D5EE, Stained with Ink (Open)

[Otomo Gusai]

"Perhaps preferential rates between our Clans," Gusai suggests. "But, of course health and safety inspections would need to be conducted. Can't have things limiting access--especially to rivers, which do not admit of as much maneuvering. Nor yet are they as open, to be sure, which would be good to remedy."

[Makime Ayano]

"A pity we couldn't expand the rivers...and add a few connections." Ayano tapped her chin, "...I wonder, no not likely."

She smiles, "But yes that seems like a sound enough idea, one that will be made even better when roads link the river ports in the interior to those communities away from any navigable water. Fortunately it seems several major communities are already forming on river banks so a good foundation would exist."

[Otomo Gusai]

"The rivers run largely east and west, if memory serves," Gusai says, "so focusing on connecting roads north and south would be a likely first stage for your project.

"But do I hear you correctly that you are agreeable to the idea?"

[Makime Ayano]

"I am, but the one you need to convince is my mother and Lord Akodo." Ayano replied with a smile, "Or I suppose I will need to convince."

[Otomo Gusai]

"You'd be better suited to it, admittedly," Gusai replies, and he winks. Yes, even though he's only got the one eye, he winks.

"Still, that you think the idea a good one helps. It's always good to have outside confirmation, after all."

[Makime Ayano]

"Any idea that helps to increase trade between the clans has my interest." Ayano blinked in turn at the wink...or maybe the Stag blinked and she couldn't tell from the eyepatch. "Are these routes already familiar to you, if I may ask? The trip from Lion lands to your own is quite the distance even by boat."

[Otomo Gusai]

"Some, but not all," Gusai replies. "I've sailed up and down the whole coast of the Empire and past it, and, yes, getting to Lion lands from Stag is a distance--but not so much as some. Been upriver a few times, as well, though the Endeavor's not ideally suited to doing so in many cases. Draught's an issue not far inland."

[Makime Ayano]

Ayano nodded, "So then you must offload your goods early into the voyage up river? Do you have a favored trading partner or just anyone who will take the goods at a reasonable exchange? Your proposal would help the uncertainty of that problem."

[Otomo Gusai]

"It would, yes," Gusai agrees, "though there are some with whom I've traded at length. Some of those relationships are inherited, after a fashion; I'm not Urimoto's son, but he had some of the connections from his mother, going back before the Kami."

[Makime Ayano]

"Of course, even with all the shits grandfather still had a number of old trading partners he could leverage too," Ayano smiled at that, "By good fortune nearly one in every clan. I suspect such relationships will exist for some time."

[Otomo Gusai]

Gusai nods, smiling.

"It'd be good to see," he says, "and maintaining those ties'll do a lot to help, I think. We each do things well, but remembering old connections helps--and gives us a good keel from which to build our ships of state."

Sailors gotta nautical metaphor, after all.

"Though building new connections isn't bad, either."

[Makime Ayano]

"New markets for trade you mean." Ayano nodded, "And with trade comes more formal dealings and closer bonds given time."

"...forgive me but what exactly is a keel?"

[Otomo Gusai]

"Not only trade," Gusai says, "but certainly trade.

"As to a keel," he continues, "think of it as being for a ship what a spine is to a person. It's the part that supports the rest, gives it stability to take shape, while still being flexible enough to allow movement. But while for us, the spine's in the back, a keel's at the bottom."

[Makime Ayano]

"Ah..." Understanding dawns in her eyes, "Given your metaphor I had thought it something like a...ship foundation." Ayano chuckles, "Which I guess it is in a manner of speaking. Since if it is providing the support for the shape, one assumes it is among the first to be constructed."

"My apologies, ship building is not my specialty." She dips her head a fraction, "And the Lion are still limited in the number of ship makers we have...shipwrights they are called?"

[Otomo Gusai]

"That's the common term," Gusai says, nodding in agreement. "'Ship builders' also works, and 'ship makers' would be understood, though it'd mark you as quite the landlubber, admittedly.

"And you've the right of it; the keel's laid down first. There're ways to do it, of course, but mostly involving access to supplies of good timber."

He considers a moment. "How're the Lion for timber, by the by?"

[Makime Ayano]

"The Lion has wood." Ayano replied. "Well two woods, I am not sure on its suitability for boat making though. It suffices for buildings I know."

"Was your boat built with Stag wood? Or did you use another's wood?"

[Otomo Gusai]

"The Endeavor predates the Otomo joining the Stag," Gusai replies, "and the Displacement. So I suppose the timber that made her would've been taken in what's now Crane land. Oaken keel, pine and similar planking; there's been some admixture over the years, given how old a ship she is."

Gusai smiles fondly. "She's a good ship, and I miss her."

[Makime Ayano]

"Is that the longing of one forever parted or one who just longs to return?" Ayano asked softly.

"Oak and pine? Are those the best woods for ship making?"

[Otomo Gusai]

"The former," Gusai replies to the question about longing. "I've not been told someone else has the command, or that I've been assigned another. Man and boy, I've worked that ship; she's as much my home as any port, or more." He sighs, somewhat wistfully. "Fine old ship, she is."

He takes a deep breath, shakes himself.

"But about the building question: generally. There're some other woods I've seen used for some functions. Some, like cedar, fight rot better--but a good crew does as much or more. Some more exotic woods I've only seen rarely and don't have a good name for, too."

He pauses. "There any such thing for which you long, Makime-sama?"

[Makime Ayano]

Ayano smiled, "To return to? No...not really." She leaned back and looked up, "If you mean in a broad sense...yes a few things I wish for."

Her eyes leveled back on the Otomo, her face now wearing a wry smile. "But I have my secrets."