OOC: It's crap and it isn't properly proofread, but it's here and I'm going to bed.
Will edit later.
Round One Results: Blood Sport
“D’yeh mind!?”
“Oh, sorry…”
James ducked away from the window and out of the man’s way. The last thing he wanted tonight was trouble. The day had been eventful enough without starting a bar fight, even if it meant he couldn’t see what was going on outside. Thus having to wait until the results were announced to find out what had happened was an acceptable price to pay. For now, he needed to find somewhere to stay the night.
As the bar door closed behind him, trapping the smoke and ruckus inside, James found himself in the cold, dark hallway. His footsteps echoed as he made his way towards the elevator, and he hugged his coat around himself tightly as he waited for the doors to open.
Why is it so cold in here? he wondered. This tower was much larger than it looked. There was a lot he didn’t understand about this place.
His thoughts were interrupted by the ding of the elevator, as well as muffled voices.
Uh oh, not good. I’d better hide! He darted around the corner and looked around, but could find no cover. The hall was entirely empty, and he knew those doors were locked from his first time heading down this way. He would just have to hope they decided to go in a different direction. He stayed flush against the wall and did his best to quiet his breathing, although he could do nothing about the taiko drum in his chest.
Fortunately, whoever was in the elevator was rather drunk, and seemed to be headed for the bar to dull whatever motor skills they had left.
“D’yeh see what happened wi’ the crazy guy?”
“Which one?”
“Y’know, the crazy guy!”
“What, th’ one who likes to stand on top of the ferris wheel?”
“No, not that one. He got shish-kebab’d! The other one!”
“I dunno what yer talkin’ about Bill.”
--
{
Icekommander vs. Germanicus results in an
Icekommander victory}
--
There was a loud thump. James could only assume it was Bill running into the door.
“Hey, why didn’ it open? Anyway….th’ crazy guy totally exploded the dude’s mind. It was awesome!”
--
{
Merc. vs. Cabera results in a
Cabera victory}
--
They finally got the door open, and light spilled onto the hallway floor. James could see the silhouettes of a number of the patrons, all of which seemed to be having a merry time, so far as he could tell. Why they seemed to enjoy watching people kill one another, he didn’t know. All he did know was that he needed to keep track of how everyone was doing, as well as gauge how much time he had left. If he was going to find his objective, it needed to be now, before the competition was over. James slipped quietly into the elevator and punched the button for the ground floor. He was hoping that perhaps he could find some abandoned side show to sleep in for now. He also hoped all the fighting for the day was over, as the last thing he wanted to wake up to was an insane woman with a scythe or something of the sort.
Upon reaching his destination, he found that his view into the corridor was obstructed by a young girl. James didn’t know why, as she didn’t exactly look threatening, but looking at her terrified him. He jammed another button and the doors closed as quickly as they had opened.
Who was that girl? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. She didn’t
seem to have noticed him, but that meant little in this madhouse….
***************************************************
An ill wind blew, coughing and wheezing. It was on its metaphorical last legs. With a sputter, it died, and the night was still.
The girl from the docks waited at the observation tower, waiting. It was far too early for these kinds of things. He appeared on the horizon, holding another man's body. She opened the door and stepped outside, still dressed the same way as before. Who knows, maybe that was her uniform after all.
What is she doing here? he thought, but said nothing. Wordlessly, their eyes met, and he knew what he had to do. He handed Nolan over, gingerly, and she took him gracefully.
She patted his shoulder, the mechanical one, without flinching, or even giving a sign that it was abnormal for a half-metal man to be walking around.
"He'll be taken care of," she said, almost in a whisper. Sybrus's face collapsed into relief, and she turned around, walked into the observation tower, and gently nudged the door closed with her foot.
--
{
Sybrus vs. Nolan results in a
Sybrus victory}
--
A little while later, the sound of a girl whistling could be heard. It was a cheerful little tune that was almost guaranteed to become stuck in any unaware listener's head. In short, it was madly annoying.
Hardly any flies were buzzing around. The kill was too fresh. A knife lay on the ground, unused. The steady
click, click, click of heels could be heard, in a slow crescendo that never got very loud. The girl arrived, her Mary Janes spotless. Upon arriving at the body, she neatly avoided stepping in the splotches of blood littering the the floor. Kneeling down, she picked the knife up. It had some interesting carvings on it. She did a few fancy juggling tricks with it and then returned it to its sheath. She picked the man up and walked away...
--
{
Thuraen vs. Kyle results in a
Kyle victory}
--
***************************************************
The park grew quiet. Night had settled in, and all of the combatants were either licking their wounds or dead. Indeed, that is why the silence was so unsettling. Just a few hours ago, there had been lights, crashes, and screams. Now there was peace. The contrast bothered James…it bothered him a lot. There was something very wrong with this place, and as crazy as the contestants were, they weren’t the primary source of his discomfort
He rose from the box he had been sitting on and left the window, climbing over to his makeshift “bed” of medical bandages. He wasn’t entirely confident that the clinic’s supplies would be enough to hold them through the night, but it was a risk he was willing to take at this point. He was tired, he was hungry, and he was surrounded by psychotic killers, some of which could destroy your mind as easily as your body...but most of all, he missed his sister.
As he drifted off, James thought he heard her voice. "Lily...", he mumbled in response, "Don't worry, I'll take care of you. I promise I'll never let anything bad happen to you again...no, Lily, please don't go...please...I'll make it better...please...I'd do anything for you...I promise it will be alright..."
As sinister as this place felt...perhaps some good would come of it after all.
--
{
Steven vs. Tok-Tok results in a
Tok-Tok victory}
--
***************************************************
As the former shooting gallery retired into a life of laying around all deconstructed, a mysterious girl walked in, surveying the damage. Without even batting an eye, she strode over to the ruins of the demolished building. Somehow, a rifle, still intact, was visible from the ruins. She knelt down and extracted it, then skillfully flipped it and brought it up to aim it. She pointed it at a raven off in the distance.
"Bang," she whispered, in a voice as sweet as molasses, which was to say that it wasn't terribly sweet but was pretty cute and girly nonetheless.
Settling the gun down, she turned to the body of the woman on the floor.
"Anesthesia," she breathed, kneeling and cradling the woman's head in her arms. Stroking her hair softly, she gave the woman a kiss on the forehead. She laid her head gently on the ground, stood up, smoothed her plaid skirt, and reached into her shirt pocket. Withdrawing a note, she opened the woman's right hand and closed her fist around it. She would find it for sure. Humming a tune, the girl walked away.
A few minutes later, after the girl had left the vicinity, Anesthesia awoke with a start. She craned her neck and looked left and right. What had happened? She was so sure she had died back there. There was no sign of Jiefin, but in her right hand was a note. She sat up and unrolled it. In a simple script, it read:
Anesthesia, I have given you a second chance at life. There was no signature, no indication of who had written it. All Anesthesia could tell was that it had probably been written by a girl. The heart over the "i" in life was the clue.
Bewildered, she stuck the note in her pocket, and went to the Observation Tower...
--
{
Jiefin vs. Anesthesia results in a
Jiefin victory.}
--
OOC Notes: Anesthesia will continue on to the next round, as we have selected her as the loser with the best written story, and it brings our numbers to 8. It wouldn't be fair for Anesthesia, being such an intriguing character, to be eliminated when Fuschia wrote an excellent story while many others did not write at all.
The Splotch will also stay with us for now, as his opponent dropped out and his backstory is comprehensive.
New matchups will be posted this weekend. For now, feel free to write in some character development. A special thanks to LightFang for his contributions to this update.
The Victors:
Jiefin
Cabera
Icekommander
Sybrus
Kyle
Tok-Tok
The Splotch
A Second Chance:
Anesthesia