MASKTOURN

The arena is unrecognizable to how it was before. Where countless strange, absurd environments have stood before, now stands something simple. Something… almost familiar, but entirely unplacable. A cold, barren forest, blanketed by snow. The snow crunches against the contestants’ feet as they both enter. The cold chills them both to the bone- perhaps, they had taken the pleasant warmth of the citadel for granted. It’s not the only thing wrong with this arena, and it’s not the only thing driving them both. A persistent, gnawing hunger claws at both Kenji and Ellie’s innards. A thirst that can never be quenched. A hunger that can only be sated in one way. The wood is just dense enough they can barely see each other on the other side of the arena. The sky is dark. The wood is silent. Silent, and cold. They are so, so horribly alone here. A snap! A creak- a held breath. Maybe not so alone after all.

This arena is divided into TWO PARTS. You must pass through both parts to reach the relic. 

To pass through an area, you must roll three successful dexterity checks.

Contestants can attack each other with ranged attacks through the entire arena. They can only attack with melee attacks once both are in the second area or beyond.

modifiers Kenji Himura Attack: +1 Defense: +2 Initiative: -1 Strength: -1 Dexterity: 0 Constitution: -1 Intelligence: +2 Wisdom: +1 Charisma: -1 Magic: +2 Divine Intuition: -5 ELLIE HALVORSON Attack: +2 Defense: 0 Initiative: 0 Stength: +3 Dexterity: 0 Constitution: +2 Intelligence: -2 Wisdom: +1 Charisma: +1 Magic: -2 Divine Intuition: -2

innsjo | kyrie🪶+ darcy🖋+npcs pinned a message to this channel. 11/8/2024 10:52 AM

@em || enya 💥 + kenji 🌫 @Kip | Ace 🏹 / Ellie 📷 yall can start whenever no private scenes w the side hosts

10:56 AM

initiative pls

Kip | Ace 🏹 / Ellie 📷

used /r

# 7
Details:[d20 (7)]

em || enya 💥 + kenji 🌫

used /r

# 7
Details:[d20-1 (8)]

1 ell 2 ken

innsjo | kyrie🪶+ darcy🖋+npcs

used /r

# 2
Details:[d2 (2)]

kenji turn

It's an interesting feeling, knowing what's to come, and moving on anyways. Kenji presses his crystal pendant to his chest briefly, eyes closing for a moment before he enters the arena. (Luck, or coincidence, that he had returned from the mountaintop only moments before?) But the second his foot touches the snow, all of that thought is gone. The chill reaches his bones, the hunger curling sharp and alive in his stomach. Trees, stretching above, closing in like a coffin of his own making. His breath, exhaled into steam, catches in his chest. This is not new. The gaze on his back, the weight of the silence, ancient eyes and crushing stone. For the third time in his life and death, all he can do is flee.

em || enya 💥 + kenji 🌫

used /r

# 20
Details:[d20 (20)]

2

1

2/3 area 1 kenji

11:09 AM

ellie turn

When Ellie steps out into the arena, she immediately regrets her sandals. It's so frickin' cold here. She wishes she were in bed with her girlfriends again. (Are they watching? She doesn't know if she wants them to be.) She was in the city when it froze over. Natto was miserable the whole time, wasn't he- just crammed in an apartment for a week as it thawed up. She didn't even know Jason when it first happened. Just saw him on th'news. Her breath, warm, warm, warm, disappears into the air as she exhales. She grits her teeth in some attempt to stop them from chattering, fists clenched tight as ever. Her right arm stings. A pair of amethyst and sodalite earrings dangle from her ears. They are not hers. It can't lose this. It won't lose this. It can only hope Kenji remembers his words to it as it begins to walk. (edited)

Kip | Ace 🏹 / Ellie 📷

used /r

# 9
Details:[d20 (9)]

ellie 0/3 area 1

11:20 AM

@em || enya 💥 + kenji 🌫 kenji turn

em || enya 💥 + kenji 🌫

used /r

# 12
Details:[d20 (12)]

Kenji 3/3 area 1

11:21 AM

ellie turn w/ advantage

Kip | Ace 🏹 / Ellie 📷

used /r

# 1
Details:[d20 (1)]

Kip | Ace 🏹 / Ellie 📷

used /r

# 6
Details:[d20 (6)]

ellie

It's so cold.

"Ellie? Can you hear me?"

2

"K- ken? Kenji?" She sounds a little distant, but she can Very much hear.

"Yes--" Kenji swallows back the dread curdling in his stomach, scanning the forest as his heart climbs into his throat. "Just- Just follow my voice, there's a clearing up here," he calls, trying pointedly not to look at the rest of the clearing's...details.

"Y- yeah?" Ellie responds, carefully picking her way through the forest. Brr. Was it normal to feel so...eeugh? Her stomach twists and aches with each step closer to Kenji's voice. "I..." "Thank you," it calls back after a moment.

"Of course," Kenji replies, though it's a little bit more reserved. "It's... It's going to be okay," he continues, peering into the trees, "Nothing's changed for me, I promise."

She really hopes it's all going to be okay. "That's...reassuring to hear." His voice is getting louder now. That's good. "I...everything's changed for me. It's...it's so much." A pause; "Um- not- not about this fight I mean, s-sorry. Just- er." She chooses to stay quiet as she shimmy-shuffles past a tight spot.

"It's okay," Kenji repeats. "Don't worry. I... We shouldn't be here long." Her voice disappears and he tenses, slightly. "Ellie? Can you see me yet?"

Ellie steps out past a tree and feels her heart twist a bit...painfully. (Or is that still the gnawing feeling in her stomach?) "Er- yeah, yeah, I very much can." Seeing Kenji, her contestant, her rival, right in front of her, waiting for her just. Feels very wrong and bad. She shifts a little, uneasily, and picks at her bandages. "You- you're sure you want to do this?" Should she really be trying to sway his opinion on this now? (It feels selfish just letting him do this, yeah?)

Kenji relaxes when she appears, expression softening the scars littering his face. "I... Yes, I'm sure," he says quietly. "I promise. It's not exactly that I want this, but...this is the best case scenario, I think. I've made my peace." He takes a deep breath, mismatched eyes finally turning to look over at the relic sitting innocently in the clearing. "Don't blame yourself. This is my choice."

Ellie hugs herself a little, but her expression seems...not as anxious. She's not entirely relaxed, though, but seems a bit more at ease. "Best case scenario for who?" she asks, and her breath disappears into the air again. "For both of us, or for...everyone?" The relic looks kinda pretty. Or somethin'.

Kenji and Ellie enter the clearing in the center of the arena. The moon hangs pale above, bathing the space in a cool, harsh light. In the center of the clearing stands a small, withered tree stump, and upon it- a knife carved intricately from a large bone. Whoever touched the knife first, would be deemed the winner.

Ellie's question actually gives him pause, for a moment. "...For the both of us, at least," he sighs, thumb rubbing against his wedding band almost subconsciously. The knife in the clearing quickens his heartbeat, the feeling of chasing and the feeling of being chased settling under his skin. "I don't know about everyone. I don't know how you all get out of this. But a little more time has to at least be better, right?"

"You...really want this, huh," Ellie murmurs, fiddling with the amethyst earring. She doesn't know how to feel. Relieved she's gonna live, at least for a short little while? (There's still so many contestants...) God. What if she has to fight her girlfriends? God- "At least there's one way outta this," it says with a dry laugh. "Um. Er. Faen."

"I don't want to kill you," Kenji corrects. "So this is the other option here. I've... I talked to Albanes about it. It's what's best." The amethyst hanging from his neck catches the light reflected off the snow, just for a moment. He takes a deep breath, then gestures to the knife. His hand shakes, only for a moment, before he hides it well. "Go ahead. When you're ready." (edited)

1

"You did?" she asks, softer. Albanes. Suspicious and indifferent but...kind? Somewhat? "I...agh." "Thank you- thank you, again. I don't- I don't know how to just...just thank you." For not killing me, for letting me live a little longer, for letting me remember my friends a little longer. The amethyst hanging from her ear shimmers in the light. (edited)

Kenji smiles at that--a real one, tinged with regret and relief alike. The easy way out of this feels harder than it should. But at least it'll be over. "You don't have to. Just live."

Ellie smiles at that too, frost prickling at her eyes. "I'll try," she laughs, and it feels very wrong. "May the wind guide you, Kenji." Thank you. She takes the knife into her hands, and it feels like a death sentence.

2

@innsjo | kyrie🪶+ darcy🖋+npcs

As Ellie’s hand slips over the hilt of the knife, something steps out of the wood. It’s Naiyta- looking not like a god, but like a feral creature inhabiting a human body. They wear clothes made from rough woven cloth and furs- a sort of poncho is draped over their shoulders. In one hand, they hold a shepherd's crook, the other is outstretched towards Ellie. Nearly their entire front is stained in blood- though the red is most centralized around their mouth. As if... they were a very messy eater. It turns first to Kenji- and with a single look he would find himself stilled, unable to make any further move. He was forced into a kneeling position, beholden to the will of the gods above him. Naiyta then turned to Ellie. It beckoned her forward, and gestured for the knife. (edited)

4

It's an unfortunately familiar sight. Shattered edges of memories slicing in and he recognizes them, that same urge to flee from the dream just a few short days ago rising in frantic waves. But he can't, and he shouldn't, so he doesn't. Gold meets gold, steady and unsettling and aware.

"Eh" Ellie clutches the knife a little tighter as some creature comes crawling it's way out of the woods. It takes a moment for it to realize it is not some cryptid-like being, but Naiyta. "W-wh. H- hey, what?" Ellie sputters, stepping back. The snow crunches loudly under it's heels. It sounds even louder as Kenji drops to his knees. "W- huh?" Ah- but it's stare, it's piercing stare, seems to trap her in place, and she can't help but step forward. "W- what is all this?" she asks, her voice all wobbly as hell. She can't seem to look at Kenji. (Is he alive?) "This- this hasn't happened before, yeah?"

"Of a sort," Kenji answers quietly. He's still not sure what had been real, and what had not, even now. "Don't- Don't worry. It'll be okay." (It sounds a bit more like he's trying to reassure himself.)

Naiyta wrapped their fingers around the hilt, savoring its weight in its hand, and disregarded Ellie completely. Once their blade was returned, Naiyta stepped forward to the tree stump… And plunged the blade of the knife into the wood A shimmering light grew out of the incision, almost taking the form of a coiling, writhing tree itself. In the center, held still by glowing iridescent, antler-like branches, was the body of Albanes- limp and still. It was hard to tell if she was unconscious, dead, or something else. Naiyta scanned the arena, the contestants, and the spectators, before it began to speak. “The Regnant Lifebringer has committed a great sin and has caused you all terrible harm. She has hid this from you all in hopes of saving face. She has lied to you. She has looked the other way as you have fallen to your deaths. She has doomed the world, and all that inhabit it. She has known the consequences of her actions this entire time. But fear not. For I will save you all. The Regnant Lifebringer has placed in the Immaterial Fold, out of my reach, the soul of her predecessor. She has disrupted all that is holy and sacred. She has severed the chain. She has killed what was never meant to truly die. But fear not. For I will fix this.” It wretched the blade out of the tree stump and approached Kenji, where he lay vulnerable and defenseless. It pressed a hand to Kenji’s forehead, guiding his gaze up. It positioned the blade- “I will right this incalculable wrong” Within the same breath, they slipped the knife into the soft cavity of Kenji’s chest. Into his heart.

Fear strikes, racing down his spine and wrapping around his frozen limbs like barbed wire, as his gaze wrenches from Naiyta to Albanes. Their words are a static blur in his ears. She has to be okay. She had to be. Right? He watches, gray eye widened, as Naiyta removes the blade. It's all he can really do, now--watch. Wait. Trust. Everything narrows sharply til only the point of the blade at his chest remains. And the crystal encasing his soul, in place of his heart, cracks straight in two. It isn't quick. It isn't painless. Maybe that had been too much to hope for. A choked gurgle escapes him, the last words of a man who had never been able to speak again on his own lost to the wind as the knife digs in further. Chunks of stained, blackened stone crumble out of his chest, hitting the ground, and leaching into the pristine white snow. Something that he never was screams and screams as the fragments of his soul strip from his body. The arena explodes into a violent, sickly purple light, screams multiplying into many, and what's left of Kenji's corpse gives in to the decades of decay it owes. Thick, black smoke eats away hungrily at whatever it can reach--save for a large circle around Naiyta, and a smaller, more intentional one around Ellie. It smells like death. It certainly is Death. (edited)

She can't hear anything past the ringing in her ears as Naiyta tears the blade from her clenched fists. She hears nothing- except for the choked, strangled noise of a dying man. And everything bursts, and Ellie screams, very loudly- "What the fuck!"* Ellie raises her hands, quickly, to cover her face from the smoke. It smells like death and decay and ugh awful shit again. At least this...decay? Doesn't try to eat her up though. "Kenji!" (edited)

2

As Kenji’s life faded, as the light faded, the world came to a sudden standstill. For a breath, for a heartbeat, for as long as it took to understand what was happening before all understanding is ripped violently away. A breath, a heartbeat, a tick of the second hand of a clock- And it all falls inward. A rift forms down the center of the arena, and Kenji is the first to fall into it. Ellie soon follows, and then Naiyta and even Albanes. It is not just a mere earthquake, it’s as if the very world is folding in on itself, and ceasing to exist. Everything folds inward. Everything incurvates. The world sings and shines with a liturgy for itself, as it tears itself apart. Similar rifts form in the stands and across the citadel, sucking up all those unfortunate enough to be in the citadel into their clutch… @everyone