing his head. "Do not kill him."

First, she seemed like an annoyance. Now? As the word 'Nightshade' slips past her lips, Lambert's just enraged. Even the vines sinking into his skin don't really register at this point, though he's still struggling to tear his arm free of that, his other hand sliding to the blade clipped to his belt.

"YOU BITCH!" He snarls-- only, well, he kind of has a shoe in his face right now so it comes out more like a loud, unhapppy 'oo biffhh.' In any case, it winds up with a sole pressed right over Lambert's mouth, and the motion is purely instinctive: a blast of flame rolls right out of his mouth, the change he's never really mastered responding to his fury. He yanks the feather blade out at the same time, palming it in his free hand while trying to wrench away again.

"Hmm." Instead of responding directly to Gongenzaka's pleas, she looks to him blandly and asks: "Quick question. Can he fly?" She's obviously referring to Lambert.

And then, of course, Lambert starts using the b-word and breathing fire up her pant leg. It smarts, yes, but not enough that she makes any uncontrolled actions. Instead, she just sneers.

"Let's see!"

Using the vines still hooked into Lambert's arm, she hurls him over the wall of the arena and down towars the pavement below. Considering this is the equivalent of several stories up, it would be a fatal fall for most normal people.

"Oh, what do you know!" she giggles. "He can!"

Can he fly? His face says...well. Technically yes, but frankly Nightshade moves too quick for that to even BE an answer. With one last glance at the Fae, committing her visage to memory, he bolts after Lambert-not jumping, but continually running, magic in place as he rushes along the wall. "NH- LAMBERT!" he shouts, vines shooting forward to grab for him. It's not the fall that kills, he thinks in his mind, pushing onward through the run as he goes. It's the shock, the sudden stop, the ending of it all, and when he grabs he doesn't just jolt the man over, or stop the motions, he keeps going.

Not toward Nightshade, however.

He'll be running along the wall, but away, thank you, and hopefully Lambert can cooperate with that.

Unsurprisingly, getting vines ripped out of your skin hurts. It hurts a lot. Lambert barely manages another blast of spiteful flame at Nightshade -- like a spitting, hissing cat, too enraged for words -- before he's flung off the side of the arena, hurtling past concrete and the blazingly bright screens mounted on the outside.

Once he's falling, of course, he has other pressing matters to deal with. Shifting into a dragon is a skill he's grown better at, and he's managed it while falling in mid-air before. It's even a familiar scene, leaving Gongenzaka behind while he tumbles through the air, blood streaming from his injured arm and knife still clutched in his fingers. He's of half a mind to fling it at Nightshade as a last parting shot, except he got it as a gift, and while Scout had joked about it being something she gave him considering his penchant for flinging blades at things, well. He's not so sure he won't get it back after chucking it at a fae.

What he'd give for some iron right now, even if it burns him to hold it. All this is really just inane background chatter in his head, of course, as he plummets further to the ground and it occurs to him he really should probably do something about that.

And then his fall is arrested abruptly, by vines again, knocking the breath out of him as he's grabbed and the downward momentum is suddenly whipped around into sideways momentum instead, concrete passing underneath. His first instinct is to fight them off, not immediately recognizing them as distinct from the ones that have lodged under his skin, but as soon as he realizes it's not a threat--

"What the fuck," he bawls at Gongenzaka, his face lurid pink and purple in the light from the monitors. "That was a fucking fae!"

Edited 2018-02-05 03:01 (UTC)

"Okay, bye!" Nightshade sings after them, allowing Gongenzaka to chase after his comrade and presumably prevent him from meeting a tragic death on the payment. She realizes that they will probably tell everyone about her presence, now, but she can't bring herself to do much to prevent that. It feels like too much effort.

It's not like she wants to be here, anyway. She disappears into the crowd.

Run, run, run.... Hooves and paws alike pound the pavement as he rushes back for the wall, and what an odd sight this must be under the glamors but he frankly doesn't care right now. "NGh...Indeed, that was a fae," he shouts back to the other, an edge of panic still in his tone. "And one who would have sooner cut your throat, if things had gone slightly more wrong..!" His breathing is heavy, almost as heavy as his foot-beats, but he at least tries to put some focus into moving Lambert ONTO his back rather than having him awkwardly dangle around.

"Why is it that you think I, the man Gongenzaka, was back there..? We are to watch for suspicious fae, are we not? For odd plants, dust...for the summer fae! And that..." he swallows.

"...I, the man Gongenzaka, did not know who that was...but if 'Nightshade' is truly her name..."

Well.

They certainly found their suspicious Summer Fae.

The arm that had been grappling with the vines aches and burns, feeling heavy and sluggish, but Lambert uses both hands to grab into Gongenzaka's enormous mane (there's no fucking way he's fourteen, he thinks inanely, even now) tightly as he's lowered close enough to actually straddle him. Which he does, with the competent, confident seat of an experienced rider, even if it's a little weird figuring out how to place his body when there's another ... well, body in front of him.

"Then she works for the Rose Queen," Lambert snarls, like it's something personal. Because it is -- because she tortured his best friend, and because right now, with the Starlight's warning ringing clear in his mind, he knows the Rose Queen can't be far behind her.

But imprecations will have to wait, as a sudden burst of applause and cheering comes from inside the arena, reminding Lambert of their other problem at hand and why he'd come to grab Gongenzaka to begin with.

"Get us back inside," he says, fingers curling into the strangely petal-like ruff under his hands. "Talk later."

"Indeed!" he replies, still barreling directly for the wall. Normally this would be a bit of a concern...But trust him, it'll be fine. With one swift jump they're running on the wall. "For all that I, the man Gongenzaka, am glad we caught sight of her... ...she was in no way wrong about the main stage..!

"If you can clear our path without harming those ahead of myself, I, the man Gongenzaka, can keep running!"

If they were facing each other, Lambert would give Gon the most scathing look possible. Who does he think he's even talking to?

"Monster hunters don't usually go for non-harmful!" he snaps. They undoubtedly make a stupid sight to anyone without the ability to see past the glamour -- one grown man clinging to the back of ... well, actually, it's a bit hard for anyone to tell that Gon's to be a teenager, no matter what form he's in. It's still a pretty stupid sight even with the glamour, so they're both shit out of luck there.

The look Lambert receives will probably tell him that he doesn't 'think' he's talking to anyone, really. Not in terms of forgetting anything at least. "And you told me about your original profession when, then?" he replies coolly, starting to force his way through the crowd.

"Forgive me then, for prioritizing what we were requested to do alongside this sabotage; but it is better to ask than to never try." Other than that, they'll be going at a less than spectacular pace given that he's trying not to break everyone's spines here.

Sorry, Gon, Lambert's looking elsewhere, judging the crowd. He personally thinks it wouldn't get much notice if they did step on someone, but given that he's the one hitching a ride...

"It's not like a it's a secret," Lambert shrugs. People ask on the radio often enough, and it feels like he's explained what a witcher is a hundred times, but right now, isn't the time to explain it once more.

"But fine, maybe I've got something. Close your eyes!" He digs his fingers into a pocket, producing a small, paper-wrapped package that he lobs overhand, into the crowd ahead of them. Well before ever hitting anyone, the fuse ignites and the flashbomb goes off with a loud bang, making people yell sharply in confusion and stumble back from the sudden noise and flash of light in their midst. At least it clears the path a bit, but it's probably not the outcome Gon would have preferred regardless.

"Nor is it an immediate fact," he replies more calmly, but he obediently shuts them. His ears twitch at the sound, and the people certainly do start moving-perhaps not the GREATEST outcome, true, but-

"HMM! Effective!" he compliments, focusing on the run to the stage. On the plus side, he is about as fast as a bear and a horse combined...so as much as people are in the way, it should be fine, really.

At least until anything Shadowy interrupts.

Funnily enough, the first interruption comes not in the form of an attack, but a buzzing against Gon's back as Lambert's text ring reminds him he has an unread message. It's on his uninjured hand, meaning it's actually a pain to let go of Gon and try to read it while they're jolting along, but whatever it is, Gongenzaka will be able to feel the tension snap through Lambert nonetheless.

"Message to Rita: what do you mean, something wrong!?" he bawls, trying to be heard over the noise of the crowd.

"Hmmm!?" Well now-he's getting relatively close to the stage brawl that's starting up, but he slows down a bit to get a better idea of how to jump into that. Not to mention, Lambert's outburst...

"What is it? It is already rather clear 'something' is wrong, after all..!" Just look at this nonsense there are LASERS firing at the STAGE now Lambert.

Lambert swears, but his attention only focuses on the stage now. The stage that people seem to be attacking with a will, not that it seems to be making much difference. He snaps at his ring a few more times, then looks up.

"People are getting their heads fucked with," he snarls. "Let me get off, I need to find--" He cuts himself off, ostensibly because he needs to start getting down from Gongenzaka, mostly because the rush of panic in his voice is just a bit too honest.

"Mngh- Mind alteration..?" he questions, but he's already loosening the vines-alright, alright, go, go-

"Shoot.... Then, Yuuya might.." Actually he'll go too, apparently. In another direction once Lambert is off. ~~YUUYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-~~

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⇨ THE FANTASIA FESTIVAL

walks in late with no starbucks, only regrets

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Gon the Broken Record, ah

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u cant see the kidnapped being kidnapped tho gon

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