(Moon 10, The sea, Early morning) Fishing, OPEN

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"One's heart does not always long for the one they are supposed to marry. Or even can marry. " He chuckled. "Then again, it's not like marriage has much to do with love in the first place. But still, love seems to make people do silly things. At least if Crane poetry and books are to be believed. Well, Scorpion have their plays as well."

"They might. But if they are not giving out as food, it's unlikely that they'd give it us for this purpose." he tugged the rod carefully.

Her last comment killed the jovial mood with the efficiency of tetsubo smashing to a Crane skull. "I did have someone in mind." man confessed, sighing.

[Hida Sayuri]

"Ah, sorry. Don't mean to be pokin' open wounds." She pats his knee with her free hand in commiseration. "Plans don't always take."

"But there's no mystery to all that. You know who you love, whether or not there's marriage there. You know who you want to bed, love or no, marriage or no, whether it's got a chance of a daisy in windstorm or no. There's all kindsa rules around it all, but no mystery."

There's a shrug that rocks the small boat. "An' see, what ya said earlier about honor? Can still fancy someone if yer honorable, can't ya? Long as ya don't actually do something stupid about it. And here you are, not running off on those fast horses with yer 'someone in mind.'" She pauses, blinking. "Unless she's aboard, I guess. That's another type of running off."

The Unicorn women on board were pretty enough that she wouldn't be surprised.

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Well, it's not like I can do anything about it." the man chuckled dryly, casting his bait again to the waves. "Man has to do as he is told."

"But do you know why you love whom you love? Now, that's the mystery." he shot back at her. The man couldn't believe the situation he was in. He was discussing a romance with a Hida on a kami-forsaken fishing boat. Things like this never happened in the pillow books. Things like this didn't even happen the satirical plays the Scorpion were well known about.

"I supposed I could. But" the shugenja nodded, his tone rather neutral, leaning backwards a little. "Erm no, I left her in Shiro Iuchi." he huffed, somewhat annoyed.

[Hida Sayuri]

She shrugs, staring into the water where her line vanishes with a soft smile. "You never know. Path's never straight, is it? I got ta marry my 'someone in mind,' and here I am leaving him with his new wife after all is said and done."

She takes the conversation as it comes. With fellow Crab the talk was comfortable and full of the oddities of those they found themselves in the midst of. Apparently with Unicorn it was rabbit stew and romance. Who knows what tomorrow would be--'changing armor fashions in the Empire' with the Crane, perhaps?

"An there's no mystery why I love 'im. He's a fine man, and we share a lot of memories growin' up. He didn' care about flowers a bit, but knew I liked 'em and would pick one of those tenacious little white ones from the stones a'the Wall for my hair on our way back after standin' guard all night." She twitches the line a little. "Ain't complainin'. The fortunes lay our paths, don't they? Maybe you'll learn why they set yours away from Shiro Iuchi someday."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"It might not be, though, this one involves politics. And likely, koku." he added the last word, dryly. There was nothing wrong with the money, as far as Xia Hua was concerned. Money was a weapon of a kind.

"So, yea, while things might happen, quite a few people have in their interests that things go as planned. That is, unless she dies before the day, but then I might end marrying one of her cousins. it's not about the person, but the ties."the man muttered, again not hiding his displeasure well.

"Sounds like a good man then." he nodded. He was curios to know how you managed to marry someone, and then end up having then married to someone else without dying. Then again, maybe the Crab had few odd habits of their own.

[Hida Sayuri]

She nods, drawing the line in and tossing it out once more a bit farther off. "Less of that marryin' for ties or trade among Crab. Though I guess the Yasuki are more likely to. Ya pick yer own, or eventually the matchmakers'll just pair ya up with someone."

"Seems a pity to trade people around that way. I'm just not used ta that bein' the best way ta serve. But I'm no good with that kind of thing. Leave it to the courtiers and merchants and such."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Hmm, even among the kuge?" he asked, touch of doubt in his voice."It's all about politics with the nobles, as far as I know."
No fish as of yet. The shugenja hoped their nets had better luck.

"Pity or no, that's what my father did. And that's what I have to live with." he added, dryly. "Well, unless I die, of course."

[Hida Sayuri]

"Well, one of our champions had 'er husband picked by tournament. Sooo..." Her low chuckle rolls across the water. "Was to a Unicorn, at that."

"So no, I'm not sure our kuge are as tied up about that."

She raises an eyebrow. "Well, we're not training to make flower arrangements out here. Ya might dash yer brains out in a fall, or find the pointy end of a pirate's spear. But there's no sense plannin' as if that's the case. Ya might like her more than ya think, and a damn sight better'n death at sea."

[Rixy]

The two fishermen, as a reward for their patience, manage to pull in several dozen ariakehimeshirauo*, all of them in good health and looking *delicious*.



Ariakehimeshirauo = a type of ocean smelt, 6"-8" long, usually served whole after being fried

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Hee, really?" The Crab way of doing things sounded outlandish to him. Ironic as it was. it piqued his curiosity. "That sounds like an unique way of finding a spouse." No wonder she had thought that the Unicron courted people by bashing them.

"Well, she doesn't seem like a bad person." he muttered.

[Hida Sayuri]

(yay! Will rp the haul when nets are taken in...as those seem small and net-worthy)

"You've met 'er then? That's better'n some matches I hear of." She draws the line in again, shifting to stretch out her shoulders with n audible pop. "We don't usually have tournaments to pick. But she *was* kuge an all, and wouldn't pick on 'er own. Even they've gotta marry sometime."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Yeah, I've met her alright." the man chuckled. "Pretty Phoenix lass she is. A bushi. And yeah, everyone has to marry at some point."

Turning his attention from his pole to the woman, he spoke again. "May I ask what brought you here, Hida-san?"

[Hida Sayuri]

"Phoenix, eh? She as tiny as the ones here? You've seen 'em right? Wee mouse, and the other not much bigger."

She fusses with the soggy bait, pressing it into a vaguely fishlike shape as she considers his question. "Sent here by my lords, same as most here, I'd guess. They owe the legions some bodies, and I'm one've 'em."

With an absent swish of the pole, she tosses the hook a ways out. "Told they thought it'd be a kindness not to be around too many reminders. And with no children, there's no reason I can't ship out to sea forever."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Hmm, you could say that. It really seems they breed them small over there." He chuckled, kindly. "Good hips she had, though." For reasons unknown even to Xiao Hua himself, Sayuri had been delegated to a role of sympathetic pair of male ears.

"Well, one has to do what one's lord tells. There isn't much one can do about that. Duty and all that." the man nodded, pulling back his rod, sighing. "Reminders?" he added nonchalantly, not pressing the matter if he didn't reply. Yup, he.

"It seems that the Fortune of Fish is not being friendly to us... or then the kami didn't quite understand what I asked. Should we go back to check the nets?"

[Hida Sayuri]

"Good hips?" Sayuri pauses a moment at that, then, "Yeah...that's...at least that bodes well for that part of duty." Pulling in her empty line, Sayuri focuses on stripping the sodden bait from the hook before tossing it in as an offering to whatever might be out there. "May as well check the nets, nothin's biting."

"Wonder if she's got 'someone in mind' too?" Her eyes look the Iuchi up and down, appraisingly. "Probably glad yer not built like my family."

Carefully, she tries to untie the hook, but wet cord and large fingers are having none of that. She ties the hook tight to the pole instead and stows it before taking up the oars again and waiting for her companion to be ready. "Reminders. We'd served together since we took our names, wasn't any place they could put me that we hadn't seen together and might meet again. Not unless they wanted ta foist one of us ta reserves." She shrugs. "Wouldn't much matter, I think. Shouldn't let such stuff affect ya when servin'. But I was servin' under my aunt and... Honestly, I think she wanted me out of sight as much as to spare my feelings."

"Still, solves a few sticky bits there, an' takes care o'obligations ta supply folks for the legions."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"She might, I didn't want to ask. It's not she can do anything about it, either." the man replied. "And yeah, that maybe a good thing, all things considered. No offence meant of course."

"Alright, back to the nets then." he agreed, laying his pole down to the bottom of the ship. "When you are ready, Hida-san." Iuchi takes hold of the rudder, preparing to guide their boat back to the place where they laid their nets.

"Family matter then." Iuchi nodded, knowingly. "Out of sight, out of mind as they say."

[Hida Sayuri]

Once more she leans into the oars, once more trusting that the Unicorn isn't going to get them swamped. So far he's proven as adept with a boat as she imagined he must be with a horse.

"Hai, I'm outta sight, and everyone can forget while I make somethin' new out of the path I got. Never goin' to raise kids or have much of a household to run." For a moment she stares way out to sea, that hard to define spot where blue water becomes blue sky. "Mebbe I should aim for gettin' ta be gunso someday. I think captain'd take the kind o'connections I don't have."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Never say never, Hida-san. The Fortunes do what they will." he chuckled, kindly. "As for becoming gunso, I guess it's less easy in the Legion, as the competition is fierce... and politics are involved. Doesn't mean it's impossible though. With enough effort, anything is possible."

"The monks teach, men do." as little teacher said the man quoted the Tao, while carefully guiding the boat towards the nets.

"Aaand slow down a bit, would you..."

[Hida Sayuri]

Suddenly aware of how hard she was rowing, Sayuri stops, oars raised, then drops them into the water once again, holding them steady to slow the boat.

"The Fortunes already set my nevers, Iuchi-san. Don't see why they'd change their minds." She glances over her shoulder to see how far they are from the floats marking their nets. "Not that I'll tell a priest I know better in that realm. So if ya tell me they change their minds; well fine, we'll see."

"What're you hopin' from this service then? Yer lords sent you off so soon after betrothal. Seems they'd give you a pause to settle first."

[Iuchi Xiao Hua]

"Most of the time, fortunes do, and undo what they want, when they want. " he told her. "It's somewhat arrogant to assume that one would know what the Fortunes have planned for them. Though, you might not want to tell that to the flying Isawa."
he chuckled dryly.

"Erm, a time to think I guess, or a chance to prove I am more than piece to barter with. I just wanted to get away from home. They had hard time refusing when they heard that I was accepted."