1804/Meeting of Myths

Meeting of Myths
Date of Scene:	14 March 2015
Location:	Alfheim Online <ALO>
Synopsis:	Sinon seeks out Tomoe, ne Eisen, with some curious questions.
Cast of Characters:	Tomoe, 649

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Sinon (649) has posed:
    Eisen.

    As far as names in GGO go, there are a handful of people who have two- the name their characters actually have, and an epithet that have been given based on their achievements. Since there are no floating placards above peoples' heads, sometimes you don't actually get to know the name of the person who shoots you, and so it happens that occasionally people achieve popularity through their circulated name if they're a figure of mystery. This is especially so if they tend to stay off of social media, which makes communicating with them difficult.

    That's why, when 'Hecate' put out a rumor that she was trying to contact 'Eisen', people knew how to circulate it- and also that, if these two mystery figures were meeting, that they knew to keep out of the location one wanted to meet the latter.

So it is that Sinon is waiting in a certain indoor market, the same place she met Kirito, waiting for an encounter with Tomoe, who before has just walked up to her...

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen, was not so odd of a looking avatar really, given the scifi nature of the setting her lookintg to be of mixed asian decent made sense but the red hair well then again it's a game do it doesn't really matter does it? Said Red head is well aware of the rumour now and is curious about why Hecate is looking for her but she'll go hear them out and it's in a certain market. She comes in wearing the same armored body suit she does out in the field and seems to be looking for Sinon.

Sinon (649) has posed:
Now, see...

    Sinon has been thinking for quite a while ever since she met up with ... quite a large group of Kirito's 'friends', and she has some suspicions, a while ago at the registration for the Bullet of Bullets. She's not sure what to make of them, and she's been putting it at the back of her mind as best she can- just concentrating on other things, just trying to do things RL, but it's got to the point she needed to do something, and thus the grapevine.

    And thus, she is actually kind of fidgety and restless as she sits around, and when she spots Tomoe she's quick to push herself up by her knees and wander over.

    "Eisen. You came."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe hs been busy grinding for some more levels given her build isn't the most optimal by the current meta, however she's got edges that most players don't have. such as way more up time using the interface for games like this. She looks over to Sinon and seems pretty chipper as she.

"I did, if you needed to talk to me and it hit the point I heard it on the grapevine I figured I should show up."

Sinon (649) has posed:
That's one way of putting it. Sinon knows nothing of 'Eisen' except for her reputation; such that she doesn't even know the name 'Tomoe'. Or 'Sheena Armstrong'.

    "I met you at the registration for the Bullet of Bullets... a lot of people were there, and I'm not... really the kind of person who hangs out with big groups... raid groups or otherwise. So ... sorry I stepped out."

    Her breath hitches just a little there before she gets that apology out. "But I wanted to find out a couple of things. Would you humor me?"

    The prize pool for that one particular betting game refilled very quickly after Kirito emptied it out, but then it's dropped significantly in people who tried it. This one particular machine has now been regarded as something of a mystery- rumors say that you're more lucky or only able to win it if you're a totally new player, or if you have the same type as avatar as she (he) did, or so on or so forth. It sees few people trying it now, and rumors are even that it's going to be phased out for new content. But it still stands, the cowboy taunting anyone who passes by.

    Sinon points it out to her.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen says "No problems, my squadron is pretty large and ball of energy most of the time."

She nods a little bit to Sinon as she explains a few more things.

"Not everyone can handle the entire group all at once and we were missing a few to be honest. Sure why not."

She follows looking at the cowboy game.

"One of the more creative money sinks I seen in a MMORPG, my hat's off to the devs on that one. Wait you want me to try my luck?"

Sinon (649) has posed:
    "Missing a few, huh..."

    Sinon makes a face like she's sucking on a lemon. "It was certainly an experience, just with the people I was there with at the time. That's certainly something."

    She tosses Tomoe a coin- the virtual representation of a minor currency transfer. "Yeah, on me. I wanted to just see something with my own eyes... I've got a theory I want to test out."

    "Give it a go."

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen was sad a certain S A M U R A I was drowing in work was wasn't able to help, he and his crew were good times to hang out with. She seems lost in thought for a second. She catches the coin and she nods to her.

"You want me to try it out, get in close and shoot cowboy, right?"

Sinon (649) has posed:
    "That's right. Kirito... when I met him when he was just starting out, he managed it. And he was the only person I know who's ever won this game. I've looked on Reddit and GGOforit.com, and /nobody/ has heard of more than a handful of people who have managed it."

    Sinon has dug her hands into her pockets and she's leaning backwards against one of the walls. "They really oughta log the names of the winners... back in the 90s you could enter your name in a lot of arcade games."

Tomoe has posed:
Kirito come up and Eisen nods.

"He's always played speed freaks as long as I known him."

She seems to know Kirito fairly well from how she's talking, Sinon has no idea she's renting a room from Kirito's family.

"Oh so this huh a challenge all right then, time to grab some cash humm?"

She seems very confident as she moves up to the starting line and pops the money in. At this point some people are noticing, one because female player and two she's going up against. She now get her self into a ready stance for this.

Sinon (649) has posed:
If Sinon DID know she was living with Kirito... hooo boy, that would make things even more interesting. It would almost seem /scandalous/. But she knows so little... she doesn't even know that there's a multiverse outside of the borders of this world.

    Shino Asada has only ever travelled as far as this city, leaving from the home she was born in, and the reasons she did this to move to a single house and a lonely existence are known only to her. Her worldview is far too narrow, and the idea of broadening it in any way is something she approaches with trepidatious steps.

    Two girls, talking in the same place, incidentally? Madness, surely.

    The cowboy 'robot' gives its usual taunts in perfect but cliched english, threatening Tomoe even as the bullet lines stretch out and the lead flies.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen was also friends with Kirito's sister whose been too busy with Kendo related things to help out much with the GGO stuff and perhaps it's for the best. Either way she stares the robot down and she smirks for a moment, there's a grin on her face. It's predatory as hell and then that's when things start to get insane.

She's not quite as fast as Kirito, but she's faster than likely most people in GGO save perhaps for Pale Rider or Kirito. The lines are going all about her as it keeps taunting her, and she's going in at high speed, the rounds so far have missed her and she's still going for the gold. Also with reaction times like this?! Why the hell isn't she known in the BOB or the PVP community better?

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Sinon's jaw drops.

    As soon as she realizes she's done it, it raises fast enough to make her teet clack together, but this is the moment where her brain ignites. As the gunman's shots increase in speed and frequency, and his hand bashes against the hammer of his pistol at a rate even humans can't approach, Sinon is not watching the automaton but 'Eisen' instead.

    That smile... that smile caught her straight away. She's seen people who smile on the battlefield, but to don such a predator's expression- the sort she has been known to wear on occasion- in such trivial times is a frightening thing to her.

    Those exact questions pass through her mind, wondering why she's not more wellknown, with the speed of electrical impulse thought.

    The gunner would sweat it seems so nervous, as Tomoe gets close enough to touch him--

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen seems in her own little world as the drone is opening up on her she's laging a bit behind Kirito's time sure but she's still ahead of the drone jsut enough. She's having fun with this, after all this at this moment is a game right? She's getting closer and cloer but the shots keep comming. She has no idea what Sinon's thinking. Still one might guess Eisen was holdibng back most of the time or just going hard enough to win and nothing more. Right now? She's gong full out and she's slides in just having a bullet part her hait but not score a legit hit as she slides in to get the cowboy!

Sinon (649) has posed:
        *bing*
        "Ohhh nooooooo!"

The cowboy drops his gun; the machine drops its prize. For the first time in many months, the vault opens up and a literal rain of golden coins falls out to create a snowdrift of currency, covering the shocked stereotype and rising up around Eisen. As before, though, it's not real, just a visual effect as a huge amount of numbers roll into her inventory.

    I guess you could just always take the money out and roll in it if you felt like it.

    Sinon claps again; a little subdued golfclap, quiet behind the sound of raining money.

"So you managed it. That confirms one of the things I was thinking about you and yours. That's really interesting..."

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen is actually covered in coins as she didn't expect them to rain down like that, she looks rather comic for a moment before she rises up and the numbers are rolling into her ingame account. She shakes her head a little biot and looks over to Sion, the expression on her face seems pleased but confused for a moment.

"Humm which is?"

Or so Eisen seems or could she also be wondering about previous comments made by Sinon as to whom she might be?

Sinon (649) has posed:
It's actually pretty funny, seeing Tomoe shake the coins off of her head and then turn around to keep talking, surrounded in money, as if stranger things had happened to her.

    "Kirito managed to win this contest as well, and when I watched him there was some sort of... some strange spark to the way he moved. Like he became a different person."

    "When I met all of you and your friends last week, there was something there that made me feel like..."

She hesitates again. "Like an outsider. Like there was something to this that made all of you close friends."

Sinon who knows nothing of Aincrad or Alfheim. "You all know one another well, don't you? You're a big, strong group of friends."

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen pauses for a moment to give Sinon the entry feee plus a bit more back to her before she even thinkins about answering.

"We have just been playing together for a long time, this isn't the first MMORPG we all piled into, together. We were not trying to shut you out if that's wht we're thinking. We stuck through a lot to be honest with you."

Eisen's speaking Japanese she's got a slight accent there not much of one she speaks of someone whose had a lot of experince speaking japanese.

Sinon (649) has posed:
It's also interesting, that voice. Eisen's not exactly native to Japan, but it didn't seem as if Amalie was either. And that's to say nothing of Arthur... Arthur... Arthur's /unique/ way of speaking.

    "Yeah, it... well, Kirito and one of the others just... offered to be friends with me right away."

    "It was strange."

    She looks again at Eisen, so mysterious in her own way, and perhaps even moreso for what she's seen today.

    "I suppose it's... almost the opposite, really. You're such a mysterious group of people, and there's some kind of strength there..." Were her lips always this dry? She purses them.

    "I've never known someone who's so strong and yet so open to other people, especially ones they've never met before. I'm barely even an acqaintance. I could even wish to be your enemy."

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen takes a moment and listens as she gestures to Sinon to follow her out to a food court as Eisen seems to want to get something to eat as she talked.

"We learned life can be too short to not be up front when you can about things. You know? Eh Kirito used to not be that way but he's a lot better about that when he used to be. You didn't think we'd be so open and accepting of other people? I guess we are strange tht way, you know this is a game right?"

Eisen looks a little concerned at Sinon but she wonders about that comment. She thinks of the old expression keep your friends close but your enemies closer.

Sinon (649) has posed:
Sinon follows.

    It's actually a strange situation for her, virtual food. Naturally, Shino Asada eats in a very frugal way. As long as the balance of nutrition, calories and cost are met, taste and appearence are a secondary concern. As such, her meals are simple and basic.

    Sinon can afford to stimulate her brain with the simulated sensation of far richer things, without the need to worry about any consequences. She can and will eat a lot more substantially.

    Here is no different, as she pays for a meal which probably will give her some manner of combat buff in her next PVE adventure; a large burger topped with crisped parmesan, truffle oil fries and a tall, fudge-swirled ice cream milkshake.

    And between food, talk. "<<Life's too short>> philosophy, huh?" she replies, enunciating the english words carefully. "Fitting for a game like this..."

"It is a game, yeah. But it is a world, too... and different people have different reasons for spending time in it." She waggles a finger, her expression teasing. "And don't ask me what my reason is just yet."

"I guess I'm just surprised. The fact that you're /old/ friends, but so open to making new friends. Normally a close-knit group has a certain elite attitude to it, especially in PVP games like this."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is on the other hand getting all her snack cravings out in games like this. She's got some stuff that would be horrible for one's figure in real life? Here she can eat as much as her brain wants. She's not piking out however.

"Yes pretty much that, and you could say that."

She notices the English isn't too bad at all.

"That's also true a world like this is real so long as the people who are in it are real. The make up of the world doesn't matter, right?"

she goes to get some more food.

"Sure there's some old games where you'd be cutthroat as heck but well those games were old when we were both children I'd suspect. Either way we normally did PVE for the most pat, I'm more of the oddity reall in the terms of PVP."

Sinon (649) has posed:
Sinon nods. "Even if GGO is a dirty, run-down world, I still like it. And I like..." I like Sinon, I like everything about what I am in this world, I like living in the place where I'm strong. "The feels."

    Why /does/ she feel like she's close to saying intimate things? Is it because some sort of friendship is being made between Sinon and Eisen?

    She is surprised to hear that whatever Kirito and Eisen's group is, it's not very competitive. "And yet most of you are entering the BoB? I guess it's all a big group effort, huh?"

Inside, her heart wanders as she hears that the group is a big PVE sort. That kind of conflict, against virtual enemies... isn't the same as facing another person. But maybe there could be some worth she can learn from it, even if it's meagre? Maybe Sinon should investigate this further.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen does wonder the mixed signals about her supicans about whom Sinon might be. The seemingly intimate comments does ge her attention maybe there is some sort of friendship starting.

"It's got an interesting feeling."

Eisen would think she's stronger like this and more and more Sheena feels like a mask that Eisen or Tomoe wears if she's honest about it. She's getting like one old Super hero who's civilian idenity was the real mask.

"I always enjoyed arena type things it looked like fun, one thing lead to another and there's no real stopping Reker from gunning for it. I just didn't think I was up to the cut the last time BOB was open also man Bob? You know that's short for an english nick name for the name Robert. It's a terrible joke on the Dev's part."

Sinon (649) has posed:
"Ho, really? Stupid dev tricks... I heard it had something to do with an old game by Namco, myself."

"You know, though... I am still the one that many people call 'Hecate'. It's how the two of us ended up meeting like this, after all, that mystique and danger that my name carries." She smiles, in a different way- it seems sly. "I could almost say, 'you are a brave sort, because someone with open arms isn't shielding their heart from a sniper's bullet'..."

She raises the long-handled, tiny-end spoon from her milkshake, tapping her bottom lip. She holds it, briefly, like a noblewoman might handle a kiseru.

"I think," Sinon says, then swirling the last of the melted ice cream in the bottom of her glass, "I think I want to get to know all of you more."

    "I think I'll speak to Kirito and the others, and see what happens."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe says "Could be both then either way it's still amusing to me and ya given the sniper rifle you have it's rather apt really, also the myths about it as well. She notices the sly smine and the implciations oe she thinks she does.

"Maybe so."

She gets a enough of certain things in the world outside the game.

"I have no problem with that."

She opens up a window and offers to give Sinon her in game contact info.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Sinon accepts, and offers Tomoe her information as well. It pops up... right under Kirito, adding a second entry to her two-person friendlist. Otherwise? Bare.

    Sinon is not the kind of person to have many friends.
    But this could change, now she's met this open-hearted, friendly and yet brutally strong Eisen.

    She scrapes the last of the fudge out of her glass. "Hmm... I think I should log out and finish some homework. It was... very interesting meeting you like this."

    "Hopefully in the future we'll have more interesting things happen to us."

    Please never forget that 'living in interesting times' is a curse, Sinon...

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen grins a little boit at Sinon and pause at the mention of home work.

"You have my sympathy on that home work and it has been. Yes I think our lives are goign to be very interesting with what's going on. Eisen knows the curse and has long accepted her life is cursed such.

"See you around, I'm going to go see if I can find a Dungeon run or two."