Welcome to Ran (meilin)'s journal for Gui Feng. Please do not post with meilin's permission, thank you.



Gui Feng comes from Tales of the Middle Country, a breedable/changing pet shop. To visit the main shop go here.

..:: Table of Contents ::..

01 :: Rei's Post
02 :: Table of Contents
03 :: Rules
04 :: History
05 :: Profiles
06 :: Stages
07 :: Family Ties
08 :: Relationships
09 :: Role Playing Log
10 :: Photo Gallery
11 :: Inventory
12 :: Point Tally
13 :: Reserved
14 :: Reserved
15 :: Reserved

..:: Rules of the Journal ::..

1 :: Do not post here unless you have been given permission to post.

2 :: If given permission to post, posts should be kept relevant to the shop. I would prefer that there be little to no OOC posts in my journal.

3 :: Do not steal or borrow any of the images. Tales of the Middle Country official images belong to Tooaya, the owner. All other artwork belongs to the artist that drew it.

4 :: Rules are subject to change at any point if I feel it necessary.

..:: History ::..

11.01.07 :: Artifact received from shop. (RP of obtainment needed)
11.04.07 :: Ran entered the shop ORP. (hopefully acting as the obtainment RP) [link]
11.22.07 :: Gui Feng reached its enhanced stage.
11.26.07 :: Finished the obtainment RP with Ran leaving the shop ORP and my first journal entry.
11.27.07 :: Wrote the enhancement RP.
12.01.07 :: Gui Feng grew into his sprite stage!
12.14.07 :: Wrote the sprite RP.
02.23.08 :: Started appointment with Kirin RP. [link]
03.10.08 :: Gui Feng grew into his spirit stage!
04.11.08 :: Wrote a random Easter RP.
05.08.08 :: Ran joined an RP with Charles and Dewei Yu. [link]
06.24.08 :: Wrote an after the gardens visit RP.

(( Basically a time line of events in the artifact's life. ))

..:: Profiles ::..

Ran Pierce

Gender :: Female
Age :: early 20's

Personality
She's as friendly to one person as she is to the next. She comes off having an overly happy outlook on life, even when dealing with inner turmoil. She doesn't like to rely on other people to help her, and she doesn't care what other people think of her. Most of the time; there are a few buttons people can push that will hurt her deeply.

Appearance
She keeps her hair cut short in the back gradually growing longer in the front. The front of her hair hangs down to just about the shoulders. Her hair is black with hints of red highlights. Her skin tone is a soft bronze-like tan. She has gray-blue eyes. Averaging about 5'5" in height, she has a slender, somewhat athletic figure. Her style of dress various depending on her mood, ranging anywhere from casual to dressy.

(( This is my OC who buys Gui Feng. I shall be slowly updating the information about her as I think it up. ))

Gui Feng

Gender :: Male
Stage :: Spirit

Personality
Gui is a mischievous sort. He likes to play tricks on people, especially Ran, by relocating plants to confuse or trip them.

Artifact Background
Tree demons are described as tall, brown, hairy males with beards. They are typically seen smoking big tobacco pipes, whose strong smell is used to attract the attention of humans. They make their homes in big trees and are most often found sitting under the three.

Tree demons are not necessarily considered evil. Some tree demons may make contact with humans to offer friendship or if it is attracted to a woman. If a tree demon befriends any human, especially because of love, the tree demon will consistently follow its "love interest" throughout life. They like to play pranks on people, frequently causing travelers to become disoriented and lose their way.

Some experiences of seeing a tree demon are reported as: witnessing the rustle of tree branches even if the wind is not strong, hearing loud laughter or voice coming from an unseen being, witnessing lots of smoke from the top of a tree, and seeing big, fiery eyes during the night from a tree.

(( Information about the tree demon taken from a wikipedia article about "Kapre" from Philippine mythology. ))

..:: Stages ::..

[imgleft]http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb108/kazuzak/totmc/tgfA.png[/imgleft] -==Artifact==-

The magical experience begins by obtaining an artifact from the shop. Some will look very old and outdated, while the others might look more modern. Whichever is the case, the artifacts are dormant at this stage. You have the choice to either sell it to an antique dealer or keep it...

[imgleft]http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb108/kazuzak/totmc/tgfB.png[/imgleft] -==Enhanced==-

For whatever reason you have kept the artifact with you, and one day you find that smokes are coming out of the artifact! No, no water...it's not on fire, don't worry. But at this point, surely you'd want to take this thing back to Kirin and return it because it creeps you out, right? No??

[imgleft]http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb108/kazuzak/totmc/tgfC.png[/imgleft] -==Sprite==-

So somehow you managed to not throw this haunted artifact away... Well what about now? Waking up today you find a little creature sitting next to/on top of/around/within your artifact! And WTF it talks! Although really...all it can say is Chinese...you might want a translator for it, or choose to throw the thing away. Oh but wait! Why is this thing still here?? You were sure that you had buried it somewhere far away! Looks like this little thing is stuck on you...Maybe it would be helpful to ask Kirin what to do.

[imgleft]http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb108/kazuzak/totmc/tgfD.png[/imgleft] -==Spirit==-

At this stage your little artifact creature has grown to the point that it is able to go around without carrying the artifact. Depending on your decision, it might speak a little English...but that's not for sure. Oh well, at least you have a companion in your life? You still can't touch them though...

-==???==-

If you really are attached to your spirit, then perhaps you should consult Kirin to preform a mortalization on your artifact. Who knows what happens afterwards...

(( Stages information taken from Tales of the Middle Country shop's front page. ))

..:: Family Ties ::..

(( Currently, I haven't thought about Ran's family, but I'll be filling this post in once I've given some thought to those who are related to her. ))

..:: Relationships ::..

Rie :: A worker at the shop where Ran got the dead tree branch. They met briefly when Ran received the artifact and again later when Ran returned with her sprite.

Kirin :: Owner of the shop where Ran got the dead tree branch. They met when Ran returned to ask for help concerning her sprite and spirit connected Ran and Gui.

Nu Wo :: The first spirit that is recalled by Kirin. They met briefly when Kirin performed the spirit connection for Ran.

Charles :: A high schooler that Ran met at the Menewshan Botanical Gardens.

Dewei Yu :: An older man that Ran met at the Menewshan Botanical Gardens.

..:: Role Playing Log ::..

[link] :: Ran enters the Tales of the Middle Country shop ORP to find her artifact, the dead tree branch. (Shop ORP)
[link] :: Ran returns home after work and ponders over the artifact. (end of the Obtainment RP)
[link] :: The night before her day off, Ran watches some movies when she suddenly find that her artifact is on fire! (Enhancement self-RP)
[link] :: Ran wakes up early one morning to strange sounds in her apartment and discovers an odd little being running around. (Sprite self-RP)
[link] :: Ran visits the shop again to meet with Kirin. (PRP with Kirin)
[link] :: Ran attends an Easter party at her boss's house. (Self-RP)
[link] :: Ran takes Gui to the Menewshan Botanical Gardens. (PRP with Charles and Dewei Yu)
[link] :: Ran returns from the Gardens with a headache. (Self-RP)

..:: Photo Gallery ::..

..:: Inventory ::..

A collection of items that Ran has acquired.

..:: Point Tally ::..

1 :: Completing the journal .. 0 (x10)
2 :: Post in the shop thread .. 480 (x1)
3 :: A journal entry .. 2 (x5)
4 :: An ORP post .. 0 (x2)
5 :: Completion of a private RP .. 1 (x10)
6 :: Participation in an RP event .. 0 (x10)

Total :: 500

Point System

[X] Artifact => Enhanced : 20 points
[X] Enhanced => Sprite: 50 points
[X] Sprite => Spirit: 200 points (+ self-RP + PRP with Kirin)
[_] Spirit => ??? : a lot pf points...

..:: Reserved ::..

..:: Reserved ::..

..:: Reserved ::..

..::Obtainment ::..

(( This takes place later in the day after the shop's ORP. ))

Ran sighed as she came home from work that night. She dropped her bag on the coffee table in front of her couch before collapsing onto the couch. Rubbing her head, she tried to will away the headache. After she had gotten back to the music store with the lunches for the rest of the employees, her boss yelled at her for being late. She spent the rest of her shift in the back of the store pricing items to be but onto the shelves. It was dull work and she hated it, but at least her boss hadn't gotten so fed up with her that he fired her. For that much, she was thankful.

"Oh!" Ran said out loud as she sat up again, remembering her visit to the odd store selling Chinese artifacts. Pulling her bag into her lap, she dug through it until she found the dead tree branch. She brought it out and stared at it, turning it over in her hands. No matter how long she looked at or from what angle she looked at it, it still looked like an ordinary dead tree branch. "Well, let's hope something comes from you," she mumbled, holding the branch over her head as she leaned back against the couch. At least I didn't have to pay for it, she thought. If it turned out to only be a dead tree branch, she would have wasted the money on it.

Ran continued staring at the dead tree branch, waiting for something to happen, until a grumble from her stomach reminded her that she should be making dinner. Getting up, she found a place for it on a shelf along one of the walls of her apartment. "I should have known nothing would happen right away," she said, laughing at herself as she walked into the kitchen.

..:: Enhancement ::..

Tomorrow was Ran's day off from work. She dubbed the day before her day off as "movie night" in which she watched movies late into the night and woke up late the next morning. She was on her fourth movie now and munching on her dinner of Chinese take-out. Picking up one of the egg rolls, she dipped in the sauce and bit off the end. On screen, the hero hacked his way through a mob of zombies. The movie had poor special effects and a badly written script with hardly a plot to follow, but it proved somewhat entertaining.

She reached for her glass of water only to find it empty. With a sigh, she set the carton of Chinese take-out down on the coffee table as she climbed off the couch. As she walked into the kitchen, Ran paused when she caught a flicker of light from the corner of her eye. She turned slowly toward the light. The glass dropped from her hand, clattering on the floor.

The dead tree branch! It had caught on fire! Ran raced over to the shelf and knocked the tree branch off onto the floor. She grabbed a pillow off her couch and started whacking the tree branch with it, trying to put out the flames. A million thoughts whirled around in her mind. How did the dead tree branch catch on fire? She had been sure to keep away from anything flammable just to prevent something like this.

No matter how many times that she tried to smother the fire, the dead tree branch remained aflame. What was going on? Ran looked the pillow over, but it was unmarked by the fire. She blinked. Looking down at the fiery branch, she found the fire wasn't spreading to the floor. Tentatively, she knelt down and reached out a hand toward the branch. Though the fire burned brightly, she felt no heat from it. She picked up the branch on the end without fire, she didn't dare to actually touch the fire, as she stood. She couldn't wrap her brain around what was happening, but as long as the fire wasn't burning the apartment down, she decided finding out answers could wait until morning.

"Well, that girl did warn me that it could be possessed," Ran murmured to herself as she shook her head in disbelief. She had hoped there was truth in it, but even so, this was something that Ran thought would have happened in the movies, not in her real life. Granted, she was hardly normal herself. "The weird is drawn to the weird, I guess."

She shrugged as placed the fiery tree branch back in its place on the shelf. Tomorrow she would hunt down that store again. She hoped she could remember where it was. It had been a number of weeks, and she hadn't thought about the place since her first visit to it. "It's a good thing I have tomorrow off," she said, bending over to pick up her glass. She would have all day to search around for the shop again.

..:: Sprite::..

Several more weeks had passed since Ran first found the dead tree branch that she received at the shop had burst into flames. Flames that didn't burn her. Flames without heat. Since then, it had provided a light in the darkness for her when she woke in the middle of the night to stumble her way around the apartment.

The day after it first began to burn, Ran had meant to take it back to the shop and speak to someone that worked there about it. It was supposed to be her day off, but one of her co-workers had gotten sick and she was the only one available to fill in for him. Things turned hectic at the music store after that. She couldn't find the time to visit the shop again. But she supposed that was okay since nothing really came of the flames slowly burning along the dead tree branch.

What did it mean? The question kept turning over in her mind. If she hadn't believed it before, the fire was enough to make her realize the dead tree branch was indeed haunted by something. What that something was she could only guess. She played around with ideas, but they were just daydreams she thought up when work was slow.

It was early one day as the sun rose lazily over the horizon. Noise caught her ear, and Ran cracked open her gray-blue eyes. What was that noise? she wondered, forcing herself to get out of bed. Covering her mouth, she yawned and walked into the main area of her apartment. Something raced past her feet. Ran jumped backward, tripping over her feet and landing hard on her rear.

"What the - A cat?" Ran exclaimed in shock, scanning the room for the dark shadow that had surprised her. But she had made sure to shut and lock all the windows in her apartment. She never left the door open. There was no way for some small creature to get into her apartment. "Come out, you," she whispered as she crawled on the floor, looking under furniture and anywhere else she could think to find whatever had darted past her.

After some time, she gave and climbed to her feet. She placed her hands on her hips as she glanced around the room. Nothing looked out of place. She saw nothing moving around. Had she imagined it? She had still been in the middle of waking up. Perhaps it had just been a fading dream?

As she rubbed at her eyes, something caught her attention. She looked to the shelf on her wall and stared at it. For a moment, she couldn't place what was wrong. Then she realized what was missing. The dead tree branch! It wasn't there! But where could it be? Dead branches didn't just get up and walk away.

Unless... Ran started looking around the room with renewed passion. Unless whatever possessed the dead tree branch had awakened! That was a possibility, wasn't it?

She was about to give up again when something jabbed into her calf. "Ow!" Ran exclaimed, hopping on one foot as she rubbed the injured calf.

"Fe oitna ske faousn doefl stre!" The shout made Ran stop. She turned around and stared down at the little being waving the dead tree branch at her.

"W-What?" she whispered, blinking in disbelief at the little creature. It glared up at her with beady red eyes. After a moment of silence, it jabbed the stick at her other leg. "Hey!" Ran shouted angrily. "There will be none of that." She reached down and yanked the dead tree branch away from it.

"Ilw oiafe line falies!" it shouted, waving its tiny arms at her.

"I don't understand what you're saying!" Ran snapped. Of all the things she had imagined to possess the tree branch, she never thought of a little reddish black thing with stringy black hair and a long black beard. What was this thing anyway?

"Oli beual sion sial!" It clawed at her leg, attempting to climb up her body as it waved a stubby arm toward the branch that Ran still held.

"Somehow I'm reminded of a hyper little dog," Ran muttered, staring blandly down at the being. She sighed and pried it from her leg. "What do I do with you now?" she wanted to know. She held it up level to her face. It continued to shout in a language she didn't understand. Ran frowned. "I could deal with the burning branch, no questions asked. This, however, I think will need lots of explaining."

Well, at the very least, she couldn't complain about having a boring life anymore.

..:: Easter Egg Hunt ::..

How did I end up getting stuck with this? Ran wondered as she hid another egg behind a rock in the yard. While she was glad to have gotten the invitation to her boss's Easter party, she hadn't expected them to have planned an Easter egg hunt for the children. She hadn't even realized how many of her co-workers had kids.

I could help.

Ran almost jumped when the tree demon suddenly appeared before her. How many times do I have to tell you not to sneak up on me like that? She gave him a stern glare.

It still surprised her to see how much bigger the demon had grown since Kirin preformed the spirit connection for them. She had never thought of what he might grow into after his imp stage. Unfortunately, growing to a new stage hadn't changed the prankster in him.

Haven't I behaved myself well enough so far? he asked, folding the long thing branches that made up his arms.

Gui, Ran sighed, climbing to her feet. She was glad more than ever to be able to communicate with him like this. She no longer had to worry about people giving her odd looks for a random outburst. I think they'll notice when eggs start flying around in the air.

I can be subtle, Gui argued, floating after Ran as she searched for the next location to place an egg.

In the next moment, she tripped over an overgrown tree root. The basket of eggs flew from her hand, landing on the grassy ground several feet from where she fell. Ran turned and sent a glare at the tree demon.

See? Gui grinned, holding his arms up. So subtle you didn't even notice it.

You only do that to watch me fall, Ran grumbled as she stomped over to the basket.

You make it all too easy, Gui replied with a chuckle.

Ran ignored his comment as she looked in the basket. Empty. She glanced around the ground, but she saw none of the eggs that had spilled from the basket. What did you do? she asked, turning around to face the tree demon.

All the eggs are hidden now. Gui gave her a proud smirk. Now you can stop complaining about it.

Ran was about to argue with him, but she gave up with a sigh. At least I can go relax now. But next time they invite me to an Easter party, I'm saying I have other plans. She started walking toward the back door of her boss's house.

But aren't you glad I shortened the time it would have taken to hide all of them? Gui asked as he followed.

Yeah, yeah, but no more doing that kind of thing in public. You already play around enough as it is in my apartment. Ran entered the house and went to announce that the egg hunt was ready.

(( I meant to write this idea back around Easter. ^__^;;; ))

..:: After Gardens Headache ::..

(( This takes place after Ran's visit to the Menewshan Bontanical Gardens. ))

Ran sighed as she collapsed onto the couch as soon as she returned home from the Gardens. She felt tired and exhausted, rubbing at her forehead as she felt a headache coming on. What a way to spend a day off, she thought, dropping her arm. She glared at the tree demon.

"You know, you make it really difficult to take you anywhere," she muttered. Like having to watch a small child from getting into trouble, she thought.

It's not like I meant for all that stuff to happen, Gui replied, trying to look innocent as he floated around the apartment.

"Oh, so now you didn't mean to trip the receptionist?"

Gui scowled. She deserved that, he grumbled, looking away. She wasn't exactly the nicest person in the world. He turned back to Ran. But the butterflies, that wasn't my fault. They just flocked to me on their own.

Ran continued to glare at him until she finally decided to give up. With a sigh, she flopped over to lay on the couch. It wasn't enough that watching over such a tricky tree demon was a headache, but that boy, Charles, had seen the butterflies sitting on Gui. Something like that was highly suspicious. While she suspected his lotus seed was similar to the dead tree branch that she had, she doubted he would be very accepting to the idea of the lotus seed being possessed by a spirit.

If I told him about Gui, he would probably think I'm crazy, she thought, shaking her head. It would be nice to have a friend who also had a spirit to watch over, but she didn't want to go around making people think she was crazy.

"Urgh, I'm taking a nap," she muttered and rolled over. She didn't even want to think of the trouble that Gui might cause at work tomorrow.