First Annual Net-Idol Carnival

"Again, to be one-hundred percent clear, I am not a girl, kawaii or otherwise," Mo responded, crossing her arms impatiently and pouting a bit. "It certainly wouldn't hurt us for the audience to believe that was the case, though."

Glow elbowed Kabuki subtly and giggled a bit. "D-don't worry, Mo, I have a feeling it's g-gonna work out..."

"If I haven't made it clear, I'm not worried," Mo said, allowing a rare, if small, smile. "I have full confidence in your abilities. And, for that matter, yes. My own singing should not be an issue. I'm not a professional, but like I've said... I've prepared for contingencies."

The two waited a moment for Kabuki to finish reviewing the video. Glow glowed again at the praise, brightening to a sharp red again. "Y-y-you think so? I m-m-mean, I n-never intended to be an idol mysh-self. For both Mo and me, the idea w-was always to promote idol culture and idol suh-circles behind the schenesh. The scenes! In case you couldn't tell, I d-don't exactly have a w-wellspring of confidence in public appearances."

Mo remained quiet, but tapped her fingers on her arms impatiently. She was quite obviously on the brink of frustration again, so if Glow didn't move it along, they could expect another snap. She kept her mouth in its tightest grimace as she faced Kabuki, as if declaring some degree of tickle torture was going to be required if she was actually going for an ear-to-ear smile as a desired result. Her frown deepened even a bit still as Kabuki continued: Glow seemed to appreciate the actress's enthusiasm, but it was hard to imagine Mo wasn't getting a headache. "Yes, well, we'll be relying on your professional abilities. Now... you have the first role. You've seen Glow's performance in the video, and you'll need to copy that exactly. For our part, we'll practice the backup dance... Glow, I understand you've already come up with the moves?"

"Yes, that's right," Glow agreed readily, before pausing again. "W-wait, hold up a second. I definitely didn't show you any backup moves at my original performance. I m-mean, I've only ever performed this alone! I w-wuh-worked out some b-backup moves just in case I wanted to adapt it to a group piece, but... the only place those should have b-been was in my creative notes... Mo!" she gasped, jumping suddenly. "D-d-d-did you go through my s-stuff?!"

Mo sighed again, tapping her foot with apparent impatience. "Yes, of course I did, Glow. We're working together on this, right? I told you I prepared for every contingency. Naturally, I'm not creative enough to come up with a backup routine myself, so I took the initiative in investigating your extra material."

"S-still... I'm still a girl, Mo! You can't just g-go through my stuff without ah-aah-asking!" She crossed her arms, huffing up a bit. "And you're creative enough to come up with a cute girl appearance behind my back..." she added in a low voice.

"Well, I apologize if I've overstepped a bound, and if you like, we can address that later. When that time comes, though, I hope you'll keep in mind how much my diligence helped us out in this tight spot. Now, Kabuki, if you will-"

"H-hold on, one sec!" Glow spoke up, rushing over to a case in the corner quickly. From the case, which was about the size of rolling airplane luggage, she produced a small machine. She motioned for Kabuki to give her the video file back, then, assuming she got it, would put it into the machine.

Doing so and hitting a button caused the machine to quickly jump to life. A lens lit up, and the device's purpose became clear as the video appeared in a low-quality projection on the side of the tent. The video was as Kabuki had just seen, with one addition. Notably, it had the lyrics displayed in subtitles at the bottom of the projection.

"I forgot I m-made this! Lucky!" Glow did a small hop in place, putting her fists to her chin. "I didn't make these for all m-my videos, but I did it for the first one. Th-th-this is a karaoke version, with the spoken lyrics cut out but displayed at the bottom. That way, you can practice your singing, Kabuki. Mo and I will work on the steps in the background..."

"There's not much to that, so don't worry about us, Kabuki. Focus on your part," Mo reminded the kabuki actress, setting in a bit behind her.

"Remember Kabuki... this is a soft song, so try and take it easy, all right? You want it energetic, uh... sappy in the f-first part. It stays that way pretty much th-through the first solo, until the end. The last two lines need to fade to the m-mournful, longing tone Mo will use for his p-part. And all three of us prrrr-pretty much sing our souls out in the chorus. It's fine to, uh... wail? A bit? Wail if you want to."

"I don't know that I'd be encouraging her to wail, Glow," Mo commented, sighing again.

When Kabuki was ready, Glow would rewind to the start and begin the track playing. The steps Glow and Mo had fallen into behind her were a simple routine of stepping back and forth, making some swaying and clapping motions, and eventually grabbing each other's hands and spinning away. The two seemed to have their parts pretty well down already, and Kabuki might be surprised Mo was indeed Glow's equal, at least at that simple form of dance. Both of the two seemed absorbed in their parts, though, and it would be up to Kabuki to handle her own.

As Kabuki had expected, her own part was full of high-energy spots, including a lot of jumping around, and plenty of arm motions. Her "moe pose" was probably going to fall to a distant 5th on the list of teeth-achingly sweet and vaguely age-inappropriate motions she had made since entering the tent. At the solo end transition Glow had mentioned, however, the energy would need to be toned down: the song abruptly fell from a skipping walk to a still pose.

Kabuki's grin persisted, unchanging, as Mo reminded the actress that he was not, in fact, a girl. "And BEE~LEAVE they shall! You are very CON~VINS~SING!" she reassured her compatriot, although he needed no reassurance. It seemed that Mo's smile wasn't going to come easily... but as partial as Kabuki was to smiles, she had to admit she had a weak spot for sour-puss frowns too. She resisted the urge to hug the grown man, who was currently acting the part of a little girl, and let him continue.

Glow and Mo went back and forth for a while as Kabuki briefly contemplated the fact that their stage names would rhyme and hers would throw the scheme off, if they were really an idol group going forward... rather, "Glow, Mo, and Kabuki" sounded a little too close to some kind of comedy trio. Glow began to rattle off some chastisement about MotionCaptureMan's invasion of privacy, a conversation which Kabuki shouldered her way into. "She is CORR~RECKED, Mo! A girl's privacy is SAKE~RED!" she shouted, striking a pose that caused her bosom to heave, reminding everyone that her traditional outfit didn't exactly value privacy that heavily. Thankfully, her idol suit was a bit more modest.

As that topic was tossed out and the main issue of the day came back to the forefront, Glow produced a new karaoke version of her standard song. "ECKS~SELL~LENT! I want a copy for later, too!" Kabuki cried, sitting down where she could and huddling her knees to her chin while she watched. She quickly realized, however, that everyone else was standing up to practice their parts, so she ought to as well. After straightening her outfit at her thighs, she slapped herself twice on the shoulders to pump up, then took a deep breath to begin singing. Just then, Glow pitched in, reminding her that she was definitely going to have to tone it down for some of the parts of this song. She closed her mouth with her cheeks still puffed out and nodded slowly, fading back to brown and black. The truth was, she wasn't exactly used to subdued performances, but she figured there was no reason she couldn't. "Very well. I'll stay peaceful and subdued until the chorus, then," she assured her allies, without specifying how she planned to act once the chorus hit.

When it came time to perform, Kabuki was a consummate professional; this meant that practicing was serious business to her. She focused on keeping her energy matched to where it needed to be. Singing wasn't hard for her, nor was dancing; even unfamiliar poses would come to her with a natural grace (even if it looked a little silly for her to be making child-like dance moves). The trick was to stop herself from reddening up and blasting her voice when she wasn't supposed to.

"Hmph!" Yoshitsune spoke up, interrupting the practice. "This feels ridiculous, Sister. Should not everyone else adapt to the pinnacle of culture, kabuki theater, of which you are a studied master? Childish dance moves and songs like those are nothing in the face of the mie, the cries, the epic tales that unfold in our art!" he smirked, pressing one hand to his chest as if to indicate that he himself was the superior kabuki theater. "If they go out there with their silliness and you match it with a traditional kabuki play, they will be left in-!"

"SAI~LENCE, Brother! You know not of what you speak!" Kabuki warned her brother, bursting into red and making a fearsome grin, flinging one palm to the unseen view of his monitor. "No art is IN~FEE~REE~YOR! Although we love and respect KA~BOO~KEE theater, we should keep in mind the MAN~EE~FOLD delights of idol culture as well! After all, kabuki may EM~BOD~DEE the blood, romance, and tragedy of old warriors, but these dances capture the BEE~YOO~TEE, INN~NO~SENTS, and DREAM~EE~NESS of the state of youth! When you are older, you will know that youth is something worthy of AD~MEER~RAY~TION as well! You may even long for it!" she announced, clasping her hands together over her head dramatically. "Do not deny those fans the SPLEN~DOR of youth in its fullest display!"

"... So you are saying 'do not deny me the chance to dance like a little girl,' right?" Yoshitsune questioned, lowering his eyebrows.

"Don't DE~NY me it, my idiot Brother!" Kabuki pouted, crossing her arms. "Now, if you will ECKS~CUSE me, I am practicing!" she cried, hunching forward and crossing her arms with her legs bowed. She ended up glaring hard at the screen, but it took her a while to fade back to her calm form.

Mo and Glow continued hitting their steps behind Kabuki as she practiced her part. Glow gave her a nod, which Mo returned with a small shrug and smile. In general, the two seemed pleased with Kabuki's performance. They seemed to get the general impression Yoshitsune was probably saying something disparaging about their beloved idol culture in favor of kabuki theater. However, they had apparently seen enough of his rambunctiousness in his earlier conversations with Pirouette to learn not to take his opinions too seriously if they wanted to keep their sanity through this event.

As Kabuki reached the end of her solo portion, Glow moved over and hit "pause" on the player. "V-v-very good, Kabuki! I can t-tell you're a p-professional. N-now I kinda want to see what wah-one of your actual kabuki p-performances looks like..."

"Isn't she basically a walking kabuki performance in the first place?" Mo commented, crossing her arms.

"There's a l-luh-lot more to kabuki theater than j-just walking and t-talking like that, I'm p-pretty sure, Mo," Glow chided her friend. "It isn't like w-we become idols just by putting on muh-my fancy clothes!"

"Not that I intended to become an idol, in the first place," Mo responded, sighing once again. "Anyway, Glow, do you have any criticism for Kabuki? We only really have time to go over the segment once more as a unit."

"Hmm..." the would-be idol manager muttered, putting one finger to her lower lip and concentrating, glowing a faint purple. "Uuuuuh... I suppose, uh, one thing. I n-n-n-know you're trying h-hard to reign in your ener-juh-j-gy, but you might have brought the key down a little t-too low. Keep in m-mind this is the upb-beat part of the song, r-right? The audience'll only f-feel the pang of h-huh-heartache if we draw them in on the first segment. See if you can crank it up juuuust slightly, okay? Not too much. All right, we'll take it from the top one more time. Give us one more, and we'll go on to the chorus."

Glow returned to the device, hit rewind, and then hit play again. Kabuki would have another shot to try and adjust before the other two joined in on the chorus. In the brief downtime between parts, Glow spoke up. "At the end of the chorus, you make a step back here, and Mo will have moved to the middle... that way, he can step forward for his part when we finish the chorus."

With that spoken, the chorus hit, with all three joining in. As Kabuki might have expected, Glow appeared to have the entire song down to heart. She didn't trip at all, and Kabuki probably wouldn't have been able to tell Glow's present singing voice from the one she'd heard earlier if she didn't know better.

Unfortunately, Mo's lines went a bit less well. It was pretty clear she had far less energy behind them than either Glow or Kabuki. The volume was fine, and, all things considered, the fundamentals were right. In terms of matching the energy she should have heard from Glow's earlier video, though, it was audibly off.
Glow exchanged a glance with Kabuki, to see if she was expressing any particular opinion about it, before speaking up at the end of the chorus. "M-Mo, wuh-wuh-why don't we g-go onto your solo? I th-think the chorus is more or less okay..."

Mo nodded. If she was aware of any issue with her performance, she wasn't displaying any apparent frustration.

The motion-capture-Navi-turned-idol began her own solo part, but without the others singing along, the low energy was even more apparent. Mo looked focused, and her dance was professional level. The song, however, was a bit like someone reading off karaoke lyrics in an uncomfortable outing. The inflection, gestures, and facial expressions all indicated the emotions the song was clearly supposed to evoke, but without the vocal energy to match, the feeling was uncannily like watching two different audio and video streams.

Mo finished her part with a "mournful wail" that sounded more like a long sigh, then turned to Glow. "... How was it?"

Glow smiled a little awkwardly, glowing a low pulsing blue. She scratched her cheek for a moment and glanced sideways. "Uh, okay... K-k-k-Kabuki! What did you think...?" she asked. Although Glow seemed to lack whatever it took to give Mo the honest criticism, her reaction was written all over her face (and, indeed, all exposed parts of her glowing skinsuit).

For her part, Mo either wasn't picking this up or, somehow, wasn't discouraged by it. She turned to Kabuki, looking impatient. "Well? I feel pretty confident I have the aspects down on this one. We should move on to the next chorus."

"Ho ho! I will have to inform you once I leave my temporary stage REE~TI~YUR~MENT, then! Taking care of my precious brother is quite a TIME~SINK!" Kabuki announced, glowing pink (in an enthusiastic, neon way, not so much a bashful, rosy way) at the praise. "Actually, it would be a little distracting if EV~ER~REE~ONE in kabuki theater walked and talked like this all the time. Some movements are much more SUB~TULL! For instance, if you're playing a frail or infirm character, you can't hop about and sing from your DIE~YA~PHRAM like I tend to," she explained, raising one finger and looking happy to show off her knowledge again. She lowered it slowly as the others discussed possible shortcomings in her performance, including her need to find a happy medium between sing-song shouting and quiet calm. Kabuki found herself wishing she had a secret third form to break out right about now, perhaps something with a farmer's tan and red highlights in black hair. "R-Right! I'm sure I can handle that!" she pronounced, still grinning, as she wondered whether she ought to go with upbeat calm form or as-subdued-as-possible pink form. She figured she'd have to try for the former, because once she went into her pink and red ensemble, it was hard for her not to run on all cylinders.

From then on, the next portion of the training went about how she expected, until they got to Mo's part. As it turned out, he was having nearly exactly the problem she'd anticipated him having, namely shifting out of first gear. She turned her pink eyes onto Glow for a moment for guidance, but it looked like the idol was looking for her to the same. She opened her mouth just a bit and raised one finger again, but Glow was already suggesting they proceed to Mo's solo. The actress nodded slowly, keeping the same grin transfixed on her face as Mo gave his solo a try. The solo only made the problems in his singing and behavior more evident, causing Kabuki's grin to hang open just a bit. "You're ASS~KING me?" she asked, moving the finger she was raising to point to herself. "W-Well! Mo! You look the part, but you have yet to EM~BRACE your role as MOE~AY GIRL for all that it is worth! No actor can play a part to perfection if they're not fully DED~EE~CAY~TED to it! So... earlier, when you kept RE~MIND~DING us that you were a guy and so forth... I feel like that should raised some WAR~NING flags for all of us! You have to get out of that defeatist MIND~SET and really DE~VOTE yourself!"

"Ha! Effort. Sister, that is the fallback of the talentless," Yoshitsune spoke up, flipping his hair flippantly and adopting a smug smirk. "A prodigy like myself needn't devote energy to anything." If Divina and Pirouette were around, they'd probably be thinking about how uncannily similar he sounded to the ProdigyMan they'd just chased off the net.

"Now, Mo! RE~PEAT after me! I am..." she started, raising two fists to her cheeks, before tilting her torso to an off-kilter angle and grinning big, "A MOE~AY GIRL! A~GAIN! I am... A MOE~AY GIRL!" she cried, tilting her body the other way so that her ponytail swished along behind her. "I am a MOE~AY GIRL!" she shouted once more, pumping her fists, stomping both legs, and then stopping with one leg raised and one fist towards the ceiling. "I don't care if others think I look or sound SILL~LEE, because I am YOUNG and INN~NO~CENT of heart! My SPI~RIT is IN~DOM~IT~AY~BUL! My EN~THEWS~EE~ASS~SUM is BOUND~LESS! I am never DEET~TURRED! I am in the PRIME of my YOUNG LIFE!" she continued, striking new poses each time. "Keep it up! Say WHAT~EV~VUR comes to your mind! You are CRE~YAY~TIVE! You have it IN~SIDE OF YOU! Discard your IN~HEE~BIT~TIONS and become a MOE~AY GIRL!" she persuaded him, continuing to utilize new dance moves in rapid succession; sweat had begun to form on her brow and the exposed portions of her legs. "Now SMILE and show the AU~DEE~YANCE that you are a SWEET LIT~TUL STRAW~BERR~REE!"

"... Th-This is making me a little nauseous," Yoshitsune admitted, feeling like he might really throw up if the same professional, adult man he'd met earlier called himself a sweet little strawberry.

Mo scoffed at Kabuki's criticism, crossing his arms with a standoffish frown. "I already told you, there's no need for me to actually assume a role as a young girl. The performance and singing being on cue are what matters. I know you're personally keen on the idea of getting in character, but-"

Glow shook her head, glowing a faint purple. "No, I th-think Kabuki might have a p-point! Your performance is good, b-but it feels like the energy isn't th-there!"

The would-be idol raised his eyebrow at Glow. "Really? I think I understand the emotional cues in this part pretty well... it's hard for me to imagine I'm not projecting the correct tone."

"Well, it isn't hard for muh-me to imagine," Glow responded, frowning. "I'm s-sorry, but Kabuki's right. Maybe you do nuh-know it, but you aren't exactluh-ly the most expressive guy ev-v-ven when you're passionate about something."

Mo frowned and looked at his feet, seeming to contemplate. He looked up with some annoyance as Kabuki began her chant. Glow was also watching Kabuki with some interest, leading to an awkward moment where Kabuki was psyching up Mo alone, with all eyes in the room upon her. Finally, Glow joined in, glowing a faint mix of red as she tried to rally her companion. "C'mon, Mo! Everything depuh-pends on you! Say 'I'm a moe girl! Saaay I'm a moe giiiirl!"

"I'm a moe girl," Mo droned. It seemed as though he was taking it seriously, now, but really had no idea how to properly get in the mindset.

"No, you've gotta picture it! You're the smart, reliable one, who s-secretly wants to r-rely on others and be treated l-like a girl!"

"Hey, now," Mo commented, looking a bit alarmed.

"No, picture it! Picture yourself in a school luh-l-library, studying until you fall asleep!"

Mo knit his brow, trying to focus. "I'm a moe girl..."

"N-n-now, picture yourself l-looking at a pretty dress you wanna buy, but you have to pretend you're b-buying it for a friend because it's too frilly and embarrassing to admit it's for y-you!"

Amazingly, this thought process seemed to be pumping Mo up. "I'm a moe girl!"

"Now picture yourself falling in love with a handsome g-guy and coming to one of us for advice but then you find out that one of us was secretly in love with him before you can so now you're supporting us from the shadows while secretly hiding your own heartache at your unrequited first love! The sweet little strawberry of your innocence!"

"Sweet little strawberry!" Mo shouted in his somewhat husky woman-voice. "Unrequited love! Moe!"

"Moe! Although tone it down because you're n-not supposed to be enthuthhusiastic!" Glow sputtered, smiling and glowing yellow. "Picture yourself as the glasses girl! Be the glasses girl, Mo! ...Even though you don't have glasses!"

"All right. I think I can do it," Mo said with a nod. "That's your talent and your enthusiasm for the culture, Glow. I'm confident the audience will see it."

"W-well, Kabuki was actually the one who gave m-me the idea. You ought to be thanking her," the idol manager said with a smile, gesturing back to Kabuki.

"Ah. Well, thanks," Mo told her, sounding bland again.

"No, Mo! You've gotta thank her like a moe girl!" Glow roared, pumping her fists again. "Moe girl, Mo!"

"Ah... well... thanks," Mo said, pouting slightly and kicking one toe against the ground as he dodged Kabuki's eyes.

"Much better! Now let's put that in the s-song, okay?" Glow walked over to put the music back on, letting Mo try his part again. Mo managed it much better this time: it still wasn't exactly the same tone Glow had set, but it was obvious he'd gone all-in on trying a character. Uncomfortable as that might be for those who knew him as a grown man, it seemed to have a positive effect.

Glow hung back with Kabuki, doing her motions in the back. As she swayed, she spoke quietly. "I'm glad to see Mo can pull it uh-off. He's got a real h-head for this idol thing. It's kinda hard f-for me to figure out how he g-g-got into it, y'know? I guess what a Navi does for a living doesn't always end up r-related to their interests... Anyway, he's always helping me in the b-b-background. It's nice for him to get to be in the spotlight f-for once! Although, we'd both expected to be uh-uuuuh out of it t-tonight..."

The time came for the chorus again, with Glow and Mo both hitting their parts in good rhythm. Mo and Glow made their switch naturally, leaving Mo in the back with Kabuki. The supporter didn't engage in conversation as readily as Glow had, but eventually spoke up, hearing that Glow was engaging in her part with ease. "Kabuki... I owe you an apology," Mo spoke evenly, keeping his eyes forward and continuing his dance. He paused for a long time, not offering any more elaboration on that subject. "Glow... this means so much to her. She doesn't need us. She has all the talent she needs to be a solo act. But if we've got to support her, we're going to have to keep up. I've..." Mo hesitated, seeming torn on whether or not he should say what was on his mind. "I've put a lot of... effort and time... into making this happen for her. I mean... a lot of money, too. This is her dream, and seeing that through is... all I'm doing right now, honestly... Sorry, I'm not trying to get you down. If you feel a little pressure from it, though, that's appropriate. Don't let us down. This might just be a mission to you, but for us... for me, anyway... this is it."

Kabuki nodded along vigorously with Glow, causing her ponytail to flail about as she decided to let the costume designer take the lead for a while. Mo and Glow were friends, after all, and he would probably listen to her word before he'd listen to hers. She couldn't have predicted just how well it worked, but such was the power of moe. "I've still got a lot to learn myself," she considered, crossing her arms with a knowing, satisfied smile. She turned her head back to Mo to accept thanks, but the thanks that came was a little lackluster. Glow gave him a nudge in the right direction and the next show of gratitude was suitably adorable because of it. "Ho ho ho! Think NO~THING of it! Anyone would want to help such a cute LITT~TUL girl!" she laughed along, either feeding into the perception of him as a girl or otherwise having bought into it subconsciously.

Next, it was back to practice, where Glow took the opportunity to share her pleasure with Mo's development. "Ha ha! Well, it seems to come more NAT~TOO~RALL~LEE than I'm sure he expected, perhaps because of how long he's been working ALL~LONG~SIDE you and given your EN~THOOS~SEE~AS~SUM for the subject," she agreed. It was hard to have a secret conversation with Kabuki, what with the yelling and all, but the music would probably hide most of it. "I'll bet he likes being on stage more than even he REE~LIZE~ZES!"

Funnily enough, a short time later, Mo pulled Kabuki into a private conversation as well. Mo was actually keeping pretty quiet about this, so Kabuki softened down to black in order not to broadcast her response. "I'm just happy that I got to be a part of it," Kabuki nodded in agreement. "I'm sure Glow feels the same way... thankful to you for following along with her for all this time." Keeping her tone down was actually pretty hard; little beams of pink light kept slipping out from the cracks in her body. "Every adventure should have a partner. For Glow, that's you! For me, that's my Brother!" she smiled, although that probably wasn't a comparison Mo wanted to accept. "We all need someone to support us."

"Hmph! I'm not a little girl, like she is!" Yoshitsune defended. Kabuki wanted to say that wasn't really the point, but she thought it best not to reveal in Mo's presence that her operator had apparently forgotten Mo's real identity: that of a grown man, already. Suddenly, Kabuki found herself feeling vaguely jealous of Glow and Mo's relationship to one another. Anyways, she figured all that was left to do now was for the girls to finish up and then go show off their status as sweet little strawberries in song form.

MoCapMan seemed to be heavily considering Kabuki's statement, his face a mask of deep thought. "Hmm... I never thought of myself as a partner, and I still don't. But as a supporter... yes, that's the kind of role I have in mind. Well, I'll definitely say that I don't intend to be doing this again. No, this is gonna be a one-time show..." The Navi sighed, but gave a cute smile, as if apologizing for all his complaining.

Glow wound down her performance, on-point as anyone who'd known her for either as long a time as MoCapMan or as short a time as Kabuki would expect. The three went into the final chorus, a part up-key enough to allow Kabuki to sing her heart out... within reasonable limits. For his part, Mo managed to keep up. The earlier pep talk seemed to have done the trick. The song was just about through, and the three might very well be feeling much more positive about it than they had any right to after such limited practice before such an event.

Glow finished off with her big line, glowing a bright yellow as she delivered it and holding the note in a way that showcased some training. Mo watched with apparent interest in this. A brief hint of something flashed in his ordinarily listless eyes, but it'd be up to the one witnessing to say what that emotion was.

Having come to the end, Glow held her hands together and skipped over to the two, enthusiasm seeping out of her. "G-g-g-good work, you two!! I'm really feeling like we have a shot at this now... but time! We don't have a lot of time to waste. I'm gonna work on my costume now, since I feel like I don't have any r-rust to shake off. Keep practicing if you w-w-want to. Uh, no offense of course! I'm the wuh-one that came up with the s-s-song, after all..." With that, the Navi began tearing through sheets of her pad, clearly looking for some past work she'd done.

Mo nodded and quickly returned to practicing his own part, clearly expecting Kabuki to do the same, when Kabuki realized she had an incoming message from Pirouette... The other two mostly ignored Kabuki during this time, although Mo would keep shooting her glares, either curious as to what she could be getting a message about at such a crucial time, or wondering if it was going to affect her performance.

If Kabuki received the message, Pirouette would get her words in, but Kabuki's double would also have some things to say...

"Of course! Then again, maybe you'll find out you like the spot-light!" Kabuki giggled, teasing Mo. Now that practice was wrapping up, Kabuki had the chance to sing the part of the song she really wanted to, filling the tent with bright, pink light to counteract Glow's multicolored ones. She missed Mo's cryptic emotion towards Glow, as she herself was busy gawking at the performer herself. "Yeah, we've got it all TO~GE~THER! I'll work on my LEE~RICKS some more and make sure I've got them all memorized," she agreed. Just then, she got a message, which she started to put up for everyone to watch, before realizing the nature of the message was probably pretty private, judging by Pirouette's fidgety behavior.

As it turned out, there was good reason to be fidgety: Pirouette had not only encountered Kabuki's doppelganger, but also, it seemed that the body-double was planning to use that body to service some discerning clientele in unsavory ways. "Oh great! It wasn't good enough that there's a portion of the net that thinks I specialize in strip kabuki... Now there's going to be another bunch who think I'm a prostitute!" she thought to herself; the idea feared her with dread that made her fade first to black as her heart sank, then glow back to red as she became embarrassed about it. "Er, ECKS~CUSE me, I need to take this outside!" she dismissed herself, running just outside the tent to take her call as privately as she could.

Her conversation wouldn't stay altogether private if anyone cared to poke their head out and listen in; Kabuki had immediately begun raising her voice without thinking about it. "BA~KAAA, no! You cannot use my APP~PEER~RANCE to do that! You have to UN~DER~STAND that there is a lot of overlap between purveyors of kabuki theater and wealthy purveyors of BROTH~THELS, because of the history of the theater! Any one of your clients could also be one of my AU~DEE~YENCE!" she pleaded, clasping her hands together with a worried expression. "Not to brag, but I am ONE~OF~A~KIND! They will RE~MEM~BER and it will cause all kinds of issues...!"

The further questioning from the thief caused Kabuki to raise her eye-sockets in surprise (for she did not have eyebrows, exactly). "AII~YEH? You cannot TRANS~FORM?" she questioned, thinking to herself that a Kabuki stuck in modest, black-haired mode was barely a Kabuki at all... it literally wasn't, really, in the sense that without the hair, the thief wouldn't look like a kabuki actress. The simple answer was obvious: if the thief could transform using that data she'd stolen, it would have happened already. Kabuki's mood swing into her fiery mode was so involuntary that it was hard for her to avoid doing it when she wanted to. That meant that the form the thief had taken was probably completely incapable of doing it. "Ah, that! It RE~QUIRES... a... soul that burns with a PAS~SION for justice!" she fibbed, grinning big and hoping she wouldn't be caught in the lie. "That is why you CAN~NOT transform! Because you stole the suit, you are plagued with RE~GRET that even you do not realize! So, you see, that form will never be capable of achieving its FULL~PO~TEN~TEE~YAL, because it is the ILL~GOTT~TEN spoil of thievery! You may as well get rid of it now," she sighed, pretending to be regretful that things hadn't worked out for the girl, while still grinning from ear to ear.

Kabuki had a chance to discuss with her doppelganger alone outside the tent. The area was still relatively dark, with the few tents scattered around, two bearing large holes about the size of MoCapMan. The back of the stage still loomed in the distance, although it seemed to have gone quiet since before.

The actress Navi would have time to hear everything out, probably having more of her own to say, but would eventually be interrupted by Glow stepping out of the tent. She was no longer wearing her glasses, so her large, slightly slanted eyes were visible, glowing with the same bright light as her suit to the exclusion of any whites or pupils. Additionally, she was wearing a frilly white idol costume, with a poofy skirt above the knees and a rainbow patterned vest, reminiscent of a stained glass window. Much of the trim had a rainbow pattern, and the whole of the outfit generally ended up tinted by whatever color her Navisuit below was glowing (at the time, light purple, making her Navi suit a very faint lavender color). A small, angled white top hat sat upon her head, with a rainbow-colored ribbon tied around it.

Her boots made a light clack upon the floor as she moved towards Kabuki. "A-are you all right, Kabuki? The show should be starting any minute... are you comfortable with your lyrics...?"

Mo's head was now peeking from the tent as well. All attention seemed to suddenly (but perhaps, with the show so close, not surprisingly) be on Kabuki. If she wanted to try and hide her video communication from prying eyes, she would have to act fast.

Kabuki listened with a deepening feeling of needing of uneasiness as it became apparent she'd lost her trump card; the impostor had figured out how to use the full functionality of her appearance. "Iyaaah, all of THAT~HAIR! Isn't your head getting HEA~VY? This outfit won't be any good for that sort of thing!" she pleaded, clasping her hands together and hoping to change the other girl's mind. That was a pretty weak angle; more of a joke than an actual request. Seeing that the rest of her allies had started to peek out to see what she was up to, Kabuki shouted in surprise, getting up from her seat and retreating from the entrance of the tent. She'd been interested to see Glow's costume, but she barely noticed its cuteness now, so caught up was she in the future of her public image. "O-Oh, that was just P-PEER-ROO-WET! She was telling me... a... DIRT~TEE JOKE! Who would have SUS~PECK~TED she'd have such jokes to share, right? HA~HA~HA!" the actress laughed, not exactly living up to her acting pedigree at the moment. "Oh, I'm ECKS~SEED~DING~LEE comfortable with my part! You two go on PRAC~TISS~SING! I'll rejoin you after I inform Pirouette that I don't APP~PREESE~SHE~YATE dirty jokes while I'm trying to focus!"

Whether they left or not, she'd huddle back over her screen and whisper, understanding that time was of the essence. She'd faded back to black, her smoldering dread starting to overwhelm her other emotions. "The color... If you'll just change the color, everything will be fine... The pink is how everyone recognizes me, but there are other nice colors to choose... For example... Indigo!" she proposed, hoping that the other girl wouldn't realize that color was meant primarily for villains. "Yes, indigo is a color used often in kabuki theater. You can use a royal blue, too, if that's too dark," she recommended. "A-And different regular hair color too, like... another color that won't stand out much in your regular form... well, black is really the only choice. Maybe if you wear it a bit shorter? O-Or you could style it differently! But then... don't remove the ornaments when you do your... your thing!" she suggested in a succession of hushed pleas, starting to glow pink again.

She took a few glances over her shoulder to see if the others were still waiting for her. She'd been so focused on trying to strike a deal with her imitator that she'd almost failed to notice the important clue she'd dropped... Speaking out loud, she mused to herself. "The audience is g... g-what?" she asked herself, calming back down. "Gone? But there would be no reason to hide that from us... if we arrived and there was no audience, then that would be the end of it. Grouchy? Going to hate us? ... Gay?" she asked herself, wondering if there was such a market for gay idol fanatics. She couldn't come up with anything to explain the meaning of that mysterious g-word. Kabuki and the others would just have to witness and adapt.

"A dirty j-joke? That doesn't s-sound like her... that's kinda h-h-hurting her character image for me, y-you know?" Glow joked, trying to blow off Kabuki's lame answer.

It was pretty clear neither of them were really buying that story, but while Glow seemed to be willing to shrug it off, Mo wasn't having it. "Kabuki, we're literally minutes away from when we need to go out and perform. If you still need to focus on practice at this point, we have a problem. What's so important-"

"That's enough outta y-you, Mr. Snoopy," Glow interrupted, pushing Mo back inside the tent. "I know you th-think you're entitled to j-just butt in on whatever if it makes your performance better, b-b-but Kabuki is a g-guest here, remember? Keep your p-privacy invasions to me, all right?" Glow peered back out once more at Kabuki. "D-do try to finish up, though... n-n-not that I wanna, uh, rush you... but we need to b-be out there soon! The audience is waiting for us."


With that, the two ostensibly backed off and let Kabuki focus on the conversation in progress. There was quite a lot to take in.


The conversation wrapped up, with the last note being the fake Divina asking the real one if their deal was still good. Kabuki would have to input everything she had in mind before that point, though, because at exactly that moment, Glow and Mo left the tent, heading towards Kabuki. "K-Kabuki... are you ready?" Glow spoke up, still keeping Mo at a distance so as to try and respect Kabuki's privacy. "We need to head on o-o-over or everything's g-g-g-g-"

Mo put a hand on her shoulder, calming her down. "Sorry, we've still got some nerves, I guess," the young-girl-disguised man added. "But, yes, if even one more thing slows us down, we're going to miss our chance to make a preliminary announcement and start. Let's start heading that way now."

As bad as Kabuki's answer was, it was still sufficient to get Mo and Glow to back up for a bit while she finished her conversation with her doppelganger.

"Yes, blue fire will look SPECK~TACK~YOO~LAR! Very DRAH~MA~TICK!" Kabuki answered Faux's concerns, nodding enthusiastically to try to wrap up the conversation in a way that wouldn't directly use her likeness for sexual behaviors. If that was all there was to it, everything would be fine, but FraudMan (who she didn't really know, but assumed must be the impostor, given that he/she looked so uncharacteristic next to the real Divina) let loose a few other details. Kabuki was quick enough on the uptake to make sense of the guy's words, but soon realized the danger in listening to them or offering a response. If MotionCaptureMan saw them, he'd realize his cover story and possibly his entire day-to-day life had just been revealed to be an act, and if Glow saw it, she'd probably be heartbroken or at the very least too distracted to perform... assuming there was still any performance to be done. Kabuki realized that her idol debut, as much as she craved it, was no longer the important factor here; she had to find some way to resolve this thing to the best of her ability and furthermore to decide what to do about Mo's deception. Certainly she was unhappy about the trick he'd played and especially frustrated that he'd made Pirouette part of it, the little ballerina being who she was, but at the same time, she'd gotten a glimpse into Mo's psyche throughout all of this, and in the end, all he'd done was for the sake of trying to make Glow happy... although why in the world he'd had to go through such shady channels to do it was hard to comprehend.

"That's that, then," Yoshitsune sighed, pressing one finger to the bridge of his nose as though calming a nerve. "What a foul person... To think he'd soil your good reputation just to perpetuate this pathetic song-and-dance, Dear Sister! I can't forgive him for that. We ought simply to tell the glowing one so she can understand that the navi she sees as her greatest friend is actually the most reprehensible deceiver."

"No, not that," Kabuki whispered back, fading back to black now. "I'm fed up with lying but... I think if they go out there and have at least one good show together, even without the big audience... Maybe Mo will realize something. A-And maybe he'll confess on his own...?" she murmured, thinking that seemed overly optimistic even to herself. "Whatever the case, Glow deserves to have her show... I'm not going to do anything that ruins that!" Divina had a few more words for encouragement as well, but Kabuki barely had time to listen to them; all she could manage was a quick nod before she had to cut communication again. She intended to do her best and she was sure Divina and Pirouette would wrap things up on their side as well as they could. She brightened back up to pink and put on a grin as she turned around.

"Of course, my AL~LIES! Let's go and put on the PER~FOR~MANCE of a life time!" she agreed. "I'm even going to call some of my honorable Brother's friends to sit in, er, assuming they can get ADD~MISS~SION! There might be a fee or SOME~THING! I don't ACK~CHEW~ALL~LEE know! HA~HA~HA!" the actress guffawed, stumbling a bit as she almost revealed her knowledge of the fact that there was probably no price to get in because there probably wasn't any staff or audience left inside the building. "But I'll call and see if they can help!"

"My friends? Please! I don't have any friends who would enjoy such drivel," Yoshitsune scoffed, not adding that he really didn't have any friends at all.

Kabuki rolled her eyes as much as someone without pupils can (rolling them in the sockets) before placing a call to the two co-workers of Yoshitsune she knew. "O~BAH~KAY~MAN! JEE~GO~KOO~MAN! I request the PREH~SCENTS of the two of you!" she cried dramatically, although she was actually just sending some e-mails as the three presumably motored over towards the venue as fast as they could. "Those two love EYE~DOLLS, I happen to know for a fact... or at least, their OPP~PURR~RAY~TORS do! They'll be happy to cheer us on to VIC~TOR~REE, I'm sure of it!" she winked over to the others. Now that she was out of important announcements and responses to make, all she had left to think about were various things she hoped she got the chance to say to various people once all of this was over... she was especially busy trying to handle the ethical gymnastics of whether she needed to out Mo and, if so, when...

Kabuki managed to finish up her private business without Glow and Mo nuzzling in to become any wiser. "I wouldn't worry about the admission at this point, Kabuki," Mo told her, removing his hand from Glow's shoulder. "Officially, we stopped admitting new audience at the beginning, and that was supposed to be the show size, but as long as your friends are fine with standing room, I don't have any problem with them attending. I wouldn't worry about 'helping,' though... we haven't delayed the performance too much, at this point. I feel fairly confident the audience will stick around for our show. Now, shall we?"

Seeing as all three of them were now ready, the makeshift idol group hurried over to the stage, Mo leading the way. He indicated to Kabuki the stairs at the back, which allowed one to ascend from behind the stage to either back corner of it. The lights and sound of the intermission music had become bigger and bigger as Kabuki closed distance, although she would probably be more aware than any of the mysterious lack of impatient audience rustling.

And yet... there was some, wasn't there? When Kabuki finally made it to floor of the stage, she would see an audience that was far under capacity. The ones who remained, however, were fully decked out in various idol memorabilia, all seemingly from the same group. It wasn't anyone Kabuki had heard of, and it certainly wasn't Glow herself. This remaining audience was chatting busily and with great animation, in spite of the fact that various litter around empty chairs indicated there had been many more here in the past. On top of that, there were whichever students and idol-lovers Pirouette and Kabuki had managed to summon, although they'd have to be in the middle or back, as all of the front seats were taken.

Having taken in this sight, Kabuki would also be able to catch the slack-jawed shock on Mo's face. It was pretty clear he had come up first to make the initial kickoff announcement, but, knowing what Kabuki knew, the theater Navi would probably be able to understand what had gotten his goat. Seeing this, if not necessarily understanding it, Glow skipped up behind them, slapped Mo's back quickly (which nearly made him lose his footing), and skipped to the center of the stage. "Thank you all for waiting!" the idol Navi shouted, glowing bright yellow. "I'm Glow, and these are my friends, Kabuki and Mo! Hopefully you can tell which one is Kabuki?" she said, giving a cute smile, glowing light green, and getting scattered laughter, presumably from those who could indeed tell which one Kabuki was. "Anyway, you probably don't know me-"

"WE KNOW YOU, GLOW-CHAN!!" the front row of the audience roared in response.

Glow flashed orange, taking a step back and putting a hand to her mouth. "Oh, my!! Well, it... seems I've got more of a following than I thought! That makes me so happy, everyone! I'm just so happy you came out to support my show. This will be my first official appearance as a Net-Idol, but as I'm sure you've all heard, I'm planning to make this an annual event! There will be lots more chances for all of us to see each other, okay?~"

"WE'LL SEE YOU AGAIN, GLOW-CHAN!!" the crowd roared back, causing her to brighten up a bit more and give a small wave in response.

"Now, this young woman next to me is Mo-chan! Mo, why don't you introduce yourself?" Glow left center stage, allowing her partner to come into the main spotlight.

Mo made shaky steps there, still looking dazed from a sense of wonder at the situation. It seemed like there may also be a flush of embarrassment on his face, for some reason. "Um... I'm Mo... thank you all for coming." The audience, which had been lively for Glow, seemed as though it was muttering quiet at this introduction.

"Now, Mo! Let's thank our audience properly for coming, okay?~" Glow spoke, probably prodding him to put his heart into his character again.

Mo frowned tightly, seeming to have a major case of stage fright. "I'M MO! THANK YOU ALL FOR HAVING ME! I'LL DO MY BEST... AS YOUR SWEET LITTLE STRAWBERRY! THANK YOU," she finished, giving an overly polite bow. There was a fair bit of laughter at this, but also cheering. "Now, um, here is Kabuki... chan," she added, seeming to add the "-chan" as something of an afterthought. She moved out of the way of center stage and looked to Kabuki. Apparently, everyone was waiting for her introduction.

The revelation that there was still a bit of audience left for their performance (including the two bozos she'd invited, who were hard to miss, even in the back) was a great relief for Kabuki... but not so much for MotionCaptureMan, who had clearly expected a standing-room-only audience. Her big, toothy grin might be more appropriate right now, but she found herself stuck in black form at the moment, unsure of how Glow would react to the turnout. After Glow had patted Mo's back and seemingly indicated she was still energized, Kabuki became so as well, glowing pink and giving Mo a few more unwanted slaps on the back, as if to reassure him. On another note, it was surprising to hear Glow speaking so well, outside of song... Her stutter seemed to have vanished entirely as she adopted her state persona.

Her two friends in the audience watched excited: the first, a man with vibrantly red skin and a big, toothy grin frozen across his mouth, his eyes bulging out of his head in an unblinking gaze. It was hard to tell if he was really excited or if his face was just frozen that way. His hair was dark green, almost black, and styled upward, almost like a fro, but more feathered, from his head. He had a heavy, overweight, but muscular body, currently clad in a pink happi coat and white sash, with glow-sticks between each of his fingers, dwarfed by the size of the digits on each hand. Steam emitted from his nostrils as he watched, holding his arms at his sides despite the obvious purpose of his merchandise being to wear them. A yellow-and-black, tiger print loincloth could be spotted beneath his happi, along with his over-sized, bare legs. "Kaboooooki," he growled in a beastial, evil-sounding voice, opening his mouth to its full extent and lolling out his tongue disarmingly, before taking a moment to snake his arms into the air and wave the sticks.

The other, an equally unsettling, pale figure with a sickly white color, clad in a similar happi, was cheering much more loudly. "Guloooooooooooooooooooow~chan!" he called out in a ghostly wail that might have been intended as a cheer. The figure's body was obviously male, but looking at him directly seemed to cause all of his features to blur and his body to become more transparent. Various blue body paint was also visible on him, some of it hidden by the happi. He looked to be wearing the black pants of a navisuit underneath his happi. He waved a pink flag through the air using arms that seemed unnaturally long and thing; the banner showed a picture of Kabuki's smiling face on it, though he was cheering for the others. "Mooooooooooooooooo~chan! I looooooooooove yooooooooooou~"

Kabuki was beginning to think that she'd made a mistake inviting the two; they were all about some idols, that was true, but she didn't want them to upset the fans. At least their voices would be mostly hidden by the din of the other audience members, who were quite vocal themselves. The actress herself burst into laughter at hearing Mo's introduction, but kept a big smile on her face. When she was called up, she bounded up, flailing her long ponytail behind her. "AAA~RIII~GAAAH~TOOOU, my friends! I am KA~BOOO~KEEE! Think of me as a sweet, big STRAW~BURR~REE then!" she announced, striking a pose by kneeling down with one leg beneath her and the other bowed, pursing two fingers together as if pinching something, holding the invisible whatever-it-was above her mouth... it might be a strawberry, but the gesture, as usual, was hard to interpret. "It is our pleasure to EN~TER~TAIN you tonight!" she finished, giving another quick bow with a lot of chest-swinging, before retreating back a pace to give Glow the stage again.

"Kaboooooki..." the ogre-faced man growled again, hanging his mouth open at a near 90 degree angle and waving the sticks again in a wooden notion, out in front of him instead of over his head as was proper. The ghostly figure waved his flag harder, as if to make up for the slack of his associate.

As it turned out, Kabuki's entrance onto the stage also signified Divina entering the concert area; she had arrived a little sooner than that, but given the brightness of her entry beams, she made sure to arrive just outside, and not take anything away from the others. She floated in, but she wasn't about to relax just yet...she still had some work to do. Ideally, her faithful follower would be in the shadows, working to capture every angle of the performance. But she lacked his agility, and she didn't know how to work cameras very well...all she really had were her own eyes to record, and while she could get an okay view from in back, she was hoping for something that could look more 'professional' and less 'random groupiesmuggled in a camcorder'. But if she was stuck with what her eyes could take in, what else could she do? Pirouette could probably help, but two didn't seem a whole lot better than one

...Then again, what if she wasn't stuck? The goddess held up her staff in front of her, and took a look at it. She used it as a conduit for light energy...but now that she thought about it, an orb that could take in light and channel it in certain ways...that wasn't entirely unlike an eye. If she could just send a recording program into it, and save the incoming image data to Hikari's PET...why, she'd have a camera that could capture every last inch of the concert. Heh, look at her, thinking like a Navi. No wonder she'd elected to spread her message as a cyber entity instead of a regular human...this was a sort of thing that you couldn't really pull off in the real world. Quickly, she installed a recording program into the orb, causing it to look a bit hazy, and less crystal clear. The visuals should be perfect, based on her logic...she wasn't as certain about the sound, though...but she could just record what she herself was hearing. Which she began without delay. Now, all she needed to do was point her staff towards the stage, and let it float in place, like so...perfect. It didn't require much focus on her part, and if she wanted to move it, it didn't matter that she wasn't fleet of foot...she could just move it telekinetically anywhere she wanted.

With her most pressing issue dealt with, Divina took a look around...sure enough, it wasn't exactly a packed house. And there was lots of trash around the empty seats, making it pretty clear people had been sitting in them at some point...how tragic. Less tragic was Glow, who seemed to do a 180 from earlier, looking all sunny and outgoing. Well, some people did react to the stage in interesting ways, or so she heard...it made her wonder if Pirouette was any different during her performances. She'd have to ask after the concert.

((Returning from -> Net Square))

Arriving by the entrance of the performance venue, Pirouette was still of half a mind to find Mo and give him a very forceful talking to, but the few seconds of transition had been enough to clear her mind properly and she focused instead on the more important matter: making sure Glow's show was a success. If that meant cheering on the man who had been the source of so much discomfort, then she'd just have to do that, for now. She was a few moments behind Divina, and entered more subtly, just another young lady come to see a show. Given all she'd heard to this point, Pirouette was surprised and heartened to see that the venue wasn't completely deserted after all. Some strong contingency of glow's own fans had apparently held out against the bribery and were still here to support her, and seeing it made Pirouette smile again. For her own part she gently made her way into the seating area while introductions were made; she winced at Mo's introduction, wanting to raise her hands and wave him upwards: he might be wearing a full body conversion override, but that droll lack of enthusiasm shone through, and she had no doubt it was really him underneath. He needed more energy, more vibrancy, for something like this. His second attempt went better. Awkward, maybe, but definitely better than the first.

While this was going on, Pirouette found herself accosted by a couple of other navis who were trickling into the audience now, swelling it a little more. Most of them were normal navis, with a couple of more custom ones scattered in, and they were mostly young women like her; the navis of girls and young ladies who made up portions of the classes that Mikhail taught. Unbeknownst to her, Mikhail had managed to add the subtle implication that the student's navis 'should' attend, if they were able, without being too direct about it, and about a dozen or so had shown up, with more trickling in gradually as the performance progressed. Most of them recognised Pirouette as Mikhail's aide, and this was causing many of them to look towards her as some kind of authority figure, and view the outing as a class trip of some kind, even if none of that was really appropriate. Pirouette gave small waves and nods of her head here and there, while doing her best not to cause any kind of distraction.

When it came time to cheer Glow on, Pirouette added her own clapping enthusiastically, though it wasn't in her nature to call our shout out. It seemed like the core fans had that part covered though, and it made the ballerina happy to see Glow responding to their enthusiasm with true stage comfort. She had had a small suspicion that Glow herself would fare better on stage than off it, and it gladdened her heart to see it coming true.

She clapped along and waved through Kabuki's introduction as well, politely shutting out the strangeness of her apparent friends in the audience, but really, Pirouette was saving most of her enthusiastic barracking for Glow herself; she was sure Kabuki would understand, of course. Out the corner of one eye she noticed that Divina was also doing... something. She'd said something about recording the show before, though, so Pirouette had to assume that it was something to do with that. It didn't seem to be any risk of lime-lighting or distracting anything, though, so she returned her attention back to the performance, intending to be a supporting and well behaved audience member, since there was little else she could do to help glow for now. They could wait until after the performance to take care of... everything else. A small shudder made her put those thoughts from her mind for now.

The idol fanatics in the front row stayed focused on the show even as the arrival of Pirouette's sizable troupe, Divina's personal camerawork, and Kabuki's enthusiastic acquaintances vied for their attention. Kabuki's introduction as an idol was unorthodox, but the audience appeared to eat it up, giving her an enthusiastic chant to match what they'd given Glow. "SWEET BIG SISTER KABUKI!!" the group shouted, waving their glow sticks.

Mo and Glow, on the other hand, clearly took note of Pirouette and Divina's arrival, briefly meeting eyes with them before shifting their focus back to the audience at large. A brief yellow glow and an unmasked smile showed Glow's appreciation, while Mo's face remained a tight-lipped mask, either through nervousness or suspicion.

"Thank you all for giving us a warm welcome, and hello to our new audience!" Glow skipped forward again and gave a big wave to the newcomers. "Everyone, I'd like to give a special thanks to two new friends of mine! Pirouette, Divina! Please stand and take a quick bow so we can thank you for your participation!" The Navi paused a moment, glowing a bright orange as she gave time for the audience to applaud the two. After the applause died down, the Navi added, "These two may be new to the world of idol appreciation, but they have worked hard to make this show possible! Please, give them another round of applause!" She paused again, allowing the loyal idol audience to give another big round of appreciation to the two named. "I'll introduce you two to 'Mo'-chan later, okay?" she added as a final note, causing Mo to squirm uncomfortably and the idol audience to let out a hearty, almost strangely aware laugh.

"Now, you've all been so kind to wait so long! I'd like to reward you with our first ever live group performance of 'RAINBOW RAINFALL~'! If you're ready, let's go ahead and get started, all right? Everyone, give it up for Kaaaabuuuukiiiiiii!" Glow shouted. She raised her arms, the audience cheered, and then she stepped towards the back of the stage, allowing Kabuki to take center stage. The music kicked in and the lights dimmed (with the exception of whatever Divina was in the process of doing: however, most of the audience was grouped in the front, meaning they wouldn't be affected if the light wasn't obtrusively bright). With that, the spotlights would pop on, making Kabuki the star for the intro.



Assuming Kabuki wasn't holding off or stopping for any reason, the hardcore front row would be in full-on waving mode, fully engrossed in the concert. With some effort, one of them had torn themselves away at the last second to make their way to Pirouette's group and start handing out glow sticks, seeming to assume that the dancers would be interested in that aspect of the night. "Thanks for your help!" he shouted at Pirouette, thrusting a glowstick at her and shouting to make himself heard, even at close range. "All of us are looking forward to this coming together for Mo!" The man didn't stick around to make conversation, instead maneuvering back to the front of the stage to rejoin his brothers.

Somehow, after having her identity stolen for nefarious purposes, having been lied to from the outset of her mission, and facing a crowd several times smaller than she or Mo had envisioned originally, Kabuki found herself on cloud nine, experiencing an idol debut that outclassed her professional kabuki debut. She waved both hands and jumped up and down, giddy and loving the attention. If her enthusiasm rubbed off on her partners at all, they might even find their moods improving after the arduous day of identity theft prevention.

Kabuki was up to the task of singing and dancing, as always. What she was not up to was the task of not being excited. Even as she went through the motions with her face, changing to a somber look during the quiet portions, smiling during the lovely portions, grinning during the energetic ones, her hair stayed pink and her lights bright the entire time. She wasn't able to dial it back like she had during practice. Spotting Pirouette and Divina in the audience only made her more exuberant. She'd completely forgotten that they all had a bone to pick with Mo after the show.

"Straaaaaaaaaw~buuuurr~ee," the ghostly man wailed, waving his banner consistently with the undying energy of the, er, undying. The other, larger creature turned his eyes over to Divina and Pirouette, who somehow stood out in the crowd a little to him. His expression didn't change, though: a giant, open mouthed grin, panting heavily and breathing smoke. After their talk with FraudMan, the two were probably wary of anyone blowing smoke excessively.

Pirouette would probably have a little more to think about as well, with the other guests revealing an allegiance to Mo. Did they know the truth about what Mo had tried to do to get all of this together? If they did, did that mean they were also guilty in the matter? If they were staying here as Mo's friends, had their ever been any diabolical ploy to begin with? Was it worth worrying over at all? All perfectly good questions, but none that concerned Kabuki, as she made her idol-backup-dancer debut and reveled in Glow's show.

Yoshitsune watched on, vaguely pouty at being forgotten so badly. "It's fine, I guess," he commented to the others, loudly, before leaning on the baggy shirt sleeves of his uniform as he crossed his arms underneath his chin on the desk.

First things first; before they got started, Glow needed to give the other mission takers a shout out. While a little surprised, Divina smiled and gave a curtsy to whoever had bothered to look back. Bowing just wasn't her style, after all. ...And, ah yes, there was still the matter of 'Mo-chan' later. Regardless of whether he looked that way, she gave him a smile, albeit one not as sincere as during the audience acknowledgement. Though, the way Glow said that...it almost seemed like she knew what was going on. Or maybe she was just reading too much into it. Yeah, that was entirely possible at this point.

And with that, the first song began. The goddess moved her staff around a bit during, to make sure she got it from every angle. As it went on, though, one thing was becoming clear to her...she really didn't care for this kind of music. It certainly seemed as though the audience loved it, and that was the important thing, but...hmm. How to put it? It was too...bouncy? Hmm, that really didn't describe it at all. Oh well, it wasn't important. She had camera duty to perform, so she couldn't focus too much on the song, anyway.

As the number came to an end, she took a quick look around. Seemed the fans were really into it, which was good. Glow and Kabuki especially were really into it, as well. MoCapMan...she couldn't really get a good read on him, though oddly that didn't really surprise her. At any rate, so far, so good. Let's hope it stayed that way.

Back in the real world, Hikari seemed much more into the whole thing than her Navi/deity of choice, and Yoshitsune. "Oh, I think it's quite adorable, myself!" She started humming the song a bit, as she eagerly awaited the next one...much like Kabuki, all the intrigue surrounding the performance behind the scenes had completely left her mind.

Being called on to take acknowledgement came as a small surprise to Pirouette. She had mostly expected simply to blend back into the audience and enjoy the show as a spectator now that her main task was done, but even so, a call was a call and she was, yet, a performer. The ballerina was smiling back at Glow brightly and offered a small wave in answer to the shout-out. The reactions of the original audience, and some of Glow's own comments was lending the performance more of an 'amongst friends' vibe now, rather than a big professional event, but honestly that didn't seem like a bad thing to Pirouette. Glow was happy, and doing well in her role, and things seemed like they were finally running smoothly, after all.

It didn't escape her notice that Kabuki's brightly lit enthusiasm wasn't dimming down in the right places for her first verse, but it didn't seem like a bad thing in the end; it was the sort of honest enthusiasm that only really added to the atmosphere as a sign that Kabuki herself was genuinely enjoying her performance, and that was almost always a good thing. During the performance, one of the central group had begun offering festive affectations tot he new arrivals, and they each accepted or declined variously as their individual natures dictated... most did, in fact, accept a glow stick gleefully. Pirouette herself accepted the offering, holding it in one hand as she continued to wave and clap, though the very back part of her mind took note of the remark that came with it. It was filed away for now, while there were more important things to do, but that tiny part of her mind turned it over quietly in the background.

As far as appreciating other performing arts went, Pirouette was still a young woman with a good deal of naive romance in her heart, so even if the style was very alien to her, she could still appreciate it in her own quiet way. The choreography, of course, lacked the same poise and grace, and finely tuned precision, that was essential for her own craft but she was quite aware that in many ways, that was the point of this type of performance. She found herself swaying very slightly while she mused along with the chorus and watched on with interest to see how the story and the song progressed.

Along with Hikari and Yoshitsune, Mikhail had let his focus drift to he beginnings of the performance after sending out his messages, but his expression was more serious and measured than the others in the room with him. If the others had let the more serious considerations of the outing slip from their minds, the ballet instructor had not. He had folded one arm across his chest while it propped up the one he was holding his PET with, watching the screen.

"I for one, am concerned. Is it normal for navigators taking missions like these, to face such worrisome personal risks in the process, without being warned? I can see that Pirouette is enjoying herself now, yet earlier she was quite upset by events, indeed. It bothers me." He sighed softly. "Let us hope that the rest of the performance continues without difficulty, no?" He didn't voice how close he had come to pulling Pirouette out altogether during the earlier confrontation, because however matters went after the show, he reasoned that the post-performance discussion couldn't really be more unpleasant than that, and it might even resolve a few things.