New World Papercuts

The New World Alliance has a HQ stationed in Shibuya. The place the Palace Landers occupy right now. Since then the Alliance has had many makeshift locales to conduct organizational activities. The primary spot for this has been out of Ouph, the self-same place the Alliance is stationed to investigate and protect. Also the stomping grounds of one mean Gyaru, but thats a seperate story.

The administration building where NWA is squatting has makeshift, hand written signs on the doors. One says 'Records Room' and a sign below it says 'Quest: Help me find old records' written by someone else below it in blue ink. Someone is already in there, a white haired human who is holding a parchment in one hand. He looks at it. Squint. Then another one. Squint. "Our record keeping needs work," he says with a deep breath. Given the evacuation, its a small miracle they got the 'important' records out they could before it became enemy intel.

No, Haru is not going through some Weird Mood for Scripture, he is trying to find something in an age where there is no Google, no indexing system, and lots and LOTS of paper to shuffle through.

        When the deer has bedded down, and the bear has gone to ground,
        And the northern goose has wandered off, to warmer bays and sounds
        It's so easy in the cold to feel, the darkness of the year
        And the heart is growin' lonely for the morning

    In a corner of the room, Miyako sits, in her customary pose with one foot up to push her chair into a tilt back, her guitar in her lap as she sings, slow and sweet and a little sad.

        Oh, my Joanie, don't you know, that the stars a swingin' slow
        And the seas are rolling easy as they did so long ago
        If I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time,
        That the world is always turning toward the morning

    She's been there most of the day, going through a wide repertoire of songs, trying to banish the sour mood that's hung over her since the end of the Shadow Festival a few days before. (She hasn't been sleeping well. And that makes for a grumpy bard.)

Kotono's not looking too well either. She's looking like she hasn't slept a wink for almost a week now. The dark circles under her eyes, her grumpy expression, genuinely not the Kotono you're used to. She's definitely not the most patient person in the world, yet she's doing her best to hide it as she orders a drink before taking a seat next to Miyako. "Sorry to interrupt your performance," Kotono says while trying to sound polite, "But honestly, this whole nightmare thing needs to end soon!"

It was rare that Himari Saito visited the now abandoned Shibuya HQ, so it might be surprising that the Tanuki cait sith is actually visiting the makeshift HQ in Ouph. Or it might be to show that she's not forgotten everything and is still somewhat functional.

She pauses for a moment to inspect herself in a shiny surface nearby, and soon realises that the leaf on her head has moved ever so slightly. She's quick to correct that. However her attention is caught by the sign requesting help with the record system.

Fort Ouph has been a recent home away from home for some of the NWA. The cramped space with it suddenly becoming the temporary home of many helps to fuel the desire to free Shibuya once more. And while many Adventurers are out and about helping out with gnolls and Palace Landers, there's still aid that needs to be given at HQ.

Curtana peeks his head inside through the door, spotting Haru first and then following the sounds of Miyako's playing. Considering the frown on Haru's face, Curtana gets an idea of just how things are progressing. "Please, please tell me they're organized by proper form structure. Or at least alphabetized?" Entering the room fully, Curtana could already feel the start of a headache forming just being around so much paper.

Yeowang is one of the people who actually reads the records, and she's been doing her share of badgering Haru's clerk to dig up this piece or that piece. "What do you mean it's not there? We're /supposed/ to track this. We /need/ this information to make informed decisions," she insists vehemently. It doesn't help that she's a sporting hungry and stinky debuffs, she must be in a strange mood, though with her, it's sometimes hard to tell. Her weird mood isn't scripture-related, though it does seem to generate a fair amount of paperwork on it's own, which she's reviewing while haranguing the helper, which isn't helping. "I really miss electronic record keeping," she sighs wearily.

Shiruba ambles in, and drops a few more parchments in front of Haru and Yeowang. "Here, I found a few more that got left it a different room. It's a good thing we grabbed most of the important stuff out of the library beforehand." She leans against a wall, trying to stifle her own yawn. She hasn't been sleeping great either, lightly at best, before being jolted away. But at least she got the bat bite taken care of. "And.. yeah... other than Estelle and Yeowang I don't think anyone tried to follow a formal record system." Another small yawn. Meh. But she's got too many important things to do as a guild leader to worry about things like lack of sleep. Even if the dark rings forming under her eyes make her look more like a raccoon than a wolf.

        Now October's growing thin, and November's coming home
        You'll be thinking of the season, and the sad things that you've seen
        And you hear that old wind walking, hear him singin' high and thin

    You could swear he's out there singing of your sorrow

    Miyako offers Yeowang a quick thumbs-up even as she continues playing. Pfeh. Bureaucracy. So long as she has her music, she's happy.

        Oh, my Joanie, don't you know, that the stars a swingin' slow
        And the seas are rolling easy as they did so long ago
        If I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time,
        That the world is always turning toward the morning

    The Spriggan casts her partner a soft smile, starting a brief bit of instrumental, just repeating the tune from the song with a bit of elaboration on the guitar. "Sounds like they're having fun, doesn't it, Ko-chan? Office work..." She sighs a little. "Any danger of a drink?"

The white haired Artificer agrees with Kotono, "It does, but the organization system is what it is." Haru misses the point that it is more about the Ash Wight that is causing he whole nightmare things. More than once he has been caught humming along to Miyako's tune. The guy loves music, albiet not horribly talented at it himself. Never stops a good karaoke after some drinks.

"I wish, Curt," the Wave Artes user tells the knight, placing another paper down in a different pile as a clerk moves it around to another spot. "It looks like it was topical at first, but the topics can shift. Like Finances versus Money or Economic," he says as he rubs the bridge of his nose. "And what I am look for is more historical records of Alliance objectives." He picks up a particularly old one penned by a 'Shiroe' another by more familiar names like Gig, Riz, and Shiruba. "It looks like in the early days we had some big goals in mind," he says with a smile on his face.

The smile goes away as Shiruba finds MORE papers. Unsorted papers. Haru just stares at them for a moment. Starreeee. He can't. He can't even right now. Different topic, he looks to Himari a moment and considers, "I don't think we've met. Haru. Artificer, accessory crafter," he says as he points above his head where an inspect would prompt his name, "and currently a historian from the look of all of this." Add 'he who squints at those in Weird Moods'. Seeing Yeowang in a bit of a 'you need food, sleep, and a bath' state, he asks, "Yeo. You eat recently? Or sleep?" Impolite to hit on the odor. In a small room. Indoors.

The news that there was an almost absolute lack of a filing system fills Curtana with dread. Judging by the room size alone, it could take months to find everything. And this isn't all of it, since not everything could be grabbed from Shibuya. "I miss it too. Honestly, if we ever rediscover a way to create computers, i'll be more than happy to help out building databases. Could put some of my old world knowledge to use again."

The knight does raises an eyebrow as he notices the state of several of the players in here, and doublechecks everyone just to make sure. It really seems like there has been a rash of nightmares affecting a good amount of Adventurers. Severe enough for many to not wanting to go to sleep, as well.

Against his better judgment and his rational mind screaming for him to flee while he can, he couldn't just leave Haru to his horrible fate alone. He would be a terrible knight to leave a friend to any foe, no matter how dire. Walking on over to the papers Shiruba had placed down, Curtana starts to sort through them first, going by general topics before resorting them into specific categories. He does blink as he realized he accidently passed over an Adventurer he hasn't met yet, and offers them a bow. "I'm Curtana, please excuse my lack of manners. If you ever need a shield, please let me know."

"It's quite unfortunate," Kotono says with a slight scowl to Haru. "I gotta do something about this... I feel like if I don't I'll never sleep again." She puts her head in her hands for a moment before sipping her root beer. "I mean it's gotta have a cure..."

"Dealing with being stuck here, and the Undead Army, and the near doomsday every time Scale defeated another Tower Boss... a lot of those old goals probably got shoved to the side because of..." Shiruba pauses to rub her eyes with the back of a hand. "For a while some of us just focused on doing the best we could, so others wouldn't lose hope with the situation."

Yeowang offers a quick nod of acknowledgement to Miyako's thumbs-up, though she appears not to be paying much attention to the music. Well, she's concentrating, and elbow deep in the paper, it seems. "But /why/ are we stockpiling that in two different places in the same warehouse?" she demands, though it's not clear who she's demanding it of. "Put it in one place and change the procedures that require it so that they both go to the one place." She scribbes in the comment of one of her papers.

She nods at what Haru says about Alliance goals. "When we have a thing to do, we're much better focused. But when it's about fighting, we hesitate. Which the world takes for weakness, and our enemies take advantage of. Ironically, we're not weak. We're mild mannered, and don't like to throw our weight around. But we've got heavy hitters." She eyes Shiruba as she says this.

Haru gets a puzzled look. "What? I just ate." Maybe yesterday, anyhow. Which is probably the last time she slept or bathed as well.

With an odor reaching her nose, Himari wrinkles her nose as she makes her way over to the counter. She slips a journal out of her satchel, and quickly flicks through the pages and double checks some of the stuff in it. In the grand scheme of things, the contents of the journal are useless, as it only contains dates of when memorials were visited, cleaned and if there were any issues. She tries to give those in the record section some room, as she puts the book down to add to the unsorted paperwork. Hearing someone speaking about a drink, she pauses and glances in Miyako's direction while resting her hand on the gourd that hangs from her belt.

Haru looks to Yeo gives the jazz hands double air chop of, "Define 'just'. This morning? This afternoon?" Evidentally Haru's new trope is to go ballistic over people not self-caring during Weird Moods to the point of stuffing cookies down their throats. Or that is just Uta.

"Basic electronics reconstruction is a bit difficult," Haru tells Curtana with a thoughtful look down at a paper through his purple monocle, "I spent a good month looking into if Synthesizers would be feasible in relation to Song, Accessory Crafting, and Enchanting methods. I think circuitry exists but we have to think about it more like Enchantment and that takes a fair amount of energy to maintain. So imagine getting on a treadmill to start your computer up." He taps his foot and considers, "A card system would work just as well with less Old Worldy methods. Like how Library cards worked?" Those were still a thing, he thinks. More like a relic of another era even in his time.

A paper in each hand, they flutter and rustle against the swift, noodly arms of the Enchanter as he looks to Shiruba, "but we had ambitions, as an Alliance, that wasn't solely 'Clean up the effect of Tower Climbing', didn't we?" He looks over his shoulder, "Like the Chaos gates and the Alv language or Kingdom relations. Economy." He stops and looks at Yeo. There is the Ninetails Bank so surely some things were made real.

"It'd be nice to look at those again. I feel like," Haru hums, "something is missing. Like an overall goal other than 'things be broke ya'll lets unbroke some broke and weather the badly broke brokeness'. I feel like that was Shibuya and, to a lesser extent, Seeker's Landing."

"You probably have a point... but I'm too tired to think about it," Shiruba murmurs with a shake of her head. "I'm more the hands-on in the field sort, anyways. And why I appreciate having you two around." She gives a nod somewhat belatedly to Curt and Himari, then ambles over to slouch in a corner near where Miyako has been playing. "I'm use to going long periods on limited sleep... that mine must of really jostled me good... or maybe it's knowing that fiend is still down there." Not even going to think about there being hints there was another exit they didn't find....

        When the darkness falls around you, and the northw ind comes to blow,
        And ye hear him call your name out, as he walks the brittle snow
        That old wind don't mean you trouble, he don't care, or even know
        He's just walking down the darkness t'ward the morning

    Miyako sighs softly, nodding to Kotono. She's said more than once that the music is what keeps her sane, here in this new world. Without all the modern wonders they'd enjoyed so casually outside. She taps her foot on the floor as she plays, adding a bit of rhythm to it, since she lacks a drum.

        Oh, my Joanie, don't you know, that the stars are swingin' slow
        And the seas are rolling easy as they did so long ago
        If I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time,
        That the world is always turning toward the morning

    Something missing. An Alliance rudderless. Yeah, that rings true to her. Shibuya....

Yeowang tells Haru, "I ate this morning. It's still Friday, right?" It isn't, apparently she's having quite a good time and time has flown. "Or was it Thursday?" She's flat out ignoring the ballisticness, and will need to, if not be force-fed, at least be handed food so that eating it is more convenient than the hassle of putting it in inventory. "Whichever. Look, I've almost got this procedure complete. This is going to really streamline how the Red Chain manages its supplies," she explains. "And I still can't find the original Red Chain supply orders." Which probably wasn't brought from Shibuya, as it getting captured wouldn't tell the Palace Landers anything useful.

Curtana rubs his chin in thought as Haru covers just how difficult it would be to recreate computers, as it seems like some effort has gone into it already. "Certainly nothing I can help with, then. The library card system could work, but if it goes anything like it did when I was a kid, it would be completely ignored." He would need to survey the land around Shibuya, but perhaps some inspiration could be drawn from the dam project...

"From the sounds of things, random rooms were picked for the records, and no one really bothered to fix it down the line." Frowning at a paper talking about improving roads out of Shibuya, Curtana eventually places it in the Public Works stack. "Hey, i'm a field guy myself. I can stumble my way through drafting up plans if I need too, but...well, I pratically live in this armor." Curtana returns to sorting for a moment before he paused. "...I don't even have relaxed wear, to be honest."

The thought of the New World Order being more surviving than thriving does stop the Pooka for a few moments, before he shakes his head. "Honestly, you're right on that front. I still feel like i'm not the kind of person who can really improve our lives significiantly. I'm the person who charges into danger, not...say, find a way to cure nightmares. It's just the sort of thing I can't really win against."

Kotono is clearly trying to listen, but it's obvious she's having a hard time doing so. Even with her root beer and slapping her face a few times, it's no use. She's yawning and looking drowsy, putting her head in her hands.... "Ungh... what do I do?!"

Haru opens his hands up, giving one of those podium like 'I have an idea!' And it might even be a big one! Start with the small one, "Curt, you have a high defense. Can you get food and drink into Yeo before she puts an extra zero on an invoice out of spite of it looking like a round pastry." Not that would ever happen. Ever. Right? "And Commander if you could see to getting her a soak. I know that Ash Wight did a number on a few of us recently so a little R&R might be good for everyone's fatigue." Interestingly enough, Haru only looks marginally less tired than he normally is. Perceptive people will spot the more non-verbal signs of his fatigue in his sluggish movements, but his tone and face remains constant like someone who is used to rolling out of a nap and giving a TED talk the next hour.

"Well I dont think we have to boil the ocean, just," Haru looks to Shiruba, "when it all went down. When all the /possibility/ opened up. What was the one thing you wanted to do? No undead threat existed at that point. No Tower crisis events." He picks up a piece of paper and shakes it, "Seeing all the things that you, or Gig, Riz wrote back then? It was really inspiring seeing what it was like then. Makes me really appreciate what everyone was doing to make now possible. I think now of all times we could use more of that, like bottled sunshine due to be popped like a vintage wine and served."

There is a smile and a laugh to Curtana, "Well, yeah, of course. We are people, not computers. Going to make mistakes and ignore the rules. Kinda to Shiruba's point that you end up with busybodies like Yeo and myself that start frothing at the mouth looking to make Order from the Chaos. So it balances out in the end, ya? Put a job opening for a librarian." Pause. "Besides Estelle. Everyone needs a little help and we shouldn't should the burden solely on a single person." A hand gestures outwards, "I think a little pride in what we've done and what we want to do would do us well for cofidence. We will need it in spades in the face of the challenges ahead of us both with Shibuya and whatever is beyond he gnoll deathdoor."

"I've always been an explorer first." Shiruba replies despite being ready to doze off at any moment. "But that's why I hate staying tied to a desk for too long. I'm at my best when I'm," vage wave of hand in direction, "Out there. Doesn't really matter what, as long as I am."

Himari Saito blinks a couple more times, drums her fingers against the gourd that hangs from her hip and then makes her way towards the door. Her brow furrows as she seems to consider the state of some of the people in the HQ, but doesn't say anything about it as she prepares to go on her way. She rests her hand on the door handle and bothers her bottom lip as she considers something.

Yeowang says to Curtana, "This place is pretty much entirely improvised. We don't really own it, we're just borrowing it, so we can't set up anything that even hints at permanence." They really don't want to wear out their welcome with their Ouph hosts. Or annoy them to the point that they skip the anti-Palace Lander measures they've instituted.

Ironically, Yeowang in a Strange Mood is /less/ likely to make a clerical error than not in one, though the chance of that is quite small in any event. The problem is she's less likely to eat or bathe or sleep.

        It's a pity we don't know, what the little flowers know
        They can't face the cold November, they can't take the wind and snow
        They put their glories all behind them, bow their heads and let it go
        But you know they'll be there shining in the morning

    Miyako focuses on her music, soft and sad, providing a bit of background for the discussion. Perhaps letting the music brighten the mood, a little. Guide it from the dark places it's been of late to somewhere brighter.

        Oh, my Joanie, don't you know, that the stars are swingin' slow
        And the seas are rolling easy as they did so long ago
        If I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time,
        That the world is always turning toward the morning

    Some people lead in battle. Some build communities. 'No great hero', she's insisted before. 'Just a musician, an explorer'. And someday she'll get back to it. Maybe.

"That does explain a lot. Honestly, it's nice that they were able to offer the rooms that we do have, honestly. I hope we can properly repay our hosts in the future." Curtana pushes all the small stacks of paper over to Haru for him to properly put away. Hopefully the organization method he used is effective enough.

Curtana may certainly not have any skill with cooking his own food, but he always make sure to buy proper and tasty provisions whenever he goes traveling. Because of this, he just nods his head before flicking through his inventory. A wrapped BLT is materalized after a few seconds of searching, followed by a clay sealed jug of green tea. Frowning for a moment, the knight lays a hand against the mug and chants for a moment, before a small whistle can me heard coming from the mug. "Not exactly a proper doctor, but you should eat that. If you don't, Haru will get sad and may take it out on me. He knows I can take a hit, so i'll be a punching bag." Some joking around can go a long way in here.

Seeing Kotono obviously being in distress, Curtana materalizes a second clay mug and heats it up before offering it to the Spriggan. "That should help for a while, but I really would suggest following Haru's advice and take a hot bath. It could do more than simple herbs." Forget paperwork, taking care of others when they are not themselves is something he should honestly invest more time into.

Haru considers what Shiruba said for a moment, "So the idea of exploring is what drove you then and drives you now? A bit like Mikage, too." To explore new places. His one blue eye closes as he wonders how that could connect with overall goals within the Alliance. "Much like Scale wants to climb higher, we tend to want to trek further. Its what drove us to cross the ocean, settle in Seeker's Landing, and explore the Palace Lands, wasn't it?" He leans back against a wall as he ponders, "Expeditionary Forces would really galvanize the wanderers. I like seeing new places, but for myself I like seeing tools to help enable those ambitions. Like, say, underwater expeditions with proper gear. Things that can stand the extreme cold or hot climes like the tundra or volcanic regions." Do they /have/ volcanic regions? Must, but Haru can't think of one off the top of his head.

The Artificer gives his best 'I am sad' look to sell it for Curt. But he is a tall gangly caster in a monocle so he looks like a sad Mr. Peanut without a cane and top hat.

"It also helped in exploring the Gnoll Forest," Shiruba adds. "So that was exploring. With purpose. Not just my own curiousity." Strange mood obsession and all. She stifles another small yawn. "Is it rude to tell a bard their singing is making you sleepy?" she wonders aloud. But Miyako's singing is doing just that, making her feel more relaxed as she sloughs down in the corner, tail curling over her lap.

Yeowang is no great hero, though she's pretty tough in a fight. And she's no leader, though she's trained in leadership outside the game. But she's never trained to sieze leadership, to take charge, which is the step that's missing. Here, others have been assigned into those roles, or have stepped up and taken over, but she's not so assertive as to just start issuing orders, which is what would be needed.

She makes recommendations, but she's got no idea how gamers think, and they've mostly ignored her so far. She'll take the offered sandwich, take a bite, and set it down while she reviews her paperwork. "There has got to be more ways we can simplify thins," she mutters. The sandwich will probably need to be handed to her again. When the subject of bathing comes up, she grimaces, says, "Fine," and since it's faster than arguing, she runs through her menu and menu-washes herself. It removes the Stinky debuff, though no one not in a strange mood could ever be happy with it.

        Now, my Joanie don't you know, that the days are rollin' slow
        Adn the winter's walking easy as it did so long ago
        And if that wind should come and ask you, why's my Joanie weeping so?
        Won't you tell him that you're weeping for the morning?

    Ever since the Shadow Festival, Miyako's been buried in her music, searching for solace in her most familiar place.

        Oh, my Joanie, don't you know, that the stars are swingin' slow
        And the seas are rolling easy as they did so long ago
        If I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time,
        That the world is always turning toward the morning

    She plays another brief instrumental before the guitar falls quiet for the moment, and she looks up at the rest of the gathering. "Oh... Hey, Ko-chan. You had dinner yet?" Or maybe lunch? Breakfast? What time is it, anyway?

Haru rubs his one blue eye to the bardric melody being played. He takes a seat in the chair as some of the weight of exhaustion hits him while his mind is still going at full blast. "It did," Haru says in a way to keep from yawning, "but what I'm looking for in all these tomes is to galvine us to some central goals. Not because a person said it, but because it speaks to us as individual and members to do something great together." He leans back, "It can't be just in reaction to something. We are," he puts a hand to his mouth to keep from yawning, "spirited Adventurers who master our own destiny, not be chained to the results of other's like some New World Janitors." His eye closes, "So, I'll talk to people and see more about what their hopes and dreams are. Go over our past, what we stand for." He leans his head back and murmurs, "First step in not being a pretentious twit is having some basis behind your words. Actions. Need... to act." Annnnnd he is out like a light. Hand is still holding a parchment in it, too.

Underwater exploration? Now that's something Curtana haven't even thought about before, but it could be possible with the right creations. Maybe some sort of scuba armor that extracts breathable air from surrounding water...huh. The shaggy-haired knight is going have to make a mental note of that idea. "It certainly seems like you have some good ideas there, Haru. If you are ever serious about a few of them, i'll see if I can help with them."

Curtana nudges the sandwich back over towards Yeowang just to make sure at least one more bite is taken. And considering the state of some of the people here...he looks over to Haru...then blinks. "I was going to get some properly cooked food...but I think some blankets are needed." Curtana starts to head for the door, then turns to look at everyone once more. "...hmmm. I wonder if I can wake them up before the nightmares get too bad. Still has to be better than no sleep..." Musing to himself, Curtana excuses himself from the room to find something for the weary Adventurers. Besides, the records room works better as a nap room, in his opinion.

Shiruba is already snoring softly in the corner where she dozed off, having slumped to use a random stack of papers as a pillow. And hasn't bolted awake abruptly yet. Maybe the music had something to do with it?... Though if she was still awake she wouldn't complain about a blanket, even if she's got a fluffy tail to snuggle with.

Yeowang looks up as the sandwich presses into her hand. She picks it up, looks at it like she hasn't just taken a bite out of it, notices that it -has- a bite taken out of it, and so, quite reluctantly, takes a bite from the other end and sets it down again. Properly cooked food is wasted on Strange Mood people, alas, they don't notice anyhow.

But as to diving, she notes, "Someone from Olympus has done that already, you should probably work with them."