The Tournament [Sign up only]

[Crescent ♪]

It would still be some time until the tournament started, but some of the warriors were arriving early regardless. The steps up to the shrine were littered with curious spectators trying to get a glimpse at the fighters before the main event started. Many of the fighters were from the Sanctuary which was encouraging participation in the tournament to let off a little steam and show off some skills to the people.

As the warriors arrived they would have to check in with the weapon sealing staff. There was time for the fighters to mingle before they had to battle as well, so some would most likely take the opportunity to scope out their competition. Whatever they decided to do, the warriors had a bit of time to wait before the real event started.

[Blank]

Blank wasn't exactly the type of man to get too excited over anything save a heist. It was even less often that he actually expressed that excitement in any way other than just saying "Yeah I guess I'm kind of excited". It was sort of hard not to get excited for the tournament though because it had been a while since Blank had really pushed himself in terms of fighting. The concept of getting to fight an array of people made Blank almost feel like he was back home.

Word was that Zidane had signed up as well, so that should be pretty exciting. If it came down to it and Zidane would be his foe at one point there was no way Blank could allow himself to lose. There were too many times he had bragged about being able to beat monkey tail and he wasn't going to let that fall to the wayside because they both died or whatever.

Blank noticed he was the first fighter around as he signed his name on the check-in sheet. That was what was so weird about everything to him. He was actually early. Pretty unlike him, Blanke thought as he stepped over to the next check-in counter. The woman there, a mage they called her, asked politely for Blank's weapon. "What the hell you need that for?" Blank asked as he pulled it off of his shoulder, somewhat suspiciously.

Rules, Blank rolled his eyes. The redhead watched the woman pull the sword from it's sheath, sing a song, then put it away and handed it back. Apparently it was some kind of sealing to prevent serious injury considering the light-hearted nature of this tournament. Yeah, made the whole event sound real fun. Blank shrugged, threw back on his sword, and decided to go sit on the steps of the shrine until some other fighters showed up.

[Marcus]

The day of the tournament had finally come and Marcus couldn't help but feel a little happy for it. Fighting was a way of life back on Gaia so the chance to just seriously spar with someone for a while sounded almost too good to be true. Since he had arrived he hadn't even been able to fight any monsters, which would have been the next best thing at this point.

By the time that Marcus made it to site that they were going to be holding the fights, he couldn't help but wonder why it was there and not actually at the Sanctuary. The arena back at school would have been a more logical place to hold a tournament, but he guessed there was some weird shit with tradition or whatever that made everyone think fighting in front of a shrine was a good idea.

Seemed like to Marcus if a bunch of idiots were fighting on a shrine dedicated to him he might be a little miffed. Especially in the after... life? Well it was different for people in the world. They died and then stayed dead. As far as Marcus knew. The man didn't have a lot of know-how about this world yet. He grunted his thoughts away and made his way over to the sign up area.

It was still early, Marcus noted as he looked over the sign-up sheet. The only guy who checked in so far was Blank, which was weird considering it was sort of un-Tantalus to be too early. But if his Bro was there then Marcus might end up fighting him. He wondered how that would go if it happened. "Weapon please," The woman at the desk asked softly.

"Oh right," Marcus said gruffly, pulling his sword from it's sheath at his side. He watched the woman work with the blade shortly before taking it back. For a moment he thought it might be good to say thanks or something, but it just didn't feel right to him so he just jotted down his name on the sign in list and walked off.

Blank was sitting on the stairs heading up to the shrine looking pretty bored by the time that Marcus got there. Hopefully they wouldn't have to fight until the end at least, Marcus thought with a characteristic frown. The man would hate to end up bumping Blank out of the competition if it did come down to that. "Hey Bro. You're early."

[Blank]

The only thing that was running through Blank's mind as he waited for the tournament to start was wondering who he'd end up facing. Having his weapon spelled, or 'sheathed' as the woman described it, was a bit concerning as well though. From a young age he was taught not to trust everyone and the fact that some witch just messed around with his weapon was eating at him, but mainly because he couldn't trust he wouldn't need the full extent of his abilities and weapon on his foe.

'A real Tantalus member would fight as if everyone was as seedy as they were. Can't trust anyone to play by the rules even if it's a tournament for fun

[/i].' The red-head ran his hands over the sheath of his sword as he thought. It didn't take long for someone else to waltz up to the young man, but who it was did come as a slight surprise. Just hearing Bro was enough to give it away though.

Pushing his sword to the side, Blank looked up and replied, "Yeah well you're not exactly late yourself are you?" Somewhat blunt comments aside, Blank could hardly contain the smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. It was nice having Marcus around even if the man was a complete pain in the ass. "You wouldn't come here if you were just gonna watch and gawk so I guess that means we're gonna end up in a fight yeah?"

"Just makes it more interesting. I'd hate to have only a bunch of weaklings to fight so you better do your best to entertain me alright? That may be a bit to ask of you though, I mean you must be out of practice." The way that Blank teased Marcus hadn't changed in all of the time that they'd known each other and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to change it now.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

[Marcus]

Marcus grinned readily at Blank, happy that his friend was gonna be as cool about them possibly fighting as he could be. It wasn't really like Blank to stress when he didn't need to though and that was an aspect of his friend he appreciated more than he'd ever vocalize. "Alright so I'm early, big deal. Guess we're both a little bored out of our minds in a place like this." The man shrugged slightly and glanced back towards the check-in area.

No one else had signed in yet and it didn't look like they were going to any time soon, so it seemed he would have a bit to talk with Blank. "You're right though, I'm not here to gawk at all." The man gestured to his sword with a slight grunt and shrug. Marcus was about to ask if Blank had to pass over his weapon too, but he would have to address something else first.

"You know I can whip your ass any day man. Can't say all these other fights are gonna be too much trouble but you sure as hell know I am not going down easily. The Tantalus way," Marcus gave a nod of his head before continuing, "Can't imagine Zidane would miss out on this so maybe he'll be in it too. Then it just depends on who gets matched up with who, but I want to fight you both."

After a few moments Marcus looked down to the weapon in his hand and he remembered what he wanted to ask. "But anyway, all that aside. Did that woman mess with your weapon too? I'm not sure how I feel about it. Like does it really make the thing all blunt and shit?" As he asked he pulled it out and ran his fingers over the blade. It didn't feel any different really, but when he tried to cut with it nothing really happened.

"Guess this is their alternative to making everyone wear armor..."

[Blank]

After thinking about it for more than a moment, Blank realized Marcus was probably right about Zidane. He wasn't sure that the guy would be able to resist a tournament, as most members of Tantalus probably wouldn't be able to. One guy they certainly wouldn't see competing though was Cinna. Fighting never was that guy's cup of coffee and he sure as hell wasn't shy about it.

"Yeah I don't think Zidane will miss it, so I guess that means one of us has to get to fight him," Blank started. "I'm not going to let myself get bested before I can get to him or you, so you better not get your ass handed to you by some other-world punks either. Really it would just be embarrassing to watch more than anything else."

He thought maybe he'd also mutter that it would be embarrassing to consider him a member of Tantalus if he got beat around, but it didn't come out. Marcus had already changed subjects anyway and that was just fine with Blank. The red-head watched silently for a moment while Marcus fiddled with his blade, sort of wondering how the magic worked in the first place.

"Looks pretty effective though. I mean you can't seem to cut yourself on the blade at all," Blank muttered, freeing his own sword as well. Nothing looked any different or off, but just as Marcus' couldn't cut his hand Blank's felt awkwardly dull. "The effects shouldn't be permanent since it doesn't even look like the blade was altered, but it's still so..." The man trailed off thoughtfully.

After a shrug, Blank looked away. "Ah whatever. I don't really feel like trying to understand everything about magic from this place. I just want this thing to get started already so that we can fight. Some other competitors better show up soon or I'll have to just take you on to warm up."