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Audrey Basque     WELCOME!

    To the SOTTENBURRY TALENT SHOW, a televised (via magic) once-a-year event held by the Sottenburry mage enclave, which all research indicates is just a family of three siblings who succeeded their parents and insist enclave sounds cooler than family. Set in an Earth that never experienced a masquerade of any kind, you are cordially invited to NEW YORK CITY, to the prestigious SOTTENBURRY STADIUM (they know their branding, at least). This version of New York is simply popping; street lamps and neon signs are lightning in a bottle, the great screens on the buildings are large mirrored crystals for scrying, sometimes doors are just portals and people are wearing clothes from ten different eras like it simply isn't a big deal. It's pretentious, but it's honest; and of course, it's ever far from perfect. But you're not here to worry about Magical Neo New York's homelessness crisis, you're here to SHOW WHAT YOU GOT.

    When you first arrived to the stadium, it was close to 4PM locally. All in all, there were about a thousand contestants lined up with you, from various corners and genres of the world. Oddly, no crowd. Just the contestants. Signing up was done in advance, and essentially amounted to:

    YOUR NAME (all of it), YOUR TITLES (please write them in full), YOUR OCCUPATIONS (be thorough), and... that's it.

    Luckily, you were prepared. Audrey did do her homework, and the scheduling looked like it would be a rapid barrage of short elimination challenges, and then the top sixteen or so would be showing off more individually. It was recommended to bring a swimsuit but heavily emphasized this was an aquatic comfort thing, not a modeling thing, and only for one round.

    You're here for the Guiding Star, of course, the first place prize! Though there are generous cash prizes for making it to the top 10 at all, and a few vacation bundles for you and a +1 in this world.

    And so you are led, eventually, to changing rooms underneath the stadium, where everyone's been assigned a little sealed off corner for privacy if they need to change for their bit, or need five seconds to breathe. This is also where you are aggressed by the start of the qualifiers, which will see you apart from everyone else for the foreseeable hour, being led about different rooms and venues in the stadium - none with any audience, though all of them being filmed by floating scrying crystals at all times.

    AUDREY, for the time being, is dressed in her Nova Heliosanctus school uniform. Her hair is fully down and she's even put a bit of makeup on! She seems... in a good mood? Confident, even, like she's been to a million of these before. (She has!) She doesn't even seem bothered by the fact there are fresh bruises visible under her collar, and nevermind the not-so-elegant square gauze covering half of her left cheek. She's radiating good mood.
Audrey Basque     PRELIM TRIAL 1:
    Once in your little private booth, a scrying crystal floats up to your face. There is the prerecorded voice of a posh-sounding man, hyped and energized. "WELCOME, CHALLENGER! I am Lord Esquire Sigmund Sottenburry, fifth of the name, Viscount of Wisconsin, Sire by Trade and Madman by Night!" He laughs, like it's the funniest thing he ever said. "Now then now then, why don't you introduce yourself for the audience? State your name, position in the world, and why you're here! And tell us something interesting about you. Then, do a little trick for us. Something you think only you can do. The audience at home is watching, so make it good!"

    > AUDREY responds to this as everyone would expect... at first. "Hello. My name is Audrey Basque, Crown White and ninth year student at Nova Heliosanctus. I am a Concord Partner, my family runs the Basque Foundation, and something interesting... well, my area of expertise is very interesting, actually. I'd like to lead into my trick from that, if I may?"

    While everyone else is going through their own interviews, the flights in the stadium flicker, and all of the crystals suddenly show Audrey in her own booth, smiling. "Did you know that it's very unsafe to run all of your transmissions through ley lines you didn't secure properly? Oh, you're also using them to power the place, aren't you?" Power flickers again, and Audrey adds: "Oops~. Well, that's my trick!"

    There's a brief interruption before a (not recorded) message asks contestants to resume their interviews.

    PRELIM TRIAL 2:
    Your interviews finished, you're led to another room, where you are alone with yet another of those scrying crystals. This time, the message that plays, still narrated by Sigmung Sottenburry: "Welcome, hello, hi! This is your second round. Second I hear you cry?! Well that's because the interview counted! Now, let's go with a bang. Tell us a joke! Show us why YOU should be on the final stage!"

    > AUDREY has to think for a moment, and then settles on: "What do you call it when a mage asks you to help proofread his grimoire? A spellcheck."

    PRELIM TRIAL 3:
    The next room you are led to is larger, though you are still by your lonesome! They really don't want contestants to meet, it seems. Roughly the size of a school gym, the room is split into three different obstacles course: on the left, a hellish maze of pistons and gears, which you must match the rhythm of to get through. The center path is simply a sea of fire. The right path is spatially collapsing in on itself and will become inaccessible in five seconds, so either run quickly, or halt the collapse. The voice beckons: "For this lovely room, you must cross to the other side! Pick whichever path appeals to you the most. Make it a show!"

    > AUDREY picks the right path, which stops collapsing as she approaches it. She walks through it, and then takes a bow for the audience, allowing the collapse to resume to make a point.

    PRELIM FINAL TRIAL:
    A small room with a crystal orb at the center. Sigmund pipes in again. "Good job for making it this far! Now, enough about the present. Show us your future! Touch the orb and let us see something amazing. Or else!"

    The crystal ball, when touched, allows someone to project an image from their mind into it for all to see. It isn't intrusive, and it doesn't insist on any particular subject, though the instructions certainly seem to desire for it to be related to the future, so maybe try to think ahead.

    > AUDREY touches the orb, and allows it to display an image of her, standing before a cliff-side temple with Chinese architecture, wearing a nice old-style Chinese dress one might expect to see royalty wear.
Audrey Basque     With the PRELIMINARY TRIALS DONE (each took about 15 minutes, between the shuffling around the place and waiting for your turn), you are finally beckoned into the a new room to regroup and socialize. It's a nice luxurious dining hall, and there's even all manners of snacks across the overly garish table, though no chairs to sit, since you aren't expected to stay here. You've got fifteen minutes to breathe, fix your makeup, use the bathrooms if you've got to, and then you'll be on the MAIN STAGE. The real show!

    If there were a thousand contestants outside, it's been whittled down to you, a few nondescript and entirely unremarkable wallflowers chatting among themselves, and a few people who stand out just a bit more.

    One is a blonde man in his twenties, wearing elegant and kingly fabrics in the rough styling of a suit, colored black, dark red and gold. His green eyes are affixed on Audrey, whom he is currently conversing with. She's giving her best smile, but it's unclear if she's actually listening as he tells the long history of his family.

    Another is a pale-skinned, black-haired woman likely barely past 18, her hair in countless small curls. Her dress is exaggerated, voluminous, like an old ballroom dress that surely uses metal wires to stay dome-shaped. She's laughing uproariously as she belittles a man wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a stylish, white and red kitsune mask.

    The final standout is GALE WAYFINDER, in his brown, beige and black leathers, his trusty flintblade sheathed on his back. Spiky brown hair has been ever slightly touched up to give the rough young man an even better look, though he's currently not putting his best foot forward by simply leaning against the wall by the door, arms crossed and all.
Angela Angela is happy to help Audrey out though she's a bit uneasy about a talent show. Angela doesn't think she's especially talented in the things one shows off in a talent show but at the same time Angela doesn't enjoy magical girl themeing and carry a magic summoning book for nothing even if it's not, strictly speaking, magic in her mind. So maybe she can fake it until she makes it.

She signs up as

NAME: ANGELA
TITLES: Chief Librarian of The Library, Secretary (Former), Partner (Concord, current.)
Occupation: Librarian (current), Warden/Professional psychological Torturer (former).

Angela is an AI that can lie but she sees no reason to right now.

She is led around to a room, wearing her Librarian outfit. She is looking around a lot, glancing briefly at Audrey's bruises for several minutes, effectively, but is mostly being laidback about this one.

PRELIM TRIAL ONE.

"Understood." Angela says. "My name is Angela, I am also a Concord Partner but more importantly I am Chief Librarian of the Library of the City. I am here to receive the first place prize though it is not for myself. I am an exceptionally capable individual so this is certainly within my reach."

Then Angela is asked to do a trick. Angela quirks her head, clearly not expecting to be asked for something so vague and trite. "...I see."

Angela gives a nod to Petra, who she certainly has come with, and then snaps her fingers. Her outfit suddenly changes, transforming into the vaguely opaque glass suit that Audrey had shown off during the Concord demonstration not so long ago. She even gets a stained glass tie. She doesn't seem to care about the look of the outfit being vaguely risque due to it taking on the form of glass. Any inhuman qualities of Angela that would normally have been hidden away by the clothes she wears are still quite securely hidden away by the opaqueness of the glass.

"Thank you." Angela says and will politely stick around for Petra's act own introduction and the like before moving on. Well, actually she has no choice but to do that.

TRIAL 2

"I should be on the final stage because I can be exceptionally vengeful when slighted." Angela says. Then she pauses. "Ha ha. That is a joke." Her laughter doesn't sound natural at all, it's more like she's saying 'Ha ha'.

TRIAL 3!

Angela is actually caught in a difficult situation here. Angela is not particularly skilled at platforming. And Petra is not skilled at being 'on fire'. Angela frowns thoughtfully, cupping her chin like she's been proferred a difficult math problem and then nods once. "Petra, I have an idea to help us both through this trial."

She flips through the pages of her EGO and her hair spins back and twirls into a pair of double drills behind her, not unlike how Audrey wears her hair. The right and left paths warp and distort until they are considerably closer to one another, squishing near enough that Petra and Angela ought to be able to manage this without murdering one another.

Angela walks into the sea of flame, taking her time, though occassionally speeding up so that Petra doesn't get too far ahead, but otherwise treats it as a leisurely stroll. Her Beauty of Ash outfit melts around her body before coming out the other end of the path and patting remnants of the flame away from her. The glass reshapes itself back to form shortly after.
Angela ''Touch the orb and let us see something amazing. Or else!''

Angela presses her hand against the orb. The trouble is, the future Angela wants is difficult to show because she doesn't actually know what form The Head takes and thus can't show a picture of her doing very family unfriendly things to them. So in the end, Angela just shows a picture of The City's night sky. This is the most amazing thing she's ever seen so it's sure to impress, she's sure of it.

''GALE WAYFINDER.''

"Ah." Angela frowns. "You."
Kukuru Thanks to Audrey's homework-preparation, Kukuru's here right on time and even got some help filling out her paperwork! It's clear she hasn't had time to read all of it before submitting it since it's typed out neatly rather than written in with her usual , but whoever helped her out with the papers definitely had a good idea of what to include.

NAME: Kukuru (no last name)
TITLES: Partner (Concord)
OCCUPATIONS: Partner (Concord), Kukuru (Concord), First Aid Specialist (Concord), Kitchen Specialist (Concord), Morgue Technician (Concord), Substitute Teacher, Child Care Specialist,

She shows up in her usual white blouse and green/brown dress, of course, with her hair freshly washed before arriving while left in its usual messy-looking and overwhelmingly fluffy state. Spotting Audrey, she bounds over to the student with a pleasantly sleepy hum, stopping just short of just scooping her up into a hug and instead just holding her arms out to offer one.

"Au-dreeeey~ Oh, I hope you weren't waiting for us toooo long... Hm? Oh dear. Are you hurt? Do you want me to get those for you, dear?" She asks, clearly concerned by the sight of those fresh bruises and the gauze while refraining from just blasting her with the nanites right away.

Kukuru still remembers Audrey's reaction last time she did that unprompted, after all. Maybe she's doing it as part of a school project or something. She does immediately offer a little snack pouch full of trail mix (ver. fruit and  peanut butter-filled pretzels), though, but pauses once she realizes there might not be time or room for food before whatever it is that's going to happen today. "Oh, oh. I brought these! But if you or anyone else wants them later, I can hold onto them for safe keeping~"

TRIAL 1:
While Kukuru's in the booth, she barely even has time to get changed into her swimsuit when she sees the crystal coming up to her face. Her swimsuit is a somewhat standard two-piece, bright white with blue trim and tied snugly in place at the back for the top and at the side for the bottom. A translucent blue-green sarong barely adds any more modesty to the whole outfit, and a pair of off-brand beach sandals matching her bikini in white and blue cover her feet with a little plastic doohickey holding the sandal straps together.

Unfazed by the potential invasion of her private space, she still smiles and waves pleasantly at the crystal as though the speaker was right there with her. "He-llo, Esq.. Sig... Sottenburry~ Oh, my name's Kukuru."

The pause she always does. "That's Ku-ku-ru. I'm a Partner with the Concord, aaaand I'm here to... Win the prize! And to see all my favorite darlings show off their stuff, too." She asserts with a confident little nod, shifting around in the booth to get the straps of her top on properly while her blouse and dress are mysteriously absent already. "A trick, a trick... Okay! Juuust a minute."
Kukuru Once her swimsuit's on properly, Kukuru leans forward at first, reaching into the back of her bikini bottom and sarong as though she might have pockets there. After a few seconds, she straightens back up, then twists around to check the side-pockets that don't appear to actually exist, twisting again and showing off enough bare flesh in the process that it might almost seem like she's doing this on purpose.

Mind readers and those more familiar with Kukuru's facial cues (like her unblinking stare and tenser jaw) will know otherwise, of course, but the audience might not.

Eventually, though, she finds what she's looking for with one last visibly blatant gesture of just reaching into her bikini, and she pulls out a skate helmet with a big thorn-covered heart (the icon, not the organ) decal on it. Another dip into the cleavage, and next comes an entire skateboard with a faded eagle skull decal on the bottom.

"Todaaaay... I'm gonna skate!" She announces proudly, strapping the helmet onto her head before promptly running forward with a quick toss of her skateboad to hop onto it with some starting speed. She puts on a whole ass clinic as she maneuvers around the entire trial area, doing all sorts of flips and balancing tricks while skating and sliding all over the place in ways that someone her age and demeanor probably would never be expected to.

TRIAL 2:

"A jooooke... Hmm. Hmmmm. Oh, I know! Why do carbonated drinks love playing sports. Because they like getting fizzy-cal!"

TRIAL 3:

Kukuru strokes her chin as she stares at the obstacle course, narrowing her eyes as she studies the three routes before her closely. There's so much timing involved, and so much room for error, and so many ways this could go terribly wrong...

If it's supposed to be a show, she can't just teleport straight through it. Instead, she creates a cloud above and below herself to start falling and building up speed while also holding in a whine at feeling all that building speed. Once she's satisfied/unwilling to go faster, Kukuru opens up another portal to launch herself straight through the sea of fire, landing on the other side with a slightly blackened swimsuit and a whole lot of glowy-green  healing to do for both her dizziness and her burns.

FINAL TRIAL:
Still shaken from her foolish stunt in the third trial, Kukuru looks like she's ready to fall asleep when she drops her hand on the orb. That translates into a whole montage of Kukuru sleeping in various places: comfy beds, lush trees, scenic snow-capped mountains, surrounded by dimly lit deep sea life, resting atop giant animals, and ending in a pile of familiar (to her) faces nestled in all sorts of blankets.

MAIN STAGE:
Kukuru definitely needs to rest after all that, but she'll make do with a quick stop back home to shower. Her hair's not going to be dry by the time she comes back, but at least she'll have all the grime from all that skateboarding and fire-propelling off her by the time she's back on stage. She's back in her white and green/brown getup afterthe fact, too, but she's making sure to keep the swimsuit on underneath all that just in case.

"Is everyone feeling okay after all that? I can fix you riiight up if anyone got hurt after that, and I've still got snacks if anyone's forgot to eat before~"

Gale, being a familiar face, actually gets a pleasantly surprised wave and bounding arms-out offer of a hug. "Oh! He-llo agaaain... Did you hear back yet about signing up with us?" Of course she's still on about that. "I forgot to ask about the applications, but I can ask someone to check if you haven't.
Petra Soroka     "Sottenburry...? Isn't that the place Natsuki's from...?"

    Petra mumbles to herself while skimming the details about the talent show. This sort of thing is beneath her, really, both morally and practically, and frankly her participation hardly matters for accomplishing *Audrey's* goal either. There's power in numbers to make Audrey's allies more likely to at least get *one* person to the final round, but that's such a slim and nonspecific benefit that Petra barely considers it at all. Really, it's her *own* goals that she wants to advance by being here-- or, more likely, be an audience to them advancing with or without her input at this point.

    Also, it's a chance for Angela to get out of the Library! With more Light being accumulated weekly, and Petra getting more practice using her power in this way, it's easier and easier to take Angela on trivial little adventures like this one, and so Petra's in a pretty good mood on the way there while walking in the pair, despite her disdain for the actual event.

    "Oh, just a heads up in advance, Ange," Petra says aside to Angela casually. "I'm gonna be declaring war on this guy. This whole thing absolutely reeks of some obnoxious fucking nepo wizard baby thinking he's too good for the masses and deigning to get entertainment from them anyways, so I'm gonna try to make his life miserable. But I figure you knew that already."

> YOUR NAME (all of it), YOUR TITLES (please write them in full), YOUR OCCUPATIONS (be thorough)

    PETRA AND ANGELA, DESTROYER OF QUICKNEST AND CHIEF LIBRARIAN, CONCORD PARTNERS

    Petra and Angela are of course entered as a pair. It's not entirely uncommon in metropolitan wizard circles for there to be a soul that shares two bodies, even if Petra's situation is more that her soul was in a significant part overwhelmed by Angela's, and they literally can't be separated at the hip or else both of them will instantly die. So, they have to act as one entrant and be judged as one too, and thankfully this means they get to enter the booth together and avoid the aforementioned instant death.

> AUDREY, for the time being, is dressed in her Nova Heliosanctus school uniform.

    Petra raises her eyebrow at Audrey when passing by. "School uniform? Really?"

    Petra isn't dressed particularly *well*, but she is dressed very Petra. An off-white cropped shirt is layered under her CMU letterman jacket (it's different when she does it!!! if you point out the hypocrisy she'll lecture you for twenty minutes about how different it is!), with baggy olive cargo pants, sneakers, and her compact mirror on a cord hanging around her neck. The swimsuit she has packed away is the exact opposite vibe of that, but she'll get to that later.

PRELIM TRIAL 1:

    Petra holds Angela's hand while she does her own trick, pointedly angling her face away at the translucent outfit. She doesn't want to see that! Angela's like a platonic sister to her! After Angela's done, Petra blinks and looks over at the scrying crystal filming them. "Oh, wait, I should do one too."

    Petra puts her hand on the compact case hanging like a pendant around her neck and closes her eyes. The magic sustaining the mirrorlike crystal's scrying spell flickers and inverts for a moment, bleeding vibrant colors out into its surroundings and sweeping towards Petra like light bending around a black hole. Then it snaps back into place, and Petra opens her eyes to look into the crystal herself, which shows Lord Esquire Sigmund Sottenburry, fifth of the name, Viscount of Wisconsin, Sire by Trade and Madman by Night, reverse-scryed upon himself by Petra.
Petra Soroka     "Okay. Right now, Lord Sottenburry is sitting on the couch, only half paying attention to the early stages of the event, which is probably why he automated the announcements for this part. He's on what looks to be a second entire bag of chips, but judging by the amount of crumbs that's on his shirt, there might be a third around there somewhere."

"Tell us a joke!"

    This sucks. Petra scoffs audibly and smirks at Angela's take on the trial, and doubles down on it. "Well, I bet I know how to get some laughs from the audience. If I squint a little at Sigmund's computer--" She's on a first name basis with him now just to bully him. "I can probably make out some of those tabs. Here's... 'Tips and Tricks for Alpha Men Who Just Can't Get It Going In--'"

> PRELIM TRIAL 3:

    "Oh, this is fun." Petra looks longingly at the gear-based platforming stage, and then over at Angela. Obviously, the correct one to go through is the sea of fire, because Angela can't successfully do either of the others, but Petra *would* prefer to jump around if she could. When Angela space-warps them together, Petra nods and fist-bumps her before carefully stepping away to test the strain, and then hopping through the obstacle course when it's manageable.

    Petra is, of course, a premiere rhythm-solver and jumper and maze-performer. She casually puts in one earbud, flicks through her playlist until she finds a song at the right BPM to match the pistons, and then fluidly slides across the entire length with perfect timing and zero missteps.

PRELIM FINAL TRIAL:

"Or else!"

    "... Or else?"

    Who's Petra to argue with their distinguished host's request! The prompt was to project something from your mind-- and while Petra *can* turn off her anti-psionic aura, it's difficult and context dependent, and this isn't an environment where she could even if she wanted to. And so, when Petra puts her hand on the orb, the interior image fizzles out into rioting static, cracking and splintering fractures through the glass that rapidly spread outside the crystal ball itself. Every single person in the audience is subjected to a splitting sense of psychic tinnitus and and building itch underneath their skin that claws and scrapes at their nerves, until Petra obligingly removes her hand from the orb.

    "Anyways, so that's what my future's like."

> The final standout is GALE WAYFINDER

    "Hey man. What's up." Petra raises a hand casually, without a scrap of hostility. Sure, she belittled him before, but now they've got a standing offer to hang out at the Shrine together, and Petra's greater enemy here is the contest itself. "You sure you aren't coincidentally on the same quest as us?"
White White had chosen to put off thinking about how feasible a talent show was for her, as a person, for quite a while. Unfortunately, there's not really any longer it can be put off, and she'll have to reckon with her choices soon. The sign-up process is the least stressful part, even if it's still volunteering for something akin to relocating an endangered species (herself) into a hostile new ecosystem. Her name, White. They don't need to know *all* of her names! Her titles... She gets about three or four of them in before realizing she's just recalling titles within the System, and simply lists Commander by itself. Occupations... Concord Partner. She doesn't think a talent show needs her whole rap sheet, and 'Demon Army' isn't generally something she expects unfamiliar humans to take positively, or seriously! Finding out about the need for a swimsuit, though, did more than a little bit of psychic damage to her, and even after finding out the particular reason for it she's less than enthusiastic. Maybe she should fake her death again..?

     When the time comes for the qualifiers to begin, White is in her usual dress and boots with a silk hooded mantle to slightly shield her face underneath. More than half of her divisible attention-span is being burned on furious strategy council-meetings between her fractal selves inside her head, leaving less than the usual thought to place into appearing quite *normal*. Keeping pace with those leading her is done on such autopilot that it feels like she's looming over their shoulders on purpose. By the time anyone sees her again, she's about as close to 'deflated' or maybe even 'tired' looking as she's ever been, despite her inexpressiveness. It's mostly in the way her shoulders droop, and how she's not fixing her hair as much when it moves out of place. Audrey's 'trick', at least, makes her faintly smile; she wishes she could be cheering for her kohai instead of putting her own face out there... Not that she'd do much better at cheering.

     The first trial, post-Audrey, is perhaps the most lethal to her. Having to give a neat little introduction to a total stranger who's definitely judging and appraising her for it, let alone innumerable other- No, actually, she's not going to think about that. Denial, save her!! She picks through the process at a painful pace, whispering "White... Concord... Partner... Here for the... Star..." so slowly that even she wants to heckle herself. Three of 'her' actually do, not that anyone normal would hear it. "I'm a mage..." she says for 'something interesting', completely failing to recognize the pointlessness of such a statement in this context; she simply thinks she can't say she's a god or a demon army commander and be believed, and she's not really looking to bare her whole soul to an audience either.

     Even worse, all that strategy for her 'tricks' was for what she could do on a stage with a little space to move! A little booth is way too small for her to do truly impressive web art, or earth-magic construction, or even little teleportive maneuvers, let alone an acrobatics act or a spider-swarm dance routine! So the best she can do is hesitantly murmur, "I can make... Toys, clothes..." and start to demonstrate by swiftly spinning together a nice scarf, manipulating the colors to turn it into a rainbow-striped one, then unweaving it and reconstructing it nearly as quickly into a little plush black kitty-cat with some loose stuffing pulled from inside her sleeve. She sets the stuffed kitty on top of the scrying crystal, half-bows, and excuses herself as soon as possible!
White White's drawn along to the next room, and being asked to tell a *joke* for the second trial is somehow even crueller than the previous trial. She's deflating more by the moment! What kind of joke is she even supposed to tell? What kind of joke does she *know* off the top of her head? Magic joke? Spider joke..? The best she can do is, after a slightly terrified pause, faintly blurt "Arachno-boba." and create an illusory image of a glass full of round little cartoony spiders with a straw in it. It would probably work better if she'd come up with a lead-in to the punchline at all...

     Delivered from there to a gymnasium of sorts, White sneaks a peek with her special eyes through the adjacent walls, hoping to catch sight of someone she knows, not that it will save her from herself. On the plus side, an obstacle course is frankly easy for her. Being asked to 'make it a show' basically sounds like 'fuck around a little bit' to her, so while teleporting directly from point A to point B isn't liable to be showy, she can easily just throw in some superfluous mini-teleports, etcetera.

     What she settles on, though, is that showing off while she *doesn't* have to talk is the way to go... So she does all three courses. Starting from the right, she teleports one of the gears from the leftmost path to stand on like a surfboard and casts a line of webbing out to yank on and drag herself through the passage atop the gear. Then she teleports back effortlessly to the start, cannibalizes yet more of the metalwork from the left side with earth magic into a walkable path through the flames, and jogs through to the end. Poof, she's back to the start again, and it feels a little like rubbing it in when she leisurely strolls between the still-functional mechanical bits of the maze, gumming up anything that's still working with her webs so that she doesn't have to try *too* hard. It might feel a little spiteful to whoever designed the trial, by that point... All in all, Trial 3 is mostly an inadvertent display of brute force and weird abilities that she, apparently, thought had no value for 'doing tricks' previously.

     Trial 4 is... Wow, did someone hate White specifically and know she'd be here? Why do people keep asking her for some specific idea of her future? She hasn't been ready to think about that in all of the last 15 years- well, not quite. She did... Fantasize about eating fruit again, back in the labyrinth. And how would one project a clear image of what it means to end a war, rescue a god, kill another god or two, subvert a family member's lifespan limits and- Ugh. She places her hand on the orb, puts together an image of herself in the arcane 'operating room' of the System's Core, observing the goings-on of the world and managing its functions from perhaps a hundred different magic screens at once in a stark-white room. Maybe it'll resonate with some of these nosy nerds to see someone aspiring to deific upper-management! Hmph.

     The time after that finally providing a break was much-needed, even if White only had to brush her hair a little and partly rebraid it from the obstacle course section. Being nosy on someone else is just what her wearied heart needs to recover! So, with regards to the other unfamiliar contestants, she sneaks glances with her Evil Eye to evaluate the skills that got them this far and maybe a little about where they come from drawn from the Title readout. In the process, her eyes meet uncomfortably with Gale's off to the side, she freezes like that, staring squintily and trying to focus harder, like she's going to dispel the illusory image of him like morning mist. Surely she's just hallucinating... Thinks the woman with ten fallback-minds.
Sarracenia      Sarra has been basically living in the most dreary parts of the City for the last week, so visiting a big city like this one has her eyes sparkling. It doesn't help that she's a small town princess. Her kingdom is basically in the renaissance period of development, and while airships and giant trees are impressive...a city that is alive with street lamps and neon signs and giant screens is dazzling.

     When told it was a talent show of sorts, Sarra had very mixed feelings. The last talent show she went to (which admittedly has been an actual decade at least) did not go well. But, in that one she was given pre-determined tasks to do which were meant to test how one handles Antigent. When she found out this one is actually meant to show off your innate talents...well, Sarra has been agonizing over ideas and elated to show off her talents in ways that she wants to for once!

     When they arrive, Sarra is in a specially-designed royal gown. The black dress hugs her torso quite snuggly, showing off her trim, toned, dancer's figure. There is even a bit of an abs impression left in the tight material. Her arms too are

     The dress's material itself is an iridescent black velvet that fades from black to a very dark red. Puffy, orb-like shoulders lead into sleeves of similarly black material that covers down to her wrists, where silver gloves compliment the look.

     Her skirt is elegant and flowly, not as stiff and heavy as her typical gowns, lending to a more graceful look. And a pattering of silver stars flows down from her right shoulder over her belly and down the left side of the skirt, matching the silver star that is on her black eyepatch, which is more like an elegant headband that also covers her eye than an actual eyepatch. Short, sparkling silver slippers with short heels finish off the outfit. Her silver hair has also been treated with something that has made it shine especially brightly and even sparkle a bit like glitter. For makeup she has a tasteful amount of cherry red lipstick and some black, glittering eyeshadow.

     Audrey seems in a good mood! But, she still looks a bit injured. Sarra smiles to her as they arrive. "It is good to see you looking confident, Miss Audrey. I was becoming concerned for you after all the events in the City and your encounters with...certain people. And I quite like your outfit! That is your school's uniform, correct? Perfect for the Crown White of the Heliosanctus "

     PRELIM TRIAL 1

     Somewhat prompted by the application to join the competition, Sarra smiles to the 'camera' when it arrives. "Greetings, Lord Esquire Sigmund Sottenburry! I am so please to have been allowed to join the competition! Not because it is a surprise, mind you. But because...that means all those watching will have the pleasure of my charming self!"

     Sarra twirls in place and curtseys gracefully, her crown and her metal lotus hairpin sparkling in the camera. "I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew~ Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom, Partner of the Concord, Aspiring Heroine of the Multiverse, Grade 6 Fixer of the Trideag Association, Liason to the Liu Association, Fashionista of Pipeland, Commander of the Sundew Royal Airforce, and...explosives enthusiast~" She winks to the camera.

     "As for why I am here? Well, in part to help a friend! It is only a bonus that I get to show all those watching my dazzling personality and powers. Something interesting about me? Well, I design my own dresses! The one I am wearing this very night was of my own design~ And for a trick, well...I do hope your audience is ready~"

     Sarra reaches up to touch her metal lotus. A liquid silver flows off of it and down her arm. She weaves her hands in a mystical way, and the silver flows down the other arm until she is wearing twin gloves of silver that reach to her upper arm. She then claps and a pole of silver starts forming, flowing up and downward until it is nearly as tall as she is before the top expands outward into a massive hammer head.
Sarracenia
     She then reaches into her purse like some kind of magic trick and pulls out...a Metal Cap! She winks again then puts it on over her crown. The silver that had been only on her hands flows down over her entire body and her clothing, then the color shifts into a beautiful rose gold. The princess is now a living statue!

     Sarra grins, then pulls out a Bullet Bill from a purse that surely should not hold a projectile the size of a medium dog. She tosses it upward, then in a twirling flourish swings her hammer up to meet it and with a sound like artillery firing the Bullet Bill goes soaring off in a wide arc. It starts back toward her, and the princess pulls out a bob-omb. She pauses a moment as the lights flicker, then shrugs and shows the cute little thing to the crystal camera before she winds up like a pitcher and throws it at the Bullet Bill. They collide, and an explosion results! Which turns out to be more like fireworks in this instance! Colors are produced, followed by some crackling.

     "Oh dear~ Was that...too much of a show?" The princess giggles impishly , her rose gold coating slowly evaporationg, before leaving the first trial area.

     PRELIM TRIAL 2

     Sarra gasps in dramatic shock as she is greeted again. "Second?!" A joke though...comedy is not something Sarra typically dabbles in, so it takes her a minute to come up with anything. But, as someone who has been around mushrooms her entire life a certain joke comes to mind. "A mushroom encounters a group of people planning a party. It asks if it can be invited, but the people are not so sure. The mushroom gives them a grin and says, "Come on, I am a fungi!"

     PRELIM TRIAL 3

     Sarra picks...the center path! She pulls out an ice flower and hugs one to her chest. In a puff of smoke her black and silver dress turns pale icy blue with shimmering icy accents. She crouches, then...leaps upward nearly at tall as a house! She starts throwing ice bolts, forming a pillar of ice taller than the flames. She lands on it, then leaps forward and fires more bolts. A pillar of ice forms in the midst of the fire! Sarra lands on it even as it melts, then leaps again and somersaults as she forms another. She does this a few times, leaping acrobatically and gracefully between ice pillars that melt mere seconds after she lands on them until finally she reaches the other side. She somersaults one last time before landing like a gymnast on the other side. She stands tall with arms raised after sticking the landing, then twirls in place and smiles for the camera as her dress fades back to its original colors.

     PRELIM FINAL TRIAL

     'Show us your future!'

     Sarra hmphs and smiles confidently. She reaches forward and places a hand on the orb. The scene fades in with her standing victorious on a battlefield full of fallen monstrous creatures, while behind her the kingdom cheers for their heroic princess. Her hair, her dress, and an elegant silver cape all flow in the breeze while she poses heroically with the conjured silver hammer she had shown off in the first trial.

     Then, the scene shifts to her entire world being saved by her, then other worlds, then finally to a peaceful, idyllic town with children playing and townsfolk happily conversing, without a single worry on their minds, apparently made possible by her heroic efforts.
Sarracenia      With the PRELIMINARY TRIALS DONE

     Sarra takes a moment to check her dress and her makeup. She touches up her lipstick carefully and does the same to her sparkling eyeshadow. She is obviously not used to doing such things herself, so it takes her a little longer than it might take other people. But, eventually she emerges onto the main stage.

     Sarra...doesn't see White going to protect Audrey for once. So, Sarra takes the opportunity! She goes to join Audrey and the young man who might be a royal himself. "Oh! Why, Lady Audrey! I am so glad I found you! I am sorry to interrupt but if you have a moment there is quite a bit of royal business we should discuss." She's trying to give Audrey an out of the conversation with the blonde if she so wishes it.

     Gale doesn't deserve any attention from Sarracenia, and she makes she he knows it with a haughty 'hmph' and an upturned nose in his direction before she turns back to Audrey. The black haired woman though...as someone who likes to dress up, Sarra sympathizes with the kitsune masked man. "One would think that someone who dresses like a noble would have some decorum instead of disgracing such lovely clothes with such an ugly attitude." Sarra says, quite obviously aimed at the belittling woman.
Audrey Basque     KUKURU offers to heal Audrey.
    Audrey is extremely quick to decline. "No! No, no, that's, hardly necessary. Please, don't trouble yourself with this. If I need healing, I will ask. I promise."

    She turns to Petra, smiling about the uniform. "Well, of course. If I win, I want them to know which school I'm from. And if I only make it near the top, then, that's still good, considering who I'm up against."

    She nods to Sarracenia too. "Mhm~." She doesn't reply to the matter of being injured. Is she? It doesn't matter. It really doesn't.

    DURING THE PRELIMINARY TRIALS, you get... very little confirmation that anyone is even paying attention. Sure, there's staff escorting you, guiding you from room to room, but other than your names and titles being used-- so they DID listen, and read them-- it's suspiciously performative. The best feedback you get, really, is being led to the next, and the next, and the next, until finally you know you made it past the little nonsense. Except... Petra.

    Between her doxxing their host (twice) and her HARMING THE AUDIENCE, she finds herself being escorted by slightly more staff than everyone else.

    But... they still don't disqualify her.

    Which must mean they think it's PEAK TELEVISION.

    In the resting room, Audrey immediately separates herself away from the blonde man, to his offense, when the others arrive-- even moreso when Sarracenia gives her an out that she clings to all too quickly.

    GALE grunts, in that way a teen trying to look cool certainly would, when he's greeted by Angela so coldly. "You? Lady, I don't even know who you are," he says, having not paid attention to Angela's datapad last time, since he was throwing hands with Roland and White. Kukuru makes him grin, though. "Nah we're still sorting that out. I thought this looked fun though! It's good to practice lots of different things." Petra gets a stare at the implication, and half a sense he's ready to throw hands over the accusation. "More like YOU'RE stalking ME! Can't a guy just enjoy showing off?"

    WHITE'S SPECIAL EYES reveal that the blonde man is called MAURICE NORTHINGTON, and he possesses about fifty different magical school affinities... at minimal investment. The woman is called SELIA-- just Selia-- and her skills all seem to relate to tailoring and manipulating fabric. The MASKED MAN is almost as much of a generalist as Maurice is, but instead of magic, he's an insane physical jack of all trades. Not unlike Roland, actually. His name is just Masked Man.

    Selia, taunted by Sarracenia, even gives an angry pout, hands on hips and all. "Hmph! And who are you? I will have you know my father owns this city!" That's not quite true but she doesn't get to elaborate before you're all summoned outside by the booming voice of your host.

    "Contestants! Please follow staff through the double doors, the main event is about to begin!"

    The nameless, faceless staff of the stadium motion to a large set of double doors, which was most certainly not there moments ago. They swing open, dramatically, to reveal the pitch of the stadium.
Audrey Basque     No longer confined to the inside of the stadium, you can now thrive in its central area! Surely used for football or some equivalent every other weekend, the massive green field is lush and fresh, and actually smells a bit like a forest after rain. There are countless magical crystals floating above, not lights, but to those who can tell, reality projectors, meant to reshape the open-air pitch of the stadium as needed.

    Stepping out of the hall and into the pitch actually means stepping onto a large stage, giving a full view of the field but also the empty stands. Or... physically empty, anyway. Like ghosts and spectres, countless mages have either astral projected themselves here, or are watching through arrangements of crystals or mirrors. A not insignificant number of them seem sick, or unsteady, but the applause is still worth hearing when you're out on the stage.

    Sigmund's voice booms from the crystals, your host ever absent physically, represented only by the well-dressed staff that accompanies you. "Welcome back, gentles and ladies! We're finally down to our top sixteen contenders, from a staggering thousand to a few! Of course, if you want to see every single minute of the losers' performances, remember to place in your order for the uncut, all-access VOD! Over two thousand minutes of unedited--" A pause.

    "I am being told," Sigmund booms again, "That we legally cannot distribute some of those minutes, as they represent an infohazard of some nature. So prepurchase the INFOHAZARD PACKAGE and sign the consent form to secure YOUR ACCESS right now!!" He pauses again. "I'm also being informed some of it will be locked behind the RISQUÉ ACCESS package, which will be free to our VIP clientèle. And that some of it will be scrubbed from the record completely! Please look forward to it."
Audrey Basque     FINALS, ROUND 1:
    "This year's event! Is a free for all competition! This arena will shift, into a variety of suitable environments for you to show what you're made of. You may use whatever powers or magic you desire to triumph! But you are FORBIDDEN from harming your fellow competitors! You may hinder them, but not injure them!"

    On cue, the arena begins shifting. Grass liquefies, the smell of chlorine fills the air, and what was a green lush pitch is now a big Olympic pool!

    "For this round, your goal is to reach the other end of the pool, and then return to the stage. However! This pool is not as it seems. Contestants!! You have ten minutes to get changed, and then, get ready!"

    Portals open behind each of you, if you need to go back to the changing rooms. Audrey does, in fact! To slip into a nice white swimsuit, like a one-piece but split across the waist; it's modest, actually, but the swimsuit is unlikely to be where your eyes want to drift. She's covered in bruises and red marks, and some of it is even bandaged up. Properly, even, like some of it might have been bleeding just a bit as early as the morning. Audrey steps back out of the portal, onto the stage, somehow confident despite the display.

    MAURICE has changed into regal golden shorts.
    SELIA has magically twisted and compressed her dress into a one-piece styled like a corset, quite intentionally.
    GALE has taken his shirt off.
    The MASKED MAN has not changed at all.

    After everyone is ready, a magical countdown begins above the pool, from 10 to 0, magical numbers hovering there and the crowd chanting. The pool becomes turbulent, agitated, and the nature of the challenge is soon obvious.

    Tidal waves! Whirlpools! Are those magical ghost sharks?
    Some of the water is animated, tentacles that flail around like sharp blades. Some of the water is darker, heavier to swim through. In some places, the bottom of the pool can't even be seen!

    It's not just about crossing the pool, it's about keeping the others from making a lap, too. Be creative! Be showy.

    GALE laughs, and throws himself into the pool without a second thought. You could swear you see him punching a shark seconds later, and he's not a bad swimmer.

    SELIA's swimsuit forms a red carpet ahead of her, and she walks over the turbulent waters, even cutting through a wave with ease.

    MAURICE is making ice platforms to platform his way across, occasionally tossing a lightning bolt at sharks that wander too close, and making the water a hazard around him.

    THE MASKED MAN swims.
    Like, exceptionally well.
White White frees herself from awkward eye contact as Petra and Angela take aggro from Gale. On a better day for her, she might think to back them up, or at least stand next to them, but all mental resources are aimed inward and trying to deal with three or four concurrent anxiety attacks that she's sort of juggling between Parallel Minds like hot potatoes, and the best thing she can do for the moment is follow instructions and process what she knows of the other contenders. A craftsperson, a magic-generalist, and a physical generalist, plus Gale with his protagonist bullshit. She's not exceptionally worried, per se, but she's more mindful of the 'a little bit of everything' strategy here in a talent contest than she would be in a fight. It helps that seemingly none of the other applicants from the Concord got eliminated... Actually, she's wondering how she didn't get eliminated herself. Between the anxiety attacks, she starts to wonder if she should be more paranoid about that... Though in reality, she's likely just underselling how much of an impressive show of force or magical technique some of her demonstrations were.

     Led out to the proper stage, White tries to quietly take numerous deep breaths. The audience being primarily remote-viewers helps a little, but she's not suitable for TV! ... Not like *that*, though, even if it sounds like someone else was!! Okay, reset, reset... We're fine...

     Oh god there's the pool. If she prays to herself hard enough, will she be able to miraculously undo this situation? Well, she could just blow it up- no, no no! Bad spider! This is for your kohai's dreams, just do it for Audrey!! She quickly morphs her dress into something resembling a white and pastel-purple scuba-suit, showing as little skin as she can manage without the matching helmet. The goal... Is to get to the other side and back. She can hinder, but not harm. But she can't... Swim.

     Damn that Selia ripping her gimmick off! But it's fine, she can outdo her. Muttering 'Terrain Spear' under her breath repeatedly, White draws the bottom of the pool up toward her feet as she walks across the surface, repeatedly creating foot-wide pillars. She can't quite invoke Earth Magic as fast as she can Dark Magic, let alone as fast as she could run, so she has to settle for a power-walking pace. In the meantime, she engages in the time-honored endeavor of fucking with everyone around her in every way possible! She unleashes the Jinxing and Heavy Evil Eyes on Maurice and Selia, draining their stamina and magic while amplifying their body weight. For Gale and the Masked Man, she instead uses a mixture of teleportation and silk-creation to create near-invisible sticky steel-wire-like webs ahead of them in their lanes of the pool! Gale wouldn't be impeded by most of her Evil Eyes anyway, and if she tries to cover too many spots at once she'll risk affecting the others from the Concord... Really it's a relief for her role not to be to 'try to win' as much as to put in a credible attempt while making everyone else's time miserable.

     The whirlpools, the sharks, none of that particularly scares her. The real horrifying fact is that if she falls into the water, she's just going to bob and float like a human bouey, and it'll be hard to keep her Evil Eyes focused properly. She'll just have to evade interference as much as possible!
Kukuru "If I need healing, I will ask. I promise."

"Hmhmhmm... Alright. Promised." Kukuru giggles pleasantly, and she easily casts thato ut of her mind. Does she understand the reasoning behind any of this? Not really. Would she? Maybe, but she's not about to pry if Audrey's not worried about it.

"Nah we're still sorting that out. ... It's good to practice lots of different things."

Kukuru's expression brightens up when it sounds like Gale and company are working on that. "Aw, that's great to hear. You can always call on one of us to help with all that if there's anything you're unsure of."

She fails to recall that someone else did all that stuff for her way back when, too.

"Trying different things is reaaally important, mhm. Even when you're past 30, you can still find new things to learn and try! I'm even going to be doing some of thatnext week." She announces with a confident little puff in her tone. She giggles at the bit of banter between him and Petra, too, offering some trail mix to the latter before hurrying over to Angela holding her hands out to...

She's gesturing at Angela's hands, then holds her own out. Kukuru might just want to play with them a bit while she's here. She scooches over to where White is, too, smiling pleasantly and pantomiming hair braiding. "Do you need a hand, White? I've got a brush, too." She offers, tapping the side of her dress for emphasis.

She'll totally pull out a brush if White takes her up on that, too.

And then it's time to head into the stadium proper! Oohing and aahing politely at the sights and smells of the wider field spread out before her, Kukuru looks right up at those magic crystals. She's watching them to see if Petra does anything fun with them, eventually turning her attention back to Sigmund once he addresses everyone.

"Different packages...? Oh, infohazard sounds fancy." She comments aloud, pauses to consider something, then lowers her voice slightly to address her fellow Elites and non-Concord competitors. "Do you think that one's worth getting for everyone back home to see? Infohazard sounds so exciting..."

ROUND 1:
With the swimming part of the contest about to begin, Kukuru finally realizes her mistake. "Ohhh... This was the part that we needed those swimsuits for. I seeeee..." She murmurs with a quiet noise, tapping her chin for a moment before shrugging. She's already wearing her two-piece (white with blue trim, tied in the back and side) under her blouse and skirt, so she doesn't need to fall back into the changing room!

She does, however, have to reach back into the back of her bikini to retrieve her sarong (translucent, blue-green) with a brief flicker of her teleportation clouds appearing behind her. Modesty certainly isn't in the cards here, as she doesn't appear to be shy about what she's wearing at all. There's still a few pinker patches of skin where her burns haven't fully healed from the second preliminary trial, but her healing nanites have worked wonders on them already.

Once she's done changing and before the countdown, Kukuru also proves not to be shy at all about appealing to the crowd. She waves, she shouts light-hearted greetings and loud "he-llooooo"s, and she claps excitedly for each of her fellow members of the Concord when they come out. Once the countdown appears, though, she's got her head back in the game!

This time, it's swimming, and Kukuru puts her utter ease of cutting through the water to full effect here. She almost looks more comfortable swimming than she does walking, but that alone isn't going to get her ahead or get Audrey the prize. No...

She needs to put on a show. That means opening up some of those ominous clouds in the water, not to teleport forward, but to set little traps for the non-Concord competitors to try and get them exiting the portals swimming in the wrong direction!

Any sharks that too close, meanwhile, get bitten and torn to shreds by Kukuru's teeth and claws respectively.
Petra Soroka "Well, of course. If I win, I want them to know which school I'm from."

    Petra, wordlessly, in the same way that she did with Aidan Proudpick spouting off about how willing he was to betray the watch, pulls out a recording device. This time, however, it's an adorable old-timey tape recorder that Angela got her for her birthday! Yay!

    Later, after the preliminary events, Petra is a little gleefully proud of herself for being escorted by security to the gathering point. *Especially* given that her shit-stirring is apparently well-received enough that the host can't punish her for it without ruining the show, Petra feels pretty satisfied with her performance at the talent show already, and it can only get better if she manages to make sure Audrey can win first place too. After shrugging off her friendly escorts and joining the clump of other participants, Petra has her arm intertwined with Angela's, and is smiling in a way that's *so* easily readable as being because of harming the event rather than genuine joy in participation.

"More like YOU'RE stalking ME! Can't a guy just enjoy showing off?"

    Petra's grin grows wider at that. "Guys *are* always doing that, yeah. But it's kind of more than a coincidence for you to show up *twice* in all the multiverse like this. And without your friends, too, so you're really just hunting after us. Or did you drag them into this too, and they just all failed in the early rounds because you're *that* much better than them?"

    Audrey, meanwhile, is given a psychic attack by Petra. Rather than any defense against the blonde prince's ramblings, Petra slides up to her and 'accidentally' cuts her off from getting any further away from him, leaning up against the wall beside her like a Curious Bestie.

    "Aw, hey, Audrey, don't run away without introducing me to your new friend. Hey! Hey, you, what's your name? Has Audrey told you about the topic of her thesis yet? You seem like a smart guy, are you working on one too? Maybe you already have one?"

    Petra's obviously so uninterested in talking to MAURICE NORTHINGTON. Once he's roped back into harrassing Audrey, Petra wanders away from the pair and drops the conversation without any regard for how Maurice might feel about that-- because he's got a much lower difficulty target right there!
Petra Soroka     Then: it's swimming time! Petra also has to change, because the 'lesbian apocalypse prepper' look is fatally vulnerable to water. She takes a portal and comes back a few minutes later (forming a privacy screen between herself and Angela with the morphmetal so they don't have to split up) wearing a bee-themed swimsuit, with a black base and honeycomb pattern. Petra is a bit more shifty about exposing the (healed) scars on her forearm than Audrey is with hers, carefully keeping them folded against her chest until it's time to jump in the water, where they won't be visible.

    She is, however, very proud of the swimsuit. She calls it the 'bee-kini' even though it's a one-piece.

    This actually isn't a challenge that Petra is very good at, unless she bypasses the water entirely. Doubly so because she's effectively tied to a three hundred pound solid metal weight, who isn't very athletic at all-- Angela can't even swim! So instead, Petra chooses the very reasonable option of shooting herself in the face the moment she drops into the water.

    With the transteam gun, loaded up with the Silver FullBottle. The limited transformation of her suit coats the lower half of her face in a mask, allowing her to breathe even when she's immediately dragged to the bottom of the pool with Angela. Then, she holds onto Angela's hand, and since they're below the whirlpools and waves and various obstacles, just walks along the circuit instead of swimming. Occasionally, tendrils of morphmetal reach up through the water like metallic tentacles to wrap around people's ankles and drag them, terrifyingly, underwater. Her allies are all victims of this, in addition to the non-Partners. The only one spared from Petra's sea monster roleplay is, actually, Audrey herself.
Angela ''I'm gonna be declaring war on this guy.''

"Understandable," Angela says. "Let us do our best." She mimes a little fistpump of solidarity. Of course, Angela is less determined to ruin this guy but she will of course help out incidentally, no doubt, by virtue of just mean-girling along.

''DESTROYER OF QUICKNEST''

"I would have used the term 'Enhancer' but I suppose I am only really thinking of Hydrochoeria. I am glad to see you are claiming it for yourself. One might as well accept what the world hoists upon them. At least, if it can give you power."

FIRST

Angela politely claps for Petra encouragingly, like she's trying to peer pressure the audience into accepting her trick regardless of what their actual opinions might be. Angela DOES think it's impressive, of course, but she has no idea what this audience is into.

THE SECOND

Angela snickers a bit more honestly at that. "Ah, I understand that one. Haha. Doing that here? During a talent show. He should be watching us." She shakes her head. "He has earned this." It doesn't occur to her that targeting the audience might result in losing the game.

''GALE!''

Angela can't help but be suspicious that this guy keeps showing up. "I have heard of you from reports. You seem to keep appearing coincidentally. It is strange. Is there an explanation?"

She crosses her arms. "...I take it you didn't hear the introductions, then?"

She glances to Audrey, perhaps wondering what she thinks about it. Nevertheless, soon it's STAGE TIME. STAGE TIME.

Angela makes her way on stage quietly, frowning the whole way, a frown that only deepens when their host speaks of infohazards. Angela takes infohazards seriously. She stiffens and looks around viciously, squinting as if to try and find something out of place.

And then something even worse happens. A swimming competition. Angela doesn't change (she doesn't even have a swimsuit). She closes her eyes for a moment, thinking this over, before looking back to Petra. "Petra." She says. "I am physiologically unable to swim. And the pool looks deep enough to be problematic."

She extends her hand to Petra, a smile returning to her lips. "But I believe we can still make the best of this situation and can rely on the incompetence of others to some extent."

She isn't going to think twice about Petra's choice of swimsuit until after she gets back as she connects the honeycomb themeing to the Arbiters.

Angela doesn't really have tools to drag people up and pull them down so she's largely treating this as a nice underwater stroll through the bottom of the pool, though if someone gets within reach she'll help tug them down even further to be supportive.
Petra Soroka <J-IC-Scene> Sarracenia says, "If she gets a win because we let her win it will undermine any confidence she would have received."
<J-IC-Scene> Sarracenia hmphs. "Well, if she gets a win then lovely! But, I do not hold back in competitions or battles!"
<J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka considers this for a few seconds. "Okay."

    Sarracenia gets targeted by far more Silver tentacles dragging her underwater than anyone else does.
Sarracenia      Sarra takes Audrey's arm like they are girlfriends as they leave Maurice behind. She does not even apologize to him!

     'Hmph! And who are you? I will have you know my father owns this city!'

     "Oh dear, that must be a bit embarrassing. Only a city?" Sarra says back. "My father owns an entire nation~" then laughs in that practiced high society laugh that every rich person knows how to do but Sarra rarely ever does. She doesn't mention that that nation is probably smaller than this city.

     Sigmund's advertising of the video and the subsequent additions leave Sarra quite confused. "...infohazard? Risqué? Just what were some people doing in there...?" she wonders to herself.

     The portals open. Sarra...doesn't step through. Instead, she reaches down, and with a firm tug...her dress's skirt pulls free! Her shoulderpads and sleeves are also removed, and they are all tossed into the portal. This leaves Sarra in a form-fitting, shimmering black one piece with a star pattern across the front. For some reason she kept her purse.

     Sarra leaps as if to dive into the water, but instead she pulls out a Bullet Bill power-up. An explosion engulfs her, and a shark-faced rocket the size of a car come flying out of the smoke. Aimed not quite right at but pretty close to Gale. It explodes again once it reaches him, and Sarra comes spiraling out and upward. She pulls out a feather after that, and in a puff she has a golden cape! She flies quickly, gaining a bit of altitude, then as she steadily loses altitude she pulls out a frog suit. In a poof she is in a full body frog outfit! She lands in the water and practically leaves a speed boat's trail in her wake as she swims, then with a jumps upward and pulls out another Bullet Bill.

     Another explosion, another car-sized projectile containing a princess. It rockets forward, this time to get in Selia's way. The explosion there once again sends Sarra spiraling forward back in her swimsuit.

     'I know we technically get what we want if any of us win, but I think it's best if Audrey specifically gets first place.'

     Sarra slows down a bit. There is some radio discussions, then Sarra hmphs and continues on. She is about to pull out an ice flower when...tentacles! Silver ones! "What the-?! PETRA!!!" she exclaims, her voice hitting a pitch so high it threatens to break glass and peak microphones.

     Silver tentacles are met with silver flechettes, hammer swings, and bob-ombs. But, one cannot fight tentacles effectively and still keep moving forward effectively. Sarra eventually splashes into the water. She quickly dons another frog suit and keeps going. Whirlpools take her a few loops to get around.

     Finally, she puts on a metal cap and sinks to the bottom. The, she pulls out her Banzai Bill launcher. "Fine! Surely this will help, then!" It unfolds as Sarra sits at the bottom, fighting off sharks.

     Then, it fires. The Banzai Bill goes a pretty short distance through the water before it explodes. The expanding series of explosions adds to the turbulence of the water and creates massive waves of its own, and for those in the water the concussive force is even worse! Sarra of course dons her frog suit again and tries to use the waves to surf her way to victory!
Audrey Basque     SABOTAGE isn't hard. The nondescript contestants are barely up to snuff to begin with; the four that stand out, aren't on your level. Gale might be, on a good day, but not the other three. Draining stamina and magic isn't something either Selia or Maurice can do anything about, and it visibly slows them down. Nor can the Masked Man deal with invisible traps especially well! But Gale, oh, Gale is thriving. His performance is visibly increasing the more pressure White puts on him! He's out of his element, and that puts him at his most dangerous! The same is true of Kukura's trapped portals; actually, Gale seems to be picking up the vibes of the competition especially well. This means that when Petra starts playing SEA MONSTER, Gale is at his peak, and this madman actually produces his flintlock of a sword to let himself sink into the water and weaponlock against tendrils of her metal. They're not injuring each other, SO IT'S FINE! Is he glowing blue? He probably loaded some kind of magic round in there. It makes for a cool underwater half-duel he eventually breaks off from, but this just seems to be to his advantage too. It's Sarracenia's concussive blasts that finally slow him down, and he grumbles, shaking his head to focus on the swim again.

    AUDREY for her own part isn't going to complain that everyone's wrapping everyone else up-- but if she knew this was intentional she'd be mad, surely. Making sure to put on a show, she even manages-- and this is difficult, and it's not perfect while swimming-- to twist regions of the pool upright and make dodging detours around obstacles that way. Teleporting would be easier, but... she's on the same wavelength as White regarding that. It'd be a bad show.

    THE SWIMMING EVENT ENDS. The order in which you cross the pool and back doesn't actually seem to matter, but scores aren't being shown openly either. It's about how much the crowd, and the stuffy VIPs, are cheering for you. But you get a sense that the momentum has shifted from the start: GALE seems to have the crowd roaring, as does Petra, for their little underwater scuffle. Audrey's trailing behind them, on performance, with everyone else arranged in a nebulous order that puts Angela somewhat near the bottom though-- much as she chose to simply walk along the bottom of the pool.
Audrey Basque     FINALS, ROUND 2:
    That's quite enough water.
    And quite enough effort, isn't it?

    Everyone is gathered back on the stage.

    Gale is hovering around Petra, evidently a fan (of having a RIVAL here). Selia and Maurice are mad at White, and Selia is especially mad at Sarracenia. The Masked Man mostly looks silly in his wet clothes. How did his mask stay on? Maybe Roland would know how that works.

    Audrey is... out of breath. Yeah, big surprise. She's also rubbing one of her bandaged injuries up like it's hurting, or maybe she's trying to keep attention off the fact the wet bandages make it more obvious they're covering gashes. Still, she doesn't ask Kukuru for help, so much as give Petra the stink-eye, her confidence melting just a bit. This IS her element, but doing it like this...

    The pool shifts and calms. A lot of the scrying crystals zoom down, to circle the stage in more attention.

    A few of the nondescript participants are hushed off, having seemingly done too poorly.

    Finally, the pool begins shifting; it's almost indoors, the way it feels now, with a slightly darkened sky and a black void for walls. And ahead, lit by projectors... a long catwalk.

    "How confident are you in your strut, contestants? In this dream made of glamour, you can be, and wear, anything! Did you think all of it would be physical prowess? Nay! The crystals around you are imbued with creation magicks! Powerful, but fleeting! Grasp one, and wield fantastical powers!"

    A glowing, rainbow crystal floats up to each participant, beckoning to be taken. Touching it will infuse you with CREATION MAGICKS... of highly restricted nature. You gain the understanding to weave into being any one outfit you desire! In any style, fashion or color of your choice! It's temporary, made of magic and not fiber, and it will fade by the event's end, but for just this one showing, let your imagination run wild.

    "Show us your heart! Put your soul over your body, and walk confidently!"

    The countdown is there again.
    This one's a lot more simple.

    Imagine the most show-stopping outfit you can, don it, and just... own that catwalk? It's not trapped, or curved weirdly or anything like that. This is more about what you create for yourself!

    GALE grins, and manifests himself an even fancier version of his regular outfit. A cool long flowing white coat, his blade bigger, ornate, a bit more armored up parts-- like he's class changed from JRPG RIVAL to JRPG PENULTIMATE BOSS. He fires his blade backward, a burst of blue light shotgunning him onto the catwalk, where he proceeds to do COOL SWORD MOVES and colorful magical flurries as he advances.

    SELIA huffs, insisting she does not need this silly magic to do this. Her swimsuit bursts back out into her full dress, and she walks forward with the practiced walk of a lady who's always wearing impossible clothing.

    MAURICE dons himself like a king of kings, in half golden armor and black, red and gold fabrics, wielding a brilliant sword of light that crowns him a superior mage, and a halo of mana of a dozen different elements. But his walk is awkward.

    The Masked Man... simply walks onto the catwalk.
    He gets booed.
    It's kind of sad.

    Audrey has to think a lot about this. She imagines a cloak like the night sky, a robe like the last light of the sun after sunset, an orbit of stellar matter around her, and a witchy hat like a galaxy. It actually all fits together quite nicely, and rather than strut, she hovers herself an inch off the ground, to traverse the catwalk like a celestial body.
White White's body moves slightly more exaggeratedly than normal, sweeping her left hand across her front to twist and reshape her dress again, adding and rearranging silken strands to expand on it until it's a long and ruffled affair. Only after she's clad in something of her own making resembling a ballroom dress of pure white silk does she even tap into the crystal's own powers, using it purely for an *overlayer* of a grandiose, rich violet and red coat, ultra-light enough to sway and ripple in even a gentle breeze behind her like a broad-sleeved cape. The most important touch, of course, is the crux of this entire concept...

     A tremendous, wide-brimmed pointed wizard's hat. The point bends backward, tipped with a heavy, ebonblack crystal star. The brim of the hat is at least two feet in diameter, and flickers with grey and black 'flames' not unlike her own Dark Magic. Her violet magic glyphs appear beside her body, projecting two Black Blade spells across one-another at her back; she can't handle two of those at once while *fighting*, but posing? It'll work.

     It's the most extra possible thing she could come up with, using her own weaving as a basis and exaggerating the magical themes in every way she could think of using the standard-breaking aesthetic functions of the crystal. If someone looks carefully, they might notice that she's ripping off Audrey's aesthetic, Gale's cool stunt, and probably a bunch of other things to put this together so quickly. And the most beautiful part of it is...

She can't see the audience, or even the other contestants. She's turned off her Evil Eyes, and covers her face with the massive brim of the hat. For a fragile, almost peaceful moment, she's able to cope hard enough that her sub-minds can subvert a total meltdown. She still walks stiffly enough that she looks like a robot, though.
White White is fortunately unsurprised by Petra's indiscretionary interference. Dodging that many limbs is still kind of tricky though with limited footing, even if she can constantly see every tentacle and every foothold she makes no matter her head's position. She ends up resorting to accidentally flashy little flicker-teleports, blinking between formed stone columns or even briefly straight up into the air before returning, if too many of her footholds are threatened at once. It takes a lot of her focus too! Really, the only reason she doesn't think it's worth complaining is that this at least helps ward off the possibility of being accused of rigging the event by showing up with this many partners all together... If they're fucking with each other, then it should seem more natural.

She hopes that the tentacles threatening to drown people and the bombs being deployed aren't considered lethal as long as nobody gets seriously hurt. She *really* hopes.

     Having to spend so much time circumventing Petra and interfering with the non-Partner participants definitely hurts White's clear-time, even if she manages to finish at an acceptable pace still. Inwardly it's irritating that she was right not to simply teleport there and back again, but at the same time she ended up helping Gale's reception in the long run. Perhaps if she were less anxious and unfocused she could have conspired with the others to mitigate his special ability better... But as it is, White manages to step back onto the stage-side of the pool as one of the drier competitors despite her scuba-style bodysuit, easily returning it to its original form as a dress and stepping back into her boots.

     With the pool (literally) behind her now, White manages to exhale some of her tension, and finally notices Petra's beloved bee-kini. She murmurs a plain "Cute." now that her mind isn't on other things so much; bug-type aesthetics and color-matching are an easy win with her, regardless of how much she had to kraken-fight Petra moments prior. The irritation of other contestants is somehow much easier for White to ignore overall, compared to the nebulous and varied faces and noises of the unfamiliar masses of the audience. Which is a long way of saying White don't so much as give Maurice or Selia the time of day; Selia infringed on her theming, so she deserved it especially.

     ... It really does seem like someone is specifically trying to kill her tonight, though, as she hears a tinnitus ring in her ears over the announcer hyping up a fashion show. She stares out across the catwalk, and something starts to bend inside her mind. She's been offloading and cycling out sub-minds to manage her anxiety all this time, but the main-brain hasn't had a break yet... And now it seems its time has come. She appears dead-eyed for a moment, staring into the fanciful crystal before lamely cupping it between her hands.

With White's centermost mind overloaded with stress, it's up to her inner council to cooperatively stand in for her. Seeing as they are still, fundamentally, *her* it isn't as if they're immune to the pressures that defeated their origin-mind, but since each one is modelled after a sort of simple trope or archetype they manage to at least act on a plan fairly decisively.

     You see, the audience is the thing defeating White right now, not the event. When looked at from a simplistic perspective, this event might just be the most easy thing anyone could come up with for the White Weaver, isn't it? ISN'T IT?! If the audience is the only thing stopping her, then... Simply blot out the audience.
Petra Soroka     After resurfacing, Petra peels the clinging morphmetal out of her mouth with a gasp, breathing air properly again. Through her wet hair, she gives Sarracenia a bit of a glare; though really, it's not like she's upset with Sarra at all. Blowing up the water was a pretty good move, and it's not like Petra's bothered by being attacked at all in this format. When she sees the *rankings*, though, she lets out an aggravated noise, throwing her hands up.

    "Are you *kidding* me? It's ranked based on *hype*?" Lowering her voice to grumble to Angela, "Now Audrey has *no* chance."

    Petra isn't entirely immune to the adrenaline of placing highly, especially when it's because of being a fucked up monster dragging the protagonist-coded guy to his doom. She pushes her hair out of her face to look over at Gale, still side-by-side with Angela.

    "How do you even get that thing to work underwater? I've got one like it--" A little showily, she covers the compact mirror hanging around her neck with her palm, to obscure the process of flipping it open and reaching for the reflection inside it. When she pulls her hand away, it looks like she just draws her Eggman-emblazoned gunblade out of the pendant on her chest, similar to the style of Lilian deploying Night Mist. "--But last time I fought with it in the water, it took weeks to get it functioning again after."

    Petra, at the beginning of the swimming event, stepped into the water before really observing what anyone else's techniques were. Consequently, she couldn't actually *tell* who was who, besides the people who were swimming directly like Audrey. So when White steps off of one of the upraised stone platforms, Petra goes pale, having especially attacked the competitor using those because she assumed it was *Maurice*, not White.

    Sweating, despite being drenched in poolwater and relatively unexerted, Petra slides up to White. "Er-- I, uh, didn't realize that was you, exactly. Sorry. I didn't mean to attack you with tentacles. Please don't tie me to the ceiling and hang me upside down like Sophia." Lilian gave White permission to do this, so it's a real threat!

"How confident are you in your strut, contestants?"

    Petra clicks her tongue loudly. She's been derisive of a lot of the events, which is a convenient shield for the fact that the idea of getting up onto a catwalk and *modeling* actually makes her feel very anxious. Her previous experiences with fashion shows have been... almost exclusively maid-related, and resulted in deaths and imprisonments, and there's no way in hell Petra's getting on camera in a maid outfit *again*. And neither is she going to be putting on a dress of any sort for this, but she can't envision anything at all in her head to wear in an event like this *besides* a dress.

    So instead, she takes after *Gale* of all people, as a challenge to his aesthetic. Rather than Petra herself, it's the Beauty of Ash that stalks on the catwalk on all fours, draped in see-through iridescent satin ran through with lines of heavy black stitching, which contrast with the hardlight crystal below to appear like the molding around stained glass. The black, and the hanging jewelry of gold that coil in rings around the Beauty of Ash, match the mantle of raven feathers that sprout out of the mech's back and shoulders and its glowing gold eye, courtesy of Petra still upkeeping her power to keep Angela alive outside the Library.

    Overall, it's exuding 'JRPG final boss's monstrous pet' energy. The Beauty of Ash lopes across the catwalk like a wolf, with long steps that keep its body close to the ground. Petra can't bring herself to show off by doing *tricks* in the Beauty of Ash for this stupid fucking moronic crowd she hates, so she just banks on the idea that the spectacle of the mech is enough, and circles the catwalk menacingly before getting off.
Kukuru Why's Audrey giving Petra the stink-eye? Kukuru might be able to make some guesses if she were so inclined to do so, but she's already given Audrey her word that she wouldn't. She'll still look worried, of course, but the reasons for not healing the injuries and bandages will have to remain a mystery to her for now.

What's less mysterious, then, is the start of the next contest: A fashion show with only her mind as the limit! Unfortunately for Kukuru, her mind is also one of her weakest aspect, and she actually needs to spend some time thinking about this. What could she wear to look and feel more like anything she'd ever want? Certainly, she'd want to be better than herself in every way, but how could she accomplish that with just clothes?

Gale's transformation from RIVAL to BIG BOSS gives her some ideas. She's always wanted to be smarter, and all the smartest people she's known have been accomplished in magic or science in some way. She's always wanted to be stronger, and the strongest people she's known have all worn some sort of furs, leather, something they've hunted. She's always wanted to be kinder and better than she's been, and plenty of those people have worn all sorts of dark clothing or armor.

Once the image forms in her mind, Kukuru's clothes start to change right on her. Instead of her usual bright white and green, her new outfit is almost entirely black and purple. She ends up in a heavily gothic-themed dress with a tiny tilted hat, with bare shoulders and a sheer top underneath it that goes all the way up to her neck while also having a big heart-shaped cutout over her chest.

Puffy detached sleeves cover her arms, and her hands are similarly covered with long thin gloves. The frilled skirt has a lighter purple trim going all around it with a wavy heart motif decorating it, and fabric becomes translucent below the knees. Both the sleeves and her skirt have longer, trailing ribbons coming off of them as well. It's as though Kukuru's trying to push several looks at once: the flowing robes of a wise sage, the fur lining of a powerful hunter, and the black and purple regal look of some kind of final boss' enforcer all at once.

Thanks to the translucent fabric, though, it also becomes possible to see the similarly light purple crocs on her feet with the darker purple inside lining for warmth. It's comfortable!

Kukuru's footsteps are considerably smaller than usual as she walks across the stage, too, because she's seen plenty of smart people take smaller and more controlled steps than her own. Do they even walk? Maybe she could even try gliding a little, although she's not fully sure how.
Angela ''Now Audrey has *no* chance.''

"It is up to you." Angela says glumy. Angela is fairly confident she is hypeless and can only contribute support-hype to this. Angela's vision of what constitutes as hype is a bit strict.

She leans in suddenly, once they're out, looking at Petra and studying her over for a moment. She frowns a bit, a bit closer than for comfort. She does pull back for a moment, but steps closer, even if she's not leaning in with her head so much. She must be trying to ease up on how much work Petra has to put in to maintain their collective existence.

''Please don't tie me to the ceiling and hang me upside down like Sophia.''

Angela starts to say something but she sways a little instead, holding out a hand to steady herself. A brief moment of strange vertigo. She then says, "We were only tentacling people for the mission." Angela says. "We apologize for the accidental tentacles. In the future, perhaps some manner of non-visual identification would be ideal." She frowns though. How often does she expect to walk along the bottom of a body of water while Petra tries to drag people down with tentacles? This might never come up again!

Well, she supposes, that makes it an easy promise to make.

''How confident are you in your strut''

"I am confident. Of course I am. My strut is impeccable. My strut is the best designed strut in The City. No other machine can strut as well as I."

She flips through her book, looking for the best outfit that she has. As Angela is from a game where she has like 30 or 40 different outfits, this takes her a moment. She finds what she's looking for and--

Unfortunately, swapping to Funeral of Dead Butterflies means she now is equipped with two guns, one black and one white and, indeed, even the coat that she's now wearing has a white interio and a black exterior. A white butterfly and a black butterfly are in her hair. Instead of her skirt she is now wearing black pants and shoes. She spins her guns around her fingers like she's used them her whole life and--she doesn't shoot anybody, this isn't that kind of competition! But she seems ready to use them as accessories.

"When you are ready, of course." Angela tells Petra. It seems Angela can imagine a non-dress to wear. She actually swapped out of skirt for this.

When she does go out, she walks across it with enough confidence that it actually borders on arrogance--if not outright stepping well into the field of it. She poses with the pistol, mimes shooting someone with it, and then blows out the imaginary smoke out of it as butterflies burst harmlessly out of the gun and fly around a bit before dissipitating.
Sarracenia      They finally get their lap in. Sarra emerges in her swimsuit, with various minor cuts, panting raggedly from fighting through so many tentacles and sharks and heavy water.

     Then she sees the leaderboard. "-HE- is winning?!" Sarra exclaims before glaring at Gale. She notices Selia's anger, but anger was partially her goal with Selia so she just hmphs and smirks lightly. She gets glared at by Petra, which just earns Petra a glare back.

     How -do- they stop Gale now? Sarra is confident in her strut because she always is, but she doesn't really have a dream dress that she hasn't been able to get. Which is quite a problem in a challenge like this one. It takes her quite a bit of considering, but eventually inspiration strikes. And, she doesn't even use the creation orb.

     Sarra doesn't even change at all. She just starts walking. But, as she walks the Silver from her metal lotus starts to flow around her. It swirls around her gracefully as she struts, confident in her stride and her appearance. Then, it shatters into petals of silver that swirl around her like a blossom storm. Slowly, then start to form up on her.

     They swirl steadily into a dress, apparently destroying the swimsuit as they go. A dress made of pure silver. A dress of a type Sarra would never wear in public. But, this is a fashion show, so she can justify it in her mind. It is to help a friend. It is fashion. It is to win!

     First it forms a silver choker around her neck, with a silver lotus on the front. Then, strips of silver flow down over her chest, forming into broad straps that show chest but only the slightest hint of cleavage before flowing into a silver breastplate with a silver corset beneath. At her back a cape of overlapping silver petals forms, each petal reaching to her waist. They flow elegantly as she walks, her steps slow and purposeful. Much of her back remains exposed, showing both the grace and the power of her body.

     The waist of the dress forms, and with it a set of four plates that form an almost flower-like formation. Beneath a sheer and glittering skirt forms, flowing its way down to her ankles. Then, tall heels of pure sparkling silver cover her feet. Gloves much like the ones that the crowd has already seen form on her arms, but this time with a thin vine-like pattern that curls slowly around her arms with small leaves every so often along the length.

     But, the princess is not content to just walk. It may not come up often, but she is a trained dancer as well. She does a few short ballet hops, spinning so that she lands on a different foot and facing the opposite direction with each hop. After the last hop she lands on the toes of one foot, then turns slowly with seemingly no effort. She holds a hand out, and her hammer slowly forms in her hand.

     She places it head down on the catwalk, then pushes off and balances on the head. Upside down, with only one hand supporting her. One leg comes down, rotating her as her skirt starts to float down, revealing silver leggings underneath. Her spin gains speed, creating a glittering storm of silver flashes before she leaps, taking the hammer with her and pirouetting through the air before landing once again on her tiptoes of one foot, hammer carefully maneuvered to pull her into another spin.

     The spin gradually slows as she performs several more graceful ballet hops, dress and hair and cape all flowing out around her. She finally burns off all her momentum and comes to a stop at the other end of the catwalk, then spins her hammer around herself in a dazzling flourish several times before bringing it up and then down with the haft to the floor to create a resounding 'clang' before it disintegrates into more silver petals, which flow around her and steadily disappear into her metal lotus hairpin as she steps off the catwalk.
Audrey Basque     Gale asides to Petra, once they reach the end of the catwalk, showing her the Flintblade. "Oh, it's magic bullets. There's no like, mechanism in here, the trigger just pops them and the magic leaks out into me. Y'know? I tried putting gunpowder in there once to see if it'd do a bigger BANG, but the only bang I got was in my face. Which is funny 'cuz, again, no mechanism. I don't know how it blew up." Yeah the idea sounded a lot cooler in his head. Like a lot.

    As the Partners finish their struts, the ambience of the crowd seems to lean in favor of Petra being in the lead, with Gale barely behind, followed by a nebulous order of Angela (miracle climb!! the fit really does it), Kukuru, Sarracenia, Audrey and White, with a bit of favor for Audrey still sticking from the previous round, and the underdog effect of her being covered in injuries. Selia and the Masked Man have fallen to dead last, while Maurice hasn't won any lead, or lost much, from his middling position.

    Those keeping tabs on the actual pulse of the crowd will see that each contestant definitely found fans, for various reasons. Audrey's got that "poor thing, is she hurt?" pity vibe going on, but also a decent showing from bending the pool and making her entry hijacking the stadium's ley lines. Sarracenia's got people asking where they can buy those cool suit items, some comments about how bold and avant-garde it is to drape herself in silver instead of gold like that! White's winning a totally different crowd over; her silence, fidgetting, and her perfect execution of maneuvers, have gotten people whispering about her mysterious allure and what trick she might be keepig up her sleeves. Beware the silent ones, they do say that!

    Angela exhudes a very different vibe with the suit, and the crowd is still fixated on her walking through fire and water. Is she a bodyguard for hire? People are looking into it. She seems so tough!

    Kukuru is being referred to as 'gothic mommy' and maybe this is the most cursed thing in the stadium today, after her strut. The crowd is locking in on her looks most of all, her demeanor and how she seems to be caring for everyone on that stage.

    And Petra... well.
    Yeah, they grade on hype, sorry.
    And she's the favorite right now.
    Look at her! She's so rugged and expressive! Did you see the balls on her to call out their host like that? What was that SCREECH? Yeah okay that one has a lot of haters too. Including catatonic venue staff. But the people who DIDN'T get mentally cheese grated by it? They're loving her act. And now she's a big crystal dog? And earlier she was some kind of kraken knight?

    She played herself. . .
Audrey Basque     FINALS, ROUND 3:
    "Stop!"

    An odd silence falls on the venue; more than just the crowd no longer talking, it's like someone hit the mute button on all of their remote connections. Sigmund's booming voice actually sounds particularly entertained, despite the nature of what he's about to say.

    "Terrible news. My lawyers have just informed me that I cannot, in fact, continue this event with catatonic staff in the editing room. How dreadful! This must have been the most exciting thing they've ever seen, their poor hearts could not handle it."

    He drones on. "A terrible accident involving some of the terrifying infohazard-class footage that was to be cut, I'm afraid." Is it even an infohazard? He's just using the term because it sounds fancy and dangerous. And expensive.

    "Do not worry!! For I will still reward you handsomely. DEPLOY THE TREASURE CHEST!" There's a click, somewhere in walls.

    A massive golden treasure chest just pops out of the floor, like it was springloaded. It's the size of a truck! Its lid bursts open, vomiting out rainbows like a bad gacha game animation. It's a five star chest!

    Money, vacation tickets, assorted magical weapons and doodads all come bursting out, creating an avalanche of loot around it. Including a particular astrolabe you came here to get, made of old bronze. It looks less valuable than pretty much everything else here.

    "Now then, the prizes are yours! I'm afraid since we're three rounds out having a winner there simply isn't one to name, so your final challenge will be to divide the prize as you see fit!"

    The scrying crystals all drop down, to catch every angle of the participants' dilemma regarding who gets what.

    GALE rumbles, deflating with a whine of frustration. "Aww man. Lame. Yeah whatever, I'm out. Still holding on to our DANGER DATE, lass." He shoots his fingers like guns at Petra.

    While MAURICE and SELIA make for the treasure chest like starved dogs, the MASKED MAN just crosses his arms and... stands there?
    He doesn't seem in a hurry.

    AUDREY, forcing what's left of the glamour back into the shape of her school uniform until she can get changed into the real deal, refracts the space around the astrolabe, and then is simply holding it. She turns to her fellow Partners, evidently a bit unsatisfied at the outcome, but also too sore to really complain. Though, part of her wanted to win. Or at least try.

    "Um... do we really want all the other prizes or do we let them have it? It's just... money I guess. They seem kind of..."

    Maurice is currently pulling on Selia's hair.
    Selia is currently biting one of his arms.

    "F-Focused on it, huh..."
White White starts to rouse back to the world of the living when she hears signs that her torture is almost over. She, uncharacteristically, doesn't even catch everything that Sigmund announces, and it takes a little bit to fully sink in. It's done! She's free! They're- oh crap, it's a loot free-for-all! Something sparks in her misfiring brain after Petra's comment earlier about (not) being tied to the ceiling, and she rakes her fingers downward to snare Selia and Maurice and dangle them from aerial portals with her webbing. Having to deal with ravenous, impatient loot-grabbers is about the last thing she's ready to put up with right now! That done though, she returns her dress to normal again (she really is attached to that one design) and shrugs off the magically-made coat, tosses the matching hat in a lazy frisbee-throw to try and land it on Audrey's head, and staggers over to the loot pile. She just kind of aimlessly sifts around for a tough looking weapon, like a mace or a hammer, stuffs it into her sleeve and then teleports away.

     She's so cooked. She has another outing tomorrow, and she feels like she's going to die. She's going to have to teach her sub-minds how to give therapy overnight. Maurice can use some fire magic, so given a bit of time he can probably blowtorch himself and Selia free of the mighty webs that are wrapped only a couple times around their arms and waists...
Petra Soroka     "Mother*fucker*!"

    Upon seeing the rankings, with herself at the top, Petra groans in exasperation. Not only did Audrey fumble it so bad that she ended up near the bottom of the rankings, but in her place it was *Petra* that won! This goes against everything Petra was aiming for! "Are you *kidding* me?"

    Changed back into her previous outfit during the scene transition, Petra leans her head on Angela's shoulder to grumble into the crook of her neck about how unfair it is that Petra did the best and everyone in the audience loved her. "This is some reality TV horseshit and everyone knows it. Even the audience cares so little about this fucking show that they preferred me hating it and doing everything to show that I didn't care about it to anyone who was taking it seriously. I played right into Sigmund's fucking hands. I need to ruin his life for doing this to me. I should doxx him or something. I've still got the spell from those mirror things to spy on him. You looked great in that suit by the way. I've literally never seen you in a suit before."

"Stop!"

    "Come *on*!" Petra shouts up at the disembodied voice of her mortal enemy for the day. "Fuck your lawyers! You're *rich*! What are lawyers even for if not allowing you to do questionably safe reality TV shows without any legal retribution?! I'll show you a fucking infohazard!"

    Of course, shouting at him doesn't actually change anything. Petra huffs and puffs while her breathing is slowing down, arms crossed and foot tapping irritatedly against the ground. With her nemesis Sigmund gone, her anger turns to Audrey while she paces around the stage.

    "You know, I hope this is a lesson. Audrey. You played every single one of those stupid games with a fucking C-plus passing grade of being totally fucking unremarkable and blandly proper, and it was *sub-par*. You still have the instincts of a smug fucking gifted kid with no real prospects in life because you don't know how to do a single thing besides follow orders in the exact constraints you're given with zero personality at all. You'll always be *below average* if you stick to doing that. We might have won, but it wasn't thanks to you."

    And then, the treasure. Petra has no real need for it, given that the Concord generally funds anything she needs, and she doesn't care about riches anyways. But seeing the fucking low tier *dogs* fighting over it like a scrap of meat makes her see red, and before she knows it, she's stalking up to them with her transteam gun drawn. With White having wrapped them up, a series of morphmetal tendrils snap out around Petra and lay claim to the entire pile of treasure by their threatened area.

    "You know what? No. I don't want to fucking *let them have it*. Every single thing here is ours. These two fucking *animals* can starve. Someone grab the Guiding Star, and then we'll just scoop everything else up and get out of here. I was in first, so it all rightfully belongs to the Concord." Those weren't the rules, but Petra's decided they are now. Morphmetal whips coil around Maurice and Selia, and Petra walks up and starts pulling the magical-artifact-looking rings off of Maurice's fingers too. "Stupid fucking contest. This belongs to me too. Thank me for letting you leave alive."

    In the midst of all of the sorting through the treasure uncontested by any non-Partners, Petra pulls out a short offhand blade with a unique-feeling enchantment on it. Before Gale leaves, Petra flips it around to grab it by the blade, and then flings it spinning through the air to arc towards Gale. "There's a little multiclassing for you if you want. And don't call it a date."
Audrey Basque     Petra's increasing anger draws the attention of the scrying crystals, which start buzzing around her like bees. The ratings! The ratings are through the roof! But to her despair, no response ever comes from Sigmund. Maybe he knows better, after her stunts earlier. Or perhaps his staff knows better and won't let him through.

    And you can tell, especially, ESPECIALLY, that the ratings are going UP when she's yelling at Audrey. This IS some reality TV horseshit, Petra, thank you for providing it in spades.

    Some of the crystals follow after Petra, as she uses the fact Maurice and Selia are tied up by White to plunder riches off them. They're both seethingly mad but can't immediatly free themselves.

    Some of the crystals stay behind to circle Audrey, because that shot of her looking absolutely crushed by Petra's words is going to be some mage Youtuber's reaction thumbnail for the next month at least.

    She thought she was doing well... no, she's sure... if this had gone on the entire way, she would've been fine. But it didn't! So it doesn't matter. And now she just looks bad for it.

    "A-Ah... it's... it's okay, I have it," she idly lifts the astrolabe to show Petra, though the arm drops just as quickly. Does she even deserve this thing now? It's going to go on a shelf, and out of shame, she's never going to even use or study it. Probably.

    GALE catches the sword effortlessly, grinning back at Petra without a care for her mood. "Sure thing. Duel? Nah, the other stooges are invited too. Fight? God, sounds boring. Clash? Whatever. Yeah, I like that one. See you for our whatever it's gonna be."

    Man who does not have a single romantic bone in him is perfectly fine with not calling it a date! He just wants a good fight.
Sarracenia      Round 3 is about to start, but is called to a stop because...people are catatonic?! Sarra immediately glares at Petra. She is sure it is Petra's fault somehow.

     The final rankings are revealed. Sarra is deemed...unremarkable. In a talent contest. Again. She is perfectly content to let the two supposedly rich brats fight it out for the money, but White and Petra restrain them and then Petra outright robs them.

     That part does not give Sarra too much pause. It is when Petra starts tearing into Audrey that Sarra's silver feathers get ruffled. "You simply cannot be anything but completely toxic, can you?! This is how you treat your friends?! How do you have any at all?! Would you talk like that to Angela if she made some kind of mistake?! Not that that would eeeever be possible!" Sarra exclaims, that last sentence dripping with sarcasm.

     As she notices the crystals staying by Audrey and Audrey's expression, Sarra whips out her hammer in a split second and in a single twirl smashes them all. And she stays close to Audrey so she can keep smashing any other crystals that get close. "Audrey, you cannot let her talk to you like that! Even if you will not get upset with her, you cannot just excuse such behavior! Just because she does not appreciate your personality does not mean you do not have one or that it is not a good one! Do not let her break you down like I have seen happen with others! Do not ever think that you are not amazing! Because you are!"

     As someone who has dealt with issues of others telling her she's worthless and sometimes believing it herself...Sarra really doesn't want to see someone else, especially someone like Audrey, thinking that or tolerating that. And it might be visible in how Sarra's eye is glistening a bit right now.
Audrey Basque     "N--No, it's okay," Audrey replies to Sarracenia, without lifting her head or even hands to stop her in any meaningful way. No, if she wants to smash up the stadium's equipment, she really could not care less. But Petra is correct, on a fundamental level Audrey reasons Sarracenia cannot understand, and so to stand up to Petra isn't just stupid, it's actively denying the tiny spark she thinks exist in her to be better. It's standing up to the one person who saw that spark, once, and that was enough.

    "Really. You can't ever hope to improve if you always push back when people point out your issues." She's slipping back into formality, slightly, there's a stiffness to her tone, like a shell to shield her vulnerable underbelly. "Even if they say it like that. That's not painful, anyway. That's nothing." It's not a lie, the way she says it.

    It's not that the light goes out of her eyes, exactly, she does seem to mean it when she says this is nothing. It's a bit of a long stare, and she recalls something else.

PHONE: Petra Soroka texts | the essential core quality of humanness stripped from humanity
PHONE: Petra Soroka texts | mostly accessible by being forced to beg

    She saunters on over, away from Sarracenia and towards Petra. "I'm... I'm sorry. I'll do better. S-So... p-please... don't mind her."
Sarracenia      'N--No, it's okay,'

     Sarra may not have been forced to stop or even asked to stop but...that reply makes her stop anyway. "W-...what?"

     'Really. You can't ever hope to improve if you always push back when people point out your issues.'

     Sarra growls a bit. "But, there is a difference in pointing out an issue and making sure to make someone feel as terrible as possible about having an issue! There is such a thing as kind criticism!" Sarra objects.

     'I'm... I'm sorry. I'll do better. S-So... p-please... don't mind her.'

     Sarra's expression goes from fully angry to mostly sad and slightly angry. "...fine. I suppose it serves me right for thinking I could help..." She shakes her head, then wipes at her eye as she makes her way out of the contest area. She dons a tanuki suit so she doesn't feel as exposed in her silver dress, then flies her way home.