Log:Contest of Champions, Scene 1

Contest of Champions 2015/01/29 	 The Assessor Jackie Amy Porter Paragon Psyn 1

Amy is in the Buckingham Gardens, chasing Natasha, who is chasing ducks. The idea of a leash doesn't work so well with dragons, it seems. Natasha was through it in one nip.

A pleasant afternoon following a crazy day or three. Not so strange for Porter. A Kysmette-free day (well, more like a few hours) for him and Third, both? Unusual... but maybe needed. So where would he take her on such a rare occassion? To IYOF, of course. Ok... so it wasn't really planned. But the International Yurt of Falafel is something different, at least. One of the many ethnic eateries in ... one of those appropriate neighborhoods of the city.

Jackie sighs as she shifts a report from one pile of paper to another. So much for the paperless office experience. She understands. In the medical field a hard copy paper trail can be important., But she studied all those years to help people not shuffle paper. Picking up the next report she glances at the title and then tosses it down on the desk. Standing she heads for the wards. No doubt the nursing staff will dislike the disruption of the daily routine but she feels the need to practice her vocation and she can't do that in an office.

Cheshire is in class, at the High School, sitting in the back, as Mr. Campion, the English teacher, talks enthusiastically about Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". She's kind of interested.

Anastasia skipped school today, she needed a break and so she is out strolling through town, just walking, getting out and window shopping.

Third is enjoying the impromptu date day with Porter. While she's very interested in trying the food, she expounds upon the benefits of yurts in camping situations.

Each of the heroes...feels a shift. A stomach-churning pull as their bodies are essentially disassembled, and then reassembled, much like a transporter. They all find themselves in a group on an asteroid floating in space. The only figure nearby is a single robed individual...

An asteroid floating in space. Improbably, there is an atmosphere. And the sky doesn't look...normal. It's not a typical night sky, with just stars. There are bands of color.

Amy looks about. "Ooh, an asteroid! It's been ages since I was on one!"

Natasha flies back to Amy, finding the sudden change of location rather unnerving. She's only little still.

Cheshire tries to hold her breath, then realizes she doesn't have to. And that she's also not freezing to death. Smiles a bit uncertainly. Realizes she's not alone. Opens her parasol and lays it across her shoulder to reassure herself. Smiles, curtsies to the Mysterious Hooded Figure (henceforth MHF).

Anastasia blinks and looks really confused as she looks around at the others that are here and all that. She spies Cheshire and does step over that way, "Um, hi"

Jackie changes to Wasp. It's an instinctive reaction. Then she looks around. Up at the sky. The at the others here, heroes, some of whom she recognizes, and the mysterious hooded figure. "I expect someone has an explanation..?" she throws out.

Amy says, "Not me! But I hope so!"

The robed figure slowly walks toward the heroes. "Greetings, champions of Earth. You have been selected randomly among the champions of your planet. To participate in a survey of sorts." His voice is deep and echoes, despite the lack of structures that might reflect the sound.

"Ok, Sweetie, I'm sure they're great for staying out in the middle of nowhere," Porter chuckles at Third, "but don't you think we should order-" And then they're not at IYOF anymore. And he doesn't think about holding his breath until after he adds. "Uh... would a yurt work here?"

The robed figure continues, "You may call me the Assessor. I've been asked by my brethren to test the progress of your world."

Amy says, "Uh-oh. I'm not so good with tests."

Jackie says, "A survey? Couldn't you do it over the telephone like everyone else?"

Natasha, on Amy's shoulder, peers out through Amy's hair at the robed figure and sniffs the air.

Third glances about in surprise at the sudden change of venue mid-conversation. As she takes in the surroundings, she murmurs, "I suppose so, except for...wait! Air!" She doesn't have to breath. But Porter has to! She looks to Porter and grabs him by the shoulders. "What can I do? You need air to...oh." And then it occurs to her. "There must be air, because I can hear you...strange." Her attention gets pulled towards the Assessor and his announcement.

The air smells...like peat, with a dash of pine.

Anastasia blinks a little, "Um, well, hi everyone." Not many knew that she was anything other than a teenager, but well it might be more obvious now since she is here. She shakes her head, "What kind of survey?" she asks softly.

Cheshire headtilts at the Assessor's comment. Ponders. "Why hello there! This would be a good opportunity to find out if I am from Earth."

Porter turns towards the self-dubbed Assessor. To assess the assessor and his assessing. That's a lot of assess. But he offers a smile. While stepping closer to Third. "Hi. There any reason we couldn't do this on the planet?"

The Assessor nods to Wasp, "That would not be a suitable assessment. Merely asking questions would not suffice. Perhaps I used the wrong word. 'Test' is more accurate. I am conducting a series of tests, to check your planets' suitability for interaction with other worlds." He nods to Porter, "Yes. We need a neutral testing environment to maintain control variables."

Amy says, "Oh! So you're like an alien emissary and not a cosmic being or like that?"

The Assessor doesn't answer Amy's question. "The first test will be to see how well you all interact as a team. The ability to work together against a common foe. It is essentially a test of communication ability."

Amy says, "i once met an embodiment of a universe but it turned out it was a different universe and she'd got lost which accounts for why she was so confused but Sorciere managed to help her, though Genie said he didn't believe she really was an embodiment of the universe and Sorciere called him closed-minded which made him really mad!"

Jackie says, "We, that is Earth, have had interstellar flight capability for forty years. Some, including myself, can travel to other worlds by our own means. You're kind of late running tests aren't you. And who is /we/? The Guild?"

Third's eyes brighten at the explanation of a test. "How exciting. A chance to perhaps be introduced to the galactic community," she says cheerfully as she armors up. She doesn't seem bothered at all by the locale. "It's actually a very interesting place to have tests. Just look at the view!" Yes, bright side. Paragon sees it.

The Assessor moves out of the way, off to one side. "'We' are myself and my brethren. Those who were here before the Guild." Before he can explain further, another being appears, about 20 meters away from the group.

Behemoth(#499TOn)

A towering purple crystalline humanoid figure, standing a good twelve feet tall, with arms and legs as thick as tree trunks.

Paragon glances over at Amy. "Strange. Aliasi never seemed confused. But I'm glad your friend was able to help her." There's a lot of embodiments of universes wandering about.

Porter opens his mouth to say something, then closes it and looks to the very bright and eager Third. Then back to the Test Administrator. "Ok. Well, at least you're not here to invade..." He can look on the bright side, too.

Amy says, "Oh, is this one of your brethren? Nice to meet you! I'm Amy, or you can call me Lady Luck. You kind of remind me of a friend of mine except he's like less crystal and more rock."

Amy offers a hand.

Behemoth looks down at Amy, but doesn't say anything.

Cheshire eyes the crystal critter. Smiles. "Is this a rather crude test for a supposed ancient being?"

Paragon rubs the chin of her helm thoughtfully as she regards Behemoth. A test in communication? She and Porter have that on tap. She looks to him and taps her temple, once, then looks back to Behemoth and offers a salute. "Greetings, Alien Visitor! May we be of assistance?" she communicates with Behemoth rather than dive straight into punching things.

Natasha tugs on Amy's hair.

The Assessor adds, "This is the first of several tests. And what you see before you is a member of a space faring race...one of the races in an empire outside the Guild. They speak in vibrations to each other, higher pitched than the human ear can normally hear. And they fought with great resistance against the star-spanning empire that threatened their home. And yet...they lost and were brought to heel by the empire."

"I hope he's just here to help with introductions..." Porter looks to the crystalline thing. Then back to Para. He grins at the temple tap and nods before panning back around over the others and finally to the Assessor.

Assessor says, "And...one must start with simple tests before moving to more complicated ones."

Natasha buries her head in Amy's jacket.

Anastasia just looks a little confused, "Well, this should be interesting," she says and seems to be thinking to herself something, fighting an alien, she is wondering if she can even effect one with her powers.

Behemoth's fist raises, clearly intending to punch at Amy, who is right in front of him.

Cheshire tilts her head back and forth. "It vibrated. A short burst. The question is, was it a 'yes' or a 'no'."

Amy says, "Hey, there's no reason to attack! We're friendly!"

Cheshire sees the behemoth about to strike the seemingly defenseless Amy. She vaults forward, flipping and cartwheeling as she goes, right toward the creature, trying bounce off it and unbalance it!

The crystalline creature topples backward, landing on its back with a crunch...creating a behemoth shaped crater in the ground.

[To Cheshire] Amy says, "Hey, why'd you do that? I was still trying to talk to it!"

Cheshire comes to a halt 10m past the creature, and turns to admire her handiwork. Smiles. Curtsies.

Cheshire stares quizzically at Amy.

Amy says to the crystal creature, "Um, sorry about that..."

Jackie flies over to hover just above Amy's right shoulder and waits for further developments, "Defensive measures only if you please, people. If it realises we're not trying to hurt it then it may cease hostilities."

Porter blinks as the thing raises its fist, then is toppled over. "Um... anybody know what it's saying? We don't have to just pummel everything in sight. Unless we have to..." He looks around at the others and just waits for now.

Psyn looks around at the others, communicating in something other than normal recognizable language, well she can try something. There is a flash from her pendant as the air around her seems to shimmer a little and she looks a little more...confident, "I can see if I can communicate mentally but not sure if it would work, never tried it on a nonhuman species."

"Won't know until you try. Go for it!" Paragon encourages. "This is a communication test after all."

Jackie flinches but through sheer force of will manages to stay where she is rather than flying away as fast as she can beat her wings.

Behemoth stands back up, and goes back to his original plan...hit Amy. He winds up for a punch...

The punch misses, striking the ground. Cracks cascade out in all directions as the outer layer of the asteroid crumbles slightly in a circle about six meters in radius.

Amy says, "Hey! Careful!"

Paragon looks over to Psyn and points to her. "You there! Any luck communicating with him? And what's your name?"

Behemoth's huge punch is blocked by Jackie, who deflects it well wide of Amy.

Jackie flies a foot or so ahead of Amy and braces in the air to stop the punch with her arms, wings beating at humming bird speed to keep her in place.

Amy sighs. "Look, we really don't want to fight!" But she figures she'd better make crystal-guy less dangerous anyway, so sends some clumsiness-type bad luck his way.

Amy's unluck light motes strike the crystalline creature...and refract, heading off to the side, floating out into space.

Amy says, "Huh. That's never happened before...."

Cheshire waltzes up to the behemoth and spins, trying to drive the point her folded parasol into the back of its knee joint, or her best estimate thereof.

Jackie thinks. o O (What part of only defensive actions is so hard to understand?)

The strike to its knee does the job, and Behemoth drops to both knees with a crunch.

Porter frowns as no one has had any luck in talking to or with it, so... he might as well try? For justice! And possibly kittens. So he hits a button or three on his doohickamawhatsits. To see if it can connect the rocks in Porter's head to the head in the thing's rock.

The creature accepts the mental connection with Porter.

Porter blinks as his call is accepted. Lucky for him, it isn't collect. "Hold up everybody..." He holds a hand up, too, while he thinks at the crystalline thing. << Um... hi. Were you just brought here all of a sudden like we were? We don't want to fight. We're not here to hurt you. >>

The creature responds, << I was required to do so as my duty. Until I was told otherwise. You do not wish to fight? >>

Jackie holds ready to block any attack made by the behemoth. Not knowing or Porter's success she reminds everyone, "The test is to communicate with the creature not beat it down. Focus on that people."

The Assessor just watches impassively.

Paragon replies to Jackie for the sake of absolute correctness, as machines are want to do. "Correction: This is a test to see how well we all interact as a team and work together against a common foe. It is essentially a test of communication ability," she recites the Assessor's words verbatim. Then she adds commentary, "He was not specific about the communication being with the alien. But Porter is connected with its mind at the moment."

"I'm talking to it," Porter lets everybody know. "We've got communication. Give me a second. It's here because of duty. Don't think it's mad at us or anything." Then back to the silent conversation. << No. Not for no reason. We don't just fight people to fight. Protect ourselves and stuff, but we're not bullies. And we have no reason to fight you, or The Assessor. >> He points at The Assessor.

Cheshire stands by the Behemoth, parasol unfolded on her shoulder. Smiles. Waits.

The Behemoth nods to Porter and rises to its feet. << Then we shall not fight, though it be entertaining to do so. You fight like small stinging insects. >>

"Ok, everybody. It's all Ok. There's no fight." Porter lets everybody know that much, too, when the big crystal lite guy stands up.

Amy says, "Ok! Great!"

The Assessor nods to himself, as if making notes. The Behemoth shimmers and then disappears, returning from whence it came. "Interesting result. Somewhat unexpected."

Jackie looks mat the Assessor, "So what did you expect?"

Porter blinks when the creature is sent away and offers a belated wave goodbye. "Not a bad guy..." A smirk follows as he looks to the Assessor. "Well, you brought me here. Interesting and unexpected sort of follow."

The Assessor nods to Jackie, "Two possible outcomes were expected. Either an all out brawl, with a total lack of teamwork on your part. Or...alternatively, communication amongst yourselves to take down an otherwise impossible foe to defeat. It was not expected that you would achieve the ability to communication directly with the Xeoian."

Amy says, "So you were trying to make us fight for no reason? That's not nice!"

Cheshire headtilts, "Given your two expected outcomes, what were you actually looking for in terms of evaluating our planet? I don't see what useful data you could gather."

The Assessor looks at Amy, though his face is still hidden. "'No reason'? I explained my reasons sufficiently earlier." He then answers Cheshire, "The ability to communicate effectively. 'Expected outcome' does not mean 'sufficient'. Your actions as a group have proven that the human race has lived up to its potential. Or at least it is a data point leading in that direction. We need more data to be sure..."

The Assessor then says as the scene starts to shift. "And to get that data, we must conduct another test..."

Cheshire raises her hand, "Does time pass normally here? I was in the middle of class, and I need to check in with my probation officer once a day."