⇨ INVASION!

[ringleaders]

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!

Comments

Alphys | OTA-ish

[textsfromhotland]

A: Awakening!! The Spark Within Comes Forth!

Alphys doesn't want to go back to Wismuth amidst all this chaos. It'd be a lot easier to just... hide out at the carnival until this all blew over. But seeing Noa fight her hardest against CY-Ren sort of... inspired her. She may not want to, but deep down she knows she has to do something.

As she gawks at the insanity that's overtaken the city, though, she's not entirely sure what it is she needs to do.

[ooc: Alphys is about to get her Spark, but she needs a little prodding first. Ideally from battling a Harbinger or rescuing a civilian in need!]

B: Mew Mew Kissy Alphie-Chan!! Can I Really Save the Day?

So this is the best day of Alphys' life. It's one thing to meet an actual magical girl, it's quite another to become one herself! As much as she wants to just stop and admire herself in the reflection of a store window, she has a mission to fulfill! Using her heart staff as a flying broomstick, she takes to the skies and looks for the agents of chaos reigning terror over the city.

When she spots trouble, she divebombs the ground, landing with more grace than she's ever shown in her entire life. By her side is a small fish floating in a magic bubble.

"I am Star Guardian Alphys!" She announces, brandishing her staff. "I'm here to right wrongs, and triumph over evil!"

C: Wildcard!! Did I Forget Something?

[Got another idea? HMU]

B

[everybodypanic]

What's with all these Star Guardians showing up out of nowhere? Seriously, it had been just herself and Noa for a while. But the field was getting a lot more cramped all of a sudden.

Jinx was already on the scene in her own uniform when she got company.

"Uh, you're really into this, aren't you."

[textsfromhotland]

"Are you KIDDING?" Alphys nearly squees. "This is the b-best thing ever! Did you just see that? I can FLY!"

Ooookay, maybe she could dial it down a little.

[everybodypanic]

"Yeah, every Star Guardian can do that, and way more." Jinx would've shared in the enthusiasm if she hadn't been doing this for a while already. "Uniform, weapon, a magical spirit or two. And powers." The best part of being a Star Guardian.

"You figure that part out yet?"

[textsfromhotland]

"N-not yet! B-but I've seen this kind of thing before, so I was pretty sure I had to have some powers!" Mew Mew Kissy Cutie couldn't possibly steer her wrong! "I just haven't had a chance to test them out yet!"

[everybodypanic]

"Then we need to get you to start testing right away Find out what you can do once you really cut loose!" She crosses her arms, sizing up the Star Guardian in front of her and noticing the floating fish.

"That your spirit?"

[textsfromhotland]

"I am Ondeen." The fish pipes up. Alphys' jaw drops and she gawks at it. "Wait, since when could you ta-" "Alphys is the Guardian of Enthusiam, and I am indeed her familiar. Her powers are born from her desire to help, and are more potent the more she believes in herself."

[everybodypanic]

"What, you didn't know that? Every Star Guardian gets their own spirit that comes from their powers. If you're really strong you can skip that part and just get a weapon."

Like Lux and Shorty.

"So what can you do?"

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys isn't usually one to show off, but heck, she has magical girl powers now. She holds out her staff excitedly.

"My magic comes from this!" She says, then twirls it over her head. "Mew Mew Kissy... Dreaming Escalation!"

A shower of glitter and heart-shaped lights explode from the staff, lighting up the street around them.

B!

[hurtcomfort]

This evil, at least, seems to be fairly easy to fix. There's an overturned eighteen wheeler blocking the way through downtown traffic. The driver is fine, and out of the truck, but it looks like he's about to get in an argument with some of the other people stuck in traffic. One of the vehicles stuck in traffic is a school bus because of course it is.

As Alphys lands, Cole makes himself visible. Surprise, there's an awkward looking spirit in a silly hat right the heck out of nowhere. A pink rabbit-like animal magically floats in the air next to him. "Finally!" the animal chirps, in a remarkably high-pitched voice, "we've got someone here who's doing this properly!"

It's a statement of fact, not an admonition. Cole's too busy looking at the overturned eighteen wheeler to notice his familiar briefly dragging him. "I can make them stop fighting but I can't clear the path. Can you do that?" he asks Alphys.

[textsfromhotland]

"Huh? Clear the-" Alphys turns and looks at the overturned truck. "Ooooohhh."

But they're counting on her, right? If she can fly, maybe she has super strength now, too!

"Okay, l-leave this to me!" She announces before setting her staff down and reaching down with both hands to grab the truck. With a distressed grunt, she tries to lift the entire thing and... it doesn't budge. "Umm, I guess I don't have super strength after all..."

[hurtcomfort]

Cole's already going to work on crowd control. Without saying anything, he purposefully walks over towards the truck driver and some of the other drivers. As he walks, he's giving the truck driver a bit of a creepy stare.

That leave Alphys with his familiar. The pink animal floats over to Alphys, frowning slightly at her failure to lift a truck. "Hmm. Maybe you're more of a barrier warrior type of magical girl?" It's obvious that she's the one doing everything and planning out everything in this team up as there's nothing about Cole's demeanor that suggest he knows what a barrier warrior is to begin with. There's a pause. "Oh! I'm Nigella and that's Guardian Memory! He's a Star Guardian as well."

Just...a weird one. As the talk, Cole mentally reaches in the truck driver's head and starts projecting a memory of the truck driver playing with a very small, criminally cute puppy. This serves it's intended effect: having everyone calm the hell down as they get distracted by what looks like a projected video of an amazingly adorable dog.

[textsfromhotland]

"Guardian Memory? We have titles and stuff?" Alphys looks a little bewildered, and turns to her own familiar.

"You were so enthusiastic that I didn't have time to tell you." Says the fish. "Which is all well and good, seeing as you are Guardian Enthusiasm!"

"Guardian Enthusiasm...!" Alphys' eyes start to twinkle, but she shakes her head to bring herself back to reality. "I g-gotta figure out my powers!"

She looks back and forth between the familiars. "Any... ideas...?"

[hurtcomfort]

"Hmm," Nigella remarks, looking over at Cole. "Well, his Guardian powers involve memories. Maybe yours involve enthusiasm? You've just got to get real pumped up, say an attack phrase, and hope for the best!"

Nigella strikes another pose, which is honestly very adorable. It's this tiny little pink rabbit-like thing doing a cheerleader pose.

Cole's still off doing his own thing in the background, acting as crowd control and memory projection theater. The memory of the truck driver playing with the puppy shifts to a different memory of one of the car drivers cuddling a kitten. Cole has found what helps calm people down and is weaponizing those animal videos amazingly well.

[textsfromhotland]

So... cute...!! Alphys has to suppress a squee. This is serious!

"Get pumped?" She looks at her staff. Well, she's already pretty excited to be a magical girl... she raises her staff into the air.

"Mew Mew Kissy... Heart Shot!"

A beam of pink light erupts from the staff and hits the truck dead on. There's an ear-piercing sound of metal scraping pavement as the beam pushes it out of the way of traffic.

[hurtcomfort]

Well that sure as hell gets Cole's attention. The memory theater stops for a moment as he looks over to Alphys and the truck. He runs back over to Alphys and the two familiars.

While Cole's expression is more neutral, Nigella is ecstatic. "You did it!" she squeaks, as she gives Alphys a big grin. "And what an amazing attack name! You should help Guardian Memory over here, he's still kind of awful in that area."

"But I don't think I want to..." Cole grumbles, barely audible over his familiar's high-pitched enthusiasm.

C

[hippocarnival]

It's been a day or two since the fight at the museum. Papers have listed it as a 'Mysterious mass kidnapping' of many wealthy sponsors who were there for a charity event. Police are looking into it, of course, but so far they have no leads.

Yuya knows why. He's sitting up in a tree, clad in gold and white with a large star-shaped bubble wand slung over his shoulder. Being in transformation meant it was easy to be missed by... well, everyone. The magic is a little alarming, but he can't deny it comes in handy when he needs the peace to figure out a hard to explain issue--like these tarot cards.

He's staring at one pensively, so invested in his thoughts about what he can do... that he doesn't realize the rest of them in his other hand are slipping out until it's too late.

"Uh... oh, no!" He dives for them as quickly as he can, but they're fluttering to the ground and Yuya tips forward to follow them. He can at least land on his feet, but the wind is already blowing them around and he's desperate to catch them. "No, wait!"

[textsfromhotland]

As if on cue, Alphys flies overhead on her staff, and catches sight of the cards fluttering in the air. There's another Star Guardian- she can tell by the uniform- and realizes this must be official Star Guardian business!

"H-hey!" She calls out as she goes to grab the cards and- well, okay, she snatches one of them? "Did you drop these?"

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's scrambling for the rest, diving for one card and then twisting fluidly to grab the next. He looks over his shoulder to see Alphys just as he catches another.

"Yes!" He's relieved someone else is helping, waving as he has to run to the end of the sidewalk for another.

If Alphys looks at the card while he's busy, it's clearly not a normal tarot card. Instead there's the image of a person, looking terrified.

Yuya collects a couple more before he approaches her. "Thanks, I really can't lose them."

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys scrambles to scoop up a few more before taking a look at them. Okay, these are kind of terrifying, tbh.

"W-what are they? Your weapons?" He IS a guardian, right...?

[hippocarnival]

"N-no way!" Yuya's slightly affronted, though she couldn't know. He tries to pluck the cards right out of her hands.

"They're--a Harbinger did this to them." His expression darkens a little as he looks down at the tarot cards. "I'm trying turn them back."

[textsfromhotland]

He doesn't have to try- the moment he says a harbinger did it, she drops them like they're burning her claws. "Yikes!"

[hippocarnival]

Yuya dives for them immediately, dropping to his knees to scoop the cards up. "Be careful with them! They're still people!" He wails, mildly distressed.

He counts the cards once quickly, then twice to really make sure he has them all. Losing one of them would be terrible.

[osteothropy]

Considering how much time Sans has been spending outside, scouting the city, it's not really surprising that he ends up catching a glance at some of this Star Guardian activity. What is a little more fortuitous is that Alphys ends up being his first exposure to this phenomenon.

If she wasn't calling herself a Star Guardian, it would be hard to tell if she was for real or if she had just been so inspired she couldn't resist a last minute cosplay.

"Uh. What."

Sans is just kind of sitting on the back of a bench nearby whatever trouble Alphys is spotting, looking sort of dumbfounded, halfway through eating a hamburger. He's been tracking some of the general chaos, but he's yet to encounter a Harbinger first hand.

[textsfromhotland]

Let it be known that if she wasn't chosen by creation, Alphys would have absolutely tried to make a cosplay.

The trouble in question could be anything from a shadowy wolf running wild in the street to a fruit monster on the rampage. With a wave of her staff and an incantation- Mew Mew Kissy Heartache Activation!- the mook disappears in a cloud of sparkles and ribbons.

"Sans! Hey!" She runs towards him, grinning from ear to ear, as if there wasn't a crisis between good and evil going on. "Check it out! I'm a Star G-guardian now! Isn't that cool?"