One day outside Kogushi

Goldenblade is riding along, decidedly inexpertly, atop one of the rarer types of mounts in Yamato. It's not as fast or as agile as a Peko, but on the other hand, as she's wont to tell people, she doesn't look like a damnfool riding a giant chicken. This rare and unusual mount is, in fact, a horse, and she is riding through the desert. The name of the horse is No Name, because she knows the song and the joke amused her, the desert, though, has given way to a grassy plain, graced by flowers, which she looks at inexpertly and finally jumps down from the saddle, because dismounting is complicated, and squints at from closer up, though that doesn't seem to help much.

    Hyuga's shield marks his presence in a nearby field. The massive Greatshield stands as testament to the Crusader/Farmer's current task of checking soil types in the area. He has with him a set of tools for the job, and is intending to help expand farming operations wherever he can. Since he has very little sense of direction or map skills with the world, he's doing his best to take copious notes just in case he's in the wrong area.

Goldenblade wears no shield, but on her mail, which has a goldish-tinge, is a badge indentifying her as some sort of officer in Westelande's army. "Hello," she calls out to Hyuga in the nearby field, she's not trying to surprise anyone, but she will leave off her attempt at botcanical investigations and see what's brought another adventurer so far off the beaten path. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it's just a ways off the beaten path, so to speak. "I'm Goldenblade," she introduces herself.

    Hyuga's head pops out of his work like a groundhog, and waves. "Hail, friend!" He carefully sets his gear down on a spot he has prepared for such a purpose, a makeshift table of wood planks, and begins to remove his gloves. "Name's Hyuga. Good to meet you! Fine day for a ride, eh?"

Goldenblade rubs her backside at the mention of a ride and sighs. She gives the horse an accusing look, which it ignores, and says, "I guess." She looks over at the table and prepared spot, and says, "It looks like you know more about this sort of stuff than I do." She explains, "I was hoping to find a special sort of plant. They say that plants have weird properties that ... I get confused because it's not like real life stuff, it's all made up. But if you forge steel with it, it adds like fire resistance to it. I know steel's fire resistant already, so I don't know what that'll actually do to change it, but I'm a smith, and I thought I ought to find out for myself."

    Hyuga ponders. He had the requisite skills in Herbology and Metalworking, so it likely would just take a little bit of menu digging. With his chin buried into his left palm, he opens up a menu with his right hand. "It slips my mind, but I know which one you are talking about, I think." A few scrolls and he reached the current region. "I haven't been paying attention to the herbs around here, truth be told, instead checking the soil for food growth potential and the like."

Goldenblade nods thoughtully, though she looks a bit surprised. "This area here's pretty far outside Kogushi if you're looking to homestead. It's ... probably the best land in the region," which is mostly desert, "but this far out, you'll probably get the /really/ giant ants and such, though I guess they're more of a problem around Breg Epona. You've seen them? Four to six or seven feet long? Big as a ... a horse?" She looks over at her horse, looks back to Hyuga.

    Hyuga finds the item in his Database that he was thinking of, and sends a Share request to Goldenblade. He nods. "I have run afoul of them, though throwing one onto another with my shield is something that will never cease to be hilarious. There, I think that might be the one you're looking for." He rolls his neck and smiles. "I want to see if there's a sustainable crop that can even thrive here before worrying about the defensibility of the area. Some things take care of themselves."

Goldenblade accepts the share looks over the item curiously, then nods, and offers, "Thanks. This is just what they said would be out here. I'm a city type, I haven't done this boy scout stuff since I was younger than I look now. I'm a bricklayer, by profession, I come in after the bulldozers have cleared the ground." As to sustainable crops, she offers, "If there's anyplace in this region where you could grow something, it'd probably be this area. I guess there's groundwater or something. But I don't know much about plants or farming."

    Hyuga is always happy to nerd out. "I found evidence of groundwater here, but I think the natural fauna of the area makes the dirt somewhat acidic. That's bad for most crops." He stretches. "Still, that can be dealt with too. At the beginning of all of this, I kinda holed up in a private land and made myself self-sufficient out of fear of risk. Now I wanna make up for lost time, you know?"

Goldenblade has no idea about acidic soil or what that does to crops, "...But the natural flora seems to do OK?" She ohs about dealing with it, though, and says, "That's OK then. Fertilizer's a bit alkaline anyway, isn't it?" She has no idea, really. But she nods about making up for lost time, and says, "That's a good perspective. I'll help you if I can. Let me know what I can do to help?"

    The friend request is out before Golden finishes her statement. "I really appreciate it. I'm happy to share knowledge, and... well, I'm a shield Crusader, so I can handle myself in a fight." A breath. "Fertilizer can help with things, if you use the right stuff, and with my soil samples collected I intend to find the right one for the area. As far as the flora go, well, they can survive here because they have for however long the history says. I don't want to disrupt them if I can."

Goldenblade will accept the friend request, and smirks about handling oneself in a fight. "Good," she says. "I barely know how to play this game, myself, and I'm not very good, but I'm seventy five years old, and I do know one or two things." The question of flora mostly draws a blank look as she tries to follow, but she guesses, "I suppose whatever grows here grows here because it can. So finding other things from outside that'd grow here as it is now would be easier than changing how here is?" It made sense when she thought of it...

    Hyuga nods. "If we modify the environment to fit what we want to grow, we will destroy the local ecosystem. Current flora and fauna will die out or migrate, which will change another ecosystem, which will cause the same thing. There's a cascading effect. If we find something that works here, however, we're blending in and only altering the landscape, not the ecosystem itself. If we make sure not to disturb things too much, those dangerous ripples won't happen."

Goldenblade nods slowly as Hyuga explains about green farming. "I leave that to you, then," she agrees. "I work with stone and metal. I guess I'm more known for the work I've done rebuilding Eas, but I'd like to do more here. But a road across the desert, who would use it? Sailing's much easier, and you're less likely to die of thirst." She looks over Hyuga again, asks him, "Are you /from/ here in Westelande? Or just looking around?"

    "To be honest, I live in Shibuya, and I've never gotten the hang of this game's map system." Seems like a fairly innocent thing to admit as Hyuga removes his gloves. Rubbing the back of his head nervously, he chuckles. "I'm not entirely sure how I got here, or where home is, but I'm not too totally worried. I can pack up and find travel pretty easily."

Goldenblade huhs, "Shibuya? That's NWA's town in Eastal. You ..." She does an inspect, looks even more puzzled. "Well, I guess if you're OK with it and they don't mind, it's all OK. They're a bunch of goblin loving communbists, frankly, but I guess they're OK in small groups." Which may be why she was wary at the mention of Shibuya. "Just don't turn your back on them," she adds, her tone still cautionary. "But yeah, if you can pack up and travel, you're fine. This game sends us all over the place on one quest and another, and that's the truth."

    Hyuga nods in agreement. "I don't have my armor on right now, but I appreciate the concern, though I can take more than a few solid hits. Plus, nothing gets through my Greatshield when I give it my all." Of course, he had some troubles providing an effective counterattack, but that was something he was working on. "Still, maybe I should establish some sort of travel system so I know where I am. Or maybe just an item."

Goldenblade shrugs at the mention of a map, and says, "You kids can't find your way without a GPS. Good grief, my grandkids can't find their way out of the house without it, I think. My son said I should use one in my phone, but I told him I'd been using the trains since Fifty Three and I knew my way well enough." She shrugs, "Not that they have GPS for this place that I know if, or any way to travel without taking a ship or getting dead. I was told there used to be a system, but it hasn't worked since everyone got stuck here."

    Hyuga just listens politely, himself a not-young man outside of the game, and eventually shrugs. "It may be worth looking into, but again, I can usually find my way home fairly easily." He looks around at his assembled items. "I think... that might be worth doing, actually. I've got what I need from here, and it'll take some time to get results..." He looks up. "Plus, I distracted you from your ride!"

Goldenblade winces at the mention of the ride, rubs her backside again. "I'm a walker, by preference. I just wanted to get back to the city by nightfall and I didn't know how long I was going to be stuck out here searching." As far as finding your way home fairly easily, she nods. /That/ seems to meet with her approval. "It's not as hard as all that to get around if you've got a good map or know your way around," she agrees. "Done it for years without toys, no need to start now. Never got /badly/ lost." Japan being a narrow island.

    Hyuga starts to pack up while talking. "I do so miss the trains. I'd imagine something like our trains could be set up here, nice and orderly, but I bet there's too many gaijin who wouldn't understand it." Packing up, items disappear into his inventory. "Of course, we've all been here long enough that none of us are who we were." A shrug, and more packing. "Still, sometimes I miss home. That's dangerous, though."

Goldenblade smirks and says, "Scale has got trains set up i the Tower to cross through the floors, I'm told." She sighs about missing home, though, and agrees, "I miss home, too, friend. I miss it pretty badly. My wife's gone, but my kids and grandkids, and there'll be greatgrandkids before too long. I want to get back to that as badly as anyone. But what's dangerous about home?"

    Fully packed up, Hyuga goes into his inventory, activating a macro to re-equip his gear. He now looks more like a towering pillar of steel, such is his armor, and as a covered gauntlet reaches for his Greatshield, he speaks. "Not home. Missing home. Missing home could make one weak in the moment of battle and cause death. That much I have learned. If I focus on home, I find myself getting sad and depressed, and so I would rather look forward and fight my way out of here."

Goldenblade looks puzzled, but then laughs. "Don't you worry about that. I'm not one of these maudlin teenyboppers on their first overnight road trip all sad and lonely. You do the job that's in front of you, and that's what gets you home. I've laid enough bricks to know that no one goes home until the job is done. That's how it always is. If your part is done, you help out with someone else's part that's still working. That's how it works in construction, anyhow. But you do the job and get it done by the book. Easier to do it right than to argue about it."

    Hyuga nods. "Damn right, and well said." Hefting his Greatshield, which was a simply grotesque slab of metal, scarred and picked, he stepped forward to offer his hand. "Good to have met you, Golden. May we fight together in the future, for the good of us all." If his hand was shaken, it was a firm grip, yet not overpowering.

Goldenblade has a pretty solid handshake herself. Not crushing or even trying to, but solid. "Good to meet you, too," she replies, eying the shield again. She's got a sword on either hip, so she's not a shield type, but she seems pretty capable. "You headed back to Kogushi?" the closest city, a couple hours away, she asks, "Or overland back to Breg Epona," which would be overland and almost certainly overnight over trackless desert, unless you went around the coast, which would mean a longer trip, but not risking getting lost. She has no idea abuot the danger level.

    "Kogushi. I've been away for too long, might as well take some time to myself." He looks down, opening a window. "Ah, it's just there. I think I can make that fairly easy." Accessing his Map, he mentally plots a route and tries not to forget it. "A few hours, maybe more if I run into anything, but I've got a hammer that is great for cracking the skulls of those who break upon my shield." A grin.

Goldenblade smirks at heading back to Kogushi also, and says, "I'll walk with you." She sounds quite pleased not to be riding back, and will lead the horse rather than mounting up. "I'll walk with you, if you like. If we get jumped by monsters, there'll be two to fight, and no bandits will bother us." Being a Legend has its perks.

    Hyuga shrugs, nodding. He did not mind company, clearly, as the two began to make their way from his makeshift experiment area towards a proper road. "Bandits are usually smart enough to see a gigantic shield and realize the person holding it must be strong. Of course, they also don't know how light the shield truly is." A finger to his lips and a grin. "It's practically a feather, but made with the right metals, it sure doesn't look like it."

Goldenblade nods about the shield, but taps the badge she wears on her chest, like a sheriff wearing a star, though it's a dragon's scale, and it looks as if the dragon's still alive. Or the scale is, maybe? "I'm an officer in Westelande's military. Landers generally respect that, or at least give it a wide berth if the're the bad sort. Players and monsters are really my main worries."

    Hyuga lets out a low whistle. "Well, that makes more sense. I had wondered what that badge was. To be honest, I don't know enough about the politics of this world. I should change that, but I'd rather folks get fed first, you know?" He switched his shield to the opposite hand, in order to give Goldenblade room to maneuver if a fight came on.

Goldenblade seems not to favor either side, as one might expect of her class, a Blade Dancer. "The politics are ... not /too/ complicated," she admits. "And flexible, for a given value of flexible. My friend, the Baroness Wake, ironed out her own piece of the pie in Fourland. I built the road going there from Takamatsu on the coast. Best road in Yamato. But she's got some sort of arrangement with the dukes, and she reclaimed it from monsters, so ... I guess that'd technically be an option for anyone as takes back unclaimed land." She nods about fed, though, and says, "That's a goal, too. They've got a lot of just-starting-out farmland around Eas that can probably use your help, if you have a mind to."

    "I do. I do have a mind to. Problem is knowing who to talk to." Hyuga spat this out almost derisively. "I suck at politics, both here and in the real world. I'm good at what I do and not much else, but if I learn it, I'll be good at it too." He shakes his head. "My wife signed us up for stuff and alliances and all that, but she's got the head for it, not me. No, Lith doesn't have the time to teach me, so I need to figure it out elsewhere."

Goldenblade nods thoughtfully, and says, "Again, Wake, she can teach politics to a squirrel and have him chairing the forest animals committee meetings. I don't bother, myself, but she's all on top of that business. I stay below that particular level, I'm a worker bee." She sighs about the wife, and says, "Lucky man. I wish ... but I would never have joined the game if my wife were still alive. I'd probably still be working, come to think of it. I retired to take care of her, as much as I could." Heavysigh.