[Open] The Wind and the Waves
Hunter

Age: 31 | Height: 6'1" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 2 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 15 - Luck: 6 - Int:
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 156 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#1
The town was full of too much noise and color and movement, too many people and all of them strangers. Haulani left him feeling even more lost than he already was, and after prowling its edges again he'd retreated for the second time, returning to the more comfortable quiet of the jungle and the beach. The trees and the wind wouldn't speak to him here, and now he knew why, but he still searched for some sense of the familiar in this alien world, desperately clinging to a past he'd been told was gone forever. His sisters, his aunts, his mother...

Gone.

The haunting music played by the sea breezes had drawn him down the beach and out along the strand to approach the ocean's cathedral and Kellan stepped within, looking around in wonder at the graceful arches of coral and sea glass. The dryads made similar constructions of living trees and plants, but as it had since he arrived, the sea surrounding the structure made him feel small and unwelcome in ways the trees never had. Still, the music sang to something in his heart, the wind's song a bittersweet reminder of home, even if it wasn't meant for him, and he sank down to his knees to close his eyes and listen, letting himself pretend, if only for a little while, that it was his mother's voice traveling through the coral spires and not just a soulless wind off an uncaring sea.
Seiji Okura
Musician

Age: 32 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 10 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
Played by: kae Offline
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Posts: 149 | Total: 255
MP: 0
#2
Seiji cannot know the loneliness haunting this strange soul he now approaches. He doesn't even notice the man as he wanders across the sand, his eyes roving hungrily, his bare feet sinking with each step into the sun-warmed granules. For though the sea sings of loneliness to Kellan, to Seiji it sings only of home. Home, of course, is still a work in progress for Seiji. A patchwork of memories: sights, smells, moments in time. He recalls the cries of gulls and the crash of surf, mist on the rocks at morning. A whole swath of his history has suddenly been laid bare, like mist receding off the shoreline. And what lays beyond… What lays beyond is an island.

He does not know its name.

Only this, a certainty: he was happy there. Happy in the way a warm hearth is happy. In the way of scholars and artists, safe behind stone walls and pretty windows. But also happy in the way of wild things: racing down the beach, raising his hands to the surf… In some ways, it feels like peering into a stranger's life. The person he was no longer the same as the person he is. He cannot say if the two of them would get along.

He is glad, right now, for his solitude. Glad for the music of the sea and the softness of sand. He approaches the strange spires of the ocean cathedral with slow strides. He is in no hurry to reach it, no hurry to learn what it is. He is, after all, in the process of learning himself. Seiji is drawn to the strange music the wind makes through its spires, though. It is like nothing he has ever heard before. No rhythm, no voice, but still it sings as if in a language all its own. He circles the structure from afar, spiraling nearer and nearer still, until his eyes drift from the colorful towers to the shadow of a figure hunched within.

Praying? Hiding? Seiji cannot say, at first. Only that suddenly, he knows he's not alone. And he cannot run away — that would be rude. And he cannot pretend he hasn't seen the stranger, because he has. His only choice, then: to approach. So he does, his steps long and soft, his head tilted, trying to peer in at the stranger's features. To divine what one does in such a small building. Does the stranger live here? Seiji would like that, if it were true. He would like to know more about the beach, the shore, the spreading sea. Do they take boats out there? Do they know of other beaches far across the waves? Or is it a mystery? Impenetrable?

"Hello?" he calls gently, and pauses just outside the little cathedral, almost crouching, his unkempt hair falling over his brows as he peers in. The stranger's reaction will guide the conversation any further.
Hunter

Age: 31 | Height: 6'1" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 2 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 15 - Luck: 6 - Int:
Played by: Cirago Offline
Change author:
Posts: 156 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#3
He should have been listening to something other than the wind, Kellan realized too late as a voice called from the only door into or out of the little building. His head jerked up, amber eyes wide in his sun-browned face as he reached up to grip the amulet that hung on a cord from his neck, hurriedly tucking it back into his shirt. Hair black as a raven's wing fell a little past his shoulders, and his clothes were the greens and browns of a woodsman, with thin sections of antler sewn down the front and shoulders to offer some protection without impeding his movement.

All in all he looked very out of place in this ocean realm, a creature of northern forests flung far from home.

The stranger at the entrance was anything but threatening, at least, and after a tense few heartbeats Kel drew a shaking breath to steady himself. "I'm... sorry," he said softly. "Is this place yours? I... didn't mean to trespass. I'll leave, if you want." He had wallowed long enough for one day, anyways. Mourning what he had lost wasn't getting him any closer to figuring out what to do with himself on this strange new world he had found himself in.
Seiji Okura
Musician

Age: 32 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 10 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
Played by: kae Offline
Change author:
Posts: 149 | Total: 255
MP: 0
#4
The man startles at the sound of his voice, and Seiji startles, too. He flinches away from the sudden movement, his eyes wide. For that single instant, breathless and fleeting, he is afraid. But then he sees fear in the other man’s eyes, and his demeanor softens. He is the aggressor here, however little he means it.

His face splits in a friendly smile, and he crouches to better see the young man. Light plays on them, on the walls, and from inside the wind’s voice is like a performer on a distant stage. “Not mine,” Seiji answers, shaking his head. “I am exploring this place. You can stay.” He does not say he had the same thought, though perhaps in the future, if they come to know each other, they will both find this meeting funny. For now, Seiji listens to the still-fleet beating of his heart and thinks about how dangerous Caido can be. “May I join you?” he asks, betraying none of his fear. “I am Seiji. From the Hollowed Grounds.”
Seiji
Hunter

Age: 31 | Height: 6'1" | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 2 - Strg: 15 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 15 - Luck: 6 - Int:
Played by: Cirago Offline
Change author:
Posts: 156 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#5
The other man seemed just as surprised, and Kellan realized belatedly that he carried no visible weapons. The smile was what eased some of his tension, however, the hunter relaxing a little even before the words that left the strange, beautiful structure again without an owner. He found a shy smile on his own face at the admission of a fellow explorer, and he bobbed his head in gratitude at not being kicked out of the miniature palace of sea glass and coral and the wind's haunting melodies played through the fluting spires.

"Thanks," he murmured, scooting aside and giving a little bob of his head. "Yeah, there's room for two in here." He was careful to give the other man as much space as he wanted, though Seiji was shorter and more slender than he was. "I'm Kellan. From... from the Aurangwy Forest though... I don't know if that means anything here," he admitted, a little sadly. "Where are the Hollowed Grounds? And... what are they?" The name sounded strangely ominous, and he watched his new companion uncertainly in the colored lights that drifted over them beneath the play of sun and clouds above the cathedral overhead.


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