Mipealean Darkwaters - A life in Pictures

[OldBugEye]

For Reference - Original Character Submission:
http://www.layonara.com/recent-approvals/115860-character-submission-mipealean-darkwaters.html

[OldBugEye]

I can not find the ship I followed here for I think they left port.  But I must admit, returning to my home, where I had always felt different does not have the allure I thought it would.  Just leaving the water, my life is upside down.  I move from shadow to shadow, slinking here and there, hiding what I am and from those I do no understand.  I study what journals I can find in the trash but alsa, to learn their tongue will take much time.

I was caught by some elvish's girls of the surface as I was trying to catch the words of the guard, struting to and fro in the streets. They spent hours, motioning and waving and pointing but I fear we could barely communicate.  Finally, I caught their meanings.  The pointed to each other and often repeated the words, "Drexia" and "Tyrian".  They gave me coins to buy equipment with and I smiled much.

I left them to venture through the city when I found some young breathless human in need of something in the sewers.  I moved forward in hopes that I might find it and know that in finding it, I would understand what she wanted.  The small furry little beasts, with sharp pointy teeth, they were everywhere.  I worked my Trident and Dagger as best I could but it nearly killed me.  I rested quickly hoping to regain my strength before they could return.  Only too find some puddle of living ooze.  It tried to pull me, disolve me...it's touch was like acid.  I ran, ran like a fool back to the surface.

In the dark corners of the sewers, I rest, drawing on my strength and focusing for the next day, for what it shall bring I have no idea.  I only know that the meager skills of a sneaky dagger will do little harm against what I envision.

The Tattoo:
  On the forearm of the right arm.  A grey robe background for Tweed's memory, being dragged down from tight fingers by the plunging archor of a black sheeted ship.  The ooze-covered gnawing teeth of a rat at the frayed corner.  It will remind me of my first days in this land.

[OldBugEye]

Today, I sat staring at the pond outside the great walls.  I sat, just staring and the ripples in the water.  Like a flag of glass caught in a soft breeze, the movement mesmerized me.  And so I sat, calm, breathing, and watching as the ugly grey fish within the pond made ripple upon ripple in the day's sun.

And then it came to me, I could be the ripple.  Like a pebble in the pond.  A thought set in motion and I could move, slip, slide, in a graceful dance.  I am the wave.  Still I sat staring until the sun was low in the sky, I was so mesmerized by such a simple thought.  And then again, as I ate my day's catch, it came to me again.  So simple and so true.  My body could be like a drop of oil on a clean hot pan.  

So that evening, I headed out, in search to test my insight.  Slipping from shadow to shadow as I went north across the lands, into a great backbone of hills, towering above me.  I heard the growling before they came into view.  Their faces were that of the 4 legged creatures in the walled town but their bodies were like that of a man.  The smelled of the same diseased filth that had come on the black sheet ships.

I could not resist as I separated the spell flinger.  He stared as me as he called down the fire.  I stood in perfect balance as my thought found the ripple as I became the wave.  I tucked, tumbled and rolled in a daring jump.... and was left unscathed.  I grinned like a child as I ran deep to the bushes and around to more shadows as they searched me.

The Tattoo:
Over my left shoulder, a dog's maw spouts lashing flames for a halo on the muscle, like the waves of the pond.  Marking the center is a small pebble, shaped like a carved fish, in the shadow of a setting sun.

[OldBugEye]

Each morning I try to capture the balance I felt in that moment at the pond but interruptions are many it seems.  Even hidden from view, I am not left alone as the pond is on a well travelled road it seems.

I was met by two young ladies who indicated themselves to be Clarissa and Rose.  Those two spent half the day with me, pointing and sounding out the basic words to common objects and places around the area.  Just as I had done with a most helpful man, Balazar, not the week before, we travelled great distances.  They pointed to many land marks while we avoided what encounters we could.  My map has indeed grown complete and already it starts to grow well beyond my memory with so many new things.

I can say not more than a few words now but most come out like so much gibberish that all I find is the odd looks from those around me.  It is frustrating but it will come in time.  At least the dry elves, while I can not converse with them, I do catch on to a few words of their dialect.  It is quite an interesting study that I shall have to add finding a library to my list.

But each day, I return to the pond, trying to find that balance that so often eludes me.

[OldBugEye]

Braced at the edge of some river to the north of a forest that has obviously fell to some long lost disaster, I was caught by the simple beauty of the flowing river.  Oh, it was a sight, so wide and seemingly fresh as the air began to smell of rain.  I looked up with my face to the stars to feel each drop pitter patter upon my face and smiled.

My good traveling companion Hotaru, though I cannot speak his name so well, stood off in the distance speaking with some short dwarven girl.  The best I could say was Shdrwarfghs ... I will practice.

He stood talking as I watched the dance upon the water.  Rain drops falling so free, so quick.  The water lapping at the edge.  The air, so chrisp and clean.  It wasn't until Hotaru tapped my shoulder that I moved again.  

Amazing, to be caught in such balance and then we moved on.  For we were found by a new friend Rose, how she hums when she sees me.  I always humm back.  She was headed for a town she call Krandor and the crypts there in.  Oh, it was deadly.  Skeletons of massive power.  Zombies that made my skin crawl.  I slashed and faught but really followed Rose.  I saw unspeakable things that I dare not write hear lest I remember them more.  We lost poor Hotaru's finger but it was replaced with as many bandages as we could find.  He should be ok.

When we left, though I did not know it, we gave some ashes to a wee girl who's smile did make my heart melt a bit.  Sweet as could be.

Twas an interesting adventure.  I return now to the waters edge to find that peace and calm I have seeked.  I believe it now to be mediation in some form.  It is in the dance of the drops that I have honed my expertise with dodging foes.  To slip between their lunging blades and out reached arms as smooth as any warrior.

The Tattoo:
A hand holding a weighing balance.  On one side, it's outstretched finger has  been cut off by a corpse-like face from behind.  On the other side of the balance, a river flowing from rain poors drops from the hand above.  Below each side of the balance, the closed eyes of someone in serene mediation.

[OldBugEye]

I spent my day in excerise finished with practicing my stretches and agility. It was raining this day as I once again sitting watching the foamy brook outside of the wall of Hempstead.  Already, I am more limber than I have been in all my life when my eye caught something at the edge of my vision that sparked a thought.... or I should say sparkled a thought.

I stared both in amazement and wonder as a simple bead of water slid down the wall of the old shack.  It moved too and fro, slipping and sliding, both part of the wall but of it's own accord.  And then much like my own thoughts, it gave inspiration for more practice.  With no weapons, I practiced and practiced my dodging skills, moving those the windy willows like they were opponents.  Punching the cat tailed weeds until my arms sagged from exertion.  

Maybe it is my life as a sea elf that has brought me here but I find solace in the forms of water.  So here I sit again, listening to the bubbling brook as I meditate on my person.

[OldBugEye]

*shakes his head as he writes*

This day was both fraught with beauty and with peril.  I was sleeping at the water's edge outside of Vehl when some adventuring travellers were discussing a trip into the nearby mountains.

It was in these high peaks, I have found wonder in a sight never seen by mine own eyes before.  My half-elf guide, Tyrian she called herself, pointed to the skyies as we passed the fortified walls of some dwarven stronghold, and said a single word, "Snow."  How wonderous.  Each piece would take a artisan a lifetime to carve and no piece was alike, as the sky was filled with pieces like the night is filled with stars.  And how she smiles as my eye lit up... upon the back of my hand, the "Snow" became water as it brought a small chill too me.

While this was indeed the high for me, there was a low.  Not more than a few minutes later, farther between the peaks, Tyrian and her friend fell.  I escaped only that she gave her life to slow them down, bless her.  

When I found myself back in town, 1/2 frozen from the journey of sneaking ever so slowly around anything that crossed our paths, I could only return to the water's edge where they found me.  To think on the frailities of life and the wonder of what "Snow" might teach me.

The Tattoo:
On the calf, a 3" diameter snowflake, the bottom 1/3rd melted in a pool upon which lies a figure at rest, possibly human or elf.

[OldBugEye]

*written in a strong hand, sure and deft*

My skills grow with each day as I continue to teach myself inner appreciation and dedication.  Oh, like the water I draw strength and insight from, it is but a drop in the ocean but I learn and learn.

I have seen the snowy water that falls from the sky and only now to I understand the powers and insight I have gained from it.  Just as the snowflake is the representation for individuality...for artistic impression... for beauty.  Ice can be deadly.

Ice, an amazing substance, for when the cold takes your heart, water will freeze.  In the mountains ourside Vehl, I sat with dwarven teachers that Garnet Stonesoul told me to speak with.  We sat in upon the rocks, near to my death from cold as the old master spilled his canteen upon rocks before us.  We spent 3 days in meditation together as we spoke not a word.  On the morning of the 4 day, he explained how the frozen water turned to shards that split the stone, then rose and, grabbing the rocks with his hands, shattered them easily.

He walked away with only a few words tossed over his shoulder, "Mind then body, learn my friend of both..."

It almost makes me laught to think what a simpleton I was months ago when I first arrived.  I still think of his words.

[OldBugEye]

//OOC Post: Based on Mip's sea elf hertiage and intent on being a monk, I am using his past knowledge and basic affinity with water, to begin self-teaching him the basics skills to becoming an entry0level monk.  With each experience with various "forms of water" I have tried to come up with various revelations to continue with his self-taught nature.  As he grows closer to level 9 and 10, I have begun making learning from monk's about me and attempting to fight lesser creatures with only my hands as I can not weild a kama.

[OldBugEye]

How life's directions turn as a river overflows it's banks.  In these past weeks, I have met many that have turned my thoughts and focused them to concentrated effort.

Master Beli Tenker, a dwarf.  He offered to take me back into those mountains near Vehl.  Just us two, we fought as I showed him my meager skills against the snow-while creatures there.  We spent much time together and when we parted ways, I spend a day in careful pondry on the edge outside his dwarven home, watching each flake fall upon the pass below me.

Master Krysthalien, an elven.  How he moved as I watched him parry blows that would cleave giant in two only to turn it back at the attacker.  His grace has been unparalleled. When I left his side in the desert, I found a shelter spot near the town of Audria to dwell on his careful, calculated style.  At the water's edge, I spent a week thinking on his few words and his heart felt will to help.

Master Cideous, a gnome.  With dextrous skill beyond that of even Krysthalien, he dodged a slipped through blow after blow, surrounded by giants that would crush me with a single hit.  He used his size to his advantage, and like a piece of frozen ice, he slide through his opponents striking with unerring accuracy.  In leaving the cave of giants, I found a dark spot where a small spring has forced it's way through the great earth, and calmed myself for introspection as he bade me.

In all 3, the dwarf, the gnome and the elf, they reinforced that great will and great concentration.  I have found my meager physical skills through exertion and experience...now I focus within to become an initiate of an order in mine own way.

The tattoo:
At the base on my skull, at the back of my head, below my hair line, a bald head looking down in thought.  The features seem that of any race while the strain and focus is accentuated with a glow from behind.

[OldBugEye]

I have traveled the depth and finally understand the masters words.  For it is not in the power of the body but by the power of the mind that a great being does truly become it's potential.

I traveled with many a great warrior, wizard and healer this day.  In the lands of Dregar, they showed me about, here and there.  Near to bragging over their skills and then we went deep into the caves of giants.  Great fearsome things with fists that would crush a man or leave him sensless.  

Deeper we journeyed when we found a door.  They bade me to open it and ever gave me tools to make the job possible.  The regret weighs heavy on my heart now, for I opened that door.  Before, the giants had gathered in great numbers, paying omage to their king.  A king of kings for it was a worm of great power.  They saw it, renewed their strength and continued onward.  

In that moment, as I watched each member drop to the ground, dead beneath the dragons claws, I learned the power of the mind.  For in my self realization, I saw their ruin and saved myself.  Pride be as deadly as the viper's venom.

The Tattoo:
Above his chest and below his neckline, the dragon's eye looks on as the maw drips with blood.  It is framed in the edges of an open book.  The opposite page, the three heads of a gnome, dwarf and elf.

[OldBugEye]

A year the master spoke of and a year I have waited.  I have begun the journey now, knowing full well what is intended to my future and where it lay.  This I tell myself most humbly for only within one's own self can the truth of your being bring to be what is possible.

I am what I am but I shall become the vision of what may.