[ We find Some Of Our Heroes sitting in a Rokugani tavern. They are not alone, however; there are some traders here and there swapping stories, and at one table sits a large contingent of women dressed in a similar fashion to Kenji's mother and the angry woman from the immigration office. They, too, seem to be of perpetual ill-temper. ] [ Tia has found her way back to you, and is just sitting down near your table when a large, unkempt man in the colors of the Crab enters and bellows, "WHERE IS MY WIFE?" This instantly raises the hackles of the red-haired woman at the other table, and one is about to stand when Tia jumps and shouts, "HERE I AM!" ] (Tia's getting married!) (Wait no, she shouted that in Common.) [ This catches everyone by surprise; most especially the Crab at the door, who murmurs "Kaiju" and collapses to the ground in a faint. ] [ Tia blinks, shrugs, and sits back at the table as if nothing happened. The angry women at the other table laugh after all this happens. ] [ This leaves the rest of you in a quiet tavern that's gradually winding back up. It's about an hour until Istvan's crest if finished. Session Start! ] * Takara murmurs, "" * Patrick nods to Takara. I'll take your word for it. * Istvan idly patpats Tia. "We've trained her well, Patrick." I would have done the same, honestly. The look on that guy's face was priceless. * Takara shakes her head. No chance of that. Seylin would wing-slap him into the next canyon. * Takara smiles faintly. "" It's clear she's humoring him. * Seylin just smiles. Besides, I think that after a couple of nights of Patrick's cooking, the guy would bring him back. *smirks* Hey, I cook pretty well. You seem to like ice cream. But you can't eat ice cream all the time. Pfft, the only reason we don't get much of my cooking is because you're better at it. * Patrick winks at Seylin. I never said you didn't cook *well*. I just meant that I don't think the loud, obnoxious bastard could handle more than two nights of your spices. * Takara picks up her cup of tea and sips it. * Patrick laughs. I guess that's true! Well, that's good to know if we ever need to sell Patrick into an arrainged marraige to a Crab. * Seylin smiles sweetly. "As if I'd just sit there and let them have him." Is that a slight edge to her voice? * Istvan pauses. "For the sake of saving the world, of course." * Istvan turns to Takara. "Question that just popped into my head. Are all marraiges around here arrainged, or just some?" * Takara looks at Istvan quizzically for a moment before setting her tea down. "" * Istvan shrugs. "Depends on where and how wealthy or powerful you are. Among the dwarves, it's pretty rare except for the occasional political marraige between clans. In most of the human lands, it's also pretty rare, though again political marraiges happen, and there's some among the wealtier classes." Dunno about the elves. For the most part, it's 'marry who you want'... though it's not rare at all for parents to forcefully express their opinions if they don't like a particular guy or woman. * Istvan downs some of his water, then grins. "Your turn." * Takara nods. "" * Istvan furrows his brow a little at the 'peasant' bit, then nods along with the rest. "So among the non-samurai, things are done kinda like back where we're from, with dating and such, but that's pretty rare among the samurai class." *pauses, thinking* Doesn't that end up with a lot of less- than-happy marriages, though? Or do most samurai accept that marriage is a family/clan institution, and not a romantic one? * Takara pauses, thinking about it, then says, "" She pauses again and plucks her cup from the table with her slender fingers. "" * Istvan takes another gulp of water. "S'a pretty pessamistic way to look at it." Pretty realistic though. * Takara nods at Patrick and sips her tea. * Istvan rubs his neck. "Man, I dunno what I'd even do if I woke up one day and found out I was going to be married to some person I barely knew." But, to be honest, that would really suck. * Takara lowers her cup. "" * Istvan nods. "Suppose knowing it's coming, and that it's pretty much the only way these things go, would help some. Still... hell, it makes me nervous to even try for a date with a woman if I don't know her that well." *shrugs* * Takara comments lightly, "" * Patrick stage whispers to Takara. "He doesn't." * Istvan rubs his neck s'more. "It's not a common occurance." And by not a common occurance, you mean you've never gone out with a girl since coming to Flying Couches. That's not true! Wasn't there... um... oh. Nope. * Takara blinks at Patrick. " Friinguru..." She tries to say 'couches', but it ends up *completely* incomprehensible. * Seylin grins at Patrick. "I'm going to let you explain this one." Flying Couches is the name of our, um... Residence in Brightenhome. * Istvan is blushing a bit. Aww. ( A device for sitting on! What a radical idea. ^_~ ) (She has heard of these 'couches', but she's never actually seen one!) (We should get her one!) ( Kenji has one in his sleeve. ) (I wonder if she'd know how to sit on it.) (I don't doubt that he does.) Yes. Flying furniture. * Istvan makes his second save vs. embarassment roll! "Mostly when Tia's around." She's got a thing for throwing stuff around. * Takara folds her hands, thinking, then abruptly turns to Istvan. "" Yup. Although a lot of the time the lines blur so one person thinks it's a date while the other doesn't. Hmm? *blinks* Yeah. Two people spend time together, hang out, go places... long courtship ritual, basically. * Istvan nods. "A friendly get-together and a date can look a lot a like, at least at the beginnings of a relationship." *blinks HARD; chuckles* "Nah. My folks were fairly famous adventurers, and I'm pretty well known around Moradin's Deep, but nobody's ever confused me for nobility." * Seylin fidgets slightly. * Patrick smiles at Seylin. * Patrick looks like he's about to field it, but then decides Istvan should try. And hopefully make a fool of himself. * Istvan shakes his head a bit, and gives a small grin. "Spent quite a few years fighting fate, then a few more being pissed off at it. Didn't wanna let anyone get too close." * Takara looks confused. "" Usually. But my parents were famous adventurers mostly because... well, mostly because they died keeping this... *points to his pick* ... out of some very bad hands. Put a lotta pressure on me to follow in their footsteps, and, frankly, I buckled under the pressure. * Takara nods. * Istvan nods slowly. "I realize that... now. Didn't for a while, which was part of the problem." * Takara furrows her brow. "" I was really young when they died. I was angry at them for leaving me alone. I was angry at people for expecting me to automatically want to be like them, instead of letting me choose my own path. *pauses; laughs a bit* I was angry a lot for a long time. * Takara blinks. Oh, he knows. * Istvan nods. "I do. But I wasn't thinking too clearly back then. Up until pretty recently, actually. But after we got this pick back from the drow, I did some thinking... and I figured some things out that I shoulda figured out a long time ago." * Takara finishes her tea as she listened. Now she is tealess! * Istvan smirks. "And now I'm the the noble, dashing, charming guy you see before you today." *mini-poses* [ An obsequious servant comes and brings more tea for all who want it, and fish for Tia. ] * Istvan overdramatically glances back and forth in mid-pose. * Takara nods to the servant, acknowledging him, then looks to Istvan. "" Being Istvan. Being silly to lighten the mood after telling my depressing life story. * Takara blinks. "" She changes the topic slightly; maybe that's her way of lightening the mood. "" * Istvan deflates a bit. He really shouldn't have tried that untrained Comedy skill roll. * Seylin shakes her head. "Not on my mother's side, at least." * Takara looks interested. I'm not really sure. I've never met him. * Takara nods in sympathy. "" I think my parents were married, or had some sort of blessed union. But... * Seylin looks Takara in the eyes. "He was of the place I've heard Kenji call 'Tengoku.' I know that seems hard to believe. But it's true. And he..." She stops and blinks a few times, looking troubled. * Patrick nods understandingly to Seylin. "Maybe we should talk about something else?" * Takara 's mouth drops open slightly, then she leans forward, looking at Seylin with alarming intensity. "" She stops, then says, comfortingly, "" * Seylin shakes her head. "Not dead... but from the heavens. But... I had a dream about him." * Takara nods, letting Seylin continue if she likes. He was being held captive somewhere. By something very evil. He called out for me to help him. I thought it was just a nightmare. But what if it's true? I don't know. If it is, I hope I'm not too late. * Takara nods. "" Is there someone in your lands who's trained in the art of interpreting dreams? * Takara sits back on her heels. "" Is that on the way to where we're going? * Seylin nods. "And they'll let an outsider ask questions of them?" * Takara smiles. "" * Seylin bows her head. "Thank you very much. And, well, a riddle is better than no answer at all. I hope." Sometimes they're funny. * Takara bows back. "" I'd prefer to avoid that. * Seylin smiles at Takara. Yeah, humiliating Seylin would probably cause me to want to hit people. And that probably wouldn't go over well. Death is only temporary, except in the case of disintigration or body loss. <... I'm sorry?> I'm not. But Sey's just about the most decent person I've ever met, and I'd be damned if I'd stand for that. * Takara looks at Patrick, confused. * Istvan grins at Sey. "Kardos is slightly more decent, but it's close." Nothing, it's just an old saying. * Seylin smiles back at Istvan, choosing to ignore Patrick for the moment. "Thank you, Istvan." Nothing really. Something to do with recovering from your injuries or close to death situations, I think. * Takara nods slowly. "" * Seylin sneezes quietly. Somehow, the motion causes her to thwap Patrick with a wing. Excuse me. * Istvan quirks an eyebrow. * Takara clearly doesn't quite see, but she drinks her tea nevertheless. * Istvan looks out the window. "Well, look at the time. I think my shield should be almost ready." [ And so they paid up and went to collect Istvan's shield! Session End. ]