forum THE TOURNAMENT OF THE GODS! (9/9) (CLOSED THOUGH SPECTATORS ARE WELCOME TO WATCH)

Started October 15, 2020 by Deleted user

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Magnolia slowly rose, adjusting the pack on her shoulder. Her hand clutched her necklace, slightly terrified that it broke. She didn’t feel broken glass underneath her gloves, so she let go and began wiping sand off her clothes, immediately heading over to Sterling. Wanting to least break the tension, she said, “Hey! It’s good to see you… though it would be, under better circumstances.” She chuckled nervously.

When Sterling saw that Magnolia was there, they relaxed a little bit more, moving to hug the girl. "Me too." They said as they pulled away from her, fixing their crutch so they could balance better. "I just wish that this wasn't happening, although I'm sure that most of us feel the same way, except for a few, it seems." They said with a sigh, shaking their head. But when the other people came into the arena they looked rather confused, "I-I thought that it was just us?" Their voice was almost a whisper, and they were sort of shaking as they grew more and more scared, I'm going to die, to someone here… That's terrifying…

At first, Magnolia was confused, but she turned, spotting the new people. “Me too,” she said, noticing the quiver in his voice. “We’re just gonna do our best, right?”
She put a hand behind Sterling’s back in reassurance. She studied the strange people, hoping against hope that they wouldn’t be more than just snarky.

The first thing Avlynn noticed about the newcomers was that one of them had feathers. For a moment, she wondered if somehow they were both representing The Narrator, then realized that the stranger's feathers were less owl-like and more crow-like; rather than being fluffy and round, they were slimmer and more tapered at the edges. And their friend's words… "A 'guardian'? Would you mind explaining what that is?" Avlynn asked with a curious tone. "Not to be rude, I'm just… not familiar with the term." She felt like she'd heard it in that context before, perhaps in a poem or song she'd translated a few years ago? Regardless, the definition was evading her at the moment.

Felix was less terrified than he had previously been.
The day before, he hadn't gotten a good look at any of the other competitors, but now, he saw that most of them were just as lost and scared as he was.
Except the plant lady- Juniper… she would have to go as soon as possible if the rest of the tributes wanted a way out.
Felix was mostly quiet, but tried his best to portray that as fear rather than analysis. That's just what he was doing. Analyzing the rest of the competitors. He didn't intend to kill all of them, of course, but there were a couple he feared he might, just to keep the rest of them and himself safe.
Finally, Felix got to his feet, dusting his clothes off a bit. His gaze wandered over to the other strangers who had just appeared moments before- the ones who hadn't been at the meeting the previous day.

Charlie's hands shook as she felt the panic rising. She bit her tongue and grabbed her arms, folding them over her chest. Her deep breaths slightly helped clear her mind, but unshed tears still clouded her vision. I should have packed my cosmetics. She thought as she dabbed the forming tears out of her eyes with her jacket sleeves, noticing the pink and black smudges on the cuffs of the army green jacket. That seemed trivial, but Charlie was always concerned with her appearance. She tightly wrapped her arms around herself, praying that nobody would come to talk to her. She didn't trust her mental state or her voice to handle the pressure of conversation.

It's just like three years ago, A voice that clearly wasn't her own nagged in the back of her head. Charlie's heart stopped. She hadn't heard the voice for years, ever since the- well, incident. Kill or suffer the consequences, Charlotte Despereaux.

The sacred knife felt red-hot against her back and the hunting blade felt like a thousand pounds. She couldn't repress her anxiety and fell to the ground, her tears and sobs coming in heavy waves.

Crypt turned their head to look at Avlynn. "Guardians are The Protector's creations. We were made to guard shrines and sacred places, we do not have a lot of human worshippers, therefore, I was chosen to be part of this tournament. We were not seen before because we are the un-human participants." They explained in an even voice, it didn't seem like they were able to put any sort of emotion into their words.

"This is so cool!" Juniper grinned as she waved to the newcomers. "I'm Juniper!" The woman was visibly excited, bouncing on her toes as she fidgeted with the zippers on her bag. She turned her head towards Charlie for a moment, before shrugging and going back to conversing with the others. "Are you guys excited for the tournament?"

Kiyo furrowed his brows. So much was happening at the same time. The raven-haired person –Crypt, they were called– was explaining what the whole "Guardian" thing was, the girl with the braids was sobbing enough tears to fill an ocean, Juniper was still loud and rambunctious… Kiyo just didn't know what to make of the situation anymore. Was he to comfort the weeping girl, or ask more questions to the Guardian? To inquire about the others, or to tell Juniper to calm her tits? So many ultimatums, but Kiyo was never the greatest decision-maker. After a bit of thinking, he knelt on the ground beside the weeping girl, hesitantly placing a hand on her back. He wanted to comfort her, not startle her, but in this place, comfort seemed impossible, especially from a stranger.

"Hey," Kiyo started, stroking the woman's back gently. "Everything will work out alright, I promise. There's no need for tears, okay?" Comforting definitely was not his strong suit, but he'd give it a try, for once.

Felix's gaze had wandered back over to Charlie, and in consequence to Kiyo, who was trying to soothe her. Perhaps he had some potential allies here- people who seemed human. Unless it was an act. But those tears seemed very real.
He moved over with the two of them.
"We're going to figure this out," he promised, "Most of us are rational enough that we don't want to be here, yeah? Much less at the expense of others."
He knelt on Charlie's other side, and found his eyes set on Kiyo. While Felix wasn't touching Charlie, he also tried his best to comfort her.
That guardian stuff had been a bit much for him to wrap his mind around at the moment, so he was glad he was able to reasonably distract himself by doing something else.

"That–" Avlynn started to speak to Crypt, but stopped when the girl started to break down. She approached and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Everything's a lot, I know… Best to let it out now, though, rather than in the middle of something," she said in a sympathetic tone, wondering to herself what the girl had left behind in her past life. If she knew that, she might be able to help… but it would be insensitive to ask right now.

The half black and half white haired person broke away from the small group of them and the two others, making their way to the crying girl and kneeling down to sit next to her. They pulled something out of their bag and handed it to her, a small handful of purple candies. "They help calm. Only one at a time."

Curtis was quite conscious about his surroundings. He reached behind to grab his knife’s handle, not yet pulling the blade out. Of course, a lot of them— the participants— were focused on the girl who was quite literally breaking down. The man, however, was focused on the three figures, especially the one who was referred to as ‘Crypt’.
“So… what are we tasked to do here? Tell me exactly what we’re tasked to do,”

Felix stared at the handful of candies.
"What the hell are those?" he demanded, his voice falling into a low growl.
He was very wary of most of the others here, and taking a suspicious candy-like thing from a stranger was certainly not a good look.
Felix's muscles tensed up. He wasn't going to strike, but if he felt he needed to stop this, he was ready.

Crypt just tilted their head at the man holding the knife. "No. I don't think I will answer that. I do not take kindly to people threatening me, it usually ends well for me, but not well for others." They brushed some sand off their feathers. "I am of The Protector, but that does not put me above feasting on your flesh."

The half and half person frowned. "They are calming candies. Herbs in a candy form to help make it taste better." They opened one and showed it off, it had small flecks of lighter purple in it. "These are lavender, they also help with coughs. I would offer to take one, but I am already calm and do not wish to rely on them."

Kiyo held out his hand in a gesture for the two-toned haired person to give him one of the candies. "Here, I'll try it. Worst that could happen is I might make the world record time for a death in a tournament, right?" He chuckled, trying to hide how absolutely uncertain he was about this decision. I mean, even if the person was lying, at least his nerves would still go away.

"If it's just herbs, the effects won't be the most powerful for such intense emotion," Felix reasoned, "It's not worth it."
"No offense to you," he said, turning to the half-and-half-haired person, "but we just met, and under these circumstances, I find it hard to trust you. I wouldn't take food from anyone here."

They nodded, placing a closed candy in Kiyo's hand. "If you are allergic to lavender please do not eat it, I haven't figured out how to cancel out the allergies for that plant yet." They slid the rest of the candies back into their bag, keeping one out so the crying girl could take it if she wished. "I am able to up the affects, which is what I did. I thought they might've come in handy if I got panicked during the games." They paused. "My name is Achike, most people just call me Ach. I'm a devotee of the god of balance, medicine, duality, and judgement."

Curtis sighed and let go of the knife handle, turning the sheath slightly so that the knife wouldn’t fall when he started walking around. He looked over at the situation going on not too far away from him, rolling his eyes at how pathetic everyone over there looked. With a loud sigh, he crossed his arms and whispered to himself—

“Such a crybaby…” he turned to his backpack and grabbed his notebook and pen, taking notes of what everyone was talking about, especially about the figure that had called themself Achike.

Kiyo put the candy in his mouth, the effects taking a little bit to set in, but setting in nonetheless. His body relaxed a bit and his breathing steadied out. He gave a small nod. "Yeah, unless this candy is made to kill people really slowly, the candy is legit." He offered a smile of reassurance. "Thank you…uh…" He took a little bit to try to remember their name. "Uh…Achike, right?"

"Yes, that is my name." They gave a pleased smile. "I'm glad it works on humans, I've really only used it on human-like people." Achike placed the wrapped candy next to the crying lady and stood up, brushing sand off of their pants and adjusting their bag strap. "It would not kill you, it is mostly lavender and magic, no poisons."

Kiyo raised an eyebrow. "You can use magic to make candies? That's amazing." Kiyo had been aware of the existence of magic, but he was unfamiliar with quite a few of its uses it would seem. For some reason, his brain always defaulted to making things go 'poof' or making stuff float. There were plenty of things he had yet to learn about magic, apparently. "What else can you do with magic?" he asked, standing up as well and brushing the sand out of his hair again. Perhaps he should cut it sometime. Kiyo dusted his hands off and slid them in his pockets, his left hand fiddling with the black chess bishop that was there.