[D6 EA, KFC] Take That, Birds!

[Yoritomo Seika]

(expecting!)

Seika grabs a prime people-watching table by the windows of the mall's most popular restaurant, tossing her jacket across a seat to mark her claim. "Let's order too much, it's on me and I haven't been here before," she suggests with a mischievous smile. She's dressed roughly the same way as on that first day, wearing informal street fashion in which she clearly feels as much at home as any common ji-samurai, though the intricately carved jade pendant visible at her neckline today more obviously says, Money.

(edit: annoying typo fixed)

[Dai]

The much less fashionable, if even more legitimately street, ronin across from her grins and laughs, "Well I can't say not to that, can I Yoritomo-sama."

[Yoritomo Seika]

"Good! And at least one of every sauce. Obviously." Seika taps her cheek with a fingertip as she scans the menu hanging on the wall. This place seems to be the real deal; the only green vegetable in sight is a few thoroughly outmatched scraps of lettuce garnishing some of the menu items. "Iced tea for me... what'll you have to drink?"

And she bounces over to the touch-screen order console to punch in what is indeed probably too much food, trailing the observation "I have to assume Desolation-diving burns a lot of calories..." behind her.

[Dai]

What few I can scrape together.

But he leaves the more depressing thoughts unspoken as he watches a few week's worth of food, with proper desperate rationing, ordered in one sitting, "It definitely does - and iced tea would be fine for me as well, thanks."

[Yoritomo Seika]

"Gotcha, okay."

Once the food is ordered, though, Seika encounters a minor problem. The fast-moving heimin workers have done an admirable job loading the food and drinks onto plastic serving trays, arranging the compostable-fiber boxes and plates with architectural finesse so that the whole order somehow fits on just two of the trays. Which is still one more than Seika can probably carry without dropping half all over the sticky tile floor.

"Um, Dai-san? Grab one of these with me, would you please?"

[Dai]

The ronin had already been moving to assist even as the words began to leave her mouth and he nods, "Of course."

He wasn't a weak man but he was still surprised at the heft of the tray from the sheer amount of towering food.

"A little bit of a foodie, huh?"

[Yoritomo Seika]

"Well, I like to try everything the locals like," she explains cheerfully, gliding with care across the floor so as not to jostle her tray. "Otherwise I won't know if I like it, or if people here are just weird. Usually there's more good surprises than bad ones. Like kelp noodles on New Kalani: looks strange, tastes delicious. "

She sets the tray gently onto the table, then flops down into her seat with rather less caution.

And anyways, lots of the time ronin could use a good meal.

[Dai]

"Makes sense." He nods, "This stuff's pretty straightforward other than the dippin' sauces. But simple ain't always bad - it's hard to go wrong with fried chicken."

He takes a datadisk out of his pocket and places it on the table, "Not sure if you want somethin' to watch as you eat. Though if you're the super squeamish type maybe it comes after."

[Yoritomo Seika]

"Nope," she says blithely, picking the disk up and flourishing it between two fingers. "Uh... well, how squeamish? No one, like," she assumes a documentary-announcer voice for a moment 'died in the making of this film,' right?"

She extracts her densai from one of her larger pockets and plugs the disk in. A red envelope comes with it almost-incidentally, and she slides this across the table to Dai.

((Dai receives 2 koku for the video recording from a Patreon supporter. Will note in PF! ))

[Dai]

Dai smoothly and easily disappears the envelope, "I was the only one there so, nope, unless this is one hell of a ghost story... boo."

He then quiets down so she can hear the recording as it starts to play.

(Queue Click. Click. Doom!)

[Yoritomo Seika]

Seika lets the recording play, nibbling on a spiral fried potato on a stick... until she forgets to take the next bite, around the time the leggy beast-thing appears.

"Whoa. Holy shit. That's all... normal in there?"

[Dai]

"The big guy was new. The flies and ghosts are pretty standard though."

[Yoritomo Seika]

"Whoa." Seika remembers her food again and crunches into another bite. "I still can't believe all that is just... let sit there, in the middle of a huge city."

"Oh yeah, eat, obviously," she adds with a wave at the food (assuming Dai hasn't already helped himself), before turning back to the densai, now paused on a shot of the ghost. "This is nuts, though. What's that 'glimmer' stuff? I'm surprised it's safe to handle, to be honest with you."

[Dai]

Dai pauses in eating to reach into another pocket pulling out a small stone matching the one in the video, "Glimmerstone. Some sort of side effect or residue of the blast. Guess it has some sort of mystic potential though that's not the type of thing I know much about."

[Yoritomo Seika]

"Huh. May I...?" Seika wipes her fingers on a paper napkin, then stretches a hand toward the object.

"I've definitely never seen anything like that before. That must've been one hell of an accident."

((Much regretting taking too long on this thread to roll dice, I'd love to Reflections of Pan Ku on that thing! But maybe Seika can take it off Dai's hands...)

[Dai]

Dai hands the gem over before returning to his food.

(No problem, it happens)

[Yoritomo Seika]

"Whoa," Seika says yet again, holding the stone up to catch the artificial light from the diodes mounted to the restaurant ceiling and peering at it closely. "What do you do with this stuff? Would it be okay if I take it off your hands to study it some? If you need it back after, I could do that, or..."

[Dai]

"I just sell it. Not sure what the shugenja do with it to be honest. I'd be willin' to loan it out, I suppose, I reckon I can trust you to bring it back. Or if you did want to buy it we could discuss."

[Yoritomo Seika]

"Oh, if you can part with it that easy, then I'm happy to cut a deal." Seika smiles. "You gotta make your living, and I'm happy to pay for your hard work. Name your asking price?"

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this Mantis does not seem at all abashed about the subject of money.

[Dai]

He nods, "I actually found two on that trip and the client purchased the one not in the video." He gestures to the one she's holding and then the datadisk, "So with that one you get the gem and the story. I had considered keepin' it for sentimental reasons but sentiment doesn't put a roof over your head."

He ponders for a moment, "I ain't gonna lie, since you've been so kind so far, black market one like that would cost you about a koku... if you tracked down a seller you trusted to give you the real thing. Given the danger in retrievin' it, and the story you can share with those you show off the gem to, let's say two koku."