The Hunt for McMan

Without really realising she was doing it, Pirouette had risen to her toe points, hands clasped together to her chest as she looked between the other two women while they fenced words. Time was on her mind now, and the need to get the matter resolved was leading the girl to want to press a deal swiftly. She wanted to wince as Divina concluded her own dealings and decided to join the fray with her own thoughts. How had she gotten caught in the middle of this anyway? One friend trying to lie to make the thief's goal seem impossible, another musing about it enough to expose the fib... or was it... wait, both Divinas were calling Kabuki out on that...? What was even going on now? Her wings were ruffling and bristling as the ballerina's agitation grew and she looked for something she could say, anything, that would diffuse the matter and keep everyone happy.

She found herself nodding eagerly as the also Kabuki admitted that she could get what she wanted without the suit, eventually. That would have to be good enough for Mo, she hoped, since it seemed like the best deal to keep them both happy, now if only the actress and her double could agree on a way to make her less of a duplicate. the sense that things were going the right was was dashed for her suddenly, however, when FraudMan... she was quite certain this one was FraudMan... seemed to want to stand in the way of the two Kabukis reaching understanding. As much as she heard that Faux had something to way regarding the event, it didn't manage to trump her agitation at the other thief acting like another road-block for them, so the worry ended up settling into the back of her mind where it would languish unattended for now. She was about to take issue with his interruption herself, but Divina beat her to that particular punch, upbraiding her look-alike with quite a remarkable level of enthusiasm for such a peaceful woman.

Instead, Pirouette fell back again, forcing herself to relax. She resettled her wings carefully and rested back to the balls of her feet instead of her toes. Taking a long breath, the girl refocused her thoughts. She could be more useful if she concentrated on what else was important. For now, that meant getting these other two to agree, so she turned back to Faux while Divina chewed out FraudMan.

Unfortuantely, this was just in time to hear Kabuki's excuse about what she was doing, and it drew a small, indignant gasp from her. Her hands clasped into tow separate fists again briefly, though there was nothing in the motion that would allow it to escape the bounds of 'still far too cute'.

"Oh! Kabuki, I did not! I would never... Ohh, there is no time for this!" She made herself set aside what she thought of the woman laying on fib after fib in her situation, and tried to draw the conversation back to the more important matters.

"Miss..." She started, wondering if she ought to use the other woman's name now that she knew it. In the end, she decided not to, though, since faux herself had been quite deliberately against sharing it in the first place. Instead, she made eye contact with her more deliberately and repeated the greeting more firmly as just a title and nothing more. "Miss. Kabuki is right in that much. I do not know as much about her art as she does, of course, but, I do know that Kabuki actresses, they often come in several different colours, you know? As well as red, I know that they are also often shades of blue and indigo, shades of purple, and shades of green. I know they are almost always just one of these, you know, and they do not mix them, so, if you made your version of her appearance one of those other colours instead, then everything would be absolutely authentic still." Despite herself, Pirouette was still tense that this was taking far too long and she squared her shoulders.

"Now please, miss. We are doing all we can to... to..." she fumbled. "To ulazhivat', ah... to accommodate you. You have miss Kabuki's word that those changes will be enough, and yet still truly authentic, so, please... Say you will agree, and then perhaps come and watch miss Kabuki perform for us, yes? We simply can not spend any more time arguing now." Here, without thinking, she reached out to clutch one of the other Kabuki's hands in her own, in a pleading gesture. They really couldn't keep holding Kabuki up like this, and she was tempted to simply cut the call off and let the other woman focus on her performance, but hopefully not until they had reached a deal on this end.

"Aw, gee, you're right about that, friend! Surely can't go ahead with this one without trust and understanding," the fake Divina spoke, grinning perpetually. "I've got so much to lose if this deal doesn't go through, I might, uh... not get my kicks and giggles? Only walk away with an extremely expensive .GMO that I might be able to sell for even more than its worth? I might only be able to use this outfit to affect the opinions of everyone who isn't one of your followers, visiting any number of communities, businesses, and important figures and leaving misunderstandings about you and your followers for you to clear up everywhere I go? Gee, with so much to lose, I'd better be real careful I don't step on your toes! This is an important deal for me, Sweetheart, but let's not confuse where we stand, all right...? Anyway, she's a big girl, I'll let her say what she wants. It's really at the point where whatever happens, happens. I've already got my good deal, so whatever she does at this point, that's up to her."


Faux, for her part, was listening to Kabuki and Pirouette with interest, but still a fair share of apprehension. "Well, indigo is such a pretty color... I could probably pull it off, but... I don't know, to flare up to indigo feels like such a strange direction. Maybe if I go with blue, and then the flame is bright enough... Mmm..." She still looked as if she was on the fence until Pirouette grabbed her hand, reminding her time was of the essence for them. She bit her lip, trying to look away from Pirouette's eyes. "D-don't look at me like that... all right," she conceded, shutting her eyes. "I... really can't decide on the modifications right now, but... I understand your position. I don't want to hold you up... you're almost past the point where you can do anything about it, anyway. Tch... now I feel bad about this, but it wasn't my idea! Letting FraudMan pull me along like this is too much, no matter what I'm getting out of it. Ugh, why do I need this kind of stress?! Making this .GMO work will be a pain in the neck, too... Okay, I'll do it. I'll make modifications later, and you're going to have to trust that they'll be enough, and that I'll give the suit back. But..."

The Navi coughed, keeping her eyes shut as though she really couldn't look at Kabuki or Pirouette. "The audience was, um..."

FraudMan approached her from behind again, hugging around her shoulders. "Aw, this is a little too much of an ethical dilemma? More than you bargained for. I'll be the one to say it, all right, friends? The thing is, and don't ask me how I know this, cause you know it's a mystery to everyone! But the audience is mostly gone. I have it on good authority that by the time Kabuki arrives to her show, there's gonna be... hmm... about ten people left in an audience that seats two-hundred...!"

At this point, FraudMan had backed off from Faux again and was cackling, holding her own sides. "Ahahaha! I don't know who could have caused this, but that's a bit of a pickle, right? Not much of an idol festival with a ten-person audience...!"

For her own part, Faux backed away from him, her face screwing up. "Ugh, I don't need to hear you laughing about it! I know I'm not one to talk, but you really get your kicks in a sick way, you know that? This man actually paid part of his stolen earnings to audience members just to get them not to attend! Why? Did you want that man's show to fail so badly?!"

"Hey, hey! Everyone's fun comes at someone else's expense. That's just the way the world works," FauxMan spoke, puffing on his cigar again. "You said more than I wanted to... but now that you have, I have more I wanna say! If I'm a sinner, at least I'm not the original sinner, okay? That stuffy guy's just as dirty as any of us. Paying a cadre of people to enjoy some idol nonsense, just to convince some has-been that people wanna see her show? Paying us to pretend to be her allies, then double-cross her? Paying us to take your appearances," he said, grinning especially widely now as he turned to each of the three women besides Faux, "and then run away, lead you all on a goose-chase?"

Faux continued biting her lip, her hands shaking now. "I really don't think that's any of our business... or ours to share..."

"Nope, we're all telling the truth now! That guy has to be held accountable too, don't you think? Acting like he's her friend, like he listens to her and does what she wants... while all the while trying to back her into a corner where she does what he wants, what he thinks is best. To me, that sounds like a real scumbag, don't you think?"

To this, Faux didn't response. She seemed like she had more to say, but couldn't make herself speak. Finally, she gathered her composure again. "... I don't know if there's any way you three can save this. I... don't want to be a part of this any more. I'll do what I said, then return this .GMO when it's ready... all right?"

The fake Divina removed her cigar from her mouth and tapped it out, turning to Divina in particular as she spoke. "I wonder if there's no way they can save it... time's crucial for them now. Only a couple minutes left. I wonder if they can use that time wisely enough? I bet Divina has some good plan to deal with those missing audience members... Or, do they even want to? Do you know that Motion guy even specifically told us we could use all of your bodies for whatever we wanted, as long as it slowed you down enough that you wouldn't come back in time? I asked him if sexy stuff was okay! He said no problemo, that one! Aheh... That guy had a pretty intricate web of lies... too bad that kinda web falls apart when you trust the wrong person, eh?" Choosing that particular note, FraudMan put his cigar back in his mouth and raised his eyebrows at Divina. "So, now I spilled the beans and filled you all in on everything! What a great guy, what a great deal! I assume our deal's still on?"

...Okay, this was going nowhere fast, at a point where they really needed to get somewhere. "Yes, yes, you're a big man for borderline threatening a lady. Now, shall we let her speak?" Fortunately, the answer was yes, but after agreeing to the terms, Faux seemed hesitant to actually finish her earlier thought...but FraudMan was all too willing. "...What?! Ten out of...hmm. I wonder why that could be." Divina slowly grimaced as it became perfectly clear why they knew that...and their apparent knowledge of other things. "......"

And yet, when all was spoken, she suddenly brightened up. "You're absolutely right, FraudMan. I do have a plan. Kabuki!" She floated in the air slightly as she moved over to where she'd been brought up. "It would seem that your staying behind has changed everything. But I'll try to keep this short...you need to go out and perform! It matters not if there are ten, two hundred, or a million people watching, ignite the fire in their idol loving hearts! I don't know how much of what the others were just saying you heard, but ignore it. Just go out there, and give them what only a master of the stage like yourself can provide them!"" As she spoke, the goddess gradually began to shine with a bright aura; it wasn't really clear whether she was doing it intentionally, though. Either way, as she finished, the light died down, and she turned to her side and brought up another message window, this one with a NormalNavi.

"Ah, mon d-"

"No time for idle talk! I'm going to send you some coordinates. Go there, and record the performance! It's going to start soon, so please hurry!"

"...I would love to, but I am désolé! My operator is in ze middle of a rendes-vous chez le dentiste...I can do nothing but sit here and attendez."

"O-Oh...I'm sorry. It's just, you so rarely aren't in a position to help, so-"

"Say no more! I comprendre! But I am afraid I cannot aid you right now, mon déesse!

"No, it's perfectly fine...may your day be free of troubles and cavities!" Click. Darn. "So much for that idea...but it ultimately doesn't change anything. All that needs to happen is for Kabuki to deliver the performance I know she's capable of, and it should all be able to be sorted out." Now, to sort out some loose ends on her end. First, Faux. "I can't speak for anyone else, but I believe you. Just make sure you return that GMO when you're done, all right? To Kabuki herself, if necessary." And now for certain people that were clearly too slimy to truly capture the heart of a goddess, no matter how hard they tried. She simply smiled and shook her head. "Now, more than ever...I think it's very much in everyone's best interests. My next scheduled sermon will be two days from now, at 11:00 AM sharp, Electopian time, in the Temple of Divina homepage in Kotobuki Area. You should probably arrive about 30 minutes early, and not wearing the GMO. Not coming in looking like me will make it easier for us to switch places for the sermon, and there's a few things I should probably tell you beforehand. I shouldn't be hard to find, just come over and let me know who you are, and we'll get started. That should about cover it...I trust that's acceptable?"

For all the fumbling, stumbling, minced words and half truths, it seemed at last as though they had finally managed to find an acceptable middle ground for Kabuki's duplicate as well, and Pirouette felt like heaving a sigh of relief. She had been about to thank Kabuki and cut the call off, before the procession of revelations continued on unabated and the would-be idol ballerina was left standing with her hands clasping back together at her chest and her expression flickering back from relief to concern once more. Most of her body language followed suit, with her shoulders falling back and her wings practically hugging themselves to her back.

What began as a small vein of indignation at FraudMan's glee, thrown about so readily in the face of the misfortune facing Glow's performance, swiftly became one a much more directed ire when Faux called him on being the one who had set it up and arranged the failure in the first place. the more that was revealed, the more Pirouette found herself growing distressed at, well, more or less everyone around her, and she began to wonder how she'd fallen in with such terrible people on her first real outing. She sought her inner poise and struggled to calm herself, taking a long breath rather than simply launching into a fierce scolding of FraudMan for being such a horrid man.

As it turned out, taking that moment of calm was the right choice, because the revelations and finger-pointing just kept on coming now. Focused on retaining her calm now, there wasn't much that would outwardly ruffle the young woman; she fully intended to give, MoCapMan a piece of her mind, if what was being said turned out to be true, and at this point she couldn't really think of any reason that FraudMan would lie about it, or why Faux wouldn't call him out if it was a lie. That focused calm shuddered and fractured when Fraud mentioned just what sorts of things Mo had apparently been ok with them doing with their forms. Despite her best efforts, she let out a shocked gasp, raising both hands to cover her mouth before she could get herself under control again. She might have stopped the gasp quickly, but the crimson flush that came with it wasn't halted so easily. It was several more long, deep breaths and a few seconds with her eyes closed before she was calm enough to think about responding again. When she did, it was slowly and carefully, and even those who hadn't spent much time around the girl would be able to tell that she was highly distressed, regardless of her best efforts.

"So... you say, this man, he... paid for people to come to her show. And, he paid, or promised to pay, the performers as well, yes? Then he paid you, to sabotage that show, to steal away the performers. So... So that Glow would have to perform, herself, yes? And then you... you paid the hired audience again, to not show up to the show they were being paid to show up to. Is this right? Just to... to... confound his plans... the plans of the man who was paying you for your service. And... and you do this, even though you were going to get much more from it than he meant for you to? Just, just... for your own amusement? And you..." Her eyes turned to Faux now, who would be able to see the signs of glistening at the edges of them. "You knew all this, and you went along with it, and you would have taken her look without asking, and done those things with it, if we had not come to plead with you...?" The next couple of deep breaths sounded harder than they probably should have been. Regardless of what the answers were, or even if there were any, Pirouette was too busy struggling to keep her composure now, while the rest of the conversation moved on without her.

She held her tongue, but her thoughts continued all the same; somehow she had ended up surrounded by horrid individuals in every direction. From these three, who seemed wiling to hurt just about anyone for the sake of money or their own personal wants... to Mo, who now looked like he was trying to hurt glow's feelings deliberately, and even her allies were a woman who would tell lies at the drop of a hat or make smearing jokes about her friends just to save face, and another one didn't seem to see the point of respecting other friends' personal privacy, even to complete strangers. more than ever now, she just wanted to be away from this mess and back in her own room at home. the world wasn't really like this; people weren't really like this, she had to insist. Somehow she'd just ended up throwing in with a group of reprehensible ladies, who in turn had gotten themselves wrapped up with some other, truly disgusting people, in turn. It had to be a one-off, it simply had to be. Most people, normal people, were good; they were not like this. She swallowed, repeating the thought to herself to help her find some more stability. There was one thing that she definitely agreed with, at least. For Glow's sake, and possibly in spite of everyone else, she felt like they really ought to do their best to make this the most successful idol performance they possibly could. Hope rose for a moment, then subsided as Divina's own plan to call in help seemed to fall through. Uncertain, Pirouette shifted from the balls of her feet to toe points then down again, bouncing slightly, before nodding softly to herself. If she was out of line, then the others could chastise her later; at this point it wouldn't mean much to her coming from anyone but Glow.

"Mikhail... are there any forms who have important activities on their classes today? If you could, could we send a message to the navis of the children in forms seven through thirteen, please? A performing arts piece from modern culture will be beginning now, at the show address, yes? Any navi who wishes to attend, for the benefit of their operator, is welcome to do so free of charge, as an opportunity to experience some other forms of contemporary performance art, you know? The show will be beginning now, but late arrivals are welcome. It is short notice, and if it is inconvenient, they do not have to, of course, but all are welcome and encouraged. Do you think that sounds alright, Mikhail? I think it would help, you know?" There was a pause.
"You know I cannot arrange something like that without getting it approved first, little one. There are rules."
"Ah... But, it would not be formal, Mikhail! It would just be... ah... like, like mentioning it, in a newsletter, you know? Not a class thing, just, something that might be of interest, yes?" Her hands clasped tighter together as she spoke to her operator, and she wasn't doing a very good job of hiding her emotion from him. After another moment there came a good-natured sigh.
"Alright my lebedёnok, alright. I will send the message, but I fear you may not get many at such short notice. I will see to it." The girl nodded to no-one in particular, then looked towards Divina.

"We should go back, yes? The best we can do now, it is to support Glow, and cheer her and Kabuki on, you know? We can deal with..." She wavered, then brushed past it. "The rest... afterwards, yes? After the performance has been a success!" This last she did her best to say firmly, and with certainty, though the effects of her distress were still lingering. One way or the other, though, there didn't seem to be much else they could achieve here.

While Divina tried to get her plan together, FraudMan looked to Pirouette and her accusations, her fake goddess eyes and goddess lips both curling grotesquely as Pirouette laid them before her. "Yes. Yes, that's right. Uh huh. All of that." She nodded her head on each point, the grin widening and widening.

While FraudMan seemed to grow with each statement made, Faux appeared to shrink, still frowning miserably and diverting her eyes. When it finally came down to calling her out on her complacency, she gave up entirely, disappearing from the Net in a quick, nondescript flash.

"Aaah, that's it. Faux's was a bit much, but that kinda reaction, that sunken broken-heartedness.... that stupefied consideration of the fallen Navi condition... it's that kinda thing that makes it so worth while! If only I'd gotten some tears out of you, little buddy, I'd be feelin' so good I'd take a three-week vacation from any kinda skullduggery! The saddest thing about it is a guy like me only gets to taste it once per target, haw haw haw!" she continued braying, nearly doubling over now. "So what ought I to do? Sulk and sob that I was programmed this way or that, like certain wet sack compatriots of mine? Naw, life's meant to be enjoyed, my friend, and remember, everyone's pleasure is at someone else's expense!"

She finally calmed down enough to wipe away tears of laughter that were springing up from the corners of her squinted eyes. She waved over to Divina, not bothering with another handshake. "All right, sounds good, friend. Let's call it a date, okay? Now, you two little ladies have a concert to go to, right? I'm sure it's probably gonna be your last chance to see this particular idol group on stage, so better get goin', huh?" Still shaking with laughter, the fake Divina departed from the Net, taking her fake idol costume with her.

That left the two alone (well, alone with the rest of the Netsquare bustling about them). The two would probably want to hurry on if they were going to catch the concert.

Divina made no attempt to rebute FraudMan's remarks, or even reacted to them. She simply allowed him to speak his mind, for whatever it was worth, and let him leave. If she wasn't blinking and breathing, one might've wondered if her systems had crashed. "...How utterly tragic. Now that I've gotten over my initial shock, all I really feel for that man is pity. I can only imagine how empty that sort of life must be...but this isn't the time to talk about that. Come, Pirouette, we have a show to attend!" A beam of light whisked the goddess away, wasting no time in getting over to the concert.

(TO ELECTOWN AREA)

FraudMan's delight at her distress set Pirouette's limbs trembling delicately as she held onto her calm with as much iron as she could manage. She was shaking while the fake Divina crowed about how glorious the suffering of others was, though it would be hard to guess from the outside whether the quivering was a precursor to tears or shouting. Possibly both. there was a moment when she had felt a flash of pity for Faux and her obvious upset at being called out, but FraudMan's boisterous ranting drowned it out just as quickly. As he departed at last, Pirouette clenched her fists together, frustrated and hopeless, and stamped one foot.

"You horrid, horrid man! It is a disgrace! How could anyone..." Her call went out to the empty air, of course, and she wasn't really making a big enough of a scene to attract attention any further than the real Divina, but the tears that had threatened to escape before swelled at the corners of her eyes before she took a breath and wiped them away with the sleeve of her costume. Divina, for her part, seemed calmer, and the other woman's solidarity seemed to help recall the little ballerina to herself as well. She nodded and took a few more breaths, then prepared to follow Divina's lead and return to the performance. Just before she departed, though, the girl took a wistful look over her own rather beautiful costume, then deactivated it and packed it up again neatly. It wouldn't do to be showing up as an audience member dressed like an idol to rival the performers themselves, since she was no longer part of the act, and she could always reactivate it if she needed to later. Dressed again in her default leotard, Pirouette took a moment to rub her shoulders and hug herself, shaking out her wings and resettling herself, then the whirling flurry of white feathers surrounded her again and took the girl away.

((Returning to -> The First (Last?) Annual Net-Idol Carnival))