Delivery at the Isekai Ryokan

     The Isekai Ryokan, a place of gathering, food, and pleasant atmosphere for adventurers and landers alike to come visit. It's... possibly not entirely obvious when she slipped into the building, but in a corner, there had almost suddenly just... been a maid there, sweeping and dusting an area that was actually not particularly dirty.

     This is Pela Clarpuff, quietly cleaning while she worked up her nerve to brave the crowd so that she could approach Hifumi, the owner of the establishment. It ... took her about an hour, let's be honest. And the entire time she had just been slipping around as if it were the most natural thing in the world, just cleaning and taking care of the place -- even occasionally clearing plates and bringing them to the kitchen. Really, she's... probably already been noticed, but how do you even approach someone who's just randomly cleaning your bar for you?

    Hifumi has noticed, usually people have to try and skip out on their tab before he puts them to work doing stuff his paid Lander staff could be doing. He smiles a bit and keeps making grilled eel and cluckcluck yaki, having already gotten all the dashi and noodles made earlier. Perhaps he'll work on some yakisobapan later, but for now he's just cooking and enjoying when Landers and Adventurers alike partake and enjoy his meals.

Goldenblade makes her way into the Ryokan, looking around and making her way to the bar. She waves to those present, taking a seat and knuckling her back, which turns out not to work super well when wearing mail.

     Nope! Pela actually doesn't seem to be skipping her tab at all. In fact, she hasn't asked for anything to eat or drink or anything yet, she hasn't even tried to sneak things off of the plates as she grabs them! ...It almost seems like she's enjoying things at times. There's been a few questions about the 'new girl' possibly! ... Who, finally, turns to begin to make her way towards the back of the establishment, where Hifumi is, her hand slipping into her clothing as she moves. Was there... a threat? No, not really. "...Hifumi." Finally speaks the possibly-familiar voice. As Pela withdraws... a sack! No threat at all, woo! She sets it on a convenient counter and opens it up, pulling down the edges of the opening to reveal the contents. Inside is... a random assortment of scavenged goods from Eastal. Various vegetables and herbs from the Eastal area. She just pushes it towards Hifumi, not saying anything.

    The Ryokan has become one of her main stops whenever she passed through Dun Loireag and today was no different. Other than for once Shiruba had more than just the food on her mind. Like most regulars she strolls up to the bar, giving the others there a brief nod as she claims a seat for herself. "Hello Hifumi, Pela, Goldenblade." She pauses, making sure she got all those names correct.

    And into the establishment comes someone who has been pretty absent as of late. Giganpor. The red haired man's definitely changed appearances as far as clothing since the last a bunch of them saw him. Removing his sandals and inventorying them, he heads over to the bar to settle himself down. "Hello! Oh, is Hifumi in?"

    The overly tall were fang settles himself down at the bar, looking around, "Ah... and what do you recommend on the menu today?" He asks whoever is first to get to him. A glance at his inventory has him also dropping some boar and cluckcluck meat on to the table as well in a sack to transfer over.

Goldenblade smiles to Shiruba, "Hello there!" She nods a greeting, then turns back to face the bar. "Whatever's hot," she requests for lunch, she's not picky when it comes to food that has actual taste. It's so much better than soggy crackers. "And tea." She waves to Giganpor as he arrives, and settles into her seat, shifting her armor around so it sits more comfortably. She probably shouldn't have bothered with it, it's just decoration, really, as far as she understands.

    Hifumi is behind the bar grilling eel and cluckcluck and other such meats. He waves to all those entering. "Welcome to Isekai Ryoken bringing a taste of Japan." he says with a grin obviously having come up with a slogan.

    He turns his attention to Pela "Ooh hey Pela." he says and gives her ears a ruffle "Thanks so much, new flavors to work into Japanese dishes you're the best." he says and smiles widely. "Hey Gigan, ah more meat thanks." he says "Well I'm working on a proper eel sauce so the Kabayaki has been flying off the grill." he offers to the Were Fang

% Whelp now that she's made her delivery, Pela shifts around a bit, turning and... seeing... more people! Ack. This is why she doesn't like crowds much! One of them seems to be in mild pain, and another one is... addressing her. Oh! It's someone who she recognozes at least a bit! Pela gives a very small smile towards Shiruba, nodding her head a bit and beginning to absently move away a little. "...Hello. ... ... ... ... Weather is nice." Yep, that's totally how you converse, Pela! One can almost see the awkwardness dripping off of her probably.

     Aaaand... Giganpor comes in, dropping off some meat on the counter as well! "...Hello. ...You are the smith. Training go well?" Looks like Hifumi's getting plenty of deliveries today! "...Y... you're welcome, Hifumi. ...Small sample of things that can be found or traded for in Eastal." Pela says, giving a small nod. When her ears are ruffled, she decides that's about the time to go off to the side where Goldenblade is. "...Hurting? Here." She pulls out a small cutting of some sort of root, from the slight discoloration it's probably been boiled or something. "...Chew, reduce pain very slightly."

"Hey Giganpor," Shiruba adds when the lion-smith joins the gathering at the bar. "I see I'm not the only one that pays her tab bringing in meat drops."

She considers a moment, then nods. "That actually sounds pretty good, Hifumi. I should eat a full meal before heading out exploring again."

    Someone might or might not notice the noise of a cart full of wooden boards (the kind used for construction) approaching, and they might even not noticed that said cart is actually a boat with wheels added. What one might definitely notice is the young Spriggan woman wearing a martial-artist's-gi-slash-nurse-outfit hybrid who walks in, looking like she was drenched not long ago but almost completely dried out by now, covered in seaweed, with a few fishes still flopping in her hair and two or three live crabs hanging on her clothes with their pincers. A couple of crabs trot in after her.

    She walks in almost in a trance, completely ignoring everyone, Pela in particular (...is that... good?), until she seems to snap back to reality at the sight of Hifumi. "Oh. Uh. Hi." Silence. "I was, uh, going to deliver some construction material to the Crescent Moon Headquarters construction site, but I think I might have spaced out a little and overshot that site." Another pause. "...or maybe even the district."

    "Can you please give me directions back to the construction site?"

    Those who know about the ongoing project will be aware that the construction site is in... Carmina Gadelica Marina.

    Hifumi "Hey Pela, if you wana eat and get a drink but don't want the crowd. You can use the garden." he nods to the shoji screen. "I don't have anyone staying who hasn't checked out so it's just Silvia back there." he offers

    "You want eel too Shiruba?" he asks as he sets plate in front of Gigan.

Goldenblade is, ironically, not hurting, she's rubbing her back more out of long habit than anything else. "I'm fine," she quickly assures Pela. "I'm just used to rubbing my back when I sit down. I don't really need to here," she laughs. The nice part about not being seventy-five. To Hifumi, she says, "I looooove eel sauce." She sighs wistfully at happy memories of food. Shiruba's comment draws a hrm? and she wonders, "Meat drops?" She blinks at Uta's arrival, and even /she/ knows that's pretty far off-course. "So you -do- get them from animals?"

    The greetings have Giganpor turning to wave a bit, say polite hellos, then turn to the one asking about training, namely Pela. He blinks a few times, then eyes her. Probably checking her name. "Oh! Sorry, Pela. It's just been a rough week. Training's otherwise going well, but wearing me down little by little. I'm honestly surprised about the different ways to make things with how we don't have working steam powered machines. Like I was shown that you could easily take various ores and melt them on top of each other, but you need to do so for a long time to make it pretty strong."

    Giganpor looks over at Hifumi, "Sure. Haven't had eel in a while. And, well... I know you're busy, but I feel like I need to apologize and talk to you a bit." The red haired giant looks pretty humble about that. "Mostly about something I recall you mentioning last time, and I am finally free a bit to talk to someone who's... um..." He rubs the back of his head a bit. "... able to relate a bit, I guess you could say?"

     Somehow, Pela can feel that she's being ignored slightly more than usual by Uta! She's not sure how, but she feels like maybe it's the whole passive stealth skill of just looking like a random cleaning maid. "Uh." She pauses, looking towards Uta. "...Did... you... travel by boat?" She squints at the nurse curiously. Weird! Curious! She doesn't know anything about this construction site though so can't offer any directions.

     "A-ah, I... I'm fine! N...need to get over this anyway, eventually..." She mumbles towards Hifumi at his suggestion. "...May go look at garden later though." She likes gardens. Gardens are nice. She glances towards Goldenblade. "Oh.... not hurting? Okay. That's fine then." She puts back away the small sliver of itadori. "...Yes, meat drops happen." ... "Cutting and dressing like you would in real life seems to produce slightly more drops. Is interesting." She adds.

     Giganpor gives her a look! Pela doesn't really resist it or anything, not that she's sure she could to begin with. She listens to his explanation! "Rough week? Too much work?" She actually moves back towards the group, because Giganpor is one of the people she'd been interested in since talking with him before! "...There is ... interesting technology in Eastal you might be interested in... not-steam possibly magical? Flying city." She nods simply. "...But that seems like making pastry, almost... slow cook for long time to properly bind layers and make sure all is cooked through." She adds, tapping her lip thoughtfully, her tone a 'oh that makes sense' kind of tone. "...For eel, there are fishing villages uhm..." She begins to go through a convoluted set of directions from Carmelica marina. "...Maybe can trade for there."

"Eel would be great!" Shiruba replies with a smile. An ear twitchs, and she turns to look outside at the sound of... a boat on wheels? Well, at least the one handling the makeshift wagon is familiar. The wolfgirl is just starting to wave to Uta when the Spriggan speaks up... And the wave is pre-empted to slap the palm to her face instead. "Overshot... more like the entire continent..."

    Hifumi nods to Giganpor "Of course, I'm happy to talk with you. We can step into the kitchen or garden if you wanted to speak with me privately." he says "Otherwise let me make sure everyone has food and drink and I'll be right with you." he smiles and sets a plate of eel infront of Golden. He's expecting that might just be the order to slap infront of the young woman who wasn't before the blackwave trapped them. A plate of the eel goes infront of Shiruba as well. Anyone not asking for or willing to pay the higher price for real beer or booze gets juice unless they specify water.

Goldenblade hrms at what Pela says, though she admits, "I never learned how to cut and dress meat in real life, sadly. I killed an animal a few days ago and got nothing from it, so I figured I was doing something wrong. I don't have the skill for it, either, so I can't much do anything, I think." She accepts juice and eel and digs in with gusto, paying with such coin as remains to her.

    Uta blinks at Pela. "I... uh... I pushed the boat. Traveled by foot. I think. Maybe I boarded my boat at some point?"

    Cut to a much earlier point in time: a very distracted Uta approaches the construction site with her boat-cart full of boards, and pushes on, right past it, without stopping, under the perplexed stare of the few workers who notice this.

    Uta keeps walking, until she reaches the sea and just... keeps going, pushing the boat while swimming, still as distracted.

    Cut to a ship passing by in the open sea; the seamen notie Uta swim-pushing the boat, and begin screaming to each other about trying to rescue her.

    Cut to on board the ship, with vacuous-gaze Uta now drenched and covered in fish and crabs just the wheeled boat all over the bigger ship, mostly in circles, as if she was on a road, sailors making bets and exchanging money, apparently about whether or not she'd notice.

    Cut to the ship docking in port, lowering a plank for cargo and men to get off... and Uta, of course, pushing her boat-cart down.

    Uta relentlessly pushing through the plains, with transitions to different kinds of flowers, plants, terrain, times of day, midday fading into dusk, night fading into dawn, a group of monsters showing up and Uta kung-fu fighting them distractedly.

    Eventually cut to reaching the Ryokan.

    "...It's all a blur, wasn't really paying attention, she finally admits.

    A worried look is what is cast to Shiruba. "...wait, where are we now?"

    The red headed were fang turns to look at Pela. He sighs, "A lot of work. A lot of new ideas. And very much worth it once put together. I feel like they are trying to cram a few decades of training into my head each day. I think Hifumi might be one of the few that can relate. Each smith has their own style, own technique outside of the menu system. But, I am enjoying it. Although... I am never looking at gnomes the same way again. Apparently most of the Lander ones are smiths or the like."

    A shrug is given as he comments, "Although the strangest names, that I'm blaming on game designers as well. Like my next teacher is 'Beerbass'."

    Giganpor turns to look at Hifumi and smiles, "Well, wherever you prefer. I wanted to apologize for not answering the call to help. It seems I've taken on a lot since the Apocalypse and well..." He shrugs a little. "Like I still need to help out Jazz next once I get a few days. She's still trying to figure out something. So... sorry I didn't help whenever you called for it."

    He seems to hesitate, then looks considerate, "The other part... well... I... have circumstances like yours outside of here. Not age or the like, I'm only 18. But... I... um..."

    Giganpor looks at a loss as to how to explain his circumstances. The now revealed young adult looks a bit annoyed that he's not able to really voice it, too.

Shiruba lets out a slow sigh. "You made it all the way to Dun Loireag in the Ninetails Dominion, Uta. So overshot is... kind of an understatement." That's just ... really lost, but Shiruba is trying to be nice.

She shakes her head a bit more as she turns back to the bar, then tilts her head at Giganpor. "Wow, you're younger than I am... Well, the real world me, I mean."

    Mizuki has FALLEN ASLEEP IN A WINDOW SUNBEAM. It was a really warm sunbeam, guys! And she'd just eaten a nice meal... She starts looking around. How long was she out for?! Curse this world's lack of wristwatches wait is there a time in the menu? Her ears perk up. That's Uta's voice, and... she turns around. They're talking about Jazz? Wait, Shiruba has to clarify that Uta is in Ninetails? Does that mean... Her ears splay. Then perk again as she smiles and waves, "Hi Uta! Long time no see!"

    Hifumi nods his head to Giganpor "Want a beer?" he asks the redhead. 18 in the real world doesn't seem to matter to him. Some people need a beer. "I gave up drinking myself, but." he shrugs "Dunno might take the edge off saying it." he says "In the old world, I was a cripple who barely cared about living on. Now I run the resturant I always wanted to run, and people truely apreciate what I do because it has more meaning than just eating SOMETHING, everyone who comes in here and trades me meats, or herbs, or gives me copper silver and gold." he says with a smile at some of the Lander customers. "They could just menu something up, and eat. Never feel hungry, and not even have to spend much time on it.. hell they could bulk craft it." he shrugs "But it is JUST suriving, and not living."

     Hifumi's offer gets a slightly less slight smile from Pela. "...Offer appreciated. I have no private business. I request use of your kitchen occasionally though. Experimentation with baking. Have the stuff to make some basic pies and tarts." Pela says with a /real/ smile. "...Kind of miss making sweets. Used to make them before I quit the Maid Cafe I used to work in."

     Goldenblade gets a small nod. "...I know a little. From uh... videos... had... a lot of time before to watch stuff." She gives an awkward chuckle. "...Anyway, you... must have gotten unlucky, usually monsters drop a small meat drop... like..." She pulls a small piece of meat about the same size of a turkey drumstick. "Like this." She holds it up for Goldenblade to see. "...But if you have cooking skill, can get cuts like..." She puts away the drumstick, and pulls out what looks like a large side of pork, "This...which I got accidentally while cutting up an aggressive grunty." ...She looks a little sad after saying that. Grunties are cute. ._.

     "...I really hope you did because otherwise you swam ... a long distance." Pela responds to Uta with a small, concerned look. "...you made a dangerous trip. Alone. That normally takes a whole day by boat that has guards and a whole crew. ...I'll escort you when you go back."

     Giganpor actually... gets Pela moving closer with intent to give him a hug. "...Overworking self, is bad. Take time. Make effort. Do not overwork self, okay? If you need help.... ask. Don't just help others." She nods firmly. Sure, she listened to his explanation on the stuff but really, there was a More Important Thing to address. "...In real life, I am a bit older than you. ...A little more experience, but not at the same time. I was subject to the Flash of Death. So... I understand there being circumstances." She gives a slightly strained smile. "...Anyway." She looks towards Uta. "....Let me know when you are about to leave. I have another project of my own I'm going to start setting the groundwork for soon."

Goldenblade considers Pela, and admits, "I did only try it the one time. I've mostly been helping with a couple different projects. Plus travel time, because the project we're working on," she eyes Uta, "is a long way from here. But the food here is totally worth it." She eats her food slowly, savoring it, and sighs beatifically.

    Hifumi smiles at Golden, THAT is why he does this. He nods to Pela "Yah you can bake here anytime that I'm not drying noodles or making pan for yakisobapan or working on mellon bread.. if you can manage a good mellonbread I'll gladly set you a salary in food or coin."

    Uta blinks and looks around, taking in everything evryone has been telling her. A modet amount of terror shows on her features at Shiruba's revelation, which is met with an understated, "...Oh."

    "O HAI Mizuki!" That's how you speak to cats, right? "...so that's why I haven't seen you around in a while. You were here."

    "I hope as well...", she says to Pela. "...and thatnks, I think I really need to be escorted back." Good thing Uta is not familiar with MMORPG culture, or she might realize that being cast as the subject for an escort quest is not exactly a compliment to one's intelligence.

    "Sure! I might stop here for lunch, then... maybe I'll spend the night here? Maybe I'll leave? we'll see. And I'd be interested in hearing about your project."

    In reaction to Hifumi and Goldenblade, she smiles. "Oh, ok! I think I'll have one of those Beer Bass things you mentioned before. And a beer."

    Giganpor looks thoughtful, then around a little. "Hm... I can see that. And I do often help people with the whole crafting thing. Yours is just the other end of it, I suppose. Cooking and all, I mean."

    The red head looks considerate at the beer offer, then shakes his head, "Nah. I'm a were fang. No experience at drinking at all, so... kinda worry I'll go all lion and start doing weird stuff."

    He laughs a little, "But... really... I kinda want to know something." At least that's helped him relax a little as far as the conversation.

    "In real life, I'm crippled, too. They didn't pin down the disease or whatever it is, but I'm stuck in a wheelchair. Literally all this is random clicking 'til I found one that I liked." He motions at himself. "So... I'm curious how you dealt with it and all? I mean, being crippled and not able to do what you want outside of here?"

    Then he hears Uta's request and turns to look at her, then at Hifumi. "... is that even a dish? I might have to deliver it as a joke."

Silver Knight had had a good night's sleep, he suited back up, cleaned himself up. With that out of hand he would make his way back to the main room. Just in time to hear Giganpor bring up an issue that strikes close to home. Not for him but for one of the most imporant people in his life. It's a damn good thing he has his helemt on wehich hides most of his reaction to it.

"Good day."

The Silver Knight would move to join the gathering. He looks to Uta for a moment.

"I would recommend the Eel Miss."

    Hifumi nods his head and gives Giganpor a squeeze on the shoulder, same as he would have done to any kohai while working. "You're looking at it." he says giving the younger man's shoulder a squeeze with is right hand. Which to him is it's own special godsend. "This is what I did." he says "I climbed into ET offline, and then when this became available I jumped here where I could interact with people."

Goldenblade finishes off her lunch and pushes the plate back, looking over to Uta and ... beer bass? What? But she smirks at Silver Knight coming in and recommending eel. The eel -is- good. She leaves her coins on the table to pay for it, and she rises from her seat. "Take it easy, everyone."

"It's worth coming by here just for the food," Shiruba agrees with Goldenblade. She starts on her own, though she's still listening to the conversation. "Aaah," she murmurs thoughtfully at both Giganpor and Hifumi's reveals. "I had... nothing like that. Just strict, overbearing parents who only thought 'what was best for me' was what they wanted. Games have always been my escape from that. To be whatever I want to be."

She's already got her mouth full again by the time Silver Knight enters, so she just waves to the armored guildmate.

    Mizuki blinks at the O HAI, but it sounds enough like Oh hi that she just chalks it up to Uta's idiosyncracies.

    She walks up to the bar and sits next to Giganpor. Cheerfully, she attempts to reassure: "If it helps, I've been in this form nearly 24/7 since we got stuck and I've never felt any desire to hunt or stalk people. And the thought of biting an animal's corpse to tear the meat out with my teeth still disgusts me too much to try it... although it turned out animals don't drop corpses anyway." She hangs her head and looks down at the bar a moment. "Other stuff though... well, it's less cat-specific and more just being in a body so strong and agile with super-senses, I'm getting used to. And sleeping anywhere, I guess that's a cat thing."

    She lifts her head again, staring across the bar. "Then again, I'm made from a field boss. It talks and smokes a pipe, so perhaps it's more civilized than other monsters. I've never actually seen it in ETO. Or maybe it's just different for everyone. Or maybe, speaking of drinking... I've heard some people say that being drunk doesn't make you do anything; people just feel they can act less inhibited because they'll have the excuse. Maybe it's the same with were fangs and acting like animals."

    "The eel is good." she asides, as it's mentioned.

    "Actually, speaking of drugs... Catnip exists." She pokes at her inventory, rezzing her scarf and covering her nose with it, then rezzing another item and keeping the interface open with a finger ready to hit the de-rez button with her other hand as she holds up a piece of... candy? next to Giganpor, holding her breath, holding the candy tightly, just waiting a few seconds for the smell to reach Giganpor, then derezzing it. "That's what it smells like, so you'll know."

Uta stays silent for a while, listening to all the stories of what people left behind in the world outsie the game, and what they gained here. But her look is not her usual distracted one, quite the opposite, it is one of relaxed yet intense concentration. She seems to come to a conclusion, but if so, she does not say anything. Yet. Instead, she props her face up with a hand. "It's nice that at least our heads are left unmessed with, isn't it?" She clasps her fingers, and touches her lips to the side of her joined index fingers. "And yet, we have cactus juice. I... I have not tried it myself, but I am under the impression that it /does/ affect people's state of mind." She listens to Silver Knight, points at herself questioningly, but then seems to realize something. She Thanks Silver Knight, then turns to Hifumi, "...I still kind of want the Beer Bass, if it's available, but please remind me try the eel next time then." And in response to Giganpor's comment, she adds, "...or this time, if it's not a real dish."

    Giganpor hums to himself, then nods to Hifumi, "Huh... I guess a lot of us are like that? We ended up heading for the games because it helped us have a way out?"

    At the mention of what were fangs people are made of, Giganpor mentions, "Raid sub-boss is what I'm made from. Don't know what happened to the tusks, though. I kept trying to figure that out." He says.

    Then, Giganpor is introduced to catnip. And he blinks a few times, then looks to Mizuki. "And that's supposed to do something? Why do you even have it?" Maybe it's not enough, or Giganpor's just built on crazy constitution and willpower or something like that. Or he's not really embraced the hell out of the Were Fang animal side like others. Hard to say there. Still, he doesn't look effected. And no debuff icon or whatever.

    Also, the fact that he's in human form probably has something to do with it. Like seriously.

    Then he sighs. "So... turned to gaming just like me, huh?" He says towards Hifumi. "Kinda surprised... and makes me wish I could do a lot of what I can do here in real life. Probably would make the world a lot better, huh?"

Silver Knight says "Elder Tale, with Sword Art Online and Fragment before that? Did seem to be a refuge for many young people in life situations such as that Shiruba."

He doesn't sound judging he's just stating a fact. He looks at Mizuki looking her over for a moment.

"Perhaps you should revert from werefang form for a time?" He will just keep to the bad respecting the owner's wishes from the night before about armour.

Silver knight looks at Uta for a moment like he's about to say something regarding minds however he says nothing.

He looks to the Lionman that is Giganpor.

"So you are the up and comming smith I have heard talk of?"

    Mizuki replies, "I think someone was trying to prank me by giving it to me. I figured I'd better hold onto it." She breathes in. "It doesn't have any effect when you're human..." Man that smells good. She shouldn't, but she should. HUMAN. She focuses on that thought and toggles form in the menu, clearing her head of the DESIRE TO SMELL THE CATNIP.

    She glances at Uta. "People can still get drunk, but that was true in the real world too. Although, if our heads WERE messed with, how would we know...?"

    She looks back to Giganpor. "That's why I hope that once we re-establish contact with the outside world, we don't all have to leave. Maybe some people could like, work remotely from here, still access the BBSes and stuff... although, if all this is possible? Maybe they could miniaturize specialized Dive technology to like... something small you could stick to your head to control prosthetics. Or they could wirelessly transmit the signal to recievers implanted in the leg or something, depending on what the problem is. Although I guess either way, staying in here sounds more pleasant than a bunch of physical therapy..."

Shiruba turns in her seat for a moment to point at Uta. "No cactus juice. Just remember what happened to Xander." Then turns back to finishing her meal.

    "That is right, Mizuki. As far as we know, we might actually have been born adventurers, have had our head messed with by powerful magic carried by the Black Wave, so that we now believe ourselves as coming from this nonexistent place called 'Earth', and some of us even long to go back to a place which never existed. How do we know that did not happen? As far as we are concerned, that might even be the simplest explanation for the complete lack of contact and our collective miraculous survival."

    Uta smirks at Shiruba. "Her not-daughter ran away with the circus?"

    In response to Silver Knight and Giganpor discussing about people being attracted to games, she lets out a sigh of... it's not annoyance. More like, resignation. "We have to face the facts. New years' celebrations were going on. One of the most important times of the year to spend together with other people. And yet, we were all connected to a videogame instead. What does that say about us?"

    Hifumi nods his head and makes a plate of eel for Uta. "Sorry miss, Beerbass is the name of a Gnome not a dish. I'm sure once I have more resources I'll expand to things like tempora then you might get some bass tempora it's a good fish for the process." he says "White, flakey, not oily, light flavor." he nods "Yah I could probably do tempora bass once I manage things like... soda water. Maybe with magic, maybe a natural carbonated spring." he shrugs "I could I suppose do beer battered bass...it isn't really Japanese but historically it's where we learned tempora from." he taps his lips "Oh did you want beer, water, juice, liqour, or what I've started calling Menu Sake ... which is literally any alcohol made using the menu." he grins.

    "Let me know if you need anything hmm Gigan-kun?" he says "You need anything at all kay?" he nods his head as he grills the eel and plates it to set on the bar before Uta. "About me? It says I stopped drinking after my accident, my girlfriend left me because she didn't want to whipe my butt the rest of our lives, and I had an unhealthy escapism through dive that my therapist told me I should take a 'break' from, and I told him to go pound sand." he grins. The man seems now to be taking pleasure in just openly embracing the wreck he was, and the man he is.

"If I come across anything that can be used to carbonate water Hifumi I'll let you know." Shiruba cleans the remains from her plate and scoots it aside for the staff to pick up. And just to remind everyone she's suppose to be a bit of a wild child wipes her mouth with the back of her hand instead. "Though right now I'm mainly surveying resources for Kaydon's project." Washes the meal down with the end of her juice... Though if it's not going to be a problem with management worrying about age differences maybe next time she'll have some beer. A time when she's not about to head out into the field.

Which reminds her. "You have any bento boxes handy, Hifumi? I should take a couple exploring with me for rations."

    Hifumi nods and uninventories five "For your whole group it's five right? Or four?" he says setting the boxes on the bar. "It's yakisobapan... I'm trying to get it right. There's some rumors there's going to be a tourney and well... we don't have baseball so." he shrugs.

    "Some water'd be fine, especially if it's nice and cool." Mizuki asides to Hifumi. "Or that juice from last night..."

    Mizuki blinks at Uta. "Okay, but... why the /game/ stuff then? If it's a magic wave of crazy, or a mass mind-edit spell, why do we have access to menus and stuff? Adventurers have special powers, sure, but why all this weirdness with menus and game terms? Just give us hammerspace and cool attacks... and even if the details were kinda random, why would it land exactly on something that only makes sense if it was designed as a game? And furthermore, not the first game ever, not someone's first attempt at designing an interface, but one influenced by decades of precedent in game design?" She shakes her head. "Sure, you can always say there's a tiny chance, but it just... seems less likely than this originating from the world we know, where it makes sense."

    She sighs and hangs her head at the comment about New Years. "You know, right before the countdown, I remember this guy with a catgirl cait sith avatar in a maid outfit saying the same thing."

    She turns on the barstool to face Uta and look at her with determination. "But so what if we don't like going to parties and getting drunk? What's wrong with that? Some of us were here to party with friends /in-game/. And I'd just moved to Japan so I didn't have other friends nearby to spend it with anyway."

    Uta thinks for a moment, then answers Hifumi, "Well, time to experiment with the beer, I guess. See if it really gets people drunk. Do we... do we even have bass in this world?"

    Uta looks at Mizuki. "All that knowledge about game paradigms/interfaces and their history... where does it come from?" She raieses her eyebrows and gives Mizuki a questioning smile.

    "And I'm not saying it says something /bad/ about us. Just, you know, something."

    Shruba, instead, gets "...I suppose someone with both water and air magic could try that. Maybe the Pharmacy skill. Or Brewing? Or is it Brew? I... I keep forgetting."

    Giganpor looks thoughtful, then shakes his head, he looks at Mizuki, "Eh, the thing is we don't know the full extent of the injuries. At least I don't. I didn't really care other than I can't walk again."

    Then he hums as he turns to look at Hifumi, "Sounds like a new dish to make. Maybe actual beer soaking the bass or something?" He shrugs, then looks over at Silver Knight's accusation/pointing out/whatever-you-wanna-call-it.

    "I am, I guess. I'm just the guy wanting to help others in a different way than Hifumi here. Since no one else was really poking at it, I decided to hit the extreme difficulty and it came out good."

    Then he eyes the Silver Knight, "Silver Knight, right? I think I recognize you from the chimlink. Nice to finally meet in person at least."

    Hifumi chuckles "Yes it gets you drunk, Lander or Adventurer. Even the menu stuff will get you drunk, it just tastes like rice water... so it tastes like bad sake. That's why it's listed as menu sake on the menu." he grins and sets a glass of beer next to Uta's eel. "As for age... how could I actually card here? So I just judge drinking by actions. If you drink and get violent, or turn into a raging ass, or look like you might hurt yourself. You don't get to drink anymore, if it happens repeatedly you don't get to drink ever." his plan is simple enough.

    Mizuki rolls her eyes at Uta's counterargument. She DID see that coming. "Yes, BUT, what other explanation is there for the intracacies and design of the game's systems? If we're going to assume everything is a lie based even on the most unlikely of premises, you may as well argue that we didn't exist until just now and our memories of everything previous are fake. Including this conversation and my argument."

    She looks back between Giganpor and Hifumi. "I've heard of beer-based breading, although I don't know how it's made. Also I know alchohol can be used in a marinade..."

    She looks to Giganpor. "How's the exotic weapon experimentation going, by the way?"

Silver Knight says "If you follow that theory the wave could be a part of it. I still think of an old western movie I saw once. About a programmer who ended up in the world inside the computer and met some of the programs he created. He ended up aiding them to defeat a tyrannical control program. Who had designs on both worlds. As for the design? Well? Someonesocial veryculturalGs, it was an issue in SAO as well."

Damn it Kaibia, you and your love of old, clunky RPGs.

"Drinking is a social and cultural issue."

Even the store he worked at would go hit up the local bar at least once a week after work.

"That is my name. Also, it is good to meet you in person and I find it amusing that they added feline humanoids are now races rather than an aberration against rules of the world."

"Also if I recall right certain types of western fried foods use a beer batter? Such as fish and chips."

    Hifumi nods his head "Yes it's the Christian practice of eating fish durring religious periods, they shared fish fried in a beer batter, and we refined it into tempora. However beer batter is much easier to make so I could do beer battered fish." he says.

    "It isn't feline races, the Cait Sith and Were Fangs are any beast or monster." he says nodding over to his Lander bartender.

"It varies depending who's available to help, but I haven't come across anyone who doesn't appreciate having some proper food on the road." Shiruba scoops the boxes into her inventory, and drops several coins on the bar for Hifumi to cover it. "And of course I'll bring you any meat or such I happen to score, too." The combination of money and Hunting drops makes it easy to keep a tab covered. Shiruba worked in a cafe. She knows you don't let a bill sit unpaid for too long.

"Look at me right here. I'm a wolf, not a cat after all." Shiruba turns and hops off her seat. "And with that I should be on my way. I'll keep you guys tabbed if I find anything interesting out there."

    Giganpor looks thoughtful, "Hm... actually, can I get some of those, Hifumi? To go?" The Were Fang gives a mischievious looking grin, "Much as I appreciate the training, I'm sure I can at least play a joke on one before getting serious."

    He looks over at Silver Knight, "Oh? Well, I'm in human form. The lion form..." He shrugs and changes shape, apparently having had much practice with it. His clothes even stretch a bit as he takes on the lion-like appearance for a few moments then shrinks back down to his human shape. "I prefer using it for battle or whenever I need extra ability at the time. Otherwise, human is my comfort zone despite having that extra."

    He looks up, looking considerate. "Hm... actually, make a couple, Hifumi, and if you've got an idea how to do it I'd love to try one now. I think he's got some assistants as well. Can't remember if they had names I could get a dish out of for a joke."

    Hifumi chuckles "I'd need to get the fish, and make the batter and setup for frying." he smiles "Another night I'll have a fish fry." he offers.

    Mizuki just blinks at Silver Knight. "Yes, I've seen TRON." 'Someonesocial veryculturalGs', though, is lost at her. Blank stare. But then other issues come up.

    "Wait, 'aberration against rules of the world'? Did you play a beta version of ETO with different lore or something?" She nods with Hifumi affirming that beer batter is a thing, whatever it is. She's not a chef, she doesn't know!

    Then Giganpor is SUDDENLY LION. As he says human is his comfort zone she suddenly gets self-conscious, catching sight of her reflection in a window and looking down, shivering. She changes back to cat form, and mutters softly, "I guess cat is my comfort zone..."

    "Oh," she looks to Giganpor again, "I guess the one other animal-y thing I did was try raw meat, but... nothing else had flavor! You know how it is! People eat sashimi and beef tartar, it's not weird!" She sighs and slumps. "Okay, it was only me. But at least it had taste."

Uta comments, between bites and sips of beers and compliments about the quality of the food, "I don't have a comfort zone anymore, but I guess I kind of asked for that."

Silver Knight thinks of the idea of ordering a few bento boxes to go, it would be far better to have on hand than what passes for food otherwise. "Ah I see I was just thinking of the past. I myself have my sense of self long cemented to have made something other than myself. As for your work I'm keenly interested in what you have been doing. The Silver Sword will be in need of suppies as we explore and seek out new challegnes to fight."

    Giganpor looks at Mizuki, "Call it a bit of a security blanket. Being a cat means you're not acknowledging you're here."

    Raising an eyebrow, Giganpor looks over at Silver Knight, "Seeking out new challenges? Sounds like an endeavor. What's your first stop going to be? I'll admit my training will take up a lot more time than I would like, but I hope to have it's worth show in the end."

    He seems to consider, then looks to Hifumi, "Y'know... fishing was one past time I enjoyed before. I wonder how similar it is here and what can be done with it? Hm..."

    Mizuki looks at Uta and spreads her arms. "Would you like a comforting hug?" She smiles. "I am a big fuzzy kitty now. I must use this power for good."

    Although, she looks a bit confused at Giganpor's assertion. "What?"

    Hifumi putters about making food and pouring drinks and dealing with his Lander customers as well as his Adventurer ones.

    Uta shakes her head, "Nah, no need for a hug, thanks."