[D6 LE, Scorpion Zone] Of Etiquette, Or Not

[Bayushi Kogi]

(expecting)

Kogi's futon was still neatly folded away in the cabinet, giving her space its daytime function as a sitting room. A cozy charcoal brazier holding a chattering kettle beside the table, along with a warm-toned scent rising from the bronze incense burner, keep the impending threat of yet another winter storm out of mind for the moment.

[Makime Ayano]

The slight sound of tapping was heard from entrance door. Presumably it would be open to reveal....

A bowing Lioness in a well made silk kimono. A Lioness who was probably considered important to a few people. One of them might even be named Lady Makime.

"Good evening Bayushi-san. Thank you for hosting our meeting." Ayano replied with a smile.

[Bayushi Kogi]

"Good evening to you, too, Makime-sama." Kogi bows properly as well. Even in her own clan guest rooms, a veil still covers her face, but her voice is warm. "Please, the honor of your company is the only thanks I need, really."

She opens a hand toward the table. "I thought you would probably already have eaten by this hour, so we have just a few little snacks, but I can send for something else if you wish." A few little snacks, in this case, appears to mean a plate of small cakes and some dried fruit. "And I have some things to drink, of course. Tea if you're still feeling partisan after all this time." A small laugh ripples her veil.

[Makime Ayano]

Ayano moves to the directed table, "Oh I think tea has proven itself already. The real question is which brew have you provided?" Her eyes move over the offered snacks, "Something to compliment the cakes and fruit, providing a harmonious experience. Or something that contrasts the same, to perhaps heighten the tastes of both?"

She smiles, "Or...just which tea was on hand since not everything has to be a meticulously constructed experience." It brings a small chuckle. At this hour the effects of the busy day were evident on the Lioness, though she seems practiced at hiding the worst of it.

[Bayushi Kogi]

"Kuki-cha, I thought, since it's late," Kogi suggests. "Unless that is too disappointingly practical?" Seated again on her cushion by the table, she opens the hinged lid of a wooden box set nearby and lifts out one of several ceramic jars. "A softer flavor, a little sweet. Probably too homely for the Camellia House in town, but it's what the tea farmers' families drink at night, because it doesn't keep one awake."

Well, and also because it isn't worth nearly as much in trade as a fine leaf tea. But trade value isn't everything!

She glances up and across at Ayano to see how this suggestion is received. It's not one she would have made to, say, Doji Tsubaki. Or Lady Dojihime, Heaven knows.

[Makime Ayano]

"A sensible choice then," Ayano's tone and expression showed some appreciation for the consideration, "I believe I will retire my own room after our meeting and yume-do shortly after."

The Lioness quickly summarized the 'value' of the tea, she had a knack for such things...but if it upset her then it didn't show on her face.

[Bayushi Kogi]

"Me, too," Kogi admits. "For all that the days here are mostly filled with leisure... they're strangely busy. Somehow I end them almost as tired as when I've been in the dojo."

At least this is good kuki-cha, even if by its very nature it could never be as costly as pure leaf. Kogi treats it--and by extension, her guest--with the respect due to any proper tea, neatly tipping a measure of the dry blend into a presentation vessel for Ayano to inspect while Kogi rinses the teapot and cups with hot water. Next, the tea goes into the pot, followed by the precise addition of more water and then a short steep.

[Makime Ayano]

"The Emperor's guests have been eager in their efforts to keep the court entertained and demonstrate some of their clan to others." Ayano chuckled, "I think if this turns into a tradition things will be more pre-planned and formalized. Still it has been entertaining even if not everything has appealed to my own tastes."

Green eyes watch the progress of the tea making for a moment, before shifting back to the host.

[Bayushi Kogi]

“Finding out what kinds of things appeal to other peoples’ tastes is an education in itself,” Kogi says, echoing Ayano’s chuckle. “Does that mean you think this will? Become tradition, that is.”

Deft as, well, a surgeon, her narrow hands cradle the teapot and position the tiny bamboo strainer to pour out two cups of the mellow golden tea.

[Makime Ayano]

"I suppose that will remain to be seen but..." Ayano smiled in thought, "Winter is often a time of lesser activity, the harvests are in and everything is sort of holding for the Spring. It would be a burden that likely would be best born by those of power. Regardless it would be a chance to discuss trade agreements and other such things."

With the tea finished, Ayano gingerly took a cup and sipped. It was...comforting.

[Bayushi Kogi]

"As long as everyone could stand one another's company that long," Kogi says with a chuckle. "Well, no one here has come to blows yet, I suppose. It was a near thing after Lady Dojihime's play this evening, though."

She picks up her own teacup, preparing to maneuver it behind her veil. "Is the tea all right, Makime-sama?"

[Makime Ayano]

Ayano resists the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose, "Yes...it was not the shining moment of the time here. I hope given a few days tempers will cool. Both of them are the vassals of siblings. Siblings who may not wish to see their followers at each other's throats."

She takes another sip of tea, letting its mellow taste calm her a bit more, "It is...a comfortable tea, if such could be said of a drink."

[Bayushi Kogi]

"That's how I think of it too." While Ayano was speaking, Kogi had tasted her own tea; now she sets the cup down again, gently. "A drink for nights by the hearth, when I was little."

She shakes her head a little. "You are an optimist, Makime-sama. I hope you're right that tempers will cool. I don't know Hisomu Matsu-san; Lady Dojihime, though..." She trails off, tapping a finger against the side of her teacup meditatively.

[Makime Ayano]

"Hisomu-sama is clearly a woman of passion and fire," Ayano responded with a sigh, "But like you I know little of her as well. The Spider have been scarce when it comes to the Lion." A moment's aggravation shows, "And if this whole mess continues into the spring, or grows more heated, I fear I will see far too many of both parties. My Lord's land lies between the two."

"Doji-sama has been most kind with me...an attitude I gather is not universally given."

[Bayushi Kogi]

"You have a parent with a title and land from Lord Akodo. I have the impression that matters quite a bit to Doji-sama." Kogi's tone is a bit dry, remembering the tall girl's pointed question to her about 'lesser tribes.'

"Still, I can't imagine their clans will come to some kind of conflict that would affect your land?" Her head tilts at a quizzical angle. "It's such a personal matter. One careless girl not quite ready for public life, one passionate woman very sensitive to a thoughtless insult... I dare to hope the adults will sort it all out when the snow melts."

[Makime Ayano]

"A personal matter involving a powerful person can have a bad habit of moving beyond the personal." Ayano took another sip, "...now I seem to have swing from the optimist to the pessimist. Still ties of blood are not likely to wish to spill any over what is really so little a thing."

"...yes I expect that has much to do with my special treatment. A pity mother is not here herself, her demeaner would rival the coldest nights and likely make even the most dedicated rethink any but the most direct dealings with her."

[Bayushi Kogi]

“Lady Doji is still the ruler of the Crane.” Thank the Fortunes. “From everything my lord Bayushi says of her—and other people in his train who’ve met her—it’s so hard to imagine something like this coming to bloodshed.” Kogi shrugs with a rather obvious Who knows about this daughter of hers, though.

“Is your mother very fierce, Makime-sama? I read that she was a weaver before the great tournament… how did she come to be favored by Lord Akodo?” She’d always wondered what drew a silk weaver to the man who wrote Leadership, and vice versa. It seemed unlikely, but then, the world is full of unlikely things.

[Makime Ayano]

Ayano glances off to the side and sits silently for a moment, the Scorpion might even begin to wonder if the Lion was going to answer the question at all.

"My mother is...fierce in the same way a blizzard is fierce." She says with plainly, "As for how she went from a weaver...well dyer really...to one of Lord Akodo's most trusted, well from the stories grandfather has told me." Her eyes move back to the Scorpion, "After a bandit ambush, Lady Makime had found a calling in fighting. Not like the others for whom it was about the raw violence, her mind saw...patterns and those formed into ideas on how groups should fight."

"He said Lady Makime had spoken of larger battles with hundreds or more, how one side might organize and fight...use the ground...and other such things, my grandfather didn't pay much attention to his daughter's wild thoughts." She took a sip of tea, "But when the kami fell, mother was one of her tribe sent to meet them. She found in Lord Akodo one who understood and was able to give form to these ideas. Moreover his code of honor appealed to something in her. By the end of the tournament she had been one of the most ardent of Lord Akodo's supporters and even impressed him with her foresight into well...war. Now she rules a swathe of land in his name, and her own thoughts on war have been compiled into Leadership alongside Lord Akodo's."

[Bayushi Kogi]

“So your mother is a visionary,” Kogi says, the hand holding her teacup arrested in midair on its way back to the table. “But… surely we should all hope that kind of fighting never comes to Shiba-no-Kami’s empire?”

[Makime Ayano]

"I certainly agree there..." Ayano nodded, "But who knows once the bonds of blood fade, mother wants the Lion to be ready for that future day. I personally think if we work to build bonds beyond those of the kami's blood then such things will be unlikely."

"Having said that there is the argument that such will be needed if the lands beyond our border should birth danger." She smiles wearily, "...for my part alot of my mothers martial reforms I think can be modified to help with the non-martial."