"Hai..."<br/><br/>The voice was as small and stifled as the girl in simple crab colored kimono. She was tiny compared to everyone else and looked far younger than she actually was, having been training hard with her sensei and missing a few opportunities to have gone through her gempuku ceremony earlier in life.<br/><br/>Hands balled into tiny fists as she was expected to go through the same process as all the other samurai-ko assembled and an audible crack of knuckles popped around the room as she stood up to all of her four foot, ten inches in height.<br/><br/>"I am Kala. My family comes from Crab Lands. Father and mother were seaman both working on on a Riverboat, hauling cargo. I dwelt on the boat with him, and mother both, working as a Cabin Girl, doing laundry and such ever since I was a girl."<br/><br/>She changed the words from little to girl. She -still- was little and while she did not make direct eye contact with the scorpion there was something of a testiness to her tone that could have been intentional as much as it was likely the crassness of her clan in general. Unbinding her simple obi and shrugging her shoulders to shed her clothing, she soon stood in nothing but short tabi socks and a despite generally being worn by men, a high cut fundoshi tightly tied off at the waist as the young woman had almost no hips to speak of for them to cling to. Her chest was small, barely having enough curvature to take much notice of save for perhaps less than a handful dollop able to sit comfortably on the side of someones finger. Dark brown nipples, however, were somewhat large and currently hard enough to cut that odd substance the Unicorn often referred to as glass.<br/><br/>"However, the ship foundered, and my mother was lost. My father and I were rescued, but the cold took his right arm. With no way to support himself, and no trade beside that barred to him, he was forced to sell his beloved daughter. Not long after, he died, a combination of drink and lack of food."<br/><br/>There was a poignant lack of emotion in that last statement, more matter-of-fact than any kind of ploy for sympathy. Drowning in a river or starving to death was simply a realistic possibility when you did not live among the supply lines that moved forever toward the Carpenter Wall. There were worse ways to die.<br/><br/>"I was brought here, to this Okiya. I am your property, till I pay off my debt. You have lent me to honorable Haru and Nowi. They pay you for my services, and you most fairly apply that against my bond price. I am Geisha in training, and as such, wear face paint. The household chores are my most humble responsibility. I will cook, clean, wash, and other activities."<br/><br/>She left off the last part about not being expected to do as much with the clients, believing that to be an instruction and not so much part of the back story. She'd heard plenty of stories about geisha house clients having a taste for inexperienced girls enough to know that not being expected to do as much did not necessarily mean she would not be called to do so. It took her a few tries to don the much nicer kimono than she had been previously wearing and get it to fit right, an eyebrow twitching in frustration until it sat right upon her body. Receiving no verbal instruction she would bow when she was done reciting the story and wait patiently to be told to join the others or whatever her new matron had in-store.