Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tadashi smiled back at the Makitsu who have introduced themselves so far. "Lovely to meet you Chloe, Galatea, and Amia." He said with a small chuckle seeing how excited Chloe was. Once everyone was in the little living quarters cabin he settled down in a chair and gestured for everyone to make themselves comfortable.

"Ah snooping around indeed. You see, and some of you may already know of this, but I go to Makogis Isle to a little hidey spot that I found that is out of sight from the priests and priestesses of the 'True God' or so they call themselves." He said this while doing the quotation mark gesture, "I sneak onto a little beach and there's a few spots where I've found masks.... the masks that all Makogis come from. I bring them back to the mainland here and help them find homes with my stand that Shiro is currently watching. Shiro's dad, who is my brother's son, helps me by taking some masks with him as he travels. After all my little stand really only reaches those who come here and I'm not in the best of shape to be traveling all over the land."

He paused to make sure everyone was following along so far, "Well lately when I've been going I haven't been finding any of the masks. They've always appeared in pretty much the same spots but as of late they're either in a different spot or missing altogether. I've noticed some foot prints leading up the path from the beach that I think head towards the Shrine but I can't really go check otherwise they'll find out I've been sneakin' on the island. So I need someone or someones to go in my place and find out what's been happening to the masks. I won't lie to you all... it will be dangerous since yer all Makitsu. The followers of the True God hate your kind and will try to capture you on sight. So you've got to be sneaky and snoop around. I'd say it'd be best to use your illusions to make yourself seem like a human or something that would be present in the Shrine so you don't get caught by them. Honestly the best time for you all to search the Shrine for clues is a night because everyone leaves the island now. People used to stay overnight if they stayed in the Shrine but they changed that a few weeks back so now it's empty. You should be safe if you stay in the boundary of the Shrine."

He stopped to let everything sink in for a few. "Well if any of you don't want to take this risk I understand. I just ask you don't go blabbing to the True God folks about this and you're free to leave my boat. We don't have too much time before we have to cast off so we can make to my beach spot before the main ferry starts to operate.... but if anyone has any questions or if you want to discuss amongst yerselves before deciding just let me know."

((Feel free to discuss things before fully agreeing to help Tadashi. Anyone who hasn't replied yet is assumed to have boarded the boat and is just keeping quiet for now. I'll give several days for people to reply before moving the meta on. If you wish to ask anything of Tadashi feel free to ask and I'll post his reply.))

Amia paid attention as Tadashi explained that he would find masks at a little beach on Makogis Isle, then brings them here to the mainland, to help them find homes. She thought that was an amazing thing to do for them, even better that his nephew helped him out by taking them on his travels as well. She was surprised, when he went on to explain, that he hadn't found any masks lately. She wondered why, if they appeared in the same spot before, but now it seemed they were in other places or missing. Even worse, their were footprints leading in what Tadashi thought went in the direction of the Shrine. Was is possible someone else was coming where the masks were and running off with them?

As she listened on, it would seem that he wanted them to go to the Shrine and look into the matter. He was right, it would not be easy, when these followers did not like their kind. However, if they were responsible for the missing masks, they could not let this stand. He offered them an out, but she shook her head.

"No, we have to find out what is going on with those masks. You said some were in different spots, can you tell us where you found them later?"she questioned.

Masamba nodded respectfully toward the older human as she listened to Amia. That Makitsu was onto something. By heading to the place where Tadashi typically found masks they could perhaps catch sight of the very foot prints that Tadashi had seen.

At any rate, it was a great place to start. “I, for one, would like to go to the beach where you used to find masks Tadashi. It would be a very good place to launch an investigation. Thank you Tadashi.”

Maybe there’s something at that beach that one of the Maitsu might notice or find that might have gone unnoticed by Tadashi….

"You're welcome Masamba and that is exactly my thoughts... well that and I have no where else I can drop you off. Majority of the island is rocky cliffs and honestly I've never sailed around the whole island. It's usually covered in a thick fog around the seaside in the night hours, part of the reason why the main ferry operates when it does, and while the fog does dissipate some during the day around the front where the shrine it... it doesn't completely dissipate heading towards the back of the island." He explained. While some of his knowledge of the island's boundary and seas came from first hand experience, a lot was from tales passed down through the ages by various sailors and fisherman.

"Hmmm that is a good question. No one really knows who the True God is and all we normal folks know about them is what the priests says. Supposedly the True God is a kind, benevolent being who used to watch us humans suffer from the hands of the false gods, the Makogis, until they finally managed to banish them from our world. Seeing how records and stories line up with what the priests say, that the diseases and famines and other disasters that were occurring stopped shortly after the True God appeared and the last of the Makogis stopped appearing.... well many people began to worship this True God and believe what the priests said." He said in response to Getsumei's question, "I honestly don't believe in them. After all bad things still happen even with this True God supposedly around to put an end to disasters and such. As for if their followers are taking the masks... hard to say. The magic of Makogis Isle is always...volatile I guess is a good word for it. You can never tell what sort of thing might pop up or might disappear there. But! I wouldn't be surprised if they have a hand in it. After all they do try to capture any Makitsu they find and those that they do haven't been seen again. So I can't stress it enough to not get caught by them."

Chloe sits and watches the others and happily waits to learn more so she can help more successful in understanding what needs to be done. Why are the monks against us? why are they so mean to us, what did we do to make them think of us as bad? that she pondered. She stressed a little, she was going to have to go stealth mode around them. But no matter what she will try so hard to get him the help he needs.

Galatea nodded as the others went on about what was happening and she listened intently to the risks of this adventure. Still she was undeterred by it. They needed to find these masks and figure out what was going on. "I do think that might be a good idea there Sea Shine. Should we break into groups now of who is doing what?" She could do a human illusion, that was no problem. "I am completely on board with checking into this 'True God' thing and saving as many masks as we can."

Tadashi thought for a moment if there was anything else he needed to tell the group. "Hm... Let's see.... Ah! Since I'll be dropping you off to search for the whole day and night, I'll be back to getcha y'all in the morning tomorrow. It'll be around the same time as when we land on the island. Of course you can always wait and go back when the main ferry starts taking people back and forth but this will probably be easier since you won't have to hide. Just make sure to stay in the Shrine's boundaries until morning. You'll know as there's a bell that will ring just a little before the ferry brings over the priests to start opening the Shrine for the day." He said in reply to Amia's question.

He gave a nod to Sea Shine. "It's up to y'all on how you want to go about searching during the day and night." He said giving Kokonoi a grin, "Looks like y'all have got things pretty covered for stealth. I'll let y'all start talking about a plan and get us ready to set sail." He stood up slowly and began to walk outside. He had to get the sails in place so they could catch the tide and wind to pull them to the current that would take them to the beach. "We should be there in about 30 minutes once I cast off. It'd be nice to have a faster ship like the ferry with it being steam powered and all but wind in the sails will get us there too." With those parting words he stepped outside of the room and began to get the ship ready to go.

It wasn't long before you heard some noises, grunts, and finally a call out as Tadashi yelled to someone about taking off. The ship didn't seem to move at first but with a sudden lurch it pulled away from the docks as a strong wind picked up filling the sails to move the ship to sea. It was fairly smooth sailing as Tadashi set the rudder to help catch a current that began to pull the ship towards the island faster, just off to the left from the distant dock that was visible.

Around 30 minutes later Tadashi began moving about the deck to lower the sails so the boat would slow down as they headed towards a little cove that was hidden out of sight from where the main Shrine dock was. "Almost there, get ready to land." He called out as the ship began to slow, "Might be a bit of a sudden stop. Winds were gracing us a little more than usual." He was going to the side of the boat to where the anchor was as he was going to have to toss it over to get them to stop fully before running ashore. He lifted it with a grunt and tossed it over, the chain running out quite a bit as it dragged along before the anchor caught on something on the sea floor, causing the boat to lurch some before coming to a stop.

"Looks like some of ya might have a bit of a swim. My little dinghy won't hold but one or two of you with me in it." He said moving towards the other side where a little, battered, inflatable dinghy was tied up. He untied it and began working on lowering it to the water. Once it was in the water he flipped a little ladder over the side so he could climb down. "I'll meet you all on the beach!" He called out before disappearing down the ladder.

During the trip to the beach Masamba took this time to observe the others, listening to everyone. Well, she tried to listen. Her mind was full of information and questions that kept popping up in her head over and over, like an annoying song.

A Makitsu suggested breaking up into groups, which was safer then doing anything alone. “I agree with the idea of groups, that way we can watch each other’s backs. I volunteer to be a part of the group that stays on the beach, investing the area and looking out for anyone or anything suspicious.” Masa preferred using her pattern for stealth than magic and therefore had, inadvertently, somewhat caused her illusion casting skills to be lacking.

The lurch of the boat forward before stopping brought her focus back to the present. Only two could fit on the dinghy, that was fine. Swimming was something she knew how to do, though it wasn’t she’d do voluntarily. Still others that might not know how to swim deserved to be on the dinghy.

Masa looked over at a dark furred Makitsu with blue and soft plum-pink designs and nodded. “I don’t mind.”