D4 LA - A storm and a jolly visitor (Open)

[Yasuki Masaki]

Masaki was back at the tables today after her third meeting with the Centipede daimyo. She sat at the same table she was in when she met Hoshiko a couple days back, her tools again with her.

Much as she had the other day, she started arranging some bundles of straw, choosing and separating some of them for what looked like a new project. Based on the colours, it might be a bird of some sort. Or perhaps another animal?

She seemed rather focused, although her eyes went to the pool and the paths now and then. Maybe remembering the previous talk with the Asahina? Maybe remembering talks from years back? Maybe just reliving some of the talks at court?

Whatever it was, it would soon be sent flying out her mind as the wind suddenly picked up. A chilling wind. Soon a gale. A hurricane.

She stood up and braced. Noticing she wouldn't be able to withstand the powerful wind like that, she kneeled instead - somehow managing to do so gracefully, eyes scanning around, shifting from one thing to the next. Some things seemed to be scattered around... but as she soon noticed, not the straws. Not the leaves around. In fact, the branches on the trees weren't even moving all that much.

She closed her eyes, opened them again, blinked. This was not a storm. Well, not a physical one. Apparently, unlike Kyofuki-no-kami's the previous day, this manifestation was happening purely on other grounds.

Seeing more clearly now, she could see the faces, hear the voices. The koi-like water spirits thrashing violently through the water *and* the air. The leaves fluttering about whispering about - kami themselves as well.

For a moment there, she was thankful that there were no immediate sources of fire around.

Focusing, she could see him. Plump, cheerful even among this chaos. He smiled to her, shaking a bowl of rice and swinging his mallet around. A couple mice seemed to dance on the ground.

Why, child, you look worried, he said cheerfully.

Should I not be?, she said - although she wasn't quite sure she'd opened her mouth.

What is a storm if not an opportunity to grow more rice?

... a storm can be many things, can it not?

Many things. Among them an opportunity. Do you not trust me?

...If not you, who never failed us, who would I trust, Kami-dono?

Very well! Remember to seize the fertile ground then! Despair, and the ground will flood, and your harvest will fail. Sow at the right moment, however, and the storm will double what you may reap!. The plump figure voice's seemed to echo - the hearty laugh that followed it even more so.

I will try my best, Kami-dono. To look for the signs of the changing weather, and sow when the ground is ready. I shall trust you as my family always did before me. Thank you kindly, she said-thought, her head dropping to the ground in prayer.

When she raised her eyes again, the figure was gone. The wind mostly subsided, the same patchy rain as before on the sky.

Slowly, carefully, she stood up, cleaned her knees, looked at the table. The straw was there - a bit wet from the rain, as expected. But no signs of any storm.

Yet, at any rate.

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OOC:
Step 1
D4 LA - A disturbance in the force. Must post and decide where she is. Etiquette/Reflexes | 7k4 ⇒ 31 (TN: 20)

Step 2
Drawing on Daikoku's Blessing. I'm guessing positive relationship with Fortunes (although she'll probably also *feel* the kami as a shugenja!)
D4 LA - A disturbance in the force. Must post and decide where she is. Step 2: Lore:Theology/Awareness, TN 15. Air Kami's Blessing still active (will recast in previous timeslot if not for some reason to keep consistency). | 5k4+4 ⇒ 25 (TN: 15)

Step 3
Using Influence Rank/Awa. Assuming she's drawing on her family's connections with Daikoku AND the kami (as there are quite a few shugenja in her lineage).
D4 LA - A disturbance in the force. Must post and decide where she is. Step 3: Choosing Influence Rank/Awareness (assuming she's drawing on her family's previous connections with Daikoku AND the kami as a line with many shugenja). TN 20. Air Kami's Blessing still active (will recast in previous timeslot if not for some reason to keep consistency). | 6k4+4 ⇒ 31 (TN: 20)

Successes in all 3!

Should grant 6 glory and 2 XP towards Friendly kami if a majority succeed.

[Doji Shinnosuke]

Not far off, Shinnosuke is walking Haku in the forecourt when the typhoon hits.

At least that's what it feels like at first--the sense-memory of the early autumn storms on the northern coast with their intense cyclone winds floods into his mind as the gust slams into him and keeps pushing, until he almost feels his feet start to lift off the ground. Shin grips Haku's leash tighter, afraid the little dog might be swept away by the gale. Except that it's too cold for his memories--more blizzard than typhoon--and then there's a horrible noise and it feels like the wind has ripped part of the gazebo roof loose and flung it into him from behind. Shin staggers and falls to his knees, only just saving himself from a faceplant on the paved path.
D4 LA Disturbance in the Force--step 1, Etiquette/Reflexes + Prodigy to fall over *elegantly* | 7k3 ⇒ 21 (TN: 20)

He can't really make his eyes focus, but voices and colors seem to be swirling wildly around him; he grabs wildly in his memories for any explanation, but all that comes to mind is the sutra to Benten he recites each morning at his little kamidana, so he chants that blindly (if melodiously) for an unmeasurable length of time, until the chaos seems to abate somewhat. In its place, he seems to see a beautiful, vaguely feminine face--familiar, but not, somehow, anyone he can remember seeing before, at least not while awake--wearing an expression of great sadness.
D4 LA Disturbance in the Force--step 2, Assuage the Spirits (Fortune, Positive) wow I feel clever for taking Lore: Theology now. Lore/Awareness, BB | 5k5 ⇒ 18 (TN: 15)

"Please," he whispers, "please don't cry. It will be all right. All illusions fall away in the end, and one day enemies are reborn on the same lotus flower." It was a line from a play, the first thing that comes to mind in his disorientation. The gorgeous face smiles a melancholy smile and his vision clears...
D4 LA Disturbance in the Force--step 3, Console, Lore:spirit realms/Awareness, BB, VP for skill | 5k5 ⇒ 25 (TN: 20)

...revealing a close-up view of Haku's short-nosed, hairy face anxiously close to his own. The little dog grumbles nervously and licks Shin's cheek. Shin's face is wet. Was it the rain, has he been crying, or....

"Ugh, Haku. Not the face." He sits up on the ground and scrubs his cheek with his sleeve. "What was all that?"