[D0, LA] Late Afternoon is for Tea (Open)

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

"Oh certainly the Scorpion are always making love marriages", he nodded. That's clearly not bait for the unwitting to work with a Scorpion Nakodo and end up owing the clan your entire future for the love you are desperate for. "Man, woman, anything in between, and regardless of preference the Scorpion clan promises a blissful future."

"And it's simply tradition they're kept apart until public introductions are made, it's left over from the days when relations between two men or two women were never spoken of." he waved it away.

[Seppun Unsei]

They looked a bit confused, but then seemed to get it.

Oh, yeah, sarcasm. Cus Scorpion don't do marriages for love.

"Got to really get some new traditions in. Half of them do not make sense anymore, and this is for everyone, not just Scorpion. Heavens know theres some from the Seppun that are a bit weird."

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

"Well I'm afraid I'm very traditional, it's hard to get away from it when it's everywhere and part of everyone's life", he countered. "What I think of them isn't relevant, the ancestors figured it out, and we carry on. Sometimes we even get to enjoy it."

He chuckled a little.

"Though if it were up to you, what would Seppun-sama change? It sounds like you might have some fun ideas."

[Seppun Unsei]

"I suppose they did figure it out, but..." They shrugged. "I don't know how to phrase my thoughts properly enough to convey what I'm thinking well enough and I don't feel like making the day worse than it already is, swe-" They started to say, but cut themselves off before sighing.

With a shake of their head, they started to talk again. "I'm not sure. So many things are seemingly needlessly taboo and wrong when they have no need to be, simply because it was that way with our ancestors. I understand wanting to revere them, but... there surely has to be better ways than keeping such harsh traditions." There was another shake of their head.

"But I'm a known airhead and dreamer, so my ideas are all a bit too insane for anyone else really."

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

"I see you don't care much for pretense, either...I mostly figured that out already, but...", he glanced around the tea room. "We are sitting here in public and there are some people who would take a great deal of offense just from thinking those things." He looked thoughtful, the dead eyes narrowing a little bit. "I also met a Lion earlier who had strange ideas about things, very surprising considering his clan's usual outlook on society."

[Seppun Unsei]

They smirked some. "That's why I didn't try to get too deep into explaining. Not in public anyway." Mindlessly, as they kept talking, their hands lifted up the long ponytail and moved it in front of them before beginning to braid it. "Strange ideas how? That war isn't the best thing out there and that founding a clan on just that leads to more issues than it solves?"

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

"Nothing so radical, no" he said with a wave of his hand. "I was only pondering peculiarities, I'm not really that much of a gossip."

He smiled beneath the mask, evident from how it tugged on his face.

"But I'd be hard pressed to consider what i heard as marriageable."

[Seppun Unsei]

They rolled their eyes as their fingers continued to nimbly weave their hair.

"Everyone here is marriageable... somehow. Doesn't matter if we don't see it. All that matters is the nakodo does. Or is bribed to see it. Also, if you weren't much of a gossip, you would've never said anything about it, but instead you did and so now I've got to pull it out of you."

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

The Scorpion shrugged. "Do your worst."

[Seppun Unsei]

"If you don't answer me, I'll give you compliments and I will make sure to do it loud enough so that everyone in the next building over can hear me praise you." They said with complete seriousness. "And if that doesn't work, I will kiss you. Pull your mask down and everything for it. So. You do not want me doing my worst."

For a shugenja, it seems they were unfortunately keenly adapted to doing unusual methods to get what they wanted. Like waiting months for hundreds of quail to be shipped into Shiro Kuni to terrorize someone who had simply dared them to do something. Or in this case, complimenting their way into getting knowledge.