lostcarnival | ⇨ WISMUTH ENDGAME

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⇨ WISMUTH ENDGAME

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lambert doesn't feel like they have much more a plan for this fight than they did the last one -- but considering CY-Ren turned a dozen of the Carnival's workers into agents of the Void with a song, her can probably accept he's not the best judge of what's going to work here or not.

Still, even before things can get started, they're already encountering unexpected complications. Apparently, instead of rushing in, they're to deal with the new Harbingers, who aren't at the concert proper, but outside it.

"Can't you be more specific than that?" Lambert asks, impatiently. As she's a bike at the moment, Pig can't answer, but she gives the impression of shaking her head in her response nonetheless.

"She's using them to gather power. We have to hurry."

Lambert exhales, but as much as he'd like to argue further, if time really is of the essence ... his gaze falls on the others. "Best split up and get this done fast, then," he says, shortly. "I've got a ride--" He pats his transformed familiar. "So I can go farther. Who's coming with?"

"I'm coming. If there's power flowing between CY-Ren and the other Harbingers, I can use that to figure out where they are," Rita suggests, and without waiting for further invitation, she hops onto the bike behind Lambert. She wraps one arm around him and uses the other to pry her fingers under her uniform's tight collar, fishing for the amulet the Ringmaster gave her.

Francis is there too, but rather than join them on the bike, he sits atop Rita's book as it floats, seemingly intent on using that as his mode of transportation.

They'd already resolved, at least, to help with Childermass. Also, Yuya has no reasonable transportation when transformed, and he knows Lambert has a bike.

"Um--me too." Yuya raises his hand, looking over the bike and Rita and Lambert. And the obvious issue of this is too many people on a motorcycle.

Still, they have to make it work so Yuya... "Uh, sorry, one second."

He tries climbing over the very back, fumbling to not sit on tails or get hit with wings and his balance is precarious.

Declaring noble intentions is all well and good, but it doesn't quite stand up to the reality of it being really awkward to get onto a bike with various body parts smacking each other. Lambert makes a noise of complaint as Rita shoving up behind him forces him to bend his tail awkwardly out of the way -- fortunately, at least after this week, he's had plenty of practice having it like that, and he scowls, twisting to look over his shoulder at the other two.

"This isn't going to work," he declares, impatiently. "If you're going to be leading, you need to be able to see ahead. Yuya, switch with me."

Did he just imply that Yuya's small enough that Rita isn't going to have trouble seeing over him... maybe. In any case, he's squirming off the bike now to give Rita room to scoot forward, deftly extricating himself from Rita's grip with a flex of muscle.

Edited ( ) 2018-03-12 00:25 (UTC)

Yuya, upon joining Rita and Lambert, immediately gets a feathered wing shoved into his face. It's not on purpose -- there just isn't that much space -- but Rita doesn't look remorseful about it.

At Lambert's suggestion, she simply mutters, "Fine," and scoots ahead to give him the room he needs behind her. She'd rather not have to hold on to him, anyway. Or deal with his tail getting in her way.

Francis, watching them rearrange themselves, yawns.

Yuya grunts and turns his face away when his vision is clouded with feathers. He scrambles backwards to slide off the bike at Lambert's insistence, finding his footing before he looks to the front of the bike.

He paces around, letting Rita scoot up first before he carefully hoists hissed over the front. There's still an uncomfortable noise in his throat, but even if it's crowded it's more secure. He tilts his bubble wand so he can grip low on the handlebars, looking over his shoulder before leaning forward so Rita can see over him.

"Okay, like this?" He really hopes they don't all fall off.

"Try not to knock me off with a wing," Lambert suggests, dryly. He positions himself sidesaddle on the back, one hand going behind him to securely hold onto the decorative but functional handlebars Creation has seen fit to grant his bike, but he won't grab onto Rita himself.

"Let's go." And with that, Pig starts to head off, her only concession to the awkward arrangement on her back the fact that she goes a little slowly. Either way, the other two riders are probably going to have to hold on tight.

"Which way?" Lambert yells, over the rushing wind and magically powered engine.

Rita succeeds in retrieving the circular amulet, though she fumbles with it when Pig accelerates. Luckily, it's still attached to her neck by its chain. Rita wraps one arm around Yuya while she holds the amulet up with her other hand, peering through the center at the sky around the concert venue.

"This is insane," she breathes, though the words are barely audible with the surrounding noise. Raising her voice, she cries, "There's Void energy all over the place! The closest point of origin is..." She squints as she confirms, then points a finger using the hand holding the amulet.

"That way!"

And that way, after what was undoubtedly a ridiculous high-ish speed motorcycle riding montage of all time, turns out to be one of Wismuth's skyscrapers that just so happens to be looming not far from the concert venue itself. Dark energy crackles around it, at least to the eye of a Guardian.

The more obvious tell as to which Harbinger this is, however, is the massive flock of shadow crows circling the roof.

Lambert clutches at the back of Pig’s seat, grunting, when they pull up to the tower and its circling crow shadows. It looks like a long way up. And he already knows, despite her deadpan personality, Pig is headstrong enough to just rush right in.

“Don’t even think about it,” he warns, and the motorcycle rumbles her discontent, not unlike a horse sighing loudly. Sure, it’s a little taller than anywhere else she’s driven straight up (usually with Lambert screaming) and she hasn’t tried something like that with people on her but ... how hard can it be?

“Well, we’re here. Any plans, or are we just going to run right in and try to beat him with feelings?” His voice is light and mocking, but if either of them look at him now, they’ll find his expression betrays more of his own uncertainty about that particular plan.

Yuya looks up and up to the birds, sitting up slightly and possibly blocking Rita's view as he tries to see better.

He frowns at that mocking tone, but he doesn't bother looking back at Lambert. "He has to actually listen to us and not run away in a shadow." Or as a giant bird. That is ultimately the hard part, approaching Childermass without putting him on the defensive. His fingers tap the handlebar absently. "Maybe if I get him with a goo bubble... uh, if he won't just talk to us."

Maybe they'll be that lucky? Probably not.

Hovering along on the magic book, Francis manages to catch up with them, having been left in the dust earlier by Pig.

Rita acknowledges her familiar with a glance, then tries to also look up, shoving Yuya's head out of the way as she does.

"Ugh... of course he had to go set up all the way up there!" she complains, then eases off of Yuya. "Light cancels shadows, doesn't it? I don't have any light magic, exactly, but I can use the light emitted by fire magic to screw with any shadows he might try to use." Fortunately, in an open space like a rooftop, there shouldn't be that many objects casting shadows to begin with... she hopes.

Of course, she wouldn't complain if they could go fight him literally anywhere else, but she doubts Childermass is going to accommodate her preferences.

"Last time, Yuya used bubbles. That worked well enough."

Lambert sizes up the distance between the bottom of the skyscraper to the top (a lot) and considers, with his vague knowledge of modern architecture, just how much time it would take to get through the building (a lot). Pig, it seems, is thinking along the same lines. Surprisingly, perhaps, a confident answer comes from the motorcycle beneath them.

"I can take us up the building, if one of you can shield us from sight," Pig says, simply. "Lambert can hide sound."

Even for Lambert, driving all that way seems incredibly sketchy. "Or if Rita still has the anti-gravity tablets I gave her ... should at least be less of a pain if one of us gets thrown off."

Not to remind you it's a long way down or anything!

"Eh--" Yuya's shoves sideways, tightens his grip on the bike so he doesn't go careening. They talked about this last time, Yuya has really minimal options for 'invisibility'.

But like, the second part of that. That actually does get Yuya to turn and look at Lambert incredulously. "You mean drive up the building? On the side?" Because driving Pig through it is, somehow, even less practical. Gravity doesn't work that way, does it?

Rita's brow furrows as she wonders the same thing as Yuya. But rather than repeat the question, she answers Pig and Lambert. "I can't do cloaking, exactly... A smokescreen, maybe." It would still alert Childermass to the fact that something's coming, but it could conceal their exact position.

"And... yeah," she adds reluctantly, her teeth clenched. "I can handle fall prevention." But she clearly doesn't want to.

"I've done it before," Pig answers, unmoved by the apparent distress of her riders.

"Do either of you have better ideas? Because I'm listening," Lambert snaps testily. While rushing in without a thought is his usual style, he does have his own reasons to be reluctant to see Childermass again, the least of which is the turmoil roiling in his gut when he thinks about their last encounter.

They're supposed to save the Harbingers by understanding them ... but maybe he doesn't really understand Childermass at all.

"Flanking him's our best chance to pin him down," he goes on. "I can't tell what he's up to, but we have to stop him, right?"

Yuya doesn't have any better ideas for getting up there. Rita could fly, but the rest of them... well, he'll just have to trust Lambert. And Pig.

"Right... I don't have anything better than a smokescreen." Just bubble screening instead, and he's not sure they would hold up to them barreling through them anyway.

Rita stares downward, silently steeling her nerve for, apparently, riding up the side of a skyscraper on a talking horse-bike.

And since Yuya doesn't have an alternative, and Rita doesn't have an alternative...

"All right," she agrees, tense. "As we approach the top, I'll create a smokescreen. Once we're there, we split up - Yuya and I go right, you and your bike go left. We'll figure the rest out from there." They can probably expect a swift response from Childermass, so there's no point in planning beyond that.

Knowing what to anticipate, Lambert shifts in his seat, turning so he’s straddling his bike even if it means getting a face full of feathers. He glances at Francis, frowning.

“You’d better get over here. And you two — grip with your knees and hang on as best as you can,” he tells them both. “I won’t let you fall.”

Then he pauses. Yuya might not be able to conceal them, but...

“Can you use a bubble to keep the wind off us? Rita’s not going to be able to cast anything like that.”

Yuya shifts up slightly, adjusting his bubble wand and looking at it for a moment thoughtfully. "Uh... just to keep it off us? Like a shield?"

He pauses, then shakes a larger bubble out of the wand. He squishes it in his hands, testing the elasticity. It should hold against the wind, anyway, although Yuya's going to need both hands to keep it in place.

"Maybe this? I'll hold onto it."

Francis narrows his eyes into a glare at Lambert. He recognizes him as an ally in Creation, but the idea of sharing a small space with the witcher still gives him pause. Rita gestures for him to join them, however, and he jumps from the book to the bike... in front of Yuya, where he's as far from Lambert as he can be.

Rita goes ahead and shifts her position, clenching her knees around the bike. "If we're all ready, then let's go already," she urges them. Rita's dreading going up, of course, but if they have to do it, she wants to get it over with, fast.

Rita, if nothing else, will get her wish in that. Pig's wheels glow brilliantly as she gathers power -- Lambert's power, and despite himself the warmth of Creation's certainty grounds him, keeps him steady as he sets his eyes on the flock of birds above,
closing his eyes and murmuring the spell to keep their passage unheard.

"Let's go."

Pig doesn't bother announcing the ability's name this time: she simply barrels forward, the sound of the engine deafening to her rider's ears, leaving a trail of golden sparks in her wake. For a terrifying half a heartbeat, it looks like she's about to crash right into the base of the skyscraper's wall, but then--

Bike and all, they practically slingshot up along the side of the building. Pig doesn't seem to be actually driving on it, but nobody's going to get a chance to appreciate the finer details of magic motorcycle locomotion, because while she doesn't seem to mind gravity, it's sadly still very much in effect for her riders.

Lambert swears colorfully as they're tugged backwards, forcing himself to straighten and brace against inertia as best as he can. At least it's a straight shot up. Even without the wind buffeting them (and he's thankful for that) he still has to keep Pig's forward momentum from knocking them right off. It's a clumsy solution, but his tail whips around to hold on to Yuya and Rita as best as it can on one side while an arm wraps around the other, his free hand grabbing at the back of the motorcycle seat to brace himself.

Yuya tries to grip the sides of the bike more strongly at Pig's go, his fingers digging gently into the bubble. It umbrellas out but doesn't break, keeping them from being hit with the force of the wind.

At first, he's confident in his grip. That's until they go vertical, and Yuya's legs can't hold against gravity pulling against him, but he'll lose the bubble if he grabs the handlebars instead.

"AAAAAAAAHHH!" Yuya drops backwards an inch or two, kicking out and wrapping his legs around the 'neck' of the motorcycle. He squeezes his eyes shut, not wanting to see what happens if he stops feeling Rita behind him or Lambert around him.

Edited 2018-03-15 03:06 (UTC)

Sitting in the middle, the only thing Rita can reach to hold on to is Yuya, and she does, wrapping both arms tightly around his chest. At first, she's quiet; in fact, she doesn't even dare breathe. But when Yuya suddenly slides back with a yell, she screams too, tightening her hold on him into a terrified death-grip.

Francis, to his credit, seems to be doing better than both of them. He braces himself against Yuya, ears flat against his head, but manages to hold on without clawing the poor kid to death.

For a few seconds, it's unclear if Rita will act in time to follow the plan, but as they approach the top of the building, she manages to (mercifully) pry one hand away from Yuya and hold it out, concentrating... sort of. She's still scared out of her wits and only barely has the presence of mind to cast the spell.

"I hate this!!" she cries as fire erupts in a line along the upper edge of the wall they're climbing, leaving just enough space for Pig to safely pass though and producing a heavy curtain of smoke to obscure their arrival.

And then they clear the smoke at about the same time Pig runs out of wall to ride up, bringing them thirty-nine floors up to the roof itself. There, the roof is clearly not meant for anyone beyond maintenance to be puttering around, all enclosed mechanical units and open space, but now it's occupied by a sole Harbinger already in that ridiculous costume of his, wings and all. He's standing at the center of the roof, his beacon as simple as one of his tarot cards nailed to the ground by his remaining iron knife, stabbed straight through.

Others — minor arcana — float around them, unmoved by the wind that rips across the top of the skyscraper, in a wide circle, arcs of void energy connecting them all to the center card. From that center, a palpable dark power is connecting to something bigger, something off in the direction of the concert itself, though Rita may be the only one to see that much of it.

Childermass is looking that same way, off towards where he's focusing his power, so their arrival goes unnoticed immediately. With how many shadow birds there are circling them all, though, that won't last for long.

third time's the charm [rita, yuya, childermass]

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