Cursed Castle Checkup

Prophylaxis
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

With all that's been happening in the world, and with his attention split putting out what seems to be a never-ending inferno of fires, Prophylaxis has not had the opportunity to effectiely discharge his duty as Resident Doctorman for the Scale Emblem Alliance. Not personally, anyway, and certainly not outside his work at the Tolbana Clinic. Today, though, he has a free moment or two... And so he has made the short trek to Alne to check up on a certain someone suffering from a peculiar case of the mindfucks.

"Wisteria," Prophylaxis asks from near Castle Reach's front guardhouse. It's sundown, and the cool autumnal air has descended upon the town as the first rays of twilight vanish over the horizon. "Are you here? I brought snacks."

Specifically, a basket full of pub food from the Dragon's Larder.
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    The gate house and it's guard barracks has been turned into an alchemist and enchanters mad workshop. Chemicals burble and bubble, crystals are being grown, many plates of various substrates have been engraved with minor enchantments with crystals socketed in them. Then set in various conditions. In water, in sun, in shadow, over fires.. each enchanted plate is being closely monitored by the tall albino girl. The last time people came a few days ago she ate a salad...mostly... and she washed herself... with the menu... but she's starting to aquire the smelly debuff again and she's covered in streaks of color, in hair white hair on her porcelin skin... she's still dressing like she's in a locker room as well just concerned with her experiments and not the state of herself or what people might think of what she is or isn't wearing.
Prophylaxis
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

Prophylaxis frowns at the bunny from the door to the workshop. This state of affairs simply will not do. "Wisteria," the doctor calls again, "I've come to check in. Are you alive in there? It smells vaguely like the aftermath of a recently power-washed warg kennel in here."
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria pokes her head out "Oooh that's probably the gnoll hide... I don't have much ope for it holding MP well but... you can't just skip over something because you THINK it won't work. I mean if I did that I'd never have tried elemental MP in elmental crystals to try and get the MP drain down to a point where I can curse the whole castle."
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    "Wisteria? I'm back!" Mizuki calls. She hasn't ventured off the floor as often, concerned about her friend-with-cuddly-benefits... and also excited to watch the experiment progress and learn more about magic! She is probably the one who nagged Wisteria into menu-washing. "Oh, Prophy, you're here too, what's up?" She sniffs. "It's not THAT bad..."

    She tilts her head. "If this actually works, I'll finally have a worthwhile use for the hide I got all the way back at the start after Haggar nearly killed me... back when we didn't know we respawned." She shivers. "I didn't feel like using something associated with such a memory casually..."

    Beat.

    "...He's right that you need another menu-wash soon, though..."
Prophylaxis
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

Prophylaxis' expression is fixed, a singular, solid ':I' at Wisteria's repsonse to his line of... questioning? Accusation? "Well, I guess my point was more that I've heard that you've been holing up in here for quite some time, and I'm a little worried that you aren't... seeing to your daily needs."

Hence the basket of pub snaxx that he sets on a table just on the inside of Wisteria's makeshift workshop.

His incredulity grows even further when Mizuki appears and... Agrees with him!? "Right, there's a brand new bath house up in Tolbana that you should make some time to visit sooner or later. It'll help clear your head, maybe make it easier to... think through some of this stuff?"

Beat.

"Gnoll hide takes better to curses than you'd expect," he adds with a shrug. "The gnolls we've run into lately have certainly soaked up their share of patently demonic magic. Pretty sure at least one of them was straight-up possessed by a demon."
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria blinks "Really? Hmmm... well, not sure that demonic posession and curses would translate when used as and enchanting medium but I would be it would be easier to get a curse to stick to leather armor made from a monster that was posessed first." she taps her lips "Well maybe." she reaches out and picks up food with her fingers putting it in her mouth. Regardless of it SHOULD be eaten with fingers... especially fingers that have been handling reagents. She chews thinking "Well the undead armor scraps and the other wicked bits of my armor do seem to be holding well to dark enchantments." she says "Ohh.. fill these." she says digging into a pile of crystals and grabbing a few that flicker with oranges and reds "You like fire you must be good with it... do you have light? I've been having trouble getting enough light.... don't know enough people with holy classes." she says as she puts another handfull of food into her mouth.
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki acks and pulls at her hair. "I didn't even think about it when we thought we were just unable to log out, but is demon posession a real thing then?! Are demons a real thing? What does... is there like a hell they come from or what?! Agh, the ramifications of this world maybe following self-consistant rules are insane..."

    She nods to Prophy after slipping past him. "Light's the only one I don't have." She smiles and gives Wis a hug from behind while the bun eats, pressing against her back, tailtip twitching, then lets go. "I asked someone with Cooking for omurice... I can't tell if they did a good job, though..." she'll res and place it wherever directed.
Prophylaxis
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

Aaaaand just going to ignore the subtle poke at probably needing a wash of some kind. Prophylaxis frowns and rubs at his temples. Sometimes, this job can feel like herding cats...

"Right, sure," the doctor huffs as he quietly charges a crystal full of delicious elemental energies. The little gemstones begin to shine a tiny bit brighter as Prophylaxis focuses on filling them with a chunk of his MP bar... But he also takes the opportunity to seize his hand around Wisteria's wrist.

His eyes tighten as he Inspects her, apparently frowning at what he finds. "You need to eat more. And you're getting very close to needing to bathe before there may be an impact on your health. And... 'Primordial' song, is it...? Hm."

He releases her after that, before handing back his handful of charged gems. "Unfortunately, no. I don't have Light. The only one I know of who might be readily available is Amalthea." Prophylaxis looks to Mizuki, then, and shrugs. "I mean, there probably isn't a hell. Not the kind you're thinking of, anyway. Though we can't exactly write it off, either. My bet is that demons were just made by one of the Travellers or something."
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria blinks at Prophylaxis as he grabs her wrist. Then she comprehends what Mizukichi said and her eyes sparkle "Omurice? Did they have ketchup?" she almost begs and sits down wherever Mizuki sets down the omlet rice and produces chopsticks. Someone loves it enough to jar her free of her fey mood to actually pay attention to it rather than just stuffing food by the handfull into her face when someone presents it to her. She starts to eat, in neat little cut bites lifted with chopsticks. Like Wistera normally does. "Hey doc? Do you know if anyone has tried healing enchantment? Like... couldn't we enchant a sick bed or something so that when someone gets laid in it they have their wounds healed and statuses cleared?"
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    "Travellers? They're kinda like gods but not the same deities Lander religion talks about, right? Why are they called Travellers, and why do you think they created demons?" Mizuki wonders. Ketchup? "Err... I didn't think to ask... I suddenly miss the infrastructure to manufacture condiment packets so we can just stockpile some for when needed... I used to keep a few pepper packets in my jacket in case I ever forgot to season the sandwich I brought to work for lunch..." She smiles and clasps her hands together when she sees Wis eating it, though!

    She coughs and her ears redden a bit in the middle of Wisteria explaining her idea. "Phrasing! When someone is laid down in it, you mean..." She then taps her chin and stares into space thoughtfully, then looks at Prophy. "Is there any reason there would be any problem besides the power source? Although I guess it could just use the patient's own MP as long as one of their debuffs isn't keeping it drained... Hmm, can you still power enchanted items while Silenced?"
Prophylaxis
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

"One of them-- Ganesha-- is apparently responsible for creating your race," Prophylaxis explains, gesturing not only at Mizuki, but Wisteria as well. "Were-Fangs, I mean. I think it was Were-Fangs, anyway. Point is, if one race was made by Travellers, I don't see why other things couldn't also have been, yeah?"

Besides, you can't put anything past those guys. They're /weird./

"Mmn, healing enchantments, you say?" The doctor shrugs and holds his hand out, palm up. In a flash of light, a small, blue crystal appears. It sparkles with internalized energies. "It's not quite the same, but this operates on the same principles. I developed a medicinal enchantment based on an ancient technique I came across, and I've been able to store it inside a crystal. This particular one massively enhances mental focus and cognitive ability for about an hour. So if nothing else, the idea of storing buffs and medical magic in enchantment form is sound."
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria nods her head "Well so far I haven't lost access to any of my enchantments but I don't think I've been silenced in an actual fight." she hmmms "But see if Doc already did the proof of concept." her eyes sparkle "Once I've got this done, I'll just need light users to charge the crystals when I setup a healing enchantment over the infirmery so that just having patients will start healing them and then the crystals will recharge... or maybe need recharging.. but then I can put comprehension buffs on the library, and strength buffs on the armory... and once I have it perfected I'll lay a curse on Alne so strong even the Travelers won't dare attack!" and the mad laughter starts even omlet rice can only go SO far.
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    "So the entire infirmary would passively heal people? Neat!"

    Mizuki blinks. "Wait, a Traveller did it?! Aww, and here all this time I thought maybe this world's society had some really clever magical geneticists or something..." Her tail droops. She looks at the crystal curiously. "Improved focus, huh? I wonder what would happen if you gave it to Uta... wait, did you say only for an hour?"

    Depending on Prophy's reaction, she has either an awkwardly relieved expression at believing that bullet dodged, or claps her hands over her mouth then asks with eyes wide, "Oh NO. You Flowers-for-Algernon'd her?! Is she okay?!"
Prophylaxis
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

Prophylaxis stares at Wisteria for a long moment. You can tell he might be contemplating research into some kind of powerful sedative before someone decides to plant a curse on the entire damn town, because there's no way /that/ could possibly backfire, right?

"Already did," he says to Mizuki, before his expression curdles. "...That's... I developed it in part /because/ I wanted to help treat her condition, Mizuki. We've already reached an agreement wherein she will compensate me for the materials and time that I need to provide her with a regular supply. It may not be a permanent solution to her problem, but it's a damn sight better than letting it go untreated. At least this way she-- and those like her-- can have short term relief while I figure out a better solution."
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki does look relieved to learn that it's something Prophy can make enough of to give Uta a regular supply. "Oh... that's... wow." She scratches her head. "It's pretty amazing that in this world one person can actually DO stuff to help people like that, instead of needing like, bazillions of dollars to fund huge teams of researchers and lengthy trials."

    Then her eyes widen again. "Wait, how can something in here affect our minds that much?! I mean, I heard it had full access to our brains but... to be able to do something like that...!"

    She holds her hands to her head. "Oh my gosh, once we get out of here this means you could help people so much using FullDive!..." Then her ears and tail droop. "...If the technology hasn't just been completely banned after what happened to us..."
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria blinks a little and it seems like she's lost the conversation, she has out her engraving tools and she's working on carving an enchantment into her plate. "I haven't laid one into ceramic... hmmm fire since it's glazed? Water since it's ment for food...? Wind cause you can throw it? Hmmmm....."
Prophylaxis
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

"It takes a not inconsiderable amount of effort to do, unfortunately," Prophylaxis answers with a soft huff. He's evidently still steaming just a little bit. "But it's not an insurmountable issue. Besides, I had reference to go by. If I didn't have access to what I did, then I'm sure it would have taken much longer to accomplish."

The wisdom of the ancients can be quite beneficial, indeed.

He quirks a brow, then. "...Mizuki, you of all people should know how much this place can affect our minds. Even the fact that tactile responses are mapped realistically into our sensory experience is proof that our minds are being affected in some way by this place. When we do get out, I fully intend to explore the applications of Full Dive for treating mental illness and CNS injury, but there's quite a few ifs involved there." Such as the one Mizuki already elucidated. And 'if' they even get out to begin with.

He looks to Wisteria, then... sighs. "...Well. I got what I wanted. At least I can be sure she's /eating/ periodically now. Even if I might have to hose her down to get her clean."
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria sniffs herself "What... It's not worse than when I do kendo all day..." she hrmmphs "And I'm not bathing with you here." she sticks her tongue out. "I'd run the menu wash when you guys leave." she says "Hey... do you think ceramic will hold up to fire magic better?" she asks even as she's snapping the crystal into place on the plate she just finished eating off of.
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki nods at Wis, "It is worse... And I'm making sure you actually do it, because you too easily forget like this!"

    Mizuki winces, ears splaying and hiding behind Wis slightly, when Prophy points out her own animalistic behavior. "That's... that's not the same thing! If you had enhanced senses all the time you'd get used to them too! And a coat of fur and the flexibility to sleep anywhere was really helpful back at the beginning... and sunbeams just feel really nice..."

    She rubs her arm awkwardly, avoiding his gaze. "Other stuff... I dunno that it's really, MAKING me do s-stuff... Maybe it's that... if I don't want to think about things, like the pain of mistakenly thinking you'd insulted me and wanted to hurt my feelings... it's easier to act like an animal and retreat... m-maybe you can devise a science experiment to test exactly why, and I'll volunteer..." She looks at him briefly then averts her gaze again. "You know why I stay in this form all the time?"
Prophylaxis
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

"No, I mean..." The doctor shakes his head, "The fact that someone can touch your ears, touch your tail, and that you feel those responses as if they were happening on your own body, even without possessing those parts in 'reality.' Even the fact that you can taste food when it's properly prepared, or that we can get drunk. All of these things indicate that our minds are being 'affected' by this world."

Not /just/ because certain people like to jump into sunbeams.

"We can continue this conversation later if you like," Prophylaxis suggests, apparently detecting things moving into more sensitive territory. "When we're not obstructing Wisteria's research. Incidentally, yes, ceramic tends to hold up to heat more effectively than things like metal and crystal."
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki shivers a little at the word 'parts' for some reason. "Hhhhyeah, I... I guess my doctor should know everything..."

    But, that's a conversation for another time! "Really? Huh, you're a font of information on material science, Prophy..." She looks at Wis for a moment. "If you want to be alone right now, I'll come check on you later, okay?" She hugs her again, tail flicking, then follows Prophy out.
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria goes back to her work almost as soon as the pair leaves... she does take the time to at least menu clean if not take a real bath. Then it's back to crystals, engravings, and enchantment while mesuring MP loss and enchantment effacacy levels.