Kyuden Shika

"I believe it," Nesshin replies. "And carrying another's trash...not so desirable, really."

He shrugs and continues sweeping.

"Did you attend last night's production? I wasn't able to shake free, really."

"It was... a serious downer. Some Crane's idea of tragic beauty, which just struck me- and the Otter I spoke to- as simply tragic."

"Huh," Nesshin says. "Not really so far out for a Crane, the idea of tragic beauty. 'Woe is me, I am...so beautiful' happens a lot."

"'Ohhhh, I'm dying of this dissease but I've imagined a life with my doctor, how sad and beautiful.'"

Raizo scowled.

"If I want tragedy, I don't need to go to the damn theater."

"Makes one wonder what kind of lives lead to such things being seen as escapist," Nesshin muses.

"Miserable ones."

Nesshin shrugs.

"Having abundant food, leisure time, nice stuff, and access to pretty people...sounds like a kind of miserable it'd be good to have for a while. And isn't that what the Crane have?"

"It's what they tell us they have. In my experience, anyone who actually has security doesn't make so much noise about it."

"Ah," Nesshin replies.

A question flashes into the Deer's mind, and he thinks No, I shouldn't ask it. I'm not sure I want the answer.

Am I afraid to hear from another?

"What we boast about is what we fear to lose, then?"

"More... it's what we wish we had, I think."