⇨ 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

[spaghettimonster]

Thank goodness he'd looked away, given the sounds of eating that thing. Papyrus grimaces and cringes at the changes to Tyki's voice, but lingers to listen. Not just out of wanting to bask in the compliments, though that's nice, nor politeness, though what you're supposed to do has informed every part of his villainous demeanor... But indignation for the other harbingers.

"Why isn't it going to work??" Papyrus finally demands, glancing up long enough to check his expression.

If Tyki's just manipulating him, baiting him into confusion, whatever. But if there's some real, legitimate concerns about the plan... CY-Ren hadn't know of the carnival. A note of worry has haunted Papyrus almost since waking up. Maybe there's more she didn't account for... And he should check.

[prazerbutterfly]

He talks with his mouth full of that burger and he allows each squish and unnecessary sound to escape his lips. It's going against everything he's learned as a Lord of the Court. Thankfully that doesn't last long and he swallows hard to get it all down.

He's going to intentionally wipe his mouth with the back of his hand, then follow it with a few licks of his tongue to get that grease smeared.

"For starters, would anyone have actually gotten swayed by her song if we weren't here. I think none of this was suppose to happen," he begins, something he's discussed with several people so far. "Two, she's hiding right now which means she's likely up to something none of you are aware of. Then, she'll probably reveal that information at the last minute and it'll be really complicated and unorganized. Which means she either will use you all as fodder or manipulating you into taking all the damage so her plan can succeed."

Look, he's already unwrapping another burger, this one more greasy than the last, "And lastly three, none of you really have the spine to do anything about that. You're just her pawns."

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus hates this. He's been through hours, maybe even a day or two, of nothing but re-experiencing all the things about life that have to be ignored to appreciate it, cracks revealing it for the cruelty it is. Trapped in an exercise of forced perspective to convince him that he needs to help destroy existence.

If he'd been trapped just in the memory of this conversation, torn between wanting to get information and wanting to leave... It might have been enough on its own.

"And all of that is so different from working with the Ringmaster," Papyrus grumbles, shaking his head dismissively. "Seems like business as usual to me."

He glances up again, sees the emergence of yet another burger, and stamps his high-heeled boot with quick, sharp tapping. "If I do something about that much you're shoveling in your mouth, will you stop calling me spineless?!"

Seriously, Tyki, calling a skeleton spineless is a special kind of insult.

[prazerbutterfly]

"Yes, from my perspective, it is different. This city for example didn't seem to have any real drawbacks. It seems that when she approached us with Noa, we had a choice. None of us had to go to that concert. That was our own choice to help her. The Ringmaster didn't force us," he begins as he stops mid-bite to lower the burger again, "The rest of you were given a very brutal incentive to join by her song. None of you had a choice and if you did choose this, that's certainly treason, isn't it?"

Because it is and that would make Papyrus the enemy. Being the enemy would make him so much easier to destroy. His smile brightens though as he holds the burger like some ominous toy bent on world destruction all by itself and he waves it in a circular gesture in the air at his offer, "I suppose I could make an effort."

If Tyki knew enough about puns he would probably mention something about putting a little more backbone into it. Thankfully, these are not intentional.

[spaghettimonster]

"Treason," he scoffs. What an unimportant concept. Diligent loyalty to commands or his leaders' wants has never really been a concern of his, not compared to... Getting what he wants from them. Their approval. Feelings of friendship.

And that's all fading out of the picture, now. There's other harbingers who still enjoy these things, and he intends to do more plotting and villaining with them, but... it just can't drive him anymore, compared to the mission.

"With what I know now? There's no real choice." He tilts his head, considering Tyki's position, what little he really knows about either of their powers, and draws a bone from the air. Imbues it with a sense of weariness and clumsiness, hallucinations of dropping things or falling off things. "Not about what needs be done."

It's probably just as well the puns are unintentional; another bone pun at this juncture would go just as far as treason for making Papyrus the enemy. Not in Tyki's feelings, of course, but for Papyrus' - if only because it would irritate him enough to be a final straw into attacking Tyki, rather than that odious food.

[prazerbutterfly]

It's interesting how different there sensibilities and resolve was. Tyki was not like Papyrus in his need for friendship and feelings. He made it easily even without trying and most of the time he didn't care what others thought about him nor did he ever try to impress anyone. He was spoiled in everything.

He's a worldend'er himself. The problem was his Noah's goal had an eventuality. It would all start anew and wouldn't just end abruptly. The way these Harbingers were doing it was almost... sad. Almost.

"Better to die than kill everyone else," he starts with a reluctant tone, "Or are you fine with that now?"

At the sight of the bone materializing his hand drops to his side and a single Tease draws into his hand. Thanks to another Harbinger he's a little more on guard. "There's always a choice, Papyrus. That's something I strongly believe in."

[spaghettimonster]

"Believe all you want! But you don't know." There's such a divide between beliefs and knowledge, when beliefs are built on things like hope or faith. As one with the spark of Dreams, whose new powers so thoroughly deal with the imaginings of the mind - waking and sleeping alike - he considers himself uniquely qualified to tell Tyki off for that philosophy.

"Killing everyone..." He hesitates, a little bit, reluctant as well. "Killing people isn't the goal, you know. It's... this world. This existence." Something in his voice drops, haunted by horrors far worse than the first burger... though, that experience is surely in there somewhere. "It's unbearable."

For all his talk and all his intent, though, it's still Papyrus. The bone is charged up with things, in case Tyki somehow gets hit... but he still has excellent control and good aim, and with a spin he throws it right at wherever that burger last was.

[prazerbutterfly]

A part of him wanted to find CY-Ren, talk to her, comfort her, to make him understand the meaning of giving into such desperate emptiness. One could still end the world and enjoy everything about it. His own lips part like he wants to say something but then nothing follows his declaration. He can't talk like he understands because he doesn't, not completely. Not the way the Void does.

He understands removing the existence of everything all together. He understands causing Creation, or in his case God, to start anew, build better, begin again. What he doesn't understand is voiding it all together.

Despite everything, Tyki was still on the carnival's side yet also a huge troll. He's ready for any sort of attack even when the target is simply this burger. It's not an attack on his life and he'll only have time to scrunch the foil around it in his hand and toss it upwards into the air out of harm's way. Yet he doesn't move himself to follow it nor attack himself. "Ah, hand slipped."

[spaghettimonster]

Partway through his revelations in the Void, Papyrus would have wholeheartedly welcomed a worldview like Tyki's. Destroying the world in order to remake it without its flaws... An underground unsealed, a father restored, a brother unbowed by his guilt and loss and loneliness... As simple as resetting a device to try again - if far more complicated and time-consuming to actually make happen.

That's why it took breaking them to bring them to accepting the Void's demands, inducing such despair and disgust and utter lonely helplessness that they would do anything to end it, and glad to be doing it. Because short of that... none of them would have gone this far down this path. Especially not Papyrus.

Who, now, taps his fingers on one hip and glares up at Tyki. The bone flies past, missing Tyki and burger alike, to crash and shatter against a nearby building. "You know, some of us have important jobs to be doing. More important than playing keep-away, or guessing games."

[prazerbutterfly]

It's something he won't understand. Noah just weren't built or made that way. They awakened with an understanding of what needed to be done. They all pledged their allegiance to the Earl just as the Harbingers had done to CY-Ren. The thing about Voids is that they could always be refilled with something else.

The burger doesn't make it very far as Tyki also makes no move to catch it. It splats onto the ground, spreading pickles and pieces of tomato across the ground. The wrapper barely contains anything at all except for the stray piece of lettuce. In the end, Papyrus didn't destroy it, Tyki had.

"I know. I have a job to do as well but the lot of you are making it harder than I want it to be. Not all of our plans are going to come to fruition. There are cracks in the plan, dissolving resolve that'll fester until it eats away at you, and the fact that despite everything either side works for it can still end just as messily."

[spaghettimonster]

The splattered burger remants strewn across the concrete make a nice foreground in the shot the news crew is getting of all this. Some kind of aesthetic. Because the crew is still around, after having moved to a slightly safer distance. Only slightly, but in fairness, they can't really make good guesses about where's safe with magic and supernatural abilities involved.

Papyrus shakes his head, dismissing the realization that he missed his shot at wrecking that foodstuff.. and the warnings, or promises, that Tyki's offering.

"I don't know what you're talking about... and I don't care! My resolve is steadfast as anything can possibly be. If you're going to be all spooky and warning... Take your hints and bother someone else with them. Like Herbert! I bet he'd love them." Herbert is not the most popular Harbinger.

[prazerbutterfly]

"As if I would waste my time on Herbert," he says dryly and quickly in retort. Herbert was someone that kind of pissed him off and there were only a handful of Harbingers he had any interest in. Even Papyrus was someone he didn't mind having around in small spurts. To see him like this was a little degrading to who he was use to be.

"I may as well. You're kind of boring how you are now," comes the honest opinion no one wants to hear. "You seem busy anyways with your 'not killing' and 'end of the world'. It's going to fail anyways."

[spaghettimonster]

It's an unwanted opinion for sure, but that first thing is fair enough. Even though Papyrus is starting to feel awfully lonely and put out, wishing more of the Harbingers were on the same page with regard to theatrics and how much cruelty to inflict in their chaos and confusion... He's still not hanging out with Herbert. The doctor is no Jerry, but...

"Well," he says, casting about for a good retort and coming up empty. "Fine! Go ahead. I don't need you to believe. And I won't even tell you I told you so, because, we won't exist."

It kind of feels like losing an argument already, he doesn't want to be the one to stomp away... that'd be like losing two arguments. But does that really matter? Does any of this matter, when they're just going to erase it all?

[prazerbutterfly]

"Yes you do. You need me to believe you. It's how you are," he responds with every bit of bite he shouldn't have right now. It's a mockery to everything he stands for and he hates it. He was starting to like Papyrus and this show he was putting on was just counterproductive.

He turns his back on Papyrus because he can. He has that confidence. There's a cigarette at his lips as he fishes one out and lights it. He exhales softly with a low hum in the back of his throat. It's then that he looks over his shoulder towards the skeleton.

"But... if it makes you happy, I guess that's the important thing," he echoes, the same words Papyrus told him about Sans in the Manor when he had made every attempts to break him down, "I guess, I just wanted to hear it from you."