(D12, LE) Waiting for Bayushi Godot (Closed)

[Soshi Eiji]

From congenial joketeller to accusatory orator to babbling mystic, there certainly were a lot of sides to this Dragon.

"No."

Eiji smiled a bit.

"Forgive me if that makes me a poor host, Mirumoto-san....or perhaps it makes me an excellent one. How can one see what you are getting at if there is no understanding? Those are, as you said, simply different ways to say the same thing."

Eiji produced his sake cup, opened the sake bottle, and filled the cup...but set it down rather than drinking.

"And to be entirely honest, Mirumoto-san, I'm not entirely convinced you cared if my answer was, 'Yes', 'No' or '3 pounds of flax' Did you?"

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

From congenial joketeller to accusatory orator to babbling mystic, there certainly were a lot of sides to this Dragon.

"No."

Eiji smiled a bit.

"Forgive me if that makes me a poor host, Mirumoto-san....or perhaps it makes me an excellent one. How can one see what you are getting at if there is no understanding? Those are, as you said, simply different ways to say the same thing."

Eiji produced his sake cup, opened the sake bottle, and filled the cup...but set it down rather than drinking.

"And to be entirely honest, Mirumoto-san, I'm not entirely convinced you cared if my answer was, 'Yes', 'No' or '3 pounds of flax' Did you?"

"Sincerity is the virtue, not honesty." Jinkan said continuing to stack the food.

"One can see without understanding. It does matter quite a bit to me whether you see. It would be problematic if you did."

"And you are forgiven anyway, I was never in danger of thinking little of you." He finished stacking and looked at it from the side.

[Soshi Eiji]

Ah good, not such a babbling madman, a self-aware babbling madman.

Still he couldn't help but correct.

"Honesty and Sincerity are both tenents of bushido, Mirumoto-san."

But he was curious as to the final results of the Mirumoto's wanton desctruction of perfectly good snacks.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"I wasn't speaking in general." The Mirumoto said brushing crumbs from his hands onto the ramshackle tower he has constructed on the plate. It was a stiff breeze from dirtying the table. Six layers with the bottom one out of sync with the five on top.

"Does Soshi-san find it hard to be away from his spouse?"

[Soshi Eiji]

Eiji shook his head.

"Not particularly, no. She and I both understand that Duty may oftentimes demand such of us." he admitted.

He tilted his head considering the Dragon.

"From what I recall hearing, Mirumoto-san himself is not married. But with the number of deals being negotiated, I would not be surprised if announcement of his imminent nuptials had slipped my notice. Is that the case, Mirumoto-san?" he asked.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"Mirumoto-san has not found a wife yet, though one wonders when he will find the time between sitting here and there. Wives have yet to drop from the ceiling into his lap. Though..." he looked up at the rafters for any dark shadows.

[Soshi Eiji]

The rafters were sadly devoid of sexy bloodthirsty ninja waifu. You had to go to Shiro Yogo for those.

"Hm, I see. What have your divinations upon the matter revealed?" he asked.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"That I am a difficult man." Jinkan replied almost glib.

"That I will be difficult for all time. That asking fate about things I already know the answer to is irritating to the Heavens. For immortals, one wonders why patience was not one of the virtues." He paused and poured himself a cup of sake.

"Would you remarry if your wife died?"

[Soshi Eiji]

Eiji shakes his head.

"That is not aligned with the traditions of the Scorpion. We marry for life, should Emma-O call for either of us, the other shall wait until it is their turn to be rejoined." he admitted.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"Then Soshi-san must have prayed more than once that his wife would not reveal some terrible secret after their wedding day." Jinkan supposed outloud.

"Bayushi-ue is married, correct? Have you ever seen her spouse?"

[Soshi Eiji]

That got a snort from the Scorpion.

"I try not to bother the Heavens with pointless prayers, Mirumoto-san. The matchmaker properly vetted both of us. If after that, my wife revealed a terrible secret to me....well, it would have no longer been her terrible secret, but our terrible secret." he said somewhat dismissively.

"I can't say that I have met her husband no. This winter court was my first time working with her, especially in such a direct manner. Every treaty I've presented to the court was presented to her first for her input and approval. But that is what we have, a working relationship, I'm not being invited over to Kyuden Bayushi for a casual dinners with the Scorpion clan champion."

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"You keep distance to avoid being seen." Jinkan said nodding to himself.

"This is a duty, that is a duty, using duty as a shield. Akodo's lessons were not wasted on one such as yourself." The Mirumoto shrugged.

"You said Bayushi-ue had delegated her secret acquiring to you?"

[Soshi Eiji]

Eiji nodded at that.

"She was concerned that her duties may end up keeping her too occupied to join us, but she did not want to miss out on learning the secret. " he admitted.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"Very well." Jinkan smiled, an ugly thing.

"Did she tell you whether the Empress died a natural death? That is the secret I wished to acquire in exchange for telling her that there are six Winds, not five. And the sixth will not stop until the other five are dead and its blasphemous corpse sits upon the throne." He paused.

"I was supposed to say that in another way, I forgot.", he finished in a strange gaijin language while bowing in apology.

(Speaking Meranae at the end there.)

[Soshi Eiji]

"Very well." Jinkan smiled, an ugly thing.

"Did she tell you whether the Empress died a natural death? That is the secret I wished to acquire in exchange for telling her that there are six Winds, not five. And the sixth will not stop until the other five are dead and its blasphemous corpse sits upon the throne." He paused.

"I was supposed to say that in another way, I forgot.", he finished in a strange gaijin language while bowing in apology.

(Speaking Meranae at the end there.)

Kami Forsaken Idiot Dragons.

It'd been awhile since Eiji had thought about the diplomat to the Lion who, one night very deep in his cups, had utter such aloud. He had often wondered why the Lion had to rotate diplomatic envoys to the Dragon as frequetnly as they did. But seeing this Dragon, dressed up for a night on the town, disrepecting his snack selection for quite some time before speaking of blasphemy and then engaging in a little light blasphemy of his own? A lot suddenly made sense.

He folded his arms.

"That's certainly an interesting one, Mirumoto-san....if it's true. But most people do not sit on knowledge of blasphemy nor threats to the throne for a week. Nor would they think to bring it to the attention of Lady Bayushi rather than Lady Seppun. I can answer your question, but I'm going to need more details than what amounts to a catchy line to end the first act of a play on."

'What you know of the threat, how you acquired the knowledge and so forth. Because if there's an actual threat, that should definitely be dealt with and she'll need details, but I'm not going to wind up the Scorpion clan champion on mere ghost stories."

Eiji was sitting on about a 2/10 on the 'Do I believe Jinkan?' scale. Lion Eiji would have already had the guards remove the odious man, but Scorpion Eiji had been given a task, and he would see it through.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"It is true enough. On the second day of court I had a vision. The details are probably not important but in consultation with the Lord Togashi, we determined there were likely six Wind candidates. The various signs supported six, with one of them being how do you say...not good?" Jinkan asked the air.

"Uh...broken and rotting on the inside was the exact insight. Anyway, this was before the introduction of Tatsuya, and we determined that we needed to get an audience with the Empress. I went to approach the Lady Bayushi on the same day of the Empress announcement that Tatsuya existed to hint at a sixth wind. She ended the conversation in half a minute. Well before I got to saying anything important." He paused to breathe a bit.

"And to be entirely honest, which I am loathe to do, when the Empress died a day before Togashi-ue and I were to meet with her, I suspected one of the Winds, one through six, of having a hand in speeding up her passing. It made it a little difficult to approach Seppun-ue until I could eliminate her as the sixth." He stopped there and put his fingers on his nose.

[Soshi Eiji]

Less than half a minute to get Lady Bayushi to consider his permanent removal from court. When one considered the clans sent their best to the Imperial Winter Court, few stopped to consider the Dragon clan taking that to mean to send the most annoying man in the Empire.

But Eiji nodded.

"Thank you for the information, Mirumoto-san. What I can say in return is that Lady Bayushi has suspicions about the passing of the Empress, and is working on either confirming them or denying them. Even now, hence her regretabble absense." he revealed.

"I will forward your secret on to her with all speed, Mirumoto-san. Is there anything else I should report to her? I do not believe we have another week before the succession crisis is settled one way or the other." he asked.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"Has she enjoyed my poetry?" The Mirumoto asked, looking more interested in that answer than his tower of snacks for once.

"I have more, which will be coming soon enough."

[Soshi Eiji]

Eiji quirked an eyebrow at that.

"Ah, you've been sending her poetry in secret, Mirumoto-san? I can't say that she mentioned it to me, but that is often the way it is with poetry sent in secret, ne? Words from the heart that are not meant to be spoken aloud." he replied.

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"Well, it doesn't sound like she was the one who sent me a severed tongue nailed to the floor. She probably would have mentionedy poetry then." Jinkan said nodding to himself. Positive response all things considered.

"I will be taking my leave then. I hope you enjoy your night Soshi-san." He stood up and bowed. The snacks uneaten threaten to topple again but he doesn't mind and would leave soon enough.