Restful Day

A spriggan girl wearing what looks like a cross between a nurse's uniform and a martial artist's gi emerges from a path, finally reaching clearing. She stands still, the white staff shaped like a caduceus (snakes coiled around it, wings at the top) that has helped her in her walk up to this point held vertical in one hand, while she scratches her chin with the other.

    She surveys the area. Trees all around, with branches. It's winter, so no foliage, but that is fine. The remains of man-made structures like fences and benches, abandoned but mostly standing. No trace of monsters, at least not for now.

    She nods. "This place will do," and with a swipe of her finger, her menu materializes. "Time to summon Haymaker-San." A few taps, and one of those dummies used for martial arts training shimmers into existence in front of her. Given the technology level, it's pretty much a tall vertical stick with lots of hay tied to it, with a second hay-covered stick crossing it horizontally, to represent arms. A bulbous protuberance in the hay represents the head.

    The girl bows to her opponet, and steps back in a stance of readiness. "You won the last five times, Haymaker-San, but I am confident that today it will be my day!"

    And on she starts repeating the same few beginner's techniques. Swipe, catch an imaginary incoming attack, counterattack with punch, slide sideways, jump back. Repeat.

    Wynfei has changed his clothing style to go with his new levels finally, he yawns as he makes his way up the hill. Yes it is winter time now, and honestly he's been hanging around the area where more of the Crescent Moon Guildies have been. Seeing as they are helping a lot of the newbies get better at the game.

    As he crest the top and begins surveying the area, he hears a girl speaking to someone called Haymaker-san. This quirks a brow for him and he moves through the trees, climbing up into one and he begins leaping through them until he has a good view of Uta. He moves out on the tree limbs and sits down watching her.

Uta (still in her newbie gear) goes on for a while. After a little warm-up of very basic techniques, she moves on to a few kicks. Grab imaginary hand, pull, spin around, whip-kick to the legs, side, and head of the mannequin. Spin more, repeat on the other side.

    After this cycle is over, without interruption, she abruptly rolls off to one side, where her staff was resting on the ground. Seamlessly, she grabs it, jumps up, and with a backwards tumble in the air, she lands in a crouching position, hand held low, stick pointing up and away from her.

    She waits there, still, for a few seconds.

    And then she leaps, back, starting to twirl her stick like a bo, hitting imaginary enemies. A continuous flow of halting still and zooming into a flurry of motion. One air-opponent is hit over the head, one is hit on the side, she spins around she hits one with what would be an uppercut, if instead of a staff she was using her own fist, and-

    She blinks at Wynfei.

    She just stands still, and blinks.

    "Hi!" he says as Uta stares up at him as she fund him watching her. "You're pretty good." he smiles. He drops down and he lands on the balls of his feet, "I tend to do the same thing when I've found a quiet out of the way place to train myself." he says to her. "My name is Wynfei, I'm a Cait Sith." he says introducing himself, "Who are you?" he asks.

    He glances around them, just making sure there isn't any monsters around. As he doesn't see anything, he looks back towards Uta and his hand is still held out towards her in a friendly gesture. Though she could probably just start kicking his ass for spying on her, which he hopes she doesn't. 'What if she hits harder then me?' he thinks to himself as he waits to see what she does.

    Uta's first reaction after seeing the getup Wynfei is wearing, and taking notice of how he mentions that he likes to train as well, is to think 'this guy definitely hits harder than me.'

    "Thanks..." she replies. "I'm Uta. I'm a Spriggan. Landers... kind of... like to drive that point home," she says, as if she wasn't exactly thrilled about the situation.

    The cloud over her expression lasts but a fleeting moment, and her relaxed smile is swift to return while her hand is extended to shake Wynfei's. She is not planning to pull any trick, but in case Wynfei decides to feint the handshake to begin a martial-arts spar, well, she stands ready to react to that.

    Wynfei doesn't pull anything and shakes her hand, "Nice to meet you and don't let the Landers get to you." he says. "If you know the history of the Spriggans, it's understandable. But your actions will show that you're not like those bad ones." he says to her. After shaking her hand, he let's her hand go. "So how're you doing?"

    Uta breaks eye contact and looks down. "Uhm, er, I actually don't know the history /that/ well, to be honest. Apart from Spriggans apparenty having done some terrible things in the past, well, uhm, yeah, that's the amount of all my knowledge at the moment. I joined just a few hours before the apocalypse and... well, thanks for the compliments earlier, but I would consider myself anything but good. I'm still learning the basics of... uh..." she gestures around. "...everything."

    "Oh, wait, how absent minded of me." She flicks her menu open again, and a few second later, a friend request is pinged to Wynfei. "I'm doing... pretty decently, I'd say? If, you know, we don't count the whole 'trapped as a videogame character' thing?" Her head sinks low a bit, as she asks, in a slightly more hushed tone, "...is it taboo to mention this? I'm... not sure of what is safe to say and what not anymore. Social norms are... let's say... evolving quickly."

    Wynfei sees her look away, "Ah. Read up on the codex about your race, and it should help but as long as you're not trying to start up what the Spriggan did in the day you will be good and could help bring about good for the Spriggans." he says to her. A smile always present on his lips. He lets out a breate and he nods when she tells him she joined a few hours prior to the Apocalypse. "Ah." he says to her. "Ah, there are many people still learning, so it's all good no worries and if you run into any problems asks." he tells her.

    When the friend request comes through, he accepts. "Now we're friends." he grins. "Ehhh...it's not that bad." he says to her. "I'm actually liking it, but do miss my adopted sister and family. I'm pretty sure they will be coming to find me. Like I'm sure everyone who is trapped here family may do?" he really hopes. He shakes his head a little, "I think it would be good to only talk about that with other Players, but with the Landers, play your character and live in the world." he offers.

Uta squints sideways. "...yeah, landers just don't 'get it', it turns out. Again, still learning." She turns to look at Wynfei directly. "And yes. Yes, they'll certainly get us out. The amount of people trapped here is massive, so plenty of resources will certainly be dumped into rescuing us all. Let's not think about that right now, and just focus on the here and now."

    Her smile returns, "Oh, speaking of which... since you seem to be training, think we could train together some time or other? You know, training alone or under a mentor that pushes you to your limits is fine..."

    Ripple to flashback.

    * * *

    Uta is jumping from tree to tree, usually just using her feet, but occasionally catching branches with her hands and swinging on to the next branch as if she was a trapeze acrobat. Her wings cannot help her, here, because she's carrying someone on her back: a much shorter, squat Spriggan on her back. He's wearing tattered clothes, he's carrying a walking stick, and he's got kind but intense eyes, and a balding, squished, egg-shaped head with a few strands of whte hair sticking out sideways, along with an almost-goatee composed of a white mustache and a white chin-level beard.

    "Master Miyoda," she asks, panting as the leaping consumes her energies. "I understand the leaping, but what is the point of doing it while carrying you? It cannot be because I need to work under much more stressful conditions than the real ones, because this whole game is based on movement techniques... I've learnt that much. So it should not matter how hard making those movements is, provided I make them..." "...oh, just looking at the scenery it wanted. And my legs and wings, too short to follow they are." He pats his disciple on the head. "A good rollercoaster cart you make, mmm?"

    Uta rolls her eyes. "For the last time, Master Miyoda... I know you like American movies, but we're both Japanese! Drop that act!"

    * * *

    "...but training with a friendly face sounds much more fun. So? What do you say?"

    "Agreed." he says as he looks to Uta. "Yes, I would love to train and spar with you." he says to her. "It's always good to have someone who can help push you to excel. Hell, it's been a while since I've had a training partner." he tells Uta.

    He watches Uta as she stares off into space, then when she snaps back to herself he tells her. "Yeah it is much more fun." he grins. "Just hit me up when you want to train and I will be here to help." he says to her. Wynfei looks around, "If you want we can use this place and a few otehr places to train, maybe we can do a few Duties as well to see how well our skills have grown."

Uta replies, with a little hint of worry, "Duties? Oh, sure! As soon as, you know, I'm good enough to tackle them. Haven't really tackled a duty yet. Technically I haven't fought in a battle either. Still have to make sure I'm good enough not to get killed in the process." Yes, she sounds mildly scared at the prospect.

    "But yes, I think training would be a great idea. Just hit me up, and we'll see how it goes. I honestly have no idea of how good you are, so... we'll have to see who'll be doing most of the pushing and who'll be done most of the being pushed. Hopefully it's balanced."