the thmgau rewrite

Havoc in the Theater

The clock ticked as Sotry & the other puppets stood outside the theater room. They were waiting for it to become 8 o'clock. That's when their plan would be enacted. Sotry even thought about doing a little speech on-stage as well, maybe sway some people into rooting for him.

"..Sotry?"
"What."
"What happens if we go out there & they're not on stage?"
"Well, we wait until they are on stage then."
"Alright."

A moment of silence.

"What happens if Alph finds out?"
"He won't. I've made sure of it."
"But what if he does?"

Sotry sighs. "In the event that Alph does find out that we're sentient & trying to take over the world, we will simply just dispose of her accordingly."

The clock struck 8.

"Now, c'mon. It's showtime."

-

The play was going swimmingly. It was almost time for the intermission. All Leslie had to do was get through this scene & then they could take a small break.

It was the scene where Belle's supposed to run out of the castle & get surrounded by wolves. The Beast is supposed to save her from the wolves & go back to the castle with her. A few ensemble members were dressed up as wolves backstage, ready for their cue.

Leslie could see the doors to the theater open up ahead, but they weren't too concerned about it. It was probably just a late-comer. Leslie pretended to stop & catch its breath (as it said to do in the script). They looked ahead at the audience, spotting something strange.

Sotry, the puppet from the puppet shop (& the political posters), along with 4 other puppets following him, were approaching the stage at high speeds.

The puppets got up on stage. The gray puppet lunged at Leslie head-on. Quickly thinking, & following the script, Leslie grabbed a stick prop & used it to defend itself. Maybe if they treated the puppets like the wolves, they would just go away eventually.

As the puppets surrounded Leslie, it realized it was not going to be able to use this stick prop to hold them off for much longer. They would have to get into Hero Mode in front of the entire theater, &-

"RAAGH!"

Natalie, also following the script, ran out from off-stage & started fighting off the puppets. The puppets, who clearly were not expecting this, fought back. Sotry "bit" into Natalie's arm, making her yelp in pain.

She pushed Sotry off the stage in an act of self-defense. Leslie could hear something break. Snarling, Natalie glared at the other puppets. They quickly ran out of the theater, Sotry trudging along with them.

Leslie couldn't tell if it was acting or for real, but Natalie fell to the ground, clutching the arm that Sotry had bitten. They approached Natalie & helped her get back up on her feet, walking her backstage.

The lights in the theater faded on as the intermission began. Natalie sat down in a chair backstage, grasping her arm.

"Ok, what the fuck was that?" Natalie asked.
"Seconded," Allie said. "I also want to know what those puppets were."

The group stared at each other as the rest of the cast & crew stood there, confused. They were trying to think of how to explain what had just happened on-stage without revealing their hero identities or that Juniper had literally exposed when & where the show was taking place by accident.

"Well, y'see.." Juniper started. "You guys have seen those posters out & about, right?"
"You mean the ones with that green puppet guy? Yea."
"I've seen 'em too."
"Yea, the group & I have taken it upon ourselves to.. uh.. tear those posters down. Because being president of the world is kind of bad. HOWEVER, it turns out that there are cameras above each poster, so the puppets have, like, recognized us, & kind of want us dead."
"Wow, that's fucked."
"It is."

Allie handed Natalie a small cup of water, turning to look at the group.

"Do y'all think you'll be ok out there? I mean, if the puppets come back & all that-"
"We'll be fine!" Juniper said. "We've been through worse."
"Alright, well, the intermission ends in 10 minutes, so you take all the time you need to rest." Allie said.

Ignoring the irony of that comment, Cherry turned to the others.

"Ok. You four. Back here."

The group walked further backstage, so nobody could hear them talk.

"Alright," Cherry sighed. "Those puppet things are fucking after us."
"Clearly we did something to piss them off."
"We ripped their posters apart. Of course they're pissed at us."
"How did they even find out we were here?" Leslie asked. "There's no way they could have known."

The other four froze. Juniper had told the group about xyr fuck-up in the car while Leslie was tearing down a poster outside, so Leslie had no idea!

"Well, uh.."
"Juni told them."
"What?!"
"Hey! Don't phrase it like that!"
"You did tell them, though."
"By accident! Allie & I were talking about it next to one of the cameras!"

"Enough." Cherry sighed. "The point is, those things want us DEAD. For what reason? I don't know. Probably related to the posters. But if we're going to enter Hero Mode, it has to be after the show, out of sight from anybody else."
"Someone built those puppets, though! Why can't we just.. avoid conflict?"
"Yea, because that's what we need to do: not fight back when we're getting mangled to death by a sentient puppet."
"I mean, it worked in Undertale."
"He's right. It did work in Undertale."
"This isn't Undertale, though."
"How about we come to a compromise? Only fight back if absolutely needed?"
"That works. Let's just hope this doesn't get on national television."

-

"We flubbed it! We absolutely flubbed it! Now what are we gonna do?!"

The puppets stood outside the theater building, trying to think of what to do next. The other puppets were distressed, but Sotry just leaned against the wall. There wasn't much he could do. That fall off of the stage did a number on him, dislocating his left arm & all that.

"Sotry, what are we gonna-"
"Shut up."
"Huh?"
"Shut. Up."

The other puppets shut their mouths.

"That beast that attacked me on stage ruined our whole plan. Best case scenario, we're on national television."
"That's the best case scenario?"
"Can it, Islo," Sotry bonked Islo in the head with its functional arm. "We must stay vigilant. & once the performance ends, we'll give those kids a piece of our mind."