Training On Your Parade

A straw mannequin sticks out of the ground. It's the kind martial artists use to practice their techniques, and this one is some sort of advanced kind: not only it has the two straight arms sticking out sideways (padded in hay, of course): it also has two strings with weights tied to them, so that, when it's it and sent spinning, whoever is beating this simulacrum up will have to dodge spinning straight sticks -and- heavy fist-sized items flailing around, the way one would expect from an inflatable tube-arm man when there is a car sale going on.

Or Haru's noodle arms, the legends say.

At this particular moment, the one training appears to be Uta. She inhales, Holds her breath for a moment with her eyes closed, deep in concentration, and then, with short, repeated bursts of yelling, launches into a fusillade of punches that appear to be coming from all over the place. The mannquin spins wildly, changing directions as it is hit, those strings flail...

...and after a few seconds, Uta is hit smack in the face and sent flying sideways.

She rubs the glowing red spot on her cheek, with a "ow...", as she pushes herself to stand again.

Yeowang has of course chosen to participate in this training exercise. She trains -every- day, and the only difference today is she has company. She is wearing training shorts because we don't have lycra yet, and a lightweight top, and is helping Uta my manipulating the target in a way that will help her develop the right reflexes. If she can keep her eyes open.

"Never never close your eyes," she advises Uta as ste tumbles to a stop. "The pain is damped so much in this game you really won't get hurt, so closing your eyes just means you can get hit by surprise." Surprisingly serious fighting advice. She demonstrates by deliberately striking the dummy so it comes around to stike her in the side, which she completely ignores. "Won't hurt you," she reiterates. "Even if you can't stop it, always watch the punch come in. Then you can at least try to block or twist away from it."

"Huh, guess even the dummy can hit hard sometimes." Vertina wandered up just in time to see the retaliation of the target upon the Spriggan striking it. "Yeowang's got the right of it. Don't take your eyes off your opponent." The Salamander pauses to do a few stretches as she usually does before a workout.

"Of course one doesn't close one's eyes!" Uta protests to Yeowang. "Why would you think I-"

Silence.

Uta opens one eye.

Uta closes that one eye.

Uta opens the second eye.

Uta now opens the first eye again, so that they're now both open.

"...Oh. That's what I forgot to do. Re-open the eyes after concentrating."

A sigh, and a rub of her head. "Good catch. There's so many passages involved in this technique, and it's still so early in its development, that I still miss the occasional step..."

She paces back towards the spot where she was, and before resuming her exercise, she nods once to Vertina. "It can hurt, indeed. But we need semi-realistic reactions for various types of limbs, from proper arms to tentacles to spikes atop insectoid appendages. We had to jury-rig this one as a starter, and we'll add more as we proceed." Uta looks up and away, pondering. "...Perhaps we could make a mannequin with modular limbs, and a set of modular limb attachments we can swap in and out..."

Yeowang nods a greeting to Vertina as she approaches, and nods about not taking your eye off your opponent. She will demonstrate her own Seikuken technique, which is a bit metaphysical in the way it extends her senses, but she is able to stike the target and counter every incoming strike perfectly. She does not close her eyes at any point. "Of course it does take some of your attention from attack, but it's a small amount."

As Uta returns to the dummy, she says, "It's easier to fight a live opponent. I'm sorry to say that the game balances us all out based on our in-game level, or I could help you more, but I can always spar with you." She will back away from the target to let Uta resume her training, watching thoughtfully as Uta explains.

"That's the problem with training dummys sometimes," Vertina remarks. "The material they're made of doesn't replicate moving limbs as easily as it is to stuff them to feel like you're punching a body." She pauses, cusping a hand to her chin in thought. "Though modular limbs might not be a bad idea, so you can train against different types of counter attacks. Could just make a hole in the end you can stick a sword or such in. Wouldn't be a perfect recreation of a swing, but it'd get the job done."

That musing done she settles into a stance, going through several movement kantras that are more like the rippling and rolling of waves than her usual fierce direct strikes. Sure enough little swirls of watery vapor starts to form around her hands as she does. Water is still the hardest element for her to work with, being the polar opposite of her fiery disposition and resolute spirit.

Uta stops and observes people demonstrate their techniques. Yeowang, first -- even if the details are not obvious, an experienced Godhand can tell when someone's focusing properly, and Yeowang seems to go even past that.

And then there's Vertina's unusual training. That one still gets interested observing... but in a different way; after some time speng watching the Salamander venturing into unusual martial territories, Uta offers, "...want to use the dummy for a bit?", not sure of what to say at this point. "I was planning to take a short break anyway..."

Yeowang doesn't really understand the elemental nature of fighting, trained as she was in RL, and basing her martial arts here on her RL experience. Those who unserstand such things will note that Air is her main element even though she herself does not comprehend this. "The main point of such things, like a dummy or a heavy bag," which she's made extensive use of in her own training, "isn't so much to train your reflexes as to get you used to the feel of hitting a target. Your follow through is important. If you visualize your punch continuing -through- your target, and strike as if that were going to happen, it increases the power you can deliver." That's part of why a 52-kilo (114 pound) woman can hit as hard as she does. Of course the rest is RPG physics.

She shakes her head about using the dummy, saying, "I don't need it right now. I'm trying to key up my physical conditioning, but ..." she extracts a length of rope from her inventory, and it's a bit of a wonder she's got use of that. She's still awkward with it two and a half years later, and she will begin jumping rope, clearly she's doing her cardio routine at the moment.

When the dummy is offered for a turn Vertina responds by literally leaping into action. Once Uta is clear she bolts towards it, building a little momentum before jumping into one of her powerful kick techniques. This is a little different than usual though as instead of a single strike she spins around in the air, the water element swirling around her as it does, so both her extended foot and the water streaming after it smack into the dummy several times before she stops spinning and plants her heel into the ground to arrest her motion and bring the other leg down. Teeters a little to the opposite side. "Still working on that one..."

Where on Yamato is Carm... I mean Gwen. Gwen's found a perch she's actually wearing the Magic knight outfit (OOC https://i.imgur.com/DSsOOi6.jpg) She's been perched on one thing or another watching form on high the entire time and she's grinning as she watches the others work for a moment as she drops in using her wings to slow fall to the ground and is beaming.

"Ohh what's the occasion you all seem to be having fun!"

Yeowang steps back as Vertina executes a big, wet attack. That's one thing she has trouble with in the game. The elemental business. As it is, she gets a faceful of water, leaving her looking a bit like a wet rat. Or at least a disheveled swimsuit model. Gwen is eyed aas she drops down from her perch, and Yeowang replies, "No /occasion/. This is everyday training." It is for her, anyhow, still jumping rope. It's been several minutes and she shows no sign of slowing down. She watches, but it seems like Uta's break is less short than she was expecting.

Uta whistles at Vertina's technique. "Still impressive! Maybe we'll have to trade tricks once you're done with that. If... it's up for being taught, that is. I will respect one wanting to keep their techniques private."

She then turns to Yeowang. "Oh my! Fashion emergency!", she exclaims, as she dramatically points towards the Korean. She flicks her menu open, operates it, and a few moments later her staff materializes in her grasp. She vocalizes the characteristic two-tone wail of an ambulance, and soon the gem on her staff begins to emit a spinning, flashing light while emitting the appropriate sound.

Of course, Gwen was already there when this happened, but Uta seems to notice only now. "Look, it worked!", Uta beams, jumping from one foot to the other on the spot. "I -knew- that practicing this technique would have come in handy one day!"

"Medium-sized break," Uta finally admits, as she grabs a handful of nuts from a bag and pops them into her mouth.

Easily kept, easily transported food. And it tastes real.

Somehow Uta attempted to summon Gwen. To the point that Gwen is there before Uta even gets through summoning her via her 'Fashion Emergency' signal.

"I am not even going to pretend to know how that worked." Vertina just shrugs. "First I need to be able to do it without that focusing build up, or people are going to just see it coming. Unless they're distracted. Which does work. Sometimes."

Gwen rises up to her full height and grins at Yeowang "Oh really?". She just has to stop and stare at UTa for a moment she watches at the whole thing then finally states. "Please state the nature of your fashion emergancy...." She looks over at Vertina for a moment eying the woman oh she needs a new outfit...

Yeowang smirks as Uta munches on nuts. Un-prepared food, eaten raw, those were the only foods that had flavor, back in the very early days of the game. Why food has to be prepared manually but first aid is abstracted is one of the many things Yeowang doesn't understand about this game. But she nods about Gwen's arrival even as she puzzles over the fashion emergency. Not a particpant in popular culture, she doesn't understand what one is, or why she is one just now.

Gwen, towering over her, gets a flat, "Yes," as she continues jumping rope. She was quite fit -before- joining the game, this level of exercise is hardly taxing. Vertina's whole thing about how summoning Gwen went just confuses her more. Wash't Gwen sitting there watching the whole time? How is calling out to someone closeby a 'summoning'? So many things about this game confuse her.

Uta blinks at Gwen. "You know... drenched? Yeowang need a fresh change of clothes? While her current set dries?", she squints.

The Spriggan tentatively gestures towards Yeowang, whose face just got drenched by Vertina's practicing of her new technique; whether anything more than the water has been drenched is irrelevant; it might have been, it might not; or it might soon. In any case, Uta believes that drenhing took place.

Vertina coughs softly, or maybe she's covering her mouth to keep from snickering too loudly at Yeowang. "Sorry. Water splashes naturally, but I didn't expect it to splash that much with the technique."

Gwen says "Well it should be easy enough to hand you something light for while that goes and since your training?" She pulls a Kungfu outfit from her inventory and will offer it to Uta, then turns once that's handled to offer one to Vertina with a big wide grin on her face. "How about you try this one on! Yeowang would you like something too?!"

Yeowang shrugs off Uta's comment about being drenched. "I'll dry off soon enough with a menu-clean, but I'm working out now, so it would be kind of a waste to menu-shower just now while I'm still sweating." She shrugs to Vertina. "It's no problem," she replies. "I need to work out this 'magic' business anyhow." For her, anything even remotely fantastic, from the wuxia that laces martial arts in-game, to the elemental affinities, to outright spellcasting are all equally incomprehensible to her.

Gwen gets a shrug, but says, "I suppose more workout clothes are fine, but a faceful of water is hardly the worst that's happened to me, and it'd be weird to change now, so...." She shrugs mid-jumprope.

Vertina holds up the outfit for a moment. "That's pretty classic. Though maybe a little weird how readily at hand you have it." But by this point you just kind of accept this sort of thing as part of the 'game' and some players being more eccentric than others. "To be fair this is less 'magic'," she remarks, even as she rolls her hands together a bit to form a water bubble between them, "and more using ki to manipulate elemental energies." Once it's roughly ball sized Vertina drops the bubble, then starts to bop it back and forth like a hacky sack with her feet and knees. "Though I guess the game classifies it as Magical either way."

Gwen is already ready given what she keeps in her inventory one can only guess most of it is tailoring supplies and clothing. She grins a bit "Whatever works for you right?" She'll look at the two as they work. Then looks to Uta. "I shall be back in a moment..." Uhoh...

Yeowang eyes Vertina playing hackeysack with a ball of water, and says, "I can't do that in real life. That makes it magical, does it not?" Not Magical, of course, it's based on Water, not Physical or Magical. Water being its own attack form independent of Physical or Magical. But Yeowang's game metaphysics is not yet even close to that advanced level of understanding. She looks over at Gwen, puzzled; while always fashionable, she doesn't understand what Gwen does. She's used to ignoring fasion rather than following it. Fashion can follow her if it likes, but she's not bothered.

"However you want to think about it." Vertina doesn't pause in her excersize, which is as much practicing getting water to hold it's form without freezing it as she is working her legs. "Sometimes it's better not to think about things to deeply. It just is what is, regardless if you understand it or not."

Yeowang looks concerned about 'not thinking about it'. "I can do that to a limited extent. When I train up a new skill, sometimes it uses the magical powers. But I can't really control how or why things work that way, so I never know how well it will work, and it's not reliable. I can sometimes hit things that need to be hit magically, but it's not something I like to count on. I'm not even particularly good at archery," for all that she's technically a hunter.

There are sounds from Gwen and possible Uta noises as Gwen attempts to get her into something or another before she'll turn backl to the others who are training and without a word draws her blade ands start to run through some training motions...wait that's not things programmed into Adventurers now is it?

"Neither am I!" Vertina calls back to Yeowang with a chuckle. "Salamanders prefer getting up close and physical on the hunt." Pause. "Or spit fire at it." She shrugs. Either way works, Hunting is a racial skill, so how it's done doesn't really matter as long as it works.

Yeowang peers at Gwen, who has wrestled Uta into something ... Uta. Gwen knows her clients so well. She takes a few steps back or rather jumpropes a few steps back to let Gwen do her thing. She smirks wryly to Vertina. Sometimes she feels like the only non-gamer in the game, though she says, "My little brother would love this game. He would have mastered it the first day, he's quite good with games. Me, this is my first game, and I know I don't play very well. I only joined so I could meet up with my boyfriend who's still in Korea. I hadn't realized the servers would be separated. But now that we're connected, I think he must not have made it into the game or we would have found each other." It wouldn't be the first time circumstances conspired to keep them apart.

Vertina ohs. Has to think a moment as this is drifting a bit into sentimental stuff that she's not so great with. "... well, sad that you're apart, good that he's not also stuck here? Or in what happened over there, y'know?" She doesn't want to outright say it, but it's the first thing that came to mind when Korea was mentioned.

Vertina is hardly into that fashion nonsense having always been more the tomboyish sort, but she can still acknowledge Gwen does what she does well.

Yeowang nods to Vertina, agreeing, "I hope now that he's not stuck in the game, or that something bad happened. I'm fairly certain that our physical bodies aren't stuck in the game. Between Haru's father and my grandfather, they would simply /buy/ the game company, servers, programmers, and all, to unlock everyone if we were physically trapped. So I assume we are copies of our players that were spun off when our physical bodies were first connected, and no one realizes we're trapped. That's why the VR seemed sharper with this revision, which I'm told is the case, our electronically simulated minds can't perceive the details that people could perceive when they were really connected. So, I'm not too worried about being stuck here. I'm just a process in a machine. It does make me wish Jae Gu was here, though." That would be her boyfriend. "But whether he never had a chance to log on, or if he was permanently killed by the Palace Landers, I guess I'll keep on doing the best I can while they've left the power on."

She's not particularly inclined to sentimental stuff, but the subject seemed pertinent.

Gwen frowns "OR he's trying to not get crowned, or needs to be freed. OR maybe he didn't log on?" She doesn't voice or was one of the millions slaughted by the Palace Landers. "We'll figure that out." She keeps woprkiong htough things. "... I could fashion myself then!" Oh god what have you done Yeowang. "I'm here my fellow adventurers are real... that's all that matters meat or binary we're here."

Yeowang nods to Gwen, "It could be anything, really," she agrees. "I've got no way to guess, really. But I can't imagine anyone in the Palace Lands doesn't know Yamato has come here, and if he knew that and was able, he'd have contacted me. If he was Crowned, he'd have contacted me to Crown me, I imagine. Unless he's locked down in some Palace Lander's private army and is doing his best to not get killed." She shrugs. "There's no way to know, really." Not without Extended Distance Know Being anyhow.

Haru is situated on the edge of the training grounds. He has never been much for group training activities. All the group events like a duty or a duel have been more 'scheduled events'. But when Uta is involved, that changes, be it LOONS or an arena of improvement. Social times.

A fire erupts from Haru's end of the training area as he gets in an 'arguement' with his own fire summon. Which. Really isnt a thing if you consider how Handled Monsters don't have their own free will like Handled Animals. With a strong backhand of the air in front of him, the summon disappears in a cloud of smoke and ash. To say this technique will be tricky is an understatement.

The Artificer takes a break and heads over to the 'refreshment' area to get himself a drink of water. Clear his head. Re-evaluate his training plan.

"Some new skill," Haru says in a stoic echo of the question. He takes a moment to drink the water in his hand, the cup disappearing after a menu swipe. "Yes," he continues on with little information on the matter, "several. You never know when you'll need a technique that your enemies aren't familiar with. Enchanter techniques are like that." He flicks a blue eye to her, "And yourself? Keeping the edge honed or forging up something new?"

Yeowang nods about needing new skills, though there's only so many ways you can surprise someone by kicking them in the ear. "Just keeping the edge honed, for the moment. Considering where to focus my efforts for the future. I still don't have a good grip on this game, I'm afraid, and I am surely not playing it optimally." From her tone, her inability to optimize is an admission of failure. She sips water from a cup of her own, but placed in a small fanny-pack-like pouch because she's not great with the menu thing, so the things she needs often are kept available. She really is pretty unskilled at the gameplay. "Have you got any advice?" she wonders.

Advice. Advice. Coming from Haru, the advice seems out of left field, "Develop team techniques over individual techniques." He looks over to the training area where people are, presumably, training. "Optimal performance is more than about getting the highest level gear for your level and putting the highest level statistic in your primary attributes. In fact, what is optimal may change into two or three different modes. When you develop team based techniques, you find a new dimension to branch into. If you are an offensive damage per second, it is one mode, a one edged blade. If you find the need to offtank, your kit would change and you'll find yourself wanting for defensive techniques and gear. Suddenly the bracers of power aren't as useful as bracers of balance."

"Find the role you do least in a party and do that. I imagine you end up: Offensive, Defensive, Support, and in that order. So try support techniques by training with someone who specializes in support," he says.

Yeowang looks perplexed at the mention of team tactics, but nods slowly. "Adventuring or fighting," the PVE content, she means, "it is exclusively team-based rather than solo. In those events, I am generally satisfied with my performance. It is in the individual events that my techniques are subpar." But she considers the suggestion and admits, "I am rarely required to support or protect a group." She is the proverbial glass hammer. "The role I do least well is probably defense, as all my training is focused in attack. But I think I am unclear on the support role entirely and don't understand how it plays into the overall effort apart from in the obvious ways." She is, ostensibly, an off-healer, but she is very off. Her healing skills running more in the vein of 'sports medicine' than doctoring.

Haru shakes his head on that note. "If you feel satisfied with your performance in things that are team-based, ask yourself how many times you acted in your best interest or the team's. You are walking that right now, keep doing it is my best advice. It is a huge blindness if you can't come up with instances where you stepped outside of yourself. Your primary mode of operating. Once that blindness is peeled back, there are whole worlds of opportunity to advance. Watch a group of Silver Sword recruits on their first week. Then look at the high end raiders. Newbies lean in hard with one tactic. DPS overcommits DPS. Tanks not holding agro. Healers overhealing and running out of mana." He shrugs after that. "If you feel comfortable, then you feel comfortable. My advice is to not feel comfortable. People and teams are too diverse and evolving to ever be a state of compliance. That is why we do group drills. Maybe the content isn't challenging enough for you right now and you should set your sights higher. I think in our state of the game, it may be more of the later. Thats a dangerous state to be in, since in games and in history that means people turn to the only other challenge left: other people." He hrmphs, "Maybe I should take up the NWA intel and send us to one of the three more challenging locations."

Yeowang chuckles at Haru's interest in an intel mission, and says, "You would almost certainly do better than I did, I learned very little in Lumina Cloth, I feel." She considers, "though I suppose I do have a possible location for the Kunie, so that's something. I feel I did a poor job, but infiltration has never been my stong suit." She generally comes in as a business-owner or purchaser and asserts that authority over subordinates. Never cruelly or to their disadvantage, but with a clear understanding of their respective roles.

She nods slowly as Haru describes the difference between starting parties and advanced ones, but says, "I think the content is appropriately challenging, as I have not yet mastered it. But I am curious what higher challenges you would recommend in the game? The Triffid hunt was quite difficult, and we absolutely had to work as a team. Are you suggesting more challenges like that?"

Haru hand woobles in the air like 'so so'. "Sound dampening. Illusions. Dark Magic," he explains, "and if we know the location of the Kunie, thats enough. It is just a matter of getting to them first, now." He has been trying not to think of /that/ race.

"I don't necessarily mean the harder path of existing content," Haru explains with the Hunter's Guild in mind specifically. "I mean things like the Gnolls, which is no longer a threat. Things like the Undead. Beneath Aincrad, Shibuya, and the Undine." He waves it off, "Expeditions are Shiruba's thing. She does it well. What I mean is putting together these objectives that put us outside of comfort. Below a place we live. Under water. The Tower." He taps his foot at the thought, "The Triffid hunt is a good example otherwise, yes. The Phantom Atol was another."

Gwen has been focusing on finishing up some of her own training moves as Haru has arrive but she is listening to him and Yeowang as they talk. She's working away clad in her Mystic Knight outfit she's training away as the pair talk. She looks over to them for a moemnt gives a big grin to Haru and another waves to Yeowang but she doesn't seem keen to disrupt their talk on training.

Yeowang can only look baffled at Sound Dampening, Illusions, and Dark Magic. As for the Kunie, she looks around, smiles to Gwen, but says this quietly, for Haru's ears alone, "People are housed in Lumina Cloth on the basis of some measure of net worth, and the Kunie, who certainly sets up any such system, we suspect to be in the top of the highest highrise, where Ino Hatsuse is highly placed 3rd on that continuously updated list of net worth. But I have no solid plan to get up there, nor what to do if we can. I can't imagine my holdings would allow me to just drop in, unannounced, and in any event, only Landers are allowed to hold significant wealth there." Not that Gwen is untrustworthy, but if she speaks loud enough for Gwen to overhear, /who else/ might overhear, and this is a BIG SECRET.

She hrms about the focus for future challenges, and says, "I am definitely interested in greater challenges, but I am not sure how ones goes about the gaming thing to find them?" She did open the job in the Guild for Payon Cave, but that was prompted.

"Luck," Haru admits, although its clear he isn't keen on the idea. "More specifically interest from the Goddesses. There are limits to what us Adventurers can do without them. I'm looking for an alternative to that indentured servitude. Being beholden to Gods and Kings is the death of Freedom and Hope." Things that, if anyone spends more than surface level time with Haru, he values. "It takes me to the lake of Eas after speaking with Helba about the matter. And from the reports about Yeenagi's incident, a careful step around TriEdge as I do this."

A hand dismisses the thought. Haru has a lot on his mind these days. "More to the point, you extend energy into an area and hope to get lucky. Think of it as an investment in a small startup. The idea may be sound, but the market forces are fickle. Such as the goddesses. What we can do is a combination of investment and diligence in our investments and making many of them in order that some pan out." He gestures to the training ground, "Get an idea and get going. Logistics through me. Expeditions through Shiruba. Or do an individual projects. I have a few of those running which have nothing to do with the guild." More and more of those lately. He puts a hand up, "And no, none of Giga nature." He thinks.

Yeowang isn't sure what to tell Haru about gaining the Goddesses' favor. "If it is transactional and quantifiable, I do not have a problem with it," she says finally. "If it is in the nature of modern real-life religion, where you devote considerable effort for no /definable/ result, then I have no interest. As far as I am aware, religion /in this game/ is somewhere between those two ends. You -can- achieve quantifiable results, if you invest the correct input, as Baroness Wake seems to have done. That makes it at least worthy of consideration. But we would need to know what benefit might be received for our expended resources. The giant statue outside Lumina Cloth is an example of effort expended with a quantifiable result."

She nods as Haru describes speculative business practice. "The trick is to expend sufficient research into the effort to understand what your effort versus reward schedule will be. But we will see what comes out. I have a few feelers out for purchasing locations from which I can organize centralized distribution of necessities." Department stores. "To help refugees, who need many things, and will now be able to acquire them in one place. To help anyone to shop efficiently, really."

Haru wobbles the hand at the transactional nature. "Consider all transactional natures a high risk investment with high reward potential and that is correct. I believe it is in the law of Alba that we Adventurers are designed this way. However, it also means you can very well invest in something with no return," he explains. "For ever Wake and Eas, I can go through my reqs to find 5 failed ventures. I don't wish to, too frustrating, but that is the nature of our advancement. We can influence the variables, not control them. Enchantment and Artifice are the closest things I've seen to that." He dismisses the giant statue, "Again, of, for, and by the Goddesses. I think of the Nature Reserve, Slime Labs, or Shibuya when I think tangible transactions that are not to the whim of our 'benefactors'. Even something as simple as Freedom can become a pawn in a power struggle if you apply the wrong motivation."

Vertina had taken a break in her training. Because hydration is important. Especially when you're working with aquakinesis. Or lets just call it waterbending, that's easier to say. So she hadn't noticed Haru's arrival until she finally wanders back to the space the group had been practicing in. "Hey Haru. Don't stand too close to the training dummy, someone might confuse it and your wobbly arms," jokes the Salamander martial artist.

It's okay she missed all the business talk, it would of went over her head. Dealing with that part of running the tavern she hires more inclined adventurers for.

Yeowang nods at what haru says. "Investment to no result is sometimes a consequence of speculative effort," she agrees. "There is never a one hundred percent guarantee in anything. You can pull a muscle working out, or break a leg. A meteor may fall on Shibuya. But we do what seems reasonable at all times, and we achieve the best outcomes that we can." She shrugs about Enchantment and Artifice. "That is not within my skillset, so I cannot speculate what may be done."

She smiles as Vertina drifts over, a natural link between the two: business management talk with Haru, physical efforts with Vertina. "Did you have a good workout?" she asks.

Yeowang nods at what Haru says. "Investment to no result is sometimes a consequence of speculative effort," she agrees. "There is never a one hundred percent guarantee in anything. You can pull a muscle working out, or break a leg. A meteor may fall on Shibuya. But we do what seems reasonable at all times, and we achieve the best outcomes that we can." She shrugs about Enchantment and Artifice. "That is not within my skillset, so I cannot speculate what may be done."

She smiles as Vertina drifts over, a natural link between the two: business management talk with Haru, physical efforts with Vertina. "Did you have a good workout?" she asks.

"Or it gets invaded and people that what is built and invested upon," Haru nods in a conclusion to the business talk with Yeo. He turns his attention to Vertina and the newer topic. "Never hurts to live with the risk of that kind of danger," humors the noodle armed caster. "It might hasten my advancement in a defensive summon." He grins, "And watch in amusement as you all punch solid rock."

Yeowang smiles to Haru and Vertina as the Salamander comes over, and she nods to Haru. "Luckily, they could be forced out, so that's not a permanent loss." To both, she says, "But I have been chimmed to come help someone, so I will be off for a while. Take care." And so saying, she will hurry off.

"Yeah, but taking a break is just as important as the workout. Even with having less restrictions physically here, there's no reason to overwork yourself." Then Haru mentions punching solid rock. "Considering some of my training routines, that's not much of a threat," Vertina replies with a smirk. She clenches a fist and slams it straight down as an example, making a sizable imprint into the ground at her feet. Then stands back up, cracking her knuckles against the opposite palm. "See you later Yeowang."

Haru waves one hand to Yeowang as she departs and another over the ground. A small green circle traced with his fingers that fills with an earth-tone brown light. He mends the ground, something he has been doing to the training area since the ecological impacts of training are not trivial. "Yes. Perhaps punching lava would be more 'appropriate force' when dealing with adventurers. I had thought it could be overkill, given it'll melt most people's hands off, but you do remind me that Adventurers are full of sturdier stuff. Best not to underdeliver." Though the last time he took the limiters off, he used the Magitek beam to... frightening conclusions.

"Feels weird, doesnt it," Haru says, considering, "almost a year ago to this time we were training the Meteor Striker. Now, I can summon a Divine Beast of Fire to do my bidding." More fire than Scale, onoes!

"It's probably not a bad thing you found that one. We've got enough hotheads as it is." Vertina replies. "It's still not a dragon though. That'd -really- be something out there to see." She crosses one arm, using it to prop the other so she can rest her chin on her hand. "Yeah. A year ago I was still focusing mainly on those elements and my 'style'. I've learned to be more versatile since then."

A dragon. It makes Haru laugh, albiet briefly. Thats something Old World Haru might say. His Angel, Fou-Lu was a dragon. Though the Dragon represents something very different to him now. The Phoenix is more fitting. "I hear there are raids for them out there. Even the Twilight Dragon, no?" he asks, making mention of The Beast so casually. "That is what I was talking to Yeo about a little bit ago. Skill diversity. When you think of me, what Element comes to mind first, for example?"

"Rocks," Vertina answers without missing a beat. "Earth. You started out as jewelry after alll, and had the elemental with the drills." She makes a twirling motion with one finger. "It's not easy to get a form to work like that. So it seemed. I'm not a summoner, I don't know how much... influence on the form you people actually have."

"Terra," Haru replies with the kind of chuff of missing a beat on someone's identity. "And in knowing people associate me with Earth, I can expect a natural desire to exploit that from some people," he tells Vertina. "I have five summons. Terra is one of them. All of them have their quirks." And yet a monster is the extension of the will of the summoner. Not an animal companion. "Currently Rachel is the one being the most difficult. There has been some... jealousy... at play since bonding with Feng Huang. Fire is the element of passion after all. Emotions 'run high'. Things 'get heated'. Add in the pride natural to birds?" He does the bish 'flick hair away from his pretty face' move. "There is a reason I am training over there," he gestures his one eye to the fringe of the training ground. Which is charred. "And its not for fear of being mistaken for a training dummy."

"You're talking to a Salamander, I know all about fire being the aspect of passionate spirits!" It was part of the reason Vertina picked the Race for a kung-fu fighter. Well that and she already had 'little dragon lady' as a nickname, and just made it a real thing because it was something to encourage her to keep working. "But, yeah," she glances off to the indicated side, "I can imagine two Fire elements getting fiesty at each other. But at least you don't have one with three heads to complicate it."

"One head can generate three if you are not careful," Haru observes in his usual 'hello, this is Haru, I am phoning in this earth conversation from the orbit of my brainspace. Please leave a message after the beep.' He looks over to Vertina as he inquires, "Are we talking about Setsuna's pup?" Cerby is cute though. "Animals and Monsters are different. The former and later are even different. A mammal, reptile, or fish all act different. A monster, elemental, and binder all act different. However, the Monster category has one constant: They are echoes of the summoner. The moment we start to Handle one, it becomes imperial. Sound familiar?"

"Yeah. Cute dog, but also a pain in the butt when it wants to be. But yeah, I get the general gist of it even if I don't do that sort of thing." Vertina shrugs a bit. "Even not as summons the Elements have..." It takes her a moment to think on how she wants to express the thought. "their own aspects in how they interact. Even with each other. You know Meteor Striker. Fire and Earth usually go together decently. But you try to put Fire together with Water or Ice..." She spreads her hands up and outward with little finger waggles. "Sometimes you get steam, sometimes they just don't want to play together at all."

Haru pushes the glasses up on his nose. Which is to say, he runs a finger along the side of his monocle as he only has half-glasses. Can't do a Shiroe with a mononcle. "I do not use it as often anymore, but the Ashfall Snowblind is similar. Fire. Earth. Volcanic ash. The result looks like snow if you don't know it is ash." How nostalgic. Then again, Haru is as sentimental as it comes. "It is a real toss up when a Mind Guardian projection of a Divine Beast is added into it. Of those that have bonded, I haven't seen it used in this way." He pauses, "Middray, perhaps." A shrug. "We uncover new things every day. Im just waiting for someone to run in and suddenly say 'Hey, the Chaos Gates work now' or one of our other big mysteries."

Vertina shakes her head. "Stuff like that isn't going to happen unless people work on it. But we do have people working on the Gates so I guess that one probably is just a matter of time." Then she starts stroking her chin again in thought. "I've got fire and earth. The whole argument between when it's lava and when it's magma. Don't think I've done much for ash though. Intentionally, not as a side effect... But right now I've been working on honing the Water ability I learned."

"I respectfully disagree, thats a stance of arrogance and privilege, or just ignorance," Haru says on the matter and doesn't want to get into it again about the common denominator on progress isn't 'people working on it'. He did that with Yeo and Haru isn't inclined to get in a topical loop. "Water is a fine element. Not one I focus on." A short laugh, "Which. Is. Ironic." A shrug there, the man walking away towards his charred training zone. "Fou-Lu was a Water affinity. I always thought it matched my chilly and aloof demeanor. World is full of surprises."

"We all have our own views of things." And that is where Vertina will leave that topic, because clearly neither of them wants to get into the matter. Which is fine with her. She'd rather focus on the training and elemental stuff anyways. "Water has many states. And often is the one most easily to move amongst them. Cold as ice, flowing as a river. A gentle trickle or a pounding wave."