[D3, MM] Looking for Miya Hachi (expecting)

[Agasha Yuna]

Having courteously remained at court in the aftermath of the earthquake, Yuna had time that morning, very much in the good guest spirit of carrying on as if nothing had happened, to walk by the imperial apartments and look for her friend's husband Miya Hachi-sama, to drop off a letter for Kaiya-sama that she had written the prior day.

[Fukurokujin]

There are Miharu and Hidden Guard in evidence, and an officious looking young Otomo sits behind a low table.

"Do you have an appointment, Agasha-san?" he says, the sneer evident in his tone of voice. "The Lord Herald is, as you might understand, a busy man."

[Agasha Yuna]

She bows deeply.

"I know how busy he is and do not wish to interrupt him. I do not have an appointment. I am Agasha Yuna.
His wife asked me to write her, and I thought I would pass the letter to him to see it delivered. I know she is eager to receive it. He knows that we correspond."

"Perhaps there is a place I could drop it off for him, so he might pass it along at his convenience?"

"I appreciate your help, Otomo-sama."

[Fukurokujin]

"I'm sure you would," the Otomo says. "To be able to boast that the Lord Herald is your own personal messenger...it smacks of Imperial dignity."

He leans toward her.

"Does Agasha-san think she stands so high as that?"

[Agasha Yuna]

"I mean no offense, Otomo-sama. I know I am only a young samurai at her first winter court. I am sure there is another route to post a letter that will not take any more of your time, nor his."

She bowed apologetically.

She did not know of another route. But someone would. Hopefully.



*(Could add an etiquette roll here if helpful)*

[Fukurokujin]

*(Could add an etiquette roll here if helpful)*

(Bureaucracy Emphasis applies. It's going to be contested. Otomo pissiness is in full effect.)

[Agasha Yuna]

https://sakkaku.org/r/15955 29

[Fukurokujin]

"If Agasha-san is so certain of so many things," the Otomo fairly sneers, "then perhaps she should act upon that certainty. There are some who have duties to which they must attend, after all."

GM dice went, evidently; 68, https://sakkaku.org/r/15956

[Agasha Yuna]

She gave another bow, and took advantage of the opportunity to withdraw as gracefully as she could. She did not run away, much as she might wish to. Measured even paces. Head a little bent in the posture of submission that had worked just fine when her mother was in a fury to prevent any fanning of the flames.

At least he had not offered to take the letter in his annoyance, and left her unsure it would ever be delivered! All those detailed notes. Her gushing about Shiba-san. A letter she did not want used to harm either of them.

She'd find a friend or other local acquaintance to ask how letters were posted here. She was here to learn.
Sometimes, learning felt pretty embarrassing. But the student of the Tao did not live in the past in regret.

Now was a new now, and there would be a way.

“Wisdom comes in finding the opportunities that dilemmas provide.”

[Miya Hachi]

snip

As Yuna rounds a corner, looking slightly downward, she bumps into her intended interlocutor, himself moving at some speed.

Miya Hachi sighs heavily and in some consternation.

[Agasha Yuna]

Yuna bowed very low.

"Miya-sama, forgive my clumsiness."

She glanced down at the letter in her hand. She had been keenly reminded that he was an important and busy man.

It was his choice to pause and speak to her or hurry past her. Not hers.

[Miya Hachi]

Hachi sighs again.

"I should also have been watching more carefully," he says, voice clearly trained to carry. "It's a poor shisha who doesn't look at the road ahead."

"You have something for me, Agasha-san?" he asks.

[Agasha Yuna]

She smiled. He had paused for her!

"I do, Miya-sama. It is a letter for your wife. The first of the reports she hoped I could send her, and some other news that I think will make her smile."

She kept her posture deferential.

[Miya Hachi]

"Walk with me," the Lord Herald says, and he strides off at an impressive pace for someone still so obviously walking.

[Agasha Yuna]

She falls into place at his side. It took her a moment to find the step length required to keep pace with him. Hurried walking was its own art.

There had just been an earthquake, not long earlier, though she was politely not mentioning it.

"Have you had your rice today?" she asked sincerely. His morning had likely been fraught. "I could fetch something for you, if it would ease your day."

Kaiya-sama would want to be sure he was getting what he needed, if she were here.

[Miya Hachi]

The pissy Otomo manages not to glare as the Lord Herald and his guest pass by. The Seppun on guard do not move, but they could hardly be expected to do so.

"A shisha learns to eat while moving," Hachi says. "That includes when the earth itself makes a person move. And I have servants enough to do the fetching."

Several more strides take the pair into a small suite, simply appointed. Of note is the horo, much mended and clearly weathered, that stands on a rack not far inside the room.

Hachi points to a cushion on one side of a table as his gait carries him around and he sinks onto another.

"I know you have news for my wife," he says, "and I am happy to have it passed along. But first, I will need to know what you are sending her, and it may be that you will be including a postscript with it when we are all done.

"Am I understood?"

His tone is not harsh, but there is no softness in it.

[Agasha Yuna]

She follows him, avoiding eye contact with the Otomo gatekeeper, and at last takes a seat as instructed.

"Of course, Miya-sama. I am at your service." She gave a deep bow. She felt herself very much in his debt for the help his wife (and likely he) had provided in arranging her schooling with the Asako Loremasters.

"The letter is a report of what everyone has been wearing at the first two courts. The most detailed account I could provide." It is indeed many pages. "She was keen to hear about it, to plan her next fashions."

"And," a faint blush, "I thought to tell her that I have met the most wonderful young man and have hopes that a treaty between our clans will be sealed by a marriage." The account in the letter went on in much greater detail, but Miya Hachi did not seem a man with a lot of time to spare.

"There is plenty of room for a postscript."

[Miya Hachi]

"May I, Agasha-san?" Hachi asks, holding out a hand for the letter.

"And she asked you specifically about fashion, yes?"

[Agasha Yuna]

"Yes, fashion."

She hands him the letter.

The outfits are described in order of precedence, starting with what the Empress was wearing, on down.

The descriptions are precise and specific. The type of cloth. The precise names for colors. Details of the cut and embroidery. Every piece of jewelry worn. The metal. Is the design filigree, engraving, metal carving, or maki-e? Is the motif of a specific flower, a particular bird, an even or uneven number of pearls, specific gemstones. Use of symmetry and asymmetry.

[Miya Hachi]

Hachi shakes his head.

"I suppose we all have our indulgences," he says, not without fondness in his voice.

"You'd mentioned a marriage in the same breath as a young man," he continues. "I would gather you've not had much experience with men outside your own people."