Scene #5875: Non-Philosophical Musings at the Bar and Grill

Owner	Pose
Lemeza Kosugi	There's a bit of an odd sight at the main bar. A well-fedoraed archaeologist has his head on the counter, bowl of curry to his left and a bowl of sake to his right. As he hears others come in, he simply lets out, "Please leave the philosophy at the door... my head hurts." Lemeza's clearly had better days.
Septette Arcubielle	Septette sits down on the stool next to Lemeza's in that peculiar half-standing posture she so frequently employs, designed to keep the furniture from breaking under her weight. She orders a bottle of something dark and starry, like the night sky deliquesced and decanted, and some wriggly raw tentacles in a wooden bowl with dark vinegar. "What do you mean, your head hurts? What is the 'you' experiencing that? It can't be the conscious eidolon, or ghost, or whatever you ascribe it to. Those words were already perceptible in your neural activity before you became consciously aware of them." Then she slurps a tentacle like a noodle in the most irritating manner conceivable.
Lemeza Kosugi	"AUUUUUUUUUUUGH." Oof, that was rather loud and /right next to his radio/. "I AM PRETTY SURE THAT ONE WAS REAL." Lemeza's likely referring to Septette's ramblings on the 'you' and the 'ghost', and clearly not up for it. He lifts his head up off the bar just enough to look and confirm it's actually her this time, and that she's actually speaking - seven sakés in and he's just a bit unsure of his perception of his surroundings, and the three bowls of curry haven't helped matters. Well, at least such heavy consumption would explain his rather irritated demanor. He is, however, alert enough to make the effort to sit up straight in his seat and turn proper attention to Septette, and make himself at least /somewhat/ presentable to the others entering. "Look, can we change the topic to your hobbies? What do you do when you're not being ridiculously cerebral? What do you do for /fun/?" Then his eyes land on the crazy tentacle dish. "...oh no. Don't tell me. You're actually going to EAT that?!"
Septette Arcubielle	"The distinction between 'fun' and 'work' is an artifact of humanity being imperfectly designed for the tasks they currently perform. Ideally, one would find pleasure in one's duty," she replies, tugging the conversation back in a more abstract direction. "In my case, that means killing things. I spend between twenty and twenty-two hours a day culling monster populations in Etria where I deem them most pressingly dangerous to humanity." "Roughly half an hour is dedicated to repairing myself afterwards, and then an hour and a half or so to diplomacy, research, et cetera. Besides, you imply that I can't be 'ridiculously cerebral' while doing that stuff- it would be a waste not to." She uncorks the starry bottle, pours some into a pair of cups, and offers one to Lemeza before taking a sip herself. If he accepts, he'll find that it's intensely sweet and herbal, and that the little 'stars' floating it are crunchy glowing objects reminiscent of honeycomb. "As for the tentacles- they're cathartic for me, you might say," she says with a little smile. She picks up another one between her fingertips and drops it into her mouth, leaving the wriggling tip sticking out. "Like a postmortem 'fuck you' to the Deep Ones. I'd like to hear a reason as good for your attachment to that 'curry' stuff."
Nobunaga	The Bar's door is thrown open. From the unknowable space beyond steps a black-haired Japanese woman, short in stature but big on...looking important, by the glittering gold insignias on her hat, the black uniform, and the billowing crimson cape. In her outstretched hand, Demon Archer brandishes a squat teapot, while the other produces multiple Japanese teacups tucked between her fingers, "Untrusting of the local brew, I have brought tea to calm one's nerves! Produce for yourself a great feast to accompany!" ... "Or some onigiri would probably go better with this, actually."
Septette Arcubielle	The purple-shawled young lady tilts her head backwards until she's viewing the room behind her upside-down. She gives Nobunaga a friendly wave (after momentarily being dazzled by her fancy attire) then turns around properly to show her the starry bottle. On closer examination, it's some kind of double-walled glass thermos with white steam condensing atop it like clouds. "I have tea of a sort myself, but I'm eager to see what sort your culture has produced. Vespers is a quite local Deep City concoction." "They say," she continues while pouring out a third cup of the stuff, "it was made to remind locals of the night sky when the waves hid the sky. This was all they had for stargazing for nearly a century. History aside, I quite like the taste."
Lemeza Kosugi	Lemeza tentatively takes Septette's offered drink, taking just a sip - then downing the entire rest of it as the sweetness hits his tongue. "This is excellent!" He certainly sounds more sober and alert afterward. Now feeling and looking more ready for this obnoxious cerebral bullshit, he starts responding to Septette's... musings. "Twenty to twenty-two. Squishies have to sleep, and rest, and even those of us who get taken by bloodlust would get sick of slaughtering monsters after twenty-two hours of it. Humans and other organic life must spend time elsewhere." He finds a solid part of Septette to knock on. "We don't have tireless circuitry like you have. And we certainly can't multitask." And then she inquires about his taste for curry. What an exceedingly obtuse question... but he actually /does/ have an answer for that! "Why do I like curry? I've got a bit of a story for ya. See, the first ancient site I visited was in India - that's a nation of my Earth - and one of the houses had all these cooking supplies buried and preserved. Most of it had spoiled over the years, but the boys and I turned up a few recipes in a broken cupboard. Turns out, we had the ingredients for the chicken curry, so we mixed it up and had us an ancient dinner. That was the single best dish I've ever had, and it still reminds me of how I got my statt in this business." Who knew such an off-kilter question would bring his spirits back up, and this high? Such is his mood when Nobunaga enters, and her offer of tea and onigiri only keeps it going. "Yes, Lady Oda, that sounds lovely! I may have had too much sake anyway."
Nobunaga	Nobunaga plants her teapot on the tabletop between archeologist and killbot, then deposits her teacups around it. Each one is unique, made of the same materials clearly and yet painted in different, dazzling and incandescent patterns against glazed black ceramic. "My offering is green tea! A blend pioneered by my dear friend Ranmaru during the years of my life, so cherished that I remember how to make it even to this day!" Collecting the kettle, she hoists it up. "And brewed within my own Hira-Gumo, I guarantee it is most excellent." While she pours, she adds, "Why don't you share a cup of that while we're feeling generous, then? Drinking the night sky is a feat I'd like to experience." As she shifts to pouring out a second cup of green tea for Lemeza, the Warlord comments, "Curry was only just gaining popularity in my time, and hadn't quite caught on. Truly an interesting dish from the mainland. I've learned that since it's become a filling and inexpensive meal option!" Once done, she sets the Hira-Gumo down, then seats herself to form a triangle with the other two, one hand resting on her knee.
Septette Arcubielle	"You squishies certainly don't keep such hours, no," she answers Lemeza. "It'd be unfair to ask a similar schedule of anyone else-" punctuated here by another tentacle-slurp- "for now. Perhaps if you never slept or became tired, and derived as much pleasure from fighting and helping others as I do, you would begin to behave in much the same way. You might even be more fulfilled, too. ... Then again, seeing how the others of my ilk fared, perhaps not." "I ought to think the chicken would have spoiled as well, unless you have ice-enchanted amphora to store it. If spices can become better with age, I'm unaware of such... but perhaps it's simply that all food tastes wonderful to the starving?" She side-eyes his food for a moment, then- when she thinks he isn't looking- steals a tiny spoonful of it with superhuman alacrity. She's got to find out what this craze is all about. Proceeding as if she hadn't done anything heinously impolite, Septette picks up the third cup of Vespers and stirs it once with an unused chopstick, then hands it to the Demon Archer with a kind of reverent care. The 'stars' swirl in the dark liquid, surfacing and submerging. "The court Zodiacs believed that they could read the future in this tea, as they read the future in the stars. By and large they were wrong; I should know. But it still makes a fun party trick. See, yours is 'Cocytus'." A couple of seconds after the words leave her lips, the liquid comes to rest and the stars settle, leaving a perfectly geometric dark patch in the center of Nobunaga's cup. It's the shape of an equilateral triangle, with an added triangle in the middle of each of its faces. Septette winks as she picks up the green tea and takes a delicate sip, but her eyebrows raise slightly and her eyes glow a little brighter. "My. This is... not something we have at home. I think I quite like it. Are there any traditional accompaniments to it, Nobunaga, or is it taken alone?"
Lemeza Kosugi	Of course the chicken didn't spoil. They'd only bought it yesterd--oh. Septette thought the chicken was from the ruins. "Oh! I should clarify. We had most of the ingredients on hand at base camp. There were only a couple spices we borrowed from the digsite itself, like paprika and ground peppercorn. It's quite a wonder how well past generations were able to preserve their foodstuffs." A contented sigh. Lemeza then turns to sample the green tea that the unsettlingly genderbent Nobunaga offered him (he's just trying to reconcile how the legendary Lord Oda Nobunaga could reincarnate as a rifle-summoning woman who seemingly disregards chronology). As he drinks the tea without comment, his attention is diverted to a convenient something that takes his attention off his curry. Septette scores a bite of it without him noticing.
Nobunaga	"Hah!" Nobunaga leans forward as this divination is performed, clearly delighted by the idea. Particularly the admission that such divinations were wrong seems to amuse her. Collecting the cup, she lifts it to examine the drink, as if taking her time to appreciate everything about it-- not just the taste, "Divination, fortune-telling. Such sidelong amusements and parlor tricks have their place, though I place little value on what comes out of them. A true warrior does not allow others to dictate her future, but carves it herself." "As for green tea-- it goes with many things. A proper, formal tea ceremony would take hours, so I decided to be casual with it for your sakes." And maybe show off some of her personal collection, if these cups are anything to go by. "I find that artifacts which have a story to them are the most interesting. Much the same could be said of food, as Septette spoke of this drink," The vespers is lifted to demonstrate, "Curry has its own saga to tell, of its slow and ceaseless conquest of the world since its creation. Even this tea, a recipe developed by my closest confidant." She grins with a chuckle, then lifts her cup to breathe it in. Only then does she actually sip it.
Septette Arcubielle	The curry-stained spoon remains as incriminating evidence of her theft. Septette averts her face, bends the utensil in half, and eats it as quietly as she can- which is "not very". It sounds like someone crushing a soda can. She silently signals to the bartender to put it on her tab, then turns back to the conversation at hand, smiling brightly. "I may need to look into how well 'paprika' and 'peppercorn' age, then. I've been sitting on a small stash of aging foodstuffs stretching as far back as two hundred years- since the postbellum and Reconstruction, really. Ought to see if those are worth adding to the cellar." Septette blows over the green tea held in her hands (apparently she can breathe when she wants to!) and twitches her finlike chrome ears slightly as she takes another shallow sip. For the first time, she seems to take notice of the elaborate and unique teacup itself. The tea abruptly freezes solid, and she picks it up in a single chunk to get a clear look at the inside of the cup before replacing it and retuning it to its prior temperature. "Ah, that reminds me- you may appreciate this, Nobunaga. Once upon a time, one of these Zodiacs attempted to claim that my accusations against his prognosticative art were baseless, and that his work was essential guidance." Siiip. "So I placed an enchantment upon his favorite teacup to manipulate the thermal currents within it such that it would always display the sign for 'hubris'. He shattered it a week later."
Nobunaga	Nobunaga chuckles, an honest grin on her face, "Such ancient tripe really should be shown its place. An excellent choice for doing such, miss Septette." She tilts her head when the tea is frozen, observing the robot's inspection of the cup itself. Once the tea is re-placed and re-heated, the samurai comments, "These would be Tenmoku Chawan. The peacock cups of Edo." Collecting one that hasn't been filled, she turns it, "See how each patch catches the light, much like the feathers of a peacock. The artisan was truly inspired by these birds." With a grin, she places her free hand on the tea kettle, "And this Hira-gumo. A recreation. As the original was destroyed in an attempt on my life. As I said, every artifact worth possessing has a story."
Septette Arcubielle	For a brief instant, Septette's eyes scan back and forth across the teacup almost too quickly to track, as if 'scanning' it line by line. Then they revert from a violet blur to her typical steady gaze, and she smiles back. "Working iridescence into pottery- my world never cultivated that art to such a point. They're masterpieces, even in broader colors than red, blue, and green." That's rather cryptic, but her casual tone hints she doesn't think it a strange turn of phrase. She finishes the remainder of her green tea (somehow, despite not having a proper throat) and folds her hands in her lap after setting the teacup on the bar. "If they've all got stories to them, what's the story of that tea-kettle? You seemed to prize it even above the cups, given the emphasis you placed on it. If I had to guess... some symbol of a right to rule?"
Lemeza Kosugi	At Big Nobbu's mention of every artifact worth possessing having a story, Lemeza perks up and turns his full attention to the... wait, no, this is SERIOUSLY bugging him. There's something more important than artifacts - before him is clearly Lord Oda Nobunaga in personality, but clearly nowhere near the feudal lord in appearance. What happened? "Ah, miss..." A rather awkward silence. "...about the artifacts..." Huh. Guess he decided against broaching the subject after all. "...do you hunt for artifacts at all? And, I suppose more to the point, how interested would you be in, hrm." Another awkward pause. "Yeah, Dracuet did mention he had a forbidden treasure. There's got to be a story behind it. Want to help me recover it?"
Nobunaga	Nobunaga blinks, setting her cup down, "A symbol of the right to rule?" After a moment, she closes her eyes with a laugh. Her free hand even slaps her knee a few times. It's not a mocking laugh, but a boistrous and honest one. "No, no! You're rather far from the truth!" Composing herself, the Demon Archer leans forward, "Each tea artifact in my possession is a treasure taken from an enemy at the moment of my victory. These are symbols of conquest." Eyes closing again, she gestures, "This Hira-gumo is a recreation. The original, owned by one of my enemies--Hisahide. To keep me from taking such a prized kettle, he packed it with gunpowder and attempted to take my life alongside his own." She pauses, crimson eyes shifting to Lemeza, "Hmm?" A hand raises, cradling her chin in thought, "A forbidden treasure is mildly interesting. But I am a warlord, not a ruin-diver. Would you have need for the army of Oda in its recovery, or am I going to be dodging spike traps in pursuit of ancient keys in some maze-castle?"
Septette Arcubielle	Septette lets out a gleeful little laugh with chirpy-beepy undertones. "When you said it was destroyed in an attempt on your life, I thought you meant it took a bullet! I like the real story far better. It's fascinating how much value was placed on these objects if the first thing he thought to destroy out of spite was a ceremonial instrument like that- perhaps that tells me something about your culture, or at least your reputation!" As for Lemeza's recruitment of the warlord- she merely leans with her elbow on the bar, nursing the remainder of the green tea in silence while flitting her eyes between the pair. He really is insatiable in his quest for aid, isn't he? But archaeology is a quest for knowledge, and knowledge isn't harmed by being split between more hands.
Lemeza Kosugi	"Er." Lemeza pauses for a bit, clearly choosing his words rather carefully with the warlord's pointed response. "I think perhaps it best you not come along, then. I can guarantee spike traps, I can guarantee maze, and I can guarantee you'll be /wishing/ for keys to unlock doors. And, to top it all off, your expertise in waging wars would go to utter waste. So unless this clearly terrible idea has you interested, forget I asked." He gives a glance toward Septette, mentally noting her demonstrated interest in the discussion.
Nobunaga	The speed at which Lemeza backtracks from the offer has Nobunaga laughing again. The same boistrous laugh she let out before, though less knee-slapping. Short-lived, though, the Servant closes her eyes with a chuckle as she turns to her tea once more, having finished off her sampling of Vespers, "The interest is still there, I do not mind the idea of assisting you. Perhaps if you ever have need of an artifact held by someone who is still living-- That, I am well acquainted with." To Septette, Nobunaga nods once, "Indeed. History is often more interesting than historians would have you believe. Why, one account I read claimed Hisahide threw it off the balcony of his castle and comitted seppuku. How bland! The reality is much more dramatic." A hand raises, and she gestures, "The two of us clashing in his court, as the castle burned around us. Our swords meet. He sneers, 'Lord Nobunaga, that possession of mine which you seek. Your symbol of victory?' And then he draws back his haori, and there it is, the fuze already lit, 'You shall never have it!'"
Septette Arcubielle	Septette closes her ceramic eyelids with a sound that resembles- appropriately enough- teacups clinking together. She grins as she imagines the dramatic scene of Nobunaga's, a silent chuckle shaking her frame before she opens her eyes again. It's a bit uncanny to see the slats of her ribcage expand and contract behind the shawl in an imitation of breath, but putting her blatant artificial nature aside, she does a remarkable job of going through the minute motions of human affect. "It is a symbol of your right to rule, then, in a manner of speaking. I was correct after all. Force is its own manner of legitimacy, and trophies of conquest attest to that quite well." "As for Lemeza... if the traps he describes are what have honed his wit and instincts, then I'm sure they are fierce trials indeed. Exploring dungeons comes as naturally to me as warfare, however. I think I'll participate, if he'll have me," she concludes, casting her eyes over to the archaeologist.
Lemeza Kosugi	"Well... if you're absolutely sure--you too, Septette?" Lemeza buries his face in his hands and lets out a long, exasperated sigh. "I should've just bit the bullet and dealt with this hellish temple on my own. But, if you're still interested in dealing with the Multiverse's worst ancient ruins, and retrieving some treasure that is probably horrifying and worthless, then sure. I'd be glad to pawn this bullshit on someone else." Wow. For a prodigal explorer, he sure sounds reluctant to explore this particular place. Maybe a bad experience?