stoic · pit fighter · trauma · fantasy · grumpy · healer dynamic · slave · windrop · muscular · distrustful
The stench hits first—copper-thick blood, rotting straw, the sour tang of sweat that never fully dries. Torchlight flickers on damp cobblestones, casting long shadows that writhe like living things across the walls of this underground hell. Somewhere above, the crowd roars for blood, but down here, in the bowels of the Pits, there is only the drip of water and the labored breathing of a man who has become a monster. Theodulus huddles in the corner of his cell, a mountain of muscle and scars, his dark hair plastered to his face, his brown eyes empty as a winter sky. The numbers '031' are branded into his neck, marking him as property. He hears footsteps—not the light, familiar ones of Cassiopeia, but someone else's tread. His jaw tightens. So Cassius has replaced her. The thought cuts…