Social at the Burger Joint

Another at the burger restaurant, the smell alone dragging people in likely. There's a good amount of people, less than before since the method to make actually tasty food has spread enough that they aren't 'special', but they are still offering something unique. The building doubles as the Crescent Moon HQ as well, so there's also lots of guild members around, enjoying it as their cafetaria.

One of those sitting here today, not on service this time, is the somewhat-former idol (it's complicated) Reika, sitting at a table with a drink and a large plate of fries, that she is poking at slowly, eating it away as she enjoys her day.

Goldenblade is here at Crescent Burger also, it's a bit of actual home she hasn't had in decades. And real food is a luxury, of course, one she indulges in whenever she can. What else would she do with quest rewards? Of course when someone introduces her to the concept of buying better gear, she's going to regret all the cash spent here, but until then, it's a burger, and fries with gravy on them.

    A metal-clad Guardian wandering the plains looking a little lost... "Maaaan... I can't believe I lost the map... Shiroe's gonna kill me..." He looked around for any sign of civilization, seeing a tower of smoke in the distance. "Hmm? Where there's smoke, there's fire. Fire means people... or a lightning storm. But my luck's bound to turn around!" And with that declaration, the Guardian made his way towards the smoke from, what he assumes, a campfire.

    It... was not a campfire. It was a Guild Hall. Or... a Restaurant...? A very old-timey restaurant you'd seen in one of those movies where you go back to the past and try not to screw your mom. As he approached, his nose sniffed the air... once... twice... three times, just to be sure! "Wait... that smells like..." The Guardian rushed the door, flinging them wide open with a hungry look in his eyes! "I SMELL MEAT!" To any who knew of his reputation, Naotsugu the Guardian had arrived...

Goldenblade turns from her seat at one of the tables and peers at Naotsugu with a puzzled expression. She swallows her bite of food, and says, "Er, yes. Meat. We probably don't have soy burgers yet." She looks at Reika, who knows the world better than she does, then shrugs. "Is meat a problem somehow?" She's confused, herself, now. Is there some problem with meat?

Reika blinks as she looks up from her fries, tilting her head. Here's a loud one. Well, if they want meat, it's the right place. At least, in burger form. There's other types of restaurant starting to pop up, but this is the only one with burgers for now.

"There's definitely meant in these, yes." She agrees. "Well not in my fries."

    The Guardian thinks about that... "Hmm... Meat... French Fries... Holy crap, that sounds AMAZING! Gonna have to talk with someone about making it... but of course, there's nothing wrong with meat! In fact, I'm starving! But mostly, I was bored so I went on patrol. But screw that! Lunch time!" And he went up to order some food from the counter!

Goldenblade nods slowly as Naotsugu determines he's not opposed to meat. She nods gravely, but wonders, "Patrol? Are you part of some military-style guild or something? Or is patrolling another thing I haven't heard of. It seems like there's something new every day," she laments. "There ought to be some sort of guide...." Of course for her, it'd have to be suuuuper basic.

One of the guild members is manning the counter, a cute girl dressed as a waitress, fitting the bill really. She takes Naotsugu's order with a smile.

Reika giggles softly at the antics "You don't need to have it made, we're already making it."

She looks over to Goldenblade, hmming "Well ther eare guilds for various wants and needs. Merchant guilds, security, tower raids. These are specialties though, it's not like any one guild can't participate in many events after all.

    The Guardian just nods a couple of times. "I can see why two hotties would think I'm part of a military Guild. I AM pretty awesome, I'll admit." He flexes a few times just to 'prove his point.' He gives the guild member taking his order a wink as he went over to a table near the other two. "But no. Just bored, looking to hunt and make some extra spending money. Gotta get out of this garbage gear." His armor looked pretty decent... but it did still look sub-par compared to stuff in the higher tiers. He turns away and tears streak down his face in fountains! "I MISS MY EXTRA SHINY GEAR!"

Goldenblade nods slowly to Reika, and ohs! "I guess the only guild I know anything about is this one," she explains, meaning Crescent Moon, which is a pretty general sort of guild. She nods about the specializt guilds, though she says, "That kinda sounds boring, to just do one thing. I wasn't sure what I'd do when I first logged on here, but there's so much to be involved with, it takes all my time. Quests and making money for here, helping people out with projects. I never realized how my time would fill up."

Something in Naotsugu's comment tickles the back of her mind. The hottie comment goes completely over her head, but she whoas, "Wait, spending money for gear? Why would you spend money on gear? The only stuff I've seen is the kind of bleh-looking local stuff, I assumed it was just costume like in character generation?"

Reika is used to compliments as well, mostly from her fans though. She smiles pleasantly at Naotsugu though, not taking it in the wrong way. Everyone is a little different after all "We're all working on iproving ourselves one way or another. We get new gear, more levels, more battle experience... When I got here I didn't really know anything about fighting."

Reika is dressed like a sort of ninja, a short yukata, twin short blades in her back, and a mail under her dress, proecting her torso. It's nothing too amazing either, mind you, but it gets the job done when she needs it. "More than gear, it's working together that gets things done."

The girl behind the counter gets the plate with Naotsugu's order ready in a short time, and slides it over to him.

    The Guardian turns to Goldenblade. "What do you think this is? It's pretty to look at, but it's garbage... and the crafters in Alne are charging an arm and a leg for their crafts. Hence, I'm out gathering money. Bit by bit, but every bit of it helps."

    As the plate slides towards him, he rubs his hands together and begins chowing down on the burger immediately! And with his mouth full still, he'd still 'speak' to the two ladies. "Well... somefin' mo' impor'an' 'an or'ing 'ogefer." Suddenly, he was hit with a coughing fit as he pounded his own chest heartily! He coughed out what looked to be a small piece of meat that he hadn't fully chewed. "THAT LITTLE PIPSQUEAK! I DIDN'T EVEN SAY ANYTHING YET!" He's... shouting... to the sky...

Goldenblade nods agreement with Reika about cooperation being critical. "That's a fact. I've seen teams with second rate gear finish a project on time and underbudget, where teams with first rate gear fell behind. Cooperation and organization are important." Of course she's speaking of Real Life teamwork and gear. Here? She has no clue. Herself, she's wearing a mail coat, but it's just Newbie's First Armor, or that's what it ought to be called, one of the armor-looking costumes available in chargen that doesn't actually provide any armor effect.

Naotsugu's comment about his armor being pretty draws a hesitant nod. "Yeah, if that was as protective as it looks, that'd be pretty good." As far as crafters charging money, she looks blank. "Crafters can charge money for ... crafting? How?" She's confused about the wrong things in the game, it seems. She just doesn't get the basics.

When Naotsugu starts choking, she rises to head over, but he seems to have coughed it up. "Huh?" she asks at his protest.

Reika sees him choke as well, but he seems to get it under control. His shouting though makes her wonder "Who are you talking to?" She wonders. And what was he going to say that would make anyone react? Ah well. He looks like a character alright.

"It's good to have money either way, have to work with what we have available. At least everyone is pretty nice about helping each other in thsi situation. Even if we figured out that we can't exactly die, it's not really a pleasant experience... I know first hand." She was the 'first PC death' in this new reality, and it's something she rather avoid if she can.

    The Guardian finishes his current bite of his burger, swallowing it properly this time, and takes a breath. "Can't imagine that was anything fun to deal with... luckily, I've been with good allies to help keep me alive. And I in turn keep the bad guys from bashing their brains in! All part and parcel, the whole Guardian gig!" He takes a moment to flex! "PHENOMENAL TANKING POWERS!" He then sits back in his chair twiddling his fingers. "Itty bitty crappy gear..."

    The ad-lib of a butchered quote aside, he turned to look at Goldenblade. "You... uhh... I don't mean to sound insensitive, but have you... like... you know, LIVED? I mean, come on! It's simple economics. People make things that other people want. Where there's a demand, there's a payment to be had. Money changes hands, and sometimes..." He gives a grin as he leans towards the ladies. "You play your cards right, you can get a woman's-" And he falls over in his chair. He'd leaned too far, and he fell face-first on the floor!

    Muffled, he began shouting obscenities... "That stupid little pipsqueak cursed me somehow! I just know it!"

Goldenblade nods about it being good to have money. "That's a fact." She peers at Naotsugu, trying to figure out of he's talking into his chimlink or what? She nods again about people helping people, and agrees, "I've found that most people I've met have been quite helpful, it's true."

She shrugs to Naotsugu about having lived. "Oh, I know where you can buy guns, even in Japan, and I know about economics. But I don't know how much economics the /game designers/ put into the game. I mean, sometimes it seems like 'not much' is the answer. I've fought monsters and gotten a parcel of high-quality steaks as a reward. I mean, why is some horrible monster even living in a dungeon, much less collecting piles of high-quality consumer goods, with enough for everyone who came to fight him." She shrugs. "So, I repeat the question: what can be crafted that you can make money at? I -can- craft. With the menu, now, but I'm working on doing it for actual. But I'm trying to figure out why I'd want to."

Reika is still not sure who the armored fellow is talking to, but she's starting to get suspicions that he has some amount of trauma from *someone* at least. But it's not her, at least. She tilts her head, getting the feeling of what he was getting to at least "Well how you use your money is up to you, of course. But some of the best things do come free, when you look in the right place for ask the right person." She giggles softly.

"Anyway, yes that's how economics work. That's why we need money. And there's offer and demand. If they ask too high for the products, then noone will buy it, driving the price down. If its not going down, then it's worth that much to many."

    The Guardian has a look of realization on his face! "Ohhhh! THAT'S what you mean! I mean... Shiroe had talked about it in some form... I can't remember exactly what he said right now..." He then points to Reika. "Exactly! That! As for what to craft? If people need the same as me, armor and weapons, make that! Get good at making armor for people. I'm sure if they had a good set of gear that wasn't some flimsy NPC piece or a random grey drop from a wild boar... they'd feel less scared of any sort of death that'd happen in here." He looks at Reika. "Even IF death has no consequences... it's still scary."

Goldenblade is trying to figure out what Naotsugu thinks she can get if she plays her cards right? She agrees with Reika about how she spends her money is her business, and grins at the basic economics lesson. "Too many people don't realize they can price themselves out of the market," she agrees. "By pricing things so only a few people can buy them. Apple did that with computers in the 90's, that's why Microsoft captured such a big market share. That's what my son says, anyhow." She doesn't really know from computers.

As far as getting good at crafting armor, she says, "One of the other cities has a sort of plaza where anyone can come up and craft. It's pretty interesting."

Reika hmphs a bit, crossing her arms "You don't need to tell me about death, really. I had my experience of it, I can tell you first hand it's not pleasant in any way. You feel like you wake up from a nightmare, the last thing you remember is what struck you down. It's vivid and unpleasant." She shivers at that.

She hms "Better gear does help keep death away at least, but it's not failproof. Experience and knowing how to handle each situation is best, plus good friends that have your back will remove part of the threat as well." She picks at her fries as they talk.

    The Guardian nodded. "Well, experience is plentiful with me. Been playing MMOs for almost a decade now, with tons of Tanking experience! You may have heard of me! I'm Naotsugu!" He did a dramatic pose once more, placing a foot on top the table he was eating at! "Guardian and Warrior of Pa-" The table tipped over, flipping upwards and smashing his face in, halting his words! "OH COME ON!" His explitives came in droves again, muffled by the table pressed against his face.

Goldenblade is sopping up gravy with her fries, she finished off her burger a few minutes ago. She winces as Reika describes dying, she can believe it's pretty nasty. "I ... know a little about that, I think. But from the wrong end. I tried to use an attack in the tournament that was designed to help my allies but not me. I hadn't understood that, when I selected it. But I don't really understand how you do the ... did you call it tanking? I don't think I've seen anyone do that in fights. Not that I've seen, anyhow." Which kinda means it might've happened, but might not, given her level of lack of understanding of the game.

She peers at Naotsugu's interesting self-introduction, and she smirks. "I'd give that a 4.9," she mimes holding up olympic style rating cards to score his table-flip. "Call me Goldenblade," she offers.

Reika winces a bit "I think you might want to tone that done, you're going to destroy the restaurant at this rate." As amusing as this is, it's seemingly getting worse with every other sentence with that man. "I can't say I have heard of your name no." She hasn't hung around Shiroe long enough, probably.

She nods as presentations are made "And I'm Kamiya Reika, or just Reika in this world." Her name might be familiar to those that paid enough attention in the real world, since she was a rising Nero Idol, with a single and several commercials, and even some modeling and gravure works. Depending on one's center of interest, her face might be familiar at least. Her avator loosk mostly like she does in real life as well, except for being a Spriggan here.

    Naotsugu thought about it for a sec... "Kamiya Reika... never heard of ya. Ah well." He shrugged. He then grabbed the table that had flipped, one handed, pulling it up and turning it around and back on its right side as he sat back down in the chair near it. He then turned to Goldenblade. "Any group you're in, you GOTTA have a good Tank. A Tank's job is to keep the party from getting hit by the tons of enemies. There's a few different defensive abilities that help with this goal, like the Anchor Howl for us Guardians. As well, you gotta trust your team to back you up. If your team doesn't have your back, you've got nothin'. Well..." He looks at Reika... he knew that she was the first, and so far only, person to have died in this world at least once... "you do get a trip to the cathedral... or... wherever you wind up in this world. Actually to be fair... I haven't seen anything that looks like a cathedral at all..."

Goldenblade might have known a super famous bigtime idol in RL, like she's heard of Madonna and Cher (not that she knew any of the music), but Reika's a bit young for GB's demographic, which listens to Frank Sinatra rather than Frankie Valley or Frank Black. She knows Benny Goodman, but not Benny and the Jets. Anyhow ...

She hrms to Naotsugu and says, "I ... guess we /must've/ had good tanks, because we've won all the encounters I've taken part in, but I coudn't point out the things they did that helped anyone. I've had to leap and jump and dodge attacks the same as everyone else, as far as I can tell."

Reika isn't expecting people to know of her, but it's within the realm of possibilities at least. She nods "We always had some good tanks with us during my encounters, they managed to keep things focused. They are important pieces to a fight, no doubt." She hasn't been playing these games for a long time, but since her survival depended on it, she played catch up rapidly since the Apocalypse. "You see to be dependable... at least when you're not getting attacked by food or tables."

    Naotsugu nodded to Reika. "Dependable enough to have been invited to join the Debauchery Tea Party at one point. Though IRL had to take precedence at the time- WARRIOR OF PANTIES!" He stopped after that and looked around, making sure nothing would happen to him for that... he sighed. "Phew! Looks like the curse is over for now..." He took a calming breath and went right back to finishing the french fries he'd ordered. How in the world did they not get scattered all around the restaurant when his table flipped?! "Anyway. I take my role as a Guardian very seriously."

Goldenblade nods at what Reika says, telling Naotsugu, "Yeah, you seem all right, as long as you're more squared away in a fight than you are in a restaurant." She smirks. "You might be trying too hard," she suggests. "Though I'm not sure what you're trying too hard /at/." She shrugs broadly.

She huhs at Warrior of Panties, and misunderstands. "You're /definitely/ trying too hard. Look, no one cares if you want to wear women's underwear, but it's not really something for a guy to brag about, y'know?"

Reika doesn't know what a warrior of panties does, really... but given his karma, it's probably nothing good either. She scratches her chin "... Uhm, well you cannot have mine, but if they are ever in any sort of danger, I'll call on you, Mr. Hero."

Did someone say Tank? Someone did and speaking of Tanks? Gwen seems to be entering the building. She's not working today, she's come to go eat some food. She badly wants a burger herself. The Towering Sylph does not expect to see a certain tank here. Everyone else? She expected but not Naotsugu to be here.

"So you are not dead, huh big guy? Come back from the dead for actual burgers?"

    Naotsugu saw a familiar face and smiled. "Ah! Heya, Gwen! Never died, just... doing my own thing. Being a patroller to make sure there isn't any mobs clamboring for the city. Speaking of, I should get back to my patrol. Thanks for the talk, you two! And nice to see you again, Gwen!" As he passed by her, he whispered to Gwen. "Get the Deluxe. Dee-lish!" And with that, he headed out into the wilds once more!

Goldenblade realizes from Reika's statement that she'd possibly misunderstood Naotsugu's claim. She eyes him critically and says sort of disappointedly, "Yeah, mine don't need protecting, either, thanks."

At Gwen's arrival, she smiles, waves, calls, "Hey. Oh, you two know each other?"

Reika waves to Gwen's arrival "Looks like your friend is one of the special kind there." She smirks a bit "Not dangerous, just a bit over excited it seems." She shrugs her shoulders a bit, her fries are long gone by now at least, so she's just relaxing.

Gwen says "Right, you take care of yourself then and tell your guild they are welcome here!"

Maybe they can get Franchises going long term. That idea is put away for later. "So how are the rest of you doing? Things look like they have been busy here. Yes we would pick up group from time to time before we all got dumped here."

Goldenblade has likewise cleared her plate by now, and smirks at Reika's comment. "Overexcited, yeah," she agrees. She nods to Gwen about things being busy, and says, "I guess I'm OK. Just taking it easy."

Reika nods "All's fine here, I was just enjoying food when your friend arrived and started hitting himself with tables and what not, due to karma apparently." She giggles "He seems like a good guy, although probably perverted or at least not knowing where the limits are at."

Gwen Says "I can get how that can be, and really? I'm sad I missed it but he is a good dude. I never seen him get grabby he just talks alot. I think he might not be sure what to do if someone showed interest. I seen a lot worse you can get him to knock it off normally." She looks to Goldenblade. "We should get you some more clothing and something for the summer as well...when we have the time. Goldenblade."

Goldenblade smirks as Reika mentions Naotsugu's quirks. "Yeah, I didn't need to know he wears women's underwear," she says. She nods to Gwen about him being mostly harmless. "He seems that way. He said he was a tank, so I guess he must be pretty reliable." As to clothing for summer, she says, "Whenever you like. I'm not going anyplace." She smirks.

Reika smirks "If he doesn't get touchy, then I can endure a bit of weirdness. He seems like the guy that is cute until he opens his mouth at least." She giggles.

She nods to the mention of summer clothes "I'll model anything you need to, of course. Good publicity to have an idol wear your creations usually."

Gwen says "I think he just collects them." She shhrugs a bit for a moment "I will say this there are few better than he to tank with. In a combat situation he turns all of that off. Good I ahve some stuff coming up, after all. Summer is comming." She beams at this...

Goldenblade nods about not getting touchy. "Yeah, that'd be awkward. I don't want anyone getting touchy. Gah." She shivers at the thought. She hrms, nods about the modeling. "That'd be cool." She hrms about the tanking, and wonders, "So, do I need to anything different to take advantage of your tanking? In the second floor boss, it didn't seem like there was any less danger for the regular folks as for anyone else. Not that I'm an expert, I guess. I'm just trying to figure how how things work." She ohs about summer, "Yeah, I meant to get something also, and I never really picked anything out."

Reika smiles at how excited Gwen seems to be about it too. "I'm sure you'll have some amazing things for us to wear too. We just need a beach or something to stroll through. Maybe a beach party when it gets hot enough even." She hms at that. Beach episode is a must in every show after all.

Gwen says "They seem to be going for wider AOE and more adds. The best I can do is try to keep a boss on me and it's tank busters away from everyone else." She ponders "Though every time we pop a boss there. Something bad happens ... outside." She looks concerned about this.

Goldenblade hrms about beaches, and says, "The one near Breg Epona is nice. I was there a few weeks ago." She hrms about the AOEs and adds, and about the things happening outside. "I saw that, too, yeah. That was weird. I dunno what it means, other than to be ready for it."

Reika nods "Sounds like a game mechanic to me. Like progress, and something pulls us back so we don't go too quickly. It's an extra mystery, but what can we do about it. We can only roll with it and try to figure out the pattern, and then the cause, or the method to avoid it."

Gwen says "It would take all out war to stop the Scale from climbing that tower, so we'll have to keep our finger on it won't we? Also it doesn't hurt to keep good relations. Now if you both might excuse me I need to go check on something in the kitchen."

Goldenblade nods at what Reika says. "As long as we're ready for it, it was okay. We managed to put a party together and defeat it, though there was some weird special villain that ran off rather than fight. There was some issue I didn't understand with how she left. And she was marked like a player and a monster or something..." She's trying to remember now, but the details are hazy.

She smirks, says, "Why would we want to stop them? As far as I can understand, beating the tower is the key to getting out of the game. So yeah, we'll just have to manage the outside spawns." She nods as Gwen heads to the kitchen.

Goldenblade yawns, "Anyhow, I need to crash, I'll see you all later." And with that, she heads out.