Celebrating the Successes

Long nights. Strange moods. Hard work has never been declared as a thing for the faint of heart. Once that final breakthrough happens or that last part of the puzzle is put into place? It is rewarding. What better way to share in that positive cheer and discuss the next big ambitions than with friends new and old.

Haru was with Kat during the last moments of her project, offering up precision instrument support behind the lens of a monocle and delicate handiwork. He sent out chims to friendos to open invite at the local tavern where they were going to celebrate a night that wouldn't involve hunched over a fine crafting event, research, or retries. "Hard to believe it has been three months since I stopped doing this sort of thing full time," the Artificer says as he finds a vacant tatami style table and helps himself to it. He is talking to Kat, who easily did the lions share of the work. Haru has been more 'outgoing' lately instead of full crafter life, so he only was able to stop in to keep up with the parts of the project he and Gig could help on. "I miss it sometimes," he admits, sliding into the sitting position.

    The imp with her exotic looks is not to far behind Haru. She walks with her normal sultry canter and those hooves gently 'clonking' on the ground as they walk toward their table of destrination.

"Doing what sort of thing?" Katherine asks with a gentle smile on her lips, "Taking a woman out to dinner." She says with a playful tone, followed by a little wink. Once Haru sits down, she goes to join him. Lowering herself with ease and do so lady-like to not reveal anymore than her clothing already does. "Though I am still /very/ grateful for your help Haru. I hope in some way I can perhaps even," She hrms in thought before she tilts her head a little. "Pay you back in some way."

Haru is tall, well dressed human. He is about what someone would expect working in Victorian steampunk inventor's shop in a land full of fae, were, and werefae (faewere?). Compared to Kat the two are colorful blends of each other when juxtaposed in a social gathering. "Oho," the monocled man give Kat the double finger pointing as if to say 'good one' to her playful tease. "I am sure there will be ample opportunities to have one favor be repaid by another," the white haired man says as he settles. He lets his gaze settle a moment. There are those times when the momentium of everything going on carries with you and even when someone stops they still feel in motion. A natural inertia to it. "Crafting," he tells the lady, "I used to do it almost exclusively the first year or so here. Getting to work on a large project where precision components were involved was a real treat." There is a laugh, "plus the company was good. It always helps. Accessory Crafting can be rather niche at times, but I love it and Enchanting. Did you know crystals give off a certain resonance? A sound. Woudln't have learned that if I didn't work with Uta. It reminds me of just how big all this is and how each one of us has scratched only a little bit of the itch." Wrong word. "Surface." Maybe both apply. Its more than a hobby.

    Katherine goes to pull over the menu to give a look over if she wants anything, beyond make just some saki. Her eyes roam over the menu, before looking back to Haru. "I see. It does explain why you have such talented fingers."

The imp's eyes look back to the menu once more as she continues to speak. "I tend to focus my arts more on enchanting and alchemy. It was useful before the world changed, helping brave leaders obtain alchemic potions for their adventures. In doing so for them, I'd gain some of their riches."

Katherine sighs a little, "Yet the world changed, people's focuses changed, and now we have this little war going about. I think I liked it better when all I had to worry about were those--" She pauses herself and laughs softly, "Nevermind, I am going on a silly tangent." She places down the menu. "Tell me, were you famous before the world changed?"

The imp raised a brow, "I am trying to remember if I recalled your name or not about the shops."

It is an easy thing for Haru to do, to let his mind wander. With the purple monocle over one of his eyes, it is harder to tell when it has started to drift off. For one he is neglecting his drink and app order. The topics of Enchanting and Alchemy are more interesting than food. "Before all the things here, you mean," Haru asks as his one visible blue eye shines through the white bangs and towards exotic imp, "no, not really famous here. I know there was an offline version a long time ago. I didn't play that version." The menu is placed down as he knows what he wants to eat and drink now. Sashimi, edamame, and sake. "I was around before the," a hand motions in a circle to 'all this', "expansion, but not famous, no. Not a heavy raider. Not a market leader. I was just 'enjoying' the game, you know?" Hands are placed onto the table. So, not famous. Outside of this world, however...

"It carried over after the expansion," Haru continues on, calling the whole Apoc event as something kinder than what it was, "so don't worry about offending me about lost brand recognition. I only started recently putting my 'marketable' work in Miho's shop. Most of my stuff prior was very tailoed. One on one. Artistinal." A smile goes there, "not the sort of thing that draws attention unless you make an item for a legendary figure."

Shiruba announces her arrival with not a greeting but a great big yawn as she meanders out of one of the sleeping rooms. After she finally got that meal last night and seeing some of her friends she got a much well rested. While still a little sleepy it doesn't take her much to notice there's already a gathering going on. "Oh, good mo--Uh." She pauses to rub her eyes with the back of a hand. "I think I slept longer than I expected..."

*Yaaaaaaaaaawn*

Tongue click. Tongue click.

A certain Spriggan Musical Kung-Fu Nurse, still in her slime-pattern nightie (a very modest one which reaches almost to her feet), shuffles down the stairs, hunched, in a state which can be best described as "In Bad Need Of Coffee", past Shiruba, making a beeline for wherever the rest of the people are gathered.

Yaaaaaaaaaaawn. Stretch.

She scratches her side while looking around through half-closed eyes.

"...Hi. Is it morning already or am I dreaming this?"

    "I am sure it is morning, just as it is evening somewhere." Katherine says to Uta, as she catches the attention of one of the waitress' to order herself some saki. She also gives a little wave to Shiruba. "Hello Shiruba darling!" Yep, Katherine. She never changes.

The imp then looks back to Haru as her tail flicks, "You speak as many do, I suppose you, like many of the tower champions, hope to return to what some see as the--" She then air quotes, "Real world." Then she lowers her hands, "Or as I like to call the nightmare dream." Though her eyes soften a little in thought. "Though I suppose what is a nightmare for one, could be a charming dream for another-- but it is still all a dream of some sort."

There is a raised hand from Haru where he sits with Kat at the tatami style seated table. It waves to both Shriuba as he notices her and then to Uta. It looks like a few of those chims did make it out alright. "Time is fairly relative," the Artificer says with a warm tone of voice and a smile. It is an echo to Kat's sentiment. Its sake-o-clock somewhere, might as well be here. He motions them over.

The tall human turns his attention back to Kat. Haru's face is the sort of smooth and pleasant appearance that is carved of a mask of ivory and gold, "I don't seek to return there," he lets her know. A deep breath and he exhales. "Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man," he offers to her, too flowery to be anything other than script to another poet. "Either way, what I am now is what I am now." A finger taps on the table, "I rather like our world." Tap.

Shiruba rubs her eyes again. "I'm not awake enough to get philosophical, no offense." She's quick to flag down a nurse to order some coffea and breakfast though. "I think I am going to go somewhere else to train for a bit. I appreciate Master Ho's effort to help, but I'm not ready for another training montage like that..." Her hair, not even up in its usual ponytail yet, waves wildly as she shakes her head. "How's that technique working out for you, Haru?" She decides to just jump into conversation instead of catching up on whatever was already going on.

"Speaking of crazy dreams and butterflies..." Uta says, to both Katherine and Haru, "...I once dreamt I was a mosquito humanoid thing in a videogame world," Uta mumbles. "Wings and all!" Her wings flutter reflexively as she says this. "It was -crazy-," she states, jabbing her finger at the table for emphasis.

Yawn. Stretch.

"...good thing that's over and it's back to business as usual for me- oh, right," she exclaims. "Sorry for keeping you waiting, your coffee will be here soon!", she exclaims, stands up, bows, and heads towards the kitchen, to take care of Shiruba's order.

Erufu is rather sleepy as she comes in, she looks groggy but she doesn't seem to be in a bad mood she'll smile a bit.

"Good morning. I think we were all up way too... *yawn* late."

She's got an order to put in a she takes a moment to look at Uta for a moment. "I'm sorry what's a Videogame...? Are you okay Uta?" The elf looks groggy but concerned.

    Katherine waits for the saki and the bottle, along with extra glasses to be delivered. Once so, she pours herself a cup of saki. Thankfully with this place being ran by a player, it is far better quality than what many Lander's would serve; also flavor!

"I will accept such an answer then and I am glad to see where you stand on such matters." Katherine says with earnest in her voice. Though if she had more to say it seems to be held by back the current growing company. Her eyes moving over to look to Shiruba, "You sure you don't want some saki with your breakfast? Alcohol makes everything better!" There was a grin that follows, before she takes a gentle sip from her own cup.

Her eyes look over to Erufu and she tilts her head a little. Then smirks a bit, "Many adventurers speak of odd thing such as video games." She explains to the woman, "It is terms that come from the nightmare world. The place so many of us are now free from. It is a place that also some wish to return to, but do not think of the reprocusions of what that could bring."

"The wire to brain to mouth is short some days," Haru offers to Shiruba on his philosophical 'Im a hip dude in a coffee shop' reference to Chinese brainwaves. Maybe its all the Palace Lander stuff and the FengHuang he saw recently that has him on that track. "Really well," the Artificer picks up on the topic of cross training, "the crystal shards are very useful in light refraction for appraising the situation as well as the jagged ends great in single or area distribution." His voice gets more excited when talking about application of Wave Artes inspired by the world around him. "Besides the use in our arctic delve, it helped the inferno at the port, as well. Very grateful." A head bow to Shiruba as it is little things like that which give the support class like him strength.

"Wings and all," Haru turns to Uta. "That sucks." Because. You know. Mosquito. His eyebrows waggle a bit. A low intensity waggle. Erufu gets a waggle as well. Waggle by association.

Shiruba smiles as she nods to Haru. "I'm glad someone else is getting use out of it. Figured it would be useful to your craft as well as in combat. It's one of the first techniques I made for myself. I don't do melee combat, and there's very few Wave Artes that make full use of earth's rigid reliability."

Then shakes her head to Katherine. "No, thank you. I need to keep my head clear when I go out to continue my training. Maybe afterwards to help me unwind again." Hmmm. Maybe next time she'll bribe the old panda to sleep with a drink, he'll be expecting food.

"I think Uta is just having a Uta moment." How else does one need to sum that up.

Not long after, Uta is back, balancing a cup of coffee on a tray. She slaloms through the tables as if she had done nothing else for her whole life, and places it in front of Shiruba. "Please enjoy." She says as she delivers the order.

A blink. "Wait, no, I don't work here." she says. And looks down at herself. "Oh, drat, I'm still dreaming I'm the weird mosquito thing."

She sighs, and moves to take place at the table again, with the rest of the gang. "It's some long, weird dream -- I wonder what I ate to- oh, uh, wait." She flicks through her menu, and her nightie shimmers away, replaced by her new Gi/Nurse's-Uniform (a gift from Baroness Wake), completed by a small silver pendant that looks like a hook on which two songbirds perch, the tip consisting of an amber stone gem that matches Uta's eye color.

"...Just because it's a dream, it's no reason not to respect social etiquette. Hi Katherine. Hi Haru. Hi Shiruba. Hi Erufu."

Erufu says "It does sound like a world of nightmares to be sure. There is a reason I have worked to catalog many of the legends of the heros of Yamato." She notes. "There's also a bard whose been doing a bit about Goblin Slayer some days." She seems proud of that as she now gets hr ordered meal in. "I would say such a fate would bite..."

    Katherine listens to the conversations around her as she sips her cup of saki. Her glowing eyes look to each member now at the table. "Goblins and their types are quiet troublesome." The imp admits. "Slaying them helps bring down their population and keeping things in check." Her tail flicks a little.

"To bad we can't unleash some monsters upon those troubling fools who wish to cause us problems on our land. I don't even begin to understand what their trouble is. Do they desire resources, women, land?" Katherine names off a few things she can think of.

"Though I wonder if they can even begin to be reasoned with." She sips her saki once more. "But, if the war continues and my own progress, with others help, continues to grow to the point of where I desire... I suppose I will have to show them why to not endanger the lives of the people under our care." This is followed by a gentle sigh. "War is such a wretched thing."

It is always a warming feeling when parts of something that you create with your own hands make it out to the world. It is one such celebration that Haru was doing with Kat today/tonight/to-<timereference>. "Hi Uta," Haru replies back with a light laugh. The young man had not given it a whole lot of thought. "It makes you wonder if everyone is this nice to other people in their dreams, does that speak well for them? And the other way, too," he starts before remembering no deep stuff. Its too early, or too late. What it is time for is Earth Talk. Earth Talk rocks.

"Earth is a fantastic element," hypes the Enchanter, "it is reliable, defensive, and foundational. You can find gems in the earth as well useful minerals such as Marble or metals such as silver and iron. The flux used for advanced metals are also born of Earth elemental properties." Basically Haru likes Earth. "I didnt realize it was one of your first that you made. I'm honored." The context makes it all important. Like being entrusted with something important.

A deep breath and an exhale. Haru has a drink and he sips on it now that it here. And monch on food. "I summon my elemental sprites," he offers Kat, "but I think you are going on a larger scale." There is one thing he agrees with without needing more context, "War is a wretched thing." War. War never changes. What is it good for?

Shiruba tries not to chuckle too much. "Thank you Uta, you saved me the effort of collecting it for myself... And no Katherine, that would just be causing a problem in solving a problem, because then we'd have to deal with the monsters taken after them..." She doesn't mention what a certain person did in a similar vein already, but most people here would either know already, or be lucky enough not to.

Instead she tears into her breakfast in a manner that makes one wonder if she's eaten in days... even though it was just last night when she came in. Good grief she has an appetite.

"Oh, yes! The heroes of Yamato! I helped with that! That was good times...", Uta reminisces.

Her daydream is interrupted by Katherine and Haru's mention of war -- in particular, Katherine's wondering of what the enemy might be after. "As far as I can tell, they want us wiped off the face of Alba, or possibly on a leash. Which is, on a crown? Point is, the story seems to be that the Landers of the Palace Lands seem to think of Adventurers as a bunch of loose cannons that are threat to their existence and-slash-or way of life, so..."

"I still wish we had enough Rhyolite to unleash a bunch of exploding slimes on them," Uta mumbles. "But one, we don't have enough Rhyolite. Two-" A pause. "I cannot think of a two." She shrugs. "That said, they might have Monster Handlers of their own. Sheriff Shirin seemed to imply he thought my using them was wrong, so maybe they don't?"

Uta flicks her hand at Shiruba. "Oh, don't mention it. I thought I was awake."

She finally turns to Haru. "Well, you never know. How can you tell what is a dream, and what is real?" A pause. "This is probably too early for philosophy of this calibre, but- I think a good answer could be 'you don't, so always act your best'. Or something along those lines."

    Katherine listens once more what is being said. She seems to fall very quiet as whatever was on her mind takes her away from the conversation. Mayhaps also whatever she wants to say, she is keeping very close to her chest.

Eventually the imp smiles, finishes her cup, and then goes to stand up with a slow motion, but keeping it all very lady like. "I think I shall excuse myself at this time. I still need to make some adjustments to the mana battery and do some testing."

She then walks over to Haru and bends over a little, a smile on her face still. "And whilst you make think of elementals, remind me one day to show you what it is I plan to do." She grins after she says that before standing up fully. "Ta ta for now, my ladies and lord. May your travels be safe." Then starts to make her way for the door with those hip swaying steps of hers.

"I know they have animal and monster handlers same as we do. Either he specifically doesn't like slimes, goddesses forbid, or was just using it as a reason to get after you... which would make it arrest on false charges. Which wouldn't surprise me either. Not like this world has warrents, I don't know." Shiruba resumes her breakfast after saying as much.

Uta has the right of it. Haru monches on his meal with neat bites. His table manners are crisp with good posture while sitting, even when relaxed. The human would do well at formal ceremonies as he uses his chopsticks to snack up a roll and noms. "Be safe," he tells Kat, "and next time I will. It may line up a bit with my own plans!" Or cross inspire, that happens a lot. He does a good job at keeping his eyes on Kat's face with the bend. Eye contact! Important for communication.

The white haired human's eyes snap to Uta with a 'I was not watching her walk away' note. These are important nonverbal facts. "Thats my take on it as well," he tells Uta. Stop. Reframe the conversation. "On the whole perception of reality thing." Important to frame that one up. "Just be your best self no matter where you find yourself 'being', y'know?" He takes a deep breath as a sort of shadow comes over his next chewing. Chews chew. Silence.

Erufu says "They are a plague that needs to be exterminated if it's ever possible to do so. Still we done a decne job of culling them so far. Still can't get that terrible song they sung out of my head." She mutter as he food arrives. "The people of the Palace Land don't deseve Goblins, no one does."

She'll start munching on her food.

Uta nods gravely at Erufu's words. "The 44th Song, alias 'Artosh's Anger', expression of the Deus's hatred of the non-Alv races." Uta blinks, rubs her chin, and turns to Shiruba. "Oh, uh, hey, think you could Loremaster this song? I did not find out much about it, but maybe your power is different and can reveal some facet I could not find out?"

"Well, I don't think that was technically part of the charges," she comments at Shiruba's assessment of Shirin. "It was more part of the errors in my ways that Queen Laira Lorelei would supposedly have been glad to show me about. So... it might be that he just didn't like -me specifically- using monsters... because... c'mon, how can one -not- like slimes? One would have to have no soul!"`

Uta nods at Haru. "Agreed. Act your best, no matter where, who, what, why, or how you are. It is vital-"

Growl.

"...I think my stomach is clamoring for nourishment. I will be back with breakfast soon," she says, stands up, and walks towards the kitchen area.

Shiruba looks up from her food with a blink. "How did you Loremaster a -song-?" It's an honest question. Though it does get her to pause for a moment to consider. "Though maybe we should get together and try that some time." Then resumes eating. Her meal is mostly gone, but when it comes to food Shiruba has an almost one-track mind. Especially when it's good food, and as far as she is concerned, Hifumi isn't capable of doing bad food.

Erufu stare at Uta for a moment at her words she seem curious. "So they hate everything understong but would that make ... Goblins Agents of Artosh's wrath?" There may be a god od Goblins to slay. She will file this away for later. "We'll have to look into this more later Uta enjoy the food!" She waves to her friend and she looks over to Shiruba "It's Uta, she does this."