[D7 LA: Bath-House] Coal Miner blues (Open)

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi never stopped watching such duty she had making sure that Shosuro was safe. A minx grin on her face, and a slight brow raised.

"No, it has been my dream too. I wanted to after finish a route in Shiba lands but I was returned home." She said coldly but eventually gives in and looks a different direction.

"Tell me about it?" She asked.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

He dumped the bucket on himself to wash off the herbal mix used to scrub and scent properly. "It smells horrible most of summer", he admitted. "People dump their garbage in the bay too much and even though they crack down on it, the alternative ends up being to toss it in makeshift bins, so the heat really makes it...interesting..."

He stood up and furtively moved toward the bath, going on. "The fire gangs have no interest in cleaning it up, so that leaves responsible citizens and...well...at least it isn't an problem in the noble quarter or tear drop island, though for a time even the temple district smelled horrible."

He slipped into the water, he didn't look at her. He didn't want to know if she was watching, that would just make the problem worse.

He relaxed in the water, not too far from her, but not next to the woman. "Yet when you go inside...well, each shop and restaurant is like it's own little world, honestly. They scent everything, create a place you can lose track of time, make you feel very welcome. It is a place to indulge, that is quite certain."

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi looked almost disappointed, and she visibly tutted. "You offer me no story, or glamour? Sometimes Shosuro-san I wonder if at you know how to talk to women." She said poutingly. "I expected as much, Kyuden Shiba was...an experience." She grimaced.

Floating in the water Koi closed her eyes thinking about the other lands. "Have you travelled far from your lands before?"

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

He chuckled slightly. Odd to see the smiled with the mask out of the way.

"I can tell you about travels, but", he said. "If it's a Ryoko Owari story you want, I can share, certainly. Will you listen?"

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi says softly. "I am a storyteller, yes I would listen."

She said turning to face him, moving perhaps a little closer causing the water to allude to her feminine form a bit clearer.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

"This happened a year ago, the last time I was there", he said. "No on used their real name, as is expected in Ryoko Owari, as what happens there stays there is the adage, but we all know people talk so we use a different identity." He grinned slightly, this was well known, but it was proper when telling a story to make conspiracy between you and your audience.

"So I was at The Laughing Goblin, a fine sake house if there ever was one, accompanying me were Hachi, Keiko, Goro and Toru, or perhaps I was accompanying them, it depends on the storyteller", he nodded. "So we'd all been smoking, drinking, and generally being a nuisance at that point, it was getting late and what brought us to the goblin was the performers there, they invited the audience to do accompanying vocals with their shamisen and taiko. So a great deal of well-known drinking songs are often performed there, impromptu, by visitors."

"A few things of note", he said, stopping the tale to explain. "Goro and Toru fight over a woman, constantly. Hachi had a thing for Keiko the entire trip but so far she had been playing it cool with him. Just before we'd gone out, she and I had been talking about that very problem, which ended in us turning our rooms at the inn upside down and needing a new futon." A dead eye winked. "It's not my normal speed, but when you have been drinking for three days, you do things." he shrugged. "or people."

He leaned back in the bath a bit. "In any case, we're there, Goro and Toru can't stop bickering and Keiko is sitting too close to me for Hachi to put a hand on her thigh under the table so he's getting annoyed as well. Eventually the three of them get up, decide to go try to talk to the manager about a private room, leaving Keiko and I. She asks me if I'd get her a drink and in the two short minutes I'm doing so, another samurai is sitting in my seat. She pushes him back and to my surprise points at me as if I am some manner of obstacle for another man." He chuckled. "I admit i felt rather useful."

"In any case, the eyes made him leave", Hikimasu admitted, pointing at his dead peepers. "Yet just as we're settling down, Hachi comes back and says Goro and Toru have gotten into an actual fight. So we go look for them, but we can't find them outside or inside. The bay was just nearby, and we find Toru eventually, but he can't recall how badly he beat Goro, or where he left him after."

He sighed. "Well at that point, Keiko was out on the idea of searching and went back to the Goblin, Hachi went with her. I kept searching with Toru and eventually we found Goro, he was with Aimi, the girl the two were fighting over. I...uh...i left. I wanted no part of that." He shook his head. "Back at the sake house, Hachi had disappeared and Keiko was singing with the taiko and shamisen accompaniment. She was good, perhaps a bit too much as the samurai who had tried to talk to her before got up and shamefully, tried to make it a duet", he laughed. "Just right there in front of everyone, tried to hold her close and sing along. I almost stepped in but regardless of her kimonos, Keiko wrist locked him and threw him down, the audience laughed and she finished her tune."

"After that well", he looked around a little and shrugged. "She and I talked a bit, very drunk still. Things seemed to be going well, apparently Hachi made a move and she hadn't been open to it. I had the feeling I would get lucky again that night. Then suddenly that samurai from before came running out shouting, chased by a bouncer. He went right into the street, screaming something Ryoko Owari Forever! like some lunatic, got hit by an ox cart and tumbled over the poor animal."

Hikimasu stopped to chuckle again. Ah memories. "The bouncer, myself, Keiko, everyone on the street had stopped, but suddenly the man just pops up looking confused. He'd bent like a reed, perhaps he'd be sore in the morning, but the collision hadn't seemed to hurt him. He just kept shouting and ran off into the night."

"Which...the rest of the night went well", he said with a smirk. "Toru and Goro made up, as they always do about this, Hachi had apparently gone to a geisha house and turned up two days later, just before we all had to rejoin our unit. And that", he said with a grin. "is how the Scorpion clan tends to party."

OOC Agenda Roll
Agenda Roll with Koi, MA, Inn baths. Water/Perform. Distinction. | TN: 2 | Success: 2 / Opportunity: 0 / Strife: 0

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi sat quietly for a while just absorbing the story, allowing the water to lap against her body. Koi laughed softly, as she leant against the back before placing her head into her left hand and chuckled warmly. "That was an interesting story, Shosuro-san. I had a feeling that there would be more action! More glory! More backflips!! But I still enjoyed it none the less."

She floated for a bit longer, curiousity flickered behind her eyes. "When you say Aimi do you mean the ronin that is here at this miai out of courtesy?"

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

He shook his head. "No, I've only met her here", he said. Even if he were talking about that Aimi, he would say the same. Ryoko Owari stays in Ryoko Owari. "As I explained, the names have been changed to protect the guilty."

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi made a smile but if was clear that she was annoyed because she forgot. "Yes, I forgot that."

"Since we are telling stories, shall I share one with you?" She offered, rising up perhaps just enough to reveal softer hues of skin before settling down to be more comfortable.

[Shosuro Hikimasu]

There was no flicker of movement, but perhaps something happened, a resettling of his body in the water and then he rested back, arms over the sides of the bath.

"Koi-san I think would have great stories to tell", a nod. "Do go on."

He tried to just look her in the eye instead of letting them wander, it was probably the wrong move, but it was better than obviously looking everywhere but at her.