Finwa is quiet for a while as Mattie blows up her machine and Murder Monk and Bryn start a war of words. She presses against Bryn a bit more, her tail tightening on Bryn's leg while the Strijacien Claw Beasts fight for the rag. The little one glances towards the guard who is now grinning at her again then back to Rekstahl.
When Bryn answers about him being passionate she looks up at him again wondering what he meant by "And as you can see."
"We can?" She whispered in confusion, wondering what he was on about with that.
Eyes bulging and his face going bright red; almost as if he was about to combust in embarrassment. "I didn't mean that...." he stammers and splutters. "And watch where you put that camera." he says seeing the lascivious cameraman altering his angle.
"I mean my passionate tirades against authority." he admits sheepishly, however not moving away from Finwa.
She chuckles as she'd caught poor Bryn off guard and gets him going. It amuses her but she turns back to business at hand.
"Please Bryn. He needs the fresh blood so ..." She raises her hand so that she can have it cut in some way.
"As Team Leader, I must advise that the use of your blood could, er, tie you in some way to any magical rite Mr. Davila is preparing. Not that I necessarily believe in those things, but nevertheless, it is part of the, er, mythos. Please be careful with blood donations to rites you are not familiar with."
"That is a good point, Charlene." She notices her slip of thinking of the woman as friend instead of business woman and dips her head, "Ms. Oftenseen. Tell me, Monk. How exactly would my blood being tied to this ritual affect me?"
Bryn thinks quickly, not wanting to dwell upon what he has to do and the consequences. However they may already be condemned.
Gently taking her hand he raises the knife in the other; pausing just for a moment before nailing his courage to the sticking place. He jabs it down into the meat of his hand. "I'm sorry Finwa, I would have done it, but couldn't hurt you." He moves towards the Murder Monk; "Rekstahl, I give you a gift. Of my blood, to only be used in this conjuration. Should you use it in any other way, Odin's curse will be brought down upon you. And the freezing giants in Hel will think your punishment grave." The blood drips lightly down his hand.
The hooded man laughs heartily. For a moment, he actual sounds human. Then he stops and a sickly sneer graces his visage. "You are all so dramatic. I am not building a voodoo doll, like..." the murderous monk gesture's at Velval. "It doesn't even matter whose blood it is. This ritual just needs blood to represent the corpus. To help make material that which may not be. My display of 'talent' will indeed be 'special',". He chortles, glancing at Charlene Oftenseen.
He catches a few drops of Brynjard's blood in the bowl side of his implement, and sprinkles it on a portion of stone that seems a little bare.
"I, for one, am willing to concede the display of talent for Mr. Davila. All in favor? Please say 'aye'," Charlene says hastily.
Charlene raises her hand and yells,
Finwa is too shocked to say anything and just stands there watching as Bryn gives his blood to the hooded man. She feels cold as she backs up not knowing what to do.
"Well well my little criminal friends, it seems that it's nearing that time of day where our talents shall be judged! But right now, so that those of you who haven't been keeping score at home can see, here is our current standings!" announces Mittens.
Team Loser:
Mattie: 2 (Aaron Lockley, Hamish Cunningham)
Velval: 4 (Brynjard, Finwa, Leoian, Murder Monk)
Hamish Cunningham: 2 (Charlene F. Oftenseen, Team Leader)
Leoian: 1 (Duke Leto)
Duke Leto: 1 (Mattie)
Team Leader:
Leoian: 4 (Aaron Lockley, Brynjard, Finwa, Mattie)
Murder Monk: 4 (Alexander Maxerson, Duke Leto, Hamish Cunningham, The Hollow)
Eldon Gorski: 1 (Charlene F. Oftenseen)
Charlene F. Oftenseen: 0 (Eldon Gorski (null))
Finwa: 1 (Leoian)
Alexander Maxerson: 1 (Murder Monk)
Huh. An antimatter plant for a death ray... not up to milspec but not a bad effort for a talent show. It'd get her a pass for now, and the occasional explosion was always good for ratings- oh he'd learned that lesson from the damned embedded journalists. Propagandists the lot of them, always demanding a bigger boom or a more photogenic angle for the assault.
He turns his attention to another competitor and waits to see whether the contestant will pull his weight in the talent show, "Alright puppet man, are you going to give us a show or not?"
"Mr. Gorski, if you would care to put your vote somewhere more useful this round, I'll count it as a vote for me. There's no point going voiceless."
Charlene looks around. "And this seems like a good time for ice cream. Chocolate, anyone?" She heads for the "I Scream" stand to treat all the contestants to frozen treats.
Curious about Mattie's contraption Leoian moves closer for a better look at her demonstration. He does stand a little ways back so as not to get in the way he watches the arcs of electricity "Wow that's cool." Seeing Mattie's reaction he decides it's probably not supposed to do that, and starts backing away. When the thing explodes it easily tosses his light body across the room he lands with a thump and rolls to a stop.
The diminuative man rises shakily to his feet "Oooh... ow, that's going to hurt in the morning." He peers towards the new crater Mattie just created "Wow Mattie, is your scienece always so exciting? A trickle of blood runs down his forehead making its way down to his eye he instinctively jerks his head to the side as if he could get away from it, then winces."Ow... Ummm Mr. Monk if you still need blood I seem to have some I'm not using. My momma said our blood is naturally magic resistant though can you still use it... Of course she may have just told me that so I would stop playing with those witches." He shrugs "Either way if someone has a bandage I wouldn't turn it down."
His eyes light up when Charlene mentions ice cream "Did you say ice cream! Me me me!" Ignoring his head wound Leoian rushes over to make sure he's first in line.
"Certainly, as fluffy as you are Mittens. We do not wish you to be Team Leader again!" Bryn says with a shake of his head, whilst wadding some tissue into his wound.
"What? I'm a perfectly good choice for Team Leader! My leadership skills are impeccable! How do you think I built this arena without thumbs?" counters Mittens. "And my act is amazing."
"Since it's foregone that Mr. Gorski will not be Team Leader, I change to Mr. Davila."
Finwa suddenly notices that Leo has been hurt and that Bryn is wadding tissue into his wound and shakes off her fear. Her natural reaction is to fix the wounds since she had been in charge of that sort of thing in her laboratory, considering that she was also the boss.
She finally is in motion, going to one of the stations and taking out a First Aid kit then wonders why she had not thought of that before when Bryn was first hurt? Was it the after affect just being glad he was alive that she didn't think of the wound?
Whatever. She took the kit, grabbed an ice cream, handed it to Leo and pulled him along with her as she pointed to Bryn then to a chair beside the one she just gently settled Leo into, "You two need to be cleaned up so sit still, Leo. If you want ice cream, Bryn then don't use your wounded hand and come back here." The little woman started cleaning up Leo's head wound.
"So, Aaron, how about you? The authorities set you up!"
Aaron gives a tired sounding assent. "Yeah. I'm sure you heard about the trial. Every g**@&+n member of my team testified that I'd ordered them to open fire then do... that to the bodies. The lawyers just never stopped; they brought out comm logs, telemetry data, forensics... it was the best damn hatched job I've ever seen."
Bryn looks up proudly towards the helmet-cat; "Certainly, it is very impressive. And like all authority figures you are under no risk, you will survive the show. Whilst us like the general populace will languish, the politicians do not share the austere times. Mittens you are better than them, you let us have some freedom." his voice is proud and he compliments their host.
"Well, thank you for the compliment, Mr. Silenoz. Or at least, I think it was a compliment? Anyways, I wish you well in the competition!" says Mittens, seeming genuinely encouraging in her response.
"I thank you." he says as the hour draws close.
The wound on Leo's head isn't bad so it takes her very little time to clean it up which is a good thing since Leo wanted the ice cream quite a bit.
She turned to Bryn and took the tissue from his hand, "I don't want you getting that infected." She said quietly as she cleaned up the wound and bandaged it around his hand then did the same with the wrist. She tapped his fingers to check that they were working fine using a blunt needle that poked but didn't prick the flesh, "Thank you, Bryn."
"Who, wha, sorry wasn't paying attention." Thinking back on what was said, Eldon changes his vote. "All right then, Boss, if you're sure."
"You spilt my blood have my vote."
"Well, it's time for a message from our sponsors as we figure out the results of this round! Don't you go anywhere, viewers!" says Mittens, lifting her nose to point at the camera as it cuts to ads.
Leoian does his best to sit still, but the ice cream is going to melt. So he tries to lick it without moving his head and isn't entirely successful "Oh Finwa, did you see Mattie's science explosion? It musta thrown me thirty feet, I've never done something like that before. Thanks for fixing my head... am I ok? It hurts, but not too bad." He tries to look towards Charlene while still keeping his head still for Finwa, and finds it impossible so he just calls out to her "Thanks for the ice cream Ms. Oftenseen!"
"You will be fine, Leo. That wasn't the way it should have worked though and we're lucky that didn't kill you." She raises her ice cream up in agreement to his call of thanks to Charlene.
Team Loser:
Mattie: 1 (Hamish Cunningham)
Velval: 5 (Aaron Lockley, Brynjard, Finwa, Leoian, Murder Monk)
Hamish Cunningham: 2 (Charlene F. Oftenseen, Team Leader)
Leoian: 1 (Duke Leto)
Duke Leto: 1 (Mattie)
Team Leader:
Leoian: 4 (Aaron Lockley, Finwa, Mattie, Eldon Gorski)
Murder Monk: 6 (Alexander Maxerson, Brynjard, Duke Leto, Hamish Cunningham, The Hollow, Charlene F. Oftenseen)
Finwa: 1 (Leoian)
Alexander Maxerson: 1 (Murder Monk)
"We return from a message from our sponsors just in time to catch Murder Monk's talent! Let's watch!" The camera zooms in to the field, where Murder Monk's talent comes to an end, and he opens up a portal into another world. A horrorterror with writhing flagella emerges from the portal, opening up its mouth to let out a maddening scream! The creature slides forth, pulling itself forth with tentacles, one wrapping around Velval, deftly wrapping the puppeteer with Stefano's strings and hanging him with it like a noose before sucking him into its gaping maw, with several round layers of razor sharp teeth. It doesn't just stop there, before just running over Prof. Tinkerton, crushing his frame into a mottled mess of metal and reaching out into the crowd.
Fortunately, Mittens has planned for such an eventuality and the feline hops down onto another button, which opens up a bottomless pit beneath the monstrosity to suck it down to the endless abyss beneath. "When you fall in a bottomless pit, you die of starvation," remarks Mittens. "And the Everhungering Flglhran or whatever is gonna take awhile to starve! You people voted /this/ as your Team Leader? You're all more a mess than I thought! You're all insane! Is everyone okay?"
"I- I- I- I- I- I- I-" is all that Leoian is able to stutter out, turning towards his friends with a hole directly through his head. It is a wound that will be more difficult to patch.
"NO NO! MY ROBOT! I PROGRAMMED THAT ONE MYSELF! shouts Mittens, before recomposing herself, "I mean, uh, flesh and blood contestant... right... Shoot... Well, I think that's it, isn't it? Wait... how many of you are there? One... two... three... Has Brynjard escaped?"
An attendant leans in and whispers something in Mittens' ear, and she says. "Oh. I see. Er..." The Camera zooms in on a pile of ash. A caption comes up over the screen. The Killer Robots Have Eliminated Brynjård Silenøz
Team Loser:
Mattie: 1 (Hamish Cunningham)
Velval: 5 (Aaron Lockley, Brynjard, Finwa, Leoian, Murder Monk)
Hamish Cunningham: 2 (Charlene F. Oftenseen, Team Leader)
Leoian: 1 (Duke Leto)
Duke Leto: 1 (Mattie)Team Leader:
Leoian: 4 (Aaron Lockley, Finwa, Mattie, Eldon Gorski)
Murder Monk: 6 (Alexander Maxerson, Brynjard, Duke Leto, Hamish Cunningham, The Hollow, Charlene F. Oftenseen)
Finwa: 1 (Leoian)
Alexander Maxerson: 1 (Murder Monk)"We return from a message from our sponsors just in time to catch Murder Monk's talent! Let's watch!" The camera zooms in to the field, where Murder Monk's talent comes to an end, and he opens up a portal into another world. A horrorterror with writhing flagella emerges from the portal, opening up its mouth to let out a maddening scream! The creature slides forth, pulling itself forth with tentacles, one wrapping around Velval, deftly wrapping the puppeteer with Stefano's strings and hanging him with it like a noose before sucking him into its gaping maw, with several round layers of razor sharp teeth. It doesn't just stop there, before just running over Prof. Tinkerton, crushing his frame into a mottled mess of metal and reaching out into the crowd.
Fortunately, Mittens has planned for such an eventuality and the feline hops down onto another button, which opens up a bottomless pit beneath the monstrosity to suck it down to the endless abyss beneath. "When you fall in a bottomless pit, you die of starvation," remarks Mittens. "And the Everhungering Flglhran or whatever is gonna take awhile to starve! You people voted /this/ as your Team Leader? You're all more a mess than I thought! You're all insane! Is everyone okay?"
"I- I- I- I- I- I- I-" is all that Leoian is able to stutter out, turning towards his friends with a hole directly through his head. It is a wound that will be more difficult to patch.
"NO NO! MY ROBOT! I PROGRAMMED THAT ONE MYSELF! shouts Mittens, before recomposing herself, "I mean, uh, flesh and blood contestant... right... Shoot... Well, I think that's it, isn't it? Wait... how many of you are there? One... two... three... Has Brynjard escaped?"
An attendant leans in and whispers something in Mittens' ear, and she says. "Oh. I see. Er..." The Camera zooms in on a pile of ash. A caption comes up over the screen. The Killer Robots Have Eliminated Brynjård Silenøz
Velval was voted Team Loser. Velval was the snitch.
Prof. Tinkerton was disqualified. Prof. Tinkerton was a heister.
Brynjård Silenøz was slain by robots. He was the Cat Burglar.
Leoian was killed by the itchy trigger finger. He was a Scanbot.
Team Loser:
Mattie: 1 (Hamish Cunningham)
Velval: 5 (Aaron Lockley, Brynjard, Finwa, Leoian, Murder Monk)
Hamish Cunningham: 2 (Charlene F. Oftenseen, Team Leader)
Leoian: 1 (Duke Leto)
Duke Leto: 1 (Mattie)
Team Leader:
Leoian: 4 (Aaron Lockley, Finwa, Mattie, Eldon Gorski)
Murder Monk: 6 (Alexander Maxerson, Brynjard, Duke Leto, Hamish Cunningham, The Hollow, Charlene F. Oftenseen)
Finwa: 1 (Leoian)
Alexander Maxerson: 1 (Murder Monk)
"We return from a message from our sponsors just in time to catch Murder Monk's talent! Let's watch!" The camera zooms in to the field, where Murder Monk's talent comes to an end, and he opens up a portal into another world. A horrorterror with writhing flagella emerges from the portal, opening up its mouth to let out a maddening scream! The creature slides forth, pulling itself forth with tentacles, one wrapping around Velval, deftly wrapping the puppeteer with Stefano's strings and hanging him with it like a noose before sucking him into its gaping maw, with several round layers of razor sharp teeth. It doesn't just stop there, before just running over Prof. Tinkerton, crushing his frame into a mottled mess of metal and reaching out into the crowd.
Fortunately, Mittens has planned for such an eventuality and the feline hops down onto another button, which opens up a bottomless pit beneath the monstrosity to suck it down to the endless abyss beneath. "When you fall in a bottomless pit, you die of starvation," remarks Mittens. "And the Everhungering Flglhran or whatever is gonna take awhile to starve! You people voted /this/ as your Team Leader? You're all more a mess than I thought! You're all insane! Is everyone okay?"
"I- I- I- I- I- I- I-" is all that Leoian is able to stutter out, turning towards his friends with a hole directly through his head. It is a wound that will be more difficult to patch.
"NO NO! MY ROBOT! I PROGRAMMED THAT ONE MYSELF! shouts Mittens, before recomposing herself, "I mean, uh, flesh and blood contestant... right... Shoot... Well, I think that's it, isn't it? Wait... how many of you are there? One... two... three... Has Brynjard escaped?"
An attendant leans in and whispers something in Mittens' ear, and she says. "Oh. I see. Er..." The Camera zooms in on a pile of ash. A caption comes up over the screen. The Killer Robots Have Eliminated Brynjård Silenøz
Finwa sits with her ice cream near her lips, eyes wide as her brain tries to take everything in to account. Seeing a hole through Leo's head makes her scream as he falls over her and across her lap. She tries pushing him off her then turns as Mittens mentions Brynjard to see Bryn's ashes.
The little one cannot believe it and tears roll down her face as she realizes that the two she cared for most were dead, not even caring that Leo was a robot or that Bryn was the cat burglar.
She leans over Leo's body and cries, not daring to bring her head up, her sobs wetting the clothes as this is too much for her to take. Her ice cream lies on the ground, melting and completely forgotten.
"Alrighty, well, I guess that was a very bloody little round, and thank you to Murder Monk for his very impressive talent. DON'T DO IT AGAIN OR I WILL SET YOU ON FIRE, I SWEAR! Our round 4 competition is you having to create the nicest outfit! That's right, it's time for the fashion design round!" Mittens hops up onto her announcer desk where there is a sewing machine and starts to quickly hash something together. She puts on a pair of Mittens Kitten's Mittens and ties a bow tie (very impressively with her teeth) around her neck. "Round 4, begin!"
Charlene drops her ice cream when the Everhungering Flglhran appears and snatches up a Kill 'em Dead saber from the kiosk, but has no need of it, of course.
"Oh, right. Team Leader. Well, I must apologize. It seems my 'leadership' only succeeded in getting three of us killed. Congratulations to whomever took out the killer robot. Well done," she says flatly, "The good news is that it will be easier to find robots since they are now in much higher proportion than before. Excellent. I hope, Mr. Davila, that you are more successful in your round. Despite the fact that you were called out as human by a killer robot. Most interesting, I'd say."
Charlene doesn't drop her saber.
|
Duke Leto stands fills his bagpipes with air and starts a slow funeral march in honor of the slain, and to ward off the summoned creature.
"She'll be coming through a hellsgate when she comes, oh she'll be coming through a hells gate, coming through a hellsgate oh she'll be coming through a hellsgate when she comes."
The Hollow doesn't react to the appearance of the horrorterror. It does, however, move when the beast devours Velval.
The cowled figure looks in that direction for a while, paying no attention to the continued rampage of the monstrosity.
The Hollow spends a while drifting around, looking here and there.
Charlene remains holding her saber as she listens to Mittens' next challenge, then starts pacing. "Fashion, eh? I'm not much for it, but surely it can't be that difficult. Maybe this is something I can do myself."
After a moment or two of pacing, she suddenly stops short. Raising her arms to the skies and brandishing the saber, she shouts,
As the Cthuloid entity bursts forth, Rekstahl raises his arms in triumph. His single grotesque wing outstretched to its full extension. For the second time in his life he had completed a summoning ceremony to help bring a creature made of the stuff of insanity into corporeal existence. He felt a sense of accomplishment as the monster consumed Velval and Professor Tinkerton.
He so happy inside he felt his mind unhinge from the experience a little as he gazed into the swirling mists of the portal, and whatever was there touched his thoughts. He collapsed and nightmares overcame him. Blissful and sweet the images assaulted and tore through his mind like a cadre of art films seen through the smoke-filled haze of a film noir class. He lies insensible at the feet of Alexander Maxerson.
As for the new round's challenge, the Hollow eventually comes around and says something that may indicate it realises what is going on in local spacetime,
Or maybe not.
Finwa continues to lie over the prone body of Leoian even after exhausting her self from sorrow. She is left to her sorrow until guards come to take the.body away at which time she growls at a guard like a wounded animal protecting a pack mate.
The guard slaps Finwa across the head, bashing her to the ground and pulling Leo from ber,"Remember your place and consequences, b@&&+." He says as a dog like beast sreps to his side. It is a hellhound which makes Finwa back up to the tree with her tail hid behind her and her ears crushed to her skull.
The guard takes the body but the hellhound stays a moment longer, licking its lips and looking around her as if searching for ber tail but the guard whistles and it runs off.
Finwa looks about, still very much shaken. She stands on wobbly legs and leans against the tree, eyes red.
I have to try. I have to try. I cannot give up. What is... I heard outfit. Gads no. Ok. Ok. I can do this. I have to do this.
"Oh dear. Mr. Maxerson, is our new Team Leader still alive? And Ms. Finwa, while your loyalty is admirable, remember that Mr. Mouskewitz was a killer robot and would have happily bathed in your blood. That is, unless you were one of his ilk."
Charlene shakes her head. "I, for one, do not know who to trust." She begins removing bolts of organza from the supply kiosk, looking for a sewing machine and mannequin.
Alexander had watched with awe as the Eldritch Abomination emerged from the portal, licking his lips with anticipation. He had no clue what the Monk had been having him moving all those stones around for, but in that moment he knew it would all be worth it. This is the moment I've been waiting for! The ultimate opponent! If I were to consume its flesh then I would... Looking upon the writhing mass, Alexander poised to strike. And then it dropped.
"Raaaaaaagh! What did you do that for, you stupid cat!?" he shouts, his hands balled into fists. He turns to the seemingly unconscious Murder Monk, and proceeds to shout at him. "Come on, summon another one! I want my prey back, damn it!"
The little woman looks to Charlene but takes a big breath before saying anything, making sure she could speak, "It is more than a robot. Leo was more. If he had wanted to bathe in my blood he had several perfect chances to do so. And... She fought off even saying anything about Bryn. Instead she took those feelings and bottled them into anger.
She turned and walked to Murder Monk who was collapsed on the ground and went to him, singing under her breath to give herself strength, "As far to the east the oceans roar. As far to the west the mountains do not care. As far to the east the oceans roar. As far to the west the mountains do not care."
Her emerald eyes take in the form of their newest leader and she steels herself for what she wishes to do next. A shaky hand touches the man's shoulder and she waits until he looks up and stares into his eyes. Her heart goes cold and she hears despair in her mind, making her clasp her head with her hands for a moment. Finwa fights it back, turning it into a hatred she can use for herself. She cannot sit back.
"You are now the leader." She growls, still with fear in her heart but defiance in her eyes no matter how scared he made her, "You find those bots and Mr. Maxerson will have something to tak to the hells.
She turns to the large man, "Isn't that right Mr. Maxerson? What a fine prize to take out these killer robots. To have something to rip to pieces knowing they are strong but you, you are stronger and more able for a fight!"
The little one looks like she is ready herself to kill something, her hair pricked up like a mane and tail whipping about in anger.
"I did that because while you might have signed a waiver, Mr. Maxerson, my audience has not! Well, at least not one that covers as much as yours... yours covers death by interplanar monstrosity. Theirs doesn't. So I had to act quickly. Apologies if that has interfered with your tiff!" says Mittens to Alexander.
"Anyways, don't mourn the little guy too much. I can rebuild him. I have the technology!"
"I am mourning him and Bryn but there was no physical body to mourn over for Bryn." Finwa says, suddenly turning towards Meowselsworth, her hair and ears flinging around as she does, "And even if you did make another he wouldn't be the same." Her head drops, "And no one can bring back Bryn."
She turned back to Alexander and glared up at him, "How about it big guy? Are you ready to smash bot heads?"
"You would not have met your musician love if it weren't for the Deathmatch, dear Finwa, as your executions would have been scheduled prior to this. I at least offer you all a second chance at life. Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, hm?" says Mittens, hopping up to her chair to put her paws on the table in front. "As for Leoian, I programmed him the first time myself. I could just pop his programming as it left off into another robot. I might just after this is done, but he sure isn't getting a car! After all, my robots are not the ones on death row..."
She took a deep breath and fought back the urge to yell as the cat wasn't seeming to understand what she meant. It was hard to explain and she was not sure if she really could, "Meowselsworth!" Finwa glares at the camera which has turned on her then throws her hands up while looking back at the cat, "I didn't mean to grump at you. It is not your match which is an issue. There is no time to mourn and we are expected not to mourn. We as reported criminals are viewed as so bad that we are not supposed to feel anything for deaths, loss of other living beings, those who are there for us. Because Leo was not humanoid he's considered unimportant and because we are fighting for ourselves Bryn is considered unimportant to the others but we are all important here." Finwa moves her arm to encompass the whole arena.
The little woman waits for a bit, "I appreciate your concern, Ms. Meowselsworth. I truly do. Please don't feel offended that I still hurt and want to kill the bots who will kill us before they have a chance to get to any more of us. And ..."
She stops as if she was lost or as if she'd been hit on the head when Leoian had fallen on her, "Did you say the next contest is making an outfit? Oh. I'm really dead if you did."
"Yep," says Mittens, raising up the little Mittens that she made to swat at the air, and puffing out her chest to show off her bow tie proudly. "Outfits! It's the fashion design round!"
Looking to Finwa, Alexander's gaze hardens.
" Ready doesn't even begin to @#$%ing "
He pounds his fists together, his teeth grit and his lips snarled like wolf on the hunt. In spite of the talent show being over, he grabs one of his unused throwing cows and hurls it across the arena, before letting a battle cry.
"Come on, people! "
Rekstahl only vaguely hears all the requests heaped on his head regarding the killer robots. He glances at the small man's "robotic" remains and the smoking pile of ash that was once Bryn. Rekstahl doesn't seemed pleased and broods over the ash for quite a while. He slowly eyes the remaining contestants.
"It would seem, I am not likely to make it out of this. Once this round is over, I will once again be vulnerable to the predations of these machines."
Looking at Charlene, the priest says simply, "I don't trust you. You seem too much ingratiated with our 'host'." Rekstahl throws up a clawed finger at Mittens. He narrows his eyes.
"I don't claim to be anything but what I am. The rest of this," Rekstahl spins around including the entire arena. "This is just another path to the place of enlightenment in the dark places of the mind."
He approaches Finwa and reaches to place a hand on her shoulder. "And now you too have tasted the pain of awareness. Let go this thing called sanity to which you cling. I can bring you a vision which will allow you to know your Bryn in a way you never could in life."