D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Green --- 

Green resisted the urge to bite her nails. It wasn't something she'd felt compelled to do in years, but apparently this was setting her off. The inside of the cannon was actually pretty simple. There was a few different views. The first screen showed whatever was in front of the cannon, then the second showed a picture of the cannon from the side, with a matching one that showed the cannon from the top, both had a line that showed where the person being aimed was likely to go. The controls were simple as well. A big four button controller that was easy to grasp.

*Stupid cannon. Stupid unknown variables. Stupid pressure of needing to get two more points to win. Two points I could be getting if I just win the stupid match. Grrrr… I know I shouldn't worry, but Nixilei is exhausted, Gareth can't compete, and Kress is doing so well lately. I don't want him to be pressured into a 'win this so we win this' I mean sure, even if we lost everything if the points are spread out enough we can still win… 

But it's just not something I want to force anyone into. Kat… honestly we've got no idea how well Kat can do in water. The fact the can hold her breath for a while is either going to be really helpful for one of the tasks… or it's going to be useless because Thyme will provide an enchanted water breather or a potion of water breathing. 

I also don't know how good she will be in the water. Her wings will surely slow her down and strength isn't quite so easily turned into speed underwater. Honestly, I can probably move faster underwater using my boots. Of course, the limiter band plays a big part in that… but… hmmm… 

How will it affect her under water? Dammit all these problems with everyone else trying for the win. I think… I think I need to get at least second place here. Too much can go wrong otherwise. So I need to gamble a bit. 

I need to do as many front-flips as possible while trying for some of those side flips. Probably best to try and spin on the way out of the cannon even if I have to use a bit of magic to get the spin going and to stop. If it costs me some points at least I'll know. It's not like wind magic has to be particularly visible.* 

Plan in place, Green hit the button and executed everything rather well. The cannon launched slightly further upwards, but there wasn't much room to improve in that department. As soon as Green left the cannon she activated her gloves and started to spin. It was a little hard to keep track of how many rotations she did because she had to focus on everything else, but her guess was four or five. 

As soon as she felt herself dropping Green tucked in her legs and started to spin, while keeping herself pulled together. She was hoping that between the two she'd make a big enough splash to get good points for the judge. It was even harder to keep track of her spins like this, up and down lost a lot of their meaning as her body rolled in the air. *Damn. Going to be hard to compare this to everyone else…*

Green smacked into the water wither back. It was hard to really judge when that happened or how good the splash was, but the water helped kill her momentum. Green could feel her head rebelling a bit, but after her parents obstacle courses a bit of spinning was nothing so she righted herself and swam back to shore. 

Green felt the need to squirm or dust herself off as the judges pulled out their numbers. Judge One held up a 9, Judge Two held up a 5, and Judge 3 held up a 10. Green relaxed slightly upon seeing that and trudged over to the waiting area again, plopping down on the ground to rest while keeping the ocean and the judges in view. She couldn't let the slight nausea keep her from seeing what would happen next. 

*Nine, Five, and Ten. Good scores, Respectable scores… they're actually the BEST scores so far… but I just don't know where my points are coming from. Three has to be handing out points for forward spins. I refuse to believe otherwise… but what about the other two? I can't tell how my splash compares to everyone else because of all the flipping. It had to be at least as good as Bonas'… but that's just my assumption. Perhaps it's entirely unrelated… but that seems unlikely. Is there a limit on points? Is Two giving out a certain amount of points for the splash and then using other criteria for the last five? 

No way of knowing really. Though the nine points on the spins do make me believe One is giving points for those… but I'm very confused about how Two is scoring now. Nine points for at least four spins… what does that mean? Borgick and Bonas both got fives but Willow got a six from her single horizontal spin. 

So where are the other five coming from? Everyone's got it so far. Surely it's not something as silly as getting shot from the cannon gives you five points automatically. Urgh, this is so annoying. So much of it is just guesswork. My score is the best so far so I have to be on the right track… or at least, I'm somewhat right. 

But what can I work on to do better? More flips? More spins? I have no idea.*

Green watched as Vanya was launched from the cannon. The elf was emulating Green as best she could, managing a full four horizontal spins before transitioning into vertical ones, though unlike Green her form was quite wobbly as she completed her own set of forward spins. Vanya had time for five spins forward before she hit the water with a large splash. 

Green watched the judges curiously. 9 from One, 5 from Two, and… 8 from Three? Green felt a bit of her confidence crumble. Vanya had definitely done five forward flips. *So how are the points given out then? I'd have thought that five flips at two points each would get ten… or one point per flip would get you to five… but obviously both are those are wrong. Eight points? That just didn't add up. Even if they were able to use half points for things that should be seven and a half… unless it's seven and a half rounded upwards which gets you eight? 

Did I do seven forward flips though? That seems like a lot… and I'm just not sure I had the time for it. Damit, if anything I'm more confused about Three's scoring then I was before. It seemed simple. Do flips, get points… but now I'm really starting to wonder if I'm missing something.*

Green cut her spiralling thoughts short as Thyme said, "Ok, round one is officially over and the scores are as follows. In first place, we have Green with twenty-four points," Green wasn't comforted by her first place standing, it simply piled on her worries over winning the round. "Second place we have a tie between Borgick and Vanya at twenty-three points. Following on from that is Bonas in fourth with twenty points and trailing behind is Willow with fifteen. Vanya, you've got your second jump up as soon as you've recovered, take no more than five minutes to do so," 

Vanya gave a quick word to Willow before heading for the cannon. She launched herself from it, this time trying to get in as many flips as she could. Clearly using the momentum from the launch to spin herself forward as best she could. Green counted eight spins before Vanya unrolled herself and tried to get a spin. She managed one… barely just as she hit the water feet first and making a rather pathetic splash. 

1,3,10. Green didn't know what to think. *It's… it's the lowest score so far What the heck did she do to only et one point from the first judge! She didn't do anything too strange, and it can't be the fact that she only did one spin. Bonas did one spin and she still got six points last round. At the very least I'll admit her splash could use some work but… what is going on? How did I combat this? I mean, with at least eight flips to keep the ten points… but what… what the heck do I do for the other two judges? 

Is it worth doing a bunch of spins just to see if that gets my points up? No, they aren't certain points if I try to please the other judges. I need eight flips at least, and then I can try for other things. It's just going to be a pain in the ass counting them out while I'm spinning. Dammit, how am I even going to attempt that? Did Vanya know she did eight? Is eight even the right number? Could I get away with seven?*