(D3, LM) An Old... Friend?

[Kitsu Murato]

"I don't know about all that," he said with a smirk. "I've got all sorts of important duties like filling out paperwork to take care of. But if I must then I'm going to need enough children to keep me busy. My father was the homemaker for our family, so I imagine I've been given proper example of how to do so."

The idea of being a homemaker was apparently not a novel or foreign concept to him.

[Aimi]

"Hah. And you'd be happy, just staying in one place like that?" Aimi grins, shaking her head, "Ma, well, it takes all sorts. I'd go mad, I think, going back to a life like that."

The words just... slip out. She freezes a moment later, realising what she just said, but... fuck. Fuck.

[Kitsu Murato]

He smiled at that. "I wouldn't be unhappy to spend time with family, but I would hope to at least do some traveling and experience more of life and the empire before doing so," he replied.

Her freezing is met with a polite smile that told her that he wasn't going to press, and if she wanted to share she could do so in her own time.

"But being trained in bureaucracy, I was likely always fated to being in a relatively stationary life. But I can say with certainty that I would love to travel as part of my duty. I can imagine it would be even more fun with a spouse that was similarly inclined. Even if I only did so to support them and not out of a specific duty of my own."

[Aimi]

Slowly, Aimi lets ok a shaky breath. It's ok, he isn't pressing, there's nothing to... it's fine.

"Ah, well, if it's wandering for experience, I've met a few on a warrior's pilgrimage, though most go after their gempukku rather than marriage," she says at last, "But, a life on the move with brush and paper... a magistrate's staff, perhaps, or some manner of inspector?"

She shakes her head with a faint smile. "I think I should need a spouse who understood the need for me to stay moving. The kami are everywhere, in every tree and river, and those who need help speaking with them exist beyond the main roads of Rokugan. Wouldn't be a lasting marriage, if it can't take me disappearing up to a mountain village for a week to coax new life into their crops."

[Kitsu Murato]

He smirks at the different suggestions then makes one of his own... "Brush and paper could even be used to support a traveling priest with making Ofuda."

"Understanding is important for a spouse. But what you would likely need in a spouse in addition to that understanding would be someone with enough importance to ensure a duty that allows for travel. Well, unless you married into the Otter, since you would definitely be traveling then," he said. "Shugenja in the clans can often get stuck in a temple."

[Aimi]

Aimi snorts, and shakes her head.

"I've seen those temple priests, and I'm sure they do good work, but it truly isn't me," she says with a small smile, "I won't allow it to be me. If there is one benefit to being born on the waves as I am, it is the lack of a family to please or a lord to obey. The only one I shame by refusing a marriage offered here... is me."

And if she makes the wrong call, if she takes a marriage offered and finds out later that it was not what she expected or desired... well. She's walked away from one life already. It can be surprisingly easy to do, if you're of a mind to find a way.

[Kitsu Murato]

He nods at that. "True enough, it does give you a certain freedom. You are the only one that knows what is right for you," he says with a nod. Everyone had an opinion on propriety, honor and all that stuff, even himself. But everyone was entitled to their own life and the way they wished to live it.

Eventually he finished the small kumihimo. It was about 2 inches long with a loop tied at either end, so it could be used for hanging a charm or other decoration from one's clothing.

"So Aimi-san does not wish to be tied down, at least," he says with a smirk. "Are there any other things you would not be able to abide?"

[Aimi]

He nods at that. "True enough, it does give you a certain freedom. You are the only one that knows what is right for you," he says with a nod. Everyone had an opinion on propriety, honor and all that stuff, even himself. But everyone was entitled to their own life and the way they wished to live it.

Eventually he finished the small kumihimo. It was about 2 inches long with a loop tied at either end, so it could be used for hanging a charm or other decoration from one's clothing.

"So Aimi-san does not wish to be tied down, at least," he says with a smirk. "Are there any other things you would not be able to abide?"

"Ah," Aimi frowns for a moment, "Do not misunderstand, Kitsu-san. I should hardly have attended the miai at all were I unwilling to be 'tied down' at all. Any marriage would come with new obligations, new duties, and I should be a poor wife indeed to shun them. It is just... if I must be bound, let it be a rope with some slack, ne?"

Shaking her head, she dispels the sombre thoughts. "But no, I think of few other things that should rule it out entirely. Well. Perhaps I should insist on a spouse with some modest comforts - there seems little point to giving up the wanderer's life to live the life of a Sparrow!" She chuckles, "And what of you, Kitsu-san? What qualities do you seek here, and what flaws would turn you from even the loveliest of faces?"

[Kitsu Murato]

"So you are okay with being tied down, at least a little bit then?" he asks with a mischievous smirk. "I'll take that under advisement, while I work on my kumihimo."

"I suppose that there is only one absolute thing that I would wish to avoid in a match. I'd hope that they didn't hate me from the very beginning. I think that if it were with someone willing to work towards something more, I could look past any potential problems. All the pillow books and poems seem to compare love to some sort of flower or tree at some point, so we should be willing to do a little gardening no?"