The floor beneath her began to vibrate with the opening oompah beat. Lyra looked at the puppet, then at the exit—a single, unmarked door that hadn't been there a moment ago. Above it, a small, flickering sign read: Unterschlag. Population: 1 (You).
That's when Lyra saw the backstage door. It wasn't hidden, exactly—it was just blurred, like a glitch the Fan Topia's rendering engine hadn't bothered to fix. She slipped away from Kael, who was now engaged in a relentless, joyful polka line that had no beginning or end. bavfakes fan topia
She followed the Lederhosen Signal—which turned out to be a literal pair of glowing leather shorts floating in an alley—and stepped through a door that wasn't there a second ago. The floor beneath her began to vibrate with
Kael's voice echoed from the main hall, sweet and terrible. "Lyra! The next song is starting! It's your favorite—the one that never ends!" Population: 1 (You)
She heard the door to the server room creak open. Hundreds of synchronized footsteps. The fans had noticed she was missing.