Flashback V. No Dawn, No Day

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A lawless town of anarchists, built on the ruins of an ancient mining city. [Lore]

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V. No Dawn, No Day

Postby Konrad Venger on September 21st, 2016, 8:52 am

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81st Day of Fall, 501AV || The Slums

Continued from here


He'd be laid up for days and pissing blood for every one of them, but limping home with a bag of gold rims heavy in his coat, every blow was damn-well worth it. He hadn't stayed for the congratulations, the festivities, the lake of drinks that would have been brought for him, or the sly temptations for him to fight another day. He shouldered past all of them as soon as he wasn't bleeding quite as badly as he'd been over the sands, taken his money and left.

Never to godsdamn return, he thought, and Konrad smiled at the thought, even though it hurt every muscle in his face to do so. To all of it.

Of course that thought on spiraled and grew as he shuffled over the cobbles, heading south for his home. But not for much longer. Not any of it. The Casino and the Bay, the Reaches and the Den, the Quarter and the Tent City, the cobbles and the sewers and the smoke and the thousands of damned souls... he was turning his back on the whole lot of it.

Setting Sunberth squarely over her shoulder, just another bad memory that me might linger on now and then while he basked in the Syna of Zeltiva.

And I won't be alone.

Two hundred mizas, and he was already doing the numbers. Fifty mizas each for passage on a ship, maybe sixty. The rest for their luggage, which if Konrad had it right, could all be carried easily by Hansel. Whatever was left would have to last them in Zeltiva when they arrived, and that would be hard, as all new beginnings were.

But we'll make it, he thought with a lightness of soul his boyd sure as hells didn't feel. Hansel's muscle, and mine. Gran's nimble fingers. Three working hands, more than enough for a roof over our heads. Still have to talk the old girl around but-

He turned the corner and his smile flickered. Ticks slowed, as did his pace. There were people gathered around the front door to the house. Locals, neighbors. A couple of old biddies he recognized as friends of Bessy and-

They were crying.

Konrad's stomach turned to ice. His heart stopped beating. Something tightened and clenched in his lungs and all the blood drained from his face. His giddy thoughts were struck down and there was but silence in his mind. A horrible knowledge that he willed himself not to speak.

"... no."

He ran. He ran though medicine said he should not be able to. He ran though every step jangled broken bones and muscles that were nearly torn from their resting. He ran and didn't feel, didn't notice, just prayed to any and all, promised what soul he had with a "pleasepleaseplease" gasped out as he went.

Through the crowd that had gathered around the door swinging open. Into the doorway and then he saw, he saw all of it and-

Someone screamed in Sunberth. The city did not pause, nor stir itself from its fitful slumber. A tick later it's echo died on the breeze, and the city that had killed Konrad's family purred on.
Last edited by Konrad Venger on September 21st, 2016, 1:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Konrad Venger
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No Dawn, No Day

Postby Konrad Venger on September 21st, 2016, 12:38 pm

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It hurt. Worse than anything he'd suffered before. It hurt so much that Hansel's mind had simply shut down, for the most part. All he felt after a while was cold. That was better, he supposed. But some sparking memories that remained were telling him that wasn't good. Remember Auntie Bessy, it nudged him gently. It's never good when they start going cold.

"Kuh... Kon...rad?"

His cousin was there! It was fuzzy at first but he inhaled and that coppery stench wasn't the only thing anymore. There was the sweat he knew well, from their days busting their humps on the piers together. There was his face but... gods, he'd taken a hell of a beating. Instantly Hansel tried to reach out but that hot, bright pain pierced the coldness and he just gasped.

"No, no, mate, don't," Konrad was crouching over him, eyes wet and without focus. "Hansel, wh-what happened? Who did-"

"Auntie Bessy," the boy spat out, along with blood and bile. "Did... She's... She's okay? Konrad... please... please tell..."


There was a long pause. Oh, gods, that was never good. Hansel knew that much. Konrad looked over his shoulder and his face twisted even more, but then he turned and nodded, squeezing the boy's shoulder.

"Y... Yes. She's... She's outside, with her friends. Took a... took a bad beating, though. They really hurt her-"

"They... They stabbed her... With a knife-"

"I know, I know, but she's tough, yeah?"
Konrad smiled. It was a watery thing and it couldn't stay. It may never return again. "Takes more than a... than a little bit of metal t'kill her."

Hansel's big chest heaved and sucked and the breath came out in so many fresh holes his body had stopped keeping track. Konrad gripped his hand and he made a noise that might have been a growl or a squeal but all it was pain regardless. Pain such a simple mind could not imagine.

"Um... Um'cold... I tried, Kon... I... they had... swords, and... and I tried-"

"I know, Hansel."
There were hands stroking his hair but he couldn't see them anymore. Couldn't see anything. But he knew that when Auntie Bessy stroked his hair when he was little (relatively), it made him feel calm. He felt calm now. "You were... were very brave."

Water fell on his face, but he was sure he was inside. Maybe a leak? Then he heard a choked little thing and he squeezed his cousin's hand.

"Auntie B-Bessy... she'll take care of you, Konrad... don't... don't cr... cr..."

The voice came to him from far away. It felt like he was falling, but there was no pain. No cold. No nothing. Hansel supposed that was a good thing, if he wasn't hurting anymore. He knew... shouldn't he be afraid? Wasn't this what death felt like? But he didn't mind. Because Auntie Bessy was going to be fine. Because he'd saved her, and right before he fell asleep, he heard-

"I... I won't... Good boy, Hansel."

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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Konrad Venger
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No Dawn, No Day

Postby Konrad Venger on September 21st, 2016, 1:15 pm

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84th Day of Fall, 501AV || The Dust Bed


They were buried on the last warm day of the year, more or less. Afterwards, he remembered the Winter that came after as harder than any he'd remembered. Snow piled up and so did the bodies, dragged from alleys and makeshift shelters, sewers and from under the piers. Stacked up like firewood and burned.

But his Gran and Hansel wouldn't be burned with the rest, just two more stiff, cold faces without a name. Konrad would see to that, at least.

At least. Because you didn't do anything else for them.

He remembered a priest. Didn't know for which god. Didn't care. Didn't matter. What good had any of them been when the moment? Every day she prayed and made offerings. She believed, and she loved them, and told him over and over how Kelwyn had saved him, even if he didn't agree.

You weren't there. Just like them.

He droned on, and Konrad didn't listen. Like he didn't listen to the sad procession of biddies that knew her, that shuffled awkwardly and proffered thanks that all sounded the same. None of them offered anything more. They took one look at him, his scars, the hollowed-out look in his face, the death mask he was already wearing, and didn't even want to be in the same room as him.

Could you blame them?

You know what happens next.


A little smattering leaked away from the graves when the priest stopped speaking. A couple threw a handful of dirt onto the badly-made pine coffin. Dirt hammered on the wood and Konrad winced, just barely. The priest took a step towards him. Konrad turned his head and looked. There was not another step. Then he was walking away, too. Just the three of them.

The dead don't hear us. Konrad heard that once, somewhere, he didn't remember. The dead were spared the pain of the living; the prime benefit to being dead, he always thought.

You didn't have to deal with this fucked up nightmare called "living". You didn't have to sacrifice and love and care for someone not worth the shit off a cat's ass, then have all your good deeds rewarded with a knife in your guts.

You didn't have to live with a goodness in you that others laughed at but was real, and honest, and no just faked to lie to others. You didn't have to be a gentle soul in the body of a bear, who worked hard and told the truth and died defending someone you loved. Died believing a lie, because only in a lie could you have any hope of dying at peace.

You didn't have to believe, truly believe, if only for a handful of dazed hours, that you could change. Turn your back on the past and be a better man. Then have that taken from you. Snatched away leaving corpses and blood and the distant, merciless laughter of the gods.

Such presumption. Such arrogance. Like you could ever change.

Like this place would ever let you.


The dead did not suffering the living. Konrad was grateful for that. She could rest now. Never have to worry about him or Hansel again. She could sleep, maybe go to a better place. She talked about heaven a few times. The afterlife. "The next place", as she called it. If you were good and kind and did right by the gods, they would send you there.

"You enjoy it, Bessy. You earned it."

The dead to not hear us, but sometimes we need to speak.

"You won't see me there."

He stood a few ticks longer, and then he left, leaving Jebediah wonder what all that was about. But it wasn't his to wonder about the musings of the living; just to tend to the rather basic needs of the dead. He rolled his shoulders and started shoveling dirt on top of the first coffin.

Shunk... shunk... shunk... shunk...

Konrad heard it all the way out of the graveyard.
Last edited by Konrad Venger on September 21st, 2016, 1:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Konrad Venger
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No Dawn, No Day

Postby Konrad Venger on September 21st, 2016, 1:38 pm

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He went back to the house, because there was nowhere left for him to go. Not just in the simplest way, either.

It hadn't moved to new owners, yet. Konrad knew it was a matter of time, but there seemed to be... some reluctance, for the neighbors to pick the place clean and wash their hands of it. The closest thing that Sunberth folk got to respect, he supposed. That they wouldn't strip your house until a few days after you were dead, rather than doing so while your corpse was still warm.

It was so quiet. So dark. No more candles burning. No more lingering smells of cooking and soap and dirty clothes. He stood in the front room, wreathed in shadows. He should have been laid up somewhere; maybe even his own bed, upstairs, but Konrad didn't want to close his eyes in this place every again.

He knew he might not want to wake up.

But he still had to come back. As he stood there his muscles started to spasm and he choked back a handful of Brinetooth paste from a little package he'd bought the day before. Tasted like absolute shit but as he chewed and swallowed, it did his job. He felt his heart swell and the blood it pumped seemed to crush the pain from the fight down to nothing.

Bed rest would have been better, but it wasn't an option. Konrad needed his strength, needed to be on his feet.

He looked around the room, and he noticed. He went into Hansel's room, with his double-bed that barely held him, and he noticed. Last of all, worst of all, he went into Bessy's room, and he searched, and he noticed.

Everything that he knew was missing. Jewelry. Valuables. Silverware. Anything that could be pawned or traded. He knew one thing in particular had been, something he'd notice right away, but the more he knew, the faster the search could be.

Satisfied, he went into the garden. With a shovel.

The ground was starting to harden, but it was no barrier. His breath came out ragged and biting at him as he worked, sweat pouring down his back and arms. It didn't take long before the head of the shovel thunked! against the box. He got down on his creaking knees and pushed the rest away, until he found the handle and opened it up-

Been a long time, lads.

Kopis. Kukri. Dagger. Wrapped in towels and colder, stiffer in his hands than they'd been... but when he held them again... they molded to him. They weighted him down but a few swipes and swings through the cooling air and his muscles purred in recollection. A season away from them, and it was like he'd never put them down.

He took everything in there, strapping scabbards and sheathes to him. Adjusting the feel of them here and there, shifting them into familiar patches of skin. Quicker pulls. No chafing. By the time he was finished and had the duster over his shoulder again, Konrad felt... restored.

You know what happens now.

He nodded. Yes, he did. There was nothing left to do.

Concluded here

||Common||Thoughts||Pavi||Fratava||Myrian||Other's Speaking||
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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
User avatar
Konrad Venger
Long is The Way and Hard
 
Posts: 923
Words: 1060755
Joined roleplay: November 23rd, 2015, 4:05 pm
Location: Endrykas
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V. No Dawn, No Day

Postby Rufio on February 6th, 2017, 7:22 pm

g r a d e


xp

Mathematics +1
Planning +1
Endurance +2
Running +1
Philosophy +1
Herbalism +1
Observation +1
Logic +1
Organization +1



lores

The pain of losing family
A saying: The dead don’t hear us
Philosophy: The dead are spared the pain of the living
Herbalism: Brinetooth restores strength & vitality
Konrad: Digging up his weapons, digging up his old self


  
Rufio
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