[Day 0, Mid-Afternoon] Scorpions in the Sand

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Yes. Here I am."

He glanced at her, recalling how well she had fought when she was eight.

Had she been in Naishou, she'd almost certainly be dead now- someone in the desperate rearguard action against the Lion. Plenty of promising, excellent soldiers of the Scorpion Clan had ended up on pyres in that debacle.

"But to get to the point about spiritual insight, I couldn't tell you why. Whoever thought up this raked-over patch of sand would try to offer some reason, something about ineffable destiny. I've met very few sober bushi would even make the attempt."

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"You know... I've started to think about prayer, the fortunes...", She hung up the thought a moment, but mulled a bit too much and had to say something. "They say a man who prays and makes an offering is pious, but he will die the same as anyone else. Wouldn't the fortunes more appreciate someone who says watch this than one bargaining for a moment longer?"

She shrugged. "It isn't something I'd considered until I saw people pray before a battle "

[Bayushi Choudai]

That seemed to restore his equilibrium, and he chuckled.

"I suppose it depends on what they pray for. I'll admit, I curse more than I pray, so I'm perhaps a poor example. On the other hand, as you say, I'm here."

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"Cursing is rude, Bayushi-san", she reminded him, but she didn't seem to be chastising him, either.

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Incredibly so, Bayushi-san."

He grinned.

"But given how much time I've spent talking about myself, is that any surprise?"

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"I asked questions, perhaps you could offer me opportunity to drone about my glory instead", the young girl offered with a single shoulder shrug. "Not as if the garden offers much by way of conversation."

[Bayushi Choudai]

"It really is quite staggeringly dull, isn't it?"

He glanced at her. Young. Confident. Already more capable with a sword than he would probably ever be.

"Aside from old dojo dummies and family dinner guests, do you know anyone here?"

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"A simple Matsu girl who doesn't know anything, says little, is rightfully terrified of being here and deserves every curse of bad luck she receives...if i recall correctly she named herself Inori at our graduate ceremony", Ameiko said thoughtfully. "And of course my Lord Gaitsu who I will attend to later. Certainly you must know others as well. I haven't spoken to most but there are other members of our clan about, have you noticed them?"

[Bayushi Choudai]

"I shared breakfast with Shosuro Hatsuki this morning. Have you met her? Wait, no, I suppose you wouldn't have, she married into the Clan shortly before the war. And I believe a Shosuro actress is in attendance as well..."

He clucked his tongue.

"And this Matsu you speak of... sounds like there's a very short, very uninteresting history there. Would Bayushi-san care to elaborate if I am mistaken?"

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"Matsu Inori came to the dojo, but she did not belong", she shrugged. "In a short conversation I tried to tell her she should embrace what she is good for instead of pretending to be otherwise."

her smirk rose again, just a bit. "She was petulant about it, unsurprisingly, but eventually she did discover what her talent was. Now she is here and still depressingly overcautious about the skill she has developed...even having been sent here of all places to display it, she feels out of her depth. It lacks any self-deprecating charm and instead paints her an imposter. It is insulting to those who are proud of their work."

[Bayushi Choudai]

Hm, yes, I can see how that would grate.

"A Matsu who didn't belong in a bushi dojo? A Matsu who isn't supremely confident to the point of sounding insecure for all of the boasting? My, my. The Empire truly holds a thousand wonders every day."

He shrugged.

"Ah well. Oh! Speaking coming here to display things... I assume you won't really be offering your swordplay up as your art?"

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"I don't believe the Crane have the stomach for what I might do if they allowed it", Ameiko claimed. "Though my talent for this is much more refined and just as classic. I play the flute. Simple enough but quite difficult to be good at."

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Ah, music!"

He seemed genuinely pleased.

"Not an art I have ever even dabbled in, but it means we've brought some variety to these proceedings. Shosuro-san works with makeup- or at least she did during our time in the Painted City- so we should be sure of at least one of us making a solid impression."

Since it went without saying that none of them were scrubs in their chosen field.

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"Make up?" She wondered. "To work in Butei she must be talented indeed."

[Bayushi Choudai]

Choudai reached out with one toe and drew a line in the sand. Then another. He seemed to be writing the kanji for "sand."

"She began her training with the Kakita, I believe, and from what I have seen of her skills, she is a credit to her teachers."

Having finished the character, rolled his right shoulder a bit.

"I am less familiar with the others present, although so far I've met two Dragon and one Crane, all with varying degrees of eccentricity."

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"As one expects of an artist", she nodded at that. "My father often tried his hand at Ikebana, much to my mother's annoyance, she told him there was no need to make himself more eccentric." Assuming Ameiko resembled her mother, the gaze of dissatisfaction burning a hole in the wall of the garden's border would be an accurate portrayal. "Parents can be troublesome, do you agree?"

[Bayushi Choudai]

"I've found that mine are less trouble than my siblings, as it happens."

He chuckled.

"My parents had five of us to look after, so we wore them down through attrition and superior numbers."

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"I wasn't quite raised my mine, they were samurai, people who appeared from time to time offering praise of a scolding, but long after it mattered", she said. "The most interaction i had with them is to hear them argue or stab barbs at one another...though I suppose independently they were good parents."

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Marriage is often a difficult proposal."

Fortunes know, mine will be.

"My father was often absent, but mother ran the household, and that absolutely included running us."

A pause.

"Or trying to. Ogoe and Shino helped her a bit when they got older, but it was... help of a decidedly mixed quality."

[Bayushi Ameiko]

"My father is a fine samurai and not a complete louse, but he quite well distanced himself from my mother when I was little, perhaps the gap in their age had a large factor in that", she said. "Our servants ran the house though, despite my mother being the caretaker of it, as she had duties elsewhere often."

She sighed.

"I haven't even been home since my gempukku, though I suppose Shiken-ojii is the one I would like to see most, and if nothing else to show him how much i've improved."