Rooftop Renegades

[Iuchi Prashant]

"Well of course its all about money its a market Prashat what would you have it be about?" He said with a laugh.

Prashant makes a funny face, then laughs. "Well... I guess you're right, Moto-san. It's only... I'm really not used to thinking about coin so much."

"I mean, they're heimin. Koku are all they have to feed themselves with, so it gets more important, I guess. We've got lords making sure we're fed and keeping our armor repaired. I guess it probably messes with their spirits though, doesn't it?"

"It might, I believe. Although it would be very odd to say it is a lack of piety to have Daikoku's blessing. But then again, what actually feeds the heimin is rice, not koku itself. They do need the koku, of course! But in the end it's the food, the beverages, the books, the craftswork... and the people which make the market, not the koku, isn't it?", he says, smiling.

He eyes Nesrin and Ichiro at their playful comments, smiling, then says to Nesrin.

"Utaku-san, are you interested in any particular languages?"

[Moto Ichiro]

He gave a half hearted shove and a bright laugh back at her "I smell of strong Moto war steed and its better than any perfume you'll find in a market!" He paused a little "well i used to at any rate losing that scent the longer I'm here."

He listens to Prashant and shrugs "they both make it can't have one without the other."

[Utaku Nesrin]

"Nah, I was serious. You don't smell like horse after this long away from home and three baths a day." It's said jokingly, but with just a touch of wistfulness at the reminder of how long they'd been away from their steeds here.

"Markets have both, yeah. I'm just glad my path isn't tied there. Not that battle's spiritually clean, I guess." Nesrin shrugs. "But I'd like to learn to talk to the folks across the Sands.They're the ones we're most likely to run into." She has little idea that they have languages like the Empire has clans, half a dozen or more.

[Iuchi Prashant]

"Markets have both, yeah. I'm just glad my path isn't tied there. Not that battle's spiritually clean, I guess." Nesrin shrugs. "But I'd like to learn to talk to the folks across the Sands.They're the ones we're most likely to run into." She has little idea that they have languages like the Empire has clans, half a dozen or more.

"Well, that they have. I just tend to think koku is more of an... intermediary, say. And it takes attention from what really matters - spiritually and otherwise", he says, smiling again. "But you're right, battle is not particularly clean, either... and yet even we shugenja take part in it. I suppose it's the purpose that matters, and it is our job to make battlefields - and markets, as much as possible - are kept pure after the day is over!"

"As for languages... well, my mother's family is originally from one of the many peoples of the Sands. It won't help you talk to other of them, but if you'd like to... I could teach you some of my family's language", he says with an excited smile. "It'd be a start, at least!"

[Moto Ichiro]

"Nah, I was serious. You don't smell like horse after this long away from home and three baths a day." It's said jokingly, but with just a touch of wistfulness at the reminder of how long they'd been away from their steeds here.

"What can I say I work hard and enough of these people look at me as a barbarian probably best if I don't smell like one as well." He said with a chuckle.

"Markets have both, yeah. I'm just glad my path isn't tied there. Not that battle's spiritually clean, I guess." Nesrin shrugs. "But I'd like to learn to talk to the folks across the Sands.They're the ones we're most likely to run into." She has little idea that they have languages like the Empire has clans, half a dozen or more.

"Id rather dedicate my life to battle and defending our home than be a money man, not that they aren't important just not my thing."

"As for languages... well, my mother's family is originally from one of the many peoples of the Sands. It won't help you talk to other of them, but if you'd like to... I could teach you some of my family's language", he says with an excited smile. "It'd be a start, at least!"

"That'd be a super useful! i always learn better from a person than reading from a dusty old scroll." He said with a big smile.

[Utaku Nesrin]

Nesrin nods in agreement. "Yep, learning from someone who speaks a thing seems a lot better than just trying to read it. What language is it? And how many *are* there in the Sands? We only have the one here, though I sometimes thing the Mantis must have learned another somehow."

She grins at the Moto. "Eh, I don't know that we can do *anything* that would make some people see us as not-barbarians. It doesn't matter, so long as we know what we are and stick to it."

[Moto Ichiro]

"Dozens." He replies to her question about how many languages there are. "Mekhem in the burning sands, ivindi in the ivory kingdom, Yobanjin among their people, Senpet, and a load of others. There's a whole lot of world out there Nesrin-san."

[Iuchi Prashant]

Prashant bows at the Moto's answer. "I think I remember my mother telling me stories about other peoples too. Her family's language is Tegensai. They live in the Pillars of the World mountains west of Rokugan, and..." his eyes seem to shine for a moment "they too follow the teachings of the Little Teacher, or something very similar to them. That link between my Gaijin ancestors and Rokugan is something that always keeps me wondering at night", he says, happy and seeming enraptured by the thought.

[Utaku Nesrin]

"They still follow Shinsei out there?" The Battle Maiden pauses. "You know, I think I've been thinking a little of them as barbarians too. Even as we keep trying to convince the other Clans that we aren't, I think we maybe still...I don't know, pick up that attitude? Hold ourselves higher than the folks outside our lands? Do they have travel poems too?"

"There's...so much to learn and see." Nesrin says in a voice both wistful and excited. "I hadn't thought to be studying scrolls and books all that much in my training. I guess maybe I should find ways to. What if I give you my coins when you head back to Khanbulak? Would you send me some texts in other languages from the market there? Might be ages before I can read them, but it's a start." She looks up at the much taller Moto as she asks.

[Iuchi Prashant]

"Oh, I'll be happy to teach you at least the basics if you'd like, Moto-san, Utaku-san!"

"They do!", Prash says excitedly answering Nesrin's question. "Or, well, at least Tegensai thinking and rituals are remarkably similar to those of the Shintao. Isn't that fantastic? It... well, that is one of the reasons why I'm so interested in the secrets of the Tao", he smiles.

"But... that's an interesting point of view, Nesrin-san. I guess we are... well, we're used to things from the world outside the Empire. In a way, that means we have a broader view, or even a broader understanding, at least in some topics... but then again, we are Rokugani as well. It's an odd thing to think about, really."

He looks up, thinking for a while.

"That's a good question too! Do you think they do? My father used to read poems to me, I used to love them, but I couldn't find the time to actually learn much about poetry after I started training. Ammaki used to read me some Tegensai poems, too. Do you like poetry, Utaku-sans, Moto-san?"

[Moto Ichiro]

"They still follow Shinsei out there?" The Battle Maiden pauses. "You know, I think I've been thinking a little of them as barbarians too. Even as we keep trying to convince the other Clans that we aren't, I think we maybe still...I don't know, pick up that attitude? Hold ourselves higher than the folks outside our lands? Do they have travel poems too?"

Ichiro nodded "Yeah i think even some Unicorn end up with the attitude that we are better than gaijin, just because the Emperor said so." He shrugged a little "we all mixed with people from the buring sands and other areas, I mean my lineage traces back mostly Ujik-hai. Plus if you spend enough time around them you begin to realize they are people just like you and me." He says not realizing the blasphemy of his words.

There's...so much to learn and see." Nesrin says in a voice both wistful and excited. "I hadn't thought to be studying scrolls and books all that much in my training. I guess maybe I should find ways to. What if I give you my coins when you head back to Khanbulak? Would you send me some texts in other languages from the market there? Might be ages before I can read them, but it's a start." She looks up at the much taller Moto as she asks.

He waved a hand "save your coin Nesrin-san, id be happy to find and send you books in other languages. I own a few myself that I mostly have because the illustrations are cool. But I'll send them to you and you can bring them back when you come visit." He says with a smile down at the Unicorn girl.

"Oh, I'll be happy to teach you at least the basics if you'd like, Moto-san, Utaku-san!"
used to read me some Tegensai poems, too. Do you like poetry, Utaku-sans, Moto-san?"

"Eh" Ichiro wobbled a hand back and forth "never had much use for poetry or the arts to be honest. I prefer practical things, things the do something."

[Utaku Nesrin]

Walking the street with her clanfolk like this isn't the same as riding, but there's the same sense of belonging and comaraderie. Nesrin's voice takes on the ringing quality it would reciting from horseback to be heard across a group of riders...though at a bit less volume than she'd have used on the plains.

"Learn the language
Learn the mind
Tongues trip ever more lightly with time
Whisper the Way, maybe a bit bent
When we meet who we meet
Kin and kind recognized everywhere."

It's rough and off the cuff, but a recognizable distillation of the benefits of learning languages and the common threads the Unicorn found as they traveled. She pauses for a moment afterward, slipping back into a properly conversational tone.

"I've always loved travel poems and they way they're so...they flow off the tongue. And they *are* useful," she adds with a pointed look at Ichiro. "At least they're supposed to have a lesson in them."

"I'll look forward to seeing what you send, Moto-san. I might only look at the pictures myself until I get a lot more training, but they'll be there to encourage me to study!"

[Moto Ichiro]

He sticks his tongue out at Nesrin "Yeah but you could just say languages are important and then why instead of putting it in a poem making people think about what you're saying."

[Utaku Nesrin]

She grins, "A little thinking's good for you, you know. "