Just yesterday, we went on what would seem like a routine mission for some aquatic gear only to wind up rescuing a bunch of prisoners that were on their way to the roboticizer. There was a giant robot dragon. I was there and saw what happened. I still don't know how we survived. We were lucky, I guess.

Katy pauses for a moment from writing in her journal as she taps the tip of her quill against her mouth, pondering. Then goes back to writing.

There is much work to be done now that we have more citizens in Channelwood. Huts to build or modify, people to get to know... I best get started and return to my writing later in the day.

Satisfied, Katy nods and puts her quill away before drying the ink on the paper. She closes the book and goes to her door, leaving her hut to look for Michael so she can get things started.


(OOC: I'll pose a few more characters later. I have to go now. But feel free to post whatever you want for now.)

  It was another normal day in Channelwood.

  Well it was.  Really, in a post apocalyptic setting when there are irate robot dragons and such, some extra people wandering around was hardly noteworthy.  Even when you take into account an Overlander kid, thats normal by comparison to the space crazy for a neighbor.

  As for Joe at the moment, he had recently finished off writing the notes for constructing two kinds of grappling hook devices.  One would be at home in a Batman comic.  The other in a Darkhawk comic, if with an additional feature not normally associated with assisted swing gizmos.  Said feature now incidentally, in working condition with the one Joe's had on him for quite some time.

  "I have this feeling Mike and Katy would complain if I started handing out grapple hook guns despite the convenience of them."  Once again Joe showcases the first sign of madness.  "As if living several stories up with spares wooden railings being what keeps most people from falling over was safer.  Though I guess there is that whole floor thing."

  Flipping the book closed and sliding it off to a corner on the desk meant for more casual things (the one meant for more 'oops I shot a hole through the ceiling....again' things on a different side of the room) and standing from the chair Joe headed for the door, and left what counted as his home.

  Okay, so technically it wasn't his.  But Joe had taken the time to make it so everything inside it was more directly his by way of making them himself.  Now, how to get around the fact people would likely notice if he replaced the construction of the living space gradually over time?  Though the real trick would be switching in a tree not 'owned' by others...  Maybe he was over thinking this?

  Anyways, Joe outside. Yay outside.  Joe's also off panel.  Lets hear it for casually utilizing the universes most powerful stealth and teleportation technology till he turns up wherever.

  Bright and early, and apparently none the worse for wear, Mittens has been frustrating herself with interviewing every technician she can find in her new water bound home on the topic of fireproof armor.  Who knew seabears wouldn't have much need for fire fighters?!  >.<

  "Then can you tell me where I can find Spaceman Sam?" she asks.  ^.^;

  "Check the ceiling!" is the answer.

(Meanwhile, Lucky remains sound asleep in Channelwood as it's far too early to be up and about for a night-owl.)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:50, Thu 09 Aug 2007.

Michael is rather busy this morning, since even though permanent lodgings for the new arrivals to Channelwood haven't been resolved, those new arrivals still need to eat, and given that it can't be expected of them to know their way around Channelwood yet, Michael is busy showing people around, although he's mostly showing them to the mess hall so they can get something to eat without getting lost in Channelwood.

Blissfully unaware that anyone in Aquarius is looking for him, Samuel is working on one of the engines from his shuttle. The engine is currently being suspended from the ceiling of the hangar bay by several winches as the shuttle's cargo bay doors remain open and the paneling that covers the engine block opened up. Samuel is currently 'standing on the ceiling' with the the electromagnetic properties of his boots allowing him to seem to defy of the law of gravity. From his position on the ceiling Samuel is having an easy time working to repair several of the engine's damaged components using materials that he managed to salvage from the unexpected aftermath of yesterday's mission.

Samuel thinks to himself as he works, 'Being able to salvage components from several SWATBots came in handy, although from here on it's only going to get more difficult as the rest of the components I need to repair this shuttle can't be salvaged or manufactured using parts and materials from SWATBots. At least I can find scrap materials that can be recycled into what I need for most of the repairs, but some of them are going to require components and materials that will be hard to come in a scrapyard.'

Emerald is busy also. Cooking for so many extra people all of the sudden. She asked for some extra help and she got it. Thankfully, the people of Channelwood are so excited about having new people here in Channelwood and new people RELEASED from Robotnik's grasp, that they not only mind the work, they seem to be anxious to help. Well... most anyway. The smell of yummy breakfast can be inhaled from all around Channelwood as the people gather to eat.

Having decided he doesn't like Samuel at all, Maverick stayed in Channelwood. And despite being the type to stay up late, he's also early to rise and compensates with mid-day naps. He does this so his schedule isn't terribly predictable. Maverick doesn't want anyone sneaking up on him... ever. As such, he deactivates the traps he had set around his sleeping quarters and heads to where everyone else went: The Mess Hall. He gets the occasional glances and even a few stares, but he doesn't care as long as he gets to eat. Well... OK, so he cares. But he doesn't show it. He looks Michael's direction, seeing this chimp leading the others. So he follows quietly for a time and when at his destination, Maverick finds a corner to eat in while watching everyone else with a curious look... and a dark glare for anyone who looks at him the wrong way.

Shelly couldn't help but over-hear Mittens and asks, "What do you need Samuel for?" a nearby seabear explains and Shelly hrms... "Well OK. But I wouldn't expect anything from him. Asking him for a favor is akin to asking a god for a favor. They have all kinds of power and useful stuff handy, but hold it back when you want it and you feel nervous asking in the first place. Still... handy that he's on our side."

Katy is walking around town to make sure each person is awake and accounted for. That said, when she finds Lucky's sleeping body, she thinks about it and then just checks him off her list. He's just a child... she'll let him sleep all he needs. But he'll help with work later.

  The mighty pancake slayer has arrived.  You can tell because of the plate of pancakes and the fork stabbed into them.  If pancakes had brains, that'd totally be where the fork was stabbed.
  It was nice to see Emerald had some extra help.  Both because she'd need it at the moment, and because it meant he wouldn't need to put that effort in himself.

  With the arrival of the latest group and their dealing with breakfast needs, Joe could comment on how that was his usual corner, but wasn't because to be honest Joe didn't have a usual corner.  This would make such comments difficult.  Like saying 'thats my usual turbine engine I like to stick my head inside of.'... Wait, it was nothing like that.

  Though along the lines of what Joe would be doing, was heading over to Maverick's little corner of culinary solitude, taking a seat, and slaying pancakes.  Was there a point to this?  Well if someone couldn't handle someone eating pancakes near them at breakfast time, it would explain a lot about them.  A lot of what was up in the air, but a lot of something to be sure.

  That and reactionary personality checks would likely have been more of a hassle to try earlier considering Mavericks habits at the time...  Joe couldn't blame someone for sleeping.

  What, you thought Joe snuck out in the night, saw the elaborate trap situation, and put it off or something?  Don't be ridiculous.

  Thats obviously morning activity.

  But he didn't do that either.

  But he could have.  Maybe.

Wandering around in no particular direction, but heading towards the woods, seeking the shade, is a odd looking fluffy white cat. Travis shifts the pack on his back into a more comfortable position, a strange looking staff in his paw. He looks around as he walks, his hard eyes taking in the sights, looking for any danger, ears perked up and swerving around to pick up any odd sounds.

Maverick looks over towards Joe as he sits at the same corner table that nobody else is using. He looks at Joe with curiousity since Joe is not really giving Maverick any kind of evil eye or even second glances beyond what a normal person would give to another normal person. With that in mind, he gives Joe a nod in aknowledgement, his expression clearing back to casual. Inside, though, he makes a mental note to watch this one and find out more about him since he is clearly different from the others in a special way.

Vain wonders how bad the mess hall is right now since things would probably be a bit more hectic with newcomers that don't know where things are stored and such. Which is why Valin had ducked in early to grab something he could eat while working on his chores.

As such, Valin has been tending to gardens for most of the morning although he is frequently pausing to inspect the layout of the gardens while reaching into a pouch and pulling out a handful of 'trail mix' to munch on before resuming work on the gardens.

  Joe is different because he's one of the main characters, of course.  In a more simple sense though, it's likely the casual actions and lack of staring by comparison.  Joe returned the nod seeing it required less effort than waving.

  "Remaining anonymous can be helpful at times, but referring to you by generic terms like 'that guy' is likely to get old.  Any particular preference you'd go by?  On my end though it hasn't stopped people from calling me things aside from Joe."

  Crazed lunatic took longer to write down than Joe, for example.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:50, Tue 14 Aug 2007.

Maverick says, "Maverick." as he glances about, watching people. Then looks at Joe. The guy sure is trying to be social... so Maverick decides it's worth the gamble for now: "What things do you like?"

As Katy passes by Michael and the group of breakfast eaters, she looks at him. "Mike... I'm going to check on the windmill. Thanks for taking care of the newcomers in the meantime." Should Michael decide he has a question for Katy, she would stick around. But otherwise, she takes the elevator to the ground level... where she will likely step on twigs and leaves, making plenty of noise for someone with a trained ear to hear (Hint, Nudge Travis, Hint).

  Mittens giggles.  "Lucky me I don't have any problems asking the One True God for favors!"  ;)  "This dragon's a real tough one, though I'm sure it's got a weak spot.  I just wunna work on our weakness to fire for the time being until we can figure out a strategy with the Channelwood Freedom Fighters.  I imagine the best way to find his weakness is through stealth...  Sadly not my strongest suit."  ^.^;  "Still...  good to see you're doing ok, Princess!  I was real worried about you!"  :o

  Mittens light-bulbs!  "Water!  Fire is weak to water!  If we were to cause enough of a ruckus in Aquarius, it might just lure the dragon over to where you've got the advantage!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:49, Wed 15 Aug 2007.

Travis has ventured into the forest, looking around and admiring nature, when he hears what sounds like a boar tromping through the forest. He tilts his head a bit, to locate the direction the sound is coming from, and then starts to head towards it, licking his lips as his thoughts move from nature to lunch. (Such a noisy Raccoon *^^* )

  "Relaxing between required effort.  Spending every waking moment completely focused on the unfortunate situation results in Sam.  Though skipping whats needed to manage isn't any good either."

  It does not bode well for someone when Joe is considered social.  Maybe Maverick had lowered expectations from all the blank silent stares or moral arguments being the majority of interaction lately?

  "Anything in particular you prefer when given the chance?"

  Though betting on a Darkthorne at least tended to pay off in the end.

Leaving Aquarius without orders... failing to properly protect the princess... Jeez, I know that I screwed up, but did he really have to make do all this?

Hart is currently underneath Aquarius, using a pick and a scraping utensil to clean mold, dirt, and other gunk off of the various pieces of Aquarius' exterior.  It's a typical chore, as keeping the base clean of natural build-up and wear means less chance of a failure or break down at an important time.  Still, Hart didn't understand why Nautilus had decided to make this part of his swim training for today.  He was actually being timed while out here.  The old seabear had said something about this helping his manuverablity... but it just seemed slightly tedious to the deer.

At least he let him wear scuba gear this time.

  *sigh* Relax... At least it's quiet out here, no matter what I'm doing.  After all that jazz on the surface the other day, this feels more than awesome.  Just the ebb and flow of the water... just the ebb and flow... ah crud, that's right. I'm being timed... Training my hoof, he's just volunteering me for cleaning duty.   Hart starts to scrap a bit faster.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travis blinks at Katy's words, and then looks up as she points, his head tilting to the side as he sees huts in the trees. He gives his head a shake and turns his gaze back onto Katy, his tail flicking behind him a bit at her next words.  "When I have eaten, I may go up. It looks... interesting."  He turns his gaze past Katy, in the direction that she came from, his ears flicking on top of his head.

Michael observes how Emerald handles the situation differently than he has and is quick to realize that she is far more suited to handling situations like this than he is. However Michael is also able to calm himself down and relax as he doesn't have to deal with the mounting pressure of continually answering questions.

When Emerald sits down next to him and asks him her question, Michael nods as he replies, "Yes, I do. Thanks for taking care of that. Dealing with such situations isn't exactly my specialty."

  Joe would have expected Mike to be better practiced under worse conditions.  'Do not use the belt sander to file your nails!'  'The table saw is not a picnic table!'  'If you cut against the grain, the universe will explode!'  Alright, so maybe that last one Mike probably didn't have to say in his shop teacher days.

  "I'm lacking a specific reason really."  Besides, if the kid had continued to have alone time it seemed likely Emerald would crush that situation with a cheerful hammer of...  Where's that thesaurus?... Right, Cheerful hammer of gleefulness.

  "Is there a particular reason I shouldn't I missed?"

  OOC Style: Ahhh, memories of Jr. High shop class and high school 'not shop class but we did some stuff in there' class.  I was the only one who made a tiny house foundation corner that didn't explode under pressure due to skipping the glue gun fights.  And those first two lines of course, are based on RL.

  "Thought you could use an extra pair of hands!" Mittens answers Samuel while wiggling her fingers in front of her face, "That and I wanted to pick your brain about what you thought of our encounter with Ra."

Samuel looks down at Mittens from the ceiling where he's finishing up his current repair work on the engine and thinks to himself, 'she'd not be much help for repairs and might cause more damage...after all she's not trained for this and this isn't something to use for training,but I'll probably get yelled at if I just tell her to 'bug off'...', before he says, "Well given that you haven't had any training on how to repair complex technology that isn't native to this planet unfortunately you won't be of much help."

Samuel then thinks about the second item Mittens had mentioned and then adds, "Well, I know thermite grenades won't be enough to take Ra out... sometimes fighting fire with fire is a bad idea. Truthfully, I'd rather avoid having to fight Ra if it can be helped."

Katy turns her head to her right slightly, but not much since she keeps her eyes on Travis. Her right ear then turns some as well in order to point towards behind her. "Who's there?" she asks to nobody in particular. Could be directed at Travis, could be directed at the one behind her. Although she suspects it's just a forest critter Travis wants to "hunt".

"Been too long since you taught a class full of crazy kids?" she asks Michael with a smile. "Or is it that something else is on your mind?" She offers as she leans in a little, ear perked.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:16, Wed 22 Aug 2007.

Maverick is liking this guy already. He's acting like he doesn't even KNOW what is wrong with being an overlander. "The fact I'm an overlander?" he says in a "Aren't you familiar?" kind of tone. "I mean... you guys saved me, but even heroes have prejudice. I'm just wondering why you seem to have none."

  "I'm more of a 'drive everyone crazy' outlook type really.  And being an Overlander doesn't exactly mean you don't have to worry about the killer robot army situation or they don't feel you'd make a good mindless slave.  Unless they had nothing better to do when they locked you up too."

  He shrugged, "And it also involves less effort to be incredulously annoyed at people for my own reasons on a case by case basis.  Don't have enough free time to hate everyone by default.  Of course, don't see you flipping out trying to kill everyone with a fork just because either."  Caring more than others through apathy.  go figure.

"Time?" Hart calls out as he surfaces at the water pool and removes his scuba mouthpiece.

Nautilus, standing a short distance away from the pool, clicks his stop watch and arcs a brow as he looks from the watch to Hart. "Twenty-five minutes.  Quicker than I expected." He nods "But still under par. I was unable to see all of your work from here, but I'd wager that you're still expending too much excess energy with your movements."

Hart leans forward from the pool and let's out an exasperated sigh. "Got it... That mean you want me to go again?"

The old seabear smiled a bit as he shook his head "I can't have you clean again if there's nothing down there for you to clean, Hart.  Though I'll see for myself later if that's actually the case." He allows himself a short chuckle as Shelley kicks water at Hart again and Hart splashes back with a hand. "For now, I'd say that we're done for the day.  There are some... minor things that I should see to.  Perhaps the princess can help you improve your speed in the off time, hm?" He bows his head to them both before turning to leave. "Princess, if you've need of me, I'll be in library. Do take care, both of you."

As Nautilus walks off, Hart smirks and whips back a bit of water at Shelley. "So what now Shelley? It looks like I've got some free time, and I'm guessing you didn't go out for a swim just to give me a pick-me-up.  You killing time, or do you have something in mind?"

Michael chuckles as he thinks back to the 'old days' and replies to Emerald's question, "No, it's been too long since I could send the crazy kids that felt they didn't need to listen to the rules and obey them to the principal's office. After all, I never even let a student near anything that could be dangerous if not handled carefully till they had proved to be responsible enough to take the necessary safety precautions around that piece of equipment. These days, things just are that simple anymore."

Travis gives a light shake of his head, his tail swishing slightly behind him. "I came in this direction because I had heard something wandering about. I was hoping it would make a good meal, and am seeing if I can hear it again or not." He closes his eyes and just stands there for a couple seconds, before shaking his head again. "I do not hear any decent size animals right now, looks like I have a bit of a search ahead."

  "You have a point," Mittens answers Samuel with a sly smirk, "All my training is in empire class star destroyer propulsion systems so I wouldn't be much help on this kind of craft..."  She amusedly watches for Samuel's surprise then continues cheerfully, "Just kidding of course.  ;)  Still... though I may be a mouse to your Lion's share of technocery, even mice can be indispensable to Lions as the parable teaches."

  With a big smile and an ear-wiggle, Mittens tail-flicks in the most mouse-like way she can.  .^S  "As far as avoiding a fight with Ra, I think you're on to something.  A wise combatant picks their battles rather than allow their battles pick them.  Did you have a specific plan in mind?"  ^.^
This message was last edited by the player at 22:30, Fri 24 Aug 2007.

Samuel sighs as he says, "There is no such thing as an empire class star destroyer. After all why would someone want to destroy a star, that would be so wasteful." Samuel clearly doesn't look impressed as he hangs from the ceiling after hearing 'Mitten's joke'.

Upon hearing Mitten's cheerfully 'explanation' about her joke, Samuel grumbles, "Food is indispensable to all life, and lions are no exception. Although I'm not familiar with any parable dealing specifically with those two creatures, I suspect it isn't about a lion eating a mouse, or you wouldn't have mentioned it."

When Mittens asks about Ra, Samuel shrugs and replies in an unenthusiastic tone of voice, "Not really, other than make sure to keep Ra and all of Robotnik's other minions far away from here... after all who wants an army of lethal robots that wouldn't hesitate to kill or roboticize you in your sleep, knowing where you sleep? Heat and Fire won't work on him, so most thermal based weapons are useless other than as distractions, and since I don't have large supplies of liquid nitrogen, freezing him to make his armor brittle isn't an option... That leaves kinetic, chemical, and electric attacks, and with his heavy metal armor, it would take a large kinetic force to pierce Ra's armor... and I don't know how well insulated Ra is so I can't even guess what electric attacks would do to that robot. Likewise I don't know what chemicals would be useful due to not knowing what Ra's armor is treated against." It is obvious that Samuel does not look forward to the next time he has to deal with Ra.

Maverick ponders how to proceed with the conversation and comes up with a dangerous question to ask Joe. The whole time, he's been talking quite, so he doesn't really have to quiet down and it's not like anyone's listening in... "Then what annoys you?"

Shelly gives Nautilus a mixbreed of salute and wave in a "chou" kind of fashion as she smiles and watches him leave. Then looks at Hart. "I was just gunna go out for a relaxing swim. But when I saw Nautilus and then saw you, I kinda figured out what was going on and that you needed a pick-up! So... yeah. But you aren't naturally aquatic like me, so chances are you're tired of the water for now..." She kinda taps at the corner of her mouth as she looks off to the side as if trying to rack her brains for what to do since OBVIOUSLY she can't go swimming if it doesn't involve Hart now that he's here with her.

Emerald hrms and nods. "I can't say being a teacher crossed my mind back then. But these days..." she pauses. "It's going to be nice to have the extra help around. Once they get settled in, they'll be much more handy to have around." She nods, arms folded. "Speaking of, what is going to be done about that dragon? There's talk that we might not be able to go on as many missions thanks to his arrival."

Katy hmms. Then addresses Travis again. "Well I'm headed for the windmill for it's checkup. Going my way? The fish that dwell there are a great substitute for normal woodland creatures."

Michael chuckles as Emerald 'considers' being a teacher and mutters, "More help is always nice when outside help tends to be in short supply." Michael rubs his chin with his right hand as he contemplates how the chores may end up being redistributed once the new arrivals have settled in, which could make things easier on everyone.

Michael's face scrunches up a bit upon hearing Emerald mention the dragon as it is clear Michael is disgusted by the mere thought of Ra, and the possible ramifications of its presence. "I'm not sure what we'll do about that dragon. But we can't let the presence of one robot force us to cancel missions. We'll just have to adapt and continue on. We may have to utilize the sewers more or other tunnels that are to small for the dragon to utilize when moving around Middletown. Or our next mission may end up being focused on taking that dragon out of the fight. Everything has a weakness, even robotic dragons."

  Mittens pauses rubbing her chin to ponder Samuel's reply.  "The parable tells of a lion who came upon a trapped mouse," Mittens explains with hand gestures, "The mouse offered to the lion, 'Free me and some day I'll repay the favor.'  The lion laughed at the idea.  'How can someone as strong as I ever need the help of a mouse?'  Amused, he helped the mouse escape from the trap anyway.  Later that day the mouse found that same lion trapped in a hunter's snare and chewed through the rope!"  ^.~

  Mittens pauses again with a contemplative look.  "Compared to Robotnic, our local dragon is a mouse.  I understand we share the goal of defeating Robotnic.  As you pointed out, both freedom fighter groups put together don't have enough firepower to overcome Ra much less Robotnic.  We'll win this war with wits if anything.  Best I've come up with so far is to somehow lure Ra to the lake where his fire will be less effective, but even if we defeat him, there's still Robotnic to contend with."  -.-  o.o!

  "That reminds me!" Mittens chirps before asking with a giggle, "How in the world did you get a video of Robotnic strip dancing!?  That's gotta be the funniest thing I've ever seen!"  XD

Samuel listens to Mitten's telling of the story about the lion and the mouse and simply thinks that it would be summarized as ones karma is what one makes for oneself, if someone is not careful it can come back to haunt you, but it can just as easily save you.

Upon hearing Mittens mention her idea about Ra Samuel grumbles, "That is a horrible plan...you don't want to lead an enemy to the front doorstep of a secret base. Your petter off using fire suppression tools, but then again I doubt anyone has any strong enough to counter Ra's fire attacks. It still may be possible to somehow lodge something in Ra's mouth so that when Ra tries to breath fire his head explodes due to either an explosive that the fire ignites or a buildup of pressure due to the blockage."

Samuel chuckles though when he answers about the 'dancing Robotnik video' and simply answers, "I simply use digital editing tools to overlay Robotnik's body over footage of someone at a Party I was at who got incredibly drunk and made a fool of himself dancing. With the right software it's not hard to adjust how an obese body would move in those circumstances, and such software is easy to come by as it's often used in animating video games and such."

  It actually was a dangerous question, if Maverick decided to put it to use sometime.  "I'm gonna have to go with attempts to kill and/or enslave me.  Just occasionally would be bad enough, but it turns up a lot for most people these days."

  "People going on about how their life is so much worse than everyone else's can be put to practical use.  As it means there is no shortage of people my life is better than.  So while it's close it's not quite on the annoyance list."

  Sometimes a win by default is the most satisfying win.

Travis blinks a bit at that question, then shrugs his shoulders a bit and nods his head as he steps closer to Katy. It is a bit off a odd reaction for a cat, since they tend to love fish so much, maybe he is not actually a cat after all. "I guess." He stretches a bit, staff in hand as he moves over to Katy, ready to follow her.

  Mittens winces slightly at Samuel's scathing assessment of her not-so-brilliant idea, but listens with interest at his explanation for the humorous hologram.  "It's good to see you smile, Sam," she answers with a serene smile of her own, :) "Back to the mouse story...  I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your rescuing me from certain doom."

  Mittens kneels down respectfully.  "I didn't thank you immediately because I allowed my jealousy of your strength and skill blind me to your courage and selflessness...  again.  For that I offer my most humble apologies, Sir Stevenson."  v.v

  "Why does this have to be so difficult?!" Mittens complains in a silent prayer.  She slouches and sighs.  "Note to self... don't ask God questions you don't want the answer to."  >.>
This message was last edited by the player at 15:54, Tue 04 Sept 2007.

Samuel looks surprised momentarily when Mittens mentions his 'courage' and 'selflessness' as Samuel has thought of himself as more self-centered and just to angry to care about the dangers that can't be avoided. That and Samuel isn't used to anyone calling him 'sir'. Samuel wonders if it's being meant as a reference to ancient knights or just as an alternative to mister.

Samuel resumes finishing up the repairs on the engine that he can complete with the parts at hand as he states, "Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. That is why people have to work in groups when in situations beyond what an individual can handle. Everyone is different and has a different perspective, often based on their individual strengths and weaknesses. What you may see as courageous and selflessness, I see as side effects of ulterior motives that are neither courageous or selfless." However at this time, Samuel doesn't feel the need to go into detail about his ulterior motives.

Katy leads Travis over to the windmill. There are pipes that lead from the windmill to the town. Those pipes are attatched to some kind of water pump that uses the windmill to pump the water. Of course, it's getting it's water from the pond Katy was talking about where there are a few fishing rods waiting for anyone that might want to use them. Katy takes one, figuring she may as well catch a few fish herself. She looks over at Travis as if waiting to see if he'll take a pole or sit by or what.

Travis blinks a bit, looking around the area curiously. He tilts his head to the side as he takes in the sight, and then smiles softly, walking over to one of the poles, settling down on the ground. He humms, watching Katy a bit as he tosses the line into the water and relaxes, his gaze moving from Katy to the sky, his odd fluffy white tail curling up a bit.

Hart shrugs as he leans back in the pool, "Shell, I've been living here in Aquarius for more than half my life. If there's one thing that I can't get anymore, it's "tired of the water."  Though I've gotta admit..." He lets out a sigh. "I am pretty much spent on swimming for now.  If you wanted to go for a relaxing swim, though, then don't let me drag you down."
Honestly, Hart's thankful for the company after training for the past few hours.  At the same time, however, he's aware of Shelly's love for the water, especially after their last trip to the surface, so the last thing he wants to do right now is hamper that.  Despite these conflicting thoughts, Hart does his best to remain cool on his surface.

  "Brutal honesty!" Mittens answers with a smile, "I like that in a spaceman!"  :D  "Speaking of which, does that nickname bother you?"

  Mittens isn't fond of speaking about her own ulterior motives, so she doesn't ask his.

Samuel shakes his head as he replies, "I've spent most of my life in outer space either traveling or on space stations. Thus it is a fitting term, as would either alien or extraterrestrial."

Shelly goes to sit next to Hart. "Well swimming can wait. If I know Nautilus, I know you're pooped. What were you planning for today? Have you gotten to know any of the new arrivals?" After all... the two leaders agreed that for space purposes, it made sense to split the group of rescued survivors so... half of the people that were rescued are in Aquarius now.

Emerald nods. "We'll figure it out... one of us has to. Even if Katy doesn't. After all.. her specialty is leading, not robotics. Speaking of Katy, she came in and out of the mess hall so quick, I didn't have the chance to ask her how she was or what her plans were. I'm guessing it's more chores, but... you seen her since breakfast, Mike?"

Katy fishes for a bit, completely quiet for about 10 minutes while she leans back and thinks about what to do about Ra. She's had Ra on the mind ever since that mission. "I know you're a loner, but... I have to ask: You interested in joining my freedom fighters?" She looks over at Travis. "Or at least offer some advice on what to do about our latest enemy... see.. he's about 30 feet tall, 50 feet long not including his tail, and is immune to bullets, high-grade heat like thermite and can throw fire. Your basic robot dragon. Thoughts? How does one beat something like that?"

Maverick huhs. "Don't see how anyone's life can suck worse than anyone else's when we're all in the same horrible situation. Gimme an example?" He's honestly curious how anyone can say "my life's worse" in a situation where everyone on the planet is up against a world-conquering tyrant that turns people into robot slaves and destroys the environment while he's at it.

Michael thinks back to what Katy had said to him before heading off in response to Emerald's question. Michael then says, "I haven't seen her since she left, but she did mention she was going to check on the windmill, but I don't know if she is still there."

Travis blinks a bit at that question, his head tilting to the side. He then humms, his tail lightly swishing behind him as he gazes out at the water. "A robot dragon? Probally in a similar way you would a real dragon I would guess. But that is a very hard thing to do. Aim for the eyes, and for the inside of the mouth. Every creature has its weakspot, but sometimes they can be very hard to find." He closes his eyes after that, pulling the line out of the water and relaxing some. "Of course smart robots tend to hide their weak points as much as possible."

  Joe shrugged,  "Thats the thing.  It usually is some variation that gets the exact same results as most people.  Though can't entirely blame people for focusing on their own problems more at times, completely disregarding the existence of others  doesn't make mush sense.  Even if you don't care in the end, you'd still acknowledge they exist."

  Joe again considered how poorly qualified he was for philosophy discussions.  Unless he got to enter the 'I'll be sticking with my personal views on pain of personal death' competition.  Would winning that be the dieing, or the staying alive though?

  "Terra firma must be a welcome break then," Mittens says with a grin :D "Or terra aqua in our case.  Anyhoo, I figured I may as well ask: just how fireproof are spacemen these days?  Or better yet...  spaceships...  assuming it'll be flying again soon?  If you have any spare fireproof spaceship armor laying around, it'd make for a handy shield doncha think?"  :)

  Images of epic battles between spaceships and robot dragons dance in Mittens head as she practices a few sword techniques with an imaginary sword.  (>^.^)>+---

"Wonder if they'll lemme have a trident," Mittens ponders to herself as she begins to shift her practice style to fit the new imaginary weapon.  ^.^

Samuel looks at Mittens like she is crazy as he replies, "Are you crazy? I hate being on a planet.... having to deal with non climate controlled areas." Samuel shrugs before he continues while pointing to the shuttle, "Space craft like this shuttle are rated to withstand atmospheric reentry during which rather high temperatures must be endured. However, I don't have any spare hull components and they are somewhat difficult to produce, and what materials I had have already been used in the repair of this shuttle."

Hart shakes his head "I'm not planning much of anything beyond the usual, so it really might not be a bad idea to get to know some of the new folks.  From what I've seen, though, it's a mixed bag. I mean, not every Mobian is used to living underwater. I've heard things from people worried that there's not enough oxygen to complaints that fur is turning ratty from the water pressure. Everyone's happy to be saved and most are nice enough, but it's a new wave for a lot of folks and it shows." Hart smirks a bit. "I was the same way when I was a fawn and just getting used to this place. Geez... it feels like so long ago, ya know? You remember what it was like for you when you first came to this little home away from home? ... I mean... after the whole shock wore off."
Hart cringes inwardly, remembering that leaving Urser and coming to Aquarius was probably just as trumatic to Shelley as leaving Middletown was to him, if not more so. The last thing he wanted to do during this semi-calm period was to bring back bad memories.

Having gotten Travis to open up a little, she ponders how to lure him to Channelwood as she nods. "Makes sense... you ever fought a dragon before?" This question is two-pronged since it will give Katy a generic gauge of how old this guy is.

Emerald hrms... "Well I have these people... maybe you can go see what help she needs now that you're done eating?" This, of course, said to Mike.

Maverick nods in agreement. He gets up and moves to sit right next to Joe and eats quietly. He doesn't know what to say, but he leans on Joe a little, as if to communicate he likes or trusts Joe at least.

Shelly nods sadly. "I remember... it wasn't pleasant at first. But I quickly learned to like it. Aquarius is a nice hideaway." She then perks up. "Yeah... let's go make them feel at home, shall we?" she goes to put an arm around Hart in a pal-like manner, a smile on her face.

  Joe hadn't really figured himself to be qualified for giving emotional support.  So providing support in the literal physical sense of course he also hadn't really seen coming.  'I'm sure he'll do fine here.  If I've yet to be lynched by now then he's got little to worry about by comparison.'

  No reason to stop them from tilting at the moment.  Though it may be a bit awkward when Joe eventually stands up if this sends Maverick toppling over.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:32, Wed 26 Sept 2007.

  Yawning with a sleepy look on his face, Lucky arrives at the breakfast scene and discovers that it's all been gobbled up!  ;.;

  "Early bird catches the worm," he sighs, "and the late cat goes hungry."

  "You gotta point there!" Mittens agrees, "and though I'm not fond of wetness, the climate on the surface is far worse than down here!  Way too hot or way too cold with rare exceptions."  Complaining about the alternative counts as being greatful for what you've got, doesn't it?  :p

  "Well I plan to help get you back to the wild blue yonder as quick as possible," she continues, "but since I'm no spaceship mechanic, and your no cat armorer, I'll have to apply myself elsewhere for the time being."

  Mittens stands at attention and salutes, "I wish you well, Sir Samuel." ^.^

Michael looks around the room before nodding his head slightly in response to Emerald's suggestion as the chimpanzee says, "That is probably a good idea. If you need help, I'm sure you'll be able to find others around here that can help you. I'll talk with you later," as Michael stands up and makes his way to exit the mess hall as he intends to head off to see how Katy is doing.

Samuel shakes his head side to side slightly as he says, "Outer space isn't blue. The sky on this planet is blue due to the particles in the air reflect blue more than other colors. I've seen other planets where the sky is a different color such as red or yellow.

Samuel then goes back to finishing his work on the shuttle's engine as he says, "Well good luck in finding the armor that your looking for," since Samuel figures that Mittens is hunting for armor since she mentioned a 'cat armorer' so Samuel figures she is looking for some armor.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:32, Tue 02 Oct 2007.

Hart cheers up at the sight of Shelly smiling. Heh, she's been through heck and back and she can still manage to focus on the positive.  There's just no keeping her down... no wonder she's the leader in our little school of fish.
Hart gets out of the water with a slight grunt and stretches a little before reaching down with a hoof to help Shelly out of the pool. "Sounds like a cool plan to me.  The more this place feels like a home and less like a prison camp, the better.  After all, that kind of thing is what seperates us from those 'bots, ain't it?"

  Mittens smiles and waves at Samuel before hurrying off to find Shelly.  She expects to need the princess' permission to raid the armory if there is one.  "That Spaceman Sam sure is an odd one!" Mittens prays silently, "Yes I know that's calling the kettle black, but it was meant as a compliment!  ^.^"  She pauses and blinks in surprise.  "Good point!  Maybe he's not as alien as he thinks!"  :3

  Padawan Mittens lays amputated and bleeding on the floor of the space platform as Sith Lord Lucifer grinds his heel into her wounded arm.  "Any final words?" he sneers as he raises his lightreaper to finish her off.

  "You'll not be taking her life today," Master Jesus interjects as he swings his white-hot lightsaber to deflect Lucifer's sinister swing.

  Lucifer snarls as he unleashes a flurry of vicious swings but Jesus deflects them all with ease.

  "No one takes my life but I lay it down," Jesus explains, "Strike me down, and you'll only make me stronger."  With that, Jesus sets his sword aside and allows his foe a deathblow.

  "MASTER!" Mittens cries out as her fantasy fades.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:36, Tue 02 Oct 2007.

Travis tilts his head a bit at that question, before he shakes it some. "No, I have not." He turns his gaze onto Katy, looking her over a bit, before he slowly stands up, his tail curling around his legs some. "My fighting style is ment to be used on other mobians and overlanders. It will work on most animals as well, but it will do nothing to robots."

Emerald instantly picks up on the fact Lucky arrived and waves to him as she approaches. "Hi there!" she says, having to slightly raise her voice over the yapping crowd. She makes her way over to Lucky. "I'm Miss Haynsworth. What's your name?" After all, Lucky is just a kid, so she introduces herself accordingly.

Maverick seems more interested in Joe than his own food, but he soon finishes the breakfast anyhow and watches for what Joe intends to do next. Joe just earned himself a shadow, it seems.

Katy seems confounded at the idea of a fighting style that only works on living beings and not robots. "That doesn't make sense." she says in her usual blatant fashion. "I'd think dodging one object would work just fine on another object coming at the same speed... you do know SWATbots are kinda slow, right?" She perks an ear as she hears the approach of Michael when he is getting closer to the windmill.

Shelly takes Hart's hoof and pulls out of the water. She gives him a big smile before heading off for the main room to socialize and find out who all they have to deal with. Of course, there are a lot of new people thanks to the rescue. About 10 or so.

(OOC: This is a good opportunity for anyone who wants to *hint* Joe *hint* to have another alt in Aquarius even if just as an NPC sort of character who won't be very active. I myself plan to have a few like that.)

After getting close enough to the windmill to not be far from Katy and Travis, Michael thinks he's hearing voices as he pauses for a moment. For although Michael recognizes Katy's voice, Michael also hears someone the chimpanzee doesn't recognize and that momentarily worries Michael. However Michael isn't close enough to be able to determine what is being talked about so he isn't sure of what is going on. Given that Michael isn't hearing any signs of a conflict, Michael figures that the unrecognized voice isn't hostile, and thus Katy isn't in danger.

Michael then resumes moving as the chimpanzee now heads towards Katy's voice. Michael is curious to know who is by the windmill with her.

Travis stretches out a bit, then leans down, picking up his staff, before straightening out again. He tilts his head, his ears picked up, listening carefully at the sound of footsteps.  "I am not worried about being hit by a SWATbot, I just can not take one down. Wood against steal does not do much."  His tail curls up on itself slightly as he watches Katy and listens to the aproaching person's footsteps.

  Joe's old shadow worked perfectly well in being cast in the opposite direction of light sources, he doesn't need a new... Oh, right.  That kind of shadow.

  Possibly to Maverick's disappointment, or maybe casual acceptance, who knows at this point?  A day in the life of Joe when he did not have specific things to take care of due to situation such as preparing for a mission or repairing incidental holes he made did not involve a whole lot.  Sure, certain famous blue people got away with that sort of thing, but in Joe's case he actually did work that didn't involve killing killer robots when required of him.

  He just didn't have any required of him now was all.

  "Well, newer than you arrivals seem to be getting taken care of if my guess is right.  Did you skip the tour, or was knowing where all the exit points to ground level in case of fire still on the to do list?"

  If it wasn't for the fact Joe could easily provide his own fire escape, the whole giant fire hazzard situation Channelwood was might be cause of mild concern to Joe.

  The aggressive fox must be the local schoolteacher judging from the introduction.

  "Hi, Miss Haynsworth," Lucky answers in a somewhat timid posture, "My name is Lucky."

  Experience has taught Lucky to never introduce himself using the words "I'm Lucky" because it invites a "funny" reply that's never funny.

  "Where to find the Princess?" Mittens asks herself.  "Where all the new people are!"  :)

  Mittens arrives at the big room at about the same time as Shelly and makes a beeline for her once she sees her.  She readies a smile and a wave for when Shelly's eyes point in her direction.  ^.^/

Shelly just introduced Hart to one of the newer people when she notices Mittens. She's kinda new, but not as new as the recently rescued. "Just the gal I wanted to see..." she comments, making sure Mittens heard that. "You know how it feels to be new. I was hoping you could help Hart and I get these newer folks situated and comfortable around here."

Katy takes an educated guess who is nearby. "That you, Emerald?" After all, Mike was put in charge of the new arrivals. She doesn't say anything more as she waits for Mike to arrive.

Maverick headshakes to Joe, following him. "I haven't... Lead the way." He is done eating by now and takes his plate to the "used dishes" area and waits for Joe.

Emerald offers her hand to Lucky. "Welcome to Channelwood, Lucky. I hope you've adjusted OK so far..." she smiles brightly. She keeps her ears perked, listening in on background conversations while waiting for a reply for Lucky. It's... an acquired skill of hers. She overhears someone mention Michael and someone else mention Katy and a few murmurs about "overlander", but she already noticed that Joe has that kid handled.

Michael speaks up in response to Katy's question not bothering to introduce himself yet since he knows Katy will recognize his voice as he approaches, "No, Emerald is back with the new arrivals since she's having a lot better luck dealing with them than I was. She suggested that check on you to see if you needed any help. After all, if something is wrong with the windmill, I'd be the one you'd come to see to get it fixed."

Michael doesn't bother to go into detail about how the new arrivals were seeming to go out of their way to try and tick him off by doing such things as repeatedly asking the same question that Michael had just answered, and other things that tick off teachers.

Upon seeing that Katy isn't alone, Michael turns to the stranger and waves to him while saying, "I'm Michael, and you are?"

Upon finishing tending to Channelwood's gardens, Valin figures that now might be a good time to check on how things are going in the mess hall with all the new arrivals.

As the gorilla heads to the mess hall he wonders how chaotic it will be since Valin knows that it is rare for Channelwood to have a 'new arrival', let alone this many at once.

It is not long before Samuel finishes his work on the engine. However, Samuel knows the engine will require other repairs before it is able to operate at full capacity. Additionally, he knows that it will be a bit more difficult to get the components for those repairs.

Samuel hopes that the SWATBot disguise he is working on as a 'side project' will make it easier to get those parts, at least once it is finished. Which is why Samuel heads over to the shuttle's internal workshop which while limited in what it can do, is sufficient for the current task at hand of converting a SWATBot into a 'suit' Samuel can wear to pass as a SWATBot. Although Samuel knows he'll need help from others to figure out how a SWATBot thinks since even if Samuel can look the part, if Samuel can't act the part, the disguise will be worthless. Although Samuel doesn't look forward to having to deal with the computer techs that he'll have to deal with to find out how a SWATBot 'thinks', Samuel is content to just work on the suit itself for now.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:38, Thu 27 Dec 2007.

  After similarly clearing his place, Joe gets on that whole leading thing.  "You've already found where sleeping and eating is taken care of.  A reminder of where the places you can safely get down from here does tend to help though."  After all, not everyone could conveniently just hop over the railing and still make it down uninjured.  "Anything in particular you wanted pointed out?"

Mittens smiles broadly.  :)

"I was hoping you could help..."

That's gotta be the sweetest royal command she's ever been given!  ^.^

  "You're just the gal I wanted to see!" Mittens answers cheerfully with an elaborate bow, "I'd love to help, Princess!"

Her smile broadens into a full-blown grin.  :D

  "Speaking of making myself useful...  I'm sure you've noticed I've been disarmed and disarmored." :P

"Thank you.  I... um..."

Lucky rubs his left arm bashfully while staring at Emerald's feet.

"overslept.  Don't suppose there's any leftovers?"

Lucky wonders what else he missed.  Was there an orientation?  Is this some kind of cult with certain taboos he doesn't know about?  It sure looks like everyone got to eat for free...  or are they expected to work it off later?

As Shelly turns to Mittens' beckoning, Hart's left face to face with one of the new arrivals, a grey furred otter with swimming goggles and bright blue shorts.
He mentally fumbles for a bit, sizing the otter up and tyring to decide on how to begin, but finally settles on the obvious.

"The name's Hart. You're new here right? What's your handle?" He slides his hands into his pockets, trying to look relaxed and friendly.

"Walden and yeah, I'm a newbie. Pretty sweet pad you got here." Walden slicks back his headfur before sliding his paws into the pockets of his shorts and taking the same stance.

"Totally. 'Beats anything on the surface. My guess is you're feeling pretty close to home here, eh?"

"Close as can be with that Robotnik punk screwing up the rest of the planet."

"Yeah, that freak's style is totally lame."

"No lie, dude. All this mechanizing the planet jazz is such a drag."

"Totally. That's why places underwater like this are so gnarly."

"Gnarly to the max. But, dude, you're a deer and you're living underwater?"

"You're an otter and you're wearing goggles?"

"It's style dude."

"Ditto."

They eye each other with a relaxed look and nod. "Cool"

Travis tilts his head, looking from Katy to Michael. He blinks a bit and then politely nods to the Chimp, leaning against his staff, his tail uncurling. "I am Travis" He then turns his gaze back onto Katy. "I should be on my way, so you can get back to work."

Katy huhs... and nods to Travis. Then waits to see if Michael will do anything about Travis. If not, Katy would turn to Michael. "Nothing serious needs maintaining here at the Windmill just yet, though the sump pump may need attention soon. It's a year old and hasn't given us problems just yet, so it'll be due..." the moment she feels Travis is out of hearing range, she then says, "I don't know much about this Travis guy, but I don't think he's anything to worry about just yet... let's get back to town."

Maverick is walking on one of the bridges with Joe when he looks down in the direction of the Windmill. "Yeah... who's the white squirrel? I don't remember seeing him yesterday..." He's looking at Travis, but only sees him from a far distance, so between the white fur and large tail, that was his best guess.

Shelly giggles at Mittens. "Me too!" she spreads her arms in a fashion of presenting herself. "Tada! Well welcome to the club, Mittens. So, um... how did you lose your armor anyway?"

Just then, a young female pig wearing chinese dress walks over to the two. "You asked for me, princess?" she asks in a chinese accent and a soft tone. Shelly hmms? Then smiles and nods. "Ah yes... Mittens? This is Mei Ling. Mei Ling? This is Mittens." Mei Ling bows to Mittens.

Another guy walks up to Hart and Walden. Apparently some kind of slaggin' OX. Not that his size and intimidating appearance went un-noticed when he was being rescued, but there was just too much to worry about at the time. "Uh... is this where people gather to eat? I'm looking for some brunch..."

  "That would probably be because he wasn't around to be seen yesterday."  Joe didn't expect to be the only one to end up in Channelwood due to 'hey, theres this giant tree house between me and where I'm walking' reasons.  However he'd probably find out that this wasn't exactly the case with Travis later.

  "I guess that'd be what Mike was heading out over."  The coincidental moments had been cranking up the output the past few days.  He had the feeling things may get a little more interesting still.

Micheal nods when Travis introduces himself but doesn't say anything else since he figures if Katy is okay with Travis leaving, then there is no reason to interfere.

When Katy mentions her concern about the pump, Michael rubs his chin while replying, "I'll check it over later and then afterwards keep an eye on it. It may be possible to do some preventative maintenance to prevent it from acting up."

Michael listens to what Katy says about Travis after Travis has 'left' and asks, "I'm guessing you'll explain more about Travis once we get back to town?"

  Mittens curtseys to Mei Ling, hiding her annoyance at the interruption with a big smile.  ^.^

  "Shall I answer your question now or later, Princess?" Mittens asks Shelly softly, once again attempting to hide her annoyance but expecting to be brushed aside for the clearly more important business that Mei Ling was summoned for.  >.>

Emerald puts an arm around Lucky before looking about and pondering. "I think so, hun... come with me." she says before leading the way to the kitchen and looking for some food to scrape together for the poor boy.

Shelly huhs? And then ohs! "Err... right. Please be patient, Mei Ling... Mittens and I were having a conversation." Mei Ling covers her mouth in shock. "I am very sorry. I did not mean to interrupt." Shelly giggles and looks back to Mittens. "Well?"

  "Hun?" Lucky thinks to himself.  Maybe she's a nanny too.  No wedding band, so probably not anyone's mother.   "Surprised such a sweet lady isn't married," Lucky muses.  He quietly follows Emerald's lead and blushes as his attraction to her grows.

Hart's eyes widen as he looks up to the ox, but he retains his calm air. "Afraid not, pal.  This place is more of a meeting hall where folks can chew the fat.  If you're lookin' for the more literal version, there's something of a cafeteria down that way."  The deer waves a hoof towards a hallway. "It might be better to hang around here, though, until there's a more official break for lunch."

Walden nods in agreement. "Yeah, and, dude, it's totally more rad to eat with a gang than stuff your face alone."

"Still, that doesn't do a heck of a lot of good if you don't know anyone to begin with. Why don't we strike that first, eh?" He sticks a thumb to himself. "Folks call me Hart.  Nothing fancy.  What's your handle, pal?"

Travis heads off silently, slipping back into the forest. The direction he is going  is the opposite way Michael came from, heading away from Channelwood, his tail swishing behind him slightly as he continues on his journey.

Maverick looks over at Joe. "Then I guess... showing me the Windmill and what it's for could be first?" This said, not realizing the ninja-esque way Travis was going to vanish before either he or Joe could possibly get there.

Emerald finally gathers together enough and gives Lucky some kind of meat scraps and eggs before leading him to a table and sitting next to him. "There you go, sweety... enjoy." She glances about to make sure nobody is lost or confused, but it seems most of the people, while finished with breakfast, are just simply socializing.

  Joe nodded, "It does seem to be a popular area at the moment.  Though first, closest convenient elevator is this way."  This last detail of course, involving the process of leading Maverick to said convenient way down.

  Joe again considered, did the windmill have unlisted stealth technology or somesuch?  It was a windmill.  Even in a forest, these may be a bit out of place.  But then, so was a whole town.

  He guessed not everyone noticed these details like him.  Case in point being a while back where his mental narrative said to him 'That is a windmill... And there's a whole town... Should I wonder why nobody else seems to have noticed it yet, or about how it just happened to be in he direction I was going at random?'

  Ah, chaos theory... Joe never got around to reading up on it.  He seemed to have a good enough grasp all by himself.

  "When you passed out on the battlefield," Mittens answers with a twinkle in her eye, "it fell to me to carry you to safety.  Even as attached as I was to that gear it was obvious that I had to drop my gear so I could rescue you with greater haste.  So here I am asking your leave to have your armorer supply a replacement."  ^.^  Mittens curtseys respectfully to Shelly.

  "Artfully put!" Mittens commends herself, "Brag without bragging, get to the point, and make it sound like it's a sacrifice to have to settle for new gear!"  >:)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:03, Fri 16 Nov 2007.

Lucky feasts on the meats!    "Thanks," Lucky answers softly, half relieved that Emerald's eyes are elsewhere, half disappointed.  Lucky musters up the courage to ask a question, clears his throat and continues, "I'll bet you're a school teacher, aren't you?"  Lucky half winces when he realized he let the word "bet" slip through his lips.

Katy nods to Michael. "....let's head back to town. That's all that need be said here at the windmill." She starts off towards Channelwood and continues as she goes, "I've been thinking more about the dragon, Mike... I am positive it has a weakness. But we won't find it by trial and error. We'll get our butts handed to us long before we find it that way." She looks over at Michael again. "We're going to need a recon mission. Something to find the dragon's specs. Then Emerald can anylise and tell us her best educated guess on what that weakness is... if there is one."

Micheal heads back to Channelwood with Katy while listening to her suggestion about a recon mission. "That is a good idea, although such information will no doubt be kept only in the most secure computers in Middletown, and that is assuming a copy of the information is even in Middletown, if only to assist in maintenance on the robotic dragon. After all Robotnik isn't foolish enough to lean clues to a powerful robot's weakness laying around just anywhere."

Michael's tail twitches slightly out of sync with his step as he adds, "The mission won't be easy and would most likely require at least one distraction. We may need to coordinate this mission with those from the lake if we want to pull it off." It is somewhat obvious that Michael isn't sure how successful such coordination would be, but he suspects it will be vital if there is any chance for the mission goal to be completed.

Valin enters the mess hall, but the gorilla isn't looking for food as he has already eaten. Instead Valin is checking to see how things are going with the new arrivals since having so many at once is unheard of, and Valin wants to know if things are going smoothly, and how much additional work he's going to need to do to  insure everyone has suitable accommodations as huts may need to be refurnished before new occupants can move in.

Valin notices that neither Katy or Michael is present so he wonders where they are. Noticing Emerald, Valin heads over to her and asks softly so as to not startle anyone with a loud voice, "So how are things going? Know if Katy or Michael will be here soon?"

Shelly ohs! "Wow! I was so out of it, I only remember being rescued, but not who it was. I can't believe I didn't find out who it was until now. Gosh... I'm so sorry. You should have gotten thanks much earlier." she glances about and says, "But... we don't have an armorer. Suits of Armor were outdated many centuries ago." she says in an apologetic manner as if honestly thinking Mittens needed to be clued in to the current era. "However, I'll bet that set you left behind is still out on the battlefield. And if it isn't, we can find something in the junkyard. But I'd rather we search the scrapyard of Urser... the metals produced there are water-proof. Heavier... but water-proof. And most of our missions will be under water." She says, pretty well setting in stone her intentions to get back to fighting the bots in Urser instead of chasing Channelwood's dreams all the time. ESPECIALLY now that Shelly has met Ra. Which brings to her mind... what if there is now a "Ra" in Urser? Some kind of robotic sea serpent. She reaches out to hug Mittens. "In any case... I will do what I can to help you out.. I can't thank you enough for what you did."

The OX replies to Heart, "My name is Harrison." in his behemoth-like voice. Then glances at Walden. "Then join me... for my stomach isn't waiting. I'm hungry... socializing or not."

Emerald turns her attention to Lucky as his question is asked. She gives a "Huh?" kind of expression at first and then smiles, followed by a giggle. "Me? Naw... I help with that stuff here in Channelwood, but I'm more of a student than a teacher. Constantly looking for things to learn.. mostly about history and ancient culture..." she looks like she was about to say more when she spots the very hard-to-miss gorilla enter the room. When Valin asks his question, Emerald nods. "Should be. Mike went to check on Katy who went to the Windmill earlier. They should be back any time now. It's been long enough, anyways." She casually runs her hand on Lucky's shoulder, gently rubbing it. "Why? Did you need something, Valin?"

Katy casually grabs a stone or two as she walks along and puts them in her bag for use with her slingshot. "Possible. I wonder if we're forming a stronger bond with them yet... or if we are starting to wear out our welcome like leaches taking advantage of them every mission we go on." she sighs a little. "Sorry.. I don't mean to sound so harsh about it... just that I feel like we're using them for our own needs when they probably have things they need to do for themselves. Heck... things they could use our help with." She headshakes. "Well... with or without their help, we need to do this. Ra clearly out-classes us and we need to put our village back in the game... stay competitive. I, for one, will not let Robotnik push me around no matter how powerful the enemy." Though she ponders the idea of laying low to allow Robotnik and Ra to think they've been thoroughly intimidated. It's around then Katy spots the elevator up ahead, apparently being used and it's door being opened.

Maverick follows Joe. Conveniently, when they arrive on ground level via the elevator and open the door, Maverick sees Katy and Michael almost at the elevator. What timing. Though Maverick stays quiet. Big surprise.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:36, Fri 23 Nov 2007.

  Joe of course, tended to put commentary to more frequent use.  Even if he did have his quiet moments.  "Hey, anything of note aside from the larger than usual crowd today?"  Joe asked as he stepped off the elevator, as it would defeat the point if he stayed on it when they went up.

Walden looks around, unsure. "Well... I dunno man. I mean, maybe we should wait for a lunch break or something? I don't wanna seem rude stuffing our faces while everyone else is chillin' out and trying to do a meet n' greet."

"Yeah... doing things officially sometimes hangs better..." Hart looks to Shelly to see if she has any plans or announcements to make, but it looks to him like she's occupying herself just fine.  He shrugs and makes for the hall leading to the dining room, waving at Walden and Harrison to follow him. "Nothing says that we can't be 'unofficial' though.  You guys wanna get something to eat now, then let's go and see what we can get.  I always preferred hanging with smaller groups anyways."

Mittens grins broadly at Shelly's reply, as if thinking some mischievous thought,
"Swords and shields may have been outdated before," she ponders, "But thanks to Robotnic they're back in style!"

"It was an honor to fight by your side, princess," she answers Shelly with a bow, "and a double honor to help you in your time of need.  I wish only to be equipped to do so again in the future.  Once I have that scuba gear we were after, I'd love to try out this metal you're talkin' about!"  ^.^  "By your leave I'll get the ball rollin."  :)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:37, Sat 01 Dec 2007.

Valin smiles, which might unnerve some of those new to Channelwood due to his large canines, as he says to Emerald, "Since I've finished my morning duties, I was curious to know if they needed me for anything else given the situation with all the new people in Channelwood," as Valin considers that Emerald said that Katy and Michael should be returning shortly.

The gorilla then says as he folds his muscular arms over his chest, "If they are going to be returning shortly then I'll just wait for them here." Valin then looks over to Lucky as the gorilla knows he has not yet been introduced to the cat yet and says, "Hello, I don't believe we have been introduced yet, I'm Valin Vaschel," as Valin unfolds his arms and offers to shake hands/paws with Lucky using his right hand.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:07, Fri 07 Dec 2007.

Michael's tail continues to twitch as he hears of the prospect of helping those from Aquarius. The Chimpanzee nods and says, "Well, for now we might be better off helping them if they need help with a place that Ra can't go. If we can't beat Ra right now, we should gather strength elsewhere till we can find a way to counter him."

Michael pauses for a moment as he explains, "I'm not saying we should give up on Middletown till we know how to deal with Ra, I'm suggesting that it may be possible to find a way to counter him elsewhere and use that method on him. After all if Ra was a perfect weapon, wouldn't Robotnik mass produce that robot? And if that was the case we wouldn't be dealing with Ra, we'd be dealing with a Ra number whatever." Michael then looks over to the elevator and figures that he'll wait till Katy can use it before he would start to make his way up the trees since the Chimpanzee knows it would be rude to not wait for Katy.

Katy mulls over what Michael says, but figures she will continue this conversation later. But she thoroughly intends to continue it. She looks at Joe, "Met a guy over near the Windmill. He was some kind of loner who didn't want to be a part of our resistance directly. Must be a serious loner. He just talked with me like people are common on Mobius and then went on his way like he'll see another person soon. Either he's lost it, or there's something else about him that we need to know..." she ponders whether it was a mistake telling the guy about Channelwood. Oh well... if he had half a brain, he'd have noticed the well-preserved water pipes and put 2 and 2 together.

Maverick glares about and can't seem to spot anyone who looks like the guy he saw from earlier. He's getting aggitated and says, "Am I the only one concerned that someone found this village, didn't bother to say hi and just walked away?"

Shelly sighs looking a touch sad. "Well they may be handy now, Mittens, but the fact is, because swords were outdated when Robotnik took over, that means there is no forge in this little hideaway we call home." She then whipes the frown from her face and nods to Mittens with a smile. "By all means... if you want to assemble a team for getting us some new resources, be it scuba gear or metal, feel free. We lost our opportunity last time, but we gained more personel. Maybe you can persuade a few of them to pay us back by helping retrieve what we gave up to rescue them."

Harrison follows Hart without hesitation. He addresses Walden, "I have not eaten in fourteen hours. I am a little less concerned at the moment with how rude it might seem to eat right away." He then looks down at Hart, "And in case you are wondering, I don't know anyone that you guys rescued. Not the ones here in Aquarius. Not the ones residing in Channelwood. All I know is that there's this one guy who's real observent... maybe if you asked him a question or two, you'd get a good feel for everyone you just rescued. He's a mink."

  Joe shrugged, "Well, the fact they held a conversation would suggest a hello was in there somewhere.  And if people freaked out at the prospect I might keep going when I showed up in a similar 'hey, theres a big freaking windmill over there' noticing manner I'd have probably left."

  Joe considered one of Katy's last comments,  "People are common on Mobius.  Despite the current situation, we haven't hit near extinction yet or anything.  And just recently the concept of imported people has turned up with Sam."

  Imported people.  A whole dollar per pound more than local grown people?

This message was deleted by the player at 03:41, Tue 11 Dec 2007.

Lucky's smallness has only been more apparent when staring down the nightmare this is Ra.  Being about the size of a toddler compared the Gorilla, half his arm would easily dissapear in the giant's palm, so he gently takes hold of Valin's calloused index finger and smiles nervously.  "Lucky," he answers in the broken voice of adolescence.

Mittens smiles big and salutes with an enthusiastic tail wag!  :D  "Will do!"

She runs off into the thick of the newcomers.  She stands on top of the nearest empty chair and addresses the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please!" she bellows in a volume not quite at shout level, "As was abundantly clear last night with the long line waiting for use of the scuba gear, there is a severe shortage of said equipment.  Princess Shelly has authorized me to assemble a team to raid the local enemy stronghold to acquire more!  Who would like to join me in this - a real display of gratitude and self reliance?!"  XD

Mittens thrusts her fist into the air enthusiastically as if expecting returning to the lair of a killer robot dragon would be on the absolute TOP of everyone's to-do list.  \^.^
This message was last edited by the player at 20:21, Tue 11 Dec 2007.

"A mink, eh?  I'll make sure to keep an eye out for him. I don't think we've got too many of those running around here.  In any case, just 'cause you don't know any one now doesn't mean that you can't get to know folks later.  You might be surprised how helpful or important folks can be, especially ones that you're prone to forget otherwise..." Hart shakes his head as they near the eating area. "Ah, whatever.  Heh, you didn't come with us to hear me run my mouth.  You came to stuff your face.  Well guys, I think this the place to do just that."

Behind them, Hart hears Mittens voice rising above the clamour of the other new comers, but he simply assumes that she's giving some sort of declaration or welcoming speech or something.

Michael considers Joe's comments about 'people being common' and 'people being imported' and then says, "I think the real question that should be asked is, are people who are not roboticized common on Mobius?"

What Michael does not vocalize is his thoughts about 'people being imported' as the chimpanzee still is not sure that Samuel is someone that can be counted on, except to do what he feels is in his own best interest, which may not be in the best interest of other Freedom Fighters.

Valin notices that Lucky seems a bit nervous as the gorilla smiles softly and says, "It's a pleasure to meet you Lucky. So, what do you think of Channelwood? I know it isn't a luxury resort, but we do what we can to get by." as Valin contemplates saying 'don't worry I don't bite' but figures that wouldn't be much comfort since the gorilla thinks the cat is probably more intimidated by the gorilla's size and not his teeth.

"Love it!" Lucky answers as enthusiastically as he can, "Thanks!"

What else do you say when King Kong politely asks if you like his home?  On the other hand, there's something very disarmingly gentle about Valin.  Perhaps it's the combination of the voice, the posture, and words, but Lucky's getting a very strong "Daddy" feeling from his new acquaintance.  But what to say?  "Love how you crushed that bot's head!" or "Wow you have tough skin!" probably isn't the best way to start a grown-up conversation.

"So what is it you do for a living, Mr. Valin?" Lucky asks as adult sounding as he possibly can, having just re-learned from Emerald to not make assumptions on a person's occupation based on first impressions.

Lucky lets go of Valin's finger and places his hands in his chair to straighten himself, remembering his mother's etiquette lessons.  He leans a little forward and focuses his eyes and ears on Valin's nose - too shy to look directly into his eyes.  Inside he braces himself for what he fears the deep voice might utter next.

Harrison doesn't have above average hearing. And on top of that, he is so hungry, he has little concern for anything other than his imploding stomach. But someone speaking over everyone is just enough to perk his curiosity. He looks agitated that he missed what was said and grunts. "Shoot. Of all the..." he looks over at Hart, grabs a quick snack. "This should do to hold me over long enough to find out what's going on. We were JUST rescued by a giant robot dragon that breathed fire. I don't want to be blissfully ignorant of whatever announcements may be going on." he says as he hurries back to the crowds, fully expecting Hart and Walden to follow. "Sorry to jerk you guys around like this, but I didn't expect someone to make an announcement..."

Shelly, in the meantime, can't help but cover her mouth and giggle while ducking her head and shrugging her shoulders some. Mittens sure is bold. But Shelly finds Mittens to be going about things in an almost humorous approach. Then again, she can't help but realize Mittens could make for a very effective squad leader with that much drive. She looks around for Nautilus and quickly heads for him. "Nautilus... I need to ask you a favor. Do you suppose, barring any current missions, you could train Mittens? I already see some potential in her and I'm going to be giving her some secret tests..." She waits for Mittens to see how the Mittens Address goes.

The crowd Mittens addressed (Unless, obviously, someone like Samuel or Hart decide to pipe in) is silent for a moment. But finally, a mink speaks up. "You mean the land of the giant, fire-breathing robot dragon demon of doom? Where were you when the Walkers were handing out survival instincts?"
This message was last edited by the player at 11:43, Wed 26 Dec 2007.

Katy frowns for a bit, but says, "I think we all need to focus on Channelwood for now. I doubt that fellow from earlier is much of a threat. Maverick may have a point, but we just can't afford to move the whole town over one passer-by who MIGHT be a spy." She then remembers how Joe just seems to conveniently be places. "I never asked you, Joe, how it is you always happen to be in the right place at the right time, but do me a favor and, if you can, track this guy. He can't have gone far and his trail is far from cold. Find out if he is reporting to anyone. Lemme know what you find out."

Maverick looks slightly anxious. "...can I go too?"

Katy looks to Maverick and then to Joe and then goes inside the elevator before facing them again. "That's up to Joe. If Joe wants to do this solo, then you should come up the elevator with Michael and I." she waits for Joe's response before hitting the "up" switch.

Katy looks over to Michael. "On a side note, it just occurred to me that Valin hasn't seen our latest foe. He's the mightiest one we've got. Perhaps he could make a fair assessment of what we're up against based on our descriptions. You, me, Valin and Emerald need to meet in the planning room as soon as we go up." She doesn't see Joe for much of a plan-ahead guy or he'd be invited. She figures him for more of a good think-on-his-feet guy.

Emerald watches the conversation for a short bit as she can't help but be happy that Valin is showing courage here. He may be large and when it comes to battling enemy forces, Valin is one very fearsome freedom fighter. Labeled one of the heavy-hitters... but rarely does anyone take into account that Valin's heart is soft and kind and so he may very well be standing up to his fears of yet another person running scared from him rather than befriending him. She doesn't need to say a thing as all she can do is smile, communicating the more important things that are on her mind with just her expression.

"Survival instincts?" Mittens asks in surprise, "OH!  You mean the 'stay away from dragon' instinct not the 'if I resist Robotnic I have a chance to survive' and 'if I don't fight back I'm guaranteed to be turned into a robot' ones!"  :P

Mittens pauses with a frown stroking her chin while staring at the ceiling for a moment.  "Lord give me the wor...  Thanks!" she prays silently.  ^.^

"Well the GOOD news is that in spite of risking life and limb in the face of impossible odds, the local freedom fighters MIRACULOUSLY rescued your about-to-be-robot selves from certain doom, (Lord be praised.)" Mittens continues enthusiastically, "The BAD news is that we're pinned underwater and the very air we breath and water we drink is a limited and increasingly POLLUTED resource that if we don't act fast will soon be POISON to us.  So to put it plainly, if we don't get the resources we need to fight effectively...  BREATH effectively, we'll... all...  DIE!"  ^.^

Mittens shrugs with a 'what can you do?' smirk on her face.  One might even get the impression that the idea of dieing is just an 'oh well' scenario for Mittens which wouldn't be at all off base because to her death just means going to heaven without having first had a legendary victory over a giant robot dragon.  :D

Valin replies, "I'm both a carpenter and a gardener," which would explain why he carries what could be recognized as tools for those two professions in the pockets of his cargo pants and harness he wears.

When Valin notices that Lucky is looking at his nose, the gorilla wonders if there is some dirt or a fragment of wood stuck on the tip of his nose as such things have occurred in the past. Valin glances around to see if anyone else is staring at his nose before he asks softly, as if slightly embarrassed, "Is there something on my nose?" as Valin makes it clear he has noticed Lucky staring at his nose and is curious as to why. Valin also rubs at his nose with his right hand and then looks at his hand to see if something rubbed off his nose and onto his hand. When Valin finds nothing had rubbed off onto his hand, the gorilla looks a bit confused.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:11, Thu 27 Dec 2007.

Michael listens to what is said between Katy, Joe, and Maverick and the chimpanzee grins slightly at seeing Maverick look to be interested in helping out as only a child does.

When Katy asks Michael about Valin's opinion of Ra, the chimpanzee ponders it for a second and then nods, "You have a point. Valin may realize something about Ra we haven't due to Valin's perspective given his strength and size. Hopefully we'll be able to think of something," as Michael rides the elevator up with Katy since climbing a tree would have made it difficult to continue the conversation.

  "That'd be my evil passer-by spy training at work to blame for that.  I also learned the ways of evil rescued person spy if were busy going over the various worry issues.  But it may take a while to go through every single person in that case."  Joe has no freaking idea really.  He's experimented with trying to avoid convenient timing, but that just seems to make it happen more and in a less convenient for him manner.

  Joe shrugged at Maverick's question.  "Sure, maybe you can point out to me just asking someone 'excuse me, are you reporting to the evil overlord?' is a bad plan of action at some point."

  Joe was also curious what Valin might have to say about this.  Not because of what Valin might think in particular, but why people would expect different results from them when it comes to large mechanical dragons with the guns and the fire and the kill all life outlook.

  OOC Style:  Tracking someone who technically doesn't exist anymore.  If this is the easy job, I'd hate to see what the hard jobs are.

Lucky hugs his knees, stares at the floor, and blushes deeply.  (Visibly red cheeks on a black cat are possible through the miracle of Saturday morning cartoon physics.)

"N-No sir," he answers Valin.  Thoroughly embarrassed Lucky tries to divert attention away from his social error, "My mom was a gardener and taught me a few things.  Maybe I could be your assistant?"

Carpenter sounds more fun, but "I'll be your apprentice, but I have zero experience LOLz!" seems a bit too unlikely to get a "yes" answer.

Nautilus nods in response to Shelly's question. "As she is in our ranks for now, I imagine that it would be best for her to undergo some kind of proper water training." He strokes the underside of his muzzle as he looks over at Mittens giving her speech. "However, I'll not train her if she insists on wearing that suit of armor I saw her wearing while travelling to the surface the other day.  Wearing armor properly underwater requires quite a bit of advanced training after learning how to be sea worthy in the first place.  I'm not even sure how far along she is in that regard.  Am I correct in assuming that you would wish for me to begin her training before going off on this mission she's talking about?  Or would you agree with me in considering this to be a proper test to see how much work I'll need to do with her?"

Hart and the others get back in time to hear most of the second half of Mittens speech.  Needless to say, her cheery attitude when talking about death makes him nothing but uneasy.  But with all her talk about "after-life" and "something better waiting in Heaven", he's not all that surprised.  Walden is somewhat more shocked and unused to hearing this sort of talk.  He knows that scuba gear isn't required for him, but if the water gets worse like Mittens is suggesting, that might change.

After standing in the ensuing silence, Hart feels an urge to respond, but thinks better of it, putting his hands in his pockets and waiting instead. "I hope she knows where she's going with this..."

Mittens gazes at the not-as-cheerful-as-before crowd expectantly.  "Was I too harsh with them?" she prays silently, "What should I say to encourage th...  YES!  I LOVE that story!" ^.^!

Mittens reaches into that pocket of space where cartoon characters keep all their "too big to carry around logically but mysteriously have on person anyway" items and produces a book.  :D

"Perhaps a slice of history will get your spirits up," she says with a excited smile.  ^.^

Mittens reads (with several embellishments that aren't in the text) the account of the grossly fat Eglon, evil king of Moab, who conquered the City of Palms.  She recounts 14 long years of slavery the citizens suffered and their cry to God for a savior.    ;.;

"Then a Benjaminite named Ehud forged himself a short two-edged sword with the materials available to a slave and strapped it on his thigh under his clothes. He presented the tribute demanded by Eglon king of Moab and said, 'I have a private message for you, O King.'

    The king told his servants, 'Leave.' They all left.

  Ehud approached Eglon and said, 'I have a message from God for you.'  In a flash, Ehud took his sword from his thigh and plunged it into the king's enormous belly!"

Mittens unsheathes her imaginary sword and thrusts her fist forward in an exaggerated stabbing motion.  >:D

"So powerful was the thrust that not only the blade but the hilt went in!  So fat was the king that his belly closed in over the sword so Ehud couldn't pull it out!  The mammoth king Eglon staggered and fell dead at the hero's feet with a thunderous THUD!  Ehud snuck out, and returned with an team of freedom fighters!  His rag-tag band of slaves overcame an army of 10,000 seasoned soldiers!  By guts and grit they won back their home!"  :D

Once again she thrusts her fist into the air triumphantly!  ^.^/

"There have been walrus tyrants before, and the saying is true 'the bigger they are the harder they fall!'  Gravity is on our side!  I ask again!  Who'll go with me?!  With what we salvage we'll forge for ourselves a weapon to plunge straight into the belly of the tyrant!"

Mittens grits her teeth and with a 360 spin thrusts the imaginary sword forward with more fervor than ever before.  >:D  She jumps off the table and approaches the crowd, fiery eyes flashing about looking to "volunteer" anyone who isn't completely cowering in a corner at this point.

Hart has his hands in his pockets as he looks at the display curiously.  He's used to Mittens acting a bit weird, but this is a new high for her.  Walden's taken the route of some of the others, backing away from Mittens as she storms forward with her imaginary sword.

"...What the heck's a 'Benjaminite'?" Hart says after another ensuing awkward silence.  Finally he shrugs, saying "Fine, fine... If folks volunteer, will you drop the suicidal dragon-slaying song and dance?  You've made it pretty clear that this is an important situation... and I guess I'm in if you're serious about it."

Despite the fact that Hart's a little bit uneasy with Mittens leading the charge, he tries to make it sound like he has faith in her.  He knows enough that they need to inspire confidence with the newcomers, and nothing raises spirits like a successful mission.

  Joe's answers of both the useful and useless variety given, Joe began to head off in the direction Travis had taken as he left.  Though putting more normal walking methods to use as he doubted Maverick would appreciate being towed along for the duration of the trip had more mobile means been used.

  "Come on, lets see how this turns out."  He made a note to check if Maverick had a sharp object handy.  If not, hopefully they would be in a state of mind to accept offered pointies not as readily available when large robot dragons are burning things down.

Once on the way up, Katy folds her arms and says, "I wish robots weren't tireless. Night missions are only useful because of the lack of light the enemy can use. And that's outdoors. But even they need energy... maybe another thing we can look into is finding out where the dragon recharges. He's GOT to have a HUGE energy requirement, so finding his charger should be relatively easy. Once we find it, maybe there is a chance we could "poison" him with the wrong amperage or the wrong voltage... so that he'll be weak or run low on energy before he expects to." She may not know Ra's weakness, but she at LEAST knows what every one's weakness is, robot or not: Energy requirements. For organics, cut off food supply. Doesn't matter if they are the most dangerous man in the world, if he doesn't have food, he'll die. For robots, it's their batteries. "Of course, I'm assuming he runs on electrical charge like SWATbots do, but then I suppose finding his source of energy will tell us whether that assumption is correct or not."

To Lucky's offer, Emerald grins and looks over to Lucky. "That sounds like a great idea! Maybe while you're at it, Valin can show you a thing or two with carpentry as well if he's feeling nice. Then again, I can't recall Valin NOT being nice." she winks at Valin.

Shelly replies to Nautilus, "We don't have time to give her even one lesson between now and the start of this mission. I agree with you that this mission will show how well she can lead and best of all, how well she can think out a mission. She seems to have the drive, but drive alone is not enough." she glances towards Mittens as she continues listening. She's well aware that the land dwelling races of Mobius worship the Ancient Walkers for the most part, but is unsure if Mittens worships the same god the others in the room might. After all, none of them seem to be empathizing with Mittens. "What she said about the polluted waters... seems she at least has enough sense to realise the danger we water-fairing types are in." she asides to Nautilus. She then faces Nautilus again, "Last mission left me in a bad way. It is Seabear unfriendly in Middletown now that there's a fire-breathing dragon hanging around. I can't go with her. But..." she then hears Hart speak up and smiles. "But Hart *can*... MAN I'm glad he volunteered. Remind me to talk to Hart about Mittens before they head off, though..." This said as she realises she will need to have Hart filled in on her own intentions. Not to mention boost his confidence in Mittens a tad.

Harrison grunts. "If you feed me, I'm in!" various nervous chuckles ensue. "But I will not be much help with an empty stomach, I assure you." The mink that spoke up earlier speaks up again, "Well gee... with someone as big and tough as this guy joining us, I suppose I can help too." It seems the domino effect has been innitiated as a husky speaks up, "Count me in too." A seabear who happens to be a resident of Aquarius says, "Me too." but Shelly frowns and says, "No you won't. The others can go, but not you." the guy seems shocked, but replies, "...sure thing, your highness.." skewing his mouth to the side in confusion.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:44, Sat 12 Jan 2008.

Maverick wonders if Joe said what he said to joke around or if Joe's belittling him for being a child. So he decides that since Joe was the only one who was being particularly social with him, he must be joking. However, he responds with, "Then I'll point it out now. It's a bad idea to ask directly if he's working for the enemy." as he follows Joe along and would ask if he was serious about what he said, but then whether Joe was sarcastic or serious, the answer would be the same: Yes. So Maverick just keeps his thoughts to himself.

Unless Joe asked Maverick about sharp pointies (As apposed to simply looking at the boy), he probably wouldn't know since Maverick wears a cloak to conceal his weaponry, whatever it may be. However, if asked, Maverick would simply nod.


OOC Style: Don't worry. Kelevor is done moving, so maybe I can yoink him back into existence.

  "Well, thats one bad idea I'll skip then."  It wasn't like there was a shortage of bad ideas.  "Of course I've never been very good at making threats so the mean verbal methods are out for me too."

  Joe shrugged as they continued on their way along the path the wandering monk had taken, whether through coincidence or skill tracking people even if they could float or something as usual up in the air due to the lack of apparent attention to the task despite results.

  "Incidentally, you in need of a sharp object?  Or are you all set.  And any suggestions that don't involve following the guy for an needlessly long amount of time?"

Valin rubs his chin as the gorilla considers the Lucky's request to help with the gardening. The Gorilla considers the additional gardening and carpentry work that will be needed to deal with the new arrivals on a long term basis as more gardens will need to be planted and tended to for food production, and the village will need to be expanded a bit so everyone can have their own place to live in the village. When Emerald voices her approval of the request, Valin glances to her and  then back to Lucky and nods as he nods while saying with slight smile on his face, "You can be my assistant. It will be helpful to have an additional set of hands to tend to the gardens, and Emerald is quite correct about the possibility of you learning some carpentry skills on the side."

After all, with some of the gardens being hanging gardens on the tiers of Channelwood, the wooden components of those gardens do need maintenance from time to time.

The look on Michael's face as Katy talks about 'poisoning/spiking' Ra's recharging process is one of careful listening and curiosity. "That may be our best option. Ra is nothing more than a huge paperweight without the power for it to function. The trick is learning where and how Ra recharges. Once we know that it shouldn't be too hard to find a way to either add something or change something to prevent Ra from being able to function."

The chimpanzee doesn't vocalize the possible follow-up of possibly taking out Ra while it can't defend itself if the opportunity presents itself. However, Michael has no clue on how to do that since Michael knows that even that 'lunar loony' Samuel, with his fancy gear, wasn't able to damage Ra and only managed to piss the robot off with that somewhat distasteful 'distraction' of his.

Valin's pausing to consider does a lot to calm Lucky's subconscious fears and make him feel like he's being done a big favor.  In a way he IS being done a big favor.  This is the perfect occupation for concealing Lucky's secret in a new town.  Who would suspect the wind change driving away most of the pollution or the other perfect gardening conditions they'll soon be having had anything to do with this boy?

"Thanks!" Lucky says with a bashful smile, his gaze only making it up to Valin's chest, "You won't regret it!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:21, Wed 16 Jan 2008.

Mittens tries not to let it show how shocked she is by Shelly's sudden exertion of authority on the seabear and just keeps smiling.  :)

"Looks like we've got ourselves a good size squad!" she chimes, "Thanks for volunteering!"  :D  Then with a wink to the big guy, "Let's get fed and prepped!"  ^.^

She turns to bow to Shelly in her typical overdone style, then leads the way to more grub!  :9

Hart looks over to Walden as Mittens leads the others off.  The otter is looking somewhat embarassed.  "You going to come along?"

Walden shakes his head  "I dunno man... I mean, we just got out of Middletown and all.  I still have nightmares about being turned into a robot... I just don't wanna get close to that again, ya know?"

Hart nods and pats Walden's shoulder with a reassuring hoof. "Hey, don't sweat it.  No one's gonna force you to go, so you're free to chill out and help here.  Besides, if something happens here while we're gone, aquatic guys like you are going to be really needed around here once the scuba gear is gone.  The way I see it, you'd be better off here anyways." He leads the otter towards the hall to follow the others.  "Now why don't you join the rest of us for the chowdown before the mission? If that Harrison is as hungry as he says he is, watching him eat might be a show worth seeing."

Just before they enter the hallway, a white furred hand stops Hart.  The deer looks up to see Nautilus, who quickly motions for Walden to go on ahead. "Hart, I believe that the princess would like to speak with you before you venture out.  Now might be the most opportune time, as I don't believe that you need to 'chow down' quite so much.  Especially not after sleeping in this morning before we begain our training..."

Hart looked at Nautilus curiously before sighing and walking back to Shelley, leaving the old seabear to stand off to the side of hallway and do his best to introduce himself and his title to the new arrivals that haven't met him yet and are still in the room.  He never lets anything just drop... Wonder if that's why he stayed single? As he gets nearer to Shelly, he puts on a bit of a smile, not sure how serious what she has to tell him is.  "Something up, Shell?"

"Absolutely not." objected the council member, "For starters, our ancient law forbids us from intruding in the affairs of the creatures of the ground." "There's always exceptions to rules.." Timothius tries, but quickly gets interrupted. "I'm not finished, young one. Even if we decided to go down there and help, what could we possibly hope to accomplish other than draw the warlord's attention to us? Listen... we are simply not equipped for war. The last time we tried to fight back, we were nearly wiped out and survived only by luck and running away." Timothius raises a finger, "If we had been prepared back then, we would not have been driven from out original homes. Shouldn't that event have taught us to be more prepared instead of teaching us only to run?" The councilman headshakes. "Be that as it may... it would take years of preparation. That, at least, I will consider. But going to directly aid these ground dwellers? Out of the question." Timothius sighs. "May I go now?" The councilman nods, giving a compassionate smile to Timothius. "Please don't be downhearted.. I'm sure some day we will be better equipped to help them. And your heart is in the right place." Timothius simply nods and leaves. What he doesn't mention is that this was his final plea before he would go down to the world below by himself. Timothius had made up his mind hours ago that he would go down there if the council said no to his request. He looks over his shoulder at the home he had grown up in. This paradise that was so far removed from the terrors below that most people here don't even understand what fear is. For it is only the ignorant who have never seen the horrors of war that think they are immune to being truly afraid. Timothius steps up to the edge, knowing that he would have to wait another month before he could come back due to the movement patterns of the Floating Island. He gulps and jumps off the edge, spreading his wings and glides his way down. It's a very long drop, but he's pretty sure he's in one of the more remote areas where his presence won't be especially noticed by Robotnik. A good place to learn how to be a freedom fighter. After a good 5 minutes, Timothius can see where the trees end and slowly glides his way there. He flaps his wings a few times as he lands near Aquarius lake. He knows from school that there is a nice little hideaway base under the lake. He takes a deep breathe, saying a silent prayer that some seabears did, in fact, survive the attack on Urser those many years ago.

(OOC: Finally found an opportune time to make Timothius show up. But decided I couldn't wait for the mission to start. :) It'd be TOO convenient for him to show up in the nick of time during a mission, so I figured it'd be nice to have him enter now. Whether he'll go on the mission or not remains to be seen, but chances are he will.)

Maverick reaches in his cloak to pull out a shard of glass he's wrapped with cloth in a makeshift knife of sorts. "..." he doesn't say it, but even though broken glass is possibly the sharpest object known to exist, Maverick would like a real knife. "This is all I got." he says quietly and somewhat uncomfortably. "And if you need someone who's good at threats... I think I can supply." he comments, hoping again to be as useful as possible to the people who helped him.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:48, Thu 17 Jan 2008.

Katy nods. "We'll have to make it count, though. He walks away from that once, he'll be wise to our tactics." the elevator opens and Katy quickly starts asking around and gets Valin's location. So she heads for the mess hall. She asides to Michael, "I can't stress how important it's going to be to improve moral around here. With a robot dragon on the loose, the people of Channelwood are going to be jumpy at the least. I'm counting on you, Michael. So I wanted to thank you for what you've been doing so far. People asking the same question a dozen times beats people asking you questions like "Why should I listen to you?" or "Why should we bother fighting anymore?". I'm trying my part too, so don't feel like it's all on you, Mike. The people look to you. I look to you too. And so far, you've never let us down. I know it can be frustrating and everyone is skittish... myself included. But that's all the more reason for people like you and I to stand up to the occasion. So again... thanks." This is, of course, said when she is sure there aren't people nearby who can hear her lest anyone think she's lecturing Mike. Far be it from her. Though she IS encouraging him, having seen his discouraged state earlier.

Emerald hrms. She and Valin and perhaps the whole village are going to have to work on Lucky's eye contact. But she doesn't want to give the poor boy a lecture in the middle of getting along with someone RIGHT after enduring a fire-breathing robot dragon. Heck... there are probably a few seasoned freedom fighters who would find it hard to make eye contact after seeing Ra. But something in her gut tells her this is something Lucky's had for a while.

Shelly faces her body to Hart, but her face towards where Mittens went. "Mittens is potentially our bravest freedom fighter." she looks back at Hart. "She asked my permission for this mission. I gave it for a reason. I wanna see what she's made of. What her leadership skills are like... or lack thereof. This mission is more a test for Mittens. But I want you to show a bit more confidence in her for me. See... I see her and I see potential. She may be eccentric, but she's on *our* side. She's not just against the enemy, she seems to care about her comrads." She then lowers her voice and mutters quietly "More than I can say for Samuel." but then goes back to her normal voice tone, "Don't forget she saved my life. She may talk strangely, but she is dependable. All that's left is to see how capable she is. YOU are the man to report to me how she does. She can give me a report of her own, but it's yours I'll be paying more attention to." Not a single word of this was said scoldingly, but it's clear Shelly is being serious for once. But her serious aura melts away into a smile... her usual big smile. "So cheer up and be more positive. I believe in you. If Mittens doesn't have what it takes, I'm sure you can get the bunch outta there alive and uncaptured."

Shelly nudges her head to where Mittens went. "Now let's go eat a little and socialize some like we were doing earlier." She enters the mess hall. Harrison is already digging in, eating like a pig. The pig, however, is eating like a normal person. Mobius is nothing if not consistently odd. Harrison keeps glancing at Walden, pondering the idea of talking him into the mission, but decides he'll only do that if he turns down the next mission that Hart happens to be on. Give the man time to get over what's been going on...

It's then that a seabear rushes to Shelly. "Princess! There's an angelican on the surface! He just landed and seems to be looking for the entrance!" The various seabears in the area shut up and stare while Shelly covers her mouth in surprise. "Well let him in already!" Shelly blurts out with a look of astonishment. The seabear that reported to Shelly bows and runs off. No surprise, many of the non-seabear races kinda look like they wonder what just happened. Harrison just continues to dig in.

Mittens tail-wags excitedly as she formulates her plan.  Hart's sudden disappearance hasn't escaped her notice, but she assumes that he's simply visiting the little deer's room.  Even as anxious as she is to jump right in, she listens to the others make light breakfast conversation while waiting for Hart to return lest he miss any details of her strategy.  Not one to waste any time, she begins constructing a crude "map" of Middletown out of pepper shakers, knives, napkins, and whatever else is on hand.  =^.^=

It dawns on her that there's something VERY important that she can take care of while Hart's gone.  She then takes several moments to transform her demeanor into that of a military officer.  :[

"As many of you know," she interjects in an uncharacteristically cool tone when a pause in the conversation presents itself, "Hart was a huge help in last night's rescue.  A valiant and capable veteran on both land and water, I know for certain he's a man I can count on to calmly execute the most impossible of orders when the chips are down."

Mittens slowly gets up out of her seat and leans her hands on the table giving an air of intensity.

"What I need to know is what you guys can bring to the table," she continues in the most unemotional tone she can muster, "I'm can tell by the fact that none of you are robots yet that you're all very capable survivors, but I need to know more.  How much experience do you have as freedom fighters?  How easily can you lift one end of a 40' tall tree?  How stealthy are you?  But most importantly, are you in the least bit uncomfortable taking life-or-death orders from a woman?"

With the keen eyes of a predator, she gazes lazily at the men watching for the slightest sign of dissent.  -.-  There are many things lacking that would make Mittens a remarkably effective leader, but the biggest problem she's had in the past is the fact that she's the "wrong" gender.  In fact, she wonders how reluctant the refugees would have been to volunteer had her earlier speech been delivered word-for-word by a man.  Shelly's entrusted her with a command so the last thing Mittens needs is one of her new soldiers getting himself killed because she didn't find out ahead of time that he's too sexist to take orders from her.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:13, Fri 18 Jan 2008.

  Some people are experts in drunken boxing.  Joe has some nifty skills in sober broken beer/root beer/snapple/lemonade bottle fu.  Of course, most robots don't tend to care as much when a half filled bottle of lemonade is broken in their face and they get jabbed in the chest a few times by glass.

  "Hold on to that, as often people don't take it seriously enough."  Joe could claim not being taken serious was a deliberate strategy to increase his combat effectiveness.  But then that wouldn't explain why people don't take him seriously when he wants them to.  "And hold on to at least one of these, in case you find out after the first two you're a bad shot."  This said as a trio of knives (complete with handles, how fancy) are offered handle first.

  "And I suppose it does fit that while I couldn't even threaten a baby to give me their candy," They just sort of pointed and laughed at him those times "That you'll get answers...  How do you get answers aside from the asking for them part?  I seem to keep getting it wrong."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:21, Tue 22 Jan 2008.

Michael nods and says, "Quite right that we can't afford to pass up an opportunity to permanently deal with that robot if one falls in our lap, since if we don't I doubt we'll get a second chance, even if the robot doesn't wise up, odds are that Robotnik would."

Michael nods upon hearing Katy's encouragement as he's well aware that she isn't lecturing him as he says, "Although at times like these I wish I was back in the classroom. If students caused frustrating problems I'd rather not deal with, I could just send them to the principal's office instead of having to deal with them myself. Those were simpler days."

Michael begins to think about what should be said to Valin when Katy and himself meet up with the gorilla in the mess hall, as the chimpanzee considers what Katy could plan to say about the robot dragon and what might need to be added.

Valin grins at seeing what the gorilla hopes he is correctly guessing is enthusiasm on Lucky's part as Valin says, "We'll start tomorrow, since I'll have to get the tools for you out of storage, and you might want to spend a bit more time getting settled in and familiar with the village's layout before you get to work." Valin thinks that it is a good thing that there are extra tools that have been kept in storage in case the tools Valin uses ever break so that the gorilla wouldn't be stuck without tools before the broken tools could be fixed or replaced, thus Lucky will have tools to work with from the start instead of having to wait till more tools can be made.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:07, Tue 22 Jan 2008.

Hart nods at Shelly's directions to him.

He's actually quite flattered at Shelly's confidence in his ability to take over if he really needs to.  The deer doesn't share her confidence entirely, as he's not quite sure what level of fire he might have to pull Mittens' fat out of.  He sighs during the short trek to the mess hall. I've gotta admit... Mittens does have guts, and that's one of the most important things to have in your corner when the chips are down. If she can just get her head out of the coulds a bit more...  Guess the only thing I can really do now is trust Shelly's judgment and go along with this. He chuckles to Shelly as they reach the mess hall and see Mittens giving another speech. "Well, at least this mission won't be dull..."

Walden has to remind himself to keep from staring at Harrison's eating and to concentrate on his own food, but the otter simply can't help himself.  Seeing such a big creature shovel down food like that... it was just awesome.  He wasn't sure if Harrison normaly ate like that or if this was just a special bout of hunger, but Walden did make a mental note to never get in his way before a meal.  The seabear coming in with what looked like an urgent announcement was the only thing that fully pulled his attention away.

Upon the announcement from the seabear about the Angelican, Hart raises a brow and watches the reactions of the other seabears curiously.  He'd heard mention of Angelicans a few times from some of the older members of Aquarius, but they never went into detail.

Hearing the announcement as well, Nautilus moves swiftly from the meeting hall to join Shelly and the other seabears to greet the honored arrival properly.

Maverick cracks a little smile with bright eyes when Joe hands him the knives. He then hides them away under his cloak, vowing to himself to only let one go in an emergency and to never let go of the last one, should he have to use the other two in a fashion that results in losing them. He also takes it as a tremendous piece of advice to hold on to his own glass knife as he didn't expect Joe to take it all that seriously either. To get approval from an adult who wields as many knives as Joe does makes Maverick feel like his glass knife idea was a fantastic one. Maverick answers Joe's question, "It depends on the person being asked. So we'll save that answer to demonstration when the time demands it."

(OOC: I'm reminded of Batman Beyond how whenever 90-year-old Bruce Wayne interrogates someone, the screen always fades to black and the next scene shows the terrified victim revealing everything they know... or it just shows Bruce leaving the vicinity and you never see the victim again. Either way, he always gets his answers.)

In response to Michael, Katy says, "Well as the saying goes: Beggars can't be choosers. I would like to add to that: Beggars can choose to starve or eat. We will not starve, Mike. But until the enemy is beaten, we can't pick what we eat either. Just be sure... as long as I breathe, I will make sure you and the others survive." Katy figures Mike gets the metaphor of starvation to death and eating to life. She then walks over to Valin. "Valin. If you're not busy, me and Mike need you in the upper level's planning room." Katy's got that usual aura of seriousness that comes before she prepares for an attack. One that Valin most likely has come to not look forward to. If only Valin knew how much Katy didn't look forward to it either.

Harrison raises an eyebrow. He manages to pause from eating long enough to answer, "Well I can take orders from a woman, a man, or heck, you could be a flickie for all I care. As long as they are reasonable orders and not "See that fire-breathing robot dragon over there? Draw a smiley face on it's butt!" kind of orders. As for what I can do? I'm strong. How strong? I can bench 1,000 pounds. What that translates to is that I can push, pull, etc a lot of weight like a large stone blocking an exit or stuff like that. But I punch about as hard as you'd expect someone my size and weight to." That much said, he continues to gorp down before glancing at Walden and simply letting a smirk cross his face accompanied by a chuckle. He begins stuffing his face even faster as if playfully giving a show for his new audience.

The mink who has yet to be named makes a mental note along with every NPC in the room to never EVER piss off Harrison. He then shrugs, "Lady, we live in a world where fire-breathing robot dragons chasing us, while shocking, still come as no surprise. I'm with Oxford here.. reasonable commands. And don't try my nerves. As long as we work together, I'm fine. As for what I can bring to the table, I'm stealthy. I still have a few key codes memorized and so I could possibly crack a few doors open that would otherwise be closed to us." The mink is, of course, quite disgusted by Harrison's eating. But excuses it away with the guy being desperately starving.

Crucible would join up with Nautilus and Shelly, but not only was he NOT told to, he also wants to keep an eye on these newcomers. Crucible believes that without even saying a word, the princess has already implied such an order. At seeing Hart's reaction, Crucible just gives Hart a held up finger as if implying for Hart to just wait and stick with Mittens. He doesn't say anything, though, figuring Shelly will answer everything soon enough.

Shelly leads Nautilus and a few other seabears to the exit. "We'll be right back everyone." she says to Mittens and her crowd. "Just enjoy your meal." this said, she pushes the button that closes the elevator doors. The elevator goes up and Shelly exits with her small group of seabears (Some being guards).

Timothius turns to see a 4' x 4' square patch of grass near the lake rise up to reveal it was the roof of an elevator. Soon, seabears spill out: Shelly, Nautilus and a couple seabear guards. Timothius smiles at the sight and says, "My name is Timothius. I'm from Neo Sky Sanctuary. Are you Princess Shelly Urser of the seabear kingdom Urser?"

Shelly nods. "Urser may be under Robotnik's rule, but I am still the only free royal member left. Please come inside our headquarters quickly. We have food and company waiting."

Timothius bows respectfully and gets inside the elevator. He glances around at Shelly, Nautilus and the guards. Shelly is smiling nervously, holding her breathe. "Please don't tell me Neo Sky Sanctuary has been taken?" she manages to mutter out. Timothius smiles in return and headshakes. "No, your highness. I'm here against their consent... I'm here to help." Shelly doesn't know whether to be agitated about Neo Sky Sanctuary being so hesitant to help or to be happy they aren't involved. But she's relieved the place is still safe, not taken and that Timothius is here offering help. Though what kind of help remains to be seen.

A distant breeze can be heard by Joe and Maverick in their search for Travis. But it's not as distant as it sounds as they very quickly can see a quiet hover bike with a black rabbit riding it gliding along, weaving through the trees at a slow cruising speed of about 10 MPH. The rider slows down and comes to a halt as she looks around to see if she heard voices or if that was just her ears playing tricks on her. Joe is probably perceptive enough to notice the guns strapped on the rabbit's legs. She's dressed in what looks like a uniform of sorts, though it isn't cammo, so one can figure she either is an officer of sorts or ranger. Whatever the case, she speaks out loud, "Who's there?" Seems she at least takes Joe's approach to getting info: simply ask.

Angel was sent here as per the reports of a crash landing ship, but she also has a few extra agendas of her own to take care of while doing her duty for her hometown. Bag any loners she comes across, recruit any freedom fighters she finds, and maybe sabotage Middletown since she heard that was yet another base of ops for Robotnik's forces. Granted, it was simply a production zone, meant to produce bots for Robotnik and mine various resources. But Angel has learned to never underestimate the significance of any place... Angel doesn't even know about Ra, but prepares for things as extreme if not more. Little does she know, even her guns couldn't hope to damage the dragon that awaits in Middletown.

(OOC: Side note - Angel is borderline NPC, but I decided to give her her own poses since I'll likely use her frequently. I'll add her to the Character Introduction Thread now that she's been introduced.)

It's about then that Travis headtilts, having heard the voice of the rabbit nearby. On one hand, he doesn't want another person trying to get him to stick around. On the other hand, whoever just asked "Who's there" either knows he's there or someone else is there that he hasn't noticed yet. Travis decides to sneak to the area to see what's going on and he spots the black rabbit on a hover bike. He twitches his tail... she seems harmless enough.

  Nobody would ever pass near Channelwood.  For all the comments Joe gets on the subject, it seems it's other people who are in serious need to learn how reality works.

  While the question gave the suggestion she hadn't quite noticed them yet, the easy view of her Joe had meant a simple turn of the head in the proper direction would give an easy view of him.  And he doubted the tendency for people to not notice him until five minutes later when they demand he doesn't sneak up on them from would happen in this case.  Though while his planned action could readily be filed under 'stupid' despite it being part of basic conversation, he did at least have enough of what counts for sense to consider Maverick.

  He gave Maverick a questioning look while gesturing off towards more 'not in their sight' tree areas before turning back towards the Bunny on... Well, not on wheels actually.  He'd give Maverick time to stay or go as they wanted before announcing his presence with an "I am?"

By now, Mittens' serious face is beginning to break between having two positive replies and all the excitement over a mystery guest.  ^.-  Nevertheless, she faces the Husky with an air of expectation.

"Strong silent type?" she asks, trying hard not to glance at the elevator, "'Silence is consent' they say, so am I right in thinking those periods in the speak bubble over your head mean that you're o.k. with a she-boss?"

The serious facade crumbles.  She smiles real big, shoulders shrugged.  At least she resists the urge to bat her eyes and rub the back of her folded hands against her cheek.  ^.^

Lucky nods vigorously, his fear of the Gorilla's massive canines melting into hero-worship.  Underneath his excitement, a hundred new hopes and fears crop up.  Will he please or disappoint his new teacher?  Will he bring fortune to the gardening efforts or disaster?  He still doesn't understand the nature of his "curse."

Lucky keeps quiet when Katy shows up.  Looks like she's got something important to talk to Valin about.  "I sure hope no one was badly hurt last night," he thinks to himself.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:04, Sun 27 Jan 2008.

The husky nods to Mittens, "I'm with the others about a girl being in charge. Far as what I can do? Nothing special. I was never talented at much of anything. I'm just an average guy. So whatever, I guess... just don't expect me to move a half-ton stone or crack any codes." What he doesn't say is that he has more problems with Mittens being a cat than he does with her being a girl. Nothing against cats in particular, just that he would prefer a dog over other races. But once again, beggars can't be choosers and he's the only dog in Aquarius.

In the elevator, as they travel back down, Nautilus remains respectfully silent and pleasant towards Timothius.  Like Shelly, he's glad to hear that a distress call from Neo Sky Sancutary was not the purpose of the visit.  However, the suggestion of an Angelican's 'help' has the old seabear quite curious.  He can't clearly recall the last time that such an idea was even entertained.

Meanwhile, as they await the return of the welcoming party, the others are waiting and/or eating patiently.  Walden doesn't respond to Mittens' declarations and questions, as he assumes that she's only meaning to gather information about the other Mobians that intend to join her on her mission. He still watches Harrison as he gulps down his food and silently cheers him on like a teenager at a chugging contest.  He keeps the corner of his eye open so that he can hopefully catch when Shelly's party returns.

Hart stands waiting alongside Crucible with his hands in his pockets as he looks around the room to try and get a feel for how the others are reacting to Mittens.  He figures that a lot of them are at least a little skeptical, but at least most seem ready to help and stand behind her if need be.  He didn't know if that trust was a result of Shelly's personal approval or Mittens' odd gift to make this little mission sound like a quest for some Holy Grail... but he had to admit that he was looking forward to seeing how this all would work out.  However, he currently wasn't sure if there was even going to be a mission with this Angelican appearing on their doorstep.  It sounded like the kind of meeting that could turn everything on its head.

Maverick figures it best to act as backup to Joe. Not to mention have a decent head start to warn the others about this girl with a gun. So he finds a good hiding spot to spy on the conversation.

Angel faces Joe and smiles. What an earnest man... "Well well! Intel was right. There ARE people out here." she hops off her bike. "The name's Angel." she offers a hand. "I was hoping I'd bump into someone around here..."

  Life, and the fact Joe still had ownership of one has taught that caution is good.  Also good, those far and few between times when meeting someone new doesn't start off with threats, violence, or both towards Joe right off.

  Joe made with the casual handshakage, "I'm Joe.  And while I've found that you can find people most anywhere you bother to look," and, just as if not more often lately, when you don't bother to look "You must have some low standards if you were hoping to bump into me.  Does Intel also comment about things like dragons and aliens to balance things out?"

  ...We're sorry Joe, the narration department has no idea how you mean that particular comment.

Timothius follows the bunch back into Aquarius where he sees the bunch of people eating in the area where Mittens is. To most, a cat with wings is not only something they haven't seen, but something that would only be from fairy tales and such. He looks around and smiles, seeing so many people eating and looking like they are doing OK. He thought he'd come down to see people living in poverty and wearing rags. Timothius is happy to see at least the people live as comfortably as one can given the circumstances.

"Sweet!" Mittens chirps, "O.K. so here's the plan..."  ^.^

She draws attention to her make-shift "map" of the area.

"We're here in Aquarius.  This is Middletown, this is Channelwood, and this is the Channelwood Creek.  Plan is we use the creek to cloak our approach and our departure.  If Aquarius doesn't have any snorkel tubes we can prolly improvise.  Before heading in we fell a tree across the creek at a point where it'd be hard to cross.  If things go bad we run for the tree, cross the creek, then throw the 1 end of the tree into the creek, slowing any pursuit.  Ok so here's where the..."

Mittens interrupts her debriefing and stares in amazement at the winged white cat when he enters the room.  O.O!

"So... I guess that's what an Angelican looks like."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:19, Wed 30 Jan 2008.

Although Valin is not sure what Katy and Michael wish to speak with him about, the gorilla figures it is important so he replies, "I'm not busy, I'll head up to the planning room now since I get the feeling this is important." While Valin isn't sure what is to come, he does suspect he's not going to enjoy it. Valin then turns to Lucky and Emerald and waves before saying, "See you both later, apparently there is something that needs to be discussed upstairs," before he heads upstairs.

Michael understands what is implied by Katy's metaphor and isn't really comforted by the fact that it is a teenager having to take such a metaphor seriously. As Valin heads off, Michael simply nods and heads off towards the meeting room taking his typical 'climb the tree' shortcut, thus insuring that he'll arrive first to make sure that the planning room will be ready to use.

As he has not only done all the work he can on his 'SWATBot suit' for the moment, but also getting a bit hungry, Samuel takes the two SWATBot Heads he has, puts them in a bag. Samuel figures he'll taking them with him to get something to eat before dropping them off at the local 'computer guru' to be able to get the necessary info  on SWATBot programming. Afterall even if someone looks like a SWATBot, if the person can not act like a SWATBot the disguise will not work.

On his way out of the shuttle, Samuel picks up a certain gag item he's had with him since he suspects he might need to intimidate the computer experts into accepting his request without having to go through Shelly. Thus, before he leaves the hanger bay, Samuel pops his 'fake vampire fangs' into his mouth and heads to the cafeteria where everyone else most likely is.

Currently, Samuel has no clue about the newest arrival to Aquarius, which may lead to an interesting situation when the two meet.

Hart nods in response to Mittens' observation. "Guess so..."

Really, he didn't expect anything much different, as the name "angelican" implied that the mobian was winged, but that didn't make the sight of this cat any less unique.  At least he seems to be happy about something, so that probably means that he's here for a good reason... I hope.

Walden has currently switched from staring at Harrison to staring at Timothius.  In all of his life, he'd never seen a winged mobian before, or even known that they really existed.  It was like something out of a fairy tale to him.  Looking at Timothius' wings now was giving him visions of how cool it'd be to soar through the air on wings of his own.

While the various NPCs are busy staring, Shelly introduces the cat. "Everyone, this is Timothius. He's an Angelican... that means he comes from a city in the sky called Sky Sanctuary - A place untouched by Robotnik's influence. Please help him feel welcome." She scoots Timothius towards the others.

Harrison looks at his empty plate. "Heh... done at last." he says, patting his now filled tummy before looking back towards Timothius. "Welcome to Aquarius. They make good food here." The others are still trying to figure out what to say.

Timothius waves with a smile. "Nice to know..." he says in a positive tone to Harrison's comment. "I came in order to help, but I'm afraid all I have to offer are my services as a doctor.. I'm otherwise not much use in this war since I have absolutely no combat experience."

Angel nods. "Matter of fact, yes. I heard there was an alien who crash landed around this area. I intend to learn of the alien's whereabouts... know anything on the alien?" This said, she makes NO comment on the finding of people anywhere one looks and figures Joe is either being sarcastic or has some weird luck.

Emerald smiles and says, "I'll take it from here, Valin..." this said before she offers to hold hands with Lucky.

Katy takes Valin with her to the meeting room on the 3rd level and when she sees Mike has already pulled out the map and other such tools, she cracks a smile. "Thanks Mike." she says before sitting in one of the chairs. "I was thinking earlier, Valin, you might have some insight on how we could survive or even defeat a dragon. After all, you have experience at being larger than most and so I imagine you know what kinds of disadvantages come with that... anything would be good since there might be something I haven't thought of."

"Hey, a healer's more useful at times like these than extra muscle.  After all, we don't repair as easily as Robotnik's droids." Hart walks towards Timothius with an extended hoof to shake. "... And good food isn't the only thing we've got to offer. Heh, it's good to have you aboard, Tim."

Walden's still staring at the Angelican, not really sure what to say.  He seems nice enough, but he's just so different looking...

Nautilus cringes at Hart and Harrison's casual tone and actions.  There were much more proper ways to greet a guest of such high standing... but so much protocol had been dropped over the years that he felt that he should have been less surprised.  For now, he stands stoicly off to Shelly's side with the other Seabears, his arms folded behind his back.

If this Timothius really did act out against the consent of the others, then his mannerisms and expectations of us may be different as well... I wonder how old he was when our races still communicated?, he thinks as he watches this initial meeting unfold.

  Further research has shown that a frequent cause of confusion whether Joe is being sarcastic or serious, is that he's both at the same time with the same comment.

  Sarcasm, comments similar to 'oh, did they tell you that the Lucky Charms Leprechaun was around too?'.
  Serious, referencing current events to see if they know something already.

  "Haven't really seen anything I consider Alien."  Of course, Joe's standards of normalcy are questionable.  And Sam didn't seem all that strange to him, nevermind theoretical 'It's not an alien if they started out from here' stuff.  "Though was unfortunately serious about the dragon situation.  And I'm not noticing offhand anything of too much help against mechanical examples of such unless that bike has retractable rocket launchers under the headlights or something."

  Hey, they're standard issue in many spy movies.  You never know.

Mittens waits for Timothius to respond to the greetings before piping in.

"Doctor you say?  Just so happens we could use a field medic on today's mission.  How 'bout them wings?  They're not just for show are they?"

She tries to suppress a grin as she endless possibilities for new tactics using flight cross her mind.  :D

"By the way, Shelly," Mittens says soon after, "I assume you've already informed our Channelwood allies of today's mission?  I haven't heard if any of them would like to join the fun!"  ^.^
This message was last edited by the player at 03:06, Sun 10 Feb 2008.

Lucky is visibly disappointed that his new hero has been kidnapped by the boss lady.  He takes hold of Emerald's hand, a little reluctant to relent to her gesture because it will make him look like a little kid being led by a momma, but oh well.  It would be rude to refuse, it's an excuse to hold hands with a pretty lady, and well...  Lucky misses having a momma.

Shelly hears Mittens and headshakes. "I have not contacted them yet. You asked me while everyone was socializing..." she says following up with a tongue sticking out as if slightly emphasizing just how spontaneous Mittens' request was. She then asides to Nautilus, looking slightly concerned. "Are you OK?"

Timothius smiles at Hart with a nod. "Thank you..."

....field medic? Well he knew he'd wind up in danger eventually... Timothius nods to Mittens. "I... can fly using these..." he gulps, already afraid of the danger he's being thrust into... these people REALLY needed his help. Doesn't say a word beyond that, but quietly, in his mind, he's thanking God.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:03, Wed 13 Feb 2008.

Michael gives Katy a thumbs up while he says, "Your welcome."

Michael doesn't say anything else as he lets Katy explain the situation to Valin. This is because the chimpanzee knows that he doesn't need to do anything further at the moment except listen to what Valin has to say.

Valin nods to Emerald before following Katy to the meeting room.

Upon hearing what Katy has to say, Valin rubs his chin for a moment before opening his mouth to speak, "While being larger is a likely indication of strength, it also tends to indicate being somewhat slower in regards to changing direction due to having a larger amount of momentum to deal with, although that may not be the case with a robotic dragon. But if there is any true weakness with being larger, it is that being larger means one can't fit through narrow corridors like air vents or simply moving through smaller corridors inside buildings. If we stick to places it can't fit into, it can't be used against us. However that would also prevent me from doing much on those missions. Also, being larger means needing more food, or energy in the robot's case, which may be something that can be exploited But you probably already thought of that one as it is pretty obvious." Valin looks back and forth between Katy and Michael to see if they have anything to say at this point as the gorilla really doesn't want to talk anyone's ears off.

As Samuel enters the room, he expected to see people eating, but he didn't expect to see someone with wings since Samuel didn't recall seeing anyone with wings among those that were rescued as something like that would have stood out in his mind.

Figuring the only way he is going to find out is to ask, Samuel walks over to Shelly and asks, "So what's going on, and who is your guest?" as Samuel gestures towards Timothius. At this point, Samuel doesn't care if anyone notices the 'fake' vampire fangs he's wearing as he doesn't go out of his way to show them off, although a careful observer might notice them when he speaks.

Samuel then takes slides the shoulder straps of the bag off his shoulder as he holds the bag containing the two SWATBot computer cores infront of Shelly while continuing, "Well I might as well get to the point. I need a computer nerd to crack the security on these SWATBot computer cores so I can figure out how a SWATBot thinks and acts. As well as what the heck the extra communication messages they were sending out on our latest mission was about." Samuel doesn't bother to mention that he has used post-it notes to label the the dates that the SWATBots the cores were taken from were 'acquired' so as to not get them mixed up.

Katy nods. Slightly disappointed that Valin pretty much said what she already figured out on her own. Although the slow turning radius caught her attention and she smirks. "The energy supply was an idea Mike and I were discussing earlier... someone who required that much energy, shouldn't be too hard to track down their recharge area. And from there, the plan is to "poison" his energy." She then looks to Michael. "We don't need to ask the Aquarius Freedom Fighters for help... but it would be wise to inform them of our plans so they don't wind up in our way." she means this in a respectful manner, not meaning that the AFF are only good for getting in their way, but simply that without communication, people WILL fumble over each other. She looks back to Valin. "Valin... I hate it, but you're right. You'll ironically be of less use to us on missions against the dragon. But be assured, you'll be a huge help soon enough."

Angel headshakes at Joe. "Sorry... no missile launchers on me. But I might be able to help you... Are you alone? Or are there Freedom Fighters nearby?" She figures if his earlier statement of running into people being common is true, then Joe must have meant there are Freedom Fighters nearby. However, she can't help but wonder where the alien landed. Despite the news of a giant robot dragon (Which, let's face it, isn't TOO shocking of news since this IS Robotnik we're dealing with here).

  Joe considered the distance situation of farther off locations, and membership situation of those closer, and saw that the last bit was a no.  One would have to be at 'what's a windmill doing here?' distance or have been hanging around near said windmill for more than 24 hours.

  "None particularly close by.  Though admittedly while it's been a pleasant conversation so far, the majority of my meetings with people packing hardware like yours has never turned out well for me in the end.  Join or die speeches, die or die comments, hello my name is hey-whats-that? shot to the back of my head comments.  So I'm probably a tad biased there."

Nautilus blinks out of his thoughts as he hears Shelly's voice, smiling somewhat ruefully at her. "My apologies, Princess. I was simply thinking about... days in the past, I suppose you might say. Noting to worry about."  He turns and nods towards Timothius politely, paying only a cursory attention to Samuel's entering the room. "I'm certain that your skills as a medic will be greatly appreciated, Timothius.  Times such as these always see us as being rather understaffed, especially in the department of healing.  In that light, I suppose it's something of a blessing that we've had very few traumas as of late."

Hart raises a brow at Mittens' suggestion of including the new arrival on a mission already. She barely let the poor guy catch his breath.

"Yeah, the way things have been going, you might have yourself a pretty easy job here, Tim.  'Course, it might just as easily be an omen that things are going to get rough, but then you're here anyways, right?" He smiles a bit, meaning it to be a friendly joke.

As he looks over and sees Samuel talking to Shelly, Hart can't help but raise a brow at his 'teeth.'  He doesn't say anything though, having long since given up trying to understand half the stuff that Samuel worked with.

Emerald looks down at the unsettled kitten. "Something on your mind, Lucky?" she asks with some concern but mixed with a light perkiness. She too wonders what Valin's being called about and intends to find out later. A small breeze blows through the trees, rustling the leaves and bringing a good fresh air scent to the area. Emerald takes notice and smiles a little more, her eyes slightly closing. She has no idea the breeze is a sign of things to come...

Maverick has yet to move from his hiding spot, though he's been watching the conversation. Note to self, he begins thinking, Learn lip-reading. He knows he's in a good spot though and won't risk being noticed by trying to sneak closer. Not until Joe is in danger. Even then... he's got a rock ready to be thrown. What? He vowed to himself earlier he'd do everything to make sure he didn't lose the knives too soon.

Shelly notices Samuel enter the room and starts answering his questions, "This is Timothius of the -" but her answer gets cut short when Shelly notices the vampire fangs and covers her mouth, stifling what would otherwise be very hearty laughter. After all... she knows they are fake. "The... Angelicans..." she says in a wavering tone due to trying not to laugh too hard. "Sure.. heh... talk to Millonni. She's good with that sort of... thing. Hee..." she grins at Sam. Figuring her laughter is all he needs to know she noticed the fangs. If not, she'll ask him about them later.

Lucky looks down and blushes.  Am I really that transparent? he asks himself.  No matter.  May as well admit one of the less embarrassing things on his mind.

"She always so grim?" he asks in a hushed tone lest anyone but Emerald hear, "Or only when she thinks a giant robot dragon knows where she lives and is about to attack?"

Lucky's own expression becomes grim as the thought crosses his mind that his "bad luck" will lure the dragon to this peaceful place any moment now.

Angel tilts her head a little to the side with a cute smile. "Hmm... well I can't say I blame you. These are good days to be cautious. But on the other hand, if I were an enemy... with this kind of hardware, wouldn't you be dead already?" she puts her hands on her hips. "I'm just looking for willing recruits... I'm not into the whole 'join or die' business... makes your so-called friends too ready to betray you. And this is an era where trust is more valuable than even life, much less gold or power. That said.. how can I earn yours? Or would you rather I be on my way?" she says as she slightly faces her bike, but keeps where she's at to wait for an answer.

As intriguing as the idea of hacking a SWAT's head for com codes and getting intel on what the enemy's saying is...  Mittens is far more interested in what's got Shelly's giggling.  From where she's sitting she can't see the vampire teeth.  She hops out of her chair and while approaching Timothius she glances over at Shelly and lips the words "What's so funny?!"  o.o?

"Welcome to the team, Sir Timothius," she says with a brisk handshake, intentionally not bothering to ask if he minds having a woman commander, "You'll be our lookout what with your unique ability.  We'll be leaving momentarily and I'll brief you on the way.  I suggest you get fed and geared ASAP."  ^.^

Ugh, she thinks to herself, I can't believe I was tempted to say 'STAT!'  I hate it when posers try to speak medic to medics.  She gives him a gentle nudge toward the rest of her team implying that they'll be the ones to help him get ready.

"Sir Samuel the Valiant!" she chimes cheerfully as she turns to face him...  O.O!  Completely unable to hide her shock, all she can do is stare in wonder...  wondering if fast-growing teeth is something common for aliens.  She blinks a few times to regain her composure, and assuming it rude to ask about his dental problems, continues like nothings out of the ordinary.

"Now I know you're not afraid of the big bad Ra, so how 'bout joining today's scuba salvage mission...  unleeess you're afraid of the big bad Mittens?"  She give him a wry smile.  ;)

Timothius huhs? He looks at Sam as Sam asks the question. His eyes widen... the great war may be over, but the differences are set aside just like that? He looks around quickly and notices a few agitated faces, but none with pure malice. He looks back at the intimidatingly sized man and wonders how this happened... then he noticed the even MORE intimidatingly sized Ox and figures he must be the reason nobody is too scared of the "big bad overlander". Either way, he knew Sam's question was directed at Shelly... but when Mittens matter-of-factly tells Timothius his position in the new mission, Timothius gets the classic Kermit the Frog "sheesh" look on his face. He didn't expect this to really be the case... he slowly makes his way over to Hart and says, "So.... who's in charge of this mission she keeps talking about?" he asks Hart quietly.

Emerald stops in her tracks and turns to face Lucky, squatting ever so slightly in order to be even with him. She pets his hair, combing her fingers through it. "She... is almost always like this. Because she carries a heavy weight. Katy is in charge here and doesn't want *anything* bad to happen to anyone... she feels it very deeply when someone is hurt or even almost hurt. Close calls aren't good enough for her. So let me assure you, Lucky... she is that way because she has a very very big heart."

Upon hearing Katy mention the Aquarius Freedom Fighters, Valin's eyes grow a bit wider as if a lightbulb just went off above his head. The gorilla quickly asks, "If we are going to inform them of our plan, could we also ask them how they fight fires? After all, if we could take away the dragon's ability to breath fire, then he is nothing but an overgrown flying swatbot. And wouldn't that at least mitigate the threat the dragon represents?"

Michael looks at Valin and blinks as the gorilla asks a question that makes Michael almost slaps himself in the side of the head for not thinking of it himself. Remembering the safety precautions from his shop classes regarding fires, the chimpanzee realizes that in an underwater environment filled with air the oxygen supply must be limited. Thus any fire has to be dealt with fast or those in Aquarius that can't breath water would suffocate, especially if the fire was a based on a combustible metal, which often becomes worse if exposed to water. Remembering about Class D fires makes the chimpanzee's face shift to one of fright as he realizes what that dragon's next move might be.

Michael mutters as the newfound concern becomes obvious in his voice as he talks, "I must be starting to get old, I should have thought of that. Although I don't know what type of substance the dragon is using to cause it's fire, it is safe to say that Robotnik would no doubt use something nasty, so I suspect it may be a Class D combustible metal, as those are the nastiest fires I learned about when training to be a metal shop instructor. If that is the case with the dragon, then throwing water on a fire its breath has caused would only make it worse. We need to find out if that is the case, and if it is then we have to deal with this dragon before it rains... otherwise that dragon could simply burn the forest down rather quickly, with the rain magnifying it's fire breath instead of hindering it."

Samuel glances towards Timothus when Shelly introduces the Angelican and when Shelly chuckles Samuel thinks to himself, 'She must realize that I'm using the fake fangs to have some diversion from the mundane. After all, all work and no play leads to space madness, although why I've heard others here in Aquarius calling it cabin fever, I'll never know.' However, Samuel only responds to Shelly's chuckling with a slight smirk, possibly indicating that he's pulled this stunt before and is probably used to all sorts of reactions to it ranging from laughter to fright.

Samuel's eyes look over to Mittens as he listens to the cat before grinning and saying, "Heh, so you just got here and someone is already trying to get you to go on a mission." as Samuel actually hopes that Timothius sees his vampire fangs. After all, Samuel figures if anyone should provide an amusing reaction to the fangs, it would be someone who doesn't know Samuel at all.

Samuel then turns to Mittens with a mixed look of frustration and annoyance on his face although he remains calm as he figures he might as well make the most of the situation. Thus he makes sure his 'fangs' are visible as he speaks in Latin, "Vestri ardor mos unus dies praecessi in vestri nex. Quoque, meus natio nationis est omnivorius, quod vos es caro," as Samuel wonders if anyone will understand what he told Mittens, as translated back into English it means 'Your impatience will one day result in your violent death. Also, my race is omnivorous, and you are meat.' Samuel then simply smiles big enough to show off his fangs, just in case Mittens is able to 'properly' understand what he is saying.

Samuel then sighs before switching back to speaking in English. Now the look on his face clearly becomes a cross of someone who is mildly annoyed and somewhat hungry, "Don't call me valiant, for I am no hero. I'm just a space miner and salvager who is trapped on this planet where a psychopathic tyrant has roboticized my best friend, my captain, and my wife. All I'm doing is what is necessary to save them, if possible get my revenge on Robotnik, and then get the four of us off this forsaken planet. Before I consider going on this mission, I'm going to get a 'bite' to eat and then hand these over to Millonni so I can get the information I need," as Samuel pats the bag containing the SWATBot computer cores at his side. "While only fools know no fear, you must be crazy if you think I look forward to dealing with that robotic dragon again. He can shrug off my thermite grenades like they were water balloons!" before heading over to get some food, as Samuel is planning to sit close to Millonni and explain to her what information he needs from the cores while he eats if she is present, and if she isn't he'll just track her down after he eats.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:36, Sat 23 Feb 2008.

  "I think there was some precedent for slaying dragons, but then the traditional reward for that was half the kingdom and daughters hand in marriage.  I'm kind of lacking in either to give away and that would be a bit much to ask regardless."  It was true that going 'excuse me person who doesn't have any reason to trust me either, would you be so kind as to go on a suicide mission because I asked nicely?' would be in poor form, even for Joe.

  Joe shrugged.  "Although the whole who to trust and who not to trust in passing thing does bring to mind why I was out here.  Guy passed through a the general area a bit ago, and as seems to be the theme suddenly, I'm supposed to determine if they were just the passing through sort like I figured or working for evil kill bots or some such just in case.  You help me with the mild effort of the 'excuse me, are you evil or not? Just checking' questions and finding the likely nearby skunk and I may as well toss in the 'okay, she isn't about to shoot me in the skull either' opinion."

  The real challenge most likely, was translating the rambling.

Katy looks rather annoyed. "You have GOT to be kidding me!" she yells, clutching her fists. She takes a deep breathe. "Fire that is made WORSE by water?! Ugg... well, Valin, your idea is not only noted, but I'm acting on it RIGHT now!" she reaches to grab her communicator. "Aquarius. Please come in. This is Katy. I have reason to believe Ra is even MORE dangerous than we originally thought and we will need to get together about stopping him ASAP!" She holds the comm device close to her ear anxiously as she doesn't want to miss a single sound.

Angel heads to her bike. "Hop on!" she says to him. "Helping you find this guy is the least I can do for distracting you from that task in the first place." Nevermind that she herself is interested in finding this "skunk". Now Joe is left with figuring out a way to not completely leave Maverick behind... or just leave Mav behind anyway and circle around back for him once Joe knows Angel can be trusted. But Angel is still amazingly unaware of Maverick.

Hart lets a smirk appear on his muzzle before he nods towards Mittens in response to Timothius' question. "You're looking at her, pal.  That's our fearless leader for the day."

He rolls his eyes at Samuel's familiar semi-rant, knowing all too well that it's in his best interests to let the Overland blow off his steam and get it over with.  Silently, he keeps an eye on Timothius, hoping that the winged cat is quick enough to know to do the same.

  Joe had a different variation in mind... Sort of?  Was it still ditching or not if one was still visual distanceish?

  "You may as well snag the keys, I figure us to be less than our conversation's worth away from them.  Unless you wanted to drive really slowly or something we'd be headin in an away direction pretty quick.  Of course, narrowing it down to which way isn't the away direction can be an issue at times."

  Joe considered the general area.  Where would be the first place he'd... No, he didn't think straight up would be one of their options.  Okay, where would the secon... No, Maverick had already headed over there.  Third times the charm?  Not quite Joe.

  Travis is to the left of that guess.  Get your facts straight Joe.

Travis sighs as he realizes this could not only be a wild goose-chase (at best), but that they could very well catch up to and bug him (at worst). So to get it out of the way, Travis steps out into the open, letting himself be known. "Here I am." he says in a gentle tone. "I assure you, I do not work for Robotnik. I would rather you not follow me, so please just let me go my way."

Timothius gets a weirded out expression in reaction to Hart's response. While it makes sense that Shelly is in charge since she is the only surviving royalty in Aquarius, he is very unfamiliar with females being in charge. Especially over what amounts to a military formation. And frankly? He's worried. Though he doesn't know enough about Mittens yet to be worried for the reasons everyone else might be. Still... what's with the "Sir Timothius" and "Sir Samuel" stuff? Timothius starts to whisper to Hart, "Am I supposed to refer to her as Lady Mitt-" but he is interrupted by his own shock at Sam's sudden show of teeth and angry words.

Timothius eeps at the sight of the fangs, eyes wide and body stiff! Between that and Sam pretty well admitting to being an alien from outer space, not to mention speaking in what sounds like it must be Latin, Timothius knows that whether this guy is telling the truth or is just some loon who THINKS he's an alien, Samuel is clearly one to keep a safe distance from. But then he remembers why he is here and his compassion overcomes his fear. He swallows the knot in his throat and says, "G-gosh! I'm sorry to hear that, Samuel..." he manages to remember the name he heard Mittens say just moments ago. "I'm sure things will turn out in the end. You've got to think positively. It will help you achieve your goal. If there's anything I can do to help you, Samuel... let me know." The kitty looks scared of Samuel still, but stays put and is ready to go give the guy a hug should even the slightest hint be given that he needs one. If it weren't for being scared of the guy, Timothius might have already done so.

Maverick would facepalm if it weren't for the fact that could give away his position. He just keeps his rock handy and waits to see how this meeting goes. After all... he doesn't like the way Travis said what he said. Being awfully demanding for someone who seems so suspicious in the first place. Maverick is unsure whether he wants the guy to make a move or not. But at this point, Travis at LEAST has to realize he is not only outnumbered two-to-one, but out gunned in a big way.

Angel huhs at the sight of Travis as she was just making motions to snatch her keys. So much for helping Joe find this guy. She'll have to earn trust another way. She folds her arms, figuring she'll let Joe handle this since it was Joe's mission to track the guy down in the first place.

Milloni is a seabear lady and seems to be eating with the others. When Sam sits and explains what he needs, she looks genuinely interested. Even gets a hopeful smile on her face. "I'll do what I can, Sam." she says quietly.

Shelly watches Samuel and can't help but feel a little sorry for the guy. Her communicator goes off, however, echoing Katy's distressing words. Shelly is scared stiff when she hears the words "Ra is even more dangerous than we originally thought". She quickly grabs the communicator to respond.

"Calm down, Katy. Tell me what you found out."

"Michael made the point that Ra's fires could very well be the kind that are only made worse by water. We need to be prepared for that possability. That said, we were hoping you and your people had a means to extinguish those kinds of fires. I can hand the communicator to Michael since he knows more on this than I do."

Shelly looks lightly confused. She is a 16 year old princess from an underwater kingdom. Her familiarity with fire is slim to none. She looks around the room expectantly, thinking someone in the room will know what Katy is talking about. Of course, her gut tells her Nautilus would know. But then she thinks maybe Sam would too. Either way, she waits to see if anyone speaks up.

Harrison and the others who were eating near him (besides Hart) all seem dumbfounded.

Lucky's heart sinks to the bottom.  Years ago his mother gave him very similar words assuring him that the mayor of his town suggested exile "for his family's own good."  He didn't believe then that sour-faced leaders are good hearted, and believes so even less now.

"That's good to hear," he says with a forced smile and a shaky voice.  The mix of rage and fear and loneliness is enough to force tears to well up in his eyes, so he tries to hide it by bowing his head to scratch his nose.

If he had ever stopped to think about it sensibly, exile would have been better for his family than what followed that year.

Mittens smiles with that "what a cute kitten!" look on her face when she hears Timothius' caring words and sees his compassionate body language.  Wow! she thinks to herself, Now there's a guy I can respect!  ^.^

While she reads a "yes" into Samuel's response and is pleased to have another heavy lifter, she's not going to let him get away with monologuing or shrugging off Timothius without giving an answer of her own.  :I

"That's kind of you to offer, Sir Timothius the Noble-Hearted," she says soothingly to her new favorite knight, "I'm sure your compassion for him would be most appreciated by his beloved."  :) 

She then turns again to Samuel and tries to emulate Timothius.

"I will honor your request, Sir Samuel the Modest," not caring whether Samuel pretends to listen to her or not, "But when you've rescued your beloved from the clutches of evil, don't expect them to withhold the word 'hero.'  Should I get the pleasure of meeting them in person I'll be sure to tell them how much I appreciated your help."

Mittens looks with surprise at Shelly's sudden communicator conversation.  She looks all the more surprised when she overhears "fire made worse by water."  O.O?  She has nothing to say to Shelly's helpless look, but the thought of a now even more legendary dragon who wields an inextinguishable hellfire that even defies the laws of the elements... it's enough to force an ever broadening smile on her face!  :D

Samuel grins when Milloni says she will do what she can after he explains what he needs done while eating. Since Samuel is also mentally enjoying the reaction he got out of Timothius when the Angelican noticed his 'fangs' which causes Samuel's grin to grow wider, although anyone looking as Samuel would probably suspect it is just that he is happy he'll be able to get the information he needs with Milloni's help.

When Timothius asks if there is any way he can help, Samuel turns to the Angelican and asks between bites of food, "Do you have much experience repairing spacecraft or in deroboticizing people?" Samuel seriously doubts Timothius has experience in either, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Upon hearing Mittens call him 'Sir Samuel the Modest', Samuel cringes, puts down his silverware and turns to look at Mittens as he resists the urge to make good on his threat of Mittens Meatloaf as her titles seems to really be getting on Samuel's nerves. "I don't know about the 'heroes' on this planet, but in my society, most heroes tend to earn the title posthumously..." but upon hearing the communication from Channelwood, Samuel stops talking as he get's both a concerned and disgusted look on his face. Samuel shudders for a few seconds as a few unpleasant memories of finding the charred remains of people killed in fires, flash before his eyes.

After Samuel regains his composure, he turns to Shelly and says, "That means that robotic dragon may be using a Combustible Metal as the catalyst for its fire-breath. I don't have much experience in fighting those types of fires, but I have more than enough experience dealing with the aftermath of all sorts of fires due to salvage missions. It isn't pretty, especially when you come across a charred body or two while salvaging." Samuel then turns back to his food and pokes it for a few moments before starting to eat once again.

Till now, Samuel had been more focused on getting the shuttle repaired and not really thought much about restocking the fire suppressant system since they aren't depleted yet. As the shuttle used most of it's reserves to put out the fires that occurred when Robotnik's forces shot it down. Samuel knows it won't be enough to use against a robotic dragon with a nasty flamethrower. He also thinks that in addition to replenishing the shuttle's fire suppressant system, he should check to see if there is a suppressant effective against Combustible Metal fires on file, that could be useful either pro-actively or reactively, against a robotic dragon with a very nasty flamethrower in a combat situation.

  "I am again given cause to wonder why people say I have no grasp on reality and how it works."  Joe muttered in that 'talking low. but not low enough for anyone paying slight attention to miss' variety of muttering.  Which would oddly mean Maverick despite his paying close attention to the situation wouldn't it?

  "The increasing popularity of asking nicely as opposed to trying to kill me as a response these days is such a pleasant change of pace.  That and I've admittedly worded it like that myself in the past when I wanted to just get on with things hassle free."  Which then lead to people trying to kill him anyways, of course.

 Joe looked over to Angel "It's not exactly you're fault that they were right next to us and have basic conversation skills now is it?  Unless you wanted to ask them something anyways."

With a worried look on his face due to the seriousness of the possible threat to the forest, Michael quietly listens to what Katy says into the communicator. Upon hearing that Katy may end up handing the communicator to him, the chimpanzee waits to find out if he'll have to explain anything to those in Aquarius.

As the gorilla doesn't have much to add to the conversation at the moment, Valin just gently leans against the wall of the hut. It is clear by the look of concern on his face that the gorilla is worried about what that robotic dragon is truly capable of, and if there is time to stop the dragon robot before it tries to burn the forest to the ground. However unlike Michael, Valin doesn't know if there is anything he will be able to do to help deal with the robotic dragon, and that leaves the gorilla feeling helpless.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:23, Thu 28 Feb 2008.

After a small period of thought, Nautilus nods and looks towards Shelly. "Although it may not be a perfect solution, I believe there may be something that we can do to combat this latest development... Princess, although Urser was rather peaceful during your upbringing, we were not without enemies before Robotnik came to power.  As fire and heat itself proved to be quite a powerful weapon against our people, specific armor and weaponry designed to combat such elements were developed.  Although I can't recall hearing about this 'combustible metal' that Samuel speaks of, I've no doubt that water-resistant fire was a contingency that was planned for with the design of this equipment."

Nautilus shifted his weight with a hint of doubt before continuing. "However, the specifics of this equipment would require a bit of investigation of the texts in our archives here in Aquarius.  I'm positive that we failed to take any of it with us when we escaped that day... and I personally cannot remember the last time that it was used during your father's reign.  If there is any of it left today, my assumption would be that it rests in Urser, which is currently occupied.  As I said, it is not a perfect solution to the problem at hand."

Hart is disturbed enough to find out that Aquarius' natural advantage against Ra might be worth totally nothing, but it doesn't help his mind to hear Samuel talk about folks getting charred.  Getting roboticized is one thing, Mobians can be deroboticized.  Mobians can't, as far as he knows, be decharred.  Despite that realization, Hart tries to keep his voice calm.  There are way too many new freedom fighters around for the vets to lose their cool, as far as he's concerned.

"Wait a sec... So is this mission to pick up scuba gear going to turn into a mission to look in on that dragon-bot?  I mean, this is something that we can deal with later, right?  No one's exactly jumping up to volunteer to go toe-to-toe with that thing... Well, almost no one." Hart raises a brow at Mittens' unusually happy look, considering the situation.

Emerald hears the shakiness and watches Lucky. "....it's her way of crying. And she's crying inside all the time." she says in order to make it a little more understandable. "We all lost something, Lucky. Katy's just afraid of losing what she has left... the people of Channelwood. That means you and I." She doesn't know what in the world Lucky is thinking, but she figured he needed to hear a slightly more in-depth description of Katy's psyche. Emerald may not be a professional psychologist, but she has a little more skill than average in observing people's more personal feelings. Besides... she has a lot of stuff from Katy saying this or that to go on for what Emerald is assessing.

Timothius sighs some at Sam's question. "...sorry. I don't know anything on that topic." he says in a quieter tone than earlier, though loud enough to hear nonetheless. He glances between Mittens and Samuel and gets the impression Samuel is not liking anything Mittens says for some reason. But having heard Samuel's comment in response, he hurries over to Mittens leaning to whisper in her ear. "I don't think Samuel likes being called heroic... or "Sir" for that matter, since it implies honor. He's modest, but he also seems offended at being given honor. Maybe he's just not ready for accolades..."

Once again, Timothius is tempted to give Samuel a hug upon hearing about his experience seeing charred remains of people. But he instead decides it best to learn more about Samuel (not to mention the others) before taking any physical action in comforting people.

Upon hearing about this dragon, Timothius gets even more scared. A dragon?! On the enemy's side?! What is going ON down here? Then again... dragons being roboticized isn't too unbelieveable...

Shelly glances from Sam to Nautilus and back and smiles, nodding. "You're right, Nautilus. And thank you, Samuel. Nautilus: Check our database for what Samuel is talking about. Sam? Maybe while Milloni is working on your project, you can look up this extinguisher on your own database since you seem familiar. Then the two of you can compare notes and see how much we have... and how much we'll need."

She then presses the button on the communicator. "Katy, Michael, whoever is holding this communicator... we'll be on it. Rendezvous will be decided once we have what you are asking for. By the way... we were going to send in a team of our own. We STILL don't have those scuba suits and will need them if we ever hope to raid Urser with our new recruits. At this point, making our own is looking like our only option.. if so, we'll try to provide you guys with instructions on how to build your own so you can worry about your own numbers while I worry about mine. That said, I have no intention of sending my people against Ra on this mission, but may not have a choice..." This is also her way of answering Hart's question as she is looking at Hart while saying this.

She pauses just for a second as she looks at Mittens and then to Samuel and speaks into the communicator again. "I'm giving the communicator to Samuel so he can compare notes with your expert." she says as a final note before offering it to Samuel.

Katy speaks back into the communicator. "I'm not saying we know for sure that the dragon has that kind of breathe, but the possibility was brought up. So I wanna go at him with every possible weapon that makes sense, starting with ways to stop his fire. That said, be sure to be on the look-out for other extinguishers. I know you guys can provide lots of water... anyway: Handing my communicator to Michael."

That said, she hands the comm device to Michael and without her finger on the button says to him "They have no intention of confronting Ra... this could be bad. But they are at least willing to help us gather the materials. We're going to have to see about persuading them to join us when we see them at the rendezvous point. And if I recall correctly... Mittens would be the target of our persuasion." Katy knows Mittens is a bit TOO aggressive and it shouldn't take too much persuasion to get Mittens to play ball.

Angel says, "You don't seriously expect them to just take your word for it, do you? Look... I have a nice, safe place for you to go to. It would keep these people happy and it would steer you away from danger." She only waits to see if Travis looks interested. Which he does. (OOC: Posing for Travis permitted by his player) "If you head directly east of here, you should eventually reach the beach. There will be someone waiting there for you. Ever wanted to cross the Atlantic?" she asks with a smile.

Travis thinks about this. He looks at Joe... then looks at Angel. Then looks at the guns. While the guns don't make him nervous, he realizes Angel probably would have tried using them to threaten him by now if she was going to. So he smiles and nods. "Very well... I will travel east if it will make everyone happy." and begins walking eastward. "But please... do not follow me. My path is my own."

Lucky smears his face with his palm to disguise his wiping away the tears.

"I'm sorry," he says sheepishly, "I meant no disrespect.  I guess last night's got me on edge.  I wonder what the meeting's about."

He rubs behind his head with a smile to wipe away the wetness on his hand.

As the smoke from the blast begins to clear, the paladin slowly picks herself up, but not unscathed.  Every muscle aches, blood is oozing out of her ringing ears, but it was all worth it.  A blast that big HAD to have taken it's head clean off! she thinks to herself with a smile, :) but the sound of metallic claws scraping against pavement quickly ends her short lived celebration.  o.o

"Impressive, mortal," the dragon snarls, "I actually felt that!  But it's time to end this little game."

Ra roars in laughter!

"What?!  Did you really think I was fighting you at full power?!  I was merely toying with you!"

The monster braces itself and begins to glow.  An unimaginable transformation within takes place, making it's already massive limbs grow even larger and stronger!  The air is electrified, and the dragon's head bursts into yellow flame!  As it unlocks it's hidden inner strength, the ground itself trembles and cracks!  For all the power being unleashed, the dragon screams, perhaps in pain or sadistic joy or both.

"rrrrraaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA A A A A A A A A ! ! ! !"

With speed so incredible it gives the appearance of teleportation, Ra is suddenly standing toe-to-toe with a shocked Mittens.  @.@

"There will be nothing of your bones to bury when I'm through with you, for my breath is death itself!"

From the belly of the beast comes a horrific sound as it reels back then lunges forward to belch forth blazing metal with a mighty FWOOM!  The blast is so massive, it would be visible from space!

Mittens raises her imaginary shield when she hears the gentle voice of Timothius in her ear speaking of Samuel.  She snaps out of her day dream and stands at attention with a smile.  :3 

"He's no braggart that's for sure," she answers softly, "But once you see him in action you'll see why he's earned my respect.  It'll be interesting to see how he handles taking orders from me..."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:17, Thu 06 Mar 2008.

Although Samuel seems to just be eating while Shelly speaks with those in Channelwood, he is already using his cybernetic implants to link up with the shuttle's computer system and retrieve the necessary information about the class D fire extinguisher material. However Samuel knows if he just starts telling anyone the data he is retrieving they would question how he got the data. Doing so would raise questions that could only be answered by revealing the existence of his cybernetic implants, and that is something Samuel doesn't want to do just yet.

Fortunately, for Samuel, he can use his communication bracer to make everyone think that he is just establishing a short range link to his shuttle through it, and then reveal the information that way without revealing his trump card just yet.

Thus, when Shelly mentions that she is going to hand over the communicator to him, Samuel stops eating, nods and accepts the communicator before pressing several buttons on his communications bracer. This activates a small holographic display on the bracer showing alien symbols that only those knowing the Dinonian's written language, i.e. Samuel, would be able to understand.

Moment's later, Samuel hears Michael's voice over the communicator, "Okay, so what can you tell me about types of extinguishers that work against combustible metals?"

Samuel replies, "Actually quite a bit," as Samuel then goes on to start explaining what information he is reading from the holographic display on his communication's bracer that the shuttle's database has about extinguishers and the materials they use in dealing with combustible metal fires. Whenever, Samuel hears Michael's voice on the communicator asking a question, or simply asking to slow down so he can keep up with his writing, Samuel pauses and offers an what explanation as best he can when one is requested. However a few times, Michael asks a question that the shuttle's database doesn't have an answer to, when that happens Samuel replies that he doesn't have an answer and mentally, and silently, makes a note using his internal cybernetic communications system to try to have that question addressed in the future the next time he is able to access a Stelaras Computer Mainframe with a more detailed database, since if one person can come up with a question that needs an answer that the shuttle's database doesn't have an answer for, then the shuttle's database clearly needs to be updated with a suitable answer.

Michael accepts the communicator while nodding to Katy as he says when his finger is not on the button, "I understand. At least they aren't saying, well that is your problem not ours deal with it yourself. And I wouldn't be surprised if you are able to convince Mittens to helping us against Ra, but they may also want to wait on confronting Ra till we have something can can counter Ra's fire breath. We'll have to find out if that is the case when we meet up with them," as Michael fetches a pencil and some paper as the chimpanzee figures he'll have some writing to do.

Michael then pauses before he presses the button on the communicator as he knows he needs to talk with Samuel, but he isn't really eager to talk with the 'crazy space-case overlander', "Okay, so what can you tell me about types of extinguishers that work against combustible metals?"

Michael hears Samuel's reply of "Actually quite a bit," before Samuel then goes on to start explaining about extinguishers and the materials they use in dealing with combustible metal fires. Somewhat frequently, Michael will ask a question or ask for Samuel to slow down so he can get caught up with his writing. However every once in a while, Michael asks a question for which Samuel says that he doesn't know the answer to.

Valin listens to the conversation that Michael and Samuel are having over the radio and thinks about how sometimes even teachers never know anything, but the good teachers are always willing to learn what they need to know from someone else. The gorilla is impressed with the rate and amount of information that Samuel is giving so freely, and wonders if Samuel is reading from a computer or something. When Valin hears Samuel saying that the database doesn't have an answer for a question that Michael asked, Valin feels that his assumption is true that Samuel is reading from a computer terminal of some sort and that the Overlander, or Alien, whatever he is, doesn't know all this on his own, but instead relies on a 'library' for information when it is needed.

Valin glances to Katy, and ponders asking her if it would be wise if after the mission, to see what other knowledge can be learned from Aquarius, and what Aquarius could learn from Channelwood. But for now, Valin keeps silent to not disturb Michael and Samuel.

   Joe figured that it would be quite the copyright infringing trick if Travis walked his own path across the Atlantic.  it would also probably be rather time consuming.  "I can't walk on water and I'm not thrilled at the prospect of swimming across the ocean more than once.  So I don't think following you would be a problem even if I wanted to."  Of course it wouldn't be the first time.  Joe would have to do so again if he wanted to get back... Well what did you think he meant?

  And so, Joe's job was pretty much dealt with.  Which now had the interesting upgrade from wandering monk to heavily armed lady.  Some days things don't get any more simple do they?  He looked back to Angel and asked, "Well, we've established multiple times now your not the kind who just up and shoots people."  They were also a bit more straightforwards in some things than himself.

  It was a week until people noticed there was a new guy in Channelwood when he turned up.

  "So where would you like to go from here?"

Nautilus stays to hear what Samuel has to say to Michael over the communicator, taking his own mental notes on the materials that Samuel is mentioning so that he has a rough idea of some of the things to look for in the archives.  However, a number of the materials sound quite foreign to the old Seabear.  After a minute more of listening to the conversation, and deciding that he would gain little more than a confusion of terms, he bows his head politely to the princess and the others and makes his way towards the archival library to do his own searching on the matter.

Hearing Mittens praise of Samuel to Timothius, Hart can't help but lean over to her and softly ask "You sure he's even coming along?  He didn't really give a 'yes' there..."

When Samuel gets ahold of the communicator and begins talking about his information, the technical jargon on materials and processes makes Hart's head swim a little.  He does his best to follow along, but he eventually gives up on it, thankful that Samuel at least knows what he's talking about.  As the information is exchanged, Hart keeps an eye on Timothius to see how he's handling the atmosphere of everything.

Emerald gets a sly smile. "Wanna go see?" she isn't going to call it 'spying', but that is what she intends to do. She leads Lucky off to the elevator so she can go watch what Katy, Mike and Valin are talking about...

Timothius skews his face as he sees Mittens hold her arm up like she was offering it to an attack dog and wonders what is going through her head. Is she visualizing her strategy? Either way, he doesn't ask. Soon after her soft words reach Hart's ears, Timothius turns an ear to listen to what Hart is saying as well. Timothius says, "He's right... Samuel didn't say if he'd go. And don't get me wrong... I mean no disrespect. It's just that I think he feels disrespected whenever you try giving him these honorable titles. How you feel about someone means nothing to them if you can not express it right. As for me... I will form how I feel about his actions when I see them. For now... I just feel sorry for him."

He can't wait to tell the people from his home just HOW bad things are down here and that Robotnik is conquering even more than Mobius now. Aliens too. If Neo Sky Sanctuary sits on the fence too long, they will be erased from history.

Timothius sits down next to Hart. He's not looking well. His eyes betray him as they look watery, though not yet enough to cry. Timothius is also glancing around at the various faces and keeps a nervous smile on his face as though trying not to look glum.

Katy soon realises how much gobbledygook this all is to her and is thankful she has Michael handy to talk this stuff over with Samuel. Then she detects Valin's intentions and walks over to be closer to him and leans her head with her ear perked towards Valin as if she is indicating she doesn't want to wait. After all... by now, she knows full well that whispers can't be picked up by the comm device's microphone.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:28, Fri 14 Mar 2008.

Angel picks up on the "more than once" comment. At first, she excuses it as him meaning he would have to cross the Atlantic again to return to Channelwood Forest. But then Angel realizes it would be a bit odd to say it the way Joe did. Ironically, because Angel doesn't know Joe all that well, she figures he actually meant he's done it before. But there's only one way to be sure. "Well obviously, not the Atlantic. I don't think we have anything to worry about from him... you swam across the ocean before?" she asks bluntly.

Angel is still trying to figure out how to get Joe to fess up about the nearby village. She just knows there is a nearby village by now. All she needs is for Joe to tell her where. But for now, it's warm-up time...

Maverick isn't budging until he's told or something comes up that requires him. He doesn't fully trust most of the people in Channelwood, why should he trust this stranger? Besides... Joe never told Maverick to come out. Nor does he expect Joe to give away Maverick's position. Though he kinda rolls his eyes at the ocean crossing comments. Of COURSE Joe didn't swim across the ocean.

Shelly also keeps an eye on Timothius. So far, it seems the guy is doing OK, but he sure seems nervous for someone so resolute. Perhaps Timothius is sacrificing more than he originally thought... or he's more of a man than Shelly thought. Either way, she is sure to look over at Mittens and says, "You're nervous about people following you because you are a girl? If I were you, I'd be more nervous about the fact nobody even knows why you are fit to lead other than my saying you're in charge. Take Samuel for instance. He insists he's no Overlander, but if he's even remotely like them, he'll have a problem following you because you are a Mobian." She says this just loud enough that she isn't speaking up, but is sure Samuel could hear it if he's paying attention. After all, nowhere in there was there an insult, but she was definitely "feeding Samuel info" about Overlanders and their disdain for Mobians in hopes Samuel will work better with Mobians to prove how NOT an Overlander he is. Reverse psychology without being too obvious. "But so far, Samuel has proven to be loyal to the right cause." she adds as if preemptively defending her words with a compliment that is open enough to interpretation that Sam can't complain about being complimented. After all... "the right cause" she is referring to is defeating Robotnik of course. And Sam CAN'T deny he's loyal to the cause of eliminating Robotnik.

Lucky earperks in surprise.  He wasn't expecting such a suggestion from a lady who seems so responsible.  Maybe the meeting isn't as secret as he thought.  Or maybe she isn't as by-the-book as he thought.  In either case, his curiosity is very much in full gear.  He nods vigorously with a tail-wag and a smile!

Valin crouches down so that he is able to look Katy in the eyes without her having to strain her neck looking up as he whispers softly to Katy, "I think it might be wise if after this mission is over we if try to see what we can learn from Aquarius' libraries and if there is anything they can learn from our limited libraries. Since after listening to Michael and Samuel talk, it is obvious that even Samuel is relying on some sort of library, which might have information we would find useful."

Valin then glances over to Michael to see how the chimpanzee's conversation with Samuel is progressing, before looking back to Katy to see what she thinks of his suggestion.

Mittens nods and nods with a repeated "Mmm Hmm Mmm Hmm" to everything being said.  Not that she isn't paying attention to those speaking to her, but she is trying to keep up with the jargon being spouted at the communicator without much success.  She at least catches "foam" and "dry powder" and fills in the blanks with her imagination.

"I'm confident he'll be joining us," Mittens answers all three, "If for no other reason than to keep the crazy cat girl from feeding what few allies he has to the enemy." ;p

She's surprised at Timothius' emotional display.  Is he THAT upset over Spaceman Sam? she asks God in a prayer, Perhaps the Angelicans live in such isolation that they don't realize how severe Robotnik's tyranny is, and he's experiencing the same trauma that most did during the initial invasion...  Yes, of course I'd comfort you if it were you!  <.<  >.>

Ordinarily Mittens isn't one for affection, much less public affection, but when Jesus himself guilts her into comforting a guy she has a crush on she goes overboard.  She leans her chest against Timothius' back, wraps her arms around his neck, and presses her cheek against his.  *^.^*

"As surely as night turns to day," she whispers to Timothius, "Robotnik will be defeated."

She turns her face slightly in Shelly's direction with a smile.

"No offense, Princess," she says cheerfully, "But perhaps the sin of racism isn't so far from the lips that accuse.  Have you met an Overlander?  Maybe it's foolish of me to judge an entire race by the few hundred Overlanders I've met, but so far very few of them have had a problem with me being small and furry...  I will say this one racist thing though - it's nice to see you don't get any resistance from your people over your gender."  ^.^

What? she answers God in silent prayer, I just confessed my own sin!  So what if I made it sound like a compliment to make myself look good?  Aren't you gunna say 'Well done' for having the guts to point out prejudice in a monarch?  ...  Jeez I'm glad you think that's so funny.  <.<  >.>
This message was last edited by the player at 02:10, Sun 16 Mar 2008.

Samuel glances over to Mittens and Shelly as Samuel blinks a few times as for once he agrees with Mittens, at least regarding Shelly, as Samuel is rather tired of always being compared to an Overlander and such, especially given how clear Shelly makes it that she doesn't really like Overlanders.

As the conversation between Samuel and Michael draws to a conclusion, Samuel calmly states, "I'm handing the radio back over to Shelly now in case there is anything else she has to say."

Samuel then takes his finger off the send button and offers the radio back to Shelly as he says, knowing full well that those in Channelwood can't hear him, "If there is anything else you need to tell them in Channelwood go ahead. And no, I don't have problems working with or for Mobians if it gets me closer to completing my personal objectives and goals." As Samuel continues to speak, he seems able to restrain the anger he is feeling from showing itself in his voice, but with his 'fangs' he probably still looks quite agitated and possibly intimidating as he continues, "However, if you have problems with me due to how similar the appearance of a Human from Tanelorn is to that of an Overlander of Mobius, maybe I should pack up and find someplace else to finish repairs on my shuttle? After all, I'd hate to force you to have to be constantly reminded of a species that you seem to hate so vehemently, that it affects your opinion of what I can or will do." Samuel's tone of voice makes it clear that he is serious about leaving if it comes to that. It is obvious to those in Aquarius who have been around Samuel since he arrived that he is quite tired of 'assumptions and assertions' that he is going to 'act like an Overlander' and screw over Aquarius.

Michael looks over to Valin and Katy as Valin starts to whisper something, and Michael makes sure that he is far enough away from them that whatever they are talking about won't be hurt over the radio as Michael and Samuel continue their conversation, although it seems like it is finishing up.

As the conversation between Michael and Samuel draws to a conclusion, the chimpanzee hears Samuel say, "I'm handing the radio back over to Shelly now in case there is anything else she has to say."

Upon hearing this, Michael takes his finger off the button as he says, "I think I probably should hand this back to you now Katy, since Samuel is handing the radio in Aquarius back over to Shelly."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:31, Sun 16 Mar 2008.

Shelly looks angry for once. Mittens saying something was one thing, but it seemed to instigate an already agitated Samuel. She raises her voice for most anyone to hear, "You BOTH misunderstand me! I have NOTHING against Overlanders! If I hated anyone vehemently, you'd darn well know it, Samuel! If anything upsets me about you, it has nothing to do with your appearance and everything to do with how ready you are to abandon the people here who have given you shelter and a means to fight Robotnik! I never said I hated Overlanders. It's a simple fact that thanks to the war that was going on before Robotnik took over, most Overlanders do not trust or like mobians. Which, as you both probably don't even realize, is a war my kind had nothing to do with." She narrows her eyes at Mittens looking like she's ready to remove the girl from the mission entirely. But opportunity is opportunity.... she can't let her own emotions block what's going on. She shakes her head. "Sorry everyone... I guess I was more stressed than I thought." she puts her hand on her forehead. "I didn't mean to offend anyone. But it's clear everyone in this room is all too ready to be offended. Keep looking into the fire retardants... but as far as the mission is concerned, I'll be in my room weighing whether it's a good idea to even HAVE a mission today. If Mittens or Samuel jump to conclusions that easy on the mission, there is a good chance the team could tear itself apart." She starts heading for her room, communicator in hand. She is fully expecting Mittens to be the one to try talking her into letting the mission continue since everyone else was less than anxious to go.

Katy ponders Valin's suggestion. She nods to Michael. "Thanks." then looks back to Valin, "Good idea. Not sure why I didn't think of that earlier." If only Katy knew the exchange that just happened in Aquarius. She takes the communicator in hand and says, "Michael handed the communicator back to me. Sounds like you guys are prepared. It's good to know we're not alone out here... that there are other people we can count on."

There's a silence in the room after Shelly leaves that causes Hart to shift uncomfortably.  He didn't know how he felt about Overlanders, whether he hated them or not, as Samuel had been the first one that he'd ever met personally, and Robotnik the first one that he'd ever heard about.  Right now, though, he knew that he wasn't the only one who mattered right now.

He gave a long, deep sigh and looked around the room at Mittens, Samuel, and a few others before he nodded silently and walked out of the room, making his way slowly towards Shelly's room.  He wasn't sure if what he intended to do was the right choice, whether it was going against rank or whatever, but seeing Shelly get upset like that was not something that he knew folks were used to seeing.  He rarely ever saw her lose her cool like that, and it made him very much want to keep an eye on her and, for lack of a better word, be there.



Back in the eating area, Walden is doing his best to not look at anyone in the eyes.  He can't help but feel guilty for some reason, as he's not sure what his opinion on everything they've been talking about is.  He'd been simply following along for the most part and doing his best to do what the Mobians of authority seemed to be asking.  A number of the other newcomers around him were doubtlessly in similiar situations.

The look on Samuel's face isn't one of anger or shock but disappointment as he goes back to his seat to finish eating as Shelly leaves. However after Shelly has left the room, but before Samuel sits down he mutters to no one in particular, "I'd love to know what twisted logic she uses to go from moving where I repair my shuttle to abandoning anyone? I never said anything about abandoning anything or anyone."

Samuel then sits down and resumes eating his meal. As Samuel knows he'd get yelled at if he spoke his next thoughts aloud, he instead keeps them to himself, 'And this is why most civilized societies don't rely on having their leaders getting their jobs from a previous family member just because they are related. Sooner or later someone will inherit the job, that frankly may not be able to handle it. Especially when the pressure gets to high. But is Shelly cracking from the pressure, or is it 'that time of the month'? Who cares, but in either case, I never expected Mittens to be more understanding than Shelly. At least Mittens seems to know better than to always compare me to an Overlander. Maybe I should start comparing Shelly to a Dynolian swamp rat, or some other aquatic pest?'
This message was last edited by the player at 02:27, Tue 18 Mar 2008.

  As was often the case, the question of what direction someone wants to take the conversation resulted in forgetting about practical details and focusing on Joe's throwaway comments.

  If this was a deliberate result, it could be considered as downright devious.  But no, Joe just sort of ended up with this result regardless of his trying or not.

  "Only if you count across in the sense I've swam a distance in it at some point in my life, similar to walking across say, the ground.  Why, has swimming across entire oceans turned up enough for you it warrants further attention?"

  See?  Joe can ask silly questions with obvious answers too... Nevermind he's already established this in this conversation.

Timothius is trying to figure out what just happened. But to Samuel's comment, he says, "I'm sure you can ask her how she wound up thinking that at a later time." He watches Hart walk off and looks at Walden. "So... what just happened exactly? I'm pretty disoriented about all this... One second, everyone seems happy and chowing down, the next there's some blow up... what did I miss?"

Emerald eventually sneaks over to the meeting room with Lucky in tow. She stands near the front door and perks up her ears, standing very still. She looks at Lucky and puts a finger on her mouth before proceeding to listen. Knowing that only two primates and one raccoon are in there, she whispers lightly to Lucky. "Sounds like we came at the tail end, but from what I can tell... Katy is talking to Princess Shelly over the communicator."

Angel just smirks at Joe and says, "Yes." before looking back to her bike and saying. "Well I guess your mission is accomplished... but do you trust me enough yet to let me follow you back to your freedom fighters' home?"

  "You have run into some weird things in your life then."" Seriously, multiple ocean swimming trips?  Of course where was the likely and sensible possibility that she was joking.  But taking things at face value for his own amusement has been known to happen at times.

  "And yeah, admittedly when one person who hasn't caused much in the way of actual hassle is looked into, same kind of goes for others.  Although I somehow doubt you'll be too inconvenienced without knowing where such things are.  And considering the way things go, I doubt you'll need me to find it if you wanted to.  And it's not like I've given you a specific reason to trust me either."

  He'd question if they'd want to tell him where they're from either.  But when you're on a recruiting run bringing people back to such places is often a requirement.

Lucky's eyes widen in surprise.  "Princess?!" he whispers, "There's royalty living here?!"

About then an old dog named Jimmy approaches the meeting room's front door.  Paying no mind to Lucky or Emerald, he knocks lightly on the door.  "Just thought you should know," he calls to Katy through the door once he's sure there's a pause in the conversation inside the hut, "Our new guests are putting a little strain on the food supply.  We'll have to come up with a plan to keep up.  I'll write up my ideas and have it on your desk by this afternoon."

He waits for an acknowledgment from Katy before tipping his hat to Emerald and walking off.  (Of course, assuming Emerald didn't foresee his arrival and hide herself with Lucky.)

Lucky's mood takes another nose-dive as thoughts of once again being a burden flood his mind.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:12, Mon 24 Mar 2008.

"Guess that tells me why I didn't get an 'atta girl,'" Mittens prays after Shelly's outburst.  :S

Mittens frowns and shrugs her shoulders at Timothius' question.

"For some reason everyone's been all uptight after finding out there's a giant fire-breathing robot dragon lurking around in the nearby town," she answers whimsically, "Can't imagine why."  9.9

She turns to face her newly formed team with a serious air.  -.-

"Nevertheless her highness makes a very good point," she begins, arms folded, "I took it for granted that the only obstacles to our team working well together would be lack of guts or sexism.  I'm happy to discover that I was wrong about those two points, but if anyone has a problem with any other member or isn't up to going on this mission for any reason, now's the time to voice your concerns and back down.  Last thing I need is a deserter."

She pauses for a few moments to see how well her "let him now speak or forever hold his peace" speech did in shaming her new recruits into staying with the plan.

Although Samuel fails to realize people are people and are inclined to have these annoying things called emotions regardless of whether they are royalty or elected officials during times when a tyrant rules the world, turning it's citizens into robots and unleashing mechanical fire-breathing dragons, it would seem he at least has the sense to stay quiet about it. Though admittedly, the whole royalty thing made the added bonus of said leader being only 16 and thus going through an emotional point in life. Though conversely, Shelly apologized for said outburst... something no leader usually does, elected or royal.

(OOC side note: Heh... I can't help but think of this one time a Christian leader had enraged many people by showing support to China's forced abortions. When he got around to "apologizing", he didn't apologize at all, nor take back what he said. 10 brownie points if you guess who he was.)

Nevertheless, Shelly is in her room flopped on her bed, belly side down. She sighs as she hears Katy on the other end and answers, "Thanks, Katy." in a more upbeat fashion. "Keep your communicator with you. I'll contact you as soon as I have the info you will need or if we have spare resources we can share with you..." which she doubts. She hears Katy respond with simply, "Gotcha, Shelly. I'll keep the communicator with me. And thanks again."

She flops the communicator to the side and gazes out her window at the beautiful view of the lake's floor. Though it's not long she hears someone at her door and looks to see Hart. No sign of Mittens like she was expecting... maybe Mittens isn't as obsessed with fighting overwhelming odds as Shelly thought... or maybe Mittens is taking care of something else, not thinking the mission is aborted until Shelly says so. Either way, Shelly is already half worried she is gonna get a lecture from Hart and half hopeful she's going to be comforted by him. Either way, Shelly gives herself some internal lashes for not thinking Hart would "come to her rescue". "....hey Hart." she manages with a half-smile.

She knew she shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning.

Pierson happened to be in the food court when this was all going on and says, "Not that I was going on the mission, but I'd say you all have between now and the time Shelly cools down to figure that out. Chances are, Shelly's going to realize the urgency of the missions: Both the one to get aquatic gear and the one to bring down the dragon. In other words, she may wind up leading the mission herself just to see it happen due to the necessity. So if I were you guys, I'd start answering Mittens whether she's going to be the one to lead you into a mission or not. We all need to stick together if we're going to survive much less win. So if anyone has any problems with someone else, Mittens and Shelly are both right: Now is SO not the time to be holding on a grudge on the very guy or gal who may very well be the one hope you have when you're bleeding to death."

Crucible would have commented on how Pierson is not helping the morale as far as the bleeding to death comment, but can't help but agree with the rest of what Pierson said. The mink speaks up, "It's not that I have anything AGAINST anyone here... heck, you guys saved us new guys' sorry butts. However... I'm not very familiar with anyone here and can't help but feel like we were rescued so *you* could use us as cannon fodder for the dragon. It's the only explanation I can think of for anyone being as anxious as you are to go RIGHT back after what we just saw."

Harrison grunts. "I've already said I'm fine if I'm fed. And frankly, I don't even care anymore if I'm being used as cannon fodder. After a certain point, you just have to give everything you can to make Robotnik as far from victory as possible."

"Easy for you to say" comments the mink. "A cannon couldn't hurt you, so being cannon fodder is easy as pie for you." he looks back at Mittens. "Look... we're all new here, so we don't even know you people enough to have a grudge or whatever... if anyone has issues, it would probably be you guys who actually know each other. After all, a friend is someone who likes you DESPITE knowing you."

Pierson points out, "You forgot about racism. The point Shelly was making."

The mink smacks his forehead. "Oh... right. My bad. Well? Anyone?"

The silence that follows is soon interrupted when a lizard speaks up. "Even if we have differences, they are so insignificant compared to Robotnik's existence, that I think we should be able to put them aside for this mission. The dragon is going down. We're getting our suits. Nobody has spoken up about having any problems with anyone so... all we need now is for the princess to say GO. By the way... count me in, missy." he says the last part to Mittens.

Pierson makes a mental note to himself that "Spaceman Sam" seems to be doing OK, considering he felt insulted and then got yelled at on top of that. Still, he doesn't trust people easily. Even if they are man enough to tell the people around them their true intentions. After all, he doesn't LIKE Sam's bitter, self-absorbed attitude. But what can ya do?

"Weird things, sure. But I got one better for you: There's a rumor that there is a blue hedgehog who runs at the speed of sound that's been getting on Robotnik's nerves lately..."

....this could be why Joe takes things at face value. On Mobius, anything could very well be true.

Angel watches Joe closely. "And if I handed my guns over to you, I suppose you would just assume I kick so much butt that I don't even need the guns if I'm that confident. Oh well... tell ya what: If I ever discover where you live, I'll stop by for a "hi there" and show my true colors, be they black, purple, good or evil." she smirks. Then heads for her ride.

"As for my next destination, I think I'm going to check out this "Middletown" place... and the dragon you spoke of. Who knows? Maybe I'll bump into you on one of your missions."

Emerald wasn't hiding, being out in the open on the bridge. Nor was the NPC dog sneaking about, so Emerald woulda heard the guy coming from a long ways away. She just acts natural and smiles to the elder, nodding to him. She looks down at Lucky and pffs. She bends over slightly to be closer to eye level with Lucky and says, "Heh... guess ol' Jimmy doesn't know you planned to help Valin out with gardening and such. And if you're game, I can teach you how to cook too." she grins, reaching to gently pet the kitten.

She then expounds on Lucky's question, "The princess doesn't live right here in Channelwood... Princess Shelly lives in Aquarius and is the leader of those freedom fighters. She's what's called a seabear, so she's probably the one whose species you didn't even recognize when you saw her. White fur all over, finned tail, wore a seashell on her forehead and got knocked unconscious by the heat of the dragon's flames if you recall..."

Katy acknowledges Jimmy and says, "Thanks, Jimmy. Lookin' forward to seeing what you had in mind..." she says in all seriousness before the guy heads off. At hearing Shelly respond, Katy nods. "Gotcha, Shelly. I'll keep the communicator with me. And thanks again." She hooks the communicator to her belt and looks back to Michael and Valin, taking a deep breath. "We got a lot of work ahead of us. Let's not waste time. Valin... go see what you can do to help Jimmy with the food problem." she pauses. "Unless you had any more thoughts to add?" she asks, ever so slightly hopeful.