Timothius would have informed Mittens his capability is healing, more or less. He usually smiled to Paula whenever making eye contact, only to seem surprised whenever she looked away. Upon arriving, he greets the royalty just like Alexis and Raichel did. He recognizes the cherubs and says, "Hey there... are you here representing the Light Kingdom for this outing to the core?"

Miranda stays with Paula just as much as Paula stays with Miranda. She often puts an arm around the skunkette whenever Paula seems even remotely uncomfortable. However, upon arrival and the gate declaring now is time to get familiar, she steps over to the others and says, "My name is Miranda Murdock. I'm here representing the Nation of Order."

Shelly nods to Mittens in response to whether she is a member of the Water Kingdom's royal family.

Frank clears his throat. "Seems the gate is rushing us a little. Anyhow, I shall re-issue the challenge that I declared on television. I challenge the Water Kingdom's royalty to a one-on-one fight with me."

Shelly says, "I have been given temporary authority over the crown, making me the Queen of Water. As royalty, I represent the entire Kingdom of Water and, as such, if any one Water Kingdom Citizen fights you, it is as though I fight you. And if I fight you, it is as though one of my citizens fights you. As such, I am entitled to choose a champion to fight you on my behalf."

Frank says, "What'd I tell ya? Too wimpy to fight me themselves."

Shelly looks at Max in a "help, daddy!" kind of way.

The cherubs nod to Mittens and Timothius as they accept name tags. Gabriel says, "We are here to represent Light. Only to help if needed, but otherwise watch. We are not here to collect on the reward of the core unless it is agreed on by all others involved." he glances at Murla. "Which seems unlikely."

Murla, Queen of Darkness, says, "I will be joining in the trip to the core."

The King of Thunder says, "As am I."

The Gateway is silent, not saying one way or another if it cares that Cham is plugging his ears.

J'Renn's scans would show that this place is made of everything and even some things unknown to the ship. And by "everything", we mean every element, energy type, dark matter, etc. The gate's "eyes" look in the direction of the ship when it is scanning the gate. The ship would detect being scanned back. But then again, it would also detect that the gate is scanning everyone and everthing present.

The gate is scanning mechanical, biological, spiritual and magical composition. It isn't reading minds or anything like that. Not that it'd work in Darkthorne's case, but that's beside the point.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:02, Sat 12 June 2010.

Mittens welcomes those who bother to introduce themselves such as Miranda.  She smiles and enjoys the distraction that Cham provides, satisfied that she was right that Agent Superball was Cham and thusly not noticing his absence.  In reply to Darkthorne's question she rubs her chin and raises a finger as if considering how to answer.  She makes no indication of being offended by Darkthorne or Cham choosing to display their names with a different method.  If anything she looks amused by her childish sounding minion.  Speaking of which, she makes it a point to point out that Frank is representing Frank, not her.

"The opinions expressed by Frank are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or sponsors of the Fire Nation," Mittens points out with a big smile, "I'm sure the champion she chooses will be of royal blood in accordance with your challenge and the reason she's not kicking your butt herself is because she's got more important things to do at the moment.  Such as kick down the gates to the Heart of the Universe!  Isn't that right..."

She reads the nametag.

"Queen Shelly.  I wish I could stick around for the fight... unless it's so one-sided it only takes a few seconds in which case I'll be more than happy to stick around."

Mittens takes note of the Cherub's intro and raises an eyebrow.

"Thank you for offering your help," she says, "I'll be surprised if it's not needed given Raichel's hype about how tough this all is.  As for your offer to not collect the core reward..."

She looks over at Raichel.

"You'd be the one to let us know if the core accepts more than one question from a given group.  Is it one question per person?  How exactly does that work?"

Then to Darkthorne.

"To answer your question takes some time, but well worth it.  Where I come from, when a group of powerful heroes agree to fight as a unit against a smaller threat, they usually team up in a group of six or so.  Within the group, there's certain roles that need to be covered in order for the group to work together effectively.  Generically, the roles are: Tank, Damage Dealer, and Support.  The Tank's primary job is to engage the monster directly and anger it enough that it focuses it's attention on the Tank who's generally the best prepared for such attention.  I usually don't fill this role.

"Damage dealer focus heavily on being prepared to dish out damage, but not so much take a hit.  So their role is to unload massive damage on the monster with enough subtlety and finesse that the monster pays attention to the tank and not the rest of the group.  I sometimes fill this role as a black mage.

"The support member's jobs is to aid the other two roles with anything from healing..."

She casts a heal spell on Timothius.

"to buffing allies,"

She casts a protective spell on him.

"to enfeebling enemies.  I tend to fill this role most often what with my bazillion buffs, heals, and enfeebles.

"These groups usually have an agreed upon system for dividing any spoils they should acquire such as rolling dice, highest roll wins.  They also have a designated leader among them who's job it is to invite people to the group as needed or kick them out as needed.

"Now.  When up against a SERIOUS threat like a god or an army, much more preparation is involved.  There's usually TEAMs that fill the roles described.  Damage teams, and a tank teams.  Support members are distributed among the two kinds of teams.  When against an army there's usually one person who's designated as the 'puller' who's job it is to find a lone enemy squad and lure them to the waiting heroes.  The primary tank winds up with the job of being the tactical leader while someone else may fill the role of strategic leader.  I suggest we make Raichel the strategic leader of this raid given that she's the only one here who's done this before... right?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:41, Sat 12 June 2010.

Prism Jr. and Sr. finally came to a consensus and re-united quietly.  They consider the exchange so far and decide that they just might be able to diffuse an ugly political bomb.

"Different cultures have different languages," Prism says, "It's possible the water kingdom doesn't speak the cultural language of fire challenges. But Mittens has shown that she's willing to speak peace as best she can. If Water were to answer Fire with the culture of fire, perhaps fire would show more respect and learn a phrase or two of water."

Mittens nods in approval.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:49, Sun 13 June 2010.

  Darkthorne finds that one of the pre Plot-Armor Piercing Weapons era methods seems to be in use according to Mittens.  Altering Inverse Ninja Law into Vicious Gang Beating.  A complete lack of mentioning just what methods were actually use to kill said entities, but still a much better answer than expected.

  That and Darkthorne had that important trace of political tact that meant not telling a Queen 'your elaborate answer sucks' (yet).  "Thank you, Queen Mittens.  Your experience could save lives if we encounter a hostile entity self identifying as IAM.  As an exploration agent I am not equipped to deal with those that can unmake reality at whim."  Two years, half the remaining Kasketon population, and all semblance of hospitability left on the planet were gone by the time that one was driven off.  After that, repeat attacks from similar entities and anything else causing duress to Kasketon lost their sense of scale.  It was like complaining about that monster from 'The Host' after dealing with Godzilla.

  They look over to the ranting over nametags guy. "Well, the last nametag someone gave me exploded.  I know the one you gave me doesn't, but it's just kind of a thing, you know?"  To be fair, the nametag exploded after Darkthorne stuck it on the guys back.

  Looking over to Alexis they comment "It is true that there is a wide scale for Deities, as well as the opinions of what makes a Deity.  It is no slight to Raichel when I say she does not qualify as one to me, even if she can blow me up."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:31, Sun 13 June 2010.

With the group boasting about thier abilities she listens in on the surface thoughts of everyone present save for Prism, who's just too much white noise, and Joe, who still dosen't register in her mind.  Once handed a name tag she writes her name down on it in her language, the tag filled with an unrecognisable mess of circles, curves, dots and ellipses.

When asked she transmits to the group, (I am J'Renn, and I represent the united Garendii star cluster.  I am here simply to obsere, though I am well equipped to defend myself should the need arise).  She adds, (If there is any supplies or equipment you require I will be willing to provide from my vessel.  I of course cannot give any of you heavy weapons as it is against our laws.)

Cham sticks his tongue out at the nametag-spewing lackey, giving him quite the raspberry, "You're just jealous because my nametag is way more shiny than the one you gave me."  As he says that, almost as if it hears a cue, the name tag gives a dramatic 'sheen'.

Chammy gingerly lifts his paws out of his ears when he notices that the gate hasn't started spewing rules, giving it a careful eye and not moving from his spot or his pouting position. Still, his ears perk as he catches the tail end of Mittens' speech.

Even Cham doesn't fully understand what she's talking about, but his nametag can't help but start to float up above his head as she finishes.

"... I'm representing the nation of Light too... sort of." Paula looks down at her feet as she says that when others look to her to learn more about her, only offering to explain if any push her for more.

In her own mind, she's not quite sure how to explain herself in the first place. She's really not representing anybody but herself. Even her Master wasn't an important enough furson to garner much attention if she were to openly explain that she's a pupil of his.

At all of the talk of fighting, Paula's face begins to fall and she finally does speak up, "Wait! We're not really planning on fighting others, are we? Is there really going to be combat? I thought the area itself was just supposed to be dangerous..."

As the people look around when Mittens asks that last question about who has been to the core, nobody answers. So Raichel says, "Seems I am." What makes her a goddess? Not the immortality or the powers, but the fact she exists for plot and is a plot hook, etc. XD OK, maybe the powers help, but still.

Upon hearing Paula's panic, Raichel looks over at her and says, "There are others who have gone ahead of us and others who will come after us. We will likely face competition. But most of the danger is the place itself. I don't see why someone throwing a punch at you or shooting at you scares you more than, say, an avolanche full of acidic flaming boulders of oil, but I guess people fear intent more than nature most times."

Raichel does not take Darkthorne's comment as a slight or insult. She isn't the kind of goddess who demands worship. Rather, she demands the same that she would in her mortal life: For good to prosper and pound evil into dust. That is to say, she is no more demanding than the next asserive personality. She does, however, address Darkthorne, "No offense taken. But if you and Mittens' claims are any indication, it isn't the ability to blow someone up that makes a god or you and your people would all be gods. That said, maybe I will count as a goddess in your book once you get to know me. Or, maybe I never will and your definition of god is a jerkface with great power as opposed to a halfway decent person with great power."

An interesting concept she proposes there: Kasketon is a god, the race just doesn't want to admit it. Likewise, Bastok, San'doria, Windurst and Jeuno are all gods. In the same way Prism is a person composed of a collective, so then are armies that can defeat gods just as easily able to be called gods composed of a collective.

Raichel finally turns to look at Mittens again. "The core does what the core will. I made it there myself, so I got addressed by myself. If we're lucky, it will answer a question per person. Be warned, if you intimidate someone into asking a question for you in order to get more than your share of questions, the core will not take kindly to this. And it will know. How else do you think it can answer any question?" she looks at those present. "If you are granted a question, be sure it is YOUR question and yours alone. Nevertheless... I did say IF. The gateway is likely to know the rules concerning that."

Alexis says, "For other people's benefit, J'renn..." she shines J'renn's name written in common onto the name tag, below the symbols. The name burns into the nametag and Alexis stops shining it. "Right. I think we've gotten aquainted just fine. Can we get this thing started?"

----

The guy who gave Darkthorne his nametag replies in honest confusion, "Then why is your reflex to crumple an explosive in your hand? Wouldn't that set it off? Does your kind get a high off exploding your hands and growing them back?" he maturely sticks his tongue out at Cham and says, "I'm the rubber, you're the glue, bounce off me, stick to you!"

Shelly huhs at what Mittens and Prism say. "Well Frank seems experienced. I pick my dad because he has some good experience behind him too. But seriously, I agree with Alexis. Can't this wait till after we visit the core?"

Frank just folds his arms, confident like Vegeta or something.

The cherubs bow lightly to Mittens in response to her thanks. "You're welcome." Gabe answers. Sparky eyes the arguing between name-tag man, Darkthorne and Cham. He looks over at Carla (since Gabriel is distracted with Mittens). Carla shakes her head at Sparky. Sparky looks forward again, as if that was all he needed to see to keep him from doing whatever he was thinking of doing. Sparky says, "I'm with the others who just said we should get this show on the road. Shall we?"

Murla, Queen of Darkness, says, "I'm ready."

The King of Thunder says, "As am I." he seemed lightly nervous at what Raichel said about influenced questions, but otherwise calms himself.

The Gateway speaks audibly but not telepathically, "The path to the core heals itself. Feel free to destroy as much as you wish. However, there are places marked as off limits. They are marked such for your benefit. You may enter them if you wish, but you will die by no fault or desire of the core. Some of those places, for instance, are composed of the essence of non-existance. Any attempts to destroy such places are fruitless as there is nothing to destroy." its "eyes" shift from one person to another as it speaks. "There are currently 3 competitors inside who have been traveling the path for 5 days now. The 20 others who entered with them are now dead. The core has marked the corpses with runes for your convenience, so that you know they are not playing possum. The core will not lie to you, but the path there will have deceptions. Only one question will be granted to an independant group, be it one person on their own or a group of people working together. This is done to keep armies from attacking and reaching the core. However, sometimes, the core will answer more than one question, but will only answer one question per individual per trip. Questions leading up to your one question will be directed to the Wizard of the Core. This is done so questions like "really? Only one question?" will not consume the alotted question you worked so hard for."

The gate looks at Miranda, Murla and the Thunder King. "Raichel speaks true. Influenced questions are not answered. The question must be from your own heart and desire. However, if you are asking a question out of kindness to someone or a need to know regardless of how little you desire the answer, it will be answered."

The gate shifts its eyes to Raichel and Mittens. "People who have the power to resurrect after dying may not enter the gate ever again if they die while on the path to the core. This is to be fair to those who died or risked their only life coming to the core. However, if you die outside of the path to the core, that does not count and you may enter."

The gate shifts its eyes to Cham. "Those who can not die will simply not be answered by the core if they would have died had they been mortal. Therefor, avoiding every lethal danger is in your best interest. Also, ignorance of the rules will not be a usable excuse for breaking them and the consequences will be administered, regardless."

The gate then shifts its eyes to J'renn and the cherubs. "If you are here to observe, then observe and you will be protected by the path itself. However, if you are here to aid the group, you are considered not here to simply observe and will follow all the rules as though trying to earn a question, regardless of whether you ask it or not."

The gate then looks at Darkthorne. "Artificial beings, biological, mechanical or otherwise, have the same rules as those who can resurrect. Once your heart stops beating for longer than a minute, you are considered dead and will be removed." yes, Darkthorne, it called you artificial. Because you having a mind and will of your own does not register.

The gate then says, "Lastly, since a group is seen as a whole, if any member of the group dies, you will no longer be qualified to have your question answered. However, those who survived may return to try the path again a week's time after the death." it eyes Prism as if suggesting "this means you"

(OOC: Originally had it so the core would answer each individual, but then realized that would give Prism several million questions. So I'm forced to go with one question period and maybe the core will answer other questions if it feels nice in order to excuse Prism getting one question. Also, skipping Timothius and Miranda.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:14, Mon 05 July 2010.

Darkthorne's definition of deity doesn't dawn on... wait.  This isn't Nono.  Mittens seems pleased by Darkthorne and gives a smile and nod to him.  She's amused by J'Renn's cooperating in a manner that's not helpful to anyone present and Alexis' solution.  Cham as always, makes her giggle.  That sheen was perfect!  And while the nametag's new position may be abundantly more hilarious to the player, Mits can still appreciate it as being more familiar to her.

"Your offer to aid is most appreciated, J'Renn," Mittens says, fully expecting her to understand like she did at the arena the other day, "Thank you."

She's a little surprised that she catches on to Paula's intentions quicker than a goddess, but then she's assuming she's caught on.

"I'm sure..." she looks at the name tag, "Paula isn't referring to relative danger of violence against people as much as a moral objection to such.  Am I right?"

She shrugs off any thoughts in her head regarding the core's pickiness about persons who chose to ask questions on behalf of tyrants willingly vs. less than willingly.  To each their own.

She's very amused at the childish antics of her minion with the name tags but gives no comment.  She turns her attention to Frank and Shelly.

"Sounds like we're still forming up," she says, "We've got new things to consider like who's on who's team and for what question and who's just observing.  So as much as I'm all for rushing in head first, I don't expect that's going to happen.  May as well enjoy the duel between Water King and Frank while such things are decided.  Thank you for accepting the challenge, by the way."

She looks over to King Urser, Frank, then presents them to each other like she expects them to just start fighting right then.

She looks over to Queen Murla and Thunder King.  "So... Safe to assume you each are going solo?  You'll be aiding only yourself and asking your own individual questions?"

She then addresses the gate: "OK so... What happens if someone helps another team?  Do they get defaulted to that team's rule of 'everyone on that team must live or you don't get to ask a question?'  So if Murla were to help me, and I get killed, she'd lose her chance at a question?  Even though she's not officially on my team?  And what qualifies as help?  Advice?  Band-aids for a scratch?  Does coincidentally shooting the same target count as aiding a rival?  Can I help someone then suicide to disqualify them?  Not that I'd ruin my own chances to spoil someone else's...  How many rules are there to be ignorant of?  Is there a rule book?  What about observing?  Are observers immune to the dangers of the core?  Wait..."

She looks over to Darkthorne.

"You're an artificial person?  Like... animated armor or something?"

She takes note of Timothius' silence and wonders what's on his mind.  Regardless, she looks back to Alexis.

"Whether you want to team up or go separately, I'll be using my question for you if you don't get a chance to ask it yourself.  No offense, but you haven't exactly intimidated me into asking, so I think it'll count.  I'm having a hard time figuring out what I'd ask for myself if we both manage to earn a question each.  'What must I do to get Timothius to have the hots for me?' comes to mind, but seems kinda self-centered for all that effort."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:05, Thu 08 July 2010.

There's times when Prism isn't conflicted at all about something.  This is one of those times.

"We will observe if it's not dangerous to do so," they say, "If it is, we'll wait here."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:57, Thu 08 July 2010.

  The Kasketon species is not the shattered remains of an existence rending cosmic horror created in the aftermath of devouring an incarnation of Yahweh when their throwing together Heaven and Earth disturbed what was already there.

  That would be crazy.

  "Nor particularly enjoyable, no.  However I have found it to bypass denials quite a bit faster in the past if the trap is set off prematurely.  They tend to blame me if I hand it back to them right before it explodes for some reason." Crazy logic or logic from crazy life?

  Looking back over to Raichel they say "There are good gods, though I won't elaborate on the point.  Halfway decent people with great power are much more common however."

  Darkthorne considers Mitten's array of sensible questions, and answers the one directed at himself.  "No, I'm alive as much as you are. Kasketons just give reputedly omniscient beings problems. I'll possibly count as my own team, though I would also be disinclined to just watching most of you die. I'm ready to get going whenever. Not particularly interested in having a question answered, beyond a possible harmless indulgence."

  The Plan:
  1) Ask Heart what number Darkthorne is thinking of.
  2) Sarcastically tell the rest to enjoy their infallible answers once the Heart can't provide the goods.
  2.b) 'That would be crazy' variety results in response to the Heart being able to make the guess.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:11, Sun 11 July 2010.

She smiles at Alexis as makes the translation on her nametag, (Ahh, thank you for the interpretation.)

J'Renn looks up towards the gate, unsure if it can recieve her telepathy, as she's been lisening through the assembled crowd.  (I will be content to be part of the observers, as my main question concerns the journey itself I will find out simply by observing.  I will also take requests for aid equipment before the group heads out.  How long does this journey normally take?)  She transmits to the group while concentrationg on getting through to the gate.  How long this will take will be important as she needs to know how much to take for her picnic pack.

At the 'Nametagger's jibe at him, Cham dramatically pulls an eyelid down and returns with another raspberry, "I know you are, but what am I? Well, aside from glue. I guess we already figured that out, huh? Ah, piffle! I'm still way more bouncy than you, anyway!"

As he's preparing to swipe and bounce a nametag off of his body and onto the Nametagger, he feels the gateway start to speak. His ears twitch and he quickly folds his arms and sticks up his nose as the rules are laid out for them. As he's clearly addressed, he makes no sign of listening aside from a flick of his ears. Otherwise, he looks like he's bopping his head to an imaginary song.

As folks start to seemingly split up into teams, he quickly whips out a headband from hammerspace and ties it on his head dramatically. There's a smiley face inscribed on the front of it. Quickly, he stands up, "Yeah! Team Cham's goin' all the way to the core! And we're gonna... what are we doing there again?"

Paula looks down at Raichel's response to her concerns, holding her hands together in front of her. When Mittens speaks up about it, though, she looks at the Queen of Fire and smiles, "That's right... yes... It's one thing to survive. It's another entirely to have to hurt others to do so... Maybe even kill them."

When Mittens starts talking about teaming up and the various rules that the gate's just laid out, Paula shifts her feet a bit. Her eyes wander the room to see what the others intend to do, but she clearly settles her eyes on Miranda at the end. She patiently waits for her to respond before making her own.

Raichel considers asking the core what does it take to be a dooood (inside joke, guys. Don't take it too seriously. Besides, it's narrative). Raichel answers Darkthorne, "Considering that people are more common than gods, I should hope decent people are more common than decent gods. But yeah. You'll have to elaborate what makes a god. At least in your mind."

Poor Darkthorne. His plans of being a decent guy and helping people will be his undoing. Well OK, so that's a bit dramatic. It will be why he has friends. There. That's more accurate. It will also be why he will never know if the Heart could answer him or not.

Raichel looks at Prism. "Observation is not dangerous. The path just said it would protect you. Just make sure observe is the only thing you do. The moment you aid someone, you are considered no longer an observer."

She then looks at J'Renn. "The journey normally takes about a day. A well-prepared team who know what they are doing can manage in half a day."

Raichel then looks at Paula, "When fighting the people who work for the path, do not fear. They are soulless projections, not real people. However, there will be others trying to get to the core. Those are real people. But it's not likely you will need to kill them. Most who travel to the core understand it's a bad idea to stand in the way of another trying to get there. Why face more obstacles than you already face? Still, there's always that chance."

She turns to watch Frank and Maximus fight. She totally expects King Urser to embarrass Frank, but doesn't say a thing.

(OOC: RL? Someone comes along, so much as CLAIMS divinity and rules a kingdom? He's obviously a god. Just look at ancient Egyptian Pharaohs. And yes. That would be crazy if the Kasketon race was what was left of an incarnation of Yahweh. Since that wouldn't be allowed in this game. Random made up gods are another story entirely.)

Alexis says, "Usually, the comment "no offense" is followed by something offensive. Still, I am not offended as I never intended to intimidate you with my tears or pleading." she gives a "duh" look. If she wanted to be intimidating, well... she's not as good at it as a normal monarch should be. Despite her fiery personality and immense courage.

----

Nametag guy says to Cham, "....You got me there. You are bouncier." because he decides this is not a conversation worth resorting to "yo momma" over. What? We already mentioned this guy is mature. :p He then looks at Darkthorne. "....You win the "My life has sucked more than yours" game this round. Congratulations." after all, Nametage guy has never had things blow up in his hand, nor has he been blamed for handing an explosive back to someone, nor has he had a NAMETAG turned into a bomb. Clearly, Darkthorne has either met Surprise Smurf, or an incarnation of the guy.

Timothius glances at the crazy girl who just up and said out loud that she wants Timothius to have the hots for her. Does she want that because she has a crush on him? Or because she wants to toy with him? After all, the prior ruler of fire would want Alexis to crush on him for that reason.

Timothius answers Mittens, "You're already doing what it takes, Mittens, by aiming for peace without hurting people."