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Bastion App
Player name: Courtney
Age: 17
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
nidorina
Other characters: Aoi Asahina
Character name: Zia
Series: The Bastion
AU info: After the Restore ending, the Bastion's four residents, memories intact, find each other and attempt to stop the Calamity from ever happening, and fail completely. This gets expanded on in the summary!
Summary:
Pre-game history
Bastion plot summary
And so things stood—the Kid had two choices: to take the Bastion and everyone on it far away and leave behind the remnants of the apocalypse, or to turn back the clock and perhaps stop it from ever having happened. Zia practically begged him to evacuate; her happiest memories were of her time on the Bastion, not of the bullying before, the boy who betrayed her, the father she resented but never knew. She couldn't imagine leaving her friends here.
But Kid could, and he chose to start over.
Imagine Zia's surprise when she woke up in her own bed at home, and remembered everything.
She didn't waste any time looking for the others. First chance brought her to Zulf and she found that she wasn't the only one with her memories intact. She brought him to her father and finally got some information about the Mancers out of him. As usual, he was intent on keeping secrets from her, but she was an open book: she told him everything that had happened and everything she knew. Certainly it seemed absurd, but she knew too much for Venn to not believe her, and at that point, there weren't many secrets left to keep.
With the information they'd gathered, they found Rucks. Together, they started to plan. The Calamity was undone, but they were the only ones who could keep history from repeating itself. It wouldn't be easy, but they were going to sabotage the Mancers.
Most of the responsibility fell on Rucks, given his advantageous position as a Caelondian and a Mancer. Zulf, with all of his connections, was in charge of networking and finding allies among the city. There wasn't much that Zia could do—she was a suspicious person with hardly a friend in the world and a boy intent on sabotaging her right on her tail—but there was plenty that her father could do. Much as he might have wanted to keep her out of it all, she'd have nothing of it; she'd been through it all before, and dads will be dads but she was well beyond the point of sheltering. She provided and transferred information. Everything Zulf told her went back to her father when she could see him, and his updates went back to Zulf. It wasn't easy with how rarely her father was around—even less now, if she ever thought it possible, and he was always more tired than he'd ever been before. Despite his absence, with the wall of secrecy out of the way, they'd become closer. They weren't the coziest or most friendliest of families by any means, but it was a start.
As for the sabotage, things went—not quite well enough that they went well, but they went. They did all they could to keep in touch without bringing suspicion on them and delay the Calamity even for a little while longer.
They failed.
Venn was home when the Marshals came, and he was the one who moved to answer the door before they kicked it in. They'd found out.
He told her to run. She'd heard that desperate tone before in another timeline, telling her to get to the den, and before they could get through Venn to her room, she'd grabbed her harp guitar, gone out the window, and fled.
In the streets, she found Zulf with the Marshals on his tail, and he grabbed her and ran. She couldn't stand to just make a break for it—what about Rucks and the Kid and her father, they had to go back, what about the others—but there was no time. Zulf found a hideaway, hopefully just deep enough to keep them safe, had her tucked in there—and then he left. He had to find his fiance.
She was alone. This time it wasn't because there was no one but because her only someones were gone, and she didn't know if they were dead or worse or would ever come back.
It could have been forever that she spent curled up in there, trying to keep herself calm and figure out what to do. At about the same time she made up her mind to leave and try to find someone, anyone, she felt a dull, distant quaking.
The impact knocked her out cold when it finally came to her. She was safe, but not that cushioned.
She woke up. The girl came up for air. And she saw the Calamity all around her.
Again.
Zia's kind to absolutely everyone and everything that hasn't given her a reason not to be, and even then, she tends to be sympathetic. This trait is more obvious around anything that's not a person—she raised all of the pets on the Bastion the first time around, hatched the eggs of creatures no one thought could be tamed and one thought to be a prehistoric monster of legend, and nurtured them into cute and loved companions. But she's friendly with people, too, just not so blatantly. Really, she likes people, they just intimidate her. She's shy—it makes sense given how poorly she's always been treated, and even more so now that the Bastion is so much fuller than she's used to, and she's at least partly to blame.
Still, it's astounding that she still wants anything to do with anyone, much less that she treats everyone so warmly. The past hurt, but she's endured it and moved on. She focuses on the future and where she can go instead of where she's been.
Resilience doesn't make her invincible, though. After a lifetime of mistreatment and having her kindness taken advantage of, eventually ruining her and her family, it's only natural that she doesn't always trust people. She's glad to be sweet and happy, sure, but it's easy to be nice without handing herself over. If it's best for her, she'll go along with things: even though the Kid was a total stranger, she accepted his offer to bring her to the Bastion because she couldn't get into much worse of a situation than being surrounded by monsters in the middle of the Skyway. She left with Zulf to the Terminals at his request, but her primary motivation was finding out what had happened to her people, the Ura.
Before she went, Zia left her harp guitar behind at the Bastion. It's still her most prized possession; she's never seen without it. Back at the Bastion, Rucks and Kid assumed, incorrectly, that she'd been taken unwillingly, that she'd never leave the instrument behind unless she was forced. So the Kid set out to find her and bring her back. Afterwards, Rucks's narration asks, "Sure you didn't drop that twangy thing on purpose? Just to see if he'd go after you?" Having the Kid come rescue her was a sort of test. Knowing how far he'd go for her safety proved to Zia that she could absolutely trust him.
The trip wasn't an easy one: it took a week and the way there was fraught with vengeful Ura soldiers shooting to kill, and Zia knew it. Still, she arranged things so that Kid would be likely to go after her. Although she certainly doesn't aim or go out of her way to be, Zia has the capacity to be manipulative. It's not that she's some cunning mastermind. Zia's just smart. She has a good intuitive sense about the people and the events going on around her.
Of course, the aforementioned journey wasn't exactly completely comfortable for her, either. She'd wanted to talk Zulf and the other Ura out of their mindless revenge and help them back on the Bastion (even after they laid siege to it; she sympathizes with their motivations and wants to forgive them), but was branded a traitor for it. It was a risk to go and stay there, but her curiosity about the state of her people took priority. She's always seeking knowledge because everything (especially everything pertaining to the arts) is so interesting, even (especially) the dangerous things. Her attitude tends to be one of, "why not"—in one DLC, she encourages the Kid to turn on the foreign and futuristic machine (the Sentry Turret, it turns out) that he finds because "the worst that could happen already did." If the potential to discover something new and interesting is there, she's always willing to take the chance for it.
Powers: None; just a lovely singing voice and the ability to make a mean stew.
Entry: She'll need a hand outta there.
Age: 17
Contact:
Other characters: Aoi Asahina
Character name: Zia
Series: The Bastion
AU info: After the Restore ending, the Bastion's four residents, memories intact, find each other and attempt to stop the Calamity from ever happening, and fail completely. This gets expanded on in the summary!
Summary:
Pre-game history
Bastion plot summary
And so things stood—the Kid had two choices: to take the Bastion and everyone on it far away and leave behind the remnants of the apocalypse, or to turn back the clock and perhaps stop it from ever having happened. Zia practically begged him to evacuate; her happiest memories were of her time on the Bastion, not of the bullying before, the boy who betrayed her, the father she resented but never knew. She couldn't imagine leaving her friends here.
But Kid could, and he chose to start over.
Imagine Zia's surprise when she woke up in her own bed at home, and remembered everything.
She didn't waste any time looking for the others. First chance brought her to Zulf and she found that she wasn't the only one with her memories intact. She brought him to her father and finally got some information about the Mancers out of him. As usual, he was intent on keeping secrets from her, but she was an open book: she told him everything that had happened and everything she knew. Certainly it seemed absurd, but she knew too much for Venn to not believe her, and at that point, there weren't many secrets left to keep.
With the information they'd gathered, they found Rucks. Together, they started to plan. The Calamity was undone, but they were the only ones who could keep history from repeating itself. It wouldn't be easy, but they were going to sabotage the Mancers.
Most of the responsibility fell on Rucks, given his advantageous position as a Caelondian and a Mancer. Zulf, with all of his connections, was in charge of networking and finding allies among the city. There wasn't much that Zia could do—she was a suspicious person with hardly a friend in the world and a boy intent on sabotaging her right on her tail—but there was plenty that her father could do. Much as he might have wanted to keep her out of it all, she'd have nothing of it; she'd been through it all before, and dads will be dads but she was well beyond the point of sheltering. She provided and transferred information. Everything Zulf told her went back to her father when she could see him, and his updates went back to Zulf. It wasn't easy with how rarely her father was around—even less now, if she ever thought it possible, and he was always more tired than he'd ever been before. Despite his absence, with the wall of secrecy out of the way, they'd become closer. They weren't the coziest or most friendliest of families by any means, but it was a start.
As for the sabotage, things went—not quite well enough that they went well, but they went. They did all they could to keep in touch without bringing suspicion on them and delay the Calamity even for a little while longer.
They failed.
Venn was home when the Marshals came, and he was the one who moved to answer the door before they kicked it in. They'd found out.
He told her to run. She'd heard that desperate tone before in another timeline, telling her to get to the den, and before they could get through Venn to her room, she'd grabbed her harp guitar, gone out the window, and fled.
In the streets, she found Zulf with the Marshals on his tail, and he grabbed her and ran. She couldn't stand to just make a break for it—what about Rucks and the Kid and her father, they had to go back, what about the others—but there was no time. Zulf found a hideaway, hopefully just deep enough to keep them safe, had her tucked in there—and then he left. He had to find his fiance.
She was alone. This time it wasn't because there was no one but because her only someones were gone, and she didn't know if they were dead or worse or would ever come back.
It could have been forever that she spent curled up in there, trying to keep herself calm and figure out what to do. At about the same time she made up her mind to leave and try to find someone, anyone, she felt a dull, distant quaking.
The impact knocked her out cold when it finally came to her. She was safe, but not that cushioned.
She woke up. The girl came up for air. And she saw the Calamity all around her.
Again.
Zia's kind to absolutely everyone and everything that hasn't given her a reason not to be, and even then, she tends to be sympathetic. This trait is more obvious around anything that's not a person—she raised all of the pets on the Bastion the first time around, hatched the eggs of creatures no one thought could be tamed and one thought to be a prehistoric monster of legend, and nurtured them into cute and loved companions. But she's friendly with people, too, just not so blatantly. Really, she likes people, they just intimidate her. She's shy—it makes sense given how poorly she's always been treated, and even more so now that the Bastion is so much fuller than she's used to, and she's at least partly to blame.
Still, it's astounding that she still wants anything to do with anyone, much less that she treats everyone so warmly. The past hurt, but she's endured it and moved on. She focuses on the future and where she can go instead of where she's been.
Resilience doesn't make her invincible, though. After a lifetime of mistreatment and having her kindness taken advantage of, eventually ruining her and her family, it's only natural that she doesn't always trust people. She's glad to be sweet and happy, sure, but it's easy to be nice without handing herself over. If it's best for her, she'll go along with things: even though the Kid was a total stranger, she accepted his offer to bring her to the Bastion because she couldn't get into much worse of a situation than being surrounded by monsters in the middle of the Skyway. She left with Zulf to the Terminals at his request, but her primary motivation was finding out what had happened to her people, the Ura.
Before she went, Zia left her harp guitar behind at the Bastion. It's still her most prized possession; she's never seen without it. Back at the Bastion, Rucks and Kid assumed, incorrectly, that she'd been taken unwillingly, that she'd never leave the instrument behind unless she was forced. So the Kid set out to find her and bring her back. Afterwards, Rucks's narration asks, "Sure you didn't drop that twangy thing on purpose? Just to see if he'd go after you?" Having the Kid come rescue her was a sort of test. Knowing how far he'd go for her safety proved to Zia that she could absolutely trust him.
The trip wasn't an easy one: it took a week and the way there was fraught with vengeful Ura soldiers shooting to kill, and Zia knew it. Still, she arranged things so that Kid would be likely to go after her. Although she certainly doesn't aim or go out of her way to be, Zia has the capacity to be manipulative. It's not that she's some cunning mastermind. Zia's just smart. She has a good intuitive sense about the people and the events going on around her.
Of course, the aforementioned journey wasn't exactly completely comfortable for her, either. She'd wanted to talk Zulf and the other Ura out of their mindless revenge and help them back on the Bastion (even after they laid siege to it; she sympathizes with their motivations and wants to forgive them), but was branded a traitor for it. It was a risk to go and stay there, but her curiosity about the state of her people took priority. She's always seeking knowledge because everything (especially everything pertaining to the arts) is so interesting, even (especially) the dangerous things. Her attitude tends to be one of, "why not"—in one DLC, she encourages the Kid to turn on the foreign and futuristic machine (the Sentry Turret, it turns out) that he finds because "the worst that could happen already did." If the potential to discover something new and interesting is there, she's always willing to take the chance for it.
Powers: None; just a lovely singing voice and the ability to make a mean stew.
Entry: She'll need a hand outta there.