lostcarnival | ⇨ INVASION!

Entry tags:

⇨ 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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That isn't really what Steven was expecting. He pulls back for a moment, looking a bit shocked at Feather's arrival - he's not very pleased to see the peppurr having been mauled by a bird. He tosses the popsicle aside, trying to take the peppurr into his hands instead and pulling it away from the Dartrix.

"Oh, no, what did you do?" he asks, as the frightened little thing makes a pepper's equivalent of a 'mew' at him. As put out as Steven sounds, it's okay - he feeds some more of his growth energy into the peppurr, healing over any scuffs and scrapes from the bird adventure and allowing it to grow a few sizes bigger at the same time.

Then the peppurr hops to the other side of Steven, using him as a shield from the Pokemon and its trainer, and in the same moment Steven warily casts them a glance. He doesn't look friendly, exactly, and he obviously wonders why they are here. He recognizes Feathers and its owner, after all.

"What do you want?" he asks. He's more guarded today, after the previous day's experiences.

It's not a good expression, but, for one thing, that much was obvious just by the state of the city in general, and, for another, Joker has had far worse looks leveled at him. So he puts on a smile as per usual, and nods his head to a distressed looking Feathers who is making soft hooting noises.

"Chasin' after that troublemaker, for starters." Feathers makes another distressed hoot, looking inbetween both Joker and Steven. He understands just enough of what's happening here to understand that no one is pleased with him, but why? Ignoring his bird's clear confusion, Joker keeps talking, voice light as air. "I told 'im ta put it down, but I guess he saw ya and got all excited. He was pretty worried about ya."

Because it's the bird that was worried, and Joker himself wasn't ready to tear the city apart if a solution didn't arrive soon.

"But it looks like ya got yer friend all fixed up!" Coming to a stop, Joker gestures to the peppur. "That's good. Ya have a talent for that kind of thing, after all."

"Yeah," Steven says grumpily. He offers Feathers a sad pet, anyway, despite the whole peppurr thing. He knows that Pokemon are kind of like animals, and just do what they need to do. It's not like Lion doesn't eat meat, too. Not like he didn't eat meat. Creatures are always hurting and killing and eating each other, and it's always been that way. He doesn't know why he didn't notice before.

"But, it doesn't really matter. I know you won't agree with me, but everything is too messed up to fix anymore, so I'm going to help CY-Ren and the other end it... whether you want me to, or not."

The peppurr mews and purrs, rubbing its head against his side in an attempt to comfort him.

Immediately, the positive attention relieves Feathers of all his anxieties, and he bumps his head up into Steven's palm. The complexities of the currently occurring conversation are above him. If there's something wrong, surely Joker will fix it, and if he needs help, he'll ask Feathers. The Dartrix is fairly certain of this fact.

Joker isn't so sure he can fix anything, when talking has never gotten through mind control before... but that doesn't mean he'll just leave the boy here. Steven is still a threat, if all those spikes aren't just for show, but he's also just a young boy miserable on a park bench. So Joker steps a little closer, glancing around the mostly abandoned market.

"Well, if it's makin' ya upset, I would wager that it matters," he says simply before spotting the food truck that is displaying ice cream for sale and no doubt where Steven got his. He makes a brief venture over there, rustling through until he's pulling out something for his own consumption and trusting that Feathers will keep Steven preoccupied until he's done. "Want ta talk about it? Or at least mind if I sit down with ya."

Steven doesn't trust him. He knows that Joker can act really kind, but he also knows that he probably isn't just going to accept Steven's decision, either. Maybe he's just trying to manipulate him. Even so, he doesn't have the heart to turn him away, quite yet.

Today sucks, honestly, and he doesn't want to turn away what reprieve he can find.

He lets Joker go about his business, still idly offering the Dartrix his attention, running his fingers along those soft feathers. It feels nice. He misses his Pokemon, Bud and Lil. It's been a long time since him and Bud had been separated like this. He wonders if she's okay. He wonders if she'd be mad, too.

"None of you guys really get it," he says. "I bet you would if you saw the Void like we did, but... I don't know if CY-Ren wants to do that, again."

So he'll take that as a "yes".

Not bothering to pay for the ice cream either (of which he takes two bars), Joker strolls on over, making sure not to sit on the same side as Steven. Instead, as he settles down opposite of him, he offers an ice cream to Feathers. There's no need to get rid of the wrapping, not with the cheerful way the Dartrix goes to town on the plastic. Sometimes in life, it's the simple pleasures... when you're a three foot high bird that's maybe partially a plant.

Lucky bugger.

At least he makes a note of what he's being told. It's not surprising that CY-Ren brainwashed everyone again, but... "What's the Void like?" he asks idly, and perhaps a bit muffled as he uses his own teeth to tear through the wrapper. It's the best he can do for now with one hand. "Even if I don't get it, sounds like a pretty big deal, eh?"

"It's just like... nothing," he says, at a loss for words. That's really all it is. But, describing nothing and feeling it are two different things. "But it makes you realize a bunch of stuff about Creation, and how it's just kind of broken and a waste of time. I guess, maybe because you usually don't let yourself think about that stuff."

His shrugs his shoulders lethargically. He's very moody today. Maybe physically growing himself into a teenager is affecting more than his ability to reach things on tall shelves.

"It makes a lot of sense once you see it, though. I know that if things keep happening, then people will keep getting hurt, and there's nothing I can do to stop that. Besides... this."

For a moment after Steven has finished speaking, Joker is silent. It's not because he's eating either; the ice cream sits in his hand to only be twisted around by the stick. It takes a long moment for him to decide on the words he wants to say, bright pink eyes a little distant.

"Yeah," Joker says after a moment, still turning the ice cream about, "I think I've seen that before, actually."

Steven is quiet for a few moments as well, refusing to make eye contact. He almost seems a little frustrated at Joker confessing to have experienced the same thing. He sort of doubts it, but...

"Then you should help us," he says, simply. If he's seen the same thing, then he must have come to the same conclusion. How couldn't he?

A quiet laugh rattles out of him. "I don't particularly have a good track record so far of helpin' people out for much," he says plainly, voice light. It sounds like a joke the way he says it, except for how he feels it's mostly true. Besides, there's more to it than he's letting slip right away to Steven, and he's frankly not sure if he should tell a kid things like that no matter how brainwashed they are.

"Besides-" He takes a chunk out of the ice cream, ignoring best he can how it makes the roots of his teeth ache. "I've never been much of a fighter for the Carnival, lad."

"Then you aren't going to try to stop me?" he asks, in what seems like the obvious follow-up. He's sort of assuming that Joker has been hoping to talk him out of it this whole time, but if that isn't the case... though, Joker could just be lying to him. That would be pretty easy and expected.

He's not sure how much use he has for any of this, but when Joker is being so non-aggressive it's hard to turn him away. Steven doesn't really like fighting, even if he's been doing a lot of it lately.

Hm. A tricky question, although also one he can answer very easily. Those kind of tricky things have almost made up his whole life, it sometimes feels like. So, idly waving his stick through the air, Joker shrugs.

"I suppose not. But, ah, one question-" He looks back to Steven, letting his focus on the boy be quite known. "How are ya feelin'?"

Steven looks to him for a moment, and then looks away again, narrowing his eyes. How he feels doesn't really matter, he thinks. Of course he's going to be sad, but that doesn't make this any less necessary.

"I dunno," he says, crossing his arms around his gut. "It's just kind of sad. Peridot didn't want to come with me."

Ah. So that's what did it. This whole thing feels a bit more clear, now.

Clenching his ice cream stick inbetween his teeth, Joker leans across the table so that he can wrap his arm around Steven. It takes some doing, admittedly, because wow, hell, there are a lot of spikes, but he can manage enough to cradle his head and ruffle his hair a bit. While it's not exactly a hug, or at least it's an atrocious one if it is, he's been rubbish at hugs for a while now.

"S'alot," he says, a little thickly thanks to the stick in his mouth.

Steven is a bit stunned, and for a moment he just takes it, allowing Joker to ruffle his hair and offer some comfort. However, it isn't long before tears prickle his eyes, and he shakes his head, trying to push Joker away.

"No," is all he manages at first, starting to get up from the picnic table. It's hard to even articulate what he's feeling. It isn't right. He doesn't deserve it. He's wrong, and messed up.

The feelings come from somewhere deep down, somewhere that he can't explain.

"You can't mean it," he says, his tears showing through the strain in his voice.

Edited 2018-02-19 06:04 (UTC)

For a second, he thinks it might nearly be... something. Not a break through, hell no, but just a quiet moment. That's all he can really ask for, that's all he's ever been able to ask for ever since he was young and when he first saw 'nothingness', or at least what feels like it.

But then Steven is pulling away, and Joker loosens his grip automatically so that wooden fingers don't get tangled up in the boy's hair. The ice cream drops with a wet thunking sort of sound; Joker barely pays it any mind. Instead, he gets up to his feet carefully, brow furrowed. Feathers is ignoring his own treat as well, finally, and shuffling around to hoot in concern at Steven.

"Can't mean what?" he asks gently, hand help up gently. No tricks here. "We were just talkin', weren't we, Steven?"

"You don't have any reason to be nice to me," he says, his voice still shaking. "You're... You're either trying to mess with me, or... or... You're wrong."

It just comes out like a confused mess. For a few terrifying moments, he can't rationalize any of this. It figures that showing him compassion would be the thing to make him go completely haywire. It's too close to home.

"It's not worth it, anymore." He keeps trying to explain, but somehow, it doesn't get anymore clear.

Messing with him, yeah, that makes sense, but- being wrong? Wrong about what? Somehow, Joker feels like he knows, and even entertaining the thought has his stomach twist uncomfortably.

"If it's not worth it," he tries, hand turning a little in offering, "then there's not reason ta go, right? Sit down, focus on yer breathin'. Don't think too much on it, yeah?" It's his most comforting voice, the best he can offer. Nearby, Feathers hoots in encouragement. He, too, is doing his best, but Joker can't help but half wonder if flight might have to be employed with how things are going.

"Ya can figure me out, Steven. I'll help. I promised, didn't I?"

Steven stays standing for the moment, hugging his body with his arms. A few extra thorns have started growing on his arms and face, but he doesn't quite react to them. It's like a subconscious defense.

"You don't want everyone to die, do you?" he asks, voice still wavering. "Not Ginko, or Doll, o-or..."

He trails off, folding his wings around himself.

"How could you let me do that?"

Somehow, this feels like a question where any answer he gives is going to be a wrong one- not a pleasant position to be for anyone, let alone a liar. Joker keeps his poker face in place regardless, hand still outstretched.

"Do ya want ta kill them?" he asks plainly, edging a little more forward as subtle as he can. Hopefully Steven doesn't notice. Hopefully, if he does, he won't stop him. "Do ya want me ta stop ya, despite what ya said?"

"No..." he starts in a small voice, shaking his head ever so slightly. Then, he realizes what Joker has asked him secondly. Does he want to be stopped? Does he want to do this?

"No!" he shouts, closing his eyes and shaking his head more wildly. "I want it to stop. I want everything to stop, and we won't have to feel like this anymore."

The peppurr hops down off of the picnic table, coming to mew at his side. Other nearby plant animals look confused and concerned as well.

He already knows it won't get any better. The Void showed him. It knows...

He hasn't noticed yet. As he edges forward, hand outstretched, the ring on one finger catches his attention, and he briefly wonders if this is enough risk to trigger the thing's attention. Well, whether it does or doesn't, he'll still move forward regardless.

"That's what endin' it means, Steven," he says slowly, gaze flicking around for a brief second to take stock of what animals are around and if they'll attack. Hopefully Feathers will be able to keep them off his back if that's what it comes down to... "If ya want it ta end, then... that means you'll be wantin' all the other folks dead. Ginko and Doll, and me, and Peridot."

He tilts his head to the side slightly. "I'm not tryin' ta convince ya not ta-" He is. "-but I just want ya ta know, okay? And I want ta understand."

"You don't understand!" he yells back, irrational in his desperation and hurt. His wings flair outwards, like he's ready to attack, or fly away, or both. "I don't want them to die, I just... I don't want to be here anymore!" A few stray tears roll down his cheeks, despite the angry look on his face. "I don't want them to be here anymore."

That's why it isn't death. It's just... not existing anymore. It's different. He's convinced himself as much.

"If I wasn't around then nobody could hurt me," he says. "They couldn't hurt each other. Everyone's just hurting everyone else all the time."

His voice rises to a near shriek at the end, his movements erratic and violent. Vestiges of his fear and anger leak from him empathically, like pollution in the air.

Everything about Joker's persona has been built on control, on hiding every bit of him behind a mask. So when something disrupts that control, even by a quiet shake, he notices immediately.

In this case, it's anger, fear, poisonous feelings he's always struggled to keep hidden away, and he comes to a sudden jarring stop from when he'd been moving closer to Steven. A hiss of breath slithers out from inbetween his teeth. He's not sure what his face is doing; if he could see it then he would see that his expression has gone tense and blank in its own quiet struggle. For a second, the two different sets of emotions bleed into each other, and- There's a knife on his belt. All he can think about is driving it into CY-Ren, bleed her out, because how dare she do this to his own, how dare she be around to still potentially do it, and he cant-

Another hiss of breath, this time inside of himself, and it shakes his ribs a little from the force of it. Calm. Calm, now. He's angry, and scared, and he'd never unleash that on Steven.

But damn if it doesn't take so much work.

When he's sure he's throttled his own emotions back down to where they've come from and that he can tell them apart from Steven's own, Joker tries again. "I know how that feels," he says, speaking a little louder in case Steven starts to scream again. God, he can't handle that kind of sound from a kid as good as this. "Folks hurt and keep gettin' hurt, and it doesn't feel like there's any point in goin' on, isn't that right?"

"Yeah," is all he can say, voice strained with tears as he starts to get sniffly from his emotional panic. "I didn't get it before, but... now I do. I can't keep doing this, please."

It's a good thing he doesn't feel physically threatened by Joker, because it's a lot of what is keeping him from lashing out more violently.

⇨ INVASION!

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hey, quix, question: how dare you

upside down smile emoji

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