Slacker Superstition
- Related Event: Fortune's Fray/January 2021
- Release Date: January 13, 2021
- Featured Characters: Edward, Jakob, Sazanka, Lowen, Mitsuhide
Dialogue
courtyard of the Halidom...
Mitsuhide
Sazanka: Is that...Mitsuhide? Whatever are you doing here?
Sazanka
Mitsuhide: ...Mmm? Oh, hey, Sazanka. I'm just enjoying a little nap. Can't you tell?
Mitsuhide: I could feel a big assignment coming on, so I said I'd come check on our struggling neighbors and high-tailed it. You?
Sazanka: I come on Master Ieyasu's orders. The Halidom has been most kind to us, and I was instructed to offer our greetings.
Mitsuhide: Yeah, that sounds about right. Still, you'd think they could at least give us New Year's off, ya know?
Sazanka: Perhaps you've embraced the holiday spirit of rest a bit TOO fully, Mitsuhide.
Sazanka: You are a Wyrmclan leader, equal in status to Master Ieyasu. I humbly implore you to set a virtuous example for others to follow.
Mitsuhide: Ugh, seriously? Look, if you really want an example to follow, I... Actually, wait. I just had the perfect idea.
Mitsuhide: Just run along and take care of Ieyasu's errands. I'll set that example you want, don't you worry.
Sazanka: I find this all oddly worrying, but very well. If you will excuse me.
Mitsuhide: Now, time for a little Hinomoto-Alberia cultural exchange!
Jakob
Mitsuhide: Heya, bub. Are you really spending New Year's Day repairing your gear?
Mitsuhide: I assume washing is involved in that?
Mitsuhide: Well, don't do it! See, there's an ancient Hinomotoan set of practices we follow to ensure good luck. A bit of superstition, I guess you'd call it.
Mitsuhide: And one of them is that you NEVER wash things or do laundry on New Year's Day. Otherwise, you wash all the good fortune away right along with the dirt!
Mitsuhide: If you don't want a super unlucky year, leave the maintenance and scrubbing for tomorrow and just kick back instead!
Jakob: Leave scrubbing...? Wait! Cleo's in danger! Hang on, Cleo! I'm coming!
Lowen: Maybe I'll whip up a tasty treat for Louise to celebrate the day!
Lowen
Mitsuhide: Step away from the cutting board, friend! There's a set of ancient Hinomotoan traditions I need to fill you in on...
Lowen: ...Wait, WHAT? If you cook with a knife on New Year's, you sever all of your bonds with your loved ones?!
Mitsuhide: Yep. That's EXACTLY what happens. So if you want to stay on good terms with dear ol' Sis, belay those dinner plans and just sleep the day away instead!
Lowen: I've gotta go warn Louise! Louiiiiiise!
Edward: Hmm, this curtain has a nasty hole in it. I'd best mend it now, before it worsens.
Edward
Mitsuhide: Leave that curtain be, tux boy! See, in Hinomoto, we have a certain set of superstitions...
Edward: ...And this day of sewing abstinence is to prevent the spread of impurity?
Mitsuhide: Yup. If you sew on New Year's, you can wind up passing dangerous impurity on to your master. Better to just punt today, no?
Edward: Hmm. Perhaps I had best check up on his condition, just to be certain.
Mitsuhide: Now they're getting it! Best thing to do on New Year's is a whole lot of nothing— and now that I've spread some culture...
Sazanka: Oh, dear. The year is only freshly begun, yet all of you appear quite upset. Has something happened?
Lowen: ...And then when I went and told Louise, she got really worried about me. I wanted to make her HAPPY today, not upset!
Edward: His Highness did not seem perturbed by it, but as one tasked with assisting him from the shadows, being hamstrung is painful.
Sazanka: She's tricked all of you into playing along? Honestly, this is just as I feared...
Sazanka: Mitsuhide. Wake up, Mitsuhide.
Mitsuhide: Man, we keep running into each other today, Sazanka. Can the nagging wait? I'm worn out from spreading our culture.
Mitsuhide: Ooo, wait. Were you going shopping?
Sazanka: Yes. The food stores are getting low, so I was leaving to buy new ingredients.
Mitsuhide: Perfect. While you're out, be a hon-bun and pick up some sweets, yeah? Running around the castle has me famished.
Lowen: But you taught us that cooking, cleaning and sewing were all unlucky according to ancient Hinomotoan tradition!
Edward: Why would those things be forbidden, yet shopping is somehow permitted?
Mitsuhide: Oh, uh... Yeah, see, shopping's... Hmm. How do I put this?
Sazanka: Hinomotoan superstition DOES say that spending money on New Year's means you won't manage to save any that year.
Sazanka: However, there is no need to forgo shopping entirely, if one considers the true spirit of those traditions.
Edward: And just what might that be?
Sazanka: Their origins lie in a desire for those who work hard all the year round to take a day of rest at its beginning.
Sazanka: But if you allow their prescriptions to stay you from what you truly wish to do, that quite defeats the point.
Edward: Superstition or no, if I do not get in a bare minimum of cooking, cleaning, and sewing today, I will be a wreck.
Lowen: So if not doing stuff would actually STOP us from resting, we don't have to follow Mitsuhide's rules?
Sazanka: Correct. Those superstitions are meant only to admonish those who are over- working themselves with such chores.
Lowen: But wait. Those superstitions were all meant to help people who work every day and never take a break, right?
Lowen: So why would someone who spends every day lazing around care about them?
Sazanka: That is indeed the question. And I hate to interrupt your break for escape, Mitsuhide, but might we have a word?
Mitsuhide: Escape? Who's escaping? And don't make me out to be the bad guy here! I'm just trying to relax on New Year's like I'm meant to be doing.
Sazanka: They've long said in Hinomoto that the year's business begins on its first day— and is it not the duty of a Wyrmclan leader to be proactive in all things?
Lowen: You don't mind cooking that meal I was going to make for Louise, do you?
Edward: And MY to-do list is quite formidable, though you can begin by sewing up the hole in those curtains.
Mitsuhide: Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's NEW YEAR'S. Let's all just take it easy, guys! ...Guys?
Sazanka: My apologies, Mitsuhide. Oh, and my thanks for taking care of the shopping.
Mitsuhide: Nooooo! My New Yeaaaaar's!
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