hyralt
Well-Known Member
- RP Date
- 1 月 YE 43
- RP Location
- Ice Queen Sake Premises
Shortly before 3 in the morning on planet Yamatai, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest village, at the feet of the mighty Ice Queen Mountains, three wood-frame buildings huddled by a quietly babbling stream. Each building was built in the old Yamatai style with a wooden frame elevated slightly off the ground, with tiled roofs and sliding doors. One of these buildings had two storeys and was connected to the stream by a giant wooden wheel that turned lazily, pushed by the passing water. Another was a single storey and featured above the entrance an intricate wood carving depicting many overlapping layers of local birds. The final building was also a single storey, but much longer than the other two. Within this last building, in the darkness of early morning, Tamura Ikko lay awake listening to his coworkers shift, snore, and fart in their sleep.
With a glance at his watch, Ikko hopped down from his top bunk and carefully crept across the wooden floor. As he had learned the night before, the old structure had grown and shrunk and resettled over time in such a way that certain floorboards creaked loudly underfoot. To his credit, Ikko made it to his locker, grabbed his work clothes, and nearly got outside before his footfall caused first the building and then many of his coworkers to groan loudly. With startling accuracy, a small procession of pillows hit him in the darkness, and he whispered an apology.
The apprentice sake maker stepped outside and although the unheated building was not at all warm, the frigid mountain air was still quite a shock. Hurrying through the moonlit stone-paved open space between the buildings to the stream, he laid his clothes on a rock and knelt to wash himself. As soon as the glacial water hit his skin, he began to shiver. Once clean, he pulled on his clothes and jogged to the building with the ornate carving over the doorway, where he deposited his work boots on the ground nearby. Ikko took a moment to relax and slow his breathing, then did his best to wipe his dirty feet on his pant legs, before he slid the door aside.
The wood panel walls of the room inside were arguably more intricate than the wood carving above the door. They depicted nature scenes in gold leaf and black lacquer. The long, pointy leaves of some slender tree spanned most of the back wall, and in the shade of those leaves crept a fierce-looking animal covered in stripes. The scene seemed to dance in the dim, flickering light of a small lantern that lay on a low table in the centre of the room. Next to the lantern was a white ceramic teapot and a pair of matching cups, each of which bore the stains of heavy use and seemed tremendously out of place. Sitting on the far side of the table staring at Ikko was Kinoshita Fusako, whose icy expression didn't seem out of place at all. Ikko entered, closed the door behind him, and sat down on the tatami mats.
"Forgive my tardiness, Toji," Ikko said in halting Yamataigo. With a wave, Kinoshita-san dismissed his apology and then poured each of them a cup of tea.
"In slightly less than one hour, we will begin our day." Kinoshita-san was referring to herself and all of the other kurabito who produced the sake. "You arrived yesterday. You are no doubt full of questions that will occupy your mind and slow you down if you don't have a chance to ask them."
Ikko sat quietly for a moment while Kinoshita-san sipped silently at her tea.
"Why did you choose to make sake here?"
"I didn't. Sake has been made here since before living memory can recall," she replied flatly. "But there is no better place. The water is pure, the rice fields are nearby, and the air is cold."
"Who made sake here before you?"
"I don't know. The facility was abandoned after the great plague."
"How did you learn about it?"
"Before the plague, I was much like yourself. Not here, but somewhere similar. When the plague was over, my master told me."
"Why didn't your master take over here if it was such an ideal location?"
Kinoshita-san smiled at this but tried unsuccessfully to hide it behind her cup.
"I don't know," she expressed honestly. "But I do know that if a more perfect place became available today, I would never leave here. This is my home. It is productive and quiet and everything I could ask for."
Ikko nodded slowly.
"What are we doing today?"
"Everything," the master sake maker replied cryptically. "Sake has several stages. We have fresh rice to be polished, we have polished rice that has been steaming overnight ready to be cooled and mixed with koji spores, we have sweet koji-filled rice ready to be mixed with water and yeast and left to ferment, and we have fermented sake ready to be filtered. Then most of the filtered sake will be pasteurized and moved to cold storage for aging, but some of it will be bottled immediately. This is kizake, and you will have the opportunity to taste it tonight. It is fresh and wild and carries with it the purest spirit of its ingredients and the season that gave birth to them."
Ikko finally took a sip of his tea. It was surprisingly bland, almost as if it was just hot water and Kinoshita-san had forgotten to add any tea leaves. Of course, Ikko wouldn't dare mention it.
"If you have no further questions, then we will sit and enjoy the tea and quiet."
After several minutes, Ikko's hearing adjusted to the silence and he began to hear the stream outside. Several more minutes passed and he began to hear the gentle breeze rustling the long grass that surrounded the buildings. Ikko lost track of time. He didn't fall asleep, exactly, but his mind quietened and he simply existed.
Across the table, Kinoshita-san set down her cup quietly. He followed her lead, and without a word, they joined the other kurabito gathering outside and began their long day.
OOC: This was just intended to flesh out Kinoshita Fusako's character and the Ice Queen Sake setting. But if you have a character who wants to visit, feel free.
With a glance at his watch, Ikko hopped down from his top bunk and carefully crept across the wooden floor. As he had learned the night before, the old structure had grown and shrunk and resettled over time in such a way that certain floorboards creaked loudly underfoot. To his credit, Ikko made it to his locker, grabbed his work clothes, and nearly got outside before his footfall caused first the building and then many of his coworkers to groan loudly. With startling accuracy, a small procession of pillows hit him in the darkness, and he whispered an apology.
The apprentice sake maker stepped outside and although the unheated building was not at all warm, the frigid mountain air was still quite a shock. Hurrying through the moonlit stone-paved open space between the buildings to the stream, he laid his clothes on a rock and knelt to wash himself. As soon as the glacial water hit his skin, he began to shiver. Once clean, he pulled on his clothes and jogged to the building with the ornate carving over the doorway, where he deposited his work boots on the ground nearby. Ikko took a moment to relax and slow his breathing, then did his best to wipe his dirty feet on his pant legs, before he slid the door aside.
The wood panel walls of the room inside were arguably more intricate than the wood carving above the door. They depicted nature scenes in gold leaf and black lacquer. The long, pointy leaves of some slender tree spanned most of the back wall, and in the shade of those leaves crept a fierce-looking animal covered in stripes. The scene seemed to dance in the dim, flickering light of a small lantern that lay on a low table in the centre of the room. Next to the lantern was a white ceramic teapot and a pair of matching cups, each of which bore the stains of heavy use and seemed tremendously out of place. Sitting on the far side of the table staring at Ikko was Kinoshita Fusako, whose icy expression didn't seem out of place at all. Ikko entered, closed the door behind him, and sat down on the tatami mats.
"Forgive my tardiness, Toji," Ikko said in halting Yamataigo. With a wave, Kinoshita-san dismissed his apology and then poured each of them a cup of tea.
"In slightly less than one hour, we will begin our day." Kinoshita-san was referring to herself and all of the other kurabito who produced the sake. "You arrived yesterday. You are no doubt full of questions that will occupy your mind and slow you down if you don't have a chance to ask them."
Ikko sat quietly for a moment while Kinoshita-san sipped silently at her tea.
"Why did you choose to make sake here?"
"I didn't. Sake has been made here since before living memory can recall," she replied flatly. "But there is no better place. The water is pure, the rice fields are nearby, and the air is cold."
"Who made sake here before you?"
"I don't know. The facility was abandoned after the great plague."
"How did you learn about it?"
"Before the plague, I was much like yourself. Not here, but somewhere similar. When the plague was over, my master told me."
"Why didn't your master take over here if it was such an ideal location?"
Kinoshita-san smiled at this but tried unsuccessfully to hide it behind her cup.
"I don't know," she expressed honestly. "But I do know that if a more perfect place became available today, I would never leave here. This is my home. It is productive and quiet and everything I could ask for."
Ikko nodded slowly.
"What are we doing today?"
"Everything," the master sake maker replied cryptically. "Sake has several stages. We have fresh rice to be polished, we have polished rice that has been steaming overnight ready to be cooled and mixed with koji spores, we have sweet koji-filled rice ready to be mixed with water and yeast and left to ferment, and we have fermented sake ready to be filtered. Then most of the filtered sake will be pasteurized and moved to cold storage for aging, but some of it will be bottled immediately. This is kizake, and you will have the opportunity to taste it tonight. It is fresh and wild and carries with it the purest spirit of its ingredients and the season that gave birth to them."
Ikko finally took a sip of his tea. It was surprisingly bland, almost as if it was just hot water and Kinoshita-san had forgotten to add any tea leaves. Of course, Ikko wouldn't dare mention it.
"If you have no further questions, then we will sit and enjoy the tea and quiet."
After several minutes, Ikko's hearing adjusted to the silence and he began to hear the stream outside. Several more minutes passed and he began to hear the gentle breeze rustling the long grass that surrounded the buildings. Ikko lost track of time. He didn't fall asleep, exactly, but his mind quietened and he simply existed.
Across the table, Kinoshita-san set down her cup quietly. He followed her lead, and without a word, they joined the other kurabito gathering outside and began their long day.
OOC: This was just intended to flesh out Kinoshita Fusako's character and the Ice Queen Sake setting. But if you have a character who wants to visit, feel free.
