Songbird Soup for the Medical Soul

After the Apocalypse, those who lived in the Ezzo Empire had to flee, due to the devastation that was wrought upon that Land as part of the Fourth World Fraction, as some of the events associated with the Apocalypse seem to have been called.

A massive amount of Spriggan Landers, loathed, reviled because of their race, found themselves without a home.

Tolbana was one of the first places to offer them a place where they could go back to start a life. Not long after, Baroness Wake also made the area around her Castle Eas such a safe haven.

But then the Palace Lands attacked. The refugees in Eas had to flee again, making them doubly refugees. They sought refuge in the Tower.

People who have worked in the Clinic of Tolbana may remember a massive spike in population and associated work; but along the issues, support came along: Adventurers were also pushed out of their usual places, and among those who lost Everything (or close to) to the Palace landers, there was Uta Furore, Adventuruer, and Musical Kung-Fu Nurse. She also moved to Tolbana, temporarily, and became part of the staff at the Clinic to help with the extra workload.

With the (relatively) recent liberation of Eas and the Realm of Uruk, many refugees who fled to the Tower can finally return to their homes. The number of patients has been steadily decreasing, life has gotten slightly less hectic... and some faces of colleagues are seen less and less frequently.

One of such faces is that of Nurse Uta, also a Spriggan, who is here for the first time in a while. She is sitting at a table in the break room, off to a corner, keeping to herself. She has a few books open in front of her, handwritten, and she seems to be cross-referencing their contents, humming some tune.

Some of the handwriting is unmistakeably musical notation.

Akikoji hadn't been to the clinic in quite some time. He only found himself there because there seemed to be a lot of people in need of help, but after the number of patients needing urgent care began to decrease, he decided to take himself off in search of other ways to help people.

Every so often however, he liked to come back here. Just to check on the place, it was where he learned how to be a doctor after all. Sometimes he would see patients he had treated in the past, mostly landers. If he ever saw his younger patients, he made sure to give them a little treat, snacks he picked up from player vendors. They were expensive but it was worth it.

Walking into the break room, like a second home he smiled at the familiar spriggan, sat there humming to herself. He didn't want to bother her so he simply sat down beside her with one of his own books, jotting down notes. After a short while however, he couldn't help but harmonise with her humming, a smile spreading on his face as he mindlessly continued scribbling down his notes.

Uta looks up all of a sudden. "Oh, it's you, Doctor Akikoji," Uta will greet, regardless of whether Akikoji normally goes as 'Doctor Akikoji' or not. "Sorry, I did not hear you come in. I was busy studying the Songs of the Landers," Uta continues. Looking down, she taps at her notes.

She looks up once again, inhales, and says, "...I don't know if you have heard, which, given how quickly gossip travels within this clinic, you probably have, but you will be seeing less and less of me in the future. Eas and the Realm of Uruk have been freed from the Palace Landers, so I can go back to running the Slime Labs as part of the Royal Society for the Appreciation and Study of Gelatinous Creatures, and I will further be at Eas to oversee the work of the Music Conservatory..." A short pause. "And probably help in the Olympus HQ's infirmary. Maybe do something in Shibuya. My brother Haru has been asking me to help with his atelier, might look into something vaguely medical there..."

    It's another lovely, wonderful day in Tolbana, and Miyako was only in town to turn in a few quests she and Kotono had been dealing with. That done, she's gone a-wandering about town, planning to meet up with her partner later to get a room at an inn and enjoy the evening. Right now, however, she's somewhat at loose ends.

    So when something draws her eye to the clinic, she rather idly wanders that way. Stopping at a vendor's stall, she picks up a packet of sweets, before heading in.

    "Hey, Utacchi," she softly calls, greeting her fellow Spriggan. "Whoops, didn't mean to interrupt special times." She grins, teasing, and waves to Akikoji. "Don't think I've seen this one before."

Akikoji looks up from his notebook and his humming stops. Looking up at Miyako he smiles. "I usually work the shifts no one else can do. So people don't recognise me as much" he chuckled. "The name's Akikoji, qualified doctor and upcoming Idol and star. Nice to meet you!" he laughed at how silly he sounded introducing himself.

Akikoji was slightly curious, he didn't know Uta could hold a tune so well, it was a lovely melody too.

"The conversation was only just getting started i assure you!" he smiled reassuringly at Miyaku before turning to Uta. "Dr Uta, it's wonderful to see you again, whenever I don't see people that used to work here such as myself I always like to think of them travelling around helping people. But....did you mention something about a music conservatory?!" any form of professionalism was lost as he became giddy about music.

"IT IS NOT SPECIAL TIMES!", Uta armflails at Miyako, suddenly all red in the face. "I am done with my shifts for the week, and I am trying to see if I can find out more about the language of the Alv!"

The Alv, the Ancient Race(tm) which, according to Lore, is responsible of so many wonders in the world, their level of achievement far beyond what Adventurers and, as far as people know, Landers, can achieve.

There is a bit of a blush and the slightest hint of squirming and embarrassment as Uta is referred to as a 'doctor'. Which is not inaccurate -- despite her attire and the title she introduces herself with, the tasks she carries out match far more closely those of a doctor than those of a nurse. But, unlike what other people might have witnessed in the past, this time she does not panic at being called 'doctor' instead of 'nurse'.

"T...thanks, doctor Akikoji," she says, instead. And then, prompted by the question, she launches into an explanation, "Oh yes!", she begins, fists clenched. "An institute to study how Song underlies the fundamentals of this world!" She begins counting on her fingers, "You know how Adventurers occasionally go off the deep end, enter some sort of maniacal state of hyper-focus, and, in general, neglect nutrition, personal hygiene, self-preservation and common sense to single-mindedly obsess over some major advancement to the world? And when they're done, they are given a quest by one of the Goddesses, and if they accept, their skills are bumped up dramatically, far above normal people?" A short pause. "You might remember that happeneing to Doctor Prophylaxis a few times as well." That's one big name! Major leading figure in Scale, and head of the Clinic of Tolbana.

"Well, according to my research..." Uta taps the musical notation on the page. "...what happens with these individuals is that they are Resonating with one of three possible Songs." She leans over. "So I have decided to start an institute to study how Songs affect the world so deeply!" Silence. "Aaaaaaaaaaand entered a sort of maniacal state of hyper-focus where I neglected nutrition, personal higyene, self-preservation, and common sense to single-handedly obsess over its completion." she mutters, embarrassed.

Well, at least that explains why Uta could hold a tune so well.

"I think you'd love it!", Uta exclaims. "You said you're an upcoming Idol and Star, right? I'd like to hear more about it."

    Miyako blinks, then head-tilts, as she processes Uta's denial. "So you mean you're all cuddled up with Cute here because it's cold out?" She shrugs. Whatever. "Language of the Alv... any new progress?" It's a definite field of interest for her, as well.

    She listens patiently as Uta goes on about the Fey Mood phenomenon, nodding along. "Happened to me, too, when I was working on the Anchor Ballad," she adds when the other Spriggan pauses for breath. "The whole 'goddess quest' deal, too. Something about finding the first ones. Thus, Alvs." She waves a hand at Uta's pile of papers.

Akikoji sits there, with his ribbons wiggling in excitement from under his sleeves. An eager glimmer in his eyes. "That sounds amazing, i've never experienced something like that!" he was in awe at the two before him.

Clearing his throat he puffed his chest out further. "Yes indeed, I've decided i'm going to be the most famous idol in our world. That way when people see me, they'll be filled with vigour and vim!" he chuckled. "One day, i'd love to sing a song that reaches everyone. Just to let them know that whatever their view on the world is, not to give up." he blushed a little bit. "Sorry, that was incredibly cheesy. I'm a Doctor, i should be focusing on the medical scienes I suppose"

"I am not cuddled up!", Uta protests again, fists clenched. Blush.

But luckily, there is a change of subject. Anchor Ballad! "I remember that, yes. The Ballad of Operation Anchor. A story enshrined in song for posterity." She turns to Akumeji. "You ever heard that one? I think it'd be a great one to add to your repertoire if you're serious about the whole Idol thing."

"Our latest advancement was to get two Chaos Gates to boot up and... attempt to talk to each other, I guess?", Uta returns to explain to Miyako. There is a frown of doubt in the nurse's expression.

Chaos gates, the quick teleport system that broke during the events of the Apocalypse. Since then, people had to go places the slow, painful way. With a very small number of exceptions, like, for instance, the teleporter that is used to reach the floating city of Fort Ouph from its base.

"Of course, there is something -blocking- their connection. But still, it's a big deal. We figured out how to boot two of them up individually, and that we somehow have to fire up two at once, and get them to talk."

"Well, see, that's the thing," Uta reprises to Akikoji, all serious. "part of my quest to become a Moonlight Doctor was unlocked by figuring out that, in the past, in a place named Orth, the Alv could cure people by the sheer use of Song." Let that sink in. "They might still be able to, if they're still around. I absolutely have to figure out how they did that."

To get back to the main point, "It's not cheesy. Things work in surprising ways in this world. I mean. The random generator at character creation gave me a Musical Kung-Fu Nurse as a concept, so...", she shrugs, with a grin.

    .o/~ "I'd like to teach the world to sing / In perfect harmony / I'd like to buy the world a Coke..."

    Miyako chuckles softly. "That's the biggest thing I miss, you know, outside of, like, all my books and games and stuff. Soda. Sure, we've got other stuff, but it's still not the same." She shrugs. "Somebody'll figure it out. Or maybe somebody has and I just haven't heard yet?"

    Ahhh, Denial. It's not just a River in Egypt (tm). "I'd be glad to sing it for you, write out a manuscript copy. I got a lot of Landers involved in writing it, really fun project." She grins proudly.

    "Curing people with just song, hmm?" Getting the Chaos Gates working again would be Really Nice(tm), but this is what catches the Spriggan's interest. Of course. Music is her Thing, after all. "That'd sure be a nifty thing to work out. Had any luck so far?"

Akikoji sang in a melodic manner, "I'd love to hear the ballad~" before chuckling.

Taking a moment to think, Akikoji pauses. "Well, if you stationed two players with a strong enough Telecommunication skill, that would help with activating them simultaneously. The difficult part is finding people with a high enough skill set." He sat there for a moment, thinking back to the people he had met in the past but no one came to mind with high level Telecommunication.

"I'm always willing to learn more new songs. I didn't know they could do such a thing with just Song. If I could heal people that come to my performances...Yes! I will learn how to do this!" with determination in his eyes he smiles at the two of them. "We should all work together, a three part harmony would be perfect, don't you think?"

Uta shakes her head. "No luck, no progress." she mumbles to Miyako. "I'd first have to figure out just -where- this place named Orth is."

Uta crosses her arms at Akikoji's suggestion. "I don't know. I suspect there's some sort of... 'protection' in place that explicitly prevents the portals from working. I suspect we might need to... hack the database or something." She leans over. "I don't know if that kind of healing will extend to a whole audience or it will have to be specifically crafted on the individual patient. There is so little we know aout it." That said, Uta, after she's done harmonizing with Miyako's song, perks up, even her wings stiffening and fluttering with excitement. "Oh, my. Do I have news for you! See, we have this little operation going on. It's called the Loosely Organized Open Network of Students-" look down and away, mumble, "we need a name with a better acronym...", look back up and resume without skipping a beat, "-, a group of like-minded of individuals who research lore about Song and the Language of the Alv primarily, but also about anything else Lore-related, and meet whenever, wherever, and openly share whatever they find out. An antidote to the widespread secrecy and information hoarding that seems to plague the nobles and part of the Adventurer population. Would you be interested in being part of it? Really, only requirement is to openly share what one finds out."

She leans over. "It's more than three part harmony. It's a whole chorus!"

    Miyako grins, nodding. "The world definitely needs more LOONS. And c'mon, Utacchi, it's a perfectly cromulent acronym. Heck, you were the one who came up with it." She shrugs.

    "Maybe we just need a couple of really accurate clocks to synchronize opening the chaos gates, instead?" That would put it into Accessory Forging rather than Telecommunications. "It worked for navigating ships at sea... remember the whole Longitude thing? There was this famous book on it..."

Akikoji nods in agreement "You're right, that could totally work, set the clocks to the same time and it should be accurate enough!" he nodded furiously in agreement.

"So, Miyako. Could you teach me more about this, Anchor Ballad was it?" he smiled and his ribbons began wafting smoothly in the air.

"I guess," Uta mumbles to Miyako on the subject of the naming of the LOONS. "I did name that, yeah. In a moment of weakness..."

"I don't know, felt like something was blocking it, but you're free to try, Miyako! Just make sure that both Chaos gates you test are in the Tower, and that you have System Protectors with you to shield the event from detection from the Palace Land... Oracles and Loremasters, I guess? If we activate the Chaos Gates, we definitely don't want them to know! Lest they use them to invade us. Also, it would give -us- a tactical advantage..."

Uta thinks for some time at Miyako and Akikoji's comment on timings. "Which brings up another subject. Do we even have timezones in this world? It would be interesting to figure it out, considering how we have access to a different continent now..."

She leaves the discussion of Operation Anchor and the associated Ballad to Miyako. It's her moment to shine!

Akikoji agrees with Uta. "It is most certainly something that we should consider. However Myself and the other Scale members spend most of our time in the tower...So I don't know how much help i'd be on that front. I think on the scientific front, I'm currently working on making medicine taste nice. I noticed some of the children, both players and landers don't really enjoy taking it when they get sick. I'd like to change that" Akikoji nods, briefly dipping into his Doctor side again, he felt like he needed fake glasses to appear smart.

"But didn't you mention something about your own song techniques Uta, would you teach me some?" he bowed his head politely, brushing his hair out of his face.

    "So, yeah," Miyako starts, explaining Anchor. "About, oh, yay-hundred years ago, before Adventurers came along, the Landers put together a raid party to try to take out one of the big 'border guard' boss monsters, the Leviathans. It ... didn't go well, overall, but it was a pretty epic thing. Different factions working together to a mutual goal, heroic rescues, all that." She smiles softly. Settles into a seat near the other pair.

    "So I figured, why not get the Landers making their own songs? This would be a good example... so I spent a couple of months trekking up and down the coast, collecting stories about it, and getting people to write bits of the song."

    She leans back in her seat, stretching out, hands above her head. "Great fun." She hmmms at Uta's warning regarding the Palace Landers, and nods. "I'll be careful," she promises. "I don't go up in the tower much, though."

Akikoji 's jaw drops agape. "That's incredible Miyako. I think it's a wonderful thing to encourage the Landers to make their own music. We should help them just like they help us, that's so cool!" he is in genuine awe of the two he sees before him, they were both so upstanding and hard-working.

He took a deep breath in, "I would very much like to join to LOONs! Please allow me to learn from you both!" he bows his head

Uta nods at Miyako. "Understandable. I or other people can take care of most of the details if you'd rather keep it that way."

Uta bursts into laughter at Akikoji's bowing. "Don't worry, don't worry! No need to get so formal. We're .... loosely organized by definition. There's no official membership. It's all very informal. Sure, feel free to join our research. We'll make sure to let you know what we've learned about the Songs of the Landers..." She looks at the other Spriggan. "Both Miyako and I can teach you. As LOONS, we have shared pretty much all we know with each other. So either of us can slowly get you up to speed."

    Miyako nods to Akikoji. "Just doing my best to try to help out," she demurrs. "It's ... something special to see -them- sing it, though." She grins. "Ever see a whole village come together in song? You can feel it in your -soul-. It's really something else."

Akikoji 's eyes begin to brim over with tears. "That sounds truly beautiful. I'll do my best to improve my singing so I can help like you guys do. Although, I do believe that I should be off soon, I have a performance up on one of the higher floors!" he begins to wipe the tears from his eyes, composing him and slapping his cheeks to bring out the natural blush.

He bows, his tail flicking at the air behind him and then curling around his right leg. "I'd love it if you guys could come see one of my performances some time! Or maybe you two could sing for me, sometime!"