[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/EUeMzcz.png[/img]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApGE56HwSVY]♫[/url][/center]
[color=FFFFF0][hr][center][h2]Race to the Top[/h2][/center][hr]
For fifteen minutes on a random Orreday, the sky above Ersand'Enise was filled with the dozens of creative efforts of students trying to get - and remain - aloft. Some sunk and some soared to dizzying heights. A few even crashed from there, and that was quite the spectacle. For the army of thousands of workmen who kept the city running and the ever-growing number of Mycormish, Tansoan, Oiyan, and Parmoyan refugees camping outside of the Queensgate and the Seagate, it was a reason to pause and look up. The prodigious youths who would one day be their masters soared far above at heights they could scarce ever dream of reaching. 

If one group of yasoi, hidden in the trees south of Mudville, took a couple of potshots at one of the balloons, certainly, nobody heard about it. They had enough to contend with as dozens of less creative teams simply ascended the Forked Tower - its doors opened for the day - battling for top position on its twin steeples and sniping at passing balloons, rockets, and other elaborate solutions to the problem of beating gravity. This, too, was a time-honoured form of chaos as, despite having been warned not to, over a dozen of the foolish teens opened various doors leading to the tower's many floors. For some, it meant furious itches, explosive weight gain, or a temporary switch of gender. For others... the consequences were somewhat more severe. At least none ran into something truly terrifying this time.[/color] 

[color=FFFACD]Far above their heads, however, among the very top few teams - also, and perhaps not coincidentally, among the top in the overall standings - a fierce battle of sabotage, split-second timing, and extreme limit-pushing played out. In the end, it was an unlikely alliance of Vyshta's More Favoured and Fiske n' Chips that prevailed. Yet, it was not the powerful yasoi team who took home the pole position and its highly coveted seventy-five points. Instead, they found themselves pipped by one meter, at the very last second by their erstwhile allies. While Fiske n' Chips went home with a victory that vaulted them into first position in the table - a truly unlikely outcome by any reckoning before the tournament's inception - they would now live with the sword of Juulet's ire hanging over their collective heads. So it was that, after three events, the table appeared as follows:[/color]

[center][hider=Result & Tournament Standings][center][url=https://keepthescore.com/board/dwtqbjlhqymte/][h3]Tournament Standings[/h3][/url][/center]
[hr][center][h3]Thin Air Standings[/h3]
1. Fiske n' Chips + Sea People: (75)
2. Vyshta's Favoured + Shortlisted: (65)
3. Fait Accompli + Soul Sisters: (60)
4. Invisibles + Covenant: (55)
5. Beware the Nice Ones + AWOLE: (50)
6. Rock and Stone + Xicallicoatl: (50)
7. Raffscallions + Technically Correct: (40)
8. Singers & Saints + Coastal Crusaders: (40)
9. Skull & Crossbones + Huggy Bears: (40)
10. Teatro Sorridente + Beach Boys: (40)[/center]
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[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/0s2ZRjf.png[/img]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blALI80hFaw]♫[/url][/center]
[color=FFFACD][hr][hr][center][h2]Race to the Bottom[/h2][/center]
As with every other night of The Trials so far, the night after Thin Air was not a peaceful one; neither was the afternoon. At Daybreak the next day, as teams gathered in Balthazar Square for the start of the festival's final game, Mano e Mano, they knew that Thieving Cherune would also come to a close. The clandestine game of theft and skulduggery had been taking place in the background for the past three and a half days, but only a handful of teams - mostly the existing leaders - had managed to figure out what the wood blocks they'd found in the chests actually alluded to and collect all that were available.[/color] 

[color=FFDEAD]Now, in the Hours of Ipté, as the stars sparkled on the water by the city and the fog began to dissipate against a glowing horizon, they raced towards the three most famous towers of Ersand'Enise: the Pharaoh Point Light, the Lonely Obelisk, and the Forked Tower itself. It was a desperate flight of sprint, sabotage, and then... riddles. With the aid of magic, it took the quintets little time to locate the hidden boxes, but these were locked within larger compartments and their warding magics made it clear that these were not ones they could simply blast open. Instead, they scrambled to find solutions, there in the predawn gloom, hearts pounding, adrenaline coursing through their veins, adversaries sniping at them. Three emerged victorious. Another three claimed the second set of chests. The rest returned emptyhanded and Fiske n' Chips not only remained atop the standings, but saw its lead grow.[/color]

[center][hider=Thieving Cherune Standings][url=https://keepthescore.com/board/dwtqbjlhqymte/][h3]Overall Standings[/h3][/url]
[hr][h3]Thieving Cherune Results[/h3]
1. Vyshta's More Favoured: 110
2. Fiske n' Chips: 100
3. Singers & Saints: 100
4. Beware the Nice Ones: 90 +10
5. Raffscallions: 90
6. Rock and Stone: 90 +10
7. Fait Accompli: 70
8. Teatro Sorridente: 70
9. The Invisibles: 70
10. Huggy Bears: 70
11. King's Ear: 70[/hider][/center]
[hr]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/MZkUxE7.png[/img]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDB01xGt6OA&list=PLPJny5xpzQqTziXxHNnu2kiRIfhwaEknj&index=5]♫[/url][/center]
[color=FFDEAD][hr][hr][center][h2]The Zenith's Speech[/h2][/center]
They filled the plaza in various states of sleep or wakefulness. To some extent, magic could compensate, but its effects would wear off eventually. Twelve-hundred-eighty youths from around the globe had only just received their scores for Thieving Cherune and, while some tried to do the math themselves, others watched the great leaderboard mounted on scaffolding atop St. Tristana's Fountain as a small army of Tan-Zenos and labourers shuffled its standings around. The square was so thickly abuzz as they waited for the Zenith to emerge that few noticed her appear quite suddenly and unceremoniously on the balcony abutting her apartments.[/color] 

[color=FFA07A]Once they did, however, a hush fell over the crowd. [color=630460]"Friends, Subjects, Students of Magic,"[/color] she began, [color=630460]"we are gathered here today for what should be a joyous occasion."[/color] The 'should be', more than one observer came to understand almost immediately, was key, here. [color=630460]"For five hundred fifty-five years, a number sacred to the most holy Pentad, we have gathered here, in the hallowed halls of the Academy at Ersand'Enise, to engage in these spirited games."[/color] Her eyes roved across the crowd as they withheld their judgment, waiting for more. [color=630460]"We have gathered,"[/color] she continued, [color=630460]"In times of feast and in times of famine."[/color] The murmuring began. There was a political subtext to this message, it seemed. [color=630460]"We have come together here in times of great bounty and times of great need, times of joy and excitement, and times of mourning."[/color]

Still, they waited. [color=630460]"We have gathered here,"[/color] she concluded, [color=630460]"In times of peace and in times of war."[/color] This, then, was her point. [color=630460]"The latter - my friends, my colleagues, my students - is nearly upon us, I fear."[/color] She shook her head gravely, her voice, amplified by magic, carrying out across the crowd. [color=630460]"So, though you are young and your blood burns with the fervour of your youth, I ask you to quell it somewhat, for I once stood where you did and I learned, firsthand as a young woman, of the horrors which await upon the battlefield."[/color] She paused and swallowed, taking a moment to make a gesture encompassing her fellow faculty. [color=630460]"We all did,"[/color] she warned them, voice becoming hoarse. [color=630460]"It is a grim path that we now walk as a world and, should the aims of those who reside in great and callous halls prevail, there will be no turning off of it."[/color] She swallowed again, shaking her head, and took a deep breath. The crowd had gone still and silent. [color=630460]"I expect that not all of you should be alive this time next year, unless something changes. How it pains me to say so: to think of your futures, your [i]promise[/i] stolen away, but this is the reality of conflict in our world."[/color][/color] 

[color=CD5C5C]She took another breath and reached up to dab at her eyes. [color=630460]"But our job as educators is to prepare you as best we can for the world that you will come of age in, no matter what that world looks like, and so that is why we do as we do this day."[/color] She seemed to have recovered some of her composure. [color=630460]"You will learn to fight, as I did, though it is not a burden you should have ever had to bear."[/color] She was firm, now. [color=630460]"Go, people of the future, fight, and fight well, that you might survive the ruinous conflicts that my generation has set before you."[/color] Her voice rose fervently. [color=630460]"Fight that you might yet build the better world that we had hoped to. Fight and die now, in practice, so that you may fight without ever knowing Eshiran for all your days."[/color]

For a moment that seemed to stretch long across time's horizon, only an uncomfortable silence prevailed. Then, one student, somewhere towards the front, raised her right hand, thumb tucked in and four fingers extended together, in the old Quentic gesture for 'no judgment'. She stood there like that, for a good second or two. Then, a second raised an arm. Then, a few more followed. Quietly, with only whispers and murmurs, it spread through the crowd. If Arch-Zeno Harrachora had been starting to shoot his nominal superior a glare of some species, he suppressed it very quickly. In the end, the majority of the student body - leaders of tomorrow should they survive the coming war - raised their hands in the salute. Riu Kai-Tan returned it, even though he was not Quentic. Ardredelle Latvar and old Giacomo Giarrone followed suit. Joshe Intaba bowed his head and raised his hand, and Harrachora was quick to follow suit. Claresse Upta returned it and, for about two seconds, they stood there in mass solidarity. Then, she lowered her arm and closed her eyes and breathed deeply.[/color]
[hr] 
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/dhuGeB6.png[/img]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQathcQM2Wg&list=PLPJny5xpzQqQYQFkrsntsCt1Kqghs88LB&index=2]♫[/url][/center]
[color=B22222][hr][hr][center][h2]Bloodsport[/h2][/center]
If it was an unusually solemn crowd that filed out of Balthazar Square and through ten great portals, it quickly came to life as it divided itself amongst the ten arenas where the fights were to take place. For days, the teams had been eagerly preparing and, while some found themselves sobered, there was still a game to be won and, with it, rich prizes to be earned. Others shook off the sombre speech within minutes, eagerly planning how they would reach the pinnacle of their power and blow up this person or flatten that one. They worked on their arena entrances and their combination moves. They sparred, both playfully and seriously. The air was, undeniably, electric, and more so in the presence of magnetic mages, naturally. 

Beside many of the arenas, there grew a heap of discarded bottles, vials, and food scraps as the soon-to-be combatants eagerly consumed all of the empowering, enchanted, and imbued foodstuffs and beverages that they could. The tournament organizers had set strict limits, of course, but these were regularly disobeyed and seventy-nine contestants, in all, were disqualified in the first round for attempting to subvert them, either sneakily or brazenly. Then, that was it. Amid the ruins of the enormous Red Mountain of Perrence, within the bustling shipyards of Harrowend, on a pair of currently-empty slips, atop the multilayered dams and waterworks of Oud-Dijk, and before the roaring crowd of one-hundred-thousand bloodthirsty spectators in Zatera Teca, the first teams marched in, the horns sounded, and the bloodsport began.[/color]

[color=8A0829]For nearly six hours, the round of two-hundred-fifty-six carried on. While a few teams went out with a whimper at the hands of prohibitive favourites, this sort of combat, without permanent consequence, was a dream come true for many. The matches were ferocious. Emotions of all stripes lived large on the bloodied canvas of those ten arenas. There were seventeen decapitations, at least eight human torches, two dozen electrocutions, five drownings, thirty-one other suffocations, seventy crushed alive, and one-hundred-eighty-two dismemberments, not counting multiples on the same target. It was a veritable bloodbath. One girl melted from the inside out. Another's brain was liquefied. A boy died of explosive hair overgrowth and a second had his intestines pulled out through his mouth. There were two who literally expired of particularly intense fright. At different junctures, dark, temporal, blood, and even command magics were used, and that was just the first round. 

They recessed for an hour and those who had the stomach for it ate. Some regarded their recently un-deceased teammates with a strange sort of protectiveness. Others pawed wonderingly at regenerated flesh or stood staring at bloodstains in the arena that had been theirs. Then, half of them returned to those arenas for a second round, rotating to new settings, cheered on by new crowds, and resumed the slaughter. A particular highlight was when one girl began disassembling herself piece by piece calmly, and then expired under the control of a binder and internal chemist. There was a boy who gradually turned into a sentient, ambulant mushroom over the course of two minutes. He actually won, but still had to be temporally reset because nobody could figure out how to turn him back. Then, there was another break, the round of sixty-four, and further spectacle. Three more cheaters were caught. Someone's hair was turned into pasta and it split their scalp open. Another had his arms torn off and was beaten to death with them. One girl turned blue as her blood was filled with silver before suddenly dying. The audience was abuzz trying to figure out how it had been done. The nose and mouth of another were fused shut until she suffocated.[/color] 

[color=610B21]By the round of thirty-two, a handful of students were sitting very still, hugging their knees to their chests. Others could not seem to rid their hands of constant shaking. Some didn't speak. Then came the slaughter once more and, this round, favourites fell, like the Soul Sisters, Nia and Mio being turned into blackened imprints on the arena wall by a fantastic atomic blast. Two members of Blaze of Glory were sliced in two by a single dark bolt from Tyrel'yrash'dichora of Fait Accompli and they, too, crashed out of the competition. Another early favourite, the 'reformed' criminals of AWOLE, bowed out somewhat more gracefully at the hands of prison wardens Technically Correct. Not so for the quirky and beloved Sea People, who found themselves fried alive by the massive Arcane power of Prince Kamehameha and the Beach Boys. Surf was, indeed, up. However, the sun was most definitely down, and it was time for participants and spectators alike to head off to sleep. 
[hr]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ge6Gtjb.png[/img]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSTZq8TR_oI&list=PLPJny5xpzQqQYQFkrsntsCt1Kqghs88LB&index=1]♫[/url][/center]
[hr][hr][center][h2]Fortunate Few[/h2][/center]
Was sleep easy to come by? Most were either partying or... reliving what they'd witnessed over the past few hours. In some cases, they relived their own deaths. While these had been erased from their memories and their physical selves reset, just the knowledge that one has died from being burned alive will sit in his mind's eye and simmer until he is cooked. Still, the hour was late and those fortunate few who had to fight the next day did their utmost to rest and recover. This, now, was the coming of the elite. This was where there were no more soft opponents, nobody just 'lucky' to be there. Everyone remaining was an absolute killer and they and their peers all knew it. Did they walk taller for it? Did they feel shame? Accomplishment? Ambivalence? Perhaps the answer varied from person to person. One question remained implacable, however, as the sun dawned, the city woke, and the two-hundred-fifty bells of Ersand'Enise chimed to mark Shune giving way to Oraff:

Had anybody listened to Claresse Upta?
[hr][hr][/color][center][color=19070B][h2]Rules & Resources[/h2]
Welcome to Mano e Mano, the final event of The Trials of DZ55 and your sophomore year at Ersand'Enise. While war looms on the horizon for the human nations and has already found their yasoi brethren, while refugees pile up at the gates, the commons stir with the threat of unrest and a strange new threat promises to close the portals and strand thousands of hegelans, we future leaders have altogether more important business to attend to. 

This will be a multi-week PvP event, a first for The Hourglass Order. Unless expressly stated by myself or a Co-GM, all existing rules and guidelines are to be strictly adhered to. Fights will be conducted live on discord on dates when the majority both teams' members are available. Collectively, each team must post a summary of their previous fight to the forum before their next one may begin. If this takes more than a week without GM dispensation, they will forfeit that fight. Please remember that, while losses may be binding, character deaths aren't, due to the effects of temporal anchoring. All in all, the rule of thumb here is: please act in good faith if you enjoy this roleplay and respect your fellow roleplayers. You will probably lose at some point but that isn't an indictment against you or your character. You're still awesome. 

On that uplifting note, please find all character combat profiles linked in the last two pages of the OOC. All relevant information and links for this event can be found in the document below. Be sure to read it in its entirety before asking questions as they are almost certainly covered there. If not, I'll be happy to answer them on discord. Good luck, and happy fighting! 
[sub][sub]Also, yes, I had to write in this eye-destroying colour[/sub][/sub][url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jyfnNCVIGplaYRENBZ9qxlD3ntzhsI2rYkNtjimZ_DM/edit?usp=sharing][h3]Mano e Mano Rules & Regulations[/h3][/url][/color][/center]
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