[D7 EA] On the Hunt for the Green Stuff.

[Doji Kaze]

"Oh...ah...five of them is meant to feed a man for a year." Evidently, their love for shinies has its limit. "This jade must be truly valuable." A pause. "And it was nothing, Phi. I was pleased to be of assistance."

He dug into his pocket for his remaining wealth and passed it over to the Nezumi. He was unlikely to need it where he was going, after all.

[Nozomi]

"I would say so... and I would say that, deep down she knows it has value to us, even if it has less to them." They made it into jewelry after all. "But that's how it goes with trades. The one with what you want has all of the power usually." Unless you forced the matter, but this wasn't that kind of situation. She watched and waited, drawing out a set of valuable stones that she'd gathered in previous raids. Their value was a little less obvious, but to the eye of a jeweler, they were probably worth about four of those silver coins. Along with them, she pulled a very long, fifty foot coil of rope.

Rope was damned useful, and they might yet need it, but she was balancing a mere fifty feet of the stuff against the value of jade, and she knew which she cared for more. She'd wait for him to finish his transaction to see what she could manage in terms of trade here. After all, that much rope was an extensive effort to get, so it should be worth quite a bit.

[Canary]

"Oh...ah...five of them is meant to feed a man for a year." Evidently, their love for shinies has its limit. "This jade must be truly valuable." A pause. "And it was nothing, Phi. I was pleased to be of assistance."

He dug into his pocket for his remaining wealth and passed it over to the Nezumi. He was unlikely to need it where he was going, after all.

She nodded and passed over the jade, then looked to Phi curiously, cocking her head.

[Nozomi]

Phi knew the worth of rope, and so she looked at the jewelry pieces remaining and gestured first to the whole coil and then to several of the pieces, trying to make clear that the gemstones that she was offering and the rope were intended to buy more than one of the pieces. She looked at the rat, waiting to see how many fingers it would hold up. After a moment's hesitation, she undid the veil to let it fall a little, so the ratling could see her facial features and know that she was, at least, trying to smile and be polite.

Maybe I should have covered my eyes with this thing... oi.

====

(OOC: Offer is 4 bu in "Trading Goods" and 50' of sturdy rope [Which technically is worth about 5 Koku, but all depends on what the rat thinks it's worth, let's be real.]. She will take as many "Jade Units" as she can get her hands on.)

[Canary]

She took a careful look at the rope, considering its quality, then held up five fingers again, pointing to five pieces of Jade in various forms.

[Nozomi]

Phi considered, frowned, and then nodded once. Yes, she was willing to do that. She offered the coil of rope to the jeweler in return for the collection of pieces, putting them in a cloth to wrap and looking over at Kaze as she did. "I don't need all of this. I'm certain of it, but there are people on this expedition we can't risk getting affected. Everything goes to shit if they get hit. Other people will have rope, but I'm not taking chances with them turning on us." She was already calculating out the names of the ones she needed to get some to, trying to decide if she would reserve one, or two pieces for herself. Either way, she knew a few she wasn't willing to take the risk.

"It's not generosity. It's practicality," she insisted to herself. Pointing down at the stones, she raised an eyebrow, making sure if the nezumi included them in the price before adding them in or taking them back as the ratling indicated. She nodded a thank you with a smile regardless. Five pieces seemed... fair under the circumstances. Very fair.

===========

(Verification: -1 Coil of rope, -4 Bu, +5 "Fingers" of Jade in various jewelry, correct? I will make a note if she gives Jade to others in my record in private forum and make sure those parties know. It'll be after the whole group that didn't have any gets their 1 finger of jade.)

[Doji Kaze]

Kaze nodded. "Your arguments make sense to me. Very practical." A beat. "But I would not have judged you if you had said you were doing it for other reasons, Phi-san. Generosity is only weakness if one is not strong enough to bear it."

[Nozomi]

(After confirming with Canary)

She nodded at the last gesture from the Nezumi and gave her a grin and a clear bit of thanks, recollecting the trade goods and her newly found jade while allowing the ratling to have the prize of that rope. It'd gotten her through a few harder forages, so she was going to miss having that, but she liked her soul not being tainted a hell of a lot better than having rope on hand.

A grunt and she turned towards Kaze. "The situation is ... beyond what my people would normally teach we have to rely on. But most of them would have had the good sense not to come on this mad little voyage, heh. To the ones I give these to, I won't give the any heck for accepting a little help. We... can't fall in that place. It'll just get that much worse." She nodded over to him. "I hope you've got enough when we go down there."

[Doji Kaze]

"Turning on us?" Kaze raised an eyebrow. "What does...is that what this about?"

[Nozomi]

"Nothing really clear, but it's trying to corrupt our minds and souls, so I'd assume it's a risk if that's the case," she grunted, shaking her head. "It's hard to say what the real harm of this thing's influence is, and I'm not taking chances. I know the other day, several of us got bewitched to nearly walk into the deep swamp and drown. So our minds aren't necessarily safe."

[Doji Kaze]

Kaze eyes widened. "So that's the reason...this is..." He shook his head, wordless for them moment, and quickly placed the jade pendant around his neck. Life felt safer that way.

[Nozomi]

"It is not surefire, but you are safer with it, than without it." She could say that for certain, given that she'd been wearing Jade at the time, but what Shinsei had said stood out to her a lot, and she remembered it. She was glad that he seemed to be grasping the immediate gravity of the situation certainly. "I will check in with what supplies we have in the camp later this evening and tomorrow when we leave. To make sure I know who needs it most."

She knew that she was keeping at least one. She refused to believe that a single finger of jade was enough. That felt like too weak a preparation, considering what they were up against. She'd felt underprotected for days now. But she was trying to decide on a third, or if she needed to spread it more. At least they weren't in the shadowlands yet...

...

she hoped.