Young Writers Society

This story starts with you in a place you're very much familiar with: home.

It might not be your physical home, but it's your home world and home reality. You're somewhere that you consider normal. Your idea of normal might not match someone else's, but life for you is going exactly as expected.

That's about to change.

One moment, you're in the place that you're supposed to be. The next, you find that you're in a strange, unfamiliar alien world. You don't know how you got there; you don't know how to get back. All that you know is that you're somewhere you're very much not supposed to be.

And you don't have any answers for why.

If you're going to get home, you'll have to do some exploring. You'll also have to do some surviving. Thankfully, you're not the only person who's ended up in this strange place. There are other people, too, and they're just as confused as you are. You're all in this together.

And in this hostile world, you're going to need all the help you can get.

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]

If you don't include the description in your first post, make sure to mention it over in the OOC thread!

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, 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'll get too overwhelming. 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 our ooc thread if you have an idea - I love scheming! c:

(It would also be really helpful if you said you were joining over in that thread, rather than in a post here. <3)

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 last thing that Lee remembered was entering his room after a long day at the tea shop. He felt like he could sleep for a week after the slew of customers that had come today. The tea was simply too good and too accessible for anyone to pass up on a slightly chilly day. It wasn't really all that cold - Lee knew cold - but the people of Ba Sing Se could use the comfort.

But before he could fling himself onto his bed or rest while watching the city with the flying lemur that always visited his window, Lee found himself in a place that wasn't like anywhere he had ever been before. It immediately made a pit grow in his stomach.

There were no signs that this was where he thought it was, but he knew stories of people whisked away when they thought they had escaped. There was nothing to say that he wasn't in the same situation. He wanted to think this was just a dream, but this felt far too real to be one.

"Hello?" Lee hesitantly called out. "Is anyone there?"

He desperately hoped that whoever might answer was human.

Peanut tidied up her desk, picking up the loose papers scattered in piles from her rather poor habit of rewriting emails for twenty times before hitting "send." Her foot caught on her chair, causing her to fall right onto her butt. Gosh darn it, she sighed, getting up from her unfortunate positioning.

She closed her eyes, trying to take a deep breath despite the growing frustration building within her. Things were going to be okay, things were going to be -- her thoughts cut off from a voice in the distance. A voice? She was at home, but Peanut thought her roommate was still going to be at their boyfriend's house for the next day.

"Hello?" She answered, opening her eyes only to scream. Her brain processed the information before her in waves.

First, that Peanut was not at home anymore. Second, that whereever she was seemed strange earthy, for lack of a better word. And, third, which might be the most important fact, was that she apparently wasn't alone.

Maybe the self-defense would come in handy.

With that in mind, she repeated her greeting, "Hello! I don't know where I am. Do you?"

Someone was screaming.

By the time the greeting finally left their lips, Lee was rushing towards the source of the noise. He only came to a stop when he saw who had spoken - his previously injured leg screaming out in protest as he stopped running. The person who had spoken was a woman around his age. Her clothes were an unfamiliar style, and her hair was just as unfamiliar.

"Are you okay?" he asked, dark eyes wide and alert. He frantically looked around. There was nothing that made it seem like she was in any immediate danger. The only danger here was probably him, given how suddenly he appeared and how unfamiliar he must have looked to her. "I heard you screaming, so I came as quickly as I could."

Then understanding dawned on him.

She must have screamed because she had ended up here so suddenly. If Lee wasn't used to places like this, he probably would have had a similarly frightened reaction.

"My name is Lee," he offered. "I, uh, don't know exactly where we are."

He faltered. Shifting his weight from his bad leg to his good one, he scanned the strange forest they were in for confirmation of what he didn't want to accept.

"...I do have an idea of where we are," he admitted. "Have you ever encountered a spirit?"

Evaline didn't know how much longer she could last.

The days were starting to blend together. She didn't know when it began or ended. She was forgetting the names and faces of people she was supposed to be meeting up with, forgetting where she was supposed to go. Sleep was becoming irregular and feared. How much longer could she do this? She felt like she was one small thread away from breaking.

"Evaline," a familiar voice called to her, and it was her voice. Her face came to view, rot and decay on her cheeks. "Did you miss me?" she said as a beetle crawled out of her eye.

"Evaline!" the same familiar voice called to her.

Evaline blinked, and saw that it was just Tula standing over her, looking concerned.

"Are you okay? You've been... off, lately," she said, looking at her up and down.

"I—yeah," Evaline said quietly, rubbing her eyes. "Just tired. Sorry."

"Well, okay. Get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow," Tula said, giving her a quick pat on the back before walking away.

The walk to her room felt like a daze, and Evaline had to be careful to deliberately take every step and not look up at anyone who passed her, even though they were talking and trying to get her attention.

At least, she thought they did. Sweat dropped down her face as she blocked out any noise to fully concentrate, even though she could see the floor underneath her crawl with small mice, then rats, then big snakes that slithered by her feet and turned to her with beady eyes. She didn't look back at it, instead concentrating on the floor her feet were grounded upon, noticing how the tiles seemed to crumble into dirt and transform into bits of yellow grass, then lush green grass.

It wasn't real.

It wasn't real.

It wasn't real.

Feeling like she might throw up any second, she reached for the doorknob of her room and walked through, only to trip trying to enter.

She felt her hands land on the grass.

Shivering, Evaline took a shaky deep breath out and slowly opened her eyes to see that she was still on the green grass despite the ticking seconds and her repeated blinks. Feeling desperate, she frantically looked around and felt her chest go numb.

She was now in the wilderness, but not just any wilderness. A fantasy wilderness.

"I've gone insane," she whispered to herself with an almost psychotic-looking smile, nearly laughing.

Chudnofsky moved through the local park, keeping his face down and eyes alert for any signs of trouble. The night time crowd in Hydrania was not the type you wanted to run into on a peaceful midnight walk.

As he wandered round a swathe of roni trees he suddenly saw the grass on the ground change to an alien green instead of the usual blue. The light surrounding them changed to something more resembling an yellow sun. He looked up. He was in some forest, somehow having travelled through a rift into another world.

He let out a sigh and stamped the ground in frustration, his foot going in much deeper than anticipated. Why does this nonsense keep happening to me? I really need to call the cleanup crew about the darn things. Knowing that usually he wasn't the only one to get sucked in, he looked around to see if he could spot anyone.

"Anyone here?" he called out.

Peanut blinked at the sight of someone stumbling into the area she had found herself. Was he limping? She hoped he hadn't gotten hurt from her admittedly loud entrance.

"I am so sorry, Lee," she said, picking at her nails. "I didn't mean to scare you or anything, I was just," she trailed off. "Very scared?"

Oh, she didn't introduce herself, yet. Her head snapped up to meet his gaze. "Apologies, I'm Peanut."

"And did you say spirit? Have I ever met a spirit?" She threw her arms open wide. "I can't say I have."

"Have you then?"

"It's alright," he reassured her. It would have been more frightening for him if he hadn't suddenly ended up in a strange, unfamiliar place more than once in his past.

Then her question registered.

He faltered.

He was the one who asked the question; he knew he was supposed to answer with yes. But he had become so used to hiding parts of his life and his past, and admitting that he had any involvement with spirits felt like it was going against every rule he had given himself to make sure he survived without getting caught.

"...I have," he finally admitted. "I've heard stories of spirits taking people away after they already escaped, so I thought that was what might have happened here-"

Someone called out from nearby.

"We should go see if they need help," Lee suggested.

He wanted to wait for Peanut to answer, but he had no idea how urgent the other person's call was. Turning - and still limping - he started to head towards the other person. He caught a glimpse of fiery red hair and wings before his foot caught on something and he went tumbling to the ground with a loud yelp.

He glanced back to see what he had tripped on.

It was a person.

She had to be close to his age, but she was wearing clothes that were in a style he had never seen before. Combined with the appearances of everyone else he had seen since ending up here, Lee was feeling really out of place.

But he had still tripped on her, and it would be rude not to apologize for that.

"I'm sorry," he said, rushing to get up. The getting to his feet part was a bit of a struggle thanks to the limp, so he settled for just sitting away from her instead. "I didn't mean to trip on you - I should have been paying more attention."

He stuck out a hand.

"I'm Lee," he offered. "Do you need help getting up?"

Evaline was still on her knees on the ground, and she stared back at the grass, eyes wide, face sweating, hands bunched up around the grass. This couldn't be real. This couldn't. This was just all in her mind. She just had to close her eyes, breath in and out, concentrate, and then open her eyes again. After that, she'll be back in her room. This was just another hallucination. It was all in her mind.

She did exactly that, droning out the noise around her. She could vaguely hear conversations in the distance, but she didn't pay attention to the words they could be saying. To her, this meant she truly was back at the hallway, where people frequently conversed to chat.

She didn't get to finish her breathing exercise as something seemed to brush up against her foot.

Panic and fear electrocuted through her body as she immediately opened her eyes and turned to see who or what it was.

It was a man.

But not any man.

It was him.

"I'm coming for you," he said with a dark face and a sinister smile, getting up on his feet. "You're losing your mind, and I'm coming for you." He reached his hand out to her, and Evaline snapped out of her horrified wide-eyed look as adrenaline took control of her body.

"No," she said in a choked shaky voice, unable to hide the terror she was feeling. Survival instinct took over, and she spun to get up on her feet, but not before roundhouse kicking his knees, angling her boot to strike the back of them so that he'd fall over.

And then she ran, not looking back to see if the move worked. She could only assume that she'll gain distance at this point.

She had to get away, but her vision was blurring, and she was aimlessly running.

What was real, and what wasn't? She wasn't sure.

Colors blurred together, but there was hope at the other side. It was the door to her room. Maybe if she just walked in there, all will be normal. Desperate, she ran towards the shimmering door, reaching out—but not feeling a door at all.

She blinked, and at the last second, realized she had entered the mouth of something. What it was, she didn't know because it was too tall to see in that brief second of recognition.

What was real, and what wasn't? She wished she knew.

Lee barely had time to register what was going on before his legs were kicked out from underneath him. Feeling a wincing, stabbing pain in his already injured leg, he rushed to get back to his feet again. He couldn't figure out what he had done to scare her. There was no way to tell who he was - or what he was. She shouldn't have been so desperate to get away.

He wanted to give her space. If she was scared of him, the worst thing he could do was try to interact with her more. But this place had to be the Spirit World, and he knew how easily it could catch people unaware. If she wasn't careful, she would wander into some forgotten part of it and be lost forever.

"I'm going after her," he shouted to Peanut.

He followed the woman into the depths of the unfamiliar forest.

The forest was quiet, here. He couldn't tell for certain what this forest was supposed to be like. But he knew what it meant when a forest lacked its usual noises. There was some kind of danger lurking here.

Some kind of danger that she was running right towards.

As he finally managed to bridge the gap between them with a miraculous burst of speed, he found the reason for the silence: an enormous, tree-sized flower with sharp teeth. It didn't have eyes, but its bulb was pointing right down at the woman.

And then it swallowed her.

Instinct kicked in before Lee could really think of how he needed to protect his secrets. The woman seemed oblivious to the threat, so he swung his bad leg out and knocked her off her feet. The plant's mouth was so close now. He could have probably run. He should have run.

But his brain was still acting on autopilot, so he stuck his hand right up in the plant's mouth.

And then he bended.

The plant screeched as its bulb was lit on fire. It drew back from Lee's burning hand, twisting and turning as it tried to rid itself of the flames. Before Lee could extinguish the flames from his hand, he heard rustling from nearby. He turned, horrified at the thought of anyone else seeing his firebending.

But instead of the other people he had found in the forest, he was looking at three more bulbs that had risen out of the forest's undergrowth.

And they looked mad.

"Oh, Agni," Lee whispered.

Chudnofsky looked on as a miniature drama played out in front of him. He really didn't want to laugh at the man ending up on the floor before trying to help out someone who appeared to clearly be suffering from some kind of delusion and proceeded to get sent to the floor once again.

One part of him wanted to try and help out the two of them while the other part secretly wanted to see what would happen. The better side won over and he made his way after the two that were now chasing each other into a forest. He saw a giant flower eat the women, which made him raise his eyebrows. This forest appeared to be more interesting than he'd originally assumed.

As he saw the man knock the women off her feet to save her from the plant them stick a hand up in the plant's mouth. He saw the bulb of the plant light on fire as it let out a screech.

Then behind him, three more bulbs rose out of the forest's undergrowth. Chudnofsky hear the man whisper something about an Agni. As far as he know that wasn't the name of a spell in any language but he didn't watch to find out, he'd stood there staring for long enough.

He folder his furled out wings on his back and ran for the plants. He briefly considered his options before deciding to hell with it and grabbing two of the bulbs in his hands, ripping them free with barely and resistance.

Tossing the lifeless bulbs aside, he swatted the third one with his wing, sending it flying off into the distance.

"Hello," he offered the man, with a small wave and a big smile.

Peanut had fallen behind due to Lee's quicker speed, so she only heard some of what was happening in front of her, and not seen any of it. However, giant, potentially-lethal plants emerging from the ground definitely drew her attention and motivated her in a way to want to both engage with this world and run away, screaming louder than the previous time.

Ah, this was not anything she had ever signed up for, and this was not anything she would have wrote down as being an experience she was willing to handle. Maybe dealing with an abduction of sorts and crazy plants in some weird world would look great on a graduate program application.

So not the point, Peanut grumbled to herself, even while she skidded to a halt beside a tree, clutching onto the trunk. And was that fire and wings coming from those two dudes? Good gosh, she really hadn't signed up for this. She tried her best to ignore the rather scary or at least powerful individuals, turning her attention to the only apparently normal person of the group.

"Are you okay now?" Peanut asked her. "Also, what's your name? Next time you start running, it'd be helpful to know what to call you when we're crashing after you."

Everything happened so fast.

One second, Evaline was reaching for her door, then she was in a plant's mouth, and then she was nearly swallowed, and then she tripped, and then a hand grabbed her, and then there was fire.

She really was losing her mind.

Panic rushing through her veins, survival instinct kicked in and Evaline flailed out of the mouth of the screeching burning plant, barely even noticing that there was a man nearby her. She was wide-eyed and breathing heavy, on all fours, crawling away for her life.

And then there more of those plant things, which should have panicked her more, but a winged man punched them away and then smiled and waved at them like it was nothing.

Somehow, that scared her more.

Evaline opened her mouth to protest, but then a woman showed up by her side and asked if she was okay, as well as her name.

Was she okay? No. She was not okay. And it showed.

Even though she disliked having to talk to be around strangers, she looked up at her brown eyes with fear steeped into her own voice and eyes. "Where am I?" she asked in a shaky voice, ignoring her questions. "Who are you? Is any of this real?"

After all, from man-eating plants, to the chaos of fire, to a winged man in this alien and foreign world... how could any of this be real?