Cat Rescue

[thecanopycrew]

| characters | One lost cat, her owner and the adventurers of the tree!

| date/time | Wednesday afternoon

| location | Outside the Tree, Mist Barrier

| rating | None

| summary | Someone has come looking for their best friend.


After two weeks with a cat hanging around the Tree, seemingly lost and hungry, today her savior will arrive!

...in the form of a little girl, no older than six. Struggling her way through the foliage outside, this small child can be seen outside the mist, alone and on a very special quest. Her determined face changes into a gasp of joy as she sees her little friend lying in the grass, safe and sound.

"Mittens!" Hurrying over and picking her cat up, the young gently strokes her precious pet's fur and nuzzles her face. The absolute happiness is easily picked out even through the haze of the mist. "I knew the faeries would protect you!"


Carefully holding on to her cat, the little girl leans down, digging around in the pockets of her cute little dress. Taking out a handful of things, she very carefully puts them down on a large piece of bark. "Thank you, fairies! I'm gonna tell my dad I was right!" Putting the piece of bark in the stream, she then giggles and waves excitedly. Then she is scooping her cat back up in her arms, almost big enough to drag on the ground but still purring in joy.

Slowly, the bark boat starts to float towards the mist, passing through into the Tree's area.

CONGRATULATIONS!
You have received:
1 Tiny Ceramic Tea Set
(4 Cups, 4 Saucers, 4 Plates, 1 Creamer Jug, 1 Sugar Bowl, 1 Pot)
1 Dollhouse Chess Set
1 Dollhouse Crib
1 Full Spool of Red Sewing Thread
1 Mood Ring
3 Green Marbles

Comments

[hakanai]

Yoshitsugu shrugged lightly. He looked back over at the board, gaze roaming over each game piece in turn and he wondered at exactly how it worked.

"What kind of strategist wouldn't have a good grasp on his own abilities? I'd be a fool, to be unaware of my own strengths."

And weaknesses too, of course. Just to begin with there was the ability to catch any kind of sickness going around before anyone else he knew, which could not be considered a positive in any way whatsoever. Being fussed over every time he was confined to his bed wasn't much fun.

"But I would appreciate both the lessons and the competition. There wouldn't be any satisfaction in playing if there were no competant opponents to be found; back home that would have been Shima Sakon, but he has not turned up here, which is for the best. Mitsunari needs someone to take care of him regardless of realm."

[monster_san]

"Indeed, there's no need for false modesty."

Was he talking about Ishida Mitsunari? Fuu had gotten used to speaking to one historical figure, but hearing him so casually mention those names reminded her again how strange this was. And since Otani had apparently come here after his death, what did he know about the fate of those two men? She knew that Shima, at least, had died after the battle, even if historians didn't know the exact circumstances. Ishida's fate was more definite: captured and executed. Otani seemed to be so casual about his own demise, but would he feel the same way about the death of his comrades?

"Shima Sakon must have been a worthy opponent indeed," she said. "Though I've never heard how well he did or didn't take care of himself. What games did you play?" And now she was referring to other people in the past tense. But it would be too awkward to act as though she had never heard the names before. It would probably be better to introduce the topic of era, which would justify everyone being 'had' and 'was', not just the people who had followed Ishida.

[hakanai]

Yoshitsugu didn't seem to react much to the tense use, though why might not have been exactly evident. He had taken many things into account since arriving in the tree, and was far too intelligent not to put two-and-two together.

(Though as far as he was concerned Sakon had died towards the end of Sekigahara, charging into the Eastern front-lines in order to try and give Mitsunari the chance they all knew he wasn't likely to get).

"Renju, Go, Mahjong and Shōgi come first to mind, depending on the player. Trying to involve Mitsunari in any kind of game was difficult enough as it was, without making it a long one. Sakon was usually my opponent for longer games, and once, Lady Oichi was too."

His wings fluttered as he regarded the chess board again, the only really obvious indication of his excitement as this chance; that he was having slightly more sobering thoughts of his mother-figure was not obvious at all. The impact of her death on him had always been an intensely private thing for Yoshitsugu, the emotions those memories carried hidden away quite effectively.

"Looking at the board, this chess may be of a similiar game type to Shōgi."

[monster_san]

"My goodness, you did play against some illustrious people!" People who came to rather terrible endings. It was odd to think of someone like Lady Oichi sitting down to a game board, the way Fuu and her classmates would on a rainy day. But then again, she had never thought of Todo Takatora being fixated on handtowels... amazing, how human people from history were.

"I think I've read that Shogi was based on chess. That game gave birth to quite a few variants over the centuries..." She cupped her cheek in one hand, as though the thought had just occurred to her with the talk of years. "I don't think I have yet mentioned that I'm from your future, have I?"

[hakanai]

"You have not, though there have been clues enough that it is the case."

Yoshitsugu crossed his arms and glanced up at the sky... or more likely, the mist. You'd have to crane your neck back quite far to see the sky from where they were standing. So it was time for this, was it? That meant he could indulge his curiousity on a very important matter.

"Now that you have brought it up I must ask a very serious question."

He glanced at Fuu, smile reaching his eyes.

"Is Mitsunari still known as the Fox of Mt. Sawa, in your time?"

...very important indeed.

[monster_san]

Fuu had expected questions about what Ieyasu had done with his victory, or how Japan had fared in general in the centuries following the end of their era... what it was like in her time, who ruled the country, if it had prospered, and she was busily constructing answers for them when he finished.

She laughed. After speaking to Otani as many times as she had, she really should have expected it to be something like that. Alas, the answer she had to give might give him a hint about those other questions she'd predicted--Ieyasu and his followers had not been inclined to say anything good of their defeated enemies. "Yes, I'm afraid that nickname has remained quite attached to him. Four centuries doesn't seem to be enough time to shed it."

If he did arrive here--which, given Otani and Todo's presence, was entirely plausible--she would leave Otani to deliver that bit of information.

[hakanai]

There was a genuinely pleased air about Yoshitsugu after he heard that response.

"Don't think it a bad thing, because it should remain attached to him. Just not for the reasons he'd like. I'm sure Mitsunari would love to believe that he's sly and mysterious, but it's not so."

After all, hidden behind that awkward and abrasive personality was an astoundingly pure heart and kind nature that made it practically impossible for Mitsunari to be anything close to a mystery. No doubt the people of the future would speak ill of him, what with the Tokugawa being the ones to win the war, but for Yoshitsugu that really didn't matter. Those who cared for Mitsunari knew the truth, and that was that.

Though how Mitsunari would feel about his 'legacy' was a different matter. He'd be outraged at all the positive things no doubt said about Ieyasu, that much was certainly true.

"In fact, the nickname is his because he looks like a fox. Isn't that interesting?"

[monster_san]

"You certainly are an education, Otani-san. In my time, Ishida-san is considered to be those two things exactly. But I think you would have a different opinion of his personality than the historical record." Underhanded might be a more accurate term for the prevailing view, although Fuu understood that the difference between 'pragmatic' tactics and 'underhanded' ones was if they were 'ours' or 'theirs'.

"I had indeed assumed the nickname came from his reputation. Does he really look like a fox? There is a portrait of him that I've seen but--oh, but as he dislikes the title, I suppose an artist he commissioned would downplay any such features."

[hakanai]

"Mitsunari, commission an artist?" Yoshitsugu laughed quietly at that. "He'd call it a pointless waste of time, to do such a thing. Any artist would be working from glances and descriptions given by either his Lord, his friends or his retainers."

He tapped his facecloth in the usual, habitual way of his, amused at the thought of an artist trying to get a work based on his friend completed. The only person in the Toyotomi harder to get a portrait of would be... well, himself. The difference there, though, was that nobody would even try with Yoshitsugu. A slim chance was better than none.

"But yes, his features are notably vulpine, in a delicate way, and his hair reddish like the coat of a fox."

[monster_san]

...His Lord, friends, or retainers had evidently not given the artist a very accurate description, then. Ishida's portrait showed a man with ordinary black hair (and little of it, too). "Ah. Then... perhaps they were simply guessing at his appearance. Or had the wrong man described to them, because that picture is neither delicate nor red-haired." Perhaps it had been done after his death by someone wanting to show he was plain and unattractive?

"...I really am starting to think that the historians since your time have done a rather slipshod job, even accounting for bias and reinterpretation," Fuu said. "That, or you are even better than I thought at keeping a straight face."

Given the tenor of his other jokes morbid as heck she tended to doubt he was funning, however.