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

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.

Up goes the motorcycle, sound still concealed by the spell wrapped around them. Lambert’s medallion is practically rattling off his neck with the magic in the air, but his gaze snaps around, taking a half-second to comprehend the scene in front of him in the spare second or two where they’re suspended in the air. It’s probably the only element of surprise they’ll have, and whether it’s instinct or just the connection he shares with his familiar, Lambert knows what’s coming next.

“Close your eyes!” he yells — not that Childermass can hear — and that’s all the warning they’ll get before Pig lands, almost delicately.

As soon as a wheel touches the roof, it’s like a shockwave of light travels outward, blindingly bright and centered on the point of impact. Perhaps for a wonder, it doesn’t seem to damage the structure, but for at least a handful of seconds the entire roof is just bathed in golden light.

Edited 2018-03-15 19:23 (UTC)

Yuya makes a choking sound as Rita squeezes him, briefly losing his breath for a moment. But he can't very well tell her to let go, so he ends up holding his own breath to brace himself between the force of gravity and Rita almost bruising his ribs.

His eyes are already closed as they come up over the edge, and he swears he feels his stomach as they're righted on the roof. The bubble pops, and distantly Yuya remembers they're supposed to go right and try to flank him.

So Yuya opens his eyes just barely, squinting through the light as he leans over to get off the bike... and falls off, hitting the ground with a soft thud.

At Lambert's warning, Rita ducks her head behind Yuya and squeezes her eyes shut, using him as a shield against the blinding light.

When he moves to get off the bike, she does too. With a kick of her feet and a few heavy beats of her wings, she lifts herself off the bike and glides over Yuya's fallen form, over to the right, just as planned. The motion's wobbly -- she's missing a sizable portion of feathers, making it hard to balance with her wings, but it's a short enough distance that she makes it without toppling over.

Francis springs after her, and together, they take on a stance of battle-readiness. Her book, too, reappears beside her, its pages turning.

That all makes the only person caught off-guard by the sudden explosion of light to be, of course, Childermass. It's the gleam of light that has him whirling around to look, scowling at first at the intrusion until he sees the wave of light rolling away from where Pig landed. Then it's just his eyes widening, frown melting away into surprise, and him trying to throw an arm up over his face to shield it a moment too late.

He gives a pained shout instead, still curling an arm over his eyes even though he's been blinded. He staggers a step back before dropping to one knee, a choice to, at the very least, avoid falling over like a total idiot. Golden light interferes with everything up there, from blasting apart swathes of the nearest shadow crows to causing the output from the beacon to falter, though not cease.

"Bastards!" Childermass curses wildly, even if he can't see them, even though he's down and temporarily out of it as he is. Seems the light from that arrival is actually, physically painful to him rather than just annoying.

Lambert, unlike the others, has the benefit of goggles, which he wrenches down over his eyes as Pig remains where she is, still glowing bright, though Lambert himself isn't certain how long she'll be able to keep that up. There are two immediate concerns: taking down Childermass, and attacking the beacon that makes his skin practically crawl with the awful amount of Void energy coming off it. He isn't certain what's going to happen if he outright destroys the damn thing, magical artifacts seeming like something best left to Rita's purview, so of course, he'll go for what little semblance of a plan they had in the first place.

"Trap him!" he snaps, hoping Yuya hitting the floor wasn't an indication of an impending concussion. He forces Pig to turn in the tight space, her light already beginning to dim back down to her wheels.

Yuya rolls over, gripping his bubble wand tightly as he shoves himself to his feet and starts running. He spares a look to the beacon, shuddering before he turns his focus onto Childermass. He's already sending bubbles his way that, when popped, explode into an extremely sticky, glue-like substance. He's hoping Childermass will find his way into enough of them, or what's left of them on the ground.

Childermass is down, and Yuya's working to trap him, with Lambert at the ready... Looks like Rita has a chance to turn her attention to the energy feeding into the beacon. That burst of light just now seemed to disrupt it, if only a little...

Can she destabilize it further...?

Might as well try. Rita sweeps out an arm as if to command her weapon. Her book opens, and from it, three streams of fire burst forth, intertwining in a braid-like pattern as they shoot out at one of the minor arcana.

With the initial shock of the arrival wearing off, Childermass does lower his arm to squint past it just enough to see the bubbles fired his way. He snarls and immediately launches himself upwards, the constructs that form his wings snapping open and doing the work for him. The bubbles will coat the rooftop where he'd been before, but up higher? He's safer from them, for now.

Rita, however, is a more immediate concern. He feels it, the very instant her fire latches onto the minor arcana.

"What did I tell you about meddling?!" He snarls, pulling his deck literally from thin air, the cards gleaming malevolently in his hands. He draws and immediately throws it to the ground. "Baker!"

And, yes, it is Baker that bursts forth from that card. Rita's encountered the twisted specter the arcanine has become before -- color tainted to a void-like purple and form vague around the edges, almost ghost-like -- and here comes round two, because it's here that the big dog is targeting for his own stream of fire, only his is much, much bigger and far more dangerous.

Lambert's not mobile right now, but Pig certainly is, and neither witcher nor Pokemon-turned-familiar are about to let Childermass roast their allies. It happens in a split second, Pig screeching forward to put themselves right into the path of Baker's flames to shield Rita, and Lambert only has enough time to raise an arm to cover his face, a flash of metal sparkling in the light of spectral flame.

Do Peridot's magic-absorbing bracers work against Pokemon fire? Lambert hasn't got any idea, but he's about to find out the hard way.

Edited ( ) 2018-03-16 02:55 (UTC)

"Rita!" Yuya's easily distracted by Baker's coming attack, but Lambert moves before he does. It's probably a good thing, because it gives Yuya the time to realize that Childermass is up, out of the way, and they need to bring him down.

So he swings his wand hard, one way and back in two sets of bubble that start to blend together. They float towards Childermass--some of them still explode into goo, while others will make that same deafening crack that happened in the museum.

Of course, he's only able to focus on it for that much before his worry drags his gaze back to the other two.

It's a good thing that Pig moves fast, because Rita freezes when she sees Baker back and on the offensive once again. Even if she did react immediately, the attack comes too quickly for her to conjure a spell in response...

It's only when Lambert lands himself in the flame's path that she snaps out of it. "Wait, you--!" He didn't have to do that, damn it!

But he kind of did, and even though she doesn't know if Lambert's okay, there's only one thing to do now: keep fighting. Anything else would be a waste of this opportunity he's making for her.

Cursing under her breath, Rita flips to a new page in the book and calls forth another spell: "Arc of Judgment!" A crackling bolt of electricity shoots out of the book, twists and turns in the air above Lambert and Baker, and zigzags its way toward another minor arcana card. "I'll meddle as much as I please!" she adds, now that she has a chance to breathe. "We've all got too much to lose to just let this happen!"

Sorry, Lambert, but they don't. Baker may be changed by supernatural forces but his fire is the same as ever, a natural ability, or as natural as one can expect from a Pokemon, anyway. The witcher and his loyal bike will meet the flames in the worst way possible as they ignore the bracers entirely, though they do block Rita from the blast.

It also has the strange perk of immediately distracting Childermass. He'd meant for Baker to attack Rita, not Lambert, and with CY-Ren's influence long since purged, seeing that idiot shove his way into the line of fire has a flicker of panic crossing his face. He grabs for another card, but there isn't enough time to do anything, whatever it is he may have wanted to do.

"Lambert!"

Lambert, you idiot! He would have added the rest, but the loud bang from a bubble jerks his attention away. He floats backward on instinct, away from the sound, and right into another bubble. This one pops on one of his wings, immediately weighing it down with goo rather than letting out an exploding sound. He curses again and falters in the air... All of which gives Rita free rein to interrupt that second card. She zaps it right out of the air, breaking its connection with the central card.

It's been a while since Lambert's been on the receiving end of a fireball, but it's not like it's never happened to him before. That doesn't make the flame that sears across his arm and side any less agonizing -- being able to tolerate heat doesn't mean being fireproof. Neither is that flimsy Guardian clothing, though at least it doesn't go up entirely in flame, just ends up blackened and singed, filling the air with a sharp, bitter smell like burnt hair.

Gritting his teeth, the witcher waits out the rush of flame without a sound of complaint, and only once he's certain there isn't any more coming that he raises his other hand -- the leeward side, the one shielded from the flame -- and casts a rushed, sloppy spell in Baker's direction.

"Stay down!" he orders, the crack in his voice betraying the pain. As soon as the spell's cast, he uses the same hand to beat out the small flames licking up his clothes, hissing as he brushes reddened, blistering skin. It's not by any means as bad as it should be, for such a direct hit, but fuck if it doesn't sting.

The last of his bubbles area still floating up towards Childermass. Yuya's running towards them as Lambert ignites, hand thrust out to cast the shield around them as he skids to a halt. They can't attack from under it, but it buys precious time from another attack by Baker.

"Lambert, are you--" he stops as his nose scrunches a little at the scent. "How bad is it?"

That agitated voice just now... Was that Childermass?

Rita didn't expect that to get such a reaction out of him... Maybe Yuya was right. It's still possible to get through to him...

With the barrier around them, Rita takes a moment to breathe... then walks to Lambert's side, opposite Yuya. She looks at him, taking in the sight of his burnt skin, then glances away with a wince. It's not the worst she's seen, but it's hard to face the fact that he's only hurt because he was shielding her.

She keeps her book close and watches Childermass, prepared to attack again should the barrier between them go down.

At Lambert's order, well, of course Baker backs down. He goes from snarling beast to puzzled to flopping down on the rooftop in the span of seconds, idly panting and watching Mr. Guardian of Freedom over there curiously. Baker knows Lambert. Baker isn't sure why they're attacking Lambert but if he doesn't have to now, hey, whatever.

And Childermass isn't even going to fuss over his familiar suddenly becoming useless. He's busy landing heavily on one of the big metal A/C units that sit up on here with them. Partly due to his wing being disabled, partly due to wanting to avoid further bubbles now in the air as well.

He gives the three behind the shield dome a torn look, but it doesn't last. He raises an arm towards what's left of his shadow crows and gestures them towards what's left of Yuya's bubbles. They dive for those, popping them and winking out of existence with each bubble they take out, leading to a series of splats (of goo falling to the rooftop) and bangs.

Lambert, perhaps to no one's surprise, curses foully when the other two Guardians group up on him. He'd probably appreciate the sentiment more if they weren't in the middle of a fight here, and he forces himself off Pig with a slight stagger. The bike's shiny gold finish that was facing Baker's assault is slightly blackened with soot, but she's otherwise unharmed.

Instead of actually answering Yuya, he steps forward to the edge of the bubble barrier, eyes fixed on the goo-afflicted Harbinger.

"Are you an idiot!?" He bawls at Childermass, lungs clearly working well enough to be heard even over the splat and bang of Yuya's other bubble's popping. The beacon's still going, though even he can tell it's begun to partly falter.

"I'm supposed to be the one who sets people on fire! Not you!"

Yuya's eyes snap between Childermass, Lambert, and Lambert's wound. Things have slightly calmed down after that initial burst of violence (of course, they just came up on Childermass out of nowhere), but Yuya's reluctant to drop the shield just yet. So he doesn't, waiting out whatever Lambert wants to say to Childermass.

With any hope (or a whole lot of luck), maybe he'll get through with this. Maybe they won't have to fight any further.

"That’s what you're concerned about!?" Rita snaps at Lambert in disbelief.

Well... at least he pacified the pooch. That’s one of Rita’s biggest worries out of the way.

"...Taking out those cards seems to be effective," she observes after a moment, her voice quiet. "If we get rid of them all, we might disrupt the beacon entirely." Rita still doesn't know whether to believe this can be resolved with words. If there's a way to use logic and magic to fix things, why not do that?

"Of all the things to complain about...!"

Yeah, Childermass thinks that stupid, too, Rita, but he honestly has more important things to do than get in an argument over who can and cannot set people on fire. He tries to clear his wing of the goo one last time but, failing that, he pulls a face and simply dismisses the damn things. If they're getting in the way, he won't keep them around.

From that point, he turns his attention back towards the beacon, drawing a new card to point towards it. Chances are the means to fix it, but the energy — down two cards to help it focus — has begun to go haywire. It's reaching for any form of corrupt Spark to latch onto and Childermass drawing a new card is like holding a lightning rod up high in the middle of a thunderstorm. Void energy arcs away from the beacon, grasping not only for the new card but up his arm as well.

Which hurts.

He lets go of the card with a shocked jerk, staggering back a step and struggling a bit to shake his arm free again. He manages, the energy turning its attention to the card he's left in its grip instead. He shakes the pins and needles of the contact out of his hand and then holds it out towards the now floating card instead, focusing, willing it and the energy back into the circle from afar.

"Now look at what you've gone and done," he mutters, "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to break a circle like that?"

What's equally if not more stupid is Lambert takes a step forward when Childermass jolts like that, pushing past Yuya's bubble with hand already half-outstretched -- and scowling. That's a useless gesture -- what is he going to even accomplish?

"Dangerous--?! As if you're one to talk! You're trying to end the world!" Really, it objectively doesn't get more dangerous than that!

Yeah, yeah, he's supposed to be winning Childermass back to their side with friendship, but perhaps unfortunately for Creation, Lambert's friendship has always come with a fair share of fighting. If nothing else, at least, maybe he can provide a distraction to keep Childermass from focusing on the beacon, or any other attempt Yuya might make to tie him down. He takes one step closer, and another, the energy from the void making his skin prickle with discomfort.

"Stop being such an ass! You don't want this!"

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