[Day 1, Early Afternoon] At Loose Ends (Open)

[Shiba Raizo]

"Nope. I think the Elemental Council likes to keep us guessing."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"It's probably safer if we avoid delving too deep into both of our clans internal organizations if we want to save ourselves a headache. I've got a Khan and a Champion, you've got a Champion and five Masters, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Let's just say there's a lot of historical baggage here and leave it as that.

So, title aside, what do you actually do in life? I guess it's not really reprising sandals.

As for myself, I think you've got enough contextual clue to guess I'm a warrior serving on the western front of the Unicorn. To be precise, I command a small cavalry unit operating through all the Burning Sands. What good in being on a horse if you always stay in the same place?"

[Shiba Raizo]

His eyebrows went up.

"That must be nice... getting around so rapidly, I mean. I love seeing new sights, but I'm usually walking. As for what I do? I'm a soldier. People seem to think that means fighting. But it mostly involves walking around with a pack that feels like someone stuffed it full of mountains they weren't using. The fighting's just an added 'bonus' when it happens."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"Soldiers wouldn't live old if they were truly fighting every day.

One time we found ourselves in a sticky situation in Ivindi territory, ambushed in a swamp-like terrain near the jungle in which our enemies could easily maneuver while we had to be cautious of traps, natural or man-made.

We had to endure harassment assaults for several days, once even twice in the same day. Most nerve-cracking experience I ever went through. After the third battle in a row, even the most swaggering warrior asks themselves why they did not become a monk instead.

That didn't prevent us from trying to save face and pretend to each other we were enduring stoically, even though by the second day we could see the pale figure of Uncle Tonpa, one of the emissaries of the Lords of Death, riding by our side.

By the dead of the night however, I had understood that Tonpa the trickster wasn't looking over us in search of people worthy to join the Lords, but because he expected a good laugh. And I knew how to give him one and save us by the same occasion.

I asked my soldiers to stop gritting their teeth and on the contrary to completely overplay their fatigue and despair tenfold as if they were terrible actors in a kabuki show. To let their horses adopt a slower pace instead of pushing them to get out of this hell quicker. I even went so far as accentuating the bags under their eyes and the creases of their cheeks with some make-up, and to simulate a loud quarrel with my second-in-command.

It did wonder. Soon after dawn, seeing us in such apparent disarray, our assailants attacked en masse to finish us off, convinced a night of little sleep had broken down our last mental defenses.

The last thing they heard was the thunder of Uncle Tonpa's laugh and our horses suddenly going into gallop."

[Shiba Raizo]

He clucked his tongue.

While the tale likely had its traces of bullshit- what soldier's story didn't?- he loved the idea of it.

"Ivindi lands... they must be quite something. So far away ... the only foreigners I've ever seen were Yobanjin, coming out of the north."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"The Ivory Kingdoms are a mixed bag. It's a big territory and home to many different people split in various factions. And unlike Rokugan they don't always wear their colors proudly, and determining one's loyalty to a particular lord, or religious leader, or tribal leader, or only to themselves is quite the challenge.

In that story, Unicorn merchants had found themselves unknowingly trading with a merchant group that had angered some kind of militant sect. Before we knew it, we were on their to-kill list.

Ironically, it was a group we already knew of beforehand, and with which we thought we had a good relationship. Their religious practices were clearly not oriented toward non-violence, but were a classic eternal cycle of creation and destruction story otherwise. In a way just a very edgy variant of Shinseism, death is not the end but a new beginning, winter must precede spring..."

While some of these concepts might indeed be in the Tao, it was obvious Mitsuki only a very superficial knowledge of how they were described in the good book.

"... That kind of stuff. Even had people who had ascended above the cycle of reincarnation like the Fortunes or the Lords of Death. So they didn't seem like a lost cause... If not for the fact forgiveness is apparently not allowed in their religion so we're just doomed to fight them until they're all dead."

Mitsuki shrugged to emphasize her disappointment, then shifted topic:

"I'm quite curious about the culture of Yodotai actually. But from your tone I'm not sure you met them for a civilized discussion."

---

D1EA | Agenda targetting Shiba Raizo (Theology/Fire) | TN: 2 | Success: 1 / Opportunity: 2 / Strife: 1


Failure. Using one Opportunity to cancel out the Strife, and the other goes to fluff land.

[Shiba Raizo]

"Yodo-what? The Yobanjin are... well, they actually look a lot like us, but they've got a different language, different weapons, and fewer taboos about wearing leather or fur...."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"If you add they ride big horses I'm going to start to suspect you accidentally went west instead of north from the Phoenix lands."

[Shiba Raizo]

"Well. Some of them ride big birds?"

[Moto Mitsuki]

"Big... Birds? Like the Rukhs they have in the Caliphate?

I've never seen one myself, but they're supposed to be gigantic eagles that prey on cows, horses, and other animals of similar size."