Doesn't Really Matter Forum High Park

Cousitarian	Re: A Summer Lost, A Stranger Amongst Trees, Me In Between 10 Years Ago August: For the longest time, the three of us - five of us, if we included the dogs - stared at one another in the park. Again, I and the masked teenager had no real idea as to where it was we were supposed to be going. It was only Summer, with her humored expression while seated upon her bike, that knew for sure where it was that she wanted to get going to. Finally, with a rolling of her green eyes, the biker girl stated casually to the boy from the trees in a know it all voice, "Come on, buddy. You're in debt to me, remember? So let's get going. Lead me to the park exit that's nearest to Union Station. I want to get there and catch the first train back home to Milton." A train? Summer was intent on getting to this Union Station place and catching a ride on the tramway back home to... Milton, Canada? That didn't... that didn't make any sense! The red haired girl... she needed to stop acting this way, this unknowing way, and drop the facade! She needed to stop messing with my mind and trying to make me believe she didn't know what was going on; that the planet earth was experiencing something close to the end times! As I had been all over the place since the end had struck, I knew full well that the modern world along with its luxuries of electricity, technology, transportation, everything advanced, had been lost months ago over the course of a single night! Again, there were no laws on anything due to there being no government nor people to follow or enforce them. With the loss of power across North America - heck, worldwide maybe - cars, planes, boats, trains, heating, cooling, refrigeration, so on and so forth, were all but lost to us three meeting together and what was left of humanity elsewhere! "Yoo-hoo! Ninja boy!" Summer exclaimed, snapping her fingers and gesturing for her masked yet unsure guide to begin guiding her to what exit was closest Union Station, "Let's getting going! I don't want to miss the train solely because you're mad at me for having taken charge earlier. I swear, you may think of yourself as cold but if you get on my bad side then-" "Summer..." I finally managed to say to the girl on the bike, feeling a bit freaked out by her continual show of truly not knowing what she was talking about, "You want to catch a train in Union Station?" "Yes! Is that so very hard to ask for?" Summer immediately replied, getting impatient that I had caught on somewhat and the teenager - for very good reason, mind - continued to look at her like she might have been from Mars, "I want to go back home to Milton and... August, what?" Just judging by his curious staring at her, something told me already that the masked teenager knew what current state the ruined world was in. As for Summer though... How could she not know? But she had to know! This ruin, this desolation, had been around for months for her to see! There was no way, unless she were insane, that Summer didn't know what both of us boys did... And yet, just by the innocent gleam in her emerald eyes, I had to accept the hard truth of the matter; she didn't know of the destruction everywhere, the lack of life across North America, and the overgrown foliage that covered everything. If she thought of herself as lost as of now... Boy, with what I knew, was she in for a shocker in a moment. Summer wasn't crazy. She wasn't faking either about not knowing about the ruin the modern world had fallen into. She was being completely serious with myself and the boy from the trees about not knowing the end times had come and I understood that when she mouthed for a moment before asking of us both sternly, "What? Why are you both looking at me like that? Am I talking gibberish?" "Ha ha! As a matter of fact," The teenager chuckled, crossing his arms before going on seriously, "yes. Yes, girl, you are speaking gibberish." "And what is *THAT* supposed to mean?" Summer snapped back, a red tint of frustration growing in her cheeks meanwhile, "If anything, you - the one who has been hiding in trees with a rifle - is the one being gibberish!" At this, she turned on me and added, "The both of you are being gibberish, actually! I mean, it was one thing for me to wake up in this park a moment ago, get my bike to find it covered in rust, but now I have the two of you staring oddly at me after you yourselves just looked to blow each other's heads off in the middle of public a second ago! All I want to do is catch the train to get home." I don't know how any of that made sense or how gibberish had become involved but, trying to be a peacemaker before things could explode into another showdown with guns, I began for Summer's sake, "Summer, at first... At first I thought maybe you were faking it but do you mean to tell me that, well, you don't know anything?" "Again, what is *THAT* supposed to mean?" Summer hissed, jabbing me in the chest to act in charge but her eyes revealed to me that she was beginning to feel very out of her element, "What am I supposed to know here? Is me not knowing the reason why you;re both staring at me like I'm an alien?" "Yes. That's right." The teenager confirmed, still having his arms seriously crossed. It was then that I knew he and I were on the same page. We were aware of the ruins everywhere covered in vines that had once been the world and, at seeing Summer not knowing what was going on, the masked boy couldn't help but begin laughing at her misfortune. In turn, with me feeling a bit angry at his mirth, I began to explain to the girl on her bike, "Summer, look, what I'm about to say to you is very well going to sound like gibberish but you have to believe me when I-" "Why explain anything to this girl," The teenager coldly cut across me, pushing me aside as he walked towards wherever it was he planned on going with Cerberus trailing him, "when it will be so much easier to just show her and leave it to her to believe in it by herself?" "No," I argued after my rival, trying to be civil despite having been shoved aside, "let me explain some things to her before showing her anything. If we just show her stuff then that's going to too overwhelming-" "You need to stop defending me." Summer interjected, interrupting me as well as making me shut up in shock at the same time, "Honestly, I can fend for myself. Tree boy has the right idea here. Whatever it is you two nutcases know that I don't, I'd rather get to know it as quickly as possible rather than do things slow. I still need to catch that train home." At that, leaving me in a dumbfound state after her scolding me when I had only looked to do what may have been best for her, Summer rode off after the distant masked figure of the teenager shouldering a rifle. I glanced down at Loki who looked up at me in turn with a curious tilt of his head before, with much of my weary sighing, the pair of us went after the other two humans we'd met in a long time. ++++++ "No, this can't be happening... I d-don't understand." Summer whined amid hicupping through her tears after having looked upon the remains - the ruins, the foliage covering it all, the emptiness altogether - that had once been the proud city of Toronto, Canada, "What h-happened when I-I went to bed and then w-when I woke up in the park just minutes ago?" In the background, I just stared at the cement that Summer had taken to sitting upon rather than staying on her bike. There was nothing more for me to say that the teenager hadn't already; the city was gone along with its populace and how the three of us had made it was unknown. As for Summer sobbing, I had advised her to take this news slow yet she insisted on taking it all in one giant leap. Obviously, as she tried to not cry so much, she showed she was strong in both spirit along with body. However, when it had hit me a few months back, even I cannot say that I didn't shed a few lonely tears at realizing I was utterly alone in Michigan. Now, hm, Summer was coming to realize she was one of the few humans left in Toronto if not the world. Why... wasn't something that I, the masked teenager, anyone remaining alive, could explain at all at the moment. Close by, as the crying from the red haired girl continued, the boy from the trees just looked around with his steely eyes at everything that had been lost without much care. As his jack russel sniffled about the wrecked road for anything interesting, he crossed his arms again and stated what I could guess already, "Yep. The city has been like this for the past few months. Dark, quiet, empty." "It's b-been like this for the past few months?!" Summer exclaimed in a shout of astonishment, her voice eerily echoing through the ghostly empty surroundings around her. "And it's not just Toronto that's like this." I put in, not looking the biker girl in the eyes when she whipped around to look at me but remaining staring at the ground instead, "Summer, Canada here, the United States of America, Mexico even, is in the same condition that this city is in..." I gestured towards the teenager who had his back to me as I repeated his recently used words to not only describe Toronto but everything I had seen for the past few months of journeying, "North America, maybe the whole world as we know it, is just... dark, quiet, empty. Everything, the modern world as we knew it, is gone." When Summer just gave me a look of disbelief, when she seemed ready to break down into newer tears, I understood her pain. I truly did. However, I wasn't almighty god and could bring everything back to keep her from renewing her crying when started again. I didn't know why the world had vanished into desolation, why everything had been lost to humanity in the matter of a single night. I didn't have anymore answers than the carefree teenager did about any of this... The world had just gone to hell and the few of us that had somehow endured were allowed to see it, to survive in it, to call it home where we could. Well, for the better or worse, there were the three of us alive. There was a lost Summer crying her eyes out, a boy who had fallen from the trees, and myself caught in between their current exchange. At first, we had been alone... but now, if willing, we were in this effort of living onward together. As for if god had a hand in this, that couldn't be denied nor confirmed. Only the future would spell it out for me. In the meantime, when able to say anything again, Summer began asking questions that myself and the masked teenager had probably been asking from the very start months ago, "W-well, what happened h-here, guys? Did a b-bomb explode? Why i-is the world gone? Wait, my friends!" Ah, here came the worse part; the part that I had somehow managed to get over without seriously hurting myself. The red haired girl was just starting to realize that if everyone, everything, was gone once and for all... then that meant loved ones were no acceptation from the end of the world. Her parents, her friends, they were more than likely- "Gone. Forget them." The teenager with the mask stated for Summer like it was no big deal, making me begin to truly not like him, "Your parents, friends, everyone you knew are gone, girl. Forget everything you think or thought you know." At this, the boy from the trees waved to everything empty around him, "This is reality. This is the truth of the matter. This is life, the future, now. Just accept it and quit blubbering already." At this, at being so harshly answered, Summer actually got back onto her shaky feet to bravely point back towards the weedy High Park while stating, "No, this is isn't happening! I-I was just at that park last week! It was fine, it was alive, it was fun! Only yesterday I was watching the breakfast channel!" "You truly are persistent in not believing, aren't you?" The masked teenager chuckled, turning back to Summer while pointing out the rusted bike at her side, "Just take a look at that thing, that bike, you're calling yours. Look at it and explain to me how it could look like that over the course of a single nighttime." "I-I..." Summer babbled, trying to remain in denial like how I had done when finding out that the world had been lost, "If my bike is rusted this bad... It must have rained pretty hard last night." "Ah, that's the answer, is it?" The masked boy laughed aloud, looking to me as if expecting me to join in the on fun which I didn't, "The reason for why everything is gone, why we're the only three humans here, is that it rained some kind of acid shower a few months ago and made everything as it is today!" He jeered at Summer as he walked past her, "How very, very, very convenient!" "Alright, that's enough." I scowled, honestly sick of where this conversation was going, "Summer, the world is gone. I'm sorry but that's just how it's been for the past few months. I don't know where you've been since nor whether a bomb hit or an acid shower passed by or the apocalypse itself is upon us... but Toronto, North America, the earth is just... in an empty mess for us all to get along with now." "Yep, the world is an empty shell. A shadow of what it once was." The teenager agreed with me, calling Cerberus to come to him in the meantime, "As I said before, forget everything you thought you knew, girl, Summer, whatever your name is. The faster you accept that fact then the farther you'll stay from making things more awkward for us all." "And, again, that's enough from you." I stated firmly to my rival as well as watched Summer walk in circles while trying to understand so much at once, "Seriously, masked man, what's up with you? We've both been given time to come to understand where we are, what is wrong with the world. Now we just need to give Summer some time to get a hold of herself and-" "Firstly," The teenager interjected, not at all giving a care for what I was saying on Summer's behalf, "I didn't scream, weep, or cave into what your girlfriend there is doing. Secondly, you're not the boss of me. Thirdly, everything I've said so far is the truth. Now that she knows what's going on, we're better off just leaving Summer or whoever she is to find her way on her own." The boy from the trees shrugged to himself as well as said next, "She either believes us or she doesn't. She survives or doesn't. It's just that simple, isn't it?" There was a horrible truth to that statement. One that I - the teenager too, most likely - had had to learn on my own long ago. Nevertheless, if Summer was in this much distress and was willing to let me help her along the way to fully comprehending the state the world was in... then I knew for sure that I was more than ready to be her friend through everything she was about to endure. And, for sure, the truths she was about face were going to be all too hard. "Do either of you have a map?" At this serious question from her, at seeing her being determined over crying more, I and the masked teenager gave Summer puzzled looks. Growling impatiently, she snarled, "Now you're both looking at me like I'm mad for simply asking for a map?! Blast it, if I can't take a train then I need a map to help me get home by bike! Duh!" "I happen to have one right here." The boy from the trees admitted. Yet, as both myself and Summer expected him to hand it over, he shrugged once more while saying casually, "Yet, sorry, I can't part with it. Need it for my own reasons." As he began striding towards the nearby forest, he said over his shoulder towards me, "How about you, Mr. Leader? Mr. I think I know what's best and try to tell others how to behave, how to choose, how to survive? Your damsel in distress there needs a way home? Have you got a map?" Boy, I had really made a bad impression on this guy when Loki and I had attacked him when he'd fallen from that tree. I just couldn't understand his goal in trying to make me miserable and I found that task harder still when, just at the edge of the woods, he yelled, "As an apology, as a last act to show that there are hopefully no hard feelings between us all for what happened earlier, you're free to join me and Cerberus for some dinner. I've got some meat cooking back at camp." And, with that said, the rifle boy along with his dog vanished for good into the trees; leaving me, Loki, and Summer alone in the ruins of Toronto. It was my dog looked to lick her hand, as I was about to tell her my thoughts on all that had happened or had been said up to this point, that Summer purposefully jumped onto her rusted bike. More to herself than to me, she requested of her creaking ride, "Alright, buddy. I know. Just hold on a bit longer until we get home." Home... That's where Summer was going was she. Well, in a last effort to maybe win some favor with her - even though knowing I might not see here again - I couldn't keep from pulling out a copy of a detailed atlas map to hand over to her. It wasn't that big of a deal to hand over. I had spares in my gear and, slowly, the girl on her bike accepted my gift. As she did, she requested of me, "The world... you really think it's gone then?" "I do..." I replied, not very certain myself, "And I don't." "That's at least being honest about the matter." Summer snickered back nervously, "But you've been around as long as ninja boy there apparently... Is everyone, everything, really gone." "Even if I answer that question with a NO, it won't stop you from wanting to find out the truth for yourself." I answered, nodding down the road towards wherever Milton awaited, "The masked man is right about one thing... You, in the end, need to decided for yourself about this whole mess. Soon enough, you'll know as much as I do about this world of ours and then you'll have to make a choice." I stepped back, beckoning Loki to come back too as I admitted grimly, "I cannot say if your loved ones are alive or here or whatever... I know I haven't found mine yet. Yet, that's me talking. You're not me. Your folks, your friends, could be there at your home waiting for you. So go. Go and... find them." "And if I don't find them? If I don't find anything of my home at all?" "Well, then..." I sighed, rubbing the back of my head, "You at least know that here, at the High Park, are two humans with their dogs. And here, heh, we'll be staying for a day or more, I wager. Either way, Summer, if you find your loved ones or not, you can... come back here and I'll be with Loki in the playground waiting." At this, I rubbed my husky's smiling face, "Yes, we'll be waiting here a while for you, Summer. Won't we, Loki? Oh, yes! Yes, we will!" "Bark! Yip! Howl!" Was Loki's happy reply. "You'll be waiting here for me then?" Summer repeated aloud, nodding at the same time as well as wiping her teary eyes, "Alright... I'll keep that in mind. As for the map, August, thanks." "No trouble whatsoever." I admitted, honestly meaning it, "Just be careful while you're looking for everyone back at your home. The world may be emptier than usual but, heh, it's dangers haven't left. They're still there, waiting for us to make a mistake." "Right, right. Again, thanks, August. I'll keep that in mind." Summer responded. As she pushed off to pedal down the ill roads in the distance, she shouted, "Wish me luck! I'll... I'll see about coming back if I can!" "Here's to hoping." I called after her, feeling seriously hopeful that luck would be kinder to Summer than it had been to the rest of the world and would let her find her loved ones, "And don't worry, I wished you the best of luck a long time ago when you said you wanted to take off." I got no reply. Summer was too intent on pedaling and making her way through the wreckage to seek out what her future would hold for her to have heard my last words of encouragement. As for myself, letting out a long exhale of weariness, I couldn't help but coldly look around at my surroundings. What mess everything had become. A few months ago, the earth had been rotating as usual and, out of nowhere, all things just went down the drain. Now, after having found two other human beings to converse with, I was alone again with one having rode off into the sunset and the other maybe making fun of me from the woods. Boy, what a day this had turned out to be. A day that was entering its afternoon period and, at recalling having been invited to a meat dinner with the boy from the trees, I noticed how hungry I actually was. Meat did indeed sound good at the moment... being coldly stared at by a masked teenager while eating it didn't sound enticing though. So, looking back to High Park, deciding to fix myself a meal in the aged playground, I had Loki follow me while I said, "Alright, well... now that the drama is over and gone, Loki, how about dinner?" I began listing things off on my fingers next, "What should we have to eat? Beans? Corn? Pasta? Perhaps some... JUSTICE?! Ahem, whoa, where did that come from? Loki? Loki...?" I found that my husky hadn't moved from his spot in the road. He was looking after where Summer had disappeared and, feeling a bit heartened by this, I said, "Loki... Come on, bud. She said she would come back if she could. All we can do is pray and hope for that to be true. Until then, we need to eat." At this, reluctantly, my dog left his spot on the road to venture to my side. He wasn't the only one hoping Summer would come back to the park if she did or didn't find her family or friends. Whether her search proved to be successful or not, I was praying already that she would return to High Park to find me. Until then, I had a next door neighbor in the forest who - for god's sake - could be up to anything. My, my... How interesting the empty world I had come to know for last few months was becoming, wasn't it? Lordy lord above, how mysterious you work this good earth. What's left of it, anyway. ++++++ Yeah, I like this project. It's genius, it's great, it's fun! Nevertheless, guys, just let me know if I'm writing too much or am getting to be too troublesome. Anyway, thanks for friending me Hypnos. I'm looking forward to writing alongside you in the future, my man. :)
Eryn ♪	Re: High Park 10 Years Ago Thats ok, it is nice to have things from a diffrent point of view and besides this is going to be a story. The only thing I ask is that you try not to put too many words in our mouths. Summer: I look back at August and Loki. I know this will not be the last time we meet. After all, if this is truly the end of the world then we will need to stick together. First though, I had to make it home. I had to see if there was anyone left. I knew now that I would find it in ruins, tthat everyone might truly be gone, but I had to make sure. I didn't want to live not knowing if anyone I cared for might still be alive. Using the map August had lent me I cycled down the ruins of the QEW, I had a long way to go. It was nightfall before I made it to the outskirts of town. Though the scene was a dpressing one, full of ruin and dessolation, I took a moment of joy at seeing the toppled McD's. From here I put August map away, I knew the path well enough from here. As I cycled through my home town I saw everything I had known strewn with dust and debris. I was wearily wondering about the state of my own home. As I biked up the familliar street,past the caved isn houses, and finally to my own home I knew, there was nothing left. I knew that I would check the whole town, and I knew I would find no one. Still, I had to check. That night I sat in the remaining part of town hall, a courtyard full of flowers and trees. I stared up at the stars, and thought about how alone I was, and then of August and Loki. I wasn't really alone, they were there in Toronto waiting for me. They had been there for me when I needed help, I knew I could count on them to be at High park when I got back. The next morning I hopped upon my new bike that I had found in the ruins of one of tge stores and started on my way back to the fallen city.
Hypnos	Re: High Park 10 Years Ago I really like how your portraying my character so please keep it up! Miharu: After no one joined me in 10 minutes I dig in and eat. I give Cerberus his share and most of the bones. I left a few for myself to make weapons. I set aside some for the both of them. So after I eat I go back to the park and see August I think his name was and throw him both of their shares. " Don' say I don't pay my debts." I whisper as it flies towards him and I disappear back into the woods. When I get back I pick up Cerberus and climb into a large tree with plenty of hidden areas. When I get so high I spy our hammocks and I set him in his and slip into mine. After I confirm that we were hidden from all angles and that the decoys were properly set I head to sleep carrying my rifle, revolver and knife. I left the bow and arrows by the decoy to make it more realistic. " Night Cerberus." I tell him and he licks my face before settling.
Cousitarian	Re: What is Lost and Not Lost 10 Years Ago August: "Agh, no! Come on!" I snarled after having burned my shaking hands for the third time with a newly lit match and failing in igniting the pile of twigs, paper, plus dry leaves that was to be my cooking fire meanwhile, "Just - light - up - you - miserable - piece of - Ah ha! There! Finally! Thank you!" "Bark! Yip!" Loki excitedly yelped at my side, feeling my satisfaction in the air at seeing smoke starting to rise from the pile of dry materials we'd collected together, "Howl! Bark!" With my dog chasing his tail next, with me blowing along with praying, the pile of bramble smoked as well as got going as hoped. Then, as actual tongues of fire started to lick at the jumble of branches and such I'd been trying to light up for the past fifteen minutes, I looked around at my surroundings - the High Park playground - and let out a mighty bellow of pride! "And the lord said, let there be LIGHT! Yes, let there be LIGHT!" Again, for the hundredth time since the end of the modern world and perhaps with god's blessings, I had made a campfire! At long last, after I had started a fight with this troublesome source of heat that had lasted for the last fifteen minutes, I had come out on top over nature and could now get around to cooking what myself and Loki would be having for supper; canned beans, corn, spam, some leftover bacon bits, just enough of something to appease our hunger until we could get around to searching for other sources of food which would be easy. Toronto, Canada, the capitol of Ontario, was too big a place to be completely lacking in something edible, after all. For now though, as the sun began to get closer to setting in the west, tossing a stick that he had happily brought to me as I began picking out cooking gear from my bags in the meantime, I got around to playing with Loki, cooking dinner, and even took the time in between to observe the golden dusk approach. As for my lodgings for the coming night, the playground around me had been made to suit my needs. I did indeed have a tent set amid my equipment but not exactly feeling in the mood to go through all of that work of putting it up for nothing, I had instead draped certain extra blankets along with more upon the play-set by the slides to make it into something of a cloth hut. True, such a work of mine wasn't the firmest structure nor most protective against the elements yet, considering how the skies were clear of the signs of rain, the season was warm summer, and there was nobody left in the world but myself and two others as far as I knew, the cloth hut that was the play-set would suit me finely for one night at least. As for if things got crazy during the approaching nighttime - if a certain boy from the trees and his little terrier decided to try to jump, ambush, or come visit me unannounced perhaps - Loki, as he'd always done for me during my lifetime, would be my safety system and alert me if danger, a storm, anything bad of any kind, was coming my way. Seriously, since I'd been a young man of fifteen in whatever grade in school, the husky had been there with me through the thick as well as thin that I could vaguely recall was my life. He, here and now, was mostly the sole reason for why I had survived to find out today that there were other humans alive and not just myself. Yet, most of all, in the past leading up to this point where we both rested in the middle of a park in Ontario's capitol with the sun going down, Loki was also the only way for me to remember back before the end of the world; before I woke up in Michigan to find I was alone, before I had lost my family as well as friends to who knew what. Concerning my folks, my little brother along with sisters, my grandmother, my friends, my whole family in general, I had given up on the hopes of ever finding them or that they were still alive. I mean, when I had awakened like usual those few months ago and found that my television wouldn't turn on, my desk computer wouldn't cooperate, my cell phone was dead, and that the whole front of my apartment had vanished to let me gape at the ruined outside world lastly, I'd thought of my loved ones first off and if they were okay while heading back home to Hastings from Grand Rapids. Yet, as I ran, drove where I could, traveled, around Michigan in an attempt to find my family, my friends, anyone, anything, my hopes in finding out what had happened to the world were replaced with... Well, they were replaced with a new wonder; where did everyone go? The highways were empty of automobiles, trains rested in place on the railways, everything everywhere - as if in some movie - had just STOPPED at the press of some button. Heh, now that I had thought of it that way, maybe humanity had been nothing but a film for the almighty upstairs and, having gotten bored of us, he had just decided to take a break from watching. God had just gotten out of his lounge chair with a "hup hup hey", leaned down, as well as pressed the pause button on his blu-ray player or VCR or whatever while going to refill his soda pop or popcorn or who knew what! Ha ha, how funny, right? NOT. Anyway, if that was the case, good going god. Way to stop the movie - all of existence - and forget about it for the next few months! If anything, if you're going to take your time getting refreshments, you might as well as let mankind know before you - Yeah, anyway, whatever. That's not what had happened to the world. No one, not even myself after having traveled around for so long, could say what had made the modern world come to an unexpected end. All the rest of us could do, the rest of humanity, was endure, wonder, pray, live, just make what we could out of what was left on earth. Shaking my head at thinking of such depressing things like god being some stooge on a couch watching a movie, how my friends and family were more than likely gone from existence, I began to curse along with swear under my breath at realizing I was letting my food go for too long. Quickly tossing Loki his stick again, I thankfully got around to keeping my sizzling dinner from charring too badly over the campfire. Then, as I began to whip out a bowl to prepare to give my dog some of the bean, corn, spam, bacon mix I had put together, I couldn't keep from thinking that I wasn't so alone in the empty world anymore. Yeah, even though we had met rather dramatically, I had come to discover that there was a red haired girl along with masked teenage boy still alive in the world with me. Of course, we hadn't had the very best first meeting together but, hmf, it was the end of the world... The times, the conditions, everything, were hard for us all at the moment. They were especially hard or were going to be for Summer Rose Shadowbane. Man, that girl honestly didn't know that the modern world was at an end? After her performance of crying her eyes out on the sidewalk, she clearly didn't and this made me only think again of how I had awoken myself, gotten a bowl of cereal, then dropped it all over the floor when seeing Loki barking at the front of my apartment which had fallen out. And that wasn't the most shocking thing to be seen. It was what was outside my apartment, what was left of the world, which took my breath away and nearly made my heart stop in turn. As for the boy from the trees... Hey, now that I thought about it, I didn't know ninja boy's name. Ha ha, the both of us had started off getting to know so little of each other that I hadn't been interested in getting his name earlier? Boy, he and I were off to a great start, weren't we? Anyway, ninja boy and his dog, Cerberus... What and interesting if not mysterious pair they made. How had they become so carefree, so cold, so isolate? Well, wait, if I hadn't packed up after having seen my dream then I and Loki could have ended up like that. We could have come gradually to only solely care about anything we needed, what we wanted, what we did. Nothing more. In the end, the masked teenager along with Cerberus in some ways, although I didn't like to admit it, were much like myself and Loki. They knew about the world - the city of Toronto at least - as well as what was to be expected in the future that Summer didn't yet; there was only emptiness, loneliness, nothing to be had from the formerly modern world. Here, in Toronto, anywhere, there was you and only you to make choices, to survive, to live on. However, again, Summer seemed to have a boon that myself and the teenager hadn't had when we began surviving off the remnant of the world we'd formerly known and that was that she wasn't utterly alone. She, after having left for her own house, knew she could come back to High Park to find me in the least. And as for the guy from the trees, since I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, I was sure that with a little bit of time he and I could - *By holy god, Loki! Whoa! What?!* As things had been getting darker, as I had been passing my dog his bowl of food and I had begun to dish out mine, something flew from out nowhere into the middle of what I was doing! Firstly, the flying object smashed my bowl out of my left hand! Secondly, with me yelling bloody murder in the process, the ladle I had in my other hand to dish out hot food spilled onto the Canada map unfolded in my lap as well as onto me too! Thirdly, dancing about like a mad man now with searing corn, beans, whatnot, burning my legs, I nearly tripped over my dog when I stepped on his tail and made him yelp in sheer pain at the top of his lungs! "By all that is good in the world! Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot! Ow ow ow ow ow ow! Oh, Loki, I'm so sorry boy!" I apologized profusely, rubbing my husky on his head as he jumped around with much whimpering, "Oh, I know, god hates us, doesn't he? Ooh, ouch, ow, wait... What have you got in your mouth, bud?" There in Loki's jaws was a package or two that he gave to me at my gentle command. The packages, the things that had flown in without so much as a warning, turned out to be meat - quite well done, I might add - but my excitement at finding such treasure died when I noticed a certain note upon the loot. It read in a scribble: "Don't say I don't pay my debts." The message wasn't signed but the package... it had come from the masked teenager. I just knew somewhere deep down, that only he could have made the peaceful moment I had been recently enjoying into a terrible thing as me being burned and stepping on Loki's tail at the same time! By god, the nerve, the heartlessness, the - Okay, I had to take it easy. I had to take a few deep breaths. While I grimly glanced towards the forest nearby, I knew that this mess I'd been placed in was all a misunderstanding. The teenager wasn't anywhere to be seen but he had sought only to give me as well as Loki some meat to dine on. Earlier, if we had wanted, he had invited us to tag along to come eat with him in the woods. When myself and Summer hadn't come though, he must have thought of a way to appease us. In this case, in his own odd way, he had chucked what looked to be... dressed, prepped, smoked, cooked venison, eh? Impressive. Very - ouch, ow, the burn! - impressive. "Thanks..." I admitted to myself with as much dignity as I could muster while wiping warm food off of myself, "Your debts have been paid in full, ninja boy. Good night to you too." By the time I had gotten around to eating my share of rudely delivered deer meat and my own corn, bean, spam, bacon mixture, the night had taken over the ruined world; making it seem even more eerie, empty, ghostly, if at all possible. With the star surrounded moon having taken over the skies for the sun for the next twelves hours or such, myself and my dog retreated to the play-set that was our cloth shelter. However, we weren't nearly tired enough to fall asleep so, much like how we had done since venturing out into the desolated world, we took to star gazing. Far up there, beyond what I could hope to climb and touch, the little clusters of stars winked, twinkled, even seemed to smile down upon me as I laid back on my back by the slides. Resting the back of my head onto my folded hands, folding my glasses while putting them into my breast pocket, my eyes took in the glorious sight of the dark heavens above. Sure, the earth itself had taken a nasty turn back into the dark ages. However, there was some things about it - such as the ocean, the mountains, the valleys and plains and forests and just mother nature altogether - hadn't changed at all. As it had been since the beginning of all things, the sun still rose along with fell each day with the moon chasing after it during the nighttime afterwards. All the while, as the sun had fled and the moon had chased it, the stars along with clouds were merely caught in between, weren't they? Ha, I understood that injustice quite well. Here I along with Loki were caught in between clueless Summer and a carefree masked boy who had a jack russel named Cerberus. Well, as long as I hoped, as long as I prayed to the big man or whoever was upstairs amid those stars, clouds, the sun, the moon, the heavens, I could get along with the two newest if not most interesting humans I'd had the sheer luck of finding in the last few months. If we were willing, the three of us could endure together now. We didn't need to wander the empty earth alone anymore and this... this thought made me have to smile a small smile of relief. Two humans, not just myself, were alive it seemed. The dream of the girl on the bike in the park had begun in reality. No matter what came my way in the future, even if I ended up alone again, I at least knew there were bound to be other survivors in the world and not just me. As for now, Loki and I were going to be staying here until Summer decided to return or we had enough proof to know she wasn't coming back. Yet, look at me worrying. Had I not told Loki earlier that Summer was going to come back after she had searched her home? Yeah, she wasn't going to want to face this world alone. She was going to undoubtedly return to the park sometime to find those who she knew were still around and could be talked to about what was going on or what needed to be done to survive the newest Dark Age. Feeling better at this thought, at knowing I wasn't the only one alive during the end times anymore, I decided it was time to go into my cloth hut for bedtime. With the orb that was the moon glowing from above, with the stars blinking amid the dark heavens, with the campfire dimming until only red coals, I snuggled on top of my heavy duty sleeping bag, rested my head on my pillow, and allowed Loki to lay against my stomach as well as drape my left arm over his side. In a matter of moments, with the images of my lost past - of friends, family, locations, scenes, experiences - flashing before my tired eyes, I was in a heavy sleep. As for Loki, he remained in a light doze. With his stiff ears flicking at any little noise, with his nose sniffing for anything odd, he protected me in the dark like he had protected me every time I had fallen asleep with him since I had been fifteen. Forever, to the end, Loki was and would be my best friend as well as guardian angel when I, like now, needed him most. Much like, most likely, how a certain tree boy's jack russel had probably been for him since they had gotten together during their own lives. Again, I was more alike with ninja boy than I cared to admit. During night, day, storms, travel, the both of us had man's best friend on the lookout for us. And, undoubtedly, we couldn't have been happier if not livelier knowing that.
Hypnos	Re: High Park 10 Years Ago Miharu: I wake in my hammock with Cerberus and help him down. " Alright, Let's go get our breakfast." I tell Cerberus while going to my usually hunting ground. After a few hours I manage to bag one deer. I field dress and prepare as usual. While I was searching for some good herbs I find some rare medical plants and mark their location on my map. " Now we have meat. vegetables, and medicine. I think we're set Cerberus." I tell him as I pick them, and prepare them for use.
Eryn ♪	Re: High Park 10 Years Ago Summer: I ride into the park around mid day dispite the stops I made, after all, traffic was at an all time low. When I arrive I am relived to see August playing with a rambunctious Loki. As I draw nearer I can see them both turn at the sound of my wheels against the gravel. August stands to greet me with a smile upon his face. "Hey, you came back! Any luck finding your family?" I smile awkwardly at him, I don't know why I get nervous around him, still I think he doesn't notice. "Of course I came back, I said I would didn't I? And no, there was no one, just a bunch of ruins." I say more cheerily than I mean too. " I see," he says, his voice becoming more crestfallen, sending a wave of emotion over me, "I am sorry to hear that." I look down at Loki who has stopped running around and taken a place beside his master. "Hey Loki, I brought something for you I say reaching into my bag and pulling out a rubber frizbee."Fetch!" I watch him bolt across the clearing after it, his little body a blur of fur. "Nice outfit by the way." August says jesturing to the cloths I picked up from a mall just outside of Burlington. "Thanks," I reply as I toss him a box of bear paws, "I thought we might need some things if we are going to survive the end of the world." He continues to talk to me, but I loose focus on our conversation as I look over at the park. It looked the same as the last time I had been there, a castle made of wood. But since that time it had caught fire and had a new park built over top of it. So why was it this way now? "Summer, are you listening?" //////// You guys should definatly check out what it looked like before the fire.
Cousitarian	Re: She's Come Back. Good. Now, what of our third friend in the forest? And what about this wooden castle of High Park? 10 Years Ago August: It was true. After I had gotten my fair share of looking up towards the starry heavens, after I had laid down with Loki warmly resting beside me, I fell asleep without much trouble. It was as a new kind of darkness fell over my eyes - a darkness far more different and unpredictable than the nighttime could ever be, the darkness of slumber - that the trouble began. I forgot to mention this earlier but since the entire world had come to an unpredicted end... there was always another vision that I had had as often as seeing a girl riding through a bright park filled with smiling faces. That dream, that hope, of gaining another family in the now ruined world in some park was one that I hoped above all else to come true. And, heh, with me having found Summer on her rusted bike as well as the masked teenager with his terrier in High Park, it had partially or was just starting to come true. As for this other dream - no, nightmare - I never enjoyed it. Perhaps, ever since I had started traveling, it had started haunting me due to my realization at being alone in the world, at having lost my loved ones, at having been a... survivor. Regardless of reason, while I slept or tried to with Loki keeping me safe in reality, another kind of danger, a mental one, visited me in rapid succession that my dog, despite his loyalty, couldn't protect me from. The nightmare in question, well... it had repeated so many times in my head that I had come to remember it clearly when awake. With what transpired in it, I knew it wasn't like the dream with the girl on the bike riding through a park. It didn't prophesize or show me anything of the future. No, this nightmare described to me what had happened already. It described to me the past; what may have happened while I was asleep and the end of all things struck. You see, with much blurry cheering, video gaming, chatting, drinking, eating, I was always sitting on the sofa in the middle of what was an indoor party at my apartment. Familiar faces of my friends, family, coworkers, along with more, bobbed in and out of the crowd around me. Everyone I had invited, everyone participating in whatever we were celebrating, was having more than the times of their lives. With how much laughter, fun, along with cheer being passed from person to person, it wouldn't have been very surprising to have someone fallen over dead from having too much fun... Which, in a sense, always occurred but not the same as described. The people on the couch with me, whether gaming or drinking or eating or whatnot with me, were the first to freeze in what they were doing and... turn into naked skeletons in the blink of an eye. One of my friend with me always had his bony hand on my shoulder, the other held a beer, and his skull's jaw was opened in a bony leer where - having just had skin a second ago - it had shown a bright smile. One by one, the people taking part in the party at my apartment froze in what they were doing to turn into skeletons too. Soon enough, even as I jumped to my feet to try anything to stop this madness and keep my rapidly beating heart from exploding, everyone I was partying with had become empty, still, silent skeletons stuck in place for forever more. They remained stuck leering, jeering, laughing, hollering, gaming, as the best figurines death could dish up. Always, at finding myself in the middle of such a horrible scene where that had only been happiness seconds ago, I couldn't keep from letting out a cry of terror. No matter where I looked, there was no one alive but myself and even that wasn't destined to remain true for long. I was always last to turn into a skeleton and whenever I noticed the skin blowing off of my fingers like sand caught in the wind, my panic reached its maximum potential! I needed help! I needed someone, not a skeleton, to tell me what was going on! Yet, even as I looked to run outside, even as I flung open the front door, a blinding flash of light blinded me to the world... And that was just it. That was what made the nightmare so bad. No longer was there a world outside my door. No longer could I find help for my suddenly deathly situation for, as a mushroom cloud grew towards the yellow heavens in size off in the distance, the city of Grand Rapids began to vaporize like my fingers were doing. The earth was turning into sand, whispering away, and everything was collapsing, falling apart, vanishing beneath the growing dunes before my trembling eyes! And then, bony hands grabbed onto me from behind! Chattering with laughter in my ear, no matter how strongly I resisted them, the skeletons that had been my loved ones roughly dragged me away from the ruined outside world and back inside what was my crumbling apartment! And even as I screamed my loudest, even as I fought fiercely to break free, I was pulled further from the mushroom cloud until, with an audible bang, my apartment's front door closed me in complete, cold, shuddering darkness! And there, while my breathing was too quick, my heart ached, my body was covered in sweat... was when Loki, as the good dog he was, always seemed to rouse me from my worst nightmare. Bless his heart. Truly, bless his heart. "AUGH!" I roared, swinging through the dark at wherever the skeletons that had a hold of me, "LET GO! I - UNGH - GET OFF!" "Yip! Yipe!" My husky squealed after having licked my face, retreating from my fists as they wildly flailed around, "Bark! Howl! Ruff!" "NO!" I shouted again, still swiping around fiercely in the cloth hut while half awake- half asleep, "LET GO! LET GO OF ME! NO! NO!" "Bark!" Loki growled, not backing away this time while I couldn't decide reality from fantasy, "Howl! Yip!" And with that said, with defenses lowered, he took the brief chance presented to him to raise a leg, flick his ears, as well as spray me in the face with a sudden stream of his, um... urine! Quickly, as my senses registered I was being assaulted with a liquid, the nightmare with its skeletons dissipated. At smelling something sour, at tasting something bitter, I suddenly realized what was going on because, well, this hadn't been the first time I had been peed on by my dog. Whenever I became too involved in the nightmare, when it seemed like an emergency, Loki had learned over the course of the past few months that resorting to such a desperate measure was more appreciated than not. Truly, as I stopped thrashing and yelling, I finally slowed down my heartbeat along with breaths enough to look over to my canine happily finish his business. Through the bad smell all over me, trying to not be sick, I stated cheerily, "Ah, thanks, Loki. That's a good boy." "Whine." Loki responded, leaning forward to begin lapping at my expression, "Bark! Yip!" "Okay - no - stop that! Gross!" I exclaimed, pushing helpful Loki off and hitting my head on the overhead play-set when looking to stand up next, "OW! OUCH! Oh holy mother of - BAH!" Barging outside of my cloth hut into what was the morning light with my dog following in turn, ripping off my grossly soaked shirt to throw it aside, I vigorously if not angrily rubbed at the bruised portion of my skull that had involuntarily taken the beating from the play-set. It was a funny life lesson I'd come to learn but, with a rapid rub, any aching injury was sure to just fade away and, as expected, the hurting in my head eased a bit with such treatment. As for the resulting bump on my head, it didn't seem too bad. No bad enough for Summer to notice or ninja boy to make fun of I hoped, anyway. Speaking of wounds, while I tended to mine, I suddenly noticed a bruise upon my dog's cheek. Immediately, I knew what had happened to cause my dog such harm and purposefully cried out, "Oh, screw me! I'm such a piece of crap, Loki!" At this, my canine gave me an innocently puzzled look with a tilt of his head and came to me next when I apologized profusely, "No, no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO! I didn't hurt you did I? I didn't punch you when you were just trying to wake me up, did I? Oh my god, Loki... I'm so so so sorry boy! Screw me! Screw my life!" "Whine." My dog answered, his gray eyes showing that he had been more worried about me earlier than he had been about himself, "Whine. Whine." God bless my husky. Truly, after having hit him and even if that hadn't been on purpose, I didn't deserve him. Of course, this wasn't the first time he had peed on me nor that I had hit him. Ever since the end of all things, well... this situation between us had become a rather common thing. More so, even though we had tried to keep in control, than we both cared to admit at the moment. In the end, me being peed on, Loki getting hit, were innocent mistakes that we were both willing to go through for each other. Ever since we had gotten together when I was fifteen six years ago, we had developed a bond that couldn't be easily broken if broken at all. We had endured the end of the world together. Ha ha, pee and bruises were small time for the pair of us. Yet, still, pardon my language... I was such a s**t for having struck my very best friend over some silly nightmare. I had a more than capable cure for both my simple ailment as well as my dog's. We were suffering from aching, hurting, along with bruising. So, reviving the ashes from last night's fire, I got my cooking pan over the flames, filled it with water and let it sit until boiling. Then, after having thrown in a rag for a moment, I fetched the soaked hot cloth back out with a stick, waited another moment for it to cool and tore it in half. One torn piece I wrapped around Loki's furry head. The other, I wrapped around my own bumped skull. Together, with their warmth easing our aching, my dog and I sat in the grass in the newest morning's sunlight for a few minutes until we felt much better. It was then that I fetched my peed on shirt from the ground, threw it in the sizzling pan of water and went to work trying to get rid of the urine along with smell. Soon enough, after much rubbing as well as sizzling, I had gotten the urine out of my needed shirt which I aimed to hang in a tree limb in the wind to dry out next. Afterwards, I removed the rag that was wrapped about my skull and Loki allowed me to his off. The both of us didn't look so badly hurt anymore and as for our bond, heh, we were the same old friends we had been since meeting. There were no hard feelings between the pair of us... Hopefully, there never would be. "Hungry again, Loki?" I wondered next, pushing away my guilt after having hit him and forgetting the nightmare as best as I could, "Feel like having more of the ninja delivered venison we got last night?" "Arf! Ruff!" "Yeah, that sounds good, don't it? Let's go." I agreed with my husky, leaving my hanging shirt alone to let it air as well as dry out throughout the day, "I have to admit, that masked kid can be a right royal - well, he can be unpleasant. Nevertheless, for sure, he knows how to cook deer, don't he?" "Bark! Howl!" Loki seemed to agree with me, stopping by the fire to begin chasing his tail for his own entertainment, "Yip! Yipe!" "Alright, so, we're gonna have some venison. Well, actually, we can have a bit of what we had last night with it too, can't we?" I stated, taking a seat along with finding the little remains of what I'd cooked up the previous night, "And what to drink, what to drink? You know? We both had a rough night last night." I searched through my stuff before finding two carton CapriSun raspberry flavored fruit drinks. Splitting one open to pour into Loki's personal bowl, I said to him while he licked away at the sweet liquid next, "So, let's spoil ourselves a bit during this breakfast, eh? Seeing as you peed on me and I, well... Yeah. Seeing as what we just went through, we deserve more to drink than just water at the moment." One didn't have to think very hard to understand what I meant by spoiling myself by enjoying a CapriSun fruit drink. With all supplies, with it being the end of the world, one couldn't just bilge on beverages, junk food, just nutrition altogether. Your survival depended on you being smart, careful, not wasteful. Plus, these days, with how the times were, finding a good CapriSun was a rarity. Finding cold milk, any well kept dairy product, was a treasure. And as for being able to drive, to boat, to take the train or plane, those were legends in their own right by now. With electricity down, with people gone, with no laws or government, junk food, drinks, everything altogether, wasn't as common a sight as they used to be anymore. Soon enough, man, I was going to have to explore mysterious Toronto for mini-marts, super stores, just anything that screamed renewal for my dwindling supplies. To be exact, as I had looked over my atlas map last night during supper, I recalled the last time I had refreshed my rations. I had actually been back in Detroit, Michigan a week or two ago before passing into Canada territory to come this far north. Even after having studied it upon my map all during dinner time the previous afternoon, my knowledge of Toronto was severely limited. From High Park, I had no real idea where to start looking for food, liquids, medicine, survival gear, plus more. I mean, since I had found two more people here in the city then I wasn't keen on going anywhere if they weren't planning to. I wasn't keen on being lonely again. So, if I wasn't going anywhere, I needed to know my way around this once epic city. I needed to know the places that would provide me with vital resources for how ever long I would be staying around. And it turned out that there was no real reason for me to worry about those details. Not when, coming to a stop with a slight squeal of tires of what looked to be a newer bike than she'd left with, Summer - who I could guess had been a former citizen of Toronto before its fall - had arrived nearby! Ah, great! The red haired girl had returned and, with much happy yelping, Loki was racing towards her at practically the speed of light! However, I hadn't expected to come back so soon... and she was alone. Not a good sign but, trying to remain hopeful her search for her loved ones had gone well, I realized I had no shirt on! Thankfully, by the time she had recovered herself from Loki's trying to tackle her down onto the ground, I had another shirt on when Summer looked to me coming towards her. Beaming with honest cheer at seeing she had come back, I said to whom would obviously be my newest friend in the crumbling world, "Summer! Great! Hey, you came back!" "Of course I came back." Summer replied brightly, rubbing Loki's furry face meanwhile, "Why are you so surprised? I said I'd come back, didn't I?" Indeed, she had said that while pedaling away during the last afternoon. Still, there was had always been the off chance that she could have gotten lost or hurt or decided on something else instead of returning. Truly, after having seen it on the map, I knew Milton would've been quite the difficult distance to cover alone. Nevertheless, despite my and Loki's worrying, Summer was back. We had gained an addition to our party and, judging by how she looked after having taken something of a rough if not spiritual journey to find her family in Milton, Summer was more than capable of taking on the world around us now. She was, without a doubt now, strong, intelligent, spirited, ready for anything. As for her being alone... I had to ask the golden question in high hopes. "And, so, Summer..." I muttered nervously, "Any luck in finding your family?" At once, just by the depressed glint her piercingly emerald eyes took on at my words, I knew the answer to my question before she said, "No. No luck." "Ah..." I breathe, feeling my hopes draining away rapidly as I cannot help but question another thing from her, "And your friends?" "No." Summer answered me again, a sudden chime in her voice as she gave me an encouraging look over the handlebars of her ride, "There's no one. There's no Milton. Just a... bunch of ruins." "I... Ugh, I am sorry to hear that." I managed to admit. Damn. Pardon my language again but damn. It didn't hurt to hope that Summer would have been luckier than me but... at the same time, it did hurt me. I had found her as well as ninja boy in a day. It would have splendid to have discovered more humans today. Anyway, fending off my own depression at the news, I took notice that Summer appeared to not be so hurt by the news that her loved ones were missing. Over the course of a night back home, she had clearly had the required moments to accept the truth of the matter; that the world wasn't as she remembered it. "Hey, Loki!" Summer abruptly exclaimed, breaking the silence and reaching into her bag with a smile plastered on her face at the same time, "I brought something back for you! Fetch!" The biker girl pulled out a red rubber frisbee next which she, to my amazement if not happiness, expertly threw into the air and had Loki eagerly run after. As the toy whizzed away through the air, as my dog bolted across the grass, Summer tossed my some bear paws. At this, I couldn't have been happier than I was then. Not only had Summer returned in good spirits... she had thought of us two waiting here at the park for her. She had gotten us gifts and, in a way to maybe show my appreciation, I had to comment her on her new look as she dismounted her ride. "I, wow, um... Nice outfit by the way." "Thanks." Summer chimed back, spinning in place to show off her new clothes more, "I got all of this from a mall just outside of Burlington. Oh and you're welcome for those." At this she gestured to the bear paws I held, "I figured we might need some things we're going to survive the end of the world and all." "Indeed." I agreed, my own face breaking into a smile at her optimism, "Good thinking." So, Summer did know her way around. Good. And it was then that - while she tossed the frisbee for Loki whenever he brought it back to her - I began to explain to my newest biker friend what were going to need to do to live in the ruined city. We needed food, medicine, beverages, the same old same old... ++++++ "Summer? Hey!" I got around to asking, snapping my fingers in front of Summer's thoughtful face, "Are you listening to me?" "Hm, wha?" She answered, looking away from the park - from wooden castle, to be exact - at my actions, "Yeah, yeah, you were telling me you needed me to help you find stores, mini-marts, pharmacies, so on and so forth, right?" "Right." I agreed, feeling good that I hadn't completely lost her during the conversation. Now there was only ninja boy for me to ask for help. However, before that challenge, I couldn't keep from glancing behind me towards the aged wood castle that had recently gained Summer's attention. Seeing her still looking at it from time to time in between throwing the frizbee for Loki, I had to question of her, "You hoping to get that castle's number or something, Summer?" "What?" The biker girl wondered before laughing aloud at registering my words, "Ha ha! No! I just... that castle it... it brings back memories for me. I just can't help but wonder how it, everything, got to be so ruined." "The castle brings back some of your memories?" I wondered aloud, looking back to the wooden structure in renewed curiosity. "Yep." Summer chimed, strolling past me towards the castle meanwhile with her hands folded together behind her back, "It brings back memories because, well, it has a history, you see." "History? Really?" I continued to wonder, following my newly made friend and trying - despite my not having had female or any human contact in a few months - to glance at her butt while doing so, "Well... you and that old castle have a story to share, do you? If so, care to tell me and Loki about it?"
Hypnos	Re: High Park 10 Years Ago Miharu: After I prepare and store the medicine I made in my pack, restock on food, have break feast, and holstering my weapons, I make my way out of the forest and find August as well as Summer talking in his camp. I make my way to them with some spare venison I had prepared. " Good morning August and I think he said your name was Summer?" I say startling them because they apparently didn't know I was there until I spoke up. I set down the venison and take a seat. " By the way I figured that I might as well get this out of the way; my name is Miharu Rokujou." I say taking off my mask and showing my face to them.
Eryn ♪	Re: High Park 10 Years Ago Summer: I am just about to tell August the details of high parks fire when I am caught off guard by a voice behind me. "Hello August, and it was Summer right? My name is Miharu." I whip around drawing my newly acquired katana and holding it up to an unmasked tree boy. I notice the mistake and immediately drop the blade. "Sorry, don't startle me like that." I say taking in his ash grey eyes, eyes that had seen the world differently, a shattered world. "Well at least I can stop calling you tree boy. Nice to meet you Mihu." I say teasingly (Mihu is a girls name FYI) "Sorry again about the blade. I was just about to tell August about the fire that happened here about a year ago from my perspective." I then continue on to explain how the park had burnt down and was build again by volunteer firefighters. But that it had been built completely different, and why it confused me that it was the old park I had woken up in and not the new one.
Cousitarian	Re: Truces and a Plan. 10 Years Ago August: When I aimed to find out from Summer what exactly about High Park brought back her memories, several things happened altogether in rapid succession next. Firstly, like with every emergency, Loki's ears perked up again on high alert. Secondly, someone had spoken from nowhere to my right. Thirdly, Summer had withdrawn what had sounded to be a sword from its sheath to point towards whomever had talked from out of thin air. "Ah, good morning, August. And good morning to you too, Summer, right?" *SHING!* When I pulled my glasses from my pocket and put them on, I came to find out that the reason for the sudden tension I felt in the air, the reason for why Loki had become alert like he had caught a whiff of the unknown, the reason for why I had become still as a statue with a freaking katana just a nose length from my actual nose, was that ninja boy himself had decided to come out of the woods for a visit. As for the boy from the trees, looking rather more relaxed than expected when at the end of Summer's katana's point, he actually seemed humored by the fact that he was being threatened in such a manner. Truly, I was happy my dream picturing a girl riding her bike had come true for the most part. However, in a matter of a day since then - since having entered High Park - I had found myself at gunpoint, gotten Loki into a dogfight, had had venison thrown at me, been peed on, and NOW there was a blade poised right past my expression? Come on, my stress level was quickly reaching bloody heart attack potential! Freaking Christ, Summer Rose Shadowbane?! What in the ruined world?! Why did she have such a weapon on her person and, ugh, how had I not noticed it beforehand until she had drawn it out for the very first time? I didn't need my glasses that bad, did I? I wasn't so very blind to not notice a katana on a girl, was I? Anyway, I didn't have to wait long or suffer from a heart attack in the meantime as, with a small smile, ninja boy pushed the sword out of his expression with his own dagger. As he did, I actually took notice that his knife had a name etched into its carbon steel made form that suitably if not coolly read "Hades". And, if you were at least a little bit connected with greek mythology, one would find that realization, well... it was AWESOME to see a blade entitled after the greecian god of the underworld! It was as her katana was pushed aside from her intended target that Summer's eyes lost their rather chilling glint and settled back to being their own gorgeous selves. Quickly, at realizing what she had done without thinking, she said, "Ah, oh, I'm... Sorry. Don't startle me like that!" "Heh, a bit jumpy, are we?" The boy from the trees replied, lowering his own dagger as well as setting his jack russel upon the ground, "Well, I'll be sure to keep that in mind in the future. Don't worry." It was as Loki and Cerberus looked each other over - obviously, they hadn't forgotten their last meeting - that I came to learn a bit more about ninja boy because he announced with a removal of his mask, "Anyway, now that the dramatics have been finished between us all, I know you both but you don't know me. I might as well be fair and introduce myself. I'm Miharu." "Miharu?" I repeated, feeling a bit taken aback by the sudden moment of openness from a teenager who had been wearing a mask for the longest time until a second ago, "Miharu... That's your name then?" "Yes, bravo, congrats, good job. You understand English." The unmasked teenager, now "Miharu", coldly lectured me with a crossing of his arms along with rolling of his eyes meanwhile, "To put it fully, though, I'm Miharu Rokujou." "Miharu Rokujou..." Summer said beside me, tracing a circle in the grass with her sword while thinking, "Hey, that's good. At least I don't have to refer to you as tree boy anymore. Actually, heh, would you mind if I just called you Mihu for short?" As Summer giggled to herself, as newly introduced Miharu shot daggers in her direction with an ice cold stare, there was a joke that I hadn't caught on to. I didn't stay in the dark long though as ninja boy stated, "Yes, I do mind. Don't call me Mihu." "Oh, you mind me calling you Mihu?" Summer chimed, swishing bits of blades of grass as she giggled a bit more, "You mind me calling you by a girl's name?" "Enough." Miharu commanded, making me feel a bit uneasy but only making Summer - whom he wanted to stop - just burst into a renewed fit of snickering, "My name is Miharu Rokujou. Nothing more. Stop." "O-okay... Mihu." Summer managed out in a gasp, "I'm sorry but I can't stop now Mihu - I mean Miharu! Sorry, sorry, sorry! Oh no, it's stuck in my head!" "Whatever. Be that way." Miharu hissed, turning away from his tormentor and towards me resolutely. At first, I thought he was looking to vent his anger out on me but, to my relief, he actually asked of me a polite question as well as gestured to the venison he was carrying at the same time, "As for you, August... I do hope you enjoyed the meat Cerberus managed to track down and that I prepared for you last night. You did, din't you?" Did I enjoy it? Did I enjoy Miharu just tossing random meat my way? Did I enjoy dancing around like a madman in the resulting burning of my skin as well as stepping on poor Loki's tail? Did I enjoy ninja's unique form of gift giving if not mysteriousness altogether... No, I didn't really. However, his heart had been or was still in the right place and, forcing my face into as best a grin as I could manage, I drawled, "Oh yes. I enjoyed your venison last night, bro. More than you could know. Much much more than you could know... But, anyway, don't give me anymore. I still have leftovers from last night." "Hey, if that's what you want." Miharu replied to my words, turning away from me and focusing back onto Summer next, "As for you, Summer, I don't recall you having had that outfit on yesterday when you were, well, going through your episode on the sidewalk... And you most certainly didn't have a sword either." "Oh, yeah, sorry again about the whole sword deal." Summer said in turn, still lazily sweeping at grass, "I got all of this stuff at a store just outside of Baltimore on the way back here." "Ah, Baltimore." Ninja boy thoughtfully said, crossing his arms again at the mention of the location as well as fitting two and two together about stuff I already knew, "That's quite the journey from Toronto here. Then, if you were there... You really went to Milton? You went there and came back in the matter of a day?" "That's right." Summer answered. "Then... Did you have any lucky in finding your house? Your family?" Miharu slowly inquired, making me wonder in the meantime if he was really so cold-hearted when he was currently investigating how Summer's personal journey had actually gone, "Did you find any of your friends?" "No." Summer simply replied, trying to keep a brave smile on her face even though it was plain by the shine in her eyes that she was hurting while admitting it all the while, "No, I didn't find anyone. There was hardly anything... left to recognize that had been my hometown, to be honest." "Oh." Miharu breathed, connecting eyes with me and showing he in his own cared a little about others than himself for a second before quickly looking away to finish, "I see... Well, that's no shocker. That's the way of the world these days. Empty, vague, a former shell of itself." Ninja boy next pointed to katana girl as he added, "And with you being back here in the park, Summer, it appears that you've come to accept those things. With you being back, you're ready to start surviving." "If that's how you want to put it." Summer answered, "I don't want to just survive, you know. I want to live where I can too." "I couldn't have said that better myself." I laughed without thinking, truly knowing what she meant, "Seriously, the world is a messed up place now but there really is a lot more living to be done that most would think." "Either way, living or surviving," Miharu interjected, seeming to always enjoy cutting me off, "we're here. That's the end of it. And not that I really care but... what were you two talking about earlier?" Ah, wait, what? What had Summer and I been talking about earlier? "Oh, come on, you both know what I'm referring to." Uh, no, nope, nuh-uh. Summer and I, we really... didn't have clue as to what Miharu presently wanted to know from us. What had we been just about to talk about before he had shown up with Cerberus as well as nearly made Summer cut off my nose in the process? "Ugh, okay, fine. It was when I was just showing up from supposedly nowhere and you could have seen me coming from a mile away but you two weren't paying attention. No, the pair of you were actually too busy for anything else other than being caught up in your googly eyed moment together." "Oh, come on." I immediately exclaimed, hoping Summer wouldn't notice the bit of red showing in my expression at Miharu's comment of how she and I had supposedly been having a googly eyed moment before his recent arrival, "You're seriously wearing out my patience, Mihu!" "Don't!" Miharu snarled at once, goign a bit out of his cool character at me using Summer's joke against him, "Don't call me that, Mr. Leader! Don't do it!" "Then stop constantly badgering me!" I stated fiercely, feeling a bit good in finally standing up for myself, "God, look, Miharu, I'm sorry about having attacked you yesterday and how bad of an impression I made on you then but let it go! Otherwise, I'm going to be like Mihu this and Mihu that and hey Summer have you seen Mihu anywhere-" "ENOUGH! STOP! FINE!" Miharu cut across me, his voice echoing throughout the empty city of Toronto in turn, "Yes... fine, Mr. Leader. Fine." Good. Moving on, Summer jumped in at that moment to explain what Miharu had wanted to hear all along without me having stood up for myself, "before you got here, Miharu, I was just about to tell August about the fire that had happened to this park a year ago." "There was a fire here?" I immediately questioned, looking around as well as remembering that Summer was right about us just getting ready to talking about her history with High Park. "Yeah." Summer responded, walking away towards the old castle in the meantime, "You see, the fire began back when..." ++++++ "So, hold on a moment..." I got around to wondering aloud at the end of Summer's tale about how High Park had undergone a completely new reconstruction after having been burnt, "You're telling me that this park endured a fire?" "That's right." The girl with the katana answered with a thoughtful tilt of her head as well as a curious raising of Miharu's eyebrows afterwards. "But..." I breathed, not exactly understanding at first as well as noticing ninja boy didn't get it either, "The park here, the one that we're standing in now... it isn't the newer model that the volunteer firefighters built afterwards? This is the same old park you knew before the fire?" "Yep." Summer confirmed, keeping her eyes longest on the wooden castle, "See, when I woke up here... I found that the park looked a bit strange. But, until now, it took me some time in trying to figure things out about this place. With you telling me that it was the end of the world and all moments later after I had awoken, I was distracted." So, not only was this the end of the world and Summer didn't exactly know about it until recently... Now she was trying to tell me as well as Miharu that the park had been on serious fire at one point but had remained the same afterwards? This park had undergone reconstruction but, at the same time, it hadn't? Okay, I needed to stop thinking of this or I was going to start having more nightmares of skeletons and a mushroom cloud and whatever during the night that would make me feel like garbage in the morning. For now, after having studied my map during dinner last night, I had a plan for today which was still in early afternoon. Loki and I felt like exploring a bit. Again, even with how odd Summer was being and how I was struggling in getting to know Miharu with his terrier, my dog as well as myself were in the mood to check some things off our to do list; locate water, food, better shelter, medicine, so on. And as for Summer being peculiar, it was the freaking end of the world. I needed to quit being so shocked whenever I ran across the unexpected or unnatural or unexplainable or such with her. Besides, considering how she had come back and was one of the only human beings I'd met in months, I was more than willing to get along with her. Plus, um... With the new clothes she wore, with how she had wielded and was wielding that katana now, was she getting to be a bit more gorgeous if not admirable with every second I spent with her? Or was that just me perhaps? Moving on to Miharu and Cerberus, they were butts. With their apathy, They were going to try to by my and Loki's rivals. Nevertheless, despite my tension around them, ninja boy and his terrier had already shown that they were familiar with the state the world was in, that they could survive, that they were fighters. With me not knowing what to expect in the future, I needed every ally I could get and Miharu along with Cerberus were too valuable to lose. They were tough, they were survivors, they were brave in their own ways as well as could teach me some tricks I maybe hadn't learned yet. So, even if it was a slim chance, I would make them friends of mine in the days to come. And what better way was there for me to get to know Summer, Miharu, along with Cerberus better than to invite them along in helping me find what resources I needed for the future while staying in Toronto! At this thought, setting aside my worries along with stress, I requested of katana girl, "Hey, Summer, if it wouldn't be too much of a hassle at the moment, it would really benefit me if you could help me look around Toronto here and get familiar with it. I would really seriously be in your debt for that." Next, as I had Loki follow me towards where I was going to get the necessary things from my travel gear for the tour of Toronto, I requested of ninja boy closely watching me with Cerberus, "And I'd appreciate it if you'd come along too, please, bud. As you said, the world is an empty, shadow of what it had once been. Thus, I'm going to need all of the help I can get, right? So feel free to tag along and watch my back." ++++++ Holy crap, Shadowbane! You gave your character a katana?! Nice addition. So, ninja boy and my guy have dogs. Then, ninja boy and you have blades in your own way. Sweet! Of course, all our characters can wield guns but, heh, my guy is a poor aim. I'm going to leave whatever fighting comes our way to your guys. Mine is a loser at that combat crap, lol. Anyway, I'm done, I'm done.

Hypnos	Re: High Park 10 Years Ago Miharu: I stand as they go to explore the ruins. "Sure, I'll tag along. And just so you know I've already found water,medicine, and I good place to stay." I state as I catch up to them after I make sure my rifle and revolver were fully loaded and I have plenty of spare ammo.
Eryn ♪	Re: High Park 10 Years Ago We should switch to the other thread after this post. Alright, lets head to costco, its a little ways, but it should have most of what we need. Except weapons. If we want those, there should be some more at Midevil times. Which is closer.