Say you, Sayyed (D8 LE, Yuuru's Yurt)

[Iuchi Saksaha]

Saksaha finishes chewing her bite of root vegetable and sets her chopsticks down, then reaches across the table to give Yuuru's hand a reassuring pat, having forgotten for the moment that this sort of gesture isn't common among the other Rokugani clans.

"I don't mistrust you, Soshi-san. Do not misunderstand me. I have not any reason to call you dishonest, or think you try to mislead me. But only think of this matter from my side, maybe then you will see my meaning?" She sighs and props her elbows on the table, flipping a stray strand of beads back over her shoulder. "You want for me to be interested in you and like you, so you do this and that to convince me. Pretty words you think women like, learn a little Mekhem, be serious if you think I will like you to be serious. Now, if we are married, think how long we may be married!" Her eyes widen a bit as she contemplates this. "Twenty, thirty, forty years maybe. Even one or two years is too long to be always trying so hard to be what someone else will like, to do things only because someone else will like them. You will become very tired, and not happy."

Saksaha shakes her head a little with a vaguely exasperated smile, making the beads in her hair rattle faintly. "You want to see my character, you say. Well, I also want the same. Why not be at ease, and show me who you are when you are not trying so hard to win the person you think I am in your mind? Is this a cynical thing to ask? I do not think so. After all, I give you this advice because I think if you stop hiding parts of yourself, it will not make me like you less. That is all I mean."

"If you are really interested in Mekhem, let us talk of Mekhem. If you only choose this--or, or anything else--to please me, then let us find other words?"

[Soshi Yuuru]

Yuuru listened and nodded though there was a look of slight confusion on his face, "I thought I was being relaxed... I thought I was being myself; didn't feel like I was hiding anything... If I'm to explain honestly who I am a bit more maybe that'll help you to see where I'm coming from. I'm a genuinely considerate guy most the time. If I think it'll make someone a bit happier I'm more than willing to do a little acrobatics, figuratively speaking. Making things work with friends, strangers, or family can take a bit of bending... I know very little about you, so I try to do stuff that will perhaps let you open up a bit. I'm the type of guy who can bend... I can adapt what I'm doing to make others feel welcome. I don't get stuck on my own interests or concerns all that much. I'm the type of guy who will put others first..."

He then let out a breath through his nose, "You're right when you suggested I don't know you you really are. That's what I want; to know a bit more... I'm not trying to fixate on some image of you in my head... I'd really just like to see a bit more of you is all."

Well her singing for someone else certainly makes sense now... Dang...

He looks up and asks, "I hear you have a goat?"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

Saksaha giggles at the sudden shift. "Yes, I do. Her name is Fiyanggu, and most of you samurai of other tribes find her very strange, it seems."

She bites her lip for a moment and then decides to circle back just once more. "It is all right not to know something. This only means more research is needed. But... I think you will be happier if the person you marry is not someone you need to do these acrobatics for."

[Soshi Yuuru]

He tilted his head, "Honestly? I think that might be a little naive way of thinking. No relationship is like that that works. My parents are both drastically different people... but they work to make things balance out. There's give and take. Sure they've developed a routine over time and now there's less difficulty than before, but arranged marriages aren't known for how easy it is for the two partners to adjust to each other... I'd rather have someone who was willing to bend a bit..."

He shrugged his shoulders. "The good horses are the one's who wont fight too hard against the bit in their mouth, no?"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

Saksaha rubs her cheek thoughtfully. "These to me are two different things," she concludes after a moment's thought. "One thing is the way you must be with a foreign tribe you hope will do you some favors, buy your spare horses maybe, or let you pass through their territory. You must work hard to show the best face, only what they want to see, and make them happy. After this you ride away, and they will never know how much they do not know."

She leans in a bit, shifting her weight. "The other thing is the way you are with the people in your own camp. You travel together every day. You know their quirks and secrets and the things they like and do not like, and they know you, so you all try to get on as best you can. But this trying is based on knowing a lot, not hiding."

[Soshi Yuuru]

She keeps going back to this 'hiding' thing...

"Alright... I'll try to not hide anything. Mostly with me, what you see is what you get."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Mm," Saksaha seems neither to agree nor disagree, but only gives a small smile. "So..." she glances around the tent and points at the table covered with maps, "What do I see here?"

[Soshi Yuuru]

He scooted over to bring the table closer. "Maps. Of the empire; more specifically the borders between our two families lands. I drew them myself."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

Saksaha leans over a bit to peer at them. "What are they for? Since you can draw these maps yourself, I guess you do not need them to keep from getting lost," she adds with a small smile.

[Soshi Yuuru]

He nodded, "They do have that use, but also much more. Maps like this are worth more than gold for an administrator or a general..."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"So you will sell them? No, wait--" she colors and looks a bit chagrined "--the Ide say we should not ask such things. Sorry." But then what are they for?

[Soshi Yuuru]

He smiled and shook his head, "I don't mind. But no, one does not sell these."

He pointed to some of the details, "Maps of this level of detail are of great use in planning strategy during war. You can see where it would be best to set up armies, defenses, which routes would be best to take and stand the least chance of reprisal... and so on."

He then pointed to some fields, "And these help an administrator known in peacetime what is being grown on his lands, how much of it can be taxed, where the residences are of the locals, how the land is divided up. All are extremely helpful in acquiring and maintaining economic stability in one's realm."

He stood up a bit, "These are mine of my home provinces, but I have been working on similar maps of this region. I handed them over to the governor yesterday as an act of goodwill to the Unicorn."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Oh. I see." Saksaha leans over the table to take a longer, closer look at the part of the map that shows farms and fields. "I have never seen maps quite like this. But I guess we have never owned lands before. When you are traveling through, you must know landmarks and wayposts and towns. You do not need to write down where every farmer has his fence; this would be a distraction only." Her fingertip hovers over the surface of the paper (if it's paper?) but doesn't touch. "This is very fine."

[Soshi Yuuru]

He nodded, "You can pick them up if you'd like."

He then looked over her as she looked at the maps, "I assume taking care of this amount of land will be quite the challenge... your people will need many great administrators. Tax collection, law administration, and maintaining the peace over sedentary territory is difficult are quite different challenges than you have faced. I'm not saying you won't be able to accomplish it... just that there is much to consider when one wishes to make sure that generation after generation will continue to be able to access the same resources."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

Saksaha nods, but since she doesn't really need to move the maps to continue looking at them, she leaves them be.

"The Lion have taken away with them most of the commoners who lived here, and no farmers rode in our train before this. It will be long before this land is worked as it was when the Lion had it, or with as many people," she comments, still with her head bent over the map. "Or perhaps we will go on living as we have lived, and use most of these plains for range land. We have not so much a taste as you for rice and wheat. Still, I am sure this will be useful." She looks up. "How do you know what to draw in each place? Have you walked all this land over yourself?" On foot? Ugh, sounds exhausting.