[Day 5, MA] Fortifying Sustenance (Expecting)

[Matsu Inori]

This Matsu was plenty nervous and keyed up. Not only was today one of the presentations for which she thought she could actually make a good presentation, but also run-ins with imperials, research into spiritual matters and other things...

It was a bit much. If nothing else a hearty meal would help her settle down and prepare.

She ran the paltry few coins she still had through her fingers. This would set her back further, but....

Can't be helped. I cannot focus on this now, I have other things to deal with. Plus.....food!

This was her frame of mind as she walked into the one tea house she knew was also offering good food.

None of that spicy tofu, mind you.

[Bayushi Choudai]

His choices had been to get utterly hammered to the point where a magistrate could have dragged him off, insult someone so he could get into a good clean physical fight, devote serious efforts to planning the murder and/or disgrace of the woman he was supposed to marry, or visit his business investment to calm down.

So he had opted for the last one.

He was nursing a Honey Ginger Chamomile and wondering just how bad things were going to get if he didn't do something about it, when he spotted the young Matsu entering the establishment.

He made a sign to Akujin that the Lion's meal would be on him, but otherwise stayed where he was. If the Matsu wanted to talk to him, she would. If she didn't, well... that was probably better for her, the way things were going.

I haven't felt this fucked over since the Painted City- and I doubt I'll find any obliging ronin to murder here.

[Matsu Inori]

Inori had just ordered and was about to look for a seat when she spied another familiar figure.

We keep running into each other she thought, and the Scorpion looked bothered. Which surprised her a little - to her it had always seemed like these fully grown adults, not undersize-pretend adults like her, had figured things out and had the stability and all the answers.

It's probably nothing too bad. He has it under control.

And besides, bringing it up might embarrass him, so...but it would be rather impolite to avoid him, and besides, Inori did want to say hello at the very least.

"Bayushi-san!" she said as she approached. Nervous, keyed up and entirely too chipper "Well met! May I join you?"

[Bayushi Choudai]

He thought about it for the space of a heartbeat.

He'd conversationally savaged someone earlier in the day, true, but only after the first hostile action had been taken by the target.

The young Lion, on the other hand... she was a samurai and therefore by definition not innocent, but she'd never been anything but pleasant. Helpful.

Hardly like a Matsu at all.

"Matsu-san, I would be honored. I must apologize, however, if I am somewhat poor company. The day got off to a less than optimal beginning. It makes for odd moods."

[Matsu Inori]

She felt just a moment's apprehension...then sat down opposite the Scorpion.

Funny how that works. You always hear it's a bad thing to trust a Scorpion, or even deal with one, and anyone who does must clearly be an idiot. And yet...here I find myself

Some perspective, that.

"Less than ideal beginnings, huh?" she asked "I won't pry, I think, but I hope it's not too bad. We still have another major presentation tonight, after all"

She leaned back, allowed herself to feel some of the strain of these last few days

"It is a rough schedule, that. Every single night, and hours of work put in before then"

[Bayushi Choudai]

"It's the only time I feel relaxed here, to be honest."

Well, that was a lie, but Inori didn't need to know how simply being around Hatsuki made him feel alive in ways he normally didn't.

"None of the other business, just the work and the reactions. And getting to see what others come up with."

He paused. SIpped his tea.

"But I expect it's different for each of us."

[Matsu Inori]

"To me it always feels strange" Inori confessed.

"I did not take up the brush to show things to others, to me it was a means to make sense of things for myself. To fix things I saw so I could remind myself, and to...help myself figure things out. I've worked pretty consistently on this talent for the last 2 years, and feel like I've gotten proficient."

The Matsu shifted a bit in her seat.

"Although I cannot hold a candle to some of the others here, I feel I am one of the least accomplished artists here. But there is some...freedom, to it. The expression, and for better or worse it's noticed. I can see why it would be nice for Bayushi-san to be recognized for doing a thing he loves"

[Bayushi Choudai]

Oh, I'm recognized, all right.

"I think you sell yourself short. Your technique may not be to the strictures of, say, a Kakita Artisan, but it's... fresher. More alive."

He was warming to his subject a bit.

"Art that is made expressly to a standard and follows all existing convention isn't art- it's simply a reproduction. I could make thousands of gyoza to a set recipe. They wouldn't be art, they'd just be food."

He paused. Chuckled.

"It's a distinction I think eludes our judges, of course, but it's their contest to judge, so that's that."

[Matsu Inori]

Inori considered this for a second. And then the Lion in her came through, just for a bit

"Which is a very Crane thing for them to do. Preserve the good traditions of the empire and all that."

One of which is that their Clan gets spoon-fed prestige, position and wealth by the throne without earning much of it she added mentally. That said, this is still a Crane city, so I should not go overboard here.

"I wasn't really aware that what I did was even considered art in the eyes of others until I came here. It is....heartening. Agree on your other point, however: Treading a well-explored path is not art. It is very worthwhile in some cases, these things are done because they work, but it's....work. Not art. Intent matters, Bayushi-san. At least I think so."

[Bayushi Choudai]

"And that, Matsu-san, is why I find conversations with you so refreshing. Makes me feel better about the future of the Empire."

Thank the Fortunes for Hatsuki. Our child or children will probably be the only offspring I ever produce. I just hope the kid or kids take after their mother.

Sip.

"Of course, I would hope that in future, whoever hosts one of these, manages to find a more... varied slate of judges. After all, a Clan may host the event, but the office is Imperial. If the Scorpion host, I would hope that we pay the artistic traditions of the other clans the respect of selecting an outsider to help judge in addition to one of their own."

He was pretty sure Inori wasn't backing the Scorpion bid to host the next Sapphire tournament, but he wasn't about to hold that against her. In most artistic matters, he preferred to let people make up their own minds.

[Matsu Inori]

"As with the arts themselves, I would think that the venue they are hosted in is likewise improved upon now and then. Experience is good, learning from it even better" she said, with a smile

"Although I would rather hope Shiba-sama's clan also shares that sentiment"

Unspoken went the opinion that the Mantis would certainly not, if anything there is little that clan was good for at all, no matter in what area.

"I do wonder how imporant the sapphire championship really is. Whether the contest itself, and the art produced and the connections made, or the work of the ambassadors, is not the more important good. Duty, in a sense, over glory"

[Bayushi Choudai]

"I suppose we'll see what the judges of the first Sapphire Tournament decide."

He certainly didn't expect them to pick him.

"I think at this point, they, far more than we, are the ones on trial for how these events will be conducted going forward."

[Matsu Inori]

More unexpected ruthlessness. Inori couldn't help but agree though, even if the thought had not occured to her.

"Quite so. They're in the view of the public as much as we are, huh?"

Sip.

"If any of us are appointed as one of these sapphire ambassadors...and I am not sure if that happens and how that is decided...what would you do?"

That was a question she herself had pondered recently, and so she was curious to hear Choudai's thoughts on the matter.

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Presumably never again find myself arguing with some rear-echelon bureaucrat about how much millet I can get from the stores for the army."

He sighed.

"Jokes aside, 'ambassador' implies travel, but as one would be an ambassador of the arts, they might well be doing that travel within their own clan's lands. I think all would find their duties... altered."

In his case, he might have duties he didn't find either boring or awful.

"It's hard to say. It might be nothing but a pretty title and a reason to get invited to various provincial courts. Or it might amount to more. We simply can't know. It might well end up being what we make of it."

[Matsu Inori]

"What we make of it, huh? That's almost back to square one" she said, contemplating her dish of fried duck over rice with vegetables, debating whether she should pick at it to play for time.

The food deserved better than that though.

"I guess part of being a full Samurai is having more freedom, relatively, but having to figure out what to do with it. For better or worse. We'd normally be following orders, but sometimes...maybe there is a choice in how to follow them while staying as close to the spirit of fealty. Benefitting our clans or family by making choices they don't understand, that we have to make..."

Inori frowned.

That had not been a comfortable thought for her.

[Bayushi Choudai]

"Easier for some than others."

Sip.

"And it's quite the balancing act, when to make those choices."

Like impersonating a dead man I'm not entirely sure wasn't killed by the Scorpion to make his name available in order to rot the heart of a province, only to find out the dead man's life I was stealing was, in many ways, vastly more pleasant than mine.

"And I think you have a reasonably good chance of being put in the position to make them."

[Matsu Inori]

Again the Scorpion seemed...unsettled by something, and Inori had no idea what that was. And no polite way to ask.

"Yes, I supposed. I have to make choices soon - since the way back to what I was is closed now, and this strange talent I have...I feel I have to make use of it somehow, they'll definitely expect me to. Right now they're not really expecting much, I fear - until I got the invitation to this event"

paired with a strong suggestion to go since it was not really an "invitation"

"Basically discharged from my clan's armies, but not really given other duties. In a very real sense if I can make this, I finally have some kind of defined duties again"

[Bayushi Choudai]

"I'm a bit surprised they haven't already found a defined role for you, Matsu-san. You completed your gempukku at a prestigious institution, you've conducted yourself well here..."

He shrugged.

"But Lion Clan decisions are none of my business."

[Matsu Inori]

True enough, I suppose. And he doesn't know....nor should he. There is a reason this was not much talked about...

"You are of course correct, Bayushi-san, and most respectful. It's just that my career took a pretty sudden turn - but if anything a posting as a sapphire Ambassador would seem like a graceful out for everyone involved."

She drank her...tea?

What was that? Definitely not the Barley tea or Bancha I am used to...

"The question is what to do with it, I suppose. I wonder if there are more out there like me, that I can help"

[Bayushi Choudai]

"You can do worse than try to find out. And I'm certain the Phoenix would take an interest."

Sure, they'd probably be condescending about it and the Isawa would claim to have done something similar centuries ago before moving beyond it, but they'd be interested.

Something twisted in the heart of Bayushi Choudai.

"Whatever you do, Matsu-san, whoever you help or go to for help... I know you'll be trying to do the right thing. And probably succeeding more often than you fail. And thank the Fortunes for that."

He chuckled.

"That may sound strange, coming from me, I know. But..."

He trailed off, then seemed to regain himself.

"... but it's the truth. And you should hang on to it, because it's more valuable than you can know."