D8LA, Wolf Dines on Turtle Soup? (Closed)

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 1:52 am

Seitouna considers.

"That is a chilling thought, but not one to be avoided." He pauses. "I shall have to look into that as time permits; matters hasten in such circumstances as face us now."

Another bite.

"I suppose I must ask you to let me know if you hear any such rumblings."

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"I'm presently not willing to deal with the rates at the local inns. I see little point in putting up with them, even if they're not overcharging, and they're packed to the gills anyway," she grunted. "So I have my tent set up. Most of those in that area are peasants and eta, with a smattering of ronin. I was keeping an eye out yesterday, and I'll likely do the same today. One never knows what will happen. I think it may help that they are grateful to have anywhere to lay their heads for now."

She glanced at the windows and the pervasive patter of the rain. "Though I doubt they appreciate the rain as much as I do right now."

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:15 am

"Oh? Most I've met have looked for an end to the rain."

He looks at her cup. "Refill?"

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"Thank you," she said, offering her cup. "And of course most would. Almost none of them are shugenja. All spirits, for months now, have been out of balance. Painfully so. You would likely not hear a clan shugenja speak of it. It hints at weakness. But they have been deceptively difficult to placate and commune with. But since I have been in this rain... the water kami are at peace."

A snort and a smirk. "They're also everywhere."

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:42 am

He pours.

"That is...troubling? I am not versed in such things, to be sure. What causes such?"

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"The trouble began... not long after I came of age," she said, tapping her lips. "I don't know that most of the priests of the kami have ever spoken that publicly, but I'm not all that 'in the loop.' If you could get a Phoenix to talk to you about it, you might here more. But I remember that one day I was near my hometown, tending to someone's injuries when I felt the most awful wave of nausea leap over me. It was overwhelming how wrong it all felt."

She had been very much in a small community and her sense of history was poor, such that she had no idea that this was the day that Shiro Akodo had been laid waste by the black scroll four years prior.

"Ever since then, it's been... just harder to pray to the kami. Any of them. What I feel now is ... pleasant. If I knew who to thank, I would."

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 3:11 am

"I wonder if it relates to the dragon seen in the skies over Toshi no Omoidasu."

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"Wait. Dragon? What do you mean dragon? You mean that one of the literal physical embodiments of the spirit of an element swooped down and hovered over the castle before you fled here and now it is raining constantly?" She was staring at him a little incredulously. "That would explain why there's a ceaseless barrage of water, and how we can call on the water kami right now, but why?!?"

That and she sort of didn't believe it.

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 3:30 am

"Um, yes?

"Like I said, I am out of my depth with this."

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"If you ever encounter a dragon, hit the floor," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know much about them myself. I only know that the Dragon of Water may as well be Water. Not a lot of water, but..." And she held up her cup of tea. "Thanks to the dragon of water for allowing me to drink a cup of tea today. The element itself is embodied by it. It is on the level of a god, but it is not a god... not exactly." Not a fortune, not a kami, but fuck if it wasn't in the same power category.

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 3:42 am

"Huh. That's...interesting. But I don't know why it is here, now."

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"One might as well ask why the wind blows or the waves wash against the shore," she said, chuckling a little. "But for it to be up there... even now? Something has happened, and it has impacted the balance of everything. I am not sure if that's good or ill, or if it is a sign of how bad things were to begin with."

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 4:00 am

"I may ask around after it. Anything I find in that regard, I am happy to pass along."

He considers.

"I wonder what else you might want to know."

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"I will be honest. I did not come to Nikesake expecting to find anything more than a few skirmishes with bandits, a border conflict at most or some peasants to help for food," she admitted, shaking her head. "I did not expect the opportunity or the dangers that came here, but when you take up the road I did, you accept what comes. I suppose for now, I am trying to understand these refugees. To know more of them."

She might have been their lesser, but she liked to know who she was dealing with. It helped a lot.

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:27 am

Seitouna nods, thinking he understands.

"Some are refugees twice, having fled Morikage Toshi at the death of Hantei XXII, may he be remembered. To have to do so twice...it is a hard thing, especially for the bushi. And the peasantry, who cannot even spend themselves in fighting as you or I might."

He takes a deep breath, continues.

"Many will carry their scars long. Few will not have incurred them."

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"Ah... that explains the Agasha." She closed her eyes again, sipping her tea. "Be watchful. They are becoming strained. The war is desperate on both sides. When men are desperate... they do things that they may come to regret. Others will rise above it.
Pity, I would not say I'm one of the latter, much as I'd like to be."

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:46 am

"I've seen such things...elsewhere." He nods. "Much as some like to think they are exempt...they are not. That you recognize this is good. Perhaps it will help you."

He sighs.

"We will all need what we can get."

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"Awareness helps. It's one thing I never liked about Bushido, when they tried to teach it to me in the old days. Bushido... is rarely aware of its weaknesses. It says it is, but ye it falters so easily." Because human weakness was what it was. "They preach on the sins, but I think that many of them think of them only as failings in others."

Kasuga Seitouna · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 4:09 pm

"I've tended to view it as aspirational. Had we world enough and time, and were all willing to act in accord with it, perhaps it would suffice. But we are not so fortunate as that."

He takes another bite of food.

"But it is often the case that people will see in others what they cannot consider in themselves. Looking out from it prevents seeing it, I think."

Mari · **Joined:** Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:43 am **Posts:** 702

"Something of the sort. As you said, it's much easier to look out than it is to look inward. There is pain in the latter, and for all that a samurai must not yield to pain, most people are rather averse to it." That was putting it mildly. Only a few real masochists out there. "Still, I suppose it's a pretty story they tell themselves, an ideal for them to aspire to. I generally treat it as 'rules a ronin should remember in polite society.'"

D8LA, Wolf Dines on Turtle Soup? (Closed)

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