The Morning After

Gwen, Morri and anyone who had been willing to help had set up camp for the night in an Inn. Which had no one running it, Morri had been up late private calling Uther before she passed out. Gwen is currently asleep her armour off and just wearing what passed for town clothing, her green wings are out.

She's kind of sleeping on her side snoring lightly by what was the campfire. Mori is passed out flat on her face snoring like she's a lumberjack, but that's okay. There's a cooking fire set up1 for when someone wants to craft, but right now these two are passed out, though Gwen is showing signs of being close to waking up.

You would think an avid explorer would be good at sleeping anywhere... But needing to sleep in-game was never a necessary mechanic from getting tired. So despite her ethusiasm to get out and do stuff Shiruba didn't get farther than stalking around the walls a bit before feeling wore out, and retreated back to the camp. Not like she had anywhere else to go. Or the means to go there.

When she finally slinks out of whatever corner she passed out in, Shiruba still looks disheveled. More unruly than her normally rough and unkempt save the ponytail hair looked. "Uuuf..." She makes it as far as the fire before plopping down on her bum, ears still slouching sleepily. "That's gonna take getting use to."

There's a snow leopard cait sith who's joined into the Inn that Gwen, Morri and the rest took the back room of. The place is super welcoming. A series of attractive ladies waiting on everyone inside, now that it's earlier in the morning. But most of the Adventurers have the same looks as him. This look of 'why?'. A foursome of plates stacked on top of eachother, most of them barely touched. A darkness underneath his eyes.

"I can't believe there's an Exhaustion status effect." He groans somewhat out loud. "I'd forgive that, if it wasn't for the fact that this food tastes like /nothing/." One of the Pooka waitstaff gives him a bit of a look as he complains. Hunched over like he is, the cait sith doesn't look like much. But then, most adventurers don't look like much right now.

Coming into the back, deciding it's time that these Adventurers get out of the back room, a Gnome pulls the curtains wide, causing streams of light to rush over Gwen and co, momentarily blinding them.

"Okay you people. It's time to get up and get some breakfast into you all."

Before last night, these people were little more than strangers to Mikage, but here she is, sleeping on the floor surrounded by people who are now connected by their shared trauma. The pale girl is curled on the floor, her head resting on her arms. Perhaps because of her likely druidic class levels, she seems content enough on the floor with only a thin blanket as covering, though now and again she murmurs in her sleep.

One wouldn't really call it restful sleep, though. She keeps hovering there on the edge of wakefulness, and then finally she just opens her eyes, staring out at the world. Blue eyes blink once, twice, then sits up, rubbing at her eyes. It is a long moment as she seems to grapple with the realization of not only falling asleep in-game, but waking up there. Slowly, she stretches her legs out, almost with deliberate intention, wiggling her toes.

When the light is so abruptly shoved into her face, she gives a growl under her breath and raises an arm over her eyes. "Oh fuck off." Is her first response. Apparently, Mikage is not a morning person.

Kaydon had woken up early, and had been pacing back and forth near the window of the inn. He didn't like anything that was going on. But the worst part was he had no control. He hated that feeling most of all. The lack of control meant that anything could happen. Less than twelve hours ago he had felt in full control of his situation.

His stomach was starting to rumble. He was aware of the need for sleep and food now. How could he not be? He stopped pacing and swiped open his menu, going through to where the food creation inventory was, and creating a cup of coffee. He takes hold of it in his hands, and takes a sip, and then procedes to make a face. He never thought he'd miss the taste of black coffee.

The sudden arrival of the gnome that pulls the curtains open catches him off guard, "Good morning, miss." He has no idea who this is. Is she a Lander? That was not something he was expecting to see this morning.

Like many of the other reality displaced players, Nevarri is trying to make sense of the world and come to terms with the weirdness is going on. The Salamander Explorer is busy munching away on what looks like a bluer shade of red apple, "Mmm, so are they serving breakfast in here? That is fantastic!"

She chomps on the not-apple some more and seats herself at a table, her tale waving in anticipation. "So what have you got? Chicken? Beef? Sushi? Please have Sushi..."

There was a port city to make it to, but rest was needed. She passed out she had a dream about logging out just at the point she woke up, Gwen eyes open at the sounds Shiryba is making sounds, she wakes up pauses he brains goes wtf mate as her wings brush up against something. She bolts up pauses as she checks the wings, yup those are attached to her and one hand reaches up to check her rather knife-like ears and she turns red. "Ahhh... so it wasn't a dream."

She pokes herself a bit and slowly gets up she opens up her menu and will put on her gear after the call to get up.

"I'd go five more mins mom..."

Mori is just snoring at this point still she'll be up a bit later.

She misses the comment about the food.

"I'll take a lumberjack's breakfast. Bacon, eggs, sausages, hashbrowns and toast pleas and a second for Mori." Gwen isn't wearing combat gear but she's got more than the light clothes she was sleeping in on now too and she keeps poking at her ears or wings.

Shiruba blinks a couple of times as the windows are pulled open. Rubs her eyes with the back of an arm. "Good morning to you too," she mumbles. "No, Gwen, it wasn't a dream." She shifts a little to the side to swat her tail out from under her with the other hand. "I kept rolling over on this thing all night." Is this why animals sleep curled up? So they don't kink up their own tail?

The mention of food gets her to perk up though. "Oh, yes, breakfast would be great. Anything more than a bowl of cold cereal and some toast."

"None of that! I let you sleep in my Inn for free." The lady pulls out a laddle and wags it at Mikage, giving her a bit of a semi-threatening wide-legged gnome stance. "Let's get some breakfast into you lot! Come on now!"

To Kaydon, the lady notes; "Ach, it seems this one has manners!" If Kaydon uses the Inspect function of his HUD, he'd see this lady indeed has the usual 'icons' over her for Landers.

--

Outside, in the public eating area, Cyrus groggily looks up at Nevarri as the bespectacled salamander seats at a nearby table. "It doesn't matter, it all tastes the same." He remarks to her.

The Pooka offers a small menu to Nevarri. Typical stews and the like, as well as fruit & cheese platters. It's not dinner time, so no roasts.

Another Pooka, dealing with Gwen's request, gives her a bit of a look. "Hash... browns? Oh, those potato things. Yes. Coming right up." It would not be long before Gwen has a plate of food similar to her order, including some Grunty Bacon. A similar plate soon making its way to Shiruba.

It tastes like wet plain salted crackers.

Well, it wasn't as if there was much chance of going back to sleep anyways, so Mikage pushes herself up to her feet, bouncing once on her toes. Then, she grabs for her boots, balancing first on one leg and then on the other to tug them on. To Shiruba's comment about weird sleeping posture, she adds, "It's probably something we'll have to get used to." Though, as a Were Fang, she seemed to keep in her human form more often than not.

Her eyes go crossed momentarily as the laddle is waggled in her direction, and then as soon as the Gnome turns her head, Miki sticks her tongue out behind her. Mature.

She wanders out into the main eating area, "Whatever you have on hand is fine. I've never been a breakfast person, anyways." Looking around, she seems to take in some of the others, then stretches her arms out over her head, groaning with satisfaction at the feeling.

Nevarri grins and picks out a curry looking stew, as well as a fruit and cheese platter to mix things up, and says, "Thank you Ma'am! An explorer can't go out into the wilds on an empty stomach--"

Her ears perk up as Cyrus grumbles, "All tastes the same? I mean... I've already had an apple, so it can't taste like apple..."

She holds scoops up a spoonful of stew, and calls out, "ITTATAKI MASU!"

NOM...

...

She slumps, "WHAT EVEN IS THIS?!"

Kaydon eventually wanders out into the main room, just in time to see Nevarri's outburst, "You should try the coffee." He says, holding up his cup, "It tastes just as bland and horrible as that stew does." He takes another drink anyway, making a face. He's still hungry though, so he has to eat something. He grabs himself a plate of stew and sits down.

Gwen looks to Shir "Maybe and ... this is surreal maybe I should have rolled a Pooka..." Too late now Mori finally gets up too and will join the others for food. Gwen is just too focused on eating to really heed about the states.

"Yeah you got it!"

Gwwn beams at her and will sit down when she has her food and she'll go to eat. It looks great she goes to take a bite and there's a horrible look of abject despair on her face she takes another and it gets worse.

"...what... it's like soggy soda crackers without .... salt."

She looks like she's ready to tear up. This can't be the staff's fault right?

"...what did we all do to deserve this..."

She slumps and will just finish her meal and Mori has the same sort reaction. While this goes on Gwen looks to the owner.

"Look you let us stay the night, I owe you one if you ever need help just ask."

Shiruba accepts the breakfast platter brought to her with a nod and "Thank you." See, she does have manners.... once she's properly awake.

She gets as much of a bit of everything as she can on one fork, and shoves it in her mouth. Pauses. Stares blankly at the plate of food that looks like it should be delicious but only tasted like blandness. It's there, and that's about it.

... And then proceeds to shovel it into her mouth with only slightly less frevor. Bland tasting food is still food.

It's a surprise to see the wolfish cait sith tear into a meal like that despite the lack of flavor. Except maybe to the one person in the room that's seen her eat in reality, and voraciously devour anything that wasn't portion controlled by her mother.

Nevarri throws her head back and groans, "How can this be!? It looks delicious! But it tastes like the mushiest unsalted chick-pea soup I've ever had!" She then reaches for the fruits and cheese and tries to shovel it into her mouth, before going wide eyed. "EVEN THE FRUIT AND CHEESE! HOW? How do you make CHEESE taste bad!"

She then holds up an apple piece, "This looks exactly like the blue-apple I was just eating fifteen minutes ago, and--" She bites onto it and... Blinks... "Wait... The apple tastes fine..."

By the time Mikage gets her plate of food, the taste is no real suprise. Everyone else has already shown their different levels of disgust or surprise. She scoops a pile of eggs and twitches her nose at it, then puts it into her mouth and chews with some measure of curiousity. "It's... strange." She taps a finger on the table, "I wonder what sort of change they could have put in that would disrupt the taste responses like this. I mean, is it intentional?"

She still eats, but there is no real joy to it. After a few spoons full, she just pushes the plate away, shaking her head. Though the prospect of at least the fresh fruit being okay has her grabbing an apple, crunching down on it. "Mmm." Is her reply. Then, halfway through chewing, she asks, "By the way, have any of you seen a lynx around anywhere? My animal companion didn't seem to teleport with me during the chaos yesterday..."

Cyrus gives Shiruba a bit of a look as the Were Fang just digs in like that. "I don't know how you do it, my friend." He mutters. "This food looks delicious... the taste is an injustice to these aesthetics." He pauses for just a moment, before shaking his head. "At least the fruit is okay." The youth adds, grabbing a cherry from one of the plates and bites it. "But it's not filling."

Then, a request about a Lynx. The snow leopard cait sith looks up at the rather strange looking Were Fang, tilting his head a bit. A few of the bangles and jewelry on him jingle at the motion of his body. "Yeah. I did actually." He moves back from the table a bit. And laying on his lap, taking it over, is the form of a lynx. Just... taking over his lap.

"He just decided to lay there, and has refused to get off." He moves his hands towards the cat, as if trying to lift it, and the Lynx immediately opens its eye and raises its fur a bit.

"It refuses to move." He repeats. "Could you... save me?"

Gwen in the meantime, gets a grin from the big Gnome. "You don't worry about that ri' now, luv. Just get something in you. Next time, you can properly pay for the lodging, eh?"

"I swear if this is the trade off for fixing the bugged boss on ten, I'd rather deal with the boss." Kaydon mutters, as he eats the food in front of him, muttering and complaining the whole time, "So, we're all sure this isn't a dream. And we're pretty sure that we're not all having some kind of mass halucination." He gestures with his spoon, after cleaning it off so he doesn't slop stew everywhere.

"So you know how the saying goes, once you've eliminated all the logical possibilities, the remaining, however illogical, must be true. So we're stuck in the game. However from all the comotion that was going on last night, it's not the first time this has happened to people."

Gwen watches Shiruba scarf down the food and pauses looks at her friend.

"I guess this is the downside..."

She looks to Nevari as she finishes pauses and will look to one of the hosts.

"Can I get an apple just a straight apple?"

She looks curiously at Neva and then to Mikaga and shake her head "No I was dealing with Balmung, I'm afraid I didn't see."

"Shir is always like this when it comes to food."

Gwen distracted from the food bt these little incidents. "Okay cat gravity still functions here. You and me both Kaydon, and who knows. I'm working with Kite and some others to organize to get ships to Ezzo, so we can try to get people out. Having someone with your skillset if what you said was true yesterday. It would be a hell of a boon to the operation."

Nevarri picks up another apple and starts munching away on it, just as she had on the apple she'd gotten before she arrived at the inn, and replies, "A multi-user shared hallucination? I don't think so... I feel like things would feel less... Real..."

She plucks her glasses off her face, and rubs her nose, "Being legally blind in real life and using the Dive Gear system has an insteresting effect on the brain, I've learned. The gear stimulates the nerves more or less directly, sending messages to the brain that says 'you see these thigns, Really!' This is different..."

Almost immediately, Mikage looks over in the direction of the snow leopard Cait Sith. "Really? It's not like him to run off, but..." And then, there is her companion, sitting smack dab on the man's lap. "Oh." There is a pause, and then she seems to look momentarily sheepish, if even a bit shy. It's a contrast to her earlier behavior. "Come here, Rama."

When the lynx doesn't move, she actually has to approach, reaching down and plucking the creature up, reluctantly, from Cyrus' lap. "Sorry, he normally doesn't latch on to people. It must be because you're a cat."

Turning her attention towards Kaydon, she nods her head, "Seems like this is all real enough, to me." She looks at Gwen, then. "Ezzo is super f--." She pauses, glances at the Gnome, and corrects herself, "-- messed up. I got a look at the place with a spyglass that an Undine girl had."

But then, Nevarri gets her attention, "We've been working with finding ways to better develop the brain-to-game interface, but... it was all theoretical."

Shiruba pauses to look up at Cyrus, gulping down her last mouthful so she's not talking with her mouth full. That'd be rude. "My mother always pulled the 'Don't eat too much, you'll get fat and never find a decent man to marry' crap and was restrictive over what I got to eat," she explains. "So any full meal I can get, doesn't manner if the taste is more like untaste." And resumes finishing off the meal. Going so far to lick it off as well, before handing the plates and silverware back to one of the Lander matrons.

"There's the port. But there's some distance between us and it, and probably monsters out there. Hopefully still low leveled ones, but considering everyone is down to level 1 again as well, it'll take a bit of work to get through anything that is out there."

"I may joke about a lot of stuff, Gwen. But that's not one of them." Kaydon replies. Looking over to Mikage, he nods, "It's almost like we're in an alternate reality. Which I guess is the whole idea behind virtual reality when I think about it. This is just a little to literal."

He takes another bite of stew, managing to not make a face this time, then speaks again, "Folks in Ezzo need help. And we can't exactly count on anyone to swoop in and save us. So we're going to have to do this ourselves."

Cyrus lets out a grunting sound, "No way, I will take this over the bugged boss any day. You didn't have to deal with that guy smashing your face in and giving you the death screen time and time again, did you?" He remarks to Kaydon, glancing aside to him. "And I don't think mass halucinations work this way."

Then, to Shiruba, "I don't know. I can understand getting a full meal. But I'm not a robot. I need more than this." He grunts.

He then shakes his head. "Just one or two loud people. They're probably some of those Chuuni folk who have trouble breaking character." Cyrus then adds, sounding just a little cynical.

The youth lifts his arms to the side in that 'please do not scratch me' kind of way, as Mikage ends up lifting the lazy Lynx off of him, and he soon rises up. Not too quickly, just... rising up, and stretching up. "Ahhh! Freedom!" He declares, "I believe the Americans refer to this as 'Cat Gravity'? I had never experienced this until now." He explains to Mikage.

He then bows his head in a show of respect, and remarks, "Cyrus Frost." He offers his introduction. He then glances at the lady behind him. "Nice recovery."

Then, at her comment on brain-to-game, "What, you're with CCcorp?"

Gwen says "... wait what so your eyes are working normally? I'm not sure what to say Nevarri. So far as I know Shiruba it's low level and the Hunters Guild guards the roads. We could do some hunting if we keep to a group to get some working capital before we hit the port and some levels."

She looks to Kaydon and nods.

"Right and your tactical training would still be useful right? Look the only weapon experience I have is from my Medival Martial arts."

Gwen grins

"We do call it that. Oh Gwen Pendragon."

"I wouldn't go quite that far as to say an alternate reality, but it's definitely an upgrade from the previous software." Mikage replies, stroking her fingers over the lynx in her arms, which seems to mostly just be dangling there. Apparently, despite the creature's wild looks, it is quite tame.

"Mikage." She adds her name to those introducing themselves, "Mikage Yurei." She adds the surname as an afterthought, as if it didn't come quite naturally to her.

At the queston from Cyrus, the girl replies with, "Piffle." The word might be unfamiliar to some, though to others, it would be recognizable as the company that utilized Dive technology to create Angelic Layer during the Dark Times. "We had a division that was trying to study and create better interconnectivity, in order to help people with disabilities be able to retrain their nervous system through Dive interactions." She seems to slip into a very nerdy way of talking, which doesn't suit the wild nature of her druid attire... at all.

"Sorry." She quips, realizing that she just babbled. Then, glancing at Kaydon, she nods her head. "Getting to Ezzo is probably our first priority. But we'll need funds, or equipment, or something we can exchange with the landers to get their help."

"That was the idea, Gwen," Shiruba replies. "We are probably going to need money to get boats to use, and anything we can do to work our levels back up along the way is probably good."

She pulls out her bow. It's very generic and boring, nothing like the elaborate high level one she'd had the day before. But she flicks the string with her fingers and it faintly flickers with wave energy before falling still again. It'll do for now.

"Once Ezzo is taken care of I'll have to go see if some of the old leveling hot spots are still active." She sets the bow across her lap. Newbie level or not it felt comforting to still have it at hand. "Shiruba." No surname, or she never bothered setting one since it didn't seem important for the game.

"Oh, I never quite introduced myself since this whole mess started..." Nevarri smiles points her fingertips to her eyes and then back at her 'viewers', "I'm Nevarri Wryss, your Explorer's Guide to ETO."

She returns her attention back to Mikage, "I'd been listening to TTSes of various interview about that ever since I began playing games on Dive Gear, starting from the original Elder Tales... It.." She lowers her head and smiles softly, "It's really helped me cope..."

"Oh are we doing the name thing?" Kaydon says, as he looks around at the group, "Kaydon. Just Kaydon."

"And you're right. We're going to need money and gear to get better gear and more money." He takes a moment to mourne the loss of his Fenrir Longsword. Some day he will get his hands on it again.

"Explorer's Guide? Oh yeah, you put out those videos on Nero. I thought you looked familiar." He snaps his fingers, "You would know where the closest low level dungeon is, right? At least relative to where we are.."

"Nice to meet you, miss Yurei." Cyrus answers with bemusement. "That almost sounds like a real name there." He adds, seeming surprised at the idea that someone might give their real name in this world.

"Piffle?" Cyrus then repeats that word, as if trying to remember. "Ah, the thing with the puppets that move on the tables. A buddy of mine was really into that." He remarks with a pleasant tone to his voice. "I watched the big tournament when it went on. It was definitely an interesting watch." He notes.

"So, Piffle then. Interesting." He raises his hand to the back of his head. "Hard tech like that was never my thing. I just made asperin and the like." The youth then turns to the others, not knowing quite how to respond to Nevarri's comment, moving his mits to his dark sleeve and rubbing along his arm.

Mikage's attention seems to get seized by Nevarri. Something in her expression shifts, softening slightly, herself. "You're not alone. There are a lot of people that sort of technology can help." Though she doesn't say it outright, something in her tone suggests that she includes herself among them. "I just wonder if they used some of our research in all of this."

Her eyes flick to Cyrus as he mentions having watched the tournament. They linger there for a time, then move on. "Unfortunately, I don't really know anything helpful to our situation. I imagine Miss Nevarri knows more about the game than I do." She inclines her head, "I used to watch your guides." She admits, shrugging once and then setting her lynx down onto the ground.

    There is a moment after Kaydon asks the explorer that question, and the red haired salamander girl blink a moment, before pushing her glasses up her nose, hiding her bright blue eyes behind the glint of her glasses. "Low level dungeons... Well now."

Nevarri suddenly stands up and grins, "At low levels you have a number of dungeons you can go through." She throws a hand out and points directly north, on reflex even, "To the north, about three miles from Alne, you've got Rumble Fields. You've got Goblins all over the place that need picking off."

"To the south." Another quick post, "The Forgotten Forest, Gnolls are ravaging the area."

She then places her hands at her hips. "And in each starting city, you can find a Rat Cellar Dungeon."

"Welp." Kaydon says, "I have a personal interest in taking down gnolls. So I suppose I'll start with that one." He says, rising up from his seat. He's had enough of the bland food. He'll probably grab an apple on the way out though, so he can eat something with some flavor.

"Anyone want to come with?"

Not that there is much gear to gear up at this point, but Shiruba does so all the same as she gets up. "Well just sitting around here isn't going to get anything we need to do done. Might be back to level one but we've still got other not-game-mechanic based experience to work with, right?"

"May want to pay the Landers." Cyrus reminds Kaydon and co, before they decide to actually actively leave, before glancing at Mikage. That look of hers. Damnit, he feels like he should be remembering something, but he can't quite find it.

Glancing back to Shiruba, he crosses his arms. "Maybe we'll find better food than what they've got here at the cafe."

Crouching down, Mikage scratches at the head of her lynx companion, "I'd be up for it. I haven't run through any of the low-level content in a while, and I think we could all use a bit of experience." Thinking on it for a second, "Besides, getting a gnoll-skin cloak would be a nice glamour peice."

Rolling back to her feet, she thumbs at the peace strap of her sword. "As a group, we should be able to hand it." Assuming they haven't made significant changes to any of the content.

     It was impossible to find anyone.

     The wave of adventurers made certain of that. In every direction, people strode out to explore the bold new world, bringing blades against beasts. Anyone who had been in the city either was still there, or had disappeared into the wilds to begin their toil.

     And, unfortunately, that meant it was very probable that Kite and his party had already left for Carmina Gadelica Marina.

     The Descendant of Fianna couldn't simply go running off into the wilderness. Ordinarily, it wouldn't matter - and even reduced to level one, he was fairly sure he could deal with any of the monsters around a root town - but for once in his life, leaving Shiroe and Naotsugu behind would only be to his detriment. At the moment they were once again part of the puzzle of finding Orca.

     That meant his hands were tied.

     And that meant he may have just sent people to their deaths.

     Balmung ducks his head under the door to the bar, lowering his wings just enough to squeeze through. What had once been a character edit he had been so proud of had become an unbelievable inconvenience.

     Chairs, a mortal enemy.

     He'd intended only to meet up with Shiroe and Naotsugu at the bar. Balmung was neither the drinking sort, nor the socializing sort, so it isn't as if he headed here for some sort of conversation.

     So it's only dumb luck when he realizes that Gwen is among the people here.

     In three quick strides the Descendant of Fianna is in the middle of the room. Even in a drab, grey Outlander tunic, a rusty sword at his side, his gait is still that of a faerie-tale knight straight out of legend.

     "You cannot go to Carmina Gadelica Marina."

Even in the most drab of starting gear Balmung's presence pierced the room like a living legend with his arrival. He did still have rather unique appearance that got attention, but that wasn't what held it.

Shiruba paused in getting her hair pinned up into place like she usually wore it, tilting her head to the side as he told Gwen not to go to the marina. "Huh?"

Gwen says "Aye that's part of why I want the gold hiring ships will be cheaper than making them. As for here yeah I intend to pay. Don't have much right now but I got something." She looks to Mikage. "Sounds like an idea we should hit them all up. Also keeping the local monsters under control's a good idea. We don't just want to charge out there to Ezzo in pure starting gear and at level one. The only bit of gear I had that wasn't effected is the coin pendant we pulled out of the dungeon the other night."

Then comes Balmung Gwen raises an eyebrow, she gets the wing thing she's learning to deal with her wings. She's plotting with the others at the table she's eating at.

"Why is that? My /Father/, Att and a bunch of other people are stuck there. If what you said is true about dying we're not going to leave them."

And in walks the Winged Killjoy. Nevarri had never found a reason to dislike any other player, but Balmung was starting to get on her list of people whom if she had seen again it would be too soon. "Oh?" She turns and glares at Balmung, bright blue eyes furrowed, "Well, oh high and mighty Balmung, do tell us why we can't go?"

"Can't, or shouldn't?" Comes Kaydon's voice, near the door. He was ready to head out and take on the gnolls already, to start building their cash. But this seems important.

"Because those are two very different and yet important distinctions. One implies that it is physically impossible to get there. The other implies that going there is hazardous."

With the group seemingly ready to head out for their adventures, Mikage stps dead in hr stride at the sight of Balmung stepping inside. Though she doens't know much about him personally, his Legend is something that even she knows about, especially after lat night. "What happened?" She asks, her head tilting slightly.

"If we can't utilize the Marina, then we're going to have to find some kind of alternative." Glancing towards Kaydon and Gwen, as if she seems to consider them the 'leaders' of this particular party, "Though I'm not sure it changes our immediate plans. We can't do much without some gold and levels."

Cyrus turns as Balmung enters with his message. He'd spoken of the man just moments ago, but now that he can actually /see/ him, he recognizes who he is. Well, it takes a bit, what with the armor. But the wings help. While the others rebuke the man, Cyrus at least gives the man a bit more credibility than that. "What's wrong at the Marina?" The question comes out simple and plain. "I don't think there's really a good chance to get off of this area and to the other kingdoms without a boat. Especially with the Chaos Gates broken."

     Balmung's voice is as sharp as his eyes. "Leviathans."

     It answers every question at once. Nevarri's, Shiruba's, Kaydon's, Gwen's, and Mikage's.

     "I don't know for certain, but I suspect they are the same Leviathans that drove the Undines from their home in 160. "

     "The Marina won't let you send enough boats out for an evacuation. A large fleet is too dangerous. You, the Landers, and, if you manage to make it to Ezzo, the refugees, will die."

     "Naotsugu mentioned that they had returned. I had to make certain you hadn't left yet. Going out onto the water would be suicidal."

"... Well, shit." Or whatever the Japanese equivilent Shiruba said, that's what it translates as. "That can be no coincidence that they've resurface," pun intended, maybe, knowing her, "at the exact same time the Gates are broke."

She huffs, making her bangs flit briefly. "Anyone got a notepad app? We're going to need a list to keep track of the disasters at this rate."

Nevarri blinks in surprise when Balmbung provides an actual, legit reason to go besides 'Do what I say or you'll die.'. "Are you serious?" Her eyebrows furrow, "They might have been one of the additions to the game with the expansion..."

She looks around, "But we can't just abandon the players in Ezzo, there has to be another way..."

Gwen says "You mean from the Lore?" Gwen thinks for a moment "We need not directly fight there may be a way to district or mitigate them, or we just send the ships out in smaller groups with the time spaced out. Either way, before we do anything we need to level up and gather cash regardless of what we do. I'll need to hit up Naotsugu he might know someone who can help us figure out an alternative. Of we could find a way to mask the ships from being detected...We got to think outside the box and not treat it as a game."

    Merek walks into the bar, his longcoat pulled up onto him, while he looks around to people in the place. He has adjusted a bit of his attire, and added a belt which keeps his potions along with anything else he buys, still he doesn't have a lot. It's still day one, he does look to people with a nod, while he orders a whiskey, looking to taste it to see if there's flavor.

"What are Leviathans?" Cyrus, not so into the mythological things, doesn't seem to really get the reference when Balmung mentions them. He speaks of many, so he asks; "Some kind of monster army?" He inquires, leaning back against one of the tables while other Adventurers come in. Balmung would see the same expression on many of their faces. That look of 'ugh, what is this'. There's people who have multiple plates, barely touched, desperately trying to find something that doesn't taste like crackers.

To Shiruba, Cyrus shakes his head. "No notepad app. I've got some paper though." He motions his finger to access the menu, touches in the air a few time to get to his inventory, and then materializes a pen and paper. "This work?" He inquires, offering it to him.

"Look, if they can't have a large fleet, we can just pick them up one boat at a time, right? How many people could there really be in Ezzo right now?"

"Figures." Kaydon sighs heavily, "Okay so we're stuck here until we can figure out some way around the Leviathans. Or at the very least, until they decide to go back to sleep." He frowns a little bit, and then considers options, "Do we even know how long the round trip to Ezzo is? If we did it one ship at a time it could take weeks or months. That's time the folks there don't have."

     "Monsters from the lore," Balmung replies to pretty much everyone asking him 'what is a leviathan'. "Incredibly dangerous, and extremely powerful. It's almost certainly why the Landers are reluctant to allow anyone to leave in large groups. The journey might stir the Leviathans further."

     "It could very easily become an unmanagable disaster."

     Balmung turns away from the group. "Whatever you plan, you'd best make certain that you can convince the Landers of its viability. The people in Ezzo may be in danger, but it does them no good if others die, too."

     "It's likely a five day trip to Ezzo in the best of circumstances." Balmung starts heading for the door. "Going around the Leviathans may not even be possible. If it is, it will probably add a great deal of time to your journey."

     With that, the Descendant of Fianna disappears out the door. He has places to be.

"Leviathans." Mikage repeats, looking vaguely unsettled by the idea. "I've only been to Ezzo once, and that was using a Chaos Gate." She glances at Kaydon, then leans herself against one of the tables, looking thoughtful. "If we had enough Adventurers with water or air affinity we might be able to be quick enough to avoid them, or at least keep them at bay? Or outrun them."

She tended to explore in a far more round about way, maps and distances didn't tend to matter as much. She stares after Balmung as he leaves, giving them more questions than answers about the current situation. "I think we're still back to square one. We need some resources." She looks once again to the party leaders, "So... gnolls?"

    "It's closer to one to two days..." The response sort of pops out of Nevarri's mouth, "If we take the shortest route between Ezzo and the Marina, and with a good ship, we cna make it pretty quickly back and forth with minimal amounts of wait time."

Cyrus looks to Balmung, then the rest, nodding politely as the man leaves. "So... Gnolls then." He repeats after Mikage. "Gnolls sound like a good idea." He glances to Nevarri as he mentions that it's closer to 1-2 days. "Not too bad then. But they'd still need food. But I think there's no point in rushing to that. I'm sure others are handling those logistics."

"Right. That was certainly enlightening." He says, as he watches Balmnung leave, "I'm going to go scout out the area where the gnolls are holed up." He glances at Nevarri, "That's good to know. Hopefully we'll be able to find a ship then...But we'll worry about that once we have some cash." And with that he heads out of the door, to go do some scouting.

"Going to have to relearn to stock up on simple items like that," Shiruba murmurs when Cyrus pulls out actual paper and such. She's going to have to actually draw her own maps and such now? Well, cartography supplies is just more reason to do some quests and get some cash for supplies. "Sounds like it's best to stick to our previous plan of getting our levels and resources back up."

    Merek looks at the whiskey and makes a face, while he places that back onto the bar. There's a sigh while he nods a bit, then looks to people, "I think I might look for resources to bring into the city, I don't know if I can find anyone to come with me," he says.

Gwen pauses for a moment and bring up her menus she checks her inventory "Huh looks like my journal was spared." She notes as she pulls it out and a pen to go with it, along with ink. Nothing special the sort of basic stuff you buy for pennies from a merchant Lander more or less. She jots down what's said and she pauses for a moment.

"I'm going to ask Bar Keeper later if she'd be willing to pass the info of the plan and warning on the Levithians on to any other adventures who come through here. Also it does not matter who was we were a day ago. We're not that anymore we're not cogs who had no say in how the machine was run. We are the only hope everyone in Ezzo has right now, no one but us can save ourselves. We need to gear up get what resources we can and make a plan. We are not bystanders anymore."

She flexes a hand.

"Everything our characters could do, we can do as we are them now. We finish up get ready and we head out to the first dungeon we should hit them all up as much as we can. Cyrus, can you help with the logistics on things? We don't need the best food just cheap lowbie stuff would be enough I think in the end. I also have a call to make, I want to see if Naotsugu might be able to lend us some help or know someone."

    Shiroe had arrived back at the bar, like the rest of his group he had been out trying to pick up supplies, information, anything that could be useful at the moment. He figured when he'd arrive back he was bound to find one of the two return, though just as he arrives back in the door a notification pings in his head, his hand reaches to his ear only to realize that Balmung had apparently just headed out, or was heading out.

>
>
<<Got it. Let me know if anything changes. Remember to keep your head low.>>

    With that he returns to one of the tables by himself. The enchanter walks in with a rather tired look on his face. His eyes furrowing in such a way behind his glasses he's sure to get wrinkles even if this was a videogame. At the very least he felt relaxed enough to let out an exasperated sigh. With all the panicking that seemed to have been going on so far it was nice to have enough silence to hear himself think. That is...Until the mention of Naotsugu comes up. Something that perks his attention enough not to garner attention, but at least to shift his eyes the other way.

    "Oh, guess word gets round quick. Yeah, heard about the same. Apparently the deal with those Leviathan is if you end up sending out more than one ship at a time, they'll target the whole fleet. So it's making it rather difficult for adventurers who're trying to get out of Aincrad all at once to leave. Least...That's what I've heard so far. Though that's probably for the best. It's probably not a good idea for you and your friends to try to head out there."

"It's almost like something is -trying- to keep everyone from leaving the starting area at once. I mean, unpassable monsters, the gates being busted..."

Shiruba shakes her head. No need to go down that deperessing rabbit hole.

"For now, let's just focus on getting ourselves up to speed. Or we're not going to be much help to anyone once we do get off the island."

Cyrus glances aside to Gwen as she speaks. "Yeah, it seems some things survived whatever it was that hit us." He remarks to the rest of them. "I don't know that you'll find much resources for Alne though. This place has always been a ghost town. The Town of Beginnings is the closest church. And right now, I don't know if we can even risk respawning. Who knows what would happen. Plenty of people are staying in town, not wanting to risk it."

He then motions towards the door, just as Shiroe gets in. "I can see what I can do for some logistics. But it's all going to taste awful. I suppose I can start assaulting apple trees, if I find any." He remarks. The tall Cait Sith nods to Shiroe as he passes him by, his jewelry jingling. "We're just looking to level for now." He remarks, right before stepping out of the door of the Inn.

Gwen also finds that Naotsugu never accepted the friend invite she sent last night and just facepalms. "That ... man. I'll have to find his armoured hide later...he forgot to accept the friend invite." She looks over her journal over as something unexpected happens. She pauses at the new arrival and she looks the man over for a moment..

"The other option is to leave everyone in Ezzo to die. You are right we can't just rush out there if you got any input or know anything n the lore of these Levithan that would be helpful. The best idea I have to try and find a way to mask ships from theses thins detecting them or find a way to distract them somehow. Before we rush off we need to build ourselves up, money, levels, and what gear we can get. There could be other things hitting the docks in Ezzo if we even make it there."

She looks over Shiroe for a moment pausing.

"I'm Gwen Pendragon and you are?"

She also lookt to Shiruba.

"I know."

With a plan going forward, Mikage pushes herself away from the table and gives a little whistle, causing her lynx to trot along to her side. The little white creature nuzzles up against her leg. "I'm going to go see if I can't find someplace to go buy a cloak." She explains. "I don't much like the way the Landers stare when I don't have one." Because of the Were Fang tattoo. Likely, they are waiting for her to turn into a monster.

"Give me a ping on party chat when we're ready to go. I'll be there." She seems to follow a step behind Cyrus, although that is just a matter of lucky timing there. "We're not going to let them die." Mikage states, sounding firm on that subject. Then, the druidic Were Fang exits into the day beyond.

Nevarri nods in agreement with Shiruba, "That's for sure... We're going to need maps..." She scrolls into her inventory really quick and pops out a handful of sheets of paper and a pen, "Pen and paper, the most basic of map making materials. Never leave town without them."
She pushes her glasses up her nose and sets the paper down onto the table and begins drawing the nation of Yamato. That it was shaped after Japan, so it wasn't hard to imagine, but she was trying to get the details down, "Work in progress... I'm going to need to level up my combat too, admittedly..."

There's a pause as she looks around to the others in the room, "Oh, right, I should probably friend you all."
    She looks to Shiroe and hrrms, "One ship, multiple trips at the shortest route... This is going to be a doozy to dodge about Leviathans... Still.."

    "Well, leveling won't wait, I'm going to counsel people that need it from this... Well, craziness, then I'm going to level a little," Merek mentions, while he takes a moment to adjust his longcoat, sliding his blades upon his back while he nods to people.

    Finds himself hearing one thing from the Cait Sith, a nod returning back as well as he leaves, but another thing from Ms.Pendragon. The young man stays quiet for a moment. As if in deliberation of whether to speak or not, though eventually he speaks his name. "Shiroe." A name that may or may not seem familiar to those who think about it long enough, though it seems as though he won't give them the time to chew on it.

    "Mmm, if you guys are planning to just level at the moment that's probably the safest bet for trying to survive. Though if I can be a bit blunt, a dungeon might be a bit too early for any right now. Let alone going to Ezzo..." It probably sounds a bit harsh but it's a harsh reality that they'll need to start coming to terms with. Though whether he'd get brushed off immediately or not was another story. "...Do you guys have friends in Ezzo right now or something?"

Gwen pauses for a moment at the name. "Wait Shiroe as in the raid caller and planner for the Tea Party?"

She had pugged with Naotsugu back in the pace and known of the Tea Party. She shakes her head a bit she'd not expected to run into Balmung and someone like Shiroe in one day.

"To do anything with the ships we'd need money, and the only source is quests or monster hunting. We're not ignoring the warning we're trying to adapt, and yes. My Father's there along with at least one or more friends. The warning we were given is making us change our plans we can't fight something like those things head on yet. We also need more information on those monsters."

Nevarri shoots a hand up in Shiroe's direction, "I've already given the directions to the various low level monster fighting areas. I'm pretty sure we can get a few runs done in the Forest, the Fields, and the city clearing quests..."

    Finds himself spotted immediately and with it he lets out a bit of a sigh as he forces a smile, "Mmm, spotted already huh? And here I thought my name wasn't as noticeable as Balmung's or Souji's. But yeah, that's me. Or was me. Still..." He gets up as he pulls his seat over to the groups table. He doesn't immediately say anything to Gwen when she talks about her plans, he just ends up sitting quietly listening to both her and Nevarri who shoots her hand up in Shiroe's direction, to which when she finishes his eyes shoot her way. "Those are definitely the closest areas to try and raise your level. There's a problem with that logic though..."

    As he says that the planner pushes up his glasses and with it, a brilliant sheen reflects of his frames hiding his eyes. "Since we've been stuck here multiple things have changed. First off, everyone's back to the base level meaning that the monsters people can fight are limited. Another thing is that unlike before nearly every person on the server who wasn't in Ezzos wasn transported to Aincrad. That means we have thousands of players all trying to farm the same spawn areas, making leveling and acquiring materials through kill drops even more difficult. Usually this could be rectified by having players spread out into more areas reducing how much congestion is. The problem is...With no Chaos gates and limited ships leaving, it makes it difficult to spread out the playerbase enough for everyone to start leveling..."

    His advice seems to make a decent amount of sense. It's a bit...Cruelly factual, but logically it made sense that would be the situation. "Still...In all honesty, depending on how things are in Ezzos, your father actually might be in a somewhat better position than we are...Have you spoken to him since this all happened?" He looks back to Gwen curious, but also trying to show that he was concerned in the same manner.

    Naotsugu steps into the bar after having gone around for a walk. It looked as if he was stuffing something into his pocket as he entered. He looks around the place a bit, seeing some familiar faces that of his friends and a few others. "Yo. What's up, guys? Having a get-together without the life of the party?"

    He grabbed a chair from a nearby table, pulling it in front of himself and turning it around before sitting on it, arms resting on the back of the chair and his head on top of that. "So what's going on? You already filling them in on the dangers of going out on the water?"

    Since Mizuki woke up this afternoon, she's attempted to get breakfast, and used the money she farmed last night to buy slightly-better weapon and armor. The daggers look slightly fancier, and the armor... yeah she's not wearing that around town. So she's still wearing Newbie Armor when she spots the big guy from yesterday who defended Kite, ad follows him to say hi, leading her into... the bar! Gwen's also here! Mizuki waves to Gwen, "Hey!" and to Naotsugu, "Hello again! ...Has anyone figured out why all the food sucks? I tried to eat a little, but..." her stomach rumbles. "It's just so bad..."

Gwen says "Those are things I haven't considered so we should try to head farther afield as this is going on." She seems to be taking at least some heed to Shiroe as she writes down a lot of this information. "It's like launch day." The information is cruel and direct but useful and it might save one. "Shiroe if I might ask do you have any detailed lore on these Leviathans? Information is ammunition after all. It's intel and logistics that win wars right?"

"As for my father I'm checking in with him every few hours. The last check-in, they were going westwards though the mountain then straight southwest from there having started at the Root Town. They were stopping to rest and had hit about the halfway point."

Shiruba looks up from prepping her stuff. "At least they're on the move and not stuck in one place."

    Just as Shiroe explains his logic it's Naotsugu that shows up and a bit of a smirk showing on his face, "Ah, something of the sort. I overheard them using your name and talk about going out to see. Though seems like they already had an idea of the Leviathans. I'm mostly just filling in any gaps."

    As he finishes greeting Nao back, he turns back to Gwen, "Agreed. Having as much info as possible and utilizing as best you can is more important now than ever. Especially if you want to help out your father." He goes into his menu and starts playing with his commands. Though just before it looks like he's about to do something... "Gwen, I'm won't force you on this but I'd like to make a request as well. At the moment there's not many people with contacts in Ezzo. If you're able to stay in contact with your father then I'd like to add you to my friend's list. If possible I'd like to try and get more information about the current situation in Ezzo through the people that are there. So that might mean on occasion that I might end up contacting you inorder to ask things of your father. Would something like that be an issue?"

The front door pushes back open, and Kaydon comes into the inn once again. He stops a moment to take in the gathered group, and then speaks up, "I found the gnoll camp. It doesn't look like they've killed anybody, yet. But someone definitely did attack them, because they're pretty riled up."

    Mizuki looks between those assembled and Gwen, and shifts around the room towards her. "So who're your friends?" She smiles and extends one fuzzy hand towards the group. "Nice to meet you, I'm Mizuki!"

Gwen looks over to Naotsugu "I tried to invite you but you never accepted my friend's request." She notes she's not mad she' just stating a fact. "We're adopting our plans on what's been shared with us."

She pauses at Shiroe's request she thinks for a moment. 5R
"I am willing to do that, I also have one of my regular customers on there he's called Att Syne. I'll keep you up to date with what information I get from them and I can relay any questions you have. It's more than fair."

She will accept the friend invite if or when Shiroe makes it.

Shiruba points at Shiroe when he agrees on information and tactics being important to success. "I like this guy, he understands how strategy preparedness works~"

Then Kaydon returns, relaying that the gnolls are already getting wound up. "That might not be good. If they get too enraged before they're taken down they might go on the offensive. With all the people stuck on this island, that could get messy."

    Naotsugu perked up as someone entered. "Did you say Gnolls? Wait... did I walk in on a group planning session to kick the crap outta some mobs in the area? I'm hurt! You didn't invite me!" He made a sort of mocking miming gesture of being wounded, grasping his heart and faking injury.

    After spending a few seconds being dramatic, he looks the lot of the group dead in the eyes. "So. What's the big plan, then? I'm pretty sure anything that happens needs to happen quickly for the exact reason they stated." He gestures a thumb at Shiruba.

    Without saying another word sends the invite, and the moment she accepts. It seems as though she receives something else as well that begins to pop up on her Menu as well. "Thanks. If there's anything more you need from me I'll try to stay in touch. I hope you'll do the same as well."

    With that out of the way he finds Mizuki trying to greet the others, and he gives a bit of a wave, "Ah...Sorry, guess things are getting a bit cro-" That's when Kaydon interrupts as well, but this brings a more stern look to the Enchanter's face. "Gnolls? Mind me asking what happened there?"

    Shiroe's sudden seriousness strikes Mizuki as noteworthy. "What's special about gnolls? Aren't they just another kind of monster?"

Gwen looks to Mizuki for a moment and tilts her head a bit. "This is Shiroe and that's Naotsugu. That's Kaydon and Shiruba."

The Spriggan whose beside Gwen notes "I'm Mori." She looks over to Naotsugu. "I had no way to contact you, we're not saying no to anyone who wants to come." She makes a face at him. "Before any of the plans are done we need to get money, levels and drops. Also levelling up would help us in general." She shoots a look at Mizuki. "Yes, but they tend to be more organized the say goblins."

"Yeah it looks like one or two people went after them without any planning. Probably either new or forgot they were level one again." Kaydon says in reponse to Shiroe, "They definitely had a fight recently, and seemed like they were getting ready to set out again. So if we're going to hit them, we'd better do it now, before they move out and we miss our chance."

    Naotsugu stands up and readies his gear! As bad as it is at the moment... "I may only have basic crappy gear... but between me and Gwen," This is about the first time he's seemingly acknowledged Gwen by name this entire time... as well, when he says this, a friend request comes through to Gwen's status screen from Naotsugu. "NOTHING'S getting past! Though... anyone here a Healer?" He looked around... with level 1 gear, most people looked rather similar in gear, at least to him... he couldn't determine the difference between a Healer, a Sorcerer or an Enchanter at these levels...

"Then let's make a plan and go." Shiruba is already making for the door. "This our chance to do something to make this area a little safer until we get off of it, maybe get our own levels back on the rise too. Two birds with one stone." She pauses. "That is how the saying goes, yes? Not that I'm using stones or anything." Though she is capable of. Maybe little ones.

At least that bow, low newbie version it is, makes it easier to tell what type of class she is.

    Looks a bit displeased hearing that people tried going out so unprepared. "Mmmm...It'd make sense in both cases. Still..." Doesn't mean it'd be any more pleasant giving the current situation. "I'd rather not have to move around so close to town but..." Given the situation there wasn't much choice. It'd leave a bad taste if he did end up finding that those new players ended up dead cause no one went to help them...Especially to monsters at such low levels as the gnolls. "Naotsugu, get ready to go. I'll Balmung as well to see if he's close enough to join in. In the meantime it'd be good to have everyone state their class and sub class so we know what we're working with for formation options. I'm an Enchanter and Spellcaster who focuses on offensive support magic. What about the rest of you?"

    "Without any planning? Do you think they..." Mizuki's ears splay, and she looks for another subject. "Not a healer, but I've got physical dps and elemental magic. Twin Blade / Sorcerer."

    Naotsugu posed quite heroically. "Crusader / Heavy Blade. I have SOME emergency healing... but I'm mostly based around keeping enemies away from our back line.

Shiruba stops at the asking about classes and looks back. "I'm a Spell Fletcher." She holds up her bow. "Hunter / Sorcerer." Then lowers it as she considers, looks over to Shiroe since he's the other tactical one. "Not a lot of healing to go around at low levels. Probably need to focus on having a good defense with our tanks so us DPS can overpower them before they get on the upswing."

"I'm a Heavy Blade and Blademaster." Kaydon replies, "I tend to keep right on top of enemies and take them down as quick as I can." He hmms, "Should be at least.." He counts for a second, Six, including myself. Plus you two. So eight total." He motions to Shiroe and Naotsugu, "Cyrus, Mikage, Gwen, Shiruba, Mizuki and myself." He takes a moment to glance around, "Did I miss anybody?"

Gwen accepts the invite as Naotsugu recalls her name finally "I don't have spot heals due to the level down I'm afraid."

She nods in agreement "We'll stock some basic potion and make sure no one gets through." She seems very firm about that, "Shiruba do you have any special arrow attacks left?" She nods in agreement with Shiroe. "We're starting over and have to get it out of our heads we were at level cap. As for mine? Crusader/Sorcerer. So Holy Knight."

Shiruba nods, grinning a little so one of the fangs pokes out of the corner of her mouth. "I've still got a few tricks up my quiver."

"Party of eight, usually that'd be a bit overkill but given the situation I think that's fair enough. Sounds like most of you guys know what you're doing so I'll leave it that you all know what your roles should be. That said if at some point something goes awry or you think you're taking too much aggro say something. The last thing we want is to end up being ones that need to be rescued as well. If that's it, I think we can set out."

    "Yeahhh, let's DO THIS!" He gives a bit of a warcry as he attempts to lead the charge out of the bar and on towards the Gnoll menace!