[New York] Antagonistic Roots

The man narrowed his eyes for a moment before opening them wide, "Oh you're-!", he stepped away and bit his tongue for a moment, the crowd seemed undisturbed. "A professional in your field, for sure", he tried to straighten his voice. "Alright, doc, I'll...let the apointees know", he went off without a word. Surely he could convince whatever New Yorkers he happened upon to his plan, and they could propagate it the same way, it would be a matter of figuring out if this was truly all of them.

Strolling through the parade, Strange would find another real person, a woman in her late 50s wearing a business suit, relaxing quite broadly on a bench that should probably not be there, probably glad to take a break from this impromptu parade, surely a person that would understand working under crunch. As Strange approached, however, he could also see a second one, a younger soul, approaching the crowded line, though seemingly not interested at all in the parade. "Is there something you need help with?", the woman would address Strange first, seemingly understanding the anomaly of being approached at all.

Should Strange continue to watch the young urchin, he would see them helping themselves to a puppet's wallet.

The woman seemed quite agreeable to the idea, and while she stood up with a dejected groan, her step was steady as she made it across.

The kid didn't notice Strange, or if they did, they feigned ignorance. Clearly they did, as they didn't exactly run but also moved somewhat hastily away from him. Catching up unconspicuously would be difficult for the first time in his stay in faux New York, the crowd wasn't willingly impeding him, but it was also not making way as it had up until now, it would bring reminiscence of trying to trudge through a subway. He'd catch up to the boy to a familiar hotdog stand, holding a hotdog and a balloon, and thanking the faceless gentlemen for not charging him despite showing him the money.

The red hellium balloon tilted to face Strange to reveal its design, the familiar, bronze face of the colossus of New York stared down at him.

The kid flinched and stammered to try and find an excuse, but turned around to actually look at Strange, it appeared as if everyone was looking at Strange now at least, somehow it was more interesting than the parade. "Do I know you sir?", he asked, must be around 10, his clothes were of decent make, but had seen better days. "Like, are you on TV?", he continued trying to recognize him, with Strange having the sun behind his back, it was difficult to tell, though an attentive mind would wonder why would such a thing happen at midday.

Strange was making a conscious effort of not looking up, but the visage of Liberty was still there.

The balloon wasn't doing much more than conveniently tilt in his direction, somehow, its contempt was still palpable

"Follow the...huh?", the boy was rather confused by the mystifying exchange and watched the wizard depart. Despite the standowder doing his best attempt to keep him around, the boy did as told and followed Strange, the one person he was confident he recognized, balloon and all.

Jamie was hard to miss, even though they were in the middle of a celebration, he was more interested in chatting about work with some of his coleagues, one had to guess, given the heartiness through which they exchanged words, interrupted by the odd unpronounceable name that took over the conversation for a hot second, though it seemed to not bother the frazzled engineer. "Ah?", Jamie held his shock after turning around to find Strange still here, then shrugged it off, nothing was out of place. "I guess, am not keeping score. Anyways, Marko, Vikram, this is Stephen Strange, bigwig surgeon and all that", Jamie introduced the two puppets next to him with real names, both which gave a token greeting. He waved out at some really bad joke while he approached him dismissively, "Please don't tell me you need me for more mumbo jumbo, doc", he breathed out through his teeth, despite his spectacles covering his eyes (if there were any), it was evident that he was looking down on the wizard.

Jamie (presumably) glanced at the piece of paper, then back at Strange (also presumably), "Mumbo Jumbo it is", he suspected the wizard's gambit, but decided to play along, Snake could swear he could see the man's electronic hair shake and snarl at him as if they were snakes. He took the lead, seemingly knowing where to go. The boy was a bit hesitant to follow, beckoning Strange to draw closer and whisper to him if Jamie was some sort of bad guy.

The tent was most crowded, it was also very large, larger than what he would have expected. Perhaps it grew bigger as an unreasonable amount of people wished to visit it at once. That being said, it was also densely packed with the pale marionettes, it wasn't a good sign.

It was difficult to count the amount of real people in the tent, there were likely just about over 70, which did breach Liberty's vague estimate. They were also mostly in a corner, with ample space to move as convenience, as they all awaited Strange's finale. "What, are you a stage wizard or someth-AAAAGH", the festive ambiance suddenly stopped as Jamie was suddenly surrounded by a group of golems that aimed to be ensnared instead, becoming larger and larger as Strange's spell did its work. Collectively they held their ground, but Jamie was pinned altogether in the mass of gray bystanders. "I thought we were DONE with that!", Jamie lashed out. The havok of the scene didn't take long to make the real New Yorkers get the hint and run towards the portal, as fragile as can be. The tent's ceiling started to become undone and turned into more faceless citizens, every single body on the floor attempting to swarm Strange and restrain his arms and legs, even defying the laws of gravity to do so.

"Flee, Castaways! Flee From This Land Of The Free! You Are No Longer Welcome!", the voice echoed through the scenery, the bronze titan's face peeked from the open rooftop. Strange wanted Liberty's undivided attention, and he had it, for better and for worse. "I Will Spare Both Of Our Homes From This Adversary Of Peace!". The underside of the tend changed from festive red to a metallic green, the colossus' grip would seek to smother Strange in its wave of blurred flesh once and for all.