[SAPPHIRE]

[dramatispersonae]

You're on a flat, round copper platform about eighteen feet in diameter. All around you is a formless space filled with moving bursts and runnels and coils of white light. Look too long and your head will start to hurt.

In the middle of the platform is a wide, misshapen pillar of freshly-beaten copper, with the gate's strange bird head growing out the top. You will find one of your hands (or paws, or claws) jammed straight into a hole in it. It is warm and not uncomfortable, and you can sit or stand as you wish. But you certainly can't pull free.

Drr drr drr.

Comments

[ROUND ONE]

[dramatispersonae]

The bird's head opens its beak. It sounds like Firebird, but its voice crackles and hisses around the edges.

"Tests must happen, and this one has to do with feelings. Where do they go? To the east, to the west? Do they rankle or do they ease? Discuss and decide together. What is an emotion your team feels, towards each team not your own? How courageously will you share it? The rest will follow."

((You are sending out ELEVEN FEELINGS -- you don't have to decide on one for Sterling or Onyx. You can make feelings as abstract or specific as you want! Like you could send Ruby 'anger' or you could send them 'mild but persistent eagerness for them to come attend a cat party.'

For the purposes of this game everyone knows which knights got paired with which teams, so it is legit to send a feeling to a team that's secretly actually directed at their knight or just one of their members. It is also legit to send a feeling that is actually just one team member's or knight's sentiment towards the other team. Etc. etc. THE IMPORTANT THING is that everyone agrees on the feeling they are sending to a team! Otherwise you'll just be stuck. Forever.))

DISCUSS

[dramatispersonae]

FINAL ANSWERS

[dramatispersonae]

[ROUND TWO]

[dramatispersonae]

TASK

[dramatispersonae]

There is now a scroll of paper hanging from the copper bird's beak. With a grate and a squeal, the bird's head begins to turn in slow, jerky circles, so you can all read it (or have the words broadcast into your head, if you can't read.) Listed upon it are others' feelings towards your team.

that feeling you get if you're working together with someone and you just want to bump fists
moderation
mild admiration
the desire to paint your nails
a desire for you to take pride in what you contribute!
friendliness
understanding
the desire for you to go to a happenin' party at our place!
polite curiousity/a desire to get to know you better
"nothing" . . . as in, an absence of feeling, emptiness, the void
Full like you had a really big meal with all your friends for company, the best kind (think like the best Thanksgiving dinner ever.)

"Which came from one team? What sprang from another? How well do you know others' feelings for you? Discuss and decide."

DISCUSS

[dramatispersonae]

FINAL ANSWERS

[dramatispersonae]

[FINAL]

[dramatispersonae]

Your hands (or paws, or claws) pop free of the copper column. You can now see that the inside of it is filled with fire. The gateway back to the Ring appears.

"What do you feel at this point in time? Answer for yourselves now . . . you are free to leave without doing so, as well."

Re: DISCUSS

[lunarpsychole]

[oh GAWD I hate everything]

Re: DISCUSS

[doesnothappen]

...weird. Anybody have any particular teams they've got ideas for?

Re: DISCUSS

[glorious]

We have to share our feelings with them...That should be safe enough.

Re: DISCUSS

[glorious]

I'd like to send a pleasant emotion to Amethyst.

Re: DISCUSS

[glorious]

...Not your sort of game, I assume?

Re: DISCUSS

[doesnothappen]

[nods]

There's no team I particularly want to send unpleasant feelings to... not that I get along with everybody, but I don't think there's a whole team I don't like. And I want good ones for Peridot and Tiger's Eye for sure. Turquoise, too.

Re: DISCUSS

[doesnothappen]

You all right?

Re: DISCUSS

[lunarpsychole]

No. Ironically not. I don't know how much help I'm going to be, for a task like this.

Re: DISCUSS

[lunarpsychole]

I'm fine. I just don't think I'm going to be very helpful.

Re: DISCUSS

[glorious]

You don't have a lot of strong feelings for the teams?

Re: DISCUSS

[glorious]

I don't think we have any need to send unpleasant emotions today...

I would recommend 'confidence' for Peridot, or something along those lines.

Re: DISCUSS

[lunarpsychole]

I don't have feelings period.

Re: DISCUSS

[glorious]

...I see. My apologies.

Re: DISCUSS

[doesnothappen]

No thoughts on it one way or the other?

Re: DISCUSS

[lunarpsychole]

You're thinking about traits they could use for improvement?

Re: DISCUSS

[doesnothappen]

Hmm. It's supposed to be a feeling we have for them, right, rather than one we think they should have? So what if we call it "trust," or "the feeling of believing in someone"?

Re: DISCUSS

[lunarpsychole]

[waves a hand]

It's ironic, that's all. My perspective on this is totally different from yours.