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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"Better him than me, all things considered," replied Archie. "Humor makes for a less damaging coping mechanism than seven years at Eton College and misplaced ideals of propriety and self-control. I'm quite sure Aidan would have quipped and punned his way through the Goat's insinuations, had he been at my place."

Eiji nodded. "I heard they'd wound Shamus up again, too. How's your motley crew going?
- Oh, you know... Between three Automatons, a Malk, an incubus, a hacker on the run, three selkies and a Vietnam War veteran and his oddly inseparable friend, there tends to be quite a bit to contend with. Add to this a famed Archmage and her myriad of connections across all planes of existence, and we have quite the menagerie. Then, of course, there is miss Robertson here, and her husband Silas. They aren't on my payroll, but tend to lend a helping hand if possible."

Katsumoto nodded. "I'll admit that I needed a while to understand why Roosevelt figured you deserved a chunk of forest and some dried-up swampland on the East Coast, and especially why he went so far as to cede the mansion's plot back to Great Britain..."

Holden smirked. "The New World is still too new to many of us Caucasians; Crystal's ancestors are much more suited to Rhode Island's own cornucopia of spirits; its own deep tides of arcane energy - hence their being Theriomorphs. The only way that was found to make my demesne intrinsically tied to Europe's arcane roots was to make my residence a cipher of England. As I lacked cultural ties to the Wampanoag in these early days, it was simply easier to give my home a more, shall we say, Arthurian bent. One supposedly genuine keystone traceable to Camelot later, my home was as safe a haven as the Summer Lady's hotel or our dryad's little Hobbit hole."

He looked back to Crystal. "Don't expect anything too fancy, it's just one of the coal cellar's keystones. Putting that kind of artifact in plain sight would have been reckless to the extreme, obviously."
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Re: Facing East

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Crystal scoffed lightly. "I certainly don't remember or expect to see Excalibur to be poking out of the wall in your cellar, Archie. Apart from your motley group of coworkers, your area of Hope is one of the more sedate regions."

Aspasia smirked. "That's saying something for the weirdness magnet capital of Rhode Island. Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way."
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Re: Facing East

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The group kept talking for a while, until the blacksmith arrived armed with some tools and an array of small stones. He began comparing the teeth in Archie's affected gears with some of the small stones he'd brought along, and carefully removed a few to take clay impressions of them. Brass not being too common in Japanese metalworking and tamahagane being too difficult to work in such small shapes, Inoue soon made it clear he'd be forced to work with iron.

"Please," noted the spy, "do not endanger yourself recklessly, Inoue-san. My forcing you to employ the Bane within your Lord's domain is inexcusable.
- It's no trouble, Holden-sama. I'll simply smelt some of the bad tashi I keep on hand as scrap metal. I'll also fashion a small vessel for an ember from Urakawa-sama's Hearth-fire. I'll probably join it to the main transmission gear, here,"
he said, pointing.

Sighing in relief, Archie provided a translation for Crystal. "That said," he then added, "this is close to the idea of asking of a human that he handle active plutonium rods with mere kitchen mitts... Should his bare hands slip and touch anything other than alloyed metal or bloom steel, he could suffer severe etheric damage. Why, I remember sickly Fae who wished to become Automatons who spoiled their chances of survival by forcing late-onset Etheric Incompatibility Syndrome on themselves after coming in contact with cold iron many times over a short period..."
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Re: Facing East

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Crystal sighed and looked from Archie to Inoue, bowing deeply to him. "Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita, Inoue-san," she managed, extremely grateful for the work he would do for the clank, despite the pain that it would place on him.
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Re: Facing East

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The blacksmith smiled, nodded back, hesitated as he kept working, and then looked back to Crystal.

"I careful," he said in broken English. "Promise."
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Re: Facing East

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The werewolf nodded in return and smiled. During that time, Aspasia looked contemplative. She eyed Eiji and Sojubo. "While Holden is laid up and recuperating, physical training is obviously going to be limited. Do either of you have any training that would focus on his focusing and steeling his mind?" she asked them both.
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Re: Facing East

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Eiji seemed uncertain. "I'm not going to throw kunai at him if exerting him comes with a risk of paralysis. So much of what we do depends on quick observation and honed reflexes; I don't know how useful it might be to take things back to the very basics...
- It must be done," countered the tengu. "Mushin cannot be reclaimed in one day."

Katsumoto seemed surprised. "You're seriously going to put a polyglot and an officer of the British Crown and of the American government through the initiating steps?!
- How can I know what he remembers, otherwise? If he can focus, his mind can be stilled. If his mind can be stilled, it can be emptied. There are steps I must take, as I would with any other novice."

Eiji seemed annoyed. "A week's worth of calligraphy exercises... He's not Ralph Macchio being coached by Pat Morita, he's a trained spy and assassin in need of a moral pick-me-up!"

Kurama tsked. "I have no miracles to offer."
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Re: Facing East

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"How bad can calligraphy be?" Crystal questioned.

"It can be tedious, especially if you're distracted," Aspasia noted. "It takes patience and concentration to make sure every swipe of the brush is just so." She sighed thoughtfully and looked over at the automaton. "Holden did fine when we were fighting against unnamed and essentially faceless threats from beyond, but the Vice of Pride was able to cut right through him with the right words and voice from someone who got at his emotional core."

The fauness eyed Eiji. "Like it or not, starting over from the beginning is the only way for Holden to re-learn how to not let things get under his skin and be able fight effectively, either with his mind or a weapon," she mused. "It's essentially figuring out what to do after falling off the proverbial horse."

The Transgenic looked back to Archibald. "Do you think you're up for what's essentially samurai bootcamp?" she asked.
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Re: Facing East

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"It's what I came here for," noted Archie. "I'd love it if an onmyogi could simply burn a few ofuda in my name and restore me to my old self, but things are never quite as simple. Confidence is best left to grow organically. I could've always asked Oberon to let me bask in the Hearth's warmth and put myself up for a patch-up job using an Oath, but then I wouldn't be manifesting my kind of confidence. I would be manifesting what Oberon believes Archibald Holden needs in order to act confidently."

He scoffed. "Between William Spector's milquetoast normalcy and the King's boisterous chivalry, I would feel as if placed between a rock and a hard place."

Kurama scoffed. "At least, the barbarian is lucid! What has crippled you, spy for a dead queen?
- An oni," replied the Clank. "He subjected me to some of my deepest regrets and my worst failures."

The raven's attitude softened a bit. Then, he worked his beak around more of the unfamiliar English idiom. "The mortal samurai were wrong, about many things. If there is shame in failing, then I have committed seppuku hundreds of times and still stand before you. The only true shame a samurai of the Fae can face is the loss of mushin, where only one thought remains: the thought of what must be done. Mistakes can be fixed, broken blades can be mended - but the past remains the past.

You will do while in this village, barbarian. You will act. You will leave the past where it is - in the past. Writing is the purest expression of Now, in our customs. You will write for a week - and your strokes will be perfect. One day, your sword strikes might follow."

Archie gestured to his right arm. "I'll do my best, Kurama-san, but as you can see, I'm in no shape to be held to perfection. I-
- And I am in no shape to coddle whining Englishmen! Fail one stroke, gaijin, and I shall strike you. One strike for every mistake."

Holden took a sharp intake of breath, then nodded - as much as he could while lying down. "Hai, sensei."
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Re: Facing East

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Wanting to be supportive, Crystal asked, "Could I also do calligraphy alongside Archie?"

Aspasia glanced at the tengu and then back at the werewolf. "Since I doubt Kurama-san is the kind to make exceptions, I imagine that your writing would have to be as meticulous as he wants it, so you'd face the same consequence of strikes for mistakes. Since I also came for support as well, I figure I should write too, unless there was some other reason I was needed elsewhere."

Both women looked at the beak-faced man to see if he would agree with their proposition or give them another objective.
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