Wayrift Origins: Don’t Look Now (Ben)
Once upon a time, when the net was still new to me and Coming of the Darkstar was a young project, there existed a mailing list (Founded: Mar 26, 1999) of friends and readers — some who are with us still today, some who have since went their own way. January of 2001, we started the second official free-form mailing list RPG.
During this RP, Syn and I first really met and became friends. It was during this RP that Ben and Leona first met and became friends as well. So, though the writing is old, this is the foundation for everything that came later – Darkstar, Shimmer and Dreigiau.
The timeline I’d set at one year after Darkstar’s end… though it is and is not like a prequel to Wayrift. You will see where some of these storylines served as a direct inspiration for future Wayrift chapters. There will be a number of elements in the old RP that carry over and get developed further in the manga.
Some of you may have read these Origin posts the first time I posted them up… but it appears that GreatestJournal is now no more. So the only written record of these chats remains in my files and by digging through the messages archived on the mailing list. It’s going to be a bit of a job to sort it all out again, so I can’t say how often I’ll be posting material up. Still, I hope you enjoy it!
~*~
-Originally posted Jan 26, 2001, Written by Aywren –
Ben is trying to escape Baron unnoticed. He does that a lot, doesn’t he? This also shows Ben’s relationship to the kids in Baron (other than Leona). Leona is one of the few kids that seem to not like Ben… and she has a good reason for it!
You can see this aspect mirrored here in Chapter 14, in the reactions of the Baronian children when Zeb comes upon them while trying to impersonate Ben.
………………..
Ben had long since learned that there were two things he just couldn’t hide
from. Animals and children.
They always had this way of picking him out a mile away, and he didn’t know how. He loved the children of Baron, and they loved him. Peasant children were much more fun to play with than the pages in the castle, and they had taught him all sorts of great games since he had come to live in there. Usually it wasn’t particularly a problem. But today, he rather not be found.
“Hey!! Ben!!!”
The Lunar winced, turning to see a pack of scruffy, tousled-haired children jogging his way, followed closely by three large dogs. Ben groaned inwardly, waving his hands for them not to be so loud. Seeing they had his attention, they shouted all the more.
Contact. All six children and three dogs tackled him.
Good-naturedly, Ben allowed them to pull him down and pin him to the ground, his hood dropping off, as his cloak got pulled in all directions. Passer-bys paused, watching curiously, then continued on their way when they heard the children’s laughter.
“Ben! Did you come to play today??” Rutherford asked.
“Ben! I got a new doll!” Seseta told him, strangling him about the neck with a hug. “Her name is Rosa!”
“Hey, Ben! You still owe me a gold piece!”
“Beeen!! Dak keeps hitting me. Tell him to stop!”
“Wow. That’s a neat cloak! Are you going somewhere?” Little Karlen asked.
“Actually…” The wizard had managed to pull himself off the ground and get back on his feet. “Yes, I was going somewhere..”
“Oh?”
The children just looked up at him with big eyes.
“Where?”
“Can I come, too?”
“I wanna go!”
“Take me!”
Ben grinned. “Now you know I can’t do that… your parents would be worried. Besides, where I’m going it’s really really boring.”
“Really boring?” Ferra asked.
“Very boring.” He answered.
“Ew. I think I’ll stay here then…”
“When will you be back?”
“In a little while…” He told them. They all pouted. “But you know.. the sooner that you let me leave the sooner I can come back.”
“Really?”
“Un-hun.”
“Oh! Then… g’bye Ben! Come back soon!”
A chorus of good-byes followed him down the street, only until he turned the corner. Ben smiled to himself, and continued toward the gates of town.
~That wasn’t so hard…~
[It was here that a man in Baron took notice of Ben and decided to follow him. I’ve edited this out because the character, Argithen, belongs to another Author.]
That’s when he felt it. A trickle of curiosity, of interest. Someone was watching him. He realized he had allowed his hood to slip back, and instantly pulled it up to shadow his face.
The feeling began to follow him. He fingered the hilt of Onyx passively, then decided aggression probably wouldn’t be necessary. After all, he didn’t feel hostility. Only interest at this point.
The gates of Baron were wide open. The guards didn’t even seem to see him as he passed through. Ben allowed himself to continue on a few yards outside of the city.
~I wonder… if he’s still following me? I wonder what it is he wants? Maybe I should give him the chance to ask?~
The Half Lunar paused there, then settled down underneath the shade of a tree to wait and see if company arrived…