Nearby small village located in the Kingdom of Vale.
An old man in his late 70s is seen tending at his local store. Said store having an old worn-down sign above it, reading "Western Supply Line", and there are a faint traces of a figure drawn next to the text, which had long-since faded.
The old man is seen sweeping the floor with an old wooden broom, cleaning up the place overall.
The man has gray hair, the original colour has been long gone now. A small but wide beard is also present on his chin, not enough to cover the cheeks, but enough to cover the mouth.
They are wearing a brown sweater vest, and a white shirt underneath. His sleeves being also white. The pants are worn-brown, a pair of gray suspenders could be seen keeping the pair up. The boots are gray and worn, but modified as well. The main thing being that they have steel covering to protect their feet from falling objects.
The old man stops sweeping and stares outside, looking at the small village square. "How long has it been since I moved here?" The man quietly questions himself, pondering on the old days, "40 or more years ago now..." He mutters.
As he was pondering, the shop's door opened, being signaled by a bell chime from the door. This causes the man to stop sweeping and curiously look at the potential customer, only to sour upon seeing said customer.
Said customer was an adult woman, who is wearing the typical gang outfit you'd usually find in the city, not in a small settlement.
"Heya Sprucy~!" The woman says in a cheerful manner, "You know the deal by now~," They add, looking at the old man, who is clutching his broom hard.
"You know as much as I do on that predicament, brat." The old man seethes out, already angered by her mere presence.
"Yes~, and you know you have to pay up~." The woman helpfully (read: annoyingly) points out.
The man gestures around, "What do you see of value, brat? I'm low on funds myself, because your little gang bled me dry and smuggle in resources into the village." The man accuses, pointing a finger at her, "Of course I wouldn't be able to pay up!"
"Oh?" The woman says, raising an eyebrow, "But that's not my problem, remember?" She tells the man, striding over to the counter and leaning on it.
"But you still have to pay your protection fee~," The woman happily points out, before she grins maliciously, "Or you'd want to find out what happens to debt people?"
"Protection fee?" The man asks, feigning confusion. But soon after his face contorts to one of anger, "There's no one to protect from, besides you and your merry band of idiots."
She lets out a gasp, faking a shocked expression, "How could you say that? I'm the mayor's daughter, y'know~?" She points out, clearly messing with the old man.
"That fat brat? I'm surprised how he managed to get a daughter, considering his cowardice and laziness." The old man retorts, "Idiot has been mayor for 8 years now and they are still proudly exploiting citizens."
At that point, the woman got genuinely angry, "Hey!" She yells, pointing a finger at the old man, "Don't disrespect me or my family!"
"Hard not to, when they are a fat bastard." The old man retorts, angering the woman further.
"That's it! Pay up by tomorrow morning, or we will come and burn you like a steak!" She yells, entirely angered, to which the man's reply was to scoff.
The woman storms out of the old shop, incredibly peeved and angry.
After some time has passed, the old man sighs and mutters, "I guess the next meeting will be the last..."
Soon came night fall. The old man could be seen in the shop's hidden basement, along with couple of the town's folk. An old lantern hangs from the ceiling, lighting the room.
"So, has everyone has packed their bags?" He asks, which came the reply of several types of affirmations.
"So today is really the day, Spruce?" A man asks, lighting a cigar, "Today we burn this corrupt place to the ground?"
"Well, you heard what the Shopkeeper said, ya tasteless tailor." Another man says, a slight accent forming in their voice. To which the said tailor yells, "Shut it, you metallic pounder!"
"Piss off, clothed mess."
"Iron head."
"Brown streak."
Suddenly, a woman interrupts the two by punching them and yelling "Quit acting like kids!"
"Sorry, ma'am." The two appologised, bowing their head.
"Bwahahahaha! Tha' lassy sur' got ya lads!" A large man bellows out, before begining to drink again.
"Shut it, you drunken miner!" All three yell.
At this point the old man, Spruce, slams his fist onto the table and yells "Damn it! Stop bickering like idiots!"
All of them shut up, allowing the old man to continue, "It's clear that this village is a lost cause. Abundently so." Spruce states, then puts a large briefcase onto the table.
"Now. Our resident miner and refiner managed to procure AND refine the dust as best as possible. Specifically, the red, yellow and blue." The man states, gesturing towards the lady and the drunk miner with a nod.
"Yeah? Why can't we just say what dust they are?" The blacksmith asks, eliciting a response from the woman.
"Because everyone's used to saying the elemental names of the crystals, to the point that it takes longer to figure out what colour corrisponds to an element. Albeit, the difference is only a few miliseconds, but it could possibly determine the success of this endevour." The woman explains, as they begin filing their nails.
"Right." Spruce says, "I used said refined materials to craft a super-charged bomb."
"Could you run by me on how the bomb work again?" The tailor asks, blowing out a cloud of smoke, to which spruce nods.
"Certainly. The main two components of consists of it's circuitry and the bomb's pressure tank." He explains, "The red and blue are sealed inside said tank, along with yellow."
"When the red and blue mix, the resulting mixture causes a combustion inside the tank," The woman continues for Spruce, "Yellow is just there to overcharge said combustion."
"Tha' results in bigger boom! Which c'n lev'l a 'uge part o' tha tewn." The drunk miner interrupts, "Which 's 'nuff to 'ttract grimm n' destroy tha' entire place."
"But the tank has to be capable of withstanding immense pressure from the inside," The blacksmith says, "This helps the explosion immensly, by being more sudden, rather than a slow expansion of air."
The tailor nods to the explanation, satisfied.
"Right. The bomb will be detonated at midnight. I'll stay here in the village, you lot will leave before me." Spruce says, earning shocked looks from them.
" 'Old en, whay ar' ya stayin'?" The drunk miner asks, stupified by Spruce's decision.
Spruce shakes his head and says, "I'm one of the oldest people living here. I wish to witness the spoiled mayor's downfall." Then chuckles, "Besides. We will most certainly part ways and enjoy our separate lives..." He jokes.
The others nod, though a frown still present. "While I personally don't like you staying here by yourself, it is understandable why." The smoking tailor states, frowning at the old man.
"I wish to ruin their smug grin, is all I ask. I wish to see it crumble under them. The kingdom doesn't care about us folk, because we don't export anything valuable." Spruce says, then looks at each one, "Now unless any of you have anything else to say, this will most likely be our last meeting..." He then lets out a sad sigh, "Or at least, the last meeting where I am involved in."
The others in the room look at eachother, before nodding to eachother and looking back at Spruce.
"Good luck lad. Ya still owe me a drink." The drunken miner says, almost trying to keep his cool. But ultimately couldn't hold it and began wailing whilst holding Spruce by the vest, "Oh, w'o am Ai kiddin', Ai'm gon'a miss ya when ye're gone!"
The blacksmith chuckles, "Heh. Man's really going all out for you..." He says, before somberly looking at Spruce, "But I'd be lying if I say I wouldn't miss you."
The woman in the group sighs, "In all honest, since the day many years ago I've moved into town, I genuinely became fond of you four." She says, her eyes glued to the ground.
The tailor closed his eyes and says, "Damn it, shitty grampa. Don't give me more of a reason to smoke." Though there was no hidden malice, there was only sadness in his tone.
Spruce looks at the four, before telling them "Of course. I will miss you four as well. Hopefully we see eachother in the afterlife."
With that, they end their meeting for the last time...
In comes morning, as Spruce is waiting inside his shop, behind the counter. His face, stone.
In the back of his mind, rang some thoughts, "Did they make it out of the village?", "Will they be alright?"
His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the bell at the doorway.
Focusing his eyes, he spots the young woman from yesterday. The mayor's daughter. In their hand and placed on their shoulder is an old break-action long-barreled shotgun. An axe blade is attached to the barrel, suggesting that the barrel itself is reinforced.
The woman smiles, "Well, well~. The old village grampa is at his desk already! That makes things easier!" She says, the smile never leaving, whilst she strides her way over to the counter.
Spruce simply sat there, a cold, stone-like expression on his face. All the while, the woman's face doesn't falter.
The woman was now close enough to grab the old man, "But we both know you need to pay your debt now~!"
The man nods, and opens up the cash register...
Only to suddenly pick up the register and throw it at her mid-section, catching her off-guard and causing her to stumble backwards a fair amount...
"Right. The register isn't attached to the desk anymore." Spruce says, putting away a screw driver.
He then attempts to lift it up and smiles, finding it easy enough to lift, but heavy enough to stagger someone.
Placing it back, he looks around and moves over to another part of his shop.
The woman regains her balance soon after and glares at the old man with hatred.
She aims at the old man, which causes him to duck behind cover and the nick of time.
Taking out a glass jar, which is seemingly filled with a strange liquid, he throws it at the woman, which the woman blocks by putting her gun in the way and shattering the glass. This causes her to be sprayed by the liquid.
There's a waft of concentrated alcohol in the air...
The woman, even angrier than before, charged at the man, swinging the axe mounted gun at him aimlessly.
The old man jumps over the counter, the axe barely missing him.
When he landed, he took out some marbles and spilt them across the floor, causing the woman to misstep and slip.
He uses this chance to get to the doorway. But he was stopped when the woman threw the gun-axe at towards him, but it missed and impeded itself into the wood.
The woman than quickly ran and grab the old man with inhuman strength, pinning him against the door.
"You think you are so clever, huh?" The woman starts, seething with anger, "Let me tell you something: YOU'RE NOT." She then yells, slamming him against the door multiple times.
"You should've bowed down to me, but no! You didn't!" She says, slamming him again against the wood, "You had to be an idiot and fight!"
But she stops when he heard chuckling, "You're just where I want you." Spruce said, then reaching for the door mounted bell and pulling it hard, off of the doorframe.
She was confused for a moment, when suddenly her face contorts with dread...
Spruce is seen reattaching the doorbell onto the frame. "This will be the trigger mechanism for the bomb."
He places away the screwdriver he used to pry it off and then gets off his ladder...
Abruptly an explosion occured. engulfing the duo in flames. The old man was shielded from the blast because of the woman, but both of them were launched far into the air.
Another set of explosions occured, signaling the town's dust supplies have been compromised.
It was followed by even more explosions, when suddenly the biggest one went off and sent the duo sky high and apart.
The old man had been knocked out from the explosion, but soon woke up to him tumbling through the air.
At that moment, he saw the city of vale nearby, and all others as well. A strangely magnificent sight, if it weren't for the fact that he was gonna fall to his doom...
- 50 years ago -
A man could be seen walking at the side of a road, playing on his phone.
He continues walking, uncaring of his surroundings. Mainly because he knew that there wouldn't be any cars that would usually drive on the specific road.
But in an unexpected turn of events, he suddenly died. Where he was then sent to meet someone...
"Ah... Sorry lad." The man heard an unknown voice speak.
Opening his eyes, he saw a short and wide man with a large beard staring back at him. A sheepish grin on their face.
"Who?" The regular figure asks the short man.
The short man lets out a "Huh?" before remembering something "Oh! right! Introductions!"
The short man puts out his hand and says "Basic thing you need to know: I'm a god."
"A god?"
"Yes, a god."
"Well... What sort?"
"General."
"What do you mean?"
The so-called god exclaims with frustration "Not all gods have to specialise on a certain aspect, idiot! We have hobbies as well!"
The man sheepishly answers, "Right. Sorry." To which the god waved it off, saying that it wasn't a problem.
"Um... If you don't mind me asking, why am i on the floor?" The man asks. To which the god retorts, "You haven't tried standing up yet."
With that, the man flustered and quickly started getting up, noticing the ground was white. When he was completely standing, then he realized that they were on the clouds.
"Yeah, a bit weird, isn't it? Especially when you aren't on one of them steel birds." God says with a chuckle.
"Aren't those called aeroplanes?" The man asks, to which the god waves it off, stating simply "Potato, Tomato."
The man looks weirdly at the god, before finally shaking his head and asking "So, why am I here?"
At that, the god became sheepish, "Ah. Right. Sorry." He says, starting his explanation, " Basically I was a bit drunk and wanted to hit something with lightning, but I missed and accidentally killed ya." He says, feeling genuinely sorry.
The man stares at the god for a moment, before shrugging and saying "Cool."
...
"Eh?" The god finally says, not expecting such an outcome, "What, this doesn't bother you?" He asks, perplexed as to why the man isn't responding negatively.
"Life was already shit. Needed a change of scenery." The man states, getting another perplexed look from the god.
After another long silence, the god suddenly bellowed out in joyful laughter, "BUA-HA-HA-HA-HA! That's a first time this happened to me!" He states, still jolly from the man's statement, "Someone wanted to die to get a change of scenery! Oh, that sounds like something I would most certainly do, lad!"
After his laughter, he let out a happy sigh. A smile still plastered on his face.
The god turns to look at the man and says, "You know, I would've most likely thrown ya somewhere random where none of the gods bother to look!" But then he shakes his head and says "But Ya made me full-blown laugh out loud, so I'll give ya a gift in the form of whatever you want!" He adds, gesturing his hand towards the man.
"Really?" The man questions, as his eyebrow raised, "Can I request several things?" He asks, earning a raised eyebrow and a sly grin from the god.
"Getting a little greedy, eh?" The god asks, the grin still present. But the man quickly says, "Just hear me out." To which the god nods and shrugs.
"Right. I wish to first of all change how I look." The man asks, "I don't exactly want to look like this... And no, I do not wish to have a muscular body."
The god in question raises an eyebrow and asks, "And what would you want instead?"
"Just look through my head." The man asks, eliciting a sigh from the god.
After a brief pause, the god let out a pleasant hum, "Certainly didn't expect that. Sure, I can make you look like that."
"Thanks. But can I ask something else?" The man says, to which the god replied with a "Go ahead".
"I'd like to know where I would end up?" The man asks, getting an surprised "Right" from the god.
"Right. Right..." The god repeats, stroking their beard in thought, "Right, right, right. Your place..." Then he shrugs and tells the man outright, "Well, I was thinking of just throwing you in one of those worlds that we consider basically as a litter bin. Us gods just not visiting such places or sanction them off and such."
The man deadpans at this, saying "Thanks for the honesty."
"Well, unless you want to do some fine explaining in my stead on why a random idiot appeared in their personal project, be my guest." The god retorts, annoyed by the man being picky.
"Fair point, but could you tell me some of the worlds?" The man asks, understanding what the god meant.
"Nah, too tired for that. I'll just send ya to the..." The god pauses for a moment, before looking away with a hand on their chin "Who were their names? They called themselves the brother gods or some idiotic bollocks." Before shrugging and saying "Oh, don't care."
The man meanwhile had listened to what god has said, and made a few assumption in his mind. Taking notes, he considers his next requests. "Alright." He starts, "What about giving me a power?"
The god raises an eyebrow, "A power? What for?"
"Well, I don't exactly wish to die early, now do I?" The man retorts, but the god waves it off.
"I can just kick you there and make it so you won't be my problem." The god says to the man, which causes a slight look of shock on the man's face.
After a pause of surprised silence, the man nods, "Fair..." Then frowns, "But would you please hear me out?" Causing the god to sigh.
"Fine, lad." The god relents, "I'll listen out on what you wish for."
The man nods in appreciation, "Thank you god... I wish to b-"
- Present Day -
The old man shook his head, stopping himself from thinking about such old memories.
Instead, he starts reliving his other memories, from ever since he got here...
- 30 years ago -
"-, Come up here and take your medal for your contributions to the kingdom as a whole!" A man in a suit says, on a stage and infront of an audience.
A man with a plain suit stands up from the crowd, a small shaved beard om their face and messy hair.
They walked up to the stage, next to the announcer, all the while the crowd kept cheering.
When the crowd finally quietens, the announcer begins listing the man's achievements: "This man right here, had managed to help in the infrastructural complexity of the Kingdom of Vale! And they took in a major part of the creation of Mountain Glenn! They even collaborated with the scientists in Atlas and Vale alike, and helped improve the security and forces to fight against grimm!" The announcer then gestures towards the man, "Give a round of applause for this man's efforts!"
The audience bursts into cheers and clapping, to which the man responds by bowing. Then he looks at the announcer, who is giving a forced smile and hands over the medal to the man.
The man puts the medal on and bows again, before standing up and prematurely exiting.
The man walks back into the crowd, and the announcer continues, "Now up next is the man who had helped in naval logistics for the longest time, providing designs capable of withstanding more dangerous grimm-"
- Present Day -
Spruce shakes his head again, appearing closer to the ground now. He can see the ground being a forest, consisting of green trees and more
"Blasted-, I'm about to die in such a way? Made such an impact to the world where they will forget about me in the future? Real idiotic." He mutters to himself, annoyed by the fact.
- 20 years ago -
"Under the council's command, I am now the mayor of this town." A large overweight man says, "And you folks need to understand that I do not tolerate disobedience."
"What?!" An elderly woman yells, "But what about the war?! What about the reason we, as the people, fought-?!" But they were soon silenced by the fat man by just shooting.
"As I said. You are not allowed to disobey me. In the event that you leave my town, I will send bandits and hitmen to kill you." The fat man states, his voice not wavering, "We will now rename this town Hawksville, in the name of... Me."
- Present day -
Spruce lets out a snort, remembering the day the town became dictated by some council member's younger brother.
And in a moment, the ground came suddenly up close, the trees being just there and-...
A/N: Sorry for being inactive. It's just that My want to write is at an all-time low. But I do still have updates for several stories in the making. hopefully I will update soon.
