Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

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Ko
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Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Sun May 24, 2020 12:33 pm

As the spring evening came on, the expedition's camp started to seem very... noisy, to Ko. Which was silly, because her home was also noisy. But that was a different kind of noise made by familiar people, not the chatter of strangers to whom it wasn't particularly significant that she'd killed another person for the first time today. Anyway, all at once she found herself wanting some relative quiet.

Taking her bowl of boiled grain and dried meat away from the cookfires, she wandered a little ways into the forest, under the strange old lookout platform she'd heard others mention earlier today.
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Sun May 24, 2020 12:55 pm

Ko wrote:
Sun May 24, 2020 12:33 pm
As the spring evening came on, the expedition's camp started to seem very... noisy, to Ko. Which was silly, because her home was also noisy. But that was a different kind of noise made by familiar people, not the chatter of strangers to whom it wasn't particularly significant that she'd killed another person for the first time today. Anyway, all at once she found herself wanting some relative quiet.

Taking her bowl of boiled grain and dried meat away from the cookfires, she wandered a little ways into the forest, under the strange old lookout platform she'd heard others mention earlier today.
A small circle of light flickers at the base of the lookout's tree as a dimly lit humanoid figure scratches at something in the darkness. Their quiet mutterings are difficult to deciper. Foul sorceries? Maybe something worse?
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Wed May 27, 2020 2:51 am

Oh. There was already someone here. But... it was a quiet someone, as long as it was in fact a person and not some malign creature. It looked roughly human, though, and the hairs on the back of Ko's neck weren't standing on end.

"Hello there?" she said a bit hesitantly. "Is it all right if I share your light?"
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Wed May 27, 2020 6:54 am

Ko wrote:
Wed May 27, 2020 2:51 am
Oh. There was already someone here. But... it was a quiet someone, as long as it was in fact a person and not some malign creature. It looked roughly human, though, and the hairs on the back of Ko's neck weren't standing on end.

"Hello there?" she said a bit hesitantly. "Is it all right if I share your light?"
"And then we crossed the raging...the roaring....the...the...the seething river and fond ourselves in-Hmmmm?"
The figure looks up, squinting a little against their night blindness.

"Of course! Unless you're a malign spirit or some kind of shapeshifting monster, in which case, uh, back! Back I say!"
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Fri May 29, 2020 1:40 am

Anjing Xia wrote:
Wed May 27, 2020 6:54 am
"And then we crossed the raging...the roaring....the...the...the seething river and fond ourselves in-Hmmmm?"
The figure looks up, squinting a little against their night blindness.

"Of course! Unless you're a malign spirit or some kind of shapeshifting monster, in which case, uh, back! Back I say!"
"I'm not." Ko shrugged. "If I was... would that work? Are you another shaman?" It would explain why she was out here alone--doing some ritual, no doubt. But if it's dangerous she would warn me away, right? She felt confident enough of that to approach closer to the light. This revealed her to Xia as, indeed an entirely human person with a dinner bowl in one hand.
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Fri May 29, 2020 6:23 am

Ko wrote:
Fri May 29, 2020 1:40 am
"I'm not." Ko shrugged. "If I was... would that work? Are you another shaman?" It would explain why she was out here alone--doing some ritual, no doubt. But if it's dangerous she would warn me away, right? She felt confident enough of that to approach closer to the light. This revealed her to Xia as, indeed an entirely human person with a dinner bowl in one hand.
Xia sighs with relief as the candle reveals an entirely normal Ko
"Well, no, not as such. I mean, I have been described as a 'shaman with words' " by myself "But I don't speak directly to the spirits."
It was now clearer Xia has been scribbling on some vellum
"I'm uh, Xia, of the Anjing. It's nice to meet you?"
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Fri May 29, 2020 10:43 am

Ko pressed the palm of her free hand to her heart, fingers spread. "I greet you, Xia. I name myself Ko. Of the... well, no one that you've heard of, probably." At that last bit, her smile went equal parts sheepish and prickly.

"Anjing... that means the Crab Clan, right?" She dropped comfortably down onto her heels, cradling her dinner bowl while her free hand now fished in her waist pouch for her spoon. "What are you drawing?"
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Fri May 29, 2020 11:15 am

Ko wrote:
Fri May 29, 2020 10:43 am
Ko pressed the palm of her free hand to her heart, fingers spread. "I greet you, Xia. I name myself Ko. Of the... well, no one that you've heard of, probably." At that last bit, her smile went equal parts sheepish and prickly.

"Anjing... that means the Crab Clan, right?" She dropped comfortably down onto her heels, cradling her dinner bowl while her free hand now fished in her waist pouch for her spoon. "What are you drawing?"
"Welcome Ko"
Xia awkwardly tries to mirror the action, butchering it.
"I might well have heard of your people, I am a collector of lore. Are you from the....uh...the...northern...people?"
At Ko's question, Xia indicates her notes
"I'm working on a short history of this expedition, just the most important scenes of this great quest. And also some poetry, just, just for me I guess."
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Fri May 29, 2020 12:42 pm

"No." Ko, having found her spoon, pauses a moment before digging in to her supper. "We live on the shore, a long journey east from your fort. South of the forest and east of the marsh. While I traveled, I learned that outsiders name it the lonely shore, but mostly they never come there at all. Maybe that's why they call it that?" She dug in to her boiled grain and thought about this while chewing a bite.

"Poetry... songs?" Ko peeked again at the paper. It didn't look like scenes from the great quest to her. Well, it didn't look like anything, really. Just squiggles, like a beading pattern but not as regular.
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Fri May 29, 2020 12:51 pm

Ko wrote:
Fri May 29, 2020 12:42 pm
"No." Ko, having found her spoon, pauses a moment before digging in to her supper. "We live on the shore, a long journey east from your fort. South of the forest and east of the marsh. While I traveled, I learned that outsiders name it the lonely shore, but mostly they never come there at all. Maybe that's why they call it that?" She dug in to her boiled grain and thought about this while chewing a bite.

"Poetry... songs?" Ko peeked again at the paper. It didn't look like scenes from the great quest to her. Well, it didn't look like anything, really. Just squiggles, like a beading pattern but not as regular.
"Ah, the Lonely Shore people who uh....live on the Lonely Shore." she resists the urge to note that down
"They're not quite songs, I mean, you could sing them, if you wanted." Clearing her throat "But they're mainly sort of spoken, like a story but it's about the words and not the story."
Guility "It's...it's not very good, I've never met anyone who liked poetry more than songs. I'm assured it's very popular in the Crane lands though, they're very up on poetry in the north."
jabbing a finger at one of the squiggles "And finding anything that rhymes with 'Hantei' is extremely difficult, that just complicates things further."
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Fri May 29, 2020 1:04 pm

"I suppose you could name us that." Ko shrugged. "Almost every tribe has some other names outsiders call them by. I've been noticing that. As long as they're not disgraceful names, maybe there's nothing wrong with it."

At this point she had more or less given up at looking for meaning in Xia's drawings. Interesting-looking though they were, they also were clearly some mystery of the Crab people, not for outsiders to understand. Ko didn't want to accidentally end up cursed from prying in to things that were taboo to an outsider.

"Oh, so more like a shaman chant. But for a word shaman, not a... real shaman." That was so, so far from the most outlandish thing Ko had encountered on this journey that she simply nodded acceptance while chewing another bite of dinner. "Can I hear some, or is it secret?"
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Fri May 29, 2020 1:14 pm

Ko wrote:
Fri May 29, 2020 1:04 pm
Snip
"-Uh..you, you would?" Xia quickly wipes a spot of ink off her hand
"Right, yes, okay. Totally normal, ummm." She starts furiously picking up her various sheets before settling on one of the older pieces with nearly completely faded squiggles.
"This one is my adaption of what we'd say at a Seidou wedding."
Clearing her throat.

" 'Fair, fair,' cry the ospreys
On the island in the river.
Lovely is this noble lady,
Fit bride for our lord.

In patches grows the water mallow:
To left and right one must seek it.
Shy was this noble lady;
Day and night he sought her.

Sought her and could not get her;
Day and night he grieved.
Long thoughts, oh, long unhappy thoughts,
Now on his back, now tossing on to his side.

In patches grow the water mallow;
To left and right one must gather it.
Shy is this noble lady;
With great zithern and little we hearten her."

She glances at Ko for a moment before quickly looking away
"I know it probably sounds like nonsense."
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Sat May 30, 2020 6:24 am

Ko listened carefully, picturing the fair lady crossing the leaf-blanketed marsh in a shining canoe. (Quite possibly her imagination made some additions to the scene beyond what Xia had intended.)

"It's a beautiful chant," she reassured Xia. "I could see it all in my mind, like a proper story. Whose wedding did you make it for?"
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Sat May 30, 2020 6:50 am

Ko wrote:
Sat May 30, 2020 6:24 am
Ko listened carefully, picturing the fair lady crossing the leaf-blanketed marsh in a shining canoe. (Quite possibly her imagination made some additions to the scene beyond what Xia had intended.)

"It's a beautiful chant," she reassured Xia. "I could see it all in my mind, like a proper story. Whose wedding did you make it for?"
Feeling a knot in her stomach unclench at Ko's words"My aunt's....she...she didn't really get it, but I think my uncle liked it. Family, eh?"
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Sat May 30, 2020 10:05 am

Ko grinned. "You would die without them. But sometimes they make you want to sail far out of sight of land." She cocked her head, eyebrows drawing together curiously. "The house you live in is so huge, though. I guess you don't need to go out to sea to find some privacy."
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Sat May 30, 2020 5:45 pm

Ko wrote:
Sat May 30, 2020 10:05 am
Ko grinned. "You would die without them. But sometimes they make you want to sail far out of sight of land." She cocked her head, eyebrows drawing together curiously. "The house you live in is so huge, though. I guess you don't need to go out to sea to find some privacy."
"Oh, well I had a very small in it. Sort if in the basement....next to the kitchen....and the entranceway. But yeah, very private, nobody ever came by to visit me."
Xia looks down and works furiously on her notes for a few moments
"So what about your uh, house? Is it nice? What's home to you?"
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:11 am

This would, at one time, have been so obvious a question that it would hardly have needed answering. But that was back when Ko's world only contained one kind of house. She chewed her lip for a moment. "My family's house is round, with a tall roof. We make the walls out of grass to keep the rain out. About twenty people live there right now." She poked at her food with her spoon. "I'm not sure what else to say about it. It's home. In some ways your Seidou houses are more comfortable, though."
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:13 am

Ko wrote:
Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:11 am
This would, at one time, have been so obvious a question that it would hardly have needed answering. But that was back when Ko's world only contained one kind of house. She chewed her lip for a moment. "My family's house is round, with a tall roof. We make the walls out of grass to keep the rain out. About twenty people live there right now." She poked at her food with her spoon. "I'm not sure what else to say about it. It's home. In some ways your Seidou houses are more comfortable, though."
"Oh but there's no place like home....even if it is a cramped home made of grass. I'm sure it's very homely."
Pause
"You know, it strikes me there are some benefits to a traditional of construction, that and being led by a god who enjoys building. Things are probably different on the coast, you have that huge lake there with the bad water."
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Ko » Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:30 am

"Hey!" Ko laughed. "The sea is perfectly good water! Uh, for the most part, anyway. Most of the time."

She put down her spoon for a moment to run her fingers through her sun-streaked hair, shoving it back out of the way. "Your god... is called Hida, right? He likes building things?"
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Re: Into the Woods [Day 3, EE]

Post by Anjing Xia » Tue Jun 02, 2020 6:04 am

Ko wrote:
Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:30 am
"Hey!" Ko laughed. "The sea is perfectly good water! Uh, for the most part, anyway. Most of the time."

She put down her spoon for a moment to run her fingers through her sun-streaked hair, shoving it back out of the way. "Your god... is called Hida, right? He likes building things?"

"Building, laughing and pounding. Although not necessarily in that order. Hida is a very wise god."
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