Young Writers Society

When you wake up, the air is cold and salty.

You almost immediately discover that you're laying on rocks. You don't know how you got on the rocks, or even where the rocks are. It feels like there's a giant hole in your memory that you can't explain - or maybe you just never knew where you were to begin with. Whatever the case is, you're somewhere different now.

Unless your clothes were already perfectly geared towards this cool weather, your clothes have changed, too. If you're from a modern version of Earth, you should recognize the style. If you're from another world or time, however, the style looks completely unfamiliar.

If things weren't strange enough, the mist just past the rocks is very slowly - but very clearly - creeping towards you.

If you want to get back to where you're supposed to be, you'll have to figure out a way out of this place. But with no one nearby except a group of equally confused people waking up around you, finding that way out isn't going to be easy.

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, 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.

(I also have a discord server for roleplay scheming! If you don't use discord or don't want to join, don't worry about it. But if you want to join in on the shenanigans, here's the invite link.)

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!

When he woke up, he found himself laying on unfamiliar rocks.

For the first moment, he stared up at the sun. The air was salty and fresh like the air in Kore's town, but it was much cooler. It was so cold that he could see his breath in the air as he sat up. His suspicions were confirmed when he sat up.

This wasn't Kore's town.

His first thought was to blame one of his brother's. He didn't know which one. Maybe it was the one who shouldn't have known about Kore but would object to their meetings anyways. Or maybe it was the one who did know about Kore - the one he had just argued with the other night.

Neither one made all that much sense, but he could imagine the second being responsible more. He could have just chucked him in the ocean beside Kore's town, just to see what strange island he'd end up on after drifting across the sea.

But he didn't feel wet.

If anything, he felt weird. Like someone had swapped his clothes for something much more restricting.

He glanced down.

Someone had.

He was wearing clothes that didn't look remotely familiar, in shades that he secretly approved of but would pretend not to if directly asked. He was lost and confused, but at least he wasn't alone - he could see other people waking up around him.

He paused.

On second thought, that just made things even worse. He wished Kore was here - or that any of his friends were. He didn't want to be here with a bunch of strangers. He dealt with those on a regular basis. And even though he didn't know what an introvert was, he very much was one.

What had he done to annoy the Fates?

She didn't expect the air to be so salty when she woke up.

Annabeth pulled herself up in a sitting position, shivering. She was in the same clothes she left home, but this didn't look anything remotely like her neighborhood. She was lying on some rocks. The ocean was a few meters away, drifting on the shore lazily. Annabeth tightened her sweatshirt around her.

Where was she?

She noticed other people, unconscious, spread over the rocks. One man was already waking up. Maybe she could ask him where they were, or how they got there, but by the look on his face, she knew it was hopeless.

It didn't help that the mist was moving very slowly toward them.

Maggie felt the change before they even opened their eyes. The cold stone and salty sea air was too far removed from their own soft sheets and the heated, indoor air that should have been there for there to be any mistake. The sound, too, was wrong. It was quiet.

They shot up with a gasp and looked around wildly. Other people. That was...comforting?

One of the people, and the one closest to Maggie, was rather eye-catching in appearance. They had some of the most vibrant hair Maggie had ever seen on a person, like the essence of flame itself had been infused into each strand. When the light hit it, it almost appeared as though the space just under the clouded surface of their hair was set aflame.

They were wearing clothes equipped for the cool temperature, a fact Maggie only noticed because, as they got to their feet, they realized they, too, were dressed in such a manner. Not in clothes they owned, either. They would have remembered getting one of those coats that was fuzzy on the outside - they'd always kind of wanted to - and the shin-length, pleated wool skirt. They didn't have nearly enough clothes to forget about pieces like these, even if they had somehow bought them.

The other wakeful person was more masculine, with a look like a person of mild manners with confusion and frustration intermixing but not at all heating beneath the surface of his skin. His appearance was like the pages of an old book, marked with charcoal. All pale skin and dark details. His clothes, his hair, even his eyes were a black not quite so dark as ink.

Both people looked confused, incredibly so, and from that Maggie decided that neither was the perpetrator of this...was it a crime? They'd been kidnapped, for sure, but this was...too weird to really call a crime, wasn't it?

Action. This action, which had been perpetrated by someone, had most likely not been committed by these confused people around them.

The urge to say something briefly hung in the air around them, never really becoming anything thick enough to act on, before dissipating. Someone else would have the first word. For now, Maggie was just going to stand, confused, among strangers in a strange land of stone and fog, no recollection of how they got here, and no phone in their pocket.

With a startled jolt, Samantha wakes up in a place unlike anything she has ever seen. She immediately starts surveying her surroundings, taking everything in. She tastes the salty air, so unlike the fume-filled air from the Ford Model Ts that she is used to. Samantha has never seen an ocean before today and is taken aback by the sheer size of it. She would have been even more impressed if she could have seen the whole ocean. There was a mist blocking most of the view, a mist that seems to be slowly but steadily moving towards her. How peculiar! She thinks.

Once she stands on the rock she woke up on, Samantha notices more strange things. First of all, her clothing is like nothing she has ever worn. She is wearing pants!They are a dark blue and made out of a thick material. Samantha knows one woman who regularly wears pants, but they don’t look like these. She is also wearing a warm, purple sweater under a plain, black coat with a pair of black boots that are surprisingly comfortable.

She sees the other people after she is done studying the unusual clothing. Hope enters her heart as she searches for a familiar face. There is one person in particular that Samantha wants to see: Mateo. If she can just find him, he can help figure out how they got there and what they should do next. However, she does not spot him among the confused people.

Samantha takes a few deep breaths. She is just going to have to figure this out by herself. Or, if she is lucky, someone here will know where they are. Samantha takes a few steps off the rock, steeling herself for whatever the future might hold.

The others were beginning to wake up. Was Lykos supposed to be relieved by that? He didn't really know. He just wished he was anywhere but here, wherever here was.

His gaze traveled to the mist.

The mist was moving closer. He stared at it for a moment, trying to see just how fast it was moving. It was a slow creep. He wasn't all that concerned about suddenly being overtaken by it. He couldn't shake the feeling that the mist wasn't exactly normal - considering that he had just been brought here against his will - but it was something he didn't have to worry about for a bit.

He looked back at the others.

...He would have to address them, wouldn't he?

He bit back a sigh and let himself imagine for one last second that Kore or one of his other friends had ended up here with him. Then he pushed past the wishful daydreaming and faced reality: he was doing this alone.

...At least this would make for an interesting story to tell his niece.

"Hello," he said, his voice just as awkward as he felt right now. They were all wearing the same strange, unfamiliar kind of clothes that he was right now. Was that a comfort? He wasn't really sure.

Annabeth got to her feet as the others began to do so too. One, two, three, she counted in her head. So there were four people on this island, assuming this was an island.

Were they there specifically? She didn't know them. Was this an awful trick or something? Maybe. They'd have to find out. Annabeth noticed the man gazing at something behind him. She leaned sideways.

The mist was closing in on them. It rose from the ocean, creeping over the rocks toward their little group. She shivered slightly. The mist looked normal, but something didn't feel right. The man looked creeped out too, and he turned back to the others.

Everyone was standing in a circle, six feet away from each other, wearing the same clothes. They looked confused. Annabeth couldn't blame them.

"Hello," the man said awkwardly.

The silence was painfully long, but Annabeth felt a little sorry for him. She cleared her throat. As if on cue, everyone stared at her.

"Hi everyone, my name's Annabeth," she said, smiling. "I wish we'd meet under better circumstances."

Samantha is standing in a circle, along with three other people. They are all wearing clothing similar to hers, equipped to keep them warm in this cool environment. The similarities stop after clothing. They all have very different features from her own.

The person to her left is wearing all black clothing that matches his long, black hair. At first, she thinks his eyes are black too, but after a closer examination, she realizes that they are a dark brown. Samantha sees him and the girl in front of her gazing over at the mist with worried expressions. Once they turn back, Samantha gets a good look at the girl’s shocking features for the first time. She has bright purple eyes and the reddest hair she has ever seen, even redder than her friend Jane’s hair.

After registering the red haired person, her gaze moves to the last person in the circle. They have fluffy, blonde hair and is wearing a fuzzy coat with a pleated skirt. Samantha’s thoughts about her observations are suddenly interrupted when the man in black speaks.

“Hello,” he says quite uncomfortably.

A silence follows as Samantha tries to think of something to say. She is usually pretty talkative, but the situation is unlike any she has ever been in. The girl with the red hair saves them from the awkwardness when she clears her throat.

“Hi everyone, my name’s Annabeth,” she says with a reassuring smile. “I wish we’d meet under better circumstances.”

For some reason, this statement made Samantha laugh. She hadn’t expected her to say that, but it certainly got rid of the tension. Emboldened by Annabeth’s words, she decides to speak next.

“Yes, indeed,” she replies with another chuckle. “This is a very strange situation that we are in. I’m Samantha by the way, but you can call me Sam.”

Maggie observed from the sidelines as people started introducing themselves. They couldn't fully focus on the conversation, however. There was a creeping up their spine. The spindly claws of a sinking paranoia, raking down her spine as though the feeling were trying to grasp at her nerves to keep from sinking into her gut.

The fog, the...well, the kidnapping. It all boiled together in a cauldron of speculation and uncertainty to create an inescapable feeling of unyielding paranoia.

They took a breath.

Let it out.

"I'm Maggie," they said.

Ummphh... so cold. Did someone forget to turn on the sun again? And why does it smell like fish...

Elias squirmed uncomfortably, instinctively reaching over for the blanket that somehow inched away from him, probably because it wanted to avoid his death-grip-burrito-blanket habit that habitually happens every night.

Hard. Wet. Texture. Bollocks, that's not right. Beds are soft and blissful; this was rock-hard and—he was just realizing this—oh-so-uncomfortable. Where was he? And most importantly, where was his blanket?!

Immediately his eyes snapped open and he sat up straight, examining his surroundings: rocks, more rocks, sky, and random people... Wait. Sky. Sky? SKY! Was it real? He squinted and looked towards the sun. Seems kinda fake, not gonna lie... Then, ow ow ow yupthatwasreal. Actual UV rays, just like he read about in that one book he read so he wouldn't fail the class!

But wait, where was he exactly? This isn't underground, so it's not Sector 2. But he didn't remember the Sectors looking this vibrant in the picture manual he studied. Ugh, maybe his friends were right; it will come back to bite him by looking at pictures instead of reading...

A moment passed, and then another. Then finally, he smiled and snapped his fingers. This must be the lucid dream thing that Evaline was telling me about, he thought. Coooool.

All the confusion went away and suddenly everything became more exciting. Elias slowly stood up and dusted himself off, glancing over to the other waking people nearby him. Okay, weird that random people showed up in his dream, but the mind's a funny thing, ain't it? He woke up a bit further away from them so they didn't seem to notice him yet, thankfully. Can't have random people in dreams affect this cool dream! They could be sleep paralysis demons or something—because that totally exists, right?

Elias slipped away and started to hop-scotch the rocks. As he was doing this, he got more acquainted with his surroundings. First of all, his clothes. He was dressed in boots and gray joggers and a white tee that said "will do a backflip for a hug." This wasn't a shirt he owned, but now he was glad he was wearing it, because this was something he'd wear. Over the shirt, he wore a blue zip-up coat, which he was grateful for since it was pretty chilly. But also, what was that oozing white stuff in the distance? It kind of looked like concentrated steam from a scalding hot shower, or a sauna. Ooh, maybe he should check it out and get a nice sauna sesh going!

And then it dawned on him: you can control anything in lucid dreams. Elias stopped hopping and a devilish grin slid on his face. Without a second thought, he bent his knees and prepped, because...

It's time... to fly.


Elias flung forward like a frog hopping off a lily pad, believing with all his might that the momentum he generated can be used to propel himself in the air and fly above the sauna cloud. As if he was going on slow-mo for the first half second, he grinned wider because he was succeeding! ... But then, oh no, nononoNONONOSPLAT.

There's one thing Elias succeeded at: he dove head-first towards some pointy rocks. And he made quite a scene, too: the uncomfortable sound of bone hitting rock echoed across the rocky field, and he laid there sideways, completely knocked out with a mangled arm and what appeared to be a bloody, concussion'ed head.

Unfortunately, the people nearby probably don't know that he regenerates his cells pretty quickly. Just gotta wait a couple minutes for his recovery, and then he'll try it all over again, since he obviously messed up the whole lucid dreaming thing.

Annabeth.

Sam.

Maggie.

The names were all as unfamiliar as the clothes he had found himself wearing. Lykos knew that his knowledge of the world was always going to be slightly outdated, but he doubted that clothing styles and naming choices would change so drastically in such a short period of time.

Before he could question the implications of that, he heard the sound of bone hitting rock.

He knew that sound better than most did. His niece was always rough with their sparring - there had been a few times where one of them had slammed a little too hard into the rocks they were fighting near.

But the noise wasn't from one of them getting hurt.

He turned just as the sound rang out through the rocky field - and saw an injured person laying nearby.

Lykos turned from the others and went towards the person. The boy on the ground had an injured arm and head. He knew he should have been doing something to help the boy, but he had never learned first aid. All he could do was stare. He wasn't used to assisting people right after they got their injuries - he only knew how to help long after that point.

Annabeth ran the names over and over again in her head.

Lykos, Sam, Maggie. Lykos, Sam, Maggie.

A girl in her middle school class was named Samantha, but obviously this woman wasn't her. None of these names sounded familiar. Annabeth wanted to cry, and she clenched her fists. Nothing made sense except the clothes on her back and the boots on her feet. She licked her lips, willing herself not to cry. She couldn't afford to. Not when they were standing on the rocks, the sun about to go down. Annabeth steeled herself before her eyes began to water.

Lykos was looking confused as he stared at his own clothes. Annabeth was about to ask him what was wrong, but she heard something crack.

Lykos heard it too, and he turned away from the group. Annabeth followed him, stopping a few feet away from an injured boy, lying unconscious on the ground. His arm was mangled, and his blond hair was streaked with blood.

She gasped and ran past Lykos, who was staring at the boy helplessly. Annabeth kneeled next to the kid; the blood dampened her pants. She patted herself down frantically.

"Where is it-Where is it? Aha!" She pulled out a small vial of brown liquid from her pocket.
"Hydra's blood," she told the others.

She popped the lid open and doused the boy's injuries with the blood. After five seconds, his own blood closest to the wound began to go back in, and his skin closed, leaving small scars.

Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief and stood up, trying to wipe the blood off of her.

Kazimir's eyes shot open and his heart started to race.

He stared up into the clear blue sky and felt the cold, hard ground beneath him as a sad replacement for the couch he's formerly been sitting on before he ended up here. Wherever here was. Was this a dream? Or was this another world, again? He couldn't remember how he got here, and he couldn't remember if anything happened between now and when he'd been shot, and stitched up in Queenie's apartment. If it was even hers. He still didn't know all of that.

His thigh was throbbing. Even though it was stitched up and bandaged, there was still a hole there, and it wasn't going to go away any time soon.

One of the first things he noticed was the salty air. The cold that bit at his nose. The hint of mist in the air. Then the clothes.

Kazimir sat up.

His leather jacket had been bulked up with a thick hoodie and what felt like a warmer shirt underneath, his shoes traded for warm boots, and he was pretty sure there was a layer underneath his pants keeping the cold from biting through. He was also wearing a beanie and his fingerless leather gloves, like the kind he usually wore when biking.

All of this, apparently layered over his bandaged bullet wound. Whoever had dressed him had better have changed his bandages, not that he'd be able to tell, unless he undressed, which obviously, wasn't going to happen any time soon.

Kazimir swore under his breath. There were people around him, and all of them looked confused as all get-out. So, they were in the same boat as him, but he didn't recognize anyone there. There were two guys and three girls, it looked like. At least two of them were teenagers. None of them looked particularly threatening. Everyone was a stranger, and it looked like he was waking up a little late to the party. They were already talking. He was just a little further off. Which was great, considering he'd have to get up and walk over to them. That would hurt. Not that he'd ever let it show.

As he got to his feet he steeled his nerves and took in a sharp breath through his teeth, but otherwise held himself together.

He also apparently got up just in time to witness the teen boy a small distance ahead of him jump and face-plant into the rocky ground. It was not graceful. At all.

Kazimir cringed briefly in sympathy before he hurried up to the kids' side. Or at least, he started, but was a little slower than the other two.

He stopped at the boy's feet and watched in confused horror as the red-head took out a vial of blood and poured it over the boy's wounds.

And then the wounds somehow magically healed.

He stared, wide-eyed, with his brows furrowed together.

What the heck.

He looked out at the scene around them. It looked like they were on some kind of rocky beach, and there was a mist creeping slowly towards them. It was very horror-movie vibes.

"Okay, well that was really weird," he said. "But uh. Anyways." He looked down to see if the kid was waking up at all.

"Is he waking up?"

{{ OOC -- Just wanted to note that I edited my post to update Lykos and also include Sam's description! Sorry for the slip-up/forgetting, I wrote this post half asleep lol }}

Darkness.

That's usually all Elias can remember when his body is in healing mode. He's conscious, but it's like he's in the deep sea looking up towards the sky and seeing nothing. Soft background noise echoed around him, but he could not make out the words. A dull pain in his head and arm gently nudged him, as if asking for his attention. Sweet, unbothered, timeless tranquility.

And then...

The noise melted into muffled sounds of voices and words, then finally, Elias could distinctly make out—

"Is he waking up?"

His eyes snapped open and the memory of him faceplanting rocks flooded back to him, and then the pa... wait, there was no pain? There has always been something. It was like he was healed by a magical potion made out of angel blood or something... Hah, that only happens in fantasies. It was obviously because he was in a lucid dream, able to control every aspect of his surroundings.

This thought stream occurred rapid-fire in his mind before it registered to him that three people were peering over him.

Oh no, Elias thought. It's the sleep paralysis demons.

Or... was it? Now that they're up close, they seemed so... real. And human. But they look so... weird. Yet... definitely human. He had never seen anyone like them before, though.

Slowly, Elias stood up and examined his body. He pulled up his sleeves to notice that his arms had scars, and he was able to scuff out some dried blood flakes from his hair. Normally it can take hours and even days to fully recover, but he recovered in minutes, possibly less! Maybe he willed his injuries to recover faster than he normally could?

He mulled this over while rubbing his chin and suspiciously staring at the people around him. There was a creepy trench-coat-wearing long-haired guy, a tall man who literally looked like he could kill him, a vibrant red-haired girl his age who had some blood smears on her clothes, a person a bit further back with the biggest hair he has ever seen, and a tangled-hair woman further back with a calculating and inquisitive expression. They all had different complexions and colors and features than what he was used to, but it was pretty neat, actually!

Elias then squinted towards the red-haired girl. Fire red hair and violet eyes is too suspicious. Maybe she's a shapeshifter who can change into whatever color variants she wants. Or maybe she's messing with his vision? Mel certainty did that a lot. Oh, or maybe dreams just have crazy stuff in them. After all, there is a dude standing next to her who looked like he broke out of prison.

"Lucid dreaming is so weird..." he mused out loud.