Post-Bridge-Meeting

Jazz had left the meeting on the bridge, wanting no part of it any further.

That night, she sat under the stars, parchment unfurled before her. She lacks anything so lovely as an astrolabe, but she is doing her level beset to create a rudimentary star-chart, spending a considerable amount of time trying to idetify recognizable, brighter patterns of stars. She occasionally holds her spyglass up to her eye, studying the heavens.

    Mizuki comes looking for Jazz. After everything that happened tonight, she just wants to be around friends. Wisteria may still be with her.

    Mizuki looks at Jazz stargazing, looks at the sky, and just sits down for a bit, not saying anything at first. Much like a real cat.

She gets her quill out again, dips it in ink, and adds a few more dots to her map. She's being... careful. While her artistic abilities are not terrible at all, it is great care that's required here, as this is a task of great difficulty.

The ancients did not have it easy.

Still, Mizuki's arrival was not unnoticed. She'd have to be blind to miss her, and well, she's not blind.

"Mmn. Caught up with me, have you?"

    Mizuki looks back at Jazz, with a harrowed and tired expression. "Thank you. And I'm sorry."

"Fot what? You have nothing to apologize to me for," says Jazz, soberly. Dot, dot, dot.

    Mizuki looks away, then back at her. "...You tried to get me out of there, and I... kept going. Even if I had reasons..."

    She struggles to find words. "It might've been disrespectful, to, to throw away your help like that."

"You didn't have to go with me. You didn't have to come with me in the first place. It's fine, Mizuki. Really. You have nothing to apologize to me for. You had your reasons, and that's good enough for me." She adjusts her spyglass, looking up at the stars.

    The catgirl blinks. "...You really mean that?" Her eyes are still a bit wet. She strides up to Jazz and starts to go for a hug, but stops awkwardly a few inches short of contact. "Oh. Right. Sorry, I just..." She steps back and wipes her eyes on the back of her hand. "Tonight's really gotten to me. H-how's the stargazing?"

"I mean, I'd advise you not to waste your time on whoever that ... imp ... since it seemed like they were just trolling from what I could see the same way you get people being provocative on message boards but, you k---" and then there's a hug that's aborted and she seems grateful that her space has been respected. She lets out a breath she didn't knwo she was holding.

"It's... difficult. I don't have an astrolabe and I don't know a whole lot about astronomy, but neither did the ancients at first so I'm just... starting from scratch. Gonna try to get my hands on any extant star charts to see if they changed post the black wave."

    She backs away to a more personal-space-respecting distance. "Tonight's kinda fucked with my head. Being in this body is fucking with my head. Being trapped in a game where all the food tastes like soggy crackers but raw meat tastes okay is fucking with my head. And my head is all that's left of me, you know?"

    Mizuki looks up at the stars and back at the chart, and smiles a bit. "I didn't even think of that! Of course Landers might have star charts... Have you found any recognizeable constellations yet?"

"Patterns sure. Nothing I can really put a name too," remarks Jazz, "I'm wondering if any of these brighter stars are supposed to be planets and so on." Jazz looks up through her spyglass again.

    It's... something else to talk about! That's kind of a relief. "We'll only know if you keep observing and they move, I guess. ...We should find a book about astronomy, or astrology, they might be the same thing in this society... find out if they've already catalogued the planets.

    Mizuki looks up at the sky. "Man, wouldn't it be nuts if they were inhabited? In this world of magic and stuff, anything's possible... well, I guess the devs wouldn't bother detailing a place noone would ever get to."

"I mean, who woiuld program that into the game?" asks Jazz, casually.

"And yeah, I don't forsee that happening. Gonna try and see if we have a true north tomorrow, too. Just need some iron, copper, and a bit of electric current and then I can find oiut if I can fashion a compass."

    Mizuki continues looking at the sky. "Man. They aren't even necessarily stars. They could be holes to the phlogiston in the celestial sphere, or portals to the elemental plane of fire, or maybe this world is set in a solar system with hundreds of planets. Or they could be distant eldritch beings. Fantasy astronomy could get pretty crazy!"

"Sure," replies Jazz, "though they're simply more likely to be a kind of digital light bulb. I doubt the sky and beyond is rendered *that* detailed." She holds her spyglass back up to her eye, the twin twips of her head tentacles lifting up and wigglign this way and that.

    "Right, yeah. It's probably an environment map that just slightly rotates every night and doesn't change. But they might have gotten a little more involved."

    She looks at Jazz and then finds herself staring at the head tentacles while her tail twitches. Wondering what having head tentacles feels like.

    Wisteria has spent this time sobbing and crying... er why is it raining it must be the rain, kendoka don't cry. There is no crying in kendo. She calms down enough, having missed most of what is said and possibly gotten Miz's jacket damp and or snotty. She wipes her eyes with the sleeves of her kimono. "So..sorry." she says her voice thick with all the crying she's done. "I..." she sits down and pulls her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and just hiding her face in her hakama folds.

Oh no! Wisteria is here and she brought her feelings with her!

Jazz looks a little discomfited, but then she's acknowledging Wisteria and saying, "It's okay. You don't need to apologize. We're all going through an awful lot."
% She looks up towards the sky again, quietly. More dots put on the map. ALL THESE PEOPLE AND THEIR FEELINGS.

    Mizuki mutters softly, "Unless this really is another world..."

    Wisteria finally speaking draws her away from thoughts of other worlds and back to this one. Jazz says pretty much what's on her mind, and she pats Wisteria on the back. "Yeah. We're all people, with feelings, and it's dumb if society makes us ashamed of them. Maybe that's something we don't have to be beholden to in here."

    Wist lifts her head up "I'm just... I lost my temper." she says "And then I couldn't stop... and then everything hit me and then it was raining..." yes raining...

"Real worlds don't have menus where I can assemble cracker-tasting food," suggests Jazz, snorting. She makes a few more dabs with that quill, pale inkstained fingers holding it very carefully.

"Ugggh giveme a PEN."

    "But this is a world of magic. Maybe the menu is our unique magic, because of where we're from or how we got here?" She shakes her head. "Sorry, I was playing devil's advocate..."

    She pats Wist's shoulder. "I lost mine too. I... After coming to Japan, I made this character because I wanted to... I had this bad habit of taking everything too seriously and making games no fun. I don't know if I'm ready to have to worry about what kinda world we're making in here... And she was mean before, and doing the 'acting calm and reasonable' thing to make me look bad because I can't... speak as well as her, and..."

    She seems like she's about to go RRRRRGH!, but she just doesn't have the energy and hangs her head.

    "We're in a crazy situation... it should be okay to freak out... totally normal... but I usedta be the kinda guy who'd always need to be in control, even in games. Imagining how I'd calmly STAY in control even in a nutty situation like this! B-but it's different when you're inside it... when it really happens..."

    Licks her lips and rests her chin on her knees. "So... wana go raid a dungeon or something?" she asks with a little bit of a teasing tone. Her voice still husky from crying, but hey she's got a bit of a smile there.

"It's a world of ones and zeroes, Mizuki. Don't forget that. Everything we see was designed to look like magic because we're playing a fantasy game, black wave or no black wave. Tweo weeks, we've been hre. Almost two weeks, and people are acting like it's going to be forever somehow and I, for one, want no part of their Lord of the Flies bullcrap some folks are gonna start getting into. Beware the one who starts talking about building a 'better world'." She snorts.

TGhen Wisteria talks about a dungeon. "... I don't even know where a dungeon is aside from the mine shaft filled with spiders. Still, there are some convoys and I *do* need to go to the docks sooner or later."

    Mizuki sighs. "The ones saying weird stuff do have a point. Every grain of sand and dirt is simulated? Every single fur on my body? Is that even possible even with a supercomputer or botnet or something? Is CC Corp really fully in control of everything going on, and if they're not, why not?" She sits down and lies back on the grass. "I hate knowing so little. You got a good idea, mapping the stars. Bit by bit we can learn about this ...place until we DO know."

    She looks at Wisteria. "You want to go into a dungeon after all that? I feel so tired..." She looks to Jazz. "But if we were going to do a dungeon, maybe I could find a use for the loot from the spider mine. Do you know anyone with armor crafting skill?"

    "Mostly I've got weapon forging>" she says "But I'm also setup for dungeon delving and getting stuff and figuring it out." she says "I've got some powers that are armor forging directed though." she says "And yes, I want to ... I duno I guess I just want to go do something... gamey... and exploring a dungeon for loot is as far from Tokyo as I can get right now." she says with a shrug.

"Nope," replies Jazz to the question of armor smithing.

"Mizuki, the reality is that our brains actually don't see as much as we think we see. Neuroscience dictates that our brains take data from our eyes and then fill in the blanks. Who says the sand is sand, but instead, just sand because we expect it to be sand? Because our shared brains our filling in the blanks? I'm not saying that's the case, but that it's a lot more believable than 'we've been transported to a whole new world with a whole new fantastic point of view that just happens to follow the rules of a multiplayer game, set in the same world as the one we were playing, somehow.'." She plucks a blade of grass from the hill top.

    "Shit, I didn't even think of that." Mizuki's eyes widen a bit. "The NerveGear has access to 100% of our brains. What if like, the parts we don't use are being used for more computing power?"

    She sighs. "You're right though. Sorry, Gwen argues this with me and with everything getting to me... Maybe my grip on reality's a little strained right now."

    Beat.

    "...Thanks. For helping to keep me grounded."

    Wist chuckles a little. "I mean I'm down with just... being here and what not. I just think going out and hitting some things, doging some traps, pocketing some loot. Would be cathartic." she smiles but doesn't really push just voicing options.

"I mean, there's a whole lot of possibilities. None of them make this world real, just that it seems real to *us* right now because, you know, all kiinds of things." She waggles her hands ijn the air on iether side of her head, true to her name.

"But the whole 'parts our brain don't use' is inaccurate. Everyone uses one hundred percent of their brain, kid." She glances towards Wist, then gives her a ghost of a smile.

"You gotta do what you gotta do, right? We can go and do a thing. There are still people who need help and I'm just about done with the chart anyway. Tomorrow, I'm gonna head down to the docks and see what kind of navigational tools these sailors are supposedly equipped with and if they have any charts themselves for navigation -- then it's experiments in magnetism time."

    Kid? Mizuki sits up, hands balled into fists at her side. "I'm twenty-seven!" Beat. She feels her face. "Wait, how old did you think I was? Do I seem like a high schooler or something??" Her ears splay. "Am I really... that bad at... Do I really seem that immature?" ^-.-^;

"You seem younger than *me*, and in point of fact, are. Thusly, I get to call you 'kid'. I'm probably one of the older players around, anyway." She lets out a sigh. Then she plucks another blade of grass and gets back to work on her star chart.

    Mizuki's ears splay and her fingers uncurl. "Okay, I guess that's fair." She looks down at her hands, then at Jazz.

    Wist blinks "Uhm.." she tips her head "What's wrong with being young? I mean... I just graduated..." now she feels like a kid.

    Mizuki turns to Wisteria. "There's nothing /wrong/ with it, just... imagine if people assumed /you/ were like, twelve?"

    She rubs the back of her head. "I guess I shouldn't complain when I have this whole ~nya, Mizuki is cute because she's part cat and acts like it~ thing going on, but I mean, from people I've talked to /seriously/ it'd be kind of embarassing."

Jazuhanzu's nose wrinkles (cutely) at the change in conversation.

"I did not say that it was /bad/ but that I am entitled to call people kid. There's gonna be people out there who call /me/ kid, after all, too." Jazz huffs.

    Wisteria stretches "Okay then, lets go kill some spiders, or goblins, or rats, or whatever...and poke in all the corners and bring out all the loot." she says standing up.

    Mizuki stands up and stretches. "I'm too tired after all that. I was planning to just sleep here while Jazz stargazes, but if you two are going dungeon-crawling I'd better go find somewhere safer to lose consciousness for a few hours and vividly hallucinate. Thanks again for being there earlier, though."

"Sure, Mizuki. Why don't we get you back to town? I think I've gotten a lot of what I can get for tonight, anyway."

A few more starts are dotted on to her makeshift star chart with a sigh.

    "You don't have to come if you're not up for it Jaz, and don't worry about it Mizuki-chi I'm sure I can find something to grind solo or run into some other folks to drag into some grinding." The albino woman stretches and rests her hand on her kitana.

    "Don't let me delay you from adventuring." Mizuki starts to wave a hand dismissively. "I can walk back on my own just fine oh god is that a thing I should be worried about?" Her fur bristles mid-sentence and she looks back towards the town.

    "There is that serial PKer on the loose... I guess sleeping outside is a bad idea too... maybe I should go to the Scale Emblem camp."

    She throws up her arms. "Being a cat ninja should be awesome, dammit!" She drops them again. "But I'm real tired tonight so... yeah. Let's go. And I'll definitely come on a future dungeon run with you."

    Wist hugs Miz "Go sleep in the camp Mizuki-chi, or rent a room or something. Be safe." she smiles "Alright then shall we go kill spiders for loot and poke around the mine for secrets?" she asks the Undine with a bright smile even as she shifts into her bunbun form, the smile filling with ragged razor teeth as she grows and fluffs out.

"Spiders?!' Jazz objects. "Noooo! No spiders. There are CONVOYS and..." She's gonna complain the whole way to the spider cave.

    Oh. Okay. They're gonna let her go alone after all. Wis gives her a hug though, so that's nice. "I will. You two have fun!" Mizuki casts some speed buffs and starts ninja-running towards the Scale Emblem camp.