Shoplifting gone South

Its a beautiful May day in Shibuya. Birds are singing. People are singing. The shoplifter that was caught is not ratting out their partner. Sing, convict, sing!

The soft-launched Jewelry store, Atelier Nox (Grand Opening Pending) is a perfect target for theft. The items are small. They are easy to take. They sell well. A degree of 'lost product' is part of the business. This isn't about logistics. This is about the people.

Specifically this is about a Gnome girl who tried to lift a ring from the Atelier, but was caught before getting out of the store. Now she is sitting in the back room of the Aterlier, hands bound behind her back. She had help. They escaped. She /insists/ that it was solo job but the other gnome that ran like a bat outta Ezzos is sus.

Haru doesn't have time for this. He isn't in a particular 'people' mood right now. The goal today was to work on goods, quietly, and go for a night stroll. Now he has a noisy gnome making a fuss in the back room. Where his workshop is. Where his tools are. Where he works.

    Elly has come for a few reasons. One has to do with the books she's stowed away in a bag at her side. It is for this reason that she heads to see Haru. Not to mention she has a wife to spoil and some coin left from her adventuring days.

    With her usual, calm smile, she slips into the store. She takes the time to smooth her skits out upon entering and after that, she will see where the craftsman of the shop is.

    "Ohhh!" She does not get terribly far. There's a necklace and bracelet that immediately catches her eye. "Are those pearls?" By which she really means, 'How much is this?'

    She hears a noise, at that point, though. The sound of a some kind of trouble. Elly does not go barging to investigate. She will just wait for Haru to have a chance to speak to her.

Yeowang is, on the other hand, entirely a people person. People management is practically her only skillset. And as she has some vaguely defined management-like role in Shibuya, she has been summoned to Atelier Nox to see if she can manage this situation. Sadly, her people skills mainly consist of managing cooperative employees and people that need to be kicked in the face. Actual subtle and nuanced people skills are peripheral to her skillset. Nevertheless, she arrives at the store, nods to Wake, who she hasn't seen in a while, but who /does/ have the sort of people skills that might be useful. "It's been a while," she greets Wake, heading immediately for the back. "You know, I wonder if you can help us with a situation that's come up?" she says thhoughtfully.

Uta appears in tow with Yeowang. "Hi Haru!", she exclaims, with a wave. "I kind of forgot who I was supposed to summon here for the shoplifting situation, so I summoned the person that seemed the most reasonable given the situation at hand." Silence. "Sadly I got distracted on my way to the Pelapuff Cafe, accidentally ended up on a quest, got some nice gem drops I'm not sure I could use for anything but could probably be turned into accessories, somehow ended up where Yeowang was and thought, hey, maybe she can help." Silence. "Yeowang will probably be more effective, but I'm still curious about how Pela would have defused the situation. Using ninjutsu or baking? Or a combination of both?"

Songbird is being Songbird.

"Oh, Lady Bombast! What a honor to have you here!", Uta bows, apparently noticing the noblewoman for the first time. "Are you here for the shoplifting situation as well?"

"I'll never squeal, see," the gnome says in her best 'mobster' accent. "Not going to sell my friend up the river, see?"

Haru, who is midway through forming a ring on a bench, turns around to 'see' with one blue eye. "So you are admitting there was a second person, contrary to the earlier statement that you worked alone."

Crap. Penelope Pennypincher gives the 'shock!' expression. "You heard nothing!" and it is about that time that Uta, Yeo, and Elly are coming in.

"Thanks for coming by. The Civil Squad will be here a little while later," he says to them. Adventurers are not cops. They are a volunteer force so they do what they want when they want and getting them to do the things they said they would do when they said they would do it is work. They came here to escape that crap and attack squirrels 1000 times to get a rare nut to drop.

Haru spins on his chair, turning around to the group, "Can you keep that one entertained?"

"Are /you/ not entertained," movie quotes Penny in Spartan boom for such a little gnome. The idea of Weird Mooding a 'Gag' becomes very appealing to Haru. Very. Appealing.

    "Oh, hello Uta, hello Yeowang! Master Haru, I am pleased you are in the shop today." A deep curtsey, a graceful bowing of her head, and she rises smoothly. Of course, Uta also gets a hug. And a question! "The shoplifting situation?" asks Elly. Her attention shifts to Yeowang, "I imagine this is all related. What would you have me do?"

    She will follow to have a look at the problem. And the problem is... a gnome. A gnome that spews really overdone movie lines.

    "Thieving has gone downhill since I was blazing the trail, it seems. Stealing from a shop is so embarrassing."

    After all, in her days of assasin work, she was robbing raid level threats from the shadows. But that was before. This is now.

Yeowang comes back into the work area and greets Haru with a "Good afternoon, Haru. I am told ..." she looks to Uta, looks back to Haru, "I am not clear on the exact situation, the details were ... not clear." She looks over to the gnome, whose fingers are said to itch around large amounts of precious metals. Or so she has been told. "So, what have we here?" she asks in the tone of someone who has an idea of what's going on, but is quite interested in seeing how far the subject is willing to incriminate others in their effort to exonerate themselves.

She smiles to Wake, "It is good to see you, it's been a while." She nods about the shoplifting situation, and says, "We need her to rat out her accomplice. Shibuya is in a fairly high level area, and the way back to Ouph is very hard for Landers. I imagine she's trying to save her ally that trip," she explains. "Though I suppose she might want a bit of backup since she'll be taking that walk, herself, when this is resolved." Booted out of Shibuya is a problem for lower level people. It's not a gimme at our level, it's quite an arduous journey overland for lower-level players.

"Oh. Oh. Can I experiment with her? Can I? Please? I've always wondered how effective various means of mutilation would be in preventing adventurers from using their menu. Like, we know that chopping their arms off works. But is chopping off the hands enough? What if I use foot regrwoth potion on her hand stump? Will she grow a foot there? Will the menu work? What if I replace that with more exotic prostheses? Like... a bucket? Or a musical instrument?" Of course Uta is not doing anything like that to a fellow adventurer, and her friends likely know this (unless it's funnier for them not to); lately, she seems to have developed a penchant for scaring evildoers with threats of terrible medical experiments, it seems. "Do we adventurers get tetanus out of surgery with rusty instruments?" She flicks her menu open and materializes a thoroughly rusted saw. "Only one way to find out!", she beams.

"For the greater good of law enforcement and research," Haru says to his dark sister. Because it is fun. Also because it causes Penny to stop quoting movies. Wide eyes at the saw. A loud scream. She didn't realize that she went from the Thief genre to the Horror genre so quickly. Quick time action! Quick time action! She struggles in the chair until it falls onto her side. Great. Now she can't see the horror Spriggan, which we all know is more horror inducing.

"A part of life," Haru says to Elly, "when you celebrate the individual and independant dogma. People chase their own notion of joy and gain, even at the expense of others. Then they defend it as things such as teasing when it is bullying. Redistributing wealth instead of theft." He doesn't seem bothered by it that much. Why get upset that the wind blows and water flows? "This one looks like they were doing it for thrills, so I'd rather see them obtain it from productive sources like the Hunter's Guild or the Duelist League. But some people like heists." He taps a foot on his storefront, "Actually. Maybe you can help with that, Elly. A creative outlet to theft. Like a scavenger hunt slash 'capture the flag' to give this brand of gremlin a constructive method. Make it fashionable again." Geocaching for Elder Tales, ho!

    Elly gives Uta a look and lets out a sigh. "Torture is rarely effective, no matter how attractive it can seem in the heat of the moment. Also, why are you carrying that saw around? Have you taken up woodworking?"

    She will get back on topic, though. "So rather than do something useful that increases the wealth of the people, she decides to seek excitement and fun by harming others." It is rare for the priestess to look quite so narrow-eyed, but the expression fits one who is judging another.

    She kneels down in front of the tipped-over gnome. "What are you useful for? I am willing to help you out of the situation you are in, but not for free. Your actions have been noticed by a servant of the goddesses." A line that should be rather familiar to everyone else in this room.

Yeowang gives Uta a puzzled look. She had not planned on immediately launching into a session of Good Cop - Psychotic Cop, but she can run with it. "I see your rusty saw is freshly blunted for an excruciating experience," she says, and turns quite a pleased smile on our shoplifter. "You will be amazed at the sorts of horrific injuries you can survive with Uta taking care of you." She will helpfully set the chair upright, but with her back to Uta, to heighten the anticipation.

At the mention of productive uses for larceny, she turns to Wake and asks, "Are you still active in that infiltration group with Akatsuki? I think she must have gotten quite good at stealth because I haven't seen her in a year or so, I suppose she has been training it quite effectively."

The gnome is too frightened of rusty dismemberment to get into it with Elly. She is ready to be carted away to a better(?) place by Uta. "Uta, could you take Penny somewhere else? Not much for keeping company right now. What little social battery I had today was drained by a screaming, meme-ing gnome."

The idea of doing something productive with the natural inclinations of people's whims goes unaddressed. It makes Haru laugh a little, as going along those topics, too, is nothing more than gathering to a whim. Not too different a situation. "Give it some thought, Elly," Haru says as he turns back to his work.

"They do something like that in Bavaria," Uta rattles out, distractedly, at the mention of a creative outlet for theft. "Villages regularly erect maypoles. Nearby villages will try to steal another village's maypole, grand heist style. There are ransoms involved. They usually involve beer and food. It's a tradition."

"It was a drop, Baroness!", Uta exclaims. "I hadn't found a proper use for it... until now."

She salutes at Haru's orders. "Okey-dokey!", grabs the chair, lifts it, and carries it in the other room. "We're going to have fuuuuuuuuuuun together..." Pause. "Oh, oh! Have I told you about the slimes? I love slimes. Hope you won't mind having a few acid blobs crawling around while we perform medicine..." A short pause. "And I certainly hope you won't give me the name of your accomplice. Because then I'll be forced to give you back to the rest of the team. Who would proceed with regular, boring law enforcement procedures. And our fun would be over."

    Watching the gnome get carted off, Elly rises, putting it out of mind a moment later. "Well, I am sure that will get sorted out. Uta is a reliable nurse." It is Shibuya, not Eas, so it is comfortably out of her jurisdiction, in any case.

    The woman pauses, and then realizes that Haru is quite busy and Uta has wandered off. "I will just set this down for your review later. I finished my work. At least, for now." She sets down the book bag, in a place where it will not get in Haru's way, but also where it will be noticed when he has time. There is an additional treat inside: Tae has been working quite a bith with sweet treats lately, and a few wonders of sweet red beans and mochi are there, as well.

    With that done, she will step back out to the front of the store, where she will not be a distraction. There, she can answer Yeowang, "I no longer do that kind of work. I have not seen Akatsuki in a long time, either. A pity, really. She seemed nice enough."

Yeowang nods gravely as Haru dismisses the would-be thief and her situation from his situation. He certainly has more important business than some shoplifter. She arches a brow at the mention of a social battery, but her own social nature is simply more outgoing in general, it seems. As Uta explains obscure bits of history to the burglar's growing horror, then drags the gnome off to another room, she will follow, smiling thoughtfully as she says, "Oh yes, we're not subject to PVP restrictions here, and there's no actual laws, per se. The area was reclaimed from wilderness, so the law is whatever we like at the moment. Though I suppose if you gave up your partner, I would ask Uta not to test your pain threshhold. The game dampens pain, but that -can- be bypassed." She's had it done to her, she doesn't have to say it requires a particular monster glitch.

She ohs to Wake about being out of the ninja business. "That's too bad," she says, and nods about her being nice. "She helped me train, some time ago. But I couldn't find her when I needed to train my own stealth skill. I'd like to find her again, but I think perhaps Yuuki might be my best bet for training..."

    "She is likely to pop up again. Well, at some point. It really depends on her... who was her master again? The relationship struck me as a touch unusual. But in this world, the usual is rather a dubious concept. If you want stealth training, though, I can assist. Yuuki is also a great trainer of many skills. Flying tackles being chief among those."

    She gives a look at the item she was about to purchase, and with minimal disruption (and no haggling) picks it up for her wife.

    "Haru's work is our favorite," she explains. He made their rings, after all.

Yeowang nods about Haru's work. "He makes very good jewelry," she agrees. "Sadly, I'm only really looking for one piece from one person, and I'm not even sure if he's in-game." She smiles ruefully. As for Akatsuki, she can only shrug. "She'll be around when she's around. I've noticed that it's hard for players to be reliable when the things we need to be reliable are not, themselves reliable. I do need to train, but no training is possible now, I'm not clear on why."

    "Reliability is a precious commodity," replies Elly. She wonders, idly, what Uta is going to do with that gnome. But she will just assume it all went to plan. "Oh, this reminds me of something else. The distraction took my mind away from my purpose. One of the reasons I came here was to speak to you, Yeowang. I have a project that I believe is of potential interest to you."

    She does not go into business mode, but she is much more serious now. "I am starting to build the inroads to take over the administration and care for the orphanages in each of Yamato's root cities. My plan is to fix and expand them to not only serve their purpose as a home for children, but also as a place of learning. There will be teachers there-many adventurers among them-so that the crafts will be taught. In addition to our orphans, we will allow other landers to attend. My hope is that that the wealthier students will pay tuition which can offset some of the charitable aspects of the venture."

    Where Yeowang comes in strikes Elly as obvious. She needs someone with a mind for business.

Yeowang considers Wake's proposal, but says, "Landers tend to be quite class-conscious, it seems. I think rather than present the idea as you've described, if you put forward the idea of a finishing school for Landers children whose parents are seeking the best education, you will get more traction among the Landers, and then you can allow the children from the orphanagess free tuition. They will not send their children to a school that is free or for orphans on their own, I think." And that us her 'mind for business'. "But of course the Ninetails Bank will support your project financially," she adds.

    "I will work through the diplomatic side as we go. And I imagine it will vary considerably by land." Elly does not dive deep into the details yet. After all, she's still waiting for her chance to hammer out those details with the Landers. Thus far, it seems they covet adventurer know-how more than anything.

    "I am grateful for your help! It will mean much to the children, and as you know, I have my ways of returning kindness when the time comes for it. Perhaps the goddesses will bless these efforts, as well. In time, the subjects in these schools may prove pleasing to them all."

    A pause, then, and a shift in focus. "What are you seeking to work on next, though? With Shibuya back in the hands of its rightful owners, I imagine we can expect some remarkable work to follow."

Yeowang nods slowly about working the diplomatic side. "Landers are often contrary, but I think we must deal with them as they are. The Palace Lands prove Lander ire can be very bad. She admits, for her own part, "I have been trying to put together a department-type store, so people don't have to go to twelve different shops to complete a shopping expedition. I think this will be particularly useful for people who have lost everything in the various crises the world has faced, so they can go to one place and get everything they need."

    "Does Shibuya have a bazaar?" asks the Baroness. "Or were you thinking about other settlements? As Eas grows, I have a few thoughts on how to make sure the important goods are near at hand. Granted, my mind is mostly on the Landers. Adventurers at this point have survived in this world for quite some time. We also travel so much more than others, not to mention our access to food, drink, and cleanliness whenever we wish."

    She looks thoughtful, as if that reminded her of something. "I wonder how that will be contrived. Even if I expand my territory, Landers are not endless in supply. How will I populate the wild lands, once they are cleared?"

Yeowang nods to Wake, "Shibuya has a bazaar, yes, but I was thinking about something in a Root City, with a /much/ higher population. I thought it might put a few Lander stores out of business, so my strategy would be to buy them out, so they don't face any hardship, or for crafters, maybe put them to work as my supply chain."

As far as expanding Eas, she says, "If you want to expand faster and draw people to you, pay the bards and minstrels to sing of how prosperous Eas is in all the Root Towns, and you will get a host of interested people. Free land also helps."

    "So you are going to make a kind of... large store at the expense of the little ones? Hm. That is one possible approach to things." She is no financial expert, but she never much cared for big box stores. She rather doubts Yeowang is proposing an American-style Walmart, though.

    "And yes, prosperity is important. As is safety. And land. When I am able to clear the land, I can finally initiate my ideas for homesteading. Land for farmers and planned villages to support them. I am rather excited about it, honestly. I have always wanted to lay out the logistics of a proper vilage. Seeing small towns in Japan has been inspiring to me. Since the two worlds are so much alike, it seems likely to work quite well."

Yeowang looks pained at doing it 'at the expense of' other stores, but says, "That's competition, that's how business works. It's no different than a blacksmith making better swords than a competitor. But I'm at least offering all the smaller businesses an opportunity to work with me, and to share the benefits of volume. I'm not putting people on the street," she points out. "Anyhow, It's not going well, I need to buy enough land in a place where people go a lot, so that land is expensive when it's for sale at all."