The Calm Of The Forest

Weds, Jan 16th, Early morning.

The overworld covering the Island of Beginnings is a vast stretch of hills, plains and forest covering all but a handful of rocky beaches. This particular forest in the light of mid morning is still partially in shadow, tall and stately trees shrouding the ground below with a loose canopy of yellow leaves.

The sound of the ocean is close, the forest fading to the southwest to another rocky shoreline. To the north is the shallow waters surrounding the coast, making this a little cliffside pocket of forest with a spectacular view.

It is quiet in the woods right now, some hours removed from civilization and no monster spawns are immediately present. Critters chatter quietly in the trees, small birds and animals scurrying about their business.

Seated on the tough and sturdy limb of a gnarled white tree, Nureha sits looking out at the forest with an apple in hand. She takes a bite out of it and leaves back against the trunk.

It would seem Nureha was not the only one having taken to tarapsing through the treetops this morning. The branches can be heard occasionally rustling as Shiruba parkours across them like elevated stepping stones. Though it's hard to tell if she's on an actual task or just getting some morning excersize.

The wolfgirl cait sith hops to a stop and crouches in a thicker bough as she notices the other person sprawled back munching on apples. "Good morning! You haven't seen any low level misfits come wandering this way recently, have you?"

Nureha leans up and away from the trunk, swinging her legs over the side as she looks over at the Tree-running wolfgirl. "A gracious good morning. No. I haven't seen anybody wander through here recently. Who are you looking for?" She gets another apple out of her inventory, scanning the treetops before tossing the apple in the direction of Shiruba.

    The forest is a peaceful place. The ocean could be heard from here. The forest has its own natural sounds that give it a feel of serenity, and yet-- there is a disturbance in the woods.

As Shiruba locates Nureha and the two begin their possible conversation. It would be long when a wild boar comes squealing by, following by a fireball, which slams into tree across from the two, exploding in sparks of light; Thankfully setting nothing on fire.

    Shortly following this fleeing boar with low HP, was a Salamander Adventurer with a shield on his back and a sword in his hand, "Get back here!!!" He roars loudly as he gets ready to fling another fireball, only to trip on a root and go face first into the ground in front of the two ladies.

His hand twitches gently, as he lays there. His tail even once flicks from the sudden trip and the boar? It gets away, fleeing off into the distance, with the pride and ego injured Adventurer simply going, "...damn'it..." In the grass, before he goes to push himself up, only then to see the two. One he doesn't know, being Shiruba. The other, he knows. Oh, does he know /her/.

He goes to get up, brush himself off, and points a finger at her, "Not. A. Word."

    His attention then turns to the face he doesn't know and gives a gentle, if not sheepish smile. "Hi. Sorry about that. Bacon is... Hard to catch. Always on the run it seems!" Trying to make a joke out of his failure.

Shiruba catchs the apple, and stands on her bough to lean against the trunk. "Nobody too important," she replies. "We broke up a gang of newbie dweebs last night that had kidnapped a maid not realizing she wasn't a Lander, and the twits scattered after losing."

"Honestly, I was a bit more concerned about them running into danger they couldn't handle than actually causing more trouble." Shiruba shrugs, and takes a bit out of the apple. Nods in gratitude for the snack. Fruit still tastes like fruit as long as it's 'raw' at least!

Then there's fire and squealing and Shiruba pauses to glance down at the boar running by, and the adventurer in pursuit. Who trips himself up. "Guess there's no barbeque by the hair of his chinny chin chin.... Yeah, having to hunt for your own food does take some getting use to though." Resumes munching on the apple.

You could describe the disturbance as 'Bull in a China Shop' but there would be several supply side problems with that analogy, mainly a lack of either bull, shop or fancy plateware. Still, critters scurry into the trees and small birds scatter in swarming flocks as the wild boar squeals in pained desperation.

Nureha watches the fireball smack into the sturdy trunk of a nearby tree, shaving some Integrity points off it as then the owner shaving Dignity points off themselves by smacking head-long into the forest floor by way of hidden root.

Nureha takes another bite of the apple in hand, raising a hand in welcome before leaning against the tree. "Kidnappers, huh? Well well. What is the world coming to." she eyes Shiruba curiously.

    The Salamander, known as Xander stretches his back slightly, as his tail flicks. "Be far easier if I had a rifle." He admits to Shiruba. "Just a nice hunting rifle with a scope." The Salamander even uses his sword as demonstration to this, before sheathing it.

"While I didn't do much with a weapon of that style in my job, still had to be trained to use, clean, and keep a proficiency with." He then looks over to Nureha, hearing the 'kidnapper' bit, before looking between the two women, ".. Kidnappers?"

Shiruba shrugs a little to Nureha again. "Some people... well, guess they decide to push the limits of what they can get away with in this world. Most of them seemed to be only there because the 'leader' was giving them something to work at. So hopefully they learned their lesson." Shakes her head again. "Bunch of newbs, if they couldn't even tell she was another player and not a Lander." A dismissive wave is given. "Don't worry about it," she says to both questions. "Most of them are probably harmless on their own."

Then she leans over a little to look down. "No, but we've got bows and arrows you know." The one across her back and quiver hanging from her belt are fairly obvious. "Or magic. Maybe try something more focused that fireballs next time? You can cook it after you catch it."

Nureha allows Shiruba to explain that since she has only just heard of it herself. She leans back against the tree, finishing off the apple in the process. She cleans off her fingers with a little cloth she digs out of her inventory, just some clothing scraps she got from a tailor.

"I can certainly agree that following someone just because they are the 'leader' is a tricky business. Especially when it comes to certain things.. perhaps the Alliances should do something to prevent things from getting out of hand." She smiles, inspecting her fingernails. "After all, we wouldn't want mostly harmless to harm REAL people, now would we?"

She looks at Xander as if rapt to hear their response on why they used a fireball instead of any number of perfectly sound and /tactical/ ways of hunting.

    "Sadly, arrows is not in my skills ability." Xander admits with a helpless shrug, "Crusader, Sorcerer cross. All the tank, the magic, but none of the 'umph'." He then rests his hand on his hip. "At least not till higher levels, then it becomes far more entertaining."

The Salamander then tilts his head softly, raising a brow as he does. "Still, if those guys confused a player for a npc. They /could/ do it again and with the AI seeming to be learning, this could have negative effects if they are even successful at that."

Xander lowers his hands by his side. "I am getting the impression as I keep watching the going ons and listening to stories, that every action, seems to lead to an equal, if not great reaction." Then he shrugs lightly again, "But maybe that is just me being a paranoid jerk." At least he seems to be agreeing with Nureha on the 'probably something should be done' department. Even he doesn't seem to explain why fireball and not some other magical spell or lobbing a shield.

"I see, I see... Yeah, bows don't seem to see much use other than actual Hunters," the wolfgirl admits. "Hunter, Sorcerer myself. Name's Shiruba." Considering she lost her own high level tricks in both fields, she's not going to question the use of fireballs. Not every Crusader is going to use a shield to sling around.

"Yeah. I haven't come across any of them gathering back together. Or into trouble on their own. So hopefully.." She trails off, then tilts her head to eye Nureha with an ear perked in curiousity. "You sound like you've run across something like this before."

Then resumes eating the rest of her apple.

"Defense has it's advantages." Nureha says cheerfully. "And in any given situation, most are glad to have it.. especially when something, like that equal reaction, happens along unexpectedly."

Nureha nods to Shiruba, intertwining her hands. "Oh. There was a post up in the Hunter's guild about unsavory players. Especially as some of the aspects of our situation drag on, people.. like you said.. try to push the limits of what they can get away with."

    "Considering we have the body parts..." Xander decides to add to this line of thinking. "There are probably some young guys on here that never had the chance to place their sausage in a cupboard." Then gets a deadpan look. "However that doesn't excuse the action of being a dumb-ass, just to satisfy a curiosity."

The Salamander shakes his head, "But that is humanity for yeah. Knew a few guys in real life that were real pieces of work. Thankfully, not part of my.... group... and they were just visiting, but man... Did I want to put a 22 between their eyes."

He then looks over to Shiruba as she introduces herself. This gives him a smile, before walking over. "I saw your name when I did a quick examine, but still," He extends his hand to her and gives it a firm shake if she accepts it. "Xander. Former high tier raider and pvper. Now just a lonely scrub like everyone else." He chuckles a small bit, giving a warm smile after.

"Having one's sausage in the kitchen is a clear and present invivation to have it sliced up and served to the rest of the party." Nureha says very dryly. "Some people should not tempt fate in such a fashion." She makes a dismissive wave as she obviously attempts to keep from laughing. "Now now.. do not think of yourself in such a fashion. We all must aspire to better. When we can manage to catch it."

Her eyes glimmer with amusement.

"Some of them may not even be 'guys' and looking to... ugh, forget I started that train of thought." Shiruba shivers a little at her own remark as she trails off of it. She's met several people that are guys playing girls, so it makes sense that there would be girls playing guys too... but the path the thought was going down is best left to the realm of weird manga stories.

Instead she just ahems softly. "I worked in a cafe. I've seen a fair share of odd people come and go."

With the apple finished off she nimbly hops down to the ground, and accepts Xander's handshake. "'Former high tier' applies to a lot of us."

    Xander gives a nod to Nureha, though the thought of it being cut up and shared, causes him to pause. Stare in the distance, and raise a brow slightly. Her continued conversation, then gets the six foot tall Salamander to peer over at her, seeming very unsure how to take the rest of that.

His tail flicks and he just /stares/ at Nureha. He opens his mouth, closes, it, goes to say something else, then stops, before he comes to rest his hand on his chin. "... I got nothing." Nureha wins yet again!

    Xander then looks over to Shiruba, he tilts his head faintly, but doesn't press further. "Oh? A cafe huh?" He then goes to lean against a tree, "What cafe, if I may ask?"

Nureha turns and peers down at the two without getting down from her perch. The clear morning air causes the sound of their conversation well enough.

"We 'former high tier' should form a support group. A lot of things that have happened lately would drive almost anybody to drink."

Shiruba laughs a little at that. "It would have to be pretty crazy to drive people to drinking when the drinks don't even taste like drinks.... Then again, flavor probably wouldn't be the primary concern." She's not that time so it's not really important.

"It was a smaller establishment on the outskirts of a business district. Started as an internet cafe, and then when there wasn't much internet anymore became a place for console and arcade gamers to hang out and talk to each other in person. Sometimes some of the younger salarymen that were also hobby gamers would drop in on lunch breaks." Shiruba shrugs a little. "It did keep things interesting."

    Xander looks up at Nureha, "I think I drink enough of that swell for everyone here, honestly." He crosses his arms over his chest, "Keep hoping that if I drink enough that something will taste good."

Shiruba explains where she worked and nods his head gently, "Might have heard of the place. Hell, may have even visited." He shrugs, "Hard to say, but if we do get out of this and back in our real bodies, I will have to swing by for sure."

"I used to have that near my office, only it was a ramen bar."

Nureha looks over the forest, eyes slightly hazy. "It didn't have much, the architecture of the street pretty much made sure if you weren't looking for it, you wouldn't find it. But it served the best squid-ink and buttered ramen late at night when you are already staring down the barrel of a long trip home." She makes a small noise, tsking in the back of her throat.

"Something I suppose we'll just have to replicate here, if we get a chance."

"Sometimes the small local places are popular for exactly that reason," Shiruba agrees, and nods to Xander. "If and when we get out of here, it'll probably be good to have 'real world' places like that to keep in touch."

    "If we can solve the riddle on how to keep food from tasting like boring ass crackers." Xander says to Nureha with a small frown. "Who ever can figure that out, will be probably the biggest hero of the players stuck here... and maybe the richest too."

He chuckles a little, "I mean, could you /imagine/ how much someone would be willing to pay to /taste/ something like ramen noodles again?"

    The Salamander looks over to Shiruba and nods, "You /will/ get out of here. Have faith in that. Both of you will. One way or another." he nods his head seeming sure of it. "After all, that is why my guild I'm in is with the Scaled Empire. Working on finding a way home in that damn Tower."

Xander looks in the distance. "The only key we got it feels like is up there... Somewhere."

"Well. Let's hope your faith is justified and rewarded." Nureha says softly.

"The update -was- suppose to fix glitches up there, like that infamous bugged boss... So it's not a leap of logic that there could be a connection," Shiruba will acknowledge that, even if she doesn't really have much care for the tower in itself. Other things need to be done.

Like food. Though Shiruba has been one of those that shows little concern with eating what there is, but she still finds it lacking any real taste. She's just not picky.

"In the meantime, we make the best we can of being here. Learn to survive, keep it safe for the people stuck here with us."

    "Exactly," Xander nods in agreement to Shiruba, "I couldn't agree more." Then he looks to Nureha, "And it will be... Or at least I hope it will be. After all, Hope is all we have to run on right now. Hope, theories, and, well, for a few us... Our actual brains."

"That's the best we can do. Every little bit that makes things easier and more comfortable for those we look out for can only be to the good. I do wonder if the update really DID fix the boss on Floor ten. Grander and more historied guilds have broken themselves upon it, one way or another."

Nureha looks at Xander, and rolls her eyes briefly. "Well.. Hope and a bucket full of preparation. There are at least some things we can plan for."

"Speaking of which, I'm going to get back on the move. Still plenty of stray monsters that could cause trouble for people out here." Shiruba gives a quick casual salute to the other to adventuers, before twirling on her heels and darting off into the forest.

"I wonder if she knows that looking after one's 'real people' has been the pretext for wars throughout the centuries." Nureha says casually as the adventurer departs with a wave, rubbing one arm with the other before leaning against the trunk of the gnarled tree again.

    Xander gives a little wave to Shiruba and calls out, "Be safe out there and good hunting!!" Then he lowers his hand and looks up at Nureha.

He pushes off the tree and tilts his head up there. "I still seriously doubt it's a bug at this point." He says between the two of them. "I think honestly its more of a viral attack and it might be a long time before I think it is something else."

He shifts his weight a little. "But, nothing we can do to solve that from the inside, since we can't access the code to see. However," he hrms gently, "I do plan on testing my other idea that we talked about lightly in passing. Seeing if these NPCs /are/ getting smarter."

    Xander then looks up at Nureha, "Probably not. Had someone tell me war is murder and another believe that war won't happen." He looks toward where the ocean is. "Sad part is, long as people are people, even in a video game. There will be /wars/. Maybe not right away, but sooner or later, we will be at one another's throats about something... and that is all it takes."

"One single match, to ignight the flames."

"A viral attack. Hmm.. perhaps there is something between ETO and Altimit that has spawned a vulnerability. Or, perhaps, the unconquerable mega OS has it's share of flaws after all. Like all people, and all systems. It's just a matter of finding them."

Nureha looks out across the forest, getting another apple from her inventory. "My, but you have been in a cheery mood the last few days. Anything in particular, or just the same old ghosts?"

    "Just a great deal on my mind." Xander admits, "Though I am a bit better after talking with someone, that said," He rests one hand on his belt, with the other relaxed on the butt of his sword's hilt. "It is what is making me think it might be a virus. Maybe."

"The system being used in the game, is perhaps the same system that was being worked on by a corporation to help people with limitations get over those limitations. You know, retrain someone to use their hands. Help the brain reconnect nerve impulses." Xander explains. "Now, it's a long stretch, but that system might been used in this expansion, thus why it can do what it can do."

He uses the hand on his belt to make a few gestures, "This means that either this software was bought with the permission of the corporation or it was obtained by illegal measures. Either way, something happened... I just don't have enough pieces to the puzzle to understand /what/ or /why/."

"And hence.. we run around in circles and bite our own tails."

Nureha says, laying a hand on hers. "An unpleasant prospect, to be sure." She fidgets, picking at the edges of her grey robe. "We did manage to talk to someone who had tested the technology itself. They're living in Alne right now, supported by a group of coworkers that also got caught during the opening. Even they pretty much were isolated in their actual knowledge of the system, so CC corp kept everything pretty comparmentalized."

    Xander hrms softly, "... I wonder if I could talk with them and see what they know. Given this individual I spoke with didn't work for CC Corp, but another corporation entirely."

He looks up at her once more, "Though you will have to forgive me for not disclosing names. I made a promise to this person, so I don't wish to break that promise. After all, if a man is willing to break his word-- he isn't much of a man, is he?"

"Oh yes. Promises are important." Nureha agrees with a cryptic smile. "But like any tool, they should be used wisely.. and all too many are prone to abuse them." She waves dismissively.

"I do wonder about what she said about kidnapping. Especially since she made the distinct impression it was only of any notice because the person aggrieved was a player. We all live here at King Gilgamesh's sufference. That kind of thinking.. could very well poison our relations with our gentle host of the moment."

"It would perhaps be wise to plan for the situation that will cause the most turmoil. After all, none of us suspected the Black Wave. And yet.. here we are."

    "True." Xander says softly, "I also suspect as I go poking around, I am probably going to /get/ into trouble. Though with what or who, is hard to say."

Then he pauses and motions up to her, 'Also, you /ever/ going to come down, or do you enjoy staring down at me from above?" Then he gives her a cheeky grin with a playful tone, "Cause you know, I got to admit, the view is nice from down here of you!"

    "True." Xander says softly, "I also suspect as I go poking around, I am probably going to /get/ into trouble. Though with what or who, is hard to say."

Then he pauses and motions up to her, "Also, you /ever/ going to come down, or do you enjoy staring down at me from above?" Then he gives her a cheeky grin with a playful tone, "Cause you know, I got to admit, the view is nice from down here of you!"

Nureha smirks down at Xander with a knowing look, wrinkling her nose. "Is it? Well, then I suppose I'll have to stay where I am. Anything to bring comfort to a stalwart hunter like yourself. We all must do our part, after all." She gets up from the bough of the tree, putting her hand across it and stroking the bark with a thumb before disappearing into the trees, climbing upwards rather than down until the limbs become too slender and weak to hold her, looking out at the ocean from amongst the sea of trees.

    Xander watches her climb up higher, "Stay vigilant, Nureha!" he calls up to her. "Things are changing! It's hard to say if it's for the best or not!" He yells up to her, using his hands before they fall to his sides. "... and I fear there may be a day, when you and I... won't have many more days like this."

He then goes to walk away. "... Just one match. Just one... stupid... single match."