Breadcrumbs *

Supreme Mystic Rep! : 56 Location : California

A man stands in ordinary clothes at the destination of his Mecca in the proximity of a weathered house that was void of the life and brightness that had once been in it. He stood almost six feet high with a rugged shadow of a beard on his chin and cheeks. Rough tanned skin covered his body with brown hair speckled with gray here and there crowning his weathered visage. Several years before, this man had been to this house in a party of men that followed Baek in their quest to take something from another man that was not theirs. In the process, that beast of a man who had practically fought off the party of men unarmed was killed. Somberly as if in thought, the man’s gaze shifts across the area remembering scenes from long ago. He saw the area where he and others attacked that man, he saw the area where the man had fallen and then his gaze shifts back to the house that held the prize that they had come to take. His gaze remains fixed on the doorway as his eyes wince, the pronounced crow’s feet at the creases of his eyes intensifying with a stoic decline in the pitch of his head.

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Subject: Re: Breadcrumbs * Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:46 pm

Cutting through the crop of trees that separated her home from the one Jin had shared with his family, Meloli moved quickly over the underbrush that now obscured the once worn path. When she'd been younger the path had been clearly worn down to nothing but sandy earth. Now after so many years of only traveling it when her mother forced her to deliver some baked offering to keep up the facade of neighborly tidings with whichever random family occupied it at the time, mother nature had taken hold and sprouted roots all along what had been the direct line connecting the young girl to her best friend and partner in crime. The house had stood empty for months, longer than any other stretch before, so Meloli figured the broker's had finally given up on trying to unload the property. There were rumors of the place being haunted, rumors she would never scoff at due to her own feelings. If the rumors kept people away from living in a house she would personally never consider as theirs, then she had no problem with them floating around. Plus having an empty house so close to her own, and with her mother starting to complain about the growing collection of odd baubles and knickknacks from various artifact digs, it provided the perfect place for temporary storage of her items until a more permanent solution could be found.

A few loads had already been stealthily transferred from her bedroom in the previous days and another was bundled securely in her pack as she headed through the trees to make today's deposit. The last thing she expected to find as she broke through the line of vegetation into the clearing surrounding the house was another person. A cry of shock escaped her lips before she could catch herself and the abrupt end to her momentum shifted the pack on her shoulder and caused it to fall to the ground beside her feet. "Forgive me, I didn't realize anyone would be looking at the house today. I'm terribly sorry to interrupt." She stammered on for a moment before bending to clutch her pack and try to turn back for the woods in a hasty retreat.

416

Supreme Mystic Rep! : 56 Location : California

A soft wind would proceed through the area bringing the smell of the sea with it as it proceeded from the east and made it way to the western shore. Above head, the light of the sun was bright with only a few remnants of clouds in the sky; the sound of gulls crying back and forth in the sky littered the otherwise mute surroundings as they found themselves able to fully enjoy a clear beach front sky and float upon the ocean breeze. The peace and tranquility of the current day would contrast the scene that had happened on the day of remembrance all those years prior.

With the advent of Meloli’s arrival, the male pauses when he hears the noise and his body twists to calmly see the girl who had arrived on the scene. He did not seem afraid or startled by her presence, though he was curious of it. His gaze lingers on the young lady in a silent manner for a moment before his head shakes from left to right and he assures her before straightening up and looking at her, “no, it’s perfectly okay.” Unsure of who the girl was, he would motion towards the house with a swift tilt of his head and inquire, “is this a property that you oversee? Did you know the people who used to live here?”

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Subject: Re: Breadcrumbs * Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:16 pm

She was poised to leave, ready to flee the mortifying moment, but changed her mind once the stranger spoke. Turning back to him with a nod of her head, she answered without moving closer just yet. "I don't oversee the place, some broker in town handles that, but I have known most of the people who lived here before. There have been quite a few since the original family, some didn't stay very long, so I didn't get to know most of them very well. Are you looking for someone who used to live here? The last family moved out months ago and none of them kept in touch after they left." If he was here looking for a friend that used to live in the house, Meloli had no way to help him other than share the information for the broker handling the property. Maybe the families that left shared their forwarding information with him in case of situations like this or forgotten belongings needing to be returned.

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Supreme Mystic Rep! : 56 Location : California

The man nods as he listens to her. The fact that she mentioned the original family gave a bit of hope to his cause, as mysterious as it was. With her words though, his outward demeanor would shift a bit into a more woeful manner as his gaze shifts to the right in a contemplative manner. The dark black pupils of his eyes would window into the inner portions of his soul that seemed to recount regret and dismay. In his life he had enough experience to understand that you reap what you sow, and in that manner he finds himself before the young lady today. In a distracted manner, he looks to the house that seemed to have several residence come in and out of it. He could understand that it seemed like it held a hard time keeping one inside of it. It was yet another weight added to his regret. He murmurs something cryptically to himself about how the house could never heal. With his gaze returning to her and a nod of understanding, he continues, his gruff voice inquiring, “so you know of the original family that was here? What do you know of them?”

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Subject: Re: Breadcrumbs * Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:55 pm

Since she had assumed the man was looking for one of the families that had lived in the house after Jin and his parents, Meloli was caught off guard when the man zeroed in and asked about them. A shadow crosses her face, the shadow that always comes along with the flashes of memories from that awful morning and of what her imagination had created for the events of the night before, but she shakes her head to clear the images from her mind as she answers. "I don't know much of them. I know they were kind, caring people living a happy life and loving their son more than anything in the world. I know that something evil visited this house one night long ago and took the life of a good father, made a loving mother vanish, and scarred the soul of their young son. I know the traumatized boy has grown into an amazing man, despite all that he witnessed and all that he still carries around inside." She wasn't sure what else she could or should say. She was too young when everything happened to have clear memories of either one of Jin's parents. Her most vivid memories of this place were all from that awful morning; Jin's father lying still in the yard, Jin huddled in a terrified ball in the house, his mother no where to be found... none of which she would share with anyone, least of all this strange man whose presence alone seemed oddly out of place.

273

Supreme Mystic Rep! : 56 Location : California

The man hears the worlds from the young lady and they resonate within him. He nods several times as he thinks over the words, seemingly taking yet another moment for himself. Though she didn’t know much about them, the man would get a sense that she spoke about the boy and his family in an intimate manner. Due to the fact that she wasn’t the landlord from the city nor was she here to live in the house, the man would assume that she had some type of connection with this house, but that would simply be an ideal on his part based on hopeful thinking. Still, there was some interest in the mention of the boy and how he grew into a man. A leathery hand reaches into the trouser pocket of the man standing before Meloli and he pulls something out, keeping it closed in his fist. He takes a step towards Meloli and placidly holds out his hand as he speaks, “I think you know of that young man… if not, you’ll have a better chance of meeting him then I.” He didn’t fancy the idea of actually having to confront such a shattered soul if he didn’t have to; it was the coward’s way out. The chance could have very well been that Jyn lived in Mare Maris, as this older man here would have no knowledge that the boy had become a traveler. “Give him this,” his hand would open with his words to reveal a golden locket; it was a memento that Jyn’s father had given his mother, “I was a part of that evil that visited this house long ago…”

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Subject: Re: Breadcrumbs * Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:38 pm

Watching the man with a wary expression as he reaches into his pocket and steps closer with his arm outstretched, Meloli wonders if sticking around was a bad idea after all. Of course she stayed right where she was and even extended a hand to take what the man offered, listening closely as he spoke. By the time he finished, and ultimately admitted to playing a part in the events of that horrible night, Meloli was stunned into silence... for a moment at least. Her first instinct was to launch herself upon the man and claw at his face like a she wolf protecting her mate... but she fought that instinct and forced her now rigid body to stay in place. While ripping this man's flesh from his bones would make her feel better for a moment, it would not help Jin or his quest, and this could be her only chance to aid the man she loved and maybe bring him home for good. Cradling the necklace gingerly in her hand, she stares at it for a heartbeat or two then lifts her teary eyes to his. "How could you? Why would you?" .... and then the most important questions of all cross her lips... "What happened to her? Is she dead? Has she been dead all along?" The words cut her heart as she spoke them aloud but her love for Jin made her force them out into the air between her and this murderous stranger. The love of her life has always wondered what happened to his beloved mother, and if this man could give her the answers Jin needs, she had to try to get them for him.

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Supreme Mystic Rep! : 56 Location : California

The man shrinks at his recognition that his premonition was correct; so she did know the family and the earlier lie was simply a pretense in front of a stranger. Still, this made his delivery that much easier. He did not have any answers for the questions that she was asking him; instead of trying to make up a reason or an excuse he would just deal with what he could answer. He would speak, “perhaps… physically… she is now dead; an angel slain by a broken heart that has given out. Hope was drained from her all these years.” The man’s head hangs, “eventually the group discarded her.” He winces again at the shame for the acts he had a part in playing in against the boy’s mother. He continues, “Baek had her, kept her as a trophy. He held her as his own and locked away in his home breaking her spirit by telling her that the boy was dead. Perhaps she died the moment she heard that or perhaps she died last night when her body became a corpse… she held onto that locket, though. She sung to it every night… it was creepy. Even though Baek would beat her for doing so, she sung to that locket. Other consequences in my life eventually lead me to understand how wicked a thing it was that I had done… the same is true with others in the group… still, no one wanted to go against Baek.” He shakes his head, “I was constantly haunted by that night. My luck was destroyed and I’ve lived a harsh life of regret ever since, but when I found out about the mother dying, I made sure to grab the locket before they burned the body. As my final act of repentance, I want to make sure the boy receives that.”

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Subject: Re: Breadcrumbs * Tue Jul 19, 2011 6:07 pm

The young woman visibly shook as his words caused her rage to rise to alarming levels, but she held it in check... information was more important to her than vengeance, and that vengeance was not hers to exact. Even though her body trembled with violent emotions, tears of sorrow and grief slipped down her cheeks as he spoke of the mother singing to her locket every night, no doubt singing to the son she had been ripped away from. Her heart ached for the woman she barely remembered, and for the boy she'd loved her whole life, but her voice was strong and clear when she finally spoke... refraining from spewing the copious words of hate lingering on the tip of her tongue, choosing the route of more information once again, a choice she hoped Jin would be proud of. "I will see that he gets it. Thank you for returning it to him... but where can this Baek be found? You retrieved the necklace so I know you know, and I can give you my word that no one will ever know that the information came from you. Her son has the right to confront the man responsible for the death of his parents."

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Supreme Mystic Rep! : 56 Location : California

The man seems hesitant to answer at first; it was as if he didn’t want to part with that information, but after seeing the sheltered rage that was just beneath her surface, he would yield and answer to her. “I don’t think it wise for that boy to see Baek… he’s changed…” the man speaks but continues, “a while after that incident, some of us moved west of here following Baek… we settled in an area that’s between the regions of Rockland and Mare Maris. You can reach the village we moved to within a day from here. The village is called Norel and it rests couple miles from an inland lake in the greater of the two straits.” With that, the man seemed as if he had said pretty much all he had to say. He tells her, “I’ll take my leave now… thank you for taking this burden off of me. I feel I might have some peace now…”

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Subject: Re: Breadcrumbs * Tue Jul 19, 2011 6:51 pm

"Wise or not, if that Man wishes to face Baek, he has every right to do so. Thank you for sharing the information and for making this journey, but I think taking your leave now is for the best. Find whatever peace you deserve and please, never darken this land with your shadow again." Slipping the necklace into the shallow pocket of her shorts, Meloli reaches her other hand up to grasp the strap of her pack tightly and watches in silence for the man to completely leave the land he'd helped to taint so many years ago. Ever since her love had set out on his quest, she'd been frustrated with the inability to get in touch with him. He could send letters home at any time, but she couldn't even do that for he had no place where he could be found at any given time. She prayed it wouldn't take months, or god forbid a year, for him to return home for another visit. Surely the information gathered today, of which every detail would be written down as soon as her treasures were stashed, would drive her absolutely mad if it couldn't be shared for so long.

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Supreme Mystic Rep! : 56 Location : California

The man nods and then begins walking away from Meloli heading south west. Several miles away, Jyn would be at the mansion secured by him and his party of adventurers. Having been there too long already, he would be preparing to make his way back to Mare Maris. He had ventured to the desert and back to find nothing, so once again, his traveling would bring him back around to Meloli much sooner than it had in the past.

Exit RP - UYB

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