Re: The Battle Majestic (Round 4 - Magpie Skies)
04-11-2012, 08:39 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.
Given the unusually long amount of time spent in the black void between rounds, by the time the Executrix had explained the changes in their situation and scattered them across this new locale Steven’s disappointment and anger at being unable to escape had worn away. The change in management, as the Executrix had put it, was of no concern to him. The battle was still the same thing as it had been before, only with a different person to blame for it. Even with the death of Iris and the replacement of Vexmagog he still didn’t really believe he stood a chance of winning this battle. If he wanted to survive, escape remained his only viable option. He was surprised to see that he still had his gloves, he had felt for sure that had his escape attempt failed they would have been taken from him and he would have been left even more defenceless than he was already.
He was thinking about how the gloves worked. He was certain that the path he found that led to the Master’s world could not have been a natural occurrence; that to some extent it was a thing created by his gloves but he lacked the ability to explain why they had needed that exact spot. Perhaps that was something he would be able to answer as he attempted to repeat his success.
“Hello?”
The voice startled him out of his thoughts, reminded him that he was in a potentially hostile environment and that he should be paying more attention to what was going on around him. As he whirled around, he raised his fists and his gloves matched this pose as they floated a couple of inches in front of him. A quick glance at the faces that met him and he quickly dropped his hands to his sides and felt embarrassed at taking such a hostile action.
“Hello.” He replied embarrassedly.
Standing before him was a multicoloured cluster of regal looking women. The one standing closest to Steven was wearing a strapless lazuli dress that matched her paler cerulean skin. Her hair was a mass of navy curls that cascaded down her back and was topped off with a tiara set with sapphires. The group of women behind her were dressed in equally formal attire that matched their differing skin colours; an elegant ruffled ballgown in goldenrod contrasted against the jasmine skin of one, a long flowing dress of emerald trailed behind the one with skin the colour of jade. They all looked apprehensive at Steven’s presence in the grey chamber, as if unsure whether to be relieved that he was here, or worried.
“I’m… um… sorry if I interrupted anything.” Steven said awkwardly. “I’ll just… go…” He glanced around the room looking for a way out, as the expression of the brightly coloured women only grew more confused. He eventually found a sturdy looking door on the wall behind him and tried to let himself out, only to find it was locked.
“Are you here to rescue us?”
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Nestled in the clouds, in the shadow of a jagged and icy blue citadel was a tiny little village. It was little more than a crossroads and a couple of midnight blue buildings. Here was where the two former co-hosts of this battle had been deposited. Sruix, with his tidy pinstripe suit and his flowing golden hair, had taken a seat upon a waist high stone wall and was looking out at the view of the contested skies. Distant spots of colour were all that were visible of the numerous castles. Talis was significantly less relaxed. He paced back and forth along the cobbled street, muttering curses under his breath, directing them all towards the so-called Executrix, his black cape billowing out behind him as he did so.
“Okay.” He said, eventually coming to a stop. “It seems to me that our best shot is to head to the grey queen’s castle.”
“Mhm?” Sruix raised an eyebrow as he cast his gaze in Talis’ direction. “Why would we want to go there?”
“Come now S,” Talis cajoled, “you know this setting as well as I… It seems only logical that it would be the focus of the round, does it not?”
“Well, maybe.” Sruix replied. “But previous rounds have taught me to assume little about our contestants… and even if we were to assume that that would be the ‘focus of the round’ as you put it, why would we head towards the most dangerous place in the entire setting? Wouldn’t we be better off hunkering down here, or even better, making our way over to the fuchsia palace?” The fuschia palace was so far upon the periphery of the round that the idea of anyone finding them there was laughable.
“If you do not want to survive this battle, then yes, by all means run and hide.” Talis snapped.
“What do you mean?” Sruix asked. Talis looked at him exasperated.
“Look, I know you have always insisted on identifying as one of ‘the good guys’ but surely that does not mean that you’re meekly going to accept your own demise?” Talis asked. “Surely you have not just been sitting there admiring the scenery while I have been coming up with a way to get us out of this situation?” There was a pause between the two and after a long moment Talis took a seat next to Sruix. “Our powers are limited and we’ve been dumped amongst people who want to see us dead. Unless we take action we will end up dead one way or another. We have a slight advantage, albeit one that potentially diminishes with every second that passes; we know this environment and we’ve been watching, or well, I’ve been watching them for three entire rounds.”
“You still haven’t given a compelling reason to head into the thick of battle.” Sruix replied. He stood up and walked a couple of steps away from his former co-host. “I’d say you’ve made a better case for avoiding it entirely.”
“The gloves.” Talis explained. “If you’d been watching at the end of the last round you would have seen that they have some rather surprising functionality. If we get hold of them then we can get out of here. It is quite frankly our only chance.”
“And to where do we run once we have escaped?” Sruix asked, turning on his heel to face Talis.
“You know that I cannot say.” Talis replied. “Not while she is out there listening.” Sruix frowned but did not disagree. “You just have to trust me S; rest assured that I know exactly what I am doing.” There was another silence as Talis climbed to his feet and joined his colleague in the middle of the empty crossroads.
“Okay.” Sruix said eventually. “How do we get to the grey queen’s castle then? I suppose you have a plan for that too?”
“I had rather hoped we could charter a flight.” Talis replied glancing around the sapphire village. “Let’s check this place out, see if it is as deserted as it seems.”
--------
“Rescue you?” Steven repeated dumbly. It was possibly the first time in his life that someone had really expected something of him. Before the battle he’d been a wanderer, sightseeing through many different dimensions, no responsibilities to tie him down. Since the battle had began, okay maybe every now and again someone wanted him to make them something, but that wasn’t really him they wanted, it was the gloves. Looking at the desperate faces of the women in front of him, he just knew he did not want to let them down. “…yes.” He said eventually. “So what am I rescuing you from again?”
“Useless.” The voice belonged to a woman who very neatly blended into the pale grey of the cell. Her skin was a glossy pearly white, her dress elegant glittering silver; it matched the long plait of hair that ran halfway down her back. She bore the most unimpressed expression of all the women who stood before him. “He doesn’t know what he is doing. Did none of you see he can’t even open the door? He’s as much a prisoner as any of us.”
“Except,” the lady in green looked him up and down, “I don’t imagine the grey queen will have much use for him.” She paused. “Probably throw him from the battlements first opportunity she gets.”
“Give him a chance.” The woman dressed in purple insisted hopefully. “He’s just getting his bearings, he’ll have that door open in a minute, and then he’ll bravely battle his way through the grey queen’s merciless minions and have us back to our rightful homes before you know it.”
“Hah.” The lady in green scoffed.
“More likely he’ll want to take us home with him, back to the surface.” An orange coloured woman casually suggested. “They probably don’t have any decent queens upon the surface, that’s why they have to come up here and kidnap us.”
“Now you mention it he does look sort of surfacey.” The white woman replied. “No colour co-ordination, and look at that brown jacket. That’s surface dweller attire if I’ve ever seen it.” There was a sort of murmur of acceptance, as though this had just become immutable fact.
“Hey!” Steven snapped. “Could you stop talking about me like I’m not even here? Okay so I don’t exactly know what is going on and I’m not from round here, but I want to help.”
“That is no way to speak to your betters.” The lady in green snapped. “We are the queens of this realm and we will be treated with the respect we deserve.”
There was a murmuring of assent, punctuated by an “I told you he wanted to help” from the lilac skinned queen.
“It’s all very well and good that the mud dweller wants to help,” the white queen replied, “but look at him, what is he going to do?” The queens fell silent and gazed at Steven expectantly, as though he was about to perform the world’s greatest magic trick. Though most of them were offering their best withering glares, the blue queen looked quietly hopeful and the purple queen appeared positively giddy. She looked like she was barely containing the urge to give him the thumbs up.
“Okay, your majesties.” He said. “I’ll show you what I can do.” He turned and stared at the door thoughtfully as he tried to work out the best way to get it open and get his entourage of bitchy queens he had rather unexpectedly acquired to safety. “Umm… This may take a minute.”
Given the unusually long amount of time spent in the black void between rounds, by the time the Executrix had explained the changes in their situation and scattered them across this new locale Steven’s disappointment and anger at being unable to escape had worn away. The change in management, as the Executrix had put it, was of no concern to him. The battle was still the same thing as it had been before, only with a different person to blame for it. Even with the death of Iris and the replacement of Vexmagog he still didn’t really believe he stood a chance of winning this battle. If he wanted to survive, escape remained his only viable option. He was surprised to see that he still had his gloves, he had felt for sure that had his escape attempt failed they would have been taken from him and he would have been left even more defenceless than he was already.
He was thinking about how the gloves worked. He was certain that the path he found that led to the Master’s world could not have been a natural occurrence; that to some extent it was a thing created by his gloves but he lacked the ability to explain why they had needed that exact spot. Perhaps that was something he would be able to answer as he attempted to repeat his success.
“Hello?”
The voice startled him out of his thoughts, reminded him that he was in a potentially hostile environment and that he should be paying more attention to what was going on around him. As he whirled around, he raised his fists and his gloves matched this pose as they floated a couple of inches in front of him. A quick glance at the faces that met him and he quickly dropped his hands to his sides and felt embarrassed at taking such a hostile action.
“Hello.” He replied embarrassedly.
Standing before him was a multicoloured cluster of regal looking women. The one standing closest to Steven was wearing a strapless lazuli dress that matched her paler cerulean skin. Her hair was a mass of navy curls that cascaded down her back and was topped off with a tiara set with sapphires. The group of women behind her were dressed in equally formal attire that matched their differing skin colours; an elegant ruffled ballgown in goldenrod contrasted against the jasmine skin of one, a long flowing dress of emerald trailed behind the one with skin the colour of jade. They all looked apprehensive at Steven’s presence in the grey chamber, as if unsure whether to be relieved that he was here, or worried.
“I’m… um… sorry if I interrupted anything.” Steven said awkwardly. “I’ll just… go…” He glanced around the room looking for a way out, as the expression of the brightly coloured women only grew more confused. He eventually found a sturdy looking door on the wall behind him and tried to let himself out, only to find it was locked.
“Are you here to rescue us?”
--------
Nestled in the clouds, in the shadow of a jagged and icy blue citadel was a tiny little village. It was little more than a crossroads and a couple of midnight blue buildings. Here was where the two former co-hosts of this battle had been deposited. Sruix, with his tidy pinstripe suit and his flowing golden hair, had taken a seat upon a waist high stone wall and was looking out at the view of the contested skies. Distant spots of colour were all that were visible of the numerous castles. Talis was significantly less relaxed. He paced back and forth along the cobbled street, muttering curses under his breath, directing them all towards the so-called Executrix, his black cape billowing out behind him as he did so.
“Okay.” He said, eventually coming to a stop. “It seems to me that our best shot is to head to the grey queen’s castle.”
“Mhm?” Sruix raised an eyebrow as he cast his gaze in Talis’ direction. “Why would we want to go there?”
“Come now S,” Talis cajoled, “you know this setting as well as I… It seems only logical that it would be the focus of the round, does it not?”
“Well, maybe.” Sruix replied. “But previous rounds have taught me to assume little about our contestants… and even if we were to assume that that would be the ‘focus of the round’ as you put it, why would we head towards the most dangerous place in the entire setting? Wouldn’t we be better off hunkering down here, or even better, making our way over to the fuchsia palace?” The fuschia palace was so far upon the periphery of the round that the idea of anyone finding them there was laughable.
“If you do not want to survive this battle, then yes, by all means run and hide.” Talis snapped.
“What do you mean?” Sruix asked. Talis looked at him exasperated.
“Look, I know you have always insisted on identifying as one of ‘the good guys’ but surely that does not mean that you’re meekly going to accept your own demise?” Talis asked. “Surely you have not just been sitting there admiring the scenery while I have been coming up with a way to get us out of this situation?” There was a pause between the two and after a long moment Talis took a seat next to Sruix. “Our powers are limited and we’ve been dumped amongst people who want to see us dead. Unless we take action we will end up dead one way or another. We have a slight advantage, albeit one that potentially diminishes with every second that passes; we know this environment and we’ve been watching, or well, I’ve been watching them for three entire rounds.”
“You still haven’t given a compelling reason to head into the thick of battle.” Sruix replied. He stood up and walked a couple of steps away from his former co-host. “I’d say you’ve made a better case for avoiding it entirely.”
“The gloves.” Talis explained. “If you’d been watching at the end of the last round you would have seen that they have some rather surprising functionality. If we get hold of them then we can get out of here. It is quite frankly our only chance.”
“And to where do we run once we have escaped?” Sruix asked, turning on his heel to face Talis.
“You know that I cannot say.” Talis replied. “Not while she is out there listening.” Sruix frowned but did not disagree. “You just have to trust me S; rest assured that I know exactly what I am doing.” There was another silence as Talis climbed to his feet and joined his colleague in the middle of the empty crossroads.
“Okay.” Sruix said eventually. “How do we get to the grey queen’s castle then? I suppose you have a plan for that too?”
“I had rather hoped we could charter a flight.” Talis replied glancing around the sapphire village. “Let’s check this place out, see if it is as deserted as it seems.”
--------
“Rescue you?” Steven repeated dumbly. It was possibly the first time in his life that someone had really expected something of him. Before the battle he’d been a wanderer, sightseeing through many different dimensions, no responsibilities to tie him down. Since the battle had began, okay maybe every now and again someone wanted him to make them something, but that wasn’t really him they wanted, it was the gloves. Looking at the desperate faces of the women in front of him, he just knew he did not want to let them down. “…yes.” He said eventually. “So what am I rescuing you from again?”
“Useless.” The voice belonged to a woman who very neatly blended into the pale grey of the cell. Her skin was a glossy pearly white, her dress elegant glittering silver; it matched the long plait of hair that ran halfway down her back. She bore the most unimpressed expression of all the women who stood before him. “He doesn’t know what he is doing. Did none of you see he can’t even open the door? He’s as much a prisoner as any of us.”
“Except,” the lady in green looked him up and down, “I don’t imagine the grey queen will have much use for him.” She paused. “Probably throw him from the battlements first opportunity she gets.”
“Give him a chance.” The woman dressed in purple insisted hopefully. “He’s just getting his bearings, he’ll have that door open in a minute, and then he’ll bravely battle his way through the grey queen’s merciless minions and have us back to our rightful homes before you know it.”
“Hah.” The lady in green scoffed.
“More likely he’ll want to take us home with him, back to the surface.” An orange coloured woman casually suggested. “They probably don’t have any decent queens upon the surface, that’s why they have to come up here and kidnap us.”
“Now you mention it he does look sort of surfacey.” The white woman replied. “No colour co-ordination, and look at that brown jacket. That’s surface dweller attire if I’ve ever seen it.” There was a sort of murmur of acceptance, as though this had just become immutable fact.
“Hey!” Steven snapped. “Could you stop talking about me like I’m not even here? Okay so I don’t exactly know what is going on and I’m not from round here, but I want to help.”
“That is no way to speak to your betters.” The lady in green snapped. “We are the queens of this realm and we will be treated with the respect we deserve.”
There was a murmuring of assent, punctuated by an “I told you he wanted to help” from the lilac skinned queen.
“It’s all very well and good that the mud dweller wants to help,” the white queen replied, “but look at him, what is he going to do?” The queens fell silent and gazed at Steven expectantly, as though he was about to perform the world’s greatest magic trick. Though most of them were offering their best withering glares, the blue queen looked quietly hopeful and the purple queen appeared positively giddy. She looked like she was barely containing the urge to give him the thumbs up.
“Okay, your majesties.” He said. “I’ll show you what I can do.” He turned and stared at the door thoughtfully as he tried to work out the best way to get it open and get his entourage of bitchy queens he had rather unexpectedly acquired to safety. “Umm… This may take a minute.”
Heaven Help Us | Make Room!!!! | I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
Hang 'Em High | The Only Hope For Me Is You | Zero Percent | Early Sunsets Over Monroeville | DESTROYA | Demolition Lovers | To The End
Surrender The Night | Disenchanted | The Ghost Of You | Party Poison | Vampires Will Never Hurt You | The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You
Hang 'Em High | The Only Hope For Me Is You | Zero Percent | Early Sunsets Over Monroeville | DESTROYA | Demolition Lovers | To The End
Surrender The Night | Disenchanted | The Ghost Of You | Party Poison | Vampires Will Never Hurt You | The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You