LOONS Assemble!

Tolbana's Chaos Gate.

A large circle with enigmatic curved and circular runes etched on it. They allowed teleportation between key locations before the Apocalypse, but since then, they have gone dead. Silent.

Today's meeting of the Loosely Organized Open Network of Students has been organized in the open air, close to the aforementioned Chaos Gate, in Tolbana, within the Tower.

Uta is already here, dressed in a generic menu-crafted nurse's uniform (as opposed to her usual gi/uniform combo). She is sitting on the ground, and she's preoccupied with what looks vaguely like a portable herbalist's/alchemist's set, mixing potions for medical puroposes. A few empty syringes are waiting to be filled up.

This session with the LOONS had been scheduled long in advance, so she could not wiggle out of it, but it's clear that her mind is elsewhere, and someone will have to eplicitly prompt her to talk about anything she might be talking about.

Haru is normally on time or early to these sorts of things. However with a bit of gnoll shenaniganry in the mix, he is slightly behind. Speaking of behind, Haru is a looming shadow BEHIND Uta. The glint on his monocle is not quite Shiroe levels, but he has plans. Big plans. Big plans with big hands! Both of those hands thwump down on Uta's shoulders. "UTA!" he yells in his all-too-close proximity, "GOOD TO SEE YOU ORGANIZE SUCH A FRUITFUL EVENT!" All the subtly of a truck horn. Hoooooooonnnkkk.

Schneider is here with Uta at the Chaos Gate. Again. He winces at seeing her in the menu-crafted gear, he knows what that means. On the other hand, he's a bit overwhelmed by the quantity and depth of the lore, and strugges to keep it all straight. He relies on Uta for that, which means he's in a bit of a pickle now. He's also the main Scale Librarian, so a useful source of general lore info. Haru earns a puzzled look, though. But he's not sure if Uta will inject or ignore him. The odds are way too close to call.

Despite her recent travels, Kita seems happy enough to be back in Tolbana. She likely would have attended this event if she had been in her 'right' mind, but at this moment, it seems more of a random happenstance that she is sitting nearby, still working on designs in her sketchbook. There are a number of samples of fabric material laid out on a board next to her, mostly shades of gold, purple, and black.

It's Haru's very loud talking that has her looking up, pushing her glasses up on her nose, and coming momentarily back around to reality. "What's... going on?" She asks slowly, tapping her pencil on the page.

Kana having recently battled some gnolls as Haru would know. Though the silvery maiden has taken her time to bathe and do her hair and make up, still wearing it down, she has loose curls put into it, starting halfway down extending the ends. Make subtle but help her silvery eyes pop and glisten against her pale skin. Her dress freshly cleaned, she hosts only a crystal white violin which is slung to her side.

She wanders into an event she heard was happening nearby and decides to look around. She doesn't really know anyone here and decides to walk up to at least the one person she does, Haru, who she sees yelling. "Hello again, sir."

Way to go! Startle the magically(?) obsessed Spriggan who's preparing the experimental drugs!

Actually, nothing too terrible comes of it, no. It's not the nurse part that's the problem. Nor the musical part. It's the kung-fu.

And so, ETO's own Musical Kung-Fu Nurse instinctively goes all Judo on Haru, her ingrained instinct being of grabbing the offending arms and throwing an attacker as far as possible.

Also, what she bellows is totally a legit kung-fu 'YAH!'. She isn't shrieking. Uh-un.

"Uh... er..." Uta hesitates, with a blink, at Kita's question. Look around. Tolbana. Flying Haru. Chaos Gate.

Chaos Gate!

Uta opens her menu, frantically. She notices the time of day. Oh, no!

She springs to stand, startled once again, like a student called to answer a question while daydreaming about the panorama out of the window. "Hello! My name is Uta Furore, Aerialist, and Musical Kung-Fu Nusre! Welcome to the first annual combined meeting of the Loosely Organized Open Network of Students and Jeweller tossing competition!", she exclaims, stiff, hands flattened against her sides.

"Before we start, it is important to ask a question." She seems to draw a blank. "Uh... uh... er... anyone hurting? Aching? Is everyone feeling fine? No signs of pain whatsoever?"

"Hello again," sparkles Haru to Kana, "Kanaaaahhhhhhh~" And there he goes, thrown in a trail of sparkles. He's going the distance. He's going for speed. He hit a wall (hit a wall) and his head will bleed. THUD. Dust cloud. Slow slide down the wall and thump onto the ground.

The Jeweler pulls a small sign out from his menu that reads '8.4' in the scoring system out of 10. "I am now," Haru says into the dirt.

Schneider hrms as Uta demonstrates why she's a musical /kung fu/ nurse. Note to self, do not sneak up on Uta. Haru going flying is amusing, but he kind of asked for it. "You OK, buddy?" he calls, and will go over to check on him. He might need Uta's healing.... He peers at Kita, just getting up to speed, she must have something big going on, she's usually got her head more in the game. Kana, he doesn't recognize, so he offers a greeting, "Hey," and a wide grin.

"No, I'm doing quite alright, I believe," A voice says from beneath the shadowy eaves of a nearby cafe patio. It sips slowly at a cup of creamy coffee, the scent wafting delicately across the air.

Someone crashes into a wall. Prophylaxis frowns slowly.

"Please refrain from damaging the property. We spent quite a bit of effort building the place, and I'd hate to have to develop the world's first property damages lawsuit."

Up until this moment, Kita wasn't particularly aware that Uta's research and study organization had a name. "That's... an awefully interesting name, but I guess it's fitting enough." She squints, adjusting her glasses slightly. Since Uta is offering introductions, she gives one of her own, but it is a simple lift of the hand she has her pencil in, "Kita Blackthorne. Artist, keeper of Tolbana so try not to dama--" There goes Prophylaxis saying the same thing, so she just motions to him. "What he said."

The Imp's tail twitches at her side as she tries to focus and pay attention. "I'm fine, Uta. And even if I wasn't I wouldn't want to play test subject after what happened last time."

Opening her mouth to speaks, her silvery gaze follows Haru, well now, Flying Haru, as he is sent flying across. She blinks and cants her head, bowing her head once more and even if Haru does not hear it she says, "Sorry sir, I seemed to have distracted you from the oncoming attack. Eight point four is a respectful score, sir." She was taking this all too seriously and even giving a small clap.

Her attention turns to Uta who introduces herself and the current event. Shaking her head to the question of pain, "Doing quite well."

Haru's positive response to the question about healing and suffering causes a glint in Uta's eyes, a syringe to be whipped out, and a breakneck rush at where the patient is. "Aren't you lucky! You get to test a cutting edge form of analgesic! Fun fascinating tidbit -- analgesics operate on the same principles as anesthetics, so your sacrifice- I mean, the improvement of your conditions- will benefit two fields of research at once!"

As she gets ready to inject Haru with some substance whose effects have not yet been fully tested due to them being in the process of being tested right now, Uta mumbles back to Kita, "...it's a placeholder name. We need something with a better acroynm. Suggestions welcome."

A pause, and Uta goes red in the face. "ONCE! It happened ONCE! That you saw. I'm pretty sure you weren't around the other times, so you have no proofs!"

Looking around, she agrees with Kana. "More than eight is a respectable score, but the high 9+ scores still elude me. I need to try HARDER!", she exclaims, the fire of determination burning in her eyes as in the best Shounen fashion, while she clenches her fist, staring with intensity at the future.

"So, uh, first of all, a summary. You might know that our group is born out of Pela Clarpuff's desire of getting the Chaos Gates to work again. She collected all the Alv script she could find-" She stops, and gestures towards the runes on the Chaos gates. "That's Alv script, by the way," and returns to face the audience. "We had some significant progress since then. The basic gist is that the Alv language seems to hold a lot of power in this world. You migh have seen this kind of runes in many places in Yamato or the Palace Lands, for those who got to explore them before the War of Dragons -- not to mention that Alv is the language of the 42 Songs known by the Landers." Inhale. "We went from knowing -nothing- about it to having completely deciphered how to pronounce a number of symbols, and the meaning of one of them."

"Questions? Anyone wants to add anything?"

Schneider nods slowly as Uta begins the discussion of the Chaos Gate Research Program, which doesn't make nearly as cool an acronym as LOONS. At least we're not Independent Dudes Investigating Operatrional Testing Systems. That'd be embarassing. His own work is part of the 'significant progress since then', but he's eager to find out where we go from here. He hasn't yet worked out the path forward from here, he's not a puzzle person by inclination, but if he's given a stick, he can run with it.

"Less painful than your glider crashed looked," Haru offers Schneider, though if he is offering a hand he will take it to stand up and dust off his navy jacket the manual, non-menu way. Pat pat. "Thanks Kana, your support is just the kind of spirit we need to get in the nine point ohs," with a thumbs up. He begins making his way back to the point of throwing but does not get a few steps before there is an Uta coming after him. "Reduce property damage, they said," he says with a singular wide blue eye. Sure Uta /says/ anesthetic but that could be an experimental Hulk dose.

"Once?" quirks Haru looking between Uta and Kita. Kita and Uta. Yes. Keep the topic off WHATEVER Uta has in her hands. Like knowledge.

"Alvs are the ancients that predate us by some bit. They have made fantastical movements in magical technologies that we can't replicate. The relics we find and these gates, for example," Haru says over to Kana as the firehose of lore begins. He turns his head to Uta and asks a simple question, "And to clarify, there are more than 42 songs, correct? Its just the first 42 are known by the landers." As in that number is not an absolute.

Kana gives a thumbs up and nod Uta and to Haru, "One day a nine will be achieved and then a perfect ten."

Pondering everything spoken, Kana closes her eyes, taking in the info that is is hearing, most of it not making any sense to her, but saves it mentally so she can ask upon them later. "I see I will take my time to delve into the matter as well, I would like to start pulling my weight." A respectful bow of her head given towards Haru. A small opportunity arises to ask a question, "If possible to share, what is the meaning of that singular rune?"

"Correct," Prophylaxis answers Haru, "Though we only know of two of the higher-numbered songs, the 43rd and the 44th. The former is attributed to the chims, while the latter is heard only in certain monster encounters, typically ones that have some kind of connection to the entity we call The Beast. It may be an artifact of the Alv as well, though we're not quite sure in that regard, yet."

The doctor sips slowly at his coffee. Then: "We've tried to get the Chaos Gates to work, and I think we're getting close-- but there's something blocking the signal. If you think of the gates as phones, we can try to dial between them, but the operator is blocking the calls. I suspect that it has something to do with another Tower, possibly one in Baal-- the European server."

"But that's just conjecture for now, of course. I don't think anyone here has ever been to the European server, and it's obviously quite a ways away."

    Merek seems to be humming to himself while he listens to people talk, nodding a bit at mention of songs and Chaos Gates. Things that he seems to like, because he does a lot of work with those two things. The man wears the beltcape which he does often, while he pulls the hood up and takes a drink of water.

"You know that by saying that, you're admitting there were other times, right?" While Kita may be distracted with her own strange mood, she is still herself, and that includes some moments of dry wit. "Just so long as you keep your experiments away from me. I need the use of my hands for what I'm working on." Her eyes are already back down on her sketchbook, seemingly working on different designs to represent Gilgamesh's companion Enkido.

When Haru looks to her, she simply replies, "She drugged herself so bad she lost control of her limbs and tripped out before falling unconscious."

It is /really/ hard to focus, especially when people start getting into matters of the Alv language. Normally, Kita would be using her artistic skills to try to draw things out or take notes, but her hands still want to draw dragon-beasts and flag designs. Yet, when Prophylaxis mentions the European server, Kita seems to come a bit more 'awake'. "I haven't been, but I've met someone I'm pretty sure is from there. Unless you think Londonia is somewhere else other than Baal." She seems to hesitate there, "We were warned not to leave Yamato. I mean, we already had, but I think it meant not to head towards Baal."

Haru offers to Proph one correction on the higher level songs. "Three. We did learn of the 47th." A thoughtful smile to Kana with a, "That would be very helpful. Scripture, Song, and to a lesser degree Enchanting have been helpful this far." A hand gestures, "Though that is so far. Appraisal has yielded some mixed results and a lot of the 'super' powers as well." Also a nod to Kita since he can totally see Uta doing something like that. Repeatedly.

47th Song: +codex/learn XGZVVm5AYFpaaVZiW1ZoWkw4Ljo2NUFeblhjWg==

    Oh no. Miyako is -late-. The meeting has already started! Maybe she -shouldn't- have spent the morning making that one more run at that dungeon. But there were those rumors of a secret library, and she so -very- wanted to find it. (Hint: She didn't.)

    "Gleepings and salivations, fellow LOONs!" she calls to the assembled group. "I haven't missed all the fun, have I?" (She's missed some, certainly.) "I see some new faces here, don't I?" She hmms, looking from Uta to Haru and the rest of the crowd. "This is the LOONs meeting about the music stuff, right?"

"I don't know much scripture, yet, and song I know of lots, I wa- Never mind on that, I will help." Kana says softly still making mental notes on everything. She lets out a bit of a sigh, "This is a lot to take in, will be a few days of processing but I do hope I can catch up slowly to be on the same page." Most of this mummbled softly but some may hear or not.

Her silvery gaze turns to Miyako, giving a small elegant bow over head.

"Welcomings and greetitudes, Miyako! This is the LOON meeting about the everything stuff," Uta greets without skipping a beat.

"We know very little about the 44th Song," Uta beings to explain in response to Prophylaxis's comments. "We know that it is known as 'Artosh's Anger', and that 'It is an expression of the Deus's hatred of the non-Alv races.'. It would seem that this 'Artosh' is a 'Deus', whatever that means."

Uta then turns to Prophylaxis, "Haru is correct in pointing out that we have also learnt of the 47th Song, also known as the Sublimation Song. It's the Song that Estelle heard on the Green Moon, remember? The one that made the Landers uneasy when Erufu sang it?"

Uta sighs, with a frown, and rubs her forehead. "It seems there are some dangerous-sounding songs in the high numbers..."

"...Are you sure you don't need any painkillers? Not one bit?", she asks Haru. "Not even you, Schneider? You recovered completely? No bones hurting?" She's about to ask something to Kita, but at her retort, she just looks down and blushes. "I... I will not speak if not in the presence of my lawyer." It takes some moments, but when the realization hits, it splashes a frown on Uta's features. "Wait, I am trained in Law. That makes me my own lawyer, I guess?" Frown persists. Uta looks down, taps lips. "I will not speak if not in my own presence," she finally states. That should settle it.

"...Londonia? As in, the Wyvern Riders of Londonia?", Uta asks, interested. "One of the libraries was gifted a book with a fairy tale about them."

"But yes, back to the main topic." Uta looks at Kita, and with as much a mischievous grin someone like her can muster (which is not much), she begins to sing... some sort of 'patchwork' of short musical passages, the musical equivalent of a ransom note where each word has been cut out from a different song instead of a different newspaper.

"o/~ num cexm rre lof enne enter o/~"

If people might have understood why Uta has 'Kung-Fu' in Musical Kung-Fu Nurse, right now people will be treated to why she has Musical in her name. Still, even people who know her will not have heard her sing so well often.

But despite her melodic skill, Uta's singing itself is not the main attraction of the show: the main attraction is that at each sung word, each one of the symbols of the chaos gates lights up and glows, in turn, until they all do, there is a strange sound that rushes through the area and then... the chaos gate goes dark again.

Uta turns towards Kana with a smile.

Schneider actually doesn't remember a lot about the glider crash. Uta's drugs are a factor in that also. "It flew, though," he recalls, and is pleased by that part. It didn't fly -well-, but that's more down to piloting skill and knowing what he's doing than anything else. The game wasn't labeled 'hang gliding skills required' when he signed up.

Proph gets a nod as he describes our test results so far, though he says, "I'm not sure if it was that, or if we simply needed to coordinate and open both communicating gates locally at the same time?" That's his own pet theory.

"Wait, we were warned not to leave Yamato and we did anyway? That plan didn't turn out too well for us, I think. But what do we do now? Apart from, yeah, let's not go riling anyone else up, too. One war's plenty. Note to self, do not awaken sleeping giants. It does not end well."

Haru's news of another other song is interesting, and it's one he hadn't heard before. He nods to Miyako when she arrives, and says, "You haven't missed much." He gestures to Uta, who's explaining everything. "Ah, no, I'm fine," he says truthfully. He just doesn't remember much.

"Ah right, forgot about the Goblin Song," Prophylaxis murmurs into his cuppa coffee, savoring the scent of the dwindling brew. "Makes you wonder what songs 45 and 46 are, huh?"

"Incidentally," the doctor gestures to the Chaos Gate as the thing lights up, then fails to do anything particularly spectacular, "Have we tried Loremastering that? Like, trying to figure out if there's something we're missing. If there's someone... messing with the gate communication. Like when you checked the interruption in the Babel Signal."

"To be fair," he says to Schneider, "I don't think we knew not to leave Yamato at the time. But now that we have, it's... a mess, I agree. In our defense, though, there /have/ been other players charging into our territory to raise a stink every time we push up the tower, so it's not... Like, it's not /un/fair, right? If they didn't want us pushing out, they shouldn't have been pushing in."

"I do think Londonia is probably in Baal. It's called Londonia, after all. But one way or another, I feel like there's probably answers to some of our questions in Baal. Whenever someone tells you 'hey don't go to this place because of Reasons, it makes you feel like they're trying to keep something from you, no?"

Haru picks up on that from Kana, offering a smile in return and an encouraging, "Sounds divine." With that he heads over to where Proph is getting his beverage of choice. The Artificer grabs up a chair, taking a flask out from his inventory and taking a good swig of it. He looks to Schneider with a, "I flew too. Right into a wall." A grin. Still the Glider has a lot of potential and Haru is looking forward to how that technology evolves. It is in good hands.

Kita simply stares in Uta's direction blinking those storm-blue eyes behind her glasses. The lenses make them look ever so slightly bigger than they actually are. It's just a slow blink of someone watching another person not quite fully making sense. "Right..."

Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she seems to worry at an area that still bares a faint pink scar. "Exactly like that story, except the one I ran into was someone very real. And someone so powerful they threatened cosmospheres and could tactical nuke others into oblivion. Not someone I plan on making an enemy of if I can help it." She turns then to look at Schneider, shaking her head. "This was after the New World Alliance unlocked the way to the Palace Lands. The whole reason I may have run into the Wyvernrider might be because they did that. I don't know."

She turns her gaze to Prophylaxis, and there is a sort of concern there. "She was warning us of something more dangerous coming. Something that would threaten us all if we drew it's attention. I don't know what the Dark Territory is, but I don't really think it's wise to poke the bee hive right now to find out when we're already struggling as it is. I having enemies flank us from both sides is unwise."

Then, Kita falls silent, listening as Uta sings. As a musician, herself, there is a certain amount of awe that comes in experiencing the art of someone else. There is a slight widening of her eyes at the way the symbols light up, but she seems uncertain as to what it might mean.

Kana finds a place to take a seat, returning the smile to Uta, though her's is faint, as she seems to not show too many emotions. "Question." She raises her hand like in a classroom, "I was wondering where do these gates supposedly lead to?" Asking monotone as ever.

She listens to the very enchanting singing voice that Uta emits, with a faint smile eyes opening to the symbols. She cants her head , still watching nonetheless and also waiting to see if anyone answers the question.

"In order to get something useful out of a Loremastering of the gates, we'd need either someone with the Know Object aspect, or to decide which event, specifically, to Loremaster. I have learnt about the disruption in the Babel Tower in the Palace Lands because I was close to where the event happened when I Loremastered it, and I had something specific to focus on: the disruption in the automatic translation system that took place last year."

The Adventurers might remember the event: on April, 11, of the year 400 after the Scrapped Princesses War (the their first year after the Apocalypse), there was a brief moment in which the translation system broke down. Adventurers speaking different languages would no longer be able to understand each other. The issue seemed to quickly resolve itself.

"We would need something similar for the Chaos Gates," Uta says, gesturing towards the large rings. "But if, as you say, the source event is a couple of continents away...", she trails off.

"Dark Territory... hmm... I wonder if the Dark Slime I had captured after the Fifth Wave of Calamity could be related..." She flicks her notebook open, and jots something down with a fountain pen. "Note to self: remember to research Slime Shady the dark slime for clue as to this."

Back to Kita. "Any specific warning about the Dark Territory?"

"To other Chaos Gates," Uta explains to Kana. "There's one on each floor of the Tower, as far as I know, as well in each Root Town, both in Yamato and the Palace Lands. Possibly even in parts of the world we haven't visited yet."

"Cosmospheres? Tactical nuke others into oblivion? What... what is this all about?", Uta asks Kita.

Schneider grumbles to Proph about going places and getting into trouble. "If they didn't want us trying to get out through the Tower, they shouldn't have told us to go out via the Tower. If they didn't want us to defend ourselves, they shouldn't have attacked." Haru gets a puzzled look, but he ohs and nods to Kita as she explains the order things happened in. And he remains silent as Uta sings, because who can even think about interrupting /that/. As to Loremasters, "/Are/ there any with the skills for knowing objects?" he wonders.

Takes in the knowledge, "I understand, thank you for clarifying." A nod given to Uta. She looks between everyone talking having nothing to add or ask, just listens for now.

    Miyako finds a seat and settles into it, while she watches and listens to the discussion. "Pretty sure they're in all the servers," she adds eventually. "Used to be maps and such posted on the game forums. A whole menu of how to get from one place to another by way of them." She smiles lightly. "Pela was able to get one of the runes to activate, I forget which song was involved though..."

"Fair enough," the doctor shrugs Kita-wards. "But we're going to have to deal with them sooner or later. The people of Baal, that is," And chances are good, given the whole deal with the Palace Lands, that it's going to mean war. Again. More war! The doctor sighs, draining what's left of his coffee before pouring out another cup. He seasons it with sugar and a shot of cream. "For as much as we know about this world, there's still much we do not."

"Regardless, we're focused on the Palace Lands for now. Once they're dealt with, we can begin to tackle the... other problems," the doctor considers, slowly blowing the swirling steam from the surface of his coffee. "Well. I've got ideas for how to reduce some of the associated risk. We'll see how they work out though."

Uta explains the limitations of Prophylaxis' proposed method. The doctor can only nod in resignation, "Then we'll have to figure out another way. That's fine. I just wish we could use the damn things, it'd make getting around so much easier." Nevermind how much easier it'd make intercepting the Waves as they arrive. "Ah, but one thing: We haven't actually found Chaos Gates on any but a handful of floors. They're... not exactly positioned in easily accessible locations, either. The one in Karluin, for example."

Kita's hand starts to idlely work on a bit of the design for the flag, even without her eyes looking at it directly. The strange mood seems to want to pull her back to it. However, the overall design looks to be coming together, as if it only requires a few more days of work, so perhaps that is why she is able to better focus today.

"The Wyvernrider I spoke to said she didn't even know we existed here. That she thought the Dark Territory had wiped us out. She was hunting another rider, who was working with them, and caused the disappearance or destruction of a village, from what I overheard." Kita explains. She has told a few people this tale, but perhaps not quite so much into detail. "We were warned to watch for dark creatures that seem to be made of shadows, which could threaten Cosmospheres. That they could alert the Dark Territory to our presence."

The mage takes off her glasses, wiping them slightly with one sleeve before putting them back on again. "I would have tried to ask more questions, but..." She looks to Uta then, "The Rider I ran into had some kind of power that shot a giant beam of light from the sky that could one-shot not only a Wyvern and it's rider, but likely anything in the immediate area. When she decided she was going to leave, I figured it was not a good idea to irritate her."

Hoping that this has given enough warning to the group, she leaves it at that and seems to focus instead on the task at hand. "So what are our next steps with the gates?"

Kana sitting there mutters something to herself, "I wonder what the people of Baal would be like..." Her attention returns back. The question asked about the next step of the gates catches her interests, turning to face Kita.

"Shiruba does have the Know Object aspect of Loremaster," Uta replies to Schneider's question. "Big news in that regards -- Thanks to her power, she helped me find the missing lyrics to the Primordial Song!"

Uta frowns. "Oh, right. The way I know the story, a few people independently told me of 'enne', whose tentative translation is 'wishing/desiring'. They knew how to write it, say it, and what it means. Merek showed me how the word would light up on the Chaos gates if you sang a song that contained it, once you reached the part of the song with that word." Silence. "So I sat down and sang all the songs I knew at the time. And went around trying to find more songs. More on that later, I'm sure Miyako will be more than glad to tell you about the Song Hunters and our achievements. Anyway, long story short, by throwing songs at the gates and seeing what stuck we got five out of six words to stick. One remained elusive, so we had to whip out the big guns. Schneider. Our resident son of a gun. So we pointed our big guns at the chaos gates, and he somehow went on a strange mood. You normally don't want your weapons to suddenly start Resonating with one of the high numbered songs which are actually the earlies songs to have been sung, but in this case, it was exactly what we needed."

That probably wasn't really clear. Someone will probably have to step in and untangle that ball of yarn.

"...er... I mean... after we got five out of six words, Schneider obsessed for a while and, with a little help from his friends, found the last, missing word."

Uta returns to work on her portable pharmaceutical set, mixing herbs and liquids. "I am not exactly sure what the next step will be. Maybe we involve a hacker in our experiments? Or, as Prophylaxis pointed out, I could try Loremastering some specific events like 'The Chaos Gates Interrupting Service' while next to a Chaos Gate. That one seems a reasonable thing to try."

"Speaking of which..." Uta frowns. "I'm not sure anyone ever told me -how- people cracked that first word. Anyone knows?", she asks, looking around for an answer.

There is a smile and shrug from Haru to Uta on the first word bit, "Can't say I know that one." He isn't sure how any of the words were actually cracked, other than smart people like Schneider were at the helm of it. One day he may be the Hacker that LOONS needs, but not this day. Or many days from now.

Schneider nods to Uta about Shiruna being the correct sort of Loremaster. And then again about the investigation into the words to activate the Gates. "Sadly, we're still missing a critical piece of information, the procedure needed to operate the Gates, and it seems like there's no solid line on what's needed. just a bunch of conjecture." He has no idea about how any word but his came about, nor has he got any idea about the Wyvern Riders, though he says, "Setsuna will want to know about /them/. Were you able to note the exact subspecies of wyvern? That might help him find one to tame."

Uta is lost in her potions. Seeds and herbs are crushed. Liquids are poured. They occasionally change colors. Puffs of smoke emerge. Most of the time they do not look concerning. Only once Uta coughs and has to fan the mist away from her face by waving her hand.

"I've heard rumors that Setsuna is working on capturing a Wyvern, and... but... and..." She seems unable to focus on that thought; frowning, squinting, tilting her head do not help as much as she probably thought they would. Or didn't think they would, but tried anyway. "What were we talking about? Oh, right! Songs! As said, Songs seem to be very important source of knowledge about the Alv language. It does not only appear within the Chaos Gates, but it somehow seems to have some relevance to this word. Also the songs do. Did you know that when people enter a Strange Mood, they medically inspect as Resonating with a specific song? I am sure that Doctor Prophylaxis or Miyako will be more than glad to explain these concepts. And slash or sing you the songs of the people. The People of the Land." And at the mention of songs, Uta launches into an a cappella vocalization, the beginning of the 40th Song.

Kana looks around not having much to add, like at all but seems content with just listening and storing up knowledge in her head. She runs her hands through her hair, and straightens out her dress she listens to the song that Uta plays.

    Miyako nods, guitar appearing in her lap to play along with Uta's vocalization. "All of the Songs seem to have some sort of -meaning-," she adds when it finishes, still plucking the tune. "As you've seen, we know some of them. The different 'strange moods' seem to be tied to different Songs, as well. We've talked about trying long-term exposure to the appropriate song for someone in a Mood, but we've had no volunteers so far that I've heard of."

Haru is right there with Kana. Its the white/silver hair effect. One must sit there and /look/ like they are absorbing information. He even offers a nod of the head once. Twice! "Going after the Wyverns is very dangerous if I recall, no? Because of the number of them that come at you." He doesn't really know. The Tower itself hasn't been a /huge/ interest to him, but if there are answers there than thats where things must go.

Songs! "I always thought of songs like the ancient tongue. You know, like mythos of how language was split? Towel of Babel and all that." The Artificer gestures, "So songs would the pure form of a concept that we, now, translate into words." A key thing is that everything they say happens to be translated, after all.

"While I'm sure Alvish has meaning, the weird thing is that it's the one language I know of that /isn't/ translated by Babel Tower," Prophylaxis adds, sipping again at his now-cooled cup of coffee. "Weird, isn't it? I wonder if we might be able to change the settings at Babel, make it so we /can/ understand the stuff. Or maybe it's beyond Babel's ability to translate. Maybe, given that it seems to give high-level access to some of the game's functions, it's left untranslated for security reasons?"

Kana gives the doctor a nod while listening in, making an idle comment. "Maybe players need to level up more if that is possible, and eventually it will become unlocked that way or the knowledge to unlock it?" She also takes the chance to turn towards the good doctor and ask the question about, "Doctor Prophylaxis, I am Kana, a pleasure to meet you, though I was wondering what is this strange mood that Uta was referring to and how would it be resonating with a song?" She ponders for a moment to see if she can figure it out, but looks somewhat stumped.

Schneider isn't strange mooding just at this moment, he's simply strange. But he listens carefully as Uta sings, in case there is something important in theee. It seems like that's often the case with songs. But he's generally clueless about what they mean, whether in a language he knows, or not. He will have to settle for staring blankly and getting the occasional data drmp from an ally.

    There is the sound of some commotion coming from the direction of the tavern, and moments later out backsteps a disshelved necromancer named Setsuna, "Fine! Keep the damn table and stools! See if I care! You are also probably the jerk who put the dirt back into my magically dug hole!" Grumbling he stumbles from the tavern through the town to the main square and stumbles into the group of LOON. He blinks, then blinks again, then eyes doctor, "Doc, I just want to report to you that there is a thief about. I had magically dug holes with earth, BIG ones,and I turned away and a few minutes later they were all filled up. I think it was the magicians rabbit, or the jerk in the tavern. Maybe they are in cohoots." Looking back and forth among the group for a moment he blinks and asks, "Soooo whats going on here?"

"It would seem that the reason why Adventurers can understand each other despite the different languages we spoke outside of ETO is a thing called the Babylon Signal, originating from the Babel Tower, in the Palace Land," Uta explains, still sitting on the ground, without raising her eyes from her portable Pharmacy kit. Now that she's gotten her comment about the Babel Tower in, that green liquid in a beaker has her undivided attention now. No matter what's going on around her, she mumbles something to herself, and rubs the bags under her eyes. Her stomach picks this specific moment to emit a growl that might startle small and possibly even medium-sized mammals, and even if her menu-crafted, cookie cutter Fantasy-MMORPG nurse's uniform might show signs of wear and tear in the form of reduced durability, at least hygiene is not a concern this time: given the Pharmaceutical nature of her current obsession, it would seem that she stops at regular intervals to menu-clean and disinfect, and regularly observes equipment disinfection procedures with a maniacal compulsion of sorts. Case in point, she doesn't even seem to notice Setsuna approaching. Which is unusual for her.

Schneider eyes Setsuna, and now knows who dug the hole he almost fell into. He filled that one in PDQ before someone else could fall in, and that was just before he got here. But now that Setsuna's here and upset about them being filled in, he decides that, in the name of avoiding a confrontation, he will just quietly slip out. No need to get into a debate about it.

    Setsuna looks from Schneider as he leaves to Uta and nods his head as he finds the groove, "There is also the whole Babylon tower thing in the Palace Land, I heard some group tried to explore it but don't know more details then that. I wonder if that tower is also related to the crystal tower rebellion thingie mah-bobber that happened however many years ago." Setsuna seems to have forgotten about his dirt for a moment, his attention not holding for to long.

    "Either to that, or to Aincrad," Miyako agrees with Setsuna. "Or both. We didn't get much of a look at it, when I was there." She continues playing while Uta works, plucking out the tune of the 40th song. "Me, I'm thinking that there's something in there that's connected to the Crowns, and if we could get back in there..." She shrugs. "Maybe we can just turn them all off at once."

"Mmmn," the doctor says over his third? Fourth? Cup of coffee, the steamy beverage now having lost all meaning against the backdrop of the one sipping it. It is now simply a constant, a thing that has been and will be. "Well. Basically, whenever someone gets in one of these moods-- like Uta and Setsuna are in right now-- they start resonating with one of the World's songs. We don't know exactly what that's all about, but it seems to play a role in modifying behavior, somehow."

    Setsuna hears his name looks over at the doctor with a questioning look, "Strange mood? Me? I dare say you are obviously horribly mistaken. I have never been better, and just because I am slightly focused on capturing a monster that could chomp me in half in one bite." With that said he looks over at Miyako, "Oh I agree we should check it out. Who knows what monsters are over there, there could even be wyverns. We should catch those wyverns. Yep yep."

As if finally able to disentangle her thought process from her current endeavour (mostly because all of her potions have to wait some time for the proper reactions to take place), Uta looks up from her preparations. Uta looks up from her work for a moment. The bags under her eyes make it clear she hasn't slept in a while. Her subsequent yawning underlines the concept. "Strange Moods. They come in three flavours: 'Fey Mood', associated with the Primordial Song, known by the Landers as the 40th Song despite being the First song to have been sung, 'Mujou', associated with the 'Earth Song' and known by the Landers as the 41st Song despite being the Second song, and 'Yuugen', associated with the Eternity Song, known by the Landers as, you guessed it, the 42nd Song despite being the Third song that was sung. I'm sure that either Miyako or Prophylaxis can sing them for you. When-"

Uta's stomach lets out an unnerving kind of growl that covers the next word(s?), "-enter a sort of single-minded focus, all-consuming, obsession on a particular project, often neglecting activities such as feeding, resting, and upkeeping personal higyene. Subjects display inability to sustain attention on other-"

Poof! One of Uta's potions goes off, and as soon as it does, Uta forgets ab=out Kana completely, returning instead to her vials, mixing, stirring, mumbling something about 'titration' and 'stoichiometry'.

Kana listens attentively to Prophylaxis, "I see well I wonder why that is? Perhaps it's like art or music in general. Some art or music we see and hear, resonates with us on a deeper level. They make us happy, or sad, angry, or agitated, sleepy or excited, the same rules can be applied here, but maybe on some sort of magical level, the songs make us forcibly feel these emotions." She speculates to the doctor and anyone else who is listening.

She does turn back to Uta when she hears her start to explain what the names of these songs are or at least some of the names. "Hmm... Then maybe the ting about forcing a mood or feeling may be true? Also Thank you for giving me the names." Watching as Uta foes into focus mode on the potions once again.

    Setsuna looks over at the other person , Kana, and shakes his head, "Oh trust me. I Have seen tons of strange moods, I wouldn't force one as once you start one it is very hard to unstart one." Shaking his head he contemplates the situation for a moment before he squats down and begins to put sticks together so they are standing up in a very unsteady way. " Once you put a gold coin into the jukebox you have to let the entire record play, or something like that." The sticks collapse and he looks up, "So what do people know about monsters?"

"I know that that you are the expert on them," Haru replies to Setsuna with a grin. He has been here at the cafe table, sipping his drink which is a strong coffee. No cream, no sugar. "Something new crop up?"

Wait, who's that in the shadows?

Is it?

Could it be?

It is Kotono!

Unfortunately she seems to have been a bit late. She looks a bit grumpy as she finally arrives. "How do you like that, one mob rush after another. What's the odds?" She looks for Miyako annoyedly.

    Setsuna looks over at Haru, "Yes? No? Depends what you know?" There is pure confusion on his face on how to answer that as best as he can as unlike other things with lore and not, the monster handling stuff was more just past experienced stuff. "Let see. Well what is it that you know or don't know about monsters Haru?"

Haru offers a short laugh at that bit from Setsuna. He offers a gesture as he starts to roll through his personal experience, "So purely from a Handling and Summoning perspective, I am familiar that summons come in several different kinds of varieties. For Kau, that is binders. Binders 'bind' to objects such as shields, swords, carpets. However they are really spirits in need of a physical manifest" He gestures off to the middle of nowhere to represent Kau, the resident Nightmare.

The next gesture goes to an invisible space next, "Then you have those that Handle the monster through finding an actual monster in the wilderness like a Wyvern or a Slime and Capture it to be called upon in the future. That is Monster Handling in its purest sense of it such as what Uta does with Slimes or Luna does with her beastkin."

A hand continues on to gesture to Setsuna, "Your Handling I know the least about other than it is similar to Kau's in that it calls that of the spirit to do your bidding, though it often comes out as the rogue souls still lingering to a physical form. Skeletons, for example. Very traditional necromancy style stuff."

He then points to himself, "And for myself I call upon the elements as elemental sprites. Its a similar process that they need a physical anchor to be effective, so I summon them around an object anchor that limits their potential up to the point I can control. Drills for Terra, Earth. Alchemical Ice for Won-qu, Water. Artificial Moon for Eve, Dark." He coughs into his hand. "I can't capture Monsters on my own and I've considered learning more about the binding process, like that with Kirin and Mikage or Fuka. Always up to learn more to give my little guys and gals a fighting chance against some of the threats out there." A tap of the foot. Tap. "And, yes, I know that a Monster can never truly be a 'friend' like an Animal companion can. If not kept in control they react like any other monster and attack in kind." Sad, but reality.

    June shows up... she's a LOON after all, but she shows up in June time... which is to say bleary eyed, with a hangover debuff and hours late. "Hey guys." she offers, yawns, pulls out her kisiru and packs it before lighting up and taking a draw of smoke. "Uhm...Anyone have more progress on the Alvarian language? I sorta got distracted..." she says and punches her fists together her new engraved plate cestus clanging together before being banished back to her inventory "Keep getting the strangest NEEDs to advance written magic."

    Setsuna listens and blinks some and then blinks some more and then blinks again. There was a lot there. " Well that was sure a lot." Takign a moment Setsuna does his best to take that in and then speaks, "Well capturing a monster doesn't make it callable in the future. At least I mean... I suppose how you think of something as a callable but still." Taking another step he contemplates where to start. "Ok basic capturing 101. You find a monster and weaken it, then you capture it. Once captured you can fit it with a control collar of some form. These control collars take your mana to keep a monster handled. That is capturing a monster."

     The necromancer then hmms and haaaas for a moment before adding, "So you can convert a monster into a summons but once you do it isn't a monster anymore. They don't hang out with you all the time, and they are really more a magic thing then a monster thing then. Now with that said if you do this people have managed to bind one monster into their shadow, like Giganpor did. " The next part is said with some serious nature, "Uta and I don't convert our monsters. Our monsters are monsters day in and out."

     Then just like that there is more to be said in that same sort of rambly info dump way, " Monsters can't be friends, but that is a mentality they grow in to and appear to come from some outside influence. Still researching that. " Finally it looks like his towr of sticks is going to stand as he steps back for a moment before adding one last comment, "If you mean Kirin the divine beast, that's not a monster. That is a divine beast, very different."

    With everything said he looks up over at June and shakes his head, " I ahve no clue. I was just minding my own business when these loons just started talking to me and asking questions. What do you know aboout the Alvarian language Ms. June?" Setsuna tilts head for another moment or two before shrugging and looking back at the tower, "Now I need bait."

    Miyako pauses, looking up from her guitar to focus on Setsuna for a moment, even as her fingers continue to pluck out the tune. "So does that mean," she asks, "If you took a baby monster and raised it yourself, you could make it... not a monster, I guess?" She's not quite sure what to call it. She's never done the whole 'taming' thing before. Closest she ever came was a pet cat back in RL.

Haru looks to Miyako and nods his head, "I was wondering the same thing. If what makes a monster a monster is its nature, does that mean there is room for domestication? The same way that hunting dogs were borne out of the domestication of wild dogs over generations."

    Setsuna looks over at Miyako and smiles and then laughs, "No you can't do that. How do I know? I tried a year ago. I found a cerberus while trick'r treating and got my cerberus as a puppy. Anyways in the beginning the magic needed to handle them was light. Easy. More like a leash to stop a puppy from doing puppy things. However more and more it's become aggressive and now I have to treat it like a normal monster. Again something is making monsters act this way. Like going feral but worse."

    June shrugs and hmmms "I know the meaning of one word, two phonemes and two graphemes." she says and taps her lips "I know several other words but only their spoken and written forms without meaning for certain. I was hoping more meanings had been discovered. I know there is a tie to the songs of the Landers." she says "The chaos gates are tied into the Alverian tongue somehow, they react and activate to sung portions of the words we have found but still do not activate." she puffs on her pipe

"Not to sound like an ass about it," Haru starts, "but have we tried that with monsters that go generational quickly and bred the behaviors necessary to not go feral? Like bunny monsters or the like? I don't know offhand how many generations it took our forefathers to make feral wolves into Siberian Huskies, but Im sure it was more than just one." He grins, "A cerb puppy though? Even feral that sounds pretty damn adorable."

    "It sounds to me like Setsuna is saying that it's not Nature or Nurture that does it, Haru. It's something else. Something external is forcing it. So we'd have to find that and find a way to shield against it." Miyako shrugs. "Doesn't sound particularly simple. If it were, Scale would all be home by now."

    Setsuna points a finger at Miyako, "Yes that. My theory is that it is the effect of the thing we let out when someone in a certain New World alliance broke quarantine and let it out. Quarantine was meant to keep it here but no no no it's out there now." Fishing some cheese from his inventory he places it on the sticks and watches now intently." The beast is free and loose on this world. The beast is no longer contained." Looking at Haru he adds, "Slimes are a good point for the exact question you asked. Uta has made several slimes, no friends." Looking back over at June he responds to her, "Lots of sounds huh? I think I heard schneider and Uta together had six words figured out, don't know which ones."

    June nods "Ooh that would mean they've found the meanings for the words that light the chaos gates unless they found all new words." she hmmms "Well shit, I was hoping I'd missed more but I guess not." she grumps "Guess I'm going to have to go questing for song so I can properly study all the songs of the landers isntead ofjust using Uta's research."

Haru motions a hand to Miyako, "I'm saying we have too limited data for that to be a truth. Science is about repeatable studies with multiple points of data. You can't even derrive a standard deviation with less than 30." Whoa now, big ole math nerd talk inbound. "We are always looking for ways to advance a field. I..." he stops himself. No. A head shakes, "I'm a Moonlight Goldsmith, for example. Fuka made a fridge and is a Moonlight Enchanter. Pushing the boundaries of this world is part of what we are capable of doing within the system boundaries and it may involve some powerful stuff to get the results."

He coughs into his hand and picks up a cold cup of coffee, "I'm saying its a theory, not a fact, at this stage. Thats all. Giving up early on a different theory sounds premature." There is a quirk about the New World Alliance statement. "Before my time, but I'll ask about that another time. Lots of ancient skeletons in the closet Im finding out these days." A thoughtful look to the side about the slime commentary. "Hmm. Good food for thought." A the end of the day, these methods don't directly effect how Haru handles his own summoning. It does lead to interesting opportunities in quality of living, though.

    Setsuna stands up and looks at Haru almost in a confrontational manner before shrugging and readying himself, "I haven't given up. Need more data yes but when a monster goddess tells you all but the same you have to take her word for it or else she will use her eight legs and poison to change your mind. " With that said he turns and walks off to make another trap for a mouse a good block away and then another and another...suffice to say it will be a long trip back to the seventh floor.

    June puffs on her kisiru and produces a beer, a beer and smoking is sure to solve her hang over debuff right? Then she remembers light magic and just cleanses the debuff before starting to drink looking much better than she did apon arrival.

Haru has never been good at just accepting the words from authority as the words to live by. No good hacker would. He offers Setsuna a smile when he hears that he hasn't given up, "Safe travels, Setsuna, and thanks for sharing. I'll take it to heart." A hand raises to wave as he goes, settling back down for his cold drink.

    "Monster... goddess? Damn. What else have I missed?" Miyako shakes her head and looks back to Haru.

    "I'm not saying give up on the idea, just... something to keep in mind, a factor to take into account." She waves to the departing Setsuna, and then goes back to playing her guitar, switching from the Lander tune to a classic bit of jazz.

Silent and still, she has not spoken for awhile just merely observing from, "There is a Monster Goddess?" Her ears twitch and eyes widen, though voice is still emotionless. Lifting a hand to wave to Setsuna, "Take care." Calling out and returning to listening.

"News to me," Haru says to Kana as well. This world is always about learning. So things like the Alliances and cross-Alliance efforts like LOONS are so instrumental to keeping things flowing. To Miyako he takes a breath before saying with a sorry, "Tone was out of line. My apologies. I understand that the theory goes both ways." It seems some of the War coordination is eroding his more carefree decorum in favor of being a bit agro as of late. He looks at his coffee and pushes it away. No more stimulants today.

Meanwhile, Kotono is sitting listening to Miyako playing her guitar. The Spriggan taps her foot along to the music. Then again, Kotono loves anything Miyako plays it seems.

Yawns, and does stretch as she gets up, making a little squeak. "I think it's about time I retire, that Gnoll hunt was the first one I've ever done, so quite tired." Standing now, Kana does a small graceful bow, her hair cascading over her shoulders, "For those who don't know me, I am Kana, and I hope to help in future endeavors on these songs and gates. It was a pleasure meeting you all, be well and be safe." She gives a faint smile, checking herself over, she then heads in the direction of the inn.

"Sleep well, Kana. And again, you did great out there, seriously. I'll share some fun tales about some other adventures that will make it look like you were a superhero in comparision," Haru says with a smile. Its true. Sometimes the Fates are cruel. However thats why a good party is a good thing to have in face of Adventure!

    June finds a spot to settle and listen "You have the words too?" she asks of Miyako "Really need to find all the Alverian I can... even if I've heard Uta go over all the songs before." she puffs on her kisiru and chuckles

    Miyako hmms to herself, then nods. "Course I have Words," she tells Haru, though her eyes flick briefly to Kotono as she says it. "Oh, wait, you wanted me to actually sing it?" She grins and changes to a different tune. "This is an old favorite." The opening is slow, but upbeat, clearly building up to something.

        Times have changed,
        And we've often rewound the clock
        Since the Puritans got a shock
        When they landed at Plymouth Rock

    If, today,
        Any shock they should try to stem,
        'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
        Plymouth Rock would land on them!

    The beat picks up, quite rapid now, and Miyako grins impishly as she starts to sing the verse.

        In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
        Was looked on as something shocking
        But now, God knows,
        Anything Goes!
        Good authors, too, who once knew better words,
        Now only use four-letter words
        Writing prose - Anything goes!

The words may not make sense or seem like nonsense to some, but Miyako definitely has a way with words. Kotono smiles and nods her head in time with the music. Something about Miyako's music really gets to her. What is it? Who knows?

    June laughs "I meant lander songs." she says and grins taking a swallow of her beer. "I mean that's nice though. I like it." she puffs on her pipe sending smoke into the air.

Haru pushes out from his seat at the cafe and stretches. "Its about time for me to get some sleep as well," he says to no one in particular. He makes his way over to the inn, offering a wave to those still assembled at the LOONS meeting.

    Miyako chuckles lightly as she finishes the song. "If you wanted a Lander song, you should have specified it," she tells June. "Some of them can have odd effects on some people, though, as Uta mentioned earlier. So I won't sing those." She waves to Haru as he departs.

The party isn't quite over as the elf seek to joijn those who returns.

"mmm It's been good to catalog as many of the stories of the people of Yamato." She ntoes as she'll then sit down. "I did a song compling the stories of heros of the people of Yamato." She'a seems very proud of that.