Orientation Is Ruined! (Puppet's Games IC Opening)

On an uncharted island somewhere in the Atlantic ocean, Leonidas sat amongst the ruins of what once mimicked the Roman Coliseum. As he awaited his competitors, wondering how many responded to his summons, he ran through the plans for the next few days of trials in his mind. As the heroes trekked through the vibrant tropical island, he was seated in the lifeless sunbleached rocks.

Finally, they arrived. Leonidas stood to his feet, his devilish grin upon his face, and his beloved weapon Siphon in hand, and as each of them gathered around the ancient necromancer, he addressed them, "Welcome one, welcome all! Wait... is this it? There- there are only five of you? This is all wrong, this is all wrong!" He began to throw quite the childish fit, as a barrier of pure impassable mana surrounded the ruins, and pillars of shadowy magical essence rose from spots on the ground at random. At this point, he was no longer paying his visitors any mind, and was simply rambling and letting off steam "I had this big party planned," he continued, "We were all going to celebrate, and then we'd have a nice clean bunch of games. But nooo, everyone has more important things. I can't work with this. You five!" Puppet pointed his spear at the heroes. He stared at them uncomfortably for a while, before flourishing Siphon, and with it, commanding the ground to open for him with a blow to the sandy surface he stood upon. Then, he spoke words so strange, the common man could not understand, and so vile, they wouldn't want to. The words filled the well with a strange, sickly green fire, which explosively rose several stories above the ground before it settled to about three feet high. "Throw someone in." he commanded the heroes. "I don't care who, but there are one too many of you. You need to get rid of one. You have an hour to decide, or I send you all home with nothing."

After he gave his instructions, he struck the sand with the head of his spear, and fell back as a throne of sand rose from the ground to meet him. It was likely clear to all there that the fire would consume any thrown into it. What was less understood was that Leonidas had every intention to resurrect whoever it was chosen to take the fall, and send them home intact. But he could not be bothered to tell them, as the fun would be ruined if he did.

@puppet: @kurt_saulenne: @valken: @the_custodian: @shot:

"Well, that was interesting,” remarked one of the group after the fit of their Host. He was the man dressed in rather nice clothes, having an blue overcoat and a bow-tie. His hair was a ginger-brown, and was quite tall. He had arrived by a red phone box that had suddenly materialized. He had come here secretly without the knowledge of his companions knowing that he was here.

Clapping his hands he addressed the others: “Hello, salutations, how are you all doing?”

“My name is The Professor, and, while I don’t share this information I will, I am a time-traveler, space-hopper, and dimension-traveler. I am an alien and 2,400 years old. Any questions?”

Striding about he was obviously deep in thought, then with a flourish of his coat, he turned to them.

“I have a plan. A plan in which one of us will be thrown in but survives. How?” The Professor then pulled out a golden-bronze watch, “With this, I tell you. It will form a force field around said person protecting them from the fire, but only for a short time. Maximum of about 20 minutes or so.”

Placing the watch away, he then had a charming smile, and motioned his hands to the others of the group.

“Now, I told you my name, what about all your’s? What are your powers and skills, and what makes you valuable to a team? Then after all that consideration, we can the deliberate on who gets tossed.”

He spoke fast and to the point, but then he raised his hand as if he was forgetting something. He then turned fast to their host, the man in the throne of sand.

“Oh, yes, how could I have forgotten? Hello, our most kind host. Nice to meet you, and thank you for inviting us to your island. What is your name?”

He gave out his hand for a handshake towards their host.

Ha had the air of an enthusiastic person with boundless energy yet his eyes held an old soul. If anyone questioned who he was, he would reply to them with knowledge. He had told the truth and nothing but the truth. He made sure to hold eye contact with all of them to show he was truthful in all his words.

(OOC: Hope that was good. I feel I could have done better.)

@puppet: @kurt_saulenne: @valken: @the_professor_: @shot:

The Custodian raised her visor and shifted her gaze from their host to this Professor guy. She had come here for one reason and one reason only...to investigate. Part of her wanted so badly to bring her brother back, but she was happy for him, he had found love, something not every binary managed, some actively avoided it. She shifted and glanced back at the fire and considered their options. I would be fine even without the force field...but it would hurt and what good would my investigation be if I left this early?

She didn't speak immediately after The Professor made his introduction, instead she paced quietly, her eyes shifting from one person to the next, always returning to the fire and their host. Too easy. This is a test, see who is willing to sacrifice others to move forward, who will cast aside their beliefs and values to get back what they have lost. He's looking for us to be selfish because he knows someone will be. The alien turned her gaze once more to their host. He wants to prove a point.Cheating won't prove his point, it also might make him less stable and more vindictive in his next test.

"You want us to show how selfish we're willing to be." She concluded aloud. "You want to break down our morality because you know someone among us is willing to pay that price...eventually or later in the game."

She turned her gaze to The Professor. "I am The Custodian, I am a Binary and my brother is dead. He's dead because he found someone to love and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel an insane sense of absolute jealousy...and grief. It's hard to explain the connection a Binary feels to the other member of their pair. It's like missing half of who I am." She shifted her gaze to the fire and then back to the others. "I could step in there unharmed, but I wont. This is a test and who passes shall fail and who fails shall pass. I'd like to pretend I have the moral quality to jump into that fire, but I don't."

@the_custodian: @the_professor__: (This is on mobile, I'll have to edit it later.)

"I see we've established who the assertive ones are." Puppet responded from his seat of sand to the first two to voice their opinions about the troublesome moral quandary laid before them. "The Custodian and the Professor. It seems we're at University, aren't we?" Leonidas giggled to his own joke, still lounging on his sandy recliner, his head . "My name is Leonidas." He introduced himself to them "I am but a puppet of the King, whom you will know soon enough. But that is for later. For now..." still lazily and unassumingly sitting on his throne, his spear began to glow radiantly white, and levitated out of the ground. An unknowable and undetectable axle of arcane nature redirected the spear from its initial aim toward the ground to the first of the heroes to speak, before the aching mana inside the harvesting agent of souls broke the axle, releasing the spear with all of its unnatural rage and velocity at the Professor, only to be stopped by the wave of Leonidas' hand a mere centimeter from the dimensional traveller's esophagus.

"Professor!" exclaimed the host, as he leaned emphatically toward the travelling hero, his palms each striking both of his armrests, but no expression upon his face. "You're awfully quick to help someone else that's not you lose. Are you so sure it will work?" As he said this, the inner parts of his eyebrows curled almost unnaturally deeply down his face, while an unsettling ascending curl of a smile appeared suddenly on his lips. "Should I decide to leave them in there longer, just for laughs, then what? Perhaps you may seal their fate, and give them false hopes, only for them to be dashed in their final moments?" He cackled at the emphatic thinker, who was, in his mind, a fool and gave a glance to the other who had dared to tackle the puzzle. As soon as his eyes met her, his tool, Siphon, departed its threatening pose at the Professor's throat and without haste or fancy style, found itself again a mere centimeter from the neck, albeit that of the Custodian.

"Nothing gets past you, does it, child?" remarked Leonidas, sitting straight again, devoting his full attention to her. "My deepest condolences for your loss, truly," Puppet mocked "And I don't doubt you could survive. But you won't risk it. Is it because you're unsure if my magic can somehow overcome it? Somehow I doubt that sincerely. Or is it because you haven't moved on and let your brother go, and you desperately hope another will hand you the win for this challenge so that you need not feel guilty when you see him again? Something to ponder."

On the completion of Puppet's conceited analysis, his spear replanted itself exactly where it had been thrust into the ground minutes ago, and he looked to the silent competitors and said to them simply "As for the rest of you, I mean no disrespect but you bore me. Contribute! Discuss, throw a punch, something! I swear to you if you remain this boring, I shall remove you all and simply allow these two to finish by themselves. What a bust this turned out to be. In any case, your hour is now fifty minutes."

@the_professor__: @the_custodian: @puppet:

Through the squabble and introductions of the arena his thoughts would only be focused on the altisimo of the fire that grew. Grodd was a big guy, A PRETTY BIG GUY. Almost indestructible infact, but if there was one thing he feared, It was magic. His powers would warrant protection against most threats but the magical fairy stuff and voodoo stuff had properties that Grodd was afraid of. It was basically the only thing he was vulnerable too. The titan didn't mind dipping in a pit of lava, it would just be another bath to him, but as soon as you add the word 'magic' to it the entire story changes from 'Soul sucking firepit!' or 'Turn you into a frog fire!' The mere thought of that weakness gave him goosebumps. Is this really worth it? The price was a bit too demanding for what Grodd wanted in return, but oh dear he missed him so much. It ached his heart every time he thought of his dead friend, but he had to smile through the maelstrom of these tournaments plans. 'They probably got someone more important to revive' "We'll isn't this fun~" The buffoon sarcastically joked when their host threatened the competitors.

"Guess it's me then"

Looking at the crowd he was in. It was obviously going to be him, these people are aliens no doubt. Such morality either never existed or lack of prevents them from doing this task of self sacrifice.

Especially him, Looking above at the host, comfortable, high and mighty in his self righteous throne. It was Grodds quiddity to always get hurt in the end because he was always trying to help others. Which in the end gave him his own throne. The throne of self sacrifice. Slowly rolling himself towards the pit, he sat a cripple on his wheelchair.

"I'd like that watch please" he remarked towards the time traveler.

@puppet: we still doing this?

(Before any further posts occur, it should be noted that this round is officially closed, and Shot, Custodian, and Professor will advance. The next round will begin tomorrow night, save for unexpected circumstances.)

@puppet: (k.)