Morning Time Blues

Xander
Alne

    The air was cold this morning and even colder if you allowed the wind to find you. Preparing to go out on Patrol in this breezy, cold morning was Xander Scaleharth.

The dark scaled Salamander was using his breath to help warm his hands, before he went to checking the condition of his sword at his side, before sheathing it back into its scabbard. He growled a little at the wind as it brushed past his face, moving the bangs of his hair, with a slight snort of annoyance.

This was not going to be a fun or warm day today.

Other people were not so bothered by the cold. The cold was their thing in some ways, as anyone that has seen Shiruba in a fight with her frost and wind arrows can attest to.

Or maybe that she's wearing the longer winter coat Gwen made for her in spite of that is a good indicator of how cold it really is this morning. Either way the wolfgirl strolls out of the town with her bow at the ready. After people learned to cook proper food, and learning that Hunting skills can fetch better meat and such from drops, she's made snagging a kill or two a usual part of her ventures.

It helped pay the bills of having to sail back and forth between the kingdom ports, if nothing else.
Xander
Alne

    Just as Xander was getting ready to start his boring back and forth, he spots Shiruba and raises a brow gently. "Shiruba?" He asks out loud, almost not recognizing her in the coat.

The Salamander jogs over toward her and calls out her name a bit more loudly so it can be more easily heard over the wind, "Shiruba! Hey!"

Once he catches up with her, he gives her a friendly smile, thought it does last overly long, "I, uh, been wanting to actually catch you. It was about the last time we saw one another in the square..." He rubs the back of his neck, "Do you, uh, have a moment or--- want me to tag along?"

Shiruba's ears raise as she hears her name and she turns in the direction of the approaching Salamander. Followed by a smile as she recognizes who it is. "Morning Xander!" Tilts her head a little to the side at the question. "Why, still need help hunting?" she teases, and giggles. "Okay then!" And she's already ambling on her way. Well she wasn't upset at seeing him apparently, that's a good sign right?
Xander
Alne

    Xander furrows his brows at her lack of upset-ness and seeming 'happy', if anything it gives him a slight pause, before he follows. "More I am on patrol, but maybe I could pick up a few pointers here and there." He smiles lightly.

As he tags along, he does keep 'some' distance as if instinct is telling him to tread carefully. Then again, this is Xander. Who knows what's going on in that Salamander's head. "Anyways, I wanted to catch you, because I wanted to say sorry."

Xander inhales deeply. "I was-- not having a good day, my-- mind was not in the best shape-- and I knew I was being more of an ass than normal." He hrms softly, "And.. I know you got caught in a little of that, which isn't fair to you-- or anyone really."

The wolfgirl either doesn't notice he's lagging behind a little, or isn't too concerned with it. "That's a good thing to be doing too. We keep finding out there's a few jerks out there willing to mess with people for no reason." The whole matter with the rat piper having been a lonely girl ticked off at people because someone PKed her for no reason does have her hackles a little frazzled.

Shiruba pauses, stooping down to check the snow. But it's just where it has layered oddly over a rock and not anything important... other than the matter of the snow being actual snow and not the ground just retextured to look like it had snow on it like a game normally would be. But she's gotten to the point of not thinking too deeply about things, that just gets weird places in the mind going.

"We all have bad days, Xander. It happens." She chuckles a little as she glances over her shoulder. "And at least you realize you can be an ass sometimes, that's a step up from some people!"
Xander
Alne

    "Well, I never denied I can't be an ass. Comes with the package. I can be a gentleman one day and then a stubborn, cranky mule the next." Xander chuckles, seeing that there is nothing to worry about on that angle.

The Salamander continues to follow along with the Huntress wolf. "And yeah, my primary reason for doing the patrols. Including cause of that guild I heard about. The one using lower level players as shields from monsters." His teeth snarls a little.

    "There is a part of me that wants to disobey orders, find those ass-holes, and rip them a new one." His fist slams into the palm of his hand. Xander lowers his arms by his side, "But, I know special operations and if people are already doing stuff quietly or some other op that requires that-- gentle touch-- I am better left out of it anyways."

"Given members of SEA was asked to mess with their leveling area, but not actually step in to give away what we know. Smells like special operations stuff." Xander admits with a nose twitch. "What about you? Anything going on guild or alliance wide?"

The conversation is briefly interrupted by the twang of bowstrings as Shiruba fires an arrow. It glows brightly, better illuminating their path for a bit before finally thunking into the side of a tree trunk. "Doesn't seem to be much spawning yet this morning," she muses, making her way in the direction she fired.

"Yeah, that sucks.. but it probably needs a finer touch to deal with. Just bumrush them and you look no better than they do, good intent or not." She stops to grab the arrow and pull it free of the tree. She checks it over, then tucks it back into her quiver. "A little electrical spell charge makes a good flare with the right application."
Xander
Alne

    Xander watches the arrow fly and tilts his head gently. "Yeah-- probably means players have hunted in this area recently." To her comment about lack of spawns.

Though when she brings up the 'flare', he raises a brow, "Huh? Why do you bring up flares for?"

"Because it never hurts to share. Even little simple tidbits. With so much that needs to be relearned." Shiruba is back on the prowl. Though he's probably right, there's a lot of people that don't venture far from the beginning areas yet. She pauses by another tree, noting some of the lower branches broken off. "Yeah, someone's been out her for kindling and such."

She shrugs and moves on. Just being out and about was more interesting to her, even if it wasn't much to accomplish at the moment. "The Alliance has been working on bettering relationships with some of the other Kingdoms. A member even started their own resturant in the Dominion capital. But everything is kind of slow with having to sail back and forth without the Gates."
Xander
Alne

    "I do wonder if the gates will ever even be online again." Xander admits as he follows her still. He takes note of the broken branch. "Probably a camp near by then." He grins a little. "How much you wanna bet we can probably still see the smoke and the group is probably asleep still." He says with a wink and a wicked grin.

The Salamander continues to tag along, he looks about and decides for the heck of it to see if he can see any tracks at all. Which he does and blinks, "Hey, Shiruba." He kneels down and motions to the tracks. "What do you think? Adventurer, Lander--" Then smirks, "Food?"

Shiruba pauses and takes a few steps back to see what Xander found. "Could be either." Then makes a face. "Or the newbie users." She glances to Xander. "Maybe we should check, just to make sure it's not them?" She starts following after the trail. "Must be fairly fresh either way, snow tends to cover things fast this time of year."
Xander
Alne

    Xander looks at the tracks, then to Shiruba, and back at the tracks. "Maybe. Couldn't hurt to make sure their not freezing their tails off." The Salamander goes to stand up. "Well, lead the way, Huntress."

Though when a cold breeze blows by, he growls at it gently. Before huffing out smoke? Was that smoke or just the normal effect of cold air meeting warm escaping air? One will never know!
Arashi
Alne


    Yes, there's a camp. Yes, there's smoke. Yes, there's even fire! However, no, they are not asleep. Whoever the pair are coming upon, the person is clearly up, and clearly making breakfast. More handicraft testing! There might be a tent near by. Maybe not? Can you keep a tent in inventory space?

Shiruba glances back at Xander and tries not to snicker at his shivering. "Maybe you should see Gwen about a jacket." She readjusts her own long coat then resumes following th trail of tracks.
Xander
Alne

    "Normally, I keep pretty warm, even when it's really cold. Just the wind is making it hard." As they continue on, they find the camp and Xander raises a brow. The smell of breakfast whafts over. His tail flicks gently. "... I haven't had a proper breakfast..."

Then he spots who is cooking and blinks. The grin gets devilish and then he steps out, with his arms wide, "Arashi! Heeeeeey!" That toothy grin doesn leave, "How you been, you crazy solo'er you!"
Arashi
Alne


    With their back facing the pair, Xander's going to get a really familiar reaction. A slump, and a "No," before the were fang glances back, spots them both, shockingly offers a lazy salute, and then turns back to the fire. "But yes, you can get warm." Both of them. THIS PONY IS NOT A MORNING PERSON.

Shiruba glances up when Xander calls out and smiles when she sees who it is. "Hi Arashi," she greets with a wave.

She glanced back at the trail for a moment. Then just figures the snow didn't hold enough of a distinct shape to tell they're were-hooves.
Xander
Alne

    Arashi goes 'No' and Xander stands there. His face goes dead-pan, "I just said hi and you still give me a no? Are you like stuck in a binary yes no language or something?"

Though at the offering to get by the fire and get warm, Xander will not turn down. The cold air itself wasn't the killer, it was the wind and it was hard to stay warm with the breeze that kept blowing by.

    Once he sits down, he looks over to Shiruba, "You know her as well?" He grins gently, "Arashi and I know one another cause well," He sides glances toward her. "She had an extremely /rare/ sword, aaaaand I wanted it." His eyes go back to the fire.

"I liked to collect gear off of players, mostly in a one on one pvp match off. If I won, I got one of their pieces of gear, if they one. The same." His tail flicks gently. "Needless to say, she was the smart one and would /never/ let me have it." Xander chuckles. "Stubborn one she is, but I respect her for it!" He looks over to Arashi, "... even if she maybe doesn't believe that."
Arashi
Alne


    Shiruba gets a nod once she's visible. The invitation was for them both, so she isn't going to go back on it. Breakfast, while not originally meant for three, is probably going to be, now. She had enough to save for later, but, well, she could find more or head to a store later. One or the other. Successful hunting has its rewards, and typically it's enough food for more than one person. Thankfully menuing ingredient prep did not murder the taste. As long as the food was cooked via handicraft, it was alright.

    "You aren't mentioning how many times, and how often, you asked," Arashi points out. Is it an amused tone? Maybe? She'd never admit to it. "I lost count."

"It isn't the first time I've accidentally found her," Shiruba replies with a giggle.

Then aaahs at the explanations both give. Makes it simple enough. "So you're rivals!" she adds as she takes a seat by the fire. It's nice to warm up even if the cold never bothered her much.
Xander
Alne

    Xander chuckled gently, "To many. Far, far to many. Would track her down from one side of the map to the /other/, trying to get that sword somehow. But never, never did I try to just flat out PK her. Not my style." The Salamander admits, "Also wouldn't get me what I wanted anyways in the end."

Then the dark scaled Salamander looks over to Shiruba, "S-something like that yeah." He crosses his arms over his chest. "Frenemies?" He looks at Arashi seeing if she would agree with that as well.
Arashi
Alne


    "Rivals actually fight," Arashi is quick to point out before motioning at the fire. They can help themselves should they so choose.

    Xander's admitance to his long searching of her proves it. "Maybe I should call you Stan?" She shrugs. "If you had flat-out backstabbed me it would have been a swift trip to any and every ignore list I could find." Meaning coming just short of reporting. Constant harassing and PK? She isn't sure it would have stood. Considered it once, but never went so far since Xander didn't. Part of her is glad they never went so far.

    "Mm. Maybe." That's not a no, at least! The were-fang is warming to people in general. It's a good step.

Its probably close enough to an acknowledgement as you'll get from her. Shiruba doesn't care much for PvP herself but understands it being a big part of the experience for others.

The wolfgirl holds her hands out towards the fire, tail curling around her side. "Any luck on your personal venture Arashi?"
Xander
Alne

    Xander can only helplessly grin, as he just allows the warm fire help his body fight off the cold breeze. Though when Shiruba asks how Arashi's venture is going, the Salamander looks over to the Were-Horse, "Yeah, how is that going Arashi? Any luck thus far?"
Arashi
Alne


    "Nope." A few glows, but no more shards. It is -not- an easy task that she thinks she's been set upon. No idea where the Lander is that set her on the quest for the sword to begin with, which is good and bad. Good since no one else could get it, bad because, well, they could have a hint about her shards.

    "A few attempts, nothing found. And I haven't found anything from the ... series of events that led me to it." No one's grabbed the food from the fire, ".. You two can eat. I'm not gonna be mad."

Shiruba had been keeping herself in check ... But as soon as Arashi says it's okay she's the first to grab some food for herself. "That's too bad. Who knows what got changed with the 'update'. And it was rare enough even I didn't know about it and I hung that sort of rare content."
Arashi
Alne


    There's a shrug. "Maybe." There will be no duplicates! Though once the others get some food, she grabs a bit herself. "I'll have to try and list the details I remember. This was a while ago, well before New Years. Xander knows, he was chasing for months, after all."

    As for the shards? Eh. "Maybe. I don't know if they're even visible unless the sword is around since they seem to vanish after an hour of searching."

Shiruba pauses in eating to raise a brow. "You mean vanish like in move someplace else I assume." Otherwise that would suck. "She probably doesn't want to make it too public. But I'll help if she ever wants to ask."
Xander
Alne

    "Is it the sword that makes them visible or-- just easier to track down? I mean, there could also be a pattern. Have you tried charting the spots?" The Salamander asks her raising a brow.

Xander looks over to Shiruba, "Maybe, but i mean-- she is /right/ here," He motions to Arashi. "Besides," He looks at them both, "If you don't talk about what it is /for/ and just keep it a secret or make up some other story for the reasons. You can at least get the help /and/ no one would be wiser."

"It's a win-win!" Xander says with a warm smile, before he goes back to eating the food.
Arashi
Alne


    At the suggestion, Arashi goes into the menus for a moment before producing a bit of paper/parchment from her inventory. Archeologist gives cartographer, after all. The map is offered to whoever reaches for it first. There are a series of random dots around the central island. Anything that can be reached without gates (since they are down? The player was unaware of this until seeing previous poses). "Pretty random." There's also a vague line going through most of the major areas. ... Probably her patrol route for shard seeking.

Shiruba leans over to inspect the map. She wasn't surprised by it already knowing Arashi's profession from previous encounters. "And that's not even the other lands yet," she murmurs
Xander
Alne

    Xander looks over it as well and hrms gently, "Shiruba is right. Without a wider scope, it is hard to determine the pattern. The other thing you would have to include is how many times it hits a point, if ever the same point."

The Salamander raises a brow, "Considering that our actual pole north is West... Makes me wonder if it could be related to that." He looks up at the sky. "... or maybe the stars?"
Xander
Alne

    Xander looks over it as well and hrms gently, "Shiruba is right. Without a wider scope, it is hard to determine the pattern. The other thing you would have to include is how many times it hits a point, if ever the same point."

The Salamander raises a brow, "Considering that our actual pole north is West... Makes me wonder if it could be related to that." He looks up at the sky. "... or maybe the stars?"

    He sighs gently and then goes to stand up, "Arashi, I may ask for a copy of that map later. Kind of realized what time it was when I glanced up." The Salamander grunts and goes to finish the meal, before tossing a bag of a few silver to the Were-Horse. "For the food."

Xander then looks over to at Shiruba, "Thanks for letting me tag along, now I /do/ need to get back to that patrol route." He gives them both a mock, american salute. "Later you two." Then walks off.
Arashi
Alne


    And there isn't even enough time to hurl the silver back before the Salamander is out of range. Mph. She offered, she didn't want payment! BLAH. Still, it ends up getting pocketed, begrudgingly so. "No matching points, no real pattern, none of that. After I had about 5 or 6 points marked I started comparing them to... basically everything. It was about a month after everything. Was nearly tearing my hair out over it then just... stopped. I still mark where I see the blade glow but beyond that? not a lot to really do besides move from area to area hoping to get a reaction."

Shiruba mmhmms and nods her head while finishing her part of the food. She may have a voracious fondness for edibles but she still has manners. "And even a vicinity is a lot to cover on foot," pause. "Hoof?" pause again. "... Is it rude to adjust a phrase because someone is a different species?"
Arashi
Alne


    There's a shrug, "I don't mind it. I'm not quite that in-character as some folks might be. And yes, one hour is not enough time to search an entire area. Of that, I'm quite certain.."

Now that she's done eating her share Shiruba scoots a bit closer to not be looking at the map from an odd angle. "That's kind of an awkward situation then. A small team would be able to cover ground better, but when there's only one artifact that reacts to their location, it only goes so far in helping." She sighs a little and shakes her head, well aware of how little she can actually help at the moment. It doesn't take long for it to pass and her to perk back up though. "But you don't seem to mind that it's going to be a likely long and trying quest in its own right to do!... I mean, you wouldn't be bothering if it wasn't something you'd dedicate the effort to, right?"
Arashi
Alne


    "It was a long and trying quest the first time around," Arashi points out, actually saying -quest- for once. So it probably DID start with a lander, but it was probably the sort of thing that started out mundane and tured into something incredible. The best kind of quest!

    "At least I have -one- shard. If I didn't have that I wouldn't even know if I could do anything with what I have left of it."

"Well I can't promise it'll result in anything, but I will keep my eyes open for anything unusual while I'm exploring." That's really the best Shiruba can offer right now, but that counts for something, right? She is one of those sorts of people that will talk to Landers just to see if they offer the start of something. "The best adventures start with small steps!" She mmms, rubbing her chin. "That's not entirely how that goes, is it? Oh well." Shrug. Unimportant.
Arashi
Alne

Ha. Yes. Ha. She said that. "Close enough," she admits before tossing another log on the fire. "I still need to try and find a way to help Kaydon."

Shiruba mmhmms. She helps by snapping her fingers, summoning a small spark of flame wave energy and flicking it into the fire to help get the additional logs going. "Same. I've been looking for mineral deposits and helping pay for the Lander laborers to mine them. But it's still really slow going."