Chapter 22: When In Rome

[Peter "Levitas" Barak]

Peter didn't sleep much the night before the games, he'd slept for weeks, he was rested up. He spent most of the night wandering and trying to find out more information on the games. He'd expected to have a chance himself but soon discovered the games didn't work like that: it was a fight for prisoners. He'd zoned out after that. Watching caged people fight wasn't interesting. People who wanted to fight where interesting. Fighting for your life? That was too much like his old way of living to be fun.

He still went the next day, but he wasn't really that excited. By the time they released the first person and animal, he didn't listen to who it was or what she did, he was actually somewhat offended. After all, these people where rebels and regenages against Manalism, of course they where weak, not need to prove it by having them fight. Better to just kill them if that was the goal.

Unable to focus on the fight he left his seat and started walking around the colosseum, vaguly looking for the business section where Dollar was likely to be. At least if he found Dollar something interesting would be around. And maybe a hotdog vender, somehow the man always found venders.

[Roland Demeter]

Ah, how very lovely the world had become these last few decades.

And to have the matches in a real colosseum not less. Masterwork! Roland smiled to himself in his seat in the business section. He was closer to the middle than the front, after all he wasn't nearly as rich as some owners, but his position was nothing to be ashamed of. After all, he wasn't really in it for the money.

Dead, of any sort, always made him smile. And this, placing a man made animal against a human traitor, it was simply too much for him just to have the irony to enjoy, let alone the healthy amount of death and blood that was sure to be involved. With any luck this would continue to expand and they'd start throwing everyone into the fights, not just prisioners.

[Bambi Engel]

Right before it appears the woman is going to get mauled (to Bambi's paranoia, anyway), she shoots up. "I, err, have to go to the bathroom." She excuses herself, figuring the others wouldn't mind as they didn't seem to be enjoying this fight either. Their reasons were different, but nonetheless. Making her way past the row, she wanders only idly looking for a bathroom.

The only reason she'd left was to avoid witnessing the 'fight'. Which, in retrospect, was pointless. She couldn't simply stay in the bathroom the entire time. The place was vacant but a few milling about, mostly assistants she assumed. Sighing, she allowed herself to focus more on finding a solution than where she was going.

Her feet lead her to the last place a panicky little doe would wish to go- toward the deeper expanding mazes. The ones under the seats were simple, raised only to allow people inside without jeopardizing the structure. Only when she notes how the daylight seemed to be fading did she pause her thoughts. Looking around slowly, it dawns on her she had no idea where she was.

Only the echoes of voices and various noises reached her. She slowly turns around, the current hall she was in leading back to the right. She takes that path. The darkness only grows as she continues on. Her eyes widen, shifting her feet nervously as she gulps. Well, at least being lost would be a good excuse for missing the fights.

[Peter "Levitas" Barak]

Peter drumed his fingers against his thigh. This just wasn't very interesting. Sure, there was blood and such but it wasn't interesting to see it get tossed around. He felt like his inner beast wasn't being stimulated. There was no hunter here, no primal battle. The struggle of these people didn't move him and he didn't feel the urge to combat either the human or the bear.

Boring.

Maybe he'd lost more than he'd thought when his powers faded. He didn't feel any of his inner spark at the moment. Peter licked his lips and looked around. Where was Bambi? Their little dance always kept his interest and she had that prey feeling to her that he so enjoyed.

She was probably getting into trouble. Maybe some Italian crime family was after her this time. Or the Russian again. Or the Dutch, who knew with Bambi?

Peter stood and started walking. He'd just have to keep his eyes open.

[Bambi Engel]

Bambi kicked a wall, instantly regretting it as her foot flashed pain and her body shook. This was just so... so... her luck! No need to panic. The maze had to let somewhere, eventually. Right? Of course. She breathed deeply to calm herself as she begun walking once more. It'd only been a few minutes since she had left the others, at most.

She tried calling out, her voice echoing down the walls. "Err, hello?! I'm a little... lost?!" She shouted only a bit more before her paranoia shut her up. What if the wrong person found her? It was only getting darker as she continued walking on. Her breath begun to pick up. What if she died down here? Was it possible she'd go so deep there was so oxygen?

Her panic finally grasped her and she begun running. Somewhere in her head, she knew it was only hurting her current situation. It hardly mattered at the moment to the accountant. Even her hands were beginning hard to see in the growing darkness.

[Kaschei Bessmertny]

The bear mauls the woman and her body is taken out of the arena by the man dressed up like Scrag. It is true that none of this is historically accurate, but, the world doesn't know what happened a decade ago, much less 2000 years ago. So, no one will know or care that this is not how the Romans did things. Kaschei himself could travel back in time and see for himself the old ways, but that is not the point. The point is to kill rebels and entertain people...while sending out a message not to rebel.

"The next fight will be between Deror Ben David, a Jewish rebel from Israel. His crime is terrorism against a Manalist temple in Tel Aviv. He will be pit against a dinosaur creation of Genetech, a Deinoychus."

The animal handlers don't have the bear back in the cage when the clawed dinosaur springs into the arena and attacks the bear. The bear and dinosaur fight each other, with the bear taking deep gashes to the side from the Deinonychus' sickle talons.

The Israeli fighter decides to attack the dinosaur while it is attacking the bear. The distraction might help him in the fight. The fighter is using a Sica, or a sort of scimitar, and he quickly attacks by running up to the bear and dinosaur.

[Dinari Dollar]

A hotdog vendor comes by and Dinari orders a hotdog and a coke. It's a Countess Cola, which tastes nothing like Coca Cola. It is more like some cheap rip off...but, it does have red leaf in it, so, it is somewhat addictive. Dinari drinks his cold drink and takes a bite from the hotdog. It leaks mustard onto his pants, which he tries to wipe up with a napkin.

He looks up and sees the dinosaur and bear fighting...and then the Israeli rebel fighting the dinosaur.

"I kind of hope the bear wins." Dinari remarks. As he says this, the bear gets a swipe to its abdomen and its entrails poke out...

"I am still rooting for the bear."

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

I enter the lab of M Tv and ask the secretary nicely for a tour. She says it is a busy day, but, she decides to let me look around on my own when I tell her how much I love M TV. She says that I can have 15 minutes and that she could get in trouble. That isn't much time at all.

I quickly wander around, still pretending to be an interested tourist. I ask some of the scientists about the work and their pay and if they like it. Many actually are satisfied with the work. Then..I mention the Eyes of God and about the spy system. None seem too eager to talk to me about that. I ask a few questions about it, but I can tell that it makes them uneasy. This isn't going to work at all.
I do learn though that the launch will be later this month. Everyone is too afraid of the Manalists to tell me much more than that, and quite frankly, I am too afraid to ask.

[Calithin Crest]

I wonder vaguely where Bambi ran off to...

"I want the guy to win. Because, well, I think that... People from Israel are like... Sand ninjas. Like the Magis from The Mummy movie."

It's hot sitting here with all these people emitting ridiculous body heat all around me, so I remove my suit jacket and roll up my sleeves. I'm always uncomfortable in the heat, but, the fight is a good enough distraction so that it doesn't bother me too much. I get myself a cola to drink and drink almost all of it in a few moments. This makes me feel better.

"I want to have a little band of... Bandits. We'd all wear vests and scarves pulled up to cover the lower halves of our faces. We'll walk around causing trouble and singing catchy songs pertaining to being wealthy and eluding the law and having ample amounts of swagger. Et cetera."

[Max Alexander]

((sorry for the late response Momo. Had relatives hogging the comp for the past week. haha))

Max is pleased to see Momo. It was good to hear that they were making some progress on the satelites. "Thats good to hear, Momo. We should be right on schedual then."

Max takes a sip of water from his bottle. "How are you enjoying the festivities here? I was dancing a minute ago. We also had sno-cones." Max gave her a smile at the mention of sno-cones, then he chuckled.

[Roland Demeter]

Responce to Dinari and Calithin


"I will join your wage, if you'll allow," Roland stated with a grin, leaning down to speak to Dinari and Calithin. "I'll place my bet behind the reptile. I've always been found of GeneTech's little biologic witcharies."

[Alisa "Miia" Baykal]

The witch was growing bored. Drawing her arms from the wolf cage, she stood slowly. She'd love nothing more than to go frolicking with the caged animal-- which wasn't an option. She had to remain near enough to the arena to enter at a moment's notice which also left few options. Turning her eyes toward the exit into the arena, she milled over her choices. Maybe there would be some entertainment in the fights... at the very least, some of the people here were bound to be interesting.

Alisa swiftly pulled the bow loose from the robe's tie, allowing the garment to slide from her slender shoulders. It could matter less that the assistant still stood a few feet from her. She held no shame in her body, why be embarrassed to display it? A bird would be easiest to reach the seats although a smaller breed would be a bit of a hassle. Hawk would be as good as any.

She willed it- and it was so. Her bones snapped, skin crawling as her body shifted. A bit of her was pleased at the assistant's expression of awe and disgust. The shifting wasn't the most beautiful thing. Where woman once stood, a black hawk now stretched her talons. She was a large creature, as large as hawks ever grew. It'd been a while since she had flew as any species. Stretching her wings out, she flapped but didn't take off yet.

It'd be such a displeasure to clumsily fly into the ceiling or wall. Alisa had done so enough times in the past. After a minute or two had past, she finally took off. She was careful and swift, hugging a tight turn toward the sky as soon as ceiling disappeared. With most focused on the fights no one would take much notice to the black shape that had exited the animal entrance. Tilting her wings once clear, she let her body fall back toward the seats.

A beautiful landing at the very last row, if she did say so herself! None glanced back at the gentle breeze of wind that had followed with her. The shift to feline was much easier, the sizes being relatively near each other. Stretching her body, she let out a brief purr. Many a man had scorned the sight of her as a cat in the past. Not so much nowadays, few were even aware of the superstitions of the past.

She leisurely made her way around legs, heading toward the front rows. If she came across any interesting people she'd opt to watch from there. So far, no one caught her eye- nor did anyone take note of the cat sneaking by them. Only the metal loop in her collar gave chance of catching any eyes with its glint in the sunlight.

[Calithin Crest]

"Of course! You're welcome to join in, playa. And a good choice, I must say. Dino is looking tough. This is an exciting match up."

Roland is a little bit creepy, I can't lie. But I like people that are a little bit creepy sometimes. And anyway having a third party in on the fun makes things more interesting. I smile brightly and extend my hand back to him for a handshake.

"I'm Calithin Crest, which you probably already know. I've seen you around these sorts of events... Though we've never formally met. You own those eateries, right? I've heard of them. Never been to one myself but I'll be sure to look into it. No doubt you produce quality products."

I look Roland up and down and regard him intently. I like meeting new people. People are my business.

"Nice clothes. Nice everything, really. I like you. We're going to be great companions I've decided."

[Roland Demeter]

"I do own eateries, yes. My name is Roland Demeter. I'm not surprised you haven't been to one of my resturants, we're mostly a Greek and southern Russian thing right now."

Roland shook Calithins hand lightly and smiled. "But I'm much more impressed to be meeting the owner of England and Crest Mining. I've seen the pits your company digs to get at those gems, the great tears in the earth. Breath taking, I'm quite a fan of your work and its a pleasure to finally meet you."

[darian]

Jun 10, 2009 21:44:43 GMT -5 Master Scrag said:

Finally, the concert ends after a few more music groups take the stage. The concert goes well into the night and afterwards, most people leave to go to their hotels or home for the night. Scrag was not at the concert, since he didn't care much for music and saw the whole thing as a waste of time. However, many people seemed to enjoy the music.

The next day, it is finally time for the fights to begin. People start heading to the Colosseum, where there are many red robed priests and followers. The high priests get the best front row seats, but certain business leaders are also able to sit up front.

For now, the fighting area is empty, but for some red robed people inspecting the scene. The Master himself gets special balcony seat, where he sits with some of his closest allies.

Darian was among some of Scrag's allies; standing silently at his back to survey things as he prefered. He never liked being the center of attention, prefering to always observes things on the side lines. Darian calmly observed as the "combatants" if thats what they could be called, battled against bears and now some sort of dinosaur. He could not help but mentally calculate what he would have done in such a situation, confident that armed with a mere sword could easily take on the large beast. "These rebels are not even worthy to die for our amusement..." Darian remarked offhandedly, clearly not liking how easily these rebels were dieing so easily.