[D6 EA] Watching the lancers

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"If we agree on that, don't you think this is wee bit complicated, considering the aims of the miai?" Dong-Ha frowned. "I mean, I guess it's a pleasant distraction, but we could have held games and the actual pairing part separate, no? Have some fun, play some games, get drunk, eat well... and when all's said and done, and we knew each other a bit, toss names into a helmet and draw out pairs. Just make sure you have enough helmets."

"Well, the scoring that was presented before the event definitely did not favor us. Of course this could be Ide-dono being a gracious host." Not that he knew, either. "Uh... I am not sure anyone wants to marry anyone's cream, Doji-san..." the young mystic muttered, seemingly flustered.

[Doji Fukawa]

Fukawa listened to the mystic while watching the sake lord.....do surprisingly competently. At least as good as the Matsu, AND he stayed on.

She turned back to the Iuchi.

"If you don't mind me saying so, Iuchi-san, you seem to have something personal against the format of the miai. Is there someone you don't like, planning on claiming you as theirs, or someone who you wish to marry, but likely cannot arrange?"

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"It seems just so random." he shrugged. "I am sure I can come to love my future wife, with or without all this." Dong-Ha waed his hand at the jousting arena. "Well, as long as they are someone remotely kind and caring." the young Unicorn shuffled his feet. "This is not our way, and by the sound of it, this is not the way it's done at the Empire either. It feels... so forced."

[Doji Fukawa]

Aha, Day six and no confidence in who he is marrying. thought Fukawa.

Next in the joust was Butaj! Surely his lack of courtly graces would now be shown to be the price of his mastery of the lance!

Or well, at least his ability to ride a horse. Was this really a Unicorn weapon, or did someone just think it was an amusing idea for one?


"If you don't mind me asking, Iuchi-san." Fukawa says. "What is the Unicorn way?"

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"For the most part people have married who they've wanted to. Well, assuming their parents agreed to such an union. Some would even marry people of other tribes, like my grandfather. Well, as long as they were not too closely related. Shinjo's Law forbids that. Politics didn't play a huge role." he explained. "I mean, the higher ups. Daimyo and their children might have to consider alliances and such, but us commoners... you'd just marry someone you fancied." As long as they didn't lose their face and mind to the Nothing. "And we managed for eight hundred years."

[Doji Fukawa]

Fukawa watched as the fattest fox you ever did see jiggle her way across the field, only to be felled on the third pass. Were she a Scorpion, Fukawa would have sworn she bounced a foot up in the air when she landed on her blubbery butt.

She considered the Iuchi's words.

'And we managed for eight hundred years.' I have a feeling that phrase is going to be all over Winter Court this season and will apparently be spouted by Unicorn and traditionalist alike. Fukawa thought.


Fukawa shrugs.

"The situation in the Empire is different, and has been for those same 800 years, Iuchi-san." she retorts. "Even with the addition of the Moto, your people rode with a single purpose in mind. Your family daimyos rode with you, and took the same risks alongside you. Even when you split up, you still had one goal in mind: Finding threats outside the Empire and returning."

Fukawa gestures towards the cornucopia of colors milling about with the lances.

"But here, there are multiple Clans with multiple purposes. The Crab guard the south against monsters. The Crane bring culture and art to the Empire. The Dragon seek enlightenment. The Lion perfect the art of war against their neighbors. The Phoenix strive to master magic. The Scorpion do what must be done, but never spoken of. Each clan has a different purpose, and each will defend their purpose with their very lives. There is no unity of purpose between the clans, save serving the Emperor, and the clans will spill each other's blood for the right to manage one more rice paddy in the Emperor's name."

Fukawa sighs.

"So marriages must be political to achieve some sort of understanding between the clans. 'We will stop fighting over this river, and here is someone dear to us, so you know we will honor this arrangement.'

Fukawa shakes her head.

"Marriage for love is a wonderful thing, Iuchi-san. But it is not normally something one is fortunate enough to experience. Not when negotiations to end a war might hinge on your third cousin being related somehow to the other negotiators."


Fukawa was fairly passionate about this topic. She was also very happy about how things had worked out for her, but realized that it was not normal, and that the Unicorn were going to have to come to understand this to integrate into the Empire.

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

Dong-Ha for his part paid no heed to the blubbery butt as the Crane occupied his attention. He couldn't help bu tfeel slightly bad for Akil. It wasn't as if the Crane was not pretty or knowing... it was that the Crane seemed to think she knew everything better and Akil would end up repeating the words 'yes dear' a lot.

"Oh, I have been told so. But if that is a case, surely the miai could have been an introduction to the actual ways of the Empire and not an elaborate show." Dong-Ha spread his hands to indicate his frustration at the matter. "Sure, the clans have their roles. I am not sure how it's relevant to this."

"Uh-nuh." he nodded. "Sometimes that is the case, yes. Even among us. When the Ujik-Hai, the Moto became part of us, many unions were set up to facilitate that. However... I don't think anyone was forced." The Empire might have been the spiritual home of the Unicorn, but Dong-Ha could not avoid the notion that some things had been easier when they had been on their own. However, duty had called, literally, and there was no way the Unicorn were going to disregard their ancient oaths.

"And love is many a splendored thing. Yes. Love is what buds between the two over the years. It's something precious... something you have to work for. It has nothing to do with this. Marriages ought not to have anything to do with this." he pointed at the horses waiting for the lancers. "If we are to be wed, surely there is a way less... random."

[Doji Fukawa]

Mystics..... thought Fukawa as she listened to the somewhat disconnected and disjointed reply of the Unicorn. The problem with mystics was that they always felt the need to be somewhat...well, mystical about things. Words...drawn out for....no reason. Answers that were sort of connected to what you were saying...but not really. How many carefully worded, and logical agreements had the Empire lost because some opium addled mystic had....a vision?

As he rambled on, Fukawa returned her gaze to the lancers...which was not much better, as a Phoenix was taking the field, and doing well. Fukawa wished that the Phoenix hadn't turned their backs on the Crane to serve the Lion. She even wished the Scorpion hadn't given in to the Lion when they needed food. Peaceful scholars and scheming deceivers, both somehow united under the Lion banner. Would they someday overthrow the Emperor?

The mystic seemed to have run out of fumes, so she turned her attention back to him.

"Indeed, Iuchi-san, pray tell what is that?" she asked. "It is easy to find fault in things. Creation is a much more difficult task. I assume Ide-dono came up with a list of traits that were desirable or undesireable to a partner. Each of the Unicorn's families proposed two tests of skill for ten in total. What system do you counter-propose that is better?"

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"Well, they could have left the matters to... nikudo?" he stumbled over the foreign word. "I have been told that there are people who are well versed in finding people their matches. If we need to make political alliances to unite the Unicorn with the Empire, and mind you, I don't think that's a bad thing, why not do it properly, like it has been done before?"

"Surely that method would create better pairings than.. than this." Dong-Ha sighed. "I'm fine with games and all, I just don't have to see why the miai has to be built around them. We could have had games... and those nikudo people. All the fun and proper alliances."

[Doji Fukawa]

Nikudo? The fish restaurant at the end of....ah, he means nakodo . she thinks.

She watches as a figure in purple takes to the field....and utterly fails to live up to the color.


"The Crane have a long tradition of offering nakodo services, Iuchi-san." she corrects without calling out his mistake. "But there are two problems with relying upon such an individual here. The first is that since all the clans are represented here, finding someone who everyone would accept the judgement of would be hard. For example, the Lion and Scorpion contingents would certainly not accept a Crane nakodo, nor would the Crane accept a Nakodo from the Lion or the Scorpion. There is simply not enough trust that they would not pick the marriages in the best favor of the Nakodo's clan, be that marrying them to the best of the Unicorn, or wedding the worst of the Unicorn to their enemies."


"The second problem is that it would be very hard to find someone capable of judging the quality of the Unicorn samurai. There simply are no experts on what makes a good Unicorn marriage prospect outside your own clan. And things have changed a great deal in your time gone from the Empire for a Unicorn Nakodo to correctly gauge marriage candidates from other clans."

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"I admit not being well versed with politic, but, but would anyone had an issue with the Emperor's own people?" he nodded at one of the Otomo waiting for his turn. "You would think none would dare to doubt their fairness." Dong-Ha had an idea how 'fair' the Imperials were, but that was not something he was going to point out in public, not after what the smallest of Matsu had told him. "And they'd have no reason to favor one clan over the others, either."

"Well, that's fair, but it's not like this tournament will reveal anything a normal tournament held before miai would not have?" He wasn't still entirely convinced. "But perhaps this is something I will come to understand after I get more used to our new home."


((Nikudo actually translates as 'way of the meat' but imaginary languages and all that))

[Doji Fukawa]

Fukawa watched Kaizen bring even more shame upon the Phoenix.

Aren't spears one of the traditional weapons of the Phoenix? she wondered.

The unicorn's statement seemed hopelessly naive...but Fukawa thought heard a note of artifice in said innocence.

"Or perhaps instead it will be wildly successful in the matches it makes, and it will be one of the new practices attributed to the return of the Unicorn." she suggests.

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"We can certainly hope so." Well, they could at least agree on that. "Though, didn't you say that this was already tried by the Phoenix?" He thought she had, at least. "Credit where credit's due."

[Doji Fukawa]

Fukawa shrugged.

"Like I said, there are wild tales about it happening in Phoenix lands, but as far as I've seen, there's been nothing out of the ordinary at this miai." she offers, not being in any of the supernatural loops. "Perhaps it was tried first by the Phoenix, and perfected by the Unicorn."

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

"Well..." he glanced at the arena. "There was the case of a dragon falling upon the camp, attacking the samurai and devouring Otaku Chi-Pu before being slain." Dong-Ha explained slowly. "Surely a sign of... something. Moshi-san called it ah, mixed blessings."

"At least Otaku-san died well." he shrugged. "That's more than most of us can ever hope for."