Otono-Tachibana Makie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
therewerefifty) wrote2013-09-18 07:39 pm
therewerefifty) wrote2013-09-18 07:39 pm
[Action all over]
[It's not so much that Makie has a clean bill of health-- she needs to keep taking this medication for another four months or so, by the clinic's reports. But she hasn't had a coughing fit in weeks and feels pretty healthy, all things considered-- just a little drained, that's all. And now, she's passed the bar of her illness. She's no longer contagious.
Which means she can stop holing herself up in her room and start going forward with plans to actually, you know...
...live a little.
What a concept.
She still doesn't go out until the afternoon though, tracking down Saori (and other house members if they're around) to inform them of a decision she's made during her convalescence. And then likely packing what very few things she has, and putting haru-no-okina through some well-needed maintenance out on the sunny rooftop. But in the afternoon she goes to several places, shamisen in hand:
Seventh Heaven, to ask after her old job;
The tea house, because it's been a while;
The forge, to request a weapon;
The Welcome Centre, to find out what apartments are still free;
And finally, back to the battledome to investigate it more thoroughly. (She keeps an eye out for Konan on her travels, mindful of an offer made a long while ago. Just in case.) Once she knows sufficiently enough (or someone programs it for her), she steps into one of its rooms for the first time, shamisen neatly tucked to the side out of harm's way, and experiences it for herself. (The program name of the day: Shift Hunters. How fitting, that they're like giant wild dogs.)
...probably stays in there a little too long, though, since her stamina is kind of shredded right now.
Catch her at any of these places or anywhere in between.]
Which means she can stop holing herself up in her room and start going forward with plans to actually, you know...
...live a little.
What a concept.
She still doesn't go out until the afternoon though, tracking down Saori (and other house members if they're around) to inform them of a decision she's made during her convalescence. And then likely packing what very few things she has, and putting haru-no-okina through some well-needed maintenance out on the sunny rooftop. But in the afternoon she goes to several places, shamisen in hand:
Seventh Heaven, to ask after her old job;
The tea house, because it's been a while;
The forge, to request a weapon;
The Welcome Centre, to find out what apartments are still free;
And finally, back to the battledome to investigate it more thoroughly. (She keeps an eye out for Konan on her travels, mindful of an offer made a long while ago. Just in case.) Once she knows sufficiently enough (or someone programs it for her), she steps into one of its rooms for the first time, shamisen neatly tucked to the side out of harm's way, and experiences it for herself. (The program name of the day: Shift Hunters. How fitting, that they're like giant wild dogs.)
...probably stays in there a little too long, though, since her stamina is kind of shredded right now.
Catch her at any of these places or anywhere in between.]
SEVENTH HEAVEN
SEVENTH HEAVEN
It's a discovery I wish I could take home with me.
Re: SEVENTH HEAVEN
SEVENTH HEAVEN
It's complicated. Better for me to say that there is no place for a woman like me in my home.
SEVENTH HEAVEN
[ That doesn't sound very good. ]
SEVENTH HEAVEN
SEVENTH HEAVEN
SEVENTH HEAVEN
I was the daughter of a samurai household famed for its skill with the sword. Samurai women... are trained in the art of defence. But that's all. They are expected to become good samurai wives, managing the household while their husbands deal with more martial matters-- go to war, that sort of thing. Even in a time of peace, those were our roles. Samurai still learned their craft in dojos. It's... a matter of honour.
The skill that my father's bloodline had had for generations passed down into his daughter, and not his son. My brother challenged me to a match once when he was fifteen. I defeated him every time.
My father couldn't bear the shame of this, and cast me out. And... cast my mother out also, for defending me.
SEVENTH HEAVEN
To cast a girl out for being good at something...no, it was for being better than her brother at something.
She'd said she could picture it based on where she was from, and she almost can. If a Capitol child were pitted against a child from Twelve, and the Twelve child won...
...what sort of reaction would that have gotten? ]
...so when you said there was no place for you there, you meant because you'd been cast out?
SEVENTH HEAVEN
My brother committed seppuku to restore his honour. [...] In our society, that's suicide. And nobody will take a samurai woman in that's been cast out, the shame is too great. I am a stain on the honour of my family.
To feed us both, my mother took up work as a prostitute. She died in so much debt...
I can find a place, I'm sure, if I'm willing to cast aside my own morals. There are plenty of uses for a woman who can fight in all the wrong ways. But there is nothing else. Our society is too strict for a woman like me to be considered anything other than a reminder of great shame. No work for a woman like me unless it's of the most base kind. Nothing.
SEVENTH HEAVEN
While it's a different culture, that's...painful to hear. That Makie, who has always been kind to Prim, doesn't think of herself as having a place to return to. That her mother died, after having to do things to feed them which...
...well, that part Prim understood on a personal level. The need for food, and people doing anything they had to in order to get it. ]
...I see. I...feel honoured to know you, myself. And to be your friend.
[ That's almost hesitant, because...well, they've never confirmed that in so many words.
And that's why she admits the next part, a secret for a secret. ]
...I don't have a place to return to, either. Back there...I'm not someone who exists, any longer.
SEVENTH HEAVEN
I had wondered as much. I didn't...want to pry too deeply.
[It's a difficult subject. She wants to ask how. In the end, she fidgets for just a moment, before her slow smile appears again.]
Luceti is different for the both of us in many ways. I feel... content in ways that I never could at home. Here, at least... we can both live.
I've never had friends before. But I'm happy to be able to call you one.
SEVENTH HEAVEN
[ And even after. ]
It's a little hard for me to see this place as the horror it is for some of the people here. I...like being here.