Not Elf's Inn

Erufu has invaded this very Inn, she's been renting a room for the last little bit. She's in a corner of the inn leaning back on her sear. She looks pretty concent as one might notice a mostly empty platter of food on the table. At least the food was good, right?

An empty food platter and a satisfied customer. Testiment to how well Vertina's training has gone with the world's Cooking mechanics.

As she walks over to collect the empty dishes she gives the elf a pat on the shoulder with the other hand. "Don't worry, I'm sure you guys will get Shibuya and your place back in due time. They succeeded in driving the enemy away from Eas, so it's not like the Palace Land is undefeatable or anything."

Invasions. Invasions everywhere. Thusly Haru invades through the door with the dramatic flair of a sleepy sort of yawn. Energy levels low. Your Artificer needs food. Food and coffee. "I liked Shibuya," says the man who looks like a character from the Shibuya Underground. He brings news! News and sleepiness. Might be all the traveling as he takes a seat at the bar. "And yeah, we whooped their booties." A finger points up, "And an Utalixir saved a Peko."

Uta, still in the nurse uniform every nurse of the clinic of Tolbana wears at work (as opposed to Uta's after-work clothes -- her nurse's uniform slash gi hybrid), staggers in, exhausted. "I defeated the Shift from Hades," she begins, "and now I am ready to defend this Hallowed Location from the Palace Landers!", she exclaims. "They shall regret their decision, I dare them to get through the defense of us Adventurers, and to come up close to my face," She raises her chin, in defiance, and points at the center of her face." And when the tip of their nose touches the tip of -my- nose, well, that's when I'm gonna run the heck outta dodge and save my backside to fight another day." She tosses one fist in the air. "For Yamato! For our Adventurers and Landers! For E- wait."

She squints around. "Did the baroness redecorate castle Eas?" Her face pulls into a wide, if exhausted, smile. "Oh, good. I like it better this way. Cozier. More approachable. Also, food." She looks up and away, and taps her lips. "I wonder if there's still some time to grab a snack before the invasion..."

Erufu says "I hope they haven't ruined my Inn but who knows this is the Palace Land we're dealing with." She notes and will get the last of her food to finish it off. She pause at verina for a moment. "So doing the whole maid thing?" She notes as she looks over to Haru, she's about to say something. As she looks to Uta she'll sing a few bars of a song.

"So please why don't all of you join me for a bit?"

"Wake is going for the the more modern look," Haru tells Uta as he rolls from his seat at the bar over to Erufu's table. "Smaller. Easier to upkeep. Welcoming," the young human continues on. "But I regret to inform you that the invasion has already been attempted. Worry not, we are at war, and there will be many more." He isn't being serious about that one. War is not his favorite thing. Yet it is a reality. Maybe he needs to escape this reality to a reality without a war. Then there would be another layer of reality and it is a simulated Cheers! experience.

"Whenever the scouts come up for a meal they talk about the intruders actually taking care of the place. Guess it was different once they controlled it themselves." Vertina shrugs, and rolls her eyes a bit when Erufu points out the maid outfit. "My cooking instructor insisted on some 'dress for the job' philosophy." She reachs down to tug the hem of the skirt beneath the apron. "But I can still do evasive backflips in this dress, so I guess it's not entirely bad." Once the tomboy mentality got over the lace and frills at least.

Oi. She can never tell if Uta is lost or just bad at keeping track of time. "Heya Haru, Uta. Can I get you guys anything?"

"Oh. Uh," Uta comments at Haru. "Tell the Baroness I like the new decor." She moves to sit at the table with the rest of the gang. "What place? Shibuya? I've heard some stories about them taking care of... was it the fields? Has that changed?"

Vertina gets a long appraising look, from head to toes, from toes to head. "I like it!", she smiles. "You should keep it after the training is over. It really fits well in the residence of a Noble as Wake." She scratches her head. "Uh... what's the special of the day? I'll have that."

"Attempted?", Uta reprises to Haru. "Does that mean that it was not successful?"

Haru is the sleepy face. A different face than his usual 'energy levels over 9000!' face. If his avatar could have that sort of 'I havent shaved!' look, it would. Instead he rubs his hand against the side of his face as he demands more blood flow to his brain region. "Maid outfit is, easily, top 5. Patrons will love it, Vert," he says perhaps a bit /too/ casually. It is true, nonetheless! "Coffee. Salad. But not a coffee salad," he blehs at the thought of that, "some fruit juice. Water. Chicken." He thinks about the later and how that might actually be Peko. "Or steak. Parfait." He just keeps going. His brain has lapsed into ordering a five course meal mode. Next it will be 'full silverware' and a tea cup. The young man does stop eventually and adds in, "Please," as if to summon back his good manners, "slightly wiped out."

He puts a hand over his face to hide a yawn. "Just woke up this way. Low energy. And thats right, Uta, we held off the invasion. You'll be pleased to know that I got some degree of vengence on Shirin for you." Haru shakes his free hand in a fist, although he doesnt harbor a lot of ill will towards the Palace Landers. Shirin included. They are people too. "And Rylen and I saved the Peko he abandoned." He thinks of more tidbits from the battle. "The main forces held the town through a chokepoint. And Shiyang also appeared, giving the Baroness and others a run for their money."

Erufu peers at Vertina for a moment "Dare I ask who it is? Wait a maid uniform..." She had an idea of who it is someone she keeps far clear of for mysterious reasons. She will shift a bit to look to Uta for a moment "Come on you need to get some food into you Uta."

"I know it would. Don't remind me," Vertina replies with a snort. Then squints, trying to gauge how much of that is an order and not just Haru going on a sleep deprived tangent from memory. "Cluck-clucks are a thing, you know. And you'd have to track down Fukaziroh for the parfait, don't have any of that fancy freezing enchantments since I don't do waterbending." Yet.

The Salamander turns and walks back to the bar, and the kitchen behind it. One of her hired workers gestures towards the back. "Oh good, the additional pots I ordered came in. Just need to see about some proper knives now."

Uta sighs, and rubs the bridge of her nose. "'Pleased' is probably not the word that most accurately described my current status," she says, in acknowledgment that Haru was probably trying to do something nice, but circumstances are... just so. "Shirin is just a pawn, maneuvered by Queen Laira Lorelei. And while I have no proof, I have this suspicion that Queen Laira Lorelei is, in turn, a pawn maneuvered by someone else." Rubbing and squinting intensifies. "Oh goodness... fractal chess. I need some headache potion."

She sighs. "Glad that the folks could hold the position. If nothing else, this is buying us time. The most scarce and precious resource we have."

"That maid uniform," Uta says, nudging her head towards Vertina. "And yes, the food is currently outside me. We need to relocate it within the confines of my digestive system, so that our HP bars can properly be replenished and OH GOODNESS PEOPLE we're discussing HP bars as if they were real things, what is happening to us!"

"Let me know if you need to learn waterbending, Vertina," Uta says. " I can get you in touch with Jazz. She trained me. Great teacher. Perfect for martial artists. Gave me a nice present at the end."

Vertina sticks her head out from the kitchen. "Thanks Uta, but I already have a potential teach lined up. Arashi offered as a thank you for teaching her to harness Light as an element. Just need to find the time."

"I can bend water," Haru mumbles a bit against his hand and the five o'clock shadow he has. "Really anything but Light. But Earth and Fire. Yeah. Though that wouldn't make for a good parfait." A hand motions as he thinks about it, "A good parfait has a base that is like a cake that has been golden crisped on the outside but soft on the inside. Soaked in a heavy cream. Layered on top with a custard-like ice cream atop and dripping with chocolate sauce before reaching the mousse layer atop where all the sprinklings are. Put a coffee biscuit on top of it and one of those edible coffee straws." Daydream. Sweets. A blue eye drifts to Uta, "And I can't make Refrigeration. I suppose I could replicate it, being an Artificer at all. No, my studies into symphonics have hit a dead end." A yawn there. "Maybe when I can see the source code of the world and start," he begins to drift forward until he is talking into a table, "noticing the variables within I can identify which of the attributes relate to audial peices. But it is beyond what I can do with enchantment. No. I have found myself working on important, but boring work with farm tools."

"Yes. Cluck clucks," Haru says, having momentarily forgotten them, "I'll take Cluck cluck in the salad. A clucking salad, if you will," he says into the table.

The white haired man's head rolls up to look at Uta, "My brain isn't charged for that level of depth, but isn't that the case for all of us? We have some core drive and wiring at that level, don't we? Though, yeah, Shirin seems to fight like a man that is trying to impress someone. Either that," he puts his head back down in a half-nap, "or I am projecting. He is a strong fighter either way and would rather have him on our side and not against us."

Erufu looks ot Vertina for a moment as she ponders. "Can I bother you for another platter so everyone else can have something to eat? It will be on me." The Elf is grinning at this as she shifts about in her place. "Well there's plenty of good smiths you could order from." She looks back to Uta noiw. "I don't know what you mean Uta? About a year ago many Adventurers got this deluiobns they were from some fictional wordl it's had me concerned..."

"I suspect that Shirin has the hots for Queen Laira Lorelei or something. Just a suspicion, but..." She shrugs. "Might be an effect of the crowns. Or he might be a fanboy. The kind of player who had a poster of the Queen in his room before the Apocalypse. No idea."

Uta looks at Erufu. Squints. "Oh, right. That thing. The Fourth World Fraction it's called, right?", she says. And quietly swipes her menu open to inspect Erufu. The talk of memory loss. The talk of people believing themselves to be Landers. Does Erufu inspect as an Adventurer anymore. "Say, have you ever died in this world, Erufu?"

Back to Haru, "Symphonic resonance in crystals might be a dead end. Heh. Not the first time it happens. Back to the drawing board, I guess. It happens a lot..."

Vertina returns to the table. "I was a step ahead of you Erufu." She sets down a platter of chips and cluck-cluck drummies, as well as Haru's 'clucking salad' and various drinks for everyone. "... I might have to add that name to the menu," she mutters under her breath. A shrug. "Erufu's already got a tab going so don't be afraid to add to it~" she semi-jokes with a wink.

"I will," Haru says as he straightens up for his deal and his meal. He takes a fork to the salad and starts working at it while looking at Uta. Small bites. Slow eats. Neat. Haru has good etiquette for someone lacking the concept. "That would make a lot of sense," he says to Uta about Shirin, "he does strike me as someone who is blindly devoted. Like, yes, a fanboy." A shake of the head at that idea while he goes into the chewing. "A theory disproven is still a theory that brings someone closer to a breakthrough via means of deductive logic," he says. Sure, he is hard on himself for wasting his time while people are building airships and ballistic missiles, but thats Haru. Also why he probably looks so tired if he doesn't blend in resting into the mix. "If the doors are locked, find other doors," he goes on to ramble, taking another nommings, nodding over to Vert in the 'its good' sort of look.

Erufu will tilt her herad. "I will pay upon my departure I'd be foolish not to. Mayhaps we should strongly consider killing the root of the evil that has pitted so many against us."

"If we didn't make mistakes we wouldn't learn anything... Or so one of my old Taekwando instructors would often say." Vertina pauses to roll a shoulder. "I might keep the outfit. For work. I guess 'dragon barmaid' does fit the estabished theme close enough." The salamander wanders back to her usual place at the bar.

"Indeed, Haru. I myself had to collect my fair share of disappointment and defeat before I could collect a -massive- share of disappointment and defeat. But then there was this single glimpse of light, that led, well, to a longer chain of disappointment and defeat, but with little bits of usefulness dropping out. Collect the bits. Assemble them. Form a whole. Redeem it for a new set of pots or something." She turns to Vertina. "Oh, yeah, what about those new pots?" Back to Erufu, she sighs in relief, but then immediately mumbles in concentration. "Back to finding 50% more doors, I guess..."

Uta asks, "What do you mean by 'killing the root of all evil', Erufu?"

"Doooooors," Haru intones to the wisdom of Uta and Vert, some of his energy returning with a good meal, good drink, and good company. He doesn't have a lot more to add at this juncture. Lots of interesting thoughts are floating up, but they don't quite reach the surface. It is like a lot of half-inflated balloons that are just hovering there for the time being.

"I think she means find the ones pulling the strings being the ones pulling the strings. Like if the Palace Land invaders are puppets of the Nobles, who are puppets of some other greater corruption and not the real source of this fiasco." Sometimes Vertina can be insightful, if she wants to be. Or it just happens to strike her. She dips her head to the table. "Excuse me guys, I need to get back into the kitchen and fill a few orders to take up to the guildmates standing guard around Karluin."