Harboring a Burning Passion

Not quite sure how to react to what was unfolding before him, Law simply sat quietly, as he usually did. As he did so the woman before him simply vanished, returning moments later sporting a large number of arms more than she'd left with, all of them holding a hot dog. He felt like he was in a Saturday morning cartoon with all of the nonsense that was going around lately. Not looking to cause any confrontations at the moment, Law decided to keep his mouth shut about any crazy antics, although it was a bit forced. One thing did become quite clear to him immediately though. The woman he was dealing with, for better or for worse, was seemingly in charge of this city. If not outright in charge then she was in some way connected to it at the highest level, but for some reason he doubted that she was anyone other than the big boss. All in all, he couldn't call it a bad development. He'd run directly into the person he'd need to talk to if he wanted to find out anything about what had been happening around here lately, and if that person just happened to be an attractive, large breasted woman, well, how was he to blame?

"Refugee? No, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. A hotel room though, that could be nice. Am I sharing it with you? Also no, I meant they call me Law, how about yourself."

Even in situations such as these, Law couldn't refrain from being somewhat crass. Fortunately for him his attempts were usually either successful or taken light-heartedly enough that they had no real impact on further conversation. He was sure that this wouldn't always be the case, but he did hope it was the case now, as if he blew his only lead it would be a bit difficult to explain why he'd made the trip out here in the first place. At least he'd discovered one thing. This woman was in fact the leader of this city.

"Ohh, the whole 'I Am The Law' thing huh? It's an interesting thing to have in the current world, but you've got your work cut out for you. A lot of trouble about basically everywhere. But I am sure we can get you a bed for the night" Ulv giggled softly at that. It would be a bed, for the night, since her Tulpas never lasted a long time. She'd make him a bed for the night and focus on keeping it coherent, but eventually it would lose form and collapse. Wouldn't be for a good day if she was focused on it though. Simple things were much easier than her Combat Tulpas.

She ate another hot dog, and then picked two more off the arms, having the arms vanish after the work was done.
"Mmm, no. I don't actually live here, I just run the place. We don't have enough places for me to live here so I just live elsewhere and commute to work every day to help them out with the heavy lifting and occasionally the cooking and reinforcing the economy by buying lots of food for them. We get a lot of help from Zian-Zi because they want to be a part of this city, but a hand is always welcomed by the people. So I give many"

It seemed that his flirting had either gone entirely over her head, or else she was ignoring it. That was fine, he hadn't really expected that to work anyway. Besides, there were still a few hours of daylight left if he really began to desire company. Law put those thoughts aside rather quickly however, when she mentioned trouble. He imagined she was speaking in a more general sense, and not specifically about the harbor, but still, the segue was there. This seemed like the best time to ask about it either way, as he wasn't sure how much further this conversation could devolve into commonplace discussion.

"Well aren't you hilarious. While we're on the subject, has there been any trouble around here lately? I've heard a few stories, which is the main reason I've come to visit, although to be honest part of it was just that I wanted to get out of the rut I've found myself in lately. Same thing day in and day out. You know how it goes."

Law hoped that he would now learn at least something about what had happened here recently, but somehow he thought that this would be too easy. There would most likely be some other obstacle in the way before he could actually discover why this areas ownership had shifted. Another question had also been raised. This woman had mentioned something he'd never heard of before. Zian-Zi. He wondered what on earth that could be, and at the risk of sounding foolish, decided he would ask.

"By the way, you mentioned something I've never heard of. Zian-zi, what is that? Perhaps we could talk about it on the way to wherever it is I'll be sleeping though. For some reason I've been feeling a bit tired ever since i arrived. Not quite sure why, maybe there's something in the air."

Having said that, Law finally stood from the bench he'd been sitting on for the past several minutes, looked around for a trashcan, and in the most obvious display of power ever utilized his room to instantly alter the position of the now empty container he held in his hands. In the blink of an eye it had disappeared, now safely held within the waste bin.

"If you'd be so kind as to lead the way?"

Finishing off the rest of her food, she nodded and got up, looking for a nearby communial building. So far, everyone had a place to sleep but it was far from comfortable, beds almost touching each other from the need to fit in enough beds for everyone. Her Devil's Heart was strong enough to do cool stuff, but not strong enough to do all the cool stuff, even now.
"Hmm, trouble. Aside from Stefan breaking the city above us and leading to this whole thing, there hasn't been much trouble. Average amount of hollows attracted to the city's energy signature but nothing seriously troublesome. We are decidedly anti-trouble, here" she told him, heading to the building where he could grab some sleep.

Not every bed was filled all the time, people worked in shifts, so there would always be some free beds for people. And he, seemed to have an interesting set of powers to poof stuff elsewhere. But that was for later. So she led the way to the building of beds.
"Ahh, Zian-Zi. It's, Atlantis, Shambala, Shangra-la. Incredibly long time ago, there was a valley in China called Zian, and a very long backstory started there, so it is called Zian-Zi"

He followed her, hand in his pockets, only his thumbs sticking out. As they came upon the place he was intended to sleep he couldn't help but feel a slight distaste. He'd never been much of a people person, so this cramped setup was less than desirable. Still, it would do in a pinch. Ulv began to speak as he looked over the accommodations, and something she said caught his attention immediately, but he held his tongue. She was still speaking after all, and he didn't think it would be beneficial to interrupt. Then something else immediately caught his attention, and while he was fairly certain she was done speaking, at this point it didn't matter. He blinked several times, an incredulous look on his face.

"Wh... what did you just say?"

Atlantis, Shambhala, Shangri-La. He couldn't just let that pass by without any explanation whatsoever. What she was saying was preposterous, but at the same time he found himself incredibly interested in whatever it was that she happened to be babbling about. A rare occurrence indeed.

"I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to ask you to repeat that whole bit about Atlantis. Maybe go into a bit more detail as well, you can't just drop a bomb like that on someone and not clarify in any way. It's rude."

He fell into one of the beds that was not occupied at the moment, sitting lazily with his back propped up against the wall. This wasn't exactly what he'd come to find out about, but he knew when to shut up and listen, and it usually payed off. As he leaned against the wall he thought about the fact that this could have been any other day just a few hours ago, and would have been if he hadn't decided to come out here to do some digging around. What a missed opportunity that would have been.

Ulv giggled as he asked for more clarification about Atlantis. Admittedly, claiming with such confidence that a place was such a mythological location would get people's ears up. So she shouldn't tease him too much about it. There was a ping of disdain walking into this hostel, which she was sure most people would feel. It wasn't the best place to be, just beds sprawled across the whole floor with the most basic of amanites present. It was the best she could do for now, but it would improve as time went on and everyone started being better.

"Ahh, sorry to get your hopes up but it's entirely mythological. Atlantis as it is represented in the myths doesn't exist. It is not some great country that sunk beneath the waves in a night of terror. Shangra-la does exist, but it isn't mystical, it's just a hidden temple where Monks contemplate existence in isolation. Shambala is just another name for Shangra-la. As for more detail, it's hard to explain. They are mostly on the edge of extinction these days so you won't know a lot about them, but a two, maybe three thousand years ago, there was a society that existed in the shadow of normal society.

A collection of martial artists, of heroes and villains, of masters and monks. Of great Wuxia and terrible Kuei. They studied great Kung-Fu - not the martial art, but the concept that translates as "Work Of Man", meaning basically anything you can achieve with effort and labour - and it was good. These days it's a very secular, very insular society. Partially because there just ins't enough of them to handle being active in the world. This is the first city they call home outside of Zian-Zi in a long time. Zian-Zi is their home. It is the legecy of the origin of Tai Chi. Zian was a valley where the very first man was enlightened to the art of Tai Chi, and where the Zi came from, I couldn't tell you"