Sunny With a Chance of Random Encounters

The weather is pleasant, and Uta took this chance to take a walk around town. Staff held tightly in her hand, clacking quietly as its bottom tip impacts against the sidewalk, she proceeds at a leisurely pace: she takes the time to glances into every shop window she passes, be it displaying saddles, swords, grunty feed, or pickled stinkberries. She occasionally seems to stop and assess the price of things, and then walks on.

Where there are RPG mechanics, there are barrels. And crates. And crates. And barrels. But no crate *and* barrel, unfortunately.

Seated upon one of the crates, her chin propped in her two hands with her elbows on her knee, is the witchy figure of Jazz.

She seems to be staring off into space, eyes out of focus. Perhaps she's sleeping?

Or maybe she's merely lost in memory?

OR IS SHE PUERUSING THE VAST DEPTHS OF THE AETHEREAL OCEANS OF MAGIC?!

...okay, no, she's starting to nod off.

    Uta arrives pretty much next to the crate where Jazz is sitting, and... stops. She stops. She stops and thinks. It's obvious she is thinking because of the chin rubbing which makes it obvious to the audience. You can never be too careful with the audience. Gotta give them all the cues you can manage to sneak in, just in case.

    "I'm thinking..." says Uta, to drive the point home further. "...my friend, do you, as a fellow Adventurer, happen to have fallen victim of the recent shortage of lodging space, a most unfortunate event which, despite trapping us into an unfamiliar world, has had the added disadvantage to force us to sleep in the most unfit of places, circumstances which, depending on how accurately our skeletal system is modeled within the game mechanics, might lead to back problems down the line?"

"I'm tired. I'm soaking wet beneath my coat. I had a horrible adventure where everything that could go wrong did, because of course it did, and I felt direlesly useless. But, hey! I got a little coin out of it! But! The inns are all full. Full of adventurers. SOme of them have even kicked landers out of their homes to take 'em over, 'coz what hey, they're not really /people/, you know. I don't think it went well for them once the guards got involved but THE POINT REMAINS." She sounds vaguely aggravated and cranky, our Jazz.

Unfortunately, aggravated and cranky Jazz just sounds cheek-pinchingly *CUTE*.

    Uta sucks in her lips. Must not go "D'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaw. She's so cute!" Must not go "D'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaw. She's so cute!" That would be rude. Change the subject. Focus on something else. Positive. Positive advice. Point out what goes well. Share your eerily simlar story. Bond over the lack of bedding, over the aggressivity towards Landers- yes, yes that will do. Share that story involving the Lander's spare bedroom. That'd be perfect and it'll make her feel better.

    "...D'aaaaaaaw. You're so cute."

    (DARN YOU, WHY DID YOU DO THAT?) O o . thinks the player behind the musical kung-fu nurse, silently, while the avatar winces. Quick, save mode, save mode! Move the discussion elsewhere, talk long enough for it to, hopefully, not matter anymore!

    "And yeah, I feel you there. Things can get pretty... intense these days. We're in full crisis mode, and I am still... getting the hang of things. By the way, my name is Uta. Pleased to make your acquaintance," she says with a smile.

Were this an anime, a little grumbly clould would appear over Jazz's head. She'd make a strangled sound, and the little vein-buling-anime-cross would appear on her forehead, and she's sit up straight with electricity crackling at her fingers and ask one to tell her again just how 'cute' they find her while cackling.

... okay, so pretty much all of that *almost* happens.

r The storm clouds might as well be grumbling over her head *and* there's the fierce look of squinty annoyance. Even lightning flashes in her eyes.

But, instead, she just smiles, tightly, and then says, "You know what I did to the last person who patted me on the head and said I was cute? You don't. Keep it that way."

The nshe lets out a breath and calms herself down. She's been getting the 'd'aww, cute!' a lot, after all, and just a little while ago Shield-BOss, otherwiseknown as Gwen, dragged her off to take her measurements for FASHION and she still hasn't recovered from that particular trauma.

"The toon's name is Jazz." Of course, inspect would have revealed 'Jazuhanzu', but that's just Japanese for 'JazzHands'.

Poor Jazz.

"We'll keep it together as long as we have to."

Uta freezes with her hand already extended to pat Jazz's head. Slooooooooowly retracts it. "...okay."

    She turns her back to the crate next to Jazz, and hops up to sit on it, not without some difficulty. "...I mean, sorry for calling you cute. I didn't mean to, but it just... happened!"

    There is a bit of embarrassed silence, Uta sitting and staring ahead of herself, hand clasped on her staff, saying nothing. She finally breaks the impasse by turning to Jazz and saying, "...so, what is this 'toon' thing you talk about? Is it a... gaming term?" Someone here is a utter newbie it would seem.

"...oh, that just means the in-game avatar," explains Jazz to Uta. "It's more an American turn of phrase than a Japanese one," she adds.

The translation software has diminished but not utterly removed her accent. She's still discernably 'foreign' if one's paying a little attention. She draws back on her hands and lets out a sigh.

She clearly hates things as they are, that much is obvious.

Uta says, "Oh. Well." There is another pause. Uta scratches her chin.

    "I'm thinking..."

    Remember, kids: you can never underestimate how thick the audience is going to be.

    "...at least for the time being, everyone has pretty much introduced themselves by in-game name." She leans slightly forward, so that, if, HYPOTHETICALLY, there were a camera placed just next to Jazz pointing towards where the two girls are, they'd get that shot where at first only Jazz is on frame, but then Uta leans out from behind her, becoming visible.

    "...our avatar's name is what we're gonna get called. We're shoehorned into a system where our screen name is a coded part of our social identity, so we might as well get used to it and start using it as our moniker, as much as we are not really keen on that." After a short pause, she adds, "...congratulations on your Japanese, it's really good."

It's been a long night with the mounting of the Ezzo rescue and the return trip.... not quite 'home' per say but you get the idea. Shiruba trod into the Town of Beginnings, having helped escort some of the escapees from the Marina to the early settlements so they can have medical or other needs attended to. It shows that it's been a long journey, but at this point the wolfish cait sith is still riding too much of an adventure high to feel tired out.

Her senses are still pretty alert, and when she notices that young and confused Undine girl from the night of the original disaster sticking them here she does wave to her and her companion.

"And I can use chopsticks too," remarks Jazz, a dark undercurrent to her pleasently twee voice.

"Thank you, however it is the translation software's sudden 'improvements' that have done a lot of the heavy lifting. My Japanese was never too terrible but it was never this good, either, and I hadn't actively spoken in years. It's strange, though, but what isn't strange right now? I'm sitting on a crate in a perfectly realized fantasy town in a multiplayer game that I can't leave like some kind of terrible television show and it's all too real and *oh my god* what even the hell is happening."

She sees Shiruba, though, remembering her from the other night. She looks exhausted herself, afte rall.

Uta turns to look at Shiruba, whom she does not recognise. She sees her waving this way, and waves back as well with a mild smile, slightly confused. Is it impolite to inspect someone who's waving at you? Probably. And then she turns to Jazz again.

    "I am convinced that you are voicing a common sentiment. Plenty of people do not like what is going on. Everyone seems to be coping their own way. Some thrust all their energies into rescue efforts. Some devote themselves to. Some rage into battle. Some drown their sorrows in alcohol. Which tastes like rice water. I think it still tastes better than Vodka, but that might be just me. I do not know what you are into, to be honest... but if you have nothing going on, have you considered hats? People I've spoken with seem to imply that hats are a common form of coping. Not essential to the goal, but, hey, if they help boost morale, why not?"

    She leans against the wall the crate is pushed up to, and looks up and away in the distance. "Point is, everyone does something to cope. As for me..."

    There is a pause.

    She scratches her chin.

    "...I think."

Wolven ears twitch as they pick up the trail ends of the conversation, and it's enough to get more thorough attention from Shiruba. So she wanders over. Looks from one tired girl to the other, from Undine to Spriggan and back again. Not Inspect-ing, just looking like normal people do. That's probably maybe less awkward to the duo? Besides she's an experienced player, she doesn't need the fancy commands to tell the pair are a bit on the side of... what was the phrase her American friend used? Greenhorn? Yeah, I think that's it.

Then Shiruba loosely folds her arms. "I take it there's still some issues with coming to terms what's going on here?"

"Everything tastes better than Vodka," remarks Jazz, thoughtfully. "Didn't say it was common, or special, but thanks for making me feel -- wait, hats?" She looks up at her hat. Then she just kind of half-heartedly, irritatedly glowers at her.

"Oh, well. I'm glad you're thinking," she grumbles. Apparently, she's just in a dour mood and Shiruba's approach does get a cautious nod. "Lotta new faces, right? Especially our own, for the most part." She drums her fingers on barrel. Taptaptap. Taptaptap. Taptaptap. Taptaptap.

Shiruba raises a hand to rub her cheek briefly. "In a manner of speaking, yeah. I've been playing since not long after the game was released... but it wasn't -this- real before."

"Anyways. Good morning." She makes a brief but curtious bow, giving the impression there's a native Japanese beneath that wolven skin. "I am known as Shiruba. A Spell Fletch...errrr..." She realizes the newer players probably don't know what the combination titles mean. "That is, I am a Hunter, with a secondary class in Sorcerer."

Uta nods at Jazz. "Yes, hats. Can't remember who said it... something about them being useless yet people thinking they're important. Was it Mikage?" She shakes her head. "Sorry, I have a tendency to get distracted and not pay attention to things at times. Or forget them." She lets out a deep sigh herself. "Yeah, the whole new face thing is not fun." She looks up. "But, hey, you lucked out. You got a cu-"

    She catches herself. "....uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuriously deep insight into this kind of subject, my friend, you know?"

    She retracts the hand that she had extended to pat Jazz's head in the least conspicuous way she manages. Which is not very inconspicuous.

    At Shiruba approaching, she continues, "Still some issues, yup. But working on it, I guess." As Shiruba suspected, her listing of titles gets a blank stare from the Spriggan, who proceeds to look down at herself, and then back at Shiruba. "I'm Uta. I'm an Aerialist, which would be a Godhand with some Bard in it." She sighs. "I miss business cards." She looks between Shiruba and Jazz. "We need to make ourselves business cards listing our classes. That would be very convenient and bring back some semblance of normality."

"Yes. A curiously deep insight indeed."

Jazz's hands had locked onto the approaching hand. There's a wisping of mist around her, like a dewy chill hanging in the air.

It fades when the hands withdraws.

"... I came with the hat and I don't have enough clothes to be picky about what I'm wearing." She rolls her eyes up to the hat and takes it off, her bangs immediately falling into her eyes and making her look even more sacchartinely anime girl. One eye remains visible.

"... My hair seems to grow awful fast, unfortunately."

Shiruba does her best to not start snickering when Jazu inadvertantly makes herself even more cute looking. "You just need to find someone that can style it. You look like you stepped out of a casual slice-of-life manga as the girl next door that doesn't like being judged just by pretty appearances." She heard enough fragments of the conversation to get the impression to not use 'cute' too casually.

Hands rest on her hips, ponytail swish swaying with the motion as she tilts her head to the side a bit. Her own affinity for colder elements noticed the nearby chilling, brief as it is. "I take it you are some manner of water mage."

Uta nods gravely at Shiruba's words, and turns to Jaz. "You definitely need to do something about it. It risks becoming a hinderance, and I've heard rumors that too shabby an appearance can make the locals wary of you. Better not to risk it, and get it done as soon as possible. Plus, you've said you're all wet underneath, so we should maybe get you something else to change into."

    She turns to Jazz. "You'll catch a cold if you don't do something about--wait, our hair grows?! I thought..." She rolls her eyes and spreads her arms. "Oh, great. Yet another bodily function we have to take care of. Don't get me wrong, the part about having to eat and avoid getting stabbed in the face makes sense, fine. I get that. But all the rest? Isn't it overdoing it?"

    Turning abruptly to Shiruba, she continues, "Wasn't it enough to have to have to have to bathe, to go to the toilet, to wash clothes... now /haircuts/ too? Seriously! Is... is this a thing in videogames? I've never played them before, but what's the point of escaping to a game if you have to deal with the same biological nonsense as in real life? What's next? Nail clipping mini-games? Collecting earwax for magic potions? Giving belly button lint to troll bridges?"

"I mean, mine does. I don't know about anyone elses, but I'd like to point out that you can lose fur when hurt, so hair would have to grow or else we'd wind up with a bunch of naked werefangs and who wants that?" remarks Jazz, with a heavy sigh.

"It's design. My look, I mean."

She shrugs her shoulkders, then puts her hat back on her head. SHe's cute with or without it. Poor, doomed witch.

"I'm some kind of sea-witch," she adds. "Technically an Enchanter, I suppose."

Shiruba briefly shakes her head. "It was not -that- realistic, before the... incident." Flicks her own sideswished bangs with a hand. "Besides, my hair is always like this." It's part of her 'wild' look, like the ponytail being pinned at the base with bones instead of a hairpiece. "... And she's an Undine. I think she's suppose to be a bit wet, usually."

She rubs her chin with her hand. "Makes sense for a 'witch'. Enchanters usually focus on debuffs and status effects... To replicate curses or such, in this case." Her mind has gone into analytical mode, in the same process she uses to pick apart monsters and game mechanics. "Probably a strong affinity for Water and Dark elements, since those cover Water, Ice, and 'dark' magic."

She turns her gaze back to Uta. "And if I'm remembering correctly Aerialist is a martial arts acrobat. Swift physical strikes and evasive moves, and some Air arcanery from Bard for it's speed benefits."

To which Shiruba points a finger at each with opposite hands. "You're two class types that actually work well together, since she's going to want someone like you to get in monsters' faces between them and her."

    Uta shudders at Jazz's words about naked werefangs. "LET'S CHANGE THE SUBJECT IMMEDIATELY," she interjects, which Shiruba helpfully does.

    "...I will have to measure my hair. For now I've noticed nothing strange, but maybe it's just growing at a regular rate."

    Uta nods a lot at Shiruba's explanation. "...that is a step up from my previous understanding of my concept as 'musical punchy nurse'." She glances at Jazz, and then back at Shiruba. "...and you work well with us, because you seem to know a lot about things and we could really use someone with your deep knowledge of the system." Wait, has she already decided to team up with Jazz? Well, one thing is for sure: she has just opened her menu and sent friend invites to both Shiruba and Jazz.

"WEll, that got a reaction," remartks Jazz when she notes Uta's shudder.

"I tried cutting mine, but it grew back fast. I'm wondering if we're iconized or something to our looks. I don't know. It's all bizarre at this point." She throws her arms up into a shrug, figners wiggling.

"There's no way to know at this early a stage, but maybe my hair is all magically aligned, or I'm tired to nature or whatever I don't know it's bizarre but it feels like it replaced itself pretty fast."

She combs her fingers through the lengths of it spilling down her back and shoulders.

She blinks at the friend request, though, and then is on accepting them because why not.

"Nice to meet you," she offers.

"Knowledge is its greatest strength when used for the good of others," Shiruba quips, even as she's opening her menus to accept Uta's friend request, and making sure Jazz gets one as well. Having a good range of contacts has already proven to be a good thing. "I mean, even for us experienced players this is all strange and new, so it's good to help each other out as we can."

She does finally let a snicker escape, though it is as much at herself at anything else. "Hey, I hear you on that." She turns around and wags her fluffy tail a few times. "It's taking some time getting use to -this- actually feeling like a part of my body... and learning to not close doors too quickly behind me." Ears fleck back as she winces at the memory of that learning experience. "... Or finding a comfortable sleeping position due to... attributes."

Uta turns to Jazz, "How could that NOT get a reaction? Man, I'm gonna see shaved were fang chihuahuas in my nightmares for the upcoming /months/! I'm gonna need therapy sessions now, and it's quite a feat considering what I've gone through before and still did not need therapy! Anyway. Hair. Yes. Might try trimming it and see what happens. I... I'm honestly not sure if we're iconized, but... uh... that'd would save a lot of hassle, I suppose."

    In response to Shiruba, she exclaims, "Oh, oh! I've been told about attributes! They're, like... a game statistics kind of number, right? Like, Strength or Agility or Charisma and stuff? Is there an attribute specific to Sleeping? I'm sorry you rolled low on that..." She sighs. "And you think /you/ have troubles finding a comfortable sleeping position?" She jabs her two thumbs at the long, dark wings protruding from her back, without adding a word. "I see your troubles and raise you these. Add to that that I have seen exactly /one/ bed since the apocalypse."

"Oh, yes. Attributes," replies the Undine, dourly. "Just thinking about all those Caith-Sith and werefangs and how their players will lay in those lumpy, straw beds in the inn, and the fleas and tics and earmites and, ugh, /roaches/ will crawl into their ears in the night."

Very casually speaking of this, like it's no big deal to *her*, but surely has concerns for others. "I hope they're wearing appropriate ear protection."

Very solemn.

Not the 'attributes' Shiruba was referring to, but with the direction the conversation steers she just leaves it at that. "I don't think Sleeping is a coded statistic, but before this it was just a means of idling for a bit. Not having to rest to restore energy and alertness," is the explaination she goes with instead. Because that is entirely true and accurate.

"Hey I don't have fleas!" She retorts, sharp enough it could almost be a bark. "Or..." Pauses. ".. Well, -everyone- is sleeping on straw or what not right now. It's the low level area of the world, after all. Not much fancy here." Shiruba exhales, calming herself again. "Besides. I've already seen spiders that make the normal small crawly critters seem like a blessing in comparison." Ugh.

Sadly for Shiruba, Uta has a tendency to jump back and forth into conversation subjects" ...or did you mean 'attributes' as in... half of the reason why I have to pretty much sleep on my side?" She asks Shiruba, with a squint.

She scratches her chin because, yes, she is thinking.

    "...I was thinking..."

    IMPORTANT CUE FOR THE AUDIENCE: UTA IS THINKING

    "... If cait sith or were fang were to get fleas, would they have to be shav-" She shudders. "NOT THE SHAVED CHIHUAUA AGAIN."

    To change the subject, she turns to Jazz. "...wait, can you just sleep in a fish bowl? Underwater? In a lake? Man I'm so jealous right now."

"I suppose it depends on how realized the ecosphere is whether or not their are fleas, mites, tics, and earwigs. DOn't worry, though! You'll probably get an 'infested' status effect when you do get them."

Jazz is not helping, at all, though she does follow the comment Uta makes to Shiruba.

"If they are, then they're in the same state I am." She's not making any point of hiding that she's not exactly a 'girl in real life'.

The Spriggan girl proves to be sharper than expected. Though the only answer Shiruba gives the inquiry is a brisk "Like that, yes." Sure, the human lying in coma somewhere (they think?) is also a girl, but she's a very average and petit Japanese lady. Compared to Shiruba being athletic, yet shapely, the difference is just as awkward at times.

Then she narrows her eyes a little. "I don't have hair on my entire body, you'd have to ask an actual Were Fang." Or at least the ones that stay in their anthro form most of the time. "Stop bringing that up!" Though now she's glad she picked the kemono-style race, and not have to deal with fur all over her body. Adjusting to the tail is enough.

Wait, where was the conversation now? Shiruba started to get off track herself, and in developes into stifling a small yawn, and her ears drooping a little afterwards. "Speaking of sleep, I think being up most the night is finally catching up to me." She opens her menu to check the screens, and sure enough that annoying Exhaustion status has started showing up.

Uta climbs down from the crate. "We're all in the same state Jazz, in a manner of speaking. Except the lucky ones who went with a human and a body scan of themselves." She starts to walk towards Shiruba, absent mindendly turning to look away. "...or got /really/ lucky with the randomizer, but I doubt that's even possible. Better chances to win the lottery."

    She turns to Shiruba and bows. "Good night, Shiruba. Or... sleep well. The sun is still shining. I mean, server time is a few hours off with respect to real time, so... any of you ladies got a jet lag too?", she asks, pointing altern stops abruptly, and then...

Shock.

    You know that moment of sudden understanding where a character's eyes pop open and thy gasp, and their mouth dangles relatively open, but not /too/ open? That's what happens to Uta.

    "Wait, wait, I've just remembered! A friend of mine had a videogame! It... maybe..." She looks around, pointing at the crates and barrels in turn, and settles on one. She takes two, three step backwards and then starts running towards one of the latter.

    "BARREL!!!", she exclaims, before headbutting the wooden container...

    * KER-BAM! *

    And be sent flying back, bouncing on the ground and falling supine, her bar showing a moderate HP loss.

    "Oooooowwwww!!!!", she whines, holding her head while wincing in pain. "...apparently this game doesn't work like those old ones."

Jazz seems more amused than anything else by the reactions. Hey, she has to deal with the twin tentacles hanging off the side of her head, mixed in with her hair. She can make fun of the others for their own problems.

"Oi," she says, having been left staring as Uta does... does that.

"... oi," she repeats.

Shiruba just huffs softly at the remark about getting lucky with the randomizer, fluttering her wild bangs briefly. She's not sure if that was directly aimed at her or not, so she's not going to respond directly to it. Because right now, having to actually live with the body for the time being, she's not entirely sure how 'lucky' it is anymore. But that's besides the point.

"Regardless of the situation, we're all rather stuck with what we have for the time being. There's more important things to worry abou--"

She stops as Uta charges a barrel, only to bounce off and land on her butt on the ground. Stares for a moment. Then "Next time, try spinning around too?" But that's probably a different video game from what Uta was thinking of.

Then yawns again, fully this time, and stretchs her arms. "I've been up the equivilent of all night, I don't think the current time is going to matter on getting some sleep." She is part wolf, and they do tend to be evening and nocturnal creatures after all. "Take care you two. Don't be afraid to message me if you need more help with... getting accomidated." She bows briefly, then turns to wander off and find a place for a nap.