Prelude to a Legacy

A traveller's wagon (which is pretty much a re-converted large barrel on wheels), pulled by a Grunty (larger than average, oddly enough wearing a maid's uniform, a purple wig and fake green Sylph wings) munches on the grass of a field, while a waterfall off in the distance provides some background noise.

Uta is sitting on a stool just outside her makeshift abode, leafing through some thin leather-bound notebooks while she waits, hoping the directions she gave Miyako will allow her to find this place.

    Fortunately for an experienced explorer like Miyako, the directions were far from hard to understand, and she arrives only a few minutes past the agreed-upon time. She walks in with a casual, friendly smile, though an experienced eye might spot some strain behind it. "Good to see you, friend," she offers as she approaches.

    The Spriggan produces a camp-seat from her Inventory, settling into it across from Uta, and withdraws a notebook of her own. "Things going well on your end, I hope?"

Uta's not exactly the icon of relaxation right this moment, but that is the general kind of tension that seems to be common with Adventurers, given the current geopolitical situation.

She blinks at the approaching of Miyako, and replies with a smile, "As well as they can go given the circumstances, I suppose. I hope the same holds for you?"

She closes her notebook and after placing it atop the small pile resting in her lap, she takes some time to adjust them so they line up nice and neat.

    "For the most part," Miyako agrees. "Haven't had nearly as much time to spend with my friends as I'd like, so..." She shrugs. "Singing for my keep, raiding dungeons, preparing supplies..." She waves a hand dismissively. "I'd rather take Ko-chan and go off to somewhere nobody else has ever been for a week, y'know?"

"So many people would love to do that," Uta replies, looking down. "We are not, alas, afforded that luxury. It seems that people from the Palace Lands have decided to boldly go where no man had wanted them before." A sigh, and she rubs the bridge of her nose with her eyes shut.

"A nuisance, but we cope. We go on. I had to close down my slime laboratory myself. Lost a shipment of slimes to a tracherous attack. Currently practicing as a nurse at the clinic of Doctor Prophylaxis in Tolbana, and as a veterinarian for the Monster Menagerie here in the tower." She thumbs at the live-in wagon behind her. "Good thing I've decided to go mobile early on... I'm glad to still have a roof over my head."

She bites her lip, thinks for a few seconds, and she finally says, "You got me thinking last time you came asking for more information about the Songs of Yamato. I told you all I knew and also knew I could share... but there were some things I was not sure it was safe to let people know. Now I am confident enough it -is-, indeed, safe to involve other people, and I would like to do so. Starting with you, since you're the one who inspired me to take this step." She hands Miyako a notebook. "What do you know about the 40th, 41st, and 42nd song?"

    Miyako nods, agreeing with Uta's dissatisfaction. "Sorry to hear about the problems," she adds. "Yesterday was ... mm. Well. Stuff got a bit messy, we ran into a siren. Ever see one of those?"

    She hmms softly, remembering the Songs, and the strange effects she observed surrounding them. "Yes," she muses. "I've sets of sheet music for them, and seen some of their effects. I can see why you would want to keep things secret."

Uta blinks. "A siren? No, never seen one of those. What are they like?"

Uta points at the notebook she just handed Miyako. "Which is what I've written there. Full melody, harmony, et cetera. For the 41st and 42nd I even have a phonetic transcription of the Alv lyrics. Cannot write in their script, alas. Still missing the lyrics for the 40th."

Uta thinks for a moment, then leans over. "I will need to establish one point before we proceed: I am disclosing this information with the understanding that, whenever possible and reasonable, we should share as much as possible with each other. I understand there might be tiny, dangerous details one might want to temporarily withhold, like I did until now, but otherwise, just like I openly share what I've found out in months of work and research, I expect other people involved in this project to do likewise. Is that okay with you?"

    "Looked like a were-fang of some sort of sea monster," Miyako describes the Abyssal singer. "Cute, kind of monochrome, mutated people with weird coral outgrowths. Big fight, she had some sort of system-breaker power, the 'cosmosphere violation' warning came up." She shivers. "First time I'd seen it on myself."

    She flips quickly through the notebook, examining each quickly, then comparing it to her own notebook. "Mm, I don't have them either, for that one. Merek described it to me, and... kinda glad, actually. It's the sort of thing that I'm not sure I want to see *ever* re-used." She tucks the notebook away in her inventory before continuing.

    "It might be worth putting together a formal research group on the subject. If other songs have similar effects..." She hmms softly. "Nothing in my own repertoire has had any sort of effect like this, though. Just normal spell-songs, and then only if I sing with, y'know, intent." She smiles faintly. "So, suffice to say, I've no objection to sharing the fruits of my research with you, at least."

What Miyako will find in the notebook is that the songs also have a name associated: "The Primordial Song" for 40th, "The Earth Song" for 41st, and "The Eternity Song" for the 42nd. There are also notes that they are associated with the "Fey Mood", "Mujou", and "Yuugen" strange moods, respectively.

"If you medically inspect a person in a strange mood and you're lucky enough, you might get the name of their Strange Mood as a status effect, and if you are even luckier, the flavor text 'This individual is Resonating with the Primordial/Earth/Eternity' song. Notably, they seem to be the First, Second, and Third song to have been sung, depsite their numeric titles." After a short pause, she adds, "You might have heard the Earth song being sung during the New Year's celebrations in Alne. That time, all of us who knew Song somehow just... knew the lyrics, instinctively. We just sang them. I did too, despite never having heard them before."

She drums her fingers on the now smaller pile of notebooks on her lap, and asks, "That is all I can think of about them at the moment. What else do you know about them?"

Uta goes serious and pensive. "Cosmosphere at risk, huh? Hm. Nasty stuff. Never experienced it myself, but... yes, sounds like nasty stuff. Both Merek and Doctor Prophylaxis described it to me as well, and-" A shudder. "I would rather not see it used, no."

Uta hesitates. "There are good news, and bad news. The good news is, there are more songs than just 42, we've uncovered a few. The bad news is..." Dramatic pause. "...they seem to get worse and worse as the numbers go up. Not nice songs. Songs associated with bad, negative feelings."

"Oh, and... I understand you trust me in particular, and will respect that. Responsible disclosure also means respecting others' desire for privacy. My wish is that, over time, we'll learn to trust each other as a team, and share more openly. Just make sure to specify if I should not share something with the rest of the Song Hunters, because. I will by default: this is really not about -me-. It's about us, as Adventurers. About finding the Truth."

    "I'd heard of the 'strange moods'," Miyako says with a nod, "And that they connected to the Songs. But not that there were specific kinds. Mujou and Yuugen? Do they seem to coincide with any specific Skills or the like?" She takes brief notes in her own notebook.

    "Have to agree, New Year's was ... interesting. A bit different for me, though, I was off at some island shrine with Shiruba." She shrugs. "Missed out on some fun, apparently, but managed to be there for some other interesting bits."

    "Haven't seen any of these songs have effects on it, would you have? I suppose testing it would be ... difficult, though." She shudders at the mere thought of exposing herself to something like that again.

    "I've heard about the 43rd," she adds after Uta mentions more songs. "That's the only one I know outside of the common 42, though." Talk of negative feelings sends a frown across her face. "What kind of ... negative feelings?" she asks, worried. "Like, anger, greed, that sort of thing?"

    To the question of trust, she nods in agreement. "Proper research depends on it," she says. "I hope we never have reason to distrust one another."

"And Jazz?", Uta asks Miyako of her New Year's adventure. "I think that may be where I got the lyrics of the Earth Song," Uta comments. "I am doing some research on the matter, but I think Doctor Prophylaxis has better data there. Fey Mood seems to be clearly associated with crafting activities. They result in an additional profession of Moonlight <something>. Yuugen and Mujou... I should compile and organize my data about those. Oh, and at the end, a Goddess notices you. I suspect those match as well. I just need to... you know, draw up a table and compare. But Yuugen results in a Sage of <something> and Mujou in a Novasphere Pioneer of <something>."

The 44th song was sung during a battle with monsters. If I understand correctly, the hatred and anger it conveys have physically hurt Erufu, at the time.

"The 43rd song, sung by the Chim-Chim when we tried to quiet them during a battle with an Elemental Machine. It seems like they will sing it only in battle. I have tried to transcribe it, but after the fact I could remember only the melody." She bites her lip. "It takes multiple listens for a full transcription, and at the time I got only one chance. That is exactly what drove me to design and build- OH! That reminds me!"

Uta swipes her menu open, navigates it, and shimmers a phonograph into existence. "Miyako, I am honoured to welcome you as a Song Hunter. I officially loan you this Phonograph from the Music Conservatory, for the purposes of recording any fleeting Song you may find in the wild."

    "Yes, she was there too," Miyako answers. "Among others." She hmms as she listens to the description of 'Fey Mood' and its associated. "Sage, like the Sage Regan of Miral Lake?" She hmms softly. "Interesting. And we heard the chim-chims singing while we were at the shrine, although I'm not sure which song it was. But we felt... Shock. Anger. Sorrow. And then hope." She takes quick notes about the revelations concerning the 43rd, nodding along. "When was this battle, I'd love to hear more about it."

    She takes the phonograph with a little smile. "I've been looking for something to record things with," she says. "Now we just have to get video..."

"Who's Sage Regan of Miral Lake?," Uta asks, confused. "And yes, the battle- well, I was trying to uncover what the chim were, what they looked like. Are they animals? Monsters? Turns out they're... neither, apparently. Ridiculously low level." She keeps ranting on and on about the Chim-Chims. "Anyway. I did some research. They're very very elusive, and it turns out that my best bet to finding them was to find an Elemental Machine, for where there are Elemental Machines, chims are likely to be nearby. And so it was. We found them in Ezzo, deep in the caves of the Gnomes, just outside the protective bubble. We beat the Elemental Machine, and found some crystals that work as some sort of... Enchantment Batteries? I'm not an Enchanter myself, so you might have to ask Setsuna about those."

Uta chuckles at Miyako's comment. Her mood seems to be improving. "Well, video might be a little ways in the future. But that should cover it for songs." She gestures towards the mechanisms. "See this shellac cylinder? That's the recording medium. They can be swapped in and out. And by winding it up with this crank here, you can record one song while you're busing doing something else, like fighting."

Uta continues, "Based on my sources, what you've heard that time was the Earth Song. I'd love to learn about that adventure at some point in the future." She perks up. "Which reminds me, you've mentioned 'effects' of those songs, generically. What effects of the Primordial, Earth, and Eternity song did you see?"

    "Regan? Some sort of wizardly type, big-shot in the region, has a lab somewhere around Shibuya apparently. They call him 'Sage of Miral Lake', thus..." Miyako shrugs. "Just wondering if there was a connection."

    She listens attentively to the brief retelling of the quest, nodding along. "Sounds familiar, although we didn't have to fight anyone that time. ... Probably a good thing, we'd've been TPK'ed pretty quickly." Her faint smile comes back into place as she finds something to lean against, crossing her feet at the ankles. "Enchantment batteries, hmm? Sounds incredibly useful. I'll have to look them up."

    She watches along, making affirmative hmms, as Uta explains the workings of the phonograph and its recording medium. "Okay, that's cool," she judges it.

    As for the song effects, "Well, honestly, I've not seen them *directly*, I was going off of what little I was able to find out so far. It's all kind of..." She trails off, waggling the fingers of one hand as if to say something along the lines of 'wibbly-wobbly'.

"Oh, ok, well, here's one you might be interested in. You know how I told you that Pharmaceutical inspection can identify a Strange Mood -if you're lucky-, otherwise you don't even get the status effect? Well... if you're around someone in a Strange Mood and vocalize the song they're Resonating with, they'll sink deeper into their mood. Possibly start humming it without realizing they are. It's an oddly more effective way to detect if someone is in a Strange Mood, and if so, identify which one."

Uta leans over, "Under Shibuya, you say? OH! Li Gan? I didn't know they called him the Sage of Miral Lake. I knew him only as Li Gan. Interesting. He's the one who asked me to get a Manticore for him, and gave me my pen, also seems to operate and research under Shibuya. You seem to have a lot of interesting people doing research there. I'd like to visit them at some point. Exchange notes. If they... so allow." A short pause. "Have I already told you about my pen? It's a cool pen."

    "No, you haven't," Miyako says, her smile widening just a bit. "But yeah, he keeps to himself for the most part, but I run into him every now and then when I'm poking around down there. When I was mapping out the first level it was a bit of a surprise, I hadn't known he was that close to town." She shrugs.

    "I'll have to keep an eye out for odd moods, then," she adds to the mention of Strange Moods and Songs. "Give it a try." She pauses a moment, then adds, "Oh, thought. What happens if you start a -different- Song? Doesn't blow things up or break them out of it, does it?"

Uta shakes her head. "Nothing so dramatic, I am afraid. Or... I am glad, rather, I should say? No, if you sing or vocalize the wrong song, people just... don't react. Which makes sense, given they're described as Resonating. My own personal guess is that it's like when you tune your guitar, right? When you work your frets to have the same notes two strings, let's say, a D, and you pluck one string, you see the other cord resonating with the first. Then you do the same with an E, on both strings, same effect. But if you go for an E on one string and a D on the other, no resonance happens. Same idea, I think, here."

Uta snaps her fingers. "Oh, yes! The Chims were inspecting as resonating with the respective song when we encountered them. I forgot about that part. And then there was the time Estelle went to the Green Moon, died and respawned. Have you heard about that story? It also involved one of the unnerving songs, and sooty chims..."

Uta blinks at Miyako. "First Level? You have multiple levels in Shibuya? You have catacombs or something? I -was- there to deliver the Manticore to Li Gan, but I didn't know how far down the thing went..."

"Oh, right, anyway. The pen. The pen is a wondrous artifact whose primary purpose is causing me headaches and a sore throat. It occasionally has the side effect of letting me know thing about things just by looking at them, and acquire smore detailed knowledge of events. It seems to be one of the Strange Powers of this world. One called Loremaster, it would appear. If you ever need any help learning things about things, and especially events..." Uta trails off.

    Miyako nods, "Well, that's a relief. Makes testing it easier, I suppose. I wouldn't want to tear someone apart by resonating the wrong song with them." She smiles a little wider and stretches out. "I was there when Estelle left," she adds a bit later, "I knew she'd respawned eventually but I wasn't in the area when it happened, never did get the whole story." She hmms softly, curious.

    "I've explored a little bit of the second level, but as far as I can tell it's even more extensive than the first. It's not catacombs, it's like... I dunno. Some sort of bunker, I'd say. Like Norad." She hmms at the explanation of the pen. "Interesting, definitely interesting. Sounds like the kind of thing I might be very interested in..."

"Don't worry, I've done it myself. It's experimentally proven. It's safe." She raises a finger, "Besides, one of them was sung publicly in Alne for New Year. If there was anyone in one of the other two strange moods, and it wasn't safe..." She chuckles. "Well, glad nobody exploded, right?"

She frowns. "Oh, that reminds me. The Church of Alba apparently knows things about those songs. But all my attempts at reaching them to learn more have been met with... polite excuses. Even if they don't say so outright, I get the feeling they are actually trying to avoid me."

"Anyway. I suggest you discuss the whole story with Estelle, but one thing we learnt is that sooty chims were there, and a song was sung, and..."

She goes on into the details of what she's learnt about that song.

Uta adds, "You will find the score of the melody in that notebook. Sadly, that's all we have... well, if we exclude a recording of Estelle singing that melody."

    Miyako nods, taking mental notes as they talk. "Yeah, exploding isn't fun. I've never tried it myself, and I've no desire to change that." She hmms softly at the mention of the Church. "Have to say I've never had much interaction with them myself, that I know of. Might've talked to someone in mufti without realizing it." She shrugs.

    "Right, I'll have to look her up," she agrees, then takes the offered notebook and looks through it. "You didn't get any - " she starts to ask, then realizes the mention of Estelle singing it. "Hmm, any chance I could get a copy of that?"

"I can let you listen to my copy, but I think we should really ask Estelle if she's fine with us copying it around," Uta says. "It's her voice and singing, after all. Oh! That reminds me. You know how the lyrics of the Lander Songs are in the Alv language, right, and how the Alv language makes the runes on the teleporters, like the Chaos Gates and the telporter entrance to Fort Ouph, respond to the syllables being sung to them lighting up?" Uta asks, all of a sudden.

    Miyako nods, "That much I knew, yes. And I'll bring it up when I talk to Estelle, unless you get to her first." She waves a hand casually, chuckling. "In which case look me up, or arrange a meet, or whatever works out."

    "Yeah," she adds a bit later. "I knew about the songs and the runes, I haven't heard that anyone's been able to get anything /working/ with them, though." She hmmms softly. "As I recall it was the same runes I found on door placards down in the catacombs. Bunker. Whatever it is. Was."

Uta squints at Miyako. "...you think we could organize a tour of the catacombs at some point in time? That... sounds like a really interesting place."

She clicks her tongue. "In any case, yes, your understanding is correct. We have managed to associate some words to sounds. We have found out how to sound out all but one of the runes found on the Chaos Gates. We still don't have much in the way of finding out their meaning. We are still working on it."

Uta gestures at the notebook she's given Miyako. "In any case, all the songs are transcribed there, to the best of our knowledge. Some in full. Some without lyrics. Some only as a melody. We have at least one shellac cylinder for everything we've learnt, be it on the field or re-created by us later. As you might have understood, the higher numbered songs are... concerning, so be especially careful about those." She taps her lips and looks up. "Am I forgetting anything? Hmmm..."

    Miyako's smile widens a bit once again. "I think I could arrange something," she agrees. "There's still occasional monsters here and there, but it's mostly clear... on the first level, at least. Second, not so much. And who knows how much further down it goes?"

    She flips through the notebook, musing. "Do you have a list of which words correspond to which runes?" she asks, then hmms. "And which rune don't you have yet?" She adds, "I've been wanting to get access to the teleporters almost as much as I want my wings to work properly. So if you want help with that...." She's mentioned that before.

    "Concerning indeed," she muses, contemplating a page of the notebook. "Don't worry, I'll keep it all close to my heart." She closes the notebook with a snap and tucks it into her shirt.

"Oh, the research on the Alv language is technically a different group, Pela Clarpuff started that one. She also would love teleporters to work. But yes, there is going to be a lot of overlap, so, if you want to join us, you are welcome. Same rules apply, we share freely, but we expect people to contribute back what they find. No holding secrets there. We have a list, and I'll ensure you have it if you accept the conditions."

Uta looks over her shoulder, spreads her wings to their full extent, and gives Them a flick. "So it's not just me, huh?", she grumbles. "Stupid curse. Let me know if I can ever do anything about flight. That is another thing that has been bugging me -forever-, but have made zero progress on."

    Miyako nods. "I remember Pela," she says. "She was the one who got me into the Chaos Gate research, although I got distracted from it pretty quick. And yeah, I'd be glad to help out." She grins and nods again. "Sounds like we have -three- research teams to get working, hm?"

"Yes, Pela started the Alv langauge research group to activate the Chaos Gates, and we got where we got thanks to the Songs. Seems like the two subjects are closely related. And about the three groups... one is going strong, one is-" She looks down at the phonograph she's just given Miyako, "...well, one is just born, I would say. The one about getting us winged people to fly..." Another look over her shoulder, another flick of her extended wings. "I suppose we could? This is probably going to be the toughest to crack." She clenches her fist. "But I am not letting that stop me!", she exclaims, and clenches her fist.