Story Time

This story is about love.

Well, it’s about plenty of things, but love’s as good a place to start as any, isn’t it? It starts with a young man with dreams of adventure, of grand chases and maidens what need saving, riding on the backs of dragons and battles with the dark magics of the Karians.

Ryu Washisan was his name, a member of some clan or another. It was hard to keep it all straight in his head. He’d grown up like most Allskins in a world of tattered finery and faded glory. He’d spent hours and hours and hours learning all sorts of useless things, like which fork to use with which dish, when to swap out his spoons during a meal, why he should always keep his word of honour. It hadn’t stuck. Well, except for that honour part. A little bit. ... Less than his family would have liked. ... Well, he did ok.

Come time for his teenaged years, Ryu didn’t think much of his family. They were holding him back, he thought. They expected him to be some kind of gorram Messiah, and he just wasn’t interested in fighting in the arena. He was much more interested in finding out if any maidens needed saving.

He didn’t have much luck in that regard.

All of that changed in his twenty second year of life: the day he met Sylvia. She perfect in that airbrushed Biomade sort of way. Hair just so, proportions just so. Long blue hair, expressive blue eyes, nary a blemish to be found.

Ryu was young and foolish, and he was in love scarcely before she’d so much as said, “Hello.” Well, in lust anyways. That’s how it started. They saw each other pretty regularly for the next couple months, and soon enough he had started to mean it when he swore his undying love for her. Another couple of months passed before (much to both of their surprise), she found that she loved him back.

Course, that didn’t help either of them when she tried to pilot his mecha to save his life when the vengeful student of a rival school went after him a year after their first meeting. Or maybe it did. First Age artifacts don't work for Biomade, after all, but it responded to her touch. Or maybe the dragon-mecha sensed its master was in danger, and simply tolerated her touch. It doesn't really matter at this point, considering what happened. The dragon-mecha responded to her touch and flew to his side in a matter of seconds. Now, there are many horrible ways to die, but burning up in the molten remains of what used to be the cockpit of your mecha after a burst of dragonfire hits it dead on? Probably one of the worst. Ryu wasn’t sure if the poor sap had drowned or burned first, but whichever it was, it had looked painful.

Unfortunately, as is the case with most things, the victory came at a price. There on top of the dragon-mecha, her hands still clasped around the reigns, Sylvia was fading. Fading like a ghost. The dragon’s metallic eyes pulsed again and again, and with each pulse, Sylvia faded a little more.

That didn’t go over well with either of them.

They tried everything they could think of with no success. Then came the tears, the anger, the recriminations. Then Sylvia was gone without a trace, and the dragon's eyes gleamed fitfully in the light of the setting sun.

Heartbroken and unwilling to go back to the life that had started all of this business, Ryu, scion of the Washisan Academy, climbed onto the back of the dragon-mecha, whipped its reigns savagely, and flew off into the setting sun, never to be seen again. Or at least, he was pretty thoroughly determined never to be seen again. You know how it goes, though. Going unseen is easier when you aren’t flying on the back of a metal dragon.

So that’s the story. Just one more tragedy in a world full of them, I guess. There’s a moral here somewhere. Guard your heart, maybe? Hide your love away? Maybe it’s better to have loved and lost? Whatever. The point is, it's a story about love, and loss.

Don't give me that look. Were you expecting something more? Something less depressing, maybe? Well, maybe there's more to be told. Maybe that's not the end of the story, with Ryu heart broken, leaving behind every obligation for a life of freedom in the wilds of Karia, and taking the very source of his grief there with him.

Time will tell. It usually does.