[D2 LA] Freshening Up Before Dinner (Open)

[Hida Daichi]

After a fun but slightly tiring time at the festival Daichi figured it was time to freshen up a bit. Carrying that load hadn't been the hardest thing in the world but it got him to work up a sweat and he had a special dinner to go to in a bit.

So the massive Crab cleansed himself thoroughly before calmly striding toward the heated pools of water. He did so without covering which was normal for him, he had found little use for propriety in his life

Daichi sunk into the waters with a soft sigh and a smile as he felt the warm waters melt away the day's tension.

[Yue]

After a long journey by foot to the village and an eventful today, Yue figured that she might have put off having a bath for long enough and she needed one badly. She spared a few zeni from her meagre savings to enter the facilities.

She entered the baths proper after a thorough scrub and wash, giving a bow to the large Hida after stepping in. If there was a separate bath, she wasn't too sure where she should go. "Good afternoon...is it fine if I were to join you here?"

[Hida Daichi]

The large Hida nodded "Of course Samurai-san all are welcome in the baths! A place of gathering and conversation as much as it is cleansing! This one is Hida Daichi who do I have the pleasure of bathing with today?" He asked in a booming but rich baritone voice.

[Yue]

Yue found herself surprised by the Hida's reception and didn't question it, in case he changed his mind. "Of course..." she murmured.

She slipped off her towel and stepped into the bath. There was a moment that she was rather surprised at how warm the water was in the bath. She splashed some water on her face and eased into a corner, crossing her arms together. "Uhm, I'm Yue...just Yue. I'm a ronin who recently arrived to these parts.

[Hida Daichi]

Daichi didn't seemed to be bothered at all by her being a ronin, he didn't seem to care about a great many things propriety among them as there was no polite glance away from Yue while she entered the bath but a carrying on of conversation "well Yue-san, welcome to Fire Shrimp, its not much of a town but its got good booze and decent people if you know where to look!" He said with a large grin while regarding her with his mismatched eyes.

"Youre the second New ronin I've run into here in as many days. How is it you came to our little village?"

[Yue]

"Thank you, Hida-sama," she said with a nod of her head, looking a bit pleased that she was welcomed. It was a bit conflicting she had to admit, considering she was given a free breakfast by a Hiruma then harassed with a taint check then welcomed by other Crab. She probably had to keep her mind on the objective side while she stayed here... "I had the pleasure of meeting Hiruma Sen-sama earlier. Are you a local here, then?"

"It seems the village and the wedding festivities are attracting a bit of ronin here, yes. I admit that I knew little of the land, Clan and village before coming here...I only followed the crowd of travellers from the Crane lands up north."

[Hida Daichi]

"Not a bad way to hunt down work, go where the people are. Smart." He said with a bright smile.

"I am.....localish Yue-san, I spent much of my youth in this village before my mother became the provincial daimyo and we moved a bit before my gempukku, then I spent the last two years finishing my training at and then manning The Wall. So its been a while since I've been here but its nice to be back." He explained to the ronin woman.

[Yue]

"I'd say more luck than anything else, Hida-sama," she said plainly on the matter, "they could have been making their way on board of a ship and I would have little chance afterwards."

"It sounds like you're still connected to the village. Has it really changed much since last you've been here? Do you know the people involved in this marriage?"

[Hida Daichi]

Daichi shrugged "Smart, luck, if you end up in a good spot then the end result is the same. Plus even if you are lucky you can just let people think it was being smart the whole time." he said with a grin and a wink.

"Fire Shrimp never changes though, its only been a few years since I was living here its largely the same, Inn still run by the same people, shops and such are largely unchanged. People just being a bit older and those I was growing up with being adults now is about it. Don't know if i'd say it feels like home but it at least feels familiar." he paused and stretched his scarred, well muscled physique rippling with the motion. Daichi let out a breath and looked at Yue "So where do you hail from Yue-san?"

[Yue]

Yue raised her brows at the Hida and nodded soundly, "Well, that's the trick, isn't it? I guess it's my mistake for admitted that it was luck to you."

"Probably a town could only grow so much..." she murmured as she scratched the side of her jaw, "I hail from a city up north, somewhere much larger than this place, that's for sure. I suppose that place always felt a bit strange even as I was growing up, but I might be a minority. I doubt it would appear anywhere near familiar if I were to ever return."

[Hida Daichi]

He gave Yue another wink "Dont worry Yue-san your secret is safe with me!" He exclaimed.

To her explanation Daichi nodded "im sure it hasn't changed too much, ive noticed most places follow roughly the same structure. Probably cause they all got people and people are really pretty similar when you strip away all the bullshit. We all care about protecting us and ours and getting more. How we go about it may be different but all our goals are the same."

[Yue]

"Hah..." Yue murmured with a faint smile. She supposed she wasn't intending to make much of a joke out of it but if the Hida found a liking to it, she wasn't supposed to complain, right?

"Well, I guess it's not a big deal is structures don't change," she gave a shrug, "A mountain always remain the same but you can't really hope to learn and know all the trees and leaves that reside there. They change colour and fall but at the end of the day they are still trees and leaves, right? I guess thinking that, I've come to realize that it doesn't really matter so much if I was still there, elsewhere, or here. That makes being on the road easier, at least."

[Hida Daichi]

"Basically yeah just that. Things change but underneath they are always the same. But hell I'm just seventeen years old what the fuck do I know about the world!" He said with a laugh

"So what is it you do for coin Yue-san?"

[Yue]

"Almost anything," she said with a nod, "I'm not much of a yojimbo or artisan so that just gives me the remainder of the jobs as a ronin, usually it's labour or security. I'm pretty good with my bow and okay with hunting, so I make most of my living as hunter for hire. I can get a few zeni from the heimen with small game and some bu from samurai. Sometimes people want to pad out their hunting trips and have me around to help. The catch isn't worth so much to me as it is to my employers, unless food is hard to come by."

[Hida Daichi]

"A good hunter is a fine thing!" he said with a smile and chuckle "You should keep an eye out for a Hiruma-san, when I was growing up here she had been doing a lot of scout and survival training. You could either learn something from one another or possibly just swap stories and techniques. I know the basics of woodcraft cause mother loves a good hunt but I never invested too much in it."

[Yue]

"I did run into Hiruma-sama this morning and she was very kind to share some of her breakfast with me. She is still a local here, from what she tells me. I think I managed to learn more from her than the other way around," she admitted with a shrug of her shoulder, "I have little idea of the surrounding area and I was planning to head out but her stories more or less saved me a few trips. I do plan to go out eventually and should fare better now that I know what to expect."

[Hida Daichi]

"Just wanting to scout out the area and see whats out there?" He asked with a head tilt "probably avoid doing it at night id say, most the weird stuff happens on the beach but can never be too careful in Crab lands."

[Yue]

"I was at the beach just yesterday...what sort of strange things happen around here?" she asked curiously, "I heard some rumours about a ghost or something roaming that area. It looked safe enough during the day."

[Hida Daichi]

"Oh yeah during the day its a lovely spot to enjoy the ocean view go for a swim, any number of beach activities. At night though people go missing if they are alone, ghostly battles can be heard raging on the beach. Creatures coming out of the shadowed dark places." He said with a shrug "kind of a normal thing as far as Crab lands are concerned."

[Yue]

"Wait...it's actually a thing here?" she said with a blink as she sat up in the baths. It was one thing to hear it from peasants but perhaps another to hear it from a samurai and a former local to the area, "I thought the peasants were onto something around here, even if it was probably exaggerated but that's something else. Why wasn't the beach been warded or cleansed?"

[Hida Daichi]

Daichi shrugged "Youd have to talk to the Kuni about that one? I'm sure they've done stuff to it over the years but I dont know. I honestly just figured someone had tried to do something about it just nothing happened. I heard one of the ghost battles just last night. Further south you get closer to the Shadowlands you are, wards and purification likely don't last long and its mostly just noise and the occasional peasant going missing. Regrettable but until we know what it is there ain't much we can do about it."

[Yue]

"Sorry, I didn't mean to overstep my boundaries," she said with a wave of her hand, perhaps more comfortable about staying away from matters of spiritual health, "I'm sure it's been handled already, especially within the Crab. It seems like you were all pretty thorough today. I suppose there are tales and rumours to keep people safe, sometimes. Where I come from, sometimes we just get those extra charms and blessings...just in case. Hrm, I don't know if the temple around here would do that for this kind of stuff..."

[Hida Daichi]

Daichi shrugged and chuckled "Think nothing of it Yue-san, im not one to get my fudoshi in a twist talking about spiritual matters. The Kuni are a little too thorough for my taste most of the time. To them every shadow hides an oni and every beautiful peasant might be a witch. As far as the temple around here you'll likely find a few charms and trinkets but most of those would be used to fire your passions or make you fertile." He finished with a laugh.

[Yue]

That was something that made Yue blush and she looked downwards at the waters of the bath. "Admittedly, not the sort of charms I was looking for to be honest. That sort of blessing is better for a married couple or married couple to be like Hida-sama and his bride. The type of charms I was thinking of more dealt with warding evil and bad spirits away. Or the sort that would grant you strength or luck toward such a thing. Or honest work, I suppose."

[Hida Daichi]

Daichi grinned at the blush "I didn't think you were Yue-san, I dont meet so many ronin with your sense of propriety. Most seem to be a bit, rougher, than you seem." He chuckled "but I'm sure the monks up there have something not related to making babies though I wouldn't know honestly, I can count the number of times I've visited that temple on one hand. But you also might reach out to local Kuni to see about spiritual protection. They take their jobs quite seriously as I said."