Greyscale Woven Intarsia

It was an ordinary afternoon, the sun was out and the sky was relatively clear with only one or two small white clouds visible. It was entirely ordinary except for the very many significant things that were going on in the world. Like her employer Damien Darhk being assassinated, the Queen and Raikage disappearing without a trace, the war that loomed on the horizon with every major nation except probably Iwagakure, her lover Tamwyn apparently had a lightning wolf in his head that he needed to go battle and of course the fact that she now knew she was pregnant with twins. The last event being substantially less important than the others, but to her it was her whole world. She had spent a long time wandering the streets of the Fuyuko Outlet, trying to take her mind off of things she couldn’t control and focus it onto things that were easy by comparison. Like clothes shopping for babies. She was trying to expand her choices to include colours, but every time she saw some adorable onesie or blanket she immediately began searching for the same style in black.

She got a few raised eyebrows from store clerks, but she couldn’t see why. She was literally dressed from head to toe in black leather, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to expect that she would want to dress her children in the same somber shades. As a concession to peer pressure she picked out a few grey things and even one or two pure white blankets. She didn’t know too terribly much about babies but she considered that white was probably a poor choice as far as cleanliness was concerned. Not that she was worried so much about that, there were larger things at stake than some dirty clothes. “Besides, it will go with the decor.” She said quietly to herself as a means of justifying her abnormal choices. She didn’t know who she was trying to convince, herself or the seemingly judgemental shop keepers, either way she felt that familiar guilt creep in again as she paid for her purchases and stepped out again into the sunlight.

Yenn took to a wooden bench in the shade, enjoying the relative seclusion beside a potted plant and placing her bags at her feet. She would lean her head back against the wall and sigh as she looked to the sky, her feet were tired from wandering around in high heels again and her heart was tired from her worries that she carried with her. And she was hungry. Again. With considerable effort she would gather her strength and her purchases, making to stand and begin looking for something she wanted to eat. But instead of rising she would just sit there staring at the packages at her feet, trying to summon the energy to pick them up again and resisting the urge to just curl up on the bench and sleep.

Things had been strange the past few weeks, and even the indomitable warrior known to a decent amount called Mōtimā had been trying to deal with the fact that Ryuko Shizu Von Rose, his mentor and Kage, had gone missing. It was...well he wasn't used to this feeling, and he wasn't a big fan of it. The future had seemed like a tangible goal, and yet now things had gotten stormy again, whatever vision on the future they had obscured once more.

So he decided to do whenever he felt he needed some sort of guidance: the art of weaving.

He could count on a single hand the amount of non-kurama who know of his love of weaving. Well, it wasn't just that, any sort of fabric textile work he enjoyed doing, but being able to sit at a loom and make whatever he wanted, or hell even a spinning wheel to let his mind focus on other things as he made yarn were always relaxing. Sure it wasn't the same as forging a sword and taking it to an anvil, but it was a different form of hobby he enjoyed. Sure it would never be good enough to take to a market and sell his handcraft items, but being able to repair an outfit on the fly, especially when on an incognito mission was something that he found to be useful, such as the mission he did with Valen a good while back when he was a genin. Hell, the red scarf he was waring today was one of the first things he learned how to make thanks to his grandfather.

Today though he had decided to make it a simple affair though and bought several skeins of yarn of varying colors; a decent balance of warm and cool colors, with some simple black and white skeins just to be safe. He may have gone a little overboard on the shades of cyan though, but that could be rectified with some clever work later. All of them were stored in a fancy little seal he had placed in one of his books, having slipped it into his pocket for later, though he had one of the cyan skeins out as he did some knitting while he walked back home from the market. He did make a brief pit stop at one of those vendors with some more unique food, and figured he'd get something now to eat and another when he got home. But as he continued to eat as he walked along the roofs, he noticed someone who's clothing stood out among the rest of Kumo, and he recognized her, well somewhat at least as the current head of the Inazuma clan. Maybe she knew what happened to Arashi given he was the least head of the clan.

Walking over and then squatting on the wall, he'd look down at...Jeniffer was it? Yevviner? Eh, he'd just ask her later, either way he looked down at her with a burger still in his mouth. "Mmphh, Cheezeborger Mrz Inuzumah? I'fve gwot anh extreah one in theh bagh." He'd motion to a bag he was holding with what looked to be cooking grease on the corners, the bag having rotated to follow the downward pull of the earth, though with his hand holding the folded opening, he wouldn't lose a thing. He'd swallow the bit he had and spoke a little clearer this time. "For a clan leader you look a little pale right now, and I've found food or water's usually a good way to fix that." And if she responded, he'd hand her the bag.

Yenn was incredibly relieved to have a person come and break her focus from the task of standing. Being relieved at a person being close to her was new, but so was everything lately, so it was just one more bit of strangeness to add to the pile. The man was tall and eating something. And it was more the eating that drew her attention, the smell of grilled meat and melted cheese wafting towards her and making her head swim. She could barely understand him as he spoke through bites of cheeseburger, but as he motioned towards the bag she would release the handles of her own packages and quickly accept the offered food with an eager nod and outstretched gloved hands. Without a second thought given to appearances, politeness or any other bit of etiquette she would take the bag and tear into the sandwich, pulling her legs up onto the bench so she sat cross legged and leaning back against the wall again.

It was the most delicious food she’d ever had in her life. She was certain of it. All the world faded away as all that existed was her and the cheeseburger and the quieting of the angry growling of her stomach. She groaned appreciatively as she chewed, feeling as though she hadn’t eaten anything at all in years. Anyone that watched may have assumed as much based on how quickly she devoured it, as after a few seconds it was gone. Taking a deep breath she would remember that she was very much in a public place and that she was definitely not alone, and she would turn her violet gaze up towards the man who had given her the burger. “Thank you, a million times thank you, I was really hungry. You came along at the perfect time actually, I was just trying to decide what to eat and frankly didn’t have the energy to make the decision. You’re a lifesaver Mr. . .?” The man had her at a disadvantage. He at least knew what clan she came from but she had no idea who he was, although he did look vaguely familiar. She would give him a second to answer her half asked question before blurting out “Can we get some more?” and then looking down in embarrassment.

It was rare for him to see a person eat food in an ecstatic manner such as this, the very few times he had seen it was when he was young and helping handout food to those less fortunate them himself, but this was a clan leader, so it was very odd to say the least. It was like looking at an animal in...no. A hyena ready to..? No. He...he couldn't think of a proper phrase for it, but if he did it would've been something along the lines of 'cibusexual'. Id enjoyed it, he didn't. However, he had training in hiding his emotions for dumb beurocratic meetings, so he'd pull out the ol' 'please be advised you are making a scene' face and wait for her to finish.

He'd listen, noting the more rural accent with a hint of formal in it. Royalty perhaps? Disowned? Run away? Not enough info to go on, but it would be a talking point he'd need to be careful with. He'd make a small hop off the wall and float down, using the Soaring Swords to make it look like he was sitting on an invisible chair, though if one were to look they'd see his feet weren't quite touching the ground. "Ah, the nam-" He hadn't expected her to make another question quite so fast, he'd blink a few times and hold in a sigh before continuing. "The name's Mōtimā Midori-Okō Kurama, though I go by Mort for convenience. I actually debated on-wait that's a story for later. You're welcome miss Inazuma, and while I was about to head home, I'm game for showing you where I got the food." He'd stand back up, the wind dissipating and he'd take a few steps outwards before stopping.

"Shit. Now I just need to recall where it was. Let's see, five blocks down that road, a hop over miss Galhager's fence, avoid the chickens for three blocks, then if Ulgar sees you, turn seventy-five degrees to the left and go ten blocks with s slight detour through the butcher, but if miss Sakura sees you, five more blocks north and three blocks east. So from here it would be...that way!" He'd point down the road and start walking, expecting the Storm-kin to be following behind.

Yenn was usually more tactful, or at least quiet. Interrupting her burger provider was not something she had planned on doing, but her stomach was now fully in control of her brain, which apparently was also fully in control of her mouth without her say in the matter. She bit her tongue as Mort introduced himself, not literally as she wasn’t yet that hungry, but she nodded as he gave his name. “Mort, thank you. Both for the food and for the shortened name. I’m afraid I’m not the most eloquent speaker and I’d probably mess it up. Uh, I’m Yenn and it’s nice to meet you.”

She would begin to stand as Mort did, grudgingly picking up the half dozen small bags of baby clothes and blankets as she did. They weren’t heavy at all, but it took all her energy and will power to lift them regardless. She did laugh quietly as she listened to Mort’s explanation, if you could call it that, of how to find where he’d purchased the food. She couldn’t follow his logic at all, but his musings over the directions brought a smile to her face.

Following behind the man she would try to understand how he had used any of that to tell where he was, but to no avail. “I don’t mean to interrupt your day, or I guess I mean if you were going home then I don’t want to stop you.” She was dutifully apologetic as always. “I’m sorry if I’m a bother. . . shit. Ugh, sorry, no. Dammit.” She would laugh as she tried to apologize for apologizing. “Tamwyn is always telling me to stop apologizing for everything. I really do appreciate your help though, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and I cannot stress enough how important it apparently was that I ate something right that second.” She would continue walking along with Mort, trying her best to make conversation, and failing at the ‘interesting’ part of the social action.

Yenn, that's what it was! Was it just Yenn, or was it a shortened version of Yennifer, kinda like how Bob was short for Bobbert or Sammy was for Salmontha? Either way, he had a name now. "It's no trouble Yenn, and the pleasure is mine. I don't get to talk with Inuzuma members very much, so anytime I can is a treat." He understood the perils of not eating enough, having made the mistake a few times, though thankfully nothing serious came of it.

As they walked, Mort would listen and took proper notice of the bags this time, noting that she had been shopping, but never having gone baby shopping before had no idea what they held. Id didn't help that she had spoken a familiar name, stopping as it had broken his train of thought. "Did you say 'Tamwyn'? Wouldn't of pegged you for knowing my teammate personally, but that sounds like him. He's a bit rough around the edges, but he often means well enough. Good to hear he's makin' friends though. Haven't heard much from him as of late, but...well if he's making friends he's probably doing okay." The smile on his face wavered a little as talking about his teammate reminded him of Ryuko.

Taking a look around to get his bearing's back, he'd see Galhager's Pawn Shop, and resumed the trail to treats. "Anyways, you don't need to apologize. After all, I agreed to it, so if anything bad happens on the way there I should be the one apologizing, not you." Hmm, could he help her? Sure reminding a person that they didn't need to apologize was one thing, but the core issue would be there for a long time... "I'm curious, and you don't need to answer if you don't feel comfortable doing so, but have you been given advice on how to avoid unnecessary apologizing? I don't mean stopping it completely as never apologizing at all has it's own risks, but more just waning yourself off of the ones that could compromise your position as clan head, or even just so that people don't take advantage of you?

As they walked Yenn politely nodded to Mort, content to have casual chit chat with the man. Up until he stopped at the mention of Tamwyn. As he spoke of his teammate, realization dawned on her and she smiled. “Oh! You’re that Mort, yes I’ve heard of you. I’m sorry for not putting it together before, but yes he’s spoken about you. I’m sorry I sort of. . . took up a whole lot of his time. I didn’t mean to keep him from you. We’re uh. . . more than friends, we’re well going to. . . ” Somehow she felt like it was her fault that Mort and Tamwyn hadn’t been able to spend time together. It wasn’t, and perhaps a tiny part of her knew that as well, but the voice of doubt and guilt always overshadowed her reason. It wasn’t as if Mort could possibly know that they were engaged and going to have twins. They had both only learned the night before, it did make it hard to keep his friends informed. Still she kept her tone apologetic and cut off her thoughts immediately as she noticed his smile waver.  

Seeing as this was Tamwyn’s friend, Yenn felt infinitely more comfortable speaking with him. If Tamwyn trusted someone, that was good enough for her. So when Mort began asking about the more intimate details of her overwhelming guilt complex she didn’t immediately shut down. She did however draw her arms closer to her body in an unconscious effort to make herself appear smaller. Overhead the sky would begin to darken in response to her fears, dark clouds suddenly rolling in and threatening to release a storm.

When she answered Mort, her voice was quieter and more subdued, hesitant.. Clearly lacking in the confidence she had displayed earlier. “Yes, I have been given some advice. Tamwyn has been unwaveringly patient and kind in that regard. As for the Inazuma, I’m not really worried about what they think of me, I already know and I’m sure nothing I do will change it. I’m just a figurehead after all.” Even she was aware that the only reason she had been put in the position was because certain people knew they still held sway over her, and it would be far easier to push their agendas with her ‘in charge’. She realized though that his question might be leading to him wanting to give advice, so she responded with that in mind. “If you have any tips you’d like to share though, I could probably use them. Who am I kidding, I need all the help I can get.”

He'd give a small wave as he walked. "No need to fret, Tam's his own person, and I know I can be a little overwhelming. And congrats on becoming his significant other, I trust you'll treat him well and vice versa." He'd give a small smile to her. In truth he was a little worried about Tam. Since the disappearance he had only gotten a letter asking him to make a technique that aligned with his own work, and after he had made it their schedules just never happened to line up. Maybe a wave here or a 'hi' there, but no time to really sit down and talk. But, that was part of what happened when you became a jounin.

Keeping his eye out he'd take note that Sakuranomiya's shop was open today, which meant that area of the outlet was off limits, probably because of a Jashin event or restocking. A shame they'd have to take a slightly longer route, but it'd give him time to explain. "Well, the one tip that comes to mind first is to reframe the apology into something else. You've already got down the part where you notice it, so I think Tam's got you covered there for the future. But yeah, reframing, It's something I was taught that pretty early on as I used to say sorry a lot due to, well due to bloodline stuff. If you notice you're about to say sorry, swap up the words. It may take a bit, heck I still slip up at times, but hopefully it'll be a step you can use to go in the right direction."

Turning the corner, he'd see the burger joint a few blocks down. "Ah, there it is. Let's see, it should be somewhere in here..." He'd pull out one of his books, and flipped through it. "Ah, here it is." He'd offer the booklet to Yenn, and if she looked at it she'd see a simplified menu for the diner. "Every so often I've had to pick up food from multiple stores, so I figured making one of these would be easiest."

Yenn nodded as Mort told her not to fret. It wouldn’t stop her from fretting of course, but she was unwilling to display as ‘being difficult’. Especially not to one of Tamwyn’s squad mates, if anything it would look bad on him she thought. She walked along with the dark haired man, her eyes darting around between him reading a note and the various people that they passed. She was definitely trying to keep physical distance from everyone, weaving around people and leaving a solid six feet of space between her and any people they came across. She would have loved to leave more space, but in a busy metropolis like Kumogakure it usually wasn’t possible.

As Mort gave her the advice she asked for, she listened carefully to his words of wisdom. The concept of ‘reframing’ was a somewhat new one, she understood the concept. . . sort of. She’d at least heard of it before, in the ‘important information but not relative to anything I’m doing’ sort of way. Now though she took the time to try to internalize the information, figuring out how she could best utilize it. From her perspective, and from what she knew of him through stories - which wasn’t much, Mort seemed like a reasonable and well adjusted person. Following his advice in regards to apologizing too much seemed like the prudent thing to do. “I can try, but I suspect it’ll be a fairly painful process. And I’ll likely mess it up. A lot.” She wasn’t even being sarcastic. She was most certainly being self deprecating, though not intentionally. She genuinely believed that she would fail more times than she would succeed. And without knowing it, she was right. That was the process of learning a new skill after all, failure.

Shifting her packages in her hands she would set them down as Mort pulled out a booklet and leaf through it. She wasn’t even that far along in her pregnancy yet, but everything was just so. . . difficult. She knew before long that even walking would be a trial, so she relished the time she still got to spend wearing her favourite high heeled boots. Her hands now free she would take the booklet from Mort and look at it appreciatively. “This is really smart you know. Well, I’m sure you know. I didn’t mean to imply that it was a surprise that you were smart. I’m sorry- No, that one I should apologize for. I didn’t mean to be rude. Uh, I’m messing everything up, I’m so sorry.” She was clearly flustered as she looked between the booklet and Mort, trying to dig herself out of the hole of stupid her mouth had put her in.

He'd give a small nod in understanding when Yenn brought up how she'd fail a lot. He understood the sentiment, slipping up on occasion with basic human interactions that he should've had down by now, but those slip-ups where he couldn't even blame it on Id hurt. He'd quietly debate in his mind as to how he should respond to it, if at all. It was something he was slowly staring to notice, but his conversation with her was somewhat like a loop, always coming back to her apologizing. He wondered just how far this was rooted into the core of her being, and it it would be possible to alleviate some of her pain. "That's how skills are. I don't expect you to master it in a day, just like we shouldn't expect a random passerby to become a jounin in a day."

He'd mentally curse himself a little as he managed to forget she was carrying packages, and would pick them up for her while she looked through the menu so she wouldn't need to slow down too much. And already she was beginning to apologize again. But, it was kinda cute, though a little annoying. He could see how Tamwyn with his more patient outlook would find her attractive with the quirk.

"Yenn, take a deep breath. For a first try at reframing, that was a good attempt, and thank you for the compliment." He debated on revealing that she was pretty spot-on, his intellect was higher then most, but he also knew that it wasn't easy for him to apply it. But in the end he figured it'd be best not to go that far as that might come off as him showing off, and while he enjoyed doing that...this wasn't the time. The goal was to help build her up, he already had a nice tower of iron will, complete with a small snark cannon.

Yenn nodded and gave Mort a sheepish grin. “Of course, I. . . yeah, that’s kinda ridiculous. Jounin in one day, if that were possible I feel like that would solve a bunch of problems. Or create more.” She would shrug as her mind worked and as usual instead of keeping her thoughts to herself she just let them spill willy-nilly out of her mouth. “Would that mean that we’d have Jounin with a superhuman capacity for learning? Or really low standards?”

At Mort’s suggestion she would take a deep breath, smiling as Mort held the packages for her while she looked through the menu. “You’re welcome.” She knew she was overthinking things again, and apologizing too much, and probably being awkward as hell. It was such an ingrained habit though, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to stop. Glancing over the menu she sighed and handed it back to Mort. “I can’t decide, I don’t even know what I want to be honest. I just want. . . something. I feel like I haven’t eaten in a million years. Can we just get one of everything?”

If he wasn't already holding several bags, he would've tried to move his hand up to help him think, so he'd raise an eyebrow and attempt to look at said eyebrow, letting out a small "Hmm." as he did so. It looked rather ridiculous, but it was a way to help him think. "Now that's a good question. I'd like to believe the latter as Tamwyn is basically the star example of that in action, but realistically it'd probably be because we have lower standards. If that were to happen though we'd probably just make up more ranks like Dai-Jounin or Chi-Sanin, kinda like how Tokubetsu Jounin exists but most people forget about it."

The thought of making up ranks did sound kinda fun, but he was in no position to do such a thing. In fact, given how many times the villages fought one another, it was interesting how their military ranks matched up. Part of it he knew was because of the Exams, but still, he wondered what sort of ranks were in use before the exams were agreed upon. It could be a fun history lesson to read up on while he relaxed.

Taking the menu back and, after moving a bag over to free up his hand, he'd take a look at his pocket menu and do some quick mental math. "Hmm, let's see, if I apply coupon here and then factor in the clan deductible discounts there, carry the seven, account for the happy hour specials...yeah I think that's possible, though a good chunk of it we'll have to substitute with the sample platters to start." He'd give a small laugh. Mort and Yenn may be clan heads, but that didn't ether of them were made of money. Probably. There were already demons and aliens in the village, so a money bloodline was probably real.

Yenn laughed at the ranks Mort suggested, she liked the idea and her eyes sparkled with mischief as she tried to come up with some of her own. Unfortunately this was where her creativity fell short - she wasn’t exactly a scholar. She was smart enough, sure, but literary jokes were not really her style. She was more. . . sarcastic and just a tiny bit mean, and that was usually funny. So as she thought her eyebrows would furrow and eventually she would just sigh and throw up her hands in defeat. “I’m just not that clever. I guess if ranking system namings were left up to me, we’d have ‘Person in charge of delivering mission reports’ and ‘The person you never want to piss off because they check your standard issue gear for flaws’. I don’t know, I guess it’s a good thing someone else is in charge of naming things. I like your ideas though, and honestly I was trying to play along, but as it happens you’re way smarter than me.” It wasn’t self-deprecating, again, she just could see the truth of it and wasn’t shy about admitting that he was intellectually superior to her.

When she suggested that they get one of everything, she noticed him start to go over the math of it. Yenn didn’t understand money. Well, she did, sort of. She knew what it was, how to count it, that it was used to purchase things and even a little about where it came from. The part she didn’t understand was what its value was. To her, a good knife was far more valuable than some coins and bits of paper. She could actually use a knife, and probably use it to obtain the things she would have purchased with the coins and bits of paper. She’d spent long enough living off the land, that money just wasn’t necessary for anything that she did. However she did have some. She kept getting paid for all the missions she went on and as much as she hated lugging the stuff around, Tamwyn insisted that she keep her pay and not just hand it over to him. So with the casualness of someone handing over an apple, Yenn would reach into her pocket and pull out a handful of ryo and held out in a gloved hand for Mort to take. “I can pay for it, here, I’m not good with money so you take this and we’ll get some food.” Besides the fact that she didn’t value ryo, she also trusted Mort. As soon as she’d realized who he was and that Tamwyn trusted him, her trust of the purple haired man was implicit.

It didn’t take long for Yenn to realize that something was wrong. As Mort collapsed, Yenn would try to catch him but given that between the two of them they were holding many bags it was less graceful than the ideal. She called out to passersby and had the unconscious man transported to the hospital, where he would hopefully be cured of whatever ailed him. For her part she took her purchases and went home, shaken at the event, but glad to be safe in her forested room.

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