Scene #7455: New Horizons: Amigo Festival

Owner	Pose
Kale Hearthward	Welcome back to New Horizons. There's houses now. Aside from general island improvements and cleanup, that's the biggest change. Anyone who's been dropping by to help out enough has a house by now - and for anyone who's visiting the island for the first time, there's still plenty of luxury tents that can be set up by literally just dropping a tiny model of the tent on the ground. The houses aren't luxury, by any means - they're essentially studio apartments, one bathroom and one combination bedroom/living room/anything else. Also, aside from a bare-bones bed and bathroom set, furniture has to be earned (or brought in) separately, it's not included. ... Though, oddly, the furniture just works no matter where in the house one puts it. No plumbing hookups or plugging in AC cords needed. No need to get out the hammer and nails to hang stuff on the wall (or the ceiling), it just 'sticks' in place until you make a concerted effort to unstick it. Oh, and there's working plumbing and electricity. There aren't any visible power poles or signs of underground wires (or sewers) having been dug or... really any sort of signs like that at all? And yet it Just Works. While there's the usual spate of Island Activities (trademark pending Nook Inc) to do, there is also today's festival. There's about half a dozen booths surrounding a raised wooden stage, all in front of the central 'island services HQ' building (also recently upgraded from a tent). On the stage, there's a portable stereo on top of a stool, with a microphone pointed at it - a very jury-rigged sound system, to be sure, but it works. Aside from being an excuse to party a bit and celebrate New Horizons being officially 'founded', it's also an attempt to get more people to move into the formerly-deserted island. There's multiversals of various kinds milling about, checking out the booths, eating food... and waiting to be convinced that they should stay. Nook and his two kids are manning three of the booths - the hedgehog who had visited a few weeks ago is manning another, the fifth has an owl serving coffee and snacks, and the sixth is conspicuously empty.
Hellwarming Trio	Utsuho and Rin, for better or for worse, have been hard at work getting their own space set up. The little house they've got put together is a bit of a mess on the inside, having decorated with various lounging spots and things that look cool (read:shiny) without any thought given to the actual arrangement or practicality of things being where they are. It's all for good cause, though: A lot of the other stuff they've collected is assorted burnable trash and junk, and a good chunk of it is also easy to carry outside if it hasn't already been placed just outside their house to make it really look like an eclectic mix of weird stuff hanging from every possible surface. This is going to be a very dangerous cause at some point. Luckily, they're not hauling that stuff out to the stage just yet for whatever half-cocked plan they have up their sleeves. Instead, they're checking out the sights while taking a break for once. Naturally, they're drawn in by the owl's stand sooner rather than later, with Rin nonchalantly eyeing the ground for dropped valuables while Utsuho on things more relevant to filling her gut with snacks.
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry Princess is standing inside her house by the spring, trying to 'figure out' how a painting works. It's a simple replica of Monet's "Woman with a Parasol", and it's nearly driving her to conniptions. She grips it by the frame and attaches it to the wall with a quiet pop- okay. She pulls it off the wall again and it detaches with a similar pop. She flips it over in her hands to make sure it didn't magically sprout a suction cup on the back; no dice. She even unholsters her gun and presses that against the wall, to see if there's a magnet back there. Nothing. In a fit of pique, she throws her front door open, marches outside, and tries to stick the painting to an exterior wall of her house. And... nothing. Strawberry presses her lips together into a thin line, her patience obviously tested. Finally, she goes back inside, gets out her knife and a hammer, and pries a wooden plank out of the interior wall. With that detached, she tries sticking the painting to it- does it retain its magical "interior-ness" now that it's separated from the wall? If not, what constitutes a 'wall'? What constitutes an 'interior'? What is a 'house', anyway? Regardless of the results, Strawberry ends up taking a walk to clear her head and stumbling across the nascent celebration. Any further down that rabbit-hole and she'd have started comparing the interior dimensions to the exterior and finding a quarter-inch gap.
Kale Hearthward	There's an owl serving coffee and snacks. It's not great coffee, and the snacks look like hastily-plated convenience store fare, but it's all free, so. "Hello, hoo hoo!" he says, giving the pair his attention. "Hope you both are enjoying the island - thinking about moving in? I've..." He peers. "No, wait, you're already living here. Splendid!" There aren't really any valuables near the owl... but it looks like there's a locked hard-lined suitcase underneath the booth. "Might I ask the two of you for a favor then, hoo hoo?" Meanwhile, Strawberry manages to get a plank out of the interior wall of her house... and it in fact does retain its 'interior' quality, the painting firmly sticking to it until she makes a focused effort to pry them back apart. ... But as she walks outside and starts heading down the hills towards the festivals, there's... a sense of unease? Of someone watching?
Hellwarming Trio	Free food is still food! It's not like Utsuho knows the difference. Or, if she does, she doesn't particularly care. "Mmhm. We're over-hrghm. Over there." The raven gestures over towards the shore in between bites, tilting her head just a bit at the owl's question. A moment later, there's a loud whack from the under the booth followed by a short yelp, courtesy of Rin getting up too quickly and hitting the back of her head against it. She doesn't say anything, but her deliberately avoiding eye contact makes it pretty obvious she was looking at the suitcase up until that question. Utsuho: "A favor? What is it?" Rin: "Is it something weird or crazy? You need something done discreetly?" Utsuho: "I think he'd be quieter than us if it was something like that.."
Strawberry Princess	Satisfied with her little experiment, Strawberry re-attaches the plank to the interior wall- a little clumsily, but she can fix that later- and dusts off her hands. Her gaze drifts to the windows, to the door- what if...? But that's an experiment for later. Time to head out! She doesn't get twenty paces from the front door of her house before she clues in to that ominous sensation. Immediately, she ducks behind a tree and grasps the carrying case of her wand with one hand, crouching down for a lower profile. The House Sins of a moment earlier are completely forgotten in favor of Danger Mode. Deep breaths. Don't make a scene, Strawberry. There aren't any Endlings here. Just put down the wand. The rational and irrational parts of her brain struggle for compromise, and reach one a moment later. Craning her head around the side of the tree, she calls out: "Who's there? What's your name?"
Shinnosuke Tomari	Shinnosuke Tomari is playing 'event manager' at the stage. Checking stuff, making sure everything is set-up, that any workers are having a good time, because that's what he wants to do. But then there's a problem, he realizes, as he looks over at the attendance. They're going to get bored without an act. If someone doesn't show up with a performance soon, he might need to improvise. And if he improvises... He needs pretty girls to sing. There's three candidates, and one of them is way too nervous, so she's right out. So it's Utsuho or Rin, of the people he's already seen. Shinnosuke passes by the booths again, but hovers over the two yokai. "By any chance...can either of you sing?"
Go Shijima	Go's house is decorated with some of his favorite shots--he had prints made. Aside from that, there's not much besides the bare bones provisions everybody else got... and a billiards table, which fell the other day from a tree. Today, he's been shaking trees, hoping to find something else, without much luck. In fact, given that the one he's just shaken now has dropped a beehive, one could say that he's had the opposite of luck. There are no Endlings here, no Roidmudes, but there are plenty of pissed off bees. Strawberry might even see Go running from them, from her vantage point. By the time he arrives at the festival, Go is soaken wet, having jumped into the river to avoid them. His camera and the bag that hold it are perfectly dry. Priorities. Despite this, and despite the fact that river silt clings to his shoes, he tries to play it off like this isn't the case. "Yo, Shinnosuke," says Go, giving a wave and flinging droplets of river water around him. He might accidentally splash Utsuho or Rin. In the time since their last visit, Go had done a bit of snooping in the nearby islands and worlds, looking for talent that might want to check New Horizons out. If he found anyone who fits the bill, he could always drop a text--the plane here seems pretty punctual and efficient for travel.
BB	BB, attracted by the most sacred of all acts - island karaoke - appears in what can generously be called 'beachwear' and not 'swimwear', bouncing next to the Rider. "In over your head, Shinnouske? That's too BBad! Why are you setting this up, anyway?" BB glances at Utsuho and Rin. "I mean, everyone can sing. Do you want them to sing well? That's rude! The BBest thing to ask is if they're-~!" Her un-extended baton twirls in her palm, motioned like a microphone. "Ready~! To~! Sing~!" Everyone nearby hears the unmistakable sound of a rhythm arcade game spinning up its FEED ME QUARTERS routine.
Kale Hearthward	"The favor - you've been here a while, right, hoo hoo?" Blathers diplomatically doesn't comment on anyone doing anything strange like looking under the booth. "I was- ah, where are your manners, Blathers! My name is Blathers, yes I've heard all the jokes you're about to make about it, I had heard there was space available on this island, and wanted to set up shop - I'm a museum curator," he says. "And Mr. Nook and Mr. Hearthward okayed it, but unless I want to set up my dream museum in a tent, I need... well, I need a grant. And to get a grant, I need some displays to start off - nobody's going to fund an empty museum, after all, hoo hoo." There's a general drawing of attention from the attendants (and exhibitors) - all eyes are watching to see if someone's going to go up and sing... ... Meanwhile... There's no answer to Strawberry's inquiry. In fact, there's silence altogether (aside from the questionable choice of music occurring off at the festival). The feeling of being watched fades... ... But then, immediately behind Strawberry, a mole with a hard hat pops out of the ground! "HEY!" it yells.
Shinnosuke Tomari	"Because I thought it'd be fun. A performance like this really rouses the spirits and makes people excited, doesn't it?" Shinnosuke says to BB, before turning to Utsuho and Rin. "Are you..." A glance back to BB, and then back to the yokai pair. "Ready to sing?" Go gets a dead-eyed stare, on low, from Shinnosuke. He's been haunted by the devil, but there's no 'save me' to it. Just a put-upon sigh.
Hellwarming Trio	Rin: "Singing? You mean like..." Utsuho: "At the festivals? Yeah, sure." Rin: "We used to do it all the time back home when the youkai found cool stuff." Utsuho: "The deva was real good at it, too." Rin: "Work got real busy after that last time." The splashing of water draws Rin's attention towards Go, although it doersn't seem to bother her too much. "Whoa. Hey, bro! You know how to sing, too?" She calls out while spinning once and holding her hand out to him in a weird, yet terrible imitation of his henshin pose. BB's arrival, meanwhile, gets Utsuho's attention as she puffs her chest up proudly. "Why not both? I might not be the loudest youkai I know, but I'm pretty sure I can be the loudest one here. Rin might have me beat in loudness, though." She laughs as it goes right over Rin's head, then taps her chin. "You think it'll make for a good... Uh.... Thing for those phone people? But don't blame us if you blow anyone's heads with how good we are at singing real loud!" She's already getting her phone out, although she doesn't actually touch anything on it just yet as Blathers introduces himself and just draws a confused look from the raven. "Jokes? About...?" Sadly, the wordplay is lost on her. Asking that might also make her look sympathetic to the name, but she's really just confused. "Oh, cool. So you need a bunch of weird stuff to put in there, right? Well..." Utsuho glances over at her and Rin's overflowing garbage palace. "Yeah, I think we've got some stuff you can use. We were just gonna throw it all in a bonfire, anyway, if there's stuff that might look cool in a case or whatever."
BB	BB grins impishly, shadows falling over her face. "Then... With the power of Dark Decibels, we'll be able to oBBliterate their hearts through their ears! Pow! A shot straight to the kokoro." BB points at Go. "Hey look, there's the third pretty one for your singing competition. Do you want to do Kamen Rider style? I can pull up a discography--" A Beatmania tracklist appears behind BB, swiping through an absolute cacophony of the first beat and a half of dozens of EDM tracks. She lingers on... Excited scales? A drumbeat? It's definitely a banger. Meanwhile, BBlathers doubts his name. "BBlathers is a good name. I like it. Don't apologize because other people are mean to you. In fact, never apologize at all! It's easier than picking the right times. That's a Dark Relationship Tip! Every once in a while, you can win an argument by sort-of apologizing and surprising them." "Do you need a legendary treasure? Sure, um..." BB snaps her fingers. A crackling red lightningbolt strikes the ground. A scarlet tree blooms into fullness on the beach, a single branch falling off. Catching the falling branch, BB snaps it out like her baton, the tree fading into red cherry blossoms as the branch resolves into a straight red spear with a barb-like tip. She tosses it underhand at Blathers. "There, the legendary spear Gae BBolg. It's just an Alternative, though, so don't expect it to actually sure-kill anyone."
Strawberry Princess	Inhale, exhale. Strawberry slowly soothes herself down from the rising anxieties. That instinctual sense of wrongness has disappeared. Her grip on her wand's case relaxes, and then falls away entirely. Having to justify a wand activation to the Project over a feeling she got in the woods- how delusional would that be? Christ, I need a drink. What was I thinking? "HE-" BANG Before the mole can finish his syllable, Strawberry has whipped around, unholstered her gun, and fired it into approximately where humanoid center-mass would be. Fortunately, as Resetti's buried in the ground, it passes a good couple feet over his head and embeds in a tree behind him. Strawberry's eyes drift down to the boisterous mole, her gaze full of ebbing terror, blunt incomprehension, and aghast relief. She sinks to her knees, finger off the trigger, and quietly tries not to hyperventilate. "W-who. Who are you."
Go Shijima	Can he sing? "Nah," says Go, putting away his phone. "But I will, anyway!" He gives a thumbs up and his trademark lopsided smile. He pulls off his hoodie, hanging it to dry on the branch of a nearby tree before meandering back to the festivities. The 'third pretty one' smiles sheepishly, but doesn't shy away. "Rider style?" he asks, stepping closer to the stage to look up at BB. "What, you mean like when Rider Services makes their people sing?" Some of them are real bangers, however unenthused some of the riders might look. He makes a frontflip onto the stage. Thankfully there's no risk of getting splashed with any more river water, now that he's starting to dry off. He steps closer to the tracklist. "Which one's this? Can you show me the words, BB?"
Kale Hearthward	Blathers looks over in that direction, but perhaps blessedly, can't see the trash collection house. "Ah - I'm sure whatever you wish to donate will be acceptable, hoo hoo." And then BB makes a tree appear out of nowhere, which is unexpected but not out of the ordinary here. The tree sprouting a spear is, though. Blathers manages to catch it, despite his NERD-LEVEL DEXTERITY SCORE. "My word, this - this is Gae BBolg- er, Gae Bolg, isn't it!" he says, after pulling a magnifying glass out and examining it. "The spear of legend, wielded by Cu Chulainn himself. I don't suppose you have him squirreled away somewhere too? (Please don't, we aren't set up to accept human remains, the chain of custody paperwork would keep this one owl operation up all day, hoo hoo.)" "Did you know, Gae Bolg was said to have originated in-" he's about to start on a lecture, but gets cut off by the sound of a GAMER ARGUMENT breaking out. Up north, the mole goes stock still, one hand raised to point, his mouth still open from framing the yell that got punctuated by a bullet. After a few seconds, his mouth closes, his hand lowers - as if he's needing to come out of his frozen shock one point of articulation at a time. And then his eyes narrow. "Lady..." "... Now I gotta lecture you about two things. Not messing with the house magic... and gun safety." "You... did have the safety on that thing, right? It wasn't just sitting in your holster waiting to shoot your toes off?"
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry's eyes are still wide with shock; her ribcage is rising and falling like a wounded animal's. Slowly the breaths ratchet down to a physiologically normal range, and she pushes out one last shuddering breath that takes with it most of the remaining tension. Her eyes scrunch shut, then blink a couple of times, as if waking up from a dream. "It's a glock," she finally says, mustering a little bit of indignation despite the exhaustion in her voice. "It has a trigger safety. There's no switch." She stuffs it back into her holster with a vaguely defensive air. A moment later Strawberry collapses back into a sitting position, pulling her knees up against her chest. She's still visibly jittery, but it's steadily decaying over time. "I- really am sorry, for almost shooting you, Mister Mole. I just... wait. What'd you say about 'house magic'?"
Shinnosuke Tomari	As BB offers songs, and Go is brought into the fold, Shinnosuke rubs his chin. "Alright, looks like they're our musical act, then. Let's get you on stage to sing, once BB reveals the song. Hopefully, we can put on a fun performance that shows the island spirit, for Kale's sake." He starts moving over to the stage, calling for Utsuho and Rin once they're ready to come from their garbage pile if they want to perform.
BB	"Sure, there's pop groups that make up songs about beating up BBad guys and stuff, Rider Style. Whole industry. Aren't you into it? They're BBasically making up your theme songs." BB posits, expanding the screen and providing a-- Okay, it's a stepmania pad. He'll have to Dance Dance his menuing, because he doesn't have magic hands. Blathers' INFO TEXT READALOUD gets a quiet snicker from BB, before nodding and holding up an informative pointer finger. "It has no value beyond its value as a weapon, a branch from the Land of Shadows fashioned into a spear. Still, it's pretty, isn't it? A worthy legend, Cu Chulainn. I'm glad you appreciate your history! Perhaps this will be a good temple for those sorts of things, yes? If you've got any requests or wishes, just let me know, BBlathers-sensei~!"
Hellwarming Trio	Utsuho: "Ear oBBliteration.. Yeah, I like it! Sounds strong." Rin: "Sounds loud." Utsuho and Rin: "We're in." The tracklist just gets a glazed stare from the pair, the swirl of lights and assortment of letters and high scores barely even registering in their brains as anything more than a jumble of letters and numbers, but they look ready and raring to go at a moment's notice. Never mind the fact that they're probably not actually good at it. They're just ready to get loud. They both turn their heads when they hear a gunshot in the distance, peering that way. Rin: "Everyone alive over there?" Utsuho: "Say something if you're not!" Rin: "We'll hear you, anyway!" With that potential disaster averted thanks to not being close enough to see what's going on, the two seem weirdly keen on listening to Blathers explaining the history of the Gae Bolg. Rin even perks up a bit when he mentions human remains. "Oh, if you ever need those, we could work something out!" She sounds so excited. Utsuho, meanwhile, eventually peers towards that song list again. "Whatever's loud, remember! Something quiet and slow'll just put everyone to sleep." She recommends, already floating a few feet off the ground to start heading towards the stage Shinnosuke's heading towards. She flips over in midair to stare at the odd dance pad, though, not seeming to recognize any of that there. "Are those... Giant buttons? Are we supposed to yell real loud at 'em to make them work?" She looks hopeful about that for some reason.
BB	BB stares blankly at Utsuho. Math, literally, appears around her head. Her eyes, briefly, consider the calculations. A microphone grille appears in the Dance Dance controller pads. BB slowly, deliberately nods. "Yes. They're voice controlled too."
Kale Hearthward	The mole narrows his eyes a little bit. "Yeah, okay, so let's start with that. The house magic. You know, just the little thing that you almost caused the island to explode with." "- okay, so, you didn't actually almost cause the island to explode. Just..." The half-buried mole shakes his head. "It's like, water pressure, right? You ever, you know, turn on the shower and the sink and flush the toilet, all at the same time? It's like that. The water pressure goes down a bit. It's not a big deal, the pressure goes back up when you, you know, turn the sink off." "Except if, you know, you go and break the pipes."
Go Shijima	As it turns out, there's quite a few songs. Go is navigating through the list. "It was probably just Strawberry's gun," he says in response to Rin, tapping his foot on that dance pad. "She might be fishing or something." It's what he'd use his for, if he didn't have to suit up for it. Something quiet and slow will put everyone to sleep. "Oh, here's one," he says, pausing over a selection. "Be the One?" It's upbeat, poppy with electronic influences. "Oh, wow, Build's got a pretty high pitched voice," Go muses cluelessly. "...This sounds like it could get some people moving! And you could probably get pretty loud, too." If there's no objections, that's the one he picks. Go is not really much in the way of talent, but he's got heart, and he even uses the pad to dance, if there's any such cues. That part he's actually good at!
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry nods along slowly with his explanation, trying to mentally grapple with the implications of the metaphor. Her expression is slowly fading from anxiety to dull guilt. "Okay, so... right. When I took out the wall plank and stuck a painting to it, that was bad. Okay." She purses her lips, trying to decide if giving voice to her ideas here is a good or bad impulse. Finally, she decides to shoot her shot. "So- what I was planning to do is, I was gonna take some of the outside planks and put them on the inside. And then I'd put a window or a door on the inside outside-planks, and it'd open up into another inside, right? And then I'd have infinite house-insides." She gives Mr. Resetti a faintly hopeful look, as if there might be some slim chance that her pipe dream wouldn't immediately collapse space. "Is- would that be okay?"
Kale Hearthward	Resetti stares blankly. "Okay, okay, hold on a sec." He disappears into the hole, and then re-emerges fully a few seconds later, climbing out of the hole with something new in his hand. (He's still a bit short, even fully out.) "Right, so..." He drops the token he's holding, which expands into a blackboard. "Sorry, I just need to visualize this. You take the planks outside..." scrch scrch goes the chalk on the blackboard. "Then you put them inside the house..." scrch scrch "... then you put the door on the outside planks, and get that to open into a new interior space... ah, okay." He stands back and gestures at the blackboard. "Here, before we go on, tell me, did I draw your idea out correctly?" He hasn't actually drawn anything Strawberry's described on the blackboard. Instead, all he's written, in big letters, is the word BAD and then the word IDEA next to it.
BB	>GO: Strawberry must be GUN fishing. BB nods sagely. "Oh, reasonaBBle." >GO: Build has a really high-pitched voice! BB looks over the top of the karaoke track selector and checks the track. "Oh, that's some EDM lady, actually. Do you think it's in your range? Even if it isn't--" A burst of pink flame crowns BB's head in a headband-like twist of white-bone horns that have pink characters on them that read KARAOKE -- FIGHTING With evil crackling baton in one fist and blue glo-stick in her right, BB starts waving, clapping, jumping, and adding 'YEY!'-s to the beat. Tamborine sounds are added complimentary. They are slightly off beat, but also are here for you.
Hellwarming Trio	Rin: "What's an EDM?" Utsuho: "Extra... Dime... Machine?" Rin: "... Oh! To colelt all the money from the singing. Yeah, that sounds right." After coming to the completely wrong conclusion, Rin nods at Go's selection as she claps a hand on his back while cheering along with BB's tambourine beat. "We'll figure it out as we go!" Unlike the dancing Go, Utsuho and Rin are not quite so talented in the way of the dance. They're vibing hard, to be sure, but it's little more than just jerking their heads and hips back and forth like they're headbanging with their entire bodies. It's weirdly coordinated, seeing them both do it, but there's definitely no sense of rhythm to any of it despite that. The singing, meanwhile, goes potentially better than expected. Slightly. Rin's actually pretty good at hitting the higher notes when she isn't just doing that amateur shrieking-singing thing, and Utsuho is frequently a beat behind making sure she's getting every word out clearly instead of merging sounds together to keep up. Despite all that, though, they're certainly enjoying themselves. There's even a bit of a lightshow to go with the song after a while, thanks to Utsuho's cape flaring up and letting off little bursts of flame into the air that are (mostly) harmless (to not-seagulls).
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry crosses her arms over her pulled-up legs, watching Mr. Resetti's sketching intently. It'd be a pretty cute pose if she weren't so gangly about it. (She's still shivering just a little from the fading adrenaline rush. Maybe that's why she's sniffling a bit, too; maybe that's just allergies.) "Oh, no," she says, innocently polite. "That just- it looks like you just drew the words 'Bad Idea', to be honest." A beat passes. "Oh." A sigh. She rubs her face with both hands. "Look," she says, trying to sound perfectly reasonable: "You can tell what kind of person I am. I did the- the wall plank thing, before I even put down any furniture for real. I did that on day one of having a house. They say that... that having a little bit of knowledge, is a dangerous thing. Right? Right now, I have a little bit of knowledge. And you can't... take that away, right? Unless you hit me on the head with your pickaxe." A little laugh. "So- I mean, it seems like the solution is to give me more knowledge. Right? Enough to really know what's a good idea and what's a bad idea, so you never need to come back and yell at me again." She smiles with a kind of forlorn hopefulness. "What I'm saying is..." "Could you please teach me the house magic, Mr. Mole?"
Go Shijima	The song is not at all in Go's range, but why let that get in the way of a good time? He's bouncing to the beat, encouraging Utsuho to sing along with fist pumps timed to the driving music. When the melody reaches those drawn out high notes, he gets even louder, yelling alongside Utsuho if she's there creating Content with him. Between lyrics, "You're the BBest, BB!" He dramatically points at her following the start of the lightshow from the gremlin duo. It's a very uplifting song, with all the fixings of a good DDR track, heavy drums, electronic instruments, and lyrics about hearts and light and love and other such uplifting things. "Eh? What's that you're doing there?" He files in and joins in Utsuho and Rin's strange dance, taking up a position between and just behind them. This dance of theirs is hell on my back... When the song ends, he's ready with high fives for Utsuho and Rin, leaping off of the stage to land with both arms wide. "Okay! We warmed it up for you," he says, broadly, to everyone milling about--be they resident or prospective resident, or even stall owner, like Blathers, for instance. "Who's gonna come up and sing next? Who's ready for -Superstar Action?-"
Kale Hearthward	The music's drawing an audience. People are watching, cheering, clapping. "More, more, reeeOWR!" calls a cat with very orange fur and a leaf hat. "Keep groovin, honk!" calls an anteater. "Go for the burn!" "This island's certainly lively, reeeOWR," says the orange cat. "Seems like a fun place to live!" At the 'immigration' booth, Tom Nook has a glint in his eye, watching all this. Up at the north end of the island, Mr. Resetti stares at Strawberry Princess for a moment. "... Hang on, I gotta sketch this idea out - oh, look, someone did it for me," he says, looking at the BAD IDEA written on the blackboard. "... fine, though. Fine. You say me teaching you the basics will keep me from having to come yell at you? I doubt that, but fine." He flips the blackboard around to the fresh side. "You know the first law of alchemy, right? Or do I gotta start from the very, very basic beginnings?"
Strawberry Princess	Strawberry grimaces visibly as her attention's called back to the 'BAD IDEA' "diagram". She does look appropriately contrite, to her credit! As he flips it over to the blank side, so too does her expression flip to something more neutral and carefully receptive. "The first law," she murmurs softly, crossing her legs properly instead of hugging them to her chest. She scrunches up her face for a moment, desperately trying to recall. Like, in fiction? In old books? Wasn't that... "Equivalent exchange? Something never comes from nothing." Her tone's more hopeful than certain. "You're not going to say I need to do sacrifices to make the house bigger, are you?"
Kale Hearthward	"Yes, Miss Whoever You Are," says the mole. "Exactly that. You need to perform sacrifices."
Strawberry Princess	An abrupt cough, followed by a gentle sputter. "I'm not... I don't... I can't kill people," Strawberry says pleadingly. "There's got to be another way, right?"
Hellwarming Trio	Even without much talent between the three singers/dancers, they've got heart! Utsuho finally catches up with the beat by the time they reach the halfway and point and Rin is still shrieking at the high points, but it's almost not ear-oBBliterating once her throat starts to hurt from all the shrieking. The cheering from the audience certainly helps, too, as Utsuho lets off a rather large orb of fire into the air at the end of the song, little sunpots bursting upwards out of it and steadily dissipating into harmless sparks before they can hit the ground. It's not so harmless for any birds flying directly into it as it goes up, but... Maybe it's bright enough that nobody would notice. Once the show is over, the pair let out raucous cheers before joining Go in high fives and even some chest bumps if he sticks around for those, then glide off the stage with ease while drifting over to BB. Utsuho: "Hey, hey. Did the phone people like that one, too?" Rin: "You think they're gonna send us stuff now? Like hats?" Utsuho: "Or stuff for the bonfire? ... Or the museum, I guess. Like a..." Rin: "Ancient hats."
Kale Hearthward	"Kill - what? Kill? People?" The mole stares at her. "I don't - what? Just what sort of operation do you think we're running here, Miss So and So?"
Strawberry Princess	"Oh," she says, with a kind of mixed relief, sheepishness, and soft... disappointment?? "Well, that's- that's always how it is in the old stories. With alchemy, you know? I guess I just... assumed it was like that. I'm sorry." A brief, awkward pause. Then she holds out her hand with a slightly forced smile. "My name's Strawberry Princess. It's- good to meet you, I'm sure. Even if a little unexpected."
Kale Hearthward	"Right. You seem about as educated in gun safety as the average princess, so sure, that tracks." The mole doesn't shake her hand, leaving her hanging. "No, Miss Princess. The island doesn't run on... people sacrifies - jeez, was that really the first place your mind went?" He draws a clock on the blackboard. "The island runs on sacrifies of two things: time, and energy."
Strawberry Princess	"It's not a gun safety problem if I meant to shoot you," Strawberry says, with the mildest and gentlest tone in which one can say those words. "It's an 'I tried to shoot you' problem. ... Which I'm still very sorry for, Mr. Mole." She takes her hand back and reflexively wipes it on her jeans, despite not even having made contact. Moles are dirty, after all. "Look, it's- I've never done real alchemy, and that's what's in all the fairytales, okay? And it's always really cool and dramatic." Her tone does a hairpin turn from defensive to contemplative as she stares at the clock. "Oh, it's- like when Kale was picking weeds, and he got points for it. Right?"
Kale Hearthward	"Pointless island chores, yes." He draws a rounded-corners rectangle with the Nook Miles logo inside of it - it's supposed to be a drawing of the app icon. "It keeps the island 'reservoir' full, and it doesn't need that much topping off, honestly. Making a thing stick to another thing? Basically no energy. Getting plumbing and electrical hooked up? A little burst, but then basically nothing to maintain it." "The system stays in equilibrium, unless and until..." He flips the blackboard over to the BAD IDEA side, and feigns mock astonishment as he looks at it. "Oh no, someone drew a diagram for creating infinite house space on this side. I'd better erase it before anyone tries that, that'd drain the reservoir dry."
Strawberry Princess	The magical girl taps her chin three times. One can almost see the 'dot, dot, dot' display over her head. "But," she says. "If one were to create additional, but finite, space. That would consume a finite amount of energy. And therefore, with enough 'pointless island chores'- it could be sustained. Am I right?" There's a little dangerous gleam in her eye. "How can I measure how much is in the reservoir, to make sure it stays topped off?"
Kale Hearthward	"..." The mole stares at her. "So what we've learned today," says the mole. "Is that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little more knowledge is a more dangerous thing." "Don't mess with the house magic," says Mr. Resetti, before disappearing back into the hole. The blackboard with the BAD IDEA text is left behind.
Go Shijima	Go does indeed stick around for chest bumps. If there's one thing he loves, it's people clamoring for an encore. "More? Sure, I can swing that!" He thumbs his nose proudly, grinning wide, and gets back onto the stage with a backflip. "You guys want the burn... I'll give it to ya! But! ...only if one of you gets up here with me." He grins, one hand on the mic, the other pointing dramatically between the anteater and the cat. "Which is it gonna be, huh? The Guardian of the Groove, or the Leaf Hat Legend? Get up here and let's jam!"
Kale Hearthward	"Oh dear, me?" says the orange cat. "Hey yeah, let's ROCK!" says the anteater, climbing onto the stage and grabbing the mic. "Name's Antonio, and I'm here to eat ants and pump bass, and I'm all out of ants! Kick it, honk!"
Strawberry Princess	"No, wait! Mister Mole! I didn't even get-" Strawberry struggles to her feet and lurches forward, trying to beseech him to stay- but then he's gone, disappeared into the earth. "... your name. Eugh." Her shoulders sag in crushing disappointment. Those insights were a little helpful, but gosh- it's like he doesn't even want her to exploit the island's rules! Think, Strawberry. Removing the board made a 'leak in the pipes', a slow drain. But turning on the water and electricity was only a little burst. The mole can tell when the island's power drops; he probably traced that to your house. 'Time and energy' sacrifices maintain the reservoir. So what if...? Strawberry trudges back to her house, contemplating one of the windows and drawing her wand. She has the energy. And she can convert it to 'time'. It'd be so easy.
Hellwarming Trio	Utsuho: "Looks like they're gearing up for another performance." Rin: "You know what this means, right?" Utsuho: "Oh yeah." Floating back to the stage, the youkai douo linger near the back of the stage as they wait for the music to kick in. They don't know what's going to play, but the context clues of ROCK and BASS and honking(?) give them all they need to get themselves pumped up. At some point, they've also managed to snag sick shades from somewhere and slip them on in the confusion! They probably picked them up for the bonfire at some point. It's crappy dollar store shades. Once the music kicks in, they do that jerky dance of theirs for a few moments to get fired up, and then they start getting things fired up more literally, adding a lightshow to back up the song. Utsuho sets up the big sun ball with more of those upwards-spurting sunspots to add general SIZE to the spectacle, but it's Rin who adds some much needed color into the mix, red and blue glowing orbs swirling around it and bursting into golden sparkles that feed right back into the giant fireball. They don't have a lot of variety to their act, but it's fire. Everyone likes fire.
BB	BB, meanwhile, has a projected hologram of 'cheering BB' so she can set up a merchandise booth with live recordings, t-shirts, and fireworks for the beach. Of course, the shirts with Go's face on it are the ones she has to restock the most, because he's a prettyboy. Rin keychain charms bring up the #2, and of course, Utsuho sparklers immediately get passed out for the second set. "Island life really is the BBest. It's magi~*cal!"
Go Shijima	"Rock, huh? Now you're talking! Here's one Professor Harley really likes..." Tap, tap, tap, tap. Select! A driving guitar seasoned with brisk staccato starts them off. Unlike the last track, Go is familiar with this one, surely having heard it many a time in the eccentric old man's garage. He even sings it in the original English, as expected of a guy with dozens of shirts bearing the names of states in the US. "Easy lover/She'll get a hold on you, believe it!" Go's pretty good about gauging the timbre of Antonio's voice, and very energetic with his stage presence. He lets Antonio take the main melody after the first verse, going for the higher part. As before, he makes up in spirit what he lacks in voice training. That his fellow singer is an anteater has no effect on how hard he goes, and in the verse where the first refrain approaches--"Now you'll never change her, believe it, so leave it,"--he's even back to back. "Yeah!" he cries, when the solo comes in. "Welcome to New Horizons! We've got oranges and bees! Everyone having a good time?!" When the chorus comes back after the solo, he's working the crowd and letting Antonio take the lead, clapping his hands to the beat of the song. When it eventually ends, he takes a bow, and encourages the anteater to do the same. Then... he hops off of the stage and buys a shirt with his face on it from BB.