Mac Anu Renew

It is late in the afternoon and a chilly sea breeze whips through Mac Anu. This causes the scarf that Soujiro Seta waves to billow in a satisfying level of animation. There is no Palace Land presence here. There are no ships to go after. The Sword Saint is walking the streets largely on a whim to see how the Root Town is doing after all the recent changes. He is more the 'see and feel' kind of person over 'think and speculate' kind. That is Shiroe's business. Right now the blue haired chick magnet is coming out of a cake shop with a free sample in his hands. He offered to pay, really, but the baker's wife insisted he walk around with it. Free advertisement. "I will have to find someone to share this with," he says. It wouldnt have been bad to eat a little mini cake the size of a muffin if this wasn't the THIRD shop that gave him free samples. He is stuffed!

The Palace Land occupation may be over but that doesn't mean Mac Anu wasn't without matters to deal with. Much like Shibuya they didn't do much intentional harm to the city or it's Lander inhabitants. Yet, to assume that they had not done anything was short-sighted, so Shiruba had been going about looking for signs of tampering or sabotage. The main one was taking down what they restricted access to the Church with so they could snare anyone that respawned there. Not much was found beyond that. Just some neglect to establishments that they hadn't really need use of. Nothing a little Woodworking and elbow grease couldn't help fix up, and afterwards Shiruba wandered back out onto the street to meander and look more.

It is late in the afternoon, and Dark Schneider is walking throug Mac Anu. Seeing his old compadre Soujiro Seta, he will head over and call out a greeting. "Hey!" He's a chick magnet, but for a different sort of chick entirely. Which has nothing to do with cluck-clucks. He's ostensibly here to help, but people take a look at him and decide to ask someone else. So he mainly hangs out looking cool.

A hand raises from where Souji is. This is not the one with the cake in it. That is held elegantly in his other hand upturned like it was a precious egg. It was a gift from a nice person, after all! "Schneider!" he replies back with all the perk and pep of a man who gets up every morning and smiles at the sunrise. And then trains. By running up buildings and cutting leaves with his katanas. The morning has real mixed messages about that one. "Do you like sweets," he asks, holding the small cake up. Upon noticing Shiruba in the crowd he raises his voice, shouting out over to her, "Shiruba! I have something sweet for you!" to which gets the attention of every Lander woman, cluck cluck and one jealous duck in the Mac Anu square. Starrreee.

A greeting was enough, but mentioning something sweet is what gets a wolfgirl Cait Sith right at Soujiro's side. That or she saw the cake he was holding with her keen hunter vision. Either way, unlike the surrounding population of young woman, older woman, and cluck-clucks she has no confusion over what sweet thing the samurai is talking about. "Oooh, that smells fresh too. What's the occasion?"

Schneider is used to training every day. He was in sports in school. But there's not of training you can do for magic. It's not like you can improve a fireball with pushups. If you could, he'd be training. But he will head on over to the muffin man and see what's happenig that's interesting. He nods to Shiruba as they both converge on Souji, and calls out, "What's up?"

Soujiro Seta has acquired a Shiruba and Schneider. Along with Souji they are know known as the 3S Squad. "I have this cake," he shows it over to Shiruba and then to Schneider. It is a nice cake. Frosted. Fresh, as Shiruba mentioned. Hints of cinnamon in there and nuts. "The Landers are happy to have us back," he offers to Shiruba with a smile on his face, "and every shop I visit they insist of having me leave with something." And Souji is such a nice guy that he doesn't say no to their kindness. He takes a piece of it out for each of them if they are interested and hands it out, "It feels as if this is their way of saying thank you to us, so this cake belongs to all of us."

Miho has smelled something something good, was it cooking? She would take a moment as she stalks the source of the smell. It's cake, it's a lot of cake she think ans soon Soujiro would find he has a Miho right behind him and a tail right up in the air.

"hello! Are you going to share with the class Souji?!"

Shiruba accepts a piece. "It's nice to be appreciated," she agrees. "And it's probably not the end we've seen of those jerks, but at least they're not holding onto any of the local land or cities now." She leans a little to the side to nod to Schneider. "That flare technique was really useful in keeping track of that sanddancer gnoll, thank you." It may be a publicly known ability now, but she's still giving credit to the original creator. As she was one of the last people to learn it specifically from the source. "Hi Miho, you're out and about too I see."

Schneider will take a piece of cake and sample it. "That's not bad," he says, enjoying it, then taking another bite. He walks along with Srta and Shiruba in their informal clique, nodding about the Landers. "Yes, yes they are. No one likes to have some foreigner standing over them, no matter how benevolent they say they are." He's not getting cake out of it, though. When Miho shows up, he smiles and hellos! to her also. He nods to Shiruba, and says, "I'm glad you got use from it, that's the whole reason I tried to get the technique out. It has so many uses, I'm glad you get good use of it." It really has a ton of uses.

Soujiro Seta is sharing! "Miho!" He steps to the side so the flowy-robed samurai isn't blocking view for Shiruba and Schneider. He breaks off part of the piece for himself and hands it to her. "From the bakery right here," he says as they are a few paces away from the shop in question. The smell of freshly baked sweet breads making their way out into the street to combat the salty sea airs.

Souji neatly nibbles on his own cake, looking at Shiruba and her assessment. "I suppose not. The naval battle was extremely active." He admittedly didn't do a whole lot in that fight. It was for the best that none of the ships got actively boarded by the escaping Palace Landers. "But now we can keep at the Yamato content with less interuption," he says, meaning the Tower. Its the selfsame place where he lost a friend of his to a glitched boss on the tenth floor. A place where his friend could still be held captive. Just a feeling, but he goes with his gut. He looks to the three curiously, "What will you do now that we have more time on our hands, Shiruba, Miho, Schneider?" He asks each in turn instead of a generalized inqusition.

Miho nods once "Yes, eh the few in our alliances seem pretty chill then again I was in the USA for about a decade. Did i mention they are /giants/ there? All of them?" Even the girls for the most part were taller than her. She'll klook at the cake and she gfrins as she'll go to get some cake.

"Heard it was a hell of a battle. As for that the stinking Palace Landers still have my forges at our old base camp there. I just delivered them the day they invaded just about! Oh my list is clear do any of you need orders filled?"

"Yes, I am aware," Shiruba replies with a teasing flat tone. As he best friend and adoptive sister is from the States, she knows very well. "Giants who love flannel too much."

She shakes her head a little at the question from Souji. "Other than getting back to the Demonic Gnoll matter and New World getting various relief and rebuilding efforts under way, I've mainly focused on getting my museum back in order. Not that much was done to it. I.. almost think they appreciated it was about Lander history rather than Adventurers, even if not their own culture." She pauses to munch on the rest of her cake.

Schneider hrms to Soujiro as he explains about the bakery. "It's definitely worth coming back here, even if us regular folk have to pay," he says with a smirk. As to what he will do now the Palace Landers are ejected, he quips, "Well, I guess there's no need to develop the big boom I'd been working on. Sort of working on." Not working very hard on, truth be told.

He doesn't know much about Americans, so he just shrugs to Miho. "I don't need anything made, no," he adds, snickering at Shiruba's comment about Americans. "We did get the first of the last sort of Keystones," he reminds Shiruba.

Soujiro Seta doesnt have an /order/ per say, but the adventure Miho and Souji were on has note. "I will need a hand reforging Kogarasumaru soon, Miho. If you can lend me your skill, I would appreciate it. When I forged her last before the expansion it took a top tier weaponsmith and enchanter and even then the failure rate was rather high on the expendible materials." At least the key parts of the sword were not lost in the attempt. It was one of those 'burn through your wallet' grinds.

"A museum," the samurai considers. Souji doesnt look like the academic type. He acts on his impulses and seems the happy kind of vapid that comes with not overthinking about things. "You built one of those, Shiruba? I'd love to stop by and I bet there are a few people would love to see it too." Totally not a date at a museum, not that they'd see it that way when invited. "I will have to see if there is anything from when I was in Ezzo that you might need for it." He did start there, back when the expansion happened. One of the many trapped initially.

But giving up on a big boom? Say it ain't so! "You are giving up on more explosive magic? I was hoping to see more of it. Wave Artes are complicated, but I find them elegant when they are pulled off." His natural reflexes kick in when attacked that tends to counter those chants. Plus his class is built for martial engagements. Sure he /can/ do ranged but it is mostly through sword blasts.

Shiruba nods her head eagerly, and swallows down her mouthful of cake so she can explain properly. "I started a museum in Shibuya dedicated to studying and preserving the historical culture of the Landers and their Kingdoms. So of course I have to add a section about the birth of a new Kingdom as well. But somehow dedicating it to that cause and the perview of the Beautiful One," she taps a fingertip against her temple, "is what unlocked the Loremaster System Arte for me."

Miho smirks "I'm the best smith in Yamato so far as I know and if I'm not they ain't selling anything." She looks to souji and nods a bit. "Sure we can work on that and good they didn't wreck the place. Still you know so loing as the Palace Lander nobles who came for us ... are alive this is going to happen again. We need to take them out, I wonder if we can turn off their captiols city protection hummmm."

Schneider hrms at Seta, and says, "Well, I will keep what you say in mind if I start back up with the nuclear weapons experiments." He smirks. "I do still have a leadoff project, but I haven't farmed it out for support yet. There seemed to be enough going on with the Palace Landers and all, and some of the Lander nobles -would- get tetchy about us digging up silver when they've got a monopoly. But I asked to go through their mine spoils, totally not for silver, and they denied my request, so it's on them if we do pull the trigger." He hrms as Shiruba explains about the museum. "That sounds fascinating." Of course if he did develop that technology, the Palace Lands would be history. And it -would be- a big boom. But that may be too much, is why he is no longer pursuing it.

Soujiro Seta makes the big 'explosion' hand gesture with his hands expanding. Boom. Its the same as big magic spells, right? But of the topics of a museum, creating an alternative Fallout universe, and Palace Lander genocide, it is the museum that clicks most with the samurai. "So does it have things about Uruk in it now, as that is relatively new?" he asks Shiruba.

Shiruba frowns a little when nuclear weapons are brought up. But doesn't comment when Schneider says he's not working on that anymore. At least for now. "That is what I am working on adding for, yeah," she replies. "Not too hard, since I was at both the conference that decided to do so, and the actual effort to do so... though might leave some of those more sensitive details out. Just to be safe." Last thing they need is other people poking around finding the Kunie lairs.

Schneider smirks at Seta's 'Boom' gesture, and hrms at Shiruba working on her own project, his own expression pensive. "But I need to do something entirely different," he admits, and takes off with a chuckle.

Miho is now muching away at her cake and nods. She says nothing for a moment as she swallows. "So something to think about then. Then again I'm not the smartest tool in the forge if i'm being honest."

Soujiro Seta smiles as the topics seem to die down behind secrecy or additive nterest. He offers a little wave, "I should get going as well. It was nice catching up with both of you," he says to Miho and Shiruba as the Explosion wizard scoots out.