Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

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Ko
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Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 12:59 am

Ko sat crosslegged with her back to a stump near the edge of the small campsite--a spot selected to catch a good shaft of the warm spring-evening light angling ever longer and lower through the tree cover. Her fingers were busy with a seeming-tangle of waxed hemp cord, knotting it bit by bit around the finger of jade she'd been issued the day the party left the Nezumi city, but she looked up from her work frequently to watch the people moving about in camp.


---
(expecting!)

D9 LE--make a knotted pendant holder for jade. Craft... Macrame/Int, I guess? TN 10 at most? Raise for pretteh, VP: 4d10o10k3 17
Shore People ✖ 'Bushi? That sounds right' ✖ Stone-tool-user ✖ Awkward ✖ On A Quest
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Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
Carries: Walking staff or yumi (or both); knives; jade, pack with misc fishing & survival tools and small daily items. Warclub (tetsubo) when needed.

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Togashi Saruko
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Togashi Saruko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 1:31 am

Saruko took a break from the shrine project to stretch her legs and move about camp. And to add the leftovers from carving to the fires.

Maybe it was just her arts and crafts senses tingling, but she noticed Ko working on something. She stepped closer, leaning in slightly to get a better look.
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 4:01 am

"...eh?" Ko notices Saruko looking, and her hands cup around her work, reflexively concealing it a bit, though there had already been plenty of time to see what she was doing. "It's nothing really. If I had more time I could do better, I just don't want to drop it..."

The expedition is small enough that she recognizes Saruko as someone of importance--a well-dressed someone at that, wearing all the fine materials finely-worked that the Empire-tribes seemed to take for granted.
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Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
Carries: Walking staff or yumi (or both); knives; jade, pack with misc fishing & survival tools and small daily items. Warclub (tetsubo) when needed.

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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Togashi Saruko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 4:16 am

"Oh. Sorry." She took a step back, realising she might've intruded on the woman's personal space.

"I was just curious of what you were working on. So many in the camp have been working on so many different things today."
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 5:03 am

"Oh, I don't know how to do any of those things with the colors, and I'm not initiated as a maker-of-arts or anything like that." Ko relaxed a bit when she realized she didn't seem to be the subject of an aesthetic critique, or a ritual one either for that matter... probably? "But I was carrying this thing in my pocket since they gave them out, and I thought, you know, it would be too easy to drop it in a fight like that."

She opens her hands again to show the rough unfinished finger of jade, held fast in a net of waxed string. The knots wrapped it into a kind of rough pendant setting so it could be worn hanging around one's neck, without drilling a hole to pass a string through. It looked like that part was more or less complete, and Ko was now braiding it onto a necklace cord.
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Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Togashi Saruko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 6:47 am

With the work displayed on purpose this time, Saruko leaned in again to get a good look. "Ooh, you're very good at that. I've tried braiding cords a couple of times but it takes me a long time to get them right."

There was a friendly enthusiasm in her expression as she was pleased to see people taking good care of their jade. "If you wear it on the inside of your clothes too, there's less risk of the cord becoming torn or cut too in a fight." And she figured it was safer to wear it close to the skin.
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 7:27 am

"Yeah, that's what I thought too." Ko nodded and held the jade up to the slanting light. "If it's some kind of medicine, it's better if it's touching your body, isn't it?" She let her hands fall back to her lap and started another loop of her braided cord.

"My whole village lives by fishing. If there's one thing we all know how to do, it's tie nets," she added, grinning. "Anyway, I don't have a drill to pierce it with, and if I did it'd take too long. And I heard even the dust from this stuff is too valuable to waste."
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Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Togashi Saruko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 7:52 am

"Yes, it's good to wear it close to your skin, or touching it directly." Saruko nodded and shifting her robes slightly she took a seat near Ko. "I'm told it can be used to hurt powerful enemies, but I'm not sure how it's done. Wu said something about mixing it with an oil or something to make it more like a paste that you can smear on the weapon." Judging by her shrug, it seemed like something she hadn't thought too much about herself.

"... Is it a village by the sea then?"
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 10:56 am

"You could make a knife blade out of this. I think it would flake." Ko rolled the jade piece against her palm. "But there would be a lot of waste chips." Her fingers went back to looping and knotting. "Um. Yes, to the east of that huge Crab town. All the way east." The cord pattern was so familiar she could nearly work it without looking down at her hands. "People who aren't from there call it the Lonely Shore, but we just call it the shore."

Ko came to a stopping point in the pattern and took one hand away from the work to press her palm against her heart, fingers spread. "I name myself Ko. My house and moiety wouldn't mean anything to you." She hesitated, looking a little uncertain. "Am I supposed to bow myself over now?"
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Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Togashi Saruko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 11:07 am

"I see... " she looked thoughtfully at the jade piece, wondering how one could make jade weaponry that wouldn't break so easily. A pity the stone wasn't suited to such.

As Ko suggested she might need to bow, Saruko held up her hands to put the woman at ease. "There's really no need for my sake. Bowing is something the Kami have introduced to us, and many tribes used it before that." Her voice was gentle as she spoke and there seemed to be an ever-present smile at the ready. "Togashi Saruko of the Dragon. Originally from the Ayakashi tribe."

In return, she lowered her hands to present her palms in an opening gesture to show she had no weapons, and that her hands were completely safe. It seemed to be her tribe's form of greeting. Or her personal style.
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Wed Jun 03, 2020 12:31 pm

"I greet you, Togashi Saruko of the Dragon." Ko's hand had been hovering awkwardly while she wondered if she should stand and bow; she ran her fingers through her hair in a transparently I meant to do that sort of way, taming a few loose strands backward. Sun exposure (and seawater, though Saruko might not be as familiar with that effect) had lightened mahogany streaks in Ko's hair, further highlighted at the moment by the daylight angling lengthwise through the jungle canopy. "So bowing is a god thing? Don't they want people to do it, then?"
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Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
Carries: Walking staff or yumi (or both); knives; jade, pack with misc fishing & survival tools and small daily items. Warclub (tetsubo) when needed.

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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Togashi Saruko » Thu Jun 04, 2020 12:00 am

"Maybe? I've never been forced to do it, myself, but I can see the appeal in it. At least, as the clans grow, we can find more common ground and avoid potential insults. From what I've been told, the bow is a sign of trust between people, as you make yourself more vulnerable." Saruko gladly explained what she had learned of the custom.

"I mostly just default back to how I've always done it myself, but sometimes I try to bow. So... a bit on and off for me, I guess?" A soft chuckle confirmed her feelings on the matter that she wasn't being terribly strict about it, and neither was her clan.
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:12 am

Ko chewed her lip for a moment and considered this. "I understand that," she said presently, nodding. "Although...." She hesitated, tugging on a knot with a little more focus than was probably strictly necessary." Some of the people I talked to since I left the shore make it sound like these Kami want to force everybody to do things different ways. Or like they only help the ones who submit to them. But then... people like you don't talk that way at all."
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Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
Carries: Walking staff or yumi (or both); knives; jade, pack with misc fishing & survival tools and small daily items. Warclub (tetsubo) when needed.

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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Togashi Saruko » Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:20 am

"Some want to see change happen faster. Quicker. But you can't force it too much. You can't force a flower to bloom, or fruit to ripen. All things happen in time," she said calmly, seeming to have faith in these changes being for the better. "But in the same way, you can't stop the plants from withering when winter arrives, or the awakening of life when spring comes - change will happen, but we don't need to consider it a bad thing, yes?"

Saruko sighed softly, pushing her hair over her shoulder to expose the back of her neck to the cooler evening air. Damn this heat.

"Too many fear change and want things to stay the same as they've always been. Thing is, even the tribes have changed much from generation to generation. If we go back one hundred years, would the ancestors recognize our ways now, even before the Kami?"
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Thu Jun 04, 2020 6:50 am

"A hundred years..." Ko shook her head slowly. For someone used to thinking in cycles and generations--quite a young someone, at that--it was almost inconceivable. "Things used to be better for us, the old ones say. Change happens whether you want it or not. But there's good and bad change."

The cord in her hands continued to grow one knot at a time. The village shaman counted seasons and other things that way, with knots. For a warrior like Ko, though, a string was just a string and held no time magic... except for the power to eat up a few of one's hours while working on it.
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Togashi Saruko » Thu Jun 04, 2020 7:01 am

"True, change can be good or bad. Or both even at the same time, depending on where one stands." Judging by her tone, she agreed much on that point.

"What was it like before, according to your old ones? I don't know much about what it's like living by the coast."
Dragon • Ayakashi • Saru Daimyo • Wife of the Dragon • Storyteller • Artisan • Blessed by the Heavens • Monkey Soul • Spirit Walker • Heavenly Voice • Friend of Shinsei • Tattooed • Enlightened • Experienced Shirayuki
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:24 am

"Well... they say the fishing was better before. And that there used to be more villages on the shore. There was a big sickness before I was born, and then the storm..." Ko's fingers slipped down the length of her knotted cord, counting off. "Ten years ago. Whole roundhouses washed away then. I was still little and I don't really remember it well, but a lot of survivors came to our village because theirs was..." she shrugged, "gone. Ours is the biggest now, so the raiders leave us alone, but they take people from the others sometimes."
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Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
Carries: Walking staff or yumi (or both); knives; jade, pack with misc fishing & survival tools and small daily items. Warclub (tetsubo) when needed.

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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Togashi Saruko » Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:27 am

"That's terrible," she murmured sorrowfully, feeling pain over the losses Ko and her people must have suffered.

"Is there anything we, the clans, can do to help?"
Dragon • Ayakashi • Saru Daimyo • Wife of the Dragon • Storyteller • Artisan • Blessed by the Heavens • Monkey Soul • Spirit Walker • Heavenly Voice • Friend of Shinsei • Tattooed • Enlightened • Experienced Shirayuki
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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:48 am

Ko shrugged again, eloquently. "The tide goes in and the tide goes out. That's what the old people say." She bowed her head and knotted a few more loops before continuing, "I can see now that other tribes in this Empire have many things we don't. Maybe we've... I don't know. Passed our time?"
Shore People ✖ 'Bushi? That sounds right' ✖ Stone-tool-user ✖ Awkward ✖ On A Quest
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Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
Carries: Walking staff or yumi (or both); knives; jade, pack with misc fishing & survival tools and small daily items. Warclub (tetsubo) when needed.

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Re: Stones and Strings [Day 9 LE]

Post by Ko » Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:48 am

Ko shrugged again, eloquently. "The tide goes in and the tide goes out. That's what the old people say." She bowed her head and knotted a few more loops before continuing, "I can see now that other tribes in this Empire have many things we don't. Maybe we've... I don't know. Passed our time? It didn't feel that way when I was at home."
Shore People ✖ 'Bushi? That sounds right' ✖ Stone-tool-user ✖ Awkward ✖ On A Quest
Status: 1.0 ✖ Glory: 1.0 ✖ Reputation: Bad, real bad ✖ Character description

Wears: Simple clothing, pearl and coral jewelry, copper coin bracelet; light armor when expecting danger.
Carries: Walking staff or yumi (or both); knives; jade, pack with misc fishing & survival tools and small daily items. Warclub (tetsubo) when needed.

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