RP Smash [IC/Conditional Acceptance/PG-16]

ChampionZero · February 12, 2017

Elijah looks like he's about to answer Cyan's question when he hears the last word. "KID?!" He half-shouts, an unreadable emotion in his. "Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa! Whoa." He holds both hands out in a "HOLD EVERYTHING" gesture. "Dude, did you just-- had better be at least-- to be calling me-- I stopped bein' a--" Elijah stops himself, realizing the total loss of composure he was experiencing.

He puts a hand on his face and takes a deep breath, his palm sliding down to hs chin. "Okay, fine, fine. I'm cool. I'm fine." He says quickly, taking another long sigh. "To answer your question, no. We don't necessarily have clans, _{though I did meet a Fiend-oriented Duel Gang during my pilgrimage...}" Another realization hits Elijah like a truck. "Hey, I never asked you: what kind of Deck do you run, anyways? I haven't seen anyone here even pull out their cards, what's up with that?"

Alaina · February 14, 2017

Sitting down, Xia seemed content to just be around the atmosphere of the whole place,only to really notice all the different kinds of foods that had been here when Aria brought her attention to it. Her eyes lighting up at it, she then looked to the girl who seemed confused by the dragon girl, asking if she hadn't ever been to a "bar" or "tavern" before. Thinking about it, Xia thought long and hard before shaking her head saying, "I don't think my old home had one, or if it did I can't remember. And my new home, well there was one around but I was never allowed to go with the others when they left." Her face had a bit of a huff to it as she said, "they kept saying it was to 'keep me out of trouble' or something, but they always seemed to be in a really good mood when they came back so I didn't get it." The annoyed expression left soon as she noticed that Angela was talking with someone else. Her eyes lighting up she said, "ooh, Angela is he a friend of yours?" Without waiting for an answer she looked to the furry man, waving to him saying, "hi Angela's friend."

LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow · February 15, 2017

Tes

The group around Tesability tried to understand what she was saying but, with how much she said and her speech impediments, it was difficult to understand. One young man did seem to pick up on something of her emotional state though. "Way to go Aagman, you made the little Dragon sad."

The tiger-man waved his hands in a slight panic, unsure how to deal with this. "Sorry Miss, didn't mean to offend you, just we don't know much about Dragons you see...er...want another chicken?"

The crowd around the area seemed to be thinning, not that it was large to begin with, now that lunchtime was passing by.

Aurora and Caleb

"Oh. I hope she's okay."

The four-armed woman frowned at the words but didn't say anything. She did watch the unusual interaction between the two. Only piping up near the end. "If you want a coat you'd have to go into the city to get it. I am afraid it would cost you though as only food and drink within the Arena is free for you today."

Bar Crew

As Angela walked up towards the bar there was a ringing noise, one of the patrons at his table not far from the bar was ringing the bell on it insistently. He was an older man, soft around the edges, with a somewhat drunk look about him.

In response to the ringing a girl came from the kitchen, a waitress with fox ears, who seemed to be in a rush. As she reached the table it was clear she wasn't comfortable with the man, while trying to patiently take his order. Once that was done she turned to head to the kitchen, only for him to give her a firm smack on the backside. She froze there for a moment before stiffly walking away.

Tegur, distracted by Angela, didn't notice this encounter.

"...Tegur, is that you? H-how did you even come here? No, why are you even here?"

"Can you give me some of the stronger stuff here? I'm in a partying mood now. And hey, maybe you can drink too with me!"

"Whoa there lass, ol Tegur can't keep up when you youngsters get so chatty ye know! Gwahahaha!" Tegur seemed to be his old self, however, there was a slight discomfort in his expression. "I'm here...well, that is, I was brought here like ye all. Jes fer a different reason. But enough o' that, strong stuff coming up! Ye be lucky today's a free day or it'd cost ye." He turned and riffled through some things until taking out a bottle of a dark liquid. So dark it was practically black, with something floating inside of it. "This is called 'Deep Spawn Rum' and it's got quite a kick even for me. I'll let ye have a taste and see what ye think, ow's that lass?" He poured a small amount into a glass and handed it over to her. "Sadly can't drink m'self, not for free at least, but lemme know how it is."

"hi Angela's friend."

"Ello there!" Tegur boomed, smiling. "Suppose ye can say me and the lass are friends, from the same Guild we are. Ye came in with the girl, so I spect yer her friend too aye? Best be careful with this one she's real stubborn when she finds somethin she wants, gwaaahahahaha." He looked a little closer at her and grunted. "Yer not a race I thought I'd see seen for a long, long, time, if I'm not wrong. I wonder..." He glanced at her watch, and the number on it, and chuckled. "O' course, that woman..."

👀 REP 👀 · February 16, 2017

It looks like the kid didn't take too kindly to the name. He couldn't help but smile as Elijah seemed to lose his sheet. "This is gonna be fun..." He thought to himself, devilish thoughts entering his mind. "Okay, fine, fine. I'm cool. I'm fine." He seemed to have calmed down from his little tantrum. "To answer your question, no. We don't necessarily have clans, though I did meet a Fiend-oriented Duel Gang during my pilgrimage..." Hmph. So it turns out that he hasn't heard of the great Demon Clan. Cyanthrax let out a sigh. The kid continued with, well... "Hey, I never asked you: what kind of Deck do you run, anyways? I haven't seen anyone here even pull out their cards, what's up with that?" He gave Elijah a confused look. "What was this kid talking about? Decks? Like, Poker or...?" Maybe he was a Pirate King of sorts. "I...have no idea what you're talking about there, Eli. Like a deck of cards, or...?" Before he could finish that thought, however, he was interrupted by the sound of a ringing bell. Almost immediately, a fox-girl in a maids outfit came out of the kitchen and rushed towards the person ringing the bell. The man in question seemed to be rather drunk - Cyan just shook his head, before turning to his pile of empty drinks. "I forget how easily you mortals get drunk." He though out loud, laughing to himself. His smirk quickly switched to a face of disgust as the man slapped the young girl's backside. "Scumbag..." He gave them a death glare, before taking another sip from his drink. "I guess its not that surprising, considering this is a bar after all." He had seen many similar situations unfold in many similar bars.

Tesability Black · February 16, 2017

Tesability was no longer aware of her surroundings as one of the beings around her dished out a scolding for saddening her and the odd mix of Cat and Human tried offering her another whole chicken to try and cheer her up. Instead, her entire form began to change...becoming more transparent and see-through as her appearance changed from what it was to a dragon-shaped collection of grey and white minuscule 1s and 0s rapidly changing from one and the other. The top of her head started to raise and stretch as something was lifting her by a single point before moving towards the nearest point of technology that didn't seem tainted by the 'stink' of magic, which happened to be an electronic cash register belonging to the odd-to-her hybrid.

Within roughly ten seconds, which was fairly slow for her, there was no more dragon in the middle of them. Instead, there was now a pair of sad-looking green 0s with a smaller dot in each of them acting as pupils with the phrase 'I miss home...' typed out next to them.

VCR_CAT · February 17, 2017

Aria

The waiter had returned with a drink for Aria, although it was milk. Aria took one more bite of her dynamite roll, and opted to drink the milk after she was done her food.

"I don't think my old home had one, or if it did I can't remember. And my new home, well there was one around but I was never allowed to go with the others when they left." Xia said, her face had a bit of a huff to it. "They kept saying it was to 'keep me out of trouble' or something, but they always seemed to be in a really good mood when they came back so I didn't get it."

Aria laughed nervously, noticing the old man in the bar harassing the waitress a little, scowling in his direction. "Yeah, it's... not always that great when it comes to those kinda drinks. Just... trust me on that," Aria said to Xia.

"...Tegur, is that you? H-how did you even come here? No, why are you even here?"

Aria watched as the conversation shifted to the Minotaur.

"Wait, you guys know each other?" Aria asked, and Tegur gave a little explanation on how they did. The three of them had some light conversation over their common origins, and Aria smiled but continued to eat quietly. It didn't seem there was anyone that she knew here, let alone from her world anyways. While there wasn't many people she wanted to see, it was still disappointing. Aria let out a sigh, but continued to eat her food, although that was starting to run short...

Andx · February 17, 2017

Aurora began explaining her power to Caleb and even went so far as to demonstrate it by freezing a portion of the food she'd gotten. More magic people. That only made sense. But then if everyone that had been brought here were magic people why was he here? He didn't have any powers to speak of. Regardless the girl's explanations of her powers fascinated him. She could freeze things but would also freeze herself if she tried to fully contain it so she would always be cold to the touch. She then took gloves out and returned her hand to the canine's head which no longer felt cold due to the accessory.

The woman running the foods stand behind them chimed in that they would have to go into the city to purchase any warm clothing and that it would cost them some of their points. Only food was complimentary today apparently. Aurora was insistent that she was okay but Caleb still wasn't entirely convinced. He looked at the girl naturally tilting his head to the side some. "Well if you say you're alright.. Just to be safe I think I'll stick around for a bit." the dog concluded. He'd have to take some time to see she wasn't in danger of getting sick from being so cold or he'd feel bad just leaving her.

"Oh right! I never introduced myself because I thought I knew the Tes that got brought here. Name's Caleb Reeve. Head of security for Hotel Atlantica, on the off chance you've heard of that place." he said somewhat proud of his position at the hotel the awkward circumstances to it all aside. He held his front right paw out to the girl as if to shake her hand of course she'd have to be the one to actually shake as his paw couldn't do much in the way of grip a hand.

ChampionZero · February 18, 2017

"I...have no idea what you're talking about there, Eli. Like a deck of cards, or...?"

Elijah gave Cyan a curious glance, but immediately after, a look of understanding dawned on his face, and he grinned. "Oh, I get it. You're from one of those countries that doesn't have Duel Monsters, eh? Weird, it makes you wonder how we're supposed to go at it in the tournament. Maybe Mauvache provides the cards?"

He scratched his chin. "I guess it's fair, everyone needs to have an equal playing field, at least at the start. But still, I would've liked to have the Igknights with me." He looked at Cyan critically. "Hm. If I had to match you up with a Deck, I'd probably recommend Red Dragon Archfiends. Raidraptors, I could also see, maybe." He waves a hand dismissively. "Ah, who am I kidding? That's just me, playing off of you being a demon and bearing some Mark of Pride. You'll find something that resonates with you. That's just how it works, I guess."

👀 REP 👀 · February 19, 2017

"Oh, I get it. You're from one of those countries that doesn't have Duel Monsters, eh? Weird, it makes you wonder how we're supposed to go at it in the tournament. Maybe Mauvache provides the cards?" Now Cyanthrax was even more confused. "I guess it's fair, everyone needs to have an equal playing field, at least at the start. But still, I would've liked to have the Igknights with me." Elijah looked at him critically, which he returned with a confused look of his own. "Hm. If I had to match you up with a Deck, I'd probably recommend Red Dragon Archfiends. Raidraptors, I could also see, maybe. Ah, who am I kidding? That's just me, playing off of you being a demon and bearing some Mark of Pride. You'll find something that resonates with you. That's just how it works, I guess." Now this kid was just talking gibberish. Raided Raptors? Red Dragon Archie Friends? Ignites? None of these words made sense. "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, and I don't think Mauvache is going to provide any type of cards to us." He let out a loud sigh. "I don't think this is the type of tournament you think it is, mate. Less cards and more, well..." He opened his closed fist, revealing a sudden bright spark that left behind a small flame. Juggling the small fire in his hand, he continued. "More fight-y, I guess."

Alaina · February 24, 2017

Aria seemed to think it was probably for the best that Xia hadn't gone, but she didn't really know what kind of drinks that the girl would be talking about. Nevertheless, her attention was then directed back to the giant fur man as he had mentioned something about being Angela's friend. She didn't quite understand his warning, but she just nodded saying, "alright." However, as he kept talking, her eyes immediately lit up as she heard him say something seeing others like her. "Wait you've seen others like me? I've never seen others like me. What were they like?"

"Gwahaha, they were...big, lass, very big. With huuuge wings!"

Xia seemed be taken aback by the notion of them having wings. "Whoooa, wings? I wish I had wings..." Sitting there for a moment, Xia imagined what it would be like to have giant wings the size of boats attached to her. Not even the guardian spirit had wings, and he was as big as they came. Regardless, she looked back to the furry man and asking, "so Mister, were there a lot of those things like me where you're from?"

Tegur leans against the counter a bit, preparing for a long story. "Not as such, no. But the ones that did exist were very impressive to say the least. I remember one time..." He then goes on a long ramble about meeting a dragon once and it chasing him across an entire continent twice over.

Being quite enraptured by the tale, Xia somewhat imagined a giant version of herself with wings chasing after the man, before he had finally come to the end of his tale. "Wow, that sounds like quite the story. So is it just sort of boring working here now?"

"Gwahahaha, boring, here? No, lass, always something going on here. But ye know, once you get to be my age ye want a little less excitement in yer life."

"Really?" Xia tried thinking of getting bored with all different kinds of adventures and experiences like that, but she just couldn't seem to fathom it. Regardless, she just looked happily back to the man before saying, "well, thanks for telling me the story Mister uh, Tegur." She then looks over to Angela saying, "man Angela you have some really cool friends." After that, Xia had ordered to get some food alongside her two companions, with the specifications of "whatever you have" and requesting some of the "strong stuff" that Angela had mentioned. While she had gotten what she requested, unbeknownst to her, Tegur had watered down the drink. As such, she simply chugged it down with no real issue, trying to figure out if she had liked it or not. While she could not come to any immediate conclusion, she instead dug into her food, shoveling it in with her hands one scoop at a time.

Yui · February 26, 2017

"Well if you say you're alright.. Just to be safe I think I'll stick around for a bit."

This dog was a good boy. Aurora was just about to tell him as much, but the dog then introduced himself before she could praise him for his dilligence.

"Oh right! I never introduced myself because I thought I knew the Tes that got brought here. Name's Caleb Reeve. Head of security for Hotel Atlantica, on the off chance you've heard of that place."

Caleb Reeve. She had to admit, out of all the things to name a dog, Caleb wasn't near the top of her list. She'd more likely name a dog something like Spot or Fluffy or some other name based on their fur. That was just the kind of person Aurora was. And he was the head of security in a hotel too apparently! Dogs must have been capable of some pretty impressive things where Caleb came from, for one to run a hotel's security. I wonder if where he comes from, dogs keep humans as pets? It was at that moment Aurora realized she too hadn't introduced herself. And Caleb's paw was out for her to shake.

Moving her hand from his head to take his paw and shake it, Aurora smiled and said "I'm Aurora Burns. Superhero-in-training at Mar-Vell Academy, on the off chance you've heard of that place. Nice to meetcha, Caleb." With that, Aurora got up to her feet, shaking the teensiest bit on the way up. Been standing still a bit too long I guess. "Man, we've been standing around here for a while. Let's get you some food too since I bet you're hungry, then let's explore this place. Seems like we're gonna be here a while, so we may as well get comfy, right?"

Maeriberii Haan · February 27, 2017

"Geez, I was really confused with this strange world! They say we can fight but then suddenly we can't, everyone just talk in circles! I can't even do what I like here! How do you even used to things here?"

"Never bothered me much where I was long as there was stories to tell and drinks to have, gwaahahahaha!" Tegur's expression then changed into something more serious. "It'll take a bit lass but you'll learn bit by bit, jes like I did."

Since that day she was able to drink for free, Angela wasted little time to start indulging herself in alcohol as she continued to chat with Tegur. Xia also chatted with him, and she seemed to want the same strong stuff she's drinking, much to Angela's worry but when she noticed that the fin-ish girl took it just fine, she became less tense and continued to enjoy her drink. She had little worries about her own wellbeing when it comes to alcohol. Aside from her holes allowing her to regulate it semi-easily as long as she didn't go too over, Angela herself had a good alcohol tolerance level. Of course, if you keep drinking strong alcohol nonstop, sooner or later it would get to you. After a while Angela started to feel the effect, but that didn't deter her from asking for it again and continuing her attempt to converse to Tegur. However, her tone now had changed from earlier.

"Will we really even return home at the end of this? I'm starting to miss Cherry Heart already..."

"I dunno bout that, never really wanted to go back, meself...Not that I don't miss ye lot. Mauvache says you can go back eventually I'd jes take er word on it." As he said this, Tegur didn't seem to look comfortable, and what he said concerned Angela. Especially his mention of never really wanting to go back. Gulping another glass, it took Angela a while to think about what did he mean by it. It felt odd. Why didn't he want to return? Did he just like this place that much more? She took another gulp instinctively, but at this point she was really having a hard time to properly put her mind together. She was drunk, she knew about it, but something just built up inside of her in the meantime.

"Eh...? Why's that?"

Tegur doesn't seem to want to talk about it, he starts to speak then looks off to the side and says, in a loud and somewhat exaggerated voice "Ah, Benny, 'ere again are ye? I'll be right there with ya." He looks at Angela "Sorry bout that lass, got to go, work to do, we can talk o'bit later maybe." and he goes off towards someone farther down the bar without paying her anymore attention. That act made her furious. Not at Tegur himself, but at herself. She just kept ruining things for herself, it's just so, so, so frustrating!

"Hey...NOW WAIT OVER THERE, OLD MAN!" Standing on top of the bar's stand, Angela yelled as loud as she could towards Tegur as she approached him. "You're just considering to leave us like that? After two years of all the things that happened?" For a drunk person, she was surprisingly steady in her steps as she went closer. "You never even answered my offer to you, and I'm still waiting on that answer now!" Her eyes were eyeing the elder minotaur's form. The anger and frustration that bloomed inside of her finally showed their true color. Angela was being overcome by her lust towards the minotaur.

Tegur is getting more uncomfortable and the waitress from before is hovering nearby. The robot bartenders also seem to be watching but there's something more dangerous about them. Tegur looks towards them and waves them off and then says to Angela. "Listen, lass, I can't talk now. Yer drunk, and I know drunk, so trust me when I say ye need to go rest. You there!" he calls to Xia. "Could ya help Angela get to 'er room?"

"Tegur, just answer me! Can you sleep with me just for one night?"

"Lass, that's not, no! Off with ye, yer not in the right mind."

"Please, just once!"

The robots are getting nearer and Tegur sighs loudly. It seemed that Angela's desperate pleading finally got to him. "Mebbe after another drink, what do ye say, lass?" He says quietly.

"I...I can work with that." Her voice still retained some of her desperation from earlier, but Tegur's words were enough to calm her down as she took a seat and waited for another drink. He takes a bit to fix her a drink, then hands it to her. It's clear, and slightly fizzy. Angela stared at the clear liquid before her. It was clearly different from the alcohol she took earlier, but...whatever it was, she thought that if she could just make Tegur to admit to his desires and got him to use her for that, it should be worth it. Was her motivation that though? She had no idea, she couldn't care less. She really just wanted to sleep with someone now. Angela grabbed the drink and went on to drink it all in one gulp. She was really determined on her goal this night.

However, mere seconds after the last drip entered her throat, she started to feel dizzy, and it didn't even take long for her to drop on the floor, completely unconscious from the drink Tegur gave her.

Perhaps it's for the best.

ChampionZero · February 27, 2017

Elijah looks unconviced as the bartender approached from his... resolved situation with Angela. "What, a gladiatorial battle ring? What are we, savages? Come on Cyan, get real." He turned to the bartender and leaned forward on the bar, his jacket sleeve still pulled back so his watch was visible. "Hey! You guys happen to have anything sugary I could drink? I figure even another dimension's gotta have soda."

The bartender, a sort of Minotaur tilted his head. "We got somethin like that... jus a second." He checked below the bar and came back up with a glass bottle, simply labelled "Cola." in cursive print.

"Sweet! Thanks. And could I just ask you a favor? Go ahead and clarify for the two of us," He gestured between him and Cyanthrax, "Just what kind of tournament ol' Mauvache is throwing us into?"

The bartender chuckled good-naturedly as Elijah went in for his drink. "That woman sure loves to keep things secret...ye, laddie, it's a combat arena."

"See," Elijah grinned, "What'd I tell-- WHAT!" He dropped the bottle, and it spun on it's base for a second before he panicked and scooped it up. "Like actual one-on-one combat?" He asked, prompting a slow nod from the slightly surprised Minotaur. Elijah began breathing heavy, and panic flew to his eyes like a flock of scattered sparrows. "I'm a Duelist! I sure as hell don't have weapons with me! How am I supposed to fight?! Damn it, my only skills are acting, Duel Monsters and minor acrobatics how the hellamisupposedto---!" He shut himself up by throwing back his drink and slamming it back onto the table. He was losing it. "I'm like 19, I can't afford to die, what if my family never sees me again?! I finally achieve my lifelong dream and now it's stolen away by some tophat-wearing madwoman and her extradimensional Murder-MMMPH?!!"

The bartender covered his mouth, cutting him off. Elijah had tears starting to well, and the desperation in his eyes was equally palpable to him. "Don't worry, lad, it's all virtual." The bartender assured him, pulling back his hand and patting the comparatively tiny fellow on the shoulder. "You'll be fine."

Elijah sighed with relief, and brushed his eyes with his sleeves. "O-oh. Of c-course. I should've known! She said we'd go back eventually, and she can't really do that if we die, huh? Man though... I need to get ready!" He stands up an jumps down from his stool, grabbing his drink.

"Thanks for the heads-up, uh.. what's your name?" Elijah asked, taking a sip of his cola.

"Tegur." The bartender answered.

Elijah smiled gratefully. "Thanks Tegur." And he dashed out, scooping up his duffel bag. "See ya!" He waved as he disappeared.

LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow · February 28, 2017

As the day went on for the brave fighters and their exploration of a strange new world, at least the exploration of one of the buildings in it, they would notice a lack of people around. There were workers and the occasional guest, all of whom would be curious about them, that they'd notice but it seemed that, at least on days without battles, the Arena was fairly barren. They would be able to go around more or less freely but all of them, around 9 PM, would get a message on their watches.

"Attention fighters. You are to go to your apartment rooms at this time to rest for the morning. Please see Gnash in the guard station to obtain your room number."

Once this was read there would be indicators on the watch's map where to go. If they dallied for too long one of the Arena's robots would come to them to ask them, repeatedly without any change in tone, to move along.

The fighters would have time to reflect on the day and what they've seen so far but they would be informed it would be best to remain in their rooms. They could wander the apartment, and its elevator, freely but the Arena was closed off.

In the morning they would be greeted with yet another message.

"Good morning, you are now officially employed as fighters at Mauvache's Arena. From now on you must pay for your own food but you will also be able to earn points, the currency around these parts, through battles. Here is your instructions on how to register a battle."
A message explaining the process, simply challenge one of the other fighters who hasn't battled and who accepts, or put your name into the daily "random bout" list which is accessible through the watch.

"But that's not all! You will also be able to spend points for special Event matches. These matches will cost points but also are worth more than regular matches. You are only allowed one per day and it is recommended you get some experience before challenging them as they are tougher and more complex than other matches."

A list would be shown to the contestants at this point.

Afterwords the message would continue. "And there are other things to earn points as well. For instance fighters are able to have interviews, take photos to be displayed in the Arena entrance so all may see the fighters (this is mandatory but may be done any time in your first week) and even create a commercial to advertise yourself! These will also earn you points as it brings publicity to the Arena. In addition there are many tasks the Arena, and people in the city, may have for you that can earn you more points. As you can see many opportunities are there for you in Mauvache's Arena. I hope you have a wonderful day."

A knock would sound on their doors soon after this, someone from the cleaning crew offering each of the fighters to clean up their room, though they would inform them that this is only for the first few days and after that it would require points.

VCR_CAT · February 28, 2017

Aria

Aria had downed her milk and thanked Tegur for the help, exiting the bar quickly as soon as one of the other competitors began to go off her rocker. After hearing so many of that girl's up-front advances, Aria exited the bar with a pink ting to her cheeks. This was when the intercoms blared through the halls.

"Attention fighters. You are to go to your apartment rooms at this time to rest for the morning. Please see Gnash in the guard station to obtain your room number."

Aria looked around, shrugged, and looked at her watch; the screen flashing directions to where she needed to go. Following the path, Aria came across a creature that seemed straight out of DOOM. What were they called, cacodemons?

"Ah, Ms. Aria, good evening! Here is your room number," The individual Aria assumed to be Gnash said, one of his many tentacles reaching for a room card and handing it Aria. Aria took the card with a hand that was quivering slightly.

"Th-Thanks Gnash," Aria replied, stiffly backing away from the booth.

"No problem, have a good night and good luck in the arena!"

"W-will do!" Aria walked down the hall as fast as her legs could carry her, and managed to find her apartment. Aria pushed her card into the slot, and opened the door; greeted with...

...well, nothing. The room was empty save for a bed that seemed straight out of a prison compound. Aria let out a sigh, the realization sinking in that life here was going to be harder than she expected.

"Well, I guess I'll be working my way up again, then," Aria muttered as she undressed and slipped under the sheets; pressing herself against the bed's cold, concrete surface.

Aria awoke the next morning early after a long night of tossing and turning. Her hair was all over the place, and there we bags under her eyes. A message played, informing them of how they would be registering for fights, what they needed to do to earn points, and generally how things would function. Advertisements, interviews, etcetera. So, they'd be like professional wrestlers, then? Barely looking at her watch, Aria input her name into the random bout. After doing so, she dragged herself out of bed and made her way to her apartment's bathroom, grabbing a fresh pair of clothes and some toiletries that they were at least gracious enough to provide her.

Opening her apartment's door, she was met with the cleaning crew.

"Sorry to disturb you ma'am, would you like us to tidy up while you're gone?" The cleaner asked. "For today it's free, but after this you'll need to pay points for our services."

"Yeah, go for it, not really much to clean anyways," Aria responded. "I was just on my way." Aria stepped aside and let the cleaning crew in, shoving her hands in her pockets as she made her way down the hall, and down the elevator towards the communal washrooms. There she stood in front of the mirror for a solid amount of time, looking at her reflection; what she looked like from now on. Her hair was a disaster zone from the previous night, and her expression looked dead and tired. Regardless, she grabbed her toothbrush and began to brush her teeth.

Maeriberii Haan · February 28, 2017

"Uh...last night..."

Angela woke up, sharp pain ringing on her head as she opened her eyes. She didn't feel like it was a normal hangover, it wasn't usually this bad. She mostly remembered talking with Tegur and continuing her effort to sleep with him, but that seemed to fail and she couldn't really think about anything that happened after Tegur gave her that clear drink. Just to be sure though, she momentarily opened her skirt and underwear and did a short checkup, and when she found out that everything was normal, she took a deep breath as she fixed her clothing again. Despite what Yelena or the Guildmaster said on how much of her thought process was a mess for thinking like that, she still felt that certain craving for assault. Ah, but perhaps fantasizing about it would be enough. They wanted her to change...even if they're not here, Angela felt that it's best to follow their advices.

A bit groggily, she checked for the messages she received, and apparently she was finally a proper fighter in the arena now. About time. After last night she really wanted to just return home to Arbolia, but constant fighting ought to help taking her mind off it. She wondered about whether she should go with randomized or whether she should ask Xia to be her first opponent when the message mentioned about event matches. Looking through the list, something immediately took her attention. The Ballroom one, to be more exact. She didn't think much about the point reward, but the summon reward...a thought passed her mind and a smile formed on her face. She went outside with renewed vigor, but as she opened her door, she noticed a cleaning crew. At first she considered to clean the room by herself...but she made quite a mess after being carted off here drunk last night so she had little choice on the matter. The crew mentioned that later on she had to pay for the service though. She shook her head before leaving and asking the crew a question.

"Hey, can I pay with anything else other than points?"

She didn't really pay much attention to the answer as she went towards the restroom area where she finally could relieve herself from last night, and the next trip would be...it was then she realized that she lacked the points for attending the event match. She looked around the message she just received to figure out anything, and sighed in relief when she noticed the photo session and commercial. It felt quite silly that those occasional gig at Wizard Weekly would end up being this...relevant. An unusual surge of confidence filled her as she checked her map for where the studio was, and went on to go there, going through the dreaded elevator again to reach the first floor, and went towards the reception hall afterwards. A bunny boy receptionist was there, and Angela found him to be quite fine. She decided to ask him for information, or perhaps maybe he could use some little help?

"Uh...excuse me, sir? I am looking for the studio, I am supposed to work on a commercial there, but I think I'm lost."

He looks around in confusion before pointing to himself. "Sir? Oh no I'm not a 'sir' I'm just Benjamin! If it's the TV Station you want it's not far at all, let me show you, okay?" He says in a somewhat overly loud voice. He leans forward and grabs Angela's arm and activates her map. "See you just need to go northwest past the small stadium a ways. It's a bit of a hike but you're one of the fighters right? Shouldn't be a problem. You'll spot it easy it's shaped like a big ol' arrow pointing to the sky." He smiles at Angela.

"Thanks! Hey, how long is your shift here? I think I want to talk more with you, just conversing, things like that. I just don't want to disturb you on your job, but perhaps after that, maybe we can go out together and have a bit of fun?"

"Oh good golly that's new, most people just come and go, ya know? Er, I'll be here till 6 today. I'm not sure I should be going anywhere though my folks might get upset."

"Aah, that is a shame, but I can understand that. What's your name? I'm Angela, it's really nice to meet you. I'm one of the new people Mauvache brings and i'm still trying to settle here, so having people like you really helps!"

"Benjamin, that's me, one and only. Gee it's sure good to see such a nice girl was brought here. Last...uh, well it's sure good!"

"...huh...? Ah, anyway, I need to go now. See you later Ben, and I'll show you about feeling good next time!"

It was a bit disappointing that it was the extent of how much can Angela could flirt with him, but it was satisfying enough and Benjamin was quite a nice person too. He even waved at her as she left, and she gave him a smile in the meantime. Angela made a note in her mind to talk with him more once she's done with her businesses. Following the bunnyboy's directions, she even utilized her Wind Magic to shoot herself forward as she followed the trajectory towards the TV station on the map. She arrived there not long after, and she was quite amazed at how complicated and peculiar everything there looked. Without being worried about getting lost now, she was able to appreciate the futuristic setting more. It was like what she saw on the streets too. She was amazed at how everything looks like outside. The roads on the sky, the flying wagons, there were so much things going on that had she was not in a hurry, she would've been walking around and just get herself lost in the midst of the city life. Even this building itself was really something, now that she finally could catch her breath to think on what she saw. It was taller than any trees she had seen even ancient ones, it was pretty much looking like a gargantuan sized arrow that would've been quite intimidating at any other time. Although...the green color of the thick carpet didn't really tickle Angela's fancy. It just look like puke.

As she walked inside, she noted that it was surprisingly lacking in people especially with how much people she saw outside earlier. She was considering going to the receptionist, but the four-armed woman was a bit too busy with answering four phonecalls at the same time, and seeing no other way as the only elevator was labeled staff only, she went up the staircase. It seemed like it made the few other people there surprised, but she kept on going, finding various rooms like actor's room and other similar rooms, and her journey was then stopped by one of the employees who noticed her there.

"Erm, can I...help you?"

"Ah, I was being notified that I am to make a commercial here, however I have no idea about where is that."

"Er, that should've been...do you have an appointment?"As they talk someone comes screaming, hair on fire, into the staircase running down stairs."Damn method actors" he mutters

"...What...wait what is that?

Oh, sorry, sorry! Right, I think it was Mauvache that directed me, I was supposed to help making a commercial of the new arena fighters...I think? The message sounds something like that."

He dramatically falls backwards. "Oh I'm so sorry!" he says, "Come with me you'll want to talk to a director." He picks himself up and leads Angela to an elevator, clicking one of the buttons for one of the upper floors. "Before you get there just know the directors can be....strange."

"I've met my share of strange people." Angela smiled at him as she followed the man, confident that anything that waited for her would be able to be handled by her.

The elevator seems to shift around, moving up and to the right after a while, seemingly on its own volition, and then it stops and opens up into a mostly dark room with a man sitting on a chair with his chin on his folded hands, wearing glasses. He doesn't glance up and just says "So you want to make a commercial? Do you even have a script, a setting, anything? You came here pretty early." He looks at Angela. "GIVE ME YOUR IDEAS!" He shouts.

"E-eeeh?!" Angela was of course quite surprised. She didn't expect that kind of welcome, although most importantly, she realized that she came there really unprepared. She thought she was just going to pose for the commercial shooting, not actually design the whole commercial itself. She reeled back for a bit, before trying to get her composure back. She was on the verge of another breakdown now, but it'd just be a damn shame if she just flopped here. At the very least she should try out designing a commercial. Like, if she failed she can just blame Mauvache for asking the contestants to design the commercials. She took a deep breath before approaching the stern-looking man.

"Give me anywhere to write. I have a concept in mind."

It took her quite a while to finish, and the director was looking quite impatient at her, which somewhat annoyed her. It's not often she felt annoyed, but this once she just wanted to yell that it's Mauvache's fault she didn't have anything to write on when she got transported here. She asked the employee that came with her about a few things about making commercials, and after what was like twenty minutes, she managed to finish her draft.

It was more of a diagram consisting of scenes and transitions really, instead of written plans, but that's not too important.

"Alright, so here is the plan." Laying out the schemes and diagram before the director, She was feeling somewhat nervous, and it wasn't really something she put much thought on, but given the time, it was the best that she could. Trying her best so that her voice didn't break as she did her explanation, she explanation the schematics between the scenes, and after she was finished, she felt like her life had been sucked out by an incubus, barely capable of standing as she tried to keep her gaze on the director.

The next moments felt like eternity. The director stood up and got closer and closer than her. It was not her physical self that was at risk her, so Angela started to feel worry as he got closer and closer. He was really tall, more than seven feet tall. Towering over her small frame like that just added several tons of pressure into the room. She couldn't read his expression. Did he like it, or did she fail utterly? Success or not, while being stared like that she was barely able to focus. She was too afraid for the man to open his mouth, just because of the possibility of rejection. If she failed...if she failed...

"It'll do."

Angela was barely able to react to those words, her eyes spacing out. Seeing that, the director went ahead and ushered her towards the filming studio, where she would put her ideas into motion. Over there she was still frozen, unsure on what to do especially with the earlier tension and shock. After a few minutes of inaction, it was then that the director, who was watching her with a hand on his chin in deep contemplation moments ago, out of nowhere put a hand on her shoulder. "Speak. Let voice your ideas. Do not let your imagination go to waste. GO CHILD, LET YOUR IDEAS FREE!"

"A-alright, sir! I will do my best!"

His words of encouragement, as out of nowhere and unexpected as those were, was really appreciated and helped. She took some times to take a few deep breaths, before going ahead to coordinate with the crew on the studio. Sorting out the details took longer than she expected, but she was being carried away by the rhythm, so the passage of the time held no more meaning to her as she was deep in what she was doing. She kept talking and helping with the direction, and suddenly, it was already time for the shoot.

First scene...the spear surfing.

"Engage the virtual display!"

Technology was amazing. Just by pressing a button, she was transported into a desert. There was little time to marvel though, and Angela went on to cast her Wind Magic to lift her upwards. Casting the same magic onto Gungnir, it took her a few tries to get it under her correctly. Balancing was easier than that, and with that, she was ready. With a flick of her hand, she activated a continuous blast of Strike Air at the back tip of the spear, and she rocketed forward through the desert. She tried her best to maintain a decently enticing pose while keeping her balance, which was easier said than done, but she felt that she managed to do it when she felt like she's losing altitude from her magic fading away. Moving following her instincts, she jumped from her spear, doing an acrobatic flip to grab the spear mid-air, and landed on her two feet with her spear helping her to be steady. Perhaps she screwed the pose here a bit, but that shouldn't be a big problem.

Upon her gaze, several virtual robot mooks rose from the sands. She responded by pointing his spear towards them in defiance. It was responded with a barrage of fire from the mooks, but at that point she activated Invisible Air to cover her entire body, and she slipped away from slight, rushing towards one of the robot mooks and pulled her sword. Her Invisible Air broke by then, but as she sheathed her sword again, the robot mook she faced suddenly were sliced from three points at the same time before getting destroyed by the fires of its allies as they started to shoot at her too.

She ordered a cut at this time, mainly since normally she wouldn't be able to activate Invisible Air that much in a short time period. After resting, the filming continued. Angela activated Invisible Air again, using it to distance herself and disappear from the scene practically, only to appear later on the air as she took a boosted leap. Gungnir on her right hand, she was in the position of using its capability as a destructive javelin. As she did so, the holes behind her opened while she channeled energy from her alternate selves to power the attack. The camera should get this part right. It was soon that the spear was launched, firing at an insane speed towards the robot mooks below, and created what was basically an explosion on the sand with how much energy it had.

Angela felt really drained after that, but it wasn't over yet. She asked for yet another cut, this time so she could rest and regain some of her energy in continuing. Fifteen minutes later, she resumed the filming, just cutting ahead to the part where she rushed down from her floating position, grabbed the spear she threw earlier on her landing, and boosted her speed using Strike Air and just wail on the remaining robot mooks at faster and faster speed, yet oddly no damages were done to them. Seemingly satisfied after, she disappeared with her weapons, and she reappeared somewhere else, facing the opposite of the robots she just attacked. They turned around to start shooting again at her, but as she blew a kiss towards the camera, the attacks she did earlier finally finished their lag and crushed their metal body, ending with a big explosion.

"Whether it's the battlefield of love or war, passion wins everything!

I am the Scarlet Flower of Arbolia, Angela Silkans. Within my spear, lies the proof of the strongest. I'll be waiting of any challengers on the Arena~!"

👀 REP 👀 · March 5, 2017

"EH? Wateva punk..." He blurted out as Elijah left. He turned to his pile of drinks, then back to the drink he had in his hand. The other contenders were also leaving - one of them blacked out before being escorted out. He got up from his seat, having a bit of trouble standing straight. Despite stumbling about a bit, he managed to get out of the building without falling over. "Peh, Ahl have ta r'member to order somethin' stronger next time..." He thought to himself as he stumbled around the hallways. Suddenly, his watch started to ring. Pulling it up, he read the message on it.

"Attention fighters. You are to go to your apartment rooms at this time to rest for the morning. Please see Gnash in the guard station to obtain your room number."

Alongside the message was directions that would lead him to where he needed to be. He followed the watch blindly, bumping into the walls and, well, not much else. Eventually, however, he found himself in front of something that seemed to belong with him back at home. "Ah, Mister Cyanthrax! From the looks of it you've had a good evening!" The floating head let out a hearty laugh. "Anyways, I got your room number right here." It didn't take much of a genius to guess that this floating mess was Gnash. Cyanthrax grabbed the card out of one of Gnashes many tentacles. "Thanks, capt'n!" He flashed Gnash a pair of finger guns as he walked back, which Gnash responded with a slight chuckle. "Good luck in the arena tomorrow!"

Eventually, he stumbled his way to his apartment. Actually, apartment was too generous - it was more akin to a prison cell. Cyanthrax shrugged; he had personally been in worse cells than this one. Without much thought, he tossed himself onto the bed and, very quickly, fell asleep.

Cyanthrax woke up the next day with a slight hangover - nothing he couldn't handle, but it would make the morning just a bit annoying. Stretching his arms, he checked his watch, which had another message on it. This message was substantially longer than the other one, and had useful information in it, including a list of the events that they could partake in. Almost as soon as he was done reading the message, he heard knocking on his door. Swinging the door open, he was greeted by what he assumed was some form of cleaning crew, who informed him that free clean ups were only temporary. "Go nuts." He told them, before leaving the crew to their own devices. As he was walking down the hallway, he started messing around with his watch. "Guess I'm officially a fighter now, huh?" He thought out loud, checking out the event list in more detail. Much to his dismay, there wasn't much he could do with his measly 50 points. He took a look at the non-Combat list before quickly disregarding it. "Well, if I'm a fighter..." He navigated the menus until he got to the random list. Without any hesitation, he placed himself in the random queue. "...might as well start fighting, huh?" By the time that he placed himself onto the list, he had made it to the elevator. Luckily, the hallways were mostly barren so he didn't crash into anyone while his face was glued to his watch. With a press of a button, he made his way towards the bar again, not having any real set destination to go to.

Maeriberii Haan · March 5, 2017

The first shoot was a lot better than Angela hoped, however, a few more re-takes were necessary, and it took most of her time afterwards. She felt like hours had passed, and it was then that she realized that she was starting to lose her focus, perhaps from the fact that she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday. She finally called for break, and went to sit on the side, looking really drained. The director was nearby in the meantime.

"Is this your first time? I've seen people do fifty of these in a row before collapsing. You know, if you worked on your stamina, perhaps you could make a career out of this." His glasses flashed as he let the thought sink in on Angela.

"Heh...funny you say that..." Her being tired made it hard to make a more complete joke regarding her stamina, though she decided to settle it with what's she's really thinking. It's a bit improper for that joke in a professional scene like this. "I haven't really eaten much lately, the experience on being transported here is still somewhat overwhelming me."

"Transported...?" He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Actors must take care of their bodies and eat regularly. I present to thee..." He gestured grandly with his arm, making a sweeping motion which ended with his hand by Ciela. There's an apple in it that wasn't there when he started the motion. "Art cannot be stopped by mere hunger!"

"Wait, how-" Ciela shook her head, realizing that she was being impolite. "Thank you for this. You're right, it would be silly for hunger to stop me like this." She went to grab the apple from the director's hand and happily took a bite from it. It was quite a nice apple, better than what she's used to back in Arbolia. She felt a bit of her stamina returning, but she was still feeling hungry, understandably. After eating and resting for a bit, Angela was visibly looking more chipper than before. "So, which shot still need a retake? Let's get this done, shall we?"

The director went to review the shots, but in the end, he told her that it was already good enough. He handed him the files, and went to tell Angela about where she should go next. The final part was editing the commercial, and she had to take the stairs for it. After going up for a few floors with the help of her Wind Magic to not tire herself too much, she was met with a floor with a really long corridor with many doors. Most were labeled as Editor, but with empty nametags, except one. It was labeled as Spider, and that name made the girl cringe for a bit. She wasn't sure about why, but an unpleasant memory passed through her mind as she saw the name. Perhaps she was overusing her holes and started feeling its effects. Recovering from the odd moment, she knocked on the door.

"It's unlocked."

"In that case, I'm going in." She pushed the door open, to meet a man fiddling with a lot of futuristic-looking screens, who seemed to be too busy to deal with a random nobody like Angela."You are Spider, right?" She paused for a moment. She wondered whether it was the right idea to approach him at this time. "I am here to ask for your help to finish something."

Hearing her, the man paused at what he was doing, and turned around to see Angela. He pulled his visor down to reveal red eyes underneath it. Between the hairstyle, the haircolor, and now the hair, Angela felt that this man somehow resembled her physically. That was an amusing thought.

"You and everyone else. Is this business or a personal visit, Twiggy?"

"Business, I think. You're the editor in this place, right?" Ah, Twiggy. That reminded her on how little care she had given her body lately. Her latest flings had all been mentioning that she was really thin, although not really skeletal yet thankfully. Even if Spider meant to say that to rile her or just as a show of annoyance, Angela could only smile at that mention.

"The one and only." He says with a mixture of pride and annoyance.

To tell the truth, the young man was proving himself to be quite irritating just from the three sentences he said so far, although Angela was more busy in thinking on what should she do to win a favor from him right now to be annoyed, just so she could leave early. Even after the apple earlier though, she needed something to eat, but before that she needed the pay from this first. She figured out a bit on what she should say before she started speaking again. "I really need you to help me with the final editing for a commercial. I haven't been here for long, but I assume with you being the one and only editor here, surely your work would be something quite admirable, right?"

"More than admirable." He said, then a beat, proving that he's unfocused. "Apparently so admirable I raised the bar or something." His eyes flicked back to Angela, looking up and down. "Commercial. You're one of those? Huh, interesting." His tone didn't hint at interest. "Yeah I can help you with that."

Well, at least he was willing to help.

"Alright then, here it is." It was a bit worrying and embarrassing for Angela to show the result of the shoot earlier, especially to someone as picky-looking and critical as the man before her, but for the sake of getting this over with, she went ahead and showed the earlier recording to Spider. She was really hoping that he didn't go into a tangent critizing the shots there, but silently the girl tried to prepare herself for whatever to come.

"They used that crappy scenery device again? Don't they know by now I can recreate it better..." Analyzing what he saw, Spider was clearly grumbling a bit while looking at it. "Gonna have to redo that myself." At least that wasn't aimed towards her, Angela thought. "Did they really let you use this pose?" he asks but clearly is only speaking to himself. "Fine I can fic that up too...maybe put these bits together...." The air became tenser and tenser, despite it was clear that Spider was only talking to himself. "And they didn't even use cameras F or G...? What were they thinking? ...Okay no no I can get the angle from these..."

He then looked up at Angela. "You're still there? You can watch me if you want but it'll be a while. Less time than the others but still not instantaneous."

"Yes, I will be here. I am not in a rush." She's lying, she was still really hungry, but something about how he was working fascinated her. Perhaps looking at him work would help her adapt better on this world.

"Sure." he said as he looked back to his work. "I'd want to watch me, too." He continued working, fingers moving lightning fast across the multiple screens that were all popping up. "So since you're here why don't you tell me what you're going for here." He pointed at several poses and actions. "You want to be cool? Or provocative? Looks to me you can't decide between the two."

Can't I just be both? Angela thought. It was a very valid input however, and Angela took some time to ponder on it before giving her answer. "The former, mainly. I can't really figure out what lines to say during the recording, so I just go with that." She paused a bit, thinking whether to add more to it. "And I guess...a bit of a bad habit of mine leaked out right there."

She shook her head a bit. She really shouldn't even dare trying to follow Lily's style. Even now she really had nothing to show by being that provocative anyway.

"Probably for the best, Twiggy." He made some decisive and confident looking movements and a smile appears on his face. "Ya know." He said absently. It's unclear if he really wanted to talk or if he just liked his own voice. "Gonna need to work hard. Spear user. Last one was really popular. Gonna be hard to top that."

"I...see." Maintaining confidence at this point was really hard. It would be quite a shame if she broke down here, and that would go against what Yelena and the guildmaster asked her to do all these times. "I will do my best in that regard."

"Good for you Twiggy." He said, leaning closer to the screens and speaking half to himself. "If you want to wait it out you can gonna be here the rest of the hour."

"It's fine, I'll stay here."

And so, Angela waited for Spider to finish the editing, braving her own hunger and the tension on the room for close to an hour. The man was definitely fascinating, although it was clear that the only think he loved was his job. Ah, if only she could talk more to him outside of this context...As she thought about that, she admitted to herself that she was unsure whether she wished that because she pitied his overworked self, or it's because of the pressure on the room made her wish to let loose with this man.

"Alright, I can hand it over to the big cheese if you want to head out of here." Her thought was snapped when Spider talked again. She tried to gather herself a bit to not be seen as someone that had just thought about improper things with her conversation partner.

"Where should I go next after this?"

"You should be fine with what you got unless you want to do more. If you need me to I can send you a message when it's all ready to be sent out, so you can give the okay." He didn't seem too enthused about asking permission for something. Angela nodded at that and asked for him to notify her when the news hit, so in response he asked for her watch. She extended her arm to his side, and he tinkered with it for a bit to add his contact there.

"Thank you for this, Spider."

"Just doing my job."

Out of the building, Angela was feeling a lot hazier than she should. She pondered about whether she should go to a park to rest, or to find any food. The pressure she was suffering was still messing with her mind, and the thought of living up to the previous spear user in this world ended up bringing back those thoughts again. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that she shouldn't care that much about things happening in this world so she could return back home fast, the thought kept on haunting her, and she felt sick of it. She needed a distraction. On her way, she saw a food stall near the streets, and apparently it sold something that looked like meat and vegetables between two slices of round bread. Ah, it was the legendary Volcano Bakemeat, the local food of the southern Arbolia! Although it was labeled as burgers here, Angela decided to buy two for herself before moving on.

Not long after, she saw a building labeled as Karaoke. Curious about what it was about, she decided to try checking out the information of the place on her watch as she ate her bakemeats on the roadside. Apparently, it was a place where one could rent a room where they could sing many songs with guidance from a certain kind of machine, while also drinking a lot in the meantime. It felt like a weird experience, but it had been long since she last sang. She thought that perhaps it could be a fun distraction, and so she entered the place and rented a room for two hours.

Once inside, she sat on the comfortable sofa as she saw the screen before her. As she waited for everything to be prepared, she decided to also register herself as a participant on the random fight pool on her watch. Waiting for the news could be very nerve-wracking, so the more she could do before the news hit, the better.

Tesability Black · March 6, 2017

Within the register, Tesability found herself plopped on the black ground with head on crossed-over paws, sitting in front of a tiny screen that was her only view outside as well as the only light into where she was. In the darkness did the tip of her tail fidget to and fro, and she looked down upon the featureless ground with deadened black eyes.

She had no idea about the passage of time until the strange watch just passed her right paw began to beep.

"Attention fighters. You are to go to your apartment rooms at this time to rest for the morning. Please see Gnash in the guard station to obtain your room number."

Lifting her head to better look at the device, she glanced into the darkness beyond the screen...and realized that she didn't know what she was supposed to do. The whole concept of having to deal with these odd bodily functions was still a shock to her.

How could others handle such odd distractions? And on a near-constant basis, no less?

Looking back down, she saw points on a map showing up on the screen of her. As she wondered the fastest way would be to get to one of those points, lines became drawn up on the map and a swirling white portal suddenly opened up next to her. Realizing that this was how the wiring systems of the world manifested connections in spots like this, she took a deep breath and flew in.

She was shot out almost like a rocket when she got to where she was directed earlier. If she had not been braced to exit, she would have wound up snout-first against the wall, but instead she caught herself and landed upon her paws before looking around.

"...well, that's an interesting trick there." Tesability tilted her head slightly at the new voice. "Keeping that in mind for the future." She turned her head towards the source before pawing up towards it and sitting in front of it with a confused expression on her muzzle.

"...wha ish yu?"

"Me," it asked in response. "I'm Gnash and I'm here to give you your room number...you don't have fingers, do you."

She looked down towards her forepaws, waving her claws up and down momentarily. "Ai nu dink sho."

"...huh." A tentacle rose to its equal to a mouth as the monstrosity thought before snapping with the same tentacle. "Think you can jump into this really quick," it asked while pointing at a device it was holding. "I have an idea."

Tesability was already digitizing in front of him, raising into a trail of 1s and 0s before entering the device he was talking about...

She re-emerged within another blackened area, but this time, part of the area was lit to show a field of blue light.

"I've got the code for your room right here. I can quickly program the lock to your room so that so that, instead of a card, you can swipe a claw through the keyreader."

"...yu gonna pwogwam me?"

"Only adding the code for unlocking your room, no worries."

A look of worry momentarily floated past her face before she reached out towards the spot of blue. Upon touching it, the blue flashed brighter for a moment before pulling itself into the claws on her paw.

"Alright, you should be go...also, if you're gonna hop through my tech like this, a warning would be nice."

"Otay."

With a hop did she leave Gnash's device, scrambling towards the spot that was flagged as her 'room'.

"Howp eet no get scwambled," she muttered to herself as she extended a single claw and slid the tip through the odd device by the door and opened it after pushing down on the handle and pulling it back.

The room itself was...empty. Almost reminded her of the many barren places among the Internet, except for the coloration, that was. Her home was different colors of green, this was...

...nothing but white.

"...wha' Ai du hewe?" she asked to herself as she sat down on her hindquarters, moving her tail to avoid the door closing on it. There was nothing here, but what looked like a...

There was a slab of white raised off the floor for some reason. Tesability pawed over towards it before placing a paw upon it.

Hey, it's soft!

Pulling the paw off, she studied it for a moment before looking around the room...

...and seeing a whole lot of literal nothing. A whine escaping her muzzle, she grumbled under her breath before looking back at the rectangular slab of white softness. Now that she thought about it, she would recall her old partner disappearing for hours before finally returning. Something about going to 'bed' and 'sleep'. Computers did have a 'sleep mode', so maybe...

She hopped up onto the padded rectangle, sinking slightly into it. Letting out an 'eep!' upon almost losing balance, she laid down upon it and lowered her head.

She was out almost like a light.

Tesability tossed and turned in her bed while she slept. For most of the night, she was fine, but at one point she caught whiff of something...odd...as she rolled over. Upon doing so did she feel the sensation of something wet upon part of her backleg.

Cracking open her eyes, she caught sight of a sliver of light entering the room through the window and the odd smell became more noticeable, along with the odd wetness. She looked down towards the spot where she felt it and...

...wasn't this white when she laid down on it?

"Good morning, you are now officially employed as fighters at Mauvache's Arena," she heard more in her head than from the watch. "From now on you must pay for your own food but you will also be able to earn points, the currency around these parts, through battles. Here is your instructions on how to register a battle." Scratching a claw against the top of her head as she let out a yawn, she hopped off the bed, trailing a little of the odd color behind her. She brought her nose close to the brown and took a sniff...

...before immediately pulling her head away. "PEEYEW, dat'sh wowsh den a Eawff Swaim!" she ended up exclaiming, catching the fact that some of that brown was on her in the process. She tried shaking it off and surrounding herself with electricity for a moment to try and fry it off, but some of it was just stuck to her. "Wha' ish dish?! Ish dish bad?!"

She was in the middle of trying to shake the odd smelly brown off a backleg when she heard a knock on the door. She was still shaking a leg in the air when she reached over and pushed down on the handle to let in the knockers.

"...oh, my goodness, what happened in here?!" The female person that had walked in had eyes widen at the scene before, cringing a bit at the smell.

"Ai no now," she admitted before gingerly let her paw back onto the ground. "Ai no now wha' dish ish," she whined.

"Oh, my, you need to be cleaned up, one second." Moving towards to entrance, she shouted, "I need some help over here, this one made a mess of themselves!"

Though she knew not what was meant by that, her leaf-like ears lowered in embarrassment from the shout. Soon a few other female persons plus a male one walked in. While they took care of the bed, one of the female persons seperated before carefully touching her by the back of the neck.

"Let's get you down to the bathrooms to clean up."

On the way, she had but one question.

"Wha's a 'baffwoom'?"

VCR_CAT · March 6, 2017

Aria

Aria finished brushing her teeth and other businesses she needed to take care of in the main bathroom and made her way to the shower room. It was there that

a smell struck Aria's nose, a strong one that she had not experienced since before being in Lore. It was amazing how even the small experiences from before the lock-down now felt so new to her. Aria looked over to the door and saw the dragon-like creature from before being lead in, covered in what Aria could only assume was what she thought it was. Aria remembered how she appeared in the mirror; the disheveled hair and the dark bags under her eyes. Right, not one to tease others on appearance.

"The shower's are those stalls right there," Aria said, point out to a few rows of stalls separate from the regular bathroom stalls. "I'm sure it'll wash off." Aria was still checking out the showers and the compartments; figuring out how everything went. Hopefully the dragon wouldn't need an instructional over the stalls, as it was too early for Aria to figure it out herself.

Alaina · March 9, 2017

While the dragon girl had been having fun with her fellow fighter friends at the bar, all good things had come to an end. As the intercom played telling everyone to go to their rooms for the night, Xia sighed in disappointment. While she was sad to end her activities, the intercom did tell her to go see Gnash, and the weird eye fish ball thing was quite friendly. So, getting up from her seat she then waved to the fur monster man saying, "it was fun meeting you." Looking over to her friend she tried to shake her awake saying, "come on sleepy sleepy we gotta get to our rooms." While shaking her, the girl had no real response, to which Xia looked at her and then snapped her fingers in realization as she remembered that this was how some of her other friends were after they came home from the bar. So, not worrying too much about it, she picked the girl up with arm, throwing her onto her shoulder and carried her out.

Navigating through the area to find the guard station, the girl had eventually made her way back to where Gnash was. When she had asked where it was that her rooms were, the eye fish ball seemed to be quite confused, given that he had already told them where it was. Realizing that those rooms and the rooms she was supposed to go to now were indeed the same ones, Xia simply waved to the creature saying, "thanks Gnash," before walking away. After having deposited Angela in their room, Xia left and moved on to her own. Being exactly the same in design to her friend's, there wasn't much room for the dragon girl to move around in, but nevertheless, all she really needed it for was a bed. And so, deciding to wrap the day up, the girl lied down on her bed in an attempt to sleep, excited for what new things there were to do in the next day.

When the day had started once again, Xia woke up stretching herself out a bit before flopping out of bed. Not paying it much mind, the girl sprung back to her feet, completing her stretches as once again, a message played. The girl took note of it intently, knowing that she'd no longer be able to have that "strong stuff" as freely or whatever it was that she had actually eaten last night. However, her eyes lit up at the mention of signing up for fights in order to keep going, as without much thought she went to go sign up for it. Fights were always a good way to meet new people, and what better way to make sure they were new then through randomness?

Continuing through the message, she then went to go check on what these other events for fighting things were. Each one seemed to be either confusing in name to her or really intriguing. And then she got to the last one. Looking at the title with determination and wonder she shouted aloud, "a dragon!?" Xia had only ever heard of one dragon before now and she hadn't actually seen or heard anything about it for quite a long time. To think that there were more out here. Xia looked at the point value, seeing it to be a 5000 point entry fee, and while she wasn't the brightest crayon in the tool shed, she knew that was far beyond her reach at the moment. Down-trodden by this, she had decided that she would instead check out the rest of what these non-combat related events were.

Her eyes stopping on the first thing that she saw, that being the interview, the girl received renewed vigor as she had decided this would be her day's activity. She had no idea who these "Gabby and Ty" nor exactly what an "interview" was, but she did know that the point of this tournament was all about doing new things and experiences. So, deciding to go meet these two people, Xia walked from her room and back to the elevator. As she made her way out, someone saying they were there to clean her room came by, to which Xia just gave them a friendly smile saying, "thanks cleaning friend." What nice people here. After that, she made her way to the magic moving box. Once inside, she focused herself trying to figure out just what it was she was supposed to do in order to get to this television station, before she resolved to just keep hitting the down button. Eventually, it would go no further, making Xia feel that she was indeed at the end of the elevator.

Navigating through the menus on her watch, Xia continued to keep pressing button after button, being somewhat overwhelmed with the raw amount of knowledge at her fingertips but eventually landed on one that she saw say, "TV Station." Seeing that the menu was under the "map's section," she had figured this collection of shapes was just what she needed to find out where to do this interview thing. Briefly congratulating herself for defeating one of the watch's many puzzles, the girl then started to follow the information provided to her in order to get to said station.

As she left the building, Xia was somewhat blown away by just all of the things that were around. All the different kinds of buildings and cars, and...flying cars? While the girl had started to wonder aimlessly, simply in awe of the city around her, she shook her head as she remembered she had a task to do. Going through her map thing, she knew that she had to go find a giant arrow, and so, with that in mind, the girl began walking in the direction of the giant arrow.

Tesability Black · March 9, 2017

"The shower's are those stalls right there."

"Oh, whoops, I led her to the wrong area," the cleaning lady leading Tesability around stated before nudging her to the other side of the hallway. "The showers are over her---"

"Wha'sh a shaweh?"

The lady looked down towards Tesability, whom was giving her a blank look. A sigh escaped her before muttering, "I should get paid extra for this," before doing her best to instruct the dragon on how the shower stalls work, which wound up having to instruct her on the need for cleaning and how to clean herself.

Thankfully, the only spot she ended up having to help the dragon reach was between the wings on her back, which caused the dragon to practically melt in place and purr.

She did not know that dragons could purr like a cat.

~~~~~~~~~~~

~Tesability's POV~

Taking the scrubbing brush given to her in muzzle, she tried scrubbing various spots on her body.

Even without hitting any of the brown spots, she was seeing a lot of gray and brown, which confused her. Did the Path of Origin have something to do with that? She did wind up crashing at least once...

However, there was one spot that, no matter how much she stretched and twisted, she could not reach right between her wings. A whine escaping her muzzle, she ended up asking around the brush, "'ewp?"

Thankfully, the lady was nice enough to help, taking the brush out of her muzzle...which she accidentally put fang marks in, whoops, and moved to scrub the spot she was trying to reach.

Her knees buckled as a wave of good feeling swept through her, causing her to lay on the ground with a happy and relaxed grin on her muzzle, a purring sound escaping her throat.

If she wasn't feeling like she was melting in happy, she would be wondering how she was purring.

Eyes slowly closing, the black orbs shot back open after as a sudden thought crossed her mind. She remembered the message from earlier and looked down at the watch she never removed.

Waterproof, good to know.

The thought of signing up for one of these random matches crossed her mind and the watch responded, signing her up for the random matches mentioned earlier. As she felt herself getting sleepy, the scrub brush moved away, netting yet another whine.

"You're supposed to get cleaned up, not fall asleep in the shower."

The silver leaves that were her ears drooped at this as she stood up before turning the water off...and shaking all the water off like a dog, covering the poor cleaning lady with water.

Andx · March 10, 2017

Aurora had suggested they get Caleb food first before running off anywhere else. She seemed insistent that she was okay but Caleb was still iffy. Granted he was very unsure of a lot of things at the moment. Perhaps he was projecting this feeling onto her. It was always easier to look out for someone else than to think about himself for too long. But at the mention of a food a soft grumble from his stomach reminded Caleb what the original purpose of coming here had been. He sniffed around again to pick up the various scents that had attracted him to these stands over the restaurants. Before long he had acquired a plate of various meats. Being a dog for six years changed a man's tastes in certain things, food being one of them. The vendor was slightly confused initially at the dog but sure enough everything checked out he was one of the fighters Mauvache had summoned. The plate was set on the ground for the canine who then moved it with his snout across the floor out the way of anyone else. He quickly enjoyed his meal with Aurora nearby.

With girl and dog both now operating on full bellies exploration became the next focus. Aurora was naturally curious of the immediate building where Caleb would have gladly run all over the city exploring everything. Perhaps it was better he'd decided to stick with the girl. Better than getting lost on his own. They poked around various rooms and floors, perusing merchandise and services. Caleb was almost more fixated on all the races of people he'd never encountered here even in six years at the Hotel Atlantica. The two chatted about where they were from here and there throughout the day. Though Caleb never really made it a point to state he was originally human. Maybe because he was so used to his current mode of life or maybe because it was a big long story he didn't much feel like rehearsing. So whatever misconceptions she may have had about a talking security dog would have to be corrected on some other day. Regardless he chatted freely about his family and work and described the ocean views from the Hotel to the girl and vocally reminded himself to look into what kind of beaches if any this place had to visit.

As they continued exploring they would at times sit and simply take the place in but also rest up some. Caleb got more comfortable with the occasional petting the girl gave him and contemplated on the awkwardness of maybe having to fight her for the entertainment of the people here. Even after a number of hours the girl didn't seem to be freezing to death. Aurora was more than likely fine like she had insisted. So maybe he'd followed her around for nothing but then he'd made a friend for it so it all worked out for him. With a yawn Caleb declared he'd explore more with her the following day if desired and parted ways to find his room. Though not before a stop to the public restrooms. Which were admittedly awkward for him as he'd been accustomed to the specialized bathroom the Leviathans had engineered for his room at the hotel. But it was a simple enough process to adjust.

Now the next adventure. Getting his room. After some initial confusion on the staff's part he was shown to a room. If one could call it that. It was beyond small and had next to nothing in it. But it did have a bed which while nothing amazing was comfortable enough to sleep on. It wasn't a big deal to the canine. It just meant he'd have to spend his days out and about which he preferred most of the time anyway. He spent some time poking at the watch trying to figure things out. It displayed various bits of information on things he could buy if he desired and noticed he'd be needing a lot of points unless he took a pretty simplistic life style while here. Regardless he was tired. Interdimensional travel really took it out of you or something like that. The dog passed out stretched out on his side on the bed.

Caleb had a dream someone was knocking on his door. That was odd he'd barely been in the place and already dreaming about it? No that wasn't a dream. It was very definitely knocking. The dog jerked up as he awoke to hear continuous knocking on his door. There was someone talking too. Something about cleaning. Room service, wonderful. It had taken Caleb a while to get the Hotel Atlantica room service to come at a regular weekly time and he could only imagine it would take even longer here. As he stretched out and yawned he eventually worked his way over to the door and noticed a button shaped like a paw at about his height.

"Cute" he thought sarcastically. Not quite so cute as all the effort the Leviathans had put into making his hotel room work for a dog but still. He reached out a paw and touched it to reveal a young woman dressed in a maid outfit. No doubt a routine thing for her. Though something was off here. "C-C-C-C-C-Caleb?" the voice said with constant stuttering. How did the maids know his name he had to wonder. But then he looked up and saw a face he recognized. It couldn't be though. This wasn't possible.

"Camille?! he exclaimed in shock. Camille had run off to some sort of tournament thing and died. How could she be here as a maid? Regardless the dog was happy to see her alive and also to see someone he recognized given how Tes hadn't known who he was. Without thinking he jumped up onto his hind legs to place his front paws on the girl hoping to hug her or something. But it was quickly brought back to his memory that this was a bad idea as Camille quickly backed up into the wall behind her with an eek escaping her mouth. Afraid of animals right.

"Oh, sorry! I just can't believe it's you! How did you get here, we were told you died!" he continued excitedly. There was a slight whimper to his voice, evidence he'd been hurt by the news when he'd received it. Camille looked everywhere she could except back at the dog. "I...I did die, uh, but then I didn't...and then the world got all weird and...well now I'm here." she laughed awkwardly. "C-can I come in and uh...and clean?"

"Huh?" Caleb said in response to dying and then not dying. However it worked she was still alive. "Yeah of course come on in. Go figure you're still a maid." the dog said with a laugh as he moved aside for the maid to enter. He waited for her to say something as she worked thinking they'd have things to catch up on. But the girl didn't speak to or even look at him while she went about her business. Come to think of it this was how conversations with her usually went. Actually no there was usually more running away involved. Camille worked quickly, likely to get away from Caleb as soon as she could. She seemed happy which was interesting in and of itself. As she finished and walked out she looked at the dog one last time and hurried on her way to the next room.

"I'll have to keep a look out for her. And tell the others she's okay when I get back." he said aloud looking back to his room. Right, nothing to do here. Just a place to crash for now. Things weren't free anymore so he'd have to start planning his actions out. That said he didn't particularly want to jump straight to fighting. Even if Camille was okay she said she still had actually died. And even if this wasn't even real fighting it just felt odd to him. Best to find something else to do. Was there even any other way to get points? His watch listed off a few of his options to him. Interviews, commercials, photo shoots, sports events, and helping with the cleaning came up. Nothing sounded particularly amazing to him.

To start the day Caleb took to getting a shower which were provided in the public restrooms. It too was not nearly so adapted to his form as he was used to but it worked out well enough. There was a drying service but towels were free so Caleb went with that however awkward it was. He'd be damp for a while but that was fine as he started his day. He'd dry out as he walked about. Maybe the interview would be fun he thought. And so the watch on his wrist began giving him directions to the TV station where he could look to do that.

Yui · March 13, 2017

As per her suggestion, Aurora and Caleb briefly looked around before getting the dog something to eat as well. With his meal chosen and eaten, the next priority became exploration. Since it was where they would be spending the most time, Aurora had opted to only explore the arena building for the time being, though branching out further into the city was on her to-do list for the future. As the two explored the arena building, they talked about where they had come from, and Aurora soon concluded that - much like the one she was now in - the world she had come from and that of Caleb were very different places. The two parted ways that night with Caleb stating that he'd be happy to do some more exploring with her if she so desired.

With the girl and the dog parted, the next step was getting to her room. The process wasn't that tough for Aurora, though perhaps it was because she'd gotten used to the life of school dorms by that point. Or so she'd figured.

"Ah, Ms. Aurora, good evening! Here is your room number."

This creature - Gnash - was...not exactly visually appealing. He seemed friendly enough, but he brought to Aurora's mind some sort of failed lab experiment that went wild and killed the scientists. Or that villain she'd heard talk of back in her own world...What was he again? The Mobster Lobster? This wasn't the time to be distracted. There was a...tentacle monster of some sort, holding out a card for Aurora, and it'd be rude to leave him hanging. Aurora took the card from the creature's tentacle, smiling and waving as she started down the hall. "Thanks, Gnash!" The room she entered when she finally found it, however...

"Ehhhhhhhh..." It wasn't the dorms of Mar-Vell, and it definitely wasn't her childhood bedroom. It was small enough to pass for a large closet, and the bed looked uncomfortable. I'll have to ask about improvements to this room ASAP, Aurora mentally noted, not removing her winter clothes as she climbed into bed. By the looks of this place, she'd need them.

Aurora woke up ice-cold, shivering in her bed. It had been a long time since she felt like this, and she didn't like it.

"Good morning, you are now officially employed as fighters at Mauvache's Arena. From now on you must pay for your own food but you will also be able to earn points, the currency around these parts, through battles. Here is your instructions on how to register a battle."

Aurora briefly glanced over the details of how to battle somebody. She had bigger priorities right now though.

"But that's not all! You will also be able to spend points for special Event matches. These matches will cost points but also are worth more than regular matches. You are only allowed one per day and it is recommended you get some experience before challenging them as they are tougher and more complex than other matches."

Who do I talk to to spend points to warm this place up though?

"And there are other things to earn points as well. For instance fighters are able to have interviews, take photos to be displayed in the Arena entrance so all may see the fighters (this is mandatory but may be done any time in your first week) and even create a commercial to advertise yourself! These will also earn you points as it brings publicity to the Arena. In addition there are many tasks the Arena, and people in the city, may have for you that can earn you more points. As you can see many opportunities are there for you in Mauvache's Arena. I hope you have a wonderful day." Not long after, as Aurora got up out of her bed, there was a knocking at her door. The door opened, and one of the cleaning crew was there, offering to clean up, but also mentioning that this would only be free for the first few days.

"Y-Y-Yeah," Aurora shuddered. "Not much, t-to clean, but go for it." Aurora pulled up the map on her watch, and quickly made her way out, stumbling a bit as she stepped out the door and into the hallway. Her destination was clear: The showers. Aurora moved through the halls, reaching the elevator and soon pressing the button to go to the third floor. Once there, she wasted no time following her map to get to the showers, not paying any mind to any person or thing she may have encountered along the way. She did spot a dragon outside the showers - the same one from the room she was in yesterday! - and appropriately waved hello before getting into the womens' showers and entering the nearest stall. Only when she was in did she undress, and turn on the cold water. This was no accident. Aurora had been taught when she was young how to deal with hypothermia, since she of all people would be likely to get it a few times in life. Going directly to hot water would cause nerve damage. Doing that on the day her career as an arena fighter started was...well, stupid.

Just a little longer...just a little more and...now! Aurora turned the knob for the hot water just a bit at a time, gradually increasing the water temperature until she was graced with a hot shower. That's more like it. Now met with jets of hot water, Aurora took to the actual showering part of her shower. After all, she was here now. May as well wash off a bit. It wasn't anything major though - Aurora preferred to shower at night - so she spent perhaps thirty seconds tops on a highly-condensed and heavily-skimmed version of the typical shower, before stepping out of the stall, drying off, and picking her clothes back up and putting them back on.

"Much better," Aurora smiled to herself, stepping away from the showers and heading back in the direction she'd seen the dragon. She'd gotten chummy with a dog yesterday. Why not go big today and befriend a real live dragon? "Hey there," the cryomancer waved again once the scaley creature was in sight. "Nice place they've got here, huh?"

ChampionZero · March 13, 2017

Elijah got to his room fairly fast, and without much trouble. He took the key from Gnash (Jesus Christ, what was that guy?) and thanked him briefly before going to his room. Upon seeing the interior... Well, Elijah was none too impressed.

"Priority one: upgrade living space." He muttered, the door shutting behind him. He didn't turn the lights on, instead sitting down on the bed with his half-bottle of soda and his duffel bag, the latter being used as a pillow while he sipped his drink and slipped slowly into the back of his mind.

Elijah was already awake, had his outfits sorted out and was just putting them away in his bag when he heard a knock on the door. "Coming!" He got up, brushed himself off, tousled his hair a little, and walked up to the door, opening it. "Hello?" He asked, face-to-face with a beast-kin maid. Part uh... wolf, it seemed.

"Room cleaning?" She wasn't exactly happy-looking about her job, but at least she tried to sound pleasant about it. And she was kinda cute too, so Elijah snapped his fingers and pointed them at her. "Thank you~ Jeeves." He grabbed his duffel and stepped out the door, ready to face the day. He had work to do, according to the new message on his watch-device. Checking his options to earn points, a few grabbed his eye.

Hmm... Commercials, huh? That I could do.

After grabbing some food from a concession stand -three of something that could only be described as sort of like a corn dog, costing him three points overall- He made straight for the arrow-shaped building that was apparently the TV Studio. Navigating past all the flying cars and the huge crowds of people was a nightmare, but in short order, he was at his destination, and still had a little bit of his last corn-dog-thing left.

Eating the last of it and disposing of the sticks they came on, he walked right up to the receptionist, this multi-armed lady talking on a quartet of phones at once. According to the data he'd been provided, she was a Shivan. Cool. Kinda reminded him of some Insect-Type monsters he'd seen during the Seadown City Tournament.

"Excuse me? Hi, I'm here to get some commercials filmed for Mauvache's Arena? Who do I talk to for that?"

The Shivan lady sighed. "One of hers I see. I'll message Spider. Just take a seat."

He nodded. "Thank you!" He dropped into a chair and sat there, an unending deluge of thoughts immediately running through his head now that he wasn't moving.

Hey, will the food here agree with my stomach? Oh god, now I'm aware of my tongue. Spider, huh? Is it a nickname, or is he another Shivan? It's just there, like constantly. Maybe he's a spider-person. I mean the bartender was a Minotaur. It should be weird but for some reason it wasn't until now. Hey, maybe I should do that photo shoot later, like after the fight. What does water taste like? Now that i think about it, Spider could be a she. aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

After he was done panicking, Elijah got called to Spider's office. He was a round, short sort of man. Clearly human. He literally bounced to his feet and ran up to him. "Ah! It's you, it's you...who are you?"

"Elijah Diamond. Look, we probably don't have a ton of time so I'll explain fast. I need to record some stuff for the Arena. I've got several sort of personas, and I'm going to be fighting in the arena starting today, so I want to make a few promotional shorts."

"Oh golly. Gee, well, hope you have some ideas cause it's time to go go go go!" Spider looked excited to say the least.

"Got a pen?"

After he was done writing out a short script for the three clips -in remarkable time- Spider lead Elijah to the recording room. "Get yourself in costume, everyone else will set up to record!"

Elijah was in the change room as soon as Spider was gone, shedding his leather jacket and t-shirt in favor of a long-sleeve black, a long crimson duster and scarf. A scowl replaced his usual tiny smirk, and he left his Duffel in the change room. He checked his pockets. A little pack of fake cigarettes, completing the look. He was set.

Stepping back into the recording room, he started giving commands in-character, helping himself get into his "Anti-Hero" Persona. By far a fan-favourite, beaten out only by the Heartbreaker and his Game Face, in that order.

"Let's move, people! One camera here, and a pitch black background. Hard floors. Dim lighting on me. I want a slow zoom throughout, starting with a long shot, ending with a close-up on my eye, alright? Ready? L-C-A, let's go!"

A dark room. Dim lights flickered overhead, and in front of the camera, Elijah faded into view, in the middle of the room, and an emblem, shaped like a phoenix, blazed to life on the back of his coat, brilliant flames searing new light into the room. After a few more seconds, the echoing of his breath slowed. He turned his head to look derisively at the camera, and flames spilled from his iris, burned through the image, and left behind a new image, flaming letters reading:

Elijah Diamond

A Man of Many Faces

"Alright, set change, I want concrete walls, long hallway. Wall right behind me. Cameras here, here, and here. Can I get four virtual police in these spots? OK, and one really buff policewoman here? Like, amazon warrior. There we go. Alright, just have her tel me to put my hands up, but muffle it a bit. The viewers are supposed to focus on me. Alright, and they shoot after my first line, capiche?"

The second shot took place in some kind of building, like a parking-garage. It was brightly lit compared to the last setting. Elijah stood with his back to a concrete wall, faced down by four humans in police uniform, and one hulking Goliath of a woman in a sergeant's attire. The smaller officers held sub-machine weaponry. The audio is a bit muffled as the sergeant shouts for him to put his hands up.

Elijah's smirked. "Fellas, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." He declared.

Gun muzzles blazed to life, and a storm of bullets descended on Elijah. Literally leaping into action, he turned, ran up the wall slightly, and launched off, combat-rolling in-between the two officers in the middle just as a chorus of clicks filled the room. Panicked, the four officers desperately attempted to reload, but Elijah had already stolen the nearest officers' sidearms. Blasting them each coldly through the head, Elijah did his best not to show the twinge of pain he felt at the realism of their reactions, reeling as a real person would. His mind attempted to flash back to a darker part of his pilgrimage...

But he wrenched his own mind free and crossed his arms, shooting the other two offficers. Dropping the guns, he heard the sergeant approaching from behind, loud tromping footsteps echoing through the room. Without even looking, he whirled, and blindly struck her in the jaw with a savage back-fist, toppling her like a stack of bricks. Putting his hands in his pockets, he walked towards and past the camera as he scoffed.

"They always pick the easy way."

The camera refocused on the bodies and the wall, where the bullet marks had spelled:

Elijah Diamond

A Man of Many Faces

"Alright, last scene, I need a big-ass train, make it spiky and sinister looking. Train tunnel, and I'm on a motorcycle. Lights all along the tunnel, I also need a bag of explosives."

The virtual setting responded, and Elijah straddled a familiar black vehicle with two wide wheels. Hey, he'd Dueled on one of these before, hadn't he? Yeah, just like this one!

Spider clapped his hands, helping to keep the crew moving. "Time is money!" he kept reminding everyone, even Elijah.

"I know, I know. Gimme some space, man." Elijah broke character briefly as he wiped his for head on his scarf and then tied it around his neck again, covering his mouth.

Elijah's coat and scarf trailed behind him as he rode through the tunnel, barely keeping pace with the train, who, as the other cameras showed, had a spiked front and very ominous red glow on the inside. As he approached the back door, Elijah shouldered a bag and opened it before accelerating and jumping the bike into the back car of the train with a loud CRASH as he slammed through steel and glass.

Riding through the train cars, the cameras showed Elijah slapping small, circular devices on the walls or dropping them on the floor as he passed. A Point-of-view shot showed that he was getting close to the front car, and he slung the bag off his shoulders and--

A slow-motion shot of Elijah' dropping the bag into the control room and raising his front wheel. Striking the console and ramping off it, smashing it and the controls exploding as he landed on the tracks, desperately accelerating to get away from the train, the slow-motion gone.

He and the train alike came to a halt at the exit, no more than two meters between him and the opening of the tunnel, where the flaming wreck of the train went still with a loud hiss. Elijah produced a cigarette and held it out to the train.

Another, even bigger explosion rocked the tunnel as the cameras showed every one of the devices he'd planted erupt into flames, and the explosion roared towards Elijah, who didn't move. The flames reached him, but only enough to light the tip of his cigarette. Putting it in-between his teeth and taking a long drag, he sighed through his nose and revved up his bike again, driving down the tracks and into a brightly-lit cityscape. As he drove off, he passed a billboard, where the camera stopped, and the words from before were there in bright red letters.

Elijah Diamond

A Man of Many Faces

Elijah stepped calmly out of Spider's office, still in full Anti-Hero gear, with his Duffel over his shoulder. He turned back to look at Spider. "Alright, remember to broadcast those in sequence. I'll be back again every day for the next few days to set up more of these. Feel free to flesh those outlines I gave you. Ciao."

He rolled up his sleeve, and put a prop cigarette in his mouth as he signed up for a random match and figured out how to get that photo shoot done later in the evening. Fortunately, he'd lived off of barely any food for ages, and he was in great shape. He could skip a meal if all he was going to eat was fast food anyways.

Now to get back to the arena for that match... Jesus Christ, was it only early afternoon?

When Elijah got back to the Arena (thoroughly done with the freaky Wonkavator Mauvache somehow thought was a good idea) he was drastically different than people had last seen him.

He was now wearing a knee-length dull red duster and matching scarf, both of which looked old and battle-worn. His hair was styled entirely different and now hung in his eyes in the edgiest way possible, and was that an (albeit unlit) cigarette in his mouth. He had a bored, apathetic, look in his eyes.

Elijah Diamond, he thought dully, his eyelids sinking even lower than before, Leader of the Phoenix Rebellion.

Dear God was it cringey, but the fans ate it up. As for the other fighters...

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RP Smash [IC/Conditional Acceptance/PG-16]

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