Kahi 2012/02/01 (Wed) 00:42 No. 39528 ▼ File 13280569677.jpg - (154.92KB, 1024x768 , 2906ae1b14d960dc0884f37ce64e2bb1c5eed7bf.jpg)
.... Well, maybe it's not too late, though. And people that have to work might be more difficult to get ahold of in the day, actually. You check the number and call the person.
"Hello. Are you the owner of the old ice-cream place by the park?" You ask. You're almost certain he is, but better to be sure.
"I own the building, if that's what you mean, lad." A gruff voice came through. "Left running the place to the fellow renting it, so long as he kept paying the rent on time. Of course, he fell through."
"I've heard. But anyway, I wanted to ask about rent rates." You say.
"Ah... normally, lad, I'd be charging you three hundred on the first of every week." The gruff voice says.
You must have made some sort of noise of dismay at the sum, combined with some swift mental arithmetic, because the man on the other end chuckles.
"Of course, your old man is a regular bowling partner of mine. It's no trouble to cut his kid a little discount. I'll drop the rate to two fifty a week, just because it's you asking." He says.
"That's, um. That's good to hear." You say. "I still have some other places to look into, but... and I have to talk with my partner after, to discuss locations, but I'll definitely call you back after that to let you know what I've decided."
"You do that, kid." The voice says, and you can almost hear the man on the other end puffing out a cloud of tobacco smoke, very similar to how your father does. "Don't take too long, of course. If someone comes up willing to pay the full rate, son of a friend or not, I'll have to give them precedence over you. Just business."
You're not sure that anyone will make an offer like that, but it's a reasonable precaution. You'd probably say much the same, you reflect, even as the line goes dead. 250M a week is... still a bit much, though. That's a full thousand, almost every thirty days. Twice as much as the area in the center of the city. Sure, it's an excellent location, probably better than that one, even, and there's much more room involved, so it's likely that you can afford it once sales get going, especially if the ice-cream vendor managed with three hundred a week, but even so....
Well, your father did warn you that it would probably be pricy. You'll definitely have to think on it. Probably talk to Frank, too. In the meanwhile, though, you want to turn your mind to other things. Names and logos. Recognition is important.
Since Shanghai will be intended as something of a mascot, you think that featuring her in the name, logo, or both would probably be a good move. "Shanghai Teahouse" is the first thing that jumps to mind, for whatever reason. ... Not entirely fitting, of course, since the plan is to market coffee blends. 'Shanghai Cafe' just doesn't have... you don't know, quite the same ring to it, maybe. Maybe something subtly advertising the whole yukkuri aspect.
Anything with 'Yu' or 'Easy' in the name is probably not the best call that could be made... 'City Sect Cafe' sounds simple and nice, but... well, there are connotations, there. Brings to mind thoughts of particularly piggish Alice-blobs, with beady little eyes, declaring how 'City Sect' something is as they grind against it and drool. 'Refreshing Cafe' would, again, be a nice-sounding choice. Refreshments after a hard day, of work or pla-ay.... yeah, even a little jingle. Except that you're perfectly well aware that 'Refreshing' is yukkuri-speak for 'Sex'. You're not sure which might be worse: people picking up on the sort of innuendo involved there, or stray yukkuri doing the same. Assuming any of them can read. But still, advertising yourself as 'Sex Cafe' would have... problems, to say the least. And this is entirely aside from the fact that they sometimes say that after they shit, which is in every possible way an even worse prospect for misinterpretations.
Leaving aside names, you think about a logo, instead. Shanghai should probably be included in one, if not the other. So... a stylized Shanghai, maybe. Facing forward, arms outstretched.... like she was getting ready to hug the viewer. Yeah, that would be pretty good. Put it in a.... circle, and write the name around-no, dammit, you just plagiarized a more widespread coffee-chain in the real world. There's probably not going to be any legal issues, since there's no way they should be able to hear about it, much less get here if they did, but still, it's something you'd like to avoid.
You'll think about it later. For now....
"Marisa. I hear there's been some problems with teaching?"
She shrinks back, now that she's suddenly being challenged, suddenly wary of mis-stepping. She at least has dim recollections of the videos, then.
"N-no! There's no mister trouble! Marisa listens easily to the uneasy things uneasy yukkuri says!" She stammers.
"Is that the case? You should know, though, that Alice is just doing this for your own good." You point out. "Teaching you all how to get along with humans better-"
"Ah, mister!" One of the little ones pipes up, having just noticed your presence. "Feed Marisa!"
"You just ate a little ago." You say, even as Marisa shushes the child. Looks like it's one of the ones Reimu birthed.
"Wasn't enough. Wasn't nearly enough." It insists, petulantly, even as the elder Marisa tries again to quiet her. "Marisa is hungry. Marisa needs more! Lots is fine! Bring more food out!"
A chorus of agreement starts up among the children, only to come to a startled halt as you frown darkly down at them, and the elder Marisa puffs outward in her own attempt to keep them in line. They squeal, and there's some tumbling before things quiet down into an unhappy silence.
"... Trying, but clearly not succeeding at teaching you all how not to aggravate humans." You continue. "Really, you should mind her better."
"Babies don't understand why.And babies don't like the weirdo Alice much." Marisa said quickly, clearly only just keeping herself from declaring that she didn't really get it, or particularly like Alice either, for that matter.
"Well... just keep them in line. It would be a shame if they didn't learn this, and got themself in trouble because of it." You say. "Aside from that... I'd like it if you tried to be a little nicer to Hatate."
"Yu?" Marisa said, startled.
"You're not enemies, after all."
"Of course Hatate is! Stupid Hatate is a strange yukkuri! Stupid Hatate has no reason to be in Marisa and Reimu's easy place!" Marisa declares obstinately, clearly feeling strongly enough about this that her wariness of you has faded in light of the subject.
"You're mistaken. This is my place. I just let you live here, like I let Hatate live here." You correct, sternly.
Marisa shrinks back from your tone. Reimu seems to disapprove of what you're saying as well, but after you turn your gaze her way, she very quickly and deliberately starts minding her own business.
"Ngh.... why?" Marisa complains sourly. "Why did Mister bring in... stupid, floaty Hatate?"
"I felt like it." You say, tolerating no objection on this. "You don't have a say."
"But, Hatate is a strange yukkuri, a-and..." Marisa trails off as your frown returns. ".... Ngh. Marisa doesn't like Hatate. Why did Mister find Hatate?"
"I just said why." You say, not sure you're getting through with her.
Marisa's face is screwed up in thought, though. A clear exertation of mental effort. .... Maybe she's putting things together? Well, you aren't holding out hope, but if it means she might get along a little better with Hatate, then you'll hold back a bit and wait for her to finish cogitating. A sudden surprised look crosses her face, and things seem to click.
"Mister is refreshing with Hatate!" She accuses. "And that's why mister brought the weird yukkuri into the easy place!"
"Nghk..." You manage, biting off the strangled noise, not entirely sure how she leapt to that conclusion. Mostly.
.... Surely she hadn't been aware of things this whole time? You're pretty sure that you kept things quiet enough that she shouldn't have picked up on anything done through a closed door.
"That isn't the case..." You wheeze. "I haven't."
"Yu?" Marisa says, surprised, and then thoughtful. "... but then why did Mister bring the dummy yukkuri?"
"I already told you, don't worry about it, it doesn't matter anyway, and I have more important things to do than argue with you. Just try to get along."
A sullen look crosses Marisa's face, but you're suddenly unwilling to press things, for worry that accusations might start hitting even closer to home. You still don't think that they'll be doing much more than tolerating each other's presence, at best...
Oh well. Research time. There's nothing specifically for a yukkuri-habitat, but just using a normal acquarium or small tank for displaying yukkuri would... hm. These are actually pretty pricy. You could get a small enclosure, including both the tank and stand, and stuff to make it seem like it was a patch ouf outdoors, and total it up for... about 50M. It would contain two, or possibly three, adult-size yukkuri at best. Probably a fair deal more, if you're putting younger ones out on display. Six to eight little ones. They won't stay little for terribly long, though, so it's probably best to focus on adult-sized containment.
Or you could get one of these big ones. Just the tank is two hundred, though, and another fifty to make it suitable... yeesh. It'll run you about two hundred fifty. And it seems like it'll be a much bigger pain to keep clean, and all. It'll eat up a lot of room that could be used for tables, too... At least two fewer tables, if you set one of these up, you think. But on the plus side, it'll hold a lot more yukkuri. A full dozen adults, you estimate.... might be a little cramped, though. It could be better to leave it as a display of ten.
You don't see that there's anything specifically designed to be set in a window, though you could probably set either up against one to get attention from passersby.
Well, either way, it's probably money that you don't have to immediately spend. It could be an attraction, though. But with that done, you glance into the City Messenger thing.
... It looks like there's a registration of some sort, to set up a username. It'll set up an e-mail address for you at 'CityMail.Mail' if you don't already have one, too. You aren't a huge computer user, so you don't, and that feature saves you a little hassle at least. You just put your e-mail address as to 'Johnn'. The extra 'n' was an accident, but it looks like it accepted it, and you aren't sure how to change it.... so you don't bother. It'll do. When it asks you for a username, you just put in 'John' again, along with a password.
To the meat of things, it looks like there's a personal chat.... relay, thing. Where you can type conversations one on one with a given person you know without entering any of the.... chatting areas. There's a lot of those, but it looks like your past internet usage has thrown up a few 'suggested' ones. Or someone's past usage did, anyway. You seem to be limited to 'public' areas, unless you're invited to 'private' ones.
You stare for a moment at '#PartyInMyPants', and the summarizing description below 'And everyone's invited'.... You decide almost immediately that you probably won't be bothering with this particular public area. Also, you think you'll be questioning Frank on just what exactly he does with this when you're out. Other, similar areas are quietly ignored.
There are several businessy-looking areas, though most are marked as 'private', so there's no point in bothering with them just now.... But there is.... huh. Someone set up an area titled '#YuBizness', apparently to discuss the Demon Queen's current amusement. Confirmed with the summary. You're pretty sure that if you go here, you'll have to be careful what you say.
A '#Mafia' almost immediately strikes your eyes after that. .... You're pretty sure that this can't actually be Frida's Mafia, though. Almost definitely. They wouldn't seriously advertise themselves like this through a public chatroom, after all.
'#FishFarm' looks like... something that twigged onto your recent looks around the internet, as some of these tanks were designed to be used as acquariums. So does '#RareFish'. They both look to be pretty unoccupied and deserted, glancing at the monitor set to display the average number of daily users, reading out at a steady 'One' on both.
'#YukkuriPlayroom' and '#Abyuse~' jump out next, as pretty much the only immediately relevant sort of thing left. The only other thing you see on a quick scan is '#CoffeeTalk', which is private anyway, for whatever reason.
It's a little later in the evening now, but you can probably stay up for a bit to poke around with these, or something else, if you think of something you want to look for in particular. You can probably find, if not exactly what you're looking for, something close.
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8:55 PM
[ ] What do you do?
