⇨ 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

[hippocarnival]

Yuya nods. That's a fair assessment--Rita's the magic expert here, so he's going with her judgement. He looks at Lambert's back, pausing for a moment.

"Then you go for one side and I got for the other? Lambert will reach him--" Yuya sounds completely certain about that. "But I don't like what the beacon's doing, so we should stop it."

[anti_nonsense]

Rita pauses, turning to watch Lambert lay into Childermass. Selfless, soft-hearted... He's not wrong, but Rita never expected to hear Lambert say it like that.

Yuya's next suggestion earns a nod from her. If they keep waiting, Childermass will fix the whole thing and they'll be right back where they started. "I'll take the ones to our left," she whispers, then returns her attention to her book. It seems like it's gathered enough power to try this technique with.

"Come forth! Indignant Judgment!" Electricity shoots from the book once more, this time in multiple branching strands that converge above one of the minor arcana cards. The energy then crashes down hard like a bolt of lightning, with some sparks shooting off towards nearby cards. If she's lucky, she might take out multiple cards in a single shot.

As forceful as the spell is, it doesn't come close enough to harm anyone on the roof, though it may make a few people's hair stand on end.

[atouts]

Well, Lambert did have Childermass's attention right up until Rita started shooting bolts of electricity all over the place. He had paused in placing the last card, keeping an eye on the witcher from the corner of an eye, so... listening. Then the crackle of lightning rips his gaze back to Rita, then to the beacon's cards.

"No!" He shouts, furious, and draws a different card. One of the major arcana, supposedly, since he vanishes immediately and in the same breath of time, Baker reacts as well to his master's displeasure. Axii can only work for so long and the arcanine goes from curiously sniffing Pig the Motorcycle to lurching back to his paws and taking a snap at her.

As for Childermass, well, he reappears right behind Rita, even as her book's spell rips through three more of the minor arcana in the circle. He makes a violent grab for her hair, to yank her backward and away from her book.

[whattaprick]

Pig doesn’t hesitate: as soon as Baker snaps for her, she immediately slams a wheel right into his face. It’s probably half-nostalgic, considering the last time they had a real fight was back in Alola before they evolved, but Pig’s kicks never came with what it does now, another flashbang that fills the whole roof with light — and without warning, this time.

Lambert, at least, is spared the worst of it by his goggles still covering his eyes. He’s already pivoting, turning so quickly it’s painful — but he’s not quick enough to protect Rita this time. Unlike other people, he doesn’t have teleportation going for him, so he can only lurch forward, too slow, as he yells.

“John, stop!”

[hippocarnival]

At Rita's confirmation, Yuya darts around to the right of the circle. His approach is less obvious, forming a larger bubble from his wand that he pushes forward in an attempt to trap the minor arcana within it--he hopes his will makes it strong enough that his Spark power cuts off Childermass'.

While he's doing that, Rita's blasting the other side. He's focused on trapping the card, but his gaze does drift just a bit sideways to her while he's doing so.

"Rita!" That's when Childermass comes up behind her, and their distraction and subtly are thrown out the window. Pig lights up the area before Yuya can make a choice, and he flinches and pulls his own goggles down before thrusting his reach forward to bubble the card with what time he has.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita yelps in surprise and pain when she's suddenly yanked back by the hair, her hat coming loose and falling from her head as she struggles, then tries to wedge a hand between her head and the Harbinger's grip, trying to lessen the pain. There's no defense against that flash of light beyond squeezing her eyes shut, but she does it a moment too late, and it leaves her vision fuzzy.

"Keep going, Yuya!" she shouts through gritted teeth. "Lambert's right; he's soft." Her notion of exactly how soft has been challenged repeatedly in these last few encounters with him... but even if it's sort of a bluff, she'll run with it. "I don't buy this bad guy act. Not from the guy who helped me learn to fly... who tried to cheer me up when I was pissed off about changing... who never wanted to fight me in the first place!"

[atouts]

Yuya's bubble encases the second to last minor arcana, forcing the final floating card to take the brunt of controlling the energy arcing from the Fool, off towards the concert hall. It's a problem but mostly for Childermass, whose power it ultimately is being channeled in the first place. He cringes against the light from Pig again, taking a step back towards the edge of the building and dragging Rita along with him, grip on her hair only tightening.

Baker takes the worst of it, though, a whack to the face and that bright light? He yelps and staggers back, toppling over, dazed and down for now. Childermass, though...

"Shut up," He snaps at Rita, opening his eyes again to squint at what's left of his beacon's setup. It shouldn't be difficult to feel him shaking from the strain through his grip. His focus has been split for too long and he's having trouble at this point. Still, he'll carry on playing the villain, trying to buy just enough time. "Touch that last card and I'll throw her from the roof."

[whattaprick]

Lambert stops in his tracks, but his eyes aren’t on Childermass, but on Rita.

Rita, who has wings but who’s afraid of heights, who cursed and railed against the Prince’s poison leaching into their souls and refused to be broken even half-petrified. He’d shielded her from flame, but in this? There’s only one choice.

“I am the flash that cuts through darkness, the light that breaks the night!” Lambert raises his hand and the gilded sword he’d summoned before snaps into his hand again, blazing a trail of light — and he immediately turns to slice it through that last minor arcana. He’ll let his momentum keep him going as he lunges forward immediately after to try to rip the knife and the card it’s stabbed through off the roof.

[hippocarnival]

The success and Rita's encouragement drives Yuya forward, and he dashes for the least minor arcana, shaking another bubble from his wand. He skids to a halt right next to it, pushing it forward.

But then he stops, his attention snapping to Childermass at his threat. However soft they think Childermass is, Yuya is softer. Even the chance of putting Rita in danger is enough to prevent him from following through on bubbling the card at first.

But Rita can fly. If she falls, she'll be fine--she can catch herself. Yuya steels himself with that realization a bit late, and by that point Lambert is already lunging forward through it.

Yuya jumps back, surprised, and releases the bubble. Since Lambert has the beacon apparently handled, Yuya twists on his feet and makes a dash after Rita and Childermass.

[anti_nonsense]

As she's pulled back toward the edge of the roof, Rita makes the mistake of glancing over the ledge, flinching as she catches a glimpse of the streets and rooftops far below before forcing her gaze back ahead.

She meets Lambert's eyes and frowns. The choice he makes is the right one... but she doesn't have to like it. Also, way to sound uncool, old man.

With Childermass's demands defied, Rita tenses and mentally prepares herself for whatever comes next. If he really does throw her off... all she has to do is not freeze.

[atouts]

"Don't!"

The last card goes, the knife keeping the Fool stuck to the center along with a second swing, and Rita will be glad to discover Childermass's thread had been a bluff from the get-go. As the pieces of the last card hit the rooftop, the stability of the beacon goes to hell. Before, the output had been controlled, but now?

A blaze of void energy roars to life, lashing out around all of them without aim, without control, just wildly. It blows out lights, parts of the A/C units, anything else in its path, and for Childermass...

Well, Childermass's own cards and costume give an almost glitch-like shudder as he pushes Rita aside rather than throwing her anywhere, staggering forward towards the out of control energy. If Yuya crosses his path, he'll try and shove him aside as well, though he won't get much further after that, stumbling and falling to his knees as his powers glitch out a second time.

"I said... don't..."

[whattaprick]

As close as he is to the epicenter of the impact, unsurprisingly, Lambert's right in its path. There's a split-second impulse to throw himself over the energy as it starts spreading outwards, no matter how bad an idea he knows that's going to be in a way nothing else has been until just now. But then magic that's neither the Void's or Creation yanks at him, holding him still as Strange's damnable contract chooses now, of all moments, to kick in.

I, Lambert, will take a second or two to pause and consider my choices before embarking on an action with a seemingly inevitable chance of getting enthralled, injured in a major fashion, kidnapped, possessed, or incapacitated in any way that would severely debilitate myself or the carnival.

A second's pause is a second too long. As he wavers, the Void energy blows Lambert right off his feet, hard enough to shock him into dropping both his sword and the iron knife with its card that he's just yanked out of the roof. They clatter to the concrete, while Lambert slams side-on into an A/C unit's corner with a sickening, meaty impact. Lambert's pretty sure he can feel a rib or two crack, but that's also overwritten with the sharper, lancing pain as broken-off edges of metal -- not iron or steel, which is about the only mercy there is -- rake through cloth and skin.

And then he crumples to the roof, flat on his face. Whether he's out for the count or not remains to be seen, but Pig, at least, is still a bike, so he's still channeling Creation somehow.

"Lambert!" Pig roars forward, trying to get to her master, but the Void sparks and affects her too, and without him consciously channeling his Spark through her, what she can do on her own is less effective.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's shoved by Childermass, but it doesn't throw him off his feet. Instead, knowing Rita is all right (and they were both right, it was only a bluff), it only makes him turn back around in time to see the Void energy getting increasingly out of control.

"Stop!" When Childermass falls to his knees, Yuya reaches to put a form grip on his shoulder. His shoulders tense as he projects the shield, and provided they don't move out of range he can get it big enough to cover himself, Childermass, and Rita. Lambert he's forced to watch get hurt with the worst of the blast, and his stomach drops, but--he can't let it distract him from protecting them.

But it isn't the magic of a Spark, and Yuya can't hold it against all this energy--he can only hope to mitigate as much of it as possible before they get blasted like Lambert.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita stumbles when Childermass shoves her, but she doesn't dare move much farther, not with the beacon's energy going out of control. The dark energy lashes in her direction, prompting her to jump back... which fortunately lands her well within Yuya's shield as it goes up. Francis, too, dashes to her side, her book following close behind.

It's from the safety of the shield that Rita sees Lambert get absolutely wrecked, once again taking all the damage while the rest of them are protected. She clenches her fists. There's nothing she can do to help, and Yuya's got his hands full protecting the rest of them. Rita can't make shields, she can't redirect the energy... The only person who can is...

"Make it stop!" Rita demands, facing Childermass. If he wasn't willing to throw her off the roof, then maybe he won't want Lambert to get killed, either.

[atouts]

There's no immediate response from Childermass to either Yuya or Rita, attention torn away from the out of control beacon to watch -- horror written plain on his face -- as Lambert is blasted away from it. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not like this. No one else should have been up here and yet--

"It's lost its anchor," he finally gets out through gritted teeth, grimacing as he turns away from the witcher. He can't do anything for him right now. So, instead, he reaches up for Yuya's arm. "Help me up. I need to get to it."

Because Rita's right. He can make it stop. He's the only one here who can but he can't get there on his own power now, not when it's all leaking out wildly into the air from the Fool.

[whattaprick]

Disoriented from the fall, the only thing Lambert can hear right now is the pounding of blood in his own ears and Vesemir’s voice in his head.

Get up. It’s annoying, how effective that memory still is — so long ago he might as well have made it up for all he knows, or something that’s happened so many times they’ve started to run together — at making him bristle, ten years old and muscles still aching from holding a sword too heavy for him. You think monsters will wait for you while you catch your breath? You stop moving when you’re dead. Get up.

“I know how to do my job, old man,” he mutters into the concrete, hopefully obscured by the crackle of magic. “You trained me yourself.”

A twitch of his fingers brings the sword scraping across the roof towards him, but rather than using it as a weapon, he uses it to force himself up to a knee, panting as it makes his side light up with agony. He’s had worse, physically, but it’s the out of control magic in the air that’s so opposed to his own that’s making it feel particularly sickening. Blood’s running down freely from his temple and his side, but if anything’s damaged internally, it’s yet to be realized, and that’s all he can do for now.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya looks down at Childermass when he reaches for him, and at first he doesn't quite respond. He stares back, expression tight and pensive. After all, Childermass was just using this beacon to destroy the world not long ago--whatever he wants to do with it now.

After a moment, he nods, and offers his hand to Childermass to help him up. "I'll go with you. When we move, I'll have to stop shielding us."

It's a stationary spell, unfortunately. He looks over his shoulder to Rita. "Can you keep yourself safe while Childermass stops it?"

[anti_nonsense]

He'll do it...?

Even though Rita was counting on it, she isn't sure she can believe he's had a change of heart, just like that... but trusting in him seems like their best chance right now. "I'll be fine," she answers Yuya.

Rita hates doing nothing... but even if she tried to get to Lambert, or help Yuya and Childermass, she'd only put herself in greater danger. So for now, she just steps back, away from the bulk of the energy. If Yuya fails to get Childermass back to the anchor, or if Childermass turns on them, then she'll step in.

[atouts]

"I'll try to keep it off of us," Childermass replies, though he can't make any promises. Taking Yuya's hand, he'll struggle back to his feet and, unfortunately, find himself needing to lean on the lad some for support. The Harbinger side of him shudders at doing anything other than tearing a Guardian apart but that won't help any of this.

Regardless, he'll put a hand up, reaching towards the card, trying to get a handle on what's erupting from it. He can kind of bend it, away, forcing a path open where the void energy doesn't strike, but everyone else will need to stay alert. Where Rita, Lambert, and Pig are, they're on their own.

"Go," he urges Yuya forth. "Lambert won't live through another strike."

[whattaprick]

Lambert seems to realize that much, as well. With an effort, he lifts his free hand in front of him, sketching out a sign in the air, and a shield bubbles around him -- though unlike Yuya's, this one is mobile, and it moves with him as he straightens to force himself to his feet, taking step by staggering step forward at a slower pace than Yuya and Childermass. He means to meet them in the middle, but without anything to prop him up but his own stubbornness and spite, he has to stop after just a couple of steps, driven down to a knee again, cursing.

Unable to charge directly through the middle off the roof, Pig's skirted around the edges, where the energy blowback isn't as bad. This, ultimately, brings he closer to Rita than Lambert -- and though she's just a bike, she gives a vague impression of looking her over as she uses her bulk to shield Rita from licks of dark energy and glowing softly with light.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya doesn't mind the leaning, and as they slowly stand he moves to hook an arm around Childermass' back for support.

"Right," Yuya nods once, then looks up at Childermass with an expression surprisingly full of trust given Childermass has not long ago attacked him and turned him into a card. It's not that Yuya doesn't think this isn't a trap... because it could be. But creating that wedge between them won't help right now.

If he's wrong, he'll just have to shoulder the responsibility of fixing it. "I'm going to drop my shield. Let's go."

He gives Childermass a few seconds to ready himself, grip firm and ready to support him to the center as he lowers their defense.

[anti_nonsense]

A stray spike of energy lashes in Rita's direction, but she manages to evade it. When Pig comes along and silently offers assistance, she takes it, crouching down beside the bike.

Seeing Lambert conjure a protective sign, she frowns. "Stay back, idiot," she hisses, though there's no way he'd hear her. "There's no way that'll hold against this kind of energy..."

Maybe Rita should be the one supporting Childermass. If Yuya was free, he could shield Lambert. Rita can't help with that... unless...

"Get me close to him," she tells Pig suddenly, climbing onto her back. "I can bolster the shield." No, she's never done it before. But if anyone can slap together a situation-specific magic formula in a matter of seconds, it's Rita Mordio.

[atouts]

It doesn't actually take that long for Childermass and Yuya to get to the center of the rooftop but it certainly feels like it does, especially when they have to stop every time a bolt of energy lashes towards them and the magician has to force it away, sweat beading up on his forehead and what little color he had to his skin to drain away under the strain. He can't spare any more time to look back towards Lambert or even Rita as they move forward.

The closer they get, the worse it feels. The center of the beacon radiates with any negative emotion it can throw off, culminating in that urge to hide under the covers because some monster might be out there in the dark or when you run up the stairs after throwing the switch in a basement, only amplified. It wants them to flee but the last few steps, Childermass pushes away from Yuya with a quiet "stay here" and gets the rest of the way on his own, once again falling to his knees but on purpose this time, as it puts him within arm's reach of the Fool.

He reaches for it, even as his hand and then arm appear to become consumed by it, all that power immediately turning in on itself to attack its origin — its Harbinger — instead. It won't get much time to, however, as he pries the card up off the ground and puts the most immediate end to it that comes to mind.

Childermass tears the card in half and the noise it makes isn't a noise at all. It is a resounding silence instead, as if a storm just suddenly... stopped, and so, too, like the beacon, does its summoner, having essentially just ripped his own Spark in two. He sits there, still, a few breaths after doing so, then falls, collapsing right across the center of the circle he had set up what seems ages ago now, among the remains of the minor arcana and now the major, the latter of which is slowly beginning to evaporate as Void-tainted motes of light.

[whattaprick]

As Rita straddles Pig, the familiar murmurs an affirmative, taking her towards Lambert while dodging lashings of Void energy as best as she can. It turns out to not be necessary as the Void dissipates with the ripped card, but that's not much comfort to Lambert, who seems galvanized back into motion when he sees Childermass collapse.

"You--!" Whatever imprecations he had for Childermass's character, they're cut short by the urgency of needing to be next to him.

"Get me to him." As Pig draws close enough, no longer hampered by having to watch out for stray magic, Lambert reaches out to grab one of her handles to support himself instead of leaning on his sword. Given the effort and time it would take for him to get on her now, he doesn't bother. He'll just lean on Pig and walk, feet stumbling over each other in their haste and breathing labored, until he can fold to his knees by Childermass's side. It's like something out of a bad play, both of them endlessly falling to their knees, but he can't even care what it looks like right now.

"Idiot," he mutters, fingers bloody from his own injury reaching out to assess the damage. "You told me you were done collecting scars..." For all he knows, Childermass has gotten all sorts of things broken again. Unfortunately, to the best of his knowledge, not a single one of them has any sort of healing magic.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya sucks in a sharp breath, forcing himself to brace against the energy the closer they got to it. It does make him afraid, but fear he can move forward despite--he won't let it stop them.

He's reluctant to release Childermass before they reach the card, but ultimately he relents and hangs back while Childermass puts an end to it. He doesn't expect him to do it by tearing the card, however. Yuya stares in horror, the silence deafening for a moment.

"Childermass!" Yuya springs forward, dropping to his knees just a little further than how close Lambert gets, on the opposite side, looking over him with worry.