Meeting Expectations

    Off from the central, newbie-centric area (still teeming with adventurers suffering the aftershock of the Apocalypse, hence impractical to navigate at this time of day) there are some secondary streets with more sophisticated and less forgiving mechanics. The place is not as crowded, but usually with a good reason: they are not exactly /absolute-newbie/ friendly, it takes at least a little bit of experience to navigate, and this deters a large enough amount of adventurers as to make it possible for people to stand in line for a reasonable amount of time, and actually be done with tasks within the day. If, that is, you know what you're getting into.

    It seems like Uta did not.

    It is now her turn, having waited in line in the cold for some time by now, and she approaches a kiosk-like window in a small hut which, apparently, sells glassware. "Hello, good Sir, I would like five flasks for antidotes and potions of minor healing.", she begins, but the lander in the shop looks down at her with disdain. "I, Mr. Glassblower, am out of those." "...er... but... you know, they are right there..." she points right behind the man. "They are not for sale." Uta sighs. "...oh, great. All that waiting in line for nothing."

    As she is walking away, she can hear the tall, blonde sylph behind her place her order.

    "I'd like ten flasks for antidotes and potions of minor healing." "I, Mr.Glassblower, will be glad to serve you, madam!"

    Uta, at that, turns on her heels, just in time to see the sylph adventurer walk away with her order. "Hey, wait just a minute there! You said they were not for sale!" The lander hunches down and shoots a poisonous glare at Uta. "Now listen well, /Spriggan/," the initial "sp" pronounced as if he was spitting something disgusting on the ground, or on someone's face. "The likes of you don't get to tell me what to do with my business, have I made myself clear?"

    At that, Uta stands there, unsure of what to say at this point. For some reason, she does not look... /hurt/, though. More like just... considering her next move?

    Mizuki was passing by the shop, but something caught her eye and she stopped to look in the window. It soon becomes clear that what she's looking at is her reflection, though, as she starts making different expressions and holding her hand up to her face. It's been three weeks, and while she's kind of gotten used to it, it's still weird. It's not like she has a bathroom mirror or selfie-taking smartphone to see herself in every day.

    She poses cutely and smiles. How can she not smile at the cute cat smiling back at her?

    Her ears perk up as she hears Uta speak loudly, and what comes next fills her with revulsion.

    She walks into the shop, puts her hands on the counter, and glares at the salesman. "This is the town of /adventurers/. You are only here, and you only make money, because we keep this area clear of monsters because Aincrad interests us. We,"

    She places a hand on Uta's shoulder, showing her fangs, "appreciate the contributions of our spriggan, cait sith, and yes, even were fang brethren. If you have a problem with them, you have a problem with /us/."

    She reaches for the Lander's collar, trying to grab it. "You may be able to brand us thieves if we steal, and murderers if we kill, but believe me, a number of Adventurers are extremely /inventive/ when it comes to finding ways to harass people that aren't quiiite illegal. They've been too distracted with being stuck here to get back to it, but I'm sure they'd love the chance to practice."

    "So are you going to serve your customer here, who came into this shop expecting to buy glassware as that is, in fact, the entire /purpose/ of a glassware shop?" She lets go, if he let her grab his collar.

    "Or am I going to have to dox you and bring down the collective wrath of 4chan? ...Or you could leave and go to one of the other towns where they appreciate racists, I guess." She waves a hand dismissively.

One might not expect that the random people would care about the exchange. People have things to do. Places to be. Quests to complete. But this is happening Alne.

And Alne is Plant Duck territory. A cloaked figure happens to be passing by, an Imp judging from the way the tail weaves behind them. She pauses, looking up and slowly turning her head at the sass that Uta is receiving by virtue of her racial choice.

Just as Uta ponders her next move, there is a sweeping motion, and the figure is looming behind the shopkeeper. Purple eyes gleam from beneath the hood, shadow obscuring most of the face, except for those eyes and a bladelike crescent smile. "Goodness, this is a nice business you have here." The Imp says, piping up behind the glassblower. "So much nice glass... Very well made. I couldn't imagine someone who makes things like this causing problems, hmm? Especially not for a refugee from Ezzo."

There is a little lean forward. "Sometimes accidents happen to people who are... unkind. Hmm?" The smile widens a little more. "I'm sure someone like you can... understand... /Lander/."

She leans back and gestures, a blue hand from under the cloak. "I'm sure we have an /understanding/ now, yes?"

There is a sigh from the Imp as Mizuki arrives and begins castigating the shopkeeper in her own way. "Let us handle the problem, Mizuki. You're not wrong, but we have a responsibility to make sure things run in an orderly fashion, don't we? Besides, it's a Lander, what the are you going to dox? It's a Lander, do you think he even had a choice of whether to be racist or not?"

    Mizuki blinks at Proteus. Her neck and tail start to bristle a bit, but... Proteus is actually pretty reasonable. Maybe she's really NOT going to be mean anymore. "I was hoping the unknown terms would sound extra sinister." She looks back at the Lander. Then back at Proteus. "They had that excuse when we didn't know they were people. Part of being a person is being held to a higher standard than a toaster."

Gwen had been out shopping for more basic supplies and she hears the commotion and hears a few bits of it she looks watching Uta waiting to see what she's going to do next. Mizuki speaks up shortly after the shop keeper and looks at them using her height. She knew the lore about the Spriggans not being liked by most of the population but never gave it any thought till now. Her mother is one and that troubles her to see this Lander behaviour.

"You should also know Adventurers talk, we talk a lot and we would be more than easy enough to spread the word that your shop is one to avoid?"

She rises up to her height flaring out her wings a bit.

"Or you could deal and make more coin. You don't have to like your clients so long as the money is good what's the problem?"

Uta's thinking took her to turn her head in all directions while considering her next move, even spinning on one foot. Up to the point where she notices Mizuki posing cutely. She notices her perking up. And she witnesses her giving the glassblower what he deserves.

    The result of Mizuki's rant? The Lander gives her the canned "Adventurers are weird" look, just like as if Mizuki had just worn a silly hat and had been dancing the polka accompanied by a chorus of chickens chanting traditional Balinese tunes. But he does seem to get the general threatening stance of the people, yet that does not seem to deter him. "Oh, yeah?", he simply says, as if he had did not quite get all the details, but got enough to understand it is nothing he's scared of.

    Uta, of all people, goes wide-eyed at Mizuki's reaction, as if she's about to shake her head, and she seems even more concerned at Proteus, heck, even not really approving of Gwen's reaction.

    "No, no, no!", Uta says, quietly, to everyone who came in her rescue. "Let's not go down this path, the guards will get involved and things will get messy. And..." She glances at the line behind. She doesn't even want to think how all those adventurers would react if the situation got out of hand. Addressing Mizuki directly, but nudging her head towards Proteus, she says, "She's right, you know. I think Mr. Glassblower, here, doesn't get any choice in whether he's racist or not. I used to deal with them the way you did, and got nowhere, until someone I spoke with opened my eyes! It's like in martial arts, you use /their own weaknesses against them/! See, originally, they were not programmed to be /racist/ specifically. They were programmed to /punish and reward appearance and behaviour as established in the lore/. Big difference. Give the players behind the adventurers /exactly what they were expecting/: players who went with a Spriggan adventurer /expected/ to be reviled, they /asked for it/, so..." She approaches Mizuki even closer, whispering (but probably loud enough for the others to hear) "...do the cute posing thing you were doing earlier. Say a few nice words. You don't even have to apologize. Just... pose cutely and say I'm your friend. It works. Trust me."

    Mizuki turns to Uta. "There /are/ no guards, this is Alne. /We're/ the guards." She turns away from Proteus and adds, more softly, "...But she's right that I'm probably not the person to handle it."

    Uta's long rant gets a dismissive look and an eyeroll at first, but after Uta points out that everyone playing a chaotic good drow rebel kinda asked for any shit NPCs give them, she looks surprised and receptive... although back to skeptical and a little embarassed at the final suggestion.

    "I don't think it works that way," she mutters. "Were fangs are one of the races they don't like. I don't think there are Lander furries."

    She looks at the assembled group. "/But/, in the /name of science/, just to see what happens..."

    She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

    Then opens her eyes and injects as much pep into her stance and expression as she can manage. "Hello, good shopkeeper!" She paws at her face like a cat washing, except she doesn't actually lick her hand first. "Myai good friend here simply wishes to purchase some of your fine wares! Won't you pwease do her the honor of selling her your quality potion vessels?" She paws at her face again and gives the lander the cutest look she can manage, tail twitching behind her.

    No human would want to disappoint that face, right?

Gwen doesn't say more for a moment as Uta speaks up as she odes make a point everyone genning a Spriggan knew what they were getting into, and Uta makes a point. If somehow the Landers are people now even slightly? They only have what they had before to work off right? If they are not? Then the Lander is just a script a chatbot and there's no thought behind it. She seems to be thinking now as Uta made some other points and she looks at Uta for a moment longer.

She looks to Mizuki and Uta now as she wonders is this science going to work? She watches Mizuki go full well Werefang and waits to see how this place.

"Mmm let's see how this goes...."

Uta gives a knowing grins at Gwen, as if she knew already how this was about to pan out.

    The lander is slightly surprised at Mizuki's transformation, but otherwise not put off.

    Once Mizuki is done, he bursts out, "Wait, she's your friend? Why didn't you say so right away?", he says, surprised. "So you have made friends outside of your own folks Especially this charming, angelic maiden? You must be one of the good ones then. Of course, since you are an adventurer, this is not so hard to imagine. I'm sorry I've treated you so badly, Adventurer, but my family lost so many members in the Spriggan raids. We still feel the pain for our ancestors to this day." Wow, is that a long-term grudge. But still, it would explain why this particular lander is not as forgiving as the others towards Spriggan adventurers.

    He bows deeply to Proteus and Gwen, "and now I finally understand your rightful anger. Please forgive me, forgive me, I did not know!", he bows deeply to the both of them, multiple times, and then turns his back to the group to gather what Uta asked for earlier from the shelf on the back wall of his hut. Uta, in the meantime, does that thing where her lips tense in a smile, balls her hand in a fist, and pulls her elbow back along her side. "Yes!", she whispers while the lander doesn't see her. "Another victory for /science/!"

    "Here are your five bottles," resumes the lander after turning, Uta having resumed a beatific expression. "Better quality than you asked for. They are on the house." Uta, closing her eyes but still smiling, bows in gratitude. "Thanks to you, Mr.Glassblower. I am honestly sorry for your loss." "Don't mention it, kid. I am the one who should be sorry."

    She grins at Mizuki's expression of surprised shock. "I know, right? The potential is incredible. I don't know if it's true, but I'm told that if I were to eat at an inn where Spriggans are well accepted, I could act all cute towards the waiter and I'd get a discout." She hurries to add, "Of course, I'm /not/ doing that, heavens forbid!"

    Her grin widens mischievously. "...I'm dragging along Jazz and making /her/ flirt with the server. We're /so/ getting a free meal for the whole party and desserts on the house!"

    Back to Mizuki. "You have discovered your true power. Use it responsibly."

"Do you really think just saying you're their friend is going to be enough to make that happen?" Proteus asks Uta. "So be it." She shrugs, sighing. "But Mizuki is right. There are no guards in Alne. That's why Plant Hyadwen is working to ensure the environment moves in an orderly fashion. After the attack by Tri-Edge..." She looks away, going quiet...

"Something needs to be done. The land is in chaos. People are suffering without meaning or need. We can change that. We are the ones with the power to reshape the world, aren't we?" With her looking away, though, it doesn't hide her wincing at the way Mizuki is being incredibly cutesy and... catty.

There is a facepalm as the shopkeeper immediately changes his tune. "Ugh." She mutters, and looks over to the Lander. She shrugs. "Whatever works." She says in response to the man's apology. "Do what you're going to do." She turns to look to Uta again as she explains. "Why /wouldn't/ you do that? If it gets you an advantage, it certainly wouldn't hurt, would it?"

A pause. "Oh, you're getting someone else to do it." She pauses, rubbing her chin. "Jazz? Is this another friend of yours?" She asks Uta. "Is that everything you needed, or is there something else?" She asks. "Maybe we can ensure they are provided to you as you need. After all... We're all in this together, aren't we?"

    Mizuki is shocked that worked, but her expression quickly turns to anger. "That was four hundred years ago." she growls. "Do Spriggans even live that long?"

    Uta mentions the idea of flirting with waiters for better service. Mizuki replies flatly, "I'm not doing that."

    She actually looks a bit alarmed when Uta suggests bringing Jazz into it. She places her hand on Uta's shoulder, "Please don't."

    Her true power? She folds her arms. "Being a bit cute is one thing, but I won't take advantage of people like that." She glances sidewise at the man behind the counter though. Are some of the Landers not people after all? If they're not, it's no different than choosing charm dialogue options in a game with a female protagonist, isn't it? She shakes her head. No. Don't go down this path, Sam.

Gwen says "We can't leave the world in the as it is."

She looks at Mizuki for a moment folding her arms.

"Ask the Middle East or some parts of Europe about that. Or hell anywhere else. Grudges can run deep."

She notes for a moment. The experiment plays out and Gwen seems to find this very interesting she thinks for a moment. She looks to Proteus.

"Why lay back and let the worst just remain as if we have the means to make it better. We got where were we from standing the efforts of those who came before."

Uta , while she flicks her menu open and stores the bottles in her inventory, she blinks a lot at Proteus's speech, which is met with a few questions and a few comments. "...Tri-Edge? What's that? And, uh, yes, I guess we /are/ in this together, and we /do/ need to cooperate to everyone's benefit..." The look in her eyes gives it away that she's heard of Plant Hyadwen before, but she's not quite remembering what it is and she's now too afraid to ask. "...I don't like to flirt," she replies to the latter question, "and I don't trust myself to pull off 'cute'. Although, and I'll have to be honest here, I was half-considering whether to at least attempt such a course of action while nobody I knew was around to see me. Then Shiruba, you, and Gwen (and don't get me wrong: I'm grateful for it) came to my rescue. Good thing I didn't attempt that myself, though: based on Mr.Glassblower's response to Mizuki, it seems like that it would not have worked."

    A smirk. "And yes, Jazz is a friend of mine. Undine, about this tall," Uta says, holding a hand at such a distance from the ground as to represent Jazz's minute stature, "Ridiculously adorable. Can't miss her. If she makes you go d'aaaaaaaaaaaaw as soon as you lay eyes or ears on her, it's Jazz."

    Well spoken, Gwen. Let me tell you about those two cities in Europe which had a long standing feud about a /stolen bucket/. It's hilarious. They even wrote an epic poem about it. Granted, a humorous one, but...

    Back to Mizuki: "...okay, maybe I've misworded it. It's not taking advantage. That person I spoke with said that, around landers, and I quote, you're supposed to be 'playing your character' and 'living in the world'. Play into their expectations, so to say, or things will be too weird for them to understand." She looks up, as if following her own thoughts and ignoring the world around her. "...this fiery reaction you've just had, right now? Burning, wild, straight from the guts. That was not a constructed, was it? She lowers her eyes to a more person-level height while, one hand into another behind her back, she gives her back to people to face the shop window Mizuki came from. "I saw you earlier. Over there. Before you came here. You were leaning looking at your reflection into the glass, acting all cute without any specific reason to do so." She turns to Mizuki, and for the first time, instead of being the utter klutz or failure who looks away after messing something up, Uta's eyes lock straight into Mizuki's. Not in a menacing, or threatening way (her eyes and smile are perfectly relaxed, after all), but with the inspecting, even kind look of the humanist, who looks straight at, into, and /beyond/ a soul, not to ravage or steal, but to know and understand, in a warm and personal, rather than cold and scientific, way. "Is that what your character is supposed to be?"

    Without breaking eye contact, her relaxed smile is pulled up a bit at the corner. "Oh, by the way. Thanks for the herbs. I made minor healing potions and antidotes out of them. I owe you half of them."

    Uta flicks her menu open and stores the bottles in her inventory while listening (and blinking a lot) at Proteus's speech. When Proteus is done, she has a few questions and a few comments: "...Tri-Edge? What's that? And, uh, yes, I guess we /are/ in this together, and we /do/ need to cooperate to everyone's benefit..." The look in her eyes gives it away that she's heard of Plant Hyadwen before, but she's not quite remembering what it is and she's now too afraid to ask. "...I don't like to flirt," she replies to the latter question, "and I don't trust myself to pull off 'cute'. Although, and I'll have to be honest here, I was half-considering whether to at least attempt such a course of action while nobody I knew was around to see me. Then Shiruba, you, and Gwen (and don't get me wrong: I'm grateful for it) came to my rescue. Good thing I didn't attempt that myself, though: based on Mr.Glassblower's response to Mizuki, it seems like that it would not have worked."

    A smirk. "And yes, Jazz is a friend of mine. Undine, about this tall," Uta says, holding a hand at such a distance from the ground as to represent Jazz's minute stature, "Ridiculously adorable. Can't miss her. If she makes you go d'aaaaaaaaaaaaw as soon as you lay eyes or ears on her, it's Jazz."

    Well spoken, Gwen. Let me tell you about those two cities in Europe which had a long standing feud about a /stolen bucket/. It's hilarious. They even wrote an epic poem about it. Granted, a humorous one, but...

    Back to Mizuki: "...okay, maybe I've misworded it. It's not taking advantage. That person I spoke with said that, around landers, and I quote, you're supposed to be 'playing your character' and 'living in the world'. Play into their expectations, so to say, or things will be too weird for them to understand." She looks up, as if following her own thoughts and ignoring the world around her. "...this fiery reaction you've just had, right now? Burning, wild, straight from the guts. That was not a constructed, was it?"

    She lowers her eyes to a more person-level height while, one hand into another behind her back, she gives her back to people to face the shop window Mizuki came from. "I saw you earlier. Over there. Before you came here. You were leaning looking at your reflection into the glass, acting all cute without any specific reason to do so." She turns to Mizuki, and for the first time, instead of being the utter klutz or failure who looks away after messing something up, Uta's eyes lock straight into Mizuki's. Not in a menacing, or threatening way (her eyes and smile are perfectly relaxed, after all), but with the inspecting, even kind look of the humanist, who looks straight at, into, and /beyond/ a soul, not to ravage or steal, but to know and understand, in a warm and personal, rather than cold and scientific, way. "Is that what your character is supposed to be?"

    Without breaking eye contact, her relaxed smile is pulled up a bit at the corner. "Oh, by the way. Thanks for the herbs. I made minor healing potions and antidotes out of them. I owe you half of them."

    Based on Mr. Glassblower's response... "That wasn't flirting!" Mizuki objects, with alarm.

    She blushes (or at least her ears do) with embarassment when Uta mentions her posing in front of the glass. "I was just... trying to get a sense for what other people see..."

    And then Uta gets weirdly intense. Mizuki steps back, again alarmed. "Even so! Flirting with people for free stuff... they'd only be doing it because they think they have a chance with me! That's... wrong. Maybe I did choose to be cute, though it was supposed to be part time, but I didn't want to... play with people, like that."

    The herbs seem like a small detail next to that; she just gives a small nod.

Uta bursts into laughter, as does Mr.Glassblower, who seemed to have been confused by all the talk up to now. "Who's talking about /flirting/! Look, Mr. Glassblower here is /married/, for goodness sake, and probably twice your age. Didn't you see the ring?" says Uta, pointing at the now raised hand of a grinning Mr.Glassblower, who is showing his wedding band. In fact, he adds, "I never, /ever/ thought, not even for a moment, that I had a chance with you, kiddo. You look more like a sweet and innocent child to me, that's why I trust you." explains the shopkeeper, amused. Uta continues "Yeah, that's it, it's not being flitry. It's being... adorable. Would you say no to a kitten that asks you for a bowl of milk? To a little child? I'm betting you that it'll work with waitresses as well as waiters. And if you've already decided in advance that this is what your character is like, well, it's not cheating, is it? It's... you know, natural consequences." Hands behind her back, she continues, quietly, "And by 'response' I meant how Mr.Glassbower said that had a specific reason to be hostile to Spriggans, which means that regardless of how I /myself/ would act, well, that would have not helped." She turns to Mr.Glassbower, and bows at him. "...for which you have been /fully forgiven/." Mr.Glassblower bows back a few time, and after the back-and-forth of apologetic bows is done, Uta turns to Mizuki again. "In short... you'd be surprised of how long a way a little bit of simple 'puppy eyes' and 'pretty please' goes with landers, for someone with your kind of appearance; and it has /nothing/ to do with romantic relationships or implications thereof. Simple as that."

    How did this conversation go this way about Mr. Glassblower. Mizuki.exe has crashed. Restarting...

    "Kitty eyes." she briefly corrects, mid-monologue.

    When Mizuki finishes, she crosses her arms, and furrows her brow, and thinks, trying to... process that and formulate a response.

    After a long, awkward moment, she concludes, "...I wasn't really thinking about trying to get stuff from people back then, or how 'Mizuki' behaves in restaurants. I just wanted to stop myself from taking a fun game too seriously."

Gwen will get her own supplies quickly from the merchant before she'll join the rest she does wonder about this. So the Lancers get the idea of co-signing? That's interesting she thinks and will move to rejoin the others. She will fall in with them and look both over for a moment.

"Spriggan pretty much is hard mode when you think about it."

SHe looks at Uta nad then to Mizuki for a moment and just gapes for a moment.

"Be cute, not seductive seriously. Not like I could pull off the puppy eyes myself."

"As for the lore yeah there's a good reason we all need to pay way more attention to it, given we're living in it now."

She won't take advantage of people like that? Proteus' tail perks, and points at Mizuki. "Oh, really? Are they people? I wonder." She looks over at the glassblower, and then back to Mizuki. "We don't really know, do we?" He shrugs. "It's not like they had made artificial intelligence to create actual beings who can think like you and I. So what do we do with it? Can we tell? I wonder if it matters. Does it matter to you?" She chuckles for a moment.

The question of Tri-Edge comes up. She turns to Uta, and bows her head. "There was a PK in Alne. Tri-Edge, a notorious PKer. They apparently can permanently kill Adventurers like us... And inflict memory loss on others. They did both recently. We're trying to figure out a way to stop them."

"Jazz..." She hums to herself. "The witch? I remembered seeing her with Mizuki her the other evening. She was going to make some star charts." She looks over to Mizuki. "Do you think she would be that cute?" She asks the catgirl. "I'm not so sure."

The subject of playing a character comes up, and Proteus tilts her head, the eyes gleaming under the hood. "Playing our character? What character are we supposed to be playing, hmm? Are we to be given roles? Is all the world a stage now, and us merely players?"

She hums at the exchange between Uta and Mizuki. "Remember when I asked you if you wanted to be a cat?" She asks Mizuki. "Did you ever decide on that?" She asks with a little smirk... Which fades. "I can't imagine the thought of romance with a Lander though. How would that even work?" Her smile turns into a little scowl at that. "Still, there are pros and cons to being a cat, one supposes. It's not exactly a binary choice, if you understand."

    When Proteus says it's not like humanlike AI actually exists, Mizuki's face says she suspects maybe it does, but she doesn't say anything.

    Tri-Edge is the most alarming news yet. "There's someone who can kill us for real?! And steal our memories?!" That's pretty shocking and horrifying, but presumably more details are forthcoming, if known. And if not... she'll have to find the right people to talk to about it to come up with a solution. Or maybe Proteus and her friends will! Who knows?

    Jazz? Mizuki shakes her head, though she feels a little on the spot.

    She steps back at the next question, not immediately answering, though she nods in agreement at the opinion of romance with a Lander.

    "You fast-talked me before! You say it wasn't an insult... but being good at being a cat wasn't the insulting part!" She points at Proteus. "You said I was /only/ good at being a cat!"

Uta mumbles to Gwen, in response to Spriggan being hard mode, ".../now/ I know," and just nods along to everything else she says, except where she corrects Gwen mid-sentence, "Kitty-eyes."

    "Hey, I am a person! A Person of the Land!", protests Mr.Glassblower at Proteus's words, with a tone of voice that implies, "I am right here, you know?" but he doesn't say much else. He looks at Proteus as if she's rambling in the weird way adventurers do.

    "...permanent death? Stolen memories? That... that I did not know about," says Uta, trying to keep her voice steadied, but the trembling is audible.

    "Yes, the witch! Wait, you don't think she's cute?" Uta is very bad at hiding a sudden distrust at this Proteus. But her smile returns immediately after. "Ah, good ol' Shakespeare. It's always a pleasure to hear someone else who likes to reference the Bard. Although, well, that's an easy one. Still good." She squints a bit. "Or were you trying to sneak some Pirandello as well, hm? You sneaky one, you?"

    At the very last exchange, she mutters under her breath, "...non-binary cats. MAN!"

Gwen says "Who knows Proteus but it could fall into the Philispocical Zombie problems when you think about it."

She thinks about Tri-Edge and shudders.

"We're trying to gather more information on Tri-Edge if we can but don't put yourself at risk."

"Oh I think she can be that cute and I have an idea for an outfit for her."

She looks at Uta.

"You as well."

She doesn't press on that much.

"I rather be Gwen Pendragon than who I was before so I'm in no hurry to be back to where I used to be. I admit I reget my wings a little bit but I'm learning to work with it."

Proteus chuckles at Uta. "I am joking with you." She says, gesturing with her blue hand offhandedly. "She does have a certain cuteness to her, but she doesn't seem to be willing to really lean into it, if you know what I mean? Much like Mizuki, really. I wonder if there is some kind of stigma against it. But then, I wouldn't really know. I don't indulge in such things."

She shakes her head. "No, merely Shakespeare. It was an easy one, indeed, but it's something everyone deals with in school. Some even remember it."

She does nod to both Mizuki and Uta. "Be careful. Apparently, this specific PK seems to have avoided the Black Wave's effects, so they seem to still be basically maximum level. There might be some other dangerous thinge involved as well. Still... Be careful." She pauses. "Here's what they look like..." She then describes Tri-Edge's appearance. It happens to match Kite's. This is surely not going to be awkward for Kite.

Gwen then adds her two gold. "The Philisophical Zombie, eh? I didn't expect to hear that term here." She chuckles. "Nice one, Gwen. It's interesting to think about." She hums at Gwen, then. "You had wings?" She asks. "The only one I know with wings is Balmung of the Azure Sky."

The Glassblower seems to take offense to Proteus' commentary. There is a little smile on her face as he objects, and she slowly turns her head, as if just remembering he existed. "Ohhhh?" She asks. "Were you there? I forgot..."

She leans in close to him, then, her purple eyes gleaming like amethysts. "Or did I?" She whispers, her voice intense. "But do you understand what it's like to be treated as less than a person, now? To be dismissed for your race instead of your actions? Show me you understand, Glassblower. Give me faith in you."

    Non-binary cats? Mizuki's not even going to try to comment on that one, she's confused enough! When Gwen says not to put herself at risk regarding Tri-Edge, she /starts/ to make a 'pff, don't worry' gesture and opens her mouth to say something like 'don't worry, I'm a coward, I'll stay far away' but then she hesitates. Does she really want to not help, rather than do something heroic and help people? She's not so sure.

    "If she doesn't want to be cute, is there an outfit that could downplay it?" At the mention of wings, she looks at her hand. "I'm finding the nonhuman parts easy to lean into, honestly. Or rather, leaning into them makes life easier..."

    The killer... "They're max level?! Shit, did THEY trap us in here? Is this some Most Dangerous Game shit?!"

    She frowns as Proteus's description sounds an awful lot like Kite. That's... odd, but she's not going to jump to conclusions here and now.

    "What's a philosophical zombie?"

    The final exchange between Proteus and the Glassblower is really interesting, and Mizuki watches intently. It seems like it should be quite telling, whether the 'NPC' is capable of recognizing what's being pointed out...

Uta looks at Gwen with plenty of conflicting emotions at the mention of her having ideas, but doesn't press the matter much as well. She just comments "...so you're actually doing it. Thanks. Just... yeah, since you mention it, make sure it... accounts for wings, hm? But I don't think I have to tell you that." Considering how badly she fumbled when she removed her 'jacket' the other day, she must have hurt herself due to not being used to having wings, and how they interact with clothes.

    Mr.Glassblower does squirm, and with a frown, he replies, "...look, I have apologized for that, okay?"

    Uta is turned the other way and went into full literature nerd ramble mode. She has caught only the beginning of Proteus's reply, and she's gone into such a ramble that she's missing the rest. "Oh, it's a pity you didn't reference Pirandello. Quite fascinating and, I would say, rather topical. One of his recurring themes is how everyone is pretty much wearing a mask, forced on them by social convention. Acting out a constructed persona, which is what society expects. And then a character will drops that mask, and shows himself to the world as he truly is, and that, that is what people call 'insanity'." "Hey! That guy /really/ understand adventurers!", chimes in Mr.Glassblower, to which Uta replies "I know, right?" She turns to the rest of the group, "And then there's Six Characters in Search of an Author, where characters become progressively more and more real, and the line between reality and fiction becomes so blurred that it is no longer clear- wait, wait, max level? /The Most Dangerous Game/?" That last reference seems to be gotten. "...holy mackarel." She whispers.

    At the question about the philosophical zombie, she replies, "Oh. It's... uh... a creature that acts and behaves like a human, but has no consciousness, and is therefore unable to feel, or experience anything. A philosophical thought experiment."

    She smirks. "It was also the nickname we students used to call to Prof.Yamabuki, but don't tell anyone that."

Gwen says "All Sylphs have wings the best we can do is snowfall with them. Lore wise they lost the ability to fly a long time ago way before the game launched timeline-wise. We can generally fold them up on our backs so they don't too much get in the way. As for the Zombie, the thing is something I picked up when I was in school."

She notes before she fans her translucent energy wings out for a moment to let people see.

"I admit the urge to go hark I am the Arch Angel Gabriel is tempting at times."

She looks to Mizuki.

"Basically where someone is not aware but they act entirely like they are."

    Hmm, the Lander does seem able to pick up on it. The AI can manage that much...

    Mizuki looks at Uta and nods. "I guess we do kinda wear a mask in society... and in here, we have another mask... Certainly, it's a poignant theme in our present situation. Although I feel like people will say it's insane to lean into this mask too much, rather than to take it off..." she taps her face with her fingers.

    "That other story sounds like it's more about the Landers... or perhaps this whole world, rather."

    It's a creature that acts and behaves like a human, but has no consciousness. Mizuki looks thoughtful for a moment. "...But part of being human is talking about our internal experiences. If this 'philosophical zombie' doesn't have them, and can't talk about them, wouldn't someone eventually notice?"

    Then she blinks and points at Proteus accusingly. "Hey! You still haven't apologized for the 'only'! You keep deflecting!"

The Glassblower says they apologized already. This is true enough. Proteus nods to the man and pulls back, the intense pressure lifting. "So you have. We'll see how long it lasts." She turns away from him, leaving the Lander to resume doing... Whatever Landers do. The Imp seems... dissatisfied, but it's all she's going to get, it seems.

"There's no evidence that Tri-Edge is responsible for trapping us in here. Haseo can tell you more, he's the one who'd been chasing this myth. Sadly, it turns out to be a myth with teeth." Proteus sighs. "As for the philisophical zombie... Imagine a being that reacts like a person in all ways, but does not actually have any inner thoughts, experience, or even proper sentience. A being that if cut, would react as if they feel pain, but not actually feel pain. Would this being be a 'person'?" Proteus shrugs. "I will leave that to others to figure out. I have more immediate issues."

Uta begins going into literature nerd mode, and Proteus tilts her head blinking. "This sounds like if Carl Jung decided to go into literature instead of psychology." He replies.

Mizuki once again demands an apology. Proteus just smiles at her. "Why would I apologize? You only exhibited catlike traits. I operated on the knowledge I had at the time. Besides, you are being somewhat catlike as it is, aren't you? Stop being so stuck on minor things... Or does this bother you that much? I wonder..."

Gwen says "I live with as do Uther and Morri! So no worries there."

She focuses on the issue with Tri-Edge and nods.

"Ha I think every school has a teacher like that somewhere." She looks to Mizuki and says "Honestly I feel like I have taken my mask off here."

She looks around. "I can't be the only one like that."

She looks thoughtful for a moment and looks at Mizuki.

"Or did they hit a mark that you always wanted to be a cat?"

    Uta mumbles at Gwen, "Yeah, I was so excited about being able to fly, and so bummed out when it turned out it wasn't really a thing."

    To Mizuki, she says, "Hm? No, see, the philosophical zombie would /talk/ about its internal feelings. It just... wouldn't have them. Put in different words, it would be a creature able to pass the Turing Test, but explicitly lacking consciousness. As opposed to the purpose of the original Turing Test, which, well, pretty much explicitly /ignores/ the question." She blinks and shakes her head, laughter. "Oh, man. A philosophical discussion! Haven't had one of those in ages!" "THE ME!", she exclaims, and she spreads her arms. "It's aliiiiiiiiiiiiiive!" She then turns to the group, "And, sorry, but years and years of dealing with similar issues have given me this Pavlovian instinct: no, that line is never spoken in the original book by Mary Shelley: 'Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus'. In fact, the monster looks nothing like as it has been depicted in the movies..."

    Finally, to Proteus, "Oh, they were born very close together. They were pretty much contemporaries, so they kind of breathed in the same Zeitgeist..." To Gwen, "...heh. In my case, I just traded a mask for a different mask." A grin. "And now I'm enjoying a moment of insanity where I drop both."

    "Who's Haseo?"

    Mizuki furrows her brow. "Something sounds wrong about this. Like, if you have to keep adding constraints to it, can it even really exist?"

    She just glares at Proteus.

    She just stares at the floor when Gwen suggests that many of them can be truer to themselves in here than outside... It's true in a way, but not in the sense of this avatar.

    And now Gwen's getting into it. The catgirl shakes her head and replies seriously, "My favorite animal is human. We're the smartest, we conquered the world, we care about right and wrong. Why would I want to be anything else? That's not living. To give that up... would be to give up myself." She looks at Gwen. "But if in here, I have all that AND the benefits of some catlike traits... they're growing on me. That's all."

    She looks at Uta thoughtfully. "...If such a being /can/ exist, there'd be no way for us to tell it wasn't a person. So practically speaking, it sounds to me like..." she gestures vaguely, fumbling for words. She's not a philosopher! "Ugh, this is why I don't like most philosophy. It's a lot of words, but..." vague gesture like she's trying to grasp for words. "...what's the, like, /actionable/... actions, we can take, based on this idea? It doesn't sound like it's a reason to behave any differently. As far as we're practically concerned, if it looks like a person, under all the scrutiny we can muster, it probably is."

Uta smiles, a smile that is almost but not quite a smirk, at Mizuki. "Philosophy is Greek for 'love of knowledge'. It is not about actionability. It's about love. There is no 'manual of what to do when you're in love'. And if there is, don't trust it."

    She looks downcast at Mizuki's mention of the catlike traits growing on her. "I would have liked to giving the 'being part mosquito' thing a try. But /I can't fly/. I'm totally not sour about that. Not at all. Nope."

    That said, she sighs. "Sorry guys, I am /loving/ this, really, but I need to be at Master Miyoda's Swampside Used Cart Lot and Martial Arts Dojo for my part-time gig. Gotta earn those coins, you know... see you later!"

"Haseo is another member of the guild. I can point them your direction if you want to speak with him." Proteus answers Mizuki. "As for your traits... Well, do as you like. I suppose you'll effectively make the decision one way or another in time, won't you?"

"Also, philosophy is like that because it's precisely about trying to bring up these kinds of questions and figuring out answers to them. Not necessarily good answers, or right answers, but answers. As far as what you do about it..." She looks over at the Glassblower and gestures. "We're living out attempting to answer that question, aren't we?"

Uta gives a certain answer to the question herself, and Proteus looks over at Uta with a strange expression for a few moments... Before looking away. "Good luck." She waves to Uta as she takes her leave. "Looks like she got what she needed."

Proteus turns away as well. "I should get going. Good luck figuring yourself out, Mizuki. Feel free to stop by the HQ anytime. Maybe I'll have some fish set out for you." She chuckles a bit at that, and turns, sweeping her cloak as she walks off.

Gwen looks to Proteus "I'll admit it was never my strong point I just recall a few things myself. I have some work to do, a few present ot make and then some marketing to set up."

She looks to Proteus for a moment then to Mizuki. "Take care I'll be around."

    "I do love knowledge... but even if it's not useful for something, it's about what is. I like knowing why the sky is blue even if I won't USE that, but I can go out and see the sky. Or I could, anyway... And one day, I will again. Even distant, hidden things like the Earth's core" she flings a hand downward "or the furthest stars..." she flings a hand upward "you can see their effects on us in the... way the world is."

    She looks at Uta. "But Philosophical Zombies don't sound like a thing that exists, and may not even be a thing that could exist. What effect have they had on the world?"

    Uta has to go, though. ...To a used cart lot and martial arts dojo? "Wait, what? Part-time job?" Adventuring IS their job, isn't it?! But she's gone.

    She looks between Proteus and the Glassblower. "Are we, though? We can't /tell/ if someone's one of these 'zombies'" she makes finger-quotes "and even if the developers themselves told us the NPCs aren't real, with everything else going on just how much could we believe them? It seems to me that there's no way to really be sure such beings exist, so I'm not sure why we're worried about them."

    As Proteus leaves, she starts to smile... even if she hasn't apologized, she is being friendly! But then she frowns at the fish comment. It /could/ be a nice offer, but Mizuki suspects it's almost certainly a dig at her.

    "Seeya around, Gwen."