Today at the Crescent Academy

Goldenblade is, as is her wont, working at her Academy, though there's precious little academic going on. The old forge has been brought out onto the broad courtyard for the slightly improved ventilation, and she's working on something or other, but in a sort of laid back way. Things seem to have fallen into a lull.

    Natsume is a raither airheaded cait sith, and has - for the most part - stayed out of peoples way ever since she started pursueing her dreams of becoming a famed alchemist... However, not much progress has been made on that point, and well... Going it alone and staying out of peoples way isn't really working out the way she had planned... Then it dawned on her... Someone had offered her combat training. The downside to this was, curse of all curses, that her brain doesn't really remember WHO offered the training.. So in the absensce of finding a usual suspect to cling to like Pela until other people notice her, she has gone wandering in search of potential training herself.. A wanderlust that has lead her straight into the Crescent Academy yard where.. It seems that not really much is going on? Though it's an academy, so surely there's somewhere a bun-bun could pick up a weapon and train...

Goldenblade has posted offers of training in several prominent places, one of those might be the half-remembered tidbit that has drawn Natsume here? She -likes- training people. If she's trained someone, that's one more person who can do the work instead of her, when it comes time for work to be done. She does, after a few moments, spot the bun who's come in to see what's going on, and she calls out, "Hello!" She will take the metal thing she's working on, and place it back on the heat, but away from the center, so it doesn't melt, but doesn't cool down, either, so she can pause in her work and talk to her visitor. "Welcome to the Crescent Academy," she says. "Such as it is." Not too much to look at: a warehouse, a building, and a paved parade ground-looking thing here in the center.

Natsume blinks as she's called out to, and bows politely in response. With the bow comes the jingle and jostling of numerous bottles and knick nacks clipped to her outfit through various loops hooks. "Greetings, I am Shiroibara Natsume, an alchemist by trade. However I also have been known to serve as an adventurer in some capacity once or twice and thought it prudent to, perhaps, learn to wield a weapon of some form. Perhaps some comically oversized hammer..." It's only after that that she stops speaking to take a breath, before she raises from her bow and tilts her head to watch as Goldenblade puts the metal aside before her eyes light up with posibilities. "Oh my, a blacksmith as well? I certainly know where to come if I need someone to forge precision tools or new alchmey devices."

Goldenblade smiles as her skill at blacksmithing is noted. "I can forge both armor and weapons, though I suppose that is not my main call to such fame as I can claim." She nods about weapon training, and says, "I can teach you most weapons, and I can teach you fighting, and I can also teach you such skills as you may find useful. Though if you are an alchemist, you may not be able to learn some of my more intense skills, as I lean heavily into physical training. But tell me how you're used to fighting, and perhaps I can work out which weapon would suit your fighting style. Though I have to say, in the game, you can generally make -anything- work, no matter how farfetched."

"Ummm..." Natsume starts, pausing to place a finger against her chin in deep thought that clearly precludes some detailed, well thought out, precision fighting strategy that she's developed over the course of her time within the game.

"I generally just chuck potions I mix up at enemies and cheer when the mixtures behave as expected or predicted according to the mixtures I have on hand...!" She declares - somewhat proudly as she puts her hands on her hips and several of the - apparently fragile bottles clatter at her hips.

Goldenblade looks worried as the bottles clatter, but luckily nothing breaks. "Clearly, you will be using a mobility-focused strategy," she guesses, as getting hit while wearing an explosive potion sounds bad. I think I can help you with a few skills, as mobility is my main focus also." She will demonstrate her mobility by dodging around behind Natsume almost as quick as thinking, then smiling as she taps her shoulder and grins. "Would that be a useful skill for you?" she asks.

    Noticing the apparently worried look from Goldenblade, Natsume grabs one of the bottles at her hips and waves it frantically. "Oh goodness don't be alarmed, they're perfectly save as long as I don't prime them by shaking them!" A claim she makes, mid frantic waving as the bottle she's holding glows threateningly as the contents seem to fizz. The glow catching her attention as she glances over then jumps with a someone panicked expression before she throws the bottle as hard as she can straight upwards resulting in an explosion that seems to release a strong gust of wind harmlessly in the area where the bottle exploded. ".. Eheh... Um... Totally safe!" She exclaims, before blinking as she looks back to where Goldenblade was, her mind percieving the absence of the woman as a blinking outline. That is, until she suddenly gets tapped on the shoulder and jumps nearly as high as the bottle she threw upwards with another exclaimation of, "OH CARROTS DON'T DO THAT!"

    As she tumbles back to the ground, she lands - almost gracefully on her feet, before she tilts her head softly. "...Oh my that was quite a quick movement, wasn't it.. I didn't even see you move... ...Admitedly I was somewhat distracted demonstrating the safety of my potions but I doubt I would have seen it, even if I had been watching!"

Goldenblade winces as you jump in reaction. She hadn't planned quite that level of jump scare, though perhaps it serves as a good demonstration? She nods gravely about not seeing it even if you were watching. "Several quite observant people have failed to observe me," she says proudly. But she smiles, and says, "That one, I may be able to teach, if you can jump that high in a pinch. As I say, there is an intense amount of physical training behind some few of my skills. But I can help you ease into that also. You don't go from zero to eighty in a moment, you have to work your way there, and shift up through the gears."

    Natsume slowly bounces back and forth on her heels, or rather rocks, though with her ears flopping back and forth it might be hard to tell. "I would definitely not be against learning such a usfeul skill... If you think i'm capable." She says before she stretches her arms out to limber up. "Training has to be eased into...? That explains why I got really sore last time I tried to train my hardest by myself.. It's a good thing I came to seek you out!"

Goldenblade smirks about training. "It depends what your body is used to, also. I was a bricklayer back in real life, so I'm used to a physical lifestyle. Kids today, if you're not an athlete, you generally wind up soft. My grandkids are like that," she sighs. But she will Inspect you, the in-game function that reveals a bit about a person, though really, not all -that- much, if it comes to it. "But yes, I think there's one or two skills I can teach you. I can show you how to upgrade your level of physical protection as well as teach you a move that will help you defend yourself.

Natsume... slumps a bit thinking about that. "I... Don't talk about my life before much..." She admits, in something more of a serious tone.. also marking the first time she's ever really broken character in the game to speak about it. "The blue flash... ...There's nothing waiting for me, back out there." She mumbles before she puffs up her cheeks and claps her hands against them to 'slap' the thoughts out of her mind then smiles. "I look forward to learning under you, sensei!"

Goldenblade shrugs about not talking about life before coming here. "My real life wasn't so bad, apart from being seventy five, so almost done. Here, who knows?" She shrugs it off. "Anyhow, we're both here now, so not much point in worrying about getting out. Though I think maybe whoever's hidden us here is having some trouble. Have you noticed how not as much is happening lately? I think the people that have dragged us here into the game are trying to keep the game from drawing too much of whatever it draws from the power grid, so they don't get discovered." She shrugs. "Just a guess, of course. I don't know what sort of cycles are typical for games."

As to looking forward to being taught, she says, "So, I'll describe each skill to you, and you tell me which you'd like to learn first? The skills I think I can teach you are Round Windmill, Cross Block, Haul Off, and Upgraded Armor."

"Um.. We can start with Haul Off.. I don't really know if that's a good place to start but it sounds neat!" Natsume says before she puts her arms at her waist. "I don't mind it being peaceful! That just means we can adventure more safely and worry less about overarching threats to our survival." She replies before she steps over to Goldenblade. "So uh.. Let's make use of it while it lasts and try to train me as much as we can!"

Goldenblade nods to Natsume, and will waste no time getting started with training. "Peaceful is good, if dull," she agrees, and will get her into the right stance to haul off with the Haul Off skill. And the scene fades on our adventurers training in that self-buff skill, one of the first ones GB developed.