"Whoa, hey now...I didn't mean to go that far," she said with a chuckle, now not even half-whispering at all, "I was hoping that you'll do your best to convince me, that's all. I've come to realize that I'm all dressed here and already, so let's just make the best of it. I guess. It's a shame you didn't bring it then! Then again, don't you clanking and creaking everywhere you go."

"So, you're going to introduce me to one of your many friends around here?"

“Good to know that the prospect of slipping out to be alone with me is enough convincing to get you to stay,” she couldn’t help but chuckle at her own expense. Hide didn’t expect her to bite on that offer, regardless. “Friends? Well, I just met Iuchi-sama here. Making acquaintances today!”

"Uh huh," she said, not sounding too convinced, "are we talking about earlier today in the morning? Maybe he's a friend of a friend?"

"Alright, alright shut it and watch how it's done", Shokomaru told some kids who were watching the rich idiot waste his money.

He yanked one and... nothing. The kids laughed and je frowned. "Figures."

But the next got...Daikoku? He smirked and handed it off to a kid. "Go learn how to gamble."

Next! Nothing... some kid called out "i told you that one was wrong, pick the other one!"

Shokomaru grumbled and drew the string. A centipede plushie. There was some excitment as half the kids pushed and shoved to get it. The spider rolled his eyes and gave it to the kid who called it.

"That's for your sister, you won it for her, now buzz off."

"iuchi Joo-Woo, well met Kuni-san." He replied with a smile, the awkward exchange not registering with him too much.

"I do see you have a special someone Matsu-san." He smirked. "May the Fortunes bless you. I would not wish to disturb you on this blessed day, minna-san." He gave them a small bow, preparing to leave.

"What about this morning, exactly?" Hide started to look very confused.



"Oh, you have a wonderful rest of the evening, Iuchi-sama." Hide offered a bow in return.

"Hardly disturbing at all, Iuchi-san. Sorry about my manners, I thought Hide-san here was going to introduce me. I'm Kuni Eriko and it was nice to make your acquaintance, you have a blessed day yourself," she said bowing as well.

She gave a roll of her eyes with a shake of her head, "Just doing a thorough investigation, that's all. Didn't mean to put you on the spot about Iuchi-san here. Okay, then. So, what is there to do around here?"

From the other side, someone else pipped in.

"Oo, can I have one?"

She didn't look like a child, nor really like a member of the Spider in those colours. However, there was clearly only one person who would dress like this....right?

Shokomaru was having it on with these kids when Nara arrived.

Another pull and nothing. The children all laughed. "Try harder, samurai-sama! don't you have a sweetheart to win something for?"

"no he's here all alone, haha!"

The Chuui grumbled and yoink, down came another plushie. "Get fucked kids." He tossed the reaver plushie at the kid who dared mention he was alone, tagging them in the forehead. "Go enjoy yourself."

And then nothing again. Now the children knew how to get his attention for prizes and the comments were loud, and non-stop.

But then...three pulls, and a drifter, a moth with little flashing lights on the wings and then finally at the end, a 2ft tall Otori plushie came down on the last pull.

Literally all the little girls lined up for it, begging. He tossed the moth and drifter to the crowd and seeing Nara he walked over with a smirk. "It's almost as tall as you, can't quite ride it, but here. Got you something."

And there was a lot of ooooooh and aaaawwww from the kids. Shokomaru snorted at them.

"Get lost already."

And the party was over, left only with the two spider and an awkwardly big otori between them.

Hide noted that the Spider seemed to be done with pulling the strings, she motioned to the rafflestring booth. "We could always try our luck? Seems to have a lot of cute prizes."

"Sure, lead the way, Hide-san," she smirked and was more than happy to follow her toward some of the stands here that were set up for the guests. The offerings here were less packed than they would be at the marketplace, especially when there weren't as many heimen participants here.

"Hey...aren't some of these games for kids?" she half-whispered to Hide.

“Bold of you to assume that I don’t have a massive inner child!” Hide shot Eriko a wink as they came up to rafflestrings. She put down a few coins and started to give the game a go.

First string. Nothing. Hide seemed disappointed. She put down more coin.

Second string. Nothing. Hide started to look a bit annoyed at the clearly rigged game.

Third string. Finally! She got one! And scored a plush. Okay, one more go.

Final string. Another! One for Eriko and one for Hide.

She looked towards Eriko with her two winning strings, a massive grin on her face. “Choose one that you want. Then we can do some ring toss, if you’re willing to go at it with me.”
____
D11: Tanabata Rafflestrings!: 4#1d10 3 4 8 8

Atena wore tanabata kimono. She looked about a bit lost. She was unsure what to do. Maybe even if looked childish play a game or two.

Shokomaru saw the mantis and nudged Nara. "Hey, look."

Then he waved the Moshi over. He hadn't met the girl formally, but her other options were Lion and Crab. Least he could do was be hospitable.

"Hah, fair enough," Eriko snickered and watched Hide have a good at the games with some clear amusement in her eyes. After she was done with the strings, she gave her a small clap. "You got something half the time, not bad at all. You showed that game who's boss."

"Hmm...oh, hey, they go fungi too?" she said curiously as she picked up one of the mushroom plushes for grabs, "this seems like something neat to remember my time here. I'm sure I'll look back on it in my elder years and think back of all the trouble I landed on. My tailbone, too."

"Here," she said as she passed her plush to Hide, clearly wanting her to carrying her stuff now.

Hide picked out a surprisingly adorable centipede plush. She didn’t want to think about mushrooms anymore, but Eriko decided that Hide had to hold one. At least they weren’t very big. “You certainly have a sense of humor picking the mushroom. Want to hit the ring toss first, since my arms are preoccupied?”

Hide seemed content with being the pack otori tonight.

Koseki smiled when he saw the samurai in attendance over on this side of the gardens. He gave appropriate greetings to those he knew well and those he had yet to meet. Eriko and Hide got a wink. All these fun games felt like a great way to end the miai.

Spotting the ring toss he went over to get a closer look. "Hmm, baseball cards? I'm sure Ujina-sama was into that."

Dressed in her fancy clothes - which are still quite simple in comparison - black velvet trousers and a nice shirt, her black/ brown velvet jacket with an embroidered Sparrow mon on her shoulder as the weather doesn't quite make it easy to keep it on - Shion gets to the celebration a bit late. Looking around at those gathered in the west part of the Xenobotanic garden, she waves and bows to the others, and slightly longer to Atena, Hide, Koseki - whom she greets much more casually - and Eriko, who the Sparrow is particularly happy to see up and well.

She walks to the booths as well, but not wanting to interrupt the others for now, stays in the queues for her turn to play first at the Ring toss, then at the rafflestrings. She still seems oddly dreamy-eyed for her usual self, but she keeps quietly tapping rhythms on her legs as she waits.


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D11 EE - Tanabata Garden West - Ring Toss - Athletics/ Agility, 1 CR, TN 20: 4d10o10k3 18 - 5 zeni spent

D11 EE - Tanabata Garden West attempt 2 - Ring Toss - Athletics/ Agility, 1 CR, TN 20: 4d10o10k3 22 - 5 zeni spent, 2 gifts gained! Not chosen yet, may describe it next post (haven't really decided yet!)

D11 EE - Tanabata Garden West - Rafflestrings roll 1: 1d10k1 10 - 5 zeni spent Aaaand another large plushie! Probably going with a Megadon, but leaving the chance to decide in a later post if possible.

15 zeni = 1 bu 5 zeni spent


EDIT: Also, please PM if approaching. Thanks!

Nozomi crossed her arms at the events, clearly displeased. She decided, after scanning the crowd, to approach Suzume. "I don't think we've met yet," she admitted. "Kind of surprised that we'd gone this far. But I suppose I haven't met a lot of people, really... I'm Kitsu Nozomi, priestess of the Lion, by the way."

Eriko grinned at Koseki and was sure to give him a quick wave before they made their way over to the ring toss.

She gave a glance at Hide for a moment and nodded at the offer, "Sure, I mean somebody here has to do the heavy lifting anyways and also take some of these precious things from a few of these kids. It builds character!"

With that, she placed down 15 zeni worth of coins for the heimen to give her three chances at the game. "Let's see how this goes. You better be hoping that it's your arm day!"

Day 11, Early Evening, Ring Toss: 2 raises called on all three attempts! TN25!: 3#6d10o10k3 46 39 41

Eriko made several tosses with her rings, each landing in rather well-placed shots as they all found their mark on the display. At the end of her attempts, she managed to get a good bounty on cheap trinkets and things.

"Heeeey, hot shot over here!" she grinned broadly as she collected a few baseball cards, a SMC communicator shell of Hiruma Kaori, a netsuke of Tenjin (Fortune of Writing and Literature) and another netsuke Gobai (Fortune of Balance). Of course, they would be promptly handed to Hide for safekeeping. Thankfully, they were just a lot of small things.