Valentine's Day Festivities

Dun Loireag has been has been decorated beautifully for the holiday festivities. Long garlands of pink, red and white flowers drape over buildings and along walkways. The sun is just starting to set, casting the entire city in a beautiful shade of red-gold. The day is still relatively cold, but without the chill of recent weeks, meaning that it is relatively comfortable with a simple jacket.

Lights have begun to come up, illuminating one of the central plateaus. The area, which usually acts as a market, has been converted into a festival ground. Around both inner and outer edges of the circle, small tents are visible. Some have music, some entertainment, some simple games. Others have the smell of food, largely Adventurers trying to get the word out about new food and beverage locations. They promise the best handicraft foods available. At the center of the circle is a grassy expanse with a series of blankets set out, meant to act as a socializing and eating place, where people can observe the coming night, along with the beautiful moon and stars that hang above Yamato.

People of all sorts, Landers and Adventurers alike, walk along the circle, spending their coins and enjoying the night. Girls giggle as they give presents over to boys they are fond of. More somber adult couples walk arm in arm. Some stalls even seem to be selling last minute gifts, for those who didn't think about the holiday ahead of time.

It all has a very festive feel. There is even a special stall welcoming the Heroes of Dun Loireag. Those who had helped during the Wave of Calamity are welcomed to what looks like a very large kask of ale.

(OOC: This is an open social event. There won't be GM poses but I'll remain around to monitor and to answer questions if needed. Please feel free to look at the decoration object if you need to refresh your memory on what things look like, or the gaming object if you want something else to interact with.)

Goldenblade is here, though she looks a bit clueless. It's nothing new, of course, just her way. She's looking over the games, trying to figure which she might be good at. The ducks are always tricky. No magic, and not so much ranged skill as all that, so she might try her luck with the mallet-and-bell thing. That's a bit like fairs back home. She'll browse around the stalls for the moment, it looks like she might have gotten here a bit early.

The white-haired Were Fang known as Mikage is amongst the crowd gathered for the festival. She hasn't particularly dressed up for the event, still wearing her usual ranger's leathers and furs, though perhaps because this is hosted by the Ninetails Dominion, she doesn't have the usual fear of letting her tattoo be visible.

Rama walks at her side, the lynx clearly having been given a couple of presents already by some of the passing children. He has a very bright pink bow attached just next to one ear, and a wreath of flowers around his neck. The cat, for the most part, seems confused about what all the fuss is about, though his nose is twitching at the scents of food.

"We'll get something to eat as soon as we track down Cyrus, I promise." She crouches briefly, scratching the cat on the head. "Think you can find him for me?"

Stepping out into the circle, coming down from one of the many staircases of a nearby tower, is a more fanciful looking Cait Sith. Wearing a cloth longcoat of sorts and with a nice regal cane, one might think him a noble. Except, a quick inspect would quickly dissuade such assumptions. That, and the fact that there's various small potion bottles hanging off of his longcoat from small D-rings and wires. It's not exactly what one might consider 'Lander Couture'.

It would not be long before Rama - seeking out Cyrus - would find him. The man has found a stand where he picks up a few pokers of what appear to be Lander style Takoyaki. It's some kind of older recipe, but it's definitely various meats on sticks.

Noting the approach of the feline, Cyrus looks down at the large fluffy-pawed cat, and smirks at them. "Did you run away from Mikage?" He asks the cat, before bending down and using one stick to 'plop' a piece of less flavored meat down onto the ground for the cat to eat. The youth then looks up to the approaching human-form Were Fang. "Ah, Miki." He declares, and offers her three of the nicely coated takoyaki sticks. "Have some of these. They're delicious."

It's a bit cold, but it's not freezing at least today! Which is good for events in the square. The Nero Idol spent the night at a nearby inn, so she was in town. She's laying low, so staying away from Alne is the best thing for her right now.

So she's in town for the celebrations, Valentine's Day. Being Japanese, it's something that most girls in school partake in of course, and lead to gossiping. Due to her idol work though, she had to skip last year. Never she thought it'd be in this situation this year though.

But she came prepared at least. She got herself a small pink basket, filled with wrapped items. Likely frienship and obligation gifts, but gifts nonetheless. She felt an obligation to it.

The first one she notices is Mikage. She ran into her a few times. She walks over, bowing to her with a smile "Here's for you." She reaches into her basket and takes out a pink colored wrapping, offering it. She takes another, a white wrapped one, and offers it to Rama as well "A sweet for you Mikage, and a real flower for Rama, that she can wear on her head." She giggles softly.

Gwen has come to do some business but mostly party, she delivers several custom orders to some rather happy people and then will wander off into the crowds to have some fun. She'll leave her customers away. She has a wool winter coat on to keep warm as she's just wandering about. She had to get away from her parents today and being in this city was the best idea she had. She's sough out some adventurer food vendors to get something to eat that has actual taste. Though one thing is clear? Gwen is alone here today.

There's a simple wooden booth set up along with the other vendor booths here.

MIRACLE NETWORK
TRADE SMARTER - NOT HARDER

... reads the marquee.

Kaleido's sitting at the front of the booth, jotting things down in a book. There's a handful of workers, but there doesn't seem to be any products on display.

Moving along the roof of a building Shaskur crouches as she peers down at the festivities. Cloaked, hooded and masked she barely felt the evening breeze. It was a warmer evening then it has been the last few days, and only the faintest wisp of breath could be seen before it quickly vanishes.

Patiently surveying the area, Shaskur watched for any familiar figures. After some time she spotted a white lynx, Rama, that stood out amongst the crowd. As Shaskur watched she saw an elegant black haired woman with the lynx. Was that Reika? Humming to herself in thought for a moment she nodded once and moved out to the side of the structure. With careful grace Shaskur climbed and jumped down until she was at ground level still out of sight from the main festivities.

Patting herself down slightly she then lowered her mask and pulled back her hood. Equipping a small mirror object from her inventory she inspected herself. Well, she could do much but she worked at her hair a little.

    The other white-haired were fang is just in beast mode all the time, but then, the Landers are probably starting to get used to that. Mizuki's wearing her usual jacket and pants, though she's added the red scarf for flair and a little Valentine's color. Also it just looks cool. She waves to those she recognizes -- "Mikage, Gwen, Kaleido, Reika! Hi!" and, for the moment, takes in the festivities and looks over the games, considering...

Goldenblade will make her way over to Kaleido's booth, that looks interesting. "Hello," she says to the fellow at the booth. She looks to the sign, then the proprietor again, and says, "So, how exactly do you trade smarter? I'm sorta behind the curve, I guess, and I'd like to figure out what I ought to be doing?"

There's another white-haired person here, but they're not a fang. It's an imp instead.

BlackRose is here, wearing her usual attire, which may seem strange considering that it's supposed to be a festive occasion, but that's just BlackRose for you. With her arms folded, she looks around with a slight smirk on her face as she takes in the sights and sounds of the event.

    Just arriving is another famliar figure, though she lacks the snow-white hair of some. The Spriggan musician wears a long dark-grey cloak over her usual garb, to keep warm, and she saunters from stand to stand, checking each one out. She grins lightly as she sees the 'Trade Smarter' banner, chuckling softly as it gets questioned by another fairgoer. "Hmm, well," she muses, "It -is- an interesting question. Rejection of mercantilism would be my first thought..."

    She shrugs and continues looking around, to see if she spots anyone else familiar. She pauses as she spots a familiar head of wild white-pink hair, and lifts a hand to wave to its owner. "Hey, Rosie!"

There's another person who is present that some might not have expected to be.

Proteus, enigmatic (some might say acerbic) Imp, cloaked and hooded as she always is, walks amongst the decorations. Instead of her usual penetrating expression, however, there's a different one on her shadowed face. Something contemplative. Maybe even nostalgic. She watches those interacting with each other and enjoying each other's company quietly as she walks, keeping to herself for the moment. Slowly, she wends her way through the booths and displays.

"Not so much running away as being on the hunt for a snow leopard. Luckily they aren't too hard to find." Mikage replies, a soft smile playing on her lips. Rama, is quick to gobble up the offered bit of food, and then begins to circle Cyrus' legs as if looking for any other dropped morsels. Never one to pass up food, herself, Miki takes the stick and takes a bite, making an 'mmm' sound of appreciation.

Of course, that's just when Reika has to come up. Mouth full, she has to swallow quickly to avoid being rude. She takes the offered package and bows almost instinctually in response, something that ear-marks her as Japanese. "Rama is getting a bit of a collection. I swear he has more friends than I do." She laughs softly, and then seems to get momentarily flustered. "Oh, I have something for you as well." She reaches into her coat and pulls out what looks to be a trio of colorful feathers. They may be from sort of pheasant, perhaps? "I'm not very good at making things, but I thought you might be able to use these to make a hair pin or something." Offering them out to Reika.

Hearing her name called out, Mikage looks towards Mizuki, raising a hand in greeting. Between food and Reika's gifts, she has to take a moment to stow a few things in her inventory. "Mizuki, hey!"

Rama turns, ears perked and nose twitching as if he had noticed someone familiar, but then they are gone. He seems to look around, peeking between legs, ears twitching.

Gwen looks up to Mizuki from her eating for a moment. "Hello Mizuki."

She'll just be seeming a bit lost for the moment, just what is Gwen up to is the question? She was doing deliveriesa here but now what?

    The gentle giant known as Giganpor has decided to come to the festivities. And strangely, he's changed his manner of usual dress completely. Gone is the more western influences, and now he's in a set of clothes that looks like it's made to breath and help with the sensations of the world. The major question might be where he found wooden sandals in the game. His shield hangs from his belt, too.

    Still, one good thing is that he can look around from his large height and see what is happening a bit. That six foot or so height slider never came in handy like that before. For that reason, he's wandering. Slowly but surely making his rounds in the festivities. And stopping at a few of the games. He obviously looks curious at them, and perhaps ready to try a few. But with it being a Valentine's Day festivity... well... he'd rather watch others do it first, or at least perhaps do it for someone. And so far he's not seen anyone that he knows yet!

Cyrus watches as Reika, Shaskur, and Mizuki approach. "Seems you are popular." He remarks to Mikage with a warm look on his face. "Though I must remind you that Snow Leopards are not very tasty." He runs his hand over Rama's head after it finishes to gobbling up the offered food. "Sorry, that's all for now." He tells the feline, before he chomps on a piece of meat himself. 'hmmm'. It was nice and rich in flavor.

He'd missed this during the early days on the Apocalypse. "Hah, ah, the danger of felines." Cyrus admits as Mikage mentions Rama's popularity. He quietly nods to Reika, not remembering all the names of the people approaching. He nods his head to the others. "Cyrus." He introduces himself, bowing his head politely. A behavior that is starting to melt away for some people, as the Inspect tool so easily reveals peoples' names.

Well this is going to be awkward.

Valentine's Day has never really been a holiday on her radar in the real world and the same held true for Shiruba in Yamato. She had, quite honestly, even forgotten that is what to day was. Up until she headed back into Dun Loireag to stock up before more exploring, only to run into -the hugest crowds ever seen- in-game. Well maybe not as huge as the Apocalypse, but that doesn't count because everyone in the game was forcefully brought together at the same time.

It's enough that Shiruba is almost, ALMOST wishing she was as small and unnoticable as her reality counterpart. As is she's trying to best to just sneak through the crowd to find whatever shop it was she was going to, get what she needs, and leave.

But it's never going to be that easy, is it?

    Mizuki spots... Miyako! Before playing the minigames, she has something to take care of. She walks up to the Spriggan, holding out a small bag of cheap candy purchased from one of the stalls. "Hey uh... so I heard we can also give eachother friendship candy. So... here. I'm glad I ran into you the other day, talking about all that stuff was fun."

It seems Miyako is more sensitive to the cold than BlackRose is. Or maybe she's just cold.

"Fancy bumping into you here," BlackRose says as she walks over to greet her buddy with a slightly bigger smile than before. "I wasn't sure what I was going to do here, so maybe we could figure out what to do together? After all, two heads are better than one!" She chuckles.

"The rejection of mercantilism... hardly," says Kaleido. "The embracing of interstate commerce."

"So!" The were fang turns to Goldenblade. "Say you've just mined a load of ore. Good stuff, good hustle. But..."

"... When you go to sell it, do you know if you're getting the best price?"

"You could just go sell it to the vendor, and get the vendor price - not nearly as much as you could be getting. You could go spend all day shopping around to see who could get you the best price - inefficient, you could spend that time relaxing, mining more, doing anything else. You could just hang onto it - and at that point it's a dead weight loss, isn't it? You could have used that money you'd get from selling that ore to upgrade your equipment."

"Or..."

Kaleido gestures at the booth. "You could come to the Miracle Network. Ask us. And *we* can tell you where you can get the best price - not just in whatever town you're in, but anywhere across the server that we have agents."

Goldenblade peers at Kaleido skeptically, but she nods after a moment. "So, you're a broker service, then? Or do I still need to haul my bag of ore to where you tell me is a better deal and you're just telling me where the prices are best?" That still sounds like a good deal, though she wonders, "I'm guessing you charge a fee?" She -is- a miner, technically, though she hasn't done a lot of it.
After another moment, she wonders, "Is mining ore a common thing? How much can I make at that, typically." Yeah, she's that much of a noob.

Reika smiles to Mikage, nodding "I love hair ornaments, that's great~" She takes the gift and puts it into her hair with a smile "How does it look?" It's a time to decorate one self after all.

She smiles to Cyrus, she doesn't know him, but she offers him a white wrapped flower-shaped sweet as well, candies. Reika is very flowery after all.

Reika turns to Mizuki with a smile, offering her one of her red wrapped flower-shaped sweets as well "Here's one for you as well. All friendship sweets, so you know." She says teasingly. "I'm starting with the gifts, I'll try the games later."

    Considering things, Giganpor hums as he steps to the side of the walking crowds and opens his menu. He hesitates a bit as he opens up his friends menu. Frowning as he sees the ones that he can get to. And... sighs, then closes it down. Grumbling a little, he decides to take out his aggression a bit. Namely on the nice big strength test!

    And he's looking to be alone, too!

    Well, hopefully that's not going to attract too much attention. Especially as he makes his way up the line to the mallet slowly. Unlike others, he's not got someone with him. He looks to be going solo. Yep, oh so solo to the couples event.

    And probably going to annihilate the poor strength test when he gets up there, too.

"Well, maybe you should stick your nose into a few more dungeons and you might get to know people." Mikage suggests, nudging Cyrus in the arm. Crouching down, she makes a clicking sound, calling Rama over. "Come here Rama, let's put on the flower that Miss Reika got you." It is added to the lynx's growing collection. Luckily, the little animal is relatively tolerant of such things, though he does lean to one side and scratch at his flower necklace.

"Good boy. If you do me one more favor, I'll have Cyrus buy you more treats." Because it's easier to get him to do it. She takes out a small package and the lynx takes it. "Run that over to Mizuki for me, will you?" Given this new task, Rama goes bounding off into the crowd, weaving between legs, until he finds the feline and starts to circle her legs. Then, he sits, holding out the packet. There is a note on it that says: 'Not sure if this will be good or not, but it's fresh catnip. Happy Valentine's Day - Mikage'

Then, she looks at the snow leopard, "You know, that merchant network might be up your alley. Since you're always working on potions and the like." She suggests, "Just don't spend all night there. I want to try a few games and then I have a present for you, too. Later though." Miki seems embarrassed about giving the gift just now, perhaps due to the closeness of the crowd.

"Looks good on you." Cyrus chimes in as Reika asks for an opinion. At her offer, he takes one of the candies and sniffs it, before wrapping it into a piece of cloth. "Eating meat." He explains to her. He doesn't want to ruin Either flavors. "I'll try it in a bit." He then puts the cloth in his breast pocket. At Mikage's nudge, he chuckles and nods his head. "That's fair." He admits, before looking down as Mikage starts interacting with the Lynx.

"Seems your work with Rama is working a lot better these days. The training must really be sticking now." He suggests to her, before looking out towards the merchant network booth. "I suppose I could." He remarks, before giving her one of those double-take looks as she mentions a present. "You're too sweet." He remarks. "I'll go check out the bird's booth. I won't be long." And with that, Cyrus approaches Kaleido's booth, right as he is talking about where to get the best price.

"Where are the best prices for Herbs for Healing Potions?" He asks Kaleido, clearly looking to test the bird.

    Miyako hmms to herself, considering Kaleido's answer. "So... you're a traders' information broker, then, not making any actual deals yourself? Sounds... interesting." She hmms softly. "Hope it works out for you."

    She smiles and waves to him as she turns away, hearing Blackrose call out to her. "Hey, neighbor," she greets the Imp, reaching a hand up to clap her on the shoulder briefly. "Good to catch you, too," she continues, and hmms softly. "Sure, sure, definitely not a day to spend alone, anyways."

    She turns to greet Mizuki with a warm grin. "Yeah, yesterday was fun, especially with folk singing along. It's half the fun of playing," she says. "Friendship sweets... oooh. That reminds me."

    She swipes a finger across the menu, materializing a pair of small bags from her inventory, offering one to Blackrose first, then the other to Mizuki. "Happy Day."

    Mizuki smiles as Miyako says the other day was fun. She nods, and accepts the bag, "Thank you!" She beams happily.

    Then Mizuki turns as Reika walks up to her. If Sam were from Japan, getting Valentine's day candy from an idol would probably... well, carry some sort of connotation that could make things awkward.

    Still, she's surprised. "Thank you!"

"Excuse me. Pardon me... eep, sorry ma'am." Sneaking and weaving through the crowd is not easy, Shiruba can't help to occasionally bump into someone. At least, with the large local population of Cait Sith and Were Fangs being native to Ninetales no one takes too much offense at being accidentally swatted with her tail as the wolfgirl tries to squeeze between them.

Though now she's gotten lost in the groups, and this isn't a situation she can really use her exploring skills to navigate out of.

She huffs in defeat, and just plops down on the nearest seat to wait it out a bit and maybe find an opening through the gathering to get where she wanted to go.

Friends and lovers meet up and seem to be having good old time. She watches Mizuki head off and will pause as she notices someone in mostion. Shirbua would find a light attempt of someone attempting to grab her tail.

"Where do you think you are going miss single?"

Pot and kettle here to be sure though she does intend to go hit up Kaleido when she has a moment.

"So there are games, shall we have some fun?"

She would find Gwen is there and she has been found!

As Miyako hands BlackRose the bag, she smiles and nods to her friend as she puts her bag away. "Thank you, friendo!" She then proceeds to swipe onto her menu and materializes a bag as well for Miyako.

"So, what do you wanna do first?" The pink-white haired girl asks while stretching her arms behind her back a little, her smile growing in size.

"We charge either a flat fee per lookup, or for repeat clients we work out contracts where we get a percentage of the profits you wouldn't have realized without us..."

"... And we don't *usually* buy and sell ourselves. We're trying to be third-party, not a competitor to our clients... though if the stars align, then certain rare items we'll handle transactions for ourselves."

Cyrus's question is considered. "One moment."

Kaleido turns, and whispers something into one of the other booth workers' ears. They nod, whisper something back, then put a hand to the side of their head and start mouthing words, having a quiet IM conversation.

About a minute later, Kaleido returns. They have a sheet of folded paper in one hand... and the other hand is held out to Cyrus, palm out. "Ten coins."

    It's finally Giganpor's turn. And seeing how things go, he asks if skills and wave artes are allowed. And gets told that there's nothing against is. Sooo... he steps up, picking up the mallet, and using earth magic to channel to his physical might. The good old fierceness of earth style skill.

    Taking a deep breath, he swings it down on the metal plate causing the weight to go flying upwards. And almost hit the 'epic hero' bell.

    Raising an eyebrow at it, he has a good laugh at it. "Wow. Good weight on it. And thank you. That was fun!" He makes his way away from the booth, spotting someone he at least knows sitting around. "Shiruba?"

    He heads over towards her, "Hey. Here alone as well?"

Goldenblade hrms and nods to Kaleido. "That seems fair enough, as long as the rate is proportional to the greater profit. I don't know my way around so well, so finding all the places to sell things seems like a giant pain. Although I guess I'm supposed to be killing the small, helpless monsters also. As I say," she laments, "I'm a bit behind the curve. Do you also advise where to go searching for these resources? Or are they pretty easy to find?" So, she hasn't actually looked yet. She's /that/ new.

And just as soon as she sat down someone tugs on her tail! Shiruba yelps as she bolts back onto her feet, partially turns and grabs her tail to yank it away from the offender. "Don't do that!" Then realizes it's Gwen, which just makes her puff her cheeks out more in annoyance. "You know I can actually feel that!"

And Gwen wonders why she's called a half-Oni sometimes.

"I'm not here for whatever this is," the wolfgirl tries to act like she doesn't know why there's a celebrating going on, folding her arms and bunching her winter coat around herself more. "I just wanted to stock supplies so I can get back to exploring."

"Ten coins." Cyrus repeats after Kaleido, having watched the little going-ons between them and their workers. It's far easier to see how something works, when you can see it in action. And it's clear that people are trying to find the information right in that very moment. The young man is perfectly okay with putting coins where his mouth is - swiping his hand down, motioning through the menu, and revealing a small pile of ten coins, and lays it out into Kaleido's hand. He then takes the paper, hoping it isn't empty.

You know what is definitely not good in life? Being the kind of kid who gets thrown headfirst into Asian Parent Syndrome and thereafter forced to watch in horror as the best years of your life are eaten up by an endless parade of cram school, tutors and extracurricular nonsense that you're only barely interested in. Also, not being able to go on dates very often. ALSO also only occasionally getting gratuity chocolates from the rest of the student council and totally-not-gratuity chocolate from that cute, shy, but 100% yandere girl in the back row.

Repeat ad nauseum until college, medical school and beyond, and you have the life of one PROPHYLAXIS THE MAD DOCTOR, who is really just angry a little on this holiday of love because of his utter lack of luck with love.

Instead he's responsible for the contents of a booth that claims to be selling a variety of 'love potions' (read: perfumes) sure to land you the love of your dreams (no guarantees made, results may vary, if you develop a rash or swelling on the affected area please consult your doctor).

...

They're really safe! Totally! Honestly. He's even smelling faintly of one particularly lavender-y scent himself!

"Hahhhh, another Valentine's Day come and gone," he sighs deeply and pokes at a bottle of brightly colored liquid. "At least I have an excuse this time. Can't exactly receive chocolate if there's no chocolate to give and none to receive. Fuuuuu~"

There's a beat as he examines the crowd and squints at the festivities.

"I hear that," he asides to the wolf on the bench. "Valentine's day... Hrmph. I never understood it much, myself. What does chocolate have to do with love anyway...?"

    Miyako nods to Mizuki, accepting the gift and tucking it away, still smiling. "I'd be glad to do it again," she adds, "Message me any night I'm in town." She waves casually as the girl turns away to Reika, and returns her attention to Blackrose.

    "Friendo, hmm? Sounds good to me." She laughs again, warm and bright, as she tucks away the Imp's gift as well. "What to do first... hmm. Did you want to try any of the carnie games?"

    Giganpor makes his way over towards Gwen and Shiruba, looking at the two. Then he blinks a few times. "Huh. Cool. Someone as tall as I am." He looks at Shiruba, then at Gwen, then at Shiruba.

    "Hey, is she bothering you, Shiruba?" He points at Gwen.

    Giganpor to the rescue! He knows Shiruba a little. Gwen, he doesn't. And he just saw Gwen pull on Shiruba's tail.

    So of course he's going to assume bothering. Someone did that to him before.

    Then he turns to Gwen, "And tail pulling! Not cool! It hurts, seriously! Want me to pull your ear to make you see what it's like?"

"Anything looks pretty on you, Reika." Mikage confirms Cyrus's earlier appraisal, but then allows the idol to have her time amongst some of the others, knowing just how popular she likely is.

With Rama still out amongst the crowds and Cyrus picking the mind of the Miracle Network, Miki starts to wander through the crowds, looking for other familiar faces. Some people she hasn't seen since leaving Alne, so she heads in the direction of Shiruba and Gwen. "Hey Gwen, Shiruba. You two finally get away from the Island of Beginnings for a little while?" She asks.

"I put a couple of things aside incase I ran into you two." Swiping her inventory, Miki pulls out a couple of rolled fur bundles. It looks like the results of some hunting. "Thought you  might be able to use these for accents some of the clothes you make." Then, to Shiruba, she offers out a bundle of feathers. "And I know you use a bow, so I thought you might need these for fletching arrows."

Looking a little uncertain, Miki rubs at the back of her neck shyly. "It's not candy, but I thought more pragmatic gifts might be good?"

"I've never tried those games really," BlackRose says with a slight blush on her face. "So you might have to teach me the basics here and there." With a gesture forward, BlackRose then adds, "I'll let you lead the way and we can see what we come across."

Have done what minimal grooming she can Shaskur heads out from around the building into the now busy festival. Face revealed, shoulder length black hair unhooded, she is about as socially presentable as she gets. Pausing a moment she looks around frowning. There were a lot more people now that it was getting later in the evening. Gathering herself she moves in amongst the crowd.

She knew that she had seen that white lynx, but she couldn't spot it right at this moment. Hopping a bit to see further Shaskur spots an unusually tall man poking up above the crowd, Giganpor. Moving through the crowds she makes her way over to him.

As she nears him, she raises her hand in greeting, "Yo. Giganpor. Long time no see!" and she grins widely, her fangs showing. Noticing Gwen and Shiruba with him Shaskur grins their way as well, "Shiruba! Gwen! Lots of people!" Then Shaskur pulls out a few small red bags with tiny sweets. They appear to be regular ones being sold from many of the shops around here, nothing particularly special, but still sweets. "Here you go!" She passes a little bag to each of Giganpor, Shiruba, and Gwen.

Cyrus takes the piece of paper and looks at it, folding it open diligently. "Hrrrm." He considers this for a moment. Kaleido might catch a moment of disappointment in his expression - perhaps he'd been looking for purchase prices, rather than sale prices. But he's not looking to correct himself for the sake of a simple test, and down another ten coins for his own error. "How much investment in order to join this Network of yours?" He then asks. "I imagine prices to join must rise over time, as establishing meetings of groups in order to befriend others will go up for multiple of ten reached in such an organization, assuming everyone connects with everyone." He looks up to Kaleido.

Everything is all right now, the life of the party has arrived. A bit fashionably late - or he might have just overslept. You'll never know. Unless you ask him. Maybe.

Anyway, Dareshetani arrives on the scene, nose twitching at all the enticing smells and big round ears pricked up with interest as he looks around at the transformation of the town. He's even dressed up - a LITTLE bit - for the occassion. Instead of his usual battered newbie leather, the were-hyena sports a nice fur-trimmed vest and smart breeches, and what looks like a new tooled belt of soft leather. He is also not covered in slime and sewage as he may have been the last time some people here saw him.

Dare spots a couple of faces he recognizes here and there in the gathering and gives a cheerful wave in greeting. It's Pro's booth that he pauses at first, with a cheerful, "Hey Doc, how are sales? Y'know personally, it was always the day AFTER Valentines chocolate sales I always looked forward to."

Proteus continues to observe the goings-on around her, looking upon the way the others interact with each other. Sometimes she smiles. Sometimes she doesn't. Either way, she still has that odd expression on her face while acquiring a slice of cake. At least, it looks like cake. She carefully takes a bite of the strawberry-topped confection... And sighs happily, her tiny wings wiggling behind her as her tail weaves back and forth like a cat that got the cream. "It's been too long." She says to herself.

Fresh off of a sugar bomb, she cleans off her hands while approaching one of the game booths. The Prove Your Magic booth gets an arch from her eyebrow. "Mmmm. I wonder..." She hums as she approaches and places down some coins to participate. She places her hands on the orb, and begins calling up her magical power. Sizzling energy begins pouring into the orb as she works to marshal everything she has to try to meet the (carnival-level absurd) goal. But that's the fun, isn't it? As she encounters more and more resistance, a hand flicks, tracing a pattern in the air: + <

A surge of flame magic roars around her as she supplements her attempt and tries to push it home before she runs out of MP!

Gwen grins at Shiruba for a moment.

"But it's so fluffy and it's not like you are the only one who has new bits to deal with."

Her wings rise up for a moment as she looks to her friend for a moment.

"IT's a valentine festival there's food games and other things even for single folks like us. I just finished up some custom deliveries. Hopefully, the customers will enjoy them. So how about we go check out the games maybe even say hi to some of my business contacts?"

She looks to Giganpor for a moment.

"I didn't pull it."

"Sure you can risk that if you like and its not like she doesn't /prank/ me on this world and Earth."

She looks to Shaskur for a moment.

"Hello and thank you."

She takes the bag and looks at Giga for a moment longer.

    Mizuki blinks. Then smiles, "I will! I'm still kind of getting used to using the chimlink instead of AIM or cell phones."

    But... a large cat is nuzzling her leg and it has something that... smells interesting. She squats down and reaches out for the little bag Rama is holding. "For me? Um... Look, I appreciate the thought, but you're a cat, I mean, an actual cat, and I'm... not..."

    She takes the bag and sniffs it. Then sniffs at it some more. Opens it. Sniffs. "Where did you get this? It smells really good..." She licks it. "Tastes really good too, what IS this?" Oh dear. Well, one of Prophylaxis's questions is about to be answered...

    "Hmm, well," Miyako muses. "Actually some of these are new to me, too. I mean, there's the usual basics," she waves casually at a ring toss booth, for example. "But some of the others look to be using some magic." She smiles. "I guess we're both exploring new things today, Rosie."

Shiruba gives Gwen a long side-eyed look, but refrains from replying about the fluffiness of her tail with anything that would be too embarassing. Instead she sighs and shakes her head a little. "No Giganpor, it's okay. She's just my friend and adoptive big sister figure." Which you know, still fits the whole bothering thing. Siblings do that to each other.

"Hello Shaskur, 'Laxis." She waves to the latter, still opting for a nickname because there is no way she's going to try and pronounce that mouthful his full name is. "But I guess at least making an appearance of things is expected."

Cue a passing by gifting from Mikage. ".. Oh! Thanks Mikage, that's what feathers are good for yes!"

Now she feels a little bad that she didn't consider gifts and such.

"I guess that makes things more mysterious," BlackRose says with Miyako. "Why don't we each take turns picking out a game to try and we'll see what happens from there? Who knows what we might find?"

"Yeah I guess." Prophylaxis shrugs at Shiruba, then continues: "I was thinking about spending the day doing my usual Valentine's Day ritual, but I don't have what I need for half of it, and I'm already doing the other half."

"That's true. At least After Valentine's Day, you can buy all the chocolate your heart desires," the good doctor nods in solemn agreement to Dare's comment. After all, the heart will need 100 ccs of chocolate to soothe the ache of the no-choco lifestyle. It's a sad, sad thing, isn't it? "It's doing alright, I guess," Prophylaxis shrugs. "Everyone wants a love potion on Valentine's Day, and who knows? It might just work! I wish I was able to find a test subject for that theory of mine, though. I could have sold gangbusters to a certain clientelle if I knew--"

He cranes his head uuup and around and right at Mizuki.

His eyes narrow just a /little./ Squiiiiint~

"Hhhhm, that... That might be a problem, there."

Reika smiles to Mikage and Cyrus, bowing her head "Thanks for the compliments." She is a cute girl after all, that was part of her PR after all. She goes around to offer more flowers, smiling brightly. This is also part of doing PR after all, even if she's not the purpose here. She's just that friendly naturally.

She recognizes Goldenblade from last night as well, so she gladly stops by to offer a pink flower candy "And here's for you." And then she stops by Shaskur and Shiruba for their own, both of them receiving white ones "There's no code to the colros by the way." She says playfully.

    Giganpor blinks a few times. Then looks at Shiruba, then to Gwen. "Waaait... you're a real life friend of hers?" He points at Shiruba.

    Then at least turns to Shaskur to accept the candy bag. "Uh, thank you?" His face reddens a little.

    Then he looks to Gwen. "Got any interesting stories I can pass along? She's been a terror among us in New World."

    Giganpor looks serious on the stories, too. Maybe. There's a small quirk of his mouth as if to say he's joking. Perhaps.

One the gift has been handed off to Mizuki, Rama is quick to run back into the crowd. There is a note left behind from Mikage, so the gift clearly isn't from the lynx, himself. He's just the deliverer of... good things? Soon enough, the Lynx appears again out of the crowd, this time making a straight line towards Cyrus. He sits, looks up at the snow leopard Cait Sith, and then makes a long drawn out 'mow'. Mikage had said Cyrus would be giving him a reward.

"You're welcome." Miki offers back softly as she gives a small smile to Shiruba. "Puts my hunter skills to good use. And... I'm better at killing things than making things." She shrugs, still looking a little sheepish at the whole prospect.

"Evening Giganpor." It's hard not notice him, especially as he happens to have approached the same group. "You wouldn't happen to have that shield of yours on you, would you? I've heard so much about it on the chimlink but I haven't seen it in action yet." She asks, curiously.

    "Hmm, seems reasonable," Miyako muses, nodding to Blackrose. "Any of them look interesting to you?" She turns about, slowly, standing on tip-toe to see above the crowds as she surveys the options available.

As Reika approaches Shaskur's eyes widen slightly and she grins happily, fangs visible. "Reika! You're here too!" She accepts the flower and places it in her hair. "Thanks. I have a little gift for you too." And she pulls out another little reg bag with some sweets to pass to Reika. "Enjoy!"

Shaskur listens to the conversation going on amongst the other friends for a few moments as she continues to look around seeing if she can spot the white lynx - but still no luck. She does eye a small tent with a pond of water and wooden ducks bobbing in it, and she grins. Looking back at Gwen, Giganpor, and Shiruba she says, "I hope you like the sweets! I'm going to try my luck at that game over there." She points over towards the game tent.

"Anyone want to come?" she says but then without checking she starts to dodge and weave her way through the crowd towards the game tent until she is glowering down at the poor wooden duckies. Turning to read the nearby sign and instructions she grins some more finding out the game is free. Eyeing the different ducks critically she finally closes her eyes and reaches out to grab one.

BlackRose looks around a little before pointing at a nearby booth that doesn't look like it's having much activity. "There," She says while pointing at the booth in question. "Let's check this one out!" As they approach, it seems that it's like one of those games where you knock down a stack of cans or something. She looks to Miyako and says, "What do you think?"

Gwen says "Yes, we are. She's been adopted by my family more or less."

She's now trying the chocolates.

"Oh I do but you'll have to earn them."

She says looking at Shiruba for a moment she could share a few but she's already bothered her a bit today. She'll try some of the chocolate she was given.

"Good luck Shaskur!"

She looks back to Shiruba "Any you want to share?"

    Giganpor smiles, "Not many have." He says towards Mikage. "I keep it on me unless someone wants to borrow it that I trust. I do plan on making another whenever I get a chance, but recent events have me... occupied. A lot. I do make them on request, though. Someone just needs to supply the plate and tell me if they want a specific shape."

    He reaches down to behind his cloak slightly, pulling out the shield. Golden colored, obviously not an ordinary shield at all judging by material alone. Not to mention the dark purple markings on it.

    "Want to have a look while I'm here?"

    He looks over at Gwen, grinning at the equally tall woman. "Oh? Define 'earn' on that one."

    He looks considerate, then smiles at Gwen before holding out a hand not occupied by oddly constructed buckler and candy bag now. "I'm Giganpor, by the way. Nice to meet someone who can terrorize the wolf girl here."

Goldenblade ohs as Reika catches her by surprise with the pink flower candy, and uhms, "Oh, I remember now, from last night. I've only just started meeting people lately, so I wasn't sure I'd meet anyone I knew coming here." She reaches into her hip pouch, though, and pulls a mushy candy thing wrapped in paper. "There's no chocolate that I could find here, but I used to make taffy as a kid." She passes it over. "It's not very good, I'm afraid, but it's half a step up from vendor food. Maybe a quarter-step up."

Cyrus looks aside as he hears that begging mow. "I don't have any more food to give you Rama." The male remarks as he lowers down and spots the mewling feline. He's waiting for Kaleido's answer of course, but he can handle the feline for now. "Sorry buddy. I'll get something to you soon, okay - ah, wait." He pauses, "Actually..."

He reaches into one of his pockets and takes out a cloth wrapped piece of jerky. He takes a moment to use one of his sharp nails to cut it, but by the time he's half-done with that, Rama manages to put its big paws on his hand, steals the piece of Jerky, and runs off with it!

"... greedy-gut." Cyrus mumbles bemusedly.

    Notes aren't as interesting as this /fascinating/ smelling-and-tasting catnip candy. Rama's gone now so at least he took rejection gracefully. But with the taste on her tongue and the smell in her nose there isn't really... anything she can do to get MORE of it, it's not like there's enough to roll around in, so she'll just kind of spend several minutes savoring it, until someone intervenes or or it wears off.

Dare smirks at Prophylaxis's mention of the test subject. That could have been creepy, but after all, there's no such thing as an actual love potion. Or... is there? His gaze follows the doctor's to Mizuki, then shifts back with a little twinge of uncertainty. How well does he actually know Pro? He wouldn't... actually test magical love-inducing reagents on the crowd, would he? "Sooooo," he says, a little too loudly with the forced casualness, "What exactly is... in these things, anyway?" He can smell the lavender and had assumed the vials were just perfume.

Reika takes Shaskur's bag gladly, smiling "Of course I love sweets. And what I gave you is also a sweet by the way, but if you want a flower, here." She gets one from her basket offering it to Shaskur to replace the one in her hair, giggling. She nods to Goldenblade, smiling "That's right. And don't worry, I wasn't expecting anything in return really. But I'll gladly take it of you offer." She bows elegantly in thanks, smiling.

    Miyako nods and looks over the booth Blackrose points out. "Hmmm." She pauses a moment, then adds, "It seems simple enough. Just throw a ball, knock down the cans, yes?" She clasps Blackrose's hand in hers and tugs her towards it. "Mind if we give it a try?" she asks the stall-holder, placing a few coins on the bar. Payment made, she takes a pair of balls and hands them to Blackrose. "Go ahead and give it a throw."

Shiruba emits another cheek puffing "Hmph" at the exchange between Gwen and Giganpor. And a "I don't know what you're talking about, being a terror." She's tempted to stick her tongue out at them, but that would be needlesly rude at a large public event.

"You and me both, Mikage, you and me both. Hunting also has better meat drops, and now that Hifumi has their resturant open, I can give him any I score while out exploring." She leans closer to the other hunter for a moment, lowering her voice to a mock whisper. "The food you get out of the deal is worth it."

Then she realizes Shaskur also gave her candy, and pops a piece in her mouth to keep from saying anything she might regret later.

There is almost a fan-girl type moment from Mikage when Giganpor brings out the shield. "It really is the same material we got in Spinner's end, isn't it. The color is different though." She observes. "Is that from the smithing process?" Though the ranger has no skill in that department, at all, she still can appreciate the workmanship.

Rama, having stolen his bounty from Cyrus, is quick to dart off, crunching down on it and chewing. He seems about to dart back off towards his owner when that scent from before catches his nose. So, when Shaskur finishes playing the duck game, there is the white lynx, still chomping on the jerky, wearing his various flower arrangements, but he sort of wiggles happily at the sight. Even if they had lost the game, they had found a furry friend.

The conspiratorial whisper from Shiruba is met with a nod from Mikage, "No kidding. I got one of his bento boxes from helping with a dungeon. It was delicious. So I went back during the opening and got some take out. Gave my party's resident cook the night off. It was /so/ good."

Goldenblade admits to Reika, "I wasn't expecting anything, myself, but I only started meeting people the other day, and I figured it'd be bad luck if I met someone I knew and didn't have anything. So, thank you, and enjoy. I haven't made it since I was a kid, as I said, and it's a bit improvised as it is. But it's hand-made, so has a bit of taste to it."

Prophylaxis' avatar certainly *looks* like he could be the type that would create shady love potions, shady instant intoxicants, shady *everything.* But... Could it be real? Could this doctor... really be one of *those* doctors...!?

"It's literally just coloring, water, lightweight alcohol and a mixture of floral and herbal extracts," Prophylaxis explains, rising from behind his booth. "Basic perfume stuff. What--"

He pauses and follows Dare's eyes, then frowns. "What, no. That's not one of mine. Just-- hold on."

With a huff, Prophylaxis pushes through the crowd and... *veeeery* carefully approaches Mizuki. "'Scuse me, miss. You... You don't look so great? Please follow me for a moment--"

If not interrupted, he'll sit the intoxicated Were Fang down next to his stall and... That's it? He's not going to perform any shady experiments on her or anything! Just, maybe hand her a cup of water if she's responsive.

"I swear," Prophylaxis mutters softly, "Just 'cause they say love is in the air doesn't mean that people should be actually getting high on the atmosphere...!"

Shiruba turns her attention for a moment as Giganpor gets out his shield. "Oh wow." She had donated to the work on it but this is the first time she's really seen the results for herself. "That turned out really well for 'experimenting'."

Opening her eyes Shaskur frowns seeing that she only received a regular wooden duck. "Awww." She exclaims before giving it over to the attendant who exchanges it for a regular ticket. Placing the ticket in her pocket she narrows her eyes as she gazes over at the next game booth. She pulls out the flower candy Reika gave her and pops in her mouth. Humming in pleasure at the sweet taste she is about to wander over when she spots a cute white kitty. "Rama!" she exclaims and crouches down to pet the lynx. "You look so cute with your flowers!"

Shaskur happily continues to cuddle the lynx, scratching him behind the ears, for some time as he continues to munch on the jerky. After a couple minutes she breaks out of her trance and looks around. "Where is Mikage?" she asks Rama. After a moment she spots the were fang with a group of others, seemingly back where she had just come from a moment before.

As Rama seems to return to Mikage's side Shaskur follows, "Mikage! Good to see you" and she grins as she pulls out a little red bag of sweets and passes them over.

    Mizuki follows Prophy, and her ears twitch at his words. "High?" She sets down the candy. "What is this?" She looks at Prophy. "It smells so good... don't you smell it?"

Gwen giggles at the whole terror thing.

"You are as much as I'm the Half-Oni."

She look to Shirba for a moment and looks the shield over an lets out a low whistle.

"Damn that's quite the shield you have there."

She thinks for a moment longer.

"So you do custom work? You talked to Kaydon? He's got a project going that might intrest you."

    Giganpor nods, looking to Shiruba, "Tell me about it. It was a pain to make, though. And I still owe you and the others for the extra plates."

    He looks to Mikage, "Yeah. The heat process changed it, and I think when I finished on the fastenings they ended up getting a bit of the heat as well somehow. Not intended, but they work. The shape really helps, too. I can keep it strapped to the arm or I have a handle on the back side for if I need to punch someone with it."

    Giganpor looks curious, looking at Gwen. "Kaydon? I haven't talked to him in a while. I think you're the second or fifth to mention him and his project. I might have to take some time to help him out. I've been working on doing custom work for a while now. The shield's just the first. I was hoping to make a set of katars next for someone that asked, but they are proving... quite vexing."

Dare relaxes visibly at Pro's explanation. "Right, right, of course," he laughs, a little nervously to judge from the hint of yeen cackle at the back of his throat. Jesus, this isn't awkward at all. Nope, perfectly normal. MOVING ON...

His ears pick up some talk of Hifumi's reastaurant and a proud little smile curls about his muzzle as he thinks back on his contribution to the construction. It really is nice to have a central place to gather and get some good food now. Speaking of food, he browses a bit through the stalls, and snags a couple of tasty looking treats on offer, cheerfully handing over some coins to the vendors in exchange, before circling back to check on Mizuki himself. She did look a little bit stoned there after all.

When Mizuki asks 'don't you smell it?' he wrinkles his nose and takes a good sniff. And then he thinks he understands. Back in the real world, his player cultivated a lot of that stuff, because it was one of the few plants he could manage not to kill. Also, it helped keep mosquitos away. "I think that's... catnip?" he ventures.

A short time later, the orbs all light up, and Proteus smiles in satisfaction at seeing the gleaming lights arrayed before her. A moment later, she is walking away from the booth with a red ticket, which she studies for a moment before tucking it away.

It's at this point that her head quirks and she tilts it, her ears twitching under the hood. She turns her head towards Prophylaxis and Mizuki. "Hrm..." She hums as she looks over the shady-looking doctorish type. "Interesting. I might have to contact Whis." She turns away and weaves back into the blissfully happy and celebratory people present, working her way through the booths...

And notices next the beanbag toss game. She smiles at the line of milk jugs, and nods. "Well, let's give it a shot." She sets down her entry fee for the barker, and studies the beam carefully along with the bags. She picks one up, and tosses it in her hand, speculatively as she glances over at the riot of celebration behind her. She frowns for a moment. "No distractions." She states, and then gestures once more: N + , #

A moment later, there is a crackling as the Mind Shock ability... is used on /Proteus/, her gaze going blank. "Angle. Throw." She whispers to herself, and then she hurls the beanbags, one after the other...

Tossing one of the balls in her hand a couple of times, BlackRose looks at the cans a couple of times then to Miyako. "Well, it looks like it should be worth a try." She gestures to Miyako to stand back, then after another toss, she lets out a yell as she hurls the ball at the target.

"Smell--" Prophylaxis' gaze flickers to the bag of candy and back. Dare returns just in time to lend his expert sniffer to the task, and the good doctor grimaces briefly before tentatively taking a whiff of the contents. His ears twitch just a little bit before he sets the bag back down. "Nepeta Cataria it is, alright. I've had a cat long enough to know what that smells like."

'Damn,' he thinks. 'Someone beat me to the idea...!'

But he doesn't voice that terrible opinion out-loud, especially not in front of a temporary patient. "Well, that's at least one question answered. Today has been productive after all! As it turns out, feline Were Fangs *are* affected by catnip! This is deeply troubling in a way that I presently have difficulty articulating."

He shakes his head slowly. "I think she'll be fine, just... A little disoriented. I was worried that she might pass out, but sitting down until it wears off should take care of that."

The lynx gives a little chuff of greeting, and then slips into a series of purrs at the attention. Oh, Rama has a good memory for those who offer treats and pettings. Eventually, he finishes eating the jerky, then is happy enough to lead the way back towards his owner.

Miki takes a moment away from fawning over the shield to crouch down, scratching Rama between the ears, "Did you give Mizuki her gift? Good boy." And just a second after, up comes Shaskur. "Oh! Hey! Leave it to Rama to find you." She laughs, pushing up to her feet again and then accepting the bag of sweets with a very Japanese bow.

"I was trying to figure out what to get you, but Rama kind of figured it out." Reaching into a pocket, she pulls out what looks like a bit of leather cord. Attached to the end looks to be a small white tooth. "He's been growing into his adult teeth, so he lost this one this week. I thought you might like it as a friendship gift?"

Then, she starts to look through the crowd a bit, "I wonder if Cyrus got busy talking. I was hoping to drag him around to a couple of the games."

"Don't worry, I won't forget," Shiruba smirks. "But you're pretty busy, so no big rush. And since I don't really use a shield, it'd have to be like bracers or something."

And then Kaydon's project is brought up. "Yeah! I've been trying to find some mineral deposits for him... but there's still a limit on how dangerous of areas I can explore yet, so it's slow going so far."

Eventually makes his way away from Kaleido after having a talk - no doubt they'll talk again after, and joins up with Mikage shortly after she speaks of him. Putting a hand to her shoulder as he comes around - thanks to a busy crowd making a straight path difficult. "I did." He answers her. "What game are you looking to play?" He asks her, the tall male looking down at her rather closely, and quickly removing his hand - realizing he might be being a bit inappropiate. He's in a rather good mood though, it'd seem. No doubt this festival is bringing him back to far happier days. "By the way, did you see a cat, about this high?" He points to Rama's height. "Jerky thief?"

    Giganpor looks a bit perplexed as he overhears Mikage. Then he looks at Rama. Then up to Mikage. "Hold on... are you saying they have actual life cycles now?" He asks her.

    That has him looking very curious, and perhaps a lot of gears turning in his head. He's trying to figure it out. As that sounds like an animal companion losing a tooth. Which probably stumps him at the moment.

    His head turns to look at the magic testing game while he's talking, munching on candy, and waiting to find out if what Mikage's implying is true.

    Then he looks over at Shiruba and Gwen, "I don't mind doing that. I probably have a few extra minerals that might be what he is looking for. He still sticking around Ikegai? I might ask to make a trip there if my current work gives me a day off."

Goldenblade wanders over to the carnival booths now that others are trying them out. She'll wait in line and have a go as well, finally stepping up to the hammer-and-bell booth. She takes a deep breath, hauls the hammer back over her head, then brings it forward with all her might.

Dare grins. "No worries, catnip's completely harmless. It's like... it's like weed lite. No side effects, not even addictive. Cats just enjoy it. And feline weres, apparently" he adds, with a rueful slant to his smile. "Honestly I'm a little jealous. Hyenas are closer to cats than dogs but..." he sniffs again. "It smells nice to me, that's all."

    "Did that cat try to roofie me...?" Dare comes along and helps identify it. Catnip? It's catnip! Sam had a cat when he was younger. Toys made of compressed catnip were here favorite... well, now that she knows what it is, Mizuki's able to form the idea of 'not being a cat' and changes back to human.

    And with a newly-cleared head she comes to the same conclusion as Prophy: Obviously the gift was not from Rama, that's stupid. Someone (probably Mikage) wanted to see what catnip would do to a were fang. She's kind of pissed but also can see how someone would get curious and try it. She growls, "There was a better way to test that..."

    The catgirl stuffs the bag back in her inventory and stands up and is about to stomp off, then stops. She turns to Prophylaxis, "Thanks. For looking out for me. Um... I'll bring you back a thank-you candy later." She will take that offered water.

    Then she walks off to the games, stepping up to the strength test booth and hefting the mallet. "HYAAAAAGH!" She slams it down on the plate, sending the little weight high, but not quite ringing the bell. "Hrmph."

Goldenblade looks as surprised as anyone to have rung the bell. "Where I grew up," she explains to no one, "They were near impossible to win, even for a big fellow." Of course a career as a bricklayer .... oh wait, Goldenblade wasn't a bricklayer. She accepts a red ticket and tucks it away for now, and will look and see what else is interesting.

    Miyako stands aside to wait while Blackrose takes her shot, then pats her on the shoulder in condolence for the miss. "You'll get the next game," she assures the imp.

    Then she steps up to take her own shot, pausing to heft the ball in her hand, before winding up like a baseball player to launch it into the back of the booth. And ... wham! And with a loud clattering the milk jugs tumble to the ground. "Yes!" she crows, jumping and throwing her fist into the air.

    Tucking away the red ticket, she slides her right arm around Blackrose's left and waves casually at the 'test of strength' booth. "C'mon, show us all how strong you are, Rosie."

The hand on Miki's shoulder has her tense, but she quickly realizes it is Cyrus and she turns, offering him a smile. "Any luck with the bird?" She laughs as he asks her about a suspicious feline. "You mean a very distinct white lynx who has a tendency to steal jerky?" Mikage asks, looking down at Rama, then back at Cyrus. "Nope, haven't seen any animal that fits that description."

Thoughtful, she looks around at the various booths. "I was thinking either the feat of strength game, or maybe the one with the bean bags?" She looks at him, trying to get an idea of what he might be interested in trying. "Which one catches your eye?"

Giganpor's question catches her off-guard though. Looking momentarily puzzled, Mikage replies, "Of course they do? Rama isn't even full grown for a lynx." She explains, "I got him as a kitten, actually. Found him up in the mountains. He's probably got another full year or so before he's full grown." By her expression, she thought everyone knew this about animals, though that may just be the fact that she is playing a ranger class.

For now, Mikage is oblivious to what happened with Mizuki. Perhaps not even realizing anything until there is that shout from the direction of the strength game. There's no connection at all in her mind, though, that it has anything to do with her gift.

"It's not the immediate harm I'm necessarily worried about," Prophylaxis explains with the kind of gravitas that one would not expect at a fun festival about love and lovers. "While there is certainly a section of the playerbase that desires to revel in their new forms, I know that there is also a sizable portion who feel uncomfortable with being reminded about their new lot in life. For those of us who think that way, whose attachment to our original bodies is particularly strong, then even something as innocuous as catnip to a Were Fang might in the aftermath feel like a violation of one's sense of self."

"And besides, it may serve as another reminder of how... different this world is. And for some, how much it has taken from them. To change even one's humanity is..." The doctor shakes his head and simultaneously shakes himself out of his Way Too Heavy reverie. Especially as Mizuki emerges from her own state of unsound mind. "Sorry. Getting a bit ahead of myself, especially at a time and place like this. Miss Mizuki, are you feeling-- uh."

Candy? For him?

"Ahahaha, t-thanks. I appreciate it. But uh, why don't I accompany you for the time being, just in case? Long term side effects and all."

And so he goes off to follow her to the gaming booths, where he... does not take on the strength of test. Instead he goes for something a little more his speed... The magic game!

...And he gets /almost/ all the way through lighting them all up, when the last one just does not get bright enough. "Ugh. Carnival games are harder than they look...!"

Gwen says "I'm behind it to the point I'm helping bank roll it."

She sems pretty pleased with them and pauses for a moment.

"He could use the help and the end produect would be any weapon smith or armor smith? Would likely love to have their hands on."

"I'll get it next time I'm sure," BlackRose says with a slight smile as she follows Miyako to the test of strength game. "I bet I could do this!" With that, BlackRose takes the hammer into her hand.

"Better stand back," BlackRose tells Miyako with a wink as she hefts it with a grunt. She takes a couple of deep breaths before bringing down the mallet with a loud battle cry.

This time, BlackRose's strength shines through as she hits it all the way to the top. "I knew I could do it!" BlackRose says as she flexes her arms playfully.

With her mind blank, Proteus' body moves on instinct, flowing easily and simply in action after action. The bags fly, knocking over the jugs at her part of the stall, and as thought returns to her, she finds herself staring dumbly at a red ticket being offered to her. "Hmm!" She says, her purple eyes gleaming. "I suppose the plan worked." She takes the ticket and turns her head to look at Miyako doing the same through raw skill. "Impressive work." She says to Miyako. "It's no small feat to succeed in these games. They're not designed to be... easily dealt with. Good luck in the future, you will need those skills."

Congratulations provided, she turns and sweeps away, this time looking around to look for the person who caught her attention before...

"Deep thoughts for a time that tries to make people forget those kinds of ideas." Proteus says behind the mushroomy doctor. "So what is humanity in a place like this, I wonder?" The Imp asks Prophylaxis. "You seem like the kind of person who gets into these kinds of thoughts often, aren't you?"

That said, she watches the doctor attempt to light the orbs and almost succeed. "An excellent attempt. But perhaps another time you will find yourself victorious. I am expecting this will become a regular feature." She turns her head to look over to Mizuki as well. "We just keep running into each other, don't we, Mizuki? How are you this fine evening?" There is that smile again, pleasant but no less knifelike than before.

    Giganpor hums, then rubs the back of his head, "I'll meet with him, see what I can do. That's about all I can promise there?"

    He smiles, "In any case, I see something that has me curious a bit." He motions over at the magic game and starts to make his way towards it.

Cyrus simply nods his head at Mikage's question. The male then looks down to the cat as it's being mentioned. "Yep, that sounds very distinctly like the one I seek." He remarks. Rama no doubt giving him a hungry look for more jerky. "Hmm, no such animal hrrm? Well, I suppose I must have imagined it then."

He then glances towards the various games. "Well, I think technically my magical might is greater than my physical strength. And I might be able to get some bean bags in their holes." Cyrus offers up.

The youth then looks to Giganpor. The Cait Sith gives him a respectful nod in greeting. "I'm sure you can out-toss me at the bean-bag game. But I'll still challenge you." He then notes.

Shaskur takes the leather cord with the lynx tooth gently, "Wow, that is so sweet of you, Mikage." She is silent a moment as she gazes at the tooth and then she looks over to Rama and back to Mikage. "This is a really nice gift. Thanks you." She says almost a bit flustered. She crouches down to pet Rama once again, and then looks put to Mikage as she talks, "Is it okay if I give Rama a piece of meat from a prairie rodent?"

As Mikage and Giganpor discuss games Shaskur stands up looking interested. She follows along with Mikage.

    Miyako nods, grinning, as she watches Blackrose make her try. When the bell rings, she applauds loudly. "Well swung!" she calls out, "Looking damn good!" She lingers a moment, watching the imp, smiling.

    Then she remembers that she's got to make her own try. She reaches over to take the hammer, giving Blackrose's hand a quick squeeze before taking up the weight of the mallet. "Right, now, watch this," she says, looking back at the imp before focusing on the target. She hefts the mallet once, then lifts it in both hands, swinging it up and around to slam down onto the paddle. The 'ding' that follows is not quite as loud or as clear as the one before it, but it's definitely present, and she pockets her second red ticket with a grin.

    "Okay then! Your pick next, Rosie."

    Mizuki nods to Prophylaxis. "I know, it has no lasting effects on cats." A violation of sense of self? "I think that ship sailed pretty quickly. Fortunately, it turns out that I find being a cat pretty great. Well, a cat-person. It's in addition to my humanity, rather than forsaking it, you know?" But she looks sullen at the thought of someone like, say, Jazz tripping out on Undine-nip. "Yeah... That sounds horrifying, actually. And yeah, keeping an eye on me sounds like a good idea, thanks."

    After her failure at the test of strength, she moves to the test of ranged attacks. Tossing the bean bag and catching it in her hands a few times to test the weight. "You know, this body's got better hand-eye coordination, too, I think. I could throw with okay accuracy before... but I couldn't throw freaking /knives/." She shifts her grip on the bag and pulls her hand back in preparation for the throw. "I call forth a fire storm 30!" She hurls it at one of the milk jugs and knocks it right off, repeating the feat until there are no more jugs! "Yes!" She pumps a fist in victory and collects her red ticket.

Goldenblade whistles appreciatively as Blackrose rings the bell easily with an impressive blow. "Nice," she offers, still watcging the game as much as she can while rubbernecking at the whole festival thing.

"I guess I can see that side of things," Dare acknowledges as Pro waxes philosophic. "Me, I was always kind of a closet furry I guess. I'm perfectly happy not being human here. But I also know better than to think I'm anywhere like typical," he chuckles.

Anyway, time to check out the games himself! Munching on a bit of jerky he bought from one of the vendor stalls, he saunters through the booths to see what challenges are offered. Mostly the kind of stuff that'd for sure be a scam in the real world, he sees, but this appears to be all in good fun.

He stops by the beanbag-tossing booth first, tucks the stick of jerky into his cheek, and laces his fingers together to stretch them out with a satisfying popping noise. "If only this was a shooting gallery," he quips, but when his turn comes up he hefts his beanbag confidently enough, sticks his tongue out the side of his mouth opposite the jerky, and lets it rip in finest person-who-has-only-ever-seen-baseball-piching-on-TV style.

The mushroomy doctor almost jumps out of his shaggy-cap labcoat at the sudden sensation of ~person behind him.~ "Ah-- uh, hm. Ahem!" Prophylaxis takes a moment to steady himself, coughing once into a fist to disguise the fact that he was just snuck up on. How embarassing! "You might say that. It comes with the territory, I'm afraid. Spending so much of your life thinking about the repercussions of this and that trains a brain to perform mental gymnastics utterly unbidden! And besides..."

His expression turns a little more serious. "I think it's still important, even now, to hold tight to the things that make us who we are. To lose yourself in a game is one thing, but this... this is something else entirely, isn't it?"

Ah, but there he goes again! And there he is slipping up with the overly serious thoughts again! It costs him a prize, but that's fine. "You're probably right, it's not like it's the last time games like these will be around. Still... I'd like to win at least one, for the sake of my pride if nothing else!"

Especially since it turns out that Mizuki isn't actually *too* bothered with being a cat. And who can blame her? Cats are awesome! They get to sit around all day and sleep and eat and have amazing target-focus vision- As she so keenly demonstrates. "Hm, I don't think I've actually tried, myself. Mostly relying on magic, you know? 'Fireball' doesn't exactly require precise aim. But..."

He picks up a beanbag and closes his eyes. "Just imagine it's a scalpel, and..."

                                   *FWIP*                                  

The beanbag goes right into a milk jug! And another! And another! "Hoh! Looks like it really does work! I knew good hand-eye coordination would come in handy!!"

There's a beat as he considers Mizuki for a moment more, then... "I think my next project should be smelling salts. I think it's fine to use those kinds of things to relax on your own time, but nobody likes having it snuck up on them. Something to break the trance early would be useful, don't you think?"

Looking to Miyako, BlackRose nods a little. "All right, let's try this one here?" She points at the one about proving one's magic. "I'm not too sure how good I'll be at it, but it looks like fun." She takes a deep breath and attempts to light the orbs according to the directions. The question is, how good is her magic?

"You're more than welcome, Shaskur. Any friend of Rama's is a friend of mine." Mikage chuckles softly. "I'm sure he wouldn't turn down meat if you've got it. Usually he can eat pretty much any of the meat drops in the game. Though he got into some cheese once and that didn't sit well."

With a nod, Miki looks towards the games, "Well, lead on then, mister cat. I'll let you choose." It is supposed to be a night about treating the guys and he is ... sort of, her date? Eh. Well, she'll just choose not to think of it that way. "Bean bag it is then." When he seems to settle finally on that, she heads in that direction, Rama following at her heels.

"Aw yeah," Dare declares, even though his beanbag fusillade is just barely sufficient to knock over the targets. It's a carnival game; you're not supposed to dominate these things. He grins at the attendant as he accepts his red prize ticket, and tucks it into his inner vest pocket for safekeeping.

"Did I hear you say 'just imagine it's a scalpel,' Doc?" He teases. "Remind me not to come to you if I ever need surgery, if that's what you do with 'em."

Miyako nods and follows Blackrose over to the next stall, taking a quick look at it, then standing aside to let the imp try. "Go ahead," she urges, "You can do it."

"Mister Cat hmm?" Nyan-san, aka Cyrus, moves along to one of the beanbags and grabs one of them in his hand. "I've been tossing potions for quite a while now. I should be pretty decent at this." He declares, weighing the baggy in his hand as he begins to move his hand slowly back and forth, trying to get a feel for its weight. A little bit of magic activating at his fingertips as he tries to propel the bean bag forward towards the milk jugs. "Hop!" Swoosh. "Hop." Another one. He goes through all the baggies trying to get all of the jugs downed. But he ends up coming up 3 short.

He snaps his finger and motions to the side. "Darn! How much did you get?" He asks, spotting that Mikage only has /one/ still standing there. "Oooh, not sure which one hurts more. Getting only three-thirds, or failing by juuuust one." He laughs at this and then motions to the orbs. "Want to test your magic skill while we're at it?" He asks with amusement in his voice. Clearly, getting into the nice festival feel of this all. "Maybe I should have purchased a Yukata to wear to this to really make this feel right."

    Giganpor hums, shrugging and giving a try at the magical game. He tries a Flame Wall. Which, doesn't seem enough.

    Sighing, he shakes his head. "Ah well... I give on the games. Fun as they are, not for me today. Probably exhausted from smithing." He waves to the others, "Thanks for the candy, Shaskur, and for talking everyone. I should get going. I got an early start."

    Mizuki shrugs. "This were fang body has fire built in so I've gotten used to aiming that too. But ninjas can also use most elemental attack spells."

     She's's not sure how to feel about using the catnip intentionally. But she is holding onto it for now... "I guess not everything people might find in here can be countered by transforming. It wouldn't be an option for Cait Sith, and they might be too out of it to use it anyway..."

    Mizuki moves on to the magic game and listens to the attendant's explanation. "Hmm. Now this I haven't really experimented with." She puts her hands on the orb, and imagines the fire inside flowing into it.

    Nothing happens at all.

    "...Wait!" She opens her eyes.

    Mizuki transforms, once again a cat. But not just any cat. A dire fire tiger. She closes her eyes again... and her hands catch fire and and all the lights glow firey red!

    "Aah! Aah!" Mizuki flails, waving her arms as the fire goes out. Then she collects her ticket. "Guess I'm a natural!"

Looking to Miyako, BlackRose nods a little. "I'll give it my best..." Unfortunately, try as she may, she just can't do it. "Well, better luck next time I suppose?" She looks to Miyako. "I don't know what else is left after this."

"Ooooh?" Proteus tilts her head, flashing her smile at Prophylaxis. "I suppose it is good to be worried about repercussions, hmm?" Her wings curls up over her shoulders, almost making themselves look like a decoration on her cloak more than the vestigal things Imps possess. "Are you sure you wouldn't be better off trying to tame your mind so it isn't flipping all over the place on its own?"

But she, too, becomes more serious as he does. "That entirely depends on if one believes there is anything worth holding onto, isn't there? You are right that this is much more than a game now. This is our new world. It's up to us to make the best of it and make it our own, don't you think?"

There is a little smile, then. "Oh yes, I agree, it is worth indulging in your specialties to try to achieve what is possible. Know thyself and all that, hmm?"

She looks to the side and shrugs. "Making use of magic is just another skill. Even if Fireball doesn't require precise aim as far as you might believe, but controlling that much energy requires precision all on its own, does it not?" She observes him begin beaning the jugs, and claps. "Congratulations. Looks like your pride is sated today."

There is another thing, however, and she looks over to Mizuki once more, then back to Prophylaxis. "You mean she /is/ affected by catnip?" She asks, smiling. "Well well." She muses speculatively. "What a cat indeed..."

Shaskur grins at Mikage as she receives permission to give Rama a gift as well. "Thanks, Mikage." And she smiles at the were fang before turning her attention back to Rama. "You sure are lucky, mister." As she pets him briefly before both Mikage and Cyrus move off over to the beanbag toss game.

Grinning to Giganpor she, "We should catch up more later, Giganpor. If you're in the area I'm often at the Isekai Ryokan, it has the best food around here." And raises her hand in parting "Later!"

Moving along to catch up with Rama she finds the group already in the midst of playing the beanbag toss. Crouching down to watch the pair play Shaskur pulls out the piece of meat and offers it over to Rama. "This is for you." And holds out the meat for the lynx to take. As the lynx takes it she tilts her head slightly, "Huh, well, I guess maybe you're my date tonight. Sorta." She then grins, "I couldn't ask for better."

Once the game booth is finished Shaskur hops up and moves over. Taking a beanbag in hand she juggles it up and down in her one hand for a moment before suddenly tossing it. When it missed she narrows her eyes in displeasure and more seriously starts tossing the beanbags at the jugs, starting to hit them with more accuracy. But soon she is without any more to toss and there are still a few jugs standing. With a sigh she accepts a regular ticket from the attendant.

    Miyako nods, and pats Blackrose's shoulder. "Enh, it's okay," she assures the imp. "I'll get us some pie or something after. Just let me give this a try." She leans over the orb, focusing and... the smaller ones start to flicker, and slowly, one after another, light up. "There we go," she muses, stepping back to Blackrose's side, and looks around.

    "There's the duck pond thing, but aside from that..." She shrugs. "I wonder..." She hmms and searches among the food booths available. "Let's just get something to snack on."

"Maybe, though I think your usual targets for potions are a little bigger than these." Mikage replies, the Were Fang stepping up to take hold of the bean-bags. They don't quite feel weighted right in her hands, not like a proper weapon. Still, as a ranger, one would expect she should be pretty decent with thrown weapons, right?

Plunk. Plunk. Plunk. The first few bottles go down easily in a row, then *THUD* she misses one. Oh the look that the poor milk bottle gets. Even so, Miki finishes out the rest of the game, with that one single lonely bottle still standing. "Well at least I did better than you." She picks up one of the bags and tosses it at him instead, much to the surprise of the poor Lander running the game.

Afterwards, she picks it back up and tosses it back on the pile, though, just to be polite. "Sure, we can give magic a try. I usually channel it through physical attacks, though. I'm not really sure how well I can focus it on my own." Her sword had been stowed for the evening, which is her usual way of focusing magical energies.

Rama seems to pay little attention to the games, and instead he is enthralled by Shaskur and the offering of meat. Oh, he's quick to take it, happy enough to munch it down, and is purring in the aftermath. When she starts sighing about the game, though, he nudges his head against her leg. Yep, no sad people on his watch.

Confidence boosted by success, Dare moves down the line to try the next challenge. "Prove your magic, huh?" he muses. He's really more of a physical build, but he's got a few magical utility spells he could try tossing at this. He shrugs, having nothing to lose anyway. "Okay, I'll try anything once." He takes his place in line to wait his turn, trying to think dark swirling thoughts to rev up his Dark and Air skills since those are his best magical stats...

"--Holy crap, Mizuki, did you know you could do that? That was awesome!"

Nodding to Miyako, BlackRose says, "I'm sure we can find something tasty." She shrugs a little. "Not so sure about that duck game frankly, I've always thought it was a bit of a rip off."

"They also tend to have heads. I suppose I should have just imagined those were heads I was throwing potions at." Cyrus jokes along with Mikage as she points out she did better than him. "Yep. That you did." He laughs as she plops a baggie at him. He catches it after it *paffs* against his chest, jingling some of the potions on him, and he then throws it back to her so she can put it back where it should go. He then raises his hand, politely thanking the Lander.

Cyrus moves along to watch Mikage. It seems that when it's not a blade, she can't quite pull out all of the stops. Or perhaps it's simply because she's not a full-brunt magic type. "Let's see what I can do. I usually infuse my potions instead of this." He explains to her.

His hand touches one of the orbs after she finishes, and he begins to push in his own magic. It lights up red, indicating the fire magic he's using. It lights up one orb after another. But he seems to fall short of the goal once more - just one orb short of Mikage's score!

Cyrus curses playfully; "Darnit! I am going to beat you at one of these games. My pride is on the line now." Cyrus points out to Mikage, motioning his hand after giving up on trying to beat the Magical game. "You know, if this was a proper Isekai story, I'd like, have broken all of those orbs, or have put in an energy that would have gotten everyone being like: 'oh wow, he has this special element!'. Or one of those korean ones where it would have been 'oh wow, two elements!'."

Dare is feeling a bit outclassed, to be honest, when his turn comes up to try to light up the orbs. He places his hands lightly on the one in front, closes his eyes, and channels his best Dark spell - honestly he usually just uses it in the field to confuse his target for an easier shot, when he fails at sneaking up on it. When he opens them again, he's a bit surprised to see that he did, in fact succeed. Ironically. Lighting things up with Dark. "Cool!"

"They say that an active mind is just a sign of genius," Prophylaxis fufufus with the practiced mastery of someone who has spent far too much time in front of a mirror fufufu-ing. "It would have to be, after all..."

He swings a mallet! It smacks a lever! It launches a slug... not even barely halfway up to the bell.

"...All my muscle went to my brain, so I've got to at least be decent at making it work, right?" But the subject turns dire again. Just like that, a light switch is flipped and the conversation whiplashes faster than an archaeologist with dysentery. "I think it's up to the individual to decide whether they want to jump headfirst into this new world. But for me at least, there are things I can't leave behind. Responsibilities I can't shirk-- or let go of. It may not be the same for everyone, and I won't dare claim that everyone is in the same boat, but for those of us who are... The prospect of staying here forever isn't as appealing as it might otherwise be."

"And for the record, I'm a general practicioner, not a surgeon-- so you're safe for now, Hyena boy," Prophylaxis laughs and shakes his head, "Don't worry. I know enough about surgery to make do for basic operations if the need arises. Without healing magic, I'm going to have to rely on good old fashioned elbow grease and the skills earned from years spent in the field...!"

Mizuki then transforms into a GIANT FIRE TIGER. Prophylaxis is momentarily stunned, but joins in with a soft applause at her mastery of magic. "Wow, you aren't kidding. Who knew that magic could come with transformation, too...? Usually it's the other way around!"

    Miyako nods and hooks her arm in Blackrose's again. "Right then. Just Say No To Ducks." She chuckles lightly and then grins as she notices a particular stall. "Let's go over there. Somebody's doing sausage sandwhiches."

    Mizuki smiles at Prophy. A bit of flame curls from her lips with her next exhalation. "Does surgery even work in here? When we get hurt, stuff gets all polygon-y. Would you even be able to make an incision? Do we even have any guts for you to interact with?" she wonders.

After receiving her ticket with a slight frown Rama comes to the rescue as he punts her leg with his head. Smiling she crouches down and gives Rama a quick hug then looks him in the eye. "Hey, lets see if I can win one of these games, okay? Did you want to come?"

Seeing that the pair they are following has moved over to the magical game Shaskur deftly moves along through the crowd, keeping an eye both on Rama and the pair, Mikage and Cyrus. Shaskur is happy that Rama is following along with her, but also knows how Rama often keeps close to Mikage.

After arriving at the magical booth she watches from the sideline as others attempt the game, charging the orbs. She also looks over the sign to read the instructions listed. It seems simple enough. Approaching the orb she narrows her eyes and pauses to take a breath, then in a quick movement she reach out and places her hand on the orb and begins to focus. Several lights quickly light up, but mid way it starts to slow down, and finally it stops well before the end. Taking her hand off the orb she accepts another regular ticket. Well, she was getting used to it. These were challenging games it seemed, which made sense.

Turning to Rama she says, "I guess not this one either." But she smiles happily nevertheless.

"I like to look at it as a chance to start over, but with the advantage of having learned from all my mistakes in the old world," Dare puts in his two cents, as he tucks his second red prize ticket into his pocket, and takes his place in line for the hammer challenge. "But of course I totally get the folks who want to go home, too. My situation is just a... little different. Whether this ends up being our new reality permanently or not, I wanna make the most of it."

Now, this game is definitely geared back toward his skillset. He rubs his hands together, picks up the mallet and checks behind him to make sure he's got the space to give it a proper overhead swing. "I think I have guts?" he replies to Mizuki as he winds up. "I mean, I sure get hungry like I have guts."

When Mikage's fingers touch the orb, it begins to light blue. Water tends to be one of her stronger elemental magics. However, it seems far more difficult to throw that power through the strange game device than it is her sword. The orbs light up in sequence, but in the end, she falls short of getting them all to light. This has brought out a hint of a competative streak, though. So it is a relief when Cyrus doesn't quite beat her score.

Though it seems as if Mizuki had done better when transformed, Miki doesn't even consider the prospect. In fact, had anyone ever seen her in her actual Were Fang form? Likely not.

"Well, there's only two games left. I think it's my turn to pick one." She points towards the feats of strength game. "Think you can prove how strong you are against a girl?" There is challenge in that question.

Rama continues to walk along with Shaskur, content to keep her company for the time being. The lynx does watch the games with a tilted head and a curious expression, but he clearly doesn't get what is going on. The little creature circles around the Imp's legs, as if trying to figure out what sort of game it is to walk to a place, stop and do some silly things, and then walk again.

Waiting their turn with the strength game, Miki takes up the hammer eventually. She isn't particularly strong looking at first glance, but there is some flash of magical energies in her eyes as she brings the hammer down onto the plate.

"Aaand whiffed it!" Dare barks laughter as he brings the mallet down with great force, but only a glancing blow to the target, the bulk of the energy of his swing going right into the ground as the hammer head bounces off it. "Don't tell Hifumi. He might doubt whether I actually nailed in my nails straight when I was working on his place." In fairness, he did hammer his own fingers almost as often as he hit the nails on the head. Not with so much force though.

"I don't think gender has much to do with this one. If your strength stat is higher, it's higher... thought I might have a way to get an edge." The youth unbuckles a potion as they pass by the others and get to the strength game. He drinks his potion, gulping it rather loudly, watching Mikage slam that hammer down onto the plate! Up it goes, but no ding!

When she offers the hammer to him, he seems to have a suspiciously easy time holding it for someone with his frame. If she Inspected him, she might see he has a Strength Up buff running on him. The youth then brings the hammer up... lets out a human 'roar', and slams it down!

The slider goes up!

Just a bit over Mikage's, but still not making the bell!

"Yes! I got one! Hahaaaaa!" Cyrus laughs, handing the hammer to the next person. No prize, but he darned well at least tried, clapping his hands together, then getting a bit quieter again. It's not proper for a Japanese person to be that loud! He might be thought American!

"Did take me a potion to do it." He adds to that, putting away the now empty potion.

"I haven't had a test subject to see whether or not we still have guts," Prophylaxis says with uncanny joviality. "I wouldn't mind if anyone would like to volunteer...!"

(He's... probably kidding?)

(If he had glasses, they would be opaque with shininess right about now!)

"More seriously though, I suspect my medical expertise will be more useful for the Landers than anything. There may also be ailments and disabilities that magic can't easily treat, too. And for those situations, medical expertise and a decent grasp of pharmacological fundamentals will be invaluable!"

"Also," he murmurs as he stands over the duck pool, peering at wooden birds. "...I think maybe the duck with the red button has already been taken. Or something? I call shenanigans."

Beat.

"More seriously, I'm interested in making medicine work here. I'll... probably have to start with animal trials or something though. It's not like I can find cadavers to practice surgery on, what with the whole disappearing-on-death thing... And pharmacy is going to be a crapshoot without knowing whether local herbs are similar to the ones back home."

Making her way over to the strength based game Shaskur kind of shrugs and looks to Rama, "This isn't really my thing, but I will give it a go while I'm here."

Taking the mallet Shaskur inspects it for a moment before placing her hands firmly in preparation. Once she is ready she takes a final deep breath and then swings the mallet in a sweeping overhand strike. It lands squarely with a thud and the weight launches upwards. Up, up, and then stops only around a quarter of the way from the very top. Looking up at where the weight made it Shaskur purses her lips and sets the mallet back down for the next person to take as she moves over to the side.

A little off to the side of the game she crouches down and stretches her hand out to Rama. Then conspiratorially she looks both ways and pulls out another little piece of meat to offer. Grinning at Rama, Shaskur scratches the lynx behind the ears, "Thanks for coming along with me." Then looks up slightly in thought and taps her lip before looking back to the lynx, "You know.. You are pretty good at tracking, aren't you, mister?" She pauses as she looks into the lynx's eyes, "I bet you might be able to help me out with something, couldn't you?" Not expecting an answer she considers some more looking thoughtful.

"Sounds like a good idea," BlackRose says as she goes with Miyako to where the sausage rolls are being sold. "A nice sausage roll and a cold drink sounds like a great combination right about now."

    Miyako nods and walks off towards the booth in question, arm in arm with Blackrose, and the two acquire their meal and head out of the square to find a quiet place to eat.

Seeing the slider go up higher than her previous point, Mikage sighs, knowing that she has to admit defeat. "Fine, you win." You know, ignoring the fact that she beat him 2/3, but she'll let him have his victory.

As they step away from the game, she stops a moment and looks at Shaskur, "Do you want to keep Rama with you for the night? He knows how to find his way back to me." It is just after Shaskur starts to ask the lynx questions, which makes the timing a little eerie. Did she somehow know something about what the lynx was hearing? Certainly not. It must be coincidence. "He's good company, and I need a word with Cyrus."

Leaving that offer out there, Miki gives the snow leopard Cait Sith a tug on the arm. "Come on." She leads him a little away from the crowds, into the central area where some people have started sitting down to relax and just enjoy the night. Once there, she sort of takes a deep breath, gathering her courage, and pulls out a little paper-wrapped package, shoving it out towards him in a shy, awkward sort of where.

"Happy Valentine's day." She offers, clearly having had to build her courage up. Inside the paper is a hat, complete with fuzzy lining made from fur, a bit of extra fabric where his ears can go, and little cloth ties that hang down from it. It is an adorable, cat-eared hat. The make of it isn't fancy, and there are spots that are uneven and the stitching is bad, but... what can you expect from someone with limited tailoring skills.

    Mizuki blinks at Prophy. "I mean... you can just try to cut someone open to see what happens then heal them, right? It's a brief moment of pain, doesn't seem like a big deal. As for veterinary cadavers, beasts leave them sometimes but you need the Hunting skill to make them drop reliably, I think."

    Proteus is here too. Mizuki just glares at her. Everyone runs into eachother at the magic stand. Mizuki watches Mikage suspiciously, but is distracted by Dareshetani. "That exact thing I just did? No, but I've experimented more with fire than other elements." She hmms. "Y'know, the same thing might apply to you. Is the monster you're based on just an unusually strong hyena, or might it have other powers?"

Cyrus gets tugged on his arm, and the youth is almost pulled off-balance with the buff wearing off, having him just a little disoriented. He motions a quick 'goodbye' to Shaskur as Mikage is talking about keeping Rama for the night when he's properly dragged away.

Eventually, he ends up off to the side, between and behind a pair of stalls, and he glances around. Either this is a mugging, or she wanted him in private. And he figures the latter is a bit more likely, though he'd likely have no chance if she did try to mug him.

The fluffy eared cat runs his hand along his hair, looking mighty awkward as she takes that deep breath, glancing aside for a moment, the back to her as she offers that paper-wrapped package. The awkward pair look extra awkward together. When she shoves the package towards him, he takes it in both hands and bows a bit, properly taking it with two hands.

"Thank you." He answers her. Sure, during his highschool days he'd been popular, and he'd gotten plenty of valentine gifts from the kids. But this is different. He can tell how she's worked up that courage and is looking at him. He uses his claws to open the paper packaging and pulls out the hat. Carefully removing it and then, without any fanfare, puts it on his head manually - making sure his floofy round ears fit perfectly through those holes.

He glances up. It doesn't look like he even noticed the inaccurate stitching. Or perhaps he just doesn't care. The youth just beams, his tail sliding along the side of his leg as he looks to her and taps his hat. "How does it look? I bet I look dashing in such a great gift." He answers her, before adding; "Thank you Mikage. I really appreciate this. I wish I had something to give you in return... but you'll have to wait for White Day." He teases.

"Shenanigans have been declared, people," Dare announces with a tone of mock-authority. "This is an official shenanigans situation. Everybody grab your broom and prepare to riot." He winks at the person running the duck-finding game, although he'll probably just get an eyeroll in return.

"I can catch you a bunch of bunnies or something if you need 'em," he offers. "/Live/ creatures, I can actually track." This? This is pure luck. He mutters a bit of eeny-meeny-miney-moe under his breath, then snatchs up a duck pretty much entirely at random. It is, naturally, not the prize duck. "Oh well," he drops it back in the water with a soft plop.

"Uh, 'dire hyena' is what I picked at character creation," he replies to Mizuki. "In most games, dire versions of animals are just bigger and more dangerous? But I dunno. Maybe I have secret hyena powers. Overwhelming stink," he suggests whimsically. Which is not applicable, at least at the moment, for the record. He bathed before coming out this evening.

When he puts on the hat, Mikage actually manages to look up. The corner of her lip quirks and then she laughs softly, looking a little embarassed. "It looks a little silly, but it should at least be warm. You know, for when you're doing night watch." Her shoulders lift in an uncertain shrug, and then, probably the most unexpected thing, a faint hint of a blush creeps onto her features. "You're welcome." She murmurs.

"Anyways, I'm starving." Yep, change the subject, look away, fidget. "Want to go see if Isekai Ryokan is open? I'd rather get a proper meal than festival food." And the walk would give her time to try and shake the nervous feeling.

Shaskur looks up as Mikage comes over and talk about Rama. This, this was an option? This is the best day ever! Grinning toothily, fangs showing, "That would be great! I mean, I definitely can keep Sir Rama occupied so you have some time to yourselves." She gives Cyrus a quick wink as he is pulled away.

Grinning down at Rama, Shaskur pulls her hood back up over her head. "Hey Rama, you think you can keep up with me even over the tops of buildings?" She looks intently as if to make sure Rama was still paying attention to her she brings her facemask back up as well and crouches down to look in his eyes. "Lets have a little fun tracking, shall we?"

Rising to her feet Shaskur starts to weave around the crowd out towards the edge of the festival, keeping an eye on Rama to make sure he was with her. The lynx seems to move with grace as it follows her easily through the crowd. This leading to her having greater confidence, Shaskur exits out of the festival area and breaks into a runs down the street before taking a sharp turn into an alley, the lynx quickly following on her heels.

"I mean, sure, I guess I could do that," Prophylaxis answers with just the vague hint of a huff. "...But first I'd need to be good at cutting people open, /and/ I'd need to have healing magic. Or I guess I could have someone who's good at the latter around and just improvise the former? Hm. It wouldn't be able to be a very deep cut though. I don't want to risk opening up the muscle layer..."

Oh. But! She says something very important! "Do they really?" He blinks, surprised at the revelation about monster corpses. "Interesting! That would be really useful to know. If monsters and animals have actual organs and aren't just polygons, then..."

Then, what? They're in a very realistic simulation? Or maybe it just confirms that they have in fact gone beyond just 'stuck in a game.' But something about that doesn't feel quite right...

Beat.

"Not bunnies," he says, firmly. "Or cats. Or dogs. I don't feel like operating on things that might remind me of pets! Kineko-chan and Usagintama II don't deserve to be operated on frivolously, even if it is for science!"

"Aye. It does get cold during these February days." Cyrus admits, shifting his hand to release the hat and run some of his hair along his neck. "I don't mind a bit silly. I am not here to look like an edgy dark warrior or something like that. Comfort takes priority. Besides..." He presses his cane up and taps the hat. "Now I can do this!" He declares. "This is stylish in its own way." He expresses, watching that darling blush of hers. He figures he best not point it out, she might punch him.

"Starving hmm? Yeah, let's go to Isekai Ryokan. I've not visited the place yet. And I could use a proper meal. Besides, maybe Rama won't be able to steal this food from me." Cyrus notes and then starts heading down the street, before halting. He then laughs. "I... don't know where the Ryokan is. Lead the way, Miki."

"Okay, well, make up your mind on what you DO want to cut open, and I'll see what I can find," Dare grins, continuing to watch the wooden ducks swirl around in their little pool for the moment, and smiling as some Lander children discuss serious strategy on figuring out which one is the winner. "Bonus if it's something we can still harvest afterward for some useful parts."

    Mizuki ohs. "You don't have healing magic? Huh... well, I'm sure a healer would be willing to help with the experiment."

    There is one game left: Duck Game. Or perhaps a Duck Hunt, if you will. Mizuki tries to find the duck that is SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT. Is it... THAT ONE?!

    "Aww." It is not. She puts it back down.

    "Useful parts? Cutting it open is part of butchering, isn't it? You could ask to watch a Lander butcher work, I suppose."

'Useful parts' they say...

Hm.

"Actually," Prophylaxis suggests, "It might be worthwhile to hunt down some more dangerous prey if we're going to be harvesting parts and internal bits. Like, there must be some spiders, scorpions or venomous lizards out there to look for, right? It'd be really neat to extract the venom glands for a whole bunch of reasons. Or maybe something that breathes fire, to see if it has some kind of... Fire Breath Gland?"

    "If it breathes fire it's probably a monster." Mizuki breathes a small plume of fire to demonstrate. "And those leave drops, not corpses."

"Dang, there goes that idea," Prophy huffs. "Well, spiders and snakes are still animals, right?"

    Mizuki blinks. "Wait, according to lore, the process of making were fangs involves taking a sample of flesh from monsters, right? So how do they do that? Maybe you should find a local... what would you call a magical geneticist? Biomancer? Maybe you should find a local biomancer and ask how they do it."

"Maybe," Dare sounds thoughtful about the fire breathing critters thing. "But this world doesn't really have the same animals as the old one either. Who's to say there isn't some otherwise perfectly normal beast that spits fire with some kind of chemical reaction. I'm totally up to go hunting for spiders and snakes or whatever else ya want too though."

Mizuki's followup gives him even more to consider. "That's... a good point. If it's in the lore then there's gotta be some basis for it. And we ARE in Ninetails, so this seems like the place to start asking around, right?"

"Hey yeah. If that's the case, then there has to be *some* way to get monster flesh without their corpses disappearing," Prophylaxis' expression gets even more thoughtful. "And we *are* in the Ninetails Dominion... I'm not interested in making more Were Fangs, but there's got to be applications for being able to specifically remove certain monster bits, right? I think it's worth looking into at least...!"

Project... gained??

    Mizuki considers this. "Maybe they capture the monster alive? But some were fangs are made from boss monsters, it sounds incredibly unlikely that a team of landers could subdue one, just taking it down would be hard enough. Hmm..."

"Man," Dare muses whimsically, "nobody can epitomize a romantic holiday like we can."

"Valentine's Day is all about hearts, and hearts are organs." Prophylaxis scoffs, "This is completely on brand. Even more than chocolates! What do chocolates have to do with hearts!?"

    Mizuki laughs! "All the heart does is pump blood though! All this feeling stuff, love and friendship..." Mizuki points at her head. "It's up here. The symbol of Valentine's Day should be the brain, if you look at it that way!" She giggles.

    "I think the chocolates thing is due to candy manufacturers. Actually, why do they have Valentine's Day in Japan too? Maybe it's only here because of candy companies..."