| abstract | - This world is not a home for amoebas, small and large. This world is, in fact, itself a giant amoeba. It floats lazily around its star in an orbit full of space plankton, feeding on that. Somewhere along the way, someone figured out that this particular species of giant space amoeba digests so slowly that it can be lived in safely for years on end and decided to turn it into a vacation spot. Floating on the surface of the amoeba is a receiving station that passes out breathing apparatus for those visitors that need them. There are little 'submarines' adapted to moving through the amoeba, ferrying passengers to various resort towns and even a theme park floating through the creature, though those with the capability are welcome to swim it on their own. Note: This is a Swim room; it just does not require the ability. Barkida Olympics Medical Tent This Femaxian warrior's physique is best described as "awesome." Hard-eyed and angular in face and body, her stern jaw is carried tilted up slightly in a defiant, grave expression. She has no soft curves anywhere, no spare flesh. Every limb is a steely coil of whiplike muscles, with short square fingernails and fighting callouses across the knuckles. Her features are straight and fine, apart from her nose which looks like it's been broken more than once and reset by hand. Her voice is a slow, slightly gravelly contralto, and she wears her dark brown hair shorn close to the scalp. Representing her species for the second time in the Grand Galactic Olympics, Barkida is a little better equipped than she was last year, and looks more imperial and less savage. Resplendent in burnished gold scale-mail single-sleeve tunic and single greave over sandals, gaiters, manicae and subligaculum, she cuts an intimidating if not very well armored figure. Carjack has arrived. Carjack strides in looking for someone to fix. Or break. Fleet has arrived. Apocryphacius is hanging out at the medical tent, doing volunteer work, helping them sort out their medical supplies. Scalpels in here, gauze over there... yes, he's signed up to get all five of his faces of dorkness beaten in during various events. Drank too much soap one day and it seemed like a good idea, so he makes extra sure to check where the supplies for repairing Quintessons are kept. Barkida unzips the inner seal of the medical tent, still dripping with cytoplasm from the swim here. Her voice is slightly muffled by her breathmask. "Tentacle alien!" she calls out, beating her gladius against her shield to get his attention, wherever in the tent he might be. "I am the representative of Planet Femax! Barkida, Fourth To Die! You've been chosen to face me in honorable battle!" Apocryphacius cringes at the sound of the sword beating against the shield. Three other aliens also look up at Barkida, looking puzzled. Hesitantly, Apocryphacius ventures, "I do believe she means me, actually, if I read the schedule correctly." A disappointed purple tentacle monster whines, "Are you /sure/ she means you? I mean, I bioluminesce. Chicks dig that." He does, indeed, glow. Fleet has somehow been roped into judging one of these matches. He is more or less floating in the amoeba, near the tent, and he looks down at the schedule in his hand. "She definitely means the Quintesson." "Ew! Keep your biological functions to yourself squishy!" A Decepticon doing anything 'volunteer' is probably wrong sounding, but Carjack has his reasons! ... they mostly involve filching parts out of the scrap bins and getting to hopefully peak at the inner workings of otherwise when no one can really yell at him for 'helping' an Autobot if possible... though he's taking more interest in the two aliens yelling at each other to fight, and scurries closer to watch. Since one will be his opponent later, and either could be a teammate for the other event, so it's best to be prepared... Barkida takes a playbill from where she's wedged it into her belt and unrolls it, looking at the picture of the contestant. Satisfied, she sets it down and points at Apocryphacius. "I mean you, Many-Faces. Is the gut of this world-beast a suitable arena for you?" The purple tentacle monster begs, "I'm a little Quintesson on my grand-spawn-sire's side!" Apocryphacius floats over closer to his opponent, and he definitely has to admit that she looks tough. He's scared. He's /always/ scared, but she's scarier than, say, a lion. He wishes there was a car he could get into, but he doesn't think Carjack would enjoy that. Switching faces, he agrees, "It shall suffice." Apocryphacius transforms into his Apocryphacius mode. By coincidence, for the tryouts Barkida had to fight a lion. Back in her tent she has a lion-skin half-cape for special occasions. She turns and goes back through the airlock, kicking out towards the judge. She's a powerful swimmer, which is probably why she's not wearing her plumed wide-brimmed helmet; it would put too much resistance on her head while trying to maneuver "underwater." "Our judge," she says, indicating Fleet for Apocryphacius' sake. "We are ready for your tests and trials, machine-man." "My... tests and trials," Fleet answers uncertainly. Then he shrugs and looks at his listing. "Uhm. Good clean fight. Melee weapons only. I... guess that's it?" He waves absently at them both. "If you're ready, then fight." GAME: Fleet rolls a (10)-sided die: ROLL: Barkida rolled a 7 ROLL: Apocryphacius rolled a 5 Apocryphacius doesn't put on a protective mask - the destroyed native environment of his people has some weird, weird oceans, and besides, he knows that if he bothers trying to keep the weird taste out of his mouth, the mask will just get punched off. His hover column doesn't work terribly well inside a giant amoeba, but it at least works somewhat, so he'll deal. He puts up a pair of tentacles to try to block incoming attacks, for what good it may do. Carjack shoves a couple of random aliens out of the way to get a spot in one of the viewing stations, and flips down a screen over his face. It looks like the visor to go with the 'fireman's helmet' shape of his head, but it's also his tactical and medical scanner readout. He must... study his potential opponents/allies, yes.... Barkida touches the flat of her sword to her forehead in veneration. "Durandal, the All-Piercer, the Reforged," she says, by way of introducing... her sword? "One of the five black swords of the sky, which came to us in fire and thunder in the year of eclipse and dark omen." This said, she kicks towards Apocryphacius and lunges at him with the short but exceedingly sharp blade. Combat: Barkida sets her defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Barkida misses Apocryphacius with her Charging Thrust attack! [Pulled -2] Apocryphacius stares at the blade, looking rather fascinated, and he inquires, "Oh, do you mean meteor iron? I am afraid that I am not a fey creature, in accordance of what mythology suggests doing with meteor iron," he even sounds a bit sorry about it. He grabs onto a large, floating mitochondria and pulls himself away from the charge, off to the side. Then, he snaps out a whippy tentacle, trying to hit that exposed skin. So does she really have muscles of steel? Combat: Apocryphacius misses Barkida with his Tentacle Snap (Punch) attack! Fusillade vanishes out of reality. Fusillade has left. It's not steel, exactly, but the Femaxians' heavy-planet biology gives their tissue great density. The skin Apocryphacius' tentacle samples is as unyielding as the integument of a starfish. "No, I do not. I mean the black swords of the sky." She yanks her arm back, trying to pull Apoc close before he can withdraw his tentacle, and thrusts the blade forward. It extends and narrows visibly, changing shape in response to some unseen signal from its wielder as if its point was seeking its target. Combat: Barkida strikes Apocryphacius with her Belly-Seeking Form attack! [Pulled -3] Combat: You took 18 damage. Combat: Barkida's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Apocryphacius . Combat: Barkida's attack damages your armor. Apocryphacius yelps in pain as he realises that her sword is perhaps a legacy weapon from another culture because that is... not what meteor iron would do. Deeply stabbed near the 'point' of the bottom of his egg-shape, his ichor oozes into the cellular fluid, diffusing out to pale green. His armour becomes brittle where the blade stabbed him and flakes off, shards floating away from him. Grimacing in dismay, he flicks out a pair of tentacles, trying to grab her by the wrists and throw her. This is unwise. Combat: Apocryphacius strikes Barkida with his Paired Tentacles (Kick) attack! Barkida tumbles through the cytoplasm, bounces off a nearby golgi apparatus, and catches herself against it, the wind briefly knocked out of her. She takes a moment to pull more air out of her rebreather, then kicks off of the giant intracellular organ and swims swiftly back towards Apocryphacius, reaching out for him with her shield arm to try to grab onto those lashing tentacles so she can knee him in a face or two. Combat: Barkida misses Apocryphacius with her High Knee (Kick) attack! Apocryphacius retracts his tentacles and takes cover behind a vacuole. Inside, a bounty hunter is being digested for hundreds of years. He weakly taps at the vacuole wall, but Apocryphacius can't worry about him right now; he has bigger problems! Slipping around the side, he snakes out a tentacle and tries to wrap it around her ankle for a hard squeeze. Combat: Apocryphacius strikes Barkida with his Ankle Grab (Punch) attack! Barkida finds herself yanked towards the vacuole by a surprisingly strong and flexible tentacle! "Hng!" Although ridiculous-looking, the Quintesson is proving more wily than she had at first considered. Durandal flexes into a curved shape, developing a sharp edge along one side like a saber, and with this she tries to hack the tentacle away from her leg. Combat: Barkida strikes Apocryphacius with her Escape Maneuver attack! [Pulled -3] Combat: You took 16 damage. Combat: You are very aware that your life is in danger! Combat: Barkida's attack has damaged your Strength! Apocryphacius 's tentacle is hacked clean off, and he hisses like a kettle as he again gushes out ichor. Another tentacle wraps around the limp, severed, portion, and he withdraws needle and thread, trying to suture the appendage back on, but he's lost hydraulic power already. Combat: Apocryphacius quickly patches up some of his minor injuries. Barkida slashes open the vacuole (incidentally releasing the poor bounty hunter in the process) and charges after Apocryphacius to try to press the advantage! She swings her saber, which pushes more of its mass into its end to add weight like a falchion, in a wide diagonal slash towards the egg, trying to get through the writhing tentacles to deliver a telling wound. Combat: Barkida sets her defense level to Fearless. Combat: Barkida strikes Apocryphacius with her Crosscut attack! Combat: You took 21 damage. Combat: Barkida's attack has damaged your Accuracy! Combat: Barkida's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Apocryphacius . Combat: Apocryphacius has been temporarily incapacitated. The wound is mostly telling exactly what Apocryphacus keeps inside himself, a grotesque mixture of machinery and organs, which spill out copiously. Sobbing, the Quintesson tries to put his organs back inside his body, but he finds himself completely petrified by fear - he simply cannot move at all. Barkida reverses her sword and drives the pommel forward, using it to add weight to her fist as she tries to smash one of Apocryphacius' noses. "Do you yield?!" she demands, dark eyes flashing. Combat: Barkida sets her defense level to Neutral. Combat: Barkida strikes Apocryphacius with her Pommel Strike (Punch) attack! Combat: You took 15 damage. Combat: Barkida's attack has damaged your Agility! Combat: Apocryphacius falls to the ground, unconscious. Apocryphacius 's answer is to spill out his spleen and a kidney or vague space equivalents of those organs. However, no benzene is involved, so he's in the clear. All ten optics wink out. He's so frozen up, he can't even scream. His nose is completely /annihilated/. Looks like he yields! Fusillade has arrived. Astrotrain has arrived. "Medic!" calls Barkida, her sword returning to its plain, straight configuration so that she can sheathe it. "Judge, my opponent yields." Fleet looks fairly bored with the whole organic-fighting-organic thing. When Barkida calls for him, however, his optics flicker a blink and he straightens. "Ah! All right! Uhm, congratulations flesh creature!" "WHOOOEEEEEEHWHOOOOEEEEE" And then the siren gets muffled by giant ameoba protoplasm as Carjack chugs through it, but you can still see his shoulder lights flashing. "This looks like one of my failed disection projects!" he cackles to no one in particular as he scoops up the Quintesson in one arm. Glances one way shiftily, then the other... and then snatchs some of the spilled organs and stuffs them in his own storage for later... study. Then hauls the space squid off to the medical tent. "Thank you, machine-man. I give all due honor to my brave opponent, who fought me although unarmed and egg-shaped." Barkida shakes her head disapprovingly. Being egg-shaped is almost always a bad omen in battle. "Who must I be tested against next?" Apocryphacius will have to build himself a new vague spleen analogue when he comes to, but for now, he just floats in unconsciousness, which is not nearly as blissful as one would think it might be.
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