(Preshow) Staging Area

[Amaterasu]

A portal through which anyone who cared enough to look could see a crowd, the Syntech tables and employees and enough sand to tell that those were the Endless Dunes, opened up in the Lobby entrance and let Fiara cross in to the hall. Her clothing and hair was full of sand from the verse she came from, and she was well aware of this. So, the first person whom she caught that she could tell was a Syntech employee she stepped in the way of and spoke. "Oi! Any way to get a bath around here?"

"Uh, you should've been given a card with a number, Miss. Over there are the private rooms, you can enter the room with your number. There will be private showers there."

"A'right, thanks." She didn't ask what showers were, presuming that it was some modern word for bathtub or such. Ron was busy interviewing Hiro when she passed through, and missed her entirely. Arriving at her room she opened it up using the card, after a bit of fiddling before figuring out how it worked, and took in the room around her before closing the door behind herself. She wasn't acquainted with modern technology, but she was a quick learner, and a little dabbling with the room that she considered as looking sanitary enough to be a bath she found out how to "make rain fall from the ceiling", which happened to be the ceiling-installed shower that every room offered.

Twenty minutes later, she had showered, removed the worst of the sand from her clothes, gotten dressed again and headed back to the lobby area. This time there was nobody currently being held "hostage" by the interview team, and Ron Burgundy soon approached her with a bright smile.

"Hello, Miss! I'm Ron Burgundy with the Omniverse News Network. Would you spare us a few minutes of your time so you can tell the world a bit about yourself?"

"Uh, sure, but tell your friend there to stop aiming his huge gun at us."

"Gun? What do you... oh." His smile dropped and he turned to the cameraman. "Cut. Give us a minute... Miss, that is a camera. We would never attempt to harm you."

"A camera? I'm not sure what that is..."

"This might take a while..."

It was a good thing that Ron and the team were familiar with not so tech savvy Omniverse inhabitants, and that Fiara was a fast learner. She rapidly understood what a camera was, how it functioned, why they wanted to ask her questions and who would see it. The live-feed watchers would probably just see some advertisements in the meantime. Ten minutes or so later, Ron nodded, stepped away from Fiara, and nodded to the Cameraman who turned the "huge gun" back on.

"Dear spectators, we apologize for the technical difficulties, but are now live again! This is Ron Burgundy, speaking live from the Lobby in Dante's Abyss, and I am joined today by..." He held his microphone out and behind his fake smile Fiara could see the figurative beads of sweat. But, she was ready.

"... Fiara Moegami. Hi there!" She put on a similarly fake smile, smiling at Ron and at the camera.

"Moegami? Oh my, this year's participants appear to have quite the diverse background! So! Miss Moegami... tell us about yourself, how come you have followed Mr. Jak's invitation and joined us for this mission?"

"I'm actually looking for a friend of mine, and came to look here. But I'm happy to help while I'm at it."

"Oh? We're terribly sorry to hear that! Are they one of the ones that have gone missing?"

"I don't know. But, I'm pretty sure that if she's not, she's one of the ones that are signing up for this."

"I see. Well, I'm certain that our spectators are rooting for you. And who knows, she might be watching us right now, and contact you when you return! Anything else you would like to say to our spectators?"

"I hope this is fun."

"Oh, what a fearless participant we have this year! Well everyone, this has been Miss Fiara Moegami!" The interview finished and Ron waved her away with a big smile. Fiara looked around then headed over to the place where most of the participants seemed to be gathered. The "diverse background" that Ron had mentioned became clearer to her now. Some sort of weird... red man in a green and yellow suit, for a start? Must be from overseas, for what she remembered they had no red-skinned people in Japan... but her parent had told her something along those lines, that in some faraway country people had reddish skin.
Then, another two men, one which had... odd. He seemed japanese, but his skin was too dark. The other one was definitely from the west. Neither kept her attention for very long.
When her eyes fell on the next participant, she first wondered if someone had dumped a mannequin in the room after leaving it in a pestilent waste disposal site, but then saw that it was moving. What in the actual... was this a Plaguelord? One of Ekibiogami's servants? The flames flared up around her wrists before she gritted her teeth and regained control. She was but a young kami, a Plaguelord would undoubtedly destroy her. She had to focus on the task at hand. Amaterasu.
The last one was who attracted her attention the most, and she nearly rushed over. "Ammy! Hey!" she yelled, probably attracting the attention of everyone in the room. But when Carmelita turned around she stopped in her tracks and the flames around her wrist disappeared as her enthusiasm found a sudden end. "Uh, sorry. Mistook you for someone." She bowed deep, something that she didn't like doing, but hey - better be a bit polite around here. The one she had seen was a fox, not a wolf, and she lacked just about all the other characteristic features of Amaterasu. On second thought, she thought she could have realized already when the woman had her back turned to her. Ammy wouldn't wear clothes like those, and her hair wouldn't be blue! And her tail wouldn't be orange! She felt like banging her head against a wall or something, but nah. Better mingle a bit first. Some of them had drinks... maybe she could just get one? She approached the counter to wait after the fox, and read the menu written in those weird western symbols that they called Alphabet. Good thing she had learned to read them. "Could I get some roasted green tea?"

Translations:

Ekibiogami: God of Plagues and other epidemics in the Shinto religion.
Kami: God, Goddess.