[Day 8 - EE] Extra Office Hours

[Doji Dojihime]

Dojihime drew in a breath and then had her presence announced for Jiyo Sora, this was a meeting long overdue in a string of meetings she would have to have till probably the end of time and beyond. She imagined her corpse being propped up somewhere still meeting and giving apologies… it was a dark day, but she was alive which meant she always had tomorrow.

[Jiyo Sora]

"Doji-san, please come in."

Sora was seated at a low table, working his way through a stack of documents. His family was notable by their absence- although to judge by the childish scrawl on one of a stack of three letters, his children had written something recently.

He rose and bowed to the Crane.

"I imagine you could do with something a bit more robust than tea, but I also imagine you need to keep your mind clear for the time being. I could send for tea, wine, or, if you feel like indulging in a bit of masochism, I have some Hikaru-style beer, which my wife assures me is a taste no one sane will ever acquire."

[Doji Dojihime]

“Sanity is in short supply, Hikaru beer sounds amenable,” she responded.

“I wanted to thank you personally for the letter. I was unsure if the Imperial families would want to be seen in our presence, but we have a Duty to do what our Lord demands. Your name keeps coming to the fore at court and so I once again find myself seeking your wisdom.”

[Jiyo Sora]

"Doji-san, if the Imperial Families went about shunning people for their mistakes, the entire Empire would collapse in the span of a week. Besides."

He walked over to one of the walls, and tapped on it in a sequence.

"There's plenty of blame to go around. I don't think your father knew what he was dealing with, and whatever he and I may think of one another, I know for a fact he wouldn't willingly do anything to cause your mother even the slightest difficulty. Besides."

He shrugged.

"I could have made a stink fifteen years gone, when I had my first suspicions. It was deemed... impolitic, causing trouble we couldn't afford, not just by me, but by advisers more universally respected. So. I kept silent. We can see where my excess of caution has led us."

Rapid footfalls- and a few muffled sounds, culminating in a stifled "Aw, Phi!" heralded the arrival of Phi with a tray of beer, her bell-braided hair in slight disarray.

Sora fixed his daughter with a measured gaze... and motioned for her to set the tray on the writing table.

Phi did so, bowing to both her father and the Crane, then took her leave.

"Ambitious, that one, in her way. Anyway. What can i do for you, Doji-san?"

[Doji Dojihime]

“She is wonderful,” she said with admiration.

Dojihime sipped the beer and said with a minor quirk of her lips at the taste, “I won’t waste your time, we both know the enemy we face and that it has essentially called us to War. How can we best assist the Imperial families in achieving our goal of resistance and success. I already plan to engage the Spider and their experts but I want to cast as wide a net of information that I can.”

“This can never happen again. Ignorance is no longer an excuse.”

OOC: Etiquette Great Beer 1CR and 1 FR: 7d10o10k5 27

[Jiyo Sora]

"Well. Your efforts to clean house will be something of a proving ground for various methods and approaches. Document everything- what works, what doesn't. We can use the system in place for sharing information among the Libraries and once Makime-san's roads get underway, it'll go even faster. At the same time?"

He sipped his own beer.

"We cannot assume only the Crane have suffered this infiltration. That thing was quite charming when it wanted to be, and the Fortunes only know who else it got to. And it was just one creature. We can no more afford to assume that only the Crane need to take stock than we can assume that every creature at large in the Empire will fall into the trap of issuing a formal iaijutsu challenge to a samurai who knows how to unmask them. So. While your clan works to rectify this error, make sure you also trace the contacts of anything you uncover. I'll be making some.... efforts in the lands of other Clans. And with what that monstrosity said in Court today, I think there will be plenty of work across the Empire."

A pause.

"Good call on the magistrates, by the by. With the monks getting a wider remit, you should also look into coordinating with them- they intersect with the farmers and the other workers a bit differently, and might spot things a samurai might miss."

[Doji Dojihime]

“Yes, we have to make the logical leap that Jigoku will try different methods to infiltrate, be it physically or through the realms of Dreams and other esoteric methods. Yes, keeping meticulous records will be paramount and education on the matter must be widespread. I had considered sponsoring an order of Monks within our lands, and that seems even more needed,” Dojihime replied.

“It would be helpful to hear what works and does not among the other clans as well, could I call upon you to provide said information or if you prefer a member of your family?”

“We will pour resources into Makime’s Road as it will help coordinate and move agents quickly to incursions. I suggest we tear down the tea house and had planned to sponsor a garden but instead we could use the grounds for constructing a headquarters for whatever group Lord Shiba decides upon to combat Jigoku.”

Dojihime finished with, “Fifteen years of activity can do a great deal of damage.”

[Jiyo Sora]

"Oh, rest assured, I intend to make use of the Libraries to insure that all methods and their efficacy are widely known. The Crane will absolutely receive any knowledge on the matter discovered anywhere else in the Empire. This is a matter of serious import, and as you say, education on the matter must be widespread. I also intend to ask if Lord Hisomu can write a detailed primer on the danger of Jigoku, and the emptiness of its promises of power. Something to keep in the minds of the people."

At the mention of tearing down tea houses, he... shrugged.

"Maybe the headquarters could have a garden within it, Doji-san. We need to fight, to be sure, but we also need to remember what it is we fight for. Still, it's a good idea. Symbols have power."

[Doji Dojihime]

"Maybe the headquarters could have a garden within it, Doji-san. We need to fight, to be sure, but we also need to remember what it is we fight for. Still, it's a good idea. Symbols have power."

“Yes, I had not considered that,” she said, agreeing with him.

“A treatise written by a kami would have a large impact and be taken seriously by many, not just those of the Spider. You are well connected, any people of note I should seek out that have your trust and approval on this subject?” she asked.

[Jiyo Sora]

"Jin of the Ki-Rin has been studying the problem since we went south. Isawa Kyosei is a bit... focused, but knows a thing or two. The Nezumi know a great deal. I think Lord Togashi might have some insights. Shinsei, of course, although hopefully we can get him to offer more concrete knowledge and less, er... philosophy. The Scorpion likely have some secrets of use tucked away. And of course, Hantei-Kami went with us into Jigoku fifteen years ago. I would start there."

[Doji Dojihime]

"Thank you, that is useful," she said before drinking more beer in moderation.

She allowed a long moment and then said, "Your letter said you had a history, I have a passing knowledge on it, other than watch out for Evil Eyed Sora he's a jerk or some such from father. Well you know how he speaks, anyway... this enmity seems deep is there any chance of crossing that bridge?"

[Jiyo Sora]

"Well. Your father and I met when we were both quite different men. Neither of us really had any of the things we do now. He was the only one of his people to reach us. I was something of an outcast even among the Hikaru. I doubt we would ever have been friends, but I do think we got off to a bad start. But... he also sees the world and how it should be very differently from me."

He shrugged.

"The problem, Doji-san, is that your father and I are both quite passionately sure we are right. It makes things difficult when each looks at the world the other would build and sees something fundamentally wrong."

A pause.

"The way the Crane and Stag order their lands is not how it is done in the Imperial lands, or the Dragon, for example. You might say that the differences there are at the root of our... less than cordial relations. But I was also a near-feral mountain barbarian at the time we met, and didn't exactly present my case tactfully. Just as your father's certainties can grate on those who don't share them. I think it will fall to our children, and their children, to perhaps work their way across the divide over time, as they- as you- grow up in and build a world where your father's worldview and mine are both eroded into something between the two."

[Doji Dojihime]

“I am not my father or mother, nor could I ever try to be but I am molded by them. I promise you that I will work to create a world that will give your children a chance to flourish to their full potential,” she offered.

“Maybe in my children’s time the bridge can be mended. Though if I have learned anything, old bridges may have been burnt down by then. Happily ever after seems like a distant ever moving goal,” she mused.

[Jiyo Sora]

"Maybe your children and my grandchildren can just build new ones."

He seemed... pleased by the idea.

"The fact that your father and I don't get along needn't bind our descendants, especially as the roots of the dispute fade into history."

[Doji Dojihime]

“Building bridges is an honorable pursuit,” she said proudly.

“For now I will focus on building this group to fight our eternal enemy but hope to get back to bridges. And it’s probably on your mind but my sister is… relatively fine. She has my father’s jade necklace close to her heart. Emotionally, well… I don’t know but her soul is not forfeit.”

She added after another sip of beer, “Nothing like a sudden crisis to pull the family together.”

[Jiyo Sora]

"I hope circumstances allow her the time to... process things."

He paused.

"And naturally, you and her other immediate family will do what you can for her. I think jade is going to become quite the fashion accessory in the years ahead."

[Doji Dojihime]

"Oh I have many ideas," she replied on the matter of fashion.

"But yes, we will support our own. We will need to find ways to aid those like my sister, and keep their condition from getting worse," she said calmly with a tinge of sadness. The last thing she wanted was for others to think less of her sister.

"Another issue to add to my list."

[Jiyo Sora]

"I believe I have already mentioned Jin as a useful contact on that front, and given the warm relations between the Crane and the Ki-Rin, the experiences on the trip south, and his own passion for mercy and healing... I think I may send him a personal letter on your sister's behalf, if you would be agreeable."

He shook his head, as if banishing idle thoughts.

"Jigoku has blundered this day, Doji-san. It revealed what it had done to Doji Tsubaki when it had no need to do so. It announced the approach it intends to apply going forward. It has crystallized what could have been finger-pointing and scapegoating directed at the Crane into resolve."

He favored her with a grim smile.

"It doesn't know humanity half so well as it appears to believe."

[Doji Dojihime]

"Hubris may be a universal quality," she mused.

"I believe I have already mentioned Jin as a useful contact on that front, and given the warm relations between the Crane and the Ki-Rin, the experiences on the trip south, and his own passion for mercy and healing... I think I may send him a personal letter on your sister's behalf, if you would be agreeable."

She then added about Jin, "The Crane would appreciate your actions in this matter, I can wholeheartedly agree to that action."

"Though they may have blundered our enemy is cunning, so the next question is why now... there is something we don't see yet."

[Jiyo Sora]

"The unmasking of the thing that was married to your sister may have forced it to tip its hand. Or perhaps it has minions poised to strike and thinks it's too late. Maybe there are rules it is compelled to follow in its cycles of war to try to conquer ningen-do. But I agree, we don't know why now, not with certainty."