[D0 LM] Checking In

[Kitsu Murato]

"Well, I would be glad to hear whatever you can share. Reading about them is nice, but about them is better. Though still not as good as visiting," he says with a smile. "Of course, I'd be glad to share stories from my life as well. I once filled out a form that requested the provisioning of supplies for the local emerald magistrate," he says in feign excitement. And then sighs with and shakes his head.

[Aimi]

"Ah, Kitsu-sama, you never know - perhaps there is something adventurous or scandalous in that magistrate's supplies?" Aimi says with a wry smile, "But, ah, stories... hmm... oh! I once passed through a small shrine to Bishamon-no-kami, where the monks believed that raw strength was nothing without cooperation and teamwork, as evidenced by the position of their patron as one amongst a pantheon. So they would honour him via the most elaborate displays of cooperative athletics. I saw the most senior monk go about his chores in the library with a junior brother standing balanced on his shoulders the whole time, that he might reach the higher shelves with ease."

She sighs and shakes her head. "My own attempts to participate and mimic their ways ended in quite ungraceful tragedy, and also a great number of very upset Koi fish when I landed headfirst in the pond and dumped the poor acolyte I was carrying into the neighbouring flower bed. There was pollen everywhere."

[Kitsu Murato]

He smiled at that. "I can't even stack an unfurled scroll on top of another without the stach falling over. That you got as far as someone on your shoulders is much farther than I could have."

[Aimi]

"Ah, Kitsu-sama should learn such things," Aimi says with a firm nod, "Perhaps not quite in the manner of the monks of Bishamon, but a degree of physical ability in a samurai is fine and good. In any man, for that matter - I have met peasants who could put a bushi to shame with the size of their muscles, if not their skill!"

She pauses, blinking, then ducks her head. "Ah, please forgive this one. I should not speak so forwardly."

[Kitsu Murato]

"No, it's alright. You aren't wrong. I have a long way to go in my physical training. The Ikoma tend not to teach physicality in the same way the Akodo and Matsu do. I do take my training in the skills of battle seriously, but a bureaucrat is not a soldier first, so my lords expect me to learn other things first," he says with a smile. "Unfortunately, in the areas of balance and coordination I need to work extra hard to improve. But perhaps you could give me a lesson or two while we're here?"

[Agasha Inoshishi]

The young dragon woman had been about to step into the garden when she heard mention of the monks of Bishamon-no-kami and their strange ways. Now she sits unobtrusively to one side of the door, her stylus scratching into the soft wood strips she uses as scratch paper, filling it with her neat short hand. Stories! They're tellling stories!

As they begin shifting the conversation to physical strength, she finishes her scratching, hoping that they'll get back to stories she's never heard. Otherwise she'll have to, gasp, talk to people if she intends to be in the garden herself.

But maybe she should check in first? No, that would be far too logical. Stories first, check in later, maybe much later, if the stories stay interesting.