Young Writers Society

One moment, you’re in your homeworld.

The next, a portal opens up from underneath you and you find yourself falling a very short distance to the earth’s surface. You may already be acquainted with Earth, but it quickly becomes apparent that this Earth isn’t anything like the one you remember. Just by looking at the town in the very near distance, you know that some kind of apocalypse has occurred. Some buildings are boarded up. A few are straight out rubble and ruins. There are people in the town, but all seem nervous and afraid. As they talk, they keep pointing at the mountains in the distance.

You quickly find out why.

As soon you get your bearings, a massive bird comes flying down and lands in town. As people rush away and avoid its dangerous, sharp claws and beak, you notice a bright, bright purple gem sticking out of the bird’s back. Energy seems to be pulsing from the gem, and you know just looking at it that the gem is the reason for the bird’s aggression.

You might be unfamiliar with this Earth and that gem on the bird’s back, but you’re not alone right now. You weren’t the only one who came falling through a portal. And if you want to find out how to get back home, you might as well start by working together to save this town.

1. Keep all out-of-character discussion over in the OOC thread! It keeps this thread nice and easy to navigate. As a bonus point, it makes rereading the roleplay a little bit smoother. I’ll also be dropping info there on the plot of the rp, so make sure you’re subscribed to it!

2. Please include a description of your character’s appearance in your first post and/or the OOC thread! I’ll throw together a formal list of them in the post before this one, but we need to know what your character looks like so we can describe them in our posts. You can put the description in a spoiler with the code down below:

Code: Select all

[spoiler]Enspoilered text goes here![/spoiler]

3. Speaking of characters, 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 only reasons I’ll say no to a character is because they’re either a) too powerful for this roleplay or b) somehow conflict with the plot I have planned. But I’ll definitely let you know if that’s the case!

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. Your character can guess what the plot is, but don’t make any plot-altering decisions without checking with me first! Some of my roleplays have more group scheming involved than others. I usually run roleplays like a DM runs a Dungeons & Dragon campaign. There’s some things that absolutely have to happen in a certain way to progress the plot, but the other writers have a lot of flexibility with other parts of the story.

(For example, you might not be able to add an NPC, but you can choose how your character interacts with them—save for if that interaction somehow conflicts with the plot!)

I’ll do my best to communicate how flexible a certain part of the story is, but always check with me if you’re not sure.

6. Don't post multiple times in a row. 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 please be courteous of your fellow roleplayers! If you want a faster-paced roleplay, Roleplay Hollow roleplays might be more of your cup of tea.

7. Posts should be on the longer side and be easy to read. Since this is a Roleplay Realm roleplay, longer posts are the norm. Occasionally, a sentence reply might work best, but the goal is to have longer posts. As for the easy to read bit: don’t worry! Just follow grammar rules and you should be all set.

8. Communicate with your fellow roleplayers. Ever have to take a break from the roleplay or realize it’s not really working out for whatever reason? That’s okay! Just let us know ahead of time so we can naturally write your character out of the story or give you the time you need to write your post. The key to a really fun and finished roleplay is communicating with the other writers.

Cassia was very used to portal hopping, thank you very much. It was quite literally a part of the job description. Well, not so much anymore, but it used to be a constant. However, she had never quite met a portal as rude, disrespectful, and frankly rude as this one.

Mainly because portals don’t appear under people’s feet. They appear vertically so people walk into them, not fall down them to their presumed deaths. Because this portal was very fast. Way faster than Cassia was used to. Time portals were slower, gentler. Sure, you were falling, but it felt more like a leaf fluttering to the floor in fall. This portal felt like being tossed off the Empire State Building with a backpack full of bricks.

Cassia hit the ground, landing flat on her back. Her portals were kind enough to leave you standing. So this portal just had a vendetta.

She groaned. “I don’t deserve this!”

She stood up, shaking her head. She sniffed the air, looking to get an idea of what time she was in. Early 2020s.

She shook her head. No. Her sense was a lot more specific than that. She sniffed again. The same thing, early 2020s. That could only mean one thing…

She had ended up in stagnated time. Time evolves based on the things living in it, but if those people stop progressing, they just drop off into routine, their time stagnates. But that was impossible. She had been on Earth way past the early 2020s. Earth didn’t stagnate until around the 2300s, once most people had jumped planet and ended up on Mars. And this wasn’t Mars, not nearly enough glass domes for that. She groaned again. If there was anything she hated more than being viciously and violently being thrown to the ground by a rogue portal, it was not knowing the answer. And she certainly had no idea what was going on.

Grace stumbled through the pitless pit onto unfamiliar asphalt. The suddenly-too-bright sun blinded her as she tried to get her bearings. Portals were...new. She was still getting used to the super-strength thing, which shouldn't have ever even been a thing in the first place. At least, she had no business knowing about it.

As her eyes adjusted, she searched for the culprit. There were a few strangers around, quite a few, in a city she'd never even heard of, let alone seen, and she was immediately distracted by the boarded-up doors and windows of the buildings around her. The few people who were outside all seemed to be looking in the same direction, shouting, pointing at a distant mountain.

Grace followed their gazes, shieling her eyes from the sun.

Sophia sighed as she felt herself fall. This seemed almost inevitable. She'd fallen out of nowhere with absolutely no warning and then rejected by the portal supposed to take her back. Now the world was righting itself by sending her through this portal. Or maybe it was finally sending her to the hell she belonged in. It had become clear since her arrival that this couldn't be hell. At least she was pretty sure. Hell didn't have guardian angels like Cassia, did it?

She didn't have much more time to dwell on that because she found herself flat on her back. She blinked, trying to get her bearings. That had been a lot faster than the portal she'd supposedly stepped through earlier, there were no pretty colors. There wasn't even that unnatural chill that had seeped into her bones. At least that was an improvement even if every other part of that journey had been far worse.

As she tried to get onto her feet, she felt a familiar texture on her feet. This floor seemed to be made of the same things as the one she'd fallen into earlier, only less sticky and damp. This felt drier, and there seemed to a dusty quality to it.

This place had more massive structures that Cassia had told me were buildings. These looked nothing like the one's I'd seen earlier though. It looked like some grand force of nature had crushed them all.

Suddenly it hit me. Cassia. Cassia had been near me when I fell. There was a chance she'd come through too right? I knew realistically there wasn't actually a chance. Clearly the universe liked playing around with me.

Despite all that, I was an idiot with too much hope so I looked, scanning the ground. My eyes nearly fell out of my head. Standing up not too far from me was Cassia. I would recognize that face anywhere. it was one of like three faces that I even remembered.

I ran over to her, hoping this wasn't some trick, or perhaps another woman who just so happened to resemble Cassia. Or maybe it was another angel, or a demon, and they all just looked the same.

As the three got their bearings, a great, dark shape suddenly descended from the mountains not all that far away. When it finally landed on the outskirts of the town, it was revealed to be a bird. Its wings were longer than anyone in the town was tall, and its talons were viciously sharp. It swiped with one foot, talons outstretched, at a woman who hadn't been as quick to flee as the other towns people.

With a single, powerful flap of its wings, the windows in the buildings close by all shattered.

The townspeople screamed, rushing to get far, far away from the bird. The bird gave a loud cry in response.

Cassia looked around, taking a step back away from what could only be classified as the Murder Bird. That thing looked awful. But even still, she froze in her tracks when she spotted a familiar face.

Sophia!

Ignoring the voice of Janice chastising her in her head, she sprinted to Sophia, dragging her further away from the Murder Bird. Are you okay? Are you hurt?

Sophia saw what could only be a look of recognition on Cassia face and ran towards her, her smile wide at the sigh. She nodded vigorously.

Okay. I'm okay. Not hurt. Are you okay?

Cassia shook her head. This is awful, Sophia! I have no idea when or where we are and I… She huffed. I could just fall over and perish. She put the back of her hand against her forehead and pitched to the side.

Sophia froze. No. Please no. Stay with me Cassia! She wrapped her arms securely around Cassia, supporting her and making sure she wouldn't fall.

Cassia lounged quite comfortably in Sophia’s arms. I’m here. I’m here. She gently patted Sophia’s arm. Barely.

Sophia breathed a sigh of relief. I'm glad. Sophia patted her gently in return.

The bird, unfortunately, had no qualms with interrupting the reunion of the two that were currently cuddling, so it let out an angry screech yet again and flapped its wings in the direction of the two.

A powerful gust of wind went the way of the three newcomers.