Serenity (Firefly Festival)

It is a cool late summer evening in Shibuya, lightly overcast. The stars shine high in the sky, yet forever seem far out of reach. Such is the same feeling that has overtaken the Were Cat who is sitting at the bar in the Green Dragon Inn.

The Coolest Cat in Eto has quite a bit of melancholy today, and yet, he still sports his sub-cheshire resting smirk that he always bears. Keeping him company is a bottle of some rather expensive wine imported from who knows where.

Yeowang enters the Inn, and will make her way to the bar also. She orders tea, despite it being a bar, she is known in the alliance for being a tee totaler, and while not pushy about it, is quite solid in her view. She offers a nod of greeting to the cool cat, and offers, "Good evening. Have you had a busy day as well?" she wonders. Perhaps she doesn't recognize the symptoms of melancholy in cats? She is generally quite even tempered, herself, rarely displaying any intense emotion, and this evening, as usual, her tone is neutral.

Thalia is -not- a tee totaler. She is, honestly, a party girl. Enough so that she knows some of the spirits around here taste bad, but they work great so she drinks them anyway.

Maybe she has a problem.

Regardless, pretty quick after Yeowang shows up, so does the spriggan, who parks herself at the bar and orders something strong.

    Seated in the corner, near the hearth, Miyako has settled in with her guitar for the afternoon. She's played a few songs already, some of her own old favorites, and she's just started on another when she notes a couple of people coming in.

        Oh, the night was clear, and the stars were shinin',
        And the moon came up, so quiet in the sky
        All the people gathered round, and the band was tunin'
        I can hear them now, playin "Comin' Thru the Rye"

        You were dressed in blue, and you looked so lovely
        Just a gentle flower, of a small town girl
        You took my hand, and we stepped to the music
        And with a single smile, you became my world.

        And we danced all night, to the fiddle and the banjo,
        Their drifting tunes seemed to fill the air
        So long ago, but I still remember,
        How we fell in love, at the Roseville Fair.

Nyanta bows his head to Yeowang, then takes a sip of the wine, "Not so much busy. Today was a day of rest. And... Remembering." Then, as an afterthought, "Nya." This is evidence that Nyanta's cat speak is indeed voluntary, and he CHOOSES to speak thusly. It is also evidence that he is so distracted, he almost slipped up.

He places a few coins into the palm of one of the servers and requests, "Could you get the purrformer a drink, nya? Something bittersweet should suffice, nya."

Yeowang is brand new to gaming as a hobby and while she knows a few roleplayers, she really doesn't /get/ it, so the nya's don't get parsed. "Oh?" she asks questioningly, and wonders, "what is it you're remembering?" Thalia gets a nod of greeting as she approaches the bar also, and she follows Nyanta's glance to Miyako singing in the corner, offeriung a tight smile to both.

The spriggan's drink gets delivered, and she drops some coin on the bartop. "Keep 'em comin'." She takes her drink and turns to watch and listen to Miyako play. She smiles slightly at the song. It's pretty, but kind of sad. Her eyes flicker at Nyanta, apparently the melancholy is catching.

Still, she lifts her drink in greeting to Yeowang. "It's almost the Firefly Festival. It's the time to remember. Even when we don't want to."

    Miyako finishes out the song, then announces, "Going to take a bit of a break," to anyone who cares to listen. She steps down from her seat and waves, before heading up to the bar. There, she takes the seat next to Thalia, sliding an arm around the other Spriggan's shoulders.

    "Hey," she says, "No need to be drinking alone when you've a friend about."

Nyanta smiles a little more, looking to Yeowang, then to Thalia, "I am remembering... Happy times that will never be again." He gestures to the wine, "I had planned on this bottle of wine being myai company for the nyaight, but purrhaps, for a time, you would like to do so instead, nya? A whole bottle myay be a little too meowch for a single cat, nya." Unlike Thalia, it looks like Nyanta isn't aiming to get wasted tonight.

To Miyako, he grins, "Of course, after such a lovely song, I feel I owe you several drinks, nya."

Yeowang nods to Thalia about the Firefly Festival. "I haven't got many people to mourn, though I miss my friends who never joined the game. We all went to different colleges. And Jae Gu, who was going to meet me here, but I never found." She sounds somber at -that- thought. "The game was supposed to be our way to keep in touch during his last year in Korea and my first year in Japan," she explains. "But When I logged on, we found Japan was isolated, and that we couldn't log off. So I had no way to contact him. I don't know ikf he made it into the game or not, the Palace Lands cities are still mainly closed to us."

As Nyanta offers to share his bottle, she turns to include Thalia in the conversation, explaining, "I don't drink alcohol, myself, but I'm sure an offer to share will be well-received?" She nods about remembering happier times, but hasn't got so many of those, she had only just cemented the relationship before entering the game. Perhaps the time before was happy, but things were so uncertain, it's hard for her to think of them as particularly joyous. "Those old happy times may never return," she says, "but that does not mean that new happy times can never happen."

She smiles as Miyako joins us, and says to Nyanta, "Another to share your bottle with?"

Thalia smiles as Miyako sits next to her after leaving the stage. "I mean, you're right, but it's never stopped me before. Probably won't stop me again."

She leans into the other spriggan gently, taking a sip of her strong drink. "It's just, the festival makes me think of the real world. That's where all my missed chances and bad memories are. Not here."

Miho was in town once again she was in a good mood, her tail was swaying a bit as she entered the Green Dragon once more. She saw the party and moved to join the group with a bit of a grin on her face. "Got room for another at the table?"

    Miyako nods, and crooked a finger to the bartender, gesturing at Thalia's glass to order one of her own. "Yeah, I get you. I left behind... mmm. Family. Job. Hobbies. But since I've been here..."

    She trails off for a moment, looking up at Miho. "Oh, hey. Sit yourself anywhere." She nods and turns her attention back to Thalia.

    "I'd say I've found family here, that I never had out there. You, Kotono, Uta...."

Nyanta considers Yeowang's words, sipping at his wine as she speaks. "Purrhaps, then, your friend is still out there, waiting to meet you again. Though, perhaps your friend is also safely outside the game. Either could be welcome, I suppose."

To the second part of her statement, he replies, "Certainly, happy times can come after, nyoh doubt, nya. And I hope that myai purresence in this world can allow fur me to deliver happy times to many others, nya." He holds up his glass, looking into the wine as if he were looking into the eyes of a lady. "There are meowmeries that I... Would nyever wish to lose. Even if they are painful to remyember because that feeling will never return, nya."

In reference to Thalia's words, "I do grieve for those who have lives still in the real world to return to, nya. I hope you can return someday to reclaim what you have lost, nya."

Yeowang nods to Thalia, but says, "I think real life is where most of our memories are, apart from the longtime gamers." Sle looks to Nyanta at that. Would he only have IC thoughts? As Miho arrives, she will push out a stool so she can join us at the bar. She hrms at Miyako, but hasn't really made close friends with anyone. A personal failing?

She nods to Nyanta, "I hope he is outside the game, for his sake. That would be welcome," she agrees, "if only to relieve him of being trapped like the rest of us." As to time lost in the real world, she says, "I do not think that is the case. I think we are only copies of our personas, executed on computer, no longer connected to our actual bodies. So I think there is no returning. But I am satisfied to make this world a better place."

"Yeah. They are out there," she replies to Yeowang, leaning on Miyako still. "And honestly," she says, staring into her drink. "I could leave them all. Every last one. I don't like to talk about myself. The me out there. It's depressing, and life is far more fun as Thalia than as me." She shakes her head at Nyanta. "If you knew what I do, you wouldn't wish it on me."

She slugs the rest of her drink and motions for another. The Nero Idol face is slipping today, it seems.

    Miyako was never a public performer until she came to Yamato, aside from a bit of busking here and there, so she hasn't had the experience with the entertainment industry. But she's heard stories about it. "I think a lot of us have reasons -not- to regret leaving that life behind... even if we do miss things about it." Her own drink arrives with Thalia's refill and she sips at it.

Nyanta addresses Yeowang with a slight, fond sadness, "Myai entire life before... the Flash of Death... was one long, happy dream, nya." Everyone knows what the Flash of Death Virus is. That's a Proper Noun mood killer right there for most people. "And myai life thereafter, it seems, is myeerely mourning what was."

He takes a sip of his wine, stroking a whisker as if stroking a mustache, "Now, if we truly were only copies of our personas, executed on a computer, it would do us nyoh good to think of it as such, nya. That might inspire a nihilistic myehntality that is not condusive to a purroductive world, nya..."

To Thalia and Miyako, he gives a toothy grin, "Well, I do not know what you know, but I will rescind myai wishes of your return to the real world. I, myaiself, purrefer it here to where I had left myaiself in that place, nya. Everything that I miss of that world is already gone, some years past, in fact, nya..." He raises his glass in a toast, "To being in a fantasy world, then, free of the real world's worries."

Yeowang finishes her tea, and says to Nyanta, "I think that the sort of person who would do terrible things in a world because it's not real has shown a terrible side of his character. We must do what we can as if it were real, because that's what a good and just person woulds do." She will raise a teacup to toast Nyanta's post, though she adds, "For those that prefer it here." And then, it's off to sleep.

Miho says "Its good you have found family of choice no?" She notes to Miyako. She'll sit down he tail still moving as she does so. "Aye, there's somethings i never wnt to forget, what my Grandfather taught me. Took me a while to get him to take me as a student." Wait is miho saying she's an actual blacksmith even on earth? Yes she is.

"I'm in a world where my skills are more than just making fine kitchen wares...or keeping culture alive. It's needed I'm as happy to be forging weapons as I am fry pans."

Now you see her...

Now you don't...

Do you know her?

Yes you do!

It's Kotono, the Spriggan ninja making her usual appearance.

"Sorry I'm late," Kotono says as she joins Miyako. "I'm only hu... erm, Spriggan, after all!" She giggles.

Nyanta smiles as he pours another glass, offering it to Konoto, "Oh, good evening, nya. Stay a while, and have a drink among friends, nya. We just had a toast to living in a fantasy world, nya."

    Miyako is seated at the bar, one arm around Thalia's shoulders, comforting her fellow Spriggan who seems to have been mourning something left behind. Or at least indulging in the local spirits. She looks up from her commisserations to greet her partner. "Hey, Ko-chan. Come to join the SprigganPile?"

"A toast, huh?" Kotono says as she raises her drink. "It's a good cause." She then looks to Miyako. "A SprigganPile, that's a good one!" She grins as she sips her drink.

Nyanta raises a furry eyebrow and gives a smile which shows off a fang: it glints in the light. "Well, I have been using the Sword Arte 'Edge of Shadow' VERY often lately, nya. Purrhaps that is why I was meowstaken for a Spriggan, nya"

    "Edge of Shadow, hmm? Not a bad choice, although you can do better." Well, *Miyako* can do better. And she's teaching Kotono. But it's one of those things that comes when you have your own skill tree. "Speaking of which," she asks, focusing on Kotono, "Have you finished reading that scroll I gave you?"

"Oh yes, I'm just about done with that scroll," Kotono replies. "I just need to review a few more things and then I should be finished with it." She smiles. "A Spriggan can't be too careful, right?"

Nyanta nods to Kotono's comment, "I assume that can be said for Were Cats as well, nya." The Cool Cat does seem intrigued in the 'better' that he could do, "I only myentioned it because it is a spriggan famed technique, nya. But you say there are better spriggan-famed techniques I have yet to learn, nya? Please, enlighten me, nya."

    Miyako hmms, and, having sent Kotono off to finish her reading, leans back against the half-asleep Thalia to answer the cat's question. "Oh, aye, there certainly are. Like the Phantom Mirror." She grins and taps Nyanta on the shoulder - from behind - grins and waves. And is still sitting in her seat at the bar in front of him....

The swordsman cat tilts his head to the side, "I do believe I haven't heard of that one before, nya. Is it self-taught? Did you learn it from somewhere, nya?" Lucky for Nyanta, the sword chat is enough to distract him from his previous mourning. Though he had planned to be a sourpuss all night, a little company seems to have been enough to pull him out.

    Miyako smiles lightly, nodding. "Things like it are common enough among Spriggans, aye. But I worked it out myself. Just for fun, you know?" She steps in from outside and settles by the hearth again, producing a flute to play a brief tune.

Nyanta does not know any instruments, but he does appreciate music. Save for the sword, which is an instrument of war. He sips at his drink, "I think I have forgotten more moves than most have learned, if I am to be frank, nya."

    Miyako (the one behind you) chuckles lightly, and the one in front of you nods. "Yeah, I know that feeling." She shrugs.

    The Miyako with the flute has her guitar out, now, and has a song to sing, to comment on the situation.

        Old age is golden, so I've heard said
        But sometimes I wonder, as I crawl into bed
        With my ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup,
        My eyes on the table, until I wake up

        As sleep dims my vision, I say to myself,
        Is there anything else I should lay on the shelf
        But tho' nations are warring and business is vexed
        I'll still stick around to see what happens next!

            How do I know my youth is all spent
            My get-up-and-go, has got-up-and-went!
            But in spite of it all, I'm able to grin
            When I think of the places my get-up has been!

Nyanta chuckles right with Miyako, turning to the Miyako behind him. "So, which one of you do I buy a drink in thanks for the song, nya? Or should I buy you two drinks and let you decide, nya?"

    "well," the one behind you muses, "I'm sure the real me would appreciate it."

    "But which is that? Can you tell?" the one at the bar, with a sleeping Thalia still leaning on her shoulder, asks.

    And meanwhile, the one with the guitar keeps on singing.
        When I was younger, my slippers were red
        I could kick up my heels right over my head
        When I was older, my slippers were blue
        But still I could dance the who-o-ole night thru!

        Now that I'm older, my slippers are black
        I huff to the store, and I puff my way back
        To many a laugh, but I don't mind at all
        I'd rather be huffing than not puff at all!

    The Miyako in the corner repeats her chorus about her 'get-up-and-go', continuing the song, while the others carry on the conversation. "An excellent point," one agrees. "But Thalia might have gone to bed like Kotono," the other says, and the first adds, "In which case, who's leaning on my shoulder?" And of course there's the final verse.

        I get up each morning, dust off my wits,
        Open the paper, read the obits
        If I'm not there, then I know I'm not dead
        So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed!

    And ALL of the Miyakos are grinning madly, even as the singing one finishes off a final chorus of her song. "You see?" says the one behind you. "He gets it!"

    The Miyako at the bar nods. "Quite true, quite true, my dear Neko-san. Shadow we are, shadow we come from, and to shadow we will return." And there's only one Miyako there, now, the one at the bar. Or maybe she's just letting you think that's the real one. After all, Sleepy!Thalia is still there, too.

Nyanta laughs as he adopts his normal, cool cat pose, eschewing the pose he adopted for effect, "We Were Cats return to meat when we die, nya."

Miho has been enjoyin herself as sher will take some wine for herself and she thinks for a moment as she looks to Nyanta and Miyako. "Been a while since I had somthing good to drink." She will sip it but lets be honest. While she is a lady she i a creature of a the forge first and formost. "That was terrible..."

Nyanta smiles politely at Miho's comment, "It may be a bit too sweet for one such as yourself, but I purrrsonally enjoy the taste, nya. It is the closest to the sakura blossom wine we served at the wedding that I could find in ETO, nya."

    Miyako looks up and over at Miho, lifting her free hand to wave casually. "Evening," she offers. "Welcome back." She takes a sip of her own drink, then pauses, considering what to do next.

Miho looks over to Nyanta for a moment. "Oh, I'll drink Sake or harder stuff honestly normally. Its still nice to have something to savour for a bit." She thinks for a moment. "Grandpa and Grandma often talked abou the wine from their wedding." She grins. "Not that I'll ever see them agian but ... He'd be estatic for everything he taught me being put to use like our Ancestors did with it."

Nyanta nods slowly as he lifts his glass up again, "I suppose, then, we should say one finyal toast, nya; To those we shall miss though shall never see again: we will remember you fondly, and we will strive to live our lives fully without you, as you would have desired." At first, the toast seemed to be a general statement to any party it might have applied to, but at the end, it seemed it was directed to someone specific....

    Miyako nods and lifts her glass again. "To those we leave behind," she offers, "Those we remember, those we've forgotten. Be well... be happy..." She looks down, hiding the tears that drip from her eyes.

Miho grins and wiill join the others in the toast. "Here here!" She will join the others "And to our future in this world as well!"

All in all, it's a pretty good time for Kotono and those here too. She's having fun, especially with Miyako, and she's enjoying the good food and drinks.

Nyanta closes his eyes as he says, somberly, "As you... they would have wished, nya." With that he drains his glass. Nyanta almost lost his composure, but truly, if there is one topic that can be forgiven for a gentleman to lose composure over, that would be a lady. The night eventually fades into the morning, but those memories of the past, and the memories the adventurers present made, will remain in their hearts forever...