MMORPG Avatars: The Last Teabenders.

In the open space outside of the Peko ranch, a table has been set.

It's hidden behind the monster barn, in an area set up with martial Artes practice mannequins, wooden gym equipment, et cetera. It must be Uta's training grounds, but this time, as said, there is an addition: a table, on which rests a container of powdered green tea. The gentle summer breeze carries the aroma of the preparation with it, tickling the nostrils of the onlookers. Or should we say 'onsmellers'? Anyway. Cups, brushes, and other tea-preparation implements are resting next to it.

"Alright, folks!", Uta announces, hands behind her back, as she paces. "Time for our scheduled gathering. Since I have forgotten whether we were supposed to have a martial arts training session or just chill with an informal tea together, I've decided I'd prepare for both at once, so I wouldn't be wrong either way. Today, we're going to make..." She spins in place, swipes an empty wooden cup from the table, and martial-arts-extends it with a straight arm towarsd the rest of the folks gathered here. "...elemental magic tea!" She stands there for a second, then taps her chin. "It's a first step towards reasearching the elemental magic toaster, I suppose..."

Goldenblade has arrived at the tea training party a bit early and has gotten a good seat. Alas, no sundress for her today, apparently Gwen has given up. She's in her usual mail shirt and leggings, though she is attempting to look dainty. She is not particularly successful at this. The elemental magic tea is a bit of a puzzler, and she wonders, "What -is- elemental magic tea?" Though she can probably already manage the water boiling part. She's quite well-known, at this point, as a master of Fire.

But for the moment, she'll wait and see what this is all about. Uta is always interesting, and can generally teach her things abuot the game in ways that are less complicated than what others teach.

Kauchemar ... just puts fingertips to her brow in an expression of exasperation. "I'm not sure if I should laugh or groan at those leaps of logic." This is what she gets for letting herself be regulated to 'Uta-tending duty'.

Let's face it. Uta-tending duty is the closest to keeping an Unspeakable Horror sealed away one can get, at the moment.

"The thing is, I know nothing about the traditional tea ceremony. I suppose I should learn at some point," Uta rambles on. "But for now, we just wing it. SO!", she exclaims, and points at Goldenblade. "Glad you asked, Paula! Elemental Magic Tea, or EMT for short, is a series of procedures for reviving your soul on the brink of being crushed. It's..." she scratches her head. "Well, it's tea, except you make it with Magic and Sword Artes. Water from Water magic, boil the water with fire magic, cast tea with air magic, not sure if Earth magic is useful for anything. Can it manipulate plants? Never tried that. In that case I suppose we could use it to control the tea particles?" She scratches her head. "Anyway-"

All of a sudden, she flings the shallow wooden bowl, frisbee style, towards the other two. "FILL IT WITH WATER MAGIC! NOW!", she exclaims in Kauchemar's direction as she launches into a dramatic, dyanmic pointing pose. You've seen shounen anime. You know the pose.

Not having any water magic of her own, she prepares her Wind Arte to deflect the cup back once it's been filled. "Goldenblade, we are going to need to BOIL it with fire magic afterwards!"

Goldenblade is paying attention as Uta explains the Elemental Magic Tea, though she wonders, "Wouldn't the tea be Earth? Since tea is a leaf?" Though in Asian pre-scientific elementalism, Wood was it's own element, and covered plants. She seems to remember. But the game seems to be based on the classical Greek elemnts, so Earth covers plants because they grow in earth?

But this is all speculation as she heats up, swirls of flame appearing in her upturned palms, ready to apply heat to this kettle as we engage in something more like Combat Tea Ceremony than the traditional one. She's at least seen it, though not recently.

"The power to harness the essence of great seas and crushing tides and you want to use it to..." Kauchemar sighs again as she hair flips bangs out of her face. "I suppose there are less elegant applications of mundane utility." With a twirling dismissive wave of her hand she conjures an orb of water and flings it into the bowl.

"It's training!", Uta exclaims. Her focused stare directed at the water-filled wooden bowl she's tossing a teapot in the direction of. She seems to have realized a bit too late that flaming a wooden bowl might not be the best of ideas, but at least she has. "Great seas and crushing tides begin as a raindrop. As a trickle from a stone in the highest mountains. It is only through patience and ever flowing downward that greatness can eventually be achieved."

Hands pulled to her side, fists pointing in opposite direction, one ahead and one back, she twists her torso while inhaling, in a charging movement, then she releases all the energy with a snap-thrust of ther hands forward, advancing one step in the process. A ball of wind and lightning departs, blasts the two items, and sends the wooden cup, enveloped in blue bolts, flying towards Kauchemar, while the teapot departs the opposite way towards Goldenblade. "Now!"

Goldenblade nods about training. Training is good. She concentrates as Uta does what she does, which is sometimes all you can say about Uta, and then there's a teapot flying toward her. She catches it, her hands wreathed in flames, and she concentrates fiercely. The traditional brass teapot begins to discolor a bit as the heat is applied. Probably too hot for boiling water, though thankfully not hot enough to melt brass. It's absolutely hot enough to boil water, and steam quickly emerges from the kettle, which she guesses she's supposed to toss back to Uta. "It's hot," she warns.

    June is wandering on a nice day, sure it's cloudy but it's fine weather. The middle aged slightly round around the hips and middle librarian looking woman, dressed as always in her barbarian finest. A scale mail bikini and fur cloak. She looks like she's trying to cosplay much more than she does a warrior of power and renown.

Kauchemar holds up a hand to catch the cup after tilting her head out of the way. And freezing over her hand with Frost Armor for insulation. "Don't get all zen on me." Bobs her head in June's direction. "Also you're going to need more cups."

Uta playfully replies, "I think I might have a couple extra cups. And I am totally going zen on you! Going zen on people is one of the few things I can still-"

Lower lip bite.

Uta's hands glow red with damage as the scalding pot is caught. "....INSULATED GLOOOVES!!!", she exclaims. A strange thing to exclaim when undergoing what, by the looks of it, would be a third degree burn in the real world. Thank goodness for the pain dampener.

Luckily for Uta, she was spinning in place as she caught, so her movement just continues to spin around, and eventually release the scalding object in June's direction. As she does so, she blows on her hands. Which... /are/ gloved. It's just plain white gloves instead of proper insulating gloves.

Goldenblade did warn Uta, wincing as she reacts to the heated kettle. "Insulated gloves are good," she agrees. They would have been super useful just a moment ago, she realizes. "Ah, are you OK?" she asks worriedly. She smiles as June arrives, waving weakly, explaining, "It's a local variant of tea ceremony."

    June, turns with a grace and speed that her old maid auntbod doesn't really look like she should posess. Her hands redirect the pot to the ground while not touching long enough to lose more than a hitpoint or two. She looks at it on the ground "I don't recall any tea ceremony that requires flying pots." she says then switches to Sindarin (Tolkein Elvish) "Now Junie, be good, don't get angry this was obviosly an accident no one here is an enemy." she breaths in, breaths out. Then switching to Japanese "Hello I'm June, Junko, Arima Junko, it's good to meet you." she bows hands to thighs.

"Well, yes. Insulation. Or maybe I just wanted ICEd tea." Kauchemar quips as she sets the cup aside. "It's a ceremony. But Uta happened," she remarks to June like that would explain everything.

It kind of does, but only if you actually know Uta to get it.

Uta the Aerielist, who was just able to conjure a powerful blast of wind capable of blasting the teapot towards Goldenblade, resorts to her majestic air powers to deal with the situation at hand.

By blowing on her hands.

Okay, er... her powers might be in cooldown? She can't have forgotten about all that air power crammed into her, can she?

"*blow* *blow* *shake hands* *blow* Hello, Junko! I'm Uta. Furore Uta. Uta Furore. Aerialist. Spriggan. Musical Kung-Fu Nurse. Student of Slimes. *blow*"

"...we were having a tea ceremony. It definitely was an accident. Nobody here is an enemy." She turns towards Kauchemar. "We do have an antagonist though." She extends her hands again towards June, as if for preventing objections, even leaning forward to underline the attitude. "Buuuuuuut she's the good kind of antagonist. The one who will gladly warn you when someone is out to kill you. See, there are two types of antagonists." She extends her fingers to show the number 'two', then starts counting on them as she enumerates the possible cases, "Those who want you dead, and those who want you stronger. Then there's those who stare right back into you as you stare into them- wait." She frowns at her fingers, alternating between making the gestures for 'three' and 'two', in confusion.

Goldenblade nods as Uta explains about the tea ceremony attempt. "Not a traditional one, of course," she points out. She's seen it done, if a while back. As far as the antagonist thing goes, the best GB can do is look puzzled. "Who's an antagonist?" Those who want you stronger aren't antagonists in her book, they're trainers.

    June nods her head "It's nice to meet you Furore-san." she says and as an almost after thought she glows with golden light and touches Uta's hands healing them. "I'm a Shadowfist myself, WereFang my breed was created using the Lybian beast or Lybian gorgon." she says "It was a great iron clad bull that breaths toxic fog that can paralyze and petrify." she says nodding. "I was pretty competitively ranked before the Black Wave." she says "Lots of PVP and PVE, I'm a Linguist by trade working for game companies making languages and fonts for their lore in RPGs. It's good work when you can get it, and besides they don't mind so much if a creative type is a bit excentric and never leaves the house and even that time I punched a guy at the company new years party no one got all that mad cause he was one of the directors but he was th eone who always called for last minute changes and so everyone just laughed when Crazy old Junko punched him in his smug mouth after he touched my ass." and now she's not sure where she started. "Uhmm... we were talking about tea right?"

Kauchemar rolls her lavender eyes as Uta goes off on a ramble yet again. "Antagonist. Rival. Muse. Depends on the mood." An equine ear flicks in Goldenblade's direction. "One doesn't need to be evil to be the opposition others must better themselves to overcome."

Uta stands still, silent.

She looks up and away and taps her lips. "I once knew someone who got fired for not punching anyone. Poor Kenjiro. Worst boxer I've ever met." She shakes her head. "But it's nice"

"...yes, we were definitely talking about tea. Don't punch it. Fire it. Don't write on it, but it's okay to read the future in the residue. Good ol' Tasseology league. I guess we could make it into a spectator sport in this world. It wouldn't even involve punching anyone. Wait, it would. Because ETO. I joined right in time for the apocalypse. I haven't played videogames since I was a kid and I have no idea of what PVP or PVE mean, but I've heard of PVC. I also studied languages, but mostly Greek, Latin, and various European ones in varying degrees of fluency. But not as a linguist. It was mostly literature. That's not what I was by trade. I waited tables. I never asked, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have let me do that from home."

Silence.

"We were talking about tea. So, uh, yes."

Silence.

"I've just realized... everything since the Apocalypse is technically a neverending New Year's Party during which we've been punching people non-stop."

Goldenblade ohs as introductions are going around, she hadn't realized. And she's worked with June before, so she'd assumed we'd already gotten introduced. But she offers, "Just call me Goldenblade." Because her fullname overflows the window, when she's inspected, and Uta's generally the only one to use any of it. To Kauchemar, she says, "A rival's pretty different than an antagonist, I think. I mean, unless you're making a sports movie, then sure, the rival is your antagonist. But here, with monsters trying to kill us, I think someone competing against you to help you improve, and not trying to kill you, is definitely not an antagonst." Uta's commentary draws a blank stare that continues. She has no reaction past a, "Huh...?" New years party? "Punching people?" She's completely lost now.

    June nods her head "Ooh yah I guess it kind of can be considered a long New Years since that's what we were all doing when the world kind of stopped." she taps her lips "Well I was stuck in Ezzo so most of my party has been eating cardboard while stuck on a beach in a huge crowd occasionaly punching glowing walls or beating up people who thought they should have my stuff." she shrugs a bit "But then you guys all started bringing us back, which was real nice of you, I saw lots of people try to swim and get eaten by the monsters in the ocean so yah that was pretty terrible and there were people who were exploting newbies and lots of other bad stuff so Adventurers can certainly be antagonists." she licks her lips "Ooh hey Goldenblade, we were in a PUG together weren't we?" she turns back to Uta "I have to buy all my tea and food and stuff from people who know how to make it cause every time I try everything catches on fire and then explodes and tastes worse than if I menu crafted it." she sticks her tongue out. "But I did eat leaves for a while... that wasn't so bad, as long as I shift first pretty much anything green tastes okay, and bark isn't bad if you chew it right off the tree... if you don't have herbology you basically just eat the tree where it's standing or you just ruin everything."

"Did I not just say it depends on the mood. On what the story needs." Equine nostrils flare. "What are you expecting? Maniacal laughter over some ill conceived scheme to dominate all of Yamato?"

With that Kauchemar leaps to her hooves, arms flexed at her sides with palms up and fingers deviously curled, while throwing her head back with diabolical glee. "AND THE NIGHT. SHALL LAST. FOREVER! MUWAHAHAHAH!" There's even a peal of ominous thunder and flash of lightning briefly thanks to her sorcerous powers.r
Then sits back down like nothing happened. "Please, I have more style and dignity than that."

Uta replies to Goldenblade, "There are many misunderstandings about the figure of an antagonist. An antagonist can be another person, with agency, usually having a motivation that /involves/, rather than explicitly consisting of, conflict with the protagonist. The antagonist usually wants something, and the protagonist wants something as well, and the two's plans overlap and rub together. Mind you, they might want the same thing. But merely differ on the perceived method of obtaining it. This is the case when both the protagonist and antagonist come to oppose each other, and the protagonist must contend with the antagonist to achieve their goal."

Uta begins pacing, chin tilted up and gaze lost in the distance, one hand behind her back and one finger circling in the air, like some sort of lecturer. "But the antagonist does not have to be /human/, no. It can be an animal. It can be a feeeling. Or even an atmospheric phenomenon, a disaster, the entierety of the human race... the list could go on. It's just a /force/ that works against the protagonist's goals, that's all."

She stops, spins on her heels, and looks at June again. "...now, anyway. Can you explain what PVP and PVE mean? I-" She shakes her head. "No, no, nevermind. They're probably too complicated a game concept. I'd never understand them."

Uta frowns at the Lybian gorgong Were fang, "...you were in a... what?" She looks between Goldenblade and June. "We have giant man-eating pugs?" She clasps her hands together and her eyes glimmer. "Sooooooo adorable!" She looks away. "And terrible." Back to the glimmering eyes. "But soooooooo adorable! But so terrible..."

Snap-point at June. "Right! I remember that! I do that too! I thought of weaponizing it by biting the stem and leaves off, and tossing it like an incendiary grande! Vegan warfare. Sustainable. Because we gotta think of preserving this world when we set out to set it ablaze."

Uta frowns at June again. "Soo... if you can pull off that kind of chewing... does it mean that... your bite is stronger than your bark?"

When Kauchemar is done, Uta is there staring in admiration.

"Encore!"

Goldenblade huhs to June. "A pug? Like a little dog?" She's definitely a competitor for most clueless noob. She blinks as Kauchemar goes melodramatic, and golf-claps at the performance. "Well, that's what I expect from an antagonist, yes," she admits. "This game was written by people that write stories. It's not related to real life villains..."

And then the explanation of antagonists from Uta. "What is this, college writing classes?" But Uta's long-winded explanation, after a moment of reflection, meets with a nod. "Ok, yeah. An antagonist is someone working against you, yeah."

    June looks at Kauchemar "Nightmare Moon did it better." she says "PVP is just when you fight adventurers, PVE is when you fight monsters, PUGs are Pick Up Groups like when you don't know people but go on a quest together not giant man eating puppies." she nods "Oh well that depends my bite was worse than the tree's bark... but my bark is iron if you count scales as bark since I'm an animal not a plant." she shrugs "But I don't have to eat trees now that I'm off Ezzo and I can trade money for real food." she nods her head

    "Weather and stuff is more an antagonizing force rather than an antagonist since most weather don't have agency, but that's not one hundred percent true since we did have that one storm where the mages tower hired people to go like talk to it or whatever." she says "I didn't make that one. But I'm sure it was a charged situation." she nods

Kauchemar smirks faintly at June. "Well, darn me, I wasn't expecting anyone here to get the reference." Which goes back to her usual 'Uta being Uta' stare at the Spriggan. "And of course you, despite that insightful shpeel, are still impressed by arcane theatrics."

Then points a finger at Golden. "You're also in the Duelist's League. Come fight me sometime, see for yourself where those lines can cross."

Uta nods fiercely at Goldenblade. "Adorable little dog, except giant and man-eating. It would be quite a sight to see!"

Then June start speaking, and Uta goes silent while the Gorgon Were Fang does. "Electrically charged?", Uta asks June after she's done.

"...what can I say? I'm a sucker for a good show. Guilty pleasure."

Goldenblade ahhs as June explains the acronyms. "I see." She huhs to Kauchemar, but says, "I'll fight any time you like. And I entirely expect you to win and like it. I'm just doing it to learn how, and I'm not very good at it. Best I can say is I'll make you work for it. But I wouldn't call you a villain unless you kept fighting after the fight was over." Uta, as seems to be consistently the case, draws another puzzled experssion. Giant, man-eating, and adorable don't really go together for her. "Anyway, I need to get back to my forge, I have a bunch of stuff going on." To Kauchemar, she says, "If you want to fight me, say the word. The more I fight, the more I learn. I actually won one, finally, just the other day."

    June nods her head "Ooh I grew up in Las Vegas, I keep up with American TV." she says "I mean I watch TV here at home too... well not now of course cause there is no TV now, but that means I need to find more books or see what it is the Landers do for fun like theatre or books or something I guess. I duno maybe they have crystal balls or something I haven't asked I should ask." she nods her head and licks her lips. "Oooh hey I was coming to find out about Pekos and like rentals or purchase or something so I can move around more. Also while I'm here I don't suppose any of you have seen any lost or cryptic writings from forgotten ages anywhere? Or monster writing like from Goblins or Orcs or anything?" she lifts a hand to Golden waving. "Nice seeing you again."

Uta looks around. "We're all in the league? We should definitely battle each other then!" Side-glance to Kauchemar. ".../again/, in some case." Eyes narrowed. "I demand a rematch! You won't win so easily, next time!"

Uta blinks at June. "Uhm... well, I had to research some Old Gnomish scrpture at some point, but I think that was the extent of it." She scratches the back of her head. "I didn't keep up with TV much. Just caught whatever was airing in the restaurant, or whatever was on in my family's home. I also tended to be more the bookish type- hey, which reminds me, want to help me with a thing? I'm looking for someone who can help me copy a book or two... would you be up for the task?" June seems like good people but... she probably is best not trusted with secrets. So... best to tell only /part/ of the story. "Baroness Wake, like all self-respecting nobles, will need a private library in her castle, and I'm planning to help her setting it up..." Again, that's not a lie. She looks around, conspirationally, leans over to June, and whispers, "If we play our cards right, we might get access to her titles whenever we want."

Uta. Master of the 'true, but misleading.'

June nods her head "Well, if it involves reading writing or translating you've got your girl." she says with a laugh. "A chance to copy books is a chance to read books and that means more lore but more than that it means more chance to find any of the script or languages they might have made and see if it matches older Elder Tales stuff."