'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?