The Red Lands ::Private RP::

[KatDrama]

Welcome to the
Red Lands

The Setting: The eruption of the volcano deep beneath Yellowstone National Park set off a worldwide chain of events that have changed the world forever. The earth is now barren, red, dusty. Seas of lava flow across the land. Inside bubble cities (which had been air borne prior to eruption) civilization continues, but in the outlands, the 'Red Lands' mutant children with strange features and powers are born. This outer world is controlled by mafias and gangs, all fighting for the basics of life. In all of this children and family systems are forgotten, replaces by clans and gangs.

The Rules:
- Character profiles are not required, rather just role play them in in a good manner. Details of your character will be worked out through the role play.
- In order to join this RP you must PM me with an outline of your character and a link to a role play you've done in the past.
- Before PMing me be sure to have read the first/intro post so you more fully understand the world of this RP.
- You must be literate. We must understand what you mean by your posts and you must be able to contribute to the storyline. All posts are to be at a minimum a paragraph. If you can only think of one liners then you must step back and think about the situation some more before responding.
- You must be active and committed to this. If for some reason you're unable to continue to RP or need to take some time off of it I am understanding but you need to let me know these things. I don't want this story to end up another dead fish in the water.
- Romance is allowed and encouraged, but everything must be within PG-13 and Gaia parameters.
- Fighting is allowed and encouraged, but must be done tastefully and we don't need to get graphic with the details.
- Swearing is allowed occasionally.
- If you want to make a change to the direction the story is going please talk to me before doing it.
- Keep OOC chatter to a minimum. Take it to PMs or another thread if needed. This is our Red Lands OOC Thread

[KatDrama]

-- Reserved --

[KatDrama]

Mankind had enjoyed life too easy for far too long it seemed. One day it just caught up with them, out of nowhere. They had been slowly generating it since they could remember, but no one seemed to notice…then the eggshell cracked. Apocalypse was upon them. It was only a matter of time. The earth was already divided. The surface had become so polluted, so dirty. Those that could afford to left the terra to live in the sky domes on large, man made islands slowly drifting across the sky. Those that could not afford to lived down on the ground, in the filth and the slums, living otherwise ‘normal’ lives. And so mankind existed.

And then it began. Scientists had predicted it for years, but as usual the public ignores warnings. The sleeping giant, dormant so long in the heart of the American continent awoke. Yellow Stone erupted, taking with it a large portion of the Midwest. Before anything could be done about it a chain of events had started. Earthquakes shook the land, causing entire cities to vanish in an instant. Tidal waves sent the shock of the event and made it worldwide. In a matter of days it seemed that the entire earth had turned itself inside out. Seas had risen and seas had vanished. Mountains thrust out from what had been plains, and entire ranges now made deep valleys. Seas of magma oozed from fissures in the earth.

From up in their sky cities the elite stoically watched as the surface was utterly destroyed. On the land somehow by miracle some numbers of people managed to survive.

Years passed and turned to decades, and decades turned to centuries, and now there were entire generations born who had never seen but a picture of their blue earth. Eventually the cities fell slowly from the sky, resting now as bubbles of civilization on the land. The people outside of the cities flocked to these domes, only to be turned out by the elite within, afraid of those on the outside. People on the outside were starting to change. Mutants they were called, children with strange features or powers, from reading minds and moving rocks with their thoughts, to immense shows of power. Between the city people and the mutants of the red land the true species of mankind had started to evolve into two separate kinds it seemed.

Inside the cities resources and barter ruled. In the red lands outside the domes power ruled. Mafias and warlords started to battle for supremacy and resources. The unit of a ‘family’ was long forgotten. People now banded together in clans or gangs for survival. It wasn’t unusual for children to be abandoned or orphaned, left to find their own way to live in this world.

It is in this place, in this time, that our story begins. In the slums outside of the dome of Neo York people live in remains of tall buildings that were laying on their sides, or down in the remaining tunnels that ran beneath the rusty red earth. The warlords’ known only as Pegasus and Shield rule the outskirts and are constantly in battle. It is in this place that a single bridge crosses the lake of lava and connects to the main land. It is rumored that somewhere far away there have been signs of things growing outer dome again. It is on this bridge that trade is completed between Neo York and other remaining cities. Solar technology is now the only reliable source of energy and all vehicles are powered as such. Even people in the red land commonly have solar bikes with limited hover capabilities.

It is sitting on one such bike, patched together from various pieces, that a lone girl sits, adjusting her mismatched goggles over her eyes, wiping the dust from the lenses as she eyes the bridge. With a small shrug she places a small package under her arm and starts her engine. It takes a couple of tries before the bike sputters to life. The clothing she wears is made of various scrap material and what can be bartered from the domes. In general it is a tattered trench coat over a tank top and pants tucked into boots a size too big. They are all reddish brown, as is everything in the red land. The dust from the land is inescapable.

As she rides along the barren earth her shoulder length platinum white hair floats around her face. She is a freak, a mutant, like so many people in the red land. Her hair had been white since birth, or so she thought she remembered. The girl, only about 16, though who was counting years anymore, couldn’t remember having parents, so she couldn’t know for sure. She is a drifter, she prefers not to associate with any gangs or be tied down to a clan. It is she and her bike. At least, usually it is.

Arriving at her destination she parks her bike along side an abandoned brick building with blown out windows, that is somehow still standing. With a small grin on her face she holds the package firmly under her arm as she enters a gutted old building. A few kids who had been running around hitting each other with sticks for what looked like fun came running up to her. An eager ten year old, the self proclaimed leader of this group pushed his way forward. “So did you manage to score any, Roi?”

The girl with the white hair smiled a bit as she opened up the package and began parceling out pieces of stale bread with a few dented cans of salted meat. “We were lucky, the trader was in a good mood.” She exclaimed to the eager children who were so happy to see even that much food. With a sigh she watches the children eating with such gusto. Roi, or so most people called her, had decided to stick around this little gang for a few days. Their leader had been most peculiar to her, and Roi had grown up in a similar situation. If the outlanders couldn’t help each other out then how would anyone survive?

Feeling satisfied with herself Roi took off her dusty goggles and wiped the dirt from her face as she walked over and sat on an abandoned crate to help herself to some of the rations. A little girl rushed over to her, eager to share her stories of the day with the older girl, but stopped and stared with a little fear at Roi. “Ah, right.” Roi sighed and reached into her pocket, pulling out an eye patch. Another part of her mutant appearance was her eyes were very different. Her left eye was a bright golden yellow with a slitted pupil, and her right eye was a very light blue eye with a normal human pupil. Most people got freaked out by the yellow eye. But what Roi wouldn’t tell them was that her eye was part of her powers. Roi could see clearly for very far distances, and could even see at night. In some gangs she had worked for in the past she had gained some notoriety as Hawke Eye. It was when more powerful gangs began to seek her out for those powers that she became a drifter. Roi wasn’t really sure what a hawk was. There wasn’t much wild animal life about anymore. She had been told once that it was a bird of prey that would fly up very high in the sky and could see for great distance. Roi was glad at that, for then the name of Hawke Eye also fit her other mutant power. But that was a power even more guarded than her vision secret...

“Sorry about that.” Roi apologized to the little girl with a little chuckle as she put the patch on.

[Aerivel]

Dylan flopped down on the starting-to-rot hay and old blankets that functioned as her bed. An empty manilla envelope she had tossed on the makeshift crate table to her right, and a half-dead candle was her only light in her sorry excuse for a home, a home that was nothing more than a windowless, dirty, wooden shack on the very far edge of what Pegasus called a dome. That the dome hadn't cracked or crumbled due to its poor workmanship was a wonder, and Dylan had always thought she would wake up one morning to dome flakes instead of rocks, dirt, and the occasional brave blade of grass that thought it had a chance at life in that hell hole.

She flipped through the photographs and pictures Pegauss had given her, some blurry and hard to make out, and others giving her an unmistakable mugshot of the young woman to be her prey. A decently pretty girl, Dylan thought, though she really just wondered if the other girls' breasts were bigger than her own. Whild Dylan had always been sensitive about her flat chest, she was glad at the same time because it had allowed her to pass for a "pretty boy" amongst the members of Pegasus's groupies. She could only imagine and dread what they might have done to her were they to find out she were female. Getting this girl back to Pegasus didn't seem like such a huge job, Dylan wondered if there were something about this Roi woman she wasn't being told, something about her that made her so dangerous none of the other brigands would have taken the job.

"Too bad I don't know where this hideout of hers is. Don't think I've seen that buildin' around anywhere..." She said to herself as she set the pictures down on top of her folder. "Guess I'll be headin' out extra early... Or late... To look around a bit."

She outstretched her arms and lay on her back, not bothering to take off her shoes or coat. Besides, even though the dome was supposed to be protective, it still got pretty cold in that shack of hers.

[KatDrama]

"Aw Roi, do you really have to go?" The eerie sun was setting now, setting the land even further ablaze in red.

Roi was messing with some of the settings on her bike, her goggles lay draped over the handle bars. There were sad faced children crowding all around her. Roi put on a chipper smile and patted the kids on the head. "I must be off now. I'm a drifter, that is what I do." She tried to tell the children, to make them feel at ease. Truth be told in the past days staying at one location had made her uneasy. She was slightly aware that from somewhere she was being watched. It was time to move on again, if only to keep these poor kids safe.

Roi crouched down, eye level with the kids and handed one of them a hand carved wooden whistle. "If you're ever in trouble, or if you ever need me, all you have to do is call." She smiled and pressed the whistle into the kid's hand. Part of her hawk like abilities was being able to hear certain things over long distances, such as the piercing cry of a sharp whistle. "And I'll fly to your side." She said with a smile.

Finally she was able to make her good byes and the loner rode off into the sunset. The hot breezes of the afternoon had given way to the chill of oncoming night. She was have to find new shelter before moon rise. Like a dessert it was hot as hell in the day and cold as winter at night. Roi stopped on the top of a sand dune to survey her surroundings. Off in the distance she could see the lights of Neo York, and more dimmer was the haphazard domes of Shield and Pegasus...the mob bosses had worked hard for those shams of civilization. Those who were willing to sell their souls to work for the bosses were rewarded with shelter, food, and those high up the rank almost reached the life style of inner-dome humans. Roi smirked a little. But she would never be slaves to them. Once, as a naive kid she had joined in one of the groups, and quickly realized her mistake. But she had powers, useful powers, and the mafia was not one to forgive and let go easily. And so Roi was always on the move. With a sigh Roi looked across the horizon to the bridge that crossed the molten lake of lava. Someday she would earn the money for a crossing pass and would get out of this area, to someplace new and far away...

[Aerivel]

Dylan had begun to drift off. The candle she had left burning, but there were so little of it left it was hardly a concern. And besides, she was always calmed and soothed when there was a fire nearby. A controlled fire, of course, like that of her candle or in a fireplace. Perhaps one day she could live somewhere free of the dust with a fireplace to warm the nights and dance for her in the darkness. She felt her head going numb with want for sleep and thoughts of her plans for when she awoke danced through her mind wondering whether she should ask around for the whereabouts of the hideout she was supposed to find or if it would be better just to look for it herself. She definitely didn't want help from those skeez balls in Pegasus's self-proclaimed super gang. All most of them cared about was money, though a select few of them, namely the ones Pegasus kept close at hand, were the ones who longed to change the world from the dust bowl it had become, to show those non-mutated humans that those mutants were just as good as, if not better than, their sorry hides.

Dylan wasn't sure what she thought. She had a few memories of her past, though they were limited to her child self screaming and crying as an older boy was torn away from her by humans. Through her tears she couldn't remember who that boy was, but she was certain he had been trying to protect her, and one day she would find out who he was. Joining Pegasus, who had been recruiting new croonies left and right, was a sure ringer for finding a mutant. If he weren't under Pegasus's command, surely someone who was would know about the person. The problem was she wasn't sure she wanted to reveal her mutation, which was growing very similar to the boy she remembered, until she figured out whether or not she had any power to back up those lumps under the worn padding of her interlock beanie. Well, until she learned more about herself, she supposed she would have to wait to find out about her long-lost savior.

In her mind there was a picture of a building, one she recognized but at the same time couldn't identify. That's how her dreams always seemed to work, showing her things she both remembered and had forgotten at the same time. There were children there, who seemed happy enough with the meagre bits of food they had found, though Dylan could make out no faces or voices. The scene in her head was silent and began to blur. Her vision was replaced with a spontaneous combustion, a fire erupted and consumed all of her thoughts, jerking her awake and she springing from her bed, stumbling from the shock with cold sweat dripping down her neck.

"What the... Hell..." She realized she was still in her room, wishing she could mentally add "safe and sound" to that description. She swallowed hard, wanting for something to drink, and putting out her candle promptly by suffocating its flame in her palm, she shot out of the shack just in time to see the sun drowning on the horizon. With a heavy sigh and a wipe of her forehead with the back of her sleeve, she headed out of the dome.

[KatDrama]

Roi had found herself a perch high on what she had been told was once a road system...why man would build roads above the ground she had no idea. But she sat on the edge of the over pass that went to no where but the sky. Watching the sun slip behind the domes as the sky turned a purple then gradually blue, it almost made life seem better. From this high vantage point Roi could see a large amount of sky, something she loved. Roi hated feeling constricted by buildings. Why people had wanted them to begin with never made sense to Roi. "Keep your domes, I'll take the sky." She laughed softly in the darkness.

From high up here Roi could see most of the outlands of Neo York. She slowly took off the eye patch from her freakish eye. Keeping both eyes closed for a few moments to allow them to adjust to the dark she flipped the collar of her coat up and opened her eyes, a smirk upon her face. Now with both eyes open Roi could crisply see everything under the night sky as though it was day time. The Red Lands was a land where you survived by luck. Those who kept their eyes peeled for luck were luckier than others. And so Roi settled in for a few hours of observation on the slums, looking for any opportunity to score some coin. She laughed at a few drunken brawls she saw, but so far this night nothing was attracting her attention.

[Aerivel]

((Legionaire: If you didn't already, you should PM KatDrama. She just went to bed though, and I'm only going to be putting down this last post before I go off to work on something else. Just wanted to make sure you didn't think we were ignoring you. ; ) ))

Dylan pushed through the airlock to the dome, if it could even be called that. There was hardly any suction in the place, she wasn't sure exactly how the dome even kept all of the dust from the outlands, well, in the outlands. She had just shaken the last of the nightmare from her head and in the confusion had forgotten completely that she had wanted some water, or ale, or anything wet. Perhaps she would spend the night just wandering, wandering to see if she found anything of interest, to see if she could find her next victim, but quickly making a mental promise to herself to get some real sleep before she tried to take on that Roi girl. Always best to know well the powers of your rival, especially when you weren't sure of your own.

She cleared her throat and spit onto the dirt, a small wisp of the dust rising up and quickly falling again. Into her pocket, her hand quickly felt to make sure she had her pocket knife. Along her belt were about three or for explosives, pretty weak but could cause some heavy bleeding from a short range. What was that dream? Was that something from her past, or some shadow of the future? Or was it just one of those dreams that makes you think really hard just to find out that it actualy didn't mean anything at all.

Either way, she was calmer now, her mind clear. Maybe sleeping under the stars would ease her mind, even if it did clog her lungs. She had a small face mask to protect from the dirt, but wasn't sure how good it would really do. Oh well, she'd surely die soon enough from the combination of gang work and the terrible climate. She pulled the tattered medical mask from her other pocket and snapped it around her head, adjusting it so it wouldn't be blown off from the wind that couldn't seem to make up its mind whether it wanted to be strong or soft.

Her mind fluttered to other things as she watched the sky, stars peeking through every once in a while from the clouds of dust and debris. The stars visible were so few that she could count them on her two hands. Dylan walked through the desert, kicking a lone rock for nothing other than she felt like it. In the distance were the remains of man's long-lost freeways, old concrete structures that no one remembered the exact function for anymore. Sometimes Dylan found herself climbing the old freeway pieces for fun, she always did like climbing, and one day she dreamed of finding a real, beautiful mountain to explore. Perhaps she just liked looking down on things from high above for the feeling of power it gave her. If only she could fly.

But alas. She sighed and continued on her way, toward a little hideout where she could ask for information without having anything asked of her in return, an old, run-down merchan's shack with a couple of old umbrella and straw huts she wasn't quite sure how they stood. There was a dusty old man there, one who if he didn't have the information she sought, would know someone who did.

[KatDrama]

Roi was enjoying her night of observation when a twinkling light caught the corner of her eye. There it was again, a controlled flash three times in a row. The signal. Roi scoffed a little as she stood up. Why would that person want to meet with her now? Roi had to admit she was a little curious, but cautious none the less. The only person she knew that used that signal was a person she had met when she'd naively worked for Pegasus. He was still within Pegasus's ranks, but he had turned double agent and was leaking info to Shield now. He'd kept in contact with Roi every now and then, employing her as a courier. Roi hated to mettle in the affairs of the mafia, but it was a favor for an old friend.

What could he possibly want now? Roi fired up her bike and soared down the overpass to ground level once again. She crossed the dessert under the starlight. In the vast expanse of nothing it seemed like she was the only thing alive, kicking up dust as she headed towards the slums.

Roi went to where the signal had come from, a dusty old merchant shack. Roi took off her goggles as she entered the room. An old man nursing a cracked mug of coffee stared at her gruffly before continuing to sulk in her corner. There was a man selling liquor from behind the ruins of a bar. Roi smirked as she approached him. "What are you up to now you turncoat?" She said in a hushed but playful whisper as she set her goggles down on the bar. She stared at him with her golden eye, making the man feel unsettled.

"Easy Roi, easy." He smiled guiltily and handed her a glass of some brown liquid. Roi sniffed it suspiciously before taking a sip. It was bitter at first but she then gulped it all down. "I have info for you." He leaned forward over the counter, staring uneasily at the old man in the corner for a minute before looking back at Roi and sliding her some polaroids. Roi casually picked the photos up and tried hard to hide her surprise. "They're hunting me, are they?" She said, anger rising a bit her in her voice.

"Pegasus wants you back. You showed him just enough of your powers, you're very useful." The man tried to ease Roi's anger.

"And Shield?" Roi inquired. Roi had never approached Shield, and never been approached by Shield. Shield was a mysterious organization. There was rumors that he had some sort of ideal, that they were building up for some sort of revolution. Shield kept to itself. Pegasus was straightforward greed and sleeze.

"No movement." The man said matter of factly. "Shield knows that you will come to them when you are ready."

"Hm, do they now?" Roi sighed and pushed her glass forward, demanding another.

"Hey, the info's free from a friend but the drinks aren't on the house."

((It can be the same place that Dylan was going to if you want it to be))

[Aerivel]

((Perfecto, milady.))

Dylan ripped the mask from her mouth and let it blow away in the wind and dust. Of course that ratted old thing did her no good, she should have figured as much. Ah well, the dim lights from the merchant's shack were flickering in the not-so-far distance. She'd have taken a deep breath were the dust not already clogging her nostrils. Zipping up her jacket to her face, she continued on her way, stopping just long enough to pluck a crunched can from the ground, too dark to make out the contents, but the weight told her it was somehow still sealed, and could possibly be useful later.

As she popped the can into her pocket, she made sure to rub some of the dirt into her face. After all, the dirtier she was, the better she passed for a boy. With her back, she pushed into the place, slamming the door behind her, even though it looked like a couple more wisps of dirt wouldn't really be noticed on the dusty floor.

"Hey old ma-, oh," she said in a raspy, tomboyish voice, though it looked like the old coot already had a guest. "Heh, well," she mumbled to herself, taking a seat so that there was one space between her and the other visitor. She motioned to the other worker for her usual drink, and as she turned to get a better look at the visitor, she recognized her almost immediately, feeling her cheeks flare up and looking away quickly enough that she'd hoped the woman hadn't noticed. It couldn't have been that easy, that couldn't be the Roi she'd been sent to find, not there in the same bar at the same time on the exact day she'd been given her assignment.

As her drink was set before her, she was too lost in her thoughts to decide what to do. Should she speak up and say something now, or feign ignorance to get to know this woman better before trying to take her down? But what was it about her that Pegasus had wanted so badly? In any case, she couldn't fight her in that bar, she didn't want to endanger the couple of people who'd helped her in the past while asking little or nothing in return. No, not the people who had been so kind to her when she was just a little orphan with nowhere else to turn.

"Ah, sorry." the other barkeep said, "You always like it with a hit of amaretto, don'tcha?" he smiled as he popped a fizzing, dissolving amaretto marble into the drink. His voice snapped her out of her head, bringing her back to the scene before her. She smiled a thank you and set a small handful of screws and bolts down on the desk. "Your scrap metal's always good here, kiddo," he said as he went back to what he'd been doing: polishing a knife he'd just bought at a fairly cheap price that afternoon.

Dylan took a deep swig of her drink and swallowed hard. She nervously looked over to the platinum-haired woman who was so close to her and convinced herself as soon as she saw a glimpse of the golden eye that this was indeed the woman she was after. Now then, what to say to strike up a conversation without seeming too suspicious...

[KatDrama]

Roi honestly hadn't paid much attention as a good looking young man entered the place. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye for a moment, a light blushing caressing her cheeks before she snapped back to attention and was haggling with her informant over the price of the drink. But she caught her informant's eye. While he was serving the new person he kept making motions with his eyes and hands, as though he was trying to tell Roi something. Roi froze for a moment, feeling the edges of the polaroids that were resting in her hands. Then she understood. Roi began to smirk and reach for one of the knives in her belt. The informant looked alarmed. He had a good establishment going, he didn't want an open brawl ruining it.

"Roi." He whispered harshly as he took away her empty glass.

Roi cast her friend a glance. "Don't worry." She smiled insincerely. Taking a small throwing blade from her waist she stabbed through the polaroids and left them as a parting gift on the counter. As she stood up Roi paused for a moment behind the young man. "So this is the 'hunt' is it?" As soon as she had said that she grabbed her goggles from the counter and was out of the building in a manner of seconds, rushing to her bike with less decorum than she had shown inside.

[Aerivel]

Just as Dylan had taken a mouthful of her drink, Roi's sudden stabbing of her knife into the table caused her to spit her beverage onto the floor, choking on it as she beat her chest to catch her breath. That was certainly unexpected, but before she could stop coughing, Roi had already left the establishment. The knife-polisher in the corner cocked an eyebrow at her, and all she could do was laugh nervously, stand, and wave her hands as though there were nothing amiss. Even a child would have seen through that transparency. "W-well, I guess I better be, uh, goin', then. Thanks fer the drink! Ah'll, uh, see ya 'gain soon, yeah!"

Dylan darted out of the building just as Roi had stomped off toward her bike. There was no mistaking it now, that was definitely the bike she'd seen in the shots Pegasus had given her. Then this woman was, in fact, Roi, the little "pet" that Pegasus seemed so bent on retrieving. But what did she do now? They were out of the building, so the merchants were no longer in danger... But Dylan couldn't decide what the best plan of attack was now that it was painfully obvious she'd been so quickly found out. Well, if she'd already been found out, there was no point in pretending, then, was there?

"H-hey, you! Yer Pegasus's li'l birdy, ain'tcha?" she wondered if Roi would even stop to listen as she stick a hand on her jacket pocket, wishing she had a pair of her own goggles to help her see in the ever darkening, ever dustier night where even the moon was having a hard time shining through.

[KatDrama]

By the time Dylan was out the door Roi was firing up her bike. Roi stared defiantly at Dylan, the look of a bird of prey that would not be caged. "Let's make this clear. I am no one's 'birdy.' You can relay that back to Pegasus." Roi's bike was now hovering above the ground and it was obvious she was prepared to run at any moment. The moonlight made her hair shimmer mysteriously.

"You must be a new hunter? I've never met you before." Roi's voice was filled with sarcasm and hate, the voice of a girl who was struggling desperately to sound tough. Roi revved her engine a bit. "That you got photos of me without my knowledge...your seekers are getting better, I'll give you that much. But this, dear hunter, is where you fail."

And with that the chase was begun. Roi sped out of the location at the top speed of her bike, across the dunes, to the deserted highways once again.