A Work in Progress - 005

A Work in Progress - 005

005 - Character Interviews Part II


*Jon (SO), Blues (SO) and Freak (Labcoat) are sitting in Jon’s office having tea*
Jon: So as I was saying, I think that Michael Jackson didn’t die. He simply went home, just like Elvis and Elton John before him.
Freak: But Elton John is still alive.
Jon: That is simply a doppelganger, a paid look-a-like.
Blues: That sounds just like him?
Jon: Voice modification is fairly easy these days.
Cameraman: Ahem!
*All three look at the camera*
Jon: HOW LONG HAS THAT BEEN ON?!?!?
*Jon lunges at the cameraman as the picture goes dark. Sounds of yelling and glass breaking can be heard.*

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Blues: *down in the Lab* Hello and welcome back to the Lab. We’re going to continue our interviews with the next eight members of the cast. We’re going to start today with our local ninja Chiyo, and her cat Obsidian.

*A cloud of smoke explodes next to Blues. As it clears, a girl with cream colored cat eats and tail riding on a large black panther can be seen.*

Chiyo: Happy to be here Blues.
Blues: I’m sure you would be Chiyo. Especially since you are not well known to many of the readers. How about you introduce yourself and your cat?
Chiyo: Sure thing Blues! *to the camera* Hello everyone, my name is Chiyo Misoma and I’m a ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village. This is my Nin-Cat Obsidian. He’s not really a panther; he’s actually a house cat. He can change his size at will, so he tends to stay like this most of the time. We actually come from an alternate dimension like Blues here, but not because we followed Freak. We worked with him before, but he left to continue exploring. Not long after that we had been dragged into a strange portal that dropped us off near this world’s Hidden Leaf Village. Not long after Freak found us again and brought us into his little group.
Blues: So what do you two do around here?
Obsidian: We do missions for various groups, mostly the armed forces from Rip’s world. They pay us well, and the work is easy. I get paid in fish!
Blues: By the way Chiyo, mind telling the readers about the ears and tail?
Chiyo: *blush* Do I have to?
Obsidian: Yes missy, you have to.
Chiyo: Damn! Well, I guess the short version of it is that I’ve been cursed. I had a cat spirit sealed in me accidentally. Because it wasn’t an evil spirit, it bonded with me. I can actually change my form from human to cat. With two forms of cat girl in between. *getting redder* And I have a hard time controlling it at times.
Blues: Why are you turning so red?

*Chiyo got even redder as she put her hands to her face. Then she was covered in a sudden puff of smoke. As it cleared, a small Siamese tabby cat was in her place on Obsidian’s back.*

Obsidian: I had best take her back to our room now. She’ll be like this for a few hours.

*Obsidian walks off with Chiyo on his back.*

Blues: And that is our ninja team here at Freak Labs. Let’s move on back to the LAN Room for the next interview.

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Blues: So here we are in the LAN Room once more. Rip and Sam are busy doing other stuff so we don’t have to worry about any background noise. If you were to look around this room you would see twenty-five computers, but there are twenty-seven work stations. The reason for this is because the two other work stations are for Kaze and Kumo, two of our four Artificial Intelligence characters. These two inhabit a pair of Laptops and were built and programmed by Freak.

*Blues and the Cameraman walk over to the middle two work stations and open up the pair of Laptops. The face of a young man with spiky white hair and a mask over his mouth appeared on one screen. On the other screen was a man of roughly the same age with long brown hair and a pair of sunglasses with a missing lens from the right eye.*

Blues: Good morning you two, and how are you today?
Kumo: Go to HELL!
Kaze: …
Blues: You two seem cheerful today. What happened, you sleep on the wrong side of the motherboard?
Kumo: You know damn well why I’m pissed, Bolts-for-Brains!
Blues: I told you that Freak wasn’t going to keep you inside the super computer forever. He planned on putting your program back inside the Laptop anyways. The move was just a decent excuse.
Kaze: …
Blues: Now what is up with you Kaze?
Kaze: … I’ve had to listen to his complaints all month long. I’d try and leave, but I don’t have any legs.
Blues: I see, well can you guys be civil enough for the readers?
Kaze: … I can manage that.
Kumo: If it’s for the readers, I can cooperate.
Blues: Good, then let’s start with you Kumo. Tell us about yourself.
Kumo: *sigh* My name is Kumo, and I am one of the two AIs that help run the day to day operations around here. I am the first AI that Freak programmed. At the time of my programming, he was into an anime show called Final Fantasy: Unlimited. It was from here that he took my base personality, image design and name from. He did the same for the other three AI. I help manage all of Freak’s, Pisces’ and Rip’s Lab records as well as run data and information calculations. That is all, now close my screen.
Blues: Thank you Kumo, that’ll work. *closes Kumo’s screen* And now it is your turn Kaze.
Kaze: I am Kaze, the second AI programmed by Freak. I operate the security and safety protocols for the Lab. I also act as a guardian of sorts for the Twins, the other two AI. Really all I am is a connection point for any updates that Freak has for them. In my free time I’ll play a game or two with some of the others. I also tend to kick Kumo’s digital butt in chess.
Kumo: *muffled* I HEARD THAT!
Blues: Well thank you for your time Kaze. Should I close your screen as well?
Kaze: No, it is almost time for Sam and Rip to show up for some RTS gaming.
Blues: Alright then, have fun with that. *to the Camera* Now we’re off to our next vic-, I mean interviewee.

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Blues: Here we are in the Games Room now. For our next interview we have Mandy the Rabbit.

*A little pink and indigo furred rabbit girl hopped up. In her arms was a pink stuffed rabbit in a blue dress*

Mandy: Hello Uncle Blues!
Blues: *kneeling down* Hello Mandy, are you having fun in here?
Mandy: *nods* Uh huh! I was playing some games with Miss Gwen until you got here. She left to go meditate with Miss Blanche. Uncle Drake is supposed to be here soon.
Blues: Okay, until then can you tell our readers a little about you?
Mandy: Only for a cookie!
Blues: I don’t know if I-
Mandy: Two cookies!
Blues: I don’t think tha-
Mandy: Four cookies or I’m not talking!
Blues: *sighs and pulls out a bag of cookies and hands four of them to Mandy* Here you go.
Mandy: Yay! *eats three of the cookies quickly and slowly nibbles on the last one*
Blues: Can you tell the readers about yourself now?
Mandy: Okay! Hello everyone, my name is Mandy. I am nine and a half years old and my daddy is the one everyone calls Freak. I like cookies, and carrots, and my dolly Miss Bunbun, and my daddy! I have three uncles and one aunt. I like to call Uncle Drake and Uncle Rip my uncles too. *nibbles on the last cookie a bit* On, and I like Miss Pisces too, she gave me Miss Bunbun! She reminds me of mommy. Look, there’s Uncle Drake!

*The Camera pans over to a Mallard Duck with green and white feathers. He had a blindfold over his eyes and a cane in his hand.*

Blues: Hello Drake, we’re over here.
Drake: I’m coming, just give me a minute. I’m still not used to this place.
Mandy: I’ll help you Uncle Drake.

*Mandy hops over to Drake and walks him through the rest of the room to where Blues and the Cameraman are at.*

Blues: Are you doing any better Drake?
Drake: It would help this old blind duck if the one named Jon didn’t have such a bad sense of humor.
Blues: Oh?
Drake: He seems to want to label everything in Braille.
Blues: That seems fairly polite if you ask me.
Drake: *touching Blues’ arm* He even labeled you.

*Blues looks at his arm to see his name written in Braille*

Drake: He even marked the wall that I walked into yesterday.

*Rewind to yesterday*

Drake: *without his cane* What did I just run my beak into? *feels around the wall and finds Braille writing* “This is a wall.”

*Back at the interview*

Blues: I see, I’ll have a talk with him about it. Meanwhile, can you tell us about yourself? It’s for the readers.
Drake: I don’t see why not. But first … Mandy? Can you find go fetch Uncle Drake something to drink from the kitchen?
Mandy: Okay Uncle Drake, I’ll be right back.

*Mandy hops out of the Games Room*

Drake: Sorry about that, it’s just that some of the stuff about me also pertains to her mother’s death. We haven’t told her everything yet. We’re leaving that to Freak.
Blues: That is probably for the best. You may continue.
Drake: Well, my name is Drake. I come from the world Mobius that is a part of this dimension’s Arcadia. I lived during those dark times under Robotnik’s rule taking care of orphans. I kept them safe in a hidden location deep in the forest. We got occasional assistance from the Freedom Fighters, but we were mostly self sufficient. I met Mandy’s mother, Amanda, when she was a part of Freak’s group. Not long after that, the group had split up to do some stuff on their own. Amanda stayed to help out with the orphans. She didn’t tell Freak about Mandy until after she was born.
Blues: How did she help out?
Drake: She had skills in ice magic and used it to keep us safe. One day we were attacked by a group too large for us to defend against. I lost my sight during that battle. Amanda surrendered under the terms that they take only her and leave the rest of us alone. Mandy was upset over it for a long time. Years later, there was another attack. The one leading it was a roboticizied Amanda. We were able to hold them back for a while and break Robotnik’s hold on her. It wasn’t enough though. Robotnik had rigged Amanda’s roboticized body with explosives. She detonated them herself to take out the rest of the Swatbots. We took her remains and had them placed in the cellar.
Blues: So how did you end up here with us?
Drake: When Freak showed up again years later, we told him what happened. He needed to do a mission for Arcadia, so I let him take Gwen and Blanche with him for support. Afterwards, he came back and picked up Mandy. I also gave him Amanda’s remains, in case he could do anything for her. He then asked me if I wanted to come along. All of the other orphans were grown now, so I had no reason to stay. My job here is to look after Mandy.
Mandy: *walking in with a cup of Earl Grey Tea* Here is your tea Uncle Drake.
Drake: Thank you Mandy. As she gets older though I tend to think it is more her taking care of me.
Blues: Well thank you for sharing Drake. *to the Cameraman* I suppose we had best move onto the last two for today.

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Blues: Here we are outside the Meditation Room. We’re waiting on the other two Mobians to come out.

*The door opens and two Mobians, Gwen the Robin and Blanche the Cat, stepped out*

Gwen: Blues, what are you doing out here?
Blues: I wanted to interview you two for the readers. Didn’t Freak tell you about this?
Gwen: He did, but I thought it was going to be later.
Blues: Nope, it’s going on right now. *points at camera* Care to tell us a bit about yourselves?
Gwen: I suppose I can, but Blanche …
Blanche: …
Gwen: She took a vow of silence years ago. She even stopped snoring!
Blues: Wow, now THAT is discipline! Well can you speak for her as well?
Blanche: *looks at Gwen and nods*
Gwen: Alright. Well Blanche and me were orphans that stayed with Drake. He took good care of us, and we learned a lot from him. When Miss Amanda showed up, we were happy to have an older girl to look up to. And we ended up being like big sisters to little Mandy. It was during that last attack that Blanche took her vow of silence. She feels that she could have done something to help Amanda before the explosion happened.
Blanche: …
Gwen: Yes, I know Blanche. It was a few years after that when Freak showed up. We went with him as per Drake’s request. We’ve been with his group ever since. We do random missions with Chiyo.
Blues: Thank you for your time ladies. *to the camera* It looks like that is all for today. We have one more set of interviews coming up, so stay tuned!