Description: *Season Three, Episode One* Next time, on "The Fate Plagiarism", our heroine shall face an enemy who's been lurking in the shadow for ages, while waiting for the electric company to repair his wires! Meanwhile Sylvester goes on a self-discovery journey that's rudely interrupted by the handle of Naerose's broom being swung at high speed! Don't miss 'And There I Thought This Was Peru', the next installment of "The Fate Plagiarism"
What a lovely place for a demonstration. That was not a demonstration of Naerose, the witch currently seated at a chair by a display for new Verizon phones which function as fully operational computers for internet use, but rather for the phones. The witch in red, complete with a hat, shades, broom and unconscious bunny (recently knocked out with said broom) was using this phone for the function of internet access and pretending to be a possible paying customer. The truth was being a paying customer was difficult when you didn't get paid for much. However this was a great chance to apply for a job!
Looking over the woman's shoulder you would see she was on the FBI web site for the states, which was oddd since she is currently in Japan, but hey! Details details, right? Filling out this application was taking up a great deal of time and would surely annoy other customers looking for a chance to try out the spiffy equipment.. But.. who was goiing to complain? After all she at least wasn't looking up porn.
Ran emerges from behind a corner, her outfit her usual blue bomber jacket over the school uniform (changing out of it as soon as school is over? Are we crazy? What if a scoop comes up right when she's in the middle of the operation, and can't leave the changing room?) and, noticing the crowd gathered around the booth, she gasps. She whips out her cell phone (not exactly the latest, spiffiest model, but still good enough), and her thumb zigzags on the keys, almost too fast to follow, and a few seconds later, her gaze quickly alternates between the phone's display and the scene before her. Her face seems to light up. "It's true! There IS somebody blocking the line at the presentation! This is going to be a SCOOP!", she exclaims, excited.
I know, I know... how can THAT be a scoop? Well, it's been a slow month, okay?
Crazy slow month it's got to be huh, and like clockwork the person running the display attempts to get Naerose to move on, again, and fails. The witch smiles her biggest smile and then insists she needs to see the web browsing features utilized to their full extent! But what truly makes her not move is that she literally just doesn't move. People are rarly willing to use any amount of force when not required and thus Naerose is able to sit there at the front of the line until she hears the word 'scoop'.
Rival sense, tingling.
"Hey!" exclaims the witch, whirrling around,
"Who is the reporter who'se been stealing all of my stories?" Non of the annoyed people in the line naturally say anything, instead they retain their annoyance toward her.
Sneak, sneak, sneak, sneak... the compelling rhythm of the noise produced by the rubber soles of Ran's sneakers as she runs up to Naerose make a couple of people in line turn to look at the approaching reporter, who has started talking into a portable recorder. "SOUTHTOWN -- Internet and mobile phones are the paramount examples of how technology can forever eliminate the need for queues. Home banking and online shopping make it so we won't ever have to think about the word 'queue' again, doing everything from the comfort of our homes, or workplace, or even from the street! Well, looks like it isn't so!"
She extracts her camera in mid-run, starts to move to take a couple of photos of the scene, and unless she's interrupted by some event at this point, she'll let go of the camera, reach for her microphone, and try to shove it in Naerose's face, and ask "A comment for the press! What are your motivations for impeding the smooth flowing of the line? Is this some kind of ideological protest? Or a marketing ploy to increase interest in the product through artificial shortage, a ploy so common in the console market?"
A bit of tumbleweed goes down the street, actually it's folded up newspaper. As Naerose surrenders her spot on the device someone else quickly takes it and they soon forget she is even there, for despite the sneaking, she knows, oh yes she knows who her target is, it is the only person in the crowd still paying attention to her. Perhaps the smartest deduction Naerose had managed all day. At this point, it was a quickdraw, who could pull it off faster as Naerose reaches under her witches hat and pulls fourth her own mic which is fairly plastic looking, cheap sort of.
"Naerose Delphine here, the official SNF reporter coming to you live from Southtown as..." She eyes the mic in her face, realizing she just said all of that to the wrong mic.
Ran takes her microphone back to herself, and resumes her interview. "So, Mrs. Delphine... what are the reasons behind your action? Is this an experiment in one-person flashmobbing? Are you promoting... " She gives Naerose a good look, starting with the hat, then all the way down to her feet, and finally up again to her face, "...some kind of new fantasy movie, book, comic, videogame or other work of fiction that involves people dressing in implausible costumes?"
"Hey, I'm the one conducting the interview here," Insists Naerose and then tries to over power Ran's microphone with her own.
"Anyway, Naerose reporting live, here we have a crowning example of the growing problem in southtown with youth delinquency.. In a take your daughter to work day gone horribly wrong we have whom I can only assume to be the daughter of well known screw up, ..." *pause* "Hey, just who is your father ?" Naerose asks, sort of as an off the record aside, though still with the mics around it is hard to tell if she speaking into one accidentally.
Ran frowns. "Hey, leave my father out of this! That's an 'ad hominem' attack, and, as everyone knows, bad journalism!" She briefly looks up and away, while tapping her chin. "Although it /does/ seem to work well to increase the audience..." She resumes her plying, even starting to walk /even closer/ to Naerose, probably in an attempt to push her back. Kind of like a tug-of-war... in reverse. A push-of-war, then? "So, are those the cheap tricks the uncouth newstertainers so common in TV journalism resort to? I wouldn't be surprised, given the lack in honour that distinguishes the lot of you from us that work for the press..."
"Hey hey hey, woah, don't jump to conclusions, my stories are the utmost in integrity, I don't really know what that means, but you hear about it a lot on Tv. Anyway, if you want a scoop, why don't you go to the Hibiki dojo and report on how they do not serve sushi there despite it very clearly being a sushi resturant. Have you ever seen the decor?" Naerose insists and then proceeds in an attempt to further derail the conversation,
"Besides the real money is in fight commentary."
Ran stares at Naerose, coldly, without moving. Then, witha slow, calculated motion, she moves her microphone to her mouth. "This was Ran HI-BI-KI, reporting from Southtown." The tone of her voice was so icy that it caused an iceberg to suddenly spring into existence about a century back in time (1912, to be exact), straight in the middle of the path of the inaugural journey of one of the biggest ocean liner of the time. Let's hope this didn't alter the space-time continuum too much...
"Holy Snap! You mean Dan, that sushi chef has a daughter? More over.. He found a woman too.. To.. Man, and after Li X and I stole the dojo sign and promised to return it only after he started to serve sushi, but he refused! The nerve, he wouldn't keep his word and he said he hated Li X! I couldn't believe it, oh wait but you're his daughter, he must of fathered you when he was only like sixty.. Weird, but hey, I should interview you for Saturday night Figth!" Naerose says, gleefully oblivious to having been previously maybe a little insulting to her family.
Ran can't believe her ears. "So, there you have it, dear readers. My guest has just admitted to illegal behaviour. However, she seems unable to keep family relationships straight. Everyone and their dog knows I'm not Dan's /daughter/.", she says, in her microphone. "So, that's why you were so obsessed with youth crime, earlier. It's a field you know so well because you are a part of it yourself!", she goes on, returning to shove in Naerose's face. Once the microphone is away from her mouth, she narrows her eyes a bit and adds, "And, actually, I think you've got something wrong. /I/'m the one who interviews people, around here."
"Crime?!" exclaims Naerose, then she adjusts her shades and speaks into her OWN mic, "There you have it lovers, Southtown youth are attempting to over take the airways with this new form of graffiti, this slush, this slander, this.." Naerose pauses for dramatic effect.
"Anyway, have you ever seen the Hibiki Dojo? That place just screams Sushi shop and besides, Dan would make a great sushi chef.. We were righting a wrong that a would be wonderful Sushi place did not serve sushi!"
Naerose moves the mic and then makes a victory sign before giving a last bit of, "And I'm the one who conducts interviews around here."
Ran stops, pulls back, and, looking up, she taps her mouth. "Well, uhm, now that you mention it... a sushi bar could be a great addition to the dojo. That'd double the customer base. And maybe the customers that come for the sushi could be interested in the martial arts, and, vice versa, those who are interested in the sushi could be lured into trying their hand at martial arts..." She starts pacing to and fro, quickly, her face turned slightly downwards, completely ignoring Naerose for the time being, while rubs her chin between her thumb and index finger. "...and that'd multiply the income by four. Not to mention we could have a little stand where we put up Dan's books, audio tapes, videotapes, discs for sale..."
^_____________^ . . >_> ^_^ <_< ^_^ . . . . ~^_^.
This is Naerose. This is Naerose smiling. This is Naerose nodding. This is Naerose smiling and nodding. This is Naerose a little farther away from Ran then she was a moment ago. Inwardly she was just hoping Ran hadn't heard yet about the other things Naerose had been up to now that she knew who ran was and well Naerose had been up to no small amount of no good..
. . . .. *a few more paces away* "Yeah."
. . . . . . *more still* "That's right!".
She was looking just about to straight up run for it.
Ran looks up and notices Naerose edging away. "Hey, wait a minute! I'm not done with my interview! There's still plenty of stuff I'm supposed to be asking you!", she yells, turning abruptly towards and starting to cover the distance that has been put between the reporter and the witch wannabe. Much to Naerose's relief, Ran's microphone has been put away. But, maybe not much to Naerose's relief, she's whipped out her camera. "Please smile for our readers..."
But two can play at this game, Naerose is ready for the camera, well, not really. It would be cliche to put a hand in front of the camera, so instead she reaches into her hat and shouts,
"Sylvester, attack!" and chucks her bunny rabbit at the camera, before pulling out her own, only her camera is a recorder, so she starts taking video of the scene, speaking as it unfolds.
"In southtown today, wannabe reporter and fake news anchor Ran Hibiki assaulted poor sweet innocent wildlife in what can only be called terrorism."
Click.{nl}[ Photo of Naerose pulling a rabbit out of her hat. ]{nl}Click.{nl}[Photo of Naerose chucking Sylvester at the viewer. Very dynamic pose ]{nl}Click.{nl}[ Photo of sylvester being very, very close to the camera, his legs spread].{nl}Cut to Ran, leaping and grabbing Sylvester by the scruff of his neck in mid-air, and pulling him along as she heads for Naerose in big leaps. "Slander and libel, that is what some people are most likely to deliver in place of real news. When there's nothing left to scratch from the bottom of the barrel, she's bound to be around somewhere and pour a foul misture of spiders, corn smut, and cafeteria food into it! This is the kind of low hack reporters of the caliber of Naerose Delphine can be expected to stoop down to!"
Unfortunately Naerose was out of ammo, she used her only rabbit already and the poor bunny was not having a great day, so she has to resort to drastic measures. She holds her arms wide as if to be running toward Ran, which she is, ready to retrieve her bunny, tragically lost by a slip of the wrist or,
"Thief! Ran Hibiki shows her true colors and bunny naps poor Sylvester, beloved pet of your official Saturday Night Fight reporter, Naerose Delphine and if that was not bad enough, proceeds to spread lies and gossip where ever she goes! Listen not to this harlot!"
And when she gets close enough she makes no grab for the bunny at all, but instead for the camera Ran has.
A dramatic samurai moment as two great warriors clash in a flash of steel, camera and bunny! - minus the steel. Who will be standing at the end and whose hair will fall down..-!?!
Ran moves as if for slashing Naerose with the Bunny, given the current regrettable shortage of steel. Well, a very bloodless slashing mind you. More like hit Naerose over the head with the rabbit's own head. But still, it was meant to knock out both opponents at once. You never know. This one might be some kind of vicious flesh-eating bunny. You know, trained for combat. Some kind of rottweiler of the rabbits. But only when it's too late does she realise Naerose's real intentions, and so the witch manages to run past her, and, somehow, pull Ran's camera away. Which is, at the same time, good and bad for Naerose. Good because her intention succeeded... bad, because Ran, being very attached to her camera, put a complicated anti-theft system in place, whereby the camera's strap can't be easily removed from her neck without a very complex maneuver, and so Naerose ends up pulling on Ran's neck. Ran's eye bulge out as she's choked to a halt, still clenching the upside-down Sylvester from its ears in his hand. On the other hand, poor Naerose might end up feeling a recoil due to her meeting a sudden resistance from the camera shortly after after snatching it...
@_@ X_X
Never in a hundred years has anyone used Sylvester to club Naerose. There was nothing to say to that except for her to get struck and knocked clean over, with Ran's Camera in hand, possibly dragging said Ran down with her. The flash from the moment where both connected would of blinded only the blind! But it was something to behold, if you had an appreciation for bunny/camera fighting. It's an ancient art dating back to just a few moments again. In this case it might be a draw, or maybe Ran won, but Naerose didn't, as you can see the spirals @@ in her frames.
Ran is knocked unconscious herself, due to the sudden lack of air that resulted from the sudden obstruction of her respiratory conduits, and so she ends up falling on the floor, face up, still clutching poor Sylvester in one hand. And falling quite noisily too. Ran does a good spiral-eyes show herself, having been knocked out well herself. Looks like it was a draw, after all.
Unless Sylvester ended up unconscious and spirally-eyed himself. That'd make the Naerose/Ran score something along the lines of 1 vs. 1 plus something. Maybe?
Poor abused Sylvester always had @@ for eyes before too long, the only thing that could be said positively for the bunny was that it was used to this, very very used to this. Now so far as the witch was concerned eventually she'll come to, be convinced this was some bizarre hang over and also be fairly convinced she didn't know why she had a camera that wasn't hers with Ran attatched to it. She lets go and holds her head,
"Uuuuuhg."
Ran sits up herself, the blue color in her face giving way to a more healthy... whatever color Ran's face usually is. She scratches her head, and turns to Naerose. She scrutinizes her for a few seconds, then finally extends one hand to the Witch. "You are a worthy opponent, Naerose Delphine. I believe this could be the beginning of a wonderful something, althought I'm not exactly sure what this something is going to be. But whatever it is going to be, it will probably involve a lot of us fighting over work, getting along well outside work, begrudgingly respect each other, and playing pranks at Dan's expense. Or, at least, i hope so."{nl}She then adds, as an afterthought, "Oh, and I think this is yours.", handing over Sylvester.
Log created on 17:26:40 03/22/2007 by Naerose, and last modified on 09:30:10 08/19/2007.