The Day of Thunder

Makime flinches at the unexpected contact but manages a sincere smile. Then she rises. "Then may we triumph for both our people's sake."

"It is bad form to enter the presence of a daimyo without introduction." She looks over Akutou, "Otomo-san?"

To the Hiruma, she responds, "Unless he has moved the Little Teacher is in the Shrine on the hill. An ill omen given his last known state."

"Beg pardon, then, ma'am," Akutou says. "Otomo Akutou," he adds, and touches the brim of his hat.

Finally, Nozomi's eyes opened after a long silence. She bowed to those who had come and sighed. In truth, she'd spent most of the day in seclusion, silently contemplating events and what she knew already. her eyes were cold, steeled, because they needed to be. She unfolded from position and rose. "I apologize for keeping all of you waiting. Thank you for coming. I want to help those of us who are here in preparing for what I fear is coming. The confrontation will be on us soon, and it is important that we ... prepare."

She breathed. "There is a game that I and my daughter once played. The quiet game, we called it. I did something of the sort at the court held some time ago. It was... in truth my way of teaching little Mayumi how to meditate properly. But it is useful." She looked at them all for a moment. "Our enemy hides in our dreams, in our minds. It is our minds that must be forged strong like steel, not just our bodies. Our spirits and our very souls. And in forging anything that is worth using, a smith must know that the slightest flaw can destroy an otherwise perfect weapon."

"We must know our flaws. And I think a moment of self-reflection and silence can help us."

(OOC: So! Migraine kind of ruined the last few days, and I apologize for that. You may reply or assume that Nozomi initiates a lesson in meditation with guidance to self reflection on Fear, Regret and Desire.)

Sora would assist his old friend as best he could, although, as usual, his abilities in successful meditation for himself were....

Well.

Up to his usual standard.

"You're fidgeting, old man," she said mildly, smirking over at him. Fuck, he was as bad as she used to be at this, but ah well. She knew that.

"What I want for each of you to think carefully on is the nature of what it is that makes you most afraid. You can make the pretext that you're not afraid normally, but each of us has moments, even if we transcend them. Each of us has desires, and we have regrets. Things we wish we'd done differently." She had a thousand right now of those. "Each of these offers us ways for the darkness to sneak in, to interfere with us, to turn us against ourselves."

Ai stopped playing and tried to meditate... she was nearly there and then realized, she was wearing her sea colored kimono the went well with cream but she was wearing more of an ivory... rookie mistake and then she just fell off into thoughts of fashion.

OOC: Meditation TN 20 | 3k3 ⇒ 18 (TN: 20)

Makime blinks, then pinches the bridge of her nose and let's out an exasperated sigh. She had, it seemed, misjudged the purpose of the meeting. Though it did keep with the general image of Shinsei and his followers, she had built up in her mind. And this particularly one did not at least seem to be causing trouble.

She brings her arms down and crosses her arms, spending a few minutes observing.

Kumori closed her eyes and focused on the world around her…

————

D5 Nozomi Thing, Meditation, VP | 6k5 ⇒ 35 (TN: 20)

It being well after dayflip, and his player having long overslept due to having been out the previous day, Akutou makes a perfunctory effort.

It goes...adequately.