D3, EM Browsing (open/expecting)

[Utaku Nesrin]

With a small tug, she gets them moving through the shop once more, just a bit, before the shopkeeper comes to harangue them for just standing in the middle of her shop grinning like fools and buying nothing. "One of us needs to learn to bake, you know? I mean, I can usually avoid burning the loaves...though I was kind of banned from the task after burning things twice daydreaming. But...something in the kneading...mine never come out as well as everyone else's"

Her silly grin twitches in amusement at his concerns about worthiness. "Lāre? Prash? You know we're just warriors, neh? Very good ones, very honorable ones. But...you know the names of the spirits that make the world. There's no question of impressions, no doubt of worth." She squeezes his hand as her tone conveys just how worthy she thinks he is. "It's more a worry that your family won't want to let you leave, and it's almost unheard of for mine to marry out."

A small chest sits open, full of beads of glass, stone, wood and bone, and Nesrin dips her free hand into it, with a delighted smile. They were supposed to be browsing a bit, after all. "I wonder if there are any large enough to use as a netsuke? I've a gift or two I"m thinking of giving."
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(I laughed hard at this but forgot to answer! I keep imagining them thinking they're mostly safe since a good deal of what they're saying is in Tegensai... while the owner of the store unsurprisingly knows a fair bit of the language and keeps giggling. I'll go for *eyehearts* for the first 5 minutes or so... then some eye rolling )

This will be the mental canon then.

[Iuchi Prashant]

"We do! I have watched and helped ammaki and Ṣerne prepare śro-kanti a few times, but... I really ought to learn to do it on my own... I guess that will fall to me then!", he says, grinning again as they browse the items in the chest.

Taking a shiny glass bead with something that looks a bit like a wooden horse inside it , he takes a closer look at it, then looks at her, his silly smile coloured by a slight flush again. "You praise me too much, Lārekke", he says, coyly. "And... just warriors? You Shiotome are the stuff of legends, Lāre Nes! And... Lāre Nes even more so!" - he stops for a moment, looking around. He didn't want to overstep again with familiar terms while speaking Rokugani... but it seemed that only they were there - well, they and the owner, who kept pretending they weren't peeking at them from time to time. He felt it was safe...

"Well... knowing Ṣerne Katkaunya and Uluka, I'm pretty sure at least one of them will manage to bring someone home to the Iuchi!", he says, chuckling a bit, but also in a hopeful voice. "You know... I have been considering changing my name, after all. I mean... I wasn't thinking about when washamo Moto taunted us about it last year, of course!", he says, laughing. "But I...." He raises his eyes to hers, his smile inviting and even warmer than before. "I will talk to my pacera." I'm sure they will be easily convinced when they know who I'll be leaving for", he says lovingly before extending the glass bead with the horse towards the side of her head, placing it close to her ear and tilting his head a bit to look at her. "Maybe there's one similar to this but bigger? This one would make a lovely earring!"

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OOC: Deal! lol

[Utaku Nesrin]

She blushes at the overwhelming praise, finally laughing, "Stop, stop! I won't deny the Shiotome any praise, but I'm hardly legendary at least not yet! Shugenja are just respected you know? awe macer say it was nice I was thinking ahead since we'd likely lose Chimeg in the other direction, given her possible gifts." Still flushed, eyes shining, she asks, "have you decided on a name, then? Besides...I mean, hopefully a new family one?" She reaches to take the small bead for a closer look, fingertips touching his, a casual touch that feels like anything but at the moment.

After an answer, she diverts her attention to the bead, "Hai, this would be a cute earring, and a larger one, or maybe just one carved like a horse that's large enough would be good. Miya-sama's not a Unicorn, but the Miya nearly live on their horses too. It would be a nice small thing he could carry, even traveling. I'm not sure you can ever have enough netsuke, really, they're so useful." She holds the little one up to the light. "Is this something you could use for charms? Or must you make them all with your own hands?" Sure he was holding it up to her ear with clear implications, but her transparent pretense at obliviousness comes with a sly smile.



"

[Iuchi Prashant]

He chuckles a bit at her answer. "Ah... Well", he says slowly, scratching the back of his head again a bit awkwardly, a slight flush lasting just for a moment. "I... liked not yet! And... I know, but it's just... we're just doing our part, you know?". He has never seen uncomfortable doing whatever he had to, or was expected to do as a Shugenja, of course - Nesrin had seen him meditate and pray often, seen him volunteer to cleanse the dorm in Hirosaka after that unexpected attack. So it was perhaps the idea that he was important in some way that seemed awkward to him. "But hey... washamoṣke*-Chimeg is likely training with the Iuchi, then? I remember you said she was gifted for stories about the clouds... apparently for other things, too!", he says, smiling happily.

As her hand reaches towards the bead, and their fingers touch slightly, the smile grows into a radiant beam without him even noticing it.

"I... have been thinking about one for some time in fact. I... hoped to honour my family and heritage, but also my training, what I learned in Hirosaka and with Kitsuki-sensei. And..." he smiles at her for a moment. "I... hope it's one you would like too! Although... " he chuckles "I guess we'll always remember our current names too, ma? I know I wouldn't mind at all if you ended up calling me 'Prash' later". "But since you asked... have you decided on yours, Lāre?"

"Oh! A horse netsuke sounds like a lovely idea for Miya-sama" - he starts looking at other of the items in the chest - although he keeps the first one on one hand. Maybe he could find a way to get it later...

"In fact... I also wanted to give him something...", he says as he rummages through the chest, trying to find a larger horse-themed bead, or a beautiful carved horse at least. Still searching, he suddenly turns to her.
"Oh... something to carry while he travels, ma?? If we do find something here, I think I have an idea, Lāre Nes! We'll - um, I will - just need some time to get it done."

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* That's a diminutive, figured it'd fit : )

[Utaku Nesrin]

She nods. “Hai, I’m hoping to get home before Chimeg-chan heads to training. Something here will be for her to take with,” She stirs the beads and baubles with a soft clatter. “She just sees everything in a light I can’t even glimpse. It’s like…after the first time in Iaijutsu practice that you really, honestly feel the energy there, the awareness stretching to pick up every little thing. You can never miss it again, but it was almost invisible before that.”

“At least that’s what it seems like to me, outside of whatever she senses.” Of course she’s speaking to a shugenja who is also skilled at dueling. So perhaps the analogy sounds entirely wrong.

“Anyway, I’m sure I’ll like the name you chose, Lāre. You’re thoughtful and careful about such things,” she say's with that happy grin. A curled foal netsuke, all skinny legs and big head surfaces in the roiled beads and she plucks it up. “But, I’m unsure about mine. I may keep mine. It’s not like ‘Ichiro,’ you know? There was a good deal of thought given to the name.”

“What were you thinking of as a gift then?” she asks, holding the netsuke in her palm.

[Iuchi Prashant]

"Oh, I hope you do meet her before she leaves!", he says, thinking about Nesrin's words about her sister... and actually smiling understandingly. It sounds... quite close to how he did when first feeling the spirits of the Earth calling to him.

"Oh... I suppose there was a good deal of thought going into my name as well. I hadn't really considered that". He seems thoughtful as he looks at some other netsuke... then finds one that looks like a horse standing atop something that looks like a cloud. He keeps looking at that one for a while, then smiles at her as he continues speaking, holding it in his hand.

"And... I think I ended up never asking! Where did your ancestors come from? And... what does Nesrin mean, in your language?"

"As for my name... I haven't actually said that before to anyone, I think. But... I was considering Padmak... especially after my training with Kitsuki-sensei. It's a Tegensai word meaning lotus..." He looks at her, smiling, but a bit uncertain now that he's said that out loud. "Hm... I haven't really said that out loud before, I think. What do you think, Lāre Nesrin?"

Slightly flushed, he looks at the foal netsuke in her hands. "Ah... for the gift. I was thinking... well, Miya-san couldn't use it by himself, not with what I can do right now, but... I thought I might make a horse netsuke into an actual spirit-shrine amulet. One that could be used to keep his steed unfaltering in adversity. Do you think... that would suit him?"

[Utaku Nesrin]

“When the Ki-Rin were far across the Burning Sands we met many desert peoples.” There’s a steady recitative quality to her words, and she sticks to the language she learned the tale in. “Our line was born of one of the nomadic families who joined the Ki-Rin out between the great cities there. The family of Mehrnaz joined and Utaku Monnaghara was the first of the family born into the Ki Rin.” Nesrin raises an eyebrow at the little horse on cloud. “That’s the story grandmother tells. She says she and my mother named me for the wild rose that you can find in the rocky places across the plains and along the rivers. I think names might be the only bits of that far off language we hung onto.”

She smiles gently at his choice. “I guess we’d both have flower names then, hmm? It’s nice. Keeps something of the old name and makes it new.”

“Lāre Padmak,” she tries the name, feeling the d roll over the m to stop hard at the k. “I could get used to it.” Her grin tries to be teasing and just slips into silly and besotted again. She didn’t say it aloud, but she was certainly trying out the sound of Utaku Padmak in her head as well.

She keeps the foal netsuke in her left hand and adds some small glass beads she just finds pretty. “I think that’s a really thoughtful gift for Miya-sama.” Nesrin knows nothing of the suspicion some view meishodo with. “Useful, decorative, and beneficial for his horse.” She nods toward the horse on cloud that he’s holding. “Is that the one you were thinking of using?"