RoflsMazoy

Royal Rumble!

The Tournament Begins

This was his 5th time hearing it now, the roar of the arena. Like harmonious thunder, like being engulfed by a hurricane and standing in the eye of the storm.

He had to wonder, hearing the cheers of the crowd, and looking back at the expressions of the other students of St. Laurel's, he wondered if anyone else saw the world the same way.

"St. Laurel's School of Academic Excellence!" Came the announcement.

The roar reached a crescendo as they entered the arena.

They marched forward with well-practiced steps. St. Laurel's were the bearers of the last year's mantle of championship. St. Laurel's boasted the record for most consecutive years keeping the mantle, as well as overall years holding the mantle. It was a heavy burden to bear, or so it should've been.

But in Alto's hands, it felt light. However, it wasn't because the pressure had been lightened. The burden was just as great as before, however now it teetered back and forth so unsteadily he could barely feel the weight of the flag he bore.

"Mephisto's School for the Wickedly Inclined…"

Opinions were mixed about Mephisto's. Most people didn't like their methods, obviously. But there were a surprisingly large amount of people that liked them. They fought dirty, and they had a very distinct presence on the battlefield. They had no reservations openly cheering for them, because after all, as far as they could tell Mephisto's was just a school with some weird quirks. They'd been able to rest the title from the hands of St. Laurel's, a feat no one before them had managed to do, despite the dubious nature of their victories.

The favour of the crowd was something they'd had to build up. They were good at riling up the crowd one way or another, but to make the fever pitch tip from anger to cheering required a fair amount of effort and preparation. Those cheerers of theirs were their allies, whether they knew it or not. If there were enough to balance the scales, then there was enough to tip them.

The mistake of the Tournament's board of directors was making the judgements subjective. Human judges could be swayed, in fact they were placed here exactly to be swayed. They still needed to win, however Clara would not let her advantage go to waste, no matter how small.

"And now the Vigilantes!"

The cheers halted. And then reignited into an even louder crescendo. If there were one group who reigned in the excitement of the crowd, it was the Vigilantes. Mix the under-dog nature of their group with having a healthy mix of dirty fighters and fair fighters from all around, it was no wonder they had no shortage of fans.

There had been rumours circulating before the tournament that they wouldn't be participating. This year. Indeed, the tournament entry fee was sort of a deterrent to rogue-like organizations like the Vigilantes. The price was relatively steep, but the government paid a portion depending on the nature of your organization, so it was far less expensive for educational institutions than for most other organizations. Yet it seemed that financial troubles hadn't fazed the Vigilantes at all.

They kept on coming, dozens of members, lined up behind their leader, King. Whether you believed his words or not, there was no denying he made himself in where he stood. He had the charisma to lead, and the sense to use it. He didn't need anything else.

The three leaders looked across at each other. It was just about a guarantee that they would be their team's leaders. In a few moments, this place would become their battlefield.

"Now let the Capture the Flag tournament begin!"

Royal Rumble!

The tournament's beginning soon, and the first post will be starting right when everything begins. To act as a primer, this post will contain all the rules of the tournament.

The main event of the tournament consists of a 3 on 3 capture the flag tournament in which every team currently registered in the tournament participates in. In fact, signing up for this event specifically is the base received for paying just the minimum to register a team. The other events are more or less for the larger schools to show off the quality of their students. Ranking can be gained here, but due to the unique nature of the main event, a person who didn't participate at all in any other events might have a chance to shoot past whoever scored first in all of them.

The battles will take place on a field roughly equal to a soccer field, with various walls and terrain to limit approach options. The field is symmetrical along the longer side. To win a match involves taking the enemy team's flag and reaching your team's home point while still holding the flag.

You can even take your team's flag, and use it as a weapon. Bopping someone with any part of it will activate a medium-strength repulsor shield which will knock enemies away. Planting it into the ground at any point will also create an impenetrable shield, only small enough to contain the user for a few seconds. You can only use the shield once per round.

The first rounds are fought as a best of 1, so if your team loses that round, that's it. Semi-finals and the finals will be a best of three. Winning in the quarter, semi, and final finals will gain you ranking even if you lose afterwards (can't lose after the final final round of course). The amount of ranking gained increases per level, but generally speaking you'll at least end up above the opponent you defeated.

The specific amount of ranking gained however, is decided by judges. You'll gain a certain amount of ranking depending on how they felt you performed in the match. This judgement can be based on performance in previous events, you can say that they build the expectation for your performance in the CtF tournament, but for the purposes of the RP it's not going to really affect much.

The faction leaders will be taking the role of team captains. Participating schools and organizations assign a leader for their teams. One leader can lead every team, or they can have many leaders for multiple teams.

Team leaders act as team coordinators for the most part, managing the team's communications and relaying tactics to proceed. They have an overhead map of the battlefield with their current team's positions, as well as the position of their flag. They can only see the battlefield through cameras affixed to an emblem on their teammates clothing. Taking out the emblem will also disable communications for that teammate.

Team leaders are judged based on how their team performed, and how much it seemed like the leader did to boost the performance.

That's about it for tournament rules. Quick note on rankings, I made one because it's a huge part of high school tournament stuff, but in the end I don't have a real good way of utilizing it, so for all intents and purposes ranking won't exactly give you anything in this RP, and probably isn't going to be tracked.

I'll try and get the tournament intro post done by the end of this week, and then once I've got the map sorted out we can start.

Royal Rumble!

Red Intentions

((Collab Post between RoflsMazoy and Letter Bee))

On Rhea's edge there lay a loe hill which made part of Rhea's wall. An urban island almost, surrounded by chain fences and barbed wire. Here were whew Rhea's most dangerous criminals were kept. Deep underground where the latest technology was used to hold all manner of powered criminals.

For some, regular power dampening wouldn't be enough. This place was also home to those criminals who couldn't be housed elsewhere. Today's story didn't take place in the depths of the compound, but above in a brightly lit interrogation room.

A middle-aged man with greying hair, wearing a red-suit and looking all the world like he'd only been arrested just moments ago. There was the signature hum of power dampening pylons, one of which was in the room sort of off to the side.

This was not the first interrogation. The man had come quite willingly in the first place, and had been happy to answer questions. None of the answers were anything that wasn't already known. It seemed he'd known them all ahead of time, in the end. There was no confession for any crime he'd been arrested for, and they were pending a trial as of this moment.

But the Ascot family had recently come into possession of some evidence which may have implied this man, Mephisto, was far more than they had assumed him to be. For the purposes of investigating this possibility, Alexander Ascot was here now.

The door opened to let in Alexander Ascot, now clad in his formal Juvenile Officer's uniform. Alexander would sit in front of Mephisto across a table, keeping his clipboard, ballpen, and notes close by. Taking a deep breath, the young man would say, "All right, Mephistopheles Erdigan, time for us to talk; I only have 90 minutes or so and I have to make this count."

His lips pursed. "From the looks of it, you've been a model prisoner, answering all the usual questions. Which is why I won't ask the usual questions. Instead, I'll just ask this - Do you truly count yourself as part of Rhean Society and on the side of Rhea, the City?"

Mephisto greeted the question with a warm smile.

"Ah, what a refreshing question! The officers here only ever want to know about my wrongdoings. It's always crime, this, crime that, and they never seem satisfied even if all the evidence is right in front of them." He said. "Although I will say that I don't quite understand where your question is coming from, I think I can provide a satisfactory answer."

He puffed out his chest and he seemed genuinely happy to receive the question from Alexander.

"First and foremost, I am a business man. I came to Rhea more than two decades ago to conduct business, and I'm not ashamed to say I fell in love with the city at first sight. Rhea is a place like no other. I decided to stay, and I even have a daughter now.

"I've become a full citizen of Rhea, and have some businesses which operate for the benefit of Rhea itself. My primary intention first and foremost is profit however, so unfortunately I can't say I'm on the 'side' of Rhea the city, but what businessman can?"

He chuckled a little at that statement.

"Rhea is just a city, after all. Society will go where the people go, and I do count myself as a person of these people. I must say, I really can't understand what your intention was with that question."

Alexander nodded, saying, "The intention is this; to tell you that if you regard yourself as part of Rhean Society, that the quest for profit must also profit other people than yourself or a small group of intimiates. Tax Fraud on such a scale, fraud, and other business that goes beyond legality, as well as the maintenance of a School that encourages the pursuit of base urges at the cost of other people...how do you justify this? How do you justify setting one of your students to murder another human being, or encouraging him to think you support such?"

A pause. "I believe you know who I am talking about."

Mephisto tilted his head quizically.

"I don't think I would say being part of a society includes benefiting all of it. That's not even including your accusations of me, but if you asked if I considered myself a 'member'. I am by definiton a member of society as someone who lives by it, criminal or no."

He said calmly.

"And I don't believe I know who you are talking about either. You've spoken quite badly about my 'school', but it all sounds like unfounded conjecture with no basis in reality. What cost are you referring to? What urges? What encouragement? I'd say it's quite bold to make so many assumptions without even a scrap of evidence."

He leaned back in his chair and sighed, as if he'd gotten bored of Alex now that he knew what he was going for.

" If there were some uninvolved bypasser here they'd call your words nonsense. Besides, my school is just that, a school. Am I supposed to be responsible for every action my students take? Am I supposed to monitor their every step? Their every move? If one of them commits a wrongdoing, you capture them and punish them, do you not? Or has the law changed in the few weeks since I've been imprisoned?"

Alexander had no time for sophistry and replied, "Let's cut to the chase. Vittorio Twinveil is one of your students. So is Galbrek Ravenovich. The first one tried to kill me as I got in the way of his vendetta against Alto, after several threats against the latter's life, while the second one tried to kill my mother by totaling her car. As the owner of the school, yes, you have an actual responsibility, if only because you are above the actual principal in the chain of command. The buck for not passing disciplinary action against Vittorio and Galbrek stops with you."

His eyebrows burrowed further into confusion.

"That first name doesn't exactly ring a bell. I don't know where you obtained your information from, but the more pressing matter is your pinning the blame on me. My school is not a correctional facility. It's against the law for me to force my students into a correctional facility. I am not their legal guardian, nor can I say I have been in a position of great influence for either of them. My hands are, quite literally, tied, and there is currently no longer anything I can do for them, or anyone for that matter.

"My personal assets remain frozen while my charges stand. My businesses can continue without me, but if you want them to do something, you'll need to go through my lawyer to do so. So with all that out on the table, what exactly do you want me to do?"

A gamble was needed to get even the tiniest bit of useful information here, and Alexander didn't like it. "I want to know why you admitted them into your School in the first place. I for one do not believe that you didn't know about their existing obsessions and fixations. And clearly, admitting them into your School was not about 'giving them an opportunity' or 'attempting to improve their situation'."

The gamble itself was revealed in the officer's next words, "There's a threat greater than the Ancient Evil coming; King is right and correct about that yet he is rectient about the nature of said threat. So anything that undermines the security of Rhea and denies valuable talent to those trying to defend the city cannot be tolerated. I have reason to believe that you admitted Galbrek and Vittorio, adopted Clara, and founded Mephisto's School for the Wickedly Inclined disregarding that fact at best, and trying to weaken the city with internal conflict between its magical youth at worst. And feel free to charge me with having an active imagination! The fact remains that Rhea's security is still undermined."

"So you came here knowing your conclusion already, and then asked me about things which you had already drawn in your conclusion, and then you didn't accept, consider, or refute any of what I'd said, and then you just gave me your conclusion? I take back what I said earlier. At least I had to figure out what they wanted out of me before. You just laid out your every intention and I didn't even have to ask. Let me spell it out for you,"

Mephisto said, suddenly serious.

"You just made an awful trade. For the opportunity to level accusations at me angrily, you gave me an insight into what you want, and why you want it. You showed me where your emotions lie, what you were hoping for, and your weaknesses.

"And for what? There was no guarantee I would give you anything. A negotiation is a battle of leverage, and you turned it into a negotiation as soon as you let me ask a question. You weren't in a position to make this move, Alexander Ascot, but you made it anyway."

Mephisto sighed again.

"You should cut your losses here. The fact of the matter is, you came here to level accusations at me with no evidence, to leverage a conclusion which can't stand up on its own. You have one and a half months until my trial to mount a case. Instead of gambling on a move which had such a low chance of success, I suggest trying to play your game on a board I can't reach."

Alexander nodded, his face an impassive mask, and said, "I admit defeat. But at least it's a defeat I can learn from."

He does not know that William is on his case. He does not know about William at all. And he most definitely does not know about my daugther.

He got up and walked towards the door, but not before looking at Mephisto one last time, impassive expression still on. Then he opened the door and left.

3...2...1...I feel like such a fool. But I will learn from this defeat.

Royal Rumble!

@Dezuel
Rhea's metropolitan police department reacted quickly, seizing whatever tapes they could. However, 'reacted' was the key word. They didn't have prior knowledge of what would happen, so there was no way for them to stop it from airing at all, unless the stations themselves didn't air them. A lot of them didn't, since the tapes seemed frankly strange. The concept of having an ability like the Narrative Role of Familiarity wasn't strange. There were plenty of stronger powers written in legend, and there were plenty of demons who had been able to assume similar powers in legends, who'd been dealt with one way or another. There were even demons who'd been able to copy powers before, and there were ways to deal with them then too. A combination of the two however had never been encountered before, and would be a concern except none of that part was the strangeness.

The strangeness was that someone would record tapes for something like this. If the people he claimed were truly terrorists, then it would be a military matter. He could report it to the authorities and they'd put resources into destroying the threat. If Galbrek had simply been angry that he'd been punched in the face, the normal process would be to file a lawsuit and press charges.

The tapes felt like fake sensationalist propaganda. The stations that didn't air them were happy to hand over the tapes since they would most likely have ended up collecting dust in their storerooms.

Some stations didn't care so much, however. Stations on their last legs and tabloids, those ones showed the tapes for a brief period of time before authorities forcefully intervened. The tapes were shown, but what effect they had is another matter.

The stations showing the tapes couldn't do much to mitigate their strangeness. Part of it was the production of the tapes was rather good quality for that type of thing. It wasn't believable. It looked too pre-mediated to be so unofficially sent out like it was a forbidden plea which may never see the light of day.

However, someone had been named. Regardless of whether or not they believed in what he had said, someone had been named. The damage which would result from this event was now up to the Ascot family. They could release an official statement through the police which Alexander was a part of. Or they could keep silence in order to hide their long-held role in human history.

One way or another, the decision they made would either keep the peace or begin to tilt Rhea slightly towards disorder.
@Letter Bee

Royal Rumble!

Midnight Tournament, Epilogue

As the van made its way screeching through the streets, its driver was placing a frantic call.

"Boss, we got interrupted!" She said, hurtling around a corner. "We thought it'd be fine because Alex was there, but then more cops showed up!"

She swerved suddenly, narrowly avoiding a cat which'd run onto the road. The voice on the other end of the line came through static-y, but clear enough.

"Are you driving right now?" The voice on the phone said.

The van ran straight into a speed bump and sailed through the air for all of half a second before crashing back down with a loud bang!

"Yeah?" She replied as she regained control of the vehicle.

"I can see you're going double the speed limit right now, and considering you're not exactly slowing down I'm guessing Jokey is unconscious in the back." The voice continued.

The dj turned driver looked into the back of the van to see a body sprawled out on the floor.

"No one's chasing you so I suggest you slow down. It's dangerous to talk while you're driving, anyway."

The van screeched to a halt, catapulting the unfortunate Jokey into the front. The impact seemed to finally wake him up and he glared at the DJ as he got to his feet.

"Right, sorry boss. So, usual procedure then?" She said sheepishly.

"Yes, I'll send you the locations so you can give the money back. I'll also have your usual pay at the end, although I'll have to do half now and the other half later."

"Why only half?"

"Circumstances on my end, nothing I can do about it. More importantly, did you find anyone interesting?"

"Hah, that's a no on our end," She sighed. "There was sort of one person who might've had potential, I guess? It looked like she used cards or something but I think she just makes them herself."

"Hmmm, alright then. Just make the rounds and switch off for tonight." The voice finished.

Royal Rumble!

Update for this weekend is up, and we're officially done with the first arc. Now, here's a couple of preliminary details;

As mentioned before, after this you can choose to give your characters a minor ability just after this 'night' so to speak, if you feel like your character did enough to power up. You can also bank the 'exp' and save it up along with the month we'll have before the tournament do develop a stronger power, or just save it up for the future for a strong one.

By minor I mean like Alto's new ability which I'll end up ironing out later, since I've got to do some study for now. But also do note Alto's only gaining a slightly weaker version of the ability he used in the post. It broke the seal because the Greater Demon was already dying at that point, it has more piercing power than anything else anyway.

Going forward from after this apartment thing, we'll be able to roleplay the month between the apartment and the tournament, but we're not going to be doing the entire month day by day, or any events everyone has to participate in.

Rather, treat it more like an intermission where you can ask someone if your characters want to meet up and do something on a particular day for example.

It'll take me quite a while to do the next arc since I'll have to iron out the rules and systems in place and whatnot, and I still also have to finish exams and stuff.

Royal Rumble!

Welcome, to the Beginning.

Alto's power was the power of light, but to call the thing he used light was not accurate, or at least within the current understanding of light. The easiest example of this was his Blade of Light. If you think about using light to cut something, you would normally think about lasers which use concentrated light to cut through things. The concentrated light has enough heat energy to melt through the material rather than cutting it.

Alto's power had been a source of fascination because it was 'true' cutting power. A clean separation of the two sides of whatever he cut, though there was some burning involved, but not the same as a laser would be. There was less burn, since a laser tended to burn out your nerves as it cut through and generally delivered more pain for a shorter time, whereas the pain from the Blade of Light lingered.

This wasn't normal light, it was something else. The possibilities of such a power were almost endless, and this was one such way of using it.

When creating the Blade of Light, he usually gathered 'light' in his palm and it would take the shape he wished it to, but now he shifted it to the tip of his finger. Next was to build the power. It would take much more than the Blade of Light to pierce the Hellfire Seal, and it needed to be focused on a single point.

He could feel the tension as he reigned in the power. As it hit fever pitch, he unleashed it.

There was a small flash, and a thin stream of light burst out from his finger tip. It burst the wall of the Hellfire Seal like a rotten eggshell. However, there was no floor. It seems outside of the seal the battle had been continuing... and had finished. There were only the dying flames of the battle and a cluster of students in the middle of it all.

It wasn't too great of a drop considering the seal had been on ground level of the rooftop. From above, the final missing student wafted down while still inside the bubble. It floated towards Alto and popped while it was right above him. The student dropped into his arms.

She was still wearing the St. Laurel's uniform, and she had short, curly blond hair. For a moment he thought he felt something flicker across his awareness when he looked at her sleeping face. He knew who this student was, but the feeling was something else. There would be time to find out what it was later, however. They'd be able to find out whatever it was with the latest in medical and magical detection.

These students had been under the influence of a Greater Demon, there was no telling what kind of influence it was.

"I guess we're about done here, then?" King said, fishing out a water bottle from somewhere under his cape. It was most likely warm, but if you're dehydrated you need any water you can get. He opened the cap and let the cat who was still in his arms take small sips until it mewed happily back at him.

"I suppose we are." Clara said, appearing a bit disgruntled.

It seems she wasn't able to get what she wanted, in the end, but seeing another one of Alto's hidden cards was still a bonus in and of itself.

The night was over, and their impromptu alliance would be at an end. They each had their respective factions to return to, some of which had shown the full extent of their abilities, and some which had still not shown anything at all. A lot could change in one month, and many of them would meet again during that time, but the next time they would all meet again would be in the tournament.

Clara had already stacked as many odds as she could in their favor. There was nothing more for her here, yet she decided to stay to keep up appearances.

There was time, maybe, for final words. But other than that, the night was finally over.

Royal Rumble!

small update is up y'all. By next update I'll be getting the faction leaders to bust out of the seal, and if you're not done by that point they'll finish the demon off, events permitting. If one of you is already in the motions of claiming the kill, I'll probably let your character have it though.

@Gentlemanvaultboy It's probably better to finish it sooner rather than later so that's what I'm gonna stick with

Royal Rumble!

The Hellfire seal. An extremely powerful seal meant for punishing demons under their command, but used to great effect against whatever they happen to cross at a given point in time. It was made to render even demons who usually have good resistance to fire helpless. If the heat didn't get to them, the Hellfire Seal is a spell for capture and confinement before a spell used for combat.

"Dream eaters, heed my call!" Clara said.

From her book came surging waves of black worms, all around them eating up the flames before they could reach them. But the flames came from everywhere, above, each side, and below. For all the worms could eat, they could only eat in one direction each. They were bearing the brunt of the heat, and they too could die. However, for now it would serve as an effective shield for the trio inside.

"This cat isn't going to last too long under here," King said.

The cat he was holding was wide eyed and looking around the place. The heat was high, but bearable right now. As Clara's numbers thinned however, that would change quickly.

"My dream eaters can't destroy something of this calibre." Clara said. "They need time, but they'll be destroyed before they reach the boundary."

She had something stronger, in fact. Something she wanted to keep a secret far more than the dream eaters, but she had no choice.

"I need a hole," She continued. "I'll be able to do something if there's a gap in the seal. It's in the nature of the seal to be self-sufficient, so it'll repair itself automatically if there's a hole. If that happens I can siphon energy from the entire seal at once."

"A hole..." Alto said, gazing at the raging flames around them.

If he focused he could just about make out the sounds of battle outside. They needed to escape. The life of a student was on the line.

"...I think I have a way." He said.

Royal Rumble!

Midnight Tournament, End

Suddenly there were sirens in the distance.

"Damn…" Jokey said, immediately springing into action.

He unplugged the speakers with practiced precision. When the MC let down her headphones she heard the sirens too.

"Damn!" She shouted, immediately shutting the laptop in front of her. The platform, speakers, and equipment began to rapidly deconstruct into digital blue squares.

Many officers turned a blind eye to the Midnight Tournament due to its mostly benign nature. The money never vanished, and people weren't being killed so it wasn't exactly a problem. However, if they were given a noise complaint and they happened to stumble onto a tournament in progress, it wasn't as if they could pretend it wasn't occurring. There were officers who were sticklers for the rules, and there were also superiors who just didn't like fun.

It wasn't exactly safe to bet on who would come, the crowd knew that as well. Some new-comers to the tournament were looking around confused, but they'd follow the bulk of the crowd eventually and run for the hills.

The MC and Jokey jumped off the platform as it deconstructed beneath them. She had her laptop and the big box of money tucked safely under her arms. As soon as she hit the grass, she made a run for it, Jokey wheeling the whiteboard with him as fast as he could. They sprinted over to an unmarked white van nearby, and Drake gave it a hard kick and the doors unlocked.

She went in driver side and started the engine while Jokey laid the whiteboard on its side in the back of the van. He barely got to shut the door before it took off, tires screeching.

Within moments, the Midnight Tournament and all of its watchers were gone, save for a few remaining stragglers and a non-permanent whiteboard marker left in the grass.