[battle] Round 2 Preliminaries, part 2

[utopiamods]

Round 2 Tournament Preliminaries

SHORYU vs KALLEN KOZUKI
ROAD KAMELOT vs. GRENN ATAIR
MOLLY HAYES vs. MIWAKO IHARA

Location: Main Courtyard, Tournament Stadium
Time of day: Afternoon.
Special Rules: One Weapon or set of Weapons per battle; Players may not leave the stadium.

[the announcement rings through the campus all morning, on the half-hour: Can all participating Players report to the Tournament Stadium for midday with their chosen Weapons. The event will begin at twelve twenty-five for all other students.

Yes, that's right, the Tournament Stadium. During the early morning of Day 1, the staff were hard at work constructing a stadium in the main courtyard. There's raised seating for all students, and a large open-air ring for the participants. There's more than enough space even for fliers, and a number of raised areas, stairs and chest-high walls to make battles more interesting. At the end of the stadium is a large screen showing the ring from above.]

Comments

[summerstars]

While that was surely how whoever in charge were doing things (more like remotely unplugging them, or whatever) how did the kid think she had access to the tech that could do that? Grenn shook herself from her staring and sighed.

"And if I was doing all that, where am I supposed to have this tech, and why would I be here? Don't you think those in charge would be displeased with their kidnapees disappearing?" What was it with this kid?

[myblueskies]

What did she mean where would she have the tech, what was tech? It sounded a little bit like the beginning of technology but surely that came from inside you, or from potions. Maybe she meant her equiptment like that other witch had had.

"I don't know, that other witch just had a room full of it and the teachers didn't mind, maybe you witches are working with the kidnappers! You're here because you need people for your technology!" He was angry now, because why was she still trying to deny it when he was obviously on to her.

[summerstars]

Did he mean the guy (whoever that had been) in the workshop he'd taken over? Must be. And then her brain abandoned those thoughts for the implication of humans being needed for tech? Huh?

"... You don't need humans for technology. I mean, other than a human actually using the tech... And I'd much rather be home, thanks..." Grenn frowned down at the boy, wondering where he got these ideas from.

[myblueskies]

Romeo blinked in confusion, you didn't need human's for technology? Well Romeo knew nothing about technology so it might be true. "So you just fed them to your goblin then..."

He wasn't sure if that was a better or worse fate than being used for technology. Either way he felt very sad for those who had been taken.

[summerstars]

"My... whatnow?"

Goblin? What was that, again? She thought it was some sort of fairy tale creature, but she wasn't sure. And why would she have something like that, anyway?

[myblueskies]

"Your goblin!" The sadness was making way for fustration and anger again. "All witches have goblins so I know you have one! You and your goblin should just fly out of here and stop eating people!"

He could still run, maybe, but the witch had annoyed him to the point he just wanted to make sure she didn't hurt anyone else at this school. Everyone here had been really nice to Romeo and he didn't want them to get eaten!

[summerstars]

... If she wasn't so confused, this would be funny. Goblins? Witches? She wondered where the boy was from.

"... I don't know where... You got that idea, but witches are supposed to use magic, and where I'm from, magic doesn't exist. And neither do goblins..." Question was, would he even believe her? He seemed so very invested in the assumption that she was a 'witch'.

"And I don't eat people. I don't even eat pork," Grenn said and shook her head.

[myblueskies]

This witch was a little bit silly, or she was still lying. This was exhausting and Romeo sighed, "Well yeah Fletcher told me that! But your a technology witch," technology and magic afterall were the same thing, but people here used technology and not magic.

What did eating pork have to do with eating humans? Pork was from pigs, pigs wern't human... all that meant was that she wouldn't turn people into pigs before eating them!

"Well I never said you ate people anyways, you give them to your goblin." He sighed, "Maybe you don't use the word witch here, like you use techology instead of magic, but witches are the only thing that could make that girl disapear." He shrugged, why was he explaining this? He sighed.

[summerstars]

"Hate to tell you this, but technology and magic aren't the same thing... Technology, even if it might seem like magic sometimes, simply comes from cogs and springs on its simplest version. You know, like a clock?" Grenn shook her head and twisted the ring on her finger slowly.

"And if goblins don't exist, which they don't, how could I feed any people, which I haven't kidnapped, to it?"

[myblueskies]

Technology and magic wern't the same thing? Well yes he knew that, after all technology was much more powerful, there was nothing like those walls in the stories he had been told.

She didn't really make sense though because Romeo had seen clocks! Well he had seen them in books and doctor Casella had told him that two sticks moved round and round and that clever people could tell what time it was from them.

But that sounded nothing like the walls or the thing that Gino had shown him that drew pictures of you in a second. "Bu...But how do they make pictures, that can't just be springs and cogs! The walls don't look anything like clocks!"

He frowned again, she might be right about the goblins... Romeo had never seen one! But he had never seen a whale either, or a tiger or an elephant and he knew that they existed! "Well if you didn't kidnap anybody and you didn't feed them to your goblin then who made that girl disapear?"

[summerstars]

"Pictures? Like the screens around the school? You can think of those like a mirror, in a way, that shows a picture that was gotten somewhere else... And if you mean cameras, they... um... The older ones have a special paper in them, that when exposed to light make the scene they were aimed at appear." Grenn wasn't sure how well she was explaining things, because frankly? She didn't have a good grip of the really old technologu, but she didn't want to even attempt explaining something even as outadated as an old digital camera.

... And how should she know who had made the girl disappear?

"No idea... the announcer was surprised too... Maybe it's not supposed to happen like that, so they weren't prepared."

[myblueskies]

But... that made no sense, a mirror was nothing like a clock and how did a mirror keep a picture and move it. And how did light make drawings on paper? It hadn't been on paper the one Gino had shown him, it had been on the box itself.

And of course people wern't meant to dissapear, were they? Romeo had no idea he frowned, "Maybe it was that other witch, well technology man," Romeo shrugged, "He said he was trying to break things, maybe he broke that girl, or kidnapped her to break the fight?"

[summerstars]

"Even if he could do that, I don't think he'd have been able to make anything that could do that this soon." Grenn shook her head and looked down at the ring and the various obstacles.

"She got out. She's probably happy about that." She'd have wanted to get out... to be back where she ought to be, with Lyra and finishing up her stupid graduation.

[myblueskies]

Romeo frowned again, maybe she was right; she seemed to know much more about this technology than Romeo did. But he wasn't sure that the girl had escaped, she had just disappeared; disappearing didn't mean escaping.

"But how do you know she didn't end up somewhere worse, she just disappeared, that doesn't mean she went back home... How would that work, she’d have to go back on the train to go home!"

[summerstars]

"Well, the woman who announces the rounds said this round that several people had gone home, and if we can trust that, I'd assume the people have disappeared are the ones who've gone home in some way..." Grenn shrugged. There was no way to know for sure, of course, but you had to believe something right?

[myblueskies]

Romeo frowned, "So we can go home if we want to?" If some people had gone home that meant the rest of them could, maybe you just needed to ask.

"Maybe we could ask the people at the desk, if they say no well," he inched closer, now he had decided that this woman was not a witch, and she had not hurt him in all the time he had been speaking to her then she was obviously trustworthy. "Me and some other kids were going to try and follow the tracks and get out of here, Lyra is bringing a compass, we wanted to take as many people with us and if we do find a way out were going to come back and get everyone else!"

[summerstars]

"Well... It would be nice... But I don't think it works that way," Grenn said with a frown, and then looked up as Romeo revealed what they were planning to do.

"I... Don't think that's a good idea. I'm not sure those tracks lead anywhere... If you go, be careful." It may be cowardly, or a bit narrow-minded, but she was uncertain what following the tracks could do; she was sure that if there was some way to get out of here, they'd find it right here in the school.

[myblueskies]

"We will be!" He promised with a smile and fell silent for a while. He was still a little worried about the escaping thing, because he couldn't remember coming here and he might of signed a contract... actually, he blinked, if some people had been allowed to go home already and everyone came in groups at different times...

"Miss? Can you remember coming here, did you sign a contract, because maybe we promised to come here for a certain amount of time, maybe they made us forget that too but the people that dissapeared, they finished their contract and got to go home!"

If that was the case then escaping would be bad... But he had promised Lyra and Mei that he would try.

[summerstars]

Grenn shook her head, resting her elbows on the armrests of her chair and her chin on her interlaced fingers.

"No... All I remmeber was promising something, but if you can't even remember what you promised, or to who..." She frowned. Would that be how they'd find a way/be allowed to return home? Finding out whatever they'd (been made to) promised?

[myblueskies]

Romeo sighed, "Well when I went to Milan... I..." His memories were really fuzzy but he knew that chimney sweeps, or their parents at least signed a contract, he couldn't remember anything about his though. He could remember the fire and Luini hanging around the village, with rumours that he wanted to buy Romeo. Then he could remember leaving on Luini's cart, nothing in between that.

"I can't remember really, but I know that the God of Death paid money to our parents and a contract was signed that said we belonged to him and then whoever he sold us on to until a certain season. The more money he paid the longer we belonged to him, then he sold us in Milano," this part wasn't fuzzy at all, well not completely, Romeo couldn't remember how much he had been sold for, though he knew miss Edda had been so mad about it. "The bosses who bought us had to promise that they'd let us go home when the time had passed, though no one ever survived their whole contract."

"Until the Black Brothers! We made sure everyone survived!" He sounded triumphant, "Except Alfredo... But maybe this is like that, maybe we promised to stay here and fight and learn," which didn't seem to bad a deal really, they were being fed, had proper beds and got to learn lots of interesting things. "Then when we finish the time we promised we go home!"

[summerstars]

What do you say to that, really? Grenn shivered, because while the boy was being matter of fact and calm about it, he was describing slavery, and that 'promise to let the children go home'? Yeah, as if that ever happened.

"... When you go back, would you still belong to someone?"

She couldn't see any point in speculating about what they'd promised, because she could remember nothing about that. Only a sort of "I promised something" which was highly stupid. Why would she do that?

[myblueskies]

Romeo shook his head, "No I finished my contract and went home, I was the first boy in my village ever to come back from the city," he sounded proud but sad at that. Proud because he knew he had survived because of the Black Brothers and he was very proud of being a member of them, and leading them though he would have much rather had Alfredo still be alive and being the leader. Sadness because if only there were more Alfredo's in the world, more boys might have survived.

"Thing's were alright at home, we wern't starving, not like before I went to the city. So I'm not sure why I would have been sent away again and why I would be here and not back in the city. At first I thought this was a regular school," he smiled a small smile, "I've never been to school before and doctor Casella said he was going to try and help me go to school..." But other people already had schools, or some said they were too old for school and they were still here.

"I'm Romeo by the way miss!" He felt a little bad about thinking she was a witch now.

[summerstars]

Grenn smiled back at the boy and nodded. Well, that was a relief, that he'd actually gotten to go home.

"I'm Grenn. And you don't need to call me 'miss'." That just felt a bit silly around here.

[myblueskies]

"Hello m...Grenn, it's nice to meet you." He smiled politely at her, it was strange not to call adults miss, because it was polite and he felt rude when he didn't.

"Mi... Grenn? What happened to your legs?" He hoped the question didn't make Grenn sad, because he had been wondering, and if she wasn't a witch who could fix them by magic, how was she alive. Romeo didn't know much, or anything about medicine but from what he had seen and what doctor Casella had said if you lost a limb you lost lots of blood, you needed blood to survive and so how had Grenn been able to survive loosing both legs and all that blood lost if not by magic. She must be very very strong.

[summerstars]

Of course he'd ask. But he hadn't been as rude as other people could be, so, well, she could answer that question as it was asked. Grenn shrugged and absentmindely rubbed the metal ports attached to the ends right now hidden by the pants she had on.

"Where I'm from, there's this disease that rots the bone and flesh... It attacked my legs. I was lucky, really," she shrugged and patted out a light rythm on one of her thighs. "Other people have had it attack their heads, and there's not much you can do for them..." Oh wait. With a grimace, she realized she should probably not have said that last part. He was just a kid, even if his life hadn't been all sparkly clean and nice.