(D9 LN-expecting) Visiting the other court floor

[Fukurokujin]

"One went to the Heavens, returned to his kin;
One walked through the Gates and was taken right in;
One thought to escape from his burden of sin;
One lasted long, having learned how to swim;
One fought the old fight, won and lost again;
One was held captive; one fought her way free
And fell before those who came over sea;
One has yet to arrive and yet will soon see
What came of the one who was here recently."

[Asahina Hoshiko]

She spends a long moment committing the rhyme to memory, before offering a deep bow to both.

My sincere thanks to you both. If you have a favorite offering, I should be pleased to obtain it upon my return.

**************
I appreciate a good rhyming clue. XD

[Doji Shinnosuke]

In the waking world, meanwhile, Shinnosuke watches Hoshiko's inert body with studious politeness--that is, out of the corners of his eyes, without staring directly. Occasionally he takes a sip of his cooling tea to keep alert.

Resting against Shin's knee, Haku sleeps on, his short legs twitching on the tatami as he travels his own route through a different part of the dreaming worlds.

[Cearnach]

She spends a long moment committing the rhyme to memory, before offering a deep bow to both.

My sincere thanks to you both. If you have a favorite offering, I should be pleased to obtain it upon my return.

**************
I appreciate a good rhyming clue. XD

*Shh-hah* "Burn me a poet...er, poem. Yes, a poem. A good one. *Shh-hah*

[Fukurokujin]

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[Asahina Hoshiko]

(Still ok to rp wake-up/debrief here, or is that for the other thread?)

[Fukurokujin]

(Still ok to rp wake-up/debrief here, or is that for the other thread?)

(You may debrief here, yes.

You're just going to have a visitor right as you walk out the door.)

[Asahina Hoshiko]

After a small side trek to find the offices for information retrieval requests (which might bear fruit never, but protocols were for following) to ask after Doji-ke no kashin Tanaka Tsugumi, and noting that she would write up and burn the request for proper delivery as well, Hoshiko finds a hallway and begins the walk back to ningen-do. It's not exactly walking, of course. There's some other element to the travel. But both these worlds are well bound by rules and walking holds a definite 'getting from one place to another' sense in both.

A deeper breath signals her return, eyes opening to blink in the brightness of candles in the momentarily hard-edged and garish lines of this world. So easy to become accustomed to the soft and gray.

She offers a bit of a seated bow to Shinnosuke and napping Haru, with a breath of relief that nothing seems to have happened. "Doji-san, thank you for watching. It was, I think it was, a useful trip." Her hands are already fumbling for paper and charcoal to sketch out the conversation there, where Shinnosuke can see. "It sounds as if the Empress was there and gone. So I suppose that confirms that they do not wait in the long line of souls."

[Doji Shinnosuke]

"Oh, good. That's good, isn't it?" Shinnosuke shakes himself alert and slides the paper and charcoal across the tatami toward Hoshiko. "Er... welcome back. Nothing, ah, untoward happened, then?"

Haku grumbles softly in his sleep. Why did his pillow start moving?

[Asahina Hoshiko]

"Oh, good. That's good, isn't it?" Shinnosuke shakes himself alert and slides the paper and charcoal across the tatami toward Hoshiko. "Er... welcome back. Nothing, ah, untoward happened, then?"

Haku grumbles softly in his sleep. Why did his pillow start moving?

"It's good to have more information, almost certainly. Now to figure out what it means!"

She scribbles the rhyme down first, while it's freshest. Talking as she goes.

"One went to the Heavens, returned to his kin;
One walked through the Gates and was taken right in;
One thought to escape from his burden of sin;
One lasted long, having learned how to swim;
One fought the old fight, won and lost again;
One was held captive; one fought her way free
And fell before those who came over sea;
One has yet to arrive and yet will soon see
What came of the one who was here recently."

"So that third there is Ningi..I think. And," She pauses a moment to look at the last two lines. "Um...that one yet to arrive would be the old emperor who should have been Retsuhime's regent, I think. He'll soon see what came of her? Ok what?"

[Doji Shinnosuke]

"I always assumed the Former Emperor Muhaki was, er, dead. Many years ago. But maybe...hm." Shin leans in to look at the paper. "One thought to escape from his burden of sin, that doesn't sound very auspicious at all. So did he escape? How? It's not as if one can just break out of Meido, even if one is an emperor. Well, I should think, anyway."

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Hoshiko nods, puzzled. "Perhaps by not getting to Meido. Spirits may lose their way, it's what many of the rituals are meant to prevent, to keep them guided." She frowns, "but then I wouldn't expect him to be judged into gaki-do. Though nothing so far confirms that he was."

[Doji Shinnosuke]

"Or he was judged, but then afterward, uh... hungry ghosts do appear in the mortal world sometimes, don't they? At least in the tales." Shin suppresses a shudder. "If mortals like you and Kitsu-sama can cross over, I suppose it's not as impossible as everyone assumes. Well, as I assumed."

[Asahina Hoshiko]

She nods. "As it says here...the mortal realm is edged by that of dream. Which fits some theories. So there is more evidence for them. It's a strange and reality-warping place. So it's not impossible that if those other realms border it, things could escape into there and then to ningen-do."

"And while those like us only cross over in spirit, well, that's doesn't preclude creatures that are only spirit from using the same pathways. Someone like Kitsu-sama who...well, appears in the other realm as himself I must imagine." Somehow she can't imagine him popping into Yomi disguised as a shiryo. "It's obvious where he's from if anyone wanted to follow him back. As...this spirit may have done. Since it seems the first confirmed contact was his."

[Doji Shinnosuke]

"Whew. Not the kind of company I'd want to bring home with me." Shinnosuke tousles Haku's ears to soothe his own nerves, summoning the little dog's wandering spirit back from Yume-do. Something else catches his imagination. "Would Kitsu-sama look so different from the spirits on the other side, then? Are they very strange-looking? Are there really horse-headed and ox-faced warriors guarding the place, like in the picture scrolls?"

[Asahina Hoshiko]

"In Yomi? Not so different. Though one lacks a certain, not exactly glow, but there's an aura to those spirits that we tend to lack. Well, I do. Perhaps the Kitsu, given their heritage, still carry something of it when they visit." She smiles down at the sleepy puppy. "I've seen such spirits guarding borders, yes, though I often bypass main gates. The gift is eccentric that way."

"Those I spoke with today had the suggestion of faces. A bit odd to talk to when you keep looking at not-quite-eyes expecting actual eyes."

[Doji Shinnosuke]

"Oh, that does sound weird. Although maybe a bit like someone in a stage mask?" As soon as he says this, he thinks no, that's probably silly. "I suppose you must be used to many sights most people would consider quite frightening, if you do this often."

[Asahina Hoshiko]

There's a thoughtful pause in the scribbling of notes. "I suppose so. Certainly I only found myself in Toshigoku once and that was terrifying enough to never do again. But otherwise it's often felt a bit like dreams? Where they would be frightening to see in this realm, where they do not belong, but there, in their proper place, they seem...proper?"

"I've seen scarier things dreamed up as props for plays, honestly. Of course, I suppose they're aiming to terrify, no?"

[Doji Shinnosuke]

"Just to the right degree, no more and no less." Shinnosuke smiles mischievously for a moment before the gravity of their business settles back over him. "Whereas the spirits, I suppose, don't mind if you're scared of them or not. When they're about their own business and not policing the dead souls."

[Asahina Hoshiko]

"They really don't," she finishes scribbling and reaches to scruffle Haku's ears with her non-charcoaly hand. "I'm not even sure they're meant to be scary. It's just how they are." She looks at the notes. "Not answering questions straight on is how some are too. Though it's likely straightforward to them...or they tell tales when they're not working of the best weird thing they got a mortal to believe."