Back to Back[D4, Black Elephant, Midnight CLOSED]

[Rixy]

This was duly translated and the man took Hoshi's hand again, repeating the same gestures as before. This time, the wounds knit beneath the bandages, further easing the Scorpion's distress. {Heal 13} While he did so, the girl slipped off to the other room, coming back with a long slender pipe carved from some sort of rich black wood, covered in characters Hoshi couldn't read. Nestled in it's bowl was a mixture that smelled very familiar indeed, though the form it took was different than what Hoshi was used to back home.

As soon as the sutra was done, the old man muttered a bit more, bowed, and then, with the girl's help, disappeared back from whence he had come. The girl, smiling sweetly, said, "Help with dress? Then take pain, sleep to heal. Safe here."

[Bayushi Hoshi]

((According to me, Hoshi should be fully healed!))

In a foreign practice, it was surprising to happen across something that was familiar. Perhaps something that could easily be considered her remedy of choice.

She honoured the elder with a deep bow in return and repeated her earnest thanks before he disappeared off, it was perhaps the hardest of all of him to help a random stranger in the middle of the night. Almost as hard for her to accept gaijin aid at that. She nodded with a smile at the girl's offer and carefully reached for the clothes. "...Did I tell you my name?"

[Rixy]

The girl laughed, even as she moved to fetch a small stone oil lamp and slivers of wood to light the pipe with. "Yes, yes. Yours, mine. Hoshi, man name in my ear, funny on one so pretty. You said, Jada like pretty green stone, so not bad for me, eh?" Giggling, the girl settled down by Hoshi again. "Help for clothes, if want. Not same as yours, but easy to wear."

[Bayushi Hoshi]

"-Ah, gomen Jada." Hoshi said with a blush of embarrassment. "With everything that happened today, it must have slipped my mind. Jada isn't a bad name at all."

She gave a few nods to the offer to help her with the clothes as she began unfolding each piece. A crash course was needed on the shifts they wore around here. The colour at least matched her wardrobe even if it was a loan. "Hai, please."

[Rixy]

The outfit really was simple, it turned out. The top was simply pulled over the head like a training gi and the pants were adjusted by a little string sewn into the top hem. They were a bit short on Hoshi, seeing as she was taller than the not-yet fully grown Jada, but not horribly so. The material was, at least, soft and comfortable on the skin, though less fine than the silks to which a samurai was accustomed.

Once Hoshi was dressed, Jada took up the pipe and, with great ceremony, lit it and said a few simple prayers with blue smoke streaming from her lips, then passed it to her companion. "Want more drink?"

[Bayushi Hoshi]

"I could use some water please." Once in her new outfit, she settled to a formal seiza as best she could, there were those aches and bandages she had to pay consideration to. There was a good feeling of being refreshed after all that carnage in the alleyway, the pipe was merely icing. With a murmured thanks and great care, she accepted the pipe and took a careful draw from it.

[Rixy]

This stuff had a different taste, perhaps a touch sweeter than what Hoshi was used to. It had the same kick, though, and the restless part of the Scorpion woman eased down at once upon the first good lungful of it. The water that Jada brought was cool and fresh and had a slice of some sort of fruit floating in it, probably to help disguise the heavy mineral taste. She'd gotten some for herself, too, and drank of it as deeply as she had the honey drink. 'Is good?"

[Bayushi Hoshi]

Hoshi was pleasantly surprised when the blend didn't prove to be as harsh as she imagined with their less than refined ways here. She savoured the smoke before releasing it in a slow breath away from present company, then took a sip of water to lessen the dryness in her throat. She giggled at the question, finding some guilty pleasure in enjoying something that was meant to be medicinal but...this wasn't the first time. "Good. It's very good." She said in a relaxed tone.

"You have some questions for later ne?" She brought up before it could slip her mind later tonight.

[Rixy]

"Many. Some of your people, always, but never so many ships!" The girl took her turn with the pipe and passed it back, giggling. "Curious why. Curious, too, about many things, other. Talk is of saving one of us from dubaana. Is true?"

[Bayushi Hoshi]

Hoshi took in some smoke from the pipe and returned the offering to Jada, enjoying the numbness that cushioned her body. The night was far from perfect but it was a sound feeling to end the evening on. "It's not that many ships and I'm curious about a lot of things too, but it's all mostly in the captain's mind. -Ah...I can't say I know too much of dubaana..." She murmured the last word, wondering if she even got the pronunciation right.

[Rixy]

"It is..when one tries to take water instead of air?" The girl shrugged. "Ask, if I know, will tell. Then, you tell about 'Capitan'. Is important man, yes?"

[Bayushi Hoshi]

Hoshi reached over to scratch her shoulder as she tried to think the concept of dubaana but it was still entirely lost to her, and it wasn't because of the drug's effects. "Mm, then, what happens in dubaana?"

"The captain...? The captain is my commander here. He's a Mantis." She said with a few tired breaths, feeling that was clear enough.

[Rixy]

"Dubanna is death, in water." Jada shrugged again. "Saving from is hard, only best brahmin can do it. Dada could, possible, but hard. Was curious if you have brahmin that strong. Your Capitan, he is one? Know House Yoritomo has powerful magic, lifegivers to Maharaja now dead."

[Bayushi Hoshi]

"In water? You mean like..." Hoshi did a sluggish motion of her hand to illustrate a wave of water crashing into something. "...a flood? Is there one coming?"

Hoshi used the pipe once and rested her chin on her palm in a tired posture. "The captain might be able to sail through it but I don't think he can stop it with any ship. We don't have..." The pronunciation of the word escaped her. "...I know little of magic. Gomen. -Ah, there are some who might on board."

[Rixy]

The girl giggled more. "No, no...your ship said to save one already from dubanna, not to do so soon. Still, brahmin on ship...odd, yes?" She leaned in closer. "Feel trouble yet? Ours do."

[Bayushi Hoshi]

"-Ah?" Hoshi murmured in confusion when, now wondering if she was talking about the town or more likely...the survivor from that ship wreck. Wait, that didn't take a ...whatever they called shugenja to do. "Then I don't know if we can do so again..."

She looked back at the girl after reflecting back on her day, finding no harm in her being closer. "I know one who felt something that's troubling by the walls."

[Rixy]

"Aaaaah." She nodded, trying to look wise. "Is right. Much death here. Lanka, last of world left."

[Bayushi Hoshi]

Hoshi breathed out some smoke fluidly after listening to Jada. "Mm. That's very unfortunate." She said in a casual tone that didn't feel the dire weight of their situation right now.

She undid the bounds of her hair to get further comfortable before returning to her relaxed stance. "If it doesn't work out in Lanka for you, you can always ask that Daidoji to smuggle you out. He's more than willing to do it. Just...don't stay around him. He could get you killed."

[Rixy]

Jada blinked. "What is a, um...die-dohi?" Her head tipped sideways like a curious bird. "This word I not know. Is slaver?"

[Bayushi Hoshi]

Hoshi gave the confused girl a quick blink and burst into a short giggle. "-Ah. Iie..It's Daidoji."

She took a pause to take in some smoke from the pipe, releasing before she spoke. "It's not a slaver but a shugenja. One who trained with the Asahina. He's something of a pushover really so I don't think he can be one. Mm...You can't never be too sure though with people, sometimes those repressed Cranes and their habits. Maybe what he did to the sister wasn't by accident..."

When she realized that rambling started, she looked to Jada. "Is it good living here? I mean...before all of this."