Young Writers Society

The desert is cold and empty, and the moon is high in the night sky. You don't know how you ended up in this town. You don't even know where this town is. All you know is that you are now in a town unlike any other town you have ever been in, and that the sand wastes outside the town's borders stretch for miles upon miles without any form of civilization.

There's a hum in the air. A thick, humid hum, even though the air is cold and silent. The abandoned town - abandoned as if its people vanished somehow in the middle of the night - feels heavy with the weight of other lives that could have been.

The town had its secrets before. It still has them now. And while town may have been fond of its oddities, it is certainly not fond of sharing its secrets. Yet secrets are always a necessity when brought to strange, unfamiliar places.To survive, you must push past your primeval fear and wander into the unknown.



Please read the rules down below if you want to join the roleplay! They should clear up any questions you might have and also let you know what to expect.

1. Please include a description of your character in your first post - you can throw it into a spoiler using the code down below and put it at the top of your post.

Code: Select all

[spoiler]Put your description here![/spoiler]

2. Feel free to pick characters from whatever you want. They can be from another roleplay, a storybook, a novel or even a fanfiction of yours. The world, time and plot they're from ultimately just impacts how they interact with this roleplay (like if they live on Earth or an Earth-like world that would have a town like this) so it's really up to you.

3. You can have as many characters as you want, but there'll come a point where you can no longer add new ones because it would alter the plot too much. I'll make sure to say something when that happens, so don't worry about it for now.

4. Please don't write for anyone else's characters. It's hard to predict what someone else might have their characters do, and it takes away some of the fun for the other writers.

5. You're free to have your character guess what the plot is, but don't make any plot-altering decisions with talking about with me first. You can PM me or chat in the spoilers of our posts if you have an idea - I love scheming! I just want to make sure your schemes can be incorporated into what I'm already scheming.

6. Don't post multiple times in a row, and make sure everyone has a chance to get a response in. There's going to be times where it makes more sense to post back-and-forth between two people, but try avoiding it unless you absolutely have to - it prevents the other writers from getting too behind and feeling like they aren't involved with the story.

7. Have fun!

The town was quiet.

Sebastian took in a breath of harsh, cold air. He had rarely ventured into the desert, even for his assignments. His companions stood beside him and stared at the expansive town before them. A place this large and modern should have never been reduced to an empty copy of what it was before, but it strangely had no people. The war had left town in ruin like this, too, but this town lacked that kind of destruction. It was as if all of its occupants had just gotten up and left in the middle of the night.

He heard Adam let out a breath beside him.

They weren't on speaking terms before this. They had gotten into another one of their arguments; Quentin had to draw them apart. He couldn't remember if it was over magic or his involvement in the military - the arguments all seemed to blur together. Things had become so tense after he followed through with the colonel's request.

But they couldn't avoid speaking in a situation like this.

Without discussing it, the three turned their back to the desert beyond the town and stared at the town itself. They were standing near what must have been some kind of gas receptacle from the car parked outside of it and the sign, but he had never seen a place like it before.

Adam gave an impressed whistle.

"That's a fancy car - isn't it, Quentin?" he asked.

"It is," Sebastian softly agreed.

There was a tense, long silence.

Quentin said nothing. He left the two of them standing where they were in their awkward silence, marching on over to the car and studying it sleek, small design. He opened the passenger's door and peered inside, the moonlight and a blinking light in the ceiling of the gas receptacle as his own source of light.

"It looks different than the cars you use," he said, turning back to Sebastian. "Have you ever seen anything like it?"

Sebastian shook his head.

Adam mirrored the response a second later. "It looks like something out of a kid's drawing, or something that pipsqueak might come up with." He paused, looked the car over again, and shook his head. "No, I take that back. This car is much more tasteful than anything that dog of the military could come up with."

After a second passed, Sebastian joined Quentin in examining the car. It wasn't long before Adam joined them as well.

They searched the car for clues in silence.

Vanya's gaze shifted over the desert around her. The air felt charged, buzzing with...power? Anticipation? Often, those were very close to the same things.

Suddenly there was a loud coughing from beside her like someone had tried to breathe the sand dunes. From the space where the noise originated the air shimmered and shifted, filling with color here and there which came together like a liquid puzzle to form the now-visible Kivvien hacking his lungs out and covered in sand.

Vanya sighed, "Kiv."

He kept coughing.

"Kiv."

Still coughing.

"Kivvien!"

He spluttered and looked up, visibly trying to quell his cough as he stared at her. Once he'd succeeded he grinned, "Why hello Vany, fancy seeing you here."

She offered him her hand and he let her help him up. "You're looking dashing today, my lady."

"Why were you invisible?"

He shrugged, "Just testing out the old spell."

She gave him a look.

He blushed, "Tasha caught me with Rosy."

She sighed, "Tasha is a smart girl Kivvien-"

"I know, I know," he said earnestly, "I really do. I just...I didn't realize she thought we were...You know, because she's so smart usually, I thought she knew..."

Vanya cut off whatever he was going to say next, "Geography spell. Where are we?"

Kivvien seemed glad for the distraction and grabbed one of his bottles. The plastic crackled and creaked as he held it tightly in one hand and twisted off the cap. He reacher his fingers into one of his pouches and sprinkled a pinch of some kind of powder into the bottle, which he swirled around. The green liquid turned light blue, then grey and he downed it.

He odd-eye swirled with black like ink in water as he stared blankly into the middle distance for a long moment.

"No idea," he said, his eye going back to as normal as it had been before.

Vanya nodded. She'd expected that. She turned toward the town. "Into there then."

Kivvien smirked and stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Looks deserted to me. You think we'll meet any cute scavenger girls?"

"Your mind is a horrible place."

"I know, but you love me anyway."

Vanya rolled her eyes and started walking, and Kiv soon followed. They came to the gas station, the others, and stopped. People were good, usually. If they were always good Vanya would still have an arm.

"Sup," Kivvien called, earning a look from Vanya. "What? Were you going to make a dramatic speech?"

She rolled her eyes, "Do any of you know where we are?"

Even before he noticed the odd details about their appearances, Sebastian was alert and wary. He had spent nearly two years serving under Colonel Mustang now - it had given him a few good instincts. There was the possibility that anyone else here would be in the same situation as them, but it was just as likely that they were the ones who had brought the trio to this town.

"We don't," Quentin softly said, giving a shake of his head. Adam was raising an eyebrow as he leaned against the other side of the car and peered over at the strange duo. Sebastian couldn't tell if it was because of Quentin's unsurprising politeness or what the two looked like.

"What's up with your hair?" Adam asked, voice scathing. His gaze swept over to the girl's companion. "Better yet, what's up with your eye?"

Sebastian turned back to him, eyes widening in horror at his companion's rudeness. Adam was usually rude, but never so soon. "Adam," he hissed.

"Sebastian," Adam hissed back - apparently breaking their unspoken agreement to not speak to each other again. "There's three types of people with appearances like that - four, if you count the palm tree. I checked for the first kind. You know the second and third, and you know how much I hate people like. Just because you're both doesn't mean-"

Quentin shot him a look.

"Adam," he said, "now is not the time to be getting into arguments with Sebastian."

Adam folded his arms and scowled.

"I'm sorry for my companion," Sebastian apologized. He took a step forward and offered a gloved hand. "My name is Sebastian Kueper - I'm the Glasswork Alchemist. My friend Quentin is wearing the armor, while Adam is the one with the angry look on his face."

Kivvien had his arms crossed, and he didn't change that to accept the extended hand.

"What's wrong with my eye?" he asked defensively.

"Kivvien," Vanya shot him a look, then turned back to these new people to accept Sebastian's offered hand, "I am Vanya of Wen, and my companion is Kivvien. You said you're an alchemist?"

Kivvien got an offended look on his face, "My lady?!" he gasped.

She blinked at him, "What?"

"I see how it is," he said in a huff, "Fine. If my spells aren't good enough for you then I'll-"

"Kivvien?" she said, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Please shut up." His mouth clamped shut.

With a long-suffering sigh, she turned back to the others, "I'm sorry about him, he's easily offended." Kivvien opened his mouth to protest but a glare from Vanya had him shutting up again, "We don't know what brought us here or why, but judging by who it chose, I don't imagine it's good."

"It's alright," Sebastian reassured her. He cast a glance back in Adam's direction - Adam immediately looked away in response. "I know a thing or two about easily offended people."

His hand returned to his side.

"I'm inclined to agree," Quentin said, joining Sebastian and looking the two over. "Whoever brought us here must have had some reason to."

Adam snorted.

"Yeah," he said. "The reason is that Sebastian's one of the military's dogs. I'd kidnap him for that."

James had not forgotten the year of chaos that mysterious and sometimes, not entirely explainable magic had provided for him, nor had he forgotten the trouble that followed after.

That said, it had been almost year since he’d last been transported to another world or universe altogether.

So it did not alarm him in the usual sense of alarm when he found himself standing a small distance outside of a town that looked far more modern than anything he knew on his home world. But he was mildly surprised that it happened... again. It would’ve been natural for him to wonder: why here? why now? But he learned that those questions didn’t always get answers, so he stopped trying to ask them. Or at least, stopped caring whether or not he got an answer.

Dust blew up from the dry desert ground in a weak breeze. The moon shone brightly among the stars in the sky, and the only sign of civilization was a town that looked deserted. James knew the feeling in his gut when he looked at it. He should run. He should try his chances in the wild. Would it really be worse? But if patterns rang true, he wasn’t the only one in this mess, and he would probably need others’ help to get out of it.

So he started walking. He was too far away to see if anyone was in the distance (not that his eyesight was the sharpest in the first place), but he was very aware of as much as he could perceive.

So when a horse started to walk up to him from the side, he noticed.

James looked over, watching the horse with a critical eye. It was pitch black, and it had reins and a saddle, but the saddle was empty. It didn’t seem to have any saddlebags or the typical traveller’s gear on it, and most concerningly, it was lacking a rider.

James approached slowly, tentatively reaching out a hand to see how it would respond to human interaction. His eyebrows raised when it pushed its nose under his palm. A strange feeling washed over him as him and the horse made contact.

He hadn’t pet a horse since Elliot.

His hand brushed the horse’s snout gently as he pushed back the memories with great pain. He could feel the ignored knot of sadness in his stomach and his throat squirm as the horse proceeded to sniff his hand.

The horse seemed very docile. Already trained. Calm around strangers - bold with them even.

He glanced over at the town, and then at the blank expanse of desert behind him. There was no one around. Not even a sign of someone near who might own the lost, rider-less horse.

James took its reins and began to lead it with him. The horse agreeably followed. It wasn’t until they got much closer, coming up and over a sandy hill that he saw a group of people by a gas station.

He was glad he knew what cars and gas stations were, but good gods, he did not look like he belonged among them. He knew exactly what he looked like, especially with a horse now in tow, to the five people he was approaching.

He looked like a cowboy.

The air hummed with something. Adam couldn't put his finger on what, but he knew it wasn't anything good. It gave him the same feeling as the military did. Maybe that last part wasn't entirely true - this town had done nothing to prove itself dirty. But Adam couldn't stop thinking about his last argument with Sebastian, which had evolved from one about magic to one about him being in the military.

Again.

Sebastian was being stupid. There were other ways to find out information. If another war rolled around, he'd have to fight in it. And Adam didn't trust the military enough to believe that Sebastian would never have to fight in one. State alchemists like him were human weapons. Sebastian didn't seem to get that.

So, yes, he was giving him the silent treatment. But maybe the silence would make him see the bigger picture.

He cast a brief glance at Sebastian. He was peering off into the distance. Quentin was, too, but that was always harder to tell. Adam followed their gazes and studied the figures on the horizon: a man clad in a very rural looking outfit, and a beautiful black horse. The guy looked like he belonged on some kind of ranch or farm - maybe in Resembool, where Sebastian always got his automail fixed by that girl and her grandma.

"Hi," Sebastian called out, his voice just loud enough to be heard by the newcomer but just quiet enough not to be a shout.

James couldn’t make out what was said, hut he was pretty sure he heard something. Something that didn’t seem hostile.

He lifted his free hand and gave a simple, stiff wave, stopping a few feet from the group. He decided to refrain from speaking just yet, and wait to see how the others would react.

Kivvien nudged Vanya when he saw the cowboy approaching, "Look," he said in a not-very-quiet whisper.

She was already looking, so shot him a look for his redundant command before looking back at the man. He'd stopped now, and her eyes scanned him up and down.

She smiled and stepped forward, offering him her hand, "I'm Vanya," she inclined her head toward Kivvien, "My friend over there is Kiv. We've only just met the others. You wouldn't happen to be from around here, would you?" She hoped he was a local. Locals were always so much more helpful than fellow strangers, and they were less likely to think that traveling with Vanya's crew - whoever that entailed at the time - was something they were entitled to, or even a good idea.

James looked down at the hand, but didn’t move to shake it. He didn’t feel obligated anymore, and it was easier to pretend he didn’t know what she was doing, so he just feigned mild confusion on his face before looking back up at her.

“Unfortunately for you, I am not. I’m assuming all of you are in the same situation - you don’t know how you got here, and you don’t know where you are.”

She put her hand down and nodded, about to respond when Kivvien chimed in, "Yeah, it happens around her a lot. We just gotta find the sorcerer or whatever that brought us here and Vanya'll take care of it."

She shot him a dirty look and he shrank back.

"This doesn't feel like the other times," she corrected him, turning back to the newcomer, "I believe that there's something different happening here."

"Dude! Introduce your horse!" Kivvien chimed in again.

Vanya got a defeated look on her face and pinched the bridge of her nose, muttering in a strange language under her breath.

James stared at Kiv blankly, blinking slowly.

His... horse.

There was only a second’s delay as he looked back at the black steed, and his mind grasped for a name. It wasn’t his horse, but none of the others had jumped to claim it or said it was theirs. They assumed it was his. Being suddenly handed the responsibility of ownership, even if temporary, was not something he wanted to carry lightly.

But he didn’t know what name the horse would respond to. He knew it was something entirely out of his control, and the others probably wouldn’t even notice, but to him... it bothered him. But nothing could be done.

“My horse?” He said, looking back to Kiv. “I call her Shadowheart. And as for myself, you can call me James.”

Sebastian was so intent on listening to the conversation that he forgot to introduce himself, and Adam was so intent on ignoring Sebastian that he hadn't bothered to introduce the group. Quentin knew what to expect from the two of them at this point, but their animosity was growing increasingly more frustrating today.

"My name is Quentin," he offered. He didn't extend a hand. Though it was partially because James strangely didn't seem to know what it meant, it was also to avoid certain little features of Quentin's from being picked up by an attentive observer. "Sebastian is the state alchemist, and Adam is the one wearing the regular clothes."

Sebastian seemed to remember he wasn't just an onlooker when he heard his name mentioned. His gaze lingered on Vanya and Kivvien. Given the last argument between Sebastian and Adam, he already knew what to expect from the state alchemist.

"I don't think it was a sorcerer," Sebastian said, his disbelief clear in his voice. Behind him, Adam gave a groan. "It's more likely an alchemist than that. I think we were kidnapped, but I'm still trying to figure out why-"

"Not this again," Adam interrupted. "Magic exists, Sebastian! This isn't any of your alchemy. Not a single place in Amestris looks like this one, and you can't tell me that your 'alchemy' explains his eye!"

He gestured over at Kivvien.

"We shouldn't be arguing," Sebastian said, tension already rising in his voice.

"You're the one saying that it can't be a sorcerer," Adam hissed. "I haven't ever met a sorcerer, but I'm sure they can exist if we're here! Stop trying to change the subject and start facing the facts."

Sebastian crossed his arms and glared at Adam - a look and posture Adam happily returned.