The Red Zephyr

Sanctuary

Well played, Kyle.

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I have no idea what I just read...

Anywho, I have only two things to say:

Summer.

Life.

Take those things as you will.

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AnriuSB said

And Skai:

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Ha, favorite character. You don't even know the planz bro.

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It's funny cuz I thought about doing a secret message thing with that but... too much work. It was supposed to stylization, but current RPG doesn't have very many options.

Maybe I will in the future I'll do tricky stuff like that. I plan on Bishop being very experimental.

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Hell just froze over: I posted.

The weston bit was actually a flashback I wrote a week ago. I just did the Bishop stuff.

Shhh, I totally didn't give like a third of the size of the post I wanted to because fuck it...

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(Way) Previously on Sanctuary

Weston Meyer, a captain of the Leginian Continental Army, has been a pawn in a game of power, fear, and politics since the fall of Sovereign. In the first months following the “Apocalypse,” he was the highest-ranking known surviving officer in the city, and commanded the remnants of the Army in Sovereign to the best of his ability. Unfortunately, most remaining forces dissolved into groups of survivors or went insane, leaving the captain with little to work with. A quarter into the year however, he was finally contacted by forces outside of the Spartan Wall and told that they would be assisting in maintaining the quarantine. Soon after, the military occupied Sovereign en masse, setting up a standard of martial law, and eventually a “kill-on-sight” policy regarding Kage hosts, especially suspected Conduits. A Conduit himself, Weston was forced to keep his abilities and the voice in his head a secret.

Under the military’s regime, Weston begrudgingly carried out dozens of questionably orders, capturing and—in some cases—killing various “high priority targets”. Needless to say, most of these targets were Kage hosts of both varieties. As the months drew on, the captain’s doubts grew and grew, weighing heavily on his tired mind.

--Three Months After the Fall—

The tattered room Weston found himself in could hardly be called an office. What had once been the seat of power for Gaia’s head of military force now made his old captain’s office in Arcarus look like a luxury suite. Despite the tidying Weston had done since first moving in, the walls and floors were still cracked and chipped and the old Brigadier General’s desk was getting ready to fall in half. Despite it’s condition it happened to be the most in-tact officer’s quarters left at Fort Readon, just as Weston happened to be the most in-tact officer there.

Sitting back in a rickety left-over chair, he stared blankly at the ruined ceiling tiles above him, counting the broken corners in a dazed attempt to maintain his sanity. Finding little solace in this exercise, he lowered his gaze back down to the desk in front of him and the chipped glass half-full with amber liquid in his left hand. Part of him regretted downing that whole bottle of Valiran Malt, while the other part wished this wasn’t the last glass. A sigh passed his lips at the sight of the four empty bottles gathered in the corner of the desk, and then another at the sight of the pile in the corner of the office. I guess I should count myself lucky this much of the General’s stash survived, he thought before taking a penultimate gulp from the glass.

Casualty counts, survivor conditions, food and fuel inventory, priorities, plans, speculation: The weight of the world sat on Weston’s shoulders and not a single person out there could lighten the load. It had been little more than two months since the Void and Aeros collided so violently, tearing Leginia’s capital to shreds. Any measures or procedures taken for disaster recovery had been completely abandoned, leaving Sovereign in a state of confused, chaotic anarchy. The few resources the remnants of the military left were not enough for Weston to provide any noticeable relief for survivors of the catastrophe, so the forces he had left to command were little more than refugees themselves. However much he wanted to help and keep tabs on the city, keeping his soldiers nourished enough not to go postal was challenge enough already.

His eyes once again fell on the glass, now gleaming in the evening twilight, sitting in his hand. There was a finger’s width of liquid left filling the glass, taunting Weston with an impending lack of alcohol. Finally murmuring a “Fuck it” from under his breath, he lifted the glass to his lips and—

“Captain!”

Suddenly, the door to the former general’s office swung open, and Weston found his front soaked in Valiran Malt. In the doorway stood a familiar Lieutenant Riley Maize with a familiar look on her face. “Captain!” she called, breathing as if she had sprinted ten miles to get to the office.

Déjà vu, immediately crossed his mind. “Riley, what is it?” he answered, half expecting her to say ”The 104th is being deployed, sir,” just to complete the Groundhog Day sensation. Instead, he got a surprise that topped the deployment of an entire Army base:

“They’re… here,” Riley breathed out desperately.

“They?” Weston replied. It was obvious who “they” were, but the Malt did its best to sustain his denial.

“The military. A handful of shuttles just passed over the wall and are on the way…”

_____________________________

Play

“Oh my, isn’t this troublesome.”

A light breeze swept through what was once a carriage parking garage, all but breaking the silence among seven figures, only five of which were living. The two lacking in life SEemEd to have solidified into statues of their former selves, expressions of utter fear painting their stony faces. The other bodies in the empty garage floor varied in shape and size, ranging from a nervous-looking white-haired girl to a disinterested androgynous teen in a thick hoodie. Crouching in front of the rocky silhouettes was what apPeaRed to be a dirty-blonde young man with both a smirk of amusement and squint of concern in his expression. His red-tinted snake-like eyes darted back and forth between the anxious girl next to him and the pair of man-shaped sculptures. With a disappointed sigh, he glance back at her and said, “You really need to stop doing this to strangers, Shara. They turn to stone, then their friends get mad, then we have to tell them, then everything turns into a big mess, y’know?”

The nervous girl named Shara looked at the ground and hid her face with her hands. “I’m so so so sorry, B,” she wined, then continued with increasing speed, ”I just turned the corner and they were right there and they had guns and I thought they’d shoot and they looked so mean and—“

~Shut uuuup~

“Hey hey,” the snake-eyed boy interrupted, moving over to the girl and resting his hands on her shoulders, “calm down, it’ll be okay. Okay?”

Shara looked up at him, removing her hands from her face, and slowed her hastened breathing. For some sTranGe reason, she found comfort in Bishop’s sinister-looking eyes. “O-okay,” she mumbled, wiping away a tear on her left cheek.

“You’re such a baby,” a new voice teased. A rather tall lanky man with long jet-black hair stepped closer to the pair and placed his hand on Shara’s head, tousling her ivory hair. “How have you made it this long? Shouldn’t you be outta bottles and diapers by now?”

~Oh, how clever~

“Why are you so mean Jardis?” Shara wimpered, emphasizing the word ‘mean’ as much as possible. “I’m far from a baby and you know it!”

Jardis scoffed, “Oh really? If you’re so old, you should act more like it then. If it wasn’t for me and Alex, you’re crybaby attitude would’ve gotten you killed a long time ago.” He nodded his head toward the teen in the purple hoodie. “Isn’t that right?”

Without hardly moving, the hooded Alex glanced briefly at the gaunt man and replied curtly, “Whatever, sure.”

~Well aren’t you cool~

Obviously annoyed Jardis, brushed off Alex’s rudeness and continued, “Exactly, so you need to grow up girly. We can’t get by turning everyone we run across into statues, then crying all day about it.”

Just before Bishop could reply, another voice—a young woman’s—piped up: “Can we get a move on already? By now, that guy is probably nice and cozy in their hideout and we’re out here crying over spilled milk.” The girl was perhaps, the strangest-looking of the group: She had what was once bright-pink hair, now faded over time; she wore an ugly orange sweatshirt that was too big for her with an oxen silhouette sprawled over the front of it; and a metal collar bound loosely around her neck with three chain rings hanging off the front of it.

Jardis and Shara lowered their heads in self-disappointment, while the snake-eyed boy brought himself to his feet and Alex continued to lean nonchalantly against the wall.

“Y’know she’s got a point. Our new friend is getting farther out of reach the longer we mosey around here. So what say you we all stop by the hospital and pay him a visit?” Bishop stretched his arms above his head before taking a step toward the downward staircase, but was interrupted before he could take another.

“Not sure they’ll be too happy about their buddies becoming a new tourist attraction.” Alex piped up, almost showing a hint of concern in the usually uncaring voice.

~Can we leave?~

Bishop quickly swung around on his right toes and replied energetically, “It’ll be fine, just have faith my friend! I’m sure they have friends of their own with abilities and they’ll understand. It was all just a big mIsunDerstAndiNg, so let’s get going!”

~Finally~

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Well, I last left Weston calling himself Deekin for reasons.

One of Bishop's people might include a cameo as well.

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Unimpressed? I was just making a reference to the original RP, where dudes named "Mike" and "Joe" and whatnot were getting wrecked by Yugeto's old character who went nuckin futs.

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Sage said
Asian Parent Level Attained!

It's five AM and I think that will be the funniest thing anyone will say all day, so my expectations have been dramatically lowered.

Not sure how my post will read, since I am literally introducing 12 characters with Bishop. I think I'll just do four of them with this post, but still. It's possible I'll ad a side character list in my CS thread post for reference. Each of them is a side character, but tied close enough with Bishop to get significant "screen time". They wont be cannon fodder/plot devices like those Golden Mercs that Caleb killed back in the day with generic names no one could remember.