Cara
*And in front of my very eyes, Lady Sun reached the apex of her cycle, turning the lake in a mirror of her radiant image-*

Miho frowned, and scratched away also this passage. She enjoyed writing: it was one of the few hobbies that allowed her to better herself and still have fun in the process, but Heavens, was it frustrating sometimes. She was an avid enjoyer of travel diaries, a form of narration that weaved prose and poetry together as it described a meaningful part of the author s own life, usually a journey from a place to another; however, that didn't mean she was good at writing them. She did quite well when it came to describing locations and interesting steps of her journey, but she always forgot to speak more of her own feelings, arguably the most important part of the story. She tried, tenaciously, but her analytic outlook at the world and the little importance she gave to digging in her soul made it so that she seemed condemned to always be a second class author, even between amateurs. || Void 1 and Can t relax || 

And right on cue, her injured hand also started to numb. Great. She announced a pause to herself and raised her head to look at the garden around her, leaning back on the bench. She had come here in hope of feeling more attuned to her feelings, but the only result was dragging her brush into a series of verbose descriptions of nature. Better to just cool off for a moment. *Katsuhiro-sama's garden is coming up well... Good. It will also help impress visitors.* She meditated idly, in one of her rare moments of self abstraction. 

||
William
"Ah, Miho-sama, perfect!" Came the voice of Kenshin, his own fingers stained a bit with ink which was common after he had spent hours at his work as scribe for the legion. He was dressed more casually today, instead of one of his many fancy kimono he wore to impress guests, it was a simple lion yellow yukata with a light black silk haori over the top. Black to probably hide the ink stains.

"Miho-sama, you're a woman" He stated the words as if he was laying out facts to be presented in a case of inquiry, confirming that they all acknowledge the premise, "I've been trying to take some inspiration and write a new play set here in the *City of Lies.* How would you react if two men you fancied both confessed their love for you in the same day, and then challenged each other to a duel? I asked Hotaru-sama, but she said she would beat the both of them up and that didn't feel very... Relatable for a... Wider range of audience."

|| Sorry that took so long
Cara
She flinched, just a little. She hadn't let her guard down, she rarely ever did, but the Bard always seemed to speak at a slightly higher volume than all of the Lions in here. She didn't need to wonder why he was here; this was a scene that had already happened, several times. Though they didn't exactly have the same tastes, she and Kenshin were both devotees of the brush, and it sometimes happened that he went to her for advice. She didn't search for it, but she didn't mind either; it was one of the few topics she genuinely liked to talk about.

Her brow raised slightly at the start of his sentence- was being a woman her only qualification in this? - but her expression smoothed as he went on. The pause she made was not to collect her thoughts, but rather to find a them to express her opinion sincerely without offending the Bard. 
"While I personally don't agree with Matsu-dono's method, it has some reason to it. Even if moved by passion, such kind of behaviour is unacceptable; if they were truly serious about their love, they should have went to my lord and to my family first, or at least try to contact me in private instead of putting up such a ridicule show. Furthermore, I would consider their duel to be pointless- is disrespectful to invoke the Heavens' judgement over such petty matters, and it completely glosses over the fact that It does not keep count of my personal choice. So, overall, I'd turn them both down and leave their punishments to their superiors."

She said the entire piece without changing her tone of voice. She wasn't trying to insult him or his skill, just giving an honest answer to the question. "But I assume that would also not be relatable to the wider public. So, if I were the average Kabuki character, I assume I would... Plead them to stop. Or commit seppuku out of a broken heart." She turned up her nose in a way that expressed her full disdain for that kind of tropes. Kabuki was a noble art, but sometimes she found its cliche plot twists annoying.

||
William
Kenshin seemed surprised and then forlorn at Miho's response, though her second idea could have a bit of something to it. Still, her feelings in reacting to the situation seemed surprising to her. It did make a sort of logical sense, but most Kabuki plays would probably have no plot if everyone acted logically. Everything was dialed up to 11 in these sorts of plays.

"Really? But the old stories are full of duels over love and petty matters." He wasn't really arguing for it, part of the fun was needling her sense of propriety, though he tried to never push her too far. She was good at what she did, and that was part of why Kenshin came to her over many of the other officers or samurai.

"Say there were two samurai you found yourself attracted to, and they to you. In pursuit of your attentions, they competed over one another.. How would you... Er... How would a Samurai-ko be flattered by such competitions? Loudly proclaiming love poetry? Feats of strength? Clever and meaningful gifts?"

He considered her later words a bit more, perhaps instead of the love triangle there were two houses, both similar in status within the clan, set in the fair city of Otosan Uchi. An ancient grudge between the houses of Matsu and Kakita, where noble blood makes noble hands unclean. It could even end with seppuku, or perhaps both of the lovers die, and it forces the two houses to reconcile.

||
Cara
"An old story can be a good one, whole also being a cautionary tale about the follies of passion." However, the second question got her thinking for a moment. Honestly, she could hardly see herself in such a messy situation, but for the sake of the argument, she just took that as granted , and considered what she would do. "I would probably discard entirely feats of strengths or showing off. I am not a tournament prize, to win over through skill and valor. Gifts do sound a bit better, I think... Generally, I would like them to be honest and actually speak with me about it, one on one. True love should not be shouted to the Heavens; it s one of the few things that we do not borrow from our lord or from the Emperor, it s only yours and your partner's."

She was actually surprised by her own words; she never really thought about such sentimental matters all that much. Guess even she was not immune to the Ikoma s works. "But I do understand that drama requires a more intense scenario. So, I suppose dramatic duels and competition are still fine, but I would like them to stay personal, out of the public's eye. If one was vying for my love in public, I d keep wondering if they re doing it for me or the crowd watching them." She didn't even try to make this about the average samurai-ko this time; she was hers, and if Kenshin wanted to speak with an average woman he shouldn't have come to her.

||
William
Kenshin too seemed taken by Miho's response to his question. A surprisingly intimate answer. He wondered if perhaps he should give this knowledge to Akodo-sama in order to help him find a marriage match for Miho. The thought caused an unbidden curl to his lips at the idea of helping Miho find a partner. In her position, a political marriage was far more likely than a love match, but he also took her as someone who would try to make anything work.

"Hmm... I like that answer actually, a personal, private duel rather than one arranged before their lord. But let me ask you this... What if instead, your family had arranged a marriage for you, but perhaps simultaniously while you had pursued and found someone you had feelings for. I figure you are likely to defer to the needs of the family over your personal desires, but for drama's sake inflame your emotions. Your lover vs your duty. Do you try to change your family's plan? But perhaps the one they find for you is higher status than the lover you have found for yourself? I'm not even certain how I would respond in such a situation."

His family was not as well off as Miho's in spite of them both being Ikoma. He knew that his marriage would need to be for advantage, and because of that he had to work hard to become someone that had somethign to offer for such a match. His Mother and his sister depended on it.

"It is always convient in the stories that the secret love ends up being a Daimyo's son is disguise, or the child of the Emperor sneaking off to see the world, but it rarely works out like that in the real world, does it?"

||
Cara
Now this was getting difficult. Miho s imagination had to make quite the effort to picture this situation; she could hardly see herself favouring someone s love over her ambition. But then, after accepting that, she was at a loss for words. What would she do in this situation? She doesn't know herself, even harder to give a coherent response to someone else. "...Obedience to my family always comes first." She began slowly, as if setting a fence in which to restrain her argument. "But I won't deny it would cost me a lot. That said, marriage must not always be the end of love; even while doing my marital duties, I suppose I would continue to see that special someone. I d make sure to not be discovered, of course, and make sure to not humilate my spouse with overtly obvious adultery, but in these conditions, I don't see why not." A surprisingly cynical answer by the Ikoma, but she was not born yesterday: she knew this was the modus operandi of a good portion of Rokugani marriages, sometimes even with couples aware of their respective lovers. She had always found clever from whoever designed the traditional wedding vows, to not add a promise of reciprocal love to the oath; you swore to take care of your spouse, honor them, but not to love them. That way, samurai were allowed to pursue their passions while still doing honor to their family. She was almost sure even her parents had this sort of deal going on, with the mysterious absences from her mother that were never addressed.

"But that is hardly a realistic scenario. More likely I'd just focus in trying to make my marriage work." She added, quite curtly. Speaking of such personal matters was starting to embarass her a bit, but for some reasons she didn't shut down Kenshin yet.

"But I can see that this solution would be a bit too mild for Kabuki. Then, to make it more dramatic... The affair could come to the light? That would likely push the husband to challenge the lover to a duel, possibly with disastrous consequences. From there I am sure you can see many roads for a dramatic conclusion- a Kharmic strike, a seppuku from the grieving woman, and so on."

||
William
Kenshin was surprised at the seemingly thought out answer she gave, it was very much a situation he could see happening in the real world, and if you were to believe the rumors were quite common in the Crane lands, though lords and ladies of station were known to have concubines to help prestigious families ensure the bloodline continues. But then Miho decided to be a bit dramatic in her suggestion.

"Ooooh, I like that a lot! What a good idea!" Kenshin rushed to make some notes on his scroll, and then when he was satisfied with what he had written, he washed the nub of his quill and put it away.

"What about you, you were writing before I interrupted you. Another of your travel journels?" He said it without judgement, more discussing something that they had discussed previously. He was interested in her thoughts about the places they had traveled, and as a historian for the clan, he was also aware of how valuable such documents were in understanding the past. What she was writing down now would likely be studied by scholars like him in a hundred years.

||
Cara
Miho blinked. For a moment, she had forgotten about her own work- and she wasn't too pleased to remember, because now she faced again how hard it sucked.

"Yes. However, I m afraid I might have to drop the quill for today. My efforts have been... Unfruitful, so far." Without wasting time in long winded explanations, she just read out the little she had not discarded so far. It was...*Mihoish*, to use a neologism; the form was immaculate, and the references to other famous works numerous, but it was essentially soulless, an analytic description of the world that left no room to self doubt and introspection. It looked as if a sensei had given her the task to write a travel diary as neutrally as possible, to practice her form before adding in the important layer. Same she wasn't really a novice, and this had been an hobby of hers for years.

||
William
Kenshin held back the impulse to give her advice on her writing style as it had not been asked, and to suggst she needed it would be rude. Miho had been writing these for years, and her challenges were not new ones, but she was also not one to be selling her travel journals for money, as a chui she got a stipend that was orders of magnitude larger than anything he recieved, even with how generous Katsuhiro was to him.

"The Ikoma historians will love your travel journals. It is often very hard to sort out truth from fiction when we look at the historical record. I am certain that in a few hundred years you will be regarded as one of the great archivists of the Lion clan. Most of the Ikoma who never leave their castles but call themselves historians are not first hand witnesses to the great battles of the Lion clan, and yet you are. You should be proud of your hard work."

It was not the first time he had expressed such sentiment to Miho, and he dobuted it would be the last time either. "Hopefully you'll remember to talk about the handsome, overworked scribe who tried to keep everyone supplied and fed." His eyes danced with mirth at the suggestion that he should get a mention in histories. They were for the general and heroes who fought incredible odds. The people who worked in the background were often overlooked, even if their job was important. Battles were always one because of a brilliant tactical move by a captain of history, and never by the quartermaster who made sure the line's boots weren't giving out, and that everyone was fed and rested.

||
Cara
She huffed. She was used to Kenshin's dramatic compliments, and though they didn't affect her much (yeah, she s amazing, she knows) she didn't mind them either. "I certainly will; you do make yourself hard to forget."

 She met Kenshin's eyes, and for a moment, a light of amusement dances in them. "But this isn't supposed to be an historical record, it's an artistic work. Do you have any advice on how to make it so, or should I change genre?" She found entertaining how the Ikoma had managed to avoid passing as rude while still obliquely pointing out the problem with her work. Despite their (abyssal) differences, she found Kenshin to be quite funny.

||
William
"Hmm..." Kenshin considered, leaning back in thought as he mulled over her request for feed back on her work of fiction, "Well, I think as we just discussed, to make those moments of tense drama and fiction," He swirled his quill about as is sword fighting an invisible foe with it, "You need to enflame everyone's emotions, and probably reduce their ability make sound judgement in the heat of the moment." He chuckled lightly, they had both known several of such officers who were themselves not works of fiction.

"Do you remember Gunso Matsu Ishikawa? He was constantly getting in fights, but the reason ended up being because he had gone partially deaf in one ear. Did that knowledge change him or stop him from getting in fights? No, he just continued to mishear people when he was drunk and we had to clean things up after everyone had sobered up. People are always certain of the truth of their own story, even when presented with evidence that they may have a fundamental issue in their understanding. But it's a great way to drive conflict and drama."

He changed to twirl his quill in his hand, "If you're not going for drama, I have read a few travel journals that are more evocative. They focus on the emotion of the place, the feeling of it, and the connection with the land and with the kami. How does the place make you feel? Why, I even found in the archives a recipe for spicy chicken, but nine tenths of the document was how their grandmother was a unicorn and how the kitchen when she was growing up was filled with spicies, and how when she was little she used to love to cook with her grandmother. Only a tenth of it was the actual recipe."

||
Cara
His start had caused Miho to raise a eyebrow- now he was making literature sound like something she wouldn't want to read. Yet, she listened, and by the end she got a little more of what he wa talking about.

"I am indeed going for a contemplative journal, but I think I do not see what you mean. "Connect to the place", ""Feel its emotions", are all phrases easier to say than to put in practice. I do not recall feeling any kind of strong feelings during this journey; simply, I recorded what i saw. Or am I supposed to exaggerate my emotions, to give it that drama you emotion."

||
William
Kenshin gave a coy smile when Miho asked about exaggerating her emotions. "And now you come to the true dilemma. Though I will say, I think you not having stand feelings during your journey here is a lie. I think you have very strong feelings about the journey here and the place. Do you know what the Crab call this city? Rotting Scorpion Cesspool!" He chuckled at finally saying that out loud. "That has a certain emotion to it, wouldn't you say?"

He took the tea pot and topped off his cup.

"When you look at what the Taisa has done here with the garden he is working on and within the white walls of the embassy. Do you feel different here than you do in the Scorpion gardens? What about the Unicorn markets? Or the field where you're training the bonge? I don't think you need to exaggerate your feelings, I think you just need to explore them."

||
Cara
Miho gave him a look that said "Language", but then she started thinking about his advice. Perhaps it s not like she didn't feel anything, but that she hadn't felt anything useful. In her mind, things that didn't serve a purpose were swiftly erased, but perhaps it was good to save a few of those, for her art... *And this city really is a Rotting Cesspool, after all.*

She bowed her head slightly. "I think I get what you mean, Ikoma-san. Thank you for your wise advice, I ll try to implement it in my work best i can. I wish good luck with your own creations."

||
William
Kenshin gave Miho his most dazzling and courtly smiles before bowing deeply to her as only one trained a court can do. His amber eyes dancing with levity and mirth. "I am glad that I was able to be of service, Ikoma-sama. I value our little talks, and you have given me ample inspiration to write about."

He turned to walk away and give her back her space which he had invaded without fanfare. "And please, when you are done, I would enjoy a copy to read, of if you wish, I can make a copy for you to send home to your family as well as the Ikoma Libraries." If a work did not exist there, then it simply did not exist, as the maxim was well known.

||