One Day in Shibuya

Yeowang is here in Shibuya doing a number of things, because she multitasks a lot. Sort of. Currently, her multitasking consists of gimping around with her ankle wrapped tightly, using a crude cane, technically convalescing, and managing at least two different projects, to judge by the different conversations she's having with Landers that come up, tell her about this or that, and then march off with their orders. Very occasionally, she makes a note in a small notebook.

    Naniko is sitting on a relatively large stone. Her legs are crossed, and her poncho covers most of her, hiding her form, especially with the hood up like it is. She currently is at least partially people-watching, but her idle hands are working with a tiny file on some bit of bone, other bits of this and that sitting in her poncho over her lap. Some have been worked, others have yet to be.

Yeowang will, in a pause between conversations with Landers, gimp on over to where Naniko is working on her bit of bone. "Good morning," she says cheerfully, looking over the bone working. "I see you've finally made it to our base here in Shibuya. This is sort of our central location, from which we fan out to do various things in the world." She smirks, looking around, then finding a wall to lean against. She explains, "I got a little too eager with my training, had to take a few days off."

    Naniko blows dust off of the bone she's filed some. "Well, I'm just exploring the world," she says. She looks down at Yeowang's leg. "I wish I had some kind of healing ability to help you." She scoots over on her rock. "You wanna sit with me? I'm just hanging out and watching people go about their business."

Yeowang will sit down on the space offered, smiling as she takes a load off. "I see," she says about exploring, and shrugs off the mention of healing. "It's not HP loss in any event," she says about the injury. "I was training and I landed wrong after a jump. And I'm not quite as light or agile as my friend who did Tae Kwon Do, who does flying kicks of all kinds and as far as I can tell, never misses a jump. I landed wrong, which I suppose was bound to happen sooner or later, and it'll be fine in another couple of days." She does have some minor healing skill, though she sees it more as experience in sports medicine than hand-wavey stuff.

    "Well," Naniko says, "I'm glad you didn't break something, at least." She looks over the carved bone snippit and runs her thumb over the lines carved into it. Seeming to be satisfied, she drops it into the mess of stuff in her lap and picks up something else to start working on. "You'll have to forgive me," she says, "I'm bad with names. I looked again. Hello, again, Yeowang."

Yeowang nods about being glad she hadn't broken something. "I was fortunate," she agrees, "It could have been worse, considering what I was doing. There's a lot of jumping around involved, and no one around to spot. I wish my friends from home were here, they would be well-suited, I think. Dal Dal, at least, for her cooking skill." She sighs wistfully.

But then she looks up and smiles, shaking off the bad-with-names. "Everyone's bad with names when you're meeting a lot of new people all at once," she says dismissively, and says, "In a few weeks, you'll know everyone."

    "Maybe," Naniko says. She looks around at the people around her. "I mean, I hope so," she admits. "Sometimes, I get so caught up in learning things hidden from me, I miss the obvious stuff right in front of me." She purses her lips and looks at Yeowang. "How'd the tournament go?"

Yeowang smiles warmly, and says, "You'll be fine. I took quite a long time, myself, to get my feet under me. I still find this game quite disorienting at times. I get caught up as well with things, so it's understandable." As far as the tournament went, she says, "Mikage from Silver Sword won."

    "Well, good for Mikage, then," Naniko says. She seems to mostly ignore the talk of the game. She turns a tooth the size of her thumb over in her hand, considering it. "I've never understood the appeal of tournaments, wrestling, boxing, or other contests like that," she continues. "One might race good-natured; I've seen clips of football players helping out opposing team members, because it's all a game and they're there to have fun. Can't imagine fighting as a physical game."

Yeowang shrugs at the appeal of tournaments. Where to even begin! "To each, their own," she says with a small shrug. "I've been doing tournaments for several years, before the game," she explains. "It was originally just to put an edge on my skills. Kicking sandbags will only get you so far, in that sort of training. My family is ... very security conscious, and so the best way to ensure security at all times is for everyone to be very highly trained. That way, even if your bodyguards are removed from the picture, no one can force or coerce you by getting in your face."

    "See, training for that makes sense to me," Naniko says. She slips the file into the shape-obscuring fabric covering her forearm and pulls out what looks like a tiny, manual drill. She begins drilling through the tooth so as to string it onto something. "What I don't get are the people who go into boxing just as if it's the same as baseball or tennis or something. No desire to apply their skills elsewhere, just...fight for the sake of fighting." She shrugs. "Then again, I'm kind of a nerd." She blows away some tooth dust and continues drilling.

Yeowang can only shrug as to why people want to fight for the sake of fighting. "I think in the end, it's a matter of how secure you are in your personal liberty. The stronger you are in a fight, the less people can force you. And of course if you're strong enough, you can help those you care about." She says dismissively, "Those who fight just for violence sake tend not to get very far in tournaments. Personal motivation is too important a factor. You would have to be wildly psychotic to get that far in a martial arts tournament, and at that level of psychosis, you're basically a drooling imbecile...."

    "I wouldn't know," Naniko says. She blows out a bit more tooth dust. She files a bit more through the tough tooth before she says, "I personally avoid fighting whenever possible. No judgements, though."

Yeowang nods about avoiding fighting. "I imagine that's not too hard to do, in the game. There's quite a lot to keep people occupied in the game entirely aside from fighting, so you'll probably be good to go. There are times when most of the Alliance will band together to defend the world from some global catastrophe, but they seem to have slowed or stopped recently, which is good. It's what's given us the window to travel to the Palace Lands."

    Naniko huffs out a sigh through her nose. "Yeah, I need to probably go there," she says. She huffs out a breath to blow away some more tooth dust. "I think I'd be more inclined to fight if we were taking back the oceans or something," she continues. "Gills are kind of uncomfortable in air." A beat. "Then again, lungs are kind of uncomfortable under water, so there's a trade-off."

Yeowang can only shrug about taking back the oceans. She hadn't realized humans were the 'weakest' race when she selected that. She just didn't see the point of wanting to be anything other than what she was. That and it'd help her meet up with her RL friend if she looked like herself. "I can't even imagine what that's like," she says, about the gills. "But if you have both, then that sounds like a good arrangement."

    "If you want to see what it's like under the ocean, I can make a bubble around you and let you experience that. It's beautiful there, but the leviathans...gods damned leviathans," she grumbles before blowing a bit more spitefully at the dust on the tooth she's grinding her way through.

Yeowang ohs, "I've been scuba diving before, before the game. It's quite pretty, yes," she agrees. "And no leviathans, though shark and baracuda, depending where you dive." She smiles. "So what is it you're working on?" she wonders curiously, eying the handicrafting going on. She's not too up on that aspect of the game.

    Naniko pulls one of her necklaces forward. It's an eclectic mishmash of things that go fairly well together. "I keep bits and bobs handy for accessories," she says. "I admit, one thing I do like and never got to do before was accessorize." She lifts up the tooth. "This, for example, could make a neat centerpiece to some necklace, and there might even be some benefits, if I enchant it, depending on the needs and what else it gets paired with." She shrugs and goes back to grinding her way through. "Or not. I don't know. I'm mostly just making jewelry. I give them to people I like or wear them." She huffs out another breath to clean, this time, the tool. "I've got kind of a collection going."

Yeowang ohs, nodding slowly. "Ah, I see," she says. "They're quite pretty," she agrees, "entirely apart from whatever magical effect they have." She peers at the works in progress and nods. She's got no such handcrafting skill, either in-game or in RL, it's not a thing she ever got into, she supposes. There were always things going on that seemed to be more important. But that's the difference in lifestyles, she supposes. "I wonder what skill Jae Gyu would select," she wonders idly, then grimaces and gets back to scribbling into her notepad. "I suppose organizing is what I have instead of making things," she admits.

    "You'd be surprised how much making things requires good organization," Naniko replies before blowing out the hole she's made part-way through the tooth. She puts down the tooth on her poncho at the outskirts of the pile and slips her tool away before shaking out her hands. "Sorry. Teeth are hard." She nods toward the notepad. "So, what are you organizing?" she asks.

    "I see," Naniko says. "That sounds nice! Spices are quite nice, since menu food is so bland." She considers. "I need to figure out the duty I gotta do to get over there. I should at least be there to unlock the new secrets. I don't have to fully unlock everything here."

Yeowang nods about spices being nice and menu food bland. "I was entirely unused to it," she admits. "It was a very trying time before we discovered about cooking." As far as getting over there, she says, "Look for a quest called 'A Distant Voyage.' That will take you over there."

    Naniko's gaze turns away from Yeowang as she does that thing.

    "I see it," Naniko says. "Recommended party, five plus. Oof. So much for soloing it."

Yeowang nods gravely. "Mostly nothing in the game is soloable above a certain level," she explains. "But we have a pretty good alliance for backing each other up, I think, in terms of doing duties together and like that."

    "Yeah," Naniko says, idly, obviously not enamored of the prospect of pushing into harder stuff. "Hey, can I ask you something?" she says, looking at Yeowang.

Yeowang arches a brow, nods about asking her things. "By all means, ask away."

    "What is it that keeps people, even those of us in New World, calling this world a game? This world has plenty of conventions of old world video games, but this is a new world, not a video game. Isn't that what we believe? If not, I may have to reconsider who I'm allied with."

Yeowang shrugs to that question. "Well. It was a game when I logged in, and if it's changed, it's easier to call it a game than find out what exactly is going on. Because what exactly is going on is hidden. But if it's a game or if its not a game, how does that change what you will do? I suppose some crazed players will do things to Landers that they wouldn't do to real people, but I find that objectionable. The whole point of the design of the game is to simulate a world, and our task is to respond to that simulation."

    "Landers ARE people," Naniko says. "They're not like us, but they're the population of this world. The world has some video-game-like rules, but it's our world, now, for better or worse, right?"

Yeowang nods agreement. "Landers are indeed people, though they're often simpler than you would find in real life, which is one of the things that hints that this at least started as a simulation. Many of them only say one or two things, you've certaily noticed. But if you treat them differently than you'd treat any stranger, then that speaks poorly for your own morals. But as you say, it's our world now as well."

    Naniko sighs. "This is real life," she says. "We have memories copy-pasted from players on Earth to give us something special. Young-Earth creationists believed Earth was less than twenty thousand years old. Supernovae greater than twenty thousand light years away would imply a star exploded to our eyes that never had existed in the first place. There's a lot of implications that this world USED TO be something else, but whatever it USED TO be, it is now, just, and only, the world." She shrugs. "At least as far as I'm concerned. It's not a video game, it just looks like what we think of as one. It's built differently than Earth was."

Yeowang arches a brow, but says, "Well, for us, perhaps this -is- real life, but I what I /meant/ was back on earth, where I recall being born and raised. Well, I recall being raised. I take it on faith that I was born there. And I don't have a better word to call it than 'real life', but having been stuck here for a year, I won't argue that this is real enough for us now." She blinks at the creationist comment, that draws a carefully blank look. "Whatever metaphysics you attach to where we are, there are things that must be done and so we do them. I will leave the deep philosophy to you."

    "I mean," Naniko says, hesitating. "Earth works for me. As for philosophy, that's not what I was trying to get at." She grumbles out a frustrated noise and pulls out her tool, picking up the tooth and getting back to work. "I agree, there's stuff we have to do. Also:" she says, pausing the twisting movements of her arm as she sets her hands in her lap. "It strikes me that you use your tournament training to protect people like me, too. Thank you."

Yeowang shrugs, nods, "Earth, then, the point remains. We should have the same morality here as we had there." She watches thoughtfully as Naniko works her craft, nodding about using her tournament training to protect people. "You're very welcome. It was a bit of a change from tournaments, the fighting for real, fighting huge monsters, dragons, giants, what have you. But it's a good challenge."

    "I do sometimes wonder," Naniko says, getting back to work, "if some of those creatues are like Landers. They're immediately hostile to us, though, so I don't feel bad about defending myself. It's usually why I concentrate on sneaking around, though." She puffs out another breath into the tooth almost to punctuate her comment.

Yeowang nods about not feeling too bad about killing monsters. "That's how I feel as well," she agrees. "If they're going to attack, then that's their decision, whether they're real or virtual. I don't sneak very well, but I will do what must be done to move forward with my various projects."

    Naniko nods. She considers for a moment and says, "Sneaking is more appealing to me than fighting. I would prefer to avoid engaging the enemy in the first place."

Yeowang considers, then nods. "It is certainly tactically advantageous to have the option of avoiding combat. But unless you can guarantee that you can avoid it, and the combat you're avoiding won't happen to someone else, I'll stay with my method. The waves would have done unspeakable damage to Yamato had we not intervened, so they were battles that could not be avoided."

    "I have a few decent options when it comes to fighting," Naniko says. "I haven't really had the chance to play with it, since I don't get into fights, but I know how to do several moves, provisionally."

Yeowang nods to that. "The way characters fit together, I am told that character creation won't allow you to make a character incapable of fighting. So you are probably at least as capable as any character of your level, at least by the numbers. Though by now, a lot of players have worked on special moves and advanced capabilities."

    "Trying not to think about that," Naniko says, quietly. "I never played games like this to keep up with others back on Earth," she says. "It's even less important that I keep up now that this is just how life is."

Yeowang says, "Well, keeping up with others isn't the goal of the game per se, so there's not really a keeping-up-with-others mechanic, per se. You're never forced to do combat or run missions. If you're fine with that, you're welcome to live that life. It's not my style, of course, but to each their own.

Yeowang says, "Well, keeping up with others isn't the goal of the game, so there's not really a keeping-up-with-others mechanic. You're never forced to do combat or run missions. If you're fine with that, you're welcome to live that life here. It's not my style, of course, but to each their own.

    "You mentioned you have people farming," Naniko says. She puffs out a breath and tries to peer through the tooth's lengthening hole with one eye squeezed shut. Not quite there yet, she goes back to grinding as she says, "I'm pretty good with water. If I came, I'd work with the farmers to irrigate or possibly try to mitigate floods. May not be your style, but you're organizing it," she says with a shrug.

Yeowang nods about the people farming, and she says, "You would be more than welcome to help us with the farming. There are a number of roles available to assist the project, and we can use all the help we can get."

    Naniko stretches her hands some as she considers. "I need to get through the quest," she says. "Once that's done, I want to walk around and see what's in this new area." She goes back to ratcheting away on the tooth, turning the tool again and again. Tiny flakes of tooth powder begin falling from the far side to where she started the hole. The hooded, blue-haired woman is looking at Yeowang, however. "We should get to know each other better if you're going to be managing me," she suggests.

Yeowang says thoughtfully, "You don't need to be over in the Palace Lands to help with the project, actually. We're doing quite a lot of setup and logistics over here in Yamato so that it's laying flat before we go over there. Things will need to be organized out of the gate when we land over there. So you can help with the bits of it that are over here." As far as walking around in the new area, she explains, "It's pretty high level, outside the camp. No one goes far from the palisade except in large groups. It's /very/ high level. That's why hunting's so difficult over there, we can't send the hunters out by themselves to bring back game."

As far as getting to know one another better, she asks, "Is that not what we are doing now?"

    "We're talking about the world and stuff," Naniko says. her hands come together as her tool goes through the tooth. She shifts a bit in surprise, but she just pulls the tool back through and slides it away. She blows through the hole she's made in the tooth and plops it into the random pile of stuff in her lap. "I want to know about you. Not fighting, not work, you. There's got to be more to you than fighting."

Yeowang shrugs, says, "What we are is the sum of what we do, is it not? Unless you want to know what I was outside the game?" But she goes on, "I am somewhat of a pariah in the Guild, and I'm not clear on why. But I think perhaps because I do not follow the group-think, I have been marginalized. But no matter, I will continue to do what I do as I see fit, and I support the Guild when it will have me, which is the case with setting up Seeker's Landing."

    "Fair," Naniko says. "I haven't, um--" She hesitates. "--been to any meetings yet or anything." She blushes. "I just didn't want to be alone, anymore."

Yeowang nods at not wanting to be alone. "Most people don't like to be alone. Humans are social animals. So joining the Alliance was a good move, and there's nothing to be ashamed of there." She smirks, "Meetings are not a thing, as such. I sometimes wish they were, so people could explain what they think they're doing, but there's not a great deal of accountability in either direction. That's also alien to me, so I don't work well in that context. But I make do because I must."

    "Well, I don't dislike you," Naniko says with a nod. "You're a little rough around the edges, but you're a fighter, so that's to be expected. I wouldn't mind raiding a dungeon with you. You could fight as a distraction, and I could sneak past the monsters, unlock doors, disable traps, and we could easily clear out places and uncover secrets."

Yeowang smirks at being called rough around the edges, and says, "Grandfather often said that also, but he meant it kindly, and was entirely receptive to a dutiful granddaughter." As far as a raid, she says, "That sounds like a good plan. Perhaps if Akatsuki is available, we can run something together. She's quite the formidable ninja, herself."

    "Between the three of us, I'm sure we can handle anything," Naniko says, obviously just being cluelessly optimistic.

Yeowang is actually pretty confident we can handle /most/ of the dungeon content, between the three of us. "The content, most of it, is not as hard as all that. Hold off on hunting Triffids, though," she advises. "And both Akatsuki and I are pretty advanced, so I don't forsee a great deal of difficulty."

    "I'm sure," Naniko says. "At least compared to me, who has been sitting under a rock for the most part."

Yeowang shrugs, admits, "You may only have the basic class skills and no special skills, but that's not a crippling disadvantage. And now that you've joined us, we can help you work on them."

    "I have some skills that are a little more advanced," Naniko says. "Honestly, I'm trying to figure out how I can properly use all my skill with water."

Yeowang nods about advanced skills. "I can't help you much with water, or any of the elemental skills, or magic. I allegedly have a bit of facility, but it's not a useful or reliable thing."

    "Understandable," Naniko says with a nod. "I'm Undine. If I don't have SOME kind of skill with water, something's horribly wrong."

Yeowang smirks about Undine and Water. "Understandable. I'm human, but beyond lighting a campfire, I can't do much with fire. The fire attack of the salamander godhands is well beyond my skill."

    Naniko giggles. "Human," she says. "What an odd choice," she teases. She starts picking up handfuls of beads and stuff and stuffing them somewhere under her poncho. "Well, my offer stands if you want to take a swim under water. I could give you at least a little breathing, I think."

Ironically, Air is Yeowang's best element. "If I need diving assistance, I will definitely seek you out," she agrees. As far as human being an odd choice, she says simply, "I was quite satisfied being a human growing up, I did not see a need to change. In any event, I want my boyfriend to recognize me if we do gain access to the Korean server."

    Naniko's brow furrows as Yeowang mentions her boyfriend. She takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Do you think he was online when all this happened? Do you think the new world has someone with his memories grafted so they'll recognize you?"

Yeowang can only shrug. "I don't know if he was online, no. If he was, he was in Korea, while I was in school in Japan. We'd expected cross-server travel to be easier. If he's there at all, I'd like to see him again. If it's him, he'll certainly recognize me."

    Naniko nods and looks over Yeowang. "Well, given that you're as pretty and attractive as an anime trope, you were quite a beautiful woman, comparatively. Of course, you're still lovely, now, so..." She then blushes slightly, embarrassed at potentially making a social faux pas. She pulls her hood down and forward over her face a bit more and clears her throat.

Yeowang arches a brow, but smirks. "Thank you for your praise," she says simply. "I am sure that undines find you quite attractive as well, and you will certainly find a fellow if you don't have one. Though I can't say I know many undines. They are not as common among adventurers as other races."

    "I'm not particularly unusual for other human-like races," Naniko says, looking at her hands. It was blue hair and gills, which was almost certainly somewhere other than her neck, since they definitely weren't on her neck. "I'm not really...um...looking for a partner, right now, though," she says, haltingly. "It's such a landmine. While I know my significant other was not online, and I know I'm a new creation and can do what I want, I...yeah, it's not something I'm looking for." She blushes and looks away from Yeowang.

Yeowang nods about not looking for a partner. Of course neither is she, though for the other reason. As far as being a new creation, she doesn't /feel/ like a new creation. She feels like herself before the game. Minus a few years of martial arts training. "Well, /not/ finding a boyfriend is quite easily done, so it should not present a problem," she points out.

    Naniko raises her eyebrows and side-nods. No boyfriend, no girlfriend, it's all just too complicated, here, still. "Not so far," she agrees. "I went a long time with someone long-distance to talk to. I can deal with affection at-range, but I admit, being completely alone and not even having a friend to hug...that's been harder."

Yeowang can only shrug at a long range relationship. "We, my boyfriend and I, talked about maintaining our relationship long distance while he finished high school in Korea and I started college in Japan. But we thought it'd be easier to meet in the game, it'd be a bit less like long distance. Now I haven't so much as talked to him in over a year. I can tell you, the company that made this game is going to suffer if I return to Japan."

    Naniko's blue eyebrows furrow as she looks at her hands. "I thought a lot about what would happen if I get back," she says. "I don't believe that will ever happen, but...if it does..." She doesn't complete her statement. She seems to lose herself in thought.

Yeowang nods agreement also. "I don't think we will return, either. We are almost certainly copies of the people that originally logged in." She seems entirely certain of that. "On the other hand, we have a world to deal with, so we must deal with it. As you say, this world is real, to us."

    Naniko is pulled back to herself a few words into Yeowang's sentence. She nods. "Yeah," she says. She brushes her hands on her poncho and asks, "Do you know anyone who's had a child here, yet? I obviously keep myself to myself, but it's been long enough, and I'm really curious if the next generation is going to have menus and stuff."

Yeowang shakes her head about people who've had children. "No one I know," she admits. "Though I think adventurers have enough to do without that added burden. Landers probably have, but I don't really know any Landers that well."

    "I don't know if Landers have that instinct," Naniko says. "I'm really curious what happens if two people like you and I have a baby together. I mean...if this is a new world, we should be doing that, you know?"

Yeowang laughs, says, "If two people like you and I -can- have a baby together, then there's been some magic involved, or there's something /else/ about Undines I don't know."

    Naniko's lips tighten in a 'you got me' kind of smile. She reaches out and playfully shoves Yeowang lightly. "You know what I mean!" she says. "People who have a player's memories and menus and more developed personalities and stuff."

Yeowang sidesteps the shove, says, "In any event, I need to take care of some things for the shipments going to the Palace Lands, so I'll head off now." She rises, gets her cane situated, and will smile, then gimp off. "Take care, and I hope you get the answers you seek."