Meet the Monster: The Gardener

     Searching for the source of the witherless rose... Pela immediately had gone to work when requested. She'd been itching to explore somewhere anyway. And so the party found themselves gathering at a small village in the Ninetails Dominion, near one of the forests that tended to harbor somewhat higher level monsters. A relatively sparsely-populated village with a small garrison of guards that have constant patrols to ward off monsters that wander too close to town. Luckily, a rare occurance for this sleepy little town which surely couldn't handle such chaos.
     Pela has already been there for a day or so, familiarizing herself with the area and getting to know the landers while doing her research. Also doing minor quests to endear herself to the village so that they're more likely to tolerate adventurers making this their temporary base of operations if this takes more than a day or so. And so Pela stands there, wearing something other than her normal outfit; a comfortable white dress that at least one of the other villagers has been seen wearing. Either it was made for her, or she made it to match them. One of the two. It's hard to tell. Of course, because it's Pela, she still has her ninja accessories and several pouches strapped to her thighs and a small belt with several pouches on it. And she has protective metal sewn into the dress. It's fine. Probably. Regardless, Pela stands there. Waiting in that town for the party that's supposed to be joining them. Good thing they know that she's waiting for them, or she'd be easy to miss.

Kauchemar for once might be harder to notice. If only because it's one of those rare occasions where she's not in her monsterous equine form. These people apparently have enough monster problems to deal with so the Were Fang has stuck to her human form to avoid stirring any additional anxiety amongst the local Landers.

Granted, even as a human she's a tall and amazonianesque woman, the deep blue hair spilling out of the corners of her cloak hood is plain enough, and there's few people Adventurers that trapes around in that violet short dress and leather armor corset esemblem. So even this form is less likely to be overlooked at least by the people that do know the Nightmare Bard. "Quiet and serene... just the sort of place a mystery would come to." The darkness is a sharp contrast to the whites worn by their lead, no matter what form she's in. "Hello Pela. Looks like you've already been busy acclimating yourself."

Enchantment! Haru has been all over the rose situation since the time he went to a distant island and received one from the Hulkiest of Fishmen. In that context, he should not be that excited about it. He is. World needs more good things in it, especially when things like a war is going on. His focus wanes between practical assistance and the overall wellbeing of Landers and Adventurers. Losing your home does more than change where you hang your hat and all wounds need the right kind of medicine at the right times.

The Artificer is easy to spot. One, he is oft entering with company, and two he has a nice navy blue jacket that contrasts just enough against the village's neutral tones to be noticable without screaming in bright colors. Thats next week. "Pela," intones Haru overly formal. Fist closed. To chest. Valiant Knight mode. "I have responded to thy quest and thusly arrived hencewith," he sweeps to the distance, "fort sooth yonder rose awaits, yet at the same time, waits for no one." No, that wasn't designed to make any sense. Haru being Haru. Its a complete break in character when he waves casually to Kau.

    It certainly didn't take much arm-twisting to get Fuka to show up for this little quest. If there's one thing she's more endeared-to than an adorably cute girl, it's an adorably cute girl who runs a sweets shop, is friendly and kindly helpful, and is adorably shy besides. It's like a trifecta of Fuka-delight!

    She peers curiously at Kauchemar, seemingly only catching on to the woman's identity after she speaks. You'd think she'd realize from the clothes and piercings, but perhaps Fuka's not the most observant. Or she just tends to take people as they are or something. Or is faking surprise. "Kaumare! Wow!" she says, seemingly impressed.

    And yes, she accompanies Haru. Possibly having him do all the arm-twisting, perhaps after mentioning something something legendary romance rose symbol and all that. Not that she needed much convincing. That said, she peers sidelong at Haru. "Did you eat something weird, H? Maybe you need more fiber. I'm pretty sure you're completely full of... something."

Uta steps into view, turning a map upside down. Right side up. Left side right. Front side back.

"...This does not look like Payon Cave...", she comments, one hand in front of her mouth.

She shakes the map. "The reception on this thing is terrible. They seriously need to improve the GPS system in this worl- oh, hey, Pela! Hi, Fuka! Hi, Haru! Hi tall woman!" She bows. "Allow me to introudce myself: Uta Furore, Aerialist, Monster Handling Musical Kung-Fu Nurse, Student of Lore and Languages, Hunter of Songs, Duelist, Product Placer, Reluctant Fashion Model, Street Performer, Collector of Titles Ever-Spiraling out of Control." She straightens up from her bowing, and looks at Kauchemar's human form. "And you would be..."

     Had Pela ever seen Kauchemar in her human for? She doesn't think so. For when the tall blue-haired woman approaches, Pela looks towards her curiously at first. But then the outfit and the voice match with someone she knew in her head. "...Yes. ...It's hard to guess that on the other side of the wall are high level monsters. ...And of course I have been. ...A ninja does her best to be prepared after all. Most of the monsters seem to use sight-line aggro, so if we try to avoid their line of sight we can avoid the worst of it. ...There's a few insect monsters that have sound-aggro which probably will be hard to avoid, since our whole party won't have the sneaking skill." Pela murmurs quietly. "... I heard rumors of some sort of overgrown structure deep in the forest, though. ...I tried to find it, but could only go so far solo."
    Hulkiest of Fishmen indeed. Though there's always a bigger fish(man) so there's probably an even hulkier one. Somewhere. "...Yes. ...The quest... at your request... so kind of your quest to me that became a quest for you and... why are you talking all silly?" She squints at Haru for a few moments, reaching a hand out towards Haru. Yes. She is attempting to touch his forehead and test his temperature. Is the weirdo sick maybe?
     Oh good she's not the only one who thinks Haru is acting weird. There's Fukaziroh. Who asks a similar question to Pela's own physical attempts. "...Hello, Fuka." Wait, Fuka? Not Fukaziroh? Is Pela that informal? "...I think he might have a fever or something. ...Though I don't think we can get sick? Hmm."
     And of course, there's Uta as well! Who is /definitely/ feverish, as usual. Yep. Well. Okay, lost. Not feverish. "...Hi Uta. ...Uta, this is Kauchemar. ...Wanna come look for the mysterious source of the Witherless Rose? ... I'm sure it will have some lore you will find interesting somewhere there." Pela says with a small smile. And, of course, sending party invites to everyone.
     Once everyone had settled in, Pela goes over the area as best as she can so far, with a vague idea of where they're going and the biggest dangers in monsters. As well as the area that she wasn't able to proceed past because of the monsters just being in inconvenient places for sneaking past without an exceptionally high sneaking skill.

"Good information to know," Kauchemar replies with a nod, "and probably the wisest course of action to take. Considering how long it took the Hunter's Guild to clear a path through the overgrown gardens outside the tower library. Not a solo task at all."

Then Uta speaks up and the woman turns to look at her with a tilt of her head, shaking off her hood in doing so. Those eyes, their almost glowing helitropic color, that's the most unmistakable trait there is. Of course, Pela also helpfully points it out. Which gets her to chuckle. "It's okay, most people haven't seen me use this form... Typically just when visibly being a monster race might cause... issues."

She clasps her hands together. "Well then, lets be on with this."

Haru points upwards, determined to try to keep this bit up. He did all this arm twisting to get Fuka to come along, which wasn't much truthfully, and wants to cash in on it with some fun. "Because this is a matter of grave import." The human manages to do this while holding still and getting his temperature read by Pela. Turn out he is hot! Nyuck nyuck. "And when matters of grave import are imported," he says, turning in Chaucer esque flair to Fuka, "one must not half ass it. Nay. Thy full ass must be put forward!" A serious question for if the town has any donkeys now. They may need a pack mule or two to haul these roses back!

"I am but full of devotion," the Artificer, clearly gone insane, says to Fuka, "and dedication to this fine task." Eye (singular) closes and nods to Pela. A cough into his hand and a less 'Victorian Theater' tone of voice, "Also I suck at Sneaking but I do have Eve and that whole 'Dark Zone' thing which is good in a pinch."

A look to Uta. To Kau. To Uta. "Hey Uta! Oh, need to chat at you and the LOONS about something later. Laterish? At a campfire?" He wonders, "Is this a long expedition that has campfire moments?" Thats when all your bonds go up by 1 point. Back to Kau. He did wave to her, but he was also being a silly goose. "Oh! Kau! I thought you were," the young man considers, "a," more thought, "person," less thought, "that was close to Pela." Abort. "Anyway nice to see you here."

Srs Time. Plan time. Haru looks the plan with a serious face on. He knows how maps work. Most of the time. Some maps are harder than others. Some have little graphics of creatures that might be decorations or they might be actual monster nests. Its fifty fifty. Creative license.

    Fuka's used to the peculiarities of her friends, and even finds them endearing. But that won't stop her from poking fun... actually, it only encourages her further. "Uta!" she says cheerfully, opening her arms wide to invite the Spriggan to leap into them. Knowing full well she won't, and Fuka will be left looking like a fool. So be it. "It's good to know no matter where I find myself, I might somehow find you as well!" she beams playfully. And then glances over at Pela and Haru. Okay, that's fun too!

    Fuka nods in mock concern. "Do you think he feels hot?" she asks, coming over to press her own hand against his forehead. "Mmmm, yes, definitely he feels hot to me." she says, glorying in a nice double entendre. "I bet Uta has some herbs for that. Something that'll make H here less full of ... well, full ass!"

    Okay that didn't actually make much sense but Fuka's proud of it anyways. She grins up at Kauchemar. "I bet it's a werefang thing. Like, why would you want to be a werefang and not look like a monster? You look pretty awesome like this though, it's true. No judgment. But yeah uh... I guess it's a thing? Like why wouldn't I use armor and a freaking large axe!"

Uta seems to be talking on the Chimlinks. Something about finding a Witherless Rose after beating a really buff and hulky fishman. And it being really nice. The last thing she says into her chimlinks is "One of these days someone should look into the origins of the Witherless Rose...", when Pela starts talking about something important. Uta listens, and when Pela is done, the Spriggan holds up a hand, with a complacent smile. "Of course I'll come. You had me at 'wanna'." She activates her chims again, and continues, " Uh... sorry, seems like we got a quest..." ... "Oh, as said, sorry, I have to go look into the origins of the Witherless Rose. We'll have to discuss looking into the origins of the Witherless Rose another day. But remind me once I'm done with this quest, it sounds like an interesting subject!"

She does a double take at Kauchemar. "Kauchemar?! You look so... so..." A pause. "...no, no, don't tell me." She squints, rubbing her chin. "New haircut?" Sudden shaking of her head. "No, no, can't be, that hairstyle is exactly the same... OH! I GOT IT! It's a NEW DRESS!", she exclaims, and spins and snap-points at Pela. "Pela's got a new dress. It's lovely!" Back to Kauch, "That's why you look so different, right?"

"You suspect him to have regularity issues?", Uta asks Fuka, apparently failing to pick up the overtones completely. Haru's discussion of posterior body parts doesn't help this misunderstanding. She raises one gloved index finger at eye level, "It'll be great to discuss that later, yes! But for now, do you want me to boop you on the nose to medically inspect you and check for the <<Constipation>> status effect?"

Back into her chimlinks, "Sorry, have you said anything? I will have to stop paying attention for some time. Seems like we have an issue with a shortage of fertilizer or something."

     "...Yes, that does sound like a difficult task to get through." Pela is a little sad she wasn't involved in that, though she hadn't been 'around' at the time, having been exploring solo(lost) in the wilds still at the time trying to level up and explore. "...Anyway, yes. We should be on with this indeed." Pela says with a quick nod.
     When Haru seems to be 'hot', Pela opts for the best option for countering this heat. She reaches a hand into one of her pouches, pulling out a small slip of paper, which she lifts towards Haru. To give him a quick little splash of water. And help 'snap him out of it'. Yep. Definitely it. Not just her having fun. "...So anyway. This might be a long expedition but I don't think we'll need to camp out for it. We can have tavern-fire moments instead after." Pela nods simply, and she starts to lead the party off towards the forest! Luckily, the first part is MOSTLY just following the path.
     "It's fine. A quick dousing of water probably will have solved the issue, Fuka. ...Anyway. ... .... Giant axes are fun." Pela nods slightly. "And might be helpful for this, if there's overgrown plants." She adds. And then she pauses. And listens to Uta.
     Just the whole conversation, and also the 'of course'. It's nice to have friends that she can rely on. "...Yeah. ...I do have a new dress. ...That's definitely what's different." Pela says, giving a small, bemused nod. "Come on. Let's go." And go they do! Into the forest! ... Possibly having to drag a distracted Uta along the way.
     Pela guides them carefully through the area she'd already explored and mapped out the worst of the monster routes, holding her hand out for them to stop occasionally to let one of the monsters wander past before letting the party go forward; physically stopping party members if necessary before continuing on.

Kauchemar just rubs her face for a moment of Uta being Uta. "It's not really important right now," she mutters, even as she follows after Pela. Why it's not important becomes evident as once they're outside of the small town the tall woman darkens and shifts into her more familiar fel equine form.

Which, somewhat ironically, makes her -more- stealthy. It's the dark colors, the dark clothes, and the being able cloak herself in Darkness of itself to avoid being noticed by the other monsters lurking about. She watchs a particularly large and nasty one lumber off in the distance, and snorts softly. "Yeah, don't need the power of future sight to see this is a conflict better to avoid."

"One doth not begin an adventure predicating upon it being commenced shittily," Haru starts. There it is. Someone take down the sign that says 'x many days since a poop joke'. "My being is full high moral fiber. High fiber I say," he adds in like a good old chap. A much, MUCH better distraction is, "Pela does have a nice dress, doesnt she?" in his normal voice. The Artificer agrees with Uta there, though his one blue eye does wander to Fuka. Then to Pela. Fuka. Pela. A thoughtful hum. Splash of water on the face. Water dripping from his white hair. Pela. Fuka. Pela. Hum. A little magical windshield wiper cleans off his monocle with Air magic. "That was the only valid response to being this hot," he observes. No context. Just that. It stands on its own.

Hi Ho. Hi Ho. Its off to the forest they go. Haru is not stealthy. He isn't much for wilderness trecks either. Any and all of his stealth can be attributed to the small black monster cat that walks with him doing her very /very/ best trying to keep her Summoner from standing out like a hunter with a vest on. Or crashing through brush. Or running off ahead. Or lagging behind. The only viable conclusion is someone needs to tether him to some sort of floating disc and float him around until sound isnt an issue. Because Eve (the cat) looks like she is going to maul her Summoner's face off with all six paws after some of this.

    "It's a cute dress." Fuka observes solemnly regarding Pela's dress, trying hard not to break out laughing as her eyes twinkle with merriment. Maybe she needs one like it! Though... not exactly her style. Still cute though!

    Between Uta and Haru and Pela's reaction to both, and of course Kaumare... yeah this isn't going to be boring! She isn't even sure if Pela is misunderstanding her reference of Haru's current status or if she just sprayed him with water for the fun of it. Doesn't much matter really. It's hilarious either way. But of course, she's pretty certain Uta doesn't get it, which makes that even funnier in an entirely different way!

    "Your being is full of something, H." Fuka agrees playfully.

    But it's time to get serious. "I learned to sneak from Shiba and Riz'daman." she notes quietly. "Well, some of how to sneak from Shiba, some of how not to from Riz'daman!" she grins. Indeed, she's pretty stealthy. Not due to any sort of training, but she has a rather clever sense of pretty fashion choices that nonetheless blend quite well into forest environments. This may even be of some deliberate design, given the deeper greens of her coat that covers the shinier bits of her gear.

"Negative examples are often more effective than positive ones," Uta comments to Fuka.

And then, whenever Pela's directions so allow, the Spriggan launches into backflips, flying spins, cartwheels and pirouettes. Flashy to see, but somehow producing no sound whatsoever, and timed so excellently (and possibly helped by some Dark elemental magic) to always keep out of eyesight of any opponent who might be glancing that a-way.

Not out of sight of the party, though, which might make the whole exercise look... concerning?

     Oh hey there's the Kauchemar we know and love! Fel Equine Kauchemar. And also very sneaky, making it easier for Pela to lead them forward. Carefully moving... and giving a small nod. "...Yeah. ...We could probably fight through if we needed to, but we'd have no chance against any bosses or anything." Pela mumbles. Also of course there's the FoEs randomly scattered around, marked with just a giant skull instead of a level. Comments on her dress just get Pela going extra quiet. Instead of just hesitant speech, no speech unless necessary. At least for a little while.
     She's not shy, you're shy. Huff. Aaaand of course. There's Haru. With a guiding cat trying /very hard/ to keep him from being spotted. For the most part she's successful. Or at least successful enough that for the most part they're able to not get spotted with everyone else's relative stealthiness. Mostly.
     Unfortunately, it does mean that they have to change routes, and it starts putting them off deeper into the forest than intended. Seems that Fuka has a nickname for everyone, but in spite of that her continued stealthiness helps them with progress. "...Yeah. ...They're both reliable people." Pela mumbles. Still not commenting more on the dress. Nevermind that a white dress isn't the stealthiest in the world, but it's fine. Probably. Especially after a quick bit of dark magic to shift it to a dark green color to match the forest greenery. Meanwhile, Uta is just. Showing them all up apparently. WIth gratuitous acrobatics and flips and just being a silent little ninja better than Pela. Yep.
     Unfortunately, the aforementioned driving them deeper into the forest, plus a couple of ... distractions ... from Uta lead them to an area full of flowers! Beautiful, gorgeous, and giving off some sort of spores. Pela immediately pulls out a scarf and starts to wrap it around her face, covering her nose. "Try not to breathe those in." Pela mumbles muffledly. Of course, it might be too late.

"... That is completely unnecessary and yet she's showboating more than I do," Kauchemar muses at the spritely Spriggan's display. "Must be the Kung-Fu." Very well, moving on.

Which brings them to flowers in a field. But of course it can't be normal flowers, because that would be too simple for this deep in the forest. "Really, they couldn't find a less famous movie scenerio to rip off?" she laments to no one in particularly. "But no time to wait for good witchs to make it snow!" Instead she draws on the earthly powers she recently learned to harness more thoroughly, and slams one hoof hard into the ground. Causing it to crack apart and collapse in on itself, taking a portion of the flowers down with it and then burying them. No spewing spores through that. "Now let's move while we can still breath and before more spawn in their place."

It is not uncommon for Haru to have a terrible bout of 'Who hurt you' in the lines of fate and luck. Something has to balance out how he has such great people in his life. At a certain point he starts humming what sounds awfully close to the Chocobo Waltz while stealthing. Thats it. Last straw. Eve finishes the last part of her summon responsibilities and is gone. There will need to be two, I count TWO, fish for her tonight, Haru. "I am full of victory," Haru declares in response to the stealthing situation.

A deeper forest. A better forest. "Yeah, doesn't look like the good kind of nature you want in your lungs," the Artificer notes. Has he mentioned how Earth rocks? No? "Earth," he says. It is happening, "Rocks." Orb is out, Wave Arte Focus is a go. "Crystallo. Serratus. Lacrima. Assula. Inimicus." Instead of using the crystaline skewer offensively, Haru places fragmented shards around him like a shell that makes the spores gravitate towards them and hold there and away from his face or lungs. No arguements from him on haste. The spore magnet won't hold out forever.

    Fuka considers the field of flowers. Spores. "You know spores are like, plants all getting off on you right?" she says to no one in particular. Definitely something she wants to not get in her hair or lungs!

    Fortunately she's been studying shielding lately. Unfortunately, she can't see how flooding parts of her body with darkness would help here, darkness being the element of poison. Equally unfortunately she hasn't created a water or light shield spell yet... but she knows one nonetheless! It's good at blocking weaker intrusions and, well, hard to imagine an attack weaker than the everpresent spores just hanging out waiting to be inhaled.

    She sighs. "Well, we're doing good so far. Uta's got the moves, Haru's full of something. And the air's full of plant junk. I dunno about you, but I'm not sticking around here!" Fuka gripes, and moves quickly while her shield yet lasts.

It's the wuxia! Wuxia demands its tribute of acrobatics!

Uta spins her staff, to create a current of air meant to keep the spores at bay. She intones a breezy aria, which results in tendrils of light dancing on the staff, coalescing intio the gem, and explodes into a sphere of lightning, which washes over the spores. Possibly cooking them enough to make them 'not deadly'... but somehow, an oxygen meter still appears. Perhaps they are noxious merely as particles? Whatever the case, Uta darts onward, holding her breath, hoping to make it in time- wait, what-

Is she -waltzing- to the Song Suspiciously Similar to (but probably legally distinct from) the Chocobo Waltz?

...She is.

She falters only briefly. She didn't need to know what Fuka brought up.

     A scarf to ward it off, a shield to protect against it, a burial of earth to remove the source, and light to try to keep the air fresh. All of these things stop everyone from being rendered overpowered by the poisonous spores. Of course, the trade-off is that now the party has an 'air' meter that is starting to tick down.
     This lets them continue quickly through, moving into the forest, continuing forward through overgrowth. On the upside, the overgrowth is growing thicker and the plants are starting to look more and more ... off ... for the forest. Unnatural. And some of the vines and plants seeming to move. Some of them seeming shy and pulling away, quickly sucking down into tubes or curling away when touched.
     The area seems to be mostly devoid of monsters, actually. In fact, it's... not just mostly devoid of monsters, the only thing here seems to be plant. And not even plant monsters. Just plants. Movement is getting hard. And oxygen meters are ticking down. "...That's a gross way to put it." Pela comments towards Fuka. "...There's no monsters here. That's. Stra..." Pause. Dancing. Waltzing. Uta. Of course. It's Uta of course. And the spores are cooked. Delicious.
     Pela switches weapons, pulling out a larger weapon to cut at several of the vines to let them move forward on the path. And it allows view of some sort of fencing or building. And...
     Whirring can be heard. Ticking that seems to be growing in speed, and then slow, jerky movement at first. As a section of the forest floor opens. Lifting up some sort of metal sphere that's covered in vines and brambles. Tick. Tick. Tick. The tarnished metal sphere rolls towards the party at sudden, high speed. Evasive maneuvers are necessary, and rather suddenly at that!

The vegetation looking weird is the upside? You have a strange definition of positives. That or it was narrative sarcasm.

But thicker overgrowth needs cutting through. So Kauchemar summons her Binder Sword and sets it to work on doing so and help clear a path. She doesn't seem to conserned about the timer. But why would issues of time bother one who could peek at how long it will be before it's not a problem? As long as they don't hit any unforseen delays they'll make it through the heavy woods with plenty of ti--

The Nightmare stops, ears snapping upright. The clicking sound isn't hard for her to pick up when there's no birds or animals making ambient white noise in the forest. "Incoming!"

A big ball covered in vines and thorns. Okay, that wasn't entirely what she would of expected, but we'll deal with it. Kauchemar reachs forward and clenches her hand as if grabbing something, and then pulling up on it. It causes a slope of stone spikes to spread from the ground in front of her, changing the angle of the surface and making the ball roll in a different direction away from her.

Still counts as evasion if she's making it evade hitting her. No one said she had to be the one moving.

Oxygen Bar. Oxygen Bar. Whenever you are up, instant death isnt far. Haru is all about the 'lets get this bar to go away' life without stressing it too much. It is nature! There are plants and trees. Over there is a bee. It is the size of a dog, but its a bee. Bee-gone, bee. There is a library that needs your help for spelling. As the trek continues on, he observes something obvious, "This doesnt look quite 'normal'," judging by the fact that tree just winked at him. This is a plants only zone now. At least they can breathe easier!

A metal sphere! Metal is Earth. Its also coming at Haru quickly for the squish times, and not the fun kind either. The crystals that were hovering around him quickly shoot into the ground like a series of spikes that the Artificer glides along like he was a a 'Connect the Dots' Enchanter until safely out of the way. Crystal Dodge power! "Extra not normal. I like this place," he says with a smile, "the trap, not so much, but this place? Nature levels of weird." He does check to make sure no one became paste to the area he is lowkey praising for its uniqueness.

    Gross way to put it? Well, Fuka's a nasty person sometimes. Not mean, just aggressively casual in oversharing. "That's probably why you sneeze when it's pollen season!" she explains cheerfully. Well, not exactly explaining. More like making a suggestive comment and letting people's own internal dirty minds fill in the blank. If nothing else, surely Haru will find amusement in it.

    Fuka readies Chopstick, prepared to help Pela clear the way, then abruptly cries out wordlessly as they get a huge metal sphere launched at them! Moving fast as lightning thanks to the speed of effective defensive spells, Fuka breathes a sigh of relief as she just barely evades in time. "First plant pollen everywhere, now giant balls to the face!" she complains. "There's something nasty going on here and if we weren't actually seeking out something to do with roses I'd feel really ripped off here!" she says. Because if you're going to get ... things like that happen to you, someone should definitely be offering you roses. Or at least dinner and a movie.

"What is this, a dire tumbleweed?!", Uta exclaims, waltz-leaping out of the day. There seems to be some confusion in what she's doing; she has gone full dodge mode, as the ball rolls in an attempt to crush her, but she doesn't completely leave waltz mode, which results in some sort of odd wuxia waltz dance slash multi-step dodging maneuver.

It gets the job done, tho', so that's what matters.

"It is indeed why you sneeze!", Uta pipes in in response to Fuka. And launches into the kind of excruciatingly detailed description a professor of Allergology would give its medical students at college.

Excruciatingly detailed, but not boring: she's very excited about the whole ordeal.

While still dodging. Extreme Lecturing.

     There's an issue with leading. Pela was in the front. And she had the least time to react, and even with a burst of lightning to try to get out of the way, she is still knocked over and scraped up nastily by that large metal sphere, chunking off a large section of her health. And she's actually somewhat tanky. "Hssssst. Ow what the ... what is that doing here?" A mechanical sphere in the forest? How weird. Luckily Kauchemar is able to deflect it away from herself, and Haru manages to glide out of the way of the incoming attack. Pela, meanwhile, works on getting herself back up onto her feet. About a third of her health bar gone, just from one hit. And that sphere isn't rumbling on as if it just kept on going. No.
     Even as Fukaziroh gets out of the way, and Uta slips around it, it ... stops. Or well, unrolls. Several metallic limbs extending from it, the massive sphere turning out to be some sort of robotic creation that is overgrown with thorns and vines. Once golden and beautiful, the massive robot is now tarnished by time, and one of its legs seems to twitch when it moves. Four limbs stick out of it, each with different tools. Massive garden clippers, what looks like some sort of cannon, a grabbing arm, and some sort of billows-powered device. Likely to spray insecticide. Over its head, a health bar appears, and a skull next to its name: The Gardener.

     And it seems that the party are the weeds.

     The gardener quickly goes in towards the back of the group again, the massive gardening shears swung forward on an arm that shoots out almost impossibly far to attempt to cut through the entire party. Anyone hit likely to suffer the same fate and damage that Pela took. It seems they've run afoul of a boss with only a vague idea of what it might be capable of. Only that red, angry, mechanical eyes are trained upon them.

    "Oh hey it's a Gardener!" Fuka notes cheerfully. "Maybe it can deal with all the plants spewing their..."

    At that point Fuka gets chopped, hard. She raises an arm to block, nearly losing the arm and being driven to the ground in a spray of red pixels. "Oh hey RUDE!" she cries out, in pain and shock, channeling mana into herself in an attempt to reinforce her defense. Even so, she doesn't think it'll help much. The darned boss has a SKULL above its health bar.

    Scrambling, also currently having considerably greyed skin due to mana infusion, Fuka calls out. "We need to get away from that thing! Besides if it's cultivating the roses there's no way I'm going to try breaking it! Think of all the poor romantics forever bereft!" she cries, scrambling to try to get away.

"A metal dire tumbleweed," Haru observes, very keen observational skills there. The monocle sells it. Yes. Yes. Of course the important part here is this whole sneezing biznass. He starts making inappropriate jokes but genuinely gets interested in the plant lesson. He did not know that! That either! Oh so thats why they call it 'birds and the bees'. It ends with a note to Fuka, "If we are working backwards, I'm assuming we get a song, dance, and roses." They already have pollen and a big ball heading at them at fast speeds. Wait... that is no ball.

It is THE GARDENER! *dun dun duhn*

"You know what this reminds me of," Haru says even though the Ralph 'Im in Danger' bit should be playing right now, "Terraform isles. Those little spiders? Love those things. Its," he leans back to do a Matrix dodge to avoid being sheared, "like that but on a whole nother level. Look at that thing!" And he straightens up. "Wait. Does that mean this thing was going balls out on my friends and girlfriend? Conflict. On one hand, cool Artifice. On the other." He points at the creature, "Not cool, my dude. Not cool at all." Or dudette. His best Labowski impersonation either way. Fuka is right, Haru doesn't want to break this thing even if they could. Still, Haru /is/ very good with Earth. Just not Herbology or Farming. "Pela, if you think you can get clippings or snippings or buds or seeds or whatnot, all for it. But whatever it is we have all of, limited time for it before we say hello to a Church."

The ball stops, only to extend a bunch of legs, and several arms weilding tools of gardening like this was some sci-fi axe murder horror flick. It starts thrashing around left and right to cut down the group like they were weeds. And Kauchemar is... just not there.

The Nightmare is already several meters back from the mechanical marvel of a monstrousity having Blinked herself out of it's immeadiate range. While it's trying to prune the Party she simply stands there, her eyes glowing with that supernatural essense even moreso than usual. Her hands dart in front of her, almost as if flipping through the pages of an unseen book, dozens at a time too fast to follow. Back, forth, back, forth... and then abruptly claps her hands together as if slamming the covers shut.

"With our few numbers and already considerable injuries the future of us defeating this thing is slim to none odds. We best depart and regroup a proper raiding party for a future encounter, now that we know of the location."

There is a squealing sound not unlike that of a Spriggan terrified for her survival at each swipe of the Gardener. Dodging out of the way at lightning speed seems to work until a single -graze- sends Uta flying at a distance, one third of her own HP bar gone.

She lands with a loud thud and leaves a groove in the Earth as she slides to a halt. She pushes herself up, trembling. "Yes, let's get out of here!", she yells, covered in dirt. "If you want me to Loremaster one last thing before I go, it's now or never!"

     "...It is exactly like that." Pela responds. "...Like the creations from that island." Pela stumbles to her feet. Clippings of buds or anything along those lines? Pela takes a deep breath. Okay. She steadies herself. Alright Pela. You can do this. You can get clippings from this thing, probably. And they know the location, they can find it again.
     And so Pela gets down down and applies a couple of speed buffs to herself, muttering little incantations under her breath as she activates the spells. And... flash. She's sprinting towards the gardener as fast as she can, leaping towards the sphere to grab onto one of its vines. She draws a small knife, trying to as precisely as possible cut off several pieces of the brambles on the creature. She kicks off afterwards, quickly putting them into her inventory.
     And that pesticide sprayer is aimed towards her in mid-air. "...Just run." Pela says in response to Uta. She's engulfed in the pesticide, left trying to hold her breath and resist the incoming spray that spreads over the area towards the rest of the party. After a few moments, Pela comes out of the pesticide. Coughing, but surprisingly not that much worse for wear beyond a small amount of damage from the pesticide. She got what she was asked to get. She's not even paying attention anymore. She's just running.

Kauchemar doesn't look at that surprised at Pela closing in on the machine even as everyone agrees its a good idea to leave. She probably saw what was going on in her visions. It's all fine, it's all going to be okay, let's focus on getting away from this thing.

She's already got some distance from the Gardener so she sees when it brings the spraygun to bear. "Incoming AoE!" she shouts helpfully. "Pela's got the goods, lets ditch this garden party before we're the ones pushing up daisies!"

The Nightmare turns and takes off, kicking up a swirl of water in her wake as she uses the aquamancy to propel herself away from the machina's location.

All for adventuring, but no sense in coming this far and just leaving when you can take a risk for something greater. The party is overall pretty healthy after all! Haru catches the tail end of some of that poison, hopping back towards the edge of the AoE but not quite getting out of the 'dont stand in the red' area when the animation finishes. So close. His defenses are starting to wear thin, even if his health is doing alright. "Going to need a," he looks at his status, "status clear in a second," for Fuka and Uta. The later he figures he will get with a fiber pill. Man is already on his way out.

Uta does as instructed. She doesn't even bother to dust herself off, but when the cloud of fertilizer begins to appear, she's quick to swipe her menu open, and shimmer a small vial into existence. She chugs down its whole contents, winces at what must be a horrible flavor and-

Fwhoosh. The cloud washes over her. There is a lot of coughing and taking on an odd color... but the damage to her HP bar is negligible.

She begins to run away, still coughing, and holding onto the empty vial, re-stoppered: one does not litter, both on principle, and... well, one never knows, that might super-aggro the automaton.

    "Uta, you know I love to hear you explain!" Fuka cries out. It's true, she loves listening to Uta's lectures. Not always for their content, but because Uta gets so into the nerdy stuff she can't help but get interested. "But please, can we get out of here?"

    She has to laugh, and cough, when Haru clues in to the absolutely ridiculously filthy situation they're in. Not that anyone but a total perv would consider the situation filthy, other than the garden dirt that is, but Fuka knows her audience. "We've already got the dance. How about a song?" she asks, absurdly of Kauchemar.

    "Pela, get what you can! I'll try to cover us!" she claims, and begins to chant. Of course Pela's no more agile than the musical spriggan but ... Fuka trusts the little cait sith's self-preservation aspects slightly more. Still, trust or no, it's time to do what she can to help protect everyone.

    Light springs up; light and healing energy. It's a powerfully mana-intensive spell, but Ola Repth is practically designed for this situation. A regenerative spell for entire groups, one that works to counter minor wounds and potentially powerful poisons.

    Stumbling and coughing as the Guardian spews out poison, Fuka nonetheless continues a steady outpouring of mana as she scrambles to get clear and also keep up with the others to provide them the benefit of her spell.

     The gardener is angry about its plants being damaged, but after the party runs a certain distance... it... ceases to continue to follow. Which is probably for the best, considering that several members of the party are left injured. Now it's just a matter of getting back out of the forest itself. And avoiding those spores. But now that they're prepared, that should be easier. More or less. Kind of. Pela's still coughing now and then as they get out, so really to get past the monsters they mostly just. Have to run. Lest they trigger monsters through clearing throats.
     Oh thank goodness for that regenerative spell though. That makes Pela feel a little less in danger. Especially with Haru's health bar ticking up. Now just to get back to the town and figure out what they even got off of the bramble and vine-covered gardener.

"Good going *cough*, there, Pela! *cough*", Uta congratulates as the team is at a safe distance. "As soon as we have the *cough* opportunity, I suggest some emergency treatment, and a full check-up and cure in town. Anyone has status effects that need urgently removed?", she asks, looking around, still squinting, still a bit greenish in the face... but overall not bad. Good ol' Ola Repth, where would we be without you. She turns to Haru. "You, right? What kind of status effect did you need cleared, again?" She says, gloved hand raised and ready to boop Haru for a status inspection. But she looks at the menu she's just swiped open instead. "Let me pull a fiber pill in preparation while I'm at it..."

Between Fuka's healing light and the rather fortunate run against the more deadly parts, Haru is pretty pleased with the outcome. "To recap. One, a jaunt through an interesting forest. Two, that thing who I am now calling Gary the Gardener. Three," he checks with Pela on that one since it looked like she got what she needed, "potentially a new flower for a garden." The safe distance makes the light hearted antics less perilous, but what is a good adventure without a little bit of spicy random in there?

"Its a poiioossss--Im fine!" Haru begins to drone like he was just told where the pill goes. Fwoosh! He has outlived a fish, he will outlive this poison!

Kauchemar stops and lets everyone else catch up to her since she had the farthest lead on fleeing the thing. Sure enough, it only has a certain distance it cares about before deeming them not worth it. Or more likely programmed to stay within the garden it's tending to. "Just as I expected."

She pauses a moment to rub her temples a little, then run her hands back through her mane. "Going to need to get use to how that power works..." Being familiar with the visions of foresight from Divination use at least has her familiar with how to handle the situation, though she still looks a little worn just from the lack of experience of using it in a tense situation like that.

     "...Managed to resist poison effect, but a lot of it is still on my clothing. In fact." Pela swipes open her inventory. And taps a few commands. And her clothing changes. Into a yukata. For some reason. Don't ask why she has it, complete with little wooden shoes. Luckily, once back in town, the little 'clack clack clack' of the sandals won't attract monsters. "...New powers are always difficult to manage, yes. I'm just glad that we were able to get out." She turns towards Fukaziroh. Lifts a hand up. ...Gets on tip-toes, and gently attempts to bonk Fuka. "...Head, out of gutter." And then she continues as if nothing happened afterwards. Leaving her open to retaliation.

"Oh? Power?", Uta asks Kauchemar. Something seems to click in her head. "...you mean that when you mentioned that about the future chances... interesting... is that what it was about?"

She turns to Haru, gives him a long, stern look, sighs, and pulls an ampoule out of her inventory. "Have some healing potion," she says, as she hands the Artificer the item. "So, uh, what was that about the songs you wanted to discuss?"

    "I hate it when it gets all over my clothing." Fuka muses thoughtfully, head firmly in the gutter. Then heys! as she's bonked. "I'm behaving!" she claims, feigning innocence. She isn't even making squeeing sounds over the tiny Pela in a yukata! If that's not a sign of willpower she doesn't know what is!

    She considers sneaking up and headpatting Pela, but no, that'd be mean. The adorable little thing. She's also reluctant to mess around too much with anyone who actually has to go up on tiptoe to reach her head! It's a rare situation to be sure. "Oh well, I guess we got what we came for right?" she says. "I mean, besides the pollen and giant metal ball. Super rude."

Haru takes the potion. Now a normal person might uncork the thing. Do a little 'why thank you'. A hat tip, if you will. A casual drinking. Quaff the potion, they say. Hmm! Ha! Proper one might do this. Nope. This is Haru. He cracks that potion open like it was this third Mountain Dew, Code Red and starts both guzzling and talking at the same time. "Yeah so," gulp guzzle, "there if this research," then he coughs. He brought that on himself. A finger is held up. It is about that time that Fuka muses about the clothing impact. "Hurk!" Cough. "Wrong pipe." Now what would a sane person do? NOT eat more ice cream after a brain freeze or not drink more after coughing up red fluid? Haru finishes the potion off.

"I learned that my symphonics research is a disproven theory. You know how you strike three notes in a string instrument and they make a chord?" Haru tells Uta. Well everyone since most of them are Songsters, "And a chord produces a stronger 'supporting' sound? Enchantment resonance does not work that way. It follows more the way an electronic circuit might at a constant. Not sound with amplitude and frequency, or voltage, for stronger affect, like wattage." Its true that his reseach didn't lean forward. He was hoping to make something cool like a hover bike, a fridge, a train, or a sub. Instead he snaps his fingers and looks to Pela, "But now Im making headway on Agriculture!" Haru Acres is the place to be o/`

Not without its observations, Haru looks to Kau with a, "That was pretty cool. Seems like headaches are the common effect of being a badass, huh?" He looks to Uta next, remembering something similar to that effect. But with the voice? All in the upper body region at least.

Kauchemar nods to Uta. "Yes. That was the power of Oracle. Though with limited time I only looked at the possible outcomes rather than hone in on the most likely. Not that it mattered. The few times we won," she glances at the rest of the party, "it was still with considerable loses. To escape and return with a fully viable raid party was the best course to take to avoid the various... unpleasant outcomes." She pauses to brush back through her hair again, mmhmming at Haru "It's.. more intense than standard Divination... but if it kept us from having to go through a party wipe it's worth the short term fatigue."

Uta looks at Haru for a few moments. Her usual gaze lost in the distance. No reaction for a bit, then she says, "Soo... you can't make better enchanted crystals with music?" She seems to have gotten that bit. "But can you make better music with crystals? Like... you said they work like... electricity? People could make electric organs. Think we could make an... Enchanted Crystallophone? Is that what you'd call it?"

"Oh, question, can you see futures you are not directly involved in? Like... I don't know, which city is most likely to fall to the Palace Landers next? Which one is likely to be the last? Things like that?" A little bit of silence. "Also, if you are interested in discussing All Things Oracle, I suggest you get in touch with Setsuna. He might be interested in hearing what you have to say on it."

"...So, tell me more about your agricultural achievements," Uta adds to Haru.

"I could try... but the farther ahead one looks, the more possible variation there is." Kauchemar pauses. Not that she doesn't trust people here, but it's just too risky mentioning The Book in public, when there's definitely people you don't want to learn about it existing. "And even if I did, there is little likelihood one can do anything to stop it. Just make sure it's prepared for."

After a moment she taps a finger against her cheek thoughtfully. "Setsuna? Huh. Can't say I'm surprised, considering some of the other abilities..." Dismisses it with the wave of her hand. "Anyways, we should get back to the inn before Haru collapses and has to be embarassingly carried by Fuka."

     The secret: Fukaziroh already got headpatted by Pela. Kind of. Sort of. If you count head bonks of course. "...It is fine. Just you kept almost made me laugh while I was sneaking." Pela says, sticking her tongue out at Fuka. And then pulling the brambles out of her inventory to examine them. Oh. Huh. "...These are not roses. They have berries on them." Pela says. Unfortunate. "...But agriculture is a good pursuit. I am glad to hear of such." She then moves over to Fukaziroh. "...I am tired." And she attempts to become a little pela-pack on Fukaziroh's back. Like a little cat-koala. Zzzzzz.

Haru motions a hand, very scholarly like, because Haru is the smarts, "You can't make better enchantments with harmonic resonation. Say a ten centimeter fire crystal is placed in a forge to create a temperature suitable for shaping metal. Lets say it is 500 degrees Cesius. We will call this fire crystal a single unit, or one U with an energy output of 500C to keep the math simple." Oh man, he really is going into skience mode now. Someone stop him. "If you place three U of these crystals in this forge you might imagine this is addative, 1500C. And if you put that circuit in a line to be addative, you'd be correct. Or you do not connect the circuit and have 500C across a wider volume. What you do NOT get is a a coefficient improvement." WHERE ARE THESE WORDS COMING FROM. Its the poison. "Shifting to sound for a moment. It follows a wave, yes? So there is amplitude and frequency, or voltage instead of frequency. The idea there is that why you create sounds of similar bisection of the frequency, you get a stronger signal. Things like melody or chords fall into this, I dunno, not a music expert." More an electronics guy. "However there is these things like resistance, or ohms, that can get in the way and other factors like conductivity. The long and short is that you don't overcome these losses with aligning resonation between different Us of crystals with bisected frequencies for a better amplitude that get a higher Wattage. Which would mean you could have a 1U, 0.5U and 0.5U set of crystals for a 3U output. You get a 2U output, static, by the way it calculates out the aethetic output."

Haru stops. Looks at Uta. Pauses. "You can make music from crystals but also not really. It has no memory, like RAM would be. It can't hold state so the second the power drops, its memory drops. I looked into that too for Song Hunting. A sort of Synthesizer. I'd need to be," he motions to Kau, "more badass I think, to pull that off." He is ready to go into Agricultural stuff, but holds for Q&A like a good grant-given research academic. Also the thing with Pela gets an 'Aww'. So adorable.

Uta looks at Kauchemar with interest. It is obvious that she has questions... but it is also obvious that this is not the place or time to ask. It will have to wait.

Uta stares at haru. Her eyes glaze over. And over. And over.

Haru has lost her.

There is some hesitation, then she goes, "Ssssssssoooooo.... no Enchanted Crystallophone... -yet-?" A short pause. "Yes. Agriculture. I'm interested in that." A pause. "Can we mache a zucchinophone?"

"Not yet," Haru answers shortly, "and to temper expectations, not in a year at least. Not from me unless I make a breakthrough while exploring Gnomish ruins or the like. They give me a lot of inspiration." He nods a little bit but notices the energy levels are low. "I can hype about the agricultural stuff later. It'll take a bit to assemble and set up anyway, but I think the hungry, the displaced, and the relief from farmers will appreciate it."

"I at least understood the music part of that," Kauchemar remarks. "And much what I would expect. It would be too easy if we could just magically turn crystals into storage devices. We can sort out the intricate nature of other things later though. I hear a hot cup of something at the inn calling me."