[D11 EA] - A Helping Hand (Wide Open)

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

They weren't engaging in combat. That much was clear for the moment. It was going to be a short time before the battle returned to the gates. Tomorrow might bring the fog of war once more, or perhaps it would remain a lull while they waited to starve the people out.

Well, for her part, she wasn't going to allow that to play out quite so easily. Admittedly, now that the rain was gone, her prayers were ... far more difficult. It was one wave of mind-numbing nausea after another, feeling the water spirits rail, scream and vent. Was it because of what she was? Had Inari forsaken her too?

Finally, on the third casting, a bounty of rice was produced. The waves of nausea began to fade and she breathed more easily, putting up a small sign and motioning for some of the heimin in the street to approach. "Care to join me, -sama?"

( Inari's Fortune Casting - Takes 3 castings.)

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Wed Apr 29, 2020 6:19 am

A little down the way, Mei departs the stable she had found to house Ti-Lu. When she spotted a ronin giving food to peasants, she began to approach.

"You do your sensi proud, wolf. Most of your station would be taking what little these people have in a situation, yet here you are giving your own away"

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

She laughed before noticing the source of the voice. Bowing quickly to make up for it, she rose a moment later and scratched at the back of her head. "I apologize, -sama. I did not mean to cause offense, but... Inari has graced me with a prayer. I am one of those rare ronin who is not really searching for food when they seek pay."

Seriously, it kind of destroyed the whole notion of proper ronin place in society when they could feed themselves.

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Wed Apr 29, 2020 6:50 am

"A self sufficient wolf, and one who can hear and compel the Kami. Some would consider you quite..."

She shrugs

"..Dangerous. Such ability but no one to serve. Like a lioness without its handler."

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

She chuckled. "So I've heard in the past, though I am more of a healer than I am a weapon. And still, it is... not as if I am without a lord, not in the truest sense. I am on Musha Shugyo. When my time of pilgrimage is at an end, I will return to my master. But for the moment I suppose it is better to say I am unleashed. A ronin is a ronin, after all." Though a Musha Shugyo knew what their loyalties truly were. Most ronin did not.

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:17 am

Mei smirked, her eyes glinting a little.

"Ah, to be able to cast aside the will of another and to have the freedom to do what you think is right."

A chuckle.

"Isn't it a shame that for doing so, you are now considered by most to be worth less than even the dirt we walk upon? I could cut you down here, and no one would even question. The hatred the world has for you, even when doing a rightful tradition is such a pity, no?"

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

"Freedom, -sama, is an illusion that ronin frequently cherish even as they are bound as much in chains of expectation as the rest of the world. They only believe that they are free. None are truly ever free." She smiled softly, not reacting with any trepidation when the woman suggested that she could kill her.

"You could, -sama. I know for a fact that none would question the choice." For no other reason than that the Miya would be fending off a zombie mere seconds later. Even more than a ronin, she'd probably be treated as a hero. No. Freedom was an illusion. Bound in chains of tradition... bound to hell... to heaven. They were all bound. "But it is what it is, and I am what I am. The wise must accept the place that they hold in the world, for as long as they are tasked to hold it."

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:42 am

Mei takes a step closer, leaning in and drops her voice low, soft. A delicate whisper, that in another setting, could be one that enticed other thoughts.

"The wise would know that they can change their place at any time they wish. They simply need the strength of will to do so. The strength to set aside what they thought was right for so long. "

She leans back and flashes a bright, white smile.

"I find that the popular opinion is quite wrong. You are not weak or cowardly dogs. No, you are some of the strongest in the land, willing to go against that which they did not find true, and to be willing to protest in a way that damns them, instead of falling on their blade like a good samurai should."

"Now the only question is, how strong are you, wolf?"

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

What an ... odd little woman. She behaved more like a Scorpion than a Miya. Mari watched her, her eyebrow raising briefly when the woman was close but saying nothing. She handed out a rice ball to one of the peasants and listened to everything before speaking again.

"There is strength in knowing the place one holds within the order of creation. To know who you are, who you truly are, is to embrace it in its fullness and to draw power from that. I am not strong, not in the way that a Hida is strong, but I like to think I have my own strength in adaptability." Water was an adaptable element after all, and she liked to think of herself as strong in it.

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Thu Apr 30, 2020 1:51 am

"Do you believe that you are stuck to the bounds of creation then? That the will of the Kami, of Lord Moon and Lady Sun, and those who have come before us makes us who we are?"

She watches Mari closely.

"If so, then did you not you defy those bounds by setting aside your duty and becoming a wolf?"

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

"With the lords of the land as their servants who stand in their stead, the clan heads over each of theirs, and the order of the Emperor who sits as son of Heaven to serve as its will. By the authority given to my lord to decide, my pilgrimage is accepted, and I am what I am." She said it mildly, not really by rote so much as it was a mantra. "Each step in the process has led me to the point where I am, and I will await the day when I am returned to my lord's side." It was clearly not the first time she'd ever had to explain.

"If my lord did not wish or permit me to be musha shugyo, yes. I think you would be right, but I do not walk the streets as a wolf without their leave."

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Thu Apr 30, 2020 7:16 am

"Hm. Perhaps. Perhaps."

Mei looks over Mari a bit in consideration.

"What are your skills, wolf?"

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

"I am a student of the medical arts, of earth and water magic with a certain familiarity of living off of the land as a hunter," she said smoothly. She was also a pretty damned good liar, her mother used to say, but you didn't actually admit to that sort of thing. "I am blessed in the knowledge of prayers of healing and sustenance. And so I have plied my skills of trade while seeking to become what the change of my circumstances require of me."

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Thu Apr 30, 2020 7:31 am

"And you have no martial skill at all? Without a yojimbo, I confess I am surprised you are alive, wolf. People in your position often end up many targets for violence."

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

"Oh, I know supplications to Osano Wo, and I have trained in the art of the sword, though I am not so refined as a proper bushi. That takes a lifetime of training, after all." She wouldn't even say she was bad at fighting. She just lacked the kind of training a real soldier had.

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:10 am

Mei frowns a little, disappointed a bit.

"Well, that is good. A bit too...loud for what I had in mind though."

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

"If -sama seeks the assistance of a scout." She didn't say assassin, cut throat, ninja or anything of the kind. She really didn't think that she needed to say something like that. Scout was a nice, polite word that encompassed any sort of stealth and wet-work, after all, at least in her mind. "While I am capable of keeping quiet in the midst of tracking prey, there are limits to my skills at subtlety. Those are not the gifts of the Earth generally, I fear."

She pursed her lips, thoughtful for a moment. "May I ask what it is exactly that -sama is seeking?"

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Thu Apr 30, 2020 11:15 pm

"A hand to do what mine cannot. There are many here who speak treachery openly. It disgusts me. Though the irony of the statement is not lost on me, for if those people knew my wishes, they would call me a traitor as well."

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

"I think the word 'treachery' has lost some of its sting at present, with three figures vying for the throne, each of them with the blood of the hantei in them to lay the claim. There has been some... latitude. But I will not inquire too deeply. I am not your co-conspirator and simply a hireling without the proper skill set, after all, am I not?" And getting too involved without the right skill set might not be wise.

Miya Mei · **Posted:** Thu Apr 30, 2020 11:54 pm

"That depends on you. If you think you can be useful, then we can continue. If you do not, we forget we had this conversation, and should I see you around again, I will make as if it is our first time meeting."

[D11 EA] - A Helping Hand (Wide Open)

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