⇨ 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

[genice]

( Victor had frankly headed out because he wanted to see two things: what Noa had originally described in action, and what the shakeout was for... the rest.

Granted, he's not at ease having his roommate poof into the night of bad ideas and concert attacks, but he also has nothing much to say about a teenager he's lived with for a handful of days, if that. Still, no one should be missing: people still are.

And really, maybe he just wanted a coffee, though he'd ordered a tea that'd arrived scalded. Alas. )

Hm? ( He turned his head her way, just enough to give Shura a more than passing glance. It takes him a moment to piece together what she means, or what he thinks she means. ) The more easily digested information being public fare? Or the magic element behind it?

( Look, writing over that many memories is the ways Noa had implied is not quite how it works where he's from. )

[exaomori]

[poor victor, stuck with scalded tea and shima for a roommate. Even if Shima happened to be be a missing roommate at the moment...]

It may not function the exact same way here, but when a human sees something that should be completely impossible, we tend to find a way to make sense of it. Those void creatures, some magical girls fightin'--that's too unreal for most people.

[Shura pauses, takes a sip from her drink. Explaining stuff was such a pain, but maybe this guy came from a less supernaturally inclined world. He still looked normal to her. Maybe just as new as she was. Either way, she didn't have someone from the intelligence division there to give out exposition or explanation, so she was stuck with it.]

All it takes is a little suggestion, an' people will be happy to believe it. It's probably more convenient for the Void if people don't recognize that it exists.

[genice]

( "When a human sees." He takes another sip of scalded tea, face impassive, regardless of the taste. He'd make it up to himself later. )

Similar to any kind of traumatic event. We want the world to be logical, so we make it logical. Governments of all kinds weigh in on that principle at some point, don't they?

( You choose what you want to believe. He does get what she means, but this is so massively immediate that he's caught off guard knowing things were different. Noa's theory in action is a wonder of its own. )

Probably convenient it hampers Noa's efforts, too. Are we assuming this Void's as straightforward as it seems?

( It's not actually playing the long game and integrating into government while using flashier, easier to see CY-Ren while working to let society eradicate itself, is it. Magic might be new as of last week, but the rest carries something he understands on different levels. )

[exaomori]

Yeah, they're happy to take advantage of it. And if anyone tries to argue that something ain't right, it's easy to brush them aside as bein' crazy.

[Not that every conspiracy theory was right... But still, it didn't seem like there was much difference between humans from world to world. At least there was some familiarity with that.]

That Noa girl didn't give much information on it, so it's hard to tell what its plans actually are. It won't hurt to keep an eye out for anythin' suspicious, but I wouldn't spend much time trying to chase down somethin' just cause it looks strange.

[The people who hadn't returned... That was worrying. Still, they may have been waylaid on the way back for whatever reason.]

People are plenty wicked on their own, after all. While they might be gettin' a push from this Void, it doesn't mean it's what we oughtta focus on.