Seika lounges on a park bench in a greenspace in the diplomatic district, a cup-carrier with two freshly sealed cups of Tian's Bubble Tea resting on the bench next to her. She's dressed down but not too down, nothing glaringly Mantisy or executive-y in her outfit. She has her holorecorder out and has been taking a few shots of passers-by and grubby Oborozuki urban fauna, though a bit desultorily.

Dai, in turn, was dressed up - for as much as that meant. A ronin was always at risk of attracting attention but a scruffy one even more so.

He offers a quick bow before settling onto the bench, "Good morning Yoritomo-sama."

"Hey, Dai-san. How's things?" Smiling, Seika sits up a bit straighter and waves a hand at the plastic bubble tea cups between them. "I brought tea since you're, uh, working. Oolong or gyokuro?"

"I mean no murderous gardening robots. So so far, so good." He chuckles, "Gyokuro would be great."

Seika rotates the tray of bubble tea to put the gyokuro-flavor cup closer to his side, and picks up the oolong herself, along with one of the two extra-wide bubble straws. "Whew. That was a weird one, all right. Now I understand why I never saw robot gardeners on any of the Mantis worlds, I guess."

She stabs the straw through the plastic film sealing the drink cup with evident relish. "Good shooting back there, by the way. I don't think I got a chance to say."

Dai opens the straw and inserts it as he speaks, "Thanks though I think you would have had it in hand on your own. That was impressive in its own right. I'm not much of one for fighting but life doesn't always give you a choice."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't go looking for trouble," well, mostly, anyway. "But sometimes somebody else is being an idiot and you gotta deal with the mess." She sips her tea, the ice rattling among the tapioca balls as the liquid swirls in her cup.

"Or some robot else, in this case... or hungry ghosts, I guess, for you."

He shrugs and laughs a little, "Or any and all of the above... though thankfully not all at once. Yet...."

"Well, here's hoping I'm not getting you into any of the above, either." Seika raises her brows a bit as she glances at the building across the way. "You're a good kid, Dai. I don't think that's just my photography thing talking."

Of course, he isn't actually that much younger than her... is 'kid' subjective?

There's a slight quirk of an eyebrow but Dai otherwise allows the kid comment slide by unremarked, "I'm glad to hear you think so, Yoritomo-sama."

"To be honest, it's probably not gonna be me who uses any of the info you pick up for us," Seika says with a shrug. "Unfortunately they're not gonna just let me use the clean cash to throw an okonomiyaki party or whatever. Gotta be real work." Her lips quirk wryly. "But if I get to help hold the purse strings, at least I can subsidize people I like, you know?"

She sips her bubble tea. "I'm not totally sure what to do about those glimmerstones yet," she says--a change of subject that isn't, really. "I have some ideas I didn't last time I messaged you, and somebody else working on it that I linked up with. Not a Scorpion," she adds, perhaps unnecessarily. "And I've been keeping your name out of it so far. He and I both think that with the right precautions, and enough power... and if we can find someplace with the right spiritual alignment, it should be possible. Theoretically."

Dai nods, "That's good to hear. This other party... Imperial, Unicorn, or other?"

Seika's brows arch in surprise. She takes her straw out of her mouth to answer, "Imperial, actually... lucky guess? Or do you know something there?"

"The original buyer I obtained the stones for was an Imperial. Judging by his reactions when I informed him of your findings, also leaving your name out of it, he did so as a curiosity not with any knowledge of what they were. I assume it is either he, or someone in his confidence, that you're interacting with." He looks up at the tower, "Be careful. His anger seemed to outmatch his sense of how things run on a Scorpion world and the dangers an unsubtle investigation could bring down upon him."

He considers for a moment, "As for the Unicorn one also found a stone in the Desolation, the same time I found the new one in my possession, I was in no position to relieve her of it so I told her what I knew. I suspect she did not truly believe me however. Again, your name was unspoken even if it might have added more credence."

Seika snorts slightly, a wry twist tugging at her lips. "Okay, yeah. That's either the same Imperial, or it's a buddy of his, because... yeah." She shakes her head. "I had to, uh, impress upon him the political nuances of the problem before we could work together. I think I knocked enough sense into him. An Otomo priest. I really had to come the Executive Director at him, and I don't like doing that, but... well."

She sighs. Poor little rich girl, truly.

"I don't care if you use my name, though. I don't think anyone will seriously screw with me here unless I run around yelling murder from the rooftops... privileges of rank and all that." She looks slightly sheepish there, but only slightly. "So if you think it'll help, go for it."

He nods, "Good to know that I will still tend to avoid it. Professional courtesy and all." He laughs a bit darkly, "And, hey, if I vanish mysteriously, as opposed to getting eaten alive by something nasty, you'll know to keep your head on a swivel. Depending on how much egg this puts on whose face status, however high, will still only mean so much."

"Maybe, but if the World of Dreams gets hot for me, I can always leave early. And have Cousin-dono write the governor a spicy letter." Seika stirs her straw around in her drink, making the ice rattle to an uneasy rhythm. "You got a backup plan, Dai-san? I feel kinda responsible. Since I dumped that info on you, I mean."

Having the clan hire him for a job at rather generous rates had been her idea, but a one-time payout isn't exactly long-term security either.

He shrugs a little, "Keep my head down, be careful of who to trust, don't piss off the Scorpion." Or at least don't get caught, "The usual."

"Okay. If you're happy with that." She swirls her tea, watching the round pearls dance in the cloudy liquid. "If you wanted something else, though... just so you know, I got some pull at the House of Storms, while I'm here for the winter season. So if you're thinking of an exit strategy there's some other places you could go. People I could introduce you to, offworld I mean."

Dai seems frozen for a moment the concept itself hard to process, "I... I don't know. It's an amazing offer, Yoritomo-sama, I know it is..."

He looks around. As bleak and unfair and dangerous as this world was it was the only home he had ever known. He risked his life every day surviving here... but he knew how to survive here. Take him off this planet, stick him on another, and he'd still have to risk his life every day to survive... only now in an alien landscape where he did not know the people, the customs, or the dangers. No contacts, no bolt holes, no survival caches stashed away.

The very thought was almost agoraphobic... or like being plunged into the middle of the deep sea unprepared and unsure which way shore even was let alone how to survive to make it there.

"I guess if the heat really comes down I might have to. But take a rat from the city street and throw it in the middle of the ocean. No matter how skilled at surviving against all odds in its home it will have little chance but to drown."