D6EA, Black and White and Purple All Over (Expecting)

[Shika Nesshin]

"That happen often?" Nesshin asks, laughing again. "But it's a good idea, really. Must make things easier for peacekeeping and all that.

"Which reminds me: Your Clan-mate, Ide Tomeo. Spoke with him about work a few times. Have you had the pleasure? Quite instructive about magistrates' work, in which I've some interest."

~~~~~
Agenda roll, https://sakkaku.org/rolls/1096, passed at 301
+2 Agenda Points

[Moto Mitsuki]

"Often is relative, but I would say it's not uncommon for troops patrolling the western border of Rokugan and thus can have very boring days and nights sometimes. Of course it doesn't happen every day either, as they would make poor guards if always drunk or hungover. One of the many skills a good commander has to acquire is a good enough reading of the situation to know if they can allow their soldiers to party or not on a given night."

Mitsuki summoned her mental map of the people she knew in the city, and find no Ide in it:

"Nope, don't remember ever seeing him. Is he of the Emerald Magistrate's companion or one of the miai participants? There are so many of us, I tend to keep track of who's there unless they're especially flashy."

[Shika Nesshin]

"I believe he's in the miai," Nesshin replies, "although I'm told he has a magisterial appointment. So it's probably good you don't know him."

Nesshin shrugs. "Who's been, as you say, 'especially flashy' in your eyes?" He grins. "Anyone of whom Musubi-no-kami speaks to you?"

[Moto Mitsuki]

"Those are two different questions. I will only answer one.

The Moth girl is always fluttering around here and there, and she does not go unnoticed.

The Asahina is just too tall for him not to stand out in a crowd.

Behind each tree of Kyuden Shika, an Otter seems to wait in hiding.

Whoever bears the chrysanthemum is doomed to shine in the light."

[Shika Nesshin]

"You've met Asahina Bo, I take it," Nesshin replies, thinking There're two Moths, but I can guess which, as well as, yes, several Otters--and two Seppun I've seen so far. "Seems a gentle type, really, though with an appreciation for cooking, as might be expected.

"But, ah, here's one selling rain-gear! Oiled canvas, among others, if memory serves."

The vendor approaches, bowing obsequiously.

[Moto Mitsuki]

"I'm neutral on the fabric itself, but please let it be light and well-ventilated.

As a woman of the desert, I'm used to hotness, but of a wholly different kind. Here I'm learning about the concept of relative temperature, and how the laws of thermodynamic make humid and moderately hot more uncomfortable than dry and very hot.

I have a fondness for white also, but I think this goes without saying."

[Shika Nesshin]

"Thermodynamics?" Nesshin asks, the character not having had the benefit of high school physics as his player has.

He shakes his head. "But I take your point about the color; I think black and white look good on you," he avers. "But then, I said so much before, when we met in the woods.

"I'll note, though, that spicy foods are a benefit in this weather. They make it more bearable by far, and there's a soup stall that does a wonderfully peppery broth."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"Something a Qamarist alchemist tried to explain to me once. It was about why the hammam – a sorta very hot artificial onsen – turns hotter when you add more steam to it, when logic would have that water would be refreshing instead.

I won't lie and tell you I understood everything they told me. But the Qamarist usually know their science well, so they were likely right."

Mitsuki asked to test one of the coats, a black and white one with a classic motif on cranes on the back. She however looked skeptical at how low it dropped on her small frame, way past her knees.

"Dunno about if that one will be practical while on horseback. Yes, it's totally a cliché, but any cloth I cannot wear while riding is just no good. Did you know that in the Moto, even wedding gowns are designed with riding in mind, down to having good old ridding boots under the petticoat?

And yes, spicy food sounds good indeed. Does the Deer have spicy specialties actually? Until now, I've mostly tasted the sweet ones."

[Shika Nesshin]

"Qamarist?" Nesshin stumbles over another unfamiliar word--but he seems to have pronounced it well enough.

"But, no, I didn't know about the Moto wedding gowns," he continues. "Might be worth seeing, though--and the bit about being ready for riding makes sense, even aside from a wedding night.

"As to food," he continues, his innuendoes being as much a cliche as Unicorn riding at this point, "as a whole, no; there's appreciation for spicy, of course, but we don't necessarily grow much pepper here. From what I hear, soil's not the best suited to it--or was it the trees? Can't recall. But it ships in easy enough."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"The Qamarist Caliphate is a civilization far to the west that's... Kind of a mix between the Crab, the Crane and the Phoenix? They build in stone, but since they don't have a dangerous enemy next door their architecture is less purely functional and more ornamental, and they're renown for their scholars and libraries.

They're also the main trading partner of the Unicorn in the west, and the key to get goods from even further west."

She gave a try at a smaller, jacket-like, rain cloth, with no motif.

"Hmm, maybe that one, with a matching hat and skirt...

Not me who's going to tell you why you can't grow spice here Shika-san.

Ask me about the road, the desert, horses, myths and legends all you want and I'll answer. Maybe not perfectly, but I'll answer.

Ask me about anything requiring to have stayed for some time in one single place, for example the year-long cycle of agriculture, and I'll suddenly become as ignorant as a newborn kid."