"But he knows us," Gill protested. "Why's he being paranoid about letting us help? We hang out with Axel on more than one occasion and we literally just passed through-"
Maya shook her head. "No, I can... I can see why he's being paranoid."
"Oh? Well, please, enlighten us," Hadrian snapped.
His voice dripped with sarcasm, but Maya ignored it in favor of her explanation. "Okay. So... I'm not wrong in thinking we all aren't exactly the best of the best with magic. I've got more of an affinity than this bastard here-"
Gill kicked her.
She, in return, elbowed him in the ribs so hard he fell over while squeaking swears under his breath and turned back to the conversation.
"- but none of us can really handle huge quantities, or use a large amount. Not without draining ourselves pretty bad."
Hadrian grunted. His temper spike had lowered into his usual grouchy self. "That's true... I'm only proficient in transport magic," he muttered after a moment.
Mevia nodded, crossing her arms. "Alright... you think that's something to do with it?"
"If we can't handle a fight against him- where he combines magic, explosives, and natural agility- he's probably wondering what the hell we're going to do against negative energy," Maya mumbled thoughtfully.
Gill got up from the floor, wincing and rubbing his ribs. "We can't just all go up against him simultaneously?" he suggested.
He paused.
"Minus Jesse, of course."
Jesse might've joked that they felt excluded, if they were more of an extrovert and weren't afraid of their words backlashing them.
As it was, they just shuffled a bit and tried not to look too hurt.
They were a liability, after all.
"We can try... but it does take a good amount of magic to purify negative energy-"
"Oh. Why don't we have the slugger go, then?"
Mevia stopped mid-sentence at the interruption and turned a gaze full of lava and brimstone onto Hadrian, who remained unperturbed. "Are you fucking kidding?" she hissed, still looking like she'd rain the fiery depths of hell onto him. "You'd have-"
"They purified Ellegaard in Redstonia, which was where we were until one of you called us here," Hadrian interrupted again, cutting her off. "Yes, they did pass out a bit after-"
"They what-"
"But they did what very few demons or half-demons have been able to do- that is to say, purify someone who was nearly completely taken over in a single try," Hadrian cut her off a third time. "Even Ivor has difficulty with some amounts of negative energy, and Jesse did it in a single go."
Maya and Gill exchanged looks at that.
Mevia's brow creased. "Have they fully recovered?"
"No, which is why I think after the Death Bowl, which shouldn't be nearly as strenuous on them as it is to purify negative energy, they should take at least a day's rest before attempting to purify whatever the hell's been infected," Hadrian replied, in the tone of voice that implied he was talking to an idiot.
Mevia closed her eyes. Jesse got the overwhelming feeling that she was barely holding back from turning Hadrian into a smear on the floor.
There was a whole minute's pause before she abruptly spoke again. "Okay. Okay. Fine."
She opened her eyes and leveled a steely, forcibly even gaze at Hadrian. "And what do you suggest we do to keep them from dying before that?"
"The agility test?"
Both of them glanced at Maya, frowning. "The Death Bowl's a tournament, right? You pick someone to go through it, go through a bunch of challenges and then face up against Magnus at the very end. But every 'game' is timed; Jesse would just have to avoid being hit- not necessarily winning against it."
"Well, this is an extremely large gamble we'd be taking, regardless," Mevia replied, glancing at Jesse, who was curled up in their blanket, "they're still mildly ill. And tired, besides."
"I can do it..." Jesse offered meekly. In fact, they offered so meekly that nobody heard them.
"If I can," Radar spoke up, making everyone jump and turn to look at him; they'd forgotten he was even there- "I'd like to make a suggestion- a lot of the games in the Death Bowl tend towards agility. But there's also a lot of stuff like stealth, or common sense, that can be used in challenges that aren't necessarily focused towards those. So if Jesse's any good at that sort of stuff, they could still end up getting where they need to go."
Maya pursed her lips. "... you mean cheat the system as much as they can," she elaborated, after a moment of consideration.
Radar gave a bit of a shrug. "Basically."
Hadrian glanced at Mevia and shrugged. "You wanted help. It's up to you to decide if you go with this plan."
She scowled. "Since when did anyone else agree about this?"
Maya and Gill winced simultaneously.
She stared at them, then groaned and let her head drop. There was a high chance that she was debating that she was going to kill them right then and there on the spot. "Fine. Fucking fine. Think it's a terrible idea, but whatever. Let's do this, I guess," she snapped briskly.
"I bet Magnus is just going to facepalm and think it's a joke," Maya deadpanned.
"Hell nah, he knows not to underestimate people. Bet you four gold he won't do that," Gill said, nudging her in the ribs a bit too sharply to be friendly.
She pursed her lips and punched him in the shoulder hard. "Fine. Deal's on."
Magnus slowly, slowly blinked at Jesse as he slowed to a stop in front of them.
Then pressed his hand to his face. Jesse had the feeling he might've bashed his brains out had he done it with any actual force.
Jesse was currently standing in the not-particularly-large lineup for the Death Bowl, Reuben's thin squeals barely audible over the excited din of the crowd from where Gill was holding him on the side of the crowd.
Most of the five other participants were decked out in masks, gear, stuff that could hold potential weapons and that made them look much more intimidating. Meanwhile, Jesse...
Well, they'd set the blankets aside, at least.
"Tiny, is this a joke? Tell me this is a practical joke, right?" he mumbled, too low to be heard over the cheers and shouts of the crowd and barely loud enough to be heard at all.
"No..."
"Thought not. Alright." Magnus sighed and turned to the rumbling crowd without further bothering them. "Welcome to the Death Bowl. Yada yada lot of boring shit, you can read it on your own damn time, now let's get to the important stuff."
There was a roar of assent from the crowd.
Jesse mentally made note to tell Maya that she'd won the bet.
a/n: 3 chapters until 70 guys!
I'm writing an MCSM fanbook for the heck of it. Probably won't be done in the foreseeable future, but basically imagine if Lukas had a journal post Season 1 which he wrote in using friends as characters to practice his writing, and everyone kept 'borrowing' it to add their own contributions.
to clarify- if i answer reviews now, i'm answering questions.
Responses to reviews!
TheAmberShadow: That rule is just stuffing... but it's fluff that I enjoy, so yes.
Northern Goshawk: Yep.
Happygoluckymegami: Why would anyone go after Jesse? You really have to look to see that they're a human, after all... what if they're after something else?
That's all for now. See ya, so long, and enjoy!
x.X. A.L. X.x
