Painting the Roses Red

In which Wisteria works on her crystals and people visit and perhaps remind her to eat or bathe or just listen to her ramble.

Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

In the last couple of weeks the SEA gatehouse has seen... changes... or at least additions. What seems to be almost a rock garden's worth of crystals (each mounted on etched plates of various substrates) has sprung up. Sitting on tables, under tables, in buckets of water, stuck to walls, all over. And among them flits a tall albino girl. One who's familiar with her would notice that it is Wisteria. She however has undergone some changes... in that she looks like she belongs in a locker room wearing just a small pair of purple shorts, and a chest wrap. She's covered in smudges and finger and hand prints in various colors, dusts and strange alchemical fluids staining her white hair and skin.
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

Uta walks back from the tower, looking pretty beaten up. Those familiar with her will notice she's undergone some changes as well. Gwen's got her out of her newbie clothes and now she's sporting a more MMORPG-y outfit consisting of a dress that melds elements a nurse's uniform and a martial artist's gi, with the sleeve part cut off, opera gloves and almost-full-leg boots, all of this in white with black trimmings. Oh, and of course, a white nurse's cap.

Propping herself up with her staff, she blinks as she passes by. "...Are they redecorating? Is someone re-inventing neon?", she wonders, as she scoots closer to the place where Wisteria is working away. She's not familiar with the Caerbannog Were Fang, but she's seen her a few times, notably at that duel one day, and at the opening of the Slime Lab, tagging along with Mizuki.
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria looks up "Oooh hello, no no I'm actually working on something I found when we were exploring the gnomes werehouse of horrible artifacts of doom and those interloper guys had stolen a mirror that had everyone really freaked out. But see while we were there I saw that the gnomes use to use crystals to resonate enchantments over very very large areas like the whole werehouse had this barrier spell and they could monitor it from like all the way across Yamoto without having to be there. But I've been enchanting since the Black Wave and no one uses crystals or makes large scale enchantments... and so I was poking around at it and I realized when the crystals that we have most of available for making enchanting reagents you could just kind of PUSH all your MP in to them. They're not very efficent and they drain faster than they fill and they have really bad conversion rates so I was like.. but the GNOMES did it way back when so why wouldn't we be able to do it?" she asks shifting into her werefang form, pulling what seems to be a handfull of raw beef out of her inventory and taking a big bite of it with her sharklike teeth.
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

"Wait, you were- where? When? The mirr- how-", Uta looks a bit lost when she's hit with a stream of words which wash over her. "...wait, was that the Soul Mirror? Merek told me they found that in the Goblin Nest in Mac Anu! You... you saw it before?!"

Uta's verbal maneuvering sounds akin to someone who's hit by a massive wave and is trying to keep standing.

"...I'm not an enchanter myself, so I wouldn't know much about that," she mutters. "But- uh, so you're an enchanter? Interesting. IS-"

She sees Wisteria shifting and biting into beef. "...so...", she attempts, to try and steer the discussion into track. "...it's a... wide area enchantment... thing?" A pause. "...are they for generic enchanting? Or a very specific one?"

Another pause, and timidly, almost ashamed, "...is it an enchantment to re-create neon lights?"
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Takes another bite then vanishes the meat and shifts back to her human form wiping her hand on her shorts. "Oooh no no didn't see it we saw where it was, did you know the ancient heros I think were people like us." she nods "Like not landers, I think they were players from the old Elder Tales game... Like I think this all happend back then cause they did stuff that doesn't seem to make sense to Landers like we do... so the Mirror was stored in concrete before it was stolen. So I think that concrete either blocks magic... or maybe it just makes it hard to like be close enough to activate a relic? Not sure.. we haven't tested it yet." she says and then stops... "Wait uhm.. nono these crystals are just tests, working out which kinds of crystals, which kind of MP, which kind of thing like see here, this is a dark crystal with fire magic, on gnoll hide... in the shade.... but THIS one is a fire crystal with dark magic, on gnoll hide, IN THE SUN." she grins and looks pleased with her self. "I'm just monitoring which ones hold onto charge longer, if the spell works when triggered that kind of thing... Most of my research is done I think, in the end I'll be able to lay down a large scale enchantment and it will actually hold up and not drain out and die before it can even be used." she says and then processes the last question "Uhm no.. but I bet it could be done but you'd need light magic and I don't really have any of that... my class is Shadow... would be pretty weird for Shadows to have light magic right?"
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

"I have been thinking about that, actually," Uta replies all serious to Wisteria. "I have spoken with people who played this game a lot. So... time used to run at a 50:1 ratio before the Apocalypse. And if one lines up the timelines, the foundation of the Eastal Free League line up nicely with the time when Elder Tale Offline was released. The in-world Dark Ages coincide with the Dark Ages of our Internet... it's... oddly clicking." Uta glances at Wisteria. "I suspect there might be more to it than a mere coincidence."

"...it probably would, maybe?" Uta answers to the question about Shadows having light magic. "...but then again, I'm a Spriggan, a creature of Darkness, and I have Light magic, so..." She shrug. "I suppose something like this is to be expected when you radomize literally /everything/ of your character."

A thought appears to occur to Uta, and after frowning a bit, she begins sweeping through her menu. "Say, uh, mind if I inspect you medically? I am performing some research and... I need to collect some data." She smiles. "In exchange, hey, free medical check-up! How's that?"
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria hmms "See... my idea isn't crazy that's good... I was afraid it was cause I'd gone fey." she says. "Well race doesn't have as much impact on your magic as class does so I mean that isn't to strange... I mean I only have water cause I'm a werefang but." she shrugs "Hmmm... I guess I mean I'm sure doc checked me out just this morning." about a week ago "But so long as it doesn't mess with my research sure go ahead and do a scan or whatever it is." she starts checking crystals, touching them one by one.
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

"Don't worry, it won't hurt!" In fact, all Uta does, is touch Wisteria. Medical inspection, unlike the regular variety, requires physical contact. "...Indeed. Fey Mood. Resonating with the Primordial Song," Uta notes, with a nod. "You'll probably end up as a Moonlight Enchanter. And I'm sure Doctor Prophylaxis has already explained this part, hasn't he?"
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria shrugs "Maybe I duno I remember him saying something about a primordial song." she shrugs again "I was trying to explain crystal resonance and get him to fill some fire crystals at the time." she touches her next crystal to inspect it.
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

"...Resonance..." Uta trails off, as if following a thought...

...and losing it. She shakes her head, blinks, and focus return to her. "...hmmm..." She looks around all the crystals. "I wonder if..."

She inhales, and begins to vocalize a song. An emotional voice solo, without any words, just voice.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgVTfRkM-Ys)
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria idly hums along with the melody, the girl touching each crystal. Running her scan, taking her notes and moving along. The tall albino girl ocasionally pushing her hair back with her fingers and leaving colored streaks.
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki is wearing one of the female starting outfits which incorporates a dress, just to try it out -- she hasn't gotten cool idol/magical girl clothes from Gwen yet.

    How it feels is *extremely self-conscious*, looking around, every time she sees someone even looking in her direction wondering if they're judging, or thinking she's weird... but no one notices because seeing a girl in a dress isn't weird, duh.

    As she walks to the gatehouse, though, she hears a song that makes her, for a moment, forget all that, ears perking up as she follows the song to find... "You can *sing*, Uta?? Oh right, I guess you ARE a bard... that was very pretty!" She smiles. "What brings you here?" She does glance over at Wis to give her a smile and nod as well, but seems to have judged that she doesn't need to be reminded to bathe again yet.
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

Uta keeps a close eye on the crystals, on the lookout for any effect. She gazes, scrutinizes, squints... and sees... sees...

"...Nothing," she sighs, interrupting her song. "...the crystals didn't react to the song, did they?", she asks Wisteria.

Uta turns towards Mizuki. "Oh. Oh! Yes. I... I can sing because I'm a bard. I'm pretty proficient at it." She puffs up and places her hands on her hips. "'Song' is my middle name. Wait, no." She frowns. "it's technically my /first/ name."

Uta then seems to realize something. She scratches her chin, and smiles. "Oh, hey! You're in a dress! Looking pretty! You should do that more often." She then cants her head a bit, and mumbles, "I should probably do that at some point myself, social expectations and all, but... I don't think I can bring myself to do it yet."

Yes, apparently she's unaware of what she's wearing.
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria checks another crystal she tries to hum the tune but really she's not good. "Hmmm no doesn't seem like it changed the MP exchange rate in or out, or affect the elemental interactions between crystals and different kinds of spells. I'll have to check all of the crystals to know for sure but it doesn't look like it... but I don't have song so I've never tried to trap a bard ability in an enchantment... I wonder if we could... hmmm... did you ever read Crystal Singer? Really good book, I wonder if we could make Ansibles.... I mean we have Chimes but ... I wonder if we could."
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki blinks. "Your name is Song Uta? ......Oh. Farore means song?" And then at being called out on her outfit she blushes first in embarassment, cringing back slightly, then surprised and... confused and pleased? at the compliment, and then just... a sort of confused expression Uta's no doubt seen tons of times as Uta says that despite having been wearing a dress since day 1 and, according to what she told Mizuki one day long ago, never takes it off! Well, obviously Uta must have another outfit or two now, but still...

    After a moment, she decides not to comment. She looks away shyly. "Honestly I keep feeling like someone's going to call me weird. Even though there's no way for people to know... I feel like if they knew they might call me weird." She looks at Wisteria. "Ansibles? We already have chimlinks... but I suppose more communication devices that don't depend on the chimlinks would be good. We have people working on making steam engines..." She taps her chin. "Radio should be pretty easy to test, right? We just need to see if a spark gap transmitter works, then we can worry about how to refine it..."
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

"Mizuki, I'll let you in on a secret." Uta walks up to the feline Were fang, squints left, squints right, then, mouth covered with one hand, she whispers conspirationally into Mizuki's ear, "...we're all weird here."

"Ainsibles, singing to crystals, FTL travel... at this point I can believe everything is possible!", she says, tossing her hands in the air.

"If you need a singer for your crystal experiments, Wist, let me know." She frowns and almost pokes a crystal -- but stops short: one doesn't know what is stored in them. "They sure seemed not to react the first time around."
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wist stands and twirls "Yes yes but see.. these are full of elemental energy." her eyes nearly sparkle "But if I can convert Wave arts into Sword Arts with enchanting, why couldn't I turn SONG arts into wave arts or sword arts? Or if we get it working properly turn wave arts into song arts... Like tap a crystal and the wave... wait I wonder if that is how the long distance monitoring works...." she kind of freezes eyes glazed over expression
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki blinks at Uta as she's going to be told a SECRET.... Her ears rotate towards Uta and she looks curious... and then smiles and relaxes. "Ah, I guess that's true, huh... still, it's a hard feeling to shake..." She glances out a window at the people going about their business outside for a moment.

    Then she turns back to the others. "I'm happy to contribute my own singing, too! Song Arts... another thing I need to remember to research..." She blinks. "What long-distance monitoring? Are you saying you've encountered something that seems to involve magical radio waves?"
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

Uta sighs. "I'm glad it's not only me who is confused at what, exactly, Wist stumbled upon," she replies to Mizuki. "I didn't know you could sing, tho'." After a short pause, "...oh, no. Uta. It's my name." The translation system, /this time/, will render that Uta, in Japanese, means 'Song'. "That's what got me so obsessed with finding out about Strange Mood songs. You see someone acting like a complete weirdo oblivious to their surroundings," She gestures towards Wisteria without noticing, "and when you medically inspect them? They're 'Resonating with the Primordial Uta'. I just... /just/ had to find out more about that. There's literally my name in it."

"So, wait, wait, what's that thing about Arte conversions?", is what Wisteria is asked.
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria hmmsm and tips her head "When we went to investigate the gnomes storage thing with the dangerous relics when the mirror was stolen. Remember they knew it had been broken into because they crystal system warned them the barrier was breached. So at the very least they could tell the spell failed." she says and nods her head "Ooh well I mean I didn't really make it a sword art." she says and produces a katana that glows a malevolent black. "See what I did was take a wave art, then I enchanted it into the blade so that when I hit someone with it, it shoves the wave art deep into them. Like that's basically what a sword art does so I have some theories that sword arts and wave arts are actually the same but that we look at them differently because the system says we should and since I already have some evidence that the Alvs made the system but we've started handicrafting that we could fully convert a wave art into a different style. Like taking a sword art and figuring out why that style swing creates the effect and learn how to translate that into a song or into a chant and rune combination to generate the same effect... if it all comes from the same place and is only devided by the system then the way handicrafting lets us get around the system we could learn to do other things without the system."
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki smiles, tailtip twitching, "Yup, I can sing! And spontaneously belting out songs without rehearsing is easier in here... I've been wondering if I should become a part time idol, to cheer people up with song..." Uta explains the name thing, and she ohhhhhhhhs and nods. "Okay, yeah, fair, I'd want to investigate too if -- I mean, that's interesting enough on its own, but if I found something called the 'Primordial Mizuki', I'd wanna know too!"

    She scratches her head. "Although, I'm not sure what Mizuki means, if anything... I've heard 'beautiful moon' as one translation... but I just picked it because it was a Japanese name that seemed like it could be used for men and for women..."

    She ahhs at Wis, "Right, the crystal alarm system... yeah, that coulda been some kinda magic radio, huh... or ansibles... or crystals that are 'paired' in some way..."

    She listens in increasingly wide-eyed wonder as Wisteria elaborates on arte conversion. "That's so cool! I didn't even think of that! Hmm... I really need to study how artes work... I'm just... bad at actually organizing time to do it... and where would I begin...?"
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

Uta just stares at all of Wisteria's explanation.

"...Wat," is all she says with a frown. "...I guess I'll need to ask you again when you're not in a Strange Mood. Or..." She turns to Mizuki. "...maybe ask you to translate. For now-" She stretches and yawns. "...I think I'll go to sleep. Went to help with Karluin and... let's say my HP didn't like what I saw."

Uta smiles wide and spreads her arms. "Oh yes! Definitely go idol! Spread cheer and joy and become famous doing so!" She flicks her menu open, and materializes a writing implement and something to write on. "...can I have an autograph?", she asks, handing the items over to Mizuki.
Wisteria
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

    Wisteria goes back to her crystals people are talking but it isn't really to her so work to do! Boop-Scan-charge move on, boop-scan-charge move on.
Mizuki
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ


    Mizuki turns to Uta, smiling and mistaking the spread arms for an invitation to hug, stepping in to give Uta such! Then she takes the scribing tools. "Oh, um, sure, but..." She writes 'Mizuki' in cursive, with all the awkwardness of an adult who hasn't had to use cursive for anything but their signature in a decade, and this name isn't the signature he's used to writing... She hands the scribing tools back. "I'm still not used to signing my name yet, so it comes out like that... This name, I mean."
Uta
Alne - Scale Emblem Alliance HQ

Uta takes back the autograph with both hands. "Oooooh." After some time lost in contemplation of her new treasure, she snaps to attention again. "Oh. Uh. You... you might want to work on that. Autographs are very important for an idol. Anyway, Must go now. Later!", that said, she bows to Mizuki, turns to Wisteria, bows, and begins to head out.