Alne Investigation

It is well after the apocalypse. That is what everyone is now calling it. Everyone is still here. Whatever they are doing on the outside, it is taking longer already then it should.

Different groups are already splintering off. People are moving out of Alne in different directions. Others are in denial -- more still despondent. There is lots of confusion, lots of strong feelings and people lashing out or coping in different ways.

A few have banded together to try get some more concrete information. They've spread out and spent time talking to people as they leave, discussing with friends over chimlink, or even looking into the changes around the area or helping the people of the land with new problems which have suddenly appeared. Now they gather inside the Alne bar.

Several have come, and new faces have arrived to hear the news. They mill about talking in small groups. Standing on the small stage Guild Zorin whistles sharply to get everyones attention before pushing up his glasses to call out to the gathered crowd.

"Thank you again for assisting us in this investigation. I'm sure many of you have heard a variety of rumours over the last while and I hope we can put a few of those to rest now." He looks out over the crowd catching the eye of several familiar faces. "When it is your turn please come to front and relay the information your team have uncovered. But first I will go over what I've learned myself."

He takes a short pause before continuing with a sigh, "It's true all the Chaos Gates no longer working? It's also true that our logout button no longer exists."

Looking around Zorin sees that there are grim nods, this isn't new information as he continues. "Further, there are many wild rumours that we've actually died and this is the afterlife, or that we are stuck here forever." He shakes his head sadly, "I want to confirm that while we don't know the full situation, we are very much real, and I'm certain it is possible to leave once we figure things out. Still I will give the stage to others who have some more information about real facts surrounding these rumours."

They've gathered in the bar, so Shiruba grabs herself a seat near the front. Mostly out of habit. The player is use to being a shorty that can't see over crowds and those habits are still strong. She's debating maybe getting some to eat -- bland and tasteless as it is -- as well when Zorin starts talking, wolfish ears pert with her attention.

So far nothing new, but it is good to make sure everyone is on the same page.

While Mikage isn't one for crowds under normal circumstances, situations like these sometimes call for stepping outside of your comfort zone. The druid stands out a little bit, amongst the crowd, if only because she isn't wearing your typical blade or magic user starting gear. Instead, she is wearing furs and leathers, a cloak pulled partially over her head, though it leaves her face visible.

Leaning against the wall, Mikage seems to be listening intently to Zorin. There were certain people who certainly had a head for leadership and organization, and she is more than content to let them shine in that role. There is the occassional twitch of a brow or the shift of weight, as if she weren't one for standing still too long.

For now, though, she remains quiet, waiting to hear what the others have to say, or perhaps for her turn to offer what little she knows.

A female cait sith in a formless, nothing special blouse and skirt lingers in a booth by herself listening to those who have gathered here. Her hood is up, ears still flicking from side to side as the patched, grey robe covers most of her features.

She remains quiet, looking from face to face with mild interest.

Among those present is a very... Were Fang looking octopus. Its head big and bulbous and pink, with a pound 'snout' at the front. Tentacles down its shoulders and along its back. Its hands are two large 'main' tentacles with suckers at the end. It's clearly a person, that much is obvious. They in fact even just have regular legs, which looks that much weirder. But they're here for this meeting. According to his INSPECT information, his name is Masaharu Ogata. Looks like one of those newbs who uses their <real name> for their character. Probably an older person.

Remarkably, he's wearing quite the nice suit underneath all the pink and tentacles, and the anime-styled dumb-found eyes as he listens to the people talking about all they've found out.

    Giganpor has attended mostly because he heard something about information gathering. So far, nothing new. But well... he feels like putting a step forward. The tall lion-like man brings up, "I have some information outside of this, but I do not know if it will effect you all or not. That can come later, if you wish. You seem to be working on the core situation, rather than the outside of it."

    He is settled not far back, but is easily recognizable from the Apocalypse as one of the ones trying to get people to the main square and get things figured out.

    Same appearance, same slightly glowing cloak, and he's a big freaking Were Fang Lion of some sort. He looks around the room, looking for those that he might know or have encountered before.

    A certain wolfish ranger (bard, actually) is here. Kyo doesn't have a lot of reason to be in the bar area, in particular. Rather, no one does, unless they just want a place to sit down, and one cheaper than the inn. Nothing you can get from here feels worth consuming, and oh, she's tried. She kept trying, until she'd gone clear through the limited menu.

    She doesn't have new information to share, outside of a few things anyone could think of, and no one could confirm, so she doesn't raise her hand to speak. That doesn't mean she's without other business here, besides listening. She catches Giganpor's eye, as a recent party member would, and gives a nod while she moves over to take a position near Nureha. Since this is mostly unrelated, she keys in to the chimlink for that off-topic topic.

Gwen has been out levelling, gathering supplies and the like. though now is time for other matters. While she intends to hit up several more of the dungeons later. For now, she's got to help out with this little project here more or less.

"I needed to take a break from rats, goblins and gnolls."
E She notes falling in with Zorin.

"Eh if we're stuck here forever it could be worse. I don't plan on dying to test this out and I doubt anyone else would."

She sets a hand on Shiruba's shoulder.

Gwen visibly flinches at the Tentacled Werefang, oh god it has tentacles.

"You hear something Shir?"

"I sadly have little on this situation. Other than a lot of big movers from before the apoch are active."

    Mizuki's back in her town armor with the jacket and pants. She finds a seat somewhere and gets a glass of water -- they can't screw up water -- and listens to the tech guy from Apocalypse day reiterate stuff they already know, her ears focused forward.

    And... that's it.

    Well, she hasn't been idle these past couple of days, has she? But Sam is absolutely not a public speaker. Getting up in front of a crowd for a rehearsed bit is one thing, but extemporaneously? He'll always flub it up and fumble awkwardly, for sure.

    But... would Mizuki really let fear and shyness stop her? Of course not! /Mizuki/ is extroverted, full of energy, and speaks up, without shyness or fear of embarassment! Besides, even if she flubs it, people will probably act more forgiving towards a cute fuzzy catgirl than a geeky guy.

    Mizuki's fingers tighten into fists on the table. Her muscles tense. That's right, charge forward before you can feel self conscious! She starts to stand from her seat--

    And Gwen's already stepping up on the stage. O-oh.

    Does this count as Gwen saving her by tanking the challenge again...?

Ogata turns with those dumbfounded blank eyes at Gwen as she shirks away. "I'm sorry." He remarks to Gwen, realizing his appearance isn't the most pleasant thing in the world. "But this is my fault. I messed up, and this is my Punishment Game." He explains to her, before shaking his head. "This is all too unreasonable." His tentacles kind of flop about.

Nyoro~n

"You!" A pause. "You'd understand." He remarks, as he recognizes Mikage kind of, hiding against the wall. He then hangs his head a bit. A miserable individual right now, it seems.

"I thought this was a meeting to talk about the... technical aspects of all of this." He then notes, before looking to Zorin. "That's why you invited me, right?"

Kaydon is in his were fang form, a chair turned around so he can lean over the back of it, as he watches the ongoings. Rats and gnolls and goblins and who knows what else, he's tired from fighting all of them. His armor is gone, replaced by a simple looking pair of pants, a leather jacket and perhaps some kind of tunic or shirt under the jacket.

He munches away at an apple, since it's the only thing that tastes halfway decent. Barely puts a dent in your hunger, but its better than the mushy cracker taste of everything else.

After a few minutes, he speaks up, "We don't know what's going on in any of the kingdoms, other than Ezzo. It seems that everyone that was in the others all got transported here. Which means that they could all be functioning as normal, or could be in complete chaos." He glances up at Gwen, "Rescuing the people stuck in Ezzo needs to be our top priority, but we can't assume things are all sunshine and rainbows in the other kingdoms."

After Ogata talks about it being his fault, the gnoll were fang tilts his head, "What are you talking about? Your looks are a punishment? Or being stuck here. Because if you have some idea of why we're stuck, I'd love to hear it."

    Misa can be seen standing off to the side of the stage, her arms crossed against her chest as she hugs what looks like a clipboard to it. She listens to the information presented by Zorin. Most of it she already knew. She had not considered that they were all dead though, as that's preposterous.

    Soon enough, Zorin presents the stage for others to discuss their information. Misa naturally moves first, walking up onto the stage. Moving the clipboard into her hand, she looks at it for a moment before looking up to the crowd, "My guild has been one of those that has been scouting out the first floor of Aincrad Tower. So far we've managed to cover a two kilometer radius around the entrance. For the most part there have not been any significant changes to the mobs or the fields."

    Misa pauses for a moment to let things sink in, before she continues, "Progress has been slow as we are approaching the situation with caution. We've been using a seven team group in a two row formation. Five teams on the front, two on the rear. The two front outer teams are scouts to watch for adds while the group is engaged. And to act as emergency reinforcements in case of surprises. The three front middle teams consist of tanks and DPS focused on engaging the primary targets. The two rear teams are support. So far this formation has proved successful at safely covering a fair amount of ground."

    Misa flips the page on her clipboard and continues, "We've encountered a few other high profile combat guilds also making their way into the tower, along with the occasional soloer. We've begun to exchange information and coordinate our efforts in order to improve the efficiency of our pushes."

    Misa lowers her clipboard at this stage and looks out amongst the group, "And finally... We've managed to reach the small village of Tolbana. Those of you who have played in the past will recall that it was often a great location to stop during your first trip up through the tower. Well... We weren't able to get inside, but it appears abandoned. No signs of any landers. And there have been sightings of mobs on the town walls. We're attempting to gather further information and considering how next to proceed. Thank you."

    Misa proceeds to step down from the stage, calmly walking back over to her original spot.

Nureha is looking with curiosity at the Tentacled were-fang, but they are no more an oddity than anything else in the last day or so, so they let the matter pass with only a faint smile. Her eyes are drawn to the approaching Gwen, raising her eyebrows as she recognizes them from the gnoll caves. No.. was it the Goblins? The Rats? She has a time keeping them straight in her head. It's been a busy day.

She raises a hand from her booth in greeting and listens intently to what Misa has to report, nodding to herself in certain spots before turning back to the octopus. "Calm yourself, friend." she says towards Ogata. "Tell us what you came all this way to say."

With appreciation Zorin returns to the stage thanking Misa as he returns to the stage. Looking over to Ogata he returns to the stage. "My apologize, I should have laid this out as more of a round table and given a clearer outline. We will briefly go over some known information and then I would like to introduce this individual, Ogata Masaharu. Did not someone have some additional information on the rumours?"

A raised hand in the crowd. He points and calls out, "Yes? Would you like to speak?"

Climbing the stage a rather rotund were fang with coppery coloured hair and a bear like appearance takes the stage. He glances back and forth a bit awkwardly before beginning in a deep rumbling voice.

"Hi.. So I'm Brashton, umm." He pauses again looking over to a couple of individuals who send him thumbs ups. This seems to give him some further courage and he continues. "Right, so during the events of the apocalypse Balmung and someone named Kite got into a confrontation. Apparently, they have confirmed that others have been trapped in games before. In comas no less!"

The large man hesitates, "It is possible we are in a similar situation now. Also with the length of time that we've been here, it looks like we may be here awhile." Having said his piece Braston nods slightly and returns to his seat.

Shiruba is... completely unsurprised there is at least one person that made a Were Fang involving tentacles. This is the Japanese server after all. And Octopi are popular for REASONS OTHER THAN THAT. Hff.

One of those being food. Which is just going to remind her she's going to get hungry, so she's not going to think about that either.

"Chillax, Gwen." She tries to calm her friend by using one of the 'cool' phrases she's heard the other ex-Americans use.

Then tilts her head. Comas? That get people stuck in games... this isn't new? "Okay... that I did not know," she mutters under her breath.

    Giganpor stands up, moving to the stage after Misa steps down. "My own is a bit more worrying. My name is Giganpor, for those that do not know. I am something of a crafter that I picked up from my guild. Grandeur's still not sure on our stores, but some of us have been trying to get into crafting. I am told it is not just myself, but a lot more. Our current limit is uncommon items that I know of."

    He brings up his menu and sets a sword down on a table. "This is one of the items I have managed to craft myself. Instead of being a good balance, the balance is all to the point making it unwieldy. Other items, such as armor, have poor straps or buckles. The other... any items effected by the Black Wave seem to be stuck at level one. Nothing any of us have tried has been able to restore levels. Durabilities, yes. But not levels or anything else."

    He looks around, "To put it simply, we are stuck with poor equipment that may or may not be a bit better than new player equipment until this is sorted. No flaming swords, no special effects, not even a bonus from a good repair attempt."

    He steps off the stage afterwards, leaving the sword where it is.

There is a long moment where Mikage just flat out stares at the tentacled Were Fang. Though her avatar certainly is different in some ways from her real world counter part, it is close enough, especially figuring she is one of those oddball players who used their real given name for their Adventurer avatar. Her eyes squint, and then she moves her hand in the familiar command gesture for inspect. "Ogata-san?" She blinks in surprise.

"What the hell did you do to piss off Mihara-san this time?" Clearly, she has some idea of why he might have ended up in this predicament. Her lips press together, perhaps not exactly wanting her real world intruding onto her life in the game just yet. "Whatever information you have, tell them. I only have guesses, you were always closer to more influential people than I was."

She turns then, keeping the tentacled Were Fang in her peripheral vision as she keeps one ear trained on the others. Information about the tower. Information about Balmung and Kite. Information about crafting. It's all important, and she seems keen to absorb as much as possible.

    Kyo stares. "Octopus... man," she mutters. "...octoman."

    Should she be getting mad at this, as someone potentially responsible? No, this doesn't seem like the time for it. Someone else is sure to shout at him at the slightest provocation or hint of knowledge or culpability, anyway, and that's not her character.

    She doesn't need to sit, so she leans. Leaning is a <<Cool Pose>>.

"At this time, we don't know if that information is true for everyone. The effects of death, I mean. Early on this morning, a player respawned at the Church in the town of beginnings and I can.. personally vouch that they were in no condition to escape their predictament intact. So in regards to the comas, we have to take into account the location just as much as the act itself. What is true for the Tower may not be true for locations like Ezzo or the other kingdoms, or even the Root Towns themselves."

She listens keenly to Giganpor's thoughts on crafting, making a distinctive swish of a tail and flick of an ear as she drunk in every word. Being unable to create items, even with all of their previous equiment and experience? Being unable to create new player equipment beyond uncommons?

Intriguing.

Gwen does not even realize she stepped over Mizuki's own efforts. Then the comas come up again.

"Aye I was there if it wasn't for Naotsugu we would have had the Royal Guard show up." Gwen pauses for a moment.

"Asider from the food is it so bad to be here?" She looks over to Giganpor.

"I'd been too busy on hunting to look into that, good to know. The lander merchant likely have better than this if we can get some levels iand coin."

She stops at Mikage talks to Ogata and sbacks off to give him some space.

    Mizuki listens to the others speak. So, there won't be any crafting support?! She DID hear Giganpor on the chimlink earlier, but her mind was elsewhere and it didn't really hit home. All those times in Black Cloud, that others in the guild gave crafted items to Mycroft, giving him just a bit more of an edge to support the guild... there would be none of that this time, when lives hang in the balance. Just great. CC Corp is really screwing them over!

    After Giganpor finishes, she looks around. This is it.

    Mizuki stands, strides up to the stage, and jumps onto it, ignoring any stairs. She turns and faces the crowd. And hesitates for a second. All those faces, looking at him...

    "I-I was there! I mean, on the first day, I overheard Balmung and Kite too. They said they knew someone who had been trapped in the game, and CC Corp covered it up!" She does NOT mention Balmung's accusations that Kite is responsible for all of this.

    She points at the sky. "However! Whether this is some afterlife, or we're stuck here forever, or we're eventually getting out..." She lowers her arm to point at the crowd. "What matters is, we're here now! Whatever other doubts you may have, you know YOU're real, right?" She makes a sweeping gesture with her hand, then holds it to her chest. "We all are!"

    "And that means what happens to us matters! And while most of us may be relatively safe... many of us are not! The players trapped in Ezzo need our help! Even if it turns out we can respawn, their root town is corrupted, and it's spreading after them or something. So we've got to send boats over there... we need people with sailing skill, and others can contribute resources to the effort to help us hire boats!"

    Mizuki takes a deep breath. "...But there is one last wrinkle. Leviathans, great monsters from the game's lore, have resurfaced, and may destroy gatherings of ships. We don't know exactly how strong they really are, but in lore a single one destroyed an entire navy, and we're still low-level. However!"

    The catgirl points at the audience again. "The landers have learned to avoid them! As long as we send no more than two boats next to eachother, and keep those two an hour apart from the next group, we're safe! So if we can raise the money to rent the boats, we should be able to get plenty of boats to Ezzo!"

    Still pointing, she looks across the crowd. "Um. I guess that's all I have to say! Thanks!" And then, a little too quickly, she hurries off the stage and back to her seat.

Returning to the stage Zorin continues, "Thank you Misa, Mikage, Giganpor, and Mizuki. This is a lot of valuable information and I hope it helps ground people in our current situation."

He pauses then looks over to Ogata who is still flopping his tentacles about. It seems continuous? Regardless he looks back over the audience. "Now with the general information out of the way, I would like to turn to what we are able to determine about the technical situation we find ourselves in, and hopefully maybe start to get an idea about what we can do about it from the inside."

He again turns to gesture to Ogata and says, "I would like to introduce Ogata Masaharu, a technical expert in the real world, and involved in Angelic Layer none the less! He will be the one summarizing the information we've gathered on the technical aspects so far." He bows in respect to Ogata. "Thank you for coming." And with that he leaves the stage once again whispering under his breath, "I'm a big fan... got to keep my cool..."

Ogata's eyes water, making for comedic looking streams of water. "It is true! It's you!" He calls out to Mikage. "I... I spilled coffee on his labcoat." He complains, before looking to the one asking about the punishment itself.

"Just the looks." Ogata remarks, that 'snout' moves any time he talks. It looks rediculous. "I don't think Icchan would be this cruel, or even knows how to do such a thing." He whines, further tearing up as Kyo speaks; "Please don't go giving me weird nicknames." This man already sees enough abuse.

Finally, he gets up and slowly wobbles towards the stage, wiggling his way there, almost tripping over the sword left by Giganpor.

Nyoro~n Nyoro~n Nyoro~n Nyoro~n.

He takes that stage, politely waiting for everyone to be done, and then immediately bows.

"I am Masaharu Ogata!" In a typical apologetic Japanese greeting.

Nyoro~n.

"Representing the Piffle Princess company. A subsidiary to CCcorp." He explains. "We never got the latest data from CCcorp. But they helped us with some of our research. I heard my boss speak of technology that could increase 'Dive' experience by cutting off the sensations of the real world better. But the test gear that we got was not even remotely this realistic." He explains.

While she's digesting all that Shiruba leans a bit closer to Gwen, whispering to not disrupt the other conversations. "Have you tried crafting anything yet? That was more your guys' thing." If someone else can verify the issues Giganpor was having, it'd be more clear it's a wide spread issue.

Then the Octopus Techie takes the stage and talks about more technical things. One thing stands out.

The wolfgirl raises her hand, waving it a bit more than necessary because the player is still use to being short person trying to be seen. "Do you think this has something to do with how everything feels more... 'real', now?"

She then points down at her fuzzy tail. "Before this just felt 'there', an animate part of the character model." The tail twitchs. "But now it really feels like an actual part of my body."

Ogata turns to the wolfgirl, Shiruba, as she speaks. "I do believe it has to do with the new technology. At least... I think so. Yes!" He remarks. "The technology was always there, but the processing power on the servers - I believe was lacking?" There's a questioning tone to his voice. It's clear he's a fallible actor, but he's doing his best!

"Excuse me, Mr. Ogata. I have a question. How CLOSE to reality did CC corp want to get? What was their vision, beyond the test gear they sent you?"

Nureha stands up and bows politely to the octo-poid, looking polite but diffident in manner and question.

    Mizuki is shaking when she makes it back to her seat. She feels like she just narrowly survived a raid. Well, before all this began. Speech fright isn't nearly the same as being terrified she's about to die, after all.

    Her ears perk up. They've got a technical expert? She leans forward in her seat and listens.

    ...And it seems he's waiting for questions. She raises a hand, "Are there any safeties in place that might eventually kick in? Like a limit in the Fulldive protocol on how long a session can last, kind of like the old internet's DHCP leases?"

    Giganpor frowns, "I met one of those in the field the other day... called themselves KARAOKE. So... what you are saying is someone probably seriously screwed up that caused all of this?"

    Rubbing his furred chin, Giganpor eyes Ogata. "More importantly. Do you have some means to contact the outside world? Surely there is an account, back door, or something you were told of just in case?"

Gwen grins at Mizuki for a moment as she stands up and brings up both the Levithans and the situation with Ezzo. Good, it looks like staggering the ships would be the best option for the mission and now comes Masaharu Ogata. She looks to Shirba "I haven't tried to make anything...I should look into that."

Shentoes to her friends, she then calls out to Masaharu Ogata.

"So you are saying they been testing out next-gen dive tech? Yeah, I'm getting feedback from my wings and ears here. So any idea how long this has been going on? Or what could cause a possible locked in a game situation? Where there any hazards with pushing things further and further to reality?"

Ogata is a glutton for punishment, and the sad expression on that octopus face is enough to melt most hearts. So, Mikage slings an arm around his shoulder and pulls the man in for a hug. "No, you're right. I know he's not involved." As the others seem interested in what he has to say, she quickly backs off, giving him a nod. "You're here now with us. Be strong. Right?"

She then steps back, but seems to stay close to the other Were Fang. Perhaps because the two know each other in the real world, she seems to have an almost protective quality over him. Folding her arms, she remains quiet, not sharing her own experiences directly, since Ogata likely has all the same information she has, plus much more. Better it come from the Octupus' mouth so to speak.

But when the questions start coming faster, she has to speak up. "Guys. Ease up will you?" She looks between the crowd and Ogata. "We worked for Piffle Corp, not CC Corp. Though we used a lot of Dive technology in our research, we weren't involved at all in development of Elder Tale." She looks to the Octopus again, putting a hand on his shoulder.

    Kyo will not take back her comments. She stands by her dubbing of Octoman, in memory of a game about a perfectly normal human father. She stands silently, though, at least for the next few seconds.

    Then, "What happens to you if you fall into a coma from a game and nobody finds you in the real world?" That's more 'talking loudly enough to be heard' than 'raising her hand and asking questions.'

    She /does/ raise her hand to ask, "Excuse me! Is VR like this even possible? I sat on a beach and covered my tail in grains of sand. Grains of sand! No system would render that, right?"

Kaydon rubs his muzzle the way one might squeeze the bridge of their nose when they have a headache, "What I want to know is this; did somebody do this intentionally or did this happen by accident because of the update? Because the way that weird holographic dude was talking, it sounds like someone did this on purpose, and if they did, they're probably doing everything they can to keep us locked in here for whatever sick, twisted reason they might have."

He leans up from his chair a bit, frowning visibly, "So that leads me to my next question. Who would have the ability to lock us in here, and why would they want to do it? What would they have to gain from it? You think maybe they're holding all of us hostage until the government or CC Corp pays them some huge sum of money?"

"I... don't know." He answers apologetically to Nureha. "But to corner the market, I imagine they would want to go all the way." The man then turns to Mizuki. "I do not know the answer to that. The Logout button, and a override phrase 'Logout Now' are supposed to be in place. I think?" He explains.

The man then looks to Giganpor. "I think some GMs have the ability to message outside - according to some articles I read." That is all he can give her. He is looking overwhelmed, his eyes turning from blank stares to confused and overwhelmed swirls!

"Uhhh... uhhh." He comments when Gwen speaks up, looking like he might fall over. Mikage to the rescue. He relaxes just a bit. But the questions are of course still coming. How could they not?

"I don't know." Ogata answers Kyo.

To Kaydin, he shakes his head. "I... think I saw the picture of that old guy on a big group photo with my boss once. But that's it." He notes. To who would have the ability to lock them in like this, "I don't know."

Watching from the sideline as Ogata is barraged with questions he looks on with some concern.

"(It's times like this I'm glad to pass the flag to someone else.)" he thinks in dry humour, still he has a question himself.

aising his hand, waiting until Ogata flails a tentacle in his direction.

"Weren't there safeties put in place to make sure people wouldn't end up scarred if the dive gear was removed?" and after only the briefest of pauses he tacks on, "And shouldn't there be some way to pull up diagnostics information or developer tools while diving that could give us more of an idea to our real world health?" He looks somewhat pained as he considers that thought line further.

    This isn't as productive as Sam hopes. Although, the wolf girl raises an interesting point. Grains of sand? That... shouldn't be possible... And others are covering the more immediate medical concerns. But there's something else she's curious about too: "The way we all understand both English and Japanese now... was that something FullDive could theoretically do with more power, too? Perhaps more importantly... does it hint at any other capabilities that might be able to help us out in this situation?"

Zorin asks about the safeties. He doesn't know, and shakes his head. "It depends on the firmware." He explains. Then, looking to Mizuki; "Yes. It has full access to your brain, in theory, it could do that." He remarks to Mizuki. At the comment about further hints, he shakes his head.

    Giganpor rubs the back of his head, looking considerate, then looks around the room before he looks over at Ogata, "Well, were any GMs logged in when this all happened? 'Cause that's something we need to find out. And do you know anything else about what's going on? Possible event or something that got launched? Like our gear getting corrupted and stuff?"

Zorin nods slightly to himself. "(There have been a lot of very pertinent questions. But I wonder..)"

Raising his hand once more he waits until a tired flop in his direction and asks, "What I really want to know is: do we have any leads on what we can do to help wake ourselves up? Do you think the hologram we saw talking about a Twilight K is valid?"

He looks on with some hope in his eyes.

In the far back of her mind a little voice more like that of the human probably laying in a coma in her bed or something starts to wonder if maybe her father was right. That this big booming technology companies didn't learn from past mistakes and were only pushing society back into another disaster. Unscrupulous and unconcerned with anything else, and--

Shiruba immeadiately slams the lid back down on that mental box. We are not falling down that dark hole. There is no father here to try and shove such exaggerated ideas on them. Her mental imagery sits on the box. Then after the moment scoots to the side and picks up the corner. "I'll let you out when you're ready to cooperate without the gloom and despire. There's enough of that going around."

Back in reality (this is reality now, so to speak) Shiruba shakes her head a bit to clear those thoughts away. Takes a moment to marvel that she can feel her ponytail swaying back and forth, with actual weight and presence to it's movement. No lazy hair jigglybone graphics here. Then settles back in her seat. In a sense getting back into character... So to speak. It's arguably not just in character any more.

"All this information is good... Even if there's more questions than answers..." She taps fingertips against her cheek. "We may have to continue with making due with what we can, and working to better ourselves for survival."

All the way.

Nureha looks around at the people, one at a time, looking at the disjoint between the little name tags above their heads and the expressions on their faces. The cool poses and peppered questions. She peels apart this idea. The Dive Gear has full access to your brain.

She frowns, looking to Giganpor and squinting at him as she thinks that. She looks around, sitting in the chair and looking around the room as she draws idle patterns in the table in front of her. "You are completely sure the Dive Gear has completely access to every part of the brain, Mr. Ogata?" She tastes the words as she says them.

"The firmware we used had failsafes so that if a person couldn't remove the Dive gear themselves, that it could be removed for them. We worked with the disabled, so we frequently had to hard-reset them out of Dive scenarios." Mikage explains. "But our firmware and the ones being run on the home machines are entirely different. In fact, they very well could have pushed out a firmware update along with the expansion pack."

She shrugs then, seeming at a loss. There were many questions that she is sure that Ogata simply wouldn't be able to answer. "I don't know either. I'm just as lost on all of this as you are. I just came to watch the fireworks on New Years." She offers with a sad sort of smile.

"I would guess, that if they could disconnect us, we would have seen people disconnected by now. Which means something is keeping us in the game."

Ogata nods his head to Nureha. "It has to. The Five Sense technology requires it." He explains to Nureha. "At Piffle Princess, we were using the technology to make small dolls." He explains. "We had to give enough feedback to give the user better use of the Dolls." He then looks to Mikage for a moment, and simply nods.

    Mizuki nods at the explanation. FullDive has complete access to her, well, his brain? That's GOT to have more unrealized capabilities.

    When others ask if a GM is in the game with them, she raises her hand again. "I heard there's a GM in Ezzo that took control of an NPC to lead the players there to safety. But if they have to do that, that may mean they've lost access to more straightforward functions like admin teleport."

    Giganpor looks considerate, then looks at Ogata, then over to Mizuki, "Are we sure it's a GM? I mean, a lot of this could be NPC going nuts. What I'm worried about is that old man in the rocker saying someone was perverting his dream or something. I mean, could we all be in danger here?"

    He looks considerate of that, but shrugs, "It's part of why I started to make so many arms, armor, and stuff. Thinking perhaps we will have to fight either way. And not sure who or what might be targetting us."

"This is going to sound dumb." Kaydon says, after a moment or two, "But what if it wasn't a GM? One of the updates was supposed to be improved AI in the NPCs. I mean we've seen it.." He motions to Gwen, "The guy in town that was sending rats through tunnels at his rival. That's not something I've encountered before." He pauses for a moment, and then continues, "He also responded to the way we were talking to him...I threatened him with a health code violation and he flipped out."

    Mizuki looks at Giganpor. "They have complete access to our brains and have put people in comas before. If they wanted us gone, they would have done it already." Although, she shivers at that realization. Complete access to the brain? Sam thought FullDive was /safe/... well, it's kind of a pointless thing to worry about /now/...

Gwen looks to Kaydon "How many people would give their left arm to get out of the soul-destroying society we made for ourselves back home? Who do you think a lot of people play games like this...There's nothing left to explore back on Earth."

She pauses at Mikage and the other who speaks up she takes a deep breath.

"I apologize you and your co-workers are not to blame for this. You have stuck your neck out to share what you know with all of us."

Gwen pauses at Ogata's information about the old man it could be useful. Though how close to market was the new technology?"

She pauses for a moment thinking

"Giganpor? The Ezzo region is being corrupted. A surviving group of players and Landers are trying to outrun it right now. So something may have borked things hard..."

She looks to Mizuki and blinks, Att Syne had not mentioned anything.

"That's right and the guy who hired us to go clean up the rats? He reacted very naturally as well, even bringing up the history of his rival. Not to mention what the guy who did it said before the end. He did it all out of jealousy..."

Shiruba nods her head when Gwen and Kaydon bring up the rat quest they'd gone on. "The gnolls, too. They acted more like... how would you put it... actual creatures? Still kind of dumb... Other than the one that was a mage or something... but it was more."

She pauses for a long moment, trying to think of a good term.

"Organic than just running scripts. More.. like everything else.. real."

Ogata shakes his head. "I don't know." He simply answers Gwen at the ask on how close to market things were. "It was all a matter of software and firmware. The Hardware was where it needed to be." He explains.

So many questions, and so few answers to be offered up. "Gwen's right. Whatever is happening in Ezzo isn't normal. I was able to get a view using a spyglass this Undine girl had. There were buildings spawning out of mountains, toppling over and spawning more buildings, and a giant cannon that is the biggest structure I've ever seen outside of Aincrad."

Mikage fidgets with a leather strap of animal fangs hanging off of her neck, a nervous gesture, "It's like proceedural generation software has gone completely amuck there. At least from the little we could see from here." She motions her hand towards Gwen. "You were able to get in touch with people there, weren't you? Do you know anything else from people who are actually on the ground there?"

Ogata turns to Zorin, "I... don't know." In regards to what can help wake them up. "There's supposed to be security measures in place. That's all I know. It depends on the implementation."

    Giganpor shakes his head, "I think he's as in the dark as we are."

    He stands up from the wall, then turns to go. The lion rubs the back of his head as he goes. "... I'm going back to the forges. If you folk need me to try anything gear-wise, just come give a holler. I try to give a discount where I can right now."

Gwen says "I got a bit more last night, as of last night they are a day out from the coast near the port town closest to the old root town. They have a band of players and Landers who are all making a break for it. You heard me the Landers are running too. I'll have more later."

She looks to Giganpor for a moment "I might have work for you soon."

Nureha pulls her hood down over her face even farther, raising a hand to her ear as she sits in the booth, ears flicking to one side and down as she listens to something unheard. She gets up from the booth, laying her hands on the back as Giganpor leaves. She watches him but does not stop his progress, still chasing whatever thought at the edge of her mind.

She bows respectfully to Zorin and to Mr. Ogata. "Thank you all for putting this together. I know it was hard, considering the circumstance. Mr. Ogata, do you have somewhere to stay? Other colleagues still in Alne? It must be terribly frightening to be in this set of circumstances."

Mister Ogata bows his head to Nureha. "A few of my colleagues have a small guild. I am staying with them in Alne." He explains to Nureha, his tone still apologetic. He looks like the kind of man who'd pick up Fishing rather than putting himself in any further danger however.

"That's a relief." she says with a gentle smile. "Good night, then." She bows again to the room and then slips outside.

Nodding he looks out at the audience from the sideline and calls, "Any more questions?" Looking around there is smattering of quiet conversations but no one seems to be raising their hand so he returns to the stage.

"Thanks so much for your time Ogata, I understand there are still a lot of questions, but this helps us get a better sense of things."

After only the briefest of hesitation he offers his hand to a slimy hand-tentacle shake, then turns to the audience. "Thank you everyone for all the input. We have outlined the situation as best we know it right now." He gazes at the mixture of different facial expressions. "I know there are a lot of plans in the works, but I urge people to be cautious. Consider what you're doing a prepare well." He gestures over to Giganpor, "Equipping ourselves now may be a good idea. Hopefully those on the outside will solve this soon, but it has been too long to rule out we may be hear awhile. I think we should consider taking steps to protect each other and help those in shock or need."

He looks around one last time, "That concludes things for the technical discussion. Please continue to discuss and plan, and I hope to see most of you in the Town of Beginning where we are staging for further actions."

    Giganpor stops, turning to look at the others, "I think... after a week or two, we should start looking into other ideas."

    He says towards the others, then turns to finish going out the door. "If after a week we don't hear anything, we might want to look for ways to force us out." He says.

    Kyo stretches, then swings her arms side to side, working something out in her head while she makes sure she didn't get too stiff from all that arms-crossed wall-leaning she was doing.

    "New gear sounds like a plan. A good plan. Let's go with that." Better to focus on things you can do. Following after Giganpor now will put her in a better position to help out Nureha a little later.

"In the meantime," Shiruba chimes in, "We'll work on keeping this haven safe. There's plenty of monsters out on this island, and we've already seen how dangerous they can be to low leveled and low geared people with the gnolls." Yeah, that was a hairy experience, but they learned from it.

There is a nod to Gwen as Mikage seems to continue to stand protectively near Ogata. In some ways, at least for him, it is likely a contrast to their relationship in the real world. Things are very different here. "I'll walk you back to where your guild is staying, okay?" It would be a good idea to find out who else is here.

She reaches out and lays a hand on his shoulder, not seeming bothered by the tentacles or the strange appearance. "You did good. I think Mihara would be proud." For someone who usually ends up at the sour end of the head of the Piffle company, that's probably some manner of high praise.

Gwen looks to Ogata for a moment. "If you need any clothes I can whip up something for you and your friends." She notes to him in passing.

Gwen's suggestion gets a polite bow from the man, "Thank you." He remarks. "I think I am good on the clothing." He remarks, before looking to Mikage. "Heh..." He lets out a long sigh, sagging his shoulders at the mention of Mihara. "All of this is too unreasonable." He complains to Mikage. "Thank you." He then adds, glad to have someone who will walk him back.

"Are we done? I think we're done." Shiruba hops up from her seat. Planning is good, being prepared is great, but she doesn't feel inclined to just sit around for too long. "Time to get back to doing things, even if it's just to figure out what we can and can't do."