The Three Ts

Soujiro Seta is part of the upcoming Mac Anu Liberation front. It is like the Aincrad Liberation front but it liberates a Root Town. Really it means huge open world battles to Soujiro. He doesn't get all the complicated stuff, but he does understand that. The beacon of good feels and martial strength is part of the land forces waiting for the Cursed Wave to hit and everything to go to hell. They cleared a floor boss. He is taking responsibility.

Currently it is dawn. Souji is already up and in the middle of morning drills. Not some stoic loner, the social samurai is sparring off with junior Adventurers, taking on three at a time. His defensive form is excellent, using two katanas in fluid exchange of defensive parries and strikes. Like watching a skilled gamer, its almost as if he is reading the future with being ahead of the telegraphs. It is graceful with little wasted movement. When the third adventurer falls, he offers a hand to help them back up. "You really improved from yesterday. Have you been focusing on your legwork? Can you show me?" as he takes a genuine interest in his fellow fighters.

Schneider is here also, but is not keen to be up and about before dawn. He is not keen to be up and about AT dawn, if it comes to that, but the sound of fighting wakes him, though he realizes quickly enough that it's just training. "Why?" he ask in a loud voice. "This same thing could have happened as easily in three hours," he complains. He has, in fact, been here helping with the liberation, and with the aftermath, not that his skillset is particularly useful. But he has a small talent for getting situations to de-escalate, and he knows a bit about medicine as it's practiced in-game.

Not that people are keen to ask him for help, he has a somewhat dangerous demeanor. But he doesn't actually do bad things to anyone unless they're quite bad.

    There was another member of Scale about, but he wasn't with most of the others. Instead he has been seen hanging around with a member of Olympus. One adventurer named 'Rylen'. It was said they were talking about 'tactics' and 'strategy', for the up coming battle. Though for someone who is helping with planning, those sure been some late nights in that tent.

Now Xander can be seen making his way over with a rubbing of the back of his neck, and a slightly tired look in his eyes. That the black scaled Salamander was at least in fighting gear, but not in his heavy armor. He observes some of the training going on, before taking a sip from his canteen. Remaining silent for now and just observing the other members.

Soujiro Seta exchanges a conversation with the Junior Adventurer. 'Its you! Soujiro Seta. Sword Saint of the Aincrad Liberation Front.' He smiles like the happy little blue haired bean that he is through the attention. The attention groweth, ending with fifty percent more of the lady adventurers before the fangirling is done. He talks to them. One. At. A. Time. It takes forever, but thats Souji for you. If someone isn't there to provide practical boundaries he will dauntlessly go on for the people that make him smile. Speaking of smiles.

"Xander," he calls out to his fellow guildmate. No welcome isn't complete with a big smile as he heads on over. "It is good to see you out here. Are you here for training?" Training. Always training. A turn to Schneider, "Schneider!" that one he has to yell and wave over, causing half of his fanbase to look towards Schendier in curiousity. Another Bish! Shipping happens immediately in their fanbrains.

Schneider is definitely almost as Bishie as Seta, but he is much more of a bad boy in attitude, and not nearly as social as Seta with strangers. "Training?" he asks skepticly. "Why would I want training? What could you train me in?" The statement is either retarded or rhetorical, there's obviously a bunch of things Schneider could learn.

On the other hand ... "Maybe I ought to train something," he muses. "I haven't in forever. My motivation has been off because nothing seems to work out as I expect it to. I don't mind when things are hard, but things seem impossible at this point, and it's hard to see an angle that would make a thing merely difficult but doable."

    Xander watches the interaction between Soujiro and Schneider. Now, if anyone remembers Xander before the change of the game, he was a heavy active raider, and early on, he was heavy into keeping up his training. Now the Salamander holy knight seems to be more tame. Seems.

However, Xander had his own ways of doing things and he always has. He also used military knowledge to make things work. As Soujiro looked over to him about training, Xander mmed softly. "I don't know. I had some rough sparring last night with an Olympian member making sure they were up to snuff. Still kinda feeling it, you know?"

Miho has been doing what she can to help with some of the clean up after the liberation and she's needing to have a break. She'll have a look of mischief in her eyes a faint glow also comes from her liminal ring as she sneaks up tail wagging on the pair of Xander and Schneider. She's finished up her deliveries and will have gear to fix later today. For now the smol smith is going to enjoy the view of the trio. "Morning gents! What has you up at this hour, have you caught breakfast yet?" Tail swish...

"HEADS UP!"

Syx slams into the ground a few moments later after the yell, the salamander fighter laying in the dirt for a couple of moments, before he picks himself up and starts dusting himself off, "I heard someone say breakfast."

He WAS up in a tree nearby, heard Miho mention breakfast, and literally threw himself down towards the group.

A badboy bish talking to a goodboy bish. The fangirl community explodes in the background. Morri's senses tingle from half a world away. "What were you training in before, Schneider," Souji asks, having learned two important things about Schneider. Confident and in a slump. "We can switch it up. Do something fun with it." For the samurai training isn't just a means of maintaining his ability. It is downright fun. Finding the limits of what an Adventurer can do and then pushing past them. He has a true athlete's mentality bundled in the shiny glow of a puppy.

Though there is such a thing as pacing. Xander gets an affirmative look there. "Would you like some tea, then, Xander? It can be refreshing after a really good workout," he tells him with those bright blue eyes of being helpful. They get turned to Miho. Full bright eye mode. "And breakfast! Miho! Great timing." Crash. And there is Syx. "The power of breakfast," he gives the clench fist 'amazing!' pose.

Schneider looks over at Xander, but can only shrug. He wasn't in the game before, so it's all new to him. As far as military knowledge, he says, "If the JSDF has a way to find Twilight Shards, I'm all ears." As far as still feeling it, he smirks to Seta, "Looks like you're on your own for training."

He eyes Miho as she pops up near Xander and himself, but replies, "Good morning," only a little tiredly, then jumps as Syx lands suddenly. "Ah!" He sighs at morning people. AS to what he's training in, he says, "Fire, of course," though those who know him know he's pretty much on top of the Fire game, like so many Scalies. "But there's not really anyplace to go, apart from vague rumors of a more powerful explosion type magic."

    "Yeah, yeah. I'll take some tea " Xander admits as he moves in a little closer, giving a stretch of his arms. His draconic tail flicks slightly and his fiery-gold draconic eyes peer over at Syx who is far to excited about food, as Miho brings up breakfast. Yep, this is a lively bunch. Kinda makes him 'home' sick in a way.

Xander then moves to rest a hand on the butt of his sword's helt. "Well, there are other means to get stronger than just offensive magic or physical training. There is also a good, if not great defense. Its really knowing when to deploy either style. Along with find a balance."

Miho eeps as Syx drops in like a colony drop she'll dance back a bit to not get hit. 5R
"I did suggest breakfast and some tea with it would be wonderful" Miho seems very chipper, so far more chipper than even normal. It's a good thing she's not a cait sith dog girl. Her tail would be wagging at this polint.

"So yes I'll happily take some tea. Explosion magic?"

It seems like the Salamander was not the only thing in that tree. A Spriggan in a nurse's uniform jumps down a moment later, silent, deadly, armed.

The Adventurer harvest is going to be plentiful this year.

But back to our Spriggan: she's armed not with her usual magical staff, but a cruder, thicker stick. The kind cavemen or barbarians are iconically associated with. And said blunt weapon is swung to whack the wrestling Salamander's noggin. Deadly, but not silent. It goes something like 'clonk.'

The Spriggan yells "NO SAYING THAT WORD!", twists off to one side, tumbles, stands up and dusts herself off.

Uta notices the rest of the people, blinks, glances at her bludgeon, and umprompted, she offhandedly remarks, "I call this the 'Breakfast Club'"

Soujiro Seta doesn't know nothin' about no Twilight Shards. For a man who climbed up the first ten floors with the Tea Party, he is unattached to those burdens. He even seems light of soul, if not of thought, at times. Seeing all of the lively nature is more of his element than swarming a person of interest or solving a puzzle. The Samurai is built for different things, simple and pure. Like Tea. He gets out his canteen of prepared green tea and a cup. The first is poured for Xander, "Here you go. Tea." As he works on pouring another, the Samurai asks the forlorn draconic one, "You have a lot of experience in battlefield tactics, Xander?" He opens up a broad topic, curious about Xander's thoughts and experiences.

The next cup of tea goes to Miho, "Miho-chan," Souji gives it to her with a standard issue of sparkles. And one for Uta. For Uta he thinks for a moment and places it on her head, "Balance Training." Then he pours one and puts it on his head. Its a balance-off. Dont be off balance! It takes a second, "Oh I get it. The Breakfast /Club/," as he points to the Club. Sparkle.

WHACK. Syx rubs the back of his head where Uta just whacked him in the head, as he quickly turns around to face her, "Ow! What the heck, which word? Breakfast? You just said it a second ago!"

"If we're talking about getting stronger what Vertina has been telling me is that there's more to it than just like, being fast or strong." He hmms a little before he sits cross legged nearby, "It's true too. Sure I'm strong, but there's more to throwing huge monsters around than just being strong."

Schneider hrms to Xander, as if he's saying something nonsensical. "Other means? But /why/?" He seems to have a one-track mind, in that regard, despite his class, Rune Knight, being a multirole class. When Uta appears from the tree, he says dryly, "Let me know when Molly Ringwald has arrived." Because Miho and Uta both make him think of the nerdy girl. He does snicker as Uta starts in on Syx, though.

    The black scaled Salamander goes to speak to Soujiro as Uta drops out of a tree to slam her staff into Syx. He takes the tea and gives it a sip. "Uta there is one I trained early on during when I was assisting with the early floors." Another sip as he looks back to Seta.

"As for tactics. I have some, mind you I never saw real life combat as many soldiers, as i was part of the team that protected virtual information and combating hackers for the Army, but I was trained..." His brows furrow a little. "And... someone taught me tactics ... " He then sighs as he closes his eyes, rumbling something to himself in forced English, before taking another sip of the tea.

Xander then opens his eyes once more as he shifts his weight on his legs. "Either way, defending off intruders in cyberspace can be its own tactical battlefield really." He then looks over to Schneider. "Well, if you use only fire magic, eventually someone will find a means to counter that.. And you'll find yourself respawning in a chruch."

Miho looks at uta as the infamous adorable spriggan shows up. She really is a chaos girl from what Miho sees as Styx gets hit.

"Food would be great and Vertina's quit the lady to be sure. Aye if you can't use it with a level of control..." She wioll looks over to Xander and Schneider for a moment.

"Molly?"

She looks to Xander again for a moment.

"Keep rotating spells right? Even I use things other than fire as much fun as it is to breathe it..."

"Molly who?", Uta asks Schneider along with Miho, confused.

"I did?" Uta asks, scratching her head at Syx. She looks up and away, moves her lips while running through her mental footage, operation which is underlined by her roating her fingers clockwise and counterclockwise in turn. Rewinding. Regular speed. Fast forward. Regular speed. Rewind. Regular speed. Rewind. Slow motion. Fast forward. Slow motion.

"...Oh. I guess I did." She looks down at the club. Then looks at Miho. Who, like Uta, clearly said the word 'breakfast' as well. Down at the club again. "Well, I guess I use it only when -you- say that word then..." Pause. "Why was I even doing this again? I-" She spots Xander. "Indeed!", she exclaims with a wide smile. "I owe it all to him if I've grown out of being a cowardly healer who's easily beaten into submission into a cowardly healer who can at least throw a couple of punches back before being beaten into subm- Oh. Oh! Yes, now I remember! Training!", she exclaims, looking back at the club. Pause. "Oh, hi Xander aka Not Dad!", she finally remembers to greet, jocular, before turning towards Soujiro. "Soujiro Seta, am I correct?", she asks, facing the Samurai.

Ok, here comes the hard part. Uta had been looking for new combat teachers for some time, but couldn't find anyone satisfactory. But after fighting Type Zero and Type 28 with him, and noticing his skilled technique, Uta has inquired around, and has had confirmation of her suspicions: her interlocutors (who, by chance, happened to be a bunch of Lander young women) spoke -wonders- of the fighting prowess of this Soujiro Seta. He must be, she deduced based on these accounts, some top tier Adventurer fighter. Judging by his regular entourage, there must be a -line- to be trained by him. There's no other explanation: for what other reason would so many people line up to hang out with him?

And so, here comes the hard part: how can Uta, so self-conscious about her bouts of absent-mindedness, ask such a legend to train her? The difference in standing is something to twist the tongue and cloud the brain. Nonetheless, it's worth a try!

"I have noticed you last time we fought together," Uta begins, "And... well... how to put it... er... I was wondering if.. you know... if it would be okay for me to..."

Big inhale. You can do this, Uta. Humbly ask the great master to dispense some of his skills! "...there would be a place for me among your group of followers?", she asks, gesturing vaguely.

There, was it that hard? Direct. Simple. To the point. A textbook request for apprenticeship. No room for misunderstanding there.

    "I think what Uta is trying to say is, can she train under you." Sip tea. "Also hi, Not!Daughter." Sip.

"Oh shit, training montage time! Woot!" Syx yells, before making some air horn-ish sounds as he hops up behind Uta, "You should totally train her, Soujiro. I bet she'd make a great student."

Schneider looks especially unhappy about someone finding a way to counter his fire magic. "Yes, that is one of my major concerns," he agrees. "If they counter my fire magic, my desire is to counter with fire magic that's /more intense/ than they can counter." Because that's /his/ source material. Sadly, he's an homage character, not someone who organically is just that boss with Fire magic. So his desires have no weight on the game system. It is one of his many failures.

To Miho and Uta, he explains, "Molly Ringwald was a hot girl in the movie /The Breakfast Club/." He looks over towards Uta, who made the Breakfast Club comment, albeit in a much different manner, and now obviously not intending to reference the movie at all. "My dad looooved old movies, so I saw a bunch of old stuff," he explains, which is in fact why he's Schneider right now. He's growing gradually more bugeyed as it becomes clear Uta's fangirling over Seta. Heavysigh. At least Syx approves.

Soujiro Seta ooohs to Xander as he highlights his experience as an actual soldier. He had plenty of structured influence from his father, who he has the highest respect for, but as an officer of the law. "Thats really fascinating stuff, Xander," he says with a smile on his face, "did the martial drills differ here instead of there? I bet there are things that could be incorporated." Always Be Training. The little cup of tea on his head doesn't lose a drop. Souji has this energetic, excited way of talking that comes through his words and his face, but at the same time it is disciplined. Controlled. He really fits the image of an Edo era Samurai, down to the clothing.

"Rotating spells," Souji offers to Miho, "but also trying out different cooldown timings. Positioning, too. Plus we can interact with the world and each other to such a greater to degree there is always a new goal to tackle. When I was climbing the Tower the first time with the Tea Party it was a whole different experience than it is now." And this is the sort of thing that excites him. Even going back down to Level 1 didn't dampen his spirit. If anything it enkindled it further as a chance to New Game+.

"I would be happy to have you among my friends, Uta-chan," sparkles Soujiro to Uta. Of course there is the whole gaggle of fangirls that were busy shipping Souji with Schneider that neck-crane to this new development. New ships must be written! A few give stares. "And friends train together!" How else to better know your friends than to push the limits together! He looks to Syx and Xander, "I think I would have as much to learn from you as you from me," he says as his gaze settles on Uta warmly. Humble yet confident. "What kind of weapons do you like and elements?" his childish curiosity gets the best of him in the end though.

Miho looks over to UIta fore a moment.

"Oh you came to the right place to find a trainer i think Uta." She grins widley at this and she will enjoy the tea which she's likel;y got from Souji somehow. She's just sipping away at it happily. She's also clearly enjoying the scenery!

"So what else do you have in mind?"

Yes, training, of course, she thinks as a result of Xander's interjection. She did mention training! Didn't she?

Pause.

She can't remember -exactly-, but she's pretty sure she did. And even if not, what else could she be asking aobut? Duh!

Syx's intercession raises her hopes, and when the acceptance comes, "Hooray!", rejoices Uta. Until she notices the stares from Soujiro's entourage. "What? Am I missing my hat?", she worries. Begloved hands shoot up to feel her head. "No, no, my cap is on, as expected..."

"I like sticks," Uta beams, raising her clubs. "Bare hands are good too!", she adds, shifting in a combat stance that's somewhere indefinible between karate and kung-fu. "Punches, kicks," she says and demonstrate, pivoting on one foot between the two. "Element wise, uh... I guess everything except... er..." Her voice lowers, both in volume and pitch. "Fire," she mumbles, embarrassed, with a side glance to Schneider. "Although I am particularly skilled with Air!", she hurries to add. A short pause. "...come to think of it, I seem to somehow be proficient with Darkness as well. I guess it must be the Spriggan genes...", she wonders aloud, tapping her lips as she looks away, as if realizing this for the first time.

One head shacke to clear her head, and then she continues, "I don't know if there is anything I can teach to someone of your skill level, but if there is, I will, of course, be glad to share."

That said, Uta quietly moves to attempt to join Soujiro's entourage. Trying to understand the general etiquette of the group and fit in.

    Xander finishes his tea. He did hear what Seta had to say, along with the others, but hos focus turns to his chimlink. He hrms gently, before looking at the others. "Thank you for the tea, but if you excuse me, I need to go check on a few things in preparation." He then gives them all a bow, before he heads off.