The Day of Thunder

[Togashi Satsuki]

"Well yeah... that's stating it rather lightly, I'd say. At least everything else was nice apart from, you know, the fuck-up." She was pleased to at least have placed where she had seen Hoto-Hori since he seemed to familiar!

"It was a pretty big hassle, yeah. I hope things are better in the capital now at least. Kind of turned me off that whole winter court thing for a while, to be honest."

[Saru Ranmaru]

"Then again... I would guess that the greatest men were in attendance." Ranmaru nodded along to himself. If he could convince them to embrace his ways...

[Yuzuru Hoto-Hori]

"It's been better since. No fucking demon raven theatrics anyway. We should just exterminate the black feathered shits and be done with it."

He fumed slightly, almost growling.

"Oh there were a few of the best missing I guess. Depends on if you count the Kami as men or above that."

[Togashi Satsuki]

Satsuki's eyebrows rose slightly, as she was surprised by the particular vitriol for corvids. I thought uncle Yuzuru taught his followers to respect nature... maybe he's the black sheep of the bunch? Not like he stopped Hei-Hei from chasing Shinsei's bird.

"Well, hm, I know my cousin Genji drew a lot of attention. He is handsome, I guess," she shrugged, as he was her cousin after all. "Oh yeah, uncle Bayushi was there too it turned out, so there were at least two Kami!"

[Saru Ranmaru]

"I wonder why not all of the siblings attended then." Ranmaru shrugged; it wasn't so important to him. "I will need to introduce myself to this Genji someday."

[Yuzuru Hoto-Hori]

"It was a wedding. Maybe if we'd called it a fucking party then Hida might have shown up. Fuck knows what Akodo wants and even more on what Liz . . . . . . errrrrr Togashi wants."

So, he was actually aware enough to not call Togashi a Lizard Face in front of them . . . . just.

[Togashi Satsuki]

Satsuki's eyes might've popped out of her head if she stared any harder than she was at Hoto-Hori. ". . ."

"Riiiiiight." The word was awkwardly drawn out as she was trying to make sense of what was happening. "Care for anything warm to drink? It's going to be another chilly night it seems."

[Saru Ranmaru]

This was a different sort of awkward then Ranmaru was used to. He hasn't even listed out his philosophy yet. "What do you have?" he asked. "Oh and warm is so mild."

Handling the heat was decidedly masculine... Unless it was while smithing a sword? But women often got more cold... So it was a man's throat that withstood temperature better than women!

[Yuzuru Hoto-Hori]

It had been close but he thought he'd gotten away with it.

"Warm? Like tea or something?"

[Togashi Satsuki]

"Yeah, I got some tea. Some tea-leaves from home that I've been saving; mom has a fondness for the old tribal teas that she grew up with." Which meant it wasn't tea like what the Crane and Stag declared to be tea.

"Some snacks too, if you like?" She glanced to Ranmaru. "I guess you're welcome too. We're family of sorts, so we share."

[Saru Ranmaru]

"I hope whatever you make is as good as my mom's." Ranmaru glanced around idly, thinking on the nature of their so-called family. "The Crab brought a lot of their people. What about ours?"

[Yuzuru Hoto-Hori]

Now Hoto-Hori knew Satsuki's mom well, not that Satsuki would know that, and had been stealing food and tea from her for many years . . . so he knew it was good. To say his eyes lit up may be an understatement. The sparkles might be back as well.

"Ayakashi tea?? Fucking top class!"

[Togashi Satsuki]

"I have no idea what your mom makes, Ranmaru," yet another eyeroll. If she remained too much in proximity to Ranmaru in the coming days, she might end up going blind at this rate.

Satsuki gestured for the two to move over to her tent. There was an assortment of small boxes and straw-bags by the opening of her tent. "I don't know about other Dragons coming. I travelled up from the south to get here, starting in Crane lands. But it is possible." Hoto-Hori's mention of the Ayakashi made her smile. "My mom tells me a lot of that tribe yeah. She still maintains a lot of the ways from them; even down to the clothes she makes for me."

[Saru Ranmaru]

"Then maybe you should ask her. I'm sure she'd give lots of good advice on how to be a proper lady for a good pair of men." Ranmaru smiled, confident that she wouldn't be so happy about that suggestion. But really, nowhere in his code was pettiness banned.

Once he was inside the tent, he plopped on down and let out a hearty groan. "It's good to maintain those traditions. There's something to be gained from even the smallest village in the Empire." Oddly insightful from him, though there was a caveat: only ideas from men were valuable!

[Yuzuru Hoto-Hori]

His clothes may also have a little of the Ayakashi in them, although far finer than any the tribe used to possess. It was also very apparent now that he did not appear to carry any visible weapons at all. Surprising for a Yuzuru to be honest, even the blind seer himself usually carried a small knife, but this one had no weapons at all. He did have a smoking pipe which he was now twirling around idly without paying much attention.

Luckily, unlit. In fact it looked a little strange but rarely stayed still for a moment to allow further investigation.

"Dunno about any other Dragons. There's a grumpy Imperial and a oh so mysterious girl trying to hide behind a fucking fox mask, but I think she said she was staying in the village."

[Matsu]

The Amazon had taken to exploring the camp after getting settled, and determining how to best defend the camp. Though she was willing to bet that she wasn't the only one doing so. Her hands were tucked into the sleeves of her rough kimono, more utilitarian than decorative. Moving down the rough paths, her attention was called by the sounds of conversation. Matsu contemplated ignoring it, and keeping herself with her thoughts.

But that wouldn't be worth doing. May as well know, and get to know, who else was about the camp. Moving towards the conversation, she was able to make out the gathered. Two she didn't recognize, and one...

"Forgive me, I'm not interrupting, am I?" She spoke up as she approached, looking between the trio. "I heard talking while I was walking, and I came over and..." she cleared her throat, realizing she was rambling. Fixing her posture, she bowed and offered a smile. "Hi."

[Togashi Satsuki]

"Grumpy Imperial sounds like Sora..." there were a couple of others, probably, but few embodied grumpy as well as he. Satsuki was holding the flap of her tent open to the others when the very tall woman approach.

A very familiar moment.

"Matsu!" Satsuki exclaimed with delight and pretty much dropped what she was doing to step in and give the woman a hug. "It's been forever! It's so good to see you again."

[Matsu]

Indeed it had been years. Letters exchanged. Matsu was always embarassed at how rough her hand writing looked compared to Satsuki's, but given that the Amazonian hadn't focused on writing as a child, even as Yamadono had worked to make things better for her in the transition.

She practiced with each letter to the Dragon-hime, trying to look more artistic than the brutalist scrawl with which she wrote. Something that looked closer to the grace she showed when wielding a weapon.

Different strokes, literally.

Yet the Daimyo was surprised by the embrace, a welcome one to be sure. She hadn't made many friends at that hellish winter snowed in, but there was Satsuki. The only person who followed her out after she lost her temper. The taller woman didn't hesitate to return the hug, embracing her with the strength granted by Bishamon, though she didn't share that particular blessing her father had. "It's good to see you too, Satsuki."

[Saru Ranmaru]

Ranmaru looked over and then up. Huh... This woman didn't seem to be Doji or Shinjo. As one might expect, he did feel slightly self-conscious about his size in comparison. However, he also had constantly told his shorter peers that it was not their height that mattered but the size of their... spirit!

But being taller did help with such things. So far, it didn't seem like proposing concubinage was something that would work. Even if this Matsu...

Matsu. He had heard the name. Whether or not she was amenable to bearing his children, well, it wasn't a topic to approach while Satsuki was around. "We're all having tea," he said. "Ayakashi tea, so I'm told. We'll see if it impresses."

[Yuzuru Hoto-Hori]

There was a flicker of recognition in his eyes and then he turned to look at Ranmaru and then back at Matsu and started grinning.

"Oh this is going to be fucking ace!!! And hey, Ayakashi tea is the best, like most things Ayakashi."