(D3 EE) Half Sick of Shadows

[Ryoshun Yua]

Yua had found one of the teahouses tucked away in the garden. More importantly, it was a teahouse with a leafless maple on the sightline to a curve of pond, the branches silhouetting against the ice in patterns and occasionally almost kanji. The teahouse provides some small shelter. It could provide warmth as well, if she'd asked for it, but the thought hadn't crossed her mind.

Instead, she'd wrapped her usual robes of bright blue over one of the 'good outfit' layers of storm gray, then folded up her blanket to bring with to tent around her as she worked and watched on the teahouse porch. There was a scattering of coin and metal bits before her, along with writing materials.

She closed her eyes, parchment and charcoal in hand, opening them to sketch the patterns she sees. Once, twice, three sketches...and then she closes her eyes once more, remaining so until the dying light reflected from the frozen water through the branches begins to make shifting patterns across the inside of her eyelids. Eyes still closed, the charcoal moves quickly at the corner of the sheet in once last sketch.

[Edit. Whoops. Forgot court, which should probably not be summarily ignored. Time change and light edits to reflect.]

[Jiyo Sora]

Assuming he didn't get mauled to death by a bear earlier in the day, Sora happened along, feeling a bit abstracted.

But catching sight of the Bat, he cocked his head to the side.

Some kind of divination?

[Ryoshun Yua]

Seems possible as she turns slightly, talking with what might have been someone of about her height sitting to the side, if there were anyone actually there.

"So considering the dormancy in the branches against the ice, if you're looking at this...it's kind of the character for snow, right? Oh, hmm...yeah you're right, refocusing on that, which was a stronger shadow, really, is more home. If we put that in the key position..." she marks next to it, "then I'm looking at something happening back home, you think?"

She pauses. "Oh?" and turns toward the watching Jiyo. Her hands tuck into her sleeves, mostly to keep warm, and she offers a bit of a seated bow, debating whether she really needed to get up for a proper one when he was still off over there. "Fair evening to you, coming to watch the light fade out here as well?" Even raised to call over, her voice is not loud, nor will it ever be considered lovely. Low-pitched for the woman she obviously is, and almost, but not quite a monotone.

[Jiyo Sora]

"Not as such, Ryoshun-san. I am Jiyo Sora, and I have something of an interest in oracles..."

[Ryoshun Yua]

Well that sounds like actual conversation, with an Imperial to boot. Her eyes flick to the side a moment before she lets the blanket slip from her shoulders as she rises for the more proper bow that undoubtedly requires. "Ryoshun Yua. It's a half worked kind of oracle, more omen seeking, but you're welcome to have a look, of course, Jiyo-sama." She gestures toward space on the wooden 'porch' on her right--opposite the space she'd been speaking to.

[Jiyo Sora]

He cocked his head, looking at the pattern with his discolored eye.

What have we here?

[Ryoshun Yua]

(ooc, I haven't made an actual Divination roll, so for now we have me farting around. Feel free to add as you see fit)

The handful of coins are just that, none of them appear to have been minted in the same place, and the markings on them thus differ similarly. The bits of scrap metal have kanji and other symbols etched into or painted onto them. The drawing is three quick sketches of branch patterns, sharp lines slashed rapidly across the paper. So spotting kanji in the shapes requires interpretation that allows for the lack of all the elegant curved bits.

Off to the lower corner though is a smudged sketch. If you tried to draw the shadows at the bottom of a pool and then smeared the charcoal with your thumb, you might expect it to look like that. It's more shadow than light dapple, if following that analogy.

Yua fans out the parchment. If a member of the Imperial families wants to look at your scribbles, well...you let them look at your scribbles. "Just...trying to see what patterns might arise from dormant maple and frozen water. They're both...kind of the opposite of their usual selves as far as symbolism goes right now and that seems like it should affect how an omen would present through them if one were divining, which I'm practicing." Beyond the note that she's practicing, there is no apology for the skill behind the sketches or the rough nature of the metal bits.

[Jiyo Sora]

"Opposite of their natural selves, or simply passing through a natural phase that encompasses part of their whole being?"

He didn't sound like he was testing her, it was more of a conversational offering.

[Ryoshun Yua]

"You know, I'm sort of debating that. This is natural, after all. And water has connotations of purity, which obviously isn't reversed as ice, but does the sense of motion become stagnation, trapped immobility, or merely rest? And what does it mean to use it as a mirror for light and shadow for divination. Is it the purest mirror I can use to reflect Lady Sun's light? I rather think so." Her quiet monotone at least varies in its rhythm, slowing in thoughtfullness, rushing ahead through a conclusion.

[Jiyo Sora]

"Perhaps a brief rest, perhaps a natural pause- sleep, rather than stagnation. I'd certainly argue that's the case of the maple, in any event. But there's no denying that there are few mirrors more natural than a pond."

[Ryoshun Yua]

She nods. "And the maple is usually...well, we recognize its grace, and in the autumn...beauty. But winter?" She shrugs.

"Then again, we don't ascribe much to the coins used for divination...though I think they do lend themselves better to the very personal fortunes or super big picture, and not much inbetween. So perhaps the branches are just a neutral medium casting shadows?"

"I feel like this is a divination that might best be about how to make use of the quiet. What we do in dormancy to prepare for spring."

[Jiyo Sora]

"I've certainly heard worse ideas...and knowing how to use stillness is important."

Said the man who sometimes snuck up on his targets when they didn't know he was coming.

[Ryoshun Yua]

There is a moment of realization of things like age differential. "The advice is appreciated. I"m sure you have a lot more experience with divination thn I've had years for. Unless it's a very recent interest?" She dips her head slightly. "It's hard, because I'm not sure there is any consistent way in which the world speaks of the future...but how else to weed out the random shadows from the true messages than trial and...well, a lot of error?"

[Jiyo Sora]

"Beats me." He chuckled, and indicated his eye. "This thing didn't come with instructions. But I find that tools tend to work for those who apply themselves."

[Ryoshun Yua]

She looks at it, glances away, but more like she's heard something off to the other side than because it's *that* level of terrifying, and looks back. "Arrived from Meido with it then? Has there ever been a sign that it's the particular gift of any fortune or spirit?" She pauses, "Hmm, assuming you don't mind my asking, Jiyo-sama. Otherwise, I'd be quite grateful if you just forgot the question." It rough remembering all these rules about status and families. But since they're stuck here in the snow...

[Jiyo Sora]

"It remains a mystery, Ryoshun-san. My friend Saruko has posited Sakkaku as one possibility, but no firm verdict has been stated."

[Ryoshun Yua]

"Sakkaku?" Yua looks down, fidgeting with the edge of her sleeve in thought. "Does it see things askew, then?" That seemed on brand for the realm of tricksteres. "Or, divinations that run a bit that way?"

(pardon the extra long pause..10 hr work day ate my brain)

[Jiyo Sora]

[No worries!]

"No, no, not that I notice, but letting a human see glimpses of the future might strike some as a good joke..."

[Ryoshun Yua]

"Maybe for some of the more enigmatic denizens. I do not think most of them..." Her hands still as she searches for the words that feel right. "Well most of them are way more literal in their idea of humor. They'd offer you glimpses of the future...but only embarassing moments, maybe..so you saw them twice over. Let you predict flatulence or something," While her tone remains as it has been, and thus as serious (or not) as the rest of the conversation, there's a faint smile.

[Jiyo Sora]

"That would certainly keep me busy."

He half-smiled.

"But again, it's simply one guess among many."