"So much hatred...so much pain."
Moses says, quietly.
For a long minute, nobody says a word. The tall black man looks over at the nun, then at Rabbit.
He mutters something under his breath, shrugs.
Then he presses his lips together, slowly nodding. "It is worth a try, Lord."

Then he shouts at the Pawnee:
"There is bad blood between you and the Nakota. Your dead today are only drops in an ocean of blood that lies between your two people. But even one more drop may be enough to have the ocean flood your lands and those of the Nakota forever.
Will you not allow Moses to talk with you? He will come, unarmed, alone, if you wish. You have nothing to lose but a few minutes. Yet much to gain."

Rabbit stays quiet as Moses looks set to speak and watches the shapes of the men above with narrowed eyes when he does so, holding back harsher words at least until the Pawnees' reply.

The Pawnee drop into another round of discussion. Eventually, the leader turns back and shouts at Moses.

"You want talk? Fine. You come. Leave crazy women behind, though."

"Moses will get back your razor, Screaming Rabbit. Please guard Sister Belinda."
The tall negro drops his coat, revealing his muscled, scarred upper body to the nun. He takes off the sawed-off shotgun he carries in a sling around his shoulder and hands the gun to the small Chinese.
Then he puts his black duster back on, grabs his hickory stick and starts walking toward the Pawnee, humming a hymn while he walks.

Rabbit dips her head to Moses' pronouncement but looks mostly bemused, holding the shotgun in the manner of someone unsure whether it might go off. She sets it down very carefully and sits on a rock, a glance spared up at the sharpshooters above.

"Don' worry - everybody say bluecoats love the negro, and Moses very powerful," she reassures Sister Belinda. "Were you long time a plisoner?"

The Pawnee watch Moses warily, guns at the ready, as he approaches the rise. The leader watches him as well, with one hand resting lightly on his gun holster.

When Moses gets within a dozen yards of the hill, the Pawnee leader motions for him to stop. "That'um close 'nuff, black man. I am Packs the Colt, Sergent, J Company, 1st Irregular Brigade under Colonel Custer. You are Moses, with no other titles I know. Speak'um your piece."

The black prophet stoically watches the lined up Pawnee soldiers.
Quietly he prays to the Lord:
Oh Lord, give your humble servant's tongue wings so that he may forestall the bloodshed here. For there will be not easy peace between these tribes.


OOC: Alright, let's see if I can get a boost on my Persuasion!

12:17, Today: Moses rolled 5,4 using d8,d6, rerolling max with rolls of 5,4. Faith for Boost Trait - Persuasion.

When the silence stretches out into the unbearable, he finally starts speaking.

"You are under attack from the Nakota and have lost some of your men already. Moses can read in your faces that you are willing to make a stand here, die, if necessary, if only you can take as many of the Nakota with you. Because you know that others of your tribe will avenge you."

"The Nakota and the Pawnee have always been enemies. That is what they tell you, how they raise you - and it is the same that is told to the Nakota. Your feud runs so deep you cannot begin to remember who started it - only that it clearly must have been the other, that you are ever the one taking rightful vengeance."

"Moses knows he will not change your minds today. Too much blood has been spilled to just be washed away by one lone prophet of the Almighty Lord. But he hopes that you will hear his words and think about them."

"The Nakota have lost many of their kin today, for their village was razed by the Black Regiment - a troop of soldiers, ever fighting, ever stirring up conflict, soldiers from both sides of every war that has ever fought on this soil. It's soldiers are minions of War, promoting his cause. The cause of hatred. And Bloodshed. And pain."

"You have witnessed what the Black Regiment has done to their village. And Moses can in some of your faces that you were happy about their loss, that your enemy had suffered some righteous misfortune sent by the spirits. But he can also see that some of you have been disturbed by the relentless brutality of the assault."

"You arrived at the village after the Black Regiment had already left. This is what they do. They arrive, sow bloodshed, then vanish back into the netherworlds without a trace, waiting to strike again at the opportune moment.
You were seen by a troop of Nakota, who arrived shortly after you. Do you see the marvelous trap War has set for you?"

"The Nakota could nothing but think you, their ever-hated enemies, had done this. Grief and anger clouded their minds and they pursued you here."

"Moses has treated with them. A traitor in their midst was revealed and killed by Little Bear, their chief. It was you who helped revealing him, for it was one of you that wounded him. Thinking he would die, he revealed his true self, desperate to help his mistress, War."

That wasn't quite true, of course, but a little flattery had never hurt anyone.

"Seeing that Moses spoke the truth, Little Bear has agreed to hold his men back. This is not an offering of peace. This is merely an offer of a truce. And it is merely an offer of truce between Little Bear and his band and you.
Once Crazy Horse arrives, he will consider you enemies again. You will kill many of the Nakota then, in the coming battle. And most likely all of you will be slain and sent to the spirit world where everyone of you will be weighed on the scales of justice in this Reckoning."

"The Nakota will slake their thirst for blood. The Pawnee will stir and ask for vengeance. More will join the white man's army just to fight their common enemy. Yes, Moses knows why you ride with Custer."

"But, most importantly, War will have another triumph. And War will be one step closer to cover all these lands in blood and darkness.
But you, Packs the Colt, yould turn this into a tremendous victory against War and his minions.
Accept the truce of Little Bear and leave. For War is the true enemy here. And War is the enemy of the Pawnee as well as the Nakota, the white man, and every living being.
Be a hero in this important battle of the Reckoning, Packs the Colt. Moses begs this of you."

And with that, the prophet rested on his hickory stick and waited for the response.

OOC: I guess that means it's Persuadin' time! d8 because of Boost Trait, but -2 due to outsider charisma penalty.
12:19, Today: Moses rolled 4,2 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 6,4. Persuasion, red chip.
12:19, Today: Moses rolled 0,-1 using d8-2,d6-2, rerolling max with rolls of 2,1. Persuasion.

Why, thank the Lord for the Joker that had been drawn! Down to 0 chips again. A success is better than nothing, but we'll see if it's enough.

Packs The Colt is silent as he considers Moses' words. Eventually, he nods. "Have'um no desire to fight Crazy Horse. Good to know the brujo is dead. Go tell this Little Bear we accept his truce." He turns, then stops, and turns back. "You know this'um only last so long, yes? The fighting will come eventually. This skirmish only small part of greater battle. Custer will not stop until all the Sioux know they are beaten."

Moses nods.
"Every war starts with one blow or one shot. Every peace starts with a truce. If the truce holds long enough, it may become indistinguishable from peace. We shall see. Moses has not met Custer, but he has heard of him. He has much hastred for the red man. And Crazy Horse has much hatred for the white man. Treating with them will not be easy. Convincing them will be even harder. But, Moses goes where the Lord's path leads him. What else is there to do?"

Moses raises a hand in salute.
"You are a good man, Packs the Colt. Moses hopes you make the right choices in this Reckoning. For it will be them that balance out your sins.

Moses hasone more request: The Chinese kid had a razor which you took. Moses would ask it back from you."

[Language unknown: "Fo si belial loseol niekus!"] The Pawnee barks back to his comrades. They nod, and one of them (Xiaohan recognizes Sitting Duck) picks up a heavy satchel, sticks the razor inside, then swings it over his head and hurls it back toward Moses.

"Go on. Take it." Packs the Colt says, then turns and starts barking orders. The Pawnee start slinging their guns over their backs and filing down the hill.

Sister Belinda, enthralled by watching the truce negotiation, shakes out of her reverie. "Hmmm? Oh, I'm sorry." She says. "Not really. I came on that village just about the time they got there. They didn't really know what to do with me, and then the other war party descended and they had no time. I spent several hours all tied up before you crawled out of that coyote den."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:55, Wed 26 Dec 2012.

Rabbit wrinkles her nose. "They are very foolish soldier. It good that Moses went: I would be more harsh with them."

The Chinese stray watches the goings-on above a few moments, alert, then looks back to Sister Belinda. "When you last eat? If you are vely sore from the ropes I know the...ah..." Rabbit bites her lip, looking for the word "-massaging of shoulders, like when someone stoops to the earth all day and is bent, or if she is frighten long time, body so, like fist. It helps that." Rabbit shrugs slightly, aid offered, still unsure quite what to make of the woman.

"To be fair to them, I didn't help matters. I thought they'd done it, too, and shouted at them something terrible. That's why they gagged me, I expect." The sister says. She considers Xiaohan's offer. "I appreciate that. Perhaps when we've broken to camp for the night." She looks at Xiaohan and smiles sadly. "I'm glad you got away. I heard your fellow Celestials do some horrible things to their soiled doves. Things I wouldn't wish on sinners in Hell were they true. How did you escape?"

The idea of Sister Belinda shouting at the bluecoats gets a faint grin, though it soon fades. "When many bodies are lying, it is hard to think clearly."

Rabbit dips her head to the idea. Her jaw clenches a bit at the well-meant question.
Deny it? Stupid, what else would a Chinese woman be out here for, and disguised? Her fingers curl over her skull above her ear in a gesture of pure weariness, brushing back hair no longer there.

"...in China, it is a big place like America, but full of people, too many people...so status, that decide how much your life is worth. We have words for things like...'is it a good weapon?' 'yes, I test it on peasant'. So. A whore, she belong to low-status people who own her brothel: she has no status. Her life is worth almost nothing. This is well-known in China." Rabbit swallows, looks up. "-But I see this the same with other peoples - often the white men they strike the whores, even sometimes the white women. Many white women in Deadwood, many black women, they not free. The red men throw away the widow who trade fucking for feed her children...no, it is all the world not kind to 'soiled doves'. Chinese just make it...organised, like many things."

Xiao sighs, watching the passenger pigeons pass over the last strip of light at the horizon. "Still, I ask you prease say nothing, even to Sioux - if I am caught I will be many times raped and mutilated with violences, and plobably burnt with tar: they burn thieves who steal important things in China, but the lawman not allow burning with wood here." She gestures up at Moses.

"I steal clothes and the stuff from important man: he use me hard, so take a nap. I feared I would be killed soon for another thing, so I went. I thought they would not look for a boy, at first, but then myself as a boy ran into Swearengen men with a corpse and they chase me out in the forest. I run two days, Thunder Walker found me." Rabbit grins a bit. "He kill himself laughing when I say I want to find Texas - apparentry Texas is not north."

"Amen." Belinda says. "I dear wish this weren't so, but I have seen the evils men can do. I once blamed the soiled doves for their lot, thinking them women of low virtue reaping what they had sown, but then I came to minister in Deadwood." she shakes her head. "I kept hearing the same stories over and over. Women who had been promised a better life, only to be cruelly used by those who did the promising. That bastard Swearengen, he's the worst. He pays for one-way tickets to Deadwood, promising women jobs as housekeepers, seamstresses...anything. Then, when they get here, they find out what they're really here to do. And worse, they owe Swearengen substantially for the tickets that brought them there, and he threatens their lives if they don't pay. So they work for him, and yet their debts never seem to get smaller."

She sniffles a little. "It breaks my heart to see people so ill-used. I will keep your secret, Miss Rabbit." She tilts her head at the mention of Texas. "Why in God's name would you ever want to go there? There's nothing in Texas except cows and rebels."

Moses watches the Pawnee gather there things for a few moment, as if to make sure they are really leaving.
Then he uses his hickory stick to drag the satchel closer and lift it a little before picking it up with his left and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Yes, they are, Lord. But didn't you grant Lot another chance if only he left in time and wouldn't look back?" he says, quietly.

Then he turns around and briskly walks back to Sister Belinda and Screaming Rabbit, apparently oblivious that he is interrupting them.
He hands the satchel to the chinese.
"Moses has brought back your things, Screaming Rabbit."
He picks up his shotgun and drops his coat again, pushing his hickory stick toward Sister Belinda until she grabs it, holding it for him.

Then he slings his shotgun back over his shoulder and gently takes his stick back. "Thank you, Sister Belinda. We still have much work to do if we are to thwart War's effort. Custer wants another battle in these hills. And Crazy Horse will be happy to offer it. Moses needs to talk to them, convince them of their foolishness. Let us return to Thunder Walker and Little Bear, tell them that the Pawnee accept their truth.
And then, Wovoka..." his voice trails off.

Rabbit nods grimly to the thoughts on trafficking, then smiles a little at the perplexity occasioned by aiming for Texas and pauses a moment seeking words, wanting to try and explain to a real woman - a woman who might help the people still in Deadwood - what Texas meant. "I work there long time, there is...ah..."

"When I come to America as little girl - my family send me for servant, better status - they fuck me and tell me 'no-one will want you now, in the house or as wife, you are a dishonourable person: you must be whore for us'...and when I am young, I berieve that, but it is...on the surface. All the time is burying it in."

"Then, in Texas, there is a man - I not meet many women - he comes back and comes back, every year with the cow herding and I think maybe he likes the sex, or this one whore, but it is different with him, he want something I don't know...and I am sold away, and he finds me, and again...and I realise he is trying to find me. Not 'Peach Blossom', 'a whore' - myself." Rabbit swallows. "He saw me, when I did not know for sure there was anything but a whore in this body. If he did not...if I had let go and believed the men: that I was nothing else, no future...I would stop fighting, not teach myself Engrish for talking, let them and the shame that is not mine beat and kill me, not run away."

"When I run, I did not know where to go to, only away...so I thought 'I will try to go to Texas, and find the cowboy, and say thank you, even if he not know what he did.'" Xiaohan looks back at the sister, serious, taking hands out of sleeves to lean and offer her one. "So it is important, what you do, even if you can't free all the women or stop the world hurting. If you go to whores and don't shout at them, and listen...if you see them, not 'bitches' or 'victims' it not matter if they believing or not: you help save their soul. I swear this."

Rabbit keeps eye contact, though trembling a little. "That you choose to help when you could choose not to see, it is a very great thing."

Rabbit then gets a satchel full of heavy from a sudden Moses. "!"

"Ah...th- I thank Moses." Xiao gets up.

[[this is what I get for making supper mid-Cowboy Speech XD ]]
This message was last edited by the player at 20:02, Thu 27 Dec 2012.

In reply to Moses (msg # 155):

The satchel is surprisingly heavy. Moses notes the clinking of a number of coins within it, as well as the rustle of paper.

Sister Belinda reaches out and gives Rabbit a hug. "You poor, poor girl." she says, a tremble in her voice. "No one should have to live that way. I hope you find your cowboy again, and I shall keep your request in my heart."

When Moses arrives, Sister Belinda breaks the hug. She nods at Moses. "Amen, my colored brother. Indeed, the soldiers were saying they have already fought one great battle here. There was a river, two days ago, where the forces met a war party of Sioux. The Pawnee mentioned it was a bloody battle. They were calling it the battle of ten thousand arrows, on account of all the shafts the Sioux shot trying to halt the army."

Rabbit rubbed at the sister's shoulder a bit bemusedly to show that it was all right, she was here now, solid and real, not dead. She understood, however: the nun wanted to hug the girl left stripped and bleeding on a cold floor years away, in the past.

Lady, if I could touch her, I would hug that ghost-girl, too. Still, she hoped Sister Belinda would soon come round to focusing on real people without despair. Deadwood needed a break from the wicked, and a village had been murdered here.

Binding all of that down flat for now, Rabbit listens to the talk of battle, settling the satchel as they return. "There are unburied warriors?" Rabbit frowns and looks to Moses. "...perhaps that where the damn-yankees come from. Does the god tell Moses about Wovoka?"

Standing with the Nakota, Thunder Walker surveyed the area, paying close attention to the direction that Moses and Rabbit had gone. Having convince the Nakota to give peace a chance, he hoped that his newly met companions would be able to do the same. Despite their potential mental frailties, they had proved stalwart allies thus far and he would regret greatly if they came to harm at the hands of the Pawnee, especially if such a thing happened while they gave aid to his people. While he waited, he spoke to Chief Little Bear.

[Language unknown: "I ver et moast ver u asweck tresee, Onewerany Romstivir Rea, en M ant noun romeaudayles. Undousandeau k ek omunro staonsame, m pome ove vershentepro p lebenc thaus unfo hiof te towhne whur hou rat n er fiisck. Ei iveos st eiadbe thca tiplta aince, olers Ecre Ome Ti erswhirea ek maca prheho e te meai. Recknd il thooerour res on teli ortainvor ou on trnatrse nt lesforughshe, was nceil nceversan ing isulul aveichout e aciv, rutca ne atero astainout pausfi paniac llher ngnde Sticomthe ti eranceill essan. K butun evch toekpo ssetro pock and wit ourti Acon-inre Loanpl, paort unanhi tarea strus usli-fiat eteve atiativor som hatthitho ilmeee i al fosta, whouio tr llpl ect howefoat whiessant ardeartio m rederesetiveyinson."]

To Thunder Walker's eyes, it seems the negotiations were successful...the Pawnee seem to be departing, while Rabbit, Moses, and the white woman Belinda seemed to be discussing something.

Little Bear watches the setting sun, his ghostly bride beside him.

[Language unknown: "Oulul omevirlar all pr evwainhaei ect. N mi ratar thasetich ta We loceme atll atiin fo eeneauionout ut Mo Naevlo icanceate fillli. Lesni, u la k iouis hasntiate. E acevec liisme Ce thu korundwerthi ritho virwe lo site Ch our ivti."] He watches the Pawnee retrieve horses from a nearby copse of trees. [Language unknown: "Li ul tosta anyhisnte di acweca uster e ne tinallyin resan eelo, Weroutrom Wiloutere. St M wies ome fo ntiic urma atar. Mo oufor enec llpl sheun ie ekons issaisnt intpe cackei. Tiwas ou ceanle momaof evvir oveherlinnot heniat di icait k be anywasnde tedundame. Werho tirea pl fiac ulprfo be adni ndsiin minclo terac ilnoll fo atieauoul. Inles ore nangni u saar ecnihi pote al day n inehatere, hipr osloanme."]

"Damn Yankees?" Moses asks, his tone curious as if he would hear those words for the first time.
But instead of waiting for an answer he says: "Come. There is much to do ahead of us."
He starts walking, only slowing down once a realizes that both women have trouble in keeping up with his long stride.
Just when Xiaohan and the nun believe there will be no further reply, Moses speaks.

"The Lord does not tell, Screaming Rabbit. The Lord shows. It is up to His humble servant to make of the signs what the true meanings are.
Moses was shown... a white calf, attacked by a black raven. He believes that Wovoka - or the Ghost Dance - is that white calf. But, without Wovoka, there is no Ghost Dance. If Jesus would have been killed at or after the Sermon on the Mount, there would be no Christians today. In that sense, Wovoka is the Ghost Dance. And the raven is War.

Deadwood is the trap War has prepared. War will use locks of gold to hold Wovoka captive here.
Moses does not know, but would not be surprised if Custer had blonde hair. For Wovoka does not strike Moses as a man who would fall for a woman."

He walks in silence for a minute.
"Do you know more about this battle, or of Custer, Sister Belinda?"

Sister Belinda nods. "I know of Custer. All the papers calls him 'Ol' Goldilocks,' on account of his long blond hair. They said that until the Little Bighorn, no one had ever defeated him in battle. I didn't get much about the battle from the Pawnee...they didn't talk to me none, and I don't speak Pawnee, so I'm a little fuzzy on what they were talking about amongst themselves.. I got the impression they were in the area searching for some escaped prisoners when they ran into the Sioux. I also got the impression they were on the winning side of that battle."

"Escaped Prisoners." Moses repeats, thoughtfully.

OOC: Uhm, should that ring a bell?

PM

"Maybe these escaped prisoners will cross our path, if the Lord wills it."
He falls quiet, obviously lost in thought. Just before the group reaches Thunder Walker and Little Bear, he gently puts a hand on Rabbit's shoulder. "Moses had the feeling Screaming Rabbit wanted to talk about something?"