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

'Mittens the ob...??'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Mmmrrfl... Mmmm! Your turn!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

J'Renn bites at her thumbnail as she watches the combat continue.  (The attacks the two combattants are throwing at each other are stunning to the senses, however neither of them seems to be able to deliver a decisive blow.  Not terribly efficient, but it makes for a good show.) she comments.  She braces herself for the impact of several tons of earth that is about to hit the ground.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:40, Sat 31 Oct 2009.

Cham continues to munch on his burger patiently as Emerald performs her song. A part of him has heard it before, but other parts of him haven't. Another part of him thinks the song is awful, but a different part thinks that it's amazing! Some part of him is really enjoying the burger, though, and he wants to keep eating it... but a conflicting section of his mind wanted chicken instead!

Before long, Cham's sprouted three heads, all of which are listening to the song with contrasting opinions. Even when Emerald starts wooing the crowd, one of Cham's heads starts giving a wolf-like whistle, causing the other two to roll their eyes. They're seemingly fighting for the position of middle head too, wanting to finish that burger whether it was really what they wanted or not. At some point, they stop really paying attention to Mittens as they struggle with this tasty task.

When Blake uproots part of the ground, however, the middle Cham head looks up in dismay. On the bottom of the chunk of earth, There are several Chams hanging on for dear life and trying to keep hold of their saxophones, keyboards, and guitars.

"... Hey! I was saving those for my next number!"

During his distraction, his leftmost head swipes down to chomp up the remains of the burger, effectively finishing it off.

The rightmost head pouts in response... even though he really wanted chicken anyway.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:54, Fri 13 Nov 2009.

Timothius' conversation with the Professor catches Paula's eye, though she doesn't hear what they're saying at all. She frowns as she sees the King of Life be in such deep thought, but she turns back to partially watch the display below. She tries to focus on Emerald rather than the carnage of Blake's actions.

She nods at Miranda's question, "I think he does... He dotes on me, honestly... but he also says that I have a great deal to learn and gain outside of home." She looks at her new friend with a curious glance, "But you're here for someone else, you said? Why couldn't they come themselves? Or why couldn't you come together?"

The ripping up of the ground causes the skunk to hold on tighter to her seat, bringing her knees up close as her tail frizzes out. Are they actually using the ground to fight? She'd never seen that before.

Timothius enjoyed the tune Cham performed and is tapping his toes to the one Emmy is performing as well.

Timothius rubs his eyes and double-takes as Cham grows 2 more heads. "What in the world.... he *has* to be chaos..." he comments, incapable of fathoming ANY of the other nations having such a strange... creature at their disposal.

He's trying not to be weirded out as he ponders if that's healthy. To Mittens' comment, Timothius says, "I've been watching the new competition, Mittens... but even if I wasn't, I'm less here for enjoyment and more here to see how things turn out. And to help where needed."

Meanwhile, one of Mittens' advisers, who literally looks like an overgrown snake with arms brings her some ssssnacksss. "Your highnesss... I would like to inform you the fire arena hasss aquired a prissssoner who hasss very potent fire powersss..."

Alexis glances from Mittens to Prism and then to J'Renn. She decides to address J'Renn first. "Kind of hard to be efficient when, as you just saw, you don't realize your opponent can raise himself from the dead. And don't forget killing someone means disqualification, so they are restricted in how harsh they can be."

She then looks at Mittens. "Spoken like a true fire queen... I came here to see you, Mittens. And to see a fight. Not some self-mutilating undead guy throw body parts at people."

Raichel sees the slab of ground coming her way and Jumps backward, adding flight to the jump in order to speedily get away. "I've *been* taking you serious. Fine... you want this to be over..." she says as everything on her stands on end and her eyes glow soon before the rest of her glows. Everyone in the audience feels a slight tingle and those with fur or hair can see/feel their own hair standing.

There is a sound like the air getting ripped and immediately following it, the entire sound of the arena, cheers, comments and all, gets sucked out of the air for a second before Raichel shoots the equivalent of a Command and Conquer Ion beam at Blake. Pure, continuous energy in the billions of volts and who-knows levels of amperage.

She was at least careful to hover a few feet off the ground so she could aim DOWN at Blake. That way, only the ground below/behind him would get scorched instead of anyone behind him.

Emerald stops her song when the rather distracting beam of energy is shot and her own fur is standing on end. "....You got the POWERRRRRRRR!!!!! YEAH!" she manages to sing to end the song.

The three-headed cham didn't escape her notice. But she honestly didn't know what to say to that..

Miranda answers Paula, "He... wasn't allowed to come for reasons I'm not allowed to really talk about. I hope you can meet him some day... he's the best!"

Miranda meeeps and cringes a bit as the power Raichel used seemed to have a greater effect on Miranda than normal people in the audience. But it doesn't hurt her.

  "Ah yes, the sign of a true martial artist.  Beam spam."  Hey, just cause he was literally asking for it doesn't mean he can't be sarcastic about it.

  The chunk of scenery in Blake's hands flicked to between himself and Raichel's assault.  For an impossible moment it seemed like it would withstand the sparky doom as Blake swung it once more for Raichel, only for it to crumble at the last possible moment.

  Have you ever seen someone get vaporized in slow motion?  Well unless editing techniques or such were employed after the fact you wouldn't see it here.  Blake was reduced to less than ash (which is to say, obliterated from physical existence) in an instant.

  And so, the obvious winner was left alone in the arena... you know, except for Cham and Emerald.

 And except for Blake behind Raichel with an arm punched clear through her chest.  "Hmm, close but no heart."  Blake said as he harmlessly pulled his arm back, leaving Raichel unharmed beyond her previous injuries.  "Now see how easy that was once you took it seriously?  Keep that in mind as you seek out your vengeance."

  And with that, Blake was gone.  But they actually stayed gone this time.


OOC Style:  The section of ground Blake tore up included the ground Raichel was standing on, so as to flip smash it and yeah-right-as-if her into the ground behind him.  As the end result is the same as what I figured, easy enough to just go with it ;P
This message was last edited by the player at 02:44, Mon 16 Nov 2009.

  Considering the most recent fight and it's end result, Darkthorne had that familiar feeling of being underequiped.  However, this was a common feeling on Kasketon even when using solar powered weaponry.  And by solar powered we mean 'directly powered by a sun. All of it'.

  'This place is starting to feel more like back home... except everything isn't trying to kill me or worse right now.   Do they have bees on Kasketon?  Why yes they do.  The most recent kind Darkthorne came across there were the exploding kind.  How fortunate that zombie Owlbears still have this lurking desire for honey along with brains.

Mittens laughs out loud at the dangling Chams, and when Timothius double-takes at the three headed Cham, she gives him a glance and laughs all the more!  She grabsss the sssnack from the sssnake without giving him a second glance and answers "Hold that thought."

Her munching slows as what he said sinks into her skull...

~Wait, what?!~ she thinks, her mouth too full to say it out loud, ~The ARENA has a Prisoner?!  What is this, a colosseum?  Cool!~

Her train of thoughts gets derailed by Timothius' and Alexis' commentary, and she smiles.

"Thanks!" she answers generically to both of them, forgetting that a queen shouldn't talk with her mouth full.

She gulps in anticipation as Raichel charges her laser.  When she goes nova, Mittens and the rest of the crowd jump from their seats and cheer at the top of their lungs!

"WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

She stares at the results of said beam spam, eyes wide, and mouth agape.  8D  She does a double-take at Blake's sudden reappearance and disappearance then looks around her in confusion like voices were speaking to her from the clear blue.  The sportscasters show instant replay in super slow motion on the giant JumboTron and comment stuff like "while technically that would disqualify Raichel from winning, that was AWESOME!"  Mittens refocuses on Rai.

"Wow... just... WOW!"

She hops from the royal float and approaches Rai with a great big smile, her frustrated secret service and advisers in tow.

"Ramuh eat your heart out!"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:49, Mon 16 Nov 2009.

J'Renn's scanner starts going off in her head, distracting her from the music show, 3-headed Cham, even the wedge of earth.  A massive electromagnetic buildup, like an ion storm forming right in front of her.  Before she can think of what to do about it, the massive beam had disintegrated Blake as well as his weapon.

She makes a personal inventory, noticing her and those around her (Except Blake)seems to be OK, and not microwaved she looks back to Alexis, and the royalty behind her, (I don't think anyone wants to know how much EM energy she just gathered and shot out just now.) she projects.