On Drinking Tea With Friends (Solo)

[Ruby]

On Drinking Tea With Friends (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chwADnoFDng)

1946

"What is the most wonderful thing for people

like myself who follow the Way of Tea? My answer:

The oneness of host and guest,

created through 'meeting heart to heart',

and sharing a bowl of tea."


- Soshitsu Sen

[Ruby]

It had been too long since Ruby and Lillith had taken tea in the Lei Shei Tea-house, high in the cliffs above the village of Tokyen. As a native to Akashima, Lillith felt unequivocally at home, and Ruby always felt a strangely peaceful connection with the perma-mist and lotus blossom rain that perpetuated the rural idylls of Corone.

Gently and lady-like, they sipped their delicate scented teas with cupped hands, sat cross legged as was the custom at a low jade coloured table by the window. There were only a handful of patrons, all alone or mumbling quiet solaces to lovers and husbands as Sei-Ha and Uncle Lei went about their duties, cleaning tables and dissapearing in plumes of steam as they poured new cups from the vast boiling copper kettle that served as their caddy.

For their journey the sisters had exchanged their elegant ball gowns and jewellery for more masculine attire; tight fitting but durable trousers made of a coarse cloth lined with silk, blouses and waistcoats in matching and dashing floral saloon designs and a pair of cloaks comprised of a lighter inlay and a heavier woollen overlay to keep out the cold and the gale on the deck of the Celestial. The journey did not take long, and they travelled light with nothing more than a purse of coin and their clothing between them; they were satisfied, but tired and fatigued from the long climb from the village below.

The path, even in such abysmal weather was a splendiferous and wonderful sight; bedecked with rhododendron tunnels and rest stops every thirty steps or so; each one dedicated to a minor deity, hero or rich patron who had propped up the family business in the more Spartan months of winter. Benches and statues where scattered all along the leaf laden path, and Ruby and Lillith had proclaimed each statue's name and history to the world as they had passed.

Taking in the sights of the mists that swirled past the window, and the brief glimpses of the distant cliffs, they smiled politely and thought about what it was that they wanted to say. Whilst it was a mutual agreement to come for tea and see old friends whilst time offered respite from the busy city life, it was usually a portent of one sister wishing to alarm the other with some disaster or dark revelation or another.

Lillith silently bided her time to reveal her news, and relished the nerves twitches her sister acted out as she waited - suspecting the worst as always. They sipped their cups in unison once more, and the cormorants and kami continued to flutter through the afternoon fog as if nothing were out of place.

[Ruby]

"Do you think Lei will play for us this afternoon?" Ruby asked purely out of routine. She glanced out of the window and watched a Briar Kami dance along the face of the distant cliffs before fading into the rock, cascading into the earth itself in a flourish of bright spheres of light and power. She had studied the history and legends of Akashima enough to be able to name the basic triads and the spirits of the elements, especially those of the rural villages. It was comforting to know which of the strange daemons were harmless, and which were oni, and thus to be avoided.

"I am sure he can be persuaded to let us entice his customers into a rapturous spending flurry as always," Lillith said drably, finishing off the last of her tea and setting the cup down on the table. She customarily went to pour herself another, but found the pot empty. She double checked it by lifting the lid and frowned. "He might play along too, it has been a while since I heard his rendition of Sakura."

The talent of Uncle Sei was practically gospel in Akashima, Radasanth and even as far away as Scara Brae. His ability to conjure light and sound from his instruments was legendary, and Lillith and Ruby were honoured every time he allowed their voices to intermingled with his song. It was perhaps the real reason that kept returning to the tea house, it was a place to learn from, as much as a place of solace and propriety.

"Shall I?" Ruby gestured towards the empty tea-pot and made to stand. Lillith made no complaint and daintily handed the tray to her sister as she stood. "I won't be long, some form of food, perhaps? It has been a long journey and lunch must be long due."

"Saffron," Lillith muttered, and looked out of the window, as if longing glances into the mists were becoming a past-time of the pair. "Not the curry, I trust many things of Lei's, but his curry is not a speciality." Ruby nodded in agreement as she remembered their first encounter with the Dragon's Tail, and with sultry steps and heavy footfalls, she made her way to the counter with the grace of a lady drunk on duty.

[Ruby]

"Ah, Miss Ruby," Uncle Sei seemed to float over the ground from the open plan kitchen and smiled at his favourite customer. "What can I get for you?"

"As ever Sei, two pots of jasmine tea, and two rounds of dim-sun and your saffron scented buns; I'd be lying if I said I could resist one of them after last time - simply divine," she smiled and leant against the well worn and well used counter A thousand thank yous and a thousand cups had passed over the very same length of wood in the last month alone, it awed Ruby, and every other customer that invested in the long climb to the tea house with it's history, mystery and charm.

"Certainly, I trust you are well?" He turned his back momentarily to fill two clean pots from the caddy and carefully filled a pestle with various leaves from the large array of pots on the far work-top - what blend, and what strength was a secret only Uncle Sei knew, and only his heir would discover. Ruby had tried to observe his deft hand motions and copy the blend herself, but it was never right, and thus never as satisfying.

"Splendid - I hear that daughter of yours is to be married?"

Lei laughed, and dropped to jasmine petals into two clean cups. "I finally found a kami bitter enough to take her hand, although I do not know if it will last."

Ruby smiled and bowed as he set the condiments and tea back onto the tray and turned to prepare the dim-sun, "I will bring your food when it is ready, and tell you more of Seiro sure enough."

"Excellent, and thank you!" She smiled and walked back to the table, suddenly enthused and lively.

"Is something the matter?" Lillith asked, seeing her sister in higher spirits. It was the perfect moment to reveal the reason she had brought them here in such dastardly weather, and she bit her tongue to prevent herself from shouting it to the roof of the world.

"You will not believe this, but Lei finally married off his daughter!"

Lillith laughed nervously, and took the pot and cup and bun from the tray with shaking fingers. "It is...funny you should say that, actually."

"Oh?" Ruby said questioningly and she knelt without looking up from her tea; she stirred it three times, as she had been instructed upon her first visit before removing the flower and leaving it to brew.

"So has my father..."

The look on Ruby's face painted a picture Lillith had been waiting a long time to see, and for once, her cheeks were brighter than the flame tinted feathers in her hair.

[Ruby]

Ruby's response came not in words, but in a cascade of clattering china and awkward silence. Uncle Lei chuckled, and looked back to his pot, and the silent patrons were distracted only momentarily as if this sort of drama were not worth the time of day.

"I...beg your pardon?" She said at last, stunned.

"Willard has asked me for my hand in marriage, and I, being the ever dutiful and love scorned woman, said yes."

Love. Ruby had long forgotten that it was a truth and constant in the lives of the Tantalum Troupe, even if her own marriage was failing and many of it's members were wanton strays on the course of a relationship. She looked out of the window, mouth ajar and head spinning with a curious mix of excitement, happiness and resentment.

Lillith sighed and drank her tea, waiting for her sister's response, no matter how many seasons would come and go before she made up her mind. Lei appeared with the dim-sun, still steaming in their baskets and ripe for consumption. He was a host of great renown and knew when his conversation and hospitality were not wanted, and winked at Lillith as he retreated. His own news could wait for another time, he had spent a decade preparing to deliver it, another hour was nothing.

"Are you not going to say anything?" She said at last, slamming the cup onto the table and plucking up her chop-sticks with an unlady-like firmness. "I have not dragged you across an ocean and up that blasted hill for nothing!" She dug into her food and popped a half ball into her mouth, and stared at Ruby as she chewed it vigorously.

Ruby took a deep breath and smiled at her sister, "I guess I'm just shocked, but not for any other reason than being happy."

"You don't seem happy to me, in fact, you're far from it, you're seething, I can tell!"

"Oh, shhh, I'm just thinking of what to wear."

Lillith stopped chewing, and half wanted to swat out Ruby's eyes to spite her. As steam starting pouring metaphorically out of her ears, Ruby timely chuckled and burst into an excited hand waving flurry of joy.

"Oh you tease!" Lillith splashed water from the finger-bowl over Ruby and they hugged across the table. "You had me going for a minute, right angry I was an'all!"

[Ruby]

For a while, the long streaks of mist sailed past the tea-house, remembering days of yore in their swirling depths. Kami and dragon and echo alike collided, cascading down onto the houses below to instil hopes and fears in the people of Akashima. The patrons came and went in a steady cycle of movement and bows, and Ruby & Lillith conversed on all manner of lady things; dresses, flowers, guest-lists and most crucially of all, the ring.

Ruby stroked Lillith's hand as she held out the large rock on her finger and clucked passionately over it. It had been hidden on a gold chain around Lillith's neck for the entirety of their journey, close to her heart which like many artefacts of beauty in Scara Brae, had been stolen by eager fingers and passionate strands of words and pledges. Willard was the thief of Lillith's freedom, but in many ways, both sisters were glad to be equal in the war of belonging - Ruby often chided Lillith's singleton status, and Lillith often mocked Ruby's discordant marriage to her ever estranged and suffering husband. Now they shared a mutual loathing of it; but neither could be without.

"When did he ask you?"

"Not two days ago, at the High Ball. I would have told you sooner, but I had to take the time to consider my answer. I told him yesterday, not long before I came to Prima Vista to whisk you here."

"One can only assume that no date has been arranged?"

"Oh, you assume incorrectly! His mother is rather passionate about me, my 'cultural attaché' is remarked upon at every dinner. We are to be wed in two months, on the Summer Solstice in a fusion of Akashiman 'culture' and Scara Brae prosperity. It will likely be dreadful."

"So soon? That is positively a day, how is a girl to prepare?!" Lillith chuckled, envisioning Ruby's mental state as something already swamped in colour swatches and table placements. She was glad one of them was lady-like, her only concern was where she would hide her tanto without ruining her corset.

"I am sure, most sure, that you will make the most of it."

"I will?"

"You are going to be Chief Bridesmaid, aren't you?" She said it as if it were already discussed and agreed upon, and leant back slightly as Ruby shrieked.

[Ruby]

With such celebration ongoing, it did not take long for the tea cups and pot to metamorphose into a saki set, set with delicate golden vines and bright red ruby flowers trailing on the rims. Sei took great pride and pleasure in setting them out before his most esteemed guests, and they talked of marriage and plans as they did so.

"What will you wear?" He said, standing upright at last with a crick in his back. Despite his age, he still held on dearly to the last tendrils of youth - to his yesteryear of adventure.

Ruby and Lilith both replied with the obvious answer together, as if fate had destined them to speak, "Kami Silk, red lace, fiery flowers up the is..." they gave one another the sisterly look of amusement, before bursting into a fit of giggles. Sei rolled his eyes and left them to it, returning to the kitchen and the company of his daughter.

"Oh, Lilith, I am so pleased you asked me - I would love nothing more."

"To be truthful, it was you or Lisa or Minella, and those two can't pull of low-slung haunch dresses quite like you can."

"What ever are you suggesting?" Ruby looked playfully hurt, and they downed another helping of the warm and home-brewed liquor as if it were water.

The rain poured down in increasing ferocity, and the mists swirled down the valley from the Northern peaks to the Southern folds of Corone like a glacier gouging out a path in the rock of the world. As day turned to evening, and saki turned all to night, the Kami faded into their spiritual recessions and the darkness flickered with sporadic and distant lights. The firefly like trails marked the passing of cautious Oni, who despite their malefic and danger, dared not wander close to the Spire of the Lei-Shei, for the sound of magic and rush of power spiralled about it in a helix pinnacle.

The sisters increased their blood toxicity, and when at last the tea-house came alive with a long continuous line of sodden arrivals and glum faces, they both stood in unison and made for the counter.

"Uncle Sei, good sir, let us play these world worn travellers Sakura, and cast away their pains with the cherry blossoms of your immaculate talent!"

[Ruby]

The twin strings of the Handang Shamisen were plucked with vigour as Sei took to the tea-house's small performance stage and stood dead centre, as tradition dictated. Ruby and Lillith walked around him in circles with heavy footfalls as he prepared the instrument for the rendition of Sakura that had become legendary in Akashima, if not the wider island. It was a beautiful and haunting and, with the twin accompaniment of spell-singer and simulacrum, a wondrous display to behold.

The customers in the tea-house whispered and spread rumours amongst themselves as they warmed their travel worn bodies with the hot green tea and rosemary infused broths that Sei had perfected over the decades, and cast the purveyor of beverages a cautionary glance between sips. As the excitement grew and grew, the various patrons shuffled to nearer tables, and formed a small amphitheatre of eager eyes and baited breath.

The rain stopped for a moment as the first note pealed through the heavy wooden structure, as if a knife had been driven between the downpour. The flickering lights of the distant Oni died and fell from the world, and with a haunched back and a straightening of the neck, the tea-master played.

The first verse enthralled, and summoned ice on the spine. The patrons stood practically upright in their seats and listened with cocked ears to the melody. Each coarse but harmonious pluck of the string sent shivers down their spines and dreams to early slumber to their hearts. Ruby and Lillith watched from the sides of the stage, not impressed now as they had been during their first visit, but still fortunate in thinking themselves part of something special.

As the first verse loomed, Lillith arced her arms outwards and set her palms together in front of her chest, like a pious nun. Ruby did the same and mirrored her sister, and they formed two statuesque guardians to protect their treasure. Ruby sang the opening line with a sweet voice, addled with saki and exuding confidence from the stones beneath their feet, she sang with a deep, earth-bound naturalism that came only to a performer.

Lillith followed with a reprise, and as the first verse passed the patrons by and Sei's string work became more intricate and heavenly, two sparks of light formed between the sisters, above Sei's head, and gentle, harmless spirals of fire spread out from their palms like searching tendrils of a dark god, or the feathers of a phoenix bellowing in the wind.

The mountain, and the Tea-House, sprang into life, and a Shamisen of ghostly hue appeared in Lillith's arms. She played alongside Sei, and the Akashiman hills became heavenly.

The rain poured down suddenly, and even heavier than before.

[Lillith]

I guess you could say I am a woman now, free of the chains that have bound me to the obscure notion of unwholesomeness.

In society, a woman without a man is a mystery, a woman without a man is a reliability. I suppose I only have myself to blame, for allowing myself to take to the mantle of the Geisha for too long, for allowing myself to wallow in my own self pity. I could have been glorious, but fate feigned interest in my plain face and pallid complexion.

Tea is a remarkable lesson for all those that drink it, it teaches solemnity, discipline, patience and adoration. A gentle stir of the leaves, careful preparation of the components, care and concern for the cup - it is like a marriage in many ways, a brew to the boil before the final consumption of one's rewards.

As we sang, and as we danced, and as we announced the union to the world in the waves of Sakura and the ghostly accompaniment of the Shamisen I adored, we become stronger as sisters than ever before. Whilst no blood mingled in between us, our ties were stronger than flesh, for we became sisters scorned together, no longer hiding in one another's shadows, experiencing the highs and lows of married life together. All those years spent nodding my head to Ruby's rants, pretending I knew how she felt, will surely come full circle now.

I have learnt many things from Willard's proposal, but the greatest lesson of all, for me, has been on drinking tea with friends.

[Lillith]

Lillith and Ruby wandered down the spiralling pathway which wove across the cliff face down into the village below. The rain from the day before had cast a hazy veil across the mountaintops, and mist spiralled along the muddy walkway in waves and tendrils, wavering like branches in the midnight winds.

Their heads hurt with delicate throbs with each heavy footstep, and they groggily walked with hands out to their sides to stay their wobbly balance under the duress of their saki migraines. It had been an eventful evening, one which ended not much before the dawn itself, and even then, Sei had required the aide of several still awake patrons to steal away his favourite customers to their beds in his parlour.

Wedding bells rang in Ruby's ears all the way down the cliff, and she incessantly pestered Lillith about dresses, décor, catering and her guest list. The ghostly pale Lillith should have expected nothing less than the grande inquisition from her sister on such matters, but it did not aide her pain to be nagged eternally. She rested against the statue of Nobuo Meiko for a moment and panted heavily.

"No rest for the wicked, I suppose," she replied, making a point of annunciating every inch of the word wicked as she looked at Ruby with disdain in her eyes.

"Oh, now, don't you start, I'm just making sure you're organised!"

"Oh I'm sure, sure, sure you are - but can it not wait until we get back to Scara Brae, and out of this damned rain? Each year I long to return to this place, and each year my patience is rewarded with this infernal sauna and landscape of icy cold tendencies. We cannot think and plan a splendours day whilst Akashima scorns me so."

Ruby nodded and pushed Lillith towards the next turn in the path.

It would be a long journey home, and a longer adventure along the new direction in both their lives before they ever got to relax.

[Revenant]

Full rubric, full commentary requested.

STORY

Continuity (7) – While it took a little while to get to the point of the thread there was never a point where I was questioning why things in the story were going on. Of note however, it wasn’t until the second to last post that you mention that Ruby is Lillith’s ‘sister’ not by blood but by spirit, which could have been mentioned earlier. Also, the only thing I know of Willard is that he’s a Scarbrian high society type but Lillith’s history with him is never explored. In all, I feel that there is a lot more story that I am missing, and you could have spent a bit more time exploring that.

Setting (9) – Wow! I really felt like I was in your little tea house on the misty hill the entire thread. You maintained enough evocative imagery in just the right places that I was captivated the entire time. The only slight hiccup I felt was during the Sakura scene, but even that was minor. Excellent effort.

Pacing (7) – Short and simple, but effective. Most of the thread flowed well together, but the jump from Ruby to Lillith in the last two posts brought your score down here. Keep things consistent for a better score.

CHARACTER

Dialogue (7) – Dialogue between the ladies was good and engaging, really the entire driving force behind the story. There were some bits that felt forced, such as Ruby’s “I’m mad, haha just kidding” portion, which knocked the score down to where it is.

Action (5) – While the dialogue was nice and engaging the action was very up-and-down. There were parts that I enjoyed, like dealing with the tea and the interaction with Sei, and then there were parts that were sort of ‘blah’, like the ladies dancing the Sakura. Overall, nice but nothing special.

Persona (7) – I really felt the emotional state of the characters throughout the thread. As with dialogue, again most notably in the same “just kidding” part, there were some parts that just felt awkward. Overall good job though.

WRITING STYLE

Technique (6) – Decent opening blurb, but the jump from narrative to internal thought in the second to last post threw this.


Mechanics (5) – There were more errors than seemed appropriate for such a quick thread. Proofread.

Clarity (7) - The only real issues I had with reading this was in the Sakura scene and the sudden switch in story style in the second to last post.

WILD CARD

Wild Card (7)

TOTAL: 67

Overall, an enjoyable read.

Ruby La Roux receives 1169 exp and 95 gp.
Lillith Kazumi receives 465 exp and 95 gp.

(10% decrease in gp for The Tantalus Menagerie taken into account)

[Taskmienster]

Exp and GP added.