An Accessory to Fashion

Haru is standing in front of a storefront during the night time in Shibuya. He had been acting weird lately, weirder than usual. The mood of obsession that strikes people when they are growing. Like a crab outgrowing their shell. Or a snake and their skin. Still, Haru is the type that gets easily lost in his own head. An internal world that makes him appear cold or aloof at times. Disconnected from people and disengenuine with polished expressions and words like a politician. He is looking at the store with a neutral expression on his face, lit by the streetlamps in a recently reclaimed Shibuya. What could the young man be thinking at this hour?

Gwen has wanted to come to check out what Haru has been doing an would call out, somehow she's in her Heavy Blade Armor again in the winter? One can only guiess as she boucnes along calling out.

"Haru! I didn't think I'd see you till tommrow! Heyyy."

Haru is in one of those puffy parka jackets with fur lining the edges and the hood. And denim jeans now that, thank the Goddesses, denim is a thing again. "Hey," he asks as if he was waking up from a dream. A little slow, a turn of the head. "Aren't you cold," he asks, turning his head back to the building slowly. "It always amazes me what you can endure, Gwen. Adventurers in general, but in particular people like yourself, Shiruba, and Uta. There is a certain fortitude that just radiates." He looks upwards a bit to the sky, "Like stars in the sky.

Gwen grins "A little but honestly it's still not too bad though maybe I should get a proper winter outfit right? It amazes me too sometimes honestly. Oh I could tell you some stories about when we went Camping with Shiruba before the apoch." Gwen giggles, yes giggles. Recalling something about Flannel from her mublings.

"Yeah, it is something but given whats been happening there's no doubt in my mind? That this is a real world..."

"You look good in anything you wear, Gwen," Haru compliments, and genuinely does so. No one in Yamato puts so much effort into the cosmetic fashion as Gwen does. For people like Haru who get the response of 'Have you tried armor' or 'dont be where the attack lands' for advice in taking less damage, the cloth armor improvements are all his Artificer build can handle. Haru draw the hood of the parka down so he can feel the chilly wind. "I'd like to hear that some time," he verbally wanders onward. "It always sounds like the first year was so very eventful. We still live in eventful times, but," he exhales a mist into the cold air, "I am a bit envious for missing it. I spent too much time looking for another way and the cost of it was time." A long pause. Awkward after a bit of it. "This is a real world. As real as 'real' can be defined, at least. Im not a philosopher, but I had a lot of education on the topics. Books. I'd be hard pressed to disagree with this place being anything else than 'a' reality." A light laugh, "Its funny, though. To escape from a reality to another reality. Then how do you escape that one?"

Gwen seems flattered and grins at it. "It's more Shiruba's right to tell the story. I can say She didn't know what to make of the giant red head who wandered in to get a coffee the first time we met." She grins at this. Wait a red head? Uho this explains her and her mother. "Your motivaitons are good but sometimes? It sadly fails. Don't think I want to leave, I never had so much freedom no hundred miles of red tape and so many other pains in the butt things. Hell my folks got years of life back...though god help us all with my mother."

Freedom. It has been a topic at the core of Haru's journey. The cage is so elaborate he didn't know he was in it at first. Coming to Elder Tales didn't make it better or worse. It just changed the cage. "Your mother is something else," he says as he doesnt let the drowning thoughts out. It gets handled with a fresh coat of paint. A mask on a pretty rich kid that smiles just like the magazines show. It isnt genuine, but its as close as Haru can make it be and he is very good at it. "I bet that alone involves enough stories to go on until dawn. She cares for you a lot," he says as as something stops him there. Sure, it started as something scripted. Take something about the person and draw it as the topic. Its conversational etiquette. However, its hard to think of his own family. Not because they are not here, but because even back in the real world they aren't much of a family. Nothing bad, no. All that is swept under the rug. Nothing short of perfect is allowed to be seen to the public. A perfect family. Freedom. How does one become free of their conditioning? Might as well teach a dog to meow. Yet Haru isn't in despair at all, just a little forlorn. "Lost my train of thought there for a second. I was just thinking how nice it is that your family is here." A lie. "Its been a real blessing. I can't imagine why you would want to go back, right? Though I do feel safer with you around. I've gotten my dueling legs back on, but nothing can replace having a Gwen nearby when danger is around. And there is a lot of that going on these days."

Gwen says "She really is, she's enjoying being young again /too much/ ITS SO CREEPIE SHE COULD BORROW OUTFITS FROM ME!" She shudders heck she flails for a moment. She calms down. "Yes she does but she can be such ... wanna be succubus."

She looks concerned at Haru. "Hey you okay? Ah it was dumb luck for me. I'm the child of two /giant/ nerds." She tries to not even think of how her parents met. It likely involved a chance encounter at a con. That's a story for another time.

"Glad to know that, I do use my body as a shield I'm so well built the queen of the Amazons would take notice of me!" She then seems to get serious. "It's nice to be appciated. Rather than be some faceless NPC...."

"If Im being honest, Gwen," Haru says as he looks towards her, "I'm not doing okay. I am not sure when the last time was that I was doing okay." It wasn't easy for him to say that. It would have been a lot easier to just lie and say everything is fine. He looks back to the shop in front of him. It has his name on it. Nox. Atelier Nox. "It took me a while to figure out I could tell the people I trust that. People like yourself, Gwen. That it wouldn't make you think less of me for having a bad day or going through a rough time. Uta had to show me that. Especially after someone else made it..." He shakes his head, "Scratch that. I don't want to blame other people for my problems. Thats something my father does and the last thing I want is to be anything like that man." The Artificer warms his hands up by rubbing them. "I really do appreciate you, Gwen. I don't want it to come off the wrong way, but the way you and your family acts reminds me that it can be just that simple. To be happy, that is. It is inspiring."

Things get serious, very serious Gwen's look changes for the moment as she looks concerned at Haru for a moment. "No I wouldn't think less of you, anyone who says nothing ever gets to them is lying to you or at least themselves. Uta can be very wise in her strange slime-loving chaotic elemental ways. Never really thought about it but you make a good point about it and it has not come off the wrong way. I admit I know nothing about you on Earth, as far as I'm concerned. You are Haru enchanter, Jeweler and adventurer right?"

Haru admits that part of his problem is that he doesn't share information about himself. Not real information, at least. It is a fabricated personality that makes it easier to connect with people, even if it isn't him. He might as well be an alien trying to fit in human society. "In this world," Haru makes a big motion to the nightscape here in Shibuya, "I am an Enchanter and a Summoner. It is the Artificer build and thats why I am so very physically frail. It is very taxing to hold temporary summons together and temporary magical effects onto objects. I don't fight much myself, as myself. I do so via my Summons or raw Wave Artes. My summons are elemental sprites that are summoned around an artificial anchor." He takes a deep break, exhaling as he goes into depth to his core character, "For Darkness, this is Eve, a Shadowcat, who is summoned with an artificial moon. You may have seen me cast Obsidian Light this way. For Earth, there is Terra, the large Earth golem. I summon her around drills that have sonic capabilities. Rachel is the Fire Bird, using beak and pinion to burn and heal. The small air sprite is Yumi." And that is a brief telling for something else entirely. He doesnt go into details there. "Wonqu is my Water sprite, also my monster mount and forms around a frozen core."

There is a check from Haru to see if he just said too much as he looks to Gwen. The one blue eye goes her way. It goes back to the store. "I know that Monsters, such as elementals, are not Animals. They are extensions of a Summoner's will. They can never bond with you or have free will. But. I've always thought if part of my will involved liberty and hope, that it would transcend these meta laws." He takes a deep breath and notes, "I really do pick the impossible causes sometimes, Gwen. I can break Crowns of Control from the palace lands, so you would think imperializing my will on monsters would be hypocracy. Or, maybe, I am just so crazy that these are repressed personalities in my sprites." He doesnt really know. A cough. "Yes. I am also a Jeweler. A master of the Earth element and near Scale levels of mastery in Fire and Darkness. My last name, Nox, means Night in Latin." He points to Atelier Nox, his shop. His last name. "I am a body scan of myself in the last world, you see. An Alter felt fitting for what I wanted to get out of Elder Tales." An answer to a question he had.