Moriko smoothed her hair and looked around awkwardly, unsure of what to she might have to add to the conversation.

"Oh, I dunno... you all got the same nakodo files, I did, right?" Atsumori shrugged, not quite able to keep his eyes from tracking to the door at the mention of breakfast. "Alliances the clan is after, things like that? Otherwise... I just want somebody I can get on with, you know? Who likes animals and things, 'cos of my work. Otherwise they might have it a bit tough." His smile was a little self-deprecating... but not much.

Chiruha perked up at the Shiba, "What sort of work do you do with animals, Shiba-san?" She couldn't help ask, even if it could potentially derail the meeting.

Mal-Chin's taking notes. "Yeah, shared interests are important. Gives something to converse about and set goals together besides from duty."

"In the interest of promoting one another to the others, it would be helpful to share information about ourselves with each other." suggested Hoshi.

"Looking for the next thing at the moment. Could be frontier duty, depending what the higher-ups back home want." Atsumori perked up at this sign of interest. "I've just come off a couple years' conservation research on Old Rokugan. Then all my folks shipped me off here straight away..." He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I've been making holos for the 'net about restoration projects and animals and things, too. Like so people can watch 'em and get an idea of what makes all these different critters remarkable, even if they don't look so special. It's just a hobby right now, but maybe..."

He spread his hands as if to contain vast possibilities... or possibly an invisible fluffy creature.



"Yeah, definitely. So what do you all do? I know about Hoshiko-san's special job, anyway." He grinned at the shugenja.

"Outside of my duties, I try to help out at the temples. And I record a lot of sounds and video in order to create music and music videos." He looks about.

"How did you manage to earn a stay there for your research?" she asked curiously, assuming that he wasn't born there, to begin with. "I think I would be interested in watching your work. Mal-Chin-san is likely better when it comes to giving technical feedback on production...but it would be very interesting to see your findings, especially as someone who can only admire the opportunity you had there."

"Oh, hey, Asako-san, you're a video person? That's great! Maybe I can lean on you for some tips. I'm not the best at that part." Atsumori gave Mal-chin an eager sort of look.

"Well, Asako-sama, I had to ask some favors, if I'm honest. The Fox Clan is doing amazing work in habitat research and restoration down there. They were nice enough to host me... pretty sure I pulled my weight, though." He fished his communicator out again. "I can link you my HouOuVue channel if you want." His posture suggests he would indeed be all too happy to do so. "It's mostly vids from the homeworld right now, but I'm gonna make some new ones here on Asakaze."

Chiruha patted her obi, trying to find where she kept her communicator. Another discovered downside of the traditional dress was the lack of belts and pockets that she was typically used to with the colonist jumpsuit that she often wore on the field. Eventually, she recalled she kept it in her sleeve and pulled out her communicator that was a few coloured wooden meeples hanging from it.

"Thank you, Shiba-san. I often take some footage and document the wild herds of otori in the area too. Of course, I haven't really formatted it for any use other than academic purposes. My footage is entirely uncut so that anyone watching can endure the same amount of waiting I've done," she said with a sheepish smile.

"Hai. Technical stuff, though I try to experiment." He looks to Chiruha. "I hope you've at least indexed it Chiruha-sama. Or it'll be the task of whatever poor student they hand it off to, and they won't know what to look for yet."

"Oh, of course," she nodded surely at Mal-Chin. However, there a moment where she doubted herself...but surely she had her holorecorder drone time-stamp everything at least, right?

Moriko picked at a loose thread on her sleeve, only half-paying attention to the conversation, her thoughts elsewhere. She was distantly aware of the current topic, but was practically antediluvian when it came to technology.

With her personal interests in the Shiba's work out of the way, Chiruha figured it was perhaps her turn to finally speak. "We were talking about interests, right? I suppose I have a few of them and not all practical. I know a bit about zoology, engineering, programming...I'm a senior member of the Robotics Club, committee member of Bring-Fan-Con-to-Asakaze, amateur game designer...a few things around here."

"I spoke to a few samurai here but only Yasuki Nishida-sama has scheduled a meeting with me so far this afternoon?" She brought up, not knowing if it was a prospect or just her playing hostess.

"Hai. That brings up a question I think we want to know the answer of. Should we work to make sure you're still here at the end of the miai, Chiruha-sama? There are a number of people with status enough to pull you away from Asakaze." He asks.

Atsumori held out his communicator, making it display his personal five-elements code (a small two-dimensional barcode matrix with an auspicious design of four corners for each of the four physical elements, and a smaller square in the middle symbolizing Void) for Chiruha to scan. After sending over the quick link to his channel, he tucked it away again.

"Crab are one of the clans we're s'posed to specially make nice with, aren't they?" He was pretty sure he was remembering that right. "So that's good. I haven't met too many of the other guests yet myself." Maybe he should have spent the welcome banquet talking with a Lion or Scorpion or Crab instead of Hoshiko. He couldn't regret the conversation, though. For the most part, Atsumori wasn't the regretting type.

"Does it make sense to try and reach out to the Crane as part of our previous alliance?" Mal-Chin asks, nodding at Atsumori's words. "Makes sense with the Crab."

"I would like to stay in Asakaze," she admitted genuinely. "But that's probably more because I'm more attached and comfortable with everything there. I do have connections here and I'm sure our guests also have connections where they are from. They migth feel the same in their situation. Then again, even if I am to remain in Asakaze, there's no telling how marriage might change a lot of things around here."

"If Dragon were here in a greater capacity, I would say that a relationship with them is worth pursuing...Perhaps we could consider the Unicorn, too."

"Anybody who's not already in bed with the pirates in green, eh?" Atsumori's usual cheery tone was a bit muted as he voiced this thought. Even someone like him who didn't follow galactic news especially closely couldn't help but be aware of the Phoenix Clan's biggest problem right now.

Mal-Chin nods. "Hai. It's not likely that keeping the Crane from marrying opposition other here would do anything anyways, besides earn us their ire. They've already got high profile matches in the last year."