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Sanary Rondel New Aincrad. For some, it's a reminder of a bygone time, one filled with fond memories and painful ones and a whole lot of dying. For others, it's just another place to continue leveling and progressing in Alfheim Online. And for yet others, it's...

     Really hard to get to. It's a freaking flying castle! Somehow or another, Sanary's actually managed to guide her red-haired avatar to the castle, relying mostly on the little wand-like device for assistance just to fly up there. It isn't necessarily her proudest moment, having to rely on that instead of getting with that expert-level manual flight that she's seen people do before, but... Hey! At least she's up here, right?

     And yet, she's already looking tuckered out before even doing anything. Is she really going to be okay out here?
Yuuki Konno     Getting to New Aincrad isn't too hard. In the past it would've been impossible of course. It's just too high. But the flight ceiling limits were removed, as were flight duration limits, and so it only takes a modest effort to reach one of the entrances.

    Within, New Aincrad is a literal world of its own. It no longer looks like it's flying in the sky. The main city is its own large district with its own teeming population. It's the sort of place you could live, so long as you liked crowds and noise. And best yet, once you've entered Aincrad and done a few quests, you can buy teleport crystals to get to the base city rather than having to fly up from Aarun.

    Yuuki has no bad memories of Aincrad. She was never in Sword Art Online. She doesn't really talk about that game though, considering she knows exactly what it means to have a serious issue that's tied up with a current game. Like those survivors though, she accepts the games as games. This tower is just a challenge, just for fun, completely unlike the evil and deadly Sword Art Online. So long as people are here for fun, or even if they come to exorcise their demon memories, she's willing to stand by or help how she can.

    Yuuki flies in, effortlessly using manual flight to swoop in gracefully to the designated meeting point - presumably one of the fountains or parks near one of the entrances. She's not familiar with everyone's ALO avatars but should be able to recognize enough from people to greet them cheerfully. Nope, apparently no fatigue or effort here!
Nagato     Tana's been to New Aincrad once or twice, mainly to help Mistral, but today? She's here to help the newbie and join up with a couple people she knows! After all, repair times for her real self is a pain. Tana's flight has gotten a lot better since the last time she's probably met Zekken, as such, she doesn't look nearly as tired (or awkward) in the air as before.

    Now only if she remembered the meeting place. OH, yes, it was a fountain or something. Tana really should start taking notes.

    Floating around a bit, she's looking for some familiar faces, only to swoop down and stumble landing near Yuuki, "Ah... no no don't fall.." wobble.... and she stays standing. "Hi Zekken, I'm here for some fun, helping that newbie out, huh?" she questions, looking around, "Say, where is she?"
Cirra Constantine     Palmira has only done the first few steps into New Aincrad to scout it out. At the time it seemed to high level content for her. But she's grown stronger, and more skilled.

    ?Arriving early (thanks to said teleport crystal) she walks towards the fountain with a paper bag in one hand, only to stop as Tana lands, nearly bowling into Zekken.... It's always strange seeing the normally colelcted Nagato be more relaxed as Tana. "Heh." she grins slightly.

    "Welcome to New Aincrad." Even Cirra seems.... /slightly/ more relaxed in the game. She takes something out of the bag and throws it to Sanary's character.

    A hot meat bun? "It has a a temporary stat boost on it."
Sanary Rondel Come to think of it, what /did/ everyone else look like? Although Sanary/Lednor has met a few of the ALO-players before, the voices from earlier... No, none of those were around that day she met them. In retrospect, she probably should have asked about that, but...

     Well. Now it'd just be awkward to try and ask. No, she'll just have to use CONTEXT CLUES to figure it out! Like someone throwing a meat bun at her. That's probably not the sort of thing just anyone would do, right? Also, Lednor actually manages to catch that meat bun with a puzzled look on her face!

     "Eh? O-oh. Uh. Hi. You're..." She blanks out for a moment before clearing her throat and managing an awkward grin. "S-sorry. I... Er. I'm still having trouble figuring out everyone's name on here. Are the others here, too?"

     Lednor takes another look around. Her gaze passes over Zekken and Tana a few times, but it doesn't seem like she's quite aware that they're... Well, them! A moment later, and she straightens up a bit to give Cirra/Palmira a more formal salute. "Oh! Uh. Lednor. It's good to meet you."

     Remember. Don't let them know who you are.
Yuuki Konno     Yuuki grins, eyes zeroing in on Lednor. It's not at all hard to spot her, what with her interacting with Palmira and what with her wearing gear waaaay out of spec for this zone. "That's her." she indicates to Tama cheerfully.

    Not bothering with wings, Yuuki bounds on over under the power of her own two legs. Possibly she might even be towing Tana by one hand. "Hi!" she says, her cheery voice probably unmistakeable. "I'm Yuuki! You're Lednor right? Great to finally meet you!" she says enthusiastically.
Nagato     Tana's gear looks like she hasn't upgraded in a few months, but that's okay, she feels speedier in it anyways. Her head turns towards Lednor, tilting her head before giving a cheerful wave, "Hi Lendor~ I'm Tana. Nice to meet you. PLeasure to have you along!" and soon, with a few taps, a friend request is sent.

    Little does Nagato know... Little does she know...

    She's unceremoniously dragged along, hopping here and there to keep up with Zekken, "He...hey, Yuuki. I can walk too you know. Jeeze, I'm not that slow." cough. "IT's good to meet you, Lednor, Hopefully we can do well together here!" she straightens up and dusts herself off slightly, that tail of hers twitching happily. "A spriggan, like Kirito, aren't you?"
Cirra Constantine     "Palmira." The purple haired woman responds and passes out meatbuns to Tana. Yuuki probably doesn't need it...

    But Palmira holds the bag out after she's taken her own. Theres one left. "It's a starter item to help people new to Aincrad. It probably won't do Yuuki any good. But it should help take the edge off the difficulty."
Sanary Rondel More familiar voices! Well, sort of familiar. Sanary's still trying to learn these names, after all. Spotting Yuuki and Tanacoming over, the red-haired Spriggan offers them the same formal salute that she had given Palmira just a moment ago. "Th-that's right! Yeah, it's good to meet you both, too." She even smiles brightly at that with just a hint of nervousness, but that's totally because she's just nervous around new people, right?

     It's not like she's trying to spy on them or acting like she's spying when she's really just using this as an excuse to unwind instead of doing work, right? Right.

     "I hope so. Mm.. Yeah, like Kirito. I met him a while ago. You're... All in this big group together, right?" She munches on that meat bun as she speaks, peering at it for a moment. It stil feels so odd eating in here. She'll get used to it one day, though! "Thanks, Palmira. I... Ah. I'll try not to slow any of you down. Er... So where do we start, anyway?"

     There's a big floating castle, there's four of them there, and she's still looking just as lost as she did a few minutes ago. This should go swimmingly.
Yuuki Konno     Yuuki laughs as she's reprimanded for tugging Tana along. She relents however, not doing it nearly so forcefully. "Sorry, sorry!" she says, entirely unapologetically. She's just enthusiastic, and her enthusiasm tends to be rather contagious.

    Palmira may have forgotten, or perhaps never known, one thing about Yuuki. She doesn't eat. That is, she doesn't eat outside VR. Food for her isn't a matter of strictly buffs and bonuses... it's a personal and social pleasure! She takes a meat bun, chowing into it with her usual wide-eyed enthusiasm.

    "Mmmh." she mumbles, mouth full. After a moment she chokes, then smacks herself a few times on her breastbone. Swallowing, she grins triumphantly. "Questing!" she enthuses. "Just find an NPC with a quest marker above their head, go on up to 'em!" she suggests. There just happens to be one nearby... which was kind of the point of meeting here. Then again, it should be unsurprising that there be nearby questgivers. This is a newbie zone after all, even if the newbie zone is for end-gamers. "They'll start talking about their troubles, and you offer to help, and then you got your quest!" she claims.
Nagato     Tana shakes her head and gives Zekken a bit of a hug before turning back and... oh hey, a meat bun in her hand! She unceremoniously noms on it until it's gone... such ungrace. "You're fine, Yuuki, just kinda akward to be the one towed along." she giggles a bit before turning to Lednor. "Yeah, quests will get you pretty far here. And friends..." she points to Yuuki then Palmira, "can help quite a bit when things get tough. You'll be fine here, especially if we come to help."
Cirra Constantine     Palmira offered one out of politness...or maybe she remember Yuuki can't eat?! It is mysterious, just like she is an enigma.

    "Becarefull Yuuki. Theres no heimlich manuver in the options menu." Teasing? Well if she has a sense of humaor she certinaly /can't/ be Cirra Constantine, not at all.

    Palmira points towards one of the NPCs, "That one should have a quest marker for first arrivals."
Sanary Rondel Lednor can't help but laugh lightly at the show of camaraderie between the three, momentarily forgetting her primary/not-really-primary purpose in being here in the first place. If only she knew just who she was talking to...

     Well, it's not like /that/ will ever be an issue, right? Right. It's not like the cute catgirl and the stone-faced joker could possibly be anyone she's fought before! Not at all.

     "So that's what those signs were... Huh. Okay, I think I see some now. I'll... I'll be back in a sec, then!" Sanary gives the three a determined little grunt, then hurries over to start collecting quests from the various NPCs with only a minimal amount of stumbling! The first one takes a while for her, presumably as she goes through literally every bit of dialogue they have, but by the time she gets to the third?

     She's already looking around as if trying to catch glimpses of what else is going on. Just get to the important bit already! Still, it doesn't take long for Sanary to return to the group, still looking moderately awkward in approach. "Hey! Uh. I got the quests. Killing some dire boars, harvesting boar shanks, and collecting boar... Pies."

     She squints just a bit at that last one. "... Do they really go that far into farming in this game?"
Yuuki Konno     There's no real way for food to permanently become lodged in a person's throat here either. It's just bits after all... but eating too big a mouthful has its consequences, and you DO have to take the time to chew or swallow or the system makes you 'suffer' for it. Since it's just a game the suffering is of little consequence, but it's one more element of realism present.

    Yuuki grins sheepishly but again, not terribly apologetically. This is her life, or a part of it, and she'll live it to its fullest even if she looks like a fool!

    She nods as Lednor returns. "Well, sounds like we get to go after boars!" she claims brightly. Basically it's one quest broken down into three subsections, all intended to be done at the same time, with the givers split up to promote something approaching realism. "I don't have any real experience farming OUTSIDE the game." she says. "But yeah, that's the sort of thing you do here! At least on these quests... later ones are about rescuing NPCs, or harvesting certain resources, that sort of thing. This one probably rewards you with food, and that's pretty great! Maybe some light armor or something too, not sure." she notes. There are plenty of quests that reward with gear, once you look around. If you've got the skills to be here, getting the gear's only a matter of time. For those who HAVE the gear though, the name of the game is entering the dungeons.
Nagato     Tana's watching the group a bit, especially Lednor, that tail twitching some as she continues to nom on that meatbun. "Mmm, I should see about having her make some of these outside the game." she mutters. There's a quick yell of Tana's name, catching the Cait Sith's attention, another Cait Sith, part of her little group of friends, is here. "Ah, excuse me a few moments." and soon, she runs off to catch up with her. She'll be back in a bit though.
Cirra Constantine     "The designers worked to put things together like that. Shame it hardly works that way in reality." Palmira shrugs and bites into her own bun. "But in this case it's convient for you. We'll acomplish all three at once and you should increase in skill easily."
Sanary Rondel "Why boars, though? I mean... This place is flying. Shouldn't there be... I dunno. Flying... Boars?" Sanary furrows her brow as she finishes off that meat bun, making sure to leave a chunk slightly closer to the middle for last. Even if it's not real, she can still leave the best part for the end!

     At the mention of farming, however, Lednor perks up just a bit. "Oh, it's hard work. Waking up early, making sure everything's watered or fed if you've got plants or livestock, cleaning it all up and checking for-" Wait. She's not supposed to let people know about that. Not in this disguise! The redheaded Spriggan coughs once before shutting up abruptly on that topic, instead opting to just listen to Yuuki carefully instead.

     Close one. "Light armor would be good... I mean, I sorta like the look of this one, but it looks a little... Bland, you know?" As if to emphasize that, she glances at her own gear before comparing it with Yuuki's, Tana's (as she scurries off), and then Palmira's. "I haven't tried heavy armor yet, but... N-nah, I wanna be fast. It still feels weird, though." She stares at her rapier as she draws it for a few moments, then back at Palmira. "Er. Getting stronger just by fighting boars, I mean. It's... Weird, you know?"
Nagato     Tana comes rushing back after the chat with her friend, smiling. "Sorry about that, it was one of my friends here. The Cait Sith Brigade. Kinda small but we're just all Cait Sith running quests and dungeons. Still have a good ways to go." she smirks, fortunately missing a lot of that previous convo about farming.

    "I like my light armor, it lets me do a lot of things that I can't do in heavier, but if they need me to tank, then I can switch to my heavy armor, my sword and shield too." a buckler appears upon her arm, familiar to Palmira from when they first met. "So, when are you ready to do this? I'm itching to do something."
Yuuki Konno     Yuuki shrugs offhandedly. "You probably want something like this." Yuuki says, reaching up to buff her breastplate. "Doesn't slow you down, gives you good protection. Doesn't have to be metal, but that depends." she claims. She's not as good as some people in her group on gear and stuff, but the talks have sunk in somewhat. "The lightest stuff's cloth armor, robes and dresses and stuff. But that stuff usually buffs your magic skills, so it's not so good for a fighter! You can use cloth fighter gear if you really want, but it's hard to find and the protection helps." she grins.

    She looks around, somewhat puzzled by the question. Then she nods, understanding. "Oh yeah, that's because Aincrad was taken from Sword Art Online, where people don't fly." she explains. "The quests and dungeons here are all for ground fighters, and a lot of it's indoors where most can't fly at all! So yeah, boars! No worry about pigs flying or anything!"
Cirra Constantine     Palmira shrugs, "It's that way in games. They start you off with weak enemies. As if you ahd only just picked up a sword and left the comfort of your home."

    "True monsters would be too much for such a person." she nods slightly, "And since Aincrad used to be the entire setting of another game, you have to revist those early stages in some cases, but the difficulty is still higher."
Sanary Rondel "Cait Sith... Brigade?" Lednor looks over towards where Tana had come from, peering a bit at the group before turning back to her. She even stares at her ears for a moment, but does eventually manage to tear her eyes away from that to resume EYE CONTACT. "Is tanking hard to do here? You two mentioned taunting earlier, but... Er. Can you really tank just by shouting insults at stuff here?"

     What a strange beast these games are.

     Peering at Yuuki's breastplate for a moment, Lednor looks back down at her own mixed up mash of random low level and storebought gear. Not the best stuff, but it's serviceable! ... For a much lower level area, anyway. "I don't think I'll go with light armor, but something in the middle like yours could work... Heh. M-maybe we'll find some later when we're..."

     She trails off at the mention of flying pigs, and for a moment? Her eyes just migt gleam for a bit. Only for a moment, however, before she regains her composure and turns to Palmira. "Is that how it is? That... Yeah, that makes sense. Still, it feels a little mean sometimes. But they're all not real animals, so..."

     Right. They're just virtual images. Lednor takes a deep breath, then draws her rapier and stands at attention. "I'm ready when everyone else is!"
Yuuki Konno     Tanking isn't so cut and dry. "You'll just have to see, won't you?" Yuuki says pleasantly. She's not one to go on and on about the game mechanics, not like SOME people. Of course there's more to tanking than shouting. There's doing damage, managing aggro levels, and of course not actually dying. Yuuki's own way of tanking is to dish out an incredible amount of threat, then to dance nimbly around the attacker while it's trying to retaliate. She uses shouts as part of that, which are essentially short-term buffs that also raise the threat profile of your attacks. They draw attention, that's all.

    Yuuki doesn't really notice Lednor's reaction to all the pig and farming stuff. Then again she doesn't know Sanary, so has no reason to think anything but that her new friend's probably from some rural place.

    "Just try not to get killed, okay?" Yuuki says with a grin. She might be serious, she might not be. Playful at least. "Boars are pretty near unstoppable when they charge, and they throw around their tusks pretty bad. They're not hard to predict, but they're nothing to take lightly!" she warns.