Thursday, January 31, 2013

Cadence Nightwish: A Secret Resistance

((Dearth is a joint character. A friend is creating his appearance. Once she is done, I will happily give a description.))

There was a Mage city nearby, just outside Athlone, that Mevolent had seized. A lot of Mages being called in as guards came from this village. Dearth led her through to a pub by the name of 'Flight of Bread'. She smiled at the name and followed the Australian in. A man in spectacles, too skinny to be healthy, stood behind the bar wiping a glass clean with a dirty rag. He locked eyes with Dearth for a while and gave a slight nod. It was very small, Cadence almost missed it. The skinny man went into a back room. Before the door closed Cadence glimpsed a room with no wallpaper and a small, thin mattress in the corner. It looked like an awful place to live. Dearth started walking around the edge of the bar and she followed tentatively. He put his hand against the bar for a moment, then swore and started to feel around.
"You haven't forgotten again, have you?" They both turned and a brunette girl who looked about 17 leaned forward and pressed her hand against a certain part of the bar. There was a buzz and Dearth lifted the access bit. "Thanks, Kitty."
Kitty nodded and walked through, thanking him in return. They walked through to the nasty room and she saw stairs in the corner leading down.

Down below was an even nastier room. The thin man was there as well as a blonde who looked similar to the brunette, a short man with dark hair and a rather large stomach and a tall, tanned blonde man with a fair amount of muscle. "Welcome to the resistance." Dearth belted. The others smiled. Apart from the thin man.
"That's the right one." He mumbled. He was Scottish. He stepped forward and extended a bony hand. "I am Fred Mould. These are my friends. You've already met Dearth and Ekaterina, I see." Fred turned and gestured first to the blonde woman. "This is Hibernia Noble."
"Hiya." Hibernia was Irish. The main difference to Ekaterina other than hair colour was that Kitty had a large white scar running down the left hand side of her face. Fred gestured to the tanned man next.
"This is Harrison. He's mine."
"Actually, I'm Kat's. I am in no way interested in Fred in that way."
"And that wasn't what I meant." Harrison was Australian as well, and he had the most reassuring smile ever.
"I bake muffins." Harrison randomly stated. Cadence nodded and Fred turned to the last man.
"Scaramouch Van Dreg. He has his used."
Scaramouch inclined his head in a hello. The necromancer smiled. "Uh...nice to meet you all, but-"
"You don't like Mevolent." Van Dreg stated. Cadence nodded and Harrison continued.
"We had someone inside the castle who reported how you were being used, and we saw the perfect chance to gain a new ally." He shrugged one shoulder and smiled his reassuring smile. "Our lovely little village is under that git's control and we want it back. We're a bit of a resistance against the big guy."
Cadence nodded again. Hibernia beckoned her closer with a smile. "Why don't we tell you what we're all about?"

-----

Boston, USA, 2:23 AM

Memphis Heatwave had managed to hide his broken arm until he had gotten home. River had noticed it quickly and dealt with it, but he didn't tell her it still hurt. It wasn't that bad, just a slight dull ache. There was a completely unrelated reason he was up in the living room. He often had quite bad cases of insomnia. He felt he was quite a traumatised person. How he ever escaped before Lord Vile found and killed him back in war time he would never know, but he had stayed to see his family die. That was usually why he couldn't sleep. War memories turned to the most violent of nightmares. This time it was different. It was Amadeus. He had seen a friend fall fighting, but the friend was too small to be Isaac. That meant there were four of them in danger of being killed fairly violently. Him, Bernard, Mel and River. He shuddered. He didn't want to die. For once he seemed scared by something other than his nightmares. He was terrified by this death prospect. Not just for him, but for his family. He didn't want his wife to be alone, and he didn't want to have to raise his child by himself if the vision had been about her. Then there were Bernard and Mel. It was hard enough imagining the five friends carrying on without Isaac.

The light clicked on. Memphis grimaced, screwing his eyes shut and hissing. He had left his sunglasses on his bedside table upstairs.
"You're awake again. You should get some sleep, Mem."
"I can't sleep."
"You don't even try to get to sleep anymore. Just try and sleep, Mem. If there's another fight, you need to be alert."
"I'm not getting in another fight."
"But-"
"You want me to risk my life in a pointless battle."
"No! I've just...never seen you back down from a fight...and I don't think it's pointless...it's Mevolent...You're one of the Sanctuary's best fighters..."
"I have too much to live for to risk my life like that."
River looked up towards the ceiling. Jaime would be asleep upstairs. She smiled and nodded. "That's so sweet." She wrapped her arms around her husband's, resting her head against his chest. He sighed and shifted into a more comfortable position. "Something's been wrong with you for a while. I'm worried."
You're worried? He thought. You haven't heard any of Amadeus' visions. You've just treated the after effects. He sighed again.
"Amadeus." He said simply. She frowned up at him.
"What about him?"
"His visions. He's had those clearer ones. The ones that are actual visions. He saw Mevolent return. He saw someone die in battle. I'm worried about that."
"And if you fight, it could be you."
He nodded.
"But if you don't, it will be Bernie."
He nodded again, more stiffly this time. His wife tightened her hold on him. "Visions aren't always right. Just remember that, follow your heart and do your best." He didn't reply, just cuddled up closer to her. Half an hour later, he was asleep. River heaved a sigh of relief and distangled herself from him as she heard the baby crying.

-----

Hibernia and Ekaterina were non-identical twins. They weren't very close as sisters go, and they didn't often spend time with other girls. It was always Harrison, Fred, Dearth and Scaramouch. They both wanted to be friends with Cadence simply because she was another girl, and partially because they wanted to make her feel welcome. They gave her a tour of the little base, and it wasn't very long. They told her about the other members. Fred was psychotic and had trained Harrison and the girls to be the perfect little killing machines. He had been training Harrison ever since the Australian was little. Dearth was very nice, but he suffered from short-term memory loss. Harrison was lovely but thanks to Fred, severely screwed-up. He was quite paternal towards the others, except Ekaterina, as they were apparently dating. Hibernia had slapped her sister when Kitty had started negatively about Scaramouch, so Cadence was pretty sure there was something going on between the two. The overweight mage was interested in world domination. Despite drawbacks, he was still serious about it and had been looking at ways of sorting out world problems to make ruling the world easier. In a sense he was a good guy despite wishing to overthrow the world and be a dictator. At least he planned to obliterate country debt and world hunger in the process. Quite frankly he was a little clueless. Cadence felt she would fit right in with these people and couldn't wait to learn more about them. She was especially interested in relationships. She did love a good bit of gossip...

1 comment: