NPF Avatars 5 - Bread and Circuses

[TheBlindMime]

A cold chill blew through NPF City, it was the kind of chill that accompanied death. As the crowd reeled from the cold no one noticed the man in black, it was as if he had come from nowhere bringing the void along behind him. Worse still his visage was an ominous one, the wide brimmed hat that shaded his eyes from view allowed only a glimpse of the sinister smile locked upon his face. He stood just before the entrance to the newly constructed O'Sullivan tower, his jacket flapping in the wind.

This all would have been quite intimidating had he not been facing away from the tower.

[Sithdarth]

Raggy stopped turned slowly and cocked her head to one side. After about 20 seconds of holding that pose and staring blankly some sort of small flying insect crossed in front of his/her/its face. At which point everything that had happened was completely forgotten. With quite the bewildered look she asked "Uh what was I supposed to be doing again?"

[Bailey]

The Amalgam tilted its head slightly and smirked as it set P9 down on the buffet table. "My Mistake."

With that, the Amalgam retreated and returned to Keyman's side.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

There was a sound. It started off quite a distance away, but there was definitely something that made it.

The sound grew louder, and so did the tiny dot over the horizon. The sound struck horror into any readily cutesy feline.

Well, maybe not Pyros.

So the sound went like this:
"EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEE!!!"

*THMP*
There was a puff of burning, catty smoke, in the brief outline of Pyros of Nine. But the actual cat had gone.

Evidently, it was underneath a still-squealing Rhiya Ravenwing who was hugging and lavishing her love and affection upon the kitty cat, ignorant of the third degree burns she was taking.

[IHateMakingNames]

Because you can never have enough kitties, and they can get anywhere, a stray cat managed to sneak it's way into the dining hall.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Approximately at the entrance of the dining hall, apparently unimpeded by the ceiling (or respective tower above it), a light, much like a narrow spotlight, flashed momentarily. In, perhaps, a second and a half, an array of ephemeral white... er... sparklies, I guess... plummeted from nowhere and coalesced quickly into the form of KP Morgan, standing with as regal a look as he could muster. With that, the lights dispersed with a sound something like ‘whump’.

“Damn, I love that graphic,” KP said under his breath, with a smirk. It was entirely worth the billions of dollars it cost.

He looked around the room, realizing with vague displeasure that he had forgotten how inane the entirety of this group was. He rubbed his temples with a sigh. “I’m embarrassed to be affiliated with any of you,” he announced, striding off to an isolated part of the room.

With a vague motion of his hand, three more beams, like the one he had just ridden in on, appeared near his old position. From them, Sparky, Laura, and the clone of Jane Doe appeared. Jane Doe looked around frenetically, with a deranged look on her face, and dashed to the buffet, making a valiant attempt to shove the entire thing into her mouth all at once.

Sparky’s reptilian eyes wandered for a bit, before focusing on the single most interesting thing in the room, PX-05. A toothy grin spread over his saurian face and he rushed over to it, darting around it like a lunatic, examining it from every angle, and occasionally prodding it in what was certainly the most annoying way known to man.

“Pfft,” Laura proclaimed in her stereotypical onomatopoeia, and wandered away to punch reporters.

[Melfice]

Melfice had been silently sharpening his sword. He hadn't felt the need to mingle with the rest. Especially after a flaming cat had been soaring through the sky.

However, the food was becoming very enticing now, and he decided to at least get some food in his stomach. He had heard the reputation of the adventures that the participants of NPF City's new tournament frequently participated in. Sure, he had his emergency rations, but who knew when he'd get another decent bite to eat.

Moving over to the buffet, he noticed that all the cocktail sausages had been eaten already. "Blasted! ...oh, well. The chicken is healthier anyway." He settled for a salad and some chicken fillet.

Then he watched the rest of the participants go about their business.

[mauve]

"Well, it's a beautiful day in downtown NPF City, where Pedro O'Sullivan is hosting the Second Annual NPF Arena Tournament!" Mauve said brightly, smiling into the unblinking eye of the camera lens. Behind her loomed the newly-built POS Industries Tower in all it's money-drenched glory. Contestants and spectators milled about the front courtyard, eventually wandering inside when the word "buffet" reached their ears.

"Today, 24 contestants will duke it out for a shot at... Wait. I don't think we ever established what the prize was for winning this thing." She pondered this for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, as we all know, real NPFers don't need any incentive to beat the stuffing out of their fellow forumites. We're just cool like that."

She waved a hand towards the POS Industries building.

"After the break, we'll head inside and interview some of the brave and battle-hardened contestants competing in today's matches. We've got some old favorites as well as a handful of newcomers! Place your bets now!" She started to walk backwards towards the door, never turning her back on the camera.

"Now if you'll excuse me, you'll go to a commercial break while I go kick the FOXNews reporter out of the building!" she said pleasantly. "Because honestly, the only thing that's even CLOSE to FOX in terms of media companies I hate is ClearChannel, and we've already got protective wards on all the doors to fend ourselves from them. Live from NPFCity, this is Mauve Mage for NPFTV. Back to you in the studio, Jim!"

[PhoenixFlame]

It wasn't long before Phoenixbot noticed that the Saurian, Sparky, was prodding her. In reality, it took a mere .03 nanoseconds, which was the time a mylonite wire took to transmit and respond with the data from PX-05's sensory units to her positronic matrix. Her response was as cool and calculating as her newly polished exterior.

"Reptilian life-form, immediately cease what yo-*Hiss-CRACK!* Sadly, her response was cut short by Phoenixflame's average human response time of 3 miliseconds.

The camera slowly panned past the pair to a grinning Phoenixflame, holding a smoking HL-9. The technomage took a deep inhalation, and gave a sigh reminicent of a drug addict taking a much needed hit. The high tech weapon's chromed barrel gleamed in that certain way that made one wonder if items could 'squee'.

"Oh, I do love the smell of ozone in the morning... Now stop trying to sabotage or spy on my equiptment."

((Oh, poor Sparky. My itchy trigger finger is quite itchy indeed.))

[Truce]

Some might ask why Ecurt was in a tuxedo. Others might point out the mask. One person might even wonder what the hell he was doing with the camera - besides adding ten pounds to Mauve of course. Apparently, though, none of those people were here.

Or maybe, they didn't care after all. Well, you know what, Ecurt didn't care either!

The jerks.

This Jim person was also probably a jerk.

"Who the hell is Jim?" Tuxedo Ecurt asked once the camera was off. "I mean, we don't even have a studio, let alone people working at one. Oh, sure, there was that Seaking that you had working as the donut boy - but no, you said that the world of media was no place for a fish."