Shadow Fire {RP}

[Miranda_]

Rules:

1. This RP is for experienced players only. That means that unless I consider you experienced, then you can't join. That means the following ONLY can join this RP; Silent_Wolf, Sarah_K_O_M, TheHayleyDoll, Spirit_Queen, Singergirl509. No-one else. If your name does not appear on that list, do not spam in this RP asking to join or PM me doing the same.

2. This RP is for humans only. That means no vampires, fairies, deities, elves etc. However, as detailed below, there are various hair colours around nowadays, and also mutations. Mutations however are more like freak show mutations than anything else; the mutations that are allowed are as follows: tails, animal ears, hooves, extra fingers and toes, missing or extra limbs.

3. Abide by the rules laid out in the stickies. That means no godmoding or Mary Sues, among other things.

4. Please obey the rules of this world, which are detailed in the plot explanation.

5. There are no character forms; please describe your character in your opening paragraph.

~~~

It is the year 2100, and the world is a very different place. The fossil fuel reserves have finally run out, hastened by the greed and jealousy of the world's leaders; all who, while running thru their own reserves, believed without foundation that the other leaders held bigger reserves that they could fall back on. This falsehood was discovered only when it was too late, when there were no more fossil fuels left. Now, the social fabric of the world has completely unraveled. Humans still remain, clinging on to the shattered remnents of what their world once was with the tenacity of rats. There are now no world leaders, only small tribes of people occasionally fighting among themselves for the broken fragments of what once was.

This new world holds very little resemblance to the place it once was. The sky is now yellow as a result of pollution and many of the rivers and lakes are polluted, making them dangerous to drink from. The people too are different; many are born with strangely coloured hair as a result of mixed genes and the barren world. Some are born with mutations caused by the pollution; perhaps in the future, the pollution will disappate, but no-one thinks to the future. These people live entirely in the present, their only thoughts survival from day to day. The taboos and morals of the old world are all but vanished; incest and infanticide are now so common as to be largely ignored. There are no laws; in any case, there are now no lawmen to enforce them. The people quarrel among themselves and problems are solved in an old, tribal way as did the native tribes of days gone by. Cruel words and harsh language and behaviour are also commonplace, but rarely mean anything save as a means of communication.

There is no technology. There is no longer the fuel to run it, or the people to staff the factories to build the cars, planes, trains, boats... indeed, everything that the people of the old world used and took for granted. Instead, people went back to the old methods of transport; the horses; the oxen, the mules; these still exist in the world due to the actions of far seeing people who realised that one day, they would need to fall back on primative methods of transportation. The land occasionally gives up food for its people, but the vast fields of wheat and other crops are a thing of the past. The starved soil cannot give a huge yield, which is why the people now mostly live in small, tightknit communities, occasionally trading things like mirrors, toys, cosmetics and other such things that still survive for the basics like food and water. Like the shadow that fire leaves on a wall, the pointless trappings of a society long gone still remain.

The only power that can be utilised is from natural causes, like the wind and sun, but there are no longer the factories to build the huge windmills, so only small amounts of power can be harnessed from the wind and the weather is so erratic now that solar power can not be relied on. There is no money, nor any need for it. Objects are traded for other objects; food is grown by people and used by them, or traded; theft is rampant. Settlements range in size from small tribes to small towns, but there are none of the cities that used to be around; the small towns mainly are settled where the old cities used to be, but most of the cities' buildings have fallen or been pulled down.

~~~

The children gathered eagerly around the old woman as she prepared to tell them a story of yesterday. Not many people nowadays lived as long as Old Mother, who was 60 years old and the matriarch of the village. She often looked after the children of the tribe; of course, not many were born to the village as would have been in the world of yesterday; several men and women were born barren, unable to reproduce. Since there was no no means of preventing pregnancy, this was regarded as a blessing rather than as a curse. Old Mother herself could not remember how the world had been, but the stories had been passed down from her own grandmother, and she related them as they had been told to her.

"One day, the world was a different place," she intoned. "The sky was blue, and the water clean and clear. There were machines known as cars, like metal carts cept that they ran by themselves, on a magical liquid known as petrol. There were huge metal machines that flew in the sky like birds, and others that floated on the seas like wood. People did not live in villages like ours, but in huge cities with buildings that reached to the skies. But one day, the magic liquid and other magic creations ran out. There was none left, and nothing could be used instead. The world fell to pieces and there was nothing left, save what survives today." Old Mother sighed, but the children did not notice. They were rapt with attention as they listened to the story.

A boy stood nearby, leaning against a wall of a house. His name was Raziel, and he had lived in this village all his life. His face was pale, his hair black. He had one blue eye and one green eye; this was a mutation caused by both genetics and the pollution. He knew how lucky he was that this was the only mutation he had; other kids were not so lucky, and had tails or missing limbs. Raziel longed to get out of the village and away from its people; especially, to get away from his mother. He didn't know who his father was, and suspected that his mother did not know herself.

She was one of the more well off of the village; not that anyone in the village was rich, due to the restrictions of life and other things, but she was able to trade sexual favours in return for various items that made her life easier, such as food and cleaning items, but also makeup, cosmetics and clothing materia. None the less, Raziel despised her. He sometimes thought of leaving this village and its stifling atmosphere, and setting out for one of the towns; he was sixteen years old and had never been outside its walls. The very thought of spending the rest of his life here was unbearable.

[Silent_Wolf]

Nearby, a seventeen-year-old girl was tying a horse to a tree trunk; most of her head was hidden under a frumpy black hat, but wavy black hair reached her middle back. Her odd vest was black as well, along with her pants which were held up by an oddly furry belt. Her skin was mildly tanned, but it had a few odd white spots here and there; whether that was due to genes or pollution was debateable. She pulled a backpack off the horse's saddle and slinged it over a shoulder, grabbing what looked like a beaten-up old suitcase and looking over at the group; her eyes were a dark orange color. "... Well, there's people here, at least," she mumbled under her breath.

Ooc: GAAAH!! My post would not edit. x_x Fixed the typos.

[Miranda_]

Raziel noticed the new arrival straight away; he wandered away from the group of kids grouped around Old Mother and walked over to where the girl was standing. He put a hand on his belt, feeling for the knives that he always kept there.

[Silent_Wolf]

The horse started fidgeting, making the girl blink and pat his flank. "Hey, boy, calm down, it's just a kid. No need to spazz." The horse calmed down and lowered its head to graze, still watching. She turned to Raziel and smiled. "Hey, is there a place to stay in this area? I'm just wandering through." She scratched her waist; the belt was starting to itch her side and it was annoying the hell out of her.

[Miranda_]

Raziel looked annoyed. "I'm not a kid. I'm sixteen. And there might be, just don't expect a room to yourself."

[Silent_Wolf]

"I learned to expect to share a room, don't worry." She scratched the back of her head after taking her hat off; she hated wearing the thing.

[Miranda_]

"Dunno why you want to live in this crappy place anyway. I don't plan to stay here much longer. All people do is b*tch at each other and talk about the good old days, which incidently none of them are old enough to remember." Raziel rolled his eyes at the thought.

[Silent_Wolf]

"Needed to rest Zili, came here all the way from some tribe up in the uh." She turned around and stared. "... Um. That way." She pointed the way she'd come from. XD "Yeah."

[Miranda_]

"That's miles away. I want mostly to get out of here, and go to one of the old cities. Anywhere but here. It's just so stifling down here."

[Silent_Wolf]

"You're not really missing out on much. Some of the buildings are collapsing in on themselves because they needed oil and all that stuff that ran out to run the things that fix the buildings and now this is one big long ramble and I'm annoying myself."