Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » TMIG and Mai (1x1)

Right now Mai was walking out of a shop on the outskirts of town. She had just bought another pencil after the last one was lost in the river due to a unfortunate event of falling. Safety is one thing she forgets when something catches her attention. While she had been in the store, a riddle popped into her head as they usually do from no where. She didn't mind, she loved the challenge. "Mmm, who is he that runs without a leg and his house on his back...?" she tapped the side of her head with the pencil.
A glimpse of something golden snapped her out of her concentrated state. But then the riddle popped back up like an annoying bug that just won't leave you alone. "No legs...house...snail!" she smiled shouting the last word and causing a few people to turn in surprise at her sudden outburst. She blinked and wish she had a shell of her own to hide in and she quickened her pace. Another blinding light bounced off gold. She turned and looked, pencil behind her ear and pad in hand as she spotted the source.

The Man in Gold was walking through a town, not overly small or big, but he was on the outskirts of it as he had just arrived to pick something up that was lost here, not long ago, by one of his employees. A trivial thing, really, but something that he wanted very much: a book. However, this book was very hard to find, and in fact, it could even be considered one-of-a-kind, as most copies of it had turned to dust long ago, from being so old. So, when he walked through the sidewalks of town, drawing many stares from people, he turned his head to the sound of a word being shouted. A young woman was standing there, with a smile on her face, and he stopped in his tracks. He seldom associated with humans, however he could tell that standing on a street and shouting words was not something most of them did.

On a whim, he approached her and grunted a greeting at her.

"Excuse me, madam," he asked in a low, rasping tone, "but are you alright?"

That source was walking towards her at that moment. He was rather tall, taller than her most definitely. She looked at his right shoulder as she often did to people so that she wouldn't draw what she saw in the eyes. Some things people just don't want others knowing, not alone seen. His voice was a whole other story as he spoke to her. It seemed as though he didn't practice speaking often and probably, judging by the lack of wrinkles around his mouth, smiling was also off the list of things he did do. "Uh yes. Yes I am, just manage to finally solve a riddle of mine. Quite amusing what likes to pop up here." while she spoke she had removed the pencil from the top of her ear and was tapping her temple with it.

And for a moment, a quick slip of her head as a bell made it's high pitched ring, her eyes flashed by his. It caught her off guard as it often did as she was pulled to draw. Without looking down at the notebook she held, her hand instantly flipped it to a blank page and began to draw. It wasn't against her will nor was she being pressed to do it. Once she catches a person's eyes, it was like she must, a need that wanted to be filled in that instant and moment. The book he had in his mind was relatively easy for her to draw. Though it would have been incredibly difficult for even the most well trained and experienced artists in the world it was like drawing a simple shape to her. Then she was pulled out and her hand closed the book. Mai took a breath of air as she always does after being in these trances. Groaning, she rubbed her forehead and moved a little further from him to avoid any more occurrences.

His eyes were not easily read, largely due to a lack of any discernible features in them, but he was gazing at the drawing she did. A perfect likeness to the book he had been searching for, he was sure of it. So, once she had finished, he approached her and extended his hand to her book.

"You just drew something, a book. Why did you draw it, and where do you know it from? I'm looking for that book, and I know that it's here."

He was always this rude, this forward, with people when he wanted something. Unfortunately, he seldom had the right person or the right tone to get what he wanted, and so he usually fought his way through a place until he had recovered whatever he was looking for from under the ashes. However, he was neither in the mood nor in the hurry to track down this book. No other players would be after him, and this was more of an errand for himself rather than a task that needed completion.

"I don't really know the book, other than just seeing now by looking at you." Not caring to explain she opened the pad. "I have a rather unique ability to draw what a person is thinking in that exact moment. Though I believe you have given me quite the headache." He was really difficult and she rarely ever met people of this level. Mai took no offense of his rudeness, rather found it better than the appalled looked she'd get if a person saw what she had drawn prior to what they where thinking.

She didn't know why he was looking for this book other that it was really 'important' but he wasn't going to be taking her notebook. No way she would let him. There were just too many things, personal things, that where in there. So she kinda kept it from his reach but not from his gaze. "It's seems you have a bit of trouble." She knew this much just by his face which again was hard to pin. "Now," she tucked the pencil behind her ear again and adjusted her bangs by the jerk of her head. "I should be on my way." she closed the book and hid it from his sight and was about to take off.

He sighed and raised his voice to make it clear to her that she needed to hear him out, but he didn't make any moves to hold her back.

"Don't go, not yet. You saw that book, somehow, and you drew it; however, you don't know that book, and have never seen it in person. You're a...medium, or something like that, and you can help me. I need to find that book, but whatever book stores in this area won't just give up the knowledge that they may have it, or that they know where it is. It's extremely valuable, and obviously so, but without a clear knowledge of the language it's printed in, it's valueless."

He paused, not sure if he should even be telling all of this to the woman. Granted, he couldn't ask her to help without some sort of incentive, so he rummaged for the belt around his waist.

"I have money here, assuming that's what you want, and I have vast, unrivaled knowledge on a lot of things. If you can see things, read my mind, then you should find me a...difficult book to read; it's a very long book, written in a dead language, but if you help me find this real book, here somewhere in this place, then I'll help you with the metaphorical book, translating it and such."

She paused turning to face him as he talked. "I really have no use in money. It's such a trivial thing these days anyway." Mai looked to his shoulder and thought, about his second offer however. Just seeing the book he had been thinking about gave her a headache. To see everything to his 'book' would be death.

Death though could be freedom to this little curse that she had grown into. "As for a medium," she laughed hoarsely, "no I am not such a thing as that, I'm afraid." she sighed and ran a hand through her raven black hair. "Though. I am quiet interested in the latter option." she pulled out her pencil once more. The poor thing never stayed behind her ear long.

"I will help you. I can't guarantee that I will be as useful as you may wish, but I will put my best effort into it." This was going to be a truly big migraine later in the day. It was worth it. Mai didn't usually get involve too deep with a person's soul, just this one seemed quite amusing. "And a forewarning. If talk to myself do not be alarmed. Riddles like to plague me in the most inappropriate of times, as you have witnessed..." She opened her pad to the book again, tearing it out and handing it to him. "You may need this more than me." She smiled and turned to look at the crowd. Yep, a very big migraine.

He clutched the drawing from her hands and held it close, in order to better see it. Admittedly, the drawing was a perfect likeness, but the lettering along the spine was all wrong. She wouldn't have gotten a clear visual of the title, as he had gone far too long to know exactly what it was, but most of the letters that had been attempted were in the wrong places. Not surprising, since he had been trying to recall, unsuccessfully, what exactly the book had been called, and she wouldn't have known his language anyway.

"This is a very...good...drawing," he muttered, as compliments weren't something that he gave out much, "but you've gotten the letters all wrong. Do you see here? This would translate to 'Avc Nnislk Ynlht', which is just gibberish to me. Although, I really don't know what the book is even called; not that it makes much difference, since no one would be able to read the title on the book's side anyway. Now, direct me to the nearest book store, and when we find the proprietor, I'll ask them and you see if they're telling the truth. Or however you work, I don't know."

He was begrudgingly grateful for the assistance, but he would have to see how well she performed before he would commit to revealing much to her. There were a lot of painful memories, a lot of hard memories, but the good ones, the ones that made him desperately yearning for the past, were buried under the ones of battle, of vengeance. If she was going to read through his past, she'd have a long and miserable read, but it would be faster than trying to explain to her.

He lost her on the words as he spoke them only blinking as a confused response. The letters she saw where too blurry to make out so she merely improvised. Now as far as the book store went, she could lead him there with her eyes close. Well she had done it before just only to prevent adding more to the headache she had back then. "It is very interesting."

She examined it closely as he pointed to it. Again to the bookstore, "It would be this way." She pointed toward the center of town. "On the west side." And so she began to move swiftly among the crowd without any trouble. With another riddle caught in her lips. Speaking it out loud,

"What flies without wings?
What passes all things?
What mends all sorrow?
What brings the morrow?"

She smiled, "This one is quit interesting, don't you think...?" She turned and looked behind her, forgetting that he was wearing a lot more than she. Not really thinking about how it would effect his movements and agility.

He snorted at the riddle, and though she had probably wanted to solve it herself, he couldn't resist speaking up in his low, grumbling voice, with his own input.

"Time. Time flies without wings, passes all things, mends all sorrow, and brings the morrow. I've had a lot of it. Now then, how far to this bookstore, and how many are around here?"

He continued to walk behind her, not really interested in keeping pace with her. His armor and his body weight alone slowed him down, not to mention his crippling arthritis kept his speed to a slow hobble; he'd grown so used to it that he no longer noticed how slowly he moved, except when following the agile feet of others. In any case, if she got too far ahead of him, he could always take a portal to where she ended up, assuming he had eye contact with her current position.

This was proving to be an interesting errand, to say the least. The woman's personality was, admittedly, a little irritatingly cheerful, but at least she was willing to help. If she could really help him find the book, then they could delve into his past, and perhaps he could even grow to...tolerate her.

He spoke the answer before it could leave her lips, and she in amusement turned to smile at him. "Ah good, someone to share the riddles with! Five stores in total. And not far at all, cause we are already here." She pushed in the doorway and the smell of old books hit her. Although she loved to read; Mai doubted she would ever be in here. Just the moldy scent would keep her away. Taking the collar of her shirt, she covered her nose. "This should be a good sign right? Since it is an old book."

Mai disappeared behind a bookshelf and touched a book, which in turn fell into a pile of dust making her sneeze. Stirring up a cloud of it. "No," she sniffed,"If it's here. It's not on the shelves." If it was recently put here, than it must of been more solid and wouldn't turn to dust by a mere poke of a finger.

"Hello? Anyone here? Need to check out a book!" she called out. Whoever worked here surely would be making hast to answer such a call. Or if perhaps this place was abandoned then it would cause a little bit of a problem in this man's search. In which case she didn't want to happen because just his aura gave off waves of barely held back force.

The disintegration of the book had struck him as slightly irreverent on the woman's part, but she was right about the book not being on the shelves. The thing bore gold leaf on the page edges, and had gold filigree on the cover; there was no way that any shopkeeper would be gullible enough to keep it on the shelves. Without waiting for the Mai's statement to bring out an employee, the Man in Gold walked up to the counter and, after a moment of deliberation, decided to go around rather than through it. Property damage was something that he was used to dealing with every day, but there really wasn't any need for it in this case, as he could just as easily navigate around the thing without aggravating his arthritis any more.

"I'll just take a look back here. Chances are good that if they do have it here, it won't be out where customers...or shoplifters...could take a look at it. This book isn't something to be sold to the general public; it's something to be held onto and traded to rare books dealers, off the open market."

She snorted, "Most of these librarians are blind and don't know the worth of any book. As long as they get their gold. Then that's all they care about. They don't really care about the book itself." She put a hand on her hip as she moved further back. The sight that laid before her was gruesome. The man was dead, of that she was sure. Looked like he was dried from the inside out. He kinda reminded her of a raisin...she wasn't ever eating those again.

"I found our librarian." She called back to him. "Judging by his...situation, your book might have been here." But to make sure. Mai walked closer to him and took a deep breath. She didn't really enjoying this, but...


Flashback
"When people die, it takes a little longer for their brain to the same. It may last about thirty minutes or less. But it can be done." Said her teacher as he pointed to a dead rabbit. "Try it out on this...."

She knew she only had a limited time so with effort she looked into the still open eyes of the old man and she was instantly drawn into the darkness. Looking into a dead man's eyes were so much more difficult. When the person was alive and well, she was always surrounded by amazing colors. The dead however was dark as ink and felt like it too. Her hands moved on their own accord as they began to draw what she was seeing. It maybe a bit harder to get back to her body this time. It always was when visiting the dead...

He moved the head of the corpse to one side, then to the other. The man hadn't been dead for a tremendous amount of time, but his condition bespoke the powerful magic that had been used to kill him. The book wasn't responsible for this, not in the slightest. It may have been old, and of great value, but it wasn't that kind of an artifact; of that he was certain. With Mai looking into the man's eyes, the Man in Gold stepped back and waited for her.

"When you've finished up, tell me what you've found. It wasn't one of the other players that got to him, I know that much. Perhaps a local wizard or rogue, feeling too sure of their power, came and did this, or perhaps it was revenge for a bad deal. If you can also see if the book was here, that would be most helpful," he growled.

He didn't much like hitting literal dead ends, but at least she seemed to be drawing something again. With her along, he might even reach his goal without having to resort to violence once.

He wouldn't have known it, but she could hear his voice. Sort of sounding muffled in the background. But it help lead her back out of this man's soul or what was left of it which was leaving this very body as she escaped. Then her head snapped back and she took several steps backwards in order to balance herself. "Goodness, it feels like I've ran into a tree..." Mai said as she slowly picked up her notebook which she had dropped on the floor.

As she opened it to the page, her eyes grazed over the sketch. "Well, well, well. Looks like you may have been right. Looks like there was an unhappy customer." It looked like the man held a pile of dust much like the dust that the book she had touched earlier had turned into. "Looks like it did the same to him." She snickered. But something caught her eye. "Here look at this." She held it at what she thought was the right distance for his eye sight. Since earlier she had noted him moving the picture before.

"Looks like it might have been here. Maybe after the man killed him, he took this as another act of revenge. But why would a man kill a librarian over a simple book? Could it be that maybe he wasn't given the book we are searching for or is it a murder who wishes to make a profit to pay back for the book he bought?" She tapped the small book that set on the librarian's lap. "It really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me." Mai tore out the picture and set it in his hands. Then made her way out of the store. She couldn't take the moldy smell any longer.

As he stared at the picture that Mai had handed to him, the Man in Gold figured that the book had departed with this unhappy customer. Her question made sense to him, in more ways than she may have known; he had seen men kill each other over patches of dirt, over scraps of food, and even over nothing at all. A book, and particularly one such as the one he was searching for, would hardly be the pettiest thing that he had seen murder committed over. He turned and exited the office area.

As he walked out into the street, shortly after her, he handed her back the drawing with a look down one side of the street, and then up the other. For such a pleasant day, there were hardly any people on the streets; perhaps his imposing presence had driven away many of them, or perhaps the places around here closed early. In any case, he would need to track down the unhappy customer to find where the book had gone next; if it had been a rare book dealer, as he suspected, then there would only be a handful of possible killers to track down. Plus, if the book was in the hands of a dealer, there was a chance, albeit a small one, to try and buy it off of him.

"We'll have to track down this individual that you've drawn, I suppose."

"Mmmm." She replied, in short. Yes they would and she didn't think going to any more libraries would give them any more clues. They were lucky that it was the first one they chose. Otherwise they would have been looking around a lot longer. "I don't think he is on any of the wanted posters." she looked at some of the flaps of paper and shook her head.

Mai had taken the paper he had held out to her. Realizing it was her drawing, she simply tucked it in her back pocket and looked up at the sun, then at a shop. "...I also don't think anyone will be any more of a help. Since one it is a book, and two it can be easily be hidden, and three it can be easily mistaken for some kind of personal journal so no one is really going to be paying attention to such things."

She sat down and rubbed her face, then just sat there. Peeking down at the ground through her fingers thinking hard about what direction they should go in. Something lit a light bulb in her head though when she heard a bell and mingled voices. "There is another hope though. One that may a bit more revealing than our last clue." she sat her head on her palm and looked up at him. "But not really going to like it though. At least...I don't think you will..."

He watched her carefully, the black "eyes" of his helmet staring at her blankly while he raised an eyebrow, his face hidden from her by the golden facade. Her suggestion, to him, seemed to imply that he would be doing whatever was next, not her, and he didn't like that implication one bit, even before he knew her plan.

"Listen, I'm not about to go doing all the work here myself, woman," he growled, "I'm far too old, and far too stiff to be traipsing around. You're the young one here, and if it involves a lot of physical work, you can't expect me to do much."

The Man in Gold paused and seethed for a moment before speaking once more.

"Now, if your plan involves something else, then out with it. You'd be surprised what I'm capable of withstanding, even if I don't like it, to get this book; but, if I'm too worn out to walk, I can't very well be expected to talk to you for a long time about my past, now can I?"

She looked offended, "I may be younger than you, but I am not inconsiderate. You won't be doing this alone and I wouldn't make you. It's not like I could." She smiled and took down a flyer off of the pole. "This, my acquaintance, is what I was referring to." she pointed down at the paper. "The traveling market will be here today and tomorrow."

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she looked down at the paper. "If your book was of any profit and the person, whether he knows it or not, may try to sell it to these people. We should go and take a look around to see if it may be there." She cleared her thought. "Now this is the part I need you to do." Mai looked at his shoulder.

"Since it will be overly crowded and hard to keep my gaze up, I will need you to be my eyes. There is no way I will be of use to you if I am in a trance every three seconds. Then if you spot anyone one or anything that has any close resemblance to the person I drew; I will try and see if I can get close enough to get a reading from him."

He snorted at her statements, and her plan, but he didn't express any more discontent. In fact, after a moment to think about it, he raised his armored hands for a moment and then let them drop to his sides before taking a step closer to her.

"If that's all that I have to do, then that's fine. You have to understand, I'm not accustomed to things being so...straightforward. Usually, to get something, I have to exert a lot of energy, and get through a lot of different people before I even know where to look. It's...nice," he flinched a little at using the word, "to have someone to take care of the details."

He then followed behind her after she had begun to go off towards the market. There was not another sound out of him, except for the occasional grunt of discomfort due to his arthritis acting up when he walked, unless she asked him a specific question.