Libraries Are For Reading

    It's been a week or two since Miyako met with Merek, and a lot of things have intervened. The Waves, a holiday festival, and other of the usual sorts of things that distract one from more focused exploration and study. Still, she remembered the recommendation Merek had given her -- talk to Uta.

    And so messages had been sent, a meeting arranged, and finally the day has arrived when Miyako and Uta can both be in the same place at the same time -- the Library in Shibuya, on a lovely, if brisk, winter afternoon. The young Spriggan has set up in one of the side wings, with a sheaf of notes in front of her that she studies and occasionally adds to, and a parcel - a thick book, by the look of it - bound in red ribbons lying on the table nearby.

When the door to the library opens, the howling of the wind resonates throughout the library, as gusts of air wash over the open tomes and turn the pages of those who are not quick enough to hold their tomes still. Uta hurries to close the door behind herself, not without a thud, and looks around to make sure she's not caused too much disruption.

"...Ok, close enough," she whispers, sheepishly.

Head kept low, she removes her coat, hangs it near the entrance, and then heads in the general direction of where Kotono happens to be.

    The sound of the wind outside alerts the musician, and she looks up from her work to see a familiar face approaching her table. She lifts a hand to wave to Uta, smiling warmly.

    Respecting the peace of the library, she doesn't call out, but waits until Uta has come closer to the table to offer a quiet greeting. "Glad you could make it," she starts. "Have a seat. Can I interest you in some hot tea?" She produces a flask from her inventory and a pair of cups, already starting to pour one.

"Oh, thank you, that would be lovely," Uta replies, barely above a whisper. She pulls a chair from under the table (quietly, of course), and sits down next to Miyako. While she waits for her cup to be ready, she glances outside of the window. "I like the way you organized this meeting; it involves three of my favorite things." As she enumerates, she counts on her fingers: "books, a festival, and hot beverages when it's cold outside."

    Miyako nods, smiling, and fills the other glass, before sliding it over to within convenient reach of Uta's hand. "All three are delightful things to have, yes. And while I can think of more pleasant ways to spend a winter's day, they tend to be ... impractical, under the circumstances."

    She stretches for a moment, arms above her head, before settling down to sip her tea. "So," she resumes, "I hear you've been doing some good work with the... literary aspects... of our new surroundings." New. It's been almost an entire year....

Uta blinks at Miyako. "Oh? Impractical?" She picks up her cup, places one hand around it, places the other below it, and pushes it up to her lips, to take one sip. She exhales with appreciation, then continues, "I mean, I suppose that skiing has not yet reached the technology level of the world outside ETO, no...", she trails off. Another sip. "I, uh, you mean, this?" she removes one hand from the cup to gesture around at the library. "If it's this that you mean, I... well, I happened to be annoyed at the lack of a public library and... I kind of... uh... you know how some people snap and go into a violence spree?" Another sip of tea. "...It would appear that when I snapped, I went into a library building spree. Still not sure how it happened, to be honest." Some silence, another sip. "Unless you're referring to the Encyclopedia on Slimes I've written and I'm working towards publishing. That is a completely different story."

    Miyako shrugs. "Eh, something like that," she muses. "And I have to say, the library was an excellent idea." She leans back in her seat, smiling, waving a hand at the building around them. "But no, slimes really aren't my thing."

    She pauses to take another sip of tea before continuing. "Music has been my focus for a long time, as I'm sure you know. But I've been... expanding my horizons, say. Merek was able to show me some things, some of the Lander songs, how they relate to the runic inscriptions we've found in various places..."

Uta pulls the cup from her lips, and nods at the Miyako's words. "Indeed. Merek did the same to me. I was already researching the Lander Songs for unrelated reasons, and he pointed out the connection with the runes of the Alvs." She smiles, and chugs down a gulp slightly larger than usual. And breathes faster to cool off her tongue.

"...Seems like you have joined our little endeavour to try and decypher the language and learn more about those songs, huh? Welcome to the team. The more, the merrier."

Wisps of vapor rise from Uta's cup, who watches them curl and dance in the air. "I had heard about your interest in music, yes... oh, has Merek given you transcriptions of those Lander songs already, by the way?"

    Miyako nods, "It's a worthy endeavor," she agrees, "And one I have some motivation for. I'm not sure if you've heard, but we found extensive inscriptions in the catacombs beneath Shibuya. It ... gnaws at me, to be unable to go further." She looks down at the table, then back to Uta.

    "Merek was able to share a few, yes. Only four... although interestingly, one was labelled as the 'forty-third'. I had thought there were only forty-two?"

Uta darts to stand and slams her hands on the table. "HE GOT A TRANSCRIPT FOR THE FORTY-THIRD SONG?! HOW?!"

Everything stops. Pretty much everyone else in the Library levels a telling gaze at her.

Uta looks around. "....sorry....", she whispers, and lowers to sit. "I have heard the melody of the fourty-third song. Once. But I couldn't write it down! One go at it is not enough to completely transcribe a song, with all voices, harmonies, et cetera! I... I worked a /lot/ to circumvent that!"

She takes another sip of tea. "The Landers don't seem to have the organization of the songs /quite/ right," Uta continues. "Apart from there, indeed, being at least a Fourty-Third song, which I've been heard only briefly and have never been able to hear again, it would also appear that at least some songs have proper names, besides the number with which they were identified outside of ETO. And for instance... based on what I understand at the moment, song 40, 41, and 42 are actually the first three Songs to have been sung."

    Miyako winces, almost falling back in her seat, at the sudden shout, her arms thrown up as if to block a thrown weapon. "Hey!" she hisses. "Keep it down."

    When Uta quiets and continues, she nods. "I have no idea *how* he got it, just the notes he shared." She gestures to one of the papers she's been looking at, that appears to contain a musical score. "Aside from that, I have... one, six, and forty-two." She listens attentively to Uta's description, nodding along and taking notes.

Uta's eyes pop at the latest revelations. "...I recommend to be /very careful/ with song Forty-Two," Uta whispers. She lowers her voice even more, careful not to be heard by anyone else. "Its actul name is the Eternity Song." She inhales, holds her breath for a moment while she considers her words, then continues, "You know how people occasionally just enter strange moods? They don't eat, don't drink, don't sleep, don't wash, neglect their health, et cetera? They enter a status of complete, utter focus on a task, and when they emerge from it, usually about one to two months later, they're suddenly far more skilled than before in the field of their task of choice?" She sighs. "I've been performing medical research on this. There are three kinds of Strange Moods: 'Fey Mood', 'Mujou', and 'Yuugen'. According to their description, when you're lucky or skilled enough to get it, "The subject is resonating with" one of three possible songs: the Primordial Song for the Fey Mood, the Earth Song for Mujou, or the Eternity Song for Yuugen."

Uta keeps silent, arms crossed, looking down. "Song Fourty-Two is actually the Eternity Song. I've learnt that high ranking Church officials sing it behind closed doors, and all my attempts to meet them to ask about it have been met with polite, but consistent, refusals."

Arms still crossed, she tilts her head up to look at Miyako. "Be careful whom you share that one with. I have no idea of what one could do with it if it fell in the wrong hands." She tilts her head. "...or...well, the right hands for that matter. There's still so much I don't know about it."

    Miyako bites her lip as she considers the implications. "That's... I've seen those moods strike people before," she muses, considering it. "It's been... worrying, sometimes. You think there's a direct link?" She continues taking notes, paying especial attention to the part about the Church. "Do you know which songs the other two are?"

"Direct link? As if, if there is a direct link between the songs and the strange moods? Oh yes. Oh very yes. There /definitely/ is."

"Primordial Song is Forty, Earth Song is Forty-One," Uta continues. "They are, respectively, the First and Second song to have been sung."

Uta then goes silent once again, and gives Miyako a sideway glance. "But now, now. I've been doing all the talking up to now. Let me ask a question for a change, now. What kind of research are you getting into right now, exactly?"

    Miyako pauses, taking a sip of her tea, and noting down the information about the songs once again. "As I mentioned, we found a large number of rune inscriptions in the catacombs. But ... they don't seem to be musical, or anything like that. More.... utilitarian. Like labels on doors, or direction signs, nameplates. That kind of thing. I think that if we can decipher them, we'll be able to work out more about what's hidden down there. There are a lot of doors that so far no one's been able to open..."

    She takes the large package and slides it over towards Uta. "Here, this is a little Christmas gift. One for you, and I left one at the front desk for the library. All the music I can remember from ... outside." Folk songs from America, England, Ireland, Scotland, and other places... jazz tunes... rock... everything she's been able to work out so far from memory.

Uta blinks. "Oh, wow, thank you. And... how fitting." She takes some time to hold the book in her hands.

It's plain to see that she wasn't expecting this.

"It's... wow. It's so funny because... you've noticed some of the questions I've asked? About how I mentioned that I've heard that you like music, and if you already had the transcripts for the Landers' songs?"

She places the book back on her table, and flicks her menu open. With a shimmer, a much thinner book, materializes. It also has some minimal wrapping. "I had prepared this before coming here. All of the Lander Songs with Lyrics I know. First, Second, Fifth and Sixth." She bows and extends the present to Miyako. "I hope it will be useful in your research."

    Miyako takes the book, clutching it to her chest like something precious. "It's wonderful. Thank you... so much." She smiles warmly. "It'll definitely help," she agrees. "I hope we can keep in touch... this is a huge project, and we all need to be able to put our heads together."

    She sinks back into her seat with a soft sigh. "I just hope it won't take another year to work it all out." She looks down at her notes, considering the page with the 43rd song on it. Humming a few bars. "There's... something about it..." She stops, and reaches for her tea again, but the cup is empty, so she takes the flask to refill it. "Maybe... maybe I should try it. Just to see. If forty, forty-one, and forty-two..."

Uta quirks an eyebrow. "Try what?"

And then, she sighs. "Good luck with whatever it is that you are trying to do. And yes, I'm all for sharing information. Keep me updated, and I'll try to do the same with you. And honestly? If I don't know much about the other songs, I know even less about song Forty-three. All I know is that it was hummed while we were fighting an elemental machine. I'm certainly NOT going to start that elemental machine again to hear the Forty-third song again. I'm looking for other ways to find it. Oh- which reminds me."

Uta takes another sip of tea, and mentions, "...given how hard it is to transcribe songs in one go, and how I missed my /one/ chance at a full transcription of the Forty-Third song, I have researched and built a phonograph that can record songs on shellac cylinders, and play them back. If you ever hear of a potential source of a song, let me know. I'll show up there and do a one-shot recording of the thing, so we will be able to transcribe the whole thing in one go. Melody, lyrics, harmony, the works."

    Miyako nods. "Another mech, hmm? They do seem to be popping up all over the place... I'm really impressed with the depth of the lore. There's just so much to learn... and some of it weirdly contradictory. I would -love- to get a deeper look at the history of this place before the Scrapped Princesses... anything you come across on that, please, let me know? And yes, I'll keep an eye out for music opportunities. How hard is it to build one of those recorders?"

"Wait, there was /another/ Elemental Machine? Where? When?", Uta asks. "...And while we're at it, /what/ catacombs are we talking about now?"

Uta sits back and exhales. "...the Lore is, indeed, a neverending bottomless pit of rabbit holeness." She beams. "I /love/ it!" And then she frowns. "And it /annoys/ me. So conflicted." She gestures vaguely. "Yes, I just wish I knew what happened before the Scrapped Princess War. Especially during Prelude to Song. Fun fact -- I joined this game the evening of the Apocalypse, so I don't have much experience of it when it was just a game. But when it /was/ just a game, I'm told that time used to flow at a 50:1 ratio." She frowns again. "Well, if you scale the timeline appropriately, the lore and real world event line up... nicely."

Uta shakes her head. "Anyway, yes. I will keep you informed, and if you learn /anything/ about the world's lore, please notify me back. I seem to miss all the events where people find out about the Lore, and if it weren't for Merek telling me things, I would be completely out of the loop. There isn't much information sharing within Olympus, alas, and very little reporting on Lore-revealing events, so I'm... pretty much in the dark as far as what went on during most Waves and pretty much all the tower pushes. I have to glean information by asking around and doing a lot of research on my own. As you've noticed, I'm glad to share... but I'd really appreciate if people shared back."

Uta scratches her head. "Replicating the phonograph... uh... I think it took me about a month to design and build the prototype? I suppose building a copy of the prototype will not be as hard, but I've never done it before. We would have to try and see."

Finally, as an afterthought, "...I think Schneider was doing some historical research about events of the Scrapped Princess War specifically? Maybe it's worth asking him. I've been meaning to for a long time, but never found the time..."

    Miyako nods, making a note of the name. "Yes, I'll have to look him up, see what he's found so far..." She hmms softly. "As for the catacombs... right beneath our feet. I've proposed adding entrances to the main buildings, but apparently there are some security concerns, we still haven't cleared all the monsters out yet. And I think some are still spawning now and then, so..." She shrugs. "It would be nice to be able to get around when the weather gets bad, though."

    She takes a sip of tea, and her wings flicker briefly behind her. "I think... I think that it's /very important/ that we find out more about that... especially about the Princesses. Especially we Spriggans. You know the story, that there was supposed to be a Hero from each race, but the Spriggan Hero betrayed them and fought for the Princesses in the end?"

Uta's expression veers to somber. "Painfully aware." A quick glance is cast towards Miyako. "We're lucky to have the Adventurer privilege, which makes us far better accepted than our Lander brethern, but..." She sighs. "I don't think I need to remind you what the Landers think of us Spriggans. There... there are some of them who will make sure to remind us Adventurers as well."

"The Loathed Race," she begins. "Did you know that in the local lore, the constellation we know as Leo is said to represent the nine heroes?" She looks down and mumbles, "Ten races. Nine heroes. You do the math."

The tone of her voice and her body posture have no resentment or anger -- more like... shame? Her shoulders are drooped, and she's fidgeting with her fingers under the table. She avoids eye contact. "I think Schneider was, in fact, researching this particular subject specifically: the Spriggan hero at the time of the Princess War."

    Miyako nods, "Painfully aware. It was one of the reasons I picked Spriggan to play in the first place. I have... well." She pauses, then shrugs. "At the time it was cool. A potential villain, someone who could get pulled in to the dark side... possibly against her will. Not so cool now, hm?" -Might- just be a smidge of chuuni, there.

    "I'd heard about the constellation, yeah.. it's ... mmf." She sighs again. "That story's in there for a reason, and I think better to know what's potentially down the road than get surprised. I'll look Schneider up."

Uta nods. "I... I was a complete newbie and didn't understand the meaning of anything during character generation, so I, uh, just randomized every single choice I was offered. Including race." She mumbles. And then, with a hint of a smile, "At the time it was cool. Not so cool now, hm?"

Shaking her head and chuckling, she downs the last bit of tea, and lets the cup rest on the table. "Unfortunately I have to leave now. I hope that I have answered your questions, and that the answers I have given have helped." She pushes her chair back (quietly) and moves to stand up. "Oh, and just because I have to go now, it does not mean we can't meet again. If you have anything to tell, or ask, feel free to invite me again, or hit me on chimlinks... I'm particularly interested in that part where you mention that the lore is self-contradictory."

If this hasn't happened already, Uta will send a friend invite to Miyako.

...Or even if this has happened already. We all know how absent minded Uta can be at times...

    Miyako nods. "Well, you lucked out into the best race, I'd have to say. Or so I would've said at the time." She smiles ruefully. "We'll work it out one way or another." She reaches out to approve the friend request. "Thank you for coming out to meet me today. I really appreciate the help with my project." She tucks the book Uta gave her away in inventory. "Enjoy the songbook."

Uta smiles. "I will make sure to, thank you! See you again next time, hopefully with news about your research." She then grins. "Oh, and make sure to sing all the songs at all the runes. I don't know if Merek told you, but that's how I've /almost/ deciphered the full writing we found in Fort Ouph and the Chaos Gates." Uta raises a finger and opens her mouthf, as if adding something else, but then stops, closes her mouth, and thinks. She glances at Miyako, keeps her uncertain pose for a few seconds, then shakes her head. "Nah, maybe next time. Until then, see you!", she says, and turns towards the exit.