Samus - Contestant Number...
"A talent..."
The bounty hunter considered it. A demonstration of weapon systems or gun handling seemed inappropriate, since there would be no defensive shielding of the audience. And while she could quote logbook entries about intergalactic fauna or bounties she'd captured, it didn't seem like the thing the audience would be expecting. Which left her with...
"I can go on stage right away, if you would prefer. I don't need any props."
edited 8th Jul '17 3:09:03 PM by Lemurian
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
Annoyed Mode: ON
"I have a couple of requests!" Polly quickly chimed in in order to get Felipe's attention. "There are some specific things Elesis and I will need for our performances. I will need a few shooting targets, maybe scattered throughout the stage, and also one or two some extra distance away. And Elesis..."
She paused a few moments to ponder what to ask for her roommate. Surely it would be a demonstration of swordplay; the fact that she'd had to carry that ridiculously long weapon all the way was proof of that, but other than that, she had no information; and it didn't look like Elesis was planning to ask for anything. It would surely lead to a very bland and unimpressive performance... unless she could fix it.
And maybe have a little fun while she was at it.
"Elesis told me that for her act it would be necessary to hand the people in the audience some fruit," the girl instructed Felipe in a lower voice. "See, the idea is that they will throw all the fruit towards her, and she will slice them up before they reach her. I think it will be quite spectacular!" She paused for a moment when a thought occurred to her, and she made an additional comment. "Ah, right, and she requested that any fruit that manages to hit her or the stage in one piece should be recovered and donated to the orphanage if it is in good condition, and that the audience should use that as a motivation to do their best."
It was perfect. That way, Elesis would have a much more impressive and entertaining performance, the children at the orphanage would have things to eat, and the audience would be enthusiastic enough to throw hard enough to actually try to hit her without it getting slashed, but not enough that it would get ruined on impact. Everybody wins.
"Do you think it can be done?"
A quick glance sideways back towards Velvet caused her to notice her attire had changed... slightly. Very, very slightly. She had only removed her coat... cape... thing. Still, without that her outfit looked a lot like a swimsuit, and that was good enough. Probably.
"Yes, I am," the baker noted with a nod of approval. "That is way better. The audience will love you for sure!"
someone
Blair, Backstage, Blair Has Huge...Talents.
Blair thought about her talents for a long time, tapping her finger against her lips in thought. "Blair's talent, Blair's talent." She paced back and forth, tail swishing. She wondered and thought. "Blair can always do magic, nya~ She can also go on straight away, if it's easier, nyan~"
[TOP SECRET]
"Excellent, excellent! You have many thanks from me, senorita!" Cupping his hands together to his heart, Felipe then proceeded to wipe away an imaginary tear as he showed the catty witch towards the area that led towards the stage proper. "Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for our first contestant, Miss Blair! She's a feisty little kitten indeed!" Having received a list from the Center detailing a bit about the current van members, it was an easy thing to adlib introductions.
Blair would find herself under various spotlights as soon as she stepped out from behind the curtains, several tv cameras at different heights and views directed toward her direction to live record and pass on everything towards the various tv screens that blew up her image for everyone in the audience to see. Considering her current appearance both clothing-wise and personal looks, there were a lot of cheers and catcalls from the more hotblooded gender. Quite a few women slapped their own men a few seconds later.
The assistants meanwhile looked at each other with dismay due to the objects they were expected to find before sighing and tapping away. A few seconds later a group of hotel employees were rapidly hustling about and sweating due to the heat of such rapid exertion and ambient temperature, doing their best to try to make the almost impossible requests arrive in time. Luckily this world being what it was meant that there would be a way to procure such things but it still required the necessary manpower to support them.
Vampire Hunter
Carmilla & Sypha, Backstage at the Bikini Contest
"We are undead and this is the Day of the Dead," Carmilla replied to Velvet, slightly annoyed that she did not get her joke.
"Talents?" Sypha asked Carmilla who looked at her own... talents.
"Yeah, we could dance," Carmilla noted to Felipe. "And we wouldn't need any props for that."
However, Blair and her magic act was first up on the stage, so all Carmilla and Sypha could do is discuss the dance that they planned to do for the Beauty Contest.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Lizard Metabolism
Griffith, Oh Hey It Started
Soon the first contestant showed up on the scene. Blair was her name, if Griffith recalled correctly. She was indeed a picture of stunning beauty, as evidenced by the reactions in the audience. Frankly, it would only be a choice amongst their group; Las Divinas probably could not compare without a serious display of skills.
"Fellow judges, your attention to the scene, if you please." He addressed the other three before turning his attention in fully to Blair, giving her a small nod and a gesture to go ahead and dazzle the public.
How do lizards fly?
Lillie ~ Resort (Lobby -> Lillie's Hotel Room)
Lillie's return to the resort was mostly uneventful. She hadn't encountered any of her fellow Alternates on the way back, which she found rather strange. She did remember hearing something about a bikini contest; maybe everyone else had headed there? She wasn't interested in it herself; to be perfectly honest, she wasn't sure she even understood the point.
In any event, she'd found the resort again. From there it was a simple enough matter to make her way through the lobby and back up to where the rooms were. Then she rummaged through her bag to find the key to her room, which she received sometime upon her initial arrival. Upon looking it over to make sure she knew which of these rooms was hers, she then made her way over to her room, unlocked it, and went inside.
Upon entering she looked around. Judging by the two rather large beds present, she guessed this room was meant for more than one person. Beyond that, the place had a large clear glass sliding door that lead out to a small patio with a great view of the beach and the incoming eclipse. It was also clean and had a private bathroom. It was much nicer than the loft in Kukui's lab, at any rate.
Fellow was way ahead of her in exploring every inch of the room. Lillie left it to its wanderings as she made her way out the patio. She looked out over the beach for a little while, before plopping down in one of the chairs. Then she rummaged through her bag again to find her journal and pen. She'd been looking for a quiet place to update her journal for a while, and now was as good a time as any.
So she opened it to the first page and started to write
, occasionally looking up at the eclipse and the rest of the beach.
someone
Blair, On Stage, A Stray Cat Strut
Blair walked to the applause of the audience, raising her arms. "Hello, everyone! Let's get this party started, nya~" She took a long bow, enjoying the spotlight. "Blair's going to be doing some magic, nya~ And none of this plebeian rabbit pulling. Blair means real magic. Like this, nya~" In a flash, Blair the human disappeared, replaced by Blair the cat.
The purple cat waved, yawning. "Hello, everyone! I'm still Blair." She stretched in a catlike manner, mewing a little. Then, in a another blink of an eye, Blair was human again. "Did you like that, nya~?" She paused for an answer, and continued. "Well, Blair's just getting started, nyan~" Her tail swished, and she flipped off her hat to reveal her ears, which swivelled back and forth. A shit-eating grin spread across her face. "Let's show you some real magic!"
She waved her hand, and said a quiet "Pun-pumpkin-pumpkin!" Several empty chairs lifted up and began to circle above the audience. "No strings or anything, nya~" The empty chairs settled, but one remained lifted. One "Pun-pumpkin-pumpkin!" later, the chair shrunk the size of a cup, and floated over to the judges' table. "Ta-da!"
[TOP SECRET]
Tessa - Backstage at the Belle of the Beach Bikini Battle!
"Okay let's see...." Tessa said, approaching one of the televisions as she waited. She fiddled around with it until it turned on and got tuned to the live feed from the contest, so that she and the others could see it from backstage."Wooooow," she cooed, looking at the screen as Blake magicked around some chairs. "She doesn't even need a Lambda Driver to do that. It's just like the witches on TV."
Agnes - Bikini Contest Audience/Judge Area
"Indeed," Agnes agreed with Max. Just what in particular she agreed with, she didn't say, as she was interrupted by the first contestant coming out onto the stage. "So then this is the battle of the maidens," she commented as Blake performed. "A mage, excellent! An order of knights needs all manner of warriors, having only paladins and riders would leave us competing for the glory of the kill in battle. William did well to diversify." That said, it wasn't too difficult to spot a few people who stood out so much from the crowd it was obvious they were fellow sumonees. Unless somebody on the van was a luchador, the typical native or tourist stood out.She nodded towards the sun. Normally she'd be concerned about having to deal with an incoming attack by Lunar Dragons with the dawn of an eclipse, yet with nobody making any movements it seemed as though that were not a concern for this planet. "This reality is so strange compared to mine own. Things are so removed from what I know, I doubt it is simply a matter of being too far in the past. What year, is it, even? My original world was destroyed during the Apocalypse of 1992."
Lizard Metabolism
Griffith, Mildly Impressed
While he wasn't sure if this type of display was appropriate for the pageant in question, there was no denying that Blair wielded authentic magic with prowess heard of only in legends (her turning into a cat notwithstanding). Griffith rubbed idly at his behelit, watching the chairs rise, then one of it to come over to their table, shrunk to a size of a cup. The special judge examined it, nodded and passed it over to the other three judges.
Max, Time Talk
"I think I heard somebody talk about 2016." He replied to Agnes' question. "Sorry to hear about your world though." So not only was her first place destroyed, now the second one was on the verge of collapsing. Sometimes fates could be cruel mistresses.
"We've got people of all kinds here. Guns, swords, magic, you name it." Max shrugged idly. As far as he could tell, Blair's display was absolutely phenomenal. "We've got plucked from our respective worlds, so I suppose it explains why the diversity is so big."
How do lizards fly?
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Tucker - Bikini's Got Talent, Judges' Table
"Huh, shrink ray." Tucker said as he handled the miniaturized folding chair. It would probably fit right in to one of those toy wrestling rings.
"So, can you make things big, too? Like that one movie with the dude with the ants, and he can go little but he can also go big and he starts stomping on everything?"
someone
Blair, Stage, Where She Belongs
"N-n-n-n-nope," Blair said in response to Tucker's question, rolling the n and popping the p. "Just shrinking things, nya~" She paused. "And there is this, I suppose." Blair waved her hand, and loudly proclamed "Pun-pumpkin-pumpkin!"
A large pumpkin appeared. It was about a metre in diameter, and floated above the audience. "Blair can make these babies as large as she likes! And they explode on command, nya~!" The cat-witch waited for a response, before taking a deep bow, which had the effect you'd expect on her...tracts of land. "That's all, folks! Vote Blair!" She crunched her hand and the floating pumpkin rose into the air and promptly exploded, raining small bits of orange flesh and ashes on the audience and judges. She took another bow, said another "Pun-pumkin-pumpkin," and summoned a larger pumpkin, which she jumped on to and levitated, riding it off stage.
edited 12th Jul '17 4:21:35 AM by secretlyasuperhero
[TOP SECRET]
Scott scratched his head slightly at The Fox's question. "Uh, I dunno if they were ever a thing in Canada. And even then, all that cowboy stuff was, like, years ago. It's all just Clint Eastwood movies and people dressing up now." Then he made a face at the woman, like she might be a little dumb. "And you get it from the supermarket. Where else would you get it from?" Then he chuckled. "I don't have a job, either. This is way cooler than a job, anyway. San Francisco? So they have animal girls in America as well? Aw man, they have all the cool stuff."
The call for the first girl to come onto stage swiftly tore the Canadian's attention away from the current conversation and towards the performance. When Blair stepped out onto the stage, Scott joined the crowd in cheering. The catgirl was really hot, but since he'd seen her bikini just before it wasn't anything special. The floating furniture was also just ok. He'd seen it before, really. But the shrinking caught his attention. Now that was cool. He grinned as he looked it over, before passing it on.
Tucker's comment caught Scott's interest. "Wait. You mean Ant Man? They made an Ant Man movie?! When?!" He reached out to grab the man's shirt, his attention split between getting an answer out of the man and focusing on Blair's bouncing, all senses of it, at the same time.
Vampire Hunter
Carmilla & Sypha's Dance Spectacular
Once Carmilla and Sypha's names had been announced, melodic waltz music began playing from the speakers on the stage, and the curtains opened to reveal Carmilla and Sypha waltzing like the stage was a ballroom. It was Carmilla who was leading the waltz, and this medieval waltz continued on for a few seconds... That is until the music suddenly shifted into a upbeat Latin number. Carmilla and Sypha quickly caught maracas that were thrown to the them from offstage, and the two vampiresses began a festive Mexican number.
While their dance was amateurish, Carmilla and Sypha were hoping people would instead notice the two vampiresses' attractive bodies. Anyone who had not seen two since they had all left the van would instantly notice that they had traded in their one-piece swimsuits for bikinis. And the dance itself allowed Carmilla and Sypha to move their bodies seductively. They shook their butts as much as they shook their maracas and their breasts bounced as much as their bikini tops would allow them to. It was obvious that the two vampiresses were trying to use their sex appeal to appeal to the judges, but the judges probably wouldn't mind the sensual show that Carmilla and Sypha were performing.
After the length of the song playing over the speakers ended, the show soon ended and Carmilla and Sypha took the mic to address the audience and judges.
"I'm Carmilla!"
"And I'm Sypha!"
"And I hope you all enjoyed our show!" the two vampiresses said in unison, both smirking seductively to the audience and especially the judges before they left the stage.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Tucker - Two Fictional Characters Discuss Fiction Instead of Looking At Boobs; Judges Seating'
"Hey, hey!" Tucker exclaimed, pulling Scott's hands off his shoulders (as he wasn't wearing a shirt). "It was like, the early 21st Century, I think. Marvel decided to make a bunch of movies with their superheroes all sharing a world and stuff. The dude with the flying suit was mentoring the guy with spider powers, the shield guy and suit guy had a big fight at an airport, Samuel L. Jackson was playing a spy, shit like that. Then everyone started copying them, like that Godzilla versus King Kong one, or the Mummy and Frankenstein and stuff. DC also did it too, but Superman was fucking emo and he died in the second movie after becoming friends with Batman because their moms had the same name. Like, their first three movies sucked so hard, Wonder Woman pretty much saved the whole franchise."
Tucker would have explained further, but that was the point that Carmilla and Sypha started dancing and he was stuck staring and drooling.
Lizard Metabolism
Griffith, Discerning Judge
It was another's turn. Anothers, actually. The two pale women he only saw in passing earlier's names were Sypha and Carmilla, and they decided to dance in front of the audience as their talent show.
The dance technique was sloppy - though this was obviously faster than what Griffith was accustomed to - but they were doing a good job masking that with their feminine wiles. At the very least, their show was a little more appropriate for the pageant. Impressive as Blair's feat was, he was still finding pumpkin fragments in his hair.
Tucker and Scott were too busy discussing something he couldn't make a lick of sense of, so instead he turned his attention to Reimu. "You offered no opinion so far. Any comments on the contestants?"
How do lizards fly?
Velvet shook her head as the two vampires did what could very loosely be called a "dance". As they left the stage, Velvet heard her own name being called. With her usual stern expression on, she walked out onto the stage.
And suddenly she understood just how many people were watching as she felt every eye on her, and had a sudden onslaught of stage fright. Her face growing redder by the moment, she walked over to the odd thing they called a "mic", which they had been quite insistent that she talk into for some reason.
"Er, my name is-" She paused suddenly, not having expected her voice to be echoed out of the speakers, and suddenly a painful noise came out of the speakers as the feedback cut in, causing her and likely everyone in earshot to wince. She attempted to start again. now gripping her bandaged arm with her other hand.
"Erm.....my name is Velvet.....Velvet Crowe. Today I'm going to be, er, well......cooking. So.....I'm going to just get started."
Swiftly turning away from the people so she could focus on the task at hand, she turned her attention to the kitchen equipment. She was not sure of the exact function of a couple of the more futuristic stuff, but a small bit of experimentation disguised as prep told her enough about the function and how it worked that she understood the point. She didn't waste time wondering where the hell the fire was coming from or how it was remaining lit without wood, she just wrote it off as Artes.
Within short order, the food was done, and she laid 5 plates of said food
◊ in front of them, one for each judge.
"It's called a quiche." Velvet explained for anyone who might not know what it was. "My sister taught me how to make it, before...."
She glanced up at the red moon again, trailing off. Then she forced herself back to reality, and started backing up quickly.
"Any-anyway, I hope you enjoy." She said as she withdrew behind the stage curtans. Once back behind them, she walked over and instantly threw back on her black coat, scowling.
"Who's bright idea was this again? I may need to eat whoever was responsible for this, I made myself look like an idiot out there."
Lady's eyebrow raised first at the odd magic act, as well as.....she was a cat? Weird, even for this crew. Luckly, she was out of range of the explosion of pumpkin chunks. The vampire's act just earned a sigh from her.
"Of course they'd go for blatant sex appeal, why am I not surprised?"
Lastly, the act of the long haired girl she did not know earned a sympathetic shake of her head. "That girl probably had no idea what she was signing up for. Wonder what the hell she did to her arm to have to wrap it up that much...."
She looked over at Max, who seemed a reasonable enough sort.
"What are your thoughts on the acts so far? Any favorites? If I had to vote right now, it'd probably be for the last one. Felt the most....genuine, if that makes sense?"
Fran, Audience
Given her consistently belligerent attitude thus far, Fran wasn't sure if she felt like sharing the details of her day with Lady. She'd probably find a way to be outraged over saving a girl with leukemia.
"Hm. Nothing too much, I daresay. Well, I think I was able to help someone out."
She took in Carmilla and Sypha's performance with a polite but unmistakably bored expression on her face, turning her head away as she replied to Susan.
"So I understand. I'm afraid I can't say this kind of thing has ever interested me. It's something people seem to enjoy I suppose, but I simply don't understand the appeal, personally."
Tessa - The Belle of the Beach Bikini Competition!
"Hahahaha hooo wow," Tessa said as she kept watching the next couple of presentations on the backstage television. The performance was so vivid she could practically taste it. And Velvet's cooking talent was also pretty good. Now that it was her turn, she nervously approached the stage. Gathering her focus as she slowly stepped forwards, one foot after another, she made sure to think only on walking and, more importantly, not tripping."Uhhh hi," she said as she got onto the stage, waving ahead. There were a lot of people. "My name is Teletha and I'm visiting here from Japan for a vacation. But you can call me Tessa!" Shooting a thumbs-up at the crowd and giving them a giggle, she turned around and approached the whiteboard that Felipe had managed to procure for her. She picked up one of the markers and held it in her right hand, playfully removing the cap and setting it down on the board's tray. "For my talent, I'm going to show you all some of my favorite ways to derive simplified expressions for general relativity by using the Einstein field equations!"
Pausing a moment to, no doubt, let the crowd calm down from their sheer excitement, she kept on speaking. "...without using my hands!"
She put the marker in her mouth, winked at the crowd, and approached the board. Carefully, and with more than a bit of help from her computer-controlled muscles, she managed to begin writing on the board in typewriter-like fashion. With her work done after a minute or two of writing a whole assortment of equations on the board, she turned around to face the crowd. "Tada!" she said, taking a bow as the marker dropped from her mouth. "Thank you everyone! Vote for Tessa!"
Proud of her accomplishment, she walked off the stage and back towards the backstage area. It seemed things were going - "AAAAHHH!" She flailed her arms around wildly as she tumbled in the backstage area towards some of the other contestants.
Agnes - Not Participating in the Bikini Contest
"Two thousand and sixteen years after Dundee, remarkable!" Agnes said to Max. "That means even though it was not properly protected, this world was not consumed in the apocalypse!"edited 15th Jul '17 12:25:11 PM by nman
A dogged fellow, aren't we?
Lucina - Talent show
For her own performance, Lucina had eventually asked for a spear or lance, unsure if such a peaceful place would have one readily available. When it eventually arrived, it was obviously a toy or a prop, the wood of the haft low-quality, the blade not even sharp. However, it was balanced and at approximately the right length for her frame - it would suffice.
"You did very well, I thought." She reassured Velvet, whispering so as not to disturb Tessa's... mathematics? It was all quite beyond her ken, but she clapped politely as her comrade finished - and gasped as she watched her loose her balance, the taguel springing forward to catch her before she could hit the backstage floor. After sorting the mishap out, Lucina realised it was her turn. Picking up her spear from where it fell, she squared her shoulders, muttered a quick prayer to the Eight, and strode onto the stage.
With her conservative swimsuit and lithe form, she was never going to attract the same, ahem, enthusiasm as some of the other contestants. Standing in the spotlights, with the crowd just an indistinct, but intimidating presence, she fought that old, familiar urge to freeze up, to run and hide. Now that she was here, she found, her nerves melted away under the rush of adrenaline and years of experience.
"Good day, ladies and gentlemen." She began, bowing formally. "My name is Lucina, and I will be performing a traditional Yllisean parade drill." With that, she brought her spear in front of her face in both hands, settled into a stance, and began. Designed to both train spearmen and impress an audience, the drill had the princess gracefully spinning her weapon in her hands, flipping it end over end over her elbow, tucking it under one arm or the other, and making an array of sweeping and darting strikes. By the time she had finished, her heart was pounding even harder, sweat sheening her brow, her ears perked forwards in concentration. With one final flick, she returned the spear to its starting position and stood still for a moment, then relaxed.
"Thank you all for your attention!" She called out, smiling widely as she bowed over one bent arm, her spear held behind her in hr other hand, deftly flipping it upright as she walked off-stage.
Lizard Metabolism
Max, On Contestants
"Definitely felt the most "fish-out-of-water"." He replied to Lady's question. "But to be fair to her, she really looked like she didn't want to be there. At least she didn't make a butt out of herself like Tessa. Again."
The cyborg looked over at the jury. "Given the choice of judges, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the vampires probably take it, unless the remaining contestants can outperform them. As for me, well, I haven't seen a magic show since I was eight or so, so I'm probably giving it to Blair for mild nostalgia." He chuckled before looking over at Agnes.
"I sure hope this isn't post-apocalyptic." He chuckled dryly. "It looks too lively and too pretty for it."
Griffith, Discerning Judge Part 2
More performances followed. The woman named Velvet could apparently cook. This "quiche" was, in fact, quite delicious. "Funny. She reminds me of a friend from back home." He hummed idly to no one in particular after she left, idly nibbling on the quiche.
Then came Tessa, and her display was... a rather complicated display of mathematics. Griffith thought these were mathematics, at least. She spiced the show by not actually using her hands to write down the equation, but something told the angel-faced judge that this would remain unappreciated by the rest of the jury. To be fair, it went over his head too.
After Tessa came a rabbit-eared woman by the name of Lucina. Her show was a parade drill, and that definitely caught Griffith's attention. She moved fluidly and swiftly, and even though it was a set of moves designed to dazzle the audience, he held no doubt that her combat prowess was as dazzling. He offered Lucina an encouraging smile and a nod before going back to Velvet's quiche.
How do lizards fly?
Calamity is a housewife
Ragna - Classic Potemkin 6K
At the call of her name, Ragna swallowed. Judgment day had arrived.
Inhaling deeply and then exhaling to relieve her nerves, she began walking onto the stage, flashing Lucina a thumbs-up on the way. That drill of her’s was mighty impressive, the Reaper thought, and she compounded her greeting with a muttered ‘Nice work’.
Of course, soon enough, she was on stage, and under the eyes of many.
While her one-piece swimsuit obviously wasn’t a bikini, it didn’t hide her figure, and her’s was edging towards the ‘buxom’ end of the scale, much to her current embarrassment. With all the prying eyes, she almost moved her arms to cover herself up, but remembering the show she had to put on, instead cracked her knuckles.
("Remember, guys love tough girls.")
"Name’s Ragna. Hold on to your seats, boys, cuz I’m about to go to work."
The cement blocks were laid in front of her, a total of five, one on top of the other, each about eight inches thick, stood up between two standing blocks. She walked up to the display and slowly knelt before it, closing her eyes in preparation.
A moment passed.
As suddenly as a gunshot, Ragna roared mightily and smashed her head onto the blocks. All five snapped right in half and crumbled as clouds of dust followed, while their destroyer stood still with her head nearly down on the floor, almost buried in the ruins in her headbutt’s wake.
Without staggering, she stood back up, a red mark clearly visible on her forehead behind the bangs of white hair, and her face steel-edged, but with a smirk.
"Vote for me, yeah? Or your skull’s next."
And with that, she strutted backstage, and once behind the curtain, immediately lay her hand on a wall and clutched her forehead with the other.
"Holy shit that hurt."
It had been years since she last did that, after all.
Jack-O’ - Extreme Yoga Fever
At the call of her name, Jack-O’ skipped on stage with a big grin on her face. Her trademark ball-and-chain was not with her, her long crimson hair flowed freely and her black bikini showed off plenty.
"Hey everyone! Jack-O’ here! It’s nice to meet you all!"
With a wave and a hop on the spot, she aimed to capture as many hearts as she could by milking her own usual cheerful attitude.
"Who’s ready for some yoga?"
At her request, some slow, sensual music began playing from the speakers.
With that, she turned her back to the crowd and bent downwards, just as she showed to Tessa backstage. A tactical decision, for her butt was on full display. She laid her chest down onto the stage floor, and her feet remained in place, legs splayed outward. This was level one.
As promised, she took it to level two, and curled further, poking her head in between her legs and grasping her shins with her hands. In her new position, her feet were still planted flat on the stage, her upper torso was folded in below her waist, her ear-to-ear grin now upside down, and perhaps most importantly, her butt was still sticking upwards.
"So while I’m doing all this, anyone heard of the Allegory of the Cave? Plato surmised that if you had a group of prisoners chained up in a cave with a fire behind them, you could have a puppeteer play puppets in front of the fire, casting shadows for the prisoners to see."
Then came level three. Slowly, her toes curled downwards, and her body was slowly lifted downwards, her legs lowering and kneeling on the ground, her arms now tucked behind her knees. Her hands left her shins and touched the ground, lifting herself up as the rest of her was curled into a strange ball.
"If you cast the shadow of, say, a paper cutout in the shape of a rabbit, the prisoners would see a rabbit. But they’re wrong, what they’re seeing is a shadow, and the shadow of a puppet at that."
With that, her legs uncurled, freeing the rest of her body to curl slowly, her hands somehow still planted on the stage as she unfolded. Now, her knees came around and knelt on the ground again, doing a full 180. This time, her torso bent backwards, her hands touching down next to her toes, her face once again upside-down, and her cleavage having its turn to be shown off while she waxed philosophy.
"The idea is that appearances deceive, and the only true worthwhile reality lies in non-corporeal concepts. Food for thought, yeah?"
Her hands flat on the stage, she suddenly lifted herself into a handstand, the rest of her limbs stretched outwards like a star as she grinned again.
With a push, she jumped back onto her feet, and bowed rather formally to the crowd.
"Thank you for indulging me. I do hope I’ve secured your vote."
And with that, she left for backstage.
“I think I aced that, wouldn’t the rest of you agree?”
It didn't occur to her that the philosophy came rather unwarranted, especially since she put in so much effort objectifying herself, it was likely no one would've heard her.
"Shake the dust." - Anis Mojgani
Lady groaned as Max made his prediction. "I hope to god they don't win it, I may need to legitimately punch one of them if they collectively let the Vampires win."
The next few acts came and went while she said this, and Lady once again facepalmed as Tessa once again fell on her face as she left.
"You're a cyborg or robot or close enough to whatever she is, maybe you can explain this. How does a machine have balance that poor?"
Velvet glared at the robotic girl that had fallen in front of her, clearly confused as she looked at where she had tripped over.
".....How did you even fall over?" She asked. "There's nothing over there for you to trip over."
She also took a second to glance at Ragna. "Of course it hurt, you're not supposed to use your head to break stone bricks, are you nuts, or just stupid? You're lucky it wasn't your skull that broke, rather then those bricks."
edited 15th Jul '17 8:20:40 PM by Meanken
Calamity is a housewife
Ragna, Backstage
Even as her forehead stung like all hell, the Reaper still managed to speak up.
"Nuts, probably. Also, shut up, it was a talent, right?"
"My mentor made me do that years ago, then made me fight her while I was still reeling. Called it 'resilience training'."
"Shake the dust." - Anis Mojgani
Max, Chin Up
"I fail to see how you'd need a perfectly chiseled chin to be any kind of barbarian." Max replied with a raised eyebrow upon hearing Agnes' explanation. Apparently she was more familiar with cyborgs than an average guy here, but even then he was something unusual for her.
"Well, you wouldn't want your cop to not be up to speed, would you?" He never really thought much about his "build process"; at some point he just undertook the more thorough cyborgization for maximum efficiency. "Though I sure wish all we had to worry about were some barbarians."
How do lizards fly?