Show And Tell

Uta has been using her traveler's wagon more and more lately. A converted barrel the size of a trailer, she has temporarily parked it in a grassy area at the outskirts of Carmina Gadelica. Her Grunty, a larger-than-average specimen, is off grazing a short distance away; like many Grunties, it's wearing human clothes. This one seems to be wearing a maid's uniform, a purple wig and... fake Sylph wings?

Uta is sitting in front of a fire, holding a frying pan over it. The oil fizzles, and as she drops some sliced vegetables in-

* KABOOM *

Uta sighs, and tosses the pan off to a side. "Not having the Cooking skill /really/ sucks..."

Schneider is alerted by a nearby KABOOM, though if he'd been paying better attetion, he'd have noticed the wagon and the grunty. "Hello!" he calls out from the edge of the town, where he'd been, well, loitering. You can't adventure all the time, right? He'll head on over to join Uta and her wagon and her attempt at a meal. "Isn't your guys' restaurant closeby?" he asks her.

It doesn't take long for explosive failure to draw attention. Though the only response at first to the noise is the screech of a bird overhead.

But it can't be coincidence that a few minutes later a certain wolven cait sith comes trudging through the brush, ears alert. Though after a moment of seeing who it is and the discarded pan its not hard for Shiruba to put two and two together. "... Oh. Hello Uta." She picks up the ruined pan. "I take it someone didn't pack prepared food before leaving. Nice wagon, though."

    "It's not *that* bad, is it? I mean, we just have to buy real food in town, and money's pretty plentiful, at least for small purchases like that, as long as we keep killing mobs..." Mizuki points out, having approached with natural cat stealth and being about to say hi when Uta's cooking blew up. And then she covers her muzzle with her paws. "Oh no... were you someone who liked to cook all the time in real life?! That must suck... I can't play videogames here and there's not much call for math or programming, I dunno what I'd do if I couldn't at least sing..." Although, that reminds her of recent events, and her thoughts start to drift off again...

Uta blinks at the small crowd gathering around her. "The restaurant is actually over there, in Carmina Gadelica /Marina/, near the cosast. And thanks, Shiruba! I-"

The Grunty had been on edge ever since the explosion, head raised and all. When other adventurers approach, the large beast begins to dart away from the place, purple hair from the wig fluttering in the wind as do the fake Sylph wings and the maid dress.

"Gwenty! No! Come back!", calls out Uta, but Gwenty doesn't seem to listen.

Uta facepalms. "Oh, great. First bitten by the lack of Cooking, now Handle Animal..." Resigned to having to go look for the grunty later, she turns to Mizuki, "Nah, I actually cooked because I had to. If someone else did it for me, I'd have been happier. It just felt like... you know... campfire cooking goes well with the nomadic lifestyle."

Schneider smirks to Mizuki, and says, "At least you had useful skills in real life. I played basketball in high school, and had just started college when I got trapped here." So, zero life skills. To Shiruba, he observes, "It's strange, don't you think, that almost anything else we attempt meets with a greater or lesser degee of success, but cooking and a few other things are sink-or-swim." He notes, "Healing's another thing controlled entirely by game mechanics and your programmed skills. But fighting seems to be all analog user input."

He peers as Gwenty the Grunty runs off, but says, "She'll be back later, when she wants food." That's how it worked growing up when his pets ran away.

Shiruba ... just... facepalms at the name. Which does explain the clothes. And it being a larger than average Grunty. Still facepalm worthy though.

It doesn't last longer than a moment. A Grunty wandering off alone, stubborn and tough as they are, isn't really a good thing. "Don't worry, I'll find... her? Her." It was wearing a maid dress after all. Shiruba doesn't move though. Instead she gives a warbling call, and that bird screech responds. A moment later a falcon can be briefly glimps as it flies over the little camp, in the same direction the Grunty darted off in.

Shiruba has also drawn a blue handler's whistle from a pouch of her belt, which she holds up to give a brief toot on... and then just sort of stares off for a few moments. "Oh, I... we see her." We? "Good thing I was working on falconeering today."

    "Shouldn't we go after it?!" Mizuki is poised to run off, but when Uta points out the lack of Handle Animal skill, she slumps. "Oh, right."

    She nods to Uta. "Yeah, I was the same way. Only cooked when I had to. It's like driving; the result is what you need, or at least want, but getting there is boring at best and stressful at worst."

    She tilts her head to the side slightly, long, messy white hair hanging down. Softly, she adds, "I guess I don't have to worry about doing either of those things any more..."

    And then she looks at Schneider, and her eyes go wide. SHE HADN'T THOUGHT OF THAT YET. She stares down at her paws, still speaking softly: "If I don't go back... I'll never use a computer or play videogames again..." It feels like it should be a dilemma, but the moment she thinks about it her heart has already decided. "...Huh. I thought... you'd think I'd be sadder."

    After a moment, she looks up at Schneider. "Combat's a lot more detailed, but people who don't have THOSE skills can't use sword artes or wave artes at all... and I bet they're less effective even just at fighting physically, too."

"Her, yes," Uta confirms to Shiruba. Who spaces out. Uta gets up and approaches, and as she's about to wave a hand in front of Shiruba's eyes, the Cait Sith starts looking... less distracted?

"Falconeering? It's the first time I've heard of it. Is spacing out an integral part of it? Because I think I might be really good at it, in that case."

"To be fair, I /did/ wait tables at a restaurant, and sometimes I would get lunch there..." Uta spaces out a little, possibly drooling. But then she blinks, dries her mouth, and shakes her head. "Sorry, I was practicing my falconeering."

To Mizuki again, "I mean, technically, our life is currently like we're pretty much playing videogames 24/7."

"Pharmacy?" Uta asks Schneider, tilting her head. "I do have that skill, so... uh... I don't know what it's like for people who don't."

"Hard to miss video games when I can do so many of the same and even cooler things myself here." Shiruba comments, even though she's still gazing offward, added a muttered "Parents never let me have any pets," under her breath.

"I'm not spacing out.. sort of," she replies to Uta, holding up the Blue Whistle for the Spriggan to see. "This allows me to briefly see the world through the senses of an animal. The falcon I was practicing with followed her to another thicket over there." She points.

Then looks back to Uta. "Kind of surprised you don't have a monster to pull the wagon instead... though I guess since they're not tamable like a Beast is, that'd be a problem."

Schneider watches Shiruba send her falcon out after the grunty. "If that falcom brings back a whole grunty, I'll ...." but he'd be so amazed, he doesn't himself know what he'd do! He smirks at Mizuki as she stares at him a moment with eyes wide, but nods about combat being more detailed. "Combat's almost it's own minigame. But cooking and healing are super simplified, like the game desighners got so wrapped up in fighting and had to rush to get everything else out. I could at least boil ramen at home, in real life, but I can't even do that, here. And I knew what to do for sprains and pulled muscles and such, but none of that applies here." As to never playing video games, he admits, "I think I've had a lifetime of video games this past year. What else could I play that matches this all around us. But I'd still rather be home."

To Uta, he admits, "I have Pharmacy and Light, and both of those can heal, though I can only heal myself." That's one of the RP bits he plays, as Dark Schneider with the insane regeneration. "But I don't know how it actually works. I kind of wish I did."

    Mizuki tilts her head at Shiruba. "Oh! Right, Cait Sith don't get animal senses." She briefly shifts back to human to see how things are different, then shifts again. She looks at Uta, unable to help imagining *present* Uta waiting tables at some kind of cosplay maid cafe. "...What it's like is basically the same as cooking, or nothing happens at all."

    Mizuki tilts her head. "There's a thought. Is Pharmacy like cooking, in that if you do it 'properly'... like, boil herbs and extract chemicals and all that, you get better results than menu-crafting?"

    She glances back at Schneider. "Light's the only element I don't have... Ninjas get everything else..."

    And then she has ANOTHER thought, and steps up close to Uta, leaning over to whisper in her ear, "Hey, um... I'm sorry about how I responded, before. I was... bitter. Did you ever find that mentor? Are they by any chance taking new students?"

"Indeed, Shiruba. Monster rides require constant imposition of will. Ok for riding, but for pulling a cart..." she shakes her head. "The moment I get distracted or fall asleep, I'm toast. Plus, I might need to leave my mount in the cargo area of ships... no, an animal is much better for this purpose, even if I can't handle it properly."

Uta taps her chin. "Interesting. Flavoring is simplified. Healing is simplified. I wonder if people, in a sense, are simplified... Bob did some research on some Lander having simplified physiological responses in some cases..." She trails off.

Uta snaps back to Shiruba. "...Oooh. So you have a... falcon-cam, pretty much?"

Uta scratches her head at Mizuki. "Uhm, well, my first attempt at making healing potions /did/ result in explosions... by the time I discovered I could make healing potions, they had already discovered hand-crafting, and I've been following that ever since. With all the scarcity in herbs and ingredients for healing potions... the bottleneck was /not/ preparation."

And then she frowns and looks confused at Mizuki. "Mentor? Bitter? Students? I'm not sure what you're referring to. Oh. Wait, you mean Master Miyoda, and his Swampside Dojou and Used Cart Lot? You want to practice your Godhand Artes? I mean, he /is/ a good teacher, but I think he's leaning a bit too hard into the Wise Asian Mentor As Portrayed In Western Media... up to the point of speaking bad Japanese. And he /is/ Japanese..."

    "Didn't we have a ton of anti-tox ingredients from everyone having to fight the monsters around Carmina Gadelica and Alne? Although... we've used so many since then..." She shrugs at the question of healing. "Something called a 'cosmosphere' lets us take damage and heal on game rules. Without it..." she rubs her neck. "...It works just like it used to, I think." She tries not to think too hard about that sudden and violent tracheotomy.

    Mizuki blinks in surprise. "What? Miyoda? God hand? No, um..." Her ears blush a bit and she leans in and whispers. "You said... you said you were looking for someone to teach you, um... how to girl..."

At the sound of wings beating Shiruba holds out her gloved arm, just as the falcon is coming in to land on it. "Or whatever animal I'm working with. I could of tried it on the Grunty to see from her point of view, but that would of been harder to determine where she had stopped." She pulls out a piece of jerky and holds up, which the bird snaps up in it's beak. "Yeah, I recall Ryden's lecture on the difference between animals and monsters when it comes to handling them."

She glances over her shoulder. "Not to the level a Were Fang does, at least. My senses are a bit better than a human's... but I've had to train to use them in tracking wereas they'd come more natural to others." She gives the falcon a brief pet across the head, then lets it go perch in a tree so it doesn't tire her arm out. "Teaching who to what now?" She wasn't entirely paying attention while tending to her animal friend.

Schneider nods to Mizuki anout ninjas not getting Light. "That seems reasonable," he observes. "Technically, I'm a Rune Knight, but ... who knows what that even means?" He -is- a hybrid caster, with backup fighting skills, though nothing to write home about. And Rune Knights don't get Dark, but Schneider's famous for it.

He nods to Uta, says, "I think maybe we /were/ simplified. But I can't say for sure because this is the only game I'd played, ever." So, not the previous version or the beta or anything.

At the mention of senses, he can only shrug. "I can use magic to improve my senses, but nornally they're normal."

"Oh, that!", Uta replies to Mizuki with a dismissive flick of her hand, as if not thinking much of it. "Nah, I'm cool. In fact, your response was an eye-opener. I wasn't the only incompetent newbie who messed up and needed to hide away, I was a proud member of a multitudinous group of newbies who collectively messed up, so I didn't need to learn to hide my failures." She shrugs. "Seriously, Mizuki, you were right. There's no secret cabal of secret lineages passing things on through generations or anything of the like. One just has to be themselves and they'll be just fine."

To Schneider, "Then again -- Doctor Prophylaxis wrote a medical text, and that one seems to imply we are anatomically complete." And Uta nods to Mizuki again. "And here's the Cosmosphere thing. I was never involved in anything that exposed it myself, but I've heard a couple of stories. Sounds like nasty stuff."

And finally to Shiruba, "Interesting item. Have you made that one yourself? I was considering some sort of slime-cam myself... maybe we can exchange tips, where by 'exchange' I actually mean you teach me how you did it?"

    Mizuki's eyes widen again, with an expression on her face like Uta's given her bad news. She speaks softly, "I... uh... uh... y-you were there... y-you heard me... I... I'm not so sure I messed up..."

Shiruba shakes her head with a laugh. "Adventurers can't make Relics Uta!" At least not yet, though some people's unique gear comes close if you ask here. "No, my Peko found it in the wilderness and brought it to me. We... kinda found out what it does by accident when I tried blowing it like a normal whistle as a training aid. Ahehehe." She shrugs. "Another example of trial and error, I guess?"

She has no idea what is going on with the other conversation, she's only caught pieces of it. "... Do you want me to go retrieve your Grunty for you?"

Schneider arches a brow to Uta, and asks, "He did? I mean, I know he did, but I assumed it was all fluff because of magic solving everything and game mechanics?" Shows what he knows. "And normally, when you get hurt, you get, like, sprains and breaks and not wounds that emit light and cosmosphere warnings." He can only shrug. Mizuki's conversation, he missed an important bit of, and now he's just puzzled.

As far as Shiruba talking about making relics, he agrees, "That would be spectacular. But I have no clue how you would even start." One of the Power Paths, very likely. Maybe Hacker/

"Oh, I'm not saying you did," Uta hurries to reply to Mizuki. "In fact, uh, I might have been there, but I don't even remember if you did it on purpose or what. Irrelevant now. I just found plenty of other players who did futz up just like me, afterwards. So I dropped the whole line of inquiry and stopped worrying."

Uta turns to Shiruba, "Wait, it's a relic?" Uta attemtps an inspect of the item, to at least learn its name. "Have you had it Appraised? Schneider, here, is really good at that. He Appraised my Rohana Sphere for me," she says, as she materializes a purple glowing sphere roughly the size of a baseball ball, organic in appearance, from her inventory.

There is a moment of hesitation as she realizes she might have been rambling on a little too far, so she backpedals a little. "Uh, yes. Gwenty. We need her caught, or I'll have to pull my cart myself. Had to do it once. Great training. Let's never do it again."

To Schneider, again, "There is the Red Light, yes. That's exactly what's stopping access to internal organs. But my understanding is that the red light is /blocking/ access to the actual bones and organs, but the bones and organs are still there. Proph's book has discussions of indirect techniques for treating them when the Red Light makes access impossible."

    Mizuki blinks. Oh right, of course, Uta's memory. She holds a hand to the side of her head. "I mean, you were there in the Palace Lands, when..." She looks away awkwardly, not able to bring herself to finish the sentence.

    Her ears perk up and she looks between Shiruba and Uta. "Ah... r...relic? I have Appraisal, too..." She stares at the strange orb. "'Rohana Sphere'? What kind of a name is that...?"

"I -have- Appraisal," Shiruba points out, not really surprised the scatterbrained Spriggan wouldn't recall that at the moment. "It just.. you know, looks like a normal whistle. Like some kid might of lost playing. So I didn't think much of it until accidentally activating it. -Then- I looked more closely at it... and ... Ooooh." She gets distracted by Uta's presentation of an item, as it makes her Archeologist curiousity tingle. "And what does that one d--Oh, right, the Grunty!"

Shiruba turns on a heel and heads off in the direction her bird had seen the pig-cow wander off in. "I'll be right back!"

Schneider looks intrigue at Uta's mention of the Red Light. "So the Red Light is what's protecting us from being horribly and painfully mangled? Good to know." As to his appraisal skill, he attempts to look modest. It comes across as maybe slightly smug. But he /is/ a good Appraiser. Appraisalist? Who knows why?

As Shiruba heads off after the bird and Uta's grunty, he will look over Uta's item.

"Thanks, Shiruba! See you later!"

"It would seem so, Schneider...", Uta mumbles. "If you want to learn more, Prophylaxis is the one who made this discovery. If you ask him, he can probably tell you a lot about it."

Uta blinks at Mizuki. And pales. "How... how do you know about the Palace Lands?" Some hesitation later. "Oh, right. Maybe Doctor Prophylaxis told you. Or Merek." She sighs, and suddenly somber, "Yes, I was in the Palace Lands when I tried to figure out why the Babylon Signal got interrupted, and and had a vision... no, more like... flashes. Flashes of this guy in glasses, named Ovan apparently, based on what the Doctor told me, with red light tugging on his body, trying to pull him away. Firing upon something out of sight. The entire room looked technological, in a way that goes beyond what I've seen in any root towns... right before the red lines upon his body yank him through a portal, and the vision disappeared." She rubs her temple, and winces, "...and then my throat and fingers were sore for about a day. That wasn't a pleasant experience."

A blink, a shake of her head. "...but what does this have to do with anything?"

    "Huh, that's neat." Mizuki comments, reading the sphere's description. She looks back to Uta and... blinks, staring blankly as Uta goes pale. She doesn't actually speak, but as Uta starts the dramatic retelling her facial expression goes 'wait... wat'

    "That IS pretty concerning..." she pats Uta's shoulder what she hopes is comfortingly. "But I meant when... I realized... when I realized..." the words still won't come out. She looks away again. "You know, with the singing, and the, the, that I hate who I was outside I mean not *who* I was but how I looked, a-and... and you all ran off suddenly when I was..." She takes a couple of steps back, and looks down at her paws. Then hugs her arms to herself. "Ah... I'm... I'm sorry for troubling you. I didn't mean to bring it up. Err I mean I didn't mean to... never mind. What did... what would *you* like to talk about?"

Schneider peers thoyghtfully at Uta's relic, and about asking the Doc. That's his Alliance anyhow, so it'd be a simple matter to raise the topic. "I will ask him," he says. "Eventually." Well, because there is so much going on that's more important than this curiosity.

And Mizuki is getting girl-talk-y with Uta, so Schneider, who knows where he stands in that conversation, will wander off. "Got to take care of something," he says, and heads off.

A few minutes pass while the others dicuss and look over Relics. Then the tromping of Grunty feet can be heard and the beast trudges back to the small camp. Shiruba sitting on her back, holding a clump of foliage out over the beasts head to keep leading her ahead. "See, no more strange loud sounds to worry about." She drops the foliage into the waiting maw, and slides off it's back. "It's a good thing she wasn't hooked up to your wagon or you would of had more than a missing Grunty to worry about.!"

She walks back over to the group. "Now, can I see that sphere you were talking about Uta?"

Uta blinks. "...oh. That. Uh. Wait." She frowns. "So, uh-" Uta scratches her head. "So, uhm, no, actually, now you've got me confused. I..." A pause. "No, didn't look for a teacher. No, I didn't do much because... well... /you/ taught me not to worry and just be myself?" She scratches her head. "...maybe we need to discuss this in depth another time then. Sorry for... uh... having been so... ah... slow," she mumbles

"Indeed, Shiruba. And thanks for recovering Gwenty!", Uta says, patting the big animal, who seems much calmer now. "Here's the Sphere..."

Shiruba takes the sphere to look at for a moment. Followed by a low whistle. "That's quite the interesting find there.. Strange how these things keep turning up where people they'll be use to can find them.... Or they just got forgotten." She hands the Sphere back to Uta. "Just don't let any of your Slimes eat it." Though they probably cant digest something like that. Maybe?

Uta mumbled, "...I've tried feeding my relic to my slimes once already. It... did not end well. Never doing it again." She looks up and taps her chin. "But yes, yes, you have a point about odd coincidences..."

    Merek of course would come in on the tail of what was being said. He seems to be wearing his usual dark attire with the beltcape about the waist. The spiky ponytail of his, along with what looks like a waistchain. He seems to be crafting song music to himself while he takes the time to relax and look about the place.

Shiruba turns her attention as the others wander off... Hopefully Uta won't have any more Grunty issues... and notices Merek wandering by. "Hey Merek!" She waves, then turns to throw some dirt on what's left of the campfire with her Earth magic to make sure it's out. "You just missed Uta, if you were looking for her."

    Merek will take a look about the place, "Ah, what was Uta up to?" he asks, then he nods a little bit along to Shiruba. "I'm experimenting with the new relics, you know. It's been interesting to learn what all of them can do, what with three of them. Bith's Blessing, Harmonics, the Strap."

"Camping. Failing at cooking because she doesn't have Cooking. Wandering off again. Usual Uta." Shribua shrugs. "I had to wrangle her Grunty for her after it was startled by some noise." The Cait Sith tilts her head, ears perked curiously. "Okay, Harmonics is the one that helps you sing, I know that one. Bith's Blessing? 'The Strap'?"

    Merek will think about it a little bit, "Bith's Blessing is the blessing of the man from an ancient war, it brings me the power to use my healing and support magic in an entire town wide area of what I know," the man admits, then he nods. "The strap is what gives me Data Drain."

Shiruba oooOOOOooohs. "I did not realize your Group Heal was from a Relic. Thought it was just some obscure Alchemist power or something." Her noise crinkles a little at the mention of Data Drain. "Hopefully you've found ways to be less.. unintentionally intrusive with the drain ability. Something like that going off when you don't have control of it doing so is.... Uh..." She pauses, then rubs the side of her head with one hand. "Sorry, sorry. I know you don't mean to cause issues with such things Merek. Weird stuff just seems attracted to you."

    Merek nods a little bit to Shiruba, "I don't know. It does seem that is the way," he will admit. "I know that the powers are all useful, and pretty dangerous. Data Drain perhaps the most, though all of them seem to be able to really... Well, affect a lot of people. I need to be able to fight the things that we all deal with."

Shiruba flips the blue colored whistle in her hand. "Though I can kinda get how that feels for you. This whistle allows me to synchronize with the senses of one of an animal companion." She nods briefly to the falcon perched in one of the trees watching them. "It was... disorienting the first time and I didn't know it'd do that. Though probably not as invasive." She shrugs a little. "Just.. be careful. We don't want you doing worse to yourself, helping as the power may be."

    Merek looks then to Shiruba, as well as to that relic, "I think that a lot of these things seem to be made by people that are well beyond our understanding. I know that the man that gave me the blessing was from ancient times. I know that the Data Drain is from the Blind Goddess. You might want to look into where the whistle came from. Think that it would be better if we know where the power comes from."

"Yeah... strange that people seem to find them when they can really use them." Shiruba tucks the whistle away. Taps the object strapped to her left wrist. "Our mechanical friend gave me this one, to replace the previous one I gave her to repair some of her systems. It's some kind of elaborate scanner... but I know more about using it than I do -what- it is. It's likely from that ancient war her kind ... fought in." She almost said 'weaponized' but quickly corrected herself.

    "That is probably the war that Bith fought in," Merek will note to Shiruba, while he thinks about it. "I don't know what to think about that war," the man admits.

"Welp, what's life without mysteries to explore right?" Shiruba mmms.. "I mean, it would be nice to know more, but just knowing everything off the start would make being an explorer... pointless? Less interesting... Uh." Her tail twitchs a few times. "I can't quite come up with a proper phrase for it... As annoying as the lack of solid information on certain aspects of this world are, there is a certain amount of satisfaction in learning them ourselves rather than simply being told." She tilts her head towards Merek. "Does that make sense?"

    "Ya, it makes sense. Though, you're beginning to really sound like the Bandit King. I already know that much anyway, I apologize. It still is worth it to go looking for things," Merek will admit, while he nods a bit.

"Nani?" Shiruba peers at the man, her tail flicking again. "How am I sounding like him?" Pause. "I mean, I don't have direct interaction with him like others, so I'm not getting the comparison."

    "He thinks that Adventurers need to learn things while on their own," Merek will note to Shriuba, "Which also seems to be the will of the gods."

Shiruba aaaahs, and nods his head. "Well I agree with them both then. At least for me, I understand better what I learn for myself. That's why I was out here in the first place when I came across Uta's camp." She makes a sharp whistling call as she holds out her arm, and that falcon that's been watching them launchs from its perch to circle around once and then come down to land on her arm. Of course she's wearing heavy leather gloves to not get all scratched up by the raptoral talons. "The only way I'm going to learn to best use the animal handling skills I've trained is to keep training, after all."

    Merek will nod a little along to Shiruba, while he takes the time to stand up. "Well, anyway. I need to be on my way to do a few things, you take care," he offers. "Was nice talking to you!" The man then will place both hands to his pockets while he walks along with a wave.

"See you later, Merek, take care." Shiruba waves, then turns her attention back to the bird on her arm. "Another round around the woods before we head back?" The falcon krees in return.