FRONT END

[Quingee]

[googlefont="Comfortaa"] FRONT END

[googlefont="Tajawal"]The front end contains all the public-access areas of the Concert Hall. The lobby, the auditorium--though it looks like you might be able to get into the ticket booths, and even onto the stage. In the meantime, there’s a number of displays, and vendors selling wares--they seem to be more personable Gru, and might be willing to hold a conversation with you.

A concert ticket is required to get in.

[googlefont="Tajawal"]B1F
(click map for full size)

LOBBY: A small little lobby, wide and thin, with tile floors and tile walls; it’s so well-polished, it feels like a hall of mirrors. There are ticket booths to head through, but each is guarded by a Gru looking to see tickets first before you can get in.

TICKET BOOTHS: They’re all closed, but there are doors to access each one; looks like they’re locked, though, not to mention that there’s a Gru standing outside each one.

DISPLAYS: Some Gru artifacts on display; odd technology, fossils, general alien paraphernalia. It’s hard to tell what it all is at a glance, but there’s a lot to see if you examine it up close. Some things are labeled.

FOOD VENDORS: Each manned by a less-than-enthusiastic Gru, the food vendors are housing snacks that do not appear to be of anything recognizable, save for the Alien Slime drink that’s been popping up in grocery stores lately. There’s something that resembles popcorn, at least--or, it would, if it wasn’t purple.

GRU MERCH STAND: A tentacle-like Gru with six eyes and an implied smile through them is running a stand with all kinds of general Gru-related merchandise; hats with Gru logos, shirts with phrases in alien language on them, can cooler sleeves and lanyards advertising Gruugle. How’d they get all this made so fast?

YRK MERCH STAND: A tall and thin Gru in a plastic Yrk mask is (terrifyingly) behind this stand, sounding far too enthusiastic for someone wearing a plastic mask. They’re selling all a number of Yrk-related merchandise, from headbands with bouncy antennae to mugs shaped like Yrk’s head; for the diehard fans, they’re even selling replica suits.

PRINTY(?) MERCH STAND: A gelatinous Gru sits in a slump (or a big puddle, I guess) behind a stand selling Printy County-inspired merchandise; they don’t look at all excited to be there, but they have some Printy-endowed flags stuck into their body to make them look more cheerful. The merch itself seems like some attempt at local pride, but all it really is are sheets of paper with NOBODY DOES PAPER BETTER on them.

HALLWAYS: Thin, quiet hallways are fully concrete, but the floors are painted with helpful lines and arrows, all of which point to lead up to the staircases to head into the auditorium seating.

[googlefont="Tajawal"]F2
(click map for full size)

ENTRY HALLS: They lead back downstairs to the hallways that go back to the lobby.

SEATING: Rows after rows of identical seating; they seem to have lights built into the arms of them. Neat! They’re not terribly comfortable, but about as functionable as any other kind of arena seating, and pretty wide.

STAGE: While you can see it from afar from the stands, there seem to be some kind of invisible barriers preventing you from actually getting up there. Weird.

[googlefont="Comfortaa"] INVESTIGATION START !

[daekfire]

Amelia felt like she was the only one who might have a plausible excuse if she was caught in this mess. Florence and Vivian were both technically trespassing. If she were being totally honest she was a little worried what would end up happening to them if they did get caught. She found herself shrugging as she approached the building. She thought it was gaudy honestly. People only built things like this if they were trying super hard to seem 'modern' and 'ahead of the times' it really wasn't making the Gru seem any more appealing to her than they had been before. 

Technically they should all be fine, they weren't really here as 'the Object Cru' they were just...some people coming in because they were curious and wanted to find out what the hell was going on where they lived. Honestly she was peeved. All the flyers were hideous and she'd spent a while trying to take the ink but somehow they'd always been fine when she came back later. Two awful looking things at the same time...just annoyed her.

[ to Vivian, Florence, Lilith ] 
   just be polite. maybe they won't kick you out straight away.

She rolled her shoulders before striding off into the building. Her hands might have been shaking, but she was willfully ignoring it. It wasn't like she'd never gotten into trouble with people before. If she got caught she could handle it. Amelia did have her ticket ready in hand, and it didn't look like the lobby would have much in it but best to explore everywhere right? She rolled her shoulders and set in to look around. Unfortunately a text got her distracted.

[ to Vivian, Florence, Lilith ]
   do u rly need to steal it
   or is that just for funsies

She shook her head slightly, amused but now sure that somebody would get spotted for being silly. Ame took a breath before she started looking around seriously. 

{{TEXT TAGGING - cosmicguts krispini Cheri }}

[mari]

"Some slime-head handed this to me the other day."
"You don't want it, then?"
"I have to treat them nicely, customers and all, but I hate associating myself with those balls of goo. They're on to something, I tell ya."

That was the conversation that took place between Ry and his long-time friend, Dustin, which led to Ry acquirig a ticket to this... questionable alien concert. He couldn't deny his curiosity, but the young man himself was unsure of his ability to attend. Concerts meant people and people meant crowds. While he would have jumped at the opportunity awhile back, now, with his newfound powers, he became more aware of his surroundings. Unfair as it was, that was Ry's new reality.

Luckily for him, the ginormous concert venue was open to the public before the actual event. Surely there wouldn't be that many people inside.

...and there weren't. He couldn't see (nor hear) many things aside from your occasional alien dude. Like any other concert, there were plenty of displays and merch booths. Not that Ry had the money to buy anything, but it was worth a look. Maybe he could find out things about what the heck they were actually aiming to do in this small county, or why they flooded his city awhile back.

Ry wandered around for a bit before he stopped in front of the Gru merch stand. His eyes went over what was being sold and found nothing of interest, not exactly. He was curious about one thing, though.

"Hey dude." Ry briefly greeted the gru vendor. "What's that text on the shirts saying?"

[Pai]

daekfire
Amelia would be standing in the lobby, where a Quingee(?) of especially large size was standing processing tickets at the ticket booth; it was wearing a headband and looked terribly impatient, which was unusual, as the birds didn't normally seem to have the ability to emote; it seemed distracted, for the moment, and hadn't noticed her just yet, as it was busy fingering(?) through a wad of bills in its wing. The lobby itself was otherwise empty, the shining floors making it look a lot larger and a lot emptier than it actually was--but flooding it with people would make it look fuller than it was, too.

There were doors on each of the ticket booths, but red lights on the door handles would quickly inform that they were all locked.

mari
Ry was greeted by six friendly(?) looking eyes as he approached the stand, though the vendor quickly turned their attention away to allow Ry to begin browsing. When prompted, however, three eyes gave him a strange look, before glancing down at the shirt.

The shirt read:

But the Gru merchant looked back up at him, and prompted,

"What? Can't you read?"

[mari]

Pai 

Ry didn't seem to be very fazed by the gru's unusual appearance ( That might or might not have been caused by him having had a smoke before entering the building). He was left to himself to look around, but when he did ask a question, the alien being seemed surprised that he didn't know "how to read". of course he did, but he never recalled being taught alien in school. He didn't recall much from school anyway. Ry gave the gru a skeptical look, wondering if it was genuinely confused or just stupid. For someone who invaded the Earth, they didn't seem very knowledgeable about humans. 

Now, should he give a perfectly reasonable answer to his question and make it slightly more cultured about humanity, or poke fun at his lack of knowledge?
"Aw dude..." Ry let out a saddened sigh. "So you know, some of us humans have this thing called "Dyslexia". So when you have Dyslexia you are uh..." Granted Ry didn't know a whole lot about Dyslexia. "Unable to read and write well. So yeah, I have that and I don't know how to read, dude... Would you be kind to a customer and help me out a bit?" 

[Paps]

Ethan had come here with the rest of the Friendzone, trying to scope out the place. The main reason was to prepare for the concert tomorrow. He was...begged and pleaded into drumming for the cru’s band, so he did have to take a look at the stage. He still had his doubts about this whole thing but he knew Riku had fans already and well this band stuff would only be a one night thing right? Just for fun, like Raul had said when they were forming the band. He just couldn’t help the bad memories sometimes.

He came in with a few of the members at first, but got distracted with some of the displays. The other reason why he had come here was to check up on all this Gru business. Why they might have come here or why they thought turning everyone into mutants was a good idea. Oe maybe a way of unmutating. That’d be the day.

He looked at the display closer to the Gru merch booth and wondered what the hell he was looking at.

[daekfire]

Amelia let out somewhat of a huff. Places like this made her uncomfortable. They were too neat and impersonal. It always felt like something was going to twirl out of a wall somewhere or something. But...considering everything along the outside was just glass she knew she was just being silly. Over thinking everything just because she was on a 'mission' she needed to look for things that actually mattered. Looking around an empty lobby was not a good idea. 

[ to Vivian, Florence and Lilith ]

    i admit that looks to impressive to not put on now
    
    have fun with ur pretty clothes

But she was also more than a little reluctant to go towards the...bird looking thing. Amelia didn't like birds at the best of times, but one that size was something she really didn't need in her life. She snapped a quick picture of it, attaching it to her next message.

[ to Vivian, Florence and Lilith ]

     some of them r kinda like things from earth 2
     giant burds

She tucked her phone away. Goddamn birds. She really didn't need this in her life right now. But she knew she had to go, for the sake of the human race or something equally ridiculous. But it did make her think - if one of these things looked similar to something on earth, were there others too? She wasn't sure. She also wasn't sure that she even wanted to now if there were. 
Amelia was reluctant to keep moving towards it however. She could handle all the creepy, gooey aliens but seeing a bird physically express things that no bird should have been able to. It was deep, deep in the uncanny valley. She hated that she had to move towards it at all. She grabbed and rolled her ticket in her hands. 

"Hi, sorry - could I -" She showed the ticket to the...creature. She wasn't sure if it was going to be taken from her, or if she'd just get waved through for showing it off.

{{ TEXT TAGGING: cosmicguts , krispini and Cheri }}

[faerst]

After presenting her ticket, staring into the maw of an irritated Quingee, and getting waved in, Lacy made her way through the crowds of people, motioning for Luka to follow. Why did it have to be so crowded? Why did everything have to be so loud? Why did Quingee have to have teeth? How had she not noticed that before, that was definitely something she'd have to tell the rest of the Watchers.

"Alright, probably need to give a status update and then figure out what the fuck we're looking at? Like..." glancing around, there were merch tables for the gru, Yrk and...printy? with paper...huh. As well as a food stand and display cases for artifacts. Bingo.

[Sent To: Hide, Elsa, Riku, Paige, Luka]

aight were in and theres like artifacts and shit
also food and merch
yall want anythin
its all gru food and the merch is like
theres gru, printy, and yrk merch but printy stuff is just paper

She looked back up from her phone to address Luka, "We should check out the gru history stuff first, right?" and began heading that way, stopping to examine the contents inside the glass cases and the labels for said items.

[TEXTING: redrobyns | Kimi | shoujoubrave | Aussie ]

[ nie ]

[Pai]

mari
"You can't read?" The alien seemed utterly horrified by the mere idea, the lower lids of each of their eyes squinted up, and their posture leaned back into the chair they were rocking back and forth on. "Dyshuhwhat? That sounds terrible, can't you cure that? Don't you have things to cure that? I bet one of us could cure that for you, that sounds terrible. Eugh."

At the idea of still helping him out, they seemed rather off-put. "Eeerrrrmmmm, maybe come back once you've evolved a little more. You can keep your earth currency."


Paps
The Gru merch booth contained all kinds of unusual alien merchandise--everything on it was written in an alien language, safe for the Gruugle merch, which was in bold roman letters and a clear parody of the internet empire that reigned over Earth. There were t-shirts, mugs, lanyards, wallets, pens, postcards, magnets, coasters, stickers; the designs were largely constant across most of them: one color, and then a single word written upon them, different for each product. The words on each product matched the word on the label for each display next to the price.


daekfire
"HA?"

The Quingee(?) let out a loud, booming response as it looked up from counting its bills, a metaphorical eyebrow raising in its expression, the twist of its face seeming a lot more emotive than the average flightless bird. "YOU WANNA WHAT?" Its voice was gruff and carried an accent that might remind one of a northern inner city dialect. Weird. Quingees shouldn't know how to speak New Yorker, right?

"WHADDYA WANT? YOU WANNA GET IN? YOU GOT A--ah, yeh, I see you gotta ticket. Well, aite, that'sa different story; you gonna go tru or what?"


faerst
The first notable display was that of an unusual rock; it was eroded, pale, and had hairline cracks running all over its surface, and was encased in a bubble, seeming to be for safekeeping. The plaque beneath it read:

While there was also a button beside the plaque to learn more, it appeared that the Gru had forgotten to translate their recording, which didn't compensate for the Universal Translator.

[nie]

Luka followed Lacy through the crowd, "Did you see what I just saw. Did you see it. Like, holy shit. Those things have teeth." He shook away the surprise as they entered the place and his eyes scanned around the place, noticing everything that was presented to them. The booths, the glass cases, the merch, and the many Grus roaming around. Luka took his phone out after Lacy's messages pinged him and sent a message to the Watchers:


[Sent To: Hide, Elsa, Riku, Paige, Lacy]
guys
theres replica suits of Yrk
who wants it
you'll be giving me the money back btw its not a gift


"Right, right." Luka shoved his phone in his pocket before advancing towards the glass cases accompagnied by Lacy. He looked at it feigning interest; what was more interesting to him was the concert that was taking place tomorrow after all.

"Mmh." He traced the plaque with his fingers, waiting for a translation to appear--but to no avail. He grabbed his phone once more and took a picture of the rock as well as one of the plaque. He then side-glanced at Lacy and made himself quieter, "Hey, we could steal it and decode it later or something. The plaque I mean, not the rock, unless you really want to try and steal their "ancient artifact" or whatever it is." He knew he had just taken a picture of it but if they could get their hands on more than pictures it would be nice, he thought.

[faerst]

"I know, that shit is god damn terrifying, and I kind of love it, but I know I'm gonna have nightmares about those damn lil birds now."

Looking over the..."artifact," it didn't seem entirely noteworthy. Maybe with more context it would be, but the plaque was incomprehensible.

"Cool, this is completely useless," then glancing at Luka again, she pursed her lips as she considered the offer. "That is very fucking tempting, Highball." She examined the plaque and how it was fastened to the pedestal, then looked over the sphere the rock seemed to be encased in. Was it even a rock? Was this like an egg or something? It had cracks in it. Was this a geode or like how they reproduced?

Keeping her voice low, she tilted her head towards the next display, "Too many eyes for that right now, but maybe later. Keep a note of it," before moving on to the next display case.

[Jintii]

Tenor walked through the gates, his concert ticket end tucked snuggly into a pocket in his jeans. He's never been overly enthusiastic about anything gru related, but someone (or something) had slipped a ticket to the concert advertised on the posters, he thought that it wouldn't hurt to check it out. Besides, the group that he accidentally joined for the sake of free BBQ (it was a cru called friendzone, apparently?) had planned to be one of the participating opening acts. As a part of the costumes department (or more specifically, the person who does everyone's hair), he thought that it'd be good to survey how the stage looks and functions. He would have invited a close acquaintance to visit the venue with him, but he couldn't quite think of someone who might be free, or be interested enough to come. Oh well, not like he minded doing things alone.

The hall seemed to be quite huge from what he expected, the most eye-catching stand being Yrk's merchandise stall, as if the bright red and cyan color scheme it was screaming for attention. The mint haired boy let out a soft sigh. Of course that dude had to have a stall just dedicated to themselves. Tenor dragged himself over, observing the stall from a slight distance. After confirming that the gru behind the stall was only overly enthusiastic (and not hostile), Tenor shortened the distance. Picking up a small Yrk keychain, he clicked the button behind it out of curiosity. The eyes of the little Yrk head started to flash red, as if it was a warning signal. Tenor jolted in surprise, immediately putting the keychain back down. What... interesting merchandise the Gru has, he thought.

[Paps]

Ethan looked around at all the Gru merchandise, not sure what to make of it. Did...the Gru care about making human money or were they just imitating human concert behavior? But more surprising than that was the vendor being occupied by none other than his roommate, of all people. He hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to Ry these days due to their schedules, but well...he also kept rejecting his requests to hang out anyway...and he was always lost in his own music...oh, but this was a concert, so he was probably interested in that part?

He checked on what was going on but it seemed that the Gru and Ry were talking. “Yo,” he greeted the the roommate during a lull of conversation. He looked through the merchandise. Probably wouldn’t wanna buy any of these. “Do they even need human currency?” He muttered to himself. He picked up a coaster, at least. Maybe boss would want one. He did look at it further, trying to discern the crazy alien language.

“For all I know this says “all hail the gru”’,” he muttered to himself..

[daekfire]

She almost flinched when she heard the voice that came out. And then again when it's voice raised. Nope. No bird should look or sound like that. She might have been freaking out a little bit, but she was good at the faked smile and polite demeanour, so she nodded her head a little. "Of course I am -" moving to take a step through but stopping herself short. She could ask one question right? It wasn't like it looked busy. 

"Any chance you could actually give me a clue about what the performance will actually be?" She thought that it would probably say no. She was just being curious, she was sure lots of people would end up asking the same question. Because no matter how long she had looked at the flyers or thought about the broadcast, it had never really said anything about what Yrk would actually be doing. It was a bit of a bother really. 

She was also trying to get over the accent still...when the Gru came down...did they pick accents they liked most? Or did they just...have similar accents where ever they came from? Why had she had to come through the front? She felt like she properly had to talk to the Gru now. It was a annoying.

Amelia didn't think that she'd find anything super interesting in the front unless she could get into the ticket booths. Most people wouldn't just hide something in such and open area. She was sure that the Gru wouldn't do anything different.

[mari]

What an asshole, Ry thought... providing it even had one. The young man squinted at the 6-eyed alien.Evolved? What did it even mean by that? Like that pokemon shit? "Ya know my dude, I don't know how you aliens do things, but you're here and you need to do things the way us humans do. You can't discriminate, otherwise you'll go to prison... or something. People get butthurt a lot nowadays." Ry was starting to get a bit frustrated by the situation.

Just then, a voice called out from nearby. It was Ethan, Ry's roommate. They didn't really speak, but Ry was vaguely aware of his existence. "Hey dude. don't get anything from here, they've got really poor customer service." Ry shrugged. "Actually you know what, this awful behaviour shouldn't go unpunished. I demand to speak to your manager right now."