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I-apvii spends the remaining time looking into the venues computer system. There have been a number of issues, and while they seem like they could have been simply the usual teething troubles of setting up a new operation, it seems like a good time to make sure.
(I-apvii has a hackers kit, but not sure that applies for counter hacking.)
The lack of evidence on the syringe could indicate it was performed by a drone, someone wearing gloves, or at the very least had armor. If there was subtler evidence, it isn't there anymore, possibly dispelled as a matter of the time spent in the vent.
Reviewing the computer systems doesn't reveal any signs of tampering, aside from where I-apvii themselves adjusted the sound system. The system seems isolated from outside control and even I-apvii's previous manipulation left records of the microphone adjustments. The most noteworthy thing among the logs are some brief fluctuations in the lighting power systems.
The group heads out and sees Wonder craning her head toward the entryway. She is missing a ribbon from her head, but is otherwise the same enthusiastic android as before. She gives a smiles at you as she continues to look past you into the service areas. While craning her head around you she does say, "Hi! I really loved your performance. I saw Tsuchi-ko clap, like, a lot so she must have thought you did a super stellar job! By the way, did she like the doll? And did I come off too whiney during the video? Did she smile? Did she say she wanted to meet me?"
Wonder jumps with glee hearing that Tsuchi-ko was happy to get the gifts. "I just knew she would love them!"
Her expression turns around to confusion as Ikmanji mentions her missing ribbon and completely despair as she realizes it is missing. "Oh no! I lost my ribbon!" She looks about a bit frantically as the sees if she can find it. She is almost tempted to run to the arena right now to see if she left it there if not for the party talking to her.
She is a bit more disheartened as she listens to Jek. With a bit less energy she responds, "Oh. Well, I'm like, I'm glad! I know how much she loves cupcakes!"
It does seem like Wonder has no other thoughts or feelings she isn't wearing on her sleeves. She does seem genuinely surprised and unhappy about losing her ribbon. Triage doesn't get the sense that she has any notable response to Jek's statement. However that might change to a more pointed question.
Opening a door when presented with high intensity winds may well result in that door being thrown completely open by the immense forces driving themselves into the smallest cracks.
Hearing the offer instantly vaporizing her depression in an supernova of glee. "Really!!! Of course I would love that! That sounds just the most stellar thing there could! How do I look? Is my outfit alright without the bow? Maybe if I try real hard I can eat a cupcake like Tsuchi-ko does."
There is no consideration at all as she leads the way to the service doors. Her entry is only barred by Zarzen who is sidestepping to bar her entry as he declares that she isn't getting in. Wonder continues trying to get past as she gestures to you all to say, "I'm going in with them. They said I could meet Tsuchi-ko and eat with her. Now the show is about to start soon so we need to do this quick. If you keep blocking me I'll miss her completely!"
As far as the party can tell, she is not hiding anything at all and any subtle hidden intent within the off-target question is deflected and missed completely.
At this point the intermission is coming to the end as the show is preparing to begin once more in full force.
Wonder is divided as she both wants to head backstage, but is also looking toward the main doors. "But that means I might miss the show. The performances have been incredible and all the things Tsuchi-ko has been saying are, like, super insightful. The other judges too, Lynthia is cooler than I thought given her music and K1ng Ch0rd has been supportive. The other one too I guess. But really the really real star is Tsuchi-ko and I don't want to miss anything."
"It might be worth if it means meaning her. She struggles with this dilemma, eventually she tries working out a compromise as she makes a plea, "what if I just came back here right for the next intermission and meet you back here? I can just head out while Radat is going on about whatever."
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Daunted by the amount of footage from the Cocoa Planet bakery, Djakar mutters to herself, "I'm not taking fifty minutes to go through this right now... We're on a deadline!"
So Djakar does what any good DNN reporter does when working on a deadline. She sets up a facial recognition algorithm, and feeds in images of all the people she's met backstage. Judges, Hosts, Bands, Crew, and even Wonder. "One of them should come up as a match!"
She was so busy working on this project that she tuned out some of the conversation with Wonder until Jek makes his outrageous offer.
She pings him, telepathically. You do realize that now I'm going to be obligated to see to it that Tsuchi-ko has tea and cupcakes with this fan? We've raised the kid's expectations now.
She turns back to Wonder. "Hey Wonder, let's exchange comm signals so that you can find us during the next intermission, okay? Oh... and I have a couple questions for you, if you don't mind."
Djakar keeps her voice gentle. She uses the calm, soft voice that she takes when interviewing children or vulnerable folk that she doesn't want to spook.
"My first question is... do you know where your missing hair ribbon is?" Djakar smiles. "Or where you might have dropped it? I can ask crew to keep an eye out for it for you."
Djakar waits patiently for Wonder's answer, and then asks, "Did you deliver anything to Tsuchi-ko’s dressing room?"
If Wonder says, no, Djakar asks her if she is sure about that. If she says yes, Djakar asks, "What and when? Who had you do it?"
Wonder nods with understanding, her focus seems to be entirely on her stated goals and seems to be taking your words on face value. She happily starts trading comm signals as she thinks about Djakar's questions.
She touches her head and ponders where she been today as she answers "I know I had my ribbon earlier when I got here. So it could be somewhere out here, in the backstage, Tsuchi-ko's room, or in my seat. I managed to get a front row seat you know? It gives a stellar view." She gushes a bit more before confirming that those are the places she has been.
When asking about the delivery, Wonder nods and gives an emphatic, "Oh yes!" Her tone shifts a bit to be just a bit apologetic as she explains, "I wanted to give her something to apologize for sneaking in earlier. So I delivered a big basket of chocolate cupcakes! She loves cupcakes, you know. I was hoping to see her and ask if she liked my doll, but she wasn't there."
With the first answer given, Wonder pauses a moment before answering, "oh, no one had me do it. I bought it myself."
Based on her pause and change in cadence, Triage and Djakar can tell that Wonder is lying about doing this herself.
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"Wonder," Djakar offers her hand to the android, "are you sure no one asked you to do it? Because I have something to tell you. Someone tried to poison Tsuchi-ko today. They injected poison into the cupcakes you delivered to Tsuchi-ko's room." Before Wonder can scream, Djakar hastens to reassure her. "The good news is that Tsuchi-ko did not herself get hurt, and her assistant got medical help in time."
"But that person who used your cupcakes to hurt the best musician in the Pact Worlds is still out there, and could try again. We need your help, Wonder. Tsuchi-ko needs your help too." Djakar coaxes. "Whom did you talk to about your cupcakes, Wonder?"
In response to the revelation Wonder's eyes widen and her circuitry tattoos glow with agitation. "Oh no! I can't believe it. Who would do such a horrible thing. It-it must have been a mistake?"
Djakar keeps her calm though and Wonder nods in agreement as she explains, "I met a nice delivery lady outside after you led me out. She said she had a gift basket to deliver to Tsuchi-ko from an anonymous fan. She saw my outfit and was totally impressed by my dedication, so she let me drop off the basket and... maybe get a chance to meet Tsuchi-ko, like, for real."
She is despondent and seems to be genuine as she speaks out to try to help you and Tsuchi-ko. "She helped me get in and everything. I didn't say so earlier because I didn't want to get her in trouble. She was super nice. I can't believe someone would trick both of us like that."
"Well, I got it right after you sent me away, so a few minutes after that?" She does her best to recall details clearly. She becomes more hopeful as she thinks about the woman who gave her the basket, "yes, right. I don't remember her name or what delivery company she worked for, but she was a verthani with pretty light hair. If you find her she might be able to help you more!"
Jek believe she is being honest and earnest here and still is not even considering that she has been deceived.
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Ikmanji thinks about Wonder’s description. The only verthani that leaps to their mind is Karalie, Lita Starr’s agent.
They ask Wonder “Was her hair silver and did she have golden pupils?”
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Ikmanji tries to immediately respond to Jek’s telepathic contact. Shouldn’t split up!
If they keep the connection open long enough, they telepathically tell them Karalie is a female verthani. She is Lita’s agent. Also recall that Omo the bodyguard was up in the catwalks. No reason for them to be there.
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Ikmanji tries to reply on the telepathic communication. Someone walk her around, I’ll go to my position backstage where I will be able to see her during the show.
If they think someone got the message, they will then go back into the Ruby Theater and take up their position backstage. They will keep an eye out for Wonder.
They ask Wonder “Was her hair silver and did she have golden pupils?”
Wonder looks about and tries to recall and gives a bit of a nod as she says, "that sounds right, probably?" She gives the same sort of commitment to seeing a recording of Karalie. "That looks like her, but the person I talked to was dressed in a delivery outfit."
Triage does see verthani amid the diverse crowd and a few among them that follow the general description she gave. The crowd is such a wide variety of fans of different music that it is difficult to define suspicious when fans of abyss metal are a stone's through from sugar pop fans; these groups normally have little to know interaction with each other and there are many cases of this that Triage sees among the crowd.
High energy music from classical music fills the arena as Absa-Wow, an upbeat dancing rap troupe, takes center stage and begins their performance.
Jek ends up standing out more than anyone else as everyone in the backstage seems to be in a constant flurry of motion as others are moving from task to task. They don't see anyone make any attempt to sneak into any of the rooms. Only people going in and out of the judge's dressing rooms at the moment are their PAs and managers.
One of the people going through the service areas and backstage is Karalie. At the moment she seems to be gathering another outfit for Lita as well as acquiring a snack for the star.
"And be lambasted by Lita if you perform substandard work?" Karalie just keeps moving as she focuses on her task. "No, I can handle this myself."
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Jek seeing Karalie ecnoring Djakar's assistance lets everyone know the situation telepathicly. "Karalie on the move and has food with her , Karalie's ecnoring Djakar's assistance. We need to start testing food before its served. i'm going to try to stop Karalie requesting back up."
Jek steps directly in front of Karalie. "Sorry to stop you but we need to check all food back stage for posion after what happeneed earlyer tonight. we're happy to go with you to explane to Lita why her snack is being delayed untill we can test it. Now if you'll hand over that food please."
Carrying a bowl of Castrovelian cashews in one hands and a dress in the other, Karalie halts for a number of microseconds before proceeding to attempt to walk around Jek. "No."
"I've checked this. I'm too busy attending to Lita Starr's errands to add your checks."
She seems to be honest that she is performing tasks for Lita Starr, and that the food isn't poisoned, as well as being honest that she is too busy to be delayed by your group. She doesn't seem inclined to talk, but at least gives brief answers to what you ask as she continues walking.
As Absa-Wow's upbeat melodies comes to an end, there is a short transition before you hear the harsher rhymes and beats coming from Naughti Whiska that emit from the stage.
The group monitors the situation, but they take notice of anyone acting out of the ordinary during this time. There is a review of the security footage outside, but unfortunately it shows Wonder walking off camera and then, shortly after, walking back on camera with the basket in hand.
In the meantime, Djakar gets a hit on the surveillance footage from Cocoa Planet as it finally was transferred. The facial recognition script does get one potential hit from the shoppers there. There is a limited match on Karalie as one of the shoppers is a verthani woman in dark sunglasses. She can be seen purchasing the chocolate cupcake gift basket. Looking at the footage, it could be Karalie, but the recording is blurry and it would be difficult to be certain from this alone.
Triage and I-apvii go into the catwalks and slowly work through the systems to see if anything has been altered or changed since their last time up here.
The pair are able to make much more progress after Naughti Whiska's performance. The calm gives them a bit more freedom to check connections and components.
That lull is short though as the quartet that forms Moon Rabbits are steps on stage next and begin their performance using their voices along with their bodies to create an upbeat arrangement.
During this Triage finds an small, out of place device spliced into the power system. I-apvii is able to identify it as a charge shifter, a hybrid magi-tech device that uses technomancy to wirelessly transfer electricity. It is part of a match set such that any power flowing into this can be sent into the other of the pair, and visa versa.
The charge shifter is shoddily connected and likely would see a decent portion of the catwalk see a significant electrical discharge, along with the same possibly happening with the other of the charge shifters.
There is a timer that seems to be set to activate the device in a few dozen minutes. Looking over the mechanics it is likely that any failed attempt to deactivate would result in the immediate activation.
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I-apvii takes a picture of the device and sends it over their com, asking the rest of the party to look for anything similar, especially around the Judges stands.
(telepathically)We are probably only going to have one shot at disarming this Triage, so we will need to work closely together.
Communalism
Shirt Reroll
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Jek gets the message on their com unit, sees the timer in the picture, looks at the time the picture was taken to adjust the time, then sets a countdown alarm on their com unit to go off 2 minutes before the device does. Then looks to try to spot the second device near the judge's stands. Jek first looks from the back and then side stage.
I-apvii holds ready to disable the device with Triage as others look for the device. Likely the best way the party would have to search for the second device would be during upcoming intermission.
Within a few minutes the Moon Rabbits finish their act. Following a review of their work the event goes into another intermission. The judges clear out of the arena as crews get on stage to perform cleanup and maintenance for the next leg of the show. Some of the crowd clears out as well, going outside or to concessions for food.
For the moment the party has clear reign to search without disruption one way or the other.
Focusing the search to the small area near the judge's table, Ikmanji and Jek are able to locate the second of the devices is mounted on the underside of Tsuchi-ko's chair.
With the second device found, the party is certain that no one else will be around either of the devices during the attempt to disconnect the device.