The First Match

[realitymods]

Characters: Robespierre, Oliver Day, Spectators
Location: The Coliseum.
Time: Two days after Weber's announcement.
Summary: The first of the death matches.
Warnings: Character death warning.

Dressed as before, the man in the cravat stepped up to the edge of the Emperor's box. He held his smile, eyes scanning the audience and the combatants below him.

"Welcome to the first of too many fights. To start us off, Maximilien Robespierre and Oliver Day will engage in mortal combat, without the health bars. They have until the hourglass runs out to kill each other."

The man picked up the hourglass and turned it over so the sand was at the top. It held perfectly still despite gravity, waiting for its cue.

"It isn't a fair fight, but I think you've all realized by now: we don't fight fair." The man clasped his hands together. "Let the fights begin."

And the first grain of sand fell.

Comments

[collector]

"Damon. You shouldn't be watching something like this." The Doctor, Omega, or even Romana would be able to endure this sight, but Damon was younger and less bloodstained than them all.

Incidentally, Braxiatel's disgust at the match hadn't stopping him from getting himself a glass of champagne.

[doctorsfanboy.livejournal.com]

"Cardinal Braxiatel, with the things I've witnessed here, the things I've learned..." Damon glanced at Oliver sadly.

"This isn't the worst I've experienced."

[collector]

"Then there's no need for you to be exposed more of it." It came out rather sharper than Braxiatel had intended, and he paused, looking away from Damon. "My apologies. It's simply not a situation I like to see anyone exposed to."

Gladiatorial matches and public executions, all the sport and madness of disgusting primitivism. For all that Braxiatel derided the Interventionists, at least they had the decency to be discrete.

[doctorsfanboy.livejournal.com]

Damon shook his head. "There's no need to apologise, Cardinal. No one should have to witness this, yourself included. But we're not being forced to watch, only to participate."

[collector]

But Braxiatel stopped, his attention on the spectacle before him - or rather, what had disappeared. He got to his feet.

"Watching is out of the question, it seems." He almost smiled. "That stupid boy can't stop himself from thinking of others." And had Braxiatel seen something surprising on Robespierre's face? Slaughterer of so many in his future, but Braxiatel knew that even mass murderers could feel guilt.

[doctorsfanboy.livejournal.com]

"It's not stupid," Damon murmured fondly, standing with Braxiatel. "I would request the same, if I had the choice."

[collector]

"Then you would be stupidly kind too." Braxiatel tried to remember the human rituals for the passing of their own, but humans were so split in their cultures that Braxiatel couldn't tell which one would be suited to Oliver.

"'And by the law almost all things are purified with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.'" He murmured the passage in Hebrew, under his breath. It was his hope that Oliver would take this 'test' as proof of his own goodness, even under duress. That Oliver would find some remission in the shedding of blood.

[doctorsfanboy.livejournal.com]

Damon didn't recognise the language, but he placed a hand on Braxiatel's arm anyway. "Tea, Cardinal? I doubt Oliver would want us to stand here and brood over his passing."

[collector]

Braxiatel didn't respond to the touch. He saw the shield fade, saw Robespierre kneeling by his own coat, a kindness to Oliver and his friends. Respect for the dead. And Braxiatel saw when there was nothing underneath. Was that Robespierre's gifts, or something from the Plane?

"No." He let out a soft breath. "No, I need to go home. And to do a very thorough search of my inventory for anything that might be of any use. At least we know something of the set up now."

[doctorsfanboy.livejournal.com]

Damon nodded, understanding completely. "Is there anything I can do? Anything I can find for you on Gallifrey?" He hoped there was some small way he could contribute; if there wasn't, he would do some searching on his own anyway.

[collector]

"Anything you can think of. Any scrap of information, any forgotten tool that could put an end to this." He looked at Damon briefly. "And if you've any way to find out more about how this is functioning, please do. They have the power to kill us all anyway. We must tread carefully. If we are to put an end to this, it can't be at the cost of everyone's lives."

[doctorsfanboy.livejournal.com]

"I...may have a way," Damon replied carefully. "The man who's announcing these events...we seem to have things in common. I might be able to convince him to help us more, if I get the opportunity to talk to him again. He does have a conscience, despite how it seems. But he would be destroyed if he disobeyed his superiors directly."

[collector]

"Then that, I think, is a line of inquiry worth pursuing." Braxiatel's eyes flickered up to the Emperor's box, then down to the empty arena. Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant. "I don't think I'll stay to watch the next match. Did he say all that, by the way?"

[doctorsfanboy.livejournal.com]

"He did. Why?" Damon asked curiously. He didn't intend to watch the next match himself; one was more than enough.

[collector]

"Just curious." Brax finished off his champagne and set the glass down. "Keep me updated." And with one last look at the arena, where Oliver died, where others soon would pass, Braxiatel disappeared.