The Day of Thunder

(expecting)

Using her spear to push undergrowth out of the way as she walks, Tai makes her way through the trees toward the campsite she'd found before, calling ahead. "Ho, there! You about, Tae-soo? Ha-yeong?" She'd sent a note to Satsuki with landmarks as best one could figure in this fog. If she didn't show up soon, perhaps she'd try coaxing the air into sending a message and see if that helped.

There was some rustling in the undergrowth and a monologue or vague cursing at the existence of bushes at eye level, which eventually proved to be the foul mouthed Imperial. He looked particularly annoyed with the world at large today, and had also lost an earring at some point.

Emerging from the fog and foliage he stopped and looked at Tai.

"Oh right the lil Dragon did say other people would be here."

Now was this one of those old people that was going to slap him with a stick for cursing . . . or one that would teach him new ones? Then he noticed all the scars.

"Well fuck me. No bush did that job on your face . . . "

Satsuki looked a lot less annoyed with the world than Hoto-Hori, having actually had a decent night's sleep herself. If anything she was more wary and alert than she usually was as she came not far behind the Yuzuru representative.

With the weather having turned a bit warmer, she opted to go without her winter cloak, though there were still plenty of layers in her attire, which featured nature-themed embroidery and weave reminiscent of the old Ayakashi. Unbeknownst to Satsuki, Hoto-Hori might even recognise the pattern work as belonging to her mother.

"Good afternoon," she greeted the two first arrivals. "This is the place, yeah?" she looked to Tai, then behind her. "I gave the directions to my cousin Nao. She's a shugenja too, but with a different understanding of the elements than I have, so I think her insight could be good to have."

And so, a smaller girl came walking up from downstream. She had a spear in hand and a pig beside her.

"Hello." she waved.

A young man in strangely patterned robes and a younger one with similar garments eventually appear walking from upstream.

"Oi, Tai-sshi! Nice to see you again", the older one says with a friendly wave followed by a bow. The younger one follows suit, but keeps silent.

Looking about and seeing the others seems to be a bit of a surprise to both, although the Reactions are different. Tae-soo bows again, repeating a much flatter "...Good afternoon, everyone"; Ha-yeong gives a quick, awkward bow, then more or less hides behind a tree.

"Hello," Satsuki smiled and bowed in return. "Pardon for intruding on your, ah, camp? Tai said to meet around here to meet a Haka priest, to talk about the strange activity of the kami in this area."

Another bow. "I'm Togashi Satsuki. Pleasure to meet you both."

Hoto-Hori was now giving Satsuki the 'Why am I here then?' look.

Yuzuru Hoto-Hori wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 27, 2023 6:03 pm

"Well fuck me. No bush did that job on your face . . . "

Her grip on the spear shifted a bit at the sound of someone approaching, but that was all. At the young man's comment, she relaxed, though her eyebrows lifted. The corner of a lip quirked. "Far too married for that first, but yeah... some were a house and some were the knife."

Her attention is quickly claimed by others arriving. She nods to Satsuki and Nao in recognition, her smile widening at Tae-soo's approach. A hand lifts to return the wave. "Tae-soo! I brought friends...and they brought some too."

She offers a half-assed bow to Hoto-hori, "Guessin' you're Satsuki's Yuzuru friend? I'm Kaiu Tai." There, that was a polite greeting and introduction, right?

(ooc, and then back to work)

Yuzuru Hoto-Hori wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 27, 2023 7:33 pm

Hoto-Hori was now giving Satsuki the 'Why am I here then?' look.

Satsuki blinked, then remembered. "Ah, you mentioned something about investigating spirit portals, Hoto-Hori, right? I figured that there might be an overlap with that and the strangeness of this place." She took a moment to not let her lack of brain-filter run away with her mouth. "People seem to lose their way when trying to go through the mists, only to end up back where they started... I'm no expert like the Yuzuru are, but it could sound like something that could involve any of the other realms. Yume-Do is already at risk, and we can't let it spread to others too."

"Well . . . that actually does sound like portals, or at least one of the Realms interfering."

He thought for a bit, which with his current mood looked like he was chewing wasps.

"Although turning people around and back on themselves sounds more like something Sakkaku would do."

There two entire sentences without a swear word. Progress!!!!!

"Yeah, that does sound like tricksters." Nao nodded. "Navigating Sakkaku can be a pain."

"Hmm...worth asking the spirits if there are critters from those realms about. With portals or them reachin' to take hold here, I'd imagine their folks could travel to this realm more easily." She frowns and looks to the sky, angling toward what seems to be the sun, lighting the clouds a bit brighter as it dips toward evening. "Suppose that's why I can't tell east from west here unless I actually look at the sun."

The younger one keeps behind the tree while the others speak, although 'hidden' is not quite the right word as one eye and most of a head pop out from time to time to look at the group.

Tae-soo meanwhile relaxes, at least in part, as Tai says they're friends. He bows again to Satsuki, then the others. "Happy to meet Tai-sshi's friends, and friends of friends.", he says, his tone still somewhat flat but less so than before. "I'm Tae... Haka Tae-soo, and this is Haka Ha-yeong-sshi", he says, pointing at the head that had just stuck out from behind the tree.

He takes a step forward as the others talk, as if that would somehow make the whole thing easier to understand. His brow furrows more and more, suggesting a large deal of that isn't exactly well-known to him, but nods now and then.

"Hm. We hadn't tried to walk back through the forest, now I think about it. So... we apparently cannot?" He tilts his head from one side to another, shifts his weight from foot to foot.

"You all think it's something like... this place being closer to the spirits, somehow? Um. Halmeoni told us such places existed...but mostly when she told me to do things right less our home would become one"

That brings a small grin to his face, but just for a moment.

"The river here...Gang...eh... River friend-sshi told me something... hurt it, somehow. Something bright, and green. And there was a smooth, shiny black stone too... maybe connected. Maybe... heugyoseok?" He opens and closes his mouth a few times again, as if trying to remember another word for it, then shakes his head.

"Heugyoseok, it's...we sometimes found some close to the riverbanks. Halmeoni and the enders told us to respect it, as it had strong energy, but 'was sensitive to bad influences'. We mostly left it alone when we found it... but we never saw it along with shining green lights like River friend-sshi showed here. It must have been frightening for the river...."

He looks at the river as he speaks. It was odd to be talking about someone while standing right beside it like this. He nods to the river, whispers what seems like a quick prayer.

"You... think it could be somehow related to these spieit worlds, Yeoreobun?", he asks as he turns back to the others.

"Maybe not closer, but... there is certainly something going on here. If I may explain what I have discovered."

Glancing around herself, Satsuki found a spot to sit. With her legs crossed, she put her body at ease, allowing her mind to focus more on all she had learned.

"Yesterday, I communed with the air kami out in the fields over there," she gestured in the direction of the farmlands, "to figure out more why there is this thick fog around this place. As I'm unable to get any answers at all from the water, I spoke with the air. I asked them why they linger here as a thick fog, to which they responded that they were sleepy and wanted to cuddle up and get thick." Air kami, am I right. "Since I had heard that people tended to lose their sense of direction and way in the mist, even the best pathfinders, I asked them why that was. Their answer was that it was funny, and people would wander around in circles in there - and maybe they're sleepy too."

She took some time to let that information sink in. "It was also a bit difficult to get their attention to begin with. Not in a way that prevented me from managing to speak with them at all, but... like waking up someone sleeping deeply, maybe?" The others must've noticed this too.

"There is a shrine here, further up ahead that way." This time she pointed in the direction of the shrine. "It's closed off completely to visitors now, just impossible to get through the fog at all. So I asked the earth kami at the gate which kami was enshrined there. I found the answer puzzling, as they said 'Many'. And 'None'." Now Satsuki was frowning. "I inquired then if they had noticed any corruption of the sacred area there, and... well,"

She grimaced. "It... waits... outside... hungry.... Those were the exact words."

"Even if this isn't specifically the acts of a portal to another realm, Hoto-Hori," she looked to the Imperial, "none can deny that there is more than just our realm at stake here. The realm of dreams is already imbalanced and corrupted, maybe even permanently. This might spread further."

Tai listens to both summaries carefully. "A lot of that is concerning. Something bright green harming the river..." she shakes her head. She was used to that sounding more like the way one could call jade's purity from the earth. Black stone could be many things, though both south and north, there was one she was used to hearing associated with darker influences. "Obsidian maybe? The black stone?"

"In any case, I'd noticed the sluggishness of the elements coming here. Don't know about portals, but maybe they'd affect the spirits of earth and water and such?" She lets her dark on dark eyes rest on Hoto-Hori a moment. "Would sleepy earth indicate the Realm of Dreams is close?"

As Satsuki adds to the litany of weirdness, Tai finds herself nodding. "Found the shrine too, though just to meditate. Was surprised to find it closed off. Closin' the spirit within off like that for a week wouldn't be how any of our villages prepared for anything." She says to Satsuki, "might be worth goin' back to ask a few more questions of the spirits there, see what might be sensed as well, neh?"

More slowly, she adds. "Whatever waits outside...maybe we don't reach for that just yet? Would like to learn what keeps it outside...outside of what? this village and forest?"

"The day we arrived, I visited the garden in the village. San fell asleep while I walked around." She looked down at her pig. "I sat beside him and I felt sleepy as well, lying down on the bench and falling asleep immediately. That was very strange. I don't sleep much. I have a connection to Yume Do and usually sleep for only a few hours each night. I did not go back to investigate yesterday, unfortunately. . I was focused on other concerns."

"It seems like there's much for us to investigate."

"Well that isn't a fucking portal. That's . . . that's like another Realm bleeding into this one entirely . . . "

He didn't look pleased.

"Another realm bleeding into this one?" Satsuki asked, only mildly shocked since it wasn't a far-fetched thing to say when all things were considered.

She looked between Nao and Hoto-Hori. "Have you uncovered anything with other realms, Nao? You're a spiritwalker like my mom..."

"Last night, I tried seeing the current state of Yume Do for myself. It wasn't pretty." she said. "If what I saw was any indication, It's heavily corrupted. I was greeted by the Harbinger, however. So, it's difficult to trust anything I saw."

"If there is a realm spilling into Ningendo, perhaps their are dream spirits who fled Yume Do. Is that a possibility?"

"Definitely."

He pondered for a moment.

"Time to ask some not quite locals."

He slashed his hand across the air in front of him while chanting something intelligible to all present, for an instant there were jade like claws on his hands and a streak of white light followed his hand. Which faded away to nothing . . .

He looked at the . . . nothing at all . . . in front of him incredulously.

"What the actual fuck? . . . "