Strange Ways (D6, Late AM, OPEN)

[Moto Khulun]

"What are your plans for your son?" she asks.

[Asako Hirase]

"I think the boy is going to grow into a bushi." Some scholars might lament that fact; Hirase just smiled. "He is full of energy, always wanting to run and climb and get into physical mischief. He's had more scrapes and tumbles in his three years than I ever had in all of my childhood. He is very much his mother's son. All he got from me is curiosity, I dare say, though he seems also to be taking after me in height. He is bigger than the other children his age back home."

[Moto Khulun]

“Because he likes to climb and fight he cannot be scholar and sage, or is it better that he channel such fire towards the art of warrior?” she asks.

[Asako Hirase]

"Oh, he could be one but..." It was hard to explain with logic and so, for once, he abandoned it and hoped Khulun would understand. "There's a feel to the energy of someone who lives for the path of the mind more than someone who lives for the path of the physical. That's no to say warriors aren't smart, or that scholars can't be active, but the core of each feels different. He feels like a warrior to me."

[Moto Khulun]

"You are father, you would know," she says with a nod.

[Asako Hirase]

"Have you ever thought of what you think your children would go to be? Assuming you want them, I mean." The Asako smiled. "I know that it's a problematic decision for warrior women, seeing as it takes them from the field for several months at best."

[Moto Khulun]

“I will have children, I do not doubt. I think they will be warriors, some may be sage, others may learn new ways, future is future,” she says honestly.

“Perhaps they be Moto, perhaps not but they will know of Moto.”

[Asako Hirase]

"Anyone who suggests they should not know of your heritage is a fool." A rare moment of actual ire narrowed Hirase's eyes. "There are those who will think so, for your Family especially, but you would not have been allowed to kneel to Shinjo-no-Kami if you weren't worthy. You wouldn't have fought so hard to come here if you did not see it as your true home. All that you learned, all that you suffered, is what your Lady ordered. To try and erase that...sinful, that is what it is."

[Moto Khulun]

"moto always remember, it is our way," she says.

"Stories are as your history, but not in books or scrolls alive in word and song. Past is past but always changing, it is known. We learn the songs and pass them on, and in so doing some changes... but all for the good. Some stories are sad, others violent, and others funny but still we remember and we know."

[Asako Hirase]

"Do you object to written history?" He'd wondered, but had never quite dared ask. Now, he thought, they were friendly enough that is was safe to do so. "Not saying it should replace your current practices, but as a supplement."

[Moto Khulun]

"Reading is boring," she says.

[Asako Hirase]

That set Hirase aback a moment, though he rallied quickly. "In some cases, certainly it can be." He tilted his head. "But not always. There are more scrolls than just histories, and some histories are more like plays, filled with more emotion and drama than simply facts."

[Moto Khulun]

“It is personal thing, never was much sage for learning from writing, but not all Unicorn are the same,” she says.

[Asako Hirase]

That was fair and he relaxed again, nodding. "All have our own ways of learning. I was always able to absorb much from scrolls, but many others I know required the ability to try a thing before they could retain it. Others have to be able to see another complete something they are trying to learn before they understand how it should be done. Different as all of these things are, they are all equally important and equally valid means of learning."

Thinking that over, he asked, "Are Moto generally taught by observing, then?"

[Moto Khulun]

“We learn by doing elders show the young the way to ride, the way to fight, the way to live, not much reading for me,” she admits.