(D1, MA) Well Earned Refreshment

[Kuni Yasu]

(expecting, but public)

There had been a bath after her bout in the dojo. There kind of had to be after that kind of workout.

So now tea. Refreshment, and extra energy for the rest of the day. Yasu'd found a spot at the edge of the garden porch to settle with a pot of Hitomi and several onigiri, quietly watching the dragonflies hunting across the garden.

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi quietly found herself drained from all the social dramas of the day and she needed a refreshments like no Kami's business. She roamed the tea house for a suitable for her to regain composure and found the perfect seat except a Kuni sat in it.

The Moth tightened her fists around her fan for a moment before relaxing. "A beautiful scenery, ey Kuni-sama?" She said with a shy smile. "I am Kaikoga Koi, of the Moth might I join you?"

[Kuni Yasu]

Yasu turns from the view with smile, the small gesture magnified by the crimson of her lips against the white paint. "It's really lovely, and peaceful. Summer is so much less oppressive here." She sits up a bit straighter, smoothing her new yukata. "And certainly, there's room enough. Have you ordered?" She taps the pot beside her. "A fresh pot of Hitomi. Just need to get another cup if you'd like to share."

There's a pause before a rather belated, seated sort of bow. "Ah...Kuni Yasu, apprentice to Kuni Mari. And, um...-san's fine, I'm just an apprentice. I keep looking around for Kuni-sensei when folks are addressing me with -sama, you know?"

[Kaikoga Koi]

"Ah, I am different. I am finding the Summer this low very differently, and I am not use to the humidity yet. Our lands are high in the Dragon Mountain’s and we have a good breeze all year round." She explained and accepting the seat, the Koi still dressed in her finest kimono and careful applied make up took a seat bowing her head radiantly. "However, the beauty of this city is perhaps one of most stunning cities I have witnessed."

"No, I haven't had the opportunity to order tea so please I would very much enjoy to share a pot with you." She motioned for another cup to be delivered.

"Ah? I see." She nodded her head with a polite smile. "I admit, I am a minor clan so I never know if I am talking to someone infinity larger than me in status so I walk on the edge of caution. Prepare for the worse, hope for the best. Still, a pleasure to meet you Kuni-san."

"Might I say, I adore your face paint technique. I love the way you blend your colours, I am an actress myself and I admit it is nothing compared to the reason your clan wears such colours but I would discourteous not to compliment it." She said humbly, and a slight bow of the head.

[Kuni Yasu]

When the cup is delivered, Yasu will pour to fill them, the unfussy sleeve well out of the way. "Breezes on the Wastes are hot and dusty in the summer, only scarcely better than the still heat there. But those windy days have the best sunrises and sunsets. You can see everything with no trees in the way." That was a generous assessment of the 'charms' of the Kuni Wastes. "Certainly we have no cities this lovely in my province, and Beiden was pretty basic to pass through. The market was the most colorful part of the town."

Her own cup is held in both hands, just below her chin, allowing her to smell the rich blend of dark, tannic tea edged with nuttiness. "A pleasure for me as well, Kaikoga-san. I was surprised to meet so many members of so many different minor clans," she pauses with an wry quirk to her lips. "Until I realized that I probably ought to have expected that at a minor clan miai!" She chuckles before sipping her tea, careful to let the cup only touch her lips as much as necessary, leaving a careful red imprint along the rim.

"Complimenting the skill of a Kuni's false face is a lot like noting the skill of an armorer or tailor...or an actress's makeup." Yasu offers a small shrug. "Skill is skill, and I'm glad you like it." Her smile grows more cheerful. "You should hear us exchanging tips at the solstice gathering, or I'd never have gotten this blush worked out just this morning." She 'taps' at her cheek without actually touching it. "Still thinking across the nose might be too much? Like freckles run amok, maybe? It's evolving. If I remain Kuni, I'll decide if I'm keeping it." Which frankly depended on who she brought home. "Register the change at the gathering."

"Your profession explains the skill on your own face, Lady Kaikoga. The blending's really lovely. I've only learned a bit of the Moth's work as a clan, seeing as it touches on other realms. But that doesn't tell me much about your individual duties. Are you part of a theater then, or something else?"

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi watched carefully, not to learn something out sheerly out of respect in the way each motion is placed in unison like a beautiful, elaborate dance to each a stunning goal. For a young woman from a clan known for fierce prowess against the darkest of kinds, and the worst of living nightmares the Kuni was remarkable elegant and that scared Koi as she suspected the Kuni knew that.

She raised her glass in salute, enjoying the bouquet of the tea simply enjoyed it until she partook in its divine flavour (when you spent the last 7 weeks having nothing but barley tea it all taste amazing.)

"It is our time in Autumn that are my favourite, the woods that change seem to cascade down the moutains like a wave of fire that makes the forest smells alive." She said remembering running through the woods with her father. "If you are lucky and know where to look rare spices can be found amongst the foliage."

"Perhaps the beautiful of Crab cities are how they function and flow, an organised chao to those within the city where to anyone else an interesting mystery." She suggested, silver lining and such.

"We are in similar situations, I have travelled a little but only through Dragon and Phoenix lands." She chuckled. "Never have I met such a collection of people in my life, it is almost overwhelming at first before I was reminded at the gate how small my clan is when the Bushi did not even recognise my Clan existed at all." She said sheepishly, and enjoyed the tea though she preferred sweeter fruiter brews but she still enjoyed it none the less. "Have you travelled far before?"

Koi allowed a warm laugh to roll from her, small one. "It is like when I see my Aunt, she has twelve children all females and a right terror but more beautiful than the stars but we always end up brickering and for hours about brushes and types of paint." She said with a warm smile and leant forward inspecting the Kuni's face paint. "The blush is alluring, and catches your eyes. I think a slight lighter shade of lipstick would really push your image forward." She would take for a moment or two about some pretty unique techniques that she had found through her own experimentation. "Why remove it? Can you not respect your clan and the clan you go forward marrying into? Perhaps, you could represent your new family as a sign of honour? Losing your skill would be devastating to those that wear make up, you have great potential."

She simply blushed at the compliment of her makeup, and the mark she carries of her clan. Koi mused for a moment, and sipped her tea. "Oh, please Lady Kaikoga is my mother please call me Koi-san when talking as casually as this." She asked pleadingly, in a warm kind way. "In regards to my clan, I am an actress as that falls into my duty but I also study the denizen of Yume-do and the realm as a whole. I plan to study in this castle during my stay even, I cant miss the chance to explore."

"What of you, Kuni-san?" She said warmly.

[Kuni Yasu]

The Kuni's grace is that of steadfast care and, perhaps, the ability to perceive and react well to what's around her, both critical for a researcher of dark and dangerous things. She'd likely call is precision, rather than grace. But whatever you call it, at the end of the day, the tea hasn't been spilled, so it's all good.

For her part the Moth has that delicate grace she'd expect of performers and those with clothing that's obviously meant for a court and not a battle or wasteland. She listens with a researcher's care to descriptions of autumn beauty that she's only seen in paintings and embroidery. "The journey here, there were proper forests to see near the pass. I'd never understood, really, some of the things I'd hear in conversation from scouts and the odd Toritaka of those forests around the Twilight Mountains. But the trees reaching so deep, and the scent of...just everything..." She shakes her head. "I can only imagine how much more overwhelming it is running with color." What would it be like to marry across the Empire and wind up in such a place?

She smiles with a small nod of 'perhaps,' over her tea when considering the possible beauty of Crab cities. If there was a competition for that, it was one the Crab weren't aware of and wouldn't care about if they were.

But to the question, she shakes her head. "Not so far as this. I have spent a summer at Kyuden Hida, and a season on Wall with half of one beyond it. Been around the Kuni provinces a fair bit. Training and those gatherings." She chuckles, "And yes, it's a lot like that. All family. All bickering over research, and trying to get all the details of everyone's work in the few short weeks we have." Before sipping at her tea again, she turns the question around. "You?"

"As to the makeup, it depends. It is...spiritual protection and tends to intimidate. It also spells out a training lineage that I might not belong to anymore, if the marriage contract went and tied me to a different school, or even no school at all if they just want a connection locked down by marriage and someone to manage a household." Which rather leads to that other question. "This," she indicates the paint, "also marks me by my duty, as one who seeks out and studies dark forces. There's a lot of fear and distrust of that, and it's not unwarranted. Many fall in that duty." It's all said as straightforwardly as the rest, despite being a dark subject.

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi was enjoying this conversation immensely, she was terrifyingly scared of meeting a Kuni but as a whole to this point it has been a pleasure. Really, I have to be honest the Moto from yesterday was more terrifying than the Kuni. She thought, sipping her tea as she listened to the conversation between them making small noises to show her genuine interest in the conversation.

"There is always been a part of me that wishes to see the Land of the Crab, if nothing more than to learn about your local folklore and how it matches with the studies that my clan oversees." She said with a smile, genuine and calm as she sipped her tea. "I believe everyone should have an understanding the cost of duty your clan provides for us so we live a happy life, and I hope someday I get to travel to the Crab lands."

"Perhaps, I shall at the end of this, nay?" She said warmly, sipping her tea. "I have visited most of the Dragonlands, and Phoenix lands. I spent 4 years working with an acting troupe that had myself travelling around those lands. I was wonderful but I wished we had travelled further south. I so wanted to see the plains of the Lion Clan, or the beauty of Crane. My sister works in Kyuden Kakita as an apprentice within my Aunt's Inn there and she regularly tells me stories about her time there."

Koi did not bat an eye at the dark conversation, she seemed perfectly attuned and calm to it. Perhaps, the work of Dreamweaving is not always as nice as it appears. "Might I ask you for some advice? Some information if it were from someone that walks a similar road to myself? I would be remiss if I never got the chance to ask a Kuni these questions."

[Kuni Yasu]

Yasu looks over the green and verdant garden, eyes going distant to other 'gardens' before answering.

"If you have the chance to travel there, you might want to start with the Yasuki provinces. They were Crane once, and it shows. With any luck you'll find a match that opens up some space for travel." She thinks for a moment. "Cartographers, maybe. though Imperial is kind of high to aim just to maybe gain access to that."

She turns the cup idly in her hands, though the marks of red come back to face her before she sips again, some preference perhaps for not marking the entire rim. "Advice? Certainly. Particularly if this is going to offer more information on your path. I've learned a very small bit about the Moth since you're so far away."

[Kaikoga Koi]

Koi watched the Kuni for a moment before joining her in observing the garden with a warm curiousity. Sipping her tea, she seemed entirely happy with her surroundings and strangely at peace until the Kuni mentions Imperials.

Koi pauses, perhaps for a second or two too long. Just enough to notice uneasy at the thought and she held her tea cup a little tight. "I hope that is the case, a Mantis would be fun but an Imperial, no I do not think for a moment that my wings could carry me up such a mountain."

Only to have the either burned away, or unable to have a loving embrace. She thought, her tea now tasting a little sour.

Koi watched the Kuni, and seemed curious about how she focused on her tea cup enough not to stain the rim of her cup but thought it was down to not wanting to ruin her lipstick. "Well, I shall be frank. My clan, as I mentioned study Yume-do and baku spirits that come from that realm. In the recent years, at least in last decade if not longer Baku spirits have changed most were once jovile things, that come and go with dreams but something has changed them. They are darker, malicious and corrupted in a way but from what my clan has deciphered not by shadowland corruption."

Koi had drifted from her courtier mode, as sudden as the change in tides she was talking shop. "We are still researching the matter, and I am helping where I can. My question, if I may, you said you spent time over the Wall which means you were closer to the corruption than anyone else I have ever met. Did you still dream? What were they like? Did you awaken easily? Were you riddled with nightmares? Were they lucid dreams?"

She paused herself clearly excited. "Gomen for to many questions."