Emerald had just arrived to the new special "Arena" that had been built in the Fire City. It comes as no surprise the people of Fire would be more anxious than anyone else to get something like this going, but it was still refreshing to see something new for a change. Emerald had come the moment she heard of the "Grand Opening" of this new Arena. Built specifically for all the newcomers from all across the Universe. Emerald looked at the rules...

1) Once you have entered the "battle zone", you must accept any challenge as long as it is from one opponent.
2) No killing. Killing in the arena is punishable with imprisonment and even death.

The rules seem simple... too simple. So broad. And there are things worse than death. Emerald decides spectating would be a better idea. Admission to watch is free.

From the far reaches of space, a building sized half-spherical vessel races towards the universal core at several hundred times the speed of light.  Even at that speed the vessel has spent 5 years enroute.  Near it's destination the vessel comes to a halt, and begins to wake it's pilot.

J'Renn stands in front of her class, nude to the world presenting her report to a classroom full of people in hysterics.  Undaunted she continues her presentation in all seriousness when the voice of Pel'Rae overpowers the laughter of the class, (Destination reached.  Please awaken and begin the initial survey.) Torn away from her dream J'Renn takes the positive pressure mask off of her face, and rubs her eyes.  Sleepily she thinks at the tree that operates the vessel in tandem with her, (Is it time for another maintanance check?).  J'Renn slowly rolls out of her bed, her first thought is of a strong cup of tea, which materializes at replicator built into the meal table.  Picking it up as she heads by she takes a long sniff and a sip.  With the caffine in her system Pel'Rae knows she is finally ready for rational thought. (We have reached our destination.  What are we going to do now?) Pel inquires.  J'Renn sips her tea, (Mmm, scan for Hur'Q energy signitures.  I want to know if they managed to get here before us.).  A short hesitation, then Pel'Rae responds, (No Hur'Q energy signatures detected. At thier last known position and speed their most likely ETA to this position is 18 months.)

J'Renn nods, (In that case, lets find out who the locals are.  Monitor all communiques, and scan for border markers, ships, and frequently used space lanes.  Let's find out if anyone lives here.)

In a ship the size of Pel'Rae keeping it's presence secret will be impossible.  Hopefully she dosen't attract the wrong kind of attention...

  It was dark.  The only illumination being the soft glow of Kasketon eyes and glowing portions of equipment.  But then, why install lighting when you had no need of it?

  "So, I'm used to the light load out and all.  But remind me again why I'm not getting at least a Blazer Rifle or something?"  This said as they finished checking the parts of their 'First Gun'.  When new technology fails, older technology had a wonderful habit of working.

  "Because something that shoots a stream of rift imported Sun could be seen as overly aggressive, or something."  The Rift technician shrugged.  "You Scouts never seem to mind the lack of comparative hardware normally."  This said as they rechecked some figures.

  "Normally we also have those with the bigger guns and sudden cases of Mortality handy on call.  How was the progress on personal versions of that going again?"  All the advancements in Kasketon science handy, and it was his knife the Scout double checked was in place.  A habit still left as the term 'I remember it like it was yesterday' could be used literally regarding when he picked up the knack for 'Reaching'.

  "Not good enough for you to get one.  And besides, most of us can't cave in a Golems skull unassisted.  Now get you and your ride to the exit point already.  This Dimension is a mashup type, so you both probably won't need an imager and even if you had one, odds are good someone would see through it easy enough anyways."

  "I'll have you know that really stings to do without gloves on.  And that last one was hollow anyways."  He said as he got on his trusty and more likely to survive than him ride.  And then as far as the universe was concerned, he ceased to exist.

---

  The universe may or may not have a sense of humor.  Those who pick landing spots meanwhile, were quite likely to because as far as the universe was concerned now, that parking space had been occupied the whole time.  Rifts were all well and good, but there were conveniences to skipping straight from point A to point A with a lack of special effects.

  The prospect of the first accomplishment in a new world being receiving a parking ticket was avoided as Darkthorne got off his Scout Cycle, and walked over to a sidewalk with his hands in jumpsuit pockets as mentioned ride was shifted out of local existence.

  He walked silently past other pedestrians for a while, rounding a corner and considering the eye-catching signs and other such examples of advertising and bits of passing conversation regarding... Whatever.  It wasn't until the most recent sign he stopped to take a look at and the tail end of a passing complaint over snack stand prices that the whole 'talking and reading' thing made a bit more sense.

  "...That is incredibly vague.  Is the point to challenge your opponent to something nearly suicidal before they can do it to you?"  You talk to yourself.  Who listens?  Stupid question, as unless they are deaf the short fox (or was he tall?) and the other passerby's would be the ones listening.  Whether anybody would bother to respond to a mostly rhetorical question is the more helpful question.

OOC Style:  Hello IC world.  Unarmedish, sunglasses, and jumpsuit look being the current Kasketon fashion statement.

Fire City was one of the few places that could be actually widely interesting on a regular basis. The only thing about the city that was consistently upsetting was that everything in it wasn't constantly ON fire. It would undoubtedly make for quite an interesting spectacle to see everyone running around with hair aflame as soon as they entered.

Still, things like this 'Arena' were exactly why Cham liked peeking his head around this place from time to time. He hadn't really paid attention to how long it had taken to actually get built, but, now that it was opening, it had his attention in full. The creatures standing around and gawking at the rules also caught his attention, simply out of sheer difference.

As Darkthorne made his comment, Cham couldn't help making himself apparent behind the Kasketon's shoulders. "Hehe, it's not one bit suicidal! Someone ELSE is going to beat your brains in. That's totally encouraging homicide. 'Sides, watching someone beat himself up would be sooo boring..." In a flash, he swoops around in front of the several who were looking at the rules, leaning back on nothing as he hovers in midair with his tail danging below, "So! You all are entering, right? Represent your race! Work out some aggression! Get your spectacular near-death caught all on tape! It's gonna be a blast... or a slice... or whatever weapons folks are gonna use."

Emerald looks over at the Kasketon and then to the toony raccoon and decides that since Darkthorne's question was kind of answered, she may as well answer Cham. "But that would involve injury. Actually, I plan to just be a spectator first to see if I have a chance. I'm underwhelming to say the least, so for me to battle would be silly..."

Alexis wiggles her toes some as she's reminded just how HOT the ground in this city can be on bare feet sometimes. Alexis usually tries to keep her distance from this city for obvious reasons, but she heard about the Arena and wanted to make sure it fit her idea of fair. Miffed, she frowns and is about to do something about her hotfoot problem when she spots a flying object up above. Coincidentally, the local authorities are trying to establish contact with Pel'Rae:

"This is the Fire City police. We are here to escort you to the nearest ship docking area. Please identify yourself."

Alexis ponders the idea of escorting the newbie personally and flies up towards the craft. The police can do their job, but once the alien is parked, Alexis plans to be a guide. After all... she has a hunch this is a race she hasn't met yet.

J'Renn monitors the various signals Pel'Rae sends to her, most of which seem to be audio/video signals, the rest text, and encoded transmissions.  She finishes her tea, and sets the empty cup down and it fades away in a swirl of particles. (Save a sample of these transmissions for the audiolinguists back home.  It seems that most people here communicate audibly.).

(Incoming audio/video transmission.  Unable to translate.  Transmission origin are the armed vessels on an intercept course.)
Pel'Rae adjusts it's pitch to face the escort ships head on.

J'Renn sighs (Respond with the telepathic enhancer, video and text.  Give them my text message in all available languages.  Keep the video above my shoulders, I'm still in my undergarment.) she orders going over her first contact training.

With Pel'Rae ready J'Renn stands tall, trying to look diplomatic, transmitting (I am J'Renn of Garendi, pilot of the tree vessel Pel'Rae.  I have come on a peaceful mission.  Currently I do not have the ability to understand your message.  If you can understand, please respond in kind.  If you cannot...)  She looks a little lost at this point because if they can't understand they won't know what to do... (...I will keep trying.).

J'Renn ends her transmission, and sighs, (Watch those vessels, if you detect weapons charging raise shields, and prepare to get us out of here.  I don't want my first attempt at contact to end up in an armed exchange.).  J'renn walks over to her bed taking out a fresh uniform, she gets dressed since she may have to meet a new species, she dosen't want to put forward the wrong message.

Her telepathic message along with the video and text message can be intercepted by anyone with the technology or telepathic sensitvity enough to recieve it.  It's not likely anyone on the surface would be able to recieve the telepathic message.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:54, Fri 27 Mar 2009.

  "Seeing people punch themselves in the face until they can't anymore is a common enough occurrence that it's boring?  I must be missing something."

  Darkthorne looked from one fuzzy short person to the other.  "I don't know, I think I was supposed to avoid senseless carnage.  I'll probably watch too, and see if it would give reasonable practice with that whole 'not killing' thing without my unfortunate evisceration involved."

  He'd head for the entrance in a bit if nothing else of note came up.

A nearby denizen of fire city points up.

"Look!" she says, "Up in the sky!  A sphere ship!  No... TWO sphere ships!  Whee!"

The first sphere ship of course would be Pel'Rae.  The second is Prism in first contact travel form.  Prism halts it's approach when the local police transmit a halt order.

"Greetings," Prism replies to the Fire cops on the same channel, "We are a science delegation from the Light system. We are known as 'Prism.' We heard there's a new arena here and we would like to attend the opening festivities. Would you be so kind as to direct us to the entrance?"

Several months of studying the transmissions of this star system have payed off.  It helps to know the language and culture ahead of time when making first contact, and by now, that's standard procedure for Prism.

(( OOC: If anyone dislikes the rainbow text, just lemme know and I'll change over to making each word a different color instead of each letter. ))
This message was last edited by the player at 03:33, Sat 28 Mar 2009.

(OOC: The rainbow text looks awesome. No complaint here.)

The Fire police do not respond to Pel'Rae at first. To the appearance of Prism, the police say, "Greetings, Prism. Follow us please." They notice Alexis there and say, "Greetings, Queen Alexis. The Fire police department requests your aid in the assistance of the round ship. It is not contacting us on any of our channels."

Alexis skews her face slightly and then flies closer. She hears the repeated message now that she is in a closer range and hovers in front of Pel'Rae. Alexis points at her head with both her hands and closes her eyes. She continues to think over and over the thought, ((I am Alexis. The Fire police are automated and thus, do not understand you. Please follow me and I will show you a place to land.)) She's no telepath, but she knows the ship in front of her is since she "heard" the message Pel'Rae sent. Alexis hopes the ship is capable of receiving non-telepathic thoughts.

(OOC: The rainbow effect is cool.  So long as you don't mind the effort. n.n;)

J'Renn sets her message on auto-repeat, hoping that there is a linguist available somewhere to respond.  (There are two life forms approaching... Correction, there are 10*4.56^8 life forms approaching. One approaching our fore, the rest aft.) Pel'rae announces.  In a bit of a panic J'Renn turns her attention to innumerable amount of life forms, which on first glance looks much less threatening than its numbers.  (It's a compound life form...) she thinks in awe.  (Get an active scan as long as it's in range, and stream the data back home.  The exobiology department are going to prolapse thier colective cloaca over this.)

As soon as she watches the data come in she's immediately lost.  She's no scientist.  Her mind wanders back to the more pressing concern with communication.  It's when she turns her attention back does she senses something relevant, Alexis' thoughts.  She can hear her like someone speaking in the distance.  As J'Renn concentrates on the voice, she can hear her clearly.

(Alexis!  This is Pilot J'Renn of the tree ship Pel'Rae!  I accept your invitation to land!)  J'Renn is a little loud as she tries to make sure her message gets through.  After all some species are a little dense, telepathically.

The blue raccoon smirks at Emerald's comment, looking her up and down, "Underwhelming... or underdog? Or fox, if you wanna be specific." He flips on a red visor from out of nowhere and floats over to her, nudging her with a wink, "See, while YOU see a little fox girl that may get horribly maimed while in the arena, I see one heck of a bet! Yessir! Besides..." He looks to Darkthorne, "There ARE rules. I think that puts it at least two steps above senseless, don't you? Though maybe only a step above gratuitous and right alongside sideshow material, but that's part of the excitement! It's part of the attraction!"

Making the visor disappear, he floats a little behind Darkthorne as he makes to leave, sighing "Of course, it's not like there's anything wrong with being a little squeamish. Sometimes it's easier to just be a blind little darling and run along behind."

Soon, the Fire police have helped Prism find a place to "land" in the nearby space craft docking center. Alexis helps J'Renn find the same area and then lands on her own two feet, ready and waiting for the ship's pilot to exit.

Alexis isn't sure she should be helping anyone to be landing here necessarily, but figures it best to put a good face on her own domain while she's on foreign soil. If you can call this somewhat overheated concrete "soil".

Emerald thinks about it and decides it best to get beaten on purpose at such a public viewing. Unless, of course, she finds herself up against someone who wants her dead. At which point, she'd be forced to reveal her aces. She shakes her head.

"Sorry. I'm just not interested. For a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I don't usually like to fight unless I have to." Key word: usually.

Raichel arrives at the arena and says, "I'll take on anyone who is willing." as she looks to the small crowd gathered at the entrance. She stands with an air of confidence and looks ready for a fight. Raichel had come here hoping to gain a little recognition and possibly rally a few followers from the Fire City.

  "I think that disinclination to maim or get maimed by most here is causing a problem there.  But, we've got a crowd that's paid for blood... Wait, its free."

  There was probably a time where a tall muscular guy was of note.  But compared to even just those talking recently, it likely wasn't much.  The literal bony knuckles might though.  "Though even if it's free, it would be disappointing if you beat anyone too quickly.  I don't know my odds for beating you in there, but I'm optimistic about how long I'll last."

  If Osseousal was paying any attention, their thoughts might be along the lines of 'OH MY ME, HE'S GOING TO BE MAIMED... MORE EMBARRASSINGLY THAN USUAL.'

  OOC Style: Needed to practice having two alts exist in the same area sometime (One of the main reasons I haven't gone for many like, ever).  Hopefully the universe doesn't explode, or I don’t suffer 'wait, Alt A already did what alt B was gonna do' too often.  Also, let me know if any details still need workin out/fixing on Blake fearless leader.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:22, Sun 05 Apr 2009.

  "It's less the squeamishness, and more my uncertainty how to shoot or stab someone gently.  Though you do have a point about it not being senseless.  Organized Arena complete with spectator stands and all."

  Arrivals of those wanting a challenge, accompanied by 'Here comes a new challenger' result counted as of note, so he hasn't quite headed off yet.  Although, what were the practical differences between 'Go get seating now' and 'Probably still gonna go get seating' again?

J'Renn lowers her vessel onto the tarmac, taking up as many parking spots as any 5 personal vessels.  She heads down to the lower decks of her vessel while she gets the local weather report from Pel'Rae (The temperature outside is 85 degrees with 5% relative humidity, atmosphere is well within tolerable limits, gravity is approximately 1.05g.  Background radiation is within safety limits.)

J'Renn opens the cargo bay doors, the only entrance or exit other than the transporter or escape ship.  With the doors open she steps out to have a look around, and to find the one who led her here.  She transmitsher thoughts to anyone within shouting distance.  (Is there an Alexis here?  I have parked my ship per your guidance.)

Prism gently lands at the location indicated.  Compared to their homeworld, this place is rather chilly, but 85 beats the hell out of the deep freeze of space travel.  With practiced efficiency, they rearrange themselves into the humanoid shape they've become accustomed to.

"Thank you," Prism says to the police, "You are a credit to your people. Now if we may, we shall be joining the spectators."

They make their way to the arena at a measured pace, gathering data about their new surroundings and debating about their next course of action.  Most are very curious about J'Renn and her booming telepathic voice, but after much deliberation the majority of the ruling council vote that "...whereas the alien does not match the common appearance of natives to the planet... and whereas such an action could be interpreted as nosey, rude, etc... be it resolved that Prism shall delay approaching her until more is known about the unidentified alien popularly known as 'Sky Mind.'"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:51, Mon 06 Apr 2009.

The rhythmic sound of marching soldiers can be heard approaching.  An impressive military escort slowly comes into view and makes it's way toward the entrance.  In the center of the procession is a parade float wreathed in flame.  On the float is an ornate silver throne, and seated on the throne is the new Queen of the Fire Kingdom.  News crews crowd around the surrounding soldiers as closely as they safely can and report the event to their cameramen.

"As you can see from her big smile," one reporter says, "Her majesty is very eager to witness the opening of the new arena!  So end the rumors that she would not be attending today.  Our sources say that she was advised to avoid this event because of the high security risk.  The arena's spokesman assured us that...  LOOK!  Her majesty is standing up!  She's signaled for the escort to halt!  It looks like she's going to make an announcement!"

Mittens gestures her hand and the fires around her shrink to mere flames.  She clears her throat and the booming sound of it echos off the surrounding buildings, followed by the tell-tale squeal of speaker feedback.  The volume is promptly adjusted to the correct level, but the royal sound technician is likely to get fired for that mistake alone.

"What a beautiful day!" Mittens chimes cheerfully, "A great day for a good fight!"

She pounds her fist into her hand with a impish grin, and onlookers cheer!

"I can't WAIT to participate!"

Louder cheers ensue!

"I'm going to challenge the last fighter standing!"

More cheers!

"Tradition says if that fighter beats me one-on-one, they take the throne.  Tradition also says that if they lose they get executed for treason...  Not today!  Today, if they give me a good fight, I'll grant them a royal favor!"

The crowd goes wild!  Hundreds of people flock to participate.  Mittens gestures at the flames and they burst back to life.  She sits back down and signals for the escort to resume it's course.  Reporters excitedly relay new royal approval ratings and poll the crowd for their reactions.

"Are you going to participate?"  "How long do you think you'll last?"  "If you got a shot at the Queen, how long would you last against her?"  "What favor would you ask?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:35, Mon 06 Apr 2009.

Cham waves his hand dismissively at Emerald and Darkthorne, "Ah, you guys aren't gonna be any fun if you're too scared to fight."

He floats over to the two new arrivals to their little crowd, propping himself up on his tail as he scratches his muzzle and looks them over. "Heheh... well, you two don't seem to be all that scared of the maiming process. In fact, watching the two of you go at it would be a symphony of scintillating scrapping. Wouldn't know who to bet on though... The mouse-slash-woman with war-paint and lightning on her tail or the..." He takes a moment to look down at Blake's hands, "Partially-skeletal cloaked man? Hehe, I love it when the freaks come out!"

At the loud announcing of the Queen, Cham's focus shifts and he zips over to watch the commotion surrounding her. At the reporter's questions, he swiftly answers "Are you? Five minutes past sundown! I'd last 'til the last drop! I'd ask her to write a lyrical ballad about me!"

Alexis moves over to be in view of J'Renn. "I am Alexis." she says on a strong, loud tone (though not yelling). She stands, despite the temperature of the concrete beneath her feet, not wanting to appear unable to handle the heat.

The police say, "Thank you for your cooperation. Please enjoy your stay."

Alexis turns her head to see Prism and says, "The Fire police are automated. You'll find compliments and insults alike will have no effect on them."

Raichel acknowledges Blake and says, "Optimism is good. Though don't take this the wrong way, I hope none of my opponents last long. I want to be able to fight the Fire Queen and either win or impress her enough for that favor."

She's dead serious. A favor from the Fire Queen could be all the edge she needs to take the throne away from the current Thunder King.

Emerald makes it a point to disappear into the crowd, not wanting to either draw attention or get challenged. She hates having to turn people down too much. (I may bring Emmy back in as a spectator when the fights begin in pure DBZ fashion. :p )

Timothius shows up and starts walking towards Mittens, fearless of her guard. "Mittens!" he says in a clear and loud tone while waving. "The Ruler of Life greets you!" He still feels calling himself ruler of life is egotistical, but such is the way of things and he has to identify himself. He brought his armor as is usual for when he leaves his throne room. But he does not intend to battle at all. "May I sit with you while I watch?"

J'Renn focuses in on Alexis as she's the first one to make noise.  Recognising her mental presence as her landing guide she walks over to her, and bows her head respectfully, (I am Pilot J'Renn.  Thank you for guiding me to an appropriate parking area.) she transmits to Alexis.  She cannot help but to glance at Prism as it reforms itself.  (Ahh, drone vessels.  They must not have been equipped to recieve telepathicly encoded signals.).  She watches Alexis curiously. Picking up on Alexis' discomfort, she looks down at her feet, (Should we go somewhere more comfortable for you?) she asks.

J'Renn looks over at Prism as Aiexis makes more sounds at it, wondering to herself if Pel'Rae is still running scans while the compound lifeform is still in range.

  'Well, its definitely a good thing I didn’t opt to walk around in my scout suit then.  Or at least it would be if inviting even more challengers would lower someone's odds of winning, so doubt I'd be dragged into this anyways.'

  Darkthorne was less than stealthy about it, but then why bother being so when your in a mild hurry to get a seat while they still exist?  Free seating on opening day is bad enough, but trying to find seating with a decent view now that it's gone all Royal Wrestlemaina?

  'Wait...  Wouldn't the last fighter standing be a fighter who doesn’t fight at all?  Or am I being too literal again?'

  Blake calls after the blue fuzzy and easily distracted one "I'll have you know I have an entire skeleton.  Partially-Skeletal just sounds like I'm missing something important."  Of course, the term they used to describe him was still a lot easier to say than the lightning themed lady's, and that had to count for something.

  "Well, I'd only take it the wrong way if your outlook on our fight changed because of this sudden development."  Blake sighed slightly, looking to Raichel.  "I didn't exactly know about the whole grand prize situation ahead of time.  And while I doubt you wouldn't take it seriously, I somehow get the feeling you're going to be just a liiitle more vicious than otherwise now."  He considered how unhelpful Rule two out of two would be to him, as he doubted anyone would really call her on it if they decapitated him or something.

  "So I guess it wouldn't be all that unreasonable of me, if I was no more vicious about this than you decide to be.  Though we had better get going now, as the lines to maim eachother are probably only going to get even longer as we stand out here."

  Ladies first and all that, Blake will opt to follow Raichel along to their destination.

Prism nods respectfully to the police drone before it moves on.  They turn to face Alexis.  No need to cross-reference such a well known person with the database of the local culture.  After months of learning about the area's culture and politics, Prism's citizens know well with whom they speak.

"Thank you, Queen Alexis," they answer with a respectful Fire Nation bow.  Most believe the silence between Alexis and J'Renn must be a private telepathic conversation, so they wait for Alexis to indicate she's listening to Prism before continuing, "We are known as 'Prism.' We are scientists from a distant world visiting the Fire Nation to learn of her people's nature."

It was a close vote whether to use a Fire bow or a Nature bow.  Nature was argued to be more respectful, but there were was the chance that using a Nature bow to her Queen could be considered disrespectful to her people since Prism was clearly not a citizen of Nature.  Including the word 'nature' in the reply, however, won by a wide margin.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:09, Thu 09 Apr 2009.

Mittens' throne does a 360 while she spews fire from her mouth.  "INSOLEEENCE!" her voice booms as her hands transform into spiked wheels that attack everything nearby...

(( OOC: Two dozen brownie points if you can guess where the heck THAT came from!  ))

She snaps out of her momentary day-dream.  She can see her political advisers in a panic trying to signal to her what to do and say, but she pays little attention to them.  Her memory's not THAT bad.  She recalls his face, (not to mention his gorgeous armor), from her crash course in local politics the other day.  She remembers also that Fire and Life are on dubious terms because of Life's alliance with Nature and Fire's not-alliance with Nature.  Not to mention Fire's alliance with Death and Life's not-alliance with the same.  Not to mention Fire's recent conquests, and genocides, and... you get the idea.

"Wow!" she cheers, jumping out of her seat, "THE King of Life!  Visiting me!  All unannounced and spontaneous like!  Me LIKE!"

She grins, winks, and gives two thumbs up to Timothius, tail wagging eagerly.  (b^_~)b

"Not to mention it looks like you showed up aloneish!" she continues as she signals for the surrounding flames to diminish, "Get this man a seat!  But be sure it's a sturdy one!  Wouldn't want it collapsing under the weight of his AWESOMENESS!"

Mittens' advisers face-palm.  She is the antithesis of how a queen should conduct herself in public!  She may have remembered the identity of Timothius, (how hard could that be if he just TOLD her?), but she's intentionally forgotten her crash course in how to act like an ADULT with some semblance of PROFESSIONALISM!  Does she have any IDEA how IMMATURE she appears?!  The last king may have been blood-thirsty, self-serving, and capricious, but at least he wasn't embarrassing to work for.  Nevertheless, they instruct the go-fers place a staircase next to the float and a fancy chair "to the LEFT of Mittens' throne.  NOT to it's RIGHT!"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:56, Thu 09 Apr 2009.

Cham follows Mittens' entourage around for a period, watching the flames as they brighten and diminish. When Timothius comes up and greets Mittens, he grins a little at several ideas that go off in his brain at once in response.

Initially, however, his only thought is wanting to see the action from the best place possible. Aside from going in the center of the arena himself, Mittens' throne seems to be the most logical point. As the flames lower to allow Timothius in, Cham floats up and around to perch himself on top of the throne, wagging his tail curiously.

Thoughtfully, he looks down at Mittens, "Ya know, he's got wings... What's he gonna need a chair for? It'll probably be all flatbacked and ruffle his feathers and such! And that fire... doesn't burned fur smell something awful? Gotta be careful with all that!"

Excitedly, he looks around to see all that he can see from his spot.

Raichel leads the way inside. She's eventually led to a spot where she and Blake get to sit. The robot drone explains, "When you are called on, you may enter the ring."

Raichel thinks about this and decides to turn her attention to Blake. "Well... it did and it didn't change my outlook. I didn't expect the queen to offer a reward even if I lost to her. But I fully expected her to want to fight. I'm here to rally support for exacting justice on an unjust king. Yourself?"

The announcer says, "The first up is Professor Miller of the City of Order." and out steps a middle-aged chap with a monocle over his right eye, a black suit and a top hat. He has a handlebar mustache and a distinguished look about him. "Professor Miller is a highly respected man on the governing staff of the City of Order and controls the education department. He claims he is not here to win, but simply to fight 3 fights. No more and no less. Due to the rules and because he has committed himself to these fights, Professor Miller is given permission to turn down any challenges after his 3rd fight. Would anyone like to challenge Professor Miller before a random challenger is chosen?"

Raichel thinks about this. If she challenges him, that is a bit early in the game and she's show what she's capable of unless Miller isn't much of a challenge... which she doubts. But if she doesn't, the City of Order may see her calculated withdraw as admirable. However, everyone else present may see it as cowardice. Raichel decides to wait and see who, if anyone challenges Mr Miller first.

Timothius sits next to Mittens and then says, "Thank you, Queen Mittens." before he suddenly hears another voice and looks at Cham. "It's quite alright... it's no more uncomfortable than crossing your legs might be." He then looks at Mittens. "...friend of yours?"

Alexis nods to both J'Renn and Prism. To J'Renn, she says "Yes please..." and then addresses J'Renn and the Prism colony. "Come with me, both of you. I can show you to the arena where you can either observe the fire nation at it's finest, or participate in their ritualistic fighting." There is a small hint of sarcasm in her voice, but she clearly means for the Prism colony and for J'Renn to follow her. On the way, she asks Prism, "So then... you are many? If so, am I looking at the many or simply a vessel representing the many?" After all... Prism said "scientists"... not "royalty", so the only other use for "we" is out the window.

Alexis overhears the announcer and looks agitated. It's starting and she isn't there. She tries to calm herself, but hurries her pace. "They've started already... let's hurry." Alexis mutters in a less-than-quiet tone.

  "Oh, nothing so dramatic as that.  Like most of those here I was in the area and decided to take a look at the new place.  Your particular challenge interested me, so here I am."

  Blake considered Raichel for a moment, who was quite a ways away from her old Kingdom looking for support. He said "It remains to be seen if you desire Justice, or Vengeance.  Hopefully for the sake of those under the Unjust King's rule, its Vengeance."

  Vengeance.  Killing those who dare claim to imprison you.

  Justice.  Dooming an entire city to famine, because a few people said they would hold you prisoner until the salt mines were empty.  The worst part?  He thought doing what they asked would cause the least harm.

  It did not take very long for Blake to accomplish that, and it was storm season.  Never mind they could not hold him if they tried, you can't exactly build a brick building into Heaven either.

---

Darkthorne is in audience land until otherwise, or something directly involves him.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:07, Mon 20 Apr 2009.

Breaks out into a run following Alexis, listening in on the surface thoughts of Alexis and Prism, which makes her head throb from the massive influx of voices, like TV static turned up to maximum volume.  She quickly blocks Prism out, deciding to not listen to thier minds anymore.  With the headache gone she turns her attention to Alexis, catching a bit of sarcasm, but she's not sure if the sarcasm is on 'ritual' or 'combat'.  She projects to the nearby area much more quietly than she did from inside her vessel (So it's like a local carnival?)  She looks over at the parade with Mittens, Tim and Cham on the huge flaming float, (Ohh, what does the parade represent?  The ones on the float are dressed gayly in costume.)  After all nobody would go about dressed like that every day, would they?

"Sky Mind has yet to vocalize a single word," Delegate Lueb points out at the Sky Mind Interaction and Relations Committe (SMIRC) meeting, "Perhaps her kind is unable to communicate vocally."

"Perhaps..." Delegate Nereg answers, "Reluctant more likely.  Powerful telepaths such as herself may find verbal communication to be cumbersome and inefficient at best.  It is easy to misunderstand after all.  Worse yet, in her culture it could be considered down right offensive."

"Let's try and avoid superimposing our own prejudices about effective communication on an alien we know very little about," Delegate Lolewy interjects.

"Sky Mind has not shown any signs of being offended by Queen Alexis' verbal communication," Delegate Granoe points out.

...And on the debate goes.  Meanwhile, the Alexis Relations Committee (ARC) has reached a decision that the best course of action is to briefly answer her question first before losing the ability to.

"Yes," Prism answers Alexis with a somewhat raised voice since Alexis' hurried pace is much faster than Prism's bipedal top speed and the distance between them is quickly broadening, "What you see is a nation of many tiny people packed close together in a humanoid shape."

Prism's top speed in bipedal form is no faster than a casual stroll, so they decide to transform into a wheel shape in order to catch up to Alexis and J'Renn.  The consensus was that it was more important to keep up with Queen Alexis, even if it meant risking alarming the locals with a bizarre shape-shifting wheel.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:17, Sat 18 Apr 2009.

Not surprisingly, the Fire Nation's Secret Service agents are more than a little flustered by Cham's intrusion.  Several point weapons at the racoon while others rush to climb up the stairs to tackle him, but Mittens raises her hand to raise the flames to block their path.

"Give me a break," Mittens says to the panicking, somewhat scorched agents, "If it were an assassin don't you think it'd have done something... you know... lethal by now?  Besides..."

She sticks her hand into the flames to prove they don't hurt a bit.

"I do believe I mentioned I can handle quite a bit of punishment.  Go ahead.  Shoot me.  Won't hurt a bit."

None of the agents take her up on the offer.  Instead they lower their weapons, shooting glares at Cham instead.

"Nope," Mittens answers Timothius, "First I've met him."

She then turns to face Cham.

"Quite impressed you got past those nervous nellies.  How do you fly like that?  Magic or Technology?  Oh...  I forgot to introduce myself.  I'm Mit...  The Queen of the Fire Nation."

She looks over at Timothius in bewilderment.  How did he know her name?  Her advisors made a huge deal out of keeping her name a secret.  Something about how embarrassed the people would be if their queen had the name of a pet cat.  It's then that she realizes the Life Nation must have spies in her court.  Oh well!  Cat's out of the bag now!  He called her by her name in front of the news crews!

"But my friends call me Mittens."

She sticks her tongue out at the aforementioned advisers defiantly.  They just groan and face-palm.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:43, Sat 18 Apr 2009.

  A dignified man deserves a dignified opponent.

  "ROAR!"

  Not everyone gets what they deserve, however.  Here comes a new challenger^TM.  A... yellow robot Dinosaur.  Fortunately for the Professor, it was only six feet tall.  Fortunately for the Robot, the T-Rex theme it had going passed on useless stub arms.

  "ROAR!"  Yes, it's actually saying the word 'Roar'.  How scientifically accurate Robot Dinosaurs are these days.

---

http://thewarpzone.classicgami...om/maps/dynowarz.JPG 
This message was last edited by the player at 04:19, Mon 20 Apr 2009.

Cham folds his arms at TImothius, "Just because you can do something doesn't mean that it's something that should be done! Why do ya think kids take so long to learn how to cross their legs, hm?"

He brightens up at Mittens' calling off of her guards, razzing them from his position on top of her chair. When she asks his question about flying, he smirks, balancing himself on his tail so that he can more easily bend himself down to look at Mittens and Timothius directly. Somehow, a green cap with a feather pops up between his ears, "Fly? It's easy! You think of a wonderful thought... Any happy little thought! All it takes is faith and trust, but the thing that's a positive must, is a little bit of pixie dust! And I've got a full jar of it right here! Lemme just see..."

The little blue raccoon screws up his face in a mask of concentration as he whips off his hat and starts reaching around inside of it, pushing far enough down to make his arm disappear inside. He yanks it back out with a black jar and a closed lid, rattling it slowly close to his ear before popping off the lid and looking inside with disgust. "Well... darn. Guess I should remember the air holes next time... Ah well!" He shrugs and tosses the jar behind him and it crashes into nothingness as he puts his hat back on and looks down at Mittens again. "I'm Cham, but MY friends call me Chammy. And you're the Queen of Fire? Wow! That's almost as neat as a... Dinosaur appearing in the ring!" He points excitedly at the robot dino appearing before the Professor, giggling happily at the sight and the hopeful carnage to ensue.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:35, Mon 20 Apr 2009.

Raichel gives Blake a look over. "It's both. But I'm not going to go and blindly follow law if it means the goals won't be accomplished. Which is the case. Care to make a deal with me?"

Meanwhile, Professor Miller says, "Oh my." in response to the dinosaur robot. Such a fascinating object that clearly has all kinds of wonderful mechanisms working together to make it answer the challenge. "According to the rules, I can assume that dinosaur is challenging me. Very well." With that, he pulls out a pair of mirrors and says, "I accept your challenge."

Alexis says, "That's the Queen of Fire. She's probably here to oversee and possibly partake in the fighting. And I don't know why, but the King of Life is sitting next to her. The parade represents how entirely covered in bruises and broken bones you'll be if you try to hurt either of those two." that said, Alexis notices the blue raccoon and is baffled. Once in the arena area, she decides to hover off to the queen. Yes, she knows J'Renn is still following and is simply a visitor. She plans to use that in her favor. "Your Blazingness!" she addresses to Mittens. "I've been trying to set up a meeting and your people have refused! Our people have disagreements to be sure, but we are not at war. See! I've come with none of my guards to show that I mean you no harm." In political terms, while her showing up without arms is a sign of good faith, what she just said is another way of calling Mittens and her people cowards. But then, the expression on her face shows a quite less than happy, not quite mad individual who needs just the right excuse to become piping mad. She quickly addresses J'Renn and Prism in a quiet tone. "There are many seats around here, but the safest place for you in the near future would probably be by my side." She then looks at Prism specifically. "And I would very much like to speak with your leader sometime soon." she says in all seriousness, trying to keep her cool.

Timothius looks from Mittens' secret service to Cham and then to Mittens. "I can respect you aren't afraid of anything, m'lady. But caution should not be thrown entirely to the wind. I realize you're new to the throne. I've heard about the circumstances. But what you do effects more than just yourself. If the well-being of your people matter at all to you, you should both listen to your advisers and be a little more cautious. Not that I'm saying you should do everything they say, obviously, but they are only trying to serve you and your entire nation. That, at the least, deserves more respect than sticking your tongue out at them for doing their jobs." Yup. Taking full advantage of the fact that, unlike Mittens' advisers, Timothius won't get fired for saying such things.

Lecture done, he turns his attention to Cham and is about to say something when Cham points out the dinosaur. Timothius looks to see the dinosaur and no sooner does he see that than he sees one of his allies, Alexis, in a not-so-good mood calling Mittens out in political terms. "Alexis! Keep in mind her lordship here may not have even heard about this!" he glances at Mittens. "If you will allow it, you could take care of two things at once. By letting Alexis say her peace, you both extend a hand of friendship to the Nature people and get a chance to avoid any nasty consequences this could otherwise have. Besides, she's a friend of mine."

Timothius is wondering if this place is going to wind up making everyone spontaneous, so he makes up his mind to start limiting his words and think two or three steps ahead.

"For good reason, your highness!" Mittens' head adviser blurts out before she can answer Alexis, "It's bad enough that you've allowed the Life Nation an audience, moreover tolerate his lecture, worse yet would be to give the Nature Nation an audience!  Our alliance with the Death Nation..."

"I tolerate your lectures don't I?" Mittens interrupts, sounding annoyed, "Jeez!  At this rate I'll manage to miss something as blatant as a dinosaur eating a school teacher in broad daylight!  I'm watching a fight here!  NO MORE INTERRUPTIONS!  OK?  Anyone is welcome to sit and watch the fight with me if they can manage get past the fire and enjoy the fight without pestering me."

The adviser face-palms again.

J'Renn follows Alexis even as she flies up to the float, though she has to take the stairs.  As Alexis addresses Mittens on the float she stays a few steps back, observing.  As the exchange goes on she looks at Prism, briefly trying again to listen to them, the din of millions of voices causes her another headache. (Mrrgh... Too many voices...) Slips out of her mind. She blocks out Prism again giving up on trying to listen to them for now... She looks back at the group debating on the float.  (I think perhaps everyone will be in more of a mood to talk, after this...  Demonstration?) she projects to everyone present.  It's still pretty obvious she's not all too sure what's going on in the arena.

  Blake says "Wow, you're going to give up on your quest for Revenge and/or Justice if you can't beat me under three minutes?  Or is this one of those deals that doesn't involve the cliche of 'if I can beat you, you have to blindly work for me' you had in mind?"

  Remember how the personality section said he had passed by bitter cynicism regarding all life?  Well, this is still much better than he used to be. So by comparison he's downright cheerful.  He could have said he'd kill anyone standing against the Unjust King out of spite if she offered that sort of challenge.  But that wouldn't be very nice.

---

  "ROAR!" Let's assume that's a yes.  The Cyborasaurus (which incidentally is what kind of robotic dinosaur this is, but who cares?) tromps towards Professor Miller as a large drill extends from its forearm.  Then it stops to consider it, and the Professor.

  "Roar."  It retracts, and a pair of hedge clippers extends in its places.

  "Roarrrer..."  That's not right either, and the hedge clippers are replaced by a... Paint sprayer.

  "ROAR!" Cyborasaurus^TM seems pleased by this development, and sprays paint (Blue paint, if this matters) towards the mirrors.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:08, Fri 24 Apr 2009.

In classic Terminator 2 style, Prism fluidly transforms from wheel form to humanoid form.  It gives them time to consider their response, and the ability to answer at all.  "Thank you, your highnesses," Prism replies to both Alexis and Mittens, "We are honored to join you. Our leaders are at your disposal, Queen Alexis."

During the transformation it was debated on the proper course of action.  Clearly, Prism has stumbled into a sticky political situation.   The cultural database was consulted, and the conclusion was reached that much like other cultures, it would be unwise to turn down even an implied invitation from royalty.  Fortunately, the "stay close to me" invitation from Alexis and the "anyone can watch the fight with me" invitation from Mittens are not mutually exclusive.

In the likely event of Alexis approaching Mittens' throne, Prism follows in their typical slow, measured pace - straight through the flames.  Sure it's hot even for Prism, but it's only for a few seconds.  Akin to walking past a bonfire for a human.

Cham is somewhat interested in the small gathering of beings around the float, but he starts tuning them out as what they say starts to matter less and less to him. Instead, he excitedly watches the fighting going on in the arena, or the fighting about to go on perhaps.

When the Cyborasaurus starts spraying the mirrors with paint, the blue raccoon giggles and jumps up, floating in the air and waving his tail around, "Whoo! Yeah! Go go, Dino! Hehe, he's using my color!" His tail turns itself into a large pennant on the end with the word "DINO-SORE" on it in big black letters.

Curiously, he looks down at the new arrivals, "Ooh, wow... is the water-thing going to go down there and fight? You're all going in, right? You've gotta! You don't want to disappoint all of your fans! Besides, if you all don't go in, then who's gonna wanna buy more of the trading cards? I mean, *I've* got one for each of you guys, but there aren't gonna be more sales if no one sees you in action!"

Raichel says, "Well breathing is cliche too, but it's necessary. As are alliances. Which is what I'm asking. If you're not interested, then it won't matter whether I beat you or not, will it?"

The professor says, "Oh bother..." but then, that's why he pulled out two mirrors! He uses the one in his left hand to "block" by having it take all the spray paint, then uses the one in his right hand (That managed to not get spray painted on) to reflect the sunlight into the robot dinosaur's eyes.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:32, Tue 05 May 2009.

Alexis frowns and glares at Mittens for a moment, but turns her even more contemptuous gaze upon Mittens' advisers. She looks at Prism and J'Renn. "I can help you past the flames if you need it." She sees Prism walk right through and makes a mental note of Prism's resistance to fire. As if to show off, though, Alexis forms a wind shield around herself as she hovers through the flames, each flame being "pushed" aside by the shield. Should J'Renn accept Alexis' offer, Alexis would simply cast the same shield on J'Renn.

Alexis sits near Mittens, calming down since she at least has her proverbial "foot in the door". She then turns her attention to Cham and says, "If you want to see a fight that bad, then maybe you should go down there yourself."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:00, Tue 05 May 2009.

Timothius quiets down for now, seeing Mittens is playing her part all TOO well: A spoiled, self-centered queen. But he'll tread carefully, now that he knows Mittens doesn't care what people around her think and might wage war on a whim for as much as she likes fighting.

He watches the dinosaur spray paint the mirror and widens his eyes. Who sent this dinosaur? Why does it have a can of spray paint?

  Blake just kinda stares silently at Raichel for a bit, then says "There is some kind of fundamental flaw in your comment... But I can't think of what it is."  Here's a hint, he can do the Dead Man's Float for a very long time.

  He shrugs "Though I can agree with the last part.  If this fight goes how I think it will, you'll have your answer soon enough. Or I might actually have to say it outright as opposed to using vague comments and methods."  Of course if things go that poorly, the fight wouldn't be all that visually impressive.

---

  The Cyborasaurus would probably blink in confusion if it had eyelids.  But really, what's this latest result compared Home Depot supplies in combat that are not Nail guns or 2x4s?

  "Roar?" It tilts its head in perplexity, because confusion is not a fancypants enough word.  Just ignoring this wouldn't be nearly as fun however, so of course the Cyborasaurus does the next obvious thing.

  "ROAR!" A small panel opens in a wrist, and a pair of sunglasses pop out, which it dons with a flourish.

  "ROAR!" Sooo... Spray-paint and sunglasses... Is this some kind of teenage delinquent robot dinosaur?

  "ROAR!" Well... One would suppose most teenage delinquents do not have access to miniguns.  Don't worry kids!  He's aiming for the knees during its impractically long spin-up time...

  It's incredulously and impractically long spin-up time...  Now complete with rapid clicking noises.  "...Roar?"  The Cyborasaurus mutters as it glances at the side of the weapon out of 'how did they fit that in there'.

  Ah, there's the problem.  They never loaded the thing.

  "Roar..."  It facepalms with a clank, then just swings the gun at the professor like a club.  Keep in mind when considering the patheticness of this attack, very big gun, swung by irate robot dinosaur.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:35, Tue 05 May 2009.

"Trading cards?" Mittens asks in surprise, eyes still glued to the fight, "And there's one of me?  Cool!  Can I s... what the HECK?!"

She was on the edge of her seat when the dino-bot put on the sunglasses.  That was too much.  She falls off her throne laughing!  When the unloaded minigun shenanigans ensue, she cracks up completely.  In her short time exposed to technology, she's at least been shown how powerful the guns in her military are supposed to be... if loaded.  Mittens fights desperately to keep from laughing too hard lest she miss anything.  It turns out to be one of the toughest fights of her life!

J'Renn graciously accepts Alexis' offer for safe passage through the flames, however once again she takes the stairs while her host hovers.  When she's on the float she observes the 'battle' standing next to Alexis, but more away from the 'royalty' and can't help but be amused herself both at the antics in the ring, and the antics of the alleged queen rolling on the floor.

She wipes a tear from her eye, her shoulders jiggling lightly as she giggles silently.  (I think I understand your sarcasm when referring to this as combat, Alexis.  It's a wonderfully entertaining farce.  And to think I was worried about seeing someone injured.  Do you all gather to do this every year?)  she asks projecting everyone on the float.

Prism is no stranger to comedy.  They've traveled to enough worlds to "get" slap-stick humor, but what makes this even funnier is that they were convinced that this was a real fight.  At first Prism's expression doesn't change, but they shimmer as millions of individuals shake with laughter.  When they regain their composure, they affect the coordinated expression of laugher - covering their smiling "mouth" with their "hand" while vocalizing a giggle - to let the aliens know they got the joke.  Even so, a poll reports that 71% of those surveyed are convinced that the fight wasn't intentionally funny.

After some debate between ARC and SMIRC, a resolution was adopted to try and make first contact with Sky Mind through Alexis.

"Queen Alexis," Prism says, "You live up to your reputation for kindness. Truely you are the radiant 'Rose of Nature.' What a privilege to meet you and the equally radiant Queen Mittens and King Timothius!"

They bow politely to the gathering of royalty.

"Will you help us communicate with this lovely telepath?"

They gesture with their open right hand in the direction of J'Renn.

"We believe she doesn't know the spoken language of this place and is unable to hear our thoughts clearly."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:05, Thu 07 May 2009.

Cham looks smugly at Alexis as she makes her comment, "Who says that I'm not?  I'll go down there, soon as I get a chance. But what about YOU, freckles? You may be a princess of wind, maybe a rich woman too, but you don't look all that lady-like to me.  I bet you'd LOVE a chance in there, wouldn't you?"

Happily, he flips out a hand of blue-backed trading cards at hearing Mittens' excitement. When she tumbles off the chair, Cham slides down the back of her throne with a 'wheee' until he plops into the seat, keeping the cards in hand.  Smugly, he leans over to Timothius and shows him one of the cards, which just so happens to have the King of Life's picture on it... and in a Baseball uniform, holding a bat. "See?  Yours is great!  I've got a first edition!  I've got yours, and the water lady, and... let's see... Ooooh! Here's yours!" He flips through the cards quickly, showcasing nearly everyone in their small crowd in baseball uniforms and in various playing positions. Mittens, like Timothius, is holding a bat in her card, looking to be in mid-swing.

As he leans down to show Mittens her card, his eyes catch the antics of the Dinobot, and he squeals in happy laughter, bouncing on the throne and pointing with excitement at the show below.  The cards fly out of his hands, landing all over the throne area.

"Eee!  Lookit that! Lookit that!  Hehe, use your mirror on THAT, Professor Prune!"

Raichel huhs at Blake's words. She sees no flaw in her statement. Even if Blake doesn't need to breathe, everyone else does and thus, breathing is a cliche. After a fashion and if taken in the most literal sense. But Raichel stops thinking about this as Cybersaurus now becomes the "Cool Kid" from the Burger Kids mascots of Burger King. But with a large gun. Used as a blunt object. Raichel is caught entirely off guard and cracks a smile. She chuckles quietly and grabs a nearby snack vender to get a hot dog.

The craziness known as Cham has finally caught Raichel's attention. Mostly because she saw the Queen of Fire bust a gut laughing. Raichel wonders why she's surprised there are three royal people sitting in the same spot. Then especially takes note that the Queen of Nature is there with the Queen of Fire. That must be the main reason Raichel feels a sense of shock for the first time in a long time. But she makes a mental note to get to know this blue raccoon and why he's able to just wallow all over Mittens, much less sit in her seat!

The professor says, "Oh my..." as the gun is swung at him. It makes him disappear. He was apparently a hologram. During the time he reflected light into the dino's eyes, he made a switcharoo and left his holographic projection in his place. The real professor is behind Cybersaurus and about to tape a "Kick me" sign on his back.

((OOC: For the sake of the player, what the professor is trying to do is make any physical attacks with blunt force (Such as a punch or kick or bite... or a gun swiped at him) get transferred from anywhere on the professor to the "Kick me" sign on the cybersaur's back. Obviously, unless Cybersaurus has some power that lets him know this, he wouldn't know. Have some fun with this one! If you can beat this trick of his, then the professor will lose. ;) Personally, I'm rootin' for Cybersaurus! But again, unless the professor can actually manage to tape that sign on Cybersaurus, the professor has little chance.))

Timothius snickers as he watches the dino pull out sunglasses and say "Roar" for the dozenth time. "Mental note: Gotta meet this guy's sponsor..." and upon Mittens saying what she says, Timothius also wonders, "OK... we're going to have to see these trading cards of yours after the Arena event..."

But Cham pulls them out and Timothius looks helplessly at the cards. Base..ball..? Timothius now knows Cham is an agent of chaos or at the very least darkness since he pulled out complete fabrications. Either way, he finds humor in the fact he's depicted as a baseball player. When Cham drops the cards, Timothius discretely picks them up to look through them again between watching the event. He can't help but smile, thinking how the girls look kinda cute in baseball outfits.

Honest... Alexis didn't expect this. Nobody did, really, except maybe Cybersaurus. Alexis widens her eyes as she can barely believe what she's seeing. She covers her mouth and giggles also, trying to keep a serious tone, but her snorting gives away her pure amusement in the matter. Upon being asked the question by J'Renn, Alexis answers with an honest, "I don't know... what I do know is that this is the first day for this arena. And the first arena of it's kind..."

To Cham, Alexis nods and says, "I would... perhaps that will be you and I battling each other down there. We shall see..."

Alexis then turns her attention to Prism. "I'll gladly help you communicate." she then looks back at J'Renn. "When the Prism colony speaks, simply read my mind and I will project what I'm understanding her to say." she points at Prism as if to indicate who she's talking about. After all... if J'Renn wasn't able to communicate with Prism yet, then chances are she didn't know Prism's name yet. "They believe you are having a hard time communicating with them. Which doesn't surprise me since they are quite numerous."

Alexis looks back at Prism. "I would like to visit your leader or leaders in person when the Arena event is over. Kindly remind me and I will."

  "Well, I suppose that may be a good sign for your chances of impressing the Queen."  Blake comments in regards to Mitten's current situation.

---

  Our favorite Dino (We don't know about your favorite, but it's definitely ours) notes to self as a sign is stuck to its back.  Adjust better for lens flare, and actually pay attention to sensors other than the visual ones.

  "Roar?" It of course says as it looks at the sign on its back.  It can do that you know, comes with a multitude of visual inputs... And turning its head 180.

  It doesn't take this very well, as it's tail casually lashes out at the Professor and... Well doesn't do much of anything to them on impact.  It eyes the professor a bit more annoyed than before, if such can be gotten across with a limited range of facial features as it's body turns to face the professor along with its head.

  It's tail curls up towards the sign, as the end splits open while various scanning laser special effects sweep across it before it closes up again.  After that, the tail lances into the 'Kick Me' on it's back sign with enough force to cause a large hospital bill in most academic Professionals, but only mildly Ding a car.

  Even a DinoMech can take some time in the middle of a fight for SCIENCE.  Double standards utilization can be a difficult academic major.  It's worth a lot of extra credit when you get your own voodoo doll to strangle a witch doctor.

Not that anyone's paying attention to him any more, but Mittens' top adviser's face is imploding out of sheer frustration over Cham's unprecedented disrespectful affront to the throne of Fire.  But thanks to her majesty's invitation and command for no further interruption, he's forced to keep quiet.

Meanwhile, Mittens' capacity for multitasking is being tested.  Nature Queen and Blue Raccoon's bold exchange, (not to mention his taking her seat judging from where his voice is coming from), the strange aliens - one a shape shifter, the other a telepath, a robo dino vs. a aristocrat who just survived a gun to the face...  even Timothius' and her adviser's silence register as significant enough to be worthy of notice.

"Awesome trick!" Mittens commends, not being specific which combatant she's commending, "Wish I could do something like... Oh wait... I suppose I can."

She reaches behind herself to feel for her chair so she can pull herself back onto it, deliberately acting like she doesn't know Cham took her seat.  Figures he's too small to let her sit on him, he'll just get out of the way and she won't have to make a scene out of someone sitting on her throne without permission.

J'Renn turns her attention away from the antics in the arena to give most of her attention to Alexis, (A novel idea, using your mind as a translation matrix.  And yes, I am having a hard time even opening myself to... Prism, the multitude of voices is painful to listen to.).  She pauses for a moment, (I hope they haven't thought me rude for ignoring them.  Could you convey my apologies when you get a chance?)  She nods her head towards Prism, touching her forehead and gesturing a greeting towards them.

J'Renn pauses focusing on Alexis' perceptions, reading what she understands about what's going on, what is said, and what Alexis understands.  She blinks a few times as she comes to a realization, (I must also tell you, I cannot allow myself to interfere with the local politics of this region.) she cautions, starting to get the feeling this is a bit more than a friendly gathering to open a new arena.

"Thank you, your highness," Prism answers Alexis, "And we will gladly remind you."

Prism is not familiar with the gesture that J'Renn gives her, but most agree that it is probably not an unfriendly one.  Nevertheless, almost all agree that the right response is to reply with a customary Fire Nation bow like they did when they met Alexis.

"Nice to meet you," they say to J'Renn.

Seems the paper works both ways. The professor says, "I do say... ouch." and with that, he falls onto his back and seems unconscious. Raichel hrms. "That seemed anti-climactic. But I guess now someone's gunna have to fight the dino..."

Alexis glances at J'Renn. "It's politics... you're already involved just by being here." She then continues to use her mind as a "translator" for J'Renn and Prism. Of course, she adds, "And yes, I'll convey your intentions, J'Renn." Alexis looks over to Prism and conveys what J'Renn wanted to say.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:17, Fri 29 May 2009.

Cham smirks at Alexis as he watches the display below, "I dunno... I'm not a robot Dino, and I don't think you're an old man." He tilts his head just a bit to get a better look at her, just to make sure.

The movement in front of him, namely that of the furred fanny going to sit down on him, causes the blue raccoon to let out a 'yip' and skitter around the side of the throne and back to the top of it, sitting comfortably on top of his tail as he goes back to watching the antics inside of the ring. He's just in time to see the dino delivering the finishing blow to himself and, consequently, the professor. At the sudden turn of events, he jumps up happily.

"Yaaah! He did it! He did it! Cue the victory music! Show his win quote! Move on to the next victim of his awesome wraith!" As he says that, he flips out a red sun visor and a cash register, consequently making the discarded trading cards vanish into sparkles. Quickly he looks around him, "Okay, okay! No dillyin', no dallyin', no oodelally-ing! Place your bets right here, folks! We got odds on the dino, odds on his next opponent, all we need is your zenny and your bets! You don't wanna place bets, then we've got Robo Super Killer Dino T-shirts! Get 'em while they're hot!"
He pushes the cash register to the side on an invisible table as he whips out a hanger showcasing a big white T-shirt with the dino's face on the front of it and centered over the ever eloquent quote 'Roar.'.

  If someone can call dibs on three fights even if they lose, then only taking some time to smack around a professor by smacking yourself around then Rocket boosting off into the Sunset/current time of day wouldn't be any less reasonable now would it?

  Besides, this NPC has had more screen time than the actual PC's of the player... And that's not gonna change quite yet it seems.

  "ROAR!" As eloquent as ever the Cyborasaurus, as it flicks the 'Kick Me' sign off it's back.  Clearly there is no topping this lunacy.

  "A kick me sign.  You thought a Kick me sign would be a good idea against the technological prowess of the Shenhanigan empire?  My kid made this for a science fair, he's four years old." ...A tiny six inch tall man in a blue space suit (at least we think it’s a man, hard to tell with the enclosed helmet and tiny voice... and pink text) has just exited the skull of the Cyborasaurus.

  Clearly we were wrong about topping the previous lunacy.  Although this might explain a few things about the Dinomech.

  And with that, he gets back into the DinoMech and blasts off into the appropriate time of day.

---

"..."

You're not helping any with the small comments Blake.  So far as an ellipsis counts as a comment.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:00, Sat 30 May 2009.

  "...Well, this place makes more sense than the one with the Rainbow shooting bears anyways."

  Darkthorne is adapting to his new job quickly it seems.  Their player adapting to having two PC's exist at the same time in the same place however, not so much.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Sat 30 May 2009.

Satisfied that her furry fanny is back where it belongs, Mittens resumes watching the fight.

"Yeah tell me about it," she says in response to Alexis' comment about politics, "No exaggeration, I was told that even scratching my ear could have dire consequences...  Wait...  Did I miss something?  Why did the teacher just pass out for no reason?"

Mittens slumps in her seat, disappointed she somehow missed the knockout blow.

"Yay for Roar-o-Saur," she agrees with Cham unenthusiastically.

She tilts her head and looks up to take a look at what he's selling.  How DOES he DO that?

"Well if THAT isn't the most hilarious shirt of all time!" she chimes, cheering up, "You bet I'll buy one of those shirts!  HEY!  He's LEAVING!  Aw MAAAN!  Oh well.  I guess that just adds to the mystery.  The Legend of the Robo Super Killer Dino!"

~I wonder what 'Robo' means,~ she thinks, ~'Roar?'~
This message was last edited by the player at 19:37, Sat 30 May 2009.

Prism smiles in reply to J'Renn's apology.  "No offense taken," they say, "We are happy that we now have a way to communicate with you thanks to Her Grace, Queen Alexis. By what name would you like us to address you?"

The word "Ma'am" was intentionally left out just in case Prism is mistaken about the gender or gender labels of J'Renn and her kind.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:53, Sat 30 May 2009.

Hears Prism through Alexis, she ends up projecting to both Prism and Alexis, (I am J'Renn.  I do not have any titles...  Well... Perhaps save for my rank of pilot.  I must say, a compound lifeform such as yourself will be of great interest to the scientists back home.) she looks Prism in what would be thier approximation of eyes.

As Alexis makes her comment about her being involved just by being here, she sighs softly, (I suppose so.  I just hope to minimize my influence.). she projects to the general area.

Once the exitement dies down in the arena, she starts to wonder what's next.

Raichel hrms. She hops into the arena and comments, "You know? I'm kinda glad that dino left. I liked it too much to want to fight it..." Because unlike Mittens, if Raichel likes you, she doesn't want to fight you. That said, she does what she does next not out of hatred, but necessity. She walks out to the center of the arena. Most of the crowd recognizes just who Raichel is (and was). Some people boo, some are silent and, of course, some cheer. The people of fire are divided on their opinion of what happened with the Thunder kingdom because, well, they don't live there. Some believe the propaganda that Raichel was a tyrant who the new ruler rightfully overthrew. Others don't buy it and believe the propaganda that the new ruler is the tyrant. Nobody here really knows for sure the truth on the matter since the facts have been garbled by the current Thunder Ruler's media office... But all that aside, Raichel claims, "I am only one person. I would like to request that I get 5 minutes of rest between fights."

Timothius quickly goes to buy one of the shirts. Then notices Raichel jump in the ring and says "Oh my..." He looks around, knowing most anyone in the crowd is probably too scared witless to challenge such a well known and rumored-to-be-a-goddess person. Of course, much as he'd like to give her a victory, he can't. The politics involved in Raichel fighting ANYONE, much less a ruler like Timothius, would have dire consequences.

Alexis looks worried. Raichel? So soon in the fight? Alexis says, "Oh dear... Just so you know what's going on, J'Renn and Prism, that is the goddess Raichel, ex-ruler of the Thunder Kingdom."

She would turn her attention to Prism. "Her name's J'Renn." She glances at J'Renn, "Did I get that right?"

  Blake makes a note that some sunglasses might be helpful to his future health.  As for Blake's outlook on the political situation, who knows?

  "Five minutes between fights, I'm impressed.  It takes me longer than that.  Then again, it only takes me longer than that if I lose."  This comment made as Blake follows Raichel out into the arena.  "Of course, you didn't come here to lose, now did you?"

  Blake tosses his cloak aside, "Lets not keep the nice audience waiting.  My name is Blake.  Nice to meet you." and starts walking towards Raichel.

OOC Style: And Darkthorne is back in 'skippin posts till needed' land

(( OOC: Going to take some common sense liberties with an NPC that ain't really mine for the sake of Mittens' sanity.  If my assumptions are wrong on this... well I'll just have to change my post to "Mittens flips out that she can't hear what's being said in the arena and insists something be done about it before any further fighting." ))

Fortunately, the arena's builders were wise enough to know that the audience would want to see AND hear everything the combatants do and say in the arena.  Consequently, it's bristling with the latest in high-tech directional microphones that can filter out the noise of the crowd to pick up only what's being said inside the arena.  Raichel's and Blake's conversation became public the moment they stepped into the arena.

Mittens gasps at Alexis' introduction of Raichel and jumps to her feet on her throne!  (She hasn't forgotten that with the crazy 'coon around, "move your feet, lose your seat!") She glances at her advisers, and their startled faces show that what Alexis says is true!  But who could this challenger be that he'd dare face a goddess?!  And how the heck did she get deposed?!  No!  She must have left her throne for more important pursuits!  Mittens is speechless, her fur bristling in excitement.  To fight a goddess...  Just think of the loot!

"Your highness!" her top adviser shouts over the cheering crowd, "Your highness!  I have important information for you about the combatants!  Please lower the flames so I may approach!"

Meanwhile, the play-by-play sports announcer is bragging on the loudspeakers about Raichel and her mysterious challenger.

A kaleidoscope of colors wash over Prism as panic breaks out in the city.  They were already quite nervous being around so many important people of the area, but this seems to have even the Queen of Nature AND the King of Life concerned!  One mega-weapon going off in this arena could drastically change the balance of power of entire region!  What a tempting target Mittens' float must seem to any ambitious assassin now!

Prism regains their composure and begin to hotly debate the issue.

"We rested after teleporting into orbit for this very reason!" Erd argues, "So we could teleport AWAY in an emergency!  This IS that emergency!  The risk is too high to do anything else!"

"Think of the risk of offending the three monarchs by leaving them without their permission!" Uleb objects, "At the very least we should explain ourselves!"

"Our actions here could be the very catalyst that causes the catastrophe we fear so much," Erneg points out, "We should ask the monarchs what they think we should do."

"They're not allowed to admit that their nervous!"

On and on the debate goes.  At last a fact-finding message is decided upon by a narrow margin.

"We too are scientists, pilot J'Renn. We would love to learn more about you and your culture, but right now... we are afraid that with so many monarchs around, we are in danger of being harmed by an assassin, or as you pointed out, upsetting the political balance by mistake at the very least. What should we do to ensure our safety?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:08, Thu 04 June 2009.

As Alexis asks if she says J'Renn's name right, J'Renn shrugs. (It's all just so many noises to me.  I'm not even sure what part was my name.) she admits to Alexis with a sheepish smile, and a shrug.

J'Renn starts to catch on the feeling of uneasyness of the group, and as she picks up on Alexis' perceptions, including Prism's question she replies to both Prism and Alexis, (My vessel is still in transoprter range.  I already have a target lock on myself, but if either of you wish I can evacuate everyone on this platform to my vessel in case of an emergency.) she offers.

J'Renn dosen't seem to recognise Raichel, perhaps she hasn't given the far off planet of Garendi a visit, yet.

Luckily for Timothius, the t-shirt (costing him the low, low price of nothing) does NOT disappear into a puff of sparkles... at least for now.

Cham seems quite sad to see the Dino leave the ring, letting out a pitiful "Awwww...!", but he quickly perks up as he sees the two familiar beings enter the ring. He doesn't know anything about Raichel or Blake's histories, and he doesn't care in the slightest. They're simply two funny beings that he remembers from before for being weird and serious.

Alexis' comment about Raichel does cause Cham to pay attention for a second, and Mittens' reaction gets his attention too, but he doesn't seem all that impressed. Instead, he plops on a brown fedora and a red tie before pulling out an old-fashioned microphone from his non-existent pockets. "Well folks, it is a bee-utiful day for a fight here! In one corner we have an ex-ruler, maybe a queen of lightning! In the other corner, we have a guy who looks like he's ex-living, or at least in dire need of sunlight and orange juice! Who will win? Will Lady Thunder show this mysterious man just how conductive bone marrow is? Or will this mysterious challenger knock her out and send her straight back to her little red and white ball? The tensions are high! The stakes are high! The clouds are high! Look at them up there!"

He goes on for quite a while, listing superlatives that occasionally have to do with what is or isn't going on down in the ring.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:38, Fri 05 June 2009.

Raichel turns her head to look at Blake and then faces her side towards him. "My name is Raichel. Wish it were better circumstances." She has the courtesy to offer her hand. "And you're right. I didn't come here to lose."

Raichel is guilty of underestimating her opponents. But either this guy doesn't recognize her or he's that confident. She chooses to lean on the side of caution and assume he's confident.

The professor's unconscious body is brought before Timothius as per a request he made before he even set eyes on Mittens. All injured are to be brought to him after each fight. He puts a hand on the professor who almost instantly heals. "Oh my..." the professor proclaims. Timothius just gives him a smile briefly before looking back to the upcoming fight with concern. The professor sees who's in the ring and widens his eyes. "Dear me... that poor dinosaur." Timothius huhs? "Oh... don't worry. The dino just blasted off into the sky and left. Then Raichel came out and this Blake guy followed her." The professor ohs. "Oh... OK. Well.. I'm not the only representative from Order around here. But it seems I may wind up being the only representative of Order who will compete today. At least... if SHE stays in the ring. Oh... and thanks for the healing, young man." Timothius just nods, concentrating on the arena again. "You're welcome."

Alexis gives J'Renn a small smile and a nod. "Thanks..." she then looks at Prism. "Remember when I offered to protect you? I meant it. Between me and J'Renn, you all should be safe. And if worse comes to worse, you saw what King Timothius just did. He's a healer."

  "And what circumstances aside from violence would people meet each other in the middle of an arena?  Neither of us want to kill eachother, so that alone is pleasant enough for now."

  Blake accepts the offered hand, his grip rather casual...  Were his hands always in one piece?

  "If you start things off with a Joybuzzer gag however, I'll start off with crushing your hand."

  Confident it is then.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:15, Sun 07 June 2009.

(( OOC: Asked Timothius for a clarification.  He would have asked Mittens to lower the flames of the float so the professor could be brought to him by the first aid staff of the arena.  Mittens would have obliged since there wasn't a fight to interrupt. ))

Mittens' top adviser, who by now I suppose I should give a name...  Frank, uses the opportunity of the flames being lowered for the professor and the two others who were carrying him on a stretcher and approaches her.

"Your Highness," he half-whispers in her ear, (after all, he's competing with the noise of the crowd and two sports-casters, and the fact that Mittens pulls away from lips being brought too close to her ear, "The real Raichel, an extremely heavy-handed tyrant, was deposed and executed by the current King of Thunder with the full support of the people he liberated.  I've seen the video myself.  This person must be a look-alike...  or perhaps the video was staged?  Her opponent..."

"...must be a zombie from the Death Kingdom, judging from his skin tone!" the arena's sports-caster announces.

"...yes.  That."

Mittens pretty much ignores Frank and instead giggles at Cham's commentary.

"You got balls, Professor Don't-Know-Your-Name!" she commends the newly healed combatant, not reacting with any surprise to Timothius' demonstration of healing power, "You're a credit to Place-You-Come-From!  Frank.  Escort this fella, his medics, and yourself off the float.  Give the Professor who would dare fight a metal dino and call the King of Life 'young man' a seat of honor that doesn't crowd me quite so much.  I want to honor him at the end of the day for his massive cohones."

"You make for a pretty good sports announcer... Raccoon who's name I don't think I was told," she says to him, "Hi.  I'm Mittens.  What's your name?"

"As you command, Your Highness."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:49, Mon 08 June 2009.

"I knew it!" Sam blurts out, "She's furious!"

(What?  Not everyone in the Prism colony has to have a weird name. ;p )

Debate rages on how to respond, and some delegates leave in disgust.  Even the idea of having those who still insist on leaving split off and form a new colony is mentioned.  But something like that isn't decided spur of the moment.  At last a reply manages to make it out of committee and passes for lack of a better alternative.

"Thank you for your reassurance," Prism says, looking relieved.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:12, Mon 08 June 2009.

J'Renn watches as the injured professor is carried onto the float.  She watches curiously as Timothius miraculusly cures the injured person.  Having never seen such a thing happen before she begins to wonder if he was even injured to begin with.  She takes out her scanner, holding it in her palm she activates the device, focusing it on the combatants.  She starts recieving information... Life signs, temperature, atmospheric ionization, all sorts of stuff.  She hears all sorts of things from Alexis about those in the ring that she considers impossible, or at the least exaggerated.  (Is all of what I'm hearing from you hyperbole?) she asks of Alexis.

Cham covers his eyes dramatically at the action going on in the ring!

"Ooh! I can't bear to watch, folks! Look at that beee-utiful opening attack from both sides! They're hand in hand! Neck in neck! They better not START necking, though, or this announcer is outta here! ... Eh?" He looks down in surprise at Mittens' greeting, smiling widely and losing the loud voice he was making, "Well! Mittens! Fuzzy and makes you feel all warm. Sounds like a right name for the Queen of Fire!" He chuckles at that and leans further over from the top of the chair, somehow balancing perfectly on his tail despite the fact that he's pretty much hanging upside down by now, "MY name is Cham, Chammy, Chammomille, Chammo-cali-fragi-listic-expi-ali-docious, or Mr. Blue Coon... But you can just call me Cham." He nods with an air of finality, "Good to meet you, Mittens. You're throwing a great party on this thing! Needs more fire, though. I don't even smell anything burning yet!"

Raichel woulda been really annoyed with Blake's comment... about a thousand years ago. Rather unaffected several hundred years ago. But today? "Crush my hand and I'll copy everything you say verbatim in a silly tone. Honestly, do we have to start a *fight* with threats? That's not only redundant, but insulting."

She pulls her hand away and gets into a fighting pose. Her expression hasn't changed. She was serious with everything she said and seems just as serious about where she's going to take this fight.

The professor says, "Thank you, your highness." he offers a polite bow and sits accordingly. "I hail from the City of Order, your excellence. And your adviser is only speaking of one possibility. There is speculation that Raichel is a goddess who can reincarnate. There is also speculation that the Thunder Kingdom's current ruler was not justified in kicking Raichel. But nobody has evidence supporting either theory, therefor neither is of any consequence."

Timothius keeps quiet, not sure himself whether this is true.

Alexis smiles at Prism. "You're welcome." She then looks back to the arena, ears listening to what the professor says. "If that's the REAL Raichel, I wouldn't have to speculate long as to why she's here..."

To J'Renn, she headshakes. "No. It isn't. That down there is really going to be a fight that could literally shake this whole arena."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:04, Fri 12 June 2009.

  Blake smiles and says "I'm sure it could be put to wonderful use as a duet singing voice.  Do you know 'Fake Blood'?" it scares you like the real thing.

  Hey, the lady didn't start off with the reason he'd do the mentioned crushy.  So a convenient start so far.  He thinks.  Regardless, they are here to fight not banter.  Nothing says both can not be done at the same time, but such would require actual fighting to commence already.

  Blake opens up with a few testing jabs, not really expecting results.  Jabs literally like sledgehammers sure, but still.  Raichel is supposed to be good at this.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwoSQpsNg3E 

"Nice to meet you too, Cham," Mittens answers with a smile, "And I agree.  More fire would be good.  Maybe you could use that fancy magic of yours to add some fire to the arena...  Speaking of which, it looks like things are heating up!  Yikes!  Annoying voice mimicry!  Oooh, now THAT's a THREAT!  Why's she here?  Well couldn't be for my favor 'cause I kinda made that up on the fly... unless she's the kind of goddess that can see the future."

In spite of wanting to interject her own take on how likely it is that Raichel was just as unworthy of a throne as the next person is, she decides that it'd be unwise since she could wind up allies before day's end.  Besides, she's got more important things to do, like watch a goddess fight a zombie!  Granted, he's only rumored to be a zombie for his complexion, but where's the fun in someone only looking undead when facing a deity?
This message was last edited by the player at 06:56, Fri 12 June 2009.

Prism is slowly calming down as a whole, largely due to the silliness of the what's being said in the arena and on the fire throne.  It's a reminder that this entire event could be a staged farce.  Prism debates how best respond to J'Renn's question.  Most believe that the question was directed at someone else, probably Alexis, but just to be sure Prism points at itself while giving J'Renn a "who, me?" look.

Having her question anwered, J'Renn smiles, and gives Prisim a dismissing wave.  With security arraingements agreed upon, she contacts her vessel, arrainging for a transporter lock on the group.  Of course nobody who isn't telepathic would even notice the communique.

With the security arraingements complete, she starts to pay attentin to the arena.  Not only is Cham selling things, there seems to be a great number of vendors out there peddling to the crowds.  J'Renn watches a transaction, (Do you all still use currency as a trade medium here?) she asks Alexis, while letting Prisim overhear.

Cham smiles happily at Mittens' suggestion, "Ooh, you really want me to? Heh, I can do that! Just gotta get myself fired up..."

So saying, he pulls himself back onto the top of Mittens' throne and pulls out a table with a crystal ball from his non-existent pockets again. His attire (or lack thereof) blooms into a dark blue wizard's robe, complete with a pointy cap and yellow stars all over both. After getting properly attired, he pushes up his sleeves with a silly face of concentration and begins making waggling motions with his fingers over the crystal ball.

"Hokius pokius, solomon grundy, give me some fire from the land of Gumby!" With a half-magical flash, a green fist appears out of the crystal ball and punches Cham in the nose, causing him to squeak out and quickly apologize. He grumbles something about darned specific magical words and decides to try a simpler approach.

With a wiggle of his nose (complete with 'twinkle twinkle' sound effect!) orange-red puffs of smoke appear all around the area where Blake and Raichel are fighting. At first, it appears to be massive tongues of fire, waving and licking about, but it soon becomes apparent that it's just orange-colored raccoons that otherwise look exactly like Cham, waving their arms and tails about as they pretend to be fire. They even make whooshing sounds to complete the effect.

Raichel parries the jabs with such ease, it doesn't even look like she was paying attention. Wait... she ISN'T paying attention. Not with her eyes anyway. She continues parrying and standing in place while looking around at the Fire Chams. As though she were Neo suddenly realizing he's able to parry an agent without paying him much mind. She cracks the smallest smile with a touch of "aww? isn't that cute" to her expression as she sees the Chams. She then looks over at Blake and says, "I'm glad you're opening with straight up fisticuffs. You're my kind of guy." she says before going for a standard grab-and-throw move on one of his punches. The kind that uses the momentum of the punch itself like tai chi.

Regardless of whether she is successful or not, Raichel would finally step back a bit and get in a ready stance with her eyes on Blake as if finally paying attention. "You're just testing me. I can feel it." The Matrix references over, she decides not to say "stop trying to hit me and hit me." Besides... she, unlike Morphius, doesn't WANT Blake to hit her. She wants him to lose to her.

(OOC: To those who don't know Raichel that well, she was paying attention, using her other senses and such.)

The Professor says, "Actually, your highness... it only takes a moment's thought to realize that fighting in this arena at all would earn your favor. No offense, but you are quite predictable. And for someone like Raichel who is said to be thousands of years old, predicting you would be second nature."

Timothius interjects, "That guy challenging Raichel is from the Death Nation, never mind the obvious appearance. I wonder if he challenged her because of Death's alliance with the current Thunder King." He hopes he distracted Mittens from the professor's "insult" about predictability. But then, he also hopes he's wrong and that maybe the Death Nation is rethinking their stance on the Kingdom of Thunder.

Alexis answers J'Renn's question while keeping her eyes on the fight. "Depends on who you are purchasing from. They might give you something for free, accept cash or credit, or even barter with you. They may accept cash from your world simply for collectability... or were you asking if there is a universal currency around here?" after all, if that's the case, Alexis will have to introduce J'Renn to the financial department.

Alexis looks at Prism, not wanting the collective to feel they've earned the title of "unimportant" and says, "J'Renn was asking me. But if you have something important to say, or feel you can help out, by all means. This fight is pretty important to me, though... so I hope you won't be upset if I seem... distracted."

She has already told herself if Raichel gets beaten, she's stepping into that ring. She looks up to Raichel, but she knows even someone like Raichel can be beaten. Luck, goof up, a second's distraction like those firey Chams in the arena, or even unexpected fetigue could... wait... FIREY CHAMS? She looks closer while holding her tongue and then concludes they are not "aiding" anyone. Not directly anyway. She's no rules lawyer and this is the FIRE arena... not Nature. So Alexis decides it best to let Mittens have a say in this if anyone has a say.

  Blake doesn't seem particularly surprised by this turn of events... Well, maybe the fire Chams.  "So glad you approve."  This comment probably wouldn't be very special, if he wasn't casually saying such mid throw from Raichel's efforts.

  To his credit, Blake does manage to land on his feet with a heavy thud.  Hey, not all recoveries are graceful looking.  "And you are hardly trying.  Not that you needed to in order to deal with the past moment of course, but the fact remains."

  Blake poked at one of the Chams, nodding in satisfaction as it vanished from existence.  "Thought as much."  Enforcing default reality could be such fun at times.  "Now, where were we?  Ah yes."  This said, his outstretch arm whipped towards Raichel and down... and past her...

  And literally into the ground.  He somehow doubted simple earthshaking impacts would be much of a hindrance to Raichel, but on the off chance they were he'd follow up with a less potentially lethal strike towards her stomach.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:25, Tue 23 June 2009.

Mittens laughs cheerfully at Cham's antics.

"That's perfect!" she says with a big smile, "And it looks like things are already picking up between those two!"

She signals for her P.A. guy to turn the mic on and addresses the arena's crowd:

"The fiery special effects are courtesy of my magical guest, Cham!"

She then signals for the guy to turn the mic off.

"I'll bet you've started a trend, Cham.  More than likely there'll be more special effects at the arena from now on."

She then leans on the left arm of her throne.

"No offense taken," she answers the Professor  with a sly smirk just before he takes the last steps off the royal float, "I imagine it's practically a compliment where you come from."

She then addresses Timothius.

"I'd like to think that politics didn't even cross their minds," she sighs, "But you're probably right.  How 'bout you?  What's your opinion of the fisticuffs lovin lady?  Would you sooner fight her than risk her getting a favor from me that'll likely be an UN-favor for the current thunder king?"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:46, Tue 23 June 2009.

Prism bows courteously to Alexis without a word.  They agree by a wide margin that they do not have anything to say that the Queen of Nature would deem important or helpful enough.  Instead they form various committees to discuss the personalities present.

The Cham committee concludes that he's very likely a well respected member of the Chaos Kingdom.  Perhaps a professional comic.  Probably not ill-intentioned.

The J'Renn committee, with much cross-over with SMIRC (who it was decided that they should keep their name in spite of now knowing J'Renn's real name is not Sky Mind), agrees that J'Renn is likely a space-faring science explorer from another star system, much like Prism is.  Probably not ill-intentioned.

The Timothius and Alexis committees conclude that they both are living up to their reputations, and that Prism has nothing to fear from them.

The Mittens committee agrees that she is probably the most dangerous person present.  Largely due to her being a likely target for a political assassination, but also due to her apparent inexperience as a queen.  She could easily overcompensate by ordering execution for a minor offense.  Recommend extreme caution.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:05, Tue 23 June 2009.

J'Renn Looks over at Alexis as she senses that Alexis may do something reckless if the match dosen't turn out well for Raichel.  (I see. My people stopped using currency quite some time ago.) she transmits to Alexis.  when the ground shakes from the impact of Blake's strike J'Renn's attention turns to the readout from her scanner.  (That wasn't an artificially created tremor.  He ACTUALLY shook the ground with that impact!) she projects to the group.  (Someone could be killed in there, including bystanders if the collateral damage spreads too far.) she warns.

The Cham that Blake pokes at lets out a squeak as its poked and vanishes from sight in a puff of orange-yellow smoke. The other Chams all start making a racket at the loss of their compatriot, hooting and hollering at the fighting in the ring while still managing to make the 'wooshing' effects and movements. When Blake pummels the ground and shakes it, all the Chams bounce around in their self-formed ring, swaying back and forth on their tails like bobbing serpents. A few of them disappear for the heck of it, but most stay around or reappear to keep cheering the fighers on like some kind of raccoonian war tribe. Of course, they never leave the ring that they've made, staying well out of the fighters' ways.

Back on the throne, Cham grins widely at Mittens comments, "Heh! You think more will be doing this too? That's awesome! Wait... wait, no! It's NOT awesome!" He folds his arms and raises his nose to the air, "I can't have folks copying me! Let 'em get their OWN brand of firey raccoon tribes to infest the ring!
After the earthquake and ensuing retaliation, he hops down and lands on top of Timothius' head, light as a feather as he perches there and leans over to look at the king of Light, "Ya know, you look so serious... You keep saying stuff about the Thunder King and the Death Kingdom, but *I* like to think that they're causing soon-to-be-massive destruction because it's fun! C'mon! I know you're gonna wanna be in the ring next, huh? If that guy in there really is from the Death Kingdom, then the King of Life should be his opponent! The crowd would LOVE it! We might even get a riot going!"

Raichel would levitate in response to the quake, and although she didn't think Blake was going to follow through with a punch right afterwords, she has the reflexes to dodge and, of course, go for another toss using his momentum.

She is undecided how to continue this fight, so she says, "Tell me if I'm wrong: You're the kind of guy who believes in a fair fight, but once the opponent stops playing fair, you do the same?"

She is still levitating, but lightly touches the ground again as soon as the quake stops.

Timothius answers Mittens, "No. Actually, if she loses, I intend to find out what she was after and possibly fight for that reason myself. Whatever it is, I believe in her."

Timothius then huhs? and looks at Cham. He smiles and says, "For fun? I really hope so. But just look at Raichel... she doesn't look like she's having fun, does she? Though your make-shift fire made her smile briefly, I think." He can't help it and reaches up to hopefully grab Cham for a hug. "Anyone ever tell you you're cute?" Hey... it's what Cham gets for getting too close to Timothius, who loooooves cute, cuddly things.

Alexis thinks on J'Renn's comment and nods. "I'll protect the people if it comes to that." she says matter-of-factly like she doesn't care how powerful the people in the arena are. "No currency?" she asks somewhat interested. "So your people barter?"

  Blake is as surprised about this as anyone who would follow up an incredibly localized Earthquake with a punch.  Which is to say not very.

  His landing from Raichel's tossing is less than graceful this time.  Although saying 'landed on your face' is less than graceful may be understatement.  However there is a mild snag in Raichel's planning, as we direct the audience's attention to Blake's hand clutching her left wrist.

  "Well, I suppose that's usually how it goes.  Yes." This said as he stands back up.  "Now, why don't you show off your dodging skills some more."

  Can Raichel defend themselves from Blake striking with his free hand with one arm held onto for the foreseeable future?  Survey says... Probably.

Mittens is just LOVING all the fun going on!  She can't stop giggling!  "No worr-hur-ies, Cha-ham," she laughs, in response to Cham's fears of copyright infringement, "I doubt they cou-hould if they tried!"

"Oh wou-hould you?" she asks Timouthius pleadingly, "I wou-hould LOVE to see-hee you fight!"

She's equally amused by the "cute" comment.

As if on cue to respond to J'Renn's concerns, the sports announcer makes the following announcement:

"We would like to thank the audience again for participating in this history making event!  The opinions expressed should not be taken as a position of or endorsement by the Arena Management, the government of the Fire Nation, or any participants. The Arena Management is not responsible for the content of combatant banter or combatant behavior.  Printed on the back of your ticket you will find your personal disclaimer statement."

Should anyone look, the following is printed in tiny lettering on the back of their ticket:
I accept and understand that there are obvious and inherent risks in combat sports and that I may be injured, maimed, or killed due to viewing or participation in recreational services at the Arena.  While every attempt is made to ensure that the conditions provided at the Arena are correct and safe, some aspects of combat sports are potentially hazardous. By purchasing this ticket I am acknowledging that I am personally responsible for my own safety to the full extent permitted by law, under the Civil Liability Act of the Fire Nation.  I give up the right, now or at any time in the future, for anyone to recover compensation or obtain any other remedy for any injury or death to myself resulting from my being at the Arena.

((OOC: taken nearly word-for-word from a real water sports disclaimer form.))
This message was last edited by the player at 01:09, Sat 04 July 2009.

Prism had already read the disclaimer on the ticket Alexis had bought for them, but the committee assigned to consider the actual to implied risk of accepting those terms had, in the excitement of the events that followed, been side-lined.  Now that the sports announcer has made the general population aware of the disclaimer, the ticket committee is reconvened and given higher priority.

Alexis has already asked J'Renn the obvious question, so Prism turns it's face to J'Renn to indicate that they are interested in the answer.

J'Renn dosen't pay too much attention to the announcer, as it is to her might as well be saying 'Meow mew meowmeow meow.', and Alexis opinion that she'll take care of any issues.

In reply to the question of the Garendian economy she replies, (Well, with some things, we barter.  But after the perfection of matter/energy synthisis, and the development of antimatter power things like food, shelter, trinkets, and simple equipment can be provided at almost no cost.  It gave material objects no value, and it collapsed the economy.  It was then we realised we don't really need a fiat economy anymore.  People work for the good of our world, or to follow thier interests.) she admits.

When Timothius snags Cham for a hug, the little raccoon squeaks out, "Ack! Watch the fur! Hehe, I'm ticklish!"

Once he's in the winged cat's clutches, he suddenly turns himself into something of a mix of a raccoon and a stuffed teddy bear, complete with cute lil' stubby arms and button-white eyes. He sticks his tongue out at Mittens' laughing at his situation, "Laugh while you can! This guy's got wings! ... I'm sure they set on fire and stuff, but he's still got 'em and you don't!"

He looks up at Timothius curiously, "Ya know, sometimes I wonder if wings confuse you... Hmmm.
If you were a cloud, and sailed up there,
You'd sail on water as blue as air,
And you'd see me here in the fields and say:
'Doesn't the sky look green today?'"
He turns his head back down to the arena, watching the fight unfold as his self-made cheerleaders continue to cheer for both sides, and inbetween still pretending to be fire. "On second thought...Nah."

Raichel moves to use Blake's holding arm as a temporary place to hide behind before she grabs the arm that's holding her and applies pressure on the wrist in hopes of forcing a let-go. See... normally, the way to escape a one-handed grab is as simple as yanking out at the weak point: the thumb. But Raichel tried that even as the grab was made and discovered Blake's thumb doesn't count as a weak point. Even as strong as Raichel is. She is having her doubts that the applied pressure will hurt enough for Blake to let go, but figured it was worth a shot. She will only have so many tricks before Blake would eventually land a hit if she doesn't escape soon.

Raichel says, "The problem comes in figuring out what you consider fair. Seeing as how different people have entirely different ideas on what fair is. Some people say "no fair" as soon as they are in pain."

Technically, neither Blake nor Raichel have been hit yet. Both have been grabbed. Blake's been tossed, not that it seemed to phase him when it happened. "Tell you what. Set some ground rules and I'll tell you my ground rules?" she offers.

Alexis seems skeptical. She doesn't believe economy would give up so willingly. But she says nothing on it for now. She then looks at Prism. "You've been quiet, Prism. Engaged by the fight?" she asks, also semi-distracted by the fight. She is starting to doubt this Blake dude is anyone she has to worry too much about. He may be powerful, but he seems *gasp* sensible. She hopes.

Timothius glances at Mittens when she comments on him fighting. "I'd rather not fight if I can help it. A lot at stake if I lose, no matter who I lose to." Can't fail if you don't try.

He smiles brightly at Cham. "Do you exist to make people happy or something?" he asks Cham, fiddling with one of his ears.

The professor raises an eyebrow. The pure chaotic energies emitting from Cham have him wondering. But Cham seems to be fun loving and somewhat of a charismatic piece of work. He lifts a monicle to his right eye and addresses Cham. "*ahem* Cham. I do believe you would like to have a bout with someone in the arena. If I may suggest someone I believe you will find fun? There are no rules for more than one fight happening in the same arena. And if you'd be worried about missing the other fights while you battle, you could always go for a tag-team battle instead."

Before anyone can accuse the Professor of being a nerd, ANYONE could deduce these facts from the sheer LACK of rules. Remember... only two rules: You must accept any single challenge from one person at a time. And no killing. That's it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:13, Sun 05 July 2009.

  "Well, on my end there are the difficulties inherent in not wanting to kill you.  As for you, do what you feel like.  While you should keep in mind you're here to impresses people..."

  Blake started gradually increasing the pressure on his grip, not quite up to 'bone grinding' yet by Raichel's standards, but not a good sign for what may soon happen.

  "You are far less limited in your actions here, even within the standards of 'fair combat' against me.  I can't hurt you unless you let me."

  Less than tactically sound, but good for emphasis Blake leaned closer to Raichel and said "And that will hardly impress anyone."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:17, Mon 06 July 2009.

Mittens grins.  "You remind me of my brother, Timothius," she says, "A lot.  Methinks you and I will get along famously outside my being jealous of your wings and cool armor.  The halo's a nice touch, but... it's just not me."

She turns her attention back to the ring and raises an eyebrow at the fighters' conversation.  Sure she's very curious who Timothius would suggest Cham should fight, but she's betting that that conversation will unfold without her help.

"The big guy's surprisingly very humble and uninterested in eating brains," she comments about Blake.

~Not as much as we are with you,~ is decided to be an improper answer.

"Yes, your highness," Prism replies, "And there is much else to be engaged in too. Your conversation with J'Renn for example. We'd be very interested to learn more of her and her culture with you."

Not to mention her culture's technology, but it's widely agreed upon that Prism should not say as much yet.  Just because they gave up money doesn't mean they'd give away technological advancement "for free."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:27, Thu 09 July 2009.

J'Renn keeps an eye on the match seeing that the brawl hasn't escalated to something more collaterally destructive, she sets up a warning on her scanner, just in case the combatants unwittingly send a large piece of arena that vectors in towards her.

As they seem to be all right for now, J'Renn continues the general conversation, projecting to the group, (Of course.  When we're not in such a distracting environment I'd be happy to talk about our diffrent peoples.  I'd especially be interested in any facts and folklore about the universal core.)

Cham giggles again as his ear is fiddled with by Timothius, twitching it cutely, "Hehehee, quitit! I exist to make SOME people happy, and sometimes I don't exist to make OTHER people happy. Of course, they don't always know when they're happy... Screaming is a sign of happiness, right?"

His eyes light up at the Professor's offer, "Ooooh! You've got someone for me to fight? Yeah, yeah! I'll take 'em all on!" His fists turn into massive red boxing gloves as he punches at the air vigorously, looking rather silly as he's still in Timothius' arms. "I'll pulverize 'em! I'll show 'em I'm a contender! I'll MAKE 'em tender! I've got the eye of the raccoon! Heck, I've got two of 'em!" He stops for a moment, looking up at the Professor, "Uhm... what were you offering again?"

Due to the various distractions to Cham's senses, the firey Chams have since disappeared from the arena in less-than-flashy puffs of sparkles.

Raichel considers the idea of being killed at the hands of Blake. What would it mean for people? It'd be a big setback for her at least, but what are the benefits? She decides it better to stay alive this time.

She frowns as Blake increases his grip. "I'm not here to impress a crowd." she says in a low tone. "I'm here to win. And since you said you'd crush my hand if I used that buzzer on you, yet you are crushing it *anyway*, fair. Is. Fair."

With as much juice as she can muster in such a short amount of time, Raichel unleashes about a million volts of electricity into Blake. He can't exactly dodge at this point since he's holding onto her and she's holding onto him.

With that much juice going on, the crowd can easily see the electricity dancing about the two of them.

Alexis, still without looking at J'Renn or Prism says, "The Heart of the Universe is proven to be the center of it all. If you can get up to it, it will grant you one wish. Rumor has it, that is how Raichel achieved her immortality centuries ago. Once a person has made a wish from the Heart, that person may not make a wish from it for another month."

Timothius has succum to the cuteness that is Cham. Upon hearing the exchange between Cham and the professor, he idly stops scritching Cham to listen in on what the Professor is going to suggest.

The Professor says, "Why yes, Cham. There are two you can try your mettle against. One of chaos and one of order." he pulls out a mini video device to show Cham a video feed of Emerald, who is just minding her own business sitting in a spectator chair. "Here is the chaos one." he then changes the channel. "And here is the order one." it shows Miranda. She too is sitting in a spectator seat. "The chaotic fox you saw earlier is a little shy, but I imagine a challenge issued will bring her out into the arena. And the other girl I showed you is not shy at all, but if you felt like trying her out before anyone else can, I figured I may as well give you that option."

  Oh, wow.  You ever see one of those over the top electrocuted to death scenes where the remains are a charred black mannequin prop?  It's kinda like that for Blake.

  "Well, I was more considering just during the handshakeing moment.  But this is what I was going for."  Raichel's arm is no longer in danger of being snapped in half.  Though whether that’s a conscious choice of Blake being distracted from that from her comments (or say, a million volts) is anyone's guess.

  "I wonder if they will show a slow motion replay of when my eyeballs exploded?"  He comments to nobody in particular as he attempts to toss Raichel aside in a manner similar to skipping a stone across water... only this would be a Goddess across ground.

  But hey, she can fly.  She should be fine.  So long as they also remember they'd be headed for a wall.

Speaking of exploding eyeballs, Mittens' eyes are as wide as saucers as she gawks at the suddenly amped-up action taking place in the Arena. ^O_Д^O

"Did you see that?!" she asks, jumping out of her seat with such enthusiasm it knocks the throne over, "That was... WOW!  Now he reeeally looks like a zombie!  Checkitout!!!  He's still fighting!!!  I just KNEW they were holding back!"

She cheers and whistles enthusiastically, tail wagging excitedly, fists pumping in the air!

"Who IS this guy?!  No way he's a normal zombie!  How can he still be talking casual?!  Or see what he's doing for that matter?!"

"Looks like Her Magesty is quite impressed, Bill!" one of the sports announcers mentions in an amused tone.

"I think this marks the first time in history a sports event has toppled the Fire Throne, Mel!" the other answers.

Adviser Frank facepalms yet again at the Queen's antics, and directs that the fires of the float be lowered so he can set the throne back upright.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:18, Thu 16 July 2009.

Riots erupt inside of Prism as panic spreads like wildfire.  Never before have they seen such a frightening display of power at such close proximity!  Prism's surface shimmers in a kaleidoscope of colors and the air around them ripples as if their temperature has risen drastically.  Law enforcement and public service announcements manage to calm the population well enough that they regain their composure somewhat.

"Reaching this heart is not a common occurrence, is it?" they ask, "We would wish for an end to needless violence."

J'Renn listens carefully to Alexis, the story she was briefed about sounds very similar to the one Alexis tells.  (I was afraid of that...) she lets slip out of her mind.  (Its sounds as if the core is difficult to reach.) she assumes hopefully.  (I may head there myself, if only to see just how difficult it is to reach.  Would I need any sort of permit to enter the core sector?) she asks.  She quietly hopes it's a bit more difficult to reach than it sounds, if she can't reach the core, ceartainly her enimies wouldn't have a chance.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:02, Wed 22 July 2009.

Cham looks over the choices presented to him by the good professor, totally having forgotten about the fight going on between Blake and Raichel.

"Oooh, I like the foxy! The purple girl looks kind of boring... but she IS purple. Hmmm..." He nods his head slowly, scratching his muzzle in thought before snapping his fingers with a grin, which looks rather odd with boxing gloves on. "Ya know, you're really soft and friendly. I like you! Bye-bye!" He nuzzles back against Timothius before slipping out from the winged cats arms and trying to slip his head into the video device to get closer to Emerald, shouting "Heeey! Ya wanna rumble?"

If, for whatever reason, Cham cannot manipulate the professor's device, he still is more than happy to shout his challenge at the screen very loudly.

Just outside of the arena, on the cusp of all of the commotion, a young female skunk, Paula, is sitting against one of the arena walls, in a relaxed lotus position. Her garments are very light and flowing, with decorations on the sleeves and ankles and a belt with a bright red ruby.

She looks up at the burning sky of the Fire Kingdom, looking for the stars. After several minutes, she closes her eyes and lets out a long sigh of concentration. The presence of Death is heavy around here, she feels... So heavy that she can smell it. She tries to focus in on that sense of Death, trying to determine why it's here... but she can't quite get it.

With another sigh, she opens her eyes and listens to the tumult inside of the arena.

Raichel is tossed and does, indeed, fly. And yes, she stops before hitting the wall. Not because she "remembered" she was heading for it, but because it's reflex in order to "stay in the ring" or else be disqualified. Although, she somewhat suspects that rule doesn't apply here... it's still force of habit. What can ya do?

She hrms and says, "Something tells me that whole eye thing is only a setback for you. And if it isn't, the King of Life is here. Just f-y-i."

She's realizing more and more, mostly from Blake's attitude, that she may have just met one of the other immortals and thus, met someone who's a match for her.

"Well... I have respect for you. So I hope you'll have the same for me."

She glances up. It's lucky for Blake that the fire kingdom rarely has clouds. "....Fire Kingdom.... figures..." Raichel lightly says to herself before shrugging it off and shooting a bolt of lightning at Blake.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:59, Thu 30 July 2009.

Alexis wiggles her pointy ears as she hears J'Renn and Prism's comments. "Yes. It's hard to get there. Yes, you need a permit. No, you can't simply attain one through paperwork. It's more of a... being powerful or clever enough that nobody can do anything about it permit. Which, as you can see before you, is what Raichel is. And that's why people rumor she got her immortality from wishing for it at the core."

Timothius cracks a smile at Cham and says, "...thanks." <He likes me!> he thinks to himself with glee. As for Mittens' cheering, well, he doesn't wanna ruin her fun. But he curiously watches the fight, tilting his head and perking an ear while dropping the other.

Emerald had been watching the whole fight and is quite fascinated when Blake seems to keep fighting like losing his eyes and such is no big deal. "Yip!" she vulps, covering her mouth as said eye loss and flesh rending happens.

Suddenly, a holographic screen with Cham's face appears in front of her and she widens her eyes, looking shocked. "I... that's no way to greet a lady." she comments with a smile, clearly meaning it as a tease. "But sure!"

  Blake couldn't possibly be a cause of impending doom sense.  He'd have to have some oppressive aura of oh right, he does to those that pay attention to that sort of thing.

  That and smelling like a person BBQ.  "Of course, it's only a mild inconvenience."  That might be more convincing if he wasn't facing the wrong direction when he said that.

  Whether he realized the proper direction on his own, or another arc of electricity upside the head was the reason he turned to face the right way, Blake did so.  He had also broken off a handful of glass from the poor abused used to be sand ground.

  It's a good thing now that there is a wall behind Raichel, because said wall will have any crushed glass that doesn't hit the mentioned Thunder Goddess imbedded in it instead of the audience.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:25, Fri 31 July 2009.

Mittens is still in multitask overload, but at least half of her attention is on the fight.

"Now THAT's what I'm TALKIN' about!" she exclaims with a little zap of her own, "Poser my Puss'n'boots!  If that's not a reborn lightning goddess, I don't know what is!"

She slaps the back of her hand on Timothius' shoulder.

"Wow!  Did you hear that?  She knows you're here, Kingy!  Not only does she know you that, but she knows you can heal massive damage and that you'd be willing to cure an earthquake boss zombie!  Did you chat with her before you introduced yourself to me?"

She smirks and watches out of the corner of her eye to see his reaction.  Meanwhile she snirks at Cham's antics and begins to wonder if he's a master of moogle-type magic.  She'll be very interested to see him in a fight.  Mittens earflicks at the conversation between Alexis and J'Renn.  Wish for immortality?  Not her first choice.  Sounds like a fun quest though.

Maybe half of a percent of her awareness shrugs off the guy righting her throne and putting a "reserved for the Fire Queen" note on the seat.

Lighnting bolts and shotgun glass flying about in the arena, and what does Prism take note of?

"It seems we underestimated the Fire Queen," one rep from the Mittens committee addresses the others, "She noticed something we missed."

The assumption is that with millions of highly organized individuals, little gets by you collectively.  Problem with that is how easy it is to overlook the one individual who noticed what the rest missed.

"How could this have happened?"

"The records department shows that the Raichel watch group was taking notes on her tactics and likely voltage output."

"According to this record, several grass-roots petitions that pointed out the implications of her banter were filed with the Raichel group, but those petitions were subsequently pigeonholed for 'future analysis.'"

"We need to bring this to the attention of the oversight committee.  We can't report accurately on the Fire Queen if we don't have all the facts!"

But the general assembly has other concerns to deal with.  Such as the implications of general safety now that lightning bolts and shotgun glass are being tossed around.  Or whether to ignore the "Report on the Implications of the Nature Queen's Ear-Flick" in favor of hearing the "Report on the Implications of Cham's Ability to Shove His Head Through A Video Feed" or the "Report On Possible Motives The Professor Involved A Fox in the Audience."  How ironic that in spite of so many individuals, Prism's multitasking prowess is also challenged in this situation.

"Then it's very dangerous?" Prism asks Alexis.

After Alexis tells her story, J'Renn looks confused. (So it is simply a matter of forcing my way there...)  She looks back out onto the arena floor to watch Raichel, the one who allegedly made it there.  Raichel looks very impressive, demonstrating powers well beyond any individual J'Renn knows, but nothing that can't be matched and bettered with technology.

(I would assume anyone, or anything capable of defeating her would stand a good chance, of gaining acess to the galactic core.)  She ponders, sharing with the group.  (She is certainly impressive in individual competition.  I wonder how she'd fare against something really powerful?).  She starts to pay atention to her scanner, getting a reading from the lightning bolt, (Hmm, 1.21 gigawatts.  Weapons on a fighter craft put out more power than that.).

Cham smiles wide as Emerald agrees to his challenge.

"Hah! Great! There's gonna be a rumble!" He shouts behind himself at no one as he stands in front of the screen, "Get the posse! Grease up the hogs! There's gonna be a rumble tonight!"

As he calls outs, Chams start scrambling out from all kinds of places, such as from behind seats and out of hats and popcorn buckets. They're in various 'greaser' attire, with leather jackets and t-shirts and some even with obviously fake pompadour wigs. By the time they're all behind Cham, there's about five.

"Yeah! Rumble!"
"Got my switchblade right here! ... Ah nuts! It's in the other jacket!"
"We're gonna blast through 'em at jet speed!"
"When you're a jet, you're a jet all the way!"
"Let me at 'im! Let me at 'im!"

At once, they all collectively stop at a sudden thought, looking at Emerald on the screen and asking in unison, "Uh... how do we start?" The real Cham looks down suddenly as Blake throws the glass at Raichel and, ultimately, the wall, "Ooh! Shiny stuff! He's fighting with it!"

All of the collective heads in his 'gang' turn towards the center of the arena in a flash, fighting to get a better view. Despite there being so many, they're still small enough to not crowd too much, and they seem to have a habit of perching on anything they would otherwise be crowding.

Paula falls forward a little in surprise at the sounds coming from inside of the arena, looking back at the wall she'd been up against as if it had generated all of that clamor.

With a sigh, she picks herself up to standing, looking around before looking up at the sky and the stars. She murmurs a prayer to herself gently, as well as a wish to her Master for strength, before she starts around to the entrance.

She doesn't want to, but she knows that the only way to learn more about the feelings she's getting is to see inside of the arena for herself. Not to mention, the king of Life is supposed to be present here as well. She tells herself that both of those are excellent reasons for making herself go into this place.

Sighing as she enters, she tries to avoid watching the fighting and walks to find a clear area to sit at and get a better hold on her surroundings.

Timothius replies to Mittens. "I knew her while she was the Queen of the Thunder Kingdom. But I have not spoken with her today, if that's what you mean. Chances are she simply knew I would be here since she's known me for a while now. That and your throne is hard to miss, so she may have looked and seen me."

He continues watching. "...please be careful, Raichel..."

Meanwhile, Paula would probably notice what Timothius just pointed out. The queen of fire is clearly easy to spot due to the FLAMING THRONE ENTERAGE (tm). Also easy to spot is Timothius sitting with the queen. And should Paula be extra perceptive, she'd notice Alexis as well. Whether she would recognize her or not is still in the air.

Alexis glances from J'Renn to Prism. Thankfully, she can answer both of them at the same time. "It's very dangerous, yes. Many have tried and died." she glances at J'Renn and says nothing about what Raichel is capable of. Partly because she doesn't know Raichel's limits herself. "Can a fighter craft move about indoors with ease?" she asks, as if to point out using a fighter to reach the heart would be a relatively bad idea.

Raichel has a few shards of glass go right through her. No... she doesn't phase. Blood shoots out of her like she was shot by a shotgun. She continues hovering and says, "You're really strong. But fast too. I wonder what else you can do."

Seems Blake and Raichel at least have the "pain is inconvenient" tolerance in common. "You gave me an idea." she comments before scooping up sand and putting her hands together, shooting a lightning bolt that's loaded with sand-turning-into-glass at Blake.

Her wounds close. What people here probably don't know is that Raichel isn't really healing so much as using her body control to speed up the process of clotting as well as covering up her being injured. It's like an on-the-fly bandage. She will still need medical attention, but at least she won't be bleeding out.

It's too bad Paula is avoiding looking at the arena or she would know the fraggin' ex-queen of Thunder was in there fighting what is turning out to be an elite undead dude.

Emerald hops out of her seat and into the arena. The very first thing out of her mouth as soon as her feet hit the sand in the arena is, "I'm so going to lose. Badly. And that's not mentioning the fact I'll get really hurt by the crossfire between Lightning Lass and the Toxic Avenger."

She waves and the announcer zooms in on her for the televisions to see. "It seems another challenger has entered the ring before the fight has even ended! Then again, there are no rules against outside help... but is that why she's in there?"

Emerald seems to have a couple of books chained on her person and a pair of goggles on her head. Also, she's currently wearing an ornate green tunic. She pulls one of the books into her hands and begins looking through it while pointed at Blake and Raichel. "Mm-hmm..." she says as she reads what is in the book. Soon as Cham enters the arena, she would also point herself in his direction, flipping the page of the book before glancing up towards him.

  There are certain signs one is an experienced combatant.  Some look for technique, others look for a proficiency with weapons.

  A certain sign in Blake's case would be the fact he's closed the distance between Raichel and himself during his opponents banter.  I mean really, how often have people done that?

  However there seems to be a significant flaw in his plan.  Yes, both of them seem to have 'ignore pain' down to an ignoring of Science.  And yes Blake is looking rather crispy.

  "Oh deahktthpltch"  Well, you try finishing a comment without difficulty when seven eights of your head has been blown off.  He's still got a bit of the back.

  Blake's body (it might be redundant to call it a corpse? Nevermind he's technically Unliving, however the hell that’s any different from Undead) topples with it's forward momentum and skids to a stop in front of Raichel.

  There is some good news however.  Thanks to the crispy frying Raichel has directed at Blake so far, he doesn't spatter blood all over her footwear... Or maybe he doesn't bleed anyway.  Who knows?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:37, Fri 07 Aug 2009.

Once again, Mittens is tickled by Cham's antics.

"Dunno what he's making reference to," she admits, "But whatever it is, it's funny now!"

Timothius confirms Mittens' guess that he knew Raichel on a face-to-face basis, but Mits is too distracted to reply.  She gawks at the scene in shock.

"O...M...GEE!!!" she exclaims, pat-patting Timothius' armored chest in excitement, "He just got his face... OFF!"

She hand gestures around her face.

"At this point, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he just gets right back up and keeps fighting!"

She glances at the fox-girl stepping into the arena and Mm-hmms as well.

"If not, I'm looking forward to how this next match will go!"

Ordinarily, Prism would be very upset at the sight of someone getting their head asploded, but today they've been assured on a number of occasions that the King of Life will heal the injured.  Then there's the evidence of Blake more or less shrugging off having his eyeballs exploded.  Still... there's a significant difference between the two, and the effort involved in healing the latter just might be proportionate.

"I'm curious if His Highness can put the man back together again."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:21, Tue 11 Aug 2009.

J'Renn looks back at Alexis, (Not really, and my ship is quite a bit larger than a fighter craft, but it can remove a building if need be.  Though to be honest I had no idea it was surrounded by a building.). 

J'renn face expresses her shock as Blake's head is blown all but off, but the beheading is only part of the shock,  (I...  I don't think he's actually dead.) she informs the group.

And it's this moment her brain decides to bring up the point, (It must have been dangerous for the construction team to build the building around the core.)...  Wait, isn't it Joe's job to be pointing out things like this?  He must be busy...

By the time that Cham(s) makes it down to the arena, Raichel has already used the brilliant strategy of firing a shiny bolt at Blake's head. Unfortunately for Cham(s), it seems like a terrible waste of that shiny glass!

There's plenty of it still strewn across the ground, and the greaser Chams all scramble around to pick a piece up as they get into the arena grounds, shouting "It's mine!"

It takes a few seconds for them all to circle around the main one, each holding a shard of glass in his hands excitedly and trying to see who has the better one, but that's quickly stopped as they realize that they're on full display in the middle of an arena. Looking around furtively at first, they each hold up one of the shards, which oddly have begun glowing different colors.

"Thunder!"
"Fire!"
"Wind!"
"Death!"
"Heart!... er... I mean, LIFE!"
"GO CHAOS!"

Suddenly, the Chams all condense into one, who floats above the ground dramatically, his hands outspread, "May our enemies beware... By your powers combined, I am Ch-Ooooh! Watcha reading?"

His dramatic intro stops quite suddenly as he zips to perch above Emerald's shoulders and get a better look at the book she's reading, peering down curiously. Of course, he hasn't forgotten that Blake and Raichel are still in the ring, but he figures they still have stuff to talk/gurgle about and they don't seem to be fighting with glass anymore.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:12, Mon 24 Aug 2009.

Paula does indeed see the Fire Throne, staring at it in slight awe. She's never had a personal audience with the Fire Queen, but she had heard about her being quite energetic. The King of Life, however, greatly catches her attention, causing her eyes to widen. What's HE doing here?

Her mind swims with several questions as she tries to find a seat. The new thoughts of the King of Life being in such a violent setting makes her momentarily forget about the looming feeling of Death. The feeling of that too, however, still lingers and makes her feel even more mucked up.

Silently, she takes a seat next to the purple girl that the professor had shown Cham earlier, looking somewhat lost.

Curiously, she takes a quick look down at the arena ring below and screams at the sight of the headless combatant, pulling her knees up to her and directing her sight back at the Fire Throne. Beneath her fur, she blushes furiously at her own outburst of shock, trying not to look TOO out of place.

Timothius figures this guy is some kind of undead dude, but he doesn't wanna just assume. He flies directly into the arena and straight to Blake. Figuring the guy doesn't have hearing anymore, he just lands next to him, kneels, and touches his head area in an attempt to regenerate the head.

And yes, this all happened in seconds. He totally didn't respond to Mittens or wait or anything.

Alexis says, "It is... it's surrounded by a building. I hear the building is made of the toughest stuff in the universe."

She sees Blake's head explode and her eyes become saucers. "Oh my.... Raichel, what have you done?" she says quietly.

To Prism's question, Alexis says, "I don't know... I honestly don't know. Looks like we're about to find out."

Raichel covers her mouth and tears well up in her eyes. "Ohmigosh!" she squeeks, taking a rather cringey pose and squatting slightly with her knees pointed inward. "No... no... I didn't kill him. He'll be fine..." she says trying to comfort herself before Timothius arrives on the scene. She hurries over to them and stops short of Blake, biting her lower lip and looking quite worried. "I didn't think it'd hurt him that bad!" she answers in all honesty. "I only amped it up to a million volts... it's not like I was trying to kill him!"

Emerald watches Blake's head asplode and lets out a puppy squeal from being startled. She ewes. "Not a good day for Blake..." she comments, not reacting quite as adamantly as Raichel.

She also seems to smile as Cham merges with himself only to pop onto her shoulders. The book seems to show a snapshot of Cham much like the icon on RPOL and describes him briefly with the following:

Name: Cham
Threat Level: 3
Personality: Selfish Joker

Symbol Attribute: Chaos

Mind: Low
Body: Super
Spirit: High

Signature Abilities:
Teleport, Pocket-space, Physics Immunity

Weaknesses:
Personal Rules, High End Order


....Emerald glances up at him and says, "Oh it's just a book I keep with me to learn things about people." she closes the book and lets it dangle from the chain that attaches it to her belt. Having thought up a way to fight him based off what she read, she says, "If I recall, the rules don't say how we are supposed to fight, so... wanna play a game?" she asks with a smile. She is trying to think of a game she can win against him, since something like Twister would be easy for Cham.

Miranda meeps at the sight as well. "Oh dear!" she comments. "Is that guy gonna... Oh... OK..." she says as if in a conversation with someone. She looks over at Paula and instantly reaches to hug her. "It'll be OK..." she hopes. "That's Raichel down there... if the guy is dead, he probably deser..." she sees Raichel freaking out and that stops her from finishing her sentence. "Um... oh dear." she says, clinging a little tighter to either Paula or herself.

  You know those times where the seemingly downed zombie grabs for your ankles as you walk by?  Well, that doesn't happen here.

  Blake grabs Timothius's arm as it reaches for his neck stump instead.  A disinfaced (because Blake still has his body, duh) voice comments "Now that would hardly be fair to Raichel, even if there is a lack of rules."

  Oh, how nice, he is okay like some assumed.  This would probably be more reassuring if he wasn't a burnt, headless, mutilated body rising up from the ground, shoving the life kings arm aside and releasing it.  "Do appreciate the thought of course.  It's an interesting change of pace compared to most that have worn your crown."

  Blake 'looks' down at Raichel.  "How fortunate then for the sake of rule 2, that I'm your opponent.  Though I doubt very much you'd suffer any consequences had you actually destroyed me.  Now..."  A skull...sprouts into place, for lack of a better description.  Eyes follow.

  "Impress me."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:17, Tue 25 Aug 2009.

"Remember what I said about not being surprised?" Mittens comments to no one in particular while sitting back down with a self-assured smirk, "Though this is the first time I've seen a zombie grow back body parts, so that at least is surprising.  Though I suppose that last 'impress me' bit is the most shocking part - pardon the pun.  If he's not impressed by now, I wonder what will."

Mittens waves her hand and once again the flames dim to allow easy access for the Life King to retake the seat at her side, not that he needed her to, but still...  Emerald's comment about her book hasn't escaped the Fire Queen's notice.  For a moment she entertains the idea of taking it by force, but more than likely the fox has some means of escape if she'd publicly announce what her book can do.  So instead her thoughts move on to practical persuasion.

"Ya know..." she asides, "As epic as this fight is, it could potentially get boring after a week or two, what with that kind of regeneration.  No rules about what constitutes victory or defeat can mean they could go at it forever.  Oh well, if that happens nothing's stopping me from finding something new to do with my day."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:41, Tue 25 Aug 2009.

Prism too is fascinated with Emerald's book.  What does it tell her about people?  How does it work?  Would it work on other things besides people?  Could it be used to navigate the dangers surrounding the Heart of the Universe?  While these questions are being debated, a new question surfaces that seems important enough to ask Alexis out loud.

"Have any succeeded the journey there as a team effort?"

Obviously, that would go without saying if Prism were to try, but what Prism has in mind is a team of the Life King, Alexis, and perhaps Prism.

J'Renn winces as blake stands, and regenerates a skull.  (Eww, it's just like a mudworm.  If you split her in half, would there be two?) She's still having trouble discerning the genders between the various species she's met.  (Can all of her people do that?) she asks starting to look a little sick.

She takes a few deep breaths to compose herself and change the subject, (Interesting, if the compounds that building is made of is as strong as you say, even just an analysis of the materials would make the trip worth it.)  She listens in as Prism asks thier question.  (True, you would think the various factions would send thier respective armies for such a purpose.) she proposes.

Cham smiles down at Emerald when he hears her suggestion, "Huh? Sure! Games are always fun! And I know a ton of 'em!"

Staying on her shoulders, he holds up a hand and starts counting off on his fingers. As he counts on his three fingers, he slowly sprouts more to keep up with his suggestions, "Let's see... Hopscotch, Penguin Bowling, Tickle Fighting, Chug-a-lug, Burning Mary... Hehe, that's a fun one where you stick your tail in oil and light it on fire! Then you race to see who can get the farthest before it catches up to ya!" He leans over Emerald again until he's looking her right in the face, upside down of course, and using his tail to help him get the right angle. "Whatever it is, it's gotta be fun! Everyone'll get bored if we play a board game and don't do something exciting like summoning jungle monsters or big game hunters!"

The action between Blake and Raichel goes largely unnoticed by Cham. He didn't think that Blake was really that dead, and he doesn't want to be torn away from a potential game opportunity with this new fox girl!

Paula holds her knees to herself and welcomes the hug from Miranda, turning her head away from the terribly morbid sight. She nods numbly at the girl's comforting words, closing her eyes tight.

Be strong. , she tells herself, There is still a feeling of Death here... Please be strong.

Paula chances a look  down to the ring again, clinging tighter to Miranda as she sees Blake rise and walk. "... Death! That... that can't be the work of life... Who is that creature?"

Timothius backs up a bit and says, "...wasn't willing to take the chance you couldn't heal yourself... but if you are sure you'll be OK..."

He spreads his wings and returns to the throne of Mittens. "Sorry... I thought the guy would die if I didn't go do something. Don't laugh... not everyone who looks undead really is. Now then... what were you saying before we were interrupted?"

Alexis nods to Prism. "I've heard that has happened." then looks at J'Renn. "Just fyi, the one who is fighting against Raichel is a male. Men have narrow hips, broad shoulders and heavier brows. Women have wide hips by comparison, narrower shoulder width and larger chests." she points at her own chest.

Upon noting Emerald's book's abilities, Alexis strokes her chin. Handy, that.

Raichel takes a few steps back and gives Blake a sideways glance. How is she supposed to impress this guy? She gets into a ready stance and narrows her eyes as if trying to focus on what to do. She doesn't wanna vaporize him (which it looks like she could at this point), but in the same breathe she doesn't wanna lose. Low amperage, high voltage. Less rend, more shock. That's looking like her only option.

"You know... I reeeeeally didn't wanna hurt you as badly as, well, you already are. Please tell me that didn't hurt all that much..." she asks in a hopeful tone. If Blake is looking closely, he can see Raichel is ever so slightly tense and the very tips of her fingers are shaking ever so slightly.

Emerald grins at the now face-to-face Cham and says, "I admit a staring contest would be very boring. I got an idea: See, I'm an entertainer, so one of the things I like doing is song and dance. We could go back and forth making the soundtrack to the current fight and whoever messes up the lyrics first, loses. But if neither of us mess up by the time the fight is over, then we both win!"

Emerald only hopes this is a sufficient challenge to the coon and admits that it will be quite challenging to her despite years of practice. Coming up with lyrics and music on the fly is NOT easy.

Miranda feels a shiver all throughout her body as Blake reforms his face. "Ewe...?" she says quietly. Then in answer to Paula, she says, "I dunno who that is... but he doesn't seem to be a threat to us, ma'am..."

Miranda sees a food vender walking by, however, and says, "Over here!", catching his attention and Miranda orders a couple hot-dogs, immediately beginning to eat one. She offers the other to Paula. "By the way... my name is Miranda."

  Blake shrugs, stepping towards Raichel as the rest of his flesh and clothing replace themselves leaving a normal (if seven foot tall) looking man.  “It always hurts, and normally instantly fatal injuries are not, letting me feel what others miss.”

  Blake’s skin takes on its first noted pale coloring, and he raises a fist with it’s knucklebones exposing themselves.  “It does remind me that I still live, however.”

  And with that,  Blake reminds the audience that they are here to fight (well, Raichel and Blake are anyways) with an average quality bone powdering jab sent towards Raichel’s jaw.

  And if at first Blake doesn’t succeed, try try again.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:14, Thu 10 Sept 2009.

"No prob," Mittens answers Timothius with a smile when he returns, "I would expect no less than for you to keep your promise.  Heh... I know quite a few people who look undead when they first wake up.  Or act it anyway.  I think we were just about to discuss the new 'fight' if you can call it that.  Though I have to admit the fox's suggestion is a good one.  Another fight would distract from the main event, but a song competition is perfect!  That I can enjoy at the same time!  What a day!  I'm liking everyone here more and more!"

"Awesome!" she cheers when Blake renews both his face and his assault, "This guy is like...  well he's like...  DANG!  I've never fought anything like him!  Sweet!"

She pumps her fist in a "kaching" manner.

Prism too approves of Emerald's suggestion, but for very different reasons.  Non-violence being one of the more popular ones.  They're also curious about J'Renn's comments and how matter-of-factly Alexis corrected her without batting an eye.  She must be very used to meeting extraterrestrials who are unfamiliar with alien gender.  The Alexis committee notes that Alexis used visual indicators for gender exclusively.  They theorize that this is a clue into the Queen's personality.

The J'Renn committee notes that "she" has not offered a gender for herself yet, but concludes that it would likely be rude to ask.  They also conclude that it would be better to simply agree than to offer reasons why armies might not be better able than a small group of powerful individuals to travel to the center of the universe.

Prism nods to J'Renn's comments and Alexis' answers, but says nothing about them.

"It's good to see that Raichel didn't want to destroy Blake and that he survived."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:51, Thu 10 Sept 2009.

J'Renn looks around thoughtfully, getting some practice guessing everyone's gender.  (Really?  Does that apply to just your species, or is it common amongst most of the species here?) she asks looking over at Timothious and Mittens.  (So...  They are male?) she asks.

She senses the combatants getting ready to begin again, and her attention turns back to the fight.  (Oh, those two smaller creatures wandered into the Arena.  They don't seem too concerned about getting caught up in the other battle.) she mentions confuedly.

As Prisim mentions thier satisfaction at both combatants survival, she mentions (I don't think either of them feel that they can be defeated.  I don't sense much concern about thier own survival.).

At Emerald's challenge to him, Cham's face widens in a near Cheshire Cat-like grin, "Heh heh heh... Did you just challenge me... to an improv contest?"
Before Emmy can respond to that, Cham flips off of her head and lands on his tail like a pogo stick, pointing dramatically at the fox, "You're on! Heehee! And I'm gonna start it..." He flops down to his feet and snaps his fingers to a beat, "And a one, and a two, and...!"

In an amazing flourish, Cham reaches behind him to the ground and seeming tears a part of it away like a blanket, revealing a group of four raccoons, complete with instruments and a microphone on stand. Cham himself is in a red leather jacket and his head fur is sticking out at crazy angles.

The band immediately starts playing in a heavy pop-rock tone and Cham grabs hold of the mic as the events in the ring unfold between Blake and Raichel and Blake makes his attack(s).

"'Cause this is THRILLER!
Thrill-er night!
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike, girl!
You know it's THRILLER!
Thrill-er night!
You're fighting for your life inside a *gasp* killer... thriller... to-ni-ight!"

And, yes... Cham does do the dance moves, along with any of the raccoons behind him who aren't jamming out on their instruments for the song.

Paula shudders as she lets her eyes look at the ring and linger there as Blake quickly repairs himself. She shakes her head as she looks at the sight, almost missing Miranda's words.  When she realizes what was said, she looks at her new companion with slight concern before looking away, unsure if she believes that or not.

The food is a surprisingly welcome gift to Paula when it comes. Her tummy growls when the hot dog comes close, causing her to blush in embarrassment as she takes it, "Thank you... Miranda.  My name is Paula. It's very nice to meet you."

She looks at Miranda as she eats, not wanting to see the sight of Blake as she puts food down her throat. Looking closer, she tilts her head, "You don't seem like you like this kind of violence any more than I do... If you don't mind my asking, are you here for something else?"

Timothius raises an eyebrow as he watches the fight continue. What Blake said about "most who wore your crown" has not escaped Timothius's thoughts as he sits there thinking about it. Blake regenerates, appears to be some kind of undead dude and mentions life royalty being... well... annoying. He doesn't jump to conclusions, but Timothius has figured the possibility of this guy being the rumored ruler of the Death Kingdom.

Alexis squirms in her seat, feeling like nature is being turned inside out. But she reminds herself that's only how she feels and not the fact of the matter. In the basest sense of the term, there isn't really such a thing as unnatural.

She nods in agreement with Prism then addresses J'Renn. "Timothius, the white one with the halo over his head and wings on his back... he is a male. Mittens... the ob... the brown cat sitting on the fire throne is a female. See? Big, round chest just like me. It's common for most races, actually, to have male and female."

Alexis doesn't miss J'Renn's observation about Cham and Emerald, though. "Yeah... they do seem a bit... confident."

Raichel manages at the last moment to roll with Blake's first punch and then proceeds with Neo-esqu high-speed blocking as Blake continues his assault. "Impress you... how am I supposed to do that?" Oh well, there's always seeing how well she can hold her own against him without downright vaporizing the guy.

With a powerful thrust, ki flowing from her body into her palm as she goes for a strike at his kidney. "You must be pretty used to pain, then." she comments, not looking as worried as before.

She can hear the audience going wild from the fight. She wonders if she should finally just bite the bullet and start fighting from the air. Whether she hit Blake or not, she was ready for a grab and retracted her arm very quickly before she jumps up and backward into the air... and stays there, hovering. Raichel shoots a few minor bolts at Blake to see how he deals with being ground bound vs a flying blaster.

While Cham began his performance, Emerald opened a door in the air as if she knew this invisible door was there. She peeks inside, occasionally peeking out and smiling at Cham's show. She's a good sport and claps for him or cheers whenever he does a particularly good dance move. After all... she'll have to wait till his song is over before she can compete with him. "Aha... there it is." she says quietly to herself before pulling out a pair of gloves and putting them on. She then proceeds to close the invisible door and enjoys Cham's performance.

The crowd, of course, is thoroughly entertained by Cham. Emerald is clapping right along with them, occasionally whistling at him. Emerald waits her turn to step in and do her thing.

Miranda nods, keeping her eyes on the fight, "It's a big event. Already, at least 4 very important people have shown up. The fire queen was expected since this IS a fire nation event and something like this arena is very traditionally fire-like. But the king of life is here as well as the ex-ruler of thunder. I am here as the eyes and ears of a friend of mine who wants to learn about current events. Admittedly, I'm curious m'self." she comments before munching on her hot dog.

Miranda then smiles and cheers for Cham as he puts on a thrilling performance. She finally looks back at Paula. "Why are you here then?"

  Blake does not seem particularly surprised by his failure to give Raichel a gigantic dental bill.  Although he does seem confused when Raichel strikes him.

  "...Okay, we've established that decapitation doesn't upset me.  But you think rupturing my kidney is oh right, distraction."   And there go his eyebrows again.

  He considers the lack of convenient scenery to throw at his currently airborne opponent, as his mildly fried face heals over.  Ah, of course.  The obvious.

  So far as tearing out one of his ribs and flicking it hard enough to punch through a car door at Raichel is obvious.  Hey, if it can hurt a Belmont, just might work... Or just fail, whatever.

Mittens is once again tickled pink by Cham's antics.  She claps along to the beat of is music, bouncing in her throne.  He's going to be a hard act to follow!  She doesn't notice the invisidoor stunt Emerald pulls, because here eyes are fixed on the fight.

'Mittens the ob...??'

Mittens notices Alexis' cutting herself off after using the Fire Queen's name.

'Obnoxious?' she wonders, 'Obstinate?  Obliterating?  No that's more an oh than and ah sou...BIG ROUND CHEST?!'

She blushes deeply, wondering anew just how ALIEN this Nature Queen must be!

'And people wonder at the things I say out loud?!'

"If this zombie starts flying," she says out loud, returning her attention to the fight, "I'm going to wonder if he works for a sky-shark punching viki...HOLY BEHEMOTH!!!  That has got to be the most awesome zombie attack I've ever seen!  EVER!"

Saucer sized eyes glued to the action, Mittens reaches for her side, grabs an invisible rib, and makes like she's throwing it in slow motion, a look of awe on her face!

"Adam's got nothing on THIS guy!  Gives whole new meaning to the term 'Spare Rib!'  Win or lose, he's earned a Fire Queen Favor^TM for that one!"

She hoots and cheers and whistles along with the rest of the riotously screaming crowd!
This message was last edited by the player at 17:06, Tue 06 Oct 2009.

The number of taboos being violated has Prism shocked and re-assessing their cultural database, looking for signs that mistakes were made in the data collection.  Meanwhile the ruling body debates the issues on the assumption that the database is in fact accurate.

"The Fire Queen may not have noticed that she was mistaken for a male," one council member points out.

"Would be unlikely given that she is well within Sky Mind's telepathic projection radius, and that she isn't likely to be used to telepathic communication, so it would be all the more noteworthy to her attention," another answers.

"J'Renn," a third corrects, "Perhaps she intentionally didn't address that mistake because it was telepathic.  No microphone could have picked it up, but if the Fire Queen rebukes J'Renn it will be known publicly that she was mistaken for a male."

"Though the Nature Queen's audible reply hints at it.  Yet the frankness with which she ignored the taboo of publicly talking about breasts..."

"There could be any number of reasons for that.  The most disturbing thing is the Life King's silence.  He hasn't spoken since his aid was rejected by the death combatant.  That can't be good.  He must... be... _furious..."

Nearly the entire city falls silent as they witness the rib-rending events that follow.  Out of the countless life forms they've studied, there's only been one other species Prism has witnessed using a body part as a projectile weapon, but that was a body part intended for that use...  This...  This is new.  So very, very new.

The vocalization team gets mixed messages on what to say, and just does their best in their own distracted state.

"Yeah. Confident. They must both be chaos. Wow. Taboo. Rib not meant for throwing."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:14, Tue 06 Oct 2009.

J'Renn senses the discomfort around her that the conversation about gender is producing.  When Prisim mentions the word Taboo she decides to stop that line of conversation cold.

As the music starts up from the Cham-band, he cants her head to the side, straining to hear the music over the din of the crowd.  She's never heard vocal music before, it's all quite facinating.  In fact the only thing that pulls her attion away is Blake pulling out his own rib, and hurling it up at Raichel.

J'Renn sits up straight at the sight, (Ohh, ugg!  Somehow I don't think anything short of his complete incineration is going to stop him.  That lightning queen may tire out trying to subdue him.)

Cham does a fairly short version of the song, clearly wanting to stay to the brisk nature of the fight itself. He lets out a characteristic 'WHOO!' when the combatants do something particularly showy, such as Blake flinging a part of himself at Raichel and giving new meaning to the term 'ribbing'.

He stops shortly after that exchange, posing dramatically with a hand in the air for a few moments of silence.  In response, one of the Chams to the side of him tosses a burger, clearly swiped from one of the arena concession stands, and it lands neatly in the raccoon's open hand.

Licking his lips hungrily, Cham starts devouring the burger in one hand while the other tugs at the arena floor again, pulling back part of the floor like a trap door and dropping the Cham band below before closing back up.  That being done, he walks over towards Emerald, still munching on his newly acquired snack.

"Mmmrrfl... Mmmm! Your turn!"

Paula's eyes widen as Miranda points out the major attendees in the arena, not having realized that the ex-ruler of Thunder was here as well.  She nods in agreement, starting to look down into the arena more and more "Knowing all of that, I'd be curious myself... So many important beings..."

At Cham's performance, she tilts her head in confusion, having not heard the song before or really understanding it all that much. Miranda's question draws her out of her thoughts, "Me? Oh, it's... I suppose it's somewhat difficult to explain.  I'm feeling something very dreadful here.  I just wanted a closer look and maybe to ask some questions and get some answers..." She looks back at Miranda, "A friend of mine sent me this way as well, though I don't truly know what he wants me to find."

She shudders as she watches Blake's actions, wringing her hands and looking more than a little concerned. Every so often, she looks to the King of Life with a curious gaze, trying to see his feelings on what's occurring in the ring below.

Timothius doesn't wince when he sees the rib thrown. He knows what the guy is doing is perfectly normal for him. But he doesn't cheer either. He strokes his chin in thought as he wonders how this fight will go and if he should participate at all. He asides to the professor and whispers in his ear. The professor strokes his chin and whispers back. Whatever the prof said, it's got Timothius deeper in thought.

Alexis curls her lip in disgust as she puts a hand over her own rib. "...no. Just... no. And how does the Fire Queen find that worth a favor... pity maybe?" she headshakes. "Glad I'm not in there." though she doesn't admit she would feel nervous fighting the fire queen due to her being, you know, fire and all? Then again, that's why Alexis tries being diverse in her elements.

Raichel saw it coming when Blake had to cock for the throw, but holy cow did she NOT see that coming at the same time. Hundreds of years and never once had she seen a zombie throw their rib at her. Or any creature for that matter. That said, she barely managed to dodge enough for the rib to graze her arm. "Now THAT was impressive. I'm sorry, but I can't top that. Then again, no one probably could." she admits.

Impress him? At this point? Raichel frowns and lands. She holds both her hand forward and shoots a constant stream of mid-amperage, high-voltage electricity with intent to pretty well just do the whole involuntary muscle contraction thing one tends to get when holding on to a fuse box. This is much less "melt rock" stuff and more "hold you immobilized with your skeleton flashing while you wiggle there" antics.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:06, Thu 22 Oct 2009.

  Blake does indeed hold off their assault, but not for the sake of twitching electricity antics.  "Okay, seriously.  Do I have to start eating the audience or something.  I regrow my skin, I regrow my head, I attack you with my very bone torn from my flesh.  Yet you still."  Said bone seems to have vanished from existence.

  His words are punctuated as he smashes a fist through the sandy ground,

  "Will not."  His other hand crashes down, sand shifts and the ground shakes across a wedge of area out from Blake's hands and past Raichel.

  "Take this."  Is he going to?  He's totally going to, as he tears a large section of the ground beneath the sand up, apparently intent on ground spatula smashing Raichel to the intact ground behind them.

  "Seriously."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Thu 22 Oct 2009.

Emerald figures since Cham covered the zombie aspect, she may as well cover the fighting aspect and waves her wand. A keyboard pops up and she plays on it before she begins singing, "You got the touch! .....You got the poweeeeeeeerrrrrrr YEAH!" and begins singing the "it's time to kick butt" song known as "The Touch"

Blake's ribtastic move caught her eye and she even emphasises it with a line and mimicing the move. She doesn't have fellow dancers, but she herself does seem to dance while singing and leaving her keyboard to continue the rest of the music for her (though she obviously sings the vocal part). She also has one other advantage. She does a few subtly flirty moves that make the guys in the audience like her a lot.


( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkYuK3AKrxc )
This message was last edited by the player at 06:48, Thu 22 Oct 2009.

Miranda squeeks at the sight of a rib thrown. O.O Then says, "This is getting more and more insane by the second..." she then double-takes at Paula. "Well that seems odd. Maybe the friend wants you to find friends?"

Before Mittens can answer Alexis, "How could it NOT?" the comment that immediately follows answers the question's question answer.  Timothius' whispering doesn't register, but his not-cheering does.

~Spoiled sports,~ she thinks to herself of the two unamused monarchs sitting near her, ~I guess I should have expected as much.  Oh well.  At least Timothius didn't say 'no.'~

"Look, if you two aren't enjoying yourselves..." Mittens comments before Blake's grab-chunk-of-ground bit, "Now THAT move I've actually seen before.  An ice giant favorite.  Them and Titan.  Methinks Blake thinks Rai be holding back!  I'd be interested to see if he's right about that.  Anyway...  As I was saying...  You don't HAVE to watch, ya know.  I'm sure you'll be given plenty of hospitality at my palace if you'd rather wait for me there.  Or you could focus on the other competition.  Sounds like an even match between those two singers, but I'd prolly vote for the first one 'cause he makes me laugh."

Cham's munching makes it to the loudspeakers, and it reminds Mittens that one should enjoy a good snack at such events.

"Hey, one of you advisory people get someone to get me a mithk... a SNACK and a drink."

~How is that even possible?~ a scientist asks of Blake's ripping up more ground than ground physics should allow.

~How is it possible that the singers are making things appear at will?~ another asks as if to suggest that the other question pales in unlikeliness.

~Well the working theory... didn't you get the report?  Mostly excused as illusion.~

~Hence the surprise at the ground being used in such a way.  That's a physical attack.  Can't explain it away with advanced illusions.~

~Perhaps he's using some form of telekinesis that only effects objects he touches.~

Meanwhile, the foreign relations committee debates the implications of the Fire Queen's suggestions to the Life and Nature rulers.  They rush a response to try and sooth any tension that may result between the three.

"A good idea, Queen Mittens," Prism answers with a respectful bow, "Even as engaging as the combat is, we will do our best to focus on the singing as you suggest."