Member
Kaithe Dame
Nani
Fetzen
op2024
Xaltwind
Bingelly
Shu
Emeth
ctrlsaltdel
Hope Lover@ERode
As Kreszenz escaped her awkward encounter with the servant boy, his noble master, and the seemingly dull-witted giant trodding alongside them, she found herself with an aerial view of the coliseum road. Traveling from rooftop to rooftop would get her ahead of the lines quite easily, but on the last building before she would need to drop to ground level once again, something stopped her. Apparently, she wasn't the only one to have this idea.
Crouched at the lip of the roof was a young woman who, had she been standing straight, would be quite tall for a lady. Her body, too, was packed with defined muscle, especially her shoulders and back. She wore hunters' leathers, a cutoff-shirt and pants made from buckskin along with a thick, brown fur vest. Before Kreszenz had even approached her, the girl seemed to sense her presence and turned to face her without rising from her perch. The allure of glittering amber eyes and a delicate face were somewhat thrown off by her grin; she was missing one of her top teeth on the right side. Her black hair was wild in the front, but bound into a long braid at the back.
"Howzzit goin'?" she chirped at the incognito noble, waving her hand in greeting. "You scopin' out the competition too?"
@Xaltwind
As Camilla entered the Coliseum proper, she would find it a rather plain structure despite its grandiose size. More officials stood within the entrance chamber just beyond the portcullis, directing the applicants and the audience in different directions. Those who were only here to see the spectacle were directed to one of two hallways on either side of the main path, which would rise up via stairs and ramps to the seating areas. The applicants, on the other hand, would proceed under another set of iron bars, before passing through two great double-doors. Camilla, and a hundred other hopeful prospects, stepped onto the arena floor.
She saw that same flash of red hair from before, bobbing up here and there among the crowd. But where she stood, it seemed there were a few others doing their best to stand out as well.
A young man with long, straight blue hair hanging over a furrowed brow stood with his arms crossed. Intense gray eyes set in narrow sockets glared at the upper levels of the coliseum--particularly, at a balcony where nine high backed chairs sat. A thin duelist's scar marred the left side of an otherwise perfectly smooth, chiseled face. He wore a teal vest over a white turtleneck, and navy leggings tucked into black, fur-lined boots. An elegant rapier hung at his side--as did a whole crowd of apparent admirers.
"This test will be a cinch for you, Alwin-sama!" giggled a preppy girl pressing herself to his side. "I hope we end up in the same squad!"
"Hah! As if anyone will even pick you! Alwin-sama, don't you think we'd look good in matching knight robes?" countered another from the other side. A third got into the mix somewhere, but it looked like a couple of male cronies were present as well, just like that pompadouche outside. The apparent object of their affections, however, never responded to any of them.
"Makes ya sick, don't it?" said a rough voice nearby Camilla. The man it belonged to was short, yet thickly muscled beneath his dark red doublet. A pair of riding boots rose to the knee of his beige trousers, their spurs still jingling as he shifted his weight. A flick of his thumb produced a flame to light a cigarette, which he drew from while meeting Camilla's eyes. Black, shoulder-length hair in a tight ponytail revealed an angular, serious face with small, dark eyes. His nose was slightly crooked, and he had the beginnings of five o'clock shadow. Pursing his lips to one side, he blew the cloud of smoke upward before flicking the ash down.
"Gunnar Einsley." he introduced himself, holding out a rough palm to Camilla. "And if ya don't mind me sayin' so, you are the definition of high class." He winked at her as he brought the cigarette back to his lips.
@Expllo@Databug
As Hikari and Kohra exchanged words, then made their own way towards the coliseum gates, they would be able to see the aftermath of the pompadour-styled noble as Camilla left him hanging like wet laundry.
"...You hear that, boys?" The noble slowly turned to his two lackeys, before throwing an arm over each of them as they engaged in a huddle like some kind of sports team. "She's gonna go freshen up for me! I do believe I have her, as they say, in the bag!"
"Yeah, big bro! She was eyeing you up, I saw it!"
"Did ya see the way she was shaking her hips!? She wants him bad!"
"Dohohohoho!" Pompadour chortled as he threw his head back. One could practically see his nose growing with pride. "Well, don't fret too much, boys! I'm sure we can find a few more nice wenches for the two of you--there's got to be a few good-looking commoners out and about, as many of them have swarmed the city today!" His cronies joined in the laughter, shaking each other back and forth with much patting of the backs as boys are wont to do.
@imia Of course, this meant the three of them weren't paying any attention at all to the crowd around them...
Meanwhile, trailing Hikari and Kohra from a different direction, was a girl currently chewing on the hem of her own dress (luckily, the white shift beneath preserved her modesty). Her eyes blazed with hatred as they locked onto the young woman at Hikari's side, completely unnoticed by the other two applicants.
"Who is that hussy!? How dare she touch his arm so...so...so callously!" Elyssa hissed, a gust of cold air rolling off her like heavy fog. Others in the crowd were giving her a wide berth, and a few of them even crossed themselves with a prayer under their breaths...
@Remram
"O-oh, um, it's...it's okay, really! I'm the one who should apologize!" Maverick held his hands up in supplication as Ludo and Isvelt expressed their guilt over their quick judgments. "Besides, I'm, I'm used to it...I am really big and clumsy, after all..." He rubbed his arm self consciously as the three of them proceeded down the road. At the offer of glasses, however, he suddenly brightened up. Grabbing Isvelt's whole forearm with his palms, Maverick "shook hands" the way a gorilla shakes a snake to death.
"R-really!? Oh gosh, oh wow! Mr. Isvelt--no, Lord Isvelt, you're so kind! I don't know how to thank you enough!" With a sniffle, he wiped a tear away from his eyes as he positively beamed at his two newfound friends.
When Ludo bumped into Kreszenz, and the noblewoman started charging up some kind of electrical magic, Isvelt once again jumped behind his manservant in the case of any violence--and the huge Maverick jumped behind the nobleman, sticking out like a comically sore thumb as he shook with an audible rattling noise like some kind of small dog.
Luckily for them, however, it seemed this lady had a flair for the dramatic as well as a forgiving heart. She disappeared over the rooftops in a crackling flash. As Maverick stared up after her, a bright red blush crept over his granite-like face.
"...She should be careful going up high like that. People m-might see her, her p-p-puh, puh, puh p-panties..."
@Th3King0fChaos
"Shoo amf!" Bryant confirmed through the last mouthful of his pretzel, giving Illios a thumbs up and a wink. As he gulped, then shifted the towering kebab of various meats, he nodded at Illios's own badge. "I'm from Kokki, right on the edge of the Common Realm and the Forsaken Realm! What about you, huh?" They walked side by side towards the portcullis, past the odd sight of a giant following two other boys, and coming up on what seemed to be some kind of huddle session among three nobles, one of whom had a rather outlandish hairstyle.
"What's your name? Where ya from?" Bryant took another huge bite, juice from the meat drizzling down his chin. "Ann whash yore majjick laik?"
@Duthguy
"No money?! We-he-heelll, that means we're in the same boat, m'lad!" the old man chortled. "How's about this, huh? You give me a name, and if I don't already know it, I give you a name! Maybe even yours? Or..." The informant shrugged, and twirled his graphite stick between his fingers. "Maybe, I cut you a little credit, and if you make it into the Knights, you can pay me back later? Huh? How's that for ya?"
The man again looked around as if expecting to shoo away eavesdroppers, then back to Albie.
"I'm tellin' ya, I got good stuff here! If you come up against any of these folks, don't you wanna know what kind of magic they use? What kind of training these noble brats get? It's only fair, ain't it--you and me, we're Commoners, we gotta use our brains to even the scales if our Mana can't do it for us..."
@SilverPaw
As Solveig proceeded up the streets, she would see many sights that hadn't been here the last time she'd visited Kikka. Other mages around her age, of all sizes and shapes, were steadily proceeding towards the coliseum. Some of them had armfuls of food in hand as they chatted amicably, others stood out by their great size, and she even saw one girl suddenly leap onto a rooftop!
There was also a guy whose stall didn't seem to be doing well, yelling that he had "Anything and Everything, On-a-Stick!"
But as she walked, the noblewoman would also see another odd character moving in the opposite direction as the rest of the crowd, despite having an applicant's badge of his own. Gray, frizzy hair hung over a long, sallow face with hollow blue eyes set in dark sockets. A small patch of freckles sat over each pale cheek, as the figure smiled creepily at a glowing blue flask of liquid in his hands. The man had a tall and athletic build, but walked with a wide gait and hunched shoulders. Under his breath he seemed to be laughing to himself.
He ducked into an alley, uncorked the potion, and began chugging it down...
