Darkness Behooves Her

The early hours of a new day. When the world was first starting to awaken.... Though in all honesty the world never entirely slept, either. Many creatures thrived in the night. Many of them predators.... And not all of them predators in the usual contexts.

Which it's short trees and stout canopy of darkened branches this part of the forest did not come to sunlight as swiftly as others, making it a good location for one to prowl the waking hours away from too much morning commotion. Such as the dark cloaked figure still moving amongst the trees, stopping variously to inspect signs of what creatures do prowl these woods. A summoner needs to keep stock of potential minions for future endeavours, after all. Occasionally the soft lull of a somber feminine voice can be heard from beneath the darkened hood.

"o/= I run on the wrong side of life ... I'm the one that you fear when you hold your wife ...
I run where the darker crowds run ... On rain swept streets where the black rain runs ... o/="

"According to these instructions," Uta mumbles as she walks, her eyes crossed, pointing down at the piece of unrolled parchment she's holding, "this is the area closest to the Town of Beginnings where the Relieflower grows. I am also mumbling aloud meaningless exposition to no-one in particular for the sole reason that if I keep talking I do not get to concentrate on how scared I am, and not concentrating on how scared I am is good."

    A gulp, a flick of the hand, and a few taps on the menu, and the parchment shimmers out of existence. "...you can do this, Uta. You've practiced for this. Remember your training."

    Ripple back to flashback. Master Miyoda's Swampside Used Cart Lot and Martial Arts Dojo, Uta is hanging from a horizontal bar, except this time she's lifting weights with each of her legs. "Master Miyoda, aren't you a bit too obsessed with leg day?" Her mentor squints at her, and replies simply, "This you must remember, young one, when danger you encounter, do like good fish does when with a hook is faced." "Plan your move, bite quickly, don't get pierced, be ready to repeat?" "No, Be The One That Got Away." "...are you telling me to run away?" "Mmmm." "...I like that plan."

    Back to present, Uta looks determined and intense, clench fisted and looking straight ahed. "Nobody will run away faster than me if danger-" A song is heard, and Uta freezes in place. One swift turn of her head, towards where the sound comes from. "...can mosters sing?"

"...the hell are you rambling about now, Uta?" asks Jazz.

Truth be told, she was keeping an eye on the 'nurse'. Team NurseMaid, go!

The small undine's short steps are having her follow along after her. She'd heard Uta ramble about the flower she's looking for before and deigned to follow her, after asking her (and having to point out she told her she was coming with her more than once en route when Uta forgot she was actually there) and did indeed do just that.

Still, there's a voice that she can hear and it's not Uta. She holds a hand up. "Hey, we're not alone out here. And maybe? I don't know," she says with a shrug. "We'll find out soon enough, right?" She nods and produces her weapon.

It's still a feather duster.

A big, bright, purple colored feather duster. An inspection will show it's wand-classed. Because of course it is.

She looks at it and just sighs before trying to zero in on the singing. The tentacles sprouting from the sides of her head point that-a-way.

"o/= I play where the darker kids play ... I'm the one who goes out when you end your day ...
I dance where the darker crowds dance ... In the pitch black clubs in a clove stained trance o/="

The source of the music is hard to pin down at first as it ripples through the forest, but that last bit of lyrics is a good hint to the wary listener that its not just a randomly spawned monster they are hearing. The only kind of clubs this world knows are the kinds used to smash someone's skull in.

"o/= I see things the darker kids see ... Though you wouldn't believe all that's happened to me
I've been to the backside of hell ... And I've played with your fear and enjoyed it well ... o/="

Then the somber interlude stops, likely as the source has also heard the voices of others and their 'exposition'. In comparison to a moment ago the forest is quiet, almost unnervingly unnaturally so.

"Well now, what do we have he~re?" The somber voice speaks this time, as the dark cloak figure emerges from between the trees off to the side of the duo. "You've strayed a bit far from town for a romantic stroll."

    Uta turns around to the source of the question, Jazz to be specific, and jumps back, startled. "...Jazz! What are you doing here!" She asks. Seems like Jazz will have to tell Uta more than once /plus one/ time.

    Uta does, however let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness you're here, Jazz. Now I can ramble meaningless exposition to you instead to nobody in particular. It... kind of gets weird after a while, you know? Like, for instance, now. There was this eerie silence, but then there was this ominous voice your question confirms you've heard as well. And-...wait, wait a minute." She turns to address the voice. "Sorry for the misunderstanding, we are not on a romantic stroll!" Uta shouts back to the voice, cupping her hands around her mouth. "We are on a very purposeful, goal-oriented trip to a place somewhat out of the way to pick flowers together in complete privacy, and then go back to a secluded room and get some chemistry going!" There. That should clear up without a shade of doubt that Uta and Jazz are just friends cooperating on potions-making, not a romantic couple.

"Did they forget to scan your brain along with the rest of you?" says Jazz to Uta when she is (again) surprised that she's here. "I've been here the *entire time*, Uta. Again." But then there's Ominous Figure Being Ominous and she whirls around to face them.

She's about to say something, but then Uta is talking. And talking. And talking. She goes through several expressions. The first is frustration. The second is horror. The third is increasing horror. The fourth is resignation and the fifth, well, the fifth you can't see because her hand is over her face.

There is a long-suffering sigh before she bows towards tthe cloaked figure, as is custom.

"She's looking for flowerws for medicine. I'm keeping an eye on her."

That clarification does nothing to clarify anything. It's a good thing the Undine is there to actually dissaude any misplaced notions of their presence together. "At least you're not lost..."

A pause. That Undine actually looks a bit familiar. Its enough to get an ominous chuckle from beneath the woman's hooded cloak. "Or in -grave danger- again."

A flicker beneath the hood, of eyes glowing briefly as their gaze turns towards Uta. "Or hiding behind a rock while others gobsmacked the goblins."

Jazz's complaint get a simple, "Sorry, I forget things" in response.

    Kauchemar's theatrics do get a response. Oh boy do they.

    "I don't like this," Uta whispers to Jazz, her eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion when Kauchemar, whom she does not recognize, seems to know a lot about a certain misadventure, and giving a shudder as /her own/ cowardice is pointed out. "How does she know so much about us? This must be one of those people obsessed with gathering information on adventurers, and then using it against them, Xander was so wary about. And if Xander is wary of them, that's a /great/ reason for me to be wary of them as well." Her eyes narrow further. "We must hold our cards, my friend, and throw our opponent off." While she does turn to face Kauchemar, she directs a low, quiet whisper towards the Undine: "Let me handle this."

    "Greetings, mysterious stranger!", she announces with a voice loud and clear. "Please allow me to introduce myself. I am the Randomness Fairy, and this is my assistant FeatherBuster. We work as a team. I shed Randomness Fairy Dust, " and she gives her wings a couple of flicks as she says this, "and she dusts it all up."

Jazz just looks at Uta for a long moment.

"... if that's you in there, Benjiro, you have been pulling the most epic troll of all time for *this* long," she tells Uta, as if such a shenanigan is something she might have expected from whoever Benjiro is. Then she sighs and shakes her head, slowly before turning back to the Mysterious Stranger. "Eh. Afraid you have us at a disadvantage, so we're just gonna get on our way. There's medicines to make and people need those and what not." She gestures with her feather duster in the direction they were traveling before. "If you want to tag along, you may. It's 'dangerous to go alone', after all." She closes her eyes. Yes, she made that joke. Yes, it pained her. But shared histories in gaming are one thing that serves as a useful branch between adventurers.

"Oh, that's cute." Though the tone drips with enough sarcasm to see it as anything but. "Was it a deliberately bad attempt at misdirection, or just clueless? Know a little too much, do I? Even in this form I can almost smell your discomfort."

Followed by a bit more snickering. "Oh, I know miss. Disadvantage is what I do. Lurk in the darkness, creep people out, catch them off guard... But you two, no, you're pretty harmless." Hands emerge from under the cloak to grab onto the edges of the material. "I've had my amusement"

With much more dramatic flourish than needed she pulls the cloak out, open, and throws it back over her shoulders, slothing the hood free from her head. Though the glimps of human underneath is brief, as the Were Fang transforms as she does so, and stands in a form that would be much more reconizable to the two. "Mayhaps I should make sure no -real- monsters take advantage of your.. meagerness."

"...who's Benjiro?", asks Uta, in earnest confusion.

    Uta admits to Kauchemar, "Clueless." And when Kauchemar mentions smelling discomfort, she discreetly sniffs under her armpits.

    "You certainly got all that right, and-" She frowns at being called 'harmless.' "...Just you wait until I level up to 'mostly harmless.'" But when help is offered, her posture relaxes. "...I think we could use some help, right?"

Jazz stares for a long moment as Kauchemar talks, then does their thing and talks a bit more. She punches the bridge of her nose for a one time and simply, quietly, puts her duster back in her coat. "Right," she utters under her breath. "Okay, then."

At the objection at being called 'harmless' the dire equine smiles a little. It's enough to show her viper fangs and very not natural for a horse sharp teeth. "You've got some spunk, at least." She is amused by their annoyance, but isn't in a spiteful mood and thus remains doing little more than being obtuse and a bit of a snark.

"So, flowers you say.. Aspiring alchemist, then?" She folds her hands behind her back as she falls in step with the two... notibly keeping her own stride at like half to not outpace the pair with much shorter legs.

Uta says, "Not alchemist. More like a medical professional." Doctor. Is that too hard a word to say? "And, uh, well, about the 'aspiring' part... it's what I got from the random character generator, so, instead of I suppose I might as well roll with it and help people that way?"

Kauchemar raises a brow. "You... randomized your -entire- character?" She ruminates on that for a few moments. Then chuckles. It sounds a bit more like a horse making a soft whickering sound now that she's in her 'true' form. "And they say I'm crazy. But yes, the only thing you can do is make the best of what you have." Complete randomization would... actually explain why Uta seems to not quite know what she's doing, but trying.

The nightmare turns, motioning the two to follow her back amongst the trees. "Come. There is a grove near the edge of the woods that gets light more clearly than the rest of this sector," or whatever you would call it on a game grid, "Mayhaps your flowers grow near there."

Uta looks away and mumbles, "...-entire-. Yes," like a kid admitting to having burnt down the living room sofa in a freak crayon accident. "That is what one does. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade."

    A pause.

    "If you have the Cooking skill, otherwise they might explode. I have a story to tell you about peeling carrots when we're in more of a leisure to talk. Otherwise, you find someone with the Cooking skills and you trade them for herbs or gold. Then, at that point, /they/ have been given lemons, and you have, like, become life itself. Very metaphisical, isn't it?"