Book care [D1, LM, Open]

[Ongaku Masanori]

When Ayumu slipped away, Masanori simply shrugged. He wouldn't fight for the right to fetch snacks, and so he just found a relatively clear corner. Offering Nozomi a seat, he then took his own, and couldn't help but inquire.

"You knew Ryoko-sama? Before she became head of the caravan of elders?"

Once Ayumu returned with tea, he accepted a cup, taking a sip and balancing it with his off hand casually.

[Nozomi]

Mayumi grabbed a seat with the others as Nozomi settled down, nodding in turn and letting the Jiyo do as he wished. He did like to be both a host and a bit of a quartermaster, after all. "Hah," she barked, just slightly too loud. "I think he's only half joking. The man would have librarians all with martial training to protect the scrolls in case of a crises. Someone who could work as a scout would be right up that old man's alley. Don't even think it'd be a bad idea."

Her daughter's head swam at the thought of assassins guarding books, clearly amazed, eyes big as saucers. Nozomi motioned for her to keep the cup on the floor, taking a sip of her own before setting it down. "I did know her. I like to think I still do, though fate keeps us apart often. She's a brave one. Full of a bit of fire. There was just something otherworldly about her when we met. Hard to put a finger on it. She was memorable, and even as overwhelmed as we felt deep in those lands, she didn't balk. None of them did." Well, there had been one, but she didn't mention that soul.

[Ongaku Masanori]

"Ah yes... she has found the old gifts - it led her to her place now."

Masanori looked pensive.

"I fear we are not all as otherworldly - yet we do try to follow her example."

With a small shrug, he added, "She has been rather busy of late trying to deal with the remaining Takemori tribesmen - they are increasingly troublesome, and it is becoming harder to peacefully deal with them. They refuse to change... and they refuse to let the world around them change."

[Nozomi]

"I know a thing or two about troublesome, stubborn tribesmen," Nozomi grunted with a familiar and dark chuckle. "There is going to be a reckoning in time, and I hope that Shiba no Kami remains as wise as he's been in dealing with it. The old ways are fading in some senses. Time will not fare kindly for the ones who try too hard to remain unmoved. So, I wish her luck moving a few mountains. Still, that girl is stubborn. You don't tell her no." Despite it being a rather sober point, she chuckled over at the Ongaku.

"I think she mentioned a little of the old ways to me. Afraid that, for all that I study the relationship of us to the elements, that sort of thing's pretty lost to me. I'm sure a priest would find it fascinating. But if she found it, then good. Something for your people to draw on."

[Ongaku Masanori]

"Yes... though I confess her explanations of it are lost on me thus far. Whatever she has gained, many of us don't seem to share... at least not yet." There was a somewhat strange quality to his tone, perhaps bordering on bitterness, though if it was, it was well suppressed.

"We will do our utmost to handle our brethren with care - they are family. But in the end, it may fall upon us to resolve any unfortunate situations which family might create, no matter the cost."

His shoulders rose in a heavy sigh, and then he smiled faintly, "I would say I'm surprised we haven't met, but the days where I knew most who visited this city are long past - I myself spend less than half the year in these walls now, often as I am on the road, conveying some message or ensuring a clan library has received an imperial record for distribution. What has brought you here now? I'm afraid Ryoko-sama is at Shinden Ongaku, ensuring the framing goes smoothly."

[Nozomi]

"We came to see the wedding!" Mayumi chirped up and Nozomi sighed, nodding in turn.

"I am here on the behalf of the order, along with Kuu, to show our support for the Crane Clan's wedding. The Groom and I have not spoken since we were across the river, so I admit that I am not very close. I don't travel to the Capitol often if I can help it. it is a very ... busy city by my standards." She was decidedly uncomfortable around it.

She caught that hint of 'something,' perhaps of the wish that the magic of the Ongaku sat in more than just a scant few hands, but chose not to bring it up. It was a thing that would grow in time. She suspected a few might be jealous of the strange gifts those in the order had begun to discover recently. "You and I are both ones who it seems prefer the open road. There is nothing quite the same as learning as you travel from place to place. I have seen more of the empire in the last few years of my life with my daughter than I did in all the years before."

"But getting to stay in one place is nice too sometimes."

[Ongaku Masanori]

"I see - the groom does seem rather imposing. Many Crane are quite cold - to my family at least, and I do sometimes wonder..."

Masanori shrugged. "Not all people have greeted us warmly in the past, and perhaps there remains some bitterness about the tribe that once was - I cannot say."

Stroking his chin, he added, "Traveling has a great charm - there is always something new to experience, but I admit there are days when resting in the quiet nooks can be most relaxing... and the food certainly is better here than in the waystations."

[Nozomi]

"Hadananzi is a man who takes greatly after the one who sponsors him, Nanzi himself. There is none in the empire like that man." She said it with the quirk of a half-smile that did not meet her eyes. Nothing about what she said was insincere or false, but oh there was so much lurking past the words themselves. Nanzi was always a complicated figure as far as she was concerned. "The groom himself is ... almost as singular as the other. Unique in his own way. Our paths of life differ a great deal."

"People struggle with things that are different. They struggle as the old ways pass and the new come. With time, I believe it will fade, as all such things do, but for now it is a ... tricky thing for your people." She imagined the horns got a few looks, though she paid them no mind. Her daughter, too, had met at least one or two Ongaku in the past and long been schooled never to draw attention unduly to them, even if they were fascinating to her. "Heh. You're not wrong about the food. I don;t mind salted fish, but it can get old after a while. Still, the new experiences. They make life interesting. I want Mayumi to see the whole of the empire."

She glanced up. "Does that mean we'll visit Beiden sometime?"

Nozomi sighed and smiled. "You know, we probably will one day." She couldn't avoid those lands forever.

[Ongaku Masanori]

"These things are true - and the cost of change is one that I am glad the Emperor considers - he has paced himself in ways many lesser men would not."

A soft sigh. "I have gotten the impression that the Crane are... not impressed easily." He attempted to be courteous.

[Nozomi]

She considered over her tea, closing her eyes for a moment. Masamori was right. Shiba was a patient one, and seemed very much willing to take time with changes, to give people a little space as they tried to navigate the changing world, but it was not that which she focused on, but rather the other statement. Her tone was carefully neutral.

"The Crane are not quite so monolithic as to be all alike." Her tone was musing. "If you were to have met Seppun Dawei-sama, and Hantei Kinsen-sama, you would not imagine that the two are not only of the same clan, but very much close allies. They are so very different. And where Kinsen is every bit as much the perfect, roaring lioness to match her husband Hantei's glory... Dawei is a very humble, quiet, silent hunter who spends much of his days carving wood."

"As it is with the Stag, so it is with the Crane. But that said... Hadananzi and the family of Nanzi himself are not easy to impress. Nanzi was always a ... demanding man, as I am sure Jiyo-sama can attest."