Wiskey & Wine... But Probably Sake

    The Tsekai Ryokan is a place where you can actually get some decent stuff. Drinks. Food. Not bad stuff, though it does depend on who is behind the counter that day.

Xander has been hanging around here when he is not out on the field, which he can be found in the back of the establishment, at his own private corner of a table.

A sake bottle is on the table, along with a glass. There was also his feet propped up as well, and has his ankles crossed as he leans back in that chair. His eyes seem to be watching people come and go. Looking like a fairly relaxed Salamander really.

    Merek wears what looks be a casual dark attire with a cloak about him, then he would begin taking that off when coming into the place, adjusting the scarf which he wears along with the gloves, "I would like an ale," he offers at the front of the place.

Goldenblade enters the Ryokan and looks around to see if anyone she knows is here. She's been grinding newbie quests for a bit of pocket change, so she can afford a good meal, and here she is. Spotting Xander in the back, she'll head over and nod a greeting. "Hey, how's it going?" she asks. "Mind company?" she wonders, pausing at a chair.

    Xander motions to the empty chair, "Feel free Golden." He says with a smile. "You been holding up alright?" Though he does look at her, he also looks past her toward Merek, before looking back to Golden once more. "Anything exciting?"

Goldenblade takes the offered seat, nodding about holding up allright. "Not dead yet," she quips. "Not for lack of trying, mind you. Some monsters overrunning a town almost got me, but I feel back and the rest of the party took care of things. It's hard for me to keep straight what all is going on. I mean, it's all made up, but some of it's important and some of it kind of isn't."

    Merek takes a look about the place, while he offers a nod to Xander along with Goldenblade when he notes the two. There's a look to that drink when it's placed in front of him, then he takes a sip, while yawning.

    Xander listens to what Golden has to say before he gently tilts his head, "Honestly the way things are going... It is better to adapt like it is real, instead of continuing to see it like a game."

Then he looks over to Merek, "Yo! You gonna be a solo drinker tonight, or like to come over here?"

Goldenblade nods to Merek, turns back to Xander and says, "Well, I mean, it -is- a game. I can use a menu command to wash and cook, if I'm willing to eat yuck. It's like what gray would taste like. But some real things don't work at all, like first aid. That confuses me badly. I had to go to first aid courses every year for work, I -know- what to do for simple injuries like stabbing. But it doesn't matter here."

    Merek nods a bit to Xander, while he finds a place to settle in with the two. Then he takes a drink from the sweet ale, while he watches the two, "Thank you," he notes. There's not a lot of conversation which he offers, while he seems to be thinking to himself.

    Xander continues to listen to Golden and he eventually swings his feet off the table and onto the floor. His jaw clenches a little in thought, not seeming sure how to explain things to Golden really.

He looks over to Merek, "Not a problem." He raises a brow, "You are pretty quiet tonight."

Goldenblade shrugs a little as Xander doesn't reply. She can only shrug. "I mean, it seems mostly real, sure. But then people shoot flames out of their hands. So how do I view that as real, and some monster as real, but then I can't treat an injury or, I dunno, learn new skills. Though I guess I don't know that I can't learn new skills. That's why I'm putting this Academy thing together, partly to try to learn new things."

    Merek looks then to Xander, with a nod along to him, then the man would look to Goldenblade, "I have a lot upon the mind," he notes, while he takes a drink, then looks to the place while in thought as well.

    "You mean like this?" Xander asks as he snaps his fingers, and a flame ignites from his finger tip claw. He holds it there, before he blows it out. "Honestly, if you want good food. You don't menu cook. You actually make it."

The Salamander crosses his arms over his chest. "Also, taking an actual both is pretty nice really." Then his attention moves back to Merek, "Care to share with the class?"

Goldenblade nods to Xander, and says, "Exactly that. And if you say you can do that in real life, I'll call you a liar. So where do you start treating it as real? Where is the line? But yeah, real cooking beats menu cooking hands down. No arguement there." She looks over to Merek, and says, "And you're fishing. Say it or don't."

    "It's only fishing if I wanted to come and tell you, I mostly came for the drink," Merek notes, while he nods a little bit, then he takes a look at the drink. "An Adventurer was today turned into an Undead, not to mention a Moon Mirror meant for the end times was also taken away from the place it was at."

    "I've been playing the game before the expansion, heck. I've been playing VR MMOs since Fragment Beta." Xander picks up the sake glass and then takes a sip from it, before he places it on the table once more. "So, you learn to treat the video game like you do anything in real life. An extension. After all, when you learn to fire a firearm, you stop seeing the weapon as a tool, but rather an extension of yourself."

He makes a hand gesture like it's a gun, then does a silent bang. "Magic is the same way. You think too much on it, it is not longer an extension and you fumble around instead of focusing on the kill."

    Xander then looks over to Merek, "... wait what? Run that by me again?"

Goldenblade smirks at Merek, but nods as he chooses to say it. "So," she wonders, "did you know the player? Did he respawn normally? Because in the fourth floor bossfight, the memories of the guys that got killed got erased as well, but they came back." She nods slowly to Xander, "You're right, as far as that goes. Treat your skills as the real thing and they'll work for you, though I've never used a sword in my life. But bricklaying works here like I knew in real life. And cooking's the same way. So why isn't first aid like that?"

    Merek nods a bit to the two, "I didn't, though the... Monster which did it, well it was pretty powerful," he notes, while he takes a drink. Then he thinks on it, "We found a lot of new information," the man notes.

    Xander shrugs gently. "Not sure what to say there about the first aid." He admits to Goldenblade, his focus though turning to Merek, as while Golden doesn't seem to concerned about it, Xander /is/.

The Salamander raises a brow. "Hmm. That seems concerning. Hopefully they'll show back up at a church somewhere."

Goldenblade nods about the monster being powerful. "I imagine so, if it's got powers no other monster's had before. And yeah, that definitely bears thinking about." She admits to Xander, "And this is why I get confused. Now I have to remember that monsters can bite you and turn you into monsters, like zombies in a movie." She -is- concerned about Merek's news. But there's nothing she can do, and incomplete information to go on, so she doesn't worry over it. Otherwise she's just fretting over things that might not even be.

Gwen had traveled fairly far for several reasons the meeting for one which was pending and two? They need to combat the undead here. She strides in perhap it was the mention of america eariler that summoned her here but hte towering Slyph enters into the building intend to get some food.

"Hey! Wait zombies? More with the scourge?"

    Gwen enters the building and Xander slowly slinks in the chair, wishing he had a hat right now. ".. shit." She wanted to talk to him and the last time they spoke, she didn't have that chipper glee when they very first met.

That meant he could be on her bad side and worse... Bad side also meant possible servitude to clothing. Xander then downs his sake in the cup, before he slowly goes to stand up. "You-- two can have the bottle." Then the dark scaled Salamander attempts to /slide/ around without being noticed.

"... What did the scourge do -now-?..." Echoes the sentiment as Shiruba pokes her head around her much taller friend. "I've been off helping explore Jazu's island, what happened?"

    "There was an Adventurer which was turned into Undead by one of the undead army," Merek notes then to Shiruba.

Goldenblade has been gifted a bottle of booze? Nice. She turns to see what's caused Xander to react that way, and ... Gwen? A Gwen-shaped monster? She can only look confused. Well, she can also pour herself a drink.

Gwen says "That's what I'd like to khnow." She looks to see Xander.

"Oh Xander! Hey! I been looking for you!"

Gwen pauses for a moment. "Mind if I join you for drinks and wait what Merek?"

She stares at Merek for a moment just /staring/ at him.

"There was -what-?!" The wolfgirl's tail does the shock/irritation POOMF. "How is that even possible?! Does Giganpor know?" She cups a hand to her forehead as she sulks over to the table. "Suddenly I feel like I need a drink..."

    Don't mind the Salamander. Yes. Everyone keep the giant clothing amazon queen busy where she /doesn't/ notice him trying to get around the corner. There he gets on his chimlink and whispers into it, "... Rylen--" Then Gwen spots him. "-- if I come back with pink hair. I am sorry." Then gets off the chimlink.

"Hey Gwen!" He raises up his hand with a nervous smile on his face and then ahems. "Yeah, apparently Merek is talking about some monster that turned some dude into a monster... Which-- maybe he'll come back?" He shrugs!

Then points at the bottle at the table. "Also feel free to have some sake with everyone else!"

Goldenblade will pour everyone a glass from Xander's bottle. "Hey, everyone," she says. "Yeah, but the details around it are foggy."

Sozoku Nezumi didn't work late normally she was just coming in late on a supply run and then going to head to bed. That was the plan as she enters in she looks about the bar she seems in good spirits then she see's Xander and stares. "AHHH!" With that she takes her load of good and runs for the Kitchen you could alsmost see skidmarks and a trail of fire in her wake. She doesn't come back out at all and it's clear this sudden action happened the momenbt she saw Xander.

"..."

Gwen looks at Xander now recalling something.

"Maybe so and Xander we need to ahve a little ... 'talk' don't try running either."

    Merek looks between the people, and nods a bit to Shiruba, "Aye, he was there and all, I was telling the people about the Mirror also," he notes.

    Xander is silent talking on the chimlink, what can be made out after the Salamander watches the girl run off and Gwen get a look in her eye is simply about 'May end up in church', before he gets off the chimlink.

He then places up his hands slightly, "Who says I'm /going/ to run! I don't even know why you got that look... or why she-- whoever that was-- screamed. But yeah, sure. We can talk."

Goldenblade huhs as someone dashes into the kitchen after seeing Xander. She looks to him, and asks, "Is there something we should know?" She's looking back and forth between Gwen and Xander now.

Xander cuts a glance at Goldenblade. "I have zero clue honestly." Though he looks back at Gwen.

Shiruba sighs as she sits down. "That's... distressing. If ADVENTURERS can be turned... And their means of transposition away from a might makes it impossible to track where they're going."

She accepts the glass with a nod from Goldenblade. "Thanks." And proceeds to gulp it down.

Gwen says "So you know the series of rat celler dungeons?" She notes ordering a drink herself as she looks to him. "It's about your first run, think back recall the bard that was calling the rats?" She says as she'll drink some of the sake.

    Xander side glances, looks up, squints his eyes gently. "... Yeah... I crushed an NP...C.." Then he looks at where the girl ran off. His brows knit before a gentle realization slowly crosses over his face.

"... She was... a boss..?" Then he pinches the bridge of nose. "Oh son of a weed-whacker."

Goldenblade nods to Shiruba, hrms at Gwen. "I don't think I remembr that? And I've done a rat duty, I'm pretty sure. A couple times..." She looks blankly at Xander. "Huh?"

Gwen says "She was not a Demi-human nor Lander. She was an Adventurer, she works and lives here now and she's terifed of you." She looks right at Xander waiting to see his reaction. "Her name is Sozoku Nezumi and from what I gather she was pretty young before ... we all ended up here."

She'll take another sip.

    Merek looks about in the place while he nods a bit. The man seems to be content with that drink.

    Xander continues to hold the bridge of his nose, before his back just leans up against the wall. His tail doesn't move, he barely moves beyond just the steady breathing.

When he does lower his hands he lets out a soft, "... and that is why my name was red..." Before he rests his head back against the wall. "Well. Isn't that just a kick in the ol' teeth."

Then he looks at Gwen. "So... that girl, is an adventurer. I killed her thinking she was some boss monster mechanic, cause the game /just/ rolled over off expansion. We didn't know as much yet. We didn't understand the changes..."

    He rubs his forehead and then walks over to Gwen, he isn't bugged by her several inches of height over him, but there was a look at her, then back where the girl ran. He then shouts past Gwen. "Look! I am sorry! I didn't know! It was a /massive/ mistake! I'll- like-- buy you some candy or something! Just--" He tsks, mostly at annoyance at himself. "Sorry!"

Then looks over at Gwen, "And I /am/ sorry. I had honestly zero clue."

Shiruba finishes her drink and stares at the conversation. She was wondering why Nezumi ran too. Until Gwen explained. "Oh, Xander is the one tha--That's rough." At least -that- is one problem she doesn't have to deal with. She huffs into her long bangs. "I'll make sure Giganpor brings up the whole 'might turn Adventurers' deal at the meeting. Maybe realizing our 'immortality' might NOT protect us from these Undead will get a few more butts in gear willing to do more about it."

Goldenblade looks confused about Gwen's assertion. Except the part about afraid of Xander. She can see that. "I'm missing something," she observes, asking Gwen, "Do you know why she's afraid?" Then she ooOOOOoooohs as Xander explains. "That's bad," she agrees.

    A flock..herd...school... what is the name for a large group of summons? A pack of summons burst from the kitchen. A dragon made of flowers and leaves flies out of the passthrough with a gout of flame. A little squishy kelp homnunculi that runs like a toddler with a full diaper, bubbles and burbles, followed by a snake made of roots with white flowers for eyes, thorn fangs dripping thick sap. Lastly comes a chef with a flowery feline on one shoulder. The chef is not the jovial happy middle aged man who just slings yaki and pushes bento on everyone, this man is a thunderhead waiting to crash down on a waiting port. "OKay who is it? If I have to I'll drag him out of range of the guardian and feed him to Snapdragon!" dark green energies coil around his arms as his steps are telegraphed by the floor quaking. (someone is going to go through his mana pool at this rate)

Shiruba turns her head slowly towards the kitchen entrance. Eyes widen, and she quickly scoots to the opposite side of the table of Xander, possibly crowding someone else in doing so. "Oh dear. He's mad. You -never- see Hifumi mad..."

Gwen takes anotehr snip and looks over to Xander. "Yup it was...I have done what I told her I'd do but well who knows how her employer is going to take it..." As if on cue Hifumi ciomes out of the back and is not very happy. She looks to Xander and points.

"I'm I promised someone he'd be mostly intact when I was done with him."

She's also totally pointing at Xander.

    Merek looks to be watching the people, and drinking from that nice ale.

    There is suddenly /all/ types of summons and a very angry man who is just a touch shorter than Xander. The Salamander's tail sways side to side slightly as a sweat drop just slowly rolls down the side of his face.

Luckly Xander /was/ standing and not at the table, so everyone else will be safe so long as they stay in that corner. He also just looks at all the summons once more, before back to Hifumi. "Why-- don't you put away those summons, sir, before you drain your mana and like, collapse from mana exhaustion or something."

Xander then clasps his hands together and points his index fingers forward a little. "And I'll be very glad to explain things." He says /very/ calmly as if he is use to talking to superiors with a chip on their shoulder.

    His fiery-gold draconic eyes peer over at Gwen. "... and I see even explaining to you the truth, you-- just don't care, huh?"

Goldenblade squishes up against Shiruba, opposite Xander, boggling at the kitchen entrance. "What in the world?" she chokes out. Things are going too fast for her, it seems. She says to Xander, "Uh, I think you may want to run? They don't look like they want to talk...or hear explanations. A letter might be a better idea, in fact."

Gwen looks back. "Look I'm not getting bwtween a chef like that are you nuts." She flat out replies she also points out.

"We're in a root city, the Royal Guard will drop in on our asses if we fight here." She notes addtionally hoping to diffuse things a bit.

    Glowers, and at least he stops the earth quaking, however his summons seem to be on alert. Snapdragon clinging to a wall where it can breath fire if needed, Nori poiting its pudgy little fingers like guns.. sure they're water guns, but they can strip Hifumi's smoker so they're not toys. Snakeroot has that thick toxic sap drooling down its thorn fangs. Tigerlilly waggles it's kittenish butt as if ready to pounce from the angry chef's shoulder. "You have until I'm calm enough to drag you out of town without Root City magic summoning the guardian to explain yourself. If I'm not satisfied you'll find yourself 86ed, if you satsify me, you can talk to my little rat queen and if she's not satisfied in the end, you'll find yourself 86ed, and I'll pass word to the Golden Lush Dominion to never sell you booze in future."

    Xander mutters something under his breath, before his jaw clenches to the side. While Gwen /does/ try to help defuse the situation as reminding the head chef of this place that they are in a root town-- the Salamander isn't sure how much this guy might care about that.

That... That is what worries him.

Then as Hifumi talks, Xander inhales deeply and stares the man dead on. "It was an accident. A very. Simple. Accident. The expansion /just/ came out. Giganpor and a few of us others went to do one of the new quests."

"We were to stop the rats. The quest lead us to her. Yes. I crushed her. I crushed her without a second thought, because I-- was having a moment... and I just wanted to get the quest /done/." Xander doesn't move. He doesn't run, even though Goldenblade is probably right. This probably /won't/ go well, but running. Running was never an option. It /isn't/ how you solve problems.

    "I wanted to get it done, so I could clear my head, before I ended up hurting someone... Though it seems like I /did/ unknowingly, do just that-- because I thought she was just an npc. A scripted being. Nothing more. Nothing less. I see now, though," He slowly lowers his arms down. "That is far from the truth."

Goldenblade boggles as Hifumi threatens to cut Xander off worldwide. Or that's how she understands it. She nods at what Gwen says, but Hifumi looks mad enough to not care. Can he talk his way out? "How was she in a dungeon if she wasn't in your party?" she wonders. She'd likely make the same mistake. "And ... don't you have to set PVP?" Of course some people leave it on, as a mark of machismo or just to be ready for anything.

Xander glances over to Goldenblade. "Pvp triggers soon as you kill someone. You don't have an on off switch. You kill someone, willingly, you are flagged red." He looks back to the chef. "... Which explains why my name was red for a few days, even though I nor anyone else had any clue why. I thought it was a glitch in the new code base."

"She got lost and stuck? Who knows. There's enough weird things going on." Shiruba comments aside to Golden, even if her attention is watching on what's going on.

Gwen says "That's something I nbever asked her but well it happens this isn't so much as a game anymore the more I find it happening honesly. That's pretty likly I never wanted to bother her on the hoss though honestly. She looks at Hifumi. "Look I made her a promise I'd confront the man who ganked her and I have."

Goldenblade ohs to Xander. "I misunderstood. I thought you had to flag yourself or you wouldn't harm players. But what you say is anyone can harm anyone, but gets the flag if they actually do it? Now I understand." She nods to Shiruba, "That's true, the game does seem to have glitches that we keep finding." She nods about the duels and the tourney, that's as far as she knows about PVP.

    Hifumi takes a deep breath, pulls out his Kiseru. He tucks a ball of shredded tobacco into the bowl and holds it up to Snapdragon "Low flame buddy." he says before the the little flower drake blows out a small lighter light flame to start the bowl burning. He takes a slow drag of the smoke. "She was very very lonely, and she has an instrument that lets her charm animals." he says "She was calling the rats because she wanted to be safe and not alone. The black wave really scared her." he says and puffs on his pipe. "The system just ... filled in the bits because enough rats gathered together. I do hope you've realized you can't just kill landers any more than adventurers by now?" he says, tigerlilly jumps down and pads into the kitchen, Nori and Snakeroot slowly fade away.

    Snapdragon flaps it's leaf wings and lands on Hifumi's shoulder. "I've promised to keep her safe." he says and puffs on his pipe. "Okay, I'm going to take your word for now." he says "If I hear word of you going red, or if I hear of you killing landers and not monsters... well, I'm sure you'll enjoy living in the Church at Alne forever."

    Xander glances over to Gwen, where he has not moved a muscle. "Trust me, from back then, to now. I am /very/ aware of the changes. I was aware things were off about a two or three weeks in. Though I was the voice no one listens to." His tail flicks gently.

"Back before the expansion, I would fight off PKers to protect new players. I /assure/ you. I never /meant/ to hurt her." Xander says firmly. His hand grips slowly into fist, his claws cutting into his scaled skin. "I rather give my life, then hurt someone.... and I know /I/ would, because I already /done/ that before in real life."

His eyes watch Hifumi closely. "I've been playing for a long time, so trust me. There is no one this pisses off more than me and if it would ease your mind. I will excuse myself and never step foot into this establishment again after the meeting is concluded tomorrow." One can see the digital cracking in his scales as he actually starts to harm himself, before he forces his hand to relax. "Is there anything further, sir?"

    Merek seems to listen to all of that, while he takes a moment to drink from the nice ale, while he watches. There's a shift then he stands up, "Alright, you all be well." He does not seem to like all of the whole conversation while he would begin adjusting the scarf which he wears.

Goldenblade nods at what Hifumi says as well, though she wonders, "Does that mean ... there was a ... after one of the boss fights, we got attacked by someone with a bunch of confusing tags. Monster, Lander, and Player all at once." But she nods as Xander explains. He seems like a pretty upright guy, but she looks to Hifumi for his reaction.

"Take care, Merek." Shiruba turns back to the other exchange, and sighs as it seems to be reaching a thankfully non-violent conclusion. "... I need another drink."

Gwen leans back at this point and just chills out there's not much more she can do at this poing right? So she's looking to Hifumi for a moment. She nods "You know there were Gankers and Ganker guilds before out there whose to say they won't be operating still. hell they might be working for lander nobles as hitmen you know."

    "You heard my requirements before. You've gotten past me because it sounds like you genuinely thought she was a quest boss and not a Lander or Adventurer." The chef turns and walks to the kitchen door "Kitten come here." he says in what is obviously a fatherly tone. "No, he's not going to hurt you, you're in a Root city now, and he's sorry he did the first time okay... come let him tell you himself hmm?" he says and reaches a hand into the kitchen to lead the young spriggan out. He rests his hand atop her head "I'm here and you're safe okay?" he says softly into her ear. "This is Sozoku." he says "She plays here as my bard, and she's under my protection as well as the protection of the Root magic."

Goldenblade rises and bows out quietly, letting Hifumi, Xander, and Sozoku work things out. Hopefully it's OK. She scoots out.

    Xander looks at her and his eyes nearly start to tear, but he holds it back. As he steps forward, he does so slowly. "Hey..." He says softly, before slowly getting down on one knee. "Your name is.. Sozuki, huh? I'm.. Xander." He tries to smile gently, but slowly lowers his head.

"I am..." He looks at her once more. "I'm sorry about what I did, kid. I-- wasn't myself and like so many right after that expansion dropped on New Years... we were all /really/ scared and confused. Just like I am sure you were too."

    The Salamander lowers his head once more. "I know my words can never undo what I did, but.. I held onto this..." He pulls out the Unusual Instrument from his inventory and places it on the ground. "I... Never used it, so.." He slides to toward her with gentle care. "You can have it back."

He tries to smile, but the pain is on his face, before he lowers his head once more. His silver bangs covering his dark scaled face, as even few black strands find their way over his face. "I hope you can, one day, forgive this soldier, Sozuki."

    The young spriggan looks scared and then almost starts crying when she sees Xander looking hurt over it. The bard awkardly pats his head. "It's okay." the girl says softly, her own kitten lacing between her ankles to make the image just that much more endeering.

"We all made mistakes in the beginning, when we didn't fully understand how deep this situation went." Other than that Shiruba lets the three of them sort it out. She gets up and walks over to the bar to get herself a drink while they're busy trying to make sure no one is going to have to beat sense into someone else.

Gwen looks over to Hifumi. "So how much for a room for the night good sir? I have Alliance business in town tommrow morning and I'd rather not hobo it."

    Xander gets a pat on the head and he smirks faintly, look up at her. "You got a cute little smile kid. Don't lose that alright." He stays on his knee bit longer. "Smile big and bright... And this world. It will smile with you."

Then the Salamander slowly goes to get up, before making his way toward where the rooms are. His tail flicks gently as he looks back at the group. His head tilts to the side in a silent thought, before he goes to head off to the inn room he is sharing with Rylen.

    Hifumi nods his head "Go on back Gwen, if you're here for the meeting then I'm covering rooms. These aliance meetings are important." he says as he shoos the spriggan back to her highbacked stool by the wall to start playing again. Then he heads behind the bar to pack up several Onigiri and load several beer bottles onto a tray.

Shiruba returns to the table with her own beer bottle... Though Gwen is the only other one here now. "So did they work it out?" It takes a moment to get it open working it with her nails... When did she start growing them out like little claws anyways?

Gwen says "Thank you sir and see you all in the morning." With that she'll look to her friend "I think so but come on we should turn in."

Shiruba takes a long pull from her beer, then nods. "Yeah, need to get rested up for tomorrow."

    Hifumi nods his head and heads towards the garden himself with his tray of snacks and beer.