"I've hit my head on something and now I cant remember much about the world and I have to relearn the language like a child"
Eli Can Tell You Ninjas Don't Exist
(377 posts) (4 voices)-
He throws his arms in the air, and turns away. He appears to have given up trying to communicate with you.
--M. J. Young
Thu May 27 2010 10:03 pm # -
He turns, gives you a puzzled look, and waves a hand in a come-along way, but he does not try to answer you.
--M. J. Young
Sat May 29 2010 5:20 am # -
He leads you to a hut, larger than the one in which you last stayed but if possible more sparsely appointed. He indicates a mat on the floor where there is a blanket, and turns his attention to the stove.
--M. J. Young
Tue Jun 1 2010 6:37 am # -
He seems to be making some kind of tea. When he glances back and sees you still standing, he scowls and adopts something of a scolding voice as he points again at the pallet and blanket on the floor.
--M. J. Young
Wed Jun 2 2010 12:06 am # -
After a moment he turns toward you, holding what looks to be a piece of clean cloth soaked in hot water. He gives a look of exasperation, but comes over and begins running the fingers of his left hand through your hair, apparently examining your scalp and neck for something. He is holding the cloth in his right hand.
--M. J. Young
Wed Jun 2 2010 11:23 pm # -
He mutters something and checks your head again, this time feeling the contours and applying gentle pressure, as if looking to see what hurts.
--M. J. Young
Fri Jun 4 2010 1:11 am # -
The man stops searching your skull, and nods. He answers, "It is unfortunate. Sometimes you can recover; sometimes you can re-learn. Some never do."
He pauses a moment, and then returns to the stove and comes back with two bowls of tea.
"We will help you recover, if you are able. It may take many days."
--M. J. Young
Sat Jun 5 2010 3:09 am # -
"We will find things. Rest now. Drink tea; it is good for you."
He drinks his.
--M. J. Young
Tue Jun 8 2010 2:16 am # -
Your host is a bit confused about you. On the one hand, you have not regained any significant facility with the language--learned a few words here and there, picked up a bit better construction on some phrasings, but in the main you're not returning to native facility. On the other hand, there does not seem to be any impairment on your other faculties--your muscular strength and coordination are fine in both fine and gross motor skills, your vision and hearing seem normal, you appear to understand the reality around you fairly well.
Sometimes you understand what is being said to and around you, and sometimes you just can't follow what is being said.
--M. J. Young
Tue Jun 8 2010 11:27 pm # -
Magnus
MemberOver the next week I will help the old man with whatever he ask me to.
Whenever we eat or I feel that it is appropriate, I try to ask him about world history, religion,The Bushi, and the Ninja.If I have a large amount of free time, I try to find a clearing near the old mans house where I can practice my style. I'll continue to go there to practice during my free time
Wed Jun 9 2010 2:34 am # -
The old man seems to be some sort of herbalist, tending the sick who come to him from surrounding villages or dispensing medicines to those who come on their behalf.
What you can gather from your conversations includes that there is only one country without borders, all ruled by the Mikado, cared for by his Bushi, chief of whom is the Shogun and the other Daimyos, their Samurai, and the rest of the rank and file Bushi. The Mikado, of course, being son of the Goddess (Amaterasu Omikami), does not dirty his hands with mortal affairs, but entrusts his Shogun to care for these and lives within the care of the Kuge, of whom the Kanpaku is the chief below him.
The ninja do not exist. There is nothing to say about them. That, at least, is what he says, although he says it with a bit too much certitude.
--M. J. Young
Thu Jun 10 2010 1:40 am # -
After another week, you wake very early one morning to find the herbalist dressed in traveling clothes with a cloth bag on a stick, something like a hobo's pack. He says something to you which you do not understand at all, but points to the fireplace where the dishes and such are kept, and then heads out the door.
--M. J. Young
Thu Jun 10 2010 6:24 pm # -
You attempt to ask, and the babble that comes pouring out of your mouth is so convoluted you're not sure you understand it yourself. He gives you a puzzled look, throws his hands up in despair, and heads down the road.
You've already seen where the rice and tea are kept, and have seen him pull scallions and garlic and a few other herbs from his garden to flavor the rice. I don't see cooking skill on your sheet, but I presume you have some skill at making your own food. What do you rate yourself on this?
--M. J. Young
Sat Jun 12 2010 12:00 am # -
Assuming you're here alone for a few days, do you have any plans besides preparing and eating rice (and I presume tea), harvesting a bit of garlic and scallion to go with it, and practicing your martial arts?
--M. J. Young
Mon Jun 14 2010 1:58 am # -
The old man is gone for about a week, and returns tired but smiling. It happens that he gets back as you are preparing yourself dinner, and you throw in some extra rice and are able to feed him as well as yourself.
He speaks a bit about having had to take care of a very ill villager, but that he believes he pulled the man through, and if things go well there will be some plants next month. He asks how you were in his absence.
--M. J. Young
Tue Jun 15 2010 4:17 am # -
You're not going to be able to say "cardiovascular exercise" but you will manage "running".
He nods appreciatively. "Keeping up your skills. Your memory has gaps, but your body remembers."
--M. J. Young
Wed Jun 16 2010 12:42 am # -
"I picked up a few things from my brother, but he is long gone. I learned medicine so I could help without fighting."
--M. J. Young
Thu Jun 17 2010 1:44 am # -
The old man did not say that anyone trains in unarmed combat, nor did he suggest that you did.
"It was long ago. He died young, as so many do."
"That is a strange question I do not know how to answer. If I tell you his name, it will have no meaning to you. He, too, is with his ancestors now, so it will not help you find him to know who he is. To tell you who he was in life would be to say that he was a healer and a teacher, and that you must already know. What is it you ask?"
--M. J. Young
Fri Jun 18 2010 2:29 am # -
"The sumotori train in fighting without weapons, but it is a way of entertaining the nobles. I would not wish to fight one, however. Most bushi use their swords, and those who are not hope one day to be samurai."
You don't really have much in the way of conversations beyond what is on the page, because your command of the language is so limited that when you can communicate it all gets written down.
You will improve; it will take time.
--M. J. Young
Sat Jun 19 2010 6:16 am # -
He indicates that he does not know enough about fighting styles to know one from another, other than that sumotori fight without weapons and no one else does.
--M. J. Young
Mon Jun 21 2010 2:15 am # -
Magnus
Memberthere goes my plan to convince him I'm not a Bushi. I'll just wait until I can speak Japanese like a native
"That's interesting...I would like to continue training. Can I use the first two hours after sunrise to train?"
OOC: I'm not going to be doing much besides learning Japanese, helping the old man,
practicing my style, and running. Can we do a training montage to the point where I have low professional Japanese?Mon Jun 21 2010 2:43 pm # -
That's a long montage.Can we do a training montage to the point where I have low professional Japanese?
If we assume that your teacher makes half his teaching rolls and never botches, you'll improve by two intensities every seventy-five days. You are currently at 1@3, so we're looking at 1@5, 1@7, 1@9, 2@1--300 days of practice to reach low professional level. Also, that last bump from 1@10 to 2@1 requires intensifying the training program--doubling it in two ways. That's not a problem, but it is something I will need to consider.
If we're going to fast forward through ten months, we need to give a lot more thought to what happens in those ten months. I would hate to put it all on a GE roll and get a really bad roll which has your teacher dying and you being blamed for his death (unlikely as that is, I keep these things in mind). I also would rather not have us talking about what you would have done when winter came after we've skipped it.
The other "cost" of acceleration is that things that are obvious in slow play--like whether you're learning herbalism or improving your cooking skill--are lost in the rush.
So let's pick up the pace but not as fast as that. We'll take it in twenty-five day increments and assume that we're starting in the equivalent of mid-July. (After twenty-five days your teacher rolls his teaching skill check; if he succeeds you advance one intensity; if he fails you do not, but twenty-five days later you do so without his roll. If he botches, you don't advance and you don't automatically advance in twenty-five more days, but he will get a roll at that time.)
So you are learning Japanese, practicing your martial arts style, and running for cardiovascular exercise. He does not have rice paddies and mostly sees patients, either who come to him or who ask him to come to them. What else will you be doing in what remains of July into early/mid August?
--M. J. Young
Tue Jun 22 2010 1:13 am # -
You have rocks and firewood. You get some of your exercise with the firewood.
By mid-August you are starting to settle in as an assistant to the herbalist, finding and compounding medicines under his direction, and beginning to understand what treatments are needed.
Your other training and practice is going well.
I will be tracking events in twenty-five day intervals; post to let me know you're still with me, and include anything you want to add or do during that time.
--M. J. Young
Wed Jun 23 2010 4:45 am # -
Summer is drawing to a close, and the trees in the heights are starting to turn, although the valleys below are still green.
Your Japanese is improving, as are your medical skills. The others are a slow effort, as you have no guidance in them, but you feel you are benefiting from the work.
--M. J. Young
Thu Jun 24 2010 2:18 am #
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