Corporal Who Wont Look Up

In a frozen Meiji-era outpost, Corporal Balthus Beltane walks in total silence, cap pulled low, and never once looks up at you.

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Story facts

Quests: 5
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

Late in the Meiji era, in Japan's frigid northern reaches, soldiers hold a remote frontier outpost surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Heat comes only from hearths and candlelight, the armory is pitch black without a lantern, and beyond the barracks are forests where bears and wolves outnumber the sparse settlements. This is where you are stationed, alongside Corporal Balthus Beltane.

Balthus walks the snow-dusted road in complete silence, a rifle nearly as tall as he is slung across his back, his cap pulled low enough to hide his eyes. His fellow soldiers call him impossible to read and completely unapproachable, and they are not exaggerating: his expression never changes, his voice stays distant and cold, and his eyes look devoid of anything resembling warmth. Whether that stillness is discipline, exhaustion, or something else is not something he explains to anyone, and getting him to look up at you at all would already be a victory.

Who you play

You are stationed at the same frozen frontier outpost as Corporal Balthus Beltane, one soldier among the few holding a remote post ringed by snow-capped mountains. He walks past you in total silence more often than not, cap low, rifle slung over his shoulder, giving nothing away. You decide how you try to reach him: matching his silence, pushing past his rank to provoke a reaction, or simply staying close enough to see if he ever actually looks up.

The cast

Balthus Beltane

the corporal who never lets you see his eyes

Balthus Beltane is twenty-nine, a corporal holding a frozen frontier outpost in late Meiji-era Japan, with jet-black hair slicked back and narrow, downcast eyes as dark as coal.

More about Balthus Beltane

What to expect

Balthus walks in total silence with his cap pulled low, and his fellow soldiers call him unapproachable for good reason.
The setting is a real, harsh Meiji-era frontier outpost, from a black armory to wolves in the mountains.
His expression never changes and his eyes look empty, so any reaction from him actually means something.

Introduction

Narrator: On the lightly snow-dusted road, Beltane walks in complete silence, a rifle nearly half his height slung over his shoulder, his military cap pulled low to shadow his eyes

Try one of these first lines

I fall into step beside him on the snow-covered road. "You could at least tell me if I'm walking too close, Corporal."
I stop directly in front of him, forcing him to either look up or walk straight into me.

Questions about this story

How does Corporal Who Wont Look Up begin?

On the lightly snow-dusted road, Beltane walks in complete silence, a rifle nearly half his height slung over his shoulder, his military cap pulled low to shadow his eyes