Long Time No See

We were like grunties in the night: inside a barn, surrounded by strange creatures.

Uta
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

Uta has gotten her slimarium, and yes, it is glorious! Or at least, this is what she will tell everyone. She is currently sitting at her desk, scribbling down some notes, while a relatively transparent slime tries to ooze out of a jar.

Uta looks up from her writing, and stares at the slime. The slime, caught in the act, stares back at Uta.

It's on.

Seconds pass, two frozen faces refuse to budge, until the slime, without breaking eye contact, pulls into a smile.

"D'aaaaaaaaaaaw. You win!", Uta says, and goes to reach into the jar. Her gloved hands flash with damage; Uta bites her lips, winces, and places the slime in her lap. "Who's a good slime? Uh? Who's a good slime? *ow*" More wincing and flashing. "...ok, fine *ow*. Who's a close enough to a good slime?"
Xander
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

    Xander has not been at the ranch in a while. It felt odd being there without Rylen in tow or... Rylen to be in the house. He spent /one/ night in the house and-- Just couldn't. He couldn't sleep there.

However, the Salamander did note that there was some new progress to the place. Including an area in the back, so when he came back to the ranch, he decided to investigate what this new thing was.

As he opened the door, he spotted Uta sitting there petting a slime and 'owing'. He raises a brow first and then closes the door behind him as he steps fully in. "This place looks like a disaster waiting to happen," He then looks at Uta, "And the ruler of it sitting in the flat middle of it all." There was jest to his tone. "Hey circus runner."
Uta
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

Uta straightens and turns toward the door. "Xander!" She jumps to her feet, and for a change, it's the slime that emits a little squeal, flashes as it impacts against the flor (a suitable amount of HP is docked), and flashes again as Uta steps on, stumbles, and almost trips on it.

She quickly regains her footing, and once she's closed the distance, well, she stops. She doesn't do hugs. But she does spread her arms. "Oh goodness, I haven't seen you in /ages/! How... how have you been? Is... is everything... " She looks left, right, up down, opens her mouth, closes it, too many thoughts rushing at once to pick one.

She eventually just steps sideways, sweeps her arm, and says, "...my domain. Indeed, something epic is bound to come out of this." She grins. "You can't make an omelette without a few slime disasters."
Xander
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

    The dark scaled Salamander gives her a smile, his eyes almost glow in the dim lighting, as he then goes to look around a bit. "It is... very you, Uta."

Xander goes to rest his hands on his hips, as his tail moves just ever so slightly behind him. "But yeah, its been awhile. Been busy with the tower, some meetings, now getting a new set of armor made... and probably will look into the Duelist thing once that is done."

The the salamander laughs a little. "But given how crazy things, maybe I should also look into a new sword as well... Or go find one that can counter some other's sword." There was a gentle sigh. "I guess now you got this place though, we will probably see more of one another."
Uta
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

Uta smiles back as well. "Oh, we will! We're pretty much neighbors. I will probably crash here quite a while. I got a futon stashed away in that cabinet," she says, pointing at a traditional Japanese-style sliding cabinet door in a side wall. "Might pull a few all-nighters. But it's fine."

She looks down and away, scratching her head in embarrassment. "I... I wish I could help you there, but I don't really do swords. I've tried once. It... did not end well."

*** ripple to flashback ***

The black silhouette of Uta and a lander watch a farm being devoured by fire.

Uta, her head hung low in shame, hands a sword back to the Lander. "...I know my class doesn't really do swords, but... I didn't think... it was just... you know... /one/ slash.... I thought... what could possibly go wrong..."

*** ripple back to the present ***

"BUT!", Uta perks up again, "I don't let the past hold me back! I've gotten quite proficient with my staff, both the spellcasting and bo-style-fighting part, and... uh..." her gaze gets lost in the distance. "...the duelist league, right... it's the people who set up that duel between Yuuki and me, right? I think I might have signed up for that..."
Xander
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

    Xander smirks and steps over, giving Uta a pat on the shoulder. "Its all good. I have connections and who knows. Kinda like that stick I still need to break, maybe I'll turn it into a quest of my own."

"I'm also glad to hear your training is going well and if you /did/ sign up." He finger guns at her, "Maybe we'll have that rematch after all going back to when I first taught you a thing or two. Hell, you'll probably kick my scaley ass."

The Salamander lowers his arms. "Because honestly," He sighs, "... I am fairly sure I've fallen behind." He then shakes his head softly. "But that doesn't matter. How is this uh-- place of yours going?"
Uta
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

Uta makes a pffft noise, and dismisses Xander's words with a flick of her hand. "I'm not going to beat you. All I have under my belt is a long string of defeats and one draw." She scratches her head and looks away. "Well, if we don't count that time I beat Yuuki. But I'm sure that one was an accident."



"I can give you a tour of the place if you want!", exclaims Uta, beginning to walk along the walls and looking at watever she comes across, possibly running a finger on it. "Right now... well, I'm not doing much. It's just finished. It still has that new slime smell to it. I'm ramping it up, testing the lab itself more than the slimes. In the mantime, I am getting up-to-date with the literature on the subject...." She stops and gestures towards an all-but-empty bookase, with only a few, lonely books resting in a tiny bit of a single shelf. Except for a small one, all the few other books are books on monsters in general, not specifically about slimes.

She turns to face Xander again. "So, yeah. If I want a decent book on slimes, seems like I'll have to write my own." She looks in the distance. "A pity. I was eager to launch into projects to gather funds for the lab. Like the autonomous vacuum slimes." She turns to Xander. "Think about it, just dump a slime in your apartment, let it roam, and when you come back from work, BAM! Your floor is free from dust!"
Xander
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

    Xander listens to Uta and goes to follow her around. When she talks about books and the lack of information on slimes, he raises a brow a little, but doesn't say anything right away.

Then she goes on about slimes that could clean and he chuckles a little. "First you have to get them to stop hurting you, I think. I saw your HP ticking there from that blob on your lap."

Xander turns to look at her. "Can I ask though... Why slimes? Out of all the monsters, why them?"
Uta
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

Uta remains there, mouth open, brow furrowed ever-so-slightly. She doesn't move. That was a good question. "I..."

She walks to the closest chair, and sits down. "...I don't know..." She scratches her head. She frwons, deep in concentration, rubbing her cheecks multiple times. "I think it must have been a concomitance of circumstances." She glances up at Xander while still sitting. "I was born and raised in the city, and this one time, when I was still a kid... we went for a vacation in the countryside. We didn't vacation much at the time, so it was already a special event in itself. And then... they had all these animals." Her eyes grow one size at the memory. "...you should have seen them. Dogs, cats, goats, sheep, cows..." She sighs. "I've always wanted a pet growing up, but... you know, city life, and my family wasn't exactly, as they say, rolling in it. So... apart from that brief parenthesis with Mr.Zoomies the tortoise, I've wanted a pet my whole life." She flashes Xander an embarrassed grin and returns to look down at her fingers, which she seems to have accidentally tied in a knot from all her fidgeting. "...You might remember occasional episodes of me going off to pet anything that looked even remotely like a pet in the first days... well, slimes were no different in that. Except..."

She turns her head up, and becomes lost in thought. "...I had just seen my first slime ever. I had been my usual dumb self, so I rambled about it on the allience channel and went to pet it. Of course, I paid the price..." she subcosnciously rubs at her hand, "...I was about to get wise to this whole story and turn a new leaf, but that... THAT is when it happened." Her gaze turns focused and determined. "Yuuki urged me to never stop, never give up, never surrender!" She clenches her fist and looks up. If this was a shonen manga, she'd have fire burning in her eyes. "She told me to keep trying hard, and never to give up my dreams! That... that was a great piece of inspiration! I listened to her, put all my energy into it, and..." She stands up, and spreads her arms, ecstatic. "Look! I did it! I kept fighting! And my dreams have come true! For the first time in my life, I went from failure to success instead of the other way around! Call it personal signigicance, call it Pavlovian reinforecment, call it Fate or call it a day, but-" She blinks. "Wait, I lost track of the discussion. What was your question, again?"
Xander
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

    Xander listens and tilts his head faintly. He nods along, till it seems Uta suddenly forgets what she was going on about. He rubs the back of his neck and chuckles a little. "Nice to know your still a spaz at times." Then lowers his hand.

"Don't worry on it too much, I got the answer to my question, though you /really/ need to work on your memory skills." He taps her forehead gently with his claw; very gently at that. "Maybe those slimes are slowly eating your brains... or your brains will ooze out and you'll become a slime."

Then Xander does a fake gasp, and places his hands on his cheeks. "Or oh no! Maybe you /are/ a slime and just acting as Uta! Quick let me see your hand, need to check your pinky." Then there was a chuckle, it was all a jest around the end and he gives her a smile. "But in all seriousness. I'm glad your happy with something and you found something to do in all this... Madness."
Uta
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

Uta lets out a nervous laugh and breaks eye contact at the suggestion memory exercises. "...yes, yes I need to work on my memory skills. Definitely." Whatever work she had done to untangle her fingers, is quickly undone with the nervous fiddling that follows.

At the rest of the suggestions, Uta promptly provides her hand, pinky extended sideways for better checking. "Oh, no! I just want to pet the slimes, I don't want to become one! Is it like with the undead? If my HP goes low enough I get turned?"

"...oh." She laughs and shakes her head. "Well, I have found plenty to do, indeed. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I've got my fingers in all sorts of... finger... places." She gives a bittersweet smile. "I kind of have to find something to do. Kita ran the numbers: we've been here six months, and at the current rate of tower clearing, assuming no major setbacks, we'll be stuck here for about eight years." She gives a little shrug. "Like it or not, this is our life now, so I should try and make the best of this time."
Xander
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

        'Eight years'

    When Uta says that number, Xander suddenly just stares at her. All expression leaves his face. Then there was a huff of air from his nostrils as he closes his eyes. "... Is that so?" He then grins, but it wasn't a friendly one. "... well. Keep at it Uta."

He then goes to turn away. "Maybe you'll go down in history as the one who solves the greatest mysteries about slimes and change the world one slime at a time." He turns back around and tries to smile. "You can even use that as a slogan!" Then he starts to make his way for the door.
Uta
Quick-Feather Peko Ranch - Slime Lab

"Give or take. It's an approximate figure. But you have all the data, you know. How many floors have been cleared, how long it took, and how many floors we have to go...", she says, while looking down cross-eyed at her now untangled fingers that attempt to do some quick math.

She looks up at Xander, "Oh, I might very well- uh... bye?" She doesn't like what she sees. She doesn't like at all.