Dark Edge Village

With their long ride done the time they spent here seemed nearly... well, it was more relaxing than Liu Fei could have ever dreamed. Waking in the morning light bleary eyed she rolled over to separate herself from the pillows and furs that made up her bed space on her side of the Yurt. Dressed lightly in a form of nightwear Liu Fei rested her forehead against the ground. Trying to make herself as uncomfortable as possible in an attempt to will herself to get up. Never much of an early riser but with the painstaking determination not to lay in bed longer than the others this little morning practice was rather customary.

"Chikara-san," she said in Rokugani as she pushed herself into a seated position. Stretching a bit before rubbing her neck. Looking over toward her sister she collected her hair up with one hand and searched for the small string she used to tie it back with the other. Blindly grasping about the floor around her.

Liu Yue was already up and preparing herself for the day. She had propped her hand mirror against her pack as she went about checking her body. She looked over to her sister, a faint smile on her face. "The nickname might raise some eyebrows, dear sister," she replied in Mekhem with a gentle tone. She dropped what she was doing for the moment and offered her arm to pull Fei up. "Ohayou gozaimasu," she said, slower than a native samurai. "I'll get around to speaking Rokugani. Don't worry, yeah?"

Finding the tie she quickly pulled out from her hair, bringing it all out so she could collect it all again but this time leaving as few strands loose as possible and quickly tied it back into a simple tail. With that done she took the offer from her sister, pulling as much as she was pulled till she was on her feet. Still looking up to her younger sister.

"It will," she said, remaining in Rokugani. "Everything else about us will too."

Walking over to be in the spot where she could peer into the mirror Liu Yue had set up, she took a quick glance and found her current appearance satisfactory enough. Then, back to her sister. "Anyway, if the nickname holds truth, can they truly blame me for referring to you as such?"

"If not the nickname, surely they will recognize it due to my tetsubo, yeah?" She gave the woman a coy smirk. "Woe be the man who underestimates me!"

Liu Yue, however, was not quite satisfied with her sister's appearance. "Oneesan, we are to be presented as suitable marriage candidates." She walked over to her makeup kit and shot a glance back to Fei. "You best not be thinking you can convince me otherwise, dear sister."

"I don't need prodding and poking at my face to be worthy of being looked at," she said. Glancing from the kit back to the mirror then finally toward her sister.

"You're going to have to beat me to death with that Tetsubo of yours before I let you," she gave her best, overly dramatic, response in a proper attempt to convince her otherwise.

"Makeup does not make beauty, it merely accentuates it." Yue still walked closer with the kit. "I believe that the Crane and Scorpion would enjoy seeing a dolled up wife. They are that sort, yeah?" She tilted her head afterwards playfully. "But I believe the Crab may share your view on the practice."

Her face turned a bit more serious. "Say, sis, what do you hope for a husband here? Now that we're actually here..."

"For one, anyone who wants to see me dolled up can pack their bags and go home right now. I haven't the time to worry about prodding and poking being done to my face to impress them," she reiterated her displeasure with the whole makeup thing. Of course, she'd never actually let Yue do it in the past either so as far as both could remember her cited distaste with it was completely baseless. Not that it really mattered.

"Strong, capable, maybe even ambitious if I am lucky," she answered easily enough. "Someone I won't regret marrying, leave it at getting married and popping out babies to him and calling that a good life. Someone who has something worth fighting for, I suppose?" she finished her thoughts aloud and stopped looking at the mirror.

With an indirect denial she stepped away and toward her things. Sorting through them to find clothing to wear for the day.

"What if you looked at it as, well, sisterly bonding time!" she replied, half-serious, half-joking. Yue was a little upset that her sister was so unwilling to give it a shot. For her own part, the taller woman was not a huge enthusiast on makeup. She ordinarily saw it as a fun thing to do, something to separate her from being just, "the big girl with the tetsubo." Here, however, she finally saw it as a pragmatic thing to use.

"I am not surprised at all. I wonder who will meet those standards." She smirked. ""I will keep an eye out for you, my dear sister."

"I'd rather spend that sort of time sparring," she said plainly honest as she continued to sift through her things. "Or.. taking Gokiburi out for a ride or.. really, anything else. Would you really enjoy prodding at my face with your... instruments?"

Before too much time was given for a response, she added in Rokugani, "And yourself, sister, what kind of man are you hoping for here?"

"I see it as an art form. Samurai are meant to be good at art, yeah?"

Yue then paused, her thought process interrupted on the matter of her future husband. She let out a sigh. "I hope to find a man who will accept me for who I am." A vague enough answer, for her part. It was filled with half-truths. "I do not believe many would consider me a jewel to be won, sister, even if you believe otherwise."

"I would suppose, but that does not mean I wish to be your canvas Yue. Even if you are my dear sister."

"A man who will accept you," she repeated with a light laugh. "That's likely the most simple thing a woman could ask for," she said as she rose and walked over toward her sister. "And probably the hardest thing to find," she reached up and brushed a couple strands of hair. Notably revealing more of the scarred side of Yue's face.

"Many people don't know how to appreciate art, and yet you still want to prod at my face with your evil tools. You are beautiful, Yue. Strong and beautiful, and too tall to make it easy when I want to dote on my younger sister a little."

"Now it seems you do not trust me to do it well!" she jested.

Yue lowered her eyes though she made no effort to conceal her scars. She wore them openly, surely, but she disliked having any attention pulled to it. "I do not wish to doubt the wisdom of our superiors but am I do not see myself as a suitable choice for such an event. I would think it better for me to be engaged to some man randomly than to try to seek one." She let out a sigh. ""I may be strong and beautiful, as you say, but I am not a flower that the men are looking for. My place is on the battlefield."

She smiled faintly at the last remark. "Gomennasai," was all she said on the matter.

"So is mine, but I think that is more of our own choices than anything else," she said, smiling a reassuring smile as she lay her hands carefully on either of her younger sisters shoulders. Giving a light, reassuring squeeze. "This Miai is your chance to find the man who will help make you happy. Don't throw that away just because you do not believe you're enough of a flower for them... plenty of these men seem flowery enough for themselves," she commented the last with an amusingly lowered and by that measure more honest tone.

"I really hope your big sister doesn't seem like she's the flowery type that men are looking for to you," she said looking up with her eyes to give that natural inclination for Yue's head to rise up more. Proudly so.

"If they are flowery themselves, do you think they want a wife to match them or would they want a rougher woman to balance it out?" She asked this with genuine curiosity. What a Rokugani man wanted was something completely foreign to her.

Yue rose her head too, trying to fall back into the confidence she often carried herself with. She was a bushi; it was unbecoming for her to sulk. Her sister's presence simply made her comfortable to do so at times. "I did say you also belonged on the battlefield instead, dear sister. I suppose we are here to represent the strength of the Shinjo, yeah?
Can't be letting the Otaku be the only one to present warrior women, huh?"

"We are Shinjo, there is quite a bit for us to represent. We are the leading Family of our Clan. Fighting, leading, and whatever we need to do to. That is all something we are both quite capable of doing," she said with no lacking confidence.

"Which," she says, switching back to Rokugani. Turning about she went to fetch her things and began to dress, pants first. "for now involves figuring out what it is Rokugani men look for in their women and then correcting them by showing them what they actually want and need."