A Cait and a Sylph walk into a bar

     When Pela wasn't freaking out trying to figure out how to handle being at war, or trying to do what she can to help with the war, she's at the hostess of fertility... helping out with the war! Or well, helping feed people. Landers, players, whatever it is, she's helping cook meals for a likely somewhat taxed bar with the influx of adventurers that previously were posted in Shibuya. Sure they spread to many other locations as well, but this was where Pela ended up. And it's where she honestly preferred to be, she'd never been all that tied to the idea of working mainly among your own alliance, so being able to assist members of Olympus, Scale Emblem, and New World all was something that suited her. Even if right now it was just with a warm body and possibly creating weapons that people could use in a pinch.

    Fuka's been running around a lot, as befits a Messenger. Some time in Alne helping support the refugees, some time in the Tower itself aiding Scale, occasional runs back to Eas and the Olympus people there, again in support of friends and refugees. She certainly hasn't limited herself to aiding just one alliance either. Most of the time though, she's returning to here as a centralized focus, and a place she expects to be in some danger during the current troubles.

    That's not to say all her time is spent focusing on the war! Fuka's got a number of ongoing projects, she's regularly training, and working on improving her skills besides. A certain quest has been nagging at her mind and, hearing Pela's voice, reminded her to see if she can make some slight progress on it. And so here she is.

    he little sylph - well, little for a Sylph, not for a cat-sith - enters the bar dressed for travel. That is to say armored and wearing a travelling coat, though her axe is stowed away for the time being. Seeing the tiny ninja maid, Fuka breaks into a cheery grin and waves, heading over.

     Pela is also suited to wandering, but for the moment she has stopped, she was focusing on what she can do in one or two places, only leaving when she needed to for a quest so that she was rarely too far from the places she wanted to keep safe, and Alne made for a good central location for that. And for similar reasons of expecting trouble in the area. Not that she was particularly suited to open warfare, she ended up being in more of a supporting role at the moment. Which suited her, really. She didn't love PVP, even if the PVP was technically player versus lander at the moment.

    Or something along those lines. Regardless, the ninja maid is ... wearing her usual outfit really, her weapons stored in her inventory (though ready to draw at a moment's notice) as she scurried around the bar to serve food and drink when she's not in the back cooking. At the moment, she was just finishing delivering a meal to a patron when Fukaziroh walked up towards her, and Pela paused, waving to the boss of the bar, who she'd already let know about the meeting, before turning back towards Fuka.
     "...Hello. ...You had questions for me?"

    Fuka seems surprised to see that Pela's working. Or, rather, apparently just gone on break. It makes sense, everyone's so busy these days. She shrugs, gesturing to a place to sit. "I'd offer you a drink or some food but that'd just be making you more work!" she observes ironically, finding the idea rather funny. She'd still offer nonetheless of course. It's the nice thing to do, and even if Fuka's rather unconventional she's still always nice, at least to people she likes.

    Anyways, to business. "So yeah, I finished off a pretty sweet job making an enchanted refrigerator." Fuka says proudly. Pela may have heard of it. It's made her some reknown in enchanting circles and does seem to have some good applications in food storage. "Let me tell you, I was totally obsessed. And I figure you know *exactly* what I mean, right?" she grins. It was fun! Well okay it was actually something of a nightmare. Fuka takes good care of herself, enjoys eating and other pleasures like sleeping and bathing and she completely forgot all that for days on end. If she hadn't had friends she'd likely have starved. "When I finished it all, I got a quest notification." she says. "Naturally I said yes, but ... nothing happened. Seek out those who came before you, or something like that. I've tried researching famous enchanters, and I'm at a bit of a dead end now." she adds, clearly frustrated.

     Pela moves over to sit, waving her hand a bit amusedly. "...It's fine. ...I get free food and drinks, since I can make them myself." She crawls up onto the seat, crossing her legs and resting her hands on the table as she listens to her talk. Hmm. "Yes. I heard about that. ...It happened the same time as my own project to make the spell batteries, and I vaguely recall helping you and you helping me, though it's a big foggy." Pela gives a small nod. "...So yes I do know what you mean. ...I've been in it twice, for writing my book of the herbs of yamato, and for the spell batteries." Pela pauses.
     The quest notification. She gives a small nod. "Yeah. It... uhm. So from what I have understood, one person has completed that quest. Giganpor. He looked deep into the root cities, found an old forge and learned techniques from the smiths of the past... or something like that. I do not remember the specifics, but from what I understand, it's something you have to discover in old ruins or similar. It's similar to the quest I have from being a Novasphere Pioneer as well, to go places where the few have gone, though an amusing opposite, in that this one is where others have tread and you need to follow in their footsteps. So finding a place where a legendary enchanter once worked or lived might be a good place to start." Pela says, trying to be helpful, since Fukaziroh went out of her way to come ask her things.

     Pela adds, "...Maybe looking into whatever enchantment provides food to the adventurers of Alne could be helpful too, since this place produces food mysteriously sometimes."

    "Hmmmmm...." Fuka muses, trying to figure out what this means. "So okay, find those who came before DOES refer to legendary enchanters. I don't think me going to Giga's forge, or even the ancient forge he discovered, is going to be the answer to my own quest." she adds half-heartedly. "Damn, I didn't realize you got a Pioneer quest. I'm pretty sure mine is an Enchanter quest!" she says, brain churning furiously.

    Learning the techniques of the Enchanters of the past would be amazing. Fuka's been looking for books but they don't really exist. Books are expensive, and few such things actually manage to be committed to writing, let alone survive the long ages. Her eyes focus once again, looking down (and that's a bit of a surprise!) at Pela. "So you haven't completed your quest either? Huh." she shrugs, masking some annoyance. Not at Pela of course, but at the whole ridiculous quest that appears to be a dead end. "What about Wistie? She's pretty famous. Do you know if she did this whole quest thing?" Fuka asks. "Or, I don't suppose it matters. Even if she didn't, I should pick her brain and find out if she's learned anything about it. If she's still trying to solve one like it for Enchanters, maybe I could team up with her..."

     "No, but it's an idea of the kind of thing to look for." Pela responds, giving a small nod. She taps her lip thoughtfully. "And, uh. Novasphere Pioneer is for exploration classes I think. So I'm a Novasphere Pioneer of Herbalism, and a Moonlight Enchanter, which is presumably for crafting classes." Pela says with a small nod. "So... I actually have quests for both." She twitches her ears thoughtfully. Hmm. "Wisteria might have! ... I'm not sure. ...I know she is definitely also a moonlight enchanter though, since I helped her with the crystals that I used as the basis of my spell batteries." Pela says with a small nod.
     A dead end though. That's not true, it's just difficult... as one would expect, of course. Pela looks around thoughtfully. "I haven't completed either of my quests though. I've been wracking my brain trying to think of a place the few have gone that would be relevant to herbalism... maybe some lost garden or a hidden plant dungeon or something..." Pela mumbles thoughtfully.
     She pauses. And she gives a small nod. "Yeah. ...Pooling knowledge is probably the best way to figure this out in the end, and maybe even talking to Giganpor to ask how he found his own forge thingy is a good idea."

    The quest isn't truly dead-end, no. Fuka's frustrated but not out of options. The best option surely is to talk with others, and that's something dear to her besides. "Well, that's good to hear! You're a moonlight enchanter too, so anything either of us find on that quest could help the other too! We could work together too, but we'll need to find more information to get something we can work towards right?" she grins.

    Frustration alleviated, at least somewhat, Fuka reaches out a hand. "Thanks Pela, that does help." she claims cheerfully. "And I'll see what I can learn about the food appearing. Though if I had to guess, I'd say that's not enchanting. Either it's a relic or there's possibly someone behind the scenes somewhere doing some trickery. If I've learned anything in my researches it's that there's no known way to use Enchanting to create a repeating effect that persists a long time." she claims, sounding actually confident on that. Confidently wrong, perhaps, but confident nonetheless.

     Talking to people is always something worth doing! ...Even if Pela doesn't necessarily love it a lot of the time. Pela gives a small nod about that. "Yes. ...Though we'll have to find things out our own way I think. I don't think the same way will work for two people... if that makes sense? It's like how my moonlight enchanter was similar to Wisteria's, but distinct and different in the way it ripples out into the world." Pela pauses after that, falling silent as Fuka continues to talk, and reaches out that hand.
     Pela does reach to take it, gently shaking it as she listens. "...Yeah. ...It could be a relic. It was just an idea that popped into my mind as a possible thing to look into. ...Maybe even looking into the origin of how to make Relics, too, even..." She nibbles her lip thoughtfully. "Though... I'm not sure how actually possible it is to make relics. I've encountered System Protection on trying to reactivate the warp gates, for instance... so it might be a system protected ability, which sounds...really weird, but possible."

    Fuka doesn't just shake Pela's hand. Perhaps embarassingly she takes it in both of hers, holding the hand in something more personal than a handshake though not anything quite so bad as entwining fingers. Fuka's not super touch-happy in general, but she *is* warm to those she likes. And if it embarasses them that's their problem!

    Fortunately she does let go. "I would *LOVE* to figure that one out!" Fuka agrees. "But all I've found is that they definitely weren't made with Enchantment. Not the sort of Enchantment we understand anyways! I'm still searching that one!" she says enthusiastically. She went into Enchanting for the love of puzzles after all, even if she's not as good at them as some. They're a healthy part of her gaming love though, and it comes out through the things she most wants to pursue.

     "...From what I know from the group of people I've been working with on the matter, it's activated by song and I think we have ... most... of the words, but we're missing like... one or two and it doesn't work without all of them." Pela responds to that comment. "...Uta would know more. I started the group, but I mostly just started it without much ability to contribute." She gives a soft little awkward chuckle. Yeah no that long hold of her hands had her tail fluffed up just a little. She wasn't quite as much of a pile of social anxiety as she used to be, but certain things still got her.
     "Anyway, uhm. ...Yeah, so, uhm. Stuff! Things have been progressing at a decent pace. ...The war has put a damper on a lot of things, but, well... stuff happens. Oh uhm. I think that Jazuhanzu may have finished the second step of the novasphere pioneer thing to, though I think she blames herself for this war because she was the one who discovered how to get to the palace lands, so you know... maybe won't be willing to talk about it."

    "Song hunters." Fuka notes with pleasure. "I never expected I'd get to hunt THAT but hey, sometimes the hunting is even better than the catching! If you know what I mean." she adds suggestively, adding in a wink at the end just to make it that much worse. Likely, however, just confusing poor Pela more.

    "Anyways I'll mention it to Uta but I'm sure if she found out something critical for enchanting she'll tell me! Oh, and..." she pauses, making a few gestures with her finger, accessing the menu and invoking a command. "Friend code. So I can let you know by chim when I find something!" the rambunctious Sylph insists. C'mon you want to be Fuka's friend don't you...?

     "...Yep. ...There's some songs that we don't know, probably, and that's where the missing words are... it's in the ancient language of the Alvs which makes it even more difficult since we don't understand that one either." Pela gives a small nod. Hmm. She blinks at that suggestive wink. And hunting... catching... what? Yeah no Pela is definitely a bit confused by that. If she wasn't in 'this is important stuff' mode she might have just turned into a stuttering mess or disappeared by now.
     "...Yeah. Okay." She reaches to accept the friendship. "...I just talked to Uta too about the project to make the weapons, too, so hopefully we can get it started and up and running sooner than later... stuff to help us protect ourselves is important." Why wouldn't she want to be Fuka's friend, that's not a bad thing, right?

    Oh it's definitely not a bad thing to be Fuka's friend, or for her to be yours. Even if, sometimes, some people have reason to second-guess the concept. Fuka's very good to her friends, but she can be super embarassing sometimes. Not like 'mom cut it out' embarassing either.

    "Reach out to me about the weapons too when you're ready to get started." Fuka offers. "I'm doing some training right now and research but the idea of church defense is pretty awesome. Hopefully I'm done with the work I'm doing helping Scale soon because I'd like to give defenses the attention they deserve!" she grins. "And thanks again for taking the time to help me out, this has been lovely~"

     It's fine. Pela will be fine. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. I mean. She'll be fine in the long run regardless! After all, Pela is pretty enduring of most things. Anyway. "...Yeah, I will. I intend to get started as soon as possible, so that we can disperse the weapons and wands."
     The talk about churche defense gets a bit of a nervous look from Pela. "I really hope we don't need church defenses, to be honest... if they can attack the churches then we're in a lot of trouble since we can't fight back without triggering the defense systems..." The comment of it being lovely actually gets a small nod. "...Yeah. ...A nice conversation. ...I like conversations like this." And other things too. "...By the way, uhm. I did reach out to the Scale Emblem too. ...They're in this as much as us, so I think they should get defenses just as much as us. ...I mean I know you agree too but I mean just. ...I'm. Uhm. ...Yeah. ...Similar viewpoint on helping them."

    Fuka absolutely hopes they don't need church defenses, but she has a feeling that if they wait until they need them it'll be too late. Control of the root towns and the churches would seem to be the end-game condition of this war, or at least the loss condition. She's all for helping see to their defense.

    She gives a knowing look and a grin. "It's fiiiiiine~" she trills. "They're people, just like us. We may not agree on everything, but ... yeah, you understand! We need to work together, or we'll surely play apart... wait no that's not it. Work together or rest in pieces... uh... well you get the idea!"

     Yep. So ultimately having defenses sooner than later would be good. "...Yeah. ...Exactly. ...People who, at the end of the way, just want to go home because they have something to go back to." Pela says softly. "...So I really haven't been against them since day one, even if I'm not necessarily actively supporting them all the time." She slips down off of her chair, stretching a little and giving a soft yawn. "...But yeah... surely we'll break apart if we don't band together right now... and take advantage of every advantage we have. Even if we have to tear at them slowly and steadily and use ambush tactics to pare down their numbers until they're no longer a threat, well... survival is really what matters right now. So lines being drawn between alliances isn't helpful, to me. ...Anyway I'd better get back to work, plenty of people to feed."