A man with no future, caught in an era of change. A woman, unable to accept her twisted past. So many others living in the present, being swept up by the inevitable march of time. Their lives are all interconnected, and the smallest of events can have the greatest impacts on their lives and their world. Such is the nature of this fated city.
Far in the future, Earth has become uninhabitable for humans, and so a new planet must be found to support life. Great immigrant ships are built to transport most of humanity to a new world, light years away, and life goes on. Several generations are born and die before the ships reach the new planet, Taas, and humanity finds itself at war, that forgotten art, from Old Earth. The alien natives of the planet, zerconiths, fight against the colonists but their bloody war is fruitless. Humanity, ever the destroyer, has claimed this Eden for their own, but of course, there is a cost.
The vast technology of Old Earth, with none to understand it, is lost and discarded in favour of simpler ways, and near the end of the sixth century CE (Colonized Era) humanity is far from fully recovered. The once-enslaved zerconiths, altered over the years into near replicas of humans from specific breeding, live freely alongside them in some regions of the world, especially in New York, a city so named for the Old Earth location where it originated from.
Eric Morris, once hailing from the racist, totalitarian state of London, is one example of how humanity has adapted. In New York's state of near anarchy, he is a contract killer, ending the lives of specific people in the name of other peoples' grudges and suspicion. Though he feels his life will remain stagnant, after a mission to infiltrate the offices of a large business, that begins to change, slowly at first, but inevitably. Eric finds himself caught in a string of events and people across the city, though he doesn't see any connection to himself. He's entirely wrong.
~~~~~
Cool Winds, full title "The Cool Winds Blown", is a novel-in-progress (currently standing at roughly 35,000 words) by Five_X. It's his first work that he's put consistent effort into, and it all happens to be written on the spot, with a general overarching plan in his head for some parts. It's going fairly well, and will be done... when it's done.
Tropes present (or confirmed to be in the story later) in the story so far:
- Arc Number: 17.
- Ax-Crazy: Of all the characters in the story, Fleischmann is the only one who really takes pleasure in murdering people.
- Badass Normal: Eric is the best example of this, but there's also Amber, who has good genetics and extreme training but is otherwise a regular human. Pretty much every non-super character counts, besides those who don't get into combat much.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Amber, the maid.
- Chessmaster: Giorgio, to little surprise, but he's matched by Amber, who ends up being behind nearly everything in the entire story.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Tanya, of course.
- Everyone Looks Sexier if French: Cecile, no doubt, and in the eyes of Eric. "Oh non, je ne suis pas belle!"
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Cecile uses this trope to the max.
- Expy: Amber, a red-haired, amber-eyed maid with a revenge plot, is a confirmed Expy of Kohaku from Tsukihime.
- God Was My Copilot: Dennis, the owner of the pub in South Point, is an omni-powerful, transdimensional being.
- Gratuitous French: Justified with Cecile, since she is French, and likes to speak her native language.
- Healing Factor: A few characters have this.
- Informed Judaism: Averted with Cecile and all of the other named Jewish characters. A good amount of attention is paid to their religion, and it has a strong thematic purpose.
- Meido: Amber.
- Only Known by Initials: A.G., though Eric knows his actual name, but can't tell anyone as a part of their deal.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Sam, and Fleischmann poses as one of these to get near him.
- The Plan: Of all people, Amber pretty much as the plot already planned out in her head...
- Xanatos Speed Chess: ...and adapts to everything that comes into play.
- Sacred First Kiss: Amber takes a huge risk to deliver one to Eric Morris.
- Though that, too, was part of her plan to get rid of Marcus, after he took over when the Director died.
- Snark Knight: Eric, who goes from a regular Deadpan Snarker to this as he becomes more depressed.
- Tsundere: Amber of all people, towards Eric.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Cecile.
- Victorious Childhood Friend: Amber, though she's technically more of a childhood friend of Eric's than Cecile is since she's known him for longer.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Amber/Mel, though Amber herself opts for wearing men's clothes without the Mel persona later on in the story.
