EVENT: The Berserker Tournament

[zenderael_mods]

Who: Open
When: Friday, June 3rd to Friday, June 10th
Where: Pakerion
Before/After: --
Warnings: Violence.

[ This is a catch-all post for tourney shenanigans throughout the week. Use the subject line to indicate when a particular scene is taking place.

If you'd like to log your character in a match, please indicate the match, tier, and day in the subject line.

Interview thread!

Friday & Saturday brackets.
Sunday & Monday brackets.
Tuesday & Wednesday brackets.
Additional brackets forthcoming. ]

Comments

Friday: Acher vs. Rhys

[fearnoreproach]

The sound of the crowd was deafening.

Acher stood on the elevator lifting up the arena grounds slowly, where the Undertow's stands were constructed around the sand-lined wooden floor. Some grains of sand fell down onto his face. His heart was pounding in his chest; the announcement had come not as a shock, but instead driven home the ever-growing sense of surprise when he discovered he would fight the Ahura. This was a guild leader.

It was rare that he expected to lose, but he did today.

The sun hit his face and his armor. He squinted, especially when his armor shone brightly in it; it was polished to a fine sheen for this battle. Acher rose into the arena to the sound of boos and hisses; he was someone from Everea, after all. He drew his sword, grinned, and saluted the crowd like they were cheering their hearts out for him -- and deliberately avoided meeting the Ahura's eyes, too.

He would rather the guild leader not see any doubt until he could fully collect himself.

[brokencrescendo]

Losing was not an option.

Rhys had made a lot of foolish decisions. It had become a joke. One reckless move after another had led him here. Taking the organ to stop a riot, coming to Zenderael to stop a siege, throwing down a challenge to a king to stop what he assumed would be a war, and now fighting amongst the ranks instead of waiting for the champion because he didn't want anyone to doubt him. Because he didn't want to doubt himself.

The crowd didn't know how to react to their Ahura. Some booed and some cheered. He swore he could hear Virelai, but he didn't dare try to look for her. But Rhys was no stranger to crowds. He'd performed in front of them before and this was no different. Except for the violence. And the possibility of death.

He didn't play to the crowd or give anyone a reaction, even after the strike of the gong signaled the start of the match. He only watched Acher, drowning out the crowd, drowning out his fear, and everything else except for the paladin in front of him. Rhys had trained with the Spenta. If he couldn't handle this fight, then he had no right to be the Ahura.

[fearnoreproach]

Acher turned to face Rhys, finally, and sized the other man up. Acher stood taller, which was moderately bizarre. One expected demigods to tower over them.

He stalked closer, his sword drawn, and looked Rhys up and down. He made a show of it.

"What I do here is nothing personal," he said. "But knowing what I do, I seek power -- to secure Everea from our enemies. You're the way I can have that power." He raised the sword, pointing it directly towards Rhys, and grinned brightly. "So I hope you're ready, berserker! I will hold nothing back!"

He bolted forward. Acher moved a little faster than he looked like he should be able to in his plate armor, but he was still not the fastest ever. He swung his blade back, one handed, and cut down for Rhys with a spinning motion of his body. His shield swung back as he did, leaving him open for just a moment.

[brokencrescendo]

Rhys didn't have a voice to respond with and didn't bother to think of one. Anything Acher said was noise. Personal or not, none of it mattered. If Rhys lost, he would die, and he'd throw himself into each fight as if it were his last. It very well could be.

He stayed, waiting, finding it easier to react than to act. It was a risky move, but he stayed in place as the sword came for him, waiting for his opening. He say it, twisting his body, ignoring sear of pain that flared in his arm as the sword's blade brushed across him to strike Acher with his fist. It'd feel more like getting charged by a bull than punched by a man.

Friday: Flying Beer Steins

[unlikelypets]

Chisaki managed to take down a druid. She never liked a lot of attention being showered on her, though, so when a well-placed arrow brought Damara Coldheart down, she had taken off. The arena floor was not the most comfortable place to be -- whereas the stands reminded her of the time she went to Giants' games with her father. That was a nice memory.

She bought a commemorative beer stein. It was stonework, with a large sigil of one of the Undertow's finest taverns engraved upon it. She hefted it up and took a long drink off it.

"Aaaaahhhhh," she said with relaxation, as she stepped forward -- right into the back of some poor, red-haired fellow -- and dumped the beer down on top of his head by accident. Then, she said, with panic, "Aaaaahhh!"

[transfer_student]

Nova had been surprised to find that he wasn't enjoying the tournament as much as he'd expected to. It sounded exciting in theory, but an endless sea of people making AS MUCH NOISE AS POSSIBLE while they watched competitors pummel one another into the sand actually wasn't an especially enjoyable setting, it turned out. It was a little uncivilized, once you got right down to it.

Still (unlike a certain someone) he was at least trying to enjoy it -- an effort made all the more difficult when somebody bashed into him from behind, soaking him with something that smelled like beer, probably because it was beer.

He spun, shouting, partly because he was startled and angry, but also because really you had to shout to hear your own voice in this stupid crowd.

"Are you practicing for a beer-tossing event?! Because I think you managed to soak nine tenths of me!"

He was exaggerating, but it was all in his hair and dripping down his back, yuck.

[unlikelypets]

"I'm not practicing!" Chisaki snapped down at Nova angrily.

She looked the alchemist up and down. She almost felt bad; she really had soaked him through. But, conversely, her stein was almost completely empty now. "That beer was really expensive," she said. "Man, I didn't get to drink any of it. This is such crap! This sucks!"

His soaked hair and clothing did not seem worthy of a second mention.

[transfer_student]

"Then it was thoughtful of you to give it to me!"

Wait, that didn't sound hostile at all. How did people like Majestica make intimidating strangers look so easy?

"I mean, I hope you fall down the steps!"

INTERVIEWS

[zenderael_mods]

[ Want your character to be interviewed? Appear on YouTube for thousands of audiences around the (Earth) globe (and quite a number on Zen, too) to see?! Comment here with the date (if you've got one in mind!) ]

[friday, 6/3] post-match

[socarnivorously]

[ he's got a gash on his head that's closing up, though that it's healing at all is hard to notice under the blood. the same goes for the other wounds littering his body, most notably his arms -- well, that was the sacrifice one made when participating in a froofy costumes not meant for battle...

poor, red and white dress. he knew ye not well at all. the white fur... thing is still around his neck, but that is pretty much the only part of the outfit that is completely intact. one of the sleeves had been ripped off and the other sported tears in it. there are similar tears in the skirt part of the dress. at some point in the match, the bow at his back had become undone; now it trailed behind him.

at least he thought to wear pants underneath!

the roar of the crowd at a defeat is ebbing off to the normal roar of a crowd, period. exiting the arena, alex rubs his cheek and looks around, passing the next fighter, for rei. he told her to stick around to hand him a potion... ]

[paladont]

[He gets Ravi instead.]

[Ravi recognized Alex in the ridiculous dress immediately, and spent the rest of the match with his face in his hands, trying to pretend he didn't know him. (But watching anyway because he still wanted to see Alex win.)]

[After, he excuses himself from Ezra and the others for a moment to go find Alex leaving the ring. He's not hard to find.]

[He doesn't call out. He doesn't want to broadcast knowing him. :|; ]

[He runs up beside Alex, a hand on his arm to stop him. Concern flashes across his face when he sees the blood, but Alex just got out of a fight, why is he even surprised?]

[He takes a potion out of his belt and hands it over. (Of course he brought potions, he's here as a guard.)]

Here.

[socarnivorously]

Oh! [ ravi! ravi came to see him!

also a potion! he grins brightly and takes it. ]

Thanks.

[ both hands are occupied, one with the potion, the other with his glaive, so he tugs the cork out with his teeth and spits it to the ground before knocking back the potion. ahh, the itchiness of rapid healing going faster. ]

Did you like it?

Monday 6/6 Majestica/Tristan

[frombelow]

Majestica was enjoying the tournament more than she'd expected to. She was powerful. She was competent. Even if she didn't have the supernatural strength and speed that had been part of her now-defunct half-demon origins, she still had surprisingly good reflexes for a mage and her spells were nothing to scoff at. She'd won against an assassin the day before, just beaten him down until he couldn't get back up. That was a good feeling.

Her player might've made her stupid, forgotten to give her things she should've known, but at least she had this, and it was all hers.

She enjoyed the fighting, but she was also enjoying the downtime. She got to experience things for herself and decide on her own how she felt about them, and in such a large, crowded, varied setting, she was being exposed to a great many new experiences.

She hated most of them, like being forced to wait in a line or being jostled by a crowd or getting her hair caught on someone's armour spikes because they passed by too close, but there was one that she decided she most definitely did not hate.

And that was pastries.

Gods bless whichever vendors had made the call to sell their pastries at the tournament. Majestica would gladly spend every dime of the prize money on them if she earned it.

Currently, she stood in a relatively uncrowded part of the vendor's area, off to the side and between a few low-traffic stalls. She was halfway through an apple fritter--her third--and not terribly mindful of the sticky mess it made of her fingers.

[heyshorty]

"Davey, come on, c'mon... can you even hold that thing? Okay, you got it? Is it- it's on? Where's the record button- okay, good, good. Target sighted. Let's move in."

Armed with a stolen microphone and a fellow rogue carrying an equally stolen video camera, Tristan and his lanky cohort made their way through the minimal crowd to the engrossed mage.

"Excuse me, excuse me," he said cheerfully, holding a hand up in greeting. "Ma'am, if you'll pardon my asking- may we have a moment of your time?"

Davey came up behind him, shifting the camera to his shoulder and turning it on, the lens focusing on her. Many of the instruments had made their way through the crowds, and people approached similarly. And why not her? She'd just recently won a victory, after all, and a fairly impressive one at that.

And she had huge tits. These two important facts were not lost on either rogue.

[frombelow]

She looked up, her mouth full of fritter, searching for the source of the voice. When she saw the short kid and his companion--carrying one of those Earth machines that she wasn't quite sure of the purpose of--she chewed, swallowed, and turned to face them both.

"What do you want?" she asked, sounding condescending rather than overtly hostile.

[monday, 6/6] ravi and the three earthlings

[endofthetale]

[ ahhh, it's 'half-time' or something like it, with the matches on pause while everyone went to get lunch and fill themselves with more ale to better roar with.

evelyn does not have an appetite. the only reason why she's still present is because rhys has yet to have his match. even if she hasn't much of a stomach for the back to back violence of the tournament, the magnitude of which she'd never seen in her life before now, she's determined to stick it through each day to see rhys make it.

because it is very possible that he wouldn't.

so when eileen mentions something about meeting her friends, evelyn hands the rest of the apple she'd been nibbling at to eranthis, riding on her shoulder, and follows half-heartedly. ]

[feedtherain]

[Truthfully, Eileen doesn't like it much, either. She's really only there to support Rhys because Rhys really isn't that bad for a berserker and he's like them. Earthers should stick together, right?

And while she had come here with Evelyn (and God Siegmund made her wish she was the kind of person to want to punt people sometimes), she had seen Ezra and Ravindra and a few of the other paladins and she couldn't just be here and not say hello to them, could she?

Though how would she explain to Ravindra that she knew Ezra? Ohhh this really wasn't how she wanted this to come out....]

You'll like them, Evelyn, really. Well, I hope you will. [smiling a little; also, it's a nice distraction from all the punching people into bloody pulps that's going on] Maybe just be a bit careful around Sergeant Savarna.

[Speaking of... oh look! There they are! Thank god they're all wearing nondescript leather here because otherwise this would be incredibly difficult. And they get a big old wave.]

Ser--- [No, Eileen, you can't call him that here. That's bad and might potentially out you as a paladin or someone who doesn't really belong here at all.] Ravindra!

[paladont]

[Ravi's standing with Ezra, arms folded, maybe zoning out a little because there is nothing going on at the moment. The other two paladins are busy discussing lunch options so everyone can eat before the matches start up again, but he's just going along with whatever everyone else decides because that's what he does.]

[Familiar voice snaps him out of it. He looks up and is surprised to see Eileen. And an unfamiliar red-haired girl with her?]

[Oh no, meeting someone else's friends. A student's, even. This is going to be awkward.]

Eileen. You came to watch the tournament? [NO DUH RAVI, what a dumb question. Maybe if he doesn't say anything they can just pretend it wasn't dumb.]

[coolmonsoon]

[he's been swinging between concerned and enthusiastic and trying to rein in both, which means he's seemed a little more subdued than usual. violence doesn't bother him as much as it used to, so the tournament itself is fine. it's the fact that rhys is in it and risking his life and the god organ that bothers him

he's also listening to the food conversation and questioning the absence of drinks when ravindra's attention gets pulled away

it takes a moment before he turns around too, seeing eileen. he's in a fair enough mood that he smiles automatically at her]

Hey, Eileen. [it comes out easily, more used to that than using her rank and last name, all things considered] How's things looking so far?

[he looks to evelyn and gives her a little salute] Friend?

[Saturday, 5/24] Post Alex/Virelai Match

[bantambrawl]

Virelai's memories were a dizzy swarm of battle of lust, coppery tastes, and screaming people. Her head was throbbing and if she moved it around too fast, everything went dark again and felt sick and noooo. She brought her hands over her head in a feeble attempt to steady it, sitting up in the cot of her waiting room.

She was certainly bruised several times over, and bandaged in a few places to stop-- or hide-- the bleeding. It was nothing serious (especially not for the Nameless!) and that must have been the most the healers had time for now.

Oh no, noo. She really lost. He was title tier and she lost! What would the Ahura say? (He wouldn't say anything, he'd just pat her on the head, but she lost...!) Virelai curled up into an even tinier looking ball, knees hugged to her chest. Her pigtails had been untied, leaving her long hair to hang all around her, shrouding her like a cloak-- or some kind of pink tundra beast.

[paladont]

The Alex versus Virelai match had been difficult to watch. Partially because Ravi didn't want to see either of them lose, and partially because Ravi winced every time Virelai took a hit. He knew she was a perfectly capable berserker, but there was a difference between watching her take hits from a monster, and watching her take them from your boyfriend.

(He did feel bad for Alex when she went into fury and started chewing on him, though.)

After the match, he excused himself to find her. Alex, he knew, would have Reilanin waiting to hand him a potion and help patch him up, so he wasn't really worried about him. He wouldn't have been able to help except with moral support, anyway. Virelai he could at least provide some healing for. (And she needed the moral support more than Alex did.)

He had to ask a few of the organizers where to find her, which was a little harrowing, but in the end he managed to get directions to her room and hesitantly knocked, hoping this was the right one.

[bantambrawl]

Virelai looked up at the door, but couldn't see through her hair. She shook her head and it spun again, leading her to flop against the cot. There was a few second delay as she stayed there before prying the hair from one of her eyes. It... probably wouldn't be the Ahura, he was busy, but-- Rayu had said if she won, they could get a treat...? But she hadn't won...

"Come in?" She still had her voice, that was good! It was something? "P-Paladin Ravindra--" It was just supposed to be 'Ravi' but she forget again and couldn't think about it because now her comrade was seeing her flopped against the cot with her hair everywhere and he'd probably seen her lose too and this was a very embarrassing day, come to think of it.

Wednesday: Chisaki vs. Alex

[unlikelypets]

The semifinals.

Chisaki honestly never expected to make it to the semifinals. The sprites were strong fighters, if they were anything, and she always felt something like an impostor when she used her powers as a Hunter. Maybe it was time that she stop doing that. She had put an end to the hopes of more than a few of the contestants. She was probably the only person from Earth to make it this far.

The rest seemed native to her.

She strode out onto the arena's sand, bow over her back. She slung it over her shoulder, checking that her quiver was where it was supposed to be, and then looked across the arena. She had grown used to tuning out the crowd, now. Her lips pursed, while she scanned about, waiting for her opponent to come.

Her heart was back in her throat. She could not get used to this feeling before a fight. Her fingers clinched and unclinched nervously.

[socarnivorously]

Oh, the make it or break it match. "Jordan" supposed all matches were such, only this one twice as, but whether or not he took it anymore seriously than the rest was certainly not apparent by the way he sauntered into the arena, the tail end of a thick, black feather boa drifting lazily behind him. Alas, he would have preferred feathers from more colorful avians, but preference he'd given up in exchange for paying Artemis to fetch one for him.

At least they had a nice, green sheen.

As with previous matches, he wore a light smile. His glaive was in hand and his combat knife strapped to his thigh, but he never had replaced Akhilendra's shortsword, carrying it more for its sentimental value than its function.

"May Vepha smile down on you," he called, amiably mean.

Then he charged her, intending to close the distance she needed to win, and swung his glaive.

[unlikelypets]

"Uh, yeah, hope Hobbit Jesus is cool with you, too," Chisaki said. Was that right? It sounded close enough for government work.

Except he was charging. Chisaki swore, seeing Alexander move so fast, nocked an arrow in her bow, and loosed. It fired well over his shoulder, sticking into the sand past him, and his glaive came in for her unaided. She had prepared for this, though, having made it this far against some up-close fighters. She drew in on the magic around her, infusing her body with sudden speed -- and ducked down low.

The glaive soared over her, just barely missing her, and she came back up to her feet with a quick hope. She swung her fist up in a hard uppercut aimed at his chin.

"Nice boa," she quipped, "matches your eyes."