"Mars is a world of wonders," quipped Babylon to Nifhel, Alexandria, and Valhalla. "It has canyons, river valleys, and giant ice sheets." He hoped that at least someone else listening had heard Symphony of Science, or he was going to come off as a massive dork and also his humor would be lost- actually, no, he was going to come off as a massive dork anyway.
Anyway, it looked like there was a bit of a mess going on with Andronicus, but Shangri-La's actual medical degree trumped his first-aid training every time, so Babylon sat back and surveyed the arena again. "Maybe a gladiatorial match," he suggested to Nifhel. "We who are about to die salute you, or whatever?"
He hoped not. That would be terrible. He had plans that involved not dying.
"I mean, would you say that Earth's the same everywhere?" he asked, his environmental science major getting the best of him. "It's a planet. It's got, like, different climates. Seasons." No vegetation to speak of, but hey - there were trees at Babylon. Maybe there were trees on Mars somewhere, too.
Guine
[Mistress Morbid]
LP
Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 9:53 pm
Niflhel looked at Babylon he apparently took his sciences really seriously. Which was cool, "It was at some point in it's development. Just as we were." He pointed out, "Things go through phases to get to the end result. I'm just saying most of the grains of sand do look alike, at least unless you have a microscope I'm sure."
The Saturn knight was no biology major or environmental science major but he did at least pay attention to a few things. He rolled his shoulders slightly. "Nawh not big enough to be a Gladiator arena. I'm pretty sure those have a few more feet before turning into seats."
"Well maybe not die persay but there's days where I'm sure death would love to come and lap at us. I did have the pleasure of facing Princess Ares." He still had the scars from that, "So while I walk through the shadow of the valley of death, I can say I will fear no evil." He couldn't help but quote such famous few lines because Princess Ares was pretty damn scary.
This was not the first time Camelot had been dragged out of his home, his life, by some unseen force and taken to a new, strange world with no explanation. In fact, this wasn't even the second time this sort of thing had happened to him, and that was a sad, strange, and oddly fulfilling truth for him. The fact that he could get used to suddenly opening his eyes and finding himself in a place he had never been before, had never dreamed of before, was just another interesting little perk, if one were feeling generous while describing it, of being a Knight. Though, this all started before he had even powered up, and it was a wonder to him now to see how far he had come, what he was now, and yet how very similar things felt to back then. The confusion, the slight fear, the sudden desire to make sure everyone around him was okay. Instead of a helpless civilian, he stood there now as a Templar of Earth, capable, but no less confused.
He was glad he had not been in the middle of something embarrassing when he was pulled into this new place. And if he had been, it was not apparent now, since he was powered up. The truth of it was he had been sitting on his sofa with his dogs in his lap, lazing about on one of his very few days off before he got himself ready to go on his usual patrol.
Looking around, he quickly noticed the large gathering of knights, noticing many familiar faces. Some he had seen just recently, some were from his past. He was glad to see them all, gathered as they were, though he could not help but be a little on edge. The last few times any of them had been dragged some place against their will it had not actually gone very well, and there was always some sort of danger or fight lingering in the shadows, threatening to descend. Oddly, he did not feel all that ill at ease, even with those thoughts. The air was calm, and somehow it settled him even as his mind argued that he needed to be wary. He did try to call his shield, just in case, but it seemed to not heed his summons. That was disconcerting, but he got the feeling that it simply meant there was no place for their weapons here, in this place, at this moment.
The Coliseum quickly drew his focus away from the crowd for a moment, and he looked around in wonder as he entered, marveling at the design and grandeur of the ancient construction. He wondered for a moment what it would be like to have all those seats filled, to be fighting at the center of it all, with them jeering or cheering each move on. He shuddered at the very thought of it, feeling a rush of excitement and dread. He did not want to have to fight anyone here, but that was not what this place was. This was no fight to death trap, like from the comic books and movies. He did not know what it was, not right away, but he could not shake that feeling of peace.
Walking slowly, Camelot spotted one of the newer knights he had met recently, a young woman who had very nearly been beheaded by a rough Negaverse soldier not too long ago. She looked much better now, though he remembered she had mostly been curled up on the floor and quiet bloody the last time he saw her, so this was a great improvement. He smiled in her direction, though if she saw him or not he was not sure. Still, he wanted Hvergelmir, and any other knight there that knew him, that was there for them if they needed him.
He saw his wife not too far from him and moved in her direction, waving at her as he approached.
"My lady Shalott!" he called jovially, trotting up and smiling at her lovingly. He couldn't help himself, though he had just seen her at home not too long ago. He saw her every day, but she was the most beautiful thing in his life. And seeing her powered up, as the Knight she was, he only fell more in love with her.
He caught up to her and looked around again, feeling a little stirring of pride in his chest, just seeing them all assembled. Maybe they did not all get along, they did not all fight for the same reasons, but they were all there. They were knights, all united under that power, the strength and potential inside all of them growing every day. In each of them was a hope for the future, a hope the people of Earth could carry without ever being aware of it, and that each knight bore in their own way. Every one of them held something honorable and dear, and through their differences they could some how, some day, forge a way to peace in this war. Camelot smiled, distracted by his thoughts, as he took in all the faces and people around him.
Shazari
ZaiaFantasy
Quote:
Anyone is more than welcome to come and say hi to Camelot. I didn't want to butt in =]
Luxor was feeling far less generous about this place than most of the others. He scowled at the Colesium around him, arms folded tightly over his chest. The Squire had been powered up anyway, training in private in one of the tents at his carnival amusement park. He had not been expecting to go outside or have any sort of interaction with other knights tonight, and he most certainly had not been planning on getting yelled at by one over his very few friends and allies in all this madness.
He grunted as he heard his employee and teammate bellowing for him, knowing that, somehow, Ys thought that this was Luxor's fault. Right, because Luxor had a 'teleport us all to a red dust ball' button in the non-pockets of his Egyptian skirt. He shook his head and heaved a profound, put upon sigh and dragged himself toward the sound of jingling bells.
"Over here, Ys," he said blandly, his tone even and quiet, as it always was. He let his expression fall blank, eyes settling on the other knight as he gave him a small nod of encouragement.
Really, this was all very strange to Luxor. He was not showing it, but it struck him as very disconcerting to suddenly find himself someplace new, when he'd been in a very familiar and comfortable place before. He had never been called anywhere before, and the only space travel he had done was to Wonders, his own and others. It seemed similar to that, but he had not been thinking about his planet, and this was most definitely not Pluto.
It was nice, but it was not Pluto.
"What's going on?" he asked, as he moved closer to the knight he recognized, looking at Ys for help. He knew the other had been in the game a little less time than he had, and that Ys thought it was Luxor's idea to drag him into it all, but that all had just been a fluke. Bad timing, or good timing, depending. He was hoping, though, that Ys got out more than he did, and might have been more aware of things like this. Was this normal? Had Luxor missed the memo that things like this could happen or should be expected?
He glanced over at the other knight, Megiddo, that stepped forward. He assumed they were all knights, anyway. He frowned at her thoughtfully, though it mostly just looked like a frown. The emotional range of his facial expressions was shallow at best. But she said she did not know what was going on, and he had to assume that none of them did.
As they wandered off into conversation, Luxor began to look around again, exploring in his quiet, withdrawn, and mostly grumpy looking way. He found it fascinating, though he looked thoroughly unimpressed, and he found he wished he knew more than was available to him.
Bluefire Dragonz
Silverah
Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 10:55 pm
Shalott noticed Shangri-la first and had had a few run ins with the lad. She heard his somewhat irritated comments and noticed for the first time the injured knight. As her own customary maternal self she wanted to be able to help but, alas, had nothing she could do. She moved toward Shang and put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's going to be ok. We'll protect our own if we need to."
Shaking her head, though, at the decision of the universe or whatever it was, she frowned. A familiar voice made her turn. A smile broke against her lips even despite her sober mood. She inclined her head in mock salute and took him into her arms. A thought strayed to their infant daughter at home alone with her stepson but felt reasonably confident that the sleeping child would be alright and that if anyone could protect her it would be her eternal senshi brother.
"My lord Camelot."
If she ever thought that he was further clued in to their purpose because he was a Templar she was usually forced to revise that opinion. She kissed him tenderly.
"This may be a stupid question, my love, but do you know why we're here?"
Kaori_luv
Lithia_Brandon
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Vesuvius spotted Luxor, a fellow Pluto knight, and another across the room. He'd not had a lot of experience with the other knights of his planet and was pleased to see a few of them represented at least, if not more. He remembered his conversation with a certain guardian catgirl about Luxor and grinned him spite of himself. Sometimes life proved to be strange and very funny.
He made his way over. "Well, there. It's nice to see a familiar face."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Newgrange!"
Caydence spotted the one person in the room that she knew and moved quickly to his side unconsciously threading her arm through his despite the fact that she didn't know him very well and, as yet, hadn't spent a lot of time as partners. But he was a familiar face in a sea of unfamiliarity. She needed an anchor and leaned her head on his shoulder. There was something comforting about knowing that he was a real person and going through this just like she was.
"Do you know what's going on?"
She strongly suspected he didn't. No one seemed to. Was this how the entire war was? People just reacting blindly to the circumstances around them with no central purpose or leadership? Did the universe just get to decide these things?
The hand on Shangs shoulder startled him momentarily, but the sight of Shalott calmed as much as he could be in current situation. He nodded to her when she said they would take care of their own and felt a little less out of his element. "Still one would think if they can bring us all here they can choose a little more opportune times among other things ..."
He smiled when Camelot arrived and gave the man an nod and a wave before looking back to the other around him, a little less like what on earth, or mars rather he guessed.
Pharos was sitting with Celsus pointing out all the different knights as the entered and in general chatting his ear off. Asking questions like "which would like to draw most" and noting that she'd pick the white haired page in the lovely dress!
That changed when Camelot walked in and Pharos lit up excitedly pointing from her spot beside Celsus. "I'll be back if a jiff," she said jumping up and pretty much charging her tiny self at Camelot.
"CAM," she shouting launching herself at her friend to give him a really huge hug. He looked so different now, even felt different but it was still Camelot.
"Hi," she said with a grin before waving to Celsus.
ZaiaFantasy
Lithia_Brandon
kuroopu
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 12:00 am
Kaori_luv
ZaiaFantasy
kuroopu
Camelot was so wrapped up in the strange happenings, he almost forgot about the family that was not there with them. Namely, his son, Nathan, and his daughter, Sarah. Sarah was only a year old, and Nathan was... well. Nate was not the best with kids, even his own sister. Camelot was... sure... Nathan would take care of her, but in the back of his mind he wondered how effective corgi's were at changing diapers.
Sighing, he looked at his wife and offered her an apologetic, but patient and even, smile.
"I'm afraid I don't know any more than the rest of us seem to. Another one of those 'in one place one moment and somewhere completely new in the next' situations. I'm glad we came here powered, though: I was not wearing any shoes."
He had been taken to a strange realm in his pajamas before, though he could not remember that whole ordeal save as a distant dream. Still, having shoes, and armor rather than his flannel shirt and pants, made the whole situation much more tolerable.
He opened his mouth to say something else, maybe to try and suss out where they were just by talking about it with someone else. Two minds were always better than one, after all. Whatever it was he wanted to say, though, was quickly forgotten as another knight attached herself to him and he made a yelp of surprise, though it turned to laughter as he realized who it was.
"Pharos! It's good to see you!" He returned her hug, picking her up off the ground and holding her there for a moment before putting her back down and smiling at her affectionately. "How are you doing? You look well!" His eyes followed her wave and he recognized Celsus, though it had been some time. He smiled and nodded his head in the other's direction.
"Canyons. River valleys. Giant ice sheets," repeated Babylon, as if saying so with enough insistence would make anyone take him more seriously. "If you plopped an alien down in the middle of the Sahara desert with nothing but sand dunes for hundreds of miles," he said, "Don't you think they would conclude that Earth was nothing but desert? I mean, before dying of dehydration, heat stroke, or probably asphyxiating because our atmosphere is poisonous to them." Although the only real, solid evidence he had for aliens was a gaggle of talking cats - everyone else, so far, whether or not they came from outer space, had seemed human.
Nifhel, Babylon decided, was mildly pretentious and probably took things too literally. Maybe he was even the kind of person who folded his underwear instead of just tossing it into the drawer. But if one scary story deserved another, then he had to throw his hat into the ring.
Pointing to the scar running the length of the right side of his face, Babylon said, "General Avalon held me down and cut me. She marked me as hers. And she won't rest until she converts me or one of us is dead."
War stories, man, he thought. This would turn into a game of one-up really quickly if they let it. So instead, pushing the issue, he said, "It's a planet half the size of Earth. There's a volcano here the size of Arizona and a canyon five-thousand kilometers long. That's like, roughly the distance between Miami and Seattle? Like, this thing is as big as the entire United States, and you're telling me that all of Mars is the exact same?"
LP
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 12:13 am
Andronicus raised an eyebrow at everyone suggesting she should sit down, when she was sitting on a wonderfully firm bench to begin with. She was grateful for the concern however, and gave a smile to those around her.
"A healer would be lovely at some point, yes. And yes it better be a good reason; I woke up lying in the damn sand because I was about to fall asleep. I'm incredibly thankful the magic decided to not rob me of my splits and cast, thank you very much. Also, liking your outfit. I approve." She was rather jovial in response to Shang, given her injuries and such. She glanced at Niflhel and nodded.
"Not broken but close. Three cracked ribs from the impact into the floor. I was going to avoid it, but ah the cosmos seems to have other ideas." The page chuckled, gesturing to the colliseum with her useable hand. "As long as they don't ask us to spar or try to do athletic stuff, I'll be alright. I took my pain meds before they yanked me up here." The 'they' was metaphorical of course, but someone had to have done it, right? She damn well hoped so. Mostly so she could smack them senseless.
"Andronicus Page of Uranus, by the way," she said to both Niflhel and Shang. "And this is the first time I've seen this many knights together... ever."
----
Bifrost giggled and nodded. "Yes, lets not test the power of the universe this time. And no I haven't met him yet." She patted the Page on the head and looked around. She made a note to remember to tell Pharos her name, so she'd know it, since she'd sort of run off on her without saying anything in reply. Oopps! Though she was rather buddy buddy with Celsus over there, she'd do it later.
The Squire gestured to the pair of them. "Would you feel more comfortable around Pharos and Celsus? They're knights of Chronos like us. Or we can sit here. Your choice." Bifrost smiled, leaving the option open to Hara. No need to drag the poor girl into a situation that would make her anxiety worse.
Ryuthulhu
Kaori_luv
LP
a-disgruntled-dragon
Offline
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
Offline
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 1:20 am
Newgrange glanced up; his instinct told him to pull his arm away, though instead he managed to look at the girl at his side, first. His confusion lingered for only a second before a smile split across his face. He seemed relieved and greeted, "Sherwood."
Instead of withdrawing his arm, he kept it firmly looped with hers and didn't try to move away. "No, but I was listening in on some other knights. I don't think anyone really knows what's going on. But they at least seem to know each other, so hopefully before the end of this we'll be able to figure something out. Maybe we're all here to pick up that handbook," he laughed, though it didn't sound very convincing. He was nervous but was making great effort to hide it.
Newgrange had never been off of Earth before of his own will—much less the will of something else, and despite the concern building in the pit of his stomach he was relieved both to be accompanied by a friend as well as to be surrounded by so many people.
Someone out there had to know what was going on, or have some idea about this…Right?
ZaiaFantasy
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 2:06 am
Falias acknowledged Alfheim's waved greeting with a smile and return wave of his own, but there seemed to be so many people around the purple-haired Squire already that he was hesitant to add one more.
Instead he sat listening to snippets of conversation around him, managing to glean enough to find out that this Coliseum in the red shifting sands was apparently somewhere on Mars and that like him none of the other Knights appeared to have any idea of why they had been pulled here.
Then he noticed another face that he recognised amongst the Knights present and waving at the pink clad Squire he called to her cheerfully "Aventine." He wasn't sure if she'd heard him since she was eating a sandwich of some sort, which automatically made Falias start to feel hungry.
Carneli
for mention, Alfheim gets a return smile and wave wink
Kyuseisha no Hikari
and Falias now wishes that his pockets had some sort of snack
"A Space Whale." Hara repeated. If she were joking, her tone didn't indicate it, and neither did the chilly, fearful look in her dark eyes. "....Technically it's a sort of Youma. But bigger than anything you'll see on earth. It just... looked a lot like a whale. A whale that eats people." She explained to Buyan
"I... know Aelfheim a little better than I know most of the other Chronos knights. I mean... I showed up to that... sort of ill fated little party when we got home, but... mostly I haven't met back up with anyone. Except Pharos. Once. We...." She felt torn, still sure of her own opinions but embarrassed to have clashed with another defender of Chronos. "...We fought a bit. Well. Disagreed, about things."
She'd offhandedly wondered if after her disagreement with Pharos about kittens not being the comforting, purring answer to her nightmares and fear, if she'd been listed as... broken. Not really part of the team. Damaged goods. Now she wasn't entirely sure what to think.
the_scowling_cat
LP
Carneli
-----------------------------
Kairatos was just amused by the heated debate over the surface of Mars, and how interesting or boring it was. "Are you trying to get declared an unoficial Mars Knight over there Babylon?" He teased. "You can defend our tourist industry, we'll handle the rest, right?"
Kaefaux
Silverah
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 6:04 am
If this was a gathering of knights, Hvergelmir was going to be -- well, relieved that someone was finally taking an interest in them and their unfortunate plight of apparent ignorance. Still, though, it was hard to hold out hope for something of that nature, given how she'd come to be here. Much like everything else in her life of knighthood, it had happened without warning or consent, a situation sprung on her by the powers that be (whatever those powers were) without thought to providing any advance notice or pertinent information that might've helped her to know what was happening or how to react to it. As per the evident usual, she was flying blind. The faces of those around her, and snippets of conversation that reached her ears, seemed to confirm much the same was true for everyone else.
They could've at least had the decency to send a monthly newsletter or something.
The one point of relief that came, for Hvergelmir, amidst tapping the sand out of her shoes (with a sullen sand-hatingness that would've done Anakin Skywalker proud), was in the arrival of one person out of the entire throng that she recognized. Camelot looked different -- and if this was a dream, why her subconscious would've played paper doll dressup on him was a mystery, so she quickly discarded that theory -- but she hadn't forgotten that face, the face of the man who'd interposed himself between her and her imminent death while she'd lay in a mewling ball on the ground.
He smiled at her reassuringly, which was all the permission she needed. She put her shoes back on and popped up from her seat, skirts rustling back to the floor in a subtle shift of starlight.
(No one else was dressed quite like she was, she'd realized as she'd observed the other people assembled. They had design themes between them -- some of them greeted each other warmly based on them -- and every one of them, to a man, seemed better dressed for a life of combat than Hvergelmir was. She thought of how often she'd tripped on her own dress trying not to be killed by a monster or a Negaverser and felt a sharp stab of envy. Where others had movable shirts and pants, sturdy shoes, and even -- like Camelot -- functional armor, Hvergelmir had instead a white and starry dress whose distinguishing feature was that it was about three feet too long and bunched up on the ground in a permanent attempt to get underfoot.)
She chased after Camelot even as he met up with people he clearly knew better than the disastrous page he'd met once in a city park. It was embarrassing, definitely, to be clinging onto the coattails of someone who was little more than a stranger when they themselves were clearly among friends, but the fact was, Camelot was quite literally all she had here. Shuffling down the aisle to catch up, she waited until he'd finished greeting one knight as a gallant courtier and had picked up and set back down another. When he was done, she reached out a hand to grab onto his cloak and give it a few light, desperate tugs to try and get his attention.
"Camelot," she said in a stage whisper. "Camelot. Please tell me this is not the knight club's annual single-elimination death match tournament."
Camelot was, as she'd already filed him away in her brain, an authority figure. A trusted adult. (Laney herself was, technically, an adult, but not the kind any sane person would've ever put in the category of 'trusted.') Even if he was claiming to his friends that he didn't know what was going on, she was willing to assume that that was for a given level of authority figures knowing what was going on, and that he probably knew at least a little more than she did.
(She had always been a wishful thinker. Her parents loved saying so.)
"I know I've certainly got better things to do than hang around here in this heat." Ys said as he finished opening up his vest and shirt. He didn't take them off as some had, but he left them open to expose a lanky length of rock hard abs. Saturn, at least the bit of he had seen, had been more along the lines of overcast and broody. Ys sported near perpetual storms and rarely any sunlight. This place... He couldn't even guess where it was.
A familiar voice pulled the tall man's attention and he spun to throw his arms out in welcome, bells ringing.
"Luxor! There you are. Late to the party, as ever." He clapped the older knight on the back as he have his best huge, winning smile. Despite the teasing, he was relieved to see him. A barely noticed tension in Ys released all at once, lending a new looseness to his lanky body. As much as he might talk smack, Ys trusted Luxor and equated him with safety... Normality. Having him around made all of this bearable and put the performer in a far better mood.
"Megiddo!" Ys said as he turned to the young woman. "This is Luxor, both my boss and team mate, if you can call us misfits a team. Lux, this is Meg. Met her at the Carnival once."
Lithia_Brandon
Silverah
[ I'm working guys, so my replies will be slow. Just assume Ys sort of floats along after Luxor. ]
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 7:39 am
Niflhel watched as Babylon continued on his ramblings and moved to clasp the other knight on the shoulder, "You take things too seriously." He gave a smile unusual for most that knew the Saturn knight, "But rather than bicker about perspective verses science, maybe we should do something else with our time."
He looked back to Andronicus he pondered, "Which, pardon my drab look on this, it's unusual that you're left with your cast and splints. Normally the magic takes that and shoves it into subspace too since apparently it's not part of the uniform. When I had a broken arm I didn't power up for a while because of it."
He nodded, "Cracked is bad enough. If you need any help don't hesitate to ask. Can't have you making yourself worse because of something we don't know what yet." He paused when she introduced herself. "Niflhel Knight of Saturn." He said.
His eyes then moved to a figure that had not been seen in well ages. "Excuse me folks, I have someone I'd like to speak to. I'll be back shortly." He made his way over an empty chair up a level and walked around towards Camelot and his small group.
Niflhel moved over towards the grouping around Camelot waiting with his hands behind his back to be noticed since they were busy speaking at the moment.
Buyan's eyebrows lofted towards her hairline as Hara explained a space whale. "That. Sounds like a huge youma." She couldn't even fathom a youma that large. "I'd rather not like to meet one of those."
Aventine was torn between being happy that she'd been recognized and absolutely horrified; her immediate reaction was to perk up, and while she initially at least managed to keep her hand poised over hour mouth in such a ladylike fashion, she threw her hand up to wave even as she tried to finish chewing the lump in her mouth. Her cheeks puffed out, not unlike a squirrel, and it took a great effort for her to swallow the mass. When she did, she was gasping for breath, but gave Falias a quick thumb's up. A few seconds later and she had enough breath to speak and blurted, "It's good to see you! I mean, really, glad to see you, so much. I don't suppose…you know what's going on? I mean, obviously I was a little unprepared for a party…"
She glanced around, trying to find something familiar in this place. Nothing stood out as being familiar, but that hardly surprised Aventine. "Does this type of thing happen often?"
