The City of Romit

[tarheel91]

The city of Romit had changed greatly in these past few decades. The beautiful forests that had once surrounded it were now gone. The beautiful blue that had once filled the sky above it had been replaced with a depressing gray of smog and pollution. The beauitful, kind people that once inhabited it were now cold, inhospitable, and tired. Yes, the city of Romit had changed a great deal for most. However, for Seth, the change was hardly noticeable. Poverty was poverty, no matter what was going on around it. Sure, when he was younger he might have stolen a horse or a loaf of bread, and now it was one of these cars or something from a factory. Yes, little had changed from Seth's perspective in his 18 years alive, but that was not to remain the case for long.

((So, Romit's the setting. Feel free to create whoever you want within it. I intentionally said little about all the other classes, the political system, etc. so that y'all could do what you want, but I have one more guy coming in a little bit, and he's kind of important.))

[souseiki]

In one of Romit's back-streets or dark alleys, as people would say, was a cluster of people gathered together, all dressed in a manner which made it obvious they were a stronger gang in the broken city. Among this group was a youth, about the age of twelve, who stood outside the circle of them, bored. After awhile a couple of teenagers broke away from the meeting to the kid, who then turned and left the alley. He wore cleaner clothes then others, but nothing that stood to be too noticed, and hidden from view was a hilt of a sword, built from strange technology of steam available only to individuals. Etched in small letters on the hilt was his name, Adrian. He fingered his weapon as he approached the center of the city, already alert if something happened to break out.

//How'd i do? first time //

[Reve]

OOC// Lolol I'm just gonna hop in.//

Hardly matters now, aye. A few years ago it did. Now it didn't. Not much. Was she getting old? No, impossible, she'd only lived for 19 years and no oh no she wasn't old. But she suspected that she was senile. Very creepy, aye...

Life was easy and good when you were clueless to all the sufferings in it. It's better to be clueless rather than having the world so sharp and real... As if it was more than a dream. It was one of the good parts of being short sighted. You can lie to yourself and say this is all just a dream, that you'll wake up tomorrow in wonder-land.

Once you got experienced at deluding yourself, nothing stops you.

Lorry had watched Romit got from bad to worse in the days when everything was... Sharp and real, when she felt the need to make a difference in the horse pit they call a society. Where the richer got richer and the poorer can just go to hell. Her parents had worked in coal mines. She had managed to worm out of that profession by that god-forsaken place exploding in a freak accident. It was like a gift and then...Another gift at the same time. Everything suddenly got... Distant.

Ambling about the streets was a lanky looking girl, clad in a dirty looking blouse, a pair of severely ruffled trousers, and a brown coat, with a sling bag on her shoulder. Far from home, which was nowhere near the city. Where was it again...?

She did some steam engine fixing around the place. Was pretty good business, as quite a few people in Romit were infuriatingly well-off. Sometimes she suspected the engineers were just making engines sub-par on some mysterious money-making purpose, but that's fine, it gave her her money and all was good. Barely enough to get by, but it's bearable. Everything was nice and hazy.

A tune streamed out from her lips and she happened to walk past this gang who she always seemed to see around here. Her eyes followed a boy, no more than twelve, as he broke away from the group to walk towards the city center, his look guarded and alert.

And she walked straight into a stationary car, faceplanting the window, and there was a resounding thong. Mortified to her toes, Lorry pulled herself away from the vehicle, continuing along the path as if nothing had happened. She swore she heard a couple of laughs from the gang.

Oh be quiet.

[tarheel91]

((Nice, both of you. Both of your characters will react nicely to this other character when I introduce him. By the way, Reve, nice free indirect discourse. Like, really nice. We've read through Pride and Prejudice, Dubliners, and Mrs. Dalloway in English, so I've gotten a lot of it recently, but that was really well done.))

Seth strolled casually down a street like any other in the poorer part of the town. It was curious how that worked. The areas where the more affluent parts of the city met the more common parts, it was like light and day. On one street, grime and dirt, crowds of people scurrying about like little mice, on the other, couples strolling leisurely through lush parks and policemen smiling proudly on each corner. The only police who braved the poor parts were either corrupt or stupid. However, the bias seemed almost natural too, as it seemed like even the sun shined brighter on the better parts of town. To Seth, these were all simple observations, and as he continued his way, dodging past a carriage, and down an alley, no a single inference was made based on them. He saw there was a difference, but he didn't think of it as wrong per say.

As his attention returned to reality, his heart skipped a beat. Cursing, he began to back up. He'd wandered right into the meeting of that gang he'd stolen a few of those fancy new swords from last week. His mind raced to analyze the situation and assess the risks: they must be important if they'd gotten their hands on some of those, but he didn't even know their name. Of course, he'd gotten away without them noticing, so they might not know it was him even now. But, if they were good, surely they could've asked around and found out enough to get a general idea of who it might be. There weren't many thieves of his caliber around, and even less who'd try to steal from a gang they didn't know anything about.

((It's up to you to see if they notice him or decide if they know he did it or whatever. I'll leave it here. Oh, and I went past the carriage in case Lorry cares to notice him. She is farsighted though, right?

Those swords I mentioned work like this:
Inside the blade and hilt is a combustion chamber where fuel is stored. There's a trigger of some sort that causes the reaction to take place, and steam can then be used to increase the force behind a blow--like a rocket--heat the blade, or shoot the blade. Obviously, the final option only works once, and it's basically a normal sword if you run out of fuel.))

[Nass]

Bump. Bump.

The car bounced along the dusty road to Romit. A boy's head hit against the window. It didn't hurt, but shook him slightly awaking him from his deep slumber. The boy looked out the window, a bunch of other kids were piled into the car. They were being shipped off into a factory to help build cars, until they get a sponsor and move out. So far, no one has ever lived long in the factory to get one. The boy unfolded a paper he held in his hand. It read;

Name: Hero Maurie
Position: Busboy

The boy reflected on his past meeting with the Captain. He had been given the name Hero, because he was the only one to ever stand up against the brutal beatings they received.

"Hehe! You wanna be Hero son?" The whip master always said, before he struck him even harder. Marks on his arms and legs could testify to that.

The van rolled to a stop, and a hard,rusty man tossed the boys outside. A couple were in tears, awaiting for the worse.

But to Hero...He had another plan.


Break out.

((Wow. I'm losing my writing edge. I sux.))

[souseiki]

Adrian had turned around immediately when he heard a loud sound coming from a female bumping into a car. Now he was looking at a figure backing away from the street that he had just left, completely forgetting the female. From the way that the teen looked, he guessed that he was the thief that stole the new swords that the gang had just produced. He walked away, judging that the gang wouldn't see the thief, which they didn't. Adrian started to the mechanic part of the town, and opened his hand, a note slipped out and dropped to where the thief was by the wind, a simple test.

Adrian strolled into a weapon-related store, looking for a piece that completed his blade, or something of the sort. The owner of the shop greeted the boy with slight interest, while rummaging through a box containing parts. The owner finally set the finished part that Adrian looked for on the front table, waiting for Adrian to pay the ransom. He lay a small amount of money on the counter, and swiftly took the part. Adrian then bade the owner good-bye and left.

As he left and put the part, which was the size of about a needle, into the bottom of his hilt, he saw a couple boys being shoved out of a car. Adrian then hurried out of the street and into the previous where the gang had been. As he arrived there, he wondered about the thief and the girl.

//x.x yeah. the part is supposed to make the blade have a bit of lightning in it, like when it comes out theres lighting plus the steam. //

[tarheel91]

((Haha, you don't have to acknowledge everyone. As you've just proven, it's hard to naturally. Also, explain stuff like "he guessed that he was the thief." Plenty of people would freeze and slowly back away if they saw a scary gang. Feel free to figure out it's him, but just give us an explanation. Lightening seems like a bit beyond steam-tech, but I'll let it go.))

[souseiki]

//x.x thanks. i was trying to twist steam to the supernatural..x.x//

[AzK]

Romit, what a wonderful place it was, Iro had frowned upon this thought. What had once been a prosperous city a few miles away, was not only a shadow of its former form but the area around it had actually become depressing at its sight. Not only had the air around it been polluted so much, the city was almost in ruins and the forest surrounding it was now a barren wasteland. A truck drove slowly past him, carrying a load of children in the back. One of them had been reading a sheet intensely.

Ten years had gone by so quickly. Sure it was in bad shape before but now it was worse than before. Ten years since his family was killed by a gang, ten years since he left. He was twenty now and he had been finding himself amongst all that was alive. He tightened his grip on his katana and held it for a while before wrapping it in a long rag and slinging it around his back. He walked towards Romit, hoping to make it by nightfall.

[wsxedcr08]

The smog seemed less thick that morning on the rooftops of Romit. A young boy, about fourteen, reclined quite comfortably on one of the flat brick surfaces, staring at nothing in particular. His thin framed glasses glittered inconspicuously, even with little to no sunlight to reflect against them. He wore a short sleeve button down shirt and gray shorts, with a plaid cabby hat to complete the ensemble. There were only two special things about this kid, aside from his clothes being slightly cleaner than the rest of the poor children in the area. One was his boots. They were special, but only to a trained eye. On the bottom of each lay two perfectly circular openings in the center of each portion of the rubber soles. They glowed faintly, very faintly, seemingly of their own power. The other was not so inconspicuous. On his arm was an ornate gauntlet, an obvious product of an advanced steam technology. The gauntlet covered most of his forearm, and ended in a sharp point that extended ever so slightly past his elbow.

A casual observer might label him as sad, or depressed, or downright crazy for daring to rest so close to the ventilation shafts of the steam engine providing the building below with electricity. The truth, however, is that he happened to merely be deep in thought.

In order to understand the situation at hand, you'd have to know a bit more about the tall, lanky looking boy. The most important thing to note was that he was a genius, way ahead of his time. The other, is that he happened to be owned, body and soul, by a man named Johnathan Lyte. If the name sounds familiar to you, it should. Johnathan Lyte is the CEO of Lyte Co., the company responsible for the manufacture and distribution of all the steam technology in the known world. Yes, we all know of Lyte Co., but not all of us know the story of how it came to be.

You see, John was always an ambitious man, one with high aspirations yet little to no skill. He lived much beyond his means, leaving him poor and in the streets most of the time, either there or in the most expensive hotel in town throwing lavish parties. John grew weary of the sine curve of his bank account, and resolved to make a name for himself. What only remained was to find one good idea which he could use to carry him into affluent society.

That idea came one winter, as he was again roaming the city streets. He happened to wander across a lone boy, tinkering with scrap parts from a discarded industrial steam engine. He watched in amazement as the boy, not yet ten, turned the useless scrap into a functioning model of a steam engine. Not only that, but it was smaller, and it produced more steam! Something held him back from approaching the boy just yet, and his patience payed off. The boy rigged up his steam engine to a sheet of metal, and after a few hours of tinkering he created a sled, completely powered by his compact steam engine. Without a word, John crept up and knocked the boy unconscious, stealing the sled for himself.

Needless to say everyone was awestruck that a man that didn't even finish high school was able to produce a specimen of such mechanical genius, but no one, especially his investors, complained as the cash rolled in. However, this didn't last forever, the technology of his sled was taken by other companies and improved upon, soon John's sales to nothing.

This was easily fixed. He simply sought out the boy, kidnapped him, and after a few months, legally adopted him. John pushed the boy to create invention after invention, and sold the technology under his own name, through a business he created from the sales of his sled, Lyte Co. Lyte Co. was pushing out inventions at a rate no other small business could compete with, and soon most had to close to break even. The ones that held out John undersold till they too had to close. He had effectively set up a monopoly on Steam Technology, all through the use of the fourteen year old boy sitting on a rooftop.

The boy, simply called Lyte by his "father", just happened to be getting up as a crash was heard from streets below. Curiosity got the best of him as be peered over the side of the building, to see a girl awkwardly backing away from the stationary car she had bumped into. A gang in the alleyway didn't seem to notice the sound, except for one boy who glanced up from whatever they were doing. He didn't look at the girl, however, but at another boy, cautiously backing up from the scene. He quickly tapped the arm of the older boy standing next to him and gestured over to the boy who was retreating as calmly and carefully as possible. The older looking boy nodded in acknowledgment and returned to the task at hand. The exchange happened so quickly and subtly that someone not looking through Lyte's auto-focusing glasses would have completely missed it. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but by the way the cautious boy was reacting to the gang he assumed the boy was in some kind of trouble. Perhaps he stole the steam blade that he carried from the gang, they looked to be the same model.

The boy retreated to a point outside of the line of vision in the alley and then casually walked away, as if he thought he was safe from his would be attackers. Lyte didn't know the boy, but something about him compelled him to intervene in his behalf. Without warning, Lyte quickly tapped a small button on his gauntlet. The cavities in his boots steamed to life as he leaped off the roof, flying in the direction of the boy diluted in his false security.

//Excuse all the back story, I just wanted to explain my character fully so everyone'd know what I was thinking of. This is my first RP I'm kind of excited. =] I promise my other submission things won't be this long.//

[tarheel91]

((@wsx: It's fine, haha. Mine would have been much longer, as I generally like to create a very rich and well developed setting and character, but I wanted this one to be a bit more open and relaxed since a lot of you haven't done this before. Only thing to watch out for is that while redescribing what someone has also wrote, which is totally fine, that you don't accidentally suggest they did something the author didn't have them do. You were fine, like that was perfect, but it's easy to accidentally mess up.

Oh, AzK's was awesome too, if he cares for my praise.))

Seth spun around as he reached the exit of the alleyway and quickly got out of the boys' view. He wasn't sure whether they knew who the thief was, but it looked like he had avoided being noticed. Now if one supposed Seth was particularly stressed over this situation, they were wrong. As serious as it might seem, it was simply the risk one had to confront daily just to live. Life was hard; that was sure, but one adapts to it as they do everything else.

((Feel free to slam into the ground beside of him.))

[Nass]

((Ha ha! Welcome to RPing then. It's gets exciting real fast.))

Hero glanced around, no possible exits. The guards began ushering them in reluctantly he followed. He walked into the main lobby. He gasped as his lungs were filled with steam. He winced as it burned down his throat. He was shoved into line.

When he made it up front, he was asked to show his ID card.

Hero thought, he could lie and hopefully find a way to leave or he could give them a card and live a life of slavery. He didn't take long on his decision.

"I-I forgot it in the car." He said slowly hoping the guard wouldn't notice it was folded in his hand.
"Well don't just stand 'er boy! Go get it!" The guard yelled. "Next!"

Hero moved out of line, no one was coming with him. No guard. No anything. Hero turned and walked out the factory. What fools. They thought he was coming back, in their dreams. No longer was he a slave, he was finally free. He ran down the road. His joy filled to the brim.

"FREEDOM!" He cried. He kept running into the city of Romit.

Finding a nearby alleyway he leaned against a wall to catch his breath. Sweat dripped down his forehead, he whipped it off. He needed somewhere to crash.

Speaking of crash, he heard a sound of laughter.

People?

[FunnyFroggy]

[Not really familiar with steam tech shatness, but I'll try. It might turn into steampunk on accident. :3]

Everything's different. No lush forest. No blue sky, but instead, a gray smog like heaven. Even the people have changed. Four years away sure makes a dramatic difference...

A young man in his early twenties, looked down on the streets from the rooftops. The streets were bustling with activity. Men and women were hurrying along, happily living life.

The man was a member of the Miort. Ever since a new leader had arisen and taken control of Romit, chaos had erupted. Crimes were abundant, and many citizens refused to step out of their homes, fearing for their lives. As a result, a secret organization was created and they called themselves Miort. Soon they became Romit's secret police, abolishing crime everywhere they can see. One by one, citizens began acknowledging the new group. They had one, and only one goal: To revert Romit to the illustrious city it once was. However, soon the group became full of themselves, and even the citizens began to fear the Miort. Only a select few members have stayed true to their cause. The main enemy of the group was the Romit Royal Imperial Army, or RRIA.

The man wore a tattered military uniform. His shoes were dusty and gray, and the pants were covered with splotches of dirt. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing scratches and wounds, he had suffered from fighting. His hands were encased in metal claws, inscribed with runes.

He jumped down from the rooftops, landing quietly on the ground. The man walked towards a small house. Or rather, what was left of it.

No, it can't be...Mother. Where are you? I'm back, like I promised...I'll be good now. I'll be an engineer. I-I'm sorry, mother. I shouldn't have run away...

The man stood for a few moments, then disappeared in a dark alley.

[Nass]

Hero was about to move when he heard footsteps heading into his direction. He hid behind some garbage and waited. A man walked down, and seemed troubled. Hero looked at the claws on his hands. No, he will never be scared. He stepped out into the clear, blocking the mans path.
"State your name!" He cried, trying to show no signs of fear.

[FunnyFroggy]

The man stopped, and saw a young boy, watching him. Although the boy tried not to show it, he could tell the boy was full of fear.

"Hey there, kiddo. Name's Anura. Axel Anura." Axel crouches so he was at eye level with the boy. "What's your name? And what're you doing here all alone?"