The meeting of Fists

    It's early in the morning or well it's closer to early in the afternoon. The skies are clear of clouds. The sun is shining and there is a gentle breeze blowing through out, the sound of water can be heard from near where the bridge of the lake is.

    In a clearing nearby there is a Cait Sith Monkey sitting there meditating, his tail sways slowly from side to side as he sits there. There is no weapons around him. He's dressed in martial arts clothing, though there is no armor seen on him. He breathes slowly in and out, his hands resting on his knees as he sits there.

Early morning, early afternoon, it was all a matter of perspective (and when the person actually woke up). Who keeps a regular sleep scheduale when there's monsters to hunt and dungeons to explore?

But at the moment it wasn't monsters that Vertina was hunting, at least not directly. She was looking for materials to use with her concoction skills, and that meant occasionally chasing a critter away from the spot it's been hording for the colder months. But right now she hadn't had much luck yet as she meanders into the clearing.

The salamander raises a hand and almost calls out a greeting, but quickly stops herself when she recognizes the attire of a martial artist and the pose of meditation, lowering her hand again. Don't want to be rude and disrupt their focus she knows how annoying that is herself.

    Wynfei's eyes opens and he falls backwards on his back and he stretches out with a loud yawn. "Oh that was a good session." he laughs as he lays there looking up. Finishing his yawn and looking around he notices Vertina, "Oh, hello." he waves from where he is laying, "I'm not keeping you from anything am I?" he asks as he looks over to the Salamandar. He sits up and quirks a brow at her.

    "You a martial artist?" he asks as he looks at her. He places his hands in his lap as he looks towards her. He quirks his head to the side and smiles to her. Waiting for her to speak, he looks around the area not noticing any monsters about. Granted he cleared the area earlier.

Vertina was about to consider moving on when the cait comes out of his meditating and flops over laughing. "Oh, I just did not want to interrupt is all. I know how annoying that can be." The answer and her attire visible as she walks up are a good confirmation that she is indeed another pursuant of martial arts of some manner. She bows curtly for a more proper greeting. "Vertina Ketobasu... But just Vertina is fine." The surname was really more of a personal in-joke, in case someone else did try to use the same the name. It was a big MMO after all.

    He nods his head and he stands up and bows towards Vertina. "Nice to meet you. I'm Wynfei." he says simply. That's the only name he liked, and honestly it stuck. "Alright, Vertina, nice to meet you." he says as he looks to her. "So what are you up to and honestly it's nice to see another martial artist around. Uta is also one as well." he says knowing she is. He's not met any other martial artist around.

Vertina tilts her head a little. "Haven't met anyone with that name yet. But it is nice to see more about." She turns her head partway to glance back in the direction she came. "Foraging, mostly," she answers, turning her gaze back to Wynfei. "I also have a few alchemy and brewing abilities so I was looking for things I can use them on." It's followed by a shrug. "I.. only paid passing attention to crafting before, but it might be useful in the, ah, current state of affairs to get more familiar with it."

    Standing there listening and just paying attention to what Vertina was saying. "I see." he asys to her. "Honestly I'm still in a way trying to figure out what I want to do. This all has been like a big reset, which in a way is a good thing but still we all have to adapt." he says as he looks at her. Rubbing the back of his head. "With having alchemy and brewing skills, that could help with healing salves, and antidotes." he says to her. "Also maybe creating some soda." he gives her a big grin.

"Exactly," Vertina replies with a grin. "Can't let those status effects get the better of you. Especially with needing to sleep and whatnot being needed now, too."

She takes a half-step back to look the other martial artist over a little more thoroughly. "Do you follow a specific discipline, or just the general mystic martial arts combat the world makes possible?"

    He nods his head, "That's true. I will figure out what I want to do with the skills I have. Though I think maybe cooking, though I'm going to be focusing on finding people for others if I can." eh says to her. When she looks him over and ask about what sort of discipline he knows. "Both actually, I trained in Wushu/Kung Fu before coming here, and now I've been trying to utilize all of if and the mystic martial arts the system has as well." he says to her. "What about you?"

"Taekwondo," Vertina replies. "I was up to Blue Belt rank. Having that actual experience and skill does help." Her grin widens. "But being able to do things we could only dream of or see in movies before definately has it's perks. Things you... can get creative with if you try enough. Watch this!" Vertina turns to face in the opposite direction, digs a heel into the ground and assumes a focusing pose to draw in some of that spiritual energy via Wave Artes and form it into the style of swirling ball of chi one might expect to see used as a ranged attack in a fighting game.

But instead of shoot it she drops the energy ball, pivots fast on the foot she had braced herself on, and swings around with the other leg out to catch the ball with her foot and KICK it hard into a tree at the edge of the clearing.

    Wynfei nods his head, "Yeah, it is pretty fun being able to use what you already know and combine it here with the system we use." he says to her. "Whoa blue belt, that's pretty impressive. In kung fu and wushu there really isn't a belt system, its' all skill based. How close to Black were you?" he asks. He does drop back from her so she has more room.

    He watches her and grins when she does her technique. He looks at the damage the energy ball does. "I have something similar." he says as he closes his eyes and spiritual energy begins circling around him and begins turning red as he holds out his right hand. A more wave like flicker can be seen as fire begins to form and he fires it towards the same tree, hitting it hard. He grins, "Firebolt." he says. "It's pretty useful, though there are a few others Im looking to pick up." he says to her.

"I might of been able to challenge for a higher rank, but by that point I was also putting a lot of my time into playing soccer." Well that explains why she was able to kick the energy ball like that! "I was still doing it for the excersize and training, but it slowed down my progress."

Vertina steps aside to give Wynfei some room to show off his own technique, pigtails swishing as she nods with approval. "Nice!... Of course I am a bit biased towards Fire." she snickers. "I can do it with rocks too, but it's harder to form together and shape than heat and energy is."

    As he finishes he looks back to her and listens. He smiles to her, "Well now you will be putting those skills to use here. He shakes his head a bit, "Well I was thinking of creating a dojo, though I feel with people creating Guildhalls, some will already have places to train. but if you need a training partner, let me know." he says to her.

    As she explains about doing the same thing with earth, he grins. "So you focus on all elements or just spirit and earth?" he asks as he looks at her. "You don't have to tell me, i know a lot of people like to keep their skills to themselves and such."

Vertina waggles a finger at him. "That may be true. But you realize how generalized those facilities are going to be? If you want to make a place more oriented towards the martial arts disciplines, I say go for it! It would certainly make finding sparring partners that actually understand the methods easier." She ticks off her clawed fingers. "Fire, of course." She is a Salamander after all. "Earth, Ki..." She wobbles the forth finger back and forth indecisively. "There seems to be some Wind aspects to my capabilities, but they're more oriented towards buffering movement and dexterity." She smirks again, pointed fangs showing between her lips. "What?.. I suppose that's true, but how often do I get to share with someone that can understand more than 'fire burn, rock crush, kicking smash owie'?"

    Walking over to a tree not damaged by their attacks. He gestures towards a spot on the grass near the tree. He sits down and he leans back and looks to her. "Yeah that's true. Those would be more generalized." he thinks on this for a bit, "I will see what I can do, having a place for those who are martial artists can have a place to train and meet up with others." he smiles. "I've been thinking of this for a while. I know how hard it can be at times to find someone to spar with, but also maybe use it to help people find their roles in combat, floor clearing and etc. Maybe even do rankings and such."

    Wynfei grins, "Nice set of elements you have so far." he says to her. "I mainly focus on physical, ki and fire for now." he states. He makes a face, "Yeah I ran into a few people like that." he laughs.

Vertina walks over to the tree. "And learning to work together is just as important as improving yourself. Individuals win matchs; but it takes a team to claim victory, as one of my childhood instructors often said." After the astute little reaccount she brushes some of the grass with her foot to make sure it's clear, and then turns to sit down. "The same could be said about clearing dungeons and raid bosses. "I can use fire with some of my physical strikes as well, but that comes as much from my choice in race as it does training," she adds with a chuckle. "Scorch the foe with the heat of your passion and determination!" Then leans back on the tree, folding her hands behind her head.

    As Vertina sits down, he watches her and as she continues to speak he nods in agreement as he listens to her. "Everything you said is right." thinks on this for a long moment, "Well honestly I think in general combat tutorials should be run so we can get more people who are wanting ot fight learn how to utilize their skills and such." Looking up towards the sky, he takes a breath, his tail sways lazily on the opposite side of him. He laughs as she says, 'Scorch the foe with the heat of your passion and determination!'. "That's awesome." he says to her with a laugh. He opens his UI and sends her a friend request.

"Yeah. Especially with everyone having been reset. We've had time to work on it sinc then... but that doesn't mean everyone is getting the hang of it. We do have an advantage in being experienced outside the game when it comes to training." At the ping she flicks her own UI open to accept the request. Closes it, and then reaches into her inventory for a couple of vials. Offers one over. "It's just fruit juice. But it's self made without using the menu, so it at least has an actual taste."

    With the friend request made, and seeing his list starting to grow he smiles to himself. He takes the offered juice and he smiles, "Finally something I like." he laughs. "I meant drink wise outside of water." he laughs. "Until then, if you wanna spar or adventure or whatebver let me know. I would be down, I will also let Uta know as well she is an martial artist too."

"There will be no shortage of time for that." Vertina uncorks her own juice. "But sometimes it's nice to just enjoy the calm moments, too. Remind ourselves why we're doing it... I mean, other than it is pretty exciting."

    "I'm one of few who actually likes it here." he says to Vertina. "Do you have any loved ones who would be worried about you being stuck in a game?" he asks her. "We do have plenty of time and sorry if I went on a tangent." he chuckles. "True, for as much as we fight, we do have to have time to relax and do normal things to make life more bearing." he smiles.

"I have my family... but they would probably be just as happy I was doing something I could enjoy again." Again? Vertina pauses a moment to take a drink of her juice. Followed by a soft sigh. "You know how I was talking about doing taekwondo and playing soccer and all that." She holds up one of her legs. "These don't work like they use to in the real world anymore, due to an accident. That's the other reason I didn't get farther than Blue." She lowers her leg back to the ground, the other remaining bent up so she can rest her arm on the knee. "Even after surgery and therapy I need braces to be able to walk properly, so more intense activities are out of the question. So, being here, being able to do those things again..."

She leans back, staring off in the distance towards the Tower. "I.. don't really care if Aincrad gets us out or not. I signed up for the conquering of the Tower itself. The biggest challenge in the game... Or I guess now in the World is more appropriate, no?"

    As Vertina explains things to him and he looks to her leg as she holds it up. He checks it out and give an, 'Ah, ha.'. Rubbing the back of his head, and understanding what she meant by Again. He looks to Vertina for a long moment, "So being here is like you said, a chance to do the things you wnt to do." he says gently. "I'm not in a situation like that, but it took me some time to be myself before joining the game. He looks away from Vertina.

    "I'm pretty much adopted outside of this." he gestures. "I have a good family finally, just my dad was and still is a piece of shit." he states. WHen seh speaks about the Tower he smiles, "Same here. Though I've taken a lot of time to myself to get my head together but I'm good now and if I can help people get out, that's great, but I want to see mroe of this world."

Vertina aaahs. "That... I can only imagine how much of an emotional turmoil that had to be. Still challenging, even if not physically." She finishes off her fruit juice. "The important thing is you endured and you're here. Where you can make a difference, big or small." The vial is tossed back into her inventory, and she reachs over to pat Wynfei's shoulder. "And we of a similar mind in that regard. We may not need to go back, but there are those who do, or who desire to, and we can still help them. If there is a way to stay or not willingly, the only way we will find out is to go forward."

    He nods his head slowly, smiling a little as she pats his shoulder. "Yeah we are." he smiles to her. "Thanks, it's really nice to get to know you Vertina. I appreciate it and hopefully we can start training and doing more together if your interesetd." he offers.

"I look forward to it too." Vertina leans to the side to put her hands on the ground and push herself onto her feet. "I should go finish my scrounging before the time passage reachs the point the wild mobs change."