Recruitment Fair

It might be a cold day in Alne, but that never stopped the adventurers of doing what they set out for. The main square is bustling as it's working out the final details to the day's events. Not a festival though, that might have been more fun. No, this is far more business after all.

With the events in Ezzo over with, there's been a wave of confusion going over people. Reality is setting in everyone that this is not a temporary thing, or at least will last much longer than anticipated. Many avoided depression by plunging into activities of all sorts, such as quests or finding their old friends. Others are climbing out of their funk, but still lost as to where to go.

That's where the Guilds come in. It's been noticed that a large number of players are still not part of any guild, and that's what the event is looking into bringing. With many guilds comes as many playstyles and goals, bringing them together will allow the players to peruse them, and join the one that seems the most promising for their needs and desires.

One of them here, is of course Hamelin, who drove in the idea and worked to get it setup. And at the forefront of it, their star recruiter Reika, the long haired Nero Idol.

On a makeshift stage, she climbs up and starts calling out to the crowd "Welcome everyone, thank you for joining! Please remain calm and take your time to go through each of the booths here. And of course, make sure to stop by Hamelin as well~" She winks to the people gathered, playfully.

Not only the fighting guilds are present, but also the Merchant and Trading guilds, setting up shop to sell off a few wares while at all. Unfortunately, still no good tasting food around.

Among those who are currently 'guildless' is the Were Fang Ranger, Mikage. Not all that long ago, when they'd all been teleported to Alne during the Apocalypse, she had sported a guild tag. Not a large, or important guild, but it was there. Just after the weight of things settled in, though, she had dropped the tag and seemingly gone solo.

She likely heard about this recruiting event from Reika, having promised the girl to at least stop by and consider Hamelin after their encounter in a duty recently. She looks up towards the stage at the welcome being given, then lifts a mug of what appears to be steaming liquid to her mouth and sips. It's keeping her fingers warm on this chilly day, but it tastes like nothing.

She sighs at it, then starts wandering past a couple of small guild booths. She doesn't seem to give them much of her attention at all, moving towards where the larger crowds seem to hang around the bigger name groups.

It's not so bad with it being cold, Gwen's up at a stall with several other people from Crescent moon and some are handing out flyers or just talking to interested guideless players. It's really hit that point being a solo operator isn't a good idea. Even a regular party would be better than nothing in the end. Gwen is calling out right now.

"Looking to learn the ropes?! Want to get involved with events? Do you enjoy crafting? We got people who can help you learn! Crescent Moon is looking for more!"

"Attention Explorers and Fighters! Are you looking for a place to prove your strength and worth to the community?! Silver Sword is still recruiting! Silver Sword is one of the top raiding guilds, and now is your chance to make a name for yourself in this new world of ours!"

TWIRL! SPIN! BLUE CLOAK FLOURISH. RED HAIR SWISH.

Nevarri performs her signature 'I'm Watching You!' Emote, as she sticks her tongue out.

"I'm Nevarri! Your Explorer's Guide to Yamato, and we're at Silver Sword want to expand our horizons in this New World! We're all in this together for the long haul, and you can contribute to the community! We'll be exploring the lands, searching for resources and dungeons, to find gold and gear so you can perform at the top of your game!"

"Hey you, join Silver Sword!" Kaydon is yelling at random people that are walking by.

"Hey four-eyes, join Silver Sword!"

"Hey beardo, join Silver Sword!"

For some reason he hasn't really had any luck at recruiting people yet.

"C'mon, if you join Silver Sword, we'll let you fight stuff!" This is why he usually works alone. Why did he join a guild again? Oh yeah so he could fight William. Where is William anyway? He owes him a fight still.

    Misa Takayama makes her way through the various stalls that have been set up for the recruitment fair. In her hand is a clipboard. Occasionally she stops, looking intently at a stall and then jotting down a note with her quill.

    Misa is not here to recruit. At least, not strictly. She's leaving that up to the actual members of the various guilds in the Scale Emblem Alliance. Her purpose here is more to manage and observe the guilds she is responsible for. And also check out what the other alliances are up to. As well as those not involved with an alliance, with consideration of folding them in.

    For the above reason, Misa makes her way over to see what the Hamelin guild has set up.

A bit away from the stage prepared by Hamelin, is an entirely unrelated entity. Tall in stature, and looking rather mature amongst many of the younger looking Adventurers, William Massachusetts stands out amongst the crowd. Billowing cloak - largely because of those nasty chilling winds cutting through right now at near-freezing - and bow in his hand, he's set up something for the Adventurers to do.

There's a shooting range, with simple bows prepared, and a target at a long distance away. It almost feels like a carnival game, were it not for the fact that the targets are shaped like straw Goblins.

He doesn't announce what this is all about. He doesn't call out to make himself known. He lets his sheer presence do this very task, with one hand on the table that supports the bows and quivers, looking out on the crowds, casting a posture that says: 'Lets see if you are good'.

There's a lot of people in the square right now. A -lot- of people.... which is probably part of the reason Shiruba has gone her usual route of being up on the rooftops instead. So for the moment she's mainly perched there, people watching. She didn't care for the crowds much because her character was more the outdoors type. But it was nice to see the center of the town busy.

It felt more alive that way. More... real...

    Mizuki is at the... guild fair? Not to change sides but to see how the other guilds present themselves... and also get a sense of what allianceless guilds are out there and what place they have in this world.

    She can't help but shout back as she passes Kayden, "Scale Emblem will let you fight stuff too!"

    She stops by the shooting range to give it a shot, but she hasn't done archery since one time at summer camp over a decade ago.

    "Have crossbows not been invented in this world?"

Plant Hwyaden does not have a large and imposing presence at the 'guild fair'. There isn't much organization, here; it's just kind of an event that's been springboarded by word of mouth and the power of an Idol. As a result, there is no big fancy booth, no flashy displays, and no attention-grabbing proclamations of their greatness... at least, not yet.

Att Syne, you see, is here to check out the competition and see which way the wind is blowing. He's changed out his armor and tabard for a black tunic decorated in silver and his favored crimson shoulder cape. He's manning their contribution to this whole thing, which appears to be a rectangular folding table and a chair to match. Two poles have been stuck into the ground on either side, bearing a banner with 'PLANT HWYADEN' in a stylish font raised over the top of the tiny display.

The contents of the table are threefold: first, a fruit bowl. It's full of fruit. It looks delicious. Second, a piece of paper marked like a sign-up sheet. It has no names written on it. Third and least relevantly, a chess board in some kind of dark wood, with a scattering of black and white stone pieces on and near it. Att is currently seated in the chair he brought with a small, faintly luminescent chisel, apparently working on another piece as some form of idle animation.

"What a mess," he sighs. "But still..."

At Mizuki's approach, the quiet Pooka nods his head towards the lady, and motions towards the bow. "A bow such as this requires more focus, and can arc, and more importantly, can be loaded far more quickly." He proposes to her. "Pick up a bow, and see how well you fair. When dealing with Goblins, it is important that you get them dead center, or in the head. Just a shot to the arm or the leg will not do it." He proposes.

The man then offers her a quiver. "Rather than the amount of shots, you have thirty seconds to get the Goblin in the head." He explains to her. "Before he reaches your team-mates, and harasses your weaker back line."

    Amongst the hustle and bustle of the event he couldn't help but feel like the whole thing seemed a bit more like a job fair than an actual sort of festival. There were plenty of stands but for the most part most of the guilds seemed pretty straight-laced about how they were trying to recruit members. As he sees the vartiety of methods used by Silver Sword he can't help but force a smile. Some just seemed a bit more...Effective than others.

    While this probably would have proved a rather great opportunity to try and recruit for his own guild he would be found on the opposite side of the booths as a spectator.

    For the most part he was really just seeing what the current situation was in regards to those joining guilds. Who were the kinds of players that had held off on doing it? What guild seemed to be the most popular to those people? How hard were certain guilds promoting themselves? These were all things that gave information in and of themselves. Though there was a single guild in particular that does catches his attention from the make-shift stage. "Hmmm...?" The bespectacled Enchanter found his stuff noticing the crowd begin to accumulate near it and started to hobble just outside of it, yet close enough to hear the idol upon the stage. "Hamelin...I think I recall that they were a big part of the set-up...Were they part of any of the Round Table Alliance groups?" He finds himself mumbling those words to himself as he racks his brain trying to recall some of the smaller guilds that made up the alliances. Who even were these guys again?

The Scale Emblem Alliance has their respective guilds in attendance at the fair. Each with their own individual guild booth, but all clustered together under a new banner that advertises them as an alliance of guilds.

The Divine Dragons have sharply dressed individuals calling out to the crowd, expounding on the trade and crafting connection that are possible from withing their guild. The Odysseia Knights have a few strong individuals who seem to be much more reserved but are explaining in detail what they are about to those who approach. And then there is the Aincrad Liberation Front, with a small squad of soldiers in matching uniforms doing coordinated drills to try draw attention.

Behind it all there were some smaller more private booths where more detailed discussions could take place, pretty much interviews. The guilds of the alliance were recruiting, but it didn't mean they were just taking anyone.

Zorin was at the front booth for the Aincrad Liberation Front, occasionally calling out. "Work towards your freedom! We have the resources, provide the training, and have a plan! Join the Aincrad Liberation Front today!"

"Oh come on, Kaydon, you can't be so aggressive in your recruiting. You're going to scare them off." Nevarri comments as she bounces over to his side for the moment, carrying a stack of fliers, "You don't have to be cheerful, but so long as you're helpful and informative, we'll have at least a good number."

A smile, before she bounces back away. "Silver Sword! All you need is an adventurous spirit and the willingness to fight, and you can help us all overcome any challenges!"

At Hamelin's booth, the small stage was set for Reika to do her work. The booth itself is ran by a few higher ranked adventurers. Two tall men mostly, both of them wearing a covering for their mouth and nose, mostly just a thin piece of cloth though. One of them has a set of criss-crossing scars over his eyes, as if he had received a set of claw hits. But with the character generator here, it's likely just a choice rather than a wound. He seems to be a magic type from the robes he wears.

The other is wearing a headband that is has an eye symbol carved on a metal plate on his forehead, and hat covering most of his hair save for a few bangs peeking out of the small opening, where only his eyes are seen through. He clearly seen too many ninja animes.

The mage one greets the newbies, and answers the questions "Hamelin is a progress based guild, with a gentle hand for the new comers. We are seeking to... nurture the new players into the game, all while moving through the various raids. As we don't know of the conditions of this world, we figured the best thing to do is challenge what it throws at us and see what happens."

He sounds a bit grandstanding. The ninja looking one hands out pamphlets meanwhile, which has a crude drawing of Reika. Maybe the guild doesn't have artists on hand to do a better job, but the information is there.

Shiroe might remember that the names of the two are Shredder (80s cartoon gfan maybe?) and Smoking Lightning (someone thought it sounded cool at least). They were not part of the round table, but the name floated around even before the apocalypse. Can't remember for what deeds thought.

Meanwhile, Shredder looks to Mikage and Misa "Are you interested? We offer lodging at our guild hall of course, much more comfortable than a tent outside, and much cheaper than the inn." He would grin, but its' under the mask.

    Miyako Blacklily - as she has decided she has to be, now - had never joined a guild in ETO before. There had never been much reason to; raids failed to excite her interest, and there had been little in the way of problem for a solo who didn't much care about levels or treasure. Still, things have changed, as they do. Disasters happen, and life moves on.

    And so when news of the recruitment fair reached her, Miyako took the opportunity to head into town to check things out. And at least there's music, even if the food is still as bad as it has been for the past week.

    Walking about the fringes of the crowd, she's been checking out the smaller guilds, looking over what they have to present, and then walking on, towards the louder, larger guilds. Being a small fish in a big pond appeals, at the moment.

    "No. They weren't there."

    Misa wanders up next to Shiroe, having headed over to examine the Hamelin offerings too. She turns her head to look at Enchanter, admitting, "It's strange to see you here. Given your past declining of our invitations to join D.D.D., I suspected you weren't a fan of guilds."

    Misa returns her attention to the Hamelin guild representatives, watching as theu try to appeal to some newbies. It's all fairly generic guild recruitment stuff. Though as one of them questions Misa about her interest in join, Misa hmphs, "You'll need to offer far more than that to tempt me."

"I'm not being agressive!" Kaydon says in his own defense as he looks at Nevarri, "I haven't even pulled a knife on anybody yet!" Although that does give him an idea, as he pulls a knife out and stabs it into the table, "Join Silver Sword and you can have a knife fight with me!"

There are a few familiar faces amongst those who are calling out for attention among the various guilds, enough so that Mikage pauses a moment in her path, as if trying to make a mental map of guilds to visit. Her eyes are drawn to the archery range, complete with goblins. That seems a little too on the nose.

Still, she'll head that way after keeping her promise. So, Miki heads in the direction of Reika and the Hamelin booth. Along the way, she spots Shiruba up in the rooftops and raises a hand in greeting. If she weren't actively /trying/ to find a guild, she'd be up there too. The close press of people is uncomfortable.

She nudges past a few people who are randomly just talking amongst themseles, then tries to get Reika's attention, with a wave. "So... I'm here as promised." Then, of course, Shredder has her attention. She takes one of the pamphlets, looking it over. She is clearly not swayed by the artwork. "Just checking out my options and keeping my word." She explains, tapping the pamphlet, "I don't really need the babysitting you seem to be offering. But I guess newbie guilds are good for those who want that sort of thing."

It's not hard to hear the shouting from Kaydon's direction, and she can't help but peek over at the Silver Sword's group.

    Mizuki nervously scoffs, "Can't I just use magic for this?" But, gamer pride won't let her turn down this challenge, so she takes the bow and quiver, does a few practice draws to get a feel for it, then nods. "Ready."

    She's not great but not terrible either, for her first time using a bow in over a decade.

It's about this point that Shiruba hangs, upside down thanks to hooking her knees over the edge of the roof, from the building behind where Kaydon is supposedly managing a stall. "You have no idea what you're doing, do you?" She eyes the knife wedged in the table. "You're suppose to be propegating joining the Guild, not some kind of personal fight club."

Nevarri dashes back to Kaydon and gives him a chiding THWAP uptop the head, "Promote the Guild, not fighting! I mean... Fighting is what we do, but we're not PVP! Come on, Kaydon!"

She looks up at Shiruba and just sighs, "I know, right?"

She then hops over to the next wandering Adventurer, "Silver Sword! A prominent raiding guild pre-apocaylpse! They have prestige and the talent to take the world on! You can help!"

    "MIZUKI-CHI!" is really all the warning the Fire Tiger were fang gets. An albino bunbun girl is bouncing off a glowing air rune in a dash above people to pounce into the catgirl in a tight hug. Because that'll attract guild members to the Knights...

"Ow!" Kaydon didn't really get hurt by that, but it's a matter of reaction, "Okay okay, you're right." He pulls out his notepad and writes 'Make fight club guild - don't talk about it' in the notepad, before he tucks it away.

"Silver Sword is here to help you, the people who are stuck here, to deal with, you know, being stuck here." He says, "We're fighting monsters, and helping the Landers out with their problems. Surely you've noticed there's a lot more problems for them as of late!"

    Shiroe's attention is caught by a voice that's much more familiar than those two of Hamelin. One that he can recognize the name of with just the voice alone. He turns finding Misa right at his side. "MMm, I guess it would be, but I was curious to see what the situation was with some of the straggling players who were considering joining. Before the Apocalypse, joining a guild while it did provide benefits wasn't a necessity, now if you're a new player starting out it's probably more essential than ever to avoid putting yourself at risk. Still..." He looks Misa over once with an eyebrow raised, "I'm actually a bit surprised to see you too. I would have thought you'd be on the opposite end of the booths. Heh, Krusty's not doing the recruiting himself is he?"

    Just as he's about to wait for the response though he sees that the two from Hamelin make their way to Misa, trying to advertise to her of all people. As she flat out denies them he finds himself sending a message her way.

>
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    <<You weren't kidding. I would imagine anyone in the Alliance would be familiar with you at this point. Still, these two ringing any bells for you at all? I recognize the names but not the guild.>>

William looks at Mizuki as she is suddenly assaulted by a fellow Adventurer, and glances aside. A small raise of his hand to his lips, as he makes one of those raspy coughing sounds. "When you are ready." He remarks. "And try to make sure there are no Adventurers or Landers in the Line of Fire. He then stands back as Mizuki tries her first hand at doing this. It's... a lot harder than it seems. The arrows have an arc to them, and while she does manage to get the Goblin in the Arms and Legs - she fails to get it in the head, or straight on the body, before the Pooka remarks;

"And - time. The Goblin reached your party." He explains patiently, before glancing up as he hears the voices of Shiroe and Misa a but further away... and decides to leave them be.

    Miyako pads on through the crowd, shaking her head as she takes in all the yelling about 'join us, we'll get you into big cool fights'. Really not her thing. Big fights just get too complicated to keep track of.

    She continues on, pausing to adjust the instrument-bag slung over her back so as not to bump into people - and pauses again to see what Hamelin has to say. Once again, she passes on -- not a newbie, not interested. "Enh. So far, big waste of time. If they had decent festival-food this'd be worth it..."

The Villain is here, Att notes. He eyes Shiroe and Misa from not too far off, then looks back to his carving. Small motions. He has to be careful, or he'll cut himself. He wonders how much damage it'll actually do? Something to figure out by accident this time, he thinks.

A low-level adventurer in extremely generic armor wanders up. "Plant... Hwee- Huh-why- Hh-"

"Hwyaden," Att says. "Nobody gets it right the first time. It's fine."

"Oh, cool. Cool. So uh..." The adventurer looks down at the list. He points at it. "Your sign-up sheet is upside-down?"

"I know," Att says, staring at him. "I get to pick who gets on it." The newbie edges backwards after a couple sustained seconds of figurative eye-fire, and then moves along towards Hamelin instead.

Att shakes his head and removes a sliver from the stone in his hand.

Shredder chuckles at Mikage's comment "I suppose you can call it babysitting, but can always use some veterans as well, to teach the new players and help with the progression." It's fortunate in a way that everyone was put back to level 1, it means that even teaching new players woudn't place them all the way at the bottom of the foot race of the raids.

"We look into... fostering their talents and skills of course, use them in the best way for the end goal of victory." Again with the thoughtful pauses, trying to find the best word. If some of the players present are not persuaded too easily though, many players in the crowd seem interested by the prospect. They aren't a merchant or trader guild, Hamelin still considers this to be mainly a game for all intents, and what's a game without challenging the raid. They don't seem to be discouraged by those leaving though.

Smoking Lightning seems a bit more aggressive in his offers than Shredder, eyes practically burning with what one might consider passion "Yes, noobs are the future of the guild and the game, they need to be utilized with all they are worth." Shredder elbows him "Not noobs, new players." He leans in to tell him lowly "Don't ruin this dude, you know what I mean." Smoking Lightning hehs and scratches his head "Right right, you'll be... well taken cared for in Hamelin!"

Gwen gives Kaydon and Neevari a wave. She gets back to work for the moment as she starts calling out looking at some of the larger guilds and with most of their big dogs and leaders not free for this. She's been left with it, someday she is going to have words with people over things like this.

"You don't have to stay forever you can learn ropes from us and once you get a foundation you can choose to remain or see where your sword will take you!"

Shiruba waves to Gwen from her upside down position.. and then sighs softly at Kaydon. "That's... better." To a degree. She grabs the edge of the roof with her hands to unclasp her legs and flip over to land on the ground. Then sprints over to hop up on top of the table in front of Kaydon. Hoists her bow over her head in one hand. "Come to Silver Sword! We explore dungeons and fight monsters, to learn more about the world and protect it for the good of Adventurer and Lander alike!"

    Wynfei finally made it, he was a little busy with a few quests but now here he is in Alne for the Guild Fair. Wynefei walks through the area as he hears all of the announcements are going on about the different guilds and who they should join.

Tapping the pamphlet on her arm, Mikage looks between the two guild representatives, her brows raised. "I'll... keep you guys in mind." See, she can pause too. "Thanks for your time, guys. Let Reika know I stopped in."

Then, she seems to make a hasty escape. She drains the last of her drink, reluctantly, hooks the small metal cup onto her belt, and looks again at the badly drawn artwork. "Whole lot of nope." Once out of line of sight of the Hamelin booth, she crunches the paper in her hand and uses a low level fire spell to be rid of it. Poof.

She seems to avoid the Scalem Emblem area of recruiting, though she does seem to look in their direction briefly, as if scanning for someone amongst the crowd. Not spotting whomever it is she is looking for, she can't help but be drawn to the somewhat eccentric group around the Silver Sword area. So, Miki approaches.

"Good to see some familiar faces around here. The crowds are a bit much, but... I guess I get it. The guild with the most members has the most resources at hand." She dusts a bit of ash off of her hand that is left over from nuking the pamphlet.

    Wisteria grins at everyone when Mizuki throws the peace sign. That smile is all teeth, ragged, razor, shark teeth in overlapping layers. "Yah join us and fight monsters, get loot, climb the tower, go home!" she says loudly "Ooh archery can I try?" she says totaly changing focus again.

A maid, is walking thought the crowds, took Vepsa a bit long than expect to get here.. She still having troulbe finding her way around without a mini-map. Very annoying. She looking around at all the guilds trying to get new members. She already part of a guild so she smiles poiletly turning them down. She reaches into the pocket on the front of her apron pulling out a drink, looks like a soda but tates like rain water.
"It's sort of like a festilval here.."

    Mizuki gets bunnyglomped! She hugs Wis back, and spots some people reflexively making the menu motions for the screenshot feature that doesn't work anymore. Being told to take advantage of attention at the fair for the Knights pops back into her head, and she flashes a peace sign and a forced smile. "Join the Odysseia Knights!"

    She nods, somberly, at William Massachusetts assessment. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to get in some more archery practice..."

    She returns the bow and quiver, shaking William's hand if he allows, then walks with Wis back to the Knights' booth.

    She spots Att over at the Plant Welshname booth and gives him an acknowledging nod but perhaps now isn't the time to talk. Then again, maybe he's bored... But if Wis is about to try the archery, she also wants to see how that goes.

    Mizuki makes some small talk with Wis as she switches to her piratey-looking armor set, since the hat and cloak are probably a bit more eyecatching than her town armor. "Haven't seen you in awhile... feeling better now?

    Misa continues to watch the Hamelin recruiters. Though when Shiroe brings up Krusty, Misa says, "He mentioned that he had forgotten something in the guild hall and had to go back to get it." Pause. "Of course, with our guild hall having been on the fourth floor of Aincrad, that's a little difficult right now..." She sighs quietly.

    Anyway, as for herself being behind the booth, "I delegated the recruitment efforts to some of the guild members in each guild. I'm well aware that I'm not the charismatic type." That's usually Krtusy's job, after all.

    Having seen enough of Hamelin's offerings, Misa turns to move away. Though as she gets the message from Shiroe, she simply replies and says, not bothering to be quiet, "I don't recognize the names. Not anyone who's been fighting in the tower frequently, or raiding before the Apocalypse."

    Misa heads over towards the Silver Sword group next. Looking over them she makes a few notes, before stopping near William Massachusetts and nodding to him in greeting, "William. How goes the recruitment?"

"Oh hey Mikage." Kaydon says, as she wanders up to their little booth, "You wanna join Silver Sword? Shiruba puts it way better than I do but the idea is basically the same. We're fighting the stuff that wants to kill us and keeping Landers and Adventurers safe. Especially the low level folks. Which I mean is still technically all of us, for the most part.."

He reaches down to the knife that's burried in the table and pulls it out, before he hmms faintly and carves something into the table. It's a...Rough aproximation of the Silver Sword logo. He's not an artist, okay?

Nevarri smiles as Kaydon improves upon the Sales pitch, "Much better, Kaydon. If you can put on a smile, that'll get even more pulls!" She once more steps about with more bounce in her step. While she's not exactly Reika Mastery Levels of Idolness, she's got her charm going on.

William indeed shakes Mizuki's hand, and then nods to her. "Of course." He remarks, and retrieves the equipment, inspecting the bow for any damage that might harm those who attempt the next challenge.

He then looks up, in the midst of this maintenance, as Misa approaches. "The recruitment fares well. Certainly, we do not have the numbers of the Aincrad Liberation folk - but we're getting some pretty excited people on board." He explains. "It seems our exploration of the dungeons outside of the tower attracts a remarkable amount of interest." He explains to her.

"I imagine you are having no lack of people trying to join your Guild?" The man politely adds, trying to do that whole 'smalltalk' thing, while bearing that typical 'look' of his.

Shiruba hops down from the table as Mikage approaches. "Hello!"

She then pauses, and leans down a bit as if to look around, and even under the table. "Did you bring your fuzzy friend with you?"

William, having inspected the bow, then proceeds to offer it out to Wisteria. "Of course. Please, have a try. Thirty seconds to hit the Goblin in the head." It's a straw doll that vaguely is shaped like a goblin.

Reika is mostly playing off her strong points, with the small stage, talking to the crowd and inviting people over, enchanting them to come closer with the sound of her singing voice. Reika pretty much is the Pied Piper of Hamelin, in her own way. She waves to Mikage as she finally spots her leaving. She never promised to join after all, so it's no problem. Reika seems simply happy with the crowd today, it seems successful!

Shredder and Smoking Lightning are pretty much the Laurel and Hardy of this venture, sometimes spending more time jabbing each other than actually doing the recruitment. But they still are managing to bring in the new members, a good part thanks to Reika's work.

There is one member missing at Hamelin though, and it's the actual leader. None of those present here have the guild leader tag on their profile, simply listed as members.

Att responds to Mizuki's nod with the upwards head-jerk of recognition. He rocks back in his chair, holding up the chess piece he's working on to catch the light, squinting at the detail. It's coming along. It's actually sort of relaxing, Att finds, compared to the endless grinding he's otherwise doing. When he needs a break from the game he's apparently stuck in, that's when you know things have kind of gone to crap.

He plants his chair's feet, then stands up. Att flips over the sign-up sheet he's got and writes something on the back, then pins it to the edge of the table like a sign. It reads, simply, 'OUT TO LUNCH'. He collects his pieces, grabs an apple, and starts across the makeshift fairgrounds in the general direction of the archery demo(?).

    Miyako has, at least, _heard_ of Triple-D, but she just keeps on walking when she sees the 'Aincrad Liberation' booth. At least there's decent music. One of the few bright spots about standing around in the middle of a crowd like this. (But, hey! At least you _can_ stand around!)

    She does end up pausing at the Plant Whatsit booth, eyeing the upside-down signup sheet as the Faceless Mook(tm) turns to stomp away. "So," she starts to ask as she approaches, then the 'out to lunch' sign goes up. "Well, okay, frak you too," she mutters and moves on towards the apparently-too-popular archery thingamabob. Maybe there'll be someone more interesting there.

    "That does seem like a very Krusty-esque move." For a guy who had such a large guild under him, he really was just about willing to do anything to get out of work. As for the remark about her charisma well...He simply finds himself pushing up his glasses. "I see." Not a 'That's not true,' or a 'Good choice,' just 'I see.'

    As she starts to take the lead to move away from the stage Shiroe does the same, "So they're not part of the raiding groups from before the Apocalypse but they're promoting themselves as a raid guild...?" And with that thought he finds himself stopping in his tracks. He didn't know what but it felt off...The kinda off like the food in this world. "Misa, I'll catch up with you later, I'm gonna stay here for a bit and -Ufff"

    He had started to turn around to walk back towards the stage but just as he calls back to Misa he finds himself bumping into another person. He had clearly not been paying attention to where he was walking when he shouted back to Misa, but at the same time...This person had apparently decided to pause in the middle of the bustling crowd to adjust what looked like a bag of some sort, "Ah...Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. You alright?"

"Hey Kaydon." Mikage answers back, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket to keep them warm. She inclines her head to Nevarri as well, a small smirk quirking up the corner of her mouth. "It's a better recruitment pitch than some of the other groups." The girl gives a motion of her head back in the direction she'd come from.

"At least it feels honest." Miki admits. When Shiruba hops down, the Were Fang offers a smile. "Hey. You're part of this group, too?" At the question of her pet, a hand is lifted from her coat, pointing back up towards the rooftops. "Surprised you didn't spot him lurking around. He hates crowds more than I do. He's been hanging around up there since we came into Alne."

Sure enough, on a nearby rooftop, there is a white lynx. He seems to be just laying there, people watching, though now and again when someone comes by with food in their hands, he seems to watch them more-so than the others. Even if she thinks it tastes horrible, the lynx is still very food motivated.

"I'm not really sure what I'm looking for in a guild, to be honest." She admits, "My old guild was just a few people, enough to form a decent party. But they had work or family stuff for New Years and well... here we are." She shrugs, "I've been running the smaller dungeons mostly. With most of you guys, it seems."

    Wistera takes the bow. "Alright, gobli slaying time." she says taking a deep breath, setting her feet. Taking an arrow in a very specific way. She lifts it to the string. A slow lift into position, arm coming back to draw the fletching to her cheek. She releases the arrow, her eyes locked on the target. Her bow wrist goes limp, the bow dipping forward until it is pointed horizontally. Then she slowly lowers the bow and breaths again.

    The arrow lodges itself in the 'eye' of the goblin. "See Mizuki-chi, Zanshin! It's what you need." she says happily holding the bow out to William "Thanks that was fun!" She says smiling brightly, showing off that maw full of razor triangles all stacked in haphazardly.

"Yup!" Shiruba replies cheerfully, her tail even wagging a bit. "Before the apocalypse I helped with mapping dungeons and such when I could be on, so now I joined full time."

Then turns her head to look towards the rooftops. Well there he is. "I wasn't exactly looking for him at that time, so he must be really good at keeping out of sight."

Miyako, on her approach, gets a polite nod from William Massachusetts. He doesn't say something like 'welcome' or 'test your prowess' or the like. He simply takes another bow and quiver, and offers it to her. "See if you can get the Goblin in the head or body within thirty seconds." He explains to her, giving her a difficult-to-read look. There's no disrespect in his actions. It's more that he's looking to see what she's got.

When Wisteria then manages to nail the Goblin in the eye with her own bow, the man gives her a very respectful nod. "If you are looking for a Guild that might be a home to you. The Silver Sword could always use another good bow-woman." He remarks to her, though he imagines she may already be spoken for, on a guild-level.

    It could simply be that Hamelin weren't amongst the top tier raiders that Misa and D.D.D. were likely to encounter. Though Misa doesn't say as much as Shiroe gets distracted by someone else, unconcerned about leaving him behind.

    Instead Misa briefly converses with William, nodding along with words, before saying at the end, "Actually, not as many as you might expect. It seems that opinions on the more serious matters about our situation are as split in the playerbase as they were in the round table meeting."

    Misa watches as Wisteria takes up the bow and fires off a well placed shot. As William proceeds to try and recruit her, Misa nods along in agreement, "She would indeed be a welcomed fighter in any guild." Is that a hint of a smirk tugging at the end of Misa's mouth?

    And /away/ from Plant Hwatsis, /on/ to archery-contest-dude, make sure gig-bag doesn't bounce off of any passersby, nod politely to the big blonde dude, and - whoop. Stumble. Turn around to see who bounced her, and... "Waiiiiiiit," she trails off, pausing before saying something she probably won't regret later. "You!" And then there's a finger waggling in Shiroe's face. "Glasses-dude! I -heard- you were around here somewhere!"

"Sorry," Att calls over his shoulder to the muttering Miyako. "Bad timing. Come back later, if you want, or bother me somewhere else." He keeps on a-walkin'.

Att ends up being in the small audience for the bow-testing. He claps politely at the precise hit. Too bad that doesn't actually do more damage to a goblin, he thinks. "Is that what you're doing?" he asks William. "Putting people to the test for entry?" He tilts his head, making a mildly impressed face, idly tossing his apple up and down in his hand. "Not bad. It's got a little bit of a carnival vibe to it, though, don't you think?"

    Wisteria giggles "Thanks, I'm good, I'm an Odyssian Knight." she says happily. "Mizuki-chi, think they have like any sword fighting competitions? OOoh should I give a demo? Or should I give a demo of using magic in combat? Should we just like setup a table with loot and stuff? Or like just find out who wants to go home bad?" She seems to be feeling better, even if she didn't answer the question, but then... there are bandits out there, she can be useful and that always makes her chipper.

Nevarri blinks a bit when she hears the arrival of Mikage, and smiles brightly. "Ahh, Mikage! Haven't seen you insome time!" She hops over and grins, "Well, I know it's kind of impersonal to be joining up a bigger guild after all that's happened, but since we're all stuck here together, it's better to work together as best as we can, and really in a guild is probably better due to resources and all."

She finds herself shooting a glare on reflex at the direction of the Scale Emblem guilds and sighs a little as she shakes her little bias out, "All the same, if you're more inclined to help solve problems by venturing out into the New World, you could go with Silver Sword."

There is a bit of a distraction that catches her attention some ways away, spying Miyako running into Shiroe and such. Eyebrow raise.

    Mizuki watches the arrow go into the goblin's eye. "Wow! Were you in archery club?" She goes to give the caerbannog a congratulatory hug, although when William suggests changing guilds she gives him a glare. "We're fighting to get out of here."

    She steps back as Wis poses some ideas. "Misa suggested the loot thing, but a fighting competition would certainly be flashy... Asking around who wants to go home might get us a more targeted selection of people who want to join Scale Emblem, though..."

    She spots Att approaching and waves. "Hey. I went out to the Marina and back, how've you been?"

"Hrrrm." William makes a thoughtful sound at Misa's admittal over the playerbase's split. "I suppose that is good." He finally decides. "Not that I would have you denied more Adventurers. But it means they are finding suitable homes." The male then raises his long pooka brow as Miyako gets distracted, and Gwen approaches.

He passes Gwen one of the bows made available, and then looks back to Wisteria. "They must be proud to have you in their ranks." He notes to the bunny-lady.

At Att's comment about the carnival vibe, William moves back to the table, picks up another bow and quiver, and offers them out to Att. The Pooka isn't a very talkative kind of person.

Gwen waves to Shir when she spots her friend even if she doesn't get many recruits today it's a good way to get a feel for the other guilds. She's been at this for a while and debate tapping someone else in fo the pitches for a little bit.

She ends up passing it off to another guildmate as she now looks over to the archery stall? She seems pretty interested and will start to saunter her way over with a bit of girn. She will wait till any of The Silver Sword's possible recruits are finished their goes at this.

"Looks like things are going well for the Silver Sword. Intending on going back after the tower or hunting for new dungeons no one knows anything about? I might as well give this a shot if no one objects?"

    "G-Glasses dude?" The sunlight bounces off his frames as the sheen starts to veil his eyes. The word stumbles from his lips as he had tried offerring a hand to the fallen bard, only to receive a finger point instead. Very rude by the way. "I think I've been called quite a few things but uh, 'Glasses dude is surprisingly not one of them." Truth be told most of the others were much worse, but not like he'd advertise that.

    Regardles of the name he still tries to help her to her feet if she lets him before speaking up again, "Ah, again, sorry about that. Still...Do I know you perhaps?" He gives the girl a look over trying to recall her name, 'Miyako' also seemed to ring a bell, but frankly the face didn't this time. Though at the very least the way she seemed so eager to call him out made it seem like she was familiar with him somehow.

Vespa walks over to where Wistera and company are. "You need a table? I got one if you need one.", they are fellow guild members. "Might be hard to reqiut new guild members unless you have something really attention grabbing."

"I think the cats get some kind of stealth bonus, if I remember right." Mikage answers, and then reaches to rub at the back of her neck in a somewhat sheepish sort of gesture. "I mostly thought he was cute, and I always wanted a cat." She lifts her fingers to her mouth and whistles. The lynx turns in her direction, ears perked, but seems to stay where he is. "I'm still working on his training." With a shake of her head, she chuckles. "Unless someone offers up some food, he's likely to stay up there until the crowds clear out a bit."

At Nevarri's greeting, she gives a smile. "It has been. Though it looks like you've kept yourself busy." There is some respect in that. "Honestly, after everything, a larger guild sounds like the best idea." She follows Nevarri's glare towards Scale Emblem, but her own expression is more curious than anything else. "I figure that the bigger groups will have more ability to hold resources, promote exploration, that sort of thing." She seems thoughtful as she looks back to the Silver Sword folks, "I mean, didn't our floating benefactor in the sky mention something about a Twilight something or other? Sounded to me like there more tasks set to us than just the tower."

She thumbs in the direction of William, then. "So... who's the Pooka with the bows?"

"I was never much of a guild person." Kaydon says, "But William promised me a duel. I know he's not much of a PvPer, he's more of a raider. But you gotta be good to be a high tier raid type." He says, as he plays with the knife a bit more, "Plus well, being alone probably isn't the best idea right now. With everything going on."

"That is why I passed you the bow." William answers Gwen at her remark on giving it a shot. "The main body of the Silver Sword mainly concerns itself with the outer Dungeons and the Kingdoms at this time, in order to get more familiar with our new situation. But we do indeed also show up in the Tower from time to time." He proceeds to explain.

The Nero Idol managed to find some of her fans back in the crowd as well, they are more than happy to join the guild she's promoting as a result.

From the side, it seems Shredder is also appreciating the results here. It was a good idea to bring the Idol into this. She clearly had little experience, so she'd follow directives thinking that it's normal procedure.

Without Reika though... they have very little traction it seems. Shredder and Smoking Lightning are more often than not arguing with each other on the usage of certain words, yet both sound as shade as the other when it's their turn to talk. They certainly don't look like veteran raiders either.

    Wisteria pulls a big peice of chiton out of inventory "Hmmm mostly I have low level boss loot, cause well... uhm.. low level." she says with a shrug. "But we're working on the tower and I think that's a good thing, besides hunting bandits and stuff will help out everyone." she says nodding her head.

Nevarri quickly nods, "Yeah, something like that... Though who knows with that guy..." She doesn't really trust Mr. Floaty Man one lick, so she shrugs, "We'll figure it out eventually."

She looks back over her shoulder to the Pooka Archer and grins, "That's William Massachussett's, our Guildmaster. Kind of a big deal."

She sits back and scratches the back of her head, "I guess if William didn't convince me, I'd probably still be running around without a guild too... But I want to explore this world the best I can, and if Silver Sword can help me do that, then I'm all in."

Att raises an eyebrow, shrugs, and takes the bow. He handles and fires it more like an English longbow: straight arm, twisted elbow, nock, draw, gently release. It's fairly smooth, and reasonably quick. His focus and his aim intends for a body shot. He takes two, just to be sure.

"Maybe you should hand out giant stuffed animals," he suggests, smiling. "Or setup a pinata. Simulate the loot dropping experience, you know?" Att offers the bow back.

He jerks his head at Mizuki again, this time in short-ranged greeting. "Up to my neck in artes and crafts," Att replies with a hint of a sigh. "I thought I was nearly done with the grind, but this has just set us all back to square one. At least I don't have the work week between me and max-level crafting anymore. How's the whole..." He gestures vaguely at her with one hand. "...thing, treating you?"

Att performs quite well at the archery test. William Massachusetts seems fairly impressed. "Well shot. It looks like you have experience in this kind of thing." He notes to mister Syne, and then motions. "I fear there are no giant stuffed animals, or pinatas here. Only invitations to the Silver Sword. If you are looking for a world-reaching experience." He remarks.

The male then carefully takes Att Syne's bow and quiver back from him, and continues to inspect it for any integrity loss.

    Miyako shrugs. "Well, it's better than 'Glasses Villain', isn't it?" she asks the tall man. She grins widely and waves a hand expansively. "/Surely/ you remember Valdor. And who cracked the code you needed for that raid." By this point she's forgotten Att completely in favor of the Celebrity. "Word on the forums was that you were Out, swallowed up by IRL. Glad to see that's about as true as most net-lore."

The ALF squad demonstration draws a few interested adventurers to watch, occasionally one of them will come over to the booth looking for more information, but mostly they just seem to be curious before wondering on.

There were quite a few adventurers here -- it was a successful event. Even a few enterprising traders had setup on booths on the fringes to try take advantage of the crowds. Many of these seemed to cater to newbie equipment. Fitting enough.

Still at the ALF booth Zorin alternated from trying to draw attention and discussing details with interested adventurers. After some time of this another ALF soldier came and tapped on his arm, letting him know that his shift was over.

While pulling out a canteen of water from his inventory and taking a long drink Zorin headed back to a sectioned off area for SEA members assisting with the fair to have a break and relax.

    Mizaki tilts her head at Att's ideas. "Like a gacha game? That's an interesting idea for making money or interest but I'm not sure it's a way to recruit skilled guild members."

    She looks slightly awkward at the gesture. "Not bad. I mean, we're all adapting to... different lives, but... I'm making some new friends here in Yamato" she pats Wisteria's back, "and learning about the workings of the world, with a side of caravan guarding and spider extermination. There's lots to do!" She smiles, though still with a hint of awkwardness at what's unspoken.

Shiruba glances over in the direction the others are after Mikage points. "Oh. That's one of the finest Hunters in the game," she grins, "And the guild leader actually... But I see he's taken a bit more of an interactive route than simply advertising."

"I used to main a stealth archer dirtbag build in the offline version," Att asides to William, a little more seriously. "The physics model wasn't great at rendering targets at long distances, so I got pretty good at short-range rapid-fire until I just modded it in." He nods. "Thanks for the invite. I'm happy with my own guild right now, but give me a call if you're short on bodies for large-scale battles. It'd be a treat to work with someone with Silver Sword's standards."

The unspoken thing definitely makes it awkward. Att shrugs lightly. "Well, that's all you can do, right? Long as you're... y'know, keeping it together." He makes a motion like a hat-tip towards Wisteria, despite his lack of hat. "Watch each other's backs. It's kinda rough out there."

Att immediately misses his piles and piles of levels and gear even more.

    Shiroe finds himself thinking back for a moment when the name Valdor arises in conversation. "Ah, Valdor...That's been a while. Wait...Code..." A thought comes to mind as he thinks of where that code had come from. He recalled the information being provided on the forums, and even ended up crediting the person who cracked those codes on his blog all that time ago. The one he had done so for was, "Ah...So you're /that/ Miyako." If there's anyone who feels like they're seeing a celebrity it's Shiroe. It was rare to have people who beat out the DTP to a raid, and while Miyako may have not done such a feat she did happen to find information about an extra boss room that they had missed just trying to complete the main dungeon. So to see them in person was actually a bit of a treat.

    "Hmmph, well, I wouldn't believe all the rumors you hear on the forums about me. Still it's nice to meet you in person. I'd wish it was a bit under better circumstances but you get what I mean. Still, I hope you didn't come out all this way just to spot me where you?"

At Att's explaination, William motions his hand a bit. "I see. It's not often I meet people who modded the offline game. I know there was a community for it." The man respectfully motions his head in one of those nods of his, and then motions his hand in an accepting manner. "Here." He motions his hand through the air, and moments later, Att Syne may note a friend request. "So I can reach you in the future." He offers to him.

    Wisteria smiles and nods her head giving Mizuki a big caerbannog hug. "Yup, we'll go out stopping bandits next, to get the trade routes running properly again." she says brightly.

    "Yep, that's me! 'That' Miyako." She chuckles lightly and unslings her bag, resting it on her foot so it isn't in the way of people trying to get by them. "As I recall your lot made out pretty well at Valdor. Hopefully things will go just as smoothly here, hm?" She turns to look out at the crowd for a minute before answering his next question. "Enh, circumstances are about as good as they can be, these days. And I was hoping to spot _someone_ I knew, but no one specific, right now. Just looking for leads on worthwhile things to poke my nose into."

Gwen accepts the bow nods.

"Yeah we had to sideline a lot of our event plans with everything that's happened. Helping day one players not to mention levelling all of us back up again." She'll take the bow now and start to line up a shot as she does so. She's not much for bows but she's had some experience and she tracks the goblin, for a moment holding the bow right at least then lets a shot fly.

    As long as you're... y'know, keeping it together. "Ha!" Mizuki gives a short, sharp nervous laugh. "Well, I mean, it's a trying time for all of us." Wait, that doesn't exactly help. "I'm fine. Sure, sometimes I worry about what's really going on or what effect being part cat has on someone over the long term, but that's the new normal! We're still saving landers, working on improving our builds, and making progress on understanding this world so we can find our way out, day to day. You know?"

    "It definitely made a certain someone extremely happy. Happy enough she ended up dragging most of us back to that same dungeon again... But yeah, it was a fun ride checking out the easter egg room." He finds himself trying to follow her example, squirming about to minimize himself as much as possible to avoid bumping into anyone else. Once he finds himself at a comfortable distance he starts to speak up again. "I see. Well if you're looking for leads it's probably best to join a guild you think you could mesh with." And that's when he realizes... "And I guess that's why Will was handing you that bow earlier...Sorry about that. You gonna give it a shot?"

Att mirrors the gestures, accepting the friend request and inclining his head in something like a respectful nod. "Great. I look forward to working with you, William Massachusetts." He'll save his question about the name for another time.

He turns back to Mizuki and her attached bunny compadre, giving the former a long, assessing stare. "Make sure you take some time for yourself, too," he says seriously. "This is a pretty messed-up situation. What was an outlet for stress turning into your life... well, you might need another release valve." He idly tosses the apple he's been carrying on and off at the two of them. "Here. I'd better get back to my table before somebody takes a closer look and tries to steal it. Don't be a stranger, huh?"

"Really?" Mikage looks from Shiruba, to William and the various others gathered around to try their hands at archery, and then back. "Well, it's at least attention-grabbing." Having listened to some of the other talking around, the Ranger has come to the conclusion, "Seems the competative guilds will probably still be competing with each other."

Her fingers almost seem to itch, watching other people show their skills. It has that edge of nervous excitement that she's only really felt one other place. Then again... failing in front of a possible new guild would be bad, right?

Yet, "I think I'm going to go give it a try. Worst I can do is choke, big time." Miki laughs, rolling her shoulders before stepping over towards William.

"So, I heard you're the boss here. Mind if I have a try?" It's a new world, and she wants a chance to experience everything, even if flares lingering hints of anxiety.

William notices the subtle motions of anxiousness within the white haired Adventurer nearby, and by the time Mikage begins to move over, a bow is already being offered her way, along with a quiver. He doesn't say anything like 'please' or 'by all means'. Instead, she gets this nod from him that suggests that he is watching her - and waits the result of her attempt.

"A goblin is approaching your flank and threatens your weaker backline." The same sell he gave Mizuki earlier. "You have thirty seconds to get it in the chest or head." As he motions to the straw thing in the distance.

    The bunbungirl squeezes Mizuki harder "We'll go do that osen trip or go fishing or something huh?" she says. Some unnamed friends had to tell her to take personal time to keep from burning out. So she might as well return the favor. "It'll be fun Mizuki-chi." she says brightly "Or I mean we could just go fight bandits or gnolls or something. Maybe make the long trip out and go goblin hunting?"

    Mizuki just gives Att a bit of a blank stare, not sure how to respond to that, though she does try to catch the apple while being bunnyhugged.

    "Why would someone steal your table? Is it a +1 table of never-having-one-leg-get-bent-or-shorter-than-the-others?"

Gwen is having decent luck, with the bo all thing considered, first shot she gets one in the arm, the next does much the same. Time is running out and she's on her last shot. She pegs one of the targets right in the head where it would be though eye socket.

She grins and will return the bow as she walks off from the firing range to let someone else have a shot at it.

"Ha, that was fun!"

    Mizuki is squeezed and Wis suggests an onsen trip. Awkwardness levels go back up. "Fishing? Fish /would/ be delicious... is the fishing minigame any fun here? ...I haven't fought goblins yet, but he's right, we need to find something else to do besides fighting."

"It's an experiment," Att replies, "in folding table technology. You'll see." He taps the side of his nose conspiratorally and stalks off into the crowd.

That newbie is back at the table. Att sighs inwardly and prepares to battle.

(socially)

    Miyako favors Shiroe with a nod. "Glad to hear Herself liked it. It was an interesting code, I had to go to three different cities and two other dungeons to find the key. Lots of fun, and you saw the story I posted on the forum afterwards." She knows he did, since he'd commented on the thread. "So, yeah, guilds," she continues, "Me and guilds never mixed well, back in the day, any more than you Tea Party folks did. But, well, circumstances change, and a girl's gotta look out for herself."

    She waves a hand at the Silver Sword booth and, excitedly, crows "Besides, there's a whole new /everything/ to see!"

Offered the bow, Mikage stands in front of the range, getting a feel for the weapon. Despite being a Ranger, she doesn't usually use a bow as her primary weapon. In fact, it's a sort of short-sword that she always carries with her instead. Something about the weapon feels awkward to her, perhaps because it isn't one formed out of her own character energies like she normally uses.

Closing her eyes, the Were Fang tries to focus, but the sounds of voices begin to seep into her mind. It takes her back to another place. A roaring crowd, the pressure of so many eyes. In that instant, she doesn't feel like Mikage, the Were Fang Ranger. She feels like a girl on a stage ready to do battle. And that is when the nerves get to her.

The shots hit the target, but not where instructed. Her hands have the slightest bit of a shake to them. Still, as soon as the time runs out, she lets out a breath, lets the bow droop, then offers it back out to William. "I'm better at fighting the real thing." She shrugs, then pulls her hood up over her head, an instinctive and protective motion.

"Thanks for the chance, though." She'd choked that last time, standing on that stage, and it had taught her to take failure with a smile.

Shiruba walks over and gives Mikage a pat on the shoulder and a reassuring smile. "You were brave enough to try, that still counts for something."

    Wist smiles at Mikage "Hey, missing in practice is the point." she says "A thousand slashes a day is to ingrain the motion into your bones, tourneys are for winning, practice is where you can fail and learn." her tone is much more serious than the teasing playful thing she's been doing for Mizuki. "No samurai found zanshin in the quiet place alone, no Budhist found Zen under the boab tree. They are found on the battle ground, when all is blood and screaming and your sword is life."

    He can't help but smirk on that last remark, "Seriously, you sound so much like 'Herself' I feel like I wouldn't have been surprised if you had ended up making a Tea Party of your own. Also I get where you're coming from, but I think now more than ever it might be a good time. I was never a big guild person but...I think now more than ever we need to be willing to be a part of something more than just ourselves." He moves over letting Will handle the possible new recruit, "Besides, it's worth giving a shot at this point right?"

Eventually, the Idol decides to hop off her stage and mingle with the rest as well. She's done her job at least, and the flow of visitors is gradually slowing down for the day.

She stops by Gwen's table with a smile "Hey there, had some good numbers?"

Leaving the table to the other Hamelin members... probably not a great idea, considering, but she's done her part. And they are almost are out of pamphlet anyway.

Reika has a few fans following around, still starstruck.

William watches the Were Fang. The matter being tested here is more than just whether or not she 'can' hit the target. His head moves as she fires. Indeed, they hit the target, but not where they should go. At the note of nervousness, the man smiles for a moment. "Don't let the nerves get to you. In a true battle, it's not about the eyes watching you, but about the enemies coming at your allies." He explains to her.

As she offers the bow out to William, he accepts it, but he then moves it to halt her departure. He doesn't say anything in that moment, but takes a moment to size her up. "Again." He then remarks, waiting for her to take the bow back. "You and the monster. Use a Sword Arte. Ignore the eyes on you."

Miyako reaches up to clap Shiroe on the shoulder. (It's a bit of a reach, but at least she doesn't have to stand on tippytoes!) "Well maybe I /should/! I've got a veteran right here, where better to start?" She grins and leans into him, somewhat disappointed when he moves away. "Give it a shot, hah, three-dee-six pun damage, be glad you're not cursed."

     Somewhat reluctantly now, she steps away from the Celebrity, approaching William Massachusetts to wait her turn for the bow.

    That was a bit of a non sequitur! Sam's mind just kind of grabs onto the first thing that doesn't make sense and runs Mizuki's mouth on autopilot.

    "What would a buddhist be doing on the battlefield? Aren't they pacifists? Isn't wielding a sword kind of against the whole 'accept your place in life, all pain comes from wanting things to be different' thing?" Someone took an intro to philosophies course in college.

William, noticing Miyako, passes her a bow and quiver as well. "Go ahead." He tells her. "Hit the target in the head or the body." The Pooka explains to her, waiting for her to take the weapon into her hands. "Just picture it as a Goblin, running towards your back line. You have to take it out."

    Miyako may take him as a celebrity, but the moment she smacks him on the back she'll see him stumbling forward just a bit. His glasses nearly slipping off his face, caught only on the bridge of his nose. Yeah, this definitely gave him Kanami-vibes... He does find himself breathing a sigh of a relief a bit when she walks a bit away. She was getting just a biiiiit close. At the very least she can feel a bit better knowing that he's close enough to see her take aim...Or would that make her nervous? Guess we'll see!

The moment Shiroe takes his position behind Miyako, William takes the two steps it takes to approach him, and stuffs a bow into his hands, giving him a bit of a grin. It's as 'playful' as William probably ever gets, as he seems to challenge Shiroe to show off his own skill. "Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?" He simply asks him, as he then puts the quiver to Shiroe's chest, waiting for him to take hold.

Gwen has returned to her table by this point and is back to work at recruiting there been a few but Crescent Moon hasn't done as well as some of the other guilds were. Still, it hasn't been a waste of time. There were new faces in Crescent Moon and she'll look up to Reika for a moment.

"It could have gone better but we got a few new people so it was a decent day!"

She grins for a moment then notes.

"You haver some lost puppies following you Reika."

    Miyako takes the bow and quiver, clipping the latter to her belt-sash-thing, and giving the bow a brief test-pull. "Okay... no pressure, no pressure...." She draws an arrow from the quiver and sets it on the bow - by the look of things, she's used one before, western-style - and draws it back, taking a second or so to aim before loosing. The arrow flies off, clipping the straw goblin in what would have been the leg. "Ooookay, not quite, c'mon now," she mutters as she pulls out another arrow. This shot she fires off more rapidly, as soon as she has a basic sight, and the arrow flies ... well, closer to true, at least. "Okay, I think that goblin's not going anywhere any time soon, at least..."

    Yeah, he's late but he's been walking around just taking in information from all of the guilds, seeing some of the people he knows, he waves. He walks over to where Reika and Gwen, "Hello you two." he says to them.

    Wisteria nods her head "That depends on the Buddhist, Zen is an armor against the horror of battle, Zanshin is an armor against hubris. Both are trained in practice, but not FOUND there." she says with a roll of her shoulders. She rests her arm around Mizuki-chi.

Reika hehs softly, looking back to her followers for a moment "Yeah, they just joined, so they are happy just being around me. They'll get bored of it soon enough, it's not quite the same in and out of the game after all." Here she's just another face in the crowd after all. No stardom here yet.

Reika nods "That's good, we got a bunch on our side. The goal is getting players in the places that suit them best, I don't see it as a competition."

Her guildmates might have a different idea about that though.

She nods to Wynfei with a smile "Hey there, came to browse the guilds too?"

    He thought he was safe...He was wrong. Will places the bow in his hands, and a bit of a baffled look comes on his face. He smirk comes back onto his own face, "You ask that to the Enchanter as you hand him a bow?" He lets out another brief sigh as he takes the quiver as well. While as an Enchanter he wasn't able to use a bow in combat, he can't imagine he couldn't try shooting at a target. Probably would be sloppy though, but hey, he has ranged attacks he has to gauge at occasion...Right?

    At this point he ends up walking up right beside Miyako as she takes her shots. A smile showing on his face, "Not bad, what are your classes if you don't mind me asking?" Meanwhile...It takes Shiroe a moment to even get himself positioned propoerly. Thankfully he has some idea how to set-up from watching Miyako from all people. Though rather than wait for a response, he stays silent to focus as he tries his best to aim his sights down across the way towards the 'goblin'.

The pat on the shoulder is met with a smile from Mikage. "I'm not so good in front of crowds." She admits with a soft laugh. Her fingertips tug the hood forward a little, as if she were almost hiding in the shadow of it. Her blue eyes flick to Wisteria, nodding. "Can't be a marksman in a day. I just think my problem is more up here than anything else." She taps at the side of her head.

As William moves to stop her from retreating, Miki turns to him and meets the man's eyes for a long moment. "This isn't a real fight. I've already taken out a real goblin ranger for the Hunter's Guild." She explains. It's a challenge, and she knows it. There is long moment where it seems like she's going to just flat out deny the offer.

"Fine. but I'm doing this my way." Miki draws out her sword rather than accepting the bow, then turns away from William. Energy flashes into the sword, causing the blade to vanish. In it's place, two arcs of magical energy form a bow with the sword hilt as the handle. She pulls one of the arrows, knocks it, draws it back to her cheek and fires.

It's all quick enough that she doesn't have time to get into that negative headspace. The instant the arrow launches, the bow vanishes back into the hilt, leaving a sword in her hand instead. The weapon is sheathed, since flashing a blade in town would likely be frowned upon. Her eyes turn back to William, then. Still flashing that fierce sort of return of his challenge. In fact, her eyes seem to shift red, the first sign of a Were Fang transformation, but she keeps it only to that brief glimpse of the monster within, then they return to their usual blue.

Even though Mikage sort of changed things on the fly with her adjustment Shiruba still claps for her. "Sometimes the best way to beat a challenge is to take it onto your own terms." She almost envies that transforming weapon, but she doesn't have the melee skills to actually use something like that.

Miyako draws the arrow and manages to catch the Goblin with that second shot. "Good." It sticks out of the strawman's head, along with a few other arrows that have not been retrieved yet. "Correct. With Goblins, it is important to fire for center mass, and their head." He explains to her. "Goblins will actually drag wounded back to their holes."

The man then motions his hand in the air, and Miyako suddenly sees something pop up in front of her. "If you are looking for a place to hone those skills further, the Silver Sword will teach you how to raid together with a team, and put them to good use." He explains to her.

He then turns to watch Shiroe have his hand at using the bow and arrow. There is something that is just... 'natural' about a bow. The way one aims and tries to hit the target. "Well performed." He remarks to Shiroe, before turning to Mikage.

Who decides to take her own approach to things. He takes the bow back, and nods at her, letting her use her own weapon for this. The fact that she manages to conjure up a bow through another means of Sword Art makes the man nod bemusedly. Some Adventurers really did style things their own way.

The arrow cuts over, and flies right for the Goblin strawman, slamming into center mass.

Normally, a carnival person might have gone 'Excellent shot!' or 'Amazing!'. But William continues to be very down to earth, and minimalistic in his speech. "The same offer goes to you of course. If you are looking for a place that trains for the secret dungeons out in the world, and delves into exploration - I invite you to join the Silver Swords." He remarks, as he motions his hand and sends her an invitation - much like he'd done iwth Miyako.

    "Yes, I'm enjoying myself so far." he says as he eats a banana. "What about you, are you enjoying your Recruitment Fair?" he asks. "Looks like there was a huge turnout." he smiles. Rubbing the back of his head, he checks out the others as people speak with other guild leaders. "I'm still thinking on what I'm going to do as well."

    Mizuki nods vaguely. She's certainly not complaining about bun hugs. She's seen her reflection, she'd want to hug herself too. The cuteness and fuzziness was intentional, she just didn't think it would become life.

    There is something she's wondered, though, every time she hears William's name. She looks to the Pooka administering the archery context. "Okay, so I just have to wonder, if you don't mind my asking, where'd you get the name 'William Massachusetts' from?"

    She does not ask if he has guildmates named Roger Rhode Island or Samuel Connecticut. But she's thinking it.

    Miyako hmms as she looks at the goblin. "I think," she adds to her previous statement, before handing the bow and quiver back to William. "Probably not going to win any prizes, though."

    She steps back to let another have a go, and smiles again as she sees Shiroe there. "Me? Druid/Bard. Not much of a power build, but I wasn't looking for one. I had a blaster alt for that." She falls silent, then, and settles back to watch him shoot.

At Mizuki's question, William turns for a moment, and... stares at her for a moment. "I like English." He simply answers her, as if that was everything she needed to know on the matter - before he turns to Miyako and makes sure that Miyako gets a Guild Invite sent her way.

Gwen says "I can get how that can go. Well take good care of them, right?" She has no idea just what's going on with Reika's guild at the moment. Gwen now has some paperwork she's going to get to right here and now rather than have to do it later.

    More than anyone Shiroe ends up surprising himself as he ends up claiming a body shot on the goblin. It's the widest area for him to shoot at but considering he's not even spec'd for using a bow and arrow, he takes his win with a smirk. He pushes up his glasses as if this was all part of the plan...Even though it wasn't. "That so? Well, you definitely looked like you've done some archery before." At least enough for him to copy her stance. Thank goodness for that.

    He sees Will send her the guild invite and at that point ends up adding into it a bit, "While I'm not a Silver Sword member myself, I will say that if you're the exploratory type, they do enough raids and excursions outside of Alne that you should be able to see alot of the new content from the update. But at the end of the day, if you do decide to join a guild, definitely should be one you can see yourself staying in for a long time."

    Wisteria smiles and nods to Mikage. "Well, that's good." she says with a chuckle. "I still say it's about finding Zen and Zanshin, magic, or not." she says and her attention is slipping back to Mizuki-chi... which means harder hugging for a second. She looks to see what William's answer is.

Reika smiles to Wynfei, nodding "Yeah, there was lots of people, it was a good idea to get people together, and allow them to check out what every guild offers first hand. I don't see it as a competition, but as a service for the new players." She points at herself "Like me, really. I understand how lost they are." She'd be in the same boat if she hadn't joined Hamelin.

Although looking at her guildmates... one can wonder if that's a good choice.

She looks over to Shiroe and thumbs up to him "Good shot~" She grins "Looks like you guys had a great turnout too."

    Offering William one of her wild, warm smiles, steps back just a bit further. And Shiroe makes a good shot, better than hers! "For an Enchanter you know how to shoot, Glasses." She grins and slaps his shoulder again. "And yeah, I'm ... well, I'd rather go poking about, you know how I get." She listens to his advice on guilds and nods, "I'll give it a think. Thanks for the invite, Massachusetts."

    Then she not quite panics. "Waitasec, where'd my gig-bag go? I had it just a second ago." And she set it down when she took the bow....

That intensity seems to be suddenly cut off as Shiruba comments. It's like watching a light-switch. Her gaze softens ands he offers a shy sort of smile. "I guess so." She doesn't seem like the sort that is used to supportive words, so it's met with a sort of uncertainty.

She glances between William and Shiroe , then nods her head. "I want to see as much as I can of this world, and you've got a few good people amongst your numbers already." She nods towards the other 'recruiters'. The offer of the guild invite has her inclining her head. "I'll think about it. Thanks for the opportunity."

The girl bows then, in a way that is very Japanese. Then, she seems ready to step out of the spotlight. It's likely that she'll take up that invite, it just may be a few hours later. It gives her a chance to consider things before jumping into a new group.

    Mizuki just nods to William. Right, that's fair. She leans against Wis and puts an arm around her, though not squeezing as hard. She wonders if Massachusetts /was/ ever a last name. She can't check the internet now! Does it even matter, if the people trapped here and what they know is, in this world, the full extent of knowledge of the language and history of Earth now?

    "Guess I've gotten accustom to range and all that..." Or luck. It could just be luck. Also, just call me Shiro-" He finds himself having his shoulder slapped again, and has to adjust his glasses once more, "You gotta cut that out too!" He breathes out a sigh as she then focuses on Will a bit more, which lets him hear words of praise from the distance. He turns to take notice of, "Ah, you're the one from the stage. You're that Nero Idol if I recall right, Reika?"

     Another fan perhaps? Maybe just someone well acquainted with the board posts. "Thanks, and uh...Wouldn't say it was my turn out. But Silver Sword's recruiters definitely worked hard. Though I'm sure I could say the same for you. Bet it's not easy working a crowd. Still...Just curious but how long has Hamelin been around? I don't recall a guild like that before the update. Is it-" Just as he's about to ask though he can hear Miyako start to worry about her bag. He looks around trying to spot it as well, though the only thing he sees immediately is Mikage. He gives her a smile her way but then he's forced to look around a bit more, "It couldn't have gone too far right? Here, I'll help you look..."

Reika looks to Shiroe at the question, and thinks "Actually I only know a little myself, I joined only recently. They just said they had good use of an Idol like me. They needed a good face for the guild." She leans to whisper "Admitedly, looking at the face of my guildmates, I kinda understand, it's not really selling faces." She grins "But that's not the most important part in the game, isn't it?" It's true that what matters most is how they are able to handle the guild itself. "They told me they were active players before the Apocalypse, but they disbanded and made new guilds, so Hamelin is one of those." Would explain why it's relatively unheard of. "They have to rebuild everything, including ranks, but they got the Guild HQ back after the disbanding, so there's that."

She smiles "Everyone worked hard, and it shows really. Lots of players foudn new homes today." She's upbeat and positive if anything.

    Wisteria chuckles "So, wana go fight some bandits when we wrap up? Or go on a nice relaxing convoy? Or hunt down an Osen and go soak our worries away? Or try fishing, I haven't done fishing?"

    Seeing Shiro come over as they are speaking, "Hello." Wynfei says to the villian in glasses. He's partied with Shiroe during the first floor mission for Nureha and her Guild House. "Are you enjoying things so far?" he asks.

    "Y'know, you have to wonder why anyone would decide to be a bandit when adventurers are around. Especially Landers who only have one life." Mizuki muses. Then a bit more softly, she answers, "Those all sound good. But can we talk first, in private?" She looks up at the werecaerbannog. "There's something I need to tell you."

    Finds himself being called out to once more, "Ah..." It takes him a moment, "Ah, Wynfei right? Well, things were going alright but apparently we've got some lost items at the moment. You wouldn't have happened to see a guitar bag lying around would you?" Was Shiroe a bard during the Tolbana mission? Pretty sure that wasn't the case.

    Miyako nods and starts looking for the bag, paying half an ear's attention to the conversation. It doesn't take long to find it, it just got kicked under William Massachusetts' table. "Aha!" she crows as she stands, lifting it aloft! "I have found it!"

    She grins as she rejoins the group. "Thanks for helping look," she says to Shiroe, "And you too," to Wynfei. "But I found it. Was right there, just looked right past it."

    Wisteria lets Mizuki go. "Hey sure of course we can." she says without the silly bubbly thing she often does at or around Mizuki.

    Shiroe blinks as Miyako finds her bag, it's enough to raise an eyebrow. "Skilled enough to find those codes, but bad enough were you lose your bag? Hmmm..." He starts humming like he's trying to make an opinion of her right now. Though it seems to be in a bit of a playful...Kinda. It's not like he's seriously considering if she's competent or not right??? Regardless he turn back to Wynfei, "Ah, sorry for the spook, and thanks regardless on behalf of Miyako here."

    Mizuki looks... slightly crestfallen at Wis losing her bubbliness. But then, people saying 'we need to talk' would make HER nervous, so. She nods to Wis, waves goodbye to the Silver Sword booth, and heads to the edge of town.

    Wist gives a bow "Thank you for letting me play." she offers to William's general direction. Then she follows after Mizuki "If you wana work towards getting home talk to the Scales." she announces brightly waving to people and smiling with all... those... teeth.

    Miyako slings her bag over her shoulder again, and flashes Shiroe another of those little smiles. "Good meeting you, Glasses. Thanks for helping look." Did she really even lose it? Or did she just put it there herself as a pretense to ask Shiroe for help? Enh, probably not, right? "And hey, it took me a -week- to find those codes! You're just lucky I had them by the time your lot were ready for the dungeon!"