Greenleaf Reel

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Fade in….

The wood was deep and dark and lovely. The tall oak trees grew straight up without branching for many feet, and the grass was thick and soft under her boots. The roots and wide trunks wrapped around great dark gray rocks.

Lily got a few steps into the wood as it seemed to wrap about her, and she unexpectedly stumbled, though the ground was soft and smooth. It was the smell and sound of the forest - of the leaves and buds and bark and dirt - the very air felt different. It twisted in her with an unfamiliar sense of displacement, and she found herself blinking around tears.…

Oh. She was homesick. That explained it! She missed them, her friends and family, her home, missed them desperately and had no idea how to get back. That explained the lethargy and the restlessness and the aimlessness. And of course she hadn’t recognized it - of course she hadn’t. Lily had been homesick maybe three times before in her life, it never bothered her.

She slid down against a tree and rubbed at her eyes, grinning wryly at herself. She felt much better for having figured that out. And while she wasn’t much familiar with the feeling, she had found that most feelings weren’t hard to work around if you made allowances for them being there. Least for her, it worked like that. Maybe not for everyone.

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A small time later, she stood, and went on. The forest came to feel more comforting than painful as she did. There was something to it, like being home - if Taian were to appear between the trunks, it would be….

Oh yeah. Very homesick.

But they did say all forests were one, on some level, and wasn’t that why she had gotten there that one time? But that had been coming from Fleetwood, which knew her pretty well by now. So….. She couldn’t utilize it, but she could take some ease and comfort from similarity. Sort of like… like meeting your friend’s cousin.

So she let the feel of it wrap her up and breathed it in as she headed deeper into the woods.

Come to think of it, it would be dark. The sky was set to evening. If it was high noon, it would be a lot brighter in here. But it never would be. Wonder how the grass gets enough light? It must have evolved for these conditions.

A rambling dreamtime passed for her beneath the trees, among tall trunks and soft grass, until she found a stand of fir trees, huge ones. Like really fancy Christmas trees for rich houses. They didn’t match with the rest of the forest hardly at all.

She walked along with her hand trailing over spiny-soft green-needled branches, that left gummy streaks across her palm and a slight sent of pine. And at the end of the stand was a cut in the ground - like a curb, and a path. So they had been planted purposely! So then… That way was all forest, but up the path--

It was a tall broad house, with gables and turrets, big and rambling, tumbledown and old, all cream-and-gold and cream-and-russet. It was walled about, with ivy climbing up the golden stone of the courtyard wall. Wrought-iron spikes lined the top of the wall, and wrought-iron gates that stood wide open.

Well….. Sure. What was the worst that could happen?

It could steal out her soul and keep it trapped in eternal torment like in that one story. But if you where going to worry about that all the time, you might as well never get out of bed. Really - that could happen just walking down the street.

The courtyard was lined with hedges, and gray broken pillars lined where the walk to the door had once been, but the walk was all grown over with thick grass.

[darkunslint]

(( Just wondering, is this post still active? If it is I look forward to roleplaying with Darkun for the first time, if not, i'm sorry to of posted here))

Darkun had been sat here for what seemed a decade, sat on a large pile of rubble, it looked uncomfortable but Darkun didn’t care. He sat there just staring up at the large mansion, the various windows and designs in the large obviously old mansion house. He wondered if anyone had really ever lived here. Regardless of these facts, he would have to come back some time... This was Darkun's earliest memory, darkness and then a house.

He stood up slowly and began pacing in front of the doors, the curiosity mixed with a hint of rage, it was excruciating to stand there, the truth could be inches away ... But there was one problem, since he had awoken with no memories, he had created a life for himself, a name, a personality and he was afraid, afraid that all of what he had done was completely wrong, what if he was someone he didn’t like? Or even worse... what if there wasn't anything to remember. Was it really lost forever?

If he had been in any other state than his completely focused one at this present moment, he would of easily felt the shadow of another slowly creeping through the woods and towards the mansion, but alas he did not, his back was turned towards the gates and he was looking straight up at the large door, he knew what he would do ... what he always did ... He sang. He sang an angelic sounding song, one that sounded more like a religious hymn than any real song, no words just very deep angelic sounds.

Still singing, the wind carried his voice throughout the woods, making an echo of it, the wind also carried his various zips and grips on his belts to sway in the wind making a bell like sound. He loved singing to himself still oblivious to the female that was just behind him.

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Well well well. There was movement there, and over the thick grass and broken stone paced a tatterdemalion harlequin man - or boy, more like.

Lily, at the open gates, paused with wide eyes. To pace such a tumbled courtyard, singing wordless songs that might have been as at home in the rafters of a church -- she almost laughed with wonder, but swallowed it for the moment. With a wicked grin, she slid sideways, along the wall.

Well, if it wasn't a dark wood before, it was now....

She wormed her way though the spiny-soft needles of the great fir at the corner of the wall, and quick as she might up the thick-set branches inside. Trees like this were practically made for climbing, if you were skinny and limber and had a bit of practice. Also if you didn't mind pine-sap streaks all over clothes and skin and hair.

There was a convenient limb, looking over the top of the wall. She wriggled out on it, setting herself half hidden in the needles with her feet dangling, looking entirely comfortable. She'd never match a native for ease up in the boughs, but damm if she couldn't fake it.

Lily waited there, a bright spot of color among the green, for a lull in the song. When one came, then she did laugh, pitching the bright sound out to the singer, past stone and iron and hedgewood.

[darkunslint]

Darkun was so utterly concentrating on his song that he did not hear the girl that was very close behind him. The tree climbing should have given him some hint but he was oblivious to this fact. He continued singing as the girl behind him climbed and sat onto the tree in the corner.

A sound... A song... it came to him so suddenly he almost lost it. Darkun heard the high pitch behind him, he did not move, he did not turn, he didn't even breathe. He continued singing, hoping that whoever was behind him would not of noticed he was alert to his or her presence. He reached out, sensing the shadow behind him. He could surprise her, but if she was here something must be wrong. No one came here, the villagers where scared of this place.

He glanced slightly to the side, then to his other. He reached out his senses and suddenly became aware of the shadow nearby. A girl, sitting in the tree, he was taken aback, she had heard Darkun sing. He concentrated on the position of her shadow, carefully memorising the position of the branches shadows nearby the girl to calculate where he should phase in. He ensured she was still looking in his direction, building small amounts of energy at his feet; he would have to be quick.

Suddenly, Darkun was gone, in what could have easily been missed with a blink (He hoped that she had blinked) he was gone, pulled himself down into his shadow and darted behind the girl. He formed himself up into his regular self no more than half a metre behind the girl. Slowly he breathed outwards towards her in a very subtle and delicate tone " Well, seems like I'm no longer alone. What are you doing here?" There was no hint of evil or malice in his tone; it was spoken almost like a song, a cadence to it.

He waited for the reply from the girl, hoping that he hadn't startled her. Well that wasn't completely true, if she did run, it would mean that if he DID lose control, he wouldn't have to worry about her safety.

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Oh, Lily blinked - only it was before he moved, and after. She did see him pull down, collapse into nothing. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. Something darted across the ground like a bird-shadow.

Better and betterer! What a promising day!

At his voice, she languidly stretched her spine into an impossible arch, bending back to look at him upside-down. Her eyes where strange and her hair wild, and she favored him with a Cheshire grin.

"That was cool!" she said in her own voice, brash and laughing. "Did you just shadow-walk?"

Okay. So it wasn't exactly cryptic.

[darkunslint]

Darkun was completely taken back by this, "cool"? Who in their right mind would think something so draught with darkness was cool? Regardless. She was acrobatic, that was obvious enough, her spine doing an almost impossible manoeuvre, interesting he thought to himself.

" It’s called shadow jumping" He corrected her " And you didn’t answer my question... Just out of interest, didn't that just scare you?" He pondered upon his own words for a few minutes, seeing if he had placed them correctly. He hoped that he had.

At this distance, the girl could obviously see Darkun's eyes, the azure blue rim surrounded by darkness, almost mesmerising to stare at. His cloths: even more colourful than the girl in front of him. He quietly contemplated his next course of action, should he simply run? Try to talk to her? It had been a long time since he talked to anyone but Dawa ... And he wasn't really the best for conversation. " I apologise if I startled you" he explained, glad that the conversation had driven off his singing, and his strange cloths.

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"Scare -- oh yeah..." she started blankly, and then comprehension dawned. "I always forget that part. I hear that'll get me killed one day."

Lily dropped her spine so she lay out along the branch, fingers twined around flimsy twigs to keep balance, and looked up at him. "And you're right, but it's just cause I haven't made up a good answer yet. You?"

[darkunslint]

Darkun was always over trusting; especially when it came to people that didn’t run at the first sign of his powers. Which he knew, wasn't many. He simply stared at the girl for a few moments, contemplating what he should say, it was obvious that he wasn't going to scare her ... much. Finally he came up with his speech, not realising he was still half in his mesmerising and songlike voice.

" This was the last place I can remember... I woke up here, and can't remember anything of before here, bad memory loss..." He was hoping now, that this girl would simply leave, but secretly he hoped she wouldn't. This was the first contact with an actual person that he had in quite a while. He didn't want to ruin it and, although he was worried that he might hurt her, he was too selfish to let her leave.

" It's ok, I understand" he blurted out quickly " You don't have to say anything if you don't want to… I’m glad to have some company for once." He was hoping he didn’t sound too desperate, hoping that his singing voice had clouded his desperation. Although Darkun knew well that knowing his luck, it wouldn't.

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Lily burst out laughing at that, laughter that shook the the needles on their twigs. "Don't worry about understanding, you," she said, as soon as she had the breath, waveing a hand at him from where she lay. "Even I don't always get the stuff I do."

"So, amnesia? Amnesia sucks. It's like," she gestured widely. "Come on, universe, could you get more hackneyed?" She looked right at him, switching gears abruptly, and finished gravely, "It can."

[darkunslint]

(( Sorry, muse died on me))
Darkun instantly tensed up when she laughed, being as pessimistic as he was, he thought that she was laughing at him. Darkun looked at her; his face was blank, motionless, a statue. " It's nothing like amnesia ... Its more like, waking up as someone else?" He muttered this half serious half depressed " Doesn't make much sense even too me" he added hastily.

After several moments passed Darkun asked " So what are you doing here? Are you going to go into the mansion?" This was a rather strange question for Darkun to ask, he usually preferred just to run at the sight of people, but not here. Darkun fiddled with a few of his clasps that where wrought around his various belts, fiddling always calmed him, and probably made him look like a nervous wreck in the process... Of course, that was exactly what he was.

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Lily and silence... Well, sometimes they were the best of friends, and others, they couldn't seem to get along for anything. There was a lot of history between them, of course. The up-shot was, though, that it was a rare occasion for Lily to let several moments pass in that sort of silence.

And he was giving her the 'that's not funny' face. People were always giving her that look. They hardly every got how funny it all was, and thought she was callous or rude, and laughing at them.

But anyway, she didn't let the silence pass. She instead, twisting up her face in a 'thinking' sort of look, and kept right on talking, steamrolling over everything else.

"That does sound different. No, though - I've, right, never had it, but Edan said it was like waking up as not anyone. He said he had to work it all out all over again. Like sometimes when you first wake up, only that tends to go away. Huh....."

She trailed, but only for the smallest of time before she broke out, "Oh! That's how Trisha told me it was like!" She looked up at the boy, pleased at recalling.

[darkunslint]

Darkun stared at this girl, who the hell was she? She had lost her mind, he didn't understand a word that she had just said and was still confused about what they where actually talking. This girl was strange ... she had no idea what she was talking about and yet continued to gable and mumble about things that Darkun knew nothing about. It was all too confusing for him, he never understood girls.

After she finally shut up he mumbled " whaa?" far too quietly for any normal person to hear. Then he spoke up " Yes ... I guess it is" He didn’t know what was like what but he said it anyway. Maybe he could blarg it? Regardless eve this insane girl was better than no one right?

"I was thinking about going in there... it’s the last place I remember or maybe it was the first" He said this almost as a question to himself. Like she wasn’t really there and he almost forgot she was. " So... are you going to come along? I could do with the company" He said this and wondered if he really did want the company or just someone to satisfy Dawa with if he managed to get out.

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Lily wasn't really babbling, honest - she meant all the strange things she said. And she never mumbled except on purpose.
"Sure!" she said. The movement she made towards getting up was suddenly aborted, though, and she asked, "Wait, am I gonna get eaten if I do? Cause you'd be amazed how often that comes up."

[darkunslint]

Darkun was slightly humoured by that comment. Would he eat her? Along as Dawa didn't get out no. " You don't look very tasty" Darkun said half heartedly, laughing to himself. " So, ladies first?"

Darkun look over towards the door to the Mansion. Darkun couldn't climb trees, or even more difficult was climbing back down, he was like a cat. He seeped into his shadow, re-appearing at the base of the tree, waiting for the girl to join him.

"Maybe I have finally found a friend,” he mumbled to himself.