Dem Wings, Tho

The Phantom Colosseum quest has been conquered, once again proving the superiority of iman over fish. To celebrate their status of apex predator, at least until Leviathans are out of earshot, some members of the party have walked to a nearby town, whose charm is reminiscent of the makeshift dock: a small smattering of houses, a few boats, nets hung to dry, and a seaside inn. A seaside town can't go without your seaside inn. Where else would you get your steady supply of pipe- er... kiseru-puffing, white-bearded sea captains, amazing stories involving ghosts, sea monsters, and most uncanny of them all -- fishing. So many massive fish got away.

The ambience is just as one would expect: Ishmael is off in the corner spinning some story, a bard is intoning sea shanties, a bunch of drunken sailors is slurring along, and your by-the-book tavern wench slaloms across the tables, slamming tankards and trays of food.

Mostly seafood.

Uta is already working on replenishing her HP bar by munching on juicy bits of crab meat rolled into balls of rice; given how full her mouth currently is, she is not saying much. She'll definitely be listening if someone happens to be speaking right now, though!

On our way back from completing the colosseum duty, Yeowang has relaxed a bit, taking her ease and letting her hair down. It is, perhaps, surprisingly long - just past waist-length. Small wonder she keeps it up when fighting. But the rest of the team, or some of them, are headed to supper, and she's hungry as well, so she will tag along, on what seems like casual mode, though maybe too stiff for Haru. She will certainly follow along to the Tavern, and while she drinks water, she'll dine on the daily special, some sort of fishy stew, with thick hunks of bread. Not as hungry as Uta, she simply hasn't got much to say.

Freshly caught seafood? Haru is in Heaven. Heavenaru. "This is the life," Haru says with a deep breath and an exhale. "Sure, we almost drown again. And sure, violent confrontations aren't to be taken lightly when our memories are on the line. But think about it. We met ghost pirates. We met a guy who really, really misses his rum. Found a rose that is eternal." A finger snap, "We carped so many diems that I'll take the carp!" If they are serving it. Of course crab is a favorite of his and he isn't going to be picky, clapping his hands together with his formal-upbringing sort of way to thank for the meal. Some habits are etched into the mind and muscle, like his dining decorum.

"So good," Haru says with an exhale after a good nibbling. He doesn't mind Yeowang, but is just waiting for her to say something like 'Sit up straight' 'Chew more' 'Hydrate' or something else that would cause a young man to eyeroll and be like 'Youre not my dad!' Thankfully Yeowang is not. That would be confusing on many levels. Though he is looking at her while chewing. What if she is his dad? Oh god. He stops chewing. They need a topic, looking to Uta, "So I've been looking into the Phoenix thing more, learning about the Divine Beasts. On the topic of things with wings, isn't there a creature with wing in its name? Or as its name?"

    Having been too busy to adventure with her friends, Fuka was more than eager to catch up with them later and help them celebrate and socialize and lore and eat. So, somewhat late, she pokes her head into the inn. "It's not a party without Fuka!" she announces, spotting her friends and scurrying over. "So let the party begin!" she finishes, snatching something off Haru's plate and stuffing it into her face before turning to regard Uta's crab-riceballs with predatory interest.

"I'm sorry, hon, carp is freshwater fish," the wench replies to Haru. "But we have some delicious crab."

Wait, when did she arrive?

She must have the Sneaking skill.

"Oh, right. Fluegel," Uta replies to Haru. And through the magic (or sufficiently advanced technology) of the translation effect, due to Uta knowing enough German, the word 'Fluegel' is carried over with its meaning of 'Wing', or 'Wings'. Can be both singular or plural. In the nominative case, at least. We won't go down the rabbit hole that is German cases. Or would that be a Kaninchenloch in German? Probably not.

"The word word 'Fluegel' is mentioned a lot, especially in the flavor text of relics. Mine has it. It mentions 'the Fluegel known as Bondrewd...'"

More meat and rice is shoved into Uta's face, more chewing ensues. Swallow. Wash it down with a drink. Lemonade, it appears.

Fuka is noticed. Predatory look is noticed. "H-hey! Get your own rice balls!", she stammer-growls.

Hungry Uta seems to be marginally more assertive. With a glance towards Yeowang. Yeowang is not going to allow any crab-rice-ball heist to take place under her watch, right?

Right?

Yeowang is certainly not Haru's dad. For one, she's only nineteen, in the real world, and for the other, she's a she in the real world. Those two factors together make her almost certainly not Haru's dad. Or anyone else's in the game. Anyhow, Haru seems to have acceptable manners, for a Japanese, meaning he's not an arrogant jerk and he can chew with his mouth closed. When he wants to.

"Hello," she says to Fukaziroh. "How are you this evening?" A trifle formal, but a legitimate greeting, generally.

She hrms and listens closely as Uta explains the evening's subject. As to whether she will allow rice ball theft, they're not /her/ rice balls. But she will suggest to Fuka, "Why don't you join us and order something?"

Haru is probably distracted by a Fuka appearing. In a /rare/ showing of being /caught off guard/ his face goes red when looking at something in his inventory menu. Close the menu! Close the menu! Erase the menu history! Burn the UI! "Hah ha ha. Crab is fine," the Artificer says to the waitress. "I'll carp that specific diem a different day when the water is fresh." The Fresh Water of Bel Aire. Of course he should have been paying attention to his plate, as it is empty. Ok, almost empty. There is enough crab and rice for another bite. The equiv of the last slice of pizza. "Just keep it coming," he notes.

"Fluegel," Haru snaps to Uta. Lore. Conversation. Be thy salvation. "Sounds flute-y. German?" he is no Scripture buff, but he puts a lot of power behind words. "Bondrewd," Haru thinks as he nibbles on his remaining rice. Let those carbs go to the brain, Haru. It is learning time!

    Fukaziroh has excellent manners, of course. She just chooses to ignore them, literally all the time. She smiles to Yeowang though. "Super busy earlier, but I'm done all my work and it's time to have fun!" she claims. And then she joins the table, finding an open seat and making herself comfortable by reclining in a way that she probably shouldn't if the seating is anything like most inns.

    Haru gets a considering glance. Fuka's used to not being able to figure him out and is mostly okay with it, but ... is he embarassed for some weird reason? "Were you just *talking* about me, hmmmm?" she asks archly. "In context of a nice little snack perhaps? I see how it is!" she claims. "Or what, you're talking about wings now? No you can't eat mine, I quite like them where they are thank you!" she teases, meanwhile casting a covetous look at Uta's food. She'll share hers in return once she orders some, but first she has to get her own. Or get some of Uta's because of course she does. She just has to wait for Uta to get distracted, say by talk of something extremely nerdy and fascinating... and then see if Yeowang will stop her or not!

After the mandatory greetings to Fuka, Uta is, as expected, blushing and coughing at all of Fuka's unexpected innuendo. Not -too- much because it's not about her, after all, but still. An opening!

"German, which is interesting," Uta continues, as if Fuka hadn't caused a sudden break in her composture. "We once got to speak with a Machina. She dropped random German words in conversation. They wouldn't translate," Uta remarks. "But if -we- tried to speak German, or repeated those words and knew what they meant, they would translate." More Lore! Also, more opening for yoinking food. "I've been told that people have actually -met- this Bondrewd. The Seventh Wave of Calamity. He apparently was looking for relics."

It is in moments like these that the human brain loses control and the hamster brain takes over. Stuff them cheeks. Let not the Other acquire the tasty tasty sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds which look and taste like rice seed with bits of crab in it.

"In any case, Fluegel. Well..." She taps her lips with her chopsticks while looking up and away, and finally continues, "there is either a lot or really nothing to say about them, depending on how you look at it." Grab rice ball. Insert. Chew. Swallow. "Fluegel is just another way to refer to the Alv, based on them having wings." Wash down. Lemonade. "I am not sure why they are referred to using two different names."

Yeowang smirks at Haru and Fuka, thinking wistfully, just for a moment, about her own boyfriend, back in Korea. He was supposed to join her here, since she was in school in Japan while he remained in Korea. But then the Japanese server was isolated, and it's been over a year since she's seen him. Did he even get -into- the game? If he did, did something terrible happen to him, like seems to have happened to many of the Palace Landers. It doesn't bear thinking about, and there's nothing she can do now to help him, so she will have to deal with the present as it is.

She nods to Fuka about being busy, but smiles at being done with work. "That's great!" She smiles as Fuka sits down, presumably to eat and not to foodfight, but she's glancing at Uta's plate in a worrying way. She's now very glad she went with the soup. At the mention of Alv and Flugel being the same, she ohs, and says, "I may have met one, once, then. By the name of Spatjahr. I didn't really understand what was going on at the time."

Haru meanwhile is thinking what is a more likely reason for being sus other than the reason he is being sus and his face is being red. "No, just thinking about you," the bemonocle'd Artificer winks to Fuka. Or blinks. Its hard to tell, ok? He only has one clearly visible eye and the other one is behind a purple tinted monocle. For all anyone could tell, he could have a super edgy demon eye back there and its waiting to come off in full 'Gwahaha, now I unleash the seventh seal, your doom is all but assured'. But this is Haru we are talking about.

A fresh round of seafood arrives along with Haru's sake. Praise be! Sip and monch. He looks to Uta intently while she is talking. "Machina," he asks, chopsticks starting to go to more rice, "thats a thing? Thought it was a rumor. Like, thats Artificer candy right there. Machina." His eye shift to Fuka, "New goal, Make Fuka a Boom Stick out of a Broom Stick. Big Badda Broom." Serious times though. Serious. "I'd love to run into this Bondrewd. Relics are fascinating stuff from the Alv..." and then Haru stops, "... wait they /are/ Alv? Huh. The more you know." Speaking of the more you know, "Spatjahr? Now we know two. What was their deal?" He is a ravenous consumer of this information, much like the rice. Omnomnom. Haru hasn't come across any of this in travels or research as of yet.

    "Wait you mean Alv are real?" Fuka asks, apparently shocked. "I mean, of course they're REAL, as real as we are, but I mean, I thought they were ancient legends that are long gone! Not something you could ... actually like, actually meet!"

    The thought of meeting an ancient relic creator, one of the masters of ancient long lost craft, has Fuka salivating. Or perhaps that's just the crab. Speaking of which, she waits only another few moments, for Uta's attention to turn towards Haru's words and the possibly embarassing things he's saying. Not embarrassing to Fuka naturally, but to Uta. With crab ball in hand, she nodnods. "I'd love to pick their brains!" she adds. "I mean not literally! Not like I'd pick rice balls!" she says, promptly stuffing one in her mouth. Wait where'd she get that? She hasn't even ordered yet!

"I am not sure you'd like to meet Bondrewd," Uta mumbles at Fukaziroh, dead serious. "Ask people who were there. I think Robert 'Spriteshero' was one of them. Proteus was there too. I have reasons to believe Estelle might have been. I can't really remember many other names among the people I've spoken with, but I'm sure these people will be able to point you to further people who have been there."

She blinks. "Oh, you ordered the crab riceballs too? They're delicious!" Nevermind that Fuka doesn't seem to have a plate, and that it would be far too early for Fuka to have been served already.

Uta shakes her hand. "No, no, Spahtjahr is a -Machina-." She pauses. "Uber Cluster Zwei Null Sieben Peh Err Vier Acht Neun Teh Neun. Spahtjahr for her friends." The translation effect renders the code, starting from 'Zwei', as '207PR489T9'.

"Spahtjahr seems to be a regional word for 'Autumn'. Jazuhanzu is her friend now. Friend level Eins." She looks around, to ensure the group is alone, and then lowers her voice. "I know Jazz prefers to keep hush about her. Despite Spahtjahr being ridiculously powerful, Jazz is very protective of her. I think she wants to avoid people treating her as some sort of freak, or just seeing her as a resource to be harnessed for their goals." A sigh. "I don't blame her." Uta intertwines her fingers, and looks down. Then looks up again. "I would suggest that if you want to know more, you speak with Jazz directly. And keep in mind to be respectful."

She remains silent, staring into the void. Then, suddenly, "Oh, yes, speaking of Machina. You have probably heard that Doctor Prophylaxis is looking for information about an Ex-Machina. I know he's possibly interested in one other related creature." She sighs and rubs her forehead, looking down. "I am not familiar with it myself, I am trying to figure out how to sort of 'repurpose' my Loremaster power to learn something about her. Problem is..." She looks up again, frowning. "...I can't really learn about beings directly. My power specializes in -events-, so I have to be clever about it and try to frame whatever I'm trying to learn as an event. It isn't easy."

Yeowang is so confused by all this ancient history. It was bad enough in school when it was just regular people doing reegular things, now she's got to learn about mystical ancient beings of different species doing whatever it is they do. And without any bakcground that /she/ knows. Well, she could have studied it, she's been here over a year, after all. But she's been so busy trying to learn to survive, ancient history seemed secondary. She listens intently, hopefully she will learn something this time.

She ohs as Uta corrects her about Spatjahr, nodding slowly. "I see. I can /generally/ find out about people," she claims. But I don't know if machina, or former machina," which is how she interprets ex-machina, "count as people for purposes of my talent."

Haru shares that look with Fuka that lasts about a second before its back on the Alvs. He counts his blessings that getting out of the situation was easy. But that was a bit too easy. He smiles politely, looking at Uta as he eats. "Oh, a hostile kind of person? Maybe not, then," he acknowledges. Chopsticks to the food, holding it there a moment. "Ahhh, Spahtjar is a machina. Of course." It makes perfect sense. "Interesting. Like a unique identifier instead of a class?" he starts thinking with machine words. Then monch. His actions a bit more calmed down now. Information sharing time. Hush hush tones. "I, hrm, will keep that in mind." He remembers the last time he spoke at any length with Jazu.

Monch. Swallow. "I heard about that. The information stuff. I was planning on reaching out and seeing if he needed any hand. I imagine machina have a lot of delicate parts and, well, circuitry." Haru waggles his fingers. Not a lot transfers from the last world to this one, but conceptual information may apply. "Oooh. Events. Which is why asking to find the fire birb wouldn't work unless I knew of an event. Would have to find the 'creature' itself. Or these Flu-Alvs." Lots of information going on here, need more rice. Monch. A quirk on finding people from Yeowang, "Like, paying someone to find out about people? New age Yakuza?"

    "So you're saying I'd be more likely to want to ICE pick their brains?" Fuka observes with a grin. "Oh hey this crab's pretty good! I should order some." she notes, the grin turning into a smirk.

    Fuka's a good listener, and attentively pays attention to Uta's explanation. Even deciding to accept her advice about Spahtjar, should it come up. And given Fuka's curiousity and general desire to be social especially with weirdos, it just might indeed come up! Respectfully, of course.

    "Oh, machina definitely exist. I've seen some. They were monster mash...ina though." Fuka says thoughtfully. "Not exactly conversationalists. And they're kind of broken now." she adds with a sigh. No idea how that happened, no idea whatsoever. She regards Haru thoughtfully though. "If you do want to find a phoenix though, I can think of two possibilities. Be active during the fire festival, which I guess is some summertime thing, and hope... or go seeking one out! I mean, divine beasts are rare but they do live somewhere year-round right? We could try to find out where one lives and go pay it a visit! But like, it'd be in some high mountain or hidden away somewhere I'm sure, so it won't be easy!" she says, sounding actually rather intrigued and excited at the possibility of doing something so unique.

Uta blinks in surprise at Yeowang. "You... you can?" She scratches her head. What did Yeowang mean there? Performing regular background checks on people? Uta knows that Yeowang is highly skilled in Law, and therefore a great fit for researching public records. Or could she mean bibliographically? Or is she... another Loremaster?

Whatever the interpretation is, Uta will continue, "In that case, I suggest contacting Doctor Prophylaxis as soon as possible. It is a very important matter. I am not sure how much I can disclose, but your help might avert danger."

Uta turns to Haru. "According to the Machina, only Chim Chims, Fluegel, Kunie or Machina can fix machina. I fear mere Adventurer accessory forging will not cut it. Or paste it. However you want to look at it." She shrugs. "But, hey, you're free to try. There were so many things I believed to be out of our reach, and then I've been proven wrong..."

"I think the unique identifier might be the name," Uta clarifies in regard to the Machina the Adventurers have met in the past. "Spahtjahr is the name Jazz gave her."

Uta turns to Fuka, "You've met them? I didn't know this part! Please do tell!" -- but her facial expression of interest quickly turns into a suspicious gaze directed at Fuka. "What do you mean -order- one?" The little Hamster in Uta's brain feels vindicated now.

Yeowang smirks to Haru about new age Yakuza, and she says, "Nothing underhanded. I simply have," and she includes Uta in this explanation, "a bit of an information network." Which is a Yes. So, flugel are a mystery to her, but information networking, she's entirely comfortable with. She listens with interest while the discussion talks about the flugel and chims and machina and everything else. It's a bit too much to learn all at once, but she's trying.

Haru smiles at Uta. Its all good information. He eats quietly. Politely. He smiles and smiles. "Ah, well that is nothing new," he says as he puts his chopsticks down. "It a different caliber of item, after all. I'll still take a look, of course, as it may advance the more mundane methods we already know," he says formally, "and there is no lack in a desire for that information." Once Uta and Fuka get some sparks going on a topic, Haru pushes himself out from the table. "Going to get some fresh air," he tells Uta with a nod. Looking to Yeowang he notes, "And I may throw you a chim later for help finding something. I'll pay, of course," without giving her eye contact. He grabs a toothpick on the way out to the beach, something to gnaw on that fits the decor of an evening walk along the sands to clear his head.

    Miyako hasn't been far off, through it all. She's not exactly the untrustworthy sort! And she already knew about Spatjahr, and a lot more about what happened on that particular island. But it's not the sort of thing she wants spread widely, and Uta already knows about it, so she hasn't said much. Still, Haru's mention of monster-machina gets her attention. "Are you sure they were Machina, and not machine-type monsters?" she asks quietly. "What did their icons look like? I've run into machine-type monsters before and they're definitely not the same."

    Fuka seems confused by Haru excusing himself, and perhaps a bit hurt. Was it something she said? She has some experience with Haru's smiles and... well, something's definitely off. But if he wants to get fresh air, and doesn't say anything whatsoever to her when she shows up, well... huh. Maybe *THAT'S* why he was so embarassed when she showed up! Maybe he and one of the other girls at the table...

    Shaking her head, not wanting to go down that route, Fuka instead answers the question posed her way. "Wait, there's a difference between automata and machina? Okay that's super weird. These people should just pick one!" she states, annoyed. Not necessarily at the distinction between machine types.

Yeowang arches a brow to Haru, but nods about finding a thing. For cash. "Let me know how I can help you," she says as he departs, finishing her own stew and pushing the bowl away from her. She doesn't consider that telling Fuka and Haru about a thing that most of the Alliance already knows to be breaking a confidence. Though neither had joined up at the time the thing happened.

But with Uta dozing off, she's not sure, and Haru pulling a runner, she wonders if her own welcome hasn't worn out. On the other hand, she's not leaving /with/ Haru, that would be wildly strange and wouldn't Fuka flip out? So, she will sit back at the table, though she's yet to contribute anything useful, and offer Fuka a shrug about automata and machina. "I just go by what the game people tell me. Some things, you can infer because they're modeled on real life, some things are pure game logic."

Kotono wasn't too far off either. Although she was off doing her own thing before she came upon the others... namely Miyako first of all. She's not saying anything for the time being, though. It's not because she's in a bad mood, she just doesn't have much to say at the moment.

    Miyako shrugs. "What can I say? Maybe they're a different tech base, maybe they're just inferior product... maybe it's a social prejudice thing. I'm not a dev." She waves a hand dismissively. "Could be anything. Could be an old man floating upside-down in a tank of super-oxygenated water for all I know. All I know for -certain- is that I had some parts from one in inventory, and when I offered 'em to Spatjahr for repairs she said they were no good."

Yeowang nods to Miyako, who's puzzled on a much higher level than she is. "I think I will turn in, myself," she says with a yawn. She can't contribute much to the conversation, and Haru and Uta, who had been explaining, have both gone. So, she will head upstairs to her room and crash.

Haru returns back, sans the toothpick, and a handfull of seashells. "Sorry about that," he says with a big doofy smile on his face. "I caught a case of the Haru and needed to clear my head." Because he is Haru, after all. The human goes to stand behind Fuka, wrapping arms around her and the chair that separates them. "And I want to talk more about the Phoenix stuff with you after sorta just yeeting out to the beach. Can I borrow you for, like ten minutes?" He looks to the rest of the group at the resturante, not realizing things are starting to fizzle. "Oof, did the party die?" He only kinda catches Yeo on the way out, but he already let her know he will be in touch. He doesnt understand all of the politics and breach protocols around the alliances, but right now he figures they have a foreign threat that may soften domestic barriers.

    Miyako looks over at the returning Haru and shrugs. "I mean, maybe? I guess I was kinda zoned out for a bit there, been noodling over a new song idea, and... mmm." She looks down, then braces herself on her hands to lean back. "Have fun, Yeo."

    Haru's current smile is different, Fuka can see. She's not sure what it means, but this one seems genuine. Not exactly one of happiness, she doesn't think, but not the sort that he uses so often to hide his feelings. It brings a genuine smile to her lips in return, one that slides into an embarassed blush as he comes up and embraces her like that from behind. A surprisingly fierce blush too, for those who only know the flirty, boisterous Fuka.

    That doesn't stop her from rallying of course. "O-only ten minutes?" she claims, not quite able to get the words out smoothly. "Is that all? I should be disappointed!" she answers, sounding not disappointed at all. She still figures she must have done something dumb, probably due to missing something important or going off on something irrelevant like she usually does. For all she knows, it was stealing Uta's food instead of Haru's... she's rather new to the conventions of their current status. She'll make amends though, if she can. Somehow. "Good thing I stole that food. I think I'll end up hungry for ... perhaps the next ten minutes!" she notes, her voice regaining some of its more natural playfulness.

Haru waggles his eyebrows, "Yeah, I found this really nice part on the beach. Would you believe that there are naturally occuring candle monsters out there?" Don't believe it. It isn't true. A hand raises to the rest that are there, "Thanks all. We'll be back if we come back. If we don't." They don't! With that he takes Fuka's hand and takes her out along the shoreline. Its a nice night, it would be horrible to waste it. Unless it rains. On the candle monsters.