[Eduardo del Viago]

< Music >

The sun was slowly setting in Romalia. Today had been a strange day. Cause: the streets of the city had suddenly flooded with all kinds of people. Effect: none of the patrons in Vecchia Romalia talked about anything else than the mysterious human-like beings that appeared this day.

This story takes place along one of the many streets branching off of one of the many roads leading from the Forum Romalia (like the ancient saying goes, "all roads lead to Romalia"). This small street known as Via del Boschetto was a well-known street often covered in markets, and both sides had tall buildings. These buildings, while once probably in a perfect state, were now half destroyed and fully overgrown, yet still a marvelous sight.

One of the wider buildings, not quite as tall as the others, had a large wooden sign hanging on the side of its wall, slowly swinging in the wind. "Vecchia Romalia", it read, and a painting of a marble pillar appeared right beneath this name.

This tavern's interior was rustic, wooden chairs and tables scattered throughout the hall. Opposite of the door was a sturdy oak bar, glasses and tankards on top of it, and several barrels-turned-stool surrounded it. Behind the bar, an average-sized man with long, spiky hair and an equally-spiky beard stood polishing a glass. Several people of the land were sitting on the barrel stools, drinking and discussing the odd events of this day.

Eduardo, the man with the spiky beard, was the tavern-keeper and had just finished preparing the meals for all the customers today. Now, he was listening in on the talk about these odd people who appeared out of nowhere. It was not the only abnormal thing that happened this day. When he woke up this morning, Eduardo noticed an odd feeling around his left ring-finger. It seemed that during his sleep, a ring had been placed on his finger. It was a fairly standard silver ring, yet it had one anomaly: a small rune was placed on the outer side of the ring. Who placed the ring on his finger, he did not know. But for now, he had kept it on his finger and pretended like he always had it.

As he was listening, a new customer appeared. As expected around this time, the man had come for dinner. After taking his order, Eduardo started preparing a simple meal for the man. This was how Eduardo earned his living: preparing meals and drinks for others. At least, on the surface.

His eyes glanced to the other side of the tavern. On this wall, a big notice board hung, where all patrons could hang their notices, quests and other messages to potential readers. Among the many postings, some were notices of a house for sale, others asked for a brave guard to accompany them to the next town over, and several seemed to just be an invitation to a drinking party. There were also several seemingly random poems posted, with other posts beneath them reviewing these poems. All in all, a fairly standard notice board for a fairly standard tavern.

After a bit of cooking and taking some other orders, this time shouting from the kitchen instead of being at the bar itself, Eduardo went around the bar to deliver the newly-prepared meals. At every table, there was at least one fellow citizen talking about the weird people that appeared today.

Someone said it was an act from above. The gods decided that there was not enough life on Gaia, and as such sent down more people to liven things up a bit.

Others claimed these people were imposter demons, taking on the appearance of normal humans and other races to hide among the population and bring it down from within.

Then there was a man who suggested they were from an alternate reality. Maybe they had some kind of window to this world, but instead of looking through it and controlling a being in this world, they all fell through this window all at the same time. Hah, as if that would ever happen. There is no way such a ridiculous idea could ever be possible. This very random reasoning was thus quickly followed by an eruption of laughter.

Eduardo did not much care for the reason of appearance of these new folks. As long as they kept themselves to the rules and did not bother anyone, it could only prove more business to him. And so he went on, serving people, taking orders and preparing meals.

---

Word Count: 769
Total Word Count: 769
Notes: When you spend almost as much time on writing as on blurring two stock images together (EDIT: that I now removed cause copyright), finding music and worrying over small details like how does a ring appear

[Alma]

People way back when called the heavens above as the firmament. A raise dome over the world while the sun curved its light making it dawn and dusk, where clouds carved through and bubbles, and stars growing in abundance with a gigantic looking moon stroking by. Kinda an overly fancy term to just say 'the sky' but this world sure gave it that accent to be something more than typical. Not many modern lights were prevalent in this world's Rome leaving the sky to feel so clear and unpolluted to see far much more. Yet the night remained a scary place to be when alone. You either find a place to sleep it out or lay awake with just yourself to talk to before finding the cold morning.

As the sky turned into orange and golden shades accented with purple clouds, Alma had lost track of time when today's small quest was finished. Calling it a quest would be a bit much, more like a chore really but it gave money which was important to have. A few coins were dropped in her hand after helping unload a cart of produce boxes into a storage unit. Thankfully not the one Alma has been hiding in but it was nearby when happening upon a father and son returning from their farms outside the city. A stout padlock kept the facility shut to stay cool for tomorrow's sales and the three departed their separate ways. Not the most glamorous of things but the deer woman wasn't the most confident yet to go wandering around in a monster-populated area yet. Maybe, with two more companions or three to make a light party to feel safety in numbers so, until then, it has been small tasks and chores. She has met a few people now to make venturing out of the small hiding room worthwhile that the eventual graduation from the storehouse to inn rooms to an actual housing facility might one day come true.

Counting off to total and adding it to her personal funds in her bag did the slow accumulation started to show the numbers. This latest addition had bumped her funds over a hundred's threshold and that's a milestone of the bare bones. Items from the market were on the cheap size but simply buying to fill her bag for later when having low plans on leaving the city didn't feel right to Alma, therefore, it was small spending for when the needs arise. For now, it was getting late and maybe with today's collection would a real dinner be nice. Cup noodle didn't exist yet and a diet of bread and cheese was laughable to share. Being in Rome without having any of its famous pasta dishes should be a crime. "Do they even have those around here?" Alma spoke quietly and turned her red eyes toward a gap in Romalia's maze-like building arrangements. Soon the sun will be gone so it was now or find a new place to go rest.

Fleeing out of the side-alley roads to the main street did the woman stumble across what looked to be a more populated area of the city's evening crowd. Having never actually stayed out so late at night before did the deer Faunri shyly watched from the entryway as people moved about. A robust scent of wine and food began to drift across her nose over the light chatter and stool shuffling around tables. Stepping into the light more did she now spy the illuminated wooden placard reading "Vecchia Romalia" swinging in the evening breeze. Reading the words a few times over in an attempt to put this place to memory, Alma looked around for clues of what to do. People appeared to be walking into the tavern while others had their meals and drinks outside over conversational topics ranging from today's business and what weird sightings have happened. Checking her clothes briefly as basic starting attire as any, slightly wrinkled here and there but nothing too dirty looking as far as she could tell, Alma headed in to grab a meal.

Her head bowed a little when entering the main establishment out of fear her antlers would scrape the doorway. More wine and scents from the kitchen assaulted her senses in the din of noise from every table. This time she grinned and beard with it while navigating around for an open seat at the bar. It was just her after all so she didn't feel too brave to go joining a group table. On both sides of her two patrons raised their glasses to Alma in greeting to which she waved her hand in a tiny wave to return the favor. "Evening," she opened up and took one look at the various names of food. Many were Italian words that read strung together. Her candy red eyes stared at the writing as her slow player mind navigated each item with a slow mouse over in hopes of learning just what these dishes were and which ones were food and drink. Eventually, her long stares caught attention by the fellows drinking on either side of her.

"What's the hold-up, miss?"

"Taking your sweet time there aren't you?"

"Ah, w-well," Alma blinked at the two and quickly dug for an out. "I was having trouble deciding what to have since they all looked so good?" An open-faced white lie, since she had no idea what to order in the first place that resulted in asking for more trouble than she realized. Upon hearing that did the two begin to spout words and suggestions the woman was quickly losing track of fast in the heat of which was better and what drink to have it with.

---

Tag:Eduardo del Viago
WC: 957

[Eduardo del Viago]

As Eduardo finished pouring in some new drinks and putting down some smaller food for the people surrounding the bar, he heard the wooden door of the tavern open with a squeak. Might want to oil that one sometime soon. A young lady entered, and her large antlers just managed to not scrape the door frame. Not that it would have mattered much if it did, the frame was solid stone. Eduardo had never seen the woman before, and she seemed quite new to the whole tavern business. Taking a good look around, she finally decided to take place at one of the few empty barrel seats remaining around the bar itself.

As she sat down, a few other patrons just ever so slightly raised their glasses as a form of greeting, and she gave them a small hand-wave combined with a simple Evening in return. The woman was wearing a simple shirt, one seen quite often on the new people who had appeared just some days ago. She took her time looking at the menu hanging behind Eduardo, and two of the other patrons, Diogene and Antonio, approached her.

Eduardo never really liked the two of them. Both of them were generally quite loud, and did not care much for social boundaries. But they payed, and generally behaved good enough, so he tolerated them. But as always, it quite annoyed them when they almost started mocking the new girl about how long she was taking. Then again, she was taking her time...

"I was having trouble deciding what to have since they all looked so good?" That was just the thing to trigger Diogene. Even if he was annoying most of the time every now and then, he still knew how to appreciate good food. It started with just a simple reccomendation, then Antonio jumped in with another suggestion, and before long the deer girl was overwhelmed with suggestions. Small meals, drinks, large dinners, breakfast snacks... almost every menu item was suggested by the two, and here the Vecchia Romalia had one of the larger menus in town!



All the time, Eduardo had been cleaning glasses while pretending not to notice too much of the conversation. Now, he decided to finally join in and give his own suggestion to the slightly overwhelmed lady. "If you're new here, I'd recommend our daily special, le Macrows", sparkling brightly as he said this.

Like many taverns in the surrounding area, the Vecchia Romalia had its own daily special. This generally meant all the leftovers from the past few days got stuffed into one better dish. In this case, it simply meanat all the pasta from the past few days combined with all the cheese about to expire. This was, in fact, one of the better daily dishes this week. And the daily menu being just a get-this-out-of-the-door dish, it also meant it was not even all that expensive. All in all, Eduardo considered this a most wonderful deal for the young lady.

Even better, it was around dinnertime. This meant that not only was the daily menu available, it would be available almost instantly! After all, so many people would get some macrows around this time, it would not hurt to have it cooked already!

On top of that, macrows were one of the most famous Romalian dishes! If this person was truly new to this world, what better way to welcome her with one of the best-tested dishes of the city.

And so Eduardo could not help but feel prideful. This was the way to run a tavern, knowing exactly what your guests want before they even order.

---

Word Count: 646
Total Word Count: 1415
Notes: Never imagined him to turn into such a sparkling character but here we are.
Thought Color F6666F
Talk Color CA8E18
Alma Talk Color 327965

[Alma]

The Faunri's ears lowered as far as the muscles could go as her two supposed dining companions on either side raised their voices. At one point did they even lean over the bar to take advantage of the empty space before the woman simply to talk to one another's faces. 'Did they just forget I'm still here?' She worried and feared for getting thrown out at this point. Oddly, she wasn't thrown out and neither were the other two beside her. Perhaps this was all normal behavior as she sulked. "Can we agree on something currently on the menu?" She attempted to diver their attention to the now. Now was dinner and late evening. Even if there were items Alma didn't understand and picked up five different version of Risotto dishes by sheer repetition of the word were her attempts fallen on deaf ears. Their elbows pressed into the bar counter and nearing the point of squishing her to speak done one another's throats. It was now did a savior arrive to drive back the two.

"An order of the le Macrows, please," Alma quickly spoke up with a shaken hand raised to the bar tender from her suffocation bubble. A resounding agreement for this le Macrows seemed to work to drive the men back to their seats as Alma reclaimed her elbow space. The woman was rather pale in the low light and would have looked utterly flushed to find some reprieve. The talking didn't end, oh no far from it, as they made comments about the bar keep but also directed attention back toward her as the dish was swiftly made.

"Wise choice, miss, wise choice. I am Diogene here."

"Antonio," waved the other fellow. "Si, very wise. Le Marcows is very popular. Our man Eduardo here will take good care of you." Their moods and intrusive manners successfully wearing the deer down to answering any questions they desired to know.

"Alma," the woman greeted simply and offered a handshake. Their large hands clasping around hers easily in a hearty welcome. A mental note was made that for what looked like tightened grips did her thin discolored fingers hardly felt any difference. 'Interesting.'

"So what brings you here, Miss Alma?"

"Must be travelers, yes? We see many of you in the city now."

"Ah, yes. Traveling," she replied foolishly. "The city is far too large but wonderful. I am still discovering new places to see like here." The predicament of the players seemingly appearing in the streets one morning and having an emotional crisis around them was nothing to simply ignore. Loosely kept out of mind and sight by the locals who were careful whether to ask or not. It would be better to think some cult activity happened to start the day to see a whole collective of people looking lost with various levels of emotional instability.

"Aye but it looks like the commotion has started to settle down some."

"Still a many who are lost. Think the Città del Vaticano may guide them?"

"Vaticano?" The woman spoke while unwittingly continuing to add further clear evidence that she was indeed one of the many Adventurers who appeared to not know of the Città del Vaticano. It did sound like the Vatican with a slight accident. 'Oh right, that large famous church. I wonder if there is a Pope there.'

"Si, Città del Vaticano. People seek prayer to the gods in hard times and more have been paying visit."

"Ooh, I see. I guess I should visit such a place. Where should I go to find it?" Alma asked innocently leading to a new set of conversation; directions. She set her finger down on the table and tried to follow the two on where to find this Città del vaticano. Maybe their north and south were confused or maybe it was the wine talking but whatever the case, asking for simple directions brought out another din over which way was the fastest way to find the Città del Vaticano compared to which was the easiest.

"That road? Are you trying to confuse the lady? She ought to take the main road."

"That path is too long winded. Be easier to take the shorter path over the bridge," Antonio argued Diogene leaving Alma to forcibly redraw her mental map several times over to keep up with the changes and names of streets. Once again the names were lost to her in both similarity like the many dishes the two offered. 'I shouldn't have come here,' she sulked once more as her brain felt to be overheating.

Tiredly she gave up and nodded her head along with the conversation the two passionately carried on without her. By the time it would appear before it would it almost seem like magic cutting its way into the debate. Her mouth was watering now at the smell le Macrows gave off. A colorful mound of vegetables and pasta. Somehow the presence of the dish kept the Antonio and Diogene from crowding around her like before as Alma took up a fork and started eating. 'So this is what real food is like,' she thought in rapture of the simple pleasures of what good, hot food tasted like after living off of whatever market bread and cheese were afforded by sheer frugality of saving up beginner Adventurer money. Her red eyes began to shine while holding back the urge to cry over having a genuine meal. 'It's too good. What the hell have I been doing to avoid trying this before! I'm so stupid. Stupid!' The woman began to quietly belittle herself for her cowardly sense of judgement. What idiot in any world would take living like a homeless person than trying to seek out any real comforts. This idiot, that's who. She propped her elbow up on the counter and continued eating with her head bent a little as she stared at the food till the image of it began to blur in her eyes.

"It tastes amazing. Thank you," she finally spoke after her fifth bite once finding a clear tone that didn't sound like a pathetic whimper.

---

WC:1026
TWC: 1983 
Comments: Did a fabulous work there.
Tag:Eduardo del Viago
Diogene Antonio

[Eduardo del Viago]

"It tastes amazing. Thank you"

Eduardo smilled fulfilled. Another customer satisfied, and with any luck, another regular secured. These adventurers, they aren't all that bad. From what he had seen so far, they kept the city safe, and they had a good appetite. No more does one need to satisfy this simple barman, just living a simple life.

As he was smiling and polishing a glass, the wooden door that functioned as an entrance to the tavern slammed open once more. A person walked in, pulled out a small poster from their bag, and pinned it to the notice board not far from the door they had just appeared for.

The atmosphere inside Eduardo's mind changed as spontaneously as the slam of the door just now. Just a moment ago, he had happily been polishing that glass, thinking about how wonderful the life of a barkeeper was. Now, his mind had switched, preparing for the next job. Surely, that poster just now was not just another ad for work. This would be the next mission.

And to anyone else, the barkeeper was still smiling and polishing a glass.

---

Word Count: 194
Total Word Count: 1609
Notes: Very short post, just ending the episode
Thought Color&nbsp;F6666F
Talk Color&nbsp;CA8E18

Alma Talk Color&nbsp;327965

[Alma]

Each bite was savored like it was her last, as if the food would out right disappear from her plate as some crazy illusion. No stray pasta shell was spared. Hell, she'd lick the plate clean even if no one was looking her way. Picky eating was also put on hold with each stray vegetable bundled and eaten as is. She couldn't tell how it was made or what sauces were used but the basic of basics is boiling salty water in a pot, add pasta, drain, and mix with desired sauce. To finally have a share of real food in this world planted some real seeds into her minty head. Once she began to think over her problems, Alma was falling into her own mind space of debating herself in circles of what to do. Still, it was a bit better than burying herself in far more depressing ones to go hiding back in that storage room again.

Thoughts of thinking, yeah, I can be alright living in this world. Food was real food! With simple cooking measures of boiling water and seasoning to taste, basic meals can be an obtainable thing. All that leaves was the matter of getting a home to perform all this. Ah, but home had natural gas, electricity, and working plumbing. Finding food was only a new upgrade to this wilderness experience in a crowded city. When putting the differences between modern living and what these people considered to be modern, living off of the meals purchased would be the wiser method. There's no guarantee to have a working gas stove without the constant need of firewood. 'Maybe I should have been a Summoner and get some fire elemental pet to cook my stuff. A starting level one should be able to burn toast and boil water. Oh, unless it's like little cute mons that aren't strong for a few levels. Be better off as tinder lighters if that's the case. I should find a Summoner around the city and ask them that. Maybe on second thought I should focus on solving my housing issues. Staying within the city walls should be safe but it's so cramped. Money to save, pay for the room and food purchases, urgh! And still no paper or pen to write all this down! Why does crafting have to use so much materials!'

Outwardly her ears subconsciously raised and lowered with her roller coaster of emotions. It would be hard to fell what exactly was on her mind but observant patrons, or those far more familiar with how Faunri behave, would note that there was indeed a lot on the woman's mind. Meanwhile, her plate was carefully cleaned off to leave so spare stain of food remaining. Going out so far as to even turn her fork sideways and scrape the various pools of oils and pasty food residue to lick it off. One could say she would have had a mind to eat the very plate and fork with it if not careful. Likely Antonio was the one to say this as his words selectively went through one ear and out the other. Maintaining the facade of listening to her chatty and mildly drunken friends, Alma's head nodded to a conversation lost in her wondering over housing predicaments. No longer were they paid attention to as praise for the bartender and drinks came to mind somewhere during her Summoner musings and creature power scaling. Diogene brought up the idea of wine and they were back at it again like a married couple. Which would compliment this better; white wine or red wine? "Isn't that expensive?" Alma would ask them now that her mouth wasn't stuffing itself. Based on what knowledge she had of classy restaurant prices. Usually that logic should apply here as well but this is their home town than, say for example, trying to export the bottles overseas to the Americas. Now that they have brought up the idea of drinks though, she pushed her polished plate forward. "I'd like some white wine as well. What do you recommend?"

The tavern and all its warmth from the people and the nearby kitchens had its door slammed open like someone kicked it ajar from the other side. Alma jumped in her seat ill prepared for what can be seen as usual behavior. The bartender certainly paid no mind to it or flinched in the slightest. The corners of her eyes twitched a little and bit on her fork to chew her nerves down. She turned in time to see the patron hang about a bulletin board. This customer didn't stay around for long though. As sudden as this person arrived did Alma notice that they made no further moves to order food and drink. Her eyes searched about this person to the board itself wondering how long has that thing been there. 'I guess if you wanna post something on every bar and door, having the board near the entrance would be favorable.'

As much as she wanted to defer to her dining cohorts of who this person was, knowing who they were may not be that important for now. Whatever they were running in to make their posting rounds did it in urgency, or so Alma took the impression of kicking in a door to be the case. Intrigued by this and several other aspects of their appearance did she raise up from her seat and set her fork down on the cleaned plate. "Just a moment, I'm going to see what that was about real quick," Alma went to assure the three men around her that she wasn't about to make a dine and dash. With all that said, she went to the board to start investigating what this was all about. If the way the layout of the tavern was shaping up to be, based on previous single player and lobby type games, this should be the quest board all adventurers are missing out on.

"Ah, excuse me, what's all this for?" Alma asked in hopes of getting their attention by tapping the person on the shoulder. "What's that you're posting there?"

---

WC: 1028
TWC: 3011