D7 LA - Centering, uncentering. (Open)

[Yasuki Masaki]

Masaki had promised a visit to the temples since she first stepped in Kyuden Ikoma. Yet Winter Court was very, very busy. Busier than she had expected?... maybe?

That was the question on her mind as she saw the Temple Complex from up close for the first time. She looked at the largest temples around. None of them for Hotei - perhaps unsurprisingly. But, since she started thinking of that idea for the Art Festival, she'd hoped to stop by at one.... so she'd look for a small one, if they had it.

Failing that... just a small shrine. The thoughts would still matter, she figured.

Thankfully, there was at least a small one - much simpler than the larger ones, some status. And some silence.

This time, she knelt down. Said an almost silent prayer - not quite short, not quite too long. Thought on the story she'd been hoping to put together...

Calm. Contentment. Serendipity... well, that wasn't Hotei saying that in the story, but still, it seemed to fit?

Calm. Contentment. Fate would find a way - and humans would find a way through fate.

She closed her eyes, concentrated.

.... she opened them to see the surroundings burnt. Nobody around, just the sound and the smell of flames. A chill run down her spine, she shuddered.

... and opened her eyes a second time.

The temple was there, quiet, peaceful. The raging fire inside, not outside.

She blinked. How does one keep steady when the world jerks under one's feet?

She would have to find that out another time, it seemed.

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D7 LA - Meditation/Void at the temples. TN 20 | 4k3 ⇒ 16 (TN: 20) Fail!

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

Snip

Jinkan was not impressed with the Lion's filial piety, or their lack of respect for the Tao. But a temple was a consecrated space where the spirits were more apt to answer than to not. So the Mirumoto made his way to the temple complex to stand between Hotei and Fukurokujin. Of the two Jinkan thought Hotei looked like he was having the better time. Perhaps knowledge did not mean happiness. He began his reading as always, and pushed his other thoughts aside with the ease of one who sleeps well at night.

"Guide my hand." He said adjusting the bag and then finished with a few ritual words as he threw the sticks and stones. Reading them took a few minutes but he wasn't in a rush just yet.

He noticed the Yasuki while he was going about his reading and waved at her.

D7 LA - Centering, uncentering. (Open), Divination/Intelligence, Void for 1k1, one raise per rules, TN20, 5k4 | 5k4 ⇒ 23 (TN: 20)

[Fukurokujin]

Snip

The sticks align to speak of wind, but they fall in a pattern not of four, nor yet of five, but of six, and that six lies athwart the rest. And that stick that is most prominent among the five, that is the one on which the sixth falls, cracking it.

[Doji Shinnosuke]

This morning, Shinnosuke had already offered incense to his own little household altar enshrining Doji and Sadahako, and to the Benten shrine constructed in the Crane residence. But after the successful conclusion of the theatrical event (overall, with minor hiccups certainly forgivable in a cast of amateurs), it seems to him appropriate to come and make offerings to Tengen, Fortune of Literature, as well.

Once he's offered his incense and prayers, he spends a bit of time chatting with the monks tending the shrine about this and that--poetry, celestial maidens, a little bit about the upcoming sumo tournament (sumo being a spiritual ritual as well as a sport, monks might not be entirely detached from the subject), but eventually steps out again into the open center of the temple complex where the paths of Crab and Dragon are about to intersect.

[Yasuki Masaki]

When the Yasuki looks up from her musings, she sees first the Dragon waving, then Shinnosuke stepping out of the temple to Tengen.

She bows politely to both. Shinnosuke she knew better, of course, having been one of the amateurs in the production he held this afternoon. But it was the Dragon who was closest, so it was to him she first.

"Mirumoto-san. Also finding a moment for some of the day's rituals?", she asks, seeing him looking at the sticks and stones. She nods in Shin's direction then. "Doji-san, pleased to see you again!"

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"I am trying to figure out if I can be a real person or if I am doomed to be a puppet. Readings point toward: try again later." Jinkan said after he put all his kawaru back in the bag he kept in his sleeve. He looked between them. Yasuki and Doji, but friendly enough? Obviously not deeply involved in the fallout of the Yasuki war. Or just very nice people.

"Oh, before I forget myself. I am Mirumoto Jinkan, delegate of the Dragon." A bow to both of them.

[Doji Shinnosuke]

Recognizing Masaki, whom he's gotten to know as a rather decent kyogen actress(!), and assuming Jinkan to be an acquaintance of hers, Shinnosuke lets his steps carry him closer to the Crab and Dragon. "Good day, Mirumoto-san. I'm Doji Shinnosuke. Hello again, Yasuki-san." For Masaki, he has a smile as well as a bow. He would already have congratulated her on her performance after the show earlier, of course.

"Er... what's this about puppets?" He glances at the others curiously, knowing that art to be something Masaki might be interested in.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"Doji-san." Jinkan greeted him looking over the smooth faced man and memorizing every pore with the intensity of a steel brush.

"I have discovered that the heavens will wait to give me an answer on whether I am allowed to be a real boy. Disappointing but not unheard of, spirits do not often reply like people after all." He paused and then waited for the Yasuki.

[Yasuki Masaki]

"Oh, my apologies - this one is Yasuki Masaki, pleased to meet you, Mirumoto-san", the Yasuki will offer to Jinkan. Shinnosuke's smile is met with one towards him as well.

The talk of puppets does lead to a raised eyebrow. After a moment, she lets out a very soft chuckle, smiling at the Mirumoto. "Oh - Mirumoto-san is preparing a piece for tomorrow's Art Festival, then? And... you were wondering whether to present..." she pauses for a moment. The whole thought doesn't make as much sense as she first imagined, but she continues nevertheless. "... yourself, or, well, the clan you'll be representing as a puppet? Or as something more lifelike?"

Somehow, she doubted her own words. But other interpretations would make less sense than that, unless...

Her eyebrow kept raised as before.

(OOC: Sorry, Art Festival took most of my energy this week :/ Maybe we can get a few more posts out of this thread?)