bakerstreet | The Gladiatorial Meme!

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The Gladiatorial Meme!

Gladiatorial Combat Meme!

Who doesn't like fighting? Characters, players, the heat of battle is a great place to gather CR! So we bring you the crowd. The rush of the scene, the thrill of battle or the sated daze of boodlust. Version 1.0, bring it on ladies and gents.

This meme may contain triggers
(also may be processed on machinery that has touched allergens be warned)

Basic RP courtesy rules apply
Post with character/canon/preferences (starter optional)
Tag and be cool to one another
Those with powerful characters/insta-winners may choose to be limited in some way. Power repression collars, fields around the arena, battle gods saying 'uh no' what ever!

Location, location, location!

Space/Alien planet: Just what it sounds like folks. You woke up after the worst hangover of your life and you weren't in Kansas any more!
Rome: Who doesn't like the classics? Welcome to low tech and brutally unfair!
Criminal Underground Games: Could be in a city, could be in an abandoned barn, what matters is that it's illegal as hell, makes a profit of your pain, and the not-so-upstanding citizens pay through the nose to watch two guys with bats go at each other in a razor wire cage.
The future: This is legal, somehow! You may be a criminal with the option to fight your way to freedom, you may be the next best thing to a bleeding celebrity!
On TV: None of this shit is real but you put on a hell of a show!
Mix n' Match: Or choose your own adventure! Be creative little buggers!

Situations!

One-on-One: Fight your way to the top! Easy huh? Except when your opponent is, well, not a push over.
Group Smash!: It is all of you guys vs. all of those guys! Team up, smash things, repeat until your hammer breaks!
Fresh meat/Training: You've never seen the main arena, you arrived and you've been down in the training grounds since! You may be the newest punching bag, you may be a rising star, you still have to bow down before the arena winners!
Matinee special!: Nobody takes you seriously, you end up in fights against the local Nuns After Prayer club with weapons like rubber chickens and foam bats!
I'm an apprentice!: You arrived in the latest shipment of arena slaves but let's be honest you have arms like wet noodles and they'd feel bad sticking you in the arena. You are now apprenticed to the arena healer/doctor/sawbones/weapon smith whatever!
Decompressing: Life is hard as an arena combatant, sometimes you just have to unwind in your chambers under/around the arena.
Blue Plate special: There's just something about a strong fighter...you may be a rich patron purchasing a few hours of time with a gladiator, you may be the paid for combatant, have at?
Spectator:You are in the stands, lucky you! Do you know the person on the field? Did you bring a friend to watch the blood being spilled? (it's okay we understand the appeal)
Monster Mash!: Sometimes people just need to see others torn apart by vicious monsters. Lions, tigers, mutant gila monsters, they have teeth and claws and such and you have...hands. Lucky you.
Death Match: Oh my, can you kill? The match isn't over until you do. Two on two, one on one, are you hard enough to follow through?
Choose your own!: Same as above, have at and wreak havoc!

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She would face down the ringmaster when and if she must. He would threaten her, she would do her best not to back down, such was the way things went. Perhaps this time the Ringmaster would follow through with his threats to toss her in a beast match, time would tell wouldn't it?

Still, for now, she would do everything she could for a fallen contender. The screaming though, no, she would never get used to the screams. She bit her lip against the sound and worked as fast, and safely, as she might, pale fingers covered in gore before she finally drew shaking fingers away from the wound and let herself take a deep breath. Now? Now she could pack the wound with antiseptic powders and numbing agents and stitch...

After a moment to still the shaking though. Yes, just a moment. "Please, lord, my apologies. I do not are to hurt, to harm, please, I'm sorry..." anything to still the screams.

By the time she had finished setting all the bones in place, his screams had finally faded to whimpers. It was possible that his own body had finally numbed itself from pain that was just too intense to process. It was also just as possible that his throat was just too raw to scream anymore.

But he was conscious. He was looking back at her with hazy, unfocused eyes. Slowly, hesitantly, he reached out with his left hand and brushed it against her face, as if to wipe away tears that weren't actually there.

As if to tell her she had no reason to apologize.

There was a fine trembling through her frame and she closed her eyes under his touch, trying, vainly, to regain her composure. No, she would never do well in the arena. "You are quite strong lord," she whispered once her tongue had unglued itself from her teeth. "To remain awake. We...we are almost done, stitching will hardly take any time at all and many of the herbs to keep your wound clean and healthy also numb..."

Perhaps, some day after this one he would accept sleep or herbs for pain. It would be but a small dent in the debt she owed to cause such pain but...

...still. When she was steady she nodded her cheek against his fingers and stepped away so she might wash her hands and arms before picking up jars of herbs.

He heard her footsteps more clearly than he saw her walk away. Her words were still echoing in his mind. Done... she was almost done...

Itachi groaned, spitting out what was left of the leather. The pain was starting to dull now that her power had done its work. Bones were set, tissues were mending. He waited patiently for her to return, not even attempting to move.

"This kind of pain... no matter how bad it is... will stop..." he whispered. His voice was hoarse. His throat was raw. "But the pain you feel in your heart... for forcing me to... endure it... will that stop? Or will it keep hurting you... long after I've recovered?"

That was an interesting question for him to ask. No fighter in her care had done so before and contemplating the answer kept her quiet well into the beginning of the stitching. "That is a kindness, lord," she offered at last. "But all pain fades, even one such as mine, in time. It is the lot and burden of a healer in such a place as this and nothing more." A cost for everything. A cost for her healing gift, a cost for wearing skin.

Yes, a cost for everything.

"Rather to feel the pain and have those in my care live than avoid it and see the injured die in the sands."

He smiled softly, wincing from time to time as the needle went through his skin.

"I may fight... in the arena... but I do not take joy... in causing pain..." he wheezed. "I am sorry... for causing you to... suffer my pain with me..."

It's strange, perhaps, that Itachi - a former soldier sentenced to the arena as punishment for his crimes - would be so gentle. But then again, perhaps that is the burden of a fighter in this bitter world in which they live.

"You seem as ill a fit in this place as I," she chuckled softly to his statement. "And you are a strong fighter lord, I do not blame your mistrust in sleep." No, she did not blame him even though it led to so much pain.

"This will scar lord, and badly. I will be able to keep the scars soft, and give you salve once you are healed to continuing working into the new skin, but for some time it will pull and no doubt ache."

Itachi wasn't troubled by scars, even though he had so few on his body for a fighter of his tenure. They were, however, going to be a reminder of how his invincibility had finally broken. He'd hidden it well, that sickness he just couldn't seem to get rid of, but now... it was though his days truly were numbered. And that did trouble him.

"I know... you've done what you can... I appreciate it... very much..." he watched her break the thread, and he immediately started to sit up.

She warned because thickened scars inhibited movement, which had devastating consequences here. Still...

...he was mad! "Slowly, lord!" she laid a hand on his shoulder and grimaced. "The bones are held but tenuously! You will not be leaving here for some time. if you d insist on sitting now though you may remove the remains of your shirt so we can clean and then wrap bandaging proper!"

Fortunately, it didn't take him more than a few tensed muscles and a sharp stinging pain to realize that was probably the worst thing he could have done. With her hand on his shoulder, he sunk back against the cot, gasping for breath.

"Not... exactly... used to this... kind of thing..." he mouthed apologetically. Less sound came out than he'd intended. "Never... happened before..."

"I am," she chuckled softly, shifting the hand from his shoulder to his cheek in fond reassurance. "Trust that I may know your limits for a time?" Please?

That said they still had to get his rags off and his chest cleaned before salve and bandaging. "Are you particularly attached to these...threads...lord? I fear I may have to cut the rest away."

He shook his head. There was very little left of his armor (though with the sub-par protection it offered, it could scarcely be called that at all) or his standard-issue tunic underneath. There was nothing he could do about that.

Of course, whether he could obtain more would be up to the Ringmaster or the guards. And that didn't seem all that likely.

"... Save... what you can..." he rasped. From his response, it was pretty obvious that this was pretty much all he had.

"As you will, lord. And I shall repair what I may." In quiet moments when she had nothing else to occupy her. She could snip carefully along the seams and set the rags aside for now though. He may get a vest in return instead of a shirt but she would salvage what she could.

"When did you last eat?" she asked as she began to wash his chest, gently removing blood and grime from his fight.

Itachi was probably one of very few who had fought in both worlds, so to speak. A free man fighting for sport and a criminal sentenced to combat were unevenly matched from the very beginning - in weaponry, in armor, in basic living conditions... Survival wasn't guaranteed.

It was as brutal out of the ring as it was in it. The prisoners lived in a sort of gang-like community, and unless you were part of one of those bands, you didn't stand a chance. It was also something the Ringmasters exploited to their fullest advantage.

Itachi was part of a group that called themselves Akatsuki. They were brutal, bloodthirsty fighters. Their sadistic cruelty was so well loved by the crowd, cloud banners frequently flew over the arena. But in person, he hardly seemed to fit that image.

"Before the fight..." he answered, still wincing a little as she slid her hand over massive bruises. It wasn't much. But being part of Akatsuki did mean a share of the spoils. "There were still... provisions left from... Deidara's victory earlier this week."

"Hnnn," she hummed against her teeth a moment, trying to calculate the time since. The hours blurred together through fight and rough surgery. At least half a day since then, perhaps longer. She would know better once she was able to step away to glance at the sky. "And dare I ask what those provisions were?" she seemed almost amused for some reason. Grim humor perhaps; she knew what things a prisoner may call a meal.

"And who should I allow entry to visit you while you recover? I would not wish to allow those with reason to harm you through the doorwards."

The axiom, 'to the victor goes the spoils,' certainly applied in the arena. If you didn't fight, you couldn't win. If you didn't win, you didn't eat. You earned your keep, or you died, one way or the other.

Which meant, considering the circumstances, Akatsuki was very good at taking care of its own.

"Some stew... Some bread..." he answered her first question easily, though probably not to the level of detail she would have preferred.

The second question... that took quite a bit more thought.

"Anyone... bearing red clouds... But none who escort them..." he added. Prisoners were unlikely to receive visitors, but it could happen, if the right price was bargained. "... If someone comes... bearing my family name... permit them entry... but remind them... only a coward kills a man who cannot fight back."

"If you are still awake and able after proper bandaging and a dose of steam for your lungs I will feed you yet again," she noted easily. "It is common fare, rabbit stew and pan bread, but wholesome." Mainly because when she was setting up her small corner of 'home' she bartered with some visiting merchants for rabbits to breed. Handy, those, and as long as she paid a tithe in fresh meat to the ringmasters they turned a blind eye on the hutches in her small garden.

Ah..."And what would your family name be lord? I truly do my best not to hear aught in the arena."

He was grateful for any kindness she offered, including a fresh, warm meal.

"Uchiha..." he replied, with the heavy air of regret.

He didn't know if the healer was from this kingdom, but if she was, the name would undoubtedly be familiar. His was a family of soldiers, their prowess on the battlefield won them renown in many kingdoms. But in a single night, they were all killed... by his hand. He left his brother alive, for reasons no one could fathom. And somehow, for reasons no one could fathom either, he escaped execution, and had been a prisoner here ever since.

"I know little of this world," she admitted easily. She had arrived in a panic through one of many world gates scattered in the old lands beyond the Dales. It had been a last stand...that turned into a capture in alien lands. "But you sound as if the name is a burden lord." She'd not use it if it was really.

He sighed, but tried to feign a smile.

"All gifts... are also curses... Are they not?"

The same applied to birthrights.

"They certainly can be," she agreed easily. "Who is like to arrive bearing your family name that should be reminded of honor?" Just so she had some understanding as to why they should be allowed in at all.

As for his torso, it was as clean as she was able without a true bath. "You will need to sit up truly now lord, we will do so slowly and the end of the cot raises as a prop so you might have support, but the bandages will have to wrap around you whole."

Itachi didn't need to provide her with a name, though she didn't know that yet.

"... There is only one left..." he gasped as he tried sitting up again. It was all he could do to support himself while she began bandaging the area. "... that I... didn't kill..."

That explained motive quite nicely.

"He trains... so he can fight me... in the arena... and finally finish... what I started..."

She was quiet as she adjusted the cot behind him, and quieter yet as she wrapped his test, tight but not so tightly as to cut off circulation. It was a grim thing to hear that the man she bandaged had killed his own blood.

A very grim thing indeed. And yet...he had been kind, in as much as he was able in such circumstance.

"I would believe you had cause," she noted finally, once the bandaging was done. He need not tell her such cause, but in so much she would trust him. "And should he visit I will be present." To rescind welcome if necessary.

As soon as she was finished, he slumped back against the cot. His body was exhausted - from the battle, from the surgery - such trauma can do nothing but take its heavy toll. He didn't have the strength for a long, painful tale. Nor did he care to tell it. So he let the healer assume what she may.

"And you?" he whispered. "... Something... brought you here?"

They would have several weeks in which he could tell tales if he wished. What she did know of him was that he had no scent of the true dark about him, and therefore his purpose could not have been entirely evil. Such...stained. She busied herself with a small brazier then a pan of water to set over it so she might get steam going for his lungs.

"Ah...that is a long tale lord." Truly a long one. "I was hunted from my home, hunted for well over two years across lands I did not know, and when I was cornered I fell through the wall behind my back and ended here. Captured with other wild things...it is not a brave tale." No, far from. "It was mere chance that the Ringmaster's wife was in need of a healer, and as such I could save her and her child. That granted me the role I hold here, and some small measure of freedom."

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