New West IndiesBoard

Kunkenga wrote:

Young Lovers Part I

Andreswhal
A young man plucks at his shirt to try and ventilate his sweaty chest. The waning days of summer's heat in Andresswhal seemed to be well on track to give way to the cool autumnal chills of mid September, but somewhere along the way a scalding heatwave rebuked that promise. The young man leans over his rooftop balcony and overlooks the city. The bustle never really seems to end, but around the golden hours near sunset, the city takes on a much more mellow vibe. As if all the chaos of the morning hours finally finds a groove to settle into.

A song carried itself over the heated air, The Main Ingredient's 1972 hit "Everybody Plays the Fool" playing on a nearby balcony. The young man followed the noise and found himself staring at his neighbor, herself also standing on her balcony. She had moved in at the beginning of the year, taking the place of a plumber and his family who the young man had helped move out. He recognized her as a fellow student at the university, on a few days they left their respective apartments at the same time and wordlessly tailed each other towards campus.

She slowly turned her head to brush some loose hair from her eye and caught the young man staring at her. Fumbling to play it off, he waved his hand over his face and feigned some weak swats at some imaginary pest. Reading the situation clearly, the young woman let out a soft giggle, inaudible to the young man but clearly visible from where he stood..

Cuba Gooding Sr.'s vocals began to transition from spoken word to the ballad as the song began head into its chorus. Everybody plays the fooool, sometimes.

The young woman pointed at her ear and pantomimed a furtive dance move with her arms, a subtle and silent indication that the young man correctly deduced as a simple question, "do you wanna dance?"

He approached the end of his balcony closest to her apartment, his own silent indication that he did want to dance. Flashing a smile, the young woman turned up her stereo and approached the end of her balcony closest to the young man's apartment. The two stood for a few seconds, separated between each other by about 15 feet and a difference in elevation of about 3 feet. The young man, looking at his neighbor's face, marveling at the fact that he had never actually seen what she looked like from up close. Her skin appeared much tanner than he had considered before and he had never noticed that her nose was pierced.

She reached her out over the railing of her balcony, the sound of the loose bangles on her wrist clinking slightly over the music. The young man, after brief confusion, understood what she was going for and reach his hand out too. Still separated by a distance that was over quadruple their arm length, the young man lifted his arm up and twisted his wrist while the young woman twirled around as if spun by the young mans hand. Breaking out of the distant twirl, they both broke into their own individual dances. The young man, keeping his elbows close to his sides, shimmied up and down and balanced his weight rhythmically on the outsides of his feet. The young woman rustled her hands into her hair and listlessly swayed to beat.

The song then hit its peak and slowly faded out, replaced by some old French dancehall tune. The young man and woman both stopped dancing and began laughing.

"Fresh moves" the young woman snipped through a thick Spanish accent.

The young man, showing his empty palms as if to demonstrate there was nothing fresh about him, sheepishly grinned and replied "Yep."

"Yep." the young woman mocked, picking up her radio and a bale of clothes that had been sitting beside her and turning to head back into her apartment.

"Wait!" the young man called out, unsure of what had compelled him to blurt it out. "What's your name, you know I go to the university too and... it's just I've seen you walking, or not that I've seen you like I've been watching you... but It's like..." the young man sputtered out, tripping over almost every word that fumbled out of his mouth.

The young woman, bundle in hand, flashed another smile and called out "My name is Anna" before heading through her sliding screen door back into her apartment.

The young man walked backwards towards the door to his own apartment, still dazed at how fundamentally crippled his ability to speak had just been. Turning towards his door he saw his two roommates sneering at him through the glass. Both on the verge of bursting out in uproarious laughter.

Elsewhere in the city a pair of lawyers leave their firm to head towards their cars, they both discuss the heatwave and the chancellor's extended visit to Volirum.

Near by a bar opens its second entrance to accommodate the influx of patrons.

The sun finishes its decent.

Young Lovers Part II

The low orbit space elevator in Kunkenga was one of the final collective projects humanity undertook before WWIII, abandoned shortly after the fighting began. The ancient structure stretched nearly 60 thousand feet into the air and on a good day its zenith was visible as a grey blip in the upward distance. The fighting between Kunkenga and German forces at the start of the war almost saw the tower destroyed, but its strategic importance secured its safety during the German occupation. Now, nearly a century after the end of the war, the tower lay in ruin. The space age came and went, and soon technology had made the once revolutionary elevator obsolete. The republic's minimal fleet of space planes were now capable of reaching the Earth's orbit nearly ten times as fast as the elevator once could. So there it sat, rusting in the middle of the Kunkengan country side.

Andresswhal
Winter had arrived and snow covered the streets in Kunkenga's capital. Children walking in line to school stopped to pick up handfuls of snow and thrust them at lamp posts. Grey slurry pilled up on the sides of the street and melted back down into glistening streams on the road.

A young man in a thick leather jacket braces his face against the wind as he makes his way back to a local pub, beside him a young woman rubs her palms against her freezing ears.

Entering from the cold, the pub's warmth wrapped up the pair like a blanket. Suddenly their winter coats felt much heavier and the blood that had been rushing to their faces and fingers began to find room elsewhere in their bodies.

The room is alive with action, a group of men play darts in one corner while another group boorishly yell at a rerun television broadcast of a rugby game. All the while a band sets up their equipment near the rear.

Removing their coats, the young man and woman finally got to see the outfits they had chosen for the occasion. The young man wore a knitted sweater with a splattering of garish colors and patters, a pair of light brown khakis, and a pair of dark work boots. The young woman wore a black turtleneck and a pair of high waisted jeans that were cuffed just above her sneakers. A golden pendant with a crucifix hung on her neck, tucked under the turtleneck's fold.

A first date, despite itself being the result of an initial trial of courtship, is nearly as much about first impressions as the first interaction. The pair had already gotten to know each other enough through text over the past few weeks. The young man built enough courage to ask for her number during a party they both went to a couple months ago.

After sitting on it for a couple days he reached out to her and they started talking, aimlessly at first then with direction. They talked more in person too, from their respective balconies and on the way back from university. Then last week she asked him if he was free to go out. He said yes.

They settle down in a cozy booth along one of the pub's walls, the dark orange glow of a hanging lamp lighting them in a warm glow.

"Issa nice place you picked out" the young woman says.

"Yeah, me and my roommates come here a couple times a week after class." the young man replies, waving quickly at a familiar face behind the bar.

"I'll have to tell my friends about this place, me and my roommates have been looking for a place to hangout too ever since The Dot closed." she adds, looking around at the colorful characters around the pub.

A group of businessmen loosening their ties and ordering drinks, some punks heading through the rear exit to smoke, a group of activists recently back from a protest in front of parliament awkwardly placing their posters and signs beside their chairs.

"It's nice enough I suppose" the young man says "Better than The Dot if you ask me" he jokes.

A few hours later the pubs lights have dimmed and the majority of patrons have moved to the back where the band is playing a lilting cover of a It's A Mistake by Men at Work to finish their set. The punks, having returned from smoking watch from the railing on the bar's second floor. One of the businessmen is in deep discussion with one of the activists. The men watching the game and playing darts nurse their drinks in silence and listen to the band play.

The young man and woman sit back on a couch listening too. Her head resting on his chest.

Is my sweater too coarse? Her ears are probably uncomfortable. the young man thinks.

Is my head too heavy? He probably wants to get up right now. the young woman thinks.

The band finishes, the patrons clap, and soon enough everyone has filed back out into the cold.

The pair walk on the empty road, the streetlights reflecting back bright orange on the wet asphalt. They talk about everything on the way back, stupid stories from childhood, faculty at the university, their roommates and shared friends. Then they get to their apartments, and after a tense silence where they wordlessly wrap up the night they make their way towards their doors, 15 feet apart.

"I had a nice time" she calls out while taking her keys

"Me too, let me know if you want to go some other time... out... like if you want to grab something to eat or something." he sputters, catching himself before he goes further.

"Sure" she answers, laughing to herself.

They both enter their buildings and shut the door onto the freezing street.

Andresswhal
A motorcycle peels through the narrow cobbled streets of Andersswhal's historic district and makes it's way out of the city. After some time on the highway the driver, a young man, careens onto an off ramp and floors it down a scenic country road. The young woman on the back of the bike squeezes the young man tighter as they pick up speed. Signs zip by at a decreasing rate, eventually they slowly begin to stop showing the distance to Kunkengan towns and cities and begin showing the distance to towns and cities in the German Federation.

Near the Village of Isselhon on the Kunkengan-German border
Fields of barley turn to fields of sunflowers which turn to fields of grazing cattle. Eventually the pair approaches a small hamlet, home to no more than a hundred people. Windmills spin far off in the distance and a flock of starlings swoops about near them in a dazzling pattern. To the south east a glorious set of mountains can be seen stretching off into Germany. A great distance away, in the opposite direction, the old Kunkengan Space Elevator rises like a grey spire.

The young man parks his bike near a small inn and he and the young woman disembark and remove their gear. The young man's leather jacket, however light he claimed it was, still caused him to sweat considerably against the heat of the coming spring. The young woman shoots him a wry smile as she removes her thin windbreaker.

"Come on now. If you were driving for 2 hours with some one on your back, you would be sweating too." the young man protests as he removes his helmet and tussles his hair. "Also, you're welcome for the ride."

The young woman scoffs, "This trip was your idea, you basically begged me to come"

She throws a bottle of water to the young man which he deftly catches and begins drinking almost immediately.

"Don't act like a week in the Klosterweg Valley was an opportunity you would even consider passing up. The Kunkengan-German border is beautiful this time of year."

A small boy comes bursting from a side door on the inn and approaches the couple, clicking his heels as he arrives.

"You must be Herr und Frau Vetter" he says, looking straight into the young man's eyes. "Right on time to check in, velcome to ze Red Banner Inn. Ve hope to make your time in Isselhon as pleasant as possible."

The young woman giggles to herself slightly, "Frau Vetter..." she mumbles.

"Eh... yes that's right." the young man answers sheepishly.

"Vell, please allow me to take your bags sir." the boy replies.

"Well you see we packed light so I don't think..." the young man begins before being quickly cut off by the young woman.

"That would be very nice. Thank you very much."

She slips off her backpack and removes her duffle bag from the side of the motorcycle, all while shooting a glance at the young man to do the same.

"You're a real gentleman" she says as she slips a 5 vergolder coin into the boy's breast pocket, "Straight to our rooms please."

Blushing slightly the boy clicks his heels again and hustles back through the door he came from, nearly loosing his balance with the luggage.

"The hotel staff has that boy trained like a soldier." the young man chimes in, "I swear he was going to salute me at the end if he didn't have all those bags in his hands."

"What's this 'Herr and Frau Vetter' business?" the young woman asks, ignoring the young man's comment and removing a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and lighting one up. "Why not just just both our names?"

"I don't know, who ever hears of checking in a hotel with two names? Herr Vetter AND Frau Ruiz?"" the young man clamors, "It just made more sense to do it together, you know, because we're a pair..."

He catches himself as the words exit his mouth.

"A pair?" the young woman asks, almost half joking.

"Uhhh... yeah... well you know... we're travelling as a pair... and..." the young man stammers for a bit before locking eyes with the young woman.

A wave of calm passes over him, a unique feeling as of yet in her presence he notes. He stops tripping over his words.

"And we're also a couple... so it makes.... sense." He finishes.

The pair stand and stare at each other in silence on either side of the motorcycle.

Noises from distant parts of the hamlet echo through the streets, a dog bark, a carpenter at work, kids at play somewhere.

"Yeah..." the young woman says, after an eternity, "I guess it does makes sense."

Ventus Prime wrote:

“Hmm...it’s too bad you didn’t go for rocket boots. It certainly beats walking all the time.”

"Maybe, but walking isn't that bad! Gives you more time to look around, gets you some exercise if you're organic... and I'm not the best with heights, anyway."

Ventus Prime wrote:

“Aw...you know I’d hold onto you. Flying isn’t that scary if you know how to land properly.”

"Thanks, that's reassuring." Heidrun blushed slightly at the comment but hoped that it wasn't noticeable. "I'm not necessarily afraid of heights, I just... prefer the ground, I guess."

Aszaryin wrote:

With both the Adept before them and Cezis both hearing and witnessing the events unfolding before her she would seem remarkably unhinged from the firing of the weapon, still seeming to be sitting down upon the ground, now looking up towards the Adept as he would speak, yet by the time Kristian would speak she would seem to snap out of whatever trance or state she was previously within motioning for the adept to leave and as soon as she would she would just begin to stand up, now approaching the entrance of the bunker.

And as she would do so she would begin to speak:

| " Right uh.. should we continue to the origin? something... may have came to me, but that can be talked once within the.. construct, you are coming right? " |

She would finish saying this her voice unlike before now seeming uncertain or at the very most nervous

"Yes, I'm coming. Doesn't sound like what came to you was very pleasant, but that can wait until we get inside."
Kristian began following her to the bunker.

Ventus Prime wrote:

“Understandable, that’s more of a human emotion after all. Though to be fair...I’m not a fan of spiders...”

"Personally I don't mind them, but I can definitely see how they can be unappealing. And their webs get stuck in the worst places."

Holy crap I died what happened why are there 220 messages what did I miss holy shoot I've run out of family friendly American exclamations yee haw

Bucksden wrote:

"Yes, I'm coming. Doesn't sound like what came to you was very pleasant, but that can wait until we get inside."
Kristian began following her to the bunker.

Upon Finally entering the bunker before them, Cezis could be seen standing upon something suspended within the air with rope, motioning for him to follow and to stand with her upon the lift created and used by the group of adepts who had just left, once he had stepped on she would begin to lower it, until reaching the ground of the bunker.

Now all around them just barely illuminated by the use of lit torches around them she would begin to speak pointing down the hallway before them before eventually continuing down the hallway speaking and having her voice echo throughout as a result of the place being rather empty;

| " Those.. devices you called when they used them.. Guns were they yes? the sound seemed to have brought up something I really don't like nor can explain like a fragment of thought, if I could better explain I would but I just.. " |

Before Cezis could continue any further down the hallway or finish her sentence she would seem to fall silent and begin to hold her head seemingly in pain to when the first time he had played back the signal towards her group, remaining like this for sometime before eventually coming to, now seeming to be disoriented and dizzy whenever she attempted to stand or walk having to lean up against the walls for support just as she would start to speak again;

| " Please, forgive me.. it was just some discomfort. " |

THE HUNT FOR YANAPUMA | PT 4
_{PUCALLPA | STATE OF UCAYLA | INCAN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES}

The Bunker... it was rather warm that day in the outskirts of the Amazon, looking over what appeared to be a long abandoned Bunker opening in the rock of a hill. One of the generals who escorted Greene's crew there put in what seemed to be a key code, allowing the group inside. Though as Greene walked in she was none too pleased. Her smile turned into somewhat of a frown as she looked around, then... she saw something, a piece of paper with words written in Quechua. She smirked, he was here. He must've known they were coming somehow... did he have more aides? No... that couldn't have been it. She made sure that his staunchest loyalists were dismissed and put on watch by Huascar's Government, or of course she dealt with them in the same manner she dealt with Icoua. It must've been a sense of intuition, but what could've made him assume?

She moved closer, picking up the letter and reading it through. While she didn't know too much Quechua, she knew enough to get by. The General with her walked over, his eyes went wide.

"No..." He said, Greene looked to him.

"What is it?"

"He's.. he's trying to escape... He wishes to escape westwards."

"Westwards? To where?"

"It doesn't say..."

"Hmm."

She put it down for a minute, looking around the room to see an open door leading to what looked like a hallway. She walked down it, opening each door to see bedroom after bedroom, all of them empty. Finally she reached the final room, opening it to see what looked like a General's quarters with a Queen sized bed, a single bathroom, and its own closet. Then... she saw it. Her eyes went wide as it sat there. The Kings Crown.

"He was here..." She said underneath her breath. The General walked into the room, seeing the crown and sighing.

"Indeed... its time to warn Huascar. Should Yanapuma gain passage into another nation then the search simply cannot continue..."

Greene looked to him.

"Oh it will. That man has a lot to answer for and I will ensure that any nation that gets in the way burns to the fvcking ground..."

The general gulped. He could see why the Pretannians had her as a military leader but something told him she liked to take things too far too fast. The two walked back out to meet with the crew, Greene then spoke.

"Alright.... we don't have much time. Our little fugitive is trying to escape westwards... seems like he thinks he can escape due justice."

They would continue searching for a few minutes before leaving, the search continues.

...

Yanapuma travelled the Jungles of western Peru, not really knowing where he was going, only have a small sense of his direction. Though something had to be off as he reached what seemed like a clearing through the woods. After trekking through mountains and jungle he would lay his eyes upon... La Paz...no.. how could he had been wrong. This was deep into occupied territory, seeing the flag of the PAZ over the large City Captiol Building.

"Fvck..." he said to himself, wondering what he should do from there. Deciding he couldn't go back he decided to instead take the plunge and go through, hopefully he wouldn't be caught. He would wait for nighttime, knowing that even though the city itself was bustling that he would be able to get through easier than in the light of day, and so once the sun went down his journey began. He would go down the mountains slowly, only moving at night and taking the day to rest, finally after the 5th day he made it to the base, now he had to go through the toughest part of it all, traversing through it.

Bucksden wrote:

"Heh, yeah, they don't have the best reputation. Don't worry, I'll make sure there are no spiders in the apartment."

“Thank you. So, if you all came in a ship...how big is your military?”

Ventus Prime wrote:

“Thank you. So, if you all came in a ship...how big is your military?”

Heidrun thought for a bit. "Well, we've never really needed a big military. We've been relatively peaceful so far, and we haven't participated in any wars through troops. We'd be able to field... eighty thousand in all, taking reserves into account."

Bucksden wrote:

Kristian was definitely concerned at this point, noticing the clear disorientation Cezis was suffering from.
"Are you sure it's just some discomfort? Because it really doesn't look that way. Take a break if you need to, I don't want you to be injured."

Immediately Cezis would seem to retort being able to Push herself off from the wall and while dizzy would be able to walk seeming to be continuing down the hallway before stopping and turning back speaking in a fairly aggressive tone as it would seem something he had said would have seemed to struck a nerve;

| " As I said.. I am fine, it's just some discomfort, you are coming with me to the origin of the signal are you not? " |

New united carolinas wrote:

"Why yes! They're the best in the city." Ariana said with a warm smile. "It's an honor to meet another woman of power. A leader of another PAZ member, no less. I'm surprised we haven't met prior."

Media personnel got as close as they possibly could to the leaders. Their interaction was live and Ariana knew it. She hoped that it would be seen by leaders of other potential allies.

"I hate to keep everyone in the cold for too long. Let me escort you to our convoy. We can discuss ourselves on the way to the Palmetto Mansion. I'd love to get to know you." Ariana said.

Anna nodded as Ariana called her a "Woman of Power." Smiling back to her as she responded.

"Indeed it is a shame. My administration wanted to begin reaching out much earlier than this but with the war and all that became difficult."

She nodded as Ariana said for them to go to the limos, noting the Media presence and smiling to them as they headed off. Once they got into the limo Anna knew the real meeting would begin. Now was time for plans to become action.