A gathering in Carmina Gadelica

Viviene is seen arriving into the square of the town of beginnings, she looks to be pretty roughed up, but not to the extent she seems troubled, if anything she seems to have a pleased expression on her face. The Spriggan walks with confidence into the town, adjusting the oversized sword on her back a little for ease of walking as it dragged in the dirt from slipping upon its baldric, though the sword looks battered, and beaten, much like the rest of her gear, which is probably getting pretty low on its durability just from its ragged appearance. She approaches market stalls, beginning to search the stall of an ore sales man.

    Merek seems to be doing what he often does when he's at Carmina Gadelica, tending to his shop. Eventually, he makes his way from that place to see what people are up to, and looks to be watching the market. The man makes a way to one of the stalls to see if there's anything for sale that he might like. He nods a bit to Viviene while he's that way.

Lunaris is.. Well, Lunaris. The day finds her roughly as it always does, darting around various stalls at a pace that probably can't be conducive to looking at much with a little dark-furred fox trying desperately to keep up with her. In truth, she's mostly here for the window-shopping, loving looking over what people make and invent, she's a sucker for things like craftsmanship especially the pretty stuff. What ends up catching her attention however is a Spriggan with a sword that is far too large for her and soon darts over, doing a small circle to get a closer examination, "Hey! Do you need a smaller sword? That looks way too big!" A grin cracking across her face, then a pause, "Oh! I'm Lunaris! ..Of the Pale Moon!" Giving a small flourishing bow to go along with her introduction.

Goldenblade is also shopping for ore, it seems, and she's pulling a small grunty around as a shopping cart. She seems to have an eye for the more rare metals, but she would. She looks quite involved in the process, though she's somewhat new to it, because she's got complicated plans. She eventually selects a number of ingots of varying strength and ductility, she will have to see which works out the best for her upcoming project.

Viviene turns to nod at Merek, offering a quiet wave as she greets him, well spoken and eloquent. "Good day, I don't suppose you know what materials are good for durability? I keep breaking my swords, this is my thirtieth set of blade--" she is cut off as Lunaris greets her and Vivi simply offers a faint smile. "Oh, believe me, its that size for a reason, it has its purposes. If only I could find something that I won't break so easy, I've smaller blades as well, but I've kind of grown attached to these large blades." she does spot Goldenblade searching around at materials, and offers a polite wave. "Hello!" she greets, to try and garner her attention.

    Merek looks then to Viviene, and will consider it a moment. "I think steel is good, although there are people that know how to make damascus." the man mentions, then he nods a bit to Lunaris along with Goldenblade, with a wave to the people.

"You could summon a blade with magic if that's an issue!" Lunaris replies cheerily, she was a bit of a one size fits all kind of solutioniser, if it could at all be called that. Either way with a swish of her tail she patters back around and tries to settle herself just a little. "You shouldn't get attached to blades though, that's called being stabbed, not good for y--" Her words cut off as she squints over to Merek, head tilts, "Oh! Hello Roleplayer!" What that was about, who knows? Either way finally spotting Goldenblade she gives a very cheery wave, "Heya Golden! Looking for something?"

Goldenblade looks up as Viviene calls out, and smiles. "Hello there." She blinks. "Ah, the weapon shop has arrived, I see," she quips. Merek's remark makes her sigh, and she says, "The Damascus we make here isn't really like the historical damascus. In fact, it's more about the weight and feel of the weapon. In any event, there's as good to be had through craft. Or magic," she adds dourly. She says that quite knowledgeably, but she /was/ involved in that project. "Hello, Lunaris. Yes, I'm planning building a hydroelectric turbine at Eas, and trying to work out which metals are strongest under constant force."

Viviene watches everyone and gives Merek a sheepish look. "Ah, well.. Steel, I don't think that would work out." she summons some items from her inventory and drops a pile of battered, shattered, and destroyed steel blades of various sizes, their HP a bredth away from zero. "I.. think they can be salvaged at least." she said thoughtfully, scratching a cheek as she regards Goldenblade. "You wouldn't know what kind of materials that are good to make sure a blade isn't destroyed by, ah, its wielder?" she nods to Lunaris. "As much as I could create a magic blade, it doesn't feel the same, I'd rather run magic through a real blade then create one wholly out of it, and.. I'm not good enough at any kind of magic to make a truly capable blade. An illusionary blade only goes so far." she does regard Goldenblade's plan for a turbine, but most of it seems to go over her head, beyond understanding the goal. "Thats an interesting goal. What will it be used for?"

Goldenblade admits to Viviene, "Nothing yet. There's no infrastructure to use it. But that, too, can be built, and when you've got millions of kilowatt hours pouring over the falls every day to no effect, it seems a shame not to harness them for /something/. I have plans for cranking and aiming catapults through mechanical linkages, but electric lighting is not that complicated."

But as to Viviene's collection of nearly broken weapons, she laughs. "I can repair all of those, /that's/ not a problem. As to what materials to use, it'd depend why the wielder is destroying the blade. Any blade will be damaged if you strike with the flat of it very often. They're strongest edge-on, of course. But if I could see your fighting style, it may help to see why you're going through so many blades." Viviene has perhaps met exactly the right person for this research, a fighting weaponsmith.

She draws one of her own swords, showing about six inches of blade, and, true to her name, it's tinted golden, but not so much metallic gold as golden in hue from being infused with elemental fire at a primal level. The blade is at 100% endurance, of course.

"Why electricity though? We could make everything run off of magic instead. Electricity is booooring. I can make it from my fingertips," Lunaris complains, drawing a small symbol in the air highlighted with a mystical purple glow before sparks start to crackle from her, and the fox next to her, sending little currents between fingers. "See? We could just.. Call lightning. Should store mana instead, way more fun! We already tried electricity once!"

Her eyes then turn to the clattering of swords produced from Viviene's inventory with a rather dour look, bending down to regard them properly, "Fiiine. No magic then! But Golden is a good smith I hear, and there's probably a few good duties by the guild that might have good material! I got demon horns and stuff for my project there." She lets off a sigh and draws herself back up, was hardly her area of expertise, really. Though the idea of an illusory sword does earn a giggle.

Close examination of the weapons might determine the weapons were made by a decent craftsman and of decent quality steel. "Yes.. ah, I made these swords myself, I'm a bit of a smith, but I never quite grasped the more advanced methods like..." she gestures to Goldenblade's sword. "That." she then has a deadpan expression as she simply said. "My problem is..." she trails off. "My strength stat." though the expression on her face seems to give the impression she won't be believed, she adds "I know how to use a blade, and minimize damage to the edge, but I'm just.. too strong. ETO was and still is my first .. big attempt at gaming."

    Merek nods a bit, "Alright, it is good to meet you, I need to be about my way, you take care." The man smiles, while he waves to people.

Goldenblade smirks to Lunaris, and says, "You kids and magic this, magic that. It's all a sissy business, based on slacking. Life is hard, and hard work is what builds a strong body and hard work is what builds strong things. Just calling lightning? I can do that, too." A little. "But making water into lightning? Forever? Now that's an accomplishment." She does nod about running content, though. "Content will get you good drops, to be sure."

She arches a brow to Viviene, and says, "Hitting too hard? that's not usually a problem. Oh, are you menu-crafting the weapons, or hammering hot steel on an anvil? Physically going through the motions of crafting works out worlds better than menu-crafting, for the end product. I could menu-repair these in a jiffy, but I think maybe I can melt one or two down and hand-craft some that will last you longer."

"If magic didn't require dedication and hard work, why doesn't everyone do it?" Lunaris retorts with a grin as she coils and twists around, humming rather happily at the poking. "And from what I've seen. Real magic is rather hard here. No? All our problems and solutions.." Her words sound like they're a hint towards something but she soon shifts around back to Viviene with glee, "Oh that's an easy fix then, you just need to get weaker. There, that's the easiest solution. I'm sure you would have come up with it in a few days yourself, didn't need my incredible insight."

The Cait Sithe manages to keep a straight face for a while before bursting into silvery giggles and scooping up her little companion fox and booping his nose, "Isn't that right Pecan. Very wise, aren't I?" I mean.. If her self-reinforcement comes from a fox, that might really spell the issue. She gives a slow nod to Merek at their departure, "See you soon! Think we need to catch up at some point Alliancey!"

Haru arrives into the Town of Beginnings on his Peko. The Peko is a large feathery riding mount that totally does not wark or kweh. Karen the Peko is larger than most, more suited for heavy burdening farm work than racing. It makes the human on top of the mount look even smaller by comparison, as the Artificer is a caster and does not have bulky armor on. Haru dismounts, having his animal companion candidly tied up at a table with a fresh course of Greens and Water at her side and hay to rest on.

The white haired human walks in with a swipe to an invisible menu. Haru is doing a number of coordinative checks in addition to his normal ambitions these days. Data has been light on Carmina so he is doing a check himself. He stops by the market first, needing more than a few things for his trade. "Familiar people," he offers, raising a hand in a wave to Goldenblade, Lunaris, and Merek. He doesn't yet know Viv, but offers a wave anyway because he is friendly like that. Smile. Though it looks like he is catching Merek on the way out.

"I've done both, changing the material and design for the different parts. I just never really invested into the deep, deep parts of forging, I couldn't enchant myself out of a paper bag. But, no, my issue is that my strength is actually nearly maxed, and most common metals simply break like a twig under my swings." she does consider Goldenblade's offer. "If they'd last longer, I'd certainly appreciate this. I get about two or three fights out of a weapon at this point, and I'm spending most of my money on materials for repairs or new ones, and my salvaging is so bad it usually comes out with little materials!" she said, griping. "Its come to a point I'm fleecing my own pockets fighting, but fighting is so fun." she looks at Lunaris and chuckles. "Now why would I do that? To master the blade, one must master their body. Every day I train." A polite wave is offered to Haru as they arrive, regarding the man's Peko, then the man themself. "Good day." she currently stands infront of a pile of ravaged and battered blades.

Goldenblade sighs at Lunaris, and says, "Silly made up rules and mumbo-jumbo. No rhyme or reason. And there's no hard work here, to be honest. I've -done- hard work before. This isn't it. It's high-risk, maybe. Bricklaying doesn't get you stabbed by goblins, but carrying fifty kilos of bricks around will let you know what hard work is. Did that for fifty years, back in the real world. Not here, mind. Carrying fifty kilos ingame is kind of slack. Probably even Haru could do it." She eyes him as he passes, reconsiders. "Or maybe not."

She smiles appreciatively at Viviene. "Now that's how you do it. I like to see kids working hard, training hard. I'll reforge some of these with a lot more endurance. They won't hit /quite/ as hard, but it's close enough as you probably won't notice the difference. Same number of hits to kill a monster. But if I take the top 2 percent off damage, I can maybe double the endurance. The scale's a bit wonky that way, I think. The sharpest blades are the first to dull, as they say."

"There's always rules and reason, if you don't see it then maybe you still need to look more! Neither is much different," Lunaris retorts with a faint glimmer in those green eyes, though she lets the conversation drop to dart over towards Haru with a wave, her excitement all but palpable, "Do we get to do more tobogganing! Also hey Haru! That was really fun, we should do that again. Really hoping Squeak respawns in a few days.. Why'd you all have to go killing him?" A pout as her ears lower just a couple of degrees, she had to let her dissatisfaction be known after all.

Then to Viviene she motions over to Haru as she darts back, "And this is Haru! A good enchanter. Or so I've been told more than seen! But it's probably true. If you want a good sword you've probably got the best people to help here? Except me. I can't do much of that. More a.. Animal tamer! Or something." Then giggling at Viviene's retort she gives a solid nod, "It would have solved the issue, to be fair!"

The white haired human is dressed in a long navy jacket over a shirt. Slacks. Monocle. Haru looks like the clerk in a Victorian era warehouse, not the person moving the crates within it. "Fifty kilos? Lets see," the young man plays along, extending an arm and flexing. Noodle arms. He looks at the lack of bulk with his monocle and says, "nope. But that is very Old World thinking anyway, Gee Bee, Terra is more than happy to haul twenty times that with me on a Construction project. Better use of the energy is sustaining the mana required. You wouldn't haul goods by hand if you had a cart, would you?" The way of thinking between New World, Olympus, and Scale tends to differ like that at a core level.

"Hi Luna! The water tobogganing was fun, right? Every time I see that slide, I make sure I have the Stained Glass Shell ready to go fwoosh. Its almost as fun as the Peko races that I hope you are signing up for. With your affinity to animals, you'd be a shoo in for a good time." As to why they killed Squeak he taps the side of his monocle, the silvery metal glinting against the light, "I think if we could have subdued him and his mount, we would. Neutralizing a boss level threat takes a lot of coordination and patience that we were not prepared for. I would love to see them in a better environment, but I dont want to see anyone at a Church respawning. Especially now." A thoughtful pause to the political state of things.

"Oh, new friendo? Haru Nox, Artificer of the Silver Swords, Moonlight Goldsmith, Fancy Noodly Armed Enchanter, and pleased to meet you," he says with a brief bow of the head. "Its true, Enchantment helps with durability and those parameters. Its not to replace the importance of strong material or quality forging, but to improve them. Everything has its place." A quick look to Luna there with a head shake. "Everything. We are all rather dependant on each other in the crafting ecosystem, no? Very few closed supply chains."

Viviene realizes she has yet to properly introduce herself and sets a hand to her chest. "Ah, I'm sorry, I am Viviene, Bladesinger and applicant to the guild Sleeping Knights... and I seemingly have a habit of breaking the weapons I wield." she observes with a faint smile, which turns into a grin despite herself, the mention of a competition does catch her interest. "What is a Peko race?" she asks to Haru, then looks over at Goldenblade. "That might work, I sure hope it does. Unless I find some near indestructable metal or something, or some legendary sword, I'm probably going to have to do repairs or swaps.. which is why I carry so many swords in the first place. What kind of enchantment would be cost effective but.. enhance durability? I won't lie. I like swords, and I plan to collect fancy ones."

Goldenblade eyes Lunaris skepticly, about rules and reasons, "If I don't see it, it's because it's all made up and part of the game, it doesn't work that way in real life. I can't do this," she holds her hand over her head, palm up, looks to make sure the sky above her is clear, and channels a flame twenty feet high that would have instantly broiled a pigeon flying overhead, "in real life." But then Lunaris has scampered off after Haru.

Haru earns a sigh at accusing her of old world thinking. "I'm old, I'm allowed. Anyhow, you see me here with a grunty as a shopping cart." She thumps the beast of burden that's been standing docilely next to her, laden with her cargo, apparently mostly metal samples. "And I said I'd done it, carrying a heavy load, not that I like it. But sometimes in an emergency, you can't wait for special equipment to get there. It's just you, on the spot, and you can act to help someone, or not."

She smiles to Viviene, "So anyhow, yes, Haru's an enchanter, and he might be able to enchant your weapons to have more HP, or more resistance to damage in the first place. When I reforge them, that'll be my priority, as that will probably increase their lifespan considerably." She smirks to Viviene, and says, "Please call me Goldenblade." Which is much, much simpler than her actual name, which, if she's inspected, overflows the space allotted for names by a fair amount. As for the weapons, she says, "I'll reforge them with a much higher damage resistance. The loss of DPS will be small, but they'll last a lot longer. You'll see."

"You literally store half a mountain in your inventory! What's lifting again..?" Lunaris calls back since the old world thinking argument had kicked back off, "Nothing in here is like we really can do in real life. In the other life we couldn't wield half the weapons.. The enchanted or monster made items we do! Or move as fast, or fight kobolds. What rules exactly? You move to fast. You're stronger than you could've ever been." There's a playful smile and a nod to Viviene at the introduction, "Nice to meet you properly! Good luck with the application! I'm sure you'll manage if your main complaint is being too strong for swords. And yeah, you'll find the stuff to make a weapon like that, no doubt!"

"Peko race? Oh.. Not sure if I can make it, will see. Would really love to participate and beat you. Not sure you can keep up, too fancy and all that," she teases, though as soon as the church is mentioned the Cait Sithe's eye twitches, an odd moment of stillness for Luna herself as she steps back a little, eyes on the pavement and she flicks around. At his talking of the crafting ecosystem she sighs and waves a hand, "Sure. You knew what I meant. You're the people she needs for this." And with that she bends down to run a hand through Peko's fur, now much quieter.

Haru stares blankly at Luna's response to being inclusive as he says, "Man we cannot get on the same page, can we?" He shakes his head at that, knowing what she meant. He takes a deep breath and exhales, taking a moment to put a smile back on before looking to GB, sigh owner number two. "Of course you are allowed. I appreciate your insights, even if I don't make it a point to say it. Admitting I admire your work ethic would be, whats the phrase? Wimpy?" He flexes an arm out again. "We are all built a little different."

"Viviene, happy to help with some enchantments along with the reforging. I specialize in accessories like rings, necklaces, bangles, and the like as well. Put all the points into magic hands, not swol arms, and I always make time for friendos projects that need either. Just give me a chim," Haru says, giving Viv a friend request so she can reach out at a later time. "But on more fun things. Peko races! Yes, every festival or so there is a race with our birbs. It a lot of fun, even if you are not a skilled rider." He thinks about it and looks back to GB, "Closest thing we have to a sport next to Dueling League, I think. Yeah?"

Viviene seems to have something of an epiphany, she accepts the friend request offered by Haru and sends one out to Lunaris and Goldenblade, but with her realization, she suggests to Haru. "Could.. an enchantment exist to passively restore a items HP over time when its not actively being used? I like swapping weapons mid fight a lot.." she notes, and nods to Goldenblade. "Thank you, the idea of having some reliable weapons does make me excited, maybe I'll be able to fight tougher opponents finally!" she does consider Haru's mention of the dueling league, and the Peko racing. "I should give both of those a try. Dueling League reminds me of the martial arts tournaments I took part in before, well.." she nods. "Oh, if you specialize in accessories, are you good at finding out what they do, too?"

Goldenblade sighs at Lunaris, but her inventory -is- pretty much stuffed with junk from various quests. But she retorts, "That may be true for you, but I can do quite a lot in real life that I do here. I can fight in real life, if not as well as here. And if I'm not as strong in real life as I am here, I'm seventy-five in real life, so that's why." Kids today! "When I was twenty five, I could carry fifty kilos. Not -easily-, but I could do it." When GB's player was twenty five, she'd been a bricklayer for 6 years, so that may be part of it. Haru's comment earns a smirk. She will admit, "So, Haru, you're not useless, I never said that. Just that what you do here could never happen in real life." She sighs at peko races. "Stupid pekos. Some cracked game designer wants us to ride ostriches because it's 'cool'? Bah." Clearly she's not having -any- of that.

She smiles and accepts Viviene's friend request, and says, "Here, give me your old broken weapons, and I'll have them fixed up in a few days. Come by the Crescent Academy to pick them up." The Academy is just down the road from here, by the marina on the eastern edge of the Isle of Beginnings.

Lunaris doesn't have any snappy reply this time, she looks pretty much entirely out of it and is soon sat in the street, fussing the fox in her lap and giving a wave over to Haru, "Sorry. Didn't mean to snap. Just a lot to think about." Her hand slowly running through fur, more to calm herself than Pecan, but it was pretty much all the same, and the fox was more than happy for that particular solution to her troubles, "Oh, yeah. The duelist league, did want to join that, application's gotten.. Somewhere. See if I can actually take anyone down."

With that her eyes go back up to Viviene, "Oh, perhaps we could have a spar at some point? Though I should probably be heading off. Things to do. And organise." Her voice no longer as fast or as energetic as she starts to glance off further into the city in consideration of where to be heading, "And festivals are at least something nice. To look forwards to."

"T-Thank you?" Haru says when trying to parse out GB's statement of not being useless. "You know, Gee Bee, I'm actually quite adept in real life with my fists. It was a requirement to do self defense after some of the more," Haru pauses to measure his words with care, "influential virus events and digital calamities before the Apoc here. I gotta agree that even at my peak I can't do a cross at a giant flaming flying rock and have it soar like a meteor to strike someone. Another reason why this world and its new metalaws, rocks!" And not because Haru is an Earth master. He has an earth pun quota to reach.

The white haired man closes his one visible blue eye. Blink? Wink? Sleeping? Lack of the second eye behind a monocle blocks non-verbal context. "All in your own time, Luna. Just trying to help and say that your creativity would find a way to help out even if it wasn't obvious to the rest of us. Its a strength and I don't want it going underappreciated." The eye opens up, "And that could be me just projecting. When doing the Alliance coordination you wouldn't believe the number of responses I get back saying 'I wouldnt be of any help lulz, gunna go grind' even when having them here in Carmina, or within a response radius, /is/ helpful. Last time we defended the port it was a matter of who was around and we /barely/ held it." Happy thoughts. Find the happy thoughts and unbottle one.

Smile. "I can assess the properties of an accessory. Most objects, really, through Appraisal," Haru says to Viv as he taps his monocle, "but I haven't come across an Enchantment that would regenerate Durability. The object would become dangerously close to an Immortal Object. Halt natural durability loss, like the Witherless Rose? Yes. Return it, though? Hmm. If the object was made of a natural material or a 'drinking' type enchantment? Maybe. The best bet is an Enchantment that has a temporary durability factor that gets recharged with elemental shards or certain conditions. It doesn't replace Durability, it augments it. So you would get more swings before it breaks. Maybe, and I stretch /maybe/ here, a field repair, though I think actual field repair kits are the domain of the Forging skill, not Enchantment, and there is minor overlap."

Viviene takes some time considering Haru's words while she addresses Goldenblade, transfering all of the broken swords and some spare materials over to her in a trade request, looking thoughtful. "Sure, I'll find you there." she said, and the mention of the port has Viviene looking at Haru. "I'm something of a mercenary. I'll help you in such situations such as port defense if theres a good pay for it or incentive. Just don't ask me to join a kingdom - not interested." she said polietly and with a faint smile. "What about a sword that regenerates itself when passed through shadows or darkness? I'm an adept dark mage." she suddenly pauses, and lets out a big yawn, unbefitting her size as she stretches some. "We.. will have to discuss this later, and I've an accessory I'd really like appraised sometime, that we could talk about in private, for now, I need to spend some time resting." she pauses, shifts into a bow to everyone, adjusting her great, and turns to leave, and she leaves in spectaular fashion: a bounding leap that leaves some of the ground cracked beneath her feet.

Goldenblade peers at Haru, but says, "If you're good in real life with your fists, that's a good start. My son did martial arts for a few years, but he lost interest." The viruses get a shrug from her. Those all happened in a newspaper, for her, no one she knew was affected. Some pencil-pushers at her company, sure, but no one she worked with day to day. "Cross giant flaming rock, what?" That part just has her confused. Oh, he can't do Earth magic in RL. She nods. "Should invent bulldozers," she considers suddenly.

She accepts the trade from Viviene, and says, "I don't think we need to go too far down the rabbit hole. I think if I reforge these with a different balace between damage, durability, and health, we can make them last for weeks between repairs."

Lunaris lets off a rather unbefitting sigh for her usual character and starts to stand, letting Pecan down rather carefully so that he didn't meet the pavement in a rather undignified manner. When finally standing her hands get to work dusting off her clothes, "I know. We all have something to bring. I just didn't much expect.. Wars of crowns and Crowns of wars." The reason for her fall of mood was then likely obvious enough, not much to do with what Haru said so much as a bad and raw reaction. Closing her eyes she started to recollect herself with some care, "Anyway! We all do what we can. I'll see what's possible! We'll figure it out and be fine and.."

A shake of her head, changing tact with no subtlety in sight, "Anyway magic is something special! And what I love most about it is making it conform to rules.. Crafting. Making things truly. The art of imposing reality on something! Shaping it, that's what crafting is here, after all." With that she glances off and gives her lip a little bite, before waving to Viv as she heads off, "Anyway. I'm goin' see if there's any good alcohol about. Sooner we get karaoke, the better."

"Safe travels. Chim me later and we can cover the details," Haru says as he raises a hand in a wave to the departing Viv. The comment about bulldozers causes the Artificer to swift turn to GB, "Just summon an Earth Elemental like Terra! She was modeled after the Gnomish Terraform ruins with the similar drills. They seem to have moving large amounts of earth figured out." A finger taps the side of his monocle. "I was working on an Enchanting project to do self-setting farmland for agriculture. The well drilling down to the aquifer was part of the design. You could probably attach a similar enchanted front-facing plow to a beast of burden and ride it forward. That way the person using it doesnt necessarily need Magical adeptness or Elemental adeptness. Just to feed the critter and keep the enchantment charged. It improves the natural effort to a level of what can be done. To me, thats what Artificing is all about. Tools, right? From a rock to a pickaxe to a, what those called, mitres? But we have different laws to lean on to build better tools now. Electricity isnt as impressive as raw Lightning in Air element. Even Tesla would be impressed by what we can do here."

"Ex-actly," Haru is all on board to moving the topic somewhere sunnier, "lets build some cool shit, lets kaboot the hostiles trying to mire our good time, and lets get back to seeing more of this fantastical world that keeps wowing one day after the other." A hand waves, "I have to finish up my report as well. Later gators." That goodbye is going to get real weird if he ever runs into a Were-Gator.