(D8, LA) Yogo Nogo? Oh no! (Open)

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Normally, Aya didn't care about what the Lion and Crane did to one another. But if she thought about that paired with drinking sake, she didn't have to think about Norkiami becoming a snack dooming the Empire.

"That sounds like the Lion and Crane my grandparents taught me about." she admits. "A crisis requiring everyone to come together happens, the Crane decide to play politics instead, and the Lion react to that with overwhelming violence. They're both idiots, just for different honorable reasons."

She thought about the letter.

"Not that the Lion can't engage in idiot politics as well."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Degarashi snorted. "They sure know how to pick their moments. Their honor will have us ripping each other apart inside our own walls before a siege even has a chance to start. This whole thing just has me..." There was a growl and an audible swig of alcohol, followed by a loud thump as he leaned heavily against the wall.

He scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to wipe away the weird tingly feeling in his lips. "I haven't heard much in the way of snark, but it's good to hear you speaking, Aya-san." He didn't really know what else to say about the matter. Seeing the Yogo sitting in the streets so thoroughly defeated had twisted Degarashi up almost as much as the loss of his brother.

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

There was a deep sigh from the baths.

"I am no stranger to loss. I have experienced great loss three...well no four times now in my short life. My parents dying in the fighting up to sleeping river. My grandparents when politics at imperial winter court meant that seppeku was the only chance for the younger generation to have enough food to eat. The rest of my extended family and fiancee when again politics lead to bloodshed through riots. Immediately following each I was crushed....but slowly the wounds scabbed over."

She finished her current bottle, and started another.

"What makes this time so hard is for a moment there, I truly believed I could make a difference. That all the pain and suffering and loss had a point. That I could accomplish something that the Shosuro could write in their archives, 'And the Empire was saved that day.'"

She laughed bitterly.

"Stupid me. Everything I touch turns to shit."

She shakes the sake bottle.

"Or Piss. That is apparently my purpose in life, nothing more, nothing less."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Degarashi raised his bottle where he suspected Aya could see it. "Even shit can fertilize a field. How about we drink to beautiful fields we'll never see growing over the remains of our broken, battered lives?"

The next swig emptied the bottle, and against any concept of better judgment, he opened another. "I never knew the manner of pain you were in, but I knew it was there all the same. Mienai-sensei always said comedy was the ultimate knife. A sense of humor pierces the thin veil we all draw up around ourselves, and makes a connection where otherwise there would be none. It equalizes us all, because in the moment the laughter takes us, nothing else matters... nothing but the knowledge that somebody else gets it."

He drew his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them as he stared at his bottle. "Of course Mienai-sensei always saw it as a weapon first. Forging that connection meant there was no shield to block the knife, no suspicion to avoid the poison." He laughed, and there was no mirth to it. "She used to make me apply fire biter to the other students during performances, see how many I could get before anyone noticed. Most of the time, I got everyone." Degarashi sighed. "Not a great way to make friends, but the other students weren't friendly at any rate. So I devoted myself to my studies, and Mienai's cruel pranks. She even had a nickname for me, called me her Poison Joke. Ha. Ha. Ha."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya lifted her bottle on her side of the wall.

"To the theoretically unseen fields. May the be filed with beauty, or least least something useful, instead of just more weeds."

She drank deeply.

"You put the punch in punchline? Ie, ie, that's horrible, and you've heard it before."

She drank a bit more.

"Do you think that you became who you are because of her, or in spite of her? There was this Matsu magistrate on the march who was going on and on about our ancestors testing us, because if there's nothing a Yogo loves more than the person they betray, it's discussing how great ancestors are. I'm sure she'd see your sensei's pranks as tests...and then condemn you for doing them, but she has a very black and white view of the world."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

"Magistrates aren't commonly known for their senses of humor. The punchline is always death. Gets pretty old after the first time around."

Degarashi pursed his lips, thinking. "A combination of both, concerning Mienai-sensei and my parents. My instructor hated Junshin ferociously, and I was raised by them. I was probably some manner of challenge to her, possessing all the tools necessary to become a true weapon of the Underhand. In the end, even the person who valued me most was just using me for her own ends."

Again he was silent for a moment. "I think I'm something else entirely. I know how to be a weapon, it's frighteningly easy even. But I've also learned that the knife can be turned against the pain itself, like with my rakugo performance. Not everyone laughed at every joke, but in the end, almost everyone laughed." Even though she couldn't see it, Degarashi was smiling. "And then the evacuation happened. I hadn't been intending to give a private performance like that, but I wanted to hear you laugh, just once. I wasn't even certain I could manage it, honestly." Degarashi blushed softly. "But then you laughed. And it was beautiful..."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

There was a long pause at that.

"A knife so fine, and sharp, and fast that it can pierce even a a thrice scabbed over Yogo before she even realizes she's been cut." she mused while dressing.

Have you poisoned me as well Dega-san? she added mentally.

"It's your sharpness that draws out the beautiful laugh, Dega-san. The world is ugly, and it's filled with stupid people. An ugly laugh is all that absurdity deserves."

She finished dressing.

"But with you, it actually is a case of laughing with someone, I feel. Someone who sees bloody Lions, and simpering Cranes, and stuck up Imperial princesses, and loutish Scorpion, and truly gets why they deserved to be laughed at and mocked."

She exited the bath, looking a great deal more human.

"Alright Dega-san, let's go really drink, and laugh in the face of all the world's absurdity. And when the world sputters and says 'How dare you?' we'll redouble our efforts."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

"Everyone deserves to be mocked, Aya-san. You and I are simply among the few who embrace it openly. No proper armor ever leaves the shop untested, and to those who feel the knife too strongly, in the future they might find themselves pleasantly guarded against the same assualt." Degarashi thumped his temple. "Iie, been talking with that Tortoise too much it seems."

When Aya emerged, Degarashi stood carefully and turned to regard her. The pain was still clearly there, but the hollowness wad less pronounced, and he was willing to bet the roar wasn't quite as loud.

He blushed again after he caught himself staring, and turned to gesture down the hall towards the door. "Hai, Aya-san. Let's paint ourselves as fools, and let those who cannot see the trap fall in and reveal themselves the same."

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya chuckled at that.

"Don't you need a mustache to twirl when you talk like that?" she teased back.

The sake and the warm bath and the conversation seemed to be restoring the Yogo snark supplies.

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

"Pffffff," was the initial response to that idea, followed by Degarashi stroking an imaginary beard and mustache combo. "Aya-san, why is there disembodied facial hair floating in the air beside you?"

Once they were downstairs, be looked around for an open place for them to sit and guided them there, making sure to order plenty of drinks.

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

(Thread open just to be clear)

"Perhaps that is simply Dega-san's fantasy? What Dega-san desires is not a busty woman, or a petite woman, but a really really hairy woman? An Ichiro perhaps?" she parried back.

Aya really didn't know anything about the Badger, but it seemed like a good clan mon for hairy women.

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Degarashi covered his mouth to hide the unseemly snickering, and sat heavily, shaking his head. "Iie, iie, you've found me out. But this city is so dry I may have to settle for an only slightly hairy Yogo."

Soshi Tameaki · **Joined:** Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:36 pm **Posts:** 234

"Well," comes a voice from nearby, "such an interesting topic of conversation. Unacceptably risque for such a public location..."

Soshi Tameaki rounds a corner and approaches the table, carrying a bottle of recently-procured sake.

"As such I find I have little alternative but to join in."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Degarashi stood and bowed his respect. "Soshi-sama, of course you're welcome to join. Iie," he thought about the comment he'd made barely a few minutes ago about magistrates. "I haven't broken any laws with my impropriety have I?"

Just because a Soshi was offering a drink didn't mean he wasn't trying to kill you.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Soshi Tameaki · **Joined:** Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:36 pm **Posts:** 234

"A joke, Bayushi-san," Tameaki replies. "I wouldn't be where I am today if I gave the first bit of a thought to propriety...although, whether that's a ringing endorsement or a cautionary note will have to be determined by history."

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

"So long as you come out victorious, Soshi-sama, I'm sure history will observe you favorably." Degarashi gestured for the magistrate to seat himself, glancing over to Aya to see if she minded the extra company.

Soshi Tameaki · **Joined:** Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:36 pm **Posts:** 234

Tameaki, too, looked to Aya, waiting for her response before taking a seat. Something was clearly troubling the Yogo, and it was clear he wanted to find out more before getting himself involved.

Yogo Aya · **Joined:** Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:42 am **Posts:** 719

Aya's player thought a moment for which stage of drukenenss she was at, and returned the magistrates bow.

"We..haven't met yet. I am Yogo Aya. You are certainly welcome to drink with us, and make sure Dega-san doesn't take unfair advantage of me. I haven't had a chaperone in.....ever." she offered.

Bayushi Degarashi · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:02 pm **Posts:** 1027

Degarashi followed Aya's lead. "And this one is Bayushi Degarashi, though I was at the meeting this morning with Sukima-sama."

[TN to recognize Degarashi with Heraldry: 55]

Soshi Tameaki · **Joined:** Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:36 pm **Posts:** 234

"Trusting me as a chaperone is not necessarily the wisest course," Tameaki says as he takes a seat, "if your only goal is to keep virtue intact. If you instead want someone to guide you along a course to ease your burdens...well, I'm not the man for that, either, but I suppose I'd be better at the latter than the former."

(D8, LA) Yogo Nogo? Oh no! (Open)

Who is online