FIGHT CLUB II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO.

[saam]

WHO:Eshal and EVERYBODY, you're all invited. You don't have to have expressed interest oocly or icly before now to participate!
WHAT: The first inaugural Riftwatch underground boxing tournament... thing.
WHEN: Feel free to hit this up whenever, presumably it's taking place at various times over Harvestmere.
WHERE: The back room of the Boar & Bat pub.
NOTES: Violence! Gambling! Anything worse than that, I'll let you know.

First thing's first: the crowd favorites.

HEROES
• CROWD FAVORITE: Sabine "Red Snatch"
• Skulltimaeus "Fistbreaker"
• Derrica "The Rivaini Raider"
• Laura "Sharps" Kint
• Athessa "Sweet Tessa" Sulanahn
HEELS
• CROWD FAVORITE: Yngvi "Filth Demon" Congealedinagutterson
• Kostos "Babyface Moroney" Averesch
• Findilay
• Barrow "Skullbreaker"
• "Princess" Carla

(Obviously, if you didn't sign up beforehand but still want to have your character fight, feel free!)

Feel free to do whatever you wish with your character and their reaction to being the month's favorite. Crowd favorites will be cheered more, possibly bought drinks, remembered and treated fondly by the crowd, even if they're heels. Bets on their success will be higher, and remember, you're allowed to bet on yourself.

As for the rest: The back room of the pub still has that dirt floor, the bar off to the side, the chairs and tables dirt floor, a bar with drinks and a bartender, and a circle drawn in the middle with chalk.

Eshal holds court at the edge of the circle, calling matches and announcing fighters. Gifted with a booming voice and a 6'2" stature, she's still impossible to miss.

The unspoken mascot of the festivities is the sign stolen from the front, and pinned to the wall, in clear view of the crowd. Beneath it, someone has scrawled into the wall: LEAVE SOBER. This time, someone has also added pretty eyelashes to the face.

(credit to Beka for the wonderful sign!)

The rules of the fights are simple, and repeated before every match: No kicking. No hitting below the belt. No hitting while they're down. Stop when the referee says so. First person who can't get back up after a five count looses.

Fighting isn't the only thing to do, however. There are bets being made in the crowd. Drinks being had. Mingle, cheer, loose some money, win some back, have fun!

Comments

[sulahnan]

"Worse off but unfortunately victorious," she says, clicking her tongue against her teeth as she takes the mug. "But I'm blaming it on the fact that the majority of my moves are against the rules."

The mug is passed back and she gives a curt, definitive nod.

"In a proper brawl, I'd — if nothing else I'd do better."

[tender]

"That's reassuring," Derrica teases, as if she had any actual doubts about Athessa's abilities.

"Barrow still won't fight me, you know. He has some kind of thing about...I don't know if it's mages or me."

It's a good-natured complaint. Derrica isn't too cut up about Darrow's personal honor code, but it strikes her as strange to be dismissed out of the ring on what feels like a technicality.

[sulahnan]

"Barrow's a big guy, maybe he's one of those men who don't like fighting petite women?" She's met a few of those, people afraid to hurt her despite her assurances that she wants to fight and can take a hit.

[tender]

"I think he must be," Derrica agrees, slight exasperation coloring her tone. "It's so odd to meet someone like that, don't you think?"

There'd been plenty of people on the ships she'd raided who hadn't stayed their hand at the size of her. Derrica can accept the difference in setting and motivation, but it still strikes her as odd.

[sulahnan]

Athessa tips her head in a weighing gesture. “In this context, sure. More common in other situations.”

At least in recent years, where treatment she shied from at a younger age is something she seeks out.

“I kind of want to give a go at fighting—“ She gives a soft snort of a laugh “—Fistbreaker.”

[tender]

Derrica snorts, knocking her elbow against Athessa's lightly.

"The Fistbreaker," She scoffs. "I think if you fight him the rules should be bent a little. It seems like he has some unfair advantages."

Does the jar count as armor, yes or no?

"But I'd bet on you."

Implication: she did not bet on Barrow.

[sulahnan]

“Rules didn’t change when he fought Barrow, apparently, but you’d think they would. Hardly fair otherwise,” And as much as she’d like to tussle with Eshal, she doesn’t want to do it by breaking the rules.

“So I’d have to figure a way to get you your winnings back.” Wink.

[tender]

"I think you could just buy our next round and we'd call it even. I would have the spectacle of the fight, after all."

Encouraging? Derrica pulls one leg up onto the bar, balances her cup on the bend of her knee.

"How long have you been with Riftwatch, Athessa?"

[sulahnan]

She lets out a breath that puffs her cheeks, and looks at her hands. How many months has it been now?

"Six...no, seven months, I think? What about you?"

[tender]

"Not that long. A few months."

Derrica leans back, pulls a bottle from the ledge behind them. She's been thinking a fair bit about this place, about the ways it's beginning to feel comfortable.

"I thought I was coming to the Inquisition, but I think this is better."

Or just easier to join and easier to leave. She'd heard about Skyhold, perched in the mountains. It was a long way from the sea. There was no reason to go all that way, not when it seemed Riftwatch was just as good. And the people—

"I didn't expect everyone to be this way. Welcoming."

Welcoming in an extremely dysfunctional way.

[sulahnan]

It's probably the dysfunctional family dynamic of Riftwatch that's kept Athessa from going elsewhere. No shortage of freelance work that pays well, but without the comfort of being surrounded by friends it hardly seems worth it. Working alone is lonely business.

"Yeah I think that's what makes Riftwatch better," she says, leaning on her hands and tipping her head thoughtfully. "A lot less stodgy than the Inquisition, more like a group of people trying to do good than a faceless, powerful symbol."

[tender]

"Trying being the key word, isn't it?" Derrica answers, part joke, part sincere question. She hasn't had much occasion to think about her effect on the world, but she's become keenly aware of how much has happened while she was trying so hard to hide.

"Do you think we're helping?"

There had probably been a whole discussion about this, Derrica realizes. She'd arrived after the split, and whatever the decision, it had already come to pass by the time she'd set foot in Kirkwall. The urge to do something in the face of all that was slowly going wrong hasn't left her. That emotion and the question of whether or not she's making good on her intentions is maybe a bit heavy for this venue, but it's too late for her to take the question back.

[sulahnan]

If there was a discussion about this during the split, Athessa wasn’t part of it, and it’s not something she’s spent much thought on. Perhaps she should think about it more, because the question seems to stump her for a moment, tugging her features into a frown—which elicits a wince because ow.

“Well...I dunno. We’re not helping Corypheus, and we’re not doing nothing, so helping is what’s left, right?”

[tender]

Derrica hums softly. It's nice to consider it that way. Athessa maps out some vast middle ground for their efforts to inhabit. Maybe Derrica can live with that.

"I think so," she says. "I hope so."

As she speaks, she links her arm through Athessa's.

"I came here because I wanted to...because I thought it was time I did something other than ignore what was happening. But sometimes it feels like this isn't enough."

[sulahnan]

"Hmm...yeah I know what you mean." Athessa hadn't felt too strongly about the war before joining up; when you're nobody, with no affiliations, the biggest problems tend to be where you're sleeping, what you're eating, where the next source of income is. But when the work starts to overlap with what the then-Inquisition was doing, it stops being something that can be ignored. And, when you work for the Inquisition, and then Riftwatch, you're forced to stare the war face-to-face and feel its horror.

And feel like you can do nothing.

"It doesn't feel like the war is gonna be over any time soon, like we need to do more." But what more can they do? She shifts her weight to lean lightly against Derrica's shoulder.

[tender]

Derrica sighs. It's not fair to burden Athessa with everything she hasn't done. She's been years in hiding, roving across the ocean instead of putting herself to good use. All that time can't be made up for in such a short span. It's only been a few months.

"I just wish we knew what more was supposed to be."

She laces their fingers together as she speaks, draws Athessa's hand into her lap. The urge to apologize for steering their conversation into such dour topics wins out before Athessa can respond, and she blurts, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

[sulahnan]

She chuckles, shaking her head. "Hey, I mean. It's looming over all of us, it's kind of hard to ignore. But that kind of also means that if there's more we can do, it's not likely to be an opportunity we can miss. We'll do more when we can do more."

Athessa turns her head to look at Derrica, rather than trying to see over the heads surrounding the next fight. Her eyes rest on that blossoming bruise on Derrica's jaw, and the corners of her mouth twist into a poorly contained grin.

"Actually, I see something I can do right now--" And she presses a gentle kiss to that bruise. "There. I feel more accomplished already."

[tender]

The brush of Athessa's mouth on her jaw sends a wave of warmth washing outward. Derrica's grip tightens slightly on Athessa's hand, thinking more, please in the same instant the roar of the crowd reminds her of exactly where they are and what they're doing.

"That was nice," Derrica tells her. "Let me have a turn."

Athessa's kiss didn't erase the bruise. Derrica knows this, and maybe she's showing off just a little, but she leans over to kiss Athessa's bare shoulder. There's a small glow, and a prickle of magic, lifting away the pain Athessa had been carrying there.

Usually she asks. But Derrica thinks in this instance, she's allowed.

[sulahnan]

"Well that's just an unfair advantage you've got right there," Athessa says, chagrined but loving it all the same. She slips her arm free of Derrica's, not to distance herself but to enable her to get closer by draping it across the other woman's shoulders. It's in itself an admission that Derrica's kiss worked, well enough to enable the action. Her fingers brush against Derrica's collarbone, idle mindless patterns.

"How am I supposed to compete with that?" But, perhaps answering her own question, she uses their new proximity to catch Derrica's mouth in a kiss this time. Careful of that bruise she can't actually kiss better, of course, but not too gentle, either.

[tender]

It's a good kiss. Derrica feels her priorities shift from gentle to intent, hand on Athessa's knee, balanced on the edge of the bar. There's some small ache from the bruises on her face, the ones she's carried out of the ring with her, but it's not a deterrent. If anything, it's an encouragement.

"Come on," she says, when they break away. She laces her fingers back through Athessa's. "Come with me."

There's a whole mess of things she finds herself wanting, and very few of them are compatible with perching on this bar with a brawl happening in the ring.

[sulahnan]

"Where to?" Athessa grins, perfectly happy to quit this place without seeing who comes out on top.

With some deft maneuvering, she slips off the bar while keeping hold of Derrica's hand, extending the other up to help Derrica down.

[tender]

"I have a room," Derrica says, before sliding off the bar. "And you have a room."

It's an easy proposition to make. Derrica wants. She laces their fingers together, rubs her thumb over Athessa's bruised knuckles.

"We can take our pick."

There's a little bit of a question in it, an offering of space for Athessa to withdraw and say no.

[sulahnan]

"Yours, definitely," she says. "My bunk is still in group quarters." She should take one of the empty rooms, but she doesn't see the point in having all that space when there's not enough stuff to fill it.

[tender]

"Agreed then."

The benefits of having an empty room with a closed door: privacy to hook up with your hot friend after fight club.