[Day Two - Early Afternoon] Refuge of the Mind

Mirumoto Wasako · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:56 pm **Posts:** 945

It wasn't a pleasant day and the grim faces that started filling the streets of the town were further indication of things to come. Nevertheless, such turbulent times was perhaps when meditation was most needed. Wasako met a variety of people and caught herself up with the present situation, she sought guidance on how to proceed.

There were a great number of distractions: the frigid air, the lack of lunch and finally the tense sentiment around her. Her sensei would say that such conditions would make meditation easier, strangely enough, as the refuge of the mind would be easy to find. Wasako had hoped this was true because her she was starting to freeze, sitting cross-legged in the snow.

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

While many people were rushing around tending to the new wave, calling upon the kami to aid those wounded and frozen....Yogo Aya was not one of them. Instead, she decided to visit a temple before the Lion turned it into low rent housing.

She saw the mediating form of the Dragon.

"Hey, are you dead?" she asked. She didn't really care, but she didn't care for the spiritual impurity just having dead bodies laying about a temple would generate.

Mirumoto Wasako · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:56 pm **Posts:** 945

Wasako hadn't quite entered the refuge of the mind when Aya approached her with her question. She opened her eyes and looked to the Scorpion before her with a curious look at such a question. "Good afternoon, Scorpion-san...No, I wouldn't think I am but I suppose we can't be sure of that. Are you dead?"

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya rolled her eyes a bit at that. It would have been easier if she was dead. Now she was in for Dragon philosophy.

"Only on the inside. I'm sure I don't have to lecture a Dragon on the dangers of the cold, but I thought perhaps you were offering some form of protest by freezing yourself to death on the temple grounds."

She bowed slightly.

"Yogo Aya, by the way."

Mirumoto Wasako · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:56 pm **Posts:** 945

The Dragon crossed her arms at the Scorpion. "I fail to see what would such a protest amount to, especially when I have no qualms with either the temple or our hosts. I suppose there are other parties in the air at the moment and have been in the forefront of people's minds. Even then, I would think that's a foolish venture until we know more about them."

She looked at her surroundings, "With proper meditation, even the cold can become trivial. The masters have been able to do it for days, if not weeks."

"Of course, it's to advisable for anyone who isn't a master to do it for long," she said as she rose from her seat, dusting the snow off of her clothes with a faint smirk.

"This one is Mirumoto Wasako," she said as she returned the bow.

Togashi Mai · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:22 am **Posts:** 417

Nearby, but inside where she might find reprieve from the snow and cold, Togashi Mai sat upon the floor and prepared herself and the skin of her arm. Laid out in front of her on a borrowed mat are her inks and the needle for which her art is synonymous. It was not an easy task she would set before her, but it was one she was determined upon.

Closing her eyes she thought, for a while, as to which direction her spirit might take her today. In this way, she almost appeared to be meditating but it was anything but as meditating was to relax the mind and in this instant she desired a concentrated focus on her creative expression.

Walking around her was a tabby cat, one that seemed to follow the woman on occasion. Hunting, perhaps, for the occasional mouse as it's companion was occupied.

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Mirumoto Wasako wrote:

The Dragon crossed her arms at the Scorpion. "I fail to see what would such a protest amount to, especially when I have no qualms with either the temple or our hosts. I suppose there are other parties in the air at the moment and have been in the forefront of people's minds. Even then, I would think that's a foolish venture until we know more about them."

She looked at her surroundings, "With proper meditation, even the cold can become trivial. The masters have been able to do it for days, if not weeks."

"Of course, it's to advisable for anyone who isn't a master to do it for long," she said as she rose from her seat, dusting the snow off of her clothes with a faint smirk.

"This one is Mirumoto Wasako," she said as she returned the bow.

Aya scoffed about the reasons to protest.

"Fortunes if I know. The Heavens seem to have put some people in this world just to be the protest that someone else overcomes." she says.

She rubs her hands for a moment of warmth.

"Care to join me inside? Maybe we can find the other six, or at least chat for awhile in a little more comfort."

Mirumoto Wasako · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:56 pm **Posts:** 945

"It seems fate has many threads here, that's for sure..." Wasako found herself narrowing her eyes on the other woman. Before, she didn't want to make assumptions but certainly something surly about her. However, given their present situation, being surly was likely the least that could happen.

"Of course, Yogo-san. I would be more than willing to move to somewhere warmer," she said with a faint smile and gestured for her to go ahead.

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya wandering into the temple, Mirumoto in two.

Within the temple, she spied a dragon getting ready to mutilate itself while an ugly cat watched.

Things must be bleak indeed if the Dragon are alternating between freezing themselves to death and mutilating themselves.

She glanced back at the Mirumoto, then back to the Togashi.

"Welp, that makes two I guess."

Mirumoto Wasako · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:56 pm **Posts:** 945

She didn't find the sight so bleak itself, especially seeing that it was a familiar face and practicing her own art. However, they cat was probably more curious. She wondered if she missed the cat during their first meeting or it was a new companion. It would make sense that refugees took form in both human and animals.

Kenku and Naga too, she supposed.

"Oh, that's Togashi Mai-san, who is quite stilled in the art of tattooing," she said as she introduced the Yogo to the Togashi, but despite talking about her, she doesn't raise her voice enough to distract her from what she was doing. "If Yogo-san has a particular tale she wishes to have turned into art, Togashi-san would be more than willing to interpret it."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya nodded.

"Ahhh, is that what's she's doing. I thought it was some sort of weird Dragon penance. A needle for each sin or somesuch. You hear strange tales about how they do things up in Dragon lands."

She considered it briefly, but shook her head.

"Nah, I don't think so. Tattoos have a very different meaning in Ryoko Owari Toshi than they do in Dragon lands. I don't want to end up like Doji Aoi." she said declining the opportunity.

Togashi Mai · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:22 am **Posts:** 417

Mai looked up from her preparation for her work to see the two who entered, especially upon hearing her own name. For a moment she looked to the Yogo but her expression was stone. Changing then to look to Wasako it softened, "Good afternoon, Mirumoto Wasako-sama, to hear your praise brings me warmth in these cold and trying times."

"Greetings to you, Yogo-sama," she looked back to her. "I can assure you there is no such strange thing in the art of tattoo. Each tattoo is a symbol of the wearer who takes them onto their form, as far as I concern my art. It is an honored tradition, it saddens me to hear that in Ryoko Owari Toshi they have such a different meaning as to drive you to avoid them."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya nods consideringly.

"Ah, but see, the difference is not where you think it is Mai-san. As a samurai, that which flows from your hand is noble, as is what you display your art upon. It is obviously art." she posits.

"But it's not an art practiced among the samurai of Ryoko Owari Toshi, but of those beneath them. For the same reasons you have in a way, but that which starts ignoble stays ignoble. Despite using the same tools, the same processes, perhaps even the same images, they are two very different things."

Mirumoto Wasako · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:56 pm **Posts:** 945

"I mean, I cannot be certain what a Togashi is doing all of the time, even being a Dragon myself," she said on the matter. After speaking to the woman on two occasions, she doubted that was what Mai was trying to achieve but she didn't want to discount the possibility.

She frowned faintly as Aya showed no interest, feeling her hopes were shoot down. However, she wasn't trying very hard on finding a prospect and there was the remainder of her stay.

"Good afternoon, Togashi-san," she said as bowed politely, now that she had Mai's attention. "And this would be Yogo Aya."

"That's...unfortunate," she said after a pause, thinking it was so strange that getting a tattoo was something that couldn't even be considered given the reasons. While they weren't commonplace, they weren't considered alien or taboo among the Dragon.

Togashi Mai · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:22 am **Posts:** 417

"Perhaps then it would be a generous duty of some Samurai, honored and well accepted among their peers, to reclaim the art from those to which it has fallen?" she inspired the thought carefully.

"Still, it is a sacrifice of time and patience that I would not force upon any Samurai. Yet, I find there are those who are both willing and accepting to have the art worked upon them. Though, I must say I appreciate the time you take to confirm for me Yogo Aya-sama that you recognize my art as noble while others may use the techniques for another purpose."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

If the woman had been a Scorpion, Aya would have through she was being patronized....but the Dragon seemed sincere enough.

"It's an obvious thing." she demurs. "But a discussion of art would be a nice distraction from the realities outside these walls. Might I ask about some of the pieces you've done that you're proud of?"

Togashi Mai · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:22 am **Posts:** 417

"There are many," she nods in affirmation, "there was one of a brave Samurai, a Lion Samurai, that had fought bravely to defend villagers on a road. I had met him in my travels at an inn I only intended to stop at for a night and stayed for the few days to complete the work."

"With him it was a large task, but I tattooed a proud lioness prowling on his back. There was something of the image of a lioness the Samurai preferred, the lack of a mane perhaps."

Mirumoto Wasako · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:56 pm **Posts:** 945

"That's curious, did he tell you the reason? The Lion on their mon does feature a mane. Perhaps it might have been his influence, a friend or perhaps even his sensei?"

Togashi Mai · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 4:22 am **Posts:** 417

"None that I felt a reason to compel him to answer," she said, but nodded in assent to the further bits, "there are many reasons we each gain a fondness for certain things. Perhaps he had witnessed the beauty of a lioness as a child, or perhaps he had a lover among the Lion."

"Two very different possibilities, and for him he did not seem forthcoming when I asked him the same and so I let it lie as it was."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya shook her head.

"I think it was probably more practical than that. Lionesses hunt, Lions rule. If he was not kuge, he probably wanted to emphasize that he served his clan as a hunter, not as a ruler." she offers.

[Day Two - Early Afternoon] Refuge of the Mind

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