Some questions about Tolbana

Yeowang has come to Tolbana and is looking around curiously from over at the entrance. A brief conversation with a local militia patrol has her seeking out the clinic, where she knocks at the door of the large house, and will come in if she's invited, or if there's no response for a minute. "Good afternoon," she calls out in greeting.

     There had been a strange sight at the clinic. A short cait sith just... walking in with a broom and dust pan, wearing a set of peasant's gear that just... looked like it fit there. She just slipped over to a corner and started cleaning it up, giving little bows of her head towards anyone who addressed her and mumbling something under her breath. She wasn't trying to be suspicious, or hiding, or anything like that. She just was unfamiliar with the area and didn't really know anyone there very well, so she was dealing with her usual social anxiety. She seemed to come out of her own mind after the knock at the door, having arrived at a separate time from Yeowang... yep. This definitely isn't going to be suspicious. At all. Nope.

Clinics being as they are, it's not as though there's anyone stopping people from coming in at will. There could be a medical emergency underway, after all! But Prophylaxis does have his receptionists and a nice little waiting room with a front desk manned by a handful of clerical staff.

There's also some short girl sweeping the floor right in the middle of the reception area... And a cait sith with lavender hair and floppy ears sitting in a chair nearby, sipping a cup of caffienated beverage and watching the sweeper-girl doing her sweeping.

Honestly, the Doctor is just waiting to see how long it'll take for her to notice that the person who ostensibly owns and operates the clinic is sitting right there.

"Come in," he says to the woman at the door. "I'm on break. If you have a medical emergency, please scream in pain and lie down on the floor and I'll be right with you. Otherwise, our reception desk is over there."

He gestures over towards said desk with a tea-spoon, before going right back to stirring and sipping his drink.

Yeowang comes in, takes a look around, blinks at seeing Pela, but who is she to say who Proph gets to clean the place? She turns back to face Prophylaxis. "Doctor Prophylaxis, I presume?" It's an easy presumption, since she did a quick inspect when she came in. "I'm not injured," she says calmly. "In fact, it's not health-related at all." She bows formally, says, "I should introduce myself first. I am Yeowang of the New World Alliance. It's good to meet you."

She clears her throat and says, "This is quite a well-organized place you have here. Not just the clinic, but the town as a whole, from what I saw coming in." Not that she saw a lot, but it looked like a thriving little village. "My compliments to your organizational and operational leads on getting things working."

     Pela was off in a corner! Being in the center of the reception area would be absolutely rude and in the way of a possible actual medical emergency. Honestly she'd chosen said clinic because she had encountered its owner before! ...Which is why when he'd simply /been there/ she had gone full stealth mode. Because she hadn't prepared herself yet. The entire time she was pretty much rehearsing what she was going to say. When he finally /talks/, she seems to come out of her little internal screaming and blinks a few times, looking towards him.

     Oh right. He was right there. She was planning on talking with him. ...She actually makes a note of sweeping any dust she'd swept up into that dust pan, before putting it away in her inventory. Ahem. She shifts slightly in place, taking a small breath as she turns towards Prophylaxis now, her usual gear becoming equipped in that moment in a ripple of clothing change.

     And Yeowang wanders in! And starts talking. And talking. She opens her mouth. Then closes it. Then opens her mouth again. And then closes it. Hmm. Now to adjust to a presence all over again! Agh. She shifts a bit in place. "..." She steps closer to Prophylaxis, "...Here." She pulls out a ... book? Of herbs. Holding it out towards him. "...Thought it would be useful for you."

New World Alliance. Another one? Maybe here to pick up their missing ninja? Prophylaxis takes another sip of his tea as Pela de-stealths and gears up. "I see. As you've surmised, I am indeed the infamous Doctor of Tolbana," Prophylaxis answers with a mild incline of his head. "I'm glad that you noticed how little effort we've spared to make this place thrive. I admit that it took some doing, but it was well worth it to have a place we can call home in this strange new world."

But then there's a Pela. Prophylaxis blinks as she approaches, then again when she... hands over a book. Does he already have a copy? It doesn't matter, the sentiment is more important. The doctor smiles warmly and receives the text, "Thank you. I appreciate the gift, that was very thoughtful of you to bring me a book."

If she lets him, and doesn't immediately scurry out of the way, Pela would... receive headpats in return!? For a moment, Prophylaxis seems to give off the aura of a kindly uncle or big brother-like figure, not quite edging into the gentleness of a more geriatric sort of gentleman, but there's a genuine kindness there. "Now..."

He looks between the two New Worlders and cants his head, "I assume that you have business to discuss with me?"

Yeowang blinks as the sweeper girl presses a book into the doctor's hands. Wait, what just happened? She peers, but what can she say, really. But she's got nothing if not bearing, and she doesn't comment, but waits until she once again has Proph's attention. "Yes," she replies to his question about business.

"Or, rather, some questions, if you don't mind?" She doesn't really pause at that, it seems it was a rhetorical 'if you don't mind'. "The main question is, have you been able to re-establish the anti-PVP wards similar to the protection afforded in Root Towns? Most of what else I'm curious about will be based on the answer to that." And so she'll leave her questioning to that for the moment.

     "...You're welcome." Pela murmurs quietly as he takes the book, bowing her head lightly towards him. And then... she gets headpatted!!! She freezes in place as that hand touches her head. Luckily her face is facing down so it's hard to see just how red she turns briefly from that touch, just silently frozen like that for several moments as she works on recovering from it. Yeah. She really doesn't do well with social situations.

     The question gets her straightening up and she mumbles a bit under her breath, before she speaks a little louder, "...S...status on... goblins... on fifth floor... curious of defenses here... maybe can assist in recreating on fourth floor to ensure goblins... not... spread." She mumbles slowly and carefully, fidgeting a bit. Hawawawawawa. She got headpatted. "A...assisting... with goblin... problem... w-want to do... more than just.. work on the poison..." She shifts uncomfortably in place.

     She twitches her ears as she listens to Yeowang's questions, gaze sweeping up towards her as she asks that question. Hmm. She shifts a little bit over towards Yeowang, examining her silently. Not with the 'examine' feature, just... taking in her bearing and appearance. Hm... yep. That person is a person! ... And one of her alliance mates. "...My arrival... mostly unrelated. ...Was coming here anyway. ...Document herbs. ...Goblin problems. ...Curiosity about Tolbana."

Headpats are love, headpats are life. Even if Prophylaxis can't see Pela's face from this particular angle, he knows from experience that she's probably turning fire engine red. It's adorable! But he doesn't give too many pats-- especially not with how uncomfortable the poor girl gets.

But, there is business at hand.

"Mmm. The goblins are continuing to be a pain, but we're making progress. Of course, any direct assistance would be appreciated. Every goblin slain is a goblin that can't stab us in the kidneys. For now the problem is contained, and I don't think there's /too/ much risk of a spread to the fourth or sixth floors."

And if they do, well! That's what guard posts are for!

"I have done some herb-hunting around the tower myself, if you'd like to review my notes later. Of course, my search has largely been limited to the first few floors. There's a lot of ground to cover, and I've been busy with other tasks." He shrugs! Then looks toward Yeowang and... quirks a brow.

"Well. That's a very direct question. You might as well ask 'hey Prophylaxis, can people just get murdered out in the street in this town?' Might I ask why you'd like to know?"

Yeowang hrms about the goblin question. She knows as much about that as she knows about headpats, which is next to zero. Neither have figure in her life to this point, and while goblins may interject themselves, headpats almost certainly will not. She just doesn't have the pattable head demeanor. Her direct gaze, in fact, implies headpats would not be welcome. Well, it takes all kinds.

Pela's concerns addressed, though, she faces Proph and nods at her question being a direct one.

"It is. And I ask because it would be a benefit to all players in the game if such a thing /could/ be re-established in a town. If it's not, I wonder have you made any effort in that direction? Or were you content with the presence of a constabulary such as I saw coming in to deter crime." She takes a breath, goes on, "Trust me, I have no interest in attacking, not you, nor anyone here. I am merely hoping to reduce duplication of effort, if I can, as a matter of good organizational practice."

     It was probably for the best there weren't too many pats. Pela would be absolutely frozen on the spot. She had been known to give hugs, but those were rare occurrences with people who she knew /very/ well. She had fully straightened up by now and mostly gotten herself back to her neutral, controlled face! ...Or is she just tired? It's hard to tell. "...Okay. ...Will assist. ...Is a quest out now to attack them, yes? ...Perhaps will undertake it. That should help." She smiles a small amount, mostly just the corners of her mouth turning up ever so slightly.

     Talk of herbs gets her to perk up a bit though, that smile growing a little wider. "Yes! ...Please. Let me see notes. Will do thorough cataloguing of herbs but having an idea of what to look for already would be helpful and give me ideas of where to look and where not to look because it has already been thoroughly catalogued, eventually I want to make an Herbs of The Tower book for further information once I feel prepared enough to possibly enter another weird state like I did when cataloguing all of the herbs of Yamato for the other book." She says rather... quickly, and with little hesitation! Seems that herbs are one of the things that can bring her out of her shell.

     She twitches her ears as she listens to Yeowang talk once more, her gaze turning slightly towards her as she muses on that. "...That does sound interesting. ...Like trying to get chaos gates active again. ...Ran into dead end with that, though..." She says absently to herself, thinking on that as she taps her lip with a finger. Hmmm. "...Maybe easier to recreate though, if it is just magical in nature..." Some sort of warding circle or something, maybe. Large enough to encompass the whole town. How to /power/ it though, that would be something. Sure there were the guardians too, but that was less necessary so much as just... maybe disallowing drawing weapons and auto-countering spells? Hmm. It wouldn't stop everything, but... "..." .... .... ... "No, focus, one project at a time, Pela." She mutters to herself afterwards.

"I'll go fetch them after we're done here," Prophylaxis promises with regards to the notes. "I'd be glad to share what work I've already done. As long as you promise to send over a copy of that book after you're done cataloguing the plants on the first few floors, that is! I'm always looking to expand my personal library." And having a thorough record of useful herbs and fungi in the region would certainly help his own work. Win-win! "And if you do go after the Goblins on the Fifth, be sure to bring a party with you, and to sign up at the Hunter's Guild. They're not to be underestimated. I think they might be pulling weapons and resources from the castle keep or something."

They're certainly dangerous enough to prevent anyone from easily clearing them out, that's for sure!

He looks to Yeowang and her distinctly unheadpattable demeanor and slowly nods. "I see. Regrettably, Root Town establishment is something that's still beyond our capabilities. We make do with a robust guard and garrison, but... I believe that it is in fact tied to the Chaos Gates, Resurrection Cathedral and the Lander Banks." Pela seems to be thinking along those lines as well, it seems. "There's some underlying mechanism that we haven't uncovered yet. If you're interested, there is a vast undercity beneath Mac Anu that hasn't been thoroughly explored, and there may be some clues hidden there. I'd be careful, though. There's a very well-rooted goblin infestation, you see."

"This is about Shibuya, I presume?" Prophylaxis asks with a knowing smile. "It's the biggest New World Alliance-run settlement that I know of."

Yeowang nods to Pela about the chaos gates. "It would definitely benefit all players if those could be reactivated," she agrees. "I think that's beyond my understanding, though, as I was not in the game when they were active, so I have no direct experience." But she nods aout the Resurrectoion Cathedral, the Chaos Gates, and the Lander Banks being related. "That is an interesting observation," she notes, and nods about the undercity at Mac Anu. "We will be careful," she agrees, "If we explore in that direction."

As for the questions being related to Shibuya, she replies wearily, "I have been directed not to discuss that." But it seems like it would be useful there, wouldn't it? "The more we can recreate of the Capitol cities, the better for all," she says instead.

     Pela bows her head again towards Prophylaxis. "...Yes please, thank you." She motions towards the book she handed Prophylaxis. "...Should be good record of herbs outside of the tower. ...Cannot fully account for rare or event herbs, though." Pela murmurs softly. "...Yet." She adds. Yeah. She plans on doing that too. Sure, it would /take a while/, but she's sure she could do it. Eventually. She pauses as she listens to the talk of the goblins. "...Yes. ...I know. Heard about the veterans dying to them. ...Was unfortunate. ...Largely why I went to Amalthea and offered to help." She says with a small nod. That and other reasons that shall not be stated.

     She taps her lips thoughtfully as she listens to the talk of the mechanism and talk of the stuff. She opens her mouth, beginning to explain, "Well, instead of a proper PVP stopping mechanic, possibly a large enchantment that blocks equipping weapons, and scrambles spells when they start their chants. It wouldn't stop everything, still and silent spells for instance might still be castable, and it wouldn't stop someone from punching, but it might be a good thing to add on the side of patrols and guards to keep people a little safer." She muses out loud.

     Pela was always more of a 'free information sharing' sort, so she doesn't seem to worry too much about talking about said idea. It was a conscious decision.

     "...They're... mm. Difficult. The work that they're attached too is an immortal object so... reproducing, difficult... so..." She taps her lip a bit. "...Unsure. Thought of maybe taking advantage of eastal portal to have a similar effect, but... also no go there, immortal objects are annoying... maybe if there was a way to get around that, but..." She pauses as she thinks on the implications of that. That would be dangerous in the wrong hands.

So that's a 'yes' then. Prophylaxis shrugs at the apparent stoppage of information. "It's none of my business if you're having trouble keeping players from falling over each others' swords. But in my experience, it's too easy to overreach with measures that outright deny even the option of combat within an area as wide as a town. We'd have to consider what to do in case we did need to be able to draw swords to defend Tolbana, and then we'd need to figure out how to build in exceptions to healing and buffing magic, or even just the use of offensive spells in creative ways to erect structures and other things like that. Maybe a small scale version would be useful to help patrols de-escalate conflicts, but I'm not sure about whether such a large enchantment might backfire. Not that it's a bad idea, but there's a lot of work to do to make it work right."

But what might they do about assassins...? Maybe there's something that can be done to make things more secure. Prophylaxis rubs thoughtfully at his chin.

"...Immortal Objects may not be so immortal," he says, then. "It just means we've yet to find a way to affect them. I'm sure there are methods, but for now the Scale Emblem has its hands full securing Karluin. Fortunately our veterans came back pretty quickly, but I would still like to prevent any instance of player death if at all possible."

"We don't know if there are any long-term effects to it," he admits, then shakes his head. "We weren't expecting such intense resistance on the fifth floor and it caught us off-guard. Such a mistake won't happen again so easily."

Yeowang is, like Pela, not enmeshed in Alliance politics to the point of being unable to ask a simple question for fear of what it might give away. As to the anti-weapon magic, she smirks. Anyone who examined her would see she was a Godhand. "I think that would be beneficial to certain types of PVPers," she points out, meaning anyone with a build like her own. "Probably safer and easier to do like here and have a flying squad to stamp down on attackers."

She nods to Proph about the risk of overstepping the bounds of safety. "We don't want tnat, of course, and my condolences for your losses." She huhs about immortal things noy being immortal, if we can find a way. "I imagine they are," she agrees, "But I don't think anyone's got a clue how to go about it, and testing it would be problematic."

     "...The small scale sounds like a better idea, hmm." Pela taps her lips on that thought. "Possibly single target or chained target so that individuals can be targeted... a silence spell, weaken spell, and possibly some sort of gravity spell all mixed into one... would be useful in PVE combat as well..." Pela frowns a bit as she thinks on that. Hmmm. That would be the purview of Dark magic. Maybe she'll work on that next. That might be an interesting project to work towards completing. "...Will think on that one, that sounds like a good spell in general..." And she was an Enchanter, so she could probably use it well, as well. Hmmm! Hmmmm! Idea get. She shifts a bit in place.

     The talk about Immortal Objects gets a small nod. "Yes... that's... good. ...We have the same idea then. ...Do not want to have player death if possible. ...Even if no in-game effects... long-term mental affects... trauma..." She'd been through that kind of trauma, herself. Then again, a lot of people had. "...I remember when I was a newbie. First death. Terrifying. And now these are 'our' bodies? Is even scarier." She shudders at the thought.

     Yeowang gets a small nod in agreement. "...Yes... hm... though... I dunno. It was just a thought... possibly it would be better to leave PVP open... or implement our own sort of guardian system..." She muses on that thoughtfully, tapping her cheek. "Some sort of... summoning thing... but... that's... a big undertaking. Mmhmm." She nods to herself. "Possibly not worth it... not to mention power sources..." Hmmmmmm. HMMM. "...Single target enforcer spell though..."

"Indeed. And an understanding among the players that anyone who stirs up trouble will be summarily punished by their fellows. Of course, we want to avoid battle to the death, and I can't recall any incidents where we've been pushed into lethal measures, but..." Prophylaxis says, voice seeming to grow just a little more dire. "This is as close of a place to home as many of us have had in this new world. We will do whatever it takes to protect the peace here."

It might be a lawless murderfield, but it's still /their/ lawless murderfield. It's only right to stand and protect it.

"Teleportation is... difficult. Especially if you're talking about summoning players. But creating a specialized summon spell specifically for restraining players should be doable. I can think of a few viable monsters one could try to conjure, but honestly I'm more of a personal debuff man, myself."

It comes with the territory! He is, after all, an enchanter as well.

"Was there anything else?" He asks of Yeowang, and seems to be glancing at a clock. "My break isn't going to last forever, and I still need to get miss Pela here a copy of my herbology notes."

Yeowang wonders, for instance, could Landers all be trained the way players can? Could NPC's even develop, or be taught, powers. Then could some super fighting power be developed and taught to them? She nods agreement about a player-based guard being the way to go. She hrms at a debuff, and nods. "A debuff that took away all your attack skills, for instance, would be quite powerful," she agrees as the speculation about how a PVP Preventer might function. But she shakes her head about anything else, and says, "Thank you for your time, doctor. You have been very helpful." And with that, she will turn to go.