Welcome to Gaia! ::

Choose a bird? That wasn't so hard. Junko smiled at the first one that made eye contact with her, gesturing for it to come closer. It obliged, though cautiously. "Hello~. It's alright. I won't hurt you." She said in a gentle voice.

"You must first bow to the adara to show it you mean no harm. Try to at least act sincere." Rucha said, watching the ghoul. Junko made a sound of understanding. Bowing she could do. She was good at bowing. Unfortunately what she had not expected was for her heavy, lifeless braid of hair to fall in a way that nearly knocked her over with its weight. She wasn't expecting it and stumbled, squeaking and barely managing to stay in a proper bowing position.

The adara blinked, and Rucha winced a little at the display. Junko's cheeks flushed. She was good at this! She swears! The adara didn't seem afraid, however, and returned the sentiment with much more grace than Junko had. She sighed with relief and slowly stood.

Almost there! The professor instructed her next that they would converse, with the adara doing...well...all of the talking. But Junko couldn't understand a word the adara was saying. Nevertheless she was eager and attentive, making what she hoped were the right responses and reactions.

Things were going well until she noticed on of the adara's feathers on its neck were ruffled in a way different from the rest of its body. They seemed almost...damaged. "Ah, your feathers..are you alright?" Junko asked with genuine concern, looking up to see both the adara and Rucha had tensed uncomfortably.

Oh, no. Did she saw something wrong? Junko bit nervously on her lip, watching as she adara snorted and stormed away without another word.

"...Perhaps another time. Think over your words before you speak them, young miss." Junko frowned. Damn. Junko bowed one last time, watching the adara mingle with its kind before giving the professor a proper goodbye. She then turned and left.

((EARNED ONE POINT))

Despite her accidental failure at etiquette, which she would be reviewing later and attempting again, Junko was excited to try another class. Performing arts! Another thing she could do! This island was just getting better and better. She loved it. She loved Conquest. Did she have to leave? Why did she have to leave. She didn't want to leave.

Sigh.

Something else that made her excited was that Invictus had helped again what is even going on here. He had surprised her with a dress for this particular lesson, one rather similar to the style she already wore on a regular day. It was long, pink, trimmed with soft gold satin and flowers. Long, billowing sleeves like she was used to, a sash, flowers for her hair..it was perfect. She wanted to wear it on a regular day! The dress was longer than she was used to, however. Hopefully she'd do alright.

She bowed for Professor Zhang as she arrived, standing straight again and looking curiously to the servant ghoul beside her, as well as the instruments. Dancing..

...Junko wasn't very good at dancing. Couldn't she sing instead?

Nevertheless, Junko remained smiling and stepped aside to watched the young servant ghoul perform a dance that...oh wow. That was beautiful. Her eyes widened and her jaw nearly dropped. Oh, wow. She could never dance like that.

Lift her spirits and heal her soul? Wow! Um..okay! Yes, she could do this. Her cheeks were already pink with the nervousness she was trying to not to show, clearing her throat a little. "Ah..uh..yes, Professor Zhang." You can do this, Junko.

The music began to play, and Junko tensed. No! You can do this Junko. She just wanted to see if you could even...try. Just try. That's all you need to do.

Try.

Taking a deep breath, Junko closed her eyes. Pretend you're alone, Junko. The music is playing from your music player at home in your dorm at Amityville. She snapped a fan open and swept an arm around, her body following it. She spun on the ball of her foot in a full circle and then took a step to the side, twirling again. This was fun! She could do this! Use the fans too, Junko. Yes. This...this was great! She could do this all day!

It wasn't long before Junko was smiling again, her eyes open as she watched the way her dress moved. She giggled, really enjoying the dance just as the music stopped. Wait! Why did the music stop? Junko stumbled to a stop, nearly tripping on the skirt of her dress as she turned to look to Professor Zhang. She was smiling.

"Very good." She complimented. "You did well."

Junko was shocked. "Really? I...thank you!" Junko gasped, bowing for the horsewoman. "Thank you so much!" She giggled, putting the fans away. She exchanged goodbyes with the clanswoman before she hurried off, eager to tell Invictus and the others about her passing.

((EARNED THREE POINTS))

KUMIKO:

While the ceremony of Kodo is a complex one and may take years to master – upwards to 30 being the quoted amount – it seems that the Clan of Conquest has taken it upon themselves to at least bestow a small challenge of observation upon the students in the form of a game that, in theory, is rather simple. One of the younger members of Conquest’s Clan, for the sake of difficulty adjustment, has set up 5 different samples of incense on scentless bamboo squares.

A small demonstration is made as how to smell them – also known as ‘hearing’ the scents, with the square held up to one’s nose and the hand cupped over the square in order to scent it.

With this done, the rest of the explanation is given: Your task is to determine which scents are the same, and which are different! Several scents might match each other, some might not match any of the others. For this task, you are given several different sizes of block.

Using these blocks, you stack them so that a top bar may be put across matching incenses, which will form certain Genji-mon (also called Genji-ko) to denote chapters of the Tale of Genji (a strange tale from the Human World O_O!! )

For example, if the first and the last scents match each other, you would stack your blocks to form the chapter ‘Maboroshi’ (Chapter 41, ‘The Wizard’) with three shorter blocks in the center, and two taller ones on each end with the longer block set across the top of them.

The trickiness comes in that some scents may be very similar to each other, but not the same, and some might be exactly the same just to trick you!

Once you have ‘heard’ each scent and set up your blocks, the individual who set up the challenge will let you know how you did.

The horseman revealed the pattern, and Junko blinked.



"Not a bad start. You were only one off." He told her gently, collecting the blocks again.

((Two points!))

Today was the last day. Junko regretted missing the last day of her class, she sorely felt like she'd disappointed Invictus in doing so. She'd have to make it up to him somehow, but she just couldn't bring herself to leave the dorm until she had heard they would be leaving for home soon before going to the next island. Junko wanted to stay on Conquest; she didn't want to go to Death. Sigh.

More importantly, she had unfinished business to attend to. She approached Rucha again, conversing politely with her before selecting an adara and guiding them to a place they could practice. She remembered the first three steps on her own, giving the adara a grand bow. It perked up at the sight, graciously bowing its own head in kind.

Score.

1: Your bow is suitably impressive. The adara inclines its head and drops a feather. Perhaps it will be of some use later.