Alnternative Idea


Jazz is here!

She's been absent from Alne for a while, but here she is, a piec of parchment a barrel as she writes on it. seems she's making notes of some kind!
Mizuki
Alne


    "Hey, Jazz!" A cheerful cat passing by stops to wave! "Haven't seen you in awhile! How're things?" Mizuki approaches, smiling.
Miyako
Alne

    Miyako emerges from a tavern, walking slowly, guitar slung over her shoulder. She stifles a yawn, then steps out of the doorway and looks about for a moment.

Oh no!

Jazz pauses what she's doing when she hears the greeting. She turns and looks towards Mizuki. "Oi," she says, a word which needs no translation to Japanese because an oi is an oi.

"Yeah, I've been kinda busy, I guess. Thanks again for the buff-ccookie." It was a great way to bail.
Mizuki
Alne


    Mizuki smiles. "You're welcome! I had a great time last night hanging out with folks fighting goblins! And..." She spins around and leans forward slightly, almost tapping Jazz on the shoulder. "I found out there are /so many/ of us. I don't have to worry about being seen as weird after all! I mean, maybe SOME folks will think it's weird, but screw them, there's plenty of folks who won't!"
Miyako
Alne

    And there's a familiar voice. Miyako looks over, taking note of a matching face. Well. Might as well see what's up. "Hey, Mimi," she calls as she draws near. "Life treating you well?"

"Gosh, you mean a lot of people were playing girls in this game that aren't girls? It's not uncommon, Mizuki, but it's weird to be trapped in it either way. You're just not alone. I thought you knew htat already, though." She wrinkles her nose, then glances back down at her parchment without another word, for a moment. A nod towards Miyako is given. Greeting, but voiceless.
Mizuki
Alne


    Mizuki rolls her eyes. "I mean I knew academically, but without knowing who any of them /were/ we were kind of all alone together, you know?" She turns to see who Jazz is nodding to. "Oh, Miyako! Hi! Well, yesterday was fun, so all things considered, pretty well yeah!"
Miyako
Alne

    Miyako nods. "Yeah, it was interesting. Goblins are /vermin/. Good to be rid of another batch of them." She shrugs. They'll just respawn somewhere else, but still. "I don't really care about that. I'm more happy to not be going snap-crackle-pop whenever I stand up."

"...you can snap cracle pop without being old too, you know," remarks Jazz, acridly, to Mizuki. T hen a nod to Miyako. "I won't lie that not having all the aches and pains is welcome, but you know..." She waves a hand at her. Then to Mizuki: "I don't hide it. You shouldn't either. Be you. You're still you." A shrug.
Mizuki
Alne


    Mizuki blinks and gives Miyako a curious look. "Are you really old like Goldie too?"

    She nods to Jazz. "I don't /hide/ it so much as just not wear a badge, you know? I AM still me, yes."
Miyako
Alne

    "I'm not /old/," Miyako insists. "Early-onset arthritis is a /thing/." She sighs and stretches and yawns. She doesn't bother to go into the rest of the health issues she's so glad to have left behind. "So let's just leave the whole topic behind. Who we were outside doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it?" asks Jazz of Miyako.

"We didn't leave all that behind just because we're here. It still makes us who we are. You may feel free to choose who you wnt to be going forward but not everyone is going to have, or wants, that luxury." She slides a drawing towards Miyako.

IT's a copy of the astrolabe drawing that thy've already seen.

"I'm heading to Westland. There's a copper mine in one of the deserts there that's been overtaken by, I guess, monsters. Hopefully not spiders."
Mizuki
Alne


    Mizuki replies softly, "Who I was matters to me... who I am, I mean."

    She shakes her head at Jazz and looks at Miyako. "I get what you meant, though."

    She looks back to Jazz. "I wanted to ask about that, actually. And offer to come along just to see more of this world. But what do you need copper for?"
Miyako
Alne

    Miyako glances at the drawing, then back up to Jazz. "Copper, huh..." She taps the paper, musing for a moment. "You've got a source of tin, then?" She pauses a moment, then adds, "Doesn't need to be metal, you know. Could be wood... hell, could be paper. Brass's /better/, it handles the weather at sea better, is all. If you're going ahead with this... make a couple prototypes before you start casting metal. Save yourself a lot of frustration."

"Tin? We're not making bronze. We're making brass, yeah, if it's even achievable. With all as wonky as things are, we're going to be trying it. But brass is ... zinc, I think? Yeah, Zinc. Copper and zinc. It's definitely better. It's what most classical astrolabes are. I've asked Giganpor to help me out, but I have to secure a supply of acutal copper for it. We're making astrolabes," she explains to Mizuki.
Mizuki
Alne


    Mizuki ahhs. "I see. Copper's probably useful for some other stuff, too. Antimicrobial properties, electrical conductivity... I know some people prefer it for cookware but I don't know why. Also sculpting sometimes."
Miyako
Alne

    Oh. Of course. "Zinc," Miyako mutters, and slaps her forehead. "Right. Brass, bronze, it's been way too damn long since I read any of that stuff." She shakes her head, then taps the paper again. "Sorry, just been a long day. Brass is good. Prototype, though. Make sure it works before you start fiddling with pots of molten lava."

"GErm theory probably does not apply, Mizuki," remarks Jazz.

"UNless we all start getting colds, anyway." She taps the back of her head with her palm as she considers, tentacles twitching. "Learning how to alloy brass regardless will have benefits so we're probably going to start there. If that's not possible, we'll figure something else out." A shrug. "Astrolabes apparently *exist*, but not in the crawfting menu... which is weird." She looks down at the drawing.
Mizuki
Alne


    Mizuki nods. "There are no microbes -- I HOPE -- but the association might give bonuses against disease status effects all the same."

    She hmms, rubbing her chin. "IS it weird? Would someone ever have needed to craft one before?"
Miyako
Alne

    "Something to look into," Miyako muses. "I should look into things, see if I can get hold of a glassworker, get some microscope going." She really /hopes/ no one starts getting colds. That would be incredibly annoying. "Not in the menu... Might just be a game-lore conflict... or maybe they only exist as relics of the past?"

"I was wondering about that," agrees Jazz to Miyako, "Or it's possible that it's ... emergent? Star charts exist. Ergo, an astrolabe must exist, ergo, alloys to make a good one *must* exist, and the past gets filled in in such a way to make sense of game reality. I don't know. It's all very existential." A shrug.
Miyako
Alne

    Miyako hmms. "It's... ergh. It's an idea. Part of me is expecting to wake up tomorrow and find it's been /added/ to the menu now that we've discussed it." She covers her mouth, stifling another yawn.
Mizuki
Alne


    Mizuki nods, "Yeah, but every crafting recipe had to be made by a programmer, before the handcrafting system. There simply couldn't be a recipe for /everything/, so they'd only make them for stuff they expected players to make."

    She shrugs. "Well, if it IS in the menu, that saves us all some work! But I'm still looking forward to seeing more of Yamato. If there's a way out besides Aincrad, we won't find it by staying on one island all the time!"

    She stretches and yawns. "I think I need to get back to the castle... but it was good seeing you two again!"

"...yeah," says Jazz after staring at Mizuki, "...get back to the castle." She seems find to that amusing, more than anything else. "See you soon, Mizuki." She wiggles her fingers at him. Jazz hand, go!
Miyako
Alne

    Miyako nods. "Well, good luck with the brass," she offers to Jazz. "I am going to go find someplace comfortable to get horizontal for a few hours."