Facing East

Anything you might want to try out that doesn't temporally or thematically fit the serial should go here. This is an ideal space for all your what-ifs and might-have-beens, as well as for your average silliness.
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IamLEAM1983
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Re: Facing East

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"Later today, yes," nodded Kurama, who looked out to the still pitch-black sky. "The day is young, however. First, I must know what is broken, what must be broken, and what can be rebuilt. We will practice form after dawn, once Englishman's eagreness will have been spent. Form in writing."

Archie bobbed his bokken in the palm of one hand. "How will this... assessment take place, I wonder?"

Kurama eyed the spy and the two women. "We walk, for now. We walk to temple - and we have a conversation. I practice my English."

He scoffed lightly. "You should be happy, Ghost Spider. I must look, for now. Only see. I have judged you before, but I never judge man for admitting his faults."

Archie rolled his eyes. "Oh, joy - more prattling on about the greatness of Bushido from a conceited corvid..."

Anger flashed in Kurama's eyes, but he'd already started back down the path leading to the village. "Only fools swing weapons they do not understand," he said. "Your arm is mine. You are my weapon, Holden. If I must use you, I must know you."

The tengu placed his arms behind his back. "Start with your city. Hope. Tell me of it. Why has it become your castle?"

Archie was a bit confused at first, and he gave Crystal an uncertain look. "I, erm, was granted a purchase of land thanks to President Grant, along with a surreptitiously-built mansion. I had grown fond of America and opted to stay on its shores after having been naturalized. I am fond of it still.
- Are you fond of it, Holden, or of the adventures it provides?"

A light pang of guilt touched Archie's features. "Both are correct," he admitted. "Even before our recent troubles, Rhode Island possessed a certain mystique I fell for rather harshly. I suppose Nexus sites have always been of some interest to me, between here, India and England... These were where several could feel the strands of Fate weaving together into something that remains indescribable of late..."

Kurama nodded and eyed the two women. "He likes danger. Do you?"
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Re: Facing East

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"I suppose you could say that," Crystal mused, smiling. "I was born in Hope, so danger goes along with it. Between Samoset's curse and the amount of weirdness that's drawn toward the city, it certainly has the danger quota checked off. My father served as a police officer in the past, and I followed in his footsteps. The danger in Hope is normal to me, and I wouldn't have it any other way. My inner wolf would be rather bored if she didn't have a certain amount of danger to keep her on her paws and her senses sharp."

Aspasia displayed a wry smile. "I could come at this from a different angle. As Lowell mentioned, Hope has its share of danger. At one time, I was part of that danger. However, since settling down, I've felt a stirring in response to serve. Some of it is protective, but I guess all the recent events have got the survivor in me more attuned to the danger. In contrast with some of my kind, I'm still a soldier who craves the excitement and adventure, only without the idiotic ideology of a certain fool driving me."
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Re: Facing East

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Aspasia and Sojubo had discussed this before. The tengu had since framed Elysium's events in Feudal Japanese terminology, that process not being entirely incorrect. "The one-eyed shogun with delusions of godhood," he said, nodding. "I remember."

He shifted to Japanese to afford himself a bit more freedom of expression. "I would congratulate him, at least, for honing your sword-arm before you spoke your first word. His foolishness remains clear to me, otherwise."

Then back to English, and back to Crystal. "So. Police, hm? Haskill-sama spoke of police, before. Soldiers guarding a city for generations, until city lords over them, and not daimyo. Tokyo has always been of no interest to me. Your world is of little interest. Too noisy. It stinks of your machines. Too many civilians for swords, for safe duels. Teppojutsu highly praised in America."

Archie couldn't repress a smirk at the impromptu loan-word. Teppo for old Japanese matchlock single-use cannons, and Jutsu for art. The "Way of the Cannon", more or less. He would've found the expression excessive a few decades ago. His last prolonged period of activity before the Battle of Hope had placed him in a world where dinky thirty-eights and early M16s had ruled the day. By the time Mayor Horn had grudgingly elected to raise him from his torpor for Wanda Richardson's funeral, alien influences and cheap materials had already begun to warp the playing field.

Now, as Crystal and Archie could both testify, gun ranges were plentiful and the NRA found interesting and stylish uses for space compression tech. The discerning pedestrian needing a full-sized Maglev rifle at the ready had bleeding-edge Holsters of Holding, to borrow from Aidan's terminology, as well as enough ordnance to vaporize a small public square.

What had been an odd Yankee quirk from his old perspective had turned concerning, now that he'd had a few brushes with demonic and otherwordly powers. Your average rifle-packing civilian might only mean well and might genuinely seek to protect its fellow passerbys - but could the same still be said with Void Weavers potentially corrupting one or two firearms enthusiasts with a few high-profile cues and targets?

"Thankfully," he said, chiming in, "firearms are not so widely praised that official law-enforcement corps find themselves divested of their authority. Consider it an artifact from America's wild and uncharted days, back when all manner of wild beasts and vengeful natives could show up at your doorstep unannounced. For most of my compatriots, nothing remotely close to the Sengoku Jidai's terror and paranoia has ever manifested in the last several generations."
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Re: Facing East

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"I'm aware of the older Fae's disdain for modern firearms, and I agree that the eagerness over firearms in the U.S. can lead to certain unsavory aspects. As a werewolf, I'm not too keen on them otherwise. I've seen officers who were too full of themselves and rely on that pistol as though it's the best problem solver in the world. The amped-up, paramilitary aspects so common in a lot of precincts had us forego exosuits, except in extreme cases where the suspect is too powerful to contain with mundane officers."

"Hence, why Shield was an improvement on those types of cases," Aspasia said. "The law enforcement needed an edge, but one that was still human in scope and could seek other avenues the HPD can't."

"Very true, even if some of my coworkers grouse over your actions. Some of them are still fussing over what happened to Thomas Quint's body at the hospital. Given what I know is transpiring in the background at Holden Hall, I'll have to keep my associates in the dark for the time being," Crystal mused, giving her boyfriend a look and a smile that spoke volumes on the kind of things she had to deal with at her job.
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Re: Facing East

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Archie's returned smile carried volumes of silent empathy. He reached out and grasped her hand. "I deeply regret that our struggles against demons and Lovecraftian godheads remains inconvenient to Hope's Police Department," he said, in a slightly jokey take on PR speech. He chuckled, bent his head, and then looked back at her.

"I'll admit to having given up on making mister Magnus out to be a law-abiding member of society. I do believe he snuck into one of the City Council's meetings using his brooch, a week ago, and promptly fell asleep... Legitimate politics simply aren't his forte, and my past leads me to be at least somewhat understanding of men in his position. Solid morals seem to matter more to him than inconvenient laws. Predictably, this hasn't endeared him to mister Mantus, his and Aislinn's protégé - and hopefully one of the new local judges in short order. Randolph does so love the mathematic precision of legal codices and manuals, after all..."

Kurama seemed to disagree. "Gods have no say on mortal laws. I would not agree with this Tommumagnusu.
- You disagree with the notion that common morals have a place in civil society," interpreted Archie.

"They are obvious," the tengu retorted. "They need no further protection."

Holden grunted in response. "Tell that to the Black Goat..."
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Re: Facing East

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"The Black Goat makes Rendell look like a decent sort. He's the ego incarnate,"Aspasia said, then snorting. "You don't send a homeless person in to shoot himself in a restaurant and have any common morals."
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Re: Facing East

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"This is expected of oni," noted Kurama, which made Archie slightly wince. He'd seen enough to know that cultures which equated demons with unquestionable evil were missing part of the equation. Still, he felt that speaking of Naberius or Bob to the swordsmaster would be a futile effort.

"Perhaps," was his noncommittal response. "I've seen enough to believe those of the Lower Planes are as given to politicking and power plays as we can be. Everything that seems immoral or despicable to us is part of some larger scheme.
- They terrorize those they cannot possess," concurred the tengu. "Or attempt to."

The path took the quartet out of the village, past a snowy bank of elms, and out towards the slow plumes of smoke of what looked like a hot spring. The natural feature had been carefully adapted for regular use; with carved stone steps leading into the frothing water. They walked past it and reached a large structure; a U-shaped Himeji Period Buddhist temple that roughly stood where one of the bigger ski lodges would be in the mortal plane. The courtyard had been swept clean of snow, and ornate braziers burned at regular intervals, doing their part to dispel the surrounding chill. It didn't so much have doors as it offered long and wide folding panels on rails, which were currently partially open. That allowed the front deck to lead directly into the tatami-lined space. Some monks - some human, some anthro - were sitting cross-legged on the deck. A few slowly worked on calligraphy exercises, while others simply looked straight ahead, their eyes set in the mile-wide and unseeing stare of deep meditation. From inside, the low, buzzing drone of several dozen voices intoning the sutras could be heard. They looped back into the Kannon, or the six syllables of the Compassion Bodhisattva's name.

Om mani padme hum... Om mani padme hum...

Archie had long-since gotten used to the slow and shy undercurrent of the Anglican faith of his youth, or the more spirited take on honest Christianity that could be found in both American coastlines and a sizable portion of the South. That one had a benevolent, if energetic take to it, something that contrasted against the almost shy tone of Jewish liturgical hymns. Khalid Jarrah made Hope's Muslims feel like a surging and receding tide of faith - graceful and powerful at once. The Baptists had brought the bouncy surges of Gospel choirs, and Hope did count a small number of Buddhists - of which Shen Long was but one example.

As for Eien-no-Yuki, its temple struck Archie as a beating heart made out of wood and steel. This was slow faith: confident, patient, carrying the softness of compassion and the solidity of resolve. As slow as a calm heart, steadily surging and delicately receding - over and over and over.
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Re: Facing East

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Upon the sight of the Buddhist temple, Aspasia felt a stirring in her heart, and she sighed contently. Her expression was one of serene fondness.

Crystal noted the fauness' appearance. "Feel like you're at home here?" she quietly asked.

The former commander nodded lightly. "Something like that. It's obviously not my home, but this has always been one of my favorite places in the village." If the slow faith of Eien-no-Yuki's temple carried these aspects, it wasn't really surprising why the temple resonated with Aspasia so much; her own self beat like the temple's heart.
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Re: Facing East

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Stepping past the deck, Kurama stopped to bow in front of what had to be the local lama, a Japanese snow baboon that sported a necklace of heavy wooden beads on top of his two-tone robes. They spoke in hushed tones for a few moments, the temple's master stopping to give Sojubo a slightly pained look. Still, one sleeved arm was parted, in a beckoning gesture that spirited the group towards the northern wing of the building.

There, past a few private rooms used by the monks, they came to a rather sparse room with an open view to the mountains beyond. A rack on the right wall supported a thick and continuous roll of blank white paper, while one on the left supported large bamboo poles ending in smooth black tufts - long, black reeds that had probably been softened by fire, patiently broken apart with a knife, and then affixed to each pole like an oversized brush's tip. The tufts had been carefully trimmed into the larger version of a brush's typically fan-shaped tip.

From a nearby cabinet, Kurama pulled out a small marble tablet, along with a small bound book made out of dried reeds. He opened it, turned to one of the earlier pages, and then set it down on a low, knee-height dais. He went to the roll of paper and carefully pulled out enough of it to cover the room's width. Small weights were affixed at the end which he'd taken from the cabinet, and more weights served as a divider at the room's midpoint.

"Before Tsunetomo penned the Hagakure, the yokai knew the words," he said. "The mortals saw our work. They saw our grace," he said, switching to Japanese, '"and would claim it for themselves."

He coldly eyed Crystal and Archie. "A samurai's duty is found in death. We give of ourselves to village, to daimyo, to clan. We forsake family for glory of clan. "In this kingdom, Sojubo no longer serves Kurama family. Sojubo serves Urakawa-sama. I will serve until the day I die. Such is my... boon."

Archie was remembered of the way this was applied in the West. Absolute fealty was less of a concern, but Fae like Eirean or Vernon would be driven to apply the concept of Life Boons to anyone who would save them from mortal danger. Oaths with no strings attached, formal and yet earnest gifts that rarely were the province of those in both Oberon and Titania's courts.

So the tengu had offered his life to the Urakawas - but why?

The bird pointed to the tablet and open book. "The book contains guidance, werewolf. The wind blows, and so will your brush strokes. Follow stroke marks, match strength and control. It is all here to be seen. You must only reproduce it."

He looked to Archie. "You will match the tablet, Englishman - perfectly. Am I understood?"

Archie looked overwhelmed. "I've never practiced Chinese banner calligraphy, how am I supposed to-
- You would question your sensei?"

Holden clamped up and nodded. "Hai."
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Re: Facing East

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Crystal initially appeared a little daunted by the task, but she nonetheless nodded and ventured over to pick up the brush. She carefully dipped it into the ink pot and looked over at the book, following the pictographs indicating the motions and necessary pressure. Given that this was entirely new to her, she took her time enough to hopefully ensure the strokes weren't sloppy.

Aspasia tilted her head slightly, silently inquiring if he wanted her to follow the same text. She would have already done this task years ago, but she figured practice never hurt. "What would you like me to do?"
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