bakerstreet | win the crowd and you will win your freedom

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win the crowd and you will win your freedom

Blood and Glory

There is nothing quite like the arena, the cheer of the crowd, hundreds of pairs of eyes all watching you, the way your life balances on the edge of the blade. They say there are two kinds of fighters, those that value survival above all, and those who value victory.

Maybe this has always been your world, and the arena has always been a part of it. Or perhaps you've been brought here against your will. But surely you know the expression: When in Rome...

Rules
1. Comment with your character and canon.
2. Include things such as scenarios, settings, and whether you'd like to play as an AU or something the characters have been dragged into.
3. Good fighting.

ARENA VARIANTS

Historical //
Whether it's 300 BC or 300 AD, whether you're slaves, volunteers, or a member of the city's favorite team, you're in Rome or something like it. I hear the sand makes the blood easier to clean up.

Fantasy //
Mythical creatures set loose to be battled, magic in the bindings that keeps you in line, this life may be even more dangerous. At least the architecture is pretty.

Space //
You are on a large ship, or perhaps an entire planet, that exists only as an arena for battles to take place, with exploits beamed across the galaxy.

Your Own World //
Turns out even in familiar places there are people bloodthirsty enough to want to see these sorts of battles. The arena might be makeshift, or re-purposed, or even a new stadium made for the purpose, but the sentiment behind the games is the same.

SCENARIOS

1// Man vs Beast
Today your opponents are not other gladiators, but animals, or monsters. Try and stay alive.

2// There Can Be Only One
Both of you have made it to the end of the battle, but there can be only one victor today. You must come to accords in one way or another, or else persuade the crowd to have a change of heart.

3// Fresh Meat
One of you is a veteran gladiator, the other one has just been brought in, willingly or otherwise. Time to haze the greenhorn, or take them under your wing.

4// Biggest Fan
One of you is not a fighter at all, but you do enjoy watching the battles, and now you have a chance to meet your heroes.

5// Picking Sides
The next battle will be between a number of teams, you'll need to find your partner ahead of time if you want a chance.

6// Crowd Pleaser
One of you is a known favorite of the masses. The other... isn't.

7// Protector
You've made an agreement. No matter what happens or who arrives in the arena, you will keep your friend alive.

8// Night Life
One of you is not a fighter, but you are close to their level, there to entertain the fighters after the arena has quieted for the night with things like drink and dance.

9// Volunteer and the Impressed
One of you is there because you want to be. The life of battle and fighting for fun just appeals to you you're ready to throw yourself into the ring. This is causing some friction between you and the others.

10// Revolt
You've made your plans, there's a weakness in the arena, and come the next show, you are all getting out.

11// Good Hunting
One of you have been thrown into the arena with little more than the shirt on your back. The other, in full armor with a few nice toys to use. The end result seems simple, doesn't it?

12// Patron
One of you is a person of wealth who would liked to get more involved in a gladiator's life, such as providing them with some useful perks. The other of you could really use a leg up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Shiro's already got experience in a Space Gladiator stadium, though it does bring back traumatic memories, so there's that.]

[this is pretty much his life as a kombatant.]

Edited 2018-08-25 18:46 (UTC)

[ Val's a noble who loves this terrible stuff. he is likely to be a sponsor or patron as much as an enthusiast of it all, alternatively he might keep a fighter that he brings to these arena fights ~~especially if he is profiting on it~~ like some weird and terrible pokemon battle. mainly interested in 9 and 12. fantasy or historical setting (must love dark elves), absolutely open to assumed cr, ship, or more. pm for plotting. ]

[ interested in space/fantasy/or it's just thedas but worse. he's a healer so more likely to be on the sidelines tending to fighters than doing the fighting himself (but if you want to pull a 7 i'm v open to switching it up). also definitely not here because he wants to be (something something Circle bs if it's a canon AU, otherwise he's probably stuck serving some wealthy patron/sponsor). ]

Thinking fantasy, after the battle. Kuai Liang would be there fighting under a patron, possibly the same one as Anders?

sure! i'm good with either assumed CR or it being their first time meeting, too, whichever works for you.

There were benefits to being a hired fighter instead of being an unfortunate soul damned to fight against their will. Kuai Liang didn't always enjoy his battles but he was too honorable to break the contract his clan has signed committing him to the obligation.

Today had been a particularly challenging fight, leaving him with plenty of fresh wounds he could only cool with his cryomancy. He was not a healer. He stepped into the space his patron had generously set aside for him after battles and stopped to see someone he hasn't met before.

"What is your purpose here?" He growls deeply, breath coming out it icy cool puffs, the tone not quite a threat but definitely wary. Underhanded tactics to turn battles against successful fighters were not unheard of.

Contrary to apparently popular belief, sitting around waiting for a bunch of bullheaded brutes to finish beating each other half to death isn't actually all that entertaining. Of course, Anders doesn't even have a view of the fight (not that he'd want one), cloistered away in the luxuriously appointed victor's chambers. No, he's left to stare at the walls, surrounded by garish, gilded furniture and somehow not expected to lose his mind from utter boredom. Someone could have at least left him a book.

He's just beginning to seriously consider poking his head through the door and risking losing it to find out if the guards posted along the hall are as bored of this as he is, when said door opens all on its own. Well. Maybe he won't have to go out of his way to get into trouble, tonight.

His surprise is quickly shuttered aside for a smile that doesn't look entirely honest. "Would you believe I was just leaving?"

One look at him is enough to make it clear what the punchline to that joke is. Although his robes are just about as lavish as the room around him, the manacles around his wrists are a lot plainer, a flat gray that stands out starkly. None of which means he's as harmless as his act, still - but it at least evens the odds.

The chambers were decorated by the patron of Sub Zero's contract, a wealthy individual with a love for the lavish things. It really didn't fit the Lin Kuei warrior, dressed in armor and shades of blues and blacks. He sighs, the air coming out in a long, swirling mist after Anders has had his say. He closes the door behind him and lets his shoulders slump slightly.

"Do I even want to know what they sent you for?" His guard is still up, but he's really not interested in another fight. This one wouldn't get him paid. He moves over to a chair across the room and grabs one of the overly plush linens from a drawer and presses it to a nasty gash on his forearm. "If you're a healer, it would finally be someone useful." It's clear he doesn't think Anders is a healer.

That's - a fair assessment, honestly. Anders doesn't really act much like a healer, and he certainly doesn't act at all like a servant. (But if he had his way, he wouldn't be one, so it's really not as if there's a more reasonable choice, there.)

Still, he's also not much in the habit of letting people suffer or die or merely develop festering infections, on his watch, so he figures he'd might as well get to the point with this one. That frosty demeanor might be fascinating in its literalness, but Anders doesn't mistake it for anything more than a showier version of the usual aloof brush-off most of the fighters give him.

"Right on the second guess. So sorry to disappoint." Although it probably would have been more entertaining to play up the misunderstanding - maybe not with a man who's bleeding all over the place in front of him. Maker, that's chair's probably worth more than both of them. "You can ruin a few more linens before we start, if you like, though."

Kuai Liang pauses, looking over to Anders and raising an intrigued eyebrow. He glances at those shackles as if he hadn't seen them when he entered and then snorts.

"A healer in shackles. That's a new one." He looks down at his arm and shakes his head. "I've ruined enough just to get you sent here, I don't think I'll need to bleed on any more." With another huff, he stands and walks over to Anders, leaving his ruined cloth on a small patch of floor that isn't covered in an expensive rug. He looks down at the chains and the frown on his face is earnest.

"Let me see the chain." Kuai is not a fan of the restraints, and he doubts having one's hands bound helps with the healing process. The least he can do is break a link to let Anders work properly. The guards can be annoyed with him later, and he hopes Anders doesn't try to make trouble with the sudden, partial freedom of his hands.

Anders shrugs, only a touch of sarcasm in his reply. He's still fairly committed to the chipper act, though. "Get to know me. I'm sure you'll find I'm full of surprises."

When Kuai Liang steps towards him, though, Anders backs up a few steps, keeping a little more than arm's length between them. He drops the cheery facade at the same time, distrust replacing the forced smile, as he balls his hands into fists and pulls his wrists together. Sure, there's pretty much no recourse left to him, if this guy wants to push the issue - but Anders is understandably wary about just handing a stranger a length of chain he's rather attached to, at the moment, anyway. At least without a very good reason.

"What for?"

"Do you want to have use of both hands or not?" Well, the guy was certainly wary. Kuai didn't blame him, and he might have actually earned a little respect. The guy might be able to put up a fight, but if the guards had let him in, there was the possibility he was a reasonable healer, and Kuai could use the help.

"Well, when you put it that way..." Now there's more than a touch of sarcasm. And no less distrust in the look Anders gives him, as he weighs his options. It doesn't take long, because there really aren't that many.

Eventually, Anders extends his wrists, and the short length of chain between them. Those heavy, iron cuffs are a little less plain, on closer inspection - there are runes carved into them, the magic-dampening kind. But if they were only there to keep him from running, he probably wouldn't simply have been left to his own devices for so long.

Kuai isn't going to even touch the cuffs, but he does notice they're more than meets the eye. He thanks his clan that he doesn't have to wear such things as he reaches forward and pinches his fingers around the middlemost link in the short chain.

"Our patron can complain later." The cuffs will grow a bit cool, but he focuses his power on that middle link, making it so cold that it's brittle. So brittle that he can wrap a hand around it, and crush it in his hand.

"He spent the money to get you here. Neither of us need complications from these." Also, privately, he abhorred shackles. He couldn't free Anders without both of them suffering consequences, but he could let him function, at least.

Although freezing things with a touch isn't an unfamiliar phenomenon at all to Anders, turning iron so brittle it crumbles in the hand is still a fairly impressive show of skill. And the added benefit of being able to move his hands more than a foot apart is nothing to sneeze at, either. Anders may not be any less wary, but for the moment, he's grateful, too.

Although that's not enough to stop him from being - well, himself about it.

"Now I'm starting to wonder what you think I'm here for." His smile is less forced, but between its lopsided twist and his pointedly arched brow, he looks as confused as he does thankful. "Not that I don't appreciate the gesture. I suppose this is the part where you tell me where it hurts?"

Kuai steps back after freeing the limitations on the shackles and is grateful Anders isn't outright attacking him. Good, a civil conversation was hard for a fighter to come by around here. He snorts in amusement at Anders's insinuations, and then points to the most blatant of wounds on his arm, the one ruining the linens a moment ago.

"I thought this might be a good starting point. If you can address this, I might keep you around long enough to deal with the less-pressing damage from today." He quips right back in his bass voice.

Anders doesn't quite roll his eyes (because he's already examining that ugly wound), but it's a near miss. "I don't really think it's up to you where I'm kept, but I'm touched, anyway."

He takes hold of Kuai's arm with one hand - gingerly, avoiding fresh bruising and broken skin - as the soft, blue glow of mana builds in the other. It's a deep cut, but nothing's broken and it's fairly clean. The wound seals neatly, leaving behind smooth skin beneath the smear of blood. All told, it's really not much of a feat, for Anders - even with those maddening shackles clamped around his wrists, cutting him off from half his magic.

Kuai Liang watches in curious fascination as the wound is healed. Anders will feel the intense chill in that arm which gives Sub Zero his name, the temperature of his skin about the same as the chill of a winter day.

"Thank you." If this was his suppressed magic, which those shackles seemed to indicate, Kuai can only imagine what Anders could do unrestrained. The Lin Kuei could use a healer like him, but he doubts the Grandmaster would swipe such an asset from under the nose of a well-funded Patron.

With the wound healed, the chill creeps right back into the space where new skin sits, and Sub Zero seems to relax a little of the tension in his form which had been from the pain of his wounds. He will let Anders work in silence for a while before he speaks again.

"What's your name?"

Now that chill is a curious thing. Anders' fingers flinch just slightly at their first contact, before he really starts to work - but once the initial surprise wears off, he's not sure he should be all that shocked. After all, he's been watching this man practically breathe frost since he stepped into the room.

But he knows better than to ask about it before they've even been introduced. (He'll save that for, at most, a minute or two after.)

"Anders. The pleasure's all yours, I'm sure."

"Kuai Liang. Likewise." He emits a sound that's almost a chuckle. Sub Zero makes sure to stay still for the healer so he doesn't impede the work. It's rare he gets this sort of treatment, and it's indeed novel. He knew he was kicking up a fuss about the injuries he was receiving under the contract, but this quality of magic bespoke some intervention from the Grandmaster. Even a rich Patron would skimp where they could, and mediocre healing without the use of magic was cheap.

Well, maybe he's not so frosty, after all. The fighters with a sense of humor are always easier to deal with. ...Though they also tend to be the ones who aren't here because they have no other choice. They have the freedom to laugh because their death wishes aren't compulsory.

Whatever that says about Kuai, though, Anders hasn't quite decided.

With the last of those largely superficial wounds healed, Anders lets the glow of magic fade from his palms. "There, good as new. Or at least as far as I can tell."

"Thank you. Possibly better than when the match started." He looks over himself and gives a pleased nod.

"When my contract ends, I might have to speak with my Grandmaster about trying to get you working for us. Without those." He makes a small motion as if to break those shackles. "The clan doesn't have healers with this kind of skill, and you wouldn't just be patching up people for sport."

Whatever genuine humor there was in Anders' expression, it dries up quickly under that offer. It's hardly the first time he's heard that one - and it more than likely won't be the last. If he had a silver for every forgotten or ill-fated promise of freedom he's ever heard - well, he still wouldn't be able to buy his way out of this life, but he'd be a far side closer to it.

"Listen, you don't seem so bad—" Almost charming, in fact, if Anders is honest with himself. And certainly better company, even in just these spare few minutes, than the silence or any stone-faced, staring guard. "—so let's not make any promises we aren't going to keep and ruin it."

[give me the dumbest fight possible]

[AU in which this idiot has to fight in the Grandmaster's arena, maybe?]

[ Up for all except the space prompt! ]

[prompt me]

[ all the prompts look good! ]

[BEFORE I TAG does this sound good? I know it'll prob be ridic but]

[ oh my god, yes!!! sounds fine to me! ]

[OH SHIT I SHOULD ASK BEFORE I WRITE THIS UP: would you prefer Engie or Bayek to be the OP one? I'd have fun with either/or]

[ GOD uh both would be amazing but it would honestly be fucking hilarious to have eng be the op one. ]

[It's not Engineer's first time in Egypt, but it IS his first time in Egypt sitting on a truck bed, hooked up to a dispenser, surrounded by 5 Lv. 3 sentries, drinking beer, and also in the middle of an arena for some reason,

Also, he's got armor??? It's, like, a bulletproof vest with a Razorback on the back. Go figure. He's tuning his guitar like an asshole.]

Y'all like Norma Jean?

[ meanwhile, this certainly isn't bayek's first time in the gladiator arena. kensa had dragged him to the depths of the pit before and he'd been reluctant at best. at the same time, he'd been willing enough to participate for the sake of a friend and for a better cause but--this? whatever this is? is so... incredibly beyond him.

it's not even the mind-boggling aspect that he's somehow wound up back here. it's everything else. he's absolutely no weapons and even his hidden blade has been removed, exposing the grotesque sight of his missing ring finger.

he's already once tried to stealth up behind the other man, but the strange enchanted mechanisms he's brought with him seemed sentient in and of themselves, almost instantly zeroing in on his presence and firing away.

so currently, bayek is crouched behind some shoddy stone cover, attempting to regain his thoughts and catch his breath. that's when he hears the other man's banter--which is equally confusing. ]

... I can only assume this woman is some kind of enchantress who has instructed you in the ways of crafting your so-called weapons!

[ ah yes. norma jean, the enchantress. ]

What.

[Engie blinks up in Bayek's direction. At least, he thinks it's Bayek's direction. He lost sight of him in the gunsmoke of a literal ridiculous amount of automated turrets. That said, he's used to handling sneaky, so he's keeping an eye out.]

Now, that ain't any way to call out a man's work. If you ain't a country fella, just say so. [He strums his guitar.] Guessin' you never heard of her, though. Try this on for size.

[He starts playing, and it's pretty good??? Probably not for Bayek. Sorry, Bayek.]

[ ota! ]

[ all prompts are golden ]

[Open to all but the space prompt, DM me for details or proposals?]

[ open to AU or some variant of canon fate lore ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

win the crowd and you will win your freedom

Shiro | Voltron Legendary Defender | S7 Compliant

Sherlock Holmes || Sherlock BBC || m/m

Sub Zero - Mortal Kombat - OTA

Valryn Melana || Dungeons & Dragons OC || m/m

anders | dragon age | ota

Re: anders | dragon age | ota

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XD the bad cold puns <3

ty im doing my best (⁎❛ᴗ❛⁎)

Engineer | Team Fortress 2

Thor Odinson | MCU

Loki | MCU

gamora | mcu | ota

Eijirou Kirishima | My Hero Academia | OTA

Bucky Barnes (winter soldier mode)| MCU

bayek of siwa | assassin's creed origins

own world / 11

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I WAS THINKING THE SAME THING let's do it

the icon makes this entire tag

it's the mood for the whole thread probably

Raiden | MGS/MGR

uldren sov | destiny

Esca | The Eagle

walder | granblue fantasy | ota

Revali | Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | ota

Morgan and/or Morgan | Fire Emblem |

karna | fate/ | ota