Mumei nods along to the obviously rote warnings about the dangers beyond the perimeter and lack of responsibility for damage to her person, before stepping out upon the service road. She doesn't intend to go far, in any case, just far enough to get clear of endless jangling noise of people and machinery and sink into the spirits of this world instead.

There's no expectation that this trip will be the one that lets her find what she seeks. It's still probably not far enough away, for one thing. But she has some free time. After walking for about 20 minutes, she decides this is far enough, and finds a clear spot beside the rough road. No sense getting run over by some official survey vehicle or something.

This first time, it's just her, no fungal spore sake or hallucinogenic honey to set a baseline for feeling the world. She'd prefer local incense, but makes do with what she has, setting the small cone burning on a damp leaf as she sits cross-legged in the fungal loam. Weathered holoslate in hand, she scrolls to the correct marker and gently intones the supplications the Nakauchi have created to awaken the slow and stubborn earth.

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D1 EA: Communing with the Earth Void for +1k1 one raise for clarity: 4d10o10k3 23

A small spirit of earth that had seen better days slowly rose from its slumber, grasping a shape from Mumei's mind, though doing only so good work with it. "You call me, Child of the Kami.." It murmurs, it voice a little hoarse as it tried to focus its attention on the Osprey shugenja.

After the walk through the residential district and some stops for water, resting and grabbing a bite for her and Stray, Shion decides to extend the walk with him a bit longer and explore some more.

Her brow creases a bit when the guards mention 'no safeties outside the perimeter', but well - it was to be expected, probably. And... not too much to worry about in a quick walk outside, right? She hoped so, at least...

After nodding to the guards and confirming she understands the risks, she starts walking along the service road with Stray. She takes the chance to release him of the leash and let him roam about freely for some time at last, just ensuring he keeps out of the road. As the buzzing of the city sounds slowly gets muffled, she also takes the chance to take in the sounds of the new world outside. It was always inspiring...

Hm... some things do sound a bit different. So much to hear. So much to sample. Dang, I should have brought my computer!, she thinks, making a mental note to head outside with proper equipment later.

After some time walking, they happen upon the girl cross-legged on the loam, an incense burning besides her. Not wishing to disturb her, Shion waves Stray close to herself to avoid his natural instinct to go sniff the incense... and the other girl's face. She sits down as well, keeping Stray close to her lap, waiting for the other girl to finish her ritual as she keeps as quiet as she can, trying to tune in to the sounds around her.

Mumei blinks a few times at the derpiest earth kami she'd seen so far. "Thank you for answering, spirit of the earth, I hope I do not disturb you, and will offer amends if so. I seek the voice of this world, have you heard it?"

Deep brown eyes flicker toward the approaching Sparrow, and a quick smile acknowledges her without taking attention from the magic friendship of the little spirit.

"Yes..." the kami murmured, sounding perhaps a little like a Hida bushi waking up from a gutter on the World of Dreams after a week long binge on sake and designer drugs. "Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind, the tones of wordless song echo through the time. It speaks to us, in whispers and in dreams."

Her smile broadens. "Will it whisper to the dreams of mortals, blessed spirit?"

"Yes...." the voice replies, the words rumbling in Mumei's mind. "Yes it does. " Finally focusing its gaze, the spirit presses its snout close to the Nakauchi. " But the manthing and womanthing do not listen! They do not heed to the song. And that may be their downfall." Having spoken its mind, the spirit dissipates as if had never been there.

Well, that was certainly just like the earth spirits, quite...opinionated. Mumei stretches, snuffs the remaining bit of incense--you don't just leave things burning in a forest, even with so much humidity, and it was frugal to keep the remaining bit for later--and waves to the Sparrow.

"Morning!...well, afternoon now I guess! Is that an actual dog you have there?!"

Oh... that shrill sound, it's those insects... wait, lizard-like insects? That's odd... Oh, and there seems to be a ruffling coming from the ground. Is it.... these.. fungi, growing? It couldn't be, though could it..."

Shion seems to wake up from daydreaming when Mumei speaks to her, even startling a bit. Her hands are still petting Stray, whose ears raise in interest as the woman gets up and speaks.

"Oh, 'noon, -sama. It is!", she says, happily. "Fellow here is Stray. And it seemed awfully curious about your ritual." She gets up, bows. "Suzume Shion, yoroshiku ne!"

"haaaah, just -san, please! I've only met one Osprey in my life who'd get a -sama outside of Navigation classes." Mumei flops backward in mock consternation, legs still twined in that crosslegged position. She twists and reaches both arms toward the pair. "C'mere, Stray! Who's a good doggie!"

Her arms droop slightly from their outspread welcome. "Oh...and I'm Mumei, Nakauchi Mumei, miai hopeful."

The mutt looks at Shion with its head tilted a bit to the right for a quick moment, and barely waits for her nod to start running towards the Nakauchi, then throw its front paws at her and lick her nose in a clumsy greeting.

"Whoooa Stray, calm down, you don't want to trample Nakauchi-san now, ne?", the Suzume says as she gets a bit closer. The dog seems to calm down... not much, really. It stops jumping at Mumei, but still tries to lick her hands, then sniff around for the incense... and sneezes on her knee, getting her clothes a bit wet.

"Ah... well, he likes you, that's for sure", Shion says with a shy smile, her hand scratching her head.

"Oh... first time I meet an Osprey in person I think, Nakauchi-san. Pleasure to meet you! And... hopeful, aren't we? That's a good word I guess", she then says, grinning. "For now I keep wondering what - er, who? - I should hope or look for. Not too sure..."

She then looks at the trail of burnt incense on the ground. "Speaking of which... found what you were looking for?", she asks curiously, trying to sound nice, or maybe funny, but probably coming off a bit awkward.

Mumei happily greets Stray with ear scritches and laughter. 'You! You're a good boy, yes you are. Yeah, incense is nose tickling. You should leave that be, kiddo."

She looks up at the Sparrow, a hand on Stray's head as she talks. "Pretty sure I'm supposed to look for someone important enough to bring great connections to the Osprey if they marry in...as if that type would be of a rank that would marry into a minor clan," she scoffs. "Or at least someone willing to take my stipend off the clan's coffers."

Standing, she brushes the duff off her pants and dog sneezed incense off her knee. "Yeah, the Navigators tend to stick to themselves shipboard, and there's not that many of us out there otherwise. Can't say I've met a Sparrow before either, you lot don't leave the..." her eyes widen a bit. "ohhh, have you communed with the homeworld?" she looks closer at her attire, and inhales long and slow. "ahh...no, you're not a priest are you?"

The disappointment fades from her expression as she answers the last question. "But yeah, I guess I found the answers I wanted, but they come with more questions, like usual. I think the world might have something to say. With any luck, I'll hear it before I have to go."

Mumei's cheerful voice and petting seem enough to make the dog snuggle on her as if she were an old friend... which brings a smile to Shion's face as well. Shion clearly liked those who liked Stray.

She chuckles. "It's funny... we sound a bit like a poorly produced band looking for a label when you put things like that. I suppose there's not much of a chance I'll bring someone to the Sparrow either. Unless I end up with a Ronin... or another Minor Clanner, maybe?" she says, laughing. "Wonder if I'd be ready to be something else. Never really thought of myself as a Great Clanner", she completes, thoughtful.

She shakes her head slowly as Mumei asks about Rokugan ."Oh... no, not like that. Only a very few of us can hear the spirits, I think... We do commune with the land as in... taking in culture, sights, sounds, stories. We get used to it being there, but... it is a place full of spirit. But... I guess there are interesting stories to be heard all around, ne?"

Something then seems to dawn on her and she looks at the Shugenja excited for a moment. "Oh.. stories and... sounds. Voices. So... you hear the planet, ne? I wonder... could you record it? Its melody, or rhythm?" She stops for a moment, notices she may be nearing on heresy there, toning it down a little "I mean... maybe help recreate the timbre...?"

Mumei's happy to keep Stray happy for a while with regular pettins. Animals usually like her, even if sometimes only for all the odd scents she tends to carry.

"Yeah, there's an odd number of us, so we can't even just pair off to be sure of some choice in whether we leave our clan or not." She grins, "And there's interesting stories all around the worlds and clans, so a lot would be neat to see, but you've lived on the one with the really old stories."

But the whole question of recording the world breathing takes precedence over a thousand questions about the sights of old Rokugan. 'I don't think I can record what I hear with normal equipment, have to imagine the Phoenix have studied and tried directly recording the kami, but I haven't seen anything like it." She fishes a handheld holorecorder from a cargo pocket. "I record other music to dance to. I wonder what kind of mix someone could make of the planet's sounds...could I find its whispers in there?" She wonders if dancing to music made from the world's own music would enable a deeper communion.

"That little kami," she gestures at the spot once inhabited by the spirit, "was kind of growly and unused to talking. I could probably tell you if another sound resembled it, at least."

"Oh", she says as if trying to remember something for a while, and quickly giving it up. "I... don't quite remember all of us I think? I was so sleepy in that shuttle trip I can barely remember a thing. Must have been less than social there too... sorry 'bout that", she says with a smile over a guilty look.

The smile then spreads across her face and she listens intently as Mumei starts talking about the sounds of the spirits.

"Well... I sometimes use recordings of environmental sounds for some things. The wind howling in a particular place, leaves ruffling, birds or frogs chirping. That 'sorta thing.", she says, thoughtful. "It... would be interesting to get direct recordings, but..." She stops mid-sentence. The Phoenix probably wouldn't be too happy about a Minor Clan bushi delving into those things? But this was a Phoenix world... maybe she could try and find something about that in a library here?

Shrugging a bit and looking to Mumei properly again, she gives her a happy, eager smile. "I... guess I could try to wing something based on your descriptions. So... growly? As like... a... dog?"

She looks at Stray soon after she says that, chuckles "Probably way off, ne? Ah... I keep yapping here, sorry! Ah.. are you interested in music? Would you... be interested in trying something like that later?", she asks with an apologetic smile that soon becomes eager and hopeful again.

"Hmm, more like rocks grinding deep inside a mountain." She crouches down to look Stray full in the face, probably encouraging a face licking in the process. "Not like I imagine you've even heard a proper growl in a while because this one's such a sweet puppy," she adds in that cheery singsong reserved for pets and babies.

Popping back up, she uses the momentum for a spin, one leg bent, toe pointed to the ground. "I dance to find the world's rhythm, so I'm interested in that aspect of music, you might say." Her foot comes back down as she stops, eyes flashing green. "If you can record the whole world, I want to dance to it and see if that helps me hear the whispers of it. The earth spirit said that people aren't listening! It seemed...distressed about that."

She pauses, head tilted well to the side, letting the long side of her hair dangle. "hmm...shorter answer...I'd be happy to help with this recording project."

A lick in her nose she gets, and the happy dog prepares to jump-tackle her, but misses as she gets up and spins, then turns back, a bit frustrated, only to start sniffing around again.

Meanwhile, Shion seems quite excited about the prospective collaboration - even if that excitement looks a bit odd on her usual glazed face.

"Oh... really? That's great! Thanks, Nakauchi-san! I... hope we get to find the right... whispers", she says smiling as she thinks for a moment, then gets her Densai out and swipes on it for some time.

"So... rocks inside a mountain, huh?" - she gets her headphones out, plays a file. If Mumei looks at the screen she'll see something like 'Stonescraping.wav' on it. "then some ambience... wonder if I could make that an envelop to modulate voice..."

She hands the earphones to Mumei for a while, then plays something. It's stones grinding all right - with a reverb effect that feels a bit like a wide cave, maybe a bit too bright

"That... a bit more like it?", she asks, still smiling. "Oh... sorry, got a bit overeager here. We can do that later I guess. Lots to do!"

Mumei, holds the headphones to her ears, listening closely, nodding. "Not so echoey, and it sounds a bit drunk. Not that I've every run into a drunk earth kami. Just that random sounds aren't the same as words."

"So you do...music? Recording things?"

The Sparrow pays close attention to Mumei's words, almost as if making mental notes. And then actually making notes on her Densai...

"Right... not so echoey then. And... drunk? As in... it should be... less... wobbly, or something like that? Maybe flatten out some of the harmonics, change the envelope a bit..."

She writes a few more things, then raises her head at her again, an apologetic smile in her face. "Oh... yeah, sorry! I... record things to use in music. Or sound effects. It's good to help convey different feelings and ideas, ne? But yeah... mostly music!", she says - there was a case she had been carrying on her back, and now that Mumei mentioned it, it would make sense for it to be holding an instrument.

"Been working for the Miya Entertainment Network... you might have seen some of the work I was involved in, maybe?", she asks, smiling. "There's that late night show that's aired once a week, 'Ongaku - past and future'... sometimes there's even some electronic mixed with folk songs..."

"Oh, just drunk, cause you can't actually make kami ah...language... out of it. They use the sounds of earth within their voice so that sounds like half words and almost words in the rumble." She shrugs. There was nothing wrong with not being able to electronically talk like a kami. "It's pretty remarkable to just be able to throw it together like that. I've never really seen much of the music making end of things." She's already pondering the appropriate moves for a dance to the sound of earthquake and groaning tectonic plates.

"Oh! Yeah, I've seen Ongaku. Some of the ships'll carry MEN since it's Imperial. There was an episode a while back...well who knows when since we don't usually see that kind of thing when it airs, it'll be canned and repeated, neh?" She shrugs a bit apologetically. "But it was just following this one stonemason's work song from ancient days to modern where the same tune with new words is sung in the shipyards and there was this band that took it and made some kind of modern song out of it...don't remember their name."

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(If I've completely missed the point of Ongaku, I'll edit. XD)