There's Something About Uta

Welcome back to the stage of history. A tale of slimes and porings, eternally retold.

Proteus has actually been doing a lot of moving around lately. You'd think she would be lurking around the HQ in case of another 'situation', but she's actually been roaming around Alne and beyond, moving about. Uta is fortunate though, the Imp Archeologist happens to be in today. When she arrives, she'll see Proteus sitting there on the front steps of the manor house that is the HQ, working on what looks like some kind of sliding piece puzzle.

Uta has been doing her own share of roaming around of late, as Proteus is well aware of. Roaming around which involved plenty of bibliographical reserach, hunting down rare materials and feeding them to slimes, not to mention a lot of not eating, not sleeping, and smelling foul.

That, however, seems to be behind her now. She looks rested and not offensive to the senses.

"...so, uh, where were we before we were interrupted by my strange mood? I forgot what- Oh, right. First things first. Hi, Proteus!" And after a short pause, she adds, "...thanks for taking care of me while... you know..." She gestures vaguely.

The arrival of Uta causes Proteus to look up, blinking under her hood, and she smiles. "Well, you look like you've recovered well." She stands and approaches the Queen of Slimes, giving her a short hug of greeting before pulling back away. "Don't worry about it. I've seen it happen in Plant Duck more than once and so I've had some experience. Though I bet considering your attempts to document and understand the phenomena, it must be interesting to experience it for yourself, I bet."

She holds the puzzle idly in one hand as she speaks, the tiles clicking idly as they slide about. "So, how are you feeling now? Everything all right? And what brings you here today?"

"...Never felt so focused in my life. It was /amazing/-" Her voice rises in excitement at the last word, "...but dangerous. Terribly dangerous. I am very torn about how to feel about the whole- oh, right. What brings me here today. Well, last time I said I owed you explanations, and I have come to pay back that debt."

She flicks her menu open, navigates it, and after a few selections, she materializes a small red, squishy ball.

Her stress ball.

She gives it a couple of squeezes for good measure, and then tells Proteus, "Here, inspect this."

There is a pat on Uta's shoulder. "Careful now. It might be amazing, but I think you're better off being able to think about more things than slimes. Definitely a sometimes food, hmm?" Proteus continues to be kindly, if slightly patronizing. It's hard to tell with Uta what might be appropriate sometimes.

Uta gets to the point, though, and there is a nod from the Imp. "Well, it certainly was an experience. I'm a little sad it turned out the way it did, but it is what it is." She shrugs... But then there's the ball. Proteus blinks at it as she sees it again, and she looks the object over. "... Ah... hah." She says, her eyes squinting as she does her thing.

"... Bondrewd again." She says, frowning. "Orth-bound immortal Narehate. And that explains why you insisted Bondrewd was a Flugel. You had context I didn't. I suppose that makes sense. I hardly am omniscient." She smiles, shrugging at that. "... So where did you get this from?" She asks. "Just something you picked up along the way, or something else?"

Uta nods. "I wanted to explain why my actions was not reckless: I was convinced I was picking the safest possible relic to touch the item with." She raises the ball. "It was literally /built/ by Bondrewd. Which means he probably carried it around or something? And it's a /healing/ item. So... why in the world would it... /ruin/ a piece of Bondrewd?"

She sighs and looks at Proteus with her head canted a little. "I hope you'll also understand why I was hesitant to reveal this information at first. Based on what I read on your report, and what other people told me, it would appear that Bondrewd is going after Adventurers with relics, and specifically relics he owned. Or possibly made. The more people know I have this, the more in danger I am."

She turns to look away into the distance. "As for how I got it... well, to make a long story short, I started off with a different relic..."

* * *

Ripple to flashback for the benefit of the reader (since Uta isn't telling the full story for reasons which will become immediately obvious).

Close up to Uta's face. She lifts a reptilian scale, to place it between her eyes and the camera.

"Enkido's Scale."

She flicks through her menu, then reads the flavor text that appears: "A singular Scale left by the Great Dragon Enkido, lost during the Crystal Tower Rebellion, and mourned by his greatest friend. It seems to glow red when the world's laws are being broken."

Her gaze intensifies. "An item of untold might, which ties directly into the Laws of this World, from a creature nobody has yet seen in Yamato. This power, entrusted in my hands. I must choose wisely how to employ it."

Zoom out. Uta is standing in a field, and there's a little 'neutral' slime wobbling next to her.

Uta squint-glances at the tiny monster, then snatches it up, and attempts to shove the scale into its mouth. "Eat it, become a majestic dragon! A FLYING ONE!" Her eyes light up. "If this works, I'm gonna have you puke it up and then feed it to a mount-sized slime and then I can be FLYING AROUND IN A DRAGON SLIME MOUNT! How cool is that?"

There is some wrestlign with the slime, and eventually, the little creature snatches the scale in its mouth, without swallowing, jumps out of Uta's grasp, and wobbles away into the vegetation. "NO! NO! COME BACK!", Uta yells out, launching into a desperate chase.

* * *Uta, in the present, continues, "...and after I lost that relic I had... let's say that I've somehow just happened to find this one."

* * *

Ripple to another unrevealed flashback.

Sunset of the same day as the previous flashbadk. Uta lies face down on the grass, exhausted after the chase. "I have been an idiot..." she sobs between tears. "My relic! I wasted it like that! I... I..." She sniffs. She lifts her face, and reaches into her jacket. She rummages, tongue sticking out, and then face-plants again. "...and I've also lost my stress ball to the Undead Army. Can this day get any wors-"

Uta freezes.

In front of her, even if slightly out of focus through the tears, is a transparent slime with a red squishy ball in its mouth.

Uta's eyes go wide. "...best...stress...ball...ever..."

Cue chase again.

* * *

"...granted, I had to snatch it out of the maw of a ferocious monster in an epic fight, but..." She mumbles, "...yeah."

"Well, I figured it wasn't reckless. I just didn't have all the information... And we weren't ready for what the result was." Proteus shrugs. "And the question answers itself. It didn't /ruin/ the piece of Bondrewd. It /cured/ the piece of Bondrewd. It removed the status effect... Of whatever Bondrewd had done to itself. Or is being done to them." But there is a nod, and Proteus gives Uta's shoulder a comforting squeeze while the tiles keep clicking away. "You're right. And your behavior is logical given the situation. It's much like the reason why I'm trying to be careful myself. Neither of us want to deal with our superpowered problems coming down on our heads."

Uta then goes on her story about how things turned into what they were, and Proteus' expression goes slack at the sheer... /Uta-ness/ of it all. "You just tried to... feed it to a slime?" She asks. "And it ran off with it?" The thought of a random slime bouncing around with a legendary item being wobbled about inside it just seems to strike the Imp with shock.

"... And then another monster appeared with a /different/ Relic in its mouth?" Proteus blinks. "How insanely lucky /are/ you?" She asks, rhetorically. "... Well, I guess it is what it is..." She trails off, tapping her foot. Click click click. "You're a unique one, Uta. Do you think we could use this thing to do something to Bondrewd, though?"

"Thanks! To be fair, I have no idea of what I'm doing myself, most of the time."

Uta nods once at Proteus's last words. "That was my proposal. Well, part of it." More menu navigation ensues, and this time she materializes an empty ampoule. "What I suspect might have happened is, Bondrewd is somehow doing something to himself to make himself immortal. More immortal? I wonder if he learned the trick of immortality from this 'Narehate', whatever it is? Maybe that's what a Fluegel is? It's funny. 'Fluegel' means wings(s). Like Icarus. A mortal challenging the immortals by encroaching into their territory. Well, my dear Icarus wannabe, we have just what we need to yank you back to Orth..." Uta squeezes the Core above the ampoule, and smirks as it fills up with red liquid. "A few drops of sunshine."

She turns to Proteus. "I was thinking we could use this as a weapon against Bondrewd in case he shows up again at a wave. It should make him far easier to handle. The only issue is..."

She returns to look at the ampoule, and frowns at it. "...based on what I've heard, he can just /see/ what people are carrying. If he can just get flavor text or even just the /name/ of this item? Our surprise factor is gone. Whoever carries it will be targeted before they can use it."

She mumbles, "If only we could find a way to hide its true nature from him..."

Uta mutters that while extending the ampoule to Proteus, for her to take. "I am not sure how long this will be effective. I suggest storing it in your inventory immediately, to freeze it in time, and pulling it out only when the to use it comes."

"You don't think, you just do, hmm?" Proteus replies, arching an eyebrow. She shrugs at the situation. "There's a lot to be said for it, I guess. It's just not how I can operate. Instinct is something..." The Imp goes quiet and looks away. "... Anyway. Yes." She nods, almost absently agreeing with the Slime Queen's assertions. "So you're thinking of feeding him that fluid in order to alter him the same way it altered the sample. I wonder if it would be that easy..."

She hums. "Well, it is worth a shot. If nothing else, we saw that the the Lord of Dawn's fragments react to it. Maybe the rest of him will. As far as hiding its true nature..." Proteus reaches out and takes the ampoule, nodding, and flicks her hand, the object vanishing into Adventurer Hammerspace. "I'll do what I can. Not everything in Inventory stays frozen, however. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, maybe you could... hide your Relic inside another Relic to disguise it? Kind of like how it's sometimes hard to see what's inside a slime?" May as well go for the parallel.

"I was not thinking of feeding. More like... hitting? Splashing might be too coarse, but perhaps we could dip arrow heads into the liquid. Shoot him with them. Toss the liquid at him, possibly guide it with water magic. Smash the ampoule against him would technically still work, if a bit coarse? We just touched the piece against the relic, and it fizzles. So maybe contact is sufficient?"

Uta goes silent some more. "...and I wouldn't say I don't think and just do. Sometimes I overthink. Sometimes I think. sometimes... I forget to think. It varies."

She looks at Proteus. "Hiding it inside another relic might or might not work. Depending on how Bondrewd's power works. I have zero clue myself there. I don't even know what a Cosmosphere is... That said, I agree that your proposal is worth a shot."

"Contact, huh?" Proteus thinks for a moment. "I think I could find a way to make it work." She says, nodding for a moment. "We'll see what happens. We're still getting beaten by Scale Emblem repeatedly, so I am sure Bondrewd will make another appearance soon enough. I don't think he'll be giving up on all those relics so easily based on his behavior."

There is another nod, though, and Proteus smiles to Uta. "Well, whatever you do, keep doing it. I think the World is better to have you in it. You're going to do fine, all right? And if you get into trouble, we'll be there to help. What what alliance-mates are for, right?" The smile then dims a bit as she continues thinking idly. "I don't know what a Cosmosphere is, either. Or what it means when it is exposed. But if you have any way to hide it, maybe you can do that." She shrugs. "That said, Relics don't just fall out of the sky. You'll have to find one to hide it since I don't think you're going to want to entrust your stress ball to someone else."

Uta stays silent, but gives a nod at the end. "I'll try to be careful. The only other thing I know is about the Cosmosphere is something that came out of some medical investigations -- some people were subjected to a status effect whereby their pain dampening, along with possibly other adventurer protection effects, were inhibited or removed. I'm told the affected people were showing a status effect about the Cosmosphere being in Danger." She sighs. "The more we end up discovering about that, the better."

She stops and thinks. " As you point out, relics don't just fall out of the sky. And relics which can contain other relics are rarer still. So... I think that staying far away from the Waves is my best bet for now, until I can think of something better." She smirks. "I seem to be pretty good at that anyway."

"Do what you think is best." Proteus chuckles. "At the moment, we're doing what we can to hold the line. It certainly would be a lot easier if Scale Emblem would stop doing this. Still, I fully expect they're going to be stopped at Floor 10 regardless." There is a pause, and another shrug. "We'll have to figure something out. I will keep you posted if we encounter Bondrewd again. In the meantime... The Cosmosphere..."

Proteus turns away, rubbing her chin with one hand. The clicking of the puzzle in her other hand speeds up as she does so, solving, resetting, solving, resetting, solving...

"I don't know anything about it. By context, it feels like it's something that's supposed to exist as part of the protections that Adventurers possess. But is it? Do Landers have one? Are there any records about them? I wonder..." She hums. "Prying information out of the Landers can be a laborious chore." She replies. "But this doesn't feel like a Lander thing... But at the same time, why ignore an avenue of investigation?" She sighs. "So much to do, so little time to do it. If Scale Emblem passes the tenth floor, everything changes. We're running out of time, and we understand so little..."

Uta, once again, falls silent, in thought. "Yes. We understand so little. And I have had some thoughts about tower pushes and the ultimate fate of this world. Probably a crack theory based on my limited knowledge of what is going on... but something I've been thinking about. Something that gives me the nagging feeling that even if we manage to stop the tower pushes, there would be another, possibly bigger threat to this world. But that's a discussion for another time. Maybe, at that time, you can shoot down that theory with more information..."