(Preshow) Preshow Facility

[Clownpiece]

“We’re heeeeere!” No sooner had the duo of fairy and youkai appeared in the Preshow Facility, than the fairy let loose a cheerful cry, throwing her arms up in the air and lifting just a bit off the ground. Though suddenly being upended from one side of the world to another had scrambled the little Clownpiece’s senses just a bit, it did nothing to dampen her spirits. A wave of nostalgia hit the fair-haired child as her vision quickly stopped spinning, her ears quickly stopped ringing, revealing to her the familiar building, and the welcome bustle of fellow primes. So many people talking and mingling and in general enjoying themselves. So many lost souls to torment into madness~.

“It does seem that way...” Yuuka responded after a moment of hesitation, her voice just a bit shaky, her eyes blinking rapidly as though she’d just stepped out into a bright light. Which she technically had done. The pre-dawn light of Darkshire had scarcely been strong enough to illuminate their surroundings. The interior lighting of the registration booth had helped, but even so it wasn’t much when compared to the brightness of the Facility. “So, what do we do now?” The flower youkai followed up after another moment, ever so slowly getting her bearings. “You’re the one who’s been here before, lead the way.”

“Of course!” It came as no surprise that the little fairy was all-too-happy to accept such a prestigious position like ‘leader.’ Nevermind the fact that she didn’t actually know what she was doing. Hell, last year she’d simply bumbled about randomly until the announcer told her it was time to go. Of course, she didn’t let Yuuka know this. Not really so much out of embarrassment or arrogance, but more out of the fact that the girl had forgotten herself.

Planting herself right back on the floor, recovered from her bout of excitement, she stood as tall as a girl as short as her could, lips lifted in a grin somewhere between mischievous and eager. With all the confidence of someone who actually knew what they were doing (because to her, she did), Clownpiece took a marching step forward, towards an entirely random hallway. She hadn’t the foggiest idea where it actually lead, but surely everything would work out. Wouldn’t it?

“The teams are over that way, Clowny.” The fairy hadn’t made it more than a step or two before Yuuka’s mildly amused voice stop her. She spun on her heel in an instant, turning to face the youkai, a little bit of red flushing into her cheeks as she did so. “Don’t you think we should start with that?” The older woman asked with a knowing smile, half-turned away from the fairy, pointing up towards a large screen on the other wall. A screen which bore all the different names that would be participating in this year’s event.

“Y-Yeah!” Though her voice shook for a moment, Clownpiece quickly regained her vigor, acting as though she had that idea all along. “I was just... moving to get a better view!”

“Away from it?” Yuuka pressed, grinning sadistically as she did. “Instead of just... flying up to get a better view?”

“I-I...” The fairy hesitated, smiling nervously and shifting a little bit on her fight, trying her best to hide her embarrassment but failing. “Y-Yeah!” She lied boldly. “I can see it pretty well from here, it’s just that... over there would’ve been a bit better!”

“Oh, really?”

“Y-Yes?” The small girl’s stutter only grew more obvious as she felt Yuuka’s noose close around her neck.

“Well, why don’t you go over there and read them off to me?” The youkai’s tone only grew more dangerous as time went on. “After all, I’m getting a little bit... hard of sight, with my age~.” Her words didn’t sound genuine in the least.

“U-Um... I-I can do it just fine from here!” Clownpiece did her best to steel herself against the verbal assault, her posture slowly returning back to its confident state as she did. “It’d be easier this way anyway, with all this noise...” Silence fell between the duo, with neither bothering to try and speak over the din of their fellow contestants. Yuuka, in particular, was happy to simply stare and smile, waiting for a few moments, until...

“I suppose it would be.” She finally said, slowly, agonizingly. “Go on then...”

“Got it...” Of course, the youkai only continued to press on, and the false confidence the fairy had managed to build up was crushed in an instant. She turned away from Yuuka, lifting her head up to stare at the screen up on the far wall, her purple eyes squinting as she did her best to make out the names from this distance. It wasn’t actually all that hard to see them, per se, as it was designed to be read from anywhere in this room, but reading wasn’t exactly Clownpiece’s forte. She muttered under her breath, lips moving faintly, any sounds made drowned out by all the surrounding conversations. Slowly, she sounded out all the different names she saw, discarding all the ones that didn’t really apply to her, looking only for names she recognized, and their partners.

“Um... Link and Clownpiece...” Finally, after what felt like a minute or so of waiting, the fairy began. “That’s me... Versus... Skeletor and Kuzuru? W-Weirda and Yuuka, that’s you, versus... Dongja and Marisa...”
“Marisa?” Yuuka broke in, her voice not so much an interruption as casually taking advantage of the fairy’s slow pace. “Kirisame?” Though she asked that, the flower youkai knew damn well that it was. Clownpiece wasn’t the only one who could see the board, after all. She was just getting too much enjoyment out of teasing the little fairy.

“Y-Yes,” the lampad answered, taking her eyes off the screen for a moment to nod, before turning back. “That’s all of us, but...” she continued, still squinting as she slowly read over the various names. “Larva’s here too. A-and Dane.”

“Oh, our little friend is here too?” Though the term ‘little friend’ could’ve been used to describe either of them, coming from Yuuka, there was something about the green-haired woman’s tone that tipped Clownpiece off that it definitely wasn’t the butterfly fairy she was referring to.

“Yeah...”

“Well, let's hope he keeps my little message in mind...” There was something dire hidden in the youkai’s voice, her tone slowly growing sharper as she spoke.

“What?” The fairy asked, eyes opening completely, head tilting vaguely to the side as she turned to face her friend. A message?

“Oh, nothing. Let’s just go find our partners, why don’t we? Whirda and Link, was it?”

“Uh... I think so?” By now, Clownpiece was second-guessing herself, trying to sneakily cast a glance back up to the screen without letting Yuuka know that she was doing that. Of course, even though they knew their partners' names, they didn’t know what their partners actually looked like, and even if they did know that, they wouldn’t know where to even start looking in a place like this. Not that this occurred to the fairy, nor would it have bothered her at all if it did.

“Yup!” Her not-so-surreptitious glance confirmed everything for the star-spangled hellspawn, and with a bright cheer, she spun on her heel, turning right back towards the direction she’d been determined to march off in the first time. “Follow me!”

“Excuse me, miss, but I don’t suppose you could help us find our partners, could you?” And once again, the fairy hadn’t managed to make it so much as a step before her adoptive mother put a different plan into action. Clownpiece twirled about once again, vision and head spinning with all the turning she’d been doing, and was quickly met with the sight of Yuuka a few more feet away, chatting amicably with one of the Syntech employees, a brunette-haired, suited woman in her twenties carrying a high-tech tablet (much like an enlarged version of the fairy’s phone) and a stylus to go with it. The youkai leaned casually against her folded up parasol, her smile genuinely friendly and not like she was one wrong word away from ripping your throat out, but still trying to be civil.

“Sure thing, ma’am,” the young employee was quite chipper, her voice taking on that sort of overly-cheerful, entirely fake tone of customer service workers. “Yuuka Kazami and Clownpiece, right?” Though she spared a quick glance towards the young girl, she kept the brunt of her attention focused on the perceived authority figure, and without waiting for either of them to answer, she continued right on. “Whirda is not here yet, but should be arriving via Recall Station shortly. Link is over in the Gym area, right down that hall.” She spoke, gesturing with her stylus. “Would either of you happen to have a phone or an MDD in general?”

To that question, Yuuka simply gave a blank look, far too out-of-touch with technology to understand that question. Fortunately, Clownpiece understood vaguely enough between the two of them to make that not an entirely futile query. “Oh, I do!” The child beamed excitedly, hopping forward a few steps and retrieving her smartphone out of... somewhere. “See?” she proudly presented it, screen-first, towards the Syntech employee, as though that action would be of any help.

“I see,” though the employee’s words were short, she still sounded as cheerful as ever, and still wore that plastered-on smile. “Why don’t you check it right now,” she followed up, eyes quickly flicking down to her own device as she tapped at it a little bit. Looking a little bit perplexed, the fairy turned the phone back to herself, pressing the little ‘on’ button, and...

“Woah...” A wondrous expression painted Clownpiece’s face as suddenly she was met with a picture of a green-clad teen wielding a sword and shield. To anyone who was actually familiar with technology, this wasn’t all that impressive. To the more-than-a-bit behind the times hellspawn, who had difficulty just figuring out how to text, this was magic. A mysterious magic she’d never seen before. “Is this Link?” She asked excitedly, turning to look up at the brunette, her purple eyes wide and sparkling.

“Yes?” The employee sounded a bit... taken aback by the child’s reaction, though she didn’t show it on her face, only in her words. “Anyway, if you wish to wait around for Whirda, this is what she looks like.” The nameless woman wasted no time dwelling on the fairy’s actions. There were plenty of technologically inept Primes in the Omniverse, after all. Instead, she just about immediately turned her tablet towards Yuuka, revealing a picture of her partner.

“As tempting as that is, I think I’ll help Clowny find her partner first,” the youkai responded, memorizing Whirda’s visage even as she spoke. Once she was finished, she turned her attention back towards the helpful employee, bowing a little bit. “Thanks for your help, miss. We can take it from here now.”

“Glad to be of assistance,” the woman responded, nodding respectfully. “Enjoy your stay here at Syntech.” And with those words, she turned and stepped off, making her way over to whatever other business she had, leaving fairy and youkai alone.

“So...” Yuuka said slowly after a moment, shifting just enough on her feet and turning her head down to look at the grounded Clownpiece. “Lead the way.”

Moving to Dojo area