Words Don't Come Easy

There were some arrangements, and here Uta is, apparently waiting for someone. She's sitting on a grass-surrounded stone, not far from the teleportation circle. She's strumming on a lyre and humming, eyes closed, just enjoying the moment and the breeze blowing in her face and ruffling her hair.

Schneider has sought out the Slime Mistress, Uta, far and wide across Yamato. In and among all the other things he has going on, so maybe not as ferociously as possible, but at some length.

"Uta!" he calls out as he aproaches where she's sitting.

She may remember him from such projects as the Scale Library and ... uh ... the Scale Library. Well, he's the Scale Librarian, anyhow.

Approaching her, he bows formally and calls, "Good afternoon. How are you doing?"

Uta turns, blinks, and smiles. "Schneider!", she exclaims. Her song is interrupted, and she rushes to greet the newcomer. "I remember you from such projects as finding the Beet Vandal, and the Scale Library, and that research about the Scrapped Princesses war and the Spriggan Hero-" She stops and taps her chin. "Well, the result and all the taking care of you during your Srange Mood. But I wouldn't hold it against you if you forgot that. Strange Moods... do things to your head."

She flicks her menu open and begins to navigate through it, conceivably to store away her musical instrument. "I'm doing great, thanks! What about you?"

Schneider had indeed forgotten about the strange mood. Well, as she says, it was a strange mood. "Ah, yes. The food you provided was good," he recalls belatedly. Well, ingredients have flavor, so as long as he ate them raw or had a someone with the skill cook them ..."I'm doing well," he admits. "Everything going on, of course. So much to do." He shrugs, it's hard to describe a busy life in a single sentence.

"But anyhow," he says. "Some Guildies and I, including Setsuna, who you know, were talking about Alvish and Words of Power. And they mentioned you'd done some research. I was wondering if I could help with that in any way? I don't know any words, but I think they could do some things I'd been hoping to do that wouldn't work otherwise."

Uta smiles, "Oh, that!" With a final jab of her finger, the appropriate menu entry is selected, and her lyre shimmers away. "Sure, I'll be more than glad to involve you, but it's important to note that there's some very thin strings attached," Uta starts, generally cheerful but with a hint of businesslike determination as the sentence proceeds.

Her finger has been moving around the inventory menu, and shortly after, a set of scrolls materializes in her hands. "We've started an informal group of interested parties who cooperate on cracking this 'Alv Language' puzzle. The tentative name would be Loosely Organized Open Network of Students', but..." She makes a bit of a face. "...we need something with a better acronym."

"Anyway, the very thin strings attached can be summed up in two words: 'no hoarding'. We got where we are by cooperating and sharing. We'll glady tell you what we know, but we expect you to contribute back any findings and progress, or any leads that might hint at more knowledge." She places her hands behind her back, and with a smile and a quirked eyebrow, she looks at Schneider directly. "You in?"

Schneider takes a minute to work out the acronym, winces, nods about maybe coming up with something better. He'll think about that. When Uta comes up with a pile of scrolls, he blinks, but then looks pleased. As far as cooperating, he nods, "Full disclosure, sure," he agrees quickly.

He will try to take all the scrolls, if they're being offered, but Uta putting her hands behind her back draws him closer than he planned, and he steps back with a smirk. "Of course I'll share the info," he says. "It's for the good of all the players, of course, and it's unlikely to shock or alienate anyone." Which was not the case with his research into the Scrapped Princess War. Uta got much more info dump on that than the general public did.

Uta nods, pleased. "I expected so. I remember how you shared that bit about the Scrapped Princesses war, so..."

Uta produces the scrolls. "This is what we have at the moment. Charcoal rubbings of the Alv script on the Chaos Gates, and the teleporter here at Fort Ouph. Plus some transcripts of some alv script people happened to see and transcribe during special events." She unrolls the scrolls one by one, and even points at the Fort Ouph teleporter right next to her when she reaches the scroll with the corresponding charcoal rubbings. "Pela Clarpuff came up with the idea of the charcoal rubbings. This way, even people without Scripture can make an excellent copy. I'd say it's genius!" She will hand Schneider the scrolls one by one after unrolling and showing him their contents.

All scrolls, except one, the last, which she tantalizingly holds back for a little longer, with a grin. "And now, want to see something cool?"

Schneider is looking more and more intrigued as Uta produces more scrolls of such intriguing things. "I had no idea you had all this," he admits. "This is quite a lot of ... well, raw data." He eyes the scross as you show him one by one. "I understand the Alv script is not /just/ language. But something more, somehow. I'm not sure if I can uncover things your previous Scripture people haven't been able to, but I will certainly try."

When Uta holds back the last scroll and teases him a bit, his first thought is intense curiousity, but that is tempered by his knowledge of Uta. "You've copied a slime into a scroll?" he wonders worriedly.

Uta looks away and taps her lips. "Hmmm. I wonder if one can do such a thing... Like... combine Jude's Ofuda techniques with enchantment and summoning... that could be interesting..."

She shakes her head. "No, no. This is different."

She slides the scroll into her belt, clears her throat, clasps her hands together, and closes her eyes.

She intones a strange melody, some sort of Ransom Note Song, made by cutting bits off other songs and gluing them together.

"o/~ num rre lof enne enter o/~"

As she sings each word, something impressive happens: one of the runes on the teleporter platform lights up, a different one each time, and by the time Uta is done-

All of the runes have lit up -- except one. A single, tantalizing rune has not had its corresponding word sung.

No further effect is forthcoming from the runes or the teleporter at this point, but Uta's face lights up with excitement, to mark the end of the show, and to silently ask, 'how about that?'

Schneider definitely looks intrigued as Uta sings the teleporter awake. "This definitely looks like it's powered by Song and Scripture together," he observes. "You just need the last word. I wonder if that will awaken it for good, or if you'd need to sing it awake each time to use it?" He shakes his head, "That's speculation, of course. We'd need to find that last word, first. If only the Hero were still around to interview. But I will find out what I can. I think if we can get these gates up, it will make travel so much easier. I think maybe I will start researching with that in mind."

He eyes Uta, "Or, well, you have a better idea how it works. Do you randomly find words, or search for specifics, or how does it go?"

Uta unrolls the last scroll, to show its contents, and her smile grows wider.

It's a table. The first column contains the six words from the teleporter ring, as written there, in Alv script. The second column a phonetic transcription so people can know how each symbol is pronounced. The 'missing' word, of course, is missing a pronunciation there. The third column contains only one entry, for the glyph pronounced 'enne', and it's its tentative translation (Something like 'wishing/desiring').

Her smile turns into a teasing smirk as she lets the scroll return into its original rolled shape, and hands it to Schneider holding it at one end, as if it was a relay baton. "Now, now. I've given you a lot. As they say, that's enough talking about me. Let's talk about you. I'll explain the exact techniques when you bring me (or take me to) something Alv our group hasn't collected already, okay? I don't know, some runes, even better if they're written on something that can be activated, like the platform here. Or some songs we haven't collected yet- oh, yeah. Remind me to talk to Doctor Prophylaxis. I need to discuss Alv songs with him. Could be a good opportunity to hand him my transcripts. Anyway, in case you know where to find Alv songs, I can bring my phonograph and record them for later transcription if needed -- it's impossible to transcribe them in one go, I've tried. It takes multiple listenings."

Schneider's eyes widen as Uta shows him that final reveal. He was not expecting it. Then again, he doesn't normally expect scholarly seriousness from Uta. He will clearly be revising that opinion. He nods immediately about taking her to something Alv that hasn't yet been collectedd and studied. he nods about letting Proph know, and says, "I will let you know when I find something, then. I wonder if the last note for the teleporter is needed for activation, or is a variable name depending on detination?" Well, he can speculate forever.

Schneider bows again, taking the relay scroll, and says, "I will see what may be found, then. I don't have your facility with song, but hopefully my knowledge of Scripture will do for me."

"I don't know for sure," Uta admits. "But my educated guess is that we just need to identify the pronunciation of that specific rune."

She waves a hand dismissively. "Don't worry, you can always call me when you need anything Song-related done. Believe me, I'm as eager as you to crack this mystery. And yes, Scripture is a great skill to have. It allows us Scripture people to copy Alv script faithfully enough without needing to charcoal-rub it. Some sources were holograms which existed only briefly, so that's a life-saver."

"One last thing..." Uta says, suddenly very, very serious. "I think it's important to point out that, as far as I know, we started from scratch or almost nothing, and reached these results in a matter of /weeks/. It was astounding how quickly our research proceeded. This is the power of open research and cooperation." She turns away, to look into the distance. "I believe that a big part of what is holding us Adventurers back from our true potential is all the infighting and small-minded hoarding of information."

Her gloomy gaze is lost in the distance for a moment, and then she returns to smile at Schneider. "Well, I guess that's all I can offer you at the moment. Anything else?"

Schneider hrms and nods about identifying the pronunciation of the rune. "That's straightforward enough, then," he declares, and nods again about calling on Uta when the need for Song arises. His eyes widen as the one last thing comes up. "So fast," he remarks. "But then, it seems you've slowed after your initial surge?" That seems strange. But he nods about open cooperation. "I will share with you, and trust you to share responsibly," he says.

He shakes his head about anything else, and says, "I will be a bit delayed, I've been roped into participating in this tournament coming up. I hadn't planned on it, my projects are more important, but once the tournament is done, I will work on this full bore." He bows again. "Thank you for your assistance."

"We had a big burst, but then we ended up in a rut, yeah-", Uta admits, scratching the back of her head. "Lack of new Alv material, and lots of things coming up. That was just before I entered my own Strange Mood, and since then, I've been busy with... other things." She taps her lips repeatedly. "I should get in touch with the others and ask them if there's been any progress on their side... especially in cracking the meaning of words."

She bows back to Schneider. "Thank you for reaching out. Good luck with your tournament, I hope it goes well." She blinks. "Wait, the tournament is coming up? I should look into signing up, if- Oh, snap!" She slaps her face. "I have an important customer to take care of. I can't take part this year," she groans.