[Maruem]

Maruem awoke that chill autumnal morning with a sense of dread hanging over him. He had made a big mistake the night before, and the worst part was he thought he stood a chance going in. Dozla had already agreed to lend him his crafting stall once the sporting got started, but at the last moment he decided to have a bit of fun with Maruem and make a bet.

Dozla had set simple terms. If he lost the bet he was not to reveal what it was until after the pentathlon. If he won Dozla claimed he was willing to build Maruem a much larger and more quality cart than the wood sled he had built in the woods the day the festival started. Of course, the truth behind that promise hardly mattered since he had lost, and now he had to wake up and face the pentathlon ahead of him.

As the start of the true festivities, it was more than a little nerve wracking for Maruem to partake in such a massive event. He walked down the two flights of stairs from the room he had rented for the duration of the festival, down to the dining hall where a few other patrons were already enjoying their breakfasts. He got his own breakfast of eggs, olive oil and fresh bread rolls, and some cooked ham. It was delicious, but it weighed heavily on his already nervous stomach. He thanked the kind woman there and walked out of the inn to greet the daunting event ahead of him.

As he walked he breathed deeply. In through the nose and out through the mouth. He repeated this process with several deep breaths following the same pattern until he felt the tenseness in him dissipate just a little, but enough to think more critically about the pentathlon ahead of him. Really there was nothing to be as nervous as he was about.

If he tripped and embarrassed himself in front of thousands of people that did not really matter. For one, he did not often get embarrassed, least ways not out of shame. Secondly, the viewers would be most focused on the people in the lead, probably, so there was little reason for fear. Third, there were hundreds of others running from what he had been told, so even if someone did see him fall, they likely would not make out who he was. Fourth and finally, he was pretty nimble on his feet, there was no reason to be so worried about something he already knew deep down he could perform well at.

If he won that may be a bit embarrassing though. He liked people, but too many at once could be overwhelming. So perhaps what he was really nervous about was doing well. Or at least he believed somewhere inside him that there was a chance he could beat all the other participants. Now, thinking about it consciously, he doubted it. He was strong, certainly, and he was adept at a few of the events in the pentathlon, but he was an above-average at best runner and he had only a small handful of experience riding horses, so he should not need to fear overperforming.

With his anxieties sorted he snapped back into his mind, realizing he had just been walking basically on autopilot. He had a habit of doing that back on earth, but he had only done it a few times here. At the least it was good to know that even here with his custom built body, he could still trust it to get him where he needed to be without much mental engagement or bumping into anyone else going about their day.

Not far ahead, he could smell the festival stalls before he could see them. They gave off rich aromas of various flavors. Sweet and bitter drinks, freshly baked pastries, it was enough to make anyone find themselves drooling. But he did not have the time for stuffing himself on delectable foods this morning. It was already well over an hour past sunrise. The people were enjoying what stalls were open and ready to serve, but it seemed at least half of the stalls were not open in anticipation of the true start to the festival.

Maruem made his way through the stalls eventually finding himself by an already crowded field. The man he had registered for the race with the night before waved him over to greet him and inform him about how the pentathlon was going to work. At ten to 9 in the morning, they would announce the event was soon to be started to all the participants, who should hopefully already be lined up a little ways off from where they were now.

The first of the five events in the pentathlon, the climb, was going to be at the outer edge of the city of Romalia, in what was colloquially known as the ruins. There was a tall stone building that was stabilized with several large wood beams and would serve as the site of the climbing portion of the competition. The wall was made from rough stone bricks that could make for small, difficult to use hand and foot holds for everyone. It was a very wide building, making it a great option as a good half of the competitors could go at once. In total it was about twenty meters tall, or around sixty five feet.

The height was definitely nothing to scoff at, but it was doable provided that took their time and were careful with their hand and foot holds. The man assured him that they took the necessary precautions. There were large linen pads at the base of the wall stuffed to the brim and then some with the softer of their hay harvest. On top of that they had several clerics at the ready just in case anyone did get injured despite the padding.

With the reassuring of the man, Maruem was ready to get started. He had a few minutes to kill before the formal announcement and preparation was called for, so for now he was just going to stretch and limber up as much as possible. He had confidence in the climb. It and the swimming were going to be his best events, he knew that for certain. As for the others, well, he would just have to do his best when they came.

Word Count: 1075
Total Word Count: 1075
Tags: Celeste , Sayinh , Katarina , Axey , Atlas , Ciriodhul , @altdumah, @raven'sCharacter
Notes: Let's have a fantastic Pentathlon!

[Celeste]

After he became more comfortable being in a large city like this, with its incredible amount of people, creating insane amounts of noise, Ink had convinced Celeste to stroll through the streets to look at all the stalls, showcasing anything from cakes to pumpkins to swords and other types of armor and weapons. Not that Celeste had much of an interest in the individual stalls, the atmosphere as a whole, which was still somewhat of a new feeling to him, was therefore much more interesting. Every citizen in Romalia, and more, attended these festive times, which resulted in a city packed to the brim.

Celeste climbed onto the incubus’ shoulders, granting him a greater overview of the entire street. Celeste could clearly smell the cinnamon and pumpkin lingering in the air. It completely drowned out the typical smell of city air. Everything was colored dark green and bright orange, giving the otherwise boring red-ish brown city a lively and happy vibe. As Celeste looked down the street and noticed a pair of feathery wings in the distance
‘Brother look! Skyreacher is down there!’ he said and pointed toward a couple of stalls further ahead. After meeting with Axey, Ink had been teaching Celeste to talk more. At least his conversations, where he didn’t have to use his vocal cords, were more coherent and pleasing to listen to.
‘Wh-, Oh Sayinh? Ink asked and looked in the direction of the boy’s finger. He’d taken quite a liking to this bewinged boy, and Celeste seemed to not dislike him either. He seemed particularly intrigued by the wings on Sayinh’s back. The Incubus licked his lips and walked in the direction of where Celeste was pointing. The orange-haired boy was walking leisurely around, looking at the various items on display. At this moment, he was holding up a glass sphere containing a golden feather.
"May I ask where you got this feather? It’s amazing, sparkles even when encased!" he asked whilst inspecting the glass sphere.
“Ah, you see, this is the only feather I acquired. Or, well… It’s the only feather that didn’t disappear. It’s an Alicanto feather, however, this one did not disappear when the familiar did. Though, it was also a feather that it voluntarily gave to me.” the person in the stand said.
"Huh, intrigui-, was all he managed to say before a sound made him turn his head and choke on his words.

Celeste whistled, before waving to Sayinh. The bewinged boy, along with several others looked up to see this, visibly excited, feral looking boy, who was on top of an incubus. Seeing that it was the two, whom he’d met for the first time less than a week ago, Sayinh became flustered.
Oh no, not these guys again. That kid had no sense of personal space and the incubus had weirded him out immensely. It’d been seriously creeping him out.
Sayinh turned to the person who was selling these artifacts, looking slightly distressed.
"How much?" he hurriedly asked.
“Hmm, I don’t know, I haven’t seen any other sold here for as long as I’ve lived he-”
"Yep, interesting, sorry, gotta go, hope this is enough, bye!" he said, as he threw 75₲ at the stand and rushed off with the sphere. He didn’t get very far, however, before a hand landed on his shoulder. He shrunk his neck into his shoulders as he turned to look who laid their hand on him, even though deep down he already knew.
“You seem to be in a hurry, you going anywhere? At least hear the man out, and pay him properly,” a smile that seemed almost sadistic stared at him. Sayinh slowly broke out into cold sweat.
"Ah, yeah, I mean, no, sorry, I didn’t mean to, but I uh... I really gotta hurry over to the uh… To the… Pentathlon! It’s today, and I really wanna get a good spot,” Sayinh said, flustered.
I just need to get away from here, as fast as possible, if possible, he thought. To his surprise, though, the Inkubus’ eyes lit up and
“What. A. Fantastic coincidence! We’re also on our way to the Pentathlon! Let’s go together!” Ink said and turned to Celeste. At this point, Celeste had been tucking various parts of his body, and soon turned toward his tail. The boy had been trying to get in contact with the incubus for a little while to tell him to say hello, but the Demonoid hadn’t acknowledged that he’d heard him. He was about to give the tail a squeeze, when Ink had turned around, which gave him a scare, leaving Celeste at that ‘I regret being about to do it… or rather, being caught being about to do it,’ so he just froze, staring back at the incubus. Ink put his hands in front of him, waving them pleadingly for Celeste to stop there.
‘Don’t! Please, I’ll tell him’ he quickly said. He then slowly turned his head to Sayinh and flashed an awkward smile.
“Oh, and uh… Celeste says hi.” he said and signaled toward Celeste, energetically waving behind him. The Incubus laid his arm over Sayinh’s shoulders and looked ahead.
“So, you wanna get going? I forgot to mention I signed Celeste up for the pentathlon, so we want to be there ahead of time. Or, I want him to be there ahead of time,” he said. Sayinh cried a little inside, but he didn’t know what to do. He was genuinely terrified of this familiar.
Why does this always happen to me? he thought.
"S-sure,” he said, and made an awkward, pained smile to himself.

The three of them arrived at the starting site and Ink wrapped his tail around the bewinged teen, before turning to Celeste, beginning what was supposed to be a pep-talk. But, all he said was,
‘If you win, food is on me tonight.’ The results, however, worked better than expected. Celeste’s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning, seeing all their presents.
‘Okay, so, you have to go through 5 different disciplines. First, you have to climb that wall,’ he said and pointed at the wall.
‘There will be people guiding you, so just follow them, and give it your all and follow their directions. First the climbing, then you have to swim across a lake, ride on a horse, then run for a while and lastly you have to run and jump over some obstacles. It’s rather easy, you should be able to do it easily.’ He clapped Celeste on his shoulders.
‘You got this, go get ‘em.’

Celeste walked over to the larger group of people, stretching and warming up. He bent his legs, stretched them whilst touching his toes and then jumped a couple of times. He, then, walked to the wall, ready as could be.

---

Tag(s): Katarina , Axey , Atlas , Ciriodhul , Maruem, & 2 others.
Words: 1140
Total word count: 1140
Note: This is after my Solo.. which is WIP. This means that Celeste will have acquired his name by this point. And will know of Sayinh, although they only met earlier at the festival, and their relationship is… interesting.

[Maruem]

The event itself was exhausting but in the end worthwhile. Maruem had worked his butt off in all the events, and was proud of his performance. Even if he knew he would be sore the following day.



The first even Maruem partook in was the climbing and that one was the one he was most confident in. It was not universal procedure, nor even really the norm among any companies of lumberjacks, but the company Maruem had worked for back on earth, back when he was Mroczysław, provided a membership to a local rock climbing facility. They wanted their lumberjacks to be both in great shape in general but also to have a high proficiency in climbing. Maruem had already naturally been a strong climber, but the classes and training made him truly excel.



He had won the climb, though it was a close race, and his only first place victory of the event. Still, he had much to be proud of. In an arena of many strong contestants, men and women alike, he had come out on top at least once.



The next event was the running which was immediately followed by hurdles. This was by far Maruem's weakest performance. He had always been more of a sprinter, long distance running just was not for him, and in the end he reached the hurdles 57th, and only thanks to his relatively good acrobatic ability as well as a naturally high level of dexterity did he manage to raise that rank to 43rd at the end of the hurdles.



Still, the run had been a lot for him to handle. That, combined with the movement speed debuff from swimming slowed him to a degree that even with his trained ability, he finished 8th after several pirates and fisherman, most of whom still commented that it was impressive he had managed to keep up despite his disadvantage. IT was pleasant to hear, or rather it would have been were he not feeling the effects of several longer distance events in a row.



Fortunately the last event was the horse race and while it was still a demanding race, he was not the one who had to do the running, he just needed to guide the animal. In truth. Maruem knew he had no chance of performing very well on this last one. He had never raced a horse before. He had only ever riden horses a few times and when he had it was at a gallop, never a running or sprinting pace. On top of that, both caveliars and monster tamers had huge advantages in this ring, and he had not the skill to compete with them as he had with the swimmers.



He accepted his 64th place finish for the horse race with a smile. Overall, his performance had actually been quite good, at least in his eyes, and he was more than happy with himself when the event was concluded and the awards handed out to the handful of people who had performed in the top twenty in each and every event.



Maruem did not stick around too long after the event. he had other plans. Namely his plans were two things, both of which were quite simple to attain. All he wanted now was good food, and a warm bath. With those goals in mind, he left the fields of the festival.

Word Count: 565
Total Word Count: 1075+565= 1640
Tags: Celeste , @other participants
Notes: It's been months. I'm marking the thread as concluded, but if you want to get a post in to finish of your endeavors, feel free to do so.