Buddy frowned, and sighed long, the fire going out of his eyes just then.
"No, Little Flower..." he answered. "Not in a loooong time... not since I lost my Beautiful Flower... ahh, Catori..."
Jr. pouted and looked at the floor, picking at his potatoes and liver and onions blankly.
"I still have nightmares sometimes, Pa..." he mumbled.
"Me too, son..." Buddy admitted quietly, reaching out and patting Jr tenderly on the arm. "Me too..."
Greg's face darkened. He hadn't heard about Catori being gone. From the looks of Buddy's and Jr.'s reactions though, the best time to ask would be after dinner, when he and Buudy would probably go out on the porch and drink to good times. "So, Lilly, where's Ben? It seems like yesterday he was a love struck puppy in that store we stopped at."
"He's out doing a store delivery. He should be back soon though. Ben always thinks we should deliever presents to the customers personally. Always loves to please them though," said Lily as she took a long swig from her tea cup. Putting it down she thoughtfully put her next question into careful words. "I'm sorry about Catori."
"Mother? Maybe that's not the best question. He might be upset about it or something. You know," hissed Elizabeth into mother's ear with a vigouous voice. "I'm Little Flower eh?" This time she raised her voice and looked at Buddy thoughtfully.
(( I don't know... I really thought the thread was dead... now, we scramble... probably New Hope, if I had to guess... I'll work it out as we go along, probably do some flashback RPing if the rest of us keep posting... the only reason I killed off Catori/Tela is because she's been MIA for awhile now... now it's 15 years later than when the story started, and, if we follow the story as I invented in the final 'story post' on page 49, we know Luis and Nat were dead, or at least presumed dead, in the raid on the CUR Diamond Mine we all know and hate...
other than that, I dunno what's going to happen... we'll see...
I'd say we're back in New Hope, years after Buddy has retired from his post as Law Man, and its 1880s now, rail is coming thru Texas, and the Old West is now dying along with Buddy and the rest of the Renegades...
we can still go back and RP, in the form of BedTime Stories though, or something, if there's still interest... I can work around most anything, as long as I have other players and characters to interact with== and even sometimes when I DON'T have other players!! 😄
I write, that's what I do! sure, probably nothing great, and doesn't hold up or hold interest, but this was A BLAST, as far as it went, and as far as it goes!!!
good job kids! 🙂 ))
~Spike, the story ended on page 49, with the wrap up I did after it seemed like 3 or 4 days had passed with very few posts from anyone... I figured school was out or whatever, people had lives and summer plans and it was over and done... yuna, you and Jay posted some, after that end post, yuna invented a new character, lily's 14 year old daughter so we moved 15 years into the future now, to deal with that new character... I think the thread is dead, even if there's lots of story left to tell, because of the way the Buddy/Catori story is up in the air, and tela hasn't been around lately...
but, if we continue, and go back in flashbacks and tell more stories up to and after Catori's death, we can keep going, if everyone else is up for it... just waiting to hear from whoever else is still interested, or if anyone and everyone wants to try to set up a Hosted Version of this same Western Theme RP?? let me know...~
((whaaa...? I DIED? When did that happen? Ok I'm just gonna be not dead now, n'kay?))
Luis and Nat were camped out in a small hollow they had dug into the side of the ridge. They had become good friends back in New Hope, and when they had nearly died in the raid so long ago, Nat swore a life-debt to Luis, and from then the two were like brothers.
The Rockies loomed quietly in the distance, backlit by the sun setting behind them. They had tried running a ranch, but found quickly that people didn't want to buy from them, untrustworthy mongrels as they were. So they had taken up a life of wandering, and were headed now for the mountains, where they sought to become trappers and make some money that way.
~K, I'll do a flashback. Alot of the things I do for a while will be flashbacks, which I'll put in italics~
Leo had been sitting in his cell, as he had done for the two other days since he had been imprisioned. His hands were cuffed together, and his face was once more covered in stubble. He got up and walked to the cell bars. The sherriff was sitting in his chair writing some things down on a sheet of paper.
"Sherriff, could I please have a glass of water?" Leo asked.
The sherriff got up and grabbed a glass and filled it with what seemed like water, albeit a bit dirty. He then walked over to the cell. As he did, and as Leo reached out for the water someone slammed open the sherriffs doors and shot at the sherriff. Leo had the time to shove the sherriff out of the way and jump back. The bullet hit the cell door and it swung open. Before another shot could get out Leo had leapt from his cell and shoved the chains on his cuffed hands against the assassins throat, and him against the wall. The assassin soon fell down dead. Taking a quick look outside Leo saw more men. Quick uncuff me...and hand me my stuff. He pleaded with the sherriff who was just getting up.
After dinner and such, Greg opened up the floor for one of Buddy's stories, as he had done countless times before for the towns kids when they had first arrived in New Hope. "So Buddy, how is the old ass doing? It healed ok didn't it." He saw the kids eyes brighten at the sound of the story, and chuckled. "Why don't you remind me of how exatly it happened. I'm loosing my memory in my old age." Greg was only 48, but hey, to the kids he must have looked like an old geezer. "Or would you like me to tell it?"
"Welp..." Buddy leaned back in his chair and undid his belt, like he always did after dinner before settling in for a story. "...as I recall, this particular injury came about as a result of what became known as the 'Second Great Jail Break' in New Hope history, long about 15 years ago or so..."
It started when the Blue Bandanna Bandits came swarming into town, gunning for some young upstart rebel from their crew, name o' Leroy... no, Leon... LEO! That's it! Leo 'The Lion'... the meanest, baddest, ugliest cuss of a sumb!tch you ever did set your eyes on... next to Mexicans and most Indians, that is..."
The kids squealed with excitement, and especially over the way Buddy sprinkled 'colorful language' in all of his stories.
"We was all just arriving back into town after my Flower had recovered from a dreadful bout with fever, as the jail-break happened...."
~NOTE: No need to ITALICIZE flashbacks any more folks, since we're all flashing back again now... just be sure to denote if you're talking about 15 years in the future again, even though that story isn't much of a story any more either.. 🙂 ~
~Oh, and try to remember that PAGE 49 sorta sets a history of things to come, with Luis and Nat settling in at the Diamond Mine and being looted and raided and presumed killed there at some point, Buddy, Leo and Greg becoming Law Men in New Hope, and such...
so there is some sort of goals and history to match up to when we step back into FLASHBACK MODE now... PAGE 49... read it, live it, learn it, love it! 😉
(( well, I missed you! Buddy needs his Flower!!! ))
"I had to get Catori out of the Comanche camp, when the Army came gunning for ol' Buddy Reno and his Renegades..." Buddy's story began.
"It was up to Catori to leave though...
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"I love you, Flower!" Buddy cried, kissing Catori on the cheek. "The Army is coming, and Jericho will slaughter the tribe, to get to me! If you stay, I stay... but, if we stay, we will die! Please, Catori... I've lost so much already, I don't want to lose you... I... I want to take you away from all this death and sadness. I want... I want to marry you, to have you as my wife forever! Please?!"
he was anxious, but calm as he could be given that the Army was closing in...
Greg watched the two and nodded. That was what he had felt, but it was taken away. As long as he was involved, Greg wouldn't let this end. "I'd love to sit here and watch this, but the Army is coming, and if we don't go now, God knows what will happen." He jumped into his horses saddle and turned him away from the camp. "Reno's Renagades ride again, am I right?" he said with a slight smile.
And ride they did! Buddy scooped up his sick precious Flower and carried her quickly to his horse, passing her to Greg just long enough to mount up and accept her back in his arms again. If it was up to him, he would never let her out of his arms again...
The Army roared in and ransacked the Comanche camp, but Buddy, Greg and Catori never looked back as they broke for the setting sun, heading west, toward New Hope, and whatever life the future held for them...
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The kids cheered the excitement and romance, and Buddy smiled.
"It wasn't all gum drops and rainbows, kids..." he got serious a moment, but only a moment. "But, it sure was sweet for this old man to hold his Beautiful Flower again... sure beats getting shot in the backside too, but we're still getting to that..."
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