thenashira | Game Update: May I 2377

Weather & Recap ⭐︎ By Daylight ⭐︎ By Starlight
🎶 Recommended Listening: Smile.dk - Future Girls ♪
may i 2377
EPISODE 1: Flash Fashion? Couture Craze in Chalra City!
May 1 - May 9

Weather: Chalra City is enjoying a balmy and sunny late spring with some light rain here and there. The inland breeze from the nearby beaches brings a cool touch and the promise of summer, and flowering forsythia adds splashes of bright yellow to many parts of the city. The highs for the month average around 72°F/22°C, with lows around 50°F/10°C.

Recap: Episode 0: Nova Knights, Awaken!
At some point in the latter half of April, you awakened to your destiny as a Nova Knight, and last week, you and your fellow Nova Knights assembled for the first time. With Nautis's help, you're here to fight for a common cause — saving the Earth from the Abyss, the evil entity that destroyed your home planet in a past life. Whether or not you've revealed your true identity to any of your fellow Nova Knights, though...

Nautis has asked that you all lay low for a bit while she analyzes some data to try and pinpoint the enemy's next move. In the meantime, you can still keep an eye out for the occasional low-level monster terrorizing innocent bystanders, but maybe you're taking this opportunity just to let it all sink in. Maybe it doesn't even feel real yet, despite the big battle last week. After all, finding out that you have a special destiny because you're a reincarnated space alien can be a lot to take in.

BY DAYLIGHT
⭐︎ The new school year is underway at the Everwave Academy for Distinguished Youths, and after a month, students and faculty alike have settled back into the familiar school day rhythm. There's a new teacher in the art department, Shelly Lustre, whose highly critical approach has already made him a polarizing figure among students.

⭐︎ Chalra City is always changing with the times, and fashion is no exception! The new hot thing is in and it is Dan Flashes, a high-end boutique that recently opened in the downtown shopping district. Shoppers are turning out in droves to snatch up their latest pieces, especially their signature line of shirts with a variety of elaborate patterns despite the designer prices, which seem...to be based on how complicated the patterns are...? Huh?? Their items are, uh, pretty unique, but maybe the exclusivity is the main draw. Surely no one would actually buy these because they think they look it looks good, let alone wear them, right?

And yet the craze has taken hold of the city! Even if you can’t afford to shell out $800 for a shirt that looks like a screensaver threw up on an upholstered bus seat, you can still show your brand loyalty by wearing one of their signature pins. They’re practically giving them away, and it seems like just about everyone is wearing one these days. If you want to be in right now, Dan Flashes branded pins are all the rage in pop couture.

BY STARLIGHT
Hideout: Part of the Nova Knights package is the secret hideout beneath Lucky Stars Arcade, made of the remnants of a part of the Nashira that crash landed on Earth hundreds of years before Chalra City's founding. Right now all that's accessible is the console room that houses Nautis's core and the briefing room, which serves as a kind of lounge, but aside from shelves built into the walls, the only furniture there is an ancient table bolted to the floor, and anything that hasn't been recently touched is covered in a thick coat of dust. Who knows what you might find in there?

Still, if you want to just hang with your fellow Knights while in supernova (you know, in case you're concealing your identity), this is the place to be! All of the Nova Knights have been granted the power to warp themselves to the hideout while in supernova, but there's also the secret entrance behind the Bleat Fighter 3 cabinet that can be accessed by inputting a special button combo.

Intel: As Nautis mentioned in Episode 0, much of the data she needs to track the enemy's movements still needs to be decrypted from her databanks. She's getting some funky readings, and while she doesn't know exactly what they mean yet, it could be trouble...but soon she might have some information about those behind the arcade kerfuffle — the Harbingers of the Abyss!

⭐︎
Welcome to the grand opening for Stars of the Nashira! 🎊 Feel free to post your own logs, or you can use this as an open log for first half of the month. If you have any questions about the game update, you can drop them in the comment thread below.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The madam notes that touch of nervousness — a hand to the chest is hardly a subtle gesture — and she exhales plumes of smoke through her nose as she chuckles, looking for a moment much like a wizened dragon considering adding a new piece of treasure to its hoard.

"Well, aren't you fancy. Not half bad, though." She squints at Natalia, a calculating stare. "How old are you, girl?"

Maomao almost chokes. "Grams, that's not why I brought her h—"

She doesn't get to finish the sentence before the madam bops her on the head with her free hand. "Quiet, child. I'm doing business here."

She pauses, her mind catching up to the situation as she is asked a direct question. "Sixteen," she rattles off, immediately.

The rest of the comments catch up. Rather than examine why she is being interviewed, she adds, "you admire the clothes, then?" In hopes of avoiding an awkward conversation in a minute or two.

"Sixteen, huh? Well, front of house work isn't a bad place to start."

"She's here for the clothes, Grams," Maomao says, a little touch of desperation in her voice. Natalia's mother had seemed nice and sensible, yes. She also seemed like the kind of mother who might abruptly be a lot less nice and perhaps less sensible if Natalia came home with an altogether different job offer.

"I'm old, Maomao, not blind," the madam snipes without looking back at Maomao. Some people around here are capable of thinking on more than one level at a time. She peers a little more closely at the embroidery on Natalia's collar, letting out another puff of smoke. "That's someone's handiwork, every stitch of it. You make these yourself, girl?"

"The sourcing and materials," Natalia says, with perfect honesty. "My mother is responsible for the stitching and embroidery."

She pauses. She's a full head taller than Maomao-- and not many people larger than her. The school's guidance counselor was an outlier. Add in that she was quite skilled at martial arts... the conclusion, to her, was obvious-- and dead wrong. "As for front of house, I have not attempted crowd control before, but as a presence deterrent, and a way to come to observe the business, it would not be a bad place to start..."

"Well, hand embroidery like that's nothing to sneeze at," the madam says approvingly, but she lets out a hearty burst of laughter at Natalia's conclusion. "Ha! You think you're interviewing to be a bouncer, do you? I'd have to fire myself if I hired such a pretty face as a punching bag."

She grins outright, leaning in a little closer — always with the eye of someone inspecting merchandise. "You want to observe the business, huh?"

They'll talk about the clothes in a second. She's decided to prioritize securing a somewhat slippier business proposition first. Maomao wonders whether Lenya would be more upset about a job offer as a bouncer or as an apprentice courtesan.

Pretty face!? Oh. Oh dear. There's that heart, going again. She carefully controls her breathing as she continues. She's had nerves before a fight. She's even had nerves before fighting a pretty girl. This is... This is something else. But her heart just won't tell her what it's feeling, not with any certainty.

"We came through the front of the house," Natalia explained. "It is not the first time I have been before a crowd, far from it, but... There was something different in that air, which could not be explained by ambience nor company. I came to realize I did not know, nor could I identify, what that difference was."

Curiosity, now, is it?

The madam's mouth has stretched into a grin that Maomao clocks as alarming, but she doesn't know how to warn Natalia away at this point. Welp,

"Something in the air, eh?" The madam lets out another chuckle, stroking her chin as she gives Natalia another once-over. "Why don't you come work for me, then? Not as a bouncer — I'm short a hostess since Zulin quit to move back home. Strictly front-of-house work," she says, and her eyes stab at Maomao as she says the words. Maomao just about jumps in place.

I swear, that old hag can read minds...

"If you do," the madam goes on, "I'll consider buying whatever it is you came here to sell."

"As the only compensation? I may be interested in what happened, but I am no fool," Natalia said. "I would as surely die working only for the hope of your favor as I would naked in the snow."

Aha. Now we come to actual negotiations.

The madam bursts out laughing, rapping her cane against the ground. "Maomao, where'd you find this one! She's something else. No, girl, you'll get paid just the same as anyone else who works here. I'm just as interested in you as I am your pretty clothes."

Maomao has a bad feeling about this. However. She also stands to gain financially from sealing this deal so unfortunately she is not intervening. Sorry, Natalia.
"You will actually get paid," Maomao assures her. "The madam's an old miser, but you keep your own tip — ow!"

The madam mercilessly drives a knuckle into the top of Maomao's head. Don't worry, Natalia, she doesn't treat the employees like this. This is just Maomao's lot in life.

And now it comes to the nitty gritty of it. "I see. And given that someone arguably just quit, you have a certain number of payroll hours. Now, I will need my own time, and much comes down to what mother and father will say."

She hums. "That said-- what precisely would this involve? Having seen the front of the house, I am making a guess that it is a restaurant and lounge of some sort, though, the House being the House, it's also an advertisement for the... back of the house, I assume?"

"Not a restaurant, exactly," says the madam, looking highly entertained. "More like a teahouse. And you're not wrong, but you're not part of the advertisement. Your job is to keep the customers out here entertained and spending money. They're the ones who can't afford what the back of the house has to offer. Although there are a fair few customers who come just for the company."

The madam's grim broadens. "But if you ever start considering a full apprenticeship, that could change things."

"Grams," Maomao says, and she is completely ignored.

"I see. Are there any particular requirements in what I allow when it comes to this entertainment?"

The madam shakes her head, blowing out a stream of smoke. "You'll just be pouring drinks and making friendly conversation. There's a strict hands-off policy for the front of house, and we don't accommodate customers who can't follow the rules. And we've got Ukyou and the boys over here at the ready to haul off any customer who gets a funny idea."

Ukyou, the head of the bouncers — a small security force, really — gives Natalia a friendly wave. Despite his easygoing manner, it was pretty clear at a glance that the man could physically haul most customers out of the teahouse single-handedly, if necessary.

"And you'd be compensated for the trouble," the madam adds. "So — what are your preferences? We won't make you entertain anyone you're not comfortable with."

She looks at Ukyou with a slight amount of appreciation, pauses, hums, nods. "I may be able to handle anyone like that myself, but I appreciate the offer of backup."

But as to the second question, she finds herself blinking, uncertain as to what Grams is getting at. ".... Preferences, ma'am?"

Game Update: May I 2377

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