A brief inspection

     The Village of Eas. Not necessarily a hub of Scale Emblem activity, but this is where Demonrose Honami had ended up starting her Fey Mood, and she didn't seem particularly inclined to move at the moment. As such, she holed up in one of the rooms of one of the blacksmiths in town, where she has been working with and purchasing materials and assistance with creating the more picky pieces of gear for her project. She is relatively easy to find, as there is soft music coming from the back room she's working in. Not the sound of the music box she's working on, but her movements, her actions, even the taps of her tiny hammer or the gentle adjustments with a pair of pliers were musical in nature, quietly repeating the same musical notes over and over, snippets and parts of a song, though never the complete thing at once. Presently she is sitting at a workbench, carefully adjusting and putting together several gears and springs in the music box, nearby her are several mostly-deconstructed failed attempts, parts salvaged and reused for new attempts. Very little is wasted, even the things she deems unworthy of the perfection the box must be simply being melted down to create new gears, springs, or pegs.

Rumors being what they are, Robert has been looking for Honami. One might think it rather difficult to miss a young lady of her...ah...distinctive manner and attire. And yet--probably as a consequence of her focus--the usual dramatics are perhaps missing. He'd nearly given up on tracking her for the day when the tinkling of something familiar reached his ear. Perhaps it was the tune. Perhaps simply the nearly-forgotten memory of what a music-box sounds like.

Regardless, he makes his way over and readily catches sight of his quarry. He does not approach, not yet. Instead he simply drops to a half-kneel, half-squat, regarding her with a furrowed brow and pursed lips. It's an attentive stare. Perhaps too attentive. But it's also cooly analytical as it rests on her, assessing her general state. Health. Cleanliness. Hunger.

     Attentive, silent. Honami is almost too clean, everything is pristine, not a single speck of dust was allowed in her area, not a single bit of grease that wasn't supposed to be there. Gloves on her hands, and pristine, carefully cleaned tools. She's not /starving/ thankfully, likely due to the blacksmith that is now also watching Bob as he approaches and kneels like that. The soft sound of a sword being grabbed and a hand resting on its pommel can be heard, though the scrape of the sword being drawn does not follow. "Ye know ye should announce yerself before ye just kneel on the floor of a business." The gnome comments, while Honami continues to obliviously work away. "The lady is working hard right now, getting her attention might be difficult."

"I don't want her attention until she's done," Robert answers, evidently having been satisfied by whatever it is that he sees. "She's busy." He straightens, then, pulling himself to his feet and inclining his torso forwards in a bow. "I've been rude to you and your business, and you have my apologies." His eyes slide sideways to linger on Honami once more. "She looks clean. And fed. To whom do I owe thanks?"

     "S'fair. I'm guessin' yer one of her friends and just checkin' in to make sure that the lady's not starvin' or anythin' right?" The blacksmith responds. Once he stands up and bows, the gnome returns the act. "She's been keepin' herself clean. Real' obsessive, usin' that cleanin' spell every hour or so. I've left a bit of food here and there, mostly donated from the village." The blacksmith waves away that apology. "No harm no foul, though y'almost took a blade to the side."
     Almost as if on cue, Honami does, in fact, pause in her work. The music stops. And Honami starts to carefully clean up any metal shavings caused in her efforts, a small brush used to carefully brush out the internals of the music box, each bit of metal shaving put into another, smaller box, and any dust that's accumulated is similarly carefully, painstakingly cleaned up. As she turns to walk out with that box, she doesn't seem to notice Bob at first as she moves. That is until she nearly runs into him. "...Oh! Hi Bob! ... Sorry, I've just been so focused. Uhm... here." She holds out that box of metal shavings out to the blacksmith, who takes it and empties it into a bin. There's a fair amount of brass and copper shavings and spills in the bin. Very little going to waste in the entire operation.

SpritesHero goes hazy-eyed for a brief moment, but supposes that 'friends' is as good as any a description for their relationship. And so he simply inclines his head to indicate the affirmative. "Knew I should've brought healing potions with me," he jokes, though there's no joke about the way he eyes the blacksmith's blade. Teasing aside, he clears his throat and continues.

"Heard a rumor she had her mood. Didn't see her in any of the usual spots, and it took a while to track her down. Thank you for making sure she's...well." He gestures in Honami's direction. "Hypothetically, if I wanted to thank this village for their donations, how would I do it?"

It's at this point that Honami nearly runs into him. He side-steps, but not quickly enough, and it's her attention that saves the pair from a collision. "Honami," he greets her, with polite courtesy. Only that and little more. Evidently he assumes she's still in her hyper-focus state.

     "Uh. The village itself? I think that ye'd have to get with the Baroness, she does a lot've the organization in the area, so she'd probably have good ideas. I'm in my shop most of the day." The gnome chuckles after that, glancing over towards Honami. "Even more so with her here." She may just have been working the Gnome to the bone, though they don't seem too upset about it.
     Honami, meanwhile, nods in response to that polite courtesy, even dipping into a bit of a curtsey herself. "I've been okay, the village has been a lovely place for inspiration. Nice and fresh and beautiful here and if things go wrong and the palace landers attack I'll already be here to help out." She nods. And then abruptly turns and walks back into her workshop, though she pauses to make sure to brush her shoes off before she steps back into the spotless room.

SpritesHero outright grimaces at that point, eyeing Honami's retreating back. "She's usually a heck of a fighter," he reflects, half to the gnome and half to himself. "But at this point not sure it's a good idea having her run off to fight the Crowned folks." Finally he tears his gaze away, and permanently this time.

"Many thanks for your help. And for keeping an eye on her," he responds to the gnome once more, pulling a scrap of paper out of his inventory and handing it over. "If anything goes wrong, I can be reached at this address. I was thinking to drop off supplies in the morning now that Honami's been found. Do you mind if I just set it down over there?" One eybrow arches, and he indicates the least occupied corner with his eyes.

     "Oh, yeah, no, we don't intend to let her fight if a battle does come, but she still knows what's important." The blacksmith responds, watching her settle back into the work, more of that musical tinkering resuming. One might wonder if even her heartbeat is synched to that song at this point. "Yeah. Ye can drop off supplies. That corner's fine. So long as you don't go droppin' like, stuff that'll rot away quickly or anything."

Amusement flares. "I'm tempted to drop off boxes of powerbars," he muses, in the nonsensical and inexplicable way that Adventurers seem to. "But she'd probably murder me. I'll keep it simple." Touching his forehead, Robert bows to the gnome again in farewell, then pivots about to pass back outside into the busy street.

     "Murder ye? Nah, don't think so. She seems too gentle for that. Even when she's bein' all weird. I mean, sure, she's a good fighter, but y'know. Difference between a fighter'n a murderer. Even figuratively." Then again, the Blacksmith doesn't know her as well, so maybe she would! "Have a good night."