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Knight 7
DimentioIlliad City Arcanum - Ishtar Division Waiting Area
"Participate in the Competition or I cut off Jacob from the Inheritance"
He heard those words. He wasn't there, he wasn't anywhere near those two when they came into contact, when she forced upon William that Ultimatum, but he heard them regardless. It is amazing how easily one can eavesdrop with the right informant and a good web of intelligence gathering. Fists clenched when he heard those words from the informant who listened in, and there were only two words that sprung to mind, only two words he could think of in response.
"That...BITCH!"
It wasn't the cutting of his inheritance that enraged him - what inheritance? What else was left to inherit when everything they owned burned so long ago, and the only thing left she could give she has more reason to give to William anyways - no, what really pissed off the the boy, what really ruffled the messy black hair on his head, was that she, this monster, used him to manipulate William into doing what she wanted. How DARE she use his name to pull him along like a goddamn marionette!?
She may be his mother physically, and biologically, but on that day where half the entire family was gone in but an instant, Gilgamesha may as well have burned along with them as far as he was concerned. Whatever this tyranical witch was, it was not the same Gilgamesha who loved and cared for them. The iron grip she now has was not the same as the stern but fair hand she had when their father was still alive. That bitch was not his mother!
---
Even now, as he sits in the large waiting room on Ishtar's side of the Arena, it was difficult to calm himself down. Staring at the floor, his white and blue sneakers, his typical blue jeans, with those deep sapphire eyes, he couldn't help but feel this silent rage build up within himself. He thought he escaped these feelings when Nemsi, his foster father, mediated and calmed all the feelings and trauma he felt. But in an instant, the wrath and the sorrow crawled right back into his subconscious. Taking a deep breath, he hummed a little tune to calm him down, a muffled melody of simplicity and, for him, a soothing tone. As if in response, he could feel as if spiders were crawling over him, and in his mind's eye, they consumed him in a cocoon of web, silent and isolated from the world. Course, in reality, none of that was happening, but regardless, the thought was cooling him down, quelling his temper, and allowing him to regain himself.
Moving his left hand to slick back his raven black hair, straightened out his black vest sweater - complete with a cyan tie - and a blue denim jacket, taking a scarf out of the pocket of said jacket and wrapping it around his neck. When he was finally back to form, he took a look around.
---
While it's called a "Waiting Room", you wouldn't be too far off if you confused it for the fancy lobby of a luxury hotel. Clocking in at 1500 square feet It was quite massive in respect to where it is in the arena, filled with soft couches, tables, and large flat-screen televisions on the north, south, east and west side of the room, set naturally to the GFG events, and otherwise set to whatever the contestants within felt like watching. On the tables are healthy snacks to keep the energy of the contestants in tact and some glasses of water to compliment that. To the north side are the locker rooms, to the east side is the path way to the arena, and to the opposite side is the Contestants' entrance into the Arcanum, and by extension the exit out of it. There was even a small closed off area right by the exit with gym equipment for a little last-minute training.
As it turns out, the Arcanum holds about three waiting rooms on the east, west, and south sides of the stadium. The ones to the east and west were similar in size, and similar period, both rooms holding the same 'luxury' accomodations, compared to the waiting room on the south side that was smaller and merely had the basic accomodations one would expect from a waiting room for competitors, like a locker room.
It's no secret to anyone in this city how the two schools were of vital importance both for its magic users and its decendants of the Illuminated Poet; their headmasters may as well have been the de'facto leaders of the city. Thus, it's also no secret how people of the city treats them compared to how they treat a normal individual. If the Descendants of the Poet are essentially the blood nobility, the noble-class of Illiad's Society, then those who enter and are good students of these two particular schools are the "high-class" members just below them in the heirarchy, and if the fact that they managed to reserve an annual olympic event for themselves without legal repercussion didn't make that clear, the clear difference between their waiting room and the waiting room of anyone not affiliated with them did. A rather ironic fact, seeing as how most years you only see a few students of each school participate but lots of non-affiliated participants joining the games.
In regard to the two school waiting rooms comparing to each other, there was very little different between them; making one school's waiting room better or worse than the other would be favoring one school over the other, and by extension, inciting the wrath of the other school for doing so. Thus, the only real contrast between the two waiting rooms were in their decorations, with Marduk's waiting room looking a little more glossier and modern, and Ishtar's waiting room having a darker and gothic approach on decor.
---
As Jacob looked around, contemplating whether or not the two schools deserve this much catering to - this was his first time participating in a Grand Flyte Game and so he's never actually seen a stadium waiting room like this before - his eyes turned towards the Arena entrance and the...interesting group that was gathered around there.
That's right, the Write Competition's the first one in action, which means that must be the musical band that's gonna be playing out there in a few minutes. Most of the band members weren't of much worth to him, looking like a bunch of edgey teenagers that wanted to show off their own angst, but there were three of them that did catch his eye.
The one right in the middle, slapping her cheeks to, he presumes, psych herself up, probably looked like the edgiest one of them all, her long green hair in a giant ponytail, the top of her head having ruby red hair - seems the rest of her hair was dyed green - and mostly covered with what appeared to be a green hood with a hole cut in for the pony tail. The rest of her attire was just asymetrical and hard to look at it if you had some kind of OCD problem, with her left arm and leg having their red-and-black sleeve and sock seemingly torn up completely and the right side only having holes, and not looking right amidst the normal black skirt and blue sweater vest, nor with the pair of fingerless gloves and black leather boots. It did fit rather well with the general motif she gave off with that guitar strapped to her back though, one that outright looked like a bladed axe with strings attached to it. But what really identified her amongst the crowd were those eyes; heterochromia with left eye as red as her hair, and the right eye being outright inhuman with its purple coloring and the slit pupil you'd see commonly on a cat or a lizard.
To the right of her, was another person that stuck out like a sore thumb, but whereas the middle girl's eye was the only thing that seemed inhuman, this one only looked human in shape, and otherwise, you would not be blamed for mistaking her for some kind of demon or monster, what with the large horns, the glowing orange eyes, and that nightly blue skin. Yet her conservative noble-like attire suggests sophistication regardless of this, bar none making her stand out most of all in combination. @Smike
To the left of her was someone who looked like she belonged with this band attire-wise, albeit not to the same extreme. Her hair white as snow, her skin and blue eyes matching that, while her black lipstick matched the attire she wore the long-sleeved blue shirt over a black vest, equipped with spiked bracelets, the torn-up jeans with that spiked belt and another pair of black boots to just complete the set, yet overall seemed much more down-to-earth compared to everyone else. @Nyxira
At least two of them Jacob knew all too well about, as would everyone else in the audience as soon as they pop out. The green haired Rockstar was Helena Nankos while the horned lady was Dahlia Sangrey. Both of them are practically celebrities in the music industry, idols of rock/metal and classical respectively, and fellow students of Ishtar like himself on top of that. Their headmaster selected a musical competition as the game of the Write Category specifically because of these two being on his side. Just one of them has a large chance of winning over the crowd, and they're collaborating with each other, and with other fellow musicians of Ishtar.
The third one he doesn't necessarily know perse, but has caught his eye nonetheless. Vellaxir "Vell" Hebel, a relatively new face in Ishtar compared to the others. He's less fascinated in what she can do in a musical competition, and more focused on her other, more notable feats of skill. Not that he's actually seen them for himself but if there's one thing his guardian taught him, it's to always analyze whatever catches the eye, gather as much info as they can...He couldn't gather much on this one though, and that in itself is what made her a person of interest for him.
A deep breath, a few slaps on the cheek, and a smile. That was all Helena needed to psyche herself up for what's to come in a few minutes. Spinning the belt strapping her partner to her back as a way to spin it to the front, she took her pick and played a few notes to some last minute testing, turning knobs at the end if any of them felt out of tune. Helena was far from a perfectionist, ask any student in Ishtar and they'd call her a slacker who liked to just get things over and done with. Getting a B on a project? That's Awesome! Getting a D- on a test? Close enough! But when it came to music, when it came to rocking it out in the spotlight of a concert hall, she made an exception. Music was the one thing in her life she put effort into, to a point where she trained her magic by using music as her medium. She could not afford to screw up with all the ears listening to her and her companions. As long as she could please a crowd with her musical prowess, that was all she cared about, and the one thing she ever made an effort doing.
An energetic hop in the air, she turned as she jumped to face her companions in the battle of the bands.
"I can't believe we're the opening act of the entire bloody games! This is so EXCITING! ...Ok, let's do this just as we practiced. I got the guitar 1, Dahly got violin, you guys got drums and guitars two and three. That leaves you, New girl! The spotlight's on you taking the vocals tonight. We're counting on you to liven things up for them. Don't worry about the pressure though, Me and Dahly's got your back! Whatever we don't got, I'm sure Marduk's crew can substitute for us!" Helena said, referring to Vell as she calls her the New girl. As soon as she finished, one of the other students raised a hand.
"Umm, wait, what do you mean they'll 'substitute'? I thought the whole point of this was to blow them out the water, what the hell can they add that we don't have?" He said to her, with Helena responding by giving him a raised eyebrow and an unamused frown.
"Some humility, for starters." She said in response. The student fist-pumped in response to that. He must have thought she meant that they were gonna give them a slice of humble pie in defeat. She was going to open her mouth to correct him, but decided not to, waste of time and energy.
"Drummer-boy has a point though. It's fine that you want to have fun with this, but the Headmaster chose this competition expecting you all to win, and to do whatever it takes to win...whatever it takes." Said the blue-eyed boy Jacob Ascot, the traitorous son of Marduk's headmistress, walking towards them with a girl beside him, looking like his personal assistant. @Windstormugly He was relatively new much like Vell, although being at this school for slightly longer. He never really shown an interest in the Headmaster's goals, instead, it seems he has ambitions of his own whatever they may be. She sighed and waved away towards Jacob as if waving a fly from her face.
"Well, you can tell him that that's not our style, little bro." She said in response with a coy smile on her face. Of course they weren't actually brother and sister, but it's partly to mock his short-stature compared to herself, and it seems to always rile him up if only a little. The other band members took a look at her as if she just said something insulting to the Headmaster himself, and not because of her insult to Jacob.
"I thought I told you not to call me that... More importantly, whether or not it's your style to cheat is irrelevant to Headmaster Nergal. His direct orders is to do what has to be done. He chose this cause he believes you can win, we can't-"
"Then he should let us win by our own merit, not because we screw the other side the hardest. If we're doing this thing, we're doing it fair and square, that's what the audience out there wants from us, and we're gonna provide it. Besides, since when did you care about Nergal's direct orders?"
"I don't. My concern is making sure Mo-...making sure Headmistress Gilgamesha doesn't get those pages."
"Uh, huh... Look - and I'm saying this not just to Jake here, but to you guys as well - I get it. This isn't just fun and games like all the other years, something really important to our school - hell, something really important to this whole city - is on the line here. I know our school has to win these games, if only to make sure Marduk doesn't use those to turn this city into Hermannreich Part Deux. But right now, we are musicians, our loyalty should be to the audience who are coming to this looking for a rocking time, because that's what making music is about in the end, that's what concerts like this are for. Try your best out there, of course, show-off your best stuff to put on a good show, amplify our sound, absolutely. But if we win this by sabotage or by ruining the music on their side, then there's no point to that. We have to ease the mind of the audience from this whole mess with our songs, and that's the only thing we should worry about, that they're happy, that they're satisfied with our music, cause that's what playing for an audience is all about. If you guys feel we need to play dirty to keep 'Fuhrer' Ascot from turning this city upside down, I understand, there's plenty of chances to pull that crap in other games, but not here. We don't need to cheat to do what we have to, and we certainly don't need the Headmaster telling us how to do what we do best! Besides, if you ask me, cheating and playing dirty when we got such a Rocking band as we do, if anything, would only serve to DQ us and give them the win faster. If we're doing this, we're doing it right. Are you with me? ...THEN LET'S ROCK THIS JOINT!" Helena explained, giving them a kind smile as she spoke, before reverting to her energy and fist pumping in the air as she finishes. Readying her guitar once more, she looked to the others to see if they're ready for this much as she was.
Jacob could only Sigh.
"Don't say I didn't warn you... Keep watch of them." He said, first in a mutter towards the band, then towards his "shadow". @Windstormugly
"Participate in the Competition or I cut off Jacob from the Inheritance"
He heard those words. He wasn't there, he wasn't anywhere near those two when they came into contact, when she forced upon William that Ultimatum, but he heard them regardless. It is amazing how easily one can eavesdrop with the right informant and a good web of intelligence gathering. Fists clenched when he heard those words from the informant who listened in, and there were only two words that sprung to mind, only two words he could think of in response.
"That...BITCH!"
It wasn't the cutting of his inheritance that enraged him - what inheritance? What else was left to inherit when everything they owned burned so long ago, and the only thing left she could give she has more reason to give to William anyways - no, what really pissed off the the boy, what really ruffled the messy black hair on his head, was that she, this monster, used him to manipulate William into doing what she wanted. How DARE she use his name to pull him along like a goddamn marionette!?
She may be his mother physically, and biologically, but on that day where half the entire family was gone in but an instant, Gilgamesha may as well have burned along with them as far as he was concerned. Whatever this tyranical witch was, it was not the same Gilgamesha who loved and cared for them. The iron grip she now has was not the same as the stern but fair hand she had when their father was still alive. That bitch was not his mother!
---
Even now, as he sits in the large waiting room on Ishtar's side of the Arena, it was difficult to calm himself down. Staring at the floor, his white and blue sneakers, his typical blue jeans, with those deep sapphire eyes, he couldn't help but feel this silent rage build up within himself. He thought he escaped these feelings when Nemsi, his foster father, mediated and calmed all the feelings and trauma he felt. But in an instant, the wrath and the sorrow crawled right back into his subconscious. Taking a deep breath, he hummed a little tune to calm him down, a muffled melody of simplicity and, for him, a soothing tone. As if in response, he could feel as if spiders were crawling over him, and in his mind's eye, they consumed him in a cocoon of web, silent and isolated from the world. Course, in reality, none of that was happening, but regardless, the thought was cooling him down, quelling his temper, and allowing him to regain himself.
Moving his left hand to slick back his raven black hair, straightened out his black vest sweater - complete with a cyan tie - and a blue denim jacket, taking a scarf out of the pocket of said jacket and wrapping it around his neck. When he was finally back to form, he took a look around.
---
While it's called a "Waiting Room", you wouldn't be too far off if you confused it for the fancy lobby of a luxury hotel. Clocking in at 1500 square feet It was quite massive in respect to where it is in the arena, filled with soft couches, tables, and large flat-screen televisions on the north, south, east and west side of the room, set naturally to the GFG events, and otherwise set to whatever the contestants within felt like watching. On the tables are healthy snacks to keep the energy of the contestants in tact and some glasses of water to compliment that. To the north side are the locker rooms, to the east side is the path way to the arena, and to the opposite side is the Contestants' entrance into the Arcanum, and by extension the exit out of it. There was even a small closed off area right by the exit with gym equipment for a little last-minute training.
As it turns out, the Arcanum holds about three waiting rooms on the east, west, and south sides of the stadium. The ones to the east and west were similar in size, and similar period, both rooms holding the same 'luxury' accomodations, compared to the waiting room on the south side that was smaller and merely had the basic accomodations one would expect from a waiting room for competitors, like a locker room.
It's no secret to anyone in this city how the two schools were of vital importance both for its magic users and its decendants of the Illuminated Poet; their headmasters may as well have been the de'facto leaders of the city. Thus, it's also no secret how people of the city treats them compared to how they treat a normal individual. If the Descendants of the Poet are essentially the blood nobility, the noble-class of Illiad's Society, then those who enter and are good students of these two particular schools are the "high-class" members just below them in the heirarchy, and if the fact that they managed to reserve an annual olympic event for themselves without legal repercussion didn't make that clear, the clear difference between their waiting room and the waiting room of anyone not affiliated with them did. A rather ironic fact, seeing as how most years you only see a few students of each school participate but lots of non-affiliated participants joining the games.
In regard to the two school waiting rooms comparing to each other, there was very little different between them; making one school's waiting room better or worse than the other would be favoring one school over the other, and by extension, inciting the wrath of the other school for doing so. Thus, the only real contrast between the two waiting rooms were in their decorations, with Marduk's waiting room looking a little more glossier and modern, and Ishtar's waiting room having a darker and gothic approach on decor.
---
As Jacob looked around, contemplating whether or not the two schools deserve this much catering to - this was his first time participating in a Grand Flyte Game and so he's never actually seen a stadium waiting room like this before - his eyes turned towards the Arena entrance and the...interesting group that was gathered around there.
That's right, the Write Competition's the first one in action, which means that must be the musical band that's gonna be playing out there in a few minutes. Most of the band members weren't of much worth to him, looking like a bunch of edgey teenagers that wanted to show off their own angst, but there were three of them that did catch his eye.
The one right in the middle, slapping her cheeks to, he presumes, psych herself up, probably looked like the edgiest one of them all, her long green hair in a giant ponytail, the top of her head having ruby red hair - seems the rest of her hair was dyed green - and mostly covered with what appeared to be a green hood with a hole cut in for the pony tail. The rest of her attire was just asymetrical and hard to look at it if you had some kind of OCD problem, with her left arm and leg having their red-and-black sleeve and sock seemingly torn up completely and the right side only having holes, and not looking right amidst the normal black skirt and blue sweater vest, nor with the pair of fingerless gloves and black leather boots. It did fit rather well with the general motif she gave off with that guitar strapped to her back though, one that outright looked like a bladed axe with strings attached to it. But what really identified her amongst the crowd were those eyes; heterochromia with left eye as red as her hair, and the right eye being outright inhuman with its purple coloring and the slit pupil you'd see commonly on a cat or a lizard.
To the right of her, was another person that stuck out like a sore thumb, but whereas the middle girl's eye was the only thing that seemed inhuman, this one only looked human in shape, and otherwise, you would not be blamed for mistaking her for some kind of demon or monster, what with the large horns, the glowing orange eyes, and that nightly blue skin. Yet her conservative noble-like attire suggests sophistication regardless of this, bar none making her stand out most of all in combination. @Smike
To the left of her was someone who looked like she belonged with this band attire-wise, albeit not to the same extreme. Her hair white as snow, her skin and blue eyes matching that, while her black lipstick matched the attire she wore the long-sleeved blue shirt over a black vest, equipped with spiked bracelets, the torn-up jeans with that spiked belt and another pair of black boots to just complete the set, yet overall seemed much more down-to-earth compared to everyone else. @Nyxira
At least two of them Jacob knew all too well about, as would everyone else in the audience as soon as they pop out. The green haired Rockstar was Helena Nankos while the horned lady was Dahlia Sangrey. Both of them are practically celebrities in the music industry, idols of rock/metal and classical respectively, and fellow students of Ishtar like himself on top of that. Their headmaster selected a musical competition as the game of the Write Category specifically because of these two being on his side. Just one of them has a large chance of winning over the crowd, and they're collaborating with each other, and with other fellow musicians of Ishtar.
The third one he doesn't necessarily know perse, but has caught his eye nonetheless. Vellaxir "Vell" Hebel, a relatively new face in Ishtar compared to the others. He's less fascinated in what she can do in a musical competition, and more focused on her other, more notable feats of skill. Not that he's actually seen them for himself but if there's one thing his guardian taught him, it's to always analyze whatever catches the eye, gather as much info as they can...He couldn't gather much on this one though, and that in itself is what made her a person of interest for him.
A deep breath, a few slaps on the cheek, and a smile. That was all Helena needed to psyche herself up for what's to come in a few minutes. Spinning the belt strapping her partner to her back as a way to spin it to the front, she took her pick and played a few notes to some last minute testing, turning knobs at the end if any of them felt out of tune. Helena was far from a perfectionist, ask any student in Ishtar and they'd call her a slacker who liked to just get things over and done with. Getting a B on a project? That's Awesome! Getting a D- on a test? Close enough! But when it came to music, when it came to rocking it out in the spotlight of a concert hall, she made an exception. Music was the one thing in her life she put effort into, to a point where she trained her magic by using music as her medium. She could not afford to screw up with all the ears listening to her and her companions. As long as she could please a crowd with her musical prowess, that was all she cared about, and the one thing she ever made an effort doing.
An energetic hop in the air, she turned as she jumped to face her companions in the battle of the bands.
"I can't believe we're the opening act of the entire bloody games! This is so EXCITING! ...Ok, let's do this just as we practiced. I got the guitar 1, Dahly got violin, you guys got drums and guitars two and three. That leaves you, New girl! The spotlight's on you taking the vocals tonight. We're counting on you to liven things up for them. Don't worry about the pressure though, Me and Dahly's got your back! Whatever we don't got, I'm sure Marduk's crew can substitute for us!" Helena said, referring to Vell as she calls her the New girl. As soon as she finished, one of the other students raised a hand.
"Umm, wait, what do you mean they'll 'substitute'? I thought the whole point of this was to blow them out the water, what the hell can they add that we don't have?" He said to her, with Helena responding by giving him a raised eyebrow and an unamused frown.
"Some humility, for starters." She said in response. The student fist-pumped in response to that. He must have thought she meant that they were gonna give them a slice of humble pie in defeat. She was going to open her mouth to correct him, but decided not to, waste of time and energy.
"Drummer-boy has a point though. It's fine that you want to have fun with this, but the Headmaster chose this competition expecting you all to win, and to do whatever it takes to win...whatever it takes." Said the blue-eyed boy Jacob Ascot, the traitorous son of Marduk's headmistress, walking towards them with a girl beside him, looking like his personal assistant. @Windstormugly He was relatively new much like Vell, although being at this school for slightly longer. He never really shown an interest in the Headmaster's goals, instead, it seems he has ambitions of his own whatever they may be. She sighed and waved away towards Jacob as if waving a fly from her face.
"Well, you can tell him that that's not our style, little bro." She said in response with a coy smile on her face. Of course they weren't actually brother and sister, but it's partly to mock his short-stature compared to herself, and it seems to always rile him up if only a little. The other band members took a look at her as if she just said something insulting to the Headmaster himself, and not because of her insult to Jacob.
"I thought I told you not to call me that... More importantly, whether or not it's your style to cheat is irrelevant to Headmaster Nergal. His direct orders is to do what has to be done. He chose this cause he believes you can win, we can't-"
"Then he should let us win by our own merit, not because we screw the other side the hardest. If we're doing this thing, we're doing it fair and square, that's what the audience out there wants from us, and we're gonna provide it. Besides, since when did you care about Nergal's direct orders?"
"I don't. My concern is making sure Mo-...making sure Headmistress Gilgamesha doesn't get those pages."
"Uh, huh... Look - and I'm saying this not just to Jake here, but to you guys as well - I get it. This isn't just fun and games like all the other years, something really important to our school - hell, something really important to this whole city - is on the line here. I know our school has to win these games, if only to make sure Marduk doesn't use those to turn this city into Hermannreich Part Deux. But right now, we are musicians, our loyalty should be to the audience who are coming to this looking for a rocking time, because that's what making music is about in the end, that's what concerts like this are for. Try your best out there, of course, show-off your best stuff to put on a good show, amplify our sound, absolutely. But if we win this by sabotage or by ruining the music on their side, then there's no point to that. We have to ease the mind of the audience from this whole mess with our songs, and that's the only thing we should worry about, that they're happy, that they're satisfied with our music, cause that's what playing for an audience is all about. If you guys feel we need to play dirty to keep 'Fuhrer' Ascot from turning this city upside down, I understand, there's plenty of chances to pull that crap in other games, but not here. We don't need to cheat to do what we have to, and we certainly don't need the Headmaster telling us how to do what we do best! Besides, if you ask me, cheating and playing dirty when we got such a Rocking band as we do, if anything, would only serve to DQ us and give them the win faster. If we're doing this, we're doing it right. Are you with me? ...THEN LET'S ROCK THIS JOINT!" Helena explained, giving them a kind smile as she spoke, before reverting to her energy and fist pumping in the air as she finishes. Readying her guitar once more, she looked to the others to see if they're ready for this much as she was.
Jacob could only Sigh.
"Don't say I didn't warn you... Keep watch of them." He said, first in a mutter towards the band, then towards his "shadow". @Windstormugly
