Private ✪ Finweald Girls Day Out

[Kat Otsu]

At the Finweald Shops...

Kat huffed and puffed as she ran through the streets of Finweald, looking around frantically for @Wisp. She had promised to meet her here an hour ago but had no idea that when logging into TerraSphere again for the first time, she'd meet with so much... trouble. Worst of all, she wasn't sure what Rina's character would look like. She should have asked for a picture of the character, but she opted to send a message instead while frantically searching through the streets. At least Rina had told her the character's name.

Mail

omigosh i'm so sorry i didn't think this would be such a hassle! i'm looking for you at the finweald shops, where are you? i really hope you didn't log out or leave i'm so sorry. i don't know what your character looks like, but i look like what i look like outside the game, just a little shorter, and with robot eyes i guess. please please please message me back!!!!

The message looked terrible, not the least of which was because it was typed in a hurry, but also because Kat was already bad at messaging, let alone messaging in the game. She continued to search for her friend, trying not to get distracted by the products in the windows that she desperately wished she could stop and look at with the friend she was supposed to meet. That was the whole idea. She was going to meet Rina in the game, they were going to have a shopping date, and then they could figure out the more fun stuff, like adventures. Rina had already been trying to convince her for the better part of the past couple of weeks to come back to the game and play with her.

As Kat looked at herself in the reflection of the windows, she wasn't in her usual kimono attire. She wore a simple dress that she had as a backup set of clothes after the events of her initial log-in had left her kimono torn and stained. Part of what she had wanted to do today was get new clothes, repair the ones she had torn up, and maybe get some more backup outfits to wear. She loved her kimono, but it didn't hurt to change it up from time to time, thus her current outfit.

As time dragged on, and she grew more and more tired from her search, she started to lose hope that she would ever find Rina. Sure enough at this point, the woman would have just been upset at Kat for seemingly standing her up and logged out by now, and Kat wouldn't have blamed her.

With a heavy sigh, Kat leaned against a wall next to a shop and stared up at the sky. Should she just log out too? At least if she did, and Rina was gone, she could just text her and apologize...

 

[Wisp]

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Rina had to admit it was weird how good a pixelated sweet could taste so good. Though she'd been playing Terrasphere for a little while now, she was far from good at the game. Most of the gossip or exploration that she'd experienced so far was very, well beginner friendly. That mostly came from the fact that the limited amount of time she had to play depended on the energy level of her two children that were currently sleeping in their rooms.

Maybe Kat had a change of heart? She wondered to herself as she took a bite of her chewy bun snack. It would be understandable given her history with her ex-partner in the game. Moving on from such an important person was never easy, especially when you keep going back to the places that were important to you. In her own personal way she could empathize with her friend.

She still found herself looking for a certain man in the crowd every night. She decided to give up for now and take a peek at a few of the shops. Even if her friend had second thoughts, she would just message her offline later. It was fine. At least Kat made an attempt? She at least wanted to assume so. The blonde wasn't the type to go against a promise, but at the same time...she could be a little spazzy.

Then her friend's message came in with urgency in her words. So, she was here? Like, actually here?!

Rina grinned.

Mail

About time! I was checking out some of the food vendors. I'll meet you, just stay where you are.

She moved further down the streets with the silver strands of her hair flying behind her. It was pretty close to where her current position was, so actually tracking down Kat was a lot easier than she expected.

"Kat! Bout time you showed up. What in the world made you take so long?" She put her hands on her hips and faked a little huff of annoyance before winking at the girl with a smile.
"Sorry. Should've told you I look like my character too. Might have made it easier to find me."

@Kat Otsu

 

[Kat Otsu]

Kat's eyes drifted lazily from the sky back to her UI as she was prompted by a message. But in an instant, that lazy, sluggish feeling dissipated very quickly and she almost jumped for joy at the fact that Rina was still in the game.

She wasn't sure if she'd have time to message back, but she pulled up the message system anyway, just in case. But before starting to type, she was pulled out of the UI by her friend greeting her. Kat's eyes focused, an almost robotic whirring as they did so from her Magia heritage, and then she lit up like a Christmas tree. @Wisp was a bit slimmer than the pictures that Rina had shown Kat of herself, but they did otherwise look the same.

"AAAAAAHHH!" Kat, squealed, so happy that she finally got to meet her long-distance friend for the first time in the game. She quickly leaped forward and embraced her friend in a tight hug around her shoulders. "It's you! It's really you!" she exclaimed, before managing to finally get a hold of herself and back away gently from the woman in front of her.

She giggled lightly, putting her hands behind her back in mock sheepishness at Rina's mock huff of annoyance. "Honestly..." she said, "if this were anywhere but TerraSphere, I don't think you'd believe me if I told you." But, the moment of pretending to be upset hopefully over as quickly as it began, Kat clapped her hands together and said, "But I can tell you as we shop! We have a lot of ground to cover, and thanks to the little ones I have no idea how much time I have you for, so I want to make the most of it!"

She would move to take Rina's hand and begin to head off in the direction of a nearby shop. "C'mon, I have just the place I saw while I was looking for you. They have Japanese-style clothes like the kimono I usually wear. I want to take a look there first!"

 

[Wisp]

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She grimaced a bit at the loud squeal or scream of excitement that hit her ears. Kat really was such a bundle of energy. Rina couldn't help but love the girl, even in their chats the energy and zest for excitement showed. The only person that could probably rival her was her daughter as the unending bundle of energy that her five year old was.

"Wow, you've got a pair of lungs."

After having kids, Rina had been determined to get back into shape. Though it was a little detail she rarely mention, the intention was still very evident. She liked to take care of herself and her body. Self love was an important part of her life that she certainly had no desire to lose, even if she wasn't exactly doing it to impress anyone.

So when she decided to make her character design in game she was pretty proud to use her own everyday self, but a little more slender, like she was before her amazing little treasures came along. She was a knockout in college, so being one now didn't hurt and the wardrobe she kept in her inventory on the game damn well reflected that. Though her blue armor set was probably her favorite design, there was always room for more options.

"It's good to finally see you too, Kat."

She smiled and pat her friend's head with hand. She had to admit that her character was kind of cute, so the idea of the two of them playing dress up together sounded pretty fun.

"New kimono, gotcha. Any specific designs or colors in mind I should look out for?"

She followed the smaller female's lead as they moved towards the designated location. Her own attention occasionally focusing on the other spots to try out after they were done looking for replacement clothing.

"The kiddos are out for the night. I have to work in the morning though, so maybe a couple of hours max for the night. Still, you've gotta tell me all the details about what took you so long. You're making it seem like it was something pretty wild."

@Kat Otsu

 

[Kat Otsu]

Kat couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her when Rina told her that she had a pair of lungs. This wasn't something foreign to her, what with her often child-like nature and overturned Magia joy bringing out the loudest excitement in her. "You should have seen me when I was younger. I could scream so loud the next city over would be able to hear me," she stated with another chuckle.

As they walked, Kat took note of Rina's situation, trying not to get too excited at the prospect of being able to keep the woman for as long as she wanted. They had lives to get to, at some point, whether Kat liked it or not. And they were already an hour or two behind schedule. But, in response to Rina's question about what they should look for, Kat's eyes lit up and she smiled at Rina, "I've always been partial to cherry blossom designs, and pink is my favorite color. But it doesn't have to be that, that's just my favorite."

As she said this, they arrived in front of the shop Kat had been talking about, and she pressed herself against the window like a little kid would after seeing something they especially liked. In all reality, Kat was looking past the displays into the shop, rather than walking inside like a normal person. "It looks like they have so much neat stuff inside!" Kat explained, still not registering the fact that the door was right there and they could just go inside.

"I wonder if they do repairs too. My kimono got pretty badly torn up and stained in all the fighting. Oh yeah, the fighting!" Suddenly Kat remembered to tell Rina about what had happened and turned away from the window back to her friend. The words flowed out about a mile a minute, hardly worthy of being a story: "So, I woke up in this jail cell when I logged back in. It had been converted from a bunkhouse into a prison, and then there was this mean man who tied me up, but I was saved by this knight named Hanno, who had a nifty shield that seemed like its own person or something, and then we had to save all these other Magia who were being held captive, and we did! It was wild. And that's why I wound up being late."

She beamed at Rina as if everything she said was easily digestible and made complete sense.

@Wisp

 

[Wisp]

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Rina smiled at the petite blonde as she elaborated on the more definitive skills her voice had when she was smaller. Given the nature of her own two bubbly little ones, well she had not doubts that Kat could be far more energetic than she let on at the moment. Though that was one of her friend's charms to her. She seemed to usually have a pretty upbeat mentality, at least in game and that made her stand out from the crowd to her.

"I totally believe you. Take it up an octive and you might be breaking glass like an opera singer someday." She teased her a bit.


As they came to the storefront, Kat pressed herself up against the glass to peak into the shop for deluxe items on preview. Honestly she enjoyed window shopping herself, but spending money unnecessarily was usually not much of an option for Rina. She pushed her silvery strands back and looked at the shiny trinkets sitting on some of the display shelves. Even in game she had a tendancy to be more frugal than necessary with her starting gold.

"Pink kimono with cherry blossoms. I will keep an eye out.""

She looked down and noticed a pale red hued bracelet on the table. It was pretty with a small pink and red flower design on it.

"Would something like that work for you?"

Rina pointed at the pretty piece of jewelry. Though she wasn't certain if accessories of that nature were really up to par with Kat's taste, but it was kinda nice to have a little bit of girl talk like this. At least in a setting where it couldn't turn into drama or a debate.


Though as she listened to her friend's story about being heroes with a guy named, Hanno? Well she had to admit that was pretty exciting for one day. No wonder she was kept busy for such a long time.

"Wow. Sounds like you had quite the adventure without me. I'm a little jealous." She smiled and nudged her friend playfully on the shoulder. "Glad to know I'm friends with a freedom fighter. Invite me next time. I think I've met that Hanno guy too. Blue hair and kinda lanky?"

@Kat Otsu

 

[Kat Otsu]

Kat beamed at Rina when she mentioned she knew Hanno. She chuckled at her brief description, "I'm not sure I'd call him lanky. Tanky, though, maybe?" Kat couldn't help but chuckle again at her dumb wordplay. She looked up at Rina. "Though he is the same height as me, so maybe it's harder for me to tell, being at eye level. I'm sure to you giants it's easier to see features for us little people."

Rina wasn't much taller than Kat, but the small robot woman couldn't help but poke fun at her own height all the same. Kat had purposefully moved the slider to as short as possible for the cuteness factor, which she thought was a resounding success.

Kat waved off the jests though, and continued, "But, I promise this adventure wasn't planned. Hanno found me completely by chance, and I figured it didn't make sense to just leave the poor guy, so I stuck around to help. I'll make sure you do know about the planned adventures though."

Back to the shopping, Kat looked at the bracelet that Rina had pointed out. It was very pretty, although Kat wearing something like that in the game may not be as optimal as it would be in real life. Kat smirked at her friend and lifted an arm, the sleeve of her dress covering her wrist. "It's beautiful, but this keeps it from really working."

At first blush, Rina might think Kat is talking about the sleeve of her dress, but Kat would fiddle with the mechanism in her palm to pop out a glinting metal blade from under the sleeve, that of her hidden dagger. "As soon as I got into combat, I'd probably tear that poor bracelet to shreds." Kat giggled, as if her presenting a hidden weapon was the most natural thing in the world during a shopping trip, which honestly for TS it very well may have been.

Kat put the blade away, and moved ahead to the door of the shop, holding it open for her friend and ushering her inside, "Come on, window shopping won't do. Let's see what they have inside!"

When inside, the store was filled with clothes racks that were full of Japanese-style finery, kimonos, and robes. Kat had come here with Ryou when they were together to pick out her initial starting wear for the game, and she was pleasantly surprised to see that the shop had only grown in the year that she had been gone. Immediately, Kat waddled her way over to the kimonos and began picking through them.

@Wisp

 

[Wisp]

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Rina looked at her petite friend as Kat processed what she said about having met Hanno. It was interesting to hear that Kat assumed that rather than be lanky she called him tanky. The little play on words made her chuckle actually. Kat really did have a unique way of expressing herself when it came to people and their statures. Though, she wondered if her friend assumed that everyone was tiny like her? Then again he was rather short....were all faerin like that?

"Tanky...I think that's a pretty good descriptor for him."

She listened intently as her friend explained their adventure not being planned, but exciting. Though Rina was understanding to the reasoning behind her friend being late, learning the feats that Kat and Hanno were capable of was quite a lot to take in. Still there was something that was spinning in her head...

"For your information, I'm of a perfectly average height. It's not my fault you like being so close to the earth shorty."

She snickered as Kat looked at the bracelet that she picked out. Though a surprised look crossed her features when she noticed the very sharp blade that popped out of her friend's wrist. Welp, she would definitely need to watch her statements about Kat being short, unless she wanted the girl to shred her like the bracelet.

"Noted. Fear tiny magia girl in game."

Rina gave Kat a wink before stepping into the store to start their shopping adventure. With the walls lined with ornate wood drawers, silk clothing, and dark boxes featuring various accessories. She had to admit that this place felt way beyond her price range. The NPC shopkeeper stood behind the counter while a small woman worked in the corner crafting new items for customers to peruse.

@Kat Otsu

 

[Kat Otsu]

Kat hummed as she went through the kimonos on offer. They were all very standard fare, but she was looking for something particularly lovely, as well as a couple of just basic kimonos to wear for everyday combat. But outside combat, she wanted something she'd look extra cute in. Something with cherry blossoms or some other flower design. Which gave Kat an idea.

As she looked, she called out to her companion, wherever she ended up in the store on her own shopping adventure. "Rina!" she called, "What's your favorite flower?" To commemorate finally meeting her friend as close to face to face as they might get being continents apart, Kat thought it would be a good idea to get something that reminded Kat of her whenever she wore it. She could always get a cherry blossom kimono later. There was no rush.

While waiting for her answer, Kat picked out a couple of basic black and pink kimonos from a table with simpler clothes. Kat wasn't worried about the price, so much. She had barely spent anything in this game since starting, and her exploits in the Adventurer's Guild had provided her with a pretty decent basic salary. She folded her arms around the two basic kimonos, holding them to her chest as she turned back to her companion, curious about what she was getting herself up to.

The small woman in the corner had looked up at Kat from her work, presumably because she had shouted. But there was not scorn on her face, but bemusement. Most likely because the store was empty and Kat didn't imagine there was a huge demand for specialty Japanese-style goods in this town. There was demand, the store had survived all this time, but it probably wasn't on par with say, high fashion brands. Kat wondered if Rina was one for said fashion, but that would be a discussion for after the flower choice.

Kat smiled at the small woman, and gave her a light wave, not wanting to be impolite for her attention, and looked back to RIna.

 

[Wisp]

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Rina had to admit that though she was certainly not one to shy away from the idea of shopping, she usually tried to stay on the more frugal side of things. Perhaps it was just a habit from growing up in a difficult situation in her normal reality, but this shop felt...well beyond her normal means. It was all lovely though.

She was very content as she watched her friend dance about the store. Kat clearly had an eye for these kinds of dress. Kimonos were certainly very lovely to the touch. The silky threads and vibrant belts were eye catching as well as nice on the skin. Honestly she was fascinated by the intricate knots and bows tied with such long and thick silk. It seemed like it should be heavy.

The silvery haired girl couldn't stop looking at the different designs in detail. Some of them were simple light patterns, like repeating diamonds or flowers. Others seemed to be elaborately woven scenes. Each piece was almost like an artist's painting the more elaborate and further into the store she went. Though as she looked at the styling of the displays she couldn't help but notice that those with higher price tags also seemed to have more and more layers. It was certainly interesting to take it all in. The beauty of Japanese culture was really something that captivated her.

"So pretty. There is a lot of love and care that goes into crafting these kimono, huh?"

She could certainly understand why Kat was so passionate about her clothing in game.

It took her a bit to notice that her friend had asked her a question. What was her favorite flower? Well, that was something she'd rarely considered. Though her ex had a habit of buying her incredible flower arrangements that always seemed to capture her eye, but....Rina was pretty simple in her selection.

"Lilies and Bluebells. My favorite is actually called a Jersey Lily or Belladonna Lily. Its part of the poisonous Belladonna plant family, but its very mild as long as its not ingested. A beautiful pink bloom though."

@Kat Otsu

 

[Kat Otsu]

Kat stroked her chin idly as she was given the response from Rina. She hadn't actually heard of the flower before, and unfortunately you couldn't just open the UI in game and go to Google to look it up, as much as she wished she could. She could certainly log out real quick and check, but it probably wasn't a good idea for her to just pass out suddenly on the floor just to go look something up online real quick. Even if the small woman sewing in the corner was another player, it would definitely still freak her out, and Kat wasn't about that.

So, Kat faced it honestly, giving a bit of sheepish smile to her friend. "I'm... not actually familiar with that flower. I don't think it grows in Japan, but I'm also not really a florist by any stretch of the imagination," she admitted, giving a chuckle at the end to try to cover her uncertainty with the silly terrible humor. "But, I've decided that I want a kimono with your favorite flower on it, to commemorate our friendship," she explained, adding some proper context to the question.

She put an arm around Rina's, still holding the couple of basic kimonos in her other arm, and guided the woman over to the fancier kimonos with a larger variety of flower patterns on them. "So I'm going to have to leave it up to you, do any of these look like your favorite flower? If not, which is likely since it doesn't sound like a Japanese flower, which of these kimonos would be your favorite in general? I can get one you like for me to wear, and then I'll pick one out for you to wear. How does that sound?"

Kat's eyes shimmered as she looked up at her friend, she absolutely loved the idea of having this kind of connection to each other, and was really hoping Rina was at least willing to entertain the idea. It might blow all of Kat's current budget, but it would be worth it.

 

[Wisp]

Rina had to admit that when it came to all the beautiful designs of kimono, none of them really seemed like they would fit her in the manner they did Kat. The way she wore the delicate silk robes in game was honestly so effortless on her petite frame. She adored it though. The way the fabric and belts seemed to compliment the life and energy that she had...it was unique to her.

Though to say she wasn't curious about how it felt to wear one made her feel like a bit of a liar. Rina wanted to be that girly and sweet in appearance sometimes. When she watched the way her twins could just bat their lashes with their cute little faces, well Rina wondered how it felt to be adored and spoiled in that manner. It had been such a long time since she embraced, truely embraced that curious side of herself in a manner that didn't lead her on an adventure and instead just let her feel like a girl again.

So, as Kat spoke about the reason why she wanted to know her favorite flower...Rina felt her cheeks heat up and smiled shyly. It was so kind of her friend to do that for her. Though she felt a little silly for it, just the gesture made her want to cry.

"Kat you are soooo sweet! I would honestly love anything you picked out. I feel so silly, but I'm terrible about shopping for myself. Most of what I buy tends to just be something basic and I really don't know enough about the types of kimono here to know what would work for me..."

Rina looked around slowly and pressed a finger to her lips as she thought about what would work best. Red flowers maybe? Or something blue? She knew that a lighter fabric would be good to move in, right?

"I will totally send you pictures of the flowers I mentioned, but what about something with Spider Lilies? Those are pretty iconic right? But like...maybe on a lighter weight silk since I have to move quickly sometimes...I'm also open to like...cherry blossoms or a snowflake pattern...maybe a matching set with something you pick? Oh....I have too many ideas!"

Rina twirled around excitedly before turning back to her friend's direction with a grin. She would love anything Kat picked out for her.

@Kat Otsu