Moriko sniffed, “yes, yes, yes,” she counted off the answers to his final three questions. She clearly needed to think more on the subject, but thinking wasn’t coming entirely clearly to her at this moment. “What of you, Asako-sama? Should you find yourself on some plastic and concrete Scorpion world where no rivers run and you cannot touch the earth? Do you know yet how you will cope?” The question wasn’t sulking or petulant, but rather dramatic, in the way of a teenager who hasn’t lived long enough to have seen true change, with the passion of youth when everything is new and life played out like a tragedy.

"Hmhm, not so bad then, Shiba-san." Saneyuki leaned closer - or as much one could lean with a large table between the two. "If you take care of yourself and study the Tao, well. You are doing more than the most." Tilting his head to the side a little, he spoke again, his grey eyes seeking out hers for a moment. "It is not a competition, Shiba-san. You only need to do right to yourself." Leaning back, the young priest sighed. "I guess there is that risk yes. But if that happens, I'll take it as the will of the fortunes. That if I end in a place like that, I am there for a reason. But what would I have to offer for a someone living in a place like that, hmm? Why would an urban samurai want a spouse like me." A soft laughter escaped his lips, Saneyuki shaking his head. "There are people who have more connections or have more money. Surely such a people will find a match akin to themselves."

His soft laughter rang in her head, and Moriko decided that there was a dream-like quality to Saneyuki that wasn’t just in the tones of his voice, it was in those grey eyes, too. The girl shifted, colour touching her cheeks, why is it so humid today, I think I feel a little light-headed.

Setting down her empty cup, “the Kami work in mysterious ways,” she had meant to sound serious and mature, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realised them to be childish. “Perhaps your potential spouse seeks spiritual guidance, as I did, coming here today.”

"The kami do that, yes. They are eternal and so they look the world from a different angle." he chuckled. "Spirit of stone cares little of time, having been here... as long as here has existed." Saneyuki explained. "I believe fortunes are much the same, though they do care about us. Gilded King does, at least. I can often sense his presence." he told her with a straight face. "Perhaps. Or perhaps I find someone that will teach me things." his fingers drummed on the table. "I know little of the world beyond. I was born here while I have been to the city, well... this temple is my world." the young man indicated at the direction of the shrine.

Well aware of what was happening, Saneyuki glanced at Moriko, managing to sound slightly concerned. "Is everything fine Shiba-san? Should I get you some water?" he offered. "Did you walk here?"

Moriko put on her best smile, “I’m sure it’s nothing, Asako-sama, it is quite a long walk. This sort of thing never used to bother me, perhaps I have become too accustomed to travelling by otori-back.” Her words carried an innocent honesty; after all, surely no harm could come to her here, at a shrine, with Ten beside her, in the company of a priest.

Her mind grasped at a stray thread of conversation, “but you’re allowed to walk in the forest, no? Follow the streams, or search for wild otori feathers?”

"Ah, that is good." It seemed as if he bought her explanation. "Yes, that is why we leave well before the dawn when we have to go to the city. It's no walk in park, that's for sure." With the ground littered with decaying fungal matter, the xenofungi forest was humid and stank, making any trek through it both arduous and unpleasant.

"Ah yes, we are. The lands around the temple belong to the sect - when my grand-grand-grand mother claimed the lands, there was no-one saying we couldn't have them. Back when the colony was young." The colony was still young, but at least now it had tens of thousands of people. Back then the population had been counted in hundreds. "Usually we head to the mountains as part of our rites, though. Climbing few hours purifies your body and mind quite like nothing else." Saneyuki assured her. "The view is incredible as well." Despite his lithe frame, Moriko could see that Saneyuki was more sinewy than frail, his body forged by countless of hours spent walking and climbing, the tips of his fingers calloused.

Moriko’s mind was prone to wandering at the best of times, but at this moment it was almost like her thoughts had become untethered. She let them drift, her gaze coming to rest on Saneyuki‘s hands, conjuring an image of the priest with a sturdy walking stick in hand, picking his way patiently over rocks and fungi. The image melted, dissolving into a more literal interpretation, in her thoughts he was stripped to the waist, gripping the dark rock face with calloused fingertips.

Nodding in agreement, the girl didn’t seem to notice that she’d lapsed into silence.

Leaning again closer, Saneyuki brushed another of his stray curls behind his ear, tilting his head to side as he observed her. "Is everything alright, Shiba-san?" he asked, a concern tinting his voice. A faint scent of incense washed over the young bushi, the smell of herbs clinging to Saneyuki's robes.

Moriko murmured, watching Saneyuki with an almost dream-like sense of wonder. If she'd read more or watched more shows, she might have thought it was just like a movie, and that now was about when he was supposed to kiss her. Of course, this wasn't a movie, and the table between them was far too large for that sort of nonsense, and the girl wasn't a particularly romantic type.

"Oh, yes, Asako-sama, I was just enjoying the company."

"Oh..." His lips formed a small 'o', the man pulling back from Moriko for a moment. "Thank you." he bobbed a bow at her, a thin smiling creeping to his lips. "Would you perhaps be interested in seeing some of our rites later? We have a small gathering day after tomorrow. I am sure you would find it interesting."

__________
OOC: Sincerity (Deceit): 7d10o10k4 22
Opposed with Investigation / Perception to figure out that you might have actually less good time.

Day after tomorrow, Moriko considered, "I believe there is a miai arrangement in the morning, but after that?" she offered with bright innocence, oblivious to any sort of potential danger.


---
[D1 LM] Lie to me (Raw Perception 3, TN22): 3d10o10 13

"Don't worry, we won't start until after sunset*. Just as one can get lost in the city, so can the Light of the Gilded King be lost if we do not approach him in the darkness." Saneyuki explained. "We perform our rites in the dark so that we might see the light better." Perhaps Moriko should have been more cautious, but the Phoenix priest did sound awfully convincing, his grey eyes fixated on her. "We have been preparing this for a while." The lithe man licked his lips.

"Gilded King is the guardian of enlightenment - a spirit of this world that my ancestors found. He illuminates the path for us and so we spread his word. Or perhaps word is not the right... word." Saneyuki smiled disarmingly. "His message. The idea that we can all overcome ourselves. That we only have to struggle with ourselves. That we can be reborn, every day. That whatever hardships we face, whatever we endure burns us - and then, then we arise from the ashes like the Phoenix. Reborn. Renewed. I think that only our clan realizes this. That Shiba-kami was the only one to grasp what humans need. The others, the other kami were just as divine, but they had little concern for needs of men and women. Shiba alone knelt before Isawa. Shiba alone pondered what it meant to be a human." As he talked, the young man turned his tea cup in his hands.

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OOC. *Late evening

Moriko opened her mouth, then shut it again and simply listened to the man speaking. It was an enjoyable sensation, like meditating, and her mind drifted without wandering. Not empty, but quiet, unlike the endless chatter that usually filled her thoughts, the young woman absorbed what she was being told.

Reluctantly, she finally spoke, "a—after dark?" For the first time she sounded uncertain.

"Yes, after dark. You can stay here afterwards if you want. We have quite a few rooms set up for the devout that come from the city. You might have to share a room with few others, but there's nothing harm in that." This much was true, many of the sects adherents traveled to the temple and as the ceremonies often took place late at night, stayed in the temple before returning to the city in the morning. "We'll serve breakfast too." In this case, breakfast would mean mushrooms and vegetables, the sect refusing to eat meat of any kind.

"Dark, for we cannot see the truth when our eyes are distracted. When you see everything, you see nothing." Saneyuki dragged his fingers before his eyes. "You'll see then. But, tell me a bit about yourself perhaps?" he asked Moriko, reaching for the pot. "And would you want some more tea?"

"Yes, please," she smiled brightly and nudged her cup towards the priest. He'd hit rather precisely on the cause for her hesitation: making her way back home after dark would be unwise to say the very least. She wasn't entirely on board with the idea of staying the night in a strange place, but it occurred to her that in less than two weeks she'd be spending the rest of her life sleeping in a strange place, might as well start small.

"Like," Moriko nudged her thoughts into order, "like meditating. You have to clear your mind to think clearly," she nodded in self-assurance.

Moving slowly, the priest filled Moriko's cup, another member of the sect passing the room, a young woman glancing at Moriko before scurrying away. Occasionally sounds of life would reach them, someone thumping or whacking something, then sounds of someone running a machine of some sort. Even if the sect lived in seclusion, they had access to electricity, at least.

"You like meditating? That is good." Saneyuki nodded. "There's nothing like centering yourself. We do that a lot, though rarely here. We usually head to the waterfall to meditate. Or at the mountains." he waved his hand in the general direction of the Skyreach mountains. "Busy body has little room for errant thoughts, or so we are taught." He smirked, his tendons visible on the back of his hand. Demure and soft spoken as Saneyuki was, his frame had been carved from rough stone, his body forged by the esoteric practices. "How did you pick it up? I'd think that they'd have the bushi focus on other things."

"I have," she indicated to her head with waggling fingers, "a noisy brain, meditation helps with that. No where near as much of my training was given to meditation as," she shrugged one shoulder, "I imagine yours would have been? but it's still important for a bushi to have focus." She had surrendered her gunbelt before entering the temple, as was appropriate, so there was nothing to indicate to when she patted her hips, "especially with marksmanship."

"Don't we all." he offered her a disarming, yet rather coy smile. "Our minds have a bad habit of ending places where we don't want them. Fears, doubts, desires. The microcosm of humanity." Saneyuki added, leaning closer again, the scent of incense lingering in the air. "All the things to lose yourself into." She could see him frowning. "All the things that make you suffer." he added, sighing softly, his long calloused fingers now playing with his hair. "Here we know no such things. We live simple, good lives."

"Well, yes. I mean, I also spent a good while learning to talk with the kami." Now it was Saneyuki's turn to wiggle his fingers as he traced the esoteric prayer-sigils in the air. Sitting in front of a candle, whispering the winds to smother the flame and then..." he snapped his fingers. "Beckoning the flame to return." His eyes followed Moriko's hand when she patted her hips. "Alas, violence." There was a pang of distaste in his voice. "The necessary evil. For there are always snakes in the garden, no matter what you do. Though, one must take care to not become a snake, neh." The disarming smile returned to his lips as he regarded her again. "I am not sure I could kill a living thing - and I am glad I have not been asked to."

The young Phoenix flushed, quite taken with her host, watching the way his fingertips danced in the air, casting an elusive spell on her. She could sense the weight of his eyes travelling to her hips and making her feel somehow exposed. Moriko’s expression turned wry and she frowned, “there are times when violence is necessary, there are things,” distaste was heavy in her voice, “that crawl and prey, unnatural things.”

The girl was a nature lover, and occupied a precarious mental position that carefully compartmentalised the idea of eating meat far, far away from any thoughts about the acts of butchering that went into such meals. She could justify humans as predators, but only if she didn’t think too hard about it. “I specialise in the webgun because I don’t believe we should harm living creatures needlessly. But some things” Moriko shuddered, “some things are not natural, and it is our duty to keep the forests safe just as much as the farms and they cities.”

"Oh yes. There are. Even here." He nodded in the direction of the jungle. "Our priests do their best to keep the beasts away so that we do no need to harm them, but sometimes a reaver or raker ends here." A frown marred his lips for a moment. "Ours is a harsh world, Shiba-san. An allegory of life, perhaps. Still, the things here are natural, no? The beasts are not spirits or anything like that. Or what did you mean?"

"Webgun? How considerate. We believe that one should not be willing to take lives so readily. We understand that some have to, that is their duty. But we hope to keep our souls untarnished, so that they might be reborn into a better place. Maybe as a monk." He seemed to at least hope as much. "But yes, each according to his ability to each according to his need." It was a fine and good maxim, if not for the fact that heimin and eta were seen needing 'less' than samurai.