(D0 ME) To New Strangers

[Kitsu Murato]

Kitsu Murato walked into the sake bar to have an evening sip. He had appeased the ancestors, now it was time to appease himself. Not that he drank a lot, but he did drink small amounts pretty frequently.

[Kuni Yasu]

Finally clean of road dust and dressed in brand new clothes--sleeves still showing faint creases from where they'd been folded while sitting at a shop--Kuni Yasu was ready to sample the local watering hole, check out the patrons, and dose up just enough to sleep in a bed in an inn full of noises she wasn't used to hearing every night.

She'd carefully re-applied her face paint after the bath, leaving the lines sharp and the colors bright without the layer of dust everything had picked up earlier in the day. There were enough people at this hour that seats might be somewhat scarce, and her instincts, from many a Crab establishment, picked up immediately on a small table along the left wall. Possibly the locals left it for last for a reason. Yasu trusted in her abilities to handle the possible reasons and headed for it, not paying much attention to any other newcomers who might be headed the same way.

[Kitsu Murato]

Murato moved in the same direction as the Kuni, having ordered a bottle of sake. When he noticed someone else headed to the same table he nodded to her.

"Share a table and a bottle?" he asked.

[Kuni Yasu]

Glancing down then up, Yasu grins and pauses with a 'please chose a seat' gesture. "Guess the next bottle's my responsibility then?"

She offers a bow before taking whichever seat Murato doesn't aim for. "And since my moms taught me never to drink with strangers, I'm Kuni Yasu, apprentice to Kuni Mari and candidate for the Deer to work with at the miai for the next few weeks."

[Kitsu Murato]

He picks a seat and sets the bottle on the table. "I am Kitsu Murato. And my mom always told me that strangers make the best drinking partners. They tend to tell stories that you haven't heard before, so you have more fun with them," he replied with a grin, pouring a drink for Yasu before himself.

[Kuni Yasu]

"But with introductions, we are no longer strangers. Important if one needs to drag a new drinking partner home," she wraps a hand around the cup and lifts it, but waits a moment while Murato fills his own cup, "or for shouting a warning if the next table over starts a brawl." Sake sloshes a bit onto her fingers as she raises the cup with a bit too much vigor in not-exactly-a-toast. "I think it's stranger friends you need for the best fun," she adds with a short nod before drinking, the 'sip' finishing about half the cup, leaving bright red marks from her fresh lip paint.

"So how strange are you, friend Kitsu?"

[Kitsu Murato]

"I'd ask my friend Kitsu Taiko to tell you about how strange I am," he says raising his own cup to where he could sense the spirit. "But unless you can speak with the dead, he won't be able to share with you."

He drinks along with Yasu for the first cup, then refills once she has.

"A little strange, a little not in my estimation. I can speak with the ancestors as many of the most skilled of my family can, but it's not as controlled and I did nothing to train for it. Though the conversations with these spirits," he says as he pours, indicating the bottle, "...tend to be more fun."

[Kuni Yasu]

There's a solid pause in drinking, talking, and movement as Murato mentions his dead but still sharing friend. "Ah..hmm...should he be addressed as Kitsu Taiko-shiryo then? or..." Yasu's lips press together. "I know a little about the reputation of the Kitsu and their ability to contact those honored ancestors, but I hadn't heard that they tended to hang around. Little nervous about dead things that talk, otherwise, in my line of work. She shrugs a bit, with a slightly apologetic smile. "You understand, yeah?"

"In light of that, I'd say yes, the spirits in almost any bottle are better for conversation than any of the dead ones"

[Kitsu Murato]

"Understandable. Though I can't say I truly know your duty."

"For others it's probably better to use his full name and honorific. But I carry his sword because he asked me to as he has no living family, he taught me the basics of how to use it, he wakes me up when I'm sleeping sometimes, like a jerk, and we've known each other for years. So he's Taiko to me. Kind of a friend, kind of a demanding mentor," he says with a smirk.

"But his memory is worth drinking to, and I do so now and then. That's a little bit of my strange. How about you?"

[Kuni Yasu]

Her eyes widen "Oh! So he's tied to the blade? Maybe an awakened spirit or..." She quiets the rest of the questions with another drink, setting the cup down for that refill, eyes on his sword. "Not to be rude, but, well, never knew a Kuni as regretted a bit of caution so... have you had it examined for, hmmm," she taps a finger on the edge of the cup as she choses words for non-Crab, "influences from other realms and so on?" She glances in the direction he'd lifted the cup, then back at the sword, speaking to the latter. "No offense meant, but it's hard to be too careful when it comes to souls."

The explanation seems to ease her mind a bit though. Honestly, walking around with a tainted blade ought to be causing him other problems if he's had it a while, and he at least seems ok. Still, she casually, but not at all subtly scoots the cup to rest against the smooth green beads of the bracelet on her left wrist, glancing at it occasionally, as if it might start blackening immediately if there's some dark magics infused into the sake (it wouldn't).

"As for my strange...most folks just kind of stop at the name Kuni, you know?" She chuckles a bit. "But, I guess I've sometimes thought one of my own ancestors was watching out for me. Not like actually talking to me or anything. But more like omens? Great-grandma's charms are some of the more accurate bits in my divination kit. Also flowers. She had a thing for them so...sometimes I follow hunches where they're involved and it works out?"