[11:24 PM] Kwakado: A small fire flickers outside Amaterasu, next to a tarp held up by carefully placed sticks. Shimi sleeps underneath, while Sula sits cross-legged by the fire. He draws strange-looking symbols in the dirt using a smaller stick, letting out a droning hum every time he lifts it.
[11:27 PM] spikethe3rd: Versailles walks out of the woods, finishing an evening stargazing meditation.(edited)
[11:28 PM] Kwakado: As if on cue, Sula's eyelids fly open, gazing into Versailles'.
[11:29 PM] Kwakado: "Kwemo, sir! Good to meet you!"
[11:29 PM] spikethe3rd: "Hello again!" Versailles pauses a moment "Forgive me I have forgotten your name."
[11:31 PM] Kwakado: Sula stops to add a stroke to one of the symbols, then returns to the conversation. "I am Sula, a man of the earth's bounty."
[11:32 PM] spikethe3rd: "And I am Versailles, a monk of Freyzenwald. May I sit?"
[11:33 PM] Kwakado: Sula stares a little closer. "..Yes, yes, of course! A fellow holy man is always Kwemo to me, ha ha!"
[11:35 PM] spikethe3rd: Versailles sits beside the fire and warms his hands "You say you are a holy man. Forgive me, but I have never seen one such as you. Would it be okay if I ask you some questions to learn about your culture?"
[11:36 PM] Kwakado: Sula nods. "I can tell you all about the Dwabi. What would you like to know, Versa-i?"(edited)
[11:38 PM] spikethe3rd: "Well, I suppose the basics first. How do you practice? We try to spread goodwill and moral ideology."
[11:42 PM] Kwakado: "Ommmm...." Sula ponders the foreign terminology carefully. "The Dwabi live more...peaceful lives. We feast on the blessings of the gods, and prepare them for our brothers."(edited)
[11:44 PM] Kwakado: "Tonight, I practice by...digesting my meal, ha ha ha!"(edited)
[11:46 PM] spikethe3rd: "Ha ha! I see, so a sort of offering and feast?" Versailles thinks for a moment
[11:48 PM] Kwakado: "The Dwabi have no kings, no castles..no war. In these lands, people need these things to eat, to be safe, to live together. But the Dwabi only need..." Sula grins. "...Practice."
[11:50 PM] Kwakado: He looks from symbol to symbol, considering various ingredients, distances, the chefs' experience...
[11:50 PM] spikethe3rd: "Hmm... a place of equality? That sounds like a philosophical dream." Versailles smiles. "I must inquire about the stability of your land in a moment."
[11:51 PM] spikethe3rd: "But now, are these common practices? Or must a holy man be present for the rites of feast and blessing?"
[11:55 PM] Kwakado: "Anyone can feast, Versa-i!" Sula shakes his head with a strange sort of joy.
[11:56 PM] Kwakado: "To the Dwabi, a holy man is always good to be present."
[11:57 PM] spikethe3rd: "I see. Here monks are special due to their time dedicated to meditation. What is you dedication to?"
[12:01 AM] Kwakado: "To Dwabi. To the earth, and the spirits, and the gods." He traces another symbol as he continues. "Meditating, feasting, training, divination...All of these are Kwemo. Our lives may seem small to you, but we think very big."
[12:04 AM] spikethe3rd: "It seems you may be more dedicated then I. You are more connected to your people. You spread your faith as easily as breathing because you live it. That is what I want to do." Versailles smiles at the man.
[12:06 AM] Kwakado: Putting the stick down, his hands part to the side. "Do not worry, Versa-i. It is not your fault that you were born somewhere else."
[12:08 AM] Kwakado: "In our land, it is easy. The days are bright and the nights are warm. The spirits dance, like leaves on the water."
[12:10 AM] Kwakado: "But I wonder if maybe Frey-zen lands will look like that some day. I saw a dragon visit this very city, ha!"
[12:11 AM] spikethe3rd: "I saw one as well..." Versailles pauses again remembering "Well, I suppose we saw the same one"
[12:12 AM] Kwakado: Sula smiles. "Oh, then you are Claire's brother! I remember!"
[12:14 AM] spikethe3rd: "Ha ha ha! I'm afraid you're mistaken. Claire is a friend of mine. I have no siblings." Versailles pauses again "I guess we are a bit close. She enjoys talking of philosophy and I enjoy talking to her too."
[12:16 AM] Kwakado: "Ah, yes, I am not surprised at all. She has a lot of...goodwill and moral ideology, ha ha ha."
[12:17 AM] spikethe3rd: "Yes, she has spirit and purpose. How about you? Do you seek your purpose still?"
[12:18 AM] Kwakado: Sula glances back at the shelter, making sure nothing is wrong. "Every day and every night, good sir."
[12:23 AM] Kwakado: He looks back to the campfire runes. "I wonder, Versa-i...What do the Freyzenese teach about fate?"
[12:25 AM] spikethe3rd: "Well, it is not fully decided. My mentor and I believe in Free-Will, and that although some parts of us are innate, we still have the power to make choices towards our futures."(edited)
[12:27 AM] spikethe3rd: "Some argue that we are bound to fate, to dance like puppets on a string. This I cannot believe. To blame some predetermined story for your actions is cowardly." Versailles has gotten a bit serious
[12:29 AM] Kwakado: "Aa... Very wise." Sula, in turn, seemed to respond a bit more soberly than before. "But not everyone in Freyzenwald agrees?"
[12:31 AM] spikethe3rd: Versailles becomes normal again "Oh, the people care little for philosophy of this kind. Only philosophers and meditators argue such mental puzzles."
[12:33 AM] Kwakado: "And while the mystics play one game, the warriors and merchants play another." Sula averts his eyes from the runes. "You understand the mainland well, I see."
[12:34 AM] spikethe3rd: Versailles laughs "The greatest challenge of knowledge is learning how to use it" He quotes
[12:35 AM] spikethe3rd: "Are we not innately bound to ponder lifes mysteries even if we don't want to?"
[12:37 AM] Kwakado: "There is no greater meal to chew on than mystery." Sula peers back into the symbols. "...What food do you like?"
[12:39 AM] spikethe3rd: "My favorite mystery is my own purpose." Versailles says bluntly. "I believe in helping others and spreading generosity and kindness, but I want to do more. I want the world to be a place of mutual kindness."
[12:41 AM] Kwakado: Sula frowns. "Kindness is a beautiful thing. In dark times, they help each other, and feed the other one's kindness when it is empty."
[12:43 AM] Kwakado: "A kind man on his own cannot stay kind for long. He needs...mutual kindness, yes."
[12:45 AM] spikethe3rd: "It is true, man cannot live without kindness, or so I believe. It is also theorized that we cannot live without hate and greed. These pitfalls of our people turn us away from each other. It may be that we cannot have one without the other..." Versailles goes silent.
[12:47 AM] Kwakado: Sula reciprocates the silence.
[12:47 AM] Kwakado: He closes his eyes, clearing his mind...then speaks.
[12:48 AM] Kwakado: "Is it cowardly, then, for people to blame these pitfalls they cannot live without?"
[12:49 AM] spikethe3rd: Versailles looks at Sula "It is cowardly to admit defeat and be overcome with them. A curse should not be embraced."
[12:52 AM] Kwakado: Sula is motionless. "Let us consider for the moment, Versa-i, this choice. A woman must eat to live. Does she eat the plate of the good chef with...rotten ingredients, the plate of the rotten chef with good ingredients...or starve?"
[12:54 AM] spikethe3rd: "Well logically, she should eat of the good ingredients to prevent natural harm to her."
[12:56 AM] Kwakado: A palm raises. "But the rotten chef will bring Nanyo - he will poison her. Or cook the ingredients wrong. Is this harm...better?"
[12:59 AM] spikethe3rd: "No." Versailles answers briefly, expecting the explanation of the question
[1:01 AM] Kwakado: Sula provides another question instead. "And if she chooses that plate, will it not reward the bad chef? Will it not teach the children to ruin their ingredients, and their children after that? Is one person's health that important?" Sula's bare toe taps the dirt.
[1:04 AM] spikethe3rd: "No. It will teach them that their mother died of eating food of a bad chef no?" Versailles proposes(edited)
[1:08 AM] Kwakado: Sula nods, impressed. "But not all Nanyo kills. Sometimes it weakens, little by little, while the chef is praised. And if it does kill, let us consider..." His foot shifts awfully close to the fire's edge. "Would she be better off to starve, and die a pure death?"
[1:12 AM] spikethe3rd: "There is nothing pure of death. It can only hurt. I battle won in victory is a village crying in agony. As for the Chef, those who eat the good chef will only insult him for his spoiled food. Those who choose to starve say nothing for they lie dead."
[1:13 AM] spikethe3rd: "What you say is that good intent can be wasted on spoiled ingredients and bad intent on good. But I ask in return. How can you guarantee such conditions? What prevents a good chef from good food or a bad one from bad food?"(edited)
[1:16 AM] Kwakado: Sula's teeth flash in the fire. "Ah-ha. And that is the practice of the Dwabi. That good chefs always have good food, and that bad chefs are not praised for their bad food..... Sula's eyes open. "But this is not the land of the Dwabi. Which do you choose, Versa-i?"
[1:19 AM] spikethe3rd: "As I said, the only choice is to poison oneself. Those who don't will discard the spoiled food in turn for the unspoiled and those that abstain, die. In a matter of practice, all will choose the longest life. We like to live even through hardship, even under cruel conditions."
[1:21 AM] Kwakado: "I see, I see. You are a wise man. Much wiser than I. But not a woman." Sula points to one of the further glyphs. "Would you, holy man, tell this woman to poison herself, to trade her life to expose the bad chef?"
[1:24 AM] spikethe3rd: "I tell people to think for themselves. What I think does not matter." Versailles looks at the sky "But that is not an answer. I cannot tell a person to kill themselves, either way. Unfortunately, I cannot answer your question. I must cower behind morality."
[1:25 AM] Kwakado: Sula nods grimly. "Neither can I."
[1:27 AM] Kwakado: Sula rubs his foot on a drawing, obscuring it. Then another. "It is Nanyo to feed her either dish...and yet to choose none at all is worse..."
[1:30 AM] Kwakado: His feet return to him - only two symbols remain. "And here I am, asking a stranger to choose for another stranger."
[1:32 AM] spikethe3rd: "It is in our nature as holy men to make impossible questions. For if we cannot decide ourselves, how can we expect others to make good decisions? The most frustrating questions to answer are those that we must think about most."
[1:32 AM] spikethe3rd: Versailles smiles "We won't cower from that"
[1:34 AM] Kwakado: "No..I wonder not." The Dwabi man moves back from the symbols, then addresses his slumbering mount. "Well, Shimi-e, I guess we will have to decide where to take the lady to dinner...another time, ha."(edited)
[1:36 AM] spikethe3rd: Versailles stood up and stretched. "I'm afraid that I'm to tired to continue." He yawned. "We will have to solve the problems of the world another time."(edited)
[1:38 AM] Kwakado: "Ah, we have both been defeated it seems. Thank you for your support, Versa-i! Tell Claire Kwemo for me!" Sula rolled out a mat under the shelter
[1:39 AM] spikethe3rd: "Haha, I will!" Versailles waved as he walked back into the city
[1:41 AM] Kwakado: The soothsayer sighed, laying back to rest. "Not even the monk could decide...Such a troublesome meeting." Sula drifted off to sleep, no less frustrated at the lack of adequate Dwabi cuisine in Amaterasu's market.
[1:41 AM] Kwakado: ===============End RP ================
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