Something Stronger [Day 8, Early Evening, Open]

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

Degarashi stumbled a bit on his way to their next location. The sake they'd been drinking was nice, but the kick was starting to fade, which was inexcusable. Thus, Degarashi had suggested finding a new venue, and was doing his best to search for a new one without losing his Yogo companion in the crowds

Then a golden light shone, a bright burning beacon in the fading light as a location advertising Golden Carp came into view. Degarashi almost fell to his knees and cried as he made his way towards the door, barely paying attention to his surroundings and nearly running down several people in his way.

Suzume Chihaya · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 3:29 pm **Posts:** 850

Inside, at a table by herself, in a cloud of ill humor and with an empty bottle of shochu set before her, Suzume Chihaya was examining the depths of her cup with a bitter expression.

She was supposed to be drunk and happy, and instead she was mostly sober and... and... not happy. That.

Maybe a little drunk.

But not enough, hardly.

With a weary sigh, she contemplated if maybe she was getting too old, if the empire had left her behind.

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

Unaware of Aya's location, but certain she would be along shortly, Degarashi entered the bar and looked for a free spot to drink. He grimaced when he saw everywhere was full, and almost left when he noticed a familiar dour looking bird, and approached the table.

His etiquette left something to be desired.

"Shoe zoo may showy! Konbanwa!" Degarashi bowed unsteadily, but managed not to fall over. "Have you eaten inari today?"

Suzume Chihaya · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 3:29 pm **Posts:** 850

Was... was that an innuendo?

Or was... oh.

He was very drunk.

Chihaya gave a faint sigh - was she going to have to keep an eye on this scorpion as well? Was it her duty to mother the young samurai of the empire?

Sod that.

Waving down a waitress, she ordered another bottle.

"Konbonwa, Bayushi-san! Inari has blessed me indeedy. She has."

Forcing a smile, she added, "What are we drinking to tonight?"

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

Degarashi plopped into a seated position near the Sparrow and said, in a creepily cheerful voice, "dead people!"

Aside from the drunkenness, Degarashi's On was a complete mess. His acting chops were up front and center hiding the redness and puffiness around his eyes as best they could, though it was hard to tell if the shakiness in his voice was entirely because of the alcohol. "G-gomen, that was crude. My brother tried to ride a horse into Toshigoku. Didn't make it... didn't make it..."

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

And in stumbled a drunken Yogo. Where had bland-san gone? Aya spotted...a magistrate! Those were people who helped!

He stumbled over to the Suzume's table ignoring her hot date.

"Exchuse me, Lord High Magistrate. I have lost my friend.....Several achtually. But this one is still alive! I think. Have you seen him? He is....completely unremarkable."

Suzume Chihaya · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 3:29 pm **Posts:** 850

Bloody hell.

"Sit with me, Bayushi-san. Tell me the tale."

He clearly needed to let something out, and here, where the noise made it hard to hear someone next to you, much less at another table, he might do so without ruining his own reputation.

Feeling the creeping threat of sobriety, she accepted a fresh bottle from the servant, but did not open it yet. Not wanting to tip the man into unconsciousness.

As Aya stumbled into the table, she added, cheerfully, "Sit, Yogo-san. I don't know if this is your blandifriend, but he's bland and he's a friend, so maybe he'll do!"

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

"Aya-saaaaaan," Degarashi drew the word out, "you aren't that drunk already are you?" He reached over and pulled Aya into a seated position beside him, much the same way as Norikami might have, albeit far gentler.

Then Degarashi eyed the bottle Chihaya held and tsk'd. "I suggest more than that be ready, Suzume-shoi, much more."

Closing his eyes to concentrate, he recounted his understanding of events in a... colorful fashion. "Yukinaga-kun rode hard and was given an abject lesson in fletching. Sugimoto-sama retired and joined the Porcupine Clan. Ryuuta-sama couldn't pick his own jaw up off the ground, and poor Noribaka is half the man he used to be, but still had the decency to provide dinner..."

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

Aya couldn't help put laugh at that.

"That is....hilarious. But you forgot the best part," she offered, leaning into the actor in a way entirely not appropriate for public...but a little forgivable when drunk.

"You forgot to tell her about the great and mighty Yogo Aya, the wardmaster who can't ward. Tsuno the size of a peasant hut, and she couldn't hit it if the life of the Empire depended on it....which it did."

She drank his drink, not having one of her own.

"And then she ran away, because she's a terrible terrible coward. She cast no spells that day, not healing for the dying, not fire for the frying, just ran away home to hide."

Suzume Chihaya · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 3:29 pm **Posts:** 850

Oh.

Oh my.

Chihaya glanced between the two, and then added, "... and then she got very drunk and the empire carried on as the world turned!"

Let's not go too far down the road of saying horribly embarrassing things we regret in the morning.

Pouring out three cups, Chihaya raised her own cup in a toast, "To the lucky sods that got to die sooner than the rest of us! And to all us poor living who have to return to our work in the morning!"

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

"Iie, I'll drink to that." Degarashi lifted his cup and downed it in one shot. "We should really unionize, demand some days off." He nodded sagely, as if that solved anything.

Then he faltered a little, and relied on Aya to support him in a rather... familiar sort of way. "May we all wake up to something pleasant for once."

Degarashi could have meant any number of things with the way his eyes kept crawling all over Aya, then snapping to Chihaya and back again. In truth he was just having trouble focusing.

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

Sukima entered, looking like she had just finished running a marathon. She noted her two clansmen with the Sparrow.... Chihaya. That was right. She approached and nodded. "Mind if I join you?"

Suzume Chihaya · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 3:29 pm **Posts:** 850

Chihaya noticed his wandering eyes, but figured, even if he wanted, with how drunk he was, he couldn't manage a dalliance.

Poor lad, he was in *deep*.

Maybe it was time to start getting the cold water - or maybe it was time to get him to a futon where he could sleep it off.

The trick would be convincing him of that - he might have to drink all the way down - some sort of drinking obligation to his family. She could understand that - even if she knew how little good it did.

Draining her own cup, she set it down, and wondered if she would ever see her husband or children again. In a single moment, the loneliness of the last seventeen months crashed down on her, and she poured another cup.

"Damn the shitty steel chrysanthemum." She could drink to that, and did.

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

"Eto... we're currently here on the hospitality of Suzume-shoi, Yogo-sama. It would be her place to extend an invitation."

And now there was an attractive redheaded woman hanging around as well. Degarashi had never encountered anything like this, and knew little of the etiquette beyond sit down and shut up. His eyes returned to Chihaya just in time to see something pass across her face. He hadn't seen enough to understand it, but he had seen enough to down another cup of sake immediately after the Sparrow did.

Suzume Chihaya · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 3:29 pm **Posts:** 850

(OOC, didn't even see Sukima post somehow)

Realizing, belatedly, that a Yogo woman had slipped in somehow, Chihaya tried to decide if she knew who she was.

Nope.

"Eto, Yogo...-san?"

She contemplated for a moment, and then added, "Can I help you? Please, feel free to join us."

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

Aya laughed at....something?

"Ahaha, the Steel Chrysanthebum....Crystaltum....Crisisrum....."

She drinked deeply.

"Emperor Stabby Emperor......that was the.....whuzzat thing.....where you....put a thing....on top of a thing?" she said, having a thought, but it was starting to prove slippery.

She leaned pretty hard on Dega.

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

Degarashi, for his part, leaned back against Aya, one arm loosely embracing her. "Neh...Aya-san? Can't you just... just... fall in love with that steel guy and...pooffffff?"

He moved his hands in the vague indication of an explosion.

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

"Pffff. Why not? The lord of my not-family seems to think he and me would get a winning combination. Like rice and soy sauce." she said.

She drank again.

"Makes sense. My family's all dead, and he killed his great great great whatever. Call the matchmaker."

Suzume Chihaya · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 3:29 pm **Posts:** 850

Chihaya was sufficiently sober to hide her mixture of amusement and horror at the conversation, pouring a cup for sukima as well.

It seemed a day nobody would want to remember.

Yogo Sukima · **Joined:** Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:18 am **Posts:** 471

She nodded to Chihaya. "Yogo Sukima. A pleasure," she nodded before ordering herself something to take the edge of the day off. "I see we're already pretty far into it."

Something Stronger [Day 8, Early Evening, Open]

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