3667/A common bond

A common bond
Date of Scene:	14 January 2016
Location:	Alfheim Online <ALO>
Synopsis:	In order to get closer, Hoshi joins Nagato in ALO... and a role reversal takes place.
Cast of Characters:	Nagato, 901

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Nagato has posed:
    It was only a bit of time before she set up Amakasu in her office, using one of the few Amuspheres she had in there thanks to a previous setup, Atago was there, just watching the girl, making sure everything was safe before Nagato headed back to the docks. Giving the girl her in game info, she gives a brief nod, and logs back in once she's settled.

    Once Amakasu's in game, she's struck with a room that shows the many different races of Alfheim and a floating, virtual keyboard in front of her that asks for her name.

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Blink.

    Hoshi was in Nagato's office, coming in to finally test out the thing she'd heard so much about recently. The past few days hadn't been that great, so maybe it was a time to relax. She laid down on the cot with the helmet on, closed her eyes...

    Blink.

    When she opens her eyes and sees the swirling structures around her, a slight grin comes to her face. "This is pretty cool," she says to no one in particular. She's never really be into games, but this VR stuff was great. She reaches out to touch the keyboard and freezes. She'd never been all that good at names... "Aw, screw it." Tap-tap-tap.

    Name: Amakasu.

    Now for the race. They all look pretty cool in that weird Western fantasy way, but she'd heard that the way they played was more important. So, she goes for the bigget, strongest character she can find: a Salamander. "Ehh... I wonder if we gotta keep the hair color," she wonders for a moment, then shrugs and taps on the Accept button.

Nagato has posed:
    Tana waits in Freelia, leaning back against one of the shops like she almost lives there, she taps her foot albeit impatiently. "Hmm, I wonder how long it'll take her to make a character here..." she muttered, checking her inventory for a few things.. Basic weapon of each type... basic armor of each type... Tana didn't exactly know WHAT Amakasu was going to be or do here, but she was at least going to be prepared like the Admiral she is.... or in this case.. the axe cat.

    Meanwhile, back at Chargen... Once the decisions have been made, it's pretty much an unceremonious drop as the character creation room gives way to the actual world... in the sky. It starts dropping the newly made Salamander in her own cities territory, only slowing down to allow a safe and gentle touchdown for her.

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    One second, Hoshi was standing in chargen. The next, she wasn't. It takes her a moment to realize what just happened, and when she does, she lets out a nice long panicked yell all the way down. When she actually approaches the ground, she brings up her arms and closes her eyes... Only to drop down gently onto the ground. Anyone in the area could probably see the noob and get a nice laugh at her expense.

    Once she's taken a moment to catch her breath and collect herself, the newly minted Amakasu the Salamander stands in her place. When she takes a step she wiggles a bit oddly, surprised at the extra weight and strength she had. The world seemed just a little smaller, too. "Oh man... I didn't know they could actually alter how the body feels.

    With a couple quick steps, she grins and starts trying out running, feeling powerful muscle respond to her commands. "This is great!" She whoops cheerfully. Looking around, though, she didn't see anyone that looked like Nagato's character had. "Uh... How exactly should I contact people in here, anyhow?..."

Nagato has posed:
    Tana forgot one minor detail... finding out what character she was going to pick. It was easy with Staren there that they were all able to get together, but without Staren and the others.. "Well." she sighs, tapping her foot even more. "I figured she'd pick Cait Sith..." she shakes her head a bit and the wings come out before flying into the air to take a good look over the area... "Hmm... nothing..." Well, that leaves one thing.

    She didn't want to do this but with no real choice, over the Fleet Radio comes a distinctly NOT Nagato voice... "Amakasu? Where are you?" it's obviously younger sounding than the Admiral's stern voice, "I'm in Freelia... you did choose Cait Sith right? Or did you choose something else? Better, what is your character name? I'll send a friend request that way."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Meanwhile, Amakasu is having the time of her life figuring out all the different ways that she can move, even hopping over benches and guard rails as quick as her bigger body would allow. This was actually pretty fun! Though she does her best to calm down and calm her breathing when she hears what should probably be Nagato on the radio.

    "Uh. I'm with a bunch of red-haired people. Salamanders, I think. I'm a Salamander. Do we start off on different areas?" Amakasu's voice is much deeper than it had been before, but she still probably sounds familiar when she coughs a bit. "I, uh. Am not good at naming things. My name is Amakasu." Which... might be a breach in some things. Using her real last name probably wasn't the best idea either. "Is there someplace we could meet up or something?"

Nagato has posed:
    Tana hmms a bit, nodding. A few taps here and there and a 'friend request' should pop up near Amakasu's vision. "Alright, I should be on my way." once the friend request is accepted, she'll try sending a party request! "I don't remember if there's neutral ground somewhere but I'll try coming your way... now where did I put that crystal..." Tana gives a shrug and looks around. Time to fly, she guesses.

     "I'm in a section called Freelia, it should be accessable but I'll just head through the forest this way... should take me ... a bit less than... twenty minutes or so to get there if I'm cutting through all the things on the way. Look for a flying cat eared girl named Tana."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Oh, hey, friend request. For a second, Amakasu goes for a mouse that isn't there, then blushes and snickers to herself as she pulls her hand up to touch the accept button for both requests. "... Neutral ground? Aw crap, did I pick, like, the opposite faction or something? /Were/ there even factions? I don't remember this coming up for login..."

    Oh well, doesn't matter. "Hey, so there's a map, right? I'll leave the town. If I'm on the opposite side it'd suck if you got attacked. I'll meet you outside!" And thus, she went diving for hidden AR buttons to fiddle around with while she pounds pavement towards what she /thinks/ is the exit. Only to miss a step going down, but thankfully she's able to catch herself and adjust. "Whoops--Whew. I'm--whoa--on the way!"

Nagato has posed:
    "I'm not a hundred percent sure, I've barely been outside of Freelia and only to the forest for a couple dungeons. But I should be getting close!" she grins, time to see what her Destroyer looks like in game.. "I don't remember either, I was busy customizing my character... This is a good relaxing thing to do when you are in the docks."

    It takes a while, more so when Tana has to land and recharge her flight time... She still hasn't mastered flight but she's decent without the controller now. "Mmm... a bit longer.." she mutters, looking for the marker for Amakasu. "Heh, she didn't even try to hide her name, oh well."

    It doesn't take too much longer, her color cursor should be appearing soon... "Amakasu! Amakaaaasuuu!"

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    It took a few more stumbles, trips, and near-disasters for Hoshi to start getting used to the peculiar way that a bigger, more heavily-muscled body moved, but eventually she hits the point that she's able to move confidently at a quick but easy pace. Years and years of daily jogs have made this sort of exercise easy to adapt to but strange.

    When Amakasu enters Tana's line of sight, the catgirl gets a view of Amakasu. Firstly, she's much bigger--coming in at just a hair below six feet, and fairly heavily muscled, to boot. Her face seems a lot more masculine than Hoshi's own, giving her a sort of big bifauxnen feel. Her long hair is done up in the same loose ponytail that Hoshi often wears.

    Spotting Tana isn't too difficult after knowing what she looks like, so she acknowledges the shout with a wave and puts her head down, pumping her arms to increase her speed... right at Tana. She doesn't seem like she's slowing down, either. In fact, she straight doesn't, eraching down to pick up the smaller Cait-Sith and carry her along for a few feet until she slides to a stop.

    "Hi," Amakasu says with a huge grin.

Nagato has posed:
    Too bad Tana wasn't there to see the stumbling, tripping and falling.. she'd have loved to see that but for now, it's meeting her destroyer. WHen in sight, she blinks, looking up at the name she's got in her party list and the color cursor over the larger Salamander's head. Did she get the right person? But there's that wave of acknowledgement...

    "So that's Amakasu..." she muttered, "This isn't awkward at all." it was very awkward, though when she lands, she tilts her head... she was running. There didn't seem to be anything to run from outside the Salamander's area, but... then it dawns on her. A bit too late actually. Tana lets out a surprised mew when she's picked up and carried along a ways from the snatch.

    "A... amakasu..." Tana mutters, feeling slightly awkward about this situation. The 'former battleship' being hoisted by the 'former destroyer'... "Well... I see you wanted to ... get bigger then and join the ranks of a battleship." she muttered, looking up and down the larger of the two... "Looking good, looking good."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Amakasu wondered at the feeling of being able to pick up a person with so little effort, so even after she's come to a stop, she doesn't let Tana drop for a little while longer. "Heh... Sorry, Admiral. Er, sorry. Tana. I guess I got a little caught up in everything." /Now/ the Salamnder drops her. "It's pretty cool to feel so strong. And apparently we have fire magic!" She grins wide and goes to sit down on the grass, stretching out her legs. "I can't wait to troll Kohler about this."

    Slowly, she starts looking out over the area around her, and taking deep breaths of this new fake air that she'd suddenly been exposed to. And because she's kind of tired after all that running. "Your character's pretty cute, though. I didn't know you were the type of person to make cute things." Still grinning, she looks over to Tana. "Not that I'll tell anybody. Nope. This secret is safe with me." The wink she tosses probably means there's going to be a cost for her silence, though.

Nagato has posed:
    The feeling of being picked up so easily, to be moved around so wantonly was a very new feeling for Tana. Back in the real world, a girl could bump into her and she'd not even feel a thing but here, she was being hosited quite easily. "I.. It's okay, Amakasu. Really." And once she's dropped, she lands on her feet and dismisses the wings.

    "I'm capable of using fire magic as well, but apparently, the Cait Sith's true calling is beast taming. Perhaps I will show you the one I get... when I get one." she gives a bit of a chuckle, only to pause at the word troll. "Eh? Sure. But just be careful, don't want to go overestimating things now." she gives a bit of a grin, but once the comments start coming about the Cait Sith, she freezes up.

    "I... it was an accidental pick..." she quickly looks to the side, muttering, "Cute things do not affect me whatsoever." lie... but she turns to Amakasu, eyeing that wink. "What is it that you want, Amakasu? I've already got Haguro under my finger for this, what will you take?"

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    "Ahh, so every race has it's own special thing," she says with a nod. Makes sense. Also, what are the odds that Tana is going to pick something cute to be her beast pet? Amakasu's face probably betrays her emotions. She feels... happy. Actually legitimately happy again. It's a nice feeling.

    The big cheerful grin that comes to Amakasu's face clearly shows that she isn't believing a word of what she's hearing. "It's okay to like cute things, you know." She laughs when Tana asks about a price. "Oh, no. I'm really not going to tell anyone. But I'm going to know." She leans over slightly. "I'm going to know, and occaisonally you're going to see me smiling at you, and you'll know why. That'll be good enough for me." Another wink. How cruel.

    But enough talk! The big Salamander girl gets back to her feet. "So, what are we going to do? I should probably, like... buy weapons or something, right? Do you think they have katanas as weapons here?"

Nagato has posed:
    "Mmhmm, Salamanders specialize in fire magic from what I've read in the guides..." Tana, looking up guides to a video game, "They're also very strong but they can't do one thing that I or the other lighter races can. Wall run." a pause, "I haven't tried that yet, Mistral is supposed to teach me how some day." though, the smile she sees upon her larger partner's face actually gets the Cait Sith to smile as well.

    "You remind me of Mutsu... my sister ship. I could almost swear you and her would share the secrets..." she shakes her head but when the Salamander girl asks about weapons, Tana gets a big grin. "Here..." she opens up a window and throws one of each weapon type in. "Take your pick." she then throws one of each armor type in. "It's all basic weaponry you could get at a shop, but I came prepared for you. What did you want to do here? I heard three roles being talked about, a tank, a deeps and support. One of them wears heavy armor to take blows, like a battleship. One does all the damage like the rest of the ships and the other supports them from the back lines, like carriers and support fleets. What did you want?"

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Amakasu poses a moment to take the information in. No wall running... well, it's not like that's a big loss, right? After all, people can fly around here! Though apparently that's gated for now, which is unfortunate. "Who's Mistral?" Pause. "Actually don't tell me, we're supposed to keep stuff secret online. Should be fun to meet everyone who plays, either way."

    Being compared to Tana's sister ship feels like pretty high praise, and the big Salamander girl blushes a bit and rubs at her face. "Y-you think so? W-well, maybe we would." It'd be nice. More important things are happening, however, such as weapons and armor! Thinking about it, she decides to go for a greatsword, grinning wide as she holds up the large weapon and tests it's weight. She picks a medium armor set for her next item. Once she's all equipped, she tries moving around in her new gear. "Uh... Well, I'm big and strong, so I guess I could do... I really don't think it's 'deeps'. I think it's supposed to be 'damage per second'. DPS." One of the many things that she's heard people blabbing about before. "Hey, should we try to pick a fight with something?"

Nagato has posed:
    "MIstr.." then she's cut off, "Not a problem." Once the items are selected, she closes the trade window and smiles, standing back. A large axe is on the cat's back and she gives a brief nod. "You'll forgive me if I figured you would be doing the 'tank' job, won't you, Amakasu?" she gives a bit of a grin at this and thinks, "Isn't that what I said?" in response... "But if you're eager to get into a scuffle... I think we can find something..."

    The Cait Sith grabs onto the arm of the Salamander and starts walking forth, "Come this way, I saw some that you could practice on there, so show me what you're all about. Should be some arachnid like things there too. Maybe some deer-like things as well. At least, that's what I find helped me get the money for the gear."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Tilting her head, Amakasu looks down at her body, then over at Tana. "... Yeah, I probably should tank when it's the two of us, huh." It's just a simple size difference, really. One that she's accepted the irony for, of course. The big girl rests the flat of her greatsword against her shoulder. "Yeah, I've tried VR combat before, but as me. It'll be so weird to fight when I'm like this.

    Once she's grabbed, Amakasu follows willingly. It takes her a few minutes to get her strides to match Tana's, though. "So, how do you use magic, anyway? I'd imagine you can just swing a weapon, but that's something I haven't done before." Another moment has her tilting her head wonderingly. "Hey, do you think I could summon Rosamond here? I'm kind of tempted to try, but I'm not sure what would happen..."

Nagato has posed:
    Size difference aside, it might look strange for the Cait Sith to be dragging a Salamander around. "Alright. From what I saw, it's a bunch of words but you need to have the skills set. In the menu, you should be able to set them. But in the meantime.." there's a simple enemy there. Tana's fought quite a few of those spider-like enemies back in that dungeon, more so when she had help defeating the boss. Tana just stands there, weapon held in one hand.

    Tana starts to chant in one of the languages offered, a long list of words coming up in front of her with each word being spoken pulled out from the list and moved in front of her. With the spell finished, it moves into a half circle behind the Cait Sith and, with the symbol of the Cait Sith now in front of Tana, a small-ish fireball launches forth to crash into the arachnid, but it's not dead yet. "Go hit it with your sword."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Amakasu is, of course, giving these lessons her utmost attention as she gets pulled along. "Oh. So they actually have you chanting spells, huh?" Snicker. "Or do you have to say 'fireball' repeatedly and throw them at people?" Both might actually be okay, actually, if only for her being able to laugh whenever she saw it.

    Thankfully, she's given a show of how magic works, and she lets out a little whoop as the spell hits true and draws the creature's aggro. Amakasu steps forward quickly and takes up her giant sword in both hands in a traditional stance. When it gets close enough, the Salamander girl grunts and slices at the creature horizontally, taking off a couple of it's legs! She also undercompensated and sets herself spinning for a second or two. When she stops, she's blushing brightly. "... Let's... let's not talk about this."

Nagato has posed:
    Tana gives a brief nod and lets out a little chuckle of her own as she spins around. "Sure, but it will cost you." she smirks. Fortunately, there was no one else around and no enemies nearby, so she could show off just a bit.. Tana lets off another fireball to get the monster's attention and then steps forward with the two handed axe at the ready. The axe head glows a soft blue and she smiles, "Each weapon has their own set of skills, Sword Skills. I don't know why it's called that for an axe but..."

    "When you use one... I know there's a manual for it, I'm not sure what a great sword does... but this." she rears up a bit and starts moving a abit quicker, "Whirlwind!" The Cait Sith starts twirling around, that axe head crashing into the arachnid a couple times before Tana seems to be frozen in place... "Go on, finish it off. A good swing should do it. I'm ... kinda stuck for right now..."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Ahhh, c'mon. "Do I even have anything you would want?" Amakasu queries bemusedly. Once she's gotten her balance back, she's about to go in again, only for Tana to get involved again to beat a little more life out of the creature. "I didn't even know that was a thing! I just thought you swung and it'd work..." Which is fair, it's how things work in the real world!

    Seeing Tana freeze in place near the still-alive spider brings the Salamander back to the task at hand. No real time to read manuals or figure out the weirdness here. The big woman comes charging in, rearing for another horizontal strike.

    BASH.

    The word flashes in the corner of her vision, and she blinks slowly. "Bash?... WHoa!" Her body reacts on it's own, trying to smack the poor lowbie spider with a baseball swing that finally puts it down permanently... and she freezes. "... Well okay then! We win!" Insert victory theme.

Nagato has posed:
    By the time the Sword Skill's paralysis wears off, that arachnid's bashed by that swing and the Cait Sith drops to a knee. "Not bad. I think..." she taps a foot, "I think if you wore some heavier armor with that sword..." she gives a brief smile towards Amakasu, lifting herself up some. "I would say I would be the little destroyer to the battleship." a brighter smile is given before she puts the axe back on her back and looks at the menu...

    "Ah, that is if you want to go that direction." Tana looks up to the Salamander, that tail twitching behind her, her face showing an Admiral in a very good mood, something that she normally doesn't show outside of ALO.. "We should return to town and rest, I have documents to finish here soon..."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    What had originally been inteded as a samurai character clearly isn't going to be. Amakasu grins a bit wryly when the thought hits her "Heh. Like I don't look big enough? But, yeah sure. I'll be the big tanky one." She's got the build for it, at least. She also notes that Tana hasn't named her supposed price. That's not an issue, though. Better that Tana be allowed to completely forget.

    A quick tap on the raio reveals the time, and Amakasu facepalms and groans. "Oh man, it's crazy late. We probably should go. I'll spend the night at Hikari." She smiles and waves as her finger goes to hit the sign off. "I'll see you back in the world, Admiral. Bye!" And then, she was gone.

Nagato has posed:
    When Amakasu signs off, Tana forgets one thing... "She didn't go home..." she shakes her head, pulls out a small crystal and nods, "Teleport, Freelia." and in an instant, the Catmiral was gone.