ITT: We are our avatars.

Samus: Are you sure that is what you want?

Sam: I don't know what I want.

Bar

"A message from Caesar himself?"

Well, he'd already given this Legionnaire a fair bit of his time. What was a few more minutes?

Desert

"You have this strapping young fellow to thank," Katie noted, indicating the other bird present.

"Unfortunately, like I said - I don't know where I am either. I can't help you orient."

Bar

-The disguised legionnaire quietly slinks off into the crowds, leaving Mitch only with the pendant, the message, and the local brew to occupy his thoughts-

Legionnaire: "Do not die. You have unfinished business with us."

Desert

Prinny: Shoot, dood...oh well. Guess I'll need to look around, see if I can get there to deliver the package. Hmmmm...how 'bout this? As some thanks, dood.

-The Prinny uses its flipper to hold out...what looks like a very tiny door-

Bar

Mitch laughed. Of course that was why Caesar wanted him to succeed - because Caesar still wanted to kill him.

"Tell Caesar that I'll stay alive just so I can kill him the next time he comes back!"

And then that was that. He had the pendant, and he had the mission.

He returned to the bar, for the moment.

Desert

Katie raised an eyebrow as she took the... door. A tiny, little wooden door. The bird was talking about delivering a package, but she figured it was probably in her best interest not to worry about that. It was likely personal.

"A door? This small? Is it ceremonial?"

Bar

-Vivian is still in the bar, waiting and looking at Mitch-

Vivian: He seemed rather friendly.

Desert

-The Prinny stretches and nods-

Prinny: Just think of it as an emergency button. You'll need it if you're staying in this place or heading up towards the city. It's a dangerous place out here, dood.

Bar

"For a Legionnaire," Mitch agreed. "Apparently Caesar wants me to win this, if only so he can kill me again. Even gave me this neat little thing."

He handed Vivian the pendant. "A way to keep track of what Jupiter wants us to do."

Desert

"How does it work?"

Idly, Katie attempted to open the door.

Bar

-Vivian idly fiddles with the pendant out of curiosity-

Vivian: Hmmmm. Definitely got magic in this thing. Looks legitimate.

So how are you going to approach this, Mitch?

Desert

-The door doesn't do much more than swing open its tiny door-

Prinny: When you're in a really tight bind, you'll know how it works. Trust me, dood.

Bar

"Honestly? I'm gonna need people," he thinks. "We're fighting God here. There's not exactly a 'fair' option, and the more people I've got on my side here, the better a chance we've got of taking him down. Maybe reach out to those Kerberos folk. See how interested they are in vengeance."

Desert

Katie frowned for a moment. She wasn't too much a fan of what seemed like a useless trinket... but then again, that was what magical artifacts were, right? They never seemed to work until the moment they needed to.

"Well. All things being fair, I believe this is yours." She turned towards the bird, and presented it the door.

Bar

Vivian: Hmmmmm. Need me to call in a few favors then? You'll need many more than you're thinking if you're killing a literal god, you know.

Desert

-Deathclaw is now carrying a tiny door in its beak. It shakes it around a few times, rather baffled-

-Before the Prinny disappears into the wastes of the desert again, he gives Katie directions to Nethervegas if she ever needs water, then walks off to deliver its package-

-It still feels like a strange and weird encounter, given that the flightless penguin is leaving human-sized footprints in the sand as it goes by-

Edited by Raidouthe21st on Nov 7th 2018 at 12:44:01 PM

Bar

"However many you feel like calling in," Mitch eventually decided. "I'll need to see who wants to come do this, too. Like you said, deicide isn't your everyday job."

Desert

"Well..."

It was hard to figure out where this 'Nether Vegas' was going to be. Mostly because she still wasn't sure where, exactly she was. But the directions were simple enough. She just had to find the landmark.

"I'm going to this Nether Vegas. Do you wish to follow?"

The fact the bird was leaving human footprints was lost on her.

Edited by SpartyMcFly on Nov 7th 2018 at 2:48:53 PM

Bar

-Vivian nods in agreement-

Vivian: Oh, I know quite a few people interested in the challenge. But I'll need time to filter out the ones who are too psychopathic for your tastes.

Desert

-Deathclaw nods and peeps. That's where his human is located, after all-

Bar

"Depending on how many we get... we might need psychopaths," Mitch demurred. "After all, what other kind of person would seriously try to kill a god?"

Desert

"Then we should make haste, before the inviolate sun burns us into the sand."

Standing up to full height, Katie moved onwards, trying to find the first landmark that would guide her towards Nether Vegas...

Over The Desert

"...massive amounts of gamma, alpha, and beta radiation in the environment, but the thing is, there's other trace energies here."

"What're the ones you keep telling me about? Sterile neutrinos, axion scatter, any of that?"

"Negative. Nothing to suggest Hive or Taken presence here. I can't actually make the readings out, but they have different energy signatures. Which means wherever we've ended up is probably more dangerous than the post-nuclear wasteland I was expecting."

A vessel descended through the skies at a leisurely pace, looking for a good landing zone. It wasn't so much a box as several boxes welded together, and yet despite the fact it was aerodynamic as your average science fair project, it flew nonetheless.

"Just keep in mind that even though there were a lot of primitive thermonuclear detonations, something else probably helped take civilization down here. Tread light and keep your head on a swivel."

"I'll try. Think I've found a good LZ, I'm moving down."

Somewhere in the desert, next to the blasted out remains of what once could have been called a town, the vessel came in, extended three prongs, and touched the sands.

Bar

Vivian: Fair. Any other qualifications? Because I'm definitely getting interested to see what all the hype is about.

Bar

Mitch thought for a moment. Obviously, there was the matter of killing God, but the tasks as well...

"Might wanna cast a wide net. Who knows what Jupiter might ask us to do? Something tells me we're probably not going to be looking at 12 straight-up hunting or assassination missions..."

Vivian: True. I suppose you better hope that you're not being asked to clear out the Augean stables in a single day then.

Bar

"Well that one's easy," Mitch said. "Get a mage to fireproof the stable, get the horses out of it, and throw a match in. The rest does itself."

Vivian: Well, firstly, those were bulls. Secondly, there were three thousand cattle there. Thirdly, it was a stable that hadn't been cleaned in thirty years. I think throwing a match on that mess would have split the planet in half.

Bar

"Dang, we can't use explosives!" Mitch laughed for a moment, before taking another second to think. "Don't suppose we can't drive a septic machine in there?"

Mojave

It was important to take the tools necessary for the job. And this was a desert; nothing but dunes and long sightlines, which absolutely wasn't his forte. He liked close quarters. Being close enough to blow something apart with a shotgun, or a fist charged with Light.

But unfortunately, he didn't have too many means to close the distance other than taking blows until he was able to walk over. So he had to plan accordingly.

"Machine gun, sniper rifle, aaaaaaaand..." He hesitated for a moment. "Linear fusion."

"You? Taking a sniper rifle? Willingly? I'm surprised."

"You believe the propaganda then? That we're just lunatics who love punching things designed to explode in your face?"

The hatch dropped down, and an armored goliath◊ stepped out of the hatch, an impressively-sized machine gun slung over his shoulder. He walked down into the wastes, like he was going on a leisurely stroll through some charming woods. Floating next to him was a tiny machine, hovering just over his shoulder for a moment to take things in.

"There's at least two times I can recall where you punched a Screeb on the Tangled Shore and killed yourself."

"And? We didn't know what they were until-"

"This is just Screebs, and just over the past month or so. Just so you know," the machine chided, before it disappeared.

"Some days I wonder how I get anything done with you nagging over my shoulder," the goliath wondered, though the tone of his voice clearly indicated he was joking as he moved out to surveil the town he'd landed in.

Bar

Vivian: I'm sure your Jupiter friend will be more full of bullshit than that septic tank, so I'd say go for it. Same with the rest of these trials. Gods do not play fair, you shouldn't either.

-how's about instead of all these fancy new characters, let's see an oldie-

-such as Starchild-

-who wants to see the cosmic lady-

Bar

"Heh. Maybe that's the best way to finish things. Get a capable, dependable group of people together to help do it."

Mitch took a moment to smirk, before downing another shot of whatever was in his glass at the time.

"Shame we don't have one of those any more."

Abandoned Town

It didn't take a few minutes of searching to come to a conclusion; this town was empty. It looked almost like an outpost of some type, but it was impossible to really determine who had set it up or what for. All either of the two was able to figure out was that there was a human presence here, and that there was not any more.

Immediately after walking out of the town's largest intact building, the big guy caught a glimpse of something filling the sky.

Something shaped like a woman.

"Uh... Juno? Is that what it looks like?"

The mental downlink was quiet for a good, long second as his companion took in the sight of Starchild.

...yes?

Abandoned Town

Starchild floats around in the sky, apparently being a planet woman. That's all you can really discern by looking at her from the surface of another planet, to be honest.

"Hey there!" the immeasurably large presence says as she waves to the big guy. "What's up? Well, besides me."

Abandoned Town

The man stood there a moment longer when the planet looked at him and spoke back. He wasn't entirely sure if he should be surprised, confused, or infatuated, and spent a few moments flipping between all three of those emotions before settling on dull surprise and rigid discipline, as usual in unknown situations.

"What... are you? And, for that matter, how can you even hear me?"

"I am Starchild, the living planet," she explained. "And I can hear you because of my incredible cosmic powers."

She says this all spookily and mysteriously.