Slime Labs: Moderately Sized Opening

Uta paces to and fro.

The tables are set. Plates and plates of slime-themed treats. Sagging balls of edible gelatin with decorative eyes and mouth, adorable obentou-style onigiri, thick beverages, and as a dessert... Flan, of course. The real thing. It's a pun.

Evething looks impeccable, but the Spriggan's wings are flattened against her back, and fall between her legs the way the tail of a worried animal does. Which makes the situation even more awkward, considering how they're poking out of a hole conveniently cut in the back of a labcoat.

Uta wrings her hands, and glances toward the door. "They are going to be here soon, they are going to be here soon..."

    Merek walks along up into the place with his white-black attire on, the scarf adjusted along his features, while the man takes a moment to look about the place. He nods a bit to Uta, while he waves, "Good morning," he notes, then he finds a place to watch the slimes.

    Ainkli arrives to the opening event for the Slime Labs, eager to see the place open up for business. The Were Fang is still in lizard shape, wearing what amounts to a priest's outfit in this world with Ninetails frills to it. She approaches Uta, sensing some dismay, and asks, "Do you need help with anything? Just point me at anything and I'll take care of it."

"Relax, Uta." Kauchemar is just chillin' in a corner, leaning against the wall. One could say she's here just for having a sizable part in this project. But she's also here as a sort of morale support, because good grief do we know how easily Uta can be distracted off track by something. "Everything will be fine... Though should be sure no one accidentally mistakes a real slime for the slime themed food." Because even when she's being reassuring there's that 1% bit of mischevious jerk she still needs to get in.

    Mizuki looks up at the sign outside. She actually did it. "I wonder if she got King Gilgamesh's permission to call it the 'Royal' society..." she mutters... and then steps inside, looking around.

    She's not sure what she expected a slime lab to look like, but this does pretty much fit. She has to look at the food twice to confirm that they're not actually some kind of tiny slimes.

    "Uta!" She smiles, "You did it! Congratulations!" She approaches to put an arm around the Spriggan's shoulder. "Make any cool discoveries yet?"

Goldenblade arrives at the Slime Lab and looks around curiously. She was not sure what to expect. "Well, this is interesting," she says hesitantly at slime-themed ... everything. "Very nice. Very ... slimy?" That's high praise, here, right?

It has been a long time since Rylen has been back at the Peko Ranch. He has been quite busy with the chaos going on in the Ninetails Dominion. And yet! He has made a special trip back for the celebration to open Uta's Slime Lab, something he's been trying to help her build up since day one.

The Beastmaster arrives, walking next to his Peko, leading it by the reins as the two walk up the path towards the barns. "Some of us are already here." He offers with an amused grin, raising a hand in greeting to her as he approaches.

"I hope that tabby slime I brought back has been a good contribution to her royal highness' collection of strange creatures." He gives her an elaborate bow, a few strands of white hair flowing forward over his shoulders.

On the long list of things that Jazuhanzu does not like, being in a crowd certainly ranks high amongst them. This is probably why it's such a surprise that she's managed to make it hereC even if judging by her somewhat discomfited expression she's much rather not be.

Still, Undine tips her witch hat and approaches, a glance this way and that as the tips of the long tentacles that hang from her head rise in question at the slimes and their variety.

"Good morning, Merek!", exclaims Uta, the greeting easing at least some of her tension already. Ainkli gets a cheerful hand-wave, "No, don't worry. It's fine. I'm just nervous. I... I've never opened my own place before and... you know." Mizuki comes to wrap a hand around her, and she blushes, probably because of the genuine appreciation for her efforts. "I've finally got a slimarium, and by the Goddesses, it /is/ glorious!" She looks towards a wall. "Although, I could never have done it alone. That is why I've mounted that plaque, as a gesture of gratitude to everyone who has helped..."

"There is no danger of mixing up slimes and food," she replies to Kauchemar. "Different sizes, and I've taken all the necessary precautions to make sure the slimes are all locked up properly until later in the event, whne people have had enough time to learn the difference."

"Rylen! You made it!", she exclaims, spreading her arms. Her wings perk up in surprise. In a posh British accent, she continues, "Oh, Sir Corvvus, your gift is just marvellous. Pellet Clarpuss is the most adorable of globular kittens we have ever had the honour to lie our eyes on. Oh, which reminds me! Yes, Mizuki, there /is/ a neat rick I've discovered..."

She rushes off to a holding glass enclosure, and with careful moevements, she pulls out a single, isolated 'unprimed' slime, simply looking gelatinous and featureless. Needless to say, upon contact and every few seconds, she winces as the point of contact flashes and her HP bar gets docked down a little. "...now, observe!"

She places the slime on her head, and the little thing, apart from making it flash (and making Uta wince some more), begins slurping up a clump of hair, as if it was spaghetti. Uta pulls a pair of scissors from the inside of her labcoat, cuts the clump of hair at the base, and once the slime is done slurping up...it... morphs. It sprouts a pair of dark wings, a bunch of hair done in a pixie-bob, and its feature get cartoonishly spriggan-esque. It even grows a pair of pointy appendages that look like ears. Its expression suddenly goes distracted and confused. "Slime priming! *Ow*. You can feed an unprimed slime some biological matter from yourself, and you get a slime version of you! Isn't this-" She takes the slime down from her head, hands glowing of course, and boggles. "...Oh! A Game Mascot Slime! *Ow* I had never seen one before!" She looks up. "Anyone wanna *ow* try? It-s *ow* JAZZ! We just /have/ to make you try! *Ow* We'll get the most /adorable/ *ow* Goondine slime ever!"

    Merek offers a nod along to Uta, while he finds a slime to prime of him, which doesn't come with a nice epic like sword, while he takes a moment to pet it as well.

Goldenblade watches as Uta is duplicated slimily and remains silent as she contemplates the possible repurcussions. She'll take a half-step back towards the door, not wanting to be accidentally duplicated or anything. Everyone else can be eager and hands-on. She helped with the project, but it seems a bit ... odd now that all the slimes are in place.

    Kauchemar echoes Mizuki's thought about the slimes out loud... she can't help a quick chuckle at Uta saying they'll 'have enough time to learn the difference'. Although her face follows Uta with interest as she says she's discovered a 'neat trick'... and winces as Uta damages herself, even in a controlled environment... and then her eyes go wide as an Uta Slime is created. It's really that simple?! "Wow. Like a chao, but way easier to get the shape you want..."

    She's not sure what to make of Uta's offer. "Ummm... I'm not sure that's a good idea, until we understand the ramifications? Although, I guess if you intend to study exactly that, then I may as well help..." She tilts her head. "Do you think it matters whether the sample comes from were fang form or human form?"

    With provided slimes and transforming back and forth, she'll offer a bit of fur, and a bit of hair from human form... and to see if it makes a difference, a bit of hair from were-fang form.

"I wouldn't miss it." Rylen replies, "It would not be proper as a member of your royal court." He explains, continuing to show that charming smile of his as he looks around, taking in his home for the first time in weeks. "Looks like the place is till in one piece. At least for now."

He hrms, obviously having been looking for something, or someone, and then turns his gaze back to Uta. "I assume the resident lizard is off serving his duties to Scale Emblem. I had hoped to catch up." The two did seem to be close friends. Yes... friends. Ehem.

The sight of what she's been doing does get him to raise an eyebrow. Some experiments with slimes are a little bit more strange than others. "Uh... interesting." He offers, clearing his throat. "Just be careful around them, my dear. Maybe I should spend a few days helping you with some tips and tricks for monster handling."

See, this is part of what Kauchemar is here for. Well one of the things. As while Uta is doing her 'priming' experiment she starts humming what some might recognize as the opening title number to a certain dinosaur movie franchise as she does so. Before finally getting up from her recline and walking over.

"Now now dear, technically you primed a Spriggan themed slime, not a slime of a specific person. Look at how generic it's appearance is, after all." She just keeps playing along with the 'Game Mascot' delusion Uta has. "And heavens and hells do we not need more than one of me!" A braying laugh at her own somewhat self depreciating humor follows.

Once Uta is finished with her demonstration takes the slime out of her hands. Being a Monster Handler she isn't bothered by the touch chip damage (in part because she magically protects her hands with the handler magic). She puts the Sprigrime back in it's pen. "... Though a slime Undine would probably be cute. Little tentacle pseudopods and all." Smirking grin cast in Jaz's direction.

As the Spriggan slime springs... spriggans? into existence, Jazz's eyebrows rise.

"Huh," says the small Undine. "Yeah, hey Uta. Think I'll pass, but thanks." She raises her hand to her chin, tentacles continuing to sway back and forth. She hardly seems to be aware of their movements. "I wonder..."

She doesn't follow up on exactly what she's wondering, though.

    After many other demonstrations, it's finally time for one special treat: the Slime Behavioural Lab interactive demonstration.

Uta, with a labcoat over her usual outfit, leads the audience towards the central area of this large section of the laboratory. She clasps her hands together and begins, "Hello, esteemed visitors, and welcome to the wonderful world of slimes! My name is Uta Furore, and today I will be your guide to the wonderful world of slimes. Slimes are among the most wonderful creatures one can find on Alba, and now we will hopefully shed some light on their surprising behaviour."

Goldenblade was not quite sure what was going to be demonstrated, and when it turns out to be sliming people, she is not disappointed. She -will- hang back, away from the sliminess, and, if not quite pretending she's not there, she will attempt not to be caught up in the goings on. This is the kind of scene where, in the sort of movies she's seen, people's faces get eaten and they start getting mind controlled and such, and so she will hang back in case they need someone to run away madly, crying out a warning. Her body language is stand-offish, though, and she appears either impatient, or perhaps constipated. She is not good at waiting. "This will not end well," she sighs. But perhaps, having said that, it -can- end well after all. She shall see.

    Alba? "I thought Alba was the name of one of the goddesses... it's also this planet, or dimension, or whatever?" Mizuki asks, as she's led into... what looks like a toddler's playroom with a pen around it. Except it's not. It's a slime playroom. The Mizuki-slimes inspect each of the objects in the pen and then hop towards the towering pen in the corner... and just sort of push against it in frustration, because they're slimes and can't climb.

    The real Mizuki, meanwhile, watches the goings-on from the edge of the pen, tail twitching with interest. "Have you thought about breeding slimes on the side? Someone's been trying to drive up the cost of antitoxin potions. If you primed the right slimes and bred them, wouldn't you get lots of green herb drops?"

    She looks at Uta and then her ears and tail droop a little. "Or would you be unwilling to, um... slaughter them to get the ingredients?"

Gwen had been late to this whole party, but she hadn't wanted to miss Uta's big opening of her lab. So here she is she was apprently making slime shaped frosted cookies for the event. Which took longer than expected but here she is and she's caught up with everyone else. She has to wonder what got Uta to go so hog wild on slimes, yet her friend seems really happy over this. So who is she to really complain as she scans the slimes looking for the one based on her...

Kauchemar eyes the map laid out, then the slimes being blorped out into the pen. Once she realizes what's possibly going on she lets out a soft sigh and slightly shakes her head.

"She'd been so concerned with whether she could, that she didn't stop the think of whether she should.."

That sums up a lot of things about Uta, movie quotes aside, doesn't it?

But not being one to miss out on the chaos, she fusses in her inventory for a moment before finally finding a small and rather cruedly carved wood whistle. "Well no slime priming after me, but lets try something a little more abstract than elements and species." She flicks the musical instrument at one of the generic slimes to see if it will become something musically themed.

    Merek looks then to Uta, while he nods a little bit, "I would like to prime another, if you would!" A look to the woman, "I will offer you, a kitty smile!" he notes.

    Uta crosses her arms and looks away. "...yeah, using slimes for ingredients has been a distinct goal of mine. I'll admit that I am looking for nonlethal ways of obtaining the same result." She bites her lower lip, and eventually looks back at Mizuki. "Priming them with various potentially beneficial ingredients would be my first choice. Slauthering slimes the last thing I'd do..." She looks away again. "...but it's still on the list, if necessary." There is a moment of silence. "Buuut breeding is a bit in the future. I honestly don't know how they breed yet. As far as /I/ know, they might actually... divide like cells? Lay eggs? Be mammals? That's something I'll have to learn through science. The basics will have to come first. After that..." She makes a minimal movement, her posture barely hinting at a shrug. "We'll see."    The crude whistle tossed by Kauchemar lands right in front of the unprimed poring. It bounces a couple of times, and stops. The slime approaches it, and starts sniffing. It eventually gobbles up the item, which floats inside it, and the slime... generally takes on a wooden appearance. It ends up kind of looking like one of those teardrop-shaped piggy banks. It does not make any sound. Not for now, at least? Maybe someone could try to blow on it like a whistle, but that'd be a /terrible/ idea. Let's not do that.

"Suit yourself, Merek!," says Uta, and offers him another neutral slime.

And would you look at that! There /is/ a sylph-winged slime that happens to be a bit taller than the others (Uta picked a large one on purpose), has purple hair and somehow has been stuck in a maid uniform.

"As you have seen, when evening falls, slimes stop doing... whatever they were doing, research is still ongoing in that field, and gather together in this activity area."

A few slimes... play some sort of mock battle with each other. It's clear they are not being aggressive, and simply sort of pretend-running into each other. They somehow have /something/ floating inside them, but it's hard to see what, exactly.

"Among the various items we have placed in the activity area, they seem to have become particularly fascinated with two of them...."

True enough, during the mock battles, the slimes spit items out at each other. They're... playing cards? Well, not really. First of all, they're just the size and shape of a playing card; due to the fragility of paper and plastification not having been invented yet, they're more like thin sheets of wood, stained in black and corroded, possibly by the slimes' acid. But that does not change much. They do stare at the dice and cards before continuing their mock battles.

Uta gestures to a different area of the playpen. "Others, conversely, prefer to just hang out in a corner and... communicate? It seems like they're somehow mimicking landers and adventurers, but in a very simplified manner." This group also has a couple of dice floating inside them. Every now and then, they spit out a pair of dice and a card, gather in a circle to look at the result, with accompanying curious slime noises, eat the dice again but leave the card, and continue.

"...I haven't got the slightest idea of what they're up to," Uta admits. "It's some sort of complex behaviour they seem to have developed in captivity. If you have any suggestion, It's welcome."

Goldenblade watches the goings-on with continued silence. But she's pleased that no one's face has been eaten off yet. She was definnitely expecting it. She'll remain by the door, though, just in case. Prior performance is no guarantee of future performance. The concept of breeding slimes for some actual useful end does intrigue her, that's more what she thought this place would be about. Heartlessly milking slimes for health potions. However that works.

    Wisteria sneaks in late, probably something to do with the armor she's been trying to arrange. Finds a Mizukichi and takes up her proper place. Leaning on the smaller werefang.

    "I think they are working to try emulating the people," Merek notes, "They are playing an elite little game."

"Huh." Kauchemar walks over and briefly picks the slime up. Flicks a hoofed fingertip against it's side, and getting a dull fwump and less jiggling that usual due to the wood-like fibers mingling with it's goo. "It copied the material rather than the purpose of the object. Disappointing, but makes sense." She sets the wood slime down, and strolls back after the rest of the group.

A brow raises a bit at the sight. "They're probably more attracted to the motion the things make when swirled around and spat out, that actually understand what they represent." That's her hypothesis at least, based on the sort of behavoir she's seen in other creatures. ".. Unless you primed one of them with Grunty. Gruntys like to try and mimic what people do."

    (Earlier, Mizuki did pause to appreciate the jellyfish monster on display, presumably in a glass cage to keep it from floating away)

    While Uta talks, one of the Mizuki-slimes pounces the other and they start play-wrestling like blobby kittens.

    Mizuki nods as Uta says she'd rather not slaughter slimes and has no idea how they breed. "Well, I guess you'll find out soon... as for extracting ingredients... I wonder if it would be helpful to track down the Landers who made were fangs, and ask if they ever tried to make slime were fangs and how that went... I think I remember the lore saying you need some kind of sample to make a were fang, but you can't cut pieces off of monsters here..."

    And then Uta's explanation continues. Mizuki stares as the slimes appear to either be playing some sort of cards and dice game, or /imitating/ the playing of such games... "But... these slimes have never SEEN adventurers playing with cards and dice... right?"

    Eventually the Mizuki-slimes stop their playfighting to hop over and observe the cards and dice game. When the slimes make their curious slime noises, the Mizuki-slimes hold up their tails as if raising a finger, make nwn faces, and make Authoritative Slime Noises.

    It is unclear what the significance of this could possibly be.

    Mizuki just stares at all this, then rezzes a pad and paper and tries to take notes.

Gwen listen to Uta after a moment of trying to see if any slimes were based on her, she doesn't spot one but it's there all right and somehow it has some scraps of cloth which ie's trying to do something with. It's trying to put them on another slime it's near. Which confuses the other slime a heck of a lot. Gwen meanwhile is just enjoying the show and seeing the results of Uta's work, who knows maybe there is something that can be done with slimes. An idea comes to mind for a purpose slimes could be used for, but she'll hold on to it for a moment. She does however keep looking to see if there's a slime based on her and she finds /nothing/ while Gwen slime works away at her current plan, whatever that might be.

"In a few days," Uta replies to Mizuki. "Gotta settle some basics, iron out the last kinks during the first week of operation, and then the real work can start," she confirms. "There is virtually no literature on slimes at all. Either they're mentioned as a small part of a larger work on monsters in general, or..." she gestures to one (1) simple book the bookshelves. "...that. That's literally all the monographies on slimes I could find." She crosses her arms, and looks away. "Most of these slimes have been captured by adventurers. They have been living in places where they might have seen adventurers fighting other monsters, or maybe even dueling each other. To them, those little wooden things might be swords, and the dice could be nunchucks..." She gestures with one hand, vaguely in the air. "We don't know yet."

"I like those confident slimes over there, though. They sound like they know what they're doing." She frowns. "You know what annoys me? /They/ seem to have it figured all out, while /we/ don't. I'm so jealous!"

"That is what it looks like, yeah, Merek... but..." She trails off. "Oh, good idea!", she exclaims to Kauchemar, and scribbles down some notes. "Make... Grunty... Slime..."

The behaviour of the slimes gets more complex by now. They pick up blank sheets of actual paper, grab a brush with their mouth, dip it into an inkwell, and scribble and stain on little pieces of paper, from a stack kindly provided by the lab. They then pick it up, and in an orderly line, they place it onto one of a few small piles in front of the tallest box in the corner. Some slimes go back to their business, others stand there and wait. Some time passes, and the piles grow. All of a sudden, Uta hushes the audience loudly. "Quiet!", she exclaims, and points at the tallest box, the tallest one sitting in a corner. "Look!"

From the hole at the bottom of the tallest box, a most unique sight emerges. It's a striped slime, orange and white.

He yawns, clicks its tongue (or tongue-equivalent), and starts looking down at a pile of blank cards, sleepily. In some cases he grabs its own quill in his mouth, and scribble-stains back a the bottom of the same sheet. In other case he walks off to a nearby area, and yip-yip-yips something to the other slimes, who wobble away, go gather their friends, and all of them begin spitting a bunch of 'cards' onto the ground. He alternates between scribbling and giving such instructions. When he seems satisfied that enough cards have been piled up by a slime and their friends, he wobbles towards a stack of hourglasses, picks one up with his mouth, and sets it down where the pile of cards is, sand-side up.

"That one is called Sliminality. We think he might be their leader. We have no idea of what he ate to take up that form. A striped scarf perhaps? More research is needed."

By this point Kauchemar has retrieved one of her own slimes, the Tabby Slime she caught while exploring the sewers to help Uta get more slime experience. She tends to leave it roaming the ranch or the Plant-Duck-HQ to deal with any rats or things, so it tends to only wobble into a scene when it feels like being wobbled into a scene. Or might actually be useful, like now.

Kauchemar sets the cat-like slime down, and points at the stack of cards. With a nya-like burbling sound it splorts its way over, grabs one of the cards in it's mouth, and splorts back to its master. It emits an equally purr-like burble when the summoner pats it on the head and takes the card, then hops onto her shoulder as Kauchemar stands.

She eyes the card. Turns it over. Eyes it again. Turns it on the side. "It's scribbles." And gives it back to her Tabby Slime to chew on. "But you might want to check that lead slime's diet, Uta. That's a weird coloration even by my standards."

Goldenblade reaches up behind her back and tests the door handle, making sure it's still unlocked. Just in case. There is a bit of jiggling the handle, but finally it turns. She relaxes a bit more, now that her escape route has been checked. She surreptitiously peeks outside to make sure that disaster hasn't befallen. Lookingback to the progress of the experiment/demonstration, she seems pleased that no one's gouging their eyes out or screaming in pain. An odd thought occurs to her, but no, why would an adventurer be reincarnated as a slime?

    The two Mizuki slimes scribble on their pieces of paper. One gets a confident look, scribbles a bunch down in one go, and brings the paper to Sliminality, makes a few more scribbles when it's passed back, gets it 'approved', then goes over to watch the others play cards with a focused expression. The other just agonizes over its piece of paper, forming sweatdrops and starting to scribble, only to cross out the scribbles and then start hopping back and forth nervously before repeating.

    "'He'? How do you know it's a he?" Mizuki asks about the leader slime. She walks around the pen to get a better look at the pieces of paper being passed around, trying to discern ANY recognizeable difference between the pieces of paper that are rejected and accepted. "It's all just scribbles..."

    Uta's words seem to make the nervous Mizuki slime flatten and burble more depressedly, while the one watching the 'games' starts purring.

    "Have they really 'figured it out'?" Mizuki argues. "They're just... sliming along, doing what slimes do because that's what slimes do. It doesn't mean they /understand/ slimes. Humans have been successful at human-ing for tens of thousands of years, long before anyone even dreamed of studying psychology, or sociology, or anthropology, or neurology..."

    Wisteria drapes against Mizuki watching slimes and not really judging anything cause bun girl is just tall friending at Miz

    "The slimes are wanting to ascend and become people," Merek would note.

    "Can something much simpler than a person really be said to 'want' something in the human sense, especially a desire so complex as 'ascend and become a person'?" Mizuki replies, glancing up from the slime appbox at Merek and back down again.

    "It looks like an orange creamsicle..." she mutters.

So Gwen is just doing tow things now as she's trying to figure out just what the slime are doing, she again does not see the Gwen slime which is now chasing after another slime while dragging a bit of cloth scraps along. What she does notices? Is that writing? Are the slimes trying to write something? She'll look at it try to puzzel it out and has no idea what it's intended ot be or if it's even just random scribbles.

"I can't make heads or tails of this..."

"Humanists have been digging into human nature for a long time, one could argue," Uta replies to Mizuki. But you have a point, one could argue that we still do not fully understand humans, either. We just... try." She nods at Kauchemar. "Good suggestion, studying their dietary habits will be part of the upcoming research."

After the orange-and-white slime is done doing... whatever he was doing, he rolls back into its box. The other little slimes, however, do not stop piling up their little sheets of paper. When the pile grows large enough, there is some squeaking coming from inside the box, and soon after, a different slime, still striped but this time in blue and white, wobbles out of the hole.

"That's Sliminisce!", exclaims Uta. "The whole set of striped slimes is an anonymous donation." She scratches her head. "They came named already. Oh! Incidentally..." She looks left, and right, and with one hand placed on the side of her mouth, she whispers, conspirationally, "I think Sliminality and Sliminisce like each other."

The blue-and-white slime wobbles towards the pile of slime-delivered papers, sniffing at some of them. "...Uh-oh.", exclaims Uta. "When Sliminisce starts sniffing at piles that much, it usually means Sliminality is tied up with something and he needs help." Uta walks around the pen, reaches the corner with the tall box the striped slimes live, and removes a back panel from it. "Ah, there's what's happening."

The orange-and-white striped slime seems to be fiddling with some really large (well, large for a slime -- the item is about as tall as him) crystall ball on a pedestal. He circles around it, bumping its head against it, event attempting to chew toothlessly on it. Between each attempt and the next, the slime pushes its side against the sphere, as if it was trying to listen for any noise coming it. "Sliminality is very proud of his many-inches scrying sphere," Uta explains. "One of the first things he brought 'home' as he arrived in the lab. He really likes staring into it. I wonder if he has Divination, and actually /sees/ things in it... but based on what he's doing right now..." she frowns. "...it seems like he's trying to get the /audio/ of the sphere to work?"

While Uta is saying this, a third striped slime darts out of the tall box. The stripes on this one are mint-and-white, and when Uta sees it, she comments, "...oh, and that's Slimgn. Other slimes from outside cribble something, pass the sheet off to it, and it sniffs the sheet and the requesting slime before they're allowed into the pen."

Goldenblade has completely lost track of what's going on. It looks like that time he tried to help his son get cable hooked up in his son's new apartment. But with more slime. But no one's screaming in pain, so she'll cool her jets a bit longer, still watching, though more curious than worried, by this point. It seems no one's getting their face gnawed off, at least.

    Mizuki sweatdrops and her ears splay. "That's not what 'humanist' means..." Although she's not sure Uta's not just being playful with words.

    She just kind of listens to Uta's explanations with a blank expression. Mysteriously donated striped slimes? She comes around to look as Uta removes the panel.

    "...Is it even a real magic crystal ball? If actual Divination is going on, shouldn't there be a magical way to detect it?"

    Hmm, actually... Mizuki will try that. She's not formally trained, but dealing with dungeon puzzles HAS given her some basic experience in magic manipulation, so maybe she can... feel something useful from the ball or Sliminality? "Is it... actually magical?" her mystical prodding seems to set the sphere doing SOMETHING. Its color darkens, with little sparks of light sweeping across it briefly like shooting stars. It starts making mechanical noises, clicking and buzzing and emitting a simple, brief tone. After a long time, it suddenly clears again and emits a victorious-sounding chime. Does that mean it's working?

Things seem to almost be getting a bit rediculous.... But this is something facilitated by Uta, is anyone really surprised it's a bit chaotic, eccentric and disjointed? Nope. But that one blob is focused really hard on that would-be crystal ball. And KAuchemar knows an appropriate music cue when she sees it, pulling out her lute and settling in with it. When she starts to strum it's a ... surprisingly jaunty tune twang twanging along. Other than it might get some slimes to wobble in time with the beat, it doesn't seem to be that related to the moment.

No, that comes after the instrumental jive, and she actually starts to sing after getting her Tabby Slime to make a *SPLORP* sound for her. In a gleeful tone... yet some of the words are not so sweet as the melody...

"o/~ Beware of the Blob!

It creeps, and leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor, right through the door, And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch! Be careful of The Blob! o/~"

    Merek looks between the slimes, while he begins to use his magic to assist with the slimes, as well as the sphere while he nods a little.

The Gwen based slims is still looking around the other slime then spots one that suspiciously resembles Uta for a moment. Oddly the Slimgn comes up to the Gwen Slime and seems to urge it on. Soon Gwen slime is chasing the Uta slime while hauling some fabric scraps along with it. The Uta slime seems in a full-on panic at this point.

Gwen still is missing this odd mirroring of her and Uta's own interactions as she listens to what Uta has to say about her work.

"Huh I have an idea..."

Gwen starts to channel a low-level spell into the sphere related to sound maybe it will end up helping Sliminality get their project done?

Between Mizuki, Merek and Gwen's successes, and Kauchemar's music, Sliminality seems very satisfied. He doesn't bounce or wobble or do much, but he looks like a satisfied little slime. Three cheers for Frobozz Magic Support! Goldenblade will be happy to see that now the demonstration is over, and Uta can return to mingle and chat more normally with people, discussing different topics about slimes.

Oh, one last thing... before the Slime Behavior Interactive Exhibit is over, the slimes seem to somehow have taken a liking to the adventurers, and approaching the fence that separates the two, each of them inhales and then spits one of the floating wooden 'cards' over, for the Adventurers to take home. A parting gift? The Way of the Slimes truely are mysterious...

    Apparently the ball is working now? Mizuki doesn't understand what the slime is actually doing with it, though. "Well, this is just a few minutes of observation. I'm sure you'll learn lots more!" When one of the slimes spits a card for her, she scrutinizes the card carefully. "It's just a corroded piece of wood." Still, she puts it in her inventory.

    And, looking around, she now realizes something is missing. "What happened to your Peko Slimes experiment? Or... what /were/ all those mysterious crates about earlier?"

Goldenblade now has a corroded sheet of wood. "I know just where I can put this to use," she says, holding it at arm's length between thumb and forefinger. She smiles glassily and shuffles a bit with her back to the door. She puts the slimy wood ... behind her back, yes. Behind her back. With a bit of vigor.

Kauchemar stops playing and snaps up a hand to catch the wooden 'card' spat at her. "I think that's the first time I've had something thrown at me to -reward- playing good." It's flicked into her inventory. Puts her lute away. Scoops her Tabby Slime into the crook of her arm and strokes it a few times.

"So, anyone else feel like they just went on a slime fueled acid trip?" Hah!

    "I've never been on an acid trip, and I don't plan to start now." Mizuki replies. "But from what I've read, that was rather more coherent and less terrifying than PCP-induced hallucinations."

At all the talk about drugs, Uta points out. "I'm staying away from the Cactus Juice." She nods at Mizukie. "Peko slime experiments? Uh. I know nothing about those, what crates are you talking about?" She taps her lips while looking up. "Have I started more experiments I have completely forgotten about? I hate it when I do that..."

    Wisteria continues to follow Mizuki around... interest in slimes? Desire to not have her chin rest taken away? You be the judge.

Gwen would pause as the Gwen slime stops chasting Uta slime and comes up to give her a card? She'll pause and take it she doesn't know if it has any power but some part of her? Feels it would be wrong to nto accep the gift from the slime. Who then as soon as it sees Gwen has the present? It goes back to chasing Uta slime once more.

Goldenblade looks around, smiles wanly, and says to Uta, "So, that was .... very interesting." In the tones she normally used for a small grandchild who'd found a bug. "I've got to ... be going now. Take care all." And she wil duck out.

Uta exclaims, "Later, Goldenblade! See you!", and waves energetically at her friend.