⇨ SHOW'S OVER

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone who DIDN’T get caught up in CY-Ren’s music, D13-D14.
When: D13-D15
Where: Wismuth, the Carnival
What: Recovering, taking stock, and trying to figure out where to go from here.
Warnings: ? ? ?

FALLEN STARS↴ ► AFTERMATH: After the culmination of the confrontation between Noa and CY-Ren — as much as it can be called one, since it ends with the Guardian being flung off the stage — the arena returns to darkness. After a few seconds of silence, the backup lighting sputters on, but instead of music a loudspeaker begins to blare loudly: ATTENTION, FANTASIA FESTIVAL ATTENDANTS. DUE TO AN EMERGENCY, WE WILL BE EVACUATING THE VENUE. PLEASE FOLLOW STAFF DIRECTIONS AND PROCEED TO THE NEAREST EXIT. THANK YOU. The pleasant, automated woman’s voice begins to play on loop as the concertgoers, snapped out of their trance, look at each other in confusion. The Void creatures that had come out at CY-Ren’s command are nowhere to be seen now, and neither is the singer herself. Wismuth police officers, though they look as uncertain and dazed as half the audience seems to be, break up the crowd and directing them to file out of the Fantasia Festival’s exits. It’s easy enough for Carnival members to slip away, though as they go through the crowd they’ll hear the festivalgoers discussing anything but the sight of Guardian and Harbinger in combat, much less people being dragged into shadows… “Right in the middle of CY-Ren’s set, too! Aren’t they supposed to check the wiring on these things?” “I paid to go to a concert, not a fire drill! I’d better get a refund!” “They didn’t have to shut the whole place down—" In the chaos and flow of people, it’ll be hard for Carnival workers to keep track of each other, but one thing is clear: they can’t stay here. ► HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN: The would-be saboteurs and those who’ve stayed behind have a chance to meet up again once they get back to the Carnival’s grounds. However, what exactly happened back there is unclear — and the one who might have answers is still unconscious from her brief altercation with the Harbinger. Still, there’s no shortage of things to do: after all, once they get back, it’s obvious there are more than a few missing faces. ► HEADLINES: Anyone who ventures to Wismuth in the days after the festival will find something peculiar: all news about the incident at the festival has been written off as a freak fire from some faulty wiring or a potential incendiary device, which reporters say police are ‘investigating the cause of’ and which some of the more sensational news sites are already having a field day with (based on rumors and hearsay the venue may have received a bomb threat). Most entertainment sites and social media coverage of the event only include blurry clips with captions like ‘tmw you fucked up the only vid you have of cy-ren’s concert 😭fml' and generally agree that it's a pity she never got past a second song.

Comments

[osteothropy]

"Yeah, and she's not the only one." If Sans sounds angry, it's because he is. As opposed to Alphys more frantic and sympathetic approach, Sans is interested in exactly one thing right now.

"Where would she take people?" he asks Noa directly, his eyes narrowed and impatient. "We've got people missing. Something in that music was affecting our people's brains, and now they're gone."

It might not be fair to blame Noa, but it kind of sounds like he does right now.

[npcarnival]

The tone isn't lost on Noa, even as disoriented as she is. With Alphys' help, she gets to her feet -- though it produces another wince as she stumbles, face going white with pain.

Still, though her voice is shaky, but she gets the words out clearly enough, though she has to raise her voice to be heard over the announcement calling for an evacuation. "I don't ... her penthouse, maybe? Her studio? She's never taken people before," she says, trying to think it through. She doesn't understand if this is what Creation was warning against, and she's trying to quell her own rising sense of panic.

"We have to find them." She knows that much for sure, even without being told. But when she tries to take a step forward, her leg almost buckles out from under her, and she has to steady herself on Alphys quickly.

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys props up Noa the best she can (one of the few perks of being short) and shoots Sans a Look- this is hardly the magical girl's fault in her opinion. From the sound of it, this was something CY-Ren had never done before.

That was most likely not a good thing.

"Guh!" She lets out a yelp as Noa falls on her. "Y-you can't fight, you're too hurt! We'll go! We'll find them!"

[osteothropy]

Sans catches that look from Alphys, and it reminds him to tone it down a little - not because he feels bad about his accusations, but because he generally makes a point of not clenching quite so hard in front people. It feels more intimate than he wants to be, more than anything else.

He gestures, brushing a few last pieces of rubble out of the way, before letting them drop. It's the sense that 'we didn't even have to be here' that's really killing him at the moment.

"Fine," he says, terse by his own standards. There's no point in demanding information from someone who is obviously clueless.

[npcarnival]

If they hadn't been here, would CY-Ren's song never have worked? Or would she just have taken even more people, if her song hadn't been interrupted? Noa doesn't have the answers to that. But she knows she owes it to the people who promised to help even when they didn't have to, to figure out what CY-Ren wants with them and how to get them back.

"I ... I need to tell the Ringmaster what happened," she shakes off her confusion, lifting her chin a little, then glances between Alphys and Sans. She knows at least Alphys said she wasn't much of a fighter, but Sans ... looks like someone who's more capable, anyway. "Will you stay here and keep looking?"

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys is plenty grateful that Noa is looking at Sans. When she said 'we'll find them' she of course meant the carnival as a whole... she's nervous at the thought of facing CY-Ren again.

And with the Ringmaster involved... that's it!

"Sans! You can get us back to the carnival, right?" She pleads with him. "We'll get the Ringmaster, she'll know what to do!"

[osteothropy]

Well geez, guys, do you want him to stay or go? Sans was about to happily ditch this conversation in favour of taking off at Noa's request, but then Alphys has to go and point out what would be practical. Even if Sans has zero interest in that idea right now, he can't rely deny that it would be the smart thing to do. He narrows his eyes at Alphys, vaguely indicating his displeasure, but ultimately he can't reasonably deny her.

So, he does it. One second the three of them are just standing there, and the next, they've all transported over to the park area where the carnival entrance is, with approximately zero fanfare.

Once they are there, Sans doesn't skip a beat before summoning his three dogs - who appear either as skeleton wolves or as a set of white dogs, depending on whether or not you look at the glamour. Roman immediately starts whining, sensing Sans's distress. New takes one look at the others before bolting off into the trees with a great sense of purpose.

"Done," he says flatly. "Now, I'm outta here."

He sprouts his magic set of angel wings, ready to take off.

[npcarnival]

If Noa ever gets a chance to ask Creation to give her other powers, she thinks, she's definitely going to ask for something that will make it easier to get around. When they're suddenly transported from the crowded arena to the suddenly quiet, cool air of the park, the contrast is shocking enough to make Noa gasp, though she at least avoids squashing Alphys this time.

"Thank you," she says. It's a miserably small thing to offer, and she knows it. "Good luck."

Once he's gone, it'll be up to Alphys to help her limp the rest of the way back to the Carnival.

[textsfromhotland]

This is not the carnival, Sans! Alphys glowers and watches him take off. Still, they got here faster than she could have managed on her own. Now it was just her.

"Hokay." Alphys takes a deep breath. "J-just lean on me, okay? We just gotta get back to the carnival and then- uh-"

Then what? A whole bunch of them were missing, and the Ringmaster didn't even want them involved in the first place. But she'd do something to fix this, wouldn't she?

"Let's g-go!"

[npcarnival]

Since Noa stands at least a good foot or so taller than Alphys, it'll be a bit of a struggle, but she puts her uninjured arm on the monster and leans on her to keep her foot off her bad leg. It's not the fastest pace ever, but it's faster than she would be on her own.

After a moment, though, she'll speak up.

"... I really screwed that up, didn't I?" She tries to offer Alphys a smile, but it falls a bit flat. Before Alphys can respond, though, the pocket of Noa's hoodie shifts... and a small, furry head pokes out. The creature's fur is almost as golden as the light that Noa was using earlier, and its nose twitches before it speaks in a surprisingly deep, male voice.

"The blame was not on you alone. I should have anticipated that."

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys' jaw drops at the appearance of the small, cute critter. She even has a magical familiar!

"N-no, you didn't!" Is her first thought. "W-well, I mean, we were supposed to stop the concert and we couldn't do that, so it's kind of on us, too? Maybe? We all kinda screwed up..."

She pauses for a moment, and then: "...You l-looked really cool, though."

[npcarnival]

But the Carnival doesn't have anything to do with this world. Noa's the one who's supposed to be its Guardian, and she obviously hasn't done a good enough job of that. Still, it seems Alphys's words help lift her spirits, even if the situation's still pretty dire.

"Thanks," Noa says, her smile a little more genuine. "You're actually the first person to ever say that. Everyone else forgets." Except for CY-Ren, obviously.

[textsfromhotland]

"Everyone...forgets?" Not only is she the only guardian in this city, but nobody even knows about it. Alphys... actually knows how lonely that must be.

Except, you know, Noa protects and helps people.

"I don't think I could forget something like that. I've only ever seen it before in TV!" Clearly the fangirling is working, so. "A-and I bet it'll be even cooler when you stop CY-Ren for good, right?"

[npcarnival]

At the idea of 'stopping CY-Ren for good,' though, Noa's confidence falters again. "I ... I hope so," she admits.

"The loss of memory may be the mind's way of protecting it from what it cannot comprehend." While they've been moving slowly, the dormouse-sized animal has crawled all the way out of Noa's pocket and up onto her other shoulder, rising onto his hind legs as he saves her from the conversation. Tiny, feathered wings peel away from his back and shake themselves, but he doesn't take flight just yet.

"If Noa fails to stop CY-Ren, this world will fall into entropy, and the multiverse will lose one of its Pillars," he adds as an afterthought, ponderously. "For the sake of all Earths, we must strive not to let that come to pass."