Spring Rain on the Mountain

    It's a relaxing day in Eas. There is a sense of pleasure and calm. The reason for this is the rainfall that even now, gently waters the mountains. It has been going on for some hours and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

    As the clouds do their work, the people of Eas rest. The crops have been sewn, the weeds plucked from gardens, and now it is time to sit back and demonstrate the legendary patience for which farmers are so well known.

    As for the baroness, she is sitting at a table not too far from the Dome of Stars. The table is protected from the rain by a wooden gazeebo. Elly has no paperwork in front of her. She has no pen. She has reports to read or judgments to make. Her only accessory is a pot of tea set over a small brazier and its accompanying cups, whisk, and bowl.

Uta just happens to be standing under the same cover as Wake, at the edge of the gazebo; perfectly still, gaze fixed in the distance, the Spriggan does not say a word.

One gloved hand reaches out, under the rain, and is retracted. Uta looks down, as she rubs her thumb and index finger together.

"Water."

That is all she says for a bit, then continues, "Who knows how many drops of rain, each individual one of them looking and feeling absolutely real. This is just... impressive."

    "We are all raindrops, Uta."

    Elly pauses to drink her tea before going on.

    "We are born in flight, and we fear an end to our fall almost as much as we fear the thought of it going on forever."

    Silence.

    Another drink of her tea.

    She sighs and smiles at Uta. "Would you like some tea? It's quite good."

Someone must have tickeld Uta's philosophical and literary happy spots. Her mouth pulls into a smile, and her wings flutter slightly.

New world, new species, new emotional tells. One has to get used to these little things.

Uta quickly covers the short walk that separates her from the Baroness, and in a matter of seconds, she is sitting close to Wake. "I would love some tea, thank you Lady Bombast." Quick glance in the distance. "The perfect beverage for this weather."

    Elly rises to pour Uta a cup of tea. When it comes to the grace and precision of this she is rarely rivalled. Yet for all the formality, it's beautiful in its simplicity.

    Elly will settle back into her seat once she is certain that Uta is comfortable. The tea steams pleasantly in the air and the cup that holds it is thick enough to avoid burning the hand that holds it, but still allows a pleasant warmth to seap through, as well.

    "Have you been sleeping well, Uta?"

    Elly takes a deep breath, drawing in the air and slowly letting it out. She smiles and reaches for her tea once more.

    "Before we came to this place, what kind of things kept you up at night?"

It is true that Wake is rarely rivalled when it comes to grace and precision.

But she will find that Uta has a surprising property of response and engagement in the ritual, and all the motions have the correct grace and mindfulness, as one would expect; a notch above many Adventurers, rituals and manners are second nature to this Spriggan, so much she could easily navigate courtly life, if only she wannted to.

"Getting my eight hours per night," Uta replies, professional, to the first question. "Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less, but getting the proper amount on average. Keeping an eye on my own debuffs. Nurse, heal thyself," she says, with a bit of a smirk.

The second question... The casual observe would notice a poker face in response. But someone like Wake, whose skills in detecting such subtleties would be at least two notches above Uta's skill at concealing them, will pick up on the brief weather pattern passing over her friend's expression -- sunshine, followed by a cloud. Dark at first, but eventually settling on a more neutral, covered sky.

Uta lets the vapors waft while all this goes on, and slightly longer afterwards, before she takes a sip from her cup. "What kind of staying up at night?", she asks.

    "In the world before, I would lose sleep to work. Fearing this or that incident might cause conflicts. War. Thousands of deaths. But also, I would worry that little things. Like what might happen if my relationship with Tae were more fully understood. Lesbians aren't exactly the easiest sell to my former employer, nor were we welcome in Japan."

    She sighs softly. Another drink follows. A long pause to think.

    "I wonder if you really know someone at all, if you do not know what they are most afraid of."

Uta's barrier of neutrality softens a little bit more with each of Wake's sentences.

At the end, all that remains is silence, a lower lip being sucked in ever so slightly, and the vapors of tea describing abstract patterns in the air.

"When I'm in bed, at night, and everything has finally fallen silent, and nothing races to grab my attention anymore,", Uta begins. "When the wet floor of my brain finally dries up, removing the need for the associated yellow warning sign, and thoughts inside my head no longer have to play extreme accidental full-contact skating..."

Uta sips more tea. Silence.

"Well, I can finally think back of everything I did during the day, and finally -understand- what I've actually been doing during the day."

Uta's shoulders slump down, imperceptibly. She sips more tea.

Her voice lowered, both in volume and pitch, she mutters, "Sleep never comes too soon. Or too welcome."

    "Are you happy with what you are doing here, Uta?"

    The question hangs in the air above them. There's an element of danger that only comes when honesty is invited.

    "It is so easy, isn't it? To just fall into a routine. To be who we are expected to be. The next thing we know, we're all grown up and old so fast."

Uta falls deep into thought. The question seems to have provided just the right jolt of distraciton to divert Uta's mind away from the abyss of self-loathing.

"I... I had never really considered that angle," she says. And sinks into thought again. Those cogs sure are churning.

"I... I suppose I am?", she finally hazards.

The second part is listened to. Quietly. One hand under the cup, the other around it.

Sip.

"I -had- to fall into a routine," There it comes! The past tense. Now we're finally discussing matters that apply only to before the Apocalypse. "Doctor's orders."

Sip.

"Routine, medication, meditation, exercise," Her hands are too occupied with the cup of tea, so, instead of counting on her fingers, she counts on her wings: with each item she quotes from the list, she unfolds one of her dragonfly-like smooth, dark wings.

"That's how I could at least pass for a normal person before coming here."

Sip.

"And yet...", she trails off, following some thought.

    Elly listens in silence, watching Uta closely. There's a subtle shift to her posture, a relaxation, an opening. It's hard to note the way her eyes grow slightly less wide, the calm curve of her smile so very subtly increases, leaning just a little more forward, to welcome all that Uta says without judgement.

    She does not nod in understanding, nor show any other sign of what she might be thinking. Only her words will do that for her, this time.

    There is a temptation, to relate what Uta says to her own experiences. It is ignored and the woman focuses on her friend.

    "And yet?"

"And yet... I guess you're right."

Uta looks up and away, and as soon as the cup leaves her mouth, she waxes poetic. She begins reciting in a (really good, actually) Italian, with only the barest hint of a Japanese accent; the listener wont't even have to know the language in order to understand the verses, courtesy of the translation system.

    "Considerate la vostra semenza:        | "Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang;
    fatti non foste a viver come bruti,    | Ye were not made to live like unto brutes,
    ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza"    | But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge."

The spriggan chuckles, and shakes her head. "Sorry. Dante's Inferno, canto XXVI, verses 118-120." Sheepish grin. "I think I mentioned this in the past. College dropout here. Literature. European Reinassance Poetry." A sigh, a shake of her head, a smile. "Where was I... Oh, yes!" She clears her throat. "...and yet, that is exactly what pushed me towards joining Elder Tale Online in the first place. I couldn't stand the routine. Not anymore. I needed something new. Something different. -Anything-, to be pushed out of the sopor I was being lulled into."

Silence. Look down into the cup, at the swirling shapes, created both by the liquid and the steam. Silently, yet clearly, pondering a question: was it worth it?

    "Was it worth it?"

    A heartbeat. Two. A deep breath. A soft sigh. Elly leans back slightly, her posture changing to hold her cup in front of her. The steam rises lazily in the air.

    Serendipity is a strange thing in all cases. It is, in a sense, the moment when the universe mocks complexity with an answer coming from the unexpected. Or perhaps it is simply a measure of the divine author's impatient hand.

    There is something she wants to say. She even opens her mouth as if to speak, but elects instead to silence herself with more tea, and in so doing, loses herself for a moment in the swirl of steam.

"Born in flight. Still falling," is Uta's evasive answers. "It's not about the end of the fall, or the thought of it going on forever. It's about whether the fall is meaningful. Hard to tell while hurtling at terminal velocity towards some unknown surface."

There is silence as Uta stares through the waft of vapor, focusing on something. Possibly her inaudible breathing.

"Still, all those drops are beautiful." Sip. "Certainly beats floating around in the indistinct haze of a cloud."

    "So what is meaningful to you, fellow raindrop?"

    Elly takes another drink, then sets her cup down. She turns to look at Uta for a time. Her gaze does not linger long. She smiles warmly, staring off into the rain.

    The spring rains have awoken the green of the mountains in dramatic ways. The grass is thick and growing as if to make up for lost time. The trees, which had awoken a couple months ago, are basking in this manna from heaven after being left thirsty for weeks.

Or is it "mana"? Hard to tell in this world. Lines blur. Hard to keep them straight.

The column of steam is now describing a sort of an asymmetrical, yet harmonious, multi-helix shape which widens as it curls its way to the heavens. Kind of, but not quite, Aincrad Tower. Kind of, but not quite, like the tendrils of light and magic that materialize on Uta's staff during her casting. Except that this particlar incarnation of the stairway shape does not incite to urgent action; it merely is. And is let be.

Uta certainly had some time to meditate. To rake her gray matter (or what replaces it -- hard to tell the exact nature of this world) for an answer. To shape, sculpt, chisel it into a gem of wisdom.

"I don't know," she admits with a sigh. "Still figuring that one out. There are a lot of things I -like-, but that does not automatically make them -meaningful-."

Her eyes dart down, instinctively, while her wings flatten against her back, as if it was a single movement. That must bring to her attention that she's wearing a nurse's uniform.

And so, she speaks again, distant, quiet, as if dropping an afterthought, on autopilot; likely quoting, or perhaps paraphrasing, rather than coming up with the words on the spot. "To heal. That skill belongs to me."

She lets some time pass, then looks up. "But what about you, Lady Bombast? We've been talking a lot about me, but I feel like I'm not leaving enough space in the conversation to share your own experiences."

    In the distance, there is an indistinct sound of humanity. It's hard to tell if it's the laughter of a child, the call of an adult, or something else entirely. It lasts but a moment. The rain goes on.

    "It depends, of course, on how you define it. Which is fascinating, in a world where language has been diminished, the power of it stolen from both those speaking and those listening. It has been approximated by the universe itself."

    She considers the question in silence for a time. But of course it is not truly silent. The rain goes on. The loud cry of some bird repeats in the background.

    "My meaning comes from the expression of my desires. I am enjoying settling into a new course. I am a wife now. A priestess. A politician. The tug of these responsibilities is frequently unaligned. Deciding what to do in those cases defines who and what I am. I suppose this makes me something of a mathmetician."

And as things happen to be Daiyu comes upon the outdoor sitting area, ever present parasol upon one shoulder. "Sounds like quite the conversation you two are having."

"It is one of the staples of storytelling. What we want is often not what we need." The sentence has no tone of reproach at all. Uta is clearly not correcting Wake -- mostly speaking about herself. What someone else will make of it, it's up to them. "Buddhism, Taoism, and many other philosophies agree: there is something better, bigger out there than chasing one's own tail." She looks down into her tea. "I've learned that the hard way."

As if realizing that she let something slip, she straightens her head, and proceeds her conversation with a level voice. "I am trying to listen to the Universe." Her mouth pulls in a playful smirk. "Listening to try and hear what quest it's giving me rather than battling it for drops."

When Daiyu arrives, she jolts to straighten up; even her wings spring to attention. "Oh. Lady Daiyu. I didn't hear you coming. Please have a seat..." Of course, Uta will squint at Daiyu, and mutter, "Just... -where- have I seen you before..."

Unless someone follows up on that, ther e will be a shrug, there will be a sigh, and the topic will be forgotten.

    Elly rises smoothly when Daiyu enters. Her curtsey follows. She has, somehow, changed it. As if to prove that even the unwelcome intrusion of the translation system cannot stop her from expressing exactly what she wishes. The form is executed as perfectly as ever. The bend of the knee, the spread of skirts, the bow of her head. But the curve of the smile is her own, conveying an affection that adds to the tone of her voice.

    "Lady Daiyu, it is a pleasure to greet you. I pray you have time to join us?"

    She does not assume, but draws out a chair for Daiyu with an earnest glint of hope in her eyes.

    "We were discussing the journey that follows birth and proceeds the end. But perhaps we will discuss those things, as well. At least the former seems a good topic for the day. On a spring day the latter seems almost ungrateful."

A Vulpine ear flicks. The tip of one tail twitches. But Daiyu just smiles pleasantly otherwise. She has learned not to question Uta being insightful and naive at the same time.

Instead she returns Wake's greeting with her own formal bow. "It would be a pleasure and honor." She takes the offered seat, collapsing her parasol and setting next to the chair.

"Every story has a beginning and end but it is oft what lies between that is most interesting."

"Agreed," Uta nods at Daiyu. "But the Baroness happens to have questions right now. And questions lead to truth. Maieutics, aka 'midwivery'. The Socratic method, based on the premise that the teacher is supposed to help the disciple give birth to knowledge through gentle guidance of the disciple, who is the one supposed to be mothering them."

"It's one of the kinds of birth we can discuss, I suppose. The other being..." Silence. Sip. Inhale. "...well, how each of us came to be an Adventurer, I suppose."

    "I have some questions about giving birth in this world, but they dance into kinds of magic that I have yet to see wielded."

    It makes Elly wonder, then. Since reproduction is a possibility, could a talented data drain actually give someone a pregnancy status? The wierdness of that realization swirls in her mind for a moment and is then filed away.

    "I always have questions, dear," she adds gently. "But as for the birth into this world, I joined with Tae for the challenge. She also wanted to be in a place where we could be together more openly. We became quite good at things, though she eventually liked staying at home, setting aside her bow. And I was able to relive my covert fantasy life. I was, quite simply, James Bond with a blade."

Daiyu sipped her tea as the other two conversed, composing her thoughts. She was still wary of saying too much about herself. Although Wake was one of the few people in Elder Tale to know the identity of the woman behind the fox. "As an author I wrote stories for others to learn from and enjoy," she finally responds. "Being an Adventurer was the time to craft a tale for myself for once."

Uta wasn't expecting the discussion to involve -that- kind of giving birth. Still, past the slightest eyebrow raising (and slight upwards adjustment of the angle of her wings) which betrays her surprise, there's no further reaction. She is, after all, a medical professional, and she's probably witnessed or even actively helped with more births within ETO than anyone else in her company.

"Well, we do know that Landers reproduce just one would expect according to Old World rules. And that Adventurers can have children. They inspect as Landers, but still." Sip. "...Still thinking that getting a pregnancy counter is odd, but, hey, it's perfectly consistent with the rest of the interface."

Sudden snap to Daiyu. "Oh, you're an author? What a coincidence! I'm a reader. Maybe I have read some-" Sudden silence. Wing flop. "No, no, say nothing more. You probably value your privacy, I understand. I apologize."

    Elly nods thoughtfully. It is something she is aware of. The birth process, anyway. At least that it traditionally involves a married couple with a man and a woman. But she has her mind set on stretching the capabilities of that system. That is a matter for another time, though.

    "We all share what we wish to share. When the time is right." She sighs softly, her gaze very carefully directed not to some random place in the sky, but towards the castle. Somewhere in that direction, her wife is arranging flowers.

    "It was worth it," she decides suddenly. "Every step of the way. To reach this place. I declare my descent justified."

Daiyu laughs softly at Uta's initial enthusiastic outburst and then more composed follow-up. "To an extent. I simply wished to not be judged on my previous reputation in the Old Dream." She's adopted Wake's means of referring to that life, it sounds more pleasant.

To Elly she nods. "You and Tae are happily together and that is what matters."

"...I happen to think of -this one- we're living as the dream, actually," Uta continues with the slightest of frowns. More of curious concentration than disapproval. A frown which, after a minor rise in intensity, melts away. "Oh."

"Ultimately, it's about identity, isn't it?", she takes some time to look between Daiyu and Wake. "Is this framing your old life as a dream a coping mechanism to maintain sanity?", she asks with genuine concern; and while the hand Uta has under the cup to support it stays sthere, the one previously wrapped around the vessel darts from its former station to wave, frantic, to deflect any suspicion of wrongdoing, "Not that I'm blaming you for that! The Goddesses know how hard it is to cope with the Apocalypse forcing onto us a sudden change of-" Confused silence. "...everything?", hazards Uta, head sinking in her shoulders as she squints and bites her lower lip.

A sigh brings back a more relaxed pose, if a bit slumped. "I suppose everyone has their own way to preserve what passes for sanity. Me? I cling to objectivity." Sip. "I personally find it unjustified to dismiss our past as a mere dream." Uta looks up, and clicks her tongue. "Granted, as far as we know, the only links we have to the world as we knew it before the Apocalypse are our memories. But I believe it would be slipping into sophism to claim that because we have no tangible keepsakes to function as ultimate proof of our old life..." Look down at her tea, then away in the distance, at the pattering rain. "Just like all the drops have left of the clouds is the very water they are made of," she states, slow. Then, silence. "Okay, there's the Remains of the Old World beneath the Root Cities, but those are tricky; and since I have no idea of how to shoehorn them into our little pluvial metaphor, we shall sweep them under the lampshade for the time being."

"...oh, wait, are you aware of the Remains of the Old World?", Uta asks Dayu, leaning slightly towards her.

Daiyu is for the most part unphased by Uta's erratic rambling of topics, and just sips more of her tea while the Spriggan gets it out of her system.

"Coping. Acceptance until more options are presented to us otherwise." Pause. "I am not certain if my attempt at an expressive response is translating to you properly." So she shrugs. "Some philosophers said Life is itself akin to a dream, of the spirit's process from one existence to the next."

Then she pauses, lowering her cup a bit. Peers at Uta over her spectacles. Thinks of the venture to find and Crown the Kunie of Mac Anu. Even if thinking about doing such a thing more makes her tails shudder.

"I am aware of, yes."

    "The Dream Before, the life that was, and other terms all refer to the world that our memories tell us was life before we came to this place," replies Elly. "When I refer to it as the Dream That Was, it is not meant to indicate that the world before is less valid than what our senses tell us is around us now. It is instead an assertion that these two things are equally valid. However, with the old dream firmly out of our current reach, to elevate it above our current state is dangerous and unhealthy. It is the past, and just as in the Dream Before, the past is safely out of our reach. A time that can be a distraction, but beyond the scope of actions."

    She looks at Uta seriously for a time. Her expression is calm as ever, but there is a hint of sadness in the curve of her lips and eyes. Her posture shifts, relaxing its normal formality for something more casual. However, her every motion is intentional, it all communicates. Even the stillness of her hands sends a message of confidence.

    "I do not say this to cope, but to be clear on my feelings. Reality is perception, and even when we try to step beyond it, we do so relying upon it. Our eyes, ears, hands, and perspectives. Perhaps there is a way to move between worlds. But if we should return and we believe that the other world is more valid than this, than what do we feel upon returning? We are mourning lost years. But they are /not/ lost. Not if we act with purpose, meaning, and hold true to our dearest values. This world presents us with an opportunity. A second shot to be who and what we want to be. That means a great deal to me."

"Or 'who or what we need to be'," Uta adds to Wake. "That means a great deal to me.".

"A matter of focus then. Focus on the present. Live in the moment." That explanation seems to satisfy her. "So, there is The Dream Before. There is no way to tell What Dreams May Come. All we can do is be Living the Dream." Sip. "Wanna go hunting Electric Sheep?" Big smile.

"So you certainly know about the Kunie," Uta begins. "Unknown people, who inspect only as 'I' and seem to administrate points of importance, purpose for which the Alv seem ot have created them. For Administering important locations like Root Cities." Uta sighs. "I wish I knew more about this subject..." She turns to both Daiyu and Wake. "It would seem that both our memories, and these Remnants of the Old World are associated with some sort of... power."

Daiyu leans forward with obvious interest in the way her ears focus towards Uta. "I knew of, but due to... circumstances not as many details -about- them, as scant as they may seem. It is still more than waa known before, so thank you."

    "Live as you can, do not dwell in a past that is beyond our reach. Even should we return, the place we remember is not what we will return to."

    As the discussion moves to the kunie, Elly drifts off into the moment. In this case, she is stoking the coals to ensure the tea stays hot. Satisfied with this, she rises and fills her cup. She will naturally offer to the others, though she does not speak.

    When she is done, she will sit down once more, sparing another glance in the direction of the castle. She watches the discussion more than participates now, though.

Uta tilts the cup almost horizontal to sip the last of her tea. The last bit from Wake seems to have hit an unexpected nerve.

"Assuming that beating Aincrad is the way out, early estimates were that it'd have taken us about eight years to get to the top." She counts on her finger, looking up and away, and at one point, she freezes. Concerned, she looks at Wake and Dayu. "But with the recent setbacks... the estimate rises to twenty years, at the current pace. Assuming things don't get worse."

Uta looks down. "Assuming we -do- get out at all... and then we end up in a textbook Urashima Taro scenario." She looks at Wake, and then Daiyu, and then back. Lost. Confused. Concerned.

"...I suppose it beats ending up dead or crippled," she mutters, trying for an optimistic angle. "Which is what all those past viruses did to a lot of people..."

Daiyu is an astute fox, the little flickers in Uta's manner don't go unnoticed. But she politely doesn't comment. Instead she sips the end of her tea before replying. "We must look to the future, but remember it is not set in stone. We will not see the whole picture until the time comes."

She sets the teacup aside and retrieves her parasol from beside the chair as she rises. "Thank you for the reprieve but I should return to the library and my studies. Although," she pauses and cants her head towards Wake, "I may ask you later for some assistance. As well as I can absorb information from tomes I think some personal advice on cultural and social practices would do best just with how ... different my precedents are from Yamato's."

    "The rain falls in the mountains
    Mist rises, clouds descend
    Lonely steps are dulled on flooded streets
    A pale light glows at the gate"

    Elly looks off into the lovely spring gloom. She draws in a breath and holds it. Her eyes close as she savors the feeling of company, turning bittersweet as it is about to dissolve. The sound of rain, its smell, washing over the scent of tea, it is an altogether beautiful moment.

    She rises smoothly. "The moment is gone."

    She glides into a deep curtsey to Daiyu. "I hope your studies are successful. Certainly, you can always turn to me for assistance, Lady Daiyu. You are my friend. This means a great deal to me."

    She considers the rain again and directs her attention to Uta. "I am going to go inside the castle. Something just moved me. I suspect I shall travel soon. If you should need me," she looks to Daiyu, as well, to include her, "Please send a message. I shall be away for some time. Tae will want to travel with me."

    A mysterious smile follows. "Until next time."

    She walks out into the rain, not pull up her hood, nor making any other attempt to avoid the rain. She is incredibly focused. It is something that Uta has seen before, though perhaps she's never been there when it started before.