Enchanting Evening

    While they could carry out a conversation over chims, Fuka's a social animal. And besides, she feels she wasn't as grateful for Wisteria's help during their previous meeting as she should've been. Rather, she was wholly grateful, but gripped in the singleminded focus of her Mood, she was distracted enough that she figures it probably wasn't entirely fair to the other Enchanter.

    Now, needing more help, Fuka is determined to get it right. The chim was sent, an offer of a nice dinner at Wisteria's place of choice, plus something of some note to show off... and a request for advice. Plus of course profuse thanks for having been instrumental to the success of Fuka's previous quest!

    Wisteria smiles and meets Fuka outside the SEA HQ "If you're buying dinner where I wana go, it means we have a train ride ahead of us." she says with a grin. "Cause we gotta head up to Tolbana." she smiles "If you'd rather a place here in Alne then well." she shrugs "There's places here too but they're not run by Vert and have the best rootbeer around." The tall albino girl seems to be a bit playful today, and given she's washed and isn't currently covering everything in various crystals she's not in a 'mood'.

    Fondly remembering their previous meeting, Fuka's not at all intimidated by Wisteria and glad indeed to see her again. This might be a refreshingly new thing, depending on how much the werebun actually tends to scare people... or maybe it's just weird.

    "Oooh, I do like finding new places to try." Fuka beams. "Tolbana's fine. Here's good too! Maybe whichever we don't try now, we meet and try next time!" she offers with a broad smile. Not a teasing grin, but genuine pleasure at the idea of trying out new treats. Fuka's *always* playful, but even moreso, always in for a good treat!

    Wistera nods her head "To Tolbana!" she announces then takes Fuka's hand and heads towards the tower and the train the SEA has setup to get people up faster. It's a long walk otherwise after all. "Vert has all the best drinks." she says "It's like going to visit at the Isekai Ryoken and getting good food only this is drinks, the food is decent too but the drinks are the star."

    Relatively new to the pleasures of drinking - she was just 19 pre-apocalypse - Fuka's player is more into desserts than drinks. That's a little like saying someone's more into breathing than eating food though. One just doesn't go without either for long!

    Along the way, Fuka will chatter lightly, about anything and nothing. About how her enchanting work has been going, her adventuring life, and other things of little significance to anyone other than Fuka. One of the more significant things though are her little earrings, new, that she shows off. Copper and what appears to be ruby, they're finely made, pretty, and also engraved with tiny enchantments. "I can channel mana into them and they explode!" Fuka explains cheerfully.

    Wistera chuckles at that "Ooh they don't explode, they disolve." she says "I learned that when starting out." she says walking along. She doesn't drink at all, well nothing hard anyway she goes to Vertina's place to get rootbeer. "I melted like... half a dozen daggers before I figured out that the stuff required for menu enchanting actually fixes the enchantment... kind of like if you don't stop developing film it just goes all black."

    Fuka practically squees with delight. "NO!" she claims. "That's the beauty of it! They EXPLODE!" she claims, then pulls one off her ear to demonstrate. They're actually clipped on to a clever mechanism, not pierced through, so that they're easily detachable for the purpose.

    Fuka sends a small charge of fire mana into the earring's stone and then tosses the earring up into the air. It detonates much like one of those tiny little black powder firecrackers kids play with, making a noise and a tiny flash but not doing anything even remotely approaching damage. She catches the little earring once again, holding it out for Wisteria to inspect. "It's not like a fireball or anything. H said I could use it to scare someone or to amuse kids... isn't it great? Most thoughtful gift ever! Something that explodes, and he put them on either side of my head!" she states with such an abundance of cheer that... well... says a lot about the little sylph really.

    Wisteria blinks "Uhm.. well I mean...oh I thought you were talking about putting mana into regular stuff... those must have an enchantment engraved in the crystals... or maybe they're an uncharged but fixed enchantment?" she hmms and seems less concerned with the explosion than with the single use enchantment function. "But if it were a fixed enchantment it should like make a flare of fire and then just ... be usable again with mana." she hmms "May be an enchantment that is designed to fail specifically... so you channel the usual cascade that causes it to disolve and instead explode..."

    "H is an artificer. He made the enchantment to generate the ... well, the pop, which goes off as soon as you're no longer touching the mana to keep it stable." Fukaziroh explains. "Honestly I'd hate this to be powerful, because the earrings are really pretty and a REAL explosion would destroy them." she blathers. Besides, Haru said they match her eyes. Or something like that. She was kind of focussed on the whole explosion thing, not the rather sweet thing he was saying. Fuka's got priorities.

    "Anyways yeah, the earring itself is an enchantment. Artificery and enchanting. H's really good at it. Like, all the time I spent adventuring, he was crafting. Now he's decided he needs to get stronger, and I ... well, I should probably catch up in enchanting. So.... here I am!" Fuka finally says. And then inhales. Yes, she managed all that, pretty much, in one breath.

    Wisteria smiles "Well yah." she says "That makes sense." she nods her head "That seems like a thing to do." she says "I mostly head into places that are new and hunt for glitches and eastereggs, but then I've been working on my curses and mass enchantments... I guess I'm the oposite of this H? I keep making my enchantments bigger... like I put a shield up at the marina and over the castle, and I have curses all over the castle to stop invaiders." she nods her head.

Know what else is really good at? Get a pen and paper its going to be a long list! On a post-it note. With really small writing! One of those things is appearing in Tolbana for a drink and talking about that Enchanting life. The white haired human does that thing when you enter a pub for the first time and JohnTravolta around looking for the people you know. Despite not having any Sneaky concepts on his Avatar, he nonetheless approaches where Fuka and Wist are situated. Step step. Step step. Hug from behind. "Hey Fuka. Wist! I've been trying to figure out a good minute with you in, like, ages. Leave it to best Sylph to beat me to it." Squeeze. But thats the extent of the PDA before he swings over and grabs a seat.

"Not interupting anything sekret, I hope," he asks, going for some of the table apps if they are there, Fuka's drink if not, and sadly putting his hand on the table where noms should be otherwise.

    With an effort Fuka closes her mouth to consider Wist's words. She nods wisely. "For you it's all those curses, right?" she smiles. "H's into making things. Me... kind of in the middle, I guess? I'm more into working with what's there, changing it a little, making it better?" she shrugs. "Hard to put into words... I mean, I kind of got into this class because I wanted to use magic and it was cool and a lot of people thought it was really hard and I kind of wanted to take advantage of that back when this was a game. But it's also *really* useful! Like, making refrigerators and stuff..."

    And then Haru appears and hugs her! Fuka freezes and lets out a startled squeak, having been way too distracted to notice. But she realizes who it is almost immediately, snuggling into the gesture and clearly appreciating it.

    "Secret?" Fuka muses, blushing slightly by now. "Naaaah, I was just telling Wistie how good you are!" she says, waggling eyebrows up at Haru. "At enchanting, I mean!" she leans towards Wisteria. "He can be VERY enchanting when he wants to be." she claims playfully.

    Wisteria shrugs "Nah my secrets are all in how I make my crystals so efficent and how I learned to stop worrying and love the curse." she nods her head. She's a jock, not a nerd, she promises... she didn't spend almost as much time with weird old movies and Light Novels and since her best friend is out in the real world no one can tell you different.

Haru is a complete nerd and shamelessly leans into it. Example one: He syncs up his eyebrow wagging that Fuka does so he waggles too. Example two: He does a slow head roll to the white werebun and waggles again. Hey, at least his hair matches her fur. White hair for the win. "Very enchanting," he says with his best Inigo Montoya voice.

"Oh I bet that sort of theoretical research would be really helpful in replicating for a better understanding of the craft," he says, but it isn't for himself. The Artificer is turning to Fuka on that one, knowing how much she wants to advance understanding of it. And here is here to support!

Vertina saunters into the tavern she calls home still all worked up from that last Duty run. It was nice to get out and help others get up to speed on some of the older dungeons. And find out that spiders still suck, yep.

"Hey hey, looks like we've got a crowd going already tonight!" She strolls over to give Wist a quick hug around the shoulders with one arm. "We don't run into each other as often as we use to, with you off doing your cursed defenses thing."

Yes, she's still wearing the maid outfit. She knows better than to evoke the wrath of Gwen by disregarding her 'dress for the job' fashion.

    Fortunately Fuka finds Haru's nerdery endearing. She wouldn't fault Wist for such things either, naturally, even if the Fuka enjoys taking a great axe to her enemies. She definitely presents as jock, but her heart is pure nerd. And while the conversation had been leading towards her making a certain request of Wisteria, Haru's support and presence lends a certain timeliness to the request. "Oh yes, I mean, when I was trying to learn who'd done certain unique things with enchantments, I found you at the top of the list of people who did them." Fuka observes to Wisteria. "So I figure you're a Moonlight Enchanter now, and I got a quest to follow in the footsteps of those who came before." she admits. "Was hoping you might have some insight into how I should be doing that!"

    She smiles upon seeing Vertina, who is among the scaliest of the Scales, and a frequent collaborator with her on various adventures. "Hi Greenie!" she grins. "Wistie was saying the drinks are great here!"

    Wisteria hugs Vertina around the waist. "Hey missed you, yah, I've been sorta...well I've been crunching enchantments cause of this whole war thing I should probably find more places where a shield or field curse would really do a lot of good." she does seem to be trying to figure something out. But she's distracted by Fuka "Ooh well I went to meet with the old guy who monitors the ancient vault of ancient secrets of terrible things." she says "He showed me this." she says pulling out a crystal and puts it on her palm. "Try to take it?" she grins and it's likely there's some trick going on here.

Moonlight. Moonlight (Shadow) Enchanter! Haru shows a genuine interest too, being very careful how to keep the conversation on Enchanting as there is something he is trying to peice together as well. Looking more at Wist's eyes than the crystal before snapping out of it. Benefit of a monocle: Its only ONE eye that is being stare-stare. A hand motions to Vert as she comes on in. "Hey hey! Solid outfit," he offers with one of those warm, friendly smiles. Then he looks over to Fuka for a moment. Yeah. He is imagining it. A rub of the chin. Thoughtful gaze. Hmm hmm hmm.

No! Enchantmenting! "Very cool that you do that. I work on a smaller scale. Accessories usually," he says, unbeknownst to it being a previous topic. A finger rolls onto his monocle's silver frame, the purple lens of the relic carving half circles that turn slowly in a sci-fi sort of way as they look at the crystal. So many questions.

"You've got one of those too, huh?" Vertina replies to Fuka. "I got something like that after finishing my big Brewing project to create the Dragon's Draught... But haven't quite figured out what it means yet." Shrug. "And kinda busy with this whole war thing to worry too much about it right now. I've got throats to wet and mouths to feed." She brushes out the maid dress with one hand as notice is brought to it by Haru. "At least with Gwen's help I've been getting better at the second part, so none of our refugees have to starve or endure the bland menu food."

    Fuka's sometimes a bit scatterbrained, and often has a bunch of things going on at once. She has, however, decided to never neglect self-improvement. Any contributions she makes to the war can only be improved by looking after herself, even as she spends time on looking after refugees and similar efforts.

    Hence the interest in the moonlight enchanter quest. Her eyes sparkle with excitement as Wisteria describes what she did, and she firms her jaw, prepared to get stubborn. And then... she glances over at Haru, and her jaw relaxes. She pauses to consider... and that's pretty rare for the little sylph!

    "Saay H." she muses, slowly putting thoughts together. "I know you haven't got the Moonlight Enchanter quest yet. But... as good and dedicated as you are to the art, I bet it won't be long. What would you say if I said I'll wait so we can tackle the quest together?" she asks. Then holds up her hand to Wisteria. "NO! Don't tell me where I might find this crazy old guy with all the secrets of the Enchanter's art!" Fuka states excessively dramatically. "Even if I would viciously eviscerate hordes of monsters for a small fraction of those secrets! No, it would be unkind of you to present that temptation to me!" she continues, voice dripping with melodrama.

    Wisteria shakes her head "Nono, it's not like that, I think you have to find the cool old guy who has YOUR kind of enchanting secrets." she says "Comeon, try to take the crystal, it's too cool." she says holding the crystal out "Come on... try to take it." she seems like she's going to vibrate out of her seat if she isn't indulged. Her attention keeps drifting to Haru like she's trying to figure something out about him.

    Hunger is a pretty potent force. It drives people to go to places they typically wouldn't. In this case, it drove Nariko, the content hunter, into Aincrad for reasons beyond just content. The tavern was something NEW, and while there wouldn't be CONTENT (probably) to gain, at least it was something to check out. That's why the dire-tiger has arrived, wanting to get some grub and see who all is around. Familiar faces? Probably.

While Wist and Fuka are talking, Haru starts to grab for the crystal. Swipe swipe. It looks more like a cat trying to bat a pencil off of the desk or a martial artist trying to catch a fly with chop sticks. He relies on his monocle though, not his natural eye, in the attempt. It is a very crazy world here and it looks /very/ different through the monocle sometimes. "What," he swipes, "the," swipe. After whatever the effect is he snaps his fingers in a 'drat' before looking to his better half, "Give it a shot. Its fun. Could probably make a little game out of this to entertain Lander kids." Yes, powerful Enchantment and Haru natively goes towards messing with small games.

Also. A fact. "We have to find an old man. To share secrets with..." Haru slowly turns to Fuka, "Concern." A pause. "And you are right, I haven't gotten the request yet. My recent research flopped and I got the 'Try again, dummy' message. So I imagine I wont see it until I land something more meaningful." But he doesnt seem bothered by it. "Then we can go adventure. Murder old monsters for their secrets!" A hand gestures across the table like he is imagining that landscape.

"Yeah. Something like that. I haven't had time to really look into it farther." Vertina gives Wist's shoulders another squoosh before letting go and making her way over to the bar proper, though taking a moment to check into the kitchen. She's probably going to need to get that expanded a bit once her proper training is done. And done helping a few others train. Satisfied things are as they should be fore now though she turns back and catches sight of Nariko entiring. "Hey there Nari! How's that flaming rockball move working out for ya?"

"Stunningly!" Nariko replies, giving a greeting wave with one hand as she moves past the entrance. This is Vertina's place? "This is yours? This is fantastic," she notes, moving right over to take a seat at the bar. A glance goes around spotting the others. Yup. Familiar faces all around, regardless of guild. If they can join a party? That's enough for the achievement hunter. Back to Vertina. "What's on the menu, boss?"

    Fuka seems pleased that Wisteria's advice keeps her from immediately pursuing this knowledge of the enchanter quest, but then she frowns. "Uhmmm.... does that mean we *won't* be able to do the quest together?" she asks, sounding rather disappointed. She'd only come up with the plan on the spur of the moment and thought it sounded rather romantic, questing together for hidden knowledge. Well, more geeky than romantic, but so be it! And now, seemingly, this is stripped away from her! Well, not necessarily. They could both just ... try to find TWO weird old men with hidden knowledge, really.

    Frowning, Fuka takes Haru's suggestion and quickly makes a grab for the crystal. Not magically quick, just normal treacherous sylph quickness. And frowns some more as the crystal seems shielded somehow. Like it's coated in a rubbery little soap bubble of pressure.

    "Waaaaitaminute." Fuka eyenarrows, peering suspiciously at Haru. She's been with Ayame recently, so she's extra suspicious of certain things. "Did you just make short jokes at me?" she demands. Then she turns to Nariko. "Teach me the ways of the flaming rockball." she abruptly insists. "For I may have to teach a lesson of my own!!!"

    Oh, and hi.

"Nothing says you can't help each other with whatever versions of the thing you get," Vertina points out helpfully, because that's what a good barkeeper does.

Then turns her attention back to Nariko with a grin. "Good to hear! And yeah, it is. I'm still training on the non-menu Cooking part of things, so mainly just drinks and appetizers right now." Followed by a laugh at Fuka. "Goodness girl, something gets your attention and you're just a bundle of energy on your own."

The response Fuka gets? Nariko's thumb pointed at Vertina, "I just got the technique, go learn it from the master over here," she suggests. She got her own training to do pretty soon! No time to train someone else at the moment. She has a technique to come up with! As for Vertina, "Ah, well, I'll have whatever then. I'm not picky," the tiger explains as they put some coin down on the bar, and will add more as needed.

It seems as if Haru had the same thought as Fuka on the idea of if they needed to do two separate quests. It takes a moment to register that it would be 'extra' to do because he doesnt see it that way unless it means 'extra' fun and adventure. "It means we get to do it together /twice/," he says with all the kind of excitement of a man on a mission. An innuendo mission as he slowly waggles his eyes at Fuka and holds up a hand that has two finger up. Twice, Fuka. "I would never stoop so low as to make a short joke," he says with mock chivalry, "but I would be a bad boyfriend if I didn't take the effort to see eye to eye on these sorts of things." Big grin.

Not to be rude, and also possibly to avoid an immediate retaliation that involves the loss of one or both hands, he raises one to greet Nariko. He is a friendly human.

    Wiseria laughs "And here's the secret." she says and whacks the bottom of her hand so it causes the crystal to loose touch with her skin, and thus stop getting mana. So she can catch it with her free hand. "Old guy thought that was too funny... he was kind right." she grins and puts her crystal on the table. "But see, this is where I learned to carve the enchantment ON the crystal rather than laying the enchantment out on a substrait and then just plugging a crystal in." she says. She already taught Fuka this secret it's part of how things like the fridge work without being massive.

Vertina looks Fuka up and down, and not just because she's shorter than Vertina. "I've seen you in action Fuka, you probably could handle it if you wanted. Got the fiery spirit for it, certainly. Make a ball of rock, set it on fire, launch it at monsters and jerks that deserve it. I kick it, thus the name, but that's not per say required. Nariko probably does her own thing with it." Most of the enchanting talk goes over her head though. She can make weapons channel fire and stuff as part of forging them, but that's really it, and more a matter of what something is made from. "Sure thing Nari." The Salamander turns to disappear back into the kitchen again.

An agreeing nod is given to Vertina's statement. "I call up a ball of rock, set it on fire, but I punch it instead. Still has the same effect. Beating monsters in their faces. It's a good attack, worth learning, for sure. She's a good teacher, too." Haru gets a nod, noting his greeting. The enchanting talk isn't even noticed as the were-fang wants something to nom on.

    Fuka seems amused by Wisteria's trick, delighted as ... well, as a small child. Haru's right at that, certainly. But unlike said child Fuka's more focussed on how the magic works than on anything else. Mostly. She likes cool things, like magic devices. Like explosions. She gives due consideration to Vertina's offer, looking rather pleased at the thought. "Well, earth is rather boreing, but fire is hot!" she notes. "So in balance, yeah! That sounds like a fun attack!" It's also high up on the coolness factor. Maybe she'll use her axe to send it flying, like an aggressive tennis serve. She loves tennis after all.

    Also Fuka does have to decide whether she should threaten further retaliation against Haru for making repeated short jokes. She doesn't mind short jokes at all, but considers 'getting mad' to be her duty to make sure people are having fun at her expense. She's rather clowny after all, deliberately so. She dismisses that response though, imagining one that's rather more fun for her at least. "Ladies, now you know why I call him H." she says, all the while grinning like a fool. Also as an aside, and far too loudly, "Only twice? H, I thought you would be interested in more than that!" she mock-complains.

Haru puts a hand across the chest and does a performer's half bow at being formally praised. "Thank you, Thank you. I am more than a letter, I am the full package," he says, proud. If nothing else Haru is very adept with rolling with the situation. It makes for some very amusing moments with the Fuka-chan, including a loud return whisper, "I would need to stay hydrated then. And find more grapes," he teases, finding a little place near the base of her wings to give a tickle.

"A strike combining Earth and Fire? Sign me up. Those are two things that I am adept at," Haru says in a humble fashion. World class is more like it, but with his doofy, nerdy, 'I make trinkets' sort of demeanor, his actual potential can be quite surprising. In the end he would rather make people smile. Because...

A finger snap to Wisteria, "Hey Wist, does the name Katashi mean anything to you?" Haru is nothing if not very honest and this has been gnawing at him. "Oh, and thats what I did with Fuka's earrings. I spend most of my time in accessory forging, so doing fine engravements /on/ the crystal is almost a requirement because the circuitry on larger items often doesn't permit the transfer of mana through the item's circuitry. Well, unless I also engrave and enchant out the supporting metals or materials. Like a motherboard and a bus. Tried that with a flower once." A head shake, RIP flower.

    Wisteria smiles "Curses are my thing, outside of you know... kendo." she sticks her tongue out "But getting into enchanting became a thing because no matter how good I am with a sword in the real world... I sort of endup with no real sword power here without curses because... enchanter is my main." she says and then she stops, almost shorted out it would seem, her head turns VERY slow like some creepy doll and she blinks looking at Haru. "I...started with daggers... they all melted... till I figured out enchantment fixing with reagents..." she says "But... how do you know about Katashi?" she blinks, squints, taps the table "Haru Himekawa?" she peers harder like trying to peel back layers... or maybe years to a specific layer.

Vertina returns, setting a mug and a platter of peko drummies down in front of Nariko. "Here you go. I see Wist is telling her I made swording better by adding curses to swording stories again."

    Fuka grins at Wist's story, actually finding it hilarious this amazing enchanter did such a noob mistake. Fuka didn't, of course. She did considerable research and experimentation before actually trying something as complex as enchanting weaponry. She's methodical and prone to putting in a lot of effort, surprisingly so for those who don't really know her and see only the spontaneous mask she wears.

    "Me, I'd just signed up and started laughing, seeing how tiny the game made my character." Fuka admits shamelessly. "And I'm good at tennis, so naturally.... HUGE weapon!" she cries out, miming a two-handed swing. "So now I'm a spellblade, because I figured if I was gonna have a huge sword or something, I'd better have a bunch of little tricks to mess with people who paid too much attention to the big weapon!" she says, laughing. "Like you! Adding curses to swording!" she adds playfully.

    But what's this? Haru has ... a back story? She watches, fascinated, as it turns out he and Wisteria must have known each other from some time ago. Maybe even another game. But... wouldn't that mean something before the great virus crash, the one that happened when she turned 14? Whooooooah, they're OLD!

"Koko... Koko..." Coconut. No, Haru. His one blue eye drifts away so he can search his brain and it drifts back to Wist when the search function is complete, "Kokoro Ito? And Katashi was feline but," some things are well etched into Haru's memories. Probably one of the things that could get erased if he keeps being silly during this war. It is everything to keep from becoming pale when the realization that they know each other. Like knowing you went to school with someone and forgot. And they were there during /that/ phase of your life. The one you threw in a dumpster and lit on fire.

"Heh heh heeeh, yup! One in the same," Haru says to look for a recovery point. "Hey, now you can tell Fuka that I did, in fact, look this awesome before." Not old! Don't let the white hair fool you! He turns his head to Fuka and explains the missing context here, "We used to both play Angelic Layer competitively. In fact, Wist here qualified in the Kanto region and qualified for nationals." As did Haru, albiet in the Kansai region.

Vertina wows. "Imagine that, actually running across people you knew in the real world around here. What's the odds."

    Wisteria shrugs "Adding curses to swording was an important step." she says "And Well... I mean... my class isn't one that can fully use my skill so I had to do something." she sticks her tongue out at Vertina. "Haru was Kansai." she says "And yah Katashi was my Angel he was awesome... I mean he's still awesome... but... he's back home." she rubs the back of her head. "He woulda been all swords... but I wanted to do something else at the time."

    After Haru had managed to tickle her, or at least try, Fuka paid a little more attention to what he was up to. Partially so she wouldn't get attacked, partially because she was interested, and her own little obsession was effectively dealt with besides. Still, this talk of meeting before was a little puzzling, until the Angelic Layer business was mentioned.

    "Ooooh! Oh that!" Fuka suddenly grins. "Yeah I got into that, a little, but never at the competition levels!" she claims. "And not in either of your leagues either, I bet." she shrugs.

    In truth, Fuka's player found the game fun but ultimately not her thing. Too much real life in that game for her to be able to fully focus on being good, or on being herself. Much like she played tennis to have fun, but never took the steps needed to push herself into competitive play. Competition's something she really only feels comfortable doing in an anonymous setting.

    Well, those are dark memories of a sort. Fuka's not looking to dwell on them, so instead she looks at Wisteria. "Tell me true. He's really not a 40 year old balding man?" she asks. "Because, you know, I don't care if he is, but I still think it's ridiculous to imagine he's actually THAT good looking!" she scoffs.

    Wisteria looks at Haru "He's good looking?" she asks and blinks a little and shrugs. "Uhm but he's not fourty no." she says "Or bald, that's what he looks like." she says. She just doesn't really get the whole attraction thing... but then she doesn't really get the whole 'attractive' thing. People can be astheticaly pleasing but attractive? That's weird and wrong.

Vertina just snickers a little at the exchange, knowing that sort of thing really isn't her bunfren's thing at all. "Hey if you were that good looking you'd want to keep the appearance too, wouldn't you?"

Haru looks over to Vert with a token 'Right?!' sort of look. "Its a small world after all. Though it makes sense if you share a hobby. It tends to bring people together." Hobby. Right. It was a hobby. Tap tap tap on the table.

"You know, I think I'll just sit here vindicated in my greatness for a moment," Haru says. Might as well. Preen.

"The change of pace was similar when I started playing this character. I can't say I got too far away from wanting to work with small things," Haru says as he slowly looks at Fuka. Pause, "Hence Accessory Forging." Smile. Grin. "And Summoning. All my personal training went a bit to waste as a result, but I have noodly arms. They get results." Noodle arms for the win. A deep breath. "Fou-Lu is back home too." Saying that the Angel is just on a shelf somewhere doesn't quite fit the correct picture given the scandals he was caught up in back then. "Good times!"

    Fuka's vaguely offended by that last comment of Vertina's, though of course she knows it wasn't meant that way. "I'll have you know I'm actually pretty hot IRL!" she insists. Then she considers, and clears her throat. "In a ... you know, cutely nerdy way. Not like supermodel hot or anything. Glasses, curly hair, naisu bahdee..." she grins, making gestures that imply considerably more curves than Fuka herself has, and simultaneously elbowing Haru in the chest. By accident. To pay him back for the continued small jokes and the smugness. "Also taller. Seriously that was wierder than not having to wear a sports bra!" she offers, giving probably more information than she should. "A-anyways, there's plenty of reasons not to play a body scan even if you're perfectly happy with your own looks!" she insists.

Vertina wanders back over to the bar. "Not going to argue on that one. I'd probably find it really weird too. The not being tall part, I mean." She's quite fine with not being all 'extra curvy' like some of the people she's seen in the game. It would of ruined her tomboy asthetic! ... Not that the maid dress right now really helps it, but this is for a totally practical and supportive (and future wise profitable) purspose, that's different.

    Wisteria "Uhm... I play a body scan..." she says. And is VERY self consious about her height, but random players make it less weird since so many of them are tall. She rubs the back of her head "But I don't play video games." she says and shrugs "I never had time... even Anglic Layer was really only something I was able to do because it was good visualization training for zanshin." she says and chews her lower lip "I only even started this account so I could chat with my friend who moved for University." she says "She went to Kyoto." and THAT is an acheivement.

Haru is elbowed by complete accident of course. He waggles his eyebrows and is actually pretty happy to see Fuka talk more about her alter self in such a way. Something about it helps it all meld into the acceptance of this being a new form of reality. Its gets her an arm around the side and one of those little sideways hugs. "Uh huh," he muses to her. Though to Wist he notes, "Oh you really sprouted up, then. I recall you were much shorter? Was that right?"

    Fuka turns to look fully at Wisteria, and scans her up and down. Then she beams. "Hey, my best friend is even taller than you!" she notes happily. Also rather sensitive about it. Needless to say Fuka's not really fussed over height. Probably a good thing as Haru's over a foot taller than her huh?

    Though the rest of that... she deflates somewhat. "And she also went off to university. A prestigious school in Tokyo. One I didn't even try to apply to. We were keeping in touch over the phone but I never managed to convince her to start this game. She's... not a gamer like me." Fuka shrugs, mood somewhat dampened by bittersweet memories. "Worst thing about being stuck here back then. Missing my only real friend." she admits. And goes quiet, drawing inward in a rather uncharacteristic manner for the normally boisterous Fukaziroh. She nestles into Haru's arm, but makes no further move to engage in conversation for a while. Not sad, not exactly. Not regretting having the subject come up, or having opened up a little. Just feeling melancholy.

    Wisteria nods her head "Yah, if I didn't have Vertina and Mizukichi... I'd be pretty lost." she says with a sigh of her own. She's the tall not gamer friend in her duo, but she was logged in on the apocalypse and her friend was late missing the countdown.. and all the rest. She's happy her friend is safe though.

Support Haru supports! He gives a rub along Fuka's side. Not drawing more attention to it, but letting her know he is there and its a bittersweet topic. "Fuka is like that with me," he says to raise things up a bit, "honestly the first year or so all I did was crafting. Slow it down some. Though recently I've been exploring a lot more and its not the same without the right company at your side." He shakes a fist at nothing in particular, remembering one moment in particular, "I punched that fist right in the face-heart." Prior to that, he didn't have much, so when Wist says she would feel lost? He believes it.