Meet The Facilities: Slime Labs

"You stay here," Uta admonishes the Peko she's just dismounted from and tied to a post.

There certainly is no lack of places to park a Peko: the Quick-Feather Peko Ranch has been evacuated, and only a skeleton crew sticks around for basic maintenance tasks. Uta's Peko is, in fact, taking up a 'parking' spot among a long line that gives an idea of the size of the ranch... and by being empty, contrasts with the current situation.

After she's taken a few steps, Uta halts in place. "On second thought..."

She pivots on one foot, extracts a syringe, and -*fwhoop*- surprise injects the Peko, which immediately drops to the ground, asleep.

"...hmm," Uta comments, "Might have been a bit too much. Gotta jot that down among the experimental data," she mumbles scribbling something on a notebook using a fountain pen as she turns again and walks towards the Slime Labs.

Schneider enters the Peko Ranch ground warily, heading for the Slime Labs. He's not around here much, and doesn't know what kind of state it's in, given the war. The empty look is a bit eerie, but he's /never/ sure what sort of strangeness awaits him here. But urgency drives him, so here he is. "Hello, Uta," he calls in greeting, and takes a look around, seeing her over by the Slime Labs. "It's a bit lonely without the slimes?" he wonders, studiously ignoring the surprise tranquing of the peko. That's only a 4 or 5 on the weirdness scale around here.

It's been quite a day for Lunaris trekking through the lands of ETO on foot as she usually did. There was no real reason she didn't have a mount to help with that besides the fact she currently didn't. Maybe something to do with enjoying the great outdoors and adventure. But let's be honest, it's probably not that. She is very thankful for one thing though, that her health is back at full after a couple of random encounter scuffles through the lands. Especially as she sees the Peko injected and suddenly flop onto the floor. That gets a rather horrified look.

That doesn't stop the Cait Sithe however, who still bounds up and waves to the group with a wide grin as she peers at the labs, "Hey! Good to see you all again! This is the labs? You have to tell me how you keep it safe when slimes are about." Darting around and doing her best to believe the Peko will totally be just fine and Uta was entirely trustable with it's safety. "It's a bit quiet here, but that's to be expected! It'll get lively again, I'm sure."

Haru had a fairly good idea from before that there is going to be some activity around the Slime Labs. It seemed like as good a time as any to check on the precision equipment and any tune up work while he doesn't have to keep a look over his shoulder. His Peko is a large one, more built for draft work in the fields with dusky brown feathers and a large beak. He parks Karen along one of the feed and water troughs before hopping off. There is a notable pause at the sleeping Peko in the line up. A hand swipes an invisible menu in front of him, checking a couple items before dismissing it. He spots a familiar Spriggan. It all makes sense.

"Hey Uta," he says with a raise of the hand to wave. He doesn't really know Schneider that well. The Artificer has to think on in a moment before moving on to social notions, "Its been a bit," he waves to the Labs itself, "hasn't it?"

    Mizuki's been hanging around Uruk lately. She's happy to accompany Uta and friends on a journey. "You had to evacuate your place? Is it really that likely the Palace Landers are coming here next? ...Guh. I wonder if we were spoiled, growing up all our lives in peaceful countries... The idea of someone invading America or Japan is so insane we have to make movies and anime about it to have a place to put that patriotic fervor..."

    Shneider and now Haru are familiar faces, but she doesn't know... "Lunaris? I don't think we've met. Mizuki, Ninja. Of the Odysseia Knights, though I guess at this rate I might become known as the laziest one..."

    Then she has a thought, and suddenly turns back towards Uta. "Are the Mizuki slimes okay??"

Uta turns to face the people who greet her. "Oh, hello! Schneider! Lunaris! Haru!", she waves, with a smile. "So nice to see you here!"

One thing that people might notice is bags under her eyes. Another thing they might notice is the two leather straps holding an array of syringes she's incorporated in her otfit. Also, a belt full of herbs, and various potion-making items (like a pestle and mortar, graduated cylinders, et cetera) dangling from said belt.

"She then enters the Monster Barn (evacuated), walks through it, opens a door at the opposite end and leads the small group through it, This is, indeed, the Slime Labs," she declares sweeping her hand around. "The Mizuki slimes are okay. They are, like most of the other slimes, safe and soundat Setsuna's Monster Menagerie, inside Aincrad."

"most of them...", Uta drones, low, as her expression tunes out from reality. The trauma of the Showdown in the Isle of Beginnings.

She shakes her head. "Anyway, yes, I'd better get this periodic check done as quickly as possible, so I can go back to my research on anesthetics."

"Shall I give you a tour of the facilities? Anything you're-" Uta is interrupted by a loud growling of her stomach. "Uh... sorry. I was saying, anything you're particularly interested in?"

    Mizuki follows along, even trying to give Uta a brief hug when she looks down. "So why are you researching anaesthetics lately, anyway? Is it easier here than in real life? I heard it was super complex there..."

    She holds a finger to her chin. "Err... I mean, I guess this is real life too now, but... you know what I meant."

    The were fang's ears twitch upon hearing Uta's stomach rumbling. Mizuki opens her menu, and rezzes 1x Trail Rations; bought way back during the first few weeks and then never consumed once food with taste was discovered, sitting in her inventory all this time. She holds it out to Uta.

    "Here. You missed the taste, right?"

Schneider eyes Haru warily, does an inspect, shrugs, but says nothing. His business is also with Uta, and Uta keeps what company she will. It's better than goblins by a mile. He looks up and smiles to Lunaris, nodding about the lab's being quiet. Between the Labs and the Ranch being closed, it's pretty quiet here." Apart from Uta's stomach. He pulls a menu-crafted snack from his inventory and passes it to Uta, as well, crossing up with Mizuki, "Here, have something to eat." Well, now two things. In that sort of mood, she wouldn't appreciate real cooked food anyhow, and menu-crafted is what he eats on the road as well.

He consider's Uta's state, but he came here to ask, so he'll ask, "Two things. ANy thoughts on the Chaos Gates? And will you be my glider pilot for the test run?"

Lunaris waves all the faster to the greetings and the prodding from Mizuki makes her eyes widen in surprise, that should have come first! She gives a flourishing bow, dipping low and coming back up with a rather playful grin, "Lunaris of the Pale Moon, summoner, tamer and catcher of monsters and animals both! Lovely to make your acquaintance!" Apparently she was taking lessons in being fancy if this was anything to be believed. A second wave goes to Haru, a bit more light and timid than the overly theatrical display previously.

The serious talk earns a glance to the side, there was too much of that going around already, instead she bobs her head towards Uta and dashes around to the side, "Please can we talk about how you make sure the Slimes don't glomp anyone? I want to set up my own ranch and don't want people being eaten. Also slime-foxes! We need to look at that!" Her eyes sweep over the whole premises as they enter with an utterly giddy excitement like a kid in a candy shop.

A blink goes over to Schneider and a slow thoughful look, "What exactly is a chaos gate? Heard them mentioned a few times, but aside from being in the tower.. Got no ideas."

    Mizuki glances at Lunaris. "They're in every root town... we could use them as fast travel points before the Apocalypse."

Haru notices the rather suspicious antics of Schneider and also does an inspect for the sake of completeness. He gives a short laugh and shakes his head with a smile. It takes all types. The head turns to Lunaris' entrance when the smile fades. "I'm going to check in on the equipment, Uta. Since my recent advancement there may be a few opportunities in the precision department." He runs his hand along a steril table, tapping it at the end. "Nice to see you again, Mizuki," he turns his head with a nod.

"Oh, snacks, thanks," she says, accepting the offers. She begins with the 1 x Trail Rations, too distracted to even comment on the flavor. "I... I don't know about real life. I wasn't into medicine out there. It's just... you know. I've been operating on so many refugees at the Clinic of Tolbana, and... Landers don't get the kind of Pain Dampening we do. Something NEEDS to be done for them." There's an uncanny intensity in her eyes as she explains her reasons.

"Oh, yeah, the Chaos Gates," Uta replies to Schneider. "We'll have to look at them once we are done with this research about Anesthetics. That's the most important thing to do at the moment."

"Please do, Haru. You are the expert here, and I could use some improvements. I will have a few instruments to commission once things are done."

"Chaos gates are a sort of teleport system, the way I understand it. I didn't play the game before the Apocalypse. If we got them to work, we'd have a teleport network that'd shorten travel times across kingdoms and the floors of Aincrad. An inter-alliance group tentatively named the Loosely Organized Open Network of Students-" Uta looks down and mumbles, "(we need a name with a better acronym)", then looks back at Lunaris and resumes talking normally, "is looking into a way to activate them." To Schneider: "I was thinking about something along the lines of possibly involving someone with the Hacker power. Proteus is the only one I can think of, unless someone has special items that grant similar powers; of course, there'd be the usual agreement that any findings will be shared, as per policy of the Loosely Organized Open Network of Students." She taps her chin. "I'm also wondering if we should wait until a floor of Aincrad is cleared. You know how the Otherworlders seem to be able to teleport long distances only under -those- circumastances?"

"To avoid damage to visitors and personnel, the slimes are kept in specially crafted glass receptacles," Uta says, gesturing all around to special containment glass vats. "Haru, here, is your man for this kind of work. We also keep them and in special areas," Uta says, gesturing to a pit dug in the floor. "That's the result of a building accident, but turned out to be a boon, actually. It inspired the idea for storing Gookaziroh the Exploding Slime off site."

"We definitely need to look at fox slimes and a hang glider, but, as said, they'll have to wait until after the anesthetics are done."

Wait, Uta postponing research on slimes -and- flight? That is definitely not normal.

Schneider explains to Lunaris, "A Chaos Gate was a thing that worked in the game, in previous versions, but in this latest patch got turned off. But not removed. I'm told they allow transportation between two gates, but we can't work out how to make it happen. I thought we had things moving forward when we found the last word we needed, and we got it to make a sort of start-up beep, but we can't make them do anything." He nods to Mizuki's amplification and Uta's complete explanation. "They would be very useful to us. There's Gates in the Tower also."

Haru gets a puzzled look at the short laugh, but at the mtion of instruments, he wonders, "Hey, you do instruments? How accurate can you make an altimeter?"

He nods to Uta about putting off further research until she's completed the current project. It's probably safer that way anyhow. As to clearing floors, he says, "Scale's not pushing floors until the Palace Landers are dealt with. But the Waves don't /seem/ to come in via Chaos Gate. We would have noticed."

Lunaris' ears lower ever so slightly as she sees Haru's reaction, then again at the talk of Lander's not having pain dampeners, which makes her steps stall, the over-burgeoning energy quickly just evaporates, though she does try to keep it going, just to rather little effect. "Yeah that's--. Yeah, sounds like gates would be very useful. Any reason they're called chaos gates though? I.. Don't think I'd be much help with those, but always willing to help if there's anything." A slow nod goes to the explanation about slime safety and a rather wry smile, "Fair enough. Not much I can copy there then, need to keep Monsters safe.. Containable or not."

The Cait Sithe chews her lip, finding a place to idle around and glancing over Schneider, "The Waves? And you're trying to make flying vehicles? That's.. Fascinating." Her voice isn't quite in the conversation, giving a chortle at the mention of an exploding slime, sounded about right for this place. "Teleportation would really help with the war effort though, can't deny that if it could be done. Especially since they know by now we can't.. Yet."

Haru stands over a particular instrument used for inspection. Two circular glasses align to produce magnification of objects against a glass pane that has the ability to produce back lighting. The Artificer rolls his finger over the silver frame of his purple lens as the Relic activates. White semicircles appear around the center in a slow, rotating fashion, as he Appraises the components. A deep breath and an exhale. "Second lens has a scratch," he lets Uta know as he takes out a notepad to start running the inventory list. "Otherwise it just needs a cleaning." He puts the notebook away and accesses his inventory to take out his Accessory Forging tools: an Ornate box and a leather roll containing the heavier objects like the lapidary hammer and chisel. He starts in on with a fine cloth, a light amount of water mana followed by air and earth.

"An altimeter," Haru asks as he sweeps a glass pane with the cloth, "never looked into it, but I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to make a base pressure one. As for how accurate? I'd have to make a prototype first before answering that." The Artificer draws the cloth away, doing another water and air clean up before checking through the monocle.

"I'm working on enchanted glass at the moment," Haru informs Uta, "though it is early concept stages. Originally the idea was for greenhouses for food." Like if and when people burn the fields or refugees hit deep into the foodstores. "However its also good for things like aquatic regions or the Slime vats." A consideration for Luna, "Or a petting zoo slash observation enclosure. They would be durable enough to sustain seafloor pressure."

    Oh right. Landers are hurt by this too. Realization flashes over Misuki's face as this is brought up.

    For all her fantasy of being a hero... and for all her acknowledgement that Landers were more than just NPCs...

    It is suddenly clear to her that in some ways she's still been seeing them as NPCs, in ways Uta does not.

    And Mizuki feels guilty.

    The catgirl hangs her head and closes her eyes for a moment. She mutters, "Once again, the other Alliances show that they're better at being real heroes than those of us who pushed into the Tower..."

    She can't help a bit of a smile creeping onto her face as Uta explains about the group; she places a hand on Uta's shoulder. "Hey. I'd be happy to be a LOON too, if you'll have me. Did you know the language on the chaos gates is the same as on some relics?"

    She looks away, ears flattening at the mention of Proteus.

    The reminder that Uta is prioritizing the Landers even over slimes and flight hits Mizuki right in the guilt, as if she's been scolded. Uta always seemed so airheaded, and yet she could see this more clearly than Mizuki...

"There also is an issue with opening the Chaos gates," Uta chimes in to Schneider's comment. "I understand that they work both ways. So, just as we could easily move between (and through) Yamato, Aincrad Tower, and the Palace Lands, so could our enemies."

"-Everyone- can help with the Chaos gates," Uta replies to Luna. "Literally. We've made an insane amount of progress by sharing all we found among everyone who's interested, and each time someone came up with an idea of proceed at the current state of things, and we shared the results, someone else came up with a new, original approach to tackle the next step and so on. It's been an amazing ride. One really has to give credit to Pela Clarpuff about starting this whole cooperation."

"And hey, even if you really cannot do anything yourself, which I doubt, you can always invite more people willing to share their results! Speaking of which-" She narrows her eyes. "What is it that you do with monsters at the moment, again, Lunaris?", asks Uta. "Because I'm thinking of expanding the labs to deal with more than just slimes. I will probably be needing a lot of help once the Slime Labs re-open."

"It is not about other Alliances being better or heroes," Uta replies to Mizuki. "Since the war, I've just spent most of my days in the clinic of Tolbana, operating on patients. One sees how Landers react to pain from morning to evening, and it took me all this time to realize that -something- could actually be done!"

"And we would be more than glad to have you among us, Mizuki! The more, the merrier. As said, only requirement is not to hoard knowledge, but share it among the group." She taps her chin. "We are aware that the language on the Chaos Gates is the same as the Songs of Yamato and other special items. Did not know about -relics- specifically. We are building a dictionary associating pronunciation-writing-meaning for words. We have all the words in the chaos gates sorted out in the first two columns, not much in the third. But we do have something. That said- relics... no, I did not know about relics specifically. This is new information and might help in expanding our knowledge. What relics would these be? Do you know what the writings say?"

Uta winces at the mention of scratched glass. "Yikes. More expenses... can't wait until the war is over and this place can be profitable again."

"Still. Enchanted glass. Hmm. Sounds fascinating. I had kind of planned to work on a microscope at some point. I wonder if glass enchanted with Light would-" She shakes her head. "But this is not the right moment for it. I'd be interested in learning about your progress with enchanted glass -- especially if, as you mention, it might lead to improved instrumentation." And as Haru proceeds to list the possible applications to slimes, Uta's eyes- they... glaze over, as if she couldn't follow the discussion (which, considering it's about -slimes-, is not normal).

"...that reminds me," she says to Haru. "I think that existing hypodermic syringes might not be a perfect fit for anesthetics. I might need a few modifications to the base design. I'll have to talk to you about that later."

Schneider shrugs to Lunaris as she seems impressed by flying vehicles. "As long as it works with mundane physics, it works," he explains. "Though outside the Tower, there's a more serious problem when you get any sort of useful altitude." Which is why he wants an altimeter. "What we've made so far, of course is just what the tech level will support - basically blimps and the like, but we're working on a gliding wing design that hopefully will lead to something like an airplane. Uta's flown with us before, and of course Spriggans come with built-in parachutes in case there's a problem." Amusingly, Schneider has built mundane parachutes, for use in emergecies. But Uta wants to fly more than anyone else Schneider knows, so he's offering her the first test flight.

To Haru, he sighs at a pressure altimeter, and says, "Two problems with that - one, even modern ones are plus or minus a hundred feet, and two, they vary with the weather. We'd really need something like a radar altimeter level of precision, to accurately alert us if we're going too high. I had thought with magic, you could at least get us a tighter accuracy window." And then again, it occurs to him, "Can you make a thing that will detect a relic at work?"

As far as Hackering the Chaos Gates, he agrees, "That may be our only choice, I am out of guesses. But yes," he agrees with Uta, telling the others, "If we can use them, enemies can use them, so we should be wary how and where we experiment. We've kept it in the Tower, so far." He's new to the game also, so he doesn't have the background that many players have that did play earlier versions.

Mizuki gets a puzzled look, but he has no idea what's going on. He missed something, apparently. But "Alvish on relics? Not too surprising."

"At the moment I just.. Tame creatures for myself I guess. Got a ranch in the works, but it's a thought at the moment. I'd need some sorta monster pacification field to keep people safe since some Monsters are exceptionally dangerous. Like those corrupting spiders and similar.." Lunaris replies to Uta with a slow breath, usually she'd be all but bouncing at the idea, but at the moment she was far lower energy than that. "A ranch for breeding, creature products and studying various monsters. Though it's a long way off for now, trying to find leads for something that could at least control Monsters en masse." A small smile goes to the mention of helping with the gates and she gives a small shrug, "I'd need direction. Don't know the first thing about the Gates, or where to look, or ask. Don't know anything about the Alvs to start with! Or hacking."

Haru's mention gets a subtle bob of her head, nervous almost, "I'll.. Think about it when I get somewhere with the designs. But likely not going to be for a good year or so." Schneider's talk of Spriggans and parachutes gets a soft chuckle, "Right! They're good for that. Must be terrifying trying things out. Are there many monsters that you have to deal with that also fly about? Making armoured flight would be tough.."

    Mizuki's mood is lifted by Uta's enthusiasm. She detransforms, and pulls the collar of her shirt down. "It's kind of mixed in with my were fang tattoo, but here at my throat, see... I got this by solving a musical puzzle a few days before the apocalypse... no one else every mentioned encountering it. It gives me the [Song] skill even though I'm a Ninja Thief. And thank goodness for that... My computer skills are useless in here, so it's nice that I get to keep *one* of my talents from outside." If Uta starts peering closely or even taking notes, Mizuki says, "Err, wait, you don't have to, I already took down notes and copied it! You can borrow them and make a copy when we're done here."

    "I think I saw some inscribed on a lute people got from the bard that was at the end of the rat sewers sometimes, I'd have to check my notes." She shakes her head. "I never did figure out what any of it said, though."

    Schneider mentions the problem with flying. "Monsters attack, right? Is it always those gargoyle-things from the Tower?" She considers altimeters. "Radar might be hard to do, but could you use Light magic to make a laser-based rangefinder? Although I don't actually know how those worked..."

Haru slowly turns his head to Schneider as he manages to condescend the craftsman at the same time of asking for him to do more things. "Sorry Schneider, not on my to-do list," he says with a manufactured smile. "You can place your requests and parameters of them at Miho's shop. We'll get back to you when we get back to you." He had no intention of making things the Old World way and explaining that sounds like a lost cause. He turns to the pane before doing a final low gust of wind over the top. To Uta he notes, "Yeah these instruments can rack up quite a bit of materials. At least you have a direct source on the labor now, eh?"

On the enchanted glass, Haru points to the magnification device he is working on, "You could work on the back lighting on this device and adjust the curvature of the lenses to get a similar effect. It is doable in as a Moonlight Goldsmith. It'll take some Enchanting too, I imagine. Really all this precision gear could go for some." Light though? Not Haru's first choice.

Haru carefully works out the scratched lens and puts it on a cloth. "I'm sure you will, Luna," he says as he checks his back if a resin and smoothing can repair the lens without replacing it. "When you have an idea that requires that kind of service, just drop it off at Miho's shop with the specifics." He considers informing about already having a pacification field researched but after a pause he carries on.

"That's the issue with Monsters. One needs a Handler to constantly force their will on them through magical means, or they'll attack. I am not aware of any persistent magical means to pacify them, in fact, all the lessons in Monster Handling I got were along the lines of 'Monsters cannot be pets, monsters cannot be your friend." She glances towarsd Haru, whose research she's completely unaware of. "Maybe some Enchantment could help there, though... I've never really looked into that sort of thing. I wanted to study slimes in their natural habitat, free from magical pollution of their behaviour." A pause. "Oh, Setsuna also did some research about rings to control monsters better. You might want to talk to him too, just in case?"

Uta does, in fact, examine Mizuki's tattoo with interest. "Hmmm. Interesting. Fascinating. Good point, let's add it to our corpus!" She frowns. "I... uh... I feel like there's something I should be commenting about this, but... but..." She rubs her temples, as concentrating gets harder. She looks around, and what she finally says, raising a syringe, is, "...anyone hurting at the moment, and would like to stop?" She raises a second syringe with the other hand, "...or anyone not hurting but would like to start? I can work either way."

"For measuring altitude in a simple way... how about we paint a giant 'graduated cylinder' pattern on Aincrad, and we see which one is level with our eyes?"

Seems like Uta his having troubles NOT thinking about her Pharmacy endeavours. Even if this leads to patently impractical proposals.

Schneider shrugs to Lunaris about it being terrifying trying things out. "Why would it be? But yeah, flying monsters are /the/ problem with flying. Outside the Tower. Inside, it's free and clear." He gestures over to Mizuki's mentioning the gargoyle-like things from the Tower, and nods to her. "Those, yeah. They don't seem to care as long as you stay low enough. But if you get too high, bam."

He nods about light as a basis for a rangefinder, and says, "In principle radar is just another flavor of light. The problem is, the smaller wavelegth of light doesn't reflect the same off various types of ground, so it's less consistent. Radar's got much longer waves, so it's less succeptible to surface variations." As far as how they work, he explains, "It's a timing thing. You send a beam down, you time how long it takes to get reflected back. You know how fast it's going, the speed of light, so the time it takes is how far up you are." He looks guilty, and mumbles, "I interned at an avionics manufacturer, so I guess I'm a bit of a dork for that."

Haru's reply earns a shrug, he's not put out, it seems. "Don't worry about it, that, at least, is low on our priorities also. It would have been useful, but not essential." As far as doing things the Old World way, the interesting thing is that while no one's been able to fly with magic, the Old World way of flying has worked perfectly fine, and so he'll continue to do things that work.

Uta's idea for marking Aincrad draws a slow shake of his head, and he says, "You'd need to know you were looking straight at the guage, not angled up or ... oh wait, that's easy enough with a sight-level. We can make those simply enough. So, yeah, that'd work."

"That's accurate. It wouldn't tame them, not even going to pretend that or make them friendly. It'd be an area of effect sedative at best, making Monsters too.. Lazy to attack. Or discourage attacking specifically. Not tame, not at all. Just make them less prone to attacking within that certain area," Lunaris explains a little more longwinded this time, her hands shifting with the example, mostly making circles to show a contained area. "Control rings I thought about, the problem is insect monsters. Say they lay eggs, and spawn are hostile as soon as they hatch.. You've then got an issue, we need something that affects everything in an area, collar or not. It's beyond what we currently have to work with."

The talk of flying monsters earns a tap on her cheek and a thoughtful nod, "You think I could just tame a flying monster and ride that..? That's got to be too easy right? But.. Huh.." Lost in thought for the moment the Cait Sithe leans back against a wall, pondering away to herself before blinking and looking over to Mizuki, "You got a tattoo from a puzzle? That's cool! And yeah.. Use of.." Pause, blinking she shakes her head and instead adds, "Gargoyles sound like a nightmare to defend from. Not like they're even easy to fight, and heavy already.."

"An Enchantment would work," Haru says as he applies a drop of alchemical resin onto the lens and evokes very precise Earth mana against the lens. He doesn't continue into a polish between Wind and Earth finishes the repair. "You would have to first have an applicable Wave Arte to Pacify and Enchant it to pulse out an area of effect at a distance. I pulled the Arte off recently." The lens is set back in place with a barely audible 'click'. He turns to Uta. "I'm sure Luna would rather find a solution her own way, though I can do a test run with the Labs. Install a module at the top of a vat, see how mana efficient it would be since those Enchantments still need to be recharged."

The Artificer nods to Schneider, "Sounds good. Altitude measurements are going to be an interesting challenge. It makes me wonder if there is a way to handle it with a simple 'sea level' calbiration with Earth Artes and either sonic or radar-like effects with Dark or Song." He gives it a shrug. "Fun project to tackle but further down the list." He starts rolling his tools back up as he lets Uta know, "All done on this station. You sticking around for a bit?"

    Aincrad, the flying Graduated Cylinder. Mizuki looks at Uta. "How would we measure the alititude to know where to put the marks in the first place? If we can even reach the outside without flying in the first place..." She looks at Schneider, not minding the nerdiness. "I figured something like that, but I don't know how you make a clock that can time things in nanoseconds... or even smaller. Light's pretty fast... do we even know if that works the same way here? Hell, has anyone actually replicated basic experiments to know if light works the same way and there's no ether? Or even the double slit experiment..."

"Sedation? Count me in!", Uta exclaims, sringes ready to sink into something or someone. "I have been looking into magical Song-based means of sedation as well, perhaps..." She trails off.

"Anyway, Lunaris -- we haven't found animals or monsters that satisfy all the conditions of being airborne, large enough to function as a ride, and within our ability to capture them," Uta mumbles. "The most promising creatures are the Wyverns on floor seven of Aincrad. There's even a book with a fairy tale about the Wyvern Riders of Londonia. Again, you might want to ask Setsuna about this." She grumbles. "Those things keep evading any attempt at capture..."

"I... I don't know," Uta admits at Mizuki, scratching her head. "It was just... uh... an idea."

"Anyway!", Uta says. "Haru, I might stick around, but first, I need to go check on Not Stolen. Gave him a Peko-sized dose of experimental sedatves, and gotta check on him just in case." She turns to the rest of the group, "Schneider and Haru... you're in the LOONS already, you can probably update Lunaris and Mizuki on the latest developments. Hand out the Alv dictionary table we have compiled up to now, if you have it available, if not I'll have to look for it. Hand out the materials we have, explain techniques... or set up an appointment to do so in the future," she says, as she begins to fish medicinal herbs out of her belt. "Hit me up when flight is available. Sounds like someone might get hurt and need being operated on," she says, before heading out of the door, munching on the snack Schneider offered earlier, now that the 1 x Trail Rations are over.

Schneider smirks to Lunaris and says, "The problem with capturing Tower Flyers is you might tame one, and the other several hundred will rip you to pieces. They show up in packs. We fought off two waves before they took us down, before," he shares, looking to Uta. He's not sure if she, in her current mood, will recall that adventure.

He nods to Haru abuot the altiimeter project being interesting to tackle. "With Air magic, there's /probably/ a way to just draw the information out with a spell. But there's a limit to how much magical research I can do at a time, and that time is spoken for." With Fire magic spells, almost certainly.

Mizuki draws a hrm, and he says, "You're right, I hadn't considered that side of the experiment. I'd always taken timing for granted. It was just a module you attached. But yeah, when you say it like that, there's a hundred and fifty years, roughly, of experiments we'd need to redo to find out what's simulated and what's what." As far as marking the Tower, he says, "That much we can probably do with a scaffold."

He nods to Uta, and will fish trhough his inventory to hand over the ALv dictionary he has. He has spare copies back at the Scale Library. "As far as updates, I'm not really clear on what we're doing, myself, most of the time. This place mixes me up and it's hard to keep track of anything. I'm not used to games, I played basketball back in the real world. That's the level of compication I'm used to."

Lunaris' brow creases at Haru in vague confusion, waving a hand in the air, "I'd take all the help that I can get Haru. There's times for pride in work, but this is something I want to help Landers and Adventurers. If we can do it well enough then the ranch will provide some rather strategic resources. Maybe.. Not to the level other people can do, or as fast. But everyone has been telling me that everything helps, so doing what little I can." A shrug at that, it was something that likely wouldn't be done any time soon and the whole war was a much higher priority to her. But there are certainly some useful potentials there.

Uta's mention of sedation makes her smile, tail flicking from side to side, "Ah! That would be cool, could be the pied piper of monsters! Don't know the first thing about music myself though, just taming. Even won a contest back in the day!" A soft half giggle, bobbing her head at the explanation of flying monsters, "Ohh, please tell me if you find out anything about the--... Are the Wyverns accessible in the tower? Would love to see some!" Then offering a wave as she heads out and a little bow of her head. Schneider's point gets a sympathetic smile, her question answered, "Any chance you're going back there? If so let me know! Even seeing them might help. Would love to find a way to tame them properly.."

    Mizuki looks at Shcneider. "Did you say two waves? That sounds like progress from the time I participated, just two of the gargoyles was enough to take us down..."

Haru gives Uta a sharp salute in playful response to her orders. "Aye aye," the man with the monocle says with a grin. "And by that I mean, sounds like Schneider has it covered," he says as the turns to finish packing his tools up. There is a bit of a blink as he listens to Lunaris' response about being receptive to input as a response to input. "Sure thing, Luna, and when you figure out what help that is, exactly, feel free to reach out and we can see what can be done. Outside suggestions aren't really your style is all," he says with a smile on his face.

"They sound tough," Haru says to Mizuki. A hand is raised to Uta as he notes, "Also on the way out. I figured that good company would help keep things secure while I focus on the stations here. I'll chim you over some suggestions. Its mostly time and materials. Better to get ahead of this before I start getting a swath of head accessory requests lining up. That process is... draining." He taps his forehead there.

Schneider smirks to Lunaris, and says, "You should get with Setsuna if you want to tame Wyverns. I think he's done a lot of thinking on that subject. /Some/ wyverns can be ridden, but I do not know if the ones on the seventh floor are that type. Setsuna may know more." He nods to Mizuki, and says, "Yeah, that was the first experiment. The second time, we were expecting them, and brought a /lot/ of firepower." And when Scale brings a lot of firepower, you know they gave something what for. "But each wave was stronger than the last, and eventually, they overwhelmed us before we'd gotten ... well, it was probably a day and change in time, honestly. For short flights far from the Tower, it's actually viable." He nods to Haru, and says to the others, "Any LOON-y questions, let me know."

Lunaris folds her arms with a bite of her lip at Haru's response, "Since when? I'm fine with people's input, but you know last week I learnt that we can -die- and I had no idea for years! That people have been doing so and I haven't helped because I was too dumb to notice. And everything I suggest people have already done, a-and I feel really useless. I just thought this place was.. A utopia or whatever. An escape. And it.. isn't. So maybe I've sounded self-centered or desperate to come up with something, that's why and I'm sorry. It's just a lot." She looks away at that, her ears lowering as she lets out a shaky breath trying to hold herself together. It wasn't something she was particularly good at.

Scratching the back of her neck she nods to Schneider, "Definitely planning on meeting her, been sounding like we have a lot in common. It's really good to know other people in the.. Field? I guess? Plus lets be honest, who hasn't dreamed or read about being a dragon-rider. Wyvern's are the same family. Kind of. I won't deny that's incredibly tempting," a small smile manages to break through, "Maybe we can talk about.. LOON at some point? Didn't want to volunteer without knowing more, but research is right up my alley."

    Mizuki blinks at Lunaris. "What do you mean, you didn't notice people could *die*? ...Oh, you mean the Landers." She starts to look guilty again, then "Wait, I *have* tried to prevent that, even if I could have been doing more.."

    She gives Lunaris an increasingly-confused look. "Where have you been all this time? Did you not talk to anyone? ...I guess if you're the hermit-ing type you could have gone out in the woods and just lived since the Apocalypse, huh..."

Schneider smirks to Lunaris, and explains, "Setsuna's a guy." It's one of those names that goes either way, like Jamie in English. "But yeah, you've got a lot to talk about, I'm sure. Don't sweat being behind the curve, we're all playing catchup here. It's like drinking from a firehose, just do what you can, and rely on your Alliance when you need help." He looks between Lunaris and Haru, and says to Haru with a grin, "So, take care of her, she's yours."

To Mizuki, he says, "Well, if -we- get killed enough, we become Landers, and can die for real, also." He was assuming that's what Lunaris meant? To Lunaris, she says, "That hasn't happened on Yamato, that I know of, so you haven't failed anyone yet. It's happened to Palace Landers, I've heard, but before we had access to their server, so we couldn't have done anything to help."

Haru listens to Luna for a time. He waves a hand towards Mizuki, "That we can die, lose memories, and become Crowned. That the stakes are higher than 'no consequences'." He draws two fingers to the side of his temples as he consider a better set of words, "Here is some outside input: You don't have to figure it all out in a day. When I say 'this isnt you style', I am saying that you appear overwhelmed and easily excitable. Those two things? They don't do well in the listening or collaboration department. Add in pride?" He shakes his head, "You will find your feet and when you do, you'll be running just fine and the same qualities I just mentioned will be working with you, not against you."

The Artificer motions to Schneider, "That. Right there. He is right." He coughs. Must have been something in his throat. "I'm saying relax or at least find a way to take it down two notches. New World has your back. As do the LOONS, if you want to get in on that action."

Lunaris gives Mizuki a rather small smile as she pretty much guesses the whole thing, "Yeah I.. Well, had my own reasons for that one. And sure I knew we could die and Landers could, but wars? Things like that I didn't know. Plus the whole dying and becoming Lander's thing ourselves. Though it's good to hear that no one has died like that at least over here. But still.." Rubbing the bridge of her nose and sounding rather exasperated at this point. "Tian broke it to me, very thankful for them but hearing actual mind control exists? That's.. Awful. That's worse than people dying and we have a lot of adventurer's struggling with that right now and.. Nevermind however many have died.." With that she starts pacing around the room, frowning in thought.

Haru's point gets an almost confused look, and a rather slow blink. "Who wouldn't be overwhelmed about a war.. And I'm just excitable because people probably wouldn't like me otherwise. I don't really know how else.." She runs a hand through her hair, going quiet and appearing to regret mentioning that part, giving a simple shrug instead. "Anyway, whatever. I'll figure things out one way or another."

Schneider assures Lunaris with a grin, "We'd like you just the same if you were calm, cool, and unflappable. Please don't feel the need to spaz on our accout." But with things winding down, he will head out. "Take it easy," he says to everyone, and will head out, himself.

Haru's blue eye watches Luna pace around the room. With Schneider's departure, he raises a hand in a wave. "Take it easy," he tells him. The Artificer takes a leaning pose up against a door frame in the Slime Labs. "Vicious cycle, that. Excited to the point of overwhelming. Shut down. Push people away. Figure it out yourself." A foot taps against the ground. Tap tap. Tap. There is advice he doesn't even take himself that causes him to slowly close one blue eye. "There are other people out there that feel the same way that you do about the war and the crimes against living things. There are people who believe that the war is 'a bit much' or that they have to wear a mask to get by socially," he says to slowly draw out the point. "You can take that as 'those feelings are not unique' or take that as 'not being alone in feeling that way'. Your choice. Hell you can get so excitable about it to take it as the third moon of Jupiter is causing solar misconfigurations in the cosmospheres so lets all walk on our hands. Maybe you just need someone to listen about what is -really- bothering you so its easier to 'figure things out' as a member of group. Because we are all in this together. Doing it alone just disconnected you up until now. Not something you want to repeat, I imagine." He shrugs, "Maybe you do. Its your life. Its a real rough spot to be in to want to help someone that doesn't want to be helped." The man stops and thinks. A finger rolls in a circle in front of him. "Just don't get yourself killed in a self denial of service attack. Doing the paperwork while Shiruba is busy with the gnolls is a real pain in the ass." The later part didn't sound serious. Probably.

Lunaris gives Schneider a wave as they head out. "Nice meeting you. Talk another time? I'll see if Shiruba or someone wants to help with the Wyverns. No apologies if we get sky-bound first," she giggles at that, quieter than usual but all the same. "And.. It's not just for.. Well.. I like it too. Makes me feel more confident rather.. Anyway. See you around."

With that she shakes her head at Haru and lets out a soft breath, "I think you've got me wrong. I've.. Not done a thing without help. Just because I sound like I'm unplanned doesn't mean it's true! Admittedly I don't have much on but research right now, but you know," her eyes glance over to the organisation chart to read down the list, giving a soft snort of approval. "All I'm doing is getting to know people at the moment! And yes I feel crap about the war but who doesn't? It's.. Awful. Am I gonna march over there as a one person army? No. Am I going to research and figure out ways to try and beat this war? Definitely." Then she pauses and glances back to Haru with a half shrug, "That's why I volunteer for everything on our comms. It's what I can do. Anyway! Heading off to the library, see you another time!" And with that she shifts towards the door herself, "Oh! And that project I was doing? Worked through it and it mostly needs artisan work and such, the enchanting part was covered by the material we used. Though thanks for offering back then!"

    Mizuki nods sympathetically as Lunaris lays out the horror of learning mind control was real. "Yeah, I felt the same way when I found out. It's fucking *cartoon evil* and it's real. Robotnik wants to roboticize us all. It hits differently when you think about *life* in such a world rather than 20-minute stories of the heroes fighting for a better world on screen."

    "And I was just commenting to Uta about how America and Japan haven't had to worry about a war -- not like this -- in our lifetimes..."

    Mizuki blinks. "Um. Would you like a hug? Would that help? I'm covered in soft fur, good for hugging, I might as well make use of it."

Haru's blue eye just looks at Luna. He shakes his head, "A wrong observation? Color me surprised." Haru takes a deep breath and exhales, "A test of patience. Every time. I just just start thinking about this as training." As amusing as he finds the idea, he offers a shrug to Luna. "I look forward to seeing what it is you figure out. It'll be something." Back to where they started. Sum zero. "Mizuki, again, a pleasure," and with that he stops leaning on the door frame. He was trying to slide out a while back, but a few more minutes isn't hurting much. Karen needs tending to and there are things back in town that he needs to get done.

And with that very kind offer from Mizuki, Lunaris rotates where she is and wraps the Werefang in a tight hug, all that energy appearing to reassert itself instantly, "Yes! A hug sounds wonderful!" Her fluffy tail swaying far too happily at that single offer, "Thank you!" It really was about what she needed to deal with everything right now, and she was hardly about to deny that, whether they had just met or not, then bursts into a soft giggle, "Then you get free hug rights whenever you need it too! Though I really need to be going to that library today." That bit more of a grumble, what a moment to interrupt. With that she nods and heads off properly, then she glances back at Haru and waves, "Your free to help! But literally not got much going on. The ranch can't start until we've got Shibuya back after all. And my research isn't.. Actually that important. Just my own interests. See you around!"

    Mizuki smiles, pleasantly surprised as her hug offers have never received *this* enthusiastic a response, and embraces the foxgirl warmly. Smiling and with the tip of her tail twitching even after they let go. "What *is* your research, anyway?"