Nothing Changes

    The air is warmer than it has been, Spring is starting to slowly come and winter may soon give way. The breeze barely moves here and the flowers are giving away their gentle dew to the warming of the sun.

It's fairly peaceful here in this open meadow among the trees and wildlife of Yamato.

    At least until there's an angry howl carried on the wind. Followed by a very prompt stabbing of the ground.

    The ever wandering Arashi had been in the area for the last hour or so. No one seemed to be around, her broken blade had started to give an indication of a shard nearby, and as a result the dire-mare had been flash stepping around the region at an insane rate. Even the occasional boom of a Lightningstep had rung out on occasion. Now, though, after an hour of searching, the glow faded, meaning her search had been fruitless. Hence the howl. Hence the stab. And now, a small campfire wherever she had come to a stop.

        "I hate this."

    The crackling sound, the howl, and the sign of smoke is what brings out someone from the forest line. A dark scaled Salamander with fiery, gold draconic eyes makes his way toward the equine Were Fang.

What gets Xander's attention is not the Were Fang herself, but the sword beside her. The broken shape does not hide what it is from his eyes and those eyes go slowly wide. "... It can't be..." He whispers gently to himself.

This brings that Salamander to a stop. A slow breeze moving his hair on his head ever so slightly as he whispers out the next part, for even though she is out if inspect range, he knows who originally had that weapon, "Arashi.." Then his brows knit.

    He moves again, this time with more authority, before he went into a jog to cover more distance, his voice at last breaking across the field, "Arashi! You /damn/ solo Were Fang!"

    Oh. That voice. She knows that voice. Her initial response is quick and firm, considering how previous run-ins have gone.

        "No."

    She doesn't really glance away from the fire, either. She's going through her inventory to see what wet-cracker food she's going to put down before moving onto ... somewhere. No direction really chosen yet.

    "Just no."

    Xander jogs over to her side, before crouching down in front of the other side of the fire. "All I get is a no?" He says with a grin on his face. "Not a, 'Oh hey Xander!' or 'What do you want you bastard'." He chuckles, "Just a no huh?"

He raises a brow, glancing at the sword, then to her, "So uh, what exactly happened to it? Looks like it didn't take the expansion very well." He then just flops down on his bum, his tail tapping the ground gently, "And don't worry! I am not going to try to challenge you for it or any such shit!"

    Xander places up his hands, "Don't have time for that kind of stuff any more. Given my job is between the tower and patrols-- then whatever I do in the middle of it all." Then he lowers his hands down. "Just surprised to see you! One part /glad/, cause a face I know-- even if we don't have the... best history.. but still glad."

Then he frowns a bit, "And... a little sad because you're trapped here in this hell hole with the rest of us."

    Menuing gets done, there's some terrible food put down, and then a sigh. Well, at least he wasn't going after the blade anymore. That... is a minor boon after the last hour of effort. "It didn't," she points out, referring to 40 days prior.

    The rest is taken in before there's a small shrug. "I don't mind it," she says, first, before actually glancing over. Considering. "Tower, huh? Why?"

    Xander notices what she has pulled out as food and hrms. He opens his own inventory and then tosses her a piece of fruit. Its has a soft skin like a peach. "Here. It has more flavor. Raw stuff actually tastes like food, unless you have a means to cook-- and the skill.. and I don't mean menu crafting either." He actually sounds a bit-- serious on that, more down to earth.

The Salamander goes to move his legs in a more indian style of sitting, with his arms coming to rest on his knees. Hands clasping together as he looks at the fire, before to her. "The Tower may have our ticket out of here, however things are rough and we just recently cleared Floor One, pushing into Floor two."

Xander speaks softly, his eyes now locked on the fire. "It is a desert enviroment and most of the folks are not used to that type of heat and given how real things are. Most people don't have the mental endurance to deal with it." Those Salamander's eyes then look to her. "But anyways, what have you been doing since New Years?"

    The peach wasn't expected, gets fumbled initially, but ends up caught after a moment. The salamander gets a quizzical look before the first bite which, obviously, catches her entirely by surprise. Yup. First food with taste she's had in fourty days. The rest of it is gone an instant later. "I'll have to look into that.." she decides, referring to the non-menucrafted food.

    "Meh." She really has zero interest in the tower. She's been over there. She's aware of the environment, but otherwise, "I Haven't been inside. Yet. At least not since New Years," she decides to share, but not really offering any sort of congratulations on the first level.

    Since New Years? "Exploring." It's not wrong. Everyone has probably been doing a lot of it since there's not a lot else to do besides the Climb. It doesn't explain the earlier frustration, though.

    Xander nods softly, "Yeah. It seems that way with-- about everything. If you do the old, quick menu crafting, the results are not as good. However, if you do things, like, we did in real life, the results are /far/ better. Thus food, tastes like food." The Salamander explains.

Though her short statements and remarks, give the Salamander some pause. His eyes look to her, before back to the fire. "So... Since New Years, you still been going it alone. With no care to escape from here, huh? Or even help?"

The Salamander then goes to stand up. "Ever still the solo person, but you might want to look at changing that tune, Arashi. It isn't what it use to be, you know."

    "There are worse people than you out here," Arashi states, rather cryptically. Xander had at least -asked- for duels. There's not much worse than that, so he could probably imagine a pretty short list of why her opinion is rather low of the game population.

    Don't go it Solo? Eh. "NWA, SS," she muses, figuring Xander should at least recognize the initials, and what those groups are.. and why she has her view of the tower, and little to no response to talk of first lives. Sure, she may be in the alliance and guild for some resources, but LFG? Nah. Deciding to try and switch topics off of herself...

    "What about you? Just the tower?"

    Xander's tail flicks where he stands, "Trust me. I am aware there are some bad folks out here. Like actual PKers and worst part is-- a few of them figured they can do the dirty, if you get my drift." He sighs gently and rubs the back of his neck. "Also Silver Sword huh? Not sure who NDA is... Alliance name I am guessing? Given Alliances were only created recently and I don't care for politics.."

The dark scaled Salamander lets his hand drop by his side, as he goes to answer her question. "For now, still in the ALF, who is now part of the Scale Emblem." He goes to rest his hand on his hips. "And like I said, I do patrols on the roads leading to Town of Beginnings to Alne to make sure PKers don't start shit with the players having trouble-- and I help in the Tower from time to time."

Xander looks at her once more, "Tanks are not easy to come by. Not real ones anyways, but honestly," He looks off to the distance. His words go silent as he just stares, before looking back to her, "... Nevermind. Anyways, just," He then tosses her a friend invite. "... You know. Call if you ever need help."

    Maybe it comes as a surprise, but the mare actually accepts the invite after a moment or two. "I'm not surprised," she mutters, regarding player-killers. "We're stuck here, whoever caused it may as well make it even worse than it is," she grumbles before skimming some more in her menu.

    Oh right. That scale. "New World Alliance. Not interested in the tower beyond seeing what's going on once in a while." She knew that much, but she hadn't really interacted with the group A LOT yet.

    "Mm, tanks are rare beacuse out here," she motions at the expansive nature around, "Most players want to kill fast and move on. Typically your damage is a little slower, not ideal for some players." Certainly not for her. ... and she's actually talking a bit. Woo.

    Xander blinks as he notices that she actually 'talking' more and smirks softly. He wants to bring attention to it, but instead he just--- smiles softly. "Yeah. That is true." He says as he agrees with her. "I always liked the defense over attack. Gave me time to evaluate someone, before moving in with a hard impact."

He sighs softly, "Though it does make the grind slow. I never thought I'd be back at this low level again honestly." He goes to stretch his hands above his head. "Just curious," He hands then drop by his side, "How do you even solo some of the things you do now? Any plans on how your going to handle the evolving AI?"

    "Wide spread of abilities. Have all the elements covered, except light. A lot of evasion. Varied defense too. More options means more chances to find a weak type," she explains. "Causes some really close damage races but I manage. I haven't had to deal with the timer yet." She has NO CLUE about the 24 hour spawn, let alone the 'side effects' of it. "I played enough offline and before the wipe that I remembered a lot of it. Dealt with Haggar and the gnolls the other night." Which means she did a duty. Which means SHE WAS IN A GROUP. Gasp.

    "You can't take anything you known before and try to apply it to this expansion. To this... I hate saying it," He motions around them, "Life." Xander looks at Arashi once more. "The monsters are actually smarter than they once were. The Goblins? They are now laying out traps, which they have never done. Lander children as another example? Can be taught to play games."

Xander walks over to her, kneeling down next to her. "Worse yet, those of us players, or as they call us, Adventurers who are killed? We are left in a state of limbo for not for fifteen minutes, but for twenty-four hours. And that is just the icing on the cake, the real topper?" Xander looks at her dead on, "One man came back-- and he lost his memories of his wife. Like he had /zero/ clue who she was."

    The Salamander then stands up, "And now, all the churches have hourglasses over them, which just happened recently and those damn things, when they start counting down, and hit zero? They trigger a massive spawn of monsters. Right there. In the town!" He shakes his head softly, "This isn't like the offline Elder Tale or before the Expansion. People can and /will/ get hurt. Maybe not forever, but at least by memory loss."

    To be fair, Arashi had been out there for fourty days. "Yeah, I've noticed some of that. Tactics changing, for one. Been a lot more careful since everything happened. I figured if we're stuck in here, things are going to get shook up.." and the rest of what he says? That confirms all of it.

    The 24 hour timer though? That gets a blink, "24.. HOURS?" RIDICULOUS. "That's obscene." That and the memory loss. "Tch.. someone really wanted to play God and they're getting their wish, what a pile.." she grumbles.

    Hour glasses? "That.. explains the one I saw. Nothing was happening with it, though. I'll have to keep that in mind, then." She -seems- indifferent about people getting hurt, but she gets to that after a moment's consideration.

    "How is people getting hurt any different here than before? Getting to leave won't make things better."

    Xander goes to stand up once more. "Because there are those here, who have family outside this digital space. Grandkids, lovers, brothers, sisters..." He explains with a gentle voice. "Not everyone is a lone wolf in game and in real life."

The Salamander then goes to step away from her. "There-- are those who /don't/ have anything, but... for those that do." He looks at her once more. "To forget those type of people? To-- not remember those they love? That is-- not something many people want, thus the tower... and whatever other way me be a means to escape this place."

    He then goes to walk away from her, "Anyways, I need to get back to my patrol. I heard some crackling and saw the smoke, which," He turns to look at her. "I'd suggest in the future, you find a location you can place your back against if you're gonna camp out in the open." Xander motions to all the trees around here. "Anyone can snipe you from any location and you wouldn't see it coming." He finger guns in her direction.

"Catch you later, Arashi!" He says once more as he gives her a wave and goes to walk off.

    Right right, snipes. She was frustrated when she slumped here. Not typical! At least she's listening when he points out everything. It doesn't really get a response out of her.

    As he goes, he at least gets a wave before her gaze settles back on the fire, her broken blade, and thoughts of decent food. "Who says I'm a loner IRL? Meh.."