Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat

More time with Wisteria gone fae and the people who come to check on her, or study her, or just make sure she isn't dying of starvation.

Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    The SEA HQ Gatehouse has become... well not a disaster but someone has some interesting ideas about decoration... there are crystals, hanging, dangling and mounted. Mounted to wood mounted to stone mounted to metal. There are diagrams and crystal matrixes drawn out on paper and parchment tacked up everywhere, a small alchemy lab has moved in, it bubbles and hisses and humms oddly. There is also a tall... somewhat smelly... albino girl working her way between several different experiments. She has smears of oddly colored liquids on her skin, in her hair, powders have stained things. But she seems... energetic at least.
Merek
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Merek listens to the news that people offer in the party while he's on adventures. The man will learn that Wisteria was doing things, which means that the man would begin to check up on that bunny friend, while he wears a longcoat about him, and a greatsword upon the back. It takes a little bit of work to get into SEA. While visitors were allowed before when he came by to see Amalthea, it takes a little work with what went on between SEA and NWA.
Setsuna
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Setsuna knocks on the gatehouse before letting himself in bringing in a to go box from the Dragon Larder. " Hey Wisteria, a couple of noobs said you were in here. Brought you a salad." Stepping in slowly and looking around he takes a looka around letting a low key whistle. Tilting his head back and forth, "Hmm I mean I definately like what you did with the place. Better then the mass amount of zombies I collected while working on my stuff. Still can't get that smell out of that room. " Setting the food down near her he reaches up and pcks up one of the diagrams, then a chimlink ping alerts him . "Hmm Merek? Yeah let him." Setsuna adds clearing Merek for entrance for the moment.
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria "Ooh hey!" she says brightly "Thanks." she picks up some veggies with her fingers and throws them in her mouth. She's probably been injesting at least SOME alchemical things since she keeps doing things like eating with her fingers and working on crystal precipitation experiments. Once the crystals are done she appears to be charging them, swilling MP potions and mounting them into various test beds then leaving them in different kids of conditions. Some in tanks of water some she has hanging outside the windows in various light levels, on sand, dirt, in boxes.
Merek
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Merek will bring with him different gifts, the man places a little collection of coffee cups onto that table, when he walks within and nods to Setsuna, "Thank you." Well, being let in he will take the time to think about it, "You all are doing well?" he asks, while he takes a cup for himself and pours a little bit of milk into it to sip from. A nod to Wisteria as well.
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki is concerned about her friend! But she's also had to go fight goblins. Being sick and feeling pain sucked, but fortunately, both are over. Mizuki rushes up to hug Wis, and then... scrunches up her face a bit at the overlapping sensations of 'this smell is my friend, it's very strong right now' and 'ugh that's B.O.'

    As she opens her mouth to comment, though, she sees the state of the room and feels moved. She steps back with a grin on her face, tail twitching, and belts out:

    "FROM HER HEART AND FROM HER HAND, WHY DON'T PEOPLE UNDERSTAND, HER INTENTIONS."

    "Weird science! Plastic tubes and pots and pans," She dances around the room pointing at the odds and ends, "bits and pieces and, magic from the hand" she briefly takes Wis's hand, "she's makin' WEIRD SCIENCE!"

    She dances away again, "OOO! Things I've never seen before, behind bolted doors, talent and imagination WEIRD SCIENCE!" She taps the door, then points at Wis's head as she sings.

    She shakes her finger, "Not what teacher said to do, makin' dreams come true, living tissue warm flesh WEIRD SCIENCE science (science) OOO! Bits and pieces and, bits and pieces and, bits and HER CREATION! Is it reeeeeeal?! It's her creation! Wooo, it's her creation, it's her creation!"

    Then she dances through the instrumental bridge she can only hear in her head.
Setsuna
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Setsuna was at least trying to follow the work of Wisteria, his own alchemic and enchanting knowledge at least filling in some gaps. " How is that..." He trials off as he looks up at Merek, " You're an idiot, but if you must know besides my skeleton leg itching I am fine." It is the greeting he gives to Merek as he lays eyes on the guy who saved his life a few days ago before looking at some of Wisteria's magical formulas. " Wisteria, if you do what it looks like you are trying to do the magical array is going to collapse and the crystal will shatter." He is about to point out what he is talking about before Mizuki comes in and , well Setsuna stares.
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria nods to Merek and then grins as Mizukichi is being silly "Don't touch that." she says with a laugh "You'll throw off the results." she says but does let her kitty friend dance her about. She reaches out and grabs another handfull of vegies to stuff in her mouth then a coffee. "Ooh so, Set I know you have to have some good darkness afinities. Charge these." she stuffs a pair of purpleblack crystals into his hands. "Yes if we work with known crystals and known arrays." she says and shoves another paper into his face. "Look here though, if you match your elemental atunment while charging to the elemental atunemnet of the crystal, which you can set while parcipitating them in the alchemy lab then setup your array so the enchanting medium is fixed using a properly aligned catylist then you get more power output from the crystals and it stabalizes, BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT." she says and eats another handfull of veggies chewing loudly. "You end up with the MP draining out faster than it powers the enchantment... but the gnomes figured it out before the scrapped princess war and So; Can; I!" she grins impishly and ruffles Mizuki's ears with her fingers the half dressed dirty young woman moving to another experiment and taking a few notes before she checks on the next tapping the crystals in the array with a little hammer after shifting to bun form then shifting back and taking notes.
Merek
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Merek looks to the three and nods a bit while the woman Wisteria experiments. The man looks to Setsuna, "I know, that's what makes me well, me." The Magic Knight takes a look along the place, "If you need any assistance, I am glad to offer anything you would like." Then he takes a sip of that nice coffee.
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki wraps it up after singing about magic and technology, fantasy and microchips, diagrams and charts, mending broken hearts and makin' WEIRD SCIENCE because really it doesn't work so well with just the vocals, but she's pleased that Wis takes it in stride. "I'm hoping maybe spontaneous musical numbers give you some kind of inspiration buff..."

    She listens and tries to follow the theory. "So the MP still drains out too fast... but the circuit and crystals are stable, so you can try again without destroying them?"
Setsuna
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Setsuna's hands are suddenly filled with purpleblack crystal as he gets a paper handed to him, and does as is asked for now, charging the crystals with dark energy. " Ok so I think I saw these crystals too Wist, I remember being interested in the idea of them resonating. " Looking through the paper in one hand and gently setting the crystal down. " I mean if you were doing this in a root town I'd argue you that you should tap into the inifity magic that root towns have but out here. Well I think resonating crystals is the key, maybe one crystal feeds the other the magic or something." It was theory but really his magical arrays were not really this complex so this was like being thrown into the deep end .
     Looking over at Mizuki he tilts his head, " You are a student of magical theory as well? Also um well.." He points to Mizuki's hair at a piece of greenish vegetable that seems to have gotten caught and Setsuna isn't sure if he should grab it or not so instead he redirects his attention.
     Looking over at Merek he nods his head, " Yes I think that has been proven a bit. So then yoou are also the guy who figured out a way to make the chaos gate glow. You also got taken over by a sword. " Shaking his head and then asks, " I don't suppose you have a title called 'Agent of Chaos' do you?"
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria nods her head "Yup, still have to recast the enchantment itself but the array doesn't go pfafafshhaahahfhahfh." she says making a terrible crackly static noise while wiggling her fingers in a way that says explode and evaporate at the same time, pretty obvious she's talking about being reduced to pixels. She knows Mizuki has seen that with her old experiments. "Well yes see the problem is that just some crystal dust in the enchantment are all you need if you have an unlimited or self perpetuating source like a player. The problem is that I want to make sure places like Alne are safe when Calamities come, so what I want to do is set a curse that completely covers the city and latches onto enemies attacking. Buuuuuuut any array I design that would cover that much space .... falls apart because the MP drains out faster than you can put it in unless you had hundreds of wave artists just dumpping their MP bars and picking up an IV tap of MP potion." she says "So I scaled it back, and now I can build little enchantment arrays that work.. they still drain too fast but I'm on to something see? And when I'm done." she says opening a door that goes into what was once a guards barracks that she's stripped bare and started carving into the floor an elaborate design with obvious sockets for crystals but they have several different types of clamps and screws and various working 'models' of crystal enclosures she's obviously upgrading mid work whenever an experiment proves fruitful. "I'll have all of HQ under a curse that will crush the enemy before they can even reach the gate." she laughs and it's the mad cackle of a University drop out crying life give my creation LIFE!
Merek
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    "Ah, that's fancy. I'll do what I can to assist you, Wisteria," Merek then offers along to that woman. The man looks to Setsuna and offers a winning smile with a nod, "I don't know, I like that title though. I am trying to be... Safe, people don't want me to worry folk. I want to be useful. I also don't want people to worry. I'll work on that." Then he begins to place more drinks about, along with food which he bought locally. To Mizuki, "I like science, it's pretty nice!"
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    A student of magic? Mizuki explains, "In the old world my degree was in Computer Science, but I made a point of learning a bit of all the hard sciences. I dunno about you, but I wanted to know /why/. And /how/. Why is the sky blue? How does everything work?"

    The catgirl paces, oblivious to the lettuce in her hair. "When we first came here, we thought it was just a game. Stuff works the way it does because it's programmed to, with no deeper rules behind it. 'Science' has no place in such a world, except for empirically testing whether build A or build B does the most DPS."

    "But clearly, whatever's going on, is deeper than that. There are rules to this world... and then rules ABOUT the rules, this... 'system protection' and 'hacking' stuff. How can I NOT want to know how it all works?" She stops and holds her hands to her chest. "Plus, I'm a ninja, That means I can do elemental magic. Back home, I studied computers because... with a computer program, you can fix a problem, change a setting, and get instant feedback. It's not like, designing part of a building and waiting five years to see how it works, or something you can only do if you work for part of some big company that will allow you to use their bazillion-dollar equipment." She shakes her head, then throws up her hands, smiling. "Anyone could get a computer!"

    She tilts her head forward slightly, her eyes briefly reflecting the light. And holds her hand to her chest. "I may not have enchanting or crafting skills. But I can do *magic*. If I find out how it works... not only can I help friends like Wis out with their projects, but I can *make new spells and cast them*."

    She sighs, then stretches. "I've wasted so much time, thinking I couldn't make anything because I have no craft skills. I've got a lot of catching up to do."
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    "Speaking of which!" Mizuki turns and points at Merek. "How did you DO that? Turn our pain back off, I mean? You saved my bacon, I was ready to make a last stand and die there because I couldn't move!"
Setsuna
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Setsuna looks at the crystal for another moment before turning his head to Mizuki, "You were a programmer too huh? So was I at some point in the past, been a few years since I looked at code though." Looking back over at Wisteria and contemplates the problem for a moment. " I mean you could always submerge it in a vat of the stuff, but it sounds like you have to get a more efficent array setup." He follows behind the Bunny Werefang as he looks at was a guard barracks. " You have definately been remodeling. " Stepping a step forward he looks over at Merek, " Another day another time I really would like to learn what you know about the gate." Turning back to Mizuki there is a big what expression , before looking back at Merek, " Wait, sorry apparently people are behind on paper work and I haven't seen this report. What happened? "
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria blinks and hugs Mizuki "Aww Mizukichi don't die, dying is BAD." she says squeeeeeezing her friend. "Ooh Chaos Gates... those I'd like to figure out but... like they're Alf magic... and I'm pretty sure the Alves made the system... almost positive... Gligamesh said some things... about when he climbed the tower." she says and shakes her head "And about the Root Cities... and the banks. The Imps made the banks but the banks they're based on magic based on Alf magic... I think." she taps her forehead with her fingers "Uhm... but like bank magic and inventory magic are very similar and banks exist in Root Cities, and Root Cities are like grown... but banks grew with them, but the imps figuredout how to grow branch banks so we could maybe work out branch gates ..."
Merek
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Merek looks first to Mizuki, "Well, that... I will explain. The Enigma Piece which the sword gave to me when I destroyed it, I examined it... It seems to have a limited form of Mind Control. I could use it upon the enemy, though I thought about it. What if I used it upon the party? You focus an Imago within you, and you will that change. I used it upon the party, although I managed to use it to instead make the mind replace the mental inhibitor. You can work with the pieces, manipulate them to do what you will."
    The man looks to Wisteria and assists with a few crystals. To Setsuna, "The Chaos Gates are indeed what Wisteria mentioned. Alv devices. They created also the Babylon Signal that allows all translation to work. ^^That Alv language is what is written upon the Gates. I think that the Gates travel between Root Towns like they did before. That said, keep in mind also that the Travelers can only travel from worlds that are being destroyed. Anyway, what's past is future, and what's future is past, machina, like the one in the tower, were created by the Travelers aeons ago. That's all I can say, I apologize to you all about that."
Merek
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Merek does think about it a little bit, "It's possible Alv, were in this world long before even the Travelers, that's why I bring them up."
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki rubs the back of her head. "Well... actually I was in IT. For University. Taking the easy money for not paniccing when I see an error screen, fixing people's problems, and having plenty of time to play games... This past year... err, 2012 I mean, I finally decided to try and move up... Got a job at a big international company, transferred to Japan because I'd always wanted to visit like every anime and game geek and now..." She shrugs, "Here I am."

    She looks to Wisteria. "Wait, 'bank magic'? '*inventory magic*'? There's actually IC explanations for that stuff?? But... wait, do NPCs know about the menu? There's not... an explanation for that too, is there...?"

    It's surely come up in conversation before... she must have told Wis about how one of the ways they KNOW this isn't another world, is because there's no explanation for stuff like the menu or game-style inventories...

    She listens intently to Merek. "So you just... willed really hard that we'd go back to not feeling pain or being unhealable, and the enigma piece made it happen? Hmm..."
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria looks at Merek squints her eyes then slips close and throws an arm around his shoulders. Yah she's in a fae mood... this position and smell belong in a locker room and she's usually in a locker room with girls so she is FAR too close. She leans in and in a consperitorial tone says. "You... destroyed a relic?" she licks her lips "Did you know... the ancient heros... all Scrapped Princess defying probably from our world... or some other world... I'm a bit fuzzy on that... I think it might have been our world when Elder Tale was single player?... maybe.. or um...." she gets distracted thinks for a bit leaning on Merek unless he escapes somehow then blinks "Ooh cement... You can trap relics... in CEMENT just regular old sidewalk stuff..." she puts her hands to her head and makes another explody noise and wiggles her fingers away from her temples.
Setsuna
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Setsuna just stands in the doorway of the barrack and blinks. Slow blinking slow breathing, his hand goes up to his forehead before he tries to take it all in. Then without another word he reaches into his inventory and retrieves a journal and charcoal pencil. He begins to scribble some things down on a page, with Merek's name at the top. The man then flips over to a page with Wisteria's name and scribbles some more and then closes it and takes a deep breath again. Looking over at Mizuki he says politely , " If we are ever on our way out, I can get you a job in the industry. Assuming I still have my job." A perplexed expression on his own face, it was all to much. He didn't even say goodbye.
Merek
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Merek looks then to Wisteria and nods a bit, "Interesting! I wonder if that..." The man nods a bit to Setsuna, and to Mizuki, "I am a programmer, though I work for CC. I'm not even sure if they will allow me to escape even if we do get back to that world." A look then to Mizuki, "Aye, though... That takes a lot of thinking. Think about it like trying to see the change, and willing that into possibility."
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki blinks. "The heroes are from our world?" She shakes her head. "No, it doesn't make sense. They'd have asked us about it as soon as they got the chance, right? And I tried asking the Spriggan hero about stuff, but anything about how we're in a game, he just... it's like he wasn't able to hear or see any of it, just like an NPC. He was able to read the words 'all your base are belong to us', so it doesn't apply to EVERYTHING from our world, just... anything about how we're in a game and stuff."

    Mizuki scratches her head. "Still... if he was somehow trapped 'here' back when ETO was single-player, he would have recognized All Your Base, right?"
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria shakes her head "The ANCIENT heros... the ones that vanished... the ones who took the mirror that the Travelers stole... it makes sense that THEY are from home... see we went to the city... what did you and the others do?" she asks bouncing "You reminiced ABOUT the city as it was.. as it was WHEN the heros were there... you knew about that ladies great great great grand dad like you KNEW him from when you played... and then the game went away while they started working on THIS One....and we show up hundreds of years later but those of you who played the game KNEW them you KNEW the gnomes who built the array all oft THIS is based on." she says swinging her arms around. "So why wouldn't the heros be people from OUR world?" she says in the too fast over excited way she has since going fae.
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki ohs. "If people were trapped here before..." She stares at the floor thoughtfully, rubbing her chin. "Kite and Balmung knew someone who was trapped in Fragment or something. In the real world their body was in a coma." She begins pacing. "Kite wouldn't explain why, but he seemed to think it likely we're not in our body anymore. He said not to tell people because it might start a panic, but... I think we're well past that time now."

    "I guess it could've happened before, huh? The heroes would just have been people who mysteriously went into comas... and if it could have happened anywhere in the world, we might not have heard of it..."