Hi there! This is my first, full scale story so I hope you enjoy!

This roleplay, which was a fully literate roleplay, took place on the Homestuck AU! Amino and was hosted by Detective Carrot and has a total of around 6/7 active members: myself, Detective Carrot, Knight of Heart, syntesiaThief, amiableAvian, ArtisanFlannel and abruptChill. It does feature more characters as some of the members doubled up with two characters. Together, we all wrote the story, I just took it upon myself to type it all up! So credit goes to them and to all the other people who dropped in and out of the rp over it's duration (at the time of writing this, it is still in full session).

Enough introduction! Enjoy the story!

...

Damara sat, wearing her usual maids outfit; an informal rag of vibrant purple, bearing the Kingdoms emblem. Personally, wearing it felt wrong, for it was a symbol of full disgrace, downright shameful. It represented the separation of two mighty Kingdoms that started as one, now only split by a single colour, and the vast plains of land that lie between them. She folded the laundry spitefully. The princess wanted her undershirts ironed, dresses hung, and whatever else could be and will be folded; this was nothing too out of the ordinary for a castle maid but it wasn't the life Damara wanted, stuck in the castle doing chores for the rich and famous. She had a horrible habit of smoking to relieve her of the stresses of maid work, not that it was particularly straining work, but she burned holes in the cloth from time to time, as if sometimes on purpose. Sadly, she wasn't put out of her everlasting misery of maid work or banished from the castle; Miss Lalonde was too kind to do so. Damara wished she wasn't.

Outside the window, the streets were emblazoned with the many banners of the kingdom. Flags of purple, black and white paraded towards the Plaza as the people of Derse cheered and whooped. The lunar festivities had begun. They would finally see the sun, as the clouds drifted over the plains towards Prospit, the land which wouldn't see any light for many months. In the winter months, a kingdom is stretched to its limits as the streets fill with rain and crops wither and die. However for the kingdom who's long, light-less days turn to summer ones it is such a joyous time, there are street parties and parades in which even the royals attend.

Yet, Damara was remorseful. The festivities were overshadowed by the war between Prospit and Derse. The people were restless, barely surviving the winter when Prospit cut trading ties and the two lands met on the battlefield. The people were weak, but with tired eyes, the Derse people had managed to pull through together, and now, it was Prospits turn to suffer

...

It was early in the morning, Calliope sat in the shadow of one of the many lavishly decorated castle windows, gazing over the kingdom at the usually grim festival. She sighed deeply as she remembered about the hardships of the season to come. The royals had made a speech recently about the state of the war and the negotiations, and to be frank, as much as they tried to sugar coat the situation to the Prospitian people, word around the castle said that it wasn't getting far. It was going to be a hard winter ahead, where work would be long and tiring and food would be scarce. The royals had rightfully placed a rationing on the food, to try and save enough for the livestock but Calliope was certain that many of them would die without the proper resources from Derse. All of Prospit ate the same, the same amount, and the same watery stew dish. Even the royalty.

Calliope really admired the kingdom and the smiles though. The crops and the livestock may be dying, but the kingdom was not. Winter balls had already been scheduled in the palace for commoners, neighbours were helping one another with the work that needed to be done, and even the royals weren't sitting all high and mighty on their thrones. No, they had planned go out every day and greet their loyal people and one by one make a trip to every home, every two weeks, to check up on the work, supply levels and to keep the moral high. So gracious of them, for people had thought of their kings and queens as selfish; it was a privilege for them to be able to come and go as they pleased. No-one would ever know of winter in the castle, they have everything, enough fuel to last for years and their own personal store of food. However, in the exceptional circumstance such as this winter, the royals were willing to open the doors to the public and share resources. No longer was the castle constantly engulfed in a soft yellow light, it was now mostly dark and dreary, as the fuel needed to be saved; not many lumberjacks were willing to journey outside the walls to the forests, there were thieves and spy's from Derse, who would apprehend any Prospitian and either pillage any stores of materials they had on them, or even worse, take them prisoner or k- Well, Calliope didn't want to think about it anymore.

As she sat at the edge of the window, sewing the rips in clothes of the castle royals, she scanned the borders between the land of Prospit and Derse. Who knows why they even went to war years ago? As the story goes, there was a fair maiden that came to the land, travelling with only her carriage and her land's crown, to which the two Kings both asked for her hand in marriage. She was torn in her allegiance to either King, not wanting to separate them from their lifelong friendship. However, this caused tension, both Kings were adamant to win the lady over and to settle the dispute, they declared an epic war. The battle wasn't won by either side; the two Kings had slain each other in battle. The succession of the throne thereafter wasn't clear but the resentment of the people towards each other, was still present to that day. After their death, the two sides had settled for peace but in the recent years the war had reignited, and the fiery passion and hatred felt so long ago, raged in the people once more.

No longer were there friendly purple flags, flying in the streets, or placed in the windows of shops. All the Derse owned shops had been pillaged and looted some time ago, as war had broken out. Calliope missed the presence of the Derse people, they were kind and thoughtful, rational and smart and the Prospitians needed them, to be able to work at their best. They also used to be able to rely on Derse to pull through, when the kingdom was at its lowest, the Derse people were there. Alas, this wasn't true any longer. Derse was now an enemy, not a friend; some of the people were not to be trusted. Spy's were everywhere and people knew not who to trust.

Calliope jumped and retracted her finger into her mouth. In her absentmindedness, she had caught her finger on the needle she was currently holding. "Ah well," she thought, "It should be all over again soon", or that's what she hoped, at least.