[Day 1 - Early Morning] Close Encounter

[Iuchi Saksaha]

Saksaha is a little at a loss to explain what you were supposed to use milk for. It's... it's milk. It's everywhere and goes in almost everything--as long as you're lucky enough to have some, anyway. Before she can collect her thoughts on this score, the conversation skips onward.

"Many of my people are already very taken with this silk your artisans make," she offers as an example. "In my lifetime we have never traveled in any place where such stuff was so easy to come by, or so fine." Even if most of the garments the Rokugani insisted on making with it had such impractically flappy sleeves...

[Bayushi Hotaru]

"That's pretty good to hear!" She nodded readily with a small smile on her lips. "It would be interesting to see what your Clan may make with such materials. Something new? Something old? Maybe a fusion? I mean, you already have a very distinctive fashion, if I may say so. Not to intrude, but I like patterning on your outfit, so elaborate and colourful. It's the sort of colour scheme that sort of reminds me a classical junihitoe, very vaguely so in my eyes! The bead work too! It looks very nice in your hair!"

[Usagi Tomoe]

Tomoe nodded in agreement with Hotaru's assessement of Saksaha's garb. "It really is quite pretty," she said, and glanced back to the goat that was getting most of her attention.

"A lot of the traditional garb is rather... impractical for a travelling lifestyle, so it's interesting to see the fashion the Unicorn have brought back to the Empire."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Oh, why... thank you!" Saksaha colors a little at the compliments, even if she doesn't really have a clue what a 'junihitoe' is or what it looks like. "I do not have a very creative taste myself, I think. But some of my cousins are already wearing new sorts of things that are more like your pretty silk robes. We may not so easily give up our boots for your wooden sandals, though," she adds with a laugh, lifting her wool skirts a little so that the upturned toe of one of her felt-and-leather boots peeps out.

[Bayushi Hotaru]

She nodded surely after giving her an appraising eye through her mask. "I think you're doing well as you are, Iuchi-san, and that's not just a compliment I'm giving freely! There is something very original with your style, as least in my eyes. I've never seen anything like it. It would be a shame if you were to discard everything in favour of strictly our fashion. I'm sure some Cranes may be pleased by that, but then when else would we see such lovely fashions ever again?"

"To be fair, I don't think we'll be taking up your boots anytime soon either." She laughed with her. "Those look really warm...Perhaps even for the winters, we have south of here. You must never fear the cold in those things!"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"These are not even my winter ones," Saksaha admits. "But I would not like to try riding in those sandals!"

Though... maybe the Rokugani manage somehow? How do they keep their feet from sliding out of the stirrups on their little horses, anyway? She pushes these distracting questions aside for now.

"You are very kind, Bayushi-san. I only dress as my mother and grandmother did, mostly--Grandmother came from an old Moto line, and always kept some of their tastes." She fingers the end of a strand of beads before tucking it back behind her shoulder. "Um... that mask you wear--most of your people wear them, I was told? Did you choose it yourself? It is very elegant also."

[Bayushi Hotaru]

The issues with horses might have been a good question to ask a bushi, Hotaru wouldn't have been able to provide any insight on handling horses considering she had limited experience around animals to begin with.

"You honour their style very well, though admittedly you're the first Unicorn I've really gotten the chance to speak to." There were a few of them on the road, guiding the visitors to their destination, who gave her little in the ways of conversation nor anything to reflect off of. "Ultimately, we'll just have to wait to see if the Cranes will take after anything you've brought to the Empire."

Her hand went to her ornate red mask and her finger brush past its outline quickly. "Oh, this particular one? It's my first mask. We typically have to earn our masks in my gemppuku. Much like the fashion that Bayushi-kami got his mask when he realized the wisdom of Shinsei. From then, we have some liberties on our other masks. Our first mask is never forgotten, however.

[Usagi Tomoe]

As the conversation turned to something more specific for the Scorpion, Tomoe took her time to study the goat as she continued to brush her hand over its back. It seemed smaller than what she had imagined the mountain goats of the Dragon looked like, which she had only seen illustrations of...

Funny how she had never heard of them milking the goats. Perhaps the Dragon had another use for them?

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Oh. So it's part of your gempukku ceremony!" Saksaha nods understanding, her beads rattling. "That is not part of our stories, but it makes sense." Though it occurs to her that it's a good thing not all clans so closely imitate their founders in their coming-of-age rituals. How terrible it would be if all the Lion had to put out an eye! "Usagi-san, do your people have special gempukku practices like this? Unless," she suddenly looks a bit awkward "ah, unless this is one of those things I am not supposed to ask about."

[Usagi Tomoe]

"Ah, nothing like what the Scorpion have," she chuckled. "As a Hare, I had to undergo some tests of agility and athleticism, but my training with the Asako I had to demonstrate my knowledge and understanding on a wide array of topics; history, theology, heraldry, Bushido, to name a few."

She gave a clever smile. "We of course have some secrets to our gempukku ceremony, but I would think most Clans and Families do. So there's nothing wrong with asking, of course, but one cannot always honorably give a full answer."

[Bayushi Hotaru]

"Do the Hare typically train with the Asako?" She questioned curiously. While she didn't know all that much about the Hare, she had a feeling that it wasn't usual for the Hare to seek out the Phoenix for training. The Hare had other neighbours and the Phoenix had reason to be exclusive from those of Minor Clans.

"It seems only fair if we ask you the same question, Iuchi-san," She smiled warmly. "Usagi-san is right in what she said. It's quite likely that all of our gempukku's are vastly different than each other. Perhaps that's the only similarities we may find here."

[Usagi Tomoe]

"Ah, no, it's not very common," Tomoe said with a shake of her head. "But before joining the Hare, my family were of the Kitsune and my mother had married in from the Phoenix Clan... as I had no talent to be a shugenja, it was arranged for me to train with my mother's birth-clan," she explained plainly.

She gave Fiyanggu a pat on the head as she rose back up, looking curiously to Saksaha to hear about what sort of gempukku ceremonies the Unicorn had.

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Perhaps our way is not too different, then," Saksaha says thoughtfully after considering Tomoe's description. "We also are tested by our teachers. For a mystic, some tests are of private knowledge... but I am sure you can imagine," she shrugs, smiling apologetically. "We swear an oath, a very old oath to Shinjo and the Ki-rin clan. And before that there should also be a great hunt for everyone coming of age in that year, even we Iuchi, though we could have no hunt in my year. Now we are back in this country, I am sure it will begin again," she adds, with a pleased air as if she's only just now thought of this.

[Usagi Tomoe]

"Oh, a hunt?" the Hare perked up a little at that. "That sounds quite interesting... maybe there will be one during the miai. I've only hunted small game before myself, but I know some warriors like to brag about more impressive targets for a hunt; boars and stags are particularly popular ones."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Yes, on horseback, a great battue with bows and spears," Saksaha elaborates a bit. "The game used to depend on the hunter, and the ground. My oldest brother had his gempukku before... well, the hunt could be held in his year. He was very pleased to have brought in a buck when others had only marmots and ha--um, and other small game. Until our Moto cousins rode back with a leopard pelt." She giggles at the memory of his reaction.