[D4 LA] Serving Tea II: Electric Boogaloo (Amaya's Yurt)

[Soshi Taira]

For a long moment, Taira let the silence stretch out again, listening to the thunder.

After an almost uncomfortable silence, he nodded, reaching up to scratch his chin. It was beginning to show some stubble, and he'd need to shave.

"Good. Too many people think the past is no longer connected to the present, only as far as they themselves are concerned. I hope those things you were will help you shape what you yet will be into something that honors your lord, and honors your spouse, and honors you."

[Ide Amaya]

She nods in agreement, he's intelligent, I would almost say wise, though the word brought more to mind sages with long, thin beards and milky eyes. "What more can one ask for in their lifetime?"

[Soshi Taira]

Taira gave a small snort of amusement.

"What one can ask, and what one can expect, are very differing things, Ide-san."

With a faint sigh, he added, "In all honesty, if we only manage to live a life of duty, we have done well. If we manage happiness as well, then we are blessed indeed."

[Ide Amaya]

She thinks of Hideo, painfully aware that that what the Fortunes see fit to give, they can just as easily take again. "I don't ask the Fortunes for happiness, but if they are good, then I will be happy." She pauses and carefully adds, "and if they aren't, duty still remains."

There's something in the cast of her eyes, she's searching, the Fortunes have been cruel to him in this life, she decides.

[Soshi Taira]

"I would not put my trust in fate. It has a sick sense of humor, and that's coming from a Scorpion."

With a slow breath, he added, "That said, they may give you enough chances that you can seize something worth holding, in the flow."

[Ide Amaya]

If Amaya has on, it is a poor one. Her eyebrow rises as the Scorpion's bitterness. She presses her lips together, all the things he's seen, but something cuts him deeper than a blade.

"Trust? No." She shakes her head, she has no words of comfort for this man, no matter how dearly she wished to bandage his spirit the way he bandaged her kin's bodies.

[Soshi Taira]

With a small shrug, Taira added, "Still, every day that you are alive is another chance. Use it well, and you can grasp onto the good in life ever tighter."

A soft chuckle. "It is not all terrible, Ide-san."

[Ide Amaya]

She reaches for her tea cup before remembering that it is empty. "We do what we can in this life, and begin anew to try again."

[Soshi Taira]

"Hai."

Taira raised an eyebrow. "Do you know the Tao?"

[Ide Amaya]

She wants to say no, to avoid any possible embarrassment of further questions, but, trustingly, she replies, "a little."

[Soshi Taira]

"Ah, I wasn't sure if you'd had a copy on your travels."

He nodded.

"The little teacher has much to say on the subject of improvement and learning."

[Ide Amaya]

Shaking her head, "I have personally never seen a copy. Fragments, though if they were the remains of full copies, or simply extracts, I cannot say."

[Soshi Taira]

"Ah. I recommend it. It is a worthwhile read."

He tapped his chin.

"I wonder if there are any copies around."

[Ide Amaya]

"I was speaking to one of the Phoenix yesterday. He was certainly interested in the lack of Unicorn records." She puts a kettle back over her firepot to heat more water, "though I'm not sure I would have enough time to read the work and have it back to anyone before the ma-ai ended. I shall instead hope to lay hands on a copy soon after my marriage."

[Soshi Taira]

"Ah. Well, that sounds fair. I imagine a library would be difficult to drag behind you, everywhere you went."

Taira contemplated the image of that, and it amused him, slightly.