Megathread - Tournament of Skulls Sideline/Audience | Page 2

Gwyn's fight was coming to an end, it was close but Roland was confident in her ability to finish the other beast tamer off. As the fight concluded though he heard a voice call out to them from the stands. Turning Roland eyed the caped audience member with an angry glare, normally he'd let such opinions roll off of his back, but the tense battles before him had Roland on edge. "Who are you to judge us? You've come to watch this debauchery, would you prefer to simply watch NPCs butcher each other?" Roland snorted in frustration, "You don't know maybe we're here for a GOOD reason." Of course the man's words rang false, and their hollowness caused a familiar ache to grow in his chest. With a grimace Jin downed more of whiskey he had stored from before. "What am I doing here anyway? Saving some girl? Tct.. Why do I care?" Lost in thought Roland barley missed the climatic ending of the match before him. With a relived sigh Roland realized that Gwyn had one, dusting himself off he stood up turning to the paladin "Well at least this round is now over...just need to convenience the rest to ring themselves out, right @Aaron Marone?"

He tried to ignore the hooded figure from before the best he could as he slowly walked to the arena.

 

Her everything hurt. Her longbow was still unstrung. Her temper and patience were past beginning to fray. Her boots felt like they weighted a metric shit ton. Her armor and the clothes beneath were near soaked through with blood. Her hair was full of tangles. Her fingers ached. Her palms stung. Her eyes were dry and strained. Her head pounded from exertion exacerbated by the cries of the crowd.

Normally she'd be thrilled. In an normal series of events she would have found herself caught up in the rush of a worthy battle and a challenge that measured up to her high standards and set expectations of her enemies, but her fight had not been a normal series of events in the least. She turned when Nathair's bond flared with surprise that quickly bled into dismay and then fury. The guards had approached the snake, but it backed away before she had to call it off. It wasn't stupid. The dogs, however, she had not trained. They did not possess the same kind of restraint the serpent naturally showed that she had carefully reinforced. They were driven by a desperate, disbelieving fury and hunger. They couldn't take their real revenge, collared by their fear, and now they chased a wisp of it attacking the corpse. They hadn't gotten away enough for the guards to assail them, but the next of their enemies? She'd flay the skin off his bones with a rusty fucking spoon if she could.

Fury coursed through her, far too soon after her fight, and she nearly toppled as her focus wavered. She was too injured, too tired, too useless to protect them from yet another entitled piece of arguably human refuse. One of the two came running and she turned from her companions without pause to limp over to the one tossed her way. Still and silent as the grave, but she bit her lip sharply. Perhaps it was fine, perhaps it was okay and all that hadn't been for naught. Gwyn collapsed at its side with a weary sigh, far enough away from the ring of the fight that she was comfortable enough not to force herself into moving further. Instead of worrying for the fight she saw Roland marching toward, she focused on carding her fingers through the course fur and calling out lowly to the canine to rouse it... a hand gentle on its chest to feel for a heartbeat. It's twin weakly whined at her shoulder as Nathair joined them.

"I've got you. We've got you now."

 

"Do you enjoy thinking they're all less than you?" she asked softly, far too quiet to be heard by the hooded figure as she quickly hopped down the stands towards @Gwyn ap Herne. "That they're less valid because you can come and go?" she continued, rustling through her bag and pulling out some herbs. Ever since Gwyn had saved her and Vulcan, she'd taken to carrying around different medicines.

She shook her head, waving down to the hunter and trying to push her discomfort aside. "Gwyn!" she called out, louder than usual. She waved the branches in the air, uncertain if it would be against any rules to toss down the herbs. "Are you guys okay?"

The sharp glare of the canine unnerved her, but Kyupin swallowed down her fears. They had every reason to be furious and untrusting of the world.

 

Gwyn pressed her hand firmly to the dog's ribs and leaned over him worriedly before, with a sudden jerk, the dog rolled to its paws. It seemed startled and thoroughly unsettled after having been sent flying, but turned to her easily enough with wide eyes. As soon as it saw its twin and Roland in the distance beginning his fight with the mountain of a man some of the tension bled away. He whined and leaned forward to lap at her hands nervously, unused to displaying affection. "See, you're alright. I have no idea how," she laughed weakly, "but I'm glad you are." The ranger stood weakly. She braced a hand between the shoulders of the other twin as she did so. The relief was almost strong enough to bowl her over off her feet, but without an active fight she could slowly feel the life returning to her limbs.

The sound of a familiar voice had her freezing and turning in disbelief. "Kyu?" Why in the world was @Kyupin Felnya in a place like the Tournament of Skulls? She moved over, though glanced over her shoulder at the fight to see Roland take out the ankles of the massive man he faced. The beast tamer whistled sharply to catch the attentions of the two canines that suddenly seemed very interested in the spill of blood. It seemed that without Hadrian around to menace them into complacency, their trained lust for blood was coming back. They listened to her cue easily enough and turned reluctantly to follow on her heels as she reached the edge of where the fighters idled.

She shook her head when she saw the offered herbs, but smiled easily up at her fairly feline friend. "We'll be fine, thank you. It takes more than some animal abusing pile of worm food to take us out." Nathair rasped a low hiss and coiled up out of the light and sight of the crowds. It curled up in the shadows as best it could considering its mass. The large snake still seemed rather put out about the stolen meal. The dogs for their part were well behaved enough. They leered at Kyupin, but displayed no aggression or fear. They probably didn't see her as a threat or the shared effect of their Beast Taming's lowest mastery perk, a passive animal friendship, was enough to soothe their raised hackles. Gwyn didn't look forward to amount of work it would take to retrain them, but they were worth it. They deserved no less than her best.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm not sure of the exact rules and if the opening matches are this dangerous, I don't want to bring down the people who run this place down on me. At least not while I'm making a red carpet of blood behind me," she joked in an attempt to raise her own morale. Her fight had been close. She turned to watch Roland finish his and grimaced harshly. It looked like his had been even more so. She didn't envy him this enemy. Gwyn looked back up at Kyupin once he was sure Roland made it to the sidelines and collapsed in a relatively safe area. "Looks like Marone's up now. What brought you here, Kyupin? Hope we were entertaining enough for you, kit-kat." She didn't think the Felis nor her wolf pup would be comfortable in the bloody games populated by the worst of the worst, but neither was Gwyn. She had the quest to bring her here and who knew what might have drawn the other tamer.

 

Kyupin cringed at the joke, but tried to laugh anyways. It came out sounding as awkward as she felt, so she clamped down on the laughter rather quickly. Her eyes flicked up to the ongoing battle, bile rising in her throat, but she swallowed it. This was their fight.

She focused, instead, on Gwyn's question. "I heard you and @The Admiral would be fighting," she admitted, face flushing slightly. "I wanted to give... moral support? Like your personal cheerleaders. And to be here, if there's anything I can do to help." She made an aborted motion, almost as if to wave her hands around like she once did in high school. Her face burned in embarrassment.

The Felis averted her eyes for a moment, looking towards the bloodied arena. When she spoke again, it came out subdued. "And... I need to get used to this." This time, when she looked at @Gwyn ap Herne, there was some sort of determination in her eyes. "To the reality of this world."

 

The huntress gnawed at the inside of her lip, trying not to show anything too visibly on her face in response to @Kyupin Felnya's reluctance. Perhaps the joke had been in bad taste. They were from different walks of life after all and both in game and out had faced different things. She raised a hand to pull through her air and adjust the harried ponytail, but upon seeing the blood on it decided she had better refrain. If the Felis was already feeling so unsettled, she doubted a blood streak like war paint would settle her in the least.

"Thanks for the support then," she grinned in better cheer, "I've got to say @The Admiral is a hell of sight to watch in a fight. Definitely worth the travel." She nodded in agreement. She wasn't sure if her own fighting was that interesting to watch. As exciting as it was for her to be in the thick of it, someone dancing around and pinging arrows everywhere wasn't exactly the highest octane event someone could attend. Plus, if the fighting in general had her off kilter, Gwyn was positive Nathair's eating habits would have run her off if it hadn't have been interrupted. It still seethed across their bond. At least the dogs had settled some. Her connection to them was still a fleeting thing, but already there was the low awareness in the back of her mind. The green anaconda, no matter the emotion, had the vague feeling of a still lake. Placid at its surface, but dangerous below. They were live wires, sparks of emotion kicking off and guttering out from the newness of their taming. She wondered fleetingly what Hadrian had felt through his animal empathy, if anything.

Gwyn leaned against the sidelines with a sigh. She didn't know how to handle Kyupin, especially not after what happened last they were in Stokbon. It would be rude and dismissive to treat her with kid gloves over it or walk on egg shells. She deserved better than any of the pity or delicacy others in both their lives responded with. "I'd help you if I knew how. Some of this world bothers me, like the enslaving of the Yladians or the kidnapped woman we're here to save." She kept her voice pointedly low as she spoke to the Felis so as to not draw eyes to their conversation. "In a fight though? It's just the fight. It's the adrenaline, the thrill, the challenge. It's a cliff or a climb that stares back, breathes back, punches and claws and slashes and burns and hexes. I live for the attempt. Trying, whether I fail or succeed, against anything that stands in my way."

The ranger popped her knuckles one by one as she spoke before drawing her longbow to finally restring it. After all, one never knew when the next challenge might present itself. "It's not for everyone, Kyupin, but I won't deny that it's for me. I don't care for the pain or the suffering, but the fight? The struggle? God, there's nothing like it."

 

The Felis bristled at the mention of why the adventurers were fighting in this sick tournament. A kidnapped woman? Kyupin hadn't looked too deeply into the lore of the game, but sometimes... sometimes she was reminded about it and a sickness settled in her. A dark anger that bubbled somewhere inside of her and pushed her to get better, to work harder, so that she could fix all of the horrible things in the world.

She barely felt her nails cutting into her palm, leaving behind crescent-moon marks. Kyupin wanted to fix things, but she wasn't strong enough yet. Not yet. But she would be. Even if it hurt and made her sick, she would be strong enough.

The ocean of rage settled down, and she relaxed her fists. Her palms were bloodied, but she made it a point to shift the limbs away, tucked out of sight from @Gwyn ap Herne. "You adrenalin-junkie," she sighed, lips quirking up regardless of her teasing 'disappointed' tone. "I don't like hurting people. But there are bad people out there, and as long as they exist," she shrugged helplessly, "then the good ones will get hurt."

She nodded her head to the twin dogs, silently using them as an example. "I don't want to stand by and watch innocent people getting hurt anymore." Kyupin leaned against the stands. "I want to be strong enough to protect them," she looked at Gwyn with a small smile, "kinda like you."

Her face heated up again. Did she really just say that?! Looking around wildly, Kyupin tried to focus on everything but the hunter. "S-So! Have the dogs got names?"

 

Gwyn shifted enough to make room for a playful mock bow toward the Felis with a smile, "Guilty as charged." She straightened, the weight on her shoulders from the past few weeks slowly but surely lifting as much as could be expected. There was still an entire tournament to go and who could imagine what else. She had heard tell of the last world boss, a foul spider queen corrupted beyond all reason, and she wondered when the game would drop the next. She longed for such a hunt, the Ancient Vampire Wurm had only been a fleeting taste of it.

"It sucks that anyone has to do it, but there will always be bad people. Some people have to bite the bullet and do what must be done to protect others." She shrugged slightly, though there was a slightly mournful look on her face that @Kyupin Felnya found herself in the same position of taking up a violent mantle to be able to protect those that couldn't. Well, not exactly the same. Gwyn enjoyed the hunt after all. Killing was a part of that, it proved her worth to her prey, that she was worthy of their sacrifice. Just as if she died, then they would be worthy of what of her corpse they could reap. The circle of life and all that poetic bull. Her faced dropped when Kyupin called her strong, when she insinuated she wanted to be like her in any way at all. She blinked owlishly for a moment before bashfully scratching at the scars over her left eye. She pointedly ignored the nervous laugh. "I uh- thanks. I try."

Kyupin's redirection was enough as they both turned their attention to the two dogs. Gwyn eyed them with heavy consideration. "I don't know what he called them and I'm not sure I want to know. I'm not sure if they ever want to hear anything from his wretched mouth ever again. I'll give them new ones. Good ones. Kind ones." She hummed lowly as she thought. "Well Nathair is, well, a word for snakes. Then I have my mini-pets. Diop for his eyes, like the green gem. Ygg is the Treant, like the world tree. Arachna is obviously Arachna. I'm not so presumptuous I'd give her any name but her own." The two dogs looked nervously between the two of them, caught in their gaze, but she patted her uninjured thigh to summon them closer. The two trotted up with unsure eyes, but the dawn of trust in them. Both got hearty scratches behind the ears and a warm smile. "Maybe something worthy of myth? Names from old legends. Hati and Skoll who chase the sun and moon. Laelaps and Argus, the greatest hunter and the most loyal hound. Oh, Geri and Freki? Odin's hunting hounds."

 

She smiled down at the hounds, reaching out a careful fist for them to sniff at. "Hello," she whispered. If they decided to take a bite out of her for infringing in their space, well, at least her fingers were curled up and protected. It would hurt like hell, but she'd still have all her limbs in tact. "Whatever you decide, you'll tell me right away?" She looked hopefully at Gwyn. The poor things had been burdened with a horrible owner, but she trusted that @Gwyn ap Herne would make things better for them again.

Kyupin leaned back, squinting at the odd figure in the distance. A ranged fighter of some sort? It was hard to tell, but his strange movements made her too uncomfortable to use her investigation mode for a better look.

She looked back at the squad of adventurers, some who she might even call friends, and their less-than-stellar states. There was only one she'd not yet met and he seemed, at least, to be prepared for a fight. Maybe. Her eyes drank in Gwyn's injured body. "You're not fighting him," she said, her tone almost making it sound like an order.

 

The beast tamers could likely agree without qualm that the passive response to Kyupin's offered fist was a welcome relief. With the thoroughly abused animals she was happy to see that the presence and passive skill of other beast tamers was enough to soothe them from lashing out. Still, she didn't want to press them so early into their newfound partnership and smiled warmly at @Kyupin Felnya when the other made no further move. "Pft, of course. I'll make sure to message you when I decide. Maybe we can meet up at some point and test them out, I'm sure I'll need a hand what with the two of them. Who knows, Vulcan might learn a thing or two as well." Gwyn was proud to call the Felis as fast friend. She was a smart one. A quick learner with a kind heart. Vulcan was lucky to have her and the ranger mourned quietly that twins hadn't been likewise. At least a new home had found them now. Better late than never, right?

When Aaron's turn came and the odd mage entered, Gwyn tsked sharply under her breath. She watched with icy, narrowed eyes and calculated the odds to herself while she scanned the arena. The other tamer spoke and pulled her from it after a moment. "Fight him? Hah, it wouldn't be a fight," she blustered. The woman crossed her arms over her chest and puffed it out dramatically. "I've never felt better. I'd wipe the floor and my ass with him. He looks like he could break his ankle on a blade of grass. I bet the sunlight bruises the freak. A stiff breeze could carry him away. Well, maybe not a breeze." The huntress looked back over the arena, eyeing the odd sight of what she had spotted a breath before Kyupin spoke. "Those might just carry him off. Not sure if you can see them, but there are some rather odd... things around." Gwyn tilted her head slightly to track on of the flying spiders as they drifted. She was still unsure of their nature and even after seeing them she still found it hard to keep track of them. They were so small that even the rainbow glint of them wasn't always enough to catch her eye. Odd.

Nathair caught on, but saw nothing. The snake's eyes were not like a hawk's. Now temperature? That, that Nathair excelled at seeing. Faint divots of the pits on the snake's snout were sensitive organs that picked up on body heat to sense out prey and predators alike. Not that such an animal had many natural predators as is. The dogs for their part were still too unsettled and nervous to be of much use so she stroked their backs with half a mind paid, attention still on the arena as a whole and Kyupin, until they settled to lay at either foot. "Still think I could take him though, Kyu."

 

Oh.....

Trinity saw everything play out below. She saw Triad interrupt, the battle that ensued, all of it with the same unchanging look of interest and good cheer. The tourney was still underway and it was all the same for her! Then came the energy beam. The death of all of the guards and Roland's ejection quasi death. Trinity was basked in the hue of the massive beam that engulfed the arena stage. Her beaming mascot smile was still present all the while. Then... very slightly one very close may notice it twitch at this display.

"Party pooper."

Trinity then vanished without another word or even moving from her spot.