A Sorcerer Walks Into the Hunters' Guild

Schneider is hanging out at the Hunters' Guild, sitting in the seating area by the library, though he's not reading, really. He's just people-watching right now with a bored expression. Despite being indoors, the occasional zephyr blows his hair back dramatically.

    Then throughout the library a large crash could be heard as the sound of books and journals crash to the floor. Underneath the pile would be Setsuna, it was probably obvious he was here as his skeleton was parked outside, wearing a sign that says 'Ownder, do not touch.' If anyone asked Setsuna had been here for a few hours digging through files looking for stuff, what he was looking for know one but he knows. He is searching though and is slowly accruing a smaller pile of books.

Schneider looks over at the sound of a crash, and will wander over. He recognized the skeleton, and his Guildie, though Setsuna had looked busy with something important, so he didn't want to interrupt. But he interrupts now, and wonders, "You okay?" as he will help Setsuna dig out from his pile of books and extricate himself.

    Setsuna blinks as he looks up, this didn't make any sense, these sort of things don't happen to him. This was more in Uta's territory of things to happen to her, he must be spending to much time at the slime lab. So here he was though and looks at the pile with a frown, realizing his pile go buried. " Yeah I think so, nothing to lose a leg over. " Looking over at Schneider he tilts his head for a moment before he retrieves a small journal and flips through it. "Oh Schneider yes, we need to talk anyways. Great of you to take the initiative and seek me out. Always helpful."

Schneider shrugs to Setsuna, and will always take credit for luck. "Sure, not a problem," he says, though hesitantly, because men with skeletons don't always have your best interests at heart. But then again, he's got to keep in mind that he's an exploder wizard, himself, and a person of consequence. Just like every other player, of course. "So, what did you want to talk about?" he asks curiously. He looks over some of the titles. You wouldn't think it to look at him, but he's fairly well studied. Well, for a fighting guy, maybe. For a basketball player, certainly. For a wizard, maybe not?

    Setsuna grins at the interest Schneider gives the books, though they are mostly just journals of the varitey of duty reports that Hunters have filled out. Stretching for a moment he gets right to it, " Well we are not only alliance members but guild mates and I don't really know much about you. Thats my fault, so I'm sorry. " With a wave to one of the tables he tries to usher Schneider that way, " I want to know about you schneider, what you like to do, hobbies, interests, all that stuff."

Schneider gives Setsuna a quizzical look, but nods slowly, and allows himself to be drawn over to the table once the spilled books are returned. "Ah, yeah," he says about being guildmates. "I haven't seen a great deal of guild interaction, I guess. But, OK. I mean, I'm just a guy playing a video game, and got trapped in here, same as you." As to his hobbies, he admits, "I've never really done hobbies. I played sports in high school, so I didn't have muc spare time. Studying business in college, and I picked this as a hobby. Turns out to have been a bad choice, I guess? But not much to do now other than try and get out?"

    Setsuna nods his head, " Ah yes those college years, I remember them fondly. " He takes a seat and lets himself float in a minute for the memory before he gets quizzical again, "Well some people would call video games a hobby in and of it self. However say you don't have one now I very doubt, I mean we all fill the hours somehow. We don't always seek out monsters to kill or explore dungeons. Sometimes we fill the hours others ways , so what are your hobbies and interest in the now?"

Schneider ehs, "You meant hobbies here? Yeah, I just grind the easy quests for gold so I can buy real food. That's about the only pleasure that's left to us, isn't it? You can't date Lander girls, and, well, someone told me the girl players are actually guys cross-playing. So dating's out. Not much to do, really, is there? I study magic, I guess, and do quests. What do -you- do, then?" he wonders.

    Setsuna nods his head as he listens and nods along , the truth was he wasn't wng, there was little to do in terms of casual interest or passing and then the situation is flipped on its head as he is asked the question. Taking a moment he considers the questions. " Well I unfortunately have learned that in this horrible game, the ability to study and read for knowledge gain has a time limit without the right skill. It makes studying reallyhard to do. So I amuse myself with a list of practical field studies. On top of investigations, answer seeking, puzzle solving and all those other metaphors of trying to understand this world more and more."

Schneider looks surprised at needing the right skill to study. "That must make it complicated," he observes. Ironically, he -does- have the Scribe skill, but he's sufficently disinclined to study that it doesn't much matter. "Don't know much about puzzles," he admits. "Not very good at them. I'd like to get out of this game, and get on with my life, but I have no idea how. This guild seemed the most serious about getting out, is why I joined. Solving puzzles sounds cool, but really, the game's not /bad/ per se. I'm enjoying being a wizard. But my real life wasn't so bad I wanted to leave it behind."

    Setsuna makes note in his head that next he tries this he should have tea or something , or maybe fidget spinners. Those seemed like they were going to be big before he got trapped, he should recreate them. Taking a moment he consider the note , " No one I think doesn't enjoy the crazy amount of power we have been grasped. " Tilting his head and looking around for a moment before something cclicks, " You said you can study without problem? " There is that hint of impish smirk in his question as his eyes show his brain is at work.

Schneider nods about no one not enjoying the power, though he'll point out, "Actually doing stuff with the power is still not easy. I mean, you'd think being able to hurl a fireball would be a final move, but monsters shrug it off, and you need to chuck a few of them before they go down." He shrugs. "As far as studying goes, it's not hard for me. Not much -to- study, as far as I can tell. That's why I've been working on the Guild projects. Working on modern fuels, though, that can be used for airships. They said you used to be able to fly ingame, so I'm trying to build up to what happened in real life, with the Mongolfier brothers and balloons, then maybe working up to blimps. With magic, maybe, helping it out. Or, y'know maybe actually learning flight spells."

    Now they were talking, now Setsuna was getting engaged as Schneider hits on a bit he had only heard of in passing , however now they were getting into his own mindset. " Flight, yes flight is an important thing. Especially if what I think is happening is happening." Looking around for a moment and is about to lean forward and seems about to ask something secrative before shaking his head and leaning back, " Thats my cup of tea, and I encourage it. I don't like how much science is missing. Also something you may be interested in, we are working on a library, full of books that well need a curator. Lot of potnetial there, if someone was wanting." It was just a hook with a little bait, but sometimes Setsuna caught things.

Schneider takes the bait, though it may not be the right bait. "What is it that you think is happening?" he wonders. But as far as science being missing, he explains, "It's not -that- complicated to disable flying, I think. You just take away everyone's bit that says, 'can_fly', then no matter how much lift you get, it'll never happen. The engines I'm working on are to sidestep that. Creatures the size of people could never fly without like thirty-foot wings, so disabling can_fly just means physics works normally. But if we fly in a way that uses normal physics, it's sort of an end-around. If my plans work out." As far as the library goes, he seems a bit nonplussed. He played basketball in school, he's not a scholar by inclination. "I guess I can curate it, though, if you need someone?"

Uta, carrying a pile of books, happens to walk in right at that moment, right in time for wincing. "...Oh goodness. Don't get me started about /flying/," she grumbles. The pile is dropped... not /uncerimoniously/, but with that pointed annoyance that, with the due respect for something cherished as book, also ensures that the impact makes the surronunding area reverberate with annoyance. "I get trapped in a new world with /wings/..." She looks over her shoulder, and with a whoomp, she spreads her dark translucent Spriggan wings in a wide X shape, "...and I'm stuck to the ground! While Undines get to breathe underwater, Cait Siths get enhanced senses, and Were Fangs get to do their thing!" She turns to Schneider, "According to Lore, Spriggans /could/ fly before the Scrapped Princess war..."

    Setsuna tilts his head and listens enjoying the conversation especially about the implication that normal means of flight was still viable. With an idea he takes his journal and takes a page out of it , with a refereshing ripping sound he begins to make folds in the paper. " Well if your not interested then I am sure we will find someone else. I am all about people doing what they enjoy doing. " Speaking of someone who does what she enjoys, Uta has appeared. "Greetings Ms. Uta, how are you today? Came to research hunter reports as well?"

Schneider looks up as Uta interjects by letting the books drop on the table so dramaically. He nods about her wings, but says, "Flying's an insane advantage. In warfare, forces with air assets will walk all over forces without them. But you'd need like hang-glider wings -plus- an engine to give you substantial velocity to do it in real life. Bird wings, that give forward velocity /and/ lift, have to be larger. Your wings would only work if there was magic to boost you, or at least to push you forward, if your wings are enough to glide." He considers. "Have you tried with Air magic to do that?" he wonders.

He holds up a hand to Setsuna, "I didn't say I wasn't interested. Just that I like basketball and blowing things up. It might not be completely compatible with being a librarian, but ... it'd be something I could do, I think. I'd rather fight bad guys, though, if that's the choice."

    Setsuna nods his head as flight is brought up, " Air magic seems like a possibility, change the air pressure and force lift. That is one idea on the matter. I mean the other idea would be to figure out how to outright defy gravity. " The truth was he had considered that idea, then again the idea of flying mounts had also been of interest to him. At the mention of the library curator job he nods his head, " Well I can't say you'd get to blow things up, however I could see some fights coming if we get the right information in our library."

Uta replies to Setsuna, "Greetings to you, Mr. Setsuna," She says, as she flicks through her menu. "Kind of, I have already researched the reports, I am returning them. Wait, I think I might have one still in my inventory..." She makes what to everyone else look like motions in thin air (each Adventurer's menut is invisible to the others), and after a while, she declares, "Nope. They're all there. Nevermind. Oh, that said, I'm pretty good thanks. Apart being annoyed at not being able to fly. How are you instead?", she will approach Setsuna, and once close enough, she'll attempt to abruptly boop his snoot.

While approaching, Uta comments to Schneider, "Eh, wings and air magic result in pretty much a very high jump with a very slow fall, but nothing more really. As far as I could experience." She sighs. "Yes, the Lore has plenty of story of how deadly the Spriggans were during that war and..." She shakes her head. "...we still carry that stigma to this day."

Schneider nods slowly about air magic. "Going from most like real life to farthest from real life, flying with hot air and/or glider wings is just like real life. Air magic we understand is close, but a bit fantastic. Magic we haven't developed yet is farther out. Creatures flying that shouldn't be able to normally is farther than that. And so on, until we get to P-F-M. I wouldn't mind doing the library thing, yeah," he agrees. "Fights in the library might be problematic," he warns. Well, he's an -exploder- wizard.

He hrms to Uta about air magic and flying, and says, "You might need to adjust your air magic to optimize your path, then? Or develop some new spell? It's all about airspeed across the wings. Just pushing yourself upward is hard to do, but horizontal wind and the right wing shape is where you get the ideal case."

    Setsuna looks at the spriggan as he is booped and just lets her hold her finger on his nose as he stares at it , however he continues the conversation, " Mostly I am doing well. A few things have me perplexed and annoyned and concerned. However mentally I am much better, that song you taught me hasn't been stuck in my head once. I also made a new friend , maybe you saw him outside. He looks forward to coming to the office with me. " Looking over at Schneider he adds, " I have this theory that certain people are not happy with knowledge, especially history becoming a known thing. So I would not be surprised if some rapscallion or hooligan tries to stop us. Also you have a lot of knowledge on flight, it is impressive. "

"And I see you have no status effect anymore, indeed." So that was what the booping was all about. Figures with the menu navigation. Uta's finger is retracted, and she starts pacing around. "You mean the Nobles? I have been pretty careful about them but... yeeeeeeah, I don't really trust them. Despite this whole library project having been kept as much on the low-down as possible, I fear some people might be rubbed the wrong way. Gotta be careful."

Uta sighs at Schneider. "It's insane. NOTHING flies in this game. You can't even get flying mounts by normal means. Many people point out it's a deliberate decision. But... since you seem to know more about me, hey, if you ever attempt some project to help us fly, let me know. I'd be very interested. I suspect you might even get the backing of the Olympus Alliance as a whole..."

She finally turns towards Setsuna again. "...Oh, yeah, your friend out there. Is Ownder his name? Is he housebroken?"

Schneider ehs to Setsuna, but he nods. "History is full of people who aren't happy with people knowing what's going on. The want them to do as they're told, generally, rather than to make their own decisions." He shrugs diffidently, "If that's the case, rapscallions and hooligans will face their doom if I'm guarding the library." As long as a fireball in the stacks doesn't wipe everything out. As far as knowledge about flight, he explains, "I had to do a research paper senior year about the development of flight. It was interesting. I did one on the Manhattan Project also, but I'm hoping not to develop nuclear weapons." Though if nukes /were/ developed, Schneider -would- be a likely user.

He shrugs about nobles, and says, "I'm pretty confident I can take out a few Lander nobles without breaking a sweat." He nods about no flying mounts, but explains again, "That just means normal physics works. A plane that could glide with the weight of a person -plus a horse - would need like a fifty-foot wingspan. So your twenty-foot wingspan Pegasus no longer flies. But normal birds fly fine, and special monsters, like I heard there was a dragon in the last wave, still have their magic. It's just player flying magic that got taken away. But physics hasn't been taken away, I think?"

    Setsuna listens to the two for a moment as he is about to bring something up on the topic of flying monsters but then he retracts it. He had never really seen them fly, only heard things and that wasn't first hand experience. At the mention of the backing of the olympus alliance brings him to again almost ask something but, well there was just a lot. He settles to answer the simplest question. " No I have taken to calling the knight that was formerly snowball, as cliche of a name as skull. And since he is a skeleton who listens to everything I tell him, yes he is housebroken...mostly. "
     Taking another moment he contemplates the nobles, " To many problems , to little time. I don't know if it is the nobles surpressing history or something else. As a friend of mine pointed out that history of before the war is being suppressed and to find anything about it we would have to get out of Yamato."

Schneider explains, "I never saw the big monsters fly, I couldn't get to the wave in time from the floor push. I just heard there were flying monsters. I'm just guessing they're higher level monsters, though, and as players, we hadn't rated them until now." When Uta mentions Olympus Alliance helping work out flight, he looks to Setsuna, then shrugs. As far as the nobles go, he shrugs. "They like things how they are now. They fear change." Unintentional Wayne's World riff. "Though I don't know how history of four hundred years ago has any bearing on today? I mean, I guess Lander attitudes are based on it, but players have been here for what, a year?"

"It depends. The Apocalypse happened almost one year ago," Is what Uta says to Schneider. "What came before (for which I was not present), might or might not count. I have heard there were flying monstears and I am /furious/ I missed that! But I'm looking into acquiring some dragon bits. To feed it to a slime large enough to make a mount. And finally have a PROPER FLYING MOUNT befitting... well..." She looks down and fidgets with her fingers. "...ok, fine, I'm not cool enough for that mount..." Head raised again, with determination. "But I don't care! A flying dragon slime mount?! I want one!"

Uta sighs at Setsuna. "Don't tell me. I've been trying to get in touch with the kind of high ranking church personalities who might know about those songs I sang to you, Setsuna. Very polite. Very busy. I think they're actively trying to avoid me. But so nicely."

Schneider explains, "I never saw the big monsters fly, I couldn't get to the wave in time from the floor push. I just heard there were flying monsters. I'm just guessing they're higher level monsters, though, and as players, we hadn't rated them until now." When Uta mentions Olympus Alliance helping work out flight, he looks to Setsuna, then shrugs. As far as the nobles go, he shrugs. "They like things how they are now. They fear change." Unintentional Wayne's World riff. "Though I don't know how history of four hundred years ago has any bearing on today? I mean, I guess Lander attitudes are based on it, but players have been here for what, a year?"

He nods to Uta, "Yeah, I'd heard players could fly before, as well. And yeah," he agrees about the wave, grinning at Uta's Frankenstein plan to build a flying dracoslime. "I dunno about songs, myself. But I wouldn't complain about a flying spell."

    Setsuna nods his head at Uta, " My kid wanted a dragon mount. It's why I am a monster handler, he wanted me to get his knight a dragon to ride." His voice got a bit softer for that last sentence and he just thinks for a moment. FInally he seems to be pulled out of his memories and looks up, " I am glad, Schneider, you have found a joy in this flight goal. I also am looking forward to it. " With a smile given he stares out for a bit more thinking and then seems to get back to the other part, " Nobles , churches, mysterious figures who know more then we do, take your pick who is probably hiding stuff from us. I'm going to start looking for a thread to tug on, something to get the information. Otherwise we will need your flying machine to get to somewhere else."

"We all agree," she nods to Schneider. "Flying is cool and we want that." She turns to Setsuna with concern. "...Is your kid... around?" She gestures vaguely, all around.

And finally sighs. "I'm ready to bet there's plenty of /Adventurers/ hiding stuff from other adventurers." She scratches the back of her head. "I am holding some things back myself, I admit... until I am positive it's entierely safe to reveal them." Again that look of intense determination. "But I do my best to divulge as much as I can."

Schneider looks intrigued about Setsuna and a kid with a flying mount. "You have kids?" he wonders. "So many old people in the game," he says with a laugh. "I take it they're not here now?" He smirks about the flight goal, and explains, "It's the same in sports as anything, you need short term, achievable goals to work toward to keep you going. So, I'm focusing on short term goals. Though, I guess it'll be a long term goal by the time it's done."

As far as hiding things, he can only shrug. "We've all got secrets. That's what makes life interesting. Getting read in to new things, finding out what people don't want you to know, that kind of thing. But ... if you want to do some flight research with us, have someone in Olympus who can make deals get with me or Prophylaxis, and we can come to some sort of arrangement beforehand, and then we can get things moving."

    Setsuna looks up for a moment and nshakes his head, " Oh no he was asleep. He wanted to be , but past out an hour before the expansion dropped, so he slept through. Most likely woke up to a birthday morning he wouldn't... " He trails off as Setsuna stands up from the table and steps away for a moment. Taking a moment he gathers himself up and returns to the table, eyes a little more red then normal, " Anyways yeah a lot of us keep secrets. Some to the detriment of others, I probably get roped into that as well. However I am working on being better about things like that." Setsuna looks at the two at the table, before adding, " If more people knew what others knew we could possibly start making progress on things. "

Uta keeps somber countenance at Setsuna's story. Words, in this case, are superfluous, if not detrimental.

"I'm sorry," is all she says after a short pause.

"At least I am pretty open about the general topics I know about," Uta mumbles, as if for justifying herself. "I tend to withold /details/ about those topics, details which might put people or creatures in danger."

To Schneider, "...I'm already working with the Doctor on a few things, but I'd be glad to help with flight-related projects as well." She looks over her shoulders again. "Even though what I'd really like is getting /these/ to work..." She gives her wings another flick.

Schneider nods slowly to Setsuna, but says, "Better for him that he's /not/ in, probably. I certainly wish I'd sat out. I could have been going to parties with booze and girls, but I wanted to try the new game that was just starting up. Look at what that got me." He sighs. And sighs again about secrets. "Anyhow, it is what it is. But if we can fly, that'd be awesome. A slow blimp is five times faster than a sailing ship. That'd bump up travel times between continents, it'd make it simple to cross the floors." We wouldn't need rails, for instance.

He nods to Uta about working with Proph on things. "We'd be glad to have your support. It takes a lot of hands on these projects to make them happen. If you can make deals, you can talk it out with him, he just wants to make sure the deal is fair to everyone, and he's worried I'll give away too much."

    Setsuna looks at the wings as Uta points to them and really looks for a moment, " I wonder if we are thinking of the flight issue from the wrong perspective. " Setsuna paces around Uta for a moment , hand on chin thinking, " If it is an in game lore thing then reason stands, there may be an in game lore solution. A curse on the race that needs breaking, a device that needs to be used, physics is only the same here until it isn't." He shrugs for a moment before looking at Schneider, " So we have flight researcher Schneider, and guard/curator of the Tolbana Library eventually." Looking over at Uta he adds, " Secrets for the sake of protecting others makes much more sense. I just want to fill my journal here with everyones interest so that I can have a good source of reference when ccomes to things like flight expert, or slime experts. Not like we have MyBook or FaceSpace on here to help with social networking."

Uta looks confused at Schneider. "Deals? What deals?"

Uta inhales and swells with excitement at Setsuna's suggestion. Her wings even flutter a little, subconsciously probably a Spriggan thing aking to wagging one's tail. "...if we could break that curse that would be so amazing. Yes." And at the suggestion of a journal, she continues, "Oh. OH! Yes. Slimes, of course. Might expand into different kinds of monsters at some point. Willing to help with anything medical, even though I believe Doctor Prophylaxis is the undisputed authority there. I am still researching Strange moods, then. Managed to surprise the Doctor there, which is quite a feat. I'm gonna ride that high until i die. Multiple times. Uhm... then... the songs of the landers, yes. Chims. Gotta look into the Fluegel one of these days. And the Babylon Signal. Those are up there once the first of the three libraries completes. Uhm. I'd like to know about flying but I have zero leads there."

Schneider hrms as Setsuna posits a game lore way to unlock flying. "That'd probably be easier," he agrees. "But it'd only work for flying races." So, it wouldn't help him. "If we can find ways for everyone to fly, that'd be the best way. But also, physics works for everyone. Magic has a rhyme and reason, sometimes, but it's not always easy to fathom." He nods to Setsuna about flight research, and about curating the library as well. "I'm glad to help," he says. "Gives me more to do. The time between Tower pushes is slow, sometimes."

To Uta, he says, "Deals, like committing your guild to a course of action in a way that'd be binding on them. So, someone from Crescent Moon that can bind you guys to a deal gets together with Prophylaxis, who does that for Scale, and then we've got an official bargain, not just something we cooked up and need to sell to the guild leaders." He also shrugs about flying. "Zero here, also, but hopefully that won't be forever."

    "Any technology sufficently advance is indistinguishable from magic." Setsuna says as he looks about and misses having wrist watches to check time, and you don't need to measure daylight and such. Taking a moment he looks at Schneider, "What if all the magic here is simply magic because those who knew it was science disappeared and all we have now are the remnants that have forgotten it something technological. " With a smile he looks over at Uta and produces a charcoal pencil that he had made to scribble down the notes in the journal. "Songs...Chims...Medical stuff and strange moods. I have questions about that. Fluegels, whatever those are and then babylon signal, against I haveno idea what those are."
     Setsuna puts the pencil down for a moment and then looks up, " Hi I'm Setsuna. I have an interest in monsters, not just undead but all of them. I also feel like there are more mysterious of the tower, more mysteries when it comes to Relic , and more mysterious about history. All of which I want to figure out. I also want to understand elemental machine technology but that falls under the monster category. I'd like to figure out the teleporters, and I would love to see a dragon slime flying mount." With all that said hee stands and bows before sitting back down. "That is everything I want to figure out for the now. However I think it is all a bigger web then I think."

Uta scratches her head. "Oh. Uhm. Maybe. I am just a newbie and I don't have much political pull in my Alliance, to be fair. But people in my guild are pretty helpful, I'm sure we can get people into talks."

"Oh, and, yes. Anything about history is always welcome. And relics too. Not researching them myself, but I know people who are... I think Estelle is one? And always glad to get people in contact with each other. Fluegel and the Babylon signal? I've just heard of them. All I know is that Fluegel seem to be another... classification? Of... creatures? You know, like we have monsters, iman beings, Landers, Travelers, Chims... I just know that someone listed Fluegel among them, but that's it. I don't know more than that. Oh, if anyone has more information about Travelers, that I'm interested in, too. Babylon signal... again, I don't know much about that either. I know it's why everyone can understand every language, and that its origin is 'Babylon'. End of what I know." She shrugs. "I'm not even hiding anything there, that's /literally/ all the information I've got." A blink. "OH YES. I also would like a dragon slime flying mount. Next best thing to actually flying myself."

Schneider holds his hand out, palm up, and a small ball of fire, the size of a baseball, appears. "This, sir, is absolutely indistinguishable from magic." For the simple reason that it -is- magic. "If you're saying there's science involved, then the game made it up. It can't happen in real life no matter how much you wish for it."

He nods to Uta about being a newbie, "I am, too. The only thing I would do with your guild person would be to get them in touch with Prophylaxis." He can only look blank about the Babylon signal and the rest.

    Setsuna blinks, "Estelle is doing relic research? I knew she was investigating something but would never have....ARGH" Setsuna lets out a large charlie brown groan for a moment, "Good grief, this is why we need more information shared not just three groups all doing whatever." He looks a little annoyed for a moment before taking a breath and looking at the two, " It's hit and miss if Scale Emblem and Olympus play nice. According to Proteus, we as scale members are untrusting and several Olympus members are against us being worked with. Another mystery to investigate." With a sigh Setsuna stands up and gives bow. " I am sorry to say I must be on the way , however Uta for your strange mood study I have a new word for you. Novasphere. Perhaps a topic to make the work day go faster."