niepokonany | Second Uprising [Video

[VIDEO]

[So someone, thanks to a combination of social anxiety, a comfortable place to stay with a person he feels safe with, and vague distrust of the journals, hasn't been very social recently.]

[But as much as he enjoys Chopin's company, and has perhaps even grown a little warmer towards Chopin's housemates if he's been persuaded to spend time with them, Poland has started to realize he might be here for a while, and, well... He's getting a little bored not talking to anyone. Time to give the journal a try!]

Hey! Um, a lot of you don't know me, and that's pretty sad, so I'm doing you a major solid and introducing myself! I'm like, Poland. It's good to meet you or whatever!

So, Advent started a couple days ago, and it's totally almost St. Nicholas's Day? I'm gonna make, like, a ton of pierniki, and I'm feeling super nice, so, you know, if anybody wants in, tell me.

Me and Fryderyk were talking about having a legit Christmas dinner and stuff, too, so I guess you could also let me know if you wanna come to that!

[He pauses, briefly awkward and uncomfortable as he fishes for something to say. After a moment, though, he brightens.]

Oh--so like, do you know any rad stories from your place or some junk? I totally wanna hear them!

[ACTION - OPEN, in town, around the shops]

[Alternatively, you could run into him in town! Chopin's, like, 40, which he is pretty sure is like, ancient in human years (Feliks may have a somewhat loose grasp on how being human works at times), so he's out shopping for groceries on his own. And when that's done, he'll be making a stop at the clothes store to see if they have anything good.]

[He might even work up the courage to look at some of the dresses, if he thinks no one is around. If they do catch him, he can just say they're for a friend, right?]

[ACTION - CLOSED - Chopin's room]

[And later still, he's back in Chopin's room, where he's been crashing since he showed up here. Chopin is off with his compositions, as far as he's aware, and he's taking advantage of the moment of privacy to admire his new find in the mirror.]

[His dress-up hobby has been stubbornly ignored for the last couple of months--it's a small village, AND he's sharing someone's room, there's just too much chance of getting caught. But again... He's bored. And the dress he found is just too cute, ok?]

[By modern standards, it's actually quite modest, floor-length with a loose skirt. The short sleeves, tight bodice, and hint of pale underskirt are wonderfully risqué for a 19th century boy, though, especially a good Catholic one! He admires himself, turning this way and that, tying his hair up in different ways. It's a relief, just for a little bit, to be able to express himself freely and relax.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Alright. Well, it's a magic sword from my homeland. Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is what it's actually called, but that's a long name so most people just call it Kusanagi. It was enchanted by one of my relatives, another god named Susanoo, and it was a reward to a warrior for a great victory. Now, Susanoo is one of the gods of the wind, so naturally that's what the sword's magic is tied to.

A long, long time ago, there was a great monster with many heads. It's...sort of like a hydra from the West, but bigger, and it had a name. Yamato-no-Orochi. He used to rampage around and hurt people, like monsters do, right? So, a lord prayed to the gods for help, and Susanoo answered. The creature had annoyed him in the past so he decided to deal with it once and for all.

[She pauses, giving Poland a moment to digest.]

[He's not really good at listening quietly, and fidgets quite a bit, but he does pay attention. When she pauses, he nods a little, urging her on.]

Sounds super unchill. So like, what'd he do then?

Well, he went to the lord and told him that he needed a little help. There wasn't any good way to kill the creature face to face, so he knew he'd need to trick or distract it. He instructed the lord to put a barrel of sweet wine at each of the eight gates of his castle because he knew the creature had a fondness for it.

When Yamato-no-Orochi came to attack the castle again, he went straight for the wine, of course. And that's when Susanoo used his own magic sword to kill the monster while it was distracted and drunk. He cut off each of it's heads, and then chopped it into bits, and when he was finished, he found the sword we now call Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.

After that...well...he decided he didn't need a second sword, and he left it to the lord, who was so grateful that he offered his daughter's hand in marriage to Susanoo. He accepted, and as a gift to the family, he enchanted the sword for the lord, leaving it in the care of his father-in-law as an heirloom.

[Again she pauses, but it's clear there's more.]

Wait, ok, I'm getting confused. Like, who was the father in law? The lord guy? What happened to the first sword?

And did he just, like, find it lying around or what?

Oh, sorry. The Lord, yes. Susanoo married his daughter. And the first sword? Well, Susanoo kept that. And it was a given to him by his father.

As for the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi? He found that inside the monster. Understand better?

[She waits, of course.]

In the monster? Gross me out, does that mean it ate the guy who used to have it?

Yeah, I'm good, you can keep going!

Perhaps, or the creature just ate the sword. Nobody knows for sure.

[She thinks for a moment where next to take the story...]

Well, okay. The sword was passed down from father to son for many generations, easily five hundred years, and it was always as sharp as the day it was found. A real treasure, the enchantment on it allowed the person who held it to move the wind as they desired. So, imagine how useful that would be.

A few centuries later, there was a descendant of the original lord who found himself in a war. A rival clan decided that they wanted to take his territory and a brutal conflict begin. It lasted many years, and eventually the descendant, a man named Ryuto, was caught in a bad situation. The enemy had him surrounded and alone, cut off from his men in a field of tall grass.

Now, he was such a skilled fighter that none of them could match him in a fight, so they decided to take the cowards way to victory. They set the field on fire, hoping to burn him out. Which was exactly what Ryuto wanted. He knew about the magic in the sword, and so when the fire started to get close, he began to swing his sword in circles, stirring up a great tornado. It shredded the grass, and sent the fire higher and higher into the air, before carrying it back at the enemy lord and his men.

They were so surprised that they were caught in the inferno, and just like that? The war was over.

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