Hatate Quest Kaksi

[Hello Purvis]

>"Then I hope you're pleasantly surprised! Now, you were saying?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Then I hope you're pleasantly surprised! Now, you were saying?"

>The blonde youkai leans forward slightly, giving you a very curious look. As this gives you an even better look at some of her more salient features, you don't really feel like complaining. After a moment's consideration, a faint smirk touches her lips, somehow managing to be cynical and whimsical at once. 'Why not." she mutters. "Optimistic feels better than the rest. All right, miss tengu, I'll see if I can explain good. Tell me about your people, the way your society's put together, I mean."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I imagine it is much like you think. We've got our castes, and our families. The wolf tengu do the heavier labor, the long-noses do the official and scholarly work, we crows sort of fill the gaps in between, while the dai-tengu plan and direct things. The yama-bushi tend toward more wizardly stuff, but they're kind of off on their own, and we don't bother each other."

[Oldmansour]

>"I imagine it is much like you think. We've got our castes, and our families. The wolf tengu do the heavier labor, the long-noses do the official and scholarly work, we crows sort of fill the gaps in between, while the dai-tengu plan and direct things. The yama-bushi tend toward more wizardly stuff, but they're kind of off on their own, and we don't bother each other."

>"And it's been that way for a long time now." Ranka says as she straightens up. "The myriad tengu races slotted neatly into their little jobs, their tasks, their relationships, your whole lives sorted, filed, stamped and locked."

[Hello Purvis]

>"It's always been that way. And I'm guessing you don't care much for it? You wouldn't be the first."

[Oldmansour]

>"It's always been that way. And I'm guessing you don't care much for it? You wouldn't be the first."

>"Always? Is that what the big-wings tell the rest of you?" Ranka shakes her head. "I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"Anyway, go on."

[Oldmansour]

>Nod.
>"Anyway, go on."

>"About which one?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"About the sorted lives thing, and how it's part of your main point."

[Oldmansour]

>"About the sorted lives thing, and how it's part of your main point."

>"Right, got a bit sidetracked, didn't I?" she says with a touch of a smile. That expression suits her well, but it fades as she returns to the point in question. "You're right, I'm no fan of that sort of life anyway, I probably don't need to tell you that. But for your people- No, for any people that's tied to the winds like we are, it's denying who you are. WHAT you are." Ranka tilts her head back slightly and a light breeze stirs around her, teasing her golden locks into motion. "The wind blows wherever it pleases. It, WE, are the embodiment of that freedom, tengu."
>"Or at least, you used to be." she says, the breeze dropping from around her. "You could be. But you're not. You're the most regimented people on the face of the planet. Even the humans of the outside world don't bury themselves in dogmatic traditions and castes and roles like your kind does. Well, not anymore, anyway. You're the people of the wind, but everything you do, everything you teach yourselves, is designed to curtail every iota of freedom you could have."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"I think much of what you said is true, but I'm not so sure that's the whole story... Are you?"

[Oldmansour]

>Nod.
>"I think much of what you said is true, but I'm not so sure that's the whole story... Are you?"

>Ranka cocks her head curiously, inviting you to clarify.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well, you say that the wind is free, right? Which is true, but that's only one aspect of it, isn't it?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Well, you say that the wind is free, right? Which is true, but that's only one aspect of it, isn't it?"

>"Go on?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well, think of a flute, right? If you blow into it in a specific way, you get a note. And it'll always work like that, the wind doesn't just decide to whichever way. And when you do it a lot, you make a song. And that's how we are."
>"Sorry, I've never really had to explain it like this before. It's not that we're stale or separate from it, but each of us is a bit of music working together to make a grand song. We just relate to it differently. I don't think yo're wrong about how you see it, but don't you think there's something to that, too? The wind is many things."

[Oldmansour]

>"Well, think of a flute, right? If you blow into it in a specific way, you get a note. And it'll always work like that, the wind doesn't just decide to whichever way. And when you do it a lot, you make a song. And that's how we are."
>"Sorry, I've never really had to explain it like this before. It's not that we're stale or separate from it, but each of us is a bit of music working together to make a grand song. We just relate to it differently. I don't think yo're wrong about how you see it, but don't you think there's something to that, too? The wind is many things."

>The wind youkai smiles. "This is already better than I was thinking. You may be a tengu, but at least you're willing to talk to someone instead of at them. I wasn't expecting that from a Crow."
>"The thing is, though, you ARE separate. Every one of your kind is. You've cut yourself off from everything that isn't tengu. Your entire species is like a cyclone in a bottle, never moving, never caring beyond anything that's outside that bottle, except when you need something." She points behind you, back towards the Keep gates. "Even Honoka touches the winds more than the tengu do, and she's a fire spirit." With a sultry little smirk, she adds, "And that's not just because she's been keeping me warm for all this time either." The smirk fades. "The life your people have, the beliefs you have, the rules, the structure, everything you are now. It's damaged you, spiritually. We're youkai, not human, we're as much spiritual as we are physical, and your species has warped its spirit."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I don't think I agree with that. I don't feel our spirits are damaged or anything like. Just that we've chosen to take a different way. I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong about how you want to do things, just that we do it in a different way. You've chosen to be free as the wind, right? And we've chosen to make music instead. And, we've turned inward because that's just our way. We don't need more than our mountain to be happy, because we want to rely on ourselves. We don't want to have to force ourselves onto others, and we don't want them to force ourselves onto them. We're happiest just having what's ours, and letting others have what's there's. I don't think that's spiritual damage, we've learned to take just what we need. We just approach things a bit differently, and I don't think that's wrong."
>"But, you are right that there's some who maybe take a little far. I think we can be friendly neighbors, at least, even if we don't want to be bothered very much."

[Oldmansour]

>"I don't think I agree with that. I don't feel our spirits are damaged or anything like. Just that we've chosen to take a different way. I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong about how you want to do things, just that we do it in a different way. You've chosen to be free as the wind, right? And we've chosen to make music instead. And, we've turned inward because that's just our way. We don't need more than our mountain to be happy, because we want to rely on ourselves. We don't want to have to force ourselves onto others, and we don't want them to force ourselves onto them. We're happiest just having what's ours, and letting others have what's there's. I don't think that's spiritual damage, we've learned to take just what we need. We just approach things a bit differently, and I don't think that's wrong."
>"But, you are right that there's some who maybe take a little far. I think we can be friendly neighbors, at least, even if we don't want to be bothered very much."

>The fair Ranka lets out a long breath, arching her head back. "That's my point, too. You're so set in your ways that you don't even see anything wrong with it." She looks back down, her eyes a storm of pity and contempt. "Your souls are scarred. And you've done it to yourselves, that's the real tragedy of it all." She smiles a joyless smile. "The tengu were more free and whole when they were ruled by the Oni."
>"I suppose it isn't fair to blame you for it, you're young. You're not even 100 yet, are you. You're a victim of your people's mistakes, and now you have to pay for it."

[Hello Purvis]

(Important question: Should I not be working off the assumption that the tengu were the first people to bring civilization to Japan, as the legends go?)

>"So, why is it bad? You've said we're not one with the wind, but it doesn't seem like we aren't. We just do so our own way, just like you have your way. Don't we both live in harmony with the world in our different ways?"

[Oldmansour]

(Important question: Should I not be working off the assumption that the tengu were the first people to bring civilization to Japan, as the legends go?)

>"So, why is it bad? You've said we're not one with the wind, but it doesn't seem like we aren't. We just do so our own way, just like you have your way. Don't we both live in harmony with the world in our different ways?"

I had no idea such a legend existed. My knowledge of traditional Japanese mythology isn't as profound as I'd like it to be.

>Ranka shakes her head. "Your people don't really live with the world. You've locked it outside. You said it yourself, you're happy leaving the rest of the world alone, and vice versa. Now, I'm not so arrogant as to claim that I'm the most shining example of a being in tune with the wind, but I do know that the beliefs the tengu have crammed themselves into is a contradiction to what they are in spirit. You've become an aberration in the scheme of the world."

[O4rfish]

She sounds almost like how Honoka said Kanako sounded like, except Ranka isn't suggesting that we change.

[Hello Purvis]

>"That's not really elaborating on what the problem is, though. It just sort of sounds like you're saying we're bad because we don't do what you do, but not why. You're saying we're severed and stale and stuff, but you haven't really said why, just that we're different.  I mean, I've told you a bit about how we see things, and why it's valid too. So why is it wrong? I mean, I'm not telling you that you have to do things our way or that your way is wrong, just that both ways are fine. You know what I mean?"
>As a tengu who lives in a high elevation and probably has dealt with a weather forecast or two, are we aware of concepts like the prevailing global wind currents (like the Jetsteam over North America and so on, though not that specific example?)

[Oldmansour]

>As a tengu who lives in a high elevation and probably has dealt with a weather forecast or two, are we aware of concepts like the prevailing global wind currents (like the Jetsteam over North America and so on, though not that specific example?)

>Peripherally, at least as it comes to the wind currents of Gensokyo.

>"That's not really elaborating on what the problem is, though. It just sort of sounds like you're saying we're bad because we don't do what you do, but not why. You're saying we're severed and stale and stuff, but you haven't really said why, just that we're different.  I mean, I've told you a bit about how we see things, and why it's valid too. So why is it wrong? I mean, I'm not telling you that you have to do things our way or that your way is wrong, just that both ways are fine. You know what I mean?"

>Ranka's face falls. "You're not..." She trails off, heaving a big sigh. "Maybe you just can't understand. It'd be easier if I could show you, show you the world how I see it, how your people used to, but I can't. You're too different from me now, too insular. Your essence is drawn almost totally inward, I can't touch it."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"If I may, should I presume you've had some fairly sour run-ins with my people in the past?"

[Oldmansour]

>Nod.
>"If I may, should I presume you've had some fairly sour run-ins with my people in the past?"

>"Recent past, more like. I breeze by that little corner of the world you've shut yourselves in every now and then. Keep hoping things'll change, that you'll change." Ranka shakes her head. "Hasn't happened yet."

[Branneg Xy]

This is a scoop!An unpolished one,yet a scoop nonetheless.Not to mention the change for Hatate to shed more of her inexperienced shell.

> Flash of journalistic insight."Yes,that's it. Would you like to dig in deeper on the line that goes  :"The tengu were more free and whole when they were ruled by the Oni?" My vision of how things worked out more freely, like following the wind, in the old Tengu Society could surely be broadened. And I will be spreading such knowledge with... ".
>Reach out in your pocket for your "notephone" and hold it out triumphantly to Ranka."...This!"
>Settle down. "I admit that it will not be easily welcomed as this calls out on substantial change, yet it still need to be published  on my Kakashi Spirit News for the same reason. That's the name of my paper by the way.Passing you agree to release the interview, of course."

[Hello Purvis]

Let's be a little less spastic at the moment.

>Don't say that.
>"Were you trying to get past the patrols?"
>Could we get her past the patrols?

[Oldmansour]

> Flash of journalistic insight."Yes,that's it. Would you like to dig in deeper on the line that goes  :"The tengu were more free and whole when they were ruled by the Oni?" My vision of how things worked out more freely, like following the wind, in the old Tengu Society could surely be broadened. And I will be spreading such knowledge with... ".
>Reach out in your pocket for your "notephone" and hold it out triumphantly to Ranka."...This!"
>Settle down. "I admit that it will not be easily welcomed as this calls out on substantial change, yet it still need to be published  on my Kakashi Spirit News for the same reason. That's the name of my paper by the way.Passing you agree to release the interview, of course."

>Don't say that.
>Could we get her past the patrols?

>The wind spirit makes an interesting story, if you can believe her. But you curtail your enthusiasm for the moment.

>It is theoretically possible. You are a crow tengu, after all, and that comes with some influence. You do have the authority to admit a non tengu based on your caste, though doing so entails numerous risks. By and large, admitting non-tengu is far, far more trouble than it's worth, unless the circumstances are exceptional. Ranka may be hot, but her opinions would not be well received by many others of your kind.

>"Were you trying to get past the patrols?"

>"First time I went that way, yeah. But I had to see what I was sensing with my own eyes, so, I just went around 'em." With a naughty little smirk, the wind spirit adds, "That's always fun."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Oh my. Don't let the Yama-bushi catch you."
>And we'll totally be snitching that to Momiji.
>"Anyways...I'm kinda interested in what you're saying, but, you're not really making a great case, you know? It's more like a we just have different views than anything solid, you know what I mean? And it seems like you're kind of downplaying things we do because it's different than what you do."

[Oldmansour]

>"Oh my. Don't let the Yama-bushi catch you."
>And we'll totally be snitching that to Momiji.
>"Anyways...I'm kinda interested in what you're saying, but, you're not really making a great case, you know? It's more like a we just have different views than anything solid, you know what I mean? And it seems like you're kind of downplaying things we do because it's different than what you do."

>"Ah, but getting caught's part of the fun sometimes."
>You make a mental note.
>Ranka nods. "Yeah, that's about what I expected from a tengu." She shrugs and smiles slightly. "I tried. Still, it was sort of fun. I really didn't think one of your people would listen to someone like me for as long as you did."