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 Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:02 pm
The ruins of a very old estate. Crumbling, and worn, their walls are uninviting, and the place smells of disuse, and dust. The only reminder of the former residents of the estate, is a picture in the entry hall, torn to shreds, of a man and a woman, holding a child wrapped in blankets between them.
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:40 pm
It took her time, and by the time she actually made it to the ruined building, the rain had come to a head, and lightning crashed above her, illuminating the half-crumbled stone structure. The sight of it made her blood run cold. It was the same manor. She recognized it. Couldn't help but recognize it.
It was the manor from her dreams.
She pulled her haori tighter around her, as she moved steadily forward through the rain, up the scattered remains of the stairs, leaning her weight into the remains of a heavy pair of wooden doors, a musty scent hitting her full in the face as she stepped in out of the rain.
Water dripped here and there through cracks in the ceiling, parts of the wall missing, though the rain doesn't penetrate too much. Her steps are hesitant. She had been here, but it had been in a dream. That had been different, hadn't it?
No, it was something else. This was.. a mirror of the world inside her. Or maybe, the world inside her, was a mirror of this place. But before the dream, she knows she'd never set foot here before, had she?
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:42 pm
Her breath catches in her throat, as she approaches the picture, one hand stretched towards it, tentatively. The faces in the picture seemed so familiar, and with one hand, she raised the slashed fragments of the picture upward, holding them in place against the rest of it, the material of the canvas crackling under her hand, as her head tipped.
This seemed so.. familiar to her. So very familiar. She turned slightly, as she did, catching the most brief glance of something in the corner of her eye. She could see the place, in the back of her head, imagining it light with candles and torches, the sound of music drifting through the halls, people garbed in ornate kimono, dancing together as smiles and warmth filled the place.
Blinking, the image that had been there just a moment before seemed to fade away, like nothing but a passing dream. Turning, Ran made her way back toward the front door. The sound of the rain overhead was beginning to grow dim, and she knew she needed to go. This place likely still belonged to someone, and she had no right being here.
She turned, and fairly fled back through the open doors.
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 12:56 am
She hadn't been here in a while. Not since she'd ran out of the ruins that one day. No, why she was here now was simple. She was searching. What for, she couldn't have told you. Her hands were folded inside the sleeves of her kimono as she picked her way across the ground carefully. She was headed up a long stone pathway that led toward the front doors.
She needed to know more about this place. It was like a driving force, urging her onward. She had to know about it. Why it haunted her in the world of her zanpaktou. Why she felt such familiarity. And why it made her so.. sad.
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Dangerous Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:05 am
He'd run along his own way, following the faint trace elements of her aura. Of course, it was easier with that other force leading him along. For some reason, he finds himself drawn to sadness..and hers seems to be fairly strong around this area. She's a sad person at times..that little voice tells him that. It's like he can latch on to the despair in someone, and follow it to its source. He hops up across several places where his feet are supported, before dropping down and looking about.
This place..he wonders. He idly wonders if he should know it. He was versed in the history of noble families, though this place looks like it was at one time rather important.
"Fascinating..I wonder what chain of events sent this place into the ashes of obscurity.."
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:13 am
If he was following her sadness, there was certainly an abundance of it right now. For some reason, this place made her feel like there was some part of herself that she was missing. Her hands were clenched together in her kimono sleeves, and she had her back to him across the distance.
It was odd, the way she seemed to fit into the picture, yet stood apart from it, like an outsider in a portrait. The faint chill that ran through the wind caused her to visibly shudder, and she made her way further in, pulling the doors of the front open, as she slipped inside. She had been inside just once before. Twice, if one counted her dreams.
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Dangerous Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:17 am
He watches the woman enter, then muses. This seems like a place she needs to go without him..but he'll wait. He walks to the entrance..and just inside..and he drops down into a meditative position. Well, if there were ghosts in Soul Society, they'd sure be in this place. It's old, and on top of it, it has a powerful air of discontent. One can feel that just by looking at it, but there are whispers here..and Megumi closes his eyes and listens to the emotions that swirl around. Where he gets that talent, he isn't sure..but it only works on sadness, despair, and desperation..what a joyful gift.
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:19 am
Isn't that always the irony of such things? The woman pauses just outside the door, the presence outside drawing her attention. She gives a long look back at the building around her, and then moves back to the entrance, her hands sliding free of her sleeves, and coming to rest on her zanpaktou, as she prepares for what may be on the other side of the door...
...and imagine her surprise when its
"Megumi..."
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Dangerous Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:23 am
"Oh dear..I guess I've been discovered..oh well. There are worse things to be discovered by. At least you're pretty.."
He grins and maintains his sitting position, looking upward..and he tilts his head left..then right..then left..and sighs, shaking his head. He takes on a serious face, and rubs his chin as if thinking..then looks up again, squints, and looks at Ran, asking her with a straight face..
"If you were sitting where I was, do you think the better view of your breasts would be from the left or right? I can't really get a centered look, and to be honest, I hate squinting.."
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:25 am
Ran blinks for a moment.. and then blinks for a moment more, before leaning down, and grabbing Megumi up in a glomph, planting his face between her breasts and squeezing until he can get no air.
"Kawaiiiii~" a moment of fangirlish teasing, before she drops him like a sack of potatoes, and stuffs her hands back into her sleeves.
"Left."
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Dangerous Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:27 am
Of course, he's obliged to wave his arms rapidly up and down in the moments he can't breathe..until he gets dropped and grunts, popping his neck from side to side. Sheesh, the woman has a grip. Oh well. He rubs the back of his head and lays back on the floor..
"Yeah, you're right. Anyways, what is this place? It looks like it was a noble estate, but it's completely ruined. Almost looks like it was burned or gutted..but it doesn't look like it was robbed. And it doesn't seem like a peasant uprising. It's like all the pictures have been destroyed..as if this place's memory was supposed to die with it.."
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:31 am
"I..." a moments hesitation. "I'm not really sure. I've been here before, sort of. When I went into myself.. to where my zanpaktou was... it was this place. I didn't expect to find it really here. But you're right. It's like someone wanted the memory to die. I've only found one thing that looks even partially familiar. There's this one really big picture in the main hall.. c'mon, lemme show you."
And she reaches down to tug him up, before moving off into the hall, over fallen stones and debris, to the picture that lays in shreds, shaking her head softly, as she reached upward to correct the tattered pieces. A man and woman, holding a small baby with a tuft of black hair upon her small forehead.
"It was a family. A close one, I think. I ain't been much further than here."
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Dangerous Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:37 am
"interesting..I wonder.."
He closes his eyes then, and this soft breeze just sort of..whirls around his body..and he reaches out, touching the painting, before speaking apparently to someone who isn't there..
"Yo, partner. What do you think about this..? You seem to be able to attune to powerful and painful memories..is there anything you know..?"
The breeze persists..but nothing more is said. It finally dies down, and Megumi just shakes his head, before shrugging. He flops back down again, and tips his head to one side, looking at the remains of the picture carefully. Left..right..like he was doing before with Ran's chest..analyzing..though not playfully this time.
"He says that people died here. He can't say why, but there was a horrible feeling of despair, coupled with loss of something very precious. The feeling of loss is greater than the despair. He also says there's a deep feeling of resignation mixed with resentment..and a faint hope for something."
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:42 am
"Strange.." the voice is softer this time, before she seems to withdraw, moving back away from the painting, heading towards the door.
"I.. I can't. We should go. We don't belong here. I'm going to head back to the dorm. Come talk there?" she knew he'd been looking for her. There was some type of desperation to get out, whatever he'd said, it had been like it had triggered a chain reaction in her.
"I just want a hot bath, and a warm bed right now."
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Dangerous Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:49 am
"You can't run forever.."
He turns his head then, and that breeze is back..his hair whirling around his face..like before, it had become a pale color..both of his eyes violet..and cold..and he turns and faces the painting. He walks toward it, and places his hand upon it..and rubble blows away while he gathers his strength. The hand he's using to touch the old thing takes on a pale purple and black glow. The wind picks up, blowing his unusual kimono around, and a similar glow outlines his body.
"Feelings are far more powerful than memories. We never forget a feeling a place instills in us, even if our minds are consciously forced to forget them..but the imprint is always there. Nothing is ever really forgotten. Nothing...what kills our hearts the most..is what remains."
For a moment, that pale glow becomes a fire, a black and violet fire that attempts to, as strange as it seems..engulf the painting, the wall, the floor..and cause it to become..whole again. But it doesn't get far. Even the painting doesn't manage to reconstruct itself more than a fragment before Megumi slips to both knees, his hair changing back, eyes shifting to their usual color..
"Damn it all..he's so pushy sometimes..coming out just when HE wants to.."
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