An Accessory to the Kaws

Artificer's Log. Game Date: Four Hundred One, November 15th. We have explored vast regions of Yamato and come to one conclusion: Fighting airborne monsters is universally a pain over the ground based ones. For one, they have a whole lot of space up there to move and dodge. Secondly they tend to move fast. Lastly they have less health which means all the big sweeping attacks feel ike a waste. However birb monsters are great sources of feathers. Thus Haru is out there, standing in an open field and pelting monsters with ranged attacks. A dark blast from his recently trained elemental prowess downs a single black birb which erupts into feathers and a little bit of experience.

"Its not you, its me!" he yells at the birds that are kawing at him angrily. "Because if my aim gets any better you are all going to be buckets of dark meat." The white haired man is having a good time yelling at the monsters. Its mostly himself there /for now/ so this sort of solo play is a nice way to wind down. He invited Uta over, of course, because good company is even better.

"Did you get a gig as a scarecrow?", Uta asks, puzzled, without the slightest hint of sarcasm as she approaches from the distance. She sincerely believed each word of that sentence. "Wow, the Landers are -really- relying on us Adventurers for... everything, pretty much. Hopefully is a Porcelain-grade quest. Or the monster situation has -really- gotten out of hand..."

Since the time of the end of her Strange Mood, Uta got herself an upgraded nurse's outfit. The details? Well, stay tunded until the Applicant gets around to decide them and prepare new references!

This won't be like the last two times an upgrade was due and the deadline just wooshed by. Uh-un. This is relevant to the plot. Just like the last one that was missed, technically.

Still, this time will be different! Because it has been posed so!

The white haired Artificer is tracking a crow-like monster that is flying around. One of his four floating orbs begins to move in the same pattern before a bolt of purplish black energy crackles out and cracks into its body. Haru turns over his shoulder and smiles to the Uta, "Not a Hunters Guild request this time around," he admits, "I am farming for raw materials. Feathers make for a flexible base in accessory forging." A hand taps the feather pinion on his shirt, a device he has been known to use alongside his Fire Sprite summon. "Of the things I am up to these days, it does seem rather simple, doesnt it?" A bird respawns and the human turns to face it. Track. Fire down. Splat.

"Almost hard to believe this was the norm a few months back, that and doing gathering. Anything really rare I had to buy so the crafting tended to break even with enough to buy more stuff." Another birb. Splat. Target practice. "The Hunter's Guild work was a nice form of extra income, but..." and he turns to face Uta to ignore the next couple spawns, "...thats a very boring tale. You look good. New outfit?" A hand motions over to the new Nurse outfit. Upgraded for maximum Kung Fu nurse times.

"I did not know you had the Hunting skill," Uta comments. "And even if you were to go through the uphill tasks of trying to get decent drops without the Hunting skill, yes, it does quite simple in comparison to..."

She gestures.

"New outfit," Uta confirms. "While undeniably being a symbolic representation of my growth as a character, its primary nature is that of a cunning marketing ploy to sell more toys over the festivities. Gotta prod that merchandise-driven income.", Uta rattles out, deadpan, hands behind her back, while looking straight ahead.

After some silence, she then bursts into laughter and shakes her head. "Just kidding. Gwen struck." She looks down at herself, uncertain, as she spreads her arms. "I am not sure about it, to be honest, but... it's a gift from a friend. And gift from friends have high sentimental values to m- oh, that reminds me!"

Uta fiddles with the double-note pin with slimes resting on the lapel of her uniform, until she manages to uncasp it. As she offers it to Haru, she asks, "Think you could convert this into a hairpin? I think that, given my fighting style, it would be safer if worn that way..."

Haru lacks the Hunting skill and the Mining skill. Herbology or Farming. Gathering materials has always taken a lot of time for him. Purchasing them isn't much better with no Mercantile. Yet even if he isn't built for it, it didn't stop Haru from putting in more effort. A common theme with the man with the monocle to not let the cards one is delt keep him from pushing forward.

"I don't know, I think if Gwen started making Uta plushies that they would fly off of the shelves," Haru humors his sister, running a finger along his monocle as it to give the new attire a full appraisal. "Sign me up for two when it hits the markets." Then a finger snap, "Or we could bring back those UFO catcher things and stuff them with popular characters like yourself, Fuka, Gwen, and Pela." Limited addition Pela doll can be yours for just 10 tries at the game! It doesnt take long for his mind to go drift on a tangent like a cloud in the sky. It drifts back down to orbit at the mention of the pin. He holds a hand open, looking at it a moment. That was the first set of gifts he gave his new friends. The firecracker earrings and this slime pin. "Its an easy enough conversion for a /Moonlight Goldsmith/," he preens, taking a moment to celebrate his victories. "Though it reminds me, I don't think I did a good job of considering your feelings in the matter with all the paramour stuff going on," he says somewhat out of left field.

"I bet a lot of people come to you about thier relationship situations because you are such a good listener. But," the young man runs his finger along the pin for a moment as he carefully removes the affixing clasp behind the pin, "not the situation it may put you in to be the listener." He focuses on the pin for a moment and considers the hairpin length. "Look at me a moment," he says as he considers, carelessly adding in, "do you have your eyes on anyone in the greater Yamato area?" A hand gestures forward, brushing back Uta's hair with his fingertips, gauging where the pin would better settle. Being this close shows just how focused he can be when working. It might be the only time he isn't thinking about what weighs him down. Gives the active mind something to do with itself.

Uta laughs at the suggestion that the plushies would fly off the shelves. A nerdy, but genuine laugh that continues when the other Adventurers are named. "It would be pretty embarrassing if the plushies flew and -I- couldn't," she chimes in, to roll with the joke.

When the discussion takes a turn for the people coming to Uta for relationship advice, her look is one of surprise at a correct assessment. When Haru asks to be looked at, she complies, and when the final part hits, well-

The look of surprise in Uta's eyes when the last question is dropped is undeniable. Emotions shift quickly, although elusive to discern. Whatever it was, however, it seems like Haru struck another one of those corners of her soul Uta was not expectingg anyone to hit.

Eye contact is broken, instinctively, then resumed almost later. Broken, resumed. At first by tilting her head, slightly, then resuming the previous position. Than merely by a turn of the eyes.

"Not really, no," she finally admits, reluctant. "Probably for the best. So I can be the listener everyone needs." Gaze lost in the distance, she reprises, "Maybe this is what the Game Logic, or the Goddesses, or whoever controls the Random Generator meant me to be. They picked on my utter lack of a romantic life, even before the Apocalypse, and made me a Godhand. A Monk of sorts. A secluded life, devoted to books and discipline. The 'Kung-Fu' part of the Musical Kung-Fu Nurse." The confidence she had accrued as she rattled out the last part of the explanation wavers a little when Haru brushes Uta's hair. Just a little, as expected by someone who is not used to physical contact. But after that initial moment, she does not do anything else. Just like a sister would when her accessory forging brother had to work on her hairpin.

Haru keeps a steady gaze on Uta with the one blue eye. There is such detail in the eyes that its hard to believe this is, or was, a game world. Each little fiber of the iris is seen like the waves of a chaotic ocean. Yet almost no detail on his other eye behind that thick wall of amethyst. A natural blinking after intense focus before the Artificer's hand retracts with the head of the pin still in his hand. "That may or may not be reality," Haru says as he smiles, "but what I didn't hear is that it is what you wanted. Rather, the cards you were delt." That part he gets. Probably a good part of thier sibling bond is that not everyone gets delt a stellar hand. Perhaps by embracing the RNG of it all, Uta is really a step ahead of accepting the unpredictable nature of life, even here in Elder Tales. How many birds did Haru defeat and just for an RNG chance at some loot?

"I can't think of a single person that is not endeared to you," Haru says as he takes a step back to do the forging work. A hand swipes at an invisible menu to pull out a lacquered darkwood hairpin pinning. "I can't help but think 'What does Uta want?'" he says as the white lights on his monocle light up. They are small lines in circles, slowly rotating around the center. It almost looks like a little maze as he focuses on the work. A spark of Earth magic flares up combined with the heat of Fire as the item fuses and leaves only the scent of cinnamon in the air. Still warm to the touch, he hands the reforged slimenote hairpin to Uta, "And what can I do to help with getting it?"

Uta looks down at the mention that Haru cannot think of a single person who is not endeared to Uta, at an angle that makes it hard to tell if she's blushing or not.

"According to Buddhism, want causes suffering. According to Taoism, the flow of nature is not to be forced, it is to be followed," Uta replies.

The looking down doesn't last long, because she is soon back to paying attention to what Haru is doing, her own orbs of amber a testament to the level of realism one experiences after the Apocalypse: wood and honey, strings of gold and streaks of darkness. Luckiy, no trapped bugs.

Lacquered darkwood, white lights, a maze and a dance. Earth magic, and the aroma of cinnamon. Haru does have a point there, Earth -is- cool.

Uta accepts the hairpin, reforged, and fiddles with it a bit to get a feel for how the mechanism works. She then reaches into her hair. "I could go on about how the growth of a character is not really determined by how many equipment upgrades they go through, but by how well they understand that they should go for what one needs rather than what one wants, but I also know you will insist until I give you a straight answer. That answer is, probably five equipment upgrades- wait, no. That was not the question."

She furrows her brow in concentration. She's thinking hard. Honest.

"...I think that the thing I want most is to know whether this world is still a videogame, as I expect, or it's become real. Unlikely, but it cannot be outright exlcuded." Silence. "And if your question is about romance specifically... well..." She scratches the back of her head, and with a shrug, she lifts her other hand. "I don't know, I've always had this vague notion of starting a family at some point, but I never really pursued it much past that point. I guess it's never been -that- important to me."

After two or three attempts at placing the hairpin in specific places, with associated darting of her eyes that way, Uta extends the accessory to Haru. "Perhaps you should place it until I have access to a mirror," she says, following by a low, mumbled, "...I really need to look in a mirror one of these days, I keep getting sidetracked."

Haru is amused by watching Uta attempt to place the pin. The young man wears plenty of masks throughout the day, often ones that are smiling. Anything less than perfect was not acceptable in his household and a perfect household has shiny, happy children in it. The impact it left on him shows well into his twenties when its as much muscle memory as walking and breathing. The smile when he watches Uta is more sincere. He reaches out to take the accessory and tells her, "Thats my sister, always looking forward. Which means putting in a hairpin is a challenge worthy of a raid boss."

The Accessory Forger had visualized it from earlier. He first brushes Uta's hair back with his fingertips, getting a feel for where they will lay. Past the bangs, towards her left ear. Its more clear why Haru lacks such physical strength as this work is delicate. He could brush over rice paper without breaking it in a clean glide. The hairpin slides in, finding strands further back and neatly showing more of Uta's face despite how often she aims to hide it. With a single 'click' it opens the view more in a symbollic gesture. "If that changes one day," he tells her with a tilt of the head to ensure the result, "then I want you to know you can gush about it to me, or fret, or ask for help getting them to do something, or anything like that." Perfect. The man leans back, "I can't think of a better person who deserves to be happy." A finger gestures in a circle as if to say 'this is the circle of karma' to go back to the spiritual comments earlier, "so it would argue that the most happiness delivered is the best path to fixing my own personal imbalance. Really you are doing me a favor here before I become a real lost cause." A grin as he knows he isn't lost. He is a man who lacks Gathering skills but will just work harder to get the same amount of feathers when hunting. He knows the path and no matter how dark or empty it may be, it will be walked until the debt is repayed.

"If that changes one day, I will be needing a lot of help for sure!" Uta laughs. "Just like with hairpins." She turns her head left and right, to get a feel for her new setup. It seems to hold.

And then, serious, she continues, "I think you are doing a good job so far." More silence, and then that intense furrow in her brow, the one Uta reserves when she is trying to keep her train of thought, which is threatening to collapse and derail at the same time, together.

"You said it. Fixing the world is way too daunting a task for one person," she begins, once again looking in the same direction as Haru. "There is a limit to what we can do."

While still facing forward, she turns her eyes towards him. "But one person? It is reasonable. Once again, you said it:" She then turns to Haru, for the first time facing him straight on since the hairpin was placed: not from an angle, not diverting her eyes, so he can finally see the effect full on. "To heal? That skill belongs with me."

Uta stares into Haru's eyes. This time without embarrassment, without trying to avoid eye contact, but searching, scrutinizing. Ocean, wood, amethyst, honey.

The first step to healing an organism is a diagnosis, and Uta seems to be treating a soul the same way.

There are subtle references to Haru's psyche. The way he stands, tall and proud with regal posture. His words, which are picked with poetic tone and philosophical depth. His eyes. He hides one behind a silver rimmed monocle of thick amethyst. Haru might be blind in one eye. It may be the eye that wanders and breaks eye contact. It may mimic his visible eye which never does. Haru looks down to Uta's eyes as a cool sapphire meets the warm amber pair. How he does not shirk from being analyzed, searched. That it is something he is familiar with. A gaze he has locked with his father before when flaws were found. Burned out with shame and disappointment. Never broken, no, for the will remains to face it. To not draw attention to the flaws. He has such beautiful eyes thats its almost a sin to have one of them hidden. It is the sort of blue that could match the sky in a spring day. The roll of waves from the sea given the right amount of natural chaos to enchant. The fine cut of a gemstone that is easy to look at.

It is all a distraction. That beauty in the iris isn't Haru. It is what he wants people to see. Haru is the pupil, that dark abyss beyond the color. The shiny plate of glass that separates his soul from the world. A place where light enters and none is reflected back. A forlorn place as endless as a starless sky. In time, he blinks, offering words to his sister, "The fact remains that one person did change the world for the worse and their blood runs through my veins. Those sorts of things go through generations to repair, not unlike a natural disaster takes generations to heal when a fire burns a forest or water floods the lands. It can heal, but imagine being the first generation to take upon the task? Knowing they will never see the results in their lifetime. That their children and children's children must shoulder the sins of their father."

Haru does not look away, opening up and providing a bit of context to why this burden isn't something he can just walk away from, "When you are born into a lineage like that, you don't have a choice. No more or less than having wings." There is a pause there as he considers, "For what it is worth, even if I did have a choice? To walk away from the responsibility entrusted to my family? I wouldn't. Rather, I couldn't." A hand gestures to his character, his avatar, a body scan of his self back in the Old World. "It would have been nice to just go to school, make friends and memories. Find a sweetheart, fall in love. Have a family built on respect and warmth." He shakes his head to Uta, "We don't get that. Where you go to school is a reflection on your status. Who you socialize with, the network of strength. Your family," he pauses, "arranged political moves. That is the Old World."

A smile. Back to fabricating them. You can't end a story on the conflict. You can't bring a negative out, no matter how crushing, without giving a path for something that isn't. Doing so says your choice is a reality of despair. A sinkhole as deep as the darkest part of the eye. "This is the New World. Your skill is to heal, Uta. Mine, is to Hope. What else is left when you are walking in place so dark and empty that Light has forsaken it for its crimes. You can't even see the green light at the end of the dock, nor your own hand outstretched towards it. There is only the memory of it left and so you keep walking to it. Hoping that it is still there. And thats the point, isnt it? It is only hope if you have no assurances that it is there. Once it is, hope dies and becomes something else, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of its last life. Something new. I hope what I become after that is a thing worthy of a good life. Until then." He tilts his head, grinning in a mask of bravado, "I hope."

Silence.

Uta sits on the ground, cross-legged. Looking down, hands on her knees, elbows sticking out, she thinks.

"I -am- your sister," she states. It's not a reminder. She's making a point. "I partake in the family's responsibility." Once again, she transfixes Haru with an unusually focused gaze. Not embarrassed, this time, nor searching. It's -asserting-. "I am a Spriggan," she states, straightening her back and stiffening her wings. "A creature who is one with Darkness. I can deal with that. No, I was -made- for that." She stands up, raises a finger, and leans over. Her voice is softer now. "But I also carry a light. The light of the Godhand, the monk. Not as powerful as the double Darkness coming from both my race and other class, mind you, but it's there."

She swipes a finger, and turns away to focus on her menu. "I understand you do not yet. And I respect that. As you say, it is a journey. We do not get to decide when we hit the checkpoints, or reach the destination. But-" She looks up from her menu, at Haru. "Until then, it is my duty to carry half of the burden you thought you had to carry alone. And every time I have made, make, or will make anyone happy, it will be one karma paycheck that relieves the family's debt. And it will hopefully get you closer to that 'until then'."

"Until then, we face the Darkness together," she says, and extends one hand. "Deal?"

Somewhere within Haru's soul is the empty chamber of silent footsteps. The realization that family is more than obligation. It means supporting and trusting each other as well. And Uta, she is right. She is his sister. This is not his burden alone. His one blue eye widens at the realization of it. He never aimed to be a martyr to the cause. Not the lone suffering soul buried under the weight of responsibility. He thought those were just the cards he was delt. They didn't need to be. They aren't anymore. It floods him like fire in water that stings his eyes in the sensation. Beyond the dams of his masks as the levy breaks and he tears up against all his upbringing. Like rain streaking against the face of a doll. Yet its the thing that makes him undeniably a human, a person, not a cog in a bloodline.

"Thats right," Haru says as he extends his hand out, "you are my sister and I do not need to carry this burden alone. I really wish you could have met my mother, she would have loved you as much as her birds." A laugh as he takes the hand and gives a firm grip to it. Its not a shake. Its like the hand of someone who has been falling for so long but someone grabbed his hand to save him even though the two are standing perfectly still in an open field. "That is high praise, by the way. In the end, its what she still remembered, so they were very dear to her. So," and then the shake comes, "We face the Darkness together." No words or embellishments, that sentiment is perfect just the way it is and the omission of any additional sentiment speaks loudly to the shared resolve.

To Uta, the hand-holding brings back similar emotions and symbolism. To her, Haru Admitting to being responsible to a disaster of the scale of Pluto's Kiss felt like being shoved down a chasm. But mere seconds before, the mention of the personal importance of a missing sister, and being identified as such, was the equivalent of Haru hooking a rope into the carabiner of a harness Uta had been stuck into since day one, and never understood the purpose of; suddenly tethered to him, yanked from plummeting to her doom, a plummeting he both caused and halted.

Betrayed, dangling, but bound. Bound by something strong. Something neither of them chose, but which ensures a form of mutual safety.

Full forgiveness, as Uta said, will take time. But a family bond is a family bond, and that rope won't let her to run away from Haru. No choice, but actively work towards that forgiveness.

Uta's last reflection on this line of thought, before changing the subject, is that reaching for each other's hand is one step closer than being passively tied together by a rope.

"I am the Songbird, after all, aren't I?", she says with a smirk. And then her glance flicks to the creatures flying overhead. Silence.

Her eyes lose focus, like an overstrained muscle relaxing after a long exercise. She stands there, staring at the sky with her mouth slightly open, gaping, one finger on it. So long one might suspect she might begin to drool soon.

But she doesn't.

Instead, she asks, in her most distracted tone, "Uuuuuuh.... is it too soon to murder birds then? Would that be insensitive?"