Xaviers!

"Sirrah, deal with your own failings in your own manner, and I shall not judge you for it," Will frowned, looking up at the knight.

"If I fail, the whole world comes to harm," the knight says, dismounting. That action seems to start clearing a space in the area around them as people back away. Even off the horse, he's still a very big man, assuming there is a man under the armor. "I put the question to you, sir, are you looking to atone for your failings or wallow in self pity because it's easier than confronting them?"

"Tell me, sirrah. Is lack of respect for one's elders a cultural thing here, or is it a failing particularly unique to yourself?"

Will removed his helmet. "I shall wallow where I wallow, and atone for my sins in the way I best see fit."

"I will respect those who earn my respect and you are no elder of mine. I have no respect for monks who hide from their sins and you get no respect because you would rather hide in a closet and pretend not to be a real boy instead of confronting your failure." The earth under Will's feet ripples, tossing him up and over the edge into the now empty competition ring. The knight follows, stepping through the fence of the ring as if it was not there. "Galahad sat in the Siege Perilous, knowing it could mean his death, but he still sat.Your Siege Perilous is before you. Will you sit or continue to play the coward?" The Knight spreads his arms, leaving himself wide open.

About the time this was happening, the rest of the group was finding their seats, in the viewing box for this very competition ring.

Will landed with a heavy, clanging thump -- the result of being in unfamiliar armor. He slowly raised himself to his feet.

"I am no coward, Sir Knight.

...How do you know what I am?" he asked, as he began the arduous process of unbuckling his armor.

"I am the Green Knight, tied to the soul of the world and steward of the Pendragon souls," he says, "I took your measure the moment you entered this place."

"Green Knight," Will muttered, derisively.

"Then you know you had best stand down. I have no desire to hurt you, sirrah."

"Ooh, he's wasting no time." Shari notes from the viewing box.

"Go get 'em, Will!" Shari shouts very diplomatically.

"You're certainly welcome to try," the Green Knight taunts him.

"I did not come here to fight," Will said, finishing stripping off at least the top portion of his armor. "I have not come to judge you, nor this land you protect.

I will not start a fight with you. I will finish it, if needs be."

"Then finish it," the Green Knight says, swinging at Will with his fist.

At the last second, Will threw his hands up in front of his face, rapidly shifting them from plastic to solid steel. The impact of the blow slid him back across the dirt of the ring, grooves appearing as he tried to dig his greaves in to the ground to halt the momentum.

Will approached again, feinting to the left before trying to smash his steel fist into the side of the Knight's helmet.

The blow connects, rocking the Green Knight to the side a step. Will gets the impression he's grinning under his helmet. He circles left, dropping in a right hook feint before going for a body blow with his left.

Still going right from the momentum of his own punch, Will was slammed to the left by a solid shot to his midsection, the plastic deforming and leaving a large indentation on his left side.

Staggering back to regain his balance, Will backpedaled out of range of the Knight's fists. Shifting his steel hand into a more stylized hammer, the better for surface area-ing you with, he took a moment to gauge the Knight's defenses...and then shot his arms out, stretching them to try to make contact dead center of the helmet.

The Green Knight brings his arms up to block, softening the blow though it still drives him to one knee. He makes a grab for Will's arm, trying to pull him closer for another punch.

Grabbing Will's arm is fairly easy. Pulling him in, not QUITE so much, for as the knight pulled, the arm simply got longer and longer and longer, beginning to wrap itself around the knight like so much rope.

As it did so, and as it tightened, it lost some of it rigidity and firmness, acting more like a rubber snake as it tried to squeeze the knight.

"Two can play at that game." The Green Knight quits pulling, gesturing. The earth around Will pushes up like a pair of hands coming together for a clap with Will in the middle.

Will cried out in surprise as the earth rose around him, and brought one hand in front of his face.

The earth slammed around him, smushing him between the pair of hands. The arm around the Green Knight went limp.

The Green Knight untangled himself from the arm and approached the hands, gesturing to pull them apart.

The hands took a second to pull apart, as a smushed bit of clay was keeping them stuck together -- like gum between the fingers. With a loud squelching sound, however, the knight could pry them apart, to find a grey lump stuck to one of the two hands, with the arm sticking out of it.

For the moment, it didn't seem to be moving.

"I'll give you a bit to pull yourself together," the Green Knight says, turning towards the stands and looking at Vivienne, "You're late, girl."

As the knight turned his back, the clay shot forward, smacking into the back of the knight, looking for some cracks and seams in the armor to seep in.

The Green Knight jerks from the assault. There's plenty of seams to find, it is plate armor after all. Inside the armor, Will would find a man, but made of wood, not flesh as he was probably expecting.

The lack of flesh inside definitely surprised Will, but his action was fairly locked in at this point in time.

Once he found a foothold inside, he started expanding and expanding, filling the armor too, and beyond, capacity. The goal was to crack it like a pistachio shell.

Armor's just armor, sometimes even on an inherently magical being. Will's expansion snaps straps and other fastenings and all at once the armor falls off the Green Knight, leaving him covered all over in a Will suit. Will can hear a chuckling laugh, even though no one else can, "There's the inventive crusader who never quits. That's the soul the Galahad spirit was drawn to."

Will flowed off the knight and reformed -- dinged, dented and plastic still, but with a twinkle in his eye.

Seeing the less than human nature of the knight, Will reformed on of his arms into a large metal spike, and attempted to skewer the knight, right down the middle.

The Knight takes the blow, skewered through on the metal spike. He slumps for a moment, sagging on the spike. Then he lifts his head and his arm with a similar twinkle. The arm grows, a long sharp branch, spearing Will through the middle in the exact same place. The Green Knight coughs and smiles at Will, "There. Are we done now?"

Will coughed as the air was pushed out of him.

"I...if you've had quite enough, then."

"I think I've made my point," he says with a slightly wheezy laugh. The spear retracts from Will, turning back into the Green Knight's hand.

Will retracted his own spear -- notably waiting a second after the knight did, to prove his own point.

The hole through Will didn't close up, leaving a sort of gashed porthole through his torso, as he went about collecting the strewn about pieces of his own armor.

Narrator wrote:"I'll give you a bit to pull yourself together," the Green Knight says, turning towards the stands and looking at Vivienne, "You're late, girl."

She gives the two a moment to regroup before speaking. "My Lord, forgive me, too much is dependent upon this task, I refused to come alone. My timetable was set by my companions. For beings with such short lives they are unusually fond of their feast days"

"I've protected her as best I can. She called to me when she was first pushed across the Veil. Your timing may not be your own, but now they will come and darkness will ride with them." His armor begins to reappear on him, the old pieces crumbling into dirt and leaves.

"We were already harried on our way here."

"Yes, I can tell you've had an encounter with the Red Lord." The name creates a mild stir in the crowd. "The Round Table must be forged anew if we..." Something else was creating a stir in the crowd behind him as all the knight in attendance drop to one knee...

... revealing the form of a tall, blond woman dressed in blue. There's no mistaking who she is and she fixes the viewing stand with a regal glare, waiting quietly and expectantly.

"Hello, Mother." At the sight of the elder fey the war within erupted.

"Now! Welp!"
"Claim your birthright, child."
"It is but an embrace away."
"OBEY!"

Vivienne's hand moved to the bracket Erica had made and adjusted it to lay under the cuff of her shirt, directly in contact with her skin. The compulsions quieted.

Shari might not have any clue what is going on specifically, but whether she likes it or not, respect for someone who holds themselves like this woman clearly does has been drilled into her. She drops to one knee, her left arm in the small of her back and her right fist pressed down into the ground like she would be expected to in front of the God-Leaders of her own people.

"I'd imagine you knew we'd be coming eventually, Lady."

Sean doesn't kneel. Instead he stands quietly staring at Nimue and the weave around her.