D2 LA- Preening at the Pearl (open)

[Suzume Hitomi]

First Market was always such a vibrant day. Hitomi can still see a few children taking their time closing down, trying to get in a last sale or two. Heimin are busy clearing the clutter of discarded bits of ribbon, nails and tacks from hasty constructin, and dropped food wrappers from the street.

As a final treat for the day, Hitomi finds her way to Pearl Boutique and steps inside with a deep inhalation of the temperator-cooled air laden with the distinct scent of cosmetics mingled with perfume samples, her shoulders relaxing at the familiar cues. Her faux-wrap knit blouse and matching choker are a very Crane shade of pale blue. Locals may have noticed it at Run-it-Back a few months ago, though some embroidered brown birds swirling up the left back panel obscure the laddered run that graced it on the hanger there. Coordinating tan hakama and a pragmatic little linen clutch in golden tones completes the ensemble.

The 'clearance' signs are obvious, but you never start there, it looks crass or desperate. Besides, there were rumors of a new eye colour line in moisturizing creme pigments. With everything going on, a new, stand-out shade would be just the thing! Hitomi drifts toward the imported makeup section, casually examining other displays along the way.

[Otomo Koroshi]

A very tall rooster prances through the market.

Koroshi stood upon his huge clawed sandals that ended in golden talons. Large obovate leaves had been painted yellow and brown, with pine needles sewn in to the edges with tiny gold thread to make blinding chicken feathers that ruffled from a breeze kept going from fans powered by his assistants. A bright yellow scarf had been tied to his neck and somehow weighted in the front to give the illusion of a beak. Through his hair many dozens of ribbons held a red pompadour in rigid perfection atop his head, the great mass counterweighted by a cowbell that clucked everytime he moved his head.

He approached the Suzume from behind to look at the makeup himself, the cowbell making any hint of secrecy impossible. Not that he had intentions in that direction.

"Samurai-sama! The light of the sun greets you warmly, and I offer my own greetings to such a lovely face!" He took a moment to wave away the fan users and then stepped out of his clawed footware into more normal (but still golden) geta that put him at eye-level instead of a head above.

[Suzume Hitomi]

The Sparrow (and likely everyone else in the shop) turned and looked up, and up a bit more at the feathered storm blowing in. All analysis of the shades on display, along with the ability to speak, fled before the sight and sound.

So she couldn't answer his greeting immediately, though her eyes followed as he stepped down into shoes of a more human proportion, giving him a bit more of the air of an actor just off the stage than a supernatural one striding atop it. After another flustered moment, Hitomi bows deeply, having at least seen the Otomo at the gift-giving the night before.

The bow also stalled a bit while the brain caught up. "Your greetings honor me. And I think the sun must have followed you if it greets me in here, Otomo-sama." Her own sandals are simple, local, and flat, so she still looks up a bit when she rises to continue the greeting. "Suzume Hitomi, assigned to the Green Carp these past several years." She doesn't ask if he's here for the governor's new initiative. That much was answered last night.

With a somewhat flustered edging to the side as she glances to the display behind. "Um...were you looking at the new Auspicious Impressions line?"

[Otomo Koroshi]

"I am looking at a beautiful samurai!" He declared to the entire world.

"But yes, I need some lipliner. And other things, the jet pack took up so much room in my luggage that I couldn't take my second makeup bag." The Otomo drew closer to the merchandise while looking at the Suzume still.

"What is your great duty, Suzume-san?"

[Suzume Hitomi]

<snip>

Thank goodness for Doji training, and the real-life crucible of handling the general public in a retail shop, or Hitomi might have stammered something and slid behind the next counter, trusting the staff to take over.

First, accept the compliment and more on before answering the question posed by someone above your station. "Ah, Thank you for saying so." She laughs lightly. "The lighting here is so flattering."

Glancing down, absently noting the stitchwork on Koroshi's ensemble, she answers, "I manage a shop in the Shotengai that showcases the artifacts and handicrafts of Rokugan's past, Otomo-sama." She gestures back toward the street and uphill. "Feather Your Nest, has been here for about 4 years now."

The display of lip colors is boasting of some kami-infused tech for shine in every item, liners that stay put, and the broadest color range in the Empire. Given that the colors range into theatrical shades of silver, gold, and blue, that may be accurate.

But the question on her mind is what use a jet pack is here. So..

"And might I ask what your duty entails? There aren't many that count a jet pack and an elaborate chicken-themed outfit as part of their gear."

[Otomo Koroshi]

Snip

"Elaborate? I am afraid this humble ensemble was all I could scrounge together after my run this morning. I should have wings! And fireworks! And an actual beak." He thumbed his nose as he said that last part. The trials of the truely talented.

"The jet pack has many uses but one is to float along the ground for when I need to make an entrance with the fog machines. It hides the legs you see, and makes it look like you are an honorable spirit of Yomi-do." He waved at his own legs, which were not invisible but obviously muscled.

"My main duty is as a priest, but I am here on a super secret mission!" He leaned very close and whispered at the volume a normal person would speak.

"I can't tell you what exactly it is, but it is so cool~"

[Suzume Hitomi]

snip

The nearby staff are probably relieved that fireworks *weren't* available. Hitomi nods along. Some of the big festivals did tend to have such theatrics. Modern technology offered many new ways to entertain the spirits. It was unusual to use such means all the time...but priests could be eccentric, and Imperial ones had even more freedom to be so.

"Oh? Well I expect things like...beaks could be found locally. Run-it-Back has costume bits in there pretty often. But wings are probably going to take a bit longer to make." She picks up the tester wand for a plummy shade lip color and applies it to the back of her hand, absently as they talk.

"I do hope your secret mission meshes well with Governor Yasuki-sama's current initiatives. It could be a delicate time to insert competing ones." The Otomo did have a reputation of sorts, after all.

Another shade is laid in beside the first. She thinks the amethyst shimmer on top of this plum might play off her eyes better, but it also feels a bit more winter than autumn...hmm.

[Otomo Koroshi]

"I have smaller wings, in silver and white." He admitted. "But they do not go with the golden rooster theme."

He also turned his attention to the array of products, being more of a true spring himself he focused on a bright coral lipliner.

"Worry not!" Koroshi said applying a very small amount to the back of his wrist. "It aligns very well with the governor's purpose. I am not here to play any kind of villain despite what some shows would have you think of the Otomo."

"But I have talked about myself for far too long!" He pulled a purple lipstick from a nearby tray and leaned close to a mirror to match it to his current features.

"Tell me everything about the beautiful Suzume-san!"

[Suzume Hitomi]

snip

"Hmm, with the existing wings as a model, there are tailors in the city who'd be able to create a set in gold, I'm sure." Not one of the Otomo that brought an entire staff with him then. Better for the local economy, that. "Were the silver ones from last winter's Imperial court season?" It seemed the sort of excess one would find at the big courts. Speaking of which..."I think that coral's going to be popular this winter. Layer a peachy gloss on it and it travels to spring too." She might pull in something in a richer salmon for the current season, but not everyone followed the Imperial calendar in a place that was perpetually settled into spring/summer.

"Certainly the shows I grew up with Rokugan didn't have Otomo villains." The Imperial censors would have frowned on that. She doesn't mention those she's seen since moving here. Otomo Megumo was a long-standing manipulator in the Crab serial drama *Blue Hills,* so it's hard to be entirely unaware of the trope. "Definitely none in chick...um, rooster-themed outfits."

"Anyway, there's not that much to tell. Sparrow working in antiquities is a pretty common tale. I just found a different way to get some exposure off planet than the usual service in the Legions, you know?" Brushing hair back from her temple she asks, "But Otomo priests are a bit more rare. Is your family from Rokugan or one of the other Imperial worlds?"

[Otomo Koroshi]

Koroshi carefully began swatching a selection of lipsticks while he listened. The coral seemed to be his favorite if his expression was any suggestion. He also focused on a forest green with glitter.

"I will not be repeating the rooster, I do not in general wear the same thing twice. But it does remind me that I might need something made soon enough. And yes, the wings were something I had made last year, it took a while for me to get them, my previous duty took me to World of Dreams." The Otomo laughed to himself at the idea he had in his head.

"And yes, my family is from Rokugan! Half of my life has been spent in Toshi Ranbo, the other half spent in study, vacationing in the provinces, or in service to the Imperial Tax Service." He put a selection of colors in a basket which he passed to someone to hold.

"My father serves as a curator, my mother runs a dance studio which supplies the Miya Network. Both were very surprised that I had the gift, as it had been many generations since the last priest in either line. Embarassingly the first sign of my gift was when I burned my nanny's hair with a stick of incense."

[Suzume Hitomi]

snip

"I've been to Toshi Ranbo a few times. Spent most of those trips in the museums, might even have had a field trip greeted by your father, depending on which museum he's at...they seem to rotate that task around a bit." She chuckles a bit at the memory. Despite their duty, probably very few of the administrators wanted to interrupt their work with the almost daily formal greetings for school and pilgrimage groups. But on Rokugan, of all places, it couldn't just be left to pre-recorded holo.

"I imagine you've a better grasp of that gift now, or those outfits would be an immense fire hazard."

Reluctantly, Hitomi sets back the less sparkly plum. She can dim the shimmer this season with a matte gloss and use the same shade through autumn and winter. But she can't take both if she wants a coordinating eye shade, and there's a marvelously bronzed orange in the mix that she adds to her basket without even testing. She holds up a second tray of the orange, noting "it would go well with that green you have there." Well, it would contrast strongly, which...seemed to be the Imperial's preferred style. She steered clear of quite so much glitter.

[Otomo Koroshi]

Snip

"My father doesn't work in a museum, my apologies! He curates art for the district governor's estate. He does have a degree in history though..." Koroshi rubbed the air where his beard would be if he had one.

"I know he would love to be a curator of the Emperor's palace, but such things require more patronage than his father was willing to support. My grandfather wanted him to join the family business as a lawyer but with two older siblings who were also lawyers my father was allowed his great passion." The Otomo put more things into a basket, grabbing the orange with an approving nod.

"So long as I dance, I can avoid inciting the kami accidentally. They react positively to my vigorous energies but they don't perceive that burning something while it is on someone might be a bad thing, as they are constantly burning themselves. To quote one of my professors, 'try to convince a fish to start beathing air and it will die before you succeed'." The Otomo did not mind talking about everything in his head for all that it was empty most of the time. He paused before grabbing the plum she had dropped and putting it in his own basket with his other purchases.

"But what about Suzume-san's family? Do they also act as merchant patrons? Have they been supportive of their daughter going so far away from home? Do you like it here?"

[Suzume Hitomi]

snip

Oh, of course, the more prestigious mode of curation for those who could afford a personal curator. She dips an awkward nod of contrition. "Ah, I misunderstood, Many apologies!"

She listens to the depiction of his spiritual practices with interest. The gift is quite rare among the Suzume. "Is that a common practice to placate the spirits? Are they rather consistently causing trouble without it?" And how much work does that imply in the Empire at large to keep the vast workings of ships calm or the average radiant energy system. Just another reminder of how very large and complex the world and Empire are

The barrage of questions keeps those thoughts from wandering farther. She laughs while gathering her wits to answer them.

"I'm the only merchant in the immediate family, as the almost youngest of my generation. My father manages one of the historical districts in the old capitol." The entirety of Otosan Uchi was a historical district these days. Only period clothing and tech allowed within, with a vast crew maintaining a facsimile of what it would have looked like as an operating city. "And mother is the chief curator of the Imperial Museum," which still answered to the Otomo director, of course. "I...found another path. Hopefully bringing a bit more of the past we shelter out into the Empire. And it's been a good place to live, though I suppose I hope I'll at least visit them again someday."

[Otomo Koroshi]

Koroshi laughs easily but not in a cruel way. "You have asked a very difficult question, very important that it is. Trouble for the fish is dinner for the hawk. But, to put it shortly, no. Left to their own patterns I do not think the fire and ash kami would have burned my nanny's hair. It was my own actions that disrupted the normal course of things, creating a new pattern, one which left a rather unpleasant smell."

"Whether we need to placate the kami or serve their needs, that is a theological question my teachers did not come to a consensus on. After all, they occasionally ask for things that would be difficult to agree to, like burning all of your clothes." He shrugged.

"I will make a visit of your store soon enough fair Suzume-san! But I am afraid I must away!" He declared bowing and gesturing to his full basket.

[Suzume Hitomi]

Hitomi considers the question of appeasing the kami vs. oh...normal human society. There was a reason that those rare few with the ability to speak to the kami were revered, and bolstered by large numbers of less-gifted miko, monks, and so forth to keep the Empire's spiritual ecology healthy.

"I admit, I don't think much about the everyday balance of spiritual powers." There were all the little rote ritual things everyone does, but not much beyond that. "I appreciate that even those with a more professional view still have much to keep learning. I'm rather glad they did not opt for an Empire where we regularly offer to let the spirits burn our clothes off," she says laughing. Hoping they haven't scandalized the clerks overmuch.

She nods and thinks his full basket will mollify any scandal when he checks out with it. "Indeed, there's always plenty that still needs doing. After you Otomo-sama! I'm sure I'll see you around the islands in coming days." She waves him ahead for the clerk to bag his goods as she searches the foundation rack for her usual shade to add to her own basket.

/scene
Thanks for the rp here!