Yasha doesn't seem to bothered by any inimical comparisons to her old job, and listens to Arcea with a sad little smile. "You gotta remember, people don't become pirates because they want to be part of a big community. Most who go into my old business do so because they imagine themselves answering to nobody and getting more money than they could possibly spend while having an entire crew falling over themselves to obey her every command, you know? Safety, order, obedience... usually those aren't on people's minds, and if they are, they do something like go into a real military. Of course," Yasha adds, "Most pirates end up even worse off than a common soldier, is the sad thing. People like me who get even a part of their dreams- it's not very common. Most pirates end up broke, poor, and/or digested before a few years pass without ever giving a single order let alone owning their own ship. Nature of the beast. And even I got pushed out of the game before I was ready." The squirrel shrugs, flicking her tail to one side. "If pirates didn't exist, someone else would invent them so that people like me would have somewhere to go when we were young, dumb, and full of-" She blusehs. "Well. As for slaves, I made the call on all the ones we took. The ones worth money we ransomed, the ones who could work I pressed into service, the ones who were neither ended up being rations for me or the officers and crew I wanted to reward for good work. Same would have happened to me if I'd ever gotten caught- almost certainly I'd have been eaten by the victorious captain just to show their crew that they were In Control. I did it enough times to captains I ate."<br/><br/>After being seemingly lost in thought for a few seconds, Yasha grinned. "But that's all behind me now, if not on my behind. Look at you! Already coming out of your armor. You should probably lay off the fatty meals for a while, unless you want to spend all your time or money adjusting your armor to keep up with your diet." Passing over the 'fluffbottom' nickname for now, she looks from the performer to Arcea and back a few times before murmuring, "Alright, different markings, but yeah I can see the similarity. Anyhow, drinks are traditional. But any activities that would affect the economy," she says it a little slowly so that Arcea can remember it, "Are our job to take, and there's a lot of things that'd be real fun that'd be counterproductive. I'm not one for building up either, but I'd imagine the thrust of it is we try to get as many things as possible traded here and take a cut of each sale. Tax. Then we use that money to build stuff. Of course, raiding's easier, if more hazardous, but so it goes."<br/><br/>She takes a sip of the drink, and nods. She'd had stronger, but not too much stronger. "Ruin raidin', you say? Done that once or twice when I found word of buried treasure. Might be fun when the business of runnin' things gets too maddening. Any rumors about what was down there, 'specially in the underground bit?" Turning as Celrie comes by, the squirrel grins, waggling her tail from side to side. "Yeah, as much fun as it'd be to go get filthy and probably soaked in muddy slime, there'd better be quite a bit of gold at the bottom of it to keep me interested."