Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » ~Gods of the Arena & the Arena of the Gods (Open)~

Flavius took a small pouch of gold extending it over to the thief to settle the matter by means of quiet bribery "Take it , with our apologies, and not a word about this ... incident" muttered Flavius leaning close to his ear before standing back upright talking louder again

"Sir, I apologize for any offensive wording or perceived accusations... accept our apologies as means of amends" muttered Flavius parting ways with some of their gold.

Cassius looked at the strange dagger "Well it certainly does not belong to neither of us" assured Cassius "We have been hasty in chasing you down before returning to active duty but we certainly are no thieves" shrugged Cassius quite liking the look of the lavish blade but too honourable to dare lay claim upon something not intrinsically his.

Flavius turned to Restia and smiled warmly at the woman. "I thank you for your offer but... Romans do not lie, cheat, steal, surrender nor beg, we shall take our reprimand according to our laws, rules and code of conduct" explained calmly.

"Madamme, is this blade yours by any chance?" asked Flavius happy to help find the rightful owner of such item.

Cassius' eyes briefly set on the four red glowing eyes behind Flavius as he spoke, the man taking out a dagger threateningly unsure if the creature he had seen was for real or merely an illusion or a real beast but ready to attack it.

"By the gods... not that they could care less about us if they did exist... but... are you trying to have us arrested with such threatening behaviour right in the busy via Apia? Any legionaire could have you arrested for public disorder and threatening the citizens" hissed Flavius hissing at the sudden aggression, he himself not having seen a thing

"Oh what?! But... but... there were eyes..." tried to protest Cassius cringing irritated but sheathing the blade again as per given orders from his superior Flavius

"Why of course there are eyes... this is one of the busiest streets in Rome! You should know that by now there will be many eyes here and you don't want the wrong ones from the wrong authorities setting on you and your behaviour" scolded Flavius further shaking his head disgusted.

Cassius leaned a little closer to the woman.

"Did you see those red eyes?" asked in a lower voice wondering if the apparition had been seen by the woman too

Quicker then the eye could follow, the beast entered the idol of Persephone. It caused the idols eyes to open, and used them to watch the others. She listened to them, thinking of ways to prove the gods were indeed real.

---

Meanwhile, Cynder stood a little ways off from the other gods, her eyes closed. She was watching the two mortals through Cyn's eyes. She couldn't help but grin slightly as one was started by the sight of Cyn's eyes.

Carmello took the gold without a second thought "of course it doesn't belong to you" he laughed putting it back "but Romans are all the same. Stealing in the name of the is not stealing after all" sarcasm in his voice, he knealt down to Roman "put this away" he said handing his companion the bag of gold. Roman clucked as he stowed away the money.

"The people you protect are foolish to believe in non-existant things such as gods. If they existed then where were they when you Romans burnt down my villiage, enslaved my people and stole our land?" he was obviously very bitter about what he spoke of.

She nodded at his reply. She gently took the dagger and examined it for quite some time. "It is not mine nor do I know the owner of it" she replied with a smile. She went quiet again and took a glance at the monster's direction. Her smile came back when she saw. When the man asked her about the monster, she replied quietly, "Your eyes did not fool you."This will be interesting. I wonder...

When Carmello spoke about his village being burned down, his people enslaved, and the land which they lived on stolen, she couldn't help herself but smirked at the statement.

"Gods? Why on earth would we need those? We have the force of arms and the discipline of martial law... The gods are just stories from druids and scholars who have nothing else better to do to keep people subdued and fearful" shrugged Flavius talking matter of fact

"All Roman soldiers worship them because we are trained to follow orders, what Caesar wants, Caesar gets, nothing more to it. If he claims his horse to be a god, then his horse is a god but don't expect any help or conversation from such a beast" muttered Flavius still sore at that fact that Caesar had indeed named his horse a god.

Cassius turned his attention to Carmello shuddering a little at the statue that clearly had eyes and kept staring at him with an evil smirk, making him all the more uneasy so focusing on talking to shake the idea off his mind

"So tell me, good citizens, what are your names and where exactly do you fare from?" asked Cassius, from time to time watching the evil looking statue, keeping a distance from it

"Do you actually live at the city or are you just visiting?" quizzed Cassius making conversation with Restia

"You.. I know you are a regular thief I've seen you and your chicken act stealing enough times already..." noted Cassius finger pointing at Carmello yet again

"Cassius! Hush!" hissed Flavius swatting Cassius accusing his hand away

"You keep like this and with your accusations you'll let a thief fleece all our gold because of your tongue and impatience" hissed Flavius tossing another pouch of gold to bribe Carmello into further silence.

"and you still have not been able to stop this chicken act?" Carmello asked sarcastically, catching the gold he was thrown "must be an artful thief then!" he chuckled.

"For 2 stinking Roman legionaries you two are quite amusing" he flicked a golden coin at Cassius "I'm not all bad" he smirked.

Carmello placed the gold in Roman's care picking up the statue if Persephone not knowing it's inhabitant. It felt slightly heavier than before and... Is it smiling now?
He quickly excused the idea and continued "Where else have you seen such an intricate beauty such as this? "

"For a thief you are quite amusing and cheery. And a traumatic background, you sure you never question yourself that perhaps gods exist and that they enjoy watching you in pain. And helpless?" she said with a smile. She doesn't like one hogging the teasing or the unpleasantness.

Can would assume a feminine voice, and cause the statue to speak.
"You are fool to believe that such powerful beings do not exist. Who knows what will become of you now. Perhaps death, or maybe the gods will reward your bravery in defying them. Or maybe they will cause you to live in misery for the rest of your puny lives."
She said in a voice like acid. It was clear she held distaste for all mortals, though she couldn't do a thing about it while under Cynder's control.

"Thief ... if you think you'll frighten me with a statue act besides your chicken act, you have another thing coming. Cut it out!. Creepy as it is, it is equally absurd" scoffed Cassius frowning and poking at the statue holding Carmello responsible for the trickery too. "Using sorcery is never a good thing anyways" muttered Cassius disgusted.

"Captives that fall under Rome's might and power, get shackled and plucked out of their torn villages and ravaged cities and brought to Rome as slaves, to slaver away in many chores. Sometimes... some scallywags do escape their rightful masters and lower themselves to foul deeds like deceiving and thieving... you know.... So... what became of your master?" demanded Flavius

".. you just wait until I get back on duty. I will return with sword and chains at hand and within the hour you will neither have chicken nor statue" spat Cassius in a threatening matter of fact tone.

Carmello practically jumped out of skin at the talking idol. He dropped it and started to wipe his arms on his clothes as if be would catch something from it. Roman jumped and Bcawked out loud before running around Restia to hide.

"That is not of my doing. I do not posses that kind of evil power" he looked at it in disgust now standing besides Cassius and Flavius "how do i know this is not your doing?" he squinted at Cassius and Flavius accusingly, the blade he showed earlier appearing in his hand.

"The cheek of it! All foreign sorcerers bringing in all them curses against Rome say the same!" gasped Flavius exasperated

"You've been holding the statue the entire evening! and... you are the deceiving thief! How dare you accuse two honest soldiers of the imperial army of resorting to magical trickery and sorcery?" gasped Flavius in dismay

"To pound the likes of you, all I need it a good fist" scoffed Cassius highly offended, swinging at Carmello a very hard punch with every intention to knock him to the ground for the offensive accusations, if he managed to hit the thief

Flavius cringed at the gesture, blocking the move altogether, far more focused on the surroundings sure they'd get done for public disturbance on account of the assault. He looked at Carmello to see the outcome of short tempered Cassius deeds

"no harm done, no harm done, he was just... swatting flies... in the heat, this time a year... too many about" excused Flavius

(I guess continue).

Prodius smirked widely to see Cassius doing the unthinkable of beating up a common citizen out in the open. He came over with the legionnaires to question the altercation and seize Flavius and Cassius

"Tell me madamme... what can you tell of the events?" asked Prodius not interested in helping Cassius or Flavius in any way and far more keen to have them harmed than helped.

At this point, he knew Carmello to be quite the scallywag but would treat the man as if he were the utmost honorable citizen who had been assaulted openly, or attempted to in fact, in order to bring Flavius and Cassius downfall

"Oh my? I respect your decision to listen out on me" Restia said with a smile, "These two guards are such a gentlemen. They have been escorting me to the city from the road I was traveling on, as I was going to the wrong direction. The arrival to this beautiful city was pleasant, until this thief came along and took my money. And here we are at our current situation~. I do wish to whack this thief with my book but that would not be lady-like of me." For some odd reason she didn't have any accent when speaking of the language, but definitely a foreigner. If any, a European.

Prodius somewhat disappointed that the woman would back the two Roman soldiers that he was so keen to be rid of, using her words against the pair, though addressed her courteously.



"Madamme, these two citizens should not be presenting themselves as Roman soldiers or acting as such without their uniforms. It is a crime to impersonate authority figures, and to think they dared attack this Roman citizen in via Apia and damage this man's goods... That is a charge of public disorder and an additional charge of theft and vandalism" tut tutted Prodius disgusted glancing down at the broken statue

"I shall have these two culprits taken away at once... guards... arrest these two culprits" insisted Prodius, watching the legionnaires quickly come to surround and seize Flavius and Cassius.

"If they were in active duty by any circumstance, the charge of impersonation would be dropped and a graver charge placed for daring to fail to wear their imperial armour whilst on duty as all active soldiers are expected to. Such disrespect to the military ranks shall be punished most severely" frowned Prodius watching Cassius jaw dropped

"Oi.. it is not our fault we were robbed in the night?!" protested Cassius getting jabbed by Flavius

"Shut up!" hissed Flavius wincing at the confession that they had failed to watch over the armour, got robbed during the night instead of taking turns watching as Romans were supposed to and a longer trail of failings and charges flowing from that

Prodius smirked with a horrid smile "Seems the Fates have spoken against you then... the armour must be found else it will be considered theft against the emperor and a charge of endangering his safety. Any thug could be misusing the armour to infiltrate the army after all." cautioned and warned Prodius in a deeper frown

"What?! What does an old hag, a childish girl and a spiteful woman spinning yarn all day and bickering among themselves have anything to do with the thieves?!" complained Cassius taking a jibe at the fates as a by the by causing Flavius to cringe further

"Cassius, shut up! That's an order!" barked Flavius loosing his temper knowing very well how devoted to the gods Prodius was and how awfully wrong he would take such dismissive commentry.



"Sorry... sorry..." mumbled Cassius pursing his lips, letting the roman soldiers chain them up and drag them away to Caesar's presence, seems things could most definitely turn out worse and ugly than they had so far, how much worse, that remained to be seen.

Prodius turned to Restia and Carmello

"You two are witnesses of the crimes, you are encouraged and welcomed to join us as we deliver these two at Caesar's presence" invited Prodius "I have no doubt these two warriors think themselves the gods of the arena... and we shall take them to their realm of deadly sand, to stand judgement, right away" assured Prodius waving the hand for the battalion to march forth

"Ah~ Well this is an unexpected turn of events" she said as she continued it to a thought. What to do~. After all this is going to Caesar's presence. Let's see where this goes. "Then if you do not mind, I wish to go." And wonder what kind of troubles will I get myself into~. "After all, this is Caesar we are talking about."

Can would grin to herself as she watched the following events. The darker, more evil half of Cynder was glad to see this, and the situation offered many ways to achieve her goal. She left the statue as a shadow upon the ground, and attached herself to the shadow of the more talkative of the two nonbelievers.