>>@ENTERTHEDRAGON | @ALL

[ryuji]

Anyone else getting a massive wave of culture shock? It's totally kicking my ass right now. I got a nice little gig set up here above a bar, but the catch is I gotta work. But yeah, people are coming and going like crazy around here. Weird outfits, weird hairstyles. Seeing everyone go crazy about freedom is pretty freakin' cool. Nobody needs some stuffy old dude sittin' in a golden high chair sucking his royal thumb and giving out orders all the time.

Not gonna lie, I've seen some pretty big palaces before, but I totally wanna raid the hell out of Versailles.

So anyway, is it like this all the time when you guys get a new mission? I've never been to Paris before, but I kinda know what it looks like from pictures back in my own time? Universe? Good luck getting your head around that shit, it's way too deep for me. I was all excited to see the Eiffel Tower, but apparently it's not gonna exist for like... a hundred years.

Comments

un: @MINIMALCAT

[hakanai]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON I've only seen one other time period, and that one was in a very, very different place. The mission immediately before this one was in a different area of France.

You recognise this as being potentially from your world's past? Where do you call home?

un: @WEHFRIED

[gerechtigkeit]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON Why would you want to raid Versailles?

[HERE COMES THE OLD KNIGHT NO-FUN TRAIN]

[ryuji]

@MINIMALCAT Yeah! I mean, I think it is. I should've paid more attention in history class, but we have a France where I'm from. It's pretty chill now. Huge center of fashion if you're into that kinda thing. I think they call it the City of Lights? Or something like that. Kinda hard to imagine it, since this place is pretty much the City of Fights

Anyway, I'm from Tokyo, in the year 2016.

un: @KRUGER

[trample]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON You sure are long winded for text chat.
@ENTERTHEDRAGON We're not criminals. We're soldiers.
@ENTERTHEDRAGON That means no sticking our noses anywhere we're not ordered to.
@ENTERTHEDRAGON And for the record, it is usually like this. Get used to it.

[ryuji]

@WEHFRIED Why wouldn't you want to? Think of all the cool stuff it has in there.

[Gerechtigkeit? More like "Get rekt, kid."

But seriously, if people are starving and rioting and there's this symbol of obscene wealth and glory, doesn't it kind of make sense to want to see it get taken down?]

[ryuji]

@KRUGER Guess I kinda got carried away, huh? I just got a lot on my mind and no one to talk to, so...

[Define "a lot"]

@KRUGER Yeah, that's why I said that I wanna. Not that I was going to. Geez, hope you're not a part of the goddamn welcoming committee or anything

[hakanai]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON Interesting. To some this world is not familiar at all, and to others, only mildly so; I do wonder if it's fully home for any of us.

Anyway, Tokyo? I'm not familiar with it but the name meaning I understand. 'Eastern capital.' I'm going to guess that you're from Japan as well, but from a time ahead of my own. Kyōto is the seat of power in the Japan I know.

[ryuji]

@MINIMALCAT Holy crap, that means you could be like.... 1200 years old

[hakanai]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON From your perspective, perhaps. I am not a ghost haunting the battlefield I was slain upon yet.

[trample]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON I didn't mean to come off like I was criticizing you.
@ENTERTHEDRAGON We all get wordy sometimes. Some more than others.
@ENTERTHEDRAGON Regardless, you do make me wonder why, of all possible avenues to take,
you would settle on "raid."
@ENTERDRAGON You made it sound like you had so much else to do.

[ryuji]

@MINIMALCAT You know about your own death?

[hakanai]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON Yes. If I were to return to the point I came from it would be roughly a year away.

[ryuji]

@KRUGER It's just... kinda what we did back home. I guess it doesn't matter much now, telling you, but I'm a thief. Or was, I guess. Not trying to sound cool or anything, but palaces were kinda our thing.

But, uh, thanks for keeping my head straight. I guess you're right. We're here to get shit done, not think about what we left behind, yeah?

[ryuji]

@MINIMALCAT That's so goddamn depressing. Is it scary knowing that kinda thing?

[hakanai]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON No, not at all. I die as I wish and expected to.

Though it remains to be seen if that will actually happen now.

[ryuji]

@MINIMALCAT Being alive is better than being dead, huh? You're gonna have to stick around for a while. There's so much more to see. Japan's changed a lot since you were around.

[Sidequest accepted: one day, introduce Yoshitsugu to Shibuya]

[trample]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON Pickpockets and petty burglars are one thing.
@ENTERTHEDRAGON But a palace? You've got quite a pair on you to pull that off.
@ENTERTHEDRAGON And from the way you tell it, you succeeded. For the most part.
@ENTERTHEDRAGON Anyway, just keep your chin up and move forward.

[ He felt like he had been saying that a lot recently. ]

[gerechtigkeit]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON There might be, but you could easily put yourself and the rest of us in danger if you did so.

[hakanai]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON There's an interesting challenge ahead, and better healthcare than in my time, so why not? I admit it would be interesting to see how much has changed in Japan.

[A very worthy sidequest.]

un: @BOARING

[lonelywar]

>> @ENTERTHEDRAGON I would recommend against trespassing in Versailles.

[Mostly because he's one of the ones working undercover as a guard there currently, and they have enough problems without anyone else sneaking in...]

How different these foreign places are is difficult. I have been struggling to adjust even since the mission before this, in a land blasted by the heat of the sun. From what I've seen in this mission and that one, yes, I think it will always be challenging to adapt to. We can only do our best not to stand out too much.

[Unless they ever go to Muromachi Period Japan.]

[ryuji]

@MINIMALCAT Yeah, good healthcare, but a lot of other things too. Life is just easier. Not sure if that'd be your aesthetic or anything like that, but we have things like arcades, and food from all over the world, and baseball stadiums, and museums if you're nerdy enough to go to 'em.

[ryuji]

@WEHFRIED Lighten up a bit!! I'm not gonna start rushing the gates just to get a selfie with the royal chamber pot.

[ryuji]

@KRUGER All but one of 'em. But it's cool, we wanted to fail it anyway. Casinos are kinda gaudy as all hell, yo.

What do you do to stay focused and on the right track?

[hakanai]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON I don't know what most of those things are but I'm sure we'll be trying different kinds of food on this journey, too. I never had bread before I came to this France.

The healthcare is a must, however, else I shall fall over and die before I complete this mission or get to see any of these things you're talking about. I suppose considering the other things COST can do, getting a spirit to hover around and frighten the enemy isn't totally out of the question.

[ryuji]

[That employment seems like 1000% better than scrubbing the floors of a tavern and taking drink orders. Ryuji's kind of jealous.]

@BOARING Don't worry, I ain't gonna get arrested anytime soon. I'm a pro at breaking and entering.

[And just for the record so Ashitaka doesn't think he's taking this entirely seriously-]

@BOARING But dude, finding a good pair of infiltration gear is damn near impossible around here. Guess it'll just have to wait until never.

It's kinda rough... I don't look like anyone from around here.

[Not that... he fit in that well in Tokyo, either.

And here Ryuji is, with all his far distant relative countrymen around him, each of them so much more suited for the job than he was. The future is bleak for Japan.]