Talk:Seven

James McGuire grew up on a farm in southern England near Fareham. He was a big kid; at age 14 he was already 6 feet tall and muscular from work at the farm. He lied and said he was 16, and joined up in the army - he was sent to France to fight in the war in 1914. He fought in the trenches and watched everyone he knew die around himself, but he managed to survive despite being wounded several times. When the war was over, he was hardened and scarred and had killed so much he had the thousand-yard-stare at age 18.

Knowing no other life, he continued in army and went on to fight on Ireland in the indepence war. He caught the attention of superior officers and was put under training in an elite unit.

He met a nurse named Mary and the two fell in love; they married in 1925. Their son John was born 1926. But, it wasn't long until James' life caught up with him - he was out on missions a lot, and soon cheated on his wife, the two struggling to have a normal life as an military family. Nevertheless, he cared for them deeply and spoiled his son - everytime he saw him, he was reminded of the dead boys in World War 1, some of which he had killed himself.

He worked his way up, became captain, and continue to lead the special unit on various missions around the world, wherever there was trouble brewing in the colonies, they were sent to deal blows to leaders or vital targets. He fought in the Spanish Civil war for a year, and was gone from his family all that time with only infrequent letters - during that time he cheated on his wife more than once.

World war 2 begins and now James is 39 years old - Mary wants him to retire, his superior officers suggest he could stay in England and train soldiers instead of fighting. He agrees to this, reluctantly - he wants to reconnect with his near estranged boy. But all this changes - his wife and son dies in the blitz in 1940. He requests to rejoin the special unit, at age 39 - there's a mission in Norway he can join, but he's warned it's a suicide mission; he doesn't care.

A unit of 7 men, named after the numbers (James being Seven), goes to Norway to destroy a target. They manage, but they are under pursuit towards the Swedish border. Seven decides to stop and hold off the Germans to let the others escape; he doesn't care any more.

He kills twenty soldiers, and is surrounded and wounded, when The Eternal Strife opens a gate. Beyond it, he sees Mary and his son John, and dazed and wounded as he is, he goes inside.

Trapped inside Arcadia in the Eternal Strife zone, he soon realises his mistake. The realm, a large wild area with moutains and forests, is the land of constant war, led by the gentry only known by most as Eternal Strife. His only purpose is to fight wars - he pits armies against each other in no discernable pattern, no less than four or five armies at any given time, of hobs and Lost. He 'collects' elite soldiers amongst the humans, lures them in and then puts them in environments where they have to fight to survive.

Seven, as he now called himself, joined the Forest Army - it consisted of mostly Beasts, but also a few ogres or elementals. With his combat skills, it wasn't long until he joined the Direwolves, and slowly but steadily he turned into a Beast himself, a giant black wolf that was gaining notoriety in the realm. While the others in the unit died, new ones joining, he just kept on and on. When asked why he didn't die, he shrugged and said; "Because I don't care."

In truth, he cared somewhat. He cared about dealing a blow to the enemy, which was his only relief. He cared about the kill. The only calmness he felt was when fighting. And the years went on, and soon he had no recollection of ever having been human - The Eternal Strife was his life. War was the only point to anything. Surviving to fight the next day, was the goal.

One fated event, one person, changed all this. Eternal Strife took soldiers from all sorts of environments, including gang violence; one evening, a young boy of 14 entered a gate that Eternal Strife opened for him. Simon, having just joined a gang that his older brother also belonged to, had been in his first ever gang shooting and had ran - right into the Eternal Strife. He came to the Forest and the Direwolves found him. Seven, seeing the boy, first wanted them to leave him behind - he was too weak. Until Simon looked at him and said, with a choked voice; "I just want to go home to my mom."

Something snapped then. Memories came rushing back to Seven - of his wife, his own son who died at fourteen. Of the young boys he'd killed in the wars over the years. He knew then, he had to get Simon out of there somehow. That he couldn't help himself any longer, but that he could help him.

There was no known way out of The Eternal Strife - but around the border of the lands was a void. It was said that if you jumped off, you disappeared and died in agony. The realm did not seem to be connected to anything else, floating on its own in 'space'.

Seven kept the boy close to himself - it caused problems for himself and the unit. They had to protect Simon in every attack and there was grumblings about it; some started to suggest they should just leave him. Seven refused.

It almost cost him and the unit their lives, when cornered near the edge of the forest by a larger force of near a hundred Lost and Hobs from the Mountain area; ogres, most of them. This happened because Simon couldn't run fast enough to get back to their fortress - they'd slowed down to drag him along, wounded, all of them. Without Simon, they would've made it back. Now they faced the option of fighting to the death or... Jumping off the edge.

So, they jumped. Seven held on to Simon as they plummeted...

Seven and Simon woke up roughly; they came out in the sea near the shores of Maine. They made it to land. It was the year 2017... Seven had been in the Eternal Strife for 77 years. Simon, only a few months - he wasn't even changed yet, but touched by fairy enough he could see the Lost for what they are.

Seven had to rely in Simon to navigate the two towards New York; Simon was going to go home. More animal than human, Seven avoided humans and only came into contact with it when he was breaking into houses to steal food for the two, or find themselves clothes. Simon, who could've just called his mom and been picked up, didn't want to leave Seven, so the two made their way to the big city.

Simon, coming to the house he grew up in, told Seven to wait while he went to talk to his mom. When his mother opened, and saw her son, the two had a tearfilled reuinion; Simon had a story of having ran away to avoid the gang.

Seven watched the reunion from the shadows further down the street. He wanted to go over, and he almost did - then he saw his own claws and his reflection in a window. There was still blood on his claws. And he realised, without a doubt, that there was still a war to be fought - just a different one. Retirement wasn't there,, yet. Though his memories of The Eternal Strife are already fading, he remembers the fighting - and that he is a soldier.

Without saying anything, he slunk off into the night, and when Simon turned to call him to the house, he was already long gone.

Since then, Seven has slowly made his way towards Vermont, hunting in the wilds, living more like a Beast than a human. How will Tamarack Falls welcome him?