A bun, a mood, a shield: Alne

A tall albino girl is dressed in a pair of purple shorts, a mostly white chest wrap, and sandals. She is standing by the statue of the Burning One. The tall woman has several crystals laid out in an array on the ground, she's carved several of them with intricate designs.

    Most of the hard work is done on Fukaziroh's project, one that she desperately wants to conclude successfully. Not because she's tired of her current obsession with the work.. she loves every moment of it. She wouldn't be filthy and exhausted and half-starved if she didn't love the work so much that she literally forgets everything else. No, if it were just for herself, Fuka would be working away perfectly content wherever Baroness Wake stashed her.

    The work continues, and it's hit a bit of a snag. Oh her prototype is built and it functions well enough, storing water mana and using it to provide ice-cold temperatures to the enclosure. She has to tweak that yet, and ensure proper insulation and a handful of other details... but first, she has to solve an urgent problem. The mana battery. It's resisting her efforts to make something efficient enough to be useful while being inexpensive enough to be produced in effective quantities. Simple crystal shards store too little power. Elemental cores work fine, but adventurers would need to fight for weeks or months to get enough, and there's a war threatening. No, Fuka needs to seek another solution, so she comes here to Alne. Where, so she hears, the answer to her problem may lie.

    "I'm looking for someone named Wisteria." Fuka demands of one Landsman. Failing to see comprehension in his eyes quickly enough for her purposes she spins and turns to another. "An Enchantress. A really good one. Famous!" she insists. A little loudly. "Does anyone here know where I can find the Enchantress Wisteria?" she asks in exasperation.

    Wisteria tips her head, and shifts, suddenly a giant bunny woman... well giant for Yamoto she's over six fee not counting her ears. She twists an ear, the long fluffy ear is much better at catching random sounds. "Ooh I'm not an Enchantress, I'm a Shadow." she says as she picks up a crystal and pulls out a small metal tool sliding the cutting edge along one of the designs in the crystal.

    The tall bunny woman continues to scrape and carve at the crystal. She looks closer and turns the crystal, looking through it, then starting to carve a new line on an anterior facet.

    You'd think Fuka would have spotted a giant white bunny woman in the marketplace. Well, judging by her expression when she whirls to see who addresses her, she'd certainly think so. She takes in the self-designated 'Shadow', brain whirling in that fever pitch that seems to be her usual state these days. "Oh hey you must be Wisteria!" she exclaims cheerfully.

    Yeah, Fuka's brain moves fast. So does her mouth. Sometimes it says things not exactly profound. But she's found who she's looking for, so who cares about things like blurting out the obvious!

    Poor little Sylph. At least a foot shorter than the bun bun, looking up at her, and actually looking super travelworn, exhausted, if not outright filthy. And yet her eyes burn with a certain intensity. "I need your help. I'm working on something SUPER important and I think only you can make this work properly!" she insists, stalking up to put her face right in Wist's. Well, as close as she can manage given the difference in height. Face in Wisteria's chest is probably somewhat more accurate.

    Wisteria nods her head still carving "OOh I know what you mean, I'm working on something vital myself. You see, crystal matrix enchanting simply isn't efficent enough." she nods "You can make a pretty dense elmental core with alchemy, and then put it into a circutry setup to allow for multiple crystal drain into a particular enchantment, but then when you start scaling up any bigger than a castle things really start to fall apart." she shakes her head "But this little old Sylph man, he's a total sensei, he showed me this toy and it was a super cool grasshopper and old man moment." she nods her head "It was really cool but the important thing is that I learned about another way to use the crystals and enchanting see... you don't put the crystal in the circut you put the circut in the crystal then you don't have to have sensory array to trigger your curses instead the crystal IS the sensory array, and then you get away from any loss of power going through different materials causes so your MP efficency goes way way up." she grins, her mouth full of jagged triangular teeth set in rows much like a shark.

    Fukaziroh is no slouch herself when it comes to enchanting, and no stranger to someone nerding out over their personal interest. Normally she's quite fond of such things, prone to letting someone nerd out endlessly on their obsession. But today she's focussed on important things. On ice cream! No, not on ice cream. On vital food and medical preservation tools and techniques!!!

    She does actually manage to follow along somewhat with what Wisteria says, though the sheer scope of it is beyond her. Bigger than a castle? What could you enchant that would need that? City walls? Actually... yes, probably that. Or possibly city defense cannons! Useful and fascinating both!

    Patience isn't exactly Fuka's strongest trait. Though still inclined to let geeks be geeks, Fuka's on a schedule. She sighs, and puts her hands up, reaching to Wist's shoulders and hopefully bringing the two of them directly face-to-face, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she's staring almost straight into a mouth full of teeth on a being people have said is temperamental and potentially violent. "Look." she says, as patiently as she can under the circumstances. "I understand, and I'd love to hear all about it." she adds. And in fact she's quite sincere. "But I need your help, or at least advice. My project needs to store a charge of mana, and I understand you've learned a way to create crystals that do this efficiently. So tell me you can help, and then I'll take you somewhere we can get some food, and you can tell me all about your project. Deal?" she grins.

    Oh yeah, Fuka kind of smells. Bad. Probably all the travelling... and the fey mood.

    Wisteria blinks her red eyes and tips her head "You know... you... need a bath." she hasn't really been in her own mood long enough to get...TOO dirty but she hasn't washed in a while herself, but fur hides many sins. She twists her muzzle to the side in an odd way. "Well I mean I was talking about it. You can work it with circuts it helps you make less efficent crystals do more work and lets you charge them." she says "Like I did on the castle." she says and points at the SEA headquarters. "Go ahead and attack it... well don't... I mean it's a terrible idea unless you wana be cursed, but the point is that it worked and the castle is covered."

    The bun is suddenly a slightly less tall albino girl and steps out of Fuka's hands. "See, come this way." she says walking off and leaving several carved crystals the landers avoid for fear of their lives as she heads into the gate house and leads the way up into what looks like an enchanting and alchemy lab that has somehow eaten the guard house.

    "You put a circuit..." Fuka pauses, as the idea begins to sink in. "IN the crystal? So the crystal becomes more efficient? THAT'S BRILLIANT!" she insists. She has a moment of shame as Wist mentions her need of a bath. "I bathed recently." she mumbles. Couldn't have been more than a night or two ago right? Or at least, a sleep or two. When was the last time she slept anyways? Nah, not important. Food though, food is important! Or at least more pressing.

    Fuka blinks as Wist morphs. She's not unused to Werefangs, but most of them don't transition quite so casually. "It's important." she murmurs, her mind caught in a bit of a rut, but she follows gamely. "Especially with what's coming our way. But... I'm going to offer it to you guys too. Maybe you'd be willing to share some defensive enchantments too, and I could use them on Shibuya and maybe Eas..." though to be sure, she doesn't think they have the resources to pull off a castle-sized enchantment array, not in the middle of war preparations. Maybe it's something she can talk to the various leaders about.

    Wisteria shrugs "I'm putting circuts in the crystals it's what I'm working on... it's what genius old man showed me." she says "But I was already working on circuts see." she says pointing out a crystal on a plate, the plate has smaller crystals and lots of intricate engraving, then what look to be bare wires run along the wall to another plate with a crystal surrounded by crystals and engravings. "But see if you just make an elemental crystal with alchemy, you can then engrave the enchantment and set all the points where it needs MP with a clasp." she taps each peice with a small metal pointer. Where did she get a pointer? Is she holding classes... she might actually be holding classes. "You get the elemental power, and you just need someone to charge it now and then. More the bigger your spell." she says as she points out each part of it, and her alchemy setup for making crystals.

    Aha! It's the mana crystal research that Fuka had heard about. She studies the pieces in fascination, her brain whirling so fast it's a wonder she doesn't fall over. Yes, she can do this! And she's not bad at alchemy either, though it's not something she's practiced much. More importantly, it's something she can outsource. A relatively inexpensive process compared to the heart of her personal project.

    "I was right to take the time to come here!" insists Fuka cheerfully. "Was going to be way too expensive the other way. Elemental cores too expensive. Shards too hard to collect in a short time. Alchemy... yes. That should work nicely! Not cheap, but affordable! And YES exactly! Someone charges it, and then BANG there you go!"

    She pauses, looking around. "Well hopefully not actual bang. That's bad. But you charge the crystal, and it empowers the array. Maybe days, maybe weeks depending on how you tune the circuits for your need. And soon ICE CREAM EVERYWHERE!"

    Fuka pauses, shakes her head. "I mean, preserved food. Extended and better storage in wartime. Medicines. Transportation and preservation even to an extended battle line. Ice cream is a side benefit which can already be created, but not transported." she explains.

    Wisteria blinks "Well..." the albino girl shrugs a little "I mean I like icecream." she says as she goes to her workbench and starts to show how to make a crystal, it's easy... gather elemental crystals... smash them into powder ... well little bits anyway. Then that goes into an elemental solution that then grows a crystal with elemental atunement. "Then you can put MP in it and it turns into whatever you're crystal is." she says pointing out how it works then handing Fuka a dark crystal "See if you just put MP in it... when you take it out it'll be dark, and then you can fuel curses with it, curses that will bind your foes, and blind their eyes, and burn their souls and cripple them as your forces pour forth from the gates to smite them down in epic combat to rival the Tokugau shogonate! Yes see them driven before you and cut down like rice in the field until you have koku of them stacked to the rafters!" she cackles in a way one might call.. mad... or at least concerning.

    Who doesn't like ice cream? Only madmen. Fuka nodnods, though she's slightly confused. Not at the explanations; they're quite straightforward, at least when you have studied like Fuka has. Wist is a good teacher... and Fuka's a surprisingly studious student to those who only know her carefree personality.

    She channels dark mana, though it's not her specialty. She's as good at Dark magic as she is water however, and that's her end goal. This, however, means that a generic mana crystal can be turned into water crystals, which will then be efficient enough to hopefully make the entire project worthwhile!

    "Or maybe NOT curses." Fuka observes, casting a dubious sidewise glance at the cackling bungirl. "Maybe it'll freeze a container for days? Or weeks if you just need it cooled a little?" she adds uncertainly. Of course you also need the constructed array that governs temperature, and a sealable insulated compartment, but Fuka's already done all that. She may have to redesign somewhat to account for these new crystals, but that's not going to be hard, right?

    Wisteria tips herhead to one side "Uhm... well I guess youcould fuel something other than a curse I mean you'd just have to build the enchantment for it and then channel the elemental magic into it." she says like it's obvious and like she wasn't just cackling like a mad bun since well... he almost never remembers that she cackles when she's in a mood. "So want dinner and a bath?" she asks as she starts packing away her elemental crystal creation kit. "I need to see if carving the circuts is easier in the bath."

    Fuka flaps her hand airily, dismissing the concern. "I already have the enchantment for it." she notes. "It just needs a better power supply, and maybe some tweaking once I finish the prototype and can test its efficiency." It's pretty obvious, yes, and Fuka's rather glad Wist stopped cackling. So yay for obvious, maybe?

    As for the offer, Fuka's about to dismiss it before she guiltily remembers that she doesn't like to be filthy and starved and exhausted. Not normally. "That'd be nice. I'm buying dinner." she asserts. Sharing food is her thing really! "But why would it be easier... oh wait. We need WATER CUTTERS!" she says enthusiastically. Doesn't water cut through like diamonds and stuff? That'd be great for etching!

    Wisteria shrugs "I like baths and I'm gona be cutting crystals anyway so I might as well try cutting in the bath see? I'll also try them after flaming them, and freezing them... I did a lot of experiments with leaving them in the sun and shade and burrying them when I was working out the alchemical crystal replacements." she says with a giggle, she doesn't seem to mind at all that the 'ideas' she has are 90% garbage she has them and then she does them then meticulously records her notes and works on winnowing out the bad from the good ideas. Most of that work gets done after her mood ends, but she's right at the begining when all the wierd and stupid tests get done.

    Fuka nods enthusiastically at that. "Baths are WONDERFUL!" she insists boldly, and ironically considering her current state. Well, she's not entirely herself right now. Wist's been through this before no doubt, and understands where Fuka's coming from. What's important are those beliefs and feelings that shine through even when everything else is dim, right?

    Then again, Fuka loves food too, especially sweets... and she's currently half-starved. So yeah. "Bath first then?" she offers. Nope, nothing weird about that. It's a shared part of their culture, probably.

    Wisteria grins shifting again into big bunny woman "It's a long walk." she says "Did you bring your Peko?" she asks even as she's heading down stairs "And why do one then the other? OR why wait to do one then the other." she says "It's a ride to Carmina Gadelica, so we can eat on the way." she says pulling a raw piece of... some meat... a quick inspect identifies it as tasty rat... still raw not cooked it seems. She takes a big bite and offers some of the hunk of raw rat over. "MMmm we can eat an ride, or pick upfood on the way and eat in the bathhouse, they never tell me I can't." she says... then what lander is goign to tell a carniverous bun woman who eats raw meat she can't eat in the bath if she wants?

    Fuka's a messenger. Of course she has a peko! She follows along with the big bun woman, taking the transformation more in stride this time. The meat, however, she doesn't accept quite so casually. She pauses, holding a hunk of raw meat, studying it. She could always just set it on fire right? Wait, no cooking skill. That doesn't work, not ever. So she just pockets it, tucking it away in her inventory. She'll snag something from a street-meat vendor along the way. Something COOKED. She may be considered crazy by some, but she's not that crazy. The only raw meat she's going to consume is sushi prepared by someone like Hifumi, not a hunk of... tasty rat. Not unless it's in a bento. "That works." she agrees, apparently not at all intimidated by the carnivorous bun woman. A little weirded out, sure. But not intimidated!

    Wisteria leads the way to the bathhouse and spends way too much time in the hot water, hanging out and chatting about enchating, going on rants about curses, carving her crystal and getting distracted, until at some point in the night the landers throw the crazy ladies out.

    Fuka for her part seems to be quite enjoying the time spent learning about enchanting, splashing about, eating, experimenting with mana, ranting about anything that hits her mind - and that's just about anything - and frequently amused at Wist being a complete geeky nerd. And an intimidating murderbunny, but mostly a big nerd.