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Merelisa Shaynore     It's about twenty minutes after the expected start time for Mao's concert, and the crowd is a little antsy. The local Capella A organizers tried to nervously calm them down and explain that there's been some 'technical difficulties' but Mao is surely on her way out soon, but there's an additional audience member that all of Mao's roped-in assistants can feel even before exiting backstage. The Crystallulon's impatient stomps shake the entire cave and cause shrieks from the rest of the spectators, but so far it's still waiting rather than rampaging.

    By now, your preparations are as good as they'll be. The road trip experience of listening to every one of Mao's songs on loop turns out to be a secret trump card that helps Lala run through the accompanying dances that much quicker for everyone joining Mao on stage, because the beats and lyrical flow are all already familiar. Roland and Sougo have the help of the handful of stressed fish-scaley alien cooks who bothered showing up, and can grab vendor carts to distribute whatever snacks they make into the crowd if they want. Hikaru slips away with Yuma and Natsuki to a side room backstage to open up a wormhole for Natsuki's hired Yakuza to pour through, since otherwise there'd be no warpgate for them to arrive through. Yuma swaps her groucho glasses for a pair of sunglasses to better fit in with the Yakuza, and hops onto one of their shoulders to be carried into the venue with the tide.

    Mao swoops back around to pick up her backup dancers after a brief diversion to catch the local organizers up. She's as saccharinely goofy about it as ever, tongue-out and winking and all, but from the sounds of it, she convinced the staff to allow you all to help, and especially enable Natsuki to boss them around with replacement-Doramus authority. With a ten minute aside, she wrangled the tatters of the lighting, sound, and crowd control departments to be wielded however they see fit. Lala seems to consider this completely natural ("As expected of Mao, lun!"), and Hikaru is too frustrated with not being as familiar with the choreography as Lala is and getting bored with it.

"Hikaru, you're falling behind here because of not bouncing your knee up on the beat, lun."
"Uuuuughhh, but I'll get it *next* time, so can't we just move on?"
"You don't want to mess up when we're performing with Mao, lun!"
"Ehhh... true, but we're running out of time...."
"Right, oyo... then just one more try."
"Got it, sensei!"

    Then it's either out onto the stage, for the dancers, or around the back to filter into the stadium seating, for the supporting figures-- or even into the backstage technician's room, for helping with the stage production. When the lights finally dim to announce Mao's arrival to the stage, the thousands of multicolored aliens in the stands go wild, cheering and whooping and waving their magenta Mao-themed glowsticks excitedly. Taking out a center slice of the stadium seating set up inside the sparkling cave is the Crystallulon, awake and agitated for the performance set up to appease it specifically. The giant dragon-turtle-like kaiju knocked over the offering vault set out at its feet in its bouncing anticipation for Mao, and now the Stellar Note is lying in a pile of gold and other things around the monster-- probably you could run over and grab it at any time, but would angering the Crystallulon in a crowd of civilians really be worth it?
Merelisa Shaynore     It roar blends in surprisingly well with the swell of noise from the crowd when a singular spotlight shines down to reveal Mao, glittering and waving with both hands in her star-themed idol outfit. The crystalline protrusions out of its gemlike shell also match up well with the glowsticks in the crowd-- they shift with the color of the spotlights, right now thematically magenta like the Crystallulon is joining in with the idol fan fever. As the cheering dies down, Mao stops her waving and clasps her fists together in a heart shape beneath her chin, looking out with her pleading green eyes across the audience.

    "Thank mew sooooo much for waiting, everynyan~!!!! I hope you aren't too nyangry with little old meow for the delay, are you, nya?"

    The thunderous reassurance of ''''WE AREN'T, MAO!'''' from the audience elicits an innocently reassured smile with her eyes closed and one paw held up to her heart, like the idol was sincerely worried about their response. Lala, standing in position on stage behind her, mouths the same as the audience, eyes sparkling.

    "Then before we start, how about we all give a biiiiig callmeout to our very very special VIP guest~?!" With a sweep of her hand, she indicates the Crystallulon, and everyone cheers, much to the kaiju's apparent prideful delight. "I'm soooo excited to be able to purrform for you today, Crystallulon!"

    Hold on... there are some *non*-purple glowsticks throughout the crowd, when you look closer. Some of those spots of light are... orange and blacklight radiation? And they're being passed out by-- the Nottraiders in their grey and purple suits?!

"W-wait--! Look up in front...!"

    Where Hikaru points, before the lights fully go up to signal the start of the show, is Tenjou lounging in her palanquin supported by four Nottrei, right up in the lawn among the crowd! And Eyewon is right beside her, twirling around a scary-looking glowstick with a orange-glowing black hole in place of a light! And all the people who get handed them to wave around look like they've turned into zombies, with dull eyes and a growing darkness building up around them! And Mao... doesn't know who these people are!

    "Okay, everynyan! I'm starting off with 'Shooting Star Scratches~!"
Lilian Rook     §Bratty turtle. You're going to sleep for a hundred years and then throw a tantrum that you have to wait fifteen minutes? I'll slay you. Don't test me.§

    Lilian is, as always, tremendously aware of the clock, though without a clear deadline, every minute ticking into overtime is just an indistinct, bleary stressor. The Crystallulon throwing a stompy tantrum tells her a lot about its expected behaviour and intelligence, meanwhile, frazzling everyone backstage, and does a lot to anti-endear it to her. It turns out not everything that looks kind of cute in the Starscape Galaxy is a friend. Sometimes it's just another shitty dragon.

    God it's always dragons, isn't it?

    'Thank mew sooooo much for waiting, everynyan~!!!! I hope you aren't too nyangry with little old meow for the delay, are you, nya?'
    ''''WE AREN'T, MAO!''''

    §Christ. Perhaps I should look into an idol career.§

    'W-wait--! Look up in front...!'

    Lilian is on stage with Tamamo and the girls, and so she is thoroughly constrained in what she can say or do, even with everyone looking at Mao instead anyways, but maybe someone sees her eye twitch. She kind of expected the Nottraiders at this point, but she'd expected them to crash through the metaphorical skylight and deliver a villainous speech, not sit smugly in the audience waving off-brand evil glowsticks! Somehow, that kind of pisses her off!

    Between 'leaving it all up to Roland' and 'revealing herself to be a psychic alien to Hikaru and Lala', Lilian narrowly picks the second option; the third (start loudly talking about it on stage) is totally unacceptable. It already takes all her effort not to give the Crystallulon a foul look for its apparent self-absorbed ignorance to the zombified audience, proudly sitting around as the big hanging threat that's going to enforce their respect, make them work around it, and do their best to stick to schedule anyways. Having--

    No don't get jealous of the kaiju. That's weird.

    §Everyone. We can't interrupt the show for them, and they know it. Those of you in the audience are going to have to handle it directly. I can relay instructions to the backstage crew, but I expect all Elites out front. Everyone on-stage has to stay there; Mao performing her full routine is our victory condition, so consider her the VIP.§

    'Okay, everynyan! I'm starting off with 'Shooting Star Scratches~!"'

    §I can still run tactical intervention from up here, so don't risk destroying the glowsticks or engaging in open combat. Indicate any and all material for pickup, targets of opportunity, reinforcements, or developments, through local-- I suppose you'll just have to think it very hard.§
Timespace Riders      Woz takes to the practice like a natural. He is an encouraging presence, offering not only advice but reinforcement, which is quite unusual for him--maybe he's more forgiving when it comes to Hikaru and Lala? It's *after* the practice, when he comes to terms with both the size of the audience and the importance of the performance that he's out of his element.

    "This is the largest number of revelers I have ever ministered to," he intones with intimidated gravity. "I pray I shall do justice for Mao's routine and your hard work at practice." He inclines his head respectfully towards Hikaru and Lala, takes a steadying breath and keeps his balance during the Crystallulon's stomping anticipation.

W-wait--! Look up in front...!

    Woz narrows his eyes and scans the crowd, his gaze following Hikaru's accusing point. "They have struck at a most inopportune time," he utters.

    The retainer's futuristic, battle-hardened phone buzzes.

    "Woz, out in the crowd!" Sougo pauses in pushing his concession cart to warn Woz.

    "I see them, sire. No doubt they intend to ruin the performance for the audience and our 'VIP.'"

    "Then you'd better stay up there and dance! We'll handle them down here."

Okay, everynyan! I'm starting off with 'Shooting Star Scratches~!
Everyone on-stage has to stay there; Mao performing her full routine is our victory condition, so consider her the VIP.

    Woz hangs up, stows the phone in his scarf and stands in the opening position for the number. He'll dance for the very salvation of this concert.

    Meanwhile, Sougo, Tamamo and Roland hatch a plan. He's all smiles as he moves the concession cart alongside Roland, waving to members of the crowd and acting as if he doesn't notice the effects of the ominous orange-black glowsticks. ("I'm sure it's fine!") He's winding a deliberate path to Tamamo, and when he reaches her, that's when he signals for Roland to toss him the glowstick, with one of his distinctive exuberant waves.

     And... he acts as if he's surprised by the glowstick toss, taking a dive as he backs up to catch it. Falling on his back does hide him momentarily by flattening his profile against the ground, concealing him in the midst of excited, standing concertgoers.

    Sougo gently taps Tamamo's foot with one hand, offering her the glowstick with the other. "Here," he says.

     Behind Tamamo, another Sougo appears, -also- on his back, with a sheaf of paper in one hand, and a completed set of notes in Tamamo's handwriting in the other.

     "Just concentrate as best you can," says Future!Sougo. "Don't be afraid to put it off until tomorrow if things get too hairy. Oh! Almost forgot." He offers her a pen, too, then disappears in a flash of pink light.

     "Hey! Roland!" says the sole remaining Sougo as he stands up. "How's my shirt?" he turns and shows Roland his back. There's a massive grass stain on it.
Angela Roland has spent a fair while conversing with the fish-scaley aliens about local City cuisine and has inquired about their own while working. He has prepared kimchi pancakes and popcorn chicken--essentially--from the materials he was able to procure and he seems to be enjoying himself. Angela has gone quiet and sullen at the end of her last conversation and is barely giving Roland or Malkuth, who has helped with outfits, any direction.

"So Angela," He asides to the pad while they're working. "Helping these kids, does that also help your plan on getting out of that Library?243,") Roland asks.

"No, not at all."

"Oh--...just doing this out of the goodness of your heart?" Roland suggests.

"...No." Angela's grip on the book she's reading, apparently one of many tomes of Elibe history.

"...Oh then...Why?"

"None of your business, Roland." Angela says. "You shouldn't act like we are friends unless you mean it."

Roland frowns. "Because of the--"

"Focus on your work, Roland."

Roland takes that as the sign that pestering Angela time is done and he heads out with Sougo and THE FOOD. Malkuth is a little slower to head out because she had to do actual costume work and that means she had to be extra careful with any adjustments and sewing she got through.

And then... zombie idol fans! And... Nottriders?

"It'd be insane to actually start a fight like this." Malkuth says to Roland.

"Sougo and I are cooking something--man the snacks while I try something, arright?" Roland says before skulking through the crowd. They are zombies but he's going to have to avoid an immediate sightline on the Nottriders so they don't pick him out of the crowd and try to interrupt the layup he's trying to offer Sougo here.

Lilian isn't really his boss but there's really nothing there that isn't completely reasonable and he's glad that someone is taking charge since he barely knows what's going on and he hasn't burned out his soul enough yet that he wants to see people who showed up to just enjoy a concert to get turned into zombies, eaten by kaiju, or whatever else the Nottriders might have planned.

As he gets closer to one of the fans waving a zombie glowstick--he senses the ''Darkness''. But he's comfortable in the Dark, the only thing he has to do is be quick once he moves so he doesn't get pulled into it hismelf. And just to be extra safe, her pulls on some gloves before he reaches out, intending to snag the glowstick with one hand, swap it with a normal glowstick with the other, and then fling the Enemy Glowstick into the air so Sougo can, hopefully, catch it. He said he'd catch it! Roland's willing to trust him on that. "Ah shoot I partied too hard, watch out!" He says as he lets it fly.
Tamamo NOW:

    'W-wait--! Look up in front...!'

<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Oh, no...! Look, there!"
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Someone is distributing something strange, and those taking it seem unhealthy. I might have a curative, but if they are not separated..."
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "If you can quickly reach me, I can pass along protective talismans... but providing them for so many people would be difficult. Creating a warded area would be better, but without knowing what it is they aim to do..."

    On stage, even with the first song seconds away, Tamamo frantically plans, wondering whether a generically-targeted magical defense will even work against this mysterious Nottraider plan. It's not like she can go down there and study it. It would ruin the set!

<J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa says, cryptically, "Could you do it if you had enough time? A day? A week?"
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Even that would not be enough. Ah, but if I had one of those sticks they are passing out, as well... in that case, a week would be more than twice enough, I imagine."

    As long as she doesn't have to go down there, herself, to get it. The effect is obvious even from this far away, and it's something prepared in bulk, so it could hardly be some subtle puzzle to unravel.

<J-IC-Scene> Roland says, "You need one of the evil glowsticks?"
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Yes, just so -- if I had time to look at it more closely. Ah, but we are about to begin the number...!"
<J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa says, "That's okay, Tamamo. If Roland can get you the glowstick, and you start taking notes now, I can bring back whatever you've finished from after you've already studied it. All you'd need to do is set aside some time to look it over so that... you know. There's something for me to bring back."
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Oh, I see! In that case..."
Roland says, "Arright, I'll lend you a hand Sougo. Though uh. If it's from the future it might be out of juice yeah?"
<J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa says, "The glowstick? Probably. But Tamamo's notes won't be!"
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Seeing one 'fresh' would be best, of course. I should have a few moments between numbers -- simply, do not be late."

    That's what she has to bank on, in any case. For now...

    'Okay, everynyan! I'm starting off with 'Shooting Star Scratches~!'

    All smiles and carefully choreographed -- as much as their very short time allowed -- motion, Tamamo waits for her cue to begin, letting attention focus onto Mao before she, Lilian, Hikaru, Lala, and Woz are called in to support it. A moment early, and they'd be more likely a distraction.

    It realy wasn't much time to practice. But, that's fine.

EARLIER:

    'Hikaru, you're falling behind here because of not bouncing your knee up on the beat, lun.'

    Tamamo dutifully bounces her knee up on the beat.

    "We should do the best we can, but if things get difficult, remember... everyone wants to see you do your best. They do not wish to see you do 'something perfect, or nothing at all.' If you are just a tiny bit off, those imperfections are what m-- what people wish to see, in fact, when they know there is 'a person' giving a performance." She speaks with such confidence, despite being entirely new to idol performances. Probably entirely new.
Tamamo     A LITTLE LATER:

    Tamamo is reaching down to pick up a glowstick Sougo offers her. She only has a few moments, while attention is focused on Mao, and the crowd roars its appreciation, preparing for the next number. She only needs a few moments, drawing subtle symbols in the air with one hand, a long-practiced magecraft for discerning a potentially dangerous artifact's nature. She'll keep this fresh impression in mind, for later.

    THAT MUCH LATER:

    Tamamo takes the old glowstick, in the familiar confines of her workshop, and prepares her tools. Sheafs of blank papers are near her, the ink elsewhere, ready to be made into protective talismans. What kind of thing she'll make, she isn't entirely sure. It depends on her examination.

    In a few days, she knows, a Sougo who has not yet seen her work will arrive, and she'll pass the bundled gear back to him, either to plant warding talismans around the audience and create a field in which the glowstick will not function, or to create some artifact to cure its effects. She won't be -- wasn't -- able to pay much attention to how she solved the issue, being busy with the dance number.
Natsuki Nuki LAST TIME. . .

Natsuki Nuki, sleeves rolled up and postured leaned in, looked up at the tail-swaying and turn-traipsing form of the Galactic Idol, Mao. For a moment, though, they're eyes on intense.

'Mao's worth quite a lot to a lot of curious cats, nya? Purrobably, worth more to Lord Doramus than to mew, but then, I have my cute fans to count in the equation, too. And the meowthematics breaks down, if I count myself.'

"It's not good for you to consider relative value." Natsuki chides, with Mao being able to daring hold the gaze of both head and tail. And the dare is... "If Doramus values you more relatively or absolutely than I do, what's that value to you, Mao? Really. Your fans - the ones who love your art, and not your media blitz - will find you again even if you have to re-brand. It's about what set of hands will pull back harder on the tension bands that hold you, and shoot your star the farthest on the right trajectory."

Her hands open, spread out while sitting, wide in their graciousness. "That's the secret. That's all this ever is. Not who'll value you the most, but how far you'll *go* with them."

Her look darkens, but not *at* Mao. Around her, around something she says. "If you aren't thinking about yourself, you'll never 'price that in' right. Trust me." Demands the cursed spirit.

'I think mew could do everything better than that Doramus ever has. But there's one widdle thing he has that mew might not,'

Awaiting what that is, the Nue raises a brow and lifts the rise of her eyemask on one side. "And that is?" She rumbles darkly, expectant. The 'this better be good' is implied. And, of course, Mao doesn't disappoint.

'And that's a reeeaaaallll short cattention span. So you don't mind putting off the papurrwork until after the concert, do mew?'

Puffing out a snort that drops her chin and breaks her dire focus, Natsuki bursts into big hyoo-hyoo-hyoos of laughter that fall into tweetlechirping amusement. "Fine. If you're pricing in 'freedom' for Mao, we can put off all that negotiation for *after* the concert."

EARLIER. . .

They only had a short amount of time to prepare for the concert, and Natsuki's goons didn't have a lot of lead time, but what they did have is a ruthless efficiency of people paid so comfortably they are at a careermaking sprint. Soon, faster than any charter warpgate services and just-in-time courier sprint deliveries, Yuma and Lala open a portal backstage to let a box truck with Osakan plates a whole mess of techs and toughs arrive on the alien planet and pull in with a whole extra crew of grips, technical staff, lighting operators, and reams of equipment.

When Natsuki had called her brother, Takeshi had moved at a sprint to cancel and reschedule a different concert at the last minute and commandeer the entire setup into trucks, crew and all, to send them into space. Upon arrivals, the hardened idol industry workers barely reacted at the alien environment with comments like 'oh, these conditions' and complaints of 'messed up plugs', quickly unpacking support sound and light equipment while tough types in collared shirts and slicked back hairstyles did 'crowd management' and 'security'.
Natsuki Nuki Natsuki, knowing it wasn't going to work if she just *took over* Mao's concert, rebased her operation to the interior monitor/mastering room with a thumbs up to Lala and Yuma, ordering around her goons and 'promoting' several of Mao's leads into temporary lieutenants so they could boss around their new fully staffed and equipped teams. They didn't have the time to perfectly integrate the extra help into a bigger production, but Natsuki's goons and grips could evaporate all the preshow problems with alacrity and the help of many hands.

'Hiding' backstage and grinning while enjoying the best parts of anticipation, she hears the dragon turtle's complaints and cracks a smirk. "That's right, that's right... Let the anticipation build to almost breaking, and that's when it's sparklers go -- lights up center stage -- and. . ." Natsuki purrs, as the extra spotlights and effort bring more highlight to Mao in the live venue than some interior shows and muted explosions of bright colored Mao confetti burst out into the crowd with tinsel streamers to drive up the excitement even further.

The roar of the crowd is all the indication Natsuki needs, relaxing into things.

MEANWHILE. . .

Takeshi Nuki, who looks like a brick of a guy with slicked back dark brown hair and a light tan jacket and pants over a black shirt, wears both the put-upon effect of a serious-hard customer and a bit of a desperate-youngest ripple streak through his ice cream. He's not especially tall, but for some reason the crowd isn't as bad for him as usual. He wears an earpiece in one ear, a fancy jade and gold three-dot leaf pin on his lapel, and a glowing blorb of a Yuma on his shoulder, wearing a large pair of groucho glasses and a Mao blue merch bandanna on as further disguise.

"Huh." Takeshi chuffs, his bluster falling to a 'finally getting to relay to a baby sister' admittance-tone. "I like idol concerts too." He confirms, chomping on a meat-stick snack before hearing a whole heck of a lot of trouble in his earpiece that was getting blared over by Mao and crowdnoises.

Unfortunately, he was also close enough to see a Nottrei greysuit goon handing out one of the black hole sticks and turning an Energized Idol Enjoyer into a zombie!

Checking his new stellar baby sister groucho shoulder friend, Takeshi decides that once again *discretion* is the better part of valor and starts trying to avoid the gang while Yuma's resting on his shoulder. Unfortunately he's obvious as hell, being an idiot nuki-masked brick of a guy in a jacket in the middle of an idol concert.
Merelisa Shaynore     The first song that Mao performs is a peppy opening beat, with lots of glittery synthesized notes. As the first notes start to play, Lala and Hikaru lock eyes, and nod in sync at each other with Lala's determined 'Lun!'. Mao sweeps her arm up and around, signalling all the other backup dancers to get ready, and then the first choreographed gesture of fingers striking down diagonally across your bodies like twinkling stars matches time with her pickup note lyrics.

    Given that she's the one singing, you might expect that Mao's own lead dance is less involved than the blisteringly high energy of the backup choreography, but it's not. She twirls across the stage with incredibly precise steps and arm motions while singing her heart out, doing crowd work for the fans nearby the stage as she skips over to them-- it's all very very cutesy, with winks and holographic blown kisses, and the audience of mostly teenaged alien girls absolutely eats it up. It's obvious Mao is really into it too, as she keeps adding unscripted flourishes in response to what the crowd reacts to, ending the song with a heart formed from her hands held in front of her chest, aimed towards the Crystallulon to its trumpeting approval.

    The ending pose for the backup dancers in 'Shooting Star Scratches' is one that was inevitable, given Mao's theming. Paws curled, one foot kicked out behind, with an adooooorable head tilt and wink for maximum audience catgirl points. Hikaru and Lala hold this pose while both breathing heavily, talking back and forth to the other dancers during the applause.

"We let Yuma get separated from us right before the Nottraiders appeared!"
"O-oyo--! But we can't bail on Mao now, lun."
"We'll just have to trust in the others to protect her, while protecting our 'VIP'!"
"Lun! I'll keep dancing to defend Mao's performance with my life, lun!"
"Ehehe... not that far, I hope."

"Sougo and I are cooking something--man the snacks while I try something, arright?"

    The Nottraiders are going around the crowd with vendor-style popcorn carriers hanging around their necks, filled with evil black hole glowsticks that they're handing out. The audience members that take them get lethargic and dull-looking, forced to keep waving them, which would make them effortlessly unresistant to Roland snatching them out of their hands, but there's an obstacle! When he tries to approach, a team of four Nottreis slides in between him and his target, arms crossed in front of their chests! They're surprisingly strong with those suits on, and they keep trying to bump and jostle him away from anyone with an evil glowstick.

"Just concentrate as best you can,"

    The crowd in the 'mosh pit' (mostly just rowdy teenagers) up front is too energized to notice Sougo and Tamamo's stunt with even the bare minimum of subtlety. Once Roland manages to slip past the Nottreis and toss a light over to Sougo, he's able to bring back Tamamo's future analyses of the glowstick-- the Calamity Light, as future-Tamamo refers to them. They appear to be drawing from a similar kind of power as the Dark Pen Tamamo looked at before, the sensation of despair, apathy, and hopelessness, but much more dilute to be able to be spread to everyone in the audience. Some sort of ward against negativity might help, but so could *increasing* people's positive feelings!
Merelisa Shaynore     And relatedly, Malkuth's work at handing out snacks immediately demonstrates how. A pair of girls buy a bucket of popcorn chicken and pop it in their mouths, exclaiming "Woooahh-! It's so good!", and then when they do-- their own Mao-glowsticks shine brighter when they wave them for the next song, pushing back the foggy darkness that's building up from the misery-zombified fans.

    But it's not enough...! The rolling darkness starts to spill off of the stadium seating from a particularly dense cluster of Calamity Lights, pooling around the Crystallulon's feet. Afflicted by this ambient substance of anti-hype, it gets distracted from Mao's singing and makes an upset keening noise, stomping its feet. The entire cave shakes, and the multicolor rave glow of the crystals on its back starts to dim, which seems like a very bad sign for the outcome of the concert!

    Tenjou, sitting in her palanquin up front, laughs and fans herself with her giant leaf. "Ohohohoho~ well, if it isn't the Precures' little friends. How kind of you to not resign this battle to an uninspiring sweep while those girls are distracted with their little dance on stage~ but I'm afraid you have no chance. The Calamity Lights that Eyewon developed will send this ritual spiraling into despair, and cloak Capella A in darkness for a hundred years!! Ohohohohoho~!"

    Eyewon is a bit less actively enthusiastic than Tenjou is, but she's twirling one of the black hole glowsticks between her fingers while sitting on the edge of the palanquin, wearing an oversized sweater and kicking her feet. "Yeah, like, it's totally hopeless, lo~osers. This whole thing's freaking stupid anyways. Who wants to put in so much work just so some dumb monster doesn't, like, ruin your whole world every century anyways? I'm, like, doing them a freaking favor by speeding up the process."

    Mao, on stage, clicks her tongue, seemingly more irritated than afraid, but neither one breaks through her impeccable smile. "You're all sooo swee~et for liking that one so much, nya! NyaI'll be doing Cosmic Catnip nyext, are mew all excited?"

    While the crowd cheers, Mao slides one heel back, talking out of the side of her mouth to the Elites on stage with her. "I won't let them ruin meow concert...! They're trying to sow despair, huh? Then nyaI'll just have to--!"

    While the long wind-up for her next song starts playing, Mao paces across the stage and plucks off the big bell hanging around her neck. Doing a bit of fan service, she bats it around in the air while doing some improvised choreography, making sure everyone's eyes are on it, and then smacks it with one paw hard enough to send it sailing into the stands for a lucky person to catch, while everyone in the area scrambles and shouts excitedly. When it lands, the entire section of the seating glows a little brighter from the purple glowsticks, waving them even harder than before.

"Mao's right, lun! We just have to work harder to make everyone happy!"

"I like idol concerts too."

    Yuma is seated on Takeshi's shoulder, with her two little stubby legs poking out, because this gives her a good view of the concert. She adjusts her Yakuza sunglasses with one tendril, fluid-light on her face curiously forming the shape of the three dots on his leaf pin, and makes a synthesized noise of serious agreement.

    ""¯--___."

    But then, disaster strikes! Somehow, Yuma's disguise is good enough for the average citizen to not recognize the Star Drop, but the Nottraiders have their orders to go after her! A squad of them starts shoulders their way through the throngs of people towards Takeshi, trying to surround him and pin him down, so that they can take Yuma right off of his shoulder!
Tamamo TOMORROW:

    With her understanding of both the plan and the workings of the Calamity Light, Tamamo checks her schedule, noting down 'eggs and flour' and 'ask Lilian if she finished that portrait' and 'Tokiwa-san arrives,' and enjoys the moment of being able to make a decision after already knowing she'll make everything work out. She hums a few bars of Cosmic Catnip, and dips her brush in ink.

LATER THAN THAT:

    Dozens of paper strips and now-dry ink, their designs unclear, but with a definite suggestion of a shining cat. The instructions are written last. They're in somewhat archaic Japanese, but with an effort to be clear and -- unusually, for Tamamo -- to the point. There's an abstract, inked map of the music venue, with Xs over particular points, and 'place here,' ending with 'hide, or defend against removal.' The number of talismans is greater than the number of spots on the map -- extras, just in case.

    There's a note for her past self to read, too.
Tamamo NOW:

    Paws curled, one foot kicked out behind, with an adooooorable head tilt and wink for maximum audience catgirl points.

    Tamamo's position and timing are perfect, synchronized to Lilian's to balance the overall pacing of the stage. Only, Tamamo's middle and ring fingers are pressed to her thumbs, and her index and little fingers are extended. How did that happen? She doesn't seem to even notice it, and most of the stage can't see her, either.

    Upbeat energy, at the very least, she has. Dancing around like this is fine, too -- and, unlike Woz, the scale of the stage doesn't seem to have that much effect on her, as opposed to the challenge of having swiftly learned the dance, itself.

    'Who wants to put in so much work just so some dumb monster doesn't, like, ruin your whole world every century anyways? I'm, like, doing them a freaking favor by speeding up the process.'

    But how does that make any sense? It's not like it's any better to curl up and just let bad things happen and ruin your life, just because it's a constant struggle to have a good life. That's a surrender with no concessions in return.

    ...is something like what she might say, if she weren't on stage. Instead, she gives a far quieter response, which Lilian can easily pick up. "I wonder if someone could not have a word with her about the matter of allowing others to party, even if one does not feel like partying, oneself. As well, with the matter of allowing others to fight for their own happiness, even if one feels hopeless."
Timespace Riders We'll just have to trust in the others to protect her, while protecting our 'VIP'!

    "Indeed," says Woz, who stuck to the theme with admirable aplomb. It's hard to imagine him winking, much less pantomiming a cat's paws, but the performance demanded it, and he is nothing if not dedicated to those things he considers his craft. "How fortuitous for Yuma and for Mao that among the 'others' are the best of the best."

Ohohohoho~ well, if it isn't the Precures' little friends.

    Sougo frowns. It figures she saw... I'm really not great at the whole stealth thing.

    "Hi," he says, working his way back into the crowd. "I guess we'll see! I don't expect you to give up, and I won't, either."

I'm, like, doing them a freaking favor by speeding up the process.

    She doesn't look like she's as into this as that lady next to her is.

    "Hi, Eyewon," says Sougo with one of his characteristic waves. He's much more enthusiastic in his greeting for her than for Tenjou. "Nice sweater! I don't have a lot of time to talk, but, you know, century of darkness or not, I hope you'll stick around after the concert! I'm sure Hikaru and Lala would love a chance to talk to you without there being a big fight and everything. I know I would!"

    Up on the stage, Woz smiles brightly and triumphantly, standing proud behind Mao. What good is a backup dancer if he's not thrilled to be there, too? When Mao does her little crowd-pleaser, he works the crowd behind her, pantomiming applause with his hands held above his head.

    "Mao," Woz calls. "Is your sense of balance as immaculate as your dancing?" He holds out his scarf--the garment's neutral color goes well with the sleek, silver space-themed costume he's wearing. "Perhaps..." The size of the crowd dawns on him again after his momentary work with them, and he swallows. Focus! "Perhaps," he says, clearing his throat, "You might try a few steps of the next number *over* the crowd?" The garment bends impossibly upwards in his hand to demonstrate his meaning--he's confident it can support her weight for a flyover of the crowd.

    "Roland," Sougo calls, returning to the food cart. "Malkuth..." Things are still a little awkward between them. He steels himself and adopts a resolved expression. "What do we have for sweets? Chocolates? Maybe that would cheer up some of the people that got given the bad glowsticks!"
Natsuki Nuki In the production booth, Natsuki moves between positions and stations, eagerly gassing up the booth crew and sizzling with backroom arrangement energy. "Alright, good set - smoke machines out, get ready for the next set, and make sure to keep the main levels high, let her just go wild over the backing track. She's working it - let her go in, we'll keep attention better with the raw performance!"

Her guidance sees several yakuza grips run out smoke machines to roll an ephemeral mist down the stage and amp up the tangible effects while giving a little extra material to kick around and pose with that conveniently hid any minor footing mistakes the girls made. Extra effort and special effects made that 'wow' factor smooth over any small flaws, and the mess hadn't made its way backstage yet.

But Eyewon and Tenjou are obvious, and the Nuki siblings' goons all have similar styles and wear the same pins, so the ones in the crowd immediately savvy to the moving Nottrei generals and distribute through the crowds to try and keep things under control or report up. A little goblin in a suit with a satellite phone sitting on a scaffolding starts ratting out the positions of the Nottrei vendors to his boss and Roland, and so Natsuki catches wind of the pair and starts swearing.

"Oh this is going to be a show of *sh--" She gets out, before things cut away to...

Takeshi, who pushes through the crowd firmly as they go wild at the end of Shooting Star Scratches, can move through people with some ease by size, but it's not stealthy. Satisfied at least that his job is protecting the most precious thing - not just for his older sisters, but for everyone, and getting to enjoy some of his favorite pass-time too?

There was no way he'd fail when it was just a few guys. Losing to his family was one thing - but this was more than 'family business'.

"Heh, nice job with my leaf there." He comments, the tanuki totem leaf of his design featuring three 'dot' holes at the tip of the leaf, and both wings. "Once Natsuki brought back Mao CDs from some auction I've been wanting to go to one myself. Had to. Idols are. . . Incredible."

For a moment, Takeshi looks up at the stage, smiling unashamedly, drawing in a breath.

Then, he immediately has to duck his neck and weave Yuma-bearing shoulder out of the way, as one of the grey-suited Nottraiders lunge at his back and narrowly miss him, carrying on into the crowd.

Takeshi slides his eyes around him, left and right, taking in the circling, hole-creating gang of N-masked goons. Right cuff being adjusted by the pinch of loose fingers from left hand, Takeshi pops out his neck and rights, full-heighting the circle of enemies.

"You don't want this smoke. I'm enjoying myself." Takeshi declares, but a grey-gloved hand lunges for his lapel and higher, where Yuma is perched. Moving with purpose, Takeshi brings his weight forward and his shoulder into line and bowls through the first Nottrei, sweeping out his arm with the goon on it to batter them into one of their friends.
Natsuki Nuki Three of them tackle Takeshi in the back try to drag him down, but he stands firm, staggering forward on heavy steps while shielding Yuma with one arm and slugging out a punch with his other. Heavy, ponderous steps through the parting crowd and the ring of enemies keeps him fighting more than he can keep moving.

"Can you not appreciate idol music?!" Takeshi shouts, twisting his body to shed some of the clamber ons and hipturn and step-throw goons off of him. From ripped jacket inside pocket, he pulls out a headband which declares in block text 'FIGHTING' with a hastily drawn on Mao framing it, and ties the headband around the fall of his back-brushed bangs.

Hard as a stone statue and certainly as heavy, Takeshi powers towards what help he can see in the crowd, though with the second song starting, he might be a little distracted.

Or... powered up?
Angela Roland comes up short. Looks like he wasn't sneaky enough without his mask, he thinks, but he definitely can't just go fight through four Nottriders. Well, he probably COULD but swinging a sword around right now is something that an amateur Fixer would do and he might be playing one but his professional sense of pride isn't going to let him just go and start doing that just because he's saying he's a Grade Nine. There's limits to this sort of thing and, besides which, it could endanger people in the crowd or make those kids sad and he just ... he just can't handle doing that to them right now. Ruining the concert is a no-go. And for a moment he's at a bit of a loss, he's a sneaky guy--but he isn't so sneaky that he can evade detection from people looking directly at him and standing guard.

Fortunately, Malkuth sees the issue and pushes between the with her cart, attempting to shove buckets of popcorn chicken in the Nottrider's hands. "Chicken and pancakes, it must all go...!" Malkuth says--

--And Roland isn't there anymore as the cart moves on, having slid underneath it and waiting until Malkuth has moved on before rolling out and snagging a glowstick from someone else. The bad news is that a lot of people have glowsticks, the good news is that he has a lot of targets, at least, to choose from. He chucks the thing at Sougo quickly all the same. He hopes that works.

Meanwhile, Malkuth notices something else. It takes her a minute--she's not exactly accustomed to dealing with Nottraiders personally--but she lags a bit at the girls enjoying the popcorn chicken so she can flash them a smile--only to notice that their glowsticks seem to be pushing the darkness back.

"Ahh! Tamamo! Good vibes seem to push the darkness away! Or maybe um um--maybe chicken does? Or the Mao glowsticks? We should try and get them on and wave them as hard as we can so we can save the concert...! Roland--arm yourself with the good glowsticks!"

This is a little ridiculous, but it's kind of endearing in a way that lifts Roland's darkened spirit. "...Yeah, good thinking..."

He takes a moment to look for any Spare Mao glowsticks, keeping one for himself and handing out any others that he might find to parkgoers or--honestly--other Elites before he starts shaking his own like it's the right weapon for the job, grinning all the way.

"C'mon, this is a concert! We can have more energy than this!" He shouts encouragingly.
Lilian Rook     Incidentally, Lilian's claims of 'being trained' in relation to dancing did not mean 'took classes as a teenager'. Every so often, the same little factoid strikes again; that the ancient warriors of the Celtic tribes were often given their foundational physical training in the form of dance, and Lilian had those lessons drilled into her from the start. Her superhuman kinesthetic sense had just come up in Elibe two weeks ago as well. It should be a surprise to no one who pays attention that she nails the entire routine, flawlessly, to a metronome of a tempo, on the very first try.

    It's maybe a little bit surprising that she can do it in cutesy space-costume, with all of the saccharine kitty gestures, and perform all of them with exactly the bounce and flourish required of her. Maybe even a little more than merely necessary, actually. Truly her capacity for noble sacrifice is beyond compare.

    §Why are the Mao-brand glowsticks getting brighter?§

    Being only the first number, Lilian isn't even breathing heavily when she stops in cat-paw position, popped up on her toe with back arched and a saucy wink.

    §Oh whatever. Power of hearts or something. It's working. Don't question something simple and straightforward for once.§

    Popping her foot back down and bouncing straight on her heel, for about thirty seconds between musical numbers, Lilian thinks that maybe magical girl conventions aren't something she really minds navigating at all. Her glowing faith in the process is snuffed out again pretty much the instant Eyewon talks, and Lilian silently spirals off into reflecting how the externally stupid, penny-ante stakes of 'ruining a concert with anti-hype' feel so fucking mean when you're actually in the thick of it all. She hasn't decided yet, whether she prefers this perfectly clear-cut yet stingingly personal sort of antagonism, when Mao springs into action.

    §She's a consummate professional of her own stripe, isn't she? It seems even celebrity idols have their determination. I suppose if she's fighting the battle with us, I should pick up the pace.§

    'I wonder if someone could not have a word with her about the matter of allowing others to party, even if one does not feel like partying, oneself.'

    "It's complicated . . ." Lilian sighs, while the roar of the crowd is generally taking up air and space. She doesn't have a mic herself; she isn't a singer; so times like this are easy to stage chatter in. The fact that she appears to be limbering up her wrists and ankles surely has to do with the next routine. "But I think that most of all, it has to do with the fact that the struggle isn't against nature, or society, or calamity, or even against oneself, but to enrich that transcendentally spoiled space turtle. Scraping to please the being that already has everything, you know? At least, that's my insight. I'm not quite as much of looooseeer as I'd need to be to totally understand it."
Lilian Rook     There's no way Eyewon can hear her, but she can definitely read her lips on a word so dragged out, and theorize up a frenzy why Lilian is saying it.

                -----[stop]-----
    Lilian stops to brace herself against the hammerblow of total silence. Amidst the thumping of the musical accompaniment, the oceanic roar of the crowd, the stomping and shaking of the Crystallulon throwing around its weight, the heat of the spotlights beating down on her, and the dizzying twinkle of thousand and thousands of glowsticks, lukewarm stillness feels like stumbling through an airlock without a suit.

    All sense of hype and malaise, wild abandon, giddy excitement, and creeping despair, vanishes in the characteristicless void of atmosphere. Naturally. Any measure of human feeling always dissolves away at the boundaries without any sign of life to write a narrative from; without a second moment to compare to the last.

    It lets Lilian go about deploying some of Tamamo's talismans without a sense of haste to hurry her steps along. It allows her to meander amongst the crowd like a ghost, picking through fans at their randomly least to most photogenic, and stealing the Calamity Lights from hands left right and center, with calm and practised lightness of hand that makes taking from dull and unresisting zombies a causally near non-effort. How much she can physically carry in her arms is more of a limitation.

    Immune to their effects herself, Lilian carries a double armload to the backstage, and dumps them in a disused cast room, finding time in the tinnitus emptiness to scrounge up a piece of paper, pop a sharpie cap open with her teeth, scrawl a DO NOT ENTER notice, and tape it to the door. She pauses to frown at her fingerprint left on the corner of the clear tape on the roller, and rips it off with her nails.
                -----[start]-----

    "Tamamo! Do you remember that time at the Closet of Babylon?" Lilian says, back on stage. "Relax and improvise a little! We'll try that again!" By which of course she means that she intends to edit her dance steps a little bit to play off of Tamamo, requiring physical contact at several portions, and plans to mentally soft-direct her through synchronizing with it, so that they can both combine their respective Charm(tm)s and broadcast to the audience. Probably Love and Excitement. Whatever Tamamo is feeling.
Merelisa Shaynore "I'm sure Hikaru and Lala would love a chance to talk to you without there being a big fight and everything. I know I would!"

    Eyewon scowls at Sougo, slouching into her sweater. Tenjou places a hand on her head comfortingly, patting between her big frizzy pigtails before Eyewon bats her away too. She kicks her feet back and forth, unconsciously matching the BPM of Mao's ongoing song.

    "Faaaaaat chance, loser. All that the *Precures* and all of you stupid loser friends ever try to talk to me about is trying to GET me and make me feel bad about something stupid. But I *don't* feel bad because I'm WINNING, and after this stupid concert I'm gonna go, like, win at something else, too."

    "I won't be so shallow as to dismiss the hard work of such a handsome young man~" Tenjou titters from her upraised throne, laying her fan across her cheek. "After all, I don't care for those who give up easily. But I'm sorry to say, that I simply work harder than you. Boys? Get him--!"

    At her command, a pile of Nottraiders jumps out of the crowd to try to tackle Sougo before he can escape. With their suits, they're moderately stronger than a normal person, and Sougo isn't transformed! Can he evade them without resorting to Zi-O, or will he have to transform with a flash of light and noise in the middle of a concert...??

"Is your sense of balance as immaculate as your dancing?"

    "Of course, nya!" Mao beams at Woz with one snaggletooth out, heavily breathing in the intermission between songs. Her face is flushed with excitement, and she takes to his idea immediately, nodding firmly and flashing him a hand symbol to signal when he should deploy it.

    Hikaru, meanwhile, is apparently entirely unbothered by the crowd of thousands of spectators. She's absolutely thrilled by the dress she's got on, delighted by the holographic pink stars it sends off to accentuate her choreography, and, noticing Woz's discomfort, she slides over to him without missing a beat.

    Extremely earnestly, fists clenched in front of her chest, Hikaru declares reassuringly, "Do your best! As long as you're doing your best, they'll love you! They're cheering for Mao, so they're all cheering for us, too!"

"Idols are. . . Incredible."

    It seems like Yuma has instantly decided that she really likes Takeshi, because she hums a low note like his sighing awe, and leans into him to watch the stage alongside him. When suddenly imperiled by Nottraiders, she squeals in alarm, and ducks down on his shoulder, covering her head with her tendrils!

    The Nottraiders aren't, individually, any match for a Nuki. When clotheslined or thrown aside or simply punched, they go down instantly, but the more of a ruckus Takeshi makes, the more attention he draws to himself, with more Nottraiders filtering down to try and jump at him for a kangaroo kick, or dart by with their jet boots to snatch Yuma off his shoulder. Eventually, the direction of his fighting brings him into a cluster of audience members almost entirely taken over by Calamity Lights, and the haze of darkness around them not only makes it harder to see, but it saps at his determination too! The magenta glow of Mao's Miracle Lights within the haze dims, drowning out even passionate love for the idol with their despair!

    On stage, Mao draws out the closing note of Cosmic Catnip, and as the conclusion to her increasingly (acted) frantic dancing for the number, she holds the back of her hand to her forehead and mimes being faint. "Oh nyo, ehehehe... looks like I've gone and nyoverdosed!"

    (The song, being, an extended euphemism about the 'addictiveness' of some imaginary lover. Mao does NOT condone drug use!)
Merelisa Shaynore     She wobbles and takes several unsteady-looking steps back, then falls backwards like a Victorian woman with tuberculosis, right into her two primary backup dancer's waiting arms. Hikaru is sparkly-beaming to have direct, center-stage interaction with the most-famous Galactic Idol, while Lala has suddenly gone stiff as a board, with her antennae sparking uncontrollably. Just before they combine their efforts to push Mao back up to her feet as rehearsed, a jolt of electricity leaps off of Lala's antenna and zaps Mao, making her yelp a bit.

    This makes Lala instantly inconsolable, burying her face in her hands, with Hikaru darting to her side to pat-pat her shoulder despite the crowd.

"Aaaaaaahh-... I-I'm sorry, o-oyo...! I didn't m-mean to, lun!"
"Hey, hey, it's just an accident, right? Come on, sensei, we'll still need your leadership to get through the other songs!"
"Oyo..... she's gonna hate me now, lun......"

    "You're doing your best, right?" Mao says softly without turning back around, still waving to the crowd. "NyaI can't hate mew for that. And... you're helping me out a lot, so...." She trails off, dropping the cat affect for a moment with a complicated tone in her voice.

    She immediately picks back up again and raises her voice to be caught on the microphone and broadcasted to the audience, not just her fellow dancers. A slower song than her usual hyperpop discography starts playing, and she signals Woz to send out his scarf as she chatters in the prelude. The crowd gasps as she walks out overhead, intentionally shifting her tone to a more vulnerable one to add to being, physically, closer to the audience.

    "You know... I'm really happy mew all came to see meow tonight. I try nyot to take any of these shows fur granted, because each and nyevery one of mew... chose to come here. You all chose to come here to listen to *my* mewsic, and nyaI always, always, always think that's super meow-nificent. I nyever want to lose sight of how special it is that of all the things across the whole galaxy mew could be doing, you chose to be here with me. So..."

    As she begins singing 'Furever Yours', the path that she traces through the crowd along the balance beam of Woz's scarf lights up brighter from the excitement at all of her fans getting to see her up close. Mao tries to give each clump extra attention as she walks overhead, with eye contact, a little wave there, and with Natsuki's guided light work following her, the *entire* crowd can vicariously feel like she's right in front of them.

    This, combined with the sudden plummeting effect of the Calamity Lights from Lilian's placement of Tamamo's charms, feels almost like a physical weight being lifted off of the mood of the crowd, and Roland's call for more enthusiasm is met with whistles and cheers, as the swell of exitement reaches a peak with everyone swinging their Miracle Lights. The Crystallulon, too, shakes off its tantrum, and starts swaying gently along with the beat, and so with everything going so well, it's time for the Nottraiders to take decisive action.

"Eyewon!"
"Tch. Okay, okay."

    Eyewon pulls out a remote and presses a button, and then-- the entire sound system shorts out, with all the computers backstage just displaying an ominous purple eye symbol. With the lights unaffected, Mao is left stranded in the middle of the stands with the spotlight on her, suddenly inaudible and without backup music, and to cap it off...

"Booo!!!"
"Boo!!!"
"Booooooo!!!"
"Boooooo!!!"

    The Nottreis scattered in the audience start heckling at Tenjou's command! The hype is in a critical state! The Crystallulon is making a low unhappy noise while Mao is struck silent, like it's preparing to join in on the booing!
Angela Malkuth pumps her fist happily when she sees her scheme with Roland has paid off! And then she immediately steps forward, trips over her own feet, and faceplants into the ground.

"Oh--shi...mply terrible." Roland says, crouching to offer her up. "Still not used to, uh, feet?"

"Ugghh... Yeah, but I was always a little clumsy I actually was a little more reliable getting around when i had the thin metal legs..."

Roland hands off his glowstick, "Keep on cheering 'em on, they're probably not gonna leave this lying down." Roland tells Malkuth before frowning as the Nottraiders cut out the sound.

This jolts Angela out of her fugue. "...Roland. They are preventing us from hearing Furever Yours." Angela frowns.

"Yeah...and booing, I can only do so much with all they're throwing out--feeling like it's just delaying the inevitable..."

"...Kill them all, Roland." Angela says. "Until they relent and put hte sound system back online."

"uhh.... Maybe I can try something else first..."

Malkuth waves the glowstick frantically as if Roland will KILL THEM ALL if they don't get this concert back on track! "Ahah... It looks like the sound system went down... But perhaps... Everyone in the audience can help us sing Furever Yours...!?" She's trying to overpower the dead sound system with the power... OF A SING ALONG!?

Roland meanwhile slinks through the crowd again and...

Well okay he's going to approach one of the Nottriders, grab him by the arm and swing it up and down with one hand and covering his mouth with the other as he quietly leads the Nottraider to the staffroom so he can perform a quiet takedown there...

He's doing his best.
Timespace Riders      But I *don't* feel bad because I'm WINNING, and after this stupid concert I'm gonna go, like, win at something else, too.

Trying to 'get' her... that must be what she's used to. I wish... no, wait a second, I think I'm onto something there.

    "Maybe you should try attacking us when we're split up, and, like, just hanging out? You're really smart. I'm sure you could come up with something that'd give you the opportunity!" Maybe then it'd be easier to talk.

I won't be so shallow as to dismiss the hard work of such a handsome young man~

The Demon King smiles sunnily and in a distinctly, endearingly dopey kind of way. "Oh! Um, thanks, haha..." Sougo wonders sometimes if he emits some kind of field that attracts evil women. Now is a poor time to wonder about it, with Nottraiders closing on his position to jump him! He isn't transformed! Does this mean there's going to be unsuited choreo? Yes, it does--because this is Mao's concert, not Zi-O's coronation!

    "Uwoooh!" hands lifted up, he twirls in place to make a startled juke, bending awkwardly forwards a split second after to let another Nottraider sail over him. This leaves him squared up with a third, against whom he brandishes one of Mao's glowsticks as if it were garlic before a vampire. "Shoo! ShoO!" He flicks it left and right in a warding gesture, before turning and making a surprise roundhouse.

    "Aw, man," he bemoans, at the sight of the Nottraider still very much standing.

    "Hey!" Calls a second Sougo, with signs of a scuffle played out in his mussed-up hair, askew collar, and dirtied shirt. "Don't forget about me!" That's the best he can do--giving them a second target to try and chase down. The two Sougos split up and head in different directions!

     On stage, Woz catches a breath and steels himself, thanks to Hikaru's reassurance. "Then, I shall do so with a glad and unburdened heart. Let us all together give them ever more reason to rejoice!"

     At Mao's signal, Woz flings his scarf outwards. It twines in on itself to make itself sturdy enough to stand on. As the retainer continues his routine without missing a beat, Mao is swept out over the crowd to perform hers in a stunning, surfing close-up. As she returns, the scarf whips back into its proper shape just in time for the choreographed twirl in place, adding a little flourish to the step.

     Everything is going fantastically--until the unthinkable happens, the lights drop off and the mics go silent. Both Sougos run through the crowd waving their Mao glowsticks, the present-Sougo accumulating the bumps and scrapes of his future counterpart as he attempts to evade the Nottraiders in pursuit. Both of them cheer her on full chested (as much as they can through the exertion of running and juking!) and loud: "Maa-o! Maa-o! Maa-o!"

    "All reactionaries are paper tigers!" shouts the present Sougo.

    "...Maybe that one was a little much, but you guys get the idea," shouts the future Sougo.

     When Malkuth starts her sing-along, both Sougos join in, each of them spurring their fellow audience members to join too. It's a good thing he and the others listened to Mao's entire discography on the way here!
Tamamo     It's all now, now.

    'Tamamo! Do you remember that time at the Closet of Babylon?'

    "I remember, but -- would we not split the spotlight? Far harder to pull attention toward someone else." This is what Tamamo was worried about, in the first place, and why she'd stuck to the choreography without going all out.

    And then a number of things go wrong, and Mao is stranded, the music interrupted. But...

    'And if the parties, music, revelry, and top-class in the galaxy dancing doesn't please the big thing - I'm sure something else can be worked out.'
    'Like motorcycle tricks! Or, I bet you all can do lots and lots of super twincool things...'

    "No, it matters not who performs, does it? She will simply have to forgive us, so long as the concert goes on."

    A little suggestion. A lot of coordination. More than a bit of magic, specializing in matters of connection. Tamamo takes up her stance, based on the dance they'd learned for the next number, but mixing in enough center-stage originality that no one except Lilian, in this moment, would have a chance of properly following up with her.

    She isn't singing, and no one would be able to hear her, but 'singing' was never a requirement for a festival, nor -- in a very different sense of the term -- for an idol.

    Tamamo-no-mae's fluffy ears and tails, rendered cute by the context of her idol outfit, turn to flame as her eyes sweep from her partner to the audience, and she brings up both her hand and the presence of stellar gravity, extending far into the stands. Gravity attracts hearts, and eyes follow.

    There was a note for her past self to read, too.
    It began, "When the time feels right, activate the array by..."

    The motions are melded into dance. To put it another way, the dance is the motion itself, bunrei leading knight in a ritual of light and flame and motion. The talismans, responding with their hidden triggers, spread that -- perhaps, mildly, just maybe, dangerous -- Charm over the areas marked, drawing on not only the audience, but especially on those weakened by the Light of Calamity, and on any weaker Nottraiders, to turn and watch and give their full attention, their adoration, their enthusiasm, to that sliver of solar divinity on stage.

    Mao formed a heart with both hands, but Tamamo and Lilian only need to bring theirs together.

    Probably Love and Excitement. Whatever Tamamo is feeling.

    It's both, along with a sense of shared accomplishment, a particular kind of satisfaction born of being part of something successful, an excitement that leads into contentment, but not yet. For now, it fills with a need for motion, to move along, to stamp one's feet, to clap, to keep time.

    The tempo remains the same. As soon as the sound system can be returned, they'll be right back into it. Above many things, Tamamo can trust Lilian to keep time.
Natsuki Nuki Takeshi, who affects an older look than he's lived, starts huffing and puffing after exerting himself so much, relying a lot on his stone statue transformation trick to soak blows. Nottraiders can't really do much damage to him while he keeps it up, but it's slow, and it's heavy to drag himself around like that.

Worse, there are a lot of Nottraiders to deal with, and every lunge towards Yuma is a threat that has to be answered with force. Losing half of his jacket as a grey-suited soldier grabs at Takeshi's back, the Nottraider grips at cloth rather than hardened body and tears it as when Takeshi turns into a backhand counterblow. Thus tattered and rolling away from one foe, the youngest Nuki tears free his loose ruined clothing and throws it in the face of an onrushing foe. Following up with a step-lunge on the chest of the jacket-tossed Nottrei and pushing forward again with dress shoe put to chest and slammed down, Takeshi keeps moving into the crowd loudly.

He keeps expecting to find fans, to break through the terrible vibes, and instead it's like a wall hits him.

Why was he here? It was a concert? Suddenly struck (in the head, with a plastic folding chair delivered by onrushing Nottraiders dragging at the bigger Takeshi's shoulder and neck) Takeshi blinks his eyes and finds himself in a fight, not a concert. He had been in a lot of fights, especially over something he had and other people didn't, and the drab grey of the Nottrei didn't inspire any particular feelings in the Nuki.

Grimacing, teeth clenched as he tries to shake off the mental pressure of the Calamity Lights while headbutting off the throttler and peel-throwing the one dragging on his side back into the shifting crowd.

With the floor lights down, Takeshi stands in lightly torn pants and an unkempt shirt, surrounded by zombified fans and Nottraiders, with a terrified precious little Yuma on his shoulder. He knows he has to return the little fairy daughter to the Pretty Cures - or his sister - which means he can't coward out of this situation even if he wanted to. And he wants to.

With a dramatic break in the fighting as the despair bears down on Takeshi, he shifts Yuma onto his headbanded head, fits the pin he transferred off his jacket lapel onto his collar, and tightens up the Mao pink-white-yellow-blue 'FIGHTING' headband keeping his hair back.

"This is a tough situation, huh. . ." Takeshi mutters, and then looks up at Mao, on the stage -- Silent, cast in spotlights, and hears the heckling.

This finishes filling Takeshi's crisis heat. The heckling, the taunting of Mao, causes a bellow from the youngest Nuki. "Mo-rons!" He shouts, hard two-syllable counterheckling. "Did you come to the wrong venue? This is an idol concert!!"

MEANWHILE:

Natsuki moves between shouting at people and moving. "Get merch on the floor! Colors, poppers, anything, bring the audience back if you have to shake your keys at them!" She snaps, moving into a bank of equipment and starting to pull out plugs and manually power cycle banks of systems. "Lilian's getting a wireless or a stage monitor to Mao. That means *nothing else matters* but getting speakers back up. If you aren't technical and aren't useful, grab a glowstick and get out there!"

Of course *Eyewon* would make things hard. Eyewon and Tenjou simply won any encounter they were in that didn't involve the Multiversals and the Pretty Cures. That it was 'her' concert now was especially stinging.

"Once that contract's signed, this'll be forgotten like snow by springtime." She promises herself, and sweats for her own cause.
Natsuki Nuki Pointing up, sunward, Maoward, Takeshi's emotional recovery pivots on his existing bedrock of love for idols, and what they represented. To Takeshi Nuki, who even knew how the sausage was made, his love remained because idols were a pure expression often perverted: a performer staring into despair and sharing joy.

And that was a power the wota could draw on in their times of need.

Bringing both hands up to tighten his headband, Takeshi shouts countershouting from his swamped-out corner. "Mao! Mao fighting!!"

Before he's completely swamped again, in the middle of his choreography, several blows happen from offscreen, before the run-on of support Yakuza who had been sent flooding out zero in on their loud superior.

"Boss!" "Get off the boss!" "No-style punks!" Shouts a small knot of boisterous voices as glowstick-wielding toughs and toughettes start mixing it up to support Takeshi.

"Our nyounterattack begins -- Mao!" Takeshi says fullchestedly, before shouting 'sticks!' into the crowd and getting tossed two bundles of pink and yellow glowsticks - a grip for each hand. The fired up glowstick cheerleading crimers join Takeshi in support attacks and 'osu! Mao! osu! Mao!' chants.
Lilian Rook     'Oh nyo, ehehehe... looks like I've gone and nyoverdosed!'

    §Goodness this would do something to me if I were still fourteen.§

    Posed with Tamamo to frame Hikaru and Lala holding Mao, Lilian sneaks an especially impassioned, and slightly embarrassed, look at her fiancée, with a coy little wink and a silent-mouthed "You can handle a little hnyangover later, right?" during the applause.

    Oh no! Lala's gay thoughts got too intense and she misfired on stage! Aaaaaaaaaa!

    "She's not going to hate you! It'll be fine!" Lilian hastily babbles out, but she does it while leaing in to assess Mao as closely as she can for burns and ramble-ask "Mao! Miss Mao! Does it still hurt? Are there pins and needles? Loss of feeling? I can-"

    'NyaI can't hate mew for that. And... you're helping me out a lot, so....'

    Uncertain how to interpret Mao's sudden shift of tone, Lilian trails off in her fussing as well. For a moment, she chews on her confusion, letting her thoughts drift into the way of distant frustration, at Mao being such an obviously performative character on and off the clock, but strangely kind in both circumstances, and so weirdly insistent on her independence even when everything sucks and people just want to help her, and how complicated she makes everything with her armouring aura of fame and her needlessly difficult hot-cold distance from the people who want to support her and--

    Lilian frowns. Pressing her hand to her face, she squeezes the bridge of her nose and shakes her head.

    "Looks like those goofballs are starting to panic." she says, instead, leaning on observation as a path into a different line of thought. She still pronounces 'goofball' like a privately shared slur. "Serves them right for trying to ruin Mao's concert by making everyone hate her instead of just blowing up the venue or something. That sort of indirect one-upsmanship never works when your enemy is prepared for you like this." She sighs. "At least that means we're just about out of this--"

    'Booooooo!!!'

    "Tch." Lilian makes the impulsive noise in her usual style, only coincidentally with similar timing to Eyewon. "You're being a real brat about this." she says, checking the monitor-- nothing she can do easily, she's not a nerd-- then Mao stranded in the crowd-- solvable, ETA now.

<J-IC-Scene> Natsuki Nuki says, "Can someone get Mao a live mic? The stuff in the back's been sabotaged, but there should be stage monitor mics that are live somewhere. I'll kick things back here until something starts working again!"
<J-IC-Scene> Tamamo says, "Oh, I can -- not help with that, however -- I can make a light, until the others come back under control."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Consider it done."

    Easiest precognition she's done in months. Lilian locks onto the first mic that works in an instant, then Mao feels a pat on the shoulder, a tap on the wrist, and a slight shift in the weight of the microphone in her hand, identical to the others. She'll have to entrust the sound system to someone else for the time being, because,

    'No, it matters not who performs, does it? She will simply have to forgive us, so long as the concert goes on.'

    "It's 'the galaxy's best'." Lilian says. "Including but not limited to Mao." She winks at Tamamo, taking up her hand. "As long as we get them excited enough, they'll naturally watch who they came here for. And who knows? Perhaps she'll try even harder to steal the show back~?"
Lilian Rook     In addition to her dance training, superhuman coordination, and mental linkage, Lilian now has one more thing working in her favour: partner power. She's not just dancing to a routine she memorized right before hitting the stage, but with someone she's danced together with a hundred times before, for whom she knows every step and motion and shift of weight down to her exact center of gravity, and will dance with just for the pleasure of it.

    The difference in quality is obvious, even before Lilian alloys Tamamo's charm with her own magic, tempering and expanding it in the same way that they'd used on a riot of mind-controlled civilians once before. Her winter moonlight cool electricity feeling of psychic presence, soft yet hard-edged, ghostly and transfixing, is the perfect counterbalance to the heat and light and pulsing-flaring gravity of the sun, hot and impassioned and encompassing.

    By orienting her dance to circle around Tamamo, orbiting her steps around and around the fulcrum of divinity, Lilian deflects, absorbs, carries up, and sends away the swells of attention and winds of psychic drag. By setting herself at exactly halfway between the beats of Tamamo's pace, their mutually opposite wavelengths combine and amplify, reaching wider, further, penetrating deeper into the crowd, and dragging Mao into the gravitic context as a sole star in the sky. It's the best she can think of, something that worked before, and, most importantly, a dance with Tamamo no Mae on a galactic stage.
Merelisa Shaynore "Maybe you should try attacking us when we're split up, and, like, just hanging out?"

    Eyewon smugly puffs out air with her lower lip pouting out, zig-zag antennae sproining. "Pfuh. Well, it *would* be pretty freaking funny to make you all in-fight and, like, freak out at each other. But why do you think I wanna see your stupid faces even a second longer than I freaking *have* to?"

    Then, the sound cuts out! At first, it's only the Nottraiders that are booing, but the longer that goes on, the more uncomfortable murmurs fill the crowd overall. Should they be booing too?? The mysterious army of men in grey gleep suits seems to know what they're doing! And the Crystallulon is thrashing its tail and smacking against the cave wall, so maybe they should be screaming and running instead!

    Natsuki's influx of backstage goobers with glowsticks and merch spills a spot of light into the increasingly dark concert, and they have enough Miracle Lights to go handing them out to all of Takeshi's goons that still lack them. Rolling in the merch carts makes the equipment failure feel a little more like a 'sudden intermission', and the teenaged girls (probably on a strict budget from their parents!) swarm them like piranhas, proliferating brighter Mao-colors through the crowd. It's enough to buy a little time, but seeing other people get gifts makes the Crystallulon start sniffing and looking around for someone bringing *it* offerings too!

    Then, even in the absence of music, Tamamo and Lilian continue and amplify the dance for 'Furever Yours', drawing people's attention away from Mao and back onto the stage. It's magically enhanced, and that settles down the Crystallulon's tantrum for the moment, and it makes the Nottreis' attempts to boo falter as their orders from Tenjou are overridden by their fixation on Tamamo. It's not quite enough to return to 'hype', not while a significant portion of the audience is still enthralled by the Calamity Lights, but the situation stops snowballing worse and settles into a held-breath pause, all eyes on the pair's beautiful, unexpected performance on stage.

    Tenjou, meanwhile, is shielding her eyes from Tamamo and Lilian with her fan, and irritatedly waving her free hand at the Nottraiders mumbling dazed praise for the dance.

"Don't get distracted! Don't you remember who you're here for, you layabouts?!"
""Miss Tamamo...."
"I-idiot! You're fighting for Lady Mujinko!"
""Eh-- eheh. Nottrei--!!"
Merelisa Shaynore     Hikaru and Lala, stripped of the shield of Mao and the armor of music and momentum, have been stunlocked by the crushing attention of the ten-thousand strong crowd. But, just as Hikaru encouraged Woz to keep going despite the stage fright, his reinforced determination to perform encourages her in return, and she grabs Lala's hand. She gestures towards where Malkuth is starting to try and get the crowd to sing.

"... Wanna dance, Lala?"
"O-oyo?"
"And sing! Miss Mao needs us!"
"R-right! Lun! Let's do it!"

    Hikaru pulls Lala to the symmetrical part on stage to mirror Tamamo and Lilian's dancing, though they aren't even a tenth as skilled or magically-enhanced. What they do have, though, is every lyric of Mao's discography memorized, and they add their voices to Malkuth's on stage. Without a working microphone though, their voices sound tiny in the massive stadium, up until one of the mentally uncorrupted girls in the audience lets Tamamo's magic pull her attention up, and over to where...

"It's... Lala?! Hikaru?! How...?"

    Neia gapes for a moment, and then recognizes the direness of the situation! She rushes over to Yanyan, and shakes the Calamity Light out of her crab claw, pointing up on stage, and then she starts shouting out the chorus to 'Furever Yours' along with them. Tuneless and unpracticed, it finally reaches a tipping point with the mood of the audience, and rippling out from Sougo, Malkuth, and Neia, the crowd all starts to sing together, shouting out the words that go along with Tamamo and Lilian's dance.

''''With every leap and twirl, well dance on cosmic shores // Together, my darling, Im fur-ever yours!''''

    The excitement builds back up to a fever pitch, and Mao flips up out of the audience where she was stranded, balancing on a handrail like it's solid ground. She signals to Woz again to snap out his scarf for her to walk across back to the stage, and the singing rises up into cheers as she taps one gloved finger against the mic Lilian gave her and hears the feedback from the speakers.

    "Mew all... I couldn't ask for nyanyone better than my cute fans!! Thank mew all so much! How do we feel about oooone final nyumber?! Cosmic Mystery Girl!"
Merelisa Shaynore o/` "Is it love or is it hate? Which one do I truly feel~?"

    With their last ditch plan thorough crushed, and their forces throughout the audience gradually being worn down, Tenjou and Eyewon are cornered. Eyewon has her arms crossed, poutily, and Tenjou tries to regather her minions for an escape. "Freaking figures. We ruin the concert and they're all still such dummies that they're *still*, like, tricking themselves into having fun. I wanna go home."

o/` "I'm sorry but let me be free for a little while longer~ because you know, I'm meowmber one!"

    The lingering effect of the Calamity Lights is still derivative of the Dark Star Shards Eyewon uses for her other tech, so there's a lasting aura of confusion and uncertainty in the crowd. If it's anything like the Nottriggers, their memories of today might not be perfectly clear-- but, with the concert rescued from the brink, and Mao performing her number one hit song, there isn't a smudge of darkness to be seen anywhere in the crowds, and the rainbow hue of the Crystallulon's shell is radiantly happy (though it's still stomping, in excitement!).

o/` "Can you find the real me? I'm a trickster who shows up without a sound~"

    The closing lines of Cosmic Mystery Girl are almost drowned out by applause, but the number of people still singing along are higher still. Hikaru and Lala have nailed every step of choreography for the finale, and it wrung every last drop of energy out of them, red-faced and sweaty, arranged to either side of Mao with their hands up in pose. Mao puts a hand to her chest, breathing heavily and smiling wide out to the audience, and then looks to the Crystallulon, and the smile slowly slides off of her face.

"That was amazing, lun!"
"We really pulled it off!! Twincool!"
"Mao, mao, it worked, right? ... Mao...?"

    Even though the crowd's cheering is still tapering off, Mao's expression has gone totally flat, pale and dreading like she's got the worst stage fright all of a sudden. Lala reaches out her hand, and then stops cold when Mao's green eyes flick over to stare at her, and the idol clenches her fist. A small smile comes to her face, but doesn't reach her eyes.

    "Ahh... nyaI hate to say it, but there's one teeny little act left for tonyight. Apawlogies, Star, Milky."

    Hikaru takes a step backwards, eyes wide. "M-Mao...? No...--!"

    "... All good things must come to an end, nna?"

    Mao backflips off the stage, sailing over to stand halfway between the Precures and the Crystallulon, high up on a pillar in the stadium seating. Midway in the air, her form melds and shifts, and when her boots touch the ground, they're blue, and she adjusts her top hat and sunglasses, eyes no longer visible as she tilts her face down towards the girls on stage.

"... Blue Cat!!"
"O-oyo?! H-how...??"