Royal Menagerie

[delbosque]

Classification: Other
(district, business, city service, eatery or inn, clan, other)

Controlled: Royalty of Byako, for now.

Description: A park-like area near to the palace, but not actually inside the palace grounds. It contains a wide assortment of different-sized cages, all containing creatures who are unusual in some way. Some are entirely harmless, but some of them seem dangerous, like things that one might expect to see in a place like the Dueling Arena.

Past Events: The late King of Byako's nobility used to collect strange creatures, searching the world for unusual breeds or mixes of species, even hiring hunters to dimension-travel to other worlds for the purpose of bringing back creatures never before seen, all for his private Menagerie.
The Queen has recently concluded that in the absence of a proper heir who would be sufficiently interested in taking up the hobby of creature collecting, when she retires the Menagerie will be donated to the city of Byako for a public zoo.

Recently, the Queen brought her entourage (including contenders for the throne) to the Menagerie to test their animal-handling skills.  

[BlazingDan]

[Entrance to the next area!]

Somewhere over in the vagueness of Byako, a lordishly-dressed werewolf was looking expertly flustered as he revved the accelerator on a camp yellow moped that was speeding across the landscape. Every so often it veered wildly in an attempt to avoid the potholes on the mountain road, and made some rather action-movie esque jumps and swerves. Possibly because the man in the driver's seat had no clue how to ride it.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWHATEHFUDGEBARBEQUE!!" screamed Batim as he suddenly found his path in close proximity with a tree. At the last moment he barely managed to turn back to the road. "F**K!" he swore loadly, displaying his blue-blooded ability to insert asterixes into rude words.

Flashing back about half an hour, this beacon of politeness and nobilitude was back at Tesarel Ko-Kou.
Sleeping.
"And that is the end of the match! Customary souveniers are available at the ringside game, show your support with embroidered tunics with each team member's faces on them.."
Curled up in a ball was our protagonist Batim, scratching his ear with one leg absent-mindedly and mumbling in his sleep about fast food. "Mbmm..just one more chicken wing please.. with a side order of chicken.."
A klaxon sounded signifying the location change, causing the noble to bolt upright and start barking loudly. The strange looks from the surrounding guests caused him to stop immediately.
"Wha..WHAT? Where?! Did I win?!" he slurred, eyes still half closed.
"No... but I gotta say you look adorable napping like that. Or at least that's the general gist of the youtube comments." replied a young man with an afro, who was pointing a cameraphone at Batim and grinning evilly, still in a giant carp costume.
"You...YOU! I-right, I am remaining calm. REMAINING CALM I TELL YOU.." cringed the werewolf, baring his fangs in obvious resentment.
"You missed about two events, but hey, looked like you needed your rest, Sleeping Beauty~" sniggered the other man. "Hey, I know what's a fun game to play! They left you a map to the next task, now if can you guess where I've hidden it-"
He was promptly interrupted. "Yeah, perfectly calm, SALTINYOURFACE!" yelled Batim, decking him in the jaw with a salt shaker.
With a satisfied look on his face, the werewolf grabbed the map from its obvious hiding place inside the smug carp suit man's afro and legged it while he was still foaming at the mouth.
The announcer carried on in his drawling voice. "And it appears that Sir Batim, after a long period of inactivity, has now reemerged into the contest by punching a fish in the head..oh, and he's stealing a moped from the parking lot, would you look at that.."


Back in the present, Batim careered over an enbankment and came to a halt at the entrance of the Royal Menagerie, retaining as much grace as he possibly could while simultaneously trying to dismount and put out a fire that had started at the ends of his tailcoat. "God damn- I mean... uh... insert polite noble talk here!!"
The moped fell over sideways with a resounding crash, and then exploded. Pirhouetting to the side to general applause, the nobleman took a bow, straigtened his collar and stepped elegantly through the gates.
"I shall have my servants clean that up later! On to the next event!" he announced, airily waving a hand.
"My, Lord Batim sure does have the composure of a true gentleman!" thought the crowd.
"My life is becoming a circus act.." thought Batim.  

[Gracesan]

After flying for what seemed to be a long time, Sousha spotted the gates to the next event area. "Finally." She mumbled to herself "Take us down 'Nas." As she spoke her mount angled out of the sky and landed lightly on the opposite side of the gate from the still smouldering moped.
After dismounting and returning Ceo'Nas to his crystal, Sousha looked at the wrecked moped once before walking past it and through the gates.  

[Fuzzy Mitten Mistress]

Several slaves appeared in the area, constructing one end of a monstrous bridge. Minutes later, Rooj was being carried down on a royal podium by her slaves and set down at the gates of the menagerie.  

[Lord Sithious]

As Sithious's airship reached the event, Sithious clicked on a loud speaker on the outside of the ship. He then pressed play on a machine and a song began to play. It was Moskau, by Dschinghis Khan. Sithious smiled. "I love this song. What better way for a Muscovite to make an entrance than to his cities theme song that was preformed by Germans!" The ship lowered towards the area of the next event. He saw the werewolf who had crashed his car. "What a fool. Crashing his car like that and insulting true nobles." He looked then to another airship. He gritted his teeth a little. "Looks like I wasn't the only that had this idea. Well, mine is still more modern." He walked over to a nicely set table and quickly had a bite to eat. He hadn't been able to stomach that English food, not because it was bad, but because he hated anything to do with Great Britain, especially considering who his nemesis was. He went back to the captains seat. He set up a huge light show with fireworks and everything. He then began to meddle with a satellite. "This should make a good entrance show!" Up in space a satellite shot missiles down to Sithious's location, but they all blew up high in the air, causing no refuse either due to high heat. He quickly ran to the lowering platform and stood on a small circular platform. Before he left, he quickly changed his dirty outfit into another, identical outfit that was clean. The platform began to lower him down to the ground, and he only had the one pole in the middle for support. He pulled out his lighter and a Cuban cigar and lit up right there. This was a moment that could not very easily be recreated, and by very few people, so he decided to enjoy his accomplishment with another one; the Cuban cigar.  

[Vincent deVars]

With a blink, Eri was in the location. She was still dizzy and a bit off from the split second change of location, but very alive and well. She noticed most of the contestants are here already.

'Wow, so nobles really do have something to brag about. . . ', she thought to herself as she looks around for some announcer or someone who knew, maybe a guess or two, what's going to happen next.  

[Frostborne_PrettyGirl]

The Lord Chancellor's valet came sliding down a rope dangling from their hot air balloon as all of the contestants started to arrive. He looked above himself as heard strange music playing from above, and then looked back to see where he was landing. With a 'thud,' he plopped on the ground, causing dust to rise and enshroud him. Once the dust had settled, h made his way forward towards the contestants who were now entering the gates. "Welcome," he said giving a polite bow to all of the nobility. "This is the Royal Menagerie, home to many exotic animals and the location of your next task." After he finished speaking, he went around the group, handing out small slips of paper that read:

WEEK 3, TASK 1

::Attempt to feed some exotic pets in the menagerie.
LOCATION: The Royal Menagerie, which is soon to be donated to the city.
Guidelines: Loss of limbs or digits will result in Bishi using his medical skills on you.

Have fun!

After handing out the last slip of paper, he walked off to the side to bring down the Lord Chancellor's balloon.

((As a Reminder, you have until 11:59 pm on Tuesday, May 25, to RP for this task.))  

[Fuzzy Mitten Mistress]

Clapping her hands, Rooj's newly acquired fish slave produced a back of goldfish crackers. "Feed the birds." She commanded of him.

Putting the crackers in his mouth, the fish boy held his mouth wide open as he entered the bird cage, letting the birds peck the food out of his mouth.  

[BlazingDan]

[Rolling for task]

Batim snickered self-degradingly at the subject of his next challenge. Getting attacked by exotic animals? Very nostalgic..
He also cast an aside glance at Lord Sithious, puffing on a cigar foppishly while dangling from a pole. Gee, it sure was great to have such wolfish hearing and have to listen to people insulting him behind his back. Plus, the man obviously had no clue what a moped was. A car, really? The werewolf openly bemoaned how disconnected the other nobles seemed to be from normal life, gesturing vaguely around the general area of Sithious. A few of the surrounding crowd stifled giggles.
"Serves him right, arrogant git." thought Batim, unaware of the danger of making an enemy of the Immortal Emperor..

Moving on, the noble picked up a bun and surveyed the animals.
"Too ugly, too slimy, too boring.. what'll get me a good score?" he muttered. One of the creatures to the left sprang forward and clamped its teeth into his arm.
"Ah, it seems Lord Batim has chosen the werewolf!"
"Oh come on! How many times can this happen to me?!" yelled Batim. "And you're ruining an expensive suit, you fleabag!" He slammed the menagerie wolf down on the ground and raised his other hand to its throat, his nails lengthening into lupine claws.
"Let go." he commanded, his tone reverbrating with cold fury.
With a quiet whimper, it opened its jaws again.
"Meh, not too hard to train once you've had the experience." boasted Batim, patting the smaller wolf on the head with a distinguished air. It bit him again.
"OH COME ON! GET OFF! THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS!" flailed the aristocrat. This task was basically half failure.

...in the end he called his new pet Chewy.  

[Gracesan]

Sousha walked over to the table set up with different foods that could be feed to the animals in the park. She picks up a bun and walk over to one of the nearby cages and looks into see what looks to be a cross between a possum and an alligator. She sticks her hand into the cage holding the bun out to the animal, it hisses at her. "Please eat it." She says as it scuttles across the floor and snaps at her hand. Sousha jumps back and drops the bun on the animals head. "Well that wasn't very nice." She glares at the thing on the other side of the cage.  

[Frostborne_PrettyGirl]

The valet, one Alexander Persimmon Peony, walked to the center of the crowd of nobles, clapping his hands. By this time, the Queen and her entourage had finally made it onto the grounds and the Lord Chancellor had handed over the instructions for the next task. After bowing to the nobility, Alexander began passing out little slips of paper with the instructions for the next task. The paper read:

Task 2
Attempt to teach a pet a trick.
Location: The Royal Menagerie
Guidelines: Try aiming for a cool, or unique trick. Have fun!

Once Alexander had answered any and all questions, he stepped politely to the side, ready to serve the Lord Chancellor should he call for assistance.

((Task 1 is officially over. I will allow Gracesan to edit her response since she rolled for it in time. Because I was delayed in posting the Second Task I am changing the deadline for it a bit. FOR THE SECOND TASK, YOU HAVE UNTIL FRIDAY MAY 28, AT 9:00 PM to POST YOUR RESPONSE. The Third Task will begin at 9:00pm and you will have until Sunday at 11:59pm to post for it.))  

[Jasae Bushae]

Dragged along by the nobles, Dling Aling the newly knighted cartographer watched the precision with shock and awe and more shock. The whole series of events coming as one surprise after another for a simple country boy from the rural parts of Byako who came to the metropolitan section of the city in search of work.


Meanwhile the Ruler of Byako, fascinated by this menagerie began measuring the circumference of the cages and the number of people that could fit inside the menagerie.  

[Fuzzy Mitten Mistress]

Rooj gestured for her fish boy to come to her. Ordering him in a hushed tone, Rooj was soon prepared. "Go." She commanded, sending the slave running.

Other slaves had set up a veritable death trap of piranha filled tanks, rings of fire, anvils and a wind tunnel.
On Rooj's mark, the fish boy leaped the rings, swam screaming from the piranha, leaped anvil to anvil and finally, climbed his way through a wind tunnel.

When he completed his treat, Rooj fed him a doggy biscuit and patted him on the head. "Good boy." She complimented him.  

[Frostborne_PrettyGirl]

Alexander, the valet, clapped his hands eagerly as he watched the progress the contestants made. He was briefly tapped on the shoulder by the Lord Chancellor, to which he immediately turned and bowed. After being given the command to rise, he walked forward and recieved what looked like a leash. With uncertainty, he nodded tot he Lord Chancellor and entered the menagerie looking for a pet of his own. After deciding on a particularly large bird-dog, he inched forward, with leash ready, to capture the creature. It turned towards him, sqwaked loudly and began pecking at him. Dodging each peck with grace and ease, Alexander backflipped and landed squarely on the creatures back where the wing joints met, and with simple ease, clasped the collar of the leash around the poor beast. After gaining control, he kicked his heels, gently, but with authority, into the sides of the bird dog, and it began walking around, being lef by the valet's directions. "This will be your third task," Alexander said in a rather loud voice. "You must take your pet for a walk."

((Task 3: Take a pet for a walk.
Location: zoo grounds
Guidelines: pick whether you use a leash or harness or halter

TASK 3 Will run all day sunday and will end Monday May 31 at 11:59 pm. Round 4 Will begin Tuesday June 1 }}  

[Gracesan]

Sousha watched the other nobles try to teach the animals tricks, as she tryed to finish getting over the shock of nearly having her hand bitten off.
When the next task was announced she found that her hands were now longer shaking and went to pick up a leash out of the ones provided for them. Sousha looked around the cages to try and find an animal that would be better behaved then the last one when she spotted what looked to be a tiny version of a Newfie dog.
"Well arn't you cute." She said to the mini dog as she tryed to slip the leash on him. As she tryed to do this the dog started to run circles around her and then topled her over and started to lick her face. "Ok, ok, you don't want a walk." She smirked at the small dog sitting on her chest and patted his head.