LE 2 - Appeasing Hotei (Semi-Open/Expecting)

[Nozomi]

Nozomi and Mayumi attended to the shrine of the Fortunes in the evening of the second day. Now that the weather had improved, though not enough for travel from the city, Nozomi felt very much like she owed Hotei at least a small apology in sacrifice. She'd muttered more than one very un-monkly deprecations under her breath for the last two days, and her own daughter had mentioned this to her. Sighing, she'd allowed her to lead them up the steps, and waited while the child approached the shrine to Fukurokujin among the others.

Making sure that she kept an eye on the little vagabond, Nozomi bowed low and clapped, offering a prayer of apology to Hotei. "I ask only," she murmured to herself. "That this snow be let up soon." The longer that she was in this place, the more likely it was that she encountered people that she really did not. And if there was one thing that marred her contentment in life, it was...

(OOC: A second character is expected here, but it's an open encounter in the Shrine of the Fortunes, so nothing is saying others couldn't happen by.
This is not a secret encounter. If you want in, feel free.)

[Shosuro]

It was subtle, at first. The way her eyes slipped past the shrine to Bishamon as if they didn't want to stay there and observe what was in front of it. It was that that signaled there was something in front of it. No, someone, with long black hair, facing away from here. There was a terrifying sinking feeling in the pit of Nozomi's stomach for a moment that if the figure, vague in the evening shadows, turned around, it wouldn't have a face.

[Nozomi]

It was like feeling a prayer answered directly, immediately in the negative. It was an inescapable sensation, as if a fortune turned to you with the baleful eye of their exceedingly rare wrathful aspect and then you were left alone. Nozomi felt the cold sensation and, where other eyes were turned away, hers ultimately turned and locked onto the presence that felt almost as easily missible as her own. There was a difference, however. Nozomi had simply learned for a very long time how to be unimportant and forgettable. It was a skill. It wasn't... this person, they did it naturally.

The faintest glimmer of a fear in her, the quaking of a little girl in the depths of hell, surrounded by monsters and fools, was gripped and put down. She rose and swallowed hard. Should she leave? No, her daughter was here. And there was a sense of awareness in the other. Sneaking off was worse than acknowledging. No. This girl would have a face. She had to.

None of the rest of them knew if she did or didn't, after all. When she glanced to her right, she saw her daughter dutifully in prayer and kept her in the periphery of her vision as she bowed, waiting to be acknowledged by the other woman. This was exactly why she didn't come this close to Beiden. Exactly why.

[Shosuro]

The girl turned, and it was almost more strange than if she truly hadn't had a face. Her features were as clear as anyone's, though it comes with a sense that wouldn't be true for anyone else observing. If it wasn't for what would be an intense drive to forget her face in others, she would be arrestingly beautiful - blood-of-a-kami beautiful. Large, dark eyes looking out from a face as starkly pale as the moon, framed in the inky blackness of her hair made her look a little like a ghost. The shadows around her seem to cling to her black and red kimono.

She gave a small smile that was, if anything, weirdly human in its slight awkwardness. "Good evening... It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

[Nozomi]

Benten's Scowl, but that was an understatement. The two had never actually met in the physical world. There had only been that vision, that blasted, vile vision long ago. Bayushi's statue without a face and his daughter there, mingling between. The mere fact that the girl had the temerity to admit that they had only met that once... as if they were discussing the weather. Well, that at least made Nozomi crack the very thinnest edge of a smile. There was something bold about it.

"It has, Shosuro-sama," she said in a graveled, rough voice, rising from the bow and eyeing her. In the periphery of her vision, her daughter made the very smallest of starts. That name was one of a very short list that Nozomi had ordered her never to speak to. She wasn't looking, but she wanted to. "Fortunes bless your presence here. I'd ask what brought you here, but we're all trapped by the snow and expectations. Even monks attend weddings from time to time."

It was an excuse. She didn't know if she believed it herself, why this girl was here. There had to be other reasons.

[Shosuro]

"And yours, as well... Yes, I was asked to represent my father to the wedding." She looked to the side, seemingly distracted by a thought, and her presence seems a little more indistinct for a moment. There was a brief moment where it would have been easy to forget she was there until Shosuro looks back, focusing on Nozomi again, and the sensation dissipates.

"... I was hoping to run into you at some point in the future, but a situation like this one isn't exactly the best circumstance."

[Nozomi]

Nozomi felt the sensation, for just a second that this wasn't an important conversation, that the person in front of her wasn't important and that it could almost have been as if she were talking to her... and then it snapped back in when Shosuro returned her attention. Her eyes narrowed, in a way that matched the fact that she, of all people present in this party, had no reason not to know exactly where someone was at all times. And yet, somehow. Somehow. She didn't feel surprised, even if she was deeply unsettled and unsure why.

"It is good of him to do that," she said carefully. "Bayushi-sama has been very kind to his neighbors. If you ever get the chance and remember, please mention that some of us haven't forgotten." She didn't refer to the tribe as her people. she had given that life up officially. Phi had died in the shadowlands. Nozomi had left. But she was still grateful.

"Well, I will say that this is certainly a situation where we can't help but run into each other." As close to an honest admission without saying it that she'd never planned to meet Shosuro in person. "May I ask what you wished to speak of?" She didn't think she'd like the answer, but...

[Shosuro]

"... I am certain that... I caused you a great deal of trouble. I did not understand back then," she said, then moved into a deep bow, her hair falling forward over her shoulders like the night sky pouring out of a bottle. "I sincerely apologize."

[Nozomi]

Nozomi frowned. This... was not what she had expected. She bowed in return, though she kept an eye on her daughter, who was definitely watching out of the corner of her eye. When she rose, she folded her arms and looked for just a moment very uncomfortable. She didn't look like the 30 something mother and founder of an order of monks. She looked like an overgrown, unsure woman for just a split second.

"I think... that applies to us both, and I'm sorry for the distress I think I caused you." Because in that moment she'd been certain that she'd been in the dream of this girl, and Shosuro had been both disturbed, confused and terrified. "Meeting today is just awkward. Our first meeting was not the best circumstances. It can be ... forgiven." Was the first circumstance at the river-bank, or was this girl actually the one she'd met in the dream and not the other. There was so much that Nozomi knew. She was intimately aware of just how unaware she was.

"But I would not say you caused me trouble that night. If anything... you helped me." She was careful in saying what she did. Not to mention what she had told Shinsei, what she had not told her daughter. Knowledge power. Knowledge was death. But it was true. Shosuro had scared her away from Bayushi and with him, his bride. She was unsure about her next statement, but it came out regardless. "What may I ask did you not understand?"

[Shosuro]

"Ah... I didn't... know what I was doing, basically." She also glanced toward Nozomi's daughter, clearly unsure of what she should or should not say. Trying to follow her lead in being circumspect. "When we met, I was just... following a familiar feeling. It was faint. I didn't... understand that I had..." She seemed to grope for words, looking slightly frustrated. "Left my own territory and ended up in yours. If you take my meaning. Mother and Father had to help me figure out what had happened afterward."

[Nozomi]

Her eyes narrowed for a moment and then softened. The effort to be circumspect seemed to get a positive reaction, and it certainly put her more at ease, though that wasn't saying a lot. She would never be at ease in this situation. She didn't look back at Mayumi, but there was a way that she stood, it was protective, in a way that had her just slightly between them, always aware. The girl appeared not harmless, but not immediately dangerous, but she knew what it felt like to be under the gaze of 'what' she was tied to, and she had no interest in waking that awareness.

But something about what she said. So. "You spoke with your father about that night of course." It wasn't a question. "I believe we were both where we didn't entirely belong. I have a knack for doing that. It's a gift and a curse from the old days. Always had to have someone who could get where you weren't expected. Breeds curiosity, and that can be ... dangerous at times."

A pause. "Has your father spoken of me? We have never actually met, after all."

[Shosuro]

She nodded. "Yes... He was surprised you didn't... visit, but said you had found another route." She paused, then added, voice quieting slightly. "I was glad to hear that. I didn't know you specifically to be glad for you, but it's just... nice to know that... people don't necessarily have to go to the destination they're told to."

[Nozomi]

So, Umeno had gotten that message to him. She was glad. Or another, but the point was it had been heard. She reached up and scratched her head. "I made a lot of assumptions when I was young. Another path was opened, and I do not regret the choices I have made for a moment." It was a weighted thing to say. "But I pray regularly for the wellbeing of your father, and for those he took into his charge. I always heard there were attitudes he and I shared in common when I was young. I used to wear a veil because I heard of his mask. A childish fancy."

Her eyes focused a bit on Shosuro and she kept her tone neutral. "The Plum Blossom Pass is a lovely place, if you ever travel there. The path is not so easy as Beiden, but it was a chance to see old man Koyam... err, Shinjo Koyama-sama's lands and a few of those I had once or twice met in former days. So, I suppose you could say I had a few reasons to take the long route. But you are not wrong. There is duty, but each of us choices. It does not have to be a fore-ordained path."

[Shosuro]

Shosuro smiled. "He will appreciate the thought, I think. It represented a decision he made for someone else's sake."

She raised a hand to cover a small chuckle at the slip. It didn't seem like a mocking laugh. She turned quiet at the rest, seeming lost in thought, and becoming a little hazy and unimportant for a moment as she had before. Speaking again helped break up the sensation. "Maybe going to see someone instead of just going to a set place would help. You've given me a lot to think on, Nozomi-san. Thank you." She bowed once again.

"... Perhaps I should leave you to your devotions for now. Perhaps we can speak again some time, if you are comfortable with that."

[Nozomi]

Her gaze didn't turn back to her daughter, and yet at the same time it was obvious by the lack of it that she was considering the girl when she spoke again. She accepted what was said, and in the back of her mind she recognized that she couldn't avoid this woman for what was likely the next two weeks of her life. Was she wrong about her? She wasn't sure. Neither she nor Shinsei had been certain that the 'thing' she had felt had been actually an enemy of the empire like the shadowlands and Jigoku had been. It had been dangerous. It had been old, indiscernible, and it still fascinated and terrified her nightmares to this day. However, they simply did not know, and what was it she taught her daughter?

Never assume.

She bowed in turn. "We can speak again, if Shosuro-sama wishes. I think I would prefer that proper arrangements be made for an audience." It was a veiled way of saying she'd leave her daughter in the care of someone she trusted. There were things they couldn't say with her there. They might dance, but they could dance less. "I will confess that I am not usually entirely comfortable in the company of those of high station. But I am accustomed to it. I can put that discomfort of one such as myself aside for a time of your attention. Please send me word when would be appropriate." Fuck, but that trick of Shosuro's was jarring. She almost allowed the eight-fold awareness slip because of it. It made her stomach wanted to lurch.

Was she even here entirely?

[Shosuro]

She bowed. "Well, this meeting was wholly by chance, so I will make effort to ensure the next one is better arranged. Have a good evening." She bowed, then apparently fully let go of her concentration. Just a brief lapse to look slightly toward Mayumi and slightly less toward her, and she was gone. The memory of her face was already starting to slip a little.

[Nozomi]

Mere seconds after she was gone, Nozomi had to force her stomach not to heave, to release it's contents. There was something otherworldly about this. Where others might just forget the presence and she could already feel the memory of details slipping away from her, there was a piece of this that was familiar. It did not feel like the gaze of something old, barely awake looking at her through the ether, piercing her soul and demanding to know why she looked for it, but it was something familiar and not in a really good way.

Unlike with any other of the Scorpion, she did not bother to test, to recollect details to wonder what she had seen. She knew. She was certain already. She didn't need to look and in fact knew better than to look and get its attention. she had learned that lesson.

Mayumi stepped up beside her. "She seemed nice, mother." Unspoken was the statement of 'I don't have any idea why you warned me about her.'"

"Appearances can be deceiving, but she did, yes." Nozomi breathed carefully and glanced at her daughter. "Assume nothing, Mayumi. Always remember to assume nothing. And never speak with her if I am not present. Am I clear?"

"But..." And she was cut off with a snap in Nozomi's voice. It wasn't a harsh crack, but there was a sharpness she rarely used with her daughter, one tinged with fear.

"No. Never. And I will make sure I am not alone when I do so." It was a lie. They couldn't talk properly if she didn't, but normally even she would obey. The nod from her daughter said that at least in this, Mayumi understood. Hadananzi. Shosuro. These were people she was not allowed near. She just didn't know why.

[Shinsei]

Another familiar presence would soon assail Nozomi's senses, but this one was a far more pleasant recollection. A familiar energy, and the scent of a familiar figure, with a familiar rock. Shinsei sidled his way up to the pair with an easy smile, and thumped his sitting rock down in what he considered to be a good spot for it.

"Nozomi-san, how nice to see you here." There was an answering caw from the crow on Shinsei's shoulder. "Yes, yes, I know, but if I don't make time then I won't have time. Now be quiet." He tapped the crow on its beak softly in admonishment. It was only after that Shinsei got the feeling that Nozomi wasn't feeling particularly well at that moment. "Is everything all right? You look pale."

[Nozomi]

The sound of the rock broke her reverie and Nozomi smiled, breathing the scent of someone familiar, of someone important to her. She turned to take him in and managed to control the urge to move and embrace, because in this situation they were still in public. There were still eyes. Still rumors. But it was good to see him. As she was about to speak, Mayumi piped up and grinned at him, waving "Hi Shinsei, Hi Crow!" she said with all of the care in the world a girl in her early teens could have. She bowed and grinned up at her father with a beam in her eyes. Mother had been extremely specific, that whenever they were in public, she was never ever to call him her father. She really didn't understand why, but after as long as she'd played this game, it had become more fun than anything. "Shosuro was here! She was ... uhhhh I think she was pretty!"

Nozomi sighed and reached over her hand to rest on her daughter's shoulder. Her eyes looked and caught his. "She was praying here. Bayushi sent her as his representative. She... would like to speak," she said, her tone very carefully neutral. It was always neutral when it came to her. "But... Actually, there is something we should speak about. Well something else. Mayumi, could you get some seed for Crow?"

Because Crow was an absolutely amazing babysitter.

[Shinsei]

Crow perked up at the talk of seeds, and eagerly flew to Mayumi.

Shinsei, for his part, managed to look concerned as Nozomi spoke about Shosuro. And even more concerned when she dismissed their daughter to go somewhere else while they spoke.

"This isn't going to be pleasant, is it?"