The two nights prior had been unexpected even for the Cockroach Killa whose very essence was to be without rhyme or reason and shock the hell out of people, as a general rule. Never in her life though had she come across anyone quite like the pair of Vasaris and Dralak.

Neither did a lot of other people. These two were truly unique from Vasaris's billowy cape and megalomaniac style right down to Dralak's technical armor which could, given the proper turn of the dial in the correct direction, set the man afire.

As the story will be told in the future someday to some kid, curled up under a blanket, listening to their parent tell them this tale, with wide eyes and a greedy smile, it all started when Tara walked into the tavern mauling a leprechaun.

Her intention was to get her gold coin back from the little man. However, within seconds of her arrival, she was introduced to a one Prince Vasaris and his right-hand-man, Dralak, and somehow, some way, the Prince fell madly in love with her.

Despite the fact that she was, up until their meeting, Rhy'Din's resident nutcase and she had held that title for what seemed like Ever.

Now you could say the prince was a patient man. He tried to woo Tara with flowers and poetry but she told him she was engaged. This enraged the prince!

How could she be engaged when he wanted her to be his Dark Queen! And not just any Dark Queen! No! The Dark Queen of the Supreme Aether to be exact!

What woman in their right mind would give up such a title!

Tara couldn't quite answer him because to be quite honest the thought of being a dark queen did sound appealing to her. She is, afterall, as devious as they come. Or was until Vasaris showed up!

And so now he was vying for her, challenging her fiance, Corlanthis Wystansayr to a duel, and Dralak? He was egging his master on because all other talents of his aside, Dralak is very good at getting Vasaris riled up.

Corlanthis, on the other hand, wasn't having any of it. Why should he fight for Tara's hand when they were already engaged!

Tara did not think that a fight to the death would be wise as this would put a damper on her upcoming nuptials and, although she did not have any intention of just throwing herself at the Prince, she did not want to see anyone hurt.

Devious as she is, she has a heart, yea, it may be black as night.

So she came up with a plan!

She would hold some games!

Impossible-to-beat games but games nonetheless! The winner of these games would, of course, get her hand in marriage and this would solve this sticky conundrum.

Or so she thinks. Or thought!

So, armed with the confidence that her marital status was still safely up in the air, no one had died just yet and everyone was in agreement as to the course of events to follow, Tara got to work.

First she erected a huge sign in the Town Commons announcing these games and that in order to see them, one would have to pay the nominal five gold coin entrance fee. (Yes, Tara was still an opportunist and a businesswoman even when it concerned her own fate).

The first game the sign read would be "Fiddlesticks on Ice".

Second, using what limited magic was available to her, she walked out into the field adjacent the Red Dragon Inn, and thought, into creation, the largest slab of ice you ever did see.

Then, she went around picking up twigs and sticks. When she was finished, she tossed them in a pile onto the ice and stepped back to see how it all looked.

"Ahh, there we are," she said with a smile, "jus' perfect."

And this was how Vasaris, Dralak and Corlanthis would find her when they eventually showed up.

He was really interested in this. The night that the challenge was given, he was there. He was on Cor and Tara's side. He thought that the Dynumbic Duo were a total joke. But he still wanted to be there and see it through, and help them out if they need it.

Somehow, he thought he'd need to help out. He was ready and willing.

...5 gold coins? Oh, typical! Well, it would be worth it anyways! He happily paid up by tossing the coins toward Tara as he arrived. "Hi there. I'm here to watch some frickin' fiddlesticks. YEEAAH." He chuckles.

Dongoria Skycars are luxury vehicles, the Aston Martins of the Kingdom of the Dark Star. They are sleek (however awkward and imprecise the controls may be for the chauffeur), and while within it is impossible to hear whether the engine is turned on or off.

"Victory always comes to the mighty, and our Kingdom is the mightiest of them all..."

That is not to say that the Dongoria Skycar is silent on the outside. Outside, it gives off an awful warbling whine, and whenever they go anywhere near roosting birds, they all take flight at once.

"Ah....here we are..."

The Skycar sets down, and the Dark Prince waits to be let out. He inspects his goatee in the mirror.

Cor had been traveling Rhy'din much as he did at any other time - that of pedestrian traffic. He was surprisingly swift for it though it might not seem it from casual observance. And now? Right now he was headed towards the Inn, before spotting a peculiar looking ice field next door. Well, that could only mean one thing and he started towards it.

He hadn't made it but a few steps before a roaring overhead caused him to glance up sharply and in some surprise. Such infernal devices were a pox on the city and he glowered at it as it spooked the birds in the nearby trees. To add further insult to injury, one of the birds passing over head promoted Cor up the ranks by adding a white glob to his shoulder.

He sighed and brushed it off as best he could, then brushed it off his fingers with a blech face, and *then* continued on towards the field, nodding to Tara as he walked towards her. Neo too recieved a wave and then Cor's gaze traveled towards the skycar. Somehow it figured it'd belong to the Prince and his Manservent.

Cor sighed and waited for the "Battle" to begin.

Dralak disengaged himself from the car's controls as it landed softly on the ground. "His Highness's facial hair is, as always, perfect." Then he opened his door and stepped out.

"Presenting His Highness Prince Vasaris IX, Heir to the Throne of Great King X of the Kingdom of the Dark Star, Conquering Dragon of Arboria and Magugu and other places, Grand Admiral of the Royal Navy, and Bearer of Other and Sundry Titles! All rise!"

He doesn't wait for everybody to stand up straight. Instead, he opens the door to let his Prince out.

"You will, of course, not be charged for this little visit, Auntie," she said to Chryrie with a sly grin.

She felt better having a family member here to watch the spectacle with and because Chry was very talented with magic, Tara was now assured that should something go wrong, her loving Aunt would fix it.

Her face had taken on an almost plastic quality with the way she had forced herself to smile as the prince made his way out of that noisy contraption of his but when he moved closer and she saw the spiked a pauldrons her face changed to wonder and awe.

Those things, whatever they were, looked dangerous and since the men around these parts were not in the habit of wearing them, this was a new and unfamiliar fashion for her to see.

She reaches out to touch them when he bowed.

She quickly snapped back to formality and curtsied after him.

"My Dark Future Second King," she said with a giggle that was, for the most part, held back with her hand.

Vasaris, in his own way, was adorable and she liked him very much.

"The game is all set up, Princey," she said and gestured to the large slab of ice. "May the best man win!"

A quick look of sympathy was shot Cor's way before she was moving over to where she had pointed to sit so she could watch the game.

"Come Auntie! I have a seat for you too!" she said with a wave and reclined back in the chair, trying to appear regal now.

"Wait!" shouts Dralak. "First, I must ensure that the fiddlestick pile is constructed on the proper fairness." From the Skycar is withdrawn an enormous camera, which he walks slowly around the pile as he takes picture after picture. As each shot is taken, a high whine floats from the machine while it prepares to take another.

With all that information in hand, he returns the camera to the skycar and opens the trunk, revealing a massive computer, complete with glowing crystals. He then puts on a set of headphones and begins to . . . do a full structural analysis of the pile. The computer boops and beeps and has appendages that spin - clearly, it is a very busy little machine. Mounted in the front is a reel-to-reel Turing device, whirring its symbolic brains out. The reels abruptly stop and the computer rattles up a little print-out, which Dralak yanks out and brings to the Prince. It is a diagram of the pile, with all the sticks given a number.

"The pile is secure! His majesty shall take the first turn, of course . Please pull stick 31, highness!" He then dashes back to the computer, ready to update the situation as it happens.

Even Tara, clueless as she can sometimes be, noted that Dralak was using a machine and that this may be a form of cheating.

She had cheated before. Who didn't?

But this was her game and she was determined to see that no one win it because she did intend to marry Corlanthis no matter what Vasaris and Dralak conjured up in the form of distractions. However, if Vasaris did, in fact, win one of her games she would have to marry him instead because Tara never went against her word.

Besides.....the longer she stayed unmarried the more money she could collect from Talomar until her own fortune was recovered. She thought she could, if necessary, ask Vasaris for money but that would be using him and he would likely expect something gratuitously sexual in return which would unnecessarily anger and hurt Corlanthis; something she would not do ever. Nor would she ask Corlanthis to support her as that just wouldn't be right for so many reasons.

She was stuck for the meantime until she resolved her marital dispute with Talomar and ironically enough, Vasaris was proving to be a helping hand even if he was unaware that he was.

"Do be easy on the machine, Auntie, for I fear that man will harm himself if something serious were to go wrong with it," she says and gestures to Dralak, who, mind you, had set his armor to the "autoclave" setting just because he had *dared* recite a poem to her written by Shakespeare and not in his own hand.

She could just imagine what Dralak would do if the machine were to malfunction and Vasaris thought he was in any way negatively affected by it.

She winced just thinking about it and hoped this would all turn out as she had planned.

Neo witnessed Dralak's freezing spectacle, reacting to it in his head. Huh, impressive. I didn't expect anything like that from him. He was not content with the way he spoke to Chryrie, though. He was pretty sure that she was Tara's aunt. And come on — it's just common sense — you don't want to talk about your master's love interest's aunt that way. He smirked as he chided the servant. "Hey guy," He was almost expecting a retaliation along the lines of 'I'm not your guy, buddy!'. "I'm not sure it's such a good idea to be talking to the Dark Queen's aunt like that. We can forget it happened this time," then he muttered, "because I don't want you going nuts on yourself," then in normal tone, "but I don't know how forgiving we'll be next time." Nod-nod.

Then he went on to the matter about the computer. "So....you guys using the computer....is not cheating" Well I guess you do have a point in saying that it doesn't interfere with Corlanthis. So are you saying that we could help him as well, as long as we don't interfere with his majesty?" He asked with a somewhat sly smirk. He had a feeling that there was some hypocrisy on the way, and he wasn't quite sure how he'd react to it yet.

"Awwww, come on!!" He was kind of irritated at repeatedly being called a kid, and by all sorts of people, too. "I'm 27! 27! Do I really look like a kid?!" ((This is probably the fault of my avatar. My friend seems to have drawn him quite boy-ish. >_>))

He then shakes off his irritation and listens to Dralak explain. "Well, I guess that sounds kinda reasonable." He narrows his eyes at him. "Of course, I would expect you to honor that as well. If you mess with the pile or either of the players, I'll know." He knew that he was psionic, and he could feel the energies if they're strong enough. "And I'm sure she'll know too." Head canted toward Chryrie. "I doubt either of us will be very happy with that."

He then shifted his attention towards the game, waiting for Vasaris to make his move.

He howls with sadness. "I am torn with shame as though a wild Razonda Beast had gutted me crotch-to-neck with three of its seven horns, highness!"

Then he stands up straight, spreads out his arms, and takes a swan dive backwards. Unsurprisingly, he lands on the back of his head and a sickening crunch emerges from his direction. Without skipping a beat, he erects himself. The blood is already pouring from underneath his hair.

"I shall correct the programming forthwith! The problem must lie in the main operator array; I shall check the source code at once, Highness!"