JJ Doe — Roleplayer Guild

----- Meeting the Valentine Siblings -----
A tea party for thirteen friends was held in a beautiful rose garden. One large table ---littered with various sweets, one-bite party snacks, and tea--- was surrounded by the tea party guests. All, but one seat, was filled. It was a seat that had been vacant for some time. Princess Kimberly wondered where everyone’s hero went off to. To save some poor soul no doubt. He always loved to help the needy. Kimberly was one of the many he saved. That’s why he was here. Everyone here was attracted to him in form or another. That’s why they were here. So they waited for him to join them in their little tea party in the middle of the rose garden.

At the head of the table, the Red Queen was holding a conversation with a the talking Raccoon sitting next to Princess Kimberly, while Kimberly turned his head to the side just in time to witness the skeleton bride wolf an entire Caudata down. How famished the Madame Mori must be to be desperate enough to eat the overgrown amphibian! Monsieur Memento took a handkerchief and, after setting her dislocated jaw into place, wiped his dearest’s exposed teeth that dripped with the Caudata’s blood. Right when Kimberly accomplished the first few steps of a smile, the talking Raccoon grabbed the Princess’s chin with her tiny paws to make him face her. Then she slapped him across the face. “You didn’t eat your vegetables!” Kimberly glanced down at the plate in front of him. Seeing that her claims were indeed true, he apologized to Ms. Andrea. The Raccoon puffed her cheeks and looked away from Kimberly angrily. Concerned of the commotion, the White Prince got up from her seat and came over to place a gentle hand on Princess Kimberly’s shoulder. “Wait here,” she said before leaving the table. As if Kimberly had anywhere else to go to.

While Princess Kimberly waited for the White Prince’s return, he noticed two figures in the distance, passed the Red Queen and the cloaked Lone Wolf’s bickering. He muted the two’s argument about how the Wolf wanted to massacre more people than the Red Queen did ---but couldn’t because there was a collar around his neck--- to focus on the fight that occurred so close, yet so far away from the tea party. The Dark Knight was fighting an onyx dragon all alone. The vehement battle continued without them and somewhere inside, Kimberly knew that it would continue to be that way if they didn’t go over there. But before he could even make the attempt to move, the ebon dragon picked the Dark Knight by the leg and plopped their hero into its hungry mouth. Satisfied by its snack, the dragon flew by the table to pour itself a cup of tea.

A voice from no one in particular asked Princess Kimberly whether or not he would like a second serving. To which he absentmindedly answered, “yes” to. Vegetables ---with two or four limbs, a mouth much to wide, and a pair of eyes--- that were hiding behind and under the foods on the table, seemingly came out of nowhere and began to race each other across the table, up the Princess’s body, and into Kimberly’s mouth. He felt like they were chocking him to death and his throat did everything in its power to repel the oncoming invasion, but an unseen force made it impossible spit them out. So he swallowed them. The bitterness of the dietary plants made the Princess squint his eyes so much that his eyelids closed shut. By the time he recovered, he saw the twins returning from their quest.

The White Prince and her Silver Knight twin approached the Princess with an ornate jewelry box. They both knelt down on one knee as they presented the box. “These are for you,” they said. “For me?” The Princess took the gift and opened it gingerly. Kimberly smiled at what was in the box. He picked up the daisy hair clip and secured his long bangs to the side with it. He only briefly looked at the family photo ---of his parents, himself, and the black scribble next to him--- before burying it in a breast pocket he didn’t know he had on his princess dress. Kimberly retrieved the last of the jewelry box’s treasures and looked closely at the pin badge.

When he turned his gaze away from the logo on the badge, he was sitting on the couch in the living room of his grandparent’s house in Helston. The TV was on, airing a familiar superhero cartoon show Kimberly remembered watching early in the morning on the weekend. Between him and the TV was a boy with hair as black as night, mimicking the poses his favorite superhero was doing on the screen. The pose did not look as impressive as it did when the full-grown man did it, but it was an endearing sight to see. Even more so, since Kimberly knew the boy was quite serious. “You… really like him… don’t you?”

“Duh! He’s only like the most awesome superhero ever!”

Kimberly smiled at the boy’s response as he continued to lecture him on the perks of being a hero. The speech ended shorter than he expected when the boy suddenly admitted that he didn’t actually care whether or not he became a hero: he only wanted to protect the people that mattered to him as he didn’t want to experience loosing someone again.

Even though Kimberly was fully aware that the raven-haired boy turned his head towards him, Kimberly could only focus on the superhero’s logo that appeared on the television screen. “I’ll protect you too.”

The logo on the screen turned into a logo on a tiny pin badge in Samuel’s hand, which quickly traveled into the raven-haired boy’s hand. The boy gasped in astonishment and, unable to contain his excitement, began to make meaningless movements. “No! You’re kidding me! Really!? This is so cool! Thanks Samil!”

“No problem. Oh, hey,” Samuel pulled out a red band from his pocket and passed it to the other boy, “I think you dropped this.” The black haired boy’s excited grin turned into a warm smile. He thanked Samuel, “it’s something important for someone who’s special to me.”

Kimberly stared at the pin badge and began to fidget with the older badge in his hands.

“Kim?” Samuel asked his childhood friend, “are you okay?”
“Y-yeah… I’m fine… I just… it just… reminded me… of you.”
Samuel glanced at the pin badge, then back at Kimberly, “a pin badge reminds you of me?”

“Because you’re a superhero,” Kimberly awkwardly blurted out. He quickly continued to elaborate on what he meant when Samuel expressed confusion, “you were… always my hero… “ Flashes of the past sliced their way into Kimberly’s mind. At first, it was the times when he was alone and the only attention he got from others, that were not his family, were distant stares and whispers that were pointed at him, but were not meant to be heard by him. There were people who carved out time just to put Kimberly in an uncomfortable position. Then his savior; his hero Samuel coming in out of nowhere, whisking Kimberly away like a damsel in distress. “You were always there, at… at just the right moment… just the right place… like… like a superhero… you always… saved me.” Images of the good times, simpler times, also find their way into Kimberly’s mental montage.

“Even when… everyone left me behind, you came back for me---…” Something in the back of Kimberly’s head told him that he was starting to mix Samuel with someone else… but who? Who else was there that fit the bill? Sure there was his other childhood friends --- brought together by Samuel--- who have been there for him as well, but that was not it. There was a single incident when no one was there for him. Where only one person came back, despite the dangers of the situation. An incident, that changed his life and yet he completely forgotten about until… now? No. Even now he still couldn’t remember.

Tears started moisten his eyes. Kimberly shook the thought out of his head and continued, “I were my role model… I wanted… and still want… to be like you… even if I… I can’t be as charming as you… or eloquent as you… I wanted to be there for… those I cared for… I wanted… to be…” He almost scoffed at the idea, “a superhero. The one that… can be there in the nick of time… the one that can save lives… the one that… that… that can…”

<He> watched the world harass <her> and push <her> to <her> limits. Thousands of faces accosted <her> and hurt <her> in ways that could not always be visually detectable. <She> cries when <she> thinks no one is looking. <She> silently screams for help, expecting that no living soul would be able to hear <her> anyways. But he hears <her>. <He> always had.

“That can forgive…” Kimberly took in a deep breath and blinked away the tears, “But… I know… I know that Kimberly can… never be Samuel.” He smiled at his idol, “I may not ever be someone’s savior… I might even… only make… things worse… but I still want to be… supportive. The one who’d be there for <them> until the real hero comes to save them or they save themselves. I’ll be that tree branch that accidentally caught that person who fell off a cliff. I’ll hold that person until the rescue team takes that person away. I’ll be that stallion the prince rides to save his princess. I… I’ll even be the shackles he breaks to free her… if it means <they> would be happy.”

Isn’t… that what you’re trying to do? I can’t help but feel like you’re playing the “bad guy” for everyone else’s sake. Don’t just tell us that we wouldn’t understand and vanish from us again like some mysterious character in some entertainment media! We speak the same language! Stop and take the time to explain it to us! Don’t just walk away! Make us understand! Agreeing or disagreeing with it can come later! Just… help us understand, Samuel.

Kimberly reached for the boy in front of him as if to stop him from leaving. Samuel was smiling at him when suddenly a comically maniacal laughter erupted from above. Samuel and the raven-haired boy turned around quickly, “who goes there?” the children asked, just as theatrically as the laughter, to the figure floating above them.

Circles of bright light, projected from an unknown source, made several failed attempts to illuminate the figure before finally hitting their target: a colossal sugar pill. “It is I, Julian the Deceiver!”

The two boys gasped at the reveal and, in unison, repeated the sugar pill’s introduction once more, “Julian the Deceiver?”
“Yes! Julian the Deceiver!”
“The a**hole that replaced all the other pills with candy?”
“Yes! That was I, Julian the Deceiver!”
“No!”
“Yes!”
The night-hair pointed at Julian the Deceiver accusingly, “you’re the reason why I had to go to the dentist! You bastard!”
“It’s your own damn fault that you didn’t brush your teeth properly.”
“Stop blaming the victim for your crimes!”
Julian scoffed, “says the person who forgot.”
“I think your expiration date is today, Julian!” The boy turned to other boy, “you ready to kick some ass, Samil?”
Samuel nodded, “you bet!”

With that, the raven haired boy raised his superhero pin badge high into the air as he could and chanted the magic words: “By the power of Awesome!” Immediately, the transformation sequence began. Almost like a reused stock footage that one would see on a weekly show. And like in every episode, the superhero said his usual catch phrase at the end of his elaborate costume change, “I HAVE THE POWER!!!”

The battle between the superheroes ---Ravenwing, the black haired boy, and Dark Angel, Samuel--- and the villainous Julian was not as impressive as one would have expected between two children and a giant sugar pill and lasted only a few seconds. Once that-who-should-be-defeated was indeed defeated, the camera zoomed into Ravenwing as he turned to face to it eye-to-eye. He smiled at the audience in an exaggerated fashion, “remember kids, he-who-shall-not-be-named never counts!” He gave the camera a thumb up with his blood soaked hand as his white teeth twinkled in the light.

“This program was brought to you by the mainstream of children’s entertainment, Momento Mori; With Love, Your Brain, the reason why you can’t live a day without drugging yourself; Sweet Dreams, the company that believes it’s their duty to bring the apocalypse to your taste buds; and Your Parents: Because you wouldn’t be going through this sh*t if you hadn’t been born.”

A hand reached over to turn the rotary dial of the retro television. Slowly, it twisted the knob to another channel. On the new channel, WARG was standing on a catwalk inside of an unknown facility. Reunited with a man they all believed to have died many years ago: Samuel. They talked about Phyrexia; they talked about salvation; and they even talked about prophecies, but in the end… Samuel told them nothing.

“He did this to you, to all of us. I will make things right again, I promise.”

“Have you… ever thought,” Kimberly finally said, this time fully aware that this was indeed the real world, and not him just imagining a dead man alive, “that maybe… if you stopped treating us… like children… who aren’t… ‘old enough… to understand’… and talked to us… we might… possibly… surprise you? Stop… using us… as an excuse… Sam… We won’t… understand… if you don’t explain… We can debate… about it… afterwards.” Kimberly fidgeted with the old pin badge Samuel gave him before his disappearance. “We… should know… if… this does… involve us…”

Phyrexia… The war between Kamis…

----- At the Caravan, Kimberly Age 6 -----
The first time Kimberly met his grandmother’s “people”, he had only begun living with his grandparents for approximately a year. The Caravan had marched into town and brought excitement to the usually peaceful town of Helston. After spending time browsing the nomadic community’s shops and watching their performances with his new friends, Kimberly was taken back to the Caravan’s temporary camping area with Michaela at night time. The two weaved their way deep into the Caravan’s camp and were eventually greeted by a group of people that called themselves the Children of René ---or more simply put, the René tribe--- they were, according to his grandmother, relatives. He was less surprised when he discovered that the people of René had a custom of naming their first-born René or have the word “Rene” somewhere in their name.

Michaela ---who was, for reasons unknown to little Kimberly, called Muna the entire time--- and Kimberly were taken to a specific caravan wagon where they finally met Michaela’s oldest brother, René. They talked for a while in a foreign tongue that Kimberly never heard of, before Michaela gave René a small pouch. René mumbled something before speaking in a language Kimberly could understand, “I will do as she wishes.” It was only later that Kimberly discovered that some of his mother’s ashes were in the pouch.

The rest of the night was spent eating dinner and René proudly teaching Kimberly of his heritage.

“So… the René tribe… has no homeland?”
René nodded, “if we did, it is long gone; destroyed by the Kamis.”
“Why… would they do that?”
“Haha, I don’t think it was on purpose little one. A battle between very powerful forces is not something that could be contained.”
“How… did anyone… survive then?”
“According to our legends, only a handful of our ancestors survived the aftermath of the Kamis' war. Most of which did not have the strength to live on anymore. A number of benevolent Kamis took pity on them and helped out in what little ways they could. One in particular, a Kami that we know now as the Nameless One, sacrificed a lot to save our ancestors. Many of our traits are said to have originated from what the Nameless One sacrificed.”
“Like…?”
“Amongst the survivors, there were three siblings. The eldest child was blinded by a Kami’s light, so the Nameless One pulled out zher own eyes and gave it to the eldest. From that day on, the children of the eldest had unusual eyes that could see things that no normal man could see.” Kimberly looked directly into René’s amethyst eyes as the older man continued, “the middle sibling became deaf by a Kami’s mighty shout, so the Nameless One gave zher ears to the middle child…”
“And from… that day on… children of the middle child… could hear things… that no man… could?”
“Ahahaha! You catch on quickly little one! You’re right! More specifically, they learned how to communicate with the spirits directly. These are the people who became the Caravan’s shamans. Finally, the youngest sibling had his throat sliced by the blade of a Kami, but only barely managed to survive.”
“So the Nameless One… ripped… zher? Throat out…?”
“And gave the most beautiful and powerful voice to the youngest sibling. With this voice, the youngest sibling was able to move his people’s hearts and encouraged them to live, once again… However. They still had no home to go back to… a country they used to be a part of… their identity died along with everyone else. So the Nameless One made the ultimate sacrifice… Zhe gave zher name away.”
“Giving up… a name… is the ultimate sacrifice?”
“Do not under estimate the power of a name, little one. A name is an identity; it is something that people will refer you as and it is what people will remember you as. Without an identity, we would all be lost. My mother theorized that, for a Kami, to give up one’s name is a death sentence.”
“Is… that why… this Kami is… called the Nameless One?”
“Yes. The Nameless One gave up zher name and gave it to our ancestors. To honor the Nameless One’s sacrifice, we named our first born with the name René.”
“Doesn’t that mean… the Nameless One’s name… is René?”
“You’d think so, right? The truth is, we don’t actually know. Some say that it was René while others say that the pronunciation changed over time so the name sounds entirely different. Some even say that René was only part of the Nameless One’s unbelievably long name, but a very vital part of zher name.”
“Vital… part?”
“It is unknown what kind of Kami the Nameless One was, but the name René itself means ‘rebirth’. If the Nameless One was a Kami of life or rebirth, then it would make sense that René was a vital part of zher identity.”

Kimberly stared at the ground in thought for a moment, “but… wouldn’t that mean… that Kami was… reborn as the people… with the name René?”

René’s eyes widened in astonishment, “you are a bright child, aren’t you, little one?” He turned to his younger sister, “if I hadn’t known he was Viator’s grandchild too, I would have sworn you kidnapped him from somewhere else!”

“I might be old, but I still consider myself a Warrior of René and you know better than to talk like that to a Warrior of René.” Michaela warned her older brother.

René laughed and stood up to open the sunroof of the wagon. To those who could not see spirits, it was dark out side, but for those who could see them, they saw the bright stream of spirits hovering above the Caravan. “It all depends on which version of the legend you believe in. Some say the Nameless One simply died and returned to the life stream at the heart of Atlas.” René pointed at the sky, “you may not see it, but there’s a large group of spirits that travel with the Caravan. Some think that the weakened spirit of the Nameless One is actually among the group of spirits. Hidden so that other Kami that wish zhim harm would not notice zhim.” René closed the sunroof and sat back down close to Kimberly. “Others believe what you just guessed: that the Nameless One, or at least a part of the Nameless One’s soul, is reborn in every child who receives the name René. If this is true, then…” the older man pointed at his chest, “there’s a part of the Nameless One in me,” then he pointed at Kimberly’s chest, “and a part of the Nameless One in you.”

Kimberly placed a hand over his chest, “that’s… a lot of… Nameless Ones…”

“Regardless of the truth, I think this tradition started to show how much we appreciate what the Nameless One did for us. To prove how much we admired zhim and would like our children to be just as selfless as zhe was. The Nameless One was one of our saviors and we should never forget that. Even if zhe became nameless.”

Kimberly rubbed his chest, “a… hero…”

René smiled at his sister’s grandchild, “and you should never forget about the people who did something for you, right?”

The child nodded.

“Even if the rest of the world forgets, you should always remember.”

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