After the Whirlwind

Seliana had possibly heard that Whis had 'a weird breakdown', from Att or Haseo or one of the FACELESS NPC GUILDMEMBERS who hang around the manor adding color and nondescript faces in establishing shots and during meetings. None have been promoted to Face-And-A-Name characters.

Yet.

But they do talk, muttering about the mess in the records office that Kaleido had taken over and the state of the worshop looking like a whirlwind had hit it.

The workshop itself is a bit more industrialized than before, with firing kilns and furnaces added to a row. Large metal bowls serve as half-wok half-cauldrons as mixtures bubble away.

Whis herself stands by a large workbench, using a pair of tongs to lower a large unfired ore chunk into a bubbling metallic orange muck with a film of silver on the top. With her hood down, it's easy to see beads of sweat work their way down her cheeks to the tip of her chin before dropping. The heat of the workshop is sweltering enough, but...

Whis wears a pair of hide goggles and is otherwise dressed normally in her mismatched levelling gear as usual.

Seliana enters into the workshop, her long white hair again tied back in a long ponytail, wearing another red and black frilly dress. She pauses in the entryway to inspect the changes in the area. The effect is that the workshop is turning into an outright factory. Plant Duck doesn't do things by half measures, and Whiskey Sour has been rather focused on her pursuits.

Seliana had heard some rumours, but not the details about Whis's breakdown - she was curious. But now that she was returning from an expedition to the lower levels of Alne she also had a few things she hoped to share with eccentric alchemist.

Carefully holding the skirt of her dress she makes her way near to Whis, but does not call out while she is focused near boiling liquid metals. Instead she remains a few feet away but near enough that she can look on at what is being done with her somber crimson eyes. As she does she stands on her toes to get the slightest improved vantage.

As it turns out, extracting components of this and that requires a lot of ways to hit, heat, or chisel out things.

Also as it turns out nobody in Plant Hwyaden is really 100% normal. It's to be expected.

The bubbling mixture of orange with the silver film at the top has the ore chunk added to it, the mixed stone and detritus around the ore turning the orange mixture a warm amber-brown. A few bubbles later, more of the silver film begins to rise to the top, globbing together more like a ferrofluid than a stew, skating across the surface of the otherwise thickening mass.

From behind and on her tip-toes, Seliana can watch Whis swap tongs for a cauldron holding set and - carefully - begins to pour off the silver mix into a glazed bowl.

Also, from behind and slightly to the flank, Seliana gets a really good look at the odd black freckles that run from under Whis' chin, looping around the right side in expanding rings across her neck to fall down her back and the ruffles of her robes and hood.

Whis finally notices her with a start, practically bouncing back and away like a startled cat, bristling. "Wha-- who-- gah! Don't do that!" Whis complains, still holding a heated mixer in a pair of heavy tongs.

As Whis starts in surprise at her hovering nearby like a ghost she impassively looks at the black haired alchemist then raises her hand to give a little wave, her long red nails standing out as she does so. "Hi Whis. How is the project going?" She looks over again at the mixture of substances. She doesn't really know exactly what Whis is doing most of the time, but it does seem like a fair bit of progress is happening. No longer does it appear like some random sticks and leaves picked up off the ground tossed into a pot of water.

Trying to check into the rumors a little she asks some casual questions to see how in the mood Whis is to talk about things. "And how are things overall for you lately, Whis?" If Whis shrugs it off now then she may circle back around to it later on.

When there is a pause in the discussion of the project Seliana mentions "So I wanted to let you know what we ended up finding when we were down in the tunnels. We used the diving bell that Att worked on to explore down below the tunnels of Alne, but rather than find the next level it seems the sewer tunnels actually flow to an underground lake. In the center of it was a giant white tree that glowed with light." She pauses as she looks around for somewhere near she can sit. Finding an actual wooden chair she moves over to make herself comfortable in it. "We also probably solved that whole ghosts of Alne mystery that had been going on for awhile. Travelers. They have the names of old earth gods and goddesses, have a weird D symbol, and can fly or turn invisible at will."

She starts to casually swing her legs while sitting in the chair that causes her dress to poof out with each kick. "We met Artemis at the tree, which is apparently called Indieglut Lugh and is some kind of Lost Grounds according to her. Artemis made it sound like it held what she called 'Lost Ones', that they had their world destroyed and the tree was brought here from it. She also said that anyone in this world could become a 'Lost One'. Adventurers, Landers, Monsters, everything. But she made it sound like it wasn't a kind of afterlife." There is a pause and Seliana stops her kicking "I'm going to research it." She says as calmly as she always does.

The sticks-and-leaves phase is important, Seliana!

"The project?" Whis repeats, her goggles some sort of quartz-like crystal that reveal dimly and distortedly a rapid set of blinks.

"Oh! Shin's request. It's going fine. A lot of the start up was even finding out what he wanted to do. I didn't exactly study ancient printing methods in college." She explains, carefully moving around Seliana to place her tongs-held charge back on the workbench to cool. The tongs follow after, onto the table.

"Existentially? Well, I forgot everything about a member in the guild that went to the latest Tower group. Eventually I remembered their name, but..."

Whis gestures at her temple with a blooming pop of her fingers. "Pouf! Gone. I thought they died, but, no, I just forgot." After only a half-heartbeat, she continues, sensing the next concern. "And no, it's not because I've not been sleeping, it seems like six other people were affected by the memory loss. And I didn't know them before we got here - I wasn't in Plant Hwyaden before the apocalypse."

With that bombshell dropped, Whis pops up on her hands to sit on the workbench (in lieu of Seliana using The One Chair, There's Only One) and listen.

"A giant white tree?" She repeats, during The Chair Securing Moments. "So... Like... Greek gods? Yeah, Artemis. So the tree is Yggdrasil? I read manga with characters like that."

"... A 'Lost One'? That sounds bad. Being in a tree."

Whis draws her thumb and index finger to her chin. "... Unless... well, I guess it may not be *all* bad. What do you think? I mean, obviously you're going to research it. Let me know if you need some help! It'll be a special service."

Seliana tilts her head to the side slightly "Forgot? Someone in our guild? Who was it?" Then she straightens again. "Wait. Wait. If I don't know them then how would I know if I ever knew them? Did you suddenly feel a sense of lose out of nowhere when it happened?" she hums a short steady note then continues "This wouldn't be anything like what happens when people die, is it? This is the first I've heard of it happening for people who are going around normally."

"Not just Greek. Artemis mentioned Ganesha, Hestia, Loki, and Ares. She said that we were each a child of one of the Travelers. Gwen is apparently a child of Artemis's. She would not reveal who she considered me a child of, or any of the others there." She gives a small shrug. "They probably are around in Alne, maybe those rooms that Proteus found?"

"When I think of Yggdrasil, I think of a tree of life. And this.. It seemed like more like a tree of memory or an afterlife - Artemis was kind of cryptic even if she tried to make it sound like it wasn't an afterlife." She leans back in her chair and again starts absent mindedly kicking in the air. "Artemis also made it sound like it was a danger for us to even be near it, and when I tried to divine what staying would be like.. it wasn't comprehensible. It just made me dizzy."

Seliana looks up as she considers, her feet still swinging. "I'm not sure if it is bad, but it does seem like something of great importance. It may be tied to the lost memories? It may be a storage for souls? I'm not sure yet." She concludes as she looks back down at Whis.

"I found him in the cathedral. I just waited there, in town until I saw the person I reckognized but didn't remember. It was... Kusaka? Kusaka."

Kuaska is a Human Godhand-Heavyblade who largely hovers at the outside of the group. He's that 'he's our asshole' member of the guild. There's always a few.

Seliana's conjecture sends Whis out into the workshop again, following along and nodding as she moves to adjust the heat in a furnace with a poker to the lower set of logs and fuel.

"Gwen, huh? The chef? Why's she special? Well, either way... It seems like there's no theme but what people would bring in. A tree of memories, though..."

Whis spins, pulling up her goggles, a glint in her eye. "Maybe that's what's drawing away people's memories!" She exclaims, in an eureka flash.

"Kusaka?" Seliana then hums a quiet note "I don't recall anyone by that name. Could it be that I've also forgot? I suppose maybe I just didn't really know them, there are a few I still haven't really got to know. Next time you see him point him out to me."

Seliana tracks Whis as she start her activities again "That's right, Gwen. The way Artemis made it sound was that it wasn't something special, but that everyone is considered a child of one of the Travelers. It sounds like the other Travelers may be more forthcoming with information compared to Artemis, she indicated Ganesha would be helpful."

Seliana's ashen eyes meet Whis's as she spins around. "You got your memory back this time, right? Still, it might be possible. Artemis protected the tree and she is considered black level difficulty, but the tree itself does have a health bar. The tree was strange, it did not have any additional icons that are normal for an object. Artemis made it sound like anything could become a Lost One, though I'm not sure if that process is something gradual or abrupt. Possibly we are slowly becoming Lost Ones. If the tree is responsible or more like a storage that can be used to regain the Lost Ones, I'm not sure."

Stopping her kicking Seliana then stands up and does a little stretch "I'm hoping the other Travelers will have more information. I think I will spend some time later in the underground to see if I can contact any more of them."

"So, which god is yours? Did you get claimed too? I'm... interested!" Whis decides, peeling off her goggles.

"For..."

Whis doesn't continue, instead turning back to the cauldrons and furnaces set up in the rather industrial setup they have going in the workshop now. "Well, divine beings probably think plenty of stuff is normal, I bet. Isn't that how it always is?"

Whis' laughter is far too real for her to be joking in the slightest. "With city councilmembers, or administrators, or anything else. They live in different worlds than the mere mortals they interact with. On a higher plane. Anything can be normal if it happens often enough you get used to it."

Did Whis get her memory back? "It's fuzzy. I remmebered their name, but I feel like there was more. A hole from a while ago. Just a little bit more empty than just forgetting. More like..."

Whis taps her belt of little pouches and stoppered vials. "It's not like it's empty-empty. It's more like a container I swear I filled but is empty. A deja-vu that won't go away."

Whis turns back to her work - this time moving some kiln'ed objects off direct heat. "Well, the underground is pretty dangerous. Don't go alone, okay Seli?"

"If you really have to go, remember to grab Shin or Haseo or Proteus before you go. That way, someone will be there to buy time for your escape!"