altimit | ⬣//BLOSSOMING FROM A GAP IN THE ASPHALT.

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⬣//BLOSSOMING FROM A GAP IN THE ASPHALT.

  >>NAVAL MONTE
  //
  >>HEALTH
//
>>ROGUE NPC
  //
  >>CONFERENCE
  //
  >>Zelkova Corner

        ⬣//A TOWERING MOUNTAIN AMIDST THE WAVES
      

A new Root Town has been revealed: Naval Monte, a tiered city built upon a mountain jutting up from an endless expanse of ocean. These fortified walls house an innumerable number of NPCs who, unlike those which occupy other Root Towns, are quite a bit more advanced.

Those of you who spend entirely too much time logged in have no doubt noticed the set patterns the NPCs of Mac Anu and Lumina Cloth take to move from area to area. Their paths never change. Their dialog rarely diverges. Talking to a freshly painted wall would be more stimulating than conversing with your run of the mill NPC, but Naval Monte's are different.

They move in accordance with their own whims, seldom found in the same place twice. Some NPCs have entire families while others boast elaborate backstories and speak at length of their tales of bravery and triumphs over evil. While they won't accept your party invites, they may instead invite you to share a meal with their family and regale you with stories until you've had your fill.

Travel far enough into the depths of the city and you'll hear tales of a graveyard that sits within the core of the mountain, but the NPCs who guard this elusive site are defensive at best. Don't expect them to let you in, but given their advanced nature, you may be able to wheedle some valuable information out of them.

Be aware that there is a price to enter Naval Monte. After crossing the vast bridge leading right up to the mountain city, you'll be accosted by no less than a dozen eager vendors fighting to peddle their wares to you. Some are so desperate that they ask only for a single GP, and in exchange, they grant you passage to the city.

Ask them why they're so desperate to make a sale and they'll answer plainly: if you don't, the curse will persist.

        ⬣//FOR YOUR HEALTH
      

Come Saturday morning, an email flagged as urgent pops up in your inbox.

To our beta team,

It has come to our attention that a number of our beta testers have failed to report previous underlying health conditions that may negatively impact their ability to perform their duties as intended.

In our ongoing efforts to monitor the health and safety of our beta testing team, all participants in Fragment's closed beta test will be required to complete a health screening before the date of September 16th in order to continue participating in the beta.

Beta participants will be matched with a health professional in their area and the fees for their screening and assessment waived. As such, it is necessary that you make an appointment with the medical professional assigned to you or select another from within our network.

No exceptions will be made for those who fail to submit their health assessments to CyberConnect's Health and Human Resources department. Termination from Fragment's beta testing program and applicable legal action will be taken in the event that you fail to participate in these necessary steps.

We take the health and safety of our beta testers very seriously. If you have any concerns, please contact us at cccorp.ccmail.com.

Thank you for your continued efforts,
CyberConnect Corporation of Japan.

        ⬣//ON THE RUN
      

Murmurs of an unusual NPC have begun to circulate within Naval Monte.

According to eye witnesses, one of the local residents has "gone rogue". According to them, a woman with dishwater eyes and hair messily pulled into a loose bun has been spotted going door to door begging to be let in.

"We need to go," she shouts, her eyes glossy with tears, her every word slurred. "We'll be safe there! We'll be free! We can't live like this anymore!"

From what you've heard, that woman has managed to break free from the confines of her native Root Town and has been seen running through the streets in Mac Anu, Lumina Cloth, and the nameless Root Town in the sky. You may have even come across her, accosted in the street and urged to listen to her increasingly erratic ramblings.

"I need you to take me there! Take me to him! His father left the key within him!"

Ultimately, nothing you say or do will influence the woman's behavior or calm her down. All you'll get for your troubles is an ill feeling in the pit of your gut, something that blooms from within you and spreads infinitely outwards. An infection you can't cure.

You won't realize that the infection has begun to spread and mutate until you see it blossoming all around you, your fellow testers complaining of an unidentifiable malaise. You'll know what afflicts you and everyone you've infected when it's far too late to do anything about it. Until this unfortunate "bug" is patched, you'll continue to get sicker and sicker. The progression of the illness is as follows:

Stage one: The complete inability to lie, but is that really a bad thing? We could all stand to be more honest and communicative.

Stage two: The loss of one of your key senses, but only one. Maybe it's your sense of smell. Your keen tongue. Your vision. Whatever it is, it's a vital part of you that won't return to you until you log off, but when you next log in, you may find that a different sense has gone missing instead.

Stage three: Disconnect from your real world body. You'll realize after several days have passed that you can no longer feel your real self as keenly as before. You may not realize you've slapped yourself in the face or knocked a tooth out on the edge of your desk until you log out for the day and witness the extent of the damage.

Final stage: Memory loss. Your head feels foggy. Concentrating becomes a struggle, your thoughts sluggishly crawling through your mind and and ultimately losing their way. In the final stages of the illness, you may forget to log out for days at a time and wake to find yourself passed out on the floor with your headset jostled loose, inadvertently freeing you from the game.

The "cure," aside from a timely patch, may hide somewhere within the game. Before your senses leave you, you'd better start asking around.

        ⬣//YOU CAN TRUST US. WE PROMISE.
      

As many of you know, it isn't easy to get ahold of CyberConnect when you need them. Hien is, at best, completely useless. Pete isn't much better. It's for these reasons and more that players have been invited to a digital conference and encouraged to give a voice to the rising concerns within the beta testing community.

The conference is to be held, both ICly and OOCly, on September 23rd at 12PM EST. If you have any burning questions to ask the people who hold power and influence over the state of the game and what happens within it, you can't afford to complain about timezones. This is your opportunity to speak your mind and have those questions answered.

OOCly, the conference will begin on September 23rd at 12PM EST and end on October 7th at 12PM EST. During this time, your characters can ask whatever questions they'd like of CyberConnect corporate staff, bring up concerns, and provide insights on their beta testing experiences.

Participation is mandatory (ICly), so set your alarms and don't be late!

        ⬣//ZELKOVA’S CORNER
      

Hello, everyone! Sorry I was away for a while. I got stuck in an outer level of the game and it took me a week to get back, but I should be just fine now! I hope I didn't miss anything too serious...

I did see that all of you have worked hard on those recipes, though! I liked all of them so much that I've added each of them into the game so that everyone can make their own. Congratulations!

  >>Navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( Mithrun doesn't generally come by the guild hall, but, lucky for everyone, he's come by today. If there are other people here, he doesn't seem to have noticed - somehow. (Rather, he understands there's people here, but a lack of desire leaves anyone in the lounge lingering in his periphery, and not the focus of his attention - yet.)

The smooth BGM and comfortable atmosphere don't incite any particularly strong opinion from him, but he isn't unaffected by it, whether he recognizes it or not. It's relaxing here, and, after the week or two he's had, that really isn't the worst thing he can experience right now. (The best thing he could experience is simply logging off, but let's not get too hasty here.)

At some point or another he's pulled out all the bottles of alcohol available for consumption, and he's stood them along the bar counter in a long row, studying them where he stands. )

... I wonder if this is worth testing, too.

( It's unclear if he's testing for alcohol poisoning or something else, considering. )

[ What, if anything, do you say to a man after you dig around through his personal files and uncover entirely too private information? Michel does feel a little sheepish about his overreaction, considering how things turned out in the end. In his defense... things had a much more ominous look to them before he realized all of those break-ins prior to Sinclair must have been Hani. Some things still have an ominous look to them, honestly.

Well. Wherever he stands on all of that, he does still have a very clear — and pressing — obligation to Mithrun in this specific situation. Michel is crossing the room at high speed in response to that rhetorical question and putting one hand firmly on top of the nearest alcohol bottle. No. ]

Have you not had your fill of testing, at least for a few weeks?

( Ah. He looks up, purely because Michel has made himself Mithrun's business.

Mithrun's expression can be best described as "?" )

Not really. But I'm not doing anything dangerous, at least. ( Or so he believes, anyway. He also thought the fugu wasn't dangerous, so, you know. Broken danger sense. ) I've been asked not to do that.

( He's trying to be good, he's just bad at it. )

[ Yeah... Michel is also running various calculations in his head, vis a vis Mithrun's probable estimation of what counts as "dangerous." He's not exactly looking satisfied with his findings.

Nonetheless, he lifts his hand slowly from the alcohol bottle. Still watching. ]

Then, what are you doing with all of these? [ And just a touch belated, because it feels like it might factor into his impressions here: ] ...Who asked?

Sinclair. He insisted.

( While crying, but he spares Sinclair's pride that detail. )

I was thinking of testing the flavor profile of each of these, and determining how they differ, if at all. I wasn't sure, though, since all alcohol tastes basically the same...

[ Sinclair, who also provoked the fugu, may not be one to talk. But perhaps scolding Mithrun will encourage introspection. ]

That's... not unreasonable. [ If he sounds like he's still trying to find fault with it: consider the past week or so. ] Did they really do such a poor job modeling the flavors?

[ Surely they can't all taste the same. He's minutely curious now. ]

Well, all real alcohol tastes the same, right?

( Mithrun may not be the person to test this... He's not a wine guy, or an alcohol guy in general. )

Does it all have a different taste, for you?

[ Okay, Michel isn't a Wine Guy. But he's at the very least a half step above whatever this is. ]

I don't have any confidence I could tell one whiskey from another. But between different types, at least... Does wine taste the same as vodka to you?

... Probably?

( He starts to climb up over the counter, directly, instead of going around to get behind it (for some reason), to see if he can fetch some vodka from the selection. Time to test this, obviously. )

Edited 2023-09-18 00:29 (UTC)

That's... unusual. The alcohol taste is much stronger for the higher proof...

[ Climbing over the counter can't possibly be faster? And yet, Michel makes absolutely no move to prevent this outcome. He's too fascinated. And surely Mithrun can't damage himself by climbing? ]

( Fortunately, we exist in the universe where he doesn't break his neck getting over the counter, and Mithrun manages to slip over and onto the other side to get to the alcohol collection. He begins to look through it. Hmmm... )

My sense of taste is a little weak. I can taste things, but I acclimate to sensations a little easily... So it all sort of tastes the same after a minute.

( He could tell you if something is salty or tastes like crab, but he doesn't have a desire or appetite, so all the details of the taste profile get kind of vague after the moment passes. )

[ Thank God that Winter isn't forced to explain to literally all of his close CR how he managed to get Mithrun killed in a no-PVP area literally his first time Mithrun-sitting... ]

Then what are you hoping to observe? If you can identify any difference at all?

[ his seems like a simple enough test to keep within non-dangerous bounds. Winter pokes through the bottles to identify the first gin he can find. ]

( bigthink...

He looks to Michel. )

... Would you help me test?

( u can tell the tastes apart... perfect(?) labrat of a man that u are )

[ Michel observes the diverging paths before him, at least one of which ends with Mithrun testing the effects of alcohol poisoning. In his estimation. ]

...I suppose I owe you that. [ He blinks once at the words, but carries on almost smoothly: ] What did you have in mind...?

( Michel's estimation... would be correct! rip Mithrun1, so bad at being alive, )

You can try these and tell me if the tastes differentiate and resemble what you know in reality, if applicable.

( He begins pulling out a number of bottles, including vodka, and some shot glasses, mostly because they're the smallest. He starts to set them on the counter along with the wine. )

What do you mean "owe," though?

( because he died or like, )

[ God, Mithrun. It's like a form of terrible genius. ]

Fine. But ten millilitres of any of them should be more than enough.

[ Michel is mostly preoccupied watching him with narrowed eyes, making sure he doesn't intend to put more than a smidgen in any shot glass. Subsequently, he's nowhere near guarded enough to keep the first stage of the plague from turning his tongue traitorous: ]

Hm? For looking through your files.

[ Ah. ]

( ...

He sets down the shot glass with a look of great intensity. )

So it was you.

Which files did you look through?

[ Intensity doesn't perturb Michel all that much. It's likely what his guilt warrants. Although considering the contents of those files, he's not insensible to a little prickle of danger. ]

Your documentation on the game... [ Ah, if he'd stopped there. ] ...Some few others. They're well encrypted.

[ Does Mithrun want awkward praise from the man who reluctantly hacked his computer, or... ]

( ...

Mithrun grabs the ledge of the counter and swings himself over faster than he'd made it over the first way, landing light on his feet because he's already in motion by the time he hits the ground. It's a quick and rapid stride to Michel - one that punctuates with Mithrun grabbing Michel by the front of his shirt with particular violence. With such arctic ferocity in the force of his presence, it's easy to forget for a hot second that there's about a foot of difference to them.

His tone is sharp: )

What files.

( Thankfully PVP probably isn't enabled in Fine Wine so this is just really uncomfortable, if anything... though there is a whole row of alcohol bottles in reach, which is a bit awkward. )

[ Michel isn't a stranger to violence, even — particularly — from someone much smaller than him. He startles back, his expression going oddly shuttered. Checking his interface settings yet again, possibly. He's made no secret of the fact that he usually leaves his pain sensors off. ]

They're all spreadsheets. If you expect me to have the names memorized, you're mistaken. I have no interest in your business transactions, except what it might have meant for where you vanished to.

[ The silver lining of the plague, if Mithrun has been tracking the effects at all: be can count on the truth of those words. The icy annoyance lacing Michel's voice, too, is perfectly sincere. ]

( The tension holds for a long moment, like a thing straining, like a thing about to snap. Mithrun's expression remains implacable.

But he drops his hold finally with a click of his tongue - not happy, but clearly his calculations concluded that an in-game execution wasn't really going to resolve his irritation here.

And, at the very least, he's only irritated; if he had considered Michel a liar in this respect, he might have something more actionable sort of ruthlessness in mind. But, for now, he's just peeved someone got into his files at all.

He doesn't step back or anything, not caring much about the distance, and crosses his arms. )

... Did you tell anyone what you found?

( Such as Vogel. He doesn't seem like he's about to escalate into aggression again,at least. )

[ Michel is the one to take a step back when he's freed, folding his arms over his chest and returning that look of irritation with a cool one of his own. As the person whose privacy was violated, Mithrun perhaps has a right to it; that doesn't make Michel pleased to receive it. ]

I told Hani the name of the hospital that had admitted you before. It seemed apparent they already knew you in real life.

[ Although this seems like the sort of conversation where he should return one of those thriller movie answers. "If anything happens to me, emails with those files will be sent to..."

He couldn't lie about it right now even if he wanted to. And with his luck, it would tip Mithrun's evaluation of his level of nuisance in the direction he would not prefer. Probably best to leave the threats to those more naturally skilled at them. ]

...I think the people in your life likely to be affected by your abrupt disappearance do deserve an explanation of some kind. But it shouldn't come from me.

( For better or worse, he's not going to split hairs now that it's all been done with - he broke in, he looked into files he shouldn't have - even if his intentions were apparently good - and that's that.

So he's not going to squabble over whether he should've done it or if there were better avenues. It'd be a waste of everyone's time by now. So, his expression seems to indicate a sort of, Fine. sentiment in regards to sharing only the most relevant information to share with Sinclair and Hani. He's not happy, but it is what it is. )

... They know I'll be disappearing again one day, though I've said it'd be my own choice if I do.

( If Michel meant that Mithrun ought explain those "business" transactions, that is. And, well - he hasn't mentioned it for very good reason: he doesn't care. He doesn't care about the things he did then, the people he hurt. He doesn't feel guilt over it, it doesn't trouble his heart - not then, and even less now - so much so that it doesn't even cross his mind, never mind his lips.

But that doesn't mean he's not aware of how he would reflect in the eyes of certain others if he did tell them, and if they saw in him his indifference. He is not a sweet, tormented soul; he is an empire of errors. )

I'm not going to accept that you broke in. But Hani and Vogel were happy that you did. If they're your metric, then my judgment means nothing.

From my perspective, that sounds like baseless confidence. And cruel.

[ Considering Sinclair, who's lost so many things already. Hani, who might not understand how to worry but who had done their best in their vigil over Mithrun. Possibly they could accept whatever Mithrun had told them. But that doesn't change the nature of it, from Michel's perspective. ]

Nonetheless, you are the only person with the right to judge my actions. I don't disagree that it was wrong. I would not have done it if I had not believed you could be in trouble... but my reasons do not mitigate the violation. And I did it for them, not for you. Considering that, I doubt my apology would mean very much.

No, it wouldn't.

( Blunt. However: )

But it's happened. Don't share anything else you've found. ( Largely because it might be inconvenient for him in pursuing his post Fragment plans. ) In turn, I don't mind if you think me overconfident and cruel.

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