I Want to Know (Day 4 Late Evenng)

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"That seems fair to me," Saksaha says, her smile still a bit wry. She can imagine lots of other embarrassing situations--especially since the ones so far have all been more or less to her advantage over his, and fate has a tricksy way of evening out such imbalances--but she really prefers not to speculate on this too much. "Though it was no trouble, last time. Still, I was not raised to turn down a drink." She laughs a bit at that, herself.

Settling down cross-legged on the tatami near the lamp, she flips open her belt pouch and extracts a thin object about the length of her hand--the kiseru she'd been smoking the last time they met. She holds it up and peers into the brass bowl, then sighs. "Also wet." Alas.

[Ichiro Daisuke]

"I'll send you a invitation sometime soon then. I have a bottle of Shochu I brought from Badger lands that you might like." Sake might be a better choice, but he had polished off his first bottle yesterday, and wasn't quite ready to open his second.

Picking a spot across from Sakhasa, Daisuke also took a seat, taking a moment to straighten his kimono , though damp as it stI'll was it did little good. "Do you smoke often?" He asked, as he watched her try and prepare her pipe.

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Most days. It is good for..." she shrugs, not finding the exact word she is looking for, "relaxing. Also, it steadies the hands for fine craft work." She taps the bowl of the pipe against her palm a few times, then sniffs at it. "No good until this dries." With another sigh, she sets it aside. At least her tobacco in its watertight horn flask ought to be safe. "Shochu is the strong drink, yes? Stronger than sake?"

[Ichiro Daisuke]

"Never tried it myself." It seemed a little troublesome of a habit after all. "I do a bit of carving when I want to relax, maybe have a few cups of sake or shochu."

At her question he nodded. "Yes, it's more of something you sip, as too much of it will leave your head spinning." Much like too much of any drink. "But I like it a bit more, on a long patrol a bottle of it will last longer then sake, and warm you up better on a cold night."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Hm. It is thin like sake, also, I suppose." Which might sound a bit odd except that Daisuke presumably knows that one of the returned Unicorns' beverages of choice is the nearly-chewable kumis. "Where do you patrol? I am... I am not sure I ever heard where your Clan's lands lie," she admits. She draws her knees up and rests her crossed arms atop them, thinking that she wouldn't mind a nip of something right now to counter the persistent dampness of her clothing. Alas.

[Ichiro Daisuke]

"Yes, the thickest drink we have would likely be a nigori sake, which sadly I didn't think to bring, but even then it's not as thick as Kumis." Which was a good thing at least to Daisuke.

"Oh, my clan lands are to the north of here." He gestured in the direction, though most wouldn't recognize that fact. "In the path of woe to be precise, It's mostly mountains and small valleys, nothing like all the open space you have here. I haven't done much in the way of patrolling there though, I was only home for a few months after my gempukku before coming here."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"You did not take your gempukku in your homeland?" she asks, wondering if there's another bit of common modern-Rokugan knowledge she's missing. That Phoenix had mentioned something about a tournament; maybe that's a typical gempukku think and everyone has to travel for it?

[Ichiro Daisuke]

"I trained among the Crane instead of the Badger." He offered as way of explanation. "It's not a common thing, but even as a child I was somewhat small, so it was thought I might do well as a scout in the future."

"So my parents decided to find a School that trained scouts, as our own schools mainly trained Heavy Infantry. The Daidoji school I attended was a somewhat easy decision, as my grandmother was a Crane before she married my grandfather, so we had some connection there."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Oh." Saksaha raises an eyebrow and casts a freshly measuring eye over her companion. He looks pretty normal-sized to her, if not especially tall... but, all right, maybe the rest of his family are particularly large.

"'Heavy infantry'... this sounds to me like much walking as a packhorse does, very tiring. Scout is better, I think. Is it often that children go to study with other Clans?"

[Ichiro Daisuke]

"It is quite a bit of marching, in heavy armor, often with large weapons." He smirked. "So like a pack horse is probably a good description. I do like being a scout, it's not exactly what I wished to be when I was young though."

"But no, not many children do, I was the only one from my Fortress that left for another school." Looking back it was something of a privilege, it did come with it's costs though. "Does that sound strange to you? Sending children to study with other clans?"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Not strange." Saksaha shakes her head a little. As her hair dries, small bits of it are starting to stand out in fuzzy wisps around her temples and ears, catching the lamplight when she moves. "But you may guess, this is not something our people could do before. Always traveling... leave the children behind with strangers and you maybe will not ever come back to them. So of course we learn only from our own." She traces an embroidered flower on the wool fabric covering her knee with the fingertips of one small hand. "I wonder, will Unicorn children go to study with the Crane now? Will Badger children come here and ride with Moto ones?" An uncertain smile pulls at her mouth when she pictures this.

"What was it like for you?"

[Ichiro Daisuke]

Daisuke reached up a hand to brush his hair back behind his ear, the fuzzy bits of Saksaha's making him a self conscious of how his own must look now that it was nearly dry. "It's possible on both accounts, sometimes it's even part of marriage agreements, a son or daughter going to study with the clan the Spouse left."

"As to how it was? To be honest it was rather lonely at least at first. Crane lands and Badger land's are nowhere near each other, so it felt like I was isolated from my home, and family." He closed his eyes for a moment thinking back on those years. "Eventually though I started to make friends, and notice how different things were from what I was used to. It was fun in a sense, though I still missed home I had enough things to keep me occupied and thinking on other things.

"By the time I graduated I was honestly more worried about going home then staying, I'd gotten comfortable and while my home was in Badger lands It'd been half my life since I had been there." He traile doff.

Aall in all I think it was a good experience though, I learned a lot about the empire, including somethings I'd never have learned at home."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"It sounds... good." Saksaha nods, more in response to her own thoughts than to him. "Maybe this sounds strange to you, but to be always on the move makes a small circle of one's life. Every day we see someplace new, meet someone new--yes--but tomorrow we are riding on again. From week to week, from year to year, the ones who stay the same around us are... the same." She lets out a breath that's not quite a sigh.

"Maybe it was different in years before I was born, when the Families wandered more slowly. But for us, my generation, it was like this. It will be good for some of our children to learn what it is like to really live among others. Even if it is also hard sometimes."

[Ichiro Daisuke]

"It's not strange, it makes sense honestly. You can't really get to know someone in a day after all, so the closest you will be to anyone you meet on your journey is a acquaintance." He frowned. "It sounds frustrating in a way."

As she spoke further he nodded. "It was good for me, at least in the long run, so I think it could be a benefit to your clan as well. I mean, it could help all of you get to know the Empire better."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Yes. And you to know us better, which also is important," Saksaha agrees. "Those Unicorn who are still children now will be different even from me and others like me, maybe. See the Empire differently, be seen differently." Even though she can't be more than a few years past her own gempukku, surely.

"I think you are right, it was frustrating, but it is only now that it is all over I am realizing this. At the time there was excitement, danger, a goal in sight." Saksaha's gaze, fixed now on the lamp flame, unfocuses a little as she thinks. "Meeting people here is different from all our travels before. Here one meets each new stranger and thinks, maybe I will know you for the rest of my life."