Angela! Words fail me...as usual...LOVE!
Notes: Forget playing Bingo, happiness is this bit of silliness receiving such nice comments! Yeah you guys! Yeah! Also, I'm sorry, Sheppard might be a bit too happy, but let's pretend it makes sense, ok? For the sake of...well...of nothing, really.
Chapter the Third: Come together.
"This is…different," John said, raising his P-90.
Sheppard looked up at the quiet crowd. The stony stands towered above Teyla and himself filled with solemn-faced people. There was a small alcove, richly decorated, holding an equally ornate man and his court, it seemed. Tapestries hung from the banister upon which the man leaned. There were carvings above the only richly dressed group depicting scenes that did nothing to ease Sheppard's worries. The tiny carved people seemed to be screaming a whole lot, and that was rarely a good sign.
"Colonel?"
"Teyla?"
"I believe Ronon is standing across the way."
Following Teyla's pointing finger and the distinctive sound of Ronon's weapon charging, he saw his team-mate. "Good! That's good!"
"He appears to be alone." Teyla looked to the left and the right. "Rodney is missing."
"Well. Shit." Sheppard had taken a few steps toward Ronon, who had yet to see them, busy scanning the crowds. "Ronon!"
Ronon looked their way and started to move. Rodney could be seen, no longer hidden in his shadow.
"There's McKay!" Sheppard tried, hard, to see the positive. They were all alive. Good. They were all together. Good. They seemed to be standing in a Roman arena, which, John knew from his childhood obsession with gladiators, were usually filled with big, sword-yielding men, or lions. Or both. Bad, but maybe his luck was changing because the big sword-yielding man in the ring was on his team, he knew the lion was all roar and no bite, and hey, Teyla was here! His day could've been worse…and weapon-less.
Before the two halves of Atlantis' first contact team could meet, a commanding voice pulled their attention.
"I am Akhos the Taskmaster! I have brought Masterich Povall these Taskings."
The crowd pulled out short metal tubes and the silent arena quickly filled with the cling-cling-cling of metal hitting metal.
Akhos raised a hand to silence them. He was a tall man, with a bulging stomach that stretched his mustard-yellow tunic. He wore what Sheppard figured were tights of a rather disturbing brown colouring. Brown hair, longish but thinning, fell over his eyes as he spoke with expansive movements of his arms.
"We are gathered here today to celebrate the glory that is Masterich Povall; he, who has provided for us all, who has generously given his youngest daughter as prize for the Tasks!" At these words, Akhos sent a lecherous smile in the direction of the young girl to which John had paid scarce attention. She was too young, barely a teenager.
Sheppard couldn't help but smirk at the hateful glare the girl sent Akhos' way.
The man turned back to the crowd, choosing to ignore the girl's less than stellar reaction. "Rise in honour of Masterich Povall and the fair maiden that shall soon wear the Akhos name."
The crowd rose and the cling-cling-cling of metal returned. The man, whom Sheppard supposed was that Master guy, stood and waved regally. He wore a blue velvety-looking tunic that stopped at mid-thigh under a long, lighter blue robe. The shoulders pads were ridiculously oversized, making a sweeping arc each side of his head, rising about a metre in the air. Upon his head sat a top hat of the same velvety blue as the tunic. He looked completely ridiculous and a bit like a cross-dressing king, if such a thing had existed in ancient times.
Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon and McKay were nearing each other, having walked slowly across the expanse of the arena. It stretched further than a football field and they had been standing on opposite sides. When they were less than five feet from each other, Akhos' speech went from praising Masterich Povall to talking about them. No, not about them. To them.
"You! Masterich Povall's Taskings, as provided by myself, still where you stand!"
They did. It wouldn't do to anger a whole crowd armed with metal tubing. That was all Akhos had to say to them. He returned his attention to the crowd. Thinking there didn't seem to be any immediate threat to their lives, the team closed the gap between then and stood shoulder to shoulder.
"I present to you, the First Dyad and the Last Dyad! As you can see, the Prime-Taskings are vigorous and strong while the Sub-Taskings are meek and pitiable. They are in perfect disharmony; they shall work with a un-ease that will be most rewarding." Akhos paused, beaming at the crowd, at the court occupying the alcove with him, at the team, at the sand beneath their feet, at the sky .He beamed at everyone and everything. "It is now time for the Taskings to be given their Tasks!"
A door lifted, under the alcove holding Akhos and the court. Sheppard's stomach lurched at the thought of lions and giant armour-decked bloodthirsty savages fighting for their freedom. What came out was a lot less alarming.
"Ferris wheel!"
"That is not a Ferris wheel, it's the Wheel of Fortune, and will you get over yourself, you don't even like Ferris wheels! It's just a thing you do with the persona, pretend you like completely pointless childish things to get the women to melt!"
"Only you could cheapen a precious childhood memory with one sentence," Sheppard said, sighing lengthily to illustrate the great emotional distress in which he now found himself. "It looks like a Ferris wheel. Look, it has little benches."
"They're not benches and you're full of it. Precious childhood memory, yeah right, you have as many of those as I do!"
"What are they then, genius, if they're not benches?" John decided to let his precious memories lie.
McKay was silent for a moment, peering intently at the wheel that was being pushed their way. He finally reached a conclusion. "They look like treasure chests."
"Oh yeah! Treasures!" Sheppard was a bit too excited, considering their present position. They had been taken on a mission, sucked down strange tubes, woken up naked, with no memories of where they had been or how much time had passed. Sheppard had thought it had been a while, judging by the ravenous hunger he'd felt. Now it seemed they were heading for a whole lot of trouble, but…this was a little bit cool, wasn't it? If he read about this in a report, he would probably be jealous that he hadn't been there. Of course, how this would all end had the potential to change that.
"Sheppard," Rodney, the ultimate killjoy, said. "This isn't fun. This is a mission gone wrong. This is our possible death. This is me waking a naked Ronon. This is us coming out of water slides, without the water, onto the set of Gladiator. This is us not enjoying this."
"Yeah. Alright."
"Oh, don't give me that look! I didn't take your toy away! I just told you to stop running with scissors!" Rodney glared. Sheppard was prevented further argument by Akhos reclaiming his place in the proverbial spotlight.
"I present to you, The Wheel of Tasks!"
Rodney said, smugly, "See, told you. Wheel of Fortune."
"I don't think we're getting a prize."
Ronon and Teyla regarded each other before rolling their eyes, used to the nebulous TV references that littered the Earthlings' everyday conversation.
"My son, Akhos the Thirty-seventh, will send the Wheel on the quest for Tasks."
Excitement rolled over the crowd; this was a big event. Sheppard wished he understood a lot more than he did. He assumed he and Teyla would be sent out to fulfil the chosen tasks, as would Rodney and Ronon, and that was as far as he had gotten in his reflection when a young man, dressed in the same terrible yellow and brown colour scheme as his father, came from behind the Wheel and sent it whirling.
The crowd held its breath. The Wheel spun and spun and spun. Akhos the Thirty-seventh posed by it, drawing an avid gaze from the daughter of the Masterich. His long brown hair artistically fell over his green left eye as he slouched. His tunic, unlike his father's, sported a v-neck through which a pale, skinny, downy chest peeked. Long lanky legs were crossed, just so, at the ankles.
The Wheel stopped spinning; the son stopped posing and lifted the treasure chest. He walked to the team's emplacement, deposited the chest before Ronon and went back to the Wheel.
Akhos the Thirty-seventh spun the Wheel three more times and deposited three more chests before the remaining team-members. When it was done, he returned to his posing by the Wheel giving the spotlight back to his father.
Akhos grabbed it eagerly. "We shall now see what the Taskings will have the honour to accomplish! You! Prime-Tasking of the First Dyad, open your Seeker's Box."
No one moved. Sheppard wondered why people always assumed they wanted honour.
Akhos leaned over the balustrade of the alcove and pointed. "You! Prime-Tasking of the First Dyad, open your Seeker's Box!"
Rodney twitched and scratched his nose, but otherwise, no one moved.
Akhos leaned further and spoke louder. "You! Prime-Tasking of the First Dyad, open your Seeker's Box."
Sheppard had had enough. "We don't know what you mean!"
Akhos made a derisive sound. "Akhos the Thirty-seventh, indicate the Seeker's Box for the Prime-Tasking of the First Dyad."
Akhos the Thirty-seventh un-posed and strolled casually to the team. Once there, he eyed them suspiciously. He seemed unable to reach a decision and turned to his father. "Akhos the Taskmaster! Which is the First Dyad?"
Akhos the Taskmaster turned a bright shade of red as the maiden he sought giggled and the Masterich frowned. "The most impressive one, my son. The most impressive one is always the Prime-Tasking of the First Dyad!"
The son moved to stand before Teyla. His father's shout stopped his movement toward the treasure chest. "NO! No my son! The most impressive in stature! Allow not your lustful judgement to guide you! The knowledge you possess of the value of a man should guide you toward the one furthest from your Masterich!"
The son looked at the alcove where sat the Masterich. He looked at Ronon, who stood furthest away from said alcove. He looked back at the alcove, then back at Ronon.
Rodney was boiling. "Oh for God's sake! It's him! It's Ronon! He's the biggest one and he's furthest away from that guy." He grabbed Akhos the Thirty-seventh's sleeve and pulled him to Ronon. "Him!"
Akhos the Thirty-seventh smiled stupidly. "Oh. Open the Seeker's Box."
Rodney huffed. Ronon grunted and bent forward to do just that.
Sheppard felt the thrill of anticipation and looked at the treasure chest with eager interest.