Slice of Life (Jin x Meloli) *

About a month had progressed since the passing of Jin’s father and the young boy found himself within the care of his father’s closest friend. The home he found himself living in was a two bedroom dwelling with common rooms and for the moment, he was sharing a room with his childhood friend, and only friend, Meloli. The house, itself, was much different from the home that he had come from. His house was something constructed by his father in an attempt to replicate relic houses, but the house he was in now seemed a lot stronger and cleaner when compared to what he was used to, as it was a relic home. It wasn’t a happy transitional time or a period of exploration for him. He was quiet, reserved, and generally only did things when he was interacted with. At moments, he would just sit by himself and nod or shake his head, seemingly paying attention to something almost as if someone were talking to him.

One such day, after sunrise, Jin would be lying on his back with his eyes open in the bed that was made for him within the first few days of him staying with his new family. His gaze would be up, looking at the ceiling, not really doing anything in particular. He had woken up a few minutes prior, but hadn’t gotten out of bed yet. Since the sun was already up, that meant that Meloli was probably already awake. For the moment he didn’t really do anything other than think about what he should do to start off the day, or what to do at all today. Currently he was just living with no real purpose or objective to fulfill.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 311

There is noise that normally indicates that Meloli had awoken. As she enters into the room and speaks, Jin’s head tilts along the side of the bed and looks towards her direction, still lying down. The sound of breakfast seemed a good idea to him; he did like to eat food since it had a tendency of tasting good. Then it was mentioned about the playing; he remembered his one job as a child. The father’s job was to hunt, the mother’s job was to cook and he and Meloli’s job was to play outside. Still, it was good since it kept him from becoming too frail of a boy. Since she was here and happy, Jin was at least a little conscious of the fact that he shouldn’t bring her down. Slowly he pulls himself out of bed and brings his feet to the floor. While moving, he feels something wet and stands to find that his pants were soaked. The turns and looks to the bed to realize that it was wet and remembers that he had a dream that he woke up and went to the bathroom last night; those tricky dreams. “Oh,” he says, mostly just making the connection that he wet the bed. Because his pants were dirty he pulls them down and steps out of them while she fetches her shoes. He would have to apologize to the mother again. He tosses the pants onto the bed and goes to change as he answers “okay” to the plead to hurry up. After changing into a new pair of pants, he balls up the sheets and his old pants in the blanket and drags it along the floor to head to the dinner table and to give to the mother to take care of unless Meloli knew what to do with them.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 313 / 624

Jin’s gaze follows the pointed finger to the pile of dirty clothing; he didn’t really feel bad about it, more indifferent. Still, he realizes with the point that he was going the wrong way. In their relationship, Meloli was often the one to lead so he just trusted that she was always right and that added to the dynamics of their friendship. Jin redirects his movements to the pile of clothing to be picked up later before making the mistake of walking out of the door and presenting it to the mother. He places the dirty garments there on the floor for and leaves them there turning his attention back to his childhood friend. With her giving the finger over the lip, Jin nods and agrees that he wouldn’t tell anyone since there was no reason to and also because Meloli didn’t want to. Internally he knew that it was because she was looking out for him. When it was time to leave the room, he follows the bubbly little girl to the common area where the food would be served. Jin immediately noticed that the food smelled good as he entered into the area. He follows Meloli’s lead to the table where he took his seat next to hers and waited to be served and begin eating.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 236 / 860

After getting to the table, Jin eats from the food that was served to him. While eating, he looks over to Meloli who seemed to really be enthusiastic about eating. The food was good, but he wondered if she just wanted to get it out of the way so that she could drag him outside. Either way, he continued to eat at his own pace. By the time Meloli is excused from the table, Jin is about half way done with his eating. By the time she returns, he is only a little bit further. It comes to the point where Jin looks between Meloli and his plate several times before leaving the unfinished breakfast sitting there as he asks and excuses himself from the table at the same time. From the table, he walks over to where Meloli is waiting for him. There was really nothing that needed to be said, he would follow her because… well, he didn’t know why, but he had a tendency to just go along with whatever she wanted to do. He didn’t have the confidence in himself to lead activities and since she was higher in the ‘family rank’ than he, the one without his own family, was, then he felt that he should do as she says… some times. Looking to her, he saying, “ready” and holds out his hands as if to offer to help her carrying the multiple things of varying purposes.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 254 / 1114

Jin receives the instructions that he is to clean his plate at lunch and gives a lot of acceptance. He didn’t want to make Meloli wait, but it would seem that the decision he had made to go with her first may not have been right. Turning back to the young girl, he receives his allotment of items before progress is made to the door. Carrying the items given to him, Jin wattles out of the door. The full effect of the day’s radiance shines down on him from above and the breeze from the ocean brushes against his body. Outside, the smell of the salt air was more clear than inside. His attention returns to her as she inquires which direction of the beach they would be attending. To clarify, he asks, “oh, digging today?...” He thinks for a moment as he looks left and then right down the span of the beach. He remembered that his old house was in one direction and it wasn’t in the other. Nodding south, in the direction of his former home, he would answer, “let’s go that way…” He begins walking in that direction as his voice trails off slightly; he inquires, “Meloli, just what is treasure?”

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 222 / 1336

Jin’s ears would pick up the sound of the sea in the distance and the sounds of gulls and they glided in the air overhead near the coast. The tranquility is added upon as her definition of treasure comes in. The boy’s head would tilt towards the girl as he took in her words and then looks back forwards. He mouths, “anything you want it to be…” Of course, if there were a treasure that he would want, it would be for his parents to return, but that seemed impossible. He wondered if there was anything else in value that could be found lying around on the sand. Of course, his young mind wouldn’t linger on this for too long. Though he set the current direction he would count on her to find the best spot available. In the meantime of allowing her to find a good place, he says out of the blue in a low tone, “my daddy says that my mommy was his treasure. I wonder if he dug her up from somewhere.” Looking over to the girl, he asks, “if you could have anything in the world, what would it be?”

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 201 / 1537

Jin’s gaze shifts to the area that is pointed out as he sees the peculiar trees merged seemingly as one. It was one of the places we hadn’t dug up yet, so it seemed to make sense to him that it was a good place to start searching for treasure. He gives a nod in understanding what the current objective was and begins to walk in that direction with her. As we walk, he hear her words and give a nodding, “ooh…” in response. Her response made him feel a bit better and good on the inside. In thinking about it and how it made him feel, he came to the thought process that she was about the only thing that made him feel good like that. Her parents tried, but Meloli was without a doubt the best at it. With that feeling, Jin wondered if that was how adventurer’s felt when they found treasure. Looking back to her he asks innocently enough, “so would that make you my treasure? Are we like my mommy and daddy were because you make me happy?” Without defined boundaries of what a family consisted of, Jin would simply ask whenever he was unsure of a relationship.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 201 / 1742

Though it wasn’t visually apparent on his face, Jin felt a warming sensation in his stomach when she spoke to him with those words. A light blush would be the only indication of his feelings as he nods and accepts her words. He was glad that he was better than sparkly rocks since they were pretty. Answering her back, he says, “okay…” agreeing to the terms of him being her treasure as well. In his mind, he knew what this meant. “So…” he searches for clarification, “that means when I get big like your daddy, I’m going to make you a mommy and you’ll have to cook and clean up stuff, right?” The boy figured those were the roles. The daddy found the mommy who found the kids and did things around the house and the daddy went out and hunted and protected the family. His cheek would press against her shoulder in the big hug during this time with his head kind of to the side. He starts to get worried for a moment as he realizes in a soft tone, “I don’t know how to make a house…” He begins to think that he would either have to learn or find one that no one is using. “Oh…” he remembered when they made a sand castle once, “maybe it’s not that hard…” They could live in a sand castle… now things were starting to make sense.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 248 / 1990

After his release from her he embrace, had his hands not been filled with what Meloli had placed in them, his hand would come to the side of his face where the kiss had been planted. Instead that area would be just a little warm. When the question comes about the adventuring and such, Jin’s gaze shifts to the side as he nods “mm” agreeing with the though. It sounded like a good idea to him, but inside a voice reminds him not to get too happy and that there was something that he had to do before making his own family. It was a bit of a downer for the boy, but his lack of emotional range helped him hide it. Moving on from that, Jin squats and sits down the stuff that was in his hands. There seemed to be things that weren’t needed for digging, but they probably would come in use later. He looks around and finds a large stick that was under the tree. He walks over to it and picks it up before walking back over to the pile of stuff and lying it down; it was his sword. He looks to the tree and then to the blanket that was on the ground. He starts to lay it out and flat so that it wouldn’t be crumpled. In an OCD manner, he would arrange the things that they had until orders were received from Meloli on where to do what.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 249 / 2239

Jin looks up as her voice reaches him again. To her question he nods and answers, ”ok” before he realizes that ‘ok’ might not sufficiently answer the question. He clarifies his statement and says “we can dig in the back first.” With the amount of time they could possibly spend looking for treasure, there was a chance they could possibly uproot the tree all together in their search. Stopping what he was currently doing, he walks over to the back of the tree and crouches down at it resting his arms on his knees as he inspects the ground. He pats the ground to see how hard it is before walking over to the shovel and leaning over to pick it up. After getting it, he walks back over to the back of the tree and digs the shovel into the ground there. With a slight grunt, he pulls the earth up from the ground and discards it to the side. He continues this procedure while asking, “why do you think treasure is in the ground? Is it something planted that has to grow or does it die and then people put it there?” Depending on the logic there was a chance that his father could have turned into treasure by now, if things worked that way.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 217 / 2456

The boy’s body and its movements coax little grunts here and there and he continues to break the soil and relocate it with the small shovel as she talks. During this time he is able to get a couple inches into the template of what he hoped to be a nice enough sized hole. With her explanation he understands that there are people called pirates that collect treasure and then bury it on the beach. This was a little confusing to Jin because he couldn’t understand why someone would go and find treasure and then bury it somewhere else. “So…” he begins to try to understand this system, “they go and find treasure and then bury it so someone else can go and find the treasure and then bury it because it makes them happy?” In a way, it seemed to him like a system where everyone shared treasures in some grand game played on a global scale. Of course, with her being the more knowledgeable among them on these things, he would look to her for clarification on his theory. Also for further clarification he asks, “am I digging this right?” He would lean back and let her inspect it before moving on.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 221 / 2677

Of course Jin would move over for her. Since she was the one who made the rules for them, he would oblige her any way she asked. He would shift his body to the side making sure that was enough room for her to fit beside him. Jin’s able to understand a bit more that the Pirates were homeless people who went around finding treasure. Instead of buying homes with the treasure they seemed to enjoy hiding it so that they could come and get it later? Deciding to let the top of pirates drop for now, since he didn’t think that he would be able to understand it, Jin simply gives a nod and answers, “I see.” In that manner he would continue to dig and dig until Meloli’s heart was content. He didn’t actually care whether or not they found anything since he knew that it made her happy and that’s all that seemed to matter to him. From time to time, he would look up at her in somewhat of an admiring manner and then look back to the task at hand before them. After a moment he assures, “if a pirate comes and tries to hurt us for taking his treasure I’ll hit him with that big stick over there, okay? But then we’ll have to run. I’ll protect you.”

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 231 / 2908

A short smile almost comes to the boy’s lip as he hears her words. He settled with a quiet sense of contentment and kept his feelings to himself. His only response is a bashful nod. After digging for a little bit longer, he starts to feel anxious. There was a feeling in his gut that was building up that started to make him suddenly feel uneasy. He searches his heart to attempt to figure out what the issues was. Suddenly, he realizes something as he stands up and says, “hold on one moment.” With that, he gets up, takes a few steps away, de-pants and relieves himself making a golden arc that glistened in the sunlight. He hadn’t gone since he wet the bed and after breakfast, the elixir of gold had built up. He gives a sigh as he makes his little puddle and when he’s down, he leans down and pulls his pants back up before waddling back over to where Meloli was as if nothing had happened. Squatting back down he continues to dig until he hits something hard. There is a short gasp emitted before he uses his hand to dig out the thing that he had found. Using both hands to grasp it, he holds a purple, phallic shaped object in his hands. He blinks for a moment as he thinks that it looks familiar, but it was huge, at least a foot in length. Holding the ribbed length in his hands, he rubs it to brush off the sand before holding it, aiming it towards Meloli and asking, “is this a treasure?”

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 283 / 3191

“Ah, I see,” Jin says as he holds up the object and inspects it, “this came out of the hole so it must be treasure…” He wondered, “I wonder what type of pirate buried this deep here in this hole…” Hearing her last words, he shakes his head, removing that thought from the field of play. There was no way it could be a lollipop, those bulged more at one end. “I don’t think so,” he rejects before clarifying, “I think it’s more like a popsicle.” Of course, he would be referring more to a candy type popsicle rather than an actual ice one. Looking to her he says, “it’s pretty dirty… maybe we should clean it off.” He stands up, holding the thing gingerly in his hands and looks for a water source to clean it with. His eyes then come to the expansive sea that was just off to their side along the coastlines. With that, he begins to jog over in that direction. On reaching the water’s edge, he stops just at where the waves were coming in and lapping upon the shore. Lowering the member into the waters, he allows the water to wash up while using his hand to get most of the sand off of it; it was pretty easy considering. He thinks for a moment, “hey… purple is supposed to be grape, right?” He looks to her, “maybe it’s relic candy that never loses its flavor?”

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 255 / 3446

Just when Jin was ready to try the relic candy for himself, he is stopped when Meloli offers to taste it. He decides that since girls would probably like fruity things better than males who should like meat more, that he would agree to her performing this oral inspection. As she gets into position with her mouth open for his large length, he looks between it and her mouth and wonders if it would fit. He wondered just how big the people’s mouths were in the ancient past. Since it was about double the size of any popsicle he had seen, he figured it must be a deluxe type, of course that was assuming that it was in fact relic candy. Since it was pretty big, he decided that he would have to be careful with it. Wielding it as skillfully as he could, he navigates the purple hardened length to her oral opening and inserts it securely into the confines of her mouth. Of course it might be easier to lick the thing if only a taste was needed, but the little boy in his made it so that he needed to make sure that it at least fit to the back of her through much like a puzzle piece should fit on a board.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 223 / 3669

On realization that he was hurting her, Jin immediately retracts the hardened length having misjudged the entry and sorry for doing so. Something catches his eye, however, when she bleeds from the side of her mouth. Much like someone staring into fire, his eyes remained transfixed on the blood while she spoke about it not tasting good at all. He comes out of this as she mentions that she didn’t think it was relic candy. Holding the erection in his left hand, he walks up to Meloli and wipes whatever tears might be on her cheek with, “I’m sorry, don’t cry.” He moves in closer and says, “hold still.” With that, he mimics what he had seen animals doing in the wild; when they were wounded, they often licked their wounds. His father explained that they did that in order to heal them. So using this logic, he leans in and licks the side of Meloli’s lip. He makes sure to be careful during the process to not rub too hard on the hurt skin, but makes sure to lick it thoroughly before moving back to inspect to make sure he did a good job. Hopefully that would be a little better than nothing.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 221 / 3890

He still felt kind of bad about what happened even if he tried to make it better. With a nod, Jin understood that what he did was a good thing. He allows her to have some space as he listens to the fact that he did something that a mommy and daddy would do; that would automatically set it under the guise of practicing for adulthood, or as children say, ‘play house.’ Jin would make sure that she wanted to continue searching for treasure; but now that they found something and didn’t know what it was, that meant that perhaps maybe they should seek the guidance of an elder. Looking to Meloli in seriousness, Jin asks, “maybe we should take it to your mom? Maybe she’ll know what it is, or maybe even your dad?” Unlike the pirates, Jin wouldn’t want to bury the treasure that he’s found; he would want to see if maybe they could go into town and barter for some candy or something useful. If they knew if it were important or not, that would help in the bartering process. He would wait on the guidance from Meloli to decide how to move and also mention, “if you’re hurt, then we can stop?...”

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 221 / 4111

As it would seem, curiosity would win over the current trauma in this case and Jin would come to expect this type of response from Meloli. She was an adventurer at heart, seemingly, more so than he was. With a nod, he would accept the terms about going back to the hole to look for more stuff. “Okay,” he confirms as he would see the point in continuing rather than going all the way back home. It would make sense to take all of their findings to the mother and father instead of things one at a time; to Jin it seemed more efficient. With that, he would continue holding the phallic object in his hand in making his way back over to the tree area expecting Meloli to follow along with him. Reaching the area, he would deem one of their buckets to be the ‘thing in which treasure is held’ and then move back to the hole that they were crouching at to see if there were anything else left in it. Making it there, he was surprised to see a few more things in said hole. There seemed to be a string of small packets containing something circular within them along with a bottle of some type of liquid that had a picture of fruit on it. “I think we’ve found a lot of treasure,” Jin would comment looking over to Meloli as there were still more things to find.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 253 / 4364

With the treasures steadily being unearthed there was much to put into the bucket where the first object had already been placed. From the looks of things, it seemed as if the two children had really stumbled into a gold mine and that someone had stashed a good amount of stuff here. As Jin continued to dig, he even found a blanket and had some candles wrapped up in it as well as a small egg shaped dong, handcuffs and a small whip. The small whole that they had begun had managed to get much larger than it originally had been by the time they had unearthed everything from it. Jin continued to dig a bit longer to make sure that he hadn’t missed anything. When it looked as if they had unearthed the final object, Jin stands up and dusts off his hands. His knees were caked with sand and grit that had been compacted by his knee touching the ground area. There were trails of dirt and sand on his shirt and all over by now. When he was finished, he sat back on his rear and rested in a leaning back position propped up by his palms. With a sigh, he makes the comment, “we’ve certainly found a lot of treasure today. I wonder if the pirates will be mad that we found it.”

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 237 / 4601

After his statement, Jin sees the metallic band that was offered to him. With a nod and a soft introverted smile, he takes it and thanks her for giving it to him. Sliding it over his hand, it comes to rest on his wrist. He kind of looks at it and tilts his head happy to have something from her, even if they technically just found it. He really liked the fact that it was simple and not elaborate. It wasn’t that he didn’t like embroidered or girly things, but it was more like he preferred simple things when it came to designs. He preferred strong lines over curly and circular markings. After inspecting the ring that was given to him, Jin would proceed in straightening up the things that they had found. Since they had been digging outside, Jin was starting to get a little bit hungry, regretting the fact that he hadn’t fully finished off his breakfast. He would certainly enjoy lunch. As it would turn out, they would have more to walk back to the house then they had walked out here with. Jin makes the comment, “maybe we only need the bucket and the shovel next time…”

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 218 / 4819

When asked if he were ready to go for the day, Jin complies and advises that he would follow her. It didn’t really matter to him, but he was getting a little bit hungry. Since they were about to head out, he would start putting the things that they have found on the blanket that he had stretched out earlier. Seeing the stuff wrapped up in the blanket before when he dug it up had given him the idea that it would be easier to carry things in one large lump. It would also be nice if they were to come up a wheelbarrow or something. Jin makes the comment, “maybe we can barter some of this for a cart or wagon…” After getting together many of the items, being able to carry the bulk of them in his arms so that Meloli wouldn’t have to worry about carrying too much, Jin would hoist them and begin walking in the direction of their house. He didn’t think there was any reason to fill the hole back in, it would just let the pirates know that there was no reason to search there and be an indicator of the children’s conquest as well.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 208 / 5027

Jin would pause for a moment, turned around and looking to Meloli to see if she were following. During her time of internal monologue, it would look to him as if she had spaced out or something. His head would tilt to the side as he would inquire, “Meloli?...” Just in case she hadn’t heard him, he ventures forth, “so do you like the idea…” Since it was very likely that she wouldn’t know what he was talking about, he would clarify, “…about trading some of the items for a cart?” After having time to repeat his question, he actually had more to add to it in the form of, “and maybe a horse to carry the wagon…” His voice trails off with that last part. They didn’t have pets, but he wondered how cool it would be if they had a mounted beast of their own which could be used for traveling, hauling things and sleeping on. With a horse, then the possibilities could be endless. With that, Jin started to see how treasure hunting and bartering could be a pretty useful thing, but he wondered if the treasures that he had would amount to being able to purchase a horse.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 215 / 5242

When Jin receives the feedback in the form of a question, he takes it as a rejection of his idea. With this, his socially shuts down with a soft “oh” as his gaze shifts down and to the side. He comments, “yeah, that’s right…” In his mind, he rejected his own idea thinking that it might have been dumb to think that they could have a beast of burden to accompany them. He didn’t know where he had gotten the idea and scoffed the idea that they could have had a large and strong steed, much like a mustang only more powerful… then with that mustang, he would need something to fight with, so the beast thing given his power would be a slender lance like horn. Obviously that would be the most manly creature ever spawned to the cosmos… but that was all a childish delusion. Jin continues to walk towards the house while carrying the things in his arms not really saying anything from this stage on. If Meloli were to speak, he would of course respond to her, but if she did not say anything, he would not initiate any conversation at this point in time.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 212 / 5454

Walking, almost as if in a trance with his gaze on the house in the distance, Jin makes the soft comment, “no, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Meloli was the leader in their expeditions, so whatever made her happy was probably the best thing to do. Jin continues, “I’m sure it’s no fun if we give everything away for more things… or something like that…” He didn’t know what to say, so he decided to just be quiet for a while as they continued to walk. In his thoughts he wondered what type of praises they would get from the parental figures of the household with the treasures they brought back. It could be assumed that the parent’s wouldn’t think that they would even find anything; how surprised they would possibly be to see that they had found a lot of loot simply by exploring. Jin looks back to Meloli for a moment before shifting his gaze to the sea that was to the side. Looking at it for a moment, he makes the off comment, “I’ll go with you and do whatever you want for as long as I’m here…” This would be a vague eluding to the fact that he would one day leave.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 217 / 5671

Jin understands where the misunderstanding is when she speaks and shakes his head. He answers her, “no, it doesn’t mean that. I might have to go do something, but I’ll come back and make you a mommy. It will be before the time I’m ready to be a daddy, so I can get it out the way…” That would be about all he would have to say on that matter. The voice inside of him head would scold him for saying too much and cause him to be quiet. In order to sooth the voice in his head, he would comply with its wishes. He would return his attention to the house and continue walking in that direction; his tone would suggest that the conversation was over and that he had said enough. Eventually, he would approach the house and reach the area where the door was. Attempting to open the door, he wouldn’t be able due to the fact that his hands were full. He would pause and turn to look at Meloli as if visually asking her to open the door for him, but if she weren’t coming, he would pause and attempt to see what the matter was before proceeding.

Persona: Jin | Timeline: Childhood Flashback | EXP: 210 / 5881