⇨ 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

[dressedtothe]

9S watches Rita float over the debris and grimaces. That's cheating. But rather than complain, he sucks it up and starts climbing. It's not any worse than what he's already had to climb back on Earth.

"We better report this. Can you do it?"

Normally he'd do it with Pod 153, but his support unit isn't with him on account of being too noticeable. And unfortunately, since he has to climb and Rita conveniently has her hands free...

[anti_nonsense]

"Yeah," Rita replies with a nod, then holds up a hand to show him the mechanical texting ring on her finger. "I can reach Lambert with this."

She holds it up closer to her mouth, seemingly about to speak into the tiny microphone on the ring, but she pauses and looks back to 9S.

"Say... would you be able to tell if someone specific is in the vicinity right now? Like... Childermass?" Rita still doesn't know all of what a Scanner unit is capable of, but she figures it's worth asking.

[dressedtothe]

Hmmm... would he be able to tap into that device without needing a ring of his own? He'll have to look into it later.

9S clambers over a steel support and jumps down. "Humans don't broadcast identification signals, so no. Even if he did, there's too many people around here."

[anti_nonsense]

"Darn," Rita grumbles, casting a look around the stage area. There's no way she can pick someone out in that crowd, especially with so little light. Even though that's their fault. "Well... keep an eye out for him, anyway. He was acting weird, last I saw him."

It's then that a muted buzz can be heard as Rita's ring vibrates. She holds her hand out to read the brief message that scrolls across it.

"Lambert," she announces, in case there was any question. "Guess he got to us first."

[dressedtothe]

Carnival members accidentally sabotaging their own ability to function effectively? Say it isn't so!

He's cleared the worst of the debris, so it'll be relatively even ground from here on out. But what happened to CY-Ren? He can detect someone -- Noa, maybe? -- by the destroyed sound system along with two other people. Who they are, he isn't sure.

"Yeah? Does he have any orders for us?"

[anti_nonsense]

Rita shakes her head. "Not yet. Just asking if we're alive."

She holds the ring up by her mouth. "Message to Lambert: ...Yeah. Me and 9S, we're both fine."

There's a delay, then the ring vibrates again. This time, as Rita reads the message, there's a flash of indignation in her expression. Holding the ring up again, she demands, "Nightshade? What's that freak doing here? Is she still around?"

[dressedtothe]

Huh. She's not receiving a voice response even though she's using voice to communicate with Lambert. What's the point of that, then?

9S tilts his head. "Who's Nightshade?"

[anti_nonsense]

Right... 9S wasn't in Portland. Lucky for him, really, but he could probably use a briefing.

"She's a fae from the Summer Court," Rita explains with a sour expression. "Works for the Rose Queen. Purple hair, way smaller than a normal person. Lambert says she was 'messing with flowers'." Whatever that means. Probably nothing good, considering who it is.

[dressedtothe]

Now that Rita mentions the Rose Queen, he recalls the radio broadcast on the Nightrunner channel before they stopped in this world. Both Rita and Strange had mentioned her... Nightshade, too. While Rita's messaging Lambert, 9S quickly runs a check through his memory units to retrieve the information Strange had dispensed over the channel.

"Nightshade's the one who needs you to eat her berries for her magic to work on you, isn't she?"

Enthrallment and mental manipulation, Strange had said. Not unlike what they witnessed when CY-Ren was on stage, with the placid crowd.

"Do you think she's working with CY-Ren?"

[anti_nonsense]

There's a flicker of surprise in Rita's expression, but she remembers that Strange did say as much in public, and she nods to confirm it. Rita never saw most of what Nightshade can do, but the magician's done enough blabbing about it over the radios to give her a good idea.

As for whether they could be working together...

"I don't know. Sure as hell hope not," Rita grumbles. It's bad enough that she's here. If their enemies turn out to be working together, it'll be even worse. "I don't know if they managed to track us all the way here, or what... but we can probably expect trouble, whatever the case."

[dressedtothe]

"Hm."

9S remains silent as he considers their options while Rita's in communication with Lambert. The problem they have right now is that they have no idea where CY-Ren is. CY-Ren's their target, but she's clearly gone. Concert's over, mission... complete? But Noa still has a predicament on her hands.

Nightshade is a potential problem at this stage. Worth keeping an eye out for, but no point in trying to chase her down at this stage. And given the power of the Prince, instigating a fight with Nightshade is probably not in their best interests.

So. Finding CY-Ren, then. 9S reaches for his bag, unzipping it and pulling out a lens. He hasn't really tested its function much, but it's worth a try.

[anti_nonsense]

There's another buzz from Rita's ring. She checks it, then records her reply: "Yeah. I'll let you know if we find any leads."

Looking up, she opens her mouth to relay the orders to 9S... but stops when she sees that lens, her eyes widening with fascination. "What's that?" she asks eagerly, taking a step forward to get a closer look. It sure doesn't look like any tool he'd normally use.

[dressedtothe]

"It's something I received from the Ringmaster. It's supposed to let me see concentrations of magical energy."

A bit like heat vision.

"I haven't really tested it yet, but no harm in trying it out. Did you want to have a look at it?"

[anti_nonsense]

Hell yeah she wants to look at it. Rita nods eagerly, her face lighting up at the offer.

"If you want to practice using it later, I can provide all kinds of magic," she suggests. They can't do it now, of course, since anything she conjured would just be a distraction from the signatures they should actually be looking for, but... later! Definitely!

[dressedtothe]

9S readily hands the lens over to Rita.

"Great! I'll look forward to it." But yes, no time to get distracted now. That would be bad. They're on the clock! "So, what's our orders?"

[anti_nonsense]

Taking the lens in hand, Rita holds it and scans the stage area. She squints, peering through it, when it seems to pick up on some faint remnant of a spell used earlier. As exciting as it is to try out this tool, however, her enthusiasm is dampened by what she has to relay next.

"He said he's going back to the carnival, and he wants us to stay here a bit longer and look for clues about missing people." Plural. "Sounds like Childermass isn't the only one who wandered off during the performance."

Rita doesn't want to say that Strange called it when he suggested people might get kidnapped and end up needing rescuing... but he kind of called it.

[dressedtothe]

9S groans. More people have gone missing? "Is this always a problem with the Carnival?"

This happened when they were at the Prince's manor, too!

"Do you see anything on the lens? I'm hoping we can pick out CY-Ren using it. Who's misisng, anyway? They're bound to be with her."

[anti_nonsense]

"More often than you'd think," Rita grumbles in reply. "Don't know who else is missing, either."

She passes the lens back to 9S. "See for yourself. All I saw were a few fading spells from the fight just now, and the glamours of some of our people. Maybe she retreated without using magic, or she teleported..." The thought crosses her mind that CY-Ren could have simply joined the crowd... but with their fanatical adoration of her, she probably wouldn't be able to hide unless she used some kind of glamour herself.

[dressedtothe]

9S takes the lens back and peers through it. Sure enough, there's only rapidly dissipating magic and Carnival glamours left. He lowers his hand. "Maybe if I relocate to somewhere higher to survey a larger area... We're going to have to get out of here."

The crowd is massive, though. Practically inpenetrable as it's being directed to leave in a 'calm manner'. If they follow the crowd, there's going to be stuck at the concert for a while.

But a broadcast is run through the Nightrunner channel.