Re: Grand Battle S3G1! (Round One: Vio Maleficat)
12-29-2010, 08:37 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Pinary.
There were so many things wrong with the situation that Tor didn't know where to start. Part of him was appalled that something as cruel as this battle, and apparently others like it, could be tolerated by any civilized people. Another part, this one a bit less broadly-thinking and outward-focused than the last, was purely terrified for his own life- he had no wish to die, after all. A third part, much more diplomatic than the others, was concerned primarily with the assortment of other contestants and their varying levels of impossibility. That part was running over what he knew about the others and generally coming to the conclusion that diplomacy would be difficult at best. Then, separate from the others and much more comfortable to think about, there was the part concerned with figuring out the absolutely insane engineering decisions that had gone into this plant's design.
The roof of the squat, squarish facility was peppered with devices of all sorts, ranging from antennae to radar dishes to things that looked like scaled-up kitchen utensils. All were humming, whirring, or beeping, and the whole collection served only to confuse Tor. He knew his way around any number of systems used to control and direct energy, and while one or two of the things he was looking at may have resembled things he'd seen before, even they were arranged in such a way as to make their purpose utterly incomprehensible. There was no discernible pattern to the devices' arrangement, some connections seemed content to plug into open air, and some devices weren't connected to anything at all. He was as intrigued as he was confused, and if it hadn't been for the other parts of his mind ganging up on that particular one and telling it to just shut up for a bit, he might have started tracing circuits and opening panels.
As it was, he pried himself away from the array of barrier-projection equipment just in time to find himself confused by something else- the view. Over the edge of the roof, he could see a rather astonishing landscape, one that defied spatial laws in a few places, defied logic in many more, and defied reason across the entire thing. There were fleets of gravy boats in a gravy ocean, clouds dancing with one another in what appeared to be a choreographed dance number, and some sort of anteatery-looking thing in a field, all within walking distance of the plant. Somehow, though, this array of complete nonsense was keeping things relatively sane inside the field.
For the moment, Tor decided, he'd stay on the roof- it was relatively safe so far, there was no sign of any of the other combatants, and he could take a few minutes to collect his thoughts. He didn't like the odds of getting a quiet few minutes at any point later, so he thought he'd take advantage of what he had while he could.
There were so many things wrong with the situation that Tor didn't know where to start. Part of him was appalled that something as cruel as this battle, and apparently others like it, could be tolerated by any civilized people. Another part, this one a bit less broadly-thinking and outward-focused than the last, was purely terrified for his own life- he had no wish to die, after all. A third part, much more diplomatic than the others, was concerned primarily with the assortment of other contestants and their varying levels of impossibility. That part was running over what he knew about the others and generally coming to the conclusion that diplomacy would be difficult at best. Then, separate from the others and much more comfortable to think about, there was the part concerned with figuring out the absolutely insane engineering decisions that had gone into this plant's design.
The roof of the squat, squarish facility was peppered with devices of all sorts, ranging from antennae to radar dishes to things that looked like scaled-up kitchen utensils. All were humming, whirring, or beeping, and the whole collection served only to confuse Tor. He knew his way around any number of systems used to control and direct energy, and while one or two of the things he was looking at may have resembled things he'd seen before, even they were arranged in such a way as to make their purpose utterly incomprehensible. There was no discernible pattern to the devices' arrangement, some connections seemed content to plug into open air, and some devices weren't connected to anything at all. He was as intrigued as he was confused, and if it hadn't been for the other parts of his mind ganging up on that particular one and telling it to just shut up for a bit, he might have started tracing circuits and opening panels.
As it was, he pried himself away from the array of barrier-projection equipment just in time to find himself confused by something else- the view. Over the edge of the roof, he could see a rather astonishing landscape, one that defied spatial laws in a few places, defied logic in many more, and defied reason across the entire thing. There were fleets of gravy boats in a gravy ocean, clouds dancing with one another in what appeared to be a choreographed dance number, and some sort of anteatery-looking thing in a field, all within walking distance of the plant. Somehow, though, this array of complete nonsense was keeping things relatively sane inside the field.
For the moment, Tor decided, he'd stay on the roof- it was relatively safe so far, there was no sign of any of the other combatants, and he could take a few minutes to collect his thoughts. He didn't like the odds of getting a quiet few minutes at any point later, so he thought he'd take advantage of what he had while he could.