Corporate Bond'ed Hearts

The Spider tagging completed, the crew is now back at the Slime Lab. The Manticore is held in the Monster Barn just outside the door, and Uta is busy with her experiments. When Setsuna will walk in, today, he will notice that there's a new Organizational Chart hanging on the wall.

    Setsuna walks in , not really late, not really early, but just kinda in that gray zone as he stumbles in with a yawn. "Morning Uta, morning Slime A , B ,C , and phil. " He yawns again as he begins to auto pilot through things until he notices the organization chart. Staring at it for a moment he pulls out his charcoal stick and looks at the rat before he begins to doodle a mustache and beard on the chart. Its a charcoal stick so it will rub off, but it is gratifying in so many ways.

"Please refrain from performing unauthorized aesthetic treatments on the pictograms," Uta drones, without looking away from the sheet of data on a clipboard she's cross-referencing. She flips the page, and continues, "Or I'll have you personally take care of giving Potpourri a fake mustache to make him fit the drawing again."

    Setsuna stops mid drawing and stops. Looking back over at Uta and then at the org chart and then back at the picture. " So then all set for your vacation? Going to go off and see the sights? Invent and then enjoy those drinks with the little umbrellas ? " It had came up a couple of times in recent office meetings that the owner was going on a retreat. " Again I really think you should wait till the summer weather tthough, beaches aren't really suited for cold weather."

Uta snorts. "Very funny." After reaching the last page, she looks up. "You know I have to go back to explore the Palace Lands, and figure out how to hunt for songs, and take care of the publication of the Encyclopedia of slimes, and-" A sigh. "...actually, Baroness Wake suggested I take a break from it all, and I might actually listen to her. Oh, which reminds me." She points at a parcel packaged with a silver cord. "As part of the Bonded Hearts festival, Baroness Wake gifted me a new uniform, which would be perfect for Monster Handling. I will need it enchanted. Which leads naturally into the next subject-" She describes a wide arc with her pencil, and points at the other side of the room, where a small stack of rolled-up parchments with wax seals awaits. "As part of the standard Workforce Gratification Package, The Slime Lab is proud to offer to all its employees the closest thing this world has to gift certificates with associated businesses. We have a nice meal at the local inn, a pass to the onsen, and I believe something from the local general store, plus... I won't spoil the surprise."

She, once again, swings her pencil towards the rat's cage, which is gnawing on a similar set of rolled-up pieces of paper. "Potpourri seems to have appreciated them too." The lack of wax and ink on the rolls inside the cage is a pretty strong indicator that Uta's just been setting this up as... an elaborate prank, perhaps? Or maybe she's trying too hard not to make this sound like a personal gift.

    Setsuna looks at the parcel with the new uniform, which he is happy to hear is a singular uniform and then oer at the rolled up parchments. Looking over from the gift certificates to the one in the cage to Uta well the intern is aa bit blink blink. " No no, feel free to spoil the suprise. In dreams like this I usually wake up before they occur anyways. " It really must be a dream after all, normally such things like this wouldn't happen, that is unless the surprise is giving the manticore a manicure. " I mean, I greatly appreciate this gift. Thank you very much." He walks over to the parchments and looks at them, waiting for the snakes to pop out.

"I know it sounds unreasonably generous, but don't worry, the company won't go bankrupt. It's all tokens of gratitude from the business where we're sending the first Scrubber Slimes out for a test drive of Yeowang's scheme." She flicks the sheets on her clipboard to look at a pretty early one in the stack. "Next subject. According to the rota, you're up for Scrubber Slime duty. Your next task, after you're done with your tasks for the morning, is to go through that listing of businessess-" she points at a sheet of paper lying next to the 'gift certificates'. Unsurprisingly, there is a perfect match.

Disappointingly, no snakes pop out.

Uta looks out of the window, and taps her lips. "I might go spend a couple of weeks with the Monks of the Woods... just quiet, peace, martial arts training... it'd be a dream..."

    Setsuna understands now, yes please come and eat for free as the scrubber slimes do there thing and just in case there is a complaint you are here on site. Yes Setsuna sees now, he will be the onsite tech support. "Well this all sounds quite wonderful. Thank you again and yes I will make sure to go through this list. " So by the way I found the likely source of the Rider of Londonia. " There is a sound of annoyance as he gets to the very end of that statement, not thrilled with his find. "

The sound of a clipboard being tossed onto the closest table. The tapping of feet on the floor. It's a blur, and Uta is right up where Setsuna is. "-I'm all ears."

She even flicks those pointy Spriggan lobes as if for underlining the point.

    Setsuna looks at her ad tilts his head for a moment as if considering something and then shakes his head, " No I think you are like all Spriggan and maybe only like 2% ears , if that. " Setsuna tries to figure out where tto begin. " So up on the fourth floor of the tower , the mayor has this personal library from what I hear. Apparently one of his associates, donated the boo to your library, whether with or without the mayor's consent it is hard to say but he is the source. " Setsuna doesn't seem as pleased as he should be about this, " If you see the Baroness please thank her on my behalf. Witthout her the nobels wouldn't have talked to me or Robert. "

Uta scratches her head. "Uh... okay?"

She lets a few moments pass. "I will, without fail, thank the baroness on your behalf. Yet..."

Again, she pauses. She takes her time to narrow her eyes ever-so-slightly in a questioning squint, rub her chin, and finally sigh. "Okay, your tone of voice makes it sound like that this is the kind of present that's going to load us with more trouble than benefits, yet you leave the matter unaddressed, despite the obvious inquisitive atmosphere your tone of voice is going to induce." She leans closer and narrow her eyes at Setsuna. "It's time to address the white elephant in the room. Where's the catch?"

    Setsuna supposes he did leave the elephant in the room, whatever color it is . " Well the dude is super creepy, at least around me. The doctor says he doesn't find him weird or creepish at all but there was just something about this guy. He made my Ceberus want to hide and whimper. this guy, just gave vibes of something. Oh yeah and he declared I was his ambassador to scale and gave me a ton of paperwork to put in on his behalf to the hunter's guild to clear out near by monsters. " As if remembering the hand cramps those forms have given him he rubs and massages his hand. " So yeah thats about it."

Uta taps her chin. "And no information is forthcoming about /why/ this person did so, hm? It does sound rather suspicious." Hands clasped behind her back, she paces in circles around the laboratory. "Creepy guy who sounds somehow involved with monsters in some way somehow leaks, willingly or not, a tantalizing book to two Novasphere Monster Handlers." She frowns. "Were we already Novasphere Monster Handlers at the time?" She taps eher lips, then shakes her head. "Irrelevant. It's been shown that Certain People can somehow peek into the future. Causality becomes irrelevant."

Uta stops and sighs. "Would one of his associates happen to be named Chudelkin?"

    Setsuna shakes his head, " No a Lander, at least we think it's a Lander. He was named Subaru Natsuki. Given the Japanese name I have some doubt but an adventurer outside of scale having associates like that in the tower. It's pretty doubtful. " Setsuna steps back and leans against one of the cabinets as he contemplates the situation," I think Robert is trying to track down this Subaru, and then we will ask him directly whether the mayor told him to, or if he did it himself for some reason. Though to be fair this isn't the only piece of interest out of the mayor's library. The doctor is trying to trade for a book from one of the first moonlit doctors that is in that library. " The amount of things that could be in that library does tantalize the imagination of Setsuna, but he just isn't sure about the cost.

Uta perks up, salivating at the mention of an exceptional library. "One of the first Moonlit Doctors? After the Apocalypse or... a Lander doctor?" She bites her lower lip and looks away. "Dang, no wonder the Doctor is after that. I'd love to lay my eyes on that work... who knows what other wonders are available in there."

Again, pacing around ensues. "Thanks for letting me know. I'll try to keep you up to date with what I find, except..." She sighs. "Nothing much is coming up of late. The Palace Land has a lower concentration of slimes than Yamato. Might be interesting to research why. Should probably look into their sewer system. Tried to locate the source of the Babylon Signal in the Palace Lands by inquiring if the Landers in Dol Dona noticed anything around April 11 of last year, when the automatic translation broke down briefly. They noticed the same thing, but that's it. The tower is a long way off, so if anything happened there they didn't notice. But if a thing called The Tower of Babel is not somehow related to the Babylon Signal, well, I'd be very surprised. What else... oh, yeah. I've been asking around if there's been any respawn in Dol Dona. Apparently, there used to be, but as Adventurers moved away, the respawns tapered off, and eventually stopped."

    Setsuna looks at the Spriggan as she info dumps and Setsunaakes it all in. " I haven't been out to the palace lands since that one boat incident. After that well I came back here and haven't gone back yet. I do hear they have interesting monsters to say the least. The adventurers having stopped respawning sounds interesting. Mainly because that doesn't happen. You can't stop respawning, unless... " It had always been one of those unspoken things of a what if, what if we only had so many lives or what if one day it just stops. It's why the general concensus had always been to treat it like you only had one. " Do you think they just stopped, as in there is nothing else to spawn?"

A shiver of terror runs down Uta's spine. "Oh by the Goddesses. I hadn't even considered that possibility. I just assumed that if they kept going North instead of staying in Dol Dona... things must have been far better there. I thought that they just got so good nobody could kill them anymore. Because of increased skills or levels, and/or having reached an area with far easier monsters, and/or having sworn allegiance to a different kingdom. Them having unlocked the scret of immortality did cross my mind, but that'd be too..."

A pause. Another shiver.

"Wouldn't... if people started dying forever, wouldn't they have looked increasingly... stressed, or scared, or... that's probably something to ask about when I go back."

"Oh, yeah. That reminds me, take a look at this!"

Uta walks out of the door, and returns shortly after with a small shipping crate. She places it on a table, slides the lid off, and reveals-

-a RatCat slime.

    Setsuna nods his head slowly, " Yeah butt as far as I know there is no way to change your respawn point. No mattter if alliegances changes or what not. Also there are always accidents, you know world bosses, spawn, you fall off a cliff, yr buddy lights you on fire and runs out of magic before they heal you. " Setsuna is glad for the distraction as Uta steps out of the room for a moment and comes back with a RatCat slime. "Uta what did you do? Did you drop a rat and cat into a slime at the same time. Now if you go feeding them how will I know how much kibble to give them. Do you want fat slimes, this is how you get fat slimes."

"Of course /not/", Uta grunts at Setsuna. "I found it like this already in the Palace Lands. I think it absorbed a sample of a RatCat. You know they have hybrid animals over there, right? I think this one has absorbed a RatCat sample. More study is in order." A sigh, as she goes pick up her clipboard again. "But that's for later. Right now we have more urgent matters to attend to." That pencil from earlier is jabbed at thin air, to point at the door. "The manticore, as you know, is meant for our first Very Important Customer. It must be in excellent conditions, so, before you go out on scrubber slime duty, I need you to give the manticore a manicure."

    Setsuna was just abut to leave the moment he heard Uta say 'That's for later.' Setsuna knew those words, they were time to get to work words and unfortunately he was to slow. He didn't even make it to the door before he had been told to go give the manticore a manicure. He isn't sure if that groan was in his head or audible but either way he is off to the stable, to figure out how to give a manicure to begin with.