An Evening in Shibuya

The breeze is blowing softly, though it does bring a light rain with it. It's a night much like any other.

The Tanuki that's dressed like a miko makes her way through the streets. She's most likely tipsy again, but she's shaking her gourd as if trying to conjure up more liquid from inside of it. She stops and sighs, before looking up towards the skies again. Another shake of the gourd, before she throws it to the side in frustration. It's possible that its simply not been her day, or even week.

Haru is making his way through Shibuya. Most days one can find the Artificer in Shibuya. It is either at HQ, his Atelier, or along the market streets. More infrequently would one see Haru picking up a stray gourd from the ground. Today is one such day.

"Not your preferred blend," he asks Himari, shaking the contents for good measure. A curious glance at it with his purple lens'd monocle before putting it away for later 'handling'. "Or is something else eatting you?"

Yeowang is wearing a raincoat with a hood pulled up, quite unfashionable, but the leather coat is oiled and likely waterproof. Making one last set of rounds around town, inspecting various items, watchposts, fences to make sure they're not broken, lamps to make sure they're on. Seeing Himari and Haru talking, she will make her way over as well, calling out, "Good evening."

The sound of Peko talons on the ground can be heard as Tradewind trots into Shibuya with Shiruba upon his back, hood of her cloak pulled up over head. Yes, the hood has little pockets for her ears to stick up into. Flattening them under the fabric would stifle her hearing even more than just the hood, and auditory clarity is important for a hunter and tracker. The Leader of the Silver Sword has come to check on things at the Alliance's central location before heading off on other tasks. Possibly back over to check on matters in Seeker's Landing and then with their Palace Land allies.

She did not expect to find Haru outside of the guild hall or his shop, but that doesn't stop her from waving as her avian steed trots up towards the others. "Evening, everyone."

Himari Saito looks towards Haru, trying her best to manage a smile even as her eye twitches. "I-I tried to do some cooking last night. I had an already made meal, that I thought I could reheat!," she grumbles. "Well about 6 hours walk from here. I know, because I just walked it." Both of her ears flatten and she shakes her head. "I-I set fire to my campsite, and this time it... It set fire to my wagon." She pauses and shakes her head again. "Which had flammable spirits inside." Her faultering smile dies completely and she looks towards Yeowang, then Shiruba as they approach. "And no, I'm sobering up."

"Hello to you both," she offers to both Yeowang and Shiruba. However she does give a wary look towards the wolf-girl, and then sniffs in her direction cautiously. "You seem to be in a better mood than last time," she remarks.

Haru is full of surprises. A Silver Sword leader has to be. He raises a hand to the other Silver Sword leader, "Evening Shiruba, Yeowang." The hand lowers as he looks towards Himari with the one visible blue eye. Even though it is not one behind a glass lens, it keeps a distant, almost glassy gaze when talking. "That sounds very unfortunate," is what he offers the tanuki. The proverbial 'That sucks'. "Next time we are at the tavern, I'll pick up first round," he lets her know. Erufu has a nice place in Shibuya, after all. With that he tilts his gaze towards the expedition leader and financier. A whirlwind of personalities in one spot. If he was the 'hmming' sort, he'd hmm. Instead he is the 'long pause' sort. Long pause. Dot. Dot. Dot.

Yeowang smiles as Himari Saito greets her. On hearing her story, she smiles sympathetically. Her own first efforts at cooking were about as bad. But she'd never cooked outside the game, so she had no real expectation of success, and pays for hand-cooked meals. "I'm sorry to hear your meal was spoiled," she tells the tanuki cait sith.

Shiruba gets a smile and a wave of greeting, as does Haru, "It's good to see you both," she calls. "How are you all doing?" she inquires, smiling at the offer of picking up the check in the tavern. She won't turn down a free meal, though, smirking and asking Haru, "That was for =all= of us?" But she's apparently joking, as she says, "Sadly, I have to complete my rounds, everyone take care." And she will head off.

Shiruba slides down from the Peko's back. "I have fewer things immeadiately pressing on my mind," she replies to Himari, though it could be part of an answer to Yeowang as well. "Sorry to hear you lost your wagon. We'll have to get a new one made for you. The work you do looking over memorials is important." She pats Tradewind's side, and he kaws in return, brushes up against the side of her head affectionately, and then trots himself off to the stables. That is one well trained bird. Or just that eager to get out of the rain.

And before she can pick the conversation back up Yeowang is on her way again. "She's busy as usual. I'll have to ask her about the state of our supply lines to the Palace Land Resistance later."

Himari Saito tilts her head to the side at the mention of the first round, and she pouts as she looks up towards Haru. "I thought you'd at least get me a bottle of sake," she comments as she tries to offer up the best sad tanuki look that she can muster. "But that will do, Haru-kun!"

A look goes towards Yeowang, and she offers a nod of her head. "It happens a lot. I'm used to it by now. But usually it's not this bad of a failure."

A glance is then given towards Shiruba and offers a friendly smile at the offer of a new wagon. "Oh, those funds are better spent on other things." A wink is then given, as well as a laugh. "It won't take me too long to get another wagon, Shibi-chan! A bit of busking, a bit of trading and undercutting, and I'll be back to where I was!"

"I am independantly wealthy, not a sugar daddy," Haru says as he shakes his head, his version of a joke. Like, a Professor Snape level joke as he does not inflect. Poker face with half sunglasses on in response to that sad, sad look. Saaaaddd loooook vs poker face. "Your work at the memorials are appreciated. If you need side work to recover funds, the HQ has plenty of side work available. As does my Atelier."

It all goes to a point he is going to make to Shiruba. What else would a tall, white haired man with a monocle do but lecture. Why, one might think he would make a good wacky sitcom entrance in a tailoring store, but not today! "Himari-chan is taking ownership of her actions and mistakes. Removing her ability to work towards fixing them robs her the opportunity to grow and sends a message we think as her as someone to take care of," he gestures to Shiruba, "and I know in our hearts that is not the intent or the case. An alternative suggestion would be to put your woodworking skills to the use and work with her to rebuild one." A gesture to the Tanuki, "Raw capital and funding," and a gesture to Shiruba, "materials, processing and skilled labor." Both hands lower. He gives a slow, lazy blink of his blue eye, as if to remind Shiruba that he is in charge of the guild crafts and logistics even if old habits die hard. "As for the supply line logistics for the Palace Lands, there is a report back on your desk that is available. Yeowang's attention to financial health has been helpful in building up the wealth of Shibuya and Seeker's Landing. The problem remains in the shipping lanes without proper shipyards. And proper shipyards," he begins to ramble a touch, stopping with a hand gesture, "remain a political concern."

The hood slots keep them from laying back entirely but Shiruba's ears still visibly droop a little when Haru scolds her, and she abruptly waves her hands back and forth. "I didn't mean to imply just giving her a new wagon!" Pause. "But you do have a point on a better way to possibly help, yes." She just accepts that she spoke a bit faster than she thought what she said through, and moves on. "I will make that the first thing I look at then, thank you. Both of you, even if one couldn't stay very long." Now she's rambling a little herself. "Politics are -not- my strong point at all. That's another reason I have you two. The only notion of negotiation I really know is 'money talks'." Because it's a Cait Sith racial trait. So at least the other Cait Sith will understand what she means. Hopefully.

Himari Saito wrinkles her nose at the mention of working in Haru's store, before laughing loudly. "No offence to you crafters, but I don't have any crafting skills at all," she admits. She then gives a begruding sigh. "I might actually look at see what work is available in the HQ. Ugh, and finally use some of those skills I have." She then grins and looks towards Haru. "I know Haru-chan! I'll start by proposing an increase of ten percent taxation on all personal and business base wealth stored here, which will help to boost the coffers!" she teases.

Her attention shifts back towards Shiruba, and she rolls her eyes at the scolding and then grins. "I don't mind if you want to look after me! I don't take up all that much room!" She then trails off and tilts her head to the side as she considers the other Cait Sith and mention of negotiations. "Do you have any existing charters with any of the nations that you might be able to call on? There might be a clause or something hidden away in there. Perhaps you could outsource the construction of the ships to them, and also outsource the crews, too?"

"None taken," Haru lets Himari know about the crafting stuff, "Yumi could use the company during her shifts selling things, if you ever change your mind." His patience for the sales part of the shop is not high. Of course by the look of Himari's tactics, his store might up with a Tanuki tax that goes to her. "Yes. Tax," he says dryly, "what could go wrong with that?" That does make him consider. Maybe they /should/ tax. Long pause. Chin rub. Taxes. Death and Taxes are certain, right?

"Its fine, Shiruba, you instill others with a sense that you appreciate them and it brings out the best in their abilities. It serves plenty well with groups and expeditions," Haru says as he looks over from Shiruba to Himari, then back to Shiruba, "similar to how idols acquires fans by making them feel appreciated and connected through the idol itself." The silver haired man extends both hands out in a yare yare fashion, "Only the finances, resource logistics, and economy don't care if you appreciate them as much as the 'personal' element does. Which is why idols have managers for those details." Why does Haru know so much about idols or is even USING that analogy? "To answer that question, we do have connections, which is why we have the fleet we do. Keep in mind the voyage across the ocean is less a trans-atlantic or trans-pacific style jaunt. It is across Leviathan active waters. We break even currently between repairs, replacements, and requisitions. Local kingdoms don't want Adventurers keeping active naval fleets, and rightfully so. It would be an act of aggression, and we are already fighting one war." He lets a pause linger, "with plenty of powder kegs waiting to fire off two or three more." Now /that/ statement is a bit heated. Haru has feelings about war and few of them are good. Especially when one is 'supplying arms and manpower' to an opposing force. Professor Haru SnapeNox is not amused! Zero amusement!

That explaination was better than she could of mananged, so instead Shiruba just provides a bit of crib notes. "Long story short, that suggestion is much what we are already doing, and like Haru said the other Kingdoms are leery of us having a full fleet of our own." Shiruba turns to look over her shoulder, though it's more like looking across waters and across servers. "Not that I can blame them, especially with those problems we're dealing with."

She shakes her head, ponytail swaying with the motion. "So many powder kegs." She puts fingers to her temples. "At least we were able defuse that demon gnoll issue before it turned into a bigger issue." Shiruba had been very -very- insistant on not letting Yeenagi's machinations turn into another Undead Army situation, right under their noses. "Eyes have been kept on that area, but the Hunter's Guild hasn't reported any signs of a resurgance..."

"If done properly, taxes can be used for a multitude of community and nation building projects," Himari points out. "As well as offering further foreign aid to the landers. It all depends on how it's managed and if we can avoid corruption sinking itself into it. Even a twelve point five percent taxation on goods being sold could be built into the cost to avoid heavy personal taxation."

She tilts her head to the side at the mention of Idols, before she laughs. "He is right. That's how we do work. Or did work." She purses her lips, and then glances off towards one of the Inns. "If you two would excuse me, I'm going to try and get somewhere dry and also get something to eat. And get changed into something drier. I'll leave you two to worry about the powder kegs!" With that said, the damp tanuki makes her way towards the Inn and waves.

Haru considers a moment on the topic of the gnolls and Yeenagi. "We celebrate our victories, but we need be methodical about where resources are commited. Thats your domain to commit, Shiruba, with combat and expedition. Silver Sword and the guilds of New World Alliance will need be mindful of that, less they find themselves outmaneuevered and crushed. All the well wishing and hugs in the world won't mean anything if we spread too thin. I'll hope that this war overseas ends swiftly. History has well taught us that it is ill advised to sustain that at length and the last war counsel I attended there was," his left hand sparks out embers, a more 'new' thing after bonding with Feng Huang, "no better than the circumstances that put us where we were. Heed history of the first two world wars and lets not set one conflict up for another in our handling of human rights." A head shakes as he brings his thinking back down to the ground. "Yeenagi is gone. And I hear there is some news on the Chaos Gates as well. All good things."

Speaking of 'good things' he looks to Himari and mention of 'taxes'. "I think that we could institute taxes if we connected taxes to specific services. As it stands, it is all services out of goodwill. I've had theives attempt to steal things from my store, but there are no Guardians in Shibuya. We self-govern there. If we take, we need give, it isn't extortion." And with that, things are winding down. He offers a wave to Himari, "Be safe. Chim me when you want your 'free round'." He should be on his way as well, looking up at the evening sky a moment. "I as well. No rest for the wicked."

"Take care Himari, and call if you want any woodworking help with that wagon or such." Shiruba waves at the departing tanuki-girl, and nods a bit to Haru. "I wouldn't put it into so many words but everything you said is true, Haru. Avoiding a thing spread is part of the reason we keep tending to Dutys and investigating such matters, and keep the problems small to deal with." After which she gives a soft sigh. "As should I. I do have those reports waiting for me. Mayhaps I shall call Erufu and see if I can order a meal." Work, food, and probably some sleep. Before heading off to deal with other matters. "You take care as well Haru." The wolfgirl turns to head towards the Alliance HQ.