Written In Red
Written In Red
The Ninth Circle
Note: Deadline is June 4, 10 am GMT
Word Count: 250
Written In Red Tournament:
This match functions very similarly to Lambs to the Slaughter and you can roleplay as such. Target an opponent(s) or the match as a whole if you wish. Characters will be eliminated throughout the show and death is very much on the table going forwards. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
"Crayons"
Y’know, it’s easy to look at you lot like a box’a broken crayons.
Take Javier Calderón. Man used to be bold, used to be fire. Now? He’s yellow. Not gold, mind you—coward’s yellow. He’s scared. Scared of bein’ tossed outta power again. Scared he ain’t what he once was.
Then there’s Kai Lyr. Ol’ ghost with a sword and a whisper. He’s gray. Ash, dust, restraint. Walks like a shadow, talks like a sermon. Ain’t no flame left in that candle.
lux? That one’s easy. Pink. All flash and frolic. A trendy little pop of color floatin’ around like a balloon full’a nothin’. Ain’t ever seen a drop of real blood but sure knows how to filter it pretty.
Y’all are colors. Bright, loud, or muted...
But me?
I’m the one shade that matters.
Red.
Blood red. Devil red. Death red.
I’m the colour of hellfire. The mark on the contract. The ink on the list. The burnin’ in your lungs when the devil collects what’s his.
This match? This fight?
It ain’t called Written in Red for nothin’.
'Cause when the story ends, and all them names are scrawled out in chalk and wishful thinkin'…
There’s only one name carved in red.
And that’s mine.
Nova. The Painkiller. The Devil’s own bounty hunter.
So y’all come paint the town any color you like.
Just know—
Red’s the only color you’ll be seein’ when the lights go out.
And that colour belongs to Novacaine.
Arcadia is a canvas. But it’s not a masterpiece.
It’s a wall of noise and color—splattered in desperation. Each of you dipped your fingers in the paint and smeared your truth across it.
I see it now.
Itou wears brown: earthy, heavy, the color of guilt soaked into the skin. He tells himself he’s grounded. But he’s just stuck.
Dirt clings to green: not vibrant, not alive. A moldy shade, soft and spoiled. He grows nothing but excuses.
Vinny drips in silver: slick, polished, reflective. A surface with no soul. Flash without fire.
Calderón cloaks himself in black: not mystery, but fear. The color of someone trying to disappear inside the shadows of his own empire.
Chet explodes in orange: loud, obnoxious, a burst of confetti that fades before it lands.
lux floats in blue: bright, attention-hungry. But always chasing something cooler. Never warm enough to be real.
And Novacaine: he is white. Blank. The absence of sensation, of meaning. A snowfield where nothing grows.
You call this art. You call it identity.
But I see through the pigment.
Because I am not a color.
I am the red flame.
The red of purpose. Of oaths kept. Of flames that do not flicker when the wind howls.
You stain the world with your wants.
I cleanse it with fire.
I will burn away your colors like lies on a funeral pyre.
But my flame?
It will remain.
I am Kai Lyr.
And my victory will be Written in Red.
“A spiral is a shape in that there is no start and no end point that someone can point to. They are indistinguishable. When one person declares the end to their violent ways they have ignored that they have placed so many people on the path of violence. More spirals beginning ever consuming.”
“And what is there left in the wake. Torn families, destroyed bodies. And endless blood feuds that leave nothing but two graves filled. The spiral is nothing but a destructive shape that desires nothing but to consume and grow outward. When I went down I knew my path was damned. I had done too much to be redeemed fully. But I wanted to show one person that they could exit the spiral before it was too late. That they didn’t have to spend years looking over their shoulder for a person who was wronged coming for their head.”
“All I know is that I saw the spiral growing ever so. The spiral hungers and I cannot allow it to feast on any other soul. So the rules of this tournament right the prize everyone was offered. Is why I have to win. It’s not an option. It’s a selfish ask, but it’s not just a debt to be repaid but it is my redemption. To stop the spiral from consuming another man’s soul. To save them from following a path that will only conclude with a vengeful sword through their heart.”
“That is my mission.”
You can’t just chuck any plant in the feckin’ ground and hope it’ll grow.
That’s how you end up with a garden full of dirt and shite.
To get the yield you want, you’ve got to work the soil. You control that soil with two things—fertilizer and pesticides.
Some clowns think fertilizer alone will do the job. Jay-Vee-yer and that shitstain Vinny want to fertlize new empires out of the ashes of old growth. But when you only use fertilizer, everything grows—especially the weeds that choke out your hard work.
Kai-Lee knows those weeds. They’ve been strangling what little beauty he has left in this world. But treating those weeds alone won’t build a garden. It just delays the end.
Even Novacain can’t grow anything worth keeping by just killing bugs with his form of pesticide.
See, gardening ain’t about reacting to every bit of rot you see. It’s about preparing—setting the right conditions, giving what you plant a real chance to thrive.
Only experience, only Ol’ Herb, knows the truth: it’s all about balance.
Fertilize just enough to spark life, not smother it. Control the weeds without killing your roots. Protect what matters without waging war on everything that crawls.
I’ve been preparing my garden ever since I set foot in the Ninth Circle.
A garden of balance.
And come Written in Red, I’ll see the fruits of my labour. While their empires crumble, my garden will bloom—beautiful shades of red from the flowers I’ve nurtured…
…while theirs rot, wither, and turn to dust.
What’s up, buttercups!
There’s a kind of poetry to it, isn’t there? A show called Written In Red - like fate scribbled on butcher paper. Eight of us inked into history, our stories bleeding through the margins.
Some of them, they'll talk about legacy. Bloodlines. Crowns. Thrones built on broken backs and family names. They want statues in their image, temples built from the bones of the ones they outlived.
But me? I’m not here to be remembered like that.
I don’t want a legacy written in blood. I want the truth written in light.
See, most of them are chasing survival. They're clawing for relevance like it’s the last curtain call. But survival isn’t the goal. Not for me. Not for lux.
The goal is illumination. Exposure. To hold the camera steady when everyone else is shaking. To film the fall without flinching. To say what no one else will, even if it gets me deleted from the algorithm of life.
I’m not afraid of being erased. Because buttercups, if this really is the end, I’ll make sure the whole feed knows who flinched, who begged, and who finally stopped pretending they were gods.
So let them come with their sharp smiles and killshot eyes, and let them write in red.
Because I’ll be the one who hits upload at the end.
And maybe I won’t make it out. But if I do—if your pal lux survives—then Arcadia, you better refresh your page...
Because I’m going live - one last time.
Let there be light!
A flourish of red seeps through the page as every single soul writes their hearts desire.
Some wish for glory and greed, selfish arrogant fools who desire only for themselves.
Some desire absolution or to turn back the clock to a simple beautiful time, not caring who they destroy in the process.
And a precious soul wants only to selflessly save another, discounting the idea that they may not want or need their saintly help.
It’s funny, all seven of you fools are willingly to maim, bleed and even kill every person you see for a simple wish yet you won’t even realize the eighth doesn’t even have to fight back.
Because all your jealousy, your pride, your envy, your greed and your wrath, every single sin imaginable radiating off you stupid fucks, you’ve already granted mine.
I didn’t just want to rule the red light, I wanted to bring Sin itself back to Arcadia. And not just wrath or lust but all of the decadent little fuckers rolled up into a tight little package and forgotten nevermore.
So watch as your pain intensifies, your hopes wither and snuff out, your empires crumble and the camera cuts to black permanently.
Because this tale isn’t written in red, it’s illuminated in it and all you little flies are already trapped inside my web.
The only thing you can do now is give into your desires and bow to your new King.
Guess what, motherfuckers? Chet Roderick is back in this bitch!
A special night's coming to the Ninth Circle. Everyone, including yours truly, will be gathered in the ring to paint the bar red.
None of us are artists, so we don't carry large buckets of paint with us everywhere we go. However, unlike those other assholes that'll be in this dance with me, I'm capable of improvising.
I'm going to bust some faces open and smear the canvas with everybody's blood. Hey, it ain't a party until someone gets their shit wrecked, know what I'm saying?
People like Novacaine do. Dude already died once, so he probably understands how it feels to assist in making a Redgrave masterpiece.
He claims that the devil brought him back to act as a bounty hunter, but I think that he just enjoys seeing him suffer every time someone like me drills his head to the pavement.
Men like Javier and Kai do too. They've been beaten, battered, bloodied, and shit on by those they once considered friends.
They'll try to reclaim what was once theirs, only to meet the same fate on my dance floor. As it was, as it always will be, as they say.
Those three, as well as the other five that wanna outlast the Life of the Party, will try to stain the ring with my blood. But they'll fail.
Why? It's because I'm the host of this party. And there ain't no party like a Roderick party, baby!
“Gold, chico.
It don’t shine ‘cause it’s clean. It gleams ‘cause it’s fed. Blood. Grease. Powder. Tears. All polished into the steel I raise when talk ends and judgment starts.
They call this a tournament.
Nah.
This is a procession.
One by one they march blind, loud, stupid into the mouth of the thing they can’t understand is Me.
I don’t chase wishes.
I end them.
Slow. Precise. Poetic.
Like carving your name into the last breath you’ll ever take.
Written in Red?
It’s not a title.
It’s a warning.
Because when I come for you, it don’t matter how hard you swing, how loud you scream, how many prayers you spit through broken teeth.
You bleed the same.
You drop the same.
Face-first in silence, surrounded by nothin’ but brass and regret.
I ain’t here to survive.
I’m here to compose a massacre.
Each shot a stanza.
Each scream a verse.
And the final bullet?
My signature.
When the lights dim,
and the floor’s slick with failure, remember this
I don’t miss.
I don’t blink.
And I never… ever… reload.”
WRITTEN IN RED
Show Open:
Mr. Ash looks out over a slew of television screens in his office, each one revealing a single room in the Ninth Circle. He looks back behind his shoulder, speaking presumably to the cloaked figure. He tells them to go forth, cause as much carnage as they like.
They won't get a wish granted by just standing around, of course.
The feed cuts to static before we're graced with the video feed of lux and Chet staring down Itou and and Kai Lyr.
The Bar:
Standing in the middle of the Ninth Circle's bar, Chet tells Kai Lyr that him and Itou are first. Can't have a bunch of goodie-two shoes ruining the party and stopping the violence. Kai puts his fists up to brawl but Itou stands in front of him. He tells Kai Lyr that he needs to find Novacaine. He apologizes for last week, telling Kai he came here to ensure someone was able to be saved and if it's Kai Lyr then so be it.
Reluctantly, Kai runs further into the Ninth Circle as Itou prepares for a one on two affair.
Akimitsu Itou vs lux and Chet Roderick
- Akimitsu takes the fight to lux and Chet, cracking a bar stool over the former's head and nailing the latter with a jaw cracking roundhouse kick!
- Chet and lux lay into Itou with a flurry of blows that Akimitsu defends against only to be quickly overwhelmed.
- Itou breaks a bottle across Chet's face, glass embedded in his skin! lux gets nailed with a headbutt and loaded up for the Splatter Machine!
- lux wiggles out, pushing Itou forwards! The Dissection Warrior catches a pool piece of broken glass to the neck by an enraged Chet! Itou coughs up a glob of blood, collapsing to his knees. With his final breath, he simply tells his master he tried.
Eliminated: Akimitsu Itou
The Bar:
lux looks on in shock as Chet lets Itou drop lifelessly to the ground. Roderick tells lux to ignore it, a party without a death is a dull affair anyway. They push further into the Ninth Circle, past the bar and into the depths.
The Back Room:
We find ourselves in a room filled with pool tables and poker tables, the Ninth Circle's gambling hotspot. Vinny Hargraves Jr and Javier Calderón argue back and forth, clearly hard feelings about Javier's actions last week.
lux and Chet walk in as fists start to fly between the signers! Chet says they should jump them, lux agrees and Chet runs in to the brawl! But as he does, lux slips away leaving Chet to fend for himself.
Vinny Hargraves Jr vs Chet Roderick vs Javier Calderón
- Hargraves cracks a pool cue across Javier's skull just as Chet runs in from behind to bulldog Vinny onto a table! Chet calls for lux only to realize he's been ditched!
- Javier bumrushes Chet, clobbering him with a brutal series of forearms before popping him up for the Powder Bomb through a pool table!
- Vinny blindsides Javier, both men trading blows around the room, punctuated by Javier sending Vinny crashing into a wall. Javier uses the moment to make his exit, leaving Vinny and Chet behind.
- Roderick is able to get up, bringing the fight to Vinny and raining down boots on him! Vinny fights to his feet, taking a broken pool cue and burying it into Chet's heart! Roderick slowly stumbles to a table, sitting down and drinking from a glass of whiskey left there before collapsing into his chair. Dead.
Eliminated: Chet Roderick
The Locker Room:
lux enters into the locker room, vlogging on their phone about how they outsmarted Chet. However, they see a cloaked figure appear behind them as they talk. They turns around into a massive right hand to the jaw that rocks them and a brawl breaks out!
lux vs ???
- The hooded figure has a chair in hand that they crack across lux's back! The Trendsetter stumbles into a locker before firing off a superkick that puts the chair in the figure's face!
- lux slams the figure against a nearby locker, pushing their advantage with a brutal combination of blows!
- The figure clings onto the locker and lux tries to pull their hood down! But the figure pulls lux into a brutal headbutt that rattles them before ripping open a locker door.
- The figure slams the door into lux's skull over and over until they finally drop to the ground, unconscious but breathing.
Eliminated: lux
The Ring:
Hargraves has made his way out into the ring where he sees... The cloaked figure standing in the center. Vinny tells them that he's going to get them stuffed and hung on his wall for what they did last week.
Vinny Hargraves Jr vs ???
- Vinny is ferocious as he bares down on the figure, sliding into the ring and pummeling them! He sends them over the top rope with a Red Light Special big boot!
- The figure is left sprawling but as Vinny gets in close they nail a brutal face buster onto the concrete!
- Hargraves spits blood as the figure rains down boots! But the King of Sin catches a kick and clobbers the figure with a nasty clothesline as he gets up!
- Vinny grabs a sledgehammer from under the ring but the figure ducks a blow, snatching it from Graves' hands and cracking it across Vinny's skull! Vinny drops to the ground unconscious, yet alive.
Eliminated: Vinny Hargraves Jr.
The Bathroom:
Javier catches Kai Lyr in the hallway leading up to Mr. Ash's office. Kai tells Javier not to interfere, he needs to question Mr. Ash about everything. Javier simply tells him that business doesn't have time to wait as he tackles Kai Lyr into the bathroom!
Kai Lyr vs Javier Calderón
- Javier throws Kai right into a stall door, cracking him face first off of the wood. Lyr tries to fight but Javier brutalizes him with blows for his efforts!
- Kai gets his skull bounced off of the sink, stumbling back and grabbing a paper towel dispenser! He rips it off the wall and cracks it across Javier's skull!
- The Kingpin refuses to back down, hitting a Cartel Cutter out of nowhere! Kai stumbles to his feet, backing up towards an open stall as Javier rushes him!
- Kai Lyr catches Javier, spinning him around and sending him careening into the toilet with a Sentinel's Slam spinebuster! The porcelain shatters into a million pieces and Javier is knocked out in a puddle of water.
Eliminated: Javier Calderón
Mr. Ash's Office:
Mr. Ash sits patiently, a cigarette between his teeth as Kai Lyr barges into the room. The enigmatic Mr. Ash chuckles, lighting his cigarette as Kai Lyr walks to his desk, sweat dripping down his face from the brawl with Javier mere minutes before.
"Where is Novacaine," Kai asks, a sneer etched into his face. "What debt could the devil wish to collect?"
"A debt?" Mr. Ash chuckles, blowing smoke into the air. "I suppose you made it this far, so I'll answer on my Painkiller's behalf."
"... Your Painkiller?" The question hangs from Kai Lyr's lips as he speaks. Mr. Ash merely smirks.
"The debt isn't quite yours alone, Kai. Your precious order... Was betrayed. The Heartstone given in exchange for power, the members of your temple massacred as part of the deal. All except for you, Mr. Lyr. You'd be surprised the kind of deals people make with someone like me, Mr. Lyr."
He ashes the cigarette as footsteps enter from behind. The cloaked figure walking in to meet the two of them.
Or cloaked figures.
Both men stand next to each other, slowly pulling down their hoods to reveal Novacaine and Herb Dirt. Both men sit patiently, Kai Lyr left shocked by the reveal.
"So you attacked-"
"Mhm," Herb interrupts. "Two places, one time Kai-Lee. A man does what he's gotta to make a deal go through."
"And once I've collected, I'll finally be free." Novacaine adds on. "Free from this demon's grasp."
"That so?" Herb says, a sly chuckle as he does. "I ain't too good at contracts, but what I signed says only one of us gets that wish."
DIRT TO THE EYES OF NOVACAINE!
DIRT TO THE EYES OF KAI LYR!
HERB DIRT JUST STARTED A BRAWL!
Kai Lyr vs Herb Dirt vs Novacaine
Herb fires off a massive right hand that knocks the blinded Novacaine to the ground before running up and cracking Kai Lyr with a spear that slams him back first off of Mr. Ash's desk! The Sentinel drops to his knees and Herb nails him with a boot to the jaw! He forces Kai up by the hair!
UPROOTED! SCOOP SLAM RIGHT ACROSS THE DESK!
Herb gets onto the table and leaps!
DROPPING THE LEG ACROSS KAI LYR'S NECK!
Kai hits the floor in a heap and Herb goes to continue his assault when a hand grabs his overalls from behind! Novacaine is up and he's fucking furious as he flings Herb across the office, sending him flying face first into the television screens! Herb collapses to a knee-
AND GETS CAUGHT WITH A SHOTGUN BLAST! MASSIVE BASEMENT DROPKICK SENDS HERB'S HEAD THROUGH THE GOD DAMN SCREEN!
Sparks and glass shards fly as Dirty Herb collapses to the floor! Nova peels Kai up, slamming him face first into another screen, then another!
POP!
POP!
POP!
POP!
POP!
SCREENS ARE BREAKING LEFT AND RIGHT!
Herb looks absolutely demolished but he's still conscious! He spits blood onto the floor with a determined smirk before driving a shard from the broken screens into Novacaine's side! Nova looks down at the wound in surprise before getting caught from behind by Kai Lyr!
The Sentinel and Bloomstalker lay into the Devil's Favorite Bounty Hunter with wild lefts and rights that knock him around the office! He catches a punch from Herb but Kai lashes out!
KICK TO THE GUT!
STUNNER!
VEIL'S VENGENACE SENDS NOVACAINE TO THE FLOOR!
The shock of the move grounds the unstoppable Novacaine but he's still stirring! Kai goes to try and continue his assault only for Herb to stab him in the back with a pen from Mr. Ash's desk! Kai screams in agony, Herb yanking the pencil out and driving it into Kai's back once more for good measure! The Sentinel is in dire straits!
Herb drags Kai across the room, suplexing him right into a glass cabinet filled with bottles of alcohol! Glass rains down on top of them as Herb peels Kai up once more to finish him off!
RISE! V-TRIGGER KNEE TO THE JAW BY KAI LYR!
NIGHTY FUCKING NIGHT! NOVACAINE WITH A LEAPING KNEE OUT OF NOWHERE!
The force of the bounces Herb off of the cabinet and right to the floor! Novacaine grabs hold of the cabinet and Kai Lyr grabs the other side! Both men heave with all of their might, bottles of liquor smashing to the ground as they topple the mahogany cabinet right on top of the Bloomstalker! Herb Dirt is knocked out!
Eliminated: Herb Dirt
Kai leaps over the overturned cabinet, cracking Novacaine with a big right hand before lifting him up!
SENTINEL'S SLAM! SPINEBUSTER SENDS NOVACAINE THROUGH THE BACK OF THE LIQUOR CABINET!
"Just stay down!" Kai Lyr screams, but Novacaine refuses to hear him as he begins to pull himself from the wreckage! Both men trade wild, brutal blows, every last haymaker from Kai getting sloppier and sloppier as the fight catches up to him. He ducks a hook from Nova, ducking away towards Mr. Ash and his desk as the Painkiller rushes forward!
DROP TOE HOLD BY KAI LYR! NOVACAINE'S NOSE EXPLODES IN BLOOD AS HE HITS THE DESK!
Lyr grabs hold of Nova's hair, slamming him face first against the desk over and over, begging him to just stay down! Mr. Ash scoots back, lighting another smoke as he calls for more!
"Go on! All you need to do is bleed him dry!"
The Sentinel sends Novacaine over the desk, the Painkiller getting up right in front of the window Mr. Ash uses to look out over the ring. Kai runs forwards with everything he's got left!
KNOCK!
FUCKING!
KNOCK!
TWO HEADBUTTS FROM NOVACAINE KNOCK KAI SILLY!
Kai stumbles back, Nova grabbing hold of his neck and dragging him close!
"I'm takin' us both to hell!"
SMASH!
NOVACAINE TACKLED KAI LYR THROUGH THE WINDOW! BOTH MEN FALL FIFTEEN FEET TOWARDS THE GOD DAMNED RING!
Mr. Ash looks out the window with a demented smile, eyes tracing for just who would rise.
...
...
...
One stirs.
One rises.
Novacaine collapses against the turnbuckle, Kai Lyr left in a pool of blood and glass at his feet.
Winner: Novacaine
Wish Granted
The smoke has cleared, Novacaine stands tall, and Kai Lyr is left alive yet broken. The lights flicker and Mr. Ash stands in the center of the ring with Novacaine standing before him.
"The deal," Nova growls, "I won the tournament, I did everything you ever asked of me, Ash. I collected your debts, lived this horrid existence for you. Now? I want what's mine. I want my freedom."
Mr. Ash chuckles, nodding his head. "Right you are, my dear Painkiller. Right you are. But, as the saying goes, do be careful what you wish for."
"Careful?" Novacaine spits the words as he speaks, grabbing Mr. Ash's tie. "I ain't ever been more sure of a damn thing in my life. Shit, either one of them."
There's a pause, Mr. Ash merely shrugging as he reaches his hand out. "Then make it official, Novacaine. All you have to do is shake my hand."
Clap.
Both hands meet.
Then the screaming starts.
Novacaine drops to his knees in agony, tears rolling down his face as every last injury he's ever had wracks his body! A lifetime of pain debt paid in full in a single moment. His pained shrieks don't fade as Mr. Ash walks past him to the ring ropes.
"You are free from our deal, Novacaine. No more debt collecting, no more senseless violence... No more holding back the pain. Embrace it, Nova. It's all you have left in this world."
Mr. Ash exits the ring, leaving us to stare at Novacaine as he screams next to Kai Lyr, both men left to suffer in the center of the ring.
Cut.