Post by Andre Jenson on Jan 15, 2016 19:25:45 GMT -5
The magical, mystical fantastical island of Kem is accustomed to varying degrees of fancy. From the colossal statue guarding the harbour to the world's biggest Sea Life centre, it's clear dome glittering in the sunshine like a beautiful diamond, shaped like a tit.
This particular aerial shot zooms past the Sea Life Centre though, that's not the focus, it goes over Andre's visitor mansion, with full security and state of the art wow factor for nuisance visitors who want to pester AJ for some reason. It zooms past the field, oddly empty and quiet, devoid of all the usual noise of battle. Eventually the flyover, in a shot reminiscent of some sort of Michael Bay movie (or at least Peter Jackson, he likes his helicopter based camerawork,) gets to the edge of a cliff and the scene below bursts into view.
The shorthand version is “there was a party below.” However that rudimentary description really doesn't do it justice. It's like saying something along the lines of “Hey, look at that hill” when you are at the foot of Mt. Everest. The sheer size of this party was ridiculous. It was located on the floor of a canyon near the East coast of Kem, about 5 miles inland. The location was chosen partly due to security concerns. Sir Slashalot suggested that if someone wanted to come and attack this party, then putting it in the canyon meant that, with it being enclosed on three sides there would be only one entrance to the party and one entrance is much more easily guarded. He also argued that sentries on the vantage points at the top of the canyon would add an alternative line of defence. The only way people can attack this party would be by air. That's why 8 SAM sites were also dotted around. Security was the number one priority for this party. The simple fact it was the biggest party ever known on the isle of Kem meant this needed to be taken seriously.
AJ to his credit agreed with the location pretty much immediately, then started excavating the canyon walls to thread a rollercoaster track through them. It was called “Dragon's breath” and it was a state of the art launcher flyer robo coaster that dove deep into the heart of the canyon, around some interactive set pieces to do with dragon hordes and goblin miners. It lasted about 5 minutes and one rider described it as “An adrenaline filled heart attack waiting to happen.” If it was ever released in an actual theme park it'd take the number one position in at least 43 different categories, including vomit volume.
The entrance to the rollercoaster was to the North of the canyon, near the elaborate entrance that opened up in the north east of the complex. A number of food stalls dotted around the place, The stage to the south where the live concert and variety show was to be held later in the evening was ready, the lights being tested. Other attractions, such as a petting zoo, armoury, magic school, combat training and paintball arena were on the west wall of the canyon. There was also a wrestling ring set up somewhere that AJ had insisted on putting in, the idea being that people can give wrestling a try and giving a nice outlet to any WCF talent that show and want to fight each other for whatever reason. The party seemed ready from the air. However, at ground level, things were...Not so much.
“I want the pigs in the pen, I want a car on that damned rollercoaster testing like 20 minutes ago and for the love of God I should have had at least 3 coffees by now!” Yelled Amy at a semi circle of staff, all of which were wearing tunics in a deep purple with golden frills, sporting the crest of the house of Jenson on their chest. Which was a turtle, standing on a field of gold eating a slice of pizza.
She was wearing her regal dress today, looking every bit the party hostess. In the absence of Millicent, it fell on the closest female to the party host to assume the role of hostess. This was Amy. She didn't mind, she liked this kind of thing. Before she joined Andre she was a qualified events organiser so this came naturally to her anyway. With a wave of her hand, the semi circle dispersed and got to doing their jobs.
“Everything going ok?” Asked Ashbury, joining her from the hotdog stand to the right.
“Yeah,” Amy sighed “I've got the rollercoaster guys on a delay, saying something about health and safety regulations and the dragon is too realistic, I've got the petting zoo complaining we're selling bacon too close to them and Puny Elfling has disappeared when he was supposed to get me a coffee like an hour ago. Other than that, I'm good.”
“Yeah, I bumped into him a couple of minutes ago, he fainted when he saw a clown walking along with a bunch of those box trolls that the riddle guy from WCF sent. He thought the trolls were invading.” He handed her a coffee. “I figured that you'd be wanting this.”
Amy smiled with relief. “Thanks, I've been needing this all day.”
“No worries, you seen AJ?” Ashbury asked while taking a sip of his own coffee.
“Nope, ever since he saw the card for the next WCF event he's been training. Keeps saying something about the Beach house of Krew being worse than the Dragon cultists of Angoth.” She mused with a shrug “I guess he's not happy that he was attacked by Kyle Kemp.”
“I figured, not seen him since Slam so I assumed he was in the lair, training. I'm not up with what he does in the WCF too much. I don't watch it, Who exactly is Kyle Kemp anyway?” Ashbury didn't have time to watch much television, helping Slashalot with security, helping Amy with running the estate and constantly watching AJ for signs of residual issues after his possession took all his time. Being an administrator of the Isle of Kem is a rather full on job.
“Oh he's some former baseball hotshot apparently, hangs around with Beach Krew and generally treats people like crap.” Replied Amy, somewhat dismissively. “He's the worst kind of person basically, one of those rich entitled boys that decides that he's better than anyone else just because he's got money and fame.”
“Is he any good? Can he back it up?” Enquired Ashbury, wondering whether he needed to call in some favours and get this guy checked out for danger, or alert Slashalot.
Amy nodded, “He's a tag team champion at least. So he's got that going for him. He's young, he's focussed and hungry.”
“How much of that is his partner though?”
“That's the question,” Amy shrugged “his partner is in the Final Destination match, while he's standing there disrespecting AJ and generally not doing much. I have a feeling that's why he attacked AJ you know? Just to make him seem a little more relevant than he actually is.”
“Ah, that makes sense. Jealousy between partners is something I've seen before. I remember partying with this group one time and their two mages were all well oiled and a great team. One of them was asked to fight in the grand melee of Argomanth and the other wasn't. The one that wasn't then spent the next 4 months trying to duel everything and everyone to prove his worth.” Ashbury sighed. “Such is the nature of humanity.
Amy saw Puny Elfling running toward them from a distance. He was pretty hard to miss, considering he was now carrying two massive jousting poles, one in either hand. He stopped in front of Amy, who had to dodge slightly to make sure she wasn't hit by one of the jousts.
“Yes?” She snapped.
Puny Elfling was panting, as if he'd just ran for miles. Hunched over he started to gasp. “Lord....Jenson gasp wants......You”
“Right, and where is he?” She commanded.
Puny Elfling couldn't exactly respond, he was deeply out of shape and in fairness to him, since waking up he had been chewed out by approximately 34 people, of at least 10 of them were yelling at him to wake up and get the coffee for Amy as well as tell her that Lord Jenson needed her in the wrestling quarter. He managed to convey this message by generally pointing in the direction of the wrestling quarter while trying to not turn various shades of purple.
Amy shook her head. “Sort yourself out, Puny Elfling! You're a disgrace!” She then turned, and stormed off toward the wrestling quarter with Ashbury in tow.
AJ had been practising in the ring for hours. He insisted the wrestling quarter was set up first and as soon as the ring was built, he jumped inside and started running ropes and practising moves on dummies. By now, he was exhausted. Beads of sweat ran down every part of his body, his muscles strained and mind swam while he did his 49th suplex in a row, or was it the 50th? He wasn't too sure. He was knackered.
He glanced over when Amy entered the room, closely followed by Ashbury. Another suplex performed. Another stand up. He wiped his brow with his forearm, blinking the sweat out of his eyes. Then he exited the ring, and sat on the apron, grabbing a towel.
“Is this what you've been doing all day?” Asked Amy, surveying the scene and scrunching her nose up at the sweaty odour that AJ was permeating.
“Pretty much,” he replied, wiping himself down with the towel and taking a sip of a sports drink set nearby.
“Why?” Amy frowned. The last time AJ looked this focussed about anything was when he was nervous and unsure of himself. He spent days practising his sword technique when he went up against Digh the Destroyer in the ultimate duel of 2007.
Digh was undefeated in duels, for 15 years he'd been destroying people with sword, axe, mace, flail and other variously ridiculously heavy weaponry. He was 7'2 inches tall and was built like a wild beast, powerful enough to throw 4 men at once into a group of men and knock them over. He once came up against a mighty full grown mountain troll, without any sort of weaponry and knocked it out with one punch, before hauling it over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and walked away with it, whistling.
So AJ was particularly nervous about facing this guy. He locked himself away as soon as he knew he had to face him and ran drill after drill after drill with his sword and shield, not stopping until he fell down in exhaustion, and even then he got back up and carried on through the pain until he was satisfied that his forms were still perfect, even when he had nothing left.
The extra practising seemed to have worked though. AJ won the duel in impressive fashion, beating Digh with blindly quick combination patterns and deft parries. He didn't let up, he went at Digh immediately with speed and power and just did not relent. Amy had a feeling this was what AJ was doing right now.
“This Kyle Kemp punk has to go down, Amy. He's quick, he's cunning, he's dangerous. I need to practise.” He looked at her with a look of determination, his usual carefree demeanour had subsided and replaced with a sort of broody determination, born of revenge and anger. Focussed was the word that came to mind when Amy thought about it. Super focussed.
“You're doing all this over some former baseball player?” She asked, somewhat confused. “One that isn't even as good as his partner?”
AJ shook his head, then looked to the floor obviously thinking about something.
“It's not just that.” He started, “It's Oblivion too.” AJ sighed, hopping down off the apron. “I've faced Demons, Gods, Trolls, Dragons, every mythical being out there has been taken out by me one way or another but Oblivion is something different. I was mentally and physically tortured by this, this....Thing” AJ blurted this out as he couldn't quite think of what to refer to Oblivion as. “This thing took everything about me and turned it on it's head. I was possessed by aliens, I was stripped to the bone and he did it all. I just couldn't do anything about it and by the time I was facing him I couldn't do anything. I was powerless and for the first time in my life I...” He stopped, shaking his head.
Amy looked concerned. “You were what?” She looked at him softly and placed her hand on his cheek.
“I was....” AJ gulped and looked to the floor. “Scared.” He said flatly. “For the first time I was scared of something. I'd rather face 100 Ruby Dragons than one Oblivion.”
Amy didn't understand. “Scared? I've not seen you be scared of anything over the number of years I've known you.”
“Well, I was this time. Scared, disappointed, lost. You name it, I was it.”
Amy pursed her lips, thinking about what to say next. She didn't have to though as Ashbury started to talk.
“My Lord, if I may.” He began. “If there is one thing I've always admired you for, it's the lack of fear you show, no matter what the circumstance. I've seen you leap off a cliff into the mouth of a dragon, just so you can stab it through the throat. I've seen you wrestle wild animals twice your size, just for experience points. If there is one thing I can never criticise you for, it's your bravery. In fact, I'd say it's one of your weaknesses also. You have always been someone who just jumps into danger without even thinking of it, sometimes you're under such overwhelming odds I think you won't make it, and you do every time. Eventually we all knew that this would likely catch up with you some day. There's only so much you can rely on rolling well for. The rest of the time you have to load the odds in your favour.”
AJ was listening to this while thinking about what was being said, rubbing his chin and looking upwards as if he was planning.
“You're right.” He said, with a smile. “You're so right! I have an ace in the hole! I have Joseph Malignaggi.” He slapped his hands in joy. “You know what this means guys?”
Amy and Ashbury both shook their heads.
“It means I have a supremely talented guy in my corner. A guy who is said to be one of the best in the world, a guy who can help me destroy both of these guys, smoke a kipper and be back for breakfast.”
“Yeah, pity he's a total A-hole.” Replied Amy. “Grade A, 100% prime selfish ass that man. He's almost as disrespectful as Kyle Kemp, and equally as obnoxious sometimes. I wouldn't trust him AJ. He's just as likely to harm you as help you.”
AJ nodded, smile growing wilder. “Yes! Don't you see! This is great! Everyone in the match will be seeing me as the weak link. It means I've got the element of surprise. They'll go all out on Joey, thinking he's the big hitter. If I get the tactics right and I'm prepped then I could just use rogue tactics.” AJ shuddered at this, he hated rogues with a passion. I mean who in their right mind just spends all day hidden away then ambushes you if you walk past for no reason other than being a complete dick about things?
He was looking at his two friends in anticipation of their responses, with an eager eye. Ashbury was rubbing his chin, while Amy was nodding slightly in agreement.
“Oh I see, you're going to use him as a tank and let him take all the aggro? Maybe that'll work – as long as he plays ball.” She said in agreement.
“Oh, don't worry about that.” AJ said. “I'm pretty sure he hates the other guys just as much as I do, so he's going to be more than willing to take them on. If I can slip some rage potion into his drink as well, that'll just sweeten the deal a little.”
“Is that even allowed in the WCF?”
AJ shrugged. “We'll see on Sunday if it is, I guess. Yes, we'll see on Sunday. Come on.” He motioned to the others. “We've got a birthday party to host! I hear there's at least 20,000 RSVPs this year. Who've you got headlining?”
“It's a surprise.” Replied Amy, smiling and leading the way out of the room toward the party.
“Oh.” AJ started to follow her. “Wait! It better not be Chesney again! I know I've got him on retainer but still. He's taking the piss now!”
“Oh, you'll see.” She replied with a wry smile. “I've got a feeling the head liner this year will stop a grenade for ya.”
AJ was puzzled by this, but carried on walking behind her, racking his brains.
“Usher!?” He guessed, rather loudly.
Amy just sighed and shook her head.
