The only remaining 'traditional' Ryokan of the four once standing in Takumi.
The Welcoming Hall:
Constructed as a hall with sliding doors, wherein a guest may remove their shoes, another sliding door opens into a large entrance hall. This entrance hall, floored in Tatami mats, is dotted with cushions and the occasional couch or chair, upon which several guests seem to be bound in enthusiastic discussion. Though no live player resides currently, there is a soft lull of music coming from a small box upon the receptionist's desk. The music is, albeit, somewhat tinny alluding to the belief that the music is played by a traditional music box, instead of a radio or somesuch device.
During the day, the owner may be seen wandering this entrance hall with the guests and gladly partaking of discussions with them. She is a middle aged woman, often only known as "Sen" though she admits that this name is not true, and will tell those who inquire that there is a betting pool hosted at the Silver Forge about what her true name is, and that she was, in fact, comfortable with sharing her name, but the betting pool always drives customers her way.
During breakfast and dinner hours a bell chimes within the building, calling people to the Welcoming hall. traditional tables are brought from the storage room and aligned to provide enough room to feed all guests, as well as those who stagger in from the streets or using the Onsen. A large communal meal is served, and excess from this meal is often left out for the homeless of the village to entertain, following the separation of the paying crowd.
To this day there has not yet been a night where Sen did not make sure enough food was presented to feed the homeless afterwards.
The Onsen:
Beyond the Welcoming Hall are two doorways, which are marked with simple signs, designating men and women. These doorways enter into the separate washing and dressing chambers for men and women. A sign hangs in each washing room that reads, in multiple languages: "As in any social gathering, to be filthy upon entering the Onsen (bath) is socially unacceptable. This station is provided that we may all be equals in the bath." Exiting from the washing room brings you to a large open courtyard with a natural spring at its center. During most hours of the day, at least three to four people can be found bathing in the mixed bath. Further back, behind a curtain of bamboo, resides separated baths for men and women who wish to be more, modest.
The Guest Rooms:
Upon entering the room there sits a table in the middle. Cushions are placed around this table, and upon first entrance supplies for making tea may be found. Each night, Nakai, enter the room and set the table aside in the furthest corner. Bedding is then laid out, a simple futon with cover, a soft and low pillow, and a small, empty, cup is laid beside the pillow.
Beyond this, the rooms are small, comfortable affairs. With enough room to accommodate up to four people, shelves and a curio remain within each room. A place to store supplies for travelers until the next day.
Outside of each room is a porch, albeit interconnected to the others through connecting railings, a Fuda with the fuuin for a Barrier Seal has been placed over each porch, to keep them separated for travelers' safety.
Arriving at her room, Asami would thank the kind assistant, giving a bow to him as they parted ways. The assistant would give her her possessions back before parting. Once she found herself in her room, Asami would lay her items on the ground in front of the door, and reach back to touch the door. Then, exploring the area for the first time, she would find herself feeling along the wall of the room, using her things and the door as a starting and ending point. She felt all around the room, then once she finished a couple rotations, she would then use what she learned to paint a mental image of the walls in her mind. She would then feel around on the floor, adding a depth to the two dimensional image she had from just the walls. With time and effort, the room became clearer and clearer, until she had surveyed the whole room with her hands, making a note of everything in the room, item by item.
Tired from her ordeal, she would put her possessions in a safe place, then get out her violin, sitting down on the futon in the center of the room and tuning her instrument. Starting out with a few plucks of the strings, she would use her voice to add a second instrument to the mix. Everyone around her room would get a show that started off slow, but opened up into a beautiful tune.
Returning to the Ryokan after some time, Wulfram looked around and found the attendant he had left Madame Asami with sometime earlier. Pulling his coat of plates off of the saddlebags on Cervantes' back he turned to his partner and nodded, not leashing him to the post, but letting him wander and graze a bit while the man went in to check on his little friend.
Being taken to the door where Asami had been lead, the man held out a hand to Wulfram as if expecting a tip. A custom that Wulfram was all to well knowing of, and one he often looked down upon when such a menial task was performed. Tilting his head, he looked at the man's hand, then knocked on the door. Listening to the lilting music coming through, he smirked. Asami had mentioned a love of music on the ship, and he was sure he had heard her playing this tune before.
"Madame Asami, it is I, Sir Wulfram. I came to see if you were doing well." The man called out as he awaited response, then shooing the assistant off.
"Were you to serve me food, bring me water or wine, or find me a proper woman to accompany me for a night, I migh' tip you. But you work and live in this facility, I daresay you get paid a fair bit more than the others by the looks of yeh. You need no handouts to make it good, unlike the waitresses at the food bars around the village, so begone, kindly." He remarked beneath his breath at the man who huffed off angrily.
As Asami finished her tune, she heard a familiar voice at the door. removing the bow from the violin, she put her hand on the strings to stop their vibrations, as a quiet the room had not known for a bit started again. Standing up, she would walk to the door without her cane, the memory of the room setup allowing her to walk more freely. Asami opened the door. "The door is unlocked, Wulfram. Do come in and rest, I'm sure you are weary from your work." Asami let the door close behind her. Whether Wulfram would let it shut in his face or open it for himself was his choice, but Asami was granting him permission to enter. "I was just getting warmed up to practice my song, would you care to listen?" The girl would then walk over to her things, and grab a wooden box, with two rope straps attached to make it backpack-shaped. Opening it up, she would run her fingers along the top of the box's contents, then pull out a wooden slab. This slab had small circular depressions engraved in it, a seemingly random pattern. Asami would place the box by the futon, then sit back down upon her bedding. Laying the slab on the floor, she would slide her fingers along the engravings in the wood, and prepare her instrument. [1/2]
Starting out Asami would sing a long, nearly silent note, followed by another long quiet note, more of a small amount of background music than anything else. As she played, a white light would appear behind Asami. If Wulfram were to enter, he would see an angel summoned behind the girl, its wings wrapping around her. [2/2 Song: Echo of an Angel]
>>>Who I'm Interacting With<<<
Wolfe Whitehorn
The box is fairly large, a tad larger than your normal backpack. It is made of wood.
"Yes, Madame Asami, I would be more than delighted to listen to your practicing. I have always been a fan of the musical arts, regardless." Wulfram would say as he entered the room when the woman first began to walk away, shutting it softly behind himself while wondering just how long the worker would stand at the door with his mouth agape.
"I would say, also, that I have a place wherein you may reside. Though, having toured it and not having had a chance to refurnish it, I must say your current rooming is much. Well, larger and better prepared." He said as he watched her begin to set up the instrument
Then as the girl began to sing, her voice nearly silent at first, he would see the Angelic being as it appeared to her and wrapped its wings around her. His eyes widened softly at the first vision of it, but then he shook his head as he remembered some of the things he had seen in these lands and upon the boat they traveled upon to arrive here.
"Grand Sorcery, I didn't believe you to be a sorceress as well, Madame." He said as his eyes transfixed on the angelic being.
The religious implications aside, the man was more interested in just what the angelic being was doing to his friend within it's wings.
After all his travels, Shikageru had found an inn here, maybe he’d be able to get a half-decent bed to sleep in for the first time in a while and perhaps a good meal as well. Walking in, the young man asked the attendant about a room. He was given a key and shown up to one, hearing some soft music from another as he passed a few doors. Entering the room, he thanked the person who walked with him, though he had no luggage with him, and entered the sitting room to rest. A while later when he heard a bell for meal time, the man would stand and walk back down to where he had been told the meals were served, waiting to see what there was to eat.
As the angel unfurled its wings, feathers would fly everywhere like a rain of cherry blossoms. Their incandescent light shimmered around the room as Asami would feel the wooden slab for another technique. "It is no sorcery, merely the reflections of my soul. Music speaks to people, a form of communication that even the blind can succeed with." The angel would then start singing a hymn of long notes, a melody soothing to the ears. With a small spin, the angel would create afterimages in its place, a gentle grace about it. [1/1 Heart-Breaking Departure]
Asami would then place her instrument on the ground gently, and pull her knees to her chest as the angel faded. "I wonder, what kind of music defines your soul?" Her eyes pointed straight forwards, silence grew over the room. Asami would stay silent for a moment, deep in thought, before changing the subject."So you were gone for a while, and you say you've found a place to stay, but have you gotten any good jobs?"
Amber eyes watched the girl as she continued to play her songs and the angel began to move, recreations of itself appearing around the girl as he stared on, then listened to her words and council quietly. The belief that music was a form of communication, and that it was greatly used to the affect that blind people could even succeed in it.
His mind came awash with thoughts of others who would not share the same luck as her in finding music as a comfort. He remembered bards from his homeland who had the tendons of their hands cut and their tongues removed for speaking against popular opinions or against the ruling government. He thought of those who were removed entirely of their hands and their tongues branded or cast in silver. But the horrors a man knew were not yet this girl's worries.
"Perhaps you are right." He whispered as his thoughts remained barred within his skull.
Then she questioned what kind of music would define his soul. The bell tolled for dinner and all guests to attend, yet a silence rang in the air between them. The man stopped and began to sing a song from the lands he called home, in response.
"Fading mind, I can feel it, I can feel it, On my skin Appears the dark sign.
I am bleeding, I am bleeding. Empty void of soul, I'm hollow, I'm hollow.
Fear the dark sign. Eternal life, Decay of flesh, Decay of mind. Now everything fades With this wicked fate. Sister now lost without a trace, Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?
A once loyal heart, I have fallen, From Grace. It shames me now, But I'd betray you, I'd draw my sword for this. I'm hollow. I'm hollow.
Fear the dark sign. Eternal life, Decay of flesh, decay of mind. Now everything fades With this wicked fate. Sister now lost without a trace, Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?
Remember my name, For I'm gone. Sister I've failed you, Let my strength live on in you now.
Here's my sword, Here's my shame.....
I beg of you....
Remember my name"
Singing the song to a well metered tune, Wulfram would have his hand upon the doorframe to the girl's room, pushing it open as he thought of his failure as a man and as a knight, to protect his sister and save her the horrors of their childhood. The bell tolled again.
"Some work, I have found. Yes. Gainful, and allowing me to place some focus on what I will do towards my own shop, now that I have ownership of one. Come, before old memories consume and the food grows cold." He finished as he waited for her to gather her belongings and come along with him or to decide to remain.
Asami listened carefully to the lyrics of the man's song, a sad poem put to sadder notes. She closed her eyes, and buried her mouth behind her knees before he finished the song. A bell tolling for dinner both before and after his song. "Yes, let us go to supper. Perhaps I could practice some as well." Asami would then pack the wooden slab back into the box, pick up her instrument and her cane, and meet wolfe at the door. "Would you like to help me to the area for dinner? I know not of where it is yet." Asami would lean her free hand on the door frame, her violin and its bow in her other hand and the cane lying over her arm.
"But of course, Madame Asami." The man would respond with a soft lilt to his voice as he took her arm in his and guided her towards the main hall, wherein tables had been arranged and food brought for the current guests. Helping Asami to a table across from a young man who was dressed in darker clothing resided.
"This should be well, it's away enough from the main crowd and in front of some recognizable foods." He said as he helped Asami to find a seat, then spoke to the young man.
"Good evening, good Ser. I am Wulfram, and this fine young woman is Madame Asami. We are glad to make your acquaintance."
After having grabbed himself some food and taken a seat, Shikageru was approached and joined at the table by a couple other people, a rather large man and a small girl. The man introduced the two of them as Wulfram and Asami, as Shikageru pushed the hood of his cloak back, nodding to the big man, “Nice to meet you, sir, miss, my name’s Shikageru.. you can call me Shika if you’d like.”
Asami would be escorted to the dining hall, as she tried to memorize the way to it from her room. She needed to know basic things, like distance, direction, any turns they had to make. Helped to her seat, Asami would place her violin under her seat, and the bow and cane along with it. She would stare straight ahead as she ran her fingers along the table in front of her looking for her plate and dining utensils. "Thank you Wulfram." Asami would say, finding everything in front of her, then moving to what's on her plate. She ran her fingertips across the food, and then sniffed it to get a good guess of what it was. "Hmmm......glazed fish on top of some rice, smells appetizing." Cleaning her fingers, she would take some chopsticks and start eating her food. As Wulfram would introduce them to a man across the table from them, Asami would finish what was in her mouth, putting her sleeve up to her lips. "Ah, pardon for being unladylike, Shika-san. It is the only way I know to eat."
"Such is the least a Knight as myself could do, Madame Asami." Wulfram spoke as he sat and began to look through the foods before them, then looking up to Shika as he spoke, shaking his head gently.
"After this meal I'll most likely be returning to my storefront. I need to get the training dummies and rooms cleaned out so I can start hosting guests soon. Doubt it'll ever get the kind of frequency this place has, but it gives swordsmen like me an actual place to train and some drink that's not, well, dainty." He said with a chuckle as he lifted a small sake cup and tilted his head at it.
"I got no one else to really invite, but, the two of yeh are more t'an welcome to come visit and stay the night if'n you can't afford to stay here too long. I mean, help me get stuff situated and yeh can have yer own rooms." He said with a wide grin as he set the Sake down and grabbed a carafe of water to drink from.
[Those I'm Interacting With]
GalagaHero
Valbjorn
[Techniques Utilized:]
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:01 am
T H I S- -W O R L D- -I S- -M I N E .
--- Shina and Ryuu stopped across the street from a building that was well lit, and bustling with activity on the inside. From her view, she could see a few silhouettes of individuals sitting around and chatting. The source of the scent was definitely coming from this place, but there was no telling where, or how she was supposed to obtain said food. She waited for a little while, watching as people would occasionally enter and exit the building. The sliding doors were wide open, as if inviting anyone to walk inside, and it was definitely tempting for Shina. Pulling down on the cap she wore, it began to cover the top of her face even more so than it already had. She motioned for Ryuu to stay, and the female casually walked across the street over to the building with her hands stuff in her jacket pockets. Upon entering through the open doors, she got a couple of glances from the individuals sitting inside, but nothing more, as they continued on with their conversations. Shina scanned the area before spotting a lone table littered with food. Looks free... She shrugged, walking towards the table. Grabbing a plate, she began putting whatever she could get her hands onto it, until there was literally a pile of food present within her hands. She noticed the empty tables sat out further beyond the one covered in food--most likely for dining at--but crowds weren't exactly her thing at this moment. Not to mention, the hungry beast awaiting news outside, and the fact her hygiene currently wasn't up to standards. Sure, Shina and Ryuu didn't mind. They were going to eat even if they had to sit next to a rotting dumpster.
With a turn on the balls of her heels, Shina headed straight back to the doors and exited. She claimed a spot near the windows where she could still hear the music playing from within, which was very soothing. Her eyes bore holes into the plate of food in her hands, and she almost dove right in, until a familiar whine in the distance brought her back to her senses. The large head of a Tosa Inu was peering out of the brush. Shina snickered, whistling for him to come join her. Ryuu wasted no time, bolting across the street and returning to Shina's side, sitting beside her, and looking at the food with a similar primal glare she had only just moments ago. She handed him a large piece of fish; setting a couple more bits of food on the ground in front of him. She finally dug in herself, consuming her food with very little awareness of her etiquette or restraint. Moans of delight, followed by the obnoxious sounds of devouring (their) food continued for only a short time before the two were completely finished. Including the 'special cleaning' of the plate and Shina's face by Ryuu. With their bellies full and satisfied, they huddled together beneath the window, continuing to listening to the music as fatigue quickly set in. Before she knew it, she was snuggled into Ryuu's body fast asleep, and even Ryuu himself succumbed to his weariness.
♚║ MISSION / TASK DATA •
♚║ TECHNIQUES USED / ACTIVE • • •
♚║ PASSIVE ABILITIES • [ Weapon Specialist Discipline ] Bukijutsu techniques cut through defensive Bukijutsu techniques of the same rank.
Quote:
Quote:
♚║ Chakra - 275/275---♚║ Stamina - 275/275---♚║ Bukijutsu/Tamer Class ♚║ AC - 0 ---♚║ Ryo - 0 ---♚║ D-Rank ---♚║ Sasagi City Thug
Asami listened to the music box from the lobby while she ate, noting the beat and the notes that were being played. Upon finishing her food, she would slide her seat back, picking up her violin and making sure it's tuned again, before taking up her bow and readying herself to play. Upon a good place to start in the music box's song, she would begin playing along, increasing the volume of the song playing, and adding an emotional touch to it. A song of happiness, a song of sadness, a song of the soul.
