video

[lumberlady]

[Good morning, Lunatia. The video starts with a view of hooves, a too close view of a face... and then finally... a centaur? Who keeps looking off screen while she talks and never seems to actually focus on the lens correctly.]

Hello? Can everyone see me? Connor, am I doing this right? Okay? ... Okay.

[She clears her throat and dips into a bow, the camera bobbing along with her.]

Hello! This is Konoha... some of you maybe think my name is Shizu, but- It's Konoha! I'm from Echigo province, in Japan, if you know it... and I'll be in your care.

If you don't know me, which, I figure is most of you, this city must be even bigger than the capital I'm the... well in my world we say jinba but I'm the "centaur". I haven't seen anyone else like me so I think I can say "the"...

Anyway... what I wanted to ask was... if anyone had an recommendations for... shops? I've never really shopped before, and I haven't seen any locals quite like me, so if you know somewhere that does... I don't know, tailoring? Or a restaurant with really big seats or tall tables? Anything like that!

I'd appreciate it, so... thank you very much!

[Another bow, another bob of the camera... and a blurry flash of android helping her turn the dang thing off. Thanks, Connor.]

Comments

[fashionicon]

[ Sesshomaru pauses to think on that question. Not to me. Not to Rin. Not to whomever she marries. Not to Jaken. Not to Kohaku. There will be many that child will be loved and adored by, but -- ]

To some, yes, they will be an affront.

[ There is little reason to deny it. Even Father with his glory and majesty could not prevent Inuyasha from being hated. ]

Even with my power and strength, there will be fools that will hate them. I will kill them until the only ones left that have hate in their hearts... will fear it.

[ That is all that he can do. That child will be safe because the price of doing anything to them will be death. He wonders if Rin will approve of his methods. If she loves her child, she might approve of it? Perhaps? He lets out a single hum as he finally begins to place some food on his plate -- it isn't as much as what Konoha has, of course. He only has the one stomach.

It's less than half of the half left to him. ]

The most we can do in the times we live in is to let those that we love not face hardships. If it means we must kill for it, that is what it means, is that not right?

[lumberlady]

[Konoha would like to think that their worlds must be very different, that he could always go straight to such an answer- that killing would be the way to his goals, even if those goals might be kind. But a part of her knows... that's not why. Sometimes talking with Sesshomaru made her head hurt with the effort she had to put into thinking... but in the meantime, she just keeps shoveling dim sum into her mouth, chewing steadily.

Maybe it would be impossible after all to get him to change his mind... But he'd been so generous with her. Even protective. And if that was real-

This time it's Konoha's gaze that casts down, brows furrowed as she considers the question turned back on her. If her parents, if her child required it...]

I guess... I would try, if I had to. To defend them.

[But the admission... doesn't make her feel very good.]

[fashionicon]

[ Sesshomaru flinches inwardly at seeing her expression fall, at hearing her voice lose some of its brightness. Something that he is saying is upsetting to her. He keeps his face steady as he pauses to eat one dumpling. It gives him a second to think on why she seems so sad.

Because she would like to believe in a better world... a world that does not need to kill in order to allow for other lives to exist? He cannot create such a kind world without violently and absolutely stomping out the old. His father would probably consider such an action to be tyrannical and evil. His father would want to believe in humans and youkai to be able to live in peace with each other one day. ]

There's no reason for you to do anything. [ He finally says. ] The world that you are wanting ... a kinder one... may be possible. [ If she were Rin, Sesshomaru may have told her to simply not think or talk about topics that make her sad. It would be an order and Rin being young would listen. It would be his way of saying that he would handle all things, and she need not concern herself with anything that troubles her mind.

Konoha, however, is older and so requires some more discussion. He breathes in deep before popping dim sum into his mouth and grumbling inwardly. His gaze shifts to look around -- there are few patrons and they are far enough away that he can speak a little kinder, a little softer.

And also, it isn't just about the world, hm? But about Inuyasha and this Sesshomaru. ]

I cannot create a kind world for Inuyasha. I can only protect him the way that I know how. He needs to find his own place and find what he truly wants for himself first. [ He almost clicks his tongue but resists. ]

He is someone that my father chose, and he is someone that my father believed in. That is why this Sesshomaru believes he is capable. [ Huff. ] At the moment, however, he is foolish and stubborn and short-sighted. He cannot find anything for himself and does not even know what might make him feel like he has a right to exist.

[ His head shakes. ] And I cannot tell him what they are. He has to seek his own and want it enough to keep it. [ A beat. ] And the same would be true for my grandchild. I can only do what I can and cannot tell them anything more.

[ He can only tell them that they are loved and protected; he can only tell them that he will kill those that will wish to harm them. He can only make a place in the world that is at his side, but they have to find their own, too.

Reaching out, he picks up his cup of tea to drink deep. He is not someone that talks overtly much and so suddenly saying so much -- it makes him thirsty. ]

[lumberlady]

[She's thinking of how Gonta had saved her, that time in the mountains when the wolves had been seconds from ripping her apart far worse than the single bite scar visible on her forearm. How he'd been ready to kill, beast or human, if that meant protecting the people in his care... Thought about her own parents, and wondered, for a moment, if they would have killed to protect her... instead of died.

Wished, even though it was naive, even though she knew it was... that there might come a time when no one had to kill anyone at all. That a kinder world may be possible.

When the words register as Sesshomaru's, not her own internal thoughts, Konoha raises her head from staring a bit wet-eyed at her plate, looking over at him expectantly in the silence that follows, waiting for the rest with baited breath.

... So he loved him after all. In a weird way she doesn't quite understand, couldn't, and the way he talked about his daughter, and her future...

She knows he wouldn't appreciate if she gave in to her current urges, so she stretches out her chocolate brown forelegs, bumping her fetlocks against his hand in a subtle bid for attention and well as a push of affection as her own clutch her dim sum plate to prevent herself from trying to hug him.]

... Thank you.

[For saying so. For speaking so honestly of his world, of his situation and the people he knows. For speaking from the heart. Sincere as she was herself... she liked to think she could see the same in others. If strong people like him thought a better world was possible, even secretly, even bregudgingly... Maybe it would eventually be true.

And maybe she wouldn't weep a little into her meal.]

[fashionicon]

[ Being nudged by her fetlock, he pauses -- the cup of tea resting lightly on his bottom lip as he finishes taking his drink. The cup is set down gently, carefully, before his other hand turns to lightly hold her pastern. He lets his free hand rest on top as he lightly pats as he did her hand.

Sesshomaru does not tell her that she's welcome. Of course, he wouldn't. His head only dips just slightly when he sees that she's crying -- inwardly, it makes him upset. The tears, he understands, are happy ones but it is not something that he likes to see. Why are you crying if you're happy? Stop it. He closes those words up in his throat and doesn't say them.

Instead, he moves on. ]

Inuyasha comes from another time than me. In the time that I am in, our differences aren't so ... vast. [ A nice way of putting it. ] That is why I cannot go easy on him. If he is coddled too much, he will not be able to acquire the strength he needs.

[ That is how he thinks. He spoils and overly protects that which is his, but Inuyasha is different. He is to be their father's heir and cannot lean on him too much. If he does, what is the point of their father in naming him as his successor?! ]

Do not bring this matter up to him. [ Because Konoha is probably going to see the two brothers going after each other like they're going to the races. His eyes close for a second; Shen Qingqiu said he should not be doing as he is, but he does not completely agree. The future is at stake and too many divergents could cause massive complications.

He has to remain as he was in the past. However, he is starting to grow actually resentful toward Inuyasha in hearing him constantly dismissing their father's legacy and favor towards him. Hmph. Opening his eyes, he beings to eat with one hand.

And hearing all this will probably get her to stop crying... ]

[lumberlady]

[Other times is a concept she'd been introduced to fairly early on in her journey to other worlds beyond her own that she'd never asked to go on. It was still hard to fully comprehend, only hearing about it from others without experiencing it herself, but... She can nod, stuffing a dumpling in her mouth to try and stop her emotional reaction with delicious food. (At least she knows her own propensity for such reactions well.)

Thankfully, this means her mouth is full and she can't ask why they can't just talk things out. Or explain the time difference to him. Or any of the other reasons she can innocently come up with that don't involve "not coddling" which, from him, sounds a bit too much like "violence"?

More dumplings.]

... Okay.

[Thankfully for Sesshomaru, Konoha has grown used to keeping secrets in this place. Secrets from Connor, secrets from Arenvald... trying to interact with both of them and not sweat with the effort to keep from spilling the beans... At least she's never met this Inuyasha person. It makes it easier to agree not to tell him something.

Made even easier by the gentle pat of clawed hand on her forelegs.]