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Post by Barath'Daubre on Jun 8, 2004 9:19:13 GMT -5
*Bounce puts his hand on her shoulder again.*
Ya did the right thing.
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Post by Students on Jun 8, 2004 9:23:23 GMT -5
She leans on the railing of the bridge and looks down at the water.
Yeah, I guess.
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Post by Barath'Daubre on Jun 8, 2004 9:59:21 GMT -5
*He smiles at her.*
C'mon, let's go back to the Inn. Ya may not be hungry, but ya need food.
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Post by Students on Jun 8, 2004 13:06:20 GMT -5
No I think I'll stay a bit.
She casts a firearrow at the river and watches it be put out in the water.
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Post by Barath'Daubre on Jun 8, 2004 17:10:21 GMT -5
*Bounce nods, sensing her mood.*
I'll head on back, then. See ya in a bit.
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Post by Students on Jun 11, 2004 16:23:07 GMT -5
She nods and watches the water in silence.
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Post by Validus Ur Vashina on Jul 22, 2004 15:23:05 GMT -5
Kraxas dashes through the section, heading to Lorica Vite.
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Post by Rumerin on Jul 22, 2004 15:24:11 GMT -5
*After making inquiries, the woman follows in the merchant's tracks, though she isn't happy about the direction.*
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Post by Julia of Hillsdown on Aug 2, 2004 12:27:46 GMT -5
*a pair of priests in plain clothes walk around the section, looking for a place to set up a church. When they've found one, they enquire after buying the building.*
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Post by Jingzu Lunaria on Aug 2, 2004 18:27:22 GMT -5
*News spreads a bit slower here. Most the people were too tired from work to give it too much thought. Some thought it was interesting, though, and wondered about a few things...*
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Post by Rinathan on Aug 21, 2004 9:47:03 GMT -5
Mr Meleander blinks a few times, biting away the twitch around his mouth. Outside of the house, twilight is covering the streets in a hazy darkness, and inside is not much better. There is only one candle, on the desk, by the light of which Rinathan is doing his homework. Mr Meleander looks at the back of the boy. Rinathan's bound his long hair together in a pony-tail, of which his "father" disapproves with a passion. He's not feeling like a fight now, though. The Elf turns his gaze back to the portrait on the wall. A woman with soft black hair and bright brown eyes stares back at him- her skin so smooth, her red lips smiling... She's so beautiful... Meril...
Ephen Meleander swallows. His Meril. His wife. He gets up and walks towards the portrait, runs his fingers over the painted cheek. Rinathan spies on him from the corners of his dark eyes, but Ephen doesn't notice or care. He looks at the portrait of this woman, whom he misses- he still misses her so much.
They were childhood friends, Meril and Ephen- they were meant to be together. Everybody said so, and nobody was surprised when they announced their marriage, many years ago now. He runs his fingers over the lips of the painting. He can still feel her kiss, taste her, feel her almost reckless embrace as she jumped up to him- every time she saw him. They would be engaged for a year, saving, toiling for a house together. And in that year... Things changed. He still loved her, he loved her since he was a little boy, but she had changed. She still smiled at him, but distractedly. She stopped jumping against him with such fervour. He had known what happened, he had seen it happen. She neglected him, she still dressed up beautifully, but not for him. He had seen them once- Meril- his Meril- walking through the park, holding that man's hand. How he hated that man. He had tried everything, he'd seen the man, asked him, begged him to stay away from Meril. He'd pleaded with Meril. Please- he loved her so much- they were going to marry! Neither of them listened. That man had offered him a financial settlement if he'd keep quiet- if he'd let Meril go... No! No! He had been shouting, nearly attacked the man, and had been thrown out of doors. She had shrugged, been vague about it. She never seemed to listen, yet she never broke up with him. The date of their wedding came and went, they didn't marry.
Two years later, they married after all. That man was out of town for a while. Meril was sad. He knew she didn't love him- he could see it in everything. They married, he had been over the moon, convinced that it was over, this was it, he would be happy from now on, he had her- Meril... His Meril. She would turn back in time to the girl he had always known. She did, she really tried, they lived together, they had a child... A son... Ephen takes a deep breath and looks at the brown painted eyes. A beautiful baby boy, so like her mother, an elven boy...
Then the man came back, some years later. Meril had been happy as of late, concentrated on her baby, she'd been happy- or seemed to be... Ephen swallows. Perhaps he didn't see, perhaps he had been blind? He had just knocked on their door one day, the sheer nerves of the man. And she had opened up. Ephen hadn't been home that day. When he returned, he found his son crying in the cot, dirty and hungry and alone- his mother gone. She didn't come home for another three days, exhausted and happy. Neighbours had seen her with that man around the Portal area. Where she had been, she wouldn't say. It fell to Ephen to take care of their son, because Meril had been out all day every day, sometimes she didn't return for a week. She was happy now, really happy. And Ephen had been deeply miserable.
Nothing helped, begging, invoking his love, invoking the child. She never listened. He still loved her- so much- why wouldn't she listen? He had been convinced she would, soon enough she'd get enough of that man... But then, one day, she didn't get up. She refused- so tired, so... tired... She was ill. He took care of her. She grew- she- his Meril... And she didn't want his help. He had gone to see the man, and told him she was ill. The man came, sat with her day and night, sent him away when he came in. He watched them from the opened door. She accepted that man around, she smiled wearily, even when in pain she was happy he was there. And the look in the man's eyes- those horrible eyes- those eyes changed as he looked at her- he loved her. That man- his Meril... Ephen had been in the living room, waiting, taking care of his toddler son as he tolerated that man in his house- wondering if it was the other way around, if he was the one who was tolerated.
Not a week after she fell ill, he was roused from his thoughts by her screams. She screamed, she cried, she shrieked in pain. He ran into the room. The man was still there, holding her hand quietly, looking a bit sad. She was squirming, shrieking, tears flowing down her face, and there was blood- blood everywhere... Ephen still remembers his confusion, his helplessness. He had shouted at the man, that they had to get a cleric, that- The man shook his head and waited, holding her hand. And sure enough, long before Ephen could have gotten hold of a cleric... That man had held it in his arms- the- the creature that- that is sitting at the desk now, learning about the Blood War for a school project. How ugly it had been. Bloody and tiny and hairy and- and screaming and naked- he had hated the sight of it, he hated it, hated it! Meril- he'd never seen anything like it- he'd been disgusted- his Meril- she was- shred to pieces, was the best way to describe it. She was still alive, long enough to see it, to hold it, to smile at it, and at that man- and- not at him... Not a word for him. Not a word for his son. She had held this creature, and named it, that man kissed her and she was gone. One week with such a climax, and she was gone... His Meril... Tears stream down his cheeks at the recollection, as he traces his fingers over her cheek, softly kisses the painted lips.
The man had taken the baby, the hairy little thing, leaving the bloody remains of the mother in the bedroom, eyes open and broken. He had walked into the living room and put the baby in the cot. The creature was screaming. The man cast a spell, and it stopped looking so hideous. It actually looked like a half-elf now. The man had then stooped and picked up the toddler from the floor. That little boy- all he had left now. Still shocked at the sight of the death of his wife, he had simply watched and listened as the man told him to take care of- of that creature- to take good care of him, make sure he grew up strong... And then he would take care of Ephen's boy. The Elf had blinked, gasped, too shocked to- to save his son. The man had walked out, simply walked out, leaving the new-born in the cot, carrying the crying toddler on his arm.
He looks at those painted eyes, and cries. Tears are actually streaming down his face. Why? Why did she have to do that? Why had she let that man do that? He had ruined Ephen's life, that man- taken his wife from him, the love of his life! He had taken his son, and left him with that... That creature...
Rinathan has turned around now, and is watching his "father" with a frown. He knows what is going on- memories of mother, as usual. He sighs and wonders if he would feel any sympathy for this man if he only knew what happened back then. Yeah, mother probably slept with another man, because Ephen is not his father, that much he knows. And she died giving birth to him. Does his real father even know that? Does he even know he has a son? Ephen will know, probably, and he wonders how he could get the information out of the old man. All he knows is the portrait and his mother's name. His mother gave him his name, and her black hair. What else, he wonders. And what part of him is his father's..? He turns back to the desk, and looks at the book. He puts his hand on it, palm turned up, and looks at his nails. Even while he does, they grow dark and grow longer. Claws. Those are his father's. He swallows and they change back. He should find his father. He looks at himself in the reflecting standard of the candle, casting dancing shadows over the apartment, over his book and his hands. Behind him, he can hear Ephen sink to the ground, sobbing. He looks at the reflection, and ponders that the black and blue eye he sees there won't have gotten better by the time he has to go to school tomorrow. Perhaps he'd feel sorry for the man sobbing in the room behind him if that same man hadn't given him that eye this afternoon.
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Post by Rinathan on Aug 22, 2004 9:24:37 GMT -5
Rinathan sits down on someone's garden wall, not far from his home. He can see the house from here, but he knows that from the windows, you can't see this wall. His father- his real father- is a 'loth. What kind of 'loth? He tries to remember what kinds there were, but his brains are not working. "Not interested" keeps playing through his head. His father doesn't want to meet him, doesn't even care. Of course he doesn't, it's a Fiend. What did his mother want with a Fiend anyway? Not interested- only a Halfer. He bites away the tears, and hates himself for letting it get to him. So weak. No wonder his father doesn't want to know him. But- he has a father, he really does, and the man is in the Nightshade, somewhere. Doesn't he have a right to see him, and to know what happened? He clutches his fists and watches a mangy cat scouring the other side of the street. He opens his bag, takes out his lunch- sandwiches with meat. He removes the meat and shoots a small acid arrow into it, then holds it out.
Here kitty kitty.
The cat comes closer rather gingerly. He tosses the meat at it, and it backs away, then rushes forwards, picks the meat up with its mouth, and runs off with it. He sighs. Stupid animal. He gets up and slings the bag over his shoulder just as it starts to drizzle. He walks over to his house. "Not interested." He opens the door with his key, and walks up the stairs. They have the upper apartment only. He throws the bag under the cloakrack, and tosses his cloak down, too. He doesn't bother about hanging it up, Ephen will find fault with him anyway, so why go out of his way? Ephen's coat isn't here. Good. Rinathan walks into the living room, and walks to the desk, perhaps to study. But his eyes fall on the portrait of the woman on the other wall, and he walks over. She's smiling, as usual. Why is she smiling? He feels his breath speeding up again. Why did she die? Why did she leave him here? Ephen's holy portrait of her, she keeps smiling at him, mocking him, laughing at him! He glares at her. "Not interested." His father was "not interested!" He takes deep, irregular breaths, and trembles.
Why did you do that to me?
He growls and strikes his hands past the portrait- claws, they turned into claws, they tear through the face leaving four long scratches through the bright eye, over the perfect cheeks and laughing mouth. He looks at his handy work and fights down the tears.
... I hate you...
He falls back into the chair near the portrait, puts his head between his knees and his hands over his head, and rocks back and forth, breathing hard between gritted teeth.
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Post by Rinathan on Aug 23, 2004 5:19:55 GMT -5
The apartment turns dark as the sun disappears from the street below, and the boy stays in the shadows, trying to banish the shades from the past from his head. He looks up at the torn portrait, and for a moment it seems to him he can hear a scream, a shrill shriek echoing through the apartment. A woman cries in pain for just a heartbeat. He jumps up and runs to where the sound seems to be coming from, he throws the door to the back room open. It's a storage room, with old furniture and boxes with items stacked together under a layer of dust and cobwebs. There is no one here. He frowns, walks back to his place, looks at the portrait.
... what happened here, mother?
He closes his eyes against the tears growing there, puts his head in his hands. Sitting in near total darkness now, he wonders whether she would have liked him, loved him, perhaps. Did she love his father, or...? He swallows. He doesn't want to believe that.
He's not interested. Did you know... He doesn't see the point of me.
His voice sounds strange to him, and the mutilated portrait doesn't seem to care what he says to it. She keeps smiling, even with those scratches. Downstairs, he can hear someone walk down the street, walk up to the door. He keeps his eyes fixed on her. She is wearing a fine Elven design, a green dress. Is he an Elf at all? He wants no part of a heritage that- that treats him like that! But- but is he a 'loth? He doesn't even know what kind. The front door is opened with a key. Ephen. Rinathan swallows, his eyes still on the woman in the painting. Footsteps ascend the stairs. He looks away, looks down, clutching his fists. The rattling of the coat rack as Ephen hangs up his cloak. A muffled grumble, more rattling as he hangs up Rinathan's cloak. The door to the livingroom is opened, Ephen steps in. The boy stays completely still and the man does not notice him in the dark- not yet. He finds his way to the desk, strikes a match. Light flares up, casting flickering shadows through the room. The Elf turns around, his eyes seeking the most important thing in the room- he gasps. He walks closer, steps between Rinathan and the painting, brings his hand up and traces the scratches without really touching them. He trembles. Rinathan looks at his back, and waits.
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Post by Rinathan on Aug 23, 2004 9:44:31 GMT -5
Ephen stares at the painting. Meril... Meril... What happened to her? She- his Meril, his- his beautiful... He clutches his fists and lets out a helpless, inarticulate scream. No! Meril! He trembles all over.
... who- who did this...
Rinathan looks at the man and rises from his chair.
I did.
Ephen takes a deep breath, and opens his eyes again. Him- him, that, that monster, that creature, that- thing- he- he did this, he destroyed- he- destroyed Meril... He spins around on his feet, to face the creature, but there is no hesitation, nothing holding him back, he hates it- hates it! He puts the force of the swing behind it and leashes out, backhanding the boy with his left hand- his wedding ring leaves a bloody scratch and Rinathan is knocked to the ground, gasping. He brings his hand up to his cheek and feels the spot, glancing up at Ephen, and taking deep, deep breaths. He doesn't want to fight. But the Elf has hatred in his eyes, lashes out with his foot, kicking him hard in the ribs. A shooting pain takes away his breath, leaving the boy gasping. Every breath hurts, he bites his lip to distract him from the fire in his chest. Ephen glares at him, white-hot and trembling. This creature- he took everything!
.. you... I'll kill you!
He drops down on the boy and grabs for the throat. He pushes his knee into the ribs, Rinathan gasps, tries to hold of the clawing hands, feeling the breath of the man on his face... Ephen is a strong man, a craftsman, he uses his hands every day. He knocks Rinathan's defense off and grabs his throat, squeezing tightly. The boy gasps, tries kicking, his chest still hurts, he can't breathe, the man is breaking his neck- he looks at him, eyes wide open, staring into Ephen's face- the Elf's gone wild, there's nothing but hatred, such- petty- pathetic- Rinathan narrows his eyes. This man wants to kill him- is killing him- this man? He's going to let- this man kill him? This pathetic little creature? He brings up his hand and puts it against Ephen's chest. The man doesn't notice, he just wants to kill- kill it- kill- until a bolt shoots him off of Rinathan, blasts him to the other end of the room and leaves him gasping against the wall. Clasping his lips together against the pain in his chest, Rinathan gets up, glances at the man, and walks into the storage room. A suitcase. He takes it and walks to his own room, packing everything he regards as his. Ephen blinks, listens to his own whizzing breath for a while, then gets up slowly, and makes it to the hallway just as Rinathan steps into it.
Where- do you think- you're going?
Rinathan looks back at him, his face hard, and cold, and blank. His cloak over his shoulders, schoolbag on his back, suitcase in his hand. Ephen tries glaring at him but he gets no reaction. Just himself, reflected in those black eyes. He blinks, staggers backwards. Him. Rinathan keeps looking at him as he backs away, then walks down the stairs and closes the door behind him.
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Post by Rinathan on Aug 23, 2004 15:10:13 GMT -5
Ephen stays in his apartment for a few hours more. He's stumbled to his chair and sat down in it, looking at the wrecked painting. His entire body hurts with the blast of energies Rinathan gave him. Slowly but surely, reality is sinking in. He attacked the creature- meant to kill it- and it left. He sobs. Why? Why did he do that? Why didn't he lock the child up in his room..? This is it, now he'll never see his son again. His son! His beautiful little baby boy... He sobs again. This can't be happening, this is a giant nightmare, he'll soon wake up and it will be his engagement party again, and everything will go right... Wake up... Please, wake up... He lets out a shivering sigh. After an hour or two, three, he still hasn't woken up. He gets up, and lifts the painting from the wall. He has a leather case for it, and packs it, puts it under his arm. Sighing again, he puts his keys in his pocket, and slowly walks down the stairs. All those years, the hope of getting his son back was all that kept him going. There's nothing left now. He closes and locks the door behind him, and starts walking down the street with the painting in its case under his arm.
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