Winter, Day 20 - Foxpoint Farms

 11:56 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora):

A line of still-smoldering fabric was scattered about the path that led from the farm proper to Shiori's farmhouse, ending just before the stairs to the porch. The expensive and beautiful silks - which should have put themselves out - were clearly burning with the assistance of magic. Small chunks of carved jade were in a pile that might once have been an obi, the stone the only remains of the precious fabric.

Notably missing from the piles was the mask Shiori wore, the thing itself impervious and easy to disinfect regardless. Also missing were signs of any footwear.

The door to the farmhouse itself was cracked open, with a pair of foxes - Kaede and Egi - flanking it, clearly on guard. The lights were on inside, the foyer well-lit with the clear expectation of a guest. The kami herself was nowhere to be seen, not outside nor just within the door.

The house itself was quiet. Almost too quiet, despite the late hour.

Just inside the door, a man waited, a silent guard with a guest list of one against which to check. Jiro did not know what had transpired at the party - not yet - but he knew it must not be good, and he knew that Shiori had bade him let the Coyote in as soon as he arrived.

And so he waited, ignoring the acrid stench of burning silks and pretending he had not seen the fury in Shiori's eyes when she had returned.

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[12:17 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Although he had left not that long after Shiori had, and had quickly found their scent on the wind, Coyote had not managed to catch up to them during the pursuit of whatever it was that they had seen. He was only now managing to "catch up" to them, and only because they had gone home. If things weren't so dire, he would tease them about their swiftness...

But there was nothing amusing about the events of the night. The pox. The revelations. The warnings given by Eris. The things hinted by Set. His own musings. The POX, a thing straight out of his nightmares, set loose upon the world again. And not just any smallpox, he had realized as he'd been running through the countryside, for the smallpox of old, ordinary smallpox, as wretched as it was, would not have been able to attack the divine as fiercely as it had.

No, this smacked of the Rot.

He trotted up the rows of the fields until he approached the house, passing the trail of burning silks with an absent glance of disappointment. The garments had been beautiful; it was a shame that Shiori had had to destroy them. Later, when they were done talking, maybe he could take a little bit and see if he could conjure up replacements for them... But there were far more important things to discuss, first.

He wagged his tale in canine greeting as he trotted up to the porch, pausing to give both Kaede and Egi a lick and a nuzzle in greeting. "It is a dark night, my friends. Be safe and more wary than usual, if you must leave here to gather your secrets." He concentrated for a moment, and a pair of small, brown feathers appeared before him, filled with all of the protective magics he could think of, shimmered into being between them. He silently offered, and nodded gravely when they accepted, allowing the feathers to tangle and weave themselves into their fur. "It is not much... but it may help." One more lick, and then he turned to push past the open door.

[12:17 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): .

"Greetings to you, watchful one," he said, stopping to sit before Jiro. "Did Shiori return safely? Are they taking visitors?"

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora) 

(bestowing charms done with permission)

[12:31 AM] Shiori Okita (Nora): Kaede and Egi returned the greetings with a faint wag of their tails, but beyond greeting their near-kin friend, they did not so much as budge from their position even as Coyote moved into the house.

"Ori-sama is upstairs and bids you welcome," Jiro replied, giving the coyote a slight bow and moving to close the door behind him, though the foxes of course could still come and go as they desired, courtesy of the fox-sized flap at the bottom. The kitsune closed his eyes briefly and sighed. "My kami is well displeased, but would not speak of it until you arrived," he offered with a wry - and sad - smile.

The lights upstairs were bright - brighter than the foyer, even, and a flicker of shadow passed through the light, proving movement upstairs.

Shiori paused, tilting her head to listen, and nodded slightly. It sounded as though her guest had arrived.

Shiro and Kuro were at the top of the stairwell, waiting to lead Coyote to the living room, where Shiori had plopped herself and was presently brushing out the fur of her numerous tails, a dark expression clouding her gaze. She wore a simple, thin nightgown, the back cut low for her tails, though the rest of the cut was quite modest in comparison.

Mika and Mako sat nearby, waiting quietly, their attention turned toward a ledger they were working through. Light flickered from a wall, a large and very modern television playing a movie that no one was paying any bit of heed to, judging from the fact the volume was so low it might as well have been muted.

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[1:05 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): "This has been a night of many very unpleasant revelations," Coyote replied to Jiro. But he nodded his thanks and headed up the stairs that Jiro had shown him. Finding Shiro and Kuro at the top, he gave each of them a lick and a nuzzle in greeting, as well, before following them to where Shiori was waiting. Had it really only been just a few hours ago that he had been wallowing in those tails, carefree and content? It felt like the night had taken years to run its course to the now, and he was exhausted with it all. 

"Who was it that you were chasing? Did you catch them?" he asked as he approached. "I did not see anyone else; you left, swift as the wind, before I could answer you." He paused, just outside of Shiori's reach, sitting primly with a small sigh, as he silently bid Shiro and Kuro to approached, and manifested a matching set of feathers to offer them, as he had given Kaede and Egi. Hopefully, they did not have other duties to attend, and would be willing to remain and cuddle. To say that he was unsettled by the night's events, would be an understatement, and if Shiori's hands had not been so obviously full with their tails, he would have climbed into their lap already, decorum be damned.

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[1:13 AM] Shiori Okita (Nora): She looked up at his voice, offering him a weary smile, though her amber eyes were still dark with anger. "I thought I had seen a yokai of disease," she replied, pausing in the brushing of her tails to beckon to him - and to Shiro and Kuro as well, offering all of them to join Shiori where she sat. "A creature called a Hosogami. I had him!" she snarled, angry. "But he freed himself from the whip and fled. I had no choice but to return here, when a call went out about... about spirits at the gate."

The kami huffed out a sigh. "I had to come and see, to make sure all was well. There aren't many Shinto or Buddhists around, you know? The few who have passed on, they are now here, on the farm." She waved a hand at the land around them, sighing.

"I'm sorry I left you so quickly. I couldn't confirm if the yokai I saw was a Hosogami... but it seems likely." She made a face then, of disgust and annoyance. "Do you know, that furisode was almost 380 years old? It was a gift, from Empress Meishō. And I had to burn it. I hope she will understand, should I have the chance to see her again."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[1:32 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote relaxed as Shiori beckoned him closer, and shamelessly crawled into their lap, leaving room for the foxes to join in, too. He leaned up and rubbed his face against Shiori's cheek, not just in greeting, but also, just the littlest bit in claiming, marking, as his canine instincts bid him to solidify ties to those he had come to think of as kin.

"Hosogami," he repeated, committing the name to memory to look up more on later. It was not simply Shiori's foxiness that called to him as kin, but from the very little he had learned from his seeking, the Shinto, at least, were as rife with spirits and little gods - kami, he reminded himself - as his own People's nations had been. Everything had a spirit. Everything had someone or something to solicit for wisdom or aid - or to try and warn away. Part of that was simply because his People were made up of hundreds of nations, rather than a single nation as most of the other gods he had met were. But mostly, it was simply the nature of their belief - the anima foundation of their world. The familiarity of it soothed him just as much as her fox did.

But, speaking of spirits...

"Spirits?" he asked. "They have come here for safety, then? Did you see what happened? To the one who died. Can you see such spirits? I never asked before."

Remembering how the phantom spirit had been... snatched away, somehow, and from the middle of the house of Hades, no less, made Coyote shiver. Such a thing should not be possible, he would think. 

He winced, though, as Shiori lamented her outfit. "I am sorry," he replied. "If you explain to me all of the parts, maybe I could try to recreate it for you?" he offered. Perhaps the pawn shop would oblige him if he could not do it on his own. Something tickled the back of his brain, a possible solution, but he could not seem to pull it forth, yet. He would let it percolate, and maybe it would come to him later.

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[1:39 AM] Shiori Okita (Nora): She shook her head slightly, absently reaching up to run her fingers through his fur. He might notice now, this close, that her hands and forearms were covered in light, white fur of their own, fading away at the elbow into normal human skin. "I have to be in the realm itself to see them. We have a torii gate for such things. Mortals pass along the sides, to remain in the Material Realm, while spirits - kami, yokai - pass through the center to go to and from. I had to pass through my gate to see. But yes... they are here for safety. The ofuda stand strong, for the moment."

Shiori smiled at the thought, that he might be able to recreate the garment. "Maybe we can try that. Later, though. I promise you answers, and there is more still to discuss, isn't there?"

Jiro joined them then, settling down on the couch in the space the twins made for him, the three of them wrapping themselves together as they waited for their kami to impart the dire news.

"It isn't just spirits of our own people," offered the man. "Some of the ones now wandering the farm, they say they are not Shinto or Buddhist, but they were afraid, and they saw a place of safety."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[1:46 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote nodded, as if he had expected some of her answer, even if he was not familiar with the "torii gate". 

"His spirit was... taken," he said. "He demanded that Anja guide him on, but before anyone could answer, he was... pulled away, as if he were a fish in a stream, caught in the talons of an eagle. Whatever did it, terrified the other spirits within Hades' realm."

"If there is time tonight when we are done, I will go and walk my People's realms, and look for troubles and for lost souls who need somewhere safe to go. But... I worry. If the madman's spirit was not safe upon Hades' ground..." He shook his head. 

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[2:17 AM] Shiori Okita (Nora): "Then the spirits may not be safe anywhere," she finished, nodding.

"There is a place in the realm, called Sanzu-no-Kawa. The River of Three Crossings. It is where Buddhist souls go to journey to the realm of rebirth. I must go, soon, and see the state of things, though I suspect it won't be pretty. If I can... if I can, I will bring those waiting upon the toll-taker back here, and hope that they will remain safe."

She gave a dry laugh, then, finding what meager humor there could be found. "I knew - suspected, really - that something had happened to allow the rules to change. I'd felt its like before, when the Buddhists tried to steal me, and in the end, I was simply... coexistent. A kami. A Bodhisattva. But still me. And now... now I have true control. I can change my own rules. Ah, but it's such a slow process, to make sure everything is changed right, you know?"

"I spent too much energy tonight. Two wishes. Not... not big ones, but at least one from a divine not even within my pantheons. I had never been able to do that before."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[11:31 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote considered Shiori as they spoke, understanding slowly blooming within. Shiori knew what it was to be rewritten... but more importantly, Shiori remembered knowing. There were gods that knew that they had been rewritten, but it was not a memory for them. The difference between knowing... and knowing.

"Perhaps it is the trickster in us," he mused thoughtfully. He took a breath as he gathered his thoughts, his tail curling absently along Shiori's tails in an unconscious comfort-seeking gesture, before he finally continued. "I am... very old," he said slowly. "Mortals have walked this land for... much longer than many suspect. At least twelve millennia. Probably much longer than that. And... as they walked the land, so did I, and my Brothers and Sisters with me. But my People were not a singular people. Once, long, long ago, I can remember that they were but a single nation. But time passed, and clans grew, and soon, this land was filled with hundreds of nations. And every nation had its own tales. Some we alike enough... others were not."

"I remember all of them. I remember how they shifted like sands on a riverbank. I am no stranger to what it feels like to be... changed. Perhaps there should be many of me, but there is only one. I am what I am needed to be, at the time that I am called upon. And so, I understood mostly what the disturbance was that day, too, though I did not know where it came from. That I was being... rewritten again, somehow. But because of how I was written already, I have been able to rewrite my own rules as I have needed to, for a long time - within the bounds of my nature, anyway. It is an impossible contradiction that..."

He paused and shrugged, offering Shiori a bit of a doggy grin. "It is what it is, and I am what I am, and I have long known that there are not many who could remember as I do, or could adapt as I could, or could even think about our natures at all."

.

[11:31 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): "But I knew what it was when it came. I am just not certain how... different it will make my life. Or if I will notice it when it does."

"There are few, though, who remember what we do. Even my own Brothers and Sisters seem to have few memories of what they were in the first days. So. Perhaps it is the trickster in us, that keeps that knowledge from slipping away from us. But even I do not know what it is to be borrowed by an entirely different People, and brought into their stories, for my People are still one People, even if there are many nations. Sometimes my stories contradict themselves, but even that still fits within my rules. I do wonder, though, if this may be something I will experience - if the First Ones do not destroy all that is, anyway - soon enough, for there are new Peoples who are learning the tales of my People, and adopting them as their own."

"I am very old... but I enjoy the thought that these mortals may yet surprise me, even now. They are worth fighting for." He hoped, anyway. Pusing to consider that, the hope that they could do anything, ultimately, to face down the First Ones, managed to break his train of thought, and he forgot where he had been going with all of his talking. Now that the fury from earlier in the night had finally burned itself out, he felt as if it had burned up everything else inside, too, leaving him open and gaping and empty. He sighed, and shook his head, and moved on from those thoughts. 

"Wishes?" he asked. "That is a thing that you do? Grant wishes?"

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[11:48 AM] Shiori Okita (Nora): The kami listened intently, nodding in a sort of understanding, claws absently combing through fur - whether hers or Coyote's she wasn't sure and didn't rightly care. "I am not so old as that, but... what I am is... fractured? And yet not."

She hummed softly, thinking. "I am myself, but I am also many. Three, or five. Myself as a singular kami, or the groups as aspects of me." A wry laugh. "My people are complicated, but I love them all the same. I love that they see life - spirit - in everything. Good, bad, in between, it doesn't matter."

"But yes... I, too, remember. It's fuzzy sometimes? I can't remember if I remember on my own, or if it is a memory from one of my aspects. My mind swirls with millions of memories and yet I cannot tell what is purely mine."

She knew where he was coming from, though her reasons were different. Hers was a nation of people scattered and then united, not the other way around, and even now, even today, people not even within her own pantheons knew of her - of them - and if not worshiped, certainly acknowledged and enjoyed, and told stories, keeping Inari alive and strong.

Shiori did laugh at his final comment, a soft snort of amusement. "You didn't hear Set call me wish-granter before? Yes, it is a thing I do. Mostly little ones, small wishes. The foxes bring me ones they like, carried on the wind, but if I am close enough, I can hear a wish voiced inside one's mind. I can grant. I do not always. And the granting... well, as you've said, we are beings of chaos, of tricks and play. I can often control the granting. Sometimes I cannot. And... sometimes I can grant big wishes, but... there is always a catch."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[11:58 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): "I think that I would get dizzy, if I were split like that," Coyote observed with a small chuckle. 

"There is always, a catch, though, for great power, of course," he continued, nodding. There were no free lunches, after all. A thought tickled his brain, suddenly. A memory of some of the things he had been studying in the last months since discovering that so many of their kind had come here. Paper? Folded paper?

Oh! 

"The paper birds?" he asked "Is that it? I remember reading about... 'ori'... ori... 'orikami'?"

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[12:03 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): Dizzy was, perhaps, an understatement, but Shiori didn't say that. Nor did she say that one of her aspects was present, here in the same area. He would guess it soon enough, if he didn't already know.

"The very same. Paper cranes. A thousand of them, folded and strung together, can serve as enough for a big wish. It comes from the sacrifice of time, the patience, the focus, the commitment."

"They aren't always enough, though, and few are willing to offer up something greater."

"Ah... speaking of strings. Firstly, I do apologize for stepping on your tail earlier. But... I couldn't let you goad him."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[9:06 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): "Perhaps I should wish to understand what is actually going on, then," Coyote mused.

OH YES! HIS TAIL!

His expression melted into something a bit... sulky as he looked up at Shiori. "And why not?"

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[9:09 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): "I'm afraid that might be a wish too great even for a thousand cranes, koibito," she said, faintly amused and... a little disappointed that it was beyond her power, great though it might be.

She wrinkled her nose somewhat when he looked up at her sulkily, but she wasn't angry with him, or even annoyed. Had she not seen what she had, she might have encouraged the goading, after all. "Are you familiar with the concept of the string of fate?" she asked instead. It would help to know where to begin with the explanation.

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[9:12 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): More than 1000? 

Okay.

"How many, then?" he asked, only half joking. Maybe less than half. Okay, maybe not joking at all. A leather bag appeared beside him, and paper cranes of all sizes and colors and textures began pouring out in a wave that quickly surrounded them. And they kept coming.

"Ten thousand? Fifty? One hundred? I can give you all the cranes that you would need."

The paper birds kept flooding forth.

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[9:14 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): "Coyote, no. They must be folded by hand. It is the sacrifice that powers the wish," she said, reaching a hand out to stop him.

The kitsune trio, silent until now, leapt up as a unified front, startled but also trying hard not to laugh.

Shiro and Kuro, unprepared, were covered in the conjured cranes, the mass of paper wriggling as the pair of foxes tried to escape the flood.

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[9:22 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote's ears flattened to his head, and the cranes stopped flooding out. He'd looked a little sulky, before. Now he was downright sulking. He heaved a sigh and the bag and mass of paper erupted into a cloud of sparkles that faded into nothingness. 

"Fine. I can fold paper. I can sacrifice."

If only fixing things, stoping the First Ones... if only any of that were able to be stopped by folding paper birds. He would close the shop and spend his every waking moment to make as many as it took. No matter how long it took.

He heaved a sigh and dropped his head to his paws. "Red thread," he said, getting back to what they had been talking about before the paper tsunami. "I... have read fanfiction?"

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[9:29 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): "If it were that easy, I promise I would have done it already. But that..." she sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, koibito, I don't know that cranes alone would be enough for that."

The kin settled back down when the flood of cranes stopped, and then vanished altogether, though the foxes still looked a bit wary and concerned.

"Fanfiction? Well... some of it was bound to have at least a little truth, I'm sure," was the amused reaction, a soft laugh accompanying it. "Red strings bind people together. Soulmates, one might say. They can be there from birth, or wished into existence, and on some occasions, they can be formed by other means. Bindings. Promises. A variety of ways."

"They are... only meant for mortals. The kami have other strings. But... gods and mortals do not share one. They should not share one. It's... dangerous." For both of them, she didn't say, but the implication was there.

"I saw a string between Set and Anja. Coyote, koibito, it cannot be acknowledged. It was already strong. Anja's doing, I think. If Set admits his own feelings for her, if he strengthens that tie?" She fell silent, but her face said everything she might have wanted, in the form of 'bad news'.

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[9:38 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): As Shiori explined, Coyote slowly came out of his mood, his head coming up off of his paws as he leaned over a little to absently lick the foxes in a comforting manner, if they would allow it. He was confused, though.

"Why should it not be, though? I do not... Does... We can change things now. Does... Does Set not deserve some happiness after all of this time?" Coyote knew enough about the Egyptians to know that Set was not a "good guy"... But Coyote also knew very much how it felt to be cast in such a role, despite the leanings of his own heart.

"If it was *Anja's doing... Not his... Is it because he is convinced that he will be subsumed? Could she not help him if they were connected?" It all seemed terribly pedantic, to him. But, then again, Coyote had never met a rule that he didn't try to break at least once.

Often twice, just in case the first time as a fluke.

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[9:47 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): The foxes, for their part, allowed the affection, settling back down on either side of Shiori with soft vulpine sighs even as their kami spoke.

"Darling, Set named me for wish-granter." The statement hung in the air, and though the chaos magic from the earlier meme list still existed, it would literally hang in the air. "He took a single look at me and knew, I suspect, exactly who I was before Ana ever called my name."

There was a long pause as she mulled something over. "We can change things, yes... but some things, even with that, are immutable. I cannot make a wish on myself, for example. It would be a feedback loop. There is nothing, even with this ability, that could possibly change that. Perhaps... perhaps he has encountered something similar?"

"He may simply be denying his feelings because of his nature. I don't know. I didn't try to read his mind. It's very impolite. But... a binding like that, a string of fate between a mortal and a god... koibito I am not overstating when I say it's dangerous. For whom... that is a question. For both. For one more than the other. I don't know. Every string is different, in subtle ways. Every connection has their intricacies. I... I have never had a string connect me to anyone. That is not and has never been my fate." Her fingers twitched briefly, amber-hued gaze straying across her hand, seeing-but-not-seeing the frayed thread hanging from her own finger, a reminder.

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[9:57 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote watched Shiori's gaze as it slipped down to their hand. All of the stories that he had read had said that the strings came from the heart, or the hand. He couldn't see anything on Shiori's hand, but he didn't think that she had looked down there for no reason.

He pushed up to his feet and, if they allowed it, would lean forward, resting his head against Shiori's chest.

"Wolves mate for life," he said quietly. "The foxes that I know do as well. Coyotes sometimes do, but even when they move on to find new mates at the end of a few years, they still live in a pack together."

Some mortals envied the gods. Others feared them. All for powers and abilities that the gods, themselves, never asked for. And despite the collection of mortals who loved them, they were still... mortal, and could never understand the life of a god or avatar. 

Especially how lonely it could be.

"Should it be broken, then?" he asked softly.

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[10:05 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): A single tear slipped down her cheek, but she leaned forward, pressing against Coyote's head with her own with a sad smile. "it is one of the dangers of being one-and-many," she finally said. "I am not meant for that fate. Or it is not meant for me. Either way, it has been decided."

"I love and have known love, and will undoubtedly know it again. But that kind of bond... no, it is... unlikely."

She gave soft sigh that would ruffle against his fur, considering his question in a silence that stretched.

"It may be for the best, but... that is not for me to decide." Another pause, heavy with sadness. "But if I could decide... I would say yes. It should be broken. For both their sakes."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[10:11 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote was silent for a long moment. He leaned against Shiori, offering what comfort he could, taking comfort from them in return. 

"They may hate us in the end," he sighed. "But... would one thousand be enough?"

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[10:14 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): The laugh that Shiori gave was pained, an echo of their feelings. "I don't think so, unfortunately. If it were, if I could grant my own wishes, I would fold them myself."

"I would rather be hated for keeping even one of them alive and safe than to see them both destroyed," she said in a voice barely above a whisper. "I would spare them the pain of any of it, if I could. But I cannot see the future, and I don't... I don't know what will happen."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[10:23 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): "It was Yahweh," Coyote said, apropos of nothing. "I am certain of it."

He finally withdrew enough to settle back upon Shiori's lap, though he pressed as close as they would allow it.

"In the vision we were shown. With Gaia. It was Yahweh. Yeshua is too blind to see it. Ellis, I do not think, is allowed to see it. But I am certain. This was Yahweh's doing. All of this. "

And, no matter how interesting and fun parts of the last months had been for Coyote, not even he would wish the rest upon the world. Even if it meant never meeting Yasmine or Shiori or Ellis. 

<d>

[10:38 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): "Is that who the woman was? Gaia? We don't... really have anything like her in my pantheons. I am only passingly familiar with the concept, from my own readings, but... not enough to recognize." She frowned slightly, a serious expression flitting across her face.

"And I believe you may be right. If his followers are anything to go by, he seems the sort. Power-hungry. Wants to be the only one, in control, in charge." The kami waved a hand, annoyed. "I know not all of that pantheon is like that, but it's hard to see it when they sent out crusades to forcibly convert entire peoples. Or their... their missionaries," she spat, angrily. "Telling my people that they were barbarians, and giving them sweet lies. Promises of a beautiful afterlife in their heaven... while threatening them with their hell."

Her face twisted into a scowl. "My people want harmony with the kami and humans. To live side by side, to work together, to exist as one. Respect without worship. The spirits of the deceased remaining to guide their people along the path, or else choosing to be reborn so they might try again and be better than they were before."

"From what I have read, your people are much the same. We are alike in many ways, I think."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[10:44 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): "With the spirits?" Coyote said, shrugging. "Yes. With each other? Not always. They warred. They killed. Some nations were better neighbors than others. But they cared for the land and the creatures in it, and the spirits helped them to thrive."

Until.

He looked away, tensing up. "The government used smallpox as a weapon to destroy my people. They offered them blankets in the place of broken promises. Blankets that had been used to cover their own dead, knowing that the sickness would stay in the weave."

"The thing you hunted tonight. Is it a spirit of sickness? I will help you hunt."

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[10:50 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): "Fighting, I think, is human nature. And to some degree, the nature of yokai as well. It is a noble goal, to want to live in harmony, but they know it is not an easy road to walk. Still they try, and that is what makes me love them. What makes me want to protect them, fight for them, grant them little wishes so that their burdens may ease."

She, too, tensed when he spoke of the blankets, of a biological warfare that no one seemed willing to admit to or to make amends for. Around them, sensing the mood of god and kami, the kin present tensed, as well, seeming as if they were ready to fight and not knowing what they should be fighting.

"The thing I saw... the man in red. I believe him to be a yokai called hosogami. It was born when smallpox tore across my home." She shook her head, searching for a memory, faint and old. "I was perhaps... 30 or so? As humans reckon it. I was, Coyote. I had barely been created. Many of us were new, our stories not even a generation old. And hosogami was born then. The point of infection, or the salvation from it, depending on the stories told. This one... this one had all the look of the former."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[10:57 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote nodded in understanding.

"You will call me, then. When you have need of me. I will help you destroy it."

His People had no such spirit of the disease, but he knew how to kill spirits. And this one, he would gladly sacrifice much to destroy.

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[11:05 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): Shiori was silent for a long time, and it seemed almost as if she would tell him no, that she would deny his aid, before she finally nodded once, slightly. "I would not have asked it of you... but if you wish to help... then I will not say no."

She closed her eyes briefly, grateful that she had found such a friend... and for some reason, sad all the same. This should be hers to deal with. She was an intruder here, and it was one of her pantheon, a yokai created by her people who had come here and begun a path of greater destruction.

This should be hers, and hers alone, to deal with. But... she would not - could not - deny Coyote his chance.

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[11:10 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote reached up and feigned a nip at Shiori's nose. 

"Stop that. You did not bring this here. They did. Do not do their work for them." He tempered the sharpness of his tone with a flick of his tongue, intending to lick Shiori's cheek.

"That you are here, and cannot get sick, and know what it is that we face is a boon and nothing else."

Wait. Coyote blinked. Had... had he ever been able to know like that for someone not of his pantheon?

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[11:18 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): "I want you to know that I refuse to put on the mask just so that I can lick you back," she stated, voice taking on an amused-but-prim tone, her eyes lightening just slightly. 

"Didn't I just say that reading minds was rude?" This was asked with a dry smile. "I don't know if that was you changing your rules, or me changing mine. I will admit... I have been working on it. As near-kin and as gods similar enough, in the small ways that matter... it seemed like it might be easier? I should have asked first, but while I knew what the magic was, I wasn't sure how far I could really go."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[11:23 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote grinned at their declaration, then sobered a little.

" Do not... read minds, really?" he said, kicking up a hind leg to scratch once or twice behind his ear. "Sometimes I just... know things that I should not be able to? So, it was probably more me than you... Or it could be both? But..."

He looked away, and when he continued, his voice was almost a little shy.

"I would not mind if it was all your own doing, Shining One."

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[11:30 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): The kami offered a simple shrug at his declaration. "What is knowing things about a persons' thoughts but reading their minds? Even if you didn't hear the words thought, and only the sentiment, is that not the same?" She nodded toward the foxes on either side of them. "They can use words to think at people, but even you have seen that their best communication is not in words but in thoughts, memories, emotions. In scents and sights. Is that so different?"

She leaned forward to press a kiss on his head, if he allowed it. "We're all changing, I think, thanks to what happened. Some of us were just more in the know than others. I owe it, in a way, to being half-stolen but still myself. It gave me an advantage, but I was afraid to hope too much, koibito. Hope can be a dangerous thing."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[11:34 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): It should not be possible, what with the fur, but Coyote is Coyote, and so, his blush at the kiss is awkwardly visible.

"It is," he finally replied, gravely. "Dangerous. But... good. Just... you know. As long as you know. It was not your fault. Like calls to like. The Yokai, and the sickness. And I will help you."

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[11:40 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): If she noticed the blush (and she did) she opted not to comment on it... though Shiro, at least, was not as gentle, her soft vulpine laugh readily evident.

"Yes, hope can be good, too," Shiori agreed, lips twitching though her voice was grave. "I know it wasn't my fault, deep down. it should be my burden to shoulder. But I would be lying if I were to say I would not be glad to have you by my side."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[11:43 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote pointedly ignored Shiro, offering only a sniff in her direction.

"What wishes did you grant tonight, anyway?" he asked as he primly flipped his tail over his haunches... and maybe not so incidentally almost smacking Shiro in the face with it.

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[11:47 PM] Shiori Okita (Nora): Shiro, still giving her foxy laugh, simply slipped away, dodging the tail and any further attacks on her being. She instead chose to settle down on the other side, next to Kuro, who was pretending indifference to the whole thing.

Mostly.

"Hm? Oh, the wishes... Set wished that Anja would be able to communicate more easily while she was a crow. That one was easy enough. Anyone who was in the room at the time will be able to hear her quite well, for as long as she is in a crow's body."

Her gaze grew distant for a moment, brows furrowing slightly. "The other... Hades wished to know where someone was. I have no idea myself, but wish-granting is chaos, and works in odd ways. I... am not sure if he will like the answer, though, with everything we learned tonight."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[11:53 PM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): Coyote's ears perk straight up for a moment. "Anja? But-" And then they droop to the side in chagrin. "Oh. Yes. Of course. Not everyone hears us. I, uh... forgot." 

That would explain some of the odd looks he had gotten when he had answered Anja's comments, then. He chuckled to himself.

"Persephone?" he asked. "Their stories say that she should have been at his side for many months now... But she is not. I did not wish to bring it up in front of the others. Hades... seems to be a very proud one." Pot, kettle, black, of course, but Coyote merely shrugs away the irony. "It is hard for him, I think, to show that he cares about things."

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[12:01 AM] Shiori Okita (Nora): She gave him a look, amused and a little exasperated. "Until the wish was made, I only knew what she was saying because of Shiro. But yes, I imagine it was difficult for others who could not hear her."

Shiori nodded, a memory of Greek text surfacing. "Right... the stories say that she spends some of the year with her mother, and the rest with Hades, right? Their tale for how autumn and winter came to be, or something like that?" She smirked at Coyote for his comment on pride. "I think all of us suffer a bit from it, sometimes, but... some are worse than others."

"I don't know if it was the combination of wishes from divines outside my pantheon, or something else, but I will admit it was... tiring? Or perhaps one was a bigger wish than suspected. Not so much that it needed the thousand cranes, perhaps, but not exactly little, either. I can't be sure. Mortal wishes are often easy, they take little energy to grant at all. Sometimes... sometimes they make wishes in jest and I will grant them anyway, because it amuses me." Her eyes sparkled at this one. "My favorite was the person who wished they could win a lifetime supply of pudding."

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[12:11 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): .....

"Pudding?" That... That was just too much, and Coyote burst into laughter, and, perhaps that laughter might have been just a little... desperate for a moment or two... But it had been something of a stressful night.

"Oh, Shining One, that!" He continued to chuckle for a moment. "That would have been quite the trick to see!"

He slowly stopped snickering, and settled against Shiori in silence.

"You should rest," he finally said with a sigh. "And I still need to walk the worlds and see what needs to be seen." He didn't move off of Shiori, though. Not yet.

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[12:21 AM] Shiori Okita (Nora): The kami smiled indulgently, giving a soft laugh at the memory. "My Foxnet showed me, and it certainly was beautiful. Ask them about it sometime. It's a favorite memory of theirs to share."

She stilled, though, when he mentioned his plans. Considered if she had the energy to go with him, and then realized that she did not. "Be careful? Please. Take Kuro, if you think you might need help."

Thought but not spoken - never spoken: I don't want to lose anyone else I care about.

Her hands raised to thread fingers into his fur, if he would let her, and maybe they would hold a little tighter than normal. But she gave him a soft smile of understanding. She, too, would need to go see how somewhere fared, when she had recovered.

There was a long moment as she carefully considered, and then... "You're welcome to return here when you're done. The bed is large and the tails are clearly many," she added with a teasing grin. If it was tinged with worry, well... that was to be expected, wasn't it?

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn)

[12:33 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): "I will be as careful as I may," he promised. "But I do not wish to risk Kuro until I know what may await me. Next time. If I need help, I will..." He paused, and then grinned a little as the image of a paper crane popped back into his head. "I will send you a message."

He rumbled softly deep in his chest as he leaned into her fingers. "Rest, Shining One." He finally heaved himself to his feet and stepped away, offering a nuzzle of thanks to each of the foxes, and the three on the couch. He paused at the doorway, though, and ginned back over his shoulder.

"Leave a window cracked for... whatever the wind might blow in later," he said with a wink.

<d>

@Shiori Okita (Nora)

[12:50 AM] Shiori Okita (Nora): "It's the window facing east," she replied easily. The window facing home, she did not say. "Walk in safety, koibito."

She stood then, to see him off. The kitsune trio left, exchanging quiet glances, a mental discussion that Shiori chose not to hear. They had much to think on, now that they knew what their kami had learned, what Shiori was up against. She paid no heed to which room the three retired to; they found comfort with each other.

It was Kuro who decided to see Coyote out, and to turn off lights in the house below.  If near-kin does not return, this one will hunt him down and drag him back if this one must. The white bits of his fur seemed to gleam in the light, but he said nothing else, turning and leaving to return to Shiori's side.

The lights went out, and Shiori retired to her own room, cracking the window with an amused smile before settling down, Shiro and Kuro beside her.

It had been such a very long day.

<d> @Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn) 

((Shiori is out of scene))

[1:15 AM] Buck Nakai - Coyote (Ravyn): I will return, Takoja. Coyote promised. Just listen for the wind.

Coyote vanished into a swirl of air and rushed out over the farm, heading for the pawn shop -- And the doorways he kept there.

<d>

End Scene