un: tabibito, after this week's boss battles

[tinged]

Everyone (and I do mean everyone!), please come to the [ Net Slum ].

This is a gift from Zelkova-kun, put together with the help of Noir-kun and Vogel-kun. Let us hope it is not his final gift to us. I am sorry it took us so long, but there was a lot to do. We are not taking criticisms at this time (you're wrong), but we are open to suggestions.

PS: And you - yes, you! The injured friend on the other side of the screen now - or in the future. Perhaps you are thinking we are not on the same side, so you are not welcome and you must not go. On the contrary, please make haste. Send me a private message if you are hesitant.



(( Congrats! Your character has the ability to enter the Net Slum now, our newest Root Town. The descriptions have been added to the Locations page and are included below for your convenience! ))

The Infirmary:

What was once an abandoned building has been tidied up and fashioned into an infirmary just in time to receive the wounded.

Along the walls, you'll find wooden cabinets stocked with various medical supplies including bandages, stitches, and painkillers. AI nurses make the rounds, attending to the injured and fitting casts and prosthetics onto patients who need it. Crutches and wheelchairs will also be provided.

Warm sunlight filters through the arched windows and potted plants decorate the space, giving the room life. A row of beds partitioned by curtains offer wounded heroes a place to rest and recover. For some reason, one bed comes equipped with straps...is there someone who needs to be lovingly bullied into resting, perhaps? The infirmary also houses closed rooms for those who prefer to recuperate in private, and by each bed, extra chairs have been made available for visitors— we know love is the best medicine of all.

Some patients may recognize Ki, the adorable grunty plush. Now relieved of his original duties, Ki sits on a shelf to watch over everyone recover in peace.

For those determined to throw themselves into the fray again, visiting the infirmary every day for a week will accelerate the healing of broken bones and get you back into shape. (Permanent injuries such as severed limbs will still require prosthetics.)

Inside the infirmary, cordoned off by curtains is a small area full of cozy blankets, pillows and arm chairs that are easy to get out of. There's a small coffee table and a shelf full of books from the library, and various board games like chess and shogi. It's clearly designed to keep patients from going too crazy with boredom as they recover, or for visitors to pass the time while the patients rest.

And for some reason there are also some cat plushies...potential comfort items for patients?

The Meeting Room:

Whereas the other buildings have been more or less cohesive in design, the meeting room is a clash of four personalities.

The outside leading in is initially dense concrete and dented steel, similar to the rest of the Net Slum as you’d expect. All gray floors leading to a console that’s directly across from the door, with a large screen showing the various states of the Root Towns. There’s a large, rectangular meeting table in front of the screen, and the chairs seem cozy enough. Very professional and clean!

Until you look at the rest of the room.

The flooring and walls shift from steel to wood and stone, with plush rugs and potted greenery scattered about. In the very center of the room is… a meeting of mismatched chairs. All of them comfy and cozy, in varying shapes and colors as though the crafters could not make up their mind and went with all of them, all the chairs. Why not?

For those more antisocial friends: there are a couple seats to the side and some solo play time nooks. One in particular looks very inviting; it’s next to a wall of books! So many! But they are all about dogs for whatever reason… and you realize... it’s just the same book with different colored covers for variety.

The cozy vibes don’t end there. You may hang out by the forever-burning fireplace that’s next to the meeting of chairs. And, naturally, a snack corner awaits any hungry Fragment citizen, stocked with a little bit of everything.

When you’re alone, gaze out at the windows overlooking the Net Slum. Or visit the landing through a door by the console and discover a surprise: this sanctuary is carried on the back of a flying turtle.

The Supplies Storage:

The supplies storage is less of a closet, and more of a quaint little shop.

The shop front is pleasantly warm and full of light, the air somehow clean and fresh. When you enter, you will see a large oak desk out front, with a tidy pile of books stacked up neatly, along side some papers with a series of numbers of sums that suggest it's accounting work. Next to it is a cute cat plushie. At the desk, you'll be be greeted by either Miharu most days, Aitla the Grunty("Greetings, Friend") or Sinclair as part of their job as Phantom Operatives. There are two (comfy) seats in front if you just want to sit and chat with them, along with an always full pot of tea and snacks.

Zelkova has left behind a large number of supplies Sinclair, Haru and Hani have painstakingly sorted and organised for the coming battles ahead. Each person in Fragment has been accounted for and supplies sorted by priority for those who wish to take part against the Wave, and those who have been severely injured during the battles. Make your request, and you'll gain access to the back storage area , which has been organised in shelves and chests in terms of professions needled to harvest the materials. Meanwhile, for those looking for meat, Monster hunting and Fishing has its own section down in the cellar below.

But the most essential discovery has been the new supply of potions Zelkova has left behind for the battles ahead. As a much needed resource, Miharu may be a little more firm about how many of these supplies can be taken per week.

A weekly dungeon runner can ask for 5 potions to take with them, while those preparing themselves for the Phase battles ahead will be given 10 for each battle they participate in*. Use them wisely because they will run out in due time too.

*that said, if you are a gentle soul, you may be able to appeal to Aitla the Grunty's soft heart and wheedle out an extra potion or two.

The Supplies Storage is available to people every day, except at a certain nebulous time Fragment has agreed is 'time for dinner and sleep'.

Comments

[tinged]

The AI there are a little different than the NPCs we know out here.

I can come help. And Mithrun-kun should come with us.

[gluttoning]

[A pause.]

He should. I think it will get a lot of worry off of his plate, and ours.

[If he stays put for five seconds, anyway. Which is a Problem at the moment.]

[tinged]

[ shhh but hani was the one to suggest straps. oops!!! ]

I think he will enjoy his stay there. It's quite interesting once you see.

And I look forward to your recovery.

[gluttoning]

[He might need a muzzle too..... smh when somebody u all like is Feral.]

Yeah. I want to help if I can. I can make it through one more week for that.

But


Here, let me message you. I don't want it on the forum.

[tablescraps]

I'm fine. I don't have any injuries.

( Mithrun who can barely walk: )

[gluttoning]

You fell on top of me trying to walk to the couch.

[You are not fine.]

[tablescraps]

My legs will get better the more I walk. It's not a big deal.

[gluttoning]

We shouldn't be ignoring things because of pride. Isn't that what you told me?

If we can get better faster, we should.

[tablescraps]

It's not pride.

( He's just impatient and agitated. He knows Barrett also gets the same way, if not with Mithrun's aggressive hue.

But... Barrett unfortunately does have his ear when he talks about healing faster. He can speak pragmatism. )

I can consider it.

[gluttoning]

It is, Morgan. You're proving nothing to anyone except yourself by pushing. That's what you'd tell me, too. Right?

If Zelkova says I'll heal in a week, then you'll be a lot faster. Just give it a chance. Please?

[tablescraps]

( nnnnnnnnnNNNNNN )

Fine. Just a chance.

[gluttoning]

Thank you. You feeling better will help me feel better.

Let me check something real quick with Hani first. We can head there after I know for sure.

[tablescraps]

( :T kyun... )

Is it anything I should know about?

[gluttoning]

You already know. Just need to see if it's going to be safe.

[tablescraps]

( Mm. )

Okay. I'll be waiting for you.

[gluttoning]

[A short while later:]

Okay. It should be fine. If it's not, we have a plan.

@ tabibito

If we need help moving me, FlameMane is strong enough to support my weight. I should be okay. I just might need some time to get there.

[tinged]

wwwwww

I think when it comes to speed, Mithrun-kun will absolutely lose to Lily as he is.

[tablescraps]

( HISS but unfortunately this is a language he understands )

We just don't have time to sit still.

[tinged]

We don’t have time to wait another week or two for people who cannot walk properly. There are a surprising number of them!

The AI nurses will have you up and about in a day or so, Mithrun-kun.

[tablescraps]

( A day (or so)...... )

Do you trust Zelkova? Enough to entrust us with this thing he's given.

[tinged]

I have from the beginning and I still do. He said everyone and I say everyone. He has always kept all of us in mind, I believe.

[tablescraps]

( A pause. )

I don't know if I trust any AIs right now. There's also a very likely possibility that Zelkova has all the capabilities Cubia, his predecessor, has, including the capacity to rewrite memories and alter personalities.

But if you're sure, then my trust is for you. Even if it's not for him.

[tinged]

Then I don't know if this information will help or not, but the AIs in the Net Slum are not impacted by glitches.

But I do wonder... Hmm. Maybe you could explain it to me.

[ a moment while they pull up the poem. ]

"Gorre schemes when swallowed by the Cursed Wave.
Macha seduces with the sweet trap.
Wave reaches the Pinnacle, and escape none can. Tarvos still remains with more cruelty to punish and destroy.
And with the turbulent destruction after the Wave. Only a void remains. From deep within the void arrives Corbenik."

This seems to match what we have so far.

At first I thought... Well, perhaps Harald Hoerwick (dead and alive, allegedly) had accidentally made a mistake in his programing for Lily. The way Lily had described it had made it seem like his father thought he was a faulty program, something that shouldn't exist. But the more I think about it, the more that doesn't make any sense. Zelkova-kun said he was always meant to be the way he is. These poems suggest that this complex world was also made to be this way. The graveyard is a prime example.

So then... Lily was always meant to collect this data as the poems foretold. Lily was always meant to act in the way Harald Hoerwick wanted. His programming was, perhaps, never faulty in the first place. So what does Harald Hoerwick want with this data? What is he making? Where is the data going when it leaves you?

Each piece of data alone is useless, but put them together and...

Of course, I don't know a lot and have not done the extensive research you and Emil-kun have done. So! Your input, please.

[tablescraps]

( ! )

I think that's not an invalid perspective. Cubia, himself, is a biased and unreliable narrator. I think it wouldn't be strange to presume his knowledge is imperfect, like Zelkova's. It's just muddled by the lies he tells.

( So, between Zelkova, who always tells the truth, and Cubia, who always lies (hey, they're like that one riddle), it's a bit trickier to gauge the edges of Cubia's knowledge, even for those who spoke to him more often. )

I asked Cubia about the Epitaph, and why he would carry out the steps to it when it was his father's favorite poem, and he hated his father. Cubia didn't answer me directly. He just described the poem as a "prophecy." If we translate this to technological terms, it may be closer to what you describe - it (Cubia, the Waves, etc.) is a program that is executing exactly as it should.

The only thing we know about Harald Hoerwick that may be certain is that he loved Emma, enough to implement her name and her poem in this game, and enough to create a child for the two of them, and that, in reality, he is known to be dead.

And, tentatively: Cubia's perspective is that he was a failed child his father didn't want. (If he's programmed to be this way, it's possible there's not much he can do to change this.) Zelkova, apparently, was the acceptable version of what Harald sought. They do have overlapping qualities. They're both amicable and close-fisted with information, and they both seem to filter through players for individuals they find trustworthy to their ends before information is discovered by the general playerbase. They both want happiness for themselves and others, allegedly. However, Cubia is aggressively misery-minded and Zelkova is passively amicable.

Cubia is missing an understanding of certain positive emotions, and, apparently, not for lack of trying, on certain individual's parts. Zelkova... He seems consistently positive, but I only spoke to him a handful of times. I can't say for sure if his understanding of emotion is as incomplete as Cubia's - if on the contrary end.

Given this, and if we suppose several things in your premise are true, such as the data being for Harald, however, there's a few possibilities.

For example, it's possible that the data is for Zelkova. The Phases collect data on exclusively negative emotion. Cubia seems to understand them very well. But if Zelkova is meant to replicate a proper human being, he would benefit from being "rounded out" with a broader spectrum of feeling. I imagine the trouble is keeping Zelkova bright with this additional data added.

As another example, I wondered early on why he didn't recreate Emma. Is that taboo, for him? But if he wanted to recreate the woman he loved, it's clear he has the means to do it. It's what I would have done, in the past.

I think we need more information, ultimately. But I don't think this is the wrong direction. I asked him my questions as Macha, because it was strange to me even then.

not here

[insinning]

[not responding here yet but please be assured sinclair is taking notes while he is in the infirmary...]