Ripples and Reverberations of That Fateful Day

Establishing shot. Aerial scenic vista of the Ezzo empire. The Landscape is a glitched mess, with the ground regurgitating more ground, buildings regurgitating more buildings. Reality and geometry seem to have spiraled into a maddening fit of chaos.

This insanity is contained by a massive bubble spanning the whole Kingdom. So, we cut closer to a specific part of this kingdom: the edge of a cliff, outside the bubble.

Uta walks into view there, She navigates her menu, shimmers leather-bound notebook into existence(a full-sized one, the size of a proper book, not the small pocket variety), and sits down on a rock. She pulls a fountain pen out, and begins to write.

And write... and write...

"Though rightfully called the Fourth World Fraction, it involved the Fifth Shard of the Twilight Dragon. With the arrival of the two ancient ones, Cú Chulainn and Camelot, their attempt to take control was halted by the Bandit King and the aid of the Ezzo Exodus members. As the outsiders ejected the Blind Goddess and used FRELLIA to release the debillitating Wave, the Fifth Shard was used to seal the Ezzo Empire in an attempt to cut off the invaders' control through FRELLIA."

By the time she is done writing, Uta's eyes are tearing up. Large drops fall down, and the paper begins to soak with them. Her consciousness fades.

* * *

"I woke up the next day, unable to speak.", Uta continues her narration. She's inside her traveller's wagon, speaking to Merek. "Unable to speak, hoarse. Migraines. Loremastering that was one heck of a strain." She sighs, then smiles. "Thankfully it was some time ago. I am better now." She blinks, shakes her head, then continues, "Sorry for rambling. What were you saying about the Bandit King again?"

    Merek looks over to Uta while she's speaking and he nods a little bit, then he listens to her. It, seems to surprise the man, and he takes the time to lift up his brow. "The Bandit King actually sealed it using the Install Port in Ezzo, though it was said the Goddesses are the one who did it. The Fifth Shard, it was used by the Bandit King to create that Quarantine. Cu Chulainn is the name of The Beast. FRELLIA is the Crest Gun, taken over by foreign powers within Ezzo. In Ezzo, The Beast is located in it, although they are able to work against Yamato through that."

Uta frowns. "...Install Port? What is an Install Port?" She scratches her head. "Could it be that the Bandit King is actually The Blind One? I mean... wasn't the Bandit King ejected? Well, ejected from Ezzo, I -suppose-. My Loremastering did not specify where or what the Blind One was ejected from." Silence. "Ok, technically -everyone- was ejected from Ezzo, so that also doesn't prove much." She sighs and smiles. "But at least, now I we have a better idea of what FRELLIA is. It's... a... uh... Cret Gun slash Tower?" Silence. "...There's a tower in Ezzo? I didn't know that."

    Merek does nod a little bit to Uta, "It's a location that is used to install things, like... The Bandit King with the sealing, I think that the program requires the port," he will add, while he crosses his arms a bit, "I think it's possible that they are the Blind Goddess. And FRELLIA was the name used by the Bandit King to activate the Data Drain."

"We should ask Shiruba to Loremaster FRELLIA," Uta comments. "She's the one who specializes on objects." She leans back. "Still. The Beast. This is interesting. We have a name now. Don't Monsters worship The Beast or something like that?" Another pause. "Wait a minute. The Bandit King used Frellia to Data Drain. Uh..." Silence. Pause. "Holy cripes."

"...do you think the power to log out was Data Drained from us?"

    "I don't know, I only know about my own Data Drain. It's possible that a System Arte might be able to seal people into the game, Monsters worship the Enigma," Merek mentions, with a nod a little bit. "Camelot might be one of the ancient ones?" the man asks. "That would make a bit of sense if we think. It would take a little research I will admit."

Haru is seen walking and talking, such is the nature of the chimlink. He would look a little off to Landers, but Adventurers get the idea about the same as 'that guy' on a phone call and a bluetooth. Which was totally a thing back in the early 2010s. Possibly. Technology had a few bumps.

"Uta, Merek," he says as he joins in, pulling a flask of hot coffee from his inventory and taking a sip. "Not interrupting anything, I hope."

"According to Loremaster, Camelot seems to be described as 'ancient one', yes. No idea of who Camelot is, or what the 'ancient ones' means in this context." She pauses. "You know who Camelot is?"

Uta raises a hand in greeting. "Hi, Haru! Welcome to an impromptu meeting of the LOONS!" She then turns to Merek again. "It's interesting that this was called a Cursed Wave. As far as I know, there was a Cursed Wave in the long past... an event which removed the Spriggans' and Sylph's ability to fly." Chin tapping. "I wonder if it also grounded the Alv..."

    "I don't know. It's all interesting but there's no... Well, we're always missing pieces of the puzzle," Merek admits, while he takes a look to Uta, "I don't know a lot about Camelot." Then he takes a look to Haru, "Aye, it's alright. Come and listen to us while we talk about lore."

An impromptu LOONS meeting? Haru nods a little at the idea as he waves. "A lot of information was shared at Alne last night. Either reviving old information or enriching with new. I think a lot of us are trying to parse through it in a way that brings about meaningful action." He offers a thought, "You know, wild thought, but what if the Cursed Wave was just a way of saying 'World-Wide Effect'? Like, in a term of computer science, if you updated the entire code structure and the recompile was, well, a Wave. Only we are in the code so it has to manifest somehow." A pause. "Which is fun to think about, but it doesn't draw much in the terms of action or additional research. Other then the phenomenon, Im not sure we know much about the Waves at all. Just that they occur, what they do, and some things that trigger them like Floor Bosses in the Tower."

"I don't know, I've never been much of the coding type," Uta admits with a shrug. "It does manifest with a Wave, people call it a Wave.

"The Alv have tried to escape the effects of one of the Cursed Waves. I wonder if these "Waves" are all World Fractions or not. And vice versa.

Schneider approaches Uta's wagon, knocks, and when invited, he enters. He'd chimmed ahead anyhow, so Uta, at least, would be expecting him... if she remembered. It's never a guarantee. "Oh!" he says, seeing Merek there also, but nods to the fellow LOON. On finding out they're on a group-chim with Haru, he links in to that, too, so he can hear.

"So," he says, "you guys are talking about shards from the Twilight Dragon?" he asks. "We learned a bit about that from the Kunie in Dun Loireag," he explains. So, it's maybe not the central subject just at the moment, but it's closely related, he feels. He looks back and forth between Uta and Merek, to let them continue before he drops his semi-topical news.

It is a good topic all the same. Haru has been pretty fired up about things the past few months and the oversight of 'What do we know about the Twilight Keys' struck a cord when they appeared to be a fundamental topic at one point. "One of the topics, yes," he affirms to Schneider, "and one I'm interested in. Beyond the words, my understanding in it is light. What the Dragon is or the shards or keys. Their relevance to our world. What research we've done on them for function or location. Or," and he motions to Schneider, "that. If there are new sources of information, like from a Kunie. I didn't visit the one in Dun Loireag." Dont let that FOMO hit ya, Haru!

Schneider nods as Haru explains that he's interested, but doesn't know what exactly these things are. "What the Kunie hinted at," he explains, "Is that the pieces of the corpse of the Twlight Dragon, which for some reason are shaped like game pieces, are somehow also bound to fantastic global game effects. The how is unclear. But things like players flying are apparently bound by one such shard." He eyes Uta as he says this, he knows that this is a particular issue of hers.

Uta FLAILS. Arms. Wings. The works. "FLIGHT!", she exclaims. "How do we get it back?!"

Haru figured Flight would cause Uta to perk. Schneider too. The two are very invested in the topic of Flight here in Elder Tales. Haru would be lying if he wasn't interested as well. "Thats nothing short of amazing. Do we know examples beyond just flight or was that a way of describing function?"

Schneider smiles as he indeed strikes a nerve with Uta. "As I said, these Shards, which are apparently shaped like game pieces, control various things." He nods to Uta, "So, if you can find this particular shard, then ... well, finding it is probably the long pole in this tent." To Haru, he says, "Flight is the only specific example I have, but the ability to log out may be in the shard at the top of our Tower. That is my guess based on a summary of what we have been told about things."