forum Dystopian Fantasy RP aw yeah (Private)

Started May 02, 2018 by @Young-Dusty-the-Monarch-of-Dusteria group

tune

Tanrial snorted, “True true, here.” She said, passing a piece over.

He dropped it into the small pot, along with the plants and some spices. "So…it's gonna take a while to cook all this meat. Anybody got a good story or an interesting fact about themselves while we wait?"

“Hmm…” Tanrial thought for a moment, “When I was younger, I used to hide my siblings daggers in the most absurd places. In the dinner, pillow wherever… I remember one time, my oldest bother was looking for his favourite and I’d placed it in the fish he was supposed to make for dinner, I gave the fish to him and he chased me round the palace for a good two hours.”

Even Mike snorted at that. "Nice," Bernon said. "I wish I'd had a sibling to prank." He paused, thinking. "Have either of you heard the story of the little girl with wings and the evil spirit?"
(Okay, gotta go to bed now, see ya in several hours ^^)

“No, I haven’t. What’s it about?” Tanrial asked.
(Okie, see ya in a few)

(this ended up being longer than I planned ^^)
"Once there was an evil spirit who's only purpose in life was to make other people miserable. He loved his job and he worked very hard to cause suffering and chaos wherever he went. He especially enjoyed messing with the good spirits, even though they had the power to defeat him if he wasn't careful. The evil spirit and the good ones became bitter enemies. Long story short, eventually he was driven away for good. He was weak, tired, and unhappy. Suddenly being evil sounded like a lot of work. He hid away like the sore loser he was, plotting his revenge.
But then, a very young girl with wings got lost near the spirit's lair. She was a good spirit, too young to fly or use her powers, and she was lonely and scared. When she saw the evil spirit, she ran right up and hid behind him, more afraid of the night than of him. At first, the spirit wanted to drive her away, or worse, eat her. But she didn't run when he snarled at her, only asked if he was hurt. She gave him a name, Veil, and told him her name, Dawn. Veil was surprised and didn't know what to do. Nobody had ever been nice to him before. Slowly, got used to her hanging around, and even helped her find food sometimes. They lived in his lair the whole winter, and Veil began to think of himself as her big brother. Dawn loved him and thought he was the bravest, kindest spirit in the world.
When spring came, Veil decided sadly that Dawn didn't belong with him, and traveled with her back to the land of the good spirits so she could meet her family. When the good spirits saw Dawn, they were overjoyed, but when they saw Veil, they attacked him and chased him away, thinking that he was still evil. Dawn got really upset and hid from her brothers and sisters, crying for Veil to come back. No one believed her when she tried to explain their friendship, thinking that she must have been tricked.
Only one of her brothers, a wise young man named Cerule, listened to her and saw the truth in her words. He flew for miles until he found Veil sitting sadly in his lair and apologized. He convinced the other good spirits to let him come back. When Dawn saw Veil, she ran and hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back with so much love and goodness in his heart, that all the good spirits saw it. They made him part of their family, and that's the story of how an evil spirit became the adopted brother of a good one."
Bernon sat back and took a drink of water. "I heard that from some old lady in a village once. She claimed it was true. I thought it was a pretty cool story."

“Damn, that’s some story… but spirits don’t exist, so it can’t be true.” She said with a shrug.

"Yeah?" Bernon glanced at the stars. "It would be kinda nice if good spirits were real, at least, but you're probably right."
Mike stared at the fire, still mulling the story over. "I think I've heard versions of that tale before, up north and on the East Coast. A villain is turned good by an innocent child….sounds a bit over-optimistic to me, but I guess it happens sometimes."

“Well, I’ve never heard it before…”

"I guess It's kind of a local fable," Mike concluded. "Your people might not know it."
Bernon glanced at Mike. "What about you? Got anything to recount?"
Mike looked reluctant. "…I don't know."
"Oh come on, I'll bet you've had lots of adventures! We'd love to hear one, right, Tanrial?"

“I guess so, we nearly know anything about you so, yeah. Tell us a story.” She said, leaving back.

Mike was silent for a minute. Then he sighed. "I guess I'll tell you how I met Ryker, the guy who hired me to find the machine part. I was in Michigan–or what used to be Michigan–in early winter, heading West. This village I passed through stopped me and asked if I could help get rid of a monster in the woods nearby. It had stolen one of their kids a few months before. I tracked it to it cave and watched it for a day. The kid was still alive–I guess the monster was a female and had adopted him for some reason–but she didn't know how to treat him. He was sick and injured. I laid out some drugged bait for the monster, and when she passed out I had the villagers carry her across the river where I'd seen some other monsters for her to make friends with. Anyway, apparently word of what I'd done got out, because the next morning this man in a suit came in a weird flying machine and asked to see me. He's a character, and right away I knew he was powerful. He said he liked how smart and resourceful I was, and offered to hire me. I accepted, and he took me back to his estate to show me the plans for his world-saving machine. He told me he knew where the key part was, but he coldn't get it himself. He needed a guy who knew the land to retrieve it. I smelled something fishy, and I still do, but he offered me enough money to last me the next five years, so I took the job. Now here we are." He paused. "Ryker isn't the only one in on this plan. There's a whole little group of rich recluses bent on doing big things. He's definitely the leader though. When you meet him, you'll see what I mean. I can't tell if he's a wise man or a cunning one, but I hope he's neither."

“Let’s pray it’s neither…” She sighed, “This whole plan could go wrong very quickly. Maybe we shouldn’t do through with it…”

Bernon shook his head. "We've already got this far, we might as well keep going. I think this machine is important enough that we should make sure it ends up in the right hands. If Ryker wants to do bad things with it, he doesn't deserve to have it. But if he wants to do good, then personally I'll be proud to have brought it to him."

Tanrial nodded, “Suppose you’re right.”

Bernon turned and checked the cooking pot. "Looks like the first batch is ready. I only have two bowls and spoons, so somebody's gonna have to use a mug and their knife."
"I will," Mike said, accepting the mug of hot stew. "We can cook the rest of it overnight, I guess."

“Whatever floats your boat.” She said, taking a bite of the stew

The stew was very good, and vanished quickly. Bernon put more of the meat over the fire, this time roasting strips of it on a spit so it would dry faster. "I'll take first watch, then," he said. "Night, guys."

“Okay, good night.” Tanrial settled down on her bed roll to sleep.
A few hours later, she awake with a jolt, a stabbing pain in her chest, she winced and gently rubbed at the area.

By now Mike was on watch, sitting near the smouldering fire. He glanced over when he heard Tanrial moving. "You okay?" he asked quietly.

She nodded, “Yeah, yeah… fine…”

Mike nodded and went back to turning the spit. "I don't really think you're telling the truth, but okay. You know your limits better than I do. If you did get hurt or sick or something, you would let us know, right?"

She nodded again, “I-It was just a dream… that felt a little too real.” She kept her gaze locked on the fire.
(I’ve gotta go for the night, seeya soon)

(Okay, later then ^^)
Mike accepted that answer and sat back. "It's about time for you to go on watch anyway. Try organizing your gear, that usually helps me calm down and forget things."

She nodded, “I’ll try, you get some sleep.” She quietly went through her things, checking she had all her weapons and the few potions she had grabbed.

The moon sank slowly. Various night animals called out to each other quietly, but luckily nothing tried to disturb their camp.

As the morning light drew in, Tanrial grabbed a dagger and practiced her aim on a tree. Bernon and Mike would wake soon so she could make just a little bit more noise. She threw it, collected it and repeated.

Mike must have woken up at some point without making any sound, because suddenly he was standing next to her, watching her throw. "You're pretty good,' he said. His voice was slightly rough and groggy, but otherwise he might as well have been awake for hours. "Would you say your fighting style is more long-distance?"

Tanrial shrugged, “I guess it’s whatever, but I guess long distance works best for me.”

"So we complement each other that way," Mike said, ever practical. "I prefer to get in close. If we ever have to fight, say, an army of angry ex-military cultists, I'll take point and you can watch my back from a distance. Bernon's our weak link right now because he has no real combat skills. Combat-prevention doesn't count–we have to think of the worst-case scenarios. I guess that bear form of his could do good melee damage, but only if he's willing to really hurt people. Did I hear someone mention that he has other powers too?"