Forum Thread

The year is 3044 AD

And evreything is gone




Humanity is done for, it has wasted all its recources and wars, disease, famine, bombs, all of it has lead to this horrible wasteland. It seems that there is no hope. So the last of humanity has fled to the underground, in a desperate hope for survival known as the Novissima Colonia.


The Last Colony.



They have used this chance well, over the years since the last group fled, things have changed. The underground colony has grown and adapted, not only enviormentally but psychically as well. The group of 300 people know that only the strong survive, and no one goes without working. No one has time for bigotry or hate. No one has time to argue. The only thing they do is survive, and to survive one must cooperate. All seems well, and some people hope that things have progresed so far that we can maybe, maybe return to the surface. But the leaders insist they stay. And so they keep their quiet thoughts to themselves, praying for a future aboveground, no matter how good this one might be.

Unfourtanetly for the Novissima Colonia, things are about to get messy. There are rumors that on the outer stretches of the colony, people are missing. Things are being stolen or ripped apart. Your leaders will call it talk and fantasies, but maybe there is more to this. And so, when the secret call comes for those who wish to pursue that hope of a future aboveground to meet, or at least find out the truth, you might just consider it...

Above ground, there are a select few who have made it through evreything, too stubborn to let go of the homes they have built above ground. And so, you survive, and you do it just as well as the Novissima Colonia, maybe even better. But you hear strange rumblings under your feet, and unexplained earthquakes, would it be so bad to discuss what's happenning and maybe go down to find out?

Welcome to the Underground, may the best ones win.
- - -
In the Underground, things are running as usual: Evreyone has a job, and they're doing it, no questions asked. Because that's what you have to if things will work. Though, that doesn't mean that there isn't chance for entertainment. A large tavern is bustling with life and people, those who have been allowed a rest and a drink. A girl with red rimmed eyes and long black braids is serving drinks. She looks a little young to be working at a place like this, but she seems capable of handling herself. When anyone, man or woman tries to push their boundaries, they'll find an icy glare and a dagger inches from their hand or face. The table and walls are filled with cuts from these knives. There is a boy working hard at the storehouses, who nurses a hurt leg for reasons he refuses to tell.

Aboveground, evreything is wild and dangerous. There is a low cover of gasses, evreything is withered and dead. There is low grumbles that no one can identify. A teenager balances on a huge rock formation, a gas mask covering their mouth and a hood over their head as they survey the area.


Jade
The tavern is noisy. So noisy. But she has learned to get used to it, as one does. The drinks slip so easily from the spouts to the glasses, a song and dance she has come to learn and love. Jade's greateful for the oppurtunity to have a job like this, and not one with grueling work out there in the rest of the Underground. Even if she has to deal with nasty creeps and drunkards. Her skirt swishes, an unadible noise as she climbs the steps to the platform where the organ player pounds away at the keys. She sets the drink on top of the organ, and gives him a wink as he nods in thanks.

Tagger
Why, of all places, did he have to work in food storage? His leg was killing him, a dead weight that seemed to radiate pain as he dragged barrels and boxes. The air in the room seemed thick and heavy, and the heat was making him tired. But Tagger had been doing this since he was a child, he was no complainer. All that he had to do was keep going. Tagger knew the price of weakness. So, he continued to ignore the pain. His supervisor noticed, and the woman sighed. "Tagger, take a break outside." "But-" "No buts!" He sighed, and limped outside, sitting down.

Onix
Onix was watching.

There was food nearby.

They knew it.

A mutated monster would come.

And they would be ready.

And waiting.

They shifted positions, making no nosie.

---

Aboveground, Andrea gets dressed in whatever few clothes she has left, and heads out. She’s been pretty annoyed by all the rumbling and thunderings of the Underground, but can’t be bothered to fin out what it is. Someone else will do it, she thinks. Right now she has only one goal— to find that damned android. Erin. She had brought some nice food along with her. Some may think it was a kind gesture, but Andrea knew better. It wasn’t.

---

Cassandra had awoken to yet another boring day. She lived alone in a small space, away from mos everyone in the underground, which was odd considering how much she hated being lonely. Her parents had died long ago when she was just 5 years old, living under the care of a sweet old couple who had also passed, not too long ago actually. She had been living like this for 7 years, and in those years she had grown duller and duller from the once lively ball of sunshine she used to be. Now, she was just plain annoying, obnoxious, and clingy with little to no light shining in her eyes. She sat up from her moderate bed and stood still for a moment, staring blankly at the adjacent wall. Her dark caramel skin was illuminated by the lights in her quaint home, and a faint buzzing sound could be heard in her left ear. After having a blank mind for quite a while, she decided to get up and do something today, try to live out the rest of her life as normal as possible. She got dressed and fixed her curly, black hair into a ponytail, or at least something similar to that due to how her hair was, and walked out the door. The closest building that was of interest was the bar, which she normally avoided until now. Well, she wanted to make her life interesting, right? Why not do things she woul normally never do? Such as... ordering a plain water from the bartender, because she was too scared to try alcohol... Of course she was, she never wanted to get out of her comfort zone and was pretty scared of the consequences afterwards. She walked inside with her order in mind and waited patiently until it was her turn, receiving dirty looks from everyone else in there. She was young, why the hell was she in a bar?

---

Some days, Yashura really didn't want to get up

Staring at the desolate landscape, he walked through the dying grass to places unknown. The earth shook under his feet, the growls of a beast unknown throwing his balance off. Lately, the ground had rolled and split, sending unpredictable obstacles into their already unstable life. Yashura was infinitely glad that his face was perpetually covered with a biker's helmet, the black tinted one way visor shielding his eyes from any debris and dirt that had been kicked up from these ruptures. He had seen others fall into them, swallowed up by the ground and lost to the darkness when they stumbled.

Despite the bearing sun, Yashura was wrapped up in black leather and he was absolutely sweating under all of it. But what was aesthetic beauty without some pain. The few people above ground that he had meet had always called him The Desert Biker along with Yashura so that was him now apparently. A biker demon. Fun. If his past self (if he could remember who his past self was) could see him now, they would probably laugh their ass off at him. Probably

---

Jade stepped down from the stage. As much as she would have liked to stay up there, veiwing it all like a queen seeing her kingdom (what she sometimes considered the tavern to be), she had customers to serve. Her ears perked up as she heard the sounds of a new customer. She sashayed over, but stopped, eyebrow raised. "Huh," She muttered, and shrugged. A man was leering at poor Cassandra, yelling, "You're a preety thing, so young to be in a bar! How-" Jade put a hand on his shoulder. "Marcus," she cooed, "Don't forget who's selling the drinks around here." Marcus saw a dozen dirty glares, and he shut up with a growl. Satisfied, Jade turned to Cass. "Forgive him, he's drunk. So, what'll it be?"

---

Onix saw him.

They had to move quickly.

Before the beast was scared off, wherever it might be

Or this one took their turf.

They leapt through the air with a graceful somersault, landing with a thud. "You shouldn't be here, "was all they said.

---

She nervously looked at the man who was talking to her, unsure of what to do and was honestly pretty uncomfortable. She started to back away before a woman stepped in, who seemed to be the bartender, and gave him a few words that made him back off. She let go of the breath she didn't even know she was holding and opened her mouth to speak, but only a small squeak came out. Her face went red and she quickly coughed and apologized before continuing. "I uh... Oh god, I'm sorry about this... I just get a little flustered over things like this!" She gave a small, nervous laugh before mentally slapping herself. She didn't need to say that, everything she said really didn't need to be said, it was blatantly obvious anyways. "I'd like a water please." She responded, nervously looking around after giving her order. She wasn't exactly sure on what she should do, she didn't even know why she came here in the first place, so she desperately tried looking for things that she could do. She didn't want to just leave after getting some glass of water like an idiot, that was just... weird.

---

"You shouldn't be here."

Dust billowed up before his eyes and Yashura blinked slowly. It was rare for people to meet in this wasteland, especially for them to talk with one another. Whatever this person wanted with him, it would either be very important, or mind numbingly dumb. Due to the nature of his biker's helmet, his vision wasn't the best and he couldn't quite make out who was talking to him. He didn't quite recognize who anyways. Even if he did, he would still have stood his ground, glaring down whoever was standing before him.

"And where exactly should I be?" He drawled, putting a hand on his hip. "This place doesn't belong to you. I see no tag claiming it." Cocking an eyebrow, not that Onix could see behind the visor, he began to slowly step forward to get a better look at who he was talking to.

---

"You must be new here," she said without missing a beat, a slight smile on her lips. "And don't worry, I understand, we all get like that sometimes. Why don't you take a seat at the bar? There's some..less then friendly people here, y'know?" Jade looked around at the crowd as she guided Cass to a seat, like she saw things in a completley new outlook. This tavern may be friendly, but it was far from the most reputable place.

Onix sighed, clasping their hands behind their back as they stalked closer. "There's plenty of space, and I did mark it. The red claw marks on those rocks? Mine. On the trees? Mine." They kept getting closer. "So leave. Now."

---

Pausing, Yashura leaned back to try and get a good look. They had said something about rocks and just a little ways off, he indeed could see a pile of them. Flipping up his visor, Yashura squinted to make out the scores of red marks on them, mirrored on the trees, and he internally winced. Yeah, that was a mess up on his part. Snapping his visor shut, Yashura rolled his eyes with a huff. "Look. I'm just passing through so chill. Mind getting out of my face? Not that I mind getting an eyeful of cute people, but I like my personal space."

---

Onix held up a finger to silence him, looking back over their shoulder.

"Quiet. It's here." They crouched, then took off. Something was lumbering closer. It crashed through the underbrush, a roaring white beast with horns that tore through evreything.

Onix ran straight for the beast, but at the last minute, jumped up and onto its back.

They grabbed onto its horns, pulling its head up at a painful angle.

With a long weapon somewhere between a rapier and a dagger, they slit its throat, causing it to collaspe, sliding forward a few feet before dying.

Onix stared at it, before jumping off and wiping the blood from their weapon and sheathing it. "Now, if you are on your way through,"

"Continue and leave."

---

Cass gave a light smile before following the girl to her seat, immediately sitting down and started to look around at everyone. "Thank you, I appreciate it. And... Yeah, I see what you mean..." She replied, looking at one of the louder group of people in the bar. Maybe she had gone here for the social aspect, maybe she had gone here for the drink, she didn't really know nor did she really care in that moment. Jade was surprisingly calm and sweet for a bartender, who she assumed dealt with pretty terrible situations every day, and Cassandra admired that. She gave yet another small smile to her before continuing to look around the building.

---

Yahura hadn't seen such a weapon before. Most people didn't go for anything that delicate above ground, usually opting for heavy hitting weapons. Perhaps it was a bit hypocritical of him when his only weapon was a sharpened fishing line, but at least he was working on scrapping together a bike. Sue him for leaning into the type casting but at least people were more likely to stay away from a biker with a ride that would run them over than a biker who wandered around on foot. At the very least, whoever this person was, they weren't to be messed with. With a lazy salute, Yashura began to walk again. He did pause when the passed the fallen beast, eyeing it. The horns could be useful but ultimately he left the creature alone. He wasn't going to stay any longer than he needed to.

---

Andrea arrived at Erin’s home, only to find that the android had left her a note, with coordinates on where she was. She crumpled the paper in her hand, casually threw it behind her and left to find Erin. The note was extremely vague, all the more so making Andrea more pissed. Following the coordinates, she was pretty sure she found the general area where Erin should be. She spots said android in the distance and shouts. “Erin! Over here!”

---

Onix
Onix perched on top of the beast, sawing away.

The stranger was leaving.

Onix paused.

They didn't see others that much.

So they were curious.

They asked, at the last minute, "Do you have a name?"


Tagger

Tagger kept working, and quickly, was told to take the rest of the day off. It was clear that he was hurting badly, and that Tagger would not be doing anything useful. His face burned red with humiliation as he limped off. Something, in the back of his mind told him that this would be a permanent injury, but he pushed it down. He couldn't lose this job. He had no family, and no where else to go. He had a dry thought that maybe he could take his chances aboveground, but that was a death sentence. No one survived up there. "I need a drink," he announced to no one, limping into the tavern.

Jade

Jade gave her a wink and a crooked grin. "Nothing to it." She went behind the counter to pour Cass a drink. She looked over her shoulder, "You got a name, New Girl?"

---

Now that wasn't something he heard often. Names were taken by people who wanted desperately to emulate what it was like before, when the world wasn't a garbage heap of death and dust. Names meant that you either felt so strongly about yourself that you had grown attached, or that you lived with enough people that just calling them by physical markers wasn't enough anymore. He had been given the marker of Yashura, a name embroidered on the leather jacket he had scrounged up in a dust heap, wreathed around a golden hannya mask that sat snuggly on the back of the jacket. What his name had been previously, he couldn't remember. There were more things to worry about than being a named entity. So he simply turned around, facing the faceless individual in a hood and a gasmask with his own faceless visor.

"Not anymore than that beast had." He answered

---

Onix chuckled.

They liked this one.

They hadn't laughed in awhile.

And..something in them yearned for human contac, though they had long since abandoned any hope of humanity.

"Good luck out there, Stranger."

---

A name... Of course she had one, but it was rare that she ever had to use it. A lot of people already knew her name from rumors, and even when they replaced her name with an insult or just a simple 'hey, you', she knew she was being referred to just by the tone or context. She thought about it for a second before responding. "I'm Cassandra, but Cass is a bit easier to say I guess, so call me that!" Suddenly, the sound of someone entering the tavern caught her attention and she turned towads it, surprised to see a man limping inside. He had asked for a drink, and he didn't seem to be in the best of shape. "Oh god... Are you alright?" She got up and slowly walked over, not realizing how dumb the question was. Of course he wasn't ok, he looked terrible and was obviously hurt.

---

Jade
"Cass, pretty name," she said, handing her the drink. She looked up as well when she saw the man. At first, she was about to take his order as she always did, but Cass's comment made her think twice, so she jumped over the counter in a smooth leap, an exercise she'd done many times. She ran to Tagger, supporting his weight. He stiffened, but allowed her to help him to the bar.

[center]Tagger[center]
Tagger's leg was flaming up with pain, but he ignored it. All he needed was a drink. He heard Cass's question and laughed hoarsely. "Nothing a few cold beers won't drown out. Works like a charm." He didn't want to be pitied. But he didn't exactly resist when the young barkeeper went to help him. He was too tired to fight back.

---

Well wishes now? How odd. Cocking his head, he regarded Onix before giving them a slow cordial nod. "And the winds be your feet." He returned before stalking off. He would have to pass through the same area again to get back to where he had cached his supplies but for now, he would walk wherever his feet led him. Hopefully to a working engine or a spare bike part that he could actually use. He had too many spark plugs hoarded to actually be anything but junk without an engine to use it on. While there was still a long ways to go before his scraped together motorbike could actually be usable, it was still a pipe dream he held onto. The one goal that kept him walking through this wasteland. For now

---

She gave him a disgusted and confused look, the comment he gave about his condition confusing her. "Are you crazy?! How is a couple of beers gonna help?!" She nearly yelled, moving out of the way so Jade could move in and help him. As oblivious as she was to things, even she knew some beers would probably make the injury worse. Cass stood at the other side of him, holding his other side to support him better. She was still unsure of what to do in the situation, but she had to be helpful somehow, right?

---