Exchanging of Harvests

It was a little over a day since L'Anya had spoken with Misa before the rat Were contacted the woman, and although she had been a bit out of breath, she had otherwise been fairly lively and even seeming cheerful. Sure enough, she had spent a good day's worth of work out in the areas surrounding Alne and had something to show for it -- and from the previous offer, she had sought Misa out first, asking for a location and an hour's leeway to prepare and actually get there.

She's on time, too -- three minutes early, in fact -- although her progress is marred slightly by her constant pauses to actually look up at the tower not so far away. Her fur is left almost perpetually bristled upon her body, and her eyes dart conspicuously around her whenever she's not looking at the tower, the rat Were fidgeting every now and again as she draws closer and closer in search of Misa.

    Having received the request to meet in order to hand over some materials, Misa had requested that L'Anya come by the entrance to Aincrad Tower. Though she assured the rat Were that she would not encounter any mobs in the process. The meeting place was still quite some way away from the first floor.

    Inside the large structure that contains the stairs rising up into the tower, the early morning light is only just starting to grace the bottom. The non-functional Chaos Gate sits in the center of the open space. And off to one side as a tent camp. It's there that L'Anya will quickly spot Misa. She's currently talking with a few people near the center. If L'Anya bothers to inspect any of them, L'Anya will notice that many of them are part of the same guild that Misa is. The camp is pretty simple, but lively.

    Notified by one of the people she's talking to that L'Anya has arrived, Misa dismisses them and then turns. She walks to meet L'Anya at the half-way point, a little away from the camp. Misa gives L'Anya a nod in greeting, calmly saying, "Thank you for meeting me here, L'Anya. We're in the midst of preparing for today's push into the tower."

Although it's true that there aren't any mobs to speak of around the tower -- and indeed, L'Anya had expressed some initial concern about the location until such was assured -- her eyes were mainly roaming about the people situated outside. Those in tents, those milling about, those affiliated with Misa's guild and those who weren't; no matter where her eyes fell, there was caution and wariness, like a genuine mouse that had just stumbled upon a group of cats -- with the lion's den not far away at that.

Still, although she makes a few slight detours and doesn't quite wind up walking in a straight line, she makes progress towards the spot she'd been directed towards, and the relief is visible upon her face when she catches sight of Misa in truth. "Ah... no, no. There's no need to thank me for that; I should be thanking you for taking time out of your busy schedule," she responds, a tinge of meekness settling amidst the appreciation in her tone. Her head bows ever so slightly as though in apology before she raises her hand to summon a menu, fingers moving across the screen with a great deal more familiarity than she'd shown when navigating the friend menu before. "I have... sixteen stacks of Muckroot," -- useful for dealing with poisons -- "five stacks of Cottonreed," -- good for staunching blood -- "and two stacks of... Goldenpile," -- effectively useless for crafting purposes, although they have a pleasant scent with an impressive enough appearance to fool novice harvesters who don't know the properties of what they're gathering. "Is that... too much?"

    Misa nods as she listens to the rat Were listing off the ingredients. As she asks whether it was too much, Misa shakes her head, "Absolutely not. We're a combat guild, so we have practically no one who can gather. We do have some people who craft, but we always relied on other sources for raw materials, like a player market. However with the recent situation, finding new sources of materials has been difficult while also scouting out the tower. I'd be happy to buy all of tho-"

    Misa stops mid sentence as she realises something, "Goldenpile... I can't recall that one specifically. Would you mind showing one to me?"

L'Anya waits quietly after giving her list of ingredients, and although her fur has since evened out compared to what it was like when she first arrived in the area, it's still raised ever so slightly upon her body. Such unease fades yet further when her question is answered, and a smile appears on her otherwise nervous features -- relief and satisfaction beginning to break through the wary clouds. She gives a few nods in agreement with Misa's words as though they were only natural -- of course, of course, a combat guild; of course, of course it would be difficult to gather while scouting out the tower -- but she pauses at the same time Misa does, flickers of uncertainty appearing anew.

She blinks, then blinks again before looking back the menu to ensure she hadn't read the name improperly. And sure enough, the letters haven't changed from the first time she glanced at it -- 'goldenpile'. She gives it a curious look of her own for a moment, gives a light tap on the menu, and out pops a plant that looks more like the fuzzy end of a golden-hued cattail than a flower. They're not particularly large, either -- a single end small enough to fit within the palm of even L'Anya's hand -- with a bright green stem and traces of white along the inner portions of the tightly-packed petals making up the tail. "Um... this?" she raises it to allow Misa to look at it more closely, before a light of realization dawns and she moves to hand it over to her in its entirety.

    Misa also has a somewhat curious expression on her face as she waits for L'Anya to produce the flower. Once the rat Were does, Misa reaches out to take the offered plant. It only takes a quick glance for Misa to recognise the plant, "Ah, I've seen these. Though I didn't know what they were called. They're not actually used for crafting."

    As she examines the flower, Misa catches its scent, moving it a little closer to smell it, "Impressive... I don't recall ETO's sense of smell being so detailed. It's a shame I don't have... My..." Misa's eyes lose focus a little as she seems to be considering something. She then looks straight at the rat Were, "L'Anya... Have you noticed how 'real' the current ETO we're in seems to be?"

Said plant tends to grow in rather diverse locales, but more often than not only one or two in a given patch, making it something of an 'unexpected encounter' that would be a lot more impressive if it had purpose beyond coaxing harvesters to literally stop and smell the flowers now and again. The petals themselves are soft to the touch and delicate, too, despite the rigid stem, and the gold sways easily in whatever breeze happens to stray near. The scent carries well, too, and often lingers upon the senses, helping to improve the scenery in multiple ways even without necessarily being seen.

"Ah?" L'Anya replies quite intelligently, blink at Misa with a bit of confusion before a bit of embarrassment takes over. "I, ah, I couldn't really comment on that. I'd never really stopped to, you know, try smelling any of the flowers...." Her hand rises to scratch at the back of her neck, her eyes shifting to look more at the flower in Misa's hand. "Isn't it supposed to be 'real'? That's, ah, the whole point of this type of game, right? To be as real as possible? A world within a world, a home away from home... or something? Although I... didn't expect it to become so literal...."

    Misa remembers that L'Anya is a newbie and so hasn't had much experience with ETO before the Apocalypse. She does say, "Even Deep Dive tech is limited by the abilities of the game programmers. And the effort required to create a perfect replication of the real world would not be financially feasible. So they usually settle with 'close enough'. But many of us have noticed a change since the Apocalypse. The reality of things seem to go beyond what we're used to."

    Misa looks back at the flower she's holding, "So I was just thinking..."

    Misa slips the stem of the flower into her jacket pocket as she brings her own inventory up. A few quick expert swipes and a clipboard appears in her other hand. She takes the attached quill, starting to write on the paper as she says, "I was hoping I could ask another request of you, on top of your harvesting. I need some more unusual ingredients and tools. This is not a high priority request, more of a personal one. So feel free to take as long as you need."

    Misa removes the sheet from the top of the stack and hands it to L'Anya. On it is written:

    1 x Mortar and Pestle
    1 x Bottle of pure alcohol
    1 x Bottle of oil (type unsure, find a few types and buy one of each)

    Misa makes a few swipes as she continues, "The mortar and pestle you can probably find someone to craft. I'm not sure who though, possibly a smith or an artist. The alcohol you'll probably have to get from a brewer. I doubt the local bar has anything appropriate. The oils you can probably get from an alchemy shop, or an alchemist. As for the type, the only real detail I can suggest is an oil that has as little smell as possible."

    A trade window pops up in L'Anya's view. It contains a section for her to transfer the gathered herbs into. Misa has already filled in the currency she's trading. A few silver coins, which she explains, "This should cover both the herbs, costs of the items I'm requesting and a little extra for your time." She watches to see if L'Anya accepts.

L'Anya listens closely to Misa's explanation, the earlier rise of her fur all but completely absent as she puts the full of her attention to the information of not just this world, but of 'games' similar to it. She doesn't even nod along as she had before, but maintains the full of her focus on Misa, her ears lightly perked with the rest of her body effectively motionless. It's only at the end of the initial explanation of how abnormal this all is that she tilts her head, offering her own little bit of insight. "Ah... I mean, even though it might be more real than you're used to, isn't... reality something we've had to deal with every day?" she tentatively asks. "Wouldn't less-real things be more difficult to get used to than more-real things? I mean... eating, sleeping, bathing, doing work and getting paid for it... that all makes sense. It's the menus and magic and giant towers filled with monsters that are strange...."

She goes quiet then, her expression tensing slightly when she realizes her words were perhaps a bit less polite than they ought be -- irreverent towards the people who spent so much time engaged in what she'd just declared oddities. She's docile as Misa makes the request and accepts the note without complaint, her eyes looking it over with a bit of confusion and curiosity while listening to the explanation. "Smith or arist. Brewer. Alchemy shop. Oil without smell," she reaffirms before nodding, and her eyes rise from the note to the trade screen. She doesn't spend much time at all looking at the offered currency -- she hardly knew the exact value of her goods in the first place -- before dumping all of the assorted plants into the trade window. "Ah... I managed to get a few ores too, though not as many as the herbs. Did you want them anyway...?"

    Misa tilts her head a little bit at L'Anya. But she simply clarifies, "Of course. I'm not saying it's difficult to get used to. Just... Unusual. Anyway, that's just another mystery we need to consider about our current situation."

    As L'Anya asks about the ores, Misa nods in agreement, "I'll take those as well..." Another button press and the currency in the trade window increases a little for the additional ores.

    While she waits for L'Anya, she offers, "If you have trouble with finding anything in the list. Let me know. Or you could ask around. As I said, take as much time as you need."

L'Anya nods in understanding and just a bit of self-consciousness when Misa clarifies her point, the rat Were bowing her head slightly as she had before. She's really out of her element on this one, and doesn't chime in further on the topic, focusing instead on shifting her menu to the ores and the new task given to her on the paper. "Mm. As long as the artist, brewer, and alchemists don't have bloodshot eyes and want to turn me into their dinner, I don't think this should be too difficult," she replies with just a bit of humor in her voice, even going so far as to snicker lightly to herself shortly after -- a snicker that turns dry when she reconsiders just how likely that might be. Her demeanor grows ever so slightly sullen and uncertain anew as she shifts the various ores into the trade window, a disparate collection just a little bit more than she had managed to day before.

Although she accepts the trade without anything further to add or ask about, she continues to awkwardly stand there, shuffling a bit from one side to the other as she looks to Misa once more. She studies the woman now, silently scrutinizes and observes her before bowing her head with genuine gratitude. "... Thank you for all of this."

    The trade is complete. Although her expression doesn't change much, Misa's voice sounds just a tad confused as she asks, "Bloodshot eyes?" The uniformed woman doesn't seem to get the reference. If it is one... Still, "If anyone tries, just stab them. We're operating under a different set of laws now." Though having said that, Misa realises that stabbing someone trying to eat you would probably be justifiable in the real world too...

    Misa notices L'Anya starting to give those signs that she feels it's time to leave but is too unsure or polite to actually do so. She thinks to herself, 'If he were here, he'd probably tease her on it and just remain silent, making her suffer.' But Misa does no such thing. Instead she shakes her head, "I really should be the one thanking you for getting these things for me. The ores and herbs will be quite helpful. Anyway, I should get back to the preparation. Thank you, L'Anya." Misa nods to the rat Were, before turning and heading back towards the camp.