"CHADSWORTHINGTON STEVENSON THE THIRD! Get down here!"

The shrill voice echoed through the Forum, ringing from stone wall to stone wall. At the bottom, in the rear, a door slid open: a grinding of stone on stone. The tiny shape of Nemean flitted in, and her voice at once rang back out. "UGH! Nobody's cleaned this place in years! -Whose BONES are these?! Did we forget someone in here? Hahaha!" And then a sneeze, and a muttered complaint.

"ChadsWORTHINGTON!"

Chadsworthington Stevenson III was standing up in the worn stone stands, a broom tied to its golem stones. It wasn't moving, and below--in the sands of the coliseum itself--Vakornol stared up with amusement. Her large, long, green-veined, pink-violet body was coated in dust; her jaws grinned at the distant golem. "He's not doing a very good job," she observed, humor in her gritty voice.

She turned her head to the arena door. Nemean was dragging out the old banners--dirt-caked and shabby. "...Ugh. I need to get someone to fix these up." She flitted up and down, taking her time to hang those of them which were still suitable: draping them over the stone at the top of the arena, to hang down motionless in the still, dead air.

Vakornol skirted to one side with a wary eye as a second golem trudged past, seemingly on a pointless mission to nowhere in the dust. It left a track behind it, and Nemean screamed down from the rafters. "BECKY! I TOLD you to CLEAN the rock, where are you GOING? Jeez." she complained, "At least go get Nedies!" "Becky" trundled off, out of sight into Orion, on its own unknown goal, and Vakornol snorted.

"I don't think it's going to Cepheus. Why d'you need Nedies, anyway?"

A string of bright lights was lifted to hang before the banners, illuminating the top of the arena in a dim and somehow ominous glow. "For refreshments! I want the BEST. Like the olden days. Popcorn and meat-nuggets and sugary, sugary drinks. It'll be great! Hm," and Nemean turned, hovering to peer down at the arena. One tiny hand tipped up to tap her chin. "We need hazards. Find me someone who can, y'know, rip it up and flood it and make it burn and stuff. Make it interesting."

"Right. Sounds fun." There was a dry amusement in the tone, but it did sound like it'd be fun. "What are the rules gonna be?"

"Rules?" Nemean echoed, blankly. Then she laughed: a loud and tinkling trill that seemed to light the walls up as it echoed. "There's no rules."

"Well, you need some. Like... putting very small things up against very large ones won't work. It-" A mistake, she realized, as Nemean interrupted, and Vakornol settled in to hear Nemean's argument.

"LITTLE monsters can do just FINE against big ones! And if they don't, they suck anyway!" She considered, then threw her tiny arms out to either side. "This isn't for FAIRNESS anyway! This is... EDUTAINMENT! That's education and entertainment, and I'll have you know it'll be the best entertainment these caves have seen in centuries. ...Seriously, everything's so boring here. And nobody'll be watching over our shoulder, for this one! It'll be all blood and claws and lights and fun! AND popcorn. CHADSWORTHINGTON!" she shrieked, for now the golem was toppling its way slowly down the arena stairs. Nemean sighed. "Anyway, no rules. Just fun and violence. Like the good old days!"

Vakornol shrugged, and grinned. "That's fine with me," she answered.

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