⇨ WISMUTH ENDGAME

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Evening Day 27
Where: The Wismuth Super Dome, Round 2
What: On the verge of creating a world ending army of Harbingers, CY-Ren and her followers are challenged by the carnival and the Star Guardian team. It's time to stop.
Warnings: Singing

THE LAST REQUIEM↴ CY-Ren's planning of a charity concert has been well received - news of bomb threats and harassment from fans have painted her as a victim in the media spotlight, and her generous attempt to make amends is getting plenty of attention. She's been busy spinning things for as much focus as possible, and the threat of potential danger has the news focusing in on the proceedings. The date is set for Day 27 in carnival time. You won't want to miss it! ► BUILD UP: In the last couple days before the concert, CY-Ren will be reaching out to all of her Harbingers, regardless of where they might be at the time - yes, this means that even if you ran off, she'll come to find you! (Unless you're in the carnival like Taako, then you're fucked.) She'll tell you that her plans are coming to head, and that if you help her with one last task then the planet will be on its way to destruction. There are multiple ways you can aid her: you can help amp up her performance as evil backup singers/musicians, or you can set yourself up around the perimeter at specified locations, using your sparks as a beacon to her magic. She's certain that she's perfected her musical formula, this time - when the concert gets underway, all those present with the capacity to be a Harbinger will awaken, and the end of days will begin. ► THE CONCERT: By the time the concert arrives, the Star Guardians will have the idea that there's something unnatural about the way the new Harbingers were made - this isn't how it usually happens, and that sets them apart from someone like CY-Ren. Maybe that means that they can be pulled away with less drastic measures as well, given that the Void didn't have the full right to their souls in the first place. Anyone coming to help (and those who aren't Star Guardians will be encouraged to come as well, given that if they are making attempts at friendship, super powers aren't required) will gather in the area early, determined to stomp this one out before it can get too far. ► HARBINGERS: This is when they will be encountered by Harbingers guarding the perimeter, as well as a small army of void creatures defending CY-Ren's last performance. Star Guardians will become aware through the power of Creation that the Harbingers on the perimeter must be neutralized in order to disrupt the concert - CY-Ren is feeding on their negative energies, and it will make it too dangerous to attack her directly. Confrontations with any Harbingers can be worked out on an individual basis via plotting - just make up a location around the concert and have your Harbinger providing a beacon of their own design. As the concert ramps up, however, the excess of Void energy will cause the newly made Harbingers to destabilize - mentally or magically, their powers will be harder to control, and their negative emotions will be running wild. However, with that instability, there is also room for a breakthrough - for someone to blast the darkness from their Sparks with friendship and light. Now is the time to reach out. ► STAR GUARDIANS: If a Harbinger is successfully turned away from the darkness, they will briefly regain control of their Sparks, and be able to manifest as a Star Guardian for the first time. This will allow the Guardians to outnumber CY-Ren's forces. Their look and powers will still be based around the same Spark, but purified by Creation and aimed towards positive things. Time to win. ► DANCE OFF: Given that the Spark of Music and the Spark of Dance are colliding, it is perhaps not a surprise that this all manifests as a big ass musical number. As CY-Ren and Noa have a music battle, everyone present (even if you aren't a Star Guardian) will find themselves magically inspired to join in. You can dance, sing, or anything in between - the more people who support Noa's side, the stronger she will be. There will be a megathread for this part of the conflict, and at this point any unturned Harbingers will awaken and be able to turn their Sparks towards the light. As CY-Ren begins to lose power, what the players do with her will be up to you.

Comments

[everybodypanic]

Jinx honestly hasn't been thrilled about the singing and dancing. But she's there and giving it a shot to help out, though she's kinda sorta just humming along to the tune.

Look, whatever works okay?

And noticing the effect it was having on the others, and Carly, sbe decides to put just a little more feeling into her dance.

Not the singing.

She's just not gonna do that.

[npcarnival]

CY-Ren, meanwhile, is sinking. While those at her side may continue to fight, her very Spark has been turned against her - she can't get the song back, no matter how much she tries to force it. The Guardians have taken it over, taken her over, and she finds himself awestruck by her own inability to push back.

The speakers she had summoned begin to give way, exploding into fragments of light. All the while, the only music is a song that beckons her to join it, even though the Void demands that she resist. Deep down, though, she feels something in it that she wishes she could have. Something that none of this fame or fortune has brought her.

CY-Ren is frozen in the stage light.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's not normally one to bust out into song himself--but here and like this, it just feels right.

"Got the music in our hearts--" He does pause, however, when he notices CY-Ren isn't even playing anymore, not against them. In a way, that's what they want. That means she's not fighting them anymore, and they can prevent the Void's influence. But...

Yuya pulls his hand free from Noa's, darting forward to come up closer to CY-Ren and holds his hand out to her, fingers spread wide in an inviting gesture.

"You don't have to stop playing!" He encourages, glancing briefly back to the audience. "All of these people came to hear you! I want to hear it, too."

He bounces forward a step, smiling warmly. "Play with us."

[starseedling]

Steven nods to Scout in understanding, and the rest comes so naturally. It's music. He loves music. He almost forgot, for a while, despite it being in front of him the whole time.

"Peridot!" he says, beckoning her forward. He'll take her hand if she lets him, ferrying them both up into the air as the music takes hold.

"...We're here to blow this thing apart!"

In a shower of rose petals, Steven basks the stage in healing powers of Growth - but more than just the thing that plants do. It's spiritual growth, the desire to become bigger and better, and to exceed your own limits. As he sings, he's beckoning the other Harbingers to follows him.

Things can be better. You can be better. Don't forget that.

"And together, we will never,
Be afraid of the dark...!"

[hurtcomfort]

As Yuya runs up to CY-Ren, Cole does his creepy thing and appears a few feet behind Noa, though close enough that she can hear him.

"Tell me if I should stop," he quietly says, "but she should know."

He gestures to a space off to the side, but still visible to CY-Ren, Noa, and everybody else. And he starts projecting one of Noa's memories. It's Noa, a few years younger with a joyful expression on her face, watching a performance on her phone. And somehow (magic bullshit), the memory shows Noa and what she's watching at the same time. The performer that Noa's watching is differently styled but this is unmistakably CY-Ren playing the violin and making memory-Noa just so happy.

This is also broadcasting the memory to everybody else involved in the musical megathread, but that doesn't really matter. They should know also.

[soft_focus]

What good feeling Tanyuu had (in regards to Being A Jerk anyway), it is not going to last long. The chaos that is the concert has been treated by Reira as one part what it is, and another part a distraction. A distraction that she, rather handily, can make good use of. While Guardians storm the stage from the air and from their own light, the child-still garbled in her new pajamas thanks to the spur-the-moment decision-has moved in and through the crowd, clutching her calming pendant open at her ear with clenched teeth. It takes until the tides are truly turning-when CY-Ren has lost control of what was hers, and the Guardians begin to truly let their voices echo-that she can let it dangle under her onsie once again.

She does not have much of a plan, she admits. But she does have words, and she has Yuuya's words as well, echoing in her mind. They were all told to try and help with this...so, as she finally nears the stage, that is what she does. Clambering up with the aid of a daemon shaped like a bear, she keeps her head down and waits. She has the right side at least-and thank goodness for that, it'd take forever to get to the OTHER side, certainly-but the distance for now...too great. She can't go without absolutely being spotted by everyone before she can get to Tanyuu!

Not to mention, Yuuya would totally see her, freak out, and end up unable to do His job. Which was just not acceptable.

And then-

"...Ah..."

As if to help her more directly than he had even promised at the start of this concert, a teddytaur is sent flying by a charging naga, the girl ducking just moments before it happens. There he goes...which means she realizes, as focus moves so heavily to CY-Ren, and as Tanyuu finally stands in reach-

Her turn. "H-pp-!" The mushi are gone from the back. The focus of attack isn't there. So Reira, with as much force as her tiny legs and arms can muster, vaults up that last edge of stage she's been clinging to, taking a running jump to wrap her arms around the ashen snake.

Got it. And...

"...Tanyuu-neesan," she says quietly, not knowing the song enough at all to try THAT (and besides, she's never sung in her life-). But... "...I'm sorry I don't know why you're sad. ...Or why you're hurt," the girl adds, chewing her lip. "...but... ...it's okay to be those things. Sometimes you have to be those things, but I'm... ...Since you're sad right now, and hurt right now, I'm going to try and do something to help you smile. Even if it's just a little smile, for a little bit, because even if there's a lot of bad, a little bit of good is still important, I think..." She's not really sure she made sense. She THINKS she makes sense, but not a lot of people have really agreed with that lately, so. Well.

She just clings, face against the other's kimono, hoping she doesn't go flying either. "...Because... ...Because I don't think the world is ready to end yet, Tanyuu-neesan. So...please come back. I..." The girl chews her lip, and sniffles. "I really miss you, and I don't know how to sing...And I think I'm going to be in trouble after this, but I really want you to come back without someone hurting you..." she feels that part is important, what with all the magic music on the air. All she has is this hug. This might not have been a good idea.

(She wanted to at least try though, if Ginko wasn't coming-because if Ginko wasn't coming, and Joker was gone, and a lot of others were gone, she wasn't sure who else could bring Tanyuu back without just attacking her and throwing her in jail like Taako was.)

On the plus, perhaps-Cole's broadcast is beginning. It's enough to draw her own eyes a little-so maybe it'll catch everyone else's eye too.

[pipers_son]

Speaking of one of the people Reira is thinking about-

This entire, horrendous thing has been exactly as much of a clusterfuck as Joker had assumed it would been, and he's glad he decided to go in through the back way. Magic and mushi being flung everywhere, dance routines and music... He's a performer, absolutely, but the spotlight has definitely been where he's wanted to avoid tonight.

If there's anything that's surprising... It's how the tide seems to be turning in favor of them. Of Noa, blasting out that song along with everyone else. Distantly, even as he tries to find the perfect place while keeping out of view of Tanyuu, he's been reminded of a stop from a while ago... But even if things are going Noa's way, and Steven is with the others propping up Scout, Joker can't entirely shake loose his own plans that he wants to carry out. Things can seem like they're going well, only to turn and bite them in the blink of an eye. This sort of thing can't be drawn out. So when he sees CY-Ren freeze up in the spotlight, utterly voiceless unlike Carly's anguished yelling and defenseless in contrast to Tanyuu's vicious strikes, he lets out a slow, unsteady breath. This is it. He'd rather not do this while all lights on him, but this is a chance that he can't waste. Joker, still struggling to keep his invisibility cloaked over him, takes a step forward in preparation of a sprint forward-

Something small and fast suddenly darts across the stage.

Full of nervous energy, Joker jerks his head to the side and finds his heart sinking fast as a rock because shit. Shit, that's Reira. What is she doing on here, in the midst of all these chaos? And she's clinging to Tanyuu, of all people. Unbidden, memories rise from not that long ago, where nothingness was practically burning from Ginko's empty eye socket, eating away at him. Fear jolts through him at the memory. In fact, it jolts through more than his mind. It jolts through his legs, too, springing them into action.

If there's anything good, it's meant that hiding from Tanyuu had meant being approximately behind her, and that means he doesn't have far to dash. Halfway through, and the concentration on his invisibility falls away, leaving him plain in sight. If he was thinking, he'd hope that no one else would be focusing on him or whatever else is going on in the back. He's not thinking, however, just running, colliding into Tanyuu's side opposite of where Reira is. He might only have one arm, but he's a flexible kind of guy- literally. Fast as he can, he twists it around the arm nearest to him, hoping to stop her from summoning up anything else horrible and cruel.

"Listen ta her, Tanyuu!" He only has around half of an idea of what Reira has even said, but that's never stopped him from bullshitting before. "If Steven got brought back from whatever gotta hold of ya, then that means ya can too! Everyone is waitin' for ya! We're still here! Ginko is! Ya got friends, alright!? Family!" Struggling for anything else to say on the fly, he offers desperately, "And if ya keep goin' down this path, then yer just gonna be as bad as Foster, and I know ya don't want that!"

It is not, to be honest, his best attempt at persuasion, especially compared to what he told Steven. In his defense, he had a lot longer to think of what to say to Steven.

[motivenotfound]

The thing about all of this--

The thing about all of this is that the Guardians' show of unity, of heart really is impressive. She was originally planning to march forward, to take hold of the Lance and rip it back out of Scout's body, maybe impale the stubborn Guardian through the head just to make sure she was actually dead this time (if she had to get messy, she was more than willing), but then the others showed up--not just more Guardians, but more Carnival contractees, and then more and even more.

It's sort of inspiring, the way humans banded together, both in times of hope and in times of crisis.

That was really the point, though, wasn't it?

Humanity was still one being. Lilim wasn't just the fractured billions of one Angel, it was the fractured billions of one Angel living in a community, breaking hearts and hurting each other and dying and being born and enriching each other and falling in love and all of the good and bad that came with being alive.

This display of humanity was just the part that kept hanging on. Their agendas, if they had them, were totally selfish, but that wasn't a bad thing. It was just... a human thing.

She's pretty sure that's the point.

And destroying the world, destroying Creation would end that, but...

Why does that have to be her job?

[periphrasing]

--More like Steven takes her wing, because she's still a bat, but hey. Bat wings are technically just really fucked up hands. And anyway, her small size just makes her easier to swing around!

More importantly, she is feeling superlative right now. It's easy enough to pick up on Steven's cue and then the next few words just come to her naturally, sung in the wobbly tone of someone who doesn't sing often, and doesn't really have a great voice for music? But is still putting a lot of heart into it anyway:

"Here to sing our song out loud-- Get you dancing with the crowd!"

[bananaspeedrider]

Overhead is a prideful dragon starting to add almost whale-like song to accompany the music and everyone else as Yugo joins in on the song. Neither of them have really sung before like many, but Clear Wing flips through the air while shining their crystals bright.

"As the music~ of our friendship, survives...! Survives~!"

[npcarnival]

Having a pretty personal memory displayed in front of an entire audience is a little bit more exposing than letting Yuya and Cole alone see it, but ... the magic of Noa's spark is everywhere, already, catching up and amplifying everyone else's. While the others have picked up the song, she's been flicking her ribbon through the air, sweat dripping down her brow from the effort-- reaching someone's heart isn't exactly a glamorous process at all.

Noa glances over her shoulder at Cole, uncertain what to say for a moment -- then, determinedly, drifts closer to CY-Ren after Yuya.

"It's your Spark," she tells her, though she's not sure... will CY-Ren understands what she means to say? "It's always been. You remember what it felt like, don't you...? To love making something." Before the Void took it over, twisted it for its own ends. Other Guardians will have to take over the singing, but for now, they're the center of the storm as she tries to reach for CY-Ren not just with her words, but with her borrowed power, trying to push away the Void's hold.

[fourthscribe]

She doesn't notice Reira at all until she speaks, too consumed by a fury and misery that is both hers and not her own at all, so much so that she reacts before she can even identify who it is, raising her brush to etch another spell into the air--

But Joker is there, arm wrapped around hers and effectively pinning her where she stands. She glares daggers at him, struggles...but Reira's words, and Joker's, reach deeper than the Void ever had, to a quiet core of her that still whispers 'this isn't right'. And it hurts, it hurts so badly, as tears stream down her cheeks and she bows her head, antennae quivering in the air.

"Let me do this. Just let me do this, for once in my life...!" Her voice breaks, misery turning her plea into a ragged sob. The power of her Spark tries to flare, but even with Void singing through her veins the power of Creation is so--overwhelming. "I've never had enough power for anything, just let me have this!"

[fortuneglass]

Carly doesn't care. She doesn't care she doesn't care she doesn't CARE, and watching Yuugo fly in is just another strike to the gut. Tears flow freely, and her nails dig so hard into her palms that the claws affixed to them begin to cut the skin, only to bring nothing to the surface. "Just stop," she repeats, before finally snapping. For what was it that had driven her over but the truth-what was it that had caused her to submit but the reality of not just the world but herself?

"I don't deserve that kind of fate!" she screeches, and her bow is forgotten as fire envelopes her palms. Lengthening and curling it grows long, like a whip-and she swings it forward at the guardians nearest to her, her eyes on red hair that moves in a wordless dance, and on teal crystals sending song into the air. She swings the flames forward...

...but just as the arrows, they scatter, and this time she doesn't even need them to meet force as she stumbles. She simply chokes, and heaves, and continues to break, her mask falling from her face as tears run down and even into the patches that would normally have filled with light. "So how dare you tell me this world is worth saving..!? When there are so many worse...when I am..." Those words in her head, those words in her mind...

The music of a friendship...

[bananaspeedrider]

"Because!" Yugo starts, before dropping down from his ride. He's never felt anything close to fear toward her flames. And he probably still won't need to learn so.

"There's people we care about and would never leave behind. Not now, not ever...! And some of those lives want you to stay a part of it too."

[everybodypanic]

"Yeah, what he said." Sure, whatever. Jinx moves on closer and closer to Carly, to the point where the distance between isn't all that much anymore. "We're all already here, you may as well just come back. Besides, who else am I gonna get to make clothes for me?"

Jinx's words were a poor disguise for her actual concern.

[shearmadness]

Nui could point out that she's also in the wardrobe department, but this isn't the time or place. Instead, she focuses on trying to add to bringing Carly back.

"C'mon Carly. I'd miss you! It would be boring if the world ended! We've got so many more places to see, and pretty clothes to make. Besides, I'd be a terrible boss and everyone here knows it!"

[soft_focus]

Power is important. For lots of things, in different ways. Reira doesn't let go of Tanyuu however, and while music is still playing, perhaps even trying to tempt her to sing along...well, she swallows and instead looks up to the naga with her own words.

"...But if you have that kind of power... ...isn't it better to make the nice things you wanted to see? ...You have that power. ...I don't, I guess," she notes, chewing her lip. "Umn...if... ...if it helps, we can learn to sing, since I think we're all supposed to. Mn.." What were the words they were saying earlier? Hers don't quite sound musical. They're quiet, and a little hesitant, and perhaps even stammering.

"G...got the music, in our hearts... We're here to...to..."

...Finish it with her, Tanyuu?

[fourthscribe]

She can feel the pull of the song as well, light calling out to her soul itself--and in the end, it's Reira's soft, unsure voice that finally cracks something inside her. Tanyuu wraps her arm around her, pulling the child close as she lifts her head to finish the line--

"We're here to blow this thing apart!"

In a sudden burst golden mist erupts from the mushi nest on Tanyuu's back, swirling and enveloping herself, Reira, and Joker. But unlike the mushi before this doesn't bring tingling numbness and a disconnection but vitality, life itself, and beneath its caress the black in Tanyuu's skin bleeds away. The dead moss and withered weeds spring to life, wisterias blooming with sweet fragrance, and the thorny crown breaks away as golden belldrop flowers take their place. A chiming chorus fills the stadium, and the mushi Tanyuu had summoned before vanish into the same golden motes that swirl around her.

The misty kouki disperses, and where Tanyuu had been clad like a royal before her kimono now evokes a feeling of youth--the furisode white with decorations of golden vines, and the shortened hakama fading from white to purple with those same vines along the hem. Around the whole ensemble is a sheer violet uchikake embroidered with flowers, and a beautiful pair of hair sticks hold an elegant bun in place. Tanyuu opens her eyes and looks to her friends with the first honest smile to grace her features in weeks.

"Thank you...both of you..."

[bananaspeedrider]

With that cue sounding out near them and all around from everyone-

"And together, we will never... be afraid of the dark...!" Which as Yugo does the lyric, fits in with how he has no hesitation to offer out his hand to Carly.

[fortuneglass]

It's a whole chorus of voices, really. Echoing and pounding, singing and ringing in her ears and far across the stage at the opposite end she can feel as Tanyuu goes from dark to light. Yuugo's hand is held before her, unwavering, coated in blue scales. And Jinx stands beside that arm- her expression...not unlike the one she saw earlier in the week, she finds herself noting. Back when she'd flusteringly run off from the other's attacks, shouting the first thing on her mind and-

'Don't think you've won! I'm only letting you go because you're cute-!' 'CUTE!?'

Her eyes are still streaming with tears, tears that cause the lights to blur, the sounds to fade, and time itself to seem to slow. And finally, a small voice in her mind finds itself joined in by a louder one, one that pushes, and pushes, struggling and straining to say remember why you fought so hard not to lose yourself to begin with?? And Yuugo stands there, Nui stands there, Jinx, this young woman she barely knows, BARELY AT ALL-

"Y...You..."

She can't take it. She breaks-a pained and choked sob cracking out, as she falls forward to throw her arms around the nearest one-and regardless of whether or not Jinx could have taken the sudden weight, it doesn't seem to matter, because in that instant the strings shatter. An explosion of light released as it fills back from within her heart, the rainbow aurora spilling from her tail and wings, marble-white skin carved down to reveal such flowing spectrums amid her faerie markings. And she is hovering again, no longer hidden by shadows and strings, no longer pulled down to the earth but instead perhaps freed, made lighter despite all the tears.

And she is...still holding Jinx, perhaps actually holding her a good foot or so off the ground now, but she has yet to notice that as she draws back somewhat and wipes her eyes with one palm. "Ngh...sgghh...I... I'm sorry, everyone," she finally manages with a weak smile.

"...I was pretty dumb, wasn't I?"

[motivenotfound]

Mari's seen enough inevitable outcomes to know one when she sees it.

This looks like the end of the road--for her, and for Cy-Ren, and for the Harbingers, and for the Void. At least in this song and dance number. She's a little surprised to find she's more disappointed than she thought she'd be. Maybe she was just hoping for something a little more dramatic. But they can't all be Near-Third Impact.

Her brows rise, and she smiles apologetically at CY-Ren before shrugging a little and reaching out a hand. You know, just in case their Voidtouched sponsor needs one.

She's not Carly or Tanyuu. She doesn't change yet.

But you know... sometimes you just know.

[everybodypanic]

"Damn right you were! Look at how worried everyone was for you, making them all work like that to bring you back." Jinx holds on to her as well, arms around Carly and holding on as the two continue hovering.

"Not me, though. I wasn't worried at all!"

She says, again her words betraying how concerned she really was.

"I knew you'd come around."

[shearmadness]

"Well, I was worried," Nui chimes in. "You're normally way more fashionable than that. That goth look is super not a good look on you."

There's also the part where she's actually pretty glad she didn't have to kill Carly, and where she was concerned for her friend and boss' well-being, but Nui's not at that stage of being able to admit to feelings just yet.

"Anyway, welcome back!"

[fourthscribe]

Tanyuu looks over to the others, Carly in the air with an embarassed Jinx, Mari with a hand held out to CY-Ren...it only takes a thought to gather a swirl of golden motes again, this time circling faintly around the star of the show.

"Here to sing our song out loud..."

A breath of power, a whisper in her mind and a sense of steady ground beneath her feet--a tilt of the balance to bring her out of that so-dark place she'd been stuck within.

"Get you dancing with the crowd!"

[npcarnival]

"As the music of our friendship
Survives, survives, survives...!"

Finally, the song rises to its final pitch. As the lyrics finish, its as if all the magic it has built up and contained is suddenly released, flooding the entirety of the arena and the world outside. It is a pure whiteness, impossibly bright, but without any pain.

Meanwhile, CY-Ren has dropped to her knees, staring at the production in a daze. She hears Yuya's offer, his request, but she can't respond. Suddenly, she is so powerfully aware, that she has done things that aren't worthy of the emotions she feels now.

Before she can respond concretely, the magic of Creation has washed the Void from everything in its path. The difference is immediate, like an illness that's left her that she didn't even realize was there.

She sinks at the shoulder, staring down at the stage instead. Somehow, this is worse than feeling like the world should be destroyed. Before, it was like life wasn't worthy of her. Now... it's like it's the other way around.


At Creation departs, so will the power it had gifted. Both those that served Creation from the start and those that just threw off Void's shackles will find the power leave them - all except one. Noa is the lone remaining Star Guardian, for once without an opposite.

For a while, at least, Creation has won.