Rocks and Relationships

For Scale Emblem, much of their attention has been split as of late. There are mysterious happenings in Eastal with Goblin activity, the relentless march of the undead in Ninetails Dominion, and the pressing need to continue the journey up the tower. As of late, Kita has been focusing more of her energy back 'at home', the Imp having rarely been seen outside the Isle of Beginnings.

At the moment, she seems to be meeting a cart of supplies which includes wood and stone to be brought up to the workspace in Tolbana. "There is supposed to be a shipment of stone from Ninetails in here..." Kita comments as she looks through a crate of roughly fist-sized rocks.

"The traders are experiencing delays due to the Undead..." A Lander, who seems to be at the head of a group of wagons explains.

"I get that, but I need those materials in the next couple of days. So I'd appreciate it if you get one of your people on that immediately." Kita doesn't even look up as she starts to pick out a few choice pieces of rock from those in the crate, setting them aside.

"Uh... Yes ma'am. We'll see to it." He looks more than a little dubious of taking orders from a girl who looks to likely still be a teenager.

Schneider has come down out of the tower just lately, apparently to escort a load of materials bound for Tolbana, and he'll head over to the lander and wagon and Kita, offering a smile and, "Hello!" He wonders, looking over the wagon, "Is this all we're taking up there?" He's been part of the scouting group, just recently driven off the fifth floor, and now making himself useful. Or as useful as he can. He's got his fingers in a couple projects as well.

"Er, I was sent to escort it, but the way seemed pretty clear," he explains. But of course what's clear for Landers and what's clear for adventurers are not the same. A lot of Landers wouldn't even go, he guesses, if it weren't for player-escorts. So, it's an escort quest, for him.

The hired staff were handling the morning hours at the tavern so Vertina could put in some much needed time at the Alliance training grounds to work on her combat project.

Its now on her way back to the Tower that Vertina comes across the others with the trader, raising a hand I. a wave. "Good day!"

"It's not so much about making sure the shipments don't get attacked by monsters." Kita explains, absently, pushing her glasses up on her nosee as she picks out a few more rocks from the crate. Everything she's pulled out seems to be roughtly the same size, made from some sort of white stone. "We had some problems with people pretending to be Scale Emblem members, moving suspicious goods in and out of Tolbana."

She raises her head then, brushing a few strands of white and blue hair out of her eyes as she looks at Schneider. He isn't exactly someone familiar to her, so she blinks once, "Then again, I'm not sure I know you, either."

Vertina's greeting draws her attention, then, "Vertina, hey." Kita offers, her expression shifting into a smile. "How goes it?" The Imp starts to gather the rocks together, putting them into a bag that is slung over her shoulder.

Schneider ohs to Kita as she explains, but then puts him on the spot. "Uh," he says hesitantly. "I've been up on the fifth floor, scouting with Prophylaxis. But they forced us back, and Proph had other things to take care of, so I came down to escort it. So, er. I guess so I can make sure it gets to the right place and no one pulls stuff out of the cargo before it gets there. You can inspect me," he adds, "I'm S-E-A."

A pause, and he notes the items that Kita has taken from the load. But that's not the same as suspicious items moving in, so he doesn't mention it. "Anyhow," he says, "I've just finished the newbie quests kind of recently, so I'm hoping to work more with the important stuff now." Vertina gets a smile as she waves, and he calls, "Good morning!"

"It goes good!" Vertina replies cheerfully as she stops near the wagon. Getting in a morning workout has put the tomboy Salamander in a good mood. "With the tavern staffed and the brewery running smoothly I have a bit more time to get back to Adventurer type things."

"Its okay Kita, I've seen him around Alliance stuff before. Good of you to be vigilant though." Knowing the girl is an Artisan she's not surprise to see her select a few quality stones for herself. "I take it most of this is for the construction projects?"

    Uta marches up into view, her staff firmly clenched in her hand. She sports something new: newbie leather shin guards, a newbie leather chest plate, and newbie leather forearm guards. As bland and low level as they get, it's a wonder someone is still using those so many months after the Black Wave. If that weren't enough, they are scratched, chipped, barely holding together, and if someone were to inspect them they'd see they are a few ticks away from shattering.

    "Alright folks!", exclaims the Spriggan, and despite the obvious undercurrent of fear in her voice, she manages the determination of a Spartan warrior as she slams the bottom tip of her staff on the ground, in a gesture that commands attention. "I- it took me some time to muster the required courage after hearing about it, but I have finally decided to answer the call for battle, and I am ready to help clear the first floor of the tower! When does the boss battle start?"

The stormy blue-gray eyes of the Imp flick back over to Schneider as he tries to explain himself. Ever so slowly, the edge of her lip quirks upwards with a wry sort of amusement. "I see." She seems to look him up and down, then chuckles to herself, offering out a hand to him in a demure fashion, "Kita Blackthorne. Odysseia Knights. Artist and book keeper for Scale Emblem."

Fingertips just visible through fingerless gloves lightly motion to the gathered rocks, "Which is why I get my pick of materials before the rest goes on to the production site."

When Vertina vouches for Schneider, Kita gives the Salamander a grin, "I was just playing with him. It's funny when they get flustered." She nods then, agreeing with the woman's appraisal. "These smaller ones are for something special I'm working on for a friend. The larger ones are going up to Tolbana to be made into decorative pieces for the temple."

And then Uta. Just Uta being Uta. Kita pauses, blinks, pushes her glasses up on her nose and clears her throat. "We're on the fifth floor now, my dear. And... you might want to look into a bit better gear if you plan on joining the fight up there. Our last reports say it's overrun with goblins."

Schneider smiles to Vertina as she vouches for him. "That's me! Thanks!" He looks to Kita when Vertina asks about the desitnation. He'd assumed it was, but didn't know specifically. When Uta appears (un)ready for battle, he blinks, and replies, "Some weeks ago, I think?" Not that he was there for it, himself, but he'd heard.

He erms at Kita, but shakes her hand. He's not used to handshaking, but he's familiar with the western greeting. He does bow over the handshake out of habit, and ohs as she explains why she gets to pick through the goods. When she explains that she was just jerking his chain, he uhms, "I ... " but he doesn't have a comeback for that.

Vertina just ... puts a palm to her face, this not being the first time she's seen Uta be extremely late. "Have appointment books been invented yet? Because this girl could use one."

    Uta launches into a frown of disappointed relief at Kita's explanation. "...Thank goodness I messed up. Sounds like I'd be toast if I had done things right. Time wise. But still wrong armor wise. If it was the other way around... uh... it'd still be bad, in a wasted opportunity kind of way. Still good for me, but kind of egoistical."

    She shakes her head, as if to clear it. "No, no, Uta. Don't go there. You'll confuse everyone, and what's worse, yourself. You know how such things go. You remember what happened the last time." A stern gaze ahead, which soon softens into doubt. "Actually, no, I still have no idea of what was going last time I confused myself..." That stern, determined gaze returns. "...which is exactly what you are trying to avoid!"

    Her wings are lowered, straight, along her back; a martial stomp of feet and pivoting on one leg, and she addresses Schneider. "Thank you," she says. "...I need to work on my keeping up with current events."

    "Oh, hey, Vertina! Haven't seen you in a while!" She looks up, lost in thought, index finger hooked around her chin. "Appointment books... that'd be a nice idea. I mean, I /do/ have a tendency of realizing things a bit later than I should hav- GOBLINS?!"

    Uta's wings stiffen in terror while she turns back towards Kita. "NOPE NOPE NOPE." To underline her words, she jumps to hide behind the closest pile of rocks. "No senttient lifeforms here. There is only us rocks. Who will spontaneously throw themselves at anyone approaching with evil intentions."

Seeing that Schneider seems a little bit uncertain about the more western greeting, Kita bows afterwards in a manner that is far more traditionally Japanese. "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." The game doesn't translate it, which means she must have intended for him to hear it in Japanese.

Then, when she rises again, the girl tucks a few strands of hair back behind her ear, "Don't mind me, too much. I'm a notoriously terrible tease." Kita offers the man a wink.

Then, of course, Uta has her attention. "You'd be better off asking Xander about armor, it's not really something I use." She motions at her gothic attire, "It gets in the way of my kind of magic. I'd suggest getting some training before trying to head into the tower, regardless." There is an ever so subtle fidget in her hands, which might suggest a hint of her own anxiety about that sort of thing.

"Mmm. Goblins is what I've been hearing through the Scale channels. Nasty little buggers, too. I think I'll be more than happy to continue to work on building up Tolbana rather than fighting on the front lines."

Schneider adds, "Oh yeah, the place is swarming with goblins," corroborating Kita's comment belatedly. "Proph and I were trying to figure out why, or how they were doing a thing. He was, anyhow, and I went to help. We grabbed one of their items, but had to run away." He can only shrug. He's a bit new and wildly non-investigative, so he can't offer deeper insight. "But," he says as Uta hides, "They're not here."

He smiles widely as Kita gives him a more familiar greeting, and he replies, "Yoroshiku!" The game gives him the dialogue in Japanese in any event, so he's not confused. He took English in school, but he's not that great. He shrugs about her being a tease, and explains, "I'm pretry new to all the player interaction stuff as well. The newbie quests were all dealing with Landers, so... but I wasn't advancing very fast, so I figured I'd start questing with the more advanced gamers." As far as goblins go, he nods, "They're pretty ferocious. But not very tough. Be prepared for sneaky, also."

Vertina looks fairly unsurprised at Uta's reaction. "Is it wrong that I'm kind of getting use to things like this..." she muses mainly to herself.

"Goblins are a nasty little blight," Vertina agrees. "Been on a few Duties involving them, and if you're dealing with goblins you're likely dealing with traps and other dirty tricks."

    Uta peeks out from behind the rocks, and after some hesitation, returns into view, putting up a stern facade, but her flattened, trebling wings kind of tell another story. "Fought them once. I don't like them. Not at all," she sighs at Vertina. "But. Yes. Happier discussions. Armor!" This time it's Kita turn to be addressed. "It's... also something I normally don't use much. My martial artes require maximum freedom of movement. I've been relying on dodging rather than protection. But I'll ask Xander if there are options. I'd also rather wait far back and patch up people who come back from the front." She turns to Schneider, "And I'm very much of a newbie myself, so, uh, Schneider it was, right? So I'm in a similar situation."

"Well, with our new lives here, player interaction is going to be the larger part of what we do." Kita explains as she finishes packing the remainder of the rocks into her bag, save for one. She motions the wagon owner that he can take the rest of the crate as she swipes her fingers in the air, pulling out a pencil and then starts to sketch on the stone.

"Having a job, making friends, falling in love..." The Imp's whipcord tail twitches, "It all exists inside the game now. It takes a little adjustment, but you get used to it." She looks up from the sketch, which looks to be a soldier of some sort at first glance. "I'm not as comfortable with the fighting, so I make myself useful in other ways."

She doesn't seem to have much to add about goblins, perhaps from lack of personal experience. "Maybe Vertina can help you out there?" Kita glances at the Salamander, "You're a martial artist, right? What sort of armor do you suggest?"

Schneider ohs at Uta being a newbie as well. "Then yeah, we're in the same situation," he agrees. He's not wearing armor, himself, apparently trusting to his magical defenses. "Do you know any shielding magic?" he asks Uta. "That's normally how casters defend themselves, I thought. It's -my- go-to for defense, at least."

He nods at what Kita says about things existing in the game, though he says, "I don't think we'll be in here long enough to do /all/ of that. The whole point is, we're working on clearing the tower so we can escape, right?" He shrugs about fighting, he is definitely a fighty-type.

Vertina holds up an arm to tap the bracer with a few fingers. "You're right, us Kung-fu fighters need to stay light and mobile. You want things like arm guards and shin protectors."

The salamander makes a few channeling motions and takes a stance, a cycle of air briefly whips around her. "Elemental defenses help too."

Vertina rises back to her full height casually. "Also doesn't hurt to have protection for your hands and feet so your blows don't hurt yourself. That's what I've been working on."

    Uta listens with mild discomfort at Kita mentioning that people have 'new lives.' It's small hints in her body language. Shifting position, twitching of fingers, stiffening of wings. "...I don't plan to fall in love," she finally declares. "If we don't get out soon enough, my long term plans involve becoming a crazy slime lady, thank you very much." She hurries to explain, in a subdued tone, "...as in, you know, collecting slimes. Not being one. Just to be clear."

    "I don't have any shielding magic, no. My defense options are pretty much... deflecting the blow or getting out of the way." A nod is given in Vertina's direction. "Yes. That's exactly the thing. We need to-"

    Uta blinks at the circle of air. "...I'm stealing that one," she declares, quietly, a limp index finger instinctively raising towards the effect.

A soft laugh follows as Kita shakes her head, "In the beginning, I would have agreed with you, but..." Motioning a hand at the tower, "Here we are, five months in, and we're only on the fifth floor. You do the math." If there isn't any change in the current rate of tower progress... then it could be easily eight years or more before they are able to reach the top.

She smirks then, nodding to Uta, "It's a worthy enough persuit. Slimes that is. Still, connecting with people is important." The Imp lifts her shoulders in a soft shrug.

With the discussion shifting to combat, "I mostly use shielding magic, myself. If you can't tell by the general look, I wasn't exactly athletic in the real world." She has that gothic, punk, lolita thing going on, and the glasses just make her look nerdy. "I've been trying to work on better ways of protecting myself, but... art comes first." She taps her pencil on the little piece of rock.

Schneider hrms as Vertina gives more martial artsy advice than he could. It sounds good to him, not like he could comment one way or the other. He's technically a martial caster, but he's not -that- martial, for all that he wears a hand-and-a-half sword at his hip. Keen observers will spot that it's starter gear as well, apparently he's not as advanced as all that. He peers at Uta, declaring her goal in life, and takes a half-step away. In case the crazy is catching. He ohs as to her not having magic defenses. He's confused about talents and capabilities in others.

He shakes his head to Kita, though, and says, "No, no, it's a good pace. If we do a floor a month, it's only a ... oh wow, that -is- a long time." He'd calculated it before, but he'd gotten a different result. "100 months is like eight years. Still," he insists, "It's like college, plus an advanced degree. There's still time after to live a full life when we get out."

"My preferred defense is to kill the monster before it can kill me!" Vertina adds with a boisterous laugh. "But seriously, even if I am mainly a DPS build I speed more than enough time up in monsters' personal space to need a defensive technique or two."

Then rests her hands on her hips. " I'm mainly here for the challenge and excitement. But if it helps the people that want or need to go home, all the better."

    Uta continues, "Oh, I plan to make lots of friends! And help people a lot with my medical skills. I am, as you might have noticed, quite the social type. But given a choice, I would just draw the line at dating." She frowns. "...given the choice. Sad thing is, this game seems to have started to limit our choices," she mumbles, darkly.

    She seems to follow Schenider's talking with the mild discomfort she had up to now, but something he says makes Uta go completely rigid: wings perked, teeth gnashed, fists squeezed as hard as they go. It's' a moment, a twitch, but it happened.

    She shakes her head. She's clearing whatever thought she had, and scrambles to take the discussion into a different direction hopefully not as dark as what she was thinking of before, "...I... I had never done the math. Eight years. Eight... years. This without taking into account the ever-increasing challenges dumped on us by the Waves of Calamity." Wait, this is the less-dark train of thought?

    She bites her lower lip. "...and that's assuming that just beating the tower is enough to get out, and that it isn't, I don't know, only the first step in a longer quest..."

    Her wings flop down, her shoulders slump, and after staggering around some, she sits onto a nearby rock, staring ahead of herself. "...that Crazy Slime Lady plan might actually not end up being a joke anymore..."

The simple fact is, Kita isn't an optomistic ray of sunshine. Sure, she hasn't given up on getting out of this cursed game, not by a long shot. But she understands all too well just how much they are losing every day that they spend here. "It's hard to think about." Her pencil stills.

Realizing that diving further down that rabbit hole would be a bad idea, she clears her throat, "I'm mainly DPS and utility, but I'm not a fan of up close and personal combat."

Her expression softens as she looks over at Uta. "We keep trying, that's all that really matters." It's hard to tell if she believes her own words or not. "I've got people to fight for, so that keeps me going."

Schneider chuckles, nods to Vertina, "That's my style as well," he explains. His style is best summarized as Kill It With Fire. If Fire doesn't work, his go-to is More Fire. As to why he's here, he says, "I was just trying it to see what all the fuss was. This is my first computer game /at all/." As far as wanting or needing to go home, that's him. "It -is- pretty exciting," he agrees. "But I'd really like to get home and get on with my life."

He says to Uta, "I don't think the game is going to make you date anyone." Though it'd be an interesting pick-up line. If there were bars here where you went to pick up girls. The game is compelling me to date you! I've got a debuff, if I can't get a date I'm gonna die! No, that's probably a bit farfetched. "Well," he offers to Uta, "Eight years and change is a pretty long quest as it is. But. As we get our act together, we might start to /pick up/ the pace. Who can say?"

He nods at what Kita says, "Right. If we all keep at it, then we'll get out sooner or later. Anyhow, people outside will figure out how to rescue us before eight years are up, I'm pretty sure." As to his class mix, he admits, "My concept is DPS, but my skills are actually dead even between everything."

"My meat and bone legs barely work," Vertina says in such a casually offhand way it's a wonder it came up at all. "But while I may be happy staying longer doesn't mean I want everyone else to stay stuck. We'll find a way out, or the other side will find a way to rescue us."

    Uta looks around. "...my concept is... uh..."

    Oh, great. Gaming terms.

    "MKFN? As in... Musical Kung-Fu Nurse? Like... I punch things, I hit things with a stick..." She waves her staff, "...but mostly I sing songs and heal people. Sometimes I make music by punching things and sometimes I heal people by singing songs. I have not yet managed to heal people by punching them, but I'm working on that."

    She can't hold a genuine smile at Vertina's words. "I have heard of others in your situation. It must be a great feeling to have back some part of you you thought was forever lost."

"I'm not a huge fan of the 'flesh and blood' world, either, but for different reasons." Kita nods, her eyes carrying a hint of some sort of pain in them. "Socio-political bullshit." The girl shrugs. "But the real world is important for people I care about. So... here we are." She doesn't sound surprised by the admision, though, and her eyes flick over to Uta, as if perhaps the two of them might be talking about the same person.

She tucks the partially sketched up rock into her bag, then tucks the pencil behind her ear, "Still, nothing wrong with stumbling into someone you end up caring about on a video game. Wouldn't be the first or last time it has happened." Sure, for some people it might seem weird, but it does happen.

"Right now, though, the game is throwing a lot at us. It makes it hard to push the tower when there are other problems looming, too."

Schneider winces as Vertina mentions about her RL body. Now's not the time to mention he played basketball in highschool. But after eight years flat on his back, he's going to need a ton of rehab to even walk again. He nods about finding a way out, or rescue. "One or the other, yeah," he agrees. "Either one works."

Uta's MKFN-ness draws a boggle, and he admits, "I did not see that concept in the guide I read. But if you can make it work, that's great!" He will attempt an encouraging smile.

He agrees with Kita, and says a bit more succinctly, "I don't get to feeling romantic when there's a thousand goblins waiting for us on floor five and we haven't even found the boss yet." Or if we have, no one's told him.

"It certainly is," Vertina replies with a smile and nod. "I was given VR access as part of therapy to keep those areas of the brain strong. Kept playing because this is a kind of excitement I can't get otherwise."

    Uta laughs at Schneider's comments about her concept, "Well, I didn't pick it, and like it or not, I /have/ to make it work. It's not like I have a choice."

    She goes pensive for a while, as if considering a chess move. She paces, one hand held into the other behind her back. Facing away from the team, she finally says, "No health downgrades await me in the real world." She looks over her shoulder to the gathered people, "Well, if you don't count being a tiny bit older and not as acrobatic," she grins. "...I hope it isn't insensitive for me to mention this, given how... everyone seems to be worse off by getting out, I might be the one in this team who will have no drawbacks to speak of."

Kita laughs then, shaking her head with a bemused look at Schneider, "Well, I don't think goblins are many people's 'type'." She rolls her eyes, but leaves it at that.

Then, tugging on the bag on her shoulder, the Imp replies, "Honestly, my life would be pretty normal if I went back. So we're pretty much in the same boat." She offers Uta a small smile at that, "There are just certain things I would change about the world if I could. Things that no one gives a shit about here."

Kita doesn't elaborate on that, and instead she just grabs for her witch's hat which had been hung on the edge of the wagon, pulling it on. "I'm going to head to HQ and get to work. Wagons should be good to go up to Tolbana. Make sure they get taken directly to the construction site and that you don't let anyone mess with them."

Schneider nods to Vertina about the VR Therapy thing. "That's pretty cool, actually. And yeah, it -is- pretty exciting," he admits. Basketball's pretty good, too, but you don't get to incinerate goblins playing basketball. He nods to Uta, "That's the same as me, more or less," he says, in reference to no health downgrades in RL. "There's no drawbacks for me, really, apart from not being able to hurl fireballs in real life," he admits.

He nods to Kita as she directs the wagons to head out, and he salutes, inexpertly, and says, "I'll make sure no one gets to them." And he will nod to the wagon driver, setting him to getting the wagon rolling, and he'll follow after.

Vertina actually chuckles a little. "No Uta you should be happy about such things. Always be thankful for the health you have." Vertina folds her hands behind her head. "I do have family to take care of me when needed... and probably put me back to work behind the inn bar cuz I can sit down for that!" She laughs. "In a way the Dragon's Larder is like opening a new branch of a family business." She leans back a little to look upward. "I should probably get back to Tolbana as well."