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Priscilla     There couldn't possibly be a better time for something to go wrong than the Inventor's Fair. Both the people trying prevent that, and trying to be that thing that goes wrong, know that. A good portion of the citizenry can probably figure that out for themselves too, but it won't, and hasn't, stopped them coming out in the hundreds, if not thousands, to the series of interconnected plazas and parks that surround the Spire, broken up by the walls that radiate out from the central government district, pierced by small towers along their length, to keep an eye on things.

    With everything else cleared out for the day, the vast expanses of gold-veined white sandstone and lime are almost disorienting in their perfect, level expanse, and almost too bright under the midday Kaladesh suns. It helps tremendously that it's broken up by roving crowds of constantly moving bodies, wandering back and forth between scores of spectacles built, submitted, and approved, from Ghirapur's best and brightest inventors, eager both to show their craft, and win one of the top ten slots, guaranteeing entry into a Consulate-funded grant program where they'd compete to put their invention into paid production, or failing that, at least have a lot of free money and a perfect workplace to refine it for a while.

    As Ghirapur goes, there are essentially no two creations that are remotely similar. Though there are broad categories each invention is submitted under (the military applications branch being highly restricted and slim-looking this year) even within the same plaza, one can find a machine the size of a freezer box that autonomously prints Thopters right next to an elephant five times the size of a real one made of swirling clockworks and silver plates, or an enormous, complicated puzzle-safe apparently called a "mana vault" near a stand with a golden ring that the owner proudly claims achieves targeted teleportation and demonstrates with a bottle across several plinths.

    There are also Enforcers out in . . . force. A lot of them. Thrice as many as last year. They aren't quite armed like riot police, as someone on the Consulate is smart enough to not go that dystopian for a prized event that the people are excited about, but they man every intermediate tower, stand at every circular passage, and frequently march about in groups of eight, on the lookout for trouble. Twice as many automatons fill out their numbers, and quite obviously, a grounds set up to show things off as well as possible is naturally a poor environment to try and sneak around between corners and shadows.
Priscilla     That leaves the Renegades not a lot of ability to mass up in a dark and forgotten alley or go through a tunnel or secret courtyard like usual. They've had to split up into groups no larger than three to avoid attracting attention, at least having the benefit of being able to blend into the crowd, save for Pia Nalaar herself, who is almost public enemy number one at this point, and would be far too easily recognized. Even a mask wouldn't really help with that ridiculously red hair, and a full head concealing mask and hood would be way too suspicious, so she has left a sheet of instructions and a team of Elites in her stead.

    Because the Inventor's fair is such a massively attended, widely broadcast, and heavily guarded event, they plan to make the Consulate look a fool under their noses. Gonti has certainly helped a lot with this, because as one might expect from a kingpin of smuggled goods, he has provided magitech scramblers that can be worn under loose or layered clothes, which completely hide artifact material from the scanners and watchful automatons surrounding the show floors, allowing Renegades to carry in all the quicksmithing tools and materials they need for the show.

    The plan has two very simple, and hopefully harmless parts. One is for multiple teams to build their own little Thopters on the spot, and coordinate them into a large and very blatantly public aerial display they'd rehearsed ahead of time, to flagrantly show off and defy the idea the Consulate could keep inventors out of the inventor's fair by bullying them with power cuts and police raids. The second is working off the mass production exploit discovered by the Watch earlier to send a shutdown signal through large portions of the Consulate's clockwork robots, to expose shoddy craftsmanship, poor use of city resources and hiring, general ineptitude in the enforcement corps, and to make an easy escape. The former requires a lot of individual places close to the Spire without being seen, and the latter requires cornering a single automaton where a fuss won't be discovered. Easier said than done
August Kohler August Kohler has been waiting for this day ever since he broke out of prison. He refused to give up on the Renegades, and had things to think over. He still didn't really know how to 'change the context', and would probably need to quiz George some more, but he wanted to do what he could anyways, stop being such a raging beast. This mission seemed like the perfect one, because it didn't involve shooting people - it involved making a statement with flash and ingenuity.

Dressed in a colorful shawl and hoodie to blend in and cover his identity as much as he could, gun and knife concealed inside his pockets, August manuevered through the crowds like a passerby, looking at the various inventions and stuff. He wasn't focusing too much on them as he moved, though. Instead, August was paying attention to the automatons.

He was searching for one that seemed to be the most separated from the others and the easiest to separate, like guarding an alleyway or something. One they could hijack. Securing an escape was the most important part of the plan to him after last time, because he certainly wants to make sure no one gets arrested again.
All-Seeing Eye      Someone on the Consulate was smart enough to avoid the outward appearance of authoritarianism. The Enforcers aren't girded for war, even if there are a lot of them. All-Seeing Eye, too, has the outward appearance of peace. In his golden silk changshan, with embossed lightning patterns, he seems no less colorful than the average citizen of Ghirapur. Unlike any of the would-be renegades, however, he hasn't at all bothered to hide his identity. Today he's in his human guise, but there can nonetheless be no mistaking those golden eyes or that lustrous length of braided black hair.

     Being here to ostensibly stop the Renegades, he has no idea what plans they might make, or even if they'll show up. But, he does have an idea of how to find them, and hopefully stop them before they can start anything. He walks from exhibit to exhibit, not bothering to patrol as the Enforcers do, but pretending to have an interest in them. His eyes even seem to focus upon the occasional invention, his face alighting with a convincing facsimile of an interested smile. His brows raise at seemingly the right moment, especially when inventions appear to demonstrate some amazing feature--like the targeted teleportation ring.

     In truth, he's scanning the crowd. Anyone with a hood or other face-obscuring garment will have that garment peered through by his mass-penetrating vision. It's his hope that this method will help isolate any familiar faces--such as August's--and deprive the Renegades of their off-world assistance early in the engagement.
Yuuki Kuran One of the bigger crowds in one of the major presentation areas is something that Kaladesh has not seen - and perhaps had not conceived of before. The large raised stage is host to a number of standard household appliances - all with the obvious flair for craftsmanship and utility that Kaladeshi artifice entails - connected with cables to a variety of boxes from the size of a large dictionary or encyclopedia, to a small moving or file box, to the size of a mid-sized refridgerator, each humming and thrumming away with power.

The various sizes are demoing household and light industrial purposes of power generation, the sleek chrome generators and batteries fueled in various ways from compost matter conversion in the mid-sized home generators to interchangeable fuel cells for the larger refridgerator units.

A number of multiversal business reps demo with gusto their Ministry of Inspection-approved hookup cables carrying clean, non-aetheric energy from the batteries and generators to all manner of product, and a large throng is around a crescent of tables and reps, manned by a whole Swag Team handing out the equivalant of rechargeable cell phone battery extenders visibly being topped off by a large array of solar panels to the crowd for free as a massive gesture of one of the biggest truths of marketing: Product demos and tangible things move units. It's just science fact.

Yuuki Kuran speaks with the head of the Concord business team representatives for Ghirapur, a man with slicked back hair and a blue suit and tie, while a mixed security force makes sure the stage isn't rushed.

Edison's DC-powered devices are also sold or bartered at a side table to the swag array, potentially with Paladins reps passing out fliers with the King of Invention's product demos and swag featured prominently.

The consulate's flag is featured prominently along the area, and there is much hubub about the compliant power devices being shown off, with careful attention paid to the utility and 'everyone wins' nature of the new design, part of the stage showing a large vehicle-scale generator plugged in and running one of the large gilded choppers of a dwarven vehicular team.
Staren     Staren knows trouble is going to go down this time, and his wearing his armor under a garishly colored hooded cloak. He's got his helmet off and illusion covering his ears so he doesn't stand out.

    He watches a couple of the Renegades, ready to protect them from the expected Twist. Noone from the Concord mentioned anything about the intel he sent them -- He can only hope they've been working diplomatic and investigative stuff under the radar and have a trap ready to spring when Tezzeret strikes.
Starbound Flotilla     Did someone say business reps? Well, of course there's at least one business rep here, and it's Moonfin! He's up there demoing with the best, showing off all sorts of fancy Flotilla-produced domestic gear that works off of the Wonderful Power of Direct Current, among other things. Notably some of the technologies are domestic in the sense of domicile-focus; he's got a self-building house running up there! Of course, to justify the Flotilla in orbit and on the ground.

    The other members of the Starbound Flotilla are filtering around. It's no patrol, at least not visibly, except for Albert's. But they're covering various areas, keeping eyes out, and generally being present to act in the interest of... Gonti also, in a weird sense, because of currently being in collaboration with the Consulate while also giving him the VIP treatment for working with them.

    Their defensive efforts are diverse and, sadly, not enough to deal with the intended plan. They're currently monitoring for potential tectonic disruptions, flash-mob assembly, weird space holes, or orbital risks. Staren's offer of intelligence has then thinking /something/ weird might happen, but they're also thinking that someone in the Renegade side of things would cook up a weird scheme too. Either way, it's reason and warrant enough to keep that mini-fleet in orbit to check up on things!
Zero Kiryu Fairgrounds can only be so big, and /these/ fairgrounds are no exception.

Zero Kiryu has been around these people before. He's come within breathing distance of Pia Naalar-- and he knows what she smells and feels like. She's not the only one, either. The tension of the renegades draws in his attention like a cat observing a cluster of rabbits-- only he hasn't brought any attention to them, yet. He stands next to Yuuki Kuran, among the various off-world devices that the Concord brought to this place, looking... about as cranky as he ordinarily does.

He's more disheveled than usual, wearing a wrinked button-down and not even bothering to secure his tie. It's the sort of look he always wears when he's strung himself out and just doesn't have the energy to dress himself properly. Beneath his shirt, scarring is disappearing from wounds from a couple of days ago.

After a moment of simply observing the distant scents and blips in his mind, he taps Yuuki on the shoulder and leans in to mutter to her. Even if they're /not/ going to move, there's no sense in not telling her.

Chances are she smells them, too.
Thomas Alva Edison     Edison does not try and hide, or mask who he is.

    Because...he's a large lion man, as well as boysterous when he is happy. Why would he not be happy? A Inventor contest, and a need of electrical non-mumbo jumbo sources of power...EDI SON is in his element here. Along the booth, so helpfully supported by the Concord, are various devices for storage and generation of power. Generators, batteries...Solar power, displays for Hydroelectric, Heat Based sources if there were combustable fuels, wind turbines. Litterally every modern power representation, storage medium, except for Nuclear, which only has a flow chart and video. Yeah, Edison isn't going to try and make a miniture Reactor here. He's not Dr. Ventrue.

    There are more esoteric stuff too, taking the energy used typically by the area, and a way to use more mundane means of power generator for more efficency. Heat magic to power a combustion generator, and the like.

    To top it all off, there is a jacob's ladder in the center of all of this, sparking amazingly, in the confinds of a glass tube.

    Here, Edison spares no expense and does what he can to EDUCATE people on the wonderful, amazing power of DC power. Of course, he was also here to keep the peace...but he was making good on his word. Something needed to change, and Edison was about building bricks, and forming houses...than knocking everything down and picking up the pieces.

    "Well, you see young miss...what you do is you leave these panels on the roof, they collect energy over the time of day, supplmenting more direct power sources...imagine all of these on every house? That's a lot of power NOT being used throughout the day, meaning more efficency and power during the night, or during cloudy days..." he explains, bit by bit to people who listen.
Riva Banari Wheeeeeeeeee!

Riva's here, and honestly there's a big part of her that kind of wants to just slack off and look over the exhibits. Ghirapur turns science into art, and Riva /loves/ art. Everything here looks amazing with their whirling cogs and hand-forged, artisinal (actually and not that fake crap people use to mark up prices) designs and fascinating manipulations of space and energy and other cool crap.

No, seriously, who could hate a clockwork elephant? NO ONE. THIS IS SCIENCE FACT. This is why Riva is having an exceptionally hard time staying on task, her attention flitting from exhibit to exhibit as she marvels and enjoys each one in turn, behaving herself to not actually mess with anything.

If it wasn't for that massive battle recently she might have even been able to just relax and enjoy the Fair in peace. Sadly, August is on deck and she has to make sure the boss doesn't get arrested /again/. So here she is, dressed up in a hat that allows her to tuck her red hair up into it (seems to make people nervous for some reason) and wearing a pair of sungoggles (local fashion!) while walking about in casual gear. While Augus is looking for things that automatons are doing, Riva is looking at what they're responding /to/. If one won't stray from the crowd, maybe they can divert one into a position instead.

Frankly, Riva's not expecting any real disguise to hold. It's the Multiverse, yo. The important thing is to get your crap done before someone tries to corral you.
Priscilla     Despite the relative mundanity of what the outsiders to Ghirapur have to offer to the fair, they've drawn a great deal of interest, and it isn't entirely the sparkly eyed wonder kind. As arranged ahead of time through Dovin Baan, the Minister of Inspections had passed and written the dual Concord/Paladins exhibit on alternative power sources into the fair under an 'exhibit' category, pre-funded enough for a quality display setup, and not entered in competition, with the requisite Consulate branding on it.

    The cleverness and foresight of working with this initiative instead of against it is now self-evident in spades. A crowd is drawn quickly, and compounds in size throughout the day, partly drawn by the spectacle, partly by the novelty, and partly just because everyone else is looking at it, but there is an unspoken yet understood overtone to it -a sense of slightly too intense scrutiny, slightly overstayed questioning, long looks at rapidly disappearing pamphlets, and a certain seriousness to the way the crowd absorbs the demo displays. Some of these people may already be affected by the Consulate's recent power budgeting changes, to some extent or another, and more still are perhaps rightfully concerned that they may be next, looking to seize the opportunity and prepare for the eventuality their aether supply is reduced by the government in the coming weeks or months, hoping it could be as easy to get through as plugging in some solar panels and waiting for it to blow over. There is an element of peddling to anxiety and assuaging unrest to it, which appears to be highly effective in both moving units and making social headway, given the obviously keen and ready acceptance of the Consulate's generous intermediary power solution. It's fantastic profit /and/ PR.

    Kind of a shame that there are disgruntled and less privileged people, already shit out of luck, who aren't happy to let the Consulate buy the rest of Ghirapur off with gentle pats of reassurance and a home solar power unit. It's exactly the kind of thing the Renegades /don't/ want, given its likely spectacular effectiveness in diminishing the urgency of their cause, and helping people plug their ears and act like it won't affect them. It is now doubly the Renegades' job to ruin everything if they want to hope for any kind of opposition to the government stealing people's livelihoods for unspecified and top secret pet projects.

    For policing's part, the unexpected criminal smuggling devices get through the checkpoints very easily. The enforcers and their robots aren't stopping to pat people down, being far too much against the interests of a bread-and-circuses affair to be allowable. The Renegade teams mostly have to find stalls with owners on break, awkward corners of fanciful architecture, or just places where they might look like they're breaking out a picnic for a couple of minutes where people won't pay much attention. Professional spies and masters of disguise they are not. They're hoping to be in and out quick.

    That means x-ray vision and a good memory of someone's face from a previous encounter is genuinely just kind of unfair as an advantage. Even if one of the Elite disguises hold, they're saddled with other Renegades who might be recognized more easily. Given they are far from professionals, smelling their tension, in their cortisol-laced sweat, is equally easy. The main thing is that none of them are coming near the Spire and the inner ring, content to stop at as short of a journey from the entries as possible. They don't need to get close.
Priscilla     Where the three man cells can settle down, they begin unpacking parts and small aether units, slapping them together in frantic and furtive rounds of quicksmithing -part magical and part mechanical manipulation of metal and aether to create artifacts in mere minutes- universally focused on small flying automatons. Though they're all very different, they've organized a unified routine between the lot of them, and have probably assembled and disassembled the same units many times in rehearsing.

    From the edges of the sprawling fair grounds, dozens of thopters fly high into the air from places where Renegades were a minute ago, on a short delay, converging into a glittering, buzzing aerial formation that immediately draws eyes and upward pointed fingers. They gather together from all corners, briefly causing visitors and inventors to assume that it's an air show put on by the Consulate for entertainment, but the truth is revealed when the congregation of thopters gathers together through a complex series of aerobatics into the symbol of the Renegade movement: the Consulates aether Spire graphic, inverted, so that it pours aether from its tipped over apex. The thopters even go so far as to dump out their tanks, upending a luminous gush of glowing liquid aether into the sky, which reaches the ground as a fine, twinkling mist, before they all run out of power and crash to the ground in a thoroughly ostentatious fashion, right in front of the Consulate's nose.

    As promised, it's not a radical or dangerous display that might involve civilians. It also achieves an immediate hubbub, as most of the fair is interrupted of all attention on the actual inventions, and the crowds immediately break into a mix of nervous, fervid discussions, scattered applause and whistling, and thoroughly upset hollering. A few arguments, and then physical fights, break out between pro and anti-Renegade view-holding citizens, which have to be intercepted and broken up by enforcers and automatons, causing further disgruntlement when people begin wondering aloud if something else might happen.

    The automaton shutdown is going to take longer. The Consulate was smart enough to set them up in squads with human handlers, or large enough to be proof against the possible failure of one or two units. Since they aren't quite smart enough to be trusted to go way off on their own, they mostly stick to highly public and predictable routes, making it very difficult to mess with one in plain sight. When they have to scatter to deal with altercations, yelling, and rowdy behaviour, the Renegades have more of a chance to catch one in a bit of chaos and cart it away somewhere, while the enforcers are busy dealing with citizens.
Thomas Alva Edison     Edison observes things go...rather south. Or start to, the display isn't something that's going to involved citizens...directly. He is sure, however, it will sow the seeds of discention. There are have nots here...those who will not benifit of the energy initive. Edison expected this, because well...everyone saw something like this coming. He saved some of the best news he could put together, and of course...Edison was also going to need to improvise a bit. Standing up to his full height, and flipping a switch on the Jacob's ladder, as it starts powering his DC powered Megaphones.

    "Gentlemen, ladies...good sirs and madams of this wonderful world. Do not think that the plight of those who are in dire times have gone unheaded either. This situation that is before us concerns all of the citizenry...so I am proud to present..."

    Behind him a spotlight falls on the words.

        EDI

        SON

    19th Century Energy Inititve.

    Edison waits for things to quiet a bit down. "Part of the proceeds of the sales of these devices will go into providing affordable devices for those who are on hard Economic times. This means that we will try and service the needs of EVERY man, woman, and CHILD."

    Edison puts on his best statesman voice, as he starts going full ham into trying to calm and redirect the crowd down.
All-Seeing Eye      August Kohler. With only a hood to conceal his face, the Exalt spots him easily, and before the drone display. The issue is that the citizenry doesn't know he's there, and for concerns of public security, cannot. So, he's forced into edging and side-stepping his way through throngs of people, trying not to make it look like he's in pursuit of a criminal.

     Naturally, the display goes off in the midst of his pursuit, but that's fine. Edison and the enforcers should be able to handle the resulting unrest. And if they can't, he'll catch Kohler--and this time, he'll stay caught. With the jig already up, Eye cuts through the crowd, not bothering with the image it might have.

     When he reaches the young man, there's a good chance August will have seen him coming. But there might still be time to resolve this quietly. "Mr. Kohler," the Exalt gently addresses him. "Take a look behind me." He nods his head backwards, towards a crowd of citizens squaring up to fight one another, as enforcers attempt to stop it. "Is that what you wanted? Chaos? Disorder?" He chuckles like a parent watching a child make a mistake.

     "Are you going to make me do my job, or will you come quietly?"
Staren     And here Staren thought a source of alternative power would make the renegades happy! Instead they act like it's a /bad/ thing? There's just no pleasing some people! This... this all feels kind of wrong somehow. Like there was a better way to coordinate. The Consulate as a whole isn't after them, after all, it's just a few bad apples depriving random people of power for 'the greater good'.

    At least the people mostly do seem to like electric power, so that's nice!

    Still... in the absence of a better plan, going ahead with the interference and hoping to draw out the bad folks seems like... not an entirely terrible plan, so he goes along with it. He's not an experienced thopter-builder, so instead he helps abduct constructs for hacking while the cops are busy with the display.

    Whoever's behind all this is going to have to show their hand soon... Hopefully then, they'll become easier to fight.
August Kohler As the display goes off, August watches. Fighting breaks out, which isn't pleasant...but they have to continue their mission. August would have started to go after an automaton...but Eye's here to cause him problems. As he approaches, August makes sure his mirrored bracelet is somewhere he can quickly glance at, but doesn't go for conflict. Not in the middle of the crowds.

"Hello, All-Seeing Eye." August clicks something on his ear as he speaks, glancing behind Eye when he says to do so. When Eye speaks again, he replies, tapping his ear again. It's sort of distant. "Yeah." Eye might get the impression August didn't aim that at him.

And then, August starts to step backwards, moving to allow his partner to handle this. August's main method is way too flashy, and he's pretty sure the Paladin could block a knife to the stomach. Instead, he's going to try to escape back into the crowd so that he can figure out where to move next. Getting caught by All-Seeing Eye and his terrible dystopian superpowers really doesn't sound all that fun.
Zero Kiryu Zero Kiryu isn't all that surprised by what follows. The display in the skies is to rile people up-- and rile them up it does. He doesn't have the presence or the flair to do anything about this. He /could/ subdue quite a few people in one fell swoop, but that would encourage the idea of jackboot thugs. He glances sidelong towards Yuuki, and then towards the display that Edison puts on. These are the people more suited to handling a situation like this than he is.

His gaze turns slowly towards the direction of August Kohler and All-Seeing Eye. That will almost certainly escalate... but whether or not it's something he wants to /stop/, he can't be certain. If the Renegades have a firm enough point, then... it would be bad for their position to be weakened here because of him.

But if they don't...

If the city isn't as bad as the dissent suggests...

Having that pyromaniac start fighting out here would be pretty good for the local government.

He issues a great sigh as he continues to assess the situation, with some surprise as the confrontation between Eye and Kohler /doesn't/ immediately escalate sky high. That's... odd.

"You're looking for the middle ground." He says, to Yuuki.

"Where is it right now?"
Riva Banari WOOO ELEPHANTS

Riva's already busily taking snapshots and video with her smartphone, sending a couple pictures over the Watch network because she's hip to the social mediums and the talkboxes and THE CLOUD.

Unfortunately, business calls. While she might have tried to come up with a way to counter bread and circuses and Free Crap in order to ameliorate local unrest and concern, that's work and she's distracted. Maybe somneone will manage to get her on task later.

However, the boss calls, and also that flying thopter display is TOTALLY KICKIN RAD. Riva tries to record as much as she can on her phone while she all but flounces right over to where Kohler and Eye almost have a showdown...

And Riva all but flops against Eye's back. "Hiiiiiiiiiiii!" She proclaims cheerily, efficiently working to entangle one of his arms in hers. "Nice to see you again! It's been /way/ too long!" She grins, as if the was meeting an old friend, and immediately begins working to drag All-Seeing-Eye away towards some of the other exhibits. "So what have you been up to lately? Anything interesting going on? I know you work hard, but you gotta remember to relax, you know? Here, have something to drink." Riva thrusts a can of Coke into his open hand. It's not tainted in any way.

What the crap, Riva.
Yuuki Kuran Yuuki gives Zero a quick nod, her own 'dangerdar' not as keen as the Hunter's. "Try to make sure a scene isn't caused. This is delicate, and without careful management, it could go really, really bad. The people need a win, the Consulate need a win.

Thankfully, there's one thing Yuuki can rely on: the natural charisma and showmanship of EDI SON.

"Try to corral any you can and hand them off the Compliance officers around. With Baan handling things, I'll keep an eye for the Grand Consul. And...-"

The thopters enter the air, performing their stunts, and Yuuki makes a frustrated face.

"We may have lost. We can't scoop them out of the air easily, and we can't disable the operators without causing damage. Leave it to the consulate security and the specialists."

Yuuki confers with the Concord business rep in whispers, who nods to her before slipping away to start ramping up and getting more pamphlets. The spice must flow.

"You're right. A middle ground. The middle ground, where everyone wins. We need to see the heart of things, and be surgical. We need to have 'Tezzeret' show himself, and then strike either through word or action, while causing the least amount of damage to the city."

Yuuki looks out at the huge elephant, pensive. "We win if Baan and Sram live, the city is happy with us and Edison's work, and the Consulate can save or salvage face. Everything else is secondary."
August Kohler As soon as Riva moves to play distraction (August kind of expected her to beat him up, and is super surprised), if he can slip into a crowd, he'll move to join up with Staren and go after the automaton, trying to corral it. You probably can't do it with just one person, after all!
Starbound Flotilla     Alright, how does one deal with this.

    The flotilla could try to summon in some flying gear and find a way to spray out a pattern over the Renegade icon. That would hardly cover up the incident, and moreover, would hardly create any meaningful progress. It would also involve more militarized presence, which would agitate the situation badly. How can one truly, properly defuse a situation like this? What can one do to propeerly blunt the impact?

"Alright. Brainstorm, fast."
"We need to capture them."
"We must not hurt them, lest they be taken for martyrs."
"We gotta find some way to pull the crowd outta conflict."
"Isss about opinion on Renegadesss, right?"
"Worried. They're people in pain, you can't just make that disappear."

"Alright, bingo. Let's get to 'em before Baan."
"Huuuuh? But he'sss on our ssside kinda, right?"
"There is little we can do to defuse his intention."
"Nope, I got this. We gotta get some and bring 'em to the exhibit."
"Anxious. You've got me worried, George. I'm skeptical you're going to helpfully give them any free prizes or something like that."
"Actually, I'm trashing my plan, /that's/ exactly what we're going to do."
"/What./"

    The Flotilla moves into action. What's their plan here, exactly? Well, it's to immediately converge on the launch sites and try to apprehend the Renegades with the police, wielding their classic shock weapons. But instead of grabbing them up to cuff them and toss them in as criminals, whatever cells they can get ahold of are instead brought to the /exhibit/. Under some guard, George intends to... Put on a show of giving them free shit. Whether or not he can capture them, this show can take a good turn. "Welcome welcome, one and all and everything in-between!" He calls out, hopping up onto the stage, joining Edison.

    "Big DC Energy here knows what's up! After all, we can't just leave people out of the future! That's why we've made sure to bring in these great Renegade reps, ready to test and approve the new power of tomorrow!" He makes broad gestures at what he's hopefully gotten ahold of. Ideally at least a few of those Renegades are with him. If not, well, that's okay. "Come on, guys! Dig right in! I've got juicers, I've got blenders, I've got fridges on the cheap, I've got every kind of entertainment you could want, take a look, take a try, and then take a chance on Edison to make your life a little bit better!"

    George's scheme is to force the Renegades into a social corner. If he can get a few Renegades to reject this stuff on-stage, it'll mess up their message's integrity. If he can get them to accept this stuff on-stage, it'll mess up their message's spread. Hopefully, this can dampen the effects either way.
Zero Kiryu Zero nods to Yuuki, and seems to take a moment to contemplate his exact course of action. The renegades are spread out and attempting a variety of disruption strategies that could cause problems. They are, however, incredibly spread out. One group doesn't have good cohesion with the others. He felt and smelled some of these people before, back during the rescue of that woman. Their names and faces weren't known to him exactly, but he /could/ find them.

"I have an idea." He says, and walks away.

He ignores the blip of Staren, and the trio of Eye, August, and Riva. Those problems would take care of themselves, and the parameters Yuuki specified seemed reasonably likely to be met without his interference. These people weren't aiming to kill anybody, and were trying hard enough to set up and scatter that he could reasonably count on them not being committed to a firm assassination attempt.

So he follows one. A smell he remembers from the rescue-- the farthest one he can find from their allies.
All-Seeing Eye      August can see Eye's expression sour when Riva approaches behind him. It looks like a disappointed frown. But when she leans upon him and begins the old friend routine, he joins right in. "Hel/lo/, darling! Believe me, the pleasure's mine." His smile is just as bright as hers, and he gives August a little wave, wiggling his fingers playfully as the Watch's leader backs away. "We'll catch up later," calls the Exalt in what's meant to be a friendly tone.

     "Oh! Thank you." The Coke is accepted, cracked open, and even sipped from. Either he has a way of telling it's not tainted, or he doesn't see it as dangerous at all. Either way, he engages in small talk, his vision peering through the crowd to watch where August goes. People though they might be, living matter is still matter. "There's always something interesting going on," says Eye with a coy smile. "Like that, for example." He nods idly towards the stage where George attempts to turn the narrative back against the Renegades. Even if Riva looks, there's no sudden attempt to run from her.

     The only thing that happens is that he reaches up to rub his eye. "Mm. But, if you must know, I've been very focused on Creation of late. Beautiful world. Have you been?" He takes a measured sip of soda as the hand which rubbed his eye disappears behind his back for a moment. His Mobile Sensory drone discreetly crawls free of his closed hand while he pretends to adjust his changshan, scurrying into and around the crowd of people to follow August once he leaves the Exalt's range of vision.
Yuuki Kuran With all of this going on, Yuuki has little to do. She restrains herself from challenging the Renegades directly - she has Zero, and Zero has a plan. She restrains herself from challenging the renegades on stage, because she has the Flotilla for that.

She restrains herself from challenging the people with dazzling inventions, because EDI SON has that completely covered.

All-Seeing Eye moves among the people, and the Renegades can't just start firebombing places. It's the sort of situation that is an unlit powder keg, a controlled burn of a fire. Dangerous, certainly, but not something that minding directly can benefit.

Yuuki hates it. She hates it and wants something to happen. Her urge to dominate the situation riles at odds with her will to create the best world. To just 'fix everything'.

Instead, she pulls out her phone to ring up Minister Baan. "It's Director Kuran. The renegades have appeared in the crowd. It's controlled for now. Do your people have any way to cleanly clear the skies without hurting anyone? It could be a way to win points, and prevent things from escalating. If they start falling from the sky..."
Priscilla     Thomas, despite the burgeoning riot starting to happen, has some success. Not the totally enraptured and thoroughly crowd-distracting success he might like, but it's still a minority of the crowd (albeit a growing one) getting involved in spreading conflicts, and the rest are quite eager to hear someone who seems loud and important and like he's got his shit together tell them all about how it's okay.

    While the nature of what he speechifies about about might not be wholly applicable to the situation, it's a big and confident, stately thing for people to listen to while things are currently confusing, and so he retains the large majority of the crowd drawn to the power supply exhibit, keeping them out of trouble. A couple of hecklers show up to cause him difficulty, and then are quickly sideswiped and shuffled off by a pair of enforcement officers in gold sashes like exceptionally quiet and professional freight trains with stage hooks.

    The real shitshow happens when Staren, unopposed, wheels off an enforcement robot into the shadow of a massive, decorative, fluted pillar, and starts jamming his regulation 'hold X to hack' golden magitech rod thing into its aether port, just kind of having to trust that the actual crime lord knows a thing or two about fucking over Consulate security. Unsurprisingly, it works, and not dissimilarly from when Kyoko had done so impromptu using her own magic hacking; it's quite likely to be the same loophole she'd extrapolated that Gonti had caught wind of and had copied into expensive flash sticks.

    Every automaton of its model and make across several plazas slump over like chains of dominoes, collapsing along the advancing line of the error signal broadcasting from bot to bot, using their own communications as an infection vector. That isn't to say that all automatons have gone dark, since there are several different, specialized models around (generally the heavy police ones and loading/transport ones), but the standard humanoid unit is by far the most common, and soon the fairgrounds are littered with clattering, filigreed brass and a lot of suddenly panicking people watching half the security crap out, understandably worrying about what comes next.

    The fair grounds work up into a frenzy. The enforcers are made to rush into action as the crowd starts to panic, those near the edges pushing to leave ASAP before things go south, and those further inward starting to rush to copy them once they see the first fair-goers running away. Even with the triple staff, without the automated help, there are too few police to do much about the extreme risk of a panic rush, alongside the now rapidly intensifying and multiplying altercations. Many inventors are hurriedly packing up their stuff and trying to leave. The unfortunately extremely lifelike metal elephant begins bellowing and stomping, becoming a dangerous obstacle as it imitates the real thing spooking, with its dwarven creator clinging tight to its thrashing back.
Priscilla     It'd be just about the perfect time for Renegades to slip away in the crowd, but they won't escape a genuine Hunter. Zero finds a particular man he might be somewhat familiar with, in the middle of buckling up his pack, pulling up his hood, and looking to slip into the crowd: one of the two that Renegade Prime had brought to her xanatos gambit triple cross meeting with Gonti, who had spent a goodly portion of time fighting with his vines. The man recognizes Zero instantly as well (to his evident horror), but there's effectively jack all he can do with his tools put away, in a crowded space, and caught completely by surprise -at least until he calls for reinforcements, which he is immediately doing with his radio.

    It's a little more work for the Flotilla to track down a cell. They only get their payoff because the enforcers have found them first, cornering one of the three man groups by the steps of a public library in a standoff that isn't going to stay one for long. The enforcers shuffle to allow the Flotilla through with some appreciation at the sight of shock truncheons and all, but instead the confused Renegades find themselves being dragged away. One gets as far as a "hey, thanks man-" before he realizes they aren't being bailed out, but pushed on stage instead. They clearly can't decide on what to do for an awkward length of time, sweating it out in front of the crowd. All of them then talk at the exact same time with unfortunately simultaneous timing.

"Sorry but you've got the wrong guy or something; I'm not with the Ren-"
"Pleased to be here! On behalf of the Ren-"
"Yeah that's right, I know a guy who knows a guy who can get a message to the Ren-"

    They all pause to look at each other in a silent, shared moment of 'god dammit'.

    It's a bit of a clusterfuck, but it is partly under control. People are leaving in a hurry, but there's not a full on panic, and nobody is getting trampled. There are fistfights and a few smashed bottles going on, but largely due to loud and angrily opinionated people already being there, some of whom have been on the fair liquor. Inventors are starting to bail, but the more intrepid ones are sticking around in clear hopes that their competition leaving only increases their odds of winning, and intend to wait for the Consulate to fully take control and reward them for their proper conduct and resistance to the Renegades.
Priscilla     Then the Consulate actually shows up.

    Coming out from the Aether Spire at the center of the fairgrounds, a wave of gold and silver helmets and shields marches out into the adjoining plazas, as armed enforcers are sortied out alongside riot control automata. They begin breaking up fights by force, pinning and cuffing unruly citizens, and shield walling crowds away from inventors and pushing them back, where officers show up to start escorting the entered invention one way and its owner in another, immediately causing frequent and vociferous argument and protest, if not from the inventors themselves for having their property suddenly confiscated, then by the crowds themselves hurling rocks, coins, and sprockets. Here and there, riot hoses and stasis bubbles are used to crack down on fights, leading to a further panic.

    From the actual steps of the spire, a familiar red cloak and golden mesh mask can be seen going in the opposite direction, to the plaza away from the electricity exhibition. Coming towards them instead, is Dovin Baan, talking to someone in as animated a fashion as anyone has seen from him thusfar, apparently trying to get their attention with a slowly mounting degree of frustration as he is persistently ignored.

    The man he is walking alongside is much older, with a greying chinbeard and hair in slightly unkempt dreads, not quite at old man status, but with with a creased face that intensifies his look of scowling severity. He is dressed in the most ostentatious deep blue and dark red Consulate outfit on the scene, covered in golden buttons and chains and links, but the red tattoo on his brow doesn't match anyone else around, and neither does the weird construction of what appears to be an artificial right arm, made of organically shaped, dark silver metal, without ornamentation or artistry, tipped with a hand of three, claw-like fingers that float rather than sit attached by gears and mountings. His eyes flit back and forth with the electric expression of someone losing their temper on a batch of bad meth, so intense and quivering with unstable energy that it's unnerving, but he maintains a constant and steady stream of barked orders, which the enforcers all around him /jump/ to follow, running off in whatever direction he points a metallic claw. To those whom it concerns: the man reeks of magic -as in actual magic, rather than applied aether science.

    Dovin Baan falls behind his companion's almost vengeful trudge to stop and answer his communicator, holding it to his ear, and then starting to scan the crowd. Through Yuuki's end, she hears him answer: "Unfortunately, I do not. The Grand Consul has seen fit to declare the use of his emergency powers in response to this demonstration, and has dictated the full terms of response. I regret to inform you that he has also left executive power in the Head of Compliance's hands. I am occupied at the moment."
Zero Kiryu There is a difference between fighting Zero Kiryu and fighting most superhumans-- and that is that Zero Kiryu was trained to fight from a position of weakness. He is not skilled "at fighting" in a particular way, but he is skilled at throwing his weight around. Armed only with a radio and deliberately spread out, he has a window to work in and he's more than capable of working with it. He pushes in, a flash of movement with a knife-hand strike that holds its decisive action until the final heartbeat of the strike.

There is a blurring of motion at his fingertips-- his reach extending a good foot beyond what it was as initially benign fingernails sprout into lengthy claws. They last only for a moment-- long enough to strike through the hand holding the radio and into the radio itself, more than likely.

The claws are retracted as quickly as they were extended. His hand opens, moving to seize the man's wrist and twist it behind his back before the momentary shock of the initial assault has worn off-- even if he /didn't/ pierce through the offending hand and the radio within.
Yuuki Kuran Yuuki's reaction is immediate surprise at Baan, who seemed to be a major figure in things, a pillar of the Consulate, and frankly, one of their best people being totally shut out. She would expect things from the Chief of Compliance on one of his crusades, but not a 'powerful leader' like the Grand Consul.

Yuuki may be an awful vampire royal, but it only enhanced and made keener her understanding of the amazing power of delegation to competent individuals.

And yet, Baan is being shut out. It made no sense.

Still on her phone, Yuuki lowers it a smidge to make impatient waving motions at the Concord rep she had brought along to handle the mundane matters. "I'm placing you and our private security team under the command of a local. His instructions are mine. Is that clear?" She asks, to the firm nodding of the representative, a finger hooking to his tie to uncinch it a half-measure.

"Minister Baan. Seeing as you seem rather under-utilized and under-staffed, may I offer my private security team to your command? Smoothing things out with the people and ensuring the health of the Fair is our shared goal. They may not be up to your normal standards, but they are yours to use." She comments, before making a few hand gestures to the smartly dressed sorts around the multiversal exhibit.

"I am going to attempt to speak sense to the Chief of Complaince, and maybe we can avoid a full riot."

This whole thing was out of Yuuki's depth, and masking the fact that she had no idea how to actually use a few dozen private security types as well as someone actually running fairs and teams and consulates would. She was more of the 'elegantly kermitflail and doe-eye at problems' sort, and the taxing emotional investment of this project had long since gotten to her.

Messing with her phone as she moved, she tried to narrow down the scent, the feeling of Baral in the edge of her senses, slipping through the crowd as she did so. "If that's the Grand Consul, then this may get very frustrating very fast..."

Bringing her phone to her ear again, she tries for Baral's personal line. "Baral, this is Director Kuran. Are you on-site at the fair?"
Riva Banari Riva walks along with All-Seeing eye, smiling and happy. "Yeah, it's really nice. Good thing they're undermining their own control method." A pause. "Tesla's work was better." She says, tilting her head. "Too bad he didn't show up, you'd see some real fireworks then." She chuckles." Edison and Tesla were rivals, you know. It was pretty intense. He was a bit of a nut, but the world needs that spark, don't you think? You have to have to be able to push the limits, or you're not going to make anything really /new/. Edison did that a lot himself."

A pause, and then a smile. "You know, these devices are pretty useless if you're not allowed to get the power to run them." She says, pointedly. "They're not allowed to have Aether, you think they're going to be allowed to get these machines? That this government won't try to use it against them even if they do? Of course you don't."

He brings up Creation, Rivan ot even noticing as the clever Alchemical dispenses with an eye to look after August. "No, not really. I think I did a couple things there, but I never stayed long enough to really get a good impression of it. Where do you think I should visit to get the real Creation experience?" She asks... And at least she actually sounds sincere about it despite obviously working to try to keep Eye busy.

And then everything shuts down. "Welp." Riva says, kicking back a Coke of her own. "That sure just happened. Time to focus on other things, eh?"

At that, she'll bolt off, working to run towards the biggest problem: The huge clockwork elephant. "HEY!" She yells up to the inventor. "HOW DO YOU CALM IT DOWN? I DON'T WANNA TAKE ITS LEGS OUT!"

I mean, she will if it'll save lives, but she doesn't want to jump immediately to trying to smash artistic juggernauts. She pats at it, shushing it and trying to calm it. "Relax, Dumbo. Relax. Everything's going to be okay." She seems oddly unconcerned with the potential for being crushed.
All-Seeing Eye      "Well," admits the Exalt. "She's not her best, at present, Creation. Too many food technicians in the cafeteria. But, Whitewall is lovely year-round, and more or less free of those grabby hands." He smiles slightly. Despite their attempts at unrest, it seems like things are more or less within acceptable parameters. Then, the drone records Staren's successful hacking, and he gives a thoughtful hum. That'll have to be dealt with. Especially with the panic now erupting as a result of all that security being shut down. He recalls the drone.

     "Speaking of interesting things--" Eye takes another sip of his soda, then gestures towards the crowd being shield-walled by the police. "It seems some domestic terrorists have agitated a peaceful crowd. Goodness! That looked like it hurt," he says of an enforcer pinning down an unruly citizen.

     Eye makes no move to intervene, nor does he offer his assistance to efforts to keep civilians out of harm's way. When she moves to assist with the elephant, she does so without his assistance. She might think it odd. Up the long golden garment crawls his returning Mobile Sensory Drone, an eyeball which moves on spindly bundles of artificial optic nerves. He finishes the soda and tosses it with an expert underhand motion into a nearby trash can. The drone then skitters further up his body. It stands dormant in the palm of his hand. The other hand sprouts a dark metal spike from the palm, an as-yet unseen hatch in his warm brown skin opening up to let it through. He stabs the drone with the Personality Override Spike, and begins altering the drone's memory.

     Eye creates, within the drone's memory, a scene of a nameless Renegade goon using a device (the exact device it witnessed Staren using) to override the control of the automaton network and shut them down. Almost immediately thereafter, he is approached by two immaculately dressed enforcers, who convince him to peaceably surrender into their custody without incident or use of force on either party's behalf. It is an absolute work of fiction, in other words.

     After a few moments of silent concentration on this task, Eye removes a crystal from the drone and tosses it to Edison. "There you are, Chevalier! Now, show them the truth."
August Kohler August doesn't make it to Staren in time, so he's not a part of hijacking the automaton. He does get to watch everything descend into chaos, and watch what's happening on stage...George, with a clever plan. Really clever, but not one that he can abide. As the three stooges each speak up on the stage, August sighs, and starts dashing through the crowds for it.

He knows that the Flotilla and Edison are an issue. Which is why he has to be fast. Scooping towards the Renegade who was smart enough to say 'No I'm not a Renegade', August moves to lock his arm around that guy and start trying to drag him off, shouting to the others. "Come on!" Hopefully, the Flotilla and Edison won't come out just shooting at them.

The alternative is these guys getting captured, which could be risky, so August is willing to put himself at risk to do it.
Staren     Staren frowns unhappily when fights break out. They're supposed to be making Tezzeret's people tip their hand, not make the /people/ of Ghirapur hurt eachother! He can only hope now that when the forces controlling the Consulate show their true colors, the people will unify again. And at least it gets him the chance to help hack one of the robots.

    Wich... results in people running away. It's great that people are running away, but if noone SEES the Consulate's true colors, how will the people unify against them?

    Staren's starting to wonder if Theo's intel is very, very wrong. After all, with multiversal access, why should Tezzeret wait for inventors to show stuff to steal? he can just go TAKE things from all over the Multiverse!

    Staren holds his head in his hands. Why didn't he realize that before?! Stupid, stupid!

    Then, well, the consulate shows up. And he can see people getting mad about their inventions being stolen. That's... something.

    And then Staren sees him: Artifical arm, kind of wispy. Is THAT what Theo meant?

    <"There, that's gotta be him, right?"> Staren radios the Concord. he is, perhaps fortunately, not able to hear Yuuki /handing control over the Concord security team to someone in the thrall of the guy he warned them about/. He's still in power.

    Staren's not in power over much of anything. He's... going to have to get on the radio and start sorting things out. And if the Concord won't do anything with his intel, maybe the Watch will.
Thomas Alva Edison     Edison looks only slightly worried when things go...REALLY off the rails. Things were under control for a moment, the violence was being controled...but now? Between over playing their hands, and the drones going off, people are very scared. However, being a Servant gives one senses for magic...and the odd thing is right now he senses something that isn't the normal Aether coming from the man. He murmers something, and it's something George can hear. 'I sense magic coming off of the new commer.'

    Of course, then comes All-Seeing Eyes' drone, and the man mentioning showing the 'truth' to the people. Edison strokes the chin, as the drone sits in his hands. He looks towards his own people, "Alright, Secret Service Roboguard. Go help the city keep order, keep people who want to leave, do so in an orderly fassion, and keep the peace." he gives orders to his bodyguards, who of course, will do so.

    Edison, pulling out a some tools, grabbing a few pieces of equipment...including a tiny projector, and when he finishes, places the tiny projector hat onto the robot, and holds it up in his hands. From it, the projector should be able to produce what the little guy 'seen' which is the Fake person sabataging the drones, followed by his false arrest. Edison has no way to know it was a lie, he was not infromed of what was going on, and only has the word of another.

    And Edison trusts in his allies.

    "I see." Edison says, annoyed. Of course THEIR behind it...lets not try and help the people, but only try and make a point. Edison turns just in time to see August grab someone from the stage. "So what happens now, Mr. Kohler? Do you drive the people into a panic to prove a point? You could be here, with me, trying to provide solutions and working from within, instead..." he says, motining to the guards who are being shown deactivated, on repeat. "You rob the people of their security, and for what?" he addresses the leader of the Watch, a spotlight now shining on him.
August Kohler August is shined a spotlight on while he's running. On one hand, he doesn't stop moving, though he does slow down a bit, because he's going to shout back. "Not everything can be solved with peace, because I wish it could! Sometimes you need to scream, need to shout, because no one will listen otherwise, because it gets brushed away! If Renegade Prime could solve this the peaceful way, I bet she would have! Do you really trust this government?"

"They were gonna lock me up and throw me away without a trial, all because I opposed them. They said to my face that I was basically gonna be thrown into a deep dark hole for the rest of my life. Is that justice to you, Edison?! Can't you understand why I may fight the way I do?"
Starbound Flotilla     "Gus! Dammit." George calls out, as he's intercepted, pinching the bridge of his nose and clenching his teeth. "God's sakes, Gus, can't a man give out a free toaster without this kind of nonsense? Alright ladies and gentlemen! Sorry about the disruption." He leaps down off the stage, draws a heavy shock pistol, and takes off. He's after August, quick as he can go. Biteblade and Pavo have quickly joined him, being the most agile of the group besides him. The three take off with an urgent rocket-boost, helping track August and pursue from above and the flank.

    "Gus, christssakes, you know this sounds crazy right? You can't go around talking to everyone 'bout an unlawful imprisonment accusation, otherwise they just think you're nuts." His advice actually manages to sound somewhat well-meaning, despite the fact that George was /right there/ looking at him in the cell. It's also not denying what he said, but it's quite easy to think he is. "Put the /guy/ down, let me give him his free air conditioning unit, and get on out before you get /gotten/ on out! Dammit, kiddo. You're playing a hell of a /short/ game here!"

    They're trying to corner him and trying to make sure those big beefy shock weapons -- shock arrows, shock spheres, shock pistol shots -- are muted enough by the chaos elsewhere that they don't wind up disrupting the crowd too much if they have to fire on August to corner him. Gotta finish their demo! It's /crucial/.
Priscilla     The Renegade lieutenant radioing for backup doesn't get far. Outside of being a proficient quicksmith and bold rebel, he's just a dude. He doesn't really stand a chance, and quickly has a bunch of little holes through a bleeding hand he is clutching, biting his tongue to avoid drawing attention with the noise someone would certainly make in that situation. Zero has him basically just like that. By the same token, the three randoms that George had rounded up into his insane plan and had all decided on different lies at the same time don't have a lot to do about August, and they wouldn't do so anyways. They look visibly relieved when he shows up, even as the crowd suddenly turns toward him, and then steps away, when Thomas calls him out, having the good sense to scurry clear after all they've heard of him.

    This likewise has really mixed results. Some of the crowd look to the projector and then scowl back at August, clearly unhappy with his presence. Someone chucks a pebble at his face and yells at him to go away. The dude next to him tackles him in outrage in response. The people near those two begin falling into camps of believing Thomas, believing August, and just wanting to get the hell out, or else stand around uselessly and gape. The Renegades up on the podium will slip away for a wise retreat if given a quarter of a chance, even if (or especially) August can't get to them.

    Baan, by comparison, doesn't hesitate an instant. "Very well. I will endeavour to make efficient use of them." he replies to Yuuki immediately, joining the personnel she sends over to him halfway. He lags behind the robed man with the artificial hand who is ostensibly the grant Consul, letting him storm along out into the plaza, the crowd rapidly clearing around him as nobody wants to get within thirty feet, and officers snapping to attention before being instantly sent off with impatiently shouted orders. Gathering those personnel, Baan follows in the Grand Consul's wake, more or less out of sight, and intercepting the mess as it unfolds in his wake, trying to clean up as he goes.
Priscilla     He goes from cluster to cluster, directing what Concord reps he can to each. "That cluster of citizens is necessary to disperse before they opt for a more violent expression of their frustration. That one there is not; please have the enforcement squad move. That man over there must exercise more caution in handling his sword or else he will sever someone's limb -quite likely his own. That cart cannot possibly support the weight of that vault- /please/ ensure that enforcer is not inspired to step inside it, as he seems to be." He maneuvers through the crowd, grabbing and turning enforcers around, taking aside officers, butting into arguments himself to offer assurances and platitudes, and basically buzzes around as a hyperspeed manager, getting people to move along "for you own safety", and having the automatons clear and stand at a straight path to the nearest exit instead of wandering around.

    He butts into an officer attempting to wrestle a particularly delicate-looking invention from an angrily screaming woman's arms, yanking him aside. "Would it take so much longer to do it right? Show your badge, explain your purpose, explain that you will treat it with the greatest care, and ensure her name is attached to it." he snaps, before taking the device himself and pushing the enforcer away. He turns to the woman. "I apologize for the abruptness of action and lack of forthcoming explanation from our officers. Rest assured that your invention is not being appropriated; it is being sent to safe storage within the Aether Spire, outside of the reach of these Renegades, where it may be secured against theft or tampering and reviewed by our judges at a later date as intended, after which it will be returned." He continues a round of expert papshooshing before he foists the object onto a sash-wearing officer who goes away with the woman, and arrives at Riva with the elephant.

    "I WISH I DID LASS!" the dwarf cries atop his ridiculously sized lifecraft project. "THIS WAS S'POSED TO BE A SECURE EVENT!" A ring of guards has already surrounded it, trying to hem it in with spears to keep it away from the crowd, but that only seems to agitate it further. Baan places his hand on Riva's shoulder and then gestures towards discrete sections of the elephant. "It is programmed so that it rears up every time a spear approaches its throat- see, there. When it does so, its axial motive cable is exposed in both shoulder joints. Target and cut that cable. Shoddy construction."
Priscilla     Meanwhile, Yuuki chases after Baral, and the Flotilla (at least, the ones who aren't trying to fight the clusterfuck on stage) home in on the Grand Consul. The former makes contact with the Chief of Compliance's radio, and then gets about five words in before she's abruptly hung up on, forcing her to chase down the hulking man in person. The mess on his side is somewhat more contained, but only for the crowd evidently being more cowed by his presence than that of random officers, and the ones under his command being more overtly and unapologetically forceful. The rare idiot that dares throw something at him is quickly put face first on the stones by a dogpile of police before their junk can even bounce off some kind of personal forcefield, and anyone who runs up to him to try and say something is shoved aside. He has his men marching in proper lockstep, rather than micromanaging total chaos, simply not bothering to designate Renegade from citizen and bulldozing everyone out of the space save the inventors themselves.

    The latter is quite the opposite of the indifferent, marching wall that is Baral. The Grand Consul is physically unimposing, but almost /vibrates/ with palpable, seething contempt. What might have been initially mistaken as frustration at the state of affairs, when put within earshot, quickly becomes obvious as furious harangues at the incompetence of the police deployment. He instantly cuts off anyone trying to report to him, usually with some synonym of "Of course I know that you simpering idiot!" and sending them right back out into the fray to secure some other issue with fresh orders. He has his own sort of control over the bedlam, but divided into dozens of discrete incidents, his eyes roving around like a paranoid wolf, having protesting inventors incarcerated at a gesture, and suspicious characters in the crowd shocked and detained at a glance. He seems more interested in rounding up artifacts than the other two figures trying to manage things, and at one point physically smashes an incompetent officer across the face with the back of his metal hand for dropping the thopter-printing machine, before pointing to two lieutenants and telling them to carry it at the same time.
Thomas Alva Edison     "So the alternitive is this? Putting those you are crying about in harms way to prove a point?" The video loops again, "What does this prove? That they should be afraid? Of what? Of their government...or of the people who want to take it down? And where is your Renegade Prime? Not here, I see..." Edison says, staring at August, even as George gets involved.

    "Some cause she has started, if she is unwilling to bleed, personally for her cause, then what good is it. All I see, right now, is a figure head, and the watch attempting to forcefully cause a regime change because they don't happen to like how they do things. Well, it's not up to people from other worlds to determine how they do things, it is up to those people to determine how they do things." Edison says, firmly.

    "Or are you telling these people they don't know how to rule themselves? But I will point out one flaw in your plans...you complain about the punishment a land lays down on you, when you flippantly violated it's laws. Do I agree with how they would resolve it? No. Is it my place as a foriegn power to force them to do it my way? No. Will I advise them, yes, will I force them? No." He waves his hands around, "THIS is an option, fixing the wound that is being caused, putting salve on it...addressing the people's woes, and drawing them to yourside in a peaceful manner. You did not even try, you in your arrogance thought you could just waltz in and change everything? Did you think you ways would be bloodless, or do you simply do not give a damn about the people who get hurt, as long as YOUR JUSTICE is satisfied?"

    Edison's hands come up, directing for calm. "Tensions are high, anger is getting the better of us. We are all rational beings. Violence in the street does not solve the woes you and yours face..." he motions towards those on August's sides, "And violence against this man does nothing but relieve a temporary fear." He leaps from the stage, holding hands towards both groups.

    "ENOUGH!" he finally roars, aiming to get everyone's attention, and stop the violence. "There is anger in your hearts, an anger from a situation out of your control. I too, understand your anger, recently my home was attacked, a city of mine razed. I seek to rebuild, but our citizens choose not to dwell on the misery, they choose to build their home from the ashes, they choose to MAKE something from the situation. I, today, ask you people to make something here. Go home, remember what I bring to you and yours...know that the need for more power is coming to an end. Think on how you can change your city, and your world for the better. Sink not into the depravity that is violence, do not tear down everything because you have no hope." He says to the people, before turning towards August.

    "It is far more difficult to build bridges, than to destroy them."
Staren     Staren tries to figure out how he's supposed to outwit this guy into slipping up and revealing something... But dammit, he's going around being an efficient leader and actually sort of making nice with the people he's stealing inventions from.

    Maybe August and Riva can better work out social machinations. After putting themselves at risk, they have a right to know too, so he passes that on.

    He considers the idea of walking up to the Grand Consul and asking what they need to divert so much power /for/, anyway. As he glances over, Tezzeret(?) is having someone shocked and arrested for looking at him funny, so that's sure a no go.

    Maybe... the Paladins? Edison seems to be really busy yelling at August. Staren hasn't really DONE anything here yet, at least, that anyone's caught. As far as he knows. It's... possibly worth a shot? Geeze, he's so out of his element, trying to deal with this political spy-game indirect manipulation nonsense.

    Staren makes his way through the crowd to All-Seeing Eye. "Excuse me. But I have intel from one of /your own guys/ that Mr. Metal Arm there is probably the one stealing Aether for nefarious purposes and using the council for his pawns, to shield him from the people and appear to be on the up-and-up. Have you, uh... actually /investigated/ this yet? I'd really rather work together, this whole..." He waves an arm at the crowd, "making people fight thing really isn't working. Hell, it's got your guys and August busy fighting eachother instead of the /actual problem/."

    Now Edison's making an impassioned speech about how all their woes are solved. Staren looks at him, then back at Eye.

    "...He's probably stealing the inventions too. Giving the people more energy will help, but who knows what else Tezzeret's going to do if allowed to move unchecked?"
Zero Kiryu Zero begins to move his prisoner immediately. His physical strength is deceptive-- if he /had/ to, he could in fact lift the man and carry him one-handed through the crowds. As it is, he simply marches him through the throngs. Mental blips bounce off of his radar-- other members of the Renegades. Some important, some not. He already made a point of going to the sharpest outlier that he could identify as 'being of importance', and now that his radio is gone he's fairly confident he can steer the man away from substantial potential help.

He adjusts his grip, fingers closing uncomfortably tightly around the man's wrist. The goal isn't to hurt, but to reduce circulation so that his hand doesn't bleed too profusely and offer a substantial trail to follow.

"I'll treat your hand later." He says, dully.

Although chaos rages all around, the hunter is perfectly adept at navigating situations like this without getting side-tracked. It's not a special talent so much as a cultivated skill-- when so much of your time is spent with a hazy head and compromised senses, you learn to cope with things like this.

Slowly, circuitously...

He guides them back towards Yuuki.
August Kohler As the Renegades start to run off, August doesn't need to chase them down. The pebble smacks against his cheek, drawing blood, but he doesn't do anything about it. He just turns to George, sighing, even if George has a point. "You were there, goddamnit!" But he doesn't continue on George. August is going to prepare to start escaping...but, no, he's going to respond to Edison first. As the Flotilla comes at him, August moves to duck out of the way, putting up a hand so he can respond to Edison.

"So just because I'm not from this world, I can't fight for the people who are? They don't have powers, or the ability to defend themselves from the military, so people like myself stand up for them! I fight for those who can't fight for themselves, I'm their knight when no one else will be." The knight terminology keeps coming to mind, for some reason. August is starting to like it.

"Not always can you work within the law, Mr. Edison. Not always can you do things the right way! If the government doesn't listen, what can you do? If you're unable to defend yourself and your rights any other way...sometimes you need to defy the law. I'd try to work within it if I thought it'd work. But..."

And then, Staren sends August a distressing message. While he's busy, he catches it enough to steel himself, focus himself. "But I am 100% sure I can't do so here without it accomplishing nothing. The law is something man makes, and man can be corrupt. And when there's corruption in the lawmakers, there's corruption in the law." August takes a moment, and shakes his head. "I'm rambling, but..."

As Edison tells everyone to stop the fighting, August actually...turns towards them and sides with him. "He's right! You don't have to fight in the streets! Your neighbors are not your enemy! If you feel so strongly about this, let your voice be heard! Protest! If they won't let you protest, do so anyways! Let the world, no, the /worlds/ hear your voice! People like myself will stand up for you! We'll fight /with/ you! But your neighbors are not the enemy, the Consulate is! They're the ones stealing power, they're the ones striking you down and taking your hard work!"

That might incite a bigger rebellion, but August doesn't care. He gives George a moment to speak his piece, before preparing to run off again, but not without responding to Edison. "I was never allowed the chance to learn. Not everything's as easy as you think."
All-Seeing Eye      For his part in the stage clusterfuck, Eye attempts to apprehend the fleeing Renegades. This, he does, by making use of a whip not as a weapon, but a grapple. It winds around an overhead lattice, pulling him up and over them. He drops down, arms held nearly as wide as his smile. "All-Seeing Eye, Warden of the Paladins." That smile seems... strained.

     "I'm going to have to insist that you stay here until things calm down. I can't risk the people out there causing you harm while we're trying to get in front of this situation." Lowering a hand to point at a few now-open spots where they might sit upon the stage, he further instructs them. "Please, have a seat, and don't wander off. I /do/ have 360 degree vision," notes Eye. He wrinkles his nose at the three Renegades. "Hence the name!"

     Any further warnings or accusations come to a halt when Staren approaches him. That seems to have caught him by surprise, and he quickly shuts the drone off--though, in all likelihood, it's very possible that Staren saw the video of a nonexistent Renegade goon getting arrested by nonexistent enforcers for hacking the automaton network. After that brief moment where the facade slips, Eye puts it right back on.

     "I appreciate your concern, citizen," says the Exalt, vaulting over the side of the stage to sit upon the edge, and thus not look as though he's talking down to Staren. "As head of Public Security, my primary concern is exactly that." He mimics Staren's circular finger motion, pointing to the chaos that even now resists cessation. He doesn't look when Staren points to Tezzeret, but he seems to nonetheless be aware of who Staren means.

     "Buuut," he says, holding that finger up in a 'wait' sort of gesture. "That doesn't mean I haven't heard what you've said. If you really want to help the populat--and I know you do! ...then we need to make sure the Consulate's authority isn't questioned, to prevent little outbursts like this." He slides off of the stage completely, standing beside Staren and putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm aware of the irregularities in aetheric distribution--but I can only go so far in investigating it. At least, officially. If you promise to help us quell future incidents like this, help us restore faith in the Consulate's authority, well... mmm..." He gives a playful little shrug. "You might have an ally, and together, the two of you might have some luck figuring out just where this aether is going, and whether or not the term 'nefarious' is appropriate. And if it is, then you can be certain news of it will reach some very lofty, very influential places. How does that sound, darling?"
Yuuki Kuran Yuuki's pursuit, which quickly turns into a rooftop leaping ANIME WEEB AS HELL segment of her gracefully Ubisofting along the scaffoldings and roof-lines above the crowds rather than through them. It gives her eyes on the proceedings, and a wave of relief as her bet on Baan is proven true. It makes things easier, and it's just nicer all around when she's right. It gives her confidence for her larger dreams.

She also sees the moving bull-doze of Baral, aiming for him while watching the bottled madness and ferocity of the Grand Consul. His scent, his mein, his look, the animal reaction that Yuuki had to him reminded her of a few dark memories, and the way he treated people was a tell above that.

Landing behind the column of Baral and his guards, Yuuki quickly falls in with them, even as she felt Zero closing in nearby. "Chief of Compliance, I need words with you." She announces with the flat authoritative tone she had drilled into her from Society. "Deploy your forces to clear the disabled automatons immediately. Announce that you're clearing the roads for safety, and make sure the exits of the fair remain clear."

Her tone brooks little argument, dropping into her throat. "And I must ask you a question, Dhiren Baral. Do you serve the city, the Consulate, or yourself? For what purpose do you walk?"
Starbound Flotilla     "Ffffrrrrrrrhhhhh /Gus/, dammit, you gotta play the big game if you want the big wins, kid." George mutters, stepping towards August cautiously. "You're looking and thinking too small. We're getting /close/ to what's gotta get done, the way we /both/ know it's gotta get done, but not ever every step you gotta take to get where you gotta go is /straight forward/, kid. You don't get done what /we need/ done by going as the crow flies, you gotta take the shotcuts only as they come."

    "Brainghossst friend, you know you can't jussst walk away!" Biteblade says, keeping her bow taut and pointed right at August.
    "You damned little heretic, keep pushing your luck and you're not gonna wind up in any pit less dark than a grave and a short drop to hell." Pavo says, a trio of electrified spheres whirling behind her and ready to launch as she jabs a palm straight towards August.

    "Gus, this is already way past control now. Best we could'a done is gone now. You know the only way I got to salvage a little of this, right?" George isn't sure about this mysterious Grand Consul, but he knows that, for now, they have to keep boosting rep with the Consulate. "You know we gotta take the swings at you, kid, if you try to hit the road again. We gotta get set with the Consulate and the city and that's not gonna happen if we let this settle as it is." His red eyes suddenly gleam with a sharp light.

    If August finishes turning to run George is definitely going to open fire.

    It's all a bit of a big show. Seft notes that much of the exhibit area is focused on the dramatics of what's going on, especially if Edison gets on the mic again. She's the one of the Flotilla who most sympathizes with Staren's angle. She's starting to round up the others of the Flotilla; next opportunity they get -- that is to say, after half of the Flotilla is done being busy trying to drive off August and re-secure their captures -- she's going to try to get the gang to work on gathering artifacts for the Grand Consul. Driven by Staren's intent, she's decided to try rigging them with small beacons, subtly. If Staren's hunch is right, they'll need to go where those artifacts eventually go. One thing at a time, though, unfortunately.
August Kohler "Then shoot me." August replies to George, and he finishes turning, moving to sprint away. He staggers a bit as shocks rounds and jabs hit him, but he keeps moving, forcing his body to run. He's going to definitely be sore when he escapes, nerves misfiring, but he's not taken down and out, if that was the goal.
Staren     Staren looks a bit uneasy as Eye puts a hand on his shoulder, then sighs. "I told Prime she shoulda surrendered to Theo. The Renegades need help, but all they're doing is starting fights now. And giving Grand Councillor there a chance to look good when he's not slapping his guys around. I can't just turn on them and fight them without a real alternative though, then I'm wasting effort that should be spent actually finding the source of all this, not to mention burning bridges. And how can I pledge to restore faith in the Consulate's authority when they're stealing power and unpersoning people? Even if the /former/ /were/ for the public good, it's absolutely not okay for them to do the latter. I'm a terrible liar, and I don't think it's right to tell the people that everything's alright when it's not."

    Staren looks around. "The two of me? Dammit, are you crazy now?" he tries to pull away from the hand on his shoulder. "Everyone's doing the wrong thing. the Renegades are causing trouble with the Watch's help, and the Concord and the Paladins are playing freaking wait-and-see. You want to /lie/ to people. Nobody's /helping/ people. And I can't on my own. If you won't work together, Ghirapur is doomed." He tries to run off into the crowd, angry. And the words said in anger aren't /entirely/ true. Yuuki said she's working on getting Dovin Baan to do something, so there's that. Maybe it will lead somewhere. But who the hell can Staren work with? Maybe it's time to cut losses and put the time towards helping some other world instead. He doesn't have to personally be involved in saving /every/ world.
Riva Banari The elephant is a problem. Riva could probably take it down over time, but the amount of collateral damage would be unacceptable.

Also, it looks awesome, she wouldn't want to trash it. She does her best to try to calm the thing down, but of course it doesn't react the way she'd hope. Eventually, however, a guy comes up and gets her attention with that hand. She glances over and blinks, listening to the instructions. "Right, got it." She's focused on that right now, hoping that the rest of the Fair goes well. Turning, she reaches over and grabs a spear from one of the guards. "Borrowing this for a second!" She says, not giving him time to object. Turning, she looks to the thing and waits for her chance.

The next time the robo-elephant rears back, Riva leaps forward, thrusting the spear towards the indicated cable to try to sever it with the spear blade in a single thrust. Hopefully, she doesn't miss.

And hopefully August isn't getting arrested again.
Priscilla     Baan's critical eye does not leave Riva astray. Though it is an incredibly impressive-looking, impressively sized, and impressively intricate robot elephant, it's not as intelligent as the real animal, and it rears up right on queue when a guard comes near it, shaking a spear at its neck, trying to get between the plates. According to instructions, she yoinks one of her own, thrusts it into the shoulder gap, snags the cable and then pulls it in half with the sharp edge, immediately causing the lifecrafted automaton to lose all balance, and apparently power, and crash onto its side, flinging the hapless dwarf into a pamphlet stand, where he is immediately picked up by officers. The guy isn't the head of the Ministry of Inspections for no reason, it seems.

    With Thomas and August suddenly colliding into a point of /agreement/ of all things, even the crowd seems surprised and confused by it. Thomas has the kind of big, booming, attention-getting presence, and combination of statesman and salesman affect that causes people to immediately stop and listen, and August has the scrappy rebel firebrand attitude that is exactly what people who hate the first thing turn to as an alternative opinion and source of inspiration and direction. When they're both yelling the same thing, the rabblerousers in the crowd look confused, awkward, or slightly embarrassed, checking around to see everyone else looking, and giving into their social survival instincts to back off from each other and not look like an ass in the eyes of both camps. It's the perfect opportunity for Baan's men to swoop in and begin organizing and sweeping disgruntled citizens down the cleared road and out of the plaza, without making any arrests in doing so. They also won't help August dodge shock bullets when the Flotilla goes for him, though. Not their circus, not their monkeys.

    By contrast, Zero already has his mark. When he grabs the Renegade, the young man regains his ability to kick and struggle and swear the whole way, feeling that being grabbed by this guy is quite possibly much worse than serving a stint in a holding cell at one of Ghirapur's police stations. He can't do anything about it, obviously; he doesn't have superhuman strength or any particular combat skill. With the crowd being cleared out, one way or the other, he can find his way back to Yuuki, and then by extension Baral, quickly enough.
Priscilla     The man stops as he hears Yuuki's voice from behind him, but doesn't turn. He stays watching the movements of his officers -his troops- in front of him. After a pause, he replies "Very well. Once I have finished rounding up the inventors, the mechanical forces may as well be cleared from the streets." He starts the second sentence very deliberately, with an extra heaping helping of gravely emphasis. "I have very specific orders from the Grand Consul, Director. Yours are suggestions; they do not countermand them."

    He lingers on the question, however, only looking back to answer, as Zero is showing up with his capture. "I serve order. Progress. The common good of Ghirapur itself. I do so in a specific way, as I am suited to. Not stopping to pander to these people is no betrayal of my purpose; it is someone else's job. That's how a city works. Each doing what they can -what they should, just like these citizens should know /better/." When his mask directs itself towards the Renegade Lieutenant though, he immediately begins walking right back the other way, going straight past Yuuki with a purpose, rather than a dismissive attitude. "The abomination, -the spoiled child- playing with matches and hoping for flames of revolution instead of a stinking garbage fire. He's here." It's a statement, not a question. Being on the opposite plaza though, he won't reach August in time. It doesn't stop him going anyways.

    Regardless of the quality of management between those intervening, the fair being over is a foregone conclusion. The efforts now are just in managing how much of a disaster it turns out to be. Though there has been no outright chronic violence, and at least a minimum of police brutality, the number of arrests is unfortunately high, and despite Baan's best attempts, the Grand Consul, stalking through the street with a vengeance, constantly surrounded by a buzzing cloud of enforcers not approaching within ten feet, has had every single invention on the grounds confiscated. Trains of enforcers, some with carts or mechanical helpers, are carrying hundreds of complicated, one of a kind artifacts back to the Spire, as their creators are forced out with the rest of the citizens, either glad to be out of there and go back home, or to the nearest compliance station.