Tru Grit’s Fight Pits (Pt. 4): Wrapping Up The Show

--- Joshua ---

“You’re serious?” Puck watched him for another moment before letting out something halfway between a laugh and a sigh. “Well, that’s anti-climactic.”

“Yeah… wasn’t really keeping track of the tank.” He admitted, though largely he felt he’d just gotten a little overzealous with his newest power. (Not that it won me the fight in the end.)

The Card Caster shook his head as he tucked his deck away and made his way over. “Lot’s of newcomers make that mistake early on. If there was ever a sign you’re not a Mask it’s probably that.”

“Ouch.” He grimaced a hand to his chest. (Harsh.)

(But fair.) He reminded himself. (Last thing we want is to run out of ink while in the middle of heist. Going to need to figure out a workaround for that one.)

(I’ve got time to sort that out.)

“Still, even if I was holdin’ back ya did better than I was expectin’ I suppose.” Puck told him, offering him a hand.

Though something told Joshua it was more the hero was just being a good sport in front of the cameras than an honest report. If only because of how much of a troll he was to the older man.

“Thanks.” He smiled, taking the man’s hand as he decided it best if he was just as good of a sport for now. (After all, there’s a time and a place for being the bad guy, but now’s the time to play PR for the fans.)

A quick glance around showed that while the crowd wasn’t what he’d call big, it was still probably the majority of the people in the building. All likely drawn by the idea of a newcomer getting his ass handed by the regular hero. (Well, hope I didn’t disappoint them too badly.)

“Ya know… Ya put up a good enough fight, that I’ve got to ask if you ever considered joining the Hero’s Guild?” Puck asked him, with a tilt of his head.

“I’ve considered it.” (When I was like five and an idiot.) “But I don’t think it’s for me.”

“Ya, sure? Chance to meet plenty of, heh, dangerous women in this line of work.” The hero pointed out with a smirk.

“Don’t think that’s the point of your job.” He reminded the ‘hero’ through grit teeth.

(Careful, you don’t want to get too tense after being so playful.)

“Didn’t stop my wife from seducing me to the light side.” Puck shrugged, before glancing over Joshua’s shoulder. “Speaking of, I think your dangerous woman is waiting on ya kid, so I’m going to go ahead and talk to an Inferni about something.”

With that Puck patted his shoulder before disappearing in a burst of light as the hero teleported away.

He blinked before turning around to find Cameron waiting for him near the pit entrance. (Oh, right…)

“So… how do you think I did?” He asked once he was a bit closer, figuring that with her apparent joy of fighting she might be able to give him an honest review. (Then again my ego is fragile, so hopefully she won’t be too honest.)

(Dangerous women tend to be sadists.) His better sense warned him.

“Well, you were doing better than I was expecting… at least until the end there.” Cameron answered, before giving him a look half way between amused and scolding. “Also you know talking in the middle of a fight is a bad thing, right?”

He couldn’t help but scoff at that. “Who says? Banter is one of the key components of any good show! If you’re lucky your opponent will be distracted or let something slip, all while giving you an opening to go after them.”

“And what happens if you’re the one who gets distracted?” The other teen wondered.

“Then I become even more distracting so that my distraction becomes a distraction to my opponent, thus distracting them and detracting from their combat ability in a way that helps emphasize my own capability as a suitable distraction.” He explained, before smirking. “Of course, we’re simply distracting ourselves from the main attraction of this conversation in that the point of banter is tactical distraction, with counter banter operating to distract from that.”

Cameron stared at him for a moment. “You… like to talk, don't you?”

“I do.” He admitted. “Besides, it's not like I’m planning on getting into fights with anyone dangerous.” He had zero issues running when the going got tough and the tough got to kicking his ass. “So why not have fun with it?”

“No one dangerous?” Cameron repeated with a smirk. “You say that like neither that Burning man or Puck are dangerous, both of whom you fought over the course of one week.”

“Eh, they weren’t too dangerous.” (If I’m blatantly lying.)

He also didn’t bring up his fight with both Zylah and TPK from the week before that, since it would only hurt his point. (Especially when brought up to a third girl.)

“I don’t know, I mean, Puck had you calling him daddy.” The other teen pointed out.

“To be fair, I think he was trying to keep me from calling him that.” He argued, before -falsely- tearing up a bit. “Which was kind of offensive… I think I’d make a good son. He’s the bad dad in this relationship.”

Cameron made an amused sound -(which is a win)- before shaking her head and changing the topic. “You going to head over to the medic now?”

“Eh, Puck didn’t kick my ass that hard.” He shrugged. “Besides, I've got a healing factor so I can just walk it off.”

Admittedly, said healing factor was beginning to feel… drained for lack of a better word. Something he only vaguely recognized due to a general malaise he’d had the last week or two. One that he hadn’t had after getting healed at the GM’s dungeon, or during his first couple weeks with his powers.

“If you’re sure.” Cameron told him.

“I am.” He assured her before looking around the fight pits. “So, uh, now that I’ve had a fight and everything… what exactly is there to do here now?”

“Um, fighting, training, healing…” Cameron listed before shrugging. “Honestly, this is about the same as going to like a boxing gym… just with Deviant stuff.”

“Ah.” He nodded, realizing that (this is a place I would never willingly go in my free time.)

(Unless a pretty girl invited you.)

(Which is exactly why I’m here.)

“Right, so… are you going to fight anyone?” He asked, rather than letting the conversation die.

“Mm, I would or at least I’d see if I could beat my record on the Bloody Ballroom, but the doc said I should take it easy given my concussion and everything.” Cameron sighed.

(Meaning there is no reason to stay here.)

He glanced back at where the crowd that had gathered for his little performance but was only mildly disappointed to see that they’d already scattered.

(Especially since no one asked for an encore or even an autograph…)

(We’re still getting started.) He consoled himself. (Got to work a few small time gigs to pay the bills before we can headline the show. The fact that we dueted a local hero already has us a step above the other chumps.)

(Right… Need to keep the lights on at the Cabaret if I want to become a real star.) He nodded to himself, able to feel some of the Madness he’d pulled together while fighting Puck. Which while not a massive haul would definitely be enough to help him out with cleaning the place back up.

“Ah, kid!” A voice called, drawing his attention to the feline-eque Traveler from earlier. “Need to talk to you before you run off.”

“Uh, what about?” He asked before remembering. “No, wait, that tournament thing!”

“Yeah, that.” The Traveler -Zaum- nodded. “Now while you didn’t beat him, going off your fight with Puck, I’d say this is the right place for you to compete. After all, he’s technically only allowed to enter the elite tournament rather than the beginner ones. Meaning, even though he didn’t have a slot for you to win I can make a decent argument to get you into the tournament next week if you want.”

“Ha, nice!” Cameron grinned, bumping him with her elbow. “That’ll be a lot of fun for both of us.”

“Yeah, that sounds- Wait…” He paused. “When you said the tournament is next week… when did you mean exactly?”

“Next… Satyr day, I think you call it? The one after the last day of the work week.” The Traveler answered.

“So on Saturday?” He frowned. (That’s the deadline for my heist…)

“Yes, Saturday.” Zaum smiled, before noticing his expression. “Is that going to be a problem?”

(It is…) He wasn’t too sure how he felt about having the tournament and his heist be back to back, but he knew it’d make things more difficult for himself depending on how things went. (And with my luck they probably won’t go well…)

(Don’t need luck as long as you’re smart.)

(But you do need resources to fight, so the smart thing wouldn’t be to stretch myself too thin.) He argued with himself.

Rolling his jaw he turned his attention back to Zaum. “What exactly would happen if I ended up not making the tournament on Saturday? I’ve got something else that I’m not sure if I can reschedule.”

The traveler grimaced. “Ah, well, that is a problem… If you enter a tournament and bail, they put you on probation and won’t let you enter another tournament for a year.”

“Oof, and how often do you guys have tournaments?” He asked.

“Technically, we hold one every week but each of those have different… restrictions.” Zaum explained. “Can’t have a mage in a swordsman tourney, ya know? That said, based on what I’ve been told, the beginners’ course is open every month or two depending on the local situation.”

“Right, okay…” He ran a hand through his hair.

(If I sign up for the tournament but then can’t make it, I’ll be banned for a year. Whereas if I don’t enter I can always try again in a couple of months at the latest.) He figured.

(But at the same time this might be one of those money now is worth more than money tomorrow type of deals. Especially given how we’ll have done a few shows by then.) The devil on his shoulder warned.

(That’s a point too… And I might be able to pull off both. I mean if I do the heist a bit early, that would buy me a bit of time to space things out in exchange for costing me a bit of prep time.)

Looking at it from that angle, he might be able to pull off both and still come out on top, but he wasn’t sure if the rewards were worth the risks he’d be setting himself up for.

(True… We haven’t really done much prep for our actual heist either, and that’s not the kind of thing you want to cut corners on if you can help it.)

Meaning he had three options overall here, the safe bet being to just not enter the tournament. Or he could enter the tournament and decide whether he felt more comfortable double booking himself on the day of the tournament and heist, or trading his recon time for a chance to walk off whatever stresses may come. (But I could figure out that part later… Right, now I just need a yes or no answer…)

Ultimately he decided to [Scene Choice]