Maybe Not the Best in Show (D1 LA, open)

[Iuchi Saksaha]

The Administrative Center is a large, two-story building at the center of the village that was recently home to the Lion samurai who oversaw the village. [...]

The first level of the building continues to handle the village's administrative needs, which, for the time being, includes posting the current standings of the samurai in the miai.

Saksaha had overheard someone mention, in the bustle after the opening ceremony, that the Ide are keeping some sort of list of all the miai participants in this great wooden house at the center of the village. Being a young woman much concerned with understanding names and their power, she's strolled over here to see what she can see.

Dressed nicely in her brightly embroidered woolen robes and beaded headdress, which along with her many amulets and talismans causes her to rattle slightly when she moves, she pauses in the doorway to let her eyes adjust to the dimmer indoor light.

[Matsu Nintoku]

While certainly not a priest and most certainly not interested or aware of the power of names, Nintoku was never the less interested in knowing the current standings for the miai. It wasn't an urgent need but he thought that it wouldn't harm to in the very least know who are the best and which are, currently, the most worthy brides.

Upon entering the center he noticed the strange and, quite frankly, creepy woman. He felt his muscles tense up as a wave of discomfort rushed down his spine. He had never stopped to consider that the Unicorn most likely had caught other new customs than language and food and this one quite obviously looked like one.

The Matsu managed to compose himself slightly but his eyes were still very much on the weird woman.

[Iuchi Saksaha]

After a moment or three of looking around at the inside of the building, Saksaha feels a prickling at the back of her neck. Is someone staring at her? She turns around (with a faint rattle of charms and beads) and sees only one candidate, a Lion samurai she doesn't recognize. But he's definitely looking her way.

"... Hello?" she tries, revealing a voice that's light but a little husky, with a faintly archaic accent.

[Matsu Nintoku]

The Lion tenses again as the woman addresses him. She seems to be as direct as most Unicorn he's met.

"Greetings." he replies in a slightly hoarse voice. He clears his throat, unsure how to continue with the strange woman.

His eyes catalogue her eerie baubles and amulets as well as her weird garment. "I am Matsu Nintoku." he intersects during his gazing session, his composure slowly recovering

[Iuchi Saksaha]

Hmm. She hadn't heard Lion were supposed to be skittish. But she barely knows any in real life, and who is to say what the stories leave out?

"And I am Iuchi Saksaha," she replies, taking a step toward him. Reflexively she starts to reach out her small hand to clasp his, but remembers that's not done here and converts the gesture into a bow with folded hands.

[Matsu Nintoku]

He nodded to acknowledge her free although her sudden proximity made the hairs in the back of his head curl.

He still did not know what to think of the woman; she clearly was some kind of priest but was she more close to rokugani shugenja or monks? Well that really did not matter since both also didn't rank up high in Nintoku's favorite people list.

"I am sorry for staring" he finally said letting out a sigh. "I'm just a bit unaccustomed to..." he frowned "the culture clash."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Oh." This speedy apology for behavior that had indeed been a bit rude, but not actually egregious, also confounds her expectations somewhat. "You mean... this?" With the fingertips of her right hand, she brushes back a strand of beads that's fallen forward of her shoulder, a sort of stand-in for her whole foreign outfit. "Do we really look so strange to you? You don't to us."

Well, mostly, anyway. Saksaha had been born on the long ride and grown up seeing new peoples every month, if not more often; in the grand spectrum of Unicorn experiences and tales, most Rokugani dress is relatively unremarkable. Certainly nothing so outlandish as the fisher-people with their clothing all of knotted grass, or the riverbank Senpet who wore no upper garments at all.... even the shapes of their faces and the colors of their skin are not so different from the people she'd grown up with.

[Matsu Nintoku]

He looked at her in silence, pondering how to best answer her question without causing offence. He couldn't just say they looked like barbarians as that would not only be insulting but possibly alienate his future bride. "In a way." he commented cautiously "I am just very used to a different set of garments."

"Anyways" he quickly moved to change the topic "I guess Iuchi-san also came to the house to check the standings?"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"You are right." Saksaha nods slightly, beads ticking. "I've come to see whom the Clans send to us. I think it must be over there." She gestures toward what looks like a notice board further inside and, with a glance and a raised eyebrow in Nintoku's direction, begins making her way toward it.

[Matsu Nintoku]

He follows her, still keeping an eye on her and her weird garment; why does she carry so many amulets and baubles? When they arrive, he searches for his name finding it around the top half of the table.

"That is interesting." he noticed the Shosuro firmly atop the ranking "There are many good suitors here."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Mm. In husbands, good is relative," the Unicorn woman says judiciously, scanning the lists and frowning slightly. "The Ide seem impressed with our Scorpion guests," she adds, noticing a disproportionate number of such names sitting near the top of the rankings.

[Matsu Nintoku]

"What do you mean Iuchi-san?" he met her words with a raised eyebrow before turning back to the list "Crane and Scorpion are usually coveted suitors." his tone was expository, betraying his lack of belief for such statement "Though this is but a start. Who knows how this list will look by the end."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Are they? I do not know what is usual." Though she does notice with some approval that the women of the Otaku family are well-represented near the top of the ladies' list. "I mean only that a husband who suits me well might not suit my Moto cousins. Or the reverse, for that matter."

[Matsu Nintoku]

"Oh right." he turned to look at her and suddenly struggled to find a proper explanation as to why Crane and Scorpion brides were normally the best "Well you see.. its kind of hard to describe. Its one of those things that has just been accepted by many members of the Empire."

Her description of what good meant was met with a nod "I see what you mean. I personally just wish for a bride I can have an agreeable relationship with. The fact that she will be a member of your clan makes it both easier and harder." he stated plainly "It is easier because I already know the clan of my future bride and makes it harder because there are still some..." he eyed her garment once more "cultural differences."

"Still I have decided that I will at least make an effort to have a common ground with my future bride." he continued "I have learned, or rather started improving, my horsemanship as well as learning what I can about your clan's customs and history. It is the least I can do."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Less than skin deep, most of those differences, perhaps," Saksaha says, plucking at her narrow woolen sleeve. "Anyway, the Ide tell us there are all sorts of 'cultural differences' between you Lion and the Dragon, or the Crane and the Crab."

She skims the men's list again and finds her Matsu conversation partner's name--middling, but nearer the top than the bottom. The Ide see something in him, then, anyway. Maybe he's less skittish on the battlefield than with girls.

"Still, it is good you are learning things. We all try to learn many new things also," she adds with a nod that sets her beads swinging.