Snippet #2657328

Madison remained unruffled as Rasteva stared him down, doing little more than place a hand upon his face, the other moving to clasp his elbow lightly in an almost contemplative posture. He had to crane his neck a little in order to better meet the thing’s “gaze”, but he managed, and was just about to speak when Eze had chimed in before him. The vampire gave a short nod in the scaled gentleman’s direction at his words, before turning back and giving a roll of his shoulders.

“He’s right, although I have my own reasons for agreeing with him.” Idly, he gestured towards the various bags littered about the arena- either hanging off the shoulders of some, or abandoned on the floor. “From what I’ve seen, everyone has gotten one of these, and each one seems to have the basics of a survival kit. Food, water, medicine; things you wouldn’t really need if you were expecting everyone to start hacking away at each other all of a sudden. To my knowledge, gladiator battles weren’t made up of camping between fights; although feel free to correct me on that point.

“Plus,” without warning, Madison’s voice had took on a lighter tone, as if he was merely discussing a particularly good day. “I don’t really consider myself much of a fighter. Given the...well,” another gesture. “abilities of everyone else, it would be an extremely short battle, wouldn’t it?” A subtle caress of pride. Adding onto this, he added, “And, well, if we are here to fight, I suppose I’ll die, of course!”

This was said even more cheerfully, oddly enough.

To Kora, the vampire gave another slight frown, the jovialness of before having drifted. “I know you didn’t start it, Kora. The most you’ve been doing is calling the boy a terrorist- and I’m sure that there’s evidence of him being one in your world. I don’t blame you- but I do blame the ones who keep trying to stop violence with violence.”

At the sound of a newcomer’s voice, Madison bit back a sigh, and moved to capture this one in his sights, as well. Another youth, by the looks of it. Human. Madison didn’t show any sympathy for the young man being trapped there, however- instead, his features had been pulled into obvious sternness as he regarded the other, words more cold than before. “Mr. Kichiro, losing a child isn’t something to joke about. While I’m sure that you haven’t had to deal with anything like that before, that’s a very raw nerve to hit, no matter the circumstances.”

He had just begun to turn away once again when the fairy woman approached, dropped a bag at his feet, and revealed to him the contents of a container. Madison took a look inside- it appeared to be filled with some sort of...pills? capsules?- before raising his head and listening to the woman’s explanation of what, exactly, they were. As the explanation went on, the seriousness that had been abandoned shortly after looking from Kichiro returned. Carefully, he lowered himself to the ground, taking another glance into the bag before glancing back up at the woman.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said. Giving a polite nod of his head, he rose from his place on the floor, the new bag slung on his other shoulder. Despite the weight both must have had, Madison hardly seemed bothered, only nodding once more as he watched Ocean. “I’ll do my best to use these responsibly; thank you, again.” While some might have been more skeptical as to what the capsules could do, Madison had seen enough for today to have a healthy amount of openness in regards to what was possible. And if what the woman said was true, then...Well, he would do well to keep them to himself, especially given his company. As if to prove his point, Madison caught sight of one of the captives brutally mauling a shark from within the grate from the corner of his eye.

When the shield was cast over him, and the storm appeared shortly after, his belief of the capsules’ power only grew. Watching as the rain fell about him, with several of the offenders being blasted about, Madison clutched his sun hat tight and remained where he was. He watched as, almost as soon as it came, the storm passed, with its maker having disappeared completely from the arena.

That just about confirmed the capsules twice by this point, Madison thought brightly.