2018-03-18 Sawdust and Tariffs
| Title: Sawdust and Tariffs | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Oda Sato, friend and political understudy of Kasagami Araki's Father visits the restored Estate with a political conundrum. He asks for her Father's advice. Kassie returns her own council instead. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Araki Family Estate | |
| OOC - IC Date: 03-18-18- 04-03-2015 | |
A black car with a government plate rolls up to the Araki Estate. A door pops open, and a man in his early forties gets out, pausing to admire the renewed home of his former colleague. It's hauntingly familiar. Oda Sato remembers this place well, and it's masters. A stoic, unyielding Diet member with a silver tongue hiding a big heart for the people of Japan and a calculating mind. The grandmaster of the Araki style swordsmanship, a woman whose sharp tongue and aggressive demeanor always surprised the traditional man with her volume and willingness to push her husband straight into conflict, both personal and political. Like fire and water, the two combined tempered each other upon the steel of national stage and tournaments won such that the Araki family name would be one ill forgotten on the night of their deaths.
A tragic tale, leaving the sole proper heir a disfigured young woman. But miraculously, fortunes seem to have reversed. Rumors are aplenty on how Kasagami Araki and her single living uncle have risen to such prominence. Everything from black market deals, to unearthed stock purchases that suddenly turned around to grant a windfall. Oda is suspicious. A smart man, he's known Kasagami from the age of seven. He's caught glimpses of the spitting image of her mother turn dark increasingly as she went to school. Of the distance her Uncle kept, the loneliness and how she's never quite finished mourning the passing of her parents.
A good tool to use. Yet, she's still just a girl no matter how much she thinks she's a woman. Oda has that much love for Kasagami Araki. Her father was his mentor, after all. He walks into the nearly empty Estate, past the main buildings, right to where he guesses she'll be. A small little building's door is opened. Instantly, the smell of sawdust hits his nose.
"Ah, Kasagami-kun! Can I have a moment of your ti...AHH!" A piece of wood goes flying, and Oda ducks just in time as it embeds itself into the wall. This is a proper American-style woodworking and 'man cave'. Her Father loved this sort of thing. Pictures of women lounging on muscle cars, the gleaming black and red Harley Davidson ready to be taken out, a mini fridge filled with O'douls and juxtaposed by some Chateau de Fleur Champagnette. Her father's classic mix is in a flute glass. It tastes disgusting. Kassie doesn't care as she leans over her latest project.
"Thought I heard you, Oda-san! You need to learn to knock. Woodworking is surprisingly dangerous. Goggles on the left!" Comes Kassie, her large teenage frame looming over a half-carved smack of wood. She's working on something precise and maticulate. She's dressed in heavy carpenter's jeans, a leather belt slinging woodworking tools at her hips. A muscle shirt and pair of goggles complete her outfit. The right half of her body is bandaged up. Only the slight pause at another person entering hints at her discomfort at being even this exposed. Her confidence, as ever, wavers wildy on that point.
Oda does as asked, walking over. He eyes the woodwork in question, and can't help but smile. For all that she's her mother's daughter, Kassie shared in her Father's passions just as equally. "Kasa-kun. I need your Father's advice. This...I don't want to ask this of a girl, but what would he say?" A small smile. He tries to be gentle, and steps back. Two more wood shavings fly, more pointedly. Just as expected.
Yet, Kassie doesn't yell. She laughs. Oda looks into the young woman's gaze. "Too bad. My Father, Oda-san." Her tone grows tight. "Is dead. So unfortunately you're stuck with a /girl/." She snarls fiercely. Rounding, Kasagami Araki draws herself up at her full height and then grabs Oda's shoulders. She has a good two inches on him, even at this age.
Smile. "The tariffs, right? They're being aggressive and posturing. It's going to start a trade war, and no one is going to win. My advice? Go straight for them. The only way you can polish a piece of wood is by going against the grain. Even if the sandpaper cuts your hands a bit. Don't be stupid, don't back down, and wear some gloves. Call their bluff, move forward, and claim victory, Oda-san!" Her gaze is intense. She lets go. There's a flute in the older man's hand. A shiver, and he downs it. Then he pulls out a hip flask, and sucks that down too.
"Against the grain. I understand, Kasa-kun." She's right. The Diet Member smiles. And then he picks up a piece of sandpaper.
The pair spend a long night, trading stories of the man who owned the indulgent woodshop. Somewhere, an old ghost smiles in melancholy, knowing his daughter's trials to come.
