(D1, MA) Well Earned Refreshment

[Kuni Yasu]

"Hmmm. Yeah, I don't think my skills are as useful moving so high as all that. And I'm not sure I'd want an Imperial scion deemed appropriate to cast away to the Crab." It wasn't that there were never Imperial spouses among Crab families, but there was something different about the treaties and agreements and the people bound up in them, than a miai...where the clans sent those who simply needed to be married, but not necessarily for any political gain. Still, it was a bit shocking for anyone to imply that an Imperial spouse might not be good enough for them. "For yourself, the Mantis offer way more distant travel. Otter are travelers too, but more local."

She listened with interest to the tale of some sort of corruption that didn't seem to spawn from the usual enemy. That, of course, was cause for several flavors of concern. But she left that question for the time being to answer the ones asked, taking a slow sip of her tea and refilling the cup--offering through gesture to refill Koi's as well--as she organized her thoughts.

"We set wards and jade offers some protections, but everyone who travels the Shadowlands gets nightmares there, or the sweet, tempting dreams of corruption." While she looks at the Moth, the focus of her gaze is far off in memory. "It's difficult to awake from those truly sent by the Shadowlands. While those that are just...I guess I'd call them normal nightmares, Something that happens when one sees the kinds of things you do there. Those you can wake from fairly easily. Always good to have someone on guard to poke folks awake who look like they're in a rough place."

"Not sure what a lucid dream is though." Her focus snaps back to the here and now and the woman sitting with her in a pleasant garden.

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi mused for a while about a particular Kasuga that caught her attention, or the kind and gentle Shika soldier that had shown keenness in her. The Moth sipped her tea allowing the flavour to settle in her mouth before swallowing it. "Can not help but feel the few Imperials we do have this miai is quite curious." She said softly.

"The star of luck will bring you only misfortune. Fly as you will between the others, but that one will only sear your wings." She heard the voice from her vision again, her mind biting at that phrase as if made from steel. "I suppose, this is a Minor Clan Miai but then again I have never been to a Miai before regardless." She smiled accepting her glass to be refilled giving a polite bow of her head.

Koi felt sorry for the young Kuni, even as she watched the masked girl think back to the lands she comes from already scarred from the pain that comes with doing her duty as other Clans sit on their laurels and do nothing. She sipped her tea and listened, accepting it and absorbing it to memory. "Could you tell me more about the dreams or nightmares that you get? You said they are tempting? Have they changed at all? Gotten worse?" She asked, delicately not wanting to be to overburdening or barring. She chewed her lip for a moment, trying to think of the best way to phrase it without breaking etiquette or souring the mood. "Do you know if those that have spent a long time over The Wall still dream?" She said, delicately but with a specific emphasis on the long time.

Tainted people, please understand my meaning and dont take offense. Please. Please. She prayed internally.

"Ah, gomen. Lucid dreaming - is dreams where the individual experiencing them becomes aware they are dreaming and sometimes has some control over the dreams and can manipulate them. Slightly." Koi said lightly. "It is one of the hardest techniques my Clan learns during their gempukku and it's the hardest to master, I am still not perfect at it. Consistency is something you have to take with a big pinch of salt when dealing with Yume-do." She chuckled warmly.

[Kuni Yasu]

"I've only had a few trips so far, so it's hard to tell if it's grown worse, but those with more experience say that it has in the past few years. The more physical pressures definitely have, not that anyone with the power to help direct resources our way will believe it until things break through." It's the first that her cheerful demeanor has truly slipped into something darker, with an angry edge to the words.

A sip of tea restores some calm, at least to her voice, as she explains gently, "Nobody spends a long time there, Jade marks your time to a few weeks at most befor...ah. Hmm...Going to have to touch on some theory here, and I suspect our view on the interactions of Ningen-do, Yume-do, and Jigoku are probably not a match for yours. First, we believe those sorts of dreams aren't of Yume-do, only Jigoku. Those who are not entirely Lost continue to have them."

There's a tight-lipped pause, considering how to say the next thing, politely. "Those who are Lost, or creatures of those lands from the start do not usually experience the dreams of Yume-do, and we don't think they receive dreams from Jigoku either, since there is no need for dreams to drive them into further corruption at that point." She raises a cautionary finger, "but...that information has to be considered suspect since it can only come from creatures lost to corruption.

"My nightmares though?" She shuffles through memories for them. "Like most dreams, they draw from what is in your mind already. We think this is a matter of...hmm...exerting influence to twist the process rather than actually learning what is in one's mind and using it against them. The temptations are usually offers of power...to use for noble ends of course. Protecting others, discovering something to use against our enemy, that sort of thing." Only the one enemy. Not that they hadn't fought with other clans, mostly the Crane, but that was generally a very small part of their fighting over the years.

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi reminded quiet through it all, she just absorbed the information being provided to her in the perhaps the best way that Koi could learn it. She was glad that she had sat here, Koi doubted she would have gotten this opportunity any other time within her life. Take what you get, Koi. Learn from those who are willing to share their experiences with you. Experiences are important, they build a character and give them life. She remembered something her Father had told her when she was younger.

Koi sipped her tea as she listened, and felt a wave of sadness for a brief moment before she casted it from her mind. No, you show honour to those that made that sacrifice. She thought of all the Crab that have lost to the Shadowlands.

She bowed her head low in respect when Yasu was completed providing that information. "You honour me with your insight and wisdom, Kuni-san. I am very grateful for that assistances and I am sorry if it brought any thing that might ruin our tea."

[Kuni Yasu]

Yasu blinks. "Oh! Not at all. It's um...kind of a normal conversation at home. Maybe not over breakfast unless you're planning out some research, but it's kind of like that all day long whenever you've got more than two Kuni in one spot." Was that one of those courtier things where they're being super polite because they're trying to steer you away from smearing more dung across the conversation? But she'd asked...

"It's not my area of focus, for sure. So take things with a few grains of salt, as well!" Seeking to move away from stepping farther into the pitfalls of having a lot of esoteric knowledge about an impolite subject, Yasu sips at her tea a moment before asking, "does Yume-do really ever change? I know only a very small bit about your clan's duties, but not what that entails. Laboratories and gatherings to share research or...?"

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi laughed warmly. "I understand, if you got two Moth's together we'd be brattling on about this or that all day long so its perfectly understandable. Still, I appreciate your kindness for giving advice regardless it has been worth coming to this Miai just to have such a helpful conversation with someone with more experience."

Koi shook her head. "Not quite, no laboratories. We are artisans, we have studies and studios to do our art. Many Moth can weave dreams by painting them, but I am an actress I can paint but it's not my preferred medium of art." She said calmly, the Kuni might notice she is being straightforwardly honest throughout their conversation.

"I prefer to work out dreams by talking and listening to people, and.." She reached into her kimono and produced from her sleeve a small deck of handmade tarot cards of sort. "Divination."

Koi seemed to be talk about other things as she processes her thought about the meat of the questions. "Ah, Kuni-san. Yes, it constantly changes. Yume-do is built on dreams, nightmares and emotions of those in the waking world. Every time we sleep we change Yume-do, as we bring our imagination to life as our own mind begins to process events in our life through our dreams."

The Moth sat back, and paused. "I have seen scenes of floating islands defying the law of earth, I have seen scenes of raging storms filled with beasts and birds, I have seen castles and dancing plants. I have seen grief, pain so undiluted that I still think about it to this day like a weight that carries." She said softly, sad. "I have met a Baku spirit named Allul, and it changed me." She reached up and touched her vitiligo patch softly to indicate that she meant that. "It might seem unreal but I believe it does change."

She chuckled softly. "I shall pray for you to have good dreams tonight Kuni-san." She paused. "You may call me Koi-chan if you wish, my friends often do." She offered.

[Kuni Yasu]

Yasu nods. 'It's really useful to share information across areas of study, it's remarkable how often that leads to something useful. I'm finding this exceptionally interesting."

"Hmm, maybe change isn't the right word, though. The lands to the south change constantly as well like that. There are always new horrible things, and the land is seldom the same as it was the last time you went through it. Sometimes it shifts around you as you sleep. But its nature is constant, and it's recently been worse, more powerful. Does Yume-do show those sorts of shifts? Or just the constant shift of a place with no true landscape?"

There's a soft smile at the cards. "Study through art, and divination? It's a less...hmm logical sort of research. But I suppose that kind of fits the study of dreams. May I?" She holds out a hand in request to examine the cards. "I am curious how acting interacts with dreams. Have you produced something regarding the spirit you've interacted with?" There's a pause, "It sounds like the land of dreams can be as varied and possibly horrifying as anything to the south, just without the risk of corruption."

A surprised blink, accompanies a small shake of her head. "Ah! I think I may have to stick to Koi-san if that's alright? It feels too...small? dismissive?...to speak to you like I would to my little sisters. You're obviously an artist and priestess of some experience, and I..." Another small shake, accompanied by a two-tone laugh. "Well, if you'd like to use my given name, I'd be happy to hear it, and hope it's ok...all of that?"

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi nodded. "I am a strong believer in that too, more minds mean different perspectives though you do always run the risk of the old saying 'too many cooks in a kitchen' but all the same I very much enjoy this conversation." Koi chuckled. "Perhaps, the nicest conversation I've had so far that wasn't countless flirtation. By the stars and stones it's relaxing."

She sipped her tea for a bit, allowing the flavour to bloom on her tongue before swallowing. "There are subtle changes in Yume-do that might come off as the change that comes with waking and sleeping but it's the Spirits. The Baku...that are changing." She tapped her finger almost annoyed on the table as she thought. "Once quizzical, and humorous creatures are now rarely seen, warped by the corruption that has nothing to do with the Shadowlands at least from our experimentation and interaction with them. Much crueller, nightmarish but worse."

"Well, art is how we decipher dreams we weave what we see from those that have an issue on a grander scale so we can see the full picture and from there we are depict each segment of the dream and what it represents - as typically dreams can be a bit all over the place." She chuckled. "One not does always remember full details, so we have to work through it over and over. Drawing out sections, and presenting what we find. It's a process."

She held out the tarot cards, they were old and well worn. They were long and thin with depictions on each face that resembles a different fortune some of the more well know to the fortunes lesser know though they seemed to have a strange mystical aspect to them. "Divination we get an understanding of the person spiritually from the Void kami, we learn what path they have taken and are going to take. It helps look at them on a deeper level and offer advice, some use tea, others use stars, some use sticks but I use these." She said warmly. "They were my grandmothers, they belonged to her grandmother. The void kami depict the prediction by revealing the meaning by shifting the ink on the card, it's interesting to what you can learn but it also comes with a lot of people not believing us due to charlatans and fraudsters that have no honour towards the craft."

Koi quirked an eyebrow at the Kuni with a smile. "Perhaps, we meet again one night for tea and I can do a reading for you?"

Koi laughed warmly at the Kuni's reaction and nodded her head. "Hai, Yasu-san~" Koi said playfully, and bowed her head with respect. "Your words honour me deeply, Yasu-san. To have such kindness and respect shown from a Samurai of such devotion to their Duty, I can not express words that show how much honour that brings to my family." She said genuinely and for a moment Koi had to stop talking as a frog appeared in her throat as she choked up before taking a sip of her tea and looking out to the garden happily.

[Kuni Yasu]

Yasu pours the last of the tea as they chat, sipping from her own cup while listening. "I guess I should have expected flirting at a miai, but...somehow I didn't really think about it much. Not a skill I've developed either," she says in a very matter of fact fashion, not much bothered by the lack. "But it's been a really pleasant and informative morning here with you, Koi-san."

She examines the cards gently, seeing their worn surfaces, and admiring the art. "My own divination tools are a bit more pieced together, these seem much more thoughtful." Passing them back, she adds, "A chance to focus on divination would be welcome." She holds on to some questions about them for that later meeting.

And while the Crab aren't greatly known for their grasp of etiquette's finer points, Yasu sips her dwindling tea, and watches the things flitting about the garden in the morning sun as the Moth develops emotions. Dragonflies dart and tiny gnats hover as small bees wander through the serene space. "Nothing owed, Koi-san. I've new things to think about and ask when I return home. That's worth the time and tea."

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi nodded listening, and finished her tea with a sigh of relief and just enjoyed the next few minutes beside the Kuni. "Ah I see well, I would love to see your technique perhaps sometime. Perhaps send me a message if you wish to meet up again, I enjoyed this immensely."

Koi smiled again before falling into a satisfied quiet and just absorbed the garden happy. She just enjoyed the peace of it all.

She wouldnt trade it for anything at all.

/scene?