To talk of slimes and things.

    The tower was abuzz with life, new factory up on the fifth, new refugees from Eas , so many things happening. So of course where is the Scale Emblem Necromancer? Helping with the refugees, nope. Excersising on floor nine, not as long as Yuuki finds out. In fact he is hidden in the clinic taking a nap, hoping that no one throws him out of examine room one. The only sign he is there is of course a trail of cerberus fur, for the poor thing is starting to shed. Fortunately as far as he was concerned that fur is completely hypoallergenic and has no sanitation issues what so ever.

"Examination room one... examination room one..." Uta repeats to herself as she crosses the threshold into the room while flicking through some papers on a clipboard. Today she is not decked in her usual martial-arts-gi hybrid, but in a full nurse uniform (with appropriate concessions to the MMORPG aesthetic), identical to the one all the other Spriggan nurses working at the clinic wear.

"It seems like the patient is slated for- Hm."

She looks down at the person occupying the bed. Back to her records. Back to the person on the bed.

Finally, with a sigh, she drones, "Setsuna, I have to either politely, yet firmly, ask you what you are doing in Examination Room One, or congratulate you on your imminent motherhood. Which one shall it be?"

    The cerberus looks up from their nap and gives a sneeze of greeting before laying back down. Meanwhile Setsuna opens one eye and looks up at Uta, " If I answer the second one can I have five more minutes? " There is that grin as closes his eye for another moment. " The new mother is in room two , I put her there myself , after introducing myself as Doctor Prophylaxis. " Taking a moment to yawn again he looks around, " You are aware this is not the slime lab right ? What are you doing here? "

Uta looks is as neutral and deadpan as it gets. Setsuna himself has probably never seen Uta so qualified to play poker since starting his career under her.

The Nurse finally sighs, and moves to sit on th bed Setsuna is sleeping in. Her shoulders droop, her head hangs, and her whole body is limp. "Rylen and I are organizing an evacuation of the Peko Ranch." She turns to look at Setsuna, with pain in her eyes. "The pekos are very mobile. The laboratory isn't." Silence. She turns to look at her hands, fingers interwined between her knees. "The slimes and whatever fits in my inventory is all we'll be able to salvage." More silence. Her voice lowers even further, in both volume and pitch. "It goes without saying that we will not be able to stay open for business."

    Setsuna watches Uta as she deadpans at his attempt for humor. There is a moment of silence as he moves his legs so Uta can sit and then listens as she unloads everything. He simply listens and then speaks up, " I mean even if that was to happen the slime lab can be rebuilt, we can start over if we need. " There is a solemn sound to his voice as he understand the situation for a moment, " I mean it's a shame the slime lab isn't here in the tower like the monster menagerie it would be much safer and unlikely to be attacked. " He says as he looks at the floor trying to come to terms with what Uta said.

"Well, yes, that's the next thing I was going to speak about," Uta continues, still looking down, her knees closing onto the back of her clasped hands. "I've heard you have some sort of responsibility role in the Monster Menagerie, and I need somewhere to host the slimes for the time being..."

Silence. A pause.

She raises her head, inhales, flicks her menu open and navigates through it. "I am not asking you to hold the slimes for free! I would of course work to pay for the lodging and care of the slimes. Work for it. We're both in the business, we know how these things work!"

She finally jabs the last entry in the menu, and a neatly written sheet of paper materializes in her hands. She stands up, turns to face Setsuna, and with a bow, she offers the document with both hands. "My resume. I would be honoured if you accepted me as an intern for the Monster Menagerie."

    Setsuna stands and takes the paper and scratches his forehead, even lets out another yawn. His legs ache and he can really feel the pain of all the running as he winces a little, probably going to need new shoes soon too. Finally he focuses on the document infront of him as much as he does before he crumbles it up and tosses it over his shoulder. " The Tolbana Monster Menagerie officially accepts the merging with the Slime lab, to become partners and to allow the monster menagerie to be used to store and act as a warehouse for slimes that can not be currently housed at the slime lab. After the merging of the two the responsibilities will be shared between the slime lab and the menagerie to manage both sides until such time of course if and when the partnership is dissolved. " He takes a deep breath and finishes it up, " I am glad to have the slime lab as a partner to the monster menagerie.Assuming the owner of the slime lab is accepting of these terms, otherwise I will just need to hire the new vet infront of me instead. " It appears Setsuna isn't going to let Uta be just a lowly intern no matter what Uta says.

Uta stands there in shock for a few seconds.

Perhaps it's Setsuna's response hitting her. Or perhaps it's just her brain still trying to catch up with what Setsuna just said. At times it is hard to tell.

The few blinks at the end don't resolve the ambiguity either way.

"Oh. Uh. I..."

Some hesitation."...I suppose I can accept those terms. It will be a great joint venture," she says, apparently still reeling at the most recent development.

"...It will be a heavily downsized Slime Labs," Uta mumbles. "I had to lay off my best intern due to lack of funds, and our whole management resigned as soon as they caught wind of what was going to happen. Now Potpourri's got a job... I don't know, guarding cheese or something." She makes a flicking gesture with her hand. "Cashed in on the stock options and ran." She frowns, hard. "We don't even -have- stock options. I still can't get how that rodent did it."

Uta finally blinks and turns to Setsuna. "Who's the new vet in front of you?"

    Setsuna watches Uta for a response waiting to see what she has to say on the matter and then smiles at the acceptance. " Good that is all worked and don't worry about the downsizing, you might think you have lost people but as a merger you gain all the employees of the Tolbana Monster Menagerie to be able to help with the slime lab. This way you may have lost a rat but you have gained a level 3 monster management team. " Sitting back down he gestures at Uta, " And of course Doctor Uta is are new Veterinarian Physician. A grade A+ boon for the slime lab if I say so myself. " Taking another moment to breath he wonders if the coffee is still warm over at the tavern before adding, " Which she should start brushing up on wyvern physiology as one of those crazy scale people met a real life rider of londonia. "

Uta's expression grows increasingly stunned at each turn of phrase from Setsuna. After the mention of "Doctor Uta", she uses the first available pause in the discussion to stutter "N-Nurse Uta..." as a correction.

That is, until Setsuna mentions having met a live Wyvern Rider of Londonia in the flesh. At that point she jumps up and her instinct is to move to grab Setsuna by whatever is closest to a lapel in his tunic, and push her own face almost onto his. Not in a threatening manner, mind you, more like in shocked surprise and excitement.

"YOU HAVE MET A REAL LIFE WYVERN RIDER OF LONDONIA?! HOW?! WHERE?! H-"

She pauses and blinks, looking away. If she has managed to grab Setsuna, she'll remove one hand to tap her lips in thought. "Wait, does this level of reality count as 'real life', or..."

    Setsuna is about to correct the correction as his shirt is grabbed and is pulled in to her and well lets just say he to is shocked his mind jumping to conclusions on what is about to happen. It's been like a good decade since any female has grabbed his shirt like that and pulled, well you get the idea. Finally the question is asked and then the grip is loosened and Setsuna has a moment to think. " ... Um ... not me. Kita. She met this one out around Ezzo, named Alice. The rider said they were from the east and I filled int he other gaps. Kita is currently artisticly examining the book and is also giving us a Kita rendering of the woman. Of course she came with words of doom and gloom but at the end of the day, the important thing is, somewhere out are ridable Wyverns. Cosmosphere damage be damne."

Uta releases Setsuna completely. "Okay, okay, so, so, okay. So... okay!" She rubs her temples a few times, trying to steady her thought process. She begins to pace around the room, in circles; during her brisk walk, she leans forward, one hand behind her back, and rubs her chin with the other. "Kita examining it. That's good. It might be interesting to have someone with the proper skill appraise it. I'd also like to have a Loremastering look at that tome. And possibly try and deduce some of the events associated with it. Like, we should get close to the library it was taken from, and try and learn about its arrival into that library, and its leaving that library. Possibly head to-" She stops, and grumbles. "The place I received it at is under evacuation. Learning of its arrival there might not be worth the risk."

"And... uh... what's that about the words of doom and gloom, and Cosmosphere damage?"

    Setsuna shakes his head, " I think you are wrong on the source of this book being under evacuation." Looking up at the roof and slightly off to the north he then points in the direction, " I think it came from 3 floors up and that way in a general direction. From a library on the fourth floor. The library of Roswaal L Mathers , taken by Subaru Natsuki." Taking another moment he does his best to recall what it is that was the whole doomed prophecy, "Something about working for Ansul and some black creatures are coming and beware the dark territory and oh yeah don't leave our borders. I think she was a bit late in her warning on that last one."

"No, no, not the source. The final destination," Uta corrects. "The part where -I- received it. The Library in Eas. That's the part that's not worth looking into." She resumes her circular pacing. "And the source, the Mathers Library, is likely to be just one of the stops of this book's journey, unless the book has been crafted in that library." She stops and turns to Setsuna. "It must have come from somewhere, somehow, right? It might be interesting to learn about the circumstances of its acquisition."

"I have no idea of who this 'Ansul' is. And, eh, 'black creatures' is a bit vague. I can think of at least, like, three of them. Most of them slimes, to be fair, but."

Uta sighs, and rubs the bridge of her nose. "Yes, yes. That is a bit late. The cat is out of the bottle, and now we can't put the genie back into the tube of toothpaste. We'll have to wing it from where on. Oh, which reminds me."

She flicks her menu open, and after shimmering it into existence, she hands Setsuna a docket marked "Aincrad Tower Research Files", with a note, held in place by a paperclip, which reads 'Setsuna, don't read this!'

"There is no slime labs to leave it lying around, so I'm giving this to you. Find a place to leave it lying around, and make sure it's a place you can't get to."

    Setsuna nods his head as he takes the files, " Of course of course I think the good doctor hasn't changed the lock for the office yet. I swear you let your quacker slime run loose in there for one hour and he is goes all Fred Flintstones on you. " Setting the file down beside him he then looks at Uta, " The slime lab will be fine. We are going to wipe the floor with the idiots coming over here and then we will put it all back to normal. " As for the library in Eas we can go there right now and do this. THe landers and such may have been evacuated but I suspect we are not held to the same laws. " Oh no Setsuna is thinking he is above laws and decrees, what else is new."

"I don't think the information we'll gather would be worth the time and price of a journey there specifically for this purpose," Uta dismisses with a flick of her hand. "The description of the event will probably be a simple 'Subaru Natsuki brought the book there and left it as an anonymous gift' or something as obvious we already know." She gestures in the general direction of the file. "By the way, the file as it stands now doesn't have much more than you already got when I asked Schneider to appraise the tower. My attempt at basic-Loremastering the tower brought up a simple 'Aincrad Tower, standing in the place of the former Crystal Tower'. But I used to have a Relic which mentioned an event called the 'Crystal Tower Rebellion', so I plan to look into that as soon as I have a couple days off." She grimaces and rubs her temples. "Just in case I get another headache. Don't want to suddenly fall sick and leave the clinic understaffed."

Uta walks towards a window of the examination room, keeps both hands behind her back, and looks out. "Of course, this information I'm sharing is meant just for you and the Doctor. Don't share anything of this with the rest of your alliance at large without the permission of the Doctor... or whoever your leader is. Especially the crack theory I've formed based on this information, and which I'd like to share with you. If people start doubting your Mission, chaos and anarchy might ensue, and the last thing we need now is chaos and anarchy, based on mere speculation without any solid base in fact, in an alliance as large as Scale, especially since you guys might be our only hope to get back to reality."

    Setsuna nods his head as listens to what the nurse has to say and has to admit it all sounds reasonable. " You are probably right, but the rebellion sounds interesting. I would guess that such a thing is likely to be interesting. I would go ask Gilgamesh but he hasn't been taking visitors at least adventurer visitors as of late. " There is a hint of concern in his voice as he contemplates the rebellion, " You know , maybe, one time during that memory festival, when we went up to an alv observatory and then Merek blew it up. Yeah we saw record of a tower, I wonder if that was the crystal tower. It looked just like this tower, so maybe someone just renamed the tower. " Sighs heavily, " So many questions. " Taking another moment to look at the papers and nods head, " Yeah who knows the doctor might not even see the contents if after I read them they are potentially destructive for the alliance. It's a long way between here and his office across the hall. I could fall and Demon over there could sneeze and suddenly the papers could ignite into flames. Accidents happen. "

"As I've said -- up to now, it's pretty much all stuff you guys know. The juicy stuff I haven't written down. Because I definitely don't want -my- alliance to know. Ok, to be fair, I'd be fine with Crescent Moon knowing. But I get this vibe that the other guilds, or at least some of their highest-profile members, think that Scale climbing the Tower is wrong. I don't think that." She rubs her chin, then turns and raises one finger. "...but I'm starting to suspect that Scale might be climbing the wrong tower."

Without waiting, she starts pacing at once, brow knit, both hands held parallel, vertical, as if holding an invisible box. "Follow me here. Let's say that we can trust The hologram Man we in Yamato saw at each new year. He told us to climb the tower(s), but, pay attention here, he never mentioned -Aincrad- explicitly. Just -towers-. That looked like a recording. What if Aincrad wasn't around when he recorded that message? What if the tower we in Yamato were supposed to climb was the Crystal Tower, and Aincrad is but one huge red herring or, worse, a Bait and Switch operation?"

She levels her gaze at Setsuna. "I think that at least the Doctor should be made aware of this theory. If nothing else, it's because the information is all there for everyone in your alliance to come up with this theory independently. And while I'm all for finding the truth, I am not a fan of runaway -unconfirmed- theories wrecking chaos."

    Setsuna blinks and considers this for a moment, " Wait what?" Taking a moment he considers this even more and the anxiety and fidgeting is obvious. Finaly a few deep breaths later he asks, " Ok but the crystal tower is gone right, missing, destroyed ,whatever, so then what. " Yes this was the chaos and panic that Uta was warning about it appaers. as he is not sure what to make of this before he takes a deep breath again and closes his eyes. " Right I will talk to the doctor about the theory too. Its probably for the best I don't say anything but to him. "

Uta raises a finger. "We technically don't know whether or not the Crystal Tower got destroyed. Or... even -missing-. We just know that Aincrad is where the Crystal Tower 'once was'. As far as we know, it might also have been moved elsewhere, like, I don't know, pushed underground and recycled as the sewers of Alne?", she shrugs, with the attitude of someone who obviously said something absurd to mean that anything is possible.

She begins to walk around the room, once again, but this time far more slowly. "The point is - as you say, 'then what? We know far too little. We swim in an ocean of information and misinformation. Remember, the Scrapped Princess War started with a Lie. The Lander-Adventurer war in the Palace Lands started with a Lie. If we wait until we know The Truth with absolute certainty before acting at all, we are going to be paralyzed. We need to do something -now-. Maybe not the best thing, but -something-." She sighs. "Occam's Razor is our best bet for the time being. There's still plenty of floors and monsters in Aincrad to last us years. If my theory, as I hope, is just pareidolia, then it is vital to keep pushing. But I think it is also important that we cooperate in ascertaining the truth for the good of everyone." She returns at the window, where she faces the frame, but tilts her head downward. "It's a pity that there's so much polarization against the climb on a matter of principle among the other two Alliances. My normal approach to such things is gathering a group of people from across all alliances, but if I were to share this theory openly..." She makes vague gestures, then lets her hand drop.

    "Right then everything goes to hell and now everyone has more reason to say stop. " Setsuna takes a moment to remember his ten steps and wishes he had a cup of tea before something clicks. " The sewers of Alne..." Setsuna starts and trails off, " During the fifth wave I ended up down there and they were pretty intricate and I got an idea that it was much bigger then it should have been but then again I was fighting horrible antimatter slimes. Also who is to say that we don't have a basement in the tower or something, things that haven't been explored. Yes I think I will propose to the doctor to look around the tower but instead of going up, going down." Taking another moment or two he is already trying to figure out who is the best person to map the sewers.

Uta suddenly goes serious.

Very serious.

Very, very, very serious.

"Ok, hear me out here. There's this thing, see. I was readying another one of my multi-alliance projects. I prefer not to disclose the details until I'm ready, but I might get a bunch of people, possibly skilled in cartography, to nose around underground Alne. AS it was conceived, it was completely unrelated to this whole story, but I suppose that if your alliance sends a bunch of people to help, well, I cannot know whether or not they are also performing some recon work on the side..."

She shrugs with the worst innocent-looking grin possible.

"...unless you accidentally leave a dossier on the sewers of Alne lying around, with a 'Don't Show to Uta' note pinned to it. Such accidents might happen now that we have a joint venture."

    Setsuna contemplates the situation and nods his head, "You may not find that dossier in the sewer but they do seem to pop up in weird places. " Looking over at the door he then looks back at Uta, " I believe you should clock out and then we should get to work. We have a LOT of work to do and so little time. Please keep me in the loop on that sewer project and I will get together cartographers to go down with you if and when I can. Also we can start moving slime lab resources into the menagerie. I will start going over there and start making room. "

Uta nods. "Thanks. I will clock out-" She navigates through her menu, and shimmers her clipboard back into existence. She leafs through it, and finishes with, "-as soon as I've checked the soon-to-be mother in Examination Room-" She crosses the paper out with a pencil, then begins to scribble. "...two. I will also have to discuss with her that she has not actually seen Doctor Prophylaxis, but someone with a very similar name. Dexter Prof. Hylaxis or something. And that he was just relaying Nurse Uta's instruction to move to a different room, because-" She looks around at the loose Cerberus fur. "-Examination Room 1 was not sanitized in time after visiting the previous patient. I have objective proof of that," she smirks.

With a brisk pace and renewed energy, she leaves the room. "See you later!"