Crosses, Crescents and Diamonds

With her hands clasped around a steaming cup of tea, Jazuhanzu sits at a table in the Pelapuff Cafe. It's her second cup. She's been waiting a while. Of course, given that she had to reach out to Yeowang over Chim to arrange this meeting, with a suggestion that Shiruba indicated that she could help her with a potential project, of course it was probably going to take a little while for it to happen.

Her tentacles swish idly over her shoulers, tthe rest of her hair spilling off to the sides, wafting as if it remained underwater even while the rest of her is on dry land. She is staring donw at the cup of tea, lost in thought. Very lost in thought.

She is, at the least, very recognizable. 'Adorably twee undine lass in black with a witch hat and purple hair' is hard to miss, even in an MMO.

Yeowang makes her way into the cafe at long last, and takes a look around. There's not that manu undines as it is, and Jazuhanzu is distinctive even among undines, so Yeowang can make her way straight over. "Good evening," she says, bowing her head. "I'm Yeowang." Not that humans are super common, either, but they're not particularly distinctive, or rather, she's not particularly strange, for a human.

"I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get here," she says apologetically. "I missed the boat and had to get the next one." Meaning she was not on Eastal when she first made the meeting arrangement. But she's here now!

"Jazz," replies Jazz.

"It's fine. Shriuba told me you're good at organizing things. I'm hoping that's true and you can help me, because while I have a useful idea, I don't really have the talent to make it *really* work." This is a frank summation of what she feels is her own capabilities. "I've been thinking about the Waves." She has a little sip of her tea, "and how there's only so much we as adventurers can do. What I was proposing to Shiruba was a Yamato-based and Lander-staffed version of the Red Cross, appropriately renamed to our environs, and ultimately funded by the Kingdoms. When a wave timer starts, they'd move into the area to offer support. Protect evacuated refugees, deal with the injured, and after it's done, help with treating the fallen an assisting with damage repair and clearing."

Speak of the wolf, and she shall appear. Or something weird and clever sounding like that.

Really it's just sheer lucky that Shiruba happens to walk into the Cafe, intending to check on Pela and her current project even if it wasn't one of those 'obsession to the exclusion of all other things' type of moods this time. Though she pauses and blinks a moment at seeing who else is already in the establishment. "Well, fancy running into you two, together. I take it Jazu took my advice."

Yeowang nods gravely as Jazz explains her idea. "I've also thought that an aid organization would be a great boon," she explains. She looks over to Shiruba, nods in greeting, and says, "If your advice was to ask me to help organize things, then yes, she has taken your advice." Back to Jazz, she says, "An aid organizaiton is a pretty substantial undertaking, to begin with, and getting things set up will take a lot of coordination. But it can absolutely be done. I, myself, and making some initial moves in thar direction, and I am assisting Michio in his efforts, though they're more of a hospice-type place that Landers could go to rather than a relief organization that goes where needed.

"But something like the Red Cross, that would be a definite boon to the Landers. Did you need my help with anything specific, or general organization?"

"I did tell you," remarks Jazz to Shiruba, dryly.

Then her amber and violet hued eyes are turned back on Yeowang for a moment before she pauses and then explains, "Yeah. All of it. I don't know where to start. The first thing I thought was the training of and establishment of a pilot program here in Shibuya. We need to evaluate what skills will be needed, recruit people, get them trained, find suitable leadership candidates, empower them appropriately, and then help them get there. From there, I was thinking the program could spread, and be funded by the Kingdoms without being *of* the kingdoms, and in turn help reduce the burden each one experiences in turn. Besides, a disaster-relief organization really is just sound planning, especially if we can leave it largely in Lander hands."

Shiruba gets herself a snack and some coffee then wanders over to the table. "Mind if I join you?" And then sits down once assured she can. "Not that I intend for us to stop coming to the defense of the people when disasters like the Calamity Waves happen. But the more prepared the Landers can be to help themselves, the more that can be done and more quickly. We can't be everywhere, especially without the Chaos Gates."

Yeowang nods agreement with Jazz, and says, "Well, there are several tasks we'll have to do. Logistics is always a thing people underestimate, but the Landers may have people that can do it. Writing up lists of things people will need to do their tasks, for instance. How many bandages will we need? How much gauze, how many ... healing potions," she almost trips on the unfamiliar term. "Stretchers and cots for the wounded, wagons to transport things, how many animals." She considers, "We'll have to plan out how much aid we want to be able to provide, that will be a driving force on how many resources we need."

As far as the Kingdoms providing aid, she says, "I don't expect, in a medieval economy, the Kingdoms will provice aid without some guarantee of that aid being there for them. But I think we /can/ make that statement, once we get set up, so I think we may be OK on that. I just had another idea: Rather than a fixed location, what if we had all our resources on a ship? We could sail to wherever aid was needed."

She agrees with Shiruba, "This won't be a military aid thing, the alliances do alright with repelling the waves, all things considered. But after the wave, I think we haven't done much. At least not in an organized way."

"A sort of hospital ship headquarter isn't a bad idea," agrees Jazz, thoughtful, "and yes, we're on the same page there. Hopefully, we can encourge donations of resources, that can then benefit those stricken by the calamity. The kingdoms and alliances are doing all right for *now*, but the destruction is only going to increase, and having this in place, and expanding, will help a lot, especially if they can get there before the timer runs out and assist in evacuations. I like where you're going with this. It won't be military, but we should take advantage of the shield school, have them available to protect refugees at high stakes times, I'd think, though there are risks to that approach." She bnrings a hand to the back of her head.

Shiruba takes a drinks from her coffee, and nods a bit. "Yes, I agree, keep this a non-militarized operation. But having defenders trained to protect the relief workers takes that little bit more stress off our shoulders. And the defenders can always be trained to handle other tasks when not needed for protection directly. Yeowang is right, and I'm not politician, but I think that can be used to our advantage? When they see what having an organization for aid accomplishes, and that their contributions achieve something, they will be more willing to give party." She picks up her snack in the other hand. "I'd suggest starting with Ninetails, and the Dukedom, as they are two we have established contacts with already in the establishing of Shibuya." She makes a face. "And I hate to say it, but with the Undead Army looming, the trade princes may be more willing to cooperate when there is a more immeadiate need for the services."

Yeowang agrees, "There are risks to every approach. There are pirates that ply the high seas, though so far they seem an ineffective lot, by and large. A few motivated pirates and a bunch of bravos who're just there to drink." But she nods about benefitting the people of all the kingdoms. As far as the school goes, she says, "Perhaps that can be their headquarters? And I'd like for any ships to have armed guards to stave off pirates and other opportunists," she agrees with Shiruba. "I have a contact in Ninetails who may be able to help. For a price, obviously."

"Perhaps a small office in each major city, so they can send a message when they spot the countdown at their location? I think that might be the fastest way to get the news." She considers, "If they can get there before the timer and evacuate people, that will be a different thing entirely than providing relief on-station. That'd require us to sail in empty so that we've got capacity to get people out."

As far as aid in Fourland goes, she nods. "All the Kingdoms will be serviced. Now, a larger question is, do we have healers or doctors enough to staff all this? Modern first aid is radically different than medieval first aid. Basic stuff, we can teach, but we'll probably want at least two more or less fully, modernly trained doctors. Do those even exist apart from players? How many magical healers do we have?"

"Right. That's why I was thinking a pilot program. We show it can be effective, show it can help, and let it grow from there. Get the Kingdoms to patronizse it, expand its resources.." She spreads her hqands out in front of her, giving Yeowang a nod of agreement.

"I think you're on the right track. We don't have enough healers to do all of this, but I imagine we can train more. And, ultimately, more people trained in healing and supporting the injured really can't hurt, can it? Plenty of benefits." She leans back in her chair thereafter, tipping her hat with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Right you're going to have to train more over time. But the Shield School proves that Landers can be taught new techniques." Shiruba sits back in her seat with a nod, quite happy to see progress being made towards this idea. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves... You said you were an organizer familiar with larger operations Yeowang, so I hoped you'd be able to help with something like this."

Yeowang smiles to Jazz about a pilot program. "I'm setting one up, or trying to," she explains. "Though not on a ship. I have a contact in Ninetails, as I mentioned. But I think if we can get some trained healers and some trained logisticians focused on this, we could get it up and operating quickly. Well, relatively quickly. Bureacracy never works fast," she laments. "On the other hand, it does work consistently and visibly, so there should be no surprises."

"Now, Michio's hospital might be a good place to train medical people," she proposes. "I wonder if he could be brought in on that?"

And another note: "So, how many ships are we talking about? How many Landers would we be evacuating per event, do we estimate? We might need a flotilla to accomplish that. The largest galleons carried 400 crew at most, with a small number of passengers in extremis."

She nods smoothly to Shiruba, and says, "Oh, certainly, This is fairly straightforward, I think. I'll get started talking to people immediately. I'll see how many ships I can get my hands on, and what people are floating around that can help. I'll need starting capital, of course, to get people to come help us, so do you want me to try to work on the funding side first, or do you want me to get a little bit set up, so we have something to show the Landers when we go to them with our hands out?"

"Let's see what funding we can pull together from adventurer's for starters. While I want this to be a Lander driven and run affair in the long term, I don't want to ask too much of them before we have something to show them."

Jazz leans back again. "So I think that's for the best. Get the ball rolling, start building, and as we have more to show for it, we can pull back, or at least should be able to assuming all goes well. It just needs a catchy name. Something relevant to Yamato without actually speaking to any particular kingdom's interests and without any obvious tie to us. I don't want this to be about us. It's about the Landers and helping each other."

"The Kingdoms will want to see that there are actual benefits to be had before they will support than in passing." Shiruba picks up her coffee. "You're best establishing a base operation that can be put into action. Both to show it's worth to the Kingdoms and to show the commonfolk that they can indeed make a difference in their world. They hold us Adventurers in high regard... sometimes a little too high. They shouldn't be entirely reliant on us."

Yeowang agrees with Jazz about the funding, "Plan B, then, fund our initial squad ourselves, and then go to the Landers when we have something to show then what they'd be getting." She nods as Shiruba understands it exactly her way. "Pay us this gold, we will anchor a medical ship like this in your city permanently." As far as a name, she says, "I'm not sure what religious symbol they'd use here, but the Red Religious Symbol would work. After all, we have Red Cross and Red Crescent in real life. The Beautiful One is probably closest associated with support and succor. So, she might be the appropriate symbol."

"Exactly," says Jazz, "and making it clearly independent of the adventurers ultimately will help encourage buy in as well. I want it ultimately to be sustainable as an effort by the indigenous population." Her tentacles twitch slightly. "People should get help regardless but if we can save lives *and* help speed up repairs from these calamities, it should only help everyone."

She worries her lower lip a moment. "All right. If it is feasible, let's get the ball rolling."

Shiruba finishes off her coffee. "I am glad I have you guys to get this operating, it is well out of my league. I'm just an archer in charge of the combat and exploration guild." She scoots back her chair and stands. "Speaking of which, I need to get back to my own matters. We don't know exactly when Scale is going to push the next boss other than it's soon, and I want to have our response as ready as possible to fight whatever the Wave spits up this time." Pause. "Or whoever."

Yeowang nods to Jazz and Shiruba, and says, "I wonder if it wouldn't hurt to place someone in their organization, a spy, sort of, to keep track of things like when they're going to push? They don't seem particularly secure or worried about that sort of thing."

Yeowang adds thoughtfully, "I wonder if Scale might even throw some gold our way? They seem interested in not alienating the Landers -too- egregiously. If we pitch it the right way, they might jump on it for the good press."

"There are members who have realized that they can't just ignore what the Calamity Waves do to the rest of the world. Those would be your most likely connections for assistance," Shiruba replies with a nod. "The support would help, regardless. You two keep me posted on how things progress, okay? I will see you later." Shiruba bows briefly, then shows herself back out of the shop. Though by the way her tail wags behind her, she's quite happy to see this idea is going somewhere.