Dark Options (D11 Early Aft., Butaj's Yurt, CLOSED)

[Asako Hirase]

As soon as the business was over, Hirase had essentially run back to his yurt, bolted his lunch down with his son so fast he was almost sick, and then darted off again.

His dearest friend and his near-sister's hopes had been crushed. Yuki would need him in time but she had other dear friends here to console her.

Butaj might have other friends, but none of them were as close, short time together be damned.

Stopping his trot only when outside his friend's tent, Hirase, panting slightly, got out, "It's Hirase, I'm coming in..." before doing exactly that.

[Moto Butaj]

"Come in." The voice is devoid of expression, dead, flat. Like its ability to adapt, to be responsive and controllable has vanished. Inside, Butaj is sitting with his topshur on his knees but fingers don't seek the strings. He's staring at the dead hearth, doused embers from yesterday, but slowly moves his gaze to Hirase. Pain is there, but not overwhelmingly so, as if it has already rolled through, just thoroughly, living space for little instead.

[Asako Hirase]

Hirase came to fold himself down across from his friend, not offering the usual boisterous hand clasp. For all that he was a man trained to words, at first his failed him. It was troubling, deeply so, to see a man so vividly alive so drained of everything, leaving him an empty shell.

Even his music, it seemed, had been killed by this, at least for now.

Finally, though, he said, simply, "Sympathy is pointless; you know how much I hoped for you two, had prayed for your match. You know I grieve for you, my best friend, and my near-sister. So. Let us then to the planning. What will you do next? How can I help?"

[Moto Butaj]

"Butaj can't just start killing people, can he?" He states plainly, his words honest beyond doubt that he has been considering this option. "This traitorous witch. Some other Scorpion."

[Asako Hirase]

"Sadly, no." Hirase, for all he was a pacifist, sometimes agreed that death was deserved; in this case, it might well be. "And I wish it was possible...my friend, I mean you no disrespect when I say you will be a terrible Scorpion. You are too honest, too...good. They will never appreciate your qualities; they will just use you to build their plots upon."

He let his own anger rise, showing in his dark gaze.

"If it's any consolation, it is now my hope and intention to make her wish she'd been killed, by the time I'm done. It is difficult to beat a Scorpion at their own game, but not impossible."

[Moto Butaj]

"I shit on their appreciation. And I don't want to commit to a life of vengeance. I want a way to be with Yuki. A way I can go forth from now. I had a clear path, but it's gone. I want a new one, if there is. If there is not, I'll carve it out." Butaj seeths.

[Asako Hirase]

Hirase forbore to mention his own path of vengeance was set. Instead, he focused on his friend's needs.

"We spoke last night of options. I had hoped they would be mere musings, but now they are the start of plans. So."

Fingers steepled, brows furrowed, he asked, slowly, "I know this is a hard thing, but, for the sake of sorting the best path, I ask you try something. For these next moments, consider your life as if Yuki had never entered it."

He waited, knowing that would take effort, then began.

"First, let us start at the root: In spring, you are set to go to a new life, in a new Clan. Knowing that the Scorpion Clan is, by the choice of their own Kami, a clan of beautiful deceivers and manipulators, where courtly paths are dark and labyrinthine and a bushi's lot that of, largely, decoration save in extremes, first you must ask yourself: Can you serve with all of the devotion a samurai must give his lord? Could you take up a mask, learn to spin pretty words or act a buffoon at need so that you draw eyes away from true goals in shadow?"

[Moto Butaj]

He closes his eyes, and tries the mental exercise Hirase has given him. As his features tense in effort so do his lids clench. "I... don't care. If all are liars and only I am truthful, no one will believe me still, so same difference. Without Yuki it is the same everywhere, misery haunts misery." He shrugs. "I have long lived among those who despise me. I hoped it could be different now, but it doesn't matter now, so it can well be like this." He pauses. "Butaj would wear a mask gladly, so that evil people couldn't read what Butaj feels, and abuse it."

[Asako Hirase]

"So, you can serve as a Scorpion." A small nod followed, no judgement either way on Hirase's face. "Now...duties. Your betrothed is a shrine maiden, a preistess. As her mate, what role do you expect? Often, warrior mates to shugenja or courtiers become their yojimbo, though this is not always so. That will mean a life of escorting her from place to place, actively watchful but rarely called upon. Can you thrive in such a life?"

[Moto Butaj]

"No. I will not serve by her side. I will seek a role in the military or something else." Butaj says firmly. "She will have little of me, I will see to that. She's an evil witch, not a priestess."

[Asako Hirase]

"So, your first major hurtle."

Hirase's steepled fingers tapped out a rhythm against each other.

"The Scorpion were only recently in a war. Several, in fact. They will be seeking to rebuild, to avoid conflict. If you want an active posting, you might need to seek non-standard methods. You could try to be a city guard, but they would likely post you where your wife is. You could try to be a yojimbo, but again, that will often see you with her more than not. As I see it, there are only really two avenues for a bushi and one which would require you to change your path.

First, you could seek caravan work. Though it is rare for Clan samurai to do such a thing, there are times when cargo is too important to trust to heimen or ronin. Your ability to ride would be a boon for such a role, and it would potentially have you travelling all across the Empire."

[Moto Butaj]

"Or I could ask Princess Kitaku who will be an important Shosuro to help me override this. Or join Sayyeda Khulun in whatever they will be doing." Butaj counters, apparently having some forethought on the subject already. "Butaj has rapport with both."

[Asako Hirase]

'Those are other options." He hadn't factored in the presence of the other kuge, and grinned a bit despite the discussion at how clever his friend was. "Another possibility is trying to join the Imperial Legions. They are multi-Clan units, based on specialty. They don't have a cavalry yet that I know of but I bet anything that they will be building one soon, now that the Unicorn have shown the strength it can give. There will be an opportunity there, for bushi who can ride. That posting would see you headquartered in or around the Capital."

[Moto Butaj]

"...where Yuki can be." Butaj muses, though it's too early to smile. He doesn't know how to be in the Legions, and it is not yet that possibilities open into a plan, and plan into a course of action.

[Asako Hirase]

"Indeed." That made a small, dark smile curl Hirase's lips for a moment. "Then, of course, there is the other path, the one that focuses on your other gifts and not your swordarm. You have a musical gift; the Scorpion are famed for artistry. You might seek to be part of one of their travelling troupes. That, too, might let you travel to where she is. You mentioned Kitakuhime...the man she is to marry is Lord, or will be, of one of the artisan strongholds of the Scorpion. Perhaps if you took a role there, Yuki might be able to attach herself to one of the diplomats from the Phoenix who stay there or, better still, to the embassy itself. We certainly must have one; most cities of any size do."