Pela Pumpkin Pastries for Prophylaxis

     Pelapuff Cafe, the place where... not many people come yet, really. It had been advertised, sure, but just with a little flier on various bulletin boards around the various root cities. Still, it was enough that people might know about her cafe.
     Which is where Pela was right now, sitting behind the counter while the three girls are off tending to various chores while there's a relative lull in the business from people either going home or just... well, not needing pastries or breads right now. Really, it was probably a steady business. Bread was useful. And who doesn't like sweets and drinks? Regardless, Pela is currently cleaning as well, carefully making sure that the area where people paid for and asked for their pastry was properly clean as well.

It's a shame that such a charming little cafe doesn't see more business, but them's the breaks when you live in a place that isn't a root town or major hub of a long-term dungeon-crawling industry. Surely it'll pick up in popularity sooner rather than later, though. Why, just now the bell goes jingle-jangle and in walks in...

A man in a mushroom hat.

...He looks very out of place here, but at least his hair color matches things somewhat.

More worryingly: he's covered in BRIGHT ORANGE RASHES that have been carefullly bandaged over but still peek between each wrapping. EVEN MORE WORRYING is the identity of this man, which by now must be known by much of the New World Alliance. He's certainly had his fair share of glares and dirty looks as he made his way through town, but by and large he has been unaccosted.

...Indeed, this man is the Doctor of Tolbana himself, Prophylaxis.

"Pela," the man asks, "This is very important: Do you sell sweet treats that contain pumpkin as an ingredient?"

...Very important, indeed.

     Really, it was also the off time to be honest. Mornings were when she saw the most business, and afternoons slowed way down for the most part. Nighttime was the best time to clean up at this point. She gives a small smile as the door bell goes jingle jangle and in walks... a man in a mushroom hat.
     ... Which... which was a little weird, but honestly it's an adventurer what did she expect? "...Welcome!" Pela greets, standing up and looking attentively towards the man who enters. And... there... were... bright orange rashes on him. Huh. That's... different. She was keeping her best customer service face on, so her mild concern and confusion is mostly hidden away! Mostly. "...Prophylaxis. Hi? ..." She pauses, listening to that question. "...Uhm. Yes! I do, it /is/ that time of year, so I'd be silly not to stock them. Uhm..." She moves over to one of the displays, looking at the trays. "I don't have too much left since it's the end of the day but let's see... what kind of sweet treat are you looking for?" She asks.

That's a fair assessment; Prophylaxis usually hits up taverns and pubs and other places that cater to a more bar-like atmosphere this time of night. He's probably lucky that he made it in before closing time!

"Oh thank heavens," the doctor sighs in visible relief at her confirmation. "Don't worry, anything will do. Cake, cookies, pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, as long as it's sweet and pumpkin-y, I /think/ it should work, but a selection wouldn't hurt," there's a beat as he fishes out an appropriate sum to serve as payment. "I thought I'd have to go all the way back to Alne like this. Um."

He subtly scratches one of those rashes-- apparently hidden underneath the sleeve of his robe. "We were clearing out the Labyrinth up north a little ways," he explains, "Nothing too bad, thankfully, but there was this one monster that hit us with exploding pumpkins of all things. And /those/ inflicted one heck of an itching condition. I didn't want to bother anybody, but it turns out that the only cure is 'a pumpkin treat.' It... might need to be fresh? I don't see why though. Hmn."

"Ah, have you had any luck with that Chaos Gate translation, by the by?"

     "Anything? Okay." Pela says, pulling out the tray that held the sweets, carefully grabbing a cookie. It was cute. And pumpkin shaped. And smelled like pumpkins. "Going all the way to Alne like this... sounds pretty unpleasant, yes. Especially if you were taking a trip from Fort Ouph's shadow." She murmurs softly. "Two or three days of itchy skin..." She shakes her head at that thought. It was unpleasant to say the least.
     The explanation gets her listening intently. Hmm! A labyrinth? "...Did you get it fully cleaned out? I might enjoy exploring there if it was actually cleared out and doesn't immediately respawn." Pela responds thoughtfully. "Oh and I can whip up something relatively quick if you need something fresher than the cookie." Pause. The question on the chaos gate gets a slight shift from Pela. "...I've heard... a little, but I am personally not very useful for it... since I don't have the relevant skills, unfortunately. They're working on ... gathering songs and such?" She muses out loud. "I feel like progress is slow, but what isn't in this world?"

Pela sees just where the doctor is coming from. Prophylaxis smiles at the cookie-- it's adorable! He can't not, because unfortunately this doctor /is/ weak to adorable things. Not so weak that he can't savor taking a few bites out of it, though. "Hahh, that hits the spot~" The doctor sighs as several of his awful rashes begin to diminish in size. "Mmn, it would have been a boat trip, and not a pleasant one. Not as bad as if I were heading straight back to Ninetails after this, but I've got something to deal with back in the tower first. I heard we had our first litter of Iron Grunties!"

This is, apparently, cause for celebration.

"The Labyrinth, though-- hm. I'm not sure if it'd refill with enemies so soon after being cleared out. Usually we only get asked to come in and help with it during an event like this one," the doctor explains with a shrug. "It's a teleporter maze, so you're going to want to be careful and go with some friends, but I don't /think/ it should be too dangerous?"

Regarding the gates, Prophylaxis can only nod. "I see, that's fair. Regrettably, I've not found much in useful text myself. I'd suggest looking at the Root Towns, though. Even if you don't have the cryptographical skills, you might be able to find... something useful. What I'm thinking is that once we figure out enough individual words, we might be able to put together a list of letters that we know correspond to certain sounds, and from there we might be able to make progress." The doctor shrugs and munches his cookie a bit more. "I might take a few of these to go, actually. They're pretty tasty!"

     Really, this was a dangerous place for Prophylaxis then. Being stylized after a maid cafe there were a /lot/ of cute sweets, most of them were made to be cute in one way or another, at least... with what Pela had to work with right now, she couldn't do a lot of things, but! Regardless. "...Yeah. A really unpleasant boat trip... and boat trips are uncomfortable enough usually since they're not comfortable."
     ...Iron grunties. "...Are they like... magitech grunties or something?" She asks curiously. Wait. But litter. "...Living creatures?" She looks moderately confused as she thinks on that. Iron grunties. That breed? And have kids? Maybe the Iron was figurative? Yeah her confusion was pretty plain on her face.
     The talk of the labyrinth though, and it being a teleporter maze. "...I really wish that the world would not tease us with teleportation when we can't normally for whatever reason... even trying to reproduce anchored teleports instead of more... flexible teleportation like the Chaos Gates... just... doesn't work." She mutters under her breath.
     She gives a small nod to the comment on the texts. Look at the root towns? Well, okay, that's something worth doing anyway for ideas she had. "...I'll make sure to do that... maybe if I delve deep enough, even without it..." She pauses. The talk of taking more cookies gets a small smile, and Pela pulls out a few more to put in a small sack. "Here. ... Coin will work. Or trade. I like both."

It's true. If only it were not located deep within relatively unfriendly territory on an entirely different continent from his usual haunts, he might spend an inordinately large amount of money on sweets! Can they get diabetes in this strange new world? Can they GAIN WEIGHT!?

Perhaps a research project for another day.

"Oh, no, just... Grunties, but covered in armor," Prophylaxis explains, realizing mid-sentence just how strange such a creature must sound. "Their armor is very much metal, and... I think they might molt? I'm not exactly sure how that works. They definitely get pretty big, though. Much stronger and tougher than an ordinary grunty, though, and just as cute."

Grunties are cute.

Ugly-cute, maybe, like pugs, but /still./

"Indeed, teleportation... If we had easy access, then this whole Black Wave situation would be much less dire. As is, we can only hope to get to our home kingdoms in time to make a difference, and that's only if we take extreme measures or are willing to consume very limited resources." Prophylaxis sighs, shaking his head slowly. "...It might be worth studying the teleporters in the maze, but I'm not sure if it'll bear much fruit. Has anyone looked at the warp in the Shadow of Lia Fail?" He imagines /someone/ must have, but ultimately came back empty-handed.

"Bring climbing rope," Prophylaxis suggests, and fishes out a few coins for payment. "If there's text anywhere, it's... probably really well hidden. You'd have to hope to find a translation, too. But there's always a chance. As for trade..."

He taps his chin, then... "Information? If you have time, you might want to stop by the Seventh Floor. The flora and fauna up there is unlike anything I've seen before. I'm in the middle of studying it, myself, but I figure you might be interested in a look."

     That's worth looking into for sure, since Diabetes and weight gain are dangerous health problems, after all! "Oh! ... That's... interesting." Pela says thoughtfully. "... The armor might be useful if they do molt. ...Maybe worth trading for if it does happen regularly." Pela adds, her ears twitching as she thinks on that. Hmm. Grunty armor, might be useful. She feels like Giganpor would be interested, but also, well... he kind of... did... some things. "...Just as cute? Even with the armor? ... I will have to come look at them sometime."

Ugly cute is still cute for sure!

     "...Yeah. ...People are really agitated by it on the chimlinks lately. The black waves are getting more vicious. ...I wish there was a solution that was better for all of us than the tower. And didn't have the black waves. ...It's not even ten floors done and people are freaking out like this. ...I don't see it going well as things continue." Pela says with a frown. She looked genuinely sad at the thought. "..." Ahem.
     "The shadow of Lia Fail? ... You mean Fort Ouph? ...Yeah I tried to reproduce it. It's one of the sets of runes I put on my ask for information. ... The materials were a problem. Immortal objects. Couldn't properly examine to reproduce. Possibly missing some sort of ritual? ...And I will bring climbing rope yes. Hmm... up high, huh?" She reaches to take the coins as they're handed over, slipping them into a little lock box. "...I will definitely have to come visit the seventh floor then. ...If it's new and interesting then it's worth examining and looking into. For multiple reasons." She pauses. "Oh. Here. Have this."
     She holds out a melonpan. "...I'm experimenting. ...Test flavor for me?" ...It tasted sweet. But like herbs and alchemy and kind of bitter at the same time. Also there were some sort of enchantment runes baked into the top of it?

"I mean, I /hope/ we can get some metal out of them," Prophylaxis says with a heavy shrug. "I'm just glad they worked out. Pekos are great for fast recon, but not really fit for heavy lifting you know?" Iron Grunties, though... Are probably for more than just moving big loads. That armor is perfectly suited for combat, after all.

But then, the Scale is always stuck in fighting on one front or another.

"Mmmn, I understand that the latest one hit a pretty populated area, and that there weren't actually any monsters this time. From everything I've heard, those Heroes from another world are causing quite a ruckus. I wish they were more forward about what their deal is-- maybe we could come to some kind of agreement. But... I suppose if we're putting their world under threat, I can hardly blame them." Prophylaxis shakes his head, "...We're due for another push sooner rather than later, too. I don't know where the ensuing wave might strike, but I'd suggest you all start preparing for it."

Hardly ten floors... What will the eighth and ninth floor's waves look like? What will the tenth?

Prophylaxis can only hope they find what they're looking for sooner rather than later.

"Ah, yes. Fort Ouph," the doctor chuckles, "Sorry, a bit frazzled from all the scratching. It's not necessarily up /high/ but... Fort Ouph is pretty high up just in general. If you look around up there, you're going to want to make sure you're taking the proper precautions. It's too bad about the Immortal Object issue, though. Hm?"

Melonpan. Prophylaxis takes a bite and... mulls it over slowly. He takes another bite and chews a little more thoughtfully... Then nods. "I see. To be honest, it reminds me more of a matcha-pan than a melon-pan? It's still /good/ don't get me wrong. It has this... floral, slightly bitter aftertaste, which undercuts the sweetness a bit, but it's got an interesting flavor regardless. Melons... Melons. I'll have to keep an eye out, in case we find any on the climb."

     "Oh... yeah... definitely better for heavy lifting i think... Grunties in general are kind of useful... good meat... good for labor..." Pela gives a small nod as she thinks on that. Still. One front or another, the fighting's getting pretty bad. It feels like war is going to properly break out.
     "...Honestly... I'm not sure how much we could call them heroes anymore, with how they treat our world... I heard one just... killed people because they didn't consider them people..." She shakes her head. She listens to the talk of there being another push, and she just... gives a small nod. "...I understand. ... I... don't... have any interest in being in the way, but I will give a warning. ...If people decide to use that warning against the scale, I'm sorry, but... there has been more talk of people wanting to disrupt the climbs."
     She shifts her ears at the mention of it being up high. "...I kind of wish I could replicate how they make it fly, but it honestly is easier said than done because of the immortal object and ... whatever ... knocked out our inherent flight to begin with." She says, frowning slightly. All of her flight spells, utterly useless now.
     And the critique of the melon-pan. "Mmm. It's not perfected yet then... still working on the balance to minimize the bitterness and herbal flavor to it... while retaining the affects that help focus the mind and calm the nerves..." She frowns a bit, poking at one of the other melonpan. "...Annoying balance. If it were just a potion I'd be done already, people expect bitter potions." She wrinkles her nose. But that was why she was making it a sweet, so it was less unpleasant than potions.

"I don't think I'd want to eat Iron Grunty," Prophylaxis muses. "I think they'd be... pretty tough. You know, being covered in metal and all that." ALSO they literally eat ore, and that's a one-way ticket to heavy metal poisoning.

"Hah, it's not like we've ever kept it secret when we were planning to make each push," Prophylaxis chuckles softly-- but it's true. Every time there's another tower climb, it's always advertised. Sometimes, even Landers take part-- to incredible effect that one time the Goblin Slayer was involved. "If people actually show up to try and stop us this time... It wouldn't be surprising, but also I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. I'm just letting you know ahead of time because I think you care about people, and I think you might have a decent chance of whipping some of your fellows into preparing for a coming wave if you're given a reason to do so ahead of time. So, let's call this an experiment."

"...Still, I have my reasons to continue the climb, as do we all, so it will continue." The doctor frowns, his expression becoming thoughtful for a long moment, but then... "You might want to try mixing in a little bit more milk or butter. Fats tend to help cut some of the bitterness, and can smoothen out the flavor overall. Food's a difficult balancing act, but it's all chemistry in the end. Maybe try roasting the herbs a bit first, or adding a dash of citrus? That might make it too sour though, hm..."

On flight... He is unnotably mum. Some things need to remain a surprise, after all.

"Well, anyway. I should probably be on my way," the doctor gestures around, "Looks like you were about ready to close up when I arrived, and I don't want to keep you any longer. Let me know if there's aught I can do to lend a hand. I'd be glad to assist in looking for any more of those words, for example."