lostcarnival | ⇨ INVASION!

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⇨ INVASION!

Who: Everyone! But especially HARBINGERS!
When: S2:D16-22
Where: All over Wismuth!
What: As the Harbingers reveal themselves, those among the carnival that Creation has chosen will start to discover new powers within themselves. It's because they're magical girls, yo.
Warnings: Harbingers being assholes.

HARBINGERS OF VOID↴

On Day 16, the Harbingers begin revealing their new selves... in the form of wreaking havoc on the city! CY-Ren isn't looking for mass panic or serious structural damage - instead she wants constant annoyances and distractions, of the sort that will keep those that might be on her tail distracted from her true plans. However, when Creation is faced with the threat of twelve new Harbingers, it will have to fight in kind...

► HARBINGERS: Your job is to use your powers to create messes for other people to clean up! CY-Ren gives no specific instructions outside of a general framework... flex your powers! See what you can do. Don't destroy the city or anything, but give Creation a run for its money. She needs these civilians alive for her later plans.

► STAR GUARDIANS: Twelve members of the carnival have been chosen by Creation to fight in its name, even if they don't realize it yet. When confronted by the Harbinger's chaos, their Sparks will make themselves known in whatever form is appropriate to the character - and they will be asked if they are willing to use the power of their soul to fight the darkness. How this scene plays out can be flexible, but essentially they will find themselves faced with the question: are they willing to fight for the preservation of life? If they say yes, their Spark will emerge, and they will be able to trigger a magical girl transformation, as you do.

► CHARITY CONCERT: While everyone else is busy with the sudden rise of the Harbingers, CY-Ren's PR team is releasing a statement -- they will say that new information has revealed that there had been bomb threats made against the canceled concert, which are now being blamed for the damages. CY-Ren will make a personal statement, saying that in order to apologize for the failure of her previous performances, a new free to attend event is being planned for the near future - people who had tickets to the previous event and had to go home early get top priority!

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Oh god no this was a bad idea, abort mission.

Thankfully, Strange actually remembers he can turn into smoke this time and poofs himself into smoke right before the horseradish slams into him. He floats to the side, away from the thing, before resolidifying and giving that plant animal an annoyed frown.

Of course, there's still plenty of animals and Strange has these easily biteable ankles. It'll be easy for the creatures to make a go at him, especially since Strange's attention is now mostly focused on the horseradish.

The other animals do, indeed, have a go at him - one of the corn snakes will move to slither up his leg and make an attempt at sinking in its fangs, while a gang of peppurs just kind of throw themselves at him to cling with their claws like needy kittens.

They're mad now, and they're closing in fast. The horseradish rears up onto its hind legs with a malformed whinny and snort.

A single parrot carrot lands in Strange's hair.

There are far too many animals and Strange needs to do something about that. Another magically summoned gust of wind knocks back some of the peppurs. One of them splatters on the ground which probably just serves to piss the rest of them off even more. Still, Strange doesn't really seem to care, as he's too busy trying to a: keep an eye on everything pineapple shaped and b: knock away as many of these horrible things as possible.

He just forgot about the corn snake. As it slithers up his leg, Strange attempts to shake it off but nope, those fangs sink in. A moment or so later, the parrot carrot lands in his hair and oh god, birds have claws, this thing is awful.

Jonathan Strange looks like a goddamn idiot as he's simultaneously trying to shake the snake off of his leg and swat the parrot out of his hair. As such, neither is entirely effective.

As Strange struggles with the snake and the carrot, another challenger approaches: no, it's not the Harbinger himself, but something much worse.

It is the porcupineapple.

Seeing that Strange is tangled up with the other animals, it stops, and turns its back to Strange - the leaves and ridges of its pineapple body lifting like quills on a real porcupine. Except, unlike a porcupine, where quills might be involved, it does something much worse.

Where quills would usually sit, instead it shoots streams of moderately acidic pineapple juice at him. That stuff really does a number on your mouth if you aren't careful!

Give him Steven with his attempt at growing older and probable sad puberty mustache any day. Strange could even deal with the awful orangeutan or batnana. But as he looks down the pocupineapple, Strange is suddenly fully aware that he's got a new set of nightmares and a new primal loathing that someone will inevitably exploit sometime in the future.

This thing is horrible. A feeling of revulsion sits deep in Strange's gut as he looks at the terrible beast. Unfortunately, it strikes first. The pineapple juice gets sprayed on his face and in his clothes and, worst of all, some of it lands right in his mouth. He's had enough of this. Strange poofs to smoke again, not really knowing how the juice will interact with his smoke but hoping that in this dumb game of elemental rock, paper, scissors, smoke beats juice.

How it interacts is now the sweetness of Strange's smoke scent also carries a hint of pineapples. He's going to smell like a perfume or a fruit salad at this rate.

"Good Lord!" he complains, an odd effect considering that at the moment, he doesn't really have a mouth and his voice is just coming from somewhere vaguely in the smoke. "It still stings!"

It's about this time that the real shadowy figure arrives from above, his wings spread wide as he hovers effortlessly in the air. Here he is, Steven, Harbinger of Void, in all his glory. He looks down at the splatters of destroyed fruits disapprovingly, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

He sees the smoke and he hears the voice, and it fills him with an irrational kind of frustration and resentment. His voice is deeper to reflect his growth to his new, teenaged form.

"Of course it's you," he says, clearly irritated. "Ew... you even look like her when you do that."

Edited 2018-02-14 06:10 (UTC)

Thankfully, Strange is aware of the fact that his smoke form looks intensely Nightshade-ish. He floats upward, solidifying and turning human when he's within reach of one of the stand-alone produce shelves. Strange sits on top of that, hopefully out of the way of the fruit and vegetable creatures, but definitely knocking a handful of potatoes to the ground as well.

"I was hers for about a month," he explains, though Strange can't hide the note of distaste in his voice. "It only makes sense I'd shift somewhat." He can ramble on for hours about his theory on fae changes but now isn't the time nor the place.

Though, now that he's thinking about changes...looking over Steven, it's obvious there's a whole lot different about him. The purple is a bit worrying but as far as he knew, Nightshade didn't have the power to induce instant puberty. Was this a CY-Ren thing? "I wonder which of those will stick for you?" said with a vague, flippant gesture towards Steven's new look.

Steven is a little bit thrown off. He was the one who was supposed to be making the deceptively casual entrance, but Strange barely reacted at all. Instead, he just went to sit on some potatoes and act like it's no big deal. What gives?

He clenches his fist, trying to decide what to do. He's almost certain that he has the power here, but the lack of any emotional reaction has him feeling a bit lost.

"It doesn't matter," he says, still annoyed. "This power doesn't belong to anyone else - it's mine, and I'm staying this way until the job is done!"

What gives is that whenever there's an event where multiple people get brainwashed, Strange has found himself not being the brainwashed party more often than not. Same as it ever was.

Plus, Steven isn't a pineapple. It's much easier to deal with a moody teenager than the appearance of that horticultural hell-spawn: Strange's attention is obviously split between Steven and the porcupineapple. He will straight up try to gas you, you awful bromeliad beast, don't even try to get anywhere near him. He can't even enjoy his unhealthy sugary beverage, it's just gonna taste like pineapple now! This is the literal worst!

Though, probably should try to figure out what the hell's going on in between his mental pity party. "And what job would that be? Aside from terrorizing people with fruit, that is."

This sucks, and isn't even fun. Steven crosses his arms, pouting.

"Ending the universe," he says, apparently burned out on putting in his best dramatic effort. Why is Strange always so difficult about things? Maybe not having to be on his team anymore isn't such a bad thing. He makes a decision.

He lashes out with his left arm, made of purple, slightly crystalline vines. He's going to do his best to grab Strange with it, even if he knows he can turn into smoke.

"But maybe I'll end you, first!"

Ending the universe? Strange would have taken that with a grain of salt had it not been for his talk with the Ringmaster earlier. If the Pillar of Creation fell, then so would Creation itself. Aw hell. Suddenly, this little teenage rebellion got a lot more serious.

As Steven's vines shoot out towards him, Strange (predictably) turns into smoke, trailing his way off of the produce shelf he's sitting on, back to the floor. Though, turning to smoke and back a few times in the span of the past few minutes is already making Strange a little light-headed. He stumbles backwards slightly as he solidifies, grabbing onto a nearby shelf to keep his balance.

"You wouldn't want to end me," Strange remarks, with a little scoff. His tone gets a little smug and I-know-something-you-don't-know as Strange continues. "I've got a better target in mind."

He's honestly got no idea how this would go or who would win in a hypothetical fight: Strange can tell that Steven's magic is remarkably powerful, but is it 'beat up a fae' powerful? And if his magic isn't that powerful, would who or whatever gave him that magic strike out against the fae to begin with? Who knows. But even brainwashed, Steven needs to know that Nightshade's shown up.

The original produce shelf practically cracks in half under the weight of Steven's weaponized arm crashing into it - and after that it takes Steven a moment to real it back in, though he's clearly going to. He turns on Strange, but he isn't surprised he missed. Not this time, anyway.

There are worse things he can do.

Yet, he can't help but pause as Strange starts being smug. While part of him wants to dismiss it as Strange just being a jerk, some of the innate paranoia that's come with his role as a Harbinger means that he can't totally ignore it.

"Don't tell me what I want," he says, his tone guarded and resentful.

Strange proceeds to tell Steven what he wants.

"Nightshade's been spotted in Wismuth. And if she's here, the Rose Queen probably isn't far behind." Maybe? He's not sure. Still, it's a valid assumption and if it can distract Steven from attacking him then all the better.

"Whatever gave you that power brought your magic up to levels I didn't know it could even reach." Granted, part of that is because Strange has an intensely low opinion of Steven's magic, but point stands. "Surely it would be able to take on a High Fae."

This is a blatant attempt at manipulation and guilt trips. Sometimes regular Strange is just as awful as his Portland self.

'The Rose Queen said that she'd break the spell keeping them here. The problem is, she's missing a few components.'

The words echo loudly in his mind as Strange speaks, connecting past events with the current one. Nightshade is back, his mom might be back, and still... Strange is trying to convince him to go to her. Just like he did before. Why is he always doing this to him?

It will be fine, he said. It would fix everything. All Steven had to do was put himself at risk, to face his fears, to do what no one else wanted to.

"STOP IT!" Steven yells, tears coming to his eyes as it all sinks in - the sickening reality of it thick in his gut. He can't believe this. This is why the Void was right, this is why he started this in the first place. "Why do you keep doing this to me?" he pleads, his voice cracking as he finds himself completely unable to hold his emotions inside.

A wave of helpless desperation and betrayal radiates throughout the area, empathically projected from Steven. He wants to be angry, he wants to be vengeful, but instead he just hurts.

"You told me you were different here."

That wave of desperation hits Jonathan 'absolutely no mental shielding' Strange and it hits him hard. What had been a bit of a shaky plan now seems to be the only plan, and barely even a plan at that. He can't stop Nightshade, the Ringmaster won't stop Nightshade, she's already hurt Lambert, what's to stop her from hurting others? She knows his memories, she knows about the carnival, she knows where or who to strike if she wanted to hurt Strange the most. He can't do anything about this. So he just needs to find someone who can.

"I don't need you to go to her," he clarifies, trying his hardest to keep his voice level and failing miserably at it. "You just need to convince whoever gave you that magic to go after her."

Still, Steven's crying (again!). Strange isn't entirely sure if he'll make the distinction. He puts up one of his hands in a bit of a placating gesture, eyes darting between Steven and some of the fruit monsters. "Please," Strange adds in, as a bit of an afterthought.

"NO!" Steven roars, as the market floor begins to shake and the tiling begins to crack. He doesn't make the distinction. He doesn't care. All he can see here is that Strange is trying to manipulate him, like he doesn't matter, like he's just a tool to get at someone else.

This isn't CY-Ren's problem. He wouldn't dare except her to solve something like this for him. Strange doesn't know what he's talking about. He's selfish, insensitive...

Dark purple vines with thorns of pink crystal break through the floor, pushing apart stone and metal as they grow at a wild pace. Steven has been able to do things like this in the past, but never at quite this scale - there's no space in the immediate area that seems free of the encroaching thorns. They are absolutely going after Strange as a first priority, based on a primal instinct that transcends conscious thought.

Even after the Void showed Steven the truth, he still managed to be an idiot. He still managed to open himself up enough to be hurt again.

He can't wait for this to be over.

Strange manages to dodge the first few of the vines but the fact remains that there's simply too many of them. The combination of his light-headedness and the emotional mindwhammy leaves him distracted enough that the vines wrap around his legs and stomach, thorns digging into his skin and holding him still.

It's at this point that Strange is seriously contemplating getting the hell out of dodge. But how is he going to do that. There aren't any mirrors around here and most of the puddles are from the remains of smushed creatures. The largest puddle is from that pineapple martin that Strange smushed against the wall earlier but honestly, he'd rather be pricked with all these thorns than willingly stand in that pineapple juice.

Though, considering how these thorns are breaking through the floor, it's only a matter of time until one breaks through a water pipe.

"It won't hurt to ask!" Strange insists, through gritted teeth, as he attempts to wriggle free from the vines while desperately looking around for a reflection of some sort. He feels coherent enough that he might be able to manage one or two more smoke poofs, he just needs to find a way to actually get away from Steven. "What's the worst that could happen? They say no?"

Pink roses begin to bloom at various points along the vines, the petals faintly glowing and shimmering like crystal. The growth has slowed from its initial surge, but more vines are still coming, to seemingly no end. Steven hovers in the air above, his wings outstretched, furious and hurting.

"You don't get to tell me what to do," Steven says, the vines around Strange's legs digging in more deeply to get in extra thorn. "I'm not helpless like I was before. You don't get to use me ever again."

Metal groans as the foundation of the building itself is ripped apart, disrupting the stability of the building. Apparently, this is what Strange brings out in people.

That building is probably going down. Which...might not be a bad thing? If he times it right, he can just poof himself into smoke and linger that way for as long as possible before snaking out of the rubble. And if not, death by building would be a pretty badass way to go out. Hopefully the Ringmaster wouldn't judge him too hard for getting his ass whooped by a twelve year old.

Obviously though, he's putting most of his attention and hope on the smoke plan. He just needs to push through the pain caused by these vines and hope that Steven's irrational enough to actually try to drop a ceiling on him.

"I don't get to use you?" he taunts, hoping that this actually works. "Someone's using you already! And you're simply too enthralled to even realize it."

Somewhere a little behind Steven, there's the sound of a gum bubble popping. When did Amethyst get here? Hard to say, but she's here now. Of course, one could be forgiven for not spotting her -- she's pretty small right now, and while her puffy tail kind of echoes the long hair she usually sports, her fur is a far darker purple, almost black.

She does look very cute, though.

She hops up onto Steven's shoulder like she owns this little piece of fancy-spauldered real estate, and resumes chewing gum.

"This is gettin' kinda extra, don't ya think?" She flicks her tail at Steven's ear. "How about we ditch this loser and leave him to deal with the produce aisle on his own, huh?"

In the tensest moments, Steven feels like he could explode with everything inside of him. The feelings of betrayal, disgust, and frustration overwhelm him, as the vines move along with the rise of his emotions, threatening to destroy everything around them.

The thorns holding onto Strange are rising too, trying to get a tighter hold - practically wanting to bury the magician beneath them, if only so he doesn't have to look at him anymore. It gets close to doing just that.

Then, though - his familiar helpfully arrives to give him a better idea. A way to accomplish just that with far less effort.

Steven is physically shaking as Amethyst hops up on his shoulder, but her presence doesn't go unnoticed. Something in his shoulders slackens as he hears her casual suggestion, piercing through the haze like a much-needed return to the comfort of normalcy. He lowers his hands slowly, his eyes wide and still latched onto Strange... until, finally, he manages to look away.

Something in the spell is broken, then. He manages a shaking nod, still struggling to hold everything inside of him, but he manages it this time. The growth of the vines slows to a stop, and even though the unnaturally crystalline (and thus rock hard) vines are no longer creeping on Strange, though don't go away either. Instead, they just stay petrified around him.

"Y-Yeah," he manages, his wings managing a weak flap of recognition, unnecessary for the simple task of staying aloft. "R-Right." He takes one last moment to get himself together, and then scowls at Strange.

"Who needs him?"

Putting his hand on Amethyst's fur, he turns and starts to fly away.

Strange is ready, tensing up himself, ready to turn into smoke the moment the thorns squeeze too tight in what will undoubtedly be a cool display to regain his shredded dignity...when something purple and fuzzy shows up. And Strange's absolute lack of attention span wins out as he can't help but look at that weird fuzzy purple thing that holy shit it is speaking English.

"Oh my God, a talking rabbit," he remarks, straight up distracted for a moment. It's more to himself, though it's certainly audible to the other two. How he got rabbit from the catlike Amethyst is a mystery for the ages. At the same time as Strange fails to identify animals, the vines harden around him. Strange wriggles slightly, forgetting the fact that he's suspended in the air, but the vines hold still. It's as he's wriggling that he looks down and remembers that right. The produce creatures are still a thing.

Numbers of tiny adorable fruit critters look up at Strange but his expression is focused solely on one: the porcupineapple. The porcupineapple looks up at Strange with adorable little fruity eyes. Strange looks down at the thing, confident that the animal can sense his disgust and slight terror. Even if he poofs into smoke, he can't stay smoke long enough to fully outmaneuver that awful thing or escape a jet of pineapple juice to the face. That thing's looking at him with murder, Strange knows it.

"Don't leave me with them!" he whines, as the other two start to get the heck out of dodge.

As Steven takes off, Amethyst turns around on his shoulder to look scornfully at Strange.

"I'm a cat, you ding dong," she says, and throws her wad of gum at his hair.

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⇨ INVASION!

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