In the shadows [Enigma - Hacker event]

Underneath the looming shadow of the floating Exutarain main city, the newly announced event is in full swing.  A constant stream of fireworks illuminate the underside of the floating monolith above, temporarily chasing away the shadows with each flash.  As well, there are a number of vendors scattered around the open square serving various beverages and foodstuffs.  Posted above each stall are advertisements for all manner of space themed foods like moon pies, alien cakes, and a drink called a pan-galactic gargle-blaster just to name a few.

Brand new to the system are the rides.  There are two of note.  The first is some sort of small wagon.  Brightly painted and hovering off the ground, they are made to sit up to four avatars.  A floating, bouncing hologram above the waiting line announces its price per ride, conveniently translated into your local currency.  After a relatively short wait in the line, the participants get the opportunity to give the attendant their payment information and are led to one of the waiting wagons that hover off the ground with a blue glow coming from underneath.  Once the wagon is full, it whisks the occupants off on a pre-programmed tour around the perimeter of the city.  A few twists and turns to keep the ride from getting too dull.  The view is something different than most any player has experienced before.

The second of note is a large kiosk, differentiated from the food vendors with another floating and bouncing hologram above, advertising the price per hour, again translated into your local currency.  This 'ride' consists of brightly colored backpacks.  After paying the fee, riders are fitted with one of the backpacks and given a short series of instructions.  The backpacks it seems allow hovering flight to anyone who pays the fee.  Slightly slower than the wagon, they allow more freedom of movement than the wagons but give access to the same spectacular view.

As the majority of festival attendants oohed and awed at the bright display of fireworks, a blue shimmer appeared on the ground.  It looked like a bar of light 3 feet long and a couple of inches wide.  With a hum, it elevated into the air, creating a 7-foot tall monolith, still 3 feet wide and a few inches thick.  The blue shimmer timed perfectly with the firework to appear as just an extension of the bright colorful flash.  Out of the glowing blue hum, a figure stepped, almost as if emerging from a doorframe.  As soon as the figure was through, the monolith retracted back into the ground and then disappeared, leaving only the figure as proof of its former existence.

A tall skinny man was left in the wake of the bright flash.  The first inclination would be to assume that the player's surface texture never loaded into the system, the tuxedo and stovepipe hat clad figure was essentially black from head to toe but for the swirling moving tiedye that rippled across the surface of his avatar like ripples in a pond.

The strange figure hung his cane on his left wrist and reached into the folds of his tuxedo, pulling out a brown paper bag.  Reaching into the bag, he retrieved some sort of confection and popped it into his mouth.  Several people nearby the figure were staring intently at the swirling patterns.  In response, the figure stretched out the brown paper bag and in a gravely but cheerful voice offered.  "Would you like a jellybaby?"

Two avatars nearby the figure who had been staring at him stood by as if they were stupified.  A third stammered out a negative to the stranger offering candy.  The figure shrugged his shoulders and began to saunter around the carnival looking at this and that.

When his vision cleared from the dazzle of light there was something else shining in front of Skultone. Or someone, as it were. Another blink and the light faded enough that he could get a good look at the avatar staring at him. A very beautiful avatar, and one he recognized. This was one of the users his old boss had brought to his attention, one of a pair he had expressed concern over. Samael, someone who had shown all the signs of being abused by another user of the game.

In a flash Skultone’s gaze scanned the crowd, looking for the other half of the pair he had been briefed on. Only when he didn’t immediately see the offending Damon did he meet the blue eyes of the blond human in front of him. Raising his metal hand in greeting. “Hello. Enjoying the festivities?” His voice filtered through his mask, hiding his now frowning mouth. He had found a problem that wasn’t related to what he was supposed to be doing here. And now… he had to decide what to do about it.

It was nearly impossible to distinguish emotions on a face half-covered by a mask, but there was more to body language than someone's lips. The dilation of pupils told Samael the first thing he needed to know, and it made the smile on his lips widen just a touch, and he took a half-step toward the other man before he realized that the other man's eyebrows had drawn down somewhat. Subtle signs that Samael read as easily as some people read books.

Rather than waving he took another step closer to the other man, making eye contact and watching for other subtle clues that might talk to him. "I was, but I am all alone now." His blue eyes lowered demurely for a moment and when they lifted there was a sort of warm welcome there. "Or... perhaps not any longer?"

Off to the side of them there was an odd individual, one that shone darkly with ripples of color that threatened to divert his attention, but Samael was a master of keeping focus. Thus he ignored the odd avatar that was clearly out of place and kept his gaze on the man before him. This was not the case with everyone else however, people were gaping in amazement at the unusual and likely illegal avatar that was headed in their direction.

The tie died shadow moved among the attractions, snacking on candy from his brown paper bag, the only thing on his person that seemed to be immune to his swirling tiedye.

At the first ride, the figure looked critically at the hovering price hologram and tisked in his gravely voice. "Oh no.  This won't do at all."  He pushed his way through the line in front of the three dimensional bumper cars.  "You NEED a jellybaby."  He shoved one of the candies into the NPC's mouth.

The NPC's eyes went wide, and several lines of static appeared on it's avatar.  When the static resolved, the price listed on the line's hologram changed to zeros.

"That's better." The tiedye man turned and began walking over to another of the paid attractions.  As he neared the trackless roller coaster, he paused and spoke to no one in particular. "What's that? ... Oh, I suppose you're right."  He turned to the NPC at the head of that line "You need a jellybaby too."

The NPC had much the same reaction to having one of the candies shoved down its throat as the first.  The eyes went wide open in surprise, lines of static flowed through the avatar, and when the static went away, the price hologram changed to read 100 times what it had been listed at before.

Skultone quirked up an eyebrow in spite of himself at Samael’s proposition, reading through the lines easy when they were drawn so thick. He almost smiled, stopping at the last moment and settling for a slight shake of his head. “No thanks, I’m still working myself.” He paused when he heard a growing commotion, turning his head and seeing a throng of upset players complaining at the ride NPCs and each other.

“That’s not fair, why did I get charged so much more than you for a ride?”

“I don’t know, but that sucks for you! Why should I care?”

“Put in a ticket if you’re so mad, kek.”

He stepped past Samael, the face visible above his mask drawn tight suddenly. He reached out and put a hand on Samael’s shoulder, carefully easing him backwards.

“I think that’s something I need to look into. Maybe later.” He stalked towards the growing group of players, bumping shoulders against a man with a shimmering, oil-slick like avatar. That made him pause again, and he sent out a call to his team over a private voice line.

“We have a situation near the rides, something’s making the NPCs malfunction. I need a few of you to give me a hand.” He turned, making his Administrator status visible before looking to the unusual avatar.

“I need you to stop there and turn around.” His hand rested on his weapon, the rifle slung at his back visible where he had concealed it before.

“No thanks, I’m still working myself. I think that’s something I need to look into. Maybe later ” There was a light comfortable touch on his shoulder as the other man spoke, one that eased him backwards a little bit protectively and that brought a light curiosity to surface as did the tightly drawn eyebrows that graced Skultone's brow.

"My name is Samael, look me up." He offered a warm welcome smile to that worried expression and watched as the other man walked away toward a group of what looked to be complaining players. Samael's eyes flickered to the price of the rides and his eyebrows arched in brief surprise. The prices were easily ten times what they had been before. Even a wealthy player would have been stymied by the idea of paying that much for something like that.

Samael watched Skultone move away, and his eyebrow arched further upon the realization that Skultone was an admin. Interesting. Samael smiled to himself and noticed that the security officer was addressing a... very interesting looking avatar. One that was oil-slick black but radiated with a riot of colors that slid across its form. The effect was dizzying, and something that Samael had never seen before.

Enigma's long stride stopped as the administrator avatar beseeched him to stop and turn around.  He spread his arms wide, with a bit of a showman's flair and announced. "JellyBaby for EVERYBODY!"  He then pivoted around smoothly on both feet to face the demanding voice.

The black texture made Enigma's facial features difficult to see, but the swirling tiedye made it possible to see the smile that spread across his lips.  "Oooh.  An administrator.  It appears we have not been on our best behavior."

As the swirling figure spun around to face Skultone, a previously unnoticed avatar dropped down from above where the original portal had appeared.  The large blob had been concentrating on remaining transparent, and had somehow managed to remain unseen, but at the mention of it's name dropped it's disguise.  The tiedye texture of it's master slowly started swirling across it's surface and it reached out with a pseudopod to snag a nearby avatar and absorb it into itself.  The startled sound of said avatar turned into a scream that was muffled as the mouth passed into the blob.  The snagged player started to slowly de-rez as it's code was broken apart and consumed by the blob.

Enigma's eyes never left Skultones as this began to occur off to one side and a little distance away.  "Is there something that I may assist you with officer?" Enigma's gravely voice oozed with sweetness.