Firefox picks up her tickets from Rocks; the lot of them are for the back of the studio. One of them is flecked with drops of blood. After that, she swings by to grab Jonas and the two of them ride out to the U-Luv-It studio.

The show starts at 7, but seating opens at 5:30. Each of the tickets is checked at the front door, then a second time spot checked inside of the studio. The two of them are led on into the giant auditorium, and match the numbers on their tickets to their seats, lost somewhere in a gaggle of fifteen-year-old girls. Poor Jonas is so drenched in the pubescent hormones dripping off of the audience, he considers swapping out his 'Death to Ancients' spray-painted duffel for a 'hello Becka!' handbag.

Firefox watches bemused at the clamoring throng, feeling even more bemused at Jonas' reaction seems to be pretty closely matched.  She'd definitely have to bug him about it when this was all over.

An astral scan of the area was largely useless.  The intense emotions pushed the background count towards the roof.  She took her binoculars out of her purse and scanned the area, noting the composition of the attendees as well as what sort of security seemed to be in place.  She considered trying to move closer to the front but decided against it.  If there was some sort of magical effect going on, distance would help, as would proximity to the doors.

She bent down and managed to attract the attention of one of the gibbering tweens.  "Like, if I wanted to get Bella's autograph, like, what would be the best place?"

Security is obvious, but not especially tough. There are multiple employee entrances around the building in addition to the single public entrance. The public entrance scans for cyberware and metal. Looking over the crowd, Firefox spots at least two armed guards, and at least one mage; a sorcerer. She doesn't strike you as especially tough, but she's keeping a sharp eye out for people like, well, you. No sign of watchers or spirits though.

There's a number of just 'muscle' people in black shirts; unarmed, probably untrained, mostly serving as door men.

As the show begins, the contestants come out one after another to do their spiel. Two of the judges seem nice, supportive, if a little shallow, but the third, Simone is dangerous. He sends one contestant off the stage in tears, to the booing of the crowd.

The teeny troll bopper beside Firefox shrugs, "sometimes they do audiographs after the show, if you have a VIP ticket. But those are super expensive. I'd diiie for a VIP ticket!"

The show takes regular breaks, for contestants to get changed and whatnot. During those breaks, the jumbotron shows ads and previews. This is a great time to pop off to the john if you need to. You won't miss anything, because screens in the restrooms will also display the advertisements and previews.

Eventually Becka comes on stage. Mercurial's rendition of 'Puff the Magic Dragon' plays over the speakers, with a fantastic light and smoke show. Meanwhile, Becka sits in the center of the cat walk, nibbles some eucalyptus, and scritches her ears. A few people awww at it, and eventually she's carried off by her handler. Simone agrees that she is 'just about the cutest thing he's ever seen' and that he just can't bring himself to vote against her. There's no sign of any magic in use during or after the performance, and since most of the voters are at home, the phone-in vote should be unaffected regardless.

After everything wraps up, there's a closing band to play the stars out and provide some nice music as vendors mix through the audience with $20 autographed pictures and $80 branded microphones.

Firefox pays close attention to Becka's aura, as well as her handler.  She wants to remember them later.  She also checks out the auras of the other performers in case she needs them and to get a sense of whether any are feeling emotions that might be useful for subsequent manipulation.

What's Firefox's own impression of Bella's performance?

EDIT: Corrected name
This message was last edited by the player at 19:27, Fri 11 Apr 2014.

Are you referring to Becka, the drop bear? Or another contestant?

Oops.  Corrected.

Firefox spends a bit of time studying Becka's aura. Even at this distance, and with the pollution of excited fans spilling out into the manasphere, Firefox gets a fairly strong sense for Becka. She's currently feeling bored (but cute) and a little peckish. Her handler, Baz, is more on edge. Becka is, after all, a literal man-eater, as adorable as she is.

She can scope out the other contestants; the handsome one, the excited one, the underdog, the ambitious one, and so on, with each one reading the excitement, the adrenaline, then the soul-crushing as Simone chews them up and spits them out (Becka does not seem especially hard hit, owing to her very strong internal locus of control, her fantastic courage, and her not understanding language).

The security sorcerer does seem to notice her. While there's nothing illegal about paying customers using astral perception, it's enough for him to give you the hairy eyeball.

(It sounds as though your current plan doesn't rely on the other contestants, so I won't go into detail. If you choose to, you can consider this information available.)

(Moving things along ...)

Firefox has had sufficient time to scope out the immediate magical defense of the location. Most of the auditorium is warded against astral fence-hoppers, plus you have the sorcerer on site. There's no indication that Becka or any of the contestants use magic.

I assume after buying a monogrammed bag for your friend, you head out to report back to the group.

Did anyone try getting a bug for me to plant by the security desk?  If so, I'll do that before leaving

I'll take that as a 'no'.

With Firefox returned, what's the plan for the grab? Carver, do you want to take lead?