A Long-deferred Meeting

Yeowang has been searching for her boyfriend in game for a year and a half. She hadn't expected the Yamato server to be locked away when the game opened, so her plan to use the game to meet up with her boyfriend, she felt weird using the term now, as she hasn't seen him for over two years, almost three now, was put on hold. But only a year in, they'd broken through the barriers, and opened a path between the Chinese and Korean server, the Palace Lands, and Yamato, the Japanese server.

She had mentioned to a few people the boy who she'd arranged to meet in the game, but of course with the Palace Lands cut off, there was no chance to find him, and she got on with what she -could- influence, which given her own inlinations and skillset, was quite a lot. She's not exactly a big wheel in her Guild, there kind of aren't any, gamers not organizing or respecting much of anyone, that she's found, but she counts a fair amount of influence with Landers, at least with the Landers that owe her money.

Since the Palace Lands had opened up, she'd put word out, that she was looking for her boyfriend, Jae Gu Song, but she had no idea where in the Palace Lands he might be, so her search was inefficient, and with such a broad area to cover, the most she could do was put up a couple notices in the local Explorer's Guild outlets and hope for the best.

But over the last year and some, so much has changed in the Palace Lands. Adventurers have been uncrowned by the hundred, Lumina Cloth in particular seeing so many freed, and Yeowang has met some of the former Crowned, and would have asked them if they'd seen her Jae Gu. Of course she didn't know he'd changed his name before making his character, so no one could tell her about that person. But anyone who natively spoke Korean, who would read her name as Queen, and had heard Jayu's stories, might put two and two together.

Llyn had been unaware of Yeoang and her quest for some time but when she heard the name wheels got turning in the would be Pirate Queen's head. It took a bit for her but her name, she knew what it means in Korean. Finally she made up her mind to go speak to her as something finally clicked in her head. It took a bit and several big orders at Crescent Burger.

Yeowang had been contacted by someone called Llyn from SEA who wanted to speak to her about something. She had to wonder if she was the Yeowang someone was looking for. So she'd set up a meeting with her at Crescent Burger.

"So Yeowang? I have to wonder I know a man in the Palace Lands who was an Crowned and likely still likely still so. I met him working for Rosenheim Kingdom while I was crowned. I never seen a man so devoted in my life. He kept going on about his Yeowang and bushed off any attempts to flirt with him."

IF she ever did before she knew he was taken she'll never say cough. She'd then descibe the man's personality, behaviour and the like.

"So far as i know that's what he's like and he's still working as a hunter of the uncrowned. Freeing him would help deny the Kingdom a major asset...and if he's yours? Well he damn well missed you not even the crown can stop that."

Yeowang doesn't often eat at Crescent Burger, but she will meet fellow players there, and Scale players, she's quite willing to meet with, she -likes- the Scale players she knows. And she doesn't have to eat there. She tries to sit touching as little as possible, in a slightly uptight way. But the news was intriguing!

A man in the Palace Lands, but not with the name she knows. Nor the appearance, her Jae Gu was human, of course, but close to the appearance. The devotion is sweet, the Jae Gu she knew had steely determination and would not quit or compromise for anything, and she winced at the thought of him Crowned. But in the Palace Lands, that happened to many, many players, and she couldn't blame him for what happened when he was essentially mind controlled. But.

"Can you take me to him? Can you arrange a meeting?" she asks the pirate. If she can see him, she'll know if this is her Jae Gu, and whether it is, or isn't, if he can be unCrowned, that will be a blow to the Palace Landers. "We have ships that can sail to Seeker's Landing, and from there, converted Palace Lander ships to sneak in to whichever port we would need," she explains. She has a perhaps surprisingly astute grasp of logistics.

Llyn says "I think I can but I'd have to keep it on the down low. It would be the one thing that could lure him away from his job. We're going to have to cold cock him and drag his rear to the statue's effect to free him. If you got a ship you got yourself a captain." She breams at this. "So lets friend up and make the situations just a warning I'm still bound to the kingdom... if I'm In danger I will flee I can't be caught...again."

Yeowang nods to Llyn about not being caught. "I will cover your retreat if I have to. I am bound in Eastal, so if worst comes to worst. I will respawn there," she assures Llyn.

It's pretty straightforward jumping a supply run to Seeker's Landing, NWA makes that run fairly frequently, and it's no longer a hard passage like it used to be. She doesn't even need Llyn to captain the ship, she can relax, as much as anyone can relax. From Seeker's Landing, there are 2 or 3 Palace Lander-style ships, re-marked, so they have different names, but carefully so they don't look that way. Llyn may be more qualified as a mariner than any of the NWA crew that have been making occasional supply runs into the various towns, and so Yeowang will defer to her, as an experienced Palace Lands sailor, how to navigate into Lumina Cloth, a day or so north from Seeker's Landing, and sailing into town, make port and do all the official things that need to be done.

Yeowang has a badge showing her official status as a merchant under the auspices of some Lander or other. He's official and not otherwise involved, but she'll flash the ID to identify herself when needed, and then she and Llyn can enter Lumina Cloth and meet up with this person who speaks of a Queen in such glowing terms. There were several in RL people who might call her that, but none she expects to find in game. Her little brother would have won the game by now, so it's definitely not him. But she will go and find out.

Llyn looks to Yeowang.

"I don't want to seem like I'd be unreliable, I just do not desire to have some crazy AI controlling me again."

She ntoes ane then will make ryead to head out. She'll let Yeowang do the talking after all she's going to attempt to keep herself mostly out of sight here.

Well once she's in the city she's another face in the crowd after all and so she'll trot along after she sends the message.

<<You wish to see your Queen? I can help you with that you need to meet me at the Laughing Dragon if you want to know more, you best be quick. I won't be here for long and when the clock runs out I'm gone.>>

Llyn had not contacted Jayu in months so this might get his attention...

And get his attention it did. It is a small understatement to say that Llyn's presence had been missed by their side. If there was a chance to capture her and reintegrate her into the fold, that would mean a great deal to the Kingdom. It was important that he move to reacquire her, and with all haste. There just was not enough time, he told himself insistently, to gather a sizable force and move in to capture her. They would be slower than he was, and he would have to wait for them to prepare; the chance to capture Llyn would slip through their fingers if he was not quick, he repeated in his mind as he made his way to the Laughing Dragon with all haste.

The mention of seeing who Llyn referred to as his "Queen" factored NOTHING in this sortee: this he told himself the firmest. He had, of course, heard tell through the grapevine of... someone who certainly matched a specific description... being quite active in the Palace Lands as a member of the opposition. His desire was most definitely to move to combat this new opponent whenever he heard of Her: for the specific purpose of capturing Her and strengthening the Kingdom, of course. Still, he had always been on assignment when news of Her presence was brought to him, and She had always moved on long before he had an opportunity to respond to the information, as one in an active warzone is wont to do.

Having convinced himself that it was best to handle this job solo, and without informing his chain of command, the Asura made his way to Laughing Dragon. He put his hand on the door. Hesitation filled his body as it resisted the command to push forward. 'Is She in there...?' He asked himself, 'Could this be just a trap?' Jayu shook his head quickly, to bring himself back to his senses. It didn't matter if Her name was just being used as bait or not. He was here to recapture Llyn. And if there was... Someone else... here that was an uncrowned adventurer, he would make sure to capture them, too.

Yeowang is, of course, distinctive enough in Korea, both she and her brother have their mother's blonde hair, and they both learned martial arts at their father's order, because he'd have no heir of his helpless before ruffians or kidnappers. He hadn't planned for her to take it quite so far, but he hadn't complained.

But one thing Jae Gu, or Jayu as he calls himself now, ought to remember, is that his Queen plays martial arts like a chess match, and if you think she's 2-3 moves ahead, she's 5-6 moves ahead. Rarely caught flat-footed, she has 'rented' the bar out for a 'special event' and paid the barkeep and owner handsomely to be somewhere else. Would-be patrons were directed elsewhere, and Llyn was seated in a table, with her back to the wall, but close to the door, and Jayu can probably see her when he opens the door and enters.

What he doesn't see is his In Gui, or Queen as she was known in the Teen MMA circuit. But he soon finds out, as she was standing behind the door, and she pushes it and throws the bolt before any backup Jayu has brought can follow him in. She expects he will turn, but that's fine, because her next attack is her Combo Breaker attack to stun him, and a Sealing Srike, to render him unable to attack. She's not sure it's her Jae Gu, the height is right, but seeing him from behind, and a spriggan rather than human, those things made her unsure. But hunting a crowner isn't a bad thing, and now that she has Jae Gu's attention, Llyn can restrain him from behind as she continues to keep his offense on lockdown. The Sealing Strike does minimal damage, and she hasn't blocked him from defending himself, so he's in no danger. But another benefit is that being in combat will lock out his ability to chim for help.

This wasn't the first time he Jayu was brought into a trap, and he had truly been prepared for someone to be hiding behind the door. He had prepared himself to spun around to deal with the aggressor with lightning speed, but with a flash of golden hair, his mind stops. His eyes lock onto a pair of blue eyes filled with a familiar, fierce determination, his arm, mid-swing, freezes. The body scan Yeowang had performed to input Her physical form into the game had captured Her essence perfectly. Jayu has no doubt in his mind that this is the woman he had travelled across countries to meet again, and whose presence he had been longing for these last 3 years.

It was but a split second of hesitation, but even that is enough for the talented Yeowang to lock down Jayu, who has always been one or two orders of magnitute less of a fighter than the woman who had captured his heart... And now, it seems She is about to capture him well and thoroughly. With his attacks on lockdown, the Asura goes on full defense. He quickly takes stock of his situation. The tavern is empty. Even if he screams for help, no one would come, and with the heavy assault Yeowang is laying down upon him, it is impossible for him to chim for help. Even if he did, the battle would be over long before anyone arrived to assist...

It was a battle of attrition, and he was on the defensive, taking all the hits. The outcome where he would be taken out was a foregone conclusion. Still, he would not give up without a fight... His Queen would look down upon that. With his HP bar in the Red, he finally sees an opening. With a duck, weave and spin, he swings a kick up and around. "One solid blow to the temple..." He mutters to himself as he aims his boot for an all-or-nothing attack...

Yeowang has set up her skill bar in such a way as to have nothing but lockdown, or almost nothing but lockdown, there's not enough attacks in the game to fill her bar, and as the takedown wears on, eventally, all the attack lockdowns are on cooldown themselves, and Jayu manages to fit in an attack, and he knows enough to make it a dangerous one. But it's not super dangerous, though Yeowang's defenses aren't as strong as she'd like. Her character build in-game is much more offensively focused than she feels she was in RL, it was coached by her little brother, who advised her before she went in, and so it shows a few of the selections he'd make. She's no gamer, but her little brother was unmatched.

So, Yeowang takes the hit, remembering their conversation when she was in the ring in another fight, but avoiding what she can of his attack, taking it on her shoulder rather than in the head, and she plays her trump card: a devastating butterfly kick! People in the Palace Lands may never have seen an Epic attack before, twirling through the air with her head nearly brushing the ceiling, knocking Jayu's HP nearly into the bucket in a single devastating, catastrophic blow, and hopefully KOing him in the process. He's physically stronger than she is, she remembers that from RL, though in-game here, stats aren't like in RL. Anyone can do anything, it seems.

As if to say, 'No, Jae Gu. This is how that move is done,' Yeowang delivers her own kick. To say that it is the same move would be like comparing Ground Chuck to Fillet Mignon. The maneuver was masterfully performed, as She had mastered it both in real life and in the game. Further to increase the power of the move, it was a game maneuver that carried vast statistical buffing to it. Jayu didn't stand a chance. The sound of bone connecting with bone through several layers of meat echoes throughout the tavern. Jayu's feet lift up of the ground as he is sent flying several inches, collapsing to the ground in a Yamcha-esque heap. As his consciousness fades, he absently says to himself, 'so this is how Kim Han Gyul must have felt...'

Llyn has Jayu, hook line and sinker now. She knew how this was going to go he'd either be focused on her. Or on Yeowang, either way he wouldn't see half of this comming. Whe had a bit of a grin on her face.

"He's comming."

She notes as she sees Jayu come in with a grin.

"Good to see you, I think someone else however is about to say something witty when Jayu sems to click.

"Is that any way to treat your Queen?! She's been looking for you as soon as the way out of Yamato opened."

She does have a beer in hand she' watching this whole fight play out. She's ready to jump in, and her healing artes are ready.

She'll pause and pull out a large sack from her inventoy and throws some coins down.

"For the mess and you didn't see anything."

She notes stiding over to Yeowang.

"Come on let's bag him and go shall we?"

Yeowang has, on top of all her fighting experience, all of her RL experience with Sports Medicine to draw upon, and she will check Jayu to make sure he's not /too/ badly injured, she feels awful for doing what she did, but too much fighting in the bar was going to get the watch called or something, and that's not her plan. She kneels down and checks Jayu out, most people don't know about her extensive knowledge of sports medicine, but she did do MMA for ten years in RL and knows a bit. A rag to clean up any blood, and a few spirtzes with a bottle of whiskey for scent, and she's ready to go.

What her plan is, she and Llyn will get under each of Jayu's shoulders and carry him out the back of the bar, no need to go out the way anyone came in, and the contents of the bottle poured over us as 'cologne' marking us as revelers. "No sacks, that will draw suspicion," she tells Llyn. "Even if press ganging is legal here, it's less suspiscious this way."

Jayu knows she doesn't even drink, herself, but two people reeking of booze carrying a third is far less suspicious than what actually happened. They're out the back door with none the wiser, and Yeowang will lead the way, carrying Jayu outside the city, and hopefully to the statue before he wakes up.

Llyn looks over to Yewonad and frowns but put the bag away.

"I'm pretty sure he'd enjoy it."

She'll wings but she will be ready carry the guy out. They got to get him out of the city and towards the stature.

"Don't mind us someone's had too much and we need to get him somewhere he can sleep all of it off." She say snothing more as she helps carry Jayu out of the bar.

Yeowang frowns about Jayu enjoying a sack over his head. She saw the look on his face when he recognized her. He was expecting her. And she's done this to him. She feels terrible about it, but she had to, to rescue him from the Crown that's held him for who knows how long? She smiles weakly as we pass through the grubby section of town, but no one seems to care too much. Down to the dock, where we can carry him aboard our disgused ship, just another crewman who had too much to drink," she explains to the harbormaster, "I'm terribly sorry for the trouble." A bit of coin will change hands in exchange for no further questions, and back onto the ship we go. She will stay in the cabin with Jayu, a rag with the local equivalent of chloroform keeping him from waking up while Llyn pilots the ship out of the harbor and along the coast to where we're within the area of the statue's influence.

She watches his face while he sleeps, or at least lays there unconscious, and she holds his hand, sighing. Nearly three years apart, after all the trouble he went to, tracking her down in Japan, and ... but that's not important. She's found him again!

It shouldn't take too long to sail within range of that colossal statue, and Jayu's crown simply falls off his head. Yeowang will snatch it away and lock it up, later, someone in the Alliance will be able to destroy it, but now she sighs, and will wait for him to awaken.

Jayu stirs relatively soon after he is no longer being drugged to sleep: he's always been quick to recover. The first sensation he feels is a hand in his. He gives the hand a gentle squeeze as he returns to the conscious world. Even though he has yet to open his eyes, he knows whose hand this is; he remembers the last time he held Her hand as clearly as it had been moments ago. He grasps Her hand more firmly as he groggily mutters, "this time, I'll be able to hold onto it tightly..."

His eyes are still out of focus, but he can see her form, sitting next to him. He smiles softly. He had finally found her again... Rather... This time, she had found him.

Yeowang sighs as Jayu wakes up, and she says, anxiously, "I wasn't sure if I was more afraid that you were trapped in here or that you weren't, but when Llyn said she'd heard you mention me, I knew it had to be you! You don't look -too- different," she allows. Spriggan wings are the biggest difference, perhaps. "And the name change, of course." She smirks. "But I've finally found you! It must have been awful, I'm so glad you're here!" She smiles. "I think you will like most of the Yamato people."

Llyn smirks.

"Wake up, I wasn't lying when I said I found your Queen." She smirks.

"Sorry about having to club you but we needed to get you freed of their vile control." She laughs. "They are a hell of a lot more fun and they have been reinventing all sorts of things."

At first, Jayu doesn't seem to be conscious enough to register the words Yeowang is saying, but that doesn't seem to bother him that much as he seems to be basking in merely the sound of Her voice. An aside though comes to his mind, that it is refreshing, and perhaps way too cute, to hear the ALWAYS cool and calm Yeowang express nervousness. "I... Am glad I am here too. It means that I am here with You."

He sits up quickly when he hears Llyn's voice, sobering up completely as embarrassment washes over him, "Oh! You were... Ah... Long time no see, Llyn! H-how's your ship?" Oof. Wrong question. He knows very well that she doesn't have her ship right now. "Ah! I mean, reinventing things? That's pretty great! Have they done soda yet? Heh." Throughout the whole exchange, he hasn't let go of Yeowang's hand.

Yeowang never expresses anything less than calm reassurance to anyone else, if she can help it, and she back to Miss Cool Ice when Llyn enters the room. She continues to hold Jayu's hand as he wakes up, her grip stronger now that he's definitely awake and not under the Crown's influence. As to soda, she can only shrug. She was a tea person, generally, or water, and soda would have been a frivolous luxury for him, but she supposes it's a legitimate question as far as technical progress. "It's been intermittent. Bits and pieces of the real world as we find them convenient."

Llyn says "Lost it, lost the one I was commanding too but I'm free now." She smirks for a moment. "There's a burger joint in one of the port cities over there." She smirks even more. "We do have coffee at least!"

Jayu gives a broad smile, "Ah. At least there's that! Be thankful for small favors and all." Noting that his faux pas has been skirted with little to no repercussions, he gives a sigh, "I... Am looking forward to how different Yamato will be." He's doing his best to avoid saying anything cringe or sappy while Llyn is in the room, but it's relatively obvious by the way he gazes at Yeowang the main reason why he is happy to be headed to the 'new land'.

Yeowang will smirk to Llyn, and tell her, "We can head back now, I think. Back to Seeker's first." The day long trip is uneventful, and Jayu is able to recover, and Yeowang shares her news, as much as he's interested in, anyhow. She runs a bank, owns a department store. Things he'd probably expect. She runs a medical aid group also, a doctors without borders type group. She has fingers in several pies.

When they arrive in Seeker's Landing, she arranges passage on a supply boat returning to Yamato, and that's another week at sea. That gives them more time to catch up on the years they spent apart, she's curious to hear what the Palace Lands were like for players, if for no other reason than to cement her resolve to bring down their system. The weeklong trip back to Yamato is noe eventful, but Jayu is of course treated to what money can buy, and there's no menu food here, while there's only so much you can expect from a ship's cabin, it's helped by Yeowang's personal stash of Deluxe Camping Gear which makes your time away from home less onerous. Finally arriving back in Yamato, she sighs as we finally come ashore. "Welcome to your new home," she tells him. (Fade Out)