(Quest Suggestions) SongsTress Quest Episode 19 - Keep it Simple, Stupid~

(Choose Your Own Desire! Members of Star Tier or above can suggest actions for next week's episode, and they'll be voted on on Wednesday!)

Stupefy. Scramble. Separate. A simple three step plan to sorting your Serenity problem! It's so easy, even a Serenity could do it - though not after you're done with them~

You tap your foot, nodding your head, falling into the beat and letting it echo through the stadium. Your mic is in hand, your adoring audience surrounds your stage, a hush descends as they wait for you to begin. On the screens, you watch the Serenities fighting through the last of that squad of punk girls. Awh, you'll have to give those girls a private performance later to thank them for their service.

Alright. They wanna hit hard? You can hit hard. Music swells, pulsing through the building, and - One, two, three, four!

"Hey hey, girls girls! What'cha think yer doin'?
Your makeup's outta place, an' that hair yer gunna ruin!
You could be so pretty with that tough look wiped off your face~
So don't you worry babe I'm gunna put you in your place!"

Your voice floods the stadium as you leap into your first real performance on your stage, all of your power filling your words.

You wink to the camera. "Just listen~"

And then you launch into the flowing verse.

"Ain't it alllll so confusin'
Just tryin' to keep up all the time?
And it's alllll so amusin'
To see you struggle, fail, and whine~
You're just tryin' to hard,
When yer workin' to think!
So just relax that brain,
Let those smarts start to sink~"

You can see it. That slight stagger in their steps. Those quick double takes as they lose track of where they are. You're getting to them, you know it. You lower your voice, and amp up the volume even higher.

"Hear my advice,
I won't see you excluded,
Here's what you gottta dooooo:
Keep it simple, stupid~"

The beat hits as you fire the heavy chorus line straight from your lips to their ears. Your eyes sharpen as you watch all three ladies in white, each on their own screens, react...

[Resistance Check: Difficulty 60 - 1d100]

(Difficulty = Base Attack score (20) + Curse of Verse Rank Bonus (20) + Volume Bonus (10) + Lair Bonus (10) = 60)

Serenity Dancer: 69! (Pass)

(Bonuses: Base Resistance (+10) + Rank 2 Serenity (+20) = +30) Roll: 39

Serenity Scribe: 49 (Fail)

(Bonuses: Base Resistance (+10) + Rank 2 Serenity (+20) = +30) Roll: 19

Serenity Painter: 94 (Pass)

(Bonuses: Base Resistance (+10) + Rank 2 Serenity (+20) = +30) Roll: 64

Hm.

Dancer wobbles a bit, looking uncertain... But then she shakes her head and glares directly at you through the screen, before kicking the camera watching her into a static-filled mess. Tch. You switch to another view of her. It wasn't like that accomplished anything, girl! Maybe she was already just kind of dumb...

Oh! Scribe, though! Oh, she's looking off her game~ She keeps losing focus on the battle and twirling her hair (and are those blonde tips you see?). The others keep having to pull her attention back into the fight, and even when they do she's not doing as well. The words she's writing in her book are getting smaller, and you're pretty sure that's not how you spell 'Mallet', though the word she summons still seems to be trying... Nope, the brains are definitely starting to drizzle out of her ears!

(Serenity Scribe has gained the Debuff: Stupified, Rank 1! All of her skills have been degraded by 1 degree for the rest of the battle.)

Annd - oh damnit, looks like Painter wasn't affected at all. In fact, she's used the time you were singing to turn the foyer into a gigantic painting of - is that a review in the Ruby Times? They're calling your show the worst of all time?!? Oh that little-

This girl is going to get the diss-track of the century once this is done, you swear.

Annnnd... Oh. Oops. A lot of the fans in the stands are looking very blonde and busty all of a sudden. You might be dumbing some of them down as well. Oh well, not an issue! That just means they can be dumbly devoted to you!

But okay - that was all a distraction anyway. Because while they were trying to resist your song, you were commanding your Lair to make the junction up ahead of them extra confusing. And with them having to keep an eye on Scribe already...

Aha! There! They're out of alignment at just the wrong moment! You can absolutely split one of them off here, cutting the other two off and reducing their collective power - but which are you going to choose? And once they're split, what kind of rooms are you going to send the two groups too? Ooooh, choices choices. Better hurry up and decide - it's almost time for the next verse~

(Alright! You may split off one Serenity from the others. Who will it be? You can also decide what kinds of challenges either group will face next, which may influence what they'll become if they lose! And hey, while we're at it, do you want to keep singing 'Keep It Simple, Stupid', or switch tracks?)