The Day of Thunder

[Saru Shang]

"Oh, no, I don't mind talking about my art at all!" She chuckled softly at the question. "Showing it might be a whole different matter entirely as you've caught me on short notice. My art is painting and artful speaking. I'm a bit away from home at the moment and abroad, so I make do with charcoal sketching on parchment. I suppose that I've focused so much of my talents on capturing the mountains of the Dragon lands that it's begun to feel a bit repetitive if I'm being honest between you and me. There seems a bit that we've begun to cast off about ourselves and I've been wanting to capture that on my travels. That sense of adventure, I spoke about earlier!"

She laughed self-deprecatingly. "I don't know exactly how that will translate into a piece yet...but it is my hope to find that proverbial horizon and capture it eventually!"

[Akodo Kenji]

"The sense of adventure." Kenji replied with tone turning thoughtful. "I'd like to say I could help you with that, but I've no idea how one captures adventure in a painting." That would take an expert and Shang certainly seemed to fit the bill on that account. "Could be you find it here though? With all this talk about heroes and vanquishing a great evil. You're bound to find something that screams adventure to you."

Or he'd think so at least. "Though that might just be more violence than adventure." He mused a moment later, shrugging away the comment directly after and offering the woman a smile. "Whatever the case, I wish you luck."

[Saru Shang]

Shang chuckled softly at that thought, "Thank you, Akodo-san. I suppose that sort of inspiration is rather obvious. In a way, the fates have hit me on the head on my likely subject for my next great piece!"

Soon with a sigh, she shook her head wistfully. "Truthfully, I'm not so sure if I could be so fortunate or unfortunate to be standing right there and detailing everything they will do on their path to defeating evil. Will be be a faraway exodus to the heart of darkness or will evil be everything, right in front of our faces? I'm not so sure! To be honest, I was thinking of adventure as something more of the past but I'm in a difficult situation to capture it now. I was thinking of looking for remnants or accounts of the past prior to the fall of the Kami. These buildings that you've brought up earlier could be worth studying, although I do find it hard to tell what's new or old."

[Akodo Kenji]

"There might be some here that could answer some questions you may have about that, Lady Makime for instance." She could be a bit hard to approach though. "And I think I've seen a few other older individuals about camp, it could be one of them could point out which are the older buildings, and which are the new. Age supposedly brought wisdom after all.

"I'd like to offer more help myself, but I've not really an expert on the past or the type of adventures you would encounter then."

[Saru Shang]

"Ah, yes, the older and wiser people around us," she acknowledged with a few nods. "I've been meaning to encounter them around here. People are a mixed bag and that goes the same when it comes to people prior to the progress boom in this Empire. There are those, like my parents, that have been so focused on looking forward toward the future than in the past. They'll tell me there's nothing worthwhile when it comes to where they've come from or what they had to do for survival when it's so much better now. Of course, there are also those who are important and likely too busy to discuss such trivialities."

She partially covered her mouth to speak in a half-whisper, "To be honest, some of their minds tend to wander sometimes when it comes to their conversation. I suppose I can't blame them as there is a lot to think about as of late. Sometimes of hard to have stories of the past when they start to mention things that they didn't use to have things like jackfruit or apples. But that said, what sort of path led you here? The road itself and the intent? Didn't you hear? Apparently, we're all great here. Some more than others but I digress."

[Akodo Kenji]

"Well, when you start to reach a certain age, you head gets a bit full of memories and experiences, so it's not too surprising it wanders." Kenji replied his own tone lowering to match hers. "Those experiences can make you wise though, so it's good to listen anyways though, even when the conversation wanders."

"As for me. I don't know if I am great or any such thing, I heard what Shinsei said about there being heroes amongst us, but I've not given it much thought myself." He frowned a bit. "I just came to be of service to Lady Makime and the lion clan though."

[Saru Shang]

Shang's eyes wandered a little when Kenji mentioned having a head full of memories and experiences. She supposed she didn't have too many memories or experiences but would remembering stories and prose fall under the same category? "Oh, yes. They've been pretty happy to have someone listen and share their stories, at least. It's not for everyone but as a sort of herald, artist and chronicler, it' more or less my livelihood!"

"As for being a hero, what do you think would make a hero here? Or more specifically, one of these Thunder Champions that Shinsei was talking about. I don't think you can assign or be assigned such a role by someone else, right? Do you just step up and make it so? Do you just feel destiny course through your veins and you take actions that don't seem natural because you were selected by the heavens? There's so much to consider!" She said while tapping her chin a few times.

[Akodo Kenji]

:i suppose there is." He replied his tone turning thoughtful for a moment. "But I can't say I'm religious enough to day for certain one way or another.

"But that might just be because I don't feel very heroic or destined myself." His lips curled into a frown for a moment. "Could be I find out more if I ask around.%

[Saru Shang]

"It is so much about religion itself?" She looked up and mused for a moment. "I suppose it could be the Fortunes who have been orchestrating things to make all of this happen but I'm not too sure considering I don't know if they would have allowed this to befallen on Rokugan. Here I was more thinking of it as just being the nature of things where it could be just coincidence working itself out. Then again, I'll also say I'm out of my depths on the matter, so that's why I'm trying to focus on the tangibles. More on what we can see and feel, right now. Perhaps the effects are more subtle or insidious. We have yet to see anyone leap up on their feet and claim that they've discovered that they're a Thunder...but that would most certainly make the processes easier if we actually had a sign!"

[Akodo Kenji]

"As I told the crab I met earlier, I wouldn't be surprised in Shinsei cracks open his rock and the names of nine thunders lie written inside." If something like that happened it would certainly help matters at the very least."

"But as you said, maybe I should just look for signs? Maybe I'll feel something one way or the other." He said noncommittedly. "It will give me something to do while I try and prepare for this battle however I can."

[Saru Shang]

"That would make for a rather hollow rock, wouldn't it?" She brought up with raised brows. "It would make a lot of sense why he's been able to haul the rock around this entire time. However, if he had his answers already, he would be leading us on the entire time? Keeping us in suspense? That would be rather deflating...but I suppose it wouldn't be too different from the Fortunes or Heavens delivering the answers in front of us. Would Shinsei be to blame for something like that if he had the answers, compared to the fates just playing coy?"

[Akodo Kenji]

"Could be some sort of special rock that's busy wtiting the names inside itself?" Kenji offered with a shrug. "It just seems silly to carry it around otherwise. There are a lot better things to use as a seat after all."

"I don't think you could blame them though? Not really, I mean maybe he didn't know the names are in the rock until the fortunes tells them. Or something?" He shook his head. "Whatever the case I'd prefer to just know now."

[Saru Shang]

"Suppose you know then, and it's you," she said with a glint of amusement in her eyes. It wasn't to mean that she didn't think that Kenji couldn't be a Thunder but perhaps it was preposterous that know who one might be at the moment, let alone decipher Shinsei's sayings. "What would you do now? I'm sure that you'll probably be spending the better part of preparing. Would it be so different as opposed to if you didn't know? Or knew you weren't?"

[Akodo Kenji]

"I suppose not." He mused. "So maybe it's just my impatience talking that has me wanting to know." Which was likely telling in its own way. "Or maybe I think it will be easier knowing? Less time spent thinking on it?"

"What of yourself, do you think you have what it takes to be a hero? Will Shinsei pick your name out when he decides to tell us who is who?" If he told them who is who., and they didn't just know.

[Saru Shang]

"You're probably trading thinking about one thing for another. I'm sure you'd have the burden of representing both your Clan and the Realm heavily on you. Much of it will likely be spent on preparing for the moment and regrettably, subject yourself to much of Shinsei's attention and cryptic words. I'm pretty sure that Thunders have more than just acting and potentially dying for the cause..."

"Me?" She said with a hand motion towards herself before letting out a hearty chuckle. "I don't think I'll fit that role so easily. I'm not a warrior or samurai in the slightest. Well, I do fancy some bow shooting from time to time but I've naively never seen combat before, unfortunately. It's obvious that I'm not made of 'heroic stuff'. I'm sure there the occasion will make for some extraordinary people...I'll just have to fill the sandals of that role if I'm a Thunder. I'm not above that I'll be terrified the whole time."

It was likely the Thunders would be too, even if they don't admit it.

[Akodo Kenji]

"From what I've been told its not about being unafraid, but not letting that fear control you." Kenji offered. "I'm not sure I've met anyone that has never been afraid." But then he'd never met Ranmaru either.

"As for dealing with Shinsei, I'm sure I can manage if it comes to that. Though admittedly don't know much of the man at all. Only that many of the kami trust him."

[Saru Shang]

"Oh, of course," she bobbed her head on that note before taking a second to consider it further. "...I'm sure that advice that easier said than followed. When fear takes over, it bit too tempting to put some distance from whatever is scary. I would say in my circumstance, that's the correct move! I'm not so sure about yours...when was the last time you were afraid and had to act through it?"

[Akodo Kenji]

A scene flashed into his mind, but he pushed that one to the side. It wasn't exactly the kind of thing you talked about with someone you just met after all. "There are several if I'm honest, and while it might not be most recent one of the most memorable when I was helping hunt a bear. You hear about such hunts, and think you are prepared, but when you see one raised on its hind legs spittle dripping from its lips roaring at you, you understand that you aren't prepared at all.

"Of course, you can't turn away, it's larger than you, faster than you, and if you ran you would end up as bear food. So, you act, you shoot your arrow, or ready your spear. You step forward because if you don't you might be dooming your friend or yourself." He frowned and shook his head. "Even then some of you might not come out the other side."

"But that part is not exactly what we are talking about is it?" He finished with a slight chuckle.

[Saru Shang]

Shang nodded soundly as he gave her an example and shook her head at the question in the end. "Oh, no! I would say that's very much more or less what I was asking about! A way of putting it into perspective, especially for someone less martially inclined such as myself! Well, martially interested but not experienced, to be clear. I do a bit of hunting myself, a necessity with the food shortage that's going about...but never something so big as a boar or a bear for good reason. But I can see some perspective in that. I do know that you're as good as dead if you run from one! So it's fight or die in that circumstance. That said, I don't know if the best idea to train for that is encountering bears until I get used to it."

[Akodo Kenji]

"It's not for everyone, and there is no need to rush into facing a bear if all you have is an interest in the bow." He agreed with a nod. "So, I guess I see your point as well." If he had it right at least. "So hopefully fate or whatever is at work won't push you into something you are unprepared for."

"Though I know from your words that you would accept such a thing if it was the case."