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

[lamb_of_gold]

Mu stood very much on his own, gazing down at the spectacle below. Though he'd come, initially, to speak to the man in the cravat, seeing Oliver off seemed far more important. There would be other opportunities to talk. This was likely to be once in a lifetime.

Mu's right hand was pressed against the forcefield as though willing it to dissipate, but knowing it would not. He was enraged that he could do nothing, and enraged to know that getting mad would also do nothing.

He closed his eyes, leaning his head on the field as well, and his mouth began to move, silently reciting a Tibetan prayer for the dying.

His hand balled into a white-knuckled fist.

[shutupk9.livejournal.com]

The Doctor walked over to Mu, frown on his face. His eyes kept straying downwards to the match. Despite his brief conversation and travels with Oliver, he felt like this was his fault. Surely there was something, anything that he could have done to stop this. There had to be. He was the Doctor.

Looking at Mu, he paused, looking at his fist. "I wish I could be of help as well," he responded, gazing out to the arena. His eyes lingered on Oliver for a moment, before turning back to Mu. "It's awful."

[lamb_of_gold]

"Oliver doesn't even plan to put up a fight," Mu said, blunt as ever. "He brought a gun, in case his opponent could not kill him."

He paused, then, the combatants disappearing. He didn't seem at all surprised.

"But that doesn't seem to be the case."

[shutupk9.livejournal.com]

The Doctor winced as the combatants disappeared. Instantly, his guilt started creeping back.

"You're right. Why wouldn't Oliver fight, though? The stigma of being a killer, perhaps? Though, I personally would rather take being alive and being a killer over being dead. At least, I have before. I don't know what I would do in this case." He sighed.

[lamb_of_gold]

"Because he seeks to protect the life of his opponent. Oliver, I think, it far too gentle a soul to be able to bear having killed someone."

Mu continued to watch, impassively, until only the blond man reappeared. Mu sighed and sat down then, a deep exhale the closest to an emotional outburst that he would allow himself.

[shutupk9.livejournal.com]

The Doctor's frown deepened as he looked over the stadium.

"I hope he comes back. Well...he's got to come back. He's got to." That was more for the Doctor's own reassurance than anybody else's.

[lamb_of_gold]

"He will," Mu said quietly. "Not even death can offer freedom from this place."

[shutupk9.livejournal.com]

The Doctor tilted his head slightly. "You talk as if it's bad. Granted, the death matches are bad and I didn't like it when those zombie things showed up, but it's not all that bad here. I got to talk to people who I would have never met back home."

[lamb_of_gold]

"There are times I count this place among my greatest blessings, and times, like now, I wonder if it is not a curse instead."

Mu remained staring into the area, at the pile of ashes that once composed a man he would call a friend.

[shutupk9.livejournal.com]

The Doctor shook his head.

"It's a double edged sword. It's good, but it bites you when you least expect it."