Unagi Don in Another World

    Hifumi is behind the bar the hot sizzle of the small yaki grill filling the air with sweet smoke as he grills unagi. There are several people at the bar lander and Adventurer alike, however there's seating available. The tables have all been turned into kotatsu seating to help combat the cold outside. Music drifts from the young woman in the corner with a large cat curled around her feet as she plays and sings a mix of Japanese and Yamato songs.

Yeowang comes in and sheds a modern-looking overcoat, laying it across her lap as she takes a seat at a kotatsu, and she will order whatever is on special today, because she trusts that whatever is on special will be tasty. "Good evening," she calls to the proprietor and the other patrons. She is warmly dressed against the cold: under the woolen overcoat is a surcoat and under that is a long sleeved blouse. A woolen scarf is also folded neatly and laid across her lap with the coat.

    Hfiumi lifts his hand and waves. "Hey there." he offers with a smile and slips some of the crispy glazed eel onto a bed of rice and drops it infront of a caitsith at the bar. When the waitress brings the order over he grins. Lots of people it seems just leave the choice to him and tonight, it's Unagi Don, the rice is hot and just the right amount of sticky, the glaze is sweet and smokey, the eel is buttery smooth and tender enough to fall apart without the skin. "How's the adventuring life going?" he asks even as more eel goes on the coals

Yeowang takes a deep breath to savor the meal before digging in, and smiles in anticipation. "It smells delicious," she says, but answers before digging in. "It's not hugely adventurey, lately. I suspect some large change is approaching us stealthfully. The game is not usually so quiet," she explains her suspicions before taking a bite, and closing her eyes, savoring as she eats. When she finishes the bite, she admits, "It's not bad, but I am left waiting for, as they say, the other shoe to drop."

    Hifumi chuckles "Well the world is more complicated than the game was." he shrugs "Thigs flow more as they did in the old world. At the pace of people." he continues grilling the next customer's Unagi and takes a swallow of water from a bottle.

Yeowang considers Hifumi's comment. "The world is more complicated, if only because RL has 6 billion human variables and the game doesn't simulate them all," she says. "But the parts the game does simulate, it simulates imperfectly, and I find that much more complicating even in its simplicity. Things experienced gamers seem to understand inherently bring me to confusion."

    Hifumi shrugs a bit "Well, I'll disagree, but then I don't see this place as the game we were playing." he says "And neither do many of my customers, or my girlfriend." he chuckles. "This is my world now and so it just operates as it operates."

Yeowang chuckles and says, "You adapt to new things more easily than I do, it seems. Many gamers do, it seems. My little brother gave me quite a lot of useful advice before I joined, and I use as much of it as I am able. But I spent nineteen years in the real world, and only three years here. Nineteen years are not so easy for me to let go. This place operates as you say, but I am not as able to adapt to the new expectations."

    Hifumi taps his right fingers on the bartop and then strokes it slowly as if he's checking how smooth the bartop is. Somehow that seems relaxing to him. "Well... I lived twice that in the..." he makes air quotes "Real world... and by the end there... well outside of games I might as well have been dead anyway." he shrugs "But we each came to this world from a different place in our lives." he smiles and knocks loudly on the bartop with his right hand knuckles "And for some of us, this is far preferable." winks "Don't sweat it." he says plating up more eel for a customer.

Yeowang's eyes widen as Hifumi mentions this world being preferable. Her expression says that is not her case at all. "Ah, I quite liked my real life," she says. "I'm glad to have my boyfriend here finally, it only took two and a half years to find him. But this was supposed to be a place we could meet and talk, not a place for us to live. As you say, everyone's case is different."

Gwen is hungry is in town she knows there's one place to go Hifumi's there is no other option in her mind as she'll stride on into and look for a place to sit down. She grinning a bit and looks around. "Oh Hifumi! I got a uniform idea!" She then looks over to Yeowang.

"I'm glad you finally found him!"

    Hifumi smiles wide "Ahh good, can't francise without an iconic uniform!" he says tap tap tapping on the bartop with his right hand fingers.

Yeowang smiles, nods to Gwen. "Yes, I'm quite happy about that, at least. He's joined Scale, as many of those we've rescued from the Palace Lands have. He's suffered a lot at the hands of the Palace Landers, but I'm glad to have found him." She nods gravely, and considers Hifumi's mention of franchising. "If you need financial backing," she says, "please let me know."

Gwen says "No you can't Hifumi so if you wanna see my rough prototypes, let me know." She grins and looks back to Yeowang and muses. "There goods a good woman who knows what she wants.

"So where would you want to expand to my friend and hows your lady friend?"