Shelly nose-scrunches at Mittens' first statement. "You ask this god of yours for favors? Well how about asking him to dethrone Robotnik then." she says in a saddened tone. Then says, "I think I know what you're saying. Lead Ra to Urser. But why would he be stupid enough to go there instead of just letting Urser handle itself? He knows as well as I would that leaving your own place to rescue another's is risky if your enemy knows where your place is. Besides... he'd likely send reinforcements before he ever shows up. And I'm sure he knows his own weakness of water. He'd have to be a SWATbot to be stupid enough to dive into water. Still... you're on to something." She waves her hand dismissively and says, "Have fun talking with Samuel, Mittens. But don't give up on him either, OK? Don't let what he says to you discourage you... he's just new to this war, so it's hitting him harder than the rest of us veterans." Admittedly, it feels weird for Shelly to call herself a veteran compared to Sam when she's just a kid. But in this day and age, there is almost no such distinction as child or adult. There is only ally or enemy. She heads for the water pool. "As for me, I'm going for a relaxing swim..."

She spots Nautilus as she approaches the water pool. When she sees the stopwatch, she headtilts. "Hart?" is all she asks.

Katy earpirks, having the feeling there is someone else. She isn't highly sensative or anything. Just that the pressures of being a leader have caused her to pay attention to her 6th sense more. No... nothing psychic or spiritual going on right now. Just that her subcontious noticed the change in bird tweet patterns and Katy has a touch of paranoia that she pays close attention to. So she looks around and says, "Hello?" It's her style to be blunt. And SWATbots would be much more obvious, so Katy's sure it's not one of them.

Maverick nods. "Stargazing and rock collecting." he answers. But then asks, "Why Sam?"

Travis tilts his head as he hearas a voice coming from the direction he is heading.  He blinks slowly, ears perked up, and he continues walking in that direction, but his stance shifts, his steps almost whisper quiet.  He does not respond to the voice by calling back, he sees no reason to do so, and no point in speaking up, so instead, he brings his staff down on a tree trunk twice, as if knocking, letting who ever called know that someone is there.

  Stargazing and rock collecting were both conveniently low maintenance hobbies.  One required only that you look upwards when there isn't a ceiling.  The other involved rocks...  And if you didn't like a certain rock anymore, they were easily recycled into blunt objects.

  "Because he's had the most blunt example of 'my entire life sucks yet is also of higher quality than yours' I've seen in a while."  The revenge speeches were a more common thing, and less worth mention.  Joe also doubted Sam had what it took to truly follow through for the sake of revenge in the face of a certain potential detail.  Though said unlisted detail didn't effect the potential for him to leave them hanging for better odds.

  "Though digging for info on you is something I think I'll skip."

  OOC Style:The commentary on SWAT's gave me the amusing mental image of a Frankenstein's monster style moment. "Water bad!  Water baaaad!"

At the water pool, Nautilus smiles and bows his head respectfully towards the princess as she comes into his view. "Quite correct Princess.  We're doing a bit of training and matienence today.  Killing two fish with one pike, you might say.  Judging from the past, we shouldn't be here too much longer. Is there something you need?"

Almost done... whew... this wouldn't be as bad if there wasn't a timer ticking in my head.   Hart is currently on the last leg of his cleaning, though it's still a bit of a distance from where he is to the water pool.

Katy hears the knocking and goes to investigate. When she spots Travis, she tilts her head and slightly narrows her eyes. She's sure she would recognize a white squirrel-cat thing if he was among the prisoners. But he wasn't. She straightens out, figuring at least he isn't a SWAT. And if he meant harm, he'd have probably responded with silence to try sneaking up on her.

"Hi. I'm Katy of the Channelwood Freedom Fighters. What's your name and where do you stand with Robotnik?"

Travis tilts his head as well when Katy comes into view, blinking a bit as he carefully looks over before shrugging, and leans against the tree he is next to. Even with him leaning like that, he looks ready to fight. At being asked a direct question, he responds, his tone hollow, almost cold, but not in a way that makes one think he is annoyed at the person, but in a way that seems to say this person does not speak much.  "I am called Travis, and I stand alone."

Maverick simply asks Joe, "Why's that?" in response to skipping out on digging up info on him. Not that he minds. Rather prefers people not digging. But he's curious Joe's reasons.

Shelly ohs, looking at the pool. Then back to Nautilus. "I was just going to go for a relaxing swim. That last mission has me loving water like it's going out of style!" she dives in even as she's finishing her sentence. Then goes looking for Hart. Not that she has far to look. She spots him and swims over to him, making cheering motions, like she is his personal cheerleader.

Although Michael didn't have any questions for Katy, he did pay attention to where she said she was going and what she was going to do.

However several of the 'new arrivals' to Channelwood do have questions for Michael, some of which are the same questions that Michael has been dealing with over and over this morning. Naturally, Michael answers each and every one to the best of his ability, but it is starting to take a toll on the chimpanzee.

Although the 'new arrivals' don't pick up on the subtle signs that Michael's patience for answering the same questions over and over is wearing thin, it's quite possible for those who have lived in Channelwood for years to realize what is going on.

  Mittens salutes Shelly then heads off in search of Samuel.  "I *have* asked you to lightning bolt Robotnic," she prays silently, "and I know your answer, but it seems to me that it'd be rude to 'talk back' to a Princess...  Yes I know you're not impressed with titles and such, but I sure am...  especially with so many armed guards around.  >.>  No I don't think she'd ask her guards to lock me up for my faith in you, but you catch more seabears with honey, right?  9.9  ...yes, yes, I know you know my true motives are less than perfect.  Sue me."  >.>

  Mittens slouches.  v.v  "Note to self," she thinks out loud with a sigh, "Never sweet-talk God."

  "There he is!" Mittens sings when she finds Samuel, "Miiister Uuuuniverse!  Mornin!"  ^.^/

Emerald exits the kitchen, having recently cleaned her hands. She spots Michael's eyebrow twitching like he's ready to uppercut someone with a vacuum cleaner, so she hurries over to him. "Good morning, Michael! How about we have these people sit down and enjoy a concert by yours truly?" She advises as an alternative to Michael answering questions nonstop.

Samuel looks down from the ceiling of the hangar bay when Mittens calls/sings out. Samuel pauses working on the engine before he responds, "My surname is Stevenson, not Universe. So what brings you here?"

Thinking to himself, 'Do I even want to know what she's up to now? Why did I dare ask? I guess it's because even if I didn't she'd say anyways... Why do I feel that Mobius must be derived from a language in which the word means 'butt hole of the universe'... but if that is true and I'm just trying to escape from this place... what does that make me?' as Samuel goes back to working on the engine while waiting to hear what Mittens has to say.

Michael turns to Emerald and rubes his temples as he replies, "If you think it would help things, although I'm not sure if they want to hear music right now or not... been so busy answering these questions, I haven't bothered to ask any of my own."

Michael's tail twitches somewhat as he has to quickly move it out of the way to keep someone from accidentally getting it pinched between two 'newcomers' as they try to pass by in different directions at once. This results in a bit more twitching of Michael's eyebrows.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:48, Sat 15 Sept 2007.

Emerald sees things burning up and says, "Alright, everyone! Please have a seat and you will get your food!" She moves to pull Michael close to her. Should he allow it, Emerald would then give him a gentle hug and whisper in his ear. "Don't worry Mike. Take a break... I'll watch them for you now, OK?"

  Joe shrugged,  "Nothing particularly considerate.  I just don't really care.  If there is any detail you feel is important and needs mention, then you'd have said."  Joe is more familiar with Mike's than most.  He just doesn't seem to react to them all that much when their directed at him.

  "For example, that's Mike's 'I'm ready to throw bear traps at people' expression.  A detail thats helpful to know." Hmmm... Bear Trap throwing.  Why hadn't he thought of that before?  "Useful to know in order to either avoid causing this, or to know you only have one and a half inane comments to go."

  Joe figured he'd put up a sign covering basic repeat questions such as 'Where's the bathroom?  Aside from everywhere in the forest?' later to save Mike some hassle later.

Katy isn't happy with Travis' answer. Last time someone said that, it was some overlander who gets easily offended by being called an overlander. Not to mention easily offended in general. Not that she can blame the guy. Katy asks, "Do you need a place to stay?" as she realises, he could very well be that much of a loner and prefer to STAY alone.

Michael doesn't resist Emerald's gentle 'embrace', and after she whispers in his ear, Michael nods and replies softly, "That is a good idea. I need a break," as Michael then moves off to a less crowded part of the mess hall as he looks at his tail for a moment and then over at the crowd and sighs as he takes a break from dealing with the 'newcomers' for the time being.

Travis blinks at that question, not expecting it. He shrugs his shoulders some, and then looks up at the sky, before looking back to Katy and shaking his head. "Not at this time. It is still early." He straightens up, taking a couple steps forwards. "Right now I am hunting breakfast."

Hart's busy scraping off the last bit of gunk from one of the supporting beams of the base when Shelley swims over.  He's caught slightly by surprise at her appearance, but rolls his eyes as a smirk appears at the corners of his mouth.  Looks like I've got an auidence.  My day just got a one-up.  He finishes cleaning the last bit with more speed and gusto than before, thanks to Shelley's "cheering", and pushes off from the sturdy beam with a burst and a graceful roll before burrowing his way back to the water pool.  He gives a half-salute to her as he heads back, hoping that she'll stick around for awhile.

Heh, never hurts to show off a bit.  With any luck, the old bear'll be done putting me to work and I can head back out here and actually have some fun for a change.

Maverick thinks about what Joe has said. He figured Mike's expression was pretty universal body language. But he figures Joe knows more about it than that. "....soooo.... why did you decide to socialize with me, of all people?" He doesn't say it all rude-like, and has this inquisitive expression on his face.

Emerald brightly smiles at the people, reassuring them that this is a town of people who fight Robotnik or contribute in a different way like teaching or doing chores. Rather than answering questions, Emerald objectively makes blanketing statements about Channelwood and it's people. When she starts singing for them about friendship and hope, the people seem to be lifted a bit and sit to eat while listening. Once again, Emerald's social expertise shine. She then finishes off, and the people start just socializing with each other. Emmy goes to sit next to Michael. "Feeling better?"

Katy can respect a man who hunts. And other than herself, there are not many at all in Channelwood who hunt. Which is required if the people want meat. She wants to ask what in the world Travis is, but that'd be rude. She'll just let someone else make the mistake of calling him what he "isn't" so he can correct them. That way, she'll have her answer without having to ask. "Well standing alone is better than standing with Robotnik. If you like, there's a town here."She points up, where there are a bunch of tree huts about 40 feet off the ground. "Feel free to come on in to town. You'll have to ask for the elevator to be lowered."

Shelly accompanies Hart to the water pool. Once there, she sits on the edge, kicking her legs and splashing some water at Hart with her feet playfully. She waits to see what exchange Hart and Nautilus have.