Macro and Micro Politics

It's been over three days since the Apocalypse trapped who knows how many players in Elder Tales Online. There's still a whole lot to try to figure out, how the world works and all.

Rumors are starting to filter into Alne of players respawning in the Curch at the Town of Beginnings, finally giving an answer to the lingering question of whether a player dying in the game would kill them in the real world too.

With such thoughts lingering, some are trying to level up more, to help out with the Ezzo situation, and also in general. There are many who are unsure what to do in the meantime, since it's starting to seem like this was less a Hell, and more a Limbo. So to pass the time, Nevarri put out a Looking For Group post at the Hunting Guild, leading anyone interested to this General Store. "I guess his rat problem is perpetual..."

The red haired Salamander Elementalist comments, sighing a bit as she glances at the time. "Might be too early, maybe?" She plucks her glasses from her face in order to clean them, a habit she was starting to make again.

    Wait. The defacto leader of the Scale Emblem Alliance has accepted a quest to hunt some rats?

    Well, even alliance leaders need a break. And Misa was curious about the repetitive nature of the quests.

    But as the group arrive at the general store, the location of the quest, Misa looks around... "Hmmm, interesting. This is not the same store where I last completed this quest."

    Misa turns to their party leader, Nevarri, "Are you saying this is the same one you've been to?"

    The rumors had definitely garnered much attention, though there was still some skepticism here and there it seemed like people were still getting a bit more comfortable trying to do quests and the like with the lowered possibility of true death. Of course for this certain Enchanter it was less about death and more about simply acquiring resources. So with that said, while Naotsugu and Balmung were handling some things on their own end Shiroe had decided to find a pick-up group for some of the quests at the guild hall. And that's how he ends up here with Nevari.

    "I guess there's not much to do about it when your basement might be a monster spawn is there...?" Speaking of de facto leaders seeing a familiar face does make give a bit more relief to the situation. "Ah, already completed this one, huh? Mmmm, that'll be good then. While it's a small request since this is was part of the expansion I'll be honest I'm going in blind on this one." While he says that...There is a bit of a smile that starts to show on his face. "I'm ready when you both are though."

"I think so. It's one of the newbie quests right?" Nevarri replies to Misa, mentally shelving the previous disagreements she has already had with her. "There's one in every starting city to get new players going. Who knows how consistent it is in here?"

When Shiroe speaks up, the Elementalist nods and replies, "Ran it once, and it wasn't especially difficult though it's probably easier with a bigger party, as with most things. But don't worry about going in mind, since I can run it while blind, so can you." She then begins the start of her habitual tagline, "Because I'm you're explorer's guide to--" Before stopping herself. "Um... Sorry, old habit... Let's just go in."

And once inside, the anxious storekeeper does the same song and dance, "That's right, they just keep coming! You'd think after the last time they would stay out!"

Nevarri sighs a bit, "Welp... in we go..."

Down the stairs it into the cellar one goes, the musty smell of stored goods and foods, along with pervasive sound of rats skitting in the distance... Cobwebs thick.

"You'd think he'd dust this place more..."

    Finds himself enjoying Nevarri's enthusiasm. "Hmmhmm, it's fine. I know a thing or two about bad habits. Still, while blind huh? Well, given how dark it is in here I might believe you. That said I really doubt no matter how much he dusts it'd matter if the zone just returns everything to the preset setting after a few minutes." The sounds of skittering rodents catches his ears and cobwebs catch him off guard now and again. "Yeah...This is...One second."

    He raises his staff trying to clear the webs away though as an enchanter his magic attacks were already pretty weak. Include that with his low level and well... "Ah...I really got spoiled a bit. I've forgotten how tough it is to be so underleveled..." He really hopes Krusty doesn't end up hearing about this. He'll never hear the end of it. Regardless he'd keep going through the path with the group.

    Misa doesn't actually remember Nevarri specifically. That first morning was a bit of a mess. And she was tired. And hadn't paid much attention to who else was there at the time. Though she definitely wasn't in another starting city. She was here. Still, Misa doesn't pay much attention to it. Having multiple locations for the same quests makes sense to avoid parties from conflicting with each other.

    Misa simply walks past the store owner at this point. She heard his spiel last time. She makes her way down into the cellar. Again with all the spider webs, "I used a defensive spell last time. Let's try..." Misa summons her scythe with a few well placed finger swipes. She Grabs the weapon and swings the curved blade at a web. But the shaft gets caught on a group of strands. Misa tugs at it a few times, putting more and more strength into it.

    Suddenly the strands break, throwing Misa off balance. She falls through another couple of webs before hitting the ground on her ass.

    Misa groans quietly as she stands, shooting a cold stare at Shiroe, "Not a word to Krusty." Threat given, she proceeds through the path.

    By the time Misa hits the floor a hand's already offered to help her up. "You and I were apparently thinking the same thing. It's fine, I'm sure with how busy Krusty is going to be the amount of time I'd actually see him is even more limited than before. Still..." Shiroe goes a bit more silent...

    He keeps his pace rather slow, brisk, as he continues to walk with the two, the type of pace that makes it easier to chat. Though given how maze-like the tunnels were trying to go to fast regardless would have been problematic regardless. It does give him a good chance to talk about other things such as, "So...Have you been able to meet with the other leaders of the SEA yet?"

Nevarri giggles a bit at how her party members are getting flustered by the challenge, before following up with her own staff raise, and then a burst of air punching out all the webs in the cellar, as well as cleaning up the others. "If it makes you feel any better, it just means we're all in this together at the same level. Though I'm sure some of the more eager to get out players will be hitting this multiple times in order to get their levels back up."

She keeps walking, leading on ahead into the cellar, and keeps an eye on the wandering path, until it starts to split into tunnels. "How does a cellar even get this sort of complication anyway? I know it's game design but wow, who designs this..?" With that, she raises her staff and taps it to the ground, "TREMOR" Before the ground begins to rumble.

    Misa walks along, noting that the area is tarting to get quite dark. This is new. She didn't experience this last time. Shiroe distracts her with a question though, to which she replies, "Yes. I finally managed to drag Krusty to a meeting with a couple of the other guilds. So that he could officially agree to the merger and the alliance. I'm not surprised that more than one ended up forming. There were too many differing opin-Ow!"

    Misa wasn't watching where she was going in the dark and walks into a low hanging rock formation. She mutters under her breath, before answering Nevarri, "Idiotic level designers." She rubs the sore part of her head as she continues on.

    Can't help but try to smile as he tries to keep an idea of where they've gone in his head. "Mmmm, well that's the joy of games. You usually would get to make up settings that otherwise wouldn't even be considered. Though now that you mention it..." He starts making a note of the maze in question, "Miss Misa, you said before that this place wasn't where you entered into for this quest before hand, right?" He keeps looking over the maze and well... Truth be told he's sorta lost some of the paths he had been mapping, though he at least could recall the route back.

    Thankfully Nevari's tremor could definitely help with making some 'landmarks'. "I guess given the situation it's more important now than ever to have a good network of allies...Still I'm cur-" He's cut off...The sounds of rodents start to get louder and louder throughout the labrynth, "Tch...Maybe the tremor gave us away?" He wasn't sure but well it seemed like they were going to have to try and manage it. "I'll try to keep some of them pinned, you two I'm sure can deal with the rest. THORN BIND HOSTAGE." With those words from below their feet several of the rodents would be ensnared by single vines. Hoping to avoid being entirely swarmed by them.

"Wait, alliances? Like, full on alliances between guilds?" Nevarri had never been much of a political animal, having always been more of an adventurer in the sense that she liked to explore. Politcking was something she'd always ignored. "And you're saying more than one? I mean... I guess I would have expected it when they announced the feature, but you would think that in a situation like this, it would call for unity."

She does sort of non-chalantly start walking on, the Tremor Spell helping her get a bead on their route, "This way..."

Getting to the rat warrens, where clusters of rat swarms are sitting and skittering, before starting to suround the trio, prompting Nevarri to prepare another spell, this time it would be a casting of fire, which bursts from her staff, and engulfs a few clusters of rats, incinerating a good chunk of them. "Or maybe we're just closer to their nest..."

    As Misa walks into the den of rats-not unexpected-she notices that they don't appear to be colour coded, which is unexpected. As Shiroe questions her about the quest, she nods, "It was a shop in another location. And it does look like this quest has branched away from the one I completed. Not to a great degree, but sufficiently enough to notice."

    As Nevarri brings up the suggestion of unity, Misa mmmms, "That would be the ideal outcome. But unfortunately reality is not quite so perfect. There were ten guilds represented at that meeting. Ten people in leadership positions. All with their own idea of how things should be done. So yes, it seems we have ended up with three different alliances."

    Deciding to take her previous failures out on this rats, Misa raises her scythe into the air. It glows with light, before she slams the bottom down into the ground in front of her. The ground ripples out from the impact point rather aggressively. Usually the arte just throws the targets off balance. But Misa's frustration has amplified it so that it throws the collection of rats around into walls and each other.

    There's a hint of a satisfied smirk on Misa's face, before she realizes it's there and coughs to cover it up.

    With it seeming like the group might have finally gotten their groove back enough for the group. Especially seeing the rather...'pleased' look Misa gives makes Shiroe have to push up his glasses. "Well, hopefully for the rats were not too close to their nest." He can see why Krusty has her as his second in command. With the two continuing he continues on with the conversation, "That so about the different location? If that's the case it might be plausible that rather than there being multiple cellars this whole maze might actually be some sort of underground area connecting certain homes. Though...I'd be interested to see if that's the case. Another time though. I'd a little more interested to hear more about this alliance. I heard they were splitting into different factions, but what was the splitting factors exactly if you don't mind me exactly?" Given the situation he can't imagine the groups would have split up unless their was some sort of major disagreement among them.

"Gee, I wonder if there's a faction that's smashing their faces against Aincrad while we're in here." Nevarri mutters, feelings on that subject seeping through as they clear the rat warren and make their way into the next section. "You would think that they would see the obvious silver lining in this situation."

When they enter the lair of the Armored, chittering, clanking rat that proceeds to charge right in, Nevarri goes wide eyed and raises her staff to bring up a shield to protect herself, gritting her teeth as the armored rat SLAMS into her, shoving her back. "It's in ARMOR this time?!"

    "I suppose the tunnels could be connected at places..." But yes, this is not really the time to delve deeper into that idea. Misa hmms quietly as she considers the major points of the meeting, "We did all agree on some basic things. Like the need to prepare and protect ourselves from our 'enemy', whoever or whatever it is. But I think the major dividing factor was where to focus our efforts."

    Misa steps over the now defeated rats as she continues forward, explaining, "One group wants to focus almost solely on Aincrad Tower and the island it's on, trying to climb the tower as was suggested by the old man. One group wants to expand out across Yamato, and even further, in order to find and take advantage of all the opportunities they can. And the last was a bit of a middle ground between them. The most outspoken of that group ended up a little like a mediator. Between the first two."

    Misa briefly glances at Nevarri... And actually finds it amusing that Nevarri doesn't know the truth about who is in this party right now. But that comment is placed aside as the final threat emerges.

    Misa narrows her eyes at the Armored Rat. She remembers this one. She tried to strike it through a gap in its plating with the point of her scythe last time. It managed to maneuver its armor into place at the last moment, leaving the weapon to bounce off. Time to try something different.

    As the rat focuses on Nevarri, who impressively survives with the formating of a magic shield, Misa runs towards the rat. Just before reaching it, she leaps into the air, clearing the rat and landing behind it. Misa spins around, bringing her scythe with her. The weapon's reach is long, the point of the curved blade actually missing the rat, passing by on the other side, in front of it. But then Misa pauses the swing, the inside blade hanging right in front of the rat's neck, above its chest armour and below its helmet. Misa pulls the scythe towards her.

    "I see, sounds like a lot of different ideas on the matter. I can see the approaches for each. While focusing on clearing the tower does coincide with what was told to us during the...Apocalypse...Being able to reach out to other lands and communities might benefit us more in the long term. Considering that we don't know how long we may actually end up stuck here it could possibly garner some popularity though..." Truthfully, he can't really say where he stood on the matter. Though rather than standing on that matter, there was another one to attend to.

    As the group comes upon the armored rat, a name level, and health bar also start to show. His brow furrows for a moment as he leans back behind the two. ENERGY COAT. His staff is raised and the group gets applied a defensive buff. It's not the strongest defensive spell, but given it's free they should be happy darn it! "Not exacly armor, but should give us a bit of a defensive buff as well. Miss Misa, you feel like you can handle that one like you did the re-" Yes. Yes she can... The more he looks at her now the more he can't help but feel like he's looking at Krusty. That could be a good or bad thing all on it's own.

Once the Armored Rat, once aggroed by Misa, turns its full attention onto the Bladsesinger and tackles and swings at her, biting and clawing at. However, with the reinforcement brought by Shiroe in the form of a defensive buff keeping her safe. Nevarri would sling a poke or two of magic, but the battle between the Armored Rat and Misa Takayama is decided after a sudden piercing of a week spot, and the giant rodent falters.

Nevarri can't help but sigh in relief, "Okay, that was definitely different. I ran into a Thrall Rat last time... Stinky, all filled with cloths... It was easyto defeat because of so much flammable objects. But this turned out okay."

And so she turns and points, "There's an exit, which is strange enough, but just wait for it, Shiroe. This is where it gets silly..."

And so they would have to climb out through the exit tunnels, through a flight of stairs, and up into ANOTHER General Store. Full of caged rats chittering away, and a Fat Merchant going wide eyed at the adventurers, "YOU! What do you think you're doing!? GET OUT OF MY SHOP!"

    Misa would emphatically dismiss the idea that she's anything like Krusty. But of course, she doesn't see the similarities, as close to the man as she is. She just sees the parts of them that clash.

    With a flick of her wrist, the blade on her scythe folds inwards to rest against the shaft. She knows what's coming, which would explain why she nods in agreement with Nevarri's statement. And soon, why she put her scythe's blade away.

    The group comes out of the cellar into the rat store. They really should start calling it that. Misa swiftly walks past the store owner, ignoring his complaints about their sudden intrusion. She then spins around, moving her scythe with her to give him just a mild tap on the back of the head. Not enough to kill or wound him, just trying to disorient him so they can capture him.

    The group dealing with the oversized rodent finds themselves able to make quick work of the rat monstrosity and continue down the paths only to find another exit to which he sees. "More of them..." More and more rodents. The exit they arrive to festers with the smell of disease, droppings, and the like. With it they finds a rather hefty man with them. "Mmm, I had a feeling that the tunnels might have been connected across different stores. But I didn't expect that someone was intentionally causing the rat infestation problem. If he keeps this up those rats actually could start filling out into the town. I'm not sure if adventurers can get sick or not, but I'd rather not find out...I guess trying to talk this guy down might be part of the queset?"

    He starts trying to walk over to the rather obese individual, "Excuse me, but are you the one that-" Before he can even finish he finds himself coughing up a fit. The place literally so vile that just one wrong whiff of the air in the room literally keeps him from breathing properly. So much for negotiations. Though it seems that Misa's getting the point across rather well regardless. "So...Mission accomplished?"

"Seems like it." Nevarri responds, sighing when Shiroe ends up coughing a fit, because the air is in fact understandably vile. After Misa gives the Merchant a knock on the head, she takes a moment to step up and places her hands at her hips, "Okay, Mr. Merchant, here's what's going to happen. You are going to turn yourself in. You're going to pay whatever fines and face jailtime for attempting to destroy another merchant's business through sabotage, and on top of that, you're going to lose your business license because nobody is ever going to shop in here once they realize you've been hording up rats... It's a public health emergency thanks to you."

She then pushes her glasses up her nose, causing them to GLINT. "You did this to yourself."

And this prompts the shopskeeper screaming, crashing into his rats, causing them to skitter off into the tunnels, and the merchant screams and chases after them. "NOOOOOOOO!"

Nevarri looks to the others, "Yep, Mission accomplished." Taking this time to exist this shop and take a breath of fresh air, stretching her arms out. "Anyway, I'm glad I'm here in the end... Silly quests aside, this isn't that bad. After all, this really IS a big opportunity. To explore, and become one with this world in a way we never could have just playing through it as a game. Why rush out?" She pointedly glances at Misa, "After all, it's not like clearing that Tower is going going to magically trigger an escape route."

    Misa watches Shiroe go into a coughing fit... Yeah. She doesn't blame him. Though he does have a good point, this place could-and has-been causing problems. She muses her last thought out loud, "Though really, there's nothing we can do about it..."

    Even despite her attempt, the owner of the rat store manages to make a run for it, disappearing back into the tunnels and leaving his scream as the last thing they hear. Misa hmmms, "Thought that'd work this time..."

    The group step out, heading back towards the the original merchant so they can collect their reward. Along the way though, Nevarri makes a not-so-subtle dig at Misa, who responds with, "Yes, I suppose you're right. I mean what's the worst that can happen out in the real world? We lose our jobs, our family members have to go on living their lives in worry, our muscles shrivel up from lack of use and our bodies risk dying on us? Not important."

    Shiroe's clear his throat as he watches the shopkeep in a panic chase after his rats. It's uh... "I'm surprised that he'd bother to go through all the effort to go after them, especially down there of all places." It was one thing to face the music, but the guy had just voluntarily ran into the underground tunnels. "Wonder if he'd even be able to handle the rats down there...Well...Guess he has to have some idea of where these tunnels go if he's sending rats to different merchant shops. That said, thanks for taking us out here. It feels like an eternity since the last time I did a quest. Made me feel so rusty." He stretches out a bit feeling a bit better seeing that he's acquiring some EXP and rewards items at the least. It lets him unwind a bit as Nevarri starts explaining her opinion on the matter. Which immediately sets off a digging response from Misa in return. "Ah, Miss Misa, I don't think she meant anything bad. I think she was just trying to say we should try to make the best of a bad situation..." At this point Misa receives a message:

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    <<I wouldn't let what she says bother you too much. That avatar might be fully grown, but it sounds like they may be a kid.>>
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    With the message sent he keeps his attentino to Nevarri, not really hinting he had even done such a thing. "And uh, Nevarri. I understand where you're coming from but you shouldn't blurt out things like that. Might be considered insentive to people who really need to get home. After all, there's a large demographic of people who play Eldertale. Some are busy like Miss Misa said, and others probably have families that are worried about them as well. Get what I'm saying?"

The salamander redhead narrows her eyes, bright blues just trying to burn a hole through Misa, but when Shiroe speaks up, Nevarri takes a breath and looks away. "I mean... Yeah, I get that... That's not irrational but... I don't think everyone sees the cons that comes with rushing back."

She plucks her glasses from her nose and looks back to the other two, "Sure, a lot of people have lives that they have to get back to, family to worry about, health to be concerned of... But think about the people who have disabilities, or a lack of future prospects... They become a burden upon their families."

They are all all MOSTLY Japanese, after all. "What do those people have to look forward to if they go back?"

    Misa's eyes glances just ever slightly to the side as that message appears in her view. She lets out a quiet sigh as Shiroe is quite right, "Yes, I suppose so. My apologies. I've suddenly found myself with the lives of a great many more people than I'm used to placed on my shoulders. It's a little difficult for me to be optimistic right now."

    Misa doesn't actually answer Nevarri. She can't deny that Japan currently has its problems and that many in ETO suffer because of it. She doesn't answer Nevarri because she doesn't have one to give her.

    "Heh." Misa seems a tad amused, "This is essentially a miniature version of the discussion in the guild meeting. Some want to focus on getting back to the old world, some want to explore the new one." Misa glances sidelong at Nevarri, "Do you see now why unity has been difficult?"

    Shiroe finds himself a bit taken aback. There was (sadly) some validity to her statements. With the recent rise of the disabled and NEET rates going up it was true that there were individuals who were really being seen by society as nothing more than a nuisance. Those that were just labeled as 'problem children' essentially.

    Misa doesn't immediately respond to the problem but she does make a rather interesting comparison. "I see... That definitely gives a good idea of how things went. Still, I think it still goes to show that even with those differences in opinion that we're able to get more accomplished when they're put to the side to achieve an overall goal. Even if how it comes about is different. Besides, I guess a little civil discoure never hurt anyone too badly..."

Nevarri hmms, and sighs a bit, "I wouldn't know anything about all that politicky stuff. I'm just an explorer who makes... Made videos on Nero. And I suppose I've been mostly selfish about it all." Nevarri mumbles as a few tears well up, and she quickly brushes them away.

"I'm blind in the real world, you know... I've mentioned it enough times, but it's an important thing for me to remember in this situation... I'm blind and the Dive VR games have let me enjoy whole new worlds to explore. And now, after the Apocalypse, I can see again... For real... And there's players who can probably walk again, for real... Why wouldn't we want to stay?"

    Misa eyes Shiroe for a moment. Unbeknownst to him, his last comment echoes something Misa herself said during the conference. She wonders if the Enchanter was there all along, perhaps pulling the strings from the shadows.

    But she quickly dismisses the idea... For now... And nods in agreement with him, "While there are three seperate alliances, we are not at each other's throats. It is more that we each fill a specific roll that we are best suited for."

    Misa raises her hand as she counts them off, "The Scale Emblem Alliance will focus on clearing Aincrad Tower in the hopes it'll reveal a means for us to get home." Next finger, "The New World Alliance will focus on exploring the world we find ourselves in now, discovering what's new and perhaps what actually happened with the Apocalypse." Final finger, "And the Olympus Alliance will fill in the gaps between those two."

    Misa admits, "It's not a necessarily disorganized approach."

    Nevarri mentions her disability, something Misa was not aware of. Misa does feel a little bit more guilty now. Not that you'd be able to tell. She tries to think of something to say... And all she can come up with is, "Don't worry about it. Focus on enjoying this world as much as you can. We're not going to clear Aincrad Tower in a week, or even a month. In the meantime, the alliances will do what we can to make living here easier."

Nevarri nods and puts her glasses back on, "Thanks... I suppose it helps to know that in the grand scheme of things that I'm... We're not going to just be brushed over in all of this."

At that point, her attention is drawn back to the front, "Oh hey, there's the general store owner..." With that, she steps up in order to just turn this quest in.