Schneider has some Questions

Schneider has discovered, though means nefarious and foul, such as asking people, who might know about these things he'd heard bits and snippets about from the Kunie. And the trail has led him to speak with Proteus from Olympus, who he's invited to talk and even sprung for supper. It's not luxury, but it's manually cooked food. Possibly at Vertina's cafe in the Tower.

The lure of home cooked food is always a safe bet for the mysterious Imp. She arrives at the cafe, appearing as impily mysterious as always in her hooded cloak. Some have accused her of trying to overdo the bit, but honestly, in such company who's going to complain?

She sweeps in and gives a nod of acknowledgement to Schenider as she takes her seat. "I've heard you have questions. I have answers. Maybe they'll help you get what you're looking for." She smirks a little, the sharp teeth creasing into a grin. "Or maybe a little more, considering the subject."

Schneider nods to Proteus as she enters, gesturing to push back the hood on her cloak a bit. "We're still a bit paranoid about the Crowned infiltrating the Tower," he explains. "They make trouble," he wildly understates.

He nods about having questions, "Yes. Answers are good. We have too many questions. I think we're slowly starting to get hints. But some of them are only hints of hints. Hopefully you can help us put it together."

Proteus pulls back the hood on her cloak, revealing her crownless brow. "Goodness, good thing I didn't invest in a nice tiara or anything." She jokes. "But yes, I have heard that they have been trouble." She helped a little bit with some of the research on that respect... but for the most part, she's been more or less mysterious.

"Well, let's hope the questions aren't all that mysterious, hmm? I'm happy to shed some light on the subject... and if I have questions in the future, I'd hope that you show me the same consideration."

Schneider smirks at not inventing a tiara, and nods gravely. His own Peko racing hat needs to get put away when the questions come up. He's not as mysterious about his research, but he's been researching pretty straightforward things. And nuclear weapons. That turned out to be a bit too complicated for him.

As far as his questions, he says, "Well, basically, we found out from the Kunie in Dun Loireag that certain system functions were locked or changed and these shards of the Twlight Dragon seem to be the device that holds the enchantment. Player flight, was given as an example."

As things get down to business, Proteus folds her legs and leans back in the chair. Her tail begins tipping back and forth like a metronome as she listens to Schneider's query. "Certain system functions? Player flight might be one example, but do you have others?" She asks, her voice curious. "I don't have any informaiton on a Twilight Dragon, but I do know of shards that have connections to unusual powers. I'm wondering if they might be the same, but I might need more information to correlate."

Schneider nods to Proteus about controlling certain functions, and says, "We only know a tiny bit for sure. We got maybe two sentences out of the Kunie that was even vaguely on topic, and he was annoyed with us even bothering him to ask. So we don't have much more than guesses beyond his exact words. Which as I say were very few. But he said that the Twilight Dragon's shards were shaped like game peices, and that they controlled ... things that seem oddly unrelated to me."

The mention of game pieces causes the violet eyes of the imp to light up, as if something was snapping into place. "Aaaah." She says, satisfied. "You're talking about the Shards of Enigma. So they are related to this Twilight Dragon, eh? Interesting, interesting..." She trails off for a moment, her tail snapping back and forth more quickly as she looks off into the distance, pondering...


"... There are strange objects in the world. Pieces of an object. They come in specific types, each corresponding to a type of sealed power. One who holds a piece of these shards can release it by manipulating the piece, and it will perform your bidding... once, in exchange for setting its contents free."

Schneider nods about the Shards of Enigma. "That sounds like the thing we're looking for," he agrees. He nods slowly as Proteus describes how they might be used, though he'd guessed that far, himself. "What we really need is to find one or more of these things," he explains. "Ones that seem important, obviously, for various things. Flying, for instance, without getting mauled by those monsters that cling to the Tower. That would be wildly useful and Uta will have a conniption fit." Which is probably worth the whole effort just to see. "Just telling her we had a hint nearly caused her to have a seizure."

There is a little shrug from Proteus. "I have seen several varieties of Enigma Shards. I am collecting some of a specific type, in fact. I have not, however, seen any that would grant the ability to fly. I have seen those that give knowledge, foresight, the ability to influence natives... And even change the nature of the World in various ways." She purses her lips for a moment. "But nothing involving Flight. If I do find anything on that, though, I will let you know. And if I find one, I will give it to you... If you give me equivalent pieces of the type I am looking for, of course."

Schneider huhs, says thoughtfully, "What you have sounds like a relic moreso than what I'm looking for. But if I have what you want, I am willing to trade. I have things that claim to be Icons of Enigma, but I think this must be a lesser thing. They may have powers like you describe, though. I have nothing that would be equivalent of letting creatures fly without risk throughout the land."

"I didn't expect you would have anything of the sort, otherwise you probably wouldn't be asking for my help. I don't have anything that would let me fly, either." There is a little sigh, the imp's cheeks puffing out for a moment before she releases her breath. "Bleh. This kind of thing is really annoying to deal with. It's a complete scavenger hunt. I'm looking for Enigma Pieces that will let me breach the World's security systems. They're blocky and angular. The ones that let you gain foresight tend to take the shape of orbs or other prediction items. Things like that. If you find some pieces that look like wings or something like that, you're probably on the right track." She rubs her chin, then. "I'll look into this Twilight Dragon, but as I said, this is the first I've heard of it. If I can scrape up anything, you'll know quickly."

She leans back a little in her chair, then. "Is flight really that important to you?" She asks, seemingly out of nowhere.

Schneider has a moment of clarily and nods slowly. "I found things like that and combined them to ... well," he brushes back his long while hair, which when observed closely seems to somehow have relic status. /That's/ about as bishounen as you get. "But I think after all we're looking for somewhat different things. But if you need to combine them, a word of warning that I was given. Tri-Edge will try and stop you. We confounded him, but others warned us and I was able to take precautions. If you need to combine your enigma pieces, let me know, and I can show you how it may be done ... sort-of-safely."

As to flight being important, he shrugs. "I can fly airships within the Tower now. But a friend of mine wants flight with every fiber of her being, and I would like to get it for her."

There is another longsuffering sigh. "You did it too, eh. I know all about how it attracts Tri-Edge. The damn thing cut right through the basement of our guildhouse and came for me when I did." Proteus taps a gloved hand idly onto the table. "Though I am very much interested in how you confounded Tri-Edge. I have a feeling we will be meeting again soon."

She muses for a moment. She doesn't have any real evidence, but the Imp decides to go out on a limb and guess. "You're trying to help Uta, then?" She asks.

Schneider doesn't have any reason not to share, so will explain what he did. "We can fly with impugnity inside the Tower. So, we took flight inside the fifth floor, and performed the combination while in the air. Tri Edge followed us on the ground, but we flew faster. The stairs upward are at an elevated location, so we flew straight there before he could intercept us."

He nods about helping Uta. "She's been instrumental in a few of our projects, such as getting the Chaos Gates working. We're still missing something there also, but these pieces may unlock that also."

There is a squint from Proteus. "That's all well and good, but why didn't he just... go up the stairs after you. Can he not do that?"

There is, however, an understanding nod as he confirms Uta. "... She is a fortunate person to be able to make so many friends. The Chaos Gates..." The Imp muses for a moment. "That's another problem."

Schneider shrugs about why they were not pursued up the stairs. "I wonder that, myself," he agrees. "But he didn't. Maybe we had enough of a lead at that point?" he guesses. He nods about Uta as well. "She gives a lot, and that encourages others to do the same."

As to the Chaos Gate, he explains, "When we found the last word, we got a momentary sense of something going on, like a boot-up beep, but then nothing. Prophylaxis knew how they used to work, but nothing we did got more than the bootup."

Schneider clarifies, "That is, when we discovered the last word and sang them all together."

"The Chaos Gates are connectors to other servers." Proteus points out. "I was able to activate the Gate myself, but I got much the same result." There is a shake of her head. "We're still missing something. Part of the infrastructure, maybe, is still out of commission. Or maybe we still need to find some kind of authorization. I'm not quite sure yet."

Schneider nods about connectors to other servers. "Yes, Prophylaxis explained that much to me also, and what you said was our guess at the time. But it now seems that some shard of the twlight dragon's corpse may be what is blocking things. The possibilities are crazy. Look for small things shaped like game pieces is what we were told."

"The corpse? Really?" Proteus grimaces at that information. "What kind of creature /is/ this thing that a piece of its corpse would sever the system connections like..." She pauses. "Wait. The Black Wave began at the..." She thinks... "Was /that/ what happened? Huh. I'll need to find information to verify. Don't mind me." She waves a hand for a moment.

"If we're to look for special game pieces, the shards of Enigma would be the way to go. Keep looking for them. Keep an eye on others who are gathering them. Like Akumeiji. We need more information. I'll share with you what I learn, but... we'll see what happens. There's too many unknowns."

Schneider explains quickly, "The pieces of the corpse by themselves didn't do this, they were enchanted somehow to do it. But yes, more information is needed. It's why I came to you, I thought you might have more on it. But what about the Black Wave?" he wonders.

He nods about keeping an eye out, and says, "I will spread the word around Scale. If we find anything, we may need to work together to do anything with it."

"Well, it began with the great gun. The one off Ezzo? The one out of bounds?" Proteus points out. "It fired. There's a lot of questions that can be asked, but one of the important ones would be: At what?"

The Imp shrugs. "It's just a hypothesis at this point. I need to gather more information to test it. In the mean time... I'll see what I can do to help you further. I don't have enough informaiton to answer all your questions, but I think we have a good lead to work with here. The thing I wonder, at this point... is how one can locate these pieces efficiently."

Schneider looks puzzled as the shot heard round the world, sort of, is described. He nods about hypotheses, and has none, himself. "Yes," he agrees. "We can really only continue to seek out information. And if I find any of the pieces you are looking for, I will let you know." He bows his head, and finishes off the supper, which clearly happened but has not been mentioned previously because it was such serious business.