Alexa has attended many rituals, and if there's one thing she's certain of, it's that the guest of honor is not supposed to hide in a corner, clutching a goblet between her and other people like a shield.

She's not supposed to be the center of attention! She's the background! She doesn't exist until she's needed! And everyone's come out here, for her! The've all taken time from projects and pursuits, all to put on a party in her honor! She wants to scream, to tell them not to bother! Go back to your lives! Stop wasting time on this! And yet, here they are, wrestling each other, performing dazzling displays of talent, a dizzying array of potential, all for her benefit!

She does her best to just focus on that. On shapes, on limbs. On what they are, how they are used, and not what they are doing.

They're only mock battles. Wrestling matches, blunted weapons, for the glory of the gods. And so long as she's not thinking of it as battles, she can avoid touching the spot in her mind that used to hold memories. Don't wonder about the usability of a limb in defense, or try to figure out a counter--just appreciate it for what it is. 

(She hasn't dared to think about wrestling. It's not battle. It's [i]not.[/i] She chose it, studied it, on her own. It's pure, unsullied. Nobody pushed her towards it. It lives in her head forever, so long as she never checks to make sure she still remembers how to do it.)

It's much better to think about what she's looking at. Safer. Think about the options available to her. Think about the Coherents, their boasting and actions and, and the.

Um.

The.

Oh gosh.

The sheer variety of shapes and forms on display--the oiled skin, the straining muscles, the screaming biosteel, slamming against and over each other? Big, strong? Sleek? Thick? Everybody has their own ideas of what beauty looks like, and somewhere a Coherent has made it a reality.

A dragon-headed form has Ramses in a headlock, but Ramses is fighting back with the tentacles--one arm is bound against the dragon's torso, and he's making a grand display of peeling the arms from his throat.

The crowd cheers as the dragon taps out, and she brings the goblet to her face in a rush. Miraculously, only half the drink sloshes over her, which, lemme just say? Nailed it, ace interaction skills.

She's pretty sure she was thinking something upsetting a few seconds ago, but this is much nicer.