Half a Dozen of One, Six.. Thousand of Another?

    Progress in Olympus has proceeded in the way it always does. Leaps and bounds and massive effort. And while the efforts to build out Arcadia are more of a personal matter to Elly, the long promised shipyard for Olympus is very much a matter of the Alliance getting its due.

    So Elly is here, organizing. At least, ostensibly she's organizing. She's also regularly dealing with people throwing this world's take on water balloons at her. Which is probably why she's dressed in a swimsuit. And she is using block to the best of her ability, but her technique is, well, not exactly going to inspire anyone to rely on her shield skills.

    "So, if this is all right, we have the basic resources and the road is well underway. Despite the fact that we also have Goldenblade doing double-duty on the Steel Factory."

    This is not said by Elly, but rather by a low level Adventurer in Olympus who is posing as her secretary. Elly refuses to take her Lander secretary into the more dangerous areas. Unfortunately, she is left with this person, who is not the best secretary. They are also frequently one of the people pelting her with blasts of water. Which is hardly helping progress.

    "More than double duty. But I assure you, that is not something you need fret over. Just tell me how much stone we have left in Eas so I can allocate labor accordingly."

    She does not sigh. But she wants to.

Goldenblade has, as has been said, applied her skills to several related projects around Eas. Part of her duties do, in fact, involve keeping Wake on her toes, to which end she's got a willow switch and every five to ten minutes at random she will take a swipe at Wake. She's a bit too fast to dodge, but it's a willow switch, any sort of block will keep Wake from a light pinch. Because she'd been asked to. Well, she helps her friends train. It's maybe a bit old school, but so is Goldenblade.

She nods about the road being underway, and says, "The foundry is also under construction, and I have a foreman on site supervising. It should be fairly straightforward." She will listen to how much stone is available, because that's a thing she also needs to know about. She can certainly siphon off the mine tailings from our iron mine if we need gravel, but blocks are harder. "So, are we setting up rail lines? has that been decided?"

    "We are definitely exploring that and I have every plan to proceed as soon as possible. Some of our people are working on feasability and making sure there's a general path that is likely to work. There was some misunderstanding about trying to get the train to climb up to Eas. Which was frustrating and silly. It has been corrected. For now, we need a path from the Olympus Mines and the foundry to the shipyard. Eas will have a station near it to support Olympus HQ, but mountain service will be resolved at another time. When we have our most important needs addressed."

    The smacking and splashing has been a bit of a trial at times. Mostly by people Elly barely knows who think it is funny to pester one of the leaders in the Alliance. She finds it is funny to assign them to tasks such as endlessly clearing trash mobs from the beach.

    "You have enough stone for another three weeks at most," relays the secretary. The very temporary secretary. "Well, that has to be addressed," replies Elly. And the secretary drolly replies, "Yes, yes it does. A message should be send to get the Eas mines to produce more."

    Elly gives the lowbie secretary a look. No action is taken. She then arches an eyebrow. "Errr, right. I.. will get on that!" And away the secretary skitters.

    Freed of that presence, Elly turns back to Goldenblade. "So, how is work going?"

Goldenblade watches the secretary being mouthy and snide, but it's Elly's secretary, it's not for her to criticize. She's spent a few hours here and there on the beach trash mobs, though mostly for training, and showing the kids what to do. It's not like she gets XP from trash, but when you're seventy five, just staying active is a chore.

"Work on which project?" she asks. "The shipyard has just started, really, it doesn't /look/ like progress because it's only a week in to a 2-month project." Mostly supplies set close to where they will be used, and a couple pilings sunk, but all alone until they're built into piers and a dock.

    "I mean generally," says Elly. She curves her lips into a smile and turns to watch the work. She does not clearly know what each effort is doing, but she gets a sense of the bigger picture. At a first glance, things may not look like one effort, but all is moving at the direction of one architect.

    "I know from my perspective, we are laying out a good start here while other things have wrapped up. We know a fair amount about the land now, obviously, and I have started to recruit and develop talent for Arcadia. It is a thing I must balance, but thus far it seems that both my nation and our Alliance are profiting greatly from each other. The land I can provide for Olympus would otherwise be difficult to arrange. Well, without hostility, anyway. And all I have to do is keep paying my taxes! Crushing taxes, mind you, but Yeowang and I are going to show those greedy Dukes a thing or two about finances."

    She is very amused to get to fight in that new arena. She is no master merchant yet, but she has started on the path.

    "Do you have a lot of friends in the other Alliances?" she asks abruptly.

Goldenblade ohs, nods. "Generally, everything is ticking along OK," she says. "I'd like to ... well, I kind of don't know what I want to do. I'd like the foundry done, so we can make the steel that we need for making ther concrete, but I suspect that the improved steel will have many other useful applications. Possibly more than the concrete, given you prefer less 'modern' construction."

She looks blank about finances, that's always been an 'above her paygrade' thing and she hasn't gotten inro it. As far as friends in other alliances, she shakes her head. "I've met one or two of the scale members. Their leader is named after condoms," she laughs to herself. "He doesn't get it, but I know. I can barely look him in the face for it. The other alliance is the one that gave weapons to goblins. As far as I'm concerned, they're all war criminals and ought to be hanged, the ones that did it, and the rest for not stopping them." She shrugs.

    "Prophy... hah. Yes, of course. That is funny. Odd I never thought of it before now. He and I were friends from long ago. Back when we were all in Sleeping Knights. Before all of... this."

    Elly gestures vaguely around herself, indicating, apparently, the world at large. "Giganpor's choice was a rather extreme move. And one destined to do nothing and achieve nothing. People tend to get angry when you try to force them to do what you wish. It is far better to find a way forward together, even if that is difficult or requires you to surrender some of the things you wish for. Compromise is one of the better things evolution has led us to embrace. If reluctantly."

    She looks thoughtful for a time. Her eyes studying the shoreline. "Speaking of war criminals, I am happy to say that I have not heard of any attacks by the enemy on our shores. So there is that. It seems that they have their hands full back at home. When that fight comes to a head, though, my goodness. The lands will glow from the bursting pixels of every Lander of power and influence. I rather doubt any shall live to see the other side of the war."

    She does not sound troubled by that notion, either.

Goldenblade looks surprised. "Proph wasn't always in Scale? He must have switched over fairly early into the game. Or do you mean before this latest version. I was new to the game, so I don't know any of that old history." She shrugs weakly. "Still, he's good to work with. I was going to join him when what's-her-name, Proteus or something, tried to kick me out of Olympus. Ironically I haven't seen her for years. I guess she got so wrapped up in her issues, but then again, who knows what." Another shrug.

She shrugs about war criminals, and says sourly, "For all that players cry for treating Landers like people and not like a computer blips, no one owns up to the fact that those armed goblins killed tons of Landers, who don't respawn." Clearly -this- is the part that bothers her. "But if no one cares, it's not anything I can affect, to be sure. I stabbed goblins every chance I got, when they were a big problem, but they seem to be low key now. But the Palace Landers, with their mind control crowns, that's definitely criminal, and they're unrepentant. I don't know that there's any other solution, and the fight is one that they started by ambush, so I'm not inclined to sympathy for them, either."

    "Proteus was always very... hm. Assertive? Plant Hwyaden's former days were all like that. Pressing me to make war on Scale was a common thing. It was tiresome. There is no way to win a war between adventurers here. None I would wish to use, anyway. I know where it will lead." Elly pauses to let out a sign and draw in a steady breath. "Thanks to the Palace Lands idiocy, we all have an idea. But only an idea. Not the full horror of it. Not yet."

    Turning her mind to a more pleasant thing, she nods. "And yes, before the change. Yuuki, Prophylaxis, and I were all Sleeping Knights. Shaking the pillars of the world! And all that. Those were fun days, honestly. Tae even tagged along sometimes, too! She used to be a terror with her bow, you know. One of the most terrifying archers back in the day. And of course the cutest."

    She ponders that for a time. Hm.

    "And yes, the goblins did kill Landers. Such is the course of things when one acts without full awareness of their actions. A child's idea at best. A maniac's at worst. A world made the worse for it. But thankfully it did not lead to a greater crime."

Goldenblade hrms about Wake and Tae and Yuuki and Proph all having high-level adventures. "I'll bet that was pretty intense," she muses. As far as war on Scale, she says, "I'm so terrible at PVP, I'd have just gotten my ass handed to me. But you know.... maybe that's the fastest way to get out of this game? I heard if you die enough, in game, you eventually don't come back. I wonder if that's the way home?" She's clearly not going to try it, just idly musing.

She arches her brow at not leading to a greater crime, and she asks, "What crime would be greater than killing all those people?" But she nods, "Poorly thought out is the kindest thing to say. If I'd sold Tommy guns to the viet cong in 1971, I'd have been given a cigarette and a brief place in the sun." The old euphamism for getting killed by a firing squad.

    "It was a lot of fun, really. Granted, Sleeping Knights were a mess as a guild. More a bag of cats than anything focused and organized. But when we wanted to take out a target, it fell. And each of us had our own fanboys and fangirls. For me, mostly fangirls. Way back then, I played like an assassin. I loved trying to get into places that were impossible to solo and either find a way or escape with all the loot. Yuuki has always been charging into everything headlong, so that did not change. But Tae hung up the bow. Well, for the most part. And I have now fully retired from battle."

    She sighs softly. Relief more than regret at that, honestly.

    "What could be worse? Hmm... what indeed, my dear friend..." Elly's RL occupation had a lot of ideas on how to make things worse than death a reality. Not her area, of course, but she knew enough, studied enough, and if pushed into a place, might just have to put all of it to good use. She lamely comments at the end.

    "Death is not the worst thing that can be done to a person."

Goldenblade smiles and nods as Wake describes the Sleeping Knights of old. "I would have liked to know you all back then, I think. It sounds like a really good group." Probably requiring more player skill than GB brings to the table, but it's just speculation anyhow. As to death not being the worst that can be done to a person, she looks entirely unconvinced. But it doesn't look like a productive debate, so she will just shrug, yawn, and say, "It's been a long day for me. Do you mind if I head out?"

    "Of course not, my dear friend. Please, get your rest. I know Tae is back at the camp, so food is there, if you want to stop by. I will be at things here for a while longer. But... probably not too long. Tae will come looking for me eventually and drag me back to our beds. I promised her we would go back home today. I have to keep my promises. Especially to my wife."

    Elly sighs and raises a hand, blocking a burst of water that comes from behind her. She otherwise shows no reaction, turning her attention to another Adventurer.

    "Paralan! I have been wondering where you have been. I wish to discuss this railway matter..."