As soon as they obtained the quest requirements for the King to give them the snow leopard pelt, they not only met up with SaltySiamese and Justin, but discovered that they were now in direct competition with each other. The other party was tasked with helping the opposing force in the skirmish at the border that they'd been tasked to win. They went over the conditions for obtaining the rewards, but in the end it really seemed that only one party would be successful.

SaltySiamese asked, "What's the big deal? We'll just all do our best and the winner gets their prize!"

MatchlessMinion poked his sister, and replied, "You know she likes to let everyone win."

Danika eyed their cute little avatars in the mobile application and thought happily that they seemed to be getting along as usual again, after the brief cold war over MatchlessMinion leaving Justin's guild.

Aishin pointed out dryly, "The only way for both sides to win is for the skirmish not to happen."

Danika tapped a lightbulb emote, and ZipZing's dazzling went to maximum. Shrubbery said a little critically, "I think you're stunning the NPCs around us, it even asked me if I wanted to accept the effect."

"Sorry," Danika replied quickly as ZipZing's light faded, "I didn't realize the light emote would trigger the skill. Do you think we could pull that off, and just prevent the skirmish from happening?"

Justin said doubtfully, "We could delay it easily enough, put them all to sleep or something, but I don't see any way to prevent the Kingdoms from fighting as soon as the troops recovered."

"It's over the boundary line though, what if we delayed them and had Kit use her druid skills to mark where the boundary actually lies?" Danika suggested hopefully.

"Both Kingdoms will be pissed off and kill us all before fighting each other anyway?" SaltySiamese suggested sardonically.

"Probably," her brother agreed, wrinkling his furry nose up amusingly, "but we can try it if you want."

In the end they didn't decide anything that night, and each party agreed to ask the opinions of their other members.

Before she logged off, Danika asked Aishin, "How do you stay energetic when you're traveling so much?"

"Eat lots of fruit and vegetables, drink lots of water," he replied promptly and Danika tapped the emote that rolled her eyes at him, "and carry a silk scarf and a springform laundry basket," he added laughingly.

"What?" she asked blankly.

"You can block light and muffle noise with the scarf, or wrap your mouth and nose and keep the air conditioning from drying you out as much when you're sleeping," he explained. "And the pop up laundry baskets are great for keeping your clothes off of dirty hotel floors and you can hang things on them to dry if you need to wash something."

When he explained it sounded so logical and reasonable that she wanted to roll her eyes at him again, but she just said, "Ok, I'll look for those, thanks."

"I could have them sent to you if you tell me where you're staying," he suggested conspiratorially.

Danika gazed at his simplified avatar that practically screamed "I'm a ninja or an assassin" in its dark clothes and weapons, but she wasn't really seeing it. After a moment she sent him a nod and said, "That would be helpful, thanks, I'll text you."

She logged out a moment later, and sent the text.

Aishin sent back a surprisingly simple message: "Consider it done. Remember to check at the lobby when you get back tomorrow, they usually don't send things to the room unless it's a really pricey place."

Danika couldn't quite decide if she was happy about the lack of teasing or not. She did pull a silk shirt out of her bag and laid it over her face when she laid down to sleep. It bothered her less than she expected, and she woke to her alarm feeling a bit better rested than the previous morning.

The day followed a similar routine, with a real class session followed by VR classes. The trainee named Anton Pelle surprised her by asking in a friendly but inquisitive manner after they returned from lunch, "Where are you sneaking off to eat lunch Belova? Don't tell me that you're skipping it?"

"No, I ate in the cafeteria on the third floor," Danika admitted.

"Ew, cafeteria food," someone else complained.

Pelle winked at her and suggested, "If you come out with us, I'll treat you to a lunch."

"You know she's the one in the chair," someone whispered.

Danika carefully did not look around to see who had spoken, but she replied to Pelle, "Thanks, if you want to try the cafeteria here, I'll treat you once."

"Haha, thanks, I'll think about it," Pelle replied cheerfully.

--

When Danika returned to the hotel that night, she didn't even have to wait at the desk. A clerk bustled around the counter with his arms loaded with baskets and flowers. Danika rolled her eyes as she followed him to her room.

The clerk looked at her expression when they arrived and asked a little nervously, "The gentleman said you were expecting the delivery?"

"Pretty much," she admitted, "except for the flowers."

"Oh!" he exclaimed and held the card out to her. "It says to feel free to toss those if you've got any allergies. I can take them away now if they're any bother."

Danika took the card and asked dryly, "Do you read all the cards?"

The clerk assumed an innocent expression and said, "Of course. We don't permit anyone to send threatening notes to our guests disguised as flowers."

Danika chuckled and replied, "Thanks for your care, the flowers are fine."

The clerk nodded and quickly let himself out.

Danika read the card which actually said, "I discovered that the quickest delivery available there was through a florist, and figured, why waste the opportunity? They said they could get everything to you by tonight. If you're allergic or dislike them, feel free to toss them right away, I won't mind. -Shinichi"

The big basket held mostly fruits, but had a springform laundry basket tucked subtly in the back, and a really soft silk scarf in place of bow or ribbons on the handle. The flowers were a mix of mildly scented types instead of the more popular roses or lilies that men would usually choose.

Danika sent: "Thanks!"

Shinichi replied almost instantly: "Welcome, but can't play more tonight. Everyone's willing to try the non combat plan, since worst case it turns into the direct combat we were starting with anyway."

She replied: "I thought worst case was they kill us all first?"

He sent back a few minutes later, when she was struggling with the "convenient" bathroom arrangement and couldn't read it right away: "Have faith dear captain!"

When she read it, she stuck her tongue out at the phone, and reminded him verbally, without messaging, "I still haven't agreed to be the captain."