(D0 ME) To New Strangers

[Kitsu Murato]

"Quite a lot of snow, yes. The winter blankets of snow melt in spring which floods lowland plains. The floods help with the sowing of the fields when they recede. And then the summer heats up before the start of the harvest before it all repeats. And each season has its own festivals, many of which coincide with the cycle. Winter festivals tend to be subdued with mostly indoor, at home activities," he says with a nod.

He takes another drink with a nod followed by a smile.

"And while spring and summer tend to be the seasons or new relationships and miai, winter is the season for those that are married." He pauses for dramatic effect. "For warmth."

[Kuni Yasu]

The cup held at her lips stills as she tries not to spray her mouthful of sake across the table, finally swallowing so she can laugh freely. "So there's a lot of tying Musubi's knot and a bunch of Lion children with autumn birthdays?" she asks with an attempt at scholarly seriousness, somewhat spoiled by the way her lips twitch with the grin that wants to emerge.

There is no way to tell if the drink has her flushed, but her eyes are bright with it, and her laughter has the loose and easy sound of mirth freed by sake. "Do the Lion sweep everything for the New Year? It's supposed to be the luckiest day, because the cycle has started fresh and everyone has chase the unlucky things from their homes and all, so I'm told a lot of married couples try for children then."

[Kitsu Murato]

Murato has no qualms about smiling at the comedy of it. He then goes on to explain, "It's common as a tradition, but waiting for spring for actual thorough cleaning is common for practical reasons. Nobody wants to beat a rug or air out kimono in the snow."

"And autumn births are pretty common. I'm a summer child myself. Probably an early winter or cold autumn the year before," he says with a chuckle.

He seemed mostly unphased by such talk, but the Ikoma were known to be less bashful thanks to their founder, and he had been trained by them. He probably hadn't blushed in years.

[Kuni Yasu]

"Spring for me. Things are more often aligned by when a parent rotated off the Wall for a lot of Crab families. There is no season for that." There's a deep draught from her cup. 'I'm not used to Lion so comfortable with, hmm..earthy talk. Well, Lion that aren't Matsu. With a few cups in them." She looks to the bottle. "Sake talking? Or are you always this free with your conversations?"

[Kitsu Murato]

"I diverge a bit from the Kitsu and Lion on certain ideas. Ikoma-no-shiryo was a relatively notorious man for his proclivities. I may not be so bold as he was, but I like to think that a healthy curiosity and appreciation for such topics is something he'd approve of in one learning his teachings," he replied, followed by a drink of his own. He then saw about having another bottle readied for when this one was empty.

"And when you can speak with the dead, conversation can go in odd directions. That likely influences me as much as any sake."

[Kuni Yasu]

She empties the second bottle into their cups and has a sip of hers. "Ahh, trained with the Ikoma. I suppose that makes sense when you're not one of the Kitsu as calls ancestors. One've those storytellers? Performers?" Omoidaisu isn't a word she's going to drag out of memory tonight. She's probably seen them mentioned someplace once or twice. But they're so completely unrelated to her duty that she wouldn't have taken much note of it.

"Conversation goes odd how? With um...your kind've dead folks? My kind mostly just make horrific groaning noises until you smash their skulls in. The ones as could have a conversation? Those are the really nasty ones."

[Kitsu Murato]

"Well, I can do most of the stuff other bards can do, but I'm particularly trained as a bureaucrat which is usually something saved for later in our careers. Thanks to my father's influence. Which also means I have less authority than others in my duty as well. Started my career in paperwork much earlier than most Lion do," he says with a chuckle. "A good number of Lion bureaucrats are retired officers that are familiar with logistics but can't march anymore."

He drinks a bit more himself, then refills with the bottle he ordered for both of them.

"Sometimes you'll converse with a ghost that has earthly concerns, but it can be difficult to understand what they're talking about because they may have been hanging around for a few hundred years, so everything they talk about is out of date. Sometimes it will be with some peaceful but somewhat malicious spirit that just wants to annoy you, but you want to appease it so that it will stop bothering people. Other times you'll talk to an animal spirit or trickster that just sees the world different. In all cases, it is much easier to go into the conversation with an open mind and a willingness to have a discussion that might seem inappropriate or offensive to others."

He looks about then leans it a bit to keep the next bit a little quieter.

"Had a ghost once that had written a long form poem that listed all 38 lovers he ever had, describing each one with flattering but racy details. That one was an Ikoma through and through."

[Kuni Yasu]

Hmm, well a bureaucrat was probably safer for someone likely to be interrupted at odd moments by a spirit. That kind of distraction was not great on the battlefield. But at the catalogue of spirits, her eyes widen. "So it's not just ancestral things you see and talk with. Huh. To bad you didn't get ta train with the Toritaka. But...even if that's kinda their thing, not many'd train with a Minor Clan, I 'magine."

She giggles at his revelation, one hand across her mouth, carefully not touching the paint. Though her look sobers a bit, paradoxically, as she finishes her cup and sets it close for a refill. "How Ikoma are you then, Kitsu-san? Already composing your poem?"

[Kitsu Murato]

"Well, with my gift, they originally sent me to the Shugenja dojo for my family. They believed I could speak with the kami as well initially. Training revealed otherwise, so there was no real option for arranging training outside the clan. They tossed me in an Ikoma class and I got some tutoring from my dad on bureacracy," he explains, not really seeming upset with how it turned out.

At her question, he smirked. "In the grand tradition of that one Ikoma spirit, that's a poem I'll have to take to the grave." Even though he was being playful about it, there was a hint of embarrassment that suggested his poem had a grand total of zero lines.

He considered returning the question, but he figured that there were more interesting things about her that he'd want to know. Like... "Why? Are you a big fan of poetry? Maybe just racy poetry?"

[Kuni Yasu]

"If I am...are you sure you want to tell me I'll have to kill you to hear it?" Her grin is teasing.

"But no. I mean yes, I'm a fan of poetry, but not specifically the racy sort. There's this amazing cycle of moon-viewing poems by Hida Satori." There's only a brief pause for a sip of the sake that can certainly be blamed for not stilling her tongue at that. "He was already slowly slipping into madness then due to the taint he'd begun falling to. I like to think he knew that, and it sharpened his appreciation for all that he stood to lose. There's this whole part of the cycle where he really seems to feel the shiftiness of the moon with like, the slipping of his mind. It's amazing and a little terrible to read."