The walls were caked with mud, mixed in with a bit of blood here and there. The cracks between the stones that created this long, dark corridor were filled in with the blood-and-mud mixture. It caused a stink to rise into the warden's nose as he walked along, his coat tail flying up into the air behind him as he moved through the dankness.
He cringed, but not for long. The evil smell had had been here for years and so had he. He thought of his past as his heavy, metal boots took turns to step on the mud crusted floor, dark streaks of blood tainting the brown of the mud exactly like on the walls.
He had been a marine captain, leader of a much feared crew, yet he gave up promotion when he was offered a new job.
Warden of The Arena. He at first had no intention of being a warden as the idea of looking after pirates instead of killing them did not appeal to him, but this was no baby-sitting service. He liked the idea that they had a shown him, an idea to spark interest in the public. A new form of entertainment if you will.
The idea of pairing off pirates to fight each other for the Grand Prize of freedom from Impel Down even now caused the warden to shiver with excitement. After releasing the news to the public that this tournament would take place for the innocent civilians of the seas to watch, it was applauded. This new innovative idea even had pirates letting themselves be taken prisoner just so that they could match their strength to other amazing fighters.
He started nearing the light that flooded into the dark corridor through an archway in front of him. The walls were close, not to the point of claustrophobic but you couldn't lift your arms very high before they hit the wall on either side. This did not deter the ex-marine though, he had become used to it.
He remembered the day he was told that the people were starting to lose interest in the fixed fights. Every time, the entrants entered the same arena and did the same thing. As an added extra, the only people that were allowed to go free were prisoners that were too strong to release and so the incentive of freedom was taken away to be replaced by a life time's worth of soap. Slowly the competitors stopped competing, leaving only the worthless idiots who actually wanted the soap to fight on. The World Government decided it was best to stop this whole operation as they had made the revenue they wanted and had gained popularity in everyone's eyes(Except the SPCA who said that pairing off animals to fight each other was wrong. They didn't realise that pirates are human).
After that, the Warden left the marines with an official resignation sitting on the Admiral's desk. He claimed that he had been struck by scurvy and his body couldn't handle the strain of marine life.
He walked through the archway onto a sandy surface, light passed over him like a blanket and he blinked a few times to regain focus. He smiled. He loved the sight of a bustling crowd in the large stands that surrounded the circular arena below. The same arena in which he stood at this moment. Smiling, the warden walked off into the middle of the sand-floored ring. The crowds picked up their cheering. Flags of different crews waved high in the hands of spectators. Others had foam fingers and various other merchandise that showed who they supported.
He knew why he had quit. He was not meant for the marines. He was more corrupt than many of his fellows and he loved to be the center of attention. The Arena had given him all this and more, but when he was told that the World Government were closing the operation, he knew what he had to do. He and his previous first mate, a young man known as J'ed Eye, "requisitioned" The Arena at the point of a sword. They used the money they had earned together during the original Arena to set up contracts with various people who could change the sandy ring of The Arena into different and more vibrant landscapes for each battle as tedium was one of the main things that caused the spectators to leave.
He boomed his voice, but his voice needed not to be made any louder than normal as The Arena was an amphitheater. The extremely large,walled ring expanded his voice and pushed it up to the first row of seats just above the high wall and up into even the far stands at the top of the amphitheater without the listeners straining their ears.
"Welcome all! Thank you for coming to the first of hopefully many arena tournaments!"
His voice was responded by a cheer. From the young boy and his family to the burly pirate holding a foam finger, they all cheered.
He had changed the rules of The Arena. Lots of things had changed. Certain Devil Fruit were allowed now. Pirates and criminals as a whole were allowed to attend as well. Many minor changes were inducted before the new Arena came into being. One of those changes being that the competitors came of their own free will to receive a prize befitting of one that wins a tournament of this magnitude.
A lottery ticket with Gol D. Roger's signature and a map to find the ancient cup that Roger himself was said to have drunken from shortly before his death(the cup grants everlasting fame to the drinker).
"And with out further ado, ladies and gentlemen, sit back and relax! You will be well entertained here at the Arena of Death!"
He lifted his hands to the crowd and smiled as they cheered and shouted in a mad frenzy. They wanted some action and he had the action.
He sighed happily as he walked back, over the sand to the same dark corridor, his boots kicking sand into the bottom of his flowing white cape.
Rules for the Arena of Death:
Part 1: The Fellowship of the RingOk, so to join this it's not that hard. All you do is post your char in this thread using this quick template:
Char. Name: (a link to your character goes here)
Wow, wasn't that easy? Then you will have to check back here and see if you were approved. I am only looking for 8 or so people(I probably won't even get 3) so if you can see there are a heckload of people I may be able to make a plan but I may not. I have to do four battles at a time(if I get 8 people) so you can imagine that we cant have 325million people or it may start going slowly(Again, I won't get more than three). Also, if you know you are going to be inactive please hold yourself back, we need this to run fast and smoothly if its going to work. I know I'm coming across as a mean ol' prick but you must understand that people don't exactly like waiting for days just to know that their sparring partner is inactive or dead or King of the Underworld. Please also be serious when you join this. If you are just joining this for a quick post and then you are never going to fight anyone you team up with, then please don't join or you will just embarrass yourself(actually you won't embarrass yourself, you'll embarrass me who will go to your house and murder you while you sleep, so please be in to this all the way or as the Russians always say:убирайся!)
Please Note: Character screenings will be done by me and I'll probably let everyone through but if you are a bit too OP be sure that you will be fighting someone just as ridiculously fast-fisted as you.
Part 2: How to fightSo now that you are (hopefully) accepted, you will be placed on a table alongside your other competitors. You will be placed in a way that you can see who you will be fighting and as each match finishes, the winner will move up the ladder. Now a lot of you are thinking:"Mwahaha! I will just cheat and do bad stuff so that I can win because I am a weak little turd! *taps fingers together with evil grin*"
Well you can't.
In the first round of this ladder tournament, you will be placed in a match with someone who I think will be on par with you. From then on you need to use your skill to win and brains, not only your brawn as you will have a vibrant and constantly changing environment around you(I of course will be posting in your match to say when certain things happen in the environment and crowd)
So please refrain from saying things like "and suddenly the whole arena shook as the plantation they stood on tried to swallow them up!"
I'll be the one saying lame things like that. I will also be refereeing each match in the character of J'ed Eye, the Arena of Death's young referee who will warn you in this thread and by pm if you are doing something against the rules or impossible(by your character's standards anyway). You will gain one penalty. If you get penalties over the course of the tournament, you are out and your next opponent goes through to the next round without a fight.
The match will end when either there is a winner or the judge(me again) decides who has been hit the most over the course of the twenty-five posts. I will be fair and lenient but if I see one bit of Godmodding you will either be warned or immediately thrown out of the tournament depending on how severe it was. I feel godmodding should not be allowed into this. This is just a fun GOFF tournament for those who want to want so if you are a godmodder, steer clear of here or J'ed Eye will literally kick your ass in The Arena.
Part 3: The Alpha and The Omega Well, I just needed to write this part to tell you how vain the title sounds.
Oh, and I needed to tell you that I will be the one creating the thread for each of the battles in The Arena and I will close each after the battle. J'ed will announce the winner in the thread as the last post and I will announce the winner here. A link to each thread will be found in this thread and titled:
Mr.Something vs Mr.Something2
Then you will just need to click the link and hey presto!
Part 4: We are the champions!The winner of the tournament will be announced here but his banner will be pmed to him in code so that all he/she has to do is pop it into their signature and hey presto!
Yes, this was very long and hard to type so any questions, comments, character applications, candy, afros, guns, knives, drugs, dogs, or even a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle can be posted here.
All updates will be posted here as well. I will post the starting date a little later.
Thanks for reading!
Note: This does not count towards a character's history (if the owner doesn't want it to) and any characters in threads may participate without causing confusion as this is just a G.O.F.F tournament and not an official Role Play thread.
The Leaderboard so far:
Winner's banner:
Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:56 am
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