[Morning 12 - Crow's Nest] Captive Audience

[Amaya]

I flaming hate this assignment. I don't like heights. My vision isn't that good. Tied to this damned pole, it's not like I can maneuver. Lovely kettle of fish, but at least it has me out of that cotton picking fog and into the nice, lovely chill hundreds of feet away from water that stinks like rotten fish. Where the hell are we anyway?

She squinted forward, maintaining her post with a sort of grim resolve as she muttered dark things about the weather. This wasn't natural, and she didn't like unnatural things one bit. It had yet to occur to her 'why' things had taken this tone.

[Shiba Nozomi]

A possible answer supplied itself.

Nozomi had wondered how to avoid most of the crew during the odd bit of weather, and the Crow's Nest was the best spot she could come up with. Her new uniform would make her practically invisible against the fog, and would put her and her... unusualness out of the minds of the ashigaru for a while. Overall, it was a good idea.

She just hadn't counted on there already being somebody there. Peeking up over the edge of the platform, Nozomi's heart falls.

No point in climbing all the way down now that I'm already up here...

Announcing herself, she calls out, "Ohaiyo, Amaya."

[Amaya]

There was a faint start as she realized that she wasn't alone up on the nest. Her head glanced backwards at the other woman out of the corner of her eye and she gave a bob of her head initially in reply. "Shiba-sama," she said in that throaty way of hers. Her head turned back to face in the direction of the fog while she debated exactly how to address the woman. Chewing her lip for a moment, she considered whether or not the woman wanted to be treated the same way that the Ichiro had.

"I trust the morning has found you well enough...," she said after a second, figuring that was sufficiently safe for the moment.

[Shiba Nozomi]

"A l-little damp, b-but I'm on the ocean, s-so it's not exactly surp-p-prising." Nozomi pulls herself the rest of the way up. "H-have you had y-your rice t-today?"

[Amaya]

"Ate well enough this morning. Never good t'go on watch with an empty stomach. Makes ya think bout other things," she said, coughing once. "It is a damp one, isn't it? Wouldn't have expected the cold this far south. Not sure what's up with the weather round here."

[Shiba Nozomi]

As traditional as the greeting was, Nozomi wasn't quite used to having it answered so... literally.

"Ano...I'm n-not sure. It's not a s-st-torm, as such... j-just... oddly di-different."

[Amaya]

"Yep. And when there's somethin I don't expect, I get nervous. Things comin out of the blue are always risky on a boat," she said in reply, frowning a little. Kami bedamned... might as well talk with this one. That was what she wanted, wasn't it? Suck it up, Amaya. "And you? You doing alright this mornin, other than the damp of course."

[Shiba Nozomi]

The Shiba shifts in her seat a little. "I... I'm ok. J-just trying to s-stay out of the w-way. Figured I-I'd be more u-use up here r-right now. N-n-not that there's m-much to s-see with the fog, b-but still doesn't hu-hurt to have a l-lookout."

[Amaya]

"Normally, th'angle you're looking from isn't too helpful, but today I think look all directions is a good call," she said, her rough voice sounding like it was in agreement on that. "Th'fog's already startin to lift so I wouldn't worry too much about not seeing folks. But, beggin your pardon miss, how's a healer gettin under foot 'round here? There's always use for you folks one way or another."

[Shiba Nozomi]

"Th-there's plenty of healers o-on board. And the o-others are l-less... w-well, they're m-more... I m-mean..." She sighs a little and finally spits it out."Th-they make the a-as-ashigaru less nervous."

She didn't sound quite as morose about it as the statement might make it seem, more resigned to the fact that it was true. It happened every time she went aboard a new boat. Every one of those not samurai seemed to get the willies around her. And even some of the samurai.

[Amaya]

She frowned, grateful that they would have to be seated basically opposite each other and that it would be difficult to see the way that her scars puckered. The woman's distress was a concern. Nobody wanted to offend a samurai, as that was a good way to get your head chopped off. It went doubly so with shugenja, as they might reincarnate you as a newt and cook you in a stewpot with the babies that they chopped up for desert. Having one sounding as nervous as a church mouse, openly speaking about how the peasants were nervous around her, moreso than the average shugenja, was...

Well, there was a first time for everything, and Amaya wondered if she'd ever have this conversation again. Hell, did she want this conversation in the first place?

She coughed after almost a full minute of silence, provided the girl didn't sound like she was shuffling towards the ropes and made a sound like gravel being sifted through a mesh with careful shakes before she finally spoke. "Is Shiba-sama... wishing me to ... express something related to this issue, and would she prefer I be ... up front?" she said in that throaty, uncomfortable way, her tone dropping slightly.

[Shiba Nozomi]

Nozomi looks at her. "I kn-know why th-they are, and I'm not ex-exactly surprised. The l-la-last crew I was with, the a-ashigaru called m-me Sea Witch when I w-wasn't around until they g-got to know m-me. But p-please... go ahead..."

It probably wasn't going to be something she'd never heard before, but knowing for sure was better than leaving it up to her slightly active imagination.

[Amaya]

"Begging yer pardon, but it don't matter none that you're different. That don't help, but 'cept for the Isawa w'the muscles you've got a strike against ya with a lot'f folks. Ya look like a priest, priest r not, and priests make peasants nervous. We don't know how t'talk to the kami, and when they answer priests... things happen. Makes folks what don't understand that sort of thing nervous, ya understand? Th'Isawa, they know'm. He's been here for a long time, and they've had time t'know what he's like, but any other priest... ya ever heard the tales folks tell 'bout the wanderin priests? Heard this one bout a guy they called Naka... cursed a whole castle long time ago," she said, shuddering a bit. "Priests... it's hard fer us t'get past that, and anythin what makes ya look like a priest'll make 'em nervous. Hell, I don't even know if ya are one. I just kinda assume all ya red n orange folks are. Seems that way some days."

[Shiba Nozomi]

"I am. B-but I don't curse a-anything. I'm Shiba... w-we're protectors. S-so that's what I d-do, as best I c-can. Doesn't m-matter who y-you are. But it takes a while t-to see that, I know. I'd ra-rather not cause t-trouble..."

[Amaya]

"-sama isn't causin trouble. There's th'other part of this. Ya..., don't know quite how t'say this, but samurai don't talk t'folks like me, less it's orders," she said, shaking her head. "Ya say you're a protector, right? Well... I'm a spade, or a fishin net. Now, when I hold a fishin net in my hands, I toss it out into the water an I talk to it now'n again, but I don't really expect't to talk back. So... when I'm just a tool, I don't really expect folks t'talk to me like I'm a person. I'm only half one, after all, right?"

She paused and breathed in and out for a minute, looking off and over the fog with a frown again. "It's weird. I don't mind..., whatever ya folks see fit. You're the samurai, an I don't really get much call on what ya prefer, but ... I don't talk with samurai much. Don't even know where t'begin."

[Shiba Nozomi]

Nozomi frowns. "But a sp-spade or fishing n-net can't hope to f-find a better place in the k-kharmic cycle. Also, I d-don't expect a f-fishing net to t-t-talk back, because it's in-incapable of doing s-so. You aren't." Unless, possibly, if the spade or fishing net were some sort of nemurani... but that was a whole different discussion.

[Amaya]

"It is true. I can answer ya, but most'f the time nobody bothers t'do more'n ask the basics they need right then an order me bout. May I ask ya a question, Shiba-sama?" she said, turning her head and glancing towards the young woman, the angry and puffy thing under her eye visible as she did so, a curious but rough look to her face.

[Shiba Nozomi]

Nozomi simply nods, curious what the peasant might ask.

[Amaya]

"What is it that makes Shiba-sama curious about this fishing net?" she said in a wry sort of tone. "There's some folks what I've noticed prefer to talk with peasants now n again, but still... I'm never sure what it is ya want to know me for. We hit the shore, an folks wouldn't want us associatin that much after all. So... I'm wonderin why." She didn't sound upset as she asked it, just that same sort of rough monotone of hers.

[Shiba Nozomi]

"Shinsei w-was often mi-mistaken for a beggar, Am-Amaya. Who kn-knows what wisdom m-might lie in others?" Shifting in her seat a bit, Nozomi taps a finger against her bottom lip. It wasn't really her favorite way to think about it, but she got the impression that it might make more impact with the heimin than her other reason.

"A-also... it's best to kn-know your tools. Each o-one is different, and w-wor-works a little differently."