Tae-soo had received word from some of those he'd met during his time here. Word about the letters Chouri had asked them to write, and word asking him to provide some spiritual support for someone else who would be writing the letters.
He hadn't met lady Matsu before - it would be what, the third family leader he'd met here? - but he was equal parts surprised at the request for help and open to providing that spiritual help.
When the time came for him to write the letters, though, he once again asked the spirits for their help, then thought, long and hard. He first put down to paper what he now thought he understood about what exactly was happening here. He finally seemed to have at least some coherent idea of what this was all about. The dreaming spilling into the real world. The womanly face with green flames. The cave, seemingly related to both, the spiritual contamination harming it, and spreading that hurt all along the river like an open wound.
He thought about how to make the importance of that known. But the ritual, and the stories he'd heard... the village headwoman had apparently received the green-flamed woman's essence within her?
Willingly, according to some? And now what was expected of them was to try and convince them that it wasn't a good idea to do so as well, and align themselves with the one who had played a main role in corrupting the land, and the river, and...themselves, maybe?
How could one even approach that. He looked at what he'd written about what was going on. Tried to draw a diagram with the charcoal on some parchment. It was appalling, but it might help organise ideas some.
'You wouldn't want your souls to be full of poison'.
As the river was. And they
knew it - they had to... right? Otherwise, why the taboo?
'Some of those here have been chosen to fight back against what's poisoning your land'.
And yet, they had tried to poison those who would fight back. Not once, but twice. Once... maybe just as part of their own traditions? But what to say of the second time? Was poison
part of their traditions, then?
And he'd heard, here and there, that the village itself wasn't here that long. Were those traditions coming from elsewhere? Or... could those traditions
have been established by the green-flamed womanly figure? And if so... the villagers
themselves might have been helping spread the poison?
He started a few more times. Thought about how to best approach this.
He figured he just didn't know how. He didn't understand the whole situation. He didn't know what to think. Calling for the help of people who might have worked to spread the corruption further in the past - maybe unknowingly, maybe not? - maybe that could just make things worse?
In the end, he found himself besides a pile of discarded parchment. He takes a long sigh, gives Ha-yeong a tired smile as the young'un enters the tent with a few fish they had just caught. "I just don't know", he said, maybe to Ha-yeong, maybe to himself. The young'un shrugged, placed the fish on the ground. "It's all right, Seonbae. You don't have to. We don't have to".
A nod. Tae-soo takes his knife, makes a dent on his arm, walks outside.
A short while later, a swallow perches on his arm.
"Satsuki, Tai, Nao." He nods to the bird. "I... I just don't know. Is what we're doing really the right thing? Do we know for certain that it is? I want to heal the land, as I know it's what you want to as well. But this... can we trust what we're doing? Can we trust where it came from? Are you three sure it's the right thing? I'll trust your judgment... but I can't trust mine to know how to address the villagers."
The swallow flies off. The pieces of parchment are thrown in the fire.
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OOC: Tae-soo ends up deciding not to send a letter.
D6 EA - Casting Request of Kaze-no-kami. Void Slot 3/3. TN 20, sending message to Satsuki, Tai, Nao. | 6k3 ⇒ 24 (TN: 20)
Sending message to Satsuki, Tai and Nao instead.
3 wounds taken
