Mai Legacy
1.1 - A New Beginning
After spending what felt like an eternity on buses and planes and boats, James reached Windenburg. Finally. He’d escaped home, and felt like he was able to breathe for the first time in ages. No longer was he crippled by his parents expectations. For the first time in ages, James could set his own goals. So, after checking out the empty plot of land he’d purchased, James took the ferry back across the water to go and visit the famous Von Haunt Estate. There, he started work on what he believed might be his greatest painting to date. As he painted, James reflected on what had led to his move to Windenburg.
It hadn’t been easy growing up. It wasn’t that James’s parents were dead or awful; they just had high expectations. His father was a famous painter, his mother, a renowned politician. But only in the resort town of Oasis Springs. All the tourists passing through had no idea who they were, but both of his parents expected to be known. They'd been invited to one fancy party by the CEO of a large electricity company, and personally, he thought that’s what started their impossible exceptions for both him and their own fame.
“I want to see your paintings spread as far as the Casbah Gallery in San Myshuno!” his dad, Ed, frequently told him, as he had taken after him as a painter.
“I’ve raised you to understand cash and how to accumulate a lot of it. It’s how we built such a successful resort, after all. Someday, when this resort is passed down to you, you’ll do exactly the same.” his mom, Daniela, would say.
James just wanted to go to parties and maybe paint a few pictures for fun, not cash. What work he had done working on the family resort bored him to tears. It didn't let him be creative. And even if he somehow avoided having the resort passed down to him, with his parents involved, painting would just be another way to make ends meet, not something enjoyable.
So, James left his hometown of Oasis Springs on the night of his 31st birthday.. He left a letter on his parent’s kitchen counter that explained everything, changed his phone number, and disappeared with all his savings. In that letter, James wrote that he still loved them and would come back to visit someday. He knew he’d never reach his parent’s high expectations. But maybe, off in a new town, where there were no expectations, he could reach goals of his own. James hoped to build a legacy that would allow him to one day return to Oasis Springs and rival Daniela and Ed’s original expectations for him.