Don't Look Back

L

Laggy Lagiacrus

Guest
Original poster
A benign breeze buffeted the boy as he stood, his hair ruffled slightly by the air current. The day was a pleasant one, though if one had to find fault with it, the temperature was a little higher than could be considered comfortable. However, this marred not spring day's beauty, dewdrops glinting in the sunlight as the morning hours continued on. A lad of seventeen, Adam Peters was built with no special traits to speak of – neither athletic nor powerful, his body shape was healthy and slim, but little else. His raven hair just about managed to touch his ears, though largely, it had been cut around them. The fringe was combed to one side, his cobalt blue eyes obscured only by the oak-brown, rectangular spectacles perched in front of his eyes. Skin only tanned enough to create a minute contrast with another's skin; his torso was covered by a blood-red shirt, trousers of a similar material, but of a black hue. On the outskirts of the town he called home was where he stood, the field's grass swaying, and nothing within the radius of a few minutes of brisk walking.

Except an advancing division of the rebel army, determined to claim the settlement as their own, despite its blatant neutrality.

However, their war cries and the sound of their weapons being transported made no sound that reached Adam's ears, as he had turned, and was now wandering the streets aimlessly, with nothing I particular to do. Hushed whispers flitted around, containing various tidbits of gossip, but nothing particularly intriguing – bar the one about the approaching rebels and royal army. And when the town crier shouted out that both forces had surrounded the town, and were readying an assault on the other's position, it seemed obvious what would happen – the fighting would ensue, with the town and its people crushed in the middle. A momentary silence passed over the crowd, them being left reeling from the shock, which turned to an ecstasy of panic and confusion, observed by a boy from the roof of a bakery.
It's a good thing I'm alone up here… My 'smartarse' comments wouldn't really be appreciated here, of all places and times…
 
Sunny ran her hands through her long silvery blonde hair – a habit she couldn't help when she was nervous. Was her decision too rash? But she couldn't have through with it surely. She would have been killed.

She had been a lady in waiting for the Princess who said it was her duty to walk before the army waving the Royal flag to announce the Army's presence. Sunny had been reluctant to agree. The Princess was quite naive. All her notions about warfare had come from books that romantised battles a lot. Since her father the King had become ill the young Princess had been given to much power. Everyone in the Kingdom thought so and worried about the state of the Kingdom but it wasn't really something you talked about.

When her older brother, who was in the Royal army, had heard about it he told her it was suicide. The plan they made was for her to wander too far ahead when they got close to the town. Then hide the flag in a bush and try to find some sort of help in town. It was quite a vague plan but the best they could think of.
But now that she had gone through with it she felt like a coward. Her brother was going to fight and she was chickening out of the Princess' personal request. Was her life that important?

She sighed. There wasn't much she could do to change things now. All she could do was try to stay alive. Which may turn out to be more of a challenge than she had originally thought it would be. Her looks were obviously foreign here. She was extremely pale from spending all her time in the castle with the Princess, she had copper coloured eyes and a delicate willowy frame. Her style of dress was too expensive as well so she got to work trying to blend in as much as she could.
Even though it felt wrong she stole a brown and beige dress that was drying outside a house and put her hair into a dull coloured hat that she had thought to bring from home. It seemed to do the trick because she was getting a lot less stares and people started to gossip in front of her about the advancing armies instead of quieting down like they had previously. She hoped no one would get hurt in this stupid battle. And she felt her stomach drop again. She wished she could help in some way. She had no idea what else she could do so she wandered around trying to think of what to do next.
 
(Oh..Wait now I'm confused...No longer oneXone...I was gonna post today haha....)
 
((livvy, this is not a group roleplay. Please refrain from posting any further here, unless asked. This is strictly between me and Razor Blades, so your post shall be ignored.))
 
A girl, looking around the ages of 18 or 19 pushed her way through the busy street, as careless and harsh whispers were exchanged between the townspeople of the approaching army. She was jostled about, back and forth, wincing when she was thrown into the spur of elbows, or the corners of brick walls, but she couldn't be bothered with that, not now with the army approaching.

Her beige dress was tattered and muddied at her feet, nothing but a poor beggar, orphaned at a young age, forced to wander the streets of the little town and scavenge for what she could. She slid up against a near wall, keeping her back close as to not get thrown back into the sea of bodies swarming the street to get a better look at the the sinister mass of armed men lining up outside the borders of the town as both sides prepared to march forward and strike their attack on their enemy. How could a land, once peaceful be thrown into a war against itself? The rebellion had not been a shock to Natalie when she'd been overheard a conversation between men a while back, but now that she could actually see the rebel uniforms, armed with muskets, and a deathly red symbol stating their cause, he heart seemed to stop in her chest.

There was no way she'd be able to fight off, or even stand up against a single guard with her weak body. Her bones were frail, and her cheeks were hollow, she looked absolutely skeletor, and her grimy mouse brown, grimy hair hung lank over her dull grey eyes. It was obvious that Natalie wasn't living the good life, but rather a living nightmare of homelessness and starvation, still she fended well for herself on the streets, and had even acquired some good skills on her way, like pickpocketing, or the ability to scale up small buildings and homes when she needed to, if her muscles had the energy.

She scowled, and backed down a thin ally way just below the bakery that Adam was standing atop as he looked over the chaos happening in the streets, unknown to the people below. She looked up at the broken wall and found a good handhold, heaving herself upwards towards the top ledge of the little bakery. In a few minutes she was pulling herself up onto the roof, too focused on not plummeting to the floor to notice Adam.
 
The crack of muskets rang out round the town, those not quick enough to take shelter slain in cold blood. The dead bodies littering the streets, however, were largely those of troops from either side, and most of them had been run through or sliced. Puddles, pools and small rivers of blood were visible on the cobbled streets, the harsh reality of war sinking in, the battle not even half-over yet. Screams rang out, piercing many person's ears - the shouts of soldier in pain, the scream of mother losing her child, the hopeless pleas of an orphaned child. Yet, the cruel beast known to most as war ploughed forth, the men fighting consumed with hatred, the scene around them having little effect on their conviction. Despairing, Adam sighed, and surveyed everything, standing above it all - he had seen the battlefield. He had seen conflicts between rebels and the kingdom before this one - he had hoped settling in a neutral area would protect him, believing even the merciless generals were human enough to spare those who had no impact on anything. But, as a deadly piece of lead zipped by his ear, and into a rebel musketeer attempting to find a sniping position on the roof, he fell. Backwards, in shock.
And then he noticed Natalie.
Though he was not the most popular person, and quite bitter at times, he still remained with a sense of humanity - he could see the girl was perfectly capable, but not wanting to see more unnecessary deaths than he had to, he held out his hand, an offer of assistance.
 
Natalie took his outstretched hand and heaved herself all the way onto the roof, but her grey gaze was glued to the sniper who's head was whipped backwards as a bullet impacted with his skull with a dull thud. He stared blindly up at the sky, stumbling backwards once before toppling off the top of the building. She would have thanked Adam for the help, but right now all she could focus on was leaning over the edge to see the horrors below.

People she'd known almost all her life were desperatly shoving others away to save their own skins, only to be shot down moments later. It made Natalie's jaw fall and her eyes widen to see the display of such heartlessness below...Such madness that only mankind was capable of committing. She wished now that she had some way to help the townspeople...Her friends, but she was as useless in a battle as the rest of them. She turned away and slouched down against the ground, and only now did she look at Adam, while she pulled her legs closer to her chest and set her chin in the rivet between them.

She didn't know what to say to him not at a time like this, so instead she just stared and stared using him as an attention point so she wouldn't have to look at the bloodshed below.
 
"Do you see the horrors that go on below us? Do you see the bloodshed, the pain, the misery? I have seen this all before. The images, the snippets of what war truly is, are burnt into my mind. I do not stand here, feeling nothing, because I do not feel anything. I stand here, observing the scene below, because I still cannot come to terms with the horrors man commits. No matter the conflict I have been forced through, there is nothing that makes sense..."
Having not even looked at Natalie while he spoke, Adam had instead been glancing across the tragedy occurring before him, his voice cold, bitter, and yet... Wistful. He spoke as if he was old beyond his years, as if he had grown into a man before he had finished being a boy. He stared at the mark burnt into his right palm, a symbol of what had been, and what he had tried to escape - what he was still trying to. The rebel's symbol, in the form of a blackened scar, stared mockingly back at him, a reminder of the war that he could never erase. "We can do nothing but wait. And what you do then is up to you. But I will run - as far as I can. For reasons you shall not hear, I cannot take a side, both because of my morals, and because I would be killed upon recognition... Do not leave this roof unless you have to. It's as safe as any place."
And it wasn't even him as a person that would be killed - rather, what he had been.
 
(So I know I am the one who requested this RP, but I didn't realize just how swamped I'd actually be....Its finals right now, meaning I have to cram a whole bunch of studying and testing into the few hours I have during the day to do such things...And barely have time to reply...So if we could put this on hold, that be great. Again, really sorry >.<)
 
((Not a problem, just give me a heads-up when you're ready again.))
 
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