Binge Watching Grass Grow

    'I'm here, where are you?' was the chimlink that Uta received... probably a few hours ago. And then ceased getting much in the way of communication from there from Pela. There were some responses, but they were particularly unhelpful for finding her beyond very general area descriptions like 'outside of the city' and 'near the farmlands' and other similar things.

     Luckily for Pela, she wasn't moving too much at the moment, so Uta would probably be able to find her without too much trouble in the long run. When Uta finally /does/ find Pela, she's crouched by the edge of a farm, silently watching a caterpillar slowly nibble away at the edges of the leaf on some plant or another, occasionally writing notes on the small effects of the creature's attack on it. It was an older plant, one that was closer to being dead anyway.

     No point in saving it, it was already going to die soon anyway probably. After a while, the caterpillar moved on, and Pela was now silently watching the edge of the leaf, the very slow ooze of the plants' juices as it works on slowly patching up its 'wounds'. ...So basically when Uta finds her, Pela is sitting there watching paint dry.

    Dun Loireag is abuzz with preparations for a battle with the Undead. Uta had been setting up a camp hospital and preparing to patch up whoever might need patchung up, and doing some pharmacological work to help specifically with the undead problem. When Pela's message came, Uta dropped everything she was doing (metaphorically -- you just don't drop half-mixed medicine on the floor!) and rushed out.

    Pela's information may not have been much to go with, but fortunately (?) the Undead are on the move and the place is soon to become a battlefield, so there's plenty of scouts and sentinels, and all movements are tracked. Unless Pela has explicitly tried to ninja-sneak, that'd be a big help for Uta. The closest to a GPS navigator can be in this world. And has the advantage that you can just set Smol Wildcat Maid as a destination instead of having to know the address.

    When she appears on the scene, Uta is all focus. She scrutinizes the horizon, her eyes shielded with a hand, until she notices a diminutive figure off in the distance.

    "There she is." Uta sneak-hurries over to her friend, and if Pela does not object, the nurse wll crouch right next to her, and look at exactly the same thing Pela is looking at.

    Beyond her passive stealthiness, Pela was not trying to hide at the moment, no! Any scout worth their salts would spot Pela without too much issue, as the passive stealthiness really was only for low level aggressive monsters to avoid getting unnecessary aggro from level 1-2 monsters while wandering through low level areas.

     So it's pretty easy to find Pela, with the help of patrols and scouts! And... said patrols and scouts are probably a little confused when they report, since she's just been sitting there. For hours. Watching a caterpillar. Normally they'd exterminate such things, but since Pela looked so fascinated...

     Pela... barely reacts to Uta's arrival, shifting slightly to the side as the plant continues its slow healing process. Her gaze shifting over to some browned plants nearby thoughtfully. She reaches a hand out to gently break off a piece, observing it. Unsurprisingly, since it was browned and dry, the plant doesn't really give off much in the way of sap to try to heal itself.

     Regardless, Pela makes notes. The next thing she does is gently reach to pick up the caterpillar (Which, being a monster, makes aggressive little 'shaaaa!!!!' noises and attempts to bite at her finger, but she doesn't seem to notice) to set on the browned plant, observing its... likely lack of interest. Though it's hard to tell if that's because it was just picked up by an adventurer or if it was just not interested.

    Uta notices how Pela is entierely focused on her task at hand, and after taking a few moments to observe the plant's (and the caterpillar's) HP bar, she proceeds with her scan. A flick of her hand, and the menu is pulled up. A few expert taps follow, until the last one, that to anyone else but Uta will look like jabbing at thin air, due to menus being visible only to the owner.

    Uta will certainly take note of any usual suspects like hunger, thirst, fatigue, or thirst, a pretty common sight among people in a strange mood, and make a mental note to take care of Pela's needs, if any (ever since she's started to deal with such cases, she always carries food, drinks, a futon and soap in her inventory), she'll look for the big ones. Which one is Pela's? A Fey Mood? Or the elusive Yuugen?

    When the result pops up, Uta stops with a frown.

    And her eyes pop open. A mixture of excitement and confusion.

    "Well, Pela... congratulations. You have a completely new status effect.", she starts, in an unusually dignified manner for her. "I suppose you have never heard of the status effect 'Mujou', have you?"

     Surprisingly, unlike other similar effects, Pela doesn't seem to have had any issue feeding or watering herself. In fact, she's probably in better health than a lot of adventurers since she tends to eat a pretty healthy and balanced diet while out foraging. She /does/ seem to have fatigue, but it doesn't seem to be particularly more fatigue than travel fatigue. What possibly is of note is that her hp bar has been let drop down a little over the course of the journey.

     Almost as if Pela's either excessively saving her healing items, or not really particularly bothering to heal herself. She's not really in /danger/ but, similar to with the caterpillar... she's possibly not even bothering to defend herself much when she's examining those plants and experimenting with them.

    She shifts again, carefully writing down a few notes, murmuring, "Plants have HP bars, not just durability bars.... interesting. But when they die, they don't necessarily break into pixels like us..." She reaches out, absently poking the dead plant with her quill. "They stop at 1 HP because their roots are still under the ground and if given adequate water and food later they start to regenerate up to a point..."

     And theeeen. Pela blinks, lifting her head up to look at Uta when she starts to speak to her. "Hm? Oh. Uhm... Mujou... isn't that..." She pauses, seeming to be thinking for a bit after that. "...Mmmm... mujou mujou... oh no I'm thinking of Muko which was a counterspell from Elder Tale Offline..."

    "I am afraid I have never played Elder Tale Offline," admits Uta. "But I'll be glad to hear about it if you ever want to discuss it."

    She follows and listens with genuine interest to Pela's discoveries. "...I had never really paid attention to that. That's... must make a note to self."

    "In any case, the readout for your status effect says 'The affected is resonating with the Earth Song.'. Before you ask... I /wish/ I knew what it means."

    She sighs with a smile, and stands up. "Anyway...", she starts, and to Pela it will look like she's running down some sort of invisible list hovering in the air. "You're better off than all my other patients, I have to say. You're a bit down on HP, but..." more flicking of her finger, and her caduceus-shaped white staff with a large gem shimmers into existence in her hand. "...nothing a little healing song can't fix." She slaps her forehead. "Oh, oh, wait, before I do that... I'll need you to fill in a form. Sorry, it's bureaucracy but we have to do it. You'd be surprised of what percentage of a health professional's job is actually filling out paperwork..."

    More inventory navigation, and she materializes said 'form', which is offered to Pela and turns out to be hand-written on parchment. It's a questionnaire with entries like:

    * Are you allergic to specific musical genres or chord progressions? [ ] yes [ ] no    If yes, which: ________

    * Have you undergone symphony in the last six months? [ ] yes [ ] no.

    * How many times a week do you:
    Shred hot guitar riffs ____
    Drop the bass ____

    Get down on the dance floor ____

    It finishes with the usual disclaimer, lines for date/place/signature, et cetera.

     "...I played it a lot during the time where the internet was inaccessable." Pela murmurs in response to the comments of Elder Tale Offline. "I'm proud of the exploration and knowledge I learned in it, though a lot of it only kind of applies to here." She pauses. "A few things help though."

     "Once you pick the herb, it turns into an item durability bar because it's no longer a 'living' thing connected to its roots..." Pela murmurs absently about the health bar thing, picking the damaged leaf and holding it up for Uta to examine. It would, in fact, have an item durability bar. It's at full, but only has a durability bar of 10/10 with the name 'half-eaten leaf'. She absently sticks the half-eaten leaf into a small jar and places it back into her inventory after Uta has a chance to look at it.

     'The affected is resonating with the earth song'? Hm. Interesting. She muses on that. "Well, maybe the earth song has to do with natural effects, such as growth or the movements of rock and stone, plants, etc..." Pela comments absently thinking on that. "The song of life, maybe. But that would probably be Light, since healing is usually attached to that..."

     The mention that her HP is down gets a pause, and Pela looks up towards Uta. "Ah? It is? I didn't notice... I have been traveling so i occasionally get into battles but I never felt too bad after them so I didn't bother to check my status, just move on to the next area to examine." Well. That's a bit of a concerning statement. And then... a questionnaire is placed before her. Her answers are ... pretty simple.

     * No.
* [X] No
* 0
* 0
* 0

Pela, like many patients, leaves the date blank, but fills in her location and signature.

    Uta looks the questionnaire over and seems satisfied with what she sees, fills in the date, and sticks the filled-in sheet back into her inventory.

    She inhales, and begins her melodious chanting. Various sections of the handle of her staff glow different colors, following the melody; the gem glows as well, and tendrils of magic depart from the staff, interwine with the singing, and eventually reach Pela.

    Her HP bar will be restored as much as a healing song can, and once that's done, Uta flicks her finger again. "That should suffice. Don't eat for at least three hours. Or do, it doesn't change a thing. Take a potion of minor healing three times a day on a full stomach and after battles. Do not operate heavy machinery, or, actually... no. No, please do. Seeing a tiny maid catgirl pilot a mecha is now officially on my bucket list." As she says so, she writes a prescription at the bottom of a piece of parchment; once she's done, she rips the relevant bit off the rest of the scroll, and hands it over to Pela. "Sorry for the clear and neat handwriting. There still is a lot that I have to learn..."

     Healing magic, woo~. Pela kind of sits there and lets it happen. Not really passive so much as in a 'holding still' kind of thing. Like one might do with a shot or something, maybe. She half-lids her eyes for a moment as her health bar is restored. Yep, that felt better. Aaand the list of things she's not supposed to do, most of which don't actually matter.

     "...So take healing potions after battle. Got it." Pela shakes her head a bit with a slightly amused look. "...The mecha thing is unlikely any time soon unless you intentionally get someone to work on it." Which would be kind of entertaining but probably not the greatest of ideas for a fantasy world. Hmm. Maybe some sort of vegetable golem would be doable though... her brain moves on to herbs again. Yep.

     She takes the paper and puts it away in her inventory. It would be good for wrapping something up in later! Maybe. Or something. "...Thank you, Uta." She adds, somewhat belatedly, as she remembers her manners. "You're a good friend." She turns and actually gives a proper smile towards Uta.

    "Don't mention it, Pela." Uta smiles back. "You're a good friend too. One I'd hate to lose. Take care of yourself, okay?" She gives her back to Pela and moves as if to go away, but immediately turns back as if she forgot something very important. "Wait, you can't stay here! There's going to be a battle with the Undead! I... I would suggest you either..."

    A pause.

    "...I'd suggest you wait the battle out in a safe place, but I'm starting to suspect what it's like for you. No, go study your plants, but please, please go do so far from here. At least unless the battle is over. I'd hate you to be hurt."

     'You can't stay here'. Pela gives a smaller smile, it's a little bit more of a reassuring one. She shifts up, slowly standing and moving her hand in a calming manner. "...Don't worry, I've survived well on my own up to now, I'll be fine la--" Pause. Several of the guards come up.

     "Don't worry, Uta-sama. We've been sent to escort Pela-sama by some of her other friends, we'll ensure that she's taken good care of." The guards salute, and then... begin to cart Pela off, who is kind of protesting a little but not that much, after they promise to take her to a glade far away from there where rare plants supposedly sometimes sprout.

     just... stares. "...Wait a minute, who in their right mind would call /me/ '-sama'?"