Shari tries to get up in the lighting towers, but hardly comes off the ground. Zint and Chip fare much better and manage to get high up and close to the container, while RSE start their performance...
Chip get up there first, and see a container filled with some green sludge, rigged with a remote control to tip over...
I, I just want to spend all day with him
Even though you tell me - shh
I don't want to hear those stories now
I know there is a lot of tea
You know I can't deny way I feel
I can tell you to me it feels real
He only brings me happines and joy
This guy's just a harmless pretty boy
Dada didi dadida
And I won't listen to whatever you say
I don't care, he's smiling my way
And every time I fall for his ploy
I know he is a dangerous pretty boy
Dada didi dadida
I don't care he only talks about his birds
Or mind that he is wanted on five worlds
Try not to worry about the things he might destroy
He is the most wanted pretty boy
Bordle joins the team high up in the stage lighting scaffold, where Chip is working on disabling the remote control. Kareeda takes point.
Rainbow Sparkle Explosion manage to finish their set without incident, making place for Mecha-Crash! This guitar-laden band of androids wearing oversized mecha costumes causes the crowd to go into a tumultuous, racuous frenzy of moshing and stomping.
By the time Zint, Bordle and Chip have managed to climb down (), a group of fans have decided that now is the right to press onto the stage.
Hey, groovy horns, man... a vesk in the mosh pit says, before being scared off by them whoa, easy man...
There's a particular tiefling, a literal pit fiend who is causing alot of trouble to restrain, but somehow Zint manages to push him away. When Mecha-crash play their final power chord, it seems like the crisis is averted.
The next act is as full of energy, the Akitonian shumka band Ka-Wyrd, headed a by charismatic shobhad leader 'Wandering Beats', and the backup band that makes beats wander indeed.
As the reverberating shumka beat of the KaWyrd’s final song fades, Radat approaches the group with a harried look in his eyes.
“You’ve got a ‘scrappy and resourceful’ vibe going on, and Starfinders are known to make good watching. Here’s the deal: one of the bands is ill and dropped out—not my fault, search me—so we have time that needs to be filled and we can’t just shift the entire lineup to fix it. I need you to get out there and wow the crowd with what fascinating talents I’m sure you have for the next five minutes. Got it? Great. Go break a leg.”
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Oh Nocticula, oh Our Lady in the Shadows, ohhhh...
Shari seems really worried. It's one thing to be an artist manager - it's another to be an artist yourself. Perhaps all managers of artists dream of taking their place themselves, but do not have talents... or do they have but do not believe in themselves? Who knows. Obviously, Shari wants Yarameh to be here right now. And obviously at the same time dreams of going on stage herself and lighting up.
In the end, she decides...
Turn on the soundtrack. Here's the USB flash drive, there's nice dark metal. And give the red light. Tell them... there will be a death number.
Shari unbuttons her business suit, and you can see under the floors of the jacket... grenades. Lots and lots of grenades. Suddenly you realize that there is much more unpredictable in this drow woman than it seemed.
Shari goes on stage and starts juggling. One grenade, the second, the third... five. Seven. She... She takes out the pins, juggles them too, and manages to insert it back before the explosion. And all this happens under the Abyssal Hymns of Nocticula, performed in the recording of her ward heavy metal artist Yarameh...
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I'm an accountant ..... and vidgamer .... what can I do on stage ... I'm not Rani
Still .... maybe she can do something. While Shari is doing her thing with the grenades, she changes to a two piece swimsuit then, once Shari is done, she piroettes on stage, conjures up some Dancing Lights and dances with them accompanied with some dubstep version of classical music done by DJ Scratch.
Still probably would have been better performed underwater
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Morela gasps, and beams at the offer. Glory to Desna! She activates her Solarian armor. Her body is coated by a thin blue force field. A glowing plane of blue light, shaped like butterfly wings, emanates from her back.
She scrambles up on the stage, and joins Bordle, doing flips and round-offs while surrounded by the dancing lights.
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Chip starts to hook his rig into the system so he can control the lights, but Bordle beats him to it with her magical light show. Probably best not to meddle with the presets anyway.
Time for the dancing drone!
Checker isn't really equipped for it, but maybe with some quick modifications and then taking direct control...
Shari gives a downright scary performance that has the crowd awestruck and motionsless. It's so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Which fortunately doesn't happen.
The performance is starkly contrasted by the elegant performances of Bordle and Zint.
Morela tried to gather some attention with backflips, but unfortunately the stage lighting doesn't quite catch the Lashunta. Whatever Chip is trying to do isn't quite successful.
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The inpromptu performance of the Starfinder group was great, but terrifying, almost on par with an Abysshead show. I have no idea what that drone was trying to do, though. Puzzles me to this day...
-- Star Sugar Superstar review in the Daily Lorespire (5/5)
The Starfinder act is a huge success! once the final grenade is off-stage, the crowd claps and cheers, if not in admiration then in relief. Sadat congratulates the group Applause for the starfinders! and then announces the intermission.
The intermission is period of quietness, except for the owner of the concession stands. When the group briefly moves backstage, they encounter Faleen, the assistant of Tchuki-ko. What a great performance! she congratulates the team, that was so well-thought out, grace combined with excitement, racuousness and elegance... I... she suddenly doesn't look too well, I have to... if you'll excuse me... she steps off towards the dressing room, but doesn't make it further than a few paces before she collapses.
Kareeda and Chip concern themselves with the fallen assistant, and notice green tumorous growths on Faleen’s neck that are constricting her breathing. That pretty bad news: green growths are a symptom of demonwort, an ingested poison distilled from a plant native to the Abyss that’s popular among drow assassins and known for causing extremely painful death.
Faleen gurgles something, trying to say something near-indecipherable...
“dressing room… cupcake… Tsuchi-ko… warn…”
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Zint leans in, his eyes widen, "Poison cupcake in Tsuchi-Ko's dressing room!"
He jumps up and runs as fast as his impressive 4 legged odd gaited run allows to said dressing room, busting in, "No eat cupcake! Poisoned! Faleen eat it, sick!"
Then he looks around the room, hoping he got there in time and also hoping someone was actually in the room to be warned.
Zint busts into the dressing room, just into time to prevent Tchuki-ko from swallowing a chocolate cupcake whole. There's a lovingly wrapped gift basket with similar cupcakes, right next to a knitted doll of Tchuki-ko.
Hi! the bassist says happily as Zint rushes, then her face flushes with concern Faleen? Poison? What?!
She drops the cupcake and rushes outside, just in time to see Faleen stretchered off. Oh no! This is horrible! Who would do such a thing to her?
It's my fault, I gave her one of those chocolate cupcakes in that basket. Awful! And they got to me so easily... do you think it was someone on the inside who was responsible?
He then looks at the doll, does it look familiar?
Very familiar
"Chocolate? Didn't you buy 'no brown ones'? That makes these stand out at least. If they're all the same, anyway."
Chip peers into the basket to check.
Chip sees a collection of brown, chocolate cupcakes, and a package label that says 'Cocoa Planet, for all your baked goods, 1025 fudge corridor, the spike.' Which is not too far from here. Yes, the cupcake tower wasn't supposed to have brown cupcakes, because some of the staff are allergic. Tchuki-ko explains.
That doll came with the cupcakes. There was this adorable fan dressed up like... like this doll... Tchuki-ko says, who brought it over...
"Chocolate? Didn't you buy 'no brown ones'? That makes these stand out at least. If they're all the same, anyway."
Chip peers into the basket to check.
Chip sees a collection of brown, chocolate cupcakes, and a package label that says 'Cocoa Planet, for all your baked goods, 1025 fudge corridor, the spike.' Which is not too far from here. Yes, the cupcake tower wasn't supposed to have brown cupcakes, because some of the staff are allergic. Tchuki-ko explains.
That doll came with the cupcakes. There was this adorable fan dressed up like... like this doll... Tchuki-ko says, not quite seeing the connection who brought it over...
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She looks over to Zint. Yep. I'm fairly sure that's the one. Guess I'm going to have a word with door security.
She turns back to Tchuki-ko Did this .... adorable fan bring the cupcakes too? Or was that a separate delivery.
She makes a mental note of the address in order to bring home some cupcakes later.
Before speaking to the door guards, and anyone else she can find, she clambers back into her clothes and gear.
Bordle gets a nod when asking about Wonder Yes, she brought the cupcakes. She was really nice, I gave her a handshake and a photocard. Tchuki-ko says.
Bordle, Shari and Kareeda find some witnesses backstage.
Sonic Tumult's Sayozo says I saw that weird fan from earlier come out of Tchuki-ko's dressing room. I thought that was pretty weird, but then Fudd and Kraz started fighting again, so I got distracted.
Naughti Whiska's Cheesy-D is quick to come up with his opinion:
Somebody fell sick, I think I'm gaving a stroke
Could this a genuine vampire joke?
Sadat is a crook, in camouflage
I'm telling all of y'all it's sabotage
Geldro is the manager of mellow synth band Musepathic, and he offers his business insider view: “I only know of one person here who’s poisoned someone before: Lynthia. She poisoned her lover a few years ago. It was all over the infosphere!”
Liraeus, the friendly lighting stage hand that Kareeda! helped out, says “I didn’t see anything about Tsuchi-ko, but could you please ask Lita Starr’s bodyguards to stay off the catwalk? One of them was just up there and he stepped on and broke a light. I’m afraid to ask myself
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"I don't know where the vampires or jokes come in," Chip tells Cheesy-D, "but I can pretty much confirm that was sabotage. The tampered cupcakes are obviously chocolate, but none of the cupcakes that were provided for the crew have brown icing. If you don't want to trust any of them, fair enough, but definitely don't eat any brown ones. And if you see anybody else with one, stop them."
He then taps on Lita Starr's dressing room door. "Do you have any bodyguards that were on the catwalk? If you do, the stage hand asked them to be more careful because one of them broke a light. If you don't, uh, please tell me because that'll be something I have to check out."
"I don't know where the vampires or jokes come in," Chip tells Cheesy-D, "but I can pretty much confirm that was sabotage.
I told all of y'all Cheesy-D says. Sadat likes to play pranks, just sayin' Mind crewmate Diz chimes in Word. Sadat has to keep it real, yo.
He then taps on Lita Starr's dressing room door. "Do you have any bodyguards that were on the catwalk? If you do, the stage hand asked them to be more careful because one of them broke a light. If you don't, uh, please tell me because that'll be something I have to check out."
There's no answer. The dressing room is empty and the door is ajar.
Chip has look in the dressing room. There's a table with signed photocards of Lita Starr, although some of them look as if the word 'Chip' has been written on them.
There's also a vent in the wall, where chip finds an empty syringe. There seems to be a tiny amount of liquid left, which is a tint of green that can best be described as 'green with an evil glow'.
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Chip carefully collects the syringe and looks for the others.
"The good news is it looks like the poison was added after the cupcakes got here, which means we can rule out the baker. The bad news is it looks like the poison was added after the cupcakes got here, which means nobody should trust our cupcakes either. Or anything else. Although we should test this to be sure--I don't suppose anybody's equipped for that?"
Nobody carries that equipment on their person. Except maybe certain Starfinders?
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Geldro is the manager of mellow synth band Musepathic, and he offers his business insider view: “I only know of one person here who’s poisoned someone before: Lynthia. She poisoned her lover a few years ago. It was all over the infosphere!”
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You're just saying that because she's a drow, right? Do you think our skin and hair color implies that we are necessarily cynical assassins and poisoners? You're very wrong. Some of us are not cynics at all, but very sentimental..
Great job, Chip! It's even a pity that I really haven't dealt with poisons and don't know anything about them.
Geldro is the manager of mellow synth band Musepathic, and he offers his business insider view: “I only know of one person here who’s poisoned someone before: Lynthia. She poisoned her lover a few years ago. It was all over the infosphere!”.
You're just saying that because she's a drow, right? Do you think our skin and hair color implies that we are necessarily cynical assassins and poisoners? You're very wrong. Some of us are not cynics at all, but very sentimental.
Hey, chill man... That's like... your opinion, man... Geldro objects all I'm saying is she's actually poisoned someone before, so if you're looking for someone capable of poisoning someone... he lets the thought linger in the air.