You're sitting at a computer chair, in front of you a moniter.

Suddenly, the screen turns green and blue, making a red smiley face in the middle.  Then, it seems to become more three-demensional and the figure inside grows teeth, which open and go around your head.

--

Then, you wake to a soft feeling that feels like leather underneath you.  Around you, at varying distances you can see a forest of mountain-high green edifices.  Behind you, there's a wide brown cylindrical structure.  Above, there are branches leaving it, all with leaves on them.  Then, you notice that you are laying down on a leaf.  The ground appears to be brown, rocky plains.  Some parts are light-brown and tan.

In your current location, you can see clearly, even though you're in a shaded region that extends far in front of you.  You feel quite cool, considering it's day.

I stand up and take a look around, wondering where I am, why I'm on a leaf, and if my whole deal with Thanatos is still active even though I know I've versed.  I see if there is a way down from where I am.

The leaf is on the ground, so it's easy for you to make it there, just a few steps.  Around you is what seems to be a barren environment, but you see things are different when you look behind you, past the tree-like structure.

You see a gigantic mound of crafted dirt.  It has clear entrypoints, and then you see something come out of it.  You reckognize it easily as an ant, except that it's as tall as you are, and the length is proportionate to that.

When you look to the right, you see that there's another mound that way, with a steady flow of ants between the two.  An ant from the first mound is headed in your direction.

OOC:  I forgot to mention that the glove has disappeared.  It was considered Thanatos' possession, not yours, so it wasn't infected by scriff and didn't verse with you.

This is interesting, I'm as small as an ant...or its as tall as me...or I'm in a world full of giants...wonderful.  Well I suppose I should try to greet it...despite how stupid talking to an ant sounds...maybe its sentient...maybe not...if not... well looks like I'll be burning something.

I call out to the ant..

"Good morrow to you, where might I be currently? Do you understand english?"

I back up as I speak, and grab the hilt of my sword, and its sheathe... (Ajax), and I get ready to attack if it does anything agressive...however if it remains passive I don't attack it and further try to communicate with it.

Ajax, any ideas?  Besides killing it?

(Okay...that was a bad roll...REALLY BAD...I'd better start preparing your next world...  Or you can get out of this somehow...good luck.)

You call to the ant.  It cranes it's head at you for a moment, as if confused, but doesn't respond.  It shakes its body some, and you smell a strange scent come out of it-very strong.  All of a sudden, more ants start coming out of the first hill, heading towards your direction.  The ant near you holds its ground for now.

When you try to communicate to Ajax, you can only pick up static.  The static rises and rises until it finally bursts and ends.  You're left with a disorientating feeling around your head, and a migrane.  You don't get any response from Ajax.

I create some water and throw it on my face (if I can), then turn around and run at top speed getting out of there if possible.

If I can't do any of the above...

Well, that didn't work...time to fight my way out...after all, it is what I do best...

I get ready, shoot fire at the ant in front of me and start fighting my way out of there.

You can't summon any water to splash on your face, but you immediately turn tail and run towards that high (multiple stories high) grass, it being immediately away from the ant.

You find that the ant doesn't follow you at all, but turns around and returns to the ant hill.

That's when you notice something-a small creature, about half your size.  It stands up on two legs, even though it seems to have six.  It has two feelers at the top of its head, and it is lime green.  It's leaning towards you, investigating you.

You see more around the place, very many over near the tree that you were originally at.  Looking over at the tree, you see an ant pick one up after killing it and take the creature back to the hill.

You can feel the feelers of the bug touching your chest.

I take a step back...

"Thanks, but no thanks, not a fan of small creatures touching me.  Can you understand me, and if so could you tell me where I am?"

Why bugs? Why not samurai like my second world, that'd actually be fun...

Another two come up towards you, and the original one cranes its head some.  All of them put their feelers on your torso and arms again.

They don't seem to understand what you're saying.  More are coming towards you, just looking at you.  You don't get the feeling that they're malicious, rather just curious.

I continue to stand there and see what they do, so long as it remains non-agressive, if it starts to be agressive, then I start ripping them off me, and  severing them in any way possible.

They continue in turn to come up and check you out with curiosity, even very small ones, that you infer are their young.

Soon, they all go back to their business of grazing in the area, taking very, very small bites of the grass, and some dirt.  One very small one stays longer than the rest, looking at you curiously.  All of the other small ones were nudged away by larger bugs.  This one, however, was left alone.  He's as tall as your knee, counting the feelers (which are about 1/3 his height).

I sit down and further examine him...

Hmm...interesting... perhaps I've got an annoying creature on my hands...however, even annoying creatures can be allies...atleast for a little while... I should see where this leads me...perhaps I can learn something interesting in this world...


Now that I think about it... the ants weren't going to harm me, I think they just wanted to be left alone and would harm those that tried to harm them and distrub their work...so this seems peaceful enough..

Then again, everywhere I go I find danger... which makes life interesting of course..  But still, I couldn't summon water, and all I get is static from ajax..  Does this mean magic is limited in this world..  I wonder if that means I won't be able to teleport either..  It is true that pollux said it is an ability, not magic so it should work... however...  This  isn't any normal world as far as I can tell.

Perhaps, like in my last one, I should try to learn their language...or atleast an international bug language if possible, it might come in handy..  And it does seem like I will be relying on all of my skills and none of the magic this time around..  It is going to be interesting indeed here.  Well time to see what this little creature is...

I then let him crawl on me and try some basic froms of communication in english and in greek.

The bug doesn't go anywhere, but simply eats some of the broken grass at your feet, grazing near you.

When you take a seat, it barely touches your leg, looking as if it's about to come up into your lap.  Seeing no resistance, it slowly does so and curls up.  The animal only weighs as much as a normal cat, maybe even less.

The bug doesn't seem to understand what you're saying at all, and even seems like it might be ignoring most of it as it sits in your lap.

I let it rest and also take some time meditate... thinking about whatever comes to mind..

You meditate for a good while and are able to relax more, and your focus increases.  You're able to think clearly and feel somewhat mentally refreshed.

The creature in your lap is sound asleep, as are the others around the place, even though it is still the middle of the day.

I gently lift the little creature off of my lap and place it off to my side, then I get up and move about 30 feet away, and start to train with my swords, making sure my movement with them isn't limited like my magic apparently is.

You find that moving the swords around is quite easy, maybe even easier than normal.

You feel a little bit stronger than before, and the weight feels barely less than you're used to.  The little creature follows you a little ways, and grazes near you after watching you with your swords for a short time.

Interesting, well this can be a good thing...better training...

I try to fight an invisible enemy of sorts and go through some attacking and parrying maneuvers, dodging, ducking, parry with one sword, draw and attack with the other, parry and counter, etc.   Trying to beat myself in a duel.

You quickly become accustomed to the weight of the swords and feel as if you gained some skill with them.

The small bug is laying down nearby, asleep.  That's when you hear rustling off to the side.  You see through the grass ants, about two or three of them, coming into the grass.  The small green creatures sit there as if nothing's happening.

I put my swords away..

This is going to be intersting, but while I'm here I might as well work on my unarmed combat, since I never know when I'll end up getting challenged again, to someone like Jason, or someone else...  oh well, it'llbe good.

I continue to train working on my unarmed skills, recalling my battles with others...pollux, jason, sarah, and the others.  Use their moves as a shadow puppet and continue to train.  I see what I did wrong in those battles and worl to overcome how I was beaten.  While still looking over at the ants occasionally to make sure they remain passive.

When you look over to the ants while training, you see that they are looking through the bugs.

Two of them have picked up some of the larger ones and are headed back in the direction of the hill that you had seen.  The others are still looking through them.  One of the ants is now heading in your direction.

I walk over to my little friend, and pick him up, place him on my shoulder, then move away from the ant.  If it follows I shake my head and move my hands in a "No. Not gonna happen." type of gesture.  Then I wait for the ants to leave.

The ant seems disturbed when you move away from it, and it quickens its pace towards you.  You can see from its speed that you have no means to outrun it.

The small bug seems confused at why you picked it up, but then quickly relaxes on your shoulder, just sitting there.  He doesn't seem to fully understand what is going on, but seems willing enough to go with you.

I draw my ninja-to and draw a line between me and the ant.  Then shake my head in a "no." type of manner.  I back up two paces, and hold my sword out at the ant while I am behind the line.

I wait and see if it crosses the line.

The ant shakes its head, annoyed with you.  You don't get the impression that it has to chase things around too often.

Still, it continues towards you, though it cranes its head to the side curiously at your sword.  It steps over the line and puts one of its limbs out to grab you.

(It no longer has that limb. ^_-)

I take my sword and attempt to slice off the limb then work on cutting off and dismantling the rest of the ant.  I see to it that this ant dies.

(btw, the limb was formerly attached to its head, one of those to get stuff inside of the mouth)

The ant rears back when you slice it off.  It seems to step back some, and it starts to shake in a way that reminds you of the one that you had called out to earlier, just before the smell and the other ants came.

Now that you've wounded the ant, the bug on your shoulder is latching onto your neck.  You can feel it shaking some.

I reach out with my empty hand and gently rub the little creature and then turn back to the and and try to put a blade through its head.  If it releases the smell before I can, I back off a bit and wait for more to show up.  Analyzing my surroundings looking for a bottleneck type of area, or a place where I can take them on one at a time.

You plunge the sword into the ant.  It doesn't react to your attack while it's shaking, but it falls to the ground, vanquished.

You notice that it took a lot of pretture to stab it into the bone-like head of the ant.  You can smell the odor that it was emitting very faintly.  The other ants are heading away, carrying more of the bugs.  They don't seem to have noticed your fight.

The other aphids approach you and the ant's carcus, confused and wide-eyed.

Your little friend holds onto your leg,  and then raises his arms up, appearing to want to be held.

I clean off my blade, and put it away, then pick up the little creature.  I place it on my shoulder and survey further what the ants are doing.

You look over towards the ants to investigate, holding your little friend.  The bug on your shoulder looks over towards the dead ant as you head away from it, and the others bugs are gathering around it, still confused.

The ants that left finally head into their ant hill, then you suddenly feel a vector.  It's gone in only a moment, but you felt it through the ant territory.

Interesting...well perhaps I should check that out... but I'm going to have to find a nother way to fight.. wouldn't want to break my sword now, that ant's shell was hard...  perhaps if I could find a softer area, like its stomache I could kill them, but elsewise, it looks like its dodging, and evading, using jujitsu for defense and outwitting them... time to investigate...

I put the little creature down amongst the rest of his kind, and put a hand type of stop gesture, and then dart off towards the colony to investigate...on my way however, I take my sword and poke the ant, looking for a softer area than its head.

The ant, having an exoskeleton, seems like it has a hard body all over.  You find that the weakest points would be the joints, like it's neck perhaps, but it would have to be cut in the exact right spot.  Also, it's stomache from underneath seems to be suceptable to attack.

Other than that, the limbs are thin enough, that even though they're hard, they can be cut (especially at the joints).  You believe that the exoskeleton wouldn't break your sword at first, but it still has the possibility of doing it to one of your katanas.  Your Trojan sword, however, is much more durable.

Your small bug friend wants to come, but he obeys you and stays with the others.

As you move towards the ant hill, you see some rustling in the grass behind it and ants are going through and back.  The ones returning seem wounded.  Also, there are ants with wings flying in that direction, over the grass, from the ant hill.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:58, Sun 24 June 2007.

I continue to watch and see what is going on, watching the movements of everything.

Things continue as they are for hours.  It is still day above you, but you see that the sun's moved further and it's heading towards setting now.

The more you listen, you think that you can actually hear fighting past the grass, but it's too far away to be certain.

I slowly move around to see whats through the grass avoiding contact with the ants, seeing what is going on and if there truly is fighting.

It takes you a few hours to make it around without being seen by the ants.  Finally, after navigating your way through the grass, you find another ant hill past it, and an enormous battle happening just beyond the grass to your right.  There are numerous white ants defending a very small ant hill (resembles the equivalent of an ant-fort).

The white ants are just like the black, except that they are white with a black dot on their heads.  They seem to be fighting more desperately and fiercely than the black ants.  Ant carcuses, black and white, are spread out through the battlefield.

There are airborn ants running into one another, and swooping down to attack the ones on the ground.  You see that there's a good group of ants in a battle formation walking calmly towards the fight from the white ants' hill.  They have three collumns, and you can't see how many rows ready to fight.

I stay there and study the battle formations, trying to learn new ways of offense and defense that I could input into my own strategies to increase my battle capabilites, when defending a city, or a fort, or camp..anything really, just studying whats going on, and occasionally trying to sense a verser...or a general vector... my gear, or whatever.

There isn't much more of the battle to watch.  As the large amount of white ants approaches, the black ants start to retreat, and the ones that remain are easily overpowered.

Soon, all of the black ants retreat, and the white ants take all of the carcases into their ant hill.  One of the white ants comes over to look at you, but doesn't make any moves.  It stands there, awaiting an action.

I bow and put my hands up, showing peace and no harm towards the ant.

"I come in peace, and wish no harm upon you or your allies.  Would it be possible to talk about what is going on here?"

Normal ants don't own other ants like that...maybe they can understand english...

It turns its head sideways, and it doesn't respond in any other way.

Still, it seems to understand that you're peaceful and nods its head once to you, proceeding to walk along the edge of the grass.  It's looking attentively inside of the 'forest of grass'.

I head back towards my little friend and its species, not caring if the black ants see me, assuming they are too injured to try and attack someone like myself.  Once I get over there, I pick up my little friend, if he is still there, and then place him on my shoulder.

(Even if he isn't there, I meditate)

After that I sit down and meditate, recalling past experiences and going back to the academy.  Going through my list of spells that I learned and remembering my classes.  Thinking back to the fun times I had with Jess, Liz, Rachel, and Alison, then recalling the final moments of my time there, with Brian and I training outside, and me changing the color of water.  While meditating I think of what he said to me...

"Can you bind them?!"

*gasps* That's right, I couldn't remember the words for the spell at the time, I was too busy rushing around to get to liz and the others... hmm I wonder what the spell was anyway... binding...hmmm *recalls classes*....

I meditate and concentrate on recalling the spells for binding others with summoned rope... I continue to contrate and relax...focus....

The ants are far too busy dealing with dead and wounded to mess with you as you pass them by.  Your small bug friend is right in the same spot waiting.  He seems overjoyed to see that you've come back.

You concentrate for hours, but you can't come up with the name of the spell.

Even though it's been hours, you're still not getting drowsy.

Interesting...how many hours has it been? Still I'm not tired, and my sword seems lighter... wierd...  well this spell could prove useful... I should go back and revisit my moments at the academy, surely its in one of the classes I had...just what were the words...

I meditate for a couple more hours, still if nothing happens, then I get up and practice my spells.. working with my shields, and changing the colors of my water shield, working with the earth and improving my focus ad concentration with the earth shield..

When you meditate, you still can't recall the name of the spell.

Nothing approaches you, the ants seeming to be busy enough as it is.  All of your magic you try to cast doesn't succeed.  You can't feel any magical energy when you try, either.

That sucks...no magic...period...

I work on training with my swords and then get my bag and get into a meditative stance, with my bag on my lap and rest on my bag, not really trying to sleep, but if I do, I don't care and I just relax.

After a good deal of meditation, it starts to get darker but just barely.  Large shadows are formed from the grass and trees now.  Your little bug friend is falling asleep, trying to stay awake with you but too drowsy to do so.

Then, you feel the vector once more, in the same direction.  It's just a little bit to the right now, a little bit away from the direction of the battle.  It's in between where the battle was and the second black ant hill.

I strap my bag around my side (opposite the side with Ajax) and I head over to see what is over there, making sure the little guy is still sleeping peacefully.

Along your straight path, you don't get any trouble from the ants.  They seem to realize that you're not there to hurt them, and they decide to treat you with the same respect.  You have to head through a small section of grass before you see what must be the source of the vector.

A thin human figure a short distance away has just jumped up, and he brings a large sword down into a black ant's neck, twisting it for good measure.

You can see a spreaded line of smaller 'fort' ant hills like you saw earlier just to the right of this fight.  Two ants, limping due to cut off limbs, are trying to make their way back to one.  The warrior allows them to leave.

From this distance, you can't make out any of his characteristics, other than the fact that he has a sword with the blade almost as tall as he is, which he sheathes on his back.  After the fight, he immediately looks over in your direction.  "WHO'S THERE?"  It's the voice of what sounds like a young man.

"Does it Matter who I am, state your name, who are you and how did you arrive here, perhaps you are a verser, like myself?"

I talk back coming out into the clear to see exactly who this kid is.

He approaches you from the distance, and his features are easier and easier to make out.  He's wearing blue jeans that are tattered, especially near the bottom, where you see that he had strong boots and some sort of straps above both of them.  He's wearing a black shirt with the sleeves ripped off.  Also, the bottom of it is tattered.  He has dark blue hair, and you see him grin widely when he finally sees you up close.  The boy has a tattoo up his right arm, and what appear to be wrist weights on.  His face is nostalgic for you.

He starts laughing loudly and maliciously at the sky.  "Oh, finally!  I was wondering if this day would ever come that I'd see you in person!  My name?  It's Andrew, Andrew Matthews.  Prepare to die!"  He starts running at you and pulls out the great sword with ease with his right hand, holding it wide.  From what you see, he moves at a normal speed.

"So I have a son after all, and he's a verser too, how nice..."

I charge at him, and duck in low and quickly with battoujutsu draw my sword outwards to hit him in the gut with the pommel of my sword as it draws... I duck in at the last moment so he wouldn't see it coming.

His movements seem to be impaired by his weights, but he almost brings his sword down in time to hit yours aside when you hit him in the gut.  You knock the breath out of him, and he steps back quickly, leaning on his sword.

He regains his composure quickly and says, "I didn't think that you were that strong.  If you don't mind, I'll fight you all-out..."  He seems to be waiting for an answer.

"Hold on a moment. First off, you havent seen your father for like what? How old are you? 17 maybe? So like 16 or 17 years, and then you meet him and you want to kill him?  Surely, by the fact that you are here, and not back at your home, you died and are a verser.  Congratulations.  Before we both go all out, atleast we could talk a bit.  Maybe you'd like to know why I wasn't around when you were growing up.

Atleast let's talk for a bit, then we can both go all out and have no regrets, alright?"

"Fine, but talking might make it so I don't remember how much fun I had killing you.  I've made some sacrifices, and memories might make me go more than simply all-out."  He looks you straight in the eyes.  One is brown, and the other is half brown and half red.

"If you were curious as to why I want to kill you, why don't we wait until the end of the conversation for that?  I don't personally care about your life, but go ahead and explain yourself if you want.  And if you have any other questions, go ahead and ask.  By the way, I'm 17.  I've been a verser for a while now, making sacrifice after sacrifice to secure my victory for this very day."

"Well I've got a son thats a verser like me.  That's great news, I get to meet you.  As you have learned time is different everywhere, I left your mother about maybe 3 months...if that ago and you hadn't been born yet.  Time is different, you spent 17 years back there, died, became a verser, and have been traveling.  Nice, how many worlds have you been to?

I myself have died about 18 times so far, thats a lot of different worlds, also, you should probably know, my name is Avahur.  You can call me that, or dad, or father, whichever.  You can't truly kill me as we are versers, I'll just go to another world.  We may even meet up again.  You eyes... brown and half red, and half brown.  Very nice, the red you got from me as you can see, being that I've got a purple and a red eye.

Where did you learn to fight like that?  I assume by all out you've got more skill than what you've shown.  Can you use any magic? Any elements? Fire, water, wind, earth, shadow, light, nature?  Levitation, or can you teleport?  Can you wield weapons, like rifles, snipers, small arms, sub-machine guns?

What have you learned in the verse?"

"I'm not interested in Magic.  I've learned some in my third world, but I enjoyed my first the most, where I learned to use this."  He points to the sword.  Sticking it into the ground, he starts to unstrap the straps on his ankles and wrists.  He drops them to the ground with thud after thud.  They leave impressions in the dirt.

"In the second, I got a new friend that lives in my right arm, underneath the tattoo.  You'll experience that soon, though.  Are you ready to fight or not?"

He lifts up the sword with ease and leans it on his shoulder.  It seems like his movement and strength have both improved drasticly.  "I started the first attack, so I'll let you start this one.  If you win, I'll tell you why I want to kill you.  If I win, you'll have to wait until our next meeting."  He looks at you with determination, as if he's through talking.  He moves his huge sword into his left hand in a ready position.

"Just so you know, magic won't work here, otherwise I'd have used fire, water, wind, or earth against you, in addition to probably this..."

I lift of my sleeve and show the runes on my arm.

"There's another on my chest, both quite nifty, however I'm sure they won't work here, just skill.

Oh and in the last world, I worked for death himself...it was pretty cool, before I burned to death... ah well, you seem to be through talking."

I drop my bag on the ground nearby, sheathe Ajax, and get ready.  I firmly plant my feet in a charge position, getting ready...

Well, I'll charge him, then attack with my ninja-to in my left hand in a slash aiming at his hand, then follow it up with a kick aimed at the groin, and then a slash with ajax towards his other shoulder.

However, I'm sure he's got skill with it, and only 3 worlds... still a newbie I see... however I'm not going to pull any punches against him.

I'll be ready to alter my plan though if something fails and I need to parry, in which case, I cross my blades and catch the sword, distributing the weight equally, then kick his chest and move away from him.

But, if that doesn't work, then I'll need to be creative and put some distance between us.  If I do put distance between us, then I can throw a shuriken aimed at his ankle at him, then charge as he goes to parry it, and do a double slice at his other ankle and at his sword wielding arm.

That should work, if not I'll have to really improvise and do what I can to evade his attacks and create an opening for me to injure him, by slicing off either of his hands or arms, or either of his legs, this way he'll still be alive to explain.

Yeah, that should work...lets do this...

I charge...

He smiles at your attack, and jumps into the air before you reach him.  He manages to jump, clearing your height into the air, and brings his sword down at you in a large, slashing motion.

With two swords, you're able to stop its momentum at you, but it takes all the strength in your arms to hold him there while you kick him in the chest to back away.

He lets you put distance between the two of you as you pull out your shuriken.  He seems to be focusing, and you see his right arm become suddenly incredibly buff.  He charges you, when you throw shuriken at his feet.  He dodges your first few, and one of the ones that you use shurikenjutsu on.  Then, he is hit in his right foot by the other, and falls down in mid-punch right before he reaches you.  The punch lands in the ground, and creates a crater with about a yard in diameter.

He seems to be stunned for a moment from the unexpected impact with the ground.

I use this moment to bring both my swords down in a pendulum type of swing, except at the same time, and have both swords slice into the under side if his arm, in the wrist area on both of his wrists.  Then I kick him in the face and kick him over with my foot, I then step on the arm with the sword and on the other arm with my other foot, and stick my blade at his neck, (not in, but about an inch, if that, away from it.)

"Surrender, now."

I get ready to move is something goes wrong, and if he doesn't surrender, I take my sword away from his neck  and slice it into his other ankle, then put it back and ask again.

The momentum of you attacking one after the other is too much for the less-experienced fighter, and Andrew ends up on his back to your blade.

When you first ask him, he says, spitting blood out of his mouth, "I'll win next time, but for now, yes.  Fine."  He drops the sword and his other arm shrinks back down to its normal size.  You see the ground around it get grossly wet from his arm seeping sweat out.

"Will you get that sword away from my throat now?"

"Throw your sword away from you, then I will remove my blade."

If he does so, then I remove it and get off of him.

"You can retrieve your blade when we are done talking.  Now explain why you want to kill me."

He complies and throws his sword away.

Then, he begins his explaination.  "I was five when I found out that my father wasn't really my father and my mother had remarried after my real father died in the war.  I was ten when he betrayed Earth's location to the enemy and they finally made it to us.  He wouldn't have had the job if you and the other versers had been able to hold them off at Mars.  They thought that Mars was just some useless colony anyways and would've crushed it, looking elsewhere for Earth.  And it's because of you they found us.  It was hell, running in fear daily from the brutes.  One day, I returned home to find my mother vanished and all of my friends dead.  I survived there for seven years trying to fight back until you came there and killed me yourself-that was the worst part of it!  You abandoned your post on Mars and returned just to kill me yourself!"

You see him swelling with rage, and his partially red eye is becoming more and more red, but then he shakes his head, closes his eyes and breathes.  After a moment, it's back to normal.

"Impossible, I haven't seen you until now...unless...  Did he look exactly like me?  Druing my last world, a friend of mine, Brian, also a verser, and very very skilled, he said he ran into a verser, that looked like me, that tried to kill him.  If he wasn't more skilled than me, he would have been killed then, its possible that's also the person that killed you and your mother and your friends.  Now, I don't mind so much when people I know die, hell I've left people to die, and almost killed one of my friends myself, but I refuse to let someone that looks like me, kill my son, his friends, my wife, and attempt to kill a close friend of mine... that will not do.

Andrew, understand that I did not kill you, I lost my hand on mars, with magic I was able to reattach it, but someone revealed out position and attacked the ship I was on.  Me and one of my friends, also a verser were both killed, along with everyone else on the ship I assume.  Things were bad, however, I would never intentionally kill my own son, unless of course you still try to kill me, in which case I might have to, but never like that.  Why would I kill you and your mother, I wouldn't.  Andrew, come with me, we can travel together as versers, I've done it before,  what do you say? We can exact revenge on this person that looks like me, and have some fun while we're at it.  I can train you with some techniques and it can be a lot of fun.  I've got more combat experience than most people, fought in several different wars, and a few minor wars and battles.

Will you stop trying to kill me, and help kill this impostor? Come on, get up... also your eye turned more red when you got angry... that was pretty cool, how'd you do that...do you have something else you are hiding?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:25, Mon 25 June 2007.

He listens to you throughout your proposition and says, as he gets up and walks towards his sword.  "Fine, I'll travel with you and maybe help you out some, but don't get the idea that I'll call you Master or Dad or anything.  You're simply Avahur to me, and I don't need your training either.  I'll grow stronger without it and I'll surpass you."

He then picks up the sword, holding it straight at you.  "Also, don't think that I'm going to let you face him.  He's mine to kill, and I don't need your help there either!"

Then, his attitude lightens up some, as he sheathes his sword.  "I just got here the other day.  What's there to eat around here, other than ants and grass?  Personally, I'd rather try something else first, and I'm kind of hungry.  Have you found any water sources around here?"

He seems to have completely ignored your question about his eye.

"Water, food? Nothing yet, while you may think magic is useless, I can crete drinking water with magic.  Anyway, I'll leave him up to you to kill."

I go over and retrieve my shurikens.

"Well I suggest we start walking, how are your injuries?"

He shows your his right forearm and it heals in a matter of seconds.  Steam rises from the wound.  He puts the sword away and simply uses the wrist weight to cover up his other wound.  Other than that, he wipes the blood from his face off on his shirt.  Luckily, he doesn't seem to have anything broken, even his nose.

After putting the weights back on, he says, "Okay, so I guess that we can live off of grass if we have to, but we need to find water somewhere.  How do you think we should go about that?"

"How can you heal that quickly?? Where did you learn something like that?"

I take a look around..

"Well, lets start walking, surely we'll find some signs of water.. besides we're the size of ants..  I'd hate to see a regular human in the world... it'd be pretty bad.... well, we could go find a plant or something, they do store some water in the base of their stems.  So, we should try doing that."

"Again, I've made some sacrifices in the past.  One of them is renting out my body to my friends."  He gestures towards his arm again as you follow the grass to the left.  When you approach the line of three scattered white ant 'fort' hills, a white ant from the nearest one comes to block your path, but doesn't attack you.

Andrew starts to reach for his sword.  "These things seem so territorial..."

"Always choosing the hard way out and fight?  Yep, you are definitely my son.. hold on, put your sword away."

I put my hands up outstretched, showing I mean no harm.  Then I give a slight bow, and gesture for my son and me to continue on in our current direction.

It seems to be thinking for a moment, looking up at the sky even.

Then, it turns its back on where you want to cross and you're allowed to proceed.

Upon following the grass, you see white ants at work, while there's always some idle and in a square formation behind the forts.  Their large hill doesn't seem as big as the first black ant hill you saw, but more like the second black one.

They are patrolling the border next to the grass, where you are, but none of them stop you like the first one.  As you walk on the edge of the grass, you see that the edge goes further, and back around the white ants towards the other direction.  You haven't spotted any plants other than grass.

"Well, this is interesting, no plants, just grass.  Perhaps we should try to communicate with them, maybe that will help us locate some water...  English doesn't work I don't think.  Do you know any laguages that could work, or have any ideas on how to find out...diplomatically?"

Andrew ponders for a moment, while replying, "I don't know any other languages, or how to really communicate with an ant.  I doubt they've seen humans before."

Then, he seems like he gets an idea, "However, we could follow some of them who are gathering supplies outside of the camp to see how they get water."

"Ok then, lets see what's going on."

I head with andrew to see where they go and whats going on.

You follow one line of ants that goes directly into the grass past the white ants' hill.  You're finally starting to feel like it's late into the day, and it's getting a little bit darker.

Then, you find what they head towards.  It's a bond, with a stream heading foreward from its location.  The water seems to be going towards the pond.  The line gets a mouth full of the clean water one at a time and walks back towards the direction of the ant hill.

Andrew looks at the ants and goes to the other end of the pond.  "I'm suprised there's such clean water here.  Maybe we should make our main camp here.  I mean, the white ants are more peaceful than the black ones, and there's water and food."

"Quite true, well, lets start making camp.  Where to begin..."

I look around for anything suitable that would help make a camp of sorts, large sticks to sit on, etc.  Grass to burn, and something to use as shelter...

The white ants are coming fewer and fewer to the pond.  Andrew's cut a large blade of grass down, and you find that it's actually quite comfortable, though hard.  You believe that one piece will be enough for two mattresses and easily enough for a camp fire if you could burn it.

Then, you hear something as you face the pond.  Behind you, you're sure that you can make out rustling of the grass.  Andrew turns around the same time that you do, and about 100 yards away, you see a wide battle line of black ants.  You can't tell how deep their ranks go, however.

The other ants, busy with their work, don't seem to notice.

"This is our camp now, so what should we do, we could let them go by and completely destroy the white ants, or we could warn them.. I wouldn't suggest trying to kill either side,  however, the corpses would make some food...despite how disgusting it may be... it'll keep us alive.  We just need a way to start a fire... So I'm up for getting out of the way and letting them kill eachother.."

Andrew smirks a little.  "Well, we might be able to let them just go by, but I believe their intentions go more towards killing everything, including us.  At least, they'll be interested in killing me, I'm sure.  I say we stick around and have some fun killing the larger numbers.  Due to the numerous black ant forts, it seems like they have greater numbers anyways.  If anything, fighting the black ants is letting both sides live."

He starts stretching out.  "Cmon, it'll be fun."  Through this whole time, he hasn't been looking at you, but at the approaching army of ants.  His face is full of malice, and it looks like he's looking foreward to a hard fight.  He even makes sure that his weights on his body are secure.

"Well I won't be risking my katanas, but if this trojan sword, I got fighting in anicient greece breaks, oh well.  Lets get killing..."

I pull out my trojan sword and shield.

"This will be fun.

I'll let you lead the charge, you've got a bigger weapon after all..."

Andrew walks calmly over to a white ant with his sword drawn.  "First thing's first."  He taps it on the head and proceeds to run towards the army of black ants.  "Try to keep up."  He jaunts at you as he passes you.

You see the white ant immediately, without getting water, head back.  The others do as well.  You see one shake and the aroma is in the air again.

He charges towards the middle very fast, especially considering he's wearing ankle weights.  He clashes thirty yards ahead before you, hitting the immediate ant in the face as if his sword was a baseball bat, using both hands and hitting with the broad side.  It throws the center and just to the right in disarray, and he focuses on the left of where he initiated combat.  He swings the gaint sword as if it's nothing.

I charge into battle as well, shield at the ready and trojan sword in hand.  As Andrew works on one side, I take care of the other clearing through the ranks.  I block an attack or two with the shield and stick in my sword at a softer area, if thats not possible, I aim for its eyes, and any appendages I can reach.

You charge into the fight with your sword in hand.

When you first clash with the ants, they seem suprised at your charge and you're able to hack off a couple of their heads, getting a feel for just how much force it takes to do so.

Then, they appear to catch on at your third kill, and you see some on both sides of you trying to encircle you.  They seem to have given up their formation to use numbers against you.

I take my shield and charge the ant on my right that is trying to complete a semi-circle around me, and slam my shield into its head (like a backhanded swing in tennis) then attack it and retreat a little to put some distance between me and them.  Then if they start to spread out I charge into their ranks on one side and start clearing so that they can't flank me.  Making sure after the one that I kill the others surely trying to surround me to get a chance to and attack an ant, then break free from the circle and put some distance, lather, rinse, repeat.

You easily bash the ant accross the face with your shield, but you feel somethine pierce and squeeze from behind.  Your back is suddenly in tremendous pain.

You see an ant behind you has easily bitten through that Trojan armor and has made contact with your flesh just above hip level.  He has a hold on you, and the others are moving in towards you.

I take the weapon, reverse my grip and slam it behind me into the ant's eye, the continue to push the weapon through the ant.

I give a shout over towards Andrew.

"Hey, Andrew, I specialize in killing humans not ants, wanna give your father a hand here?  After all, these ants are freaking annoying and their exoskeleton is too fricken hard."

You push your sword through the ant's eye and head.  It lets go, and retreats behind the line surrounding you, that's steadily closing in.

From the pain, you don't initially notice one coming in from your left flank.  You instinctively raise your shield to block it, but something else stops it instead.

You see Andrew, his legs and stomache bloody from wounds, jumping towards the ant with his massive right arm, which collides with the ant's head, crushing it into the ground.  You see his left arm is also injured, holding the sword, and limp.

He mumbles to you in the short pause from suprise.  "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.  Have any ideas?"

"Yeah, retreat and regroup, then do so again, but with a plan.  Cover my rear, I'll clear a path."

If he agrees then I clear a path out of the way (away from the large portion of ants, so like in a different direction than where they originally started at.) and dart away from the army of black ants..

Hmm, the way I see it, if I can use the shield to block any attacks from my left, and in front I can bask anything in my way that is off to the left, and anything on the right I can slam my sword into its eye, either before it can mount an attack, or after parrying, this way I only really need to stab it once for it to rear back in pain atleast a little, which should be enough to allow andrew and I through.  Yeah that should work, poke stuff in the eyes, and bash things on my left,  a solid plan.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:21, Thu 05 July 2007.

You bash a couple ants back as you head for the weakest point on the way back to the pond.  Andrew knocks some on the right down with his massive arm in the retreat.  You can't help but be suprised that he's still moving after such injuries.  His left arm is almost entirely covered in blood now.

You two break through the line and start to run, Andrew keeping pace with you seemingly easily.  You see in the distance two square groups of white ants ahead, walking through the high grass towards you.

"Let's head past them, they atleast seem smart enough to know that we just made their job easier by wiping out or atleast injuring a portion of them. Besides, I think they know we won't do them any harm.  If they approach us, let me take care of it... besides, let your wounds heal."

I run towards to white ants, slowing down when I reach them, and putting my weapon away, telling Andrew to do the same.  Then we move past them, if they won't stop us.  If they still refuse to let us by, then we run away to the left and let the two ant armies do battle, then circle around behind the white ants and watch from a distance the battle...

Andrew does as you say when you approach the white ants.  They let you pass between the two groups of them.

You can tell that their numbers are far inferior to that of the black ants.  You're soon at the pond like before, but there are only a few ants going to it now to gather water.  They keep glancing to their right, towards the upcoming battle.

Andrew sits down as if he's heavy, and holds the wound on his arm while examining his others.  They look very bad.

"Those wounds look bad, will you be alright?  Since you are my son, I'd figure that you'll pull through, hell you can regenerate as well... however there is probably a limit on that...  So, you should get some rest, sleep does wonders for the body.

Also, wash it in water, atleast clean off the wounds, plus it will give you a better look at them, sure it may make it hurt a little bit more, but atleast they will be cleaned.  From there, we can get some grass and bind the wounds if needed, unless of course you can automatically heal them.  Whichever, I need to clean my wound.."

I start to head over to the water and when I get there I grab some water and splash it on my wound...

The water stings your wounds badly, and you're suprised that it didn't crush you.  The ant just made a long gash accross your lower back.

Andrew investigates his wounds, and covers them with some parts of the grass as binding.  He ends up having a large piece of leaf wrapped around his lower torso, upper right leg, and he has his left arm in a sling, a piece wrapping the top part around the rest of his torso.  "I think I'll be fine.  For some reason, this place is really good on healing and endurance.  Do you think we should go help those white ants out, or try to find somewhere else to sleep?"

"We've done our part, I think we need some rest, I believe those white ants won't disturb us, and I'm not quite ready to go to the next world yet, so I think we should find a place on the far edge of this body of water and just rest, if atleast for a little while, let our wounds heal a bit, and atleast stop bleeding.  Yeah, this should be good for now.  Lets head over there.."

I get up and start to make my way over to the far edge of the water.

You and Andrew make your way to the other side for a good rest.  He falls fast asleep, and you see the sun starting to finally set.  You haven't seen anything come from the battle, not even injured white ants.

After your rest, it's night.  You find that your back still hurts, and the wound is still open.  The same is for Andrew's wounds.  He looks fully rested and energetic.  You see a more steady flow of white ants coming to the pond now, when you wake up.

"Well it looks like there is a more steady flow of white ants, perhaps they won... or perhaps they got beat and black ants are overseeing their operations... it'd be what I do.  Anyway, whichever the course, its night, I'm binding my wound as its been fully aired out and cleaned, I'm going to try and get some more rest, in the morning we can see the status of the ants, as much as I'd prefer to do things by night, I wouldn't want to be mistaken for an enemy.  So I'm going to rest, what will you be doing?"

I get up and get some grass to bind my wound with, then head over and lie down to rest, while Andrew is talking.  After he finishes I try to fall asleep again.

Looking up at the sky once more while you cover your wound with a piece of grass, Andrew does talk to you a short time before sleep.  He talks to you about his homeworld, before the attack.  Flashbacks feed your mind, and when he's through talking, you have memories in your dreams of being Greg Matthews.  They are suprisingly real.

When you wake up, the sun is starting to rise, half of the sky starless now.  Andrew's already awake, splashing some water on his face.  You feel well-rested, though your wound hurts.

Well, that was interesting... looks like I somewhat know what I did as greg mathews... besides have a son... interesting indeed.  Atleast he became a verser at 17 and not at like 30 or so... it'd be hard to explain how he's my son... harder than it is now I suppose...

I go over to the water and take off the binding, letting the wound air out a bit, then get some new grass and put that on, from there I splash some water on my face also and start to discuss with Andrew possibilities about what can happen from now on and what the next course of action should be.

You re-dress your wound with new grass, and wake yourself up with the water.

Andrew looks around after your question and says, "This place doesn't seem to have much to offer.  Have you found anything interesting while you're here?  Maybe we should explore individually and meet back here later to see if there's anything of interest.  One of us could even check out what it's like in those ant hills, right?"

"Well,other than the ants doing battle, and a small farm of tiny little bug things past the black ants, I haven't seen anything interesting around here.  With all the worlds I've been to...well most of them, there is usually something good that can be learned, and it is obviously not in this area.

Perhaps we should expand out from here and see what else is here, or as you said, one or perhaps both of us could see what is in the ant hill.

What do you think?"

"I like the idea.  Let's do it then.  Where to?"

He looks around and gets some water, ready to depart.

The flow of white ants to the pond continues normally, nothing seeming to be going on at the moment that's out of the ordinary.

I took a look around and took a deep breath... then exhaled.

"Let's go to the ant hill, perhaps we can find something interesting there."

I started walking towards the white ant hill.

As you head towards the white ant hill, you see everything more bloodied than any battle you've seen before.  Dead white ants are spread accross the field, as well as many more black ants.  The carcasses go all the way to the entrance of the white ant hill.

All of them seem too busy to deal with you, taking care of their dead.  You can feel an air of depression about you.  Andrew doesn't seem to notice and proceeds towards the ant hill.

I ignore the feeling and continue walking...and let out a low whistle..

"Wow, this was one helluva battle... looks like they are in no mood to fight anymore so entering shouldn't be much of a problem..."

I continue with Andrew and head to the hill.

When you get into the ant hill, you see that there are very, very few inside.  The complex is amazing.  It's a cave network of catacombs.  You can feel a further depressed mood inside, and down one cave, you see an open circular room.  It smells horrid in there.  Down the tunnel leading to it, the walls are covered with blood, and there are wounded ants squirming on the ground towards the room.

You see more wounded ants inside, squirming on their backs atop some thick leaves.  There are other, smaller, white ants tending to them.

"Well that is interesting... let's see if there is a chieftain, leader, or some equivalent down there... or anything really interesting..."

I started heading down doing what I can to ignore the awful stench emanating from the hole.

When the two of you get inside this infirmary, it looks more like a mortuary.  There are dead white ants spread out around the big room.

The ones still alive on the makeshift beds are either barely moving, flailing in pain, or being held down by some of the smaller white ants.  Some of the ants that are close to eachother on the beds and the ants tending to them are holding their antennae to one another's.  There is one white ant in the middle of the room that the others come to constantly, just then departing.

The white ant in the center of the room, and the others, don't pay any attention to you.

I nod to Andrew and motion for him to follow as I head over to the white ant in the center.

When we get over there I try to communicate verbally and with hand signals.. trying to get some basic understanding between us.

The ant in the middle pays close attention to the getures that you are making, and seems to understand that you're trying to communicate with you.

He responds by pointing to you, then his eye, and then an unattended and injured ant that seems to be wailing in pain.  He's off of his makeshift leaf bed from his squirming.  He's a little bit smaller than the other ants, but still larger than you.

I nod and point to myself, then my eye, and then to the other ant.

"Looks like we're watching this ant."

Andrew walks over to the injured ant and kneels so that he's over it.  It has a large gash in its belly, which is easily seen because it is upside down.

Also, it has injuries on its face and two of its legs and snapped in half, but not broken off.  Andrew says, "I think we're supposed to look after this thing or try to help it somehow; however, looking at its wounds, I don't think that we can really do anything other than kill it off.  I'm not sure if the ants would like that or not."

"We won't kill it, they wouldn't like that, and I'm not in the mood to fight all these ants. I want to try something... Magic isn't working here, so I want to try something different.  Maybe I could lessen the wounds if I went at a different approach."

I move over to the ant and start a meditative concentration with my hands extended outwards toward the ant.  I remain there gathering any spare energy I can and release it, not in the form of healing, but just as energy.  Not so much magic as in not manifesting it, but as in raw energy and try to give it to the ant.

You feel like you're able to gather some energy and push it into the ant.

Immediately, the ant reacts and starts squirming more and more, harder and harder.  You can start to smell that dangerous odor that the ants had released before, and two white ants approach you, one from each side.  Andrew pulls his sword out and holds it ready.  "I think you've made them angry."

"Hmm, yeah, I was never good with healing magic... I prefer, do they really think they stand a chance if we do fight?  Anyway lets try not to."

I stop and stand and put my hands up and show no sign of threat to the ants... if they proceed further in a threatening manner, I would put my hand to my sword and get ready to attack should they become hostile.

The ants don't stop coming.  You can smell the odor stronger now, and the one that's already face to face with Andrew lunges at him.

He brings his sword up, and easily deflects the attack, knocking the ant backwards.  "I don't think it's safe here.  We should try to find our way back out, because we're in the middle of their society right now..."

OOC: Sorry for the delay, but my internet spontaniously died and I managed to fix it today.

"They are injured, this shouldn't be hard, don't let your guard down, lets head back the way we came... after taking care of these guys...  You've got a bigger sword, I'll get a way out, you cover our rear."

I took out my sword and shield and started clearing a path out of there.

A very large ant, twice your size, initially blocks your path.  He has scars from battle, but his major weakness is that one of his legs is snapped.  It has a leaf around it holding it in place, but he makes his way over to you with his remaining limbs.

He also has a dressed wound accross his gut.

When you try to slash him, he brings his head into the blade from the side.  The force of the impact knocks your sword out of your hand and far to your left, amongst more invalid ants.

The ant takes his opportunity and charges you with his head, knocking you in the gut.  It feels as if you were hit with a large boulder.  You get the wind knocked out of you, and it starts to hurt to breathe.  Your back hits Andrew, who is fighting two normal-sized ants at the moment.

He quickly hits them with his sword as if it were a bat, with the blunt side, and sends them for a loop.  Then, he jumps in between you and the brutish ant.  He says, "Are you okay, Avahur?!" as he blocks another headbutt from the giant ant with his huge sword.

"...hard...to....breath.. I'll be alright... I think, need to recover a bit..  gonna try to get my sword."

I keep my shield in front of me and take a few moments to recover from the blow,  then I charge forward with my shield in front to plow any ants in my way out of my way to get my sword.  Then I place my back to the wall with my shield in front of me and give my self time to recover a  bit more.  Once I'm a bit better, I'll defensively attack the ants around me and work my way back to Andrew.

As you get up, you feel a piercing pain in your side, and you cough up blood.  You can't even lift up yourself, let alone your shield.

From the effort, you fall to the ground and pass out.

You wake up on occasion, seeing Andrew knocking back ant after ant from your body.  Then, you see a battle line of them out of the corner of your eye, and you see Andrew charge into them.  You faint some, and then see a white ant above you, and then its leg diving into your chest.

Everything goes dark with death.