OOC: This is a non-canon / not approved canon thread concerning the upcoming war of season two. Open to three additional participants. _____This was not something Kaedé exactly took a liking to as she watched over the villagers rushing around preparing for something grim to come to the area. War, if only places could go without it. But it seemed Players had caused a stir with the nobles of the land and now innocent other NPCs would likely suffer for everything happen and this village was likely to face a blunt part of this war. Windshire village was directly in a path to Dormont and the people currently had the choice to uproot until the dust settled or do what they could to protect their homes. _____Kaedé herself watched with pain in her heart as Kira and Sora did what they could to set the area up to brace for the coming storm of troops and battle. She wished so much the two girls would have left with most the others, she might have left their lives but it did not stop the player from worrying about them. Hand lightly rested on her Katana as she started to approach the main group of people setting up the walls and slid her way under one of the logs to help carry it. Try as she wanted, leaving without helping was not going to happen for Kaedé. _____War would likely kill so many people, this village would be razed and few would be lucky to make it out alive, and it would not stop. War only spread it’s weed like existence out to rise up again, a never ending weed infestation that would claim everything and still not be satisfied. Moving her arms to help set the log into the hole to hold it before moving to get herself a hammer and work on setting the small boards alongside some of the males. ”I can handle this section, you all go help get the other post in… The sooner those are all set the more people we can have filling in the gaps or setting up the shelter or setting the traps in the woodlands. Don’t worry I can handle this much, not all girls are dainty you know.~”
Neldo had been gather textbooks, and scraps of literature anywhere he could find it. He wanted to know the history of this world like no one else, but more viable information had reached him through chatting with the locals. A war was coming, and after a lengthy night at his host's table he had been brought up to speed. History was going to be written soon, and he had the opportunity to take part in it. Though he had little choice in what side he would stand with. Still, his own race seemed to make peace and side with Astorea so it wasn't as though he would've tried to join the other side. After all, he still wished to visit his own origins and take in the culture some day. He now stood on the porch of the house with his arms folding across his chest, dressed in brown dull robes. People ran all around the city preparing it in a myriad of different ways. It was impressive to watch as a community came together and organized in so many ways as a single unit. But would it change anything? A small town was a small town, and an invading army was an invading army. Standard practice of invading armies was to raid and loot such small towns that were on their way to their final destination. By doing so they could march on the resources of the nation they were invading while losing few if any soldiers. Neldo who he stood with in this war, but even so he had a hard time motivating himself to take any action. Even now as he watched the people try their hardest. It all seemed so much like wasted effort. It was then that he saw another Yladian working with the people to prepare for the coming war. If she was Yladian like him then she probably didn't feel anchored here with the humans and their ties to their home, but still she aided them. Neldo walked down the short stairs off of the porch and made his way cautiously towards where the defense were being set up. He weaved out of the way of people who seemed to have far more important matters on their mind, and carefully drew near to where the people were planting the posts. Without a word he edged in among the humans and began raising the next post in the ground. As he did he called out to the other Yladian. "So, you're actually helping out? Where do you find your motivation?" @Kaede Hoshi
_____Kaedé would look over at the person who spoke to her, or so she assumed by how he was looking at her. Honestly she felt like slapping the male, did anyone really need motivation to want to help another person, NPC or player? Moving one hand from a nail as she used the other to hit the object into the wood and pointed to the two Felis girls working as hard as they could, namely the younger one who looked ready to cry at any moment but kept working on gathering food or providing it for people working harder than others. ”To help people, do you ever need a reason? They are doing everything to protect a place they call home from this war, not because they want to help stall the army, but to keep their homes and roots safe. Having to uproot your life is not something all of us can do with ease…” _____Kaedé spoke calmly with a small frown on her face, not exactly happy she was asked such a question by someone of the same race. They no doubt had to be a player like her and one who did not exactly know what it is like to be faced with a choice to either leave everything they know behind or try to protect it. Slamming the hammer down on another nail before she checked the area to make sure the board was secured and moved to setting the next and getting more nails to make sure to secure it. ”Everyone has a heart, some of us just keep it open to others and that would be my real reason for helping. This place and many others likely won’t get guards or knights in shining armor to save them. Knowing an ounce of the sort of people rulers can be this place won’t even be on a map…” _____Kaedé did not like the idea, but it was true. Kaedé's UI map only had this place because she set a bookmark to it so she could return easier. Watching as the small felis girl walked over with some bread Kaedé happily took it and thanked the girl before holding it in her mouth and kept working. She had not time to sit and eat knowing she could still keep working, still keep trying to help protect the people she used to live with in a past life. @Neldo Dini
War is coming soon. That was one fact Jace knew after the princess's announcement along with the Astorea's king's capture. Because of this, he focused his gaming time not only to strengthen himself and obtain new gear but to check on the country to see if they were well-prepared for the oncoming storm. Yet just he saw the nearby village, he can tell most of the villagers are doing everything to defend themselves. But one thing that stood out from them was a red-haired woman and a Yladian in a conversation. From what he knew of it, he can tell how she wanted to protect the NPCs from the raid despite their artificial nature. He won't blame her, they looked more human due to their seemingly advanced AI and she seemed to care about them rather than treating them as computer programs. At least she wasn't the type to abuse them, though. Curious, he approached the two and said, "It's too bad that they might unknowingly get involved in a war because of the Falderen king's paranoia. That's one thing I hate about this oncoming storm." Realized that he missed something, he bowed to the two people in front of him. "Forgive me for intruding, but do not worry. I'm also here to help out the country as well." @Neldo Dini @Kaede Hoshi
Well, this was certainly a pleasantly busy village. A lot of new construction happening, which was quite surprising to Aerana. Most of the time, villages rarely expanded unless a new merchant or prospector in the area had found some sort of secret. Perhaps the same thing had happened to this particular village? How exciting! She wondered what could have happened to the village that made it so active, Falderan's ban on Astorean products and trade did make it harder for a lot of people, herself included. If it wasn't normal goods, maybe it was some sort of magical secret? She let herself indulge in a slight smile, that definitely cemented the idea of an investigation in her mind. She always loved seeing what sort of new or old inventions enchanters and artificers could come up with. As she entered the village, she noticed that most of the people looked very stressed or sad. It would probably be best to avoid bothering them, she knew how stressful things could get when business was booming. The relative ease of her movements, combined with the fact that she was new to the village ensured that most of the people stayed out of her way. While she would normally make her way to a general store or inn of some sort, most of the shops in the village seemed to be closed. How curious. Was there really so much activity that merchants all had to renovate? A creeping thought that she was trying to deny ever since she entered the village started to tiptoe its way back into her mind. Maybe there was no arcane enigma to unravel after all, that would be a massive disappointment. The disturbing lack of any sort of mages, scholars or anyone who looked to be well versed in magic she was starting to notice only added to the disillusionment she felt. It must be all the war business then, she didn't really understand all the fuss. Wars come and go all the time, why, there was a recent conflict just a few months ago in the same region! Most of the country was relatively unscathed, at least, until the embargo dropped. That was more of something that happened after though, so her point still stood. Nothing to it but to forge onwards, in search of actual answers and hoping you weren't too far off the mark. Life was a lot like alchemy in that way, or was it the other way around? Even deeper into the village, she noticed two Yladians speaking. They definitely seemed to be different compared to the rest of the villagers. Much more... rugged for lack of a better term. It dawned on her, they were adventurers! She had met many in the past, and most were a good sort. Definitely the right type of people to talk to if you wanted an interesting conversation. Considering that a lot of the villagers didn't seem to be in the mood for conversation, perhaps these people would be different. Her lack of architectural knowledge left her in the dark about what they were building but gave her an excellent starter to a conversation. What was that saying? 'Strike while iron was hot'? In this case it would be more of 'Ask a question while there was a lull in the conversation' which didn't sound as good but was definitely more accurate. Just before she was about to say something, another person seemingly manifested out of nowhere and joined the conversation. They were all strangers to her however. The more the merrier! As the saying went. A drunk she met a while back did say his life got a lot more complicated after he married more people though, so maybe she got the saying wrong? No. Definitely not. Regardless, the conversation topic she had thought of earlier still stood. Even if all this talk of war and storms was quite depressing, perfect time for a topic change actually. Raising her voice to be heard over the construction, she called out to the group, "Hello you three! May I ask what all of you are you building? It is quite the strange structure, although that just might be its lack of completion, yes?" @Kaede Hoshi @Neldo Dini @Jace Vale
Neldo turned to the first person who had joined the conversation and gave a polite nod. Before very long at all there was another joining the conversation. This was actually a welcome intrusion. Neldo didn't want to try and reason with this woman. There were some people that felt that doing something was better than nothing even if all it did was give false hope. He wasn't hardhearted, but better plans and actions could be taken rather than raising futile defenses and wasting resources. The most this achieved in his mind, was a distraction that gave them hope. "Well met. I assume we're building some sort of fortifications to help these good people... not die so fast." He couldn't lie, but he couldn't find a better way to phrase it either. Or maybe he simply didn't feel like it. Two of the men who were working on his beam let go, to grab tools to anchor the beam into the ground. Neldo held fast to the beam keeping it upright in the ground. "There's always more room to help if you're interested." One of them might be willing to help. If that was the case, Neldo might have a chance to slip away and find an actual constructive way to help these villagers, rather than to waste his time and energy building something that would most assuredly be destroyed in a few days. The problem was coming up with something that would actually be helpful to this stubborn people. @Kaede Hoshi @Jace Vale @Aerana
_____Kaedé was not taking much of a liking to the other Yladian and is blunt nature. There was a limit to how rude someone could be around Kaedé before she would lash out at that person even if there was a group around to stop her or break it up. After all, it only took one good swing to drop someone and Kaedé was more than happy to test her luck to find that spot if things turned into that situation. Looking to the other two she smiled slightly and waved to the other male, she doubted he would remember her but maybe she assumed Kaedé was waving to someone behind him and left it as such. ”Even the smallest pebble can cause a tsunami. You never know how effective something will be unless you try your luck with it.” _____Kaedé's voice had a bit of anger mixed into her mostly mellowed tone as she slammed the hammer against her own thumb and cursed under her breath. Building was not exactly her best talent or a talent at all. Hell she was only doing so well by imagining things as different like touching just the right spot to get a girl’s best reaction, she was an odd one but so far it was helping her out and she was able to keep the blush the very minimal amount, it was a fair amount of progress for her or maybe it was gone because she hit her thumb, Kaedé did not know or fully care at the moment. ”If you got time to stand around I would request you help in some way or another. If you can lift there is more post, if you got a good eye we can use help hammering the boards, if you can’t do those things we can use help getting supplies into the shelter.” ____Kaedé would wave her hand with the hammer to the different areas that could use help. Talking while you worked was fine but she did not want to talk to people if they did not want to help out while she herself was trying her hardest. Thumb once more getting slammed by the hammer as Kaedé cussed again and tried to focus more on working than talking or looking at the others. @Jace Vale | @Aerana | @Neldo Dini
What a disappointment indeed. As it turned out, they were just preparing for a war. Nothing special, though she wondered why they thought an army would march through here of all places. Sure, it was close to the border but there were all sorts of different routes throughout the region. She doubted that a major invasion force was going to pass through here, and even then, they would likely just steal and extort things on the way rather than spend the time to tear everything down. After all, they probably had better things to do. Like making their way to siege a castle or conquering the land. But maybe, the villagers had some sort of plan to try and stop an entire army... like a secret weapon! It would have to be quite the powerful weapon if they had a hope to halt the invasion in its tracks. Curiosity rekindled, she would need to investigate more. @Kaede Hoshi The red haired Yladian seemed to be quite the clumsy one, missing the board twice already. And who knows how many times the elf had done that before she arrived, she had only been here for about... five, maybe ten minutes? Assuming it was ten minutes, and that they had at least been working for hours, judging by the state of some of the workers, Aerana was surprised the woman even had a thumb left at all! It didn't make that much force to grind something like that into fine dust as she knew from personal experience, and if she really was committed to nailing something in, well, some people were made from sturdier stuff. Like that man who had managed to crawl his way to her shop with a dart embedded into his head. She wasn't sure why the man didn't go to the village healer instead but it wasn't her place to question such things. That said, she may have not been able to assist in construction, but she did have something to help with the pain of smashing your thumb repeatedly! Well, she used it to soothe any stray burns or acid stains but it should still help. She walked over to the working woman and daintily set down a small porcelain container of healing salve by her feet. She seemed to be quite busy, as was most of the villagers. "I'm afraid my skills lie elsewhere, but, if the pain of constantly hitting your thumb with a hammer gets a bit too much, this may help." @Neldo Dini The other Yladian seemed to be a bit indifferent to the whole construction thing. She couldn't really blame him, she wasn't the type for building work either. She would rather have an Alchemist's Kit over a sledgehammer any day of the week. Except maybe on Wednesdays where she prepared some of the more exotic potions, some of those nuts were quite tough to crack. Both accepting and conceding her point internally, she was about to respond when she thought of something else. What if the reason he was bored was not because of the construction work itself, but rather that he was waiting for the main part of the construction to start. It was blindingly obvious that a village wouldn't be able to hold off any meaningful assault if an army really was committed to an assault, so maybe it was a bluff? The difference between a real castle and one propped upon sticks was not always that obvious if painted in the correct light. Were they building a mock castle to try and convince the Falderan troops that their maps were faulty? She had to admit that she was slightly impressed by the sheer audacity of the plan. She have him a slight bow before saying, "It would be terribly rude of me to steal away your part in your plan. If there is a stream nearby I start up a pot of tea to boil however. Would that be of assistance?" @Jace Vale Stepping back, she finally turned to regard the other man. Help out the country? Well, if the village was going to be under Falderan assault that could be troublesome. Unless he considered himself to be Astorean, which was quite a hasty change considering that the King hadn't really issued any royal decrees or done that much. As far as she could tell anyways. For all she knew, there were a dozen new nobles and borders being divvied up again, which always happened whenever new nobles appeared. She still considered herself to be Falderan, even if she never got involved into any sort of politics, having lived in small villages all her life. He did seem to be a bit more acclimated to the region than her however, so perhaps he could redirect her to a steam or a place to get some water. She would like to make good on her offer. After all, it would be quite discourteous to offer a service then not provide it. "Excuse me, but do you know of any sources of clean water in the area?"
Jace sighed at what the red-haired woman's explanation. Stress can lead to paranoia and paranoia can lead to chaos. It was this kind of thought that made him a little scared at how humans reacted from their mass hysteria of paranoia. At least this gave him an idea regarding on his upcoming thesis for his psychology major. "I'm not actually strong to carry heavy stuff, but I'm okay with getting the supplies." While carrying them might be a tough physical job, it was nothing for Jace as he tended to carry his laptop a lot during his lunch break between his college classes. Although, his only worry was that his lack of weapon mastery might affect how he endures the pain of carrying the supplies. @Aerana However, his conversation was interrupted when a young girl asked for any sources of clean water. Jace raised his eyebrows as he stared at her, wondering why she wanted to find one. "Hmmm... I think I drank some by the river over by the east from here. It's not far away though. But why do you ask about it?" @Kaede Hoshi @Neldo Dini
@Kaede Hoshi Neldo shrugged off Kaede's comment with a slight frown. They weren't going to get along, and that much had been established. Even if he didn't see how this would help, he was still lending a hand until he could think of another way to assist the village. He could always sabotage the city and cause a fire to burn it to the ground. At least then the village would have no choice but to pack up and leave. But, that seemed a little too far. Just a little. As stubborn as these people were, they didn't deserve to be sabotaged from the inside. The men had successfully anchored the beam, and the robed elf stepped back cautiously. Even in the breeze the beam held sturdy and resistant. A few more of these erected, with some supporting boards nailed across them would certainly help with protection. But Neldo's mind began to take on a plan with more bite. Walls were one thing, but traps were another. An army might not want to risk it's soldiers to attack a small meaningless village, if the approach to the city was riddled with traps... @Aerana Neldo nodded with a polite smile to the human who offered him tea. "I cannot honestly remember the last time I had tea. That would be very welcome. Thank you, Lady." He wondered what skills were required to make tea. It wasn't complicated in the real world, but he could imagine a small amount of skills adding up to making a great tea in this game. Herbalism, alchemy, cooking. This girl had offered a healing salve of some kind just now, so she was either an alchemist or friends with one. @Jace Vale "Why don't you just take her to the river if you have the time? It'd be more direct and then I can have a small break even sooner than later." He smiled at Jace but he really hoped the lad would run with it. He was starting to get thirsty, and all he had to drink in the game so far had been water. It was starting to become rather dull.
_____Kaedé did not enjoy the others company so far, Despite that she could not bring herself to worry more about them or break her focus anymore for the sake of her thumb. Eyes focused on her work as she did what she could without the crafting or building mastery, steady strikes to nails as best she could while keeping her hand away once she felt the nail could stay in the wood without her help or risk of falling out. Hearing the group talking about clean water Kaedé would calmly point her not busy hand towards the well at the house near the two felis girls. ”Just have to get the bucket up from the bottom of the well, the crank piece is bit stuck sometimes so just give it a bit more muscle to get it moving but try not to brake it, the old mane won’t be happy to have to fix it again.” _____Moving her hand back down to get the next board up and fish a few nails to hold in her mouth while setting the first and checking the spot to make sure it was where it needed to be before starting to hammer it in. After the little chat was over she did not seem eager to speak with anyone of the group. All she got was either complaints, negative talk, or refusals from them and she did not need that type of energy bringing her or people who gave a damn down about all this. Sure it was just a game to some but this was also the lives of the NPCs here and to Kaedé that was enough to stop being a child and act as a grown up. _____Her temper over the matter slightly showing as she swung hard at the first nail getting it all the way in on the first swing. Hands moving to her lips to get the next nail and moved along in her work. @Neldo | @Aerana | @Jace
@Jace Vale A stream? Near a quaint little village? Now that would be perfect for her purposes. The quality of water was very important in the brewing of tea, and it was certain to be unique to the village. Things seemed to line up perfectly, now the only problem would be that she suspected it would be quite the jaunt. While she didn't really mind going through such lengths to ensure a better tasting brew, she was quite enjoying the other's company. They hadn't really even been conversing all that much but it reminded her of better, simpler times. At Jace's question, she just gave a non committal hum. She didn't really deem it all that important to answer as there were things to be done. It seemed like a.. rhetorical question? Was that what they were called? Why did it matter in the first place? She briefly closed her eyes to calm herself from the maelstrom in her mind. There. Better. @Neldo Dini Judging from his remarks, he seemed nice. She gave a small curtsy in return but when he suggested that the other human accompany her to the river, she wasn't so sure about the plan. There shouldn't be any real threats by the river if the village was still standing after all. As long as there was no deep, ancient evil that would actually necessitate an army coming in to help, she would be fine. If there was some sort of ancient evil slumbering near the river and only breaking out once she went to there for water, well, that would be an act of the Elysid or Tora at that point and there wasn't very much she could do there. @Kaede Hoshi However, at Kaede's remark, her plans changed. If there was a well right at the center of the village, she could easily mosey over and start the tea before anyone could really notice her absence in the conversation. Not like there was much of that going on but it was the thought that counted. Everyone had their breaking points after all, and it looked like they had been working for hours. That couldn't have been very nice, but luckily for them, she was prepared at a moment's notice. Giving a quick word of thanks, although she wasn't sure the woman heard her, she set off to find the mysterious well. "I will be gone for just a moment. Excuse me."
Once he heard @Kaede Hoshi's explanation about the well, he mentally facepalmed himself for missing that location. Either that or that he was too focused on the whole conversation itself. Though, with this conversation being focused on her and the Yladian man (@Neldo Dini), he might as well try to focus on helping the young woman get to the well. "I might help her out, so excuse me." Running to the woman (@Aerana), he stopped her for a bit to give a short conversation. "Sorry to be a bother again, but I wondered if I can help you with the well." He was never good at socializing as evident with a small blush on his face, but he never was the type to ignore someone alone.
After @Aerana and @Jace Vale left to get the water Neldo stood tall and began to walk away from the construction. The other Yladian had her way of helping, and Neldo now had his own idea of how to help and make these defenses worth while. But first he needed to gather some help and resources. Neldo waved a hand in the air at @Kaede Hoshi without turning around as he called over his shoulder, "I'm going to find another way to help this town. Good luck with the barricade and please save me some tea if that girl brings any back." Neldo walked through the village and literally grabbed any person who seemed to be standing around for even the shortest amount of time commanding, "If you've nothing better to do, then you're coming with me." Some of them seemed ready to question him, but Neldo didn't hesitate and kept his long stride. Surprisingly the humans gave in and obeyed him assuming he knew what he was doing. Fortunately they were right. He had gathered a small party of NPC villagers, and so he set out from the village leading his odd pack of helpers. They workers were talking about him and what was going on, but Neldo was out striding them and cared not for their questions. So long as they followed simple instruction they could be useful. Otherwise, they might as well leave and go back to standing around waiting for something to do. After a little time they were outside the village, nearly 200 yards. Neldo turned around and pointed out several of the men, "You're going to start digging holes. Pits actually. They need not be extremely wide, but they should be deep." He turned and pointed to two other men, "You two need to back track and find any old metal lying around the village that's not being used. Old useless metal that is deemed rusty, torn, sharp and jagged is best." Neldo turned on the last man, "You're coming with me. We're going to be ransacking the trees for long sturdy branches, so I hope you can climb or at least chop wood. Otherwise you're useless to me and your village." Neldo turned without another word and began to stride off towards the nearest trees. Fortunately, the villagers obeyed him and followed his bluffing bravado.
_____Watching with slight focus as the group that had once built up around her began to fade she simply focused back on her work with the wall. Some of the villagers she recalled came over to help her out with the part of the wall. She herself looking over it and starting to doubt it would do much without proper people to protect it, but sadly the only choice in the area was not someone who would work with people anymore and she herself was far to weak to make any difference against an army right now. Moving aside as the people seemed much better at building she went to go help the felis girls with a faint smile. _____The last time she was fully interacting with them she protected Sora from a group of bandits, now they had no idea she was the same person because she died not long after that event had happened. But moving to help lift some of the baskets of supplies she was fine with not being recalled. Sora avoided her like she did when they first met, and Kira just accepted her help and focused on the task she was assigned to do. It was no different from the first meeting with the two and that was enough to bring a smile to Kaede’s face. _____Kaede would likely not return to the wall until the group that went to the well was on their way back, maybe a bit later and when she did return she simply chose to focus on getting other supplies to the storage area. It was not her style to talk as much anymore, and after everything that she had seen so far from the group she prefered to work with people that seemed to care more about actually helping out and not doing something less productive like make tea or explore the forest as far as she could tell from the other Yladian’s actions. @Aerana | Jace Vale | @Neldo dini
