Young Writers Society

You find yourself on another world.

Even though the world isn't your world - because your world would never up like this - there's something startling about how familiar everything looks. The forgotten husks of buildings coated in thick plant cover look like something you could imagine in a major city. The roads look like paths you've seen all over your own world.

But there's something wrong about this world. It's clear that it's some kind of post-civilization world, but it doesn't look like this world came to a peaceful end. Its people are missing; its buildings look as if they were forcefully entered. There's destruction littering the streets underneath all of the greenery.

You don't know how you got here. You don't know how you're getting back.

(if this isn't your first time ending up in a situation like this, this kind of story probably feels quite familiar to you.)

There's other people here, too. None of them are native to this world. None know why the destruction happened.

Finding a way home probably means finding out what happened to the people who used to live here. Armed with whatever you had on you before you ended up here, whatever you can scavenge, and the other people you've ended up here with, you're going to have to discover the truth of this world - and hope that its attackers aren't still around.

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!

(Going to finish this later, just setting it up Feel free to copy/paste this template!)

The world suddenly shifted around him.

Levi was used to sudden shifts, but it was never this abrupt. There was always some indicator of what was going to happen - some burst of emotion, some sudden warmth lingering in the air, or something else that involved him having some degree of control.

There was no control here.

One moment, Levi was walking towards his house after staying late for GSA. The next, he found himself in a street that could have almost been the one he had been on last. If it wasn't for the towering buildings or the plants growing over absolutely everything, Levi might have been convinced.

He squinted at the corner of the street and tried to make out the writing on the sign there. Everything had faded or been grown over.

Levi shifted and readjusted his glasses.

That was frustrating. It was hard to get back without knowing where he was to start. He needed something more defined. Something more tangible. A location wouldn't do him again without its relation to his town.

He was tempted to take off his glasses and loosen the collar of his shirt, but he still wasn't entirely sure he was alone. He would wait until he could say with certainty that this place was truly abandoned.

The watch had made a satisfying ting as the cogs clicked back into place. Gideon had been pleased with the ease with which the new piece could be fixed; he would have complimented its owner had he been given the chance to return it.
The moment the watch backing closed, however, Gideon felt a sharp tug and an oddly abrupt nausea as his shop flattened and curled around him. He reached for something to grab onto, but all his hand found was the inert form of Genesis.

The next thing Gideon remembered, he was sitting up in the middle of what at first glance appeared to be a vast forest. Genesis had clicked to life in his hand and was now buzzing about in the air. Gideon reached up and caught the little brass beetle, deactivating it. Best not to make his presence known until he got his bearings.
What Gideon had initially believed to be a forest was a city. It was vast, larger than any city he'd seen in the few times he'd left Inverstadt. That being said, the activity here was nonexistent. The place was deathly quiet save for the twitter of distant birds.

Gideon got to his feet, pocketing Genesis and brushing off his clothes. His sharp eyes flicked around, spotting a street amidst the greenery. That way, then. Moving quickly and quietly, Gideon departed his point of arrival with purposeful denial of the oddity of his situation.

One minute, Dorothy Winthrop was yelling at her Secretary of State to do his job, and the next she was standing in a ruined, overgrown city that seemed familiar and yet so unrecognizable in its own way. Shrubbery and grasses had grown up between cracks in the pale gray pavement, vines wrapped around buildings like a hand around a firefly, and telephone poles were covered in ivy that rose from the bottom and covered the metal electrical boxes at the top of each pole.

The Maine politician was deadly quiet as she tried to take the scene in. Where was she? Why was it all so familiar? Had she been here before, or was her mind merely characterizing this place as familiar as the architectural differences between here and Albany were few and far between?

"Lady? Who are you?" a teen voice asked from off the side of the road. "Hello? Can you here me?"

Winthrop turned around, nearly tripping in a larger crack that she hadn't realized she'd been standing near. Retaining her balance, the 68-year-old looked at a blonde girl that couldn't have been more than twenty.

A Gen X-er! she thought. She'll know where we are!

"Hello, dear," Winthrop said politely. "Would you mind informing me where I am?"

"Oh..." The girl looked downtrodden, frowning as she glanced away from Winthrop's gaze. "I was going to ask you if you knew where we are..."

Winthrop groaned, "Lost in the wilderness without a member of the Secret Service... It would be so easy to die right about now."

"You know the Secret Service?" the girl asked, attention drawn to the old lady once more.

"Well... yes."

"My grandfather has members of the Secret Service with him around the clock!" the girl cried excitedly. "You must be that Senator from New England that he gets along with."

"Well, I was a Senator from New England, yes... Who is your grandfather?"

"William McHale, Sen--"

"Please," Winthrop said, "call me Dorothy. Let's see if there's anyone else around before we continue. Now, what's your name?"

"Emma," the teen answered. "Emma Nightshade."

Skyler must have spaced out somewhere in the crowd.

She’d been walking down the sidewalk of a busy street, accidentally bumping into people— or they’d bump into her. Either way, it was a struggle every morning to make her way to her chosen street corner for that day. Sky would mutter apologies under her breath as she’d make her way past people who walked too slowly, slide between chatting groups, and watch out for those who were walking their dogs so she wouldn’t accidentally step on someone’s beloved pet. It required excellent focus and perception on her part. But that morning, she must have lost track of where she was, or forgotten about her surroundings somehow. She’d blinked for a moment too long, standing still in the sidewalk as New York City’s loud noises failed to reach her ears suddenly, like all the cars and people around her had vanished.

When she opened her eyes again, she was surrounded by green.

Maybe she’d just gotten dizzy and imagined it. Sky blinked once more, but the color was still there. Not only that, but it seemed be covering everything in sight. She reached out towards one, and to her surprise, her hand closed on a leafy vine. It seemed like where there had been tall buildings standing boldly against the skyline, they were now overgrown and abandoned. And it didn’t seem like this place the city she’d learned to call "home”, but it was certainly a city. Sky’s heart was beating faster now as she turned in a circle, nervously scanning the new landscape.

It could just have been a dream. She could have fainted right there on the sidewalk, and that would mean this forgotten city of foliage and greenery was just her imagination. But it all felt too real to Sky for that— the breeze blowing through the loose strands of hair that framed her face, the shade of the buildings, the ground beneath her feet. No, whatever this was, it wasn’t where she’d been.

Skyler Kinsley sighed to herself. If she’d been snatched from her home and couldn’t get back, that meant she had all sorts of problems now. No one seemed to live here, so she couldn’t work, which meant…

“Great. I’m going to end up homeless.”

When Jam opened his eyes after a nap, he hoped that no one heard him scream in terror and shock. Unfortunately, his surroundings didn't change after his squeal, and he still lied on tthe floor of a home that appeared abandoned, with thick levels of dust lingering on twisted shapes he assumed meant as furniture, or his, ugh, blanket being made of spiderwebs more than cloth.

He should probably be moving in some direction, if not nothing else than not from what almost felt like a haunted house straight out of a horror movie. A look outside, through a window that looked as yellow as an egg yolk, sent alarm bells through his synapses. This whole town looked abandoned and old and ruined, not just this one house that he thought might have been foreclosed or something.

Just what happened here?

Jam could enjoy, as anyone would, a good not-real-world story of something bad in another version of the States. However, that didn't mean he wanted to live in one. Patting himself off once he left the window, he ran towards the nearest flight of stairs, trying to ignore the sounds of a mouse rummaging through some cabinets.

He made his way to the front of the house, shoving at the door with his shoulder to push it open. Jam stumbled onto the sidewalk, his feet skidding along the dozens of rocks lining the concrete. Where did someone even go in a place like this? Anywhere was better than here, probably.

Jam sighed. This was not going to be fun.

Levi resisted the urge to groan.

This place was definitively not abandoned. He heard the other people there before he saw them. His hearing wasn't anything too extraordinary, but there was few other sounds besides the various noises in the surrounding area. To check that his suspicions were right, he ducked into the shadows and teleported to the top of the closest building in a flurry of purple particles.

He made sure to stay away from the edge to avoid being seen by the people down below, but he was able to get a good look at everyone as his eyes flashed purple behind his glasses. There was an older man who seemed...off and like he was from some kind of convention. An even older woman was talking with a teenage girl. There was another teenage girl with a similar backpack. The last person in question was a guy who had to be in college.

The entire group seemed just as out-of-place as Levi felt right now, so it looked like he was stuck with some sort of group.

This absolutely reeked of a video game plot, but Levi wasn't one to judge how real video games could be.

Eyes flashing purple again, Levi stepped back even further from the edge of the building and teleported back down to his earlier spot in the shadows. A moment later, he was walking out near the camping bag girl. He felt a pang of irritation when he realized that anyone would think that she was the older one of out of the two of them.

Now, what was someone who wasn't used to the idea of strange places supposed to act like in a situation like this?

Better yet, what was Levi supposed to act like?

"Hi," he said, nervously taking his glasses off and wiping them with the bottom of his shirt. "...This might seem like a strange question, but do you know where we are right now?"

Skyler whirled around, surprised at the sound of a voice in this empty place. Her gaze landed on the teenage boy with glasses standing in front of her. So she wasn’t totally alone. Had he ended up here like her? If people were disappearing off the streets, it was possible she wasn’t the only one.

Never sure what’s possible here, though.

Wondering what his intentions were, Sky watched him closely. He'd revealed himself and wasn't hiding from her, so that was a good sign. Hopefully he was trustworthy. She decided talking to him was worth the risk. After all, he could have been her brother's age, and he didn't seem dangerous. Every day for her was already uncertain, like a roll of the dice. How bad of an idea could this be?

She remembered he'd already asked her a question, and she cleared her throat. “A minute and a half ago, I was in New York.” Sky shrugged helplessly. “All I know is that I don’t think I’m there anymore.”

"New York's been nuked," Emma said simply. "I've seen the crater myself." The old woman and the teenager had made their way over to the other duo.

"Since when...?" Winthrop began before trailing off. Was this some odd futuristic world? What had happened? What was going on? The old woman took a deep breath and asked, "Are you all Americans?"

"I would hope so," Emma replied dryly. "We're all speaking English here, although this one's got a British... Did Mr. Loxley send you?"

"Who's Loxley?"

Emma glanced at Winthrop incredulously. "He's only the greatest British spy in history."

"You know a British spy?"

"...have you escaped from a nursing home or something?"

"No," Winthrop huffed, "I'm the president of the United States."

"...definitely crazy, lady."

Gideon, who was not far off, heard the voices. He pivoted and moved in that direction. As an afterthought, he reactivated Genesis and let it fly ahead, high above the buildings. No sense in walking in unprepared.
Gideon extended a long finger and tapped a small lever positioned just inside his ear. Feedback whined for a moment, then muffled voices came into focus:
...president....states....
....crazy, lady.
The voices became clearer as Genesis drew nearer to the little group, and Gideon followed silently. He slipped behind a building as he caught sight of the people, listening carefully.

Levi couldn't help himself.

The moment he slipped his glasses back on, he gave the older woman and the girl a look of disbelief. It wasn't the kind of disbelief he should have had. If he really wanted to go with the performance he always put on, he would have to add an element of being terrified back in.

But he wasn't terrified.

He had so many aces up his sleeve right now that it was impossible to be scared of the group before him.

"I think the craziness is mutual," Levi said, letting more of his personality slip than he would have liked. "Last time I checked, New York was fine. If it wasn't, I think I would have heard something about it. And you're not the President of the United States - that's Trump."

Which Levi still couldn't wrap his head around, but now wasn't the time to be questioning the voting population of his country's leadership choices. He could rant about it in his head once he was back in the familiarity of his house - and think about how he could have run the country much better.

When the girl had referred to her as "that one" to her face, Sky was a little bit offended, but she was too surprised (and willing to be friendly) to do much else than raise an eyebrow. She listened as everyone kept talking around her. They couldn't seem to agree on what America was like, and they all seemed to have different ideas. The boy with glasses seemed to have the same description as she did, but the other two were making no sense. She'd just been in NYC, and that woman definitely wasn't America's current president. Sky couldn't believe the US had actually elected Trump, but since her home nation had voted for Brexit, it was hard to criticize that election.

Well, she'd have to explain a few things too.

"Unless the city blew up the second after I left, which I find unlikely, New York's in one piece and busy as ever," Sky confirmed. She was counting each of her replies on her fingers as she went, as there were a lot of things people seemed to be confused about. "I'm British and I don't know of any spy named Loxley. That's probably what I'd tell you if I was a spy, actually, but never mind. And I don't think I saw you run for President, but this guy is right. It's possible you could be rather disappointed with who was elected instead."

She couldn't follow American politics for her life. Sky's phone was four years old and already bought cheap, and she couldn't afford to replace it, or even get an American phone number to replace the UK one. It wasn't like she had anyone to call anyway, and it was only useful for things like telling time, so she couldn't get the news on social media and only heard about events from overhearing them.

That same phone had probably gotten left behind, she realized. It didn't matter. Even if she had someone she wanted to call, there would be no signal here.