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Kale Hearthward There's yet another call put out by the Beat Agents - this time with less short notice, but just as much priority.

"Don't mind me," Agent Fjords says to the Paladins (and others) entering the Bistromath, tapping away at the hostess's terminal. "Just trying to reconfigure the Improbability Drive to run on buffet mode. There's still a few bugs, here and there."

"You mean in the caesar salad?" asks Spin, who's looking much recovered.

"No - in the reservation system. The caesar salad sub-algorithm should be..." Fjords cranes his neck, looking in the direction of Spin's pointing finger. "Oh. No, the cockroach is not part of the Infinitely Improbable Bistromathic calculations. Could someone replace the salad, please?"

One of the serving robots takes the salad tray out and heads into the kitchen with it, cockroach still perched primly on top of it.

"So real quick - our scanners got a ping, we found Purge's lair," says Spin.

"It was too easy," says Chieftain, as he loads up a plate. "Purge is sloppy enough that it could be legit, but..."

He lets that trail off. The serving robot has brought back a tray of salad - with the same cockroach still perched on top of it.

"... I gotta start bringing my own food on these missions..." says Spin.

The Bistromath moves, once everyone's in and (has at least pretended to) eaten some food. It stops - parking neatly on the ground of a conveniently oxygenated moon, with a cave entrance just a short walk away.

"... Dance Battle Robot tracks... this is the place," says Spin.

"Well then - Elite Team, you're the vanguard. The Beat Agent team will be right behind you," says Cheiftain. "Be ready for anything."

"Agents are..."

"GO!"
Karlan Nobles Pramanix: "I really shouldn't be used to this."
SilverAsh: "You had hot dogs from that hairy fellow last time."
Pramanix: "Yes, but this is different!"
SilverAsh: "Is it really?"
Pramanix: "We're indoors! It should be a little better, at least."

At least they brought their own food this time. Pramanix is sneaking bites of some kind of breaded dish (that's probably just bread sticks) that she's hidden in her purse while trying to ignore that cockroach salad. It doesn't get in the way of her listening to the actually kind of short briefing, and she stops trying to hide her eating once the talk is done.

SilverAsh, meanwhile, doesn't bother hiding any of his eating to begin with and is just chowing down on a whole ass sushi burrito that isn't even pretending to look like he ordered it here.

Upon arriving, the siblings test the gravity, mostly seeing if jumping around gets them that goofy moon-jumping height they've seen in videos from various Earths.

Pramanix: "Can a robot really dance?"
SilverAsh: "We've already heard robots rapping. Is a dancing robot that unlikely?"

Semi-nodding semi-shrugging in acknowledgment, Pramanix takes a moment to make sure her fancy hat's on tight and strapped down onto her head, then starts to move with SilverAsh hurrying up briefly to stay on pace while approaching the cave.

They're already on the lookout for dancing robots. Or anything that looks like it might have something resembling knees, even.
Ioanna Langstrom      Ioanna has actually had a little of everything, including the salad. She's just that kind of person when she's off-duty - very tourist-y. Probably something that runs in the family considering her brother writes travel guides.

     It was alright. She's not really loving it, but hey, it's worth trying.

     Spin gets a glance. "...are you sure you're going to be alright, sir?"

     Her voice isn't really all that concerned - but more because it'd be inappropriate in front of a superior officer. It's clearly sort of a...'if you're not sure don't come, you might be compromised' kind of thing. But then, she's also a pretty decent person, so...

     Who knows?

     When the 'Agents are Go' is given, Ioanna goes leaping out. She's dressed in the tie-dye tanktop and short-shorts of local fashion, with some kind of weird ring orbiting her ponytail where a ribbon should be, and some weird rings orbiting her wrists and ankles. The gogo boots are of course not optional.

     She starts walking in-beat as soon as she hits the ground, swinging her hips slightly more than she might otherwise, and getting into the dance. That's the culture in this place. Gotta look local.
Blemishine     "You wouldn't want any help with that sometime, would you?" Returning to the Bistromath because of course she has, Blemishine maintains a respectable distance from Agent Fjords but not so much that she can't lean around to glance at what he's typing like someone peeping at a phone. "I'm kind of curious how something even runs off of improbable receipt charges in the first place." After learning how the Beat Galaxy works, that's what she's worried about. "Auntie would probably have a lot to say about them if she came here, actually..."

    That can all wait until they're not dealing with business though, definitely foregoing any salad in favor of the perfect fuel for what will undoubtedbly be a physically exhausting mission - a burger. Thankfully, any ketchup falls back down onto the plate, and she's very good with table manners when it comes to speaking during the briefing.

    "Even if he's baiting us in, we don't really have a choice but to go right into the den, huh? If he has some kind of plan, we'll just need to beat him at his own game!" And everyone knows what game that is. Spin gets a somewhat worried glance at first, but his complaining is good enough for her to guess he's feeling well enough. "We're glad to have you back, Agent Spin! Don't push yourself too hard though, okay?"

    They hit landfall, and the knight takes a moment alongside the siblings to make sure any weird gravity won't interfere with fighting or funky fresh moves. When she's sure of that, she makes sure to be one of the ones on point pushing in ahead into the cave.

    And to Pramanix, she agrees vehemently with SilverAsh. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if these ones could do both...!"
Kale Hearthward "Thanks - cleared for duty, but leaving the frontlines to you," says Spin, giving Blemishine a thumbs-up.

There are indeed dance robots. There's a whole gauntlet of them, because even if this is a final boss stage, there still needs to be trash packs. The group has to deal with new mechanics like color-coded robots that attack on the offbeats and shiny mirror robots that the group has to respond to with inputs that are in the opposite order of what are called out - you know, the usual rhythm game gimmicks.

People have an opportunity to deal with the waves of enemies how they wish - but up ahead, there's an imposing looking auditorium arena - empty except for a black-suited, helmeted figure that matches the profile of the remaining missing beat agent.
Ioanna Langstrom      Years ago Ioanna would've had to stand back. She would've had to fall back behind the Elites and protect bystanders in a futile effort to buy time. Years ago she'd've been avoiding that figure on the stage.

     But this time she's confident. She moves through the horde of robots with her usual dancing skill, sliding between them, cartwheeling, handstand-flipping over them, and otherwise handling the crowd with ease.

     She lands in front of the missing Agent, puts one hand on her hip, thrusts it sideways in the multiversal symbol for 'alright, let's do this' on the dance floor, and raises an eyebrow behind a pair of sunglasses.
Karlan Nobles Pramanix is reminded by Ioanna'as hip-swaying right from the drop to move in time with the beat, nearly forgetting that whole gimmick until then. Her own hip-swaying might look a little more off, though, probably because of the fact that she's wearing a poofy-ass rich people coat that doesn't really mesh well with such upbeat movements.

SilverAsh, meanwhile, was prepared for this possibility. He removes his tie, unbuttons the top button of his dress shirt to show off a bit more collar, and rolls his shoulders to build up his GANGSTER SWAG as he starts stepping forward with the same beat while considering Blemishine's prediction.

SilverAsh: "A dancing AND rapping robot... The roboticists back home would have a field day with one of those."
Pramanix: "But if the robots here have any kind of  self-awareness... Isn't that kidnapping?"
SilverAsh: "Probably. Does it matter?"
Pramanix: "YES."

And so, the dance robots have arrived! Thankfully, they're not spitting hot fire at the group, or else there'd be some potential moral issues with SilverAsh trying to grab one of them. Instead, they weave and juke with the beat like old hats in this, having gotten quite a bit more used to improvising through dance-based combat the last time they were in this area.

The off-beat attacks end up being somewhat easier for them to handle without having to worry about dodging and attacking at the same time, Pramanix bringing down the ice and SilverAsh just slashing metallic things apart without a moment's hesitation (even if he's a little off beat himself). The mirror robots give them a bit more trouble, but only until they realize what the gimmick is and adjust their moves accordingly to do the opposite of what their brains tell them.

That ominous figure, however, has them slowing down a bit to try and get a read on this new opponent. Pramanix makes it all too obvious they're all approaching, too, what with the bell-ringing that's forever on beat and SilverAsh just keeping his sword hand near the sheathed blade while tapping his foot steadily and addressing the figure. "It's a wonderful night for a last dance. Shall we do it?"

Pramanix gags a little.
Blemishine     It's actually a good thing there's a horde of dance robots blocking their path! Warm-ups are important, here more than anywhere else. Learning new gimmicks takes some time and a couple of ear-shredding record scratches on missed notes, but it's not that long before she's falling into step, foregoing the cloak of her usual armored outfit for better range of movement. Even though she has a perfectly serviceable weapon to just run them through with, it almost looks like she's enjoying getting more used to this after last time. Probably because she is!

    And it's likely going to be critical to do so, if they want to face Purge without any disadvantages. Follow Ioanna's lead, she pushes on towards their destination and enters the auditorium on the tail end of a twirl--right before the pose breaks into a definitely exaggerated double-over. "Phew...I'm not complaining, but couldn't you have still put a couple less of them in the way?"

    One deep breath later and she's straightening up fully though, brow furrowed and eyes set on the last remaining Beat Agent. It's a determined stare she holds for several seconds before glancing around the rest of the expansive space.

     "...But it looks like you were waiting for us after all, weren't you? And I don't think neither of us are going to let each other go without a dan--er, a fight...!"
Kale Hearthward "Well then. The elites, Beat Agents, and all, here to stop me..." says the figure.

"Here to stop Purge," calls Agent Chieftain from the backline. "And rescue you."

"Yeah - we're gonna have to dance ya down to rescue you, but we'll try to not be too rough."

"Yeah... about that... Purge isn't here," says the shrouded beat agent, reaching up and putting a hand on his helmet. "It's just me."

"So we gotta go find Purge in some other evil lair - big deal, we'll still stop you and unbrainwash you here!" calls Spin.

"... No, you don't get it. It's just me. It's been just me this whole time," says the agent... clicking off his holographic helmet, which lets his curly pompadour pop free. "Purge is tied up in a back room. This was all my plan - Purge's plan, to start with, sure, but he was going to put the Incantation in a giant robot and waste it. With my plan, we can bring the Gravillian Empire to its knees with just a single mash of the play button - and actually bring a lasting peace."

"... That's - you're turning a superweapon-grade song on a civilian population, that's-" Chieftain starts to say.

"That's messed up, yo," interrupts Spin, succinctly summing it up instead.

"And I knew you two wouldn't go along with it - you'll thank me later, when all is said and done," says J, holding out his arms and causing twin holographic boomboxes to manifest in them. "Maybe you'll have to thank me from a hospital bed, now, but you'll still never never stop this dance."

The boomboxes blare - explosive harmonies and punishing beat drops as Agent J dashes about the room, and the battle is started!
Ioanna Langstrom      Well, she didn't see that coming.

     Ioanna's eyes widen behind the sunglasses. It was never the villain. It was a well-meaning 'hero.'

     Flashbacks. So many battlefields of selfish Elites deciding the fates of whole worlds. So many 'heroes' doing whatever they could justify because they knew they were 'right.' Superweapons of the highest grades imaginable - the very people who were themselves in control.

     This time, Ioanna isn't playing by the rules. This time, she's not dancing.

     She grabs one of the mirror robots and tears off its chestplate, swinging it up as a shield. One of the color-coded robots gets its arm ripped off into a makeshift club. Hidden behind her sunglasses is a furious will.

     "Go," she says to Blemishine and the Nobles, "I'll cover you."

     It's a tone that brooks no argument as she moves up forward to bring the mirror shield into J's face and force him to fuck up his own inputs for a bit. Probably won't last, but enough to give the other three some time to get used to the rhythm.

     And she'll take as many penalties on herself as she needs to.

     She has the power to stop this from occurring again.
Karlan Nobles Banter happens, and the siblings from Karlan let the Beat Agents and their boss handle the bulk of the initial talking. There's some confusion as the figure talks about Purge's state, and then things start making a bit more sense once J reveals everything.

SilverAsh: "That's not a bad idea, actually. Perha-"
Pramanix: "No."
SilverAsh: "-ps... It may be-"
Pramanix: "Shut up."
SilverAsh: "You really aren't going to cons-"
Pramanix: "Not at all."
SilverAsh: "Mm... Very well. My condolences, Mister J, but you heard what she said."

SilverAsh draws his sword as Pramanix taps her hand on her bell, holding her ritual for a moment. "There's no room to argue for destroying a population. No matter how-" Pramanix shoots an irritated glare at SilverAsh. "-practical it may be. The only one going to a hospital is you!"

And then Pramanix is already on the offensive, calling down a swirling snowstorm as she hops from spot to spot. Clumps of hardened ice build up rapidly in J's path to try and throw him off just in time for SilverAsh to weave between the dropping beats and around Ioanna's raised mirror shield to...

Get uncomfortably close. He's actually not trying to slash or stab him just yet, instead just grabbing at J's hand to try and fool him into a ballroom dancing mood!
Blemishine     "Eh!? You mean you were never...?" Of all the twists and turns that might be expected by this point, this wasn't one of them. He wasn't mind controlled by Purge after all!? That would be a great thing, normally, but the more J goes on about his plan, the more Blemishine's expression shifts towards distress.

    "The end doesn't justify the means, J!" She shouts back as the boomboxes form up, squaring up with her shield and sword with a grimace on her face. "Nobody will be thanking you--especially not yourself! Even if it works, you'll be living with the consequences of what you did for the rest of your life, won't you!?"

    Greater good or not, she's definitely not going to let him do anything to the Empire and its people, or let him become a tragic hero right in front of his fellow Beat Agents. Ioanna creating that opening has the knight rushing forward to close the distance quickly, sampling the deafening boombeat with long strides and her guard risen...!

    Until she also manages to get right up close with their foe. An agile strafe between J and Ioanna right as she backs off has Blemishine holding her blade forward - not to attack, but to release a brief yet radiant flash of light.

    One that'd threaten to blind alone, but Ioanna's mirror shield makes it a two-for-one that'll definitely throw him off hard his game and leave SilverAsh to follow up!
Kale Hearthward "Hmm, I seem to have struck a nerve. Three, two, one, let's dance-" J starts reciting, but doesn't get very far as Ioanna starts shoving her mirror shield into his face, distracting him, and dropping his rhythm and momentum. "What - um, three, two one- wait - get that out of my face! I can't-"

He tries to find the beat again, and succeeds... in stepping into a ballroom waltz, lead by Silverash, which absolutely does not jive with the aggressive melodies his boomboxes are blasting forth. He steps, stumbles, and flinches, in turn, doing the rhythmic equivalent of flailing about wildly, the snow falling from the other half of the duo doing nothing good for him - he has to start high stepping to avoid slipping on ice or getting dragged down in the snowfalls.

The flash of light finally throws him completely off his game. He flinches, turns away from it - only to come face to face with Ioanna's shield again, and another blinding glare. The music itself sputters and dies, and he drops, the boomboxes derezzing.

"The end... does justify the means," he says, on his knees, surrounded by the elites. "We're fighting people who use all sorts of means to fight for *un*-justified ends, every day... You'd understand, if you heard it. The Incantation. I- I was resolved before, but having listened to it, I understand now..."

"... And fortunately for me, I knew well enough to not just rely on my boomboxes. I started a timer, when you all came into this room..."

He trails off.

"... A timer? A timer - for what?" demands Spin.
Ioanna Langstrom      She doesn't need to speak to argue. No, in fact, she won't dignify it with a response. She's heard it too many times for things as pointless as breakups and as grandiose as changing a world. Back then, when no one was willing to stop those conflicts because they were the 'good guys.' Back then, when changing a world meant nothing to the gods who flew above her. She'd admired them for their power, and the just ones for their justice, but the ones like J...the ones like this man...

     No. In her heart she had no need to shout, no need to prove anything, no need to give him what he wanted. He wanted an argument. A bold declaration of justice so he could feel like the hero. He wanted a battle dialogue, to taunt, to mock, to be responded to with statements of soaring heroism that he could denounce because he was the real good guy, he was doing what was right.

     She wouldn't give him that.

     Instead what she gives him is not a single bit of ground even as the lightning strikes her over and over for simply choosing to fail her inputs to mess up his. Over, and over, and over, she takes the blasts, smoking, just as she did last time she engaged in one of these fights.

     A timer.

     She reaches up to her sunglasses. She may not be able to disable the timer but she might be able to find and trace it. The sunglasses pulse once, then twice, light etching itself along the insides of the frames.
Karlan Nobles With the dance concluded, SilverAsh's top button closed after getting quite messed up with that combat balldancerooming, and Pramanix's brain still reeling from the images placed in her brain and also getting bombarded with music, the revelation of a hidden thing has the pair grimacing at the possibilities.

Pramanix: "What could it...? Oh no. A bomb!"
SilverAsh: "A bomb?"
Pramanix: "It has to be! Think about it. Something remote controlled, on a timer..."
SilverAsh: "But wouldn't that just destroy his device?"
Pramanix: "... Right."

As they puzzle over what it is that J's set a timer for, the pair start to scooch around to try and actually find the thing. SilverAsh, being the one that's actually observant about shit, starts poring through the auditorium/arena while Pramanix heads right on back to Ioanna and Blemishine.

"Hmm. Thinking time, everybody! If I was going to hide something with a timer while keeping everyone distracted down here and didn't want to risk it getting destroyed in the crossfire, where would I put the thing?" Pramanix asks aloud as she starts tapping her bell against her hand idly, circling around J a few times before turning to her Paladin allies. "I don't suppose either of you can fly and check higher places, could you?" She asks, then glances at the floor. "Or... Dig very quickly?"

It's a guess. Afterwards, she squats in place to make eye contact with J.

"Mister J. Please. We know you must have had good intentions for all this, but you aren't the only person fighting for these people." She gestures at Spin and Chieftain. "Do you think your allies would be able to rest easy knowing that their friend had turned a superweapon against civilians? Or if your people knew that this was done against regular people just like themselves?"

SilverAsh glances back once at J, making a vaguely 'yeah probably' look at him, then turns away quickly just before Pramanix looks over at him with a suspicious squint.
Blemishine     With the fall of the music and J taking a knee, Blemishine comes to a twirly stop, hopeful that it'll all be done there - hopeful, but not quite naive enough to think it'd really be that easy. A feeling that is very quickly proven right, as her raised guard is lowered somewhat to blink in surprise.

    "You didn't set that timer for the Incantation, did you...?" She /really/ hopes not, but the possibility is bad enough that if that is the case, there's no telling what could happen. Actually, he didn't tell them exactly how he planned to use it, did he? Purge was going to install it on something, but 'a single mash of the play button'...no matter what the case is, they need to work fast.

    "...Anyone who calls themselves a Beat Agent shouldn't use that kind of logic, Agent J. That's...that's just an excuse, justifying terrible actions with terrible actions. If a song of freedom taught you that, it must be even worse than I thought." That curt statement is all she'll give J herself; better to leave that to Pramanix.

    She might not be able to fly (merely jump good) or dig, but with Ioanna pointing out the speakers and their points with the walls, she doesn't have to spend time locating them herself. "On it!" On such short notice, she has to get a bit creative - but when you have a blade of light that can slice through hard material with relative ease and a very sturdy shield, it's not too difficult at all a task. She may or may not be fast enough to get each and every one of them, but she'll certainly try.
Kale Hearthward Ioanna traces the timer - it's connected to the walls.

To speakers, in the walls.

Speakers pointing inwards. Inwards towards the group.

Blemishine starts striking at them - there's a lot of them, and they're hidden, so Ioanna needs to point them out first, which takes more time. Whoever set them up wanted to make *very sure* that they don't get taken out before they deliver their musical payload.

"Not... going to argue," says J. "Once you hear-"

He doesn't get to finish. Nobody gets to finish. There's a burst of electricity and feedback as the speakers fire up-
Kale Hearthward The song starts.

It's a wall of poppy, upbeat, unintelligible noise. The speakers aren't calibrated with anyone's aural comfort level in mind - they're calibrated to make sure that the song gets heard, period - even with most of the speakers missing. At this volume, at least some of it entirely bypasses ears, even, being carried through vibrations in the floor, in bodies, in bones...

... in DNA.

Something is happening. Some alchemy beyond simply noise - beyond instrumentals and vocals and the space between the notes. It's a message, carried in the song. It's a message, and a question, both carried in the song.

The message is one that some might find familiar from their adolescences, the growing phase where you're finding your place in the world, like water sloshing about to fill its container - and coming up against the walls of its container, pressing up against them, feeling where it can't expand. It's a message of diaries with locks, of stickers declaiming the legality of skateboards, of messages passed in class.

Of the feeling of stretching your legs for the first time, of getting a first vehicle, or a living space all of your own, or just no longer having someone looking over your shoulder.

... Of the feeling of learning that bad things do happen to good people. That real life rarely if ever wraps itself up as cleanly as the movies portray. That the set of rules you're told to go by aren't universal, or consistent, or sometimes even true.

Of the feeling of learning that there actually is not such a thing as a permanent record.

It's a rough message, and an un-nuanced one, and an unsubtle one - but it is loud, and it is omnipresent in this enclosed space - like an angry crowd all yelling it at you all at once.

And the question that it comes with is a simple one. Like the message, it's not in words, but it's innately understandable. It asks - do you resonate with this feeling of rebellion? Do you want to hang onto it? Do you want to let this feeling shape you, bolster you, carry you onward?

                            Resonate with the song?                            
                                    YES / NO                                    
Karlan Nobles They had been such good kids. Inseparable, really, especially after their parents died. It wasn't easy by any means, but he made sure to do whatever it took to keep them safe, and they did whatever they could to help ease his burdens at the manor. The three of them, always together in spirit, even if they couldn't be together physically. Even if they didn't know what it was that was always trying to force them apart.

Alas, bad things do happen to good people, and good people do bad things, but do they become bad people? Objectively, pretty much yes, and that's exactly what happened. She got injured, infected, put on a time limit that would always be present. She took upon a new title, forced into a duty she never asked for, knowing that true freedom would forever be out of reach. He became distant, colder, more ruthless, all those things that would probably make for a good tragic hero like J sought to become with his efforts.

Well, aside from the fact that he never actually died and has just kept going.

That message of rebellion does not go unheeded. Rather, it's one that they're already following despite everything that's happened. He's fought to protect them, even within the limits of his titles. He's broken past those limits, basically becoming a warlord for their sake (and somewhat for his own). She's served her people, but she's never been the ideal follower of the rules she's taught. Do as I say and all that.

That's why she joined the Watch in the first place, looking for a place to rebel against her own upbringing and the expectations of someone with her title. That's why he went with her there, turning his back on always playing the political game of pleasing all his enemies and actually just cherry-picking whatever's convenient at the moment.

            Resonate with the song?
                [YES] / NO
Ioanna Langstrom      Oh, it's seductive. It's such a seductive tone. It's the tone that says 'give up your responsibilities. Pass them onto someone else and do what you want to do - what you want to think is right. Do what you want. Be what you want.' It's a seductive tone that she's whispered over and over and over to herself in the dead of night as she stared at the ceiling with her hands spread wondering if she had been in this life too long, if she had given up too much to stay in it, if she had passed over too many opportunities. If Ioanna Langstrom, Soldier, was an eternal identity. Was it even doing the right thing?

     That was the problem, wasn't it? The Watch, the Paladins, probably even the Concord - everyone believed they were doing the right thing, and that, too, is seductive. The idea that the right thing is something you just...know. That it's something you can force on other people.

     God.

     At night her fingers would close around that idea while Shinji slept next to her and she'd think, how easy would it be to just go be an academic? How easy would it be to be a consultant? A diplomat? All kinds of things? How easy would it be to...

     ....but she never could.

     She was too afraid. Eight years of her life had been dedicated to being a soldier. The training, the instincts, the survivor's guilt, the anger, the desire to do more, all were burned into her, branded on her soul. If she took it off, who would be left? Ioanna the...extremely stiff, uncomfortably military academic? Ioanna the overly-professional aide? Ioanna, Mother? God, no. Never.

     She wanted to listen to the song so badly.

     So badly.

     But her fingers twitch, because she's just too scared to do it, and she's too angry at J, and so instead she shows her support for his ideals of True Freedom by kicking him in the face as hard as she can for JRPG Spike Damage.

     True Freedom means doing whatever you want to do. And bad things happen to good people. And it turns out bad things can happen to bad people, too.

     So she stomps on him again. And again. And again. And again. Her boots are a lethal weapon but he's an Elite. He'll probably survive it as she smashes her foot into his back in a very unprofessional display.

     This is what he wants to wake up.

     So he'll get it.

                            RESONATE WITH THE SONG?                            
                                YES/NO/[KIND OF]                                
Blemishine     "I wasn't fast enough!?" That's all Blemishine, wincing, can get out before the speakers she couldn't reach fire full blast. It stops her in her tracks, threatens to make her stumble and lose her footing from the intense vibrations, and forces her to brace herself against a section of wall. This must be the song...! It...

    It really does strike deep.

    It is simultaneously a very familiar and yet a not so familiar one at the same time. To the young Maria Nearl, who lived in a world of storybook knighthood and fantasy, it'd have actually been unthinkable. Her own adolesence was one where such things would have never come to mind at all. A wonderful and shining world that, until her sister's exile and all the time it took to understand her actions, there was no place or reason for this kind of feeling.

    But to the older one, the one in the now who has experienced hardship, of striking out into the bigger world, of awful things happening to amazing people...

    ...Of reality rarely reflecting those fantastic worlds...

    She can understand it. It's no wonder that Agent J changed on hearing it. It really does speak of pure, unfiltered freedom and rebellion. Does it speak to her? Does it resonate with her at her deepest level...?

                                    YES / NO                                    
                                      YES?                                      
                                      NO?                                      

    Her answer comes in the form of willing herself into stabbing her sword into the nearest functioning speaker, and then using that leverage to help force herself back to a unsteady stand, face still contorted in a tight-lipped wince. "Freedom like that...maybe there needs to be a little more of it in the world...but as a knight...and a Nearl...!" She jams the blade around in the machinery for good measure.

    "...I can't...accept it in this form! Even if it's tempting, that'd be betraying what I am...and I already have something carrying me on!"
Kale Hearthward ...

....

The song continues. Whether you resonated, or didn't, or kind of resonated, in that moment... whatever your choice, that moment has passed.

And the song is now just a song. The melody is upbeat, peppy, and has lyrics that don't translate well - and no attempts to make you resonate with it. Maybe you've been inoculated. The song continues playing on repeat, a bit quieter for Blemishine's actions, until someone disables the rest of the speakers: https://youtu.be/eJOizZWp-MY

J looks like he wants to say something. Or wanted to say something. Ioanna taking out her frustration mid-song has rendered him incapable of little more than groans.

"... Well..." says Spin. "I feel... fine?"

"It's... the sort of thing that I can see causing the lay person to take to the streets," says Chieftain.

Taking to the streets sounds pretty good right now. Something uncomplicated, against a facist regime that's doing something awful like baking people into pies, or something.

Now that the chaos of the battle and the chaos of the Inkantation are done with - it looks like there's a control room up ahead, for those that go looking. There's a control terminal - with a <play symbol> lit up in the center of the touchscreen, just waiting for someone to mash it.
Karlan Nobles To do what's 'best' for some kind of broader population. To always pick the 'optimal' choice. Something like what J did probably would be an optimal choice for the people he's chosen to be the beneficiaries of his decision, and neither of the siblings can blame him for wanting to do it. In another timeline, they might have even joined him if he just had better PR for what he did.

Right now, though, being selfish doesn't sound half bad. They get up from their hunched over positions, getting their bearings straight before realizing that J's been a little stomped down and Blemishine's been going at the walls for a good while.

SilverAsh: "I'd be surprised if the lay person could accomplish even a fraction of this on their own."
Pramanix: "Maybe not alone, but as a group... It's not so impossible-sounding."
SilverAsh: "Stupid people in large groups, right?"
Pramanix: "I didn't say it like that!"

With J's opposition stopped, however, there's little preventing the siblings from looking towards their allies, then proceeding into the control room. They take some time to look around, and then...

They step away from the control panel. Instead, Pramanix lets out an overdramatically weary sigh, and SilverAsh just closes his eyes to focus on listening.

Pramanix: "The rest of you should do the honors here. I just wanted to keep my head down when that whole ceremony was happening in the first place."
SilverAsh: "You're just waiting for a chance to break something, aren't you?"
Pramanix: "No! ... Maybe a little. Do we really need this machine after all this?"
SilverAsh: "That could be disastrous, you know. We don't know what other failsafes J might have put in here."
Pramanix: "Oh, it'll be fine. If there really is another one, then it'll be more exciting when it happens!"

Pramanix is already reaching into her bag to get her bashing pipe out.
Ioanna Langstrom      Ioanna pauses.

     There is a long, clear moment where she's hesitating.

     Then, "I'm not going to stop you if I'm not ordered to, ma'am," she says to Pramanix, looking at Blemishine for Orders To The Contrary.

     Not because she thinks Blemishine should order her otherwise but because she has to leave herself the wiggle room.
Blemishine     Blemishine waits. She waits. She waits a bit longer, with tightened muscles.

    When she realizes the song is now (seemingly) much more innocuous, most of her tension exits her body in the form of an incredibly heavy sigh and tugging her weapon out of the ruined speaker. To say her guard is entirely down would be a lie, but it doesn't seem like the song of freedom will be affecting them any further than it already has.

    "I...think I'm okay, too? I don't really want to imagine what'd happen if that got out though..." Beat. "It actually is kind of catchy! ...But I think I like it better when the volume is down."

    She takes a moment to look at how thrashed the surrounding walls are, and then at J himself, with another wince solely for his foot-pummeled face. She...should probably heal that when they take him in. Probably. She'd kind of feel bad if she didn't. Ioanna is very, very good at what she does.

    Speaking of Ioanna, after meeting back up with everyone the knight shares a glance with her, briefly points to herself as if to say 'wait, me?' and then looks back at Pramanix, with a bead of sweat dropping down the side of her face at the thought of the saintess keeping a pipe in there at all times.

    And then, with a great big eyes-closed smile, she clasps her hands together a little too energetically. "Well, if Purge really is tied up somewhere back here, someone better find him! I'll leave the machine to you guys!"

    And that's exactly what she's going to head off to do. Pramanix is cleared for bashing.
Karlan Nobles Pramanix: "Well, that's that. You heard the ladies. Will you be joining in?"
SilverAsh: "No, no, I'll leave that to you. You... Hm."

Ioanna gives an implicit okay, and Blemishine gives a slightly less implicit okay. That's good enough for Pramanix to get the rest of that pipe out, ringing her bell a few times to add to its bulk until she's basically using it like the handle for a much larger sledgehammer. There's some mild concern evident on SilverAsh's face as Pramanix gets right to bashing things!

For the good of the people, of course. She's definitely not having fun just putting her back into swinging a solid blunt object at other solid objects, and she's most certainly not letting off some steam from having her head messed with or from the general stress of always having to be 'on' for people at home.

Even SilverAsh gets into it after a little while, grasping his scabbard and holding it out while waving it lightly at Pramanix as some kind of signal. She seems confused at first, but shrugs and grants him a solid chunk of ice to swing around, and the siblings just start treating the whole machine like part of a larger wreck room.

She gets to work out the physical anxiety and just turn her brain off, he gets to play at being a hero for once. It really is a therapeutic experience.