A meeting outside the tournament

Yeowang is running briskly around Castle Eas this morning, her breath misting in the cool winter air. It's almost springtime, but not quite, but the time of year doesn't seem to affect the runner beyond a light jacket over her running clothes. Of course running keeps jer plenty warm, so that's not an issue. Her long hair, waist-length when down, is gathered atop her head in a loose bun, tied with a short cord, and she runs easily, clearly not pushing herself too hard. It's just a warm-up after all.

Yeowang ends her run, having circled the castle a few times, by returning to her small camp just outside the village, where a campfire burns slowly and a tent is staked out precisely. It's a somewhat large tent for one person, but she's the only one around it.

    One of the benefits of wearing a poncho is that one can wear whatever one wants under it and still be able to have one's fashion. Naniko is NOT running, at least not at the moment. She is, however, taking advantage of the fire. She gives a slight smile and a raised hand in greeting of Yeowang, waiting to be chased off or greeted, whatever the case.

Yeowang neither chases off nor greets, immediately, rather she Inspects. Then she greets, a polite, "Good morning," to someone who turns out to be a Guildmate she hasn't met yet. "How do you do?" she asks, settling into some post-run stretches. She at least seems to take her physical fitness seriously, which probably doesn't matter in the game. But she's doing it, regardless.

"Did you come to watch the Tournament?" she wonders curiously, referring to the big fighting tournament going on in the arena closeby. "Or just out exploring?" Her tone is a bit formal, but her attitude is a bit stuffy.

    The blue-haired woman looks at the castle, then back at Yeowang. "I'm going to be honest, I've had my nose in books long enough recently that I kind of didn't know there was a tournament." She scratches above one of her aquamarine eyebrows. "I hit a dead-end and decided to go for a walk. So, I guess exploring?" she says.

Yeowang nods gravely about nose in a book, and exploring. "Welcome to Eas, then," she says, "and to my campsite. I'm Yeowang," she explains, in case Naniko didn't inspect her, she's seen a few who regard that as prying, but she's not one of them. "I'm with Grandeur also, so if no one else has, I will welcome you to the Guild also." She bows her head. "We're in a somewhat tumultuous period at the moment, but that's complicated to explain." She smiles.

"Not that I won't explain it, it's just a bit long-winded," she goes on with a wry expression. "But, have you eaten yet?"

    Naniko shakes her head. "I haven't," she admits. "I was just going to use the menus before I got back to work." She rubs her arms with her hands, hugging herself over her flowing overgarment. "I'm Naniko," she says, if only for politeness, since it was obvious she'd been inspected.

Yeowang sighs heavily at menu food. Tasteless, but adequate. "I do that far too often," she admits. "At first, it was jarring, compared to what I was used to at home, then they worked out about cooking. But hand-cooked food is still a bit of a luxury item." If she has any, she's not offering to share, but what she pulls from her inventory is more of tasteless menu-prepared stuff, so perhaps she has none. "What sort of work do you do?" she wonders curiously.

    "I'm technically a Jeweler," Naniko says. "My passion is unlocking secrets, though. Either physically unlocking or just figuring stuff out." She furrows her brow. "Or did you mean the Waveblade thing?" She blushes slightly. "I'm sorry. You think I'd be used to giving these answers by now."

Yeowang arches a brow at the mention of class and profession, but explains, "You'd said you were going to use the menu before getting back to work, so I was merely asking what sort of work you were getting back to. If you don't mind my asking, of course." But since class has come up, she admits, "I am called a Shadowfist, myself. It's somewhat melodramatic, I think, given what I do. But I suppose it is a conceit of the game, to have class names sound a certain way."

    Naniko nods. "I'm an Undine. Water stuff comes very easy for me for that and a lot of other reasons. Waveblade sounded like it fit, but honestly, it works for me as a person, too." She stretches her arms out to her sides and stands on tip-toe. "I've just been studying darkness magics," she says before rocking back on her heels. "I've got the basics, but I want more advanced knowledge so I can get a certain technique."

Yeowang hrms thoughtfully at Undines fitting well with being a Waveblade. "I see," she says, and nods about it working out for her as a person. "That's fortunate. I chose this because it seemed close to what I was familiar with in real life. But it turns out to be more complicated than that. I'm not very good with the magic bits when they come up, and I'm not clear on /why/ they come up. Apparently a function of the game design?" She shrugs.

"As far as Darkness magic, I can't tell you much about that, myself, though I apparently have some small facility for it. More advanced stuff is definitely beyond my skill level. But if you have any questions about physical training or martial arts, I may be able to help."

    "I'm not much of a martial fighter," Naniko admits. "I'm okay with it, and if you hand me just about any weapon, I can probably use it. Magic is easier for me than fighting, but I prefer to just...avoid fighting in general. Avoid fighting, avoid enemy detection, get in and out with the prize and leave the monsters for someone else, you know?"

Yeowang considers that, nods slowly. "I see," she says, nodding thoughtfully about using any weapon. "That's useful, I think," she supposes. "I have been in more than a few situations where the shadow part of shadowfist would have been useful. But I'm used to fighting in the ring, so I suppose learning to rely on stealth and subterfuge would be alien as learning magic. As far as prizes go, I suppose I'm your opposite. I can take or leave the prize, but the fight is my focus."

    Naniko nods and considers Yeowang's words. "Sounds like a decent one-two punch," she says. "You punch them in the face, and I grab what they're guarding while they're distracted by being one-two punched in the face."

Yeowang allows a small smile at the quip. "Teamwork is important in everything," she agrees. "From the advanced dungeons to world exploration, to economic development." Which may not seem like a typical MMO task, but Yeowang is not a typical MMO player. "There is so much to do in this game, which I'm sure you've noticed, and we all seem to keep several things going at a time. No single focus here. But there are efficiencies in collaboration. It's not the same as economies of scale, but it's not /too/ different."

    "Yeah, I get that," Naniko says. She runs a hand over her short hair. "I know my view isn't particularly popular with some people, but I don't think this is a game, anymore. It's familiar like the game, but I believe God created a new world based off it for whatever reason, and we're all new creations." She shrugs. "I mean..." She trails off. "It's important to do economic stuff," she admits. "Infrastructure building. Take back the water so my people can use our gills like nature intended. You know, all that stuff baked into the starting conditions of this world."

Yeowang admits, "I don't know about that. But whether it's a game or not, there's certain things we have to do to succeed. And there's benefits to working together on a few of them. Certianly some of the largest projects -can- only be completed by a group. But infrastructure helps everyone, I think. But we all tend to help one another succed when and as we can. I'm working on some new techniques, myself, but I'm trying to help a Guildmate of ours work on a thing she has going also. So, if you need help, let me know, and we shall see what may be done by getting the whole Alliance together."

    "Thank you," Naniko says with a slight bow. "I will." She rubs her hands on her hips and says, "I wish I had put more into cooking. I used to be able to cook, but in here, it's like I can't remember the steps to take to fry an egg. One thing I think would get the economy going is a really good restaurant. Even a McDonalds would make a killing."

Yeowang admits, "I never cooked for myself back in the real world, but a close friend of mine was an excellent cook, and it'd be convenient to have her here in the game. But there are several players, even within the Alliance, who run restaurants that hand-make real food, and the taste -is- wonderful. Master Hifumi, who runs a ryokan," which is a type of traditional inn, "And Erufu, though I'm not sure exactly what her restaurant offers. They do well, among adventurers, as you can imagine."

    Naniko sighs as Yeowang calls Earth 'the real world', further implying this world isn't real, despite it feeling more real by the day, at least to the blue-haired girl. She listens to the talk of foods and says, "Has anyone figured out how to reproduce pizza, here?" she asks. "It doesn't have to be pepperoni. I just really want a slice. It's the thing I miss the most from Earth."

Yeowang isn't sure how else to refer to the place we all started from. This world is real enough that she can't dismiss it or ignore its quirks, but it's not the world she was born into. As far as reproducing pizza, she shrugs. "I hadn't asked. I think Hifumi does okonomiyaki, which is at least pizza-shaped. But it's made on a grill rather than in an oven, so I'm not sure. But we can ask on chimlink." She checks, "Were you briefed on chimlink?"

    Naniko shakes her head no. "I vaguely am aware of it, but I have been kind of avoiding using it. I have enough things to keep track of, usually."

Yeowang nods, but smiles. "I ignore it a great deal of the time. Sometimes the chatter is ... not conusive to clear thought. But for asking about specific issues, it can be useful. /If/ the players you want to speak to are awake and not distracted."

Yeowang initiates a conversation on the Alliance chimlink, gets a provisional answer and quite a lot of side-catter and not-so-useful comments. "There you go, then. Hifumi may be able to make such a thing, then."

    Naniko nods. "Well, I've had some good food since coming here," she says. "I miss pizza and burgers and tacos and stuff, but there's some really creative chefs here. I'm not really made of money, but I do treat myself now and again. It'd be nice to have a place to go for pizza, though, if someone can figure out a good recipe."

Yeowang nods about pizza, though as to burgers, she says, "Crescent Moon runs a restaurant in Carmina Gadelica," on the Isle of Beginnings, the newbie area, a few days away by boat and a fair hike, "that does burgers." She's not much of a pizza person, herself, so she can only shrug as to what might constitute a good recipe.

    Naniko listens to Yeowang talk for a while and smiles as she looks down at the fire. "I guess I need to look up from my books more," she says. She lets out a sigh. "I've let so much of this new world pass me by," she says as she rubs her tired eyes.

Yeowang gestures dismissively. "Don't let that distract you. I took a considerable time in the game to work out that I didn't need to achieve my same skill level as I had before. The game set everyone at a playable skill level, and it's simply a matter of participating in the world's events that will allow you to, well, become a person of a skill level appropriate to participating in events."

    Naniko smiles politely. "Not what I meant," she says. "I don't care about my skill level so much. I just...well, I feel bad for this world, this new creation we live in and I got to be here at the start of...I feel bad I let so much of it pass me by. You know, disconnect myself from what's actually happening. From life. From living here."

Yeowang can only shrug. "The world is what it is. While we are here, we do what we can. If you regret not taking action, if you regret anything, in general, don't focus on the regret. You'll just bring yourself down. Instead, focus on what you -can- do. To live your life in the way you'd like to."

    "Working on it," Naniko says with an agreeing nod. She breathes in and sighs, placing her hands on her sides just behind center, on either side of the small of her back. "Anyway, are you tournamenting or just camping out to watch?"

Yeowang shakes her head about the tournament. "Oh, I'm not anywhere close to tournament condition," she says. Which, ironically, is not the case at all. Just her opinion of her own condition relative to where she thinks she ought to be. "I'm still training and developing skills. So, yes, mainly here to watch, though the tournament host and I have some financial issues as well."

    "Financial issues?" Naniko asks, curiously. "You mean a disagreement?" she attempts to clarify.

Yeowang smiles, shakes her head, "Oh, quite the opposite. We've cooperated on things in the past. In addition to everything else, I'm chief of Yamato's only modern bank, so when she needs investment capital, we can loan it to her."

    Naniko furrows her brows, clearly curious about the situation. "Okay," she says, slowly. "So, if you run a bank, does she owe you money or something? I mean," she considers, hesitating, "I guess you don't have to tell me anything. I'm just curious. I don't like not knowing things."

Yeowang shakes her head about owing money. "Not yet," she says. "But perhaps in the future that can be arranged." She shrugs about not knowing things. "It's all right, since I brought the subject up, it'd be rude to withhold the data. If I hadn't been willing to talk about it, I wouldn't have brought it up."

    "Fair point," Naniko agrees. She looks back into the fire and takes a few long, slow breaths. "At some point, I'm going to have to figure out something to do." She reaches up with one hand and rubs the back of her neck. "I thought going for a walk would spark my creative juices, but I'm just as stuck now as I was when I left."

Yeowang hrms thoughtfully. "Well, another thing you can do on the chimlink is fish for ideas from people more skilled in your areas of curiosity than I am. But you are welcome at this campsite for as long as I am here. I will probably be returning to the Palace Lands," the Chinese server, across a substantial ocean that requires completing a special duty to get to, "when the tournament is done. But many are still over here in Yamato, and I'm sure they'd be happy to work with you. Or you could come join us in the Palace Lands."

    Naniko listens with polite focus. She smiles and shakes her head. "No, thank you. I wouldn't mind visiting there, but I feel like I need to reconnect with here, you know?" She looks at the fire again. "I may take you up on the offer to hang out here, though. A nice fire is nice."

Yeowang nods gravely about not heading over to the Palace Lands, for now anyhow. "By all means," she says. "There are more than a few still in Yamato, so you won't be alone. You do what you need to do." She smiles at taking her up on the offer. "By all means. I must get some things done, myself, though, so I will leave you to your cogitation." She bows her head, and will make her way off.