Cyanic

Cenet didn't like being 'killed' neither was he a fighter, that meant he had no reason to be here right now. He stood up and found a different room to retreat to. Leaning against the wall and waiting for the commotion to die down.

"Right, have a good night." Cenet addressed the man as he left. He made his way to a seat and looked around for more potential clients, sitting one leg crossed over the other.

Cenet chuckled at the sarcasm, "Indeed!" he said then caught the walking cane in his hand, "you may be able to glean this information from the leader of the Craftsmen, I believe he's the man over there?" He gestured to the man who'd arrived in armor with his cane. "Ahh, interesting," Cenet replied to the man's comment about his piece of machinery, "may I ask for your name? You're free to reserve that for yourself to trade, but I must warn you that that piece of information isn't very expensive," he chuckled again.

"All right," Cenet nodded his invisible head. "As this is a sample, I may tell you this without charge. Though I'd still like to know what that machine in your hand does, just for conversation's sake," he said with a polite chuckle, then metaphorically closed his eyes. Metaphorically. This was the first time he'd heard of Alleymatics, but the way this man said it seemed like it was a science or a thing of study, so he could likely just Highcall the truth. Interesting. This specific system of magic —and this was a system of magic— was actually a variable, its various properties, while not a dynamic truth, was not a static one either. Its fundamentals were established but its specifics and its effects were... malleable. What is most interesting is the variability of this 'Alleymatics.' Up until the moment the man asked Cenet, it hadn't existed in a long while. The city was destroyed by a nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons don't affect space/time/dimensional anomalies, yet the city was destroyed anyway, and even before that, there were a few residents that never encountered the city's interesting nature. Even though they've lived their lives in that city and have been scouring the alleys themselves. Cenet put an unseen hand on his unseen chin. This was more fruitful of a dip into knowledge than he'd expected. Though he was yet to answer the man's question: "You will need to find the architect of the AlleyCity itself, and study from them. The answer to this truth is a variable, but the likely variable is a being named Voidus who resides within the worldspike, the spike in the heart of the AlleyCity." While this was all interesting, he didn't inform the man of his additional findings. Cenet was here for business and the man only asked for a specific thing. No freebies, unfortunately. Cenet observed the mimes 'patch' an invisible 'hole.' The mimes themselves were variables which was interesting as this was the first truly variable 'verse he'd visited. While he hadn't visited them, this felt like the SCPverse, which was also built on variables, and even its non-variables had a sort of malleability to them. He'd visit that place someday. He did notice the tremor, but gravity was no object, so he remained standing, his cane on the ground. He was curious what was to happen soon though.

I don't think the Waystop's in a different time, and imo, there's not much going around there so it's probably fine, the GB ball on the other hand,

ahh, alright glad I could bring more questions in to give more depth and stuff!

These are good ideas, though who would play as the audience to vote on the polls? Also, don't forget it's not just the audience but also the medical staff and what they'd want to do, (unless they're medical constructs instead of the usual hired people, in that case they can be told to not save people and have no qualms against it)

Cenet's first stop in the Alleyverse was a ball. There was likely going to be intrigue and political maneuvering involved since the patrons of the ball were assassins, and he liked to see plans ruined, though it's likely that it wouldn't be him personally that ruined it. Most importantly of all, his appearance here would spread rumors and information about him, and rumors and information was free advertising. He walked up the steps and into the grand ballroom, his standard attire fit for a ball, at least by human standards. Eyes would be on him the moment he entered though thanks to the fact that aside from his suit, slacks, and hood over his head, nothing could be seen of him, but they were there. No head, no hands, no flesh, only transparence. His walking stick touched the floor as the large doors were opened by servants. He stepped inside, ready to do business. "Good evening," he greeted the first person he could see with a bow, a not-so-standard human greeting. A man tinkering with some machinery, @MetaTerminal "my name is Cenet," he introduced himself. "May I ask what that is?" he gestured to the machinery with his cane, "I can trade you for information, of course, and as a sample." "Ask me about anything regarding the world or regarding yourself, if I answer something that you already know, or something that I do not know or cannot answer, feel free to ask for another piece of information." He concluded his sentence with another bow.

Ah I see, I didn't think that you meant it as a consequence instead of a failsafe, misunderstood that That happens in some parts of the world, but I get what you mean, the Alleyverse also actually has a police force in the form of the Skybreakers, though they're not that active anymore in-RP since no one's RPing them, but they still exist, but that still makes for a good side plot that I'll keep in mind. (also by assassins, if you mean the GB's, I don't think they're as active as before anymore, but I guess they'd still exist if the Skybreakers do) (EDIT: not that inactive anymore with the presence of the ball) In my opinion the presence of these things in the world would make some people accept death and violence, sure, but it'd also make other people really adverse to it and try to find solace in things like entertainment. Imagine this: A guy who liked fighting but doesn't like death. He's stressed out by the implications of a military occupying the city and doesn't like that any number of people he meets (including himself) could be killed by an assassin if they stepped on the wrong toes. Today, he hears that the arena's having its grand re-opening with its first ever 2v2 fight. He found solace in the entertainment the arena provided those 16 years ago so he imagines it'll take his mind off the daily stress again. He watches, it's great, entertaining, exciting, and it makes him forget of his daily stresses. One of the fighters gets knocked out, sword through chest. That happened a lot, this is different since it's a 2v2, but he's sure the fighter will just be tended to any moment now. Probably pause the battle to drag the 'corpse' out of the arena and tend to the fighter, bringing them back to life and healing them. A few more moments pass and it's clear no one's tending to the fighter, he then yells out why no one's tending to him, in denial that his favorite means of entertainment could be marred by a death. Other people who think the same follow him in their yelling with a sort of mob mentality and some amount of chaos breaks loose in the arena, @Archer since this is your system, what do you think?

Makes sense, so that just leaves the medical staff if they're alright with leaving a dead person down there instead of lifting them out per 1v1 standards Sure, but think of this world's (I mean Earth's) views of death, death is also pretty accepted as a part of life here, though people would prefer for that to not happen. I think it's pretty comparable to Alleyverse standards on death actually, just that this world is much less powered than the Alleyverse. Focusing particularly in sports with fighting, there are a lot of measures that prevent someone from dying in the boxing ring or the octagon, and if someone did accidentally die, that'd be seen as tragedy in the sport. This has potential for good worldbuilding if that did happen in this particular duel, and the staff make it really sure that no one else suffers death in the arena There is a way for people to be neither morally dubious nor in uproar over a death in the arena, and that'd be by the participants having signed like a waiver for death, but still that'd at least illicit a quiet moment of shock and respect from the audience, but I'd imagine there would still be a few audience members shouting something like "why isn't he/she being airlifted?!" then it goes downhill from there because mob mentality and stuff This would also pretty much alleviate the audience's concerns like the airlifting part, but it also undermines Archer's whole system of making 2v2's more tense, since the whole point was them dying permanently, oof

Isn't this contradictory to lore with the morals of this particular society though? I mean they do their best to bring the 'dead' back to life in 1v1 battles, but in 2v2's they just leave one die if the battle doesn't end Makes sense mechanically, but in-universe that's iffy and even if the medics are just here to do their jobs, and don't care much about people dying, the audience watches these duels for entertainment, if this is an above-the-board legal duel (and since it's Arena of Valor it seems to be), then that means pretty much any civilian can enter the arena to watch the fight. That says a lot about the AlleyCity's morals if the average person likes to watch people die in a fight Even Alethi who like fighting don't usually end their duels in death Either way works for me, I can incorporate the dubious morality into some background stuff and maybe some sideplots c:

A new message appears:

After knocking the two guards unconscious and leaving them in the room, Araha addressed the rest of the people, "you don't have to come with us if you don't want to, it might get worse from here on out, but any help you can give is still appreciated." @Gancho Libre @Silva @Grey Knight With that, she left the room. @Sorana She stepped beside Damaya, she was slightly disappointed that Damaya didn't get to beat him by herself, but that was alright. Deras also walked up, Araha glanced at him, getting an idea. She looked toward the stairs. "We don't know what's actually down there, we've already seen some Chaos and they're probably connected to this place, so we need to be prepared," she said, turning to Deras, "let me see those advanced-reeds again." Deras nodded and handed them to her. It was unlikely the Skybreakers would do some things about this since it wasn't a kidnapping anymore, so she just kept that specific reed. Instead, she altered the contents of the other one, then sent it. That wasn't as likely to help as the other one, but she still had one last thing that she had, one very annoying distraction. She saved this for if they needed to leave. She kept the reeds. "Right, Deras, you want to lead?" Araha asked, "Good idea." He replied and stepped forward, taking the lead, then paused, taking off his helmet and using his mind scan. He determined that there were indeed some presences around, in the basement, but he couldn't distinguish between them. "Be warned: Presences around, unsure if Chaos or other," he said as he re-equipped the helmet.

@Gancho Libre

"I got this," Araha told Deras, "you make sure everyone's safe," she concluded and stepped into the hallway. Ran, who was scouting before saw this and went back to Araha, growing in size and enveloping Araha's form, giving her a misty, light green afterimage. She ran up to the other guard, he was using a spear and a shield. The spear was going to be easy to deal with, but less so the shield. The guard jabbed at her with the spear and she leaned to the side the spear missing, and she closed in. She ducked under the spear's range and gripped it tightly, suddenly kicker her knee up and pulling the shaft down, breaking the head of the spear. The guard tried to slam the shield onto her but she let it hit her in the shoulder, using her other arm to dampen the blow. The guard then reared back, intending to hit her with the edge of the shield. Too slow. She took that opportunity and made to hit the guard's mid-section. Ran went first, a green spectral fist dissipating as it 'hit' with only a small amount of force, but it still made him flinch, interrupting the shield's strike and letting Araha's own fist connect which made him stumble. She didn't give him a chance to recover as she stepped forward and kicked a leg out from under him, the weight of himself, the shield, and the bits of armor making him fall to the ground. He might not have been all there but he was still moving as proper for a guard, unfortunately for him, Araha didn't train for more than a decade for nothing. On the ground, Araha disarmed him then breathed in a bit of stormlight, just enough to use Adhesion to bind his arms and legs together, "Deras, bring this man to the room," Araha said. The man nodded and brought the guard who was only lightly struggling to the room in one arm, he was careful not to put too much pressure. Araha stood back up and looked to Damaya fighting the man she seemed to know, and she was winning. Araha wanted to let Damaya end the fight on her own, she had the advantage, but if the guard were to almost kill her friend, she'd be ready to step in. @Sorana

@Gancho Libre

@Sorana