Of Tigers and Blossoms II [Caeli + The Lotus Eater]
<h1 id="title">Elliquiy Role Playing Forums</h1>
		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Bondage, D/s, S&amp;M =&gt; Bondage: Human Solos =&gt; Topic started by: The Lotus Eater on 19-07-2008, 07:32:02</h2>
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				Title: <strong> Of Tigers and Blossoms II [Caeli + The Lotus Eater]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>The Lotus Eater</strong> on <strong>19-07-2008, 07:32:02</strong>
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				The town of Jade Forest Peak was not on a mountain, nor was it amidst a deep green forest.&nbsp; Jade Forest Peak was just as desolate and poor as everywhere else after the flood, drought, and bandits had come, but the name made it deliberately difficult to find.&nbsp; Jade Forest Peak was only poor on the surface where the lives of the commoners was evident.&nbsp; The town was home to the Big Three, three syndicates that fought over what little there was, most often through subtle means.&nbsp; In Jade Forest Peak the gangsters sat above the local elite, who could only have any semblance of power if they sucked up to whichever of the three was currently at the top.&nbsp; Still, bandit groups preyed upon Jade Forest like any town, hunting for food and supplies.&nbsp; The gangsters did not care, for it was the common people who suffered the raids.&nbsp; Most bandits knew not to get too greedy, as those which did decide to raid the local mansions never returned unless in multiple pieces.&nbsp; The common people needed someone to protect them, as it sure wasn't going to be the gangs, so a boxer group was formed.&nbsp; At first the boxers were strong and just, but as the gangsters became jealous and unwilling to share power they began offering the more corruptible boxers attractive positions in their gang, and simply getting rid of those who were not.&nbsp; Now only three boxers remain, a mere three heroes in a town where corruption thrives as much inside the walls as outside.&nbsp; <br><br><br>Summer of 1892, mid afternoon at the steps of the boxer's headquarters.<br><br>"What do we do?" one bandit asked aloud, looking back at the uncertain faces of a dozon or so allies, "that's the fearsome Ma Shan, also called 1,000 Blades...!"&nbsp; Another stepped forward, squinting.&nbsp; "I think... I think he's asleep!" he remarked.&nbsp; It was true, the towering Ma Shan lay horizontal in a drunken stupor against the steps of his HQ.&nbsp; The first bandit scooped down and picked up a rock, tossing it at the sleeping warrior.&nbsp; Ma Shan's hand flew up to wave the rock away about ten seconds too late, before flopping back down on the steps.&nbsp; The bandits laughed amongst themselves, gathering the courage to approach.&nbsp; They had been paid by one of the Big Three to ransack what remained of the boxer's HQ and tear down their sign as proof.&nbsp; It seemed it was going to be easier than expected, as the bandits stepped over Ma Shan's miserable form and pulled down the last shred of pride the house had.&nbsp; They boomed with laughter as they left the house in a mess, throwing insults at the oblivious Ma Shan as they went off with the sign.&nbsp; "What are you looking at!?" one yelled out, shooing away the peasants who watched in shame.&nbsp; One by one the onlookers shook their heads and went back to work, the last shred of hope in their hearts now gone.&nbsp; &nbsp; 
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				Title: <strong>Re:  Of Tigers and Blossoms II [Caeli + The Lotus Eater]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Caeli</strong> on <strong>06-08-2008, 08:25:26</strong>
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				<table class="bbc_table"><tbody><tr><td>(http://70.32.39.16/elluiki/images/3/3c/Meiling.png)</td><td>Most of the villagers ignored the cloaked and hooded foreigner who watched the proceedings from a distance, leading a horse behind her; travelers were not a new thing these days, with most of the country poor and desolate after natural disasters and banditry. Many people wandered the land, purposeless, their homes lost... merely trying to survive.<br><br>But these days... well, it was hard even to do that, sometimes.<br><br>She hadn't known how hard it was to survive for commoners. Yes, she had seen the poverty in the capital; after all, her own father, Lord Chen Lang, untouched by the political corruption that plagued the country's civil servants, was no little sympathetic to the great gap between the rich and the poor, the titled and the peasantry. He had helped how he could, pulling from the family's own coffers to help feed those who requested aid from them. They had all helped - Meiling's older brothers, of course, most of them years older than she - and of course, Meiling had helped in what way she could.<br><br>Until she had left home on her own and saw the country herself, though, Meiling hadn't truly realized the extent of the country's sufferings. Many of the country's nobles remained isolated in the oases of their private estates, not knowing or ignorant of their people's plight. Meiling saw this, as she traveled.<br><br>Of late, she had stories of the heroic boxers, vigilantes who acted against gangsters and bandits. But if this was what remained of them... well, hardly a comfort to the country's people.<br><br>Chen Meiling, the youngest child of Lord Chen Lang and no weak lily of the Imperial Court, walked up to the man that the bandits had named "Ma Shan," still in his oblivious and drunken stupor. Hooded and cloaked as she was, with her sword strapped to her side under the folds of her cloak, Meiling could easily have passed for a man, if not for her glorious mane of hair (currently tied in a queue down her back) and her thickly lashed eyes. The disguise wouldn't pass under intent scrutiny, but it didn't usually need to.<br><br>Wondering how best to wake up the man, Meiling finally resorted to a childhood tactic, taught to her by the younger of her elder brothers, to use on the older ones. She kicked him. Hard.<br><br>"My lord, I suggest you awaken and see what bandits have done to your headquarters," she suggested mildly when he showed signs of waking.</td></tr></tbody></table>
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