Zarp's History
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
All in internal monologue form!
So here's how this works.
I came to Paragon in like... 2006? Earlier maybe? I was just kinda yanked out of my homeworld by a ritual someone on Earth did.
This is a collection of all the stuff I wrote - Err... I mean THOUGHT UP when I first got here. If you want to see what I'm up to these days, just go here.
And if you're wondering, "Why is he thinking he WROTE this stuff?" or "What does he mean 'go here'?"... Stop being such a smart ass!
Here we go.
Contents |
Preface
I'm not from here. My own world is called Kel'sheeria. Planet, dimension, realm, call it whatever you want. We called 'em planes, and I'll continue to do so. Earth is a little messed up, but I'm managing.
The Neverenders
Ok, ow? I'm walking out of my inn room and then I get hit by something I'm told is a "car". What the hells? So I'm figuring I've plane-hopped to this bizzare place for gods know why. It's like the worst practical joke EVER.
I know I've only been here a few days, so maybe it wasn't in by best judgement to hook up with the Neverenders... but have you SEEN Giga Gal?! Yowza.
Ahem. Anyway. They've got an air ship, which strikes yours truely as being great. It's not like the ones back home in the slightest though. Still, I'm meeting a lot of people so I guess I'm on the right track. There's guys like Chase and Volo who are an absolute blast, while some high-up in The Zenvious Foundation is helping me with my little with my dimensional-misplacement.
It's weird. I'm getting all my help from these Foundation folk, but I'm a part of the Neverenders... Aw well. Let the good times roll.
Kavatsva
After communing with my ancestors, I'm a draconian, we do that, they gave me a little bit of a riddle. Wings of dread, scales of past, above red seas, you'll ask your last.
With a little help from the Selfless Shield and others, they suggested I check out Bloody Bay. There I was, coasting around aimlessly and complaining about how vague the spirits were when it hit me. No, like REALLY hit me. The same way a train hits you.
Wings of dread, scales of past. A draconian, just like me. Kurik Ghent'kavat. Thousands of years ago on Kel'sheeria there was this MASSIVE war that nearly tore apart the entire plane. The overwhelming god-like force that started it all had a few generals that he personally blessed and trained. Kurik Ghent'Kavat was one of them. Some of them died in the war, others had to be sealed away, and a few banished to other planes. What are the odds. Kurik got banished to Earth.
Balls.
Here I am a couple hours later in the medbay of The Zenvious Foundation. I'm lucky to be alive. Ugh. Seems the only one that remembered that Kurik referred to me by "Kavatsva" is this Iggy guy. I'll have to keep that under wraps.
Yasuda
All at once, it hits the fan.
I become an officer in the Neverenders and realized that it means dick-all. The chain of command means nothing, ESPECIALLY now that Giga Gal has dissapeared. What a time. Right when that Dragonberry girl goes missing.
Dragonberry, or as I like to call her, Slugger, is a weird girl but I like her a lot. She gets kidnapped and held for ransom. HUGE gaggle of people go to save her, and chief among our opponents is Masume Yasuda.
This guy is one of the three Neverender leaders. Giga's missing, and I haven't even MET Graff. So maybe Yasuda was trying to teach us the kind of "always be prepared" lesson? If he did, he risked too many people to do it. Broke the one and ONLY rule he laid down at our ONLY meeting! "Neverenders don't fight Neverenders"!
I met Graff. Told him that Yasuda can't get away with what he did. He said Yasuda has friends in the Neverenders and all that, that he wasn't about to start a civil war over it... Ok. I will.
Everything I heard about him suggested I was about to get my ass handed to me, and boy did I ever. I went in knowing I would get smoked, and I did... But it was never about winning.
Turns out Yasuda was under some sort of curse. Made him increasingly dillusional and hostile. Yeah, you say I should have left him alone NOW, but all we had back then was him kicking our ass and telling us to leave him alone.
It all boiled over. Yasuda is stable. I'm done with it. It's like herding cats. Joining up with The Zenvious Foundation.
My First Day
I made officer. Quickly, so I'm told. Well... Good. Even better is that it MEANS something here.
A lot of things were looking up. Romance with Faith, progressing through ranks... Everything looked GOOD. Suppose that made the fall even harder on my first day.
First day as an officer, and I need to lead a rescue team. A Foundation hero, going by Steel Beetle, got kidnapped by Barakku. Apparently Barakku's got history with The Foundation. I don't particularly care about that history though. I was the ranker at the time, so that put me in charge.
I'll spare you the details, but Steel Beetle is dead. This hits a little close to home for me. I don't think anyone realizes why I'm so shook up over this, everyone knows I didn't know him. That's fair. How could they know? It's not like they know draconians. Not like anyone really know what I am.
Oh, wow. That gave me chills.
The Price You Pay
Vagary, gods bless her, just had me undone. I care about her, a lot. Too much.
She has a psychic... Problem. Me and Helen have been told we've got some part we're to play. Kind of like it's destined, but destined because it's what Vagary wants.
I got plenty of warning that something was going to happen, though none of it did me any good. A friend of Vagary's tried to help her out by removing some sort of "psychic block" or something. Sounds like a GREAT idea, right? Removing a block that no one understands in a psion's brain who can't completely control her power and is the battlefield for two forces no one can match. Ugh. Kids.
We had to go into her mind. It was surreal, but it all boils to one point. At the end, in order to draw Vagary out of her own mind we had to leave a piece of ourselves behind. I don't regret doing it, but...
I left a piece of myself in her mind. A piece of my soul. I am no longer a complete spirit. No one understands the gravity of this. No one understands that I'm robbed of an afterlife with my ancestors. With all the draconians I've never known, and with my daughter.
I don't think they CAN understand. Vagary's mom was shaken up when I told her what I had to sacrifice. She's religious, so I guess she's got the closest shot at understanding. But still, no. Humanity never understands the scope of time, how can they? So short-lived. I think eternity is lost on them. I get it. I understand what I've lost.
Superman is Dead
The Cobalt Streak is dead. Shot in the head. Assassinated.
How does a god die? With a custom made bullet from a sniper he never saw. No warning, no build up, just gone. With us one minute, gone the next.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad if Iggy wan't the most powerful person I knew. Or if he wasn't the picture perfect example of "hero". Or if he wasn't my inspiration.
Yeah, I'll say it: I'm not always thrilled to do my job. In fact, there's been more than once where I wanted to quit this hero thing and go back to freelance. But Iggy talked to me. The fact that someone so powerful could be so unyielding and without doubt... That someone could pursue simple justice so tirelessly... That inspired me to keep it up.
Then it's gone. He's gone, and all that's left is questions. If a faceless killer can get him, who else? Is anyone really safe? Is there a point to this work when it can be ended so fast? Who's carrying my bullet? Do I TRY to avoid it? Does kavatsva die with him?
I don't think he felt the same way about me. To be fair, how could he? I'm just... yeah. I must have spent a few hours staring at the invitation to his private wake. Why me? What had I done that no one else did? See? Questions.
What REALLY struck me is how many people felt the same. Not the quantity but the variety. Colton, Kennedy, Bridget, even Zoey. Even with nothing in common, I could see the world coming together in grief.
Most important for me was Blue. She was a new friend and much to my suprise, in a fledgeling relationship with Iggy. I have no idea why, but I invited Blue to be my "plus one" to the wake. I had planned to be alone.
We drove up to Boston and made plans to see the town. I'd never been out of Paragon, see? Checked into the hotel, and... Talked. Except for the wake, we never even left the hotel room. Just.. talked... Yes, ONLY talked! Honest! I mean-... wait, I don't need to justify myself to you. You're just a voice in my head.
Maybe it was all that talking or opening up, and maybe it was Iggy's death, but I've gotten to thinking. How free am I really? How much of my actions are my own, and how much are bound by this place and it's people? Frankie had it right when he said he said you gotta do it your way.
So here I am questioning my place, my beliefs, and where to go from here, and whoops I fell for Blue. That's a little kick in gut, considering Faith and all... but that's how it happened, and I'm not going to deny that.
I'm with Blue now, and I don't think either one of us really know what the hell we're doing. That's honestly a comfort in amongst itself. I'm enjoying this feeling of being lost. Feels like maybe I'm becoming a lot more free. I'm not 100% on my decisions anymore. It's a rush. I don't know if that's a good thing, but...
... At least I'm feeling, right?
There's more to all of this. There always is. I think what really matters is what's to come. I don't know what it is, I just know it's going to be heavy.
Please Stop the Ride. I'd Like to Get Off
I'd been thinking a lot about doing things "my way". My way leads me to the Rogue Isles, going pseudo-freelance. I still want to be a hero, but the downtroden need a hero more. I kept thinking, "could I really do that? What about the risks? What about my responsibilities?"
It stopped being a matter like that, real quick. I ran into Iggy's praetorian. He had a few interesting things to say, the best of which being about some "Arbiter Radcliff" who was working on something topsecret about Iggy... I don't know the details, but that kind of pushed me to get my ass in gear.
What REALLY did it for me, was meeting Iggy... again. More acurately, his ghost. I'll be honest, it was moving. His spirit needed closure, and I can only hope that's what I gave him. He... said he was in love with Blue... I knew they had something going on, but love? That's big. I immedietly started worrying that I was a replacement for him. That maybe, out of respect, I should step away from that. But he had advice I'll take with me for always...
Just be honest with yourself at the end of the day. Not everything should be in my memory.
You might find something of your own in all of it.
I think I saw a lot in Iggy... He wasn't the god I thought he was, but that only made me look up to him more. He made mistakes but he didn't let them define him. I'm going to miss him... He called me "kavatsva" before we went our ways. I told him what it means. I didn't see the harm in it. The only people he's going to tell are the dead, and those are the ones that deserve to know.
This would be a nice place for the story to stop, but it doesn't.
Iggy... Came back, in a sense. Over a year ago he almost died. However his powers work, with his speed energy, he saved a sort of "copy" of himself. His praetorian somehow went to wherever this energy is kept, and knocked the copy out of stasis. So now we have Vintage Iggy... The same man, just with one less year on him. You can figure out what this means.
I'm going to the Isles. I'm going to be a hero the way I want to be, I'm going to figure out what Arbiter Radcliff is up to, and I'm going to track down The Burgundy Streak.
And I'm going to do it My Way.
What Rolls During the Credits
That's it. You're caught up.
"Not a good ending", you're probably thinking. Well... You're right. Because it's not the ending.
Me and Blue lived happily for a while. We eventually got married and moved to Dubai. I traveled, did good work with Vanguard and... explored a few other business ventures, we'll say. She did some good with her friend Kris, who was more or less there through it all.
Vagary and her parents eventually moved to Nepal, and I never really stayed in touch. Never did find out what's happen to Burgundy Streak. Never heard from the Neverenders. Never got that piece of my soul back.
After a year or two, we both came back to Pagon to see what's up... But that didn't last long. I got pulled into my home world of Kel'sheeria, the same way I got pulled onto Earth: unwillingly. I was stuck there for months.
A LOT had changed in my absence... but that's where the history ends, and the rest of the story begins.
