Rising, Shining

[Utaku Nesrin]

Utaku Nesrin couldn't remember not having a river nearby to plunge into after waking. There *was* a river here, but it was across town and she'd long been warned against diving into the rivers near any kind of town where all their filth was dumped.

Instead, students provided much of the labor to make baths ready, haul out dishes and utensils for breakfast, sweep anything that had blown or scurried in overnight, and tidy away all signs of sleeping. After putting on mostly dried clothing and rolling away her futon, Nesrin tucked her very few belongings under the roll and found herself assigned to haul water-lots and lots of water from the cisterns to the baths. It was good exercise, but she'd sure need the bath afterward.

[Kokyou]

Kakyou, half asleep, yawns heavily while bringing two buckets of water over a pole and entering the bathing area to spill its contents. "I guess these are th' last ones. Who's gettin's th' warm rocks from th' fire t' heat up th' bath, again?"

[Utaku Nesrin]

"Pretty sure that's still us. Don't know why anyone needs a hot bath first thing in the day anyway," Nesrin grumbles, sloshing her own buckets into one of the rinsewater tubs. She carries the pole and buckets to stack in their places at one end of the room.

Tucking her hands carefully at her sides--not offering either one, because that's wrong and everyone's on their best behavior here, right?--she offers a short bow and introduction. "Utaku Nesrin, daughter of Utaku Kyo." Then she nods toward the far side of the room, away from all the wet bucket. "I'm betting the iron pails there are for carrying stones."

[Kokyou]

"By th' twirlin' mustache o' th' orochi, why ye Utaku 'ave t' be so kami damned charmin'." Kokyou takes a floushied bow, and nearly drops the water over. To compensate, he skillfuly counterweights with a side step while cursing, "Oops. Worm livered putrid rat spawned stick."

After making sure the pole if off his back, he says, "I beg your pardon. I be the breathin' ambition o' discovery, wealth, glory an' conquest. The seed o' the storm, soon the become the mightiest gentleman o' fortune this world an' that 'as e'er known! Kokyou is the name I be given."

With that, he grins and moves toward the iron pails. "Get yourself cozy inside, I'll leave some rocks nearby where ye choose."

[Utaku Nesrin]

There is an abortive scramble as the buckets look about to drop, and then a long pause, not even disguised with careful fussing at her clothing, as Nesrin tries to translate the Other Side of the Empire dialect into sense. She half succeeds.

Lifting her chin with a challenging half-smile she shakes her head. "Oh no, Kokyou-san, I'm not sitting anywhere to get called on for slacking while your ambition hauls all the stones and gets the notice for it." She heads for the pails with a brisk step fluttering the panels of her deel to the sides. "Besides, I need to warm up someway without a morning ride."

[Kokyou]

"Nay, nay, nay." Kokyou exclaims while speeding up his pace to outmaneuver the Utaku's ride to the pails.

"Ye pointed th' pails t' me 'n now ye wants t' loot away th' glory. That won't do, lass." If she speed up, so does he. Until of course none yield to go to fetch the item, in which case, they would have an even heated dispute.

[Utaku Nesrin]

Ordinarily there'd be little need to fight over a pail, there were numerous baths for so many students and a passal of pails for laboring students to pick from. But there were easily a half dozen assigned to get the baths ready this morning and only a pair of pails left behind just now. So she does speed up, and then again as the mocking boy matches her and they edge from speedy walk into a jog before halfway across the room.

"It's a race then?" Nesrin's laugh follows the question as they speed to the other end of the room.

[Kokyou]

It wasn't about the fight, or the pail, it was about the fun of the challenge. Kokyou simply starts to run, laughing hard soon after Nersin's outburst. "Ye can nah outmatch me without yer pony, lass."

--
Fluff Athletics/Strengh: 3d10o10k2 13

[Utaku Nesrin]

Darn right it was the challenge! "Hah! I outrun my *horse* on good days, boy!" Nesrin knew she was bragging, but today, maybe she actually would have outrun Tabudai as her feet simply flew across the slippery wooden floor. She would not swear that she hadn't been airborne for a few strides there. "Bet you've never run farther then the end of your boat."

She skidded to a stop, thudding momentum away into the wall. Calmly, eyes on her 'opponent,' she picked up the pails, one in each hand. Cheeks flushed and grinning wide, the Unicorn girl added. "Guess I'm going to haul some rocks and get my exercise before breakfast. You might just want to check if the water's hot enough for you."

32 on the roll 0_0. Sure Orokos, this is the time for a double explosion. Shall I just run through the wall like the Kool Aid Man?

[Kokyou]

As the girl dashes forward like lighting itself, Kokyou's jaw nearly drops to the floor. He replies while trying to catch up unsuccessfully. "Har! Ye're wrong. I don't even 'ave a ship t' cross! Belay that. That didn' sound rig..."

He presses his lips and claps to her while nodding in pleasant surprise as she raises the pails in victory. Kokyou congratulates... himself? "I be amazed at how well I be able t' influence others t' reach out t' thar fullest."

[Utaku Nesrin]

"Inspiring? See, my little brother calls it annoying when I do that," she chuckles, then lowers one pail, holding the other out. "But here, if you want to carry some stones instead of being first in line for a bath, you can have one of them."

"So you don't come from a ship or boat or something? You're Mantis right? I thought they were all sailors, pretty much."

[Kokyou]

"I be mighty inspirin' indeed. I be glad I could be o' an example o' honest work. Yer wee brother best be thankful fer th' lessons ye'll pass on t' 'im." Kokyou snatches the offered item with a swing of his arm and swirls it around as if it were a blade.

Then, he gruffs, quite dramatically, to add momentum and tension to his words. "Only th' best o' us are sailors. But aye, ye be correct. That's well-nigh about everyone since we be so great.""

Moving back straight and looking to the heated stones in the fire, he shrugs. "I come from a ship, but that's nah me ship. I only get a ship when I complete me gempukku."

[Utaku Nesrin]

"Really? Cause my yurt...well the one I live in is still my yurt even if it belongs to mom and her sister." She sets her bucket down and grabs the set of long metal tongs to transfer stones from fire to pail. "Though I guess I'm just *from* the plains, they're not my plains. Too big to hold onto like that. Never thought of boats as so big as that."

[Kokyou]

"Nay. Silly. Reckon o' boats more like yer 'orses. But wit' a lot more scallywags ridin' on it. Do ye 'ave yers yet, or do ye get one aft ye pass gempukku?" He mentions, not really sure how the Unicorn Clan treated adulthood.

[Utaku Nesrin]

Nesrin frowns, "that's nothing like our horses. My Tabudai is more like...my brother, and no other...no scallywags will ride him but me!" She says, utterly oblivious to the cliche'd double entendres around Unicorns and riding. "We grow up with them, and it's as much work to chose who will be paired with a foal as for a matchmaker to set up a pair to wed. Tabudai's seen six seasons now."

"How do you all get a boat? Surely there aren't so many that everyone has their own after gempukku?" Or maybe the Mantis were a much smaller clan than she thought.

[Kokyou]

"Fair enough. Then reckon o' boats as yer blades. Ye only get them aft ye graduate. But th' boats ye share wit' yer mates. Which be different from th' blade tradition, or yer 'orses. Where ye only get yers, alone."

He shakes the heated stones within the container and mentions, "Th' cap'n's decide between themselves who will loot th' new tar. Sometimes, thar's heated dispute. Either t' keep, or t' send t' someone else's ship. Other times, thar are duels o' might."

[Utaku Nesrin]

She thought she'd been doing ok with the ocean dialect but, "loot the tar?"

[Kokyou]

He nods, and confirms, "Aye. Plunder the salty!"

[Utaku Nesrin]

The last stone shaken from the pail, she straightens, one hand on her hip, glaring. "Now you are just making things up. Run the smokey! Unseal the unbecoming!"

"Does it actually mean anything? Like a cipher but in words or something?"

[Kokyou]

"Tar be a salty, a seadog, a mariner. Sailor. Loot be plunder, that be: select somethin' wit' great value wit' sheer intensity...or someone, in this specific case."

He smirks to intensify his smugness. "I be nah makin' up. Although I would definitely consider makin' out."