ISE MONOGATARI

[GuanYue]

ISE MONOGATARI

#48A1FB Inspirations: Samurai Champloo, Japanese Folklore, the mobile app game Onmyoji
LINKS: INFO || IC || OOC
Premise: Edo period Japan, a priestess is sent from her shrine to travel along the Tokaido Road to the grand Ise Shrine to investigate a bad omen. Along the way, the priestess gains friends and allies to accompany her in her adventures. It is up to this group to save Japan from falling into another impending darkness.

 

[GuanYue]

It had been almost two weeks since the group--one by one--came together to meet the determined young shrine maiden. They had set off from Edo and along the Tokaido, but it even with the amount of time that had passed, it felt like very little progress had been made. It was a long way to Ise Shrine and the travel would not be as easy as it seemed. Like the calm before a storm, the air felt stifling. Deciding to take a break to catch a breath and stock up on what may be needed for the travel ahead, they group finds themselves at a small tavern along the side of the road.

With the sun setting and darkness settling in, the tavern is bustling with life. Travelers have made their way to one of the first checkpoints out of the capital, most likely heading back toward their home domains. For the group, it is an opportune moment to haggle with resting traveling merchants and maybe pick up information about what to expect from their travels. But most importantly, it is the perfect moment to lament on just how exactly they met Akemi, and what their driving factor was to join her on her journey.

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This is a great time to make posts that switch between present and past. You are all currently standing in front of the tavern. It's pretty clear that it's human only-- or what appears human only. It's not often a kami or non-human just waltz in. But who's to say you couldn't hide in plain sight? The tavern looks pretty busy, so chances are there are only very few rooms to board left. Food, however, is abundant. Just be sure you can pay. Or maybe find someone that can pay for you (if you know how to make friends *wink wink* ). The tavern patrons are a mix of people. Merchants, average people, low ranked samurai, you name it. No big name samurai or daimyo has come along (or at least yet anyways).

As for discussing the past, you can either just mention or make a scene out of it.

 

[Nemopedia]

With the days growing shorter it was hard to maintain a proper form. Ōkamuzumi felt like a liability having to be carried around in a pot, but it was the only way for her to travel. Any other would have her disappear into nothingness only to wake up at the abandoned tree once more. It was no way of travelling and the spirit was determined to go this road. At least no one suspected a sapling to contain a soul and thus no bed had to be paid for her. She would remain in this form until the morning.

With heavy eyes she stared at the group, wondering why and how they all got together. Weeks had passed and she wondered how much shorter the days would grow before they finally reached their goal.

Meeting Akemi was chance and fate. With Ōkamuzumi's following dwindling and her shrine attacked the deity had taken a sapling and whisked herself to the temple. As best as she could and as fast as she managed the spirit made it to the maiden in three days, for the night was always her weakest moment. From there, weakened as she was she had wanted to rest when a humans came to pick on her. Without her shrine protecting her she was vulnerable and the deity had thought herself doomed until Akemi appeared.

Broom in hand and a growl in her voice the priestess chased the men off. Ōkamuzumi had never been so impressed or grateful with a human before, only managing to stare in awe before realising too late that the sun had set and her power waned away. Turning back into a tree before being able to thank the girl Ōkamuzumi could only rely on Akemi carrying her sapling back. It was there that the deity could greet and thank the maiden the following morning. It was there that the decision was made to tag along on the priestess' journey, determined to find power and purpose once more.

 

[Jays]

Jin felt the irritation of day leeching out of it as the sun began to set. The cool invigorating nocturnal breeze danced through the dwindling illumination, caressing Jin's form and tugging away soft strands of swirling mist that quickly resettled into the outline of its shape, making its frame seem almost intangible in the dying light. The darkness would hide the inhuman sight, soon. The air felt damp and heavy with moisture, as if before the rain. It revelled in the engrossing familiarity, and finally breathing the last of the rigid daylight out of itself. Yes, it seemed the journey was tolerable, after all.

One day, a day like any other with the sun's endless scorching heat and the forest's timelessness dancing their eternal dance of a deafening silent cacophony, a girl had come to the bank of Jihi. Her face lifted and fell in the same breath, glimpsing the dried sunbaked and rockfilled bottom of the river. The perpetual gloom of the forest beckoned her, dangerous and unforgiving, caging her in its inhuman grasp. She was tired, hungry and dismayed, and most of all she was lost. Her distress echoed in the spiritual realm, desperate and pleading, and from beneath the barren river a presence stirred awake, its slumber troubled. She hadn't known its name, or even that it existed, but she was lost and her pleas summoned an ember of kindness it had thought to be long dead.

So it came to her, rising through dried rocks and drawing the moisture of the air to coalesce into the shape of a man, and came face to face with the priestess Akemi for the first time.

Travelling by day tested its spirit immensely, just as being so far from its own self with only a rock from its bank as an anchor for manifestation. But it endured, just as it always had, because she needed it.