Closed for SindyNC17)
(First post is rather long. I'm not expecting the others to quite this long
)
Jin Mantrell: 24 years old. Average height and in good shape with light brown hair and dark brown eyes
It was a lazy summer day and after channel surfing, Jin reached for the puzzle box again. The box had belonged to his late great-aunt, who had spent her life traveling the world, gradually filling every corner of her home with an incredible collection of exotic trinkets and objects. When she had passed away without a will, the family had gathered and gone through her things, taking anything that held a special sentimental value, and giving the rest either to charity or the junkyard, whichever seemed best.
It was there that Jin had discovered the box. About twice the size of a shoebox, the exterior was made of beautifully hand-carved wood and it was obvious that a great amount of care and skill had gone into its making. While searching for a keyhole, he discovered that the pieces on the outside moved, like the tile puzzles he had played with as a kid. However, this one was far more complex, leaving him with a 200 piece puzzle that could only be moved one tiles at a time, with no idea of what the end picture was supposed to look like.
He knew there was nothing inside, as the first thing he had done was shake the box, but the challenge still nagged at him. 'Why make it so hard to open if nothing is inside?' he thought to himself. He was about to reach for the remote again when he suddenly had an epiphany. Rushing to his computer, he scanned the top of the box, and painstakingly turned each tile into its own image, allowing him to move them about freely like a jigsaw puzzle. No longer restricted to moving just one at a time, over the next few hours the image began to form. The edges were the most difficult, being mostly a series of geometric patterns, but the center formed the face of a stunningly beautiful woman. 'The puzzlemaker's wife? Maybe royalty or a goddess of some kind?' he thought.
With the final image at hand, he began the slow process of actually solving the puzzle, which turned out to be harder said than done, hitting several dead ends and being forced to start over several times. It was late into the AM hours, with dinner long forgotten, that he was finally a single tile away from solving the puzzle. Holding his breath, he slid the last tile into place, and heard a soft click from inside.
He slowly opened the lid....and found it to be completely empty. No pirate map or ancient map carved into the lid, not so much as a scrap of an "April Fool's!" note. He hadn't expected to find anything, but still couldn't help feeling just a tiny bit disappointed. He left the box open on his dining room table and went to his bedroom, falling asleep almost instantly, wondering what he would the box now.
(First post is rather long. I'm not expecting the others to quite this long
)Jin Mantrell: 24 years old. Average height and in good shape with light brown hair and dark brown eyes
It was a lazy summer day and after channel surfing, Jin reached for the puzzle box again. The box had belonged to his late great-aunt, who had spent her life traveling the world, gradually filling every corner of her home with an incredible collection of exotic trinkets and objects. When she had passed away without a will, the family had gathered and gone through her things, taking anything that held a special sentimental value, and giving the rest either to charity or the junkyard, whichever seemed best.
It was there that Jin had discovered the box. About twice the size of a shoebox, the exterior was made of beautifully hand-carved wood and it was obvious that a great amount of care and skill had gone into its making. While searching for a keyhole, he discovered that the pieces on the outside moved, like the tile puzzles he had played with as a kid. However, this one was far more complex, leaving him with a 200 piece puzzle that could only be moved one tiles at a time, with no idea of what the end picture was supposed to look like.
He knew there was nothing inside, as the first thing he had done was shake the box, but the challenge still nagged at him. 'Why make it so hard to open if nothing is inside?' he thought to himself. He was about to reach for the remote again when he suddenly had an epiphany. Rushing to his computer, he scanned the top of the box, and painstakingly turned each tile into its own image, allowing him to move them about freely like a jigsaw puzzle. No longer restricted to moving just one at a time, over the next few hours the image began to form. The edges were the most difficult, being mostly a series of geometric patterns, but the center formed the face of a stunningly beautiful woman. 'The puzzlemaker's wife? Maybe royalty or a goddess of some kind?' he thought.
With the final image at hand, he began the slow process of actually solving the puzzle, which turned out to be harder said than done, hitting several dead ends and being forced to start over several times. It was late into the AM hours, with dinner long forgotten, that he was finally a single tile away from solving the puzzle. Holding his breath, he slid the last tile into place, and heard a soft click from inside.
He slowly opened the lid....and found it to be completely empty. No pirate map or ancient map carved into the lid, not so much as a scrap of an "April Fool's!" note. He hadn't expected to find anything, but still couldn't help feeling just a tiny bit disappointed. He left the box open on his dining room table and went to his bedroom, falling asleep almost instantly, wondering what he would the box now.
