Caving into Necessity (Open)

[Asako Saburo]

Yeah, meditation practice had gone predictably poorly.

Eventually, his stomach rumbled enough that Saburo could not continue as he had. Whatever. He got up and went to the mess hall to get his afternoon meal. He'd go and take care of his share of the cleaning when he was finished with getting some food in him. However, the persistent frustration of his meditative studies was becoming a deep and annoying thorn in his side. Looking sour, which was not really that unusual, he made his way in and thanked those presenting food to him before sitting down with a grunt.

[Utaku Nesrin]

Nesrin gathers up her meal, and looks around for someone she hasn't met. They are supposed to be meeting new people here, as well as training, after all. Something about fostering connections that she suspects makes more sense for the political types.

Pausing in front of Saburo, she waits just long enough to maybe be noticed, maybe. "Mind if I join you?"

[Doji Sakura]

Sakura had eaten her food already, and just had some tea. When she had returned to her room earlier though, she was reminded of something she'd been neglecting...

So all the students that came into the canteen today were greeted with music, as Sakura sat and played a slow tune on her biwa.

D6 Horse playing the Biwa!: 5d10o10k4 24

[Asako Saburo]

He gave a brief nod to the Doji when she played her biwa. Honestly, much better than her voice in his opinion. She was actually rather competent with that thing, wasn't she? Perhaps her studies were helping her. Hearing the Utaku speak, he looked up at her with pale, yellow eyes and then bowed once. "Of course, Utaku-san. I do not think we've been formally introduced. Asako Saburo." Perhaps they'd seen each other around in the various lessons, but that wasn't the same was it?

[Utaku Nesrin]

Indeed, introductions are proper. Nesrin bowed as well. "Utaku Nesrin, daughter of Utaky Kyo. We haven't formally met, but of course everyone knows your name since it's at the top of the postings every day," She says with good humor before setting down her tray and taking a seat.

After an appreciative glance at the young biwa player, she offers a quick, "itadakimasu," before starting in on the meal. "Soup's good today. Even if I feel like it reminds me of something we'd make to get medicine down a horse."

[Doji Sakura]

Sakura gave the two who looked in her direction a smile and a seated bow, but continued her playing for now. Maybe Asako-sama was teaching the Unicorn girl? He was really smart after all!

[Asako Saburo]

"It does have a certain wholesomeness to it, yes. I rather enjoy that flavoring quite a bit," Saburo said, but he was someone so accustomed to herbal remedies that he was willing to put up with their flavors more than others did. Mind you, it really wasn't that medicinal in his view, but it was definitely a hearty meal like his mother would make to 'put meat on his bones.

He did, however, groan at her comment about the standings. "Please don't remind me, Utaku-san. I still don't understand why I'm there. I haven't done more than adequately this entire time. My inability to find meditative focus more than incidentally and my performance at the athletics contest were both abysmal."

[Utaku Nesrin]

"Oh? I mean, meditating is hard. I hope it gets easier with practice." She pauses as something occurs to her. "I was telling Iuchi-san just the other day that the focus and attention needed for iaijutsu comes easier when the physical movements are practiced well. I wonder if there's some part like that to meditation that I'm missing?"

She squeezes a piece off her eggplant. "Really glad to have eggplant season starting. That means peaches aren't far behind, though I don't know if they'll have any served here."

"Anyway, if you didn't have anything left to learn, there'd be no point in being here. So your lords chose right sending you here instead of someplace where you'd do everything just right, but be bored. I mean, I'm usually great at climbing things, but something about the wall they used for that training was just...hard."

[Asako Saburo]

"If it were merely a physical skill to be learned, I suspect that it would be easier for us to learn. As you have said, learning the focus that is required to truly find one's center is difficult, time consuming and even exhausting," he admitted, shaking his head and grunting out. "And I'm not entirely certain that I would say that it is a matter of being bored. I am rarely bored. There is always, as you said, more to be learned. Regardless, there is a great deal ahead of me to reach the completion of my journey. I hardly feel like I belong at the top of some tally sheet. It's... unusual."

[Utaku Nesrin]

Nesrin nods. "Yeah. I'm not used to scores and such. At home, we just know who's best, or nearly so, at archery, and challenge one another to test our riding tricks all the time, but there's no chart."

"Come to think of it, we're really not training against each other, neh? So it's maybe not the best reflection. Like, Iuchi-san has a better rank overall, but facing each other in the dojo with weapons, it was obvious that I was more skilled, even if he can hold his own." She grins. "And I think he'd out-meditatie us both...if that's a thing you can do."

[Asako Saburo]

"I am accustomed to small batches of students in close proximity to the teacher. There is rarely much ... competition between the students. Our sensei actively discouraged such behavior. Said it got in the way of the purity of the kami." So he'd ended up competing with the man in the mirror... a lot. But that was another story entirely. "I understand the principle behind it. But it is very strange to find myself viewed the way I am presently."

He nodded right afterwards. "Yes. You see part of the right of it. There is no tournament. When they test us in kyujutsu, the results will be more clear and easily compared, but really? Most of these are proving against ourselves that we are competent and qualified to the task, not in comparison with each other. So I can see most of our students have done well. It is... odd to think of myself as better. I do not."

[Utaku Nesrin]

"That makes sense, Asako-san. I kind of feel like those of us training to be warriors are more used to feeling like we can be proud of what we've accomplished in our training, because it's so easy to mark your progress and see the effects." She mimes drawing a bow with some enthusiasm. "Can I hit the target more today than I did last week? Or...can I do that riding handstand instead of falling off today?"

"But studying just kind of creeps up on you. Like obviously I know so much more than I did last year or before I started any training. But what's that measured against?" She laughs. "I mean, I got to help beat up the guy who stabbed me, so I feel pretty good about how that training is going. But my calligraphy? It's...maybe it's less wobbly looking now?"

"Still, I think it's ok to take some pride in scoring well here, even if it's not like...winning the Emerald Championship kind of pride, neh? She tosses back the rest of her tea, grimacing a bit at the bits at the bottom of the cup.